#y'know. actually. nobody questions how he got that bloody

[milommid]

ghs doodles from the last 2 days!

[empires-s2-headcanons]

similarly to how lizzie is Definitely A Human and the sheriff is Not A Toy, oli is Totally Not A Ghost- but the thing is, it's unclear if he himself actually knows that or not. fwip brings up how pale he is and he huffs and goes off about how "i don't tan, dude, i just burn! i get all crispy! nobody likes a crispy oli, least of all me! and it's not like i'm getting much sun anyway when i'm in the bloody CAGE!". gem says that his voice sounded "all distant and echoey, like you were far away..." and he just pulls out a mic (which he didn't have and wasn't using before?) and goes "huh. did i turn on some sorta effect without noticing? let's see- ECHO! ... nope? no echo? alright then. y'know i bet it's just feeling spicy today. god knows i am. it's a spicy mic kinda night, y'know what i mean? yeeeaaah you know what i mean.". sausage says he looked almost transparent for a moment, and he just laughs and says "that long in the cage and you end up a very pasty boy. i'm like danny phantom if danny phantom was way hotter and also got stuck in a cage!" and sausage is almost distracted enough trying to figure out who danny phantom is to think too hard about the apparition he saw at the campfire and it's striking resemblance to oli.

oli walks into chromia one day, and scott glances at him and suddenly he's looking through galaxies and universes and timelines all connected by little threads made of ones and zeroes, and he sees dragons and sheep and songs and homes and circles and birds and water and people, and he sees a million instances in one person who's existence is statistically impossible and if he looks closer, too close, he sees himself and he sees lights and flowers and antlers and wings and stars and crowns and he is overwhelmed with the sudden knowledge that he is dead, that he is dying and being reborn constantly in a million simultaneous universes, that every cell in his body will be replaced and he will be completely new one day, and the knowledge is terrifying and freeing and unavoidable, and he sees a form kept together by sheer determination and stubbornness and he wonders if the difference between a ghost and a person is that a ghost has reclaimed every single cell that was once in their body, and he knows, beyond anything else, that he is looking at a ghost. and then he blinks and the millions of years that he was looking at are only a moment long, and he's left staring at a man who flickers through colors of magic and past lives like flipping through a book. "woah scott, cool place you've got!" the man remarks, "not as cool as the olipoligo, but y'know, that's kind of a given." and scott has so, so many questions- what are you what did i just see what are you doing here what ARE you what do you want with me- but all he can stutter out is "how do you know my name?"

oli laughs and tells him not to worry about it, and scott wonders when he learned that the man's name was oli.

[...ignore the fact that c!sausage feasibly could and probably does know who danny phantom is since he, in character, is naming axolotls after spider mans. i uh. i forgot about that]

WAIT THIS IS SO COOL???? AND TOTALLY POSSIBLE

[wickedw3asleys]

Hi, can you make Fred or George, that reader is talking about they crush on Fred/George with their friends, and they think that nobody heard it, but then, Fred/George tell them, that they heard the conversation, and they love them? Fluff

Oh, Honey, Honey... (fluff)

(Fred Weasley x female reader)

AN: Thank you for being the first one submitting something! 🥰 I hope it will be up to your expectations and I hope you'll like it as much as I like writing it!

Also, if anyone wants me to do an equivalent to a male reader/non binarie reader, I can do it too! I wrote it as my point of view, as something I'd like to be part of, so that's why the reader is a female...

(This literally how I've been imagining him in this I want to die)

"UGHHHHHHHH!!!!!", you threw your books on the nearest tables and crashed on the couch in front of the fireplace in the Gryffindor common room

"Well... Good evening to you too...", Hermione says, lifting her head from her potions book.

"What's wrong with you?", asked Ginny.

You straightened up on the sofa, putting your face in your hands. "What is NOT wrong with me?!", you sighed, "Sorry girls, good evening..."

Hermione closed her books and sat next to you, putting an arm on around your shoulders, "Come on, what happened?", she asked, worried.

"The thing is that it's not even THAT deep, y'know... UGH! I'm just so cringey and awkward"

Ginny also sat next to you, a hand on your other shoulder, "My brother, again?"

"YES! Your brother! AGAIN!", you exclaimed. You started whining as a little kid at the though of your awkward actions of earlier that evening...

Whenever you saw Fred walk in, you never knew how to act. You knew him since your first year at Hogwarts, but since he is a year older than you, he always intimidated you. And then, after some years, you started to fancy him... let's say, a little too much for your taste...

You sighed once again, "I can't even think straight or form human words or sentences whenever he asks me something! He's going to start thinking that I'm completely mad! You'll see!"

"Y/N, you used to be good friends with him, how is that you're feeling this way now?", Hermione laughs.

You turned to face her, pouting, "I don't know! I just can't act normal around him!"

"Why don't you talk to him already?!", Ginny asks.

"Are YOU mad?!", you get up from the couch, outraged.

"I mean... He's not going to bite you... And you visibly have a BIG crush on him, so... She's not wrong...", Hermione says.

You cross your arms, trying to look though, "First of all, I don't have THAT big of a crush on him... I just think he's attractive..."

"Yeah, that's why you spend your day drooling over him and not being able to talk to him as a normal human being...", the girls laugh.

"Okay! Okay!", you lift your hands in the air, defeated, and let your body fall on the couch again. "I don't know what do to! He's so bloody handsome, I want to cry!"

"As much as I'll never be able to understand your opinion on my brother... I think you should talk to him anyways, what's the worst thing that can happen?", Ginny gently says as she strokes your hair.

"I could get humiliated for the rest of my life, since your mom practically adopted me and I spend every bloody holiday at the Burrow, and I would never be able to look at Fred anymore..."

The girls laugh again at your nonsense. You knew it wasn't that big of a deal; you've had other crushes before Fred and sometimes the crush was mutual, or not, and nothing bad really happened because of that. You just continued on with your life, and the same was for the other person. But something about Fred was different, a way bigger crush than the other ones, and you were deadly afraid of him rejecting you, because you knew it would completely hurt you to the soul.

Hermione and Ginny spent the next fifteen minutes trying to cheer you up and convince you to finally talk yo Fred about your feelings, but no success.

"You're so stubborn!", Hermione exclaims, "If you don't talk to him, I'll end up doing it for you!", she says as she starts getting up from the couch.

"NO!", you say in a high pitched scream, and you took her by her robes as your life depended on it, making her fall on you and Ginny.

You three girls looked at each other and started laughing so hard that Ginny fell down from the couch and you ended up crying of laughter.

"I c- I can't!", you half laugh half scream.

"Hey, what's happening in here?", you hear a familiar masculine voice behind you, making you jump.

To your surprise, the twins and Lee had joined you in the common room and were ready to sit with you.

"Oh, nothing... Y/N is being stubborn... She thinks she's extremely awkward", Ginny says, wiping a tear that was about to fall from her right eye.

"Why is that?", asks George, taking place on the couch next to you.

"Nothing! Don't worry about it!", you quickly say.

The boys let you breathe for a second and calm you down from the laughter you've had before.

"Well, I don't think you're awkward..."

Everybody turns their head to the person that spoke. You couldn't help but blush seeing that it was in fact Fred.

"Thanks Fred! You should tell her that more often!", says Hermione, discretely elbowing you. "Right, Y/N?"

You could feel more blood rushing to your cheeks as you felt Fred's eyes on you.

"Uhm...", you cough, "Y-yeah... Uhm... W-wh... WOW! I really have to go to the bathroom right now!"

You mentally slapped you on the forehead for doing that in front of everybody. He didn't think that you were awkward? Well, now he was going to believe it!

You made your way up to your dorm, where you crashed on your bed and started throwing hands and feet like a baby, again, mentally slapping you for what happened.

You were in the middle of whining when a knock startled you.

"Hermioneeeeeeee, I hate youuuuuuu!", you screamed at the door, not even lifting your head from the mattress.

"Uhm... Sorry, not Hermione...", says the voice, entering the room.

WHAT. You opened you eyes in seconds and got up on your feet.

"Fred! Hi!"

"Are you okay?", he asks, laughing at seeing you all red and hair messed up.

"Y-yeah! Totally fine! Excellent! Why?", you say, trying to fix your hair and clothes.

He laughed and started walking around your dorm. "I don't think I've ever been in this dorm before... Looks pretty good..."

"Yeah... S-since I share it with Hermione... s-she really takes her time to-

"So you have a crush on me, huh?"

You froze in place, really not expecting that question.

Apparently you started to blush again because Fred started laughing again.

"Me? What? No!"

"You sure about that?", he crossed his arms, smirking. That damn smirk of him. "Because I'm pretty sure I've heard you talking with Hermione and my sister not even twenty minutes ago..."

You stayed in place, not able to form any type of words to defend yourself.

Fred started walking around again, touching the things around your dormitory. "I'm so bloody handsome you could cry?"

"Oh Merlin...", you lift your hand to your mouth, not believing that he actually heard everything. Your body started to shake a little, slowly getting more nervous about the situation. What is he thinking? Was he about to humiliate you? Reject you?

