#well what happened was high school & that one shot killed me I’ve been recovering ever since

[gays4vulo]

Where is she, middle school me? Girl really had it all figured out minus the abuse & mental health/other shit but I know her and she had drive

[closhelby]

On and off - Thomas Shelby smut

Pairing: Tommy Shelby x reader

Warnings: swearing & smut

Word count: 2.1K

AN: please give any feedback on smut and what you want to see next? Tried a different writing style...

-

he seemed to be the ex that you couldn’t get over. You couldn’t escape him as hard as you tried, so why were you surprised when he showed up on your doorstep, soaked from the lashing rain that was falling outside at two am.

“You said we were over,” you muttered as you rubbed your sleepy eyes. You were actually awake, feeling sorry for yourself because of how different you wanted your life to be. Somehow you still wanted your relationship to work, despite how much he continued to push you away. You were too good for him, too proper for him, and most of all, you were too nice for him.

These were just assumptions. No one had rarely seen you get wound up, never seen you break or pushed you to that point, because no one needed to. But it was certainly brewing.

“I just wanted to see you,” he slurred.

You sighed, “Ex’s shouldn’t want to see each other though Tommy.”

He pushed the door open slightly, suggesting he came in, and you let him. Gave in to him again. I mean, how couldn’t you?

“Y/n, I don’t want you to be upset.”

“Tommy, if you’ve came here to say the same thing I’ve already heard, then politely fuck off,” you were starting to get annoyed at the assumption you were too nice, because you weren’t. You just gave off that impression. You gave everyone their first chance, as you believed they should, but depending on that, you would give your side. You were caring, but wouldn’t dare to be crossed.

“I’ll always love you, bu-“

“But, I’m too nice. I couldn’t deal mentally with what you do. How you make your money. Well Tommy, you’ve got me very wrong. But that’s your choice, now please” You spoke quickly, “get out of my fucking house.”

You could see the defeat in his face. He meant well, but he was pushing it and you were coming close to breaking point at being nice anymore. He left quickly after that, muttered a bye then disappeared in the horrific night.

The next morning you were awoken with loud bangs coming from your front door. Sighing as you walked towards it, “Tommy, how many times have i to te- oh hi Ada.”

Ada pushed her and baby Karl straight past you, “get ready. It’s happening today, and I’ve got a point to make.”

“Bloody hell Ada. Some context.”

“Billy Kimber.”

“Funeral attire by the looks of it then.” You snorted, and Ada laughed, “yes, the point we are making.” following her into the bedroom.

“Understood,” you agreed, then making an effort to dress solely in black, just exactly how you would if it was their funeral. You and Ada had in fact been friends for a while, you were in Johns year at school and had gotten close to him therefor you were always at the Shelby household. No one expected that yourself and Mr Thomas Shelby would ever become anything, but circumstances change before the war. He promised the world to you in his letters. Always telling you that you both would be married and have children on his return, but deep down you knew that the war changed that outcome and his outlook on life in general.

You had barely gotten time to think before Ada had you storming up the road, in the distance up the empty street you could see a group of men. You and Ada split off as you reached them, both pushing through the men who you assumed were Billy Kimber’s.

“Ada,” Freddie seethed.

“Y/n, what the fuck are you woman doing,” Tommy shouted.

Ada continued to scream, rambling on about people having family’s at home. How they are all worried, and would be attending their funeral. But of course, Billy likes to mock, and made a fly away comment. You were stood at an angle to Billy’s men, so the gun that was in your hand was out of their sight, slightly tucked under your skirt.

Danny Wizz-bang had already lunged towards Billy on the back of his comment. Billy’s men shooting him dead, dropping to the ground instantly. Guns were now raised on both ends, Ada shouting for them to lower them, while Billy moved forward shooting into Tommy’s direction, managing to shoot him in the left shoulder.

Your eyes shot red, without the slightest hesitation, lifted the gun from your stockings, turning and shooting him straight in the head. You got there before anyone else did. The silence was loud as Tommy’s men couldn’t quite get their head around you, the nicest woman they had met, you had just shot someone dead without hesitation.

Billy’s men instantly raised their weapons in your direction, but didn’t shoot, “Tommy and Billy fought fairly. He didn’t win, end of story. Now fuck off” you ordered, turning and marching through the peaky lot before disappearing into the Shelby household.

Not even a few minutes later, the group followed and pulled in a wounded tommy. You didn’t even bat an eyelid, used to this shit, it was his shoulder. He would survive. But it still wasn’t nice seeing him in pain.

You sat in silence, while Jeremiah Jesus worked on trying to get the bullet out of Tommy’s pierced skin, downing whiskey after whiskey. No one seemed to talk to you, instead looked at you with worry. Their outlook on you had changed within the space of 20 minutes.

Tommy was now up, the bullet was now out of his skin and we were then all pushed into the room where Danny Wizz-bang’s body lay before us. You had rarely seen a dead body, infact everyone seemed to shield you from the violence but not today. You stood to the right of Tommy, it didn’t bother you in the slightest. He kept giving you an eye, full of concern, unsure how you were going to act.

You zoned out when Tommy spoke, you had never really spoke to Danny before. So this wasn’t much of a deal to you personally, you were awakened from your thoughts when Tommy was shoving a bottle infront if you, “Danny Wizz-bang,” you spoke, raising the bottle then downing a bit before passing it on to John for him to do the same. It went round the group that surrounded the table, before it got back to Tommy.

The place was lively, full of people drinking, and talking of heading to the Garrison. You couldn’t be arsed, sick of the sight of Tommy looking over at you constantly.

“Why do you keep looking at me?,” you spat. Having enough of him.

“You just killed an enemy of mine without even blinking an eyelid.”

“You all seem to think I’m so nice, eh. Not the right woman for Tommy, eh. Well I’m done being fucking nice.” The pause was loud, as you walked to the door, “and may I add, that did not bother me in the slightest. You all have just shielded me so much you didn’t know how much I could handle.” Slamming the door behind you, turning up to go back to your house.

“You’ve got to give her a chance Tommy. She’s tougher than you think.” Ada advised her older brother. Tommy nodding in response, knowing he was starting to realise what he really had.

You were in your house not only five minutes before he burst the door open, finding you sipping a whiskey on your couch, “I’m not going to keep doing this tommy. This is the second time in two months.”

He had done this before, and like you, couldn’t stay away. He couldn’t bare to walk past you in the street, perhaps you being with another man. It would tip him over the edge that he was already so very close to.

“We’re not going to keep doing it. I’ll give credit where it’s due.” He started to come closer to you, taking your hands in his, pulling you up to him, “I didn’t know you had it in you.”

He took your hand placing it at the back of his neck, twisting his hair in between your fingers. You pulled him into you, pressing a kiss onto his lips. He pulled you in closer, hands holding your waist.

“I love you Tommy. When will you fucking realise that.” You whispered to him, your forehead touching his. He smiled, “I love you.”

He pulled your face into his, his fingers intertwined in your h/c hair. Their tongues intertwined with each other’s, as the kiss deepened. You started to unbuckle his trousers, dropping them revealing his already hard length. You pulled back from the kiss and dropped to your knees, not breaking eye contact as you took his erected length into your mouth, swirling your tongue around the tip. He let out a soft moan, carfullly moving your hair out of your face. You started to suck on it, bobbing your head up and down, satisfying him, as he threw his head back in pleasure.

He couldn’t wait any longer, he just longed to fuck you hard. He pulled you off your knees, taking your hand into his as he pulled you into the bedroom, pushing you back on the bed as he lifted up your dress over your head. He traced his fingers over your thigh, placing soft kisses as he went reaching your pussy he pulled down your black lace thongs off, you flicked them off your legs. He placed two fingers in between your slit, running up and down slowly, “wet eh?” Pushing his finger into you, slowly going in and out,

“Tommy.” You breathed. He smiled before pushing a second finger and going a more steady pace, pulling them out and sticking his thick shaft into you, thrusting in and out of you at a steady pace. You started to arch your back, gripping at his hands, and he started to increase his pace, beginning to thrust at a rapid pace.

You pulled back, and pushed him back onto the bed, sitting on top of his erect penis, slowly bouncing on the tip, every few bounces pushing it all the way in. He threw his head back, mouth just ever so slightly open, “y/n” he stuttered.

You instantly started to ride him, his body almost non existent, starting to twitch at how close he was becoming. “Make me cum,” he edged you on, “please.”

You give him a smirk, before increasing the pace, he gripped your thighs, rocking you as you took the lead. Bouncing on his cock, was making you very close, bouncing as you both came to the high, falling into his bare chest, both of you breathing heavily attempting to recover from the love that you both had made.

-

Following the weeks of the murder of Billy Kimber, you noticed a drastic change in how people treated you. People would always still mutter a hello, however would step out of your way, and you were close to being feared just about as much as Tommy himself.

You were walking Into the shop, placing your coat down as you went to make a cup of tea before starting the day. You noticed Polly staring at you, “what are you looking at pol?” You laughed slightly, turning to face her, cup of tea in hand.

“Come here,” she motioned towards you, cupping your left boob into her hand. You furrowed your brows, wondering what the fuck she was doing, “your pregnant. It’s a boy.”

You were in total disbelief, you stumbled back into a chair closest to you, “fuck sake.”

“Tommy’s?” She asked, and you gave her a look of disgust, “yes obviously it’s Tommy’s.”

“For fuck sake”, you moaned, just as Tommy himself walked into the shop. Placing a kiss on your cheek as he walked past into his office, you rolled your eyes at pol who raised her eyes brows in response. Sighing following him into the office, “morning.”

You sighed, “got something to tell ya.” He placed the bit of paper that was in his hands down, turning his full attention onto you. “eh, I’m pregnant”

His eyes went wide, “are ye really?” He smiled, quickly getting up and making his way over to you, taking your hands into his.

“Boy.” You could barely string a sentence together, you knew he would be happy but with how rocky everything was recently you were slightly unsure.

“Boy eh? Someone coming for my crown.” He repeated, “this is great news, now go home. No woman of mine will be working here while carrying my child”, he ordered.

He placed a kiss onto your lips, soft, sweet, “I love you so much, you have no idea,” he muttered to you.

“I love you too, and baby boy,”

“And baby boy,” he repeated, a wide smile spread across his face.

[adelheidvonschicksal]

Gosh, the Hawks x intern! Reader sure made me tear up :(

Like imagine him regretting not being there for her and his baby girl from the start and trying to make up for it now 😭😭💖

I was going to imagine this, but I couldn't because I ended up writing 3000 words. 😭 I just love fictional babies so much and want them to be happy, okay? I left it open-ended, so I wouldn't betray the "kick his ass" gang. I'm a weak woman 🥺 I still don't know much about him other than what Wikipedia and memes tell me but here we go!

Part One | Part Two

Hawks doesn’t think you’ll ever let him in, not that he could blame you. Every time you see him, your expression hardens, pretty eyes narrow into a glare, nostrils flare, breathing heavy. His only bright light during your last exchange is that you wait three seconds before slamming the door in his face rather than the usual zero.

Oh, he’s definitely softening you up. Not.

It’s been a month now that he’s been at this, and he is starting to wonder if this entire thing is worth the headache. All he’s accomplished so far is bothering you with his requests to talk. Then, he remembers the little angel that you have with you and thinks it’s worth the headache.

At first, he had ignored your previous exchange that day at the park and the nagging feeling in the corner of his mind upon seeing the two of you. Until that same feeling started to weigh on his heart. He quickly realizes what those feelings were. Guilt and regret at not taking another path with the high schooler he so carelessly took advantage of and impregnated.

If he had, he could be annoying Endeavor about his cute little wife right about now.

Hawks feels a bit like Icarus flying too close to the sun and now sinking in a turbulent ocean of his own making. Instead of drowning, the world decides to throw him a lifeline as the receptionist patches a call through to him.

His heart jumps when he hears you on the other side, resistant but succumbed in your plea, “I need your help.”

The very next day you arrive at the agency, a small hand latched in your own as you stand in the middle of his office. You didn’t want to be here. The thought of being in the same place where your daughter was conceived with the same man who left you makes you antsy. You can’t believe you actually let Fumikage talk you into this.

You remember that phone conversation.

Your daughter’s quirk had been coming in full force, so fast you didn’t know how to handle it. You hoped that Tokoyami would have been able to help her control it since he trained with the very person she received her quirk from much longer than you had and that he was part avian himself.

“Please, Fumi. It’s getting worse,” you begged over the phone. “She accidentally hurt a few of the kids at school. No. No. They’re fine, some cuts and a little shook up, but fine. They won’t let her back in until she gets it under control though, so please.”

“I told you there’s not much else I can do. The best solution would be to go to the person with the same quirk.”

He’s right. He’s absolutely right, but you don’t want to rely on someone like that man especially now. What if he ended up hurting her?

“I don’t want to do that.”

“I know you don’t, but he’s been trying to contact you, right? So I'm sure he'd do it if you asked.”

“Yeah…” You growled. “I swear if he makes one smart-ass remark, I might kill him in front of her.”

“Remember it’s not for you. Although, I don’t think you could kill him even if you tried.”

“If we combined our strength…”

“No,” Tokoyami immediately shot down.

You sighed. “I’m only joking. Do you have the number to the agency still?”

Now you’re here, watching the very man who abandoned you kneel down to your daughter’s eye level. Hawks couldn’t believe he’s actually seeing her. It’s a bit exciting to see how much bigger she’s gotten in such a short time with big fat wings at her back holding way more feathers than she can probably deal with.

“So, this is the special girl,” he says. She shies away from him, hiding behind your leg for protection. “Come on out, Baby Bird, you don’t have to be scared of me.”

Slowly, she peeks from behind you, fingers still clutched in your pants leg, and Hawks smiles.

“There you are. Did your mommy tell you who I am?”

“You’re her and uncle Toko’s old teacher, and you’re going to help me control my quirk.”

“That’s right. You just turned five, right? That’s when a lot of quirks can get kind of hectic.”

“Yeah. I had a birthday party with Elsa last month.”

Hawks’ smile falters for a second as he thinks he doesn’t know exactly what day her birthday is. At least now he knows the month. Quickly, he’s back to normal to keep an air of happiness in the situation. “You know I know a lady that looks a bit like Elsa. She has ice powers like her too,” Hawks says, having grown a little closer to the number one hero's family as he tried to figure out what to do about his own family situation.

When her eyes widen, Hawks knows he has her hook, line, and sinker. She throws her initial shyness to the wind in exchange for excitement. “She does? Can I meet her?”

“I’m sure we could make that happen. If not, her son has an ice quirk, too. I’m sure he’d show you.”

The young girl smiles at him, but Hawks notices her vision drifting to something else. Cautiously, her tiny hand stretches out to him, making him nervous as to what she’s doing, before chubby fingers clutch around the edge of his wing, squeezing into his feathers. “They’re pretty,” she mumbles.

“Want one?” he asks, and she nods.

“This is my birthday present for you, don’t lose it,” he says, offering her a single long feather from the back of his wings. She clutches it to her chest tightly, a happy smile plastered on her face.

Then, you interrupt.

“Baby, mama has to run some errands, but she’ll come right back to pick you up when the clock says twelve. You remember how that looks like, right?”

“It’s a 1 and a 2,” she says, bringing up her hands to show you.

Hawks decides to walk you out as your daughter sits in his office chair, twirling around his feather in her hand. He isn’t sure what to say to you now that he has you near him. Should he thank you for bringing her? Or would that only serve to piss you off since it’s not like you wanted to do this by choice?

“Hawks,” you say, bringing him out his thoughts. “There’s one more thing before I go.”

“What is it?”

“Don’t tell her,” you order. “Don’t you dare tell her.”

His chest squeezes at that but he can understand why you wouldn’t want her to know that information when the two of you aren’t even on speaking terms outside this issue. He didn’t want to do anything to make the situation worse either, so he brings his fingers to his mouth and zips his pinched thumb and index finger across his lips. “I’ll make sure mine and anyone else’s lips are sealed if they want to keep their job,” he calmly reassures you, always calm and carefree so you wouldn’t think that your rejection is successfully deterring him.

From then on, you drop your daughter off at his office twice a week to get a better handle on her powers. You didn’t stay long aside from that, but Hawks likes the small moments when all three of you are in the same room together.

The hero can be thankful that at least one of his girls likes him. His Baby Bird quickly attached herself to him, always pattering after his footsteps like a shadow, and always asking if he’d hold her hand, a smile forming whenever he engulfed her smaller one. He even keeps his promise to let her see Rei, or Elsa as Baby Bird so passionately refers to her, now that the woman is out of the hospital.

He thinks that if that family can recover from what happened then his shouldn’t be much different as long as he keeps trying to put in the effort and not step on your toes too much.

It isn’t long before Baby Bird begins to get a hang of her powers. At least enough that she wouldn’t be hurting anyone at school. Hawks had hoped you would still allow him to train her past that point though, but you quickly told him that she wouldn’t be returning to the agency when she reached that point.

He was sad to hear it of course, but he didn’t want to cause what little progress he made to be broken even if he really wanted to see her fly at least a few inches before she left. She’s been getting into the habit of jumping instead of walking to practice like he used to do. Although, she resembles more of a bouncy frog than a bird, to be honest.

He watches, amused, as she bounces along next to him in the hallway.

“You’ve gotten good at that,” he compliments, drawing her attention upwards.

“I’ve been practicing lots at home, but I’m not that good yet. Will you teach me how to fly like you do tomorrow?” she asks.

“No, Baby Bird. Didn’t your mommy tell you that we’re done with training after today?”

She hangs her head down, her bouncing stopping as she drags her feet. “…Yes,” she answers, letting his arm go lax as she releases his hand. Hawks pauses, watching as she draws her hands to her waist and anxiously bunches and twists the bottom of her shirt, and Hawks throat goes dry as she asks with glossy eyes, “Daddy, why doesn’t mommy like you?”

He’s completely silent, wondering exactly when she figured it out or if someone in the office had told her, let alone told her the fact that you didn’t like him. Well, he guesses it doesn’t take a genius to figure that out. “How do you know to call me that?"

“Yesterday, my teacher told us that we inhe-inhe-inherent our quirk from our parents. I remember you said Elsa and her son had the same quirk, and you have big wings like mine and can make your feathers move.”

Hawks smiles. She’s a sharp one to piece it together in a day. “Your teacher is right. I bet you’ve never seen anyone else that looks quite like us.”

“No,” she answers, sniffling. “I don’t want to go home. I want to stay and play with you. Mommy is so mean to you. I hate her!”

Hawks cups her chin in his hand, forcing her to meet his eyes. “Look at me. Don’t talk about your mommy like that. It’s my fault she always gets upset when I’m around. I was mean and bullied her a lot, so if you’re mad, be mad at me. I’m the reason we can’t play together more.”

She sniffs again but it isn’t enough to stop the globs of tears running down her cheeks. “When we saw you at the park, mommy started crying when we went home. I didn’t know why she did.”

Hawks knows why. The reason you’re always so angry at him is because of the hurt you still hold inside for what he did to you. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have cried. The opposite of love is indifference as they say, and he knows it’s true because he had been indifferent to the pain he caused ever since the day you came to him with weepy eyes and shaking arms as you told him you were pregnant. You had been scared, and he told you to deal with it.

Hawks scowls. He’s starting to feel sick.

"If you make someone cry, you should say sorry."

Hawks smiles. “I know, baby. I'll apologize to your mama, and I’m going to try my best to make it up to her, and you, too. I’m not going to make either of you cry anymore. Then, when she forgives me, we’ll play together again.”

She looks to him, a small glimmer of hope. “You promise?”

Hawks chuckles and grins at her, the same charming expression that made you fall for him in the first place. He holds out his hand. “Even better. I pinky promise,” he says and confidently hooks her finger with his. “Repeat after me: birds of a feather stick together.”

“Birds of a feather stick together.”

“That’s my girl,” he praises before dropping her hand to pet her head. “I think we might have a little time for me to teach you something before your mommy gets here.”

At the end of the day, Hawks is already waiting for you at the front steps of the agency as your call pulls into parallel park at the sidewalk. You step out and walk towards the steps, but your daughter meets you halfway by hopping over them, her wings flapping to hover before she falls back down onto her feet.

You smile at her. You can’t believe she’s actually flying, at least a little that is, but your surprise is ruined when she cheers. “Mommy, look at what daddy taught me,” she says, bouncing to show you her new hovering skills. “Are you looking? Are you looking?”

“Yes, I’m looking. You’re so good at that. You need to show me more when we get home,” you say but to be honest it’s the last thing on your mind as you glance over to Hawks. “Baby, why don’t you go sit in the car, and I’ll be right there.”

Hawks watches as she obediently follows your instructions, turning her back and happily hopping towards the vehicle.

“(Name), I-” Hawks says, unsure what to expect when your angry glare turns back on him. It isn’t until his yellow visors are already clicking against the pavement that he realizes you hit him. He hisses at the sting on his cheek. “That actually kind of hurt. I guess I had it coming, but I’m not really sure what I did at least recently,” he tries to play off, but you aren’t having it.

“You told her, you told her,” you keep repeating, and he’s backing away in case you decide to strike him again. “Are you trying to get her on your side?”

“Not in the way you’re thinking, and I didn’t tell her,” Hawks explains. “She pieced it together on her own. She’s sharper than you think, she can see that we look alike when she looks in a mirror, and she knows how quirks work. That’s more than enough for her to tell.”

His explanation is enough for you to halt in your assault, and you angrily huff under your breath. You don’t shift to leave, and there’s no door for you to slam away. He finally has you available. “So, what do you want to do now?” he asks.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean she knows; and honestly, I’m glad she does,” he confesses. “I wouldn’t mind seeing her again if you’d let me.”

Hawks swallows his anxiety as he waits for you to answer. Your eyes shift from him back to where she sits in your car, fiddling with the toys obviously left to clutter in the back before you look back at him, thinking.

“She does seem to like you…for some reason,” you add distastefully, but you know full well how happy training makes her. How her little smile beamed when she fluttered over those steps. How the word daddy came from her so sweetly. “She always likes talking about you after she spends the day here. You make her happy. But that’ll just make it harder for her when you leave ag-“

“I won’t,” he cuts off.

“How do I know that?”

“You don’t but I promise not again. (Name), I’m sorry. I’m sorry for telling you to go away like a burden and for not being there. You must’ve been scared, but I won’t leave either of you alone from now on even if you don’t want me there. I’ll be there if you need me.”

“Drop it. I’m not a part of this,” you tell him.

He knows that you’re rejecting his apology, but his ears can pick up what others can’t. He can hear those soft inflections in your voice right before you harden it into aggression, the slight stutter that you so cleverly thought you hid from him as you nearly fumbled your words, a little glimpse of a teenage girl with a crush on her sensei. “Not yet but do know I plan on trying until I make you fall for me all over again. I miss your cute little face when I'd smile at you.”

You glare. “Say that again, and I will smack you in your "cute little" face.”

"You already did that, but if it makes you feel better go ahead, I can take it if it helps you forgive me.”

He just didn’t expect you to actually take him up on the offer. This time, it’s the other cheek that burns.

“You’re right. That did make me feel better,” you say, smirking as you shake the sting from your hand. Hawks grunts, rubbing his jaw as you begin to walk towards your car. He bends down to pick up his shades before following close behind. You open the driver’s door, and say, “I expect you to pick her up at 9 tomorrow. If you’re late, don’t bother showing up ever again.”

Hawks smirks. You certainly became aggressive these past few years, but he thinks he kind of likes it. As you get in your car, he notices Baby Bird smiling at him from the window, her hand up and clutched around that birthday feather he gifted to her as she waves him off.

He’ll definitely be there on time.

[anna-justice]

Now or Never - 4

Summary: It’s been 10 years since they were juniors and lot’s has changed, but other things have stayed exactly the same. (Sequel to Lost or Found)

... 4 - Replay ...

Hailey pushed her door shut behind her, throwing her bags on her kitchen counter. She put away all the food she bought, grabbing a pen and a notebook and taking a seat at her bar. Hailey was a planner, she always had been, but it had gotten worse as she had gotten older. So, when she felt like things were out of her control, she sat down and made a list of everything she could. Today, it was meal planning. 

She filled the whole page, listing each meal and all the ingredients that go with it, the cook time and how likely it was to end up as leftovers. Almost all of it were things that Hailey knew Jay loved, things that he hadn’t had in a long time. 

She was grasping, she knew she was, but she was living in an eternal limbo. She was exhausted, she hadn’t slept in days, but she couldn’t dare slow down. She couldn’t dare let everything catch up to her. Hailey was running from years worth of demons coming back for her, and if she took a chance to breathe, she’d have to face them. 

As she looked down at her finished list, she felt tears prickle her eyes. She dropped her head in her hands and pushed the pad and paper aside. She fought the urge to laugh, her boyfriend - the only man that she had ever loved and it seemed like she was ever going to love - was coming home, and she was making a meal plan. 

What else was she supposed to do though? If the last four years had seemed foreign, then she was living on a different planet now. She had no idea what the next few days, weeks, months, had in store for her and she was terrified. 

Her phone caught her eye on the counter, and she felt a small grin grace her face. She picked it up and dialed a familiar number. The line only rang once before they answered, “Hello?” 

“Hey,” Hailey said, sighing out. There was something about her Aunt’s voice that had always calmed her. 

“Hi sweetie, how are you?” 

Hailey took a deep breath, with everything going on, she hadn’t had a chance to tell anyone about Jay’s highly anticipated homecoming. “Really great actually.” She said, finally. A smile gracing her face once again. Jay was coming home, no matter how many times she told herself, it still didn’t feel real. 

It didn’t matter what they ate for dinner or what her apartment looked like, he was coming home to her, finally.

“Good, I’ve been thinking about you.” Her Aunt said.

“I have something to tell you.” Hailey drew out, barely able to contain her joyful laughter. 

“Okay?” 

Hailey squealed - an action reserved for her Aunt - and the words tumbled out of her mouth, “Jay’s unit was recovered, he’s being shipped home on Tuesday, Will and I are going to pick him up-”

“What?” Her Aunt asked, cutting her niece off. 

Tears started to pool in Hailey’s eyes for what seemed like the hundredth time in days, “He’s coming home.” 

“Oh my God,” Trudy said, her voice breaking. “Are you serious?” 

“Yes!” Hailey laughed, the sound followed by Trudy’s own. 

Trudy gasped, “Hailey, that’s wonderful. I’m so happy for you, both of you.” 

