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amphxtrite · 4 years ago

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cedric diggory x slytherin fem!reader

warnings: smut, swearing, oral (female receiving), hand job, fingering, riding, kind of dom x dom, spelling/ grammar mistakes.

do not read if you are not comfortable.

summary: Badgers and snakes are born into their rivalry, even in the wild they are practically bred to fight and show their dominance. Cedric and the reader have hated each other from the moment they met. It’s not until Cedric puts his name into the goblet of fire and nearly gets killed that feelings become clear. fluff at the end.

a/n: thank you to @cedricsyellowscarf and nonnie for requesting!

word count: 4.6k

enjoy <3

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When you think of slytherins, what’s the first thing you think of?

Cunning, resourceful, and badass?

Y/n L/n was all the above when you thought of a stereotypical member of the house of black and green, someone who knew what they wanted and would fight with a smirk on her face.

Hufflepuffs on the other hand are thought to be loyal, compassionate, and sweet.

Cedric Diggory fit the description perfectly. The school golden boy with a pretty face and a kind personality.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. But just like in nature, the badger and the snake were born to fight.

When Cedric first met you, a chill went up his spine, everything about you screamed ‘no’ at him and had a scowl resting on his face seconds after just seeing you. Similarly, the hufflepuff gave off a goody-two-shoes aura, someone who couldn’t relax and caved into every demand thrown at them. You didn’t know why, but you had the overwhelming urge to push all this boy’s buttons and drive him insane. Maybe it was the whole ‘strict prefect, and perfect person’ thing going on, but you just wanted to have some fun with him.

You started small. Flirtatious winks, smirks and checking him out when you knew he was looking. The reactions ranged from annoyed to bashful and if you were lucky he grew absolutely seething.

“What the hell are you doing l/n?” He sighs as you brush your arm past him in the hall.

“What Diggory? Am I not good enough to be in your presence?” You scoff, turning to face him. “Listen, I know what you’re trying to do and it won’t work.” The badger snarled.

“Oh Diggory, it already has.” Your smirk, brushing your wand down his jawline and licking the outside of your teeth.

Cedric couldn’t explain what got him so ticked off about you, maybe it was your care-free demeanour; someone who could get whatever she wanted with a snap of her fingers. He’d seen you in between classes, people fawning over you or begging for your forgiveness, only to be met by your stoic face. Your whole being betrayed every instinct and belief Cedric held, and the voice in his head begged to attack.

And so the battle between the badger and the snake continued, you pushed the badger’s buttons, challenging him and egging him on to snap.

“I’m not going to ask again l/n.” The brunette seethed, taking hold of your arm and pulling you back towards him after your fingers brush his back. “Ask what?” You cock your eyebrow with a grin.

“Did the pretty boy finally lose his composure?” Your grin turns malicious and Cedric pushes you against the wall. “In your dreams l/n.”

“Oh indeed you do.”

The two of you were natural born rivals, coexisting to keep the other on their toes and keep natural instincts alive. Both sides are stubborn, unwilling to let the other win. It was destined that one of you would though, these things don’t just end in draws.

As you ‘flirted’ relentlessly, Cedric’s only offence was his retaliation. He had a feeling you’d stop if he never reacted, but a piece of Cedric enjoyed the challenge and almost craved the game.

When the badger put his name into the goblet of fire you almost scoffed. Maybe you had done it, driven him off the edge and caused him to go insane. But as the boy clad in black and yellow turned to reveal a smile, you nearly choked on your pumpkin juice. How on Earth was this fool smiling at the fact he could’ve just signed himself up for a public, gruesome death.

It may be hard to believe, but even snakes can become ‘compassionate’ when it comes to things they are close too, and while you couldn’t call what you and Cedric had, a compassionate situation, a sense of worry and dread overtook your senses.

“Hey is your head in the right space?” You fall into step with the badger and place your hand onto his forehead to check if the boy was sick.

“What is your problem?” Cedric flinches back, confusion flashing onto his face as soon as your hand comes into contact with him.

“Oh I’m just checking you haven’t lost your mind Diggory.” You roll your eyes and flash a sickly sweet smile.

“It’s none of your business what I choose to do l/n, now leave me alone.” The brunette’s face remains firm.

“As you wish, your majesty.” You smirk and fall back to head to your friends.

Despite the internal fight the hufflepuff couldn’t help but almost feel sorry for the way he reacted to your gesture. It was the first time you’d shown any type of kindness towards him. And while rather strange, he knew he shouldn’t have let his aggressiveness win over his true personality.

The badger never found his voice to apologize though, and the rivalry proceeded. You wiped any trace of worry from your face and continued your mission of driving the golden boy crazy. Only thing that was different was the way Cedric reacted. When you first began your flirtatious mission, Cedric grew angry and annoyed at your attempt to gain his attention. He knew you were trying to distract him and he let it get to him.

The silver-eyed hufflepuff started to look forward to your pestering, your flirting was the only fun he got after his name was pulled from the goblet. His schedule became jam packed with training, classes and pity parties from every student who made eye-contact with him. He was happy to see that something hadn’t changed.

The first task came and had you holding your breath at each champion’s battle with their dragon. Your mouth dropped open in awe at each unique way of conquering the task, and by the time Cedric stepped up to face the Short-Snout, you were already on the edge of your seat.

Snakes are in no means known for their love, but it is known they can show compassion in subtle ways. Worry blossomed in your stomach as you watched Cedric transfigure the boulder into a dog, he was taking a huge risk using it as a distraction, when the dragon could turn at any moment. Cedric managed to grab the egg moments before the dragon lost interest in the labrador, and a weight seemed to lift from your shoulders and a small smile shone through as you joined in on the applause.

The second task arrived and the four champions dive into the water in search of their treasure. Cedric surfaced first with the girl who attended the ball with him, ensuring his spot in first. Krum was next with Hermione, Harry coming in last, but with Fleur’s person along with his.

Cedric was rather confused to see Cho at the bottom of the lake. The egg stated the treasure was the thing they missed the most, so the professors must have gotten the wrong idea when Cedric showed up at the dance with the ravenclaw, she’d simply been kind enough to be there as support because Cedric had no one else to attend with.

By the third task, the entire wizarding world was biting their nails at the anticipation of the triwizard tournament. Sitting in the bleachers in front of the massive maze, it made you uneasy you may have to sit through one of these champion’s screams, injuries or even death.

“Tied In first place we have Cedric Diggory and Harry Potter. They will enter first, shortly followed by Viktor Krum and Fleur Delacour.”

At the sound of the flare, the hufflepuff and gryffindor cautiously make their way into the green maze, choosing each step with caution and wands clutched tightly in their hands, until all that was seen was the walls of the hedge.

Cedric had endured a lot through the triwizard tournament and he was not going to give that up for anything. When he spotted Harry close by the cup, his aggressive side took over and he tried to beat the boy who lived. When Harry actually ended up saving his life, he knew there was no way he could take this victory.

The two of them touched the cup and suddenly the world morphed and they were transported to a graveyard. “A… Portkey.”

A short man enters their vision as Cedric’s weakened frame points his wand towards the intruder. “Petrificus Totalus!” The unknown man shouts as Cedric’s body seizes and he falls flat on his face, his body ignoring his constant attempts at moving to help Harry, he can only listen to everything happening as he lays uselessly against the ground.

“Cedric! Get up, we need to go now!” Harry’s frantic voice calls as He pushes Voldemort and his death eaters back. The binding pressure is suddenly released and the hufflepuff immediately jumps to his feet. He runs to the portkey, throwing back any death eaters getting too close to Harry before grabbing his hand and taking hold of the triwizard cup.

The two boys are transported back into the maze, but they waste no time rushing out and grabbing hold of the first people they see. “V-Voldemort’s back!” Harry screams, followed by Cedric’s own voice. Looks of confusion flash on everyone in the audience's face, but as the champions break down they have no way to deny it, something terrible was coming to Hogwarts.

Amos Diggory makes a beeline for his son while Harry is dragged away by professor Moody. Cedric is gasping for breath and searching around for something, someone, to keep him sane. When your eyes meet Cedric’s eyes flash in hope and he begins to limp in your direction, stumbling and falling often, but not leaving his path despite his father’s grasp. You stand to question the hufflepuff, but he simply collapses into your arms.

“I-I’m so sorry for how I t-treated you. I shouldn’t have let m-my feelings define you, a-and I hate that I despised you for n-no reason.” Cedric begins to cry in fear he could’ve died without finally getting his apology off his chest. He wraps you tightly in his arms and his breathing grows rapid. “P-Please forgive me.” He manages in between breaths and your emotionless barrier falls. “Deep breaths Diggory, you’re going to pass out if you keep this up.” You caress the boy’s back in a soothing manner, but Cedric’s murmuring only rapidly increases, and you were beginning to feel a headache. “Hey, it's alright! I forgive you.”

His muttering continues.

“Ced, please you’re bleeding, let’s go get help.”

No use.

As a final resort you gently lift Cedric’s face from the crook of your neck; tears are streaming down his face and apologies continue to flood your ears.

“Save your breath Diggory.” You smirk, pressing your lips to Cedric’s scabbed pink ones.

Your lips are still as Cedric registers your movement, his eyes widen, but slowly close as your smooth lips pull him into a daze. The slight taste of blood is forgotten as Cedric stands and cups his hands around your face, tilting his face to deepen the kiss and slip his tongue into your mouth. As he familiarizes himself with your taste a low groan emits from the back of the champion’s throat and he pulls away to look at you.

In nature, badgers and snakes are natural born enemies, but when Cedric looked into your eyes, the badger lost its temper and the snake became calm. In the Hogwarts walls the snake and the badger felt something new bubble inside them, and the statement ‘opposites attract’ finally began to make sense. Two people, so different, yet so drawn to each other. Finally giving in to their feelings, with primal instincts still flooding their senses.

“You shouldn’t have done that, once I start, I might not be able to stop.” Cedric’s voice grows low in arousal and he leans his face closer to yours.

“Then don’t stop Diggory, take me.”

Cedric immediately takes your hand in a firm grip and walks you down the bleachers, promising his father to go to the hospital wing, but entering the quidditch pitch’s change room instead.“I-I need you y/n. Fuck, you’ve made me want you for so damn long.” He moans desperately, pushing you against the stone wall and placing his hands wherever he could. You trail your fingers down the hufflepuff’s torso and nibble on his lower lip. Cedric’s hips jolt and you’re met with a sudden pressure on your lower abdomen.

“Someone’s excited.” You smirk, reaching your hand down the brunette’s trousers to take his length into your hand.

Your eyebrows raise at the champion’s size, but you don’t let it shine through as your tease your hand against him, brushing past his tip before using his precum as lubricant to move against him.

When Cedric’s face contorted into a look of pure pleasure and lust, you were sure that this was the reaction you’d wanted from Cedric from the start. Lip in between his teeth and eyes shut tight as he bites back moans and lightly tugs on your hair.

You move your hand faster, smirking in pride as loud whimpers begin to exit beautifully from Cedric’s lips and he begins rocking himself against your palm.

“You like it when I use my hand Diggory?” You tease, applying even more pressure to his aching cock as he began to twitch in your grasp.

“Oh fuck yes y/n, just like that.” The hufflepuff’s rough hands move down from your hair to grasp your face and connect your lips again, drowning out the sound of pure ecstasy leaving his mouth with each thrust of your hand.

“You better be quiet Diggory, or people will know how much of a naughty boy you are.” You whisper in a low voice.

“I’d watch your mouth if I was you.”

Cedric removes your hand from his pants and pushes you on to a wide bench, holding you down so you can’t move.

“Now it’s my turn to make you writhe.” He growls with a devilish grin, pressing open mouth kisses against your neck and sucking on the sensitive skin as he works off your skirt.

Your head falls to the side as Cedric finds your weak spot, a mewl signaling him to go harder. His hands pull down the zipper on your back and he carefully pulls it down as your intoxicating whimpers egg him further on.

“Well princess, I guess you got what you wanted.” Cedric smirks, dropping to his knees in front of you and throwing your skirt to the side.

“You’re driving me absolutely insane.”

Euphoria flows through every single nerve in your body when Cedric presses his rough fingers against your clit, the only thing separating you and pure bliss being a thin piece of fabric. Cedric uses the cloth of your panties as extra friction, slowly circling his fingers around as your back arches and your breath grows irregular. Leaning forwards, he takes the lace of your undergarment between his teeth and pulls it down your thighs, swiftly prying your legs apart as soon as your panties drop to your feet and pass your ankles. “Now be a good girl and keep these open, alright?” Cedric mutters, in a dark voice as he descends.

The hufflepuff tests the waters by licking a stripe up your core, hiding a cheeky grin at the sound of your choked moan and continuing to lap at your slick folds.

Your vision fills with dots and your mind is deprived of any thought, your only feeling was Cedric’s strong tongue flicking around and dipping in and out of your slit.

“So wet for me love?” He groans deeply, the taste of your heat, causing his arousal to grow exponentially. Your only response is the incoherent moans and curses stringing past your lips as your back arches and your body pulses in bliss.

As your hips start to buck and your legs close against his face, Cedric uses one hand to press your abdomen down and using his arm and other hand he pushes your legs apart again, your moans fueling his strength. When the brunette adds his fingers into the array, your hands move from your clothed breasts to Cedric’s soft brown hair. A sudden rush of pleasure has your grip tightening in the champions curls, and a loud curse echoes through the empty room.

“You like it when I pull your hair like that Diggory?” You tease through the pulsing in your body. “Fuck, do that again y/n.” His deep growl responds as his fingers quicken and hit deeper inside your tight walls.

With each tight grip in Cedric’s curls, a loud moan was heard in response as he thrusts his fingers deeper and sucks harder, letting his moans vibrate through to your clit to fill your lower stomach with butterflies.

“I-I’m gonna cum!” You whimper loudly.

“You can cum if you beg.” The hufflepuff purrs with one last roll of his tongue, pausing his fingers, still deep inside of you. Every ounce of your dignity is shredded as the pleasure of Cedric’s mouth and fingers stop.

“Please Diggory, let me cum.” You mewl in desperation, but he doesn’t move.

“Try again love.” He smirks in amusement.

“Please Cedric, you make me feel so good! I’m so fucking close, I need to cum.” You moan in frustration, grinding your hips frantically for any friction. Cedric chuckles darkly, pulling his fingers out almost fully before slamming right back into you.

“Merlin, you say my name so perfectly darling.” The brunette grins, pulling his finger out and slamming back again.

“Say it again.” Cedric commands, attaching his lips to your clit, his fingers now ramming in and out of you.

“Cedric! Oh fuck!” your choked voice almost comes out as a sob, and your incoherent moans mix deliciously with your lover’s name.

With the combined stimulation of Cedric’s rough fingers and strong tongue, a coil snaps as your body seems to lose control. Writhing, pulsing, and gripping Cedric’s hair as you pant for breath.

Cedric pauses the assault with his tongue, but continues using his fingers to help ride out your high.

When the shockwaves finally stop and you’re able to open your eyes again, Cedric is leaning directly above you, a grin plastered on his face. “You’re so beautiful when you cum.” The hufflepuff begins kissing down your neck as his hands move down his torso and pulls his shirt up his chest. Cedric pauses to wince as cuts reopen and the fabric irritates his bruises, but when you sit up to help him, he pushes you down again. “I’m fine, It’s just a couple scratches.” He smirks looking back down at you, but you’ve regained your senses and have pushed the toned champion back onto the bench and climbed onto his lap.

“Are you sure? You looked pretty banged up.” your voice comes out as a soft whisper as you begin to press butterfly kisses to his bruises.

“Yes, f-fuck y/n.” He groans as you suddenly bite down on his shoulder, sucking on it for a couple seconds until you’re sure a hickey will form.

“Good, because it’s my turn now.”

You lift your hips from his lap to tug his shorts down and he lifts his bottom up to help you. As soon as they’re off you begin to unbutton your blouse, shrugging it off before leaning forwards and running a finger down Cedric’s abdomen. “Help me?” You smirk, standing and brushing your hair aside to reveal your bra strap. Cedric obliges with shaky fingers as his cock grows harder and begins twitching. Once it comes loose, you turn and connect lips with Cedric’s again, moving your hand to the back of the brunette’s head to run your hands through his hair and cup his jaw. Cedric takes your hips into his hands and slowly brings you towards him again. You shuffle onto Cedric’s lap again, hovering just above his cock as he rubs the sides of your body.

Without warning you sink onto him, relaxing your walls to take all of Cedric’s length. His grip on your waist tightens as you wrap around him. Strings of curses leave his mouth as his head falls onto your shoulder and he nips at the sensitive skin. When you’re halfway down, he moves his hands from your hips to your breasts, massaging them roughly and peppering kisses all over. With the Help of Cedric’s wandering hands and caring mouth, you bottom out and adjust to the feeling of being full. Your hands dig into Cedric’s shoulder blades and you begin moving up and down. It’s slow at first, you aren’t quite sure how to do it, but the hufflepuff uses his hands on your hips to guide you and soon you’re bouncing up and down, the grip on your side and the waves of euphoria from Cedric’s cock pushing you further than you could have ever thought possible.

“You feel so good darling.” Cedric sighs, his eyes squeezed shut and mouth wide open as your walls wrap tighter against him with each bounce. You don’t respond, your thoughts occupied with keeping the euphoric feeling coming. Using Cedric’s broad shoulders you begin to pick up the pace, sucking dark marks into existence on his chest, panting breathy moans into his ear and tightening your grip around his shaft to earn you that desperate moan that made you dizzy.

With the overstimulation from your voice and love bites Cedric could feel his release coming, but he wasn’t ready to end this just yet, with the last couple bounces he summoned as much strength as he could to lift you from his lap and release onto your abdomen. It took everything in him not to drop you or collapse right there, but he managed, setting you back down on the wide bench to push you back and tilt your chin up to meet eye to eye.

“Don’t t-think I’m done with you yet princess.” He growls.

The lustful look in your eyes as your pupils dilated and your mouth hung open had him hard all over again and before you could reply with something witty, he pounded right back into you.

Your head is thrown back at the new angle Cedric is fucking you in, your back arches so he can move deeper and your legs swing up to wrap around his torso, bringing him impossibly close to you. Cedric responds with vigorous thrusts, desperate for you to submit to him and end this with him on top. While he desperately rolls his hips into yours, you pull his head down and reconnect your lips, using your tongue to explore his mouth as you swallow the breathy moans of the grey eyed hufflepuff. Your teeth clash, lips mold and tongues dance as Cedric fucks you senseless.

“Oh fuck Cedric right there!” You cry, rolling your hips up to meet the champion’s needy thrusts and allowing your moans to fill the empty air. Skin hitting skin is the only sound other than your moans and cries mixing together, intimately connecting and reconnecting over and over as wave after wave of pleasure and euphoria floods your veins and every corner of your body. Your eyes roll back and your toes curl with each movement of Cedric’s hips and with his arms pinned above your head and his low groans right in front of your face you could not contain the knot that was forming in your abdomen. Your nails rake down Cedric’s back and bury themselves into his hair as you grin victoriously at the loud profanities spilling through his gritted teeth. With each pump of his length the knot grows tighter and tighter, Pleasure is swapped with pure bliss and Cedric can feel it too as his thrusts grow sloppy and your core tightens against him. He lets himself go, and you follow right behind him. The proof of your pleasures stream between the two of you, down your legs and in between where you are still connected.

Cedric helps you ride out your high as you run your shaky finger up and down his chest, a smile growing on your face as Cedric finally opens his eyes and looks back down at your tired form, panting and grinning back down at you.

“I win.” He smirks, lazily pulling out of you and resting himself on his elbows.

“In your dreams Diggory.” You roll your eyes and move some hair out of the boy’s face.

“Oh are we back on the last name basis?” Cedric chuckles, cupping your cheek and using his thumb to circle your cheek.

“Only if you want Ced.” You sigh, tilting your head closer to Cedric’s warm palm.

“Well in that case, you better get used to calling me Cedric, y/n.” The hufflepuff beams, sitting up and pulling you onto his lap.

Your eyes widen and you begin to laugh joyously as you connect your lips to Cedric’s again, mumbling sweet nothings in between each peck. You stay like that for a second, in each other’s arms, relishing the feeling of finally being complete and content, but as you press your hand to Cedric’s chest he winces and you know the moment has to end.

“Alright lover boy, it’s time to get you to the hospital wing.” You sigh, pecking Cedric’s lips once more before grabbing your wand and quickly cleaning off the mess in between you and Cedric’s legs. “Do I have too?” Cedric groans, pulling you back to him, as you clasp your bra on. “I’m sure I’ll be fine just sitting here in your arms.” He states staring lovingly into your eyes. “Sorry Ced, but even I don’t know a lot of healing spells and by the look of it you’re gonna need them.” You giggle, standing on shaky legs as you pick up your blouse and skirts again.

“Get changed Ced, I’ll meet you outside.” You smirk, slowly making your way out of the room with a slight swing in your hips.

Taking a deep breath of the night air, you take a moment to really take in what just happened. You thought you hated that boy, but maybe that was just for show. Maybe you’d always had feelings for the boy with the yellow scarf and you had been too naive to realize it. It felt strange how the part of your brain that convinced you to fight was now telling you this was right, but you were fine with it, your whole perspective had changed of this boy from the moment he came limping to you in the stadium.

Cedric had similar thoughts as he tugged on his shirt and pants. He finally realized the feeling he got when you looked at him wasn’t annoyance, it was a crush. A fancy that he wanted so badly to deny, but embrace at the same time, and now he could.

As he finally walked out to you and wrapped you in his arms, you knew it was right and you were where you are meant to be. As you interlocked hands with the grey eyed hufflepuff, making your way towards the castle and your new life. Something was made crystal clear.

Badgers and snakes are natural born enemies, made to fight and hate each other. But you and Cedric aren’t the animals you are associated with,

you’re humans and you had the choice to decide how you would treat your opposite.

And although the two of you were clear descriptions of the houses you were assigned, your personalities molded perfectly.

As Cedric lay in the hospital bed, Madam Pomfrey healing his wounds, you stuck by his side and held his hand, knowing the snake would never define you. The badger would never define Cedric. You were your own people, and you were in love.

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mackeydoodledoo · 4 years ago

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I Only Swim Free: Chapter 1

Pairing: Bela Dimitrescu x (Fem!)Reader

Summary: You’ve done swimming all your life. You’ve gotten to your dream college on a scholarship for your outstanding freestyle technique back in high school. Relationships never crossed your mind however, that was before you met your swim team captain: Bela Dimitrescu.

Warning: Awkwardness, fluff; not really warnings but might as well leave them here

A/N: Another original idea from @su-lilly-reblogs because I’m running out of ideas to make stories for our lovely women. Also, this is a series! Originally this was going to be a one-story thing however, I was moving for this to be a series! So, Enjoy!

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You step out into the floor, all eyes become glued onto you. Although you’ve felt confident in the beginning when you got your acceptance letter and scholarship to attend your dream college and get accepted into the 5-time state champion swim team. What you didn’t expect was your captain.

“Y/n Y/l/n,” she smiles, “Bela Dimitrescu, captain of the Dimitrescu University Swim Team. They told me that we’re getting a rookie. I’m impressed you got a scholarship too.”

“Well, great to be here,” You lightly chuckle, trying to not gawk too much

“Bela you should have her do initiation,” one of the team members says

All of the other current members began agreeing to the idea as well.

Your heart dropped.

Initiation? Why haven’t I heard about this one? Is it one of those kinds where it’ll just catch you off guard?

“Oh don’t worry little dolphin,” Bela smiles, taking notice of your change in expression

“It’s just where you show off your swimming skills,” another one of the members call out, “Nothing to worry about! If you got a scholarship for this, then you must be one of the best swimmers back in high school!”

Oh, well that helps a lot.. But in front of all of these really experienced college-level swimmers? Especially in front of the captain? Gah... Guess I have no choice... Plus, I wasn’t one of the best swimmers in high school.

You place your swim bag onto the bench closest to you, however, reaching into it to grab your swim cap and goggles. You put your swim cap on and begin walking toward one of the stands to leap off of to initiate your swimming style.

“So, what’s your swimming style?” another member asks you

“I only swim free,” You say, monotonous, getting up onto the stand.

I’ve never heard of one of my girls saying she only swims free... She’s already impressive.

Bela smiles slightly.

“Just do three laps y/n, ready,” Bela announces

Bela watches you lift your butt toward her. Bela begins blushing.

Girl’s ripped... God what am I thinking?!

A beep sound goes off and you launch yourself into the water. With ease, your form dives into the water with no resistance. One stroke after the other, Bela watches in awe as your muscles flex each time you lift them above the water. The girls watched you in amazement as to how fast you were able to move in the water, despite how the water would often move against your body whilst swimming.

Impress them y/n. You’re almost there...

You could feel your lungs beginning to burn as you were halfway back around the third lap.

Go beyond your limit y/n....

Your palm plants itself along the wall of where you launched yourself. You take in a deep breath as you almost ran out on the last stretch. You remove your goggles from your eyes and look up; Bela holding out her hand towards you. You grab onto it as she helps you out of the pool.

“That was insane y/n, how’d you do it?” One of the team members asks

“I’ve swam all my life,” You say, chuckling, “Also, my family helped me build muscle for it.”

You look around and your eyes land on Bela, coincidentally hers land on you as well. She gives you a wink before she begins walking away, approaching whom you believed was the coach. You think nothing of it before you’re dragged back further into the pool area by everyone else. You just answer as many questions as you can.

“I also swim freestyle but I don’t think I’d ever be able to swim that fast,” One member states

“Well, I’m not sure how much I can tell you, because it’s also in your willpower to tell yourself to keep going,” You add

“Okay okay give our rookie some air,” the coach comes along, “I’m coach Donna Beneviento. I welcome you to the Dimitrescu University Swim Team. Practice begins tomorrow at 6pm sharp. We practice every Monday and Thursday, same time.”

After practice, your new teammates had made their leave to deal with the academic aspect of college. You step out of the changing room in front of the shower in some shorts and a sports bra. However, right from across you Bela steps out of the shower as well; only wrapped in a towel. You feel your cheeks heat up before the both of you had to forcefully look away from each other. However, you couldn’t help but catch one more glance. You didn’t want to help it at all though.

“S-sorry Captain,” You say, walking yourself over to the mirrors

"Bela,” she says, “It’s after practice. You may call me Bela after practice.”

“You sure?” you ask, scuffing your hair to look slightly messy

From the mirror’s reflection, you, again couldn’t help but look up to admire Bela’s figure however, you didn’t realize that she had let her towel fall to her ankles. So you were basically seeing her bare naked.

“Oh my god!” You yell, startling Bela

“What?!” She asks, turning to look at you through the mirror

“I’m sorry,” You clear your throat, trying to not make eye contact with her, “I thought I saw something on the mirror.”

You try your best to hide your deep red cheeks from Bela’s view.

“Have you never seen a naked woman?” She asks, finally slipping on some of her clothing

“Not-not really,” You stutter

“Hope that was a good show for you,” Bela teases

Oh shit... She knew I looked at her naked arse didn’t she?...

“Shit,” Bela growls

“What’s the matter?” You ask her, turning to her, finally getting the oxygen you needed to breathe when you noticed her having clothing on

“I thought I packed a hoodie,” She sighs

Your hand immediately dives into your duffle bag and you managed to pull out a hoodie from it.

“See if this’ll fit,” You say, “If it fits, it’s yours.”

You watch her take your band hoodie and put it over her. It was slightly bigger on her however you couldn’t help but crack a smile.

“What?” Bela smiles, hoisting her backpack over her shoulder

“N-nothing,” You clear your throat once more, “You look good in it is all.”

“You think so?” Bela asks, blushing

“For sure,” You smile

The both of you exit the locker room and begin making your way out to the parking lot.

“Hey, can I ask you a weird question?” Bela asks

“Sure,” You say

“How did you get so ripped?” She asks

“Oh- I- uhhh...” You begin

Bela giggles at your response to her compliment.

“I- perks of having your family own a gym,” You say, “They practically trained me since wanting to do swimming. If you want to work out with me sometime, I could pull some strings and get you to be a guest with my membership. If that’s something you’d be interested in.”

“I’d like that sometime y/n,” Bela smiles

“By the way, would you wat to- I don’t know- maybe-”

Before you could finish your question, a car pulls up in front of the both of you. You watch the window roll down and see a male in the driver’s seat.

“Hey babe,” He says, smiling, “Who’s the kid?”

“She’s the newest member to our swim team,” She says, getting into the passenger seat, “Hey, I’ll see you tomorrow after classes y/n.”

Your heart sank as you watched the car drive off... After all of that flirting with her in the locker room...

If she has a boyfriend.... Then what the absolute hell was that in the locker room?

However, you don’t linger on it as you get into your own vehicle. Although you had just gotten out of a long practice day, you hook up your music to your car’s radio and input directions to where your family runs the gym you had mentioned to Bela. Surprisingly, the gym your family runs is 10 minutes out of the campus.

“Hey kiddo,” Your dad says as he watches you enter the gym, “How was your first day of practice?”

“Oh, it was great,” You exaggerate, “Everyone was kind of impressed with my swimming technique. I guess those training sessions with you are beginning to pay off pops.”

“See,” He says, smiling, “Are you going to be home for dinner tonight?”

“No, I gotta head back to my apartment after this one,” You reply, “I want to get ready for my first day of classes tomorrow.”

You had managed to find an apartment close to campus that was affordable. you weren’t about to find a roommate and live in a building with shitty water supply.

“Fair enough,” He says, “Well, help yourself kiddo. Gym’s nearly empty today.”

He was right; at most there was five people in the entirety of the gym. Normally, it would nearly be packed. You just assumed people had lives outside of the gym. You did too, but you felt something in you that you did not enjoy feeling. You began punching the life out of a punching bag, hoping it would get your frustrations out.

Are we jealous? Why? She has a boyfriend, you shouldn’t be complaining.

You were also confused, why Bela had given you “a show” in the locker room, talking to you nearly all of practice.... You were a rookie and she was the Captain...

When you had finished your workout, you went back to your apartment. You decided to make a late night snack as you felt famished after workout. You put in your earbuds to try and get your thoughts away from your encounter with Bela’s boyfriend earlier.

“Shower” - Crimson Apple

It gave you a nice chill evening vibe. However, although it helped very little, you still couldn’t help but be confused on what happened to you earlier today. However, once you looked at the time, you finish up your small meal and head off to bed, hoping the day’s classes are able to get your mind off of your confused self.

Throughout the day, you could only think about what happened yesterday between you and Bela in the locker room through your music. You also couldn’t wait to get in the water after your classes, as the song you were listening to was used in a Swimming sport-themed anime.

“Splash Free” - Style5

You cross the street and come across a castle-like building.

“Is this- the art building?” You ask yourself, “My lord this place is gigantic.”

As you enter the building, you were in awe, even the interior was regal. However, with some modern modifications. Like the elevator, you press the upward arrow button and the elevator doors open. You step in and press the number ‘4′, hence you were going to the fourth floor. Your major is Photography with a minor in Asian studies, concentration in Japanese. As you get out of the elevator, you begin heading to your last class of the day. You were more of a morning person. Thus, you had all of your classes before 6pm.

Chapter 2

#bela dimitrescu #bela dimitrescu x reader #bela is my wife #daniela dimitrescu #cassandra dimitrescu #alcina dimitrescu #resident evil village

113 notes · View notes

ot7always · 4 years ago

Text

Fractured (part 3)

prev / Series Masterlist / next

Word Count: 5.9k

Pairing: Yoongi x Reader

Genre: Mafia AU, angst, fluff, (future) smut

Warnings: objectification, mentions of sex, guns, knives, murder, and death (non-graphic), mentions of blood (not gory, but it’s there several times), non-serious injury, depictions of mental illness in the form of: nightmares, self-loathing, anxiety

Rating: 18+

Summary: You’d always known something was strange and different about your “family,” but it wasn’t as though your environment encouraged curiosity from you. You thought you wanted to know all the answers, but nobody ever told you that the more you learned the more pieces of yourself you would leave behind.

A/N: Part 3 is here! This is going to be the last ‘introductory’ chapter before some more exciting things happen in the series. Let me know what you think!

Let me know if you’d like to be tagged!

It was cold.

Damp.

The floor beneath your feet was solid concrete, drops of water littering the floor, having fallen from the pipes above.

You were unarmed. Only a plain black t-shirt and cotton pants – why was this all you were wearing?

The cold air thoroughly chilled your bones, your teeth chattering together in your skull.

“Pay attention, bitch.” Before the voice even completed its sentence, the deafening boom of a gunshot rang through the room, bullet ricocheting off the wall behind you before clattering to the floor.

It was then that you took in your circumstances. You were standing in the middle of a circle of chairs, seated bodies facing you, faces blindfolded. Your heart stopped in your chest when you realized.

Seven chairs. Seven men. Bound around you as you were unarmed.

You rose your gaze to meet the eyes of a man you didn’t recognize, his pistol dangling at his side. Despite his laid-back demeanor, his men were behind him, and you knew without a doubt that you would surely die before you could even hope of making it to him.

“Choose.” His voice rang through the room, echoing off the bare stone walls.

You blinked in confusion, glancing at the men seated around you. Why was nobody struggling? Surely there wasn’t a tie in the world that could hold Hoseok, right?

Attempting not to show your anxiety, you cleared your throat. “Choose what?”

“Choose which one of your little boyfriends dies, and the rest of you can go free.”

You couldn’t hide the flash of panic on your face at his words, your gut twisting. “My boyfriends?” You schooled your voice, the carefully crafted cold mask returning to your face. You could only hope to stall until you found a way out of this situation.

“Aw, sweetheart, we both know they wouldn’t keep you around if they couldn’t put their dick in you, don’t we?”

Anger flared in your chest, quickly stamped down as you struggled to maintain neutral features. In the corner of your eye, you saw Jimin’s angry grimace, his body shifting beneath the ropes. You elected to ignore it, lest you draw unnecessary attention to him.

But it seemed that the man didn’t miss it.

“That one doesn’t like me talking about his slut, does he?” he laughed cruelly, pointing his gun at his direction.

Your heart rate rose exponentially in your chest. “We’re a family. Surely you understand – or do you not understand anything besides fucking?”

Stall. Stall. Stall.

But it appeared he chose to ignore your latter comment. “Oh, is that what they call it nowadays? My apologies, my lady,” he taunted, sending an ugly grin your way.

“Why are we here?” you deadpanned, eager to get on your way.

“You’re very hated out there, my dear,” he sung mockingly. “A certain someone paid me very generously to torment you, and I thought this seemed fun!”

“You’re insane,” you scowled, eyes darting around the room. But it seemed he did his research – there was only one visible entrance, and he was right in front of it. The distance between you and him was too great to get close enough to stand a fighting chance without weapons. Someone would surely die if you tried. If not you, one of the boys.

“Everyone’s insane in this business, sweetheart. Speaking of business, choose. Don’t think you can stall this out like you’ve been trying to do.”

You didn’t bother hiding your scowl. “Can’t I choose myself?”

“What good would that be? We both know dying is easy. Living with blood on your hands is a lot harder, don’t you think?”

He was right – but it didn’t change the fact that you would exchange your life for any of theirs in a heartbeat.

It didn’t seem like there was any way out of this. He wouldn’t really kill someone here – right?

Wrong.

You knew more than anyone how ruthless everyone in the world could be when it came to money.

He could kill all of you if he wanted.

But you were sure he knew that if he tried something too drastic you’d be able to take advantage of his distraction.

He was too smart to do anything besides what he said. And you were too desperate to try anything else.

You took in the sight of the men seated around you, some biting their bottom lip in an attempt to remain quiet. There was absolutely no way you could do this. Wasn’t there any way you could stall this out?

BANG.

You wouldn’t have known exactly what happened if not for Jimin’s loud scream, blood gushing from his shoulder from where the man had skillfully aimed. Wide-eyed, you had to keep yourself from springing towards him, though upon first glance it didn’t look like a deadly wound.

“You don’t have much longer before I get angry. Choose.”

“Hey.”

You only spun around to face everyone surrounding you, the helplessness washing over you, dread rising in your stomach. Was this a joke?

You paused when you spotted Yoongi mouthing something to you. He was sitting opposite the door, his back to the heartless man, who couldn’t see what he was doing. You stared as he moved his lips, trying to make out the words.

‘It’s okay.’

“Y/N!”

You had to stop the tears from rising to the surface. This wasn’t okay, and would never be okay.

“Particularly attached to that one, huh?”

Before you knew it, the gun was pointed to Yoongi’s head, the man’s chuckle punctuated by the pull of the trigger.

You let out an ear-piercing scream at the same time as the bang rung through the room, knees crashing to the concrete beneath you, your eyes too afraid to look up.

“Y/N!”

Your eyes flashed open at hands grasping your shoulders tightly enough to grate against the bone. Panting heavily, you shot your gaze around the room, heartbeat slowing as you took in the sight of Yoongi’s bedroom and not a windowless, concrete building.

“Hey. You’re safe.”

At the sound of a soothing voice, you fully realized the presence of another person as your senses started coming back to you. At his warm tone, you focused your blurry vision on Jimin’s face, blinking away unshed tears. His brow was furrowed, concern clear on his face.

“You were screaming.” When he realized you were fully awake, his grip on you lessened, but his hands remained in place as he took in the fear in your eyes and the trembling of your limbs. “Hey, are you with me?”

You nodded your assurance, closing your eyes to focus on evening out your breathing. “I’m okay,” you mumbled. Physically you knew you were, your body becoming more awake, feeling more under your control by the second. But you were shaken by what you saw, how real it seemed. How realistic it was.

Nobody appreciated the reminder that the people they loved could die at any moment.

Jimin waited patiently as you struggled to pull yourself together. This wasn’t the first time he’d found you like this, and it almost certainly wouldn’t be the last. He’s witnessed some of your lowest moments, after all. Jimin was arguably the softest and most attentive one in the house – with you guys, anyway. You’d never seen anyone who could flip a switch in the way Jimin did as soon as he stepped out into the field. You admired the way he allowed himself to let loose at home, but could be professional as soon as he stepped outside.

The way he fretted over everyone like a mother hen had endeared you to him since a time before you’d even started kindergarten.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he prodded gently once you’d opened your eyes, vision fixed on an empty spot on the wall to avoid his searching gaze.

You quickly shook your head, burying the mess of emotions deep within you, as though acting unbothered would will your anxiety out of existence. Despite receiving the same answer each time over the past few months and years, Jimin never failed to ask the same question. You both loved and hated him for it, to no fault of his own. You simply didn’t feel comfortable laying out all of your thoughts, and the vulnerability that came with it. Not when so much of your sanity relied upon your mask of indifference and focus on work.

Despite your refusal, he eyed you for several more seconds, hesitantly releasing you and seating himself beside you so that your shoulders were touching. In your peripheral vision you caught a glimpse of his conflicted expression. You couldn’t blame him – he did, you assume, come in here because your screaming was audible from the hallway. You would be concerned too, especially in a house where every room was made to be relatively private, sound-wise.

Images of that dream still floated through your mind, the last few seconds before you woke up playing on repeat again, and again, and again.

“Where’s Yoongi?” you asked, hoping to distract Jimin from your sorry state. But it appeared that your question was most definitely not the right way to go about that, because his concern only grew more noticeable.

“Yoongi-hyung...? He’s out tonight, remember? With Seokjinnie-hyung?” He stared at you incredulously.

Right.

You couldn’t believe it had slipped your mind – and neither could Jimin, apparently. His astonishment made sense, though. If there was one person in the house with laser focus on the job, it was probably you. It was easier that way – your work brain didn’t worry so much about what happened in the field.

But that meant you usually kept tabs on what everyone was doing, especially considering what they were doing was related to what you would be doing tomorrow. Especially considering you could barely sleep without knowing every one of them was back home and safe.

“Are you... sure you’re okay?” he asked at your lack of response.

“I’m fine... just wasn’t fully awake, you know?” you deflected, awkward chuckle falling from your lips. You were fine, right? Your mind was just a little bit too preoccupied to remember something. Something very important, and something that you usually never forgot, but it wasn’t that big of a deal.

But Jimin didn’t seem to think so, the disbelief clear on his face. But before he could open his mouth to say something, you spoke first.

“Do you ever have nightmares?” you asked simply, hugging your knees to your chest, wrapping yourself into a little ball. Of course, you knew the answer already, but a selfish part of you just wanted the reassurance that you weren’t alone in your experiences.

“Y/N...” he trailed off, tone sad. “I think we all do. You’re not alone here.”

“What do you do?”

That seemed to surprise him. The words slipped from you before you could stop them. For lack of better wording – you didn’t tend to initiate conversations about things that really mattered. Things that were important to you personally, things that weren’t surface-level or work-related. Perhaps waking up after an awful dream next to a person rather than your usual empty room brought forth an unusual vulnerability.

He seemed to ponder over a response, taking his time before answering. “I talk about it.” He had decided to answer honestly, cringing inwardly at the answer, knowing how much you avoided talking about your problems with anyone.

You deflated almost imperceptively at his answer, though you were sure he noticed. You didn’t know what you were expecting, and didn’t know why you were disappointed. Did you really think Jimin would have some secret to help you?

No – he just wasn’t a coward like you were.

“Y/N, I know things are a lot harder for you than everyone else-”

“They’re not,” you interjected.

“They are. Everyone else grew up knowing what this house was from birth. But you? They let you become a person and then forcefully replaced you with another version of yourself later. Us? This is all we ever were.” There was a trace of bitterness in his tone, one you chose not to comment on. “I don’t know why they waited so long to tell you. Maybe that’s the reason you’re so-”

He cut himself off before he could finish the sentence, grimacing slightly at his uncontrolled babbling.

But it didn’t take a genius to understand where he was going with that thought.

“So what?” Fucked up? Broken? You weren’t sure you wanted to know what he was going to finish that sentence with.

“Never mind,” he sighed, taking a deep breath before changing the subject. “I was supposed to come get you anyway. Yoongi-hyung told me to make you eat once you woke up.”

“He told you to make me eat?” you mumbled, slightly affronted, but amused nonetheless. Your comment seemed to break the tension in the room, Jimin breathing a laugh at your reaction.

“You know how he is,” he grinned. “But anyway, come join us. Taehyungie is downstairs waiting for me already. Said he wants to watch The Office or something.”

You knew you should eat something, but you really didn’t have much of an appetite after everything. Perhaps being punched in the gut and then dreaming of your family’s death by your hand will do that.

Noticing your hesitation, however, Jimin piped back up. “Please? I think it would help. For me?”

You knew you were helpless the moment he fixed his pleading stare onto your face. Nobody could ever deny that man anything, and you were more than certain he knew that. You were lucky he wasn’t using his powers for worse things than convincing someone who needs food that they need to eat.

Rather than respond, you simply let out an exaggerated sigh, pretending you didn’t know that he was definitely correct. Besides, if there was anyone who could take your mind off things, it was definitely Jimin and Taehyung. On their own you’d almost mistake them for any other 20-something year old, but together they were their own brand of chaos. Chaos that never failed to brighten the mood.

You made to hop off the bed, planning on throwing out an “if I have to” once you did, but it appeared that you’d been so focused on your mental state that your physical one completely slipped your mind.

Not expecting your legs to be so weak, you lost your balance almost immediately, saved from an embarrassing potential fall by Jimin’s quick reflexes. He stood beside you, a hand on your shoulder, luckily not fussing over you too much.

“Hm, Jungkookie didn’t tell me he messed you up that much,” he teased, though you thought there was an ounce of concern somewhere in there.

You scoffed. “I’m fine, I just forgot how sore I was.” You shrugged off his hand, taking a few pained steps towards the door, hiding a grimace at the scream of your muscles. “And Jungkook did not do this to me, by the way,” you added, unwilling to let Jimin prance around the house thinking Jungkook was able to beat the living shit out of you. Even if it was partially true.

As amusing at it was to watch you unintentionally walk around like a newborn lamb, Jimin couldn’t help his wince at the sight. “Are you sure you don’t need help?”

“Let’s go eat, Jimin.”

As expected, dinner and sitcoms with the Chaos Pair (as you and Hoseok liked to fondly refer to them) did wonders to improve your mood. Seokjin had so kindly made some sort of stir-fry before leaving with Yoongi, meaning all you three had to do was warm up some food before settling down on the couch.

But that was several hours ago. It had to be past midnight, and you knew what Yoongi and Seokjin needed to do tonight wasn’t something that should have taken too long. In fact, scouting out the meeting place for tomorrow shouldn’t have taken more than half an hour or an hour at most – any longer and getting seen was too risky.

You couldn’t help but let your mind wander, wondering what could have held them up so much. Surely nothing could have happened, especially when the plan for today wasn’t even that dangerous – right?

Captured within your own thoughts, not absorbing what was on the screen, the transition to the ending credits snapped you out of it. You spoke out before Taehyung could click the next episode button for the nth time that night.

“Hey... do you guys know what’s happening with Yoongi and Jin?” You tried to make the question sound casual and nonchalant, but each of the boys were well-versed in your worry any time work didn’t go according to plan – especially when you were at home while others were out. It was a silent but well-known fact that you were almost always the last to bed on mission days, your body only relaxing enough to sleep once you knew everyone was home safe.

“I’m sure they’re fine, Y/N,” Jimin was quick to reassure you from the opposite end of the couch. “Coming back late isn’t that strange here, you know.”

“Right. This is Yoongi-hyung and Jin-hyung we’re talking about here, remember?” Taehyung added, slinging an arm around your shoulder from his place beside you. “Besides, Yoongi-hyung is a master at doing stuff quickly and quietly. I bet they were done in like 20 minutes and they’re out eating or something.”

“Without any update?” you replied, skepticism clear in your tone. “Not even an ‘all done, see you guys later,’ nothing?”

“Just think about it this way, Y/N,” said Jimin, matter-of-factly. “Even if something went wrong, isn’t it better to have no news at all than for us to know something?”

As much as you wanted to argue the nuances of that statement, you knew in general, he was right. If they were captured, you’re sure Namjoon would have heard something about it by now. People were too impatient in this line of work to wait before leveraging whatever bargaining chip they had – especially when it wouldn’t be unheard of for them to lose their chance before it could be used. And if they were killed? News of such a thing would have spread even faster, considering their status as the two oldest sons.

Jimin was right, in a way – you could be fairly confident that whatever was happening, they were at least alive.

But that didn’t stop you from worrying. Some things were worse than death.

“You’re right, I guess,” you conceded, though you certainly didn’t sound happy about it.

When nobody made to speak further, Taehyung hit play, and you tried your best to focus on the show.

And you did. For another hour, with no word from anyone, and still no Yoongi or Seokjin in the house.

As much as you wanted so badly to call them and demand what was taking up their time, you already knew such a thing wasn’t possible. You knew that by now, if they had time, they would have called you already.

All there was left to do was wait, and you were not a patient person.

You didn’t even realize how much you were fidgeting until Taehyung reached out a hand to rest on your shoulder, the other moving to pause the episode.

“Y/N.” Taehyung’s voice was firm. “Don’t worry so much, they’ll be fine. I think you should sleep.”

“You should,” Jimin agreed. “Don’t you guys have to leave early tomorrow?”

You made a noncommittal noise in response. As much as your muscles screamed with exhaustion, as much as your mind probably needed rest, you knew you wouldn’t be capable of sleep. Not when the last time you’d slept wrought you so much terror, and definitely not before everyone was accounted for.

But you couldn’t focus on the show, and as much as you loved them, you didn’t think you could sit there any longer and hear the same reassurances from Jimin and Taehyung. It wasn’t their fault – you knew they wanted you to feel some peace of mind, but there was only so much that could be said when dealing with very real danger. And at the same time, you felt bad for making them fuss over you.

“I think... I think I’m going to head upstairs. Sorry I couldn’t be very good company,” you said, wincing as you stood supporting your own weight, the dull pain in your abdomen and calves protesting.

They were quick to claim otherwise, each of them reaching out to give your arm a gentle squeeze. As you made your way to the staircase, you could hear their quiet whispers from the couch, though you couldn’t make out their words. You would bet that they were probably discussing Yoongi and Seokjin’s absence, too considerate to worry you further while you were still there.

When you reached the landing upstairs, you were fully planning to head to your own room, lounging in bed, phone in hand until either the boys came home or you passed out from sheer exhaustion. But this late at night, you didn’t expect to see the strip of light coming from beneath Namjoon’s door. Perhaps distracting yourself with work would be your best bet to shift your focus.

You were knocking on his door before you were even fully aware you’d made the decision, entering when a tired voice called for you to come in.

When he saw it was you, he gave you a kind smile from where he was seated at his desk, though the fatigue in it was clear. But you supposed you weren’t one to talk.

“Everything okay?” he asked easily, spinning around on his clear until he was facing you fully. On his desk you could see almost a dozen open folders, sheets scattered around – work-related, no doubt. You were positive there was some kind of method to the madness, though. This was Namjoon, after all.

Though he liked to deny it, Namjoon was something of the leader in the house now that everyone’s parents no longer lived there full-time. Like true important individuals, they lived off in vacation homes now that their children were fully grown and fully capable of doing every bit of dirty work for them. They stopped by sometimes since much of the important technology (read: weapons) and paperwork were here, but for the most part, once night fell you guys were on your own. Not that the 8 of you really had any say in what you’d be doing despite being mostly alone – you were independent in name only, and you didn’t doubt that the parents were keeping tabs on everyone anyway. Namjoon’s father proved that earlier.

Being the son of the head of the entire “operation,” most communications came to Namjoon to relay to the rest of you. Despite never volunteering for such a thing, his father liked to work him to the bone. In watching their interactions, you’d hardly be able to tell they were family – Namjoon’s father treated him more as a servant than anything. As much as he claimed he didn’t mind, the work definitely took a toll on him. The fact that he was alone in his room working at what must be around 3 am was evidence enough.

“I was hoping to talk to you about tomorrow...” you began unsurely. “But if you’re busy, it’s fine. It’s not that important anyway.”

You hated to intrude and ask him to talk about work when he was already clearly so swamped, but in all likelihood what he was doing was about your next task anyway.

“Actually, it’s good that you’re here. I think if I look at these papers any longer, I’m gonna go insane. Talking has always been better for me, anyway,” he replied, and you visibly perked up at the realization that your presence was desired rather than simply tolerated.

“All that stuff is about tomorrow?” you questioned, making your way over to sit cross-legged at the end of his bed. Now that you were closer, you could see that the papers flooding his desk were some combination of floor plans, building sketches, and walls of text that looked much too small to read even if it were right in front of you.

“Right. Everything had already been mapped out already, but my father sent me these about an hour ago saying the first set they gave me was wrong.” He huffed a bit in annoyance at that, before continuing on. “So, I’ve mostly just been double checking whether it changes anything. I think we should be okay, but better safe than sorry, right?” he chuckled humorlessly, a hand raising to pass mindlessly through his hair.

“Lay it on me, Joon,” you grinned, forcing enthusiasm into your voice in the hopes that you could at least make him feel a bit better. It was, after all, much easier to help others than to help yourself. You leaned back on your hands, giving him your full attention.

“You read through everything I sent you already, right?” he inquired, despite knowing that the obvious answer was yes, considering you’d have to set out only hours later.

When you nodded your assent, he continued.

“So you know that this isn’t too complicated of a mission – a go in, talk, come back out type of thing. We’re already at a temporary peace with their family, so you and Jungkook will be there as assurance that they can’t just shoot me dead.”

“Uh huh. So what’s changed?”

“Pretty much just the map of the warehouse we’re going to. The windows are placed differently than we originally thought, and apparently there might be some sort of back door. Yoongi-hyung and Jin-hyung were supposed to confirm those details, but...” he trailed off, his teeth gnawing at his bottom lip betraying his worry. But when he saw your face fall at the mention, he carried on.

“In theory, all we have to do is be a bit more aware when we get there, keep an eye out, especially for that other entrance. But I’ve mostly been thinking about what could go wrong with the added unknowns, especially if someone tried to throw us off intentionally-”

His voice was cut off abruptly by a loud bang from downstairs, followed by voices. You were up on your feet in an instant, out the bedroom door before you could even check whether Namjoon was following. Any semblance of pain was forgotten as you bounded downstairs at a speed that was probably unsafe, skidding to a stop when Yoongi and Seokjin came into view.

Your eyes scanning them over quickly, at first you thought nothing of it as you came closer. They looked ragged and tired, hair sticking to their foreheads, clothes dirty. If you didn’t notice the movement of Yoongi’s hand twitching against his abdomen, you would have gone straight into questioning them about their whereabouts for the past four hours.

But you did notice it, and your eyes zeroed in on the fact that his hand was, very faintly, stained with red. After that, any restraint you might have shown was gone in an instant.

“What happened to you?!” you exclaimed, closing the distance between you faster than they could think to move or respond. Pulling Yoongi’s hand away from his body with one of your own, the other yanked his shirt up before he could protest. There was no such thing as decency in this house when the other person was bleeding.

“Y/N-” Yoongi began in a tone that was definitely about to tell you to calm down.

“Don’t ‘Y/N’ me!” you huffed, holding his shirt up and away from his wound. Luckily, it didn’t look too bad, and wasn’t bleeding all that much. The sight calmed you somewhat, relieved by the fact that this was something that would be incredibly easy to recover from. But that didn’t mean you’d forgotten that he shouldn’t have even been injured in the first place. “Start talking, Seokjin.”

You saw him cringe a bit in the corner of your eye. He was almost never ‘Seokjin’ to you – it was clear to him that you were angry, even if it wasn’t necessarily at him.

He took a deep breath before starting. “We-”

“Hyung?” came Namjoon’s voice from behind you, and a quick glance showed that Jimin and Taehyung were right on his heel. “What happened?”

You could hear Seokjin wind himself up to start again, but a sharp sigh from Yoongi cut him off once again. “Can’t we sit for this?” Yoongi grumbled, irritation lacing his tone. The presence of not one, but four people fussing over him at the same time left him seemingly annoyed.

Instead of speaking, you begun to tug him in the direction of the kitchen table where you’d all be able to speak properly. If he wasn’t injured might have been comedic to see a grumpy Yoongi being led through the house by your grip on his shirt, but those nearby were too concerned to say anything. If you were anybody else he probably would have cussed you out by now – you were the only person here who would try such a thing nowadays.

When you reached the closest chair you pushed him down into it, taking his hand and forcing him to hold up his own shirt. “Hold that there,” you demanded, no-nonsense tone leaving no room for disagreement.

By the time you returned with clean hands and a first aid kit, everyone else was already seated, waiting for your arrival to get into the story.

You crouched on the floor next to where Yoongi was seated, pulling out supplies as Seokjin began. You listened intently to Seokjin’s explanation about arriving at the warehouse, parking in an alley and keeping an eye out from afar while Yoongi went around the building on his own.

“I was surveying as planned, but when I got around to the back I ran into – agh, fuck,” Yoongi grunted when you wiped at his wound with antiseptic, paying no mind to the fact that he was mid-sentence. “Ran into a guy with a mask on who pulled a knife on me,” he finished through gritted teeth, muscles tensing as you cleaned the blood away until you could properly see what you were working with.

You hadn’t fully relaxed until you’d reached that point. When the mess of dry blood was gone, it was clear that despite the cut being long, it didn’t seem deep enough to need stitches. So long as it didn’t get infected, it likely wouldn’t even scar. The fact that it wasn’t bleeding anymore was a good sign, though you cringed at how long he must have gone around with it like this.

You listened to Seokjin detail how Yoongi ended up coming back to the car far earlier than expected, and how whoever was there had chased them down. As you listened to how they’d had to drive around for hours to ensure they really lost them before returning home, you worked on dressing the wound. You pulled the gauze snugly around his narrow waist, pausing when he gave a quiet grunt.

“Too tight?” you asked quietly, searching his face.

“It’s fine. I could’ve done this myself, you know,” he mumbled, not looking at you.

You narrowed your eyes. “Aren’t you the one always telling me to accept help?”

Despite his lack of verbal response, his sigh was enough to signify his resignation as the point you’d made.

You hardly registered Namjoon leaving the table to call his father, more focused on the task in front of you. When you finally secured the gauze with tape, you leaned back to examine your handiwork. It wasn’t your best, and certainly nowhere near as neat as Jin would have made it, but it would do. Before you could move away, however, Yoongi’s hand rose to rub affectionately at your head.

“Thanks,” he cracked a smile at you, grin widening when you batted his blood-stained hand away with a barely-disguised look of disgust.

Rather than ream him out for dirtying your hair, an unreadable look spread over your face. “I was worried about you.”

As much as you’d tried to erase the image from your memory over the course of the last few hours, it wasn’t something that could easily be forgotten. It was irrational to think that your nightmares had any relation to what occurred in reality, but fear didn’t have to be rational.

It must have been obvious that something was troubling you more than the fact that they’d arrived home late and injured. There was no other reason for you to be staring into nothing, face screwed up into an expression that looked something like pain.

“Did something happen?” he asked simply, reaching for your hand and pulling it into his grasp when you didn’t resist. That you let his dirt and blood-crusted hand anywhere near your body without complaint was concerning in and of itself.

“No...” you said unsurely, gaze fixing onto the floor, shaking your head as though to dispel the image from your mind. “Not really.”

You heard an intake of breath as though he was about to protest, but Namjoon’s hurried footsteps returning to the table distracted you both. As you caught the troubled expression on Namjoon’s face, you rose to take a proper place at the table, beside Seokjin and Yoongi and across from Jimin and Taehyung.

Namjoon took a seat at the head of the table where everyone could see him, and the sight of his clear distress, hands running over his face, had you unsettled immediately.

“What’s wrong?” you asked hurriedly, business face on immediately.

“My father had someone look into who attacked you at the warehouse and chased you afterwards. The footage from the warehouse wasn’t clear, but based on street cams and red-light cams...” he took a deep breath, grimacing before his next statement. “It was Lee Taemin.”

The speed at which your brows shot up was impressive.

Lee Taemin.

The man who you were supposed to meet up with tomorrow. The man whose family supposedly had a partnership with yours.

“Excuse me?” came Seokjin’s bewildered voice.

“Lee Taemin attacked you? He had to have known it was you, after however long he chased you,” said Jimin.

You gripped the edge of the table harshly, nails digging into the surface. This wasn’t something to be taken lightly – in fact, you were surprised they had the nerve to double-cross Bangtan.

Were the changes Namjoon was looking at earlier a result of their meddling? What would have happened tomorrow if you’d shown up according to plan? What would have awaited you there?

“There’s no way three of us can just walk in there tomorrow,” you said through gritted teeth, fury rising the longer you thought about how close to disaster you’d come because of their betrayal. How had they managed to keep it all secret? Surely whispers should have made it to you by now.

Unless he was acting alone?

Nothing made sense.

“We won’t be going to the warehouse tomorrow,” Namjoon stated, though the resignation in his tone sent a shot of confusion through you. He didn’t seem very happy about that fact, despite the risks being massive.

“And you’re upset about that, because...?” you prodded, sensing something else laying beneath that statement.

“We’ll be going to a party tomorrow night instead.”

Tagging: @shere-khan-the-lizard @wwilloww @propinqxity

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quarter-past-eleven · 4 years ago

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Pokemon Fic Recs

Ok so I noticed that there aren't enough Pokemon recs on Tumblr so I'm hoping to help out. These will mostly be gen fics but there may be some Satugou too. Anyways enjoy.

Ash crashes into the Pokemon Center, alone, bleeding, and desperate. Pikachu's catatonic. He tries to ignore the fact that Hunter J is after him, that he just jumped out of a moving aircraft thousands of feet in the sky, that his friends have no idea where he is, that he barely knows.

He can't let anyone know. He's not sure why, but the secret's pretty hard to hide when you're covered in blood and not the best liar.

He shudders at the fact that she's after him, now. Not his Pokemon. Rare, she said. Aura.

He wants to throw up.

Amazing. Beautiful. Deserves way more attention. This is around 45,000 words too so it's good to read in a few hours. This is also part of a series so if you want to read it I would just go looking. Enjoy. @imaginaryyinspiration

Lusamine's smile, glued on— like when he forced a smile when he secretly wanted to cry, except she was hiding something much more bitter inside than just repressed fear and bad memories. Her voice, though smooth and dripping with syrupy sweetness (sticky and thick and nauseating), was as grating on his ears as nails dragging long and hard down a chalkboard, sending chills up and down his spine.

She was too sweet, cloying, like when copious amounts of perfume were added to hide a foul smell, choking the air around him.

Ash hadn't been truly scared of someone in a long time. Lusamine...she was terrifying.

Another amazing fic by imaginaryinspiration. I absolutely adore this series and hope more people will too cause it doesn't have the attention it deserves.

Ilima was in Kalos during the Crisis, so it's only logical that he knows Ash Ketchum's name. He just hadn't ever expected to see one of the heroes of Kalos attending his old school.

This just makes sense.. like Ash has done some insane fucking freaking things and like no ones noticed, he was on the News for fucks sake in Kalos and lime no one recognised him. Anyway amazing fic loved it, yoy should read it and check out @grainjew while your at it.

A suggestion from Professor Kukui leads to Ash learning yet another language. Featuring an—erm—overenthusiastic green Noctowl; a study in the ridiculous naming of things in the Alola region; and a whole lotta friendship along the way.

or: that one fic where Ash learns Hawaiian Alolan. it goes about as well as you’d expect.

Crack Fic!Crack Fic! Sorry I love crack fics and this one is so funny. The DuoLingo owl haunts my dreams and will now haunt everyone else. Enjoy!

Alola has a rich history of vibrant stories and colorful tales, most full of merriment and joy. However, as a dark remainder of Alola's past is brought back into the light, our heroes will have to face a frozen wasteland and icy ticking time bomb in order to save everyone.

Pokemon movie in the form of a fic? Yes fucking please! I love it it's amazing and I hope more people read it cause it deserves attention. @kisskiss-where-is-season-two

When Ash falls ill a day before Serena's performance, his Pokémon make sure that their Trainer gets the rest he needs, even if they have to be a little forceful. Ash has always taken care of his Pokémon, and his Pokémon will always take care of him. Sometimes the best cure for the flu is plenty of TLC.

Ash's pokemon being protective. That's all I gotta say. @animationnut

Ash and his friends meet up with Misty on a tour of a legendary movie studio in Virbank City, where a new horror film is in production. But a studio tour and an autograph session turn into mayhem when the chills and thrills of the screen come to life!

Again... Pokemon movie in the form of a fic. @zdbztumble

Ash reached the semifinals of the Lily of the Valley Conference. He’s not a rookie trainer any more, and he’s definitely not an idiot. Now he’s starting a new journey in the Unova region, and this time nothing is going to stop him from winning the Vertress Conference and moving one step closer to becoming a Pokémon Master.

A fix-it fic for Ash in Unova. Instead of Ash resetting we say how he grows and helps people again. Also, Iris is less annoying.

Ash is having the time of his life in Alola. Meanwhile, something dark is brewing back in Kalos. Greninja stumbles upon something terrifying and tries to warn Ash. It all gets much worse from there before it gets any better.

I don't wanna spoil anything but I'm just gonna say that it's amazing and you have to read it. @its-railou

Sophocles challenges Ash to a one on one battle, and Ash ask an old friend for help. (I’m not spoiling it in the characters. But maybe you can guess it by the title.)

I will respect the authors wishes and spoil who ot is but it is a good fic about Ash proving his friends wrong again.

Anyways I hope you enjoy the fics and support the writers. I'm gonna see if they have Tumblrs and if they do I will tag them xx

#pokemon #ash ketchum #fic recs #gen fics

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shyrose57 · 4 years ago

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Brothers anon, it makes me really happy and comforts me that you enjoy reading what I submit. It makes me really happy to write all of this and finally be able to tell someone my ideas. Thank you so much.

At first he kept trying to deny the father figure role, but when one night Jackie had a nightmare and came to him and ended up calling him dad, he stopped denying it and accepted it. And once he accepted it he did basically adopt all of them. Jackie and Grievous are literally chaos incarnate most days. They regularly love to prank the contestants and just act insane. Ran and Jackie just kind of hang around eachother, like Ran could be reading and Jackie training and they'd enjoy eachothers company. They do sometimes nap next to eachother, or play card games (which is a rare instance where Ran gets (playfully) rilled up and competitive). Grievous and Ran bonding sadly gets interrupted when Ranbob suddenly drops in, but before that Grievous would try to talk to Ran about what book he's reading and just try to make conversation with him.

Oh the height difference definitely remains. And its both terrifying and hailours to new people. It's even better when it's a 2v2 fight because Jackie has a habit of just climbing Ran like a monkey gym and sitting on his shoulders and its terrifying.

Well, since the drinking age is 3, I personally think the age limit is like 14 or something close. I believe I made their ages as Ran is 19 (almost 20. Maybe 4 months away), Jackie is 16, Watson is 30 something, Grievous is 22, and Ranbob is 28 (Ran is younger than his brother by 9 years) I have written down all their ages somewhere (and the ages where the events of Mizu took place) and if I got any wrong I will submit another ask with their ages. The other gladiators have managed to keep good relationships with most of eachother. A few like Grievous and Genevieve are close, Edward, Levi, and Watson are drinking buddies. Lagguis sadly isn't as involved cause he is sick and can't vist often at all. (I think I got everyone. Tell me if I missed anyone please, I cant check cause whenever I exit tumblr, tumblr deletes everything in my ask :') )

I dont have many rules for the Pit rn but I do have, no injuries that could cause long term or chronic damage, no sabotaging opponents, no teaming unless its a team round, no blackmail or anything of the sort to force an opponent to forfeit, and in order for a battle to end due to forfeit both sides must agree to it. But the Pit in general is a lot of things, there's fights for money, fame, and positions (like general). There's tournaments meant for nothing other than to show skill and just to fight your heart out. It's open to anyone above 14 and anyone under 80, to people from Subbin to those just passing through.

And there are different battles in the Pit, theres singles, the ones we saw in the Tales of the SMP episode. Teams, where teams of 2 battles against eachother. Free-for-all, where literally everyone fights against eachother. And Ion battles, battles where there are super powered weapons (like flame 2 iron sword. Or strength 3 potions) that spawn in the area at random. Typically Ran and Watson work best toghere, as their strategists and plan everything with back up plans, and they always call out warnings and watch eachothers back so its incredibly hard to actually hit them. And Jackie and Grievous work best toghere, with the two going insane and often taking people by surprise with their unmeasure and randomized movements and attacks.

At the start Ranbob was completely under Dreams thrall, not being able to really think for himself and even foregoing self care. When Ranbob starts to become himself again the fishermen are more than confused and hesitant, with Cletus especially stating multiple times that it may just be a trick. So it takes a while but Isaac actually is the one to suggest maybe it isn't a trick, and has to do with the mask that was found. This is later confirmed when the mask is brought to the group and Ranbob has a massive negative reaction that sets him back to how he was when they first met him.

Im honestly not sure yet, I think I want it to be a 'lets never go back' type thing but im not positive yet.

I dont have a solid backstory for the fishermen, but I know I want a little bit of it to tie to the story. Do you have any ideas for their backstory or nah? I do know I want them to have met eachother while they where in unfortunate situations and because of those they got family level close.

Ranbob doesn't take the little space well at first; staying outside when able too, even though that really upset Benjamin; and Ranbob has no idea how the outside works and has no idea how to read the weather or what he can and cant eat, but hey the enderman boi is trying his best to make up for everything he's done. And trying to build his own house to not impose on the fishermen (much like Ranboo did with Techno), but Benjamin wouldn't accept that and kept dragging him inside. It wasn't that hard for Benjamin, Isaac, and Charles to get used to Ranbob, already being used to sharing a small house, it was more Cletus with him refusing to leave Ranbob alone even for a second because he doesn't trust Ranbob at all.

The two groups actually get along surprisingly well! They like eachother and Watson once said, "It was like a family reunion. Or like long lost siblings finally found their way home."

I am once again not sure! Originally I planned for them to stay in Subbin and in the Pit. But the more I think about it the more boring that is and more I like the idea of the groups traveling toghere in the world.

I like this question! So enderman travel in groups called hauntings right? I personally headcanon the enderman in this group are basically family, biological or not. And ever since Ran and Ranbob lost their family they lost their haunting, which can be mentally damaging to a enderman. Once Ran found Waston, Jackie, and Grievous and started hanging around them more, he started feeling a connection ot them he hasn't felt on a long time. He's claimed them, as his haunting, his family. And he'll defend them with his life against anyone and anything. And then suddenly Ranbob came in, a enderman that should be part of his haunting but isn't, a enderman that killed his previous haunting. So Ran is incredibly defensive over his group, and is trying his best to keep Ranbob as far from his haunting as possible, to protect them.

Now Ranbob also got a haunting, his being Charles, Isaac, Benjamin, and even Cletus. So Ranbob is also defensive over his family. But unlike Ran, Ranbob still considers his brother as part of his haunting, his family (and yes, Ranbob did think Ran was dead when he first chased him out years ago, so he's shocked and relieved that his baby brother is still alive). And he sees how his family gets along so well with Rans family and then starts to even consider Rans haunting part of Ranbob's. Basically Ranbob has a big heart and is willing to accept almost anyone into his family, no matter what they've done.

Yep, the reason Porkius is so interested in Ran is because he's an enderman hybrid. And no one else is a hybrid expect for the two brothers (and Porkius, with him being a piglin hybrid).

Porkius is excited! He's excited to see what happens and is more than happy to agree to help as long as he is kept in the loop. Though unless he's directly asked to be involved he prefers watching from a distance at whats happening. Just so he doesn't get mauled by a pissed off enderman.

Sorry for any spelling mistakes (its late) and its so long! Im probably going to try to shorten them.

I’m glad you’re happy, it’s a nice thing to feel. Your ideas are really cool, and I hope I’ll get to see more of them in the future.

Now, can I simply say how adorable so much of this is? Jackie going to Watson when he had a nightmare, the Rans being protective of their groups, Jackie climbing Ran? I love that, it’s very heartwarming and cute, and it made me smile.

So Watson wasn’t really sure what to do with his new title at first, hm? And then Jackie called him dad? How’d he feel about that? How’d Jackie feel about the slip? Or did he even notice? He’s parenting them all, he’s gonna have a dad voice and everything. How do the adopted ones feel about him embracing it?

Jackie and Grievous, two people to truly fear when they wish to cause havoc. Tremble before them. Do they prank people, or do they just become absolute madmen on the battlefield? Or something else. Honestly, anything with these two just instantly makes me amused.

Jackie and Ran being chill buddies. very nice. Ran getting competitive over card games is a funny thought. Does he win often? Does Jackie? What kind of card games do they play?

Rather sad Ran and Grievous bonding is interrupted, but it’s nice to hear Grievous trying it. Hopefully they’ll get there someday.

Oh my god, it’s the height difference. Jackie getting on Ran’s shoulder sounds absolutely terrifying. Imagine being some poor new guy pitted against these gremlins and the short ones climbs on the tall ones shoulder-both look absolutely gleeful with the destruction they’re about to wreak, and you already know you cannot outrun them.

Jackie...Jackie...he’s da youngest. He’s small, and young, and you have no idea how much I’m laughing at this. I don’t even know why, it’s just really, really funny to me. Probably something to do with what a complete force of chaos we all know this boy is. Oddly fitting, but hilarious. How does Jackie feel about this?

How do the others? Are they a bit more protective over him? Does Ran like to flaunt his three years more over him?

Grievous and Genevieve are buddies! Very nice, they seem to have a good dynamic. Watson, Edward, and Levi also being close? Very interesting, has a lot of potential. I bet they share a lot of funny stories.

So we’ve established the basics of The Pit. Doesn’t seem too bad, for a fighting arena, to be honest. Seems pretty popular, actually. Do the gladiators live there? In the palace? Or do they just have a house somewhere nearby? What kind of establishments and areas are around? Food places, stores?

So Ran and Watson are the scariest team because of their strategy, and Jackie and Grievous are the scariest team because of their randomness? It checks out. I’m curious though, how do the other combinations work out?

Ranbob sounds like he has a less than fun time here, and the poor guy could really use some closure. What’s he like, free from the influence of the mask? He seems pretty close to Benjamin, so at least he’s got that going for him. Though he and Cletus don’t seem to have the strongest bond at first. How is that resolved?

And how does Ran feel about his brother’s new haunting, after everything? I imagine that he’s at least a little bit unhappy with it, for one reason or another-and there’s quite a few reasons for him to pick from.

How did that house-building attempt go, between Ran never being above water, and probably never building a house before? I can’t imagine too well.

Some ideas for backstory, well, hm. Isaac seemed dressed a bit fancier than the others, perhaps he comes from a richer family than the others? That’s about all I’ve got for now, sorry.

It’s nice to hear they got along, who clicks the easiest?

Possible road trip? Always fun.

So, the enderman hybrids have adopted their respective groups as their hauntings. You’ve mentioned Ranbob’s pretty cool with this, how does Ran feel? Obviously, he’s less than pleased with Ranbob, but what about the fishermen? Protective Ran and Ranbob! How protective exactly? Is it subtle, or overbearing at times? Actually, how do their instincts lead to them interacting with their groups overall?

Porkius must not see Ender hybrids too often, if he’s so interested in them. It’s nice that he’s willing to help out though, and his concern is valid. I wouldn’t want an angry enderman hybrid after me either.

Are hybrids not overly common, then, if there’s only Ran, Ranbob, and Porkius around currently, or are they just not mentioned a lot?

Thanks for the ask, a lot of it made me smile. I enjoyed reading it, and I hope you’ll be willing to send more when you have the time.

#dream smp #Brothers AU #dream smp au #tales from the smp #ranbob #ran #jackie #watson #isaac #charles #benjamin #cletus #grievous #porkius

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the-bees-knives · 3 years ago

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Hi yes hello. I saw that you rebloged the oc ask thingy and I'll be ordering for the whole table. Can I get a 2, 3 ,5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 32, 34, 37, 41, 45, 48, 50, 51, 55, 60, 65, 68, 69, 70, 73, 78, 83, 87, 89, 93, 96, 98, and 99? All for Biscuit. (IM REALLY REALLY SORRY I JUST WANNA KNOW MORE ABOUT THEM 😭)

This got real long... answers under the cut!

2. What are their favourite possessions? Why? (sentimentality, history, price, etc.)

His favourite possession... is you! ✋👁��

Jokes aside, Biscuit isn't too materialistic. However, he does like the hairband he uses for his braid; it was a gift from his mother! The bow he wears around his neck is also a remnant of a modification of his uniform from his previous place of work. Biscuit used to work both as a mascot and a cook (it would switch depending on the situation) at his family's diner (restaurant? i don't know the term), and he added it because he thought it looked cute (also he couldn't do anything too feminine :( so this was the best he could do).

I will note that the cutlery embedded into him is not a part of his favourite possessions, despite his unwillingness to part with them. They're more like a part of his body, I guess?

3. Do They get jealous easily? If so, what usually causes it?

If Biscuit formed an attachment to someone and then saw them with someone else, he'd be wary of the new person, if not jealous. They'd have to become acquainted with Biscuit to ease him, though that might not always work. He'd still probably try to drag his companion away. Basically, he's pretty protective (possessive?) over those he likes.

5. What's their reputation like? Does this reputation contrast what they're really like?

I'm not sure how others would see him. Either it's "eccentric cosplayer (who's really in character)" or "weird dude". Probably the first one, as normal people couldn't survive with knives in their body for that long. Mostly Biscuit's just a weird dude though.

7. What's their "type"? What romantically attracts them to another person?

Biscuit doesn't really have a preference on appearance, it's more based on personality. Either it's someone who can care for him or someone who's just as feral/zero-braincell'd as him. He normally takes care of his victims, but he doesn't see that as attraction; it's more like caring for cattle before you eat it. If someone cared for him though, he'd be into it. As for the other one, it's just a feral power couple; both can be absolutely insane together (Run).

9. If they could change one part of their appearance, what would it be?

Spine that can turn 180 degrees. Reasoning: he has to sleep on his stomach because of the knives, but then his feet are bent uncomfy while on his stomach. Rotate spine for comfy feets. Plus, it'd be a cool party trick.

10. What's a simple thing that brings them joy?

Pets/physical affection. (Unfortunately, by unintentional design, this man is Unpettable.)

12. What's their position in their friend group? (leader, mom friend, chaos goblin, etc.)

The chill goblin: you can sit with him and have a nice hat, but if anything gets the interest of his one (1) braincell, he will go absolutely feral.

13. How forgiving are they? What do they consider unforgivable?

I think he's pretty forgiving, considering. If you attacked him, he'd probably consider it as play-fighting or something. He won't like it if you mess with his personal belongings, but he'll forgive you if it's for a good reason (for him) or if you give it back.

As for the things he'd find unforgivable, touching the two knives sticking out of his head is an absolute no-no. (The ones in his shoulders are sort of meh; he won't like it if you touch them, but he won't try to kill you for it.) The knives in his head are really sensitive, so he'll become agitated quick and snap if you try to move or remove them.

16. What food do they absolutely hate?

fish yucky >:(

17. Do they show a lot of affection, or are they pretty reserved?

If Biscuit had an s/o or a good friend (you know, people he's not interested in for food), he'd be pretty affectionate; he likes them and wants to show it! He might get a little close though, so make sure to set (and remind him of) personal boundaries.

19. What's their unusual quirk?

I don't know why, but I imagine that Biscuit can bleed infinitely. If you were to remove any of the knives embedded into him, the wound will just keep bleeding until they're inserted back in. I don't really have an explanation for this, but he is a human, so??? I just think it's neat.

20. Are they easy to wake up in the morning, or grouchy and sleepy?

While Biscuit does get up early, he's particularly lazy and groggy. It's kind of like those moods where you want to go back to sleep, but you can't because your body's awake.

21. What's their ideal date like?

Anywhere really, so long as his s/o is giving him attention.

32. What are they like at parties? Party animal, or awkwardly sitting in the corner drinking punch and reading?

Party animal, except everyone else is sitting in the corner trying to avoid him. He doesn’t really think before speaking, so he says whatever without any filter. (Plus, the knives don’t help. No, he won’t remove them.)

34. What’s their favourite drink? (Coffee, tea, juice, hot chocolate, soda, etc.)

Biscuit is a milkshake lad. His favourite is strawberry-banana!

37. Are they a hopeless romantic, or is that stuff just not for them?

Biscuit has a “love-at-first-interaction” mentality, like if someone shows genuine interest in him, then he wants to be with them and chases that feeling (and them).

41. What would they dress up as for Halloween?

Bold of you to assume that he’d even need a Halloween costume.

All jokes aside though, Biscuit has No Patience to put a costume together (or even look for one), so he’d probably just go with his normal wear. People have already mistaken the knives as cosplay/props anyway, so it’s just less work, instant results.

(He does have the old mascot suit, but he can’t wear it anymore without it hitting the knives.)

45. Are they always late, on time, or early?

None of the above, he forgot that event was today.

48. How dramatic are they?

Biscuit’s not the type to start drama, nor is he extremely emphatic (is that the word?) with his speech. He’s just kind of vibing.

50. Why would they be a good partner for a road trip?

Fun(?) to do activities with; will probably suggest random stuff to do if there’s no set itinerary (will probably suggest it anyway). If you’re looking for a spontaneous road trip, he’s your guy.

51. Why would they be a BAD partner for a road trip?

Will Never Sit Still; must be kept under watch constantly, otherwise he’ll run off to who knows where. (Just keep him on a leash or something)

55. Choose a vine you think perfectly encapsulates their character.

This video has pretty strong vibes of brainrot, so I think it's appropriate.

60. What sappy thing will they cry at? (romance movies, cute cat videos, etc.) Would they deny crying about it later on?

Biscuit loves all types of animals, especially furry ones (so dogs, cats, bats, rats… bean toes are a plus). So he’d absolutely cry if shown cute pet videos and gush about how precious and baby each one is. No denial either, if you confront him about it, he’d just justify it by gushing about them more. (He doesn’t have any pets of his own though. I wouldn’t trust him with a pet.)

As a side note, if he found out his victim was a beastkin or could turn into an animal or something, he’d be really conflicted on whether to harm them or not, but would ultimately decide against it.

65. Do they give people a lot of nicknames?

Biscuit isn’t creative enough to make genuine nicknames. However, if he forgot your name (and he probably would), he’d just name something off of your appearance (“pink jacket”, “shark guy”, things like that).

68. Are they easy to fluster? What would you have to do to truly fluster them?

Biscuit can only really be flustered by people he likes or people that he thinks are close to him. He’ll melt and nuzzle you if you surprise him with something nice, physical or otherwise :)

69. What’s their dream vacation like?

Go to the countryside and run around and be feral. Then chill in the evening and take a bath, because he needs to make sure his knives are clean.

70. Are they a good liar?

Biscuit doesn’t even try to lie. He’s really impulsive, and he doesn’t see what’s wrong with what he does. If he tried to lie, it’d be stupid/simple and obvious that it’s a lie, but he’d stick to his guns and insist that it��s true. Though, his voice/expression wouldn’t fluctuate, so you’d have to believe either in common sense or him.

73. Are they more book smarts, or street smarts?

Street smarts; this man’s head is empty (except for the two knives in there but).

78. What’s something they’re really bad at?

Almost anything that involves careful planning and concentration to complete. Things like puzzles or sewing; if it doesn’t give immediate satisfaction, then what’s the point?

The only things that Biscuit does pay attention to are cooking and, by extent, caring for his victim (as they’re a part of the cooking process).

83. What are they like as an s/o?

Loyal and (possibly) clingy. Will want to accompany you for days, then vanish out of thin air due to impulsiveness (will absolutely forget to feed his victim during this time, if he has one). Forgets about physical boundaries, but means well (trying to show affection).

Biscuit’s love languages are, in no particular order: physical touch, acts of service, and quality time. Personal hug-buddy that can cook :)

87. Do they like spicy food?

Yes he does! I like to imagine that he incorporates spice from time to time into his dishes. I don’t know what his tolerance would be though due to lack of experience (I will perish).

89. What would they get into a petty argument over?

Which animal is the best? Answer: it’s all of them. (Though he does have a preference towards furry animals, he tries to be unbiased in this argument.)

93. What type of movies do they like to watch?

Both gorey horror movies and feel-good movies (especially if they have animal protagonists). They’re just fun to watch.

96. What’s their sense of humour like? (Dad jokes, morbid humour, basic knock-knock jokes, stand-up comedy, etc.)

Physical humour, stand-up, and maybe surreal humour. Anything else might be too complex for him.

98. How competitive are they?

He’s not very competitive on his own, though if someone challenges him to a contest, he’s still going to try to beat them for the satisfaction of it. Don’t challenge him to a contest if you want to have chill times with him.

99. What would they wear to a formal event? Describe their outfit!

Biscuit has No Standards when it comes to social events, so he’s going as normal. If he had to dress fancy though (and if he had access to it), he’d probably just wear a simple pink dress shirt and dress pants + suspenders. Slick his hair back too. The knives stay.

(I don’t even think he can enter most shops with the knives, fake or not. I don’t know; I’ve never entered an establishment with visible knives before.)

This was a long post, so let me know if I missed anything;;

#i spent Too Much Time thinking about these answers #also sorry for the late reply; i kept getting distracted;;#is this man just a dog? maybe #biscuit oc #my oc #emi-bunni #ask #oc questions meme

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genshin-djinn · 4 years ago

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Genshin Impact Chapter 1 Act 3: A Reaction.

Chapter 1 Act 3 is what took my experience with this game from “good game” to “masterpiece”.

THIS POST CONTAINS MANY, MANY SPOILERS FOR GENSHIN IMPACT CHAPTER 1: ACT 3

Genshin Impact has some problems— actually, it has a shit ton of problems. But during the fight against hordes of Fatui, with the Adepti channeling their abilities through my gang, flying through them as Oz, decimating them with Diluc— I just thought, this is the best time I’ve had in a mobile game in my life.

This game might not be perfect now— it’s only a quarter of the way done if we’re counting Karenri’ah. But it will be a fucking masterpiece once it’s all out. If this is the level of quality we’re getting for our archon quests, this game is going to be an amazing time on story alone.

KEQING

I love Keqing with all my heart. If she were alive today she would be a socialist here to topple the ruling 1%. When ningguang asked Aether who they trusted more, her or Keqing, I hit the Keqing button as fast as possible.

I think one of my favorite things about Keqing is that she’s so completely honest, which is unusual for a Liyue politician. If she doesn’t like something, she’ll speak out against it. If she thinks something else should be happening, she’ll make it happen. She can probably be deceitful at times, but in general she’s straightforwards in that she wants a government for the people and by the people.

I can’t wait for her story quest!

NINGGUANG

pretty.... voice pretty....

Ningguang is cool. Her JP voice is very pretty, like she could do ASMR videos online or smth. One thing I decidedly did not like about Ningguang is how her personality just ???? flips? In the middle of the quest, for no reason other than “because plot”.

It’s established that Ningguang cares about two things more than anything— the Jade palace and Mora. Why, then, would she destroy the Jade palace for the sake of Liyue? I get that she’s a good person at heart at all, but I want to see more of her indecision, her brain saying “mora” and her heart saying “Liyue”. The way she just flips on a dime isn’t really strange but it does contradict with her preexisting characterization.

Childe’s Boss Fight!

The section of this quest from Childe’s fight to the Adepti + Qixing battle is just nonstop adrenaline.

Childe is IMO a lot more fun than Dvalin (sorry Dvalin). I’m at WL5 and have a tendency to play fast and loose with important mechanics like.... dodging, for example.... and Childe’s Mask Electro form ended up destroying my team. I killed him with Guoba because everyone else besides Xiangling was dead. I

Another thing I really enjoy about Childe’s boss fight is that in the irrationalities of Childe as a character, it actually makes sense. Genshin is decent at making weekly bosses logical excursions— Andrius wants you to get stronger, Dvalin’s weekly fight is ~~all a dream~~; but tbh sometimes the weekly bosses don’t make sense. Andrius wants to train us, not murder us! How does dvalin, a dream slash memory that doesn’t exist, manage to knock someone out?

Childe as a weekly boss actually makes perfect sense. He’s an adrenaline junkie addicted to the thrill of fighting people— to put this in modern AU terms, he’s the guy who’s first in line to ride the rollercoaster that failed all of its health and safety checks. Childe wants to befriend the Traveler entirely because they’re stronger than him, so that he can fight them over and over again until he’s the strongest. Of course, this will never happen, because the Traveler is the MC and therefore is stronger than all others. However, in this way Childe being a repeatable boss makes 100% perfect sense— he actually wants to fight the Traveler again and again and again.

The one question I have about Childe is how in the living feck are the Fatui letting him join the Traveler and fight for them *against the Fatui*??? I think this might be touched on in Childe’s Story quest, which I’ll do in a bit, but like????? They let him keep his delusion and just walk over to Aether like “aight fam I’m on your team now”? How?

Jade Chamber/ Guizhong Ballista vs Sea Monster Fight!!

Basically, all my charged adrenaline from nearly dying to Childe just came to a head in this one huge fantastic fight.

And Xiao :)

I absolutely loved seeing the Adepti and the Qixing work together. This fight was probably my favorite fight in the whole game— the music was amazing (soundtrack where), the graphics were so nice, the adepti were so feckin cool, using everyone’s abilities was n I ce. My adrenaline was reaching its highest point at this fight and it was just perfect. It was just so fecking fun after days of WL5 pain, having to pop like five ultimates to kill one hillichurl, to be able to just demolish swathes of enemies with Fischl and Diluc, run around like a madman thanks to Xiao, have infinite health idr who did that for me but bless them, just absolutely destroy.

Ever since I hit WL5 I haven’t been able to really just go insane during a fight and stop caring about HP/ when to use skills/ dodging and this have me that opportunity.

Zhongli’s Deal

*punches Zhongli across the room with the power of being the player character* I love this man so much.

Zhongli Zhongli Zhongli Zhongli Zhongli. I AM VERY ANGRY AT HOW THE PLOT RESOLVED HIS STORYLINE. But it also makes a lot of sense. And I think, for once, Zhongli should be allowed to be selfish.

Because choosing to leave Liyue was a bit selfish. He’s leaving the country that adores him, loves him, gives him shit for free; to its own devices and then to a completely unknown fate once the new Geo Archon becomes god and takes over. But he made a frankly fantastic plan and can now leave the country, for now, in peace.

I was absolutely delighted to see Zhongli in Morax form. Making deals with La Signora, being a complete and utter puppet master who set this entire situation up and played Childe like a kazoo; but just like his dear friend Venti, I think Zhongli is happier when he’s just Zhongli, the eccentric mortal. He seems so much happier and so much more relaxed when he’s forgetting about mora and eating dinner with Aether and Paimon. Rex Lapis might have just put Liyue through the wringer, but he can now put down his 3000- year long reign and just be the happy, eccentric Zhongli.

Zhongli’s little bit of insecurity over being a “bourgeois parasite” makes perfect sense now— he doesn’t want to be seen as Morax, a superfluous god who’s using his name to get whatever he wants from the humans he watches over.

But also the part of my brain that feeds off lore nEEDS to KNOW what Zhongli got from Tsaritsa. What could be worth a gnosis? His own happiness isn’t enough— Tsaritsa is likely going to use his gnosis to try and destroy Liyue. What could be worth that?

My main thought would be either “someone’s protection” or “another gnosis”, but I don’t think the latter is possible. The former could be possible but doesn’t really make sense either— a) whose protection is worth putting an entire country, much less the world, in danger and b) the Fatui are out to kill everyone who isn’t Fatui, so they won’t agree to spare a major player in the war to come like that. Brain go brrr.

I’m very hyped for Zhongli’s story quest, which I think is coming with his banner on Dec 1, when Childe’s banner ends. I really hope that Zhongli visits Mondstadt and chills with Venti for a while, but anything with this guy would be fine lol.

LORE

We got a lot of lore this update and I am delighted by it.

Firstly, we get a tiny hint of how Visions are bestowed— “if a person shows true strength of will at a desperate and fateful moment in their life, the gods will look upon them with favor.” Vague but more than we had before.

Next we got some neat lore about Inazuma— firstly, that it’s led by a god named Baal and secondly that it steals everyone’s visions. I’m very hyped to visit because guess what fam aether doesn’t have a vision.

Final Thoughts

In case you can’t tell from my insane ramblings, I loved Chapter 1 Act 3 and I absolutely cannot wait to play through Childe’s story quest and Chapter 2 and beyond.

The Prologue in Mondstadt set the stage for Genshin. We started out in a fantasy environment with a fantasy tale of an immortal bard and a dragon. Mondstadt was an excellent introduction to the world of Genshin.

And now? We’re starting to build on that. Chapter 1 brings us another story of another god and their relationship with the country they watch over. Liyue is much less of a traditional fantasy setting and takes the darkness we saw in Mondstadt— a friendship ruined by manipulation and suffering— and build on it. Now we don’t just see the Fatui more often but we also see more of the Treasure Hoarders and the way both groups kidnap and experiment on humans.

Mond started to introduce us to the Fatui, but Liyue is where they really start bringing continuous plot relevance. Inversely, we saw much more of the Abyss Order in Mondstadt than we did in Liyue. I’m extremely disappointed we didn’t see any more of the Princess this chapter, but it makes sense given that Chapter 1 was really more about the Fatui than the Abyss Order.

All I’m trying to say is the Liyue arc was an excellent continuation to the stage Mondstadt’s arc set. Now, we’re on to the world of the Eternal Shogun, Baal! I’m really excited to meet new characters and experience new stories of Inazuma, but I hope we’ll continue to see Mondstadt and Liyue in the future. Mondstadt is likely going to be the most “boring” of the countries we experience, cuz it’s just so classically fantasy- themed, but it will always be the first country we explored in this world.

After Inazuma (if I had to take a shot in the dark, inazuma’s arc will take from December 23 to maybe March or April) we’ll go to Sumeru, which I am really extremely hyped for because it sounds extremely different from Mond and Liyue and we’ll meet Cyno and possibly even Collei! (just me extrapolating lol). I can’t wait to see where Genshin Impact goes story- wise, because its first major update has brought so much to the table.

#genshin impact #genshin spoilers #gi spoilers

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halothenthehorns · 3 years ago

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TLTNL- BEYOND THE VEIL

James weighed the book uncertainly in his hand, though watching Harry was infinitely heavier. Harry was very clearly trying his hardest to push out for all of them that now Sirius wasn't there, everything should be okay, but not a one of them were fooled. He would not sit down, pacing anxiously along the length of the couch now that he had the room to stretch, but still hovering near Sirius more than was called for with what his own words said. The new voice that had just arrived did not feel like a good thing, not many people called Harry by his last name.

Shadows appeared all around them, Ginny gave a gasp of horror when she saw they were all wearing masks with wands pointed at their hearts.

So did they, but James couldn't bring himself to believe it until he said.

Malfoy repeated that Potter give that to him.

"Death Eaters!" Sirius spat. How was it even possible by this point the day would continue to grow worse by the second.

Though none of them had been fool enough to think at least some of Voldemort's minions wouldn't accompany him on whatever this was, the fact that the kids hadn't walked into some roaring battle left them with just a second of hope whatever had happened with Sirius had already been resolved. Now they became all to aware of that ambush.

"How did this even happen?" James demanded of nothing. He was far past his means for normal thought for the day, he still didn't even know if Sirius was okay for being in Voldemort's presence for how many hours!

"I can see it," Remus muttered uneasily, though his dry throat made it hard to keep going with his own thoughts. "Snape would have told what Harry said, the Order would have reacted getting in and out as fast as possible. We'd of course be weary and suspicious as hell-"

"That's a lot of if's and maybe's," Sirius hissed. "We still don't even know the Order found me-"

"Shut up Sirius," they all said at once.

Sirius scowled at the lot of them. He didn't like to think of the alternative either, but them pretending it hadn't happened wasn't going to make it better.

Lily pulled at the only spot of good she could find in Remus' idea, "so that means the Order may still be nearby."

James didn't see how that was making her feel any better, as he forced himself to keep going with his stomach turned into such a tight knot he was confident it wasn't ever going to come loose.

Harry's insides plummeted sickeningly. They were trapped, and outnumbered two to one.

"How many were there?" Remus rasped. He'd stupidly been envisioning just Malfoy, maybe one or two others that could go in and out of the Ministry, but that meant there were at least a dozen!

When Harry whispered as much, nobody wanted to believe him. Moments before they'd been sure they were fixing to hear about Sirius dying in this black abyss of a place, now they were wondering how Harry had gotten out! If all of his friends had...

"Keep going James!" Lily hissed, smacking him on the arm hard.

"Right, yeah," he muttered, having to forcefully drag his eyes back to the print, his heart still thudding so hard in his chest he'd blame that on the reason for his stuttering words.

Harry instead demanded where Sirius was, and a harsh female voice laughed loudly, mocking him the Dark Lord always knows!

"That's not an answer," Lily said venomously.

"They aren't gloating they still have him," Remus clutched to this idea like a lifeline. "They're just screwing with Harry."

Malfoy echoed always.*

"No, he doesn't," James countered at once, all the times his son had beaten Voldemort hovering right in his mind's eye now, he'd find a way out of this for everyone.

Then he again repeated Potter give him that prophecy.

"Prophecy's," Sirius whispered, causing Harry to shake worse than ever as they all looked to him. "I knew I remembered something about those. My Aunt's mentioned them, the one who said she was a Seer. She told me about Prophecy's at the Ministry..."

"What do those have to do with anything?" Remus demanded faintly, he'd certainly never had a care for these types of things before one nearly ruined Sirius' life.

"She ah, went into rather great detail," Sirius struggled to explain while keeping a casual tone, growing harder by the word as chills were emanating from Harry more every second. "About, how they look, and the Ministry puts the initials on them of the Seer and who the Prophecy was spoken to, who it's for-"

"So this Prophecy was made for Dumbledore from, okay that could be anyone." Lily muttered as she remembered those initials.

"What makes you say Dumbledore?!" James put his hands up in frustration they were all talking around him and he just wanted to hear of Harry being out of there, to find out where Sirius was now!

"The initials," Lily repeated them. "Those are the initials to his full name, that's how he'd even know about this weapon Voldemort wants."

"Well those aren't Voldemort's real initials," Sirius pointed out for the other one, "and I wonder why there's a question mark on before Harry's name."

"No, but it's about Voldemort," Remus agreed. "If someone like your Aunt was the person who put it in there, I'm not surprised they referred to him as Dark Lord. Why's it lit up though, when others were darkened out?" Remus asked, deciding now it was relevant he may as well interrogate Sirius for all this.

"Best guess, those that have happened go dark, and those that have yet to, stay lit," Sirius offered, screwing his face up to think back to that nine year old chatting with spooky old Aunt Misapinoa who always wore a shroud around her face.

Lily wasn't aware her heart could go numb until the sensation coiled around her chest, the only thing really helping her understand the words, "so, what? This, thing, what kind of weapon is it? A Prophecy about Voldemort and Harry, and it was made before he was even born." She didn't regret putting her infant away from all this, but suddenly she wanted him right back in her arms now, wondering if Dumbledore knew this existed now, did you have to be there for a Prophecy to be put in the Department of Mysteries? Voldemort had known about it before that Death Eater that worked in there had given details. Was there someone in the Order watching it that even they didn't know about?

"This is insane," Sirius huffed, even the one who'd believed in Seer magic all his life was having a hard time wrapping his mind around this. "The last one we heard didn't exactly have a wealth of information, bloody hell it wasn't even talking about the person I thought it was. What does Voldemort think he's going to get out of this?"

"This is all fascinating," James said, still too high strung to really make himself sound like that as he told Sirius, "but you're pulling shit out of your arse, and I'd rather just hear about it away from there by now!"

Sirius huffed, he was only trying to help, but didn't stop James as he tried to keep going.**

Harry ignored this and snapped he wanted to know where Sirius was!

The same female mocked these words back at him.

Sirius blinked slowly, he had not heard mockery like that in many long years already...

The Death Eaters were so close now Harry's group couldn't have stuck a wand between them as the woman kept going in a mock baby voice that poor wittle Potter had been fwightened by a dweam he thought was tuoo.

James wasn't doing a very good job on that mocking voice, he'd never be able to mock his child for something like this, but even still, his voice didn't particularly come out like his own at the end.

"Does she really get some kind of glory from mocking him?" Remus tried to say in some kind of disgust, but it didn't come out quite right.

Lily couldn't speak, the ghastly pallor of her skin promised nothing coherent anyways.

Harry couldn't feel his own mouth, it was as if something else was speaking through him, "Hermione was right-"

"No she wasn't," Remus hissed, his eyes too bright. "It's not possible, Voldemort couldn't- he didn't know- how could she- how could anyone-"

"Moony-" Sirius tried to say, a look of dawning horror pushing fear for his own future into an even more unstable regards seeing as now he had no clue what was even real anymore.

"Later," James snarled at the both of them. His whole body was still shaking from the pounding of his heart, and whatever was the truth would have to be just that, later, he had to hear about his son living through this first.

Ron moved just slightly, but Harry softly warned him not yet.

This caused the woman to scream with mirthless laughter, demanding they all watch as Potter gave instructions to these children, as if they were actually going to fight.

"Damn straight." Sirius said with absolution. Whatever was going on here, Harry wasn't going to take that lying down, at least that was one solid thing he could get his head around.

Malfoy wasn't as amused as her, saying Bellatrix didn't know Potter as he did, he had a weakness for heroics, which the Dark Lord understood about him.

"Probably from the last time where he beat him in front of all of them!" Lily stated, trying to shift her weight into her own fighting stance and having to forcefully remember there were no Death Eaters in her living room now, threatening her family. She'd saved her son last time, but it had been Harry that had brought her and James there, he'd find a way out from this too.

Malfoy again demanded the Prophecy.

James gave not a second to spare that Sirius may have been right on what these things were, he didn't care about anything anymore unless it involved his son and friends running back out of there.

Harry ignored that again and insisted he knew Sirius was here, they had him!

The Death Eaters just laughed again, the woman hardest of all.

Malfoy insisted this was the real world, no dream of his, and if he didn't hand over that prophecy they were going to start using wands.

Harry egged them to do it, while ignoring his own mounting panic that he'd led his friends to their death for nothing.

"No Harry," Lily said at once, hating to cut James off now more than ever, but she wouldn't let him think this for a second. "You were only doing what you thought was right at the time, no one would ever-"

Harry couldn't hear the rest. He was sure there was more, but the moment she stopped he gave a jerky nod in whatever agreement that was supposed to be just so his dad would keep going.

Lily was not at all appeased, she knew by the fact his face didn't change one bit he hadn't heard her, but there would be time for him to hear here after he was out of there.

The Death Eaters did not move though, Malfoy still insisting it be handed over.

Harry just laughed, mocking back that he would and they'd let them all just skip off home then?

"Maybe even give you some pocket money for the journey," James sneered under his breath, unable to stop his own sharp tongue responding to such ludicrousy.

Bellatrix lost her patience and tried to summon it to her, but Harry blocked it with the Protego charm.

Angered, Bellatrix began another curse, but Malfoy stopped her, telling her not to smash it!

"They just gave an advantage," Remus said quietly, low under his breath like he was only trying to speak to those around him. Adrenaline was telling all of them to get ready for a right.

Harry hardly heard them, his mind racing fast for a way out of this, to make sure none of his friends paid a price for his stupidity.

Sirius leaned in protectively close to Harry, the urge burning to tell him just how not stupid this was, none of this was his fault, but Harry was still thinking of the more important issue at hand, keeping his wits, they could handle this issue later.

The woman removed her mask then, and Harry saw that Azkaban had hollowed out Bellatrix Lestrange's features, but her eyes were still alive with a fanatic glow.

Sirius snarled fiercely, as if all his hair would go on end if it could. He suddenly couldn't decide if it would even be better for that pathetic rat to be there instead, but that deranged being around his godson actually felt worse.

"That's one of the vermin who tormented Frank and Alice," Lily shrieked in outrage.

James muttered a desperate plea as if in prayer before managing to keep going no matter how much it strained his voice. His eyes burned so much it was a miracle he could still see the words, he couldn't believe it had somehow all come back to Harry being near that twisted being.

Her chest was heaving with anticipation as she tried the new tactic of suggesting they start torturing others instead until Potter gave that up, they'd start with the little girl, she'd do it herself.

"No!" Harry said that with such force, James actually stopped for a moment just to glance at him in concern. The flat, sharp word had promised death to the first person who so much as looked at Ginny the wrong way now, which James could honestly appreciate as he felt the same towards Lily, though he was sure it wasn't the exact same for Harry.

Harry stepped sideways so he was right in front of Ginny, the others too blocking her from sight and wands held up to their chest, the prophecy now the center of all them.

Remus shifted his weight restlessly even as he felt Harry was to be congratulated for putting himself in their line of fire. He had the object they so wanted, and was least likely to be killed of all those kids.

Harry tried stalling instead, asking what was so important about this thing? He couldn't think of anything else, he hoped the others were thinking of a way out of this, his mind was still blank with panic.

"Better than screaming panic," Lily assured, that was still half of her mind.

Bellatrix asked if he was jesting?

"Not really, no," Remus muttered, though even his own mouth wasn't registering to his own ears.

Harry said he wasn't, he wanted to know why Voldemort wanted this.

This caused the most outrage from the Death Eaters, Bellatrix shrieking he dare say that name with his half-blood's tongue!

"So is she saying pure-bloods could?" Sirius tried for a bland tone of voice in mocking back, though he'd never more felt the urge to simply slam a door shut on some member of his family's face.

He was ignored by James anyways, they'd never less cared about the taboo on Voldemort's name most people carried, especially his own followers. James wished Harry wouldn't choose now to provoke these Death Eaters even as he commended it on further keeping them off guard.

Harry recklessly shouted back Voldemort was just as much a half-blood.

"Are you mad!" Lily shrieked, watching her son and expecting him to drop dead any second now. "To tell that to them now!"

"I don't blame him," James frowned heavily at that even while wanting to clap him on the shoulder. "Piss them off well enough, they'll stop thinking, kids can make a run for it."

"Go big or go home," Remus said faintly, thinking of all the times for Harry to let his own mouth get away from him.

Harry told what he knew to taunt them, how his father had been a Muggle-

Bellatrix tried to shout Stupefy at him-

"You're lucky that's the curse she sent!" Sirius screeched in Harry's ear. He remembered his own times when he had showed even a little rebellion in questioning what Voldemort was doing, what his family would do to punish him for that. It was an actual miracle none had tried to draw Harry's blood for that comment alone.

Harry had winced and rubbed at his ear as he looked to Sirius, his right hand still trying to curl around nothing, like he had the prophecy clasped there now.

Malfoy blocked the spell for him though, bawling in her ear not to hit that prophecy!

Her spell went wild, and two little glass orbs fell from the shelves instead. The glass shattered, and foggy little figures appeared where the remnants still were, and began to speak.

"Well I guess we figured out how to work them," Sirius said faintly.

However, in the din of the two Death Eater's shouting at each other, not a word was heard from either of them, and then they vanished without a trace.

"Wonder if you even could repair that," Remus muttered, though honestly thinking not, these were such heavily magical objects he couldn't even begin to guess at, they seemed beyond such normal means of fixing as that charm. It would not at all surprise him if in fact those were now gone forever.

This gave Harry an idea, so that when Malfoy turned his attention back to Harry, he began again why this prophecy was so important, while moving as slowly as possible to find someone's foot with his own.

Malfoy told him to stop playing around, and Harry insisted he wasn't just as he found Hermione's toes, as a sharp gasp informed him.

Malfoy sneered that Dumbledore had never told Potter the reason he bore his scar was hidden in the bowels of the Department of Mysteries?

James' mouth opened with some new disturbing noise making an appearance, and he'd thought he was all out of those. They'd all known Dumbledore was holding back answers from Harry, he'd said so himself at the end of his first year. So this was somehow the most insulting thing Malfoy could have said, that he knew more about Harry than them!

Harry was so distracted by this, he at first forgot his plan as he demanded of Malfoy what of his scar?

Hermione insisted on keeping his attention though, and while Malfoy laughed in surprised delight, Harry hardly breathed the words smash shelves.

"That'll cause plenty of distraction," Remus said, so distracted himself they were right on the edge of that answer it had almost for a moment made him forget who was giving it.

Malfoy stated this explained why Potter hadn't come for this himself now, the Dark Lord had thought it's mere existence would draw him here.

Harry finished whispering to Hermione to wait for his signal and pass it along before quickly engaging Malfoy to keep his attention why he had to be the one to come get it, why not himself?

Malfoy looked incredulously delighted as he stated only those whom prophecies were about could retrieve them, something the Dark Lord had learned by trying to use others already.

Lily could feel it, the swills at the edge of her mind as an explanation for the madness of this year lay somewhere in there, if only she could think past her own harsh breaths for her son still being in this danger.

When asked why they even wanted a prophecy about him, Malfoy corrected about him and the Dark Lord, hadn't Potter ever wondered why Voldemort tried to kill him as a child?

'Every damn day since this started,' James felt the passing thought, honestly wishing now more than ever for that answer if it would somehow stop all this from happening...

Harry gazed at the slitted eye holes with something he'd never felt before, his hand tightening around the glass spun ball harder than ever, were those answers really in the palm of his hand?

James couldn't help but look to Harry desperately in that moment, like he was hoping his son would suddenly start telling them what had been inside, that all of this really hadn't been one humongous heart attack with nothing to show for it.

Harry was having a hard time looking at him though, he only felt like he was a burden of a reminder to them now more than ever. If he hadn't been born, this prophecy wouldn't have been made, they'd still be alive.

Still, as he felt Hermione show more than tell the others his plan, he asked why didn't Voldemort just come get it himself?

Bellatrix found this idea ridiculous, considering the Ministry was too busy chasing after her dear cousin, there was no need to bring to their attention of the Dark Lord's presence.

"Then why's she there?" Sirius spat hatefully, he couldn't believe Bellatrix would bring this up now. "It's no more implausible!" He wasn't going to let anyone insult Harry's intelligence, especially because they'd all been thinking the same thing.

"That is a relatively good question," Remus agreed in disgust, wondering at the planning to all this, how the Death Eaters had managed to infiltrate the Ministry and leave the area so clear for Harry and his friends to come. "Just not important right now Pads."

Sirius grumbled even as he agreed, several curses still flipping through his mind for the start of a fight he wasn't involved in.

Harry now understood this was just dirty work then, like Sturgis and Bode had failed to do.

"It is remarkable how fast you put that together," Lily praised even as she stayed trained on the book, on the answer of how badly this had gone wrong before he'd come here.

Malfoy began to congratulate that at least he wasn't unintelli-

Harry shouted now, and as one all six of them shouted reducto, and all spells managed to hit shelves and bring down the isles around them. Harry seized a handful of the nearest persons robes, dragging them along as he shouted to run while mayhem rained down.

Harry could feel that pulsing adrenaline thudding through him now, how even as his hand wanted to remain fastened tight around his wand he still wanted to grab the nearest person and make a run for it in all the chaos, his hand still around nothing though apparently convinced he was holding that precious spun glass now. It was helping nothing he had no good way to work that out of his system.

At least one Death Eater lunged forward to try and stop them, but Harry elbowed him in the face as Ginny, Ron, and Luna ran past, Harry keeping hold of Hermione who was in turn yelling at Neville to keep up through ever more glass shattering around them.

A hand caught him on the shoulder-

Lily inhaled so sharply it hurt her own throat, but that wouldn't have stopped the curse exploding half the living room if James hadn't kept going on the same breath.

but Hermione shouted Stupefy at the same instant and Harry was released. The other three were no longer in sight, but they turned right and ran ahead to the door they'd entered, blinking and finding themselves back in the time room. Hermione tuned on the spot and shouted Colloportus, and the door made an odd squelching noise as it sealed itself.

"I can't believe they got out of that," Remus sagged against the back of his seat, honestly needing the support as he couldn't make his own limbs stop shaking.

Harry hardly noticed, he was looking wildly around for the others, but Ginny, Ron, and Luna weren't in here as he'd thought.

"No," Harry gasped, the word not nearly enough to cover the terror pumping through him now.

James was honestly seized with that exact same fear for a moment. He had no true connection to the Weasley kids, had only known of Luna's existence because of his son, but he couldn't imagine anything happening to them either without wanting to shed an honest tear. These were just a bunch of kids with Death Eaters hounding them!

"Harry," Sirius said desperately, as his breaths had been coming out in sharp little gasps of pain. "Harry, they're going to be fine, all of them, you trained them!"

Harry looked to him in mostly disbelief, and a little hope. "You think I'm so good a teacher, I taught them enough to get away from Death Eaters!" His voice was very near shouting at the end, wanting Sirius to hear clearly how stupid he was being for this idea.

"They've gotten this far," Sirius reminded, his eyes wide and pleading, "so have you. No need to go hurting yourself if you've got confidence," he tried to actually end with a smile.

Harry still found his godfather insane, but for now he stopped pushing at his memories no matter how hard it was. At least he had Sirius with him now, as some consolation for not knowing his future. He didn't have Ron though, Ginny or Luna in his sights, some claim their lives weren't affected by him except these harrowing memories. He had to trust Sirius though, he had to let his dad keep going, he'd be no good to anyone if he died now simply trying to remember who lived.

Hermione squeaked they must have gone the wrong way, but Neville hissed at them to listen. Not moments later, something heavy slammed against the door, and heard Malfoy's voice telling Nott to leave him, the Dark Lord cared nothing for their injuries if they lost that prophecy.

"Really puts into perspective how much they all care for each other," Lily whispered, still wide eyed with far more fear for this than actual care for one of the monsters who'd caused the problem.

Then Malfoy began organizing them, telling them all to be gentle with Potter until they had that prophecy, but kill whomever else they could.

James's voice hitched for an extra moment. He hadn't been delusional in thinking otherwise, but the words sounded so careless he couldn't believe he'd let them pass his lips!

Bellatrix, Rodolphus, were to go left;

"So, go anywhere but left," Sirius hissed, still refusing to think of Harry anywhere near those two in particular.

Crabbe and Rabastan were to go right, Jugson and Dolohov straight go around, Macnair and Avery through this door here, Rookwood that way, and Mulciber was to come with him.

"So we now have a definite amount," Remus muttered, keeping a head count. "I doubt any are still hiding Malfoy doesn't know about."

"Eleven," James agreed, "where's Goyle?"

"Probably the one Nott was trying to rouse, likely knocked out," Lily murmured.

"Lets just hope he hasn't gone for backup," Sirius said dangerously, none of them able to quite grasp the emotion of relief one in particular wasn't there, they wouldn't know how to handle that feeling right now.

Hermione was trembling from head to foot as she asked what were they to do?

Hermione's question felt like a wet blanket smothering them all. They all wanted to scream what the right thing to do was, but that was impossible, there was no right answer here. They weren't there for Harry, all they could do was listen to what had been done.

Harry said first of all they weren't going to just stand around.

"Good a start as any," Remus muttered.

Harry made to go back to the door he was sure would lead back to the black anti-room, but then from behind the two Death Eater's continued trying to knock down the door. One had the idea to use the Alohomora charm, and the three only just had time to duck under some desks.

One Death Eater suggested they'd already run through this room, but the other said they were still to check under the desks.

Lily worried heavily at her lip, still trying to envision what the right move was, to run or ambush. As of now, they outnumbered the Death Eaters, so this was likely the best strategy, but it was all the more frustrating she couldn't offer the advice, she'd never felt more useless just sitting here and knowing it had already happened.

Harry watched the boots coming closer, ducking down under each desk, and waited until one was right in front of him before shouting Stupefy.

The red light had him falling backwards right towards the grandfather clock and knocking it over.

"That won't keep him down long, be sure you at least take his wand away before you keep going," Sirius couldn't help but caution, thinking the Order had better show up soon!

The second was turning towards Harry, but saw Hermione scrambling out from under her's first and began to shout Avada-

James almost couldn't get the spell out, more from shock than anything it was really going so far already, but then Harry was trying to jump to his feet in true alarm and Sirius had to rope his arm around him to keep him in place and hiss in his ear to listen for James to finish to know that didn't happen.

Harry tackled the man to the ground, causing the spell to go awry.

Harry could still hardly breathe for a moment, still fighting back the impulse to do the same in here with nothing to show for it, he was going to drive himself mad and was half tempted to ask someone to take his wand away in fear he'd curse one of them by mistake if this kept up!

None of the others seemed worried of this fact, Sirius loosened his hold on Harry even as they all still felt the same urge they were having to beat back. None of them had ever sat idle in a fight and this felt near as bad as doing just that.

Neville overturned his desk in his anxiety to help, and shouted Expelliarmus at the struggling two.

"That'll do some good!" Remus yelped, though he'd jerked hard in surprise of that spell coming out, not recommended as it would send both targets wands flying! He just couldn't find it in him to scold Neville either, at least he was still reacting and thinking on his feet.

Both wands went flying, and both wizards scrambled after them. Neville, horror struck at what he'd done, came forward and tried to repair his mistake telling Harry to get out of the way. Harry dodged to the side as Neville shouted stupefy.

James made a noise of approval even while he couldn't stop again, to know who got there first, at least Neville was correcting his mistake, he'd learn his way around a fight yet even if he'd still wish the poor kid never to be in one like this anymore than his own child.

The spell collided above rather than on the Death Eater, knocking over a glass-fronted cabinet and spilling it all forward, everything flying around and giving the Death Eater time to grab his wand.

His mask had slipped sideways during his and Harry's struggle so he couldn't see,

"A use for those I never thought of," Sirius spared the breath for Harry even as his every attention was still trained more on his past than his present.

and he ripped that free before beginning to shout stu-

Hermione got there first, her jet of red light catching him dead center.

"I'd have let Neville have another go," Remus said with disdain even as he was finally thankful Hermione was there as well.

"Which Death Eater was that?" James barked at Harry, hoping his son would recognize the scum that had actually tried to kill Hermione.

"Best guess, Crabbe, err, senior," Harry admitted, not having recognized him exactly, but the facial similarities had been there, though he had a distinct feeling they wouldn't remain for long...

He fell back suspended in his own body towards the bell jar, his wand falling as well back among the mess.

Sirius realized his advice before hadn't crossed Harry's mind either time, and it was something very twisted to him this was the first real scrum Harry had been in regarding the war, and he had no foreseeable backup!

Harry expected him to simply thunk against the glass and slide down, but instead his head went right through as if there were nothing in the way, everything above his shoulders now mixed in with the glittering wind.

"Err," Lily said without a touch of concern but some honest confusion.

"I could have said don't stick your face in that, but I guess he wasn't going to hear," Sirius said as he eyed that curiously.

"Don't care," James muttered, thinking whatever magic was in there could do whatever it pleased to that Death Eater and continuing more loudly still.

Hermione summoned Harry's wand and handed it back to him, but before they could do anything else Neville shouted a warning cry still staring at the bell jar.

"The stunner wouldn't have worn off that fast," Remus yelped.

"Who knows what kind of magic is in that thing, maybe it negated it," Sirius muttered uneasily.

Except the Death Eater was not rearing up for another attack, instead his head was deaging. His hair was retracting into him, his face smoothing out and while leaving the rest of his bodies proportions untouched, soon there was a tiny baby head in place.

"Oh, my, word." Lily managed to say as she sat back in her seat, just the thought of this happening to someone had her wanting to back away in surprise.

"There's karma somewhere in there," James muttered as he furiously flipped the page, his intrigue more than smothered by still wanting to haul his son out of there rather than investigating this thing.

Like the chicken before, even as they watched it began again, his head starting to grow back correctly, but as he tried to sit up and shake off the effects it started up again just as fast.

They were distracted from watching the progress by a crash in an adjacent room, and Harry at once shouted for his three missing friends.

The Death Eater managed to get his head free of the jar then, but his appearance was left bizarre, a bawling babies head atop the thick man body. His fists were waving about without intent, and Harry ducked to avoid a blow.

James was finding it harder and harder to brush past something so utterly disturbing to him, though he wasn't sure if he'd find it in himself to stick the Death Eater's head back in to repair it before knocking him out more effectively...

Harry raised his wand at the stumbling form, but Hermione seized him and told him he couldn't curse a baby.

"I, don't-" That was all Remus could get out. Somewhere in there was a fascinating turn of conversation, but honestly too much else was going on for him to get into it. James still had a twisted look on his face even as he kept going, maybe he could bring it up later with Harry.

Harry didn't argue, there were footsteps headed towards them, and Harry realized to late he should not have shouted and given away their position.

Harry was vaguely surprised no one had blamed him for that in here, but honestly it seemed because they would have done the same. Despite his own internal warning, nothing could stop someone for shouting now in all this mayhem.

Deciding to leave the baby-headed Death Eater for now,

Sirius still had his mouth half open, the urge to question how on earth that was a functioning moving thing still present, but James just didn't want to hear it from any of them. All he was really thinking was, two down.

they tried to hurry away, but two more Death Eaters were already coming in the door behind them, and instead they ducked into the nearest door holding what appeared to be nothing more than a cluttered office and slammed the door.

Hermione tried to use the colloportus spell again, but the door was thrown back before she had a chance and with a cry of triumph, both Death Eaters shouted Impedimenta.

Lily cursed heavily, knowing both of those using the spell at once would do far more damage than just temporarily slowing her child.

All three of them were thrown heavily off their feet, Neville flipping right over a desk, Hermione smashing into a bookcase which tipped all of its contents right over on her,

Sirius still had it somewhere in him to note irony in that even if he had no ability to laugh at it.

and Harry fell back into the stone wall with little lights bursting into his eyes, leaving him dizzy.

"Those idiots, they could have smashed the prophecy," Remus sneered through his own mounting worry they were going to make Harry lose his only advantage.

"Priorities Moony," Sirius grumbled, clearly misunderstanding, "I want to hear that too, but let's focus on Harry getting out first."

Remus didn't bother to correct his point.

One yelled for all to hear they'd caught them, but Hermione gathered herself first and shouted Silencio at him. The second Death Eater pushed him aside, but he could do no more before Harry shouted Petrificus Totalus at him and he fell back stiff as a board.

The first Death Eater wasn't done. Though still struck dumb, he made a slashing movement at Hermione, and a streak of purple flame went right through her chest.

Sirius choked, his arm fell fully away in surprise-

Hermione gave an oh of surprise before she crumpled to the floor.

"Cultrohexia-" Remus tried to begin explaining, recognizing that look on Harry's face and hoping to stop him panicking for just one second she wasn't dead, but too late.

"No!" Harry tore from his seat, but instead of their fears, he fled to the kitchen. They found him trying not to apprate, but kicking furiously at the table as he glared with fury up at the ceiling.

"Harry-"

"I have to go back!" Harry roared, not looking at any of them. "I can't, they can't- I have to get back there!"

"Harry listen to yourself!" Lily insisted as she tried darting around in front of him, but she may as well not have been there. "This happened to you when you were fifteen, you're older now, whatever happened you can't help them with that now-"

"Something was happening to them right- argh!"

"Harry! Oh, Harry-" Lily pleaded, kneeling down with him as he began sinking to the floor, holding his head again.

"We can't keep doing this," James said as he watched him curling into himself in pain while kneeling down on his other side and glaring at the book hatefully for causing all this. They never should have started these things, there had to be an easier way for Harry to regain his memories. "He's going to kill himself trying to remember what happened to them-"

"Then we'll stop him," Sirius snapped, striding over to get the potion and force him to relax again.

"Sirius."

The high note, pleading voice forced him to hesitate and glance back at him for a second.

The only thing stopping the thick fog from clearing Harry's mind and leaving the rest of his body in a state of pain that wasn't bearable, was somehow still his godfather. He still wanted more than anything the assurance his friends had survived this day, but Sirius was still here with him now, and no matter how much Harry had been pretending otherwise, there was something more pressing than memories he couldn't grasp. This was ridiculous, Sirius wasn't even there, how could he still be more worried about his godfather at this time? It wouldn't shake off though, clinging like a shield he'd had no intentions of putting up. One memory at a time, he had to know what happened to him first.

He couldn't breathe, this made no sense, so the instant Sirius was at his side with the vial, he took it gratefully, clinging to the numbness it brought even if it only lasted a few moments before he was brought back to his surroundings and forced to realize what he was doing to those around him.

"I'm sorry, I wish there was more we could do for you back then," Lily told him as she watched his green eyes flit back to any semblance of normal remembering all this could allow.

'Or, anything!' James mentally yelled, but kept that one to himself. Instead he helped him back to his feet, and it worried them all greatly Harry was still shaking. He wasn't finding any relief in here, with them, like he had when Voldemort had returned. As if his subconscious was still warning him there would be no relief, no savoir from his parents.

It did them no good to try anything else though but to keep going no matter how much they'd rather do anything else, at this point they knew they couldn't have stopped. They needed to know Hermione was okay just as much as Harry. For all of her, annoyances, she was Harry's friend as much as Sirius was theirs. They couldn't imagine anything happening to her now anymore than their own kid, it should have been to dismal for even this future to handle.

Harry fell to his knees beside her, screaming her name as Neville crawled out from behind his desk to see. The Death Eater kicked out at him, breaking his wand and connecting with his foot with the same blow and Neville backed out of sight again with a howl of pain.

Lily covered half of her face to smother her gasp of surprise, all to easily picturing that happening to Alice even more than Neville and the poor mothers reaction.

Harry twisted around and saw the Death Eater ripping off his mask, and Harry recognized him as Antonin Dolohov, the man who'd killed the Prewetts.

Harry let out a snarl of outrage, even as he kept tight to Sirius' side he couldn't help but glance uneasily around the room, that feeling like hot lava warning theirs would not be the only death the man was responsible for. 'Please, let it not be Hermione's!' He pleaded with everything he could.

Still keeping his wand trained on Harry now, he pointed at the prophecy, then himself, then Hermione, the meaning couldn't have been more plane.

"Oh good, Harry understands silent language far better than Sirius ever did," Remus babbled uneasily.

Harry snapped he'd be dead the moment he did so! He was all white panic, clinging to Hermione's shoulder which was still warm, so she wasn't dead yet! His voice mentally pleaded with her not to be dead, it would be his fault if she was!

"No, it's not!" Remus snapped. He hated watching Harry blame himself for these things, likely because he had too much practice with this himself if anything remotely went wrong around him. "That's a bloody dangerous spell, pure dark magic that'll leave your innards like they were plunged with a knife, but the spell doesn't leave any mark. If he hadn't been silenced, it would have been even more dangerous, but since it's a verbal only spell, half the damage was done. So long as she gets treated, she'll be fine!"

"And if she doesn't get help in time?" Harry whispered.

Remus had no answer, he didn't want to tell Harry that even the verbal spell wasn't instantaneous death because it left one slowly dying on the inside even as they were able to move around for a few minutes more while the spell took affect. Instead, he only said what they were all hoping, "she will."

Harry breathed slowly as he heard that, willing that feeling to be true more than just a simple hope.

Neville rose to his feet, broken wand in hand with blood pouring down his face as he shouted at Harry 'don'd gib it to him!'

James's face puckered in agitation for trying to talk like that, and under normal circumstances he would have reveled in plugging his nose, trying to mimic this as best he could. He'd hope it would go on long enough Sirius would try his hand at it, and the two could see who could mimic this speech the best. Now all he could think was, one against eight, considering he still had no clue where the last three kids were.

Neville tried to shoot a spell, but nothing was happening from his broken wand. Then there was a crash behind them as the baby-headed Death Eater came stumbling in, his wails still echoing all around, and Harry took Dolohov's distraction in watching to shout Petrificus Totalus. The spell hit, he toppled face forward unable to move an inch.

Seven, James mentally corrected, though the slowly dwindling number wasn't helping anyone to breathe any easier, they were all keeping the same count and even against one the numbers would never feel bearable no matter how good Harry was. He was only using the minimum spells of defense, there was no more force to this than he'd be using against a DA member, and that was going to bite him in the arse later when these spells simply wore off...

Harry at once turned attention back to Hermione, trying to get her to wake up, until Neville crawled forward and told him he could feel a pulse, he was sure of it, through his broken nose.

James felt his limbs go weak, actually closing his eyes for a moment for the simple thanks he felt for that!

Harry asked if he was sure, and Neville said he thought so.

Not remotely the most reassuring answer Neville could have given, but Harry finally stopped the feeling he was going to keel over himself as the image repainted before his eyes, her eyes closed almost peacefully, but he just couldn't tell if it was sleep or...

There was a pause as Harry listened for anymore noise, but all they could hear was the blunderings of the still standing baby-headed Death Eater crashing around.

"That's a thing now," Lily shook her head, not even remotely distracted from the real matter of what her son was living through.

Harry turned to Neville and asked if he could make his way out with Hermione, try to find help, but Neville refused, saying he was staying with Harry until they found everyone. Harry tried to protest, but Neville picked up Hermione's wand and said he'd carry her.

"No," Remus couldn't help but protest no matter how much he admired Neville for this. "He really should take off with her, he's only another target now following behind like that!"

"What if he does run into more Death Eater's though, then he won't have any way to defend himself, he needs to stick close to Harry," Sirius disagreed.

There was just no point in predicting the future, certainly no one ever would have seen this coming, so both mutually decided not to let the argument continue.

Harry only hesitated a moment before helping to lift Hermione over his shoulder and the two began to leave. Neville gave the broken remnants of his wand one look as he passed, whispering his Gran was going to kill him, that was his dad's old wand.

James made such a small little noise he wasn't even aware he had anymore than the others. He couldn't help it though, his mind immediately launched off with the idea, of what had happened to his wand, and Lily's, had Remus or Sirius ever come across them and still had them after all these years? He still had his parents wands stored in his Gringotts vault, mementos of them Harry still never had from his own!

Lily shook her head slowly for this though, whispering, "I'm positive the woman will just be more thankful her only grandchild's alive." She knew she could never give enough thanks for that hearing all he'd done without her in his life.

Harry cautiously stuck his head back into the Time room, watching the baby-head Death Eater still destroying the room while screaming,

"Please stop mentioning that, it gets more disturbing the longer I think about it," Remus huffed, though honestly he just wanted all of this to stop being mentioned already. After the year Harry had there, he couldn't believe he'd still rather hear of him back at Hogwarts.

while the glass-fronted cabinet that Harry now suspected had contained Time-Turners continued to fall, shatter and repair itself on the wall behind them.

"Err," Sirius muttered, his brows shooting up in shock.

"Wonder what on earth magic could be used to fix that," James agreed with surprise.

No one else in sight though, they finally made it to the dark anti-room where the door swung shut behind them and once again the whirl of doors started, except now when they stopped Hermione's x's had faded.

Harry began to ask which they should choose, but before they could make a decision, one on their right sprang open and three people fell out.

Lily felt a scream building up in her own throat. Despite having just soothed Harry from doing this, she was finding it harder every second not to be wailing her own head off with worry for all of this happening.

Harry at once darted to the Weasley siblings in relief, asking if they were alright.

"Oh bloody thank goodness," James moaned, feeling finally something had gone right, though he kept reading with heavy worry Luna hadn't been mentioned!

Ron seized him while giggling, lurching forward as he did so with his eyes unfocused.

"What's wrong with Ron?" Sirius hissed, feeling as territorial of all these kids at this point as if they were all his pup.

Even while giggling, his face was extremely white, and something dark was leaking out the side of his mouth. Then his knees gave out, and still holding onto Harry, he pulled him into a kind of half bow as he fell to the floor.

"What did they do to him?" Lily demanded venomously, her wand still griped furiously in her hand and aching to turn that on someone any moment for hurting these kids!

He tried to ask Ginny what had happened, but she was just as pale as she slid down to the floor, though she was holding her ankle in silent pain.

"Ginny," Harry whispered, leaning forward in concern like he was trying to catch her before she fell. He couldn't believe this was happening around him, the panic was gripping him so tight he couldn't breathe!

Luna, who alone seemed unscathed, said she thought Ginny's ankle had been broken,

"Oh thank Merlin!" James breathed, not having meant to say Luna's name extra loud but now at least they were all alive, and could get out of there!

four of them had chased them into some room full of planets-

Ron interrupted with a feeble snicker that they'd seen Uranus up close!

"A joke's never as funny the second time," Remus said flatly, trying to give Sirius an obvious look, but both were too worried about the state Ron was in to pay attention to even their own picking.

Then a bubble of blood came out the side of his mouth.

Harry hadn't thought it possible, but he was somehow all the more worried no one around him was trying to comfort him this was going to be okay anymore. No one had a suggestion what was wrong with Ron, or that the exit could be right behind them now that all six were together.

Luna kept talking Ginny had used the Reductor curse on Pluto right in a Death Eater's face,

"Hope it killed him," Lily spluttered in surprise for using that spell in anyone's face, but she wouldn't deny the effectiveness of anything right now.

but one had grabbed her ankle and she'd heard a snap, finishing with a hopeless wave at Ginny who was breathing shallowly.

Harry asked fearfully for Ron's status, who was still hanging from Harry's front.

It didn't feel possible, as James kept ushering out words practically faster than the others could follow, that it really was just Harry and Luna in able fighting condition against seven Death Eaters! Now their worry for Ron and Hermione were still rival, maybe even a little more than Harry as they could at least look at him and know he was alive and fine!

Luna didn't know, she'd never heard the curse used on him, but he was acting funny and she'd barely gotten him along.

Harry had heard all he needed. He asked Luna to help Ginny along, and though the blonde ducked down to assist,

Remus tried to breathe easier for just a second, trying to console himself Ginny could still fight even if she'd be far more off balance, this wasn't impossible to get out of.

Ginny snapped she could do it herself and pushed herself up the wall, though immediately collapsed again and had to hold Luna for support.

"Now's not the time to be proud," Lily snapped, wanting to shove the Gryffindor streak up Ginny's nose and get those kids moving no matter how much she may have acted the same.

Harry pulled Ron's arm over his shoulder just as, so many months ago, he had pulled Dudley's.

James could hardly think of anything else right now, let alone something like a dementor attack which would feel like a walk in the park after this nightmare, at least Harry could get himself out of that no problem, this still felt more like he was reading about someone's funeral any second. Yet at the same time, he understood it, found how much more precious and dangerous this was to Harry. He may feel it for a time if something had happened to Dudley, but now, Ron was the first family he'd had, he could not lose him any more than Sirius.

Then he looked desperately at the dozen of doors for the way out, but without taking a step three Death Eaters came pouring out of the door across from them led by Bellatrix Lestrange.

Sirius made a series of thunderous growling noises that kept starting and stopping, clearly his terror kept trying to break off how much he wanted to take her head off with or without a wand.

She shrieked what they'd found, back Harry backed his group into the nearest door and shouted colloportus.

A smash meant he'd done it in time, but then a man's voice shouted it didn't matter, there were other ways in.

James could feel his breaths stuttering out in sharp gasps, 'they're pinned down, they don't have a chance to run anymore-' his mind all to happily informed him.

'Shut up,' he fought hard not to shout out loud.

Harry began darting around to all available doors and repeating the spell, encouraging Luna to help, but they only made it half way through when she filled the room with a cry of pain.

James couldn't quite scream that as he could all to easily envision Luna, his voice was getting quieter the more this somehow continued to grow worse, fighting back the urge to vomit again the more his vision blurred from worry and still pushing past just to keep going.

Harry turned to see her smashing through a desk and colliding with a wall head first.

Bellatrix came sprinting in, shouting at all of them to get Potter. Harry tried to run out of the room, the prophecy held high over his head, his only thought to keep them away from the others.

Remus hated that was by all technicalities a good plan, Harry being the target because they could look at him and know he was okay, but putting himself in danger like that could never not stop all the air around him, and it's not like he knew that at the time so Harry was still going to hear about this later!

He found himself in the brain room, and Ron came tottering up to his side, still drunkenly laughing about how there were brains in here, and then he summoned one to him.

Lily made a squealing noise that was as much disgust as it was concern for this. "Luna didn't take away his wand!"

James ignored her no matter how much he agreed.

The scene seemed momentarily frozen. Harry, Ginny and Neville and each of the Death Eaters turned in spite of themselves,

"Yes, do please keep being idiots," Remus muttered, his own eyes feeling swollen from widening too much recently.

to watch a brain burst from the green liquid and come shooting right at Ron, ribbons appearing all around it to wrap around Ron who at first kept laughing, as Harry shouted at him to move while darting towards him.

James didn't need to ask why Harry had involuntarily shouted the same thing in here, why he was vibrating all over again in fear for his brother as much as he had been for his sister moments ago. They could all just feel it, this was not going to be a good thing.

Harry didn't know what would happen when that touched Ron, but he didn't want to find out, and didn't get the choice. The brain wrapped all along his forearm with the nasty dripping vines,

Harry tried to dart forward again, to tear the book away because his father wasn't going fast enough and he had to know right now what that thing was doing to Ron, but Sirius intervened faster this time. He caught Harry around the chest and held him fast, fearing if Harry stopped listening and tried to do this himself he'd hurt himself irreparably.

James had hardly hesitated upon Harry's movement, too involved in this himself.

and Ron at once began screaming in pain for it to stop. Harry tried to cut it away with the Diffendo spell, but it had no affect, and the tentacles kept spiraling farther up Ron's arm.

Ginny screamed that would suffocate him, but a stunner caught her in the chest and she fell to the floor unconscious.

Harry made a desperate noise, still struggling to get away from Sirius, but to where even he didn't know. It was too much, it all felt like a nightmare that wasn't ending, and still the worst hadn't happened, he could feel how hot his face was and how painful everything in him burned saying something terrible was going to happen, something that wasn't going to be just a spell.

Neville tried, waving his wand around and shouting stuebfy, but nothing happened.

Remus had never actually wanted to know what would happen if you try to use a stunning spell without pronouncing it correctly!

One of the Death Eaters tried stunning him, but Neville ducked by inches. Now it was only the two of them, against the five Death Eaters. One tried shooting a white blast at Harry that instead left a crater behind him when he ducked.

"Gah, how is that helping them not break the thing!" Sirius was feeling so incoherent he wasn't even sure if that was spoken in English.

Harry ran for it. His only thought in mind to get these Death Eaters away from his friends, he only hoped Neville would stay behind and help Ron as he finally darted out of the room with the prophecy clearly in sight and only held slight relief he could hear them all chasing him. Then his feet weren't below him anymore.

He was crashing down, hitting every steep stone step until he found himself sprawled below the dais in the stone arch room.

Harry placed his hand on his abused rib cage, still feeling the echo of that pain as it was vividly reminded to him, but that was nothing in comparison to the torment just behind his eyes. He had known from the moment he'd first been in this room it would not mean anything good for him, now he was standing more alone than ever. That should have been a good thing, there was no one in there to get hurt but him.

Hearing approach, he at once got to his feet and backed up so that he was now standing right in front of the veil as the Death Eaters circled below him, one bleeding rather badly, and Harry saw Dolohov had been freed of his Body-Bind Curse.

Lily bit back yet more curses for the fact they just had to be right about that, and yet she still found it in her to plead it wasn't important for Harry to learn a lesson there, she was hardly holding herself together listening to this, afterwards the worst thing she could stand to hear of him in again was Crookshanks attacking him.

Malfoy stepped forward, pulling off his mask to speak to Harry's face this race was done, now be a good boy and hand over that prophecy.

"Whoever said he wanted to be a good boy?" Sirius said distractedly, though James felt himself breathe easier just for a second at Sirius still managing to say his stupid jokes even in the face of all that. It was just a little easier picturing Sirius saying that to Lucius than ten wands pointed on his lone child.

Harry desperately bargained to let the others ago and he'd do just that.

Lucius just laughed, telling him he was not in the position to be making demands being surrounded as he was and all alone.

From above came the shout he wasn't alone!

Neville came racing down the steps from the brain room, still trying to use Hermione's wand to stun someone.

"I mean, credit to the kid, but I'm about to knock his lights out for not doing the smart thing and staying where he's useful! Ron needed him more than Harry did!" Remus half shouted half whispered, the unbearable scenario going through his head the Order had long since vanished and wouldn't realize something was wrong until it was too late...

Harry couldn't really be mad though, he was as touched as he was worried now, though he wouldn't have believed that possible moments ago.

Harry tried to shout at him to go back, but he was caught before he could do any such thing. Several Death Eaters laughed as he struggled to get away, Malfoy jeering at least Longbottom's grandmother would not find his death a shock, she was used to losing family to their cause.

It didn't feel real, James saying that with such anger he well could have murdered someone on the spot, but at the same time speaking as if about Neville. Sometimes Lily still couldn't believe there was anyone out there who would really do something like this no matter how many times she'd seen evidence herself of it happening.

Bellatrix perked up at his last name, mentioning she'd had the pleasure of meeting his parents.

"How dare she mock him for that!" Lily said, fury nearly beyond the words.

Neville shouted back he was aware, and then Bellatrix used Crucio on him.

James whispered, feeling as close to tears as if that were Sirius again, or Harry, or anyone he cared about. He could see Alice and Franks face, know their pain as one who'd been forced to hear his own child through that torment, and it killed something inside of him to force this upon yet another, to even hear about this!

Malfoy told Potter he'd let her continue until he gave up that prophecy, and despite Neville shouting at him not to, Harry made to step forward to do just that when another door swung open, and Kingsley, Tonks, Moody, Lupin, and Sirius came charging in.***

James only felt an instant of relief before Harry started screaming anew.

"No!" Harry hissed, his eyes burning with something they'd only seen once before. "No, no, no! Sirius isn't supposed to be there, he was only there because I was!"

Remus felt such a wave of vertigo he nearly fell right over. He couldn't help it, he remembered Harry screaming those exact words days ago when he'd thought Sirius was going to be Kissed.

Now, there was no Patronus charm to save him, only a luck and skill that would be tarnished after what he'd been through...

"Don't be stupid Harry," Sirius scoffed at such a reaction. "I can take care of myself just fine, did you really think I'd sit back if even for a second I heard what you'd gotten yourself up to!"

"But-"

"No," Sirius snapped with just as much force as Harry just had. "Don't want to hear it! You went out there for me, now I'm doing the same for you, you don't get to tell me what's right or wrong about that under any circumstances."

Harry could feel it, that hot burn telling him Hermione was right, he should have listened to her, because something unforgivable was going to happen now!

James, honestly agreed with Harry. They still didn't even know how Sirius was, how much damage Voldemort had done to him before he'd gotten away, now he was barreling right back into a fight! The idiot was going to get himself killed, as if they hadn't feared that enough recently! Yet at the same time he'd never been more grateful to his brother, he certainly understood why he was doing it for the exact same reason he would right now.

Distracted at once by the Orders arrival, Neville managed to get himself away and Harry ducked down beside him as duels erupted all around them. Harry asked how Ron was, and Neville only said he was still fighting that brain thing when he'd left.

"That's not remotely a helpful answer," Lily said faintly, far more concerned with that lot than her boys who she was well aware could take care of themselves. She could still picture Ron suffocating by the time Harry got back to him, Hermione dying from internal bleeding, who knew if something worse was happening to Ginny and Luna while no one was looking out for them!

The stone floor gained a crater inches beside them, chunks flying everywhere, and before either could duck away from more, an arm seized Harry by the throat and demanded the prophecy from him.

Through watering eyes Harry watched Sirius dueling with a Death Eater ten feet away, their wands not even visible from the speed of their spells,

James tried to find some comfort in that even as he shifted anxiously a bit more. Sirius was up and fighting, his ordeal with Voldemort hadn't seemed to leave any lasting harm if he was already dueling with the skill James knew so well, but perhaps he still would have been better suited to be getting Harry out of there! Then again, he probably wouldn't have even recognized Sirius if he heard he was trying to avoid a fight for even a second.

Kingsley was fighting two at once; Tonks, still halfway up the tiered seats, was firing spells down at Bellatrix - none seemed to realize Harry was slowly dying.

James nearly ripped the page out in frustration, this was so much worse than if he could have just been seeing this! He didn't understand why Harry hadn't mentioned Remus just now! It was of course possible he was just behind somewhere Harry couldn't see, but James was convinced he wasn't going to breathe again until he could finally leave this place altogether!

So Neville lunged forward and shoved Hermione's wand through the eye hole.

"There's thinking on your feet!" Remus said faintly.

Harry was released, and whirled around to use stupefy.

The Death Eater had only the time to remove his face and be recognized as Macnair with one eye swollen shut before he fell over.

"Hope he has to have that bloody removed," Sirius got out through gritted teeth, honestly wishing some things couldn't be magically fixed right now.

Harry thanked Neville as he kept watching Sirius still in the heat of his fight,

Sirius nodded in approval, still shifting restlessly as hearing it wasn't fighting off the urge he needed to be doing that now, but at least it seemed to put his friends at ease for a moment, hearing him still on his feet and dueling made it clear he wasn't irreparably injured from his ordeal.

then Harry's foot slipped and he nearly crashed to the ground from slipping on Moody's magical eye.

Lily did scream then, she couldn't help it. There weren't words anymore, only curses she couldn't hope to use, and pent up emotion she needed some way to vent.

Its owner was lying on his side, bleeding from the head,

James couldn't blame his wife, he was fighting off the urge to scream all this as well though it kept coming out more as a whisper. Not Moody! If he was already down, how well was that supposed to spell out for the others, now both of his brothers and his son were all in there!

and the one who'd done it, Dolohov, turned his attention on the two boys and shouted Tarantellgra.

Neville at once fell over, his feet doing a frenzied, uncontrolled movement.

Remus managed to find that a curse and a blessing, at least they were still only trying to immobilize the kids, he'd feared now that the Order had arrived they'd be trying more than ever to get that way from Harry by any means!

He turned on Harry and began the same slashing movement he'd used on Hermione,

James's heart stopped, it took every last drop of his willpower and forcing himself not to hear the other's cry of shock as he told;

but Harry was one second faster and managed Protego before the bright flame went for his face. He felt as if a blunt knife knocked him off his feet and he was thrown across Neville's jerking legs, but his Shield Charm had fielded the worst effects.

Harry wanted to breathe easier, now that he knew the spell could be blocked by something like a shield charm he felt Hermione's chances for survival went up, though he kept brushing his fingers against his face where he was sure he'd just escaped death again.

Dolohov instead tried to summon the prophecy to him, but then Sirius was there, ramming his shoulder into the Death Eater and knocking him off even as he kept his own duel up.

Lily was fighting back so many impulses in these moments, to cling her child to her, both his infant self and the adult, she wanted them both under her arms where she could secure their future right now. To stop James from continuing while also taking that and finishing this herself. To send a stream of curses and constantly reminding herself it would do no good. Now she wanted Remus and Sirius right behind her! She didn't care how good a fighters they were, there was no telling what condition both were in, and neither would consider themselves when jumping in front of those spells for those kids.

Dolohov tried to turn on Sirius's now unprotected back, bringing his wand up for the slashing spell another time,

"He really needs to stop with that!" Sirius snarled in disgust, his not so subtle rumbling growls growing louder every second as he wanted to rip this one's whole arm off for continuously trying to use that on his loved ones, even if he had no regrets taking this instead of Harry.

Harry was still faster though, using Petrificus Totalus on him again, and again the man's limbs all snapped together and he fell to the floor at the same time Sirius finally took his own down with a stunner.

Sirius turned to Harry, sparing the moment to congratulate him before telling him to- they both ducked at a green light passing over Sirius's head.

James couldn't help snarling in outrage, that flash of green suddenly all he could see for a moment, the light in Lily's eyes fading, the same color to take away Sirius by a breath!

Across the room, Tonks was falling limply down the stone steps while Bellatrix was laughing triumphantly.

Harry made a ragged noise as yet more people went down around him, because of him, and he tried to cling even tighter to Sirius now, his grip turning bruising as he held onto his arm.

Sirius only gave him an absent pat, shifting his weight so restlessly Harry could hardly keep a grip on him even as he acted like his life depended on it.

Sirius told Harry to take the prophecy, grab Neville and run while darting forward to meet Bellatrix.

Remus closed his eyes tight, hating to hear the echo of James' final words to his wife in that moment as surely that was just a coincidence, everything was going to be fine! He quickly snapped them back open to focus on Sirius and James, his friends, nothing was going to happen to them now.

Harry didn't see what happened next as Kingsley darted in the way fighting Rookwood, so he turned back to Neville and ducked yet another green blast.

The only thing stopping Lily from vomiting at the image was that it hadn't connected, it never would again, because this time she hadn't been there to stop it, so Harry would be safe from this.

Had Neville though? The Order? It would be an honest miracle if everyone came out of this unscathed...

Harry asked if Neville could stand, but his uncontrollable legs wouldn't allow this, so Harry instead told Neville to put his arm around Harry.

Sirius dislodged Harry from him again by running his hands through his hair frantically, he couldn't believe no one had ever taught Harry 'Finite' or that he was forgetting about the spell right now!

Neville did so, but it did nothing to help them get back up the steps, while out of nowhere someone tackled Harry from behind and jabbed their wand into his back demanding the prophecy from him.

'He's not going to get hurt, nothing happened to him' James kept chanting in his head, the only mantra he could use to make words keep coming out.

Harry recognized Malfoy's voice, so chose to toss the prophecy to Neville instead who only just caught it. While he'd been distracted watching it's progress, Harry turned his wand over his shoulder and shouted Impedimenta, and Malfoy was off of him again. When he turned to see, Sirius and Bellatrix were now on top of the dais dueling.

That wasn't working so well whenever James had to flip focus to one of his friends. Sirius finally got so agitated he jumped to his feet, moving swiftly across the room as if he were in a duel now, his body finally unable to remain immobile while Harry did the opposite. Now that Sirius was out of reach, he froze over, as if he could no longer hear or feel anything around him, he couldn't understand why Sirius had left him right now...

Malfoy had recovered and turned his wand back on Harry, but Lupin jumped between them first.

James couldn't help a pitiful noise of relief for just a moment, Remus hadn't been mentioned since he'd come storming in and in the back of his mind where Sirius and Harry weren't struggling to fight he'd feared something had happened to Moony the moment he'd come in. How soon was it to a full moon, had one just ended? He had no answer for the state he was fighting in anymore than Sirius, but he tried to give his mind an instant of relief Remus may have darted off to check on the other kids before running into this fray.

He shouted over his shoulder for Harry to round up the others and go,

"They're clearly trying!" Lily told him in a 'you're not helping voice!'

Remus looked terrified for a new kind of reason, like Lily was going to curse him next if he didn't do something useful soon.

before engaging Malfoy in a duel, and Harry did try.

He stuffed the prophecy into Neville's robes so they'd both have their arms to try and heave up the steep steps, but they only made it up two with heaving effort when Neville's robes ripped, the little glass ball fell free, and smashed back down below.

James made such a powerful noise his throat actually hurt, but he still didn't stop. He'd care about that later, they'd find some other way to hear that thing, he had to keep his priority and hear of his son out of there first!

Even as they watched a spectral figure floated out, unrecognizable in its astral form, but amidst the curses around them, not a word was heard before it too dissolved.

Sirius stamped his foot so hard in frustration he worried for a moment it was going to sink right through the floor, but it didn't stop his movement. He was thinking the exact same as the others, they'd just have to hunt down this Seer who'd given the prophecy, Merlin he'd go and hunt down his Aunt Misapinoa, speak to anyone in his family again for even the inkling of a clue on where to hear this thing, but that was later. They'd worry about that when Harry was safe again.

Neville began apologizing, but Harry said it didn't matter how, they still had to-

Neville's face suddenly looked transported as he shouted over Harry's shoulder, Dubbledore.

"Oh!" James felt such a head rush he nearly fell over in surprise.

"Thank Merlin, or Dumbledore or-" Remus cut himself off with a near hysterical giggle, their shaking of fright from before now more relieved than anything, those Death Eaters stood no chance now! Here they'd all been worried Voldemort might pop back in any moment, now the opposite had happened!

Their sincerity of everything was going to be okay now was so much, none noticed Harry wasn't joining in. Sirius least of all as he was now jumping around with excitement more than anything he could haul Harry out of there and finally something could go right.

Harry asked what?

"Broken nose or not, there's not a lot of translations for that word," Lily said, still high off her relief that her voice came out as wobbly as if she'd really started crying that everything was going to be okay now.

He turned and saw Dumbledore standing in the doorway, an electric energy seemed to pulse around him, and Harry at once knew they were saved.

Harry didn't feel that now. He searched for it, in the recesses of his memories, but there was no trace of such a powerful feeling except the numbing cold that was sapping everything from him, all his mind could focus on was watching Sirius, moving around with such excitement he looked like he was going to start dancing in here like he had been in such a more deadly situation all those years ago.

With one wave of his wand he seemed to catch all the Death Eater's as if in a giant fishing net, drawing them all tightly yet invisibly bound together, the only two left still fighting were Sirius and Bellatrix up on the dais; Sirius was laughing at her.

"I'm going to kill Dumbledore," Lily said with indulgent exasperation. He should have grabbed Bellatrix first if his goal was simply to round up these Death Eater's, why let Sirius continue goofing off as he clearly was now when he was the one who needed to get out of there the most before anyone else showed up.

He taunted she could do better than that as he ducked a red blast of light.

"Taunts to your last breath, I swear," Remus huffed, scowling lightly at the book and him alternatively. He hadn't personally ever dueled Bellatrix, but she wasn't one to be trifled with no matter how good Sirius was, she'd proved that in the few seconds she'd been around Harry and his friends.

She responded by managing to hit him in the chest with her next, and the laughter hadn't quite died from his face as his eyes widened with shock.

Sirius' expression was mocking that in here, Remus noticed as his head whipped to him so fast there was an uncomfortable snapping noise. Sirius was covering his chest and looking genuinely offended he'd been struck while that pompous smile was still in place.

James only half glanced up at him, his throat still raw and sore from all this frustration he had not the heart for telling his brother what a cocky idiot he was for getting caught. It bothered him most of all Harry hadn't noted what color that flash of light was that hit him, but the first he'd dodged had simply been a stunner, so likely it was just that again.

Harry released Neville and ran forward, watching as it seemed to take Sirius ages to fall backwards through the veil.

James froze, the whole room went still as four pairs of eyes just watched this act take place. It was eerie, Sirius found himself thinking as he went rigid, that animation finally ceasing in him as James kept going with a heavy twitch that Sirius wanted to brush off but couldn't find the words for.

Sirius did not reappear.

James's voice was taking on a rather hard edge, his eyes flat with disbelief. Of course he hadn't, his mind reasoned, he was stunned when he fell into that, someone just had to pull him back out!

Harry shouted for Sirius as he ran for the steps, but then Lupin caught him, holding him back.

Sirius started shaking then, so powerfully his wand fell from his limp fingers and his whole body went an unnatural color from shock. He didn't like that reaction! Why would Remus stop Harry instead of helping him!?

No matter how hard Harry fought to get away, how loudly he shouted, Lupin didn't let go, telling Harry Sirius was gone.

As if in slow motion, Harry's life tumbled from his hands and was left upon the ground while James moved.

For just a second, Harry watched it in real time. Sirius' knees buckled, and he fell back, but in that moment, James was there, catching him before he hit the ground.

"No..."

HPHPHPHP

* Take that Snape! You weren't the first Death Eater to say that! ...I don't know why I cracked up laughing rereading the series and coming across this line, just thought I'd share the moment so you wouldn't hate me for one second.

** I know I'm calling for a bit of suspension of disbelief here with his Prophecy knowledge, which is rude of me considering I try to make sense of this story and now I'm doing the opposite, so putting this kind of information on Sirius is a bit of a long shot; but I can't help myself, I need some way to explain all this in fic, and Dumbledore does a meh job of it, and Sirius is the only one with any connections that could also claim to even just vaguely know about these things. Take heart I refused to do this for other things like the Horcruxes? Those'll be much more fun to watch them struggle along to understand, but the prophecies just tie back too well with the third book for me to pass up.

***I'll admit it here guys, the movie really had a much more bamf entrance for this. Sirius punching Lucius in the face really is an iconic moment.

#The LIfe that Never LIved #Harry Potter #fanfiction #reading the books #OotP #Marauders #Sirius black #James Potter #Remus lupin #Lily Potter #jilly

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tfw-no-tennis · 3 years ago

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ani....morphs.....

ok so picking up after the david trilogy, which hit hard as FUCK, we have book 23, which basically was a semi truck that ran over my corpse, jesus christ, they really followed up the david trilogy w/all that....

23 was so so good and also painful. its the culmination of a lot of tobias’s characterization in the series thus far and also we finally get the reveal we’ve been waiting for about elfangor....ooooh man

and there was a lot of painful stuff in this book but the worst imo was tobias wondering if it were possible that somebody wanted him and would take care of him, only to have it all come crashing down in the worst way when it turned out aria was visser three in morph, ouch.

that was so brutal augh. and when he figured it out and just crash landed and kept thinking about how he wanted to die and how he was stupid to think he could have a home...bro get these kids some THERAPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so yeah that book was absolutely brutal but also so good...and it further fleshed out the animorphs working as a near-flawless team, w/the whole setup of tobias meeting w/the lawyer being so airtight and well-planned

also more free hork bajir!! its cool that there's stuff happening w/them offscreen, I like that

I literally had to take a break from reading the books bc the david triology + 23 was like so much, and also bc the olympics were on and all my time got dedicated to watching those, but then I opened 24, not sure what to expect, and BAM it was the helmacrons lmaoooo

I don't even remember the helmacrons but ig a lot of people hate them? lmao so that whole reputation preceded the book and I was like oh wow time for a change in tone

which wasn't wrong but also I liked that book?? I was never bored, even tho the whole thing was patently ridiculous and also had very little bearing on the overarching story

but I think it would be a standout if it were a TV episode w/a good budget - the visuals were amazing even in text, and I can imagine all the cool shrinking/growing/cellular stuff would be WICKED cool visually (ideally 2d animation but an ant man-esque live action adaptation wouldn't be terrible if they had the budget for it)

whatever let me dream. so yeah I didn't hate the helmacron book even tho the helmacrons themselves were...sure something. lmao I think they come back? that should be interesting

next book is the arctic one, we have yet another alien of the week style adventure - I liked this one too, it felt like more plot-y stuff happened since they destroyed the base, and marco’s POV is always fun

I do find it funny/interesting how sometimes when the animorphs do something - like in this book, destroying that base in the arctic - it doesn't really seem to impact the yeerks much/it doesn't get brought up much after that. and then other things like them destroying the ground-based kandrona get mentioned a lot (that example is understandable tho bc that WAS a big deal). its just hilarious to me how blowing up entire building complexes has become so routine that it isn’t even worth mentioning at this point

Also I adore when they meet other random people/kids and are chill w/them, like w/that kid they met in the rain forest earlier on w/the time travel

the descriptions of the brutally cold weather were great. I hate the cold so I was like oof this is a nightmare lmao

also ig that was the first ghostwritten book and I did kinda notice it was slightly different than usual? maybe? I could be imagining it tho

okay but book 26 tho...BOOK 26. bruh

that was SO good and I really didn’t know what to expect - but when we finally revisited Jake’s dream w/crayak I knew it was gonna be good (but I didn’t expect it to be a chess game war epic..!)

basically I loved it. SUCH a good Jake book - I really appreciate his character now as opposed to when I was 10 and often overlooked him (sorry jake).

similarly, when I was a kid and read these I sympathized a lot w/the chee and felt bad for them towards the end of the series when they had to get more involved in the war (genuinely don’t remember what they even do but ik I felt bad)

but now I've basically 180′d and I'm like damn those chee sure are hypocrites huh.

like they could solve So many of the animorphs problems but their stringent adherence to nonviolence leads to them actively getting in the animorphs way sometimes? and obviously pacifism is a complicated topic, but in this case it also intersect w/the whole ‘child soldier’ thing, and as beings who are insanely old and wise, the chee probably shouldn't just leave all the dirty work to a bunch of literal middle schoolers

aaaaanyways. there’s so much I love about this book. the iskoort! they were sure something. and the ‘plot twist’ that they are actually 2 beings, the Isk and the Yoort - and the Yoort are essentially Yeerks - that slapped. the symbiosis of it all!

I loved the part where they all realize what this means, that this is why Crayak wants the iskoort destoryed - because someday the yeerks might come across them and realize parasitism is not the only way. I love it!

alas I don’t recall the iskoort returning in the story (but also my memory is terrible so who knows?) but still that would be cool

basically I feel like this is the book where Jake Truly comes into his own as a leader, in every sense. he outmaneuvers Crayak, and even the ellimist, who’s yanking them around in his own way

the scene where jake shoves the howler off the cliff and jumps off and morphs and acquires the howler...that was fantastic and tense.

also the murder is definitely becoming more overt. I mean, it has been for a while, but it isn’t really pointed out as much anymore. oof

more on the chee - as Jake points out in this book, and other characters point out in other books - the chee could have saved the pemalites, but instead just stood by while their creators were slaughtered. on the other hand, jake says, what do the chee do AFTER they’ve killed the howlers - where to point them next? when is the end of their violence?

buuuuut also standing by while atrocities occur is pretty damning, as is frequently mentioned in this series - from the very beginning, when marco initially doesn’t want to get involved in the war at all, and the other animorphs basically tell him that turning his back on the war and acting like he doesn’t even know it’s happening would be immoral and cowardly (which imo this reaction helps to push marco in the direction he ends up going, but I digress) - this topic comes up again in 19 when cassie quits the team and rachel is upset bc she sees it as cassie elevating her own feelings above the greater good (as in, as long as cassie feels good about how she acts, it doesn’t matter how much preventable evil the yeerks are committing while she turns away). etc etc. but that’s essentially what’s happening w/the chee - even tho they help w/intel, the lack of any sort of Action on their part means that they’re essentially allowing awful things to happen when they could prevent them. this is rambly but basically...animorphs deals so much in grey areas, and the chee are noticeably black and white in their actions, despite falling, in a meta sense, in an extremely grey area. its such good, thought provoking writing!

anywayssss I keep talking about the chee lmao what else was there. oh YEAH jake and cassie kissed for the first time awww that was super cute

and ofc immediately marco teases them as asks jake if he’s gonna kiss him next, and all I can say is...marco is a bicon

also I love the background worldbuilding w/the iskoort, how they have all these groups and guilds and stuff - its not dwelled on much, which actually works really well to give the world/species a sense of lived-in realness

okay oh man and the reveal at the end that the howlers were just like...children who thought the whole thing was a game...AUGHH man that’s sooo fucked

like, when jake morphs the howler and has rachel ready to knock him down in grizzly morph if he gets out of control due to the howler’s murderous instincts, and he morphs to find that the howler is...playful, like a dolphin morph. SUCH a good fucked up sense of dawning horror there

and the fact that as far as I can tell the chee KNEW this, but wanted revenge anyways, so they let the animorphs assume that the howlers were Evil On Purpose

also I love smaller moments, like jake seeing that ax is ashamed for briefly running away during one battle w/the howlers, and then entrusts him w/an important task bc he knows that ax will see that as redemption - and when everyone thought jake was dead and were so happy when he wasn't (they all love each other so much im gonna cry about these child soldiers augh)

basically that book was so good

man one thing I absolutely love is that the longer the series goes on the more obvious it is that andalites, despite inventing morphing technology, barely use it themselves

like, most of the andalite characters we see barely morph. its kind of a last resort to them, as they’re already plenty dangerous in their regular forms

meanwhile for the animorphs, that’s all they have to fight with. that’s their only weapons against the yeerks, and its so fun to see them use the power in so many varied ways, and so creatively, while the andalites have barely scratched the surface of their own technology

its also interesting to contrast against the yeerks who start out w/absolutely no technology, and the andalites share some but not all of their technology w/them...its too bad that morphing technology was just starting out cause that would’ve been interesting

like imo a lot of the conflict w/the yeerks could’ve been avoided if they could just nothlit into better forms - of course, there’d still be plenty of yeerks who want to go start wars or w/e, just like pretty much any species in the series, but a lot of yeerks would probably be like ‘yeah I'm good’ and just chill out as nothlits

also people online love to talk about how humans are alienfuckers and would definitely have sex w/sentient aliens and whatnot, and while I'm not saying that's untrue, its just funny bc in animorphs the truest alienfuckers are definitely the andalites

as of the hork-bajir chronicles, we now have a second instance of an andalite morphing another species to be in an inter-species alien romance (and eventually have kids)

speaking of, I don’t think I’ve talked abt the hork bajir chronicles yet??? even tho I read it a while ago lmao

HBC was great...I honestly haven’t really run into an animorphs book I’ve actually disliked at this point, I’m sure it’ll come w/all the ghostwriting and whatnot, but I’ve liked at least some aspects of every book

anyways HBC was great, and it’s funny bc I remember that I read this book as a kid, and yet rereading it now I didn’t remember a single bit of it lmaooo

I really liked the framing device of the free hork bajir telling this story to tobias. I also liked how we know from the beginning that this story wont have a happy ending - we know all the hork bajir end up enslaved by the yeerks, but it’s still somehow hopeful at the end? I think this is largely due to the framing device tbh.

also I love toby, and I love that the First free hork bajir named their kid after tobias ;_;

and oooh mannn I LOVED the different POVs from this book. all the characters were so interesting! aldrea was fascinating - I really like the increasingly negative view of the andalites that the readers are getting, all while maintaining the sense that they aren’t like, actively evil, just that they have their issues - like aldrea’s arrogance, and the general andalite arrogance which lead to the loss of the hork bajir. also, who knew andalites had their own brand of sexism? Ls

I did like getting a female andalite tho, that was cool. and dak was really cool, he was such a good, compassionate character who was able to maintain his morals in an interesting way throughout the story

and VISSER THREE...or should I say esplin 9466, because he’s not visser 3 yet...getting his ‘origin story’ was excellent - I really like how we’re learning about visser 3 backwards - we start off the series w/him as the main villain, and he’s campy and menacing, and then we see him in the andalite chronicles as a power-hungry sub-visser trying to climb the ranks and eventually getting alloran as a host, and then back even further here, w/the start of his focus on the andalites and the beginning of his ambition. its been very cool and interesting to see

plus, the beginning of the yeerks as we know them! seerow! alloran! it’s a party and nobody is having a good time, except for some of the yeerks.

I like how it’s pretty obvious that the andalites are well-meaning with their interactions w/the yeerks, but go about it the wrong way - they give them enough technology that the yeerks realize there’s a whole world out there to experience, and then they blockade the yeerks on their planet and tell them they can’t leave. nnnnot the best approach imo

again, as I said above, I’m interested in how things could’ve gone if the andalites had given the yeerks morphing technology early on - could a lot of the conflict have been avoided, or would it have been worse? the yeerks seem pretty evil in this book, immediately jumping to enslave anyone they can. otoh we hear from esplin that not all yeerks like having host bodies, and find it overwhelming, preferring to swim around in the yeerk pool as a slug - I assume as host bodies became more available this type of thinking was probably stamped out in yeerk society or w/e, but there are a lot of interesting what-ifs in the situation

I loved the scene where esplin first experiences having a host, and immediately knows he can’t go back. there are a bunch of great sensory descriptions, and it’s a nice scene to pinpoint as a foundational moment for the visser three in the current story, who spent a lot of time and energy getting what he sees as the best possible host body, an andalite

I find it interesting how much visser three clearly respects the andalites, even while constantly deriding them. and you can see the origins of that here as he immediately focuses in on the andalites, working to become an expert on them in order to make himself useful enough to move thru the ranks

another thing I like is how esplin seems a lot more crafty and ambitious than the visser three from modern times - I would guess that reaching his goal (andalite host body) and being given all that power was detrimental, playing on his weaknesses instead of his strengths. basically, I don’t think it’s ooc or anything, I can see how HBC-esplin became animorphs-esplin, especially w/TAC in between

as for seerow...poor dude. you really do have to feel for him, because you get the sense he really did just want to be kind to the yeerks, but it was borne from a place of pity, and he (and the other andalites) consistently held too much power over the yeerks for the species relations to ever be truly equal and functional

AUGH I have so many thoughts about alien space politics. omg. I need to talk about the actual story lmao

so yeah I also feel for aldrea, she had a rough time, watching her entire family die and being thrown into a hopeless war

and then the andalite council or w/e not listening to her bc she's a girl AND seerow’s daughter...oof

also, I really really liked the running theme of the andalites - specifically aldrea - looking down on the hork bajir as ‘simple’ and constantly underestimating them, especially dak

and I like how this is portrayed as a bad attitude for aldrea to have, and she still remains and interesting and sympathetic character even while having obvious flaws. it’s about being 3-dimensional baby!

and oh man I love that dak realizes that aldrea looks down on him, and his entire species, but he can see that that’s how the andalites are, and it all connects back to the beginning of the story w/the yeerks, bc the andalites looked down on the yeerks and treated them with pity and kept them pinned under their proverbial thumb ‘for their own good’ and look how that turned out

but dak is wise and kind enough to not hate aldrea for this, even acknowledging when she’s using him, but not pushing her away because he recognizes good in her too - and she ends up changing, partially because of his faith in her

and I feel like it can all be compared to that scenario of like - a hypothetical creature that lives in a 2D world suddenly being thrust into a 3D world, and comprehending what its seeing, and understanding that there’s so much more out there outside of the flat lines of its world - and then its dropped back into 2D-land with the knowledge of all the stuff its missing out on, and no way to get back to it or explain it to anybody else

I loooove that ‘trope’ or w/e you wanna call it, and it’s done beautifully here w/the yeerks - whos the say they wouldn't have been fine in their pool swimming around; as esplin said, a lot of the yeerks were terrified of having a host, it was only from the andalites’ perspective that their lives were sad and pitiful, and the andalites showed them what the world could be like, and then said ‘no, you can’t travel the stars like we do, you have to stay here on your planet and do what we say.’

and then again, w/the hork bajir - dak talks about how, even though he drinks up the knowledge that aldrea gives him, in the end it might have been better to just have lived peacefully, not knowing what was in the sky or the Deep - as aldrea says: “It was too late for Dak: he knew that the stars were not flowers.”

plus the hork bajir having to go from a completely peaceful species who don’t even understand the concept of violence, to a bunch of soldiers fighting a war...oof

basically everyone in this story uses the hork bajir. the yeerks use them as hosts, the andalites use their planet as a convenient place to dump seerow and then take their sweet time coming to help, and the arn created them as means to stabilize the planet, but block them off from their society and refuse to help when the yeerks come

like, the arn modifying themselves to be un-infestable by the yeerks and then being enslaved for physical labor instead? oof guys. if they had teamed up w/the hork bajir resistance things might have gone better, but probably not

more on aldrea - throughout the story I was always thinking ‘how am I supposed to see her? as a good person, or as a bad person?’

as a POV character, especially a ‘good guy’ andalite, you just start off automatically thinking of her as a good person, but as the story goes on, she starts getting lost in revenge and begins using dak and the hork bajir, and you’re left wondering if this is a story about her slide into darkness, and then towards the end of the story her character development culminates in her making the decision to stay w/the hork bajir, and the be with dak, and that’s about when I went ‘ohhh right this is animorphs so every character is pretty much gonna be grey’

I feel like that moral grey-ness was on full display w/aldrea, and I really enjoyed that. I love so much when characters who are good do bad things, for good or bad reasons, especially in media like animorphs that’s aimed at kids. it’s so compelling.

oof, and the ending when aldrea convinces dak to mobilize the hork bajir and teach them violence...and dak asks her if she’s ever killed another andalite, and she’s horrified, and says of course she hasn’t, and he says that that’s what she’s asking him, and all the hork bajir, to do - to kill their own people, even if they are being controlled by the yeerks. biiiig oof. I love that dak can keep up w/aldrea and her andalite supremacy attitude - it seems that the non-andalite characters who get along best w/the andalites are the ones who wont take their bs

what else happened....oh my god how could I forget about alloran, and his quantum virus. oooof. I like how we find out about alloran in parallel to visser three, in the same backwards way - in animorphs he’s the tragic host of visser three, in TAC he’s the disgraced but still semi-respected war-prince who becomes the first ever andalite controller, and here he’s the guy who decides to commit some war crimes because, hey, we haven’t tried that yet

but yeah that was fucked up, I love it. I’ve said it before I think but I like that alloran isn’t some perfect martyr tragically taken by the yeerks - it’s a lot more compelling that he’s a very flawed person who was taken as a controller partially due to his own bloodthirstiness.

but yeah, the part where aldrea morphs alloran and ‘sneaks’ into that room was great. aldrea’s dedication to disposing of the virus is a great indicator of her character development - it really feels like the straw that broke the camels back w/re: to the andalites not being what she thought they were, w/their tardiness coming to help the hork bajir planet and the way her father was treated being the precursors to this realization. it all culminates nicely in aldrea saying ‘fuck this actually’ and nothlit-ing into a hork bajir.

and it’s really tragic but realistic that even though aldrea and dak end up seeing eye to eye at the end and getting together, the virus ends up being released anyways (and fails in its objective to stop the yeerks from using the hork bajir - the whole thing was p much a lose-lose situation oof), and aldrea and dak still die fighting a hopeless war

but then we have the free hork bajir on earth, including toby, who, like tobias, has andalite ancestry, but no DNA to show for it - I like that they have that connection as well as tobias being her namesake

so yeah I enjoyed that one and its many-layered themes

WOW this got long uuuuuhhh ok I think i’ll leave this one off here. at the time I’m actually finishing the writing and editing, I’m on book 35 lol so I have some backlogging to do. never fear, I have a lot to say....

#lj reads animorphs #animorphs

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queenof-literature · 5 years ago

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I know that you just posted your Rito story and I loved. I can't wait for more! I noticed it mentioned Wild blushing when asked to sing one of Kass's song. I am pretty sure it's Kass's final song, and thought it would be cute if one of the other Links hears Wild singing under his breath (maybe while cooking) and the story and song get dragged out of him.

Hi! Thank you so much! I wasn't quite sure what you meant by song and story, but I used Kass' final song with the story of Wild's death and the story with Kass' teacher, so it got a little angsty. I hope that all is okay. If not, please let me know and I wil l write a different one! Thank you for the request!

It had been a rough day. The group had landed in Hyrule’s land, and had instantly been attacked by groups of monsters with insane amounts of bloodlust. Luckily, there weren’t any injuries that couldn’t be fixed with a potion or two. Some scrapes here, some sprained ankles there, physically they were fine. But they were absolutely exhausted.

Wild was making a hearty stew for his friends before they turned in early that night. Four was leaning against a tree, book in hand. Warriors and Legend were playing a weird card game that involved slapping each other’s hands as hard as possible while Wind and Hyrule watched and made fun of them both. Time and Twilight were chatting and laughing softly, while Sky was already dozing off on a tree near Four’s. Overall, it was a tired peace that made Wild’s heart swell.

He never really got this peace before he met the other heroes. It was always sleeping in trees away from monsters, or riding through the night to discover new shrines, or pushing forward to save Zelda and other villages infected by the Calamity. This was peaceful, something that Wild wasn’t used to, but didn’t really hate like he thought he would when he first met them.

“For fierce and deadly trials await. To regain his strength. Fulfill his fate.” Wild didn’t really notice when he began to sing softly as he was stirring his stew. He also didn’t notice the rest of camp slowly getting quiet, or Four elbowing Sky in the ribs. His eyes had grown distant as he continued to sing softly. “To become a hero once again. To wrest the princess from her den.” The rest of the Links looked at each other silently. Wild had a pretty voice from what they could hear. Pretty in a way that it was unique, and rough from lack of use, but also soft and comforting. He almost looks like he doesn’t notice what he’s doing. Should they tell him?

“The hero, the princess-hand in hand-Must bring the light back to this land.” Wild finished just as soft as he began, like he had sung the song millions of times before. But he realized he felt eyes on him. He looked up to see the entire camp staring at him, even Sky, all with confusion and a bit of awe. Oh dear Hylia. Wild yanked his hood up to find his bright red face as he realized what he had done. ‘I am so sorry.’ Wild signed ‘Sometimes I do that without noticing. I didn’t mean to interrupt you all I promise. I’ll stop. Just let me know when I do it in the future, sorry I just didn’t notice-’ Twilight and the rest of the boys had gathered around Wild, but still gave him space. Twilight gently put his hands over Wild’s. He didn’t like doing that if he didn’t have to, Wild sometimes expressed himself only through sign and he never wanted to get in the way of that. But if he let Wild continue too far, he would spiral into a dark place where it was harder to pull him from. All of the Heroes of Courage had that issue. Sometimes it was better to stop the train of loathing and questioning before it got too far off the track.

“Don’t apologize about what you do while you make us dinner, Cub” Twilight teased gently, taking his hands off of Wild’s. “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about, we all got our habits. Besides, ya got a pretty singin’ voice.” Twilight smiled, while Wild simply flushed further into his hood, at this point his face was the most red thing Twilight had ever seen.

“Yeah Wild! I knew you would have a pretty voice!” Wind exclaimed. The group couldn’t see Wild’s eyes at all, but they could see his lips twitch upwards slightly at the younger’s enthusiasm.

“Ummm… thank you.” Wild said softly, still not coming out of his hood.

“Can you sing us the whole song? If you’re comfortable of course.” Wind asked hesitantly. He wanted to hear the rest of Wild’s song, but he didn’t want Wild to feel forced into anything. The group looked at Wind in slight shock. They hadn’t expected anyone to ask the blatant question no one else wanted to ask, but Wind was good at that. The shy boy somehow managed to get even more flustered, his face so red he looked like he was about to explode.

“W-well.” Wild was slightly stuttering again, not that the group minded. It wasn’t just nerves, Wild couldn’t talk very well when the group first found him, so he mostly signed like he did to others in his Hyrule that needed help. Through sign, they discovered that he was actually very witty and fun, but it turns out not using your voice for more than a hundred years and having rough scars around your neck made it a little hard to talk.

“My voice isn’t very good, maybe Kass could sing it to you? It’s better with the accordion anyway.” Wild said nervously.

“Your voice is very good Wild!” Sky urged.

“If you’re okay with singing it we don’t need the music Wild.” Time stated. “But no one's forcing ya. We would love to hear it, but only if ya want to sing it.” Wild pondered these words. Ever since he started talking verbally again, he tried to push himself out of his silent shell with help from the other heroes. Maybe singing was the next step?

Once again, Wild felt weak. He could take down entire camps of monsters, defeat Calamity, and kill Guardians with a single ancient arrow to the eye, but he couldn’t talk to people properly. He had relayed those thoughts to Twilight before, how useless he felt sometimes that he could be strong except in the face of normal, everyday people. Twilight had told him that it was perfectly okay, and that everyone had their struggles and fears, but Wild still felt stupid sometimes.

“I guess… If you really wanna hear it…” Wild emerged from his hood slightly. Maybe it would prove he wasn't as weak as he thought? Wind cheered and put his head in his hands, waiting. The rest of the group smiled, and Twilight patted his arm for encouragement.

“An ancient hero. A calamity appears. Now resurrected after 10,000 years”

The other heroes are surprised when Wild starts singing. It’s still soft, and it’s still rough, but Wind is right. Wild’s voice has a nice comfort in it.

“Her appointed knight, gives his life. Shields her figure and pays the price.”

Wait, what? Wild’s death is part of the song? And the words, shielding her figure, did Wild take every Guardian laser for Zelda? How did he make it to the Shrine of Resurrection? Oh Wild…

“The princess’ love for her fallen knight, awakens her power and calamity cowers. But the knight survives in the Shrine of Resurrection. He sleeps. Until from his healing dream he leaps.”

Anger fills the group at this. It was known that Wild was in the Shrine? Why did no one check on him? Why did no one keep guard so he wouldn’t be alone and scared when he woke up? Sure it was 100 years, but did no one get suspicious? Especially with elders who saw the fall of Hyrule!

“For fierce and deadly trials await, to regain his strength, fulfill his fate. To become a hero once again. To wrest the princess from Evil's den.” Wild finishes his song while looking around the camp with nervous eyes. Some of the boys looked troubled. Was he really that bad? At Wild’s nervous look, most of the boys snapped out of their stupur and began applauding, Warriors whistling at an ear piercing volume while the others whooped and hollered. Wild, who had kept his hood on to feel a small amount of security at revealing his voice in such a vulnerable way, hid within it once again, except it was a different embarrassment this time, he was relieved he had done it and gotten through it. But the group could see a smile threatening to break out. It was a sweet sight.

‘Thank you’ Wild signed with fingers trembling from the adrenaline of singing in front of all eight heroes.

“No problem, Buddy.” Twilight clapped his back.

“Yeah Wild! Thanks for trusting us enough to sing that song!” Hyrule smiled across the campfire. A smile that Wild returned instantly. Hyrule and Wild related to each other in this way. They spent so much time away from civilization and traveling the woods, it was sometimes scary to go back. All of the boys were smiling at him, except for Time. He looked solemn and serious.

“You okay, Old Man?” Four questioned. Time turned to Wild, look serious. Wild hadn’t been this intimidated by Time since he had first met the man.

“Wild… how many times did those things’ lasers hit you?” Time said the word ‘things’ with such malice the entire group got chills.

“Time.” Twilight whispered urgently. Wild didn’t like to talk about his death one hundred years ago.

“It says you shielded the princess. How. Many. Times?” Time asked coolly. On the inside he was livid. He was trying so hard not to take it out on Twilight’s protege, because it wasn’t his fault. None of it was, no matter how much he blamed himself, Wild was sent into the situation to die. He took blast after blast with his own body, and he still didn’t make it to Ganon. His friends all died except Zelda who he shielded with his own body.

“U-um. I don’t remember. I-I guess. Maybe five? Six? I-I’m sorry Time. I-I don’t remember.” Twilight put a hand on Wild’s shoulder when the boy’s breath hitched slightly, jolting Time out of his external anger. The rest of the camp were looking at him in confusion, or in some cases, (Legend), anger.

“I’m sorry Wild I didn't mean to spring that upon you. I was just mad. Not at you.” Time rished the last part in when he saw Wild open his mouth to apologize again. “I was mad at your situation. Wild… you didn’t deserve that. No one would ever deserve that but Hylia, not you kid.” Wild tilted his head in confusion. It would have been slightly cute if the next words hadn’t come out of his mouth.

“But I failed.” Wild said like it was the most natural thing on the planet. There was an uncomfortable silence in the group, then a descent into chaos.

“Failed?”

"Wild, no!”

“How the fuck was Calamity’s shit actions your fault? He’s the fucking monster that fucked up Hyrule!”

“Dear Hylia, Wind. Language. He’s right though Wild, it was Ganon’s fault.”

“Wild it wasn’t your fault, it was Ganon’s.”

Wild appreciated the support, but all their voices began blurring together. Tears pricked at his eyes, Twilight’s hand on his shoulder burned hotter than a Guardians laser. It all became too much too fast.

“It was my fault!” Wild yelled. That halted the group in their tracks. Wild yelled sure. When he was in his environment he would yell while shield surfing, or talking about a crazy plan he had, but this was in anger and despair. Wild harshly brushed Twilight’s hand off, trying to ignore the slight hurt in his eyes.

“I doomed Hyrule! By the time Zelda unlocked her power I had collapsed. My body quit on me! I quit on all of Hyrule! The other champions died! Why am I the only one left? Kass told me the story of his teacher! He was Zelda’s age and he fell in love with her, but she loved me! I don’t even know if I loved her back! She doesn’t deserve what she was put through! No one does! I did that to them, that was all me! I failed! I got hit with laser after laser after laser but I had to keep going! But I couldn’t, I didn’t even make it the castle! Kass’ teacher was mad I wasn’t a noble or royalty, and he was right! Zelda deserved better! She and I are the only ones left! All the other champions died because of me! Why am I the only one? Why am I still here? Why am I-” Wild choked on his last words on a sob. His entire rant, tears began to cascade down his face as the group looked on in horror.

Wild couldn’t hold it in anymore. He cried and he grieved and he yelled. Wild didn’t feel the white and burning rage anymore, he just felt the despair and sorrow he had been keeping in for years, only releasing a couple of times in small doses. When Twilight reached out to gently touch his hand, it didn’t feel like lava from Death Mountain anymore, it felt warm and loving and Wild simply leaned into it, silently telling Twilight it was okay.

“Oh, Cub.” Twilight murmured before pulling Wild to his chest. Wild curled up in his mentor's arms and allowed himself to sob over all the losses he had felt. His sobs grew harder and he felt like a child, but he couldn’t help it. He couldn’t breath, his sobs overlapping and clogging his lungs. One of his hands was pulled away from where it was curled into Twilight’s tunic and he whined.

“Just me kiddo. You gotta breathe with me.” His hand was led to a different chest. Legend, Wild recognized in the back of his mind. Legend exaggerated his breaths for Wild to copy. The first time he tried, he simply choked more and shook his head. “That’s alright, you can do it. Another try.” Legend said gently. Wild would be laughing in a different situation. The word gentle and Legend wouldn’t be put together when he had first met the snarky hero. Wild tried again with a little more success. Legend kept helping him as another hand went through his hair. Four.

“I’m so sorry, Wild.” Wind said from across camp. The younger felt guilty that he had started this when asking if Wild could sing. Wild wanted to reassure that this wasn’t his fault at all, that this had just been building, but he couldn’t talk. Luckily, Warriors and Hyrule were there to cover for him, talking quietly to Wind on the other side of camp. Wind shook it off though, Wild needed them more.

Wild had calmed down slightly. Still crying, and still curled up in Twilight's arms and getting help from Four and Legend. But once he was sure he could hear him, Time spoke up.

“Wild, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to grill you that hard. That was my mistake.” Wild opened his mouth to tell him that it was okay, he knew Time had no malintent, but Time continued on. “Wild. I need you to understand something. What happened wasn’t your fault.” Wild opened his mouth to correct Time, but Time was having none of it. “No, it wasn’t your fault Wild. I’m not saying that to comfort you or baby you. What you were sent into was an execution Wild.” Twilight's wolf instincts got loud in his head and he almost snapped at Time for being so harsh but stopped himself. He remembered Time told him once after he took Wild under his wing, that mentoring wasn’t just about kind words and support. It was also about knowing when to state hard facts. Sometimes that’s all people understood.

“No one knew what Ganon had planned, and you had no time to prepare because of the mistakes of those before you. You had nothing to do with their ignorance, Wild.” Time’s face was set in stone, but his eyes showed a fiery passion for every word he was saying. “Wild. Look at me please, bud.” Wild peeked out from Twilight’s shoulder and looked into Time’s eyes, which softened as he met the younger hero’s sky blue eyes. “It wasn’t your fault, because you couldn’t control anything around you. You are not a God. You have the limitations of a Hylian that you already find ways to exceed. Wild, you were so brave. You took hit after hit to protect Zelda. And her powers awakened right before you collapsed. Do you blame her for not unlocking them sooner.” Instantly Wild’s eyes became hard, and he opened his mouth to bite into Time, who could see where this was leading just by the expression on Wild’s face. He held up a hand. “I’m not saying you should. I’m saying that she also had limitations that were out of her control, just like you. If you don’t blame Zelda, why do you blame yourself?” That one stumped Wild a bit. He wanted to say because Zelda was born into a family she never asked to be in, and worked hard everyday to fulfill their expectations… but he was in the same situation. Did Zelda feel the same way he did when he sorrowfully watched her blame herself? Time saw he struck a chord.

“I understand feeling like a failure. I lost battles too. But you did what you could do with what very little of the situation you could control. You said it yourself, you took laser after laser for her, and you only collapsed after you were sure she was safe. The safety of others is the only thing that kept you going, Wild. I’m not saying I approve of you taking lasers for others, but do you realize how much of a hero you are?” Tears flowed from Wild’s eyes once again, but for another reason entirely. Time really cared. He really thought Wild was a hero, even after he heard the song, the stories, the death. He heard it all, and the Hero of Time still thought Wild belonged with them. Wild whispered a quick thank you, and the rest of the group sighed in relief. Wild’s sobs had turned to hiccups as the rest of the group told him similar things to Time. It didn’t feel suffocating this time, it just felt like his eight brothers were trying to comfort him. Wild felt a weight lifted off his shoulders he had felt for so long. Time knew Wild would still struggle with his feelings of failure, one night wouldn’t change that, but he hoped he got through to Wild for the long run, at least a little.

Wild realized how absolutely exhausted he was before this whole ordeal even started, which only increased tenfold now that he had cried. He was embarrassed that he had lost his shit that much in front of all eight heroes, and realized with a jolt how exhausted they had been too.

“Um. I’m sorry, I know you all were really tired. I didn’t mean to have this happen-” He was cut off with a flick to his unscarred ear by Legend and a small yank on his ear by Four while Wild yelped.

“What did we just talk about you idiot?” Legend hissed, but it lacked the usual bite he had.

“Yeah Wild! Don’t be sorry. Everyone needs a good cry once in a while! It’s healthy! I’m a medical professional, you have to listen to me.” Hyrule added with a joking glare. Some snickers rang through the group at Hyrule’s proclamation. Time looked over and smiled in pride at Wild, which Wild returned with red dusting on his cheeks. Hearing all his brothers laughing and fighting, and feeling the comforting arms around him, Wild slowly dozed off into a deep sleep, feeling lighter than he had in years.

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childofhelios · 4 years ago

Text

NCT AS DIMENSION 20

okay so firstly, this is very niche but its been on my mind for literally ages now. im mostly gonna be focusing on fantasy high characters because that’s the one im most familiar with(d20 release free episodes of crown of candy already ;-; ya girl is suffering) i think i might write a fic or a couple more posts based off this concept but im not sure yet lvfksdvsk let’s get startedddddddd:

so i believe that 2000 line would be the most accurate for fantasy high main characters. i WAS gonna have dream at first but there are 7 members and there are only 6 mcs. so 2000 liners are pretty much perfect for this.

okay idk if it’s me or renjun gives off the extremely polite vibes at first? like thinking of early dream era where he seemed really quiet and chill. buuuuut then i also flashback to him putting chenle in a chokehold in like mfal era which makes me think of the cafeteria scene. i dont think renjun is as anxious as adaine. hes def more confident and more forceful but i think he has that ethereal factor adaine has. renjun would absolutely be a high elf because he would be NOTHING less and he deserves it. i think wizard class fits him really well! also his tiny little elf ear may have convinced me to make him adaine....

so jeno is literally the most like gorgug and it makes me wanna cry kjfnvlsdkl they’re both such loveable sweethearts that are too good for this world but then sometimes???? they just get super intense and fucking insane and it scares me sometimes holy shit. gorgug deals massive damage in battle and can fucking wreck people and jeno,,,,,,lets not talk about it. ALSO i do think jeno would absolutely act like gorgug does with zelda(probably more likely when he was gorgug’s age but oh well) gorgug can be very ditzy(himboish if that’s a better word) but he gives really good advice.and i feel like even though jeno is so foolish, he is supportive and is a wonderful friend. i just fucking love them so much

HAECAHN IS LITERALLY FIG I FUCKING SHIT YOU NOT: in this essay i will explain why lee haechan is actually fig in disguise. not ONLY does he give a lot of affection/flirt with basically everyone, he’s literally the perfect definition o f bard. like come onnnnnnn. also he’s VERY mischievous and gets the gang into 90% of the trouble and somehow gets them out of it. the “makes problems on purpose but solves them by accident” type. it’s not just because i wanna see him play a bass and jeno on drums bc that would be sexy of them noooooo absolutely not. if you ever see haechan in an outfit similar to fig’s, just know i’ll be literally laying in a grave just know this. STYLISTS PUT THIS MAN IN FISHNETS IMMEDIATELY FOR SCIENCE PURPOSES. bitches be emotional and then say theyre closed off,,,,, literally haechan at both the last dream show with mark and the dream show before they would have graduated

HES A JOCK DWEEB DO I NEED TO GO FURTHER?? okay so i know that jaemin is pretty introverted and quiet at times bc he likes to chill and im the same way, but when he’s out of his shell or with people who share his energy HES LEGIT LIKE FABIAN. my man’s was a SPEED SKATER, which is so fucking surprising but not the point. im saying that he’s also pretty lean and quick when he wants to be and that makes him good for the type of fighter fabian is. not to mention the weird relationship both fabian and gorgug have and also jaemin and jeno’s relationship. a l s o fabian straight up punched gorgug and then started becoming his friend after being spending time in detention and stuff. jeno and jaemin legit joined at the same time and were seatmates in school and stuff like that.... but this aint about those two. also jaemin’s intonation is fucking funny sometimes but other times i AM willing to fight him bc he wont talk normally (this is a joke vksjdkjs) but the same goes for fabian. the confidence they both have is literally unmatched, its actually kinda scary

first of all look at how spiffy they look, its actually adorable. second, look at my gremlin childrennnnnnnn i love themmmm(yes i know riz is a goblin no i dont care) okay shotaro is literally a child and he’s kinda still new so he’s a bit shy. but he ACTUALLY terrifies me with how talented he is. like in the recent relay when he learned the dance in like an hour. my guy is so quick at picking things up, he’s the perfect riz. also his korean has gotten so good in just like 3 and a half months so that just showssssss how hardworking he is. i dont know, i feel like shotaro is hiding some feral energy and we just need to wait it out and he’ll be foaming at the mouth or smth. shotaro is a liiiiiiitle too cool for the Ball but they both kinda have that dorky feeling to them. like the kid brother whose hair you ruffle all the time. but all in all i just think he’s neat :]

okay the photos dont match that well but thats because i was trying to find him in the pink takeoff outfit and i couldnt find a good screenshot but that’s not the point. now you’re probably thinking “helios, yangyang cant be kristen. make him the Ball or fig or anybody else.” ohoho quite the opposite my friend. i think yangyang is the most like kristen purely bc of the untapped chaotic energy these two have. i literally remember both my first impression of kristen and yy were that they were mostly harmless and then somehow they started speaking and holy shit im terrified of them now. it also makes yangyang being a healer very interesting. they’re both really caring and outgoing, but some of the shit they say literally makes me head fucking spin bc it’s so ridiculous.

Honorable mentions:

Taeyong is Prinicpal Aguefort bc he is one of the only ones who has that chaotic yet majestic energy he has.

Johnny is either Johnny Spells or Jawbone. Johnny Spells because he hangs out with the kiddos a lot and i just think of the “johnny spells fucks” bit and it makes me laugh so hard. but also Jawbone because he’s our emotional support werewolf basically. he also gives great advice.

Doyoung is Sandra Lynn because of how much of fig/haechan’s shit they have to put up with. also i think the dynamic’s are really funny and similar

Chenle as Torek,,,,,do i need to explain any further

#fantasy high #dimension 20 #d20 #NCT #nct 2000 line #nct dream #nct x dnd #hopefully one of many #kpop x dnd #helios writes #huang reonjeon #prince lee jeno #fellow sunshine hyuck #loml na jaemin #taro taro shotaro #yangyangeth

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shnuggletea · 4 years ago

Text

Love Lost Ch 14

New chapter, yeah!

Fanfiction click HERE!

AO3 click HERE!

Read on then.... well read on!

Thank you so much to those of you who read my AUs last week and reached out. It really made a difference. One note of clarification: This was not done by trolls or an unknown. These weren't guest reviews or critics on our works. These were other authors, ones we know and shared things with, ones we considered friends, that are now going around the fandom spreading lies about darkenedhrt, myself, and all of my friends. If it were just some guest talking crap, we would have ignored it and moved on. Because that's what we always do lol. Typically, I ignore people like these but they are attacking friends so I had to say something. Thank you again to those you have shown your support. DarkenedHrt loved all of your words. Those who read and review are the best people in this fandom. Those who just read are pretty awesome too.

Chapter 14

"I have poured my heart out ….

And now I am empty."

― Ranata Suzuki

He took in the sight of the warehouse, filled with bodies in motion. Neph sparred with Makoto and Kun with Minako. But he sparred with Zoi and Usagi with Jad. His irritation was on high that morning, having only dreams of his second life, fights with Usagi. She was absolutely adorable in all of them, blush raging on her cheeks and biting her lip when she tried to think of a comeback. He, however, was a complete jerk. Not much worse than how he treated Usagi when they met in this life. Or the life before that. Was he destined to make a bad first impression with her?

His focus was on her now, watching as she danced around. A punch here and a kick there, flipping back out of the way, spinning to catch Jad's jaw with her heel. It was definitely entertaining to watch such a small person get the upper hand on James.

Jad put a hand on her, somewhere he did not like and his irritation returned in spades. Allowing Zoi to knock him right in the jaw.

He took a step back, gripping his mouth and glaring at him. Zoi smirked, shrugging in response. "That's what you get for getting distracted. Although, I can't say I blame you."

They both looked up at the couple, the two of them up on the catwalk now.

"YOU TWO!"

They both jerked their heads, Kun glaring at them while Minako looked annoyed.

"Quit lollygagging!"

Zoi chuckled, "Lollygagging? Kun, you are showing your age man."

"Keep it up and I'll show you just how much age I have on you boy!"

He could actually hear Zoi swallow at the threat. "Hey don't blame me, he's the one who is distracted!"

Zoi shot a thumb over at him, ratting him out. Kun glanced over at him, up at Usagi, and back to him with a smirk. "When is he not distracted by her?"

"Maybe if you partnered us in a spar, I would be able to give you my full attention."

Kun made his way over to them, Minako going to sulk somewhere having lost her partner. "You and I both know that I would still not have it. In fact, I would have less of your attention than I do now."

He huffed, "Like you have any room to talk. I do pay attention sometimes and I keep managing to do so when either you or Minako is on top…."

"Enough." Kun's grimace quickly turned into a sneer and worry invaded his belly. "Tell you what, I'll make you a deal. You beat me in a duel and I will partner you with Usagi."

"What? That's insane."

"Oh, I am serious though. As it stands now, you are not ready to go against her. But if you were to beat me, then you would be able to handle it, I think."

At some point, Makoto and Neph had also stopped, coming over to join in the 'fun'. "You think?"

"What's going on down there?"

He looked back up, Jad and Usagi bringing themselves to a halt with all the excitement. Usagi leaned her over the rail, her head in her hand, tilted slightly to the side as she looked down at him.

"It's a deal."

They moved over to a large opening, Jad and Usagi coming down to join the circle that the rest were forming around them. Zoi grabbed up the swords, picking up the one Kun had insisted he use.

"Jesus Kun, you've been making him use a weighted sword?!"

Kun smirked while Zoi tossed the heavy sword back onto the pile, grabbing him a brand new sword. "How else was he ever to get any better than me if I didn't push him."

Sword in hand, he pointed it at him. "You are going to pay for that, my back has been aching for weeks!"

"Oh? Then tell me, how does that sword feel in your hands?"

He tossed it back and forth, it felt as if it weighed nothing. "Feels like victory."

"So, what exactly is going on here? Is Mamoru finally going to beat the shit out of Kunzite?"

He shot Jad a grin, "Hell yes."

"Oh good! Took you long enough!"

Neph glared over, "Chill Zoi, it's been a month."

"I don't just mean in this life idiot."

"Enough! The rules, no magic! That's it. Are you ready?"

"I'm re…"

Kun charged him, catching him off guard. He barely got his sword up in time to keep Kun's from going straight through his chest. Thrust and parry, thrust and parry. The two of them made their way around the warehouse, jumping on and off of anything in their way. Kun swiped at his legs and he jumped over his sword, managing to land his feet on his chest, sending Kun backward. Landing flat on his back from the move, Mamoru did a press up, getting back to his feet in one swift move. Kun walked slowly towards him, applauding.

"Very nice your highness."

"Excuse me?"

Kun just grinned, "But we are not even close to done."

~*O*~

Both men were dripping with sweat, the fight had lasted well past 30 minutes now. She just stood and watched, the two of them moving like a choreographed dance and not an unplanned sword fight.

Minako stood next to her, her eyes glued on Kun. "Kami, this is hot."

She glanced at Minako, but her eyes remained on her man, so she looked back at the two, focusing on Mamoru. Sweat had his shirt sticking to him and darkening the material. Deep down inside, she knew that if it were anyone else, she would find it disgusting. But with Mamoru….she found herself wanting to press up against him, sweat and all.

It probably had something to do with that image Mamoru shared with her, even though it was an accident. Every time she dropped her guard, the image popped back up along with all the feelings it evoked in her. She would feel flushed all over and her heart would race all while a chill ran up her spine.

She was getting the same feeling watching him now, heating up all over. She was pretty close to sweating herself, even in the chill of the warehouse.

Makoto moved from her spot to stand behind them, leaning into both their ears simultaneously. "You guys know what they are fighting for right?"

"Um...to win?"

Makoto giggled at her, "No, not just that. Mamoru is fighting for you."

"ME?!"

Minako gave her a look and she wasn't sure if it was out of worry or jealousy. "Yeah if he beats Kun then he gets you as his sparring partner."

Worry. It was definitely a look of worry. "Usa, be careful."

"I know, I know. But...he just won't listen to me."

"Did you tell him? Upfront?!"

"No, but...I don't even understand it myself, how am I supposed to explain it?"

"What are you two talking about?"

They broke away from the staring contest they were having, looking back at Makoto. "Usagi hasn't told Mamoru about Endymion yet."

"Who's Endymion?"

"According to Minako, he is my husband…"

"HUSBAND?!"

They both hushed her, placing their hands over her mouth in hopes of keeping her from gaining too much attention. Everyone was so focused on the fight, they didn't even stir at Makoto's outburst.

"Since when are you married Usagi?!"

"Since the Silver Millennium."

Makoto visibly relaxed. "Oh, well that doesn't count."

"Exactly!"

Minako shook her head at both of them. "The fact that she is married doesn't matter obviously. It's who she is married to! Endymion is not someone to mess with!"

"If he is so fierce, then where is he? Why hasn't he shown up and swept me away or whatever?"

"Because he hasn't awakened yet. He doesn't even know who he is yet!" Minako whispered, frustrated.

She turned back to the fight, letting Mamoru's muscles distract her from things she didn't understand. "I don't even know who he is and yet, I am expecting to fall at his feet whenever it is that he arrives. Well, he's got another thing coming if he thinks I'm going to just go willing with him wherever he pleases."

Kun and Mamoru got in close to one another, holding each other off with very little wiggle room between them. Their blades were at opposite angles, the only thing keeping them from slashing each other's faces was the blade in their own hands.

They stayed like that for a moment, pushing back and forth slightly, but no one overpowering the other. Then Kun glanced her way for second and grinned.

"If you fail Mamoru, I'm going to partner Usagi with Zoicite. And he is very handsy. Especially when he fights with one of the girls. But, I'm sure you remember that don't you?"

A roar came from Mamoru and Kun was thrown back. The next several blows came from Mamoru, his sword hitting Kun's over and over again, hard. It was as if the last 45 minutes had never occurred, Mamoru's energy back at the top. While Kun's was waning.

Mamoru took another powerful swing, barely missing Kun's hand and Kun lost his blade in the process. The metal flew far across the warehouse, clattering loudly in the distance while Mamoru pressed his blade to Kun's throat. They both panted but neither moved, glaring at one another. Until Kun burst into laughter that is.

Everyone was deathly still and silent. "Well done, Prince."

Mamoru stepped back, giving Kun room to breathe and lowering his sword. "You're dehydrated and delirious."

"Well then, go calm your prize."

Mamoru looked back at her, only to turn back to Kun in a second. "What..now?!"

Kun clapped a hand over Mamoru's shoulder, still out of breath. "The enemy won't wait, so neither should you."

"He means to bring about an awakening."

Jad, who had been silent the whole fight, was watching Mamoru and Kun intently. "Awakening?"

He didn't say anymore, just pushed her towards Mamoru with a hard shove. She glanced back at Minako, who gave her a warning look, but also said nothing. Makoto looked like a giddy schoolgirl. And Neph looked like he was waiting for something, just like Jad. Zoi settled in, all that was missing with him was some popcorn.

Slowly she stepped up to Mamoru and Kun just waved her over like she was some kind of present. In defiance and self-preservation, she crossed her arms over her chest. "And just why should I go along with this? No one asked me what I wanted."

"Do you want to spar with Mamoru?"

Her eyes involuntarily danced from Kun to Mamoru, both of them watching and waiting. Of course, she wanted to spar with him, having him touch her and her him, both of them all sweaty...what was wrong with her! She couldn't be having these thoughts, not now, not when Mamoru was about to touch her. He would see, hear, and feel all of it!

She needed to get her mind off of it, give herself something else to focus on besides Mamoru's large, warm hands...on her…..

"Alright, but if I win, I get taught swords!"

Kun chuckled but Mamoru smirked. "And if I win...you can no longer call me Chiba-san."

The room got silent again, everyone waiting to hear what she would say to such a challenge.

"Fine!"

"A gentleman's agreement!"

One of the boys shouted it out and everyone laughed. Except for her and Mamoru. They continued to stare one another down. Their contest had already begun.

~*O*~

He was already tired, the fight with Kun wearing him out. What was the point of all this? No way Kun wanted Usagi to win, he didn't want to teach her sword fighting. Hell, he wasn't sure why he taught him! Before it was a means of protection when he was on the moon. Now, what need did he have for it? He should be working on his magic, getting it stronger.

So why did he want to spar with Usagi again? She had a lot more practice in hand to hand and magic and his energy was low. He was struggling to remember why this was a good idea to begin with.

Oh yeah, other guys, touching her.

One thing was for sure, he was going to touch her, a lot, in this fight. Most guys, hell any guy, would find that a huge bonus. But most guys didn't share their deepest darkest secrets with one touch. He still couldn't believe he had shown her that the other day. It was completely involuntary. If he hadn't opened his fat mouth, talking about his dirty thoughts, it never would have happened. The bright side, Usagi shared as much with a touch as he did. The mind-reading thing was new and neither of them knew how to control it. Usagi was the only one to come close, cutting off what used to be an endless flow to a dripping tap.

It did give him an excuse to touch her, although not a very good one.

From the looks Usagi was currently giving him, he wasn't sure he wanted to know the inner workings of her mind at the moment. It was awkward, how do you even start a fight with Usagi? If he went by his memories, he just had to insult her hair. He was pretty sure she didn't need any encouragement at the moment, looking as if she was more than ready to tear him apart.

Someone turned the stereo on, the music helping some to break the tension in the room. But then he listened to the lyrics.

"Who put this on!"

Zoi gave him a small wave, grinning from ear to ear while everyone but Minako and Kun laughed it up. He didn't follow all of the song, he just caught stuff like, "Going to bend you over", and it was enough to give him the gist.

"FOCUS!"

Kun barked at them, even though he was pretty sure that was all about him as Usagi looked well into the 'zone'. She flexed, rolling her shoulders back and pushing her chest out. Was she doing that on purpose?

He didn't want to make the first move, of that much he was sure of. And he knew just how to get her to. "Ladies first, Odango."

She glared at him and he did his best to smirk in response. Then she took off, running straight for him and he readied himself. When she stood right before him, she jumped up, flipping over his head. Before his tired brain could catch up, she elbowed him hard in his ribs from behind.

He bent over and then down, sweeping for her legs and hitting nothing but air. When she touched back down, she kicked him in his shoulder, sending him backward and sliding across the floor. Doing a press up, he popped himself back onto his feet just as she tried to roundhouse kick him. He caught her foot and threw it up, forcing her other foot to leave the ground and flip her over completely. She landed hard on the ground and didn't move. He could hear her soft sobs and in an instant, he was by her side.

"Usagi?! Are you okay?"

Her fist connected with his face, sending him across the room. "You are too easy Chiba-san." Standing, he wiped away the blood at the corner of his mouth. She frowned, "And you are pulling your punches. Don't you want to win? I thought you wanted this?"

"Don't worry, I won't fall for your fake tears again!"

"You know, Zoi says the same thing every time and yet…"

He ran to her. She was distracted, too busy trying to rattle him and he had the advantage. Taking a stance, she anticipated his move, but she expected the wrong one.

He dropped his whole body, sliding into her like a base on a baseball field, and she fell on him hard. Her feet knocked out from under her completely, she was lucky he had been kind enough to break her fall. And as much as he was enjoying her on top of him, that was not the point. That was not the point!

Throwing her off, he forced himself to be rough and she rolled away. He popped up to his feet again and she did the same, running at him and jumping. She intended to knock him down with her weight. Too bad she weighed a bit less than that sword Kun had him swinging.

He caught her, holding her again. This time her knees were bent and one on either side of his ribs with his arms under her butt. He kept his fist clenched tight, keeping his forearms on her cheeks and nothing else.

She quickly recovered, punching him in the face a few times while he was defenseless. He probably should have just dropped her, but the last time he held her was the day Tokyo U was attacked. Even with her assault on his face, he struggled to let go. He had a better idea.

It didn't take much to pull the memory up, letting it flash in his mind, knowing it would mirror in hers. Her whole body tensed and a gasp escaped her lips. Then another image flashed in his in response. This one came from her and from the look on her face and how she scrambled out of his arms, she didn't mean for him to see or feel it.

He showed her how close he came to kissing her after she turned off their connection, letting her feel just how much he wanted to press his lips to hers. While she showed him the fight he just had with Kun from her point of view. He felt the heat she felt and how hard her heart pounded in her chest. And how her eyes took him in.

Blood rushed to her face and down her lovely neck. Now he felt heat rushing through him.

"You two taking a break already?!"

He glanced over, everyone still watching them intently. The song changed and so did Usagi, running up to him and staying firmly on the ground. She punched and kicked and he blocked, over and over again, catching every hit they sent one another. With every touch, their minds connected, showing one another just what they planned to do next, making it far too easy for them to anticipate one another's moves.

She kicked high, aiming for his head, but he caught it again, this time holding onto it. It was an impressive move, having to stretch her foot high over her own head to reach his face. And it had her in a lovely position which he held her frozen in at the moment.

"Would you keep your dirty thoughts to yourself?!"

Just as she said it, she involuntarily sent him another thought, just as dirty as the one he had been having.

"You first!"

He released her foot, letting it return to her. Only to have her send it sailing back at him again. This time when he caught it, she sent him an image of sparring with one of the boys. Zoi it looked like, and him grabbing and touching her as they fought.

Anger boiled up, intense, from somewhere he didn't really know. Before he could think to stop it, sparks of electricity went through his hand and into her.

She squealed and he released her, remorse and guilt spreading across him in an instant.

He wasn't even really sure how he did it, but now Usagi was panting heavily across from him, her eyes to the floor. Then she started to laugh. "So, that's how you want to play it?" Her head popped up, a smirk on her face, "Okay then."

#sailor moon fanfiction #sailor moon fandom #sailor moon #usagi tsukino #mamoru chiba #minako #makoto #Usagi and Mamoru #Minako x Kunzite #makoto x nephrite #zoisite #jedite #OTP FEELS #fight scene #sexy fight scene #faulkner writing

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