"Don't worry, Y/N! I'm just messing with you!", he left the little music box he was playing with on Ginny's dresser and made his way to you, all smiley.

"I feel like I might faint...", you whispered, but it sounded more like a question.

"Hey! Don't worry, sweetheart! It's okay!", he chuckled, stroking your head. "You're not bad yourself..."

"I'm not WHAT?"

Your face and answer made Fred crackle the most beautiful laugh you've ever heard before.

"That's my way to tell you that, well, I sort of like you too"

Were you dreaming? Or was this another of his pranks?

"You what?", your eyes opening as big as plates, not believing what he just said.

"Yeah! I mean... You're very a nice girl and I think you're extremely gorgeous! We were even friends a few years ago, remember?"

"Yeah, but... What? I mean... I never knew you..."

"That I was feeling the same towards you?", he chuckled again, lifting your chin up. "Darling, I've been since I was fourteen..."

"Oh wow... Th-that's a long time...", you whispered.

"Yes, it's it!", he laughed.

You didn't say anything, too shocked to be able to say anything else, so you just laughed, joining him in this awkward moment.

"Well, I'm not going to bother you any longer, love. I'm heading down with the others, come with us when you feel ready, okay?", he gently says, caressing your cheek with his thumb.

He started making his way to the door when a wave of courage invaded your body, "Fred, wait!"

He turned around just in time to catch you in his arms, throwing your arms around his neck and plant a quick kiss on his lips.

"I'll be down in a minute...", you say.

This time, he was the one to blush and for once, speechless.

"You look good blushing, too", you laughed.

He kindly smile at you, placed a kiss on your forehead and left the room with a wink.

You couldn't believe that THE Fred Weasley had such a big crush on you for probably the same time as you have had one on him. And that you just had kissed him.

You tried to stop a big smile from erupting your lips but no success. You made your way to the nearest mirror to fix yourself up and with a deep breath, opened the door and happily walked to the common room, thinking about what kind of things the future had prepared for you and Fred...

[queen-swagzilla]

So Much Worse Than A Phantom Limb, Ch. 2 (BkDk)

"Kacchan?"

Katsuki turned to the voice right behind him, but there was no one there. "Deku?"

"Kacchan, where are you?"

He spun in a circle. "Where the hell are you, nerd?"

"Kacchan!" He sounds so scared. Where the hell is he?

He ran toward the voice, running through the park and into the woods until he came to a log bridge—old and weathered. From the way it creaked, he thought it must have rotted through. Deku stood in the center, but he was so small. "Deku, get away from there."

"Kacchan, I'm scared." He whispered. Katsuki gritted his teeth and slowly—so slowly—crept onto the bridge. As soon as his foot made contact, the world went fuzzy.

Now they were on a roof. Katsuki glanced around—Aldera? Why were they on the roof of Aldera? He looked back at Deku and froze. He was perched on the ledge, facing away from him. "DEKU. Get the fuck away from there." He snapped, panicking.

"Kacchan?" Deku asked, looking over his shoulder. "Why are you crying?" He turned around but didn't step down.

"Deku, please." He reached out. "Get down from there."

"But I'm tired, Kacchan. Isn't this what you wanted?" He asked, before leaning back.

"Deku!" He screamed, blasting forward and reaching out—clutching the nerd's shitty middle school uniform in tight fists. The world blurred again as they fell together.

They were on a battlefield, and Katsuki clutched Deku tightly. His body was riddled with holes and he spluttered as he choked on his blood. "Kacchan?"

"Don't talk, goddamnit." He snarled, pressing hands futilely against his gaping wounds.

"Gotta. No time. Tell mom I'm sorry."

"Tell her yourself, shithead."

"I need you to do something."

"Stop. Talking."

"Take One For All. I need you to take it."

"Fuck you."

"Kacchan, please." He gasped. "No time."

And the asshole was right. He could feel Deku's pulse slowing. His eyes were dimming. "How?"

Deku lifted a ravaged arm to slide his bloodied hand into Katsuki's hair, and pulled him down for a kiss filled with blood and gravel. "Glad I got to do that. Love you, y'know." He went limp in Katsuki's arms.

Katsuki woke up screaming.

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The next five days were hard. He hadn't counted on how difficult it would be to see his classmates crying over Deku's broken body. The first group to visit, much to his surprise and relief, was not Deku's inner circle. He didn't think he was ready for that. Instead, he brought Aoyama, Tsu, Sato, Shoji, and Sero to see him first. He supposed that was just because they'd been in the common room when the signup sheet had been posted. So had Hagakure, Yaomomo, and Shinso who had put down Mirio's name. Their group went on the second day.

"No matter what happens, I'm proud to have you as a friend, mon ami." Aoyama had sobbed.

"You're so strong, ribbit. It seems ridiculous to say goodbye when it feels like you're around every corner." Tsuyu croaked. "So do us all a favor and hang on."

"You should come back now." Sato cried quietly. "But if you have to go, don't worry. Bakugou's been taking good care of your mom, and we'll take good care of him." His breath hitched. "But you should come back. If you do, I'll make you that matcha and lavender roll cake I was telling you about."

Shoji was quiet and morose. "I'm sorry this happened to you." There wasn't much more for him to say.

"Katsuki hasn't said goodbye yet, so neither will I." Sero admitted softly, brushing Izuku's hair back. "He's scared, but I can tell he hasn't really given up. So as long as he's got hope, I will too. You want to be the symbol of hope, right?" Katsuki didn't look at him the whole walk back to the dorm.

When they arrived, Sato planted himself back in the kitchen, and a small group congregated in the common room to wait for Katsuki so that they could go to the Midoriya's to help tidy. "Bring your homework, Kat." Mina instructed. "We'll clean while you work. You've been losing valuable study time at the hospital."

"I'm supposed to be helping you guys clean up." He argued.

"No." She put her foot down. "We'll tidy. You study. If we have questions about where something is supposed to go, we'll ask." Katsuki looked like he was going to argue, but Mina actually stomped her foot. "I'm not taking no for an answer. Let us help you." He sighed but conceded. When they arrived, he excused himself to Izuku's nerdy All Might shrine of a bedroom, sat at his crowded desk, and tried not to cry as he did the homework for Ectoplasm's class. He didn't succeed, and Mina found him curled in Izuku's bed, sobbing into his pillow.

The next day wasn't any easier, but at least they wouldn't be going to Auntie Inko's that evening. Nonetheless, he listened diligently to his classmates as they spoke to Izuku's prone body.

"We're still looking, Midoriya." He heard Shinso whisper. "If there's something to find, I swear we'll find it. We're not gonna let you go without a fight. Not when you've fought so hard for us."

"We decided not to bring Eri, or that kid you saved at your training camp. We thought this might be too hard for them. Eri especially, since she'd feel bad for not being able to use her quirk to help. She's just not in control enough." Mirio smiled. "You and I both know you wouldn't want her to be upset about something she can't control. But this still sucks. I hope you wake up, buddy. We miss you already."

"You're our lynchpin, Izuku." Hagakure whispered to him. "We'll fall apart without you. We already are." He didn't have to see her to know that she was a wreck. "Please come back. Please."

To his surprise, Momo was angry. It was a quiet sort of anger, but it was anger nonetheless. "I thought you were gonna be number one, Izuku." She hissed, pressing her palms into her eyes. "How are any of us supposed to survive if you can't? You really want Katsuki to be the one we look to for inspiration? We'll all be screaming expletives at victims within a month."

"Hey!" he interrupted, affronted. She gave him a very dry and irritated glance.

"I'm not wrong. He needs to come back. He's the balancing act. The calm to your storm. Iida and I might be the class reps, but when shit hits the fan, it's you two that we look to. We need both of you or else we're all gonna go off the rails." She turned her gaze back to Izuku. "I know I'm supposed to be proper and polite, but this is ridiculous. Get the fuck up. Please get the fuck up."

It was quiet with the first two groups. They huddled around his bed and cried. They offered Auntie Inko their support and hugged Katsuki's parents. They brought flowers and carried the meals that Sato had prepared. Tsu and Momo attended to Katsuki, holding his hand under the guise of needing his support, while knowing that it was the other way around. Katsuki remained strong-jawed and dry-eyed throughout. Only Tsu and Momo knew how his hands shook as he stood at Deku's bedside.

With the first two groups, he had time to check on Auntie Inko as they spoke to her son. "How are you holding up, Auntie?"

She gave him a tearful smile. "Not great. But you're taking such good care of me, so better than I could have hoped." She admitted. "Thank you for dinner, Katsuki."

He shook his head. "Sato made dinner." Her smile turned knowing.

"Because you said that you were going to, right? How else would he have known what to make?" She placed a trembling hand on his cheek. "You've been so strong over the past month. Are you taking care of yourself, too?"

He looked down at his feet. "Trying to. I have some help." She smiled a little wider.

"That's good, sweetheart. We all need help sometimes. I'm sorry I haven't been there for you like you've been here for me. And I'm sorry for asking you to keep it from them. I just—"

"I get it." He interrupted. "He's your son. You need me more. And don't feel bad about not telling them. Focus on him. Don't worry, Auntie—they're taking care of me," he promised. She pulled him in for a hug, and he reminded himself not to cry.

"You're a good boy, Katsuki. You're bad at expressing yourself, but you're so good. Don't forget it, sweetheart."

He pulled away, looking into her teary eyes. He wished he could blame hyperactive Midoriya tear ducts this time. "I actually—tomorrow Izuku's closest friends will be here. We're not super friendly with each other, and I don't want to intrude on their time with him. Do you mind if I wait outside while they're in here?"

"Of course not, Katsuki. You do what feels right. I can keep it together for their visit if you need to excuse yourself." She smiled sadly. "You don't need to do it alone."

He looked back down at the floor. "Thanks, Auntie."

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As planned, they went to his parents' house that evening. He studied while his friends tidied up. Before they made their way back to the dorms, Katsuki pulled a shoebox out from under his bed.

"What's in there, Bakubro?" Eijirou asked as they walked.

"Memories." He replied. Eijirou eyed him.

"Wanna share them with us when we get back? Might make you feel better."

"...Sure."

And he did. His friends brought dinner to his room and bundled in blankets for show-and-tell. He showed them the pictures that his parents had taken of them over the years, from their wild adventures as toddlers in All Might onesies to the uncomfortable photo evidence of middle school "family" dinners. Even when things were strained, Izuku had been in his orbit.

He showed them the little gifts Izuku had given him over the years—at least the ones that fit in the box. That included a limited edition All Might keychain, a "World's Spiciest Recipes" cookbook, and a bookmark with a pressed and preserved leaf—the leaf from a tree on one of Katsuki's favorite hiking trails.

Throughout the evening, Katsuki's heart ached with impending loss. Nobody knew him better than Izuku.

"What's that?" Mina asked, pointing at the folded notepaper in the corner of the box. He sniffed, and wiped at his eyes. He didn't even remember when he started crying. Maybe around the time they'd looked at Christmas pictures.

He unfolded the notes carefully. They were worn and old, yellowing around the edges. "His very first analysis of my quirk. 'S where I got the idea for my hero costume. He's the one that came up with the gauntlets," he admitted, flattening the pages gently before handing them over. The handwriting and accompanying sketch were messy—they'd been done by a six-year-old—but they were detailed and precious.

"He would have been a kick-ass quirk analyst if he wasn't a hero," Hanta muttered, reading over his shoulder. "Those notebooks of his are insane. He came up with so many applications for my quirk in our first year, I'm still learning how to make most of his ideas work."

"He's the one that figured out how to increase my voltage without short-circuiting my brain." Denki smiled.

Mina cackled. "He's the one who figured out that I could make LSD if I ate certain grains!" They all laughed at that and oh it felt good to laugh.

"He's helping me design more versatile support gear with Hatsume." Jirou added, before pausing. "Oh. We should invite Hatsume to come with us to the hospital. We only have four people in our group." She said quietly. "He's one of her only real friends. I'm pretty sure he's the one who makes sure she's taking breaks and eating regularly when she gets all scary about her inventions."

They were quiet again. "Anyone have her number?" Katsuki grunted.

"I don't have her number, but I have some time to stop by her lab tomorrow." Jirou offered. "Our group is going the day after, so that gives her some time to shift plans around."

"Okay."

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He led the third group—Uraraka, Iida, Todoroki, Tokoyami, and Koda—to Deku's hospital room, but didn't enter with them. "You're not coming in, Bakugou?" Tokoyami asked, voice deep and brows serious.

"Those three need time with him. They're so pissed at me that if I'm in the room, I'll be the only thing they focus on." He muttered. "Auntie already knows I'm not coming in. I'm gonna be in the cafeteria doing some homework. Come find me when you're ready to leave."

Koda frowned, before bringing his hands up to sign at him. 'Are you sure?' the timid boy asked. 'You should spend as much time with him as you can.'

"I've got a month on you guys. And I'll see him tomorrow. Don't worry about it. Thanks, though." He replied before turning to leave. He missed the look that Tokoyami and Koda shared.

The reception staff smiled warmly at him as he passed. "You're not staying with your friends, honey?" One of Izuku's nurses—Yui, if he remembered correctly (he wasn't exactly good with names)—asked as he passed her in the hall.

"Homework. Gonna work in the cafeteria so that his friends can have some privacy and I can play catch up." He muttered.

"Aw honey, that's so thoughtful," she simpered. She dug in her pockets before handing him a little white card. "It's my employee card for the cafe. Get yourself some coffee and a snack. Just leave the card on Midoriya's bedside before you leave."

He frowned. "I can't accept this."

"You can, and you will. Don't think I haven't noticed you running yourself ragged taking care of your family, young man. It's very admirable. Let me do something for you in turn."

"You already are. You're keeping him alive as long as possible."

"And if he wakes up, I bet he'll be pissed if you're all skinny and malnourished." She replied stubbornly. "Just take the meal card."

He sighed. "Fine. Thank you."

"No sweat." She smiled, before sweeping away from him.

He bought himself a coffee and a curry bun before settling into one of the hellishly uncomfortable cafeteria chairs. All of his teachers had given him extensions, but he was loathe to use them. The longer he put off his work, the harder he'd have to slog in order to catch up.

He jolted when Tokoyami and Koda scraped chairs up next to him and took their seats. "You're done already?"

"We asked the other three if we could go first so that they could have alone time with Midoriya. They agreed. In fact, they seemed grateful." Tokoyami replied. "We thought we'd see if you need any help catching up. You're not far behind, but your mind hasn't been on academia of late."

He knew what they were doing. "You know I'm capable of being alone, right? I'm not gonna spontaneously combust or some shit. You should be taking advantage of your time with him."

'We'll do that when he wakes up.' Koda signed, jaw set stubbornly. 'Besides, you're doing a lot. The least we can do is help you stay caught up to the class.'

"After all, Midoriya will need tutoring when he returns."

What if he doesn't return? Katsuki wanted to ask. But they seemed to be stubbornly refusing the very high likelihood that Izuku was going to die, and Katsuki supposed he could let them have that for now. "Fine. Can you look over my outline for Cementoss's class? I haven't read the whole book yet but the test is next week."

"Sure." Tokoyami agreed, taking the notebook from him.

'Anything I can help with?' Koda asked.

"I'm stuck on the math homework." He admitted. Koda gestured for him to show him, and they got to work. They set up a steady rhythm, where Koda helped coach Katsuki through the problems while Tokoyami read through his Lit outlines and made notes. Time passed faster than he expected, and he was grateful for the distraction.

He was not grateful for what happened next.

"Katsuki—" It was Nurse Yui. He got the impression that she would have been running if it weren't against hospital policy. "Your classmates had to be escorted out by security. Mrs. Midoriya and your parents are really upset."

"What happened?" He demanded, jumping up.

"I'm not sure. I wasn't in the room, I just got there after your mom pressed the nurse call and asked me to get security. Mrs. Midoriya was nonverbal." Behind them, Koda and Tokoyami were packing his bag for him. He glanced at his phone and frowned at the time. It had already been two hours?

"I need to go check on our parents and find out what happened." He said, turning to them. Tokoyami handed him his bag.

"I'll go back and find out what happened from those three. Then I'll let Aizawa know that there was an incident. Koda, you stay behind with Bakugou and find out what happened from his parents' perspective. We're relatively neutral parties, so we'll be able to sort out what happened more calmly."

'Will do. Get going.' Koda instructed before turning to follow Katsuki who was already moving, following swiftly after Nurse Yui.

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Katsuki was pissed. It almost felt good. He'd been so depressed about the nerd, he'd almost forgotten what it felt like to feel this kind of blinding fury. Beside him, Koda was pissed as well, and that felt good too. At least he knew he was justified.

'Go to the gym and blow something up. It's fine that you're pissed, but at this rate you'll blow up the dorm and you don't need to deal with that right now. I'll tell Aizawa what happened and send Kirishima your way.'

"I'm gonna rip them a fucking new one. You're nuts if you think I'm gonna let them off easy for this shit."

'Good. Don't. I might even yell at them,' he glowered. 'But before you go off you need to let off some steam. You don't need to deal with damage liability on top of everything else.'

He made a good point. "Send Ponytail too. She can make dummies that look like their stupid fucking faces for me to blow up," he snarled. Koda flashed him a thumbs up before splitting off from him to find Aizawa.

Momo and Eijirou found him in record time, and Momo didn't even hesitate before making the dummies he requested. "Wanna tell us what went down? Koda just told us where to find you and dipped to find Aizawa." Eijirou said as he helped set up the dummies around the gym.

"Tokoyami looked angry when he got back," Momo added.

He didn't look at them. His eyes were trained on the dummy-doppelgangers; glare fierce and furious. "They wanted to stay past their welcome. They'd been there for two hours and Auntie told them that she'd like to have time alone with Deku, but they hounded her to let them stay. Eventually, my mom tried to step in to put her foot down and they went off at her." He gritted his teeth, jaw grinding in anger. "Said it was her son's fault that they hadn't gotten to see Deku during the time that he was dying and that it was unfair that they'd kept the people who cared about him from seeing him. Auntie started crying and the hag called the nurse and told them that they were upsetting her, so if they didn't leave she'd call security to escort them out. Apparently, that set Icy Hot off, and he said they said that she was 'as malicious and selfish as her son' and yelled at auntie for not being able to see that we were keeping out people we didn't approve of by making her dependent on them. So when the nurse got there, Ma had her call security to drag them out. The hospital might not let the rest of the class visit after that episode. Auntie might not want the rest of the class to visit."

It was quiet for a long, pregnant moment. Then there was a series of loud thunks. Both boys turned to Momo and found her producing more copies of the training dummies. "That should be enough. Stay here until they're all destroyed." She instructed before turning and stomping out of the gym, ponytail swishing violently behind her.

"Where are you going?" Eijirou called after her.

"I didn't punch Iida hard enough last time!" She called back before disappearing through the doors.

Read the rest on Ao3!

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[imaginejamesandsirius]

I always have this idea in my mind with soulmate tattoos and james having one like 'the brightest' or something and thinking its for lily as the brightest witch of her age, til sirius mentions one day that his star is the brightest star in the night sky?

James's soulmark was just under his right hipbone, written upside down so that he could read it. With that location, it meant nobody had seen it. Soulmarks could be talked about, but you weren't supposed to go around showing it to people. Everyone had to cover it up if it wasn't hidden under clothes. James had it easy; his were covered by his pants, and he didn't even have to bend around weird to see it. 

The Brightest 

There was never any telling what your soulmark would be. Most people had words, but some people had pictures. Merlin himself had had a soulmark that just said his soulmate's name, but that was incredibly rare. It was always something to identify your soulmate, but it could be cryptic. 'The Brightest' wasn't the most descriptive thing ever, so James knew that he'd have to keep a sharp eye out if he wanted to find his soulmate. 

And he was sure, for about three years, that he'd struck gold. One Lily Evans, of Gryffindor House with stunning red hair and a prefect badge now pinned to her robes, was often described as the 'brightest witch of her age'. If she wasn't the best in their year, she was definitely in the top five. Along with Sirius, of course, but no one called him the brightest in their year or summat-- even though he was. 

Lily Evans, The Brightest, and his soulmate. 

The problem was that she sort of hated him-- childhood exuberance, what could you do-- and her own soulmark must be vague enough that she didn't know it was him yet. 

"Which star is Sirius, anyways?" Marlene asked one day in the common room. Marlene was funny and horribly attractive. 

James didn't like her. He also didn't like that she was effortlessly charming. Anytime he tried to be charming, he just came off as awkward and trying too hard-- according to Remus; Sirius thought he was funny. Unfortunately, Sirius also thought Marlene was charming, so. James didn't really get a win there. 

"It's part of Canis Major, and the brightest star in the sky. Except for the sun, but most people don't count it as a star," Sirius said. 

"The brightest star?" James asked, looking over from his book. He hadn't been reading it, but he'd been trying to pretend like he was. Making it clear that he'd been listening wasn't what he’d been going for when Marlene had sat down across from Sirius, but he needed to know if he'd heard that wrong. 

"Yeah," Sirius said. "Kinda makes you wonder why my parents didn't change my name when it became clear they hated me." 

Marlene had a nice reply to that, and she paired it with flipping her hair over her shoulder. 

James didn't hear what she said though, not with his mind fuzzing out so the only details he knew were his soulmark and what Sirius had just said. The brightest star in the sky. The brightest. 

Fuck. 

*

"Sirius?" James asked, both of them sat on their own beds, books open as they read the next chapter for History of Magic. 

"Yeah?" 

"We're close, right?" 

"Sure bloody hope so," Sirius said. "We live together year round. It would get kind of awkward if you hated me." 

"I don't hate you, don't be stupid," James said, rolling his eyes. 

"Invigorated to hear it," Sirius said, shooting him an amused grin. "What's up?" 

"What's your soulmark?" James asked, getting the question out quickly like it would help protect him from the backlash. 

The reaction was immediate. Sirius froze, his whole body getting tense. Parents knew your soulmark. Other family members sometimes did, depending on how close you were. Medi-wizards did, for obvious reasons, but it's not like they cared who their patients' soulmates were. Some people weren't as protective about covering their soulmarks, so you might see it in passing the locker room or summat. As far as James knew though, Sirius had always been careful to keep his covered with a thick band around his ankle. Even for people that didn't bother to keep theirs completely hidden though, it was understood that you didn't ask. 

Once people knew they were soulmates, they showed their marks to each other. You didn't ask your best friend-- no matter how close you were-- what it looked like or if you could see it. 

And the thought had occurred to James more than once over the years. He'd actually spent a ridiculous amount of time thinking about Sirius over the years, but he'd sort of thought that everyone did that. Sirius was gorgeous, okay? James couldn't have been the only one that had the occasional fantasy about him, but after hearing that Sirius was the brightest star not only in its constellation, but in the entire sky, he'd had to think about it a little more. What he'd written off as pure aesthetic appreciation and teenage hormones was... well, probably not. 

Instead of Sirius telling him to bugger off or saying that he wasn't going to tell him that, he asked, "Why?" 

Aaaand that's why James was not the sole planner for the pranks. He could connect two points, but he forgot about the different offshoots the first point could have. Like with this. He'd connected that if he knew what Sirius's soulmark was, then he'd know for sure that they were soulmates. He hadn't considered that Sirius would ask him why he wanted to know before sharing anything. "Erm." 

"I'm not going to tell you if you're just being nosy, but you've never asked before, so it feels like you have a reason." 

"Of course I have a reason." 

A pause. "And that reason would be?" Sirius prodded. 

"I- so I was thinking about my mark the other day, and it's kind of ambiguous. I was so sure it was Lily because of the way everyone talked about her, but now I was thinking... maybe not." 

Sirius blinked at him. "You think I'm your soulmate now?" He sounded more than a little accusatory, and James winced. 

"I know how that sounds, but come on, Pads, think about it from my perspective from a minute. I'm pretty much convinced that this person is my soulmate because of a phrase that's open to interpretation, shutting out all other attraction and stopping to consider that I've never felt that way about her. And then, y'know," he waved a hand vaguely to show that something had happened, "I got to thinking about you, and it would make a lot more sense." 

"You're impossible." 

"So that's a no on telling me what your soulmark is. You could've sad that from the beginning, and we could've avoided all of this." 

Sirius groaned, letting his head thump forward on the textbook. 

"Okay, I really don't know what to do with that reaction." 

"How about this: we date for a little bit, and if you still think I'm your soulmate then, I'll tell you what my mark is." 

"Deal." 

*

They got three weeks in before it occurred to James that there was no reason for Sirius to have suggested them dating unless his soulmark was more straightforward. Straightforward enough that he knew it was James. And if he was that sure of it, then he'd just been waiting around for James to figure it out. A couple years ago, James might've teased him for it, but he could understand why Sirius had felt the need to be cautious; James had never really considered himself available. He'd gone straight from not caring about dating anyone, to being convinced that Lily was his soulmate. If James had been in Sirius's shoes, he wouldn't have done anything either. 

The part about it that he didn't really understand was where Sirius didn't tell him about his soulmark when he asked about it. If it was so obvious, then it would make perfect sense to tell James so that they could get together. 

And then he thought about it some more and realised that it had worked out, anyways. Sirius hadn't needed to tell him that they were soulmates. He'd said, "We date for a little bit," and left it to James to put the pieces together. Sirius really was brilliant, wasn't he? James didn't need to be told flat out that Sirius was his soulmate anymore, because he knew that it was true. Yes, he'd put the clues together until they made sense, but more than that, he'd dated Sirius, and it had felt right. Maybe a little awkward from time to time when one of them thought it was a date and the other thought the whole Marauders group was invited, but they were right where they needed to be. 

They were still mates even though they were dating too, and that meant everything to James. Maybe that's what it meant to be soulmates, for them. He's always wondered how he would know how to be with his soulmate, but now that he was there, it was the easiest thing in the world-- behind riding a broom, because, honestly. 

*

About a month and a half into dating, Sirius said, "You haven't asked me about my soulmark." 

"I know." 

"Why haven't you?" 

James smiled at him. "Because I don't need to see it to know what we are to each other." 

*

Over the summer, James showed his soulmark to Sirius. They hadn't shagged yet, and probably wouldn't for a while longer, so it was a bit awkward to pull his pants down enough to show him. Sirius was sitting next to him and not across from him, so all he had to do was look down to read it. 

"You see why I was confused?" James joked. 

Sirius snickered. "I still think it was obvious." 

"Everyone calls her the brightest witch in our year, and I didn't know that your star was the brightest in the sky, alright? And in my defense, as soon as I learned that, I figured it out." 

"You didn't already know that?" 

"Not all of us grow up learning about constellations." 

"Aww, poor baby," Sirius cooed, ruffling James's hair. 

James bat his hand away and pulled his clothes back to their usual positions. 

"Ugh, I guess that this is the part where I show you mine," Sirius groused, but he didn't look actually upset. He pulled his foot up close and unbuttoned the cuff he had covering his ankle. 

James tilted his head to get a better look at it. 

27 March 1960 

"You've got to be sodding kidding me. Really?" James asked, looking up at Sirius, who shrugged. "I get something completely cryptic, and you get my birthday. That's bollocks." 

"Hey, be happy for us. If it weren't for me knowing what was going on, you'd still be chasing after Lily's skirt." 

"I would not," James denied. "I would've caught on before that." 

Sirius snorted, putting the cuff back on. "Whatever gets you through the night, mate." 

"Be nice to me," James whined, leaning into him heavily. 

Sirius pressed a kiss to the top of his head. “I’m always nice to you.” 

[arsonistslut]

Chapter 9: Reminders of Tragedy

"Hey, Jane!"

"Hey, Ingrid! How is my favorite person in the world?"

Jane's girlfriend of a good 9 years now happily walked over and kissed her on the cheek, beaming as she always seemed to do whenever she looked at her lover.

"Amazing now that you're here. Hey, you wanna go to that party Randy's having at his house tomorrow?"

"He's having a party? I didn't figure him the partying type."

"Despite the whole business parents thing, he is a real party animal. Hey, you know what's weird about the party?"

"What is?"

"He invited that Jeff guy there..y'know, that creep with the Conduct Disorder?"

She gestured to the tall, dark clothed young adult that sat alone at a lunch table nearby, playing with a switchblade.

"Hey, I remember him being pretty nice.."

"Remember him? You two date at some point?"

"We did, actually, wayyyy back."

Jane smirked when she saw the look of surprise and pride on Ingrid's face when she realized she guessed right.

"What was he like?"

"He was a sweetheart. Cheesy, but a sweetheart. Hell, even cheesier than me."

"Jane, you've carved our names into multiple trees. There's no out-cheesing that."

"Oh, you wouldn't believe how we met, either. My dad was out mowing the lawn, and he accidentally ran over a rock and it hit Jeff in the head."

"Oof, that sounds bad.."

"I visited him in the hospital with my parents one time, and I will never forget what he said to me as a pick-up line."

"What did he say?"

Jane cleared her throat, before trying her darndest to do an impression of a young Jeff.

"Did you come from heaven? Because you look like an angel!"

Ingrid couldn't help but let out a giggle as she quickly pulled Jane into her arms.

"Aww, that sounds so cute!"

"It was!"

Jeff himself was hearing this conversation from afar, the little tricks he played with his knife not an adequate distraction from the constant reminder of what could've been.

"I don't think he handled our breakup too well..nobody really wanted to treat him as anything other than a freak after his diagnosis went public. One time, I heard him ranting to his brother about how it was hypocritical of the school to do a health topic on depression when they wouldn't stop judging him for his CD."

"Sheesh, it sounds like he's been through a lot..poor kid could use a friend."

"It doesn't really look like he wants any. Liu isn't sitting with him..that's weird, Liu always sits with him."

"Prolly had an argument or something, you know siblings."

"Yeah.."

The day continued without incident, Jeffrey getting home at the same time as usual..yet his mind was not thinking about the party, or school, he was thinking about Jane and Ingrid. Why was Jane so special that she had everything she wanted in life and not him? What crime did he commit that landed him with absent parents, demonization from his peers, and a fucking smile cut into his face? That love, that relationship they had..Jeff came to the conclusion that it was something to be destroyed.

Liu, meanwhile, was..struggling with something. Something he never expected would be a problem in his life. Lately, he began having these thoughts..these violent, awful, intrusive thoughts, thoughts that seemed to be begging to be spoken aloud, the actions they describe seeming to grow more and more appealing as time passed.

Kill Randy.

Maim Keith.

Skin Troy like the cattle he is.

Maybe if he gave the thoughts an identity, they'd be easier to handle, he thought as he thought of a name for these urges..one stood out from the others. Not at all goofy, but not as laughably edgy as the other options.

Chapter 10: Enter Sully

Liu ended up speaking to Sully for the entire night..and even into the morning. When Jeff woke up the next morning, he could already hear Liu downstairs talking with..someone.

"It's sad, really..so concerned about themselves..no time spared for you."

"I-I guess..but they've got more important things to worry about.."

"Child, they do not have a thought in them about you. They're all self centered egomaniacs that would rather get pushed around by a genetic failure of a human rather than do anything about their situation!"

"That's not true, Sully! You're lying!"

A horrible growl soon came from the room.

"We are friends, child! Friends do not lie to each other, do they?"

"I..I guess not..goodbye for now, Sully."

"Where are you going?"

"I..I need some time to think."

Liu got back up, jumping from fear when he saw his brother staring at him.

"Holy shit, Jeff! You scared me!"

"I bet."

Awkward silence soon filled the dining room where they stood.

"Hey, Jeff...?"

"What?"

"I'm..sorry about punching you, and saying all that shit about you. I shouldn't have done that."

"No shit, Sherlock."

The elder brother turned around and began walking back up to his room, but not before his brother called out to him.

"Hey..is there any way I could make things up between us?"

"You could make things up by not betraying my trust again. You're all I've got, Liu..don't pull a Jane and fuck it up for me."

Liu always did question that grudge Jeff held for his ex, after all, he chatted with her in the past, and it always seemed like she genuinely enjoyed what her and Jeff had, and she always felt bad for leaving him like that. Hell, it sounded like it was as painful for her to leave him as it was for him to find out that his girlfriend left him. He was tempted to point that out, but he feared ruining things with his brother again.

"Alright.."

Chapter 11: A Hell of A Party

When Jane and Ingrid rounded the corner home, they found..a disturbing sight. A dead raccoon laying in the middle of the street, it's guts ripped out of it's body and thrown aside, Jeff gleefully pawing through the freshly murdered animal, childishly gawking and giggling over the corpse.

"Hey, Jeffrey! What happened here, what the fuck did you do?!"

Ingrid cried out to the blood-soaked kid, who looked up at her, confusion riddling his bloodied face.

"I killed a raccoon. It's not like anyone's gonna miss it."

"Why, you little-"

Ingrid slapped Jeffrey right across the face, knocking him to the ground as Jane held her girlfriend back and tried to keep the situation from escalating any further.

"What the hell was that for?!"

"You killed a helpless animal, you freak!!"

"I oughta kill you next, you piece of-"

Woods choked on his own spittle as he made his threat, never having been particularly..elegant with his words.

"Oh, really?! I'll kick your teeth down your fucking throat!"

"I swear to God, I'll strangle you with your own fucking intestines!!"

When Jeff reached for his switchblade, Jane panicked and grabbed her lover's hand, running off with her as Woods continued to scream at them.

"Your last words better be some Mark Twain shit, because it's going on your tombstone!! You hear me?!"

That experience was all on Jane's mind as she watched Jeff steadily get more and more wasted by the bonfire outside as time went on, at least, what glimpses she could catch of him when she wasn't busy dancing with the other students. Randy was also outside, reluctantly playing Truth Or Dare with the others as well as his increasingly hot and bothered enemy.

"Ok, Jeff!"

"Whaddup, baby?~"

"Truth or dare?"

"Dare, hit me with the worst ya got!"

"Slow dance with Randy."

"What the-no! I'm straight as a arrow, dude!"

"So is spaghetti until it gets wet~"

"Jeff, never say that again."

"C'mooooon, do the dare, ya pussy~ I don't bite!~"

Woods took his time getting up, but still had enough cognitive function to put on Grover Washington Jr's "Just The Two Of Us", to try and improve the mood, but Randy still wasn't having any of it. In a last ditch effort to try and seduce Randy, Jeffrey just..up and took his shirt off. That'll get things going, right? No, it didn't. Despite some swooning from some of his classmates, Randy himself didn't want any part of this. He was a few drinks deep as well, so in a drunken haze, he grabbed one of the bottles of booze they had, took a running start, and smashed it right over Jeff's head. The problem with that is that they were only a couple feet away from a bonfire, so when Jeff stumbled backward, he fell right into it, the alcohol on his exposed flesh quickly igniting. He quickly burst into flames, screaming and running off as the fire quickly seared his body, every remaining nerve ending he had that wasn't burnt away shocking his body with waves of pain. He could feel his scalp burning up once his hair was scorched away, finally finding solace in a nearby puddle that put out the flames. Jeff could see his life flashing before his eyes..his family, his brother..that was all he could see. As Randy and the other students' screams of horror faded away, Woods silently cursed himself for not doing anything more with his life..a single bloody tear rolled down his face as he shut his eyes for what he believed would be the last time.

Chapter 12: The End Of The Beginning

Suddenly..he was in some sort of void. The ground beneath him was black as pitch, and footsteps began to grow ever closer to him. When Jeff looked to see who was approaching, he found no earthly being waiting for his attention. When he laid his eyes on whatever approached, the previously totally dark void began to turn a sickly red. What stood before him was a monster unlike any other, an otherwordly monster many believed to be a mere tall tale.

HE COMES.

[writingforevren]

for @ockissweek this is a cute and fluffy short I made with my characters Max and Finn from my WIP Rainclouds that’s based a few years after the events of Rainclouds take place. You get to see a little bit of this ship in the WIP but since it’s one of my favorite things to write I decided to write this. Hope you enjoy! :)

It’d been years. Years and years since they’d last seen each other. And then one day- They were just there all the sudden.

Finn waited by the front of the University for Max to show up. He had agreed to show them around town since they had just recently enrolled. He wasn’t sure if Max was actually going to show up at this point and actually felt a little disappointed. He sighed and turned to walk away before hearing,

“Oi Finny where are you going? I thought you were gonna take me around town.” Finn spun around to see the familiar face with cropped black hair and a goofy smile on their face, “Don’t tell me you were gonna leave without me.”

“Finny?” Finn questioned and felt a smile play at his lips.

“Well that is your name right Finny?” Max grinned and approached him, placing a hand on Finn’s shoulder, “Now come on then let’s go I want to see the sights and you’re gonna show me them.”

“Yeah alright, honestly I was doubting whether you’d show up at all.”

“Awe I’m hurt that you’d think that low of me Finny…” Max paused then looked Finn up and down. “Have you gotten shorter?”

“Oh my god it’s been four years and that’s all you can say...” Finn rolled his eyes.

“No but seriously you used to be like this tall,” Max held their hands up as an example, “And now you’re like-“ They moved their hands closer together, “This tall.”

“Bloody hell you’re just as annoying as ever…” Finn muttered.

“Finny, Did you shrink? Did you meet a witch who transformed you into a dwarf or something?” Max said rather dramatically.

Finn couldn’t help but laugh, “Maybe, you just… grew.” He said as if growing was an abstract idea.

“No you definitely got shrunk by a witch and I’m sticking to that.”

Finn snorted, “Alright if you insist now let’s actually walk shall we?”

Max giggled, “I mean I suppose that’s our only option considering we can’t fly, though that would be my preferred method of transportation”

“Come on then,” Finn said from a bit further in front of Max.

“Oh! Yeah alright I’m coming,” Max ran to catch up with him.

Finn led Max along the sidewalk for a bit and eventually they approached a pair of giant trees that had begun to change colors with autumn. Max looked up at the trees and smiled. 

“Pretty place innit?” Finn gazed up at the trees and stuffed his hands into his pockets.

“Oh it’s lovely! Especially with all of the autumn colors,” Max beamed.

“C’mon now there’s still a lot to see and we don’t have all day,” Finn grabbed Max’s hand and lead them away, though their gaze didn’t tear away from the colorful trees. 

“It’s so pretty…”

They had spent the day exploring every corner and possibly every shop in the town and by the end of it they were- in short exhausted.

“So what’d you think?” Finn asked.

“It was fun, I like the town, it’s really pretty and as that familiar small town vibe that I remember so well,” Max replied as they plopped down on a park bench.

“Yeah,” Finn smiled and took a seat next to them.

"Kinda reminds me of school.. y'know when we used to sneak out into town and do dumb shit instead of doing our homework.”

“Right,” Finn snickered. 

“Hey Finn?..” Max asked softly, turning to him.

“Yeah?..” Finn replied, turning his attention back towards them. He was suddenly aware of how close they were and after second he asked again, “What?..”

“I- uhm... nevermind,” Max tore their gaze away from Finn and looked down.

“You can tell me or do whatever you want or whatever uhm…” Finn found himself blurting out.

Max snickered, “God you’re like a fucking puppy.”

“Huh?..” Finn questioned, how was he like a puppy?..

Max cupped his face and Finn felt the soft press of their lips against his own. He froze for a moment as his senses were overwhelmed. He could faintly taste the sweetness of their vanilla lip balm, that he wished to taste more. He pressed his lips against Max’s, gently kissing them back as he wrapped his arms around their neck. 

Finn suddenly broke the kiss, “I- Max you know we can’t do this right?” he said breathlessly though their noses were still touching and their lips were only an inch apart. He could lie and say that he didn’t like it- but that would be a lie- but he didn’t really fancy cheating on his boyfriend with his lost friend. Friend? Honestly he wasn’t sure what their relationship was anymore.

Max pulled away, “Oh yeah- sorry,” they laughed awkwardly.

“You’re an idiot y’know?” Finn grinned.

“I know,” Max smiled at him.

“Well there’s a tree-“ Finn changed the subject as he turned his gaze to a large maple tree.

Max paused and then said as if reading Finn’s mind, “Finny, just because I like to climb trees doesn’t mean-“ Finn grabbed their hand and dragged them to the tree.

“Go on, climb it,” Finn gestured to the maple tree.

“No I’m not gonna climb it just ‘cause you told me to,” Max crossed their arms and stared up at the tree.

“But you’re a tree penguin remember?” Finn snickered.

“And you’re a bloody idiot,” Max lightly punched his arm.

“I’m the idiot?” Finn raised his eyebrows.

“Damnit Finny…” Max swore.

“Oh come on climb it.”

“Well it’s not like you’re gonna do anything if I don’t.”

“You doubt me?” Finn cracked his knuckles

“Ohoh so scary what’re you gonna do with that? You can’t even barely reach me,” Max snickered.

Finn contemplated what exactly he would do for a second before tackling Max to the grass, “Nobody makes fun of my height.”

Max laughed, “Actually everyone does It’s a common way of making fun of you.”

“Fuck you..” 

This just made Max laugh more, “No thanks but I am curious now what do you plan to do with me now that you have me on the ground?” They looked up at Finn with a grin on their face.

Finn felt his a light burn on his cheeks, “Uhm-“

“Well it’s too late now.”

Finn felt both of his wrists get grabbed as he was pushed off by Max, “Well shit.”

Max laughed as they pushed Finn down, “Oh how the tables have turned.”

“What tables? I hate to break it to you Max but we’re in grass.”

“It’s a form of expression my friend and I have absolutely no clue where it came from.”

“God you’re an idiot…” Finn smiled.

“Well if you hadn’t noticed we both are.”

“At least I didn’t fail fourth grade English.”

“Are you seriously gonna hold that against me for the rest of my life?”

“Does this remind you of anything?” 

“Hmmm,” Max paused, “School?”

Finn smiled, “Exactly.”

“Your point?”

“I like it..”

Max giggled, “Okay but why?”

“I dunno it’s almost freeing,” Finn reached up and ran a hand through their hair, brushing it from their face.

“You think so?”

“Mhm.. I don’t think I’ve done this since I last saw you.”

“What? Being pinned to the ground by me?” Max joked. 

Finn’s cheeks burned, “Ehh y-yeah I guess that too.”

“ Awe is somebody flustered?”  Max teased.

“No- Now move I wanna get up now,” Finn somehow was able to pull himself and Max up to sitting, but was now faced with the dilemma of Max in his lap. He was suddenly aware of how close they were.

"I'm surprised by your strength, Honestly Finny for a shorty like you it's impressive," Max smirked. 

“Don’t call me short,” Finn leaned in and pressed his lips against Max’s.

“Mm what’s this Finny I thought we weren’t supposed to,” Max said softly as their lips were still touching.

“It’s only a kiss it’s fine,” Finn replied, “Plus I want to see if you’ve improved,” He pressed his lips against Max’s again. 

He felt his heartbeat quicken as Max kissed him back and tangled their hands in his hair. It was as if time had slowed and the moment would last forever. There they shared a passionate moment under the large maple tree. It felt... bloody brilliant yet so wrong at the same time.

Thanks for reading! 

This isn’t my best piece of work but I thought it was cute so I wanted to share anyway.

if you like these characters you can read my WIP Rainclouds to see more of them.

Rainclouds taglist: @zoya-writes (ask to be +/-)

General writing taglist: (ask to be +)

[deeisace]

Well. That seems to have been about three dreams stitched into one.

Or at least, three sort of plotlines in the same universe, maybe?

Mystery, magic, murder and mayhem, that's for sure

Also, I don't usually have like, sexy dreams, but uh. Crozier and Fitzjames came round to dinner to mine (everything was Victorian era, and my flat was in the Ropewalks), and then uh. Ended up fucking another in-dream friend of mine (witchy lady, I've forgotten her name but she seemed very, well, I-know-what-I-want) in my kitchen - it was a sort of thing, where I didn't want to,,, get involved, shall we say, with this witchy woman, or at least that particular time (I got the impression she was very intense), so Francis basically went, alright, we'll do it since you won't

I won’t go into detail of uh, what happened, but I fell asleep at the table, anyway, and was woken up by several of - my colleagues?? I'm not sure but I knew them and they were police - and so me and the witchy lady, and someone else, I'm not sure, we scarpered out the window and over the roof (roofs? rooves?), were turned into caymans, them little alligator fellas, and swum about in a big shallow pond a while

And I found, in the pond, this -- sort of aleithiometer-looking thing, except that it had three faces all in a line, all clockwork, and also sand hourglasses that you span like a time-turner, and this, instead of answering questions, granted wishes - sort of, you'd have to be very careful about your wording, which is tricky when you've only got like three little pictures to use

Anyway, it was just the same as one that Fitzjames kept on him at all times, under his shirt - I'd seen it, briefly, at dinner, and he gave me a very intense sort of hypnotise-y look over the second course, so as to say 'none of your business'

So I took this aleithiometer thing out of the pond (and a book on it's use, somehow bone dry), and it seemed to be working - I didn't use it, but I could hear the tick, and I had to stop someone else (not the witchy lady, the other now-cayman woman who was with us for some reason) from immediately spinning it about, god only knows what that would've caused

Then I was in a rich man's house (back looking human), that he was preparing to leave and/or sell (the rich man was very Colin Firth-esque, and this is all still very Victorian), and I wandered round - nobody seemed to be able to see me, so I stole some bits and pieces - a book that would fit in my pocket, a couple of shiny silver buttons - there was a servant, doing a similar thing - not stealing, but wandering around and saying goodbye to the house - and then he, I think it was him but there might've been a last minute cast change in my head, he, or another-he, took a rifle, and went out into the woods

He was going to shoot himself, because though he had been cleared, he had been suspected - by the police and his employer (the aforesaid Colin Firth) - of murdering Colin Firth's daughter

He hadn't, but it weighed so heavy on his mind, that he could believe that of him, even so briefly, when they had known each other for so very many years

Anyway, I followed him for a while, in a distracted sort of way, more interested by my floaty yellow skirt and hopping over fallen trees then I was in this poor man's inner turmoil, and I didn't see the actual deed

Anyway then I was back in town, around the Ropewalks I think, all still Victorian or before then, and I came down the stairs to my flat down into the street, where there was maybe a sort of market on? Or at least, it was incredibly busy (unless that's my being used to covid levels of people), with all sorts of things going on, stalls and not tents but marquees maybe? Y'know those, where it's just fabric stretched out as a roof? Anyway, lots of people, and the doors to pubs open, so I could hear the music - and I saw a man playing guitar I thought I knew, but it wasn't who I thought. He was playing music tho, singing songs that sounded very familiar, so I tried to hum along as I walked - there was a pyramid-shaped juggling ball I almost trod on, and chucked back to a group of children under one of those tarp things, and a man giving out leaflets who knew my boat was booked for Thursday, and somewhere there I fell into step with a man I knew from working at Oxfam, and I'm not sure what Tom was doing there, but he was headed down in the same direction as me, and could hear the man playing guitar much better than I could by this point, and was singing snatches of the song himself - I tried to remember any of it, but it's far-and-away gone now I've woken up

Anyway, we walked all down to the end of the road, and how the ropewalks streets come diagonally on to the crossroads, we were suddenly back in the modern world, with cars all there and traffic lights - I took a little too long to cross to the island in this road, and a very angry man in a convertible car (it was summer, or at least nice and sunny) went on the lights rather than actually paying attention to what was happening, and hit me

Not, like, it didn't even knock me down, but I had to keep my balance by holding on to the grill of the car and hauling myself standing straight again, and the man in the car was very angry (tho I couldn't understand a word he said, it was just angry noise) that I didn't immediately get out of his way

And I stood there a second, such to keep my balance, then carried on, and I could feel a bruise forming on the side my left calf

And then I woke up!

Well, I'm not at all sure what to think about all that, really, but I'm glad we're going away from the actual visceral bloody murder (and puppets) and back towards my usual time travel dreams again ^^

[astraladvent]

A Way Forward.

Berrod Armstrong: "Ey."

Sarij Rahzersyn: "Ey, go ahead and sit down. Sadly this shite is business related." Sarij's face seemed worn with dark circles under his eyes.

Berrod Armstrong himself was rather bruised where his skin was visible -- there was  scabbing cut on his right shoulder. "I figured as much."

Sarij Rahzersyn: "Ya doing better?" The Roegadyn quickly sidetracked to Berrod's injuries.

Berrod Armstrong: "I'll be fine," Berrod mentioned quickly.

Sarij Rahzersyn: "Has anyone briefed ya on what 'appened after ya were knocked out?"

Berrod Armstrong shook his head. "I only jus' came to, bein' honest. Got your call when I was sittin' on the edge o'the bed."

Sarij Rahzersyn: "After the apparent explosion down by the ship, an unidentified aggressor sunk the the Maelstrom vessel, all but thirteen were killed in that attack, their captain included." Sarij spoked in a low voice.

Berrod Armstrong twisted his mouth. "Did they die knowin' what they were goin' after? Or were they in the dark like our people?"

Sarij Rahzersyn frowned at Berrod after the second question. "No, they knew. It is was why I was restricted from going, which makes this... mess more of a problem."

Berrod Armstrong made a noise between his teeth. "Damn grand companies. The one person we -needed- there was the one person they wouldn't let go. How do those bastards get anythin' done? It ain't like you were gonna jus' turn into a damn pirate captain by bein' there. What's done is done, it ain't hurtin' -them- any."

Sarij Rahzersyn: "I had tah be .. him tah get the Maelstrom and Fayre'a  out of there because no one was listening to my orders over the pearl." Sarij sighed loudly. "Used an old haunt in the region that had an aetheryte to get them back home. Which means, the pirates know Blutvyse is still around."

Berrod Armstrong exhaled slowly, and rubbed at his temple with a gloved hand. "Awright," He grunted, "...though it'd be damn stupid of 'em to mess with you. What happens now?"

Sarij Rahzersyn: "I know she is dead... she has to be. I killed here." The Roegadyn lifted his left hand up for a moment. "Tied her to that mast and watched the whole ship sink. Her death is partly why I am not in a Maelstrom gaol or worse."

Berrod Armstrong tapped a finger on the table. "...so we have to get this sorted then. Confirm she's dead so that they get off your back?"

Sarij Rahzersyn: "Ideally, aye. However, it ain't so simple as covering my arse now. If my arse ain't covered, the company arse ain't covered." Sarij exhaled and paused. "Which is why I actually asked fer ya."

Berrod Armstrong 's jaw shifted to the left slightly. "Yeah?"

Sarij Rahzersyn: "Unfortunately, the company members tend that think orders from the Director are suggestions as of late. Probably could blame that on Mountain or fact my injuries have kept me from the field." Sarij almost groaned as he spoke. "Regardless, the moment ya were unable to act in the field I could have been begging and no one but Fayre'a did what I asked. Reks almost teleported the entire team away before looking for Maelstrom survivors."

Berrod Armstrong 's jaw tightened. "Go on."

Sarij Rahzersyn: "Asking Cerina tah take up a mantle similar to Director ain't her tea. She is the type that is far better in the field and getting things done physically." The Seawolf's eyes were almost apologetic. "I hafta use my resources to make sure the company works, and should I get hauled away the company keeps functioning. I am offering ya the co-director position while giving yer position and steward tah Cerina."

Berrod Armstrong took a deep breath, tilted his head back a bit, then exhaled slowly. "I'll do it -- but on one condition."

Sarij Rahzersyn: "Aye?"

Berrod Armstrong leaned forward and pressed an index finger onto the surface of the table. "You -tell- 'em what's goin' on. Nobody needs to know she's your mother. That ain't their business. They need to know thought, that it's somethin' from yer old days, an' that it's important that it gets wrapped up to keep the company goin'. We can't make the same mistakes Mountain did. We gotta have them on our side, workin' -at- our side. They ain't tools. Even it they -act- like tools sometimes."

Sarij Rahzersyn: "I am not sure telling them their director was a mass murderer is the best." Sarij replied swiftly, but sighed. "The attacks were happening a moon before we got involved.  Yes, we are involved because the Maelstrom know it is old crews associated wit' me, but I... " He rambled for tick or two. "If I merely tell them it is something I used to be involved with, which is why the Maelstrom are on our door. Is that acceptable?"

Berrod Armstrong leaned back again, "I don't think it'll matter...it's not like some o'them are squeaky clean." He rubbed at his bruised forehead and looked just a little stressed, "You know the reason why I been keepin' my shite away from the company? S'cause I don't wanna have to explain everythin' to everyone. Because if it does, they'll need to know so that they can help." His tone moved from a stern rumble to something slightly more gentle, "As odd as it sounds, Flowers...they need to know so that they can make better decisions...so that your orders make sense. An'...well, so they know that they're more to us than' just sellswords, y'know? They're our comrades. You can give 'em that short version, but what happens when they start askin' questions? You know they like their questions."

Sarij Rahzersyn: "Yer pretty blind aren't ya. I ain't Mountain with his silver tongue of a gentleman, and I ain't ya who has nearly every member knocking on yer door should ya stub yer toe or wanting ya to teach them. Even when Mountain BLOODY MURDERED that Miqo'te everyone ignored it. I took him out because he was endangering the company and I had threats and folks trying to undermine me. I have had to fight tooth and nail tah keep this company from being SHUT DOWN." Sarij's voice start to rise. "And explaining away godcomplex manikins, golden horned cultists, primals, airship attacks, sniper fire, bloody voidsent, and whatever else I have had to explain away to tribunals, but I know the moment I show a single flaw outside of being a hardass people will be hammering for ya to entirely replace or clamoring fer Mountain to come back."

Berrod Armstrong settled his hands onto his lap, where they gripped the fabric of his coat. "I ain't blind," He stated first and foremost. His tone was steady, but it was clear that the statement had bothered him, "I jus' believe that maintainin' a -real- relationship with our people is gonna help. Mountain fooled a good few of 'em sure, but we know that he don't really care about 'em. But if you sit down an' put your cards on the table for our people, you'll get support. An' those who don't wanna support you...why in the hells are they even -here-? I know what you've done to keep the company floatin', Flowers. It ain't gone unnoticed. Especially when I gotta go to bed alone sometimes. But...the company's the people too, an' I think they need to know what they're gonna be fightin' for. An' I think it'll mean a whole lot if it comes from you." He paused, then lifted his hands to crack his knuckles, "An' if anybody tries to use that as a reason to get at you, they'll have me to answer to."

Sarij Rahzersyn: "I'm... just tired of cleaning up messes and people not listening when I tell them not to repeat the same thing.  I could have the must genuine relationship but I don't think they will take what I say without questioning it. I just need help... there is too much to deal with that most folks never see." Sarij frowned and covered his face. "I had to ...pretend to kill Fayre'a to get him out of there. He has a bloody hand print around his neck. I am not excited about revisting that to explain."

Berrod Armstrong rubbed the back of his neck, "The questionin' thing is annoyin'. Though, a explanation don't hurt. If they question -too- much then they're jus' wastin' time though. When I was on the helm sometimes the questionin' used to help me see things I missed...so it uh -- it ain't all that bad. Though, you're better at this whole thing than me so that stuff might jus' be annoyin' to you." His hand slid down and settled on the table, "Either way, I'll do it, I guess -- but I want you to take my  suggestion seriously."

Sarij Rahzersyn: "I will." Sarij unconvered his face. "Though to be honest I don't have bloody seven hells what we are gonna do if they have a ship that goes underwater. We don't do so well underwater and doesn't look like ships last long either."

Sarij Rahzersyn lifted his hand to his ear.

Berrod Armstrong shrugged his shoulders. "Neither me. Well. We could find it an' try to take it...then get our tinkerin' boys to see how it works an' make ones of our own, maybe. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

[mademoiselleenjolras]

Brothers

Hey there, so here’s the thing I was working on during the storm, now that my wifi is fully functional again (thank ya GOD!). Actually, my first fanfic on this site. It’s kinda crap and longer than I expected but I’m okay with how it turned out for the most part. Tw for mentions of abuse, but its all under the tab. Enjoy, I guess, and let me know what you think!

"What the-" The voice came from below him, down on the street.

Race froze. His mind kept screaming at him- keep moving keep moving keep don't get caught don't let them see you- but fear kept him locked in place. He hugged his knees a little tighter and willed whoever it was to walk past. Maybe it wasn’t him they had seen.

"Race? That you?"

A small sob escaped him. Someone had found him. He recognized the voice, he knew he should be able to place it, but he was so damn cold and he was so damn scared he couldn't get his brain to work. The fire escape shook and he heard the ladder being pulled down. No no no don't come up here don't find me please don't hurt me-

"Whoever you is, I's comin' up there. Just hang on a sec." More shaking. Race couldn't tell if it was the whole fire escape or if his own tremors had started back up. Someone was coming for him. He had to go, now. Before he could jog his body into movement once again, a very familiar head appeared at the top of the ladder.

Jack blinked for a moment as his eyes adjusted to the lower light. "Racetrack?" He asked. "What the hell're you doin' up here? It's freezin' out!" He pulled himself up onto the fire escape, moving toward him, and Race scrambled back and away. Jack, oblivious to the terror running through his friend, kept coming closer. He caught a glimpse of the bruise across Race's face, the bloodied lip. The leader's concern skyrocketed. "Jesus, Racer, what the hell?" He exclaimed, reaching for him.

"N-no, no don't!" The younger boy cried, eyes wild and breathing rapid. He flung his arms up over his face to protect himself. Jack stopped in his tracks. He kept still for several seconds, shock written across his features, before it melted into something softer.

"Easy there, Race, it's just me. It's Jack," he said, keeping his voice low. Race continued to tremble, but it looked as though he were listening. "I ain't gonna hurt'cha, you knows that."

Race's head picked back up. "J-J-Jack?" He questioned, eyes gassy with tears. It couldn't be Jack, there was no way Jack had found him, he couldn't even dare to hope. God, Race, stop being so ridiculous, you’ve been jumped before, you're fine, they didn't get you-

Jack's voice cut through his rapid thoughts. "The one an' only," he confirmed. He held out his palms to show he truly meant no harm. "You okay?"

Race looked at his friend for another moment before another sob escaped him. He buried his face in his knees as more followed, the dam having finally broken. Jack moved closer, keeping his movements slow and visible. "Can I touch ya?" When he received a nod, he wrapped his arms around Race and pulled him into a hug. Race held tight, his short-circuiting mind piecing together Jack and safe and warm.

"Easy, Racer, I got'chas," Jack reassured him, one hand running up and down his back in a comforting way. "Yer alright, I's got'cha. Christ, you's freezin', y'know that? What happened?" He questioned. Worry gnawed at his gut as he tried to rub some warmth back into the younger boy's arms. He shrugged out of his coat and immediately wrapped it around Racetrack, still waiting for an answer. "We's been lookin' for ya's all night."

"I...there was...I..." Race tried several times, but between the chattering of his teeth and the shaky sobs he couldn't seem to get a handle on, he couldn't force the explanation out. Jack quickly decided not to push it.

"Alright, alright kid, don' hurt yourself!" He said. "It ain't that important. You's safe now." Race just clung on tighter. Jack was here, that meant he was safe, that meant it was over. He could go home.

Beside him, Jack was considering the same thing. One look at Race's blue fingers and the snow in his blonde hair was enough to convince him that the kid had been out for far too long. Still, he didn't know just how busted up Race was. There was a real chance that he wouldn't be able to move- it had certainly happened to guys in the lodging house before. All he could tell now was that Race was absolutely terrified of something. It took a lot to knock the precocious gambler into a state like this, and Jack knew it.

Eventually, Race's sobs died off into sniffles. "Thought he was gonna get me," he said quietly, the first full statement he had managed since Jack's arrival. Anger flared up in Jack's chest, neck-and-neck with concern. Racetrack Higgins was his second in command, his friend, every bit his little brother. Whatever, or whoever, had done this to his brother would pay.

"Ain't nobody gonna get'cha, Racer. I ain't gonna let 'em," he swore fiercely. "But you's gonna hafta tell me who it was what did this."

Race still refused to meet his eye. He pulled away, hoping to save at least a little bit of face, but Jack stayed close enough that their shoulders were still pressed together. Cold, hurting, and exhausted, Race gave up on arguing.

"Mi Papá," he said, keeping his voice low as if the man's very title could cause him to appear. Jack felt his heart sink- Race's family had always been a sore subject. Not many of the boys knew just how bad it was, but Jack had been the one to shake him out of plenty of nightmares. He had been there when Race had first run away and joined the newsies, just a banged up, loud-mouth Italian kid who flinched when you raised your voice but scrapped for all he was worth when the Delanceys looked at a younger kid sideways. It had been five years since then, and the reappearance of Race's father was unsettling to say the least. "Him and his buddies saw me comin' back from Sheepshead. I ain't seen 'im since... since I..."

"Since ya ran away?" Jack finished for him, unable to keep quiet.

Race nodded. "Yeah. Since that. He wasn't too keen on the idea that I ain't dead. There was three of 'em. They got in a real good soakin', an' I tried to fight back but... there was three of 'em." He shrugged, looking down. The offset angle of a street lamp highlighted the already-dark bruising around one of his eyes.

Jack nudged his arm. "Hey, ya couldn't'a taken 'em all on. Ain't no shame in that. How'd ya get out of it?"

Race swallowed thickly. His mouth suddenly went dry- what if he told Jack and Jack decided it was too dangerous for him to stay in the lodging house? What if Jack kicked him out? The very thought was enough for make his eyes sting again, and he dug his nails into his palm to keep from crying again. He wasn't worth the trouble to keep around, and he knew it. But he couldn't lie to Jack, not when he was out here in the cold sitting with Race's half-hysterical self. He couldn't do that to his brother.

"He said... he said a lotta things, while they was knockin' the shit outa me," he started. "But when he said he was gonna take me back t'... that place, I panicked and I ran."

Jack nodded. Everyone knew how fast Race could be when it mattered- it was part of what had earned him the nickname. If he managed to get free for even a second, bolting would easily have gotten him away. Being dragged back to his childhood home definitely gave him reason to take flight. "They was chasin' me for hours; s'why I never came back."

"Ya been hiding' out up here all night?" Jack asked. Race nodded again. "Well, I ain't gonna let 'im take ya, that's for damn sure," Jack said. Silence reigned for a minute as the pair dissolved into their own thoughts. Neither seