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lakesandquarries · 4 years ago

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Tangled Up - Chapter One

for I am a tardigrade, and I'll stay at home

Benrey's spent 26 years living in a tower - 27, tomorrow. When a thief breaks into his tower, he finds his chance to escape and takes it.

Alternatively: Tangled, but the AI is self aware.

(featuring art by @kenas-artstuff )

Notes: check ao3 for warnings and tags! “kane radio” is just gordon using a fake name. fic title from “tangled up” by caro emerald, chapter title from “tardigrade song” by cosmo sheldrake.

Happy valentines day!!! hope you enjoy <3

AO3 Link

This is not the first time Kane’s come to tied up. It’s not even the first time this week. However, it is the first time he’s come to tied up with ropes made of human hair, and the first time he’s come to with a fucking raccoon shoving its nose in his ear.

So maybe he screams a little. Anyone would! It’s a reasonable reaction.

The hair around his wrists is a shiny blue-black, tough when he pulls at it. Is all hair like that? Is it one of those things that’s fragile individually but super tough all together? Seems like it, because it’s not even budging.

He’s so caught up that he doesn’t notice the person in the shadows until they’re holding out a crowbar, tilting up his chin.

“Yo,” they say, quiet and monotone. “You’re not supposed to be here.”

Kane screams again.

They’re weird looking. Pale, really pale, to the point that Kane wonders if something is wrong with them, and with a dark shadow around their eyes like a bruise that makes him sure. They’ve got on a long dress, all dark blues and lace and fancy embroidery, the kind of thing you’d either have to be rich to buy or have a lot of spare time to make. Their eyes are a bright, bright yellow, almost glowing, sclera a pale blue, and their hair is the same blue-black as the hair around Kane’s wrists - oh, it’s the same hair, isn’t it? Fuck, it’s long.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” the guy says again. “You got, uh. ID? Passport?”

“Passport?” This is - this is insane. This cannot be happening. “What the fuck,” he mumbles, repeating it to himself a few times, “what the fuck, who - who are you?”

The man tilts his head up with his crowbar. "No, no. I asked you first. You're in my house, I ask the questions." His eyes narrow, almost translucent in the light. "What're you doing here? How'd you find me? You gonna steal shit?" His hand goes to his hair, tugging on the blue-black strands. "Gonna steal my hair?"

"Steal your - why would I steal your hair?" The crowbar is cold against his throat, pressing harder every time he speaks. "And aside from that, I'm not here to steal anything. I thought this place was empty so I could use it for - as a shelter! Happy now?" His tone stays steady, confident even, but his hands clutch at the armrests desperately.

“You - huh?” The crowbar pulls back, just enough that Kane’s head can drop, and he sucks in a deep breath while he still can. The crowbar moves away entirely for a moment, as the stranger steps aside to have a whispered conversation with his pet raccoon.

Yeah, this day is weird enough for that to seem normal. Between stealing the prince’s royal helmet, ditching his partner, getting chased by a guard dog, and now this - it’s certainly been a day.

While the guy’s busy, Kane glances around, taking in the sights of the tower. It’s small. Homey. There’s a bed, a kitchen, a couch, bookshelves full of video games and a handful of books. The walls are covered, floor to ceiling, in paintings. When he looks up he realizes it’s not just the walls, the ceiling is painted too. Even the furniture has tiny doodles and carvings in it.

The crowbar slides against his throat again, cutting off his train of thought. "Is it just you?” the stranger asks. “No, uh. Backup? Not gonna...." he trails off, looking at his raccoon again, then back to Kane. "Who are you?"

He gives the man the best smile he can manage, under the circumstances, and says, “I’m Kane. Kane Radio.”

“Kane,” the man repeats. There’s a long pause where the two of them just stare at each other, before he finally adds, “Benrey.” Suddenly he tugs on his hair, pulling Kane closer to him and pushing the crowbar aside. “I wanna make a deal with you.”

“Uhh, yeah, could you get me out of your...hair, first? If that is your hair.” He doesn’t have time to make deals, and he doesn’t like the way Benrey repeated his name. Could he….? No, there’s no way. Kane’s been careful to erase any trace of Gordon Freeman. Of all people to blow his secret it’s not gonna be some random hermit living in a tower. He swallows, appreciating the lack of metal at his throat. “To be honest, I’d rather -”

Aaaand there goes the crowbar again. Shouldn’t have gotten confident. "You're lucky I'm gonna let you leave," Benrey says, voice low. Suddenly he doesn't seem like just a weird guy in a tower. Suddenly he seems like a threat. A choked yelp claws out of Kane’s throat as Benrey tugs on his hair again, pulling Kane close enough that he can see his unnaturally sharp teeth. "Wanna try that again?"

He barely processes the words, focused on the man - man?? - in front of him, the sharp teeth and glowing eyes and the crowbar pressing his throat shut, or maybe that’s just anxiety. It occurs to him that maybe this guy isn’t human.

His smile is nowhere near its usual confidence, but he tries to grin anyway. “S-so, uh, what...what was that deal? Benrey?”

Benrey’s face splits into a grin, and suddenly he’s just...a guy again. A weird guy! A weird, unsettling guy, with eyes that are too bright and teeth that are too sharp and hair that is way too long, but a guy. The crowbar is lowered and Benrey steps back, clambering up his fireplace and pulling back a red curtain. Behind it is...a painting? Still semi-fresh, from the looks of it, in the same style that all the other paintings are. This one depicts the floating lanterns they do for the prince's birthday. There’s all sorts of colors, blue and silver and pink and green, and below the sky is a hill with a small figure on it with long black hair.

"You know what these are?" he asks, pointing a finger at a pink light.

Kane exhales slowly. Benrey’s gonna push that crowbar against him again any second now, so he might as well enjoy breathing while he can. Fuck, he’d almost rather go back outside and deal with the guard dog that chased him here. “Yeah,” he says, voice shaking, and he clears his throat before he continues. “The lanterns for the lost prince.” Is Benrey fucking with him? Everyone knows the lanterns. Kane’s never even been to a lantern ceremony himself but he still knows what they are. He’d need a serious head injury to forget that, and while his head hurts a bit it’s certainly not that bad.

Benrey does not seem to be fucking with him, because he does a little cheer and fist pump. “I knew they weren’t stars,” he mumbles to himself, before turning back to Kane. Louder, he says, "I want you to take me there. To see 'em." He pulls the curtain back over and jumps down from the mantle, landing on the floor with a heavy thud. "Think you can manage that? Just there and back and I don't, uh. Y'know." He glances at the window. Kane follows his gaze, picturing Benrey launching his body out of it, and shudders. "Pretty good deal, I think."

Kane’s breath comes out in a panicked hiss.”W-well, that's not really a good idea right now, since I shouldn’t show my face in the kingdom right now considering I -" oh shit. "Oh shit. My satchel! Where is my satchel?!"

Benrey raises an eyebrow, smirking at him. “Oh, the bag thingy? I hid it. Mine now.” His smug face is the most infuriating thing Kane has ever seen, and he’d be throwing a punch if he wasn’t fucking tied to a chair. Benrey continues, "If you want it, you gotta earn it. You take me to the lanterns, I give you your satchel. Deal?"

Hid it. He said he hid it, so it’s….somewhere in here, probably, and once Kane realizes that it’s easy to figure out. He nods his head at a flowerpot. “It’s in there, huh?”

Benrey raises the crowbar again.

Oh, shit. “W-wait, no no no, no need to hit me!” He shuts his eyes, wishing he could move his arms to protect himself. He does not need any more head trauma, thank you very much.

This guy really won’t hesitate to kill him, huh? This stupid deal is his only real option. Kane sighs, keeping his eyes shut. "L-look, I'll keep my eyes shut like this? And you can hide my satchel somewhere else. No peeking. I'll agree to the deal. Just - my head already feels like splitting."

A pause. Kane almost considers opening his eyes but keeps them shut. Finally he hears Benrey’s voice again. “No peeking,” he repeats. There’s a series of shuffling noises, bare feet and raccoon claws against the floor, and then a moment later: “Okay. You can open your eyes.”

The satchel is nowhere to be seen, without even a hint to where it might be hiding. He sighs, head dropping forward before he looks up at Benrey again. "If I'm gonna agree to this, let me ask at least one question. Why do you wanna see them so badly, and why would you need an escort for that?"

Benrey’s face goes blank. “Uhhhh,” is all he says, followed by a long pause, leaving Kane worried he broke him somehow, but finally Benrey continues. "That's, uh. None of your business. 's just - it's, uh, dangerous. Out there. For me. Need a....need a guide."

Huh. Sheltered, maybe? Benrey seems...well, a little off, to be blunt. He can’t be much younger than Kane is, but he doesn’t even know about the lanterns. Overprotective parent seems a likely answer, but whatever the reason, now’s not the time to pry. “Alright, yeah, none of my business. Okay. We go see the lanterns, come back, you give me the satchel, yeah? Deal?”

“Deal,” Benrey agrees.

“Okay. Does that mean you can untie me now?”

-----

The thing about spending 27 years in a tower, knowing that this is where you’re going to spend your entire life, is that when you get the option to leave it’s kind of the scariest thing imaginable.

Kane’s already climbed down, leaning against a tree while Benrey stands on the ledge. Physically, he’s ready. He’s got his hair wrapped around the lever, ready to swing down, ready to go, to get out of the stupid fucking tower and out into the real world, except -

Except -

“You are never leaving this tower.” Zeki’s hands are on his shoulder, nails digging in. “Do you understand?”

Benrey reaches back, trying to grab at the closet. “But -”

“The outside world isn’t safe for you. You aren’t safe for it. If you went outside, you know what would happen?”

“Huh?”

“Look at you.” She grabs his hand roughly, pulling him over to the mirror. “They’ll take one look at you, and they’ll know, and then what? You’ll fight back. You’ll hurt people. You’re dangerous.”

It’s nothing new, but. He thinks about the man he has stuffed into his closet. He didn’t hurt him. He’ll be fine! “But -”

“This isn’t up for discussion. You. Are not. Leaving. Ever. Do you understand me or not?”

He stares at the mirror, looking between himself and Zeki. She’s looked the same as long as he can remember, brown hair always pulled into a bun and dark green eyes, pale skin but not in the same way Benrey is pale. She’s human. He’s not. And she’s right, that anyone who looks at him is gonna know. That’s why he’s up here, where it’s safe. Where no one can hurt him. And, more importantly, where he can’t hurt anyone else.

“I understand,” Benrey mumbles.

“Good.”

“I, uh. I thought of - I came up with something better. For a, uh. Birthday thingy.”

Zeki turns away from the mirror, towards Benrey. “Oh?”

“You got me that - the paint. Last year. The white one?”

“That’s a long trip,” she says, pursing her lips.

“I won’t ask about the. The stars. Or going outside. Or anything of that. I’ll, uh -” He glances at the dresser, the one where she keeps her lab coat. “I’ll make up for it.”

There’s a glint in her eyes, sharp like her favourite knife. “Fine. I’ll get you the paint.” Her face softens as she places a hand on Benrey’s head. “I’m only doing this to protect you.”

“I know,” he mumbles, as she steps away to gather her things. “I know.”

“Benrey?” Kane yells. “Are you gonna move or what?”

He jumps.

The fall is intense. Wind in his hair, sun on his face, watching the ground get closer - oh that’s close. Oh that’s very close. He stops just a few inches off the ground, hesitating once again. There’s no going back from this. The grass is so much greener than he expected, bright and shiny in the sun, drops of dew still lingering, and before he can spiral further he puts his foot down. When nothing happens - no monster appears, no pit opens up and swallows him - he puts both feet on the ground, the blades of grass tickling him.

A quick tug, and he pulls his hair down from the lever, watching it fall to the ground, and then joins it. The grass is still damp underneath him, but the sun above is warm. He’s getting covered in dew and dirt and bits of grass and he can’t find it in him to care, busy savoring the feeling he’s dreamed of for so long.

It’s not until he stands up that he realizes the bulk on his hair landed directly on Kane. He starts shoving hair aside, Jefferem lending a set of tiny hands as extra help. “You good?” Benrey asks, as Kane’s head becomes visible.

Kane huffs, struggling to stand. “Apart from being attacked by your mane, yeah, I'm fine. Can you help me out?”

Benrey holds out an arm. Pulling Kane up proves easier than he thought, and he pulls a little too hard, almost slamming Kane into him, the two of them pressed together for a moment before Kane coughs and steps back. Benrey takes a moment to half-heartedly brush some dirt and grass out of his hair and off his clothes, looking at Kane. “Guide time?”

Kane blinks at him, not bothering to clean off his clothing. “Uh - yeah. Guide time. Let’s go!” His steps are loud as he walks away.

Benrey’s footsteps are almost inaudible as he follows, crowbar gripped tight in his hands. The initial adrenaline is starting to fade, doubt settling in. Maybe this was a bad idea. It’s not too late to turn around and go back.

He shakes his head. Lost in his own thoughts, he’s fallen behind, and he has to sprint to catch up. Hoping not to zone out again, he starts talking, letting the first thing he can think of fall out of his mouth. “The lights - the lanterns. You said they were for a...prince?”

They enter a small stone tunnel as Kane answers. His voice is soft. “Every year, on the prince’s birthday, the kings - and the whole kingdom - release a swarm of lanterns,” he explains, voice echoing. It turns theatrical as he continues. “See, their little boy was snatched away as a baby, by an evil wizard! Or...something like that, at least. They’re hoping the lanterns will bring him back.”

“On his birthday?” Benrey echoes. Weird coincidence. A moment passes while Benrey busies himself with touching the walls of the tunnel. “And they still haven’t found him? Why’re they still doing the lanterns if it doesn’t work?”

Kane’s voice is softer, more subdued when he responds. "The kings still have hope that their baby boy will return someday. It's a very human thing in my opinion."

Ah. Human thing. That explains why Benrey doesn’t understand.

Kane pokes his head through the ivy, waiting a moment before ducking back and lifting it to let Benrey through. “We’re clear.”

Raising an eyebrow, Benrey repeats, “Clear?” Is something following them, or is Kane just paranoid? Or maybe Benrey is reading too much into things. Maybe it’s normal to check for stuff like that. Not like he would know.

"Ah - well, I told you earlier, didn't I? The kingdom and I aren't... quite buddy buddy at the moment." As they walk, he keeps looking around, eyes darting back and forth. "But don't worry, it shouldn't be a big problem for our objective."

Oh. Maybe he should’ve paid more attention to what Kane was saying earlier. Too late for that now, though. “So I was right? You a little - thief boy, huh? Stealing shit?” It’s mostly a guess, but he can’t picture this guy doing any real crime. His satchel probably had some stolen shit in it and that’s why he wants it back so bad. Well, better to team up with a criminal than a guard or something, considering all the rules Benrey’s breaking.

“Why do you keep insisting I steal shit?” Kane asks, looking away from Benrey. He doesn’t even give him time to answer, immediately following it with, “Hey, you hungry?”

Immediately changing the subject, huh? Now that’s suspicious. Admittedly he is a little hungry, and curious about where they’d be getting food out here. “Only if you’re not gonna steal it.”

Kane’s mouth screws up, eyes narrowing with a scoff. “I know a good place to get food. On our way, too. My friend works there.”

Oh shit, other people. He hesitates a moment before nodding. “Sure. Sure, yeah.”

Kane squints at him again. “You're not really an outside person huh? Have you...Have you ever been outside before?”

Damn, okay, just gonna straight up ask. Benrey opens his mouth to answer and then stops. “You answer my question first.” He’s not looking at Kane as he talks, eyes on the road ahead.

A groan in response, and then, “Fine, neither of us get an answer, then.” Kane picks up his pace, quickly getting ahead of Benrey.

“Someone’s grumpy,” Benrey mutters, rushing to catch up again. Kane’s anger surprises him. “I don’t care if you are. I’m breaking like....every rule possible just being here.” He pauses, scuffing at the dirt. “‘s all cool. Y’know. Be gay, do crime.”

Kane bursts into laughter, stopping in the road for a second. “Real rebel, huh?” he asks, shooting Benrey a grin that he returns nervously. “Fitting, then, for you to break out with a thief.”

Benrey’s grin widens, delighted. “Hah! I was right.”

“Yeah, yeah, congratulations, Blueberry.” The smile twists at the corners, as Kane leans closer to Benrey. “But that means we’re in my business now. So what about yours? You said you're breaking every rule right now. So... you weren't allowed outside that tower for some reason?”

That same empty expression makes a return as Benrey freezes. Twirling a strand of hair around his fingers, he clears his throat, forcing himself to start moving again. Walked right into that one, huh? And he’s not a coward, he’s not gonna refuse to answer after he finally got Kane to admit something. “Yeah,” he mumbles. “I, uh. Yeah. Not allowed. Very not allowed.”

If Zeki knew what he was doing right now - she’d kill him. Worse than kill him. Beside him, Kane’s gaze is soft, head tilted and eyebrows furrowed.

“Well…” he starts, “sometimes, you just gotta do what feels right, even if it hurts or makes someone mad. Trust me on that, I know from experience.” To punctuate his last words, he nudges against Benrey’s arm, almost affectionate. Benrey jumps for a second, hand darting to touch the spot Kane had brushed against, almost expecting it to feel different somehow. But no, it’s just his arm.

“Experience,” he repeats quietly. “Uh, yeah. I mean - I’m here.”

“That you are, Mr. Independent.”

#hlvrai #half life vr but the ai is self aware #benrey #gordon feetman #frenrey #benrey hlvrai #cora writes #tangled au #tangled up #adventures of cora

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vmheadquarters · 4 years ago

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We’re still playing our game of written hot potato! Dozens of your favorite authors are taking turns to tell a Veronica Mars mystery story. Each writer crafts their chapter and then “tosses” the story to the next person to continue the tale. No one knows what will happen, so expect the unexpected!

Follow the “vmhq presents” and “murder we wrote” tags for all the installments, or read the story as it develops on AO3. --Chapter Twenty-Nine of MURDER, WE WROTE is written by @louzeyre. And stayed tuned next week for Ch.30 from @heavenli24 - tag, you’re it!

_____________________________________________________________

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE by @louzeyre

Logan felt Veronica stiffen and immediately realized his mistake.

Family was a funny thing.

Given his own incredibly messed up family dynamics you would think he would know that instinctively. After all, he might hate Aaron unequivocally, but for as much as he now realized his own mother’s failings --- and for as much anger as he had at her for abandoning him --- he still loved her. Still missed her.

Even Trina --- after everything. He’d still lend a hand if she needed it.

It was different though, when it came to someone else’s family. No. It was different when it came to Veronica.

Every pain, every insecurity, every doubt Lianne had given Veronica, he felt resentment for on Veronica’s behalf. Far more deeply than he would if it had been done to him.

But as much as Logan wanted to protect Veronica. As much as he wanted to keep her from being hurt again. Especially that small part of her that still had hope that Lianne could be the woman she had thought she was when she was growing up. It wasn’t his place to do so.

It was Veronica’s choice whether Lianne was part of her life or not.

And Veronica had decided that being a part of Hunter’s life was worth allowing Lianne back into hers.

If Veronica was willing to do that for her brother—even after everything Lianne had done to her—then he needed to respect that. He could play nice. For her. For that relationship.

Or he could at least swallow down his own feelings, stay quiet and find a way to support Veronica --- while still letting her fight her own battles.

Sure enough, as soon as the shock of seeing Lianne had worn off, Veronica went on the offensive.

“Mom, what are you doing here? Where’s Hunter?”

“Hunter’s safe.” Lianne said quickly. “But after I heard what had happened to Ruby, I thought it might be better if we got out of town for a while.”

“So, you brought him to Neptune?”

Lianne had done some stupid things --- abandoning Veronica and choosing Jake Kane over Keith chief among them --- but she surely, she wasn’t that stupid.

“God no. I dropped him off with your Aunt Sheryl.”

“But you came here.” Veronica pointed out.

Lianne wrapped her arms around herself and somehow managed to make herself even smaller. “Given everything that’s happened to me here, Neptune is the last place anyone would look for me.” She told them.

Right. The hiding on Tatooine method of witness protection. Even in the Star Wars movies that didn’t make sense.

“I don’t understand. How could you be Ruby’s source? You don’t know most of the secrets she mentions? You weren’t even in Neptune for most of them.”

“You’ve only made it through the first half of the book, haven’t you?” Lianne said, knowingly.

“Half seemed like enough.” Veronica said, slightly defensively.

It had certainly seemed like more than enough to Logan. Each individual chapter had a certain je ne sais quoi in its own right, but as a whole? Between the wildly-varying writing styles, increasingly convoluted plot, and weirdly specific focus on their love life, Logan wasn’t sure either he or Veronica could have gotten through the whole thing without wanting to murder Ruby themselves.

“Most of what I told Ruby was about the corruption and backroom deals Jake made while he was building Kane Software.” Lianne said. “Ruby incorporated it as a series of flashbacks to the “Mystery Parties” Della’s parents hosted.”

In other words, what Lianne had contributed was the pillow talk she had learned while she was Jake Kane’s regular lunch buddy.

“Della’s character died in the middle of the book; how would she have had flashbacks?” Veronica wondered aloud.

Clemmons cleared his throat. “The rather lackadaisical sense of the time and continuity was meant to act as something of a smokescreen,” he answered. “Hiding the true seriousness of the book in plain sight, as it were.”

Veronica momentarily gave both Clemmons and Lianne a disbelieving glare. Then she seemed to give up trying to understand their logic and dropped her shoulders in a shrug. “Fine. But why help her at all? Isn’t Jake the love of your life?” Veronica’s voice reached new, previously unknown levels of sarcasm towards the end of the question.

“Jake was my first love Veronica.” Lianne said carefully “And yes, for a long time I bought into the idea that that meant what we had had together was the best I would ever have. That it made it special. Magical. I don’t know if your father and I could ever have worked, but I do know now that, because I kept looking backwards, I didn’t really give us a chance.”

“Right, it wasn’t your fault you cheated on dad. The toxic misogynistic rom-com trope made you do it.”

“I’m not trying to justify my action Veronica,” Lianne snapped. “I’m just trying to answer your question. It’s taken me a long time but I have finally realized that you can fall out of love with someone, and that might be a good thing. That if you allow yourself to move on and take what you learned from that first love and first heartbreak you can use it to make your next love actually be better and more magical. To be the sort of love that does last. You two,” Lianne said, nodded slightly towards Logan. “Taught me that.”

Logan fought the urge to roll his eyes at Lianne’s obvious attempt to tug at Veronica’s heart strings. Veronica seemed even less impressed.

“Great speech mom, but helping to write a tell all to get revenge on your ex doesn’t exactly scream “moving on”.” she pointed out.

“It’s not revenge.” Lianne said, allowing herself to collapse onto Clemmons couch. “It's… an attempt to right some wrongs. Even if it is far too little and too late.” Lianne let out another long sigh.

Veronica’s frustration with her mother’s sudden turn towards loquacity and melodrama was reaching a tipping point and her whole posture tensed up. Logan reminded himself how much she wanted to spend the holidays with Hunter and started to rub comforting circles along her lower back. Maybe it would keep her calm enough to remember charging taser first at her mother wasn’t as good an idea as it seemed at the moment.

Finally, Lianne seemed to deem her dramatic pause long enough and began to talk again.

“When Lilly died, I knew—or at least thought I knew—that Jake had an alibi. But instead of telling your father I kept quiet and watched two men I claimed to love try to destroy each other. All to save my own butt.” Lianne shook her head. “If I had said something back then, then maybe your father wouldn’t have been so focused on Jake. Then he wouldn’t have lost his job. He might have even found Lilly’s real killer sooner. Our marriage would have been destroyed, but your life wouldn’t have been. Not like it was.”

“Again --- nice speech. But that was more than a decade ago.” Veronica bit back.

“I told you: I knew it was too little and too late,” Lianne said, becoming agitated.

“Way too late.” Veronica told her. After a few beats, though, Veronica relaxed slightly and let out a final sigh. “Okay.” she shrugged. “You want to atone for past sins by spreading thirty-year-old gossip about your ex. Wonderful. Good for you. Now, you mentioned something about Ruby’s having other sources? Do you,” Veronica said, looking at Lianne then turning toward Mr. Clemmons, “Or you, know who any of the others were.”

Lianne shook her head.

Clemmons sighed. “Ruby joked several times that she was receiving help from beyond the grave, but as far as actual sources go, all I knew of was myself, Ms. Reynolds, someone Ruby communicated with through emails who called himself “Mr. Owens,” and a woman named Astrid Fife.”

“Astrid?” Veronica said “As in Celeste’s former personal assistant?”

“I believe,” Clemmons said. “Although, Ruby did once make some oblique comments implying, Astrid may have also had a more intimate connection with the family.”

“Of course, she did.” Veronica said, rolling her eyes.

****

Veronica slid into the passenger seat of Logan’s BMW and let herself sink into the leather for a moment. She took a breath. Tried to just relax. Just for a second. Finally, once she thought she wasn’t going to squeeze the life out of the car armrest she turned to Logan. “Well, that was enlightening.”

“Just, not in a way that was in any way helpful,” he said.

“We did at least confirm the book is aimed at the Kanes?” Veronica pointed out.

“And that Ruby was working with sources, not from some else’s stolen manuscript,” Logan added.

“And that Duncan apparently is in Australia,” she told him. Logan gave her a questioning look. “Astrid helped get little Lilly out of the country,” Veronica explained.

“Good to know. I’ll make sure to cross Bells Beach off of future vacation destinations.”

“Oddly enough I actually believe my mother. She seems to genuinely want the Kanes to be brought down --- or at least for people to know the truth about Jake. Which means that unless Ruby was killed by a ghost, or this Mr. Owens, it doesn’t really seem like it was one of Ruby sources that murdered her.”

“Which just leaves the dozen or so extremely wealthy and powerful people who are called out in the book in some way,” Logan said with false cheer.

Veronica let out a groan. Suddenly she felt very stupid.

“What?” Logan asked.

“I know who we need to talk to,” she told him.

“Who?” Logan asked.

“The man who killed Aaron.”

On that perfect exit line, Logan reached over to start the car. A sudden thought occurred to Veronica, however, and she placed her hand on his, stopping him. “You don’t think the “next love” my mom was talking about is Mr. Clemmons, do you?”

The two of them shared a look of collective horror as they were both forced to imagine two people, they had spent their adolescence trying to pretend didn’t have a sex life having a sex life with each other.

“We will never speak of this again,” Veronica finally said.

“Agreed.”

****

At some point during the near decade Veronica had been away from Neptune, Clarence Wiedman had left Kane Software and founded his own private security firm. Veronica wasn’t sure if it was a sign of good training or bad that the moment she told the poor kid working at Deep Ridge’s front desk who she and Logan were, a look of fear filled their eyes and they immediately called for back-up in the form of Wiedman’s own personal assistant.

Less than five minutes later she and Logan were shown into a large, sunlight filled office, at the center of which sat Wiedman himself, behind an imposing wooden desk.

“Well, it looks like you finally got that corner office,” Veronica quipped. “Guess it’s good to be the boss.”

“Miss Mars. Lieutenant Echolls. To what do I owe this visit.” Veronica shot him a sarcastic smile.

“Oh, come on Clarence, you know why we’re here.” Veronica told him. “Ruby Jetson? Or maybe you knew her as Della Pugh? Wrote a book about all of the Kane’s dirty little secrets? She’s dead now.” Veronica leaned forward, onto that very imposing desk. “But since you’re the person the Kanes turn to clean up those kinds of messes, I’m guessing you already knew that.”

Veronica wasn’t under any illusions that she was going to be getting a confession from Wiedman. That wasn’t the purpose of the visit. But if she rattled his cage enough, she hoped she might be able to shake out some response. One that might help her and Logan decide on their next step.

“Miss Mars, as you yourself have pointed out, I no longer work for the Kane Family.”

“You no longer work for the Kane family exclusively,” she countered. “But I’m betting if they walked in here with a large enough check you would be more than willing to work for them again.”

“Even if that were the case, I simply provide personal security. Not assassinations.”

“I think Carlos Mercado and Aaron Echolls would disagree.”

For less than a second Wiedman ticked a glance towards Logan. The movement was almost imperceptible, but it still felt like a victory. Logan saw it too and knew to take advantage of it by throwing Wiedman further off balance.

“Oh, don’t worry,” Logan told him. “If you did what she said you did, I owe you a hand shake. And a fruit basket. One of the fancy ones.” Just for a moment, Wiedman’s mouth gave a barely perceptible twitch.

“Those were ruled suicides I believe,” Wiedman said. He folded his hands together over his desk, then turned, purposefully this time, towards Logan and said completely deadpan, “I’m sorry for your loss.”

Logan gave an exaggerated nod.

“Clarence—”

“Miss Mars,” Wiedman interrupted. “As I have stated, I had nothing to do with those deaths. I might, however, point out that both of those men killed young women under the Kane’s protection. Under my protection. Miss Pugh’s situation on the other hand, would be far more similar to that of Miss DeLongpre. It would follow that, if, hypothetically, the Kane’s had wanted to discourage Miss Pugh from publishing, they would have handled it in a similar way.”

Veronica shook her head in disbelief. “Ruby wanted more than anything to be a celebrity. She would never have given up her one chance at that by taking a pay out and slinking off into hiding the way you tried to get Amelia DeLongpre to do.”

“Or perhaps you didn’t understand Miss Pugh as well as you thought. Perhaps what Miss Pugh wanted more than anything, wasn’t to be famous, but to simply be accepted among the people who she idolized. And perhaps, if someone was to point out that writing a book exposing the secrets of the very people she wanted to impress and be welcomed by would be counterproductive to that goal she might be amenable to another option. Perhaps, if she were then given the opportunity to reinvent herself as the sort of young woman that would be welcomed into those circles, with the sort of money that she would need to do so she would be quite willing indeed, she would in fact welcome it.”

“Perhaps.” Veronica echoed crisply.

Wiedman gave Veronica a plastic smile, then turned his attention to his desk, pretending to be concerned with some random bit of paperwork lying on it. “Now, I believe you know the way out Miss Mars?” he said, still keeping his eyes down.

Veronica let out something that wasn’t quite a snort and turned towards the door. As they were almost at the door Weidman called out again, stopping them.

“Oh, and Lieutenant? Miss Mars?” Wiedman called out, stopping them, “Perhaps you should finish reading Miss Pugh’s manuscript. I think you might find it quite interesting.”

#veronica mars #veronica mars fanfic #vm fanfic #vmhq presents #murder we wrote #round robin

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pretend-writer · 5 years ago

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Down Below (Chapter 54)

Summary: After being sent down on Earth with the other prisoners from the Ark, Y/N Reyes faces series of events and learns about survival. With new things happening around her, she is now starting a new chapter in her life.

Pairing: Bellamy Blake x reader, Raven Reyes x sister!reader

Word Count: 1462 words

Warning: swearing, mention of death, mention of sex

Down Below Masterlist

✤ · ✤ · ✤ · ✤ · ✤

You open your eyes and you realized that you were in an unfamiliar room. It took you a while to notice that this wasn’t the last place you remembered as well.

Staring at the ceiling and trying to retrace your memories, you recalled the last event that happened.

‘Bellamy?’ You mumbled his name, hoping that he was here somewhere.

'He’s not here.’ Octavia grabbed my arm, 'You’re with us. At the bunker.’

Quickly sitting up, everything hit me at once. All the memories flashed back, 'I-I got back in time?’

'When we noticed that we heard knocking from the outside, you were passed out but Abby took care of you.’ With a tear in her eyes, she smiled at me. 'We didn’t know if you were going to make it.’

'Did they ever make it to The Ring?’ I questioned Octavia. My heart was pounding fast, scared of the response I was about to get.

Octavia bit her lips, 'Bell and I talked as they were getting ready to fly up. The radiation took the signal before they launched so honestly, I’m not so sure.’

So many doubts ran through my mind and I was so scared. Raven was smart enough to get them going to The Ring, I believed that. However, there were so many things that could’ve went wrong in the process.

'You know, Bellamy made sure to tell you how much he loved you.’ Octavia gripped my hand, trying to reassure me. 'With you being fixed by Abby and Jackson, he couldn’t tell you but he wanted you to know.’

It broke my heart to think that that was probably really the last time I was ever going to see him again. After all we have been through, I thought that this bunker was our way to survive together.

Octavia hugged me tightly, 'I’m really glad you’re here Y/N. We got this.’

Hugging her back, I nodded. 'I’m glad I’m here too. How was everything so far?’

'Little disagreements between the clans but it’s going to take time for them to get used to us all being Wonkru.’ Octavia sighed, 'I can’t be a leader, Y/N. Everything is all over the place.’

'Yes you can. O, you defeated every champion from every clan in the conclave. I mean, who can beat that?’

'I’m a warrior, I can fight off people but being a leader? I don’t know if I can do this.’

As I placed my hand on Octavia’s, I smiled. 'Hey, I’ll help you okay? I tried leading our people and unfortunately it didn’t go as well but we can work together.’

'You kept a lot of us alive this far haven’t you? That sounds like a great leader to me.’ Octavia giggled, 'You and Bellamy did a good job.’

Everytime I think about Bellamy even for a second, it made me want to cry but I couldn’t do that. I had to stay strong for Octavia and the rest of Wonkru. 'I miss him, a lot.’

'Speaking of Bell, I heard about you two.’ She raised her eyebrows. 'I’m glad you got laid before this tragedy.’

'Ugh, Octavia don’t say it like that. You make it sound awful.’

She laughed and lightly pushed my shoulders, 'Took you guys long enough. I’m proud to call you my sister-in-law.’

'You’re so dramatic.’ I laughed and looked into Octavia’s eyes. 'Seriously though, we got this. Don’t you worry.’

'You and me?’ Octavia pulled up her fist.

'Me and you, always.’ I fist pumped her and smiled.

✤ · ✤ · ✤ · ✤ · ✤

'What do you mean we don’t have enough food to last us?’ Kane asked Cooper, confused. 'I thought we had everything we needed.’

'Everything was according to calculation until she allowed 1200 people into the bunker.’ Cooper claimed.

Octavia squinted her eyes, 'You’re blaming me?’

'This is Jaha’s bunker, it wasn’t yours to give.’

'Look.’ I stepped up and stood in front of Cooper. 'If you want to play that game, then Trikru and the rest of the grounders had the right to kill us when we got here. We’re on their territory.’

'But-’

'If I was Octavia, I would’ve represented Trikru on the conclave and saved them instead because you guys are acting like spoiled assholes.’

Cooper’s mouth shut, starring at me as if she wanted to throw her fist in my face. 'What’s done is done so quit yapping.’

Indra chuckled, 'Well said.’

'This isn’t fair. This wasn’t your decision to make.’ Cooper glared at me, then eyed Octavia and walked out the office.

Octavia let out a loud sigh as Jaha followed Cooper out, 'If we cut the ration in half, will we be able to survive?’

'Theoretically, yes but people are going to eventually starve.’ Abby answered. 'Cooper’s right though, we need to depopulate.’

'No.’ Octavia stated.

'I agree with you.’ Kane said. 'We’re not going to slaughter people just because people need more food. That’s insane.’

Indra changed the subject, 'Do you think we can solve that hatch issue? Sounds like the Polis Tower collapsed on top of us.’

'We have no other way out but we have five years to figure it out.’ Kane added.

'There’s no point in stressing about it now. We have other things to worry about.’ I agreed with Kane.

Octavia nodded, 'Alright. We figure out the blocked hatch as we go and for now half the rations.’

'Sounds good. I’ll go talk to Jaha and Cooper about this.’ Abby said.

'I’ll come with you.’ Indra walked right behind Abby out to the door.

Marcus laughed lightly, 'It was a little bit funny but you didn’t have to talk to Cooper like that. What you said was right but she’s probably scared.’

'She doesn’t have the right to tell us who’s bunker it was. Yes, Jaha found it but it wasn’t theirs to keep. Especially after we made a deal to give it to the champion.’ I sighed, 'Why is it so hard to understand that we’re in this together?’

'I don’t know monkey.’ He hugged and kissed me on the forehead. 'Some people just don’t want to face the truth, some don’t like changes. Everyone’s different.’

'This sucks.’

Marcus shook his head sarcastically and smiled. 'It does but I’m so happy you made it back here, Y/N. How are you feeling?’

'Peachy. Physically, I’m fine. Emotionally, I don’t know if I can do this.’

Octavia giggled as she was listening to our conversation. 'Aw, you miss your boyfriend? Your Bell Bear?’

'Wa-wait? Boyfriend?’ Marcus stopped himself and look at me weirdly. 'Since when?’

'Oops.’ Octavia covered her mouth.

The sudden scream from the pit made me, Octavia and Marcus turn. From the sound of it, it was obvious that everyone was fighting again.

'They’re doing it again.’ Octavia muttered.

I looked at her and bit my lip. She constantly tried really hard and she wanted to make it work. People however didn’t want to respond to her.

Stomping out of the office, I took a sword from the nearest guy that was standing out the door. Raising the sword, I yelled. 'Daun ste pleni!’

Everyone’s face turned towards me as their mouths shut. Then, I repeated myself but in English this time. 'That is enough.’

'I’m so tired of you guys bickering and complaining.’ I walked around, shouting so everyone can hear. 'The people of your clan died for this. They sacrificed their lives, for what? Ungrateful assholes like you?’

As I gripped on the sword, I slowly cut my hand and raised it. 'My blood is red and so is Octavia’s. Our new leader of Wonkru is not a natbleda.’

'The time of flames and nightbloods are over. Octavia has sacrificed everything for us to live down in this bunker, for us to share as one. You guys are disrespecting her decision by fighting like animals.’

'From now we live together, we bleed together and we are one.’ I squeezed my hand into a fist, blood dripping down my arm. 'Omon gon oson.’

All the grounders kneeled on one knee as Octavia walked beside me. They all bowed down as they spoke, 'Omon gon oson.’

'Okteivia kom Wonkru. Oso throu daun ogeda.’ I took my hand out and smiled. 'Otaim.’

'Thank you.’ She whispered and took my hand as my blood smeared on her skin. 'I’ll be with you through all fights too, bad and good. Just like always.’

I nodded and kneeled as I faced Octavia. With my head down on the ground, I called out. 'Omon gon oson.’

'Wonkru, we start from today. We will all live here, together and I will make sure that each and every one of us will survive. If anyone disagrees, you are enemy of Wonkru.’ Octavia smirked, 'The choice is yours to make.’

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tag list; @jodiereedus22, @coffeebooksandfandom, @bellamyblakemorley, @wisestydia-15, @dbtvluv , @hurricane–amelia , @lexalexy , @olkathefoxi, @lena-davina, @kellbell44, @thehakunamatara, @akelly4477, @morgannope, @littlegirl-fox, @captainam-erika-trash, @greygarbage, @nathaliabakes, @eternallyvenus, @rauwz, @broco8

#bellamy blake x reader #bellamy blake fic #bellamy blake series #raven reyes x reader #raven reyes x sister!reader #down below series

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easilydistractedbyfanfic · 5 years ago

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Not Here For This Raven Hate

Guess what, fandom? When you don’t tag your character hate properly, I see it on my dash. I see all the anti-Raven baloney going around, and I’ve been trying to ignore it, I really have. I’ve had tags blocked for a while, I unfollowed some people, I’m trying to give some others the benefit of the doubt or trying to stay above the fray, and if it spreads a bit more, I know I’m gonna be missing out on some fan creations in order to keep my dash pleasant. I mean, I get it - we all get frustrated with certain arcs or plot points, and not every character is going to be our favorites.

But every time you crap all over a character and put that on your dash in a non-meta, accusatory, let-me-just-be-rude-and-mean way, every one of your followers will see it. And even if YOU tag it correctly, the people who reblog it may not. Maybe that matters to you, maybe it doesn’t, but for every person ticked off at a particular character, someone else loves them and that’s their favorite. I don’t expect fandom to be a polite or kind environment, but I do expect people to treat others how THEY would like to be treated. So that means tag your freakin’ character hate so the rest of us can avoid it! And when you put ship names in the tags even though the ship has NOTHING to do with the post, that’s also pretty crappy. Type in “anti Raven Reyes” in your tags, it’s easy! We’re all looking to have our own experiences in fandom and if you want yours to be about hating Raven - have at it, just do it where other fans can block it and blacklist a consistent tag!

And by the way, I wrote a long AF meta in March about Raven & Forgiveness - you can read it here - but let me say this: Raven is one of the MOST forgiving characters in this show. She forgives Finn for cheating on her. She forgives Bellamy for breaking her radio and they become friends. She forgives Echo for her part in Gina’s death because they’re obviously friends now. She forgives Abby for slapping her across the face in S2. She forgives Shaw for his part in her torture and when he vented the air in space to try and kill her and Murphy. She forgives Murphy for shooting her. She forgives and comes to understand what Clarke did for Finn by mercy-killing him. Raven forgives Abby enough to both save her life in S6 and give her the chance to say goodbye to Kane. Raven presumably forgives Indra for that torture she experienced at the end of Indra’s knife when Lexa was poisoned because they’re seemingly on speaking terms now (probably just a plot point though, let’s be honest. But how dare they not let these two interact again before now!).

Did Raven & Clarke argue this season? Yep, they did. Both Clarke AND Murphy AND Abby admitted that they did something wrong/something they regret/something they wish they could take back. Raven calls them all out on their actions. Monty has told them all to be good guys, to do better. Why in the world are we angry at Raven for pointing out what these characters are saying about themselves?

Should we be angry that Raven is softer with Murphy, who she has lived every day with for 6 years, who she has consistently had a relationship with where (regardless of shipping), they tell each other the hard truths even when painful, they show vulnerability and understanding towards each other, and she knows how to get through to him? Naw, that makes sense. If you think this ISN’T Raven with Murphy, or him with her, then you haven’t been paying attention.

But Clarke & Raven? They’re not connected right now, haven’t been since they spent those 6 years apart. Now I like both of them, I expect them to definitely be friends again, and franky yes - I’m frustrated with the writers that they haven’t moved past this and fixed things yet. But I am optimistic that they WILL. You don’t have to be optimistic, though - I don’t expect everyone to share my opinion. But I have no interest in pitting Clarke & Raven against each other in the show or on my dash, even though Raven will always be my favorite. If you want to be angry, guess who is DOING this? The writers, fandom, it’s the writers. The characters are not real no matter how much we love them.

Anyway, unfollow me if you don’t want to see Raven, Murphy or Murven content on your dash. No hard feelings - everyone gets to pick their fandom experience. But TAG YOUR ANTI POSTS EVEN IF YOU ARE REBLOGGING SOMEONE ELSE! AND QUIT PUTTING SHIP NAMES IN YOUR TAGS IF YOUR POST IS NOT ACTUALLY ABOUT THAT SHIP!

#anti rant #get it together fandom #why is fandom like this #I don't want to see anti Raven or anti Murphy content and I'd just like to keep the tags blocked #hate them all you want just let me keep it off my dash

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lildevyl · 5 years ago

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The Hounds, Chapter 4: The Deal

Summary: Seth Rollins makes an unknowing deal with the Deadman to have his brothers back. And Seth has no idea what “price” The Undertaker will like in exchange.

(Smackdown)

The locker room door shut complete before Seth even gotten to it. Okay, that was a very creepy and an impressive parlor trick, Seth had to admit to himself. Then all of the lights began to flicker. Seth couldn't explain why but he suddenly had an urge to run. To run like a bat out of hell and never look back, but he was frozen. He couldn't move. Never daring to even breathe.

Seth felt a presence though. He couldn't explain it, couldn't even fathom, on how this would look, let alone how it would sound if he tried to tell someone. People thought he was overworked or worst, was starting to snap. Neither one of those were good options for Seth. So he just stood there frozen, secretly praying that whatever this was, would be over and done with soon. He sensed more then heard someone looming around him. Just hovering over him.

"What do you want, Seth?" A deep, dark and sinister voice asked.

Seth, briefly closed his eyes. Undertaker had always freaked him out. Now, here was in the Undertaker's locker room, at his mercy. Seth should have thought this through more. What did he expect? That the Undertaker would just give him answers in dealing with his brother? Seth, you moron! They are the Brothers of Destruction! Even at their worst, being at each other’s throats, they wouldn't help an outsider! Let alone someone who was the enemy!

Seth went to open his mouth but nothing came out. He couldn't form words. Nothing was coming to him. He needed to tell the Undertaker that it was a misunderstanding on his part. A little mistake. That Seth came to see an old friend and accidentally had gotten the wrong locker room. It was a simple explanation and it could be that easy to get out of there unscathed.

"I know why you're here, Seth," Undertaker said lightly slapping a hand on his shoulder.

Seth couldn't help it, he flinched a bit at the sudden contact and how close to his ear Undertaker sounded. Of course he would know the reason why Seth Rollins, Raw's number one guy was here to see him. Kane. Kane had come back. Kane and the Undertaker are brothers. Both in destruction, and in blood. No matter how bad it would get between the two of them, no matter how strained their relationship may get. They still held that bond and they would never break that code.

"My brother has finally come back, hasn't he," it wasn't a question, more like a statement.

The only thing Seth could do was nod his head. Now, he understood what everyone had meant about never being the same when face to face with the Undertaker. Seth had always thought and assumed it was the mind games and the parlor tricks, but now? Now, Seth would testify and swear on a stack of bibles, that no. It was not. It was all the Undertaker's doing. The mind games and parlor tricks may help but it was truly all of the Undertaker. How? Seth didn't know and probably would never know.

"And you want my help?" Seth nodded again hoping and silently praying that Undertaker would just say no, so he could get the hell out of here. "Well I could help you." Seth wanted to look up at the Deadman because complete shock covered his face, but he thought it best not to. Just keep his head down, let the Undertaker have his fun with scaring the hell of him as warning and never come back. "But that's not what you truly want. Now is it Seth?"

Seth felt the Undertaker circle him when he said all of this. He never dared lifted his head because of how terrified he was at the moment. How? How did Undertaker know that Seth was regretting his decision? How did Undertaker know that he was about . . .

"Is it Seth?" Undertaker slapped his hand on Seth's other shoulder. Seth flinched, not because of the contact but because . . . He felt a surge of something just ran through him. It was cold, ice, ice, cold. It was like reaching into the back of the freezer to grab a carton of ice-cream and wound up finding an ice pack instead.

Flashes ran through Seth's mind. Him and his brothers in the ring high fiving each other. In a Marriott Hotel sitting around watching TV, drinking a few beers that they found at a local liquor store, munching on some snacks. All three of them laughing and having a good time and seeing who got the beds and who got the cot. Celebrating back stage in NXT after winning the tag team belt. Fist bumping, high fiving with the belts, laughing when they got "scolded" from Hunter for doing that with the belts. Meeting up in the locker room figuring out what to do with their next opponents, and trying to get them noticed for bigger things.

"N-no," Seth manage to stammer out not believing for one second at what he just saw. "N-no. It's - it's not."

"Then what Seth? What do you really want?" Undertaker hissed.

Seth took an involuntary step back, and squared his shoulders. He brought his head up and looked Undertaker in the eye and had wished that he hadn't. Undertaker was dressed in what could only be described as a cross between a Medieval Grim Reaper and his Lord of Darkness days. His eyes though. Taker's eyes were . . . Glowing. Clear of all color and glowing in the dark. His hair looked as if he decided to not do anything with. The purest of silver white hair Seth as ever seen. It didn't do anything to make the Undertaker less terrifying. It just added to the effect!

"What do you really want Seth?" Undertaker asked again.

Oh, god. Were those fangs? Seth was really freaked out now! He so hoped and prayed that this was all a parlor trick and mind game that Undertaker had cooked up for him. To punish Seth for what he did to Kane. Seth stared, with eyes and his mouth slightly opened for, he wasn't sure for how long, but Undertaker acted as if he had all the time in the world. Seth slowly took a deep breath and swallowed that lump in his throat. He knew what he truly wanted but there was no way Undertaker could deliver!

Oh the hell with it! Just tell the Undertaker and be off! He couldn't bring them back! Couldn't build that bridge that he burned. He couldn't . . . Bring him back to his brothers. "My brothers," Seth barely said above a whisper. "I want my brothers back. I want my family back. I want the Shield back. No, I want the Hounds back. That's what we were. We were the Hounds. That's . . . That's what I really want."

Seth took a step to the door and Undertaker stepped aside to let him go. Seth stopped for a moment. Not trusting that Undertaker would let him out of here scot free. Undertaker never made a move. Seth continued on until he was in arms reach of the door. Undertaker's hand shot out and grabbed Seth in a vice like grip. Damn! That ice cold feeling was back but it felt like it was coming from the Undertaker's hand!

"What are you willing to do for it? What are you willing to exchange for that to happen?" Undertaker asked as if he was bargaining a deal.

"As if you could!" Seth spat looking at the Deadman.

"Oh there are many things we could do Seth," Undertaker said cryptically. "But it all has a price. I could bring back your brothers, they're just a miserable as you are. But you need to make the move to prove that you're not the puppet anymore. What price are you willing to pay for me to do this for you?"

"Anything."

"Anything?"

"Anything! Anything you want. Name it. All I want are my brothers back!"

Undertaker let go of Seth with grin that could give the Cheshire Cat a run for its money. "I think we have a deal. You'll have your family back Seth. You can count on that. But I expect you to pay my price when the time comes." All Seth could do was nod. Everything the Undertaker said didn't make any sense. It was cryptic, like a damn riddle, and you only have the first half.

#the hounds #wrestling #seth rollins #tyler black #wwe #the undertaker #dean ambrose #jon moxely #roman reigns #chapter 4 up #let me know what you think in the comments #i only have three more written #any ideas are welcome

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thephantomofthe-internet · 6 years ago

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Homeward Bound: Chapter 13

Steve Harrington x Henderson!Reader, Billy Hargrove x Henderson!Reader

Chapter Summary: a rush of fate brings two souls together...

Word Count: 6,946

Warnings: swearing, cheating, generally angst and fluff

Author’s Note: please send all complaints to @moonstruckhargrove-she wanted an update and I got you girl

Permanent Tag: @hotstuffhargrove @denimjacketkisses @hargrovesgoldilocks @hipsmcgee @lilmissperfectlyimperfect @casaharrington @thechickvic

Series Tag: @baebee35 @moonstruckhargrove @kurt-nightcrawler @thoughstofaredhead @fear-the-reaper115 @estheflowergirl @alex--awesome--22 @onemorekissisallittakes

“Jesus you need to stop doing that!” you cried, smacking Steve in the chest roughly, earning a hearty laugh and a warm smile that stirred something in your chest and made it hard to keep a smile off your face.

“Why would I? It’s fun!” he chuckled in response, turning to look at you fully, his eyes widening as he looked you over, making you both shy and hopeful. “Your hair!” he breathed.

“Yeah, I cut it all off.” You replied, running your fingers through it. “Is it bad?”

“No! It’s cool!” he cried, ruffling it like an older brother, making your heart drop in your chest for reasons you couldn’t exactly explain. All you knew is that that little gesture made you feel incredibly small and childish. You wished your hair was long and sleek again.

“Whatever…” you muttered, trying to hide the bitterness in your voice “Shouldn’t you be at work or something? It’s like the middle of the afternoon.”

“How much crime do you really think is in Hawkins now?” he mused with a smirk “Besides, I wanted to pop by here before I go to see Joyce and the kids.” He turned his attention to Jonathan, offering him a ‘hey man’ and a stiff hug. The two were never exactly close and while time healed the wounds shared between him and Nancy, Jonathan held grudges. Specifically, he held grudges over mistakes atoned for in junior year; Nancy ‘the slut’ Wheeler still rang loud and clear in his head at even the thought of Steve Harrington.

“I’d wait, not a great time, ‘specially for a guy in full uniform.” Jonathan said, earning a tight nod from Steve, who turned back to the crowd awkwardly. All of the mothers in the room were watching him like wolves, their teeth practically glistening behind their painted smiles. Karen looked absolutely murderous in her jealousy; now seeing the inherent value of marrying her daughter into a rich family with a successful son now that her daughter was married to a less than successful son of an only recently successful family. Likewise, your mother saw the value in Steve and was watching you two with proverbial hearts in her eyes, a dreamy expression on her face.

“So…where are you two going tonight then?” your mother asked giddily, practically smirking at you and Steve.

“What is she talking about?” Steve whispered to you, maintaining a polite smile towards the moms.

You shook your head, shrugging softly as you turned to your mother “We’re not going anywhere. I meeting Jenny Stein for dinner tonight.” You said, watching Steve’s face drop as the words left your lips.

“Didn’t you already see her this trip?” you mother sighed bitterly as Karen did her damndest to hold back a snicker, obviously excited about your seeming rejection of him.

“Yeah, but I’m meeting with her, Marvin Rubio, and a few other people. The leftovers, you know?” you replied vaguely, waving your hand through the list.

“Well, I’m that will be very nice, Y/N, are you leaving on Sunday or Monday?” your mother asked testily.

“Currently my flight is booked for Monday; I can change it to Sunday if that’s a problem, though.”

“Hmm…well I would love to have to till Tuesday, but I’ll settle for Monday.”

“Well…I don’t know if I’ll go that far, I do have to go home eventually. I have to go back to work.”

“It’s alright darling.”

You could feel Steve’s eyes burning into the back of your head and you couldn’t help but glance back at him. His expression was one of hurt and burning anger; he looked as though you’d committed a giant sin against him. Maybe that would’ve been his expression if you’d cheated on him rather than the other way around. You sent him a small smile, knowing that he knew that you were lying to your mother. It made your heart ache, because you knew you had hurt him. And that thought made you feel angry; because Steve never felt that pain. When you caught him and Elaine-god you hated her name-he might’ve felt bad for a minute, at least he pretended to, and then he and Elaine became an item and you were left on the side, unofficially broken up and even more broken than you were before. When he brought her home for Christmas, the last year you ever came home for the holiday, you’d just made up your mind to drop out of college and watching them flirt and flail about, you made up your mind about Steve: he was not a good man, like everyone thought he was, he was a heartless beast inside the body of a good guy.

You glanced superficially at the clock, not really checking the time but showing the group that you were checking the time “I should get going, I have to call my boss and clear up a few things before he gets in too deep with the new pile.” You announced, picking up your purse off the couch and ruffling Holly’s hair, who’d zoned out long ago.

“Are you sure? We’ve hardly even seen you!” Karen complained “I wanna hear about your new book your mother’s been talking about, apparently it’s expected to be a hit.”

You rolled your eyes “I haven’t written anything under my own name yet Karen, although my writing is making waves. Georgia Kane’s latest trash bestseller, Not so Miss. America, was a great success on my part. Did you read it? It’s your genre. Anyway, writing that got me a raise.” You replied, watching both your mother and Karen falter, each embarrassed for different reasons. “But other than that I’m not working with much buzz.”

When neither woman responded, you pulled your bag onto your shoulder and gave Nancy and Jonathan’s shoulders tight squeezes. “Alright, I’m gonna head out. I’ll leave the car with you, ma. See you all tomorrow!” you said, waving politely to the crowd and heading quickly out the door.

The sun had hit its peak in the sky, trying in vain to beat down the cool breeze gently rustling the leaves, weather that didn’t exactly match the season, but was a welcome change to the hot, sticky weather you’d endured during your stay. You were more than happy to walk in this weather, glad to take in the sunlight and cool breeze for awhile.

Unfortunately, Steve had followed you out.

“Lemme give you a lift, Henderson.” He called from the porch and you resisted the urge to turn around to respond to him. He hadn’t called you by your last name the whole trip. This was not a good sign.

“That’s alright, Harrington, I’d like to walk.” You replied, following suit and continuing down the driveway and onto the sidewalk. That should’ve been the end, but like a happy go-lucky golden retriever, he followed behind you, nipping at your heels.

“Then lemme walk you, I wanna talk.”

“Your car’s here.” You stopped dead in your tracks, finally turning to look at him and take in his concerned expression. “It would be a waste to walk all the way back to my place and then come here again. You wanted to visit with them, so stay. I can call you later at the station.”

“No you won’t,” he replied, shutting you up instantly “So I’m gonna walk with you for awhile.” You nodded, swallowing the lump in your throat and continuing, much slower, down the path.

“What’s up?” you asked shyly, keeping your eyes on your shoes rather than him.

“Why are you going out with Hargrove tonight?” he asked shortly, crossing his arms over his chest, watching you carefully.

“What makes you think I am?”

“Come off it, Henderson, if you’re gonna reuse a lie, don’t do it in front of the person who made it up.” You sighed, nodding softly; he got you there.

You looked up, meeting his eye for the first time as you turned off the Wheeler’s street “I’m seeing him because…he asked? And I wanted to. And that’s that.” You said.

“That’s not much of a reason.”

You huffed “Do you have deep reasons when you go out with a girl beyond wanting to?” Steve didn’t reply, only sighing softly, shaking his head, angering you further.

“No, you don’t. Cause most of the time, you don’t need a deep reason to go out with someone. So don’t hold me to higher standard than everyone else. I’m no better.”

“It’s selfish.” Steve told you harshly, causing you to stop dead in your tracks.

“What?” you fumed, voice no higher than a whisper.

“He’s in love with you, you said it yourself. And you don’t love him. You’re getting his hopes up.” Steve replied quickly; aggressively, angrily.

“And you haven’t done anything selfish in your life.” You bit out callously

Steve narrowed his eyes, almost sneering at you “What are you implying?”

“Did you ever love Elaine?” you snapped, silencing him immediately simply with your steely gaze. “Did you ever love me?” you pressed wishing your voice didn’t crack and your throat didn’t close.

“Y/N…” he replied and in an instant broke your heart with the heavy sigh he breathed out instead “It’s complicated.”

“Yeah,” you said, shaking your head, holding your lips firm to keep the lower one from wobbling pathetically. “Yeah no that’s not an answer. And you never have an answer. So don’t ask me for one now.”

You ran off before Steve could give you a response, before he could even try. You were home and inside before you ever realized you’d ran, your heart pounding in your heaving chest as you brushed your hair away from your eyes as you tried to calm yourself and keep the tears from flowing in rivers down your cheeks.

This was the proof you need. Billy was the right choice. Steve was so desperately wrong it was insane, you couldn’t believe you thought that…no, no you never thought that. If you’d thought that, then you liked him. And you didn’t like him. Ever. Billy was a better choice-sure he was both too much and not enough emotionally, but that can be trained out. Just because he didn’t speak your love language doesn’t mean he couldn’t learn. And this date would prove it.

You found yourself growing more and confident in the idea as you went through your day. You called your agent, something you didn’t think you could do and told him the honest truth-that you couldn’t take the novel to publish if you didn’t have the blessing of the people who inspired it, and he told you the honest truth that if you didn’t give it a definitive ending, no one would buy it. That was, surprisingly, an okay thing to hear and you accepted the information easily.

Of course, ending the novel seemed impossible. Because the story itself didn’t have an ending, not really. Sure, the trial ended the labs and sent people to jail, but the scars remain. And you couldn’t pretend that they didn’t have an effect on your life now. You weren’t ashamed to admit that the main character was based on yourself and your own life in Hawkins. You couldn’t write the story from anyone else’s point of few, it wouldn’t feel whole. But that gave you a problem because your story didn’t have an ending. You were a broken person, you didn’t sugar coat that, you weren’t the same girl you were even five years ago. But that wasn’t an ending, that was just a place to stop. And you didn’t want to build one whole cloth. You didn’t know how to even justify that to yourself, but you had to and so you would.

You just wouldn’t do it now.

Instead, you decided to look as effortlessly pretty as you could. You didn’t have much makeup on you; you hadn’t planned to be seen so often, so you trekked out to the nearest drugstore and found a tiny packet of eye shadow that complimented your eyes and, out of some old instinct of preteen-hood, a pearly pink nail polish. You spent the rest of the day trying to find the beauty your mother swore was there under the sneer and sarcasm of your teen years. By the end of your hard work, you’d found an older looking girl with clear eyes lined and painted in soft shadows and framed by enhanced eyebrows and a soft smile brightened with a rosy blush and glossy lips.

You felt, for the first time in the whole trip, intentionally pretty.

Beauty was something, you felt, was not something that was felt consistently. You found yourself trying harder and harder to focus on other things-your mind, your actions, your work, your loves-rather than your looks. You’d spent so long during your teen years worrying and thinking about your looks and beauty and now, as you’d aged and grown up, it felt sillier and sillier, a coping mechanism of youth you didn’t need to use anymore. But the feeling, as we all seemed to cause it, of ugliness swept you up sometimes. Some days, you woke up bright eyed and, objectively, pretty, but other days that creeping feeling of self-loathing that could only be attributed to the reflection in the mirror. You hadn’t put any effort into your appearance during the trip thus far, save for brushing your hair and putting on the barest amount of makeup possible, and only because your mother was insistent on it. You didn’t feel the need until now.

Now, you felt as though you had someone to impress, to put in the same level of work that you were certain Billy was putting in himself. It was a mutual, shared primping process done before any date. You knew the process well, the process seemingly become more and more important as you entered your twenties. You couldn’t really compare this to anyone else-you didn’t have many friends in San Diego and the closest female friend you had was your neighbour Stella, who despite not being in a relationship, hadn’t been on a date in three years, not since her son’s father ran off when she announced the pregnancy. You didn’t know if the process was a product of aging or just something expected of you as you aged; but you did note that every girl your age was trying to top every other girl around you. Maybe that was just California.

Still, when seven o’clock rolled around, you found yourself watched the front lawn with baited breath from the bathroom window, looking for signs of the tow truck or, hopefully, the Camaro since you missed it so much. You were excited, which was odd since you kind of hated him after the whole ‘I love you’ thing, and the feeling buzzed in your veins and coloured your cheeks.

But the feeling began to die as seven turned to seven fifteen and then to seven thirty. Finally, you just decided to march yourself downstairs and out the front door. You knew where he lived and if he was pulling some payback sort of shit, you could easily find him and cut off his dick. He’d deserve it too.

“I thought you were meeting for seven?” your mother called as you headed for the front door.

You stifled a sigh “We pushed the time back to eight for Marvin, he’s working late at the restaurant.” You lied, tossing your purse over your shoulder and slipping on your shoes.

“It’s so nice that Marvin still works for the family business, especially after his selfish siblings ran off to do other things.” You mother mused aloud and you turned back to look at her, noting the flour in her hair and the large mixing bowl and wooden spoon in front of her, a model image of fifties wifehood minus the poodle skirt and beehive hairdo.

“I guess it’s nice that his siblings have a backup plan though…in case everything goes to shit for them, you know?” you replied with a shrug.

“That’s exactly my point! The Rubio’s are excellent planners! I wish I had a business to pass down to you if this whole writing thing doesn’t pan out.” Your mother sighed and you stifled an eye roll, not wanting to offend her.

“Eh, I can always marry rich.” You said, earning a snicker from your mother. You decided not to look into that response and head out, scanning the street from your porch before jumping down the steps and heading down to the end of your street with arms crossed over your chest and teeth clenched in a hardened scowl. You couldn’t stand anyone else being late, despite yourself preferring to be a little late to everything, a hypocritical stance you held onto with pride. You, with great annoyance, began the slow trek up to the only place you thought he could be hiding.

“Hey baby, where’d you think you’re going?” you heard someone holler and you turned to look out towards the road, eyes catching the rusted brown truck that had tried to pass you in the opposite direction, and Billy Hargrove leaning out the passenger side window, tongue waggling out of his mouth and eyes leering. His hair was slicked with sweat, grease swiped on his forehead and was most likely coating his hands, and while you couldn’t deny that he was certainly attractive, the gap between your levels of effort was a canyon rather than a simple pothole. It was a significant let down, yo0u felt as though your efforts had gone to waste. Still, you put on a smirk and turned, hands planting themselves on your hips jutted to one side.

“You’re late.” You mused, watching him with a twinkle in your eye and a bemused expression.

You were always a fairly good actor.

“You gonna hold it against me?” Billy countered smoothly, watching for a change in your eyes.

Although with Billy as your audience, it wasn’t hard.

“Maybe…” you giggled, sashaying over to the car and pulling the handle and nearly knocking him out of the car to your feet. He pulled himself in, sliding across the bench and back into the technical driver’s seat, patting the seat next to him for you to take. You tried to ignore the sheer amount of garbage piled up at your feet as you smiled at him. He revved the weak engine, speeding off as fast as he could, which wasn’t very fast, and you giggled the same way you did when you were a teenager, grabbing onto the handgrip to keep you steady despite your lack of seatbelt, giving Billy an unneeded ego boost.

You didn’t know where you were going, but that was par for the course with Billy; he did things on the fly and that meant flying by the seat of your pants and not questioning too much. You used to not mind, but now it planted a worried seed in your stomach. You liked to be in control, to be in charge of your own location and destination. And while you were in charge of where you were, you weren’t in charge of where you were headed and that worried you to no end.

But you didn’t bother asking. You’d only get vague nothing answers and that would only upset you more. And besides, you knew Hawkins well enough to escape any situation he could drag you into, and you knew the highways well enough to get back into town if you had to jump out of the moving car. God, Hawkins brought out the survivalist in you.

You were pleasantly surprised when he pulled up to Benny’s, as you still insisted on calling it, although you weren’t impressed by his parking job, taking over almost three parking spots with his truck, claiming that it was a necessity to keep the thing safe as it wasn’t fully his, which you thought was all bullshit. You bite your tongue, however, choosing to not get into it and letting him wrap an arm snugly around your waist, pulling you closer than necessary.

As he entered the diner, his whole demeanour changed. He stood impossible straighter, taller and took up even more room. You found yourself being held tighter and closer to his side, making it hard to walk and led you to be mostly pulled around by him. He chose a booth on the far side of the diner, despite the other side being less busy. You didn’t understand why until you saw the waitress.

She had to be a year or two younger than you and looked like a small town Brooke Shields, right up to the big, wide eyed innocent hazel eyes. She was tall and thin and her hair was bigger than her head. You wondered how she’d ended up working in a diner instead of being the next big star, and then you remembered that this was Hawkins and nobody ever seemed to make it big. When she saw the pair of you, her smile turned weary and she spent just a second too long with the table next to yours and made a beeline to the kitchen instead of coming to you next, promising vaguely to be right with you. Not that Billy seemed to mind, he was watching her dreamily.

You should’ve been annoyed, hell maybe a part of you was, but mostly you were incredibly curious. There was a story there, you could tell. And you planned to figure out what it was.

Billy didn’t turn to look at you until you cleared your throat loudly and when he did, he looked completely annoyed to be doing so. “Are you alright?” you asked softly, leaning on your elbows to look at him with a sympathetic expression you pulled out of your ass “You seem distracted…”

“I’m fine. Just wondering where our waitress went.” He replied glumly, disappointment obvious in his voice.

“She looks like Brooke Shields doesn’t she?” you watched as his expression changed, looking at you curiously, his eyebrow rising significantly as if to tell you to go on. You didn’t however, instead waiting patiently for a response.

“Who?”

“You ever see the movie Blue Lagoon?” Billy shook his head. “How about Pretty Baby?” you tried. His whole expression perked up again, not in knowing but in excited memory.

“Yeah! I remember sneaking in to see that movie in theatres. It was like a crazy sex movie or something; everyone was talking about it for awhile.” Billy announced like a giddy child in the know.

“I guess? I think that was more for Blue Lagoon, that movie just got banned in a bunch of places. Anyway, the main girl in that movie-that’s Brooke Shields. She’s also in Endless Love.” You replied with frown, already noticing how he wasn’t paying attention to you anymore. Your waitress had returned with menus in hand and Billy was watching her closely with a smirk, not so much a forced one either like he did when he was trying to establish him dominance, but a real one that seem to be pulled from deep attraction. And the girl was blushing under his gaze, squirming like a beetle flipped on its back.

“Hi, I’m Rosemary, I’ll be your waitress for tonight, get I get you guys some drinks or do you need a second to look it over?” she addressed her initial opener only to you, smiling warmly down at you, clearly glad to not have to only address the man undressing her with his eyes.

“Um…I’ll have…” you mumbled, going over the menu briefly, double checking to ensure your usual order was still on the menu. “I’ll have a chocolate shake and a cheese burger, side fries.” You said simply, smiling up at her and handing back the menu.

“You know what I like, Rosie.” Billy said, handing back his. Their hands touched briefly and his thumb caressed her fingers gently, softening her expression and darkening her blush just for a second. It was as though you’d stepped into a bad teen movie; you were the forgotten friend watching on as the love interests fell in love right before your eyes.

“Alright, I’ll be back in a second with your drinks.” She said, clearing her throat and skittering off, busying herself behind the counter and sliding the slip into the wheel of orders above the pickup window, ringing the bell. Billy watched her closely and, after he waited the right amount of time you assumed, he stood from his side of the bench and announced that he was headed to the bathroom, leaving you alone at the booth.

You’d pieced together that they were, at one point, in a relationship, but something had gotten in the way. And by the way little Rosemary was looking at him, it had been a painful end. The whole thing was playing out like Austen novel, it was all very Persuasion-love lost lovers, separated by circumstance and still lusting desperately for one another. You would pity them, if only it didn’t seem like it was one sided. Billy was watching her like she was a piece of meat and not a person, a grave difference in reaction to one another.

You didn’t know where he’d wandered off to, nor did you care. This night was not going to end where you thought it would and that thought made you just a little sad.

“I’m sorry, are you Y/N Henderson?” you heard a voice behind you ask. You turned around, meeting the wide, brown eyes of Carol Danforth, who was peering at you as though you were a figment of her imagination.

You smiled back, waving politely “Hi Carol, it’s nice to see you again.” You said softly, brushing your hair behind your ear.

“Oh my god it is you! Hi! How are you, what’re you doing back?” she grinned, giggling and calculating.

“I’m back for my younger brother’s graduation, I’ve been in for a week and a half.” You replied, catching the eye of the nervous girl across from Carol. You turned fully, pulling your knees up on the bench and reaching your hand over to greet her “Hi, I’m Y/N.”

“Wendy…” she muttered, eyes watery, not bothering to shake your hand.

“Don’t mind her; she’s just upset over your date.” Carol said softly, hand cupped over her mouth.

“Billy break your heart?” you asked, ignoring Carol pleading looks to stop talking.

She hummed, swallowing hard “He said he…loved me…” she said shakily.

You nodded “He told me the same thing when I ran into him. I think he’s forgotten the definition of the word.”

“No, he’s just in love with someone else and won’t admit it yet.” Carol said, making you turn to look at her and following her gaze to the scene unfolding before your eyes. Billy had returned from the bathroom, or maybe he’d never gone in the first place, either way he was leaning over the counter and making eyes at her and making her laugh. They looked good together, something that made your heart feel so much lighter. He didn’t love you, he never did. He loved this little thing with a sexy pout and wide, innocent eyes. And that was more than okay with you.

“What’s the story there?” you asked, watching them spellbound.

“From what I’ve heard, he met her here when he was working construction after high school and they fell for each other. They were together for a year and then he cheated on her with Wendy over here. She dumped him, and he’s been chasing her down ever since.” Carol explained.

You furrowed your brow “But wait…I thought he was living in California until a couple years ago.”

Wendy and Carol looked at each other curiously before looking back to you. “He never left town.” Carol said.

“Yeah, he’s been here since graduation. Never left.” Wendy added awkwardly, before asking “What did he tell you he was doing here?”

“He said he was living here because his father died and he was handling his affairs. That he used to live in San Diego…” you said softly, almost embarrassed by the deceit.

“His father did die, but Billy didn’t handle anything with it. He told me he was disinherited. His step-mom handled it, he didn’t even go to the funeral.” Wendy explained to you. Suddenly, the whole situation became a lot clearer. And the image forming wasn’t one you liked.

Billy was returning to the table, as was Rosemary with a tray of drinking. And if destined in the stars, she tripped on the edge of the tile and you were coated in your own milkshake. And Rosemary screamed rather than you, hands rushing to cover her mouth.

“I am so sorry! Oh my goodness!” she screamed, grabbing napkins and rushing to help you wipe your face. You found yourself grinning, laughing even at what had just happened.

“It’s alright! No harm done, honestly.” You said, standing from your seat. Billy wasn’t even fazed by what had happened, he was so happy to be looking down Rosemary’s uniform as she wiped it up the mess she’d made on the floor.

Rosemary wasn’t paying much attention to him, she took your sticky arm and pulled you away from the bench “Here, I have a spare shirt in my locker, let’s try to get the stain out of your shirt.

“It’s okay, really, you don’t have to.” You tried with a smile. If you were reading this girl right, you were going to get exactly what you wanted from her.

“No, no let me help, I feel so bad!” she cried and you relented, letting her lead you into the bathroom before rushing off and instructing you to take off your blouse and soak it in the sink.

She returned quickly with a plain cotton tee shirt marked with the label of the diner printed on the front. She shrugged softly, handing it to you “Technically, you’re supposed to pay for these, but nobody does and I won’t tell if you won’t.” she said and you found yourself nodding as you pulled it on. It was a bit snug, but you much preferred it to the wet shirt you had on before.

“Thank you so much.” You grinned, tossing your shirt in the sink and turned on the faucet.

“Here, let me see if there’s a plastic bag or something in the back for you to throw that in. I wouldn’t want to keep you in here too long, can’t keep Billy waiting on you…” she said and you noted the sad turn in her voice. Now was as good of a time as any to ask.

You grabbed her wrist gently before she could completely turn away from you. “Can I ask you a somewhat personal question?” you asked, earning a bewildered and worried look from the taller girl.

“You can, but that doesn’t mean I’ll answer it.” she said and you liked her already.

“I noticed Billy…well, staring at you. Can I ask what the deal is there? Cause it’s a little weird if there isn’t a story.”

Rosemary sighed, her shoulders and head slumping down, her brown locks becoming a halo of curls around her head. “It’s not…it’s a long story. But it’s not weird, his staring I mean.”

“I don’t need the story, if you don’t want to tell it, but I can tell you that Billy doesn’t look at everyone like that.” Rosemary shook her head, disheartened by something in her head that you couldn’t see. “I’m serious! I use to date him and he never looked at me that way, and he used to say that he loved me.”

That might have not been the best thing to say, it seemed, as it triggered a slow, steady stream of tears down her cheeks. You quickly grabbed her hands, squeezing them tightly. “He doesn’t love me…” she whispered hoarsely, trying not to sob too loudly.

“What do you mean?” you replied, looking up at her sympathetically.

“He…he…” she took a gulping breath “We dated and it got serious and I told him that I loved him and he wouldn’t say it back. He couldn’t say it back. And we broke up but…I love him.”

You found yourself smiling; there was an easy answer to this problem. “Sweetheart,” you said, shaking your head solemnly “He loves you.”

“No, no he doesn’t he would’ve-”

“No, he wouldn’t. Billy has the emotional reverence of a clogged pipe. He can’t say it to you, because you’re the person he cares about, but he can say it to anyone else. And he has-he’s been saying to every other girl he can find because he’s scared to say it to you.”

“That makes no sense.” She pouted softly, pulling her hands away to cross them over her chest.

“You say that like Billy ever makes sense. He has a logic all his own. But if you can understand even a bit of it, then you know him. I know him well enough to know that he doesn’t love me, despite the fact that he told me that he did last week. And I want to help in whatever way I can, and if that means publicly embarrassing him to help you, then I will.”

She stood silent for a good few moments, mulling over everything you’d said. You watched as her face broke into a small smile, clearly not opposed to the idea. “Can you do that?” she asked softly.

“I can do whatever I want. Now, please go and find me that bag, I’ll take care of our dummy.” You replied with a smirk, looking yourself over in the mirror. This would take an easy skill. You left your shirt in the sink and marched out into the dining room, putting on your hardest expression.

“Hargrove.” You snapped, finding him paying the bill at the counter, two Styrofoam counters stacked up on top of each other and deeply disappointed scowl on his lips. He turned and, for a brief moment, looked at you as though it was his own mundane reflection looking back at him. He found the surprised expression he needed and then let it settle into one of pity.

“There you are! I handle this, come on let’s get you home.” He said, looking around the room as though the very sight of you was embarrassing him.

“Sit.” You snapped, pointing back to the booth and nodding over when he didn’t move immediately. He relented with a groan, sliding back in with great and obvious annoyance.

“What the fuck is your problem?” you asked, earning a bewildered look from the boy.

“Excuse me?”

“Oh don’t start with that, you know why I’m about to yell at you. What the fuck is your problem-you’re gallivanting around with every girl in sight and breaking poor Rosemary’s heart instead of just admitting that you love her.”

Billy sighed, lowering his head. When he looked up again, he didn’t look guilty-he looked tired. “I don’t…I don’t love her.”

“Well I know for a fucking fact you don’t love me like you said you did. And you sure as hell don’t love little Wendy back there, I bet you didn’t even remember her name till I said it.” you cried.

“How the hell would you know how I feel?”

“Because,” you countered, leaning in to truly hold his eye contact “I know you better than you realize. And I know you don’t say what you feel to the people that can help. You say it to anyone else.”

“So? That doesn’t mean that I love her.”

“Okay, riddle me this: why did you lie to me about living in San Diego?” you asked simply.

“Because I-” he started into another lie, but when he looked in your eyes, his dropped the sentence off, sighing softly “Because I didn’t want you to think I was a loser.”

“Okay,” you said, nodding softly “And why did you tell Wendy that you love her?”

Billy smirked “To get her in bed.” You heard the muffled gasp and moan of poor Wendy behind you, clearly falling back into tears. You didn’t look back.

“And why did you break up with Rosemary?” you asked, watching the smirk fall away and him shy away immediately.

“Don’t make me say it…” he muttered.

“No, say it cause I wanna know.” You snapped back, raising your brows.

“Because I was scared alright? God damn it Y/N, why are you interrogating me?” he cried, huffing and pouting like a child.

“Because I want an answer! Because poor Rosemary needs an answer, okay? Because you spent the whole night watching her with these big, stupid puppy dog eyes and it drove me nuts because you’re so obvious it’s not even funny!” you countered, matching both his volume and tone.

“You’re right, okay?” he relented softly “I do…you know…”

“I know you do.” You smiled, earning an annoyed scoff “Now go tell her that.” Billy stayed put, hands shaking just a tiny bit, his eyes shifted from her at the counter to you across from him. He looked so nervous, like a little boy about to admit to his first crush, and it made your heart melt just a little. You believed that he’d been in love before, but not at this level. Not in this fully adult way. You were proud of him, in that sense, for finally coming to terms with adulthood and the responsibilities you have to your partners, understanding that they becoming your family after awhile.

You took his hand gently, squeezing it softly “You deserve happiness, Bill, but you have to get it for yourself. It won’t always come to you on its own.” You murmured to him and, for once, he seemed to listen. He nodded, letting your hand go and getting up from his seat. You took the opportunity to grab your food from the pile and stand as well, finding the plastic bag with your wet blouse in it on the opposite end of the counter. You didn’t spare a glance to Carol and Wendy, although you could hear Carol’s grumbling as Wendy tried to muffle her sobs. In fact, you only turned once, when Rosemary cried out a watery ‘yes!’ from behind you. You turned just in time to see Billy pull off one of his tarnished silver rings and slip it onto her left hand. You shook your head, chuckling at the quite honestly adorable scene in front of you, watching Billy get the life squeeze out of him by his bride to be and hearing Wendy’s sobs get louder as Carol dragged her out of the booth and out the front door, flipping you off along the way. You guessed now you really weren’t invited to that wedding.

You slipped out the front door and into the cooler summer night, the sun waning in the sky as warm pinks and oranges overtook the blue and made a gorgeous cocktail of colours. A soft, warm breeze blew through the trees edging on the diner and the sound of cars driving down the interstate behind you filled the whole atmosphere with the ends of day trips with tired, sunburnt kids half asleep in the backs of cars as dad rock played softly through the speakers. It was the type of scene you knew so well from childhood.

Of course, you were in a whole different scene entirely.

You were alone in a parking lot, hair sticky and clumped with dried ice cream and whipped cream, your arms still sticky despite being wiped down and a prominent stain drying into your favourite skirt. You were alone and with no way of getting home. And there was no way in hell you’d get back in the car with Billy, not with his new fiancé, both of them itching to tear each other’s clothes off. You were going to half to walk it alone.

“Well that was a fucking waste of time…” you muttered, huffing out a sigh before trudging into the woods. You didn’t want to walk the highway in, just in case you were spotted or worse, hit. You go through the woods and hope that your anxiety didn’t get the best of you.

You spent your walk mostly running or jogging, trying to avoid roots and fallen logs. Your heart was racing and you had to avert your eyes to the now quarantined labs as you ran past, their fences still holding something inside too ominous to let free or tear down. You tried to think of positive, happy things. You would certainly get an invite to the new couples wedding, that would be lovely you hadn’t been to a wedding at all since Jonathan and Nancy’s rushed courthouse ceremony, and not a grand ceremony and reception since your mother and Richard. But thoughts of white dresses and tuxedos only distracted your mind for so long and eventually, after the sun finally set, you had to talk yourself out of the woods altogether, opting to hurry down Cherry Lane, four streets below yours.

You remembered that the Mayfield’s lived there, once even with their Hargrove counter parts, and you wondered to yourself if they still did. You got your answer almost immediately when you saw a flash of red hair hop out a window followed by two flashes of dark hair. You hadn’t noticed the bikes waiting for them below, but you recognized the faces when they appeared in the sunlight.

“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?”

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marshmallowatheart · 6 years ago

Text

To All The Boys I've Loved Before (Part 45)

There's not much she learns at the office that she doesn't already know - and the things she does learn, she doesn't really want to know (see: Vinnie Van Lowe singing Private Eyes).

And so she asks him, simply and directly to let her help on a case or go on a stakeout, all she needs to do is know how to use a camera (she doesn't mean to brag but her photography skills are enough to be called skills).

She's not surprised that he's surprised, she's been here for all of three days. He tells her, emphatically, that photography isn't all that's to it before shrugging in agreement that she can tag along and learn the ropes.

She wishes she could learn from anyone other than Vinnie Van Lowe but Vinnie is all she has.

He plays the fool; get's people's guard down and let's them underestimate him to get the information he needs. She's always found it infuriating that her brain was judged by her petite figure and blonde hair. She learns now that it's not a weakness; it's a weapon.

--vm--

She meets Duncan at Java the Hut, she doesn't have much of an appetite - hasn't had much of an appetite since that night in Aspen - but she gets cake, the chocolate kind that should help make her feel better (she doesn't think anything would).

Duncan orders pie and coffee and it feels like it's been forever since they've hung out (it kind of has been).

They're across each other with badly sung karaoke as background noise. "Is it me or does karaoke night attract every Tritons reject?"

"We've got to put our musical aspirations somewhere," he cracks a smile with his joke.

"I still can't believe you wanted to be a Triton, am I gonna see you on America's got Talent next?"

"Oh, so you don't think I've got talent?"

"Prove me wrong, Kane."

"Like you're so much better."

"Child, please, I could give the Tritons a run for their money."

He laughs. "So how's it feel to be a part of the working class?"

"I feel more like a trainee than anything else. It's different," she says. She wants to add, the realm of ethics doesn't seem to exist, manipulation is a rite of passage and being a girl has more perks than she's ever taken credit for. But she knows she can't tell Duncan any of that. He wouldn't understand this part of her, she's not even sure she understands the lengths she'll go to to find out the truth.

"As long as you're happy," he says, sweet smile and caring blue eyes.

She nods, offering an assuring smile and then asks, "Is everything going alright at home?"

Duncan shrugs. "Same ole' same ole'. Lilly's lashing out. Dad and mom fight about it. I've kind of tuned it out."

"Ah," she lets out, fork carving out a piece of her chocolate cake. "The perks of having your mother run off on you. No more middle of the night arguments."

Duncan gives an uncomfortable chuckle as he agrees with her. "Is everything okay with you and Logan?"

She bites her lip, despite all her efforts, Logan never left her mind. Logan's partly the reason she asked Duncan to hangout. She wanted to know the truth behind Lilly's actions. She wants to understand. She knows it wouldn't fix everything between them but needs to know for sure what had happened. She isn't all that surprised that Duncan doesn't know anything - if he did, he wouldn't be asking her that.

"We broke up."

Stopping mid bite of his pie, he stares at her with widen eyes and his mouth half open. She can see that he doesn't know what to say, so she continues, "In Aspen. Lilly was there. They were hugging, well past midnight. I freaked. Then Wallace said Logan had been gone all night. Logan wouldn't tell me why."

She hates that her breath stammers over Logan's name and that her heart betrays her all over again because all those feelings still rush up and she can't seem to get rid of it - no matter how hard she tries.

It takes him seconds to pull out of his thoughts "We have a cabin there," he says. "Not too far from the Casablancas. Dad went to LA so we decided not to go. Lilly must have decided that she really wanted to go. I'm sorry. But Logan never deserved you anyway. You were always too good for him."

She tries to smile and thank him but she can't get it out. She knows he's trying to make her feel like she'd made the right choice but it hurts. Despite it all, this isn't want she wants to hear about Logan. She doesn't want him to insult Logan. She doesn't know what she wants but she doesn't want that.

--vm--

Duncan drops her home and she waves him goodbye. At the very least, she's got her friend back.

"Honey, I'm home," Veronica calls out as she closes the door.

"So am I, honey," Meg says, bright smile and even brighter eyes.

Veronica turns, surprised eyes and growing smile. "Meg, you're home!" She laughs, disbelieving as rush to hug each other. "Oh my God. How are you here? I thought you were getting in on Friday."

"I finished my exams early," she grins, brushing Veronica's hair from her face. "I feel like I haven't seen you in forever."

"I missed you so much," Veronica lets out, hugging her sister tight.

"I missed you too," Meg says, soft and heartwarming. "Why didn't you tell me you've got a job? With Vinnie Van Lowe, no less?" She asks, quizzing, the softness turned curious with a head tilt that hides none of the judgement.

"I was planning on starting next year. I was gonna tell you about it when you got home," she offers as retribution. "A job's a job. What does it matter if it's serving coffee in a restaurant or in an office?"

Her sister's brow arches up, doubting her words. "Is serving coffee really all you're doing?"

"The more the better, right?" Veronica shrugs as though she's indifferent to it but the more is the reason she decided on this job. "I spoke to dad about it, what's with the Spanish Inquisition anyway?"

"It's Vinnie Van Lowe. His work isn't all that kosher."

"We're not Jewish. Besides, in the grand scheme of things, he isn't even the worst person we know."

"These late nights are gonna affect your grades, did you even think about that?"

"My 4.0 GPA is still intact. Stanford's been my dream since elementary, Meg, I'm not gonna screw that up." She doesn't want to fight with Meg, she doesn't know why she this feels like a fight. She takes in a deep breath and lets out, "So how was your flight?"

--vm--

Veronica is happy Meg's home. She's missed her sister, she's saved up things she'd wanted to tell her. But maybe that's the problem.

It started with her job - which she hadn't meant to keep from Meg - it all happened so fast and it got to the point where she thought it'd be better to tell her once she came home.

There's a lot of things Veronica stored away in the back of her mind under things to share with Meg when she came home.

It doesn't go the way she plans; they don't eat ice cream and gossip or bake cookies and catch up. Meg notices changes and comments and all Veronica could think is I meant to tell you about that.

She feels bad about it. She does. But does Meg really have to get so snippy with her about it? It's hard remembering every little thing over the phone (and she admits that her getting a job falls into the list of big things but she doesn't know how to explain that working in the underbelly of Neptune is the only thing that makes her feel like she's doing something worthwhile).

There's nothing she can do about it now, she can't press rewind and include Meg in all of those moments that's passed. She thinks, she should have messaged her right away, taken pictures and shared these things with her.

Maybe then Meg wouldn't be staring so intently at Alicia and Keith during dinner. Maybe then Meg wouldn't flinch at her and Wallace's bunk mate jokes. Maybe then when Duncan came to return her bag she'd forgotten in his car, Meg wouldn't have stormed off into her room.

"I didn't know she was home," Duncan says, helpless.

"She came back early," Veronica lets out a heavy sigh.

She hadn't meant to not tell Meg that she'd hung out with Duncan. The whole situation with Duncan was awkward because there's so much between her and Duncan that Meg doesn't know about. There's so much in her life that Meg doesn't know about and she doesn't know how to explain any of it; the letters, Duncan, Logan, Lilly. She can't explain any of it. She just wants her sister back and for things to go back to normal - the way it was before she'd left to New York.

--vm--

"Hey, Sam," Veronica says to Vinnie who's leaning back on his chair with his legs up on his desk and a flyer in his hand as he chews on the last piece of his sandwich.

"Hey, Ralph," he grins. "Did you bring me gummy worms?"

She rolls her eyes and digs into her bag as she throws the small packet to him. "You're such a baby."

"You're gonna want snacks on today's case," he says, already ripping the packet open. "Tailing and stakeouts, VMars. The only thing worse is the paperwork."

"Which you never bother to do anymore," she points out, looking pointedly at the growing paperwork on his desk.

"It's what I got you for," he quips, getting up on his feet.

"So what do we have?"

"Classic, cheating spouse."

--vm--

She gets a flask full of coffee as preparation for the stakeout and an apple if she gets hungry.

"You had to bring your dog, huh?" Vinnie shakes his head, looking at the brown pitbull who stares at him, daring him to move.

"Dad's condition is to take Backup," she shrugs, she has a bag set for Backup; water, dog treats and his rope to chew on while they waited.

She should have taken a look at the case, asked for more details but she'd been fidgeting with equipment and learning about bugs, tracers and hidden cameras in ordinary objects.

So it takes her by surprise when she realizes that they've stopped in front of Kane Software. She's completely thrown when she learns that their target is none other than Software Billionaire Jake Kane himself.

Veronica scoffs, disbelieving. She knew that their family had their issues, Duncan used to come by just to get away from it all but she never thought that Jake Kane would do something like this to his family. Wasn't he the poster man for family guy?

"Are you seriously telling me that the beloved Jake Kane is cheating on his wife?"

Vinnie shrugs, unphased. "You'll be surprised what people are capable of."

She blinks, staring at the large glass window and the silhouette of a man leaving the office. She's lived with an alcoholic until she abandoned them without so much as a goodbye. She shouldn't be surprised of what people can be capable of. But here she is, still surprised.

"Why would Celeste even think he's cheating on her?"

He shakes his head, eyes in front as he starts the engine to follow Jake Kane. Vinnie had lo-jacked Jake's car, so they could follow him without being seen.

Lo-jacking was convenient like that. She thinks if regular people knew how to use them, private investigators would be out of a lot of work.

"Wrong Kane," he cocks his head. "Lilly Kane is the one that hired us."

Veronica's brows crease, eyes stare wide in surprise but Vinnie doesn't notice or care as he continues, "Says she caught him in Aspen with some hussy, wants us to find out who it is. She left before he saw her. Lucky for us she didn't get any pictures to go along with her accusations."

Her heart thumps wildly in her heart and everything starts to make sense. This was why. This had to be why. Lilly hated her mother but she loved her father. If she saw her father with another woman, that kind of betrayal would make any girl cry.

She wishes Logan would have told her, cleared it up that the reason he was with Lilly was because she found out her father cheated. She wouldn't have expected Logan to turn Lilly away when he's been through the same thing.

Why couldn't Logan have just trusted her and told her the truth? She would have understood. She understands. How could she begrudge them for this? She knows what it's like to be betrayed by a parent too. Why couldn't he have just trusted her with the truth? Fight to clear up the misunderstandings she had instead of letting her walk away - walk away from him - them.

They follow him all the way to Camelot and Veronica knows that Jake Kane is guilty. You didn't have to be a private detective to know what goes on at the Camelot motel.

"Guess the girl was right," Vinnie remarks. "Not a lot of high powered business meetings take place at the Camelot at one in the morning."

She angles the camera to face the motel, ready to get the money shot, she doesn't know how long it would be and she figures this is what Vinnie means when he says it's boring but she watches the door like a hawk while Vinnie yaps at either her or Backup and eats his candy.

She doesn't say much of anything as she tries to concentrate because all she can think about is Logan.

"Keep the camera, ready, Mars," he reminds, chewing on liquorice when he sees Jake exit the room.

"All right lady, let’s see ya," Veronica blows out, snapping several pictures but the woman in question never comes into view. It's only when she snaps pictures of Jake climbing down the stares and driving away that she sees a familiar car. She snaps a picture of the license plate and sucks in a breath. She knows this car. She knows this license plate; 4VG-000.

She stares back at the room, takes another deep breath and says, "I know who he's with."

"You do?" He arches a brow, staring at her expectantly to share the information.

She meets his gaze and lets out, "It's my mom."

She jumps out of the car, ignoring the sound of Vinnie calling her name and she's racing up the stairs. She takes a moment, staring at the number on the door before she knocks.

She doesn't know what to expect or what to say but her mother is here in Neptune. Anger guts at her, she's here in Neptune for Jake Kane and not her - for their family. Did Lianne even qualify as family anymore?

The door opens after two knocks and even though Veronica knew her mother was on the other side of this door, she feels the air being knocked out of her.

"Veronica," her mother says, stunned and then repeats her name in that motherly tone that she has no right to use anymore.

Veronica's words are caught in her throat and she just stands there, staring and Lianne shifts uncomfortably at the door before offering her entrance.

"What are you doing with Jake Kane?"

Her eyes strain with unsheathed tears. This woman abandoned them when they needed her the most. This woman that decided to get her life together for another family instead of her own. Only to apparently rip it apart for Jake Kane.

Why would she come back to Neptune for Jake Kane and not for us? That's the real question she wants to ask.

"Why don't you sit? Do you want some water?" Lianne asks, evasive and nervous as she fidgets about.

"No, I asked you a question," Veronica stares at her, trying to reign in her emotions and look as intimidating as possible.

"I'm sorry, honey," Lianne says, soft whisper and helpless look in her eye as she reaches to touch her.

Veronica jerks back, breathing turns into a ragged mess that she has to concentrate on to not fall apart. "Don't," she warns. "All we ever did was love you. And all you ever did was love yourself," she can't hide the disgust in her voice.

She'd spent all her years thinking of questions for her mother that she'd laid them to rest when she saw her with her new family - but here Lianne was; lying, cheating, drinking and falling back into old patterns.

"Do you know that Meg lives in New York now? She's studying journalism and she's been more of a mother to me than you ever were. Heather's top of her grade, she's funny and smart and she'll be just like dad and nothing like you. We're all doing fine without you," she tells her, angry tears falling down her face as she gets the words out.

She shouldn't feel guilty when Lianne starts to cry. She shouldn't listen to Lianne’s excuses and life's regrets. But she does. She stands and listens to what Lianne has to say; she talks about how her husband was a con artist that's imprisoned and her step daughter's following in his footsteps. She talks about Hunter; the half brother she's never met. She talks about Jake Kane, how they were so in love as high school sweetheart and a man she could never stop loving no matter how hard she tried. She talked about leaving for herself and not because of any of them. She talks about her addictions and not being strong enough to fight it.

Veronica silently listens (despite her need to scream and fight every sentence that comes out of her mother’s mouth) and then tells her to never come back into their lives and to never come back to Neptune.

She always wished her mother would come back. She knows now that she never wants her to.

The bridges between them had burned to ash a long time ago. She couldn't go back in time. She couldn't fix what had gone wrong. She couldn't make Lianne love her more than her addictions.

She doesn't want anything to do with Lianne Mars or Lianne Scott or whatever she goes by now and she doesn't want her to come back into their lives only to mess it up again. Her family deserved better than that.

--vm--

She sits on the hood of her car outside of Logan's house with only the moonlight and streetlamps to give her light.

He hurries out in a track pants and hoodie, face etched in concern, rightly so, considering she hasn't spoken to him in days, ignoring all points of contact and now she's outside his house at three in the morning - she’s sure she’s woken him from his sleep but he looks as alert as ever.

"You knew, didn't you?" She accuses, wounds fresh and eyes vengeful. "You knew about Jake and my mother and you didn't tell me."

"I'm so sorry," Logan says, anguish and concern behind brown eyes. "I didn't know if it was really your mom. I needed to know before I told you anything," he confesses. "How'd you find out?"

He says I but she knows he means we (the we being him and Lilly).

"It was my job to find out," she grits, she sounds harsh and she knows it's unfair because she's not angry at him, she's angry at her mother. She's angry at this situation. "I started working for Vinnie."

He stares at her, soft and concern apparent. "I thought you were starting next year."

She takes a breath, trying to calm herself down. "I needed to focus on something that wasn't you," she confesses, voice dipped low but the words come clear in the silence of the night.

Hope resides in his eyes, he steps closer to her, hugging her and she lets him. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry I let things get this way. I'm sorry about your mom."

"I know," she whispers, warm breath sinking into his chest.

"All I care about is you, Veronica," he whispers, forehead resting on hers as the warmth of his hands comfort her. "All Lilly and I did was talk about her dad, her family, she thought the person he was with was your mom but it's been years since she's seen her. I needed to be sure, to have proof before I said anything about it which is why I told her to go to Vinnie."

"I wish you'd told me," she lets out, exhausted. "I wish you'd came to me and let me help figure it out."

"I didn't want you to get hurt." He tucks her hair behind her ears and rests his palm on her cheek.

"I got hurt anyway," she says, voice quiet. "I get it now that I know the truth but all you had to do was be honest with me and you didn't do that. I need honesty, no matter what. I need honesty so I can trust you."

He nods, head on hers, promising it all to her. "I hate that I hurt you when all I wanna do is protect you."

"I don't need protecting, Logan,” she says, tired breath escapes her as she looks into his eyes. “I just need you."

He pulls away slightly, kissing her hair and he can’t help himself but to ask, "Does this mean we're okay?"

She sighs. "We're going to be,” she tells him. “I just need some time."

"Take all the time you need," he presses a kiss to her forehead. "Just come back to me, please."

"Always," she leans into him and his arms wrap around her like he's welcoming her home. Like he is home.

#veronica mars #logan echolls #vinnie van lowe #duncan kane #meg manning #meg mars #lianne mars #inspired by to all the boys i've loved before #to all the boys i've loved before #part 45 #vm #vmars #vm fanfic #fanfiction #vm fic

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lcorps-agents · 2 years ago

Note

Manager said no minors on shift

Because you’re old.

rude!!!! rude and mean!!!!

#how long spent upon my useless life? // miho tag #why do people keep getting your name wrong. // kaneli tag #higher ups // other blog interactions

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ogbellarke · 6 years ago

Text

tagged by @rogue-hope

1. What Station on the Ark would you be from?

either hydra station or agro station

2. What would you get arrested for on the Ark?

honestly stealing

3. Would you take off your wristband when you landed on the ground?

heck yeah, screw the adults that decided the 100 were disposable

4. What would the necklace Finn would make for you look like? (Clarke: deer/Raven: a raven duh..)

i wanna say a shark or a puppy

5. If you could resurrect any MINOR character who would it be?

wells jaha, 100%. he deserved so much better than the bullshit he went through

6. Create a squad of 5 characters to go on missions with. Who are they?

bellamy, clarke, jasper, harper, miller

7. What Grounder Clan would you belong to you?

flokru or azgeda

8. What would your name be in Trigedasleng? (example: Octavia=Okteivia…just make it up!)

kc = kaycee?

9. Thoughts on Finn? Some people hate him, and others love him, so I’m curious

i’ll be honest, he seemed cool and like he was real smitten with clarke but then you find out he’s a piece of shit so yeah screw that guy

10. Be honest. How willing would you have been to take the chip without knowing all the horrible things it does?

tbh no because even though life sucks, i wouldnt want to forget everything

11. What character do you relate to most?

clarke and jasper

12. What character do you like the least?

yikes a bunch. finn, l*xa, eggo, octagon after s1

13. Describe your delinquent outfit. (Would you wear something like Murphy’s jacket with the spikey red shoulder patch or have a trademark like Jasper’s goggles? Be creative, yet practical)

plaid shirt, jeans, vans, some kind of symbolic necklace

14. Favorite type of mutant animal?

the butterflies but i want to see more of the sea creatures

15. What would your job be on the Ark?

a teacher, i guess

16. Would you have willingly pumped Ontari’s heart if Abby asked?

fuck her but to save everyone, fine, but it’s definitely not willingly

17. If Lexa wasn’t Heda, but she was still alive then who would have made the best commander?

roan or luna

18. How would you act if you ate the hallucinogenic nuts like Jasper and Monty?

im an affectionate drunk so maybe the same with the jobi nuts?

19. How would you have dealt with Charlotte’s crime? A more John Murphy approach or Bellamy Blake approach?

she’s just a kid, lock her up and throw in some cbt

20. Who should have been the Chancellor, if anyone?

clarke and bellamy as co-leaders. the only time shit goes right in this show is when clarke and bellamy are working together

21. Would you have been on Pike’s side like Bellamy or on Kane’s side? Or Clarke in Polis?

kane’s absolutely.

22. Mount Weather had a lot of modern commodities. (example: Maya’s Ipod) What is the one thing you would snatch while there?

music, absolutely.

23. What would your Grounder tattoos look like? Hairstyle? War paint?

ocean wave sleeve tattoos, double dutch braid, and idk winter soldier type war paint

24. Favorite quote?

“you may be the chancellor, but i’m in charge.” “what’s wrong with a little chaos?” “i lost the horse.” “you are the most beautiful broom in a broom closet full of brooms.” “you saved my life. and you may be a total ass half the time, but i need you.”

25. If all of the characters were in the Hunger Games, who would have the best shot at winning?

ugh octavia probably. but murphy, miller, and bellamy would team up and kick ass. raven would be in the trees waiting it out. clarke wouldnt want to hurt anyone, she only would as a last resort. monty and jasper and harper would also team up, they’d be the smart ones storing food and water.

26. Least favorite ship? Favorite canon ship? Favorite non canon ship? NOT INCLUDING CL OR BC OR BE

excluding cl and be? least favourite is anyone with finn. favourite canon is marper and briller and memori and zaven :). favourite non canon is princess mechanic and minty.

27. A song that should be included in the next season? If there had to be another guest star like Shawn Mendes on the show, who would you want to make a cameo?

hozier, obviously. or florence welsh.

28. What would you do if you were stuck in the bunker with Murphy for all that time?

hope whoever was there last left their netflix account open.

29. Your an extra that gets killed off. How do you die?

taking a walk in the forest and accidentally going into trikru territory.

30. A character you’d like to learn more about and get flashbacks of?

i wish we could’ve gotten more. but currently, i would like some of miller and murphy.

31. A character you’d bang?

bellamy in s1 before he fell for the princess. otherwise, harper or raven.

32. Would you stay in the Bunker? Go up to Space? Or live on your own in Eden?

eden would be number one. but space is cool.

33. In the Bunker, would you follow Octavia? What would you do to pass the time underground?

quiet rebellion against octavia. but i’d adopt a bunch of orphans to keep me busy

34. What crime would you commit in the Bunker that lands you in the fighting pits?

stealing food or medicine.

35. Up in Space, who would you bond with first? Who would be the most difficult for you to get along with?

bond with raven or harper first. and e*ho would be difficult to get along with

36. How long do you think you would last on Earth by yourself?

omg i have zero survival skills so not long at all

37. When the Eligius ship lands what do you do?

spy for a bit then try to make peace with a few friends in the trees with snipers to watch my back

38. Favorite Eligius character? Least favorite?

shaw and diyoza are obviously the greatest and mccreary is obviously the worst

39. Would you Spacewalk?

if i knew it was safe, absolutely, that sounds lit.

40. Would you prefer to eat Windshield Bugs, Space Algae, or Bunker Meat?

space algae, the lesser of all evils

41. Would you start a war for the last spot of green on earth? What would your solution be to avoid it?

god, everyone’s first instinct is war as if that’s gonna solve anything. i’d negotiate a way for everyone to live there peacefully.

42. Would you rather dig out flesh-eating worms or stick thumb drives into bullet holes?

bleh, neither but i guess thumb drives in bullet holes

43. Are you willing to poison your sister for the Traitor Who You Love? What would you do to stop Octavia?

my sister is real cool, but if octavia were my sister, yeah. you can’t work stuff out with someone who always thinks they’re right and in charge. honestly, i’d’ve killed her, not a little poison that’ll wake her later.

44. Would you go to sleep in cryo or stay awake like Marper?

cryo, i wanna see the future. but i understand why marper did it

45. Who are you waking up first to explore the new planet?

clarke, bellamy, raven, shaw, murphy, emori, miller

woo that was fun. tagging @biondebeauties @space-delinquents @the-most-beautiful-broom

#tag games #the 100

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a--world--apart--fic · 6 years ago

Text

A World Apart - Chapter Six 1.2

Notes: Ask and you shall receive! Wednesday we’ll post just a sneak peak of chapter 7. Enjoy part two of chapter six! Discusses serious & dark adult topics. Please heed the trigger warnings! Tagged long post for mobile.

Rating: M

Trigger Warning: Assault, Violence

Word Count: 3918

Musical Accompaniment: Florence + the Machine - Howl

Tag List: @writtenbycandy, @hopefulmoonobject, @heatherfilliez, @theroyalweisme, @indiacater, @tmarie82, @enmchoices, @the-everlasting-dream, @diamond-dreamland, @lizeboredom, @drakewalkerwhipped, @youwontlikewherewewillgo, @mfackenthal, @kingliamthirst, @snyggflicka, @debramcg1106, @choicessa, @drakelover78, @starstruckzonkoperatorbat@blackcatkita , @drakewalkerfantasy, @jadedpixiescribbles, @walkerismychoice, @walkerduchess, @hamulau, @simplyaiden-blog, @hhiggs, @drivenbyfantasy, @penguininapinktuxedo, @viktoriapetit @breaumonts

Chapter Six ~ The Beaumont Bash 1.2 May 1914

This night has gone from passing strange to decidedly bizarre. It begins with the ivy leaves. Lord Rashad and Maxwell pass a golden plate of them around the circle, and each man chews his while trying not to wince.  

"And what is the meaning of this, Lord Rashad?" Liam tries to frame the question genially, not missing Rashad's insolent eye roll. The man needs to be shown his place, but Liam will have to be swift and merciless when he does it. Disturb the waters too briskly, and it could incite a mutiny. And Liam, of all people, knows how flimsy the bonds of this court can be when threatened. Snip the wrong thread, and the whole labyrinth will collapse. "Why are we eating ivy leaves?"

  His wife's lover snorts. "They are sacred to Dionysus, your highness." How is it that every honorific out of this man's mouth sounds like a slur? The smoke from the brazier is thick and aromatic, and when Liam stares into the coals, he can see faint shapes that look like men, moving through a hellscape. But when he breathes the sweetish smoke in, the faint honeyed scent of kythi, pine and moonwort perfuming the air, it is gone.  

Rashad signals to Bertrand, whose face is already flushed from drink. "Step forward and be crowned the Lord of Misrule." Bertrand beams from ear to ear, stepping forward.

  Maxwell lays a crown of ivy on Bertrand's head, and intones in a sonorous voice, "I call upon loud-roaring and reveling Dionysos,  primal, two-natured, thrice-born, Bacchic lord..."(1)  

The servants beat on a tambourine beyond the topiary, and blow discordant pipes. The wind picks up suddenly, throwing long shadows dancing across the lawn in the firelight, and strange shadows leap across the faces of the company. Liam swallows, trying to shake the deep unease that has begun to creep across his flesh.

  Some sort of signal passes between Rashad and Maxwell, and then Rashad signals a footman. "Bring the wine."  

The footman hands Maxwell the bottles, and then departs. The young lord places the three bottles atop the sundial and fetches his saber. The blade whistles through the heavy night air and the corks roll at their feet like the heads of men, dark red wine dripping thickly from the bottlenecks.  

"A Beaumont tradition!" Bertrand crows with jovial bonhomie, though his voice sounds strange and low, another man's voice, a wild god's; looking out across the faces gathered here tonight, Liam feels displaced from time, as though he witnesses a ritual three thousand years in the ancient past, when men drank the blood of bulls and danced with ritualistic frenzy to the beat of the cymbals and the drums.  

"This wine, gentlemen, will make gods of men. It is the root of the love apple, satyrion, and ivy, macerated and stirred in a clockwise manner thirteen times then left to steep under the moonlight for three weeks." Rashad raises his glass.

  "Dionysos, bearer of the vine, thee I invoke to bless these rites divine: florid and gay, of Nymphs the blossom bright, and of fair Aphrodite, Goddess of delight. 'Tis thine mad footsteps with mad Nymphai to beat..."(2) Maxwell is swaying, his eyes already inky wells of darkness. Liam would suspect he has already been drinking this wine, but in truth, he does not know.  

He raises his goblet, and they all toast Bertrand, and then Dionysus, and wine and women and their cocks. The wine is red and honeyed, with a slightly metallic bite. He does not want to drink it, but the other men are staring at him with eyes gleaming in the torchlight, and Liam knows he must. He downs the entire glass, and holds out his goblet for another.  

They drink until the wine is gone, and then a servant brings out a platter filled with something reddish, oozing. Before Liam knows what's happening, Rashad and Maxwell have stripped Bertrand's shirt off, and the other men get the gist, all stripping to the waist, some pale and pudgy, others sleek and taut with whipcord muscle.

  "We will paint ourselves like warriors of old, and become the masters of the wild hunt!" Rashad proclaims amidst cheers and howls. The sun has almost sunk entirely now, and a blood red crescent is swelling in the sky. The torches gutter as the wind whistles through the wind chimes in the branches of the trees, tossing the remaining ivy leaves in a whirl around them.

  "The god hears us!" Bertrand bellows, his teeth stained dark with wine. "The god has come!"  

All around Liam, their eyes glitter, pupils inky wells in the flickering light. Tariq begins to strip off his trousers as well, but Liam stops him with a firm shake of his head.  

"I smell them!" Neville says suddenly, his chin red with ochre or wine, dripping in the firelight. "I smell cunny!"  

Heads whip up around the brazier, and Liam's stomach curdles in revulsion. Only Maxwell looks slightly anxious, and Liam remembers his friend is a virgin, and wonders whatever possessed Maxwell Beaumont to take part in this madness. But he knows. The pressure is too much to refuse. Even Tariq, whom Liam has wondered about for years, is here tonight, when the man would normally prefer to avoid the company of the fairer sex.  

Rashad whistles, low and deep, and Liam hears the nickering of horses. They are led towards the men by the grooms, deep chested blacks and grays and a wild Gypsy horse that tosses its mane in terror at their smell. Rashad has brought his stallion, a big black called Lucifer, truly a warhorse, eighteen hands high. He mounts the beast with catlike grace, and watches Liam mount a frisky roan with his eyes like slits, searching for any show of weakness. Rashad would murder Liam if he could, and Liam knows it in that moment, and a sudden thought trembles on the edge of his brain, What if --  

"Steady there, Bertrand, you'll make a widow of the girl before she's ever a bride!" Hakim claps a hand on Bertrand's shoulder, and it takes two men to help Ramsford mount the horse without slipping off.

  He cackles drunkenly. "Give me my horn, brother! I wish to summon the nymphs!"  

Maxwell makes eye contact with Liam as his brother jokes lewdly with Hakim and Rashad. "I'll distract them if you want to slip back to the house now," he whispers solemnly.   Liam nods, barely. "I'll double back. Good luck tonight, my friend. If you do not yet have a lady in mind, may I suggest the one with the green and black sash? I'm afraid you may not find the pleasure you seek with one of Madame Louisa's strumpets." Because you are too soft, and they are too hard, he thinks. They will rip you to shreds.  

Maxwell grins sheepishly. "I'll do all right. Thanks for the suggestion." He wheels his horse around, and blows on the horn once before passing it to the drunken Lord of Misrule, and Maxwell turns back to Liam and gives him the barest of signals, his face entirely lost to the shadow of the night.

•••

Sophia feels a deep frisson of unease run through her at the sight of the moon, a fat red sickle hanging deep and preternaturally large in the sky. As the women wind through the gardens in single file, masked and nude, Sophia's foot catches on something, and she stumbles forward, just barely missing the sash of the woman in front of her, who hisses over her shoulder, annoyed. Sophia grabs whatever it is, and keeps moving. The torches gutter in the darkness, and a sudden wind has picked up, throwing the scattered ivy leaves in a whirlwind before her, whispering Run, run.

  As the gardens end and the lawns stretch out towards a twisted wood, the women come to a complete stop. There is a smoking and scented brazier here, and the rich honeyed scent of kyphi is stronger now, almost intoxicating, mingled with moonwort and pine, teasing and taunting the senses. A sundial, seemingly innocuous, is covered in sticky red streaks in the torchlight.  

The wind rises, and the torches gutter for a sudden, warning moment -- and then the howling begins. All of the fine hairs on the back of Sophia's neck rise, and the woman next to her, nipples rouged red from the communal pot, clutches her arm and whispers,  "What in the name of...?" Her fine, cultured voice shakes with terror.  

The whores answer the howls with ululating yips, while the noblewomen draw back, discomfort in their postures. But it is too late to turn back now. The ominous clatter of hoof beats seems to echo across the night garden, like the beating of a tribal drum, and Sophia does not want to turn, and yet she must.

Closing her eyes, she listens to the grey wolves in the wood howl with the men, calling to them to their pack. Sophia pictures them lined on horseback, lips curled back, teeth bared, hungry for the flesh of their prey and shudders, tightening her fists in a panic, gasping as she pricks her finger on the object she picked from the ground. She opens her palm and is aghast, balking at the notched stone carved with a symbol -- Thurisaz. She has seen this symbol once before; cast in the bone runes of a Roma fortune teller the night before she ran from Kane. She recalls the old woman's warning (that she did not heed) and her throat constricts.

The howling stops, and in the still, fleeting silence she takes a deep breath, forcing air into her lungs, steeling herself for what is to come should she be caught. Sophia focuses intently on the dark shadows between the looming trees, anxiously plotting a path to asylum. The lawn is long, but if she is quick and crosses through the gardens, she may escape the clutches of the depraved men behind her.

The long, low rumblings of a hunter’s horn is heard, its vibrations thrumming through her body, quaking the earth beneath her feet. There is one measured blow, then another and she is running, against the whipping wind fast as her feet can carry her to the black of the wood, the raucous laughter of the hunters and the drumming of hooves muffled by the sounds of her raspy breath.

•••

Sophia is not in the room, nor is she anywhere in the house, and Liam has begun to have a terrible suspicion creep over him. He thinks of the other men, stripped to the waists, chests and faces painted in red ochre not ten minutes before: Bertrand crowned in ivy, looking like a wild god, Maxwell and Rashad beside him with their pupils blown out in the torchlight. On their black and white steeds, they could very well have been ancient centaurs, half-men, half-beasts, come down from the hills to slake their lust on mortal women and drink wine until they go into frenzies of ecstatic, wild madness.

  Liam, too, is painted and masked, and the housekeeper lets out a scream of pure terror when she sees him in the kitchen.

  "Where is the girl who showed my lady to her room?" Liam bares his teeth. "I am your king and you will answer!"  

The servants pull a girl with a copy of the Grimm’s Fairy Tales in her hands out of the larder, and she blinks like a mole in the light. When the housekeeper prods her to answer, she stammers out that she put Sophia in the room "with the other women." Liam feels the blood drain from his face. With the servants on their knees in terror, he storms from the house.  

That's when he hears the haunting call of the horn. And Liam runs.

He mounts his horse in one quick movement, clucking his tongue so it breaks into a steadfast gallop. No one but I will lay a finger on you. His words repeat in his mind like a broken record as he rides, pressing his spurs into the side of the gelding, urging it to go faster, faster.

But it is too late to stop it. It is bedlam on the lawn now the horn has been blown, a cacophony of unsettling sights and sounds unfolding before him -- the garish moaning of women on their knees in the grass, thundering hooves, the boisterous roars of nobleman. He rides on, desperately searching for any sign of her, but there must be a dozen women with honey hair in the horde. So he calls to her, intending to keep his promise, no longer caring for social station or who hears him shouting her name.

  •••

Sophia’s leaden feet pound the ground beneath her, each footfall more painful than the last. The horses are so much faster than her and the lawn is long, too long. Her heart beats frantically in her chest, her breath labored, thighs burning. She’s so exhausted she feels she could collapse involuntarily at any moment, though she does not slow her pace. The silhouette of a great oak is in her sights, and she will run until her feet bleed to hide in the crest of its branches, enduring what she must to free herself from the fate of what awaits her if she gives up and allows herself to be taken by one of the devil men.

She’s almost to the oak tree when, so faintly she’s almost sure she’s imagined it, she hears his voice calling for her through the thick of the noise. Liam! Against her better judgment, she turns away from the haven in the wood and runs back into the heart of the field, following the sound of his voice growing louder with every step.

The calls stop for a moment, then begin again, closer than before, but her name on his lips is different… the voice sounds coarser, darker, and Sophia cannot put her finger on why. Still, she pursues him, raring to feel safe in his arms and get away from the madness around her. Then, suddenly, she lets out a sharp cry of pain as a strong, unwavering hand grips her by the back of the neck, pulling her up onto their horse by her hair. She looks down at the hand bruising her thigh, squeezing tightly, and is horrified, for it is indubitably not the hand of the king.  

"Hello, Sophia." It is the Queen's lover, captain of the Royal Horse Guards, the man whom Savannah warned the other maids about. A flirtation with him means death.  

How he knows Sophia's name, she knows not, and she struggles against him, clawing at his cheek, drawing blood. "Let me go," she begs hoarsely, and he laughs, low and dark.

  "He thought to keep you all to himself tonight." Rashad's voice is threaded with vicious delight. "Well, let him see how it feels to have the thing he loves most taken from him."  

Sophia opens her mouth to scream, and then his lips are upon hers, hard and bruising. She bites his mouth and he draws back, bleeding, his eyes dark and terrible beneath his devil's mask.  

"Bitch!" he snarls, and his palm connects with her face, her head snapping back from the force of it. Sophia tastes blood on her tongue, thick and coppery, and she screams Liam's name.  

"Sophia!" she hears Liam's anguished howl as though from far away, and the world is blurring before her eyes, though she cannot tell if it is from the tears or the blow; branches whip at her face as they plunge into the dark wood, and Rashad is laughing, low and dark, filling Sophia with terror.  

She hears Liam shouting for her, hears his horse plunge into the thicket after them. He's coming. Liam is coming for me. She twists in Rashad's grip, pummelling his chest and his face, teeth bared. Rashad pushes her down, holding her by the back of the neck, and they break out of the woods, beside a ruined shrine and a little spring.

  He dismounts, his hand twining in her loose hair, holding her up by it, and she has never hated her long hair more, for the weakness it brings. He seems to be waiting for something, listening, his head cocked toward the wood. Sophia listens too, and she hears it: Liam fighting against the thicket, almost upon them now.  

Rashad forces Sophia to her knees, his hand twitching on the buttons of his breeches. He is waiting, she realizes, for Liam to come. He is playing some terrible game here, dark and twisted.  

"Unhand her!" Liam bursts through the trees and Sophia nearly sobs in relief to see his face. He dismounts, striding towards Rashad, who jerks Sophia up and kisses her roughly. Liam wrenches Rashad away from her, and then he is atop of him, his fist making a monstrous noise as it slams against Rashad's flesh. "Have you had enough?" Liam hisses, his face twisted with rage.  

Rashad begins laughing, laughing, the harsh echo filling the night.  

Liam hits him again and again, and then he is in a frenzy, and Sophia grasps at him, trying to pull him off Rashad, screaming in his ear, "Liam, stop!" but he does not hear her. He will murder Rashad tonight if she cannot stop him, and the realization of what it will mean chills her straight to the marrow. She dashes to the spring and fills her hands with water, which she throws upon Liam, breaking his concentration.

He shakes his head like a bull, coming back to himself. "Sophia...?" Liam asks, unsure. His hands are slick with Rashad's blood.

  "He didn't hurt me, Liam," she says firmly, drawing him away. "Come, let's return to the house."

  Behind her, she hears Rashad moving in the grass, so she knows he lives, but beyond that, she does not care.

•••

Sophia kneels before Liam on the bed, gently wiping the blood from his mangled hands with a cold cloth. She has wrapped herself in thin blanket, hiding her wounds from his view.

“Sophia --”

“Don’t, Liam,” she whispers sharply. “I want to return home at first light. Please, I cannot bear to be here any longer than we must be. I want…” she trails off. Drake, she yearns to say, but does not dare, for tonight she has seen to what violent lengths Liam will go to keep her as his own, and it strikes fear in her heart.

“I cannot just leave, Sophia. It would be unspeakably rude to the Beaumont’s, and they are a valuable alliance to the crown. The estate will look different in the light of day. I’m here now. You have nothing to fear,” Liam smiles gently, pulling her into his arms, the blanket falling from her body. He gasps seeing her in the light, stunned by the sight of her battered frame: deep purple welts on her back from Madame Louisa’s switch, bruises in long lines the shape of fingers on her thigh, burning red marks settling in the crook of her neck from being carried by her hair.

“Oh gods,” tears well in his eyes, his voice breaking. “You said he didn’t hurt you. That pompous animal will pay for his sins, Sophia. He will pay for what he did to you, my love.” Liam’s eyes darken, and Sophia tries, in vain, to swallow the bitterness burning in her throat at his hypocrisy.

“You will not kill a man in my name, Liam. Rashad has paid for his sins tonight at your hand, it is you who has not paid for yours,” she rises from the bed, ripping her hand from his. “I should never have come here with you. I am not your plaything.”

“My sins? I know you are upset my love, as am I, but I had no more control than you over what happened here tonight. You were never meant to see those horrible things, and for that I am contrite. I acted the moment I knew something had gone terribly wrong. Surely you do not blame me for the mistakes of a silly servant girl.”

“You forget, I too am a silly servant girl,” she spits his words at him, fuelled by the feelings she has kept tightly coiled since laying in his marriage bed with his queen. “You promised me no one would lay a finger on me but you and look at me!” Sophia grasps his jaw and turns his head to her. “Look at the marks left by the hands that have been on my body this night! I have been beaten, tormented and nearly…” she stops, a choking sob swallowing her words.

Liam rushes to her, holding her in a warm embrace. Her hot tears cascade onto his shoulders as she grips him tighter, weeping. “You promised me, Liam. You promised me. You promised.”

“Oh, my darling. I know. I know and I’m so sorry. No one will ever hurt you again, Sophia. I will protect you. Always.”

“And who will protect me from you?” Sophia gently pushes Liam away from her, thoughts of Drake swirling in her troubled mind, thinking of how she has never felt so safe in Liam’s arms as she does in his.

“You don’t mean that, Sophia. I would never hurt you,” his voice is small and frail, his face twisted in anguish, like she has shot an arrow through his heart.

“But you already have, Liam! Beyond measure. When you summoned me to you and Madeline, you swore I was safe with you, but I wasn’t, was I? I was so terribly drunk I could not stand, Liam. You barely gave me a choice. What’s worse is you would not even look upon me when the deed was done, like I was nothing to you.”

Tears are slipping down her cheeks freely, every bit of raw emotion she has buried deep since that fateful night pouring out of her like a burst dam. The anger, confusion, the pain, overwhelming and pure joy when she discovered… their child. And then, unimaginable grief realizing she could not keep it, not now. How could she after what they had done?

“I never meant to hurt you. I was so ashamed, Sophia. I love you, and I will be with you until my dying breath if you will have me. Without you, I am nothing. You are my strength, my joy. Madeline, what we did to put a child in her, that is the terrible price of wearing the crown.”

“And will our child pay a price as I have?” Sophia cries, so tired of keeping her secret that it spills from her mouth unwittingly. “Where does it end, Liam?”

Liam’s eyes widen at her admission, as do hers, and he stares at her for a long moment, assimilating her words. “Our child? No, it’s not possible,” he proclaims, mystified.

“I have not bled since early March.”

Liam falls to his knees before her and presses his forehead against her stomach, kissing it over and over, softly, weeping.

“I am with child, Liam. Your child grows inside me.”

Orphic Hymn 30

Orphic Hymn 46

#historical au #tw assault #tw violence #trr #choices trr #trr au #the royal romance #choices the royal romance #choices fanfiction #liam x mc #king liam #drake walker #drake x mc #maxwell beaumont #a world apart

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zoadgo · 6 years ago

Text

somewhere to begin | Raven/Shaw | The 100

Rating: General Audiences Words: 3461 Tags: Fluff, Casual Conversation, Canon Divergent, Canon Compliant, Romance while fleeing for your lives A/N: I know people are already writing fluff for them, and better than I can, but I love them and want them to be soft and happy. my note for this one was “ wherein Raven and Shaw try to have a light conversation and it isn’t light at all. this is blatant fluff and also an ode to ‘raven reyes deserves better’”

tagging: @zavenkru

ao3

The gentle flicker of firelight on cave walls is soundtracked by quiet murmurs of conversation and light popping of wood. None of the people talking would risk any more noise than that, there’s no chance of any sort of exclamation or raucous argument such as Shaw is used to hearing. Everyone gathered here, secreted away in a vast network of caves and tunnels, knows how much danger they’re in right now. They glance around constantly, nervous and confident that at any moment McCreary and his thugs will come racing in to slaughter them all.

They’re right to be nervous, and Shaw knows it better than any of them. If they’re lucky, McCreary will be so consumed by rage when he finds them that he will just kill all of them. The unlucky will survive that, and he’ll keep them around, to torture and kill as the whims take him. Shaw keeps that knowledge to himself, though, and lets the others fear only death.

The risk of all that, of course, would be mitigated by him leaving. Shaw knows that his staying with the group only puts them more in harm's way, and he really ought to make his escape as soon as possible. Not for his sake, because whatever waits for him back in camp isn’t going to be pretty, but for the sake of all the refugees - well, one in particular, but everyone would benefit just the same. That’s why he’s kept himself separate, simply observing from his position in a dark corner of the main cave. His presence is dangerous, and he’s not the only one who knows it.

From across the room, Shaw can feel Echo’s eyes burn into him with naked intent. She hasn’t killed him yet, but he knows that she would, if she were given just a moment without someone nearby to stop her. Sometimes, when Shaw remembers some of the more horrific things McCreary has done in the name of extracting information, he thinks he ought to let her. It would be the correct thing to do, right? But if he’s being entirely honest, Shaw doesn’t want to die.

He makes very sure not to react to Echo’s attention, avoiding eye contact and trying not to tense up. It’s hard, especially without something to distract himself, only able to study one of the small fires in an effort to prevent himself from going over there and demanding she either kill him or move on already. Shaw’s pretty used to death threats after all his time with criminals, and he has to remind himself that Echo doesn’t have any real reason to restrain herself. The Eligius criminals couldn’t kill him, for the very same reason that she wants to.

Shaw holds out for a remarkably long time before the constant observance gets to him, and he pushes himself suddenly to his feet. Several people around him startle, so caught up in their own worry that the slightest change in their environment is a cause for alarm. Screw this, though. Screw sitting there as Echo fantasizes about his death, isolating himself in an effort to… what? He knows he’s not going to leave, he would have done so already if he were seriously inclined.

Shaw makes his way very intentionally past Echo, over to where Raven and Emori are seated, tinkering with some mechanical thing. Making weapons, he’s pretty sure he can deduce that much from the snippets of their conversation he picks up on. But the way they talk is that of the self-taught; he has no doubt that to themselves and each other they make sense, but the amount of half finished sentences leaves Shaw entirely unable to fully understand what they’re doing.

Emori notices his approach first and nudges Raven’s knee with her own, leaning over to whisper something as Raven looks up at him. Whatever it was startles a smile and a half-laugh from Raven, which Shaw can’t help but smile in response to. There’s something about her that makes it impossible for him to hold his composure, especially when they’re not actively in danger, and her smile is brighter than the campfires littered around them.

As Shaw reaches them, Emori stands and passes by him, leaving him alone with Raven with no comment other than a conspiratorial wink. He nods at her as she leaves; Shaw likes her, at least as well as he can given their brief interactions. He likes her even more now, though, for giving him time alone with Raven.

“Shaw,” Raven greets him warmly, still seated amidst a pile of scrap metal, and Shaw is tempted to take a seat right next to her. But the hair on the back of his neck stands, and he glances over his shoulder to see Echo still watching him.

“Is there somewhere more private we could go?” Shaw asks, thinking only of getting away from the obsessive assassin. Raven perks up and starts to push herself to her feet immediately, taking Shaw’s hand when he offers it to her for assistance.

“Yeah, let’s just-” Raven cuts off and looks around the central cave for a moment before spying Emori again, gesturing with her chin. “Come on.”

Shaw is more than happy to follow her as she walks over and makes a vague excuse, saying that they’re going to go see if there’s any other ways into the cave system. Not that there’s any chance of that, of course, these caves were all well explored and mapped as soon as they took up base here. But it lets someone know where they are, and gives them a reason for Shaw to follow behind Raven, picking up a torch as they cut out of the main cave into one of the tunnels branching off of it.

Until they step finally out of sight, Shaw swears he can feel Echo watching him, and he has no reason to doubt that feeling at this point. He sighs with relief as the light of the main cave fades, leaving him alone with Raven and their single torch.

“She really wants to kill me, huh?” Shaw thinks out loud, and Raven looks over her shoulder at him with her eyebrow raised.

“Echo?” At Shaw’s nod, Raven shrugs a shoulder in an awkward gesture. “It’s a little more complicated than that. I mean, don’t get me wrong, she does and you should never be alone with her, but it’s not anything personal.”

“Gonna be honest, it’s hard not to take that personally,” Shaw jokes, and Raven gives him a half smile for his efforts.

“Yeah, I get that, but it’s- here.” Raven kicks a few rocks and holds her hand out, reaching towards the torch that Shaw gives up without question. She plants it in between a few rocks, and then sits on a natural sort of chair made by the rock wall, stretching her leg out in front of her with a sigh of relief. She looks up at him expectantly and pats the rock ledge next to her when Shaw doesn’t seat himself right away.

“As I was saying, it really isn’t personal.” Raven picks her train of thought back up, looking at the rocks on the other side of the tunnel as Shaw indulges himself in turning to look at her. “How much do you know of her world? In between yours and now, I mean.”

Shaw tries to recall all that he knows and comes up relatively short. Kane’s told Diyoza some of it, Clarke gave them a brief history, but he himself doesn’t know a lot of details. “Some of it. Nukes wiped out most of the planet, people formed tribes or something in the wake of it.”

“Kru,” Raven corrects him. “And while you’re not wrong, there’s a lot more than that. For Echo, she was raised from infancy to be a spy and an assassin. All she ever knew was serving her King and her people. Some of the stuff she’s told us- Well, it’s not pretty. She did everything she could for them, and then she was cast out, and that’s where we came in. We picked her up right before the world ended again, and we’ve tried to help her grow and figure out who she is beyond what she was made to be. And she has, but-”

Raven frowns for a second, gathering her thoughts, “She thinks you’re a threat to us. And she’ll do anything to keep us safe. So, while she does want to kill you, it’s not because she doesn’t like you or thinks you deserve to die. It’s the best way she knows to keep us safe. When you grow up and all you know is killing and death, it’s hard to think of any other way.”

“I get it,” Shaw admits, “I definitely understand wanting to keep you safe. It would be nice if I didn’t have to die for it, though.”

Raven laughs lightly, “Yeah, that would be nice. Stick by me, and you’ll be safe. The one thing she’s more afraid of than us getting hurt, is disappointing us and getting cast out again.”

“That’s-” Shaw thinks about it, about what kind of person Echo must be and what she must have gone through that she would let a known threat live just to avoid being left alone, and he can’t deny it touches him. “That’s really sad.”

Raven, somewhat to his surprise, simply shrugs. He wonders at that, if she genuinely doesn’t think that’s sad, or if she’s experienced so much else that it seems like nothing in comparison. He realizes, not for the first time, that he doesn’t know that much about Raven. She had a rough childhood that he understands a little too well, but surely in between then and now there must have been something other than tragedy.

“I guess I was the one who made it not a casual conversation this time, huh?” Shaw attempts to lift the mood and change the subject, and Raven turns her head to grin at him.

“Well now we’re both culprits of that, I guess.” Raven stretches her arms above her head with a small grunt and drops them to her leg, idly massaging it. “Honestly I don’t even know what a casual conversation would be at this point.”

Shaw wants to ask about her leg, but he knows that’s not going to be less tragic. He wants to know everything about her, the good and the bad, but now isn’t the time for that. They need a distraction from the awfulness of the world, not a reminder.

“Well, you could tell me about what it was like back on the Ark, maybe. What you did before you had to save to world all the time.” Shaw bumps her shoulder with his in a playful move. She doesn’t shrug off the contact, and to his delight, she even leans against him a litte.

“That seems like so long ago,” Raven chuckles, leaning into him further. Shaw barely controls the urge to put his arm around her and hold her to his chest. One day, maybe, but they’ve barely talked beyond life or death yet. “I was a Zero G mechanic. Youngest in 52 years.”

Shaw whistles, low and impressed, “Damn, I knew you were smart, but…”

“It’s what I’m good at. Fixing things, making something work with some electrical tape and a prayer. I mean, hell, I built most of the things we were using down here before Praimfiya, or at least drew up the plans for them.” Raven speaks plainly, not bragging, even though Shaw wouldn’t blame her for it. He’s gone up against her in a battle of wits and come out the poorer. “I guess that’s when I’m happiest, when I get to take a mess or something broken, and then I get to make it work.”

“So when did you get into coding?” Shaw asks, remembering her locking him out of his own ship. Not that a Zero G mechanic couldn’t learn how to hack, but he doubts that it was in her curriculum.

“I picked up bits and pieces that we needed to know on the Ark, but most of that was ALIE. She was a bitch and a half, but there were upsides to it.” Raven says, nonchalant.

Shaw racks his brain for a moment, but comes up dry. If Clarke or Kane had told them about ALIE, he either wasn’t privy to it, or had somehow forgotten it in with everything else. Admittedly, it had been an eventful hundred years, and he hadn’t had much time to study his recent history.

“Who was ALIE, again?” Shaw asks, and Raven hums pensively for a brief moment.

“She was an AI. Ran the City of Light, a virtual network in which everyone was… ‘perfect’.” She makes the air quotes around the word with her fingers. “Just put this chip in your body, and she’d take you there. No pain, no hate, no suffering. And no free will. She used me to further her plans, and I became one with her mainframe and coding. I could learn it all, it was just as easy as breathing. Even after Clarke and Bellamy saved me, I retained a lot of it. That almost killed me, though.”

Raven snorts at that, as if the concept of her almost dying is funny, and Shaw frowns. “What do you mean?”

“Well, they fried the chip in me with an EMP, and it left some nasty gunk in my brain. I started having hallucinations and seizures. Don’t worry, though, I’m better now.” Raven pats Shaw’s leg, to comfort him even though she’s the one who had such a horrifying thing happen to her, nevermind all the implications that Shaw actively decides not to pursue in that moment with being wired into an AI.

“That doesn’t sound like the sort of thing you just get better from,” Shaw insists, concerned despite Raven’s flippant tone and effort at comfort. She’s at the same time awe inspiring and concerning; that she could treat death so lightly, and also that she clearly is far too well acquainted with the matter.

“Well, not exactly. I figured out a way to fix it right before Praimfiya. It was risky, but if I didn’t try, I was definitely going to die. I figured that lowering my heart rate and brain activity to near death levels in an ice bath and then kick starting my system back into action would work, and it did. Hard reset,” Raven explains, in the same tone of voice she’d used to describe building tech for her people.

“So basically, you tried ‘turning it off and turning it back on again’?” Shaw asks, shocked that she had managed to come up with that solution, and doubly so that it had worked and not just killed her outright.

“Yeah, basically. It almost didn’t matter in the end, though.”

“How so?” Shaw prompts, and Raven shrugs, her shoulder pressing into his arm.

“I was alone in the lab, and like I said, impending death wave. I thought I was going to die there, even after everything I went through to live, just because no one would come get me.” Raven seems a little sad at that, but in a casual way, as if over the loss of a nice jacket, not her own life.

“Wait, you hard reset your entire body, basically dying and coming back to life, and you were alone during that?” Shaw doesn't even try to hide the baffled surprise in his voice. It was terrifying enough to imagine going through that, but alone? That means she must have had to restart her own heart, and after coming back from death, she would have had no one there to hold her and tell her it’s okay.

No wonder Raven is so flippant about dying.

“Well, n-” Raven cuts off whatever she was going to say with a sad little frown and a far away look, before shaking her head slightly. “Yeah, I was alone. But it’s fine, really Shaw, I’m okay.”

“No, Raven, it’s not okay. You’re fine now, I get that, but,” Shaw doesn’t even hesitate before taking Raven’s hand in his, “You shouldn’t have had to go through that alone. You shouldn’t have needed to die.”

“We’re all alone in the end, Shaw.” Raven sighs, but she doesn’t pull away from him. With her free hand, she starts tracing the tendons on the back of Shaw’s hand, and for all the sombre mood, he can’t help the happy fluttering of his heart. “And we certainly all die.”

“No, I don’t accept that.” Shaw shakes his head, and Raven looks up at him, her brow furrowed in a quizzical expression. “We all die - hell, right now we might die at any minute - but we don’t have to be alone. You don’t have to be alone.”

“What, are you going to be with me every second from now until I die?” Raven asks, a dark sort of humour turning up the corners of her mouth, and Shaw gives her a small smile in return.

“Maybe. I’ll do my best.”

Raven looks away from him at that, towards the far wall of the tunnel, but she doesn’t pull away. He wonders, sometimes, if maybe he’s coming on a bit too strong, but nothing he’s done so far seems to have scared her off. He can’t really imagine Raven being scared of anything, let alone him and his awkward, century-out-of-date courtship. So Shaw lets the silence grow, until eventually Raven breaks it.

“Do you like me?” She asks, not quiet and shy, gaze diverted to their joined hands, her fingers never pausing in tracing lines on the back of his hand.

“I thought I was pretty obvious about it.” Shaw laughs, a little self-conscious, but continues with total sincerity, “Yes, I like you.”

Raven’s hands still, and Shaw wonders for a moment if he’d done something wrong. He had thought their flirting was mutual, but then again, he's more than a little but out of practice with the whole deal. Plus, Raven's from an entirely different time and culture than him, it's entirely possible he'd been misreading everything.

“Then why haven't you made a move on me?” Ravena asks, and Shaw’s heart starts beating again as relief floods through him. Raven looks up at him, something close to accusation but much more vulnerable in her gaze. “You haven't even tried to kiss me.”

“Somehow it just didn’t seem right. You know, you were our prisoner, and then I was all beat up and- Well, the moment hasn’t been right. Running for our lives and being at war isn’t the most romantic, you know?”

“Romantic, huh?” Raven scoffs lightly and shakes her head, “Shaw, I was raised in space on strict rations under a totalitarian government, and then I came to Earth and the world has been ending in one way or another ever since. I can’t say romance has ever been high on my list of priorities, if that’s what’s holding you back.”

Shaw shrugs a little and leans forward slightly, as if conspiring about some secret with Raven. “Well, I happen to come from a different time, and believe me when I say that if there’s anyone in the world who’s ever been deserving of romance, it’s you, Raven Reyes.” Shaw savours the taste of her name on his tongue and his heart skips a beat at the slight flush that darkens her cheeks. If only they could have met before, how he would love to just take her away on his Harley and shoot the shit with her for hours. Maybe someday, they can do something like that. Shaw clears his throat and continues with a smile, “And I’d like to be the one to give you that, if you let me.”

Shaw has never seen Raven at a loss for words, but in this moment she seems to stumble for them, and Shaw’s heart swells at it. It’s incredible, to be able to have such an effect on such an incredible woman, and also sad to think that the reason she’s blushing is possibly that no one has ever paid her such a sincere compliment before. Of all the injustices in the world, this is one Shaw can’t abide.

“Yeah,” Raven replies after a moment, and Shaw’s grin grows. “I think I’d like that.”

“Well, then,” Shaw looks away from her at the firelight dancing on the rock walls around them. He raises one of her hands in his and returns his gaze to hers, pressing his lips to her knuckles in a chaste kiss. “This isn’t a bad place to start.”

#zaven #pilot mechanic #raven reyes #miles ezekiel shaw #zeke shaw #miles shaw #the 100 #fan fic

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artigas · 6 years ago

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RULES: tag ten followers you want to know better!

Tagged by: @crucifythenburn. If you’re not already following this angel, it’s time to fix that.

TAGGING: @pan-shego, @sightetsound, @clockheartedcrocodile, @heart-eyes-harrington, @ohmystarsy, @roseaque, @goodmorninghawkins, @mountaincats, @maxine-mayfields, @ohvirginia + @lymricks

STAR SIGN: Cancer and it fits too well. The stars are reading me.

HEIGHT: 4′11, I’m ... very small.

PUT YOUR ITUNES/SPOTIFY ON SHUFFLE. WHAT ARE THE FIRST 4 SONGS THAT POPPED UP?

Easy Love - Lauv

Curious - Hayley Kiyoko

Wrong Side of Life - Miles Kane

Long Days - I Will, I Swear

GRAB THE BOOK NEAREST YOU AND TURN TO PAGE 23. WHAT’S LINE 17? The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri: “Go on,” Ashoke urges. “He wants to be held tightly. He’s stronger than you think.”

EVER HAD A POEM OR SONG WRITTEN ABOUT YOU? I don’t think so?

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU PLAYED AIR GUITAR? I never play air guitar but if you must know ... I definitely played air drums this morning while getting dressed to go vote. I was listening to Crying Lightning. It’s hard to resist.

WHO IS YOUR CELEBRITY CRUSH? oh honey, why ask me this? Oscar Isaac, Lucy Liu, Zazie Beetz, Alex Turner, Jake Gyllenhaall, Lily James, Tessa Thompson, Cate Blanchett, to name a few.

WHAT’S A SOUND YOU HATE + SOUND YOU LOVE?

HATE: loud breathing, audible chewing, snoring.

LOVE: the sound of the note reverberating inside the violin as you pull the bow across the strings- deeper, I think, than what the listener hears because the sound is tucked so close to your ear when you play. the sound of other peoples’ genuine laughter, the sound of thunder and ocean waves.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN GHOSTS? Eh, it’s complicated.

HOW ABOUT ALIENS? I don’t believe in alien abductions and shit, but I don’t think we’re the only intelligent lifeforms in the universe.

DO YOU DRIVE? Nope! Practicing tho.

IF SO, HAVE YOU EVER CRASHED? God forbid...I’m nervous enough while driving.

WHAT WAS THE LAST BOOK YOU READ? The State of Affairs by Esther Perel. It was a challenging read, because I’ve always had a very strong stance against adultery but the book challenged the over-simplicity of my position. Really thought provoking! I’m reading Sing, Unburied, Sing now.

DO YOU LIKE THE SMELL OF GASOLINE? At first, but then it gives me a headache.

WHAT WAS THE LAST MOVIE YOU SAW? Destination Wedding with my two besties. It wasn’t the best thing I’ve ever seen, but it was fun to watch Winona and Keanu sharing a screen and some nice kisses again. I’m dying to see Searching next.

WHAT’S THE WORST INJURY YOU’VE EVER HAD? I’ve not had very many injuries in life (knock on wood). I guess the worst thing that even happened to me was a really intense surgery when I was sixteen- technically, they surgically broke both my jaws before putting them back together and keeping my mouth bound for two months.

DO YOU HAVE ANY OBSESSIONS RIGHT NOW? I’m ... really obsessed with the Arctic Monkeys right now. I don’t know how my best friend tolerates all the squeaking I do about them on the reg.

DO YOU TEND TO HOLD GRUDGES AGAINST PEOPLE WHO HAVE DONE YOU WRONG? Not really, I don’t think. It takes me a while to take a step back, process, and heal but I usually do try to forgive people the harms they’ve done to me. That doesn’t mean I allow everyone back into my life though. I think to forgive someone and to reforge a relationship with them are two very different things and they don’t always coexist. It’s important to learn when someone’s place in your life has run its course.

IN A RELATIONSHIP? Pringles, baby!

#estefania rambles #thanks for the asks Trinity i love you ♥︎#you're the bomb dot com #about me

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toughguywithbossygirlfriend · 7 years ago

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Romance history in the comics ? WonderBat vs BatCat ?

Not so long ago, a BatCat fan cross tagged one of her post about Rebirth Batman #40, surely as a result of the WonderBat development in both Issues #39 and #40 ...

I made a comment about BatCat being from an historical stand point more like a “War/Sex/Hate” kind of relationship rather than a real “Love Story” and of course it unleashed “War/Hate” ...

Over the time I’ve read numerous comments about how much BatCat “love” you can find in the history of Batman and Catwoman , how old their “Love story” is, and thus I was kind of confused with what I could remember from my own youth or recent history ... but I had really a hard time to see any signs of such an old and strong love story.

So I decided to check the comics for real legit history, rather than just reading another post from other people, who read themselves from other posts, that resume other posts, written out of informations from other posts ...

But DC Comics has a wast History ... and I don’t really have access to all the comics ever published ... so what do you do ? and where do you start ?

I couldn’t and I didn’t go extensively into oldtimers as far as the 40′s, the 50′s, the 60′s or the 70′s ... but usually people agree that prior to the 80′s Catwoman was just one of many villains and any romance was impossible because of that.

In an Issue from April 1968 of “the Brave and the Bold”, Wonder Woman falls in love for real with Batman after faking it first. A year later Steve Trevor Dies in her arms in a WW Issue of 1969. Later in another Brave and the Bold Issue 1978 Batman puts himself on purpose in danger of death to push Wonder Woman to surpass herself and break the chains that kept her prisoner earlier... it seems she cared enough... Meanwhile Catwoman, no matter the outfit, just wanted to get him into a coffin...

Still I was wrong and there is no point in denying that there are stories were he had a “love story” with Selina Kyle like the one below in the Batman (1940) Serie, but she was always a repentant criminal :

(Bruce and Selina - #308, #317, # 326 from 1981 to 1982)

Unlike the Catwoman in “Rebirth Batman”, the Selina in the Bronze era decided to turn her back on her criminal activities in #308 and that enabled the starting of a relationship with Bruce Wayne in # 317. Bruce knew about her Catwoman identity but he didn’t tell her that he was Batman. Even though she sincerely stopped her criminal activities, he didn’t trust his Girlfriend and she broke up the relationship because of that in #326. After that she had to put again the Catwoman mask and learned later that he was the Batman, she even became his “sidekick” in #392 a few Issues before the end of Bronze Age Batman.

Warning : If You “keep reading”, note that I cover mainly the Modern Age of DC Comics (around 1987 until now). I try to focus on the Batman and Catwoman relationship but parallel it with some important WonderBat moments to get a better overview. This may end up “pro-WonderBat” but it is not “anti-Catwoman”. And you should not judge Selina too quickly or too hard, even if she looks quite messed up. She did go through quite a bad twisted history as well as Bruce, but she didn’t have a caring butler, she wasn’t bathed in limitless wealth, securely sheltered in a great mansion, and for a girl/woman, the corrupted and evil streets of Gotham are a lot worse than for a boy/man ...

Before the modern age ... this was a time were between the different series Batman, Detective Comics, the Brave and the Bold, Bruce had an average rate of one Girlfriend (or Love interests) every 10 Issues ... Julie Madison, Selina Kyle, Linda Page, Vicki Vale, Kathy Kane (Batwoman, no joke !), Patricia Powell, Marcia Monroe, Poison Ivy, Silver St-cloud, Lina Muller, Talia Al Guhl, Nocturna(Natalia Mitternacht), Julia Remarques, ... even Diana Prince and Barbara Gordon fall for him... Some fell in love with Bruce, some with Batman and some for the combination ...

(A few kisses ... but you can find much much more of course)

I always wondered were his Playboy persona did come from ... now I know !... the Bronze Age era. Even James Bond will find it hard to beat the duo Batman/Bruce Wayne ...

Even if there are a lot of older History and more BatCat stuff then WondeBat, you can resume it for Selina Kyle with : “No criminal activities”/”Love story works” vs “Criminal activities”/“no Love story”.

However “Rebirth Batman” is not part of the Bronze Age but of the Modern Age, thus I wanted to check out the last 30 years of WonderBat and BatCat relationships, platonic or not. Compared to the Bronze era Batman the Girlfriend renewal rate of the Modern Age of DC comics has dramatically dropped, surely because mentalities changed and today that kind of behavior would be considered disrespectful to women ... building up a strong love affair with the Princess of the Amazons would have been hard with a guy who changes Girlfriends like shirts ... Bruce Wayne evolved strongly from real Playboy, to ... Single Dad and Family man faking a playboy persona... more suitable to the job but still keeping his charm intact.

Checking out every comic more or less related to these three (Batman, Wonder Woman and Catwoman), would have already taken far too much time, even if I didn’t digg into stuff older than then “Batman Year One” (February to May 1987)

I didn’t really feel like checking out every alternate world or elseworld because I am pretty sure the “Batman who laughts” from “Dark nights: Metal” would have a lot to tell about WonderBat in these worlds ... so lets keep it mainstream.

I had a relative good Idea, even if not exhaustive, about WonderBat, but I needed more Infos on BatCat. I figured that there was less to read about Catwoman then Batman, and anyway if there was gonna be some romance stuff it would be easier to pick it up on the more emotional Catwoman then with the unreadable Dark Knight.

That’s why I decided to focus mainly on the Catwoman series and started with a mini-serie from 1989 and going on from there ... trying to cover these last 30+ years.

(Catwoman Mini-Serie - February to May 1989)

With this mini-serie I was glad to rediscovered something covering quite well, the things that I remembered from my own comic youth...

I would dare to say “the Title speaks for itself”, No ?!

So she kills a bad guy, while the knight in batsuit saves the girl she couldn’t protect ... then she wants to kill a second one... Batman steps in the middle and she just doesn’t want to listen...

“It’s to be a War between us” ... Hey, don’t look at me ... I didn’t say anything ... Batman said it ... Just then, she rubs her breasts on him ... and of course they kiss ... Sorry people, don’t throw the stone at Batman he didn’t start the teasing ... she did ! ... She has a beautiful body ... she wants it right there... He is single, may not have had his fix for some time now and I am pretty sure his blood is already boiling ... Dammit, its a guy ..what did you expect ?? Tea time ?? ... of course he gives in ... quit being naive.

Bang !!! That didn’t last long ... as usual,.. Oh, and just for the record he didn’t start the fight either ... but nothing easier to get a guy lower his defense then teasing him with the perspective of Sex ... Selina uses her sexuality as a tool all the time to create distraction, to regain the initiative, (and definitively not only with Batman) ... just like Batman uses fear. Over the years to come it gets obvious that Selina has a problem with males, and she surely has more reason to hate them, than the Amazons, but the constant Support and Righteousness of Batman slowly attracts her to him.

“Lover” ... Is that why every one seems to think this has anything to do with love ??? ... sure I feel the Love, Bats too, i guess ...

So If you think “sex” is “love” or even “implied love” .. I’d hate to break it to anyone but you can “pay for sex” since the beginning of humanity, both sexes used sexual intercourse to gain favors, and in modern times, “One night stands” or “booty calls” are surely things you’ve already heard about, ... and none of this has anything to do with real Love. Even though Sex is usually a part of a Loving relationship. OK maybe you could put “Friendship with benefits” into the “loving” category ... your choice ...

Lets take a time jump to the next serie a few years later...

It is a Serie of 94 Issues ... I confess I am not going through the whole Serie Just look at a few Issues at the beginning starting in August 1993 and a few Issues at the end in July 2001... If there is a positive evolution in their relationship it is to expect that it gets to its peak at the end ...

(Catwoman Serie 1993 -Issue #1 from 1993)

This is a young blond girl named Arizona, and adopted by Catwoman, talking about Selina (the dark haired woman in blue). Selina starts as a “sweet girl” who kicks law enforcement’s asses, works for Bane, and kills bad guys again ... Worst enemy of Batman?, Greatest enemy ?, most deadly enemy ?, you choose ... BatCat Love ? not in the picture ...

(Catwoman - 1993 -Issue #94 from July 2001)

So, at the end of the serie, 8 years later, with surely quite some rooftop “war between sexes” in between... OK, Yeah it ends with a kiss again,... that she initiated again, ... but if you take a look at his face would you consider that he returns the kiss ? ... Obviously she always considers that there is something between them and he reminds her that they “had this conversation before” ... but i take it I’m supposed to consider “you know that can never happen” to be a clear sign of love... right ?

(JLA 1997 - #46 from Oct 2000 - The tower of Babel)

A little earlier Batman got expulsed from the Justice league and Wonder Woman was kind of really angry at him after years of strong friendship. She surely felt hurt more than anyone. So it wasn’t really “WonderBat” that prevented him from running away having a good time in Sao Paulo (see below)... Diana regrets it because she likes his skills, his warrior spirit, his intelligence, his dedication, his compassion, nearly everything about him but she’s totally into truth, so Bats secrecy and secret identity was a hindrance so far. The Amazon doesn't give up her unconditional trust to a man that easily ... and she feels hurt ...

(Catwoman - 1993 -Issue #94 from July 2001)

It is obvious that Selina doesn’t know Bruce Wayne, but she wants to know him ... so far, IF she’s “in love” with someone it would be with “the Batman”, but is it “true love” for the man below that she doesn’t know or “groupie love” for the symbol ? she’s quite adamant in this last Issue about what made her put on the mask herself : seeing Batman of “Year one” ... Bruce/Batman cares for her but much like in Bronze Age : Criminal activities = No love story

2001 is also the time where Batman reveals to Diana and the JLA that he is Bruce Wayne ... Now Diana can see the real him ... and it is even better than she expected because as a filthily rich he still chooses to put his life on the line to protect others ... you can add generosity, modesty, and others qualities to the guy .. and there is a broken boy inside of him that compels her motherly instincts, or compassion if you prefer ... and a good father that doesn't go unnoticed by the woman in her ... I guess he just added a lot to his “sex appeal”.

For Bats, things started to get a lot better with the Amazon from that point ... If Doomsday Clock rewinds time prior to that period it may erase WonderBat as well.

While Selina still has, lets say ... some heavy Issues with males and relationships ...

(Nightwing 1996 - #52 from 2001)

She dreams to marry Batman, then she kills him in the same dream’s wedding night ... so much for the love story ... then she wakes up in her bed ...

... looks out for some diamonds, trips over Nightwing and tries to seduce him ... the son of Batman ... yeah, smart move ... maybe she loves him too, he would be her “son in law” after all if she ever got to marry Batman ... then she tries mischievously to push Nightwing to tell Batman hoping the latter gets Jealous ... But by the reaction of Nightwing you can tell Bruce isn’t on the same page as Selina. Why would she do that ? out of “true Love” ? This story makes her look like a slut ... but I think it is not that ... her time in the dark streets of Gotham has ruined her vision of love and sex ... we’ll get a better (darker) picture in the coming Post-Flashpoint Catwoman serie ... and with the “Gentle Man” in Batman Rebirth #39 and #40 she’s gonna discover the difference between Love and Sex or even Marriage.

A little Jump to the next Catwoman Serie

2002, Catwoman returns (from Sao Paulo ;) ) in a new serie that goes on until 2010 and from the first Issue I would say their relationship is more peaceful, friendly...

(Catwoman - 2002 -Issue #01 from 2001)

It at least looks like a friendship... But you could say that at least her feelings for Batman may be beyond that ... maybe ...

Still the same rules apply her territory is “In between right and wrong” and ... its a no go for the Crusader of Justice !...

Ironically, the character definition of DC Rebirth for Catwoman and Batman reveals the same rift that is resumed in the above pics... Somehow Tom King seems to ignore that... why ?

But what about Bruce and Diana during that same period ?

That happened during the “Obsidian Age” ...

They kiss !! ... Ok, I can hear you shout “That’s no proof that they Love each other, because Selina kisses him all the time !! ” .. OK, that’s correct, but do they Die together hand in hand ? (obviously Bruce grabbed Diana’s hand and not the reverse)

Not enough ? OK, I’ll take the Challenge ... What about : “Love conquers all ? ... even Powerful Old Magic” is that better ?

Diana is about to be Sacrificed and all her Teammates, including Bruce, have been set asleep by a very powerful sorcerer using powerful Old Magic ... a magical sleep NO MAN should be able to awaken from ... but nonetheless the imminent Danger to Diana causes one, and only one, to awaken and save her ... Bruce ... and Diana knows how old magic works ...

So it wasn’t only Batman’s “will power” that enabled him to beat the Magic ?... could it be that the only other thing that can beat Old and Powerful Magic is the Power of Love ? Pretty sure that if Friendship was enough Clark would have woken up as well ... but he didn’t.

Clearly Bruce roots hard for the Amazon ... and not for the Cat ... and a few Issues after that, in JLA#90, it is obvious that Diana has surrendered her heart to Bruce as well.

(Bruce and Diana - JLA 1997 - #90 from Jan 2004)

But neither Diana nor Bruce are willing to take a risk with their way too precious friendship. They choose not to act on their, now unquestionable, feelings for each other ...

(Catwoman serie 2002 - #82 in 2008)

At the end of this Catwoman serie: Of course Batman runs after Catwoman ... he is gentle, he tries to help, but says one wrong word ... and she gets crazy, he goes from Ally to Enemy. But he is Batman and she gets cornered ... again as usual when Option “A” and “B” won’t work she uses “C”.

But again she uses the kiss as a tool .. this time to diffuse the situation and she explains in the end that if she could she would stop all that ... with Helena she wouldn’t need the Batman/Catwoman “rush” thing ... isn’t Helena about her real love here ? ... She always has a Girl/Woman (Arizona, Helena, Holly, ...) that means much more to her than “the Batman” ... At least now she knows his real name “Bruce”.

Deep down she knows, that what she shares with Batman isn’t Love its a substitute to fill her empty heart (at the end of the Catwoman 1993 Serie she tells him pretty much the same). Selina is much more messed up than Bruce Wayne. Bruce had Alfred, his Robins, Diana and his Friends from the JL. Selina was alone ... and that is the reason why he tries to help her like he already said it in the first Issue of that Serie : “I believe that deep down, you’re a good person”...

(Blakest Night : Wonder Woman - #2 from March 2010)

Unlike Selina who would have given up Bruce “Batman” Wayne for Helena if she wasn’t that screwed up ... Diana loves Bruce even more than before, or as a matter of fact more than her mother Hippolyta or closest amazon sisters (Cassie and Donna), ... I think with that level of “Love” between two partners, we can easily agree to qualify them as “Soulmates” ... and I have no doubt that the Bruce didn’t move on either ... trying to help criminals like Selina and give them a second chance is what he does every time it is possible (recently : clayface, killer frost, lobo, ...) ... doesn’t mean he is in love with them ...

To make it short : Over the past 20 years (1989 - 2011) all three characters evolutions make sense and it doesn't point out to “True Love” between Selina and Bruce unlike with Diana and Bruce. Bruce and Selina just share regular “One night stands” to comfort each other while Bruce and Diana torture themselves by refraining their Love out of fear of screwing up their friendship if they give into their feelings ...

Sorry, but so far obviously no true BatCat Love Story !!! but WonderBat “true deep Love” is canon ... just no sex, no dating, no usual relationship stuff ...

Comes “Flashpoint” during 2011... the Cosmic MOAB

Starting with that event the continuity gets "kind of” thrown out of the Window for WonderBat romance ... but not entirely.

In the new Catwoman Serie starting Nov 2011 Catwoman did forget Batmans real identity and Wondy suddenly roots for Supes ... Eww ! ... not to mention Steve Trevor returns from the dead again, I think he could compete with Catwoman about his number of lives but I didn’t count ...

In this serie you get from the start a pretty good look at the ordeal Selina must have lived while she grow up... Like I said, Compared to Selina, Bruce was a “Lucky” child with a stable childhood ...

(Catwoman - 2011 - Issue #01 from Nov 2011)

No wonder your relationship Compass spins around like crazy if you were raised in such an environment. Sex is a job, Violence the way to settle differences, Women are Sextoys or beaten to death if not shot by the local dirtbags, and Men are worthless and heartless monsters... Gotham’s darkest side as playground for a young Girl ... She nonetheless keeps a Good heart ... the Dark Knight cannot hold back his need to help her in anyway possible ... She is a really good soul, heavily messed up, but good ...

Selina doesn’t really care about the Guy under the mask, he protects her in exchange for Sex, ... at least that is what she thinks this is about...

In the last Issue of Catwoman 2011 - Issue 52 from Jul 2016 we learn that in that reality she had a real love years ago. He was named David, not Bruce, and he turned out a Bad Guy after faking her his death ... She doesn’t trust any man ... except maybe Batman.

(Forever Evil - July 2014)

SuperWonder era ... Superman and Wonder Woman are together for over a year now but Batman is still in love with Diana like prior to Flashpoint and thus can use Diana’s lasso ... surely the real reason why “There can’t be” nothing else ... even if she was a “Good Girl”. Honestly you feel really bad for the girl...

(Rebirth Justice League - #14 from April 2017)

Diana still mourns SuperWonder ...

Then comes DC Rebirth Superman #20 “Reborn” erasing SuperWonder from continuity setting Diana’s heart free from that ...

(Rebirth Wonder Woman - #25 from August 2017)

Diana Sleeps with Trevor ...

(Rebirth Batman - #32)

Selina answers “Yes” to Bruce’s proposal ... but she stays a thief... and that was a no go for the last 78 years !??...

One of Batman’s Bronze Age Lovers, Nocturna, had an interesting theory about Batman’s Lovers :

This alone explains why Diana is his greatest problem if he wants to keep his heart safe from “Love”... She has her own way of being very “Dark and Dangerous” but every thing in her drives her to avoid doing the king of “Dark and Dangerous” things that could push him away from her in the way Nocturna or Selina do ...

(Rebirth Batman #39 and #40)

“WonderBat Love” in “the Realm”

Obviously whatever the Power that is messing up with the Heroes history (Doomsday Clock storyline) is looking for, it seems at least to want to avoid WonderBat at all costs ... first SuperWonder then WonderTrev and BatCat, and now in Justice League #38: Bruce Wayne/Jessica Cruz ?!?...

#wonderbat #wonder woman #diana prince #batman #bruce wayne

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