“Me too.” She was so happy, she didn’t think it was possible be this happy. There were things that rivaled it: the first time Jay told her he loved her at the dance when they were sixteen, the day he came home from his first deployment, the day they she graduated college, the day of Adam and Kim’s wedding. She had had so many happy moments, but none of them measured up to what she was feeling right now. “I just can’t wait to see him.” 

“Well I’d love to see him, and you too. So give me a call when you two are all settled in and we’ll make a plan.” Trudy and Randall have moved to Hilton Head Island a few years back after they both retired, Hailey saw them a few times a year. Including during the summer when all of them would drive down and stay with them for a week. 

The two woman talked for a while, catching up, making plans, circling back around to the idea of Jay coming home several times. A smile stayed on Hailey’s face the whole time, despite anything going on in her life, Trudy seemed to always know what to say. That never changed. 

Hailey barely had time to set her phone down before it started ringing again. This time it was Kim.  “Hello?” 

“Hailey.” 

Hailey stood from her stool. “Kim, what’s wrong?” 

“Hailey, I need you to come here like right now.” Hailey could hear her panic clearly, she was already grabbing her car keys and her purse. 

“Okay, I’m on my way.” She stalled at the door. “Kim, what is going on?” 

“Hailey...its Erin, she’s back.” 

…

“Why on earth didn’t you all tell me?” Hailey asked, standing in Kim and Adam’s kitchen. “Don’t you think I had a right to know this? Especially with everything going on right now.” She ran her fingers through her hair, leaning against the counter. 

After walking in and finding a crying Kim and a very stressed Adam, they showed Hailey the bathroom, Then spent the next 10 minutes explaining everything they had been keeping from her. 

Kim took a step forward, “We found out right before Will called us, Jay seemed ore important.” 

“Jay is more important! But this puts his life in danger, it puts all of our lives in danger.” Hailey said. 

“You’re right, I’m sorry. We’re sorry.” Adam said, glancing between Hailey and his wife. “But more importantly, what are we going to do?” 

Hailey nodded, beginning to pace. “Well, we learned a long time ago that calling the police was a bad idea, but,” she gestured to herself, “I think we are covered in that department. We could call Beth Sanders back, tell her what happened.” 

“Hailey it says not to talk…” Adam says. 

“We aren’t teenagers anymore Adam!” Hailey snaps, she pauses, takes a moment to catch her breath. She wasn’t a yeller or a fighter. “I-I’m sorry, I just. I don’t know, there isn’t a correct answer. Obviously she isn’t out of prison yet, we would know right?”

“Right.” Kim said, nodding.

Hailey pinched her nose, “Then someone must be working for her. Or she’s blackmailing someone like before, like what she did to Kelly.”

“Or she escaped.” Adam said, causing both Hailey and Kim to gape at him. “Think about it, it might not be in the media yet, hell maybe no one even knows.” 

Kim rushed to the front door, making sure it was locked. It didn’t make that much of a different, but it gave her some peace of mind. Her hands were shaking, “Why would she appeal her case just to escape?”

“Maybe she just couldn’t take it anymore? She couldn’t wait for a parole hearing, so she escaped and decided missed her little playthings.” Adam said with disgust. 

Hailey stared at the counter, tracing the granite veins, running every possible idea through her head. “Or she found out about Jay.” She said, her head snapping up. “Think about it. She’s been there for 10 years. She’s earned good behavior or she’s figured out how to sneak things. She could have seen a newspaper or seen the news, decided that a parole hearing would take too long and broke out. She’s always been crazy about him, it’s what started it all in the first place.”

Adam stood there in shock, Kim scoffed, “Hailey I hate to say it, but I think you’re right.” 

“So he���s leaving a war zone and coming home to a new one,” Hailey, dropping her head in her hands on the counter. “Perfect.” 

Kim rounded the counter, placing a hand on Hailey’s shoulder. “It’s gonna be okay, we’ll get through it. We’ve done it before.” 

Hailey stands up, nodding, looking defeated. “I-how?” She asks, “We barely did the last time.”

“I honestly don’t know, but we will.” Kim looks to Adam for support. 

He just shrugs, “We have too.” 

“Yeah…” Hailey agrees, she squeezed the hand on her shoulder. “I gotta make some calls, can I use the guest room?” She asks. 

“Of course.” Kim says, giving her a quick, but necessary hug.

Hailey makes her way into the guest bedroom, shutting the door behind her. She checks the entire room for bugs, checking behind photos and under pillows, really anywhere they could be. Then, she closes the blinds and dials a familiar number. They answer after just one ring. “Hello?”

“Garrett, hey, I need your help.”

... 

An hour later, Hailey was sitting in her living room while Garrett paced around the room, a pained expression on his face. “So, you’re telling me that in high school, one of your best friends faked her own kidnapping and death, killed a random girl, blackmailed your classmate into breaking into yourself and choking you, locked you in a garage with a running car, shot Adam and then tried to kill you in basement, all because you stole her boyfriend?” He paused, turning to face her. 

“You forgot stalking us and threatening us for 3 months but yeah, pretty much.” She said shrugging. “And actually she did all that because I “stole her friends,” I didn’t steal her boyfriend until after she locked me in a garage.”

Garrett huffed, sitting down next to her. “Details.” He leaned back against the couch, running his hands over his eyes. “Hailey, I’m your partner, why didn’t you tell me any of this before now?” 

“I don’t know,” Hailey said, running the past year through her mind. It wasn’t a light or funny story for when their bored on a stakeout, and wasn’t exactly something she spewed when she was drunk, it just never came up. It was one of those things that you shove down and hope it disappears. “They aren’t exactly fond memories.” 

Garrett picked up his beer off the coffee table, taking a long drink. “Fair enough.” He looked over at his partner, her blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail like usual, an old academy sweatshirt covering her. On the surface she looked like the old Hailey, but he could see the pieces of hair falling out and how swollen her eyes were. She wasn’t the normal Hailey. “Hailey, I-I’m sorry you had to go through that, especially that young. No one deserves that,” 

Hailey gave him a soft smile, nodding her head and dropping her gaze to her lap. She knew he meant well, but the look on his face was one of the main reasons that she never told anyone about her past. She was a big girl, she didn’t need anyones pity. “Thanks, that means a lot. But, I’ve come to terms with it all. I thought I had moved on, but, the bitch is back, and I need a plan.” She stood up, grabbing her laptop off the sofa table across the room. “Jay is coming home and Kim and Adam want a baby, and Kev and Vanessa want to get married, and dammit Erin is not going to ruin everything again.”

She sat back down on the couch next to him, and Garret smiled at her, he admired her more than anyone else in the world, even more now. “Then we’ll stop her.” He tried not to think about the way his chest tightened when she said Jay’s name, it wasn’t fair to either of them. She deserved to be happy, he just thought that eventually it would be him to make her just that, and he wasn’t sure he was ready to give up on that. 

“I have no idea how.” She logged in to her computer, completely unaware of the way her partner was looking at her. “First we need to find out if she’s actually still in prison.” Garrett scooted a little closer to her, so he could see the screen. 

Hailey looked frustrated as she typed aggressively, it wasn’t really getting them anywhere. “Hailey,” Garret said, grabbing her attention. “You are the strongest person I have ever met, if anyone can figure this out, it’s you.” He said, watching as her tough guy facade finally fell before him. “I’m lucky that I get to call you my partner.” 

She eyed him, his honestly and heartfelt-ness coming out of left-field. They usually never talked like this. But, she let it go. Chalking the comment up to the many lines they had already crossed during the evening, she was bound to feel a little strange. “Thanks, me too.” 

The rest of the evening was spent deep in thought, developing several different ways things could go wrong and how to fix them. Somehow they ended up sprawled out on her couch, Garrett sound  asleep and Hailey wide awake, eyes darting between him and the floor. She had finally let someone else in, and she had this horrid feeling that it would come back to bit her in the ass. It would come back for both of them. 

…

A/N: Holy crap, it has been SO LONG since I have updated this story. I’m so sorry you all, it’s been an absolutely crazy few months and I am happy to say that I have finally found the inspiration to write again. I’ve decided that I will update this story every Wednesday, so hopefully the accountability will keep me on track. Thank you so so much for reading. Have a great night <3

P.S. like always, comment to be added to the taglist!

@lissethsrojas @puckluck28 @fuckyeahkillianemma @ruzek-halstead @thebigapocalypsewolf @karihighman @anotheronechicagobog @snowwhite013 @tracysupton @angelsjedi @anniesardors @carissalizz @joy-meathiel @alkadri-layal @number2chicagopdfan @stephanie708

[human-do-a-worm]

Ramblings of an Old Soldier Part 2/?

Part 1 can be found HERE

The next day, the Unkall boy came back to the old soldier, sitting on the bench where he normally does, reading his data tablet. The boy had a rather happy look on him today.

“Ah, you’re back. I take it that my story wasn’t quite enough on its own then?”

“Not quite mister. It turned out to be more than enough for my first paper. After I turned it in, my teacher said I could go ahead and write the rest of my papers for the course since I had found a primary source willing to share their experience.”

“I see. How kind of your teacher. Back when I was in school, they would have told us to stuff it.”

“So, what other stories do you have to tell?”

“How about my time in the cycle after the Martian campaign?”

“That sounds wonderful. Let me start my recorder.”

The Unkall child pushes a glowing button on his data tablet, and a blue dot appearing on the screen indicated that the recording had started

“It was less than a month after the battle on Mars; that’s one twenty-fourth of a cycle in standard units. Reconstruction had begun on mars, and the war fleets which were now all massed around Terra had been split into five groups. Group Solar and Group Lunar were the two largest of the fleets, and as such were classed together. Group Pangea, Group Gondwana, and Group Oceana were the three smaller groups, and were classed together as well. The fleets were organized in this way by Grand Admiral Demetrius, to ensure that no one fleet would have to stand against the enemy for too long a time.”

“Since I’ve brought him up, I should probably tell you a bit about the Grand Admiral. Remember what I was saying about the preparations for the battle on Mars. All the meticulous planning done to move the civilians back to Terra, and keep morale up while being an effective fighting force? Well, that came from Demetrius, and was only slightly modified by individual units as the orders were passed down the chain. His odd decision making turned out to be one of the most valuable things that humanity had, because nobody could anticipate his plans; especially the Vrumoids. He was only a rear admiral, but after his commendation, and the first victory in the war, He was immediately promoted.”

“Back to the war now. The battle plan was simple. Keep a constant pressure on the enemy, working in a single spot, pushing the enemy back system by system, and planet by planet. Where to stop would be figured out as the fleets went along. This seemed to work very well. In most systems, Groups Solar and Lunar rarely had fire a single shot. The Vrumoids would either flee or be destroyed by one of the smaller groups before the heavy guns of the heavy class ships could be brought to bear.”

“The reconquest continued almost flawlessly until there was a single human world left to reclaim. Rexorb VI was nothing more than a rock when humanity last saw it, but after looking upon it, the armada called for the command group; Group Regal; to come and take a look. At first sight of the data scans, Demetrius broke down with laughter. Failing to find the humor in this situation, his second in command asked him what was so funny.” “These poor bastards. They’ve made this planet up to be just like Mars, hoping we’ll make the same mistakes they did. Have they never been told that it’s a bad idea to try using the tactics someone created against them? They’ve made themselves the easiest targets possible for us, and what’s even better is that they did it on a mining world. There were only a few housing units on that planet, and its riches lie deep inside. This is the perfect opportunity to try a new idea.”

“With that, preparations were made swiftly, and with much laughter all around. On the back side of Rexorb VI’s moon, groups Solar, Gondwana, and Oceana moved into position, mounting themselves with their primary propulsion systems poised to drop the moon from its orbit.”

The boy spoke up

“Didn’t the Vrumoid forces on the planet notice what was happening?”

Laughing, the old man responded

“Nope. That was a benefit of only showing the enemy one small and one large battle group at a time. According to Vrumoid intelligence recovered after the war, The defenders on Rexorb VI simply thought we were just deciding how to invade properly. They had no idea Demetrius was crazy enough to consider crashing the moon into the planet, and they would have to have been crazy to even guess that the rest of the fleet would just go along with it. I know Demetrius was expecting to do some explaining to the others.”

“The High Admiral may have been absolutely insane, but he wasn’t heartless. He ordered a shuttle to take one squad and an emissary to give them one final chance to surrender. They of course, believing a ground war lay ahead, refused. That was the last mistake that the Vrumoids ever made when dealing with humanity. Exactly one planetary axis revolution after the shuttle returned to the fleet, all the pushing ships’ engines fired up. Each of the ships had worked out their individual point of no return for propelling the moon towards the planet, and had an order to pull off at what their captain deemed a safe time before reaching their point of no return. By the time the last ship pulled off, The moon was going faster than its own terminal velocity.”

“When that moon hit the surface of the planet, the entire thing cracked like a geode. After observing this from one of their comm stations, the Vrumoid Empire rushed to set up peace treaty negotiations. Of course, who was the Terran representative by unanimous vote from the United Terran Council? None other than High Admiral Demetrius. They figured that if nothing else, he could get the Vrumoids to leave humanity alone. But what he got us was something so much greater.”

“As you might have learned in class, our home system and colonies were entirely located within an isolated part of Vrumoid space. We had no knowledge of the Galactic Council Alliance, at least until one of the Vrumoid delegates at the negotiations made a mistake and asked one of his compatriots what the council would think of their actions if they ever found out. After learning that there were other intelligent species in the galaxy, Demetrius demanded that humanity be granted a swath of planets and territory directly to the territory of another GCA member.”

“This single achievement is what brought humanity forward. Demetrius did what no other Terran could do; he found sentient life that wasn’t actively trying to kill us, and he made sure we could get to them with ease. If it weren’t for him, we would have never known the GCA existed, and likely would have been either wiped out or enslaved by the Vrumoids after they rebuilt their forces.”

“Of course, after we made contact with the council, and they saw what we were able to do to a far more technologically advanced species, they demanded to see our battle reports and to speak with all the commanding officers. I remember standing there by High Admiral Demetrius’ side.”

The young Unkall spoke up ecstatically

“You were a commanding officer?”

“Sure was kiddo. Leading the charge of those bikers on mars was one hell of a brave thing, and Demetrius took note. When he got the chance to promote one of his soldiers to an admiral under his command for Group Solar, he spoke loud and clear to us and said “Where’s that crazy bastard that volunteered to charge a platoon of enemy tanks using nothing but motorcycles and bombs on sticks? I have a job for you!” That was the day I was no longer a simple marksman, I was an Admiral, and a damn good one too. My group didn’t lose a single vessel to the enemy.”

“I still remember the day I went down on that rock the day before we cracked it. The Vrumoid commander must have been watching the video recordings from when I charged the tanks, because the moment I walked into the room and she looked up at me, she looked all sorts of shaken up. When I told her that this was her last chance to accept a mercy never offered by her empire, a chance to surrender; she simply said that surrender would never come until she and her warriors no longer stood upon the planet. If only she knew the irony in those words.”

“I remember being at the peace conference, and although Demetrius had only been seen rarely by the Vrumoids, mostly in transmissions intercepted from Mars to Earth, they had seen me plenty. I think I scared them more than Demetrius did, because when I talked about how my motorcycle wasn’t out of fuel yet, they started agreeing to our demands.”

Curiously, the boy tapped something into his data tablet

“Wait a minute, are you saying that you’re Admiral Sturm?”

“Indeed I am. Admiral Jakob Sturm, service number 6556-0293-422-41, former commander of the Terran expeditionary fleet codename Solar. I proudly led my sailors, soldiers, and marines through some of the harshest battles that humanity has faced, and kept my fleet intact. I wasn’t lying when I said that I didn’t lose a ship in my group to the enemy. And after serving 10 cycles in service of my species, I left honorably.”

“So what did you do after you left? I’d imagine being an admiral is a hard job to top.”

“You’re right, admiral is a hard job to beat. I served as an ambassador of Terra for a cycle before I returned to the stars. I found some of the others from back on Mars that charged with me on that day. We were a mercenary group. We mostly took escort contracts or welfare and security for anyone we deemed especially needy. We did good work for a few cycles, but then I had to give it a rest.”

“That’s around the time your name stopped appearing in records of both the GCA and Terran reports. What happened?”

“I’ve been talking for too long. I think you might be able to get a few pages out of what I’ve said today. Better to not burn up all your content at once, right? I’ll be here again tomorrow, like I always am. I’ll tell you more then.”

“If you insist sir. I’ll be here.”

“Until then, take care. I may be old, but I still expect people to stick to a schedule.”

With that, the boy stopped his recording and went home. To meet someone as important as Admiral Sturm, who seemed to have vanished from most records 8 cycles ago, was entirely unexpected. Unexpected, but it will certainly make a wonderful paper for his teacher.

[katierosefun]

well, here we are! june basically flew by and it was a little rough, but we’re back with some long recs on cool things i’ve read/listened to/watched, and i’m about to force everyone to sit down and listen to my sleepover-esque ted talk in which i give unwarranted and unasked for rec lists. so here we go!

kdrama:

while you were sleeping

okay, so i tried to watch this kdrama when it came out in like...2017, i think? but for some reason, i wasn’t able to get past the first episode. i don’t really know why? because it’s so beautifully shot, and i super love the premise, which is basically this girl and this guy are somehow able to see things that are going to happen in the future...but only in their dreams. this whole kdrama really handled the plot super well--each episode honestly felt like a movie in itself, and the filming was just stunning, and i think this has to be one of the most visual kdramas i’ve ever seen. each character is also super interesting and complex on their own, and i really loved seeing such a strong cast of characters interact with each other in this world. 

i think the only slight downside of this kdrama was that i couldn’t really get invested in the romance? i’m not quite sure why--i found both lead actors’ performances wonderful, and don’t get me wrong, i did think they were cute together as the drama went on, but i still couldn’t find myself buying into the romance until maybe relatively late in the drama (like...ep 11 or so? ep 16 was honestly when i realized that awww, wait, they’re actually super cute). but then again, i feel like the writers weren’t really prioritizing the romance either--i think they really wanted us to think about the beauty of dreams and redemption and how everyone can touch another person’s life in some significant way, so i can’t really be mad about it!

but anyways, overall i really enjoyed this kdrama and watched it all a lot faster than i thought i would! SOLID music, beautiful cinematography, good acting, mostly good writing, and some really memorable characters! def. a must-watch if you love suspense, aesthetics, and some wonderful characters.

the ghost detective

i’m someone who doesn’t like horror or scary things at all, but i was so intrigued by the plot and whatever material i saw on tumblr, and...of course, choi daniel, lee joo young, lee ji ah, and park eun bin. honestly, this is just a really wonderful and really underrated cast, and they really all brought out their a-game for this 32-episode supernatural / thriller / horror drama. basically, this kdrama follows the story of a young woman who’s trying to figure out who murdered her younger sister...and of course, there’s something supernatural going on. 

honestly, this kdrama was such a ride. i loved the crime-solving aspect of it, and i was really in love with the interactions between all the characters, esp. that of eun bin and daniel’s characters. (guys...they’re so ride and die for each other. there’s also so much yearning. so much yearning in this kdrama, it just about killed me--) 

the villain was absolutely, appropriately, elegantly creepy, and like...scary beyond belief. basically, the villain (lee ji ah’s character) feeds her victims these harmful thoughts and ultimately get them to kill themselves. it’s sad and haunting, especially when you see that the victims tell their victims “don’t listen to the bad things. try only to listen to the good things”. and...yeah. themes of how to handle all of these bad feelings inside of you really came through in this kdrama, and there were a lot of themes of suicide and the kind of rage and sadness that comes with that. (also! if you’re a fan of lots of angsty/whumpy situations....this kdrama definitely does not hold back with all of your fave whump/angst tropes! literally! every! episode! i! had! to! lie! down! because! too! powerful!)

school 2013 

(aww, look at this precious cast…as though they didn’t all make me ugly cry at least five times—)

yeah, yeah, yeah, i’ve talked about this kdrama ad nauseum, and i know i watched it last month, but as i was studying for the lsat, i really, really, really needed some comfort. most notably comfort re: studying life, academics, how difficult it is to study but also be uncertain of your dreams…and if you are certain of your dreams, how that sometimes requires studying but that just makes life all the more overwhelming…can you tell i’ve been thinking about this a lot

i’m not going to ramble more about this kdrama considering i already have done so multiple times, but i enjoyed this rewatch and honestly,,,my love for this show has just grown even more. there’s a good reason why people consider this a comfort kdrama, because. i consider myself deeply comforted. also, i’ve been listening to the ost for the whole month. it’s become a problem. but sometimes. sometimes you need to listen to songs that feel like someone’s patting you on the head and telling you don’t give up, set down your burdens, don’t think you’re alone and dream whatever you want to dream, go wherever you want to go. i’ll stop talking now, but god. when i say that i think everyone who has ever felt incredibly tired by work or school and just wished for someone to give them a big hug either then or now...god. this is just one of those kdramas that i think honestly touched so many people’s lives, and i’m very grateful for the cast and crew and writers for ever bringing this story to life. :’) (god, okay, now i’ll stop talking before i make myself cry i’m fine this is fine)

your honor

so, i watched this kdrama thinking that it would be light and funny given that yoon shi yoon is the main male lead, but boy was i wrong--don’t be fooled by these happy little faces, this kdrama is heavy. this kdrama is about a young man (with a criminal record) who winds up impersonating his twin brother, who happens to be a judge. we also have a trainee who, after seeing the legal system fail her older sister, is on the rise to dispense justice through the courts the best she can.

honestly, the first few episodes were rough, mostly because of the content. big trigger warning for rape, violence, and sexual harassment at work. this kdrama really didn’t hold back when it came to addressing how the very people who use the law can also be the very same people who manipulate and abuse it. because of that, i found this kdrama incredibly powerful. that said, it certainly had its lighthearted moments too. 

overall though, i liked this kdrama. the main characters were incredibly complex and genuinely the type to make me believe that for all the injustices in the world, there are still and always will be people fighting for the right thing. as someone who wants to enter the legal field, this kdrama was just uplifting. i was so blown away by the absolute rawness of the main two leads, esp. yoon shi yoon, who i’ve only ever seen in super lighthearted kdramas. so this was a really interesting change of pace, and i genuinely enjoyed watching this!

waiting for love

so this kdrama is just two episodes, and what’s better is that it’s available on youtube! it’s about two college students--a young woman who’s been hurt by falling in love with jerks now just wants to date, not really fall in love...and a young man who’s excellent at giving dating advice except he’s afraid that he’s never going to actually fall in love, so he just dates a girl for the sake of dating.

now, i kinda thought that this show was going to be kinda lighthearted, a little shallow--but it was weirdly...comforting? idk, i found myself liking it a lot more than i thought it would be. this is far from the perfect kdrama, and i kinda wished that we got more than 2 episodes because i think some of the plot points could have been better expanded, but...there were genuinely a lot of scenes that made me think a bit more about what it actually means to be in a loving relationship--like how it’s not enough to just put on a happy smile and eat meals together, but like...you know. there has to be trust and actual liking and also, yeah, maybe a bit of frustration in order to actually know whether a relationship is real or not. and given that the characters were all discussing the pressure on getting married and romance esp. when you’re in your twenties...idk. makes you think about are you dating someone for the sake of appearances? or do you genuinely...like them?

there was also quite a few tropes that i personally adore in this kdrama, which helped balance out the stuff i found more tiring. there was a lot of the “right person, wrong time” stuff going on (you really want the two main leads to get together after a certain point, and you just keep holding your breath whenever they walk past each other and beg please please please let it be this time...), and also that good old “two strangers fall in love with each other purely over writing to each other” (god. first the half of it, then me & au, then greenhouse podcast...something about this trope huh). that said, there were def. some parts that made me “:////” because some of the characters were kind of frustrating, but i’m gonna chalk that up to good writing since i think i was mostly mad about how i knew people like some of the characters lol. overall, i think this might be at least semi-enjoyable--it’s probably not something i’ll watch again, but it def. made me mull over what it means to actually be in a loving relationship, esp. if you’re in your twenties and everyone around you seems to be in happy romantic relationships/getting engaged and whatnot. 

movie: 

columbus 

i’m a firm believer that there are some movies that are meant to cheer you up, some movies meant to make you cry, and then there’s some movies that are just meant to...sit with you. and this movie is definitely one of them. this story follows casey, a high school graduate, and jin, the son of a famous architect. the two of them are both so incredibly exhausted with their lives (casey with her constant worry about her mother, who’s a recovering drug addict; jin with his surface-level lack of concern for his comatose father). in their small town of columbus, indiana, the two of them bond over architecture and just. being quietly there for each other.

this movie’s been compared a few times to lost in translation in the sense that there’s this not quite romance between the two leads, who have a bit of an age gap (john cho and haley lu richardson have about 20 between them!). to be honest, i didn’t really get the sense that there was supposed to be a romance. if anything, it just felt like...two really lonely people finding each other. definitely not a simple friendship--definitely not a familial kind of relationship, definitely intimate. 

idk. i think this movie might not be for everyone--i definitely agree with a lot of past reviewers that this movie is on the slower side. there’s some stuff here about complicated relationships with parents, a lot of cool architecture, really beautiful shots...and overall, it’s just...quiet. it’s lovely, and i can’t really stop thinking about it. it’s subtle, bittersweet, and oddly compelling. might not be the kind of thing you’d want to watch in the middle of the day, but if you’re a little sad and in the mood for something not to necessarily lift your spirits but...at least acknowledge them and sit with you, then...this is the movie to watch. idk. i felt kind of crummy the day i watched this movie, and i felt as though someone just sat next to me on a park bench until the sun went down. (mayhaps specific but hush, i’m writing this right after finishing this movie, so i’m...feeling a certain way.)

wish dragon 

i watched this movie right after watching columbus because a) decided i was in the mood for something lighter, and b) i learned that john cho?? voiced?? the dragon?? (caroline your crush on john cho’s jumping out this month...) 

but anyways! i loved this movie a lot. it was so satisfying? like, just narratively speaking? and the animation was wonderful and also weirdly smooth and satisfying, and there were a lot of funny and touching moments. this movie’s about this young man named din who stumbles upon a magical teapot that holds the wish dragon long--long has to grant din three wishes, and yes, i know, very aladdin, but that said, this movie has so many original twists that it feels weird to call it an aladdin retelling. it really did feel like a movie completely on its own, which i applaud the writer and director for! 

i don’t want to spoil too much of this movie, but something i really enjoyed was that din’s main wish is just to see his old childhood friend again. idk, i think we all have that one friend from when we were really little that we miss--and this movie really dug into that, as well as themes about parents wanting to do the best they can to provide for their kids, and!!! and long the dragon gets his own storyline and amazing character development too!!! i was honestly just amazed at how this movie fleshed out the characters so well and had so many wonderful themes that just made me tear up. guys. this movie’s great. highly recommend for its wonderful characters and the power of friendship. just a grand old time in general. :’))

searching 

yeah...yeah, i wasn’t kidding about my crush on john cho this month. yes, i watched three of his movies within 24 hours. this movie is about david kim who’s looking for his missing 16 year old daughter, margot. this film is honestly noteworthy for many reasons, one of them being that the entire movie is told through like...a laptop screen, as in we kind of follow david’s frantic search through facetime, facebook, tumblr...which i honestly didn’t think i’d be into, but whoo boy, i was wrong. it just added to the whole addictive quality of this movie, as it usually does when it comes to anything from the thriller genre. 

but besides this just being a straight up addictive thriller with absolutely mouth-dropping twists (but like...good twists, and smart twists, good god--), this movie was just...touching? there’s so many themes related to what grief does to a family (because we learn within the first 10 minutes that the mom died due to cancer), and there’s just...something really fragile about relationships between surviving family members. i was absolutely blown away by john cho’s performance as a tentative and grieving widower whose world just absolutely falls apart in his search for his daughter. this movie was just so...real because of that. like, yes, this movie has all of the suspense that you would expect this kind of movie to have, but there was also just...so many beautiful themes about grief and how far parents would go for their kids and godddd yeah no i started sobbing when the movie ended. god. 

also, my bias towards john cho aside, i...really loved his character. david kim is absolutely believable, and like? he’s not just the guy putting the pieces together--he’s also the guy who misses his wife and also the guy who wishes that he was there for his daughter. he’s also the guy who pauses and re-writes all his text messages because he’s trying to be a good dad. i feel like with a lot of these suspense / missing person movies, it’s really easy to have characters who are just the stoic alpha male types--and david kim definitely had his badass moments in this movie, but like...something i just loved was seeing the vulnerability that comes with...having a missing child. being a parent. god. this movie messed me up but in a good way. i can honestly say that this movie is now probably going to be one of my fave movies of all time. highly recommend, am literally obsessed with it.

book:

the seven husbands of evelyn hugo by taylor jenkins reid

ohohoho………where to begin with this book. this was one of those books where i was like “huh i kinda don’t understand why people are so obsessed with this book”, but then i hit like...page 20 or 30 and was like “oh god i Literally Cannot Put This Book Down Oh No” and wound up finishing it in like three days (mind you, i only read at like...midnight these days. i don’t understand why either). 

i finished this book at like 2 am and promptly burst into tears because this was just one of those books. it follows the story of evelyn hugo, a famous hollywood actress from the 60s or so and onwards. known for her intense beauty and her seven husbands, she’s now giving an exclusive interview to the young reporter monique grant, where she’s about to tell all about her life. this book had me dropping my mouth multiple times, and i think tjr can spin one hell of a story, with so many good twists and turns and intensely memorable characters. by the end of the book, i was actually mad that evelyn hugo wasn’t a real person, because i, too, fell a little in love with her and thought, i want to actually watch her movies. i want to learn even more about this remarkable woman. 

but alas! she’s not real, so i don’t get to see her accept an oscar or look up all the tabloids about her and her seven husbands or her speculated (and very, very, very real) relationship with celia st. john. basically...i just loved this book. the last line made me smile and laugh and cry a little bit (actually...cry a lot), and y’know...i’ll admit it’s not totally perfect, but i’m glad this book exists, and i’m glad that even though tjr isn’t bi herself, was very adamant in this book about bisexuality being real. just. like. god. once again. mad that evelyn hugo isn’t real. it’s fine, she’s real in my heart.

[bard-of-worlds]

Ladybug AU/ The Law is The Law CH1

Adrien scowled as he reached the location of the photoshoot, the way the battle with Mayura and Hawkmoth, what had been done to Sentibug was still causing him some problems, he didn’t know if after everything that had happened today he didn’t know how he would be able to handle the shoot.  When he saw Lila sitting on a chair and having her makeup done he stopped and grabbed Vincent as he walked by.  Vincent turned to Adrien and paled as he saw the look in Adrien’s eyes.

 “Vincent, hey……quick question, why in the name of everything good and pure is Lila here?” Adrien asked flatly as Vincent swallowed.

 “I don’t know Adrien, all I know was that I was told there would be a new model at the shoot, nothing about who or why only that Nathalie would introduce her…..Love to talk kid but I have to go and get my camera ready, sooooo.   Bye.”  Vincient said as he dashed off, throwing a look at Adrien as he walked away.  You know, I wondered how he was Gabe’s kid but that there, it’s gone now.  He thought as he looked around and saw the looks on the other crew’s faces and hoped Adrien wouldn’t explode.

 Adrien looked at Lila and scowled, not needing this now.  I don’t know what Father’s thinking, anyone in class could have been a better pick, Sabrina, Juleka or Chloe if he wanted someone my age to model with that’s not in the bussniess.  But maybe I can use this, if I can talk to her she might clean up what she did to Marinette, and if not then I might get the pressure to make her do it.  Adrien thought as he reached for his phone and moved it to his pocket, praying that he wouldn’t have to use this.

 “I don’t know how but you will fix this Lila.  How could you get Marinette expelled?!” Adrien demanded as he discreetly pointing his phone’s camera at her, part of him hoping this wouldn’t be necessary.

 “Why should I do that? I tried to get her play ball and she wouldn’t, I warned her and we both made our choices, I made mine and here we are.” Lila said as she looked at Adrien as he stared at her.   “I told her I would ruin her and I did, I said I would get you and here I am.”

 “So just so we’re clear, you lied, you threatened Marinette and got her expelled because she called you out on your lies?  How did you even do it anyway?” Adrien asked as he fought to keep his temper down    ‘Get me’, so I was right about her.  Just another person who objectified me or sees what they want to think. Adrien thought as he looked at her.  

  “It was so easy, all I had to do was go to the bathroom after the test, pull the alarm and get the answer sheet that was left on that idiot teacher’s desk and put it in Marinette’s bag. They never even noticed it but it was after the last class and well.” Lila said with a giggle as Adrien fumed and glared at her.

 “And you would do it again, wouldn’t you?”  Adrien asked as he kept his face plain, but inside he was shocked that this was so essay to get what he needed from her.

“I would even without the bonus your father gave me.”  Lila said as Adrien looked at her in confusion.  

 “Bonus, my father? What does he have to do with this?!” Adrien demanded as he looked at Lila, on the inside he wasn’t scared but angry, and he felt the last vestige of his control was starting to burn away.

 “Don’t act so surprised, he had to have talked to you about it and told you to act the way you did before the Akuma attacked everyone, the Gabriel brand over all, and its spokesperson speaking up for someone accused of a crime would be a perfect publicity stunt.” Lila said she looked at him.  

 Adrien stared at Lila as his vision went red as she sat there grinning back at him as he went over what she had said before whipping his head around and he saw Nathalie in the limo looking towards the shoot, his eyes widening as he realize that for once Lila was telling the truth, turning off his phone he turned to look at the river and tried to calm down. I can’t believe this!  I knew something was wrong when I learned that Lila was going to model with me but I can’t believe……Wait….if she’s here because of that then this means! Adrien thought as his thoughts crystalized

 “You did that for this!? You were completely willing to ruin her life for this?!” Adrien exploded as he shot up from his chair looking at her.  As the crew looked on Adrien grabbed her, pulled her behind him despite what she was saying and with surprising strength threw her into the river! Nathalie got out of the car and rushed over towards the water as the crew stared in total shock before they moved to help Lila out.

 “Adiren what were you thinking!  Your father will not be happy about this at all.  I don’t even know what….!” Nathalie would have kept talking but Adiren turned around and looked at her with such a look of rage, anger and disgust in his eyes that she stopped talking.

 “I don’t care.” Adrien said flatly as Nathalie tried to recover.. “Nathalie, tell my father that for the first time ever I’m glad that mom is gone.  This way I have memories of a beautiful person instead of someone who could love the monster that he’s become!” Adrien said as he looked at her and gripped his phone.  “An Agreste is held to high standards; well this has shown me that mine are very different from his and no amount of effort will ever be good enough for him!”

 As Nathalie looked at him, really looked at him for the first time ever she could comprehend what she was seeing.   Adrien had always been an accommodating to Gabriel’s wishes that she never thought that he would ever act this way.  Adrien turned, manipulating his phone as he did so and walked away, not even paying her any piece of mind.  Nathalie looked around and saw the photo crew trying to get Lila out of the river and stormed over to them, pulling them back and staring down at her. ”What did you say?”

 “What?” Lila asked as she tried to climb out of the river.

 “What did you say Lila!?” Nathalie demanded as Lila looked up at her.  “Adrien has never, ever acted even remotely like that or said anything about his father, so WHAT. DID. YOU. SAY?”

 “I told him about the job that got me here.  Why the hell he’d react that way, Gabriel told me to do it!” Lila said as Nathalie looked down at her and paled.

  “Louis, hey.  Sorry to call out of the blue but can we talk?” Adrien said into his phone as walked off, ignoring the camera crew as they stared at him, he just kept walking.  

 “Yeah Adrien, what’s up?” Louis’s voice came through the phone as Adrien could hear the squeak of his chair as he leaned back in it.  “Need some wisdom from somebody who’s been around the block a few times?”

 “No, not wisdom do it, that thing we talked about.  He’s finally crossed my final line, I don’t have a choice anymore.”  Adrien said as he looked behind him, not seeing the Gorilla anywhere so there was that.

 “You sure kid?  Once this goes out there’s no turning back, this is a big choice to make?” Louise asked causing Adrien to nod before he realized that Louise couldn’t see him and blushed before he spoke again.

 “Yeah I am, what he is, what he’s willing to do for his brand, I just can’t live with myself if we don’t do this.”  Adrien said as he walked.

  “And…….. done!  In a few hours there’s going to be such an investigation that gonna cause old Gabe to pass out!  I’m sorry you were pushed to this point kid, but I’ve got a spare coach if you want to use it.” Louise said.

 “Don’t be, I should have done this months ago.  Looking back my relationship with him died when mom disappeared.” Adrien said as he felt Plagg press against him and he reached into the pocket Plagg was in and felt Plagg hug his hand.  At least I still have him and Ladybug, and her kwami too.  He thought as he released a breath and let the last of his relationship with his father die as it should have when he started to treat him as only an employee. “And about that second thing I just sent you a video I just shot, and I think I have some pro bono work you’ll love, do you know the bakery near my school?”

 “Yeah, I love their cookies, but what do Tom and Sabine have to do with this?  And you know I only do that stuff when I have a good target of injustice so what happened?”  Louis asked. Wait a minute, don’t those two have a daughter who should be around the kid’s age?  Louise thought as he waited for Adrien’s reply.

 “First off, is it legal for a student to be expelled on the same day as the crime?” Adrien asked as he walked through Paris, hopping that

 “No, all students need a hearing for expulsion, did he use that world?  Hold on I’ve got the file you sent me………holy!  And this bitch framed a friend of yours at Gabe’s direction?!” Louise said as he “Kid you should have called me soon, now I can probably get the expulsion off her records and I think I can get a nice settlement for her and then there’s your dad but….”

 “That’s it Louise it happened today!” Adrien interrupted him and Louise stopped talking.  “There wasn’t a hearing, she wasn’t suspended, the principle just expelled her in front of everybody!”

 “Adrien, buddy.  You bring me the best presents!  A perfect way to strike against the school that let the person that abused my goddaughter into trying to commit suicide walk free, I love it!”  Louis said with a laugh.

 “Wait, what!  My school is the one where that happened?” Adrien asked as he stopped moving for a moment as his eyes went wide.

 “Yeah, this bitch always believed the whore and punished my goddaughter, she almost killed herself. In the end the teacher was fired, the bully had left and moved to a different county and what a teacher could do to a student was changed.  I think they were talking about changing the rules for how they punish someone.  One of the most idiotic ideas was to for it to only apply if the teacher saw them do it or they got it on camera, the most insane idea I have ever heard.”  Louise said as Adrien gasped.  “Kid, what is it?”

 “I think they did make that rule Louise. Chloe hasn’t changed much and besides words and actions taken where no one besides the victim could see it she’s gotten away with a lot.  And this time Mari….the victim was expelled based on only on the accusers word, they even made it a public spectator. ” Adrien said flatly.  Is this why Chloe gets away with everything she does? But wait the cameras! He thought as he heard Louise’s chair pushed backwards as he got up.

 “WHAT!  I know they’ve got cameras in that place; it was part of the settlement!  Don’t tell me that they aren’t being used!” Louise exclaimed with a hint of anger in his voice.

 “They’re practically ornamental at this point!  They never even looked at the ones in the courtyard, all Lila said was that Marinette pushed her down the stairs and the principle believed her!”  Adrien said as he heard Louise grit his teeth.  “And I admit finding the necklace in her locker was damming but there are no locks on any of them and it could have fit through the grill!”

 “This necklace, it was tested for fingerprints at least right?”  Louis asked as Adrien stayed silent and Louis felt a headache coming on. “Adrien tell me they at least did that and listened to more than just one student right, please?”

 “I can’t Louise, I just can’t.” Adrien said softly as he heard Louis trying to keep his temper down and count backwards from twenty.

 “Kid, I’ll meet you at the bakery, if I hear anything more now I’m going to scream.  I’ll have my people send out the papers for the first thing you called me about before I leave, see you there.” As Adrien heard the call end he sighed.

 “Plagg, I should have done this when this began.”  He said softly as he walked towards Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie.

 “The throwing Lila into the river or calling in Louise when pigtails got expelled, causing I’m all for transforming and going to cataclysming her.”  Plagg said as Adiren laughed.  I guess I can’t expect any different from Plagg, he’s been saying to get rid of her for weeks!  I had to hope she was acting that way like my mask have when I’m in public or around fat….Gabriel.  I guess this finally proved once and for all where I stand with him, and somehow I feel lighter. Adrien thought as he walked.

 “The calling Louise, I mean I had hoped she was just telling stories thing because she was nervuis and scared, I mean moving around so much I can understand that, it took me weeks to lighten up and start to be more then my mask at school.”  Adrien said with a sigh.  “And most of Chloe’s act is because she wants her mom to love her.”

 “I’ll say once and I’ll say it again, that woman is a piece of work!  I’ve seen a lot of people over the centuries but like her, always the worst of the worst.”  Plagg said as he looked up at Adrien.

 “Adrien there you are!” Chloe’s voice caused Adrien to turn and see her pounding towards him with Sabrina following behind her.  “How the hell are we going to get Marinette un-expelled?  This is ridicules, completely ridicules!”

 Adrien looked at Chloe as she started a terade and frowned as what she was saying got through to him. “Wait, you want to help Marinette?”

 “Of course!  Nobody but nobody messes with Dunpain-Chang but me! And even I wouldn’t threaten her how Lila did!” Chloe said a huff as she looked up at the sky.

 “What do you mean, threatened Marinette?!  When did that happen?!”  Adrien demanded as Chloe looked at him and Sabrina’s mouth dropped open.

 “It was when she came back, she cornered Marinette and she felt so scared an Akuma was summoned but she fought it off!”  Sabrina said causing Adrien to gasp at her.

 “That’s where that Akuma came from, that’s how Lila was Akumatized, not because I talked to her?!” Adrien said with shock, stepping backwards as he paled in horror. “God, I am the most idiotic person on the planet!”

 “Sabrina saw her reach for it Adrien what are you…..What did you do?!” Chloe demanded as she saw him react to what she and Sabrina told him and started to grow worried, he had only acted like this when he had made what he thought was a mistake, like when he had given his mom flowers and she turned out to be allergic to them.

 “I thought Lila’s emotions spiked because I talked to her about how she didn’t have to lie to get people to like her, not that she chased one down!  I told Marinette to take the highroad about her lies, I never knew…….” Adrien said as Chloe gasped and started to get mad and was about to exploded when Sabrina spoke up.

 “You thought she was so emotional that talking to her about her lies caused her to get on Hawkmoth’s radar?” Sabrina asked as Chloe looked at her then at Adrien with her mouth open.

 “God, and you were worried that she’d attack anyone who called her out, did you at least explain that to Marinette?” Chloe asked only to sigh when Adrien hung his head. “Adrien!”

 “I……. I knew she’d probably react like you guys are and I didn’t want to give Lila any ammunition to use, I’ve been trying to get alone to talk to her about it but I haven’t been able to yet.” Adrien said miserably.

 “Then go and talk to her now!  And wait……. Don’t you have a photoshoot about now?” Chloe asked as she looked around, confused beyond words.

 Adrien’s phone seemed to burn a hole into his leg and he looked at Chloe steadily. “I’m handling Marinette’s problems.  And about the shoot I walked off after I threw the other model there, Lila into the river!”

 “What the hell was Lie-la doing there?  And how are you handing what happened?” Chloe demanded as she looked at Adrien, fuming. Why the heck did Gabriel get Lila to model, if he wanted a new teen girl anyone would have been better, heck even Alya could do it!  She thought as Adrien seemed to be struggling with something.

 “I called Louise about it, he said that what the principle did wasn’t right…..and I told him to send off the notice to the Department of Child Services.” Adrien said as Chloe and Sabrina gasped and looked at him.

 “Why, I mean you should have done it months ago but why now?” Sabrina said, having been Chloe’s friend for years she knew Adrien at least superficially and this wasn’t like him.

 “Lila did what she did because he told her to.” Adrien as they looked at him, not understanding what he was saying.  “She said that the modeling thing is a bonus and that she thought how I tried to help Marinette was a publicity stunt for the brand.”

 Chloe gasped a hand shooting to her mouth as she looked at him with shock, wondering what had driven Gabriel to do that.  “I’m sorry Adrien, you know that there’s always a room at the hotel if you need it.”

 “I’ve got a couch dad will be happy to lend you.” Sabrina said with a small smile.

 “Yeah thanks girls…..I’m meeting Louise at Marinette’s, do you want to come along as support?” Adrien asked and Chloe laughed.

 “I can guess what’s going on, so I’ll do a little research and get back to you and Marinette later, good luck groveling to her.” Chloe said as she and Sabrina walked off. Adrien looked at her and shook his head, wondering if Marinette would forgive him for his mistake.

 OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

  Sabine sighed as she tried not to think what had happened earlier today at school but she couldn’t. “Nothing about it makes sense, I mean I know my daughter, she’d never do this!  And how Lila was still walking around after she was pushed, it doesn’t make sense!”

 “Your right Sabine and the necklace looked like it could have fit through the grill on the locker and did any of them have locks on them at all?  I thought Marinette said she only used hers for holding her coat during winter and projects?” Tom’s voice caused Sabine to turn and look at her husband as he brought a tray of bread out from the kitchen, the workers looking out as they all knew something was wrong with what happened.

 “Yeah, boss I guess you can bring them up when the hearing right?”  One of the cooks asked as he poked his head out of the back.

 Sabine and Tom looked at each other, confusion in their eyes.  Did that idiot owl do something wrong when he expelled Marinette?  Tom thought as he frowned. “What hearing?”

 “The expulsion hearing, the one she has to have after her suspension is up.  The one that by law all students are required to have before their expelled?”  The cook said in

 “The principle said Marinette was expelled, that’s it, are you saying he did something wrong?” Sabine asked as she looked at him.

 “That’s something I think I can help with!”  A voice caused all of them to see Adrien standing behind a man in a brown business suit holding a briefcase in his right hand.  “My name is Louis Artoga, attorney at law and I’d like to have a long talk with you about that if you don’t mind.”

 OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 Marinette lay down on her bed and hugged one of her pillows as she tried to forget the look in Sentibug’s eyes when Mayura destroyed it….her. That was something that will only haunt her for weeks if she’s lucky.

 “How could she do it Tikki, I just can’t believe that she was even able to do it.”  Marinette said as she hugged her pillow.

 “There have been people who have been bad holders, but I’ve never seen Duusu’s powers used that way.” Tikki said as she floated and looked at her chosen.  “You gave the Amok the talisman that created her; Mayura shouldn’t have been able to do it.”

 “Why does that have to do with anything?” Marinette asked as she tried to understand Tikki.

“That should have broken the link to Mayura, she should have been fully independent….. I can’t explain it.” Tikki said as she floated there, not letting Marinette detect any of her thoughts.  The only way that could have been possible was if the Miracolous itself was damaged, but Duusu wouldn’t have transformed then, it would have hurt her chosen.  Tikki thought as she watched Marinette try and deal with what she had seen happen earlier, some part of her glad she wasn’t thinking about how she had been expelled.

 “Something to talk to Master Fu about then, I just want to forget everything happened today and deal with it tomorrow.” Marinette said before a knocking caused her to look at the door down and frown as Tikki hid.  “It’s unlocked!”  

 She didn’t know what she was expecting but when Adrien came into her room she stared in shock. “Adrien! Are what doing you here?”

 Adrien looked at her and sighed.  “I…..Marinette…. I called a friend of mine about what happened, he’s downstairs with your parents and I volunteered to come and get you.  I told them I wanted to talk to you for a few minutes, I want to apologize first.”

 “Apologize, Adrien what happened today wasn’t your fault at all, you tried to help but he wouldn’t listen.” Marinette said but stopped when Adrien shook his head.

 “No, not that.  The advice I gave you when Lila came back.” Adrien said as he hung his head.  “Sabrina was in the bathroom too, she heard Lila threaten you and then the Akuma came at you…… while that was happening I was talking to Lila about her lies and she tried to ruin my life at school and my friendships after sooo.”

 “You told me not to act against Lila because you thought she summoned and Akuma from you talking to her about her lies?” Marinette said in shock.

 “I thought she had summoned the Akuma while I was talking to her about how she didn’t have to lie to get people to like her and she acted normal so……I’m sorry.” Adrien said as he looked away from Marinette and she just looked at him as she tried to understand just what Adrien had thought

 “You gave me advice based on what you knew.”  Marinette said after a few moments. “If I thought that way about someone I might have said the same to you.”

 “Then?”  Adrien asked as he felt a bit of hope.

 “Apology accepted.  So who’s downstairs?” Marinette said as she got up and walked towards Adrien who smiled at her.

 OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 “So she’s always been making clothing?” Louise asked as he drank a cup of tea and looked at Tom and Sabine as they sat in the living room.

 “Clothing, blankets, odds and ends, it’s been her passion for years.  She really blossomed when she started to look at fashion and started to design her own cloths really and make gifts for her friends.” Sabine said as she looked at Louise with a smile as she remembered her daughter’s antics.  “Why I remember how she went and got a roll of blue wool to make a scarf for a present last year.  But enough about that, you think you’ll be able to get the expulsion off her record?”

 “If she really was expelled and not suspended, of course, it will barely be a problem.  I’ll talk to the board of education and once I see the paperwork I’ll go from there, but there’s another subject that I need to talk to you about that I think I should wait until the kids are back to really start…..and here they are.” Louise said as he smiled as Marinnete and Adrien walked into the room, Louise standing up and offering Marinette his hand.  “Nice to meet you mam, I’m Louise, Louis Artoga, attorney at law and I want to help you.”

 “Help how?” Marinette asked as she and Adrien sat down after she shook his hand.  Louise beamed at her and before he continued.

 “I’d like to help you out, now fair warning.  I’ve have a goddaughter, a few years back she was bullied, badly enough that she tried to commit suicide.  She didn’t succeed and she got the help she needed, she’s studding to be a social worker last I heard.”  Louse began. “The people I blame are the teachers and the school, the same school that you go…..went to.”

 “Mr. Damocles had something to do with it?!” Marinette asked with shock, going silent as Louise’s face started to go red.

 “‘Damocles’?!  An old man with a beard, bald, has a fixation with owls?!  He’s the new principal” Louise screamed as he lunged to his feet.

 “Louise?”  Adrien’s voice caused Louise to look around the room and saw the looks on the others face and he released a breath and sat down slowly.

 “Sorry kid, he was the vice principle who let that bitch get away with everything back then.  I thought he was blacklisted.” Louise said as he sat back down, and got out a cell phone that he put in in a holder he got out of his briefcase so the camera was pointed at her. “Start recording, this is Louise Artoga, recording a questioning of Marinette Dupain-Chang about her ‘expulsion’ from earlier today.  As of right now I ask her parents, Tom and Sabine Dupain-Chang their permission to do so.  Also of note is that Adrien Agreste is here, as he was the person who told me about this incident.”

 “I, Sabine Dupain-Chang give my permission that my child; Marinette Dupain-Chang may decide if she wishes to be questioned and recorded.” Sabine said formally.

 “I, Tom Dupain-Chang give my permission that my child; Marinette Dupain-Chang may decide if she wishes to be questioned and recorded.” Tom said as he turned and looked at Marinette who smiled back.

 “I, Marinette Dupain-Chang agree to be question and recorded about the events earlier today.” Marinette said as she looked at the camera.

 “Thank you all, with that done the questioning shall begin.  So, walk me through what happened.” Louise said as he looked at Marinette.

 “Miss Bustier called me to the front of the room at the start of class and searched my backpack, the answer key was in it.”  Marinette said and stopped as Louise held up a finger.

 “Point of clarity what class was it in relation to the order of classes on a normal day in number format and has your backpack been out of your sight for any length of time before that.” Louise said as he looked at Marinette.

 “It was the first class of the day, as we had a test yesterday so I hadn’t looked at my backpack since then……..and my backpack was out of my sight because someone pulled the fire alarm yesterday and everyone evacuated, most taking their backpacks as it was the end of class and they were getting ready to leave.  As the class Representative I had collected the tests and had just put them on Miss Bustier’s desk with the alarm went off and we all evacuated.”  Marinette said as she thought about yesterday.

 “Why were you called to the front?” Louise asked, a frown forming on his face as he went over what he knew about proper class room behavior for teachers.

 “Miss Bustier said that someone had given an anomalous note that someone had seen me steal the answer sheet and my bag.”  Marinette said as and stopped as Louise held up a hand.

 “She didn’t call you outside the classroom?” Louise asked in shock.

 “No, after that I accused Lila of taking and putting it in my backpack to frame me and Madame B took both of us to the principal’s office.” Marinette answered as she looked at

 “Point of clarity, why did you believe that Lila is a liar?” Louise asked and Marinette went silent. “If it’s just what you believe about her its fine, sometimes we get feelings we can’t explain but please clarify your belief.”

 Marinette looked at Adrien before she hardened her eyes. “I know Lila is a liar and a thief.  A few months ago when she first came back I saw her take a book from Adrien, buy something at a store and throw it in the trash so he wouldn’t see her with it.” Marinette said causing Adrien to stare at her.

 “A book, my father’s book, the one that he took me out of school for losing, Lila was the one who lost it?!  You were the person who brought it back?!” Adrien exclaimed as he looked at her before blushing and turning away as everyone looked at him.

 “Yes and I was in passing by the park when Ladybug confronted her about her lies.  I was going to give it back to you the next day and tell you that you dropped it in the Library but then, well your father pulled your from school.”  Marinette said as she hung her head. “So after I saw that I had enough skepticism not to trust everything she said at face value.”

 “We’ll talk about that later, what happened next with Lila today?”  Louise asked as Marinette looked at him.

 “I told Lila that she wouldn’t win, that I wouldn’t fall for any of her traps and she said I did and then she walked down the stairs, sat down and made a commotion about how I had pushed her down the stairs.” Marinette replied as Louise tried to keep his temper down.

 “Point of interest, at no time were any of the camera’s that the school is required to have had checked at all?  And what about this Lila’s mother, was she contacted and was she sent to the nurse at least?” Louise inquired, his eyes twitching a little as Marinette shook her head.

 “They never checked and she wasn’t sent, they all just followed after Lila to my locker, a locker I only use to hold my coats and projects since none of all have a lock on them.” Marinette said as Louise nodded at her.  “And they contact my parents but Lila’s was unable to be reached, they left five messages as far as I know.”

 “Thank you Miss Marinette; that’s all I’ll need for this case, I will bring around paperwork that basicly says the sequence of events that you explained and have yourself and you’re parents sign them and that should be it.  This has been Louise Artoga, recording Madame Marinette Dupain-Chang.”  Louise said as he turned off the phone’s camera and picked it up and started to look over the file, they could hear the sounds of Louise or Marinette’s voice and he nodded.  “Thank you that should be all I need.  With this and the Adrien’s matter I think I’ll have a good few days of work to do. Now on your case, once I get to the board of education I think everything should be straightened out, but it might be best to wait a day, just so it’s not been filed as a suspension and it was the heat of the moment and all, if nothing comes tomorrow then I’ll move in.  And now let’s talk about Lila, with the video a Miss Sabrina has I think we could sue her for slander and making that threat.”

 Marinette gulped and looked at her father and mother who both went still and turned towards her as what Louise said penetrated their brains.  Louise winced as he realized that she hadn’t told her parents the same time as Adrien did and they both winced at what.

 “What threat?” Tom asked quietly as Marinette just looked at the table and stayed silent.

 “Who threatened my daughter!?” Sabine asked as Adrien looked up and motioned to Louise to let him talk.

 “It’s a long story, but may I can explain if Marinette lets me.”  Adiren said prompting Marinette to nod at him.  “From what I found out Lila corned Marinette in a bathroom the day she came back and threatened to take away all her friends and after that I gave her advice to take the high road, not confront Lila about her lying.”

 “Why did you tell Marinette not to confront her after she threatened my daughter.” Sabine asked coldly as Adrien looked down ashamed.

 “Because I thought Lila summoned the Akuma that got her from my talk with her.  And her first actions as a shape-shifter was to try and ruin my social life!  I didn’t want to think what would happen if she summed one when she wanted to hurt Marinette as the trigger!”  Adrien explained as he held his hands up.  “Of course idiot that I was I didn’t explain it, I didn’t want to take a chance that Marinette would get hurt, I never knew about the threat!”

 “Oh, so you were trying to protect her but didn’t know about she had been threatened.” Sabine said as Tom’s rage died down and he understood why Adrien had done what he did.  

 “Kid was raised to ignore lies the tablods said, do it and they die, like Tinkerbell, don’t act out and they die.” Louise said with a sigh.   Tom looked at Marinette as his wife hugged her and frowned.  

 “Wait, you thought Lila had summoned the Akuma? But wait if she didn’t summon it ….then who did?” Tom asked and Adrien went wide eyes and looked around, trying to find anything to say when Marinette spoke up.

 “Me.” Marinette said softly from within her mother’s arms causing Sabine to look down at her daughter as she closed her eyes.  “I was so scared she could do it.   She had them eating out of her hands, she even convicted Max that a thrown napkin could have taken out his eye and he wears glasses.”

 “I can’t even, I don’t even know where to…..just I can’t…. is she serious?” Louise asked as looked at Adrien in shock and when Adrien nodded as Marinette’s parents comforted her Louis sat there stunned.  Okay, getting that bitch sued is gonna be a public service and probably improve the intelligence of all those kids! Louise thought as he hung his head in disgust.

 “Ohhhh Marinette, I’m sorry that we never noticed how you were feeling!  I should have, I don’t know!” Sabine said as she hugged Marinette and before suddenly she went still.  “And those idiots at that school never even noticed, no they didn’t want to see!”

 “Kid, I don’t know but after the paperwork’s filed maybe you should look for a different school.” Louise said into the table as he put his head on it.

 “Wait, why would Adrien look for a different school?  After all that he did to make it into school in the first place…..and what paperwork?” Marinette asked as Louise looked up at her before paling as he realized what he had let slip.  Adrien spoke up and caused all of them to look at him.

 “I’m suing my father for not paying me for my work, the contracts I never signed and emotional abuse while going for emancipation or having myself removed from his control.” Adrien said flatly.  “The fact that he might have told Lila to do that, that he gave her a modeling contract and might have even hinted that I might be a prize to her, it’s too much, he crossed a line I didn’t even know I had.”

 “Oh Adrien, I’m sorry you were pushed to do this.” Marinette said as she looked at him as her parents looked on with concern, knowing from their interactions with him that he probably hadn’t want to do this but felt he had to.

 “I thought he was going around, that we had started to heal our relationship, especially after my birthday when I got that scarf from him.” Adrien said as closed his eyes.

 Louse went still when he saw Marinette wince, things connecting in his mind that didn’t paint a good picture.  Please, please don’t tell me.  He thought with a sinking feeling as he asked what he didn’t want to.  “Scarf, what scarf?”

 “A blue scarf that dad made with his own hands, I thought that maybe he was trying and……… what is it?” Adrien asked as he saw Sabine and Tom exchange a look and turn to Marinette who looked down as Louise held his head.

 “Adrien, do you have any picture of it?”  Tom asked as he turned to look at Adrien as he started to get a sinking feeling.  

 “Yeah, I did a selfie with Nino a few days after I got it and here it is.”  Adrien said as he pulled up the photo and turned it around and Tom sighed and Sabine closed her eyes.  “What’s wrong?”

 “Ask your friend kid, ask her.” Louise said around his hands and he turned to Marinette, who looked up,

 “I made it.” Marinette said softly.  “When you came to school so happy that you thought that he had put the effort into making it by hand, I couldn’t take that from you...”

 Adrien stared at her and he saw red, the sheer gull of what his father….what Gabriel had done causing him to lose focus and he felt so dizzy.

 “Adrien, Adrien are you okay?”  Sabine asked as she got up and Adrien shot to his feet as he held his hands to his mouth. “Oh hell.  Tom!  Open the door!”

 “Got it, Marinette help you mother!”  Tom said as he shot up and opened a door as Marinette and Sabine guided Adrien to the room which was revealed to be a bathroom.  

 Louise just sat there and shook his head and winced as he heard Adrien throw up in the bathroom and he knew he would have to mention this to the social worker.  Maybe it would be better to do it here, Nathalie wouldn’t look for him here and whoever they send could be in plain clothing and get around his eyes.  Louise thought as he looked at Tom and Sabine watch the door as Marinette rushed to the kitchen to get a glass of water.   “Tom, Sabine would you two mind if I called the social worker I sent the email to and have them come here, it might be helpful for Adiren.”

 “Please, the boy needs to know that not everyone is against him and what Gabriel did, I can’t even imagine.” Tom said as Louise smiled and sent off a text.

 “It’s taking all I have not to get my staff and go beat him up!” Sabine bit out as she glared towards the Agreste mansion.  “To have that little bitch hurt my daughter, but to have sold his son?!”

 “I’m tempted to get a sledgehammer and join you.”  Louise said with a sigh as he shook his head.  His phone buzzed and he looked down and up at Tom and Sabine.  “The Agent is nearby, and would like to get an initial statement from him, there are already a few red flags based on the paperwork and well, she wants to meet soon.”

 Tom and Sabine shared a look at each other and looked at the bathroom and after a few minutes looking at each other Sabine knocked on the door.

 “Adrien, are you okay? The agent from child Services texted Louise, they want to meet soon.  If you’re not up for it there’s nothing wrong with waiting.” Sabine said before they heard a toilet flush and the door open to reveal Adrien whipping his mouth with the back of his hand.

 “No, I want to get this done with and close off any chance of that monster from getting around this.” Adrien said as he clenched his hands. I thought you were just hard to understand and had a hard time with emotions but this, dad this is the last freaking straw!  Adrien thought as he tried to get his emotions back under control. He felt Plagg press against him and hide a smile.  If I didn’t have Plagg, Chloe and my lady to help me, I don’t know what I would be.  Probably broken beyond all points by now, if I didn’t have Plagg and my lady to inspire me I wouldn’t have snuck out on that second day to school. Adrien thought as he accepted a cup of water from Marinette and smiled at her before he drank it, not seeing her blush or her parents grin as Louise chuckled at the byplay.

[1989dreamer]

Chapter 20 of Looking for a Place to Call Home

This has been on AO3 for forever, but I’m starting to push to finish this story. Look for chapter 21, coming soon!

                                                                                                                    ~ * ~

Boyd and John sit at the table long after the dishes have been cleared away. They’re making plans to go to New York, to see if they can find Laura’s daughter.

Laura wants to go too. Derek’s not sure they’d be able to stop her. An alpha on a mission is hard to deter.

He doesn’t feel healthy enough to accompany them—too many hunger pains among other pains.

“It’s decided, then,” John declares suddenly. “I’ll book the tickets. We leave in two days—plenty of time for me to practice my aim. I used to be the best shot on the force.”

“Are you going to be allowed to travel with a firearm?” Boyd asks.

“Disassembled and in different or locked cases, yes, as long as I declare it. You know, there’s a competition out in New York. I might just be registered for it.”

“How many of us are going?” Erica asks. She looks at Laura, Cora next to her, both of them staring at John and Boyd, and then at Derek, hiding behind his sisters.

“John, me, and Laura,” Boyd says. “I’m sorry, Cora, Derek, but I think it’d be better if you stayed behind. Erica?”

“I’ll stay. Someone has to look out for them.”

“Perfect. I’ll get those tickets booked tonight.” John’s smile is broad, happy. Derek wants to warn him about the hunters and what they do to people who oppose them, but he remembers that John was their emissary before his parents were killed. He should know about hunters already.

“Will you be mad that I won’t go?” Derek asks Laura.

She hugs him. “No, I’m not mad. I’d rather you stay here, where it’s safe.”

“I can fight,” Cora interrupts. “Why can’t I go?”

“Because we barely got out last time. In fact, we weren’t even free until that deputy shot Kate.”

“But you’re going back. I want to go back too!”

“No.” Laura doesn’t shout, but her eyes go red, and Cora cowers down, eyes on the ground, neck bared.

Laura lets the red fade away. “I’m sorry, Cora. I don’t want to lose you if the hunters are swarming. I’m not even sure we’ll be able to find my daughter.”

“We’ll do our damndest,” John promises. He yawns, making Erica yawn too. “I need to get back home now.” He picks up his bag, heading for the door. “I’ll be back bright and early tomorrow so that you can tell us about where you were held. How to get in and out.”

“Good night, John.” Erica closes the door on him. She claps her hands, turning to the rest of them. “Early to bed tonight. That way we can be up early.” She shoos Boyd toward the kitchen. “Dishes, honey. The rest of you, teeth.”

There’s only one bathroom and it’s crowded. Cora and Laura keep bumping each other while Derek and Isaac stand back, brushing their teeth in sync.

Next to Isaac, watching his sisters roughhouse reminds Derek strongly of his family when his cousins visited.

He can’t remember if they all were there that day when Kate took him. He should, but he can’t.

“Hey,” he says, spraying toothpaste everywhere. “What happened to our cousins and aunts and uncles?”

“They died,” Laura says sharply. She glares at Derek in the mirror before throwing her now broken toothbrush away. “They came to help us look for you and then our house was burned down, all of us trapped inside.” She stomps away, anger swelling in her wake.

Derek rinses his mouth and brush, setting the brush in a cup labeled with his name. Cora and Isaac finish quickly, too, and Derek grabs Cora’s arm before she can escape to the room she’s sharing with Laura.

“I didn’t know,” he says. “I’m sorry.”

“We told you, didn’t we?”

“If you did, I don’t remember. Sorry.” He thinks he should have known, but Kate had broken his bonds, and when they’d left California, he hadn’t been able to sense his family.

Derek curls up on his bed, wondering when he’s going to feel normal. When he’s going to find his even keel, as his Aunt Miriam liked to say. He’d thought the whole time he was in New York that he was going to escape or be rescued and then come back to California to live with his family. He’d thought the bonds were muted with magic, not snapped entirely.

He hasn’t even properly mourned the loss of his family, too bust trying to heal from the damage Kate inflicted.

He covers his face and whines high in his throat. Isaac sinks down onto the bed with him, stroking a hand down his arm. He doesn’t say anything while Derek cries.

Nearly an hour passes before Derek stops sobbing. He breathes harshly through his mouth, nose too clogged to be of use.

“Do you want some water?” Isaac asks. Derek nods, and Isaac goes to the bathroom to fill a cup from the tap.

Derek sits up to drink it, and Isaac watches him with a curious look on his face.

“What?” Derek asks when he’s finished the water and set the cup, the one his brush was in earlier, on the bedside table.

“What’s it like being a werewolf?”

Derek pauses, thinking about it. Before Kate, he would have talked about his enhanced senses, the way they can heal minor wounds in seconds and major ones in hours or days, the way pack became attuned to each other, all of them striving to help each other. Now, he doesn’t know what to say. Does he tell Isaac that the hunters aren’t worth the trouble of being stronger, faster, or more resilient than a human?

He opens his mouth to ask Isaac what he means, but Isaac beats him to it, saying, “I guess what I mean is, I might like to become a werewolf someday.”

Derek looks at him curiously. “How do you know that we can turn you into a werewolf?”

Isaac shrugs. “Can you?”

“I can’t. I’m just a beta.”

“What about Laura? You defer to her, so she’s in charge?”

“Yes. She’s the alpha. Only an alpha’s bite can turn others, but,” Derek lifts a finger, “there’s a chance that the bite might not take. When that happens, the bitten dies.”

“How do you know if the bite will take?”

“Before giving the bite?” Isaac nods. “I don’t know.”

                                                                                                                    ~ * ~

Stiles brews a fresh pot of coffee while he is on gold with the National Registry of Missing Persons. It’s late, he’s tired, and he still doesn’t know whose body they pulled out of the preserve.

He’s waiting on the okay to talk to Peter Hale, but his lawyer, none other than the famous defense attorney, David Whittemore, is dragging his feet. Possibly because Stiles interrupted his dinner with his visiting son.

Stiles doesn’t care. Jackson Whittemore, real estate mogul, is as unimportant to Stiles now as he was in high school when he was head jock and dating the most popular girl in school until she dumped him for her best friend. Jackson never quite recovered after Lydia’s public breakup, and he’d seemed to blame Scott and Stiles for his misfortune.

God damn, high school never ends, Stiles thinks bitterly.

“Still there, sir?” the NRMP employee asks, and Stiles confirms he is. “Okay, so there’s too many results to go through tonight, so I’ll have to give you an update in maybe a week. I’m sorry I can’t be of more help.”

“No, it’s okay. It was a long shot anyway. Thanks.” Stiles hangs up and tries to ignore the welling frustration. Getting angry won’t help anyone. He sinks into a chair, running both hands through his hair and down his face. “Crap,” he says. “What’s next?”

The man’s face is going on a bulletin tonight to run on the early news tomorrow morning to see if anyone recognizes him. His DNA and fingerprints are with the proper departments, but that could take months. Dental has also been sent out, but unless he was local, within a one hundred mile radius, they won’t have an answer back for weeks or months.

All of this can be narrowed down if Stiles can just find who they’re looking for.

He lets his head drop to the table, staring cross-eyed at the grain of the wood.

He is so exhausted, and they’ve only been on this case for two or three days. God, what if it drags on for days.

The coffee machine beeps, and Stiles hauls himself to it to grab a mug. He pours enough milk in it to cool it down, and then drains it in one long swallow.

At this point, coffee is useless. Stiles needs sleep. But before that, a shower. He’s feeling a little ripe right now.

All deputies keep a change of clothes here in case of emergency, and Stiles grabs his on the way to the showers in the basement.

The hot water helps him relax, and he spends a few minutes just letting it soak him.

He thinks again of the man stick on the tree. What if Peter isn’t the only Hale who knows who he is?

Stiles shuts off the water and dries off quickly. Derek spent three years in New York under Kate Argent’s thumb. Laura and Cora were with a different faction. The man obviously had some connection to them all since Peter had killed.

Stiles silences the tiny voice of doubt about Peter’s guilt. The man would have been partially eaten if it were a wild animal, and he wouldn’t have been skewered onto the branch as if a large creature had lifted him and set him there.

Stiles decides he needs to talk to the Hale kids tomorrow. For now, he’s going to go over the Hale fire papers and research every name that ever ended up being associated with it. Sleep is the last thing on his mind even though it’s his body’s only thought.

He runs into Kincaid and Ramirez on his way to the evidence room.

“Acting Sheriff Parish said we were to escort you home,” Kincaid explains, Like Stiles gives a rat’s ass.

He pauses thinking. Six eyes is better than two. “I’ll go home,” he says, “if you help me with something first.”

The rookies exchange an apprehensive look. Stiles takes mercy on them. “I’m working on identifying the body we found out in the preserve. I’ve got an idea that he had something to do with the house fire out that way three years ago.”

“Why do you think that, sir?” Ramirez asks.

Stiles shrugs. “It’s too much of a coincidence. The body was located near the house.”

“So you think this guy set it or something?”

“I don’t know yet. I don’t even know his name.”

“But you think it’s in the file on the fire.” Ramirez and Kincaid exchange another look, far less apprehensive this time. They shrug in unison.

“We’re in,” Ramirez says. “I’m guessing you just want lists of names with how they relate to the fire?”

“You guess correctly.”

                                                                                                                     ~ * ~

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

[dlwritings]

Call Him Hers | Dean Winchester | pt 1

series masterlist found here

general masterlist found here

pairing - Mark-of-Cain!Dean x plus-size!reader word count - 2,298 warnings - language, mentions of physical abuse

summary - Charlie comes to visit (Y/N) and the Winchesters and brings along the prospects of a hunt.

(next)

(Y/N) and Sam were in the same place they always had been lately: the library of the bunker, hovering over every book they could find that might help them remove the Mark of Cain from Dean’s arm. Dean was practically begging them to stop, but they refused. They wouldn’t give up on Dean, even if he had already given up on himself. Especially not (Y/N). The Winchesters meant a lot to her. They saved her once, so she felt she owed it to Dean to try and save him.

(Y/N) was 18 when she first met the Winchesters. To say her home life was bad was an understatement. Her mom passed away from cancer when she was ten, and her dad had been an abusive alcoholic ever since. So, it wasn’t unusual for him to disappear for days on end and leave her to fend for herself. He’d come back, dirty, reeking of alcohol, and ready to beat her into the next month. What wasn’t usual was him being gone for more than a week. That was when she knew something was up.

She worked at a diner in her hometown from around 5:00 until midnight every weekday. After another long day surrounded by greasy foods and spilled milkshakes, she parked her car in the driveway, ready to head off to bed. To her knowledge, her dad was still out -wherever he was- so she wouldn’t have to worry about avoiding him.

Or so she thought.

She crossed into the house and found her dad sitting in the kitchen, nursing a glass of whiskey. She swallowed thickly and kicked off her shoes. “Hey, Dad,” she said, doing her best to keep her voice light.

“Where have you been?” he asked.

“Work,” she answered, mentally adding, just like I am everyday.

“I’ve been gone for over a week,” he said, “and you weren’t even home to greet me.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t know you’d be home. I would’ve had someone else pick up my shift if I had-”

Her dad cut her off by throwing his glass at the wall. She winced and squeezed her eyes shut. She opened them when she heard his footsteps nearing her. Her dad grabbed her by the neck and shoved her up against the wall. Her head slammed against the wall, and he slapped her roughly across the face. Then he grabbed her hair and yanked her across the room, throwing her against the coffee table. Her forehead hit the edge, and she knew she was bleeding. She tried to stand up only to stumble again, so she crawled away from him as he neared her.

He didn’t need to say anything anymore. Didn’t need to taunt her or give her a reason for his beatings. She knew that they came whenever he wanted them to, usually for no reason at all except whatever liquor was coursing through his system. After eight years, she had just learned to take it. She could patch up the wounds. She could recover. She had enough practice. Eight years of practice.

Her dad came over to her and kicked her in the ribs, causing her to cry out in pain. He picked her up from off the floor and shoved her into the wall again. Her eyes had been closed, but she managed to force them open. When she did, she was sure she was hallucinating. Her dad opened his mouth, and his teeth were sharp, pointy, and canine like. She swore there was even something different about his eyes. When he lifted his hand to her again, she noticed his fingernails had grown sharp and pointy. She tried to let out a scream, but she was interrupted by her front door bursting open. Two men walked in, and her dad turned to look at them. He let out a growl and charged at them. He only made it a few steps when one of them pointed their gun at him and shot him in the head. He sunk to the ground, and all she could do was stand and stare.

The taller of the two men rushed over to her. She wasn’t a short person, but he still had to bend over to meet her eyes. “Are you okay?” he asked. She nodded, her eyes still fixated on her dad’s body. “Hey, listen,” he said, his voice gentle, “your dad, he wasn’t your dad anymore, okay? He was a monster.” She turned her head away and spit some of the blood from her mouth.

“I know.”

After they introduced themselves and made sure she was okay, they fled the town, but she wasn’t ready to let them go yet. She spent days tailing the Winchesters. She never got close enough to endanger herself or them, but she learned their ways enough. Finally, one day, she got too close, and they caught her. She was following them through an alley in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and they stopped, grabbed her by the shoulders, and shoved her up against a wall.

“(Y/N)?” Sam said, immediately recognizing her face. Dean let go of her, and she clenched her jaw and looked away from them. “How long have you been following us?” Sam asked.

“Ever since you left,” she admitted. “I’ve been watching you on all your hunts.”

“What the hell,” Dean breathed out, running a hand through his hair. “You know how many times you could’ve gotten yourself killed?”

“But I didn’t,” she snapped. “And now that I’ve seen the kind of shit you’re up against, I want in.”

“Yeah,” Dean chuckled, “that ain’t happening sweetheart.”

“Don’t call me sweetheart,” she said, her voice low as she stood up a little straighter. Dean eyed her, slightly impressed, before holding his hands up and nodding.

“She wants in, Sammy,” Dean said sarcastically. “Why don’t we tell her what we’re doing in Michigan and see if she’s game?”

Her first hunt with the Winchesters led her to a rougarou. She lit the bastard up, and she never looked back.

Dean cleared his throat, and (Y/N) and Sam both quickly closed the books they were reading. Dean scoffed. “Real slick,” he said. “How many times do I have to tell you to give it up?”

“We’re not giving anything up,” Sam said.

“We’re just weighing out all our options,” (Y/N) said. Dean rolled his eyes and took a sip of his beer.

“Well,” he said, “how about you two nerds take a break from that and answer your phones once in a while.” She and Sam both furrowed their eyebrows and pulled out their phones. She had a missed call from Charlie, and so did Sam.

“Charlie?” Sam said.

“Yeah,” Dean said. “Apparently I’m her last option when it comes to the three of us.” (Y/N) scoffed, and Dean shot her a playfully annoyed look before continuing. “She said she’s in the area. Thought she’d stop by. Even said something about a job she found.”

“She say where?” Sam asked.

“About five hours from here,” Dean said with a shrug. “Said she’d explain more when she got here.”

“Which will be when?” she asked.

“Soon,” Dean said.

Like clockwork, the door to the bunker opened and their favorite redhead burst in. “‘Sup, bitches!” Charlie said, coming down the stairs with a bright smile. All three of them returned her smile and stood up to give her a hug.

After they spent a few minutes catching up, (Y/N) said, “So I heard you found us a job.”

“Yes!” she said, perking up and opening up her laptop. “I’m thinking vamps. Cattle deaths have been popping up for a while now, but now a few people have gone missing. I’m wondering if most of the nest is trying to live clean, but they changed some new people and now they’ve got a few rogues. I was trying to find connections between the vics, and it looks like they all graduated from the same high school and never left the town.”

“What town?” (Y/N) asked.

“Uh,” Charlie hesitated, checking one of the articles again, “Dewey, Oklahoma.”

A thick silence hung in the room as (Y/N)’s jaw clenched. Sam and Dean looked at each other, and Charlie’s eyebrows furrowed. “What’s in Dewey, Oklahoma?”

“Nothing,” (Y/N) said. “Just a job I’m not going on.”

“(Y/N)’s from Dewey,” Sam explained as she shot him a glare.

“Wait, but that’s perfect,” Charlie said. “You know the town and the people. You won’t even have to go undercover.”

“Yeah, except I swore I would never go back there,” she said. “You guys can just take this one without me.”

“The missing people are from the only high school in the town,” Charlie pressed. “Probably your high school.”

“Dewey High?” (Y/N) asked.

“Yeah,” Charlie said. “The girls are, uh-” She looked at one of the articles again. “Amanda Moore, Elizabeth Johnson, and Sarah Taylor.” (Y/N) let out a sigh through her nose.

“I graduated with Amanda and Elizabeth,” she said. “I think Sarah was a year above us. They were all pretty close in high school.”

“See?” Charlie pressed. “You’re already giving us information we probably wouldn’t know without you.”

“What would I even do?” (Y/N) said. “Show up in town and act like I miss everyone?”

“Well,” Sam said hesitantly. “I might have a plan.” She cocked her head and looked at him.

“Is it a good one?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said. “But you’re not gonna like it.” She just raised her eyebrows. “Didn’t you say your class reunion was this weekend?”

“Oh hell no,” she said without hesitation. “Not happening.”

“(Y/N)-” Charlie tried.

“No,” (Y/N) said firmly. “High school wasn’t exactly rainbows and butterflies for me. No way am I going back. I already turned down the RSVP. No way am I gonna call Jennifer Smith, and tell her I changed my mind.”

“Who’s Jennifer Smith?” Sam asked.

“Our class president,” she said. “She’s the one who’s organizing the whole thing. She’s the worst.”

“You don’t have to do it alone,” Sam said. “We’ll go with you.”

“How?” she said sarcastically. “What, one of you want to pose as my husband?” Sam and Dean looked at each other, sharing a look of contemplation, before looking back at her. “I was joking! No one would ever believe either of you were my husband.”

“You too good for us?” Dean teased. She only rolled her eyes in response.

“It’ll never work,” she said.

“Yes it will,” Sam said. “Charlie and I will go as FBI, you and Dean can be husband and wife. We’ll talk to the families of the vics while you guys snoop around at the reunion. If the missing girls were in your graduating class or at least around it, chances are pretty high that something will happen at the reunion.”

“I would physically rather die than do this,” she said.

“Come on, (Y/N),” Dean said, putting his arm around her playfully. “It’ll be fun. I’m perfect husband material.”

And it definitely wouldn’t be hard to pretend she was in love with him.

“Besides,” Dean said, “I’m itching to get out of here and away from all this Cain stuff.” He looked at her and pouted. “Do it for me?”

And she would do absolutely anything for him.

“God, fine,” she said, pushing his face away from her. “I hate it when you do that.” He laughed and placed a playful kiss to her cheek. She hoped he didn’t notice the way her cheeks turned pink as he pulled away. “I guess I’ll call Jennifer.”

She grabbed her own laptop and left the library to get some privacy. Once she was in her room, she closed the door and sat on the bed. Her heart was thumping in her chest. Not because she was about to pretend to be Dean’s wife, but because she was about to return to the town of her nightmares.

She found the email invitation to the event that she had received and typed Jennifer’s number into her phone. She stared at it, her hands shaking, before finally pressing the green phone icon. She pressed her phone to her ear and silently hoped Jennifer wouldn’t even pick up.

After only two rings, she did.

“Hello?” she said.

“Hi, is this Jennifer?” (Y/N) said.

“Mhm,” she hummed. (Y/N) could picture the smile on her face. “Who am I speaking to?”

“Uh, this is (Y/N) (Y/L/N),” she said. “We grad-”

“Of course!” Jennifer said. “Hi, (Y/N)! How are you? I was so bummed to see you declined the invite to the reunion.”

“Yeah, that’s actually why I’m calling,” (Y/N) said. “I’m hoping it’s not too late for me to change that.”

“Oh not at all!” she said. “We reserved a block of rooms at the hotel for the people coming in from out of town. You want me to put you down for a room?”

“Sure,” she said, pinching the bridge of her nose, just dying to get off the phone.

“Great,” Jennifer said, her voice remaining far too chipper. “And I’m assuming it’ll just be you?” (Y/N) swallowed down her snarky comeback.

“No, actually,” she said, keeping her tone level. “It’ll be me and my husband.”

“Your husband?” Jennifer repeated. “That’s great. I’m looking forward to meeting him.”

“Yeah,” (Y/N) said shortly.

“So I put you down for a hotel room under (Y/L/N),” she said. “You can pay when you get here.”

“Sounds great,” she said, though she knew she didn’t sound enthused.

“I’ll see you soon!” Jennifer cheered. “Buh-bye!”

“B-” Jennifer hung up before (Y/N) could respond. She sighed. “Bye.”

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

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[cosmonaughtt]

hitch-hiker (steven universe future/dannny phantom crossover)

ao3

Danny's lost, thanks to the help of another ghost patrol gone wrong. Luckily he finds a kind driver who's willing to take him to the next town. But is this driver just as "normal" as he is?

Hitchhiking was NOT the way that Danny wanted to get back to Amity Park, but he was left with it as his only option, because;

1. He was exhausted. His powers could still work, sure, but he didn’t want to risk trying to fly back home, transforming back mid-flight and taking a tumble to the earth, and

2. He didn’t know where he was and what direction he had to go to in order to find his way home.

Danny tried to pull out his phone and check its signal; no luck. It wasn’t a dead-zone, but his phone was dead. Hah. Funny.

What did he have on hand? Well, he always had the thermos on hand, in his other form. He had his phone and a wallet. And that’s it.

Just his luck. 

He sent a few texts out to the ghost hunting group chat. They wouldn’t send until he had some kind of connection again, probably, but it eased his heart to 

And. And, to top it all off for his current situation, he hadn’t even found the damn ghost he’d been fighting originally! Stupid Skulker. The wild chase (of which Danny was, unfortunately, hunted again) took him back through the Ghost Zone and out through a random door. 

Which led him to this current moment. Standing on the side of the road trying to catch a lucky ride to the next town to figure out how long it’ll take to fly home.

The road was pretty empty. It was inching closer to midnight by then, and he was probably going to have to transform to try and get at least to the next town where he can break into a motel and catch up on a little bit of sleep before trying to get home.

Damn his luck. 

Danny glanced at his phone again. Now it was midnight. Hopefully, his messages would send in soon, but he was going to give it until… 12:20 until he gave in and flew. Try and recover some energy so he wouldn’t suddenly decide night-time sky diving sounds a lot of fun in the middle of nowhere. 

12:01.

12:02. 

12:04.

12:10.

The sound of a car’s engine brought Danny up from the crude drawing he was doing in the dirt by his feet. He stood, and glanced down the road. A single car, brights on, was making its leisurely way down the road.

Danny stuck his hand out and waved. Please, please, please…

To his luck (thankfully), the car slowed down as it neared him. It was a compact Dondai of sorts, but Danny never paid much attention to the different kinds of cars. He had to think of more important things, like the different kinds of ghosts. 

The passenger side window rolled down to reveal the driver.

Who looked not much older than him.

“Hey, are you okay?” The kid asked, quirking an eyebrow. He looked really young, but maybe it was bad genetics. 

“Uh, yeah, I’m good. Could I get a ride, though?”

The boy didn’t look immediately distrustful of Danny, at least. He even smiled and nodded. “Sure! Hop on in!”

The passenger side unlocked with a click-- it was one of the older cars, where you had to manually roll down the windows and had a cassette deck, but other than that you couldn’t tell. It was really nice inside, and Danny jumped into the plush seat and smiled at the driver.

“I’m Steven, your humble new chauffeur.” He introduced, with a cheeky wink. 

“Thanks. I’m Danny.”

“It’s good to meet you. Where are you heading to?”

“I just need to get to the next town. Do you know how far that is?”

Steven thought for a moment, before leaning over to Danny’s side and pulling out a map. Really off-road, but then again, Danny didn’t have any service, so the odds that Steven had some were slim as well. He didn’t bother turning on any lights in the car to read the map, but it only took him a minute to figure it all out. “An hour or so, I’d say. If I’m doing the math right.”

“I’ve got a C minus in math, I doubt I’d be much help,” Danny said. “Is that on your way? If it isn’t, I can try and--”

“No, it’s fine!” Steven interjected. “I’ll probably gas up there, and probably rent out a room to sleep.” He laughed nervously. “All buckled up?”

Danny nodded.

And off they went.

…

….

…… It was weird.

It only took a few minutes of being in this stranger’s car to realize how weird this situation was.

He was in the car with a boy, probably barely a year older than him. In the middle of nowhere. In the middle of the night. It was not some horror movie concept (and frankly, Danny hadn’t been scared by one of those in months after all the shit he’s been through), but it was just. Really, really, really weird. 

Steven hadn’t asked why Danny was out in the middle of nowhere. He hadn’t asked Danny’s full name, he had provided his own and hadn’t hounded Danny with any questions. He also didn’t explain much about why he was out in the middle of nowhere, either, just driving in the middle of the night.

Maybe not all things needed answers. 

“Do you mind music?”

Danny shook his head. He’d be listening to his own music, had he not broken his earbuds in the latest fight with Technus. He was going to get more tomorrow, since it was officially a weekend and he and his friends could go to the mall and he could buy them, hopefully without any fights along the way. 

“Sadie Killer and the Suspects cool?”

“Uh, yeah. Sure.” Sam had gone through a brief time of being obsessed with that band, and when she showed Danny the music he had to admit, it wasn’t that bad. 

Steven reached into the compartment by his arm and pulled out an old cassette, switching the one that had previously been in it with the new one with seasoned ease. 

Disobedient. Hm.

Again, another pause of silence. 

“So… You’re not going to ask me why I was out in the woods? In the middle of the night? Alone?”

Damn it, Danny is so awkward. But he can’t help but be confused by the stranger who took him in without questions.

Steven shrugged. “I mean, yeah, it’s kinda weird, but I’ve seen weirder.”

Oh. Now that piqued Danny’s curiosity. 

“So you pick up hitch-hikers often?”

“Eh, you’re only my third,” Steven replied. “The first was a guy who needed a ride to the hospital, I couldn’t just say no, you know? And then there was the woman who broke down on the side of the road, on the way to the car dealership. Talk about bad luck…”

“And you weren’t… afraid that they’d like, kill you or anything?”

“I can protect myself.” Danny tried to ignore the slight flinch that Steven had, but it was noticeable.

They settled into another beat of silence. Another song-- G-G-G-Ghost. Oddly fitting for Danny’s situation.

He didn’t even turn the question around and ask why Danny was in the middle of nowhere. He just… took it, as is. Might as well throw Danny’s cover story of getting lost when he got up in the middle of the night to pee while camping out the window, because Steven didn’t seem phased by anything at all.

Heh. Phased.

The thought of Steven being the maniac serial killer came, but Danny shot it down. The other teen-- he had to be a teen, or at least in his 20s, with a super bad case of Baby Face-- gave off some kind of vibe that he wouldn’t hurt anyone. 

But he could. It was extremely powerful; but not threatening. More like royalty, if anything. 

It was strange. Danny never got it confirmed as an official “ghost power”, but being able to just sense people’s vibes were definitely not a human thing. 

Then again, what was a human thing? It’s been almost two years since The Accident. 

Tucker called it being able to vibe-check people. Steven’s vibes were powerful, but not malevolent. 

“So… Steven, where are you going?”

“Eh. I don’t really know.” He gave off a smile, but it was different than his tone. “I’m trying to go on a journey of self-discovery right now? Just going where-ever the road takes me.”

“Really? Don’t you go to school or anything?”

“Eh-- uh, kinda. I’ve taken up a few online classes I can get with free wi-fi and stuff, you know?”

“How old are you?” 

“Almost seventeen.”

Alright. Danny knew some kids in Amity Park who dropped out of Caspar High. Some of them took up jobs at the Nasty Burger, others in various gas stations, and grocery stores throughout the city. So Steven must’ve been a well-off kid to just drop out, take online classes, and travel the country.

Danny was kind of jealous. Being able to just drop everything and go somewhere else, and make a new identity for yourself?

But he’d be leaving Amity Park defenseless. No, bad idea.

Danny checked his phone again for the time-- ah, finally. Connection again.

big titty goth gf: danny? helloooo?

t.f. as in the fuck: you’d think he’d be back by now.

big titty goth gf: yeah, well, he isn’t if u hadn’t noticed

t.f. as in the fuck: ………. Yeah

t.f. as in the fuck: usually he’d be out of the ghost zone by now if skulker’s got him going. think something happened?

big titty goth gf: i hope not or else jazz is gonna start yelling at us for letting him go into the gz alone

big titty goth gf: danny tuck and i are headin back to my house let us know when you’re ok?

Oh, his messages are finally going through. That’s good.

sad ghost club president: hey SHIT guys uh i got out of the ghost zone but uh. Don’t know where i am and don’t know where skulker went i’m gonna try and find a way back home. can either of u cover for me while i’m gone? Idk when you’ll get this massage

sad ghost club president: *message fuck tonight sucks

It wasn’t long until someone responded. They were teens, they were up late on a weekend night. No rules.

big titty goth gf: oh thank GOD its been like two hours 

t.f. as in the fuck: good to hear you’re ok! sam and i got ya covered. But where are you?

sad ghost club president: tuck i just said i didn’t know. but a kind samaritan stopped and i’m on route to the closet down 

t.f. as in the fuck: you’re HITCH-HIKING?

sad ghost club president: well it’s either that or having a fun trip skydiving tonight, so yeah

big titty goth gf: just be safe danny, don’t fall into a horror movie

sad ghost club president: remember i’m scarier than anything they can throw at me owo

sad ghost club president: plus this guy doesn’t look like he’d hurt a fly

sad ghost club president: or, well, he could if the fly hurt him first. Vibe Check is going off yall

big titty goth gf: i still cant believe u refer to that as ur Vibe Check

t.f. as in the fuck: sam its a good name

big titty goth gf: I Beg To Differ

t.f. as in the fuck: anyway if his vibe check is clear then you’re probably ok danny

sad ghost club president: yeah but its still super weird. he hasn’t asked why i was in the middle of the woods or anything, he didn’t ask me any questions about whio i am?? he’s also like. jazz’s age at MOST. just driving nowhere in the middle of the night because apparently he’s on some sort of journey of self-discovery

big tittyy goth gf: yeah thats weird but also danny?

sad ghost club president: yeah sam?

big titty goth gf: stop being paranoid

big titty goth gf: also ur cover story is being at my place with tucker for a movie night like we originally planned until He came around.

t.f. as in the fuck: fuck skulker

sad ghost club president: skulker does not have rights

He could chill now, that he knew that Sam and Tucker have his back (like always, they always have his back) and a cover story already set up. His parents didn’t question his whereabouts usually on Friday nights, because he usually spent them with his friends and they were usually too buried in research to notice him not there.

Sad, but true.

Steven changed out the cassette tape for another, continuing the quiet drive down the road.

This is okay. They were probably only half an hour away now. Once they got to the city, Danny could look it up on his GPS app and see how long it’d take to fly back home. He couldn’t have ended up too far away from home, but with the Ghost Zone, he had doubts sometimes.

Of course just as everything seemed to be okay, everything had to go downhill immediately.

It started with his ghost sense going off. Steven was preoccupied with looking at the road, listening to the music playing through the speakers. Luckily. 

Danny glanced out the window.

Skulker’s face materialized through nothing and threw his robotic body at the car.

It was a shake, but the sudden force against the poor car sent it sliding across the road. Steven grasped the wheel hard and hit the brakes, and Danny braced himself and held onto whatever he could.

Luckily it was midnight in the middle of nowhere, no one else was on the road.

“You okay, Danny?” Steven asked, looking around with frantic eyes.

“I’m-- yeah, I’m good.” Danny took a deep breath. He glanced out the window again. Skulker was still around, no doubt about it, and Danny’s ghost sense went off again. He’s close.

“What was--” 

Danny didn’t want Steven to have to deal with ghosts, on top of his existential cross-country trip to find himself. For all Danny knew, the kid didn’t even believe in ghosts! He unbuckled his seatbelt and threw open the door.

“Thanks for the ride, goodbye!”

He didn’t want to deal with Skulker, once Steven was out of the way he’d go ghost and try and fly to the town nearby and figure out where he was, then let Skulker hunt him all the way back to Amity Park. All in a night’s work.

“Wait, Danny--?”

He ducked into the brush by the side of the road, trying to lure Skulker away from Steven. He didn’t want more normal people to get involved in his problems.

But apparently the other kid didn’t take goodbye! very well, Danny turned his head around and saw Steven following him carefully into the woods by the side of the road.

Before he could tell Steven to turn around and go, Skulker appeared. Of course. Steven was immediately drawn to the sight of the sudden floating, glowing robot in mid-air, of course, but it didn’t go the other way. 

“You’re too out-of-range to have your friends help you with that stupid tablet now, whelp.” Skulker had somehow got re-synced to one of Tucker’s tablets, and it was good while it lasted, but it seemed Danny was out of time. And even if they were still synced up, they were too far away from Amity Park for it to connect.

Damn it. Just his luck.

“Let’s make this quick, shall we?” Skulker added before Danny could interject with a witty remark. He raised one of his DALV-made ecto-guns and it shot.

Go intangible, his instincts said.

FUCK, his brain said, helpfully.

He closed his eyes and braced for whatever was coming-- intangibility, pain, whatever. Hopefully, Steven got the idea to run--

No pain came. He wasn’t intangible.

Danny opened one eye.

And then the other. 

Steven was standing between him and Skulker, and a weird… It wasn’t ecto-energy, but it was some kind of pink energy, forming a barrier, taking the hit from the ecto-gun too easily.

What.

The fuck.

Steven turned around to Danny, eyes wide. “Danny, are you okay?”

“Uh-- the-- what.” Skulker looked as annoyed as he usually did, if not more, and tried to phase through the pink barrier. “Are you-- what-- uh. I think my brain has officially had it. Yeah, you know, this might as well happen.”

Steven cringed. “Oh, the shield. It’s a, uh… Long story.”

“Yeah, okay, I’ll take your word for it.” Danny replied. He looked back at Skulker. He didn’t want to transform right in front of Steven, but the barrier probably wouldn’t hold forever, or Skulker would just go over it or under it eventually. 

Steven could clearly protect himself. This is what he meant, it seemed.

“Well. I didn’t freak out on you. So don’t freak out on me now, okay?” Danny looked to Steve, who nodded.

“No freaking out, got it!”

Danny allowed the familiar rings to transform him. Why he was trusting this random kid with the biggest secret he had (well, one of the biggest secrets, technically), Danny didn’t know.

But the kid obviously wasn’t normal himself, as evidenced by the glowing pink barrier between him and the ghost.

And to his word, Steven did not freak out. His eyes did glimmer and he did look at Danny with an odd sort of familiarity to it, a sort of kin-ship of weird teenagers with weird powers. Apparently.

Skulker broke through the barrier. He looked down at Steven, then to Danny. “Looks like I’ve got two pelts to add to my collection.”

“Ew, gross?” Steven replied, looking a bit sick to his stomach. 

“Yeah, you get used to it after a while.” Danny shrugged, before turning to Skulker again. “How many times do I have to tell you, Skulker, that you’re never gonna get your hands on my beautiful hair?”

Danny charged ectoblasts into his hands. Steven allowed more of that weird-pink energy form around his fists, like boxing gloves. Ah, not just a one-trick show pony. 

“I’ve got your back, Danny.”

And for once, Danny didn’t feel alone in his ghost-fighting.

----

Skulker was taken down easily with two people fighting instead of one, especially with barriers that could take hits from both ecto-gun blasts and normal ecto-energy blasts pretty well. It was probably not even five minutes until the pesky hunter was sucked up into the thermos and stashed back in the safe space along Phantom’s handy belt.

Steven didn’t even look fatigued. It looked like he had more energy than he had started with originally-- probably the adrenaline high that came with every ghost hunt. 

“Alright. I was trying to not be too nosy, but what was that?” 

“A ghost.”

“A… a ghost?!”

“Yup. Not the whole horror-movie, boo and spook ya kind of ghosts.” Danny said, floating down to where Steven stood. “You’re taking this well.”

“You’re taking this well.” Steven wasn’t even bruised and he’d been thrown into a tree during their fight. He wasn’t even bleeding, but one of his fists was still covered with the magic-bubble glove. He flexed and it popped, fading away.

“Well, at this point, anything might as well happen.” Danny landed, allowing him to transform back. “You can’t tell anyone about this, alright?”

The sudden harsh tone in Danny’s voice startled Steven, and he straightened up. “Scout’s honor! Even though I was never a scout.” Steven shrugged. “And, well, I never kept my gem powers a secret, so I don’t care if you tell anyone or not, I guess?”

“Gem powers?” It was the word that Skulker had thrown out during their fight, but Danny was just trying to take him down quickly so he could get home quickly so he could take a nice, long nap. 

“Oh, yeah. I’m half-gem.” To prove, Steven lifted his shirt and showed that, in the placement of his navel was a bright pink gemstone. “Half-gem, half-human.”

Wow.

The only experiences Danny had ever had with other hybrids like him-- halfas-- were Dani and Vlad. Dani (or, Ellie, as she said last in one of her letters) was his clone, for starters, who was taking soul-searching to a whole new global level. Vlad was an egotistical maniac who wanted to kill his dad so he could date his mom.

“I’m… I’m half-human, too. Except, half-ghost instead.” He could feel a few tears welling up, but he pushed them aside. “Normally I’d say you’re going to have to wait a little longer to unlock my tragic backstory, but after tonight I’d say we both have stories to tell.” 

Steven smiled. “I still owe you a ride to the next town, don’t I?”

[bangtanfancamp]

Infatuated

•one shot

• hoseok x reader

•2.5k words

•lovely fluffy

•high school crush! Hobi

•hobi’s been acting lovestruck as heck around you, and you don’t mind one bit. You’re just as gone over him. All the flirting’s been fantastic, but is he ever going to DO something about it?

•hello loves! I posted this like 3 days ago but I REALLY wanted to tweak the ending cuz I just wasn’t satisfied with it. It didn’t flow well enough for me- it didn’t feel clear nor was there enough angst 😛 so ya girl had to repost. Should I delete the original so no one gets confused? Sorry for any inconvenience!!!! Here’s the finished product! WITH the glorious addition of the keep reading tab! Thanks to the account who answered that ask and helped me out! You’re the best! 💕💕💕💕💕

———————————————————————————————————

“Hi,” I whispered.

“Hey” he beamed back, voice just as hushed and breathless as mine.

The April sunlight danced through the strands of his wavy hair- so beautiful in the best way- casting a molten halo around the edges of him as he stood over me. His lashes were so thick, luscious really. A heavy canopy over his bright coffee eyes, delirious with delight. Every time I smiled, his own grew massively wider. I wondered what it was he was seeing in me that made him look like he was floating off the ground.

He bounced lightly onto the balls of his feet, hand crushing his bag strap as he looked down at me.

“So, I think it’s pretty obvious by now that I like you.” He blurted out all at once as I staggered internally.

Hobi...liked me back? I knew it. No I didn’t. I just wanted it. Does he mean it, really mean it? I felt lightheaded.

“Like, I fell hard, y/n…” hoseok continued.His cheshire cat grin snaked across his face, devious eyes sparkling like he was proud of himself for being so painfully obvious. Like it was some delicate dance he’d mastered instead of the insane game it really was. Like he hadn’t been willfully driving me crazy for weeks now as those giggling eyes wrecked me for fun.

I couldn’t believe it. Every part of my gut had wondered- had known we had a connection- but I wasn’t prepared for the adrenaline spike of hearing his sweet voice say it out loud.

“Because- look at you, you’re so- you all the time. It’s just so cute and… well, I just… if I’ve been obvious, you seem pretty obvious too. So I can’t think of any reason why we ...shouldn't just, you know, lean into it…” He babbled, giddy as he smiled through a toothy lip bite, like he hadn’t just dropped a bomb at my feet in a neutral space. He’d come closer somehow as I stood there shellshocked, his eyes suddenly infatuated with the teardrop dip of my Cupid’s bow.

“Lean into it?” Breath shallow, I peaked up at him through my lashes. Stop dancing around this. Tell me you want me too, hobi. Admit it. I didn’t deny his guesses. He was right. He was completely right. But I was desperately tired of this mad hatter approach of his that still kept a two foot gap between us. Especially when he was looking at me like that.

God, Hobi’s eyes were so pretty. They made me feel like I was already lost and gone. Like I was smiling up at him, pressed skin to skin beneath his golden body for the thousandth time that day. Hidden away somewhere deep beneath a sumptuous duvet, my sanity some far off thing, never to be seen again as long as he kept his hands on me... those were the sorts of things his eyes whispered to me.

When in reality, this hoe had yet to do anything more than make me heady and dizzy with fleeting touches and glances. He’d been stringing me along for weeks now, toying with me. Who knows when he’d figured out how I felt about him, but god, he was right. I’d been just as bad as him. I was falling apart, floating around smiling like a proper idiot whenever he was near me- he knew. And he loved it. He ate it up like catnip, the little brat.

And He felt it too! Heck, he was even admitting it right now! But what I didn’t understand was why he’d never actually acted on it. All this flirting, all this tension- and no follow through ! Nada. None. Zip.He hadn’t even held my goddang hand yet. Do it. Do something! I screamed in my head. Anything! For the love of God, Just do it, you coward.

“Hobi, are you asking me something?” Spit it out, Hobi

Nonchalantly, he flipped his wavy bangs out of his eyes, weight sinking into one hip. “Do I have to?” He whined, shrugging. “I mean, you have to know how I feel by now, right? God, y/n, can’t you tell I’m nuts about you?” He shook his head softly at me, eyes wild and happy- like he thought he was explaining gravity to me. Like this was simple and funny. Like further words were absurd and unnecessary. It was such a him thing to do. And It bugged the crap out of me.

“Then. show. me,” I growled. My eyes flicked up, all boldness and challenge, and god-he laughed!

“I am! I’m trying to. What else do you want!” His playful eyes glittering innocently. He dipped forward from his hips, an exaggerated right angle as his face plummeted right in front of mine. He’d never been that close to me.

My eyes went wide at how at small the gap between our lips was, a small gasp flying out of me before I could stop it. Is this it? I felt myself sink into the gravity around him, drifting in against my will, praying he’d finally pull the trigger-

But before I could register what was happening, he was rocking back away on his light airy feet, laughing happily and completely ignoring my lightheaded state. That jerk.

Screw him.

He had the endurance to twirl in this cheeky dance all night, but I was over it.

“Insufferable! You are absolutely insufferable.” I huffed.

“What? Why? I’m just being honest! I’ve told you how I feel, now tell me what you want.” He bit his lip, positively bursting at the seams with laughter and I’d had it.

“What do you mean ‘what do I want’?!” I huffed again. I want you to touch me already, Hobi! God, I’m about to combust. Please. Just do it...you’re RIGHT there….. “Are you serious?” I was getting angry now, this was just feeling cruel.

“I’m asking! How else will I know what you want?” His eyes were almost glowing now, and it pushed me over the edge.

Squaring my shoulders and shaking my head, I dove straight in,“This, you idiot.”

Crashing forward, I fell into his lips. With my fingers snaking through his hair and around his warm neck to brace myself, I sank right into him.

I’d startled him- I heard a sputtered, muffled version of my name get stuffed back into his mouth by my kiss. His eyes had flown wide. For all his goading, he hadn’t expected my boldness, hadn’t expected to be one upped. But what had he expected? Toying with me like this for weeks now. It was his first time not having the upper hand and it felt delicious.

Flustered as he may have been, it barely took him a second to recover before he melted into me. And Jesus, when he did-

His veiny palms circled my waist, scooping me up and into him. I toppled off balance on the balls of my feet but he just pressed me tighter. God , I felt so dizzy, so warm and secure in his hands. Why the heck did you made me wait so long for this, Hoseok?

His lips were lazy and sweet even though his embrace was desperately secure. He took the time to drag the tip of his nose against mine, long fingers tracing over my cheek as he smiled between kisses before dipping back in. I’ve never been so infatuated with a feeling in my life. He tasted like the butterscotch toffee we’d made in home ec today, salty and sweet, and I couldn’t get enough. I felt so greedy but so dizzy and happy.

To the point that I hadn’t even realized I was giggling until he bit my bottom lip and tugged it, avortex of warmth swirling in my belly when he did. Dazzled, my gaze flicked up to meet his- it was as glittery and dazed as mine. Only, it held something extra now- something that looked an awful lot like craving.

Oh.

He’s never looked at me like that.

There was a sharpness to his grin, like now that I’d opened this up as a possibility he wasn’t sure what part of me he wanted to devour first. His eyes held an edge I hadn’t seen in him before, and I realized very quickly that I didn’t know what I was in for anymore. I was used to the playful, evasive boy in him. The one who would play with my hair and brush it from eyes, then disappear with a vagabond smile and leave me wanting. But not today. Not by the way those razor sharp eyes were dragging over me now as I caught my breath. No, this was another creature entirely- it delighted and terrified me all at the same time that I might have awoken more than I meant to.

God, this tension between us was maddening now, but I loved It. It was his move . What will you do now, Hobi? His palms encased my waist, fingers splayed into my softness there with an intensity that said he didn’t know what to do with his hands but he’d be damned before he let me go. He looked predatory and strong. He looked beautiful.

“Why the heck did you wait so long to do that?” He asked, bottom lip snagged in his teeth. And then his eyes changed. They were laughing.

“Wait- why did I ?! Are you serious right now?” Incensed, I shoved him hard in the chest. And the jerk laughed! Out loud—again!

“Yes! I am. If you wanted me that badly, you should’ve shut me up weeks ago. Why in God’s name would you let me be in charge of anything?” He teased, forehead pressed to mine, his smile deliriously wide.

“You! You’re why, you little-Oh my god, I’m gonna kill you,” I squinted murderously up at him, truly seconds from strangling him. I could have murdered the boy with my bare hands then. It would have been easy. He was certainly skinny enough.

“Ooo, kinky.” His eyebrows bounced salaciously, nose scrunched as he pretended to snap his teeth at me. But I wasn’t here to take the bait anymore. I felt an emotion I didn’t want to name tug at my chest, something hot flooding the corners of my eyes that I stubbornly pushed back. I can’t believe I thought you were different...

“You can’t turn everything into a joke, Hobi. I’m serious.” I sighed, stepping back to get some distance. “This isn’t a game to me....I really... liked you.” My hurt came out in mangled past tense, my voice small. Wimpy in my ears. “But I was the idiot to think you’d really meant any of those things you did.”

His sweet face went slack at my honesty. This was a new variable he hadn’t planned on... He didn’t know what to do with this sort of vulnerability. His mouth opened just to close itself again, not so much as a single sound coming out. Silence.

The quiet told me all I needed to know. I really was just something fun to pass the time to him, wasn’t I? He sputtered over nothing again before falling quiet, the look in his eyes making a little piece of my heart crack....

“I thought so.” A bleary glaze of tears threatened to cloud my vision, and I hated how pretty he still looked to me, even in abstract. Stupid boys. I was just a toy to him.

Steeling myself, I took one shaky breath to say my peace. “ I’m the only one with any real skin in this game, aren’t I? You know what- it’s a shame cause I really liked you, Hobi. Cant believe I thought you were different.”

My eyes flicked up to his one last time. I’d never seen him less assured, mouth still gaping like a river bass as I shook my head. His kiss was so perfect... I wanted to stay in it forever. but I didn’t want to be a joke to him. I didn’t just want to be fun for him. A body to help him pass the time. I wanted to matter to him, like he mattered to me. One more glance was all I could handle before I turned on my heel, my arm gripping my waist to hold myself together, and hid away from his sunlit presence.

I’d barely made it three solid steps before a warm hand clutched my wrist and spun me back around. “Would you wait like 5 seconds, woman?” Hobi was so riled up; he was panting like he’d run half a mile to catch me.

“Why should I ?” I challenged, eyes darting between his hand on my wrist and his face. A defiant tear had slipped down my cheek and I pivoted so he wouldn’t notice. I didn’t do it fast enough though, and hoseok noticed in a heartbeat. His hand molded to the side of my face in an instant, and I hated how quick my instinct to melt into him overrode my anger. His thumb brushed across my cheekbone, sweeping the tear away as I felt myself turn pliant at his touch.

His other hand reached up to trace the corners of my forehead, ghosting over my hair and tucking the mussed strands back into place. His face was open, soft now.

He took a long steady breath as his eyes studied me, the beginning of a smile I didn’t understand tugging at the corner of his perfect lips. His voice gentle when he finally began to speak.

“Y/n, look at me. I just told you how much I like you. Doesn’t that count for anything?”

“But then you turned it all into a joke after you kissed me. And it’s.... that was really scary. To work up the courage to do that and then have you laugh about it. Like it’s all just some joke to you....like I’m joke to you.” Ashamed, I looked up at him through my lashes as he continued to play with my hair. I wanted to still be mad at him- I had every right to be- but now he was being so....I don’t even know. Dreamy.

His laugh was different this time, more of a chuckle, empty of derision. Warm and rich and sweet as he looked down at me.

“Are you serious? I wasn’t laughing AT you, y/n. The most beautiful girl in school just kissed me—I was happy! Like, deliriously happy. I’d been trying to work up the nerve to do that for weeks now, and you beat my scaredy butt to it.

“ I don’t know why you’re so convinced that I don’t care about you. You’re not some plaything to me... you’re a badass, y/n. I’m so in awe of you. I couldn’t think you were a joke if I tried! I just ... suck at talking to you so I try to make you laugh...I can’t believe you’re mad at me! Or how pretty you are when you’re pouting.” He nuzzled his head down to brush his nose across mine. “I’m nuts about you. This is ridiculous. You don’t need to run away.”

His fingertips slipped down my shoulders to my wrists and twined them with both my hands as his forehead rested on mine. I felt my eyelids flutter shut at the crackle of electricity his touch lit up in me. “Stay. I won’t laugh anymore. I’m sorry,” he whispered.

I took a deep breath at his reassurance and God. He smelled so pretty. I don’t know how to describe it. He just- smelled like hobi. It was comforting and sweet and so-him. God, he was right. I was crazy about him. Where the heck did I think I was going? This was where I wanted to be.

“I overreacted, didn’t I?” I peeked up through my lashes at him, flinching in advance as I waited for his answer.

“Nah, I like how intense you are.” He confessed. “I know I’m an idiot sometimes. I probably could’ve handled that better. I’m just, still learning how to speak y/n. I’m not fluent yet .” He dropped his face, bashful, and that familiar flutter came back to my belly.

“So, what you’re saying is, you need more practice?”

“Oh, all the practice I can get.” And just like that—That look was back in eyes again. His gaze infatuated with my lips again. “Should we start now?”

“Hobi... “ my voice came out unsteady as his gaze raked over me. His lip was caught in his teeth and he was perilously close to me.

“Yes, y/n?” He whispered against the shell of my ear, and I shivered. I felt his hand on my waist tighten at my tremor as he whispered “Oh, this is going to be fun.”

The warmth of his breath as he dipped down to press a kiss to my throat lit my nerve endings up like a Christmas tree.

“Hobi, class is about to let out. We can’t just stand here making out in the hallway.” My words were valid, but held very little conviction as he worked his way up my neck one kiss at a time. He stopped just beside my ear, his warm breath sending something sparkling to shiver down my spine.

“Well, l guess you’ll just have to let me take you on a date then.” With one last kiss pressed open mouthed and hot to the skin beneath my ear, he pulled back to meet my eyes.

But when he looked at me again, all his seduction was gone. My bright happy Hobi back in his place- eyes glittering and boyish again. I wobbled a little at the quick change and the proximity of his smile, knowing full well what those lips could do to me now. “Where and when?”

“Tonight. At seven. Your favorite burger spot. I’ll drive.” His hands had slipped off my body and back to his messenger bag strap. He was walking backwards away from me now, cheeks glowing in sunlight as he smiled.

“Are you picking me up on that god forsaken moped?” I teased.

“Hey, you know you like holding on to me. We both know you think it’s hot.” He winked across the hall at me. I felt my blush creep up my cheeks at being found out. I opened my mouth to respond, sputtering and struggling just as the sound of the bell crashed through the hallway, cutting me off. Hoseok’s laughter was visible in his entire body as he walked away.

“Seven. Sharp! I’ll see you then.” He called out as the atrium began to fill with students dashing from class. He sent me one last cheeky wink before I lost sight of him amidst the bodies, and finally started to catch my breath.

[goofygomez]

Hallelujah - Clouis OneShot

Hey y’all! I’ve decided to repost all my works onto Tumblr for those of you who might not have heard of them or just prefer reading on this site. I will be shooting to post one per day starting today. I hope you enjoy. (Also, comments and reblogs are greatly appreciated <3)

Description:  After having a nightmare, Clem finds Louis alone in the music room, and he shares something personal with her.

Wordcount: 3029

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Clementine jerked awake, covered in a pool of her own sweat. She’d been having nightmares again after what happened. This nightmare, however, did not concern the McCarrol Ranch, but Marlon’s untimely death, and the person who’d pulled the trigger. Ten days were certainly not enough to forget what AJ had done. She looked around and took in her surroundings. All the little trinkets she’d collected decorated the room, and gave it her own little touch. She looked at the deer skull on top of the door and grinned. It looks awesome, she thought to herself.

Fortunately for them, the rest of the kids had let her and AJ stay, at least until after the raider attack, which didn’t seem to be coming any time soon. It certainly had everyone on edge.

She scrubbed the grogginess from her eyes and lifted herself from the less-than-comfortable bed. She took a sad glimpse at the sleeping form of AJ. He’d been getting stronger, but still not strong enough. He’d never been shot before, and she had hoped that had stayed the case for a while longer. On their makeshift nightstand stood the wildflowers she’d found on that bench, though now their purple color had faded somewhat into grey.

“I’ll have to water them or AJ’ll have my head when he recovers,” she said to herself, frowning at the thought. If he ever recovers, that is.

“No, stop it Clementine,” she scolded, “He’s gonna be fine.”

She didn’t know how long she’d been talking to herself, but she estimated it had been around three years. Was she going crazy? No, she just needed someone other than AJ to talk to, that was all. She decided that she wasn’t helping anybody by standing around, so with a swift motion she grabbed her trusty hat and made her way to the courtyard.

Looking around, she couldn’t find a soul, which was strange. Maybe it’s earlier than I thought, she reasoned. The sun was barely scraping the roof of the school and yesterday really had been an exhausting day. Clearing the debris from around the school had not been an easy task, so everyone had volunteered to help in one way or another.

On a hunch, she turned around and walked into the admin building. Walking around the place seemed odd, like she didn’t really belong there. Of course, that much was true. She and AJ were merely outsiders to this place, guarded so strongly for close to nine years. And now it was preparing for a war with a group of raiders who were ready to take kids for their own battle up north.

Before Clem could delve further into her own thoughts, a soft, sweet sound caught her attention and she stood still, trying to pinpoint where it was coming from. She rotated slowly on the spot, until she realized there was only one place that sound could be coming from. Sighing, Clem walked down the hallway and opened the door to the music room, which was ajar.

Inside, she saw the hunched figure of Louis sitting on the piano stool, playing a soft melody that seemed to envelop the entire room as he played it. Clementine leaned on the doorframe for a moment, admiring Louis’s music. After a few minutes, Louis stopped abruptly and stiffened. Clem took a step forward and let out a breath,

“Hi, Louis,” she greeted lamely, hoping against hope that she hadn’t been the reason he stopped playing.

For a moment, Louis didn’t stir. He sat on the stool, perfectly still, looking at the keys with a sunken look in his eyes. The girl was about to talk again when he turned around and smiled at her. A real, genuine smile. It was the first one she’d seen him wear since that fateful night ten days ago. A silent, grieving Louis was much sourer than a happy, gleeful one, Clem gathered.

“Oh hey there, Princess,” he said with a wink in her direction, causing her eyes to roll and the beginnings smile to form on her lips.

“I hate it when you call me that,” she warned, trying as hard as she could to fight off the urge to keep smiling. She moved closer and sat on a small chair beside the piano stool, facing Louis.

“Yet here you are,” he rebuked, turning his attention back to the piano and pressing a couple of keys with no real pattern to it.

Silence fell between them once again as Louis started playing the beautiful song again. It filled Clementine with a joy and serenity that she hadn’t felt in a long time. It was as though, while that song was playing, everything that was going on outside came to a standstill. Time stopped for the two of them, and the only thing in the world was this room.

Then, to both Clem and Louis’s surprise, he started singing. It was a beautiful sound, Clementine decided, and the words seemed to roll off his tongue so elegantly, as though he’d sung that a thousand times over. She had the overwhelming urge to close her eyes, almost as if that would bring the lyrics closer to her heart.

“I’ve heard there was a secret chord

That David played and it pleased the lord,

But you don’t really care for music do you?

It goes like this: the fourth, the fifth

The minor fall, the major lift

The baffled king composing,

Hallelujah.”

Although Clem was clearly enthralled by the words being sung by Louis, the boy stopped singing and glanced at her, careful to keep playing the tune. She was so beautiful when she didn’t know she was being watched, Louis thought. The way her curly brown hair rolled over her face from behind her hat; the way her lips curled upwards as the muscles on her face relaxed and became accustomed to the music. There was really only one word to describe her, Louis gathered: breathtaking.

After a few moments of not hearing any singing over the piano, Clementine opened her eyes and eyed Louis quizzically. He was staring at her with a smile on his face. What was he looking at? Did she have something on her face?

“Why did you stop?” was all she could say when she realized the song probably had more than just the one verse.

Louis thought hard about the next words he said, before settling for, “would you like me to teach you? I am the best piano teacher in the world, currently,” he finished with a cheeky grin.

At the request, Clem’s golden eyes lit up with a sparkle that Louis figured had been lost long ago. He didn’t know why he knew this, but her demeanor around other people suggested she hadn’t had such a fun time growing up. Well, who had, anyway?

“You could do that?” her words cut through his thoughts and Louis put on his signature smile back on.

“Of course,” he assured her, “c’mere.”

Nodding, Clem sat beside Louis on the piano stool and set her small hands hovering over the keys. She eyed the piano with hesitancy, as if it was about to come to life and eat them both. Louis swiftly took her hands in his and moved her fingers to be over the C key, the E key and the G key.

“You know, for a walker killing machine you have the softest hands,” he commented before finishing the final touches to her hand placement. Clem couldn’t help but blush at his comment, though the reason for it was a mystery to her. Why was she embarrassed about that of all things?

“Uh, thanks?” she said uncertainly, her eyes darting from her mentor to her right hand forming the C chord on the piano.

“You’re very welcome,” he said, still smiling that devilish smile that seemed to light up the room more than the sun streaming from the high windows. “Now, you’ve got the placement down. Just press those three at the same time,” he instructed, pointing at her right hand.

She did as he said, and smiled at the sound that she had created. It wasn’t anything special, obviously, but it amazed her nonetheless. After trying a few times and perfecting that chord, they moved onto the other two. It took less than half an hour to learn the rest of the sequence, by which time Louis was ecstatic.

“You’re a damn natural, Clem,” he kept saying whenever she managed to string all four chords together. “Now it’s starting to sound more like it,” he encouraged, which made Clem smile.

She didn’t know what it was about him, but at that moment, she felt safe. Thoughts of the impending raider attack were pushed from her mind completely, and the horrors she had experienced lately were greatly diminished while they were in each other’s presence.

Louis felt his face hurting from smiling so much, and wondered how it was that he could be this way after what had happened barely ten days ago. Of course, he knew that already. He was with Clem. There wasn’t much to it, and he knew the reason he seemed to forget the world when they shared time together.

While Clem kept playing the four chords over and over, Louis cleared his throat and started singing again, this time starting with the second verse.

“Your faith was strong but you needed proof,

You saw her bathing on the roof

Her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you.

She tied you to the kitchen chair

She broke your throne, she cut your hair

And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah.”

Clementine must have zoned out somewhere during that verse, because before she realized she had closed her eyes and kept on playing from memory.

“Look at me, Louis!” she called enthusiastically, careful to keep her eyes closed as her fingers gracefully moved from a C chord to an Am chord.

“That’s great, Clem, I knew you were a natural,” he exclaimed. Only he wasn’t looking at her hands, but at her. The way her face lit up when she realized she could play with her eyes closed could have illuminated the courtyard, had it been night. Her cheeks were flushed with excitement, and she was laughing.

A genuine Clementine laugh was not something Louis got to experience often, so he soaked it in while it lasted. After a few seconds of hearing no more feedback, Clem opened her eyes and glanced at Louis. The question that had been forming in her mind finally made its way to her lips.

“Louis?”

“Hm?” he questioned, turning to the girl sitting beside him.

“Why were you here today?”

Boy, was that a question. Louis’s featured contorted into a frown and he looked away for a moment. It was no use hiding it from her; she had a way with faces, he knew.

“I wanted to tickle the ivories once more before the raiders come knocking,” he said nonchalantly, but frowned when Clem’s concerned parent look locked onto him. Sighing, he looked down at his hands.

“I just… wanted to play that song again. It’s been a minute,” he confessed, scratching the back of his head awkwardly.

As she stopped playing, Clem placed a tender hand on his forearm and looked up into his chocolate eyes. Those damn, beautiful eyes. What’s wrong with you, Clementine? Be there for him, she chastised herself.

“How long has it been?” she asked him softly, turning on the stool to face him fully.

“Last time I played it, it was on Marlon’s fifteenth birthday,” he told her, looking away again, fighting tears that threatened to break surface with his eyes.

“Oh,” was all Clem could muster when he shared that information. She knew Louis hadn’t been himself lately, and that was entirely because of the lack of one very important person. Marlon had been his best friend, his brother, and Clem and AJ had taken that away from him as quickly as two days after they’d saved them.

“Yeah,” he replied lamely, looking into her eyes with a sad smile on his face.

Before she realized, Clem opened her arms and embraced the boy in the most motherly hug she could muster. She cursed herself for being so awkward, but Louis actually leaned into the hug, wrapping his long arms around her and sniffing softly. They stayed like that for a few minutes before breaking apart and straightening themselves.

Louis was the first to recover from the wave of emotions that overtook both of them after that rather personal exchange. “Thank you, Clementine. I know I’ve been a dick lately, and I’m sorry. Haven’t really been the amazing companion I usually am. I just needed some time, you know?”

Clem shook her head and smiled at the boy, “you have nothing to apologize for. You had every right to be mad. I would have been, too,” she confessed, knitting her brows together in concern for Louis.

A soft chuckle left Louis’s lips, and Clem thought she was making progress. He raised his head until they were face to face and at that moment Louis realized something. He would have to stop sitting on his ass, and start acting. The past was gone, and he had to think of the future. With a long sigh, Louis straightened his shoulders and cleared his throat.

“Um, Clem?” he said softly. Such a smooth talker; damn it Louis, he cursed himself.

Her golden eyes scanned his hard features slowly before settling on his eyes. She looked deep in thought as well, though what thoughts troubled that beautiful mind of hers, Louis didn’t know. She nodded for him to continue and he did.

“Okay, I’m gonna get serious for a moment,” he began, nodding along as he said the words he’d rehearsed over and over in his head.

Clem’s eyes opened wide and she quickly placed the back of her hand on his forehead. “Oh my god, Louis, are you feeling okay? Should I get Ruby?” she mocked him, making a sizzling sound as she removed her hand.

“Ha ha, hilarious,” he laughed, rolling his eyes. “I thought I was the jokester here.”

“I know, I am too,” she reminded him, though she could sense he was actually being serious when he didn’t laugh at that. “Right, sorry. Continue.”

“I’ve been battling with myself for the last two weeks, and it hasn’t really been easy,” he started, fumbling over his own words and frowning at his awkwardness. Clem encouraged him with a smile and he sighed.

“Okay, I’m just gonna say it. I like you, Clem. As in, like-like you,” he explained, topping it all with a cheeky smile that contrasted with Clementine’s shocked expression.

The following seconds were a blur of emotions in Clem’s head. The first of which was astonishment. Louis likes me? Likes me, likes me? she kept thinking. She started grasping at the pieces of the puzzle and understanding took over her features. It all made sense now.

The senseless flirtations at every possible opportunity; Louis’s insistence that she come with them on hunting trips, even though they weren’t really speaking at all; his stupid query about her ever having had a boyfriend. Louis really liked her.

She racked her brains for something to say back to that, and came up empty. The truth was that she liked him too. As much as she hated to admit it, even to herself, she had grown quite fond of Louis in the past two weeks. Not only that but, even if Louis hadn’t told her, she knew he’d been the one to help AJ up after Marlon pushed him onto the ground. That had been the first time someone other than Clementine came up behind AJ and came out uninjured. She realized then that AJ must have really looked up to him to trust him the way he would trust Clem.

She couldn’t really lie, either; she did think he was cute. From the moment they met, that fact had been in the back of her mind almost constantly, but now it flew right past her eyes in front of her and screamed at her to go forward. Louis’s voice cut through her thoughts like a knife.

“Oh no, I’ve made it awkward,” Louis exclaimed, “whelp, gonna go throw myself into the river and never come back,” he started to get up but was yanked back down by Clem, who took a moment to look into his chocolate brown eyes before doing something she’d never done before.

She kissed him.

It was a sweet kiss, filled with the underlying feelings they were both feeling as they embraced. She felt as though she was sitting on a cloud, and she never wanted to come down. She couldn’t actually describe the feeling, though. It just fit.

As they broke apart, both panting from the intensity of the situation they now found themselves in, Louis searched her features for any indication that that was real. He thought he might be imagining things, but he could have sworn she was grinning with her eyes closed. She kissed me? was his only thought.

“I like-like you too, Louis,” she finally said, breathless. Even after that kiss, Louis was still baffled that those words had come out of her beautiful mouth. He took a second to savor the moment before saying,

“Wait, so when you said you had feelings for someone back at that game, you meant me?”

Blushing, Clem pursed her lips and looked away. “Yes,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Holy shit, it’s me!” he exclaimed, eyes wide as plates as he took in this new-found information.

Another kiss from Clementine shut him up for good. They embraced tenderly sitting as close to each other as the rickety piano stool would allow them. After a good few minutes, Clem broke apart from him and glanced at him quizzically.

“By the way, what was that song called?” she asked, the twinkle in her eye making her even more beautiful. As if that was possible, thought Louis with a grin.

“Hallelujah,” he said, embracing her again.

[askthewitchlady]

Ajin: Demi-human (season 1) Review

THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS

Oh my goodness was this a slog to get through, Three days people, it took me three days to get through 13 episodes Because OMG  Setting aside the fact this is some of the ugliest 2d to 3d rig work I have ever seen, I have never seen a show have some much going on with out achieving anything.  Ok ok ok let me start this properly.

In the world there are being known as Ajin, these Demi-human beings are rare with only three known cases in Japan, the Ajin are capable of resurrecting from fatal wounds making them Semi-immortal, they also have the ability to summon being known as ‘black ghosts’ which can be used for all sorts of things.  There is unfortunately no way of knowing if a person is an Aijin until they suffer some for of mortal injury at that point their body will regenerate and they will live this is the case for Kei Nagai, a high school student studying to be a doctor.  While the government of Japan have led people to believe that Ajin are kept in protective custody it is learned that not only are they but most other countries use Aijin as test subjects for medicines and weapons, including life fire testing, because of their regenerative abilities.

Story time

17 years ago during a war in an unnamed African nation the first Ajin was discovered.  Reffered to as a soldier of god because he could not be killed the soldier was immobilized and claimed as property of the US government.

Now Kei Nagai is an apathetic highschool student studying to be a doctor on his mothers demand. While to his ‘friends’ he seems like a cheerful if easily taken advantage of boy the truth is he is apathetic and cut off from the people around him seeing only the value they have to him personally.  While walking to school he and his friends note another boy their age Kaito sitting outside a convenience store they comment on how weird he is and question if Kei is his friend after Kaito waves to him, Kei denies this and they walk on.

At school the subject of Ajins is brought up because of their value in the medical feild, one of Keis friends shows another classmate a video of Inhumane testing on an Ajin subject.  The boy also asks his teacher if the truth about the high reward for an Ajins capture is true.  For some reason this startles Kei and his reaction draws attention so he asks if Ajin aren’t really human.  His teacher says they are not.

Reminiscing he vaguely remembered the death of a childhood pet, after burying it while trying to console his sister he wonders about death and witness’ something strange.  curious about the memory he decides to visit his sister in the hospital and tries to ask her about what she remebers but she refuses to discuss it being outright hostile to him.

still lost in thought and wondering about Ajin as well as flicking through Study cards Kei misses the stop light and begins to cross the street before being hit full on by a truck.  the truck drags his body quiet a ways as it skids to a halt and his friends are horrified by what they’ve witnessed, the driver is shaken and climbs out desperate to say that it was Keis fault when to their shock Kei crawls out from under the truck dazed t first he is confused about what happened before quickly realizing and becoming upset he insists he’s human and begs for his friends to believe him however he realizes they only see him as a way to make money by turning him in.  in terror Kei screams unintentinally releasing his voice, another unique trait of Ajin that causes a temporary paralasis in those who hear it, before fleeing the scene.

a little later Yu Tosaki and his body guard and assistant Izumi Shimomura of the Ajin control branch of the government arrive to question Keis friends and his mother. As this is going on it is revealed that Kei has fled to a local Shrine and then into the woods beyond, desperatly thinking who might help him he remebers Kaito who had been a childhood friend but whome he’d been told not to be around anymore by his mother.  Desperate and worried Kai Might also want to turn him in but feeling alone Kei calls Kaito and the other boy is ready to help his friend filling a duffle bag with supplies and heading out, knocking out a poliece officer who had found Kei Kaito offers his old friend a hand up and they flee the area on a motorcycle.

The Bad

Despite how much I’ve written that happened in the first episode.  it not actually a lot.  theres a lot of nothing in this show and thats a major problem.  I a not against quiet moments, for example Hiyao Miyazaki is very well know for his long silent scenes, but even these scenes serve to tell story in one way or another, I get the feeling either the writer or director of this show wants to emulate that but the quiet scene in the show just don’t accomplish anything.  theres also a sense of ‘artistic padding’  where things are added for the art of it,  I don’t know if someone in the production team had higher aspirations or if they where just desperate to cover the ugly modles but it doesn’t work.

The episodes feel long but almost nothing happens. or a lot happens but none of it matters or is memorable.  The motivations of the antagonist make no sense,  and while I have a theory of who he truely is I won’t say untill I do my reviw on season 2 (Which won’t be for a while because this was so hard to sit through)

Kei himself is a terrible protagonist, there are moment whre you think he’ll get better, but he really doesn’t in fact I thought the show was going to pull some kind of switch and make the story focus on the friend Kaito who seems to really genuinely still care about Kei even though they hadn’t been friends for years and who insists even if Kei is an Ajin, he’s still Kaitos friend so that’s all that matters.  But Kei leavs Kaito after only a couple episodes

It’s clear that there is something not right with kei from the get go, the first time we see his phone all his friend are listed not by name but number literally ‘friend 1′  ‘friend 2′  and so on, and as the show goes on theres an impression that the creators where trying to make Kei a Psychopath.  I’m not talking Ax wielding movie psycho but a clinical psychopath, no empathy no connection to the people around him, a general callous nature and his willingness to use then abandon anyone who might have value.  I’m not a fan of using mental illness as a way of making people ‘other’  mental illness is demonized enough, and frankly it’s hard to empathize with a protagonist who openly admits they don’t care about anyone.

There aren’t any real stand out characters either,  they all feel like cut outs,  you have you deceptively friendly antagonist, you have your to serious government agent, and his body guard who obviously has a crush on him, you have the best friend, you have the friendly granny.

It’s just all been done before and better.

Now about episode 8 a character name Ko Nakano is introduced and for a moment I thought Oh the shows just going to give us a new protagonist... NOPE!  he get capture by Kei who keeps him locked in an old shipping truck for the rest of the season,  Fuck that noise.  honestly Kei gets less and less likeable as the show goes on.  He abjectly refuses to get involved with trying to stop the antagonist, Sato’s, terrorist plot even saying openly he doesn’t care what happens to other because he’s found a nice place where he can live a quiet normal life.  Kei had in fact been taken in by a kindly older woman who convinced the villagers kei was her grandson from tokyo who had gotten into trouble and was staying with her.

That being said.... There’s a couple good things

The elderly woman is quiet charming, she doesn’t care about the Ajin or what ever other trouble Kei seems to be in she just sees a young man who helped her after she fell and lets him stay.  If not for another villager recognizing his picture on the news and reporting him to claim the rumoured reward Kei clearly would have been happy to stay in that little village forever and just live a quiet life.

The opening theme song is pretty good.  the CG is frustrating in that in the opening they show shots of characters as they looked in the manga and those drawings are amazing, This would have looked so much better 2d Animated.

The black ghosts are kind of neat.

theres a couple interesting fights with the Ajin, since they recover almost instantly from death they’ll actually kill themselves in combat to resurrect with out their injuries or to even escape grapple or escape the effects of tranquillizers, so that’s neat

I haven’t got much here guys I’m sorry I’m trying but this just, I feel like there might have been something good under all the thick thick thick padding.

Final Thoughts?

I don’t recommend it, even for one watch it’s just a slog, it’s not enjoyable it’s not even a good time killer because it feels like it drags.

Everything from plot point to characters to scene have been done before in better shows, and the aesthetic is just Ugly, terrible CG modles with awkward round movements to avoid collision issues clearly, and the backgrounds look like someone took photos and then put them through the photoshop watercolor filter.

There’s nothing worth reccomending about it, I know Netflix has stuff way better then this so go watch that because this so Not worth your time.

[alistircrat]

Hetalila Fanfiction Recs

Here’s a list of some of my favorite Hetalia fanfictions. Most have pairings, which I’ll specify. I put this up because I know I’m always on the lookout for good fanfiction and I wanted to help out anyone else who’s in the same boat :D Feel free to add onto this or rec me some too ;) Also a good master list of the ones I like LMAO. I’ve noticed I either like tragic, angsty fanfiction or really fluffy ones. A lot are rated M. And a LOT of USUK and Spamano #srynotsry Disclaimer: I did not write any of these; they all belong to their respective authors.

Update: Ive had this sitting in my drafts for like over 4 years and i began it when i was super into hetalia n fanfiction LMAO, what better time to post this when i should be studying lmao its nearly 4 am halp

UsUK

The Secret : Rated T, 32k words, 5 chapters, Drama/Romance, Complete Arthur's sister, engaged to prince Alfred, is killed before she even meets him. Arthur's parents do not want to shame themselves by ending the engagement and force Arthur to dress like his sister and marry Alfred instead. But can this secret be kept? (note: very interesting!! I loved every second of it)

The Courting of Alfred Jones : Rated M, 26k words, 13 chapters, Romance/Hurt/Comfort, Incomplete Alfred Jones is the most popular guy in school and also extremely homophobic. This is why Arthur is his new favourite 'victim', but Arthur has no intentions of grovelling in the dust for him. Punk!ArthurxJock!Alfred (note: Rated M, so there IS some explicit material and I advise viewer discretion. Another highschool AU. Sad that it’s probably not going to finish but it’s worth the read)

When I Only Wanted to Save the World : Rated M, 29k words, 11 chapter, Romance, Complete Alfred is a firefighter in New York City. When he gets badly injured, he takes a trip to London to recover. There he meets a man named Arthur, who ends up helping him recover from wounds he didn't even know he had. (note: warmed my weeb heart)

United Again : Rated T, 31k words, 7 chapters, Humor/Romance, Complete Arthur gets a letter in the mail informing him of his school's ten year reunion.

Unexpected : Rated T, 5.7k words, One-shot, Humor/Drama, Complete World Academy. When Arthur was asked to tutor the star of the American Football team, he expected several things. Sitting in an apartment full of Asian children was not one of them. (cute!)

The Invitational Year : Rated M, 208k words, 41 chapters, Romance/Drama, Complete Alfred is an awkward dork, despite the fact his dad is President. Arthur is a member of British royalty, and he's a perfectionist loner. Both boys are given an invitation to attend the prestigious World Academy and, naturally, they're roomies. (note: A favorite of mine! Quite long but very much worth it. Highschool AU. Can be silly yet dramatic. Anyways, you should read it! Viewer discretion due to sexual themes)

The Sophomore Year : Rated M, 173k words, 34 chapter, Romance/Drama, Complete After meeting at boarding school, Alfred and Arthur became unlikely friends and then lovers. Now, they'll face their sophomore year in America and all the challenges that come with being young, famous, and madly in love. (note: sequal to The Invitational Year)

And All That Jazz : Rated M, 98k words, 22 chapters, Romance, Complete Alfred is approached by the Student Body President, Arthur, for help on his math exam. They hate each other, but maybe opposites can attract with the help of something unexpected. (note: I love this fic. Highschool AU. Also involves music...cuz liek yknow the title)

1912 : Rated T, 52k words, 9 chapters, Romance/Drama, Complete Cynical, overweight and bored in the dull twilight of his empire, Arthur finds distraction in the form of rekindling his relationship with Alfred on board the RMS Titanic during her doomed maiden voyage.

The Arrow was Shot : Rated K+, 5.8k words, One-shot, Romance, Complete In order to win his family's respect, Arthur enters a tournament to win the Princess of America's hand in marriage. At the tournament, he befriends the mysterious Alfred- a fellow competitor who is equally determined to win. As he and Alfred grow closer, he begins to question what is more important to him: his family's respect... or Alfred.

Flirting with Failure : Rated T, 2k words, One-shot, Romance/Humor, Complete Alfred just wanted to get one date with Arthur Kirkland before the semester ended. To do that he had to speak with him. Thus, he was set up for failure.

Hero Frequency : Rated T, 12k words, 3 chapters, Romance/Humor, Incomplete America's got the coolest and most awesome band in school, and he's totally going to win the Battle of the Bands contest. Or at least he might, if he can get England to put aside their past issues long enough to play guitar...

The Gentleman and the Hero : Rated T, 57k words, 21 chapters, Romance, Complete World Academy students have been paired up for an anonymous email exchange program, so they can talk to someone about school and personal problems in private. These are the emails of two students nicknamed 'The Gentleman' and 'The Hero'. (note: I also love this. I find it very cute and also very in character. I want an email buddy lol. Highschool AU)

Breathless : Rated T, 35k words, 4 chapters, Angst/Hurt/Comfort, Complete Arthur Kirkland never thought that golden boy Alfred Jones would ever have a reason to attempt suicide. Then again, how much did he really know about the oh so popular blonde? The rumor mill would surely chew him up and spit him out. (note: p sure this is another favorite of mine. Though angsty, I really enjoyed the development between the two. Highschool AU. Really great read!!)

Static : Rated T, 45k words, 9 chapters, Drama/Romance, Incomplete Sequel to Breathless. Arthur always thought that the incident with Alfred's arms would forever be the biggest hurdle their friendship would face. But as the looks change and the touches linger, it becomes frightfully clear that he was dead wrong about that. (note: continues after Breathless, but not finished ): worth the read anyway)

Ask Me Anything : Rated T, 7k words, One-shot, Romance/Humor, Complete Alfred starts to follow Arthur on tumblr. It's not long until they become friends... and possibly more.

The Cost of Affection : Rated M, 61k words, 32 chapters, Angst/Romance, Incomplete Being a whore is easy: all Arthur has to do is spread his legs and take the money. He doesn't have to face his past; nor does he have to deal with love. And for good reason - because when he does fall head-over-heels for someone, he's forced to realize that his sins go beyond prostitution, and that even as he rediscovers himself, his past is coming back to haunt him after all.

You Can’t Take the Sky Away From Me : Rated T, 113k words, 32 chapters, Adventure/Romance, Incomplete Ace pilot America is on a mission for the World Military when a chance encounter with a group of sky-pirates leads him to team up with their captain, England, against a malevolent group that wants to fill the sky with zeppelins. (note: Steampunk AU. This is a really cool fic!)

We’ll Meet Again : Rated M, 43k words, 13 chapters, Romance/Angst, Complete WW2 AU. London pub owner Arthur Kirkland is driven to distraction by loud, brash American fighter pilot Alfred Jones. Unable to stop it, Arthur finds himself falling for Alfred's charms... just as the pilot is preparing to leave for war. (note: a hetalia fandom clASSIC. MUST READ. unfortunately the OG fics were deleted so someone reposted it, giving credit to the OG author George deValier. this will rip ur heart out n tape it poorly back together)

Franada

La Patisserie de La Rose : Rated M, 35k words, 6 chapters, Romance, Complete Accountant Matthew Williams is used to being unnoticed, ignored, and forgotten. That is until pastry chef Francis Bonnefoy appears like a burst of colour in his dull, grey life. 

AmeViet (yes, Vietnam!)

Hard to Get : Rated T, 57k words, 20 chapters, Adventure/Romance, Complete During World War Two, serious, limited Vietnam meets the boisterous America. Amid fighting, friendship, and stress, America tries to get Vietnam to like him, but she won't let that happen. Or will she? (note: One of my all-time favorites, unforgettable. I can never find fics of this pairing, it’s so hard! But this is a really great fic, highly recommend. also after learning more about Vietnam history, i might give this yet ANOTHER re-read with my new perspectives)

Of Broken Promises and the Taste of Freedom : Rated T, 1.4k words, One-shot, Hurt/Comfort/Romance, Complete Vaguely, Vietnam wondered if this was what freedom tasted like. If perhaps, the hot waves that crashed through her body and set her skin on fire was what it was like to know that you are truly free.

GerIta (apologies, I don’t read too much GerIta LOL)

Auf Wiedersehen, Sweetheart : Rated M, 104k words, 18 chapters, Romance/Angst, Complete WW2 AU. Feliciano Vargas is a passionate, if slightly scared, Italian resistance member. Falling in love with a German fighter pilot was the last thing he expected... and it will test his national loyalty, and his heart, to their limits. (note: another VeraVerse, so well written! you will not ragret. also a repost since Og was deleted, all credit to George deValier)

RusAme

Dear Diary : Rated T, 55k words, 17 chapters, Humor/Romance, Complete Alfred F. Jones isn't gay. Just read his diary; you'll see. (note: I absolutely love high school or college AUs, omg. Also this is hilarious. I can really relate to how Alfred's rambling)

PruHun

The Most Awesome Date Plan Ever : Rated T, 7.5k words, 6 chapters, Romance/Humor, Complete It was foolproof. He had worked out every plan, every detail and each possible outcome almost guaranteed him Elizaveta's love. Until it was ruined by Gilbert's two cockblocking best friends. (note: funny and cute)

Táncol? : Rated K+, 24k words, 6 chapters, Humor/Romance, Complete Elizaveta is determined to find out who Gilbert wants to ask out for the school dance. If that means bullying his friends, being hired by Gilbert to slave over a cake, and invading his diaries, so be it. (note: Another favorite! Very cute)

Hello Hurricane : Rated T, 61k words, 18 chapters, Hurt/Comfort/Tragedy, Complete Sequel to "Táncol?" Elizaveta, Ludwig, Francis, and Antonio are forced to watch Gilbert slowly fade away every day. (note: It might seem like I have lots of favorites, cuz I do and this is one of them. Warning, I cried a lot towards the end. Highly recommend)

PruCan

That Song Called Love : Rated T, 62k words, 25 chapters, Romance/Drama, Complete Matthew had always resigned himself to a fate of musical obscurity on a supporting instrument, but after meeting an ex-delinquent named Gilbert, he just might learn to take the lead. (note: contains other minor pairings. Although she doesn’t play a huge role I’m so happy Vietnam is in it Dx)

Operation Not to Hot : Rated T, 10k words, 2 chapters, Romance/Humor, Complete Gilbert Beilschmidt is dorky, nerdy, and has serious confidence issues. He doesn't really care about himself until he sees Matthew Williams, AKA super-hot-hockey-jock. With Matthew's heart in mind, Gilbert undergoes a complete transformation. (note: funny story. Prussia being Prussia)

Overdue : Rated T, 12k words, 8 chapters, Romance/Supernatural, Complete "Well, Gott, Mattie, at least look someone in the eye when you tell them you're a ghost. Make a good impression!" (note: cute lil one-shot series)

I Have all Summer to Fall For You : Rated T, 162k words, 38 chapters, Incomplete At school, Gilbert makes fun of Matthew, and Matthew just wants to be left alone. But then when the hot days of summer roll around, and they have nothing but free time, things happen that NO ONE could have planned for! (note: MY ALL-TIME FAV PRUCAN FiC Ever. Probably will never finish but the length and quality make up for it)

PruAus

Please Don’t Read the Verdict : Rated M, 57k words, 11 chapters, Romance/Crime, Incomplete District Attorney Roderich Edelstein is faced with a gruesome, controversial murder. He has three months to build a case against the accused, but more than his will to prosecute may be destroyed in the process. (note: sadly not done, but highly interesting!)

Lily of the Lamplight : Rated M, 27k words, 4 chapters, Romance/Angst, Incomplete WW2 AU. Austrian musician Roderich and German soldier Gilbert are forced into an army prison unit and a fight for survival on the Russian Front. But in the midst of blood and death and hell on earth, how long can they fight their desire for each other?  (note: MY 👏 FAV 👏 VERAVERSE 👏 I loveeee this fic, I’m so SAD it’s nEvEr going to be completed. Savor those 4 chapters. Luckily theyre long *cries* Also love the set of main characters, including Prussia, Austria, Berwald, and Poland. Also listen to the song the title is based off of, i luv it too)

SuFin

Cheers to a New Life : Rated M, 94k words, 47 chapters, Romance/Family, Complete Sweden could only find a job as a Kindergarten teacher and the famous Kirkland's little Peter happens to be enrolled into his class. But it is not Mr. Arthur Kirkland who is picking Peter up, it's this angel with the greatest ass Berwald's ever seen. (note: viewer discretion, mostly on later chapters. also has cute lil Peter/Sealand)

My Heart, In Segments : Rated T, 14k words, 10 chapters, Family/Hurt/Comfort, Complete Berwald is a man left alone, and Peter was a kid left behind. Berwald's not really the perfect dad, Peter's not really innocent anymore, and Tino's not really sure he's ready for something so real. But, maybe... Maybe it's time.

In Want of a Wife : Rated T, 41k words, 18 chapters, Romance/Humor, Incomplete Berwald's life is turned upside down when he is accepted into Hetalia International University, and everything changes for the better when he catches a glimpse of his future wife who lives down the hall. Who cares if Tino doesn't accept it yet? (note: Human AU; Lietpol is a bonus in all this hehe)

Treatment : Rated T, 55k words, 12 chapters, Romance/Humor, Incomplete Tino is a young psychology major, well known for being kind and eager to help others with their issues, but less so for his habit of profiling "patients" on campus. His therapist's eye has fixed on Berwald, but will he be the one who ends up on the couch? (note: Though not fully done, it’s one of my favorite sufin fics. Also hilarious bahah)

Catch Perfect : Rated T, 35k words, 8 chapters, Romance/Friendship, Incomplete When Berwald loses everything he is forced to move into a share house with an insane Dane, a sociopathic Norwegian, an unfathomable Icelander and a perfect Finn who makes it all worth putting up with. (note: can be crazy and random, which is probs why I liked it so much. also by George deValier I believe, reposted onto wattpad after it got deleted)

DenNor

Hummingbird : Rated T, 61k words, 12 chapters, Tragedy/Hurt/Comfort, Complete Lukas' only goal in life was to take care of his younger brother, until he was diagnosed with an irregular heart rhythm. His originally peaceful stay in hospital was interrupted when the loud, cheerful Mathias was moved into the bed beside him and refused to leave him alone; yet as his health began to deteriorate, the Dane decided to fall in love with him. (note: I love this fic so much, it’s also another favorite of mine. Very cute but with lots of angst, ahhh just what I ordered)

Secret Crowds : Rated M, 3.4k words, One-shot, Hurt/Comfort/Romance, Complete An explosion leaves Denmark with a permanent brain injury and Norway struggles to find his role in their relationship as the line between lover and caregiver begins to blur. (sad and touching)

I also read a lot of DenNor so im like ?? where the fics at LOL. but i think i read more DenNor doujinshis, so that’s def something yall should look into

Spamano

A Beautiful Story : Rated T, 16k words, 10 chapters, Tragedy/Romance, Complete Lovino Romano Vargas is a suicidal designer who is unhappy with his fate. One day, he chances to meet Antonio Fernandez Carriedo, who turns his life upside down.

Flashlight : Rated T, 38k words, 11 chapters, Parody/Romance, Complete "If I throw a tomato at you, vampire bastard, will you still sparkle under the sauce?" (note: OKAY SO This is actually a Twilight parody w Romano as Bella and Spain as Edward. I don’t really like Twilight but I really like this version of it lmao. Funny and a good read. Mostly Romano’s POV, cRACK )

New Batteries : Rated T, 41k words, 10 chapters, Humor/Romance, Complete Sequel to Flashlight. "WELL, I NEVER LIKED YOU, EITHER. WHAT NOW, YOU STUPID SPARKLY EXCUSE OF A VAMPIRE?" (note: also a parody, just the sequel to the previous one listed. I understand the Twilight plot through these better than the original)

Kismet : Rated M, 174k words, 52 chapters, Romance/Fantasy, Complete Lovino learns the hard way that things change and that they can change quickly. The necklace fell and now he's in a strange land far from home. Will he ever see his brother again? Will he find his way home? Or will he discover home is where the heart is? Fate is a strange woman and can work in mysterious ways. (note: RATED M, viewer discretion. the author has a list of warnings on the first chapter you can look at so you know what you’re reading. Fantasy AU)

Catch You, Catch Me : Rated M, (basically)37k words, 7 chapters, Drama/Romance, Complete Clumsy, clueless detective Romano is on the trail of the infamous handsome and charming thief El Apasionado Caballero. But there's more to this, what seems like a simple game of cat and mouse, than meets the eye.

The Bet : Rated T, 20k words, 9 chapters, Romance/Humor, Complete When someone kisses you, and then moves away you'd think that would be it. But when Antonio comes back from Spain he wants Lovino to be his again. Except Lovino now hates Antonio...which sucks for Lovino because Antonio isn't going to let go that easily.

Zero Tolerance : Rated M, 55k words, 24 chapters, Romance/Drama, Complete Lovino lives a perfect life. Or atleast thats how he is suppose to appear. Antonio lives a life as a dangerous gangbanger. North Side meets South Side as these two are partnered in their Chemistry class. But there is one chemical reaction these 2 arent prepared for- Love. (highschool AU)

Breathless in the Atmosphere : Rated T, 31k words, 3 chapters, Hurt/Comfort/Romance, Complete Antonio only needed money for marble. He needed to make his art. And a chance encounter on the subway offers him a job as a male escort. It was just for the money. He could stop anytime he wanted to. Really. (note: viewer discretion advised. contains prostitution and suicidal ideation)

Before the Snow Falls : Rated T, 19k words, 2 chapters, Romance/Drama, Complete Lovino, jersey number nine, right winger. He was ready to pass the ball, ready to set up the win, but Antonio, opposite team, center fielder, was ready too. Someone thought, and someone didn't, and they crashed. Hard. A few months later, Lovino's on crutches, Antonio has scholarships, and they have to deal with the aftermath of what happened.

Door to Door : Rated T, 3.5k words, One-shot, Humor/Romance, Complete Do not open the door. It could be a zombie, an unwanted boyfriend of your brother's, or a persistant salesman by the name Antonio Carriedo.

Numbered Lithograph : Rated M, 133k words, 29 chapters, Drama/Romance, Complete When Lovino starts attending art school with his brother he finds his most important lesson doesn't come from his professors, but from a culinary student at a sister school: sometimes the flaws hold the beauty. (note: Probably my favorite spamano fic. Very touching. Has fluff and angst)

Bésame Mucho : Rated M, 48k words, 6 chapter, Angst/Romance, Incomplete WW2 AU. Lovino Vargas only ever wanted something exciting to happen in his boring, everyday Italian village existence. He never expected war, Resistance, love, passion, treason, or a cheerful, confusing, irritatingly attractive Spanish freedom fighter. (note: ANOTHER 👏 ONE 👏OF👏MY👏FAVS👏 BUT SAD BC ITLL NEVER FINISH HDUEOFREGH. Also by George DeValier and reuploaded onto wattpad (originally on ff.net)! I’m in love with the writing. Incomplete but sooo worth the read.)

Bad Touch Trio (may or may not contain pairings/slight pairings)

Oh No, We’re Hot : Rated T, 1.4k words, One-shot, Friendship/Humor, Complete In which, after a summer apart, the Bad Touch Trio realizes that they have become really attractive. Really slight hinted Spamano. (note: I absolutely love the BTT, this is a cute short fic about them)

The Trap : Rated T, 4.7k words, One-shot, Friendship/Humor, Complete The prompt was Prussia and Spain meeting France for the first time, thinking he's a girl, kiddy-courting him, then finding out he's a boy, but still kiddy-courting him. Exactly as wacky as it sounds. (note: another cute story about the BTT and their rad friendship! I need this in my life)

Multiple Pairings

Playing Cupid : Rated T, 24k words, 15 chapters, Romance/Humor, Complete In Everett High School there is a secret club called the yaoi club. It is their job, during Sadies, to set up couples. This year Elizabeta has an ambitious plan. She is going to find a date for the infamous Lovino Vargas. Her choice is Antonio, unfortunately half the girls want to ask him too. Will she and her friends succeed? Spamano, UsUk, Prucan, GerIta, others (note: very cute highschool AU! highly recommend! also contains many of the hetalia girls, which is amazing~)

No Pairings

Bad Pasta : Rated T, 13k words, 6 chapter, Mystery/Tragedy, Complete Kiku and Arthur trade rooms. (note: Author also made a game based on this posted on deviantart: Bad Pasta game. I really liked it, especially since I’m into hetalia fangames and whatnot. warning, contains death of characters)

Fun with Former Vikings : Rated K+, 63k words, 17 chapters, Friendship/Family, Complete Brothers that are too awkward to even stand next to each other, husband and 'wife,' and that one guy that drinks a lot. The Nordics couldn't be any more different. And neither could the situations they get themselves into. (note: I love love love the Nordics. This is also probably one of my all-time favs. I love them as bros Dx)

God Only Threw the Humans out of Paradise : Rated K+, 4.5k words, One-shot, Friendship, Complete 12 years is nothing in the life of a Nation. But to a puppy, it's a lifetime. This is a look at 12 years of England's life through the eyes of man's best friend.

Gutters : Rated M, 98k words, 20 chapters, Adventure/Drama, Complete 'The Calamity' has left the world stripped and dying. Alone in a civilian bunker in Munich, Sealand will be reunited with the last known living member of his surrogate family and together, they will set out across Europe to find those they have lost. (note: It’s an adventure story starring Sealand and Denmark. Can be really intense and eMOTIONAL i cried like a bitch, highly recommend. Probably one of my 👏 favorite👏  fics of all time)

Ditches : Rated M, 2.4k words, 2 chapters, Drama/Family, Incomplete Prequel to Gutters. In the days leading up to The Calamity, the world braces and families struggle not to be torn apart.

Breathe Me : Rated T, 66k words, 21 chapters, Angst/Hurt/Comfort, Complete "God I'm so fat." "No, Alfred. You're not. You're –" "Stop it! I am and you know it! The whole world knows! Just stop okay?" Trigger Warning, Human AU, and F.A.C.E. Family. (note: very important TRIGGER WARNING due to mention of eating disorders, verbal abuse, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts.)

[cristinablackthornkingson]

Arc of a Scythe Short Story #1 part 2.

Munira’s hand flies up to cover her mouth, when she sees the baby. She had not been expecting Michael to show her the baby, she wasn’t even expecting him to tell her that the baby is here, last she had heard Marie was a week overdue and it didn’t look like the baby was coming any time soon. 

“You sly devil you!” Munira exclaims, when she finally recovers from the shock and composes herself. “How long have you been keeping this a secret? When was she born?” 

“Only for a day, Marie went into labor on the night of the 20th, and Mia was born at 9:23 that morning. We decided to keep the news of her birth to ourselves just for a day, while we settled into life with her.” Michael explains with a chuckle, he knew Munira would be shocked, he’s actually surprised she hasn’t yelled at him for keeping this a secret, Munira hates when Michael keeps secrets from her.

“Well congratulations! I’m going to book my flights to come visit, the minute I get off this call! How is Marie?” Munira asks. Even in this day and age, with pain killing and healing naniets, recovering from pregnancy and birth can’t be easy. 

“She’s doing very well, she’s mostly just tired now, like she was in the early stages of her pregnancy, but she’s getting plenty of rest, Mia likes to keep me awake, but she seems to know her mother needs all the rest she can get.” Michael says in an amused tone, looking at Mia, who is fixated on Munira’s image, on the computer. She hasn’t slept much today, meaning Michael hasn’t had a chance to catch up on sleep, but he doesn’t mind, he would gladly stay awake for the rest of his life, for his daughter. 

“She’s clever, like her Aunty Munira, right Mia? We leave your mom alone, but drive your dad nuts.” Munira laughs. She doesn’t know Marie as well as she knows Michael, and therefore doesn’t feel comfortable teasing her, as she teases and messes with Michael. 

“How I’m going to put up with you and Rowan at the same time, I just don’t know. If he weren’t hopelessly in love with Citra, I would say you two would make a good couple.” Michael says with a smile, only half teasing. 

“He’s not my type, men aren’t my type at all.” Munira says with a shrug. 

“I know, I’ve seen you flirt with that Nimbus Agent, Lorianna, you’re terrible at it.” Michael replies. Munira scoffs and says

“That’s rich coming from you Michael, you didn’t cop on to the fact that Marie was in love with you, until she told you, she came into your room at night and you thought she was trying to kill you, and you kept that journal entry about that night, as some weird macabre love note, you have no room to talk about being terrible at flirting, it’s a miracle Mia exists with how bad you are at flirting.” Munira laughs. She may be bad at flirting, but at least she’s never assumed Lorianna’s flirtations meant she wanted to kill her.

“I’m an old man of course I don’t know anything about flirting, anyway shouldn’t you be at work?” Michael asks, shifting Mia in his arms as she begins to fuss. 

“it’s my day off, but I do have other work to do, and I’m sure you’re busy with Mia.” Munira says, pushing her glasses up her nose. “I’ll let you know when I’ve booked my flights.” Michael nods, trying to calm a fussy Mia while he says goodbye to Munira. 

A few seconds later, they end the call, and as if she knows she now has her dad’s full attention, Mia starts squawking and crying loudly. Michael glances at the time on the computer, and sees it’s 5 minutes past Mia’s usual feeding time.

“Now where do you get that impatience from, young miss? Neither your mother or I are very impatient, though your mom wasn’t as patient as she is now, when I first met her.” Michael quietly says, as he makes his way over to the fridge to get a bottle for Mia and heat it up in the microwave. “And she wasn’t very patient when we started trying for you, when she didn’t get pregnant the first month, she thought it would never happen.” He adds with a smile, remembering how Marie would obsessively take pregnancy tests when they were trying, sometimes as soon as the morning after, then getting flustered when the test came up negative. Michael hadn’t seen her so on edge and impatient since she was a teenager, starting her Scythe training. 

“Telling our daughter embarrassing stories about me already?” He hears Marie ask in an amused tone. He turns to see her standing by the window in the living room, her long brown hair in it’s usual braid over her shoulder and her lavender bathrobe thrown on over an old jumper and sweat pants. To Michael, she looks as radiant as ever.

“Well she’s going to be hearing plenty of embarrassing stories about me, from Munira soon, I figured it was only fair she know I’m not the only embarrassing one in the family.” Michael jokingly says, as Marie walks over and presses a kiss to his cheek before bending and kissing Mia’s forehead. 

“I heard you video calling Munira and introducing her to Mia, have you told Rowan and Citra about her yet?” Marie asks, as Michael takes Mia’s bottle from the microwave. 

“Not yet, I haven’t spoken to them in a few days, but we should tell them soon, they won’t be pleased if we keep it a secret much longer.” 

“We should text them tonight, take a picture of Mia and write out one of those old, mortal-aged birth announcements, I always liked the idea of a birth announcement, and if there’s anyone worth of one, it’s the daughter of two Scythes, isn’t that right my beautiful Mia?” Marie coos, stroking Mia’s dark hair. Michael chuckles and puts an arm around her waist, pressing a kiss to her head. 

“Whatever makes you happy, my dear Marie, whatever makes you happy.” 

Half an hour later, once Mia has finished her bottle and is settled and content, Marie spreads out a colorful floral print blanket that Citra had sent for Mia, while Marie was still pregnant, and places Mia on her back on it, after dressing her in the most adorable outfit she could find. A white vest with gold lettering that reads ‘Hello World’, paired with baby pink trousers, with gold poka-dots and a little gold satin belt, tied all together with a baby pink headband.

“Does she really need the headband?” Michael asks in an amused tone, as Marie pulls the camera up on her phone. Though Mia looks absolutely adorable in her outfit, it is a bit over the top, not surprising seeing that Rowan sent it. 

“Of course, it ties the whole outfit together!” Marie defends her choice in accessories for their daughter. 

“It’s almost bigger than her.” Michael laughs. Marie shoots him a mock glare.

“Oh hush, you have no sense in fashion, not surprising seeing as you chose the most boring color robes.” She jokes. 

“Ivory isn’t boring!” Michael says in a defensive tone. “It’s no more boring than lavender!” Marie smiles and shakes her head. 

“Whatever you say Michael, whatever you say.” 

10 minutes later the mini photo shoot is done, and Mia has lost her headband and thrown up on her top, so while Marie typed out the birth announcement to send to Citra and Rowan, Michael changes Mia into a simple white onsie.(Ivory to be exact) 

“There, all better.” He softly says, picking Mia up and kissing her cheek. “Ivory suits you Mia, your mom doesn’t know what she’s talking about when she says ivory is boring, it’s definitely not bring on you, you sweet little thing. Come on, let’s go see how mommy’s getting on.” 

15 minutes later, Michael is sitting on the sofa with Mia curled up on his chest, fast asleep, one of his hands resting protectively on her back and the other holding a book, a fictional novel Citra had brought him last time she visited.

“Done, what do you think?” Marie’s voice pulls Michael from the fictional world of his book. She hands him her phone and he takes everything on screen, in.

Displayed on the screen is a picture of Mia, on her blanket, in the outfit Michael had just changed her out of. The photo was taken from above and is a beautiful shot of Mia.

At the top of the photo, Mia’s full name (Mia Willow Wilson) is written out in bold, curling letters. Beside it, is her date and time of birth. (October 20th, 9′23 A.M., Year of The Lynx) and under that, is her birth weight and length. (6lbs 4oz, 24 inches) Then at the bottom of the photo, is a short and simple message. 

‘We are so thrilled to welcome our sweet baby girl. -Marie and Michael Wilson’ 

“It’s perfect, Marie.” Michael says, handing the phone back to her and smiling at her. “I didn’t know you had a flare for photography and photography editing.” He adds.

“Oh I took a few months of photography in high school, this is the first time I’ve used those skills in over 200 years, I’m surprised I remember them.” Marie says in an absent tone, as she sends the message to Citra and Rowan.

"At least we won’t have to pay for Mia’s newborn photo shoot, that’s what normal parents do, isn’t it? Have a photo shoot for their baby?” Michael asks, not knowing much about being a parent, other than the fact that he loves Mia so much it hurts.  

“I think so. I was thinking of taking her to a local playgroup for babies, it’s a good chance for parents to get to socialize and know each other and it’s very beneficial for the babies, they teach them how to use their hands to sign for things like bottles, so we don’t have to try and decipher their cries all the time. It’s also very good stimulation for them and helps develop their minds.” Marie says in a hurried tone of fascination, enthralled by the whole new world of parenthood.  

Before Michael can answer, Marie’s phone starts buzzing with a video call request, from Citra. She smiles and quickly answers the call, angling the phone so she, Michael and Mia are all in shot. When she answers the call, she sees Citra sitting at kitchen table, her curly dark hair loose around her shoulders, and Rowan at her side, straining to see the small screen of the phone. When he sees Marie and Michael, his face lights up and he waves at them. 

“Hi Scythe Faraday, Hi Scythe Curie!” He calls in an enthusiastic tone. Rowan (like Citra and Munira) does usually call them Marie and Michael, but when he’s being teasing and playful he uses their former titles. 

“Hello Rowan.” Michael says with a grin. 

“I miss you!” Rowan exclaims, ducking out of view for a second as Citra attempts to hit him in the arm. “Ow, Scythe Faraday, Citra’s abusing me!” 

“I’ll glean you if you don’t stop messing like a kid, Damisch, I want to talk to Michael and Marie.” Citra threatens, glaring at him. 

“Okay okay, I’ll be good!” Rowan exclaims, holding his hands up in surrender. 

“It’s good to see you dear, and you Rowan, how are you both keeping?” Marie asks. 

“Oh we’re fine, this call isn’t about us, it’s about you and your adorable baby! Congratulations!” Citra exclaims. 

“I can’t wait to meet her and be her favorite Uncle!” Rowan interjects. 

“You’re her only Uncle, you dumbass, stop being so annoying or go away.” Citra says, lightly shoving him away. “As I was saying, she is the cutest little thing I have ever seen! We’re coming to visit as soon as possible!” She continues, turning her attention back to the call. 

“We can’t wait to see you, Munira is coming soon too, you 3 should come at the same time, we have something we want to ask you three when you’re altogether.” Marie says.

“What is it?” Citra asks in an eager tone. 

“We’ll tell you all together, Munira is coming next Wednesday, for two weeks, how about you two come down at the same time?” Michael asks. 

“Alright, sounds good.” Citra says, while Rowan nods in agreement. 

One week later, Munira, Rowan and Citra arrive, only an hour apart. Munira arrived first, so therefore had the luxury of meeting and holding Mia first. She, Rowan and Citra have decided among themselves that they each get to hold for a 15 minute period, until Mia either gets fed up with them, needs a new diaper, or gets hungry and needs a bottle. Right now, Munira is holding Mia, gently rocking her back and forth, while Rowan and Citra’s eyes are glued to the timer counting down the 15 minutes, on Citra’s phone. 

“She is so calm and peaceful, and beautiful, she musn’t take after you at all, Michael.” Munira teases, sharing a grin with her old friend. 

“Well Munira, we’re in agreement that she gets her beauty from her mother.” He says, linking his hand with Marie’s. 

“Hey, when we called you a week ago, you said you wanted to ask the three of us something when we came down here, what is it?” Rowan asks, looking up from the timer. 

“Oh, oh that. Well, as I’m sure you know, back in the mortal days when they believed in God, babies were given Godparents, who would have an important role in their lives and teach them about religion and God, in the later days of mortality, it became more about playing an important role in the child’s life, and less so about religion and God. 

When the Thunderhead gained sentience, and it was proved that God did not exist, Guide Parents replaced Godparents, naming ceremonies replaced baptisms. 

Michael and I have decided that we’d like Mia to have a naming ceremony, and we would like her to have Guide Parents, people who will promise to be there for her and help her through life. Ordinarily two people are chosen as Guide Parents, but you can choose however many you please, and Michael and I have chosen three. 

So, Citra, Munira, we would be honored if you would agree to be Mia’s Guide Mothers, and Rowan we would love it, if you agreed to be Mia’s Guide Father.”  There is a brief silence, following Marie’s speech, though it only lasts a few seconds, and Citra is the one to break it. She jumps up from her spot on the floor next to Rowan, and embraces Marie and Michael tightly, tears of joy spilling down her cheeks. 

“Of course I will, I can’t believe you would ask me, I’m honored.” She softly says, wiping at her tears, as Marie kisses her forehead and Michael squeezes her hand. 

“Of course we asked you dear, you’re like a daughter to us, we love you just as much as we love Mia, and we both know you will be a very important person in her life.” Marie softly says. 

“I-I am honored too, and of course I will accept, thank you so much for asking me.” Munira quietly says, holding back her own tears of joy. She had never been given such an important role in all her life, to be a baby’s Guide Parent was no small thing, but she cannot wait to teach little Mia all she knows, and help her grow into an amazing person.

“i... I don’t know what to say, other than thank you, and of course I accept.” Rowan says. “And also, it’s my turn to hold the baby, give her over, Munira!” He demands, holding his arms out for the baby. Munira roles her eyes and passes Mia to Rowan. 

“Boys, so annoying.” She quietly says.

“Hi Mia, as long as you don’t spit up on me, I think you and I are going to be good friends!” Rowan says, letting Mia grip onto his finger. He has plenty of experience with babies, he has tons of younger brothers and sister (as well as older) and often helped out with them when they were little, which he always liked, except for when they would spit up on him, and today he’s wearing his favorite shirt and he doesn’t feel like waiting in line to buy a new one, when he gets home.

Later that night, when Munira, Rowan and Citra are back in their hotel (Michael and Marie only have one spare room, which is currently filled with baby paraphernalia) Michael and Marie place a fussy Mia on a pillow in the middle of the bed, and lie on either side of her, lacing their hands across her little stomach, once she has calmed. 

“I can’t believe we made her.” Marie quietly says, softly tracing Mia’s little cheek. These last two weeks have been the most surreal of her life, even more surreal then when she became a Scythe, but also the best, being a mother is without a doubt the best thing she has done in her long life, and she has never loved someone like she loves Mia. 

“Neither can I, I mean I’m use to taking life, not making it, I can’t believe how perfect she is.” Michael softly says, stroking Mia’s dark curls. All throughout Marie’s pregnancy, Michael was secretly terrified that because of the fact he use to be a Scythe and take lives, something horrific would happen to his child, or Marie. No matter what the doctors and midwives said through the pregnancy, he never fully believed that Mia was perfect and healthy, until she was born.

“I’m scared that The Scythedom is going to find out we’re still alive, and take Mia from us.” Marie confesses in a tight tone. Ever since she got pregnant, she’s had nightmares that she and Michael are found out by The Scythedom, and punished by having their child taken from them. She would rather die than live without Mia. 

“Oh Marie, that won’t happen, there’s hardly any chance The Scythedom will find out we’re still alive and even if they did, they could not take Mia from us, I would never ever let that happen.” Michael gently says, reaching out and brushing away Marie’s tears. Marie takes a shuddering breath and nods. 

“I-I know, I think it’s my hormones still settling back in, and new mom anxieties, maybe I should have my naniets adjusted.” She says. “I love you both, so much.” she leans over and kisses Michael, before pressing a kiss to Mia’s cheek. 

“Marie, I swear to you I will never let anything separate us ever again nor I will let anything or anyone separate us from our daughter.” Michael firmly says. He thought he had felt protective of Citra, Rowan and Munira, but he has never felt as protective over someone as he does Mia. 

Marie nods and moves closer to Michael, placing her hand over his.

“I know.” She softly says. “We’re a family now, and nothing will ever change that.”

*10 MONTHS LATER*

It is a mild and calm day in September, almost exactly 10 months after Mia’s birth. The last 10 months have been the best, the happiest and the most difficult months of Michael and Marie’s lives. Being parents is an absolute joy to them, Mia is the sweetest, happiest baby on earth (with her mother’s quick temper of course) who is forever smiling and laughing, reaching for her mommy or daddy, wanting cuddles, playing with all her toys with her Aunt Citra, reading with her Aunt Munira and watching old mortal age children’s movies, with her Uncle Rowan. 

Raising Mia is a dream for Marie and Michael, and though there are definitely tough and challenging moments and times, they would not change a single hair on their Mia’s head, she is absolutely perfect just as she is.

Just half an hour ago, while Mia was down for her nap, Michael took the chance to go for a walk along the beach, to clear his head after struggling to get Mia to go to sleep. Marie was happy to stay in with Mia, and find her own way of unwinding and relaxing after the difficult hour they spent trying to get Mia to sleep. 

The walk had done what Michael had hoped and now he could not wait to get back to his wife and daughter. 

As Michael approaches their small beach house, through the window into the living room, he sees Mia sitting on the floor, her toy box emptied around her, smiling broadly up at Marie, who smiles softly back at her and bends to kiss her forehead.

When Michael opens the door and steps in, Mia’s face lights up and her smile broadens. Mia unsteadily pushes herself up onto her feet, wobbling for a few seconds. Usually she will do this and then reach up for whoever she wants to go to, or stand in their way to try and stop them leaving. This time however, she takes a wobbly step forward, causing Michael and Marie to both freeze on the spot, wondering if she’ll take more than one or two steps this time. 

Michael crouches down and holds his arms out to Mia. 

“Come here Mia, come to dada.” He softly encourages. Upon hearing his voice, Mia breaks out into a smile again. Slowly but surely, she wobbles her way over to Michael, walking right into his arms. 

“Oh my god.” Marie quietly says, taking her hands away from her mouth, hardly able to believe Mia just walked properly for the first time. “Oh clever girl, Mia!” 

Michael stands up with Mia in his arms and kisses her cheek. 

“Smart girl indeed, your Aunts and Uncle are going to be so mad they missed that, especially your Uncle Rowan.” He says in an amused tone, walking over to join Marie, and kiss her.

“Michael?” Marie asks in a cautious tone, as he sets Mia down among her toys again, and turns back to her with a smile. 

“Yes?” 

“I... I have to tell you something, can we talk in the kitchen?” Marie asks, even though Mia won’t understand what they’re saying and there’s no door separating the kitchen and living room, she would rather have some semblance of privacy. Michael nods and they cross the room to the kitchen. 

“Is everything alright Marie? Are Citra and Rowan alright? And Munira?” Michael asks in a tone tinged with worry. 

“Everything’s fine, Citra, Rowan and Munira are fine too. It’s just... well you know how we agreed to start the adoption process, when Mia turns 1?” Marie asks. Michael nods. 

“Well, I think we’re going to have to delay it a while longer.”  Michael furrows his brow and looks at her in confusion. As far as hew as concerned Marie was as eager to adopt as he was, to give Mia a sibling, was she having second thoughts? 

“Why is that?” Marie takes a deep breath, smiles up at Michael and takes his hand in hers before pressing it to her stomach. 

“I’m pregnant.” 

[scribbles97]

Left Behind - Chapter 9

Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7 / Chapter 8 / Chapter 9 / Chapter 10 / Chapter 11 / Chapter 12 / Chapter 13

Read On Ao3

Shout out to @gumnut-logic for literally writing part of this for me I still sit and read that bit and just adore how perfectly accurate your description is! Thank you so so very much <3 

Also shout out to everyone who has read and commented, you guys are the best and spur me on to keep writing despite the madness at home! Love you all <3

Much like Tanusha had been, Kyrano was propped up in his bed when Lucy entered. Unlike his daughter, he was bright eyed, even with one swollen shut. His glare didn’t phase her, International Business Woman Lucille Tracy had faced plenty of men that didn’t see her fit for their world of work, a mother of five boys and godmother to two unruly girls had only affirmed her skills of persuasion. 

“You were shot four times Kyrano.” She stated as she stood at the end of her bed, “Stop fighting the goddamn drugs and rest.”

His good eye was accusing as he glared at her, “You sent her after me.”

She had hoped that he would at least let himself recover slightly before starting with the argument. The man was as stubborn as any of them in the top circle, and hurting. Lucy knew well what that could do to someone, no matter how calm they usually were.

“Good job she did.” Val bit back from where she stood at Lucy’s shoulder, “Or else you’d be dead and we’d be arranging another funeral alongside Jeff’s.”

Her heart froze at the reminder. All along she had insisted it wasn’t a funeral, she and Sally weren’t ready to face something quite so final when there had been no body to bury. 

Kyrano swallowed, licking along the red line of blood where his lip was swollen, “You were meant to keep her safe.”

“I was keeping you both safe.” She rolled her eyes, “You’re just angry that a pair of twenty year olds could keep up with you. I mean, what was this? The girls said they saw what was coming a mile off, yet you walked into it intentionally. Did you want them to kill you?”

His growl was low in his throat, “I’m not suicidal Lucy.”

“Then why the hell did you walk in there unarmed, and allow them to shoot you?” She snapped back, anger that one of her oldest friends had put himself at risk getting the better of her, “You told me you would keep yourself safe!” 

He sighed, his good eye resting closed as he swallowed again, “I’d hoped to get Gaat’s attention, find out just what he had hoped to achieve.”

“Instead it looks like you managed to scare him off.”

Lucy turned at the deep, english voice, straightening slightly as the blonde man closed the door behind him.

“Hugh! How did you get here so fast?”

He grinned, the smile reaching his one eye as he hugged her shoulders, “You’re not the only one with supersonic planes, darling.”

She frowned at him a moment, searching for further information between those cryptic brows of his. He still looked care worn, the scar peeking out from under his eyepatch enough to ruffian his appearance despite the elegant suit and neat coiffure. Hugh was a dichotomy. A pony tail in an expensive suit. A ruffian tailored to the nines. The cane he carried was merely an affection that could take out the legs from under an attacker swifter than the blink of that single eye. yet she had seen the man cradle his daughter with such tenderness her heart had clenched. A man to respect, beware and to love. Hugh Creighton-Ward was never who you expected him to be.

“Where’s Slyvia?” Val frowned, glancing out of the door. 

His blue eye darkened, “Still with Penny, she’s shaken after seeing what happened, but Slyvie is going through it with her… a debrief if you will.” He shook his head with a sigh, “She told me to come and see what was going on here and fill you in about Gaat.”

“What do you mean?” Kyrano murmured, eye open again, watching the older man, “What happened to him?”

Hugh pulled away from Lucy, watching Kyrano closely for a moment before he spoke, “We had a mole in contact with him, he’s been following him since the… incident. Word got through that you were seeking your brother out, and when that happened all contact was cut from Gaat’s end of things.”

“It’s only been hours,” Val frowned, “He might come back.”

Hugh shook his head, “No, the way he vanished just doesn’t fit. Our mole was in his hideout, it’s been cleared, vacant as if nobody ever was there. Gaat has turned to a ghost, and we’re not going to find him by any standard means.”

She could see where it was going, more time spent hiding away from their daughters seeking out a common enemy that had hurt them all as a group too long ago. It had happened once before, one man understanding another's pain as he grieved for his wife. One daughter sent off to boarding school, another sent to live with her own brood. Lucy wasn’t going to see the same happen again. 

“You’re not going after him.” She told them, “Nobody is going after Gaat unless he presents himself as an immediate threat to Tracy Industries or International Rescue. I am not risking anyone else down that avenue.”

“Lucy,” Kyrano breathed softly, “You can’t…”

She turned on him, fear and anger merging into one beast, “You almost died today Kyrano, Gaat wouldn’t have hesitated. Then who would have been here to protect Tanusha?”

Her words silenced him, his eyes dropped as he looked away. 

Lucy took the chance to turn on Hugh, “You and Slyvia as well Hugh. I’m not watching anyone go chasing ghosts, not after what your two girls saw today. Is it not enough that Penelope thought she had lost both her parents once?” She gestured to the patch covering the eye that no longer worked, “I have five boys grieving their father right now. I will not let our two girls go through the same experience.”

Blue held brown as he watched her for a long moment, lips pressed hard in a thin line. 

“Alright,” He nodded, breaking the look and turning to Kyrano, “She has a point.”

“Agreed.” Kyrano murmured, “I always taught Kayo not to chase ghosts.”

Hugh tilted his head with a frown as he watched Kyrano, “How long has he been out of surgery?”

“Ten minu--” Lucy started.

“Twenty actually.” He cut her off, “I was in here for ten minutes before you got here.”

“Bloody hell,” Hugh shook his head, “Stop fighting the drugs and go to sleep Kyrano.”

Val folded her arms, “We’ll get them to move you and Kay to the same room, Tia, Jude, and Pedro won’t be long.”

Nodding towards the door, Hugh took a breath, “You girls go and have a break, I’ll stay here and make sure he doesn’t get up to anything he shouldn’t.”

Lucy couldn’t help but scoff. Hugh was a bad influence, she had learned as much early on in his and Jeff’s friendship, one spurring on the others crazy schemes without much thought of the potential outcome. 

“Yeah right,” Val tutted, “How about you go and sit with your daughter and I’ll stop here.”

Lucy had to smile at the mock glare Hugh gave her, shaking his head as he turned to the door, “You ladies don’t trust me?”

“We know you too well,” She tutted as she guided him away, “Jeff told us everything, remember?”

He stopped, immediately falling behind and forcing her to turn to face him in the hallway. 

“How are you doing Luce?” He murmured, “Really?”

She paused, looking to him as she shoved her hands into her jeans pockets, “I still don’t want to believe it, not really. The boys need me to be strong though, and the business, and IR. Stopping to grieve isn’t really an option right now.”

He nodded, stepping towards her and reaching out to touch her arm, “I learned the hard way Luce, you have to give yourself that time, or else you’ll find yourself in a worse position later on.”

Shaking her head, she swallowed hard, cursing the lump that had formed in her throat, “I had the time before. Now, I just need to move on.”

The eyebrow he raised was unconvinced as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, “You’ve got plenty of people here for you Luce, don’t forget that. You need to look after yourself and not worry about everyone else.”

Snorting, she pulled away from him slightly, wiping her eyes as she shook her head, “I’ve got my head of security and his daughter in hospital, one son about to be a fully fledged IR operative, another son training for space flight, a third up to something I need to find out about, and a fourth one training for the Olympics. Alan hates school. Sally is… I’m not even sure how she is, she just keeps going. And Val and Lee are fighting as much now as they did after losing the baby.” 

Hugh frowned, blonde eyebrows dipping as he glanced back over his shoulder, “Really? They both--”

“They’re keeping it amicable in public.” She sighed, running a hand through her hair, “You’re speaking to the wrong person if you want me to just not worry about everyone.”

He shook his head as he drew her back into the hug, “Just don’t forget to look after yourself at the same time darling,” He murmured, rubbing her back, “If you need anyone to take something over for you, you know I’ll do what I can.”

Of course, she knew Hugh had been there. Had drowned in his own problems and struggled to find the words to ask for help. His offer was perhaps the lifeline she hadn’t realised she had needed. 

“The business needs more focus than I can give it right now,” She sniffed, pulling back to wipe at her cheeks with her hand, “There’s not many people I could trust it to realistically.”

Hugh nodded, “Say no more, I can do whatever you want me to. Get the legal team to divert anything you can’t manage to me and I’ll see to it that it’s sorted.”

She had to swallow again to dislodge the mass that had reappeared in her throat, “Thank you.”

His lips pressed to the side of her head as she squeezed her shoulders tight, “We’ll get through this darling, I promise you.”

Hugh was never who anyone expected him to be, but everything that Lucy trusted him to be. The man’s promise was his word, an oath that what he said would be done come hell or high water. 

That he had been where Lucy stood only solidified what he had said, making it that much more believable that it too would pass and life would find a new normal. Clinging onto his jacket, she took a moment to just catch her breath, feeling like for the first time in weeks, her head was perhaps just above the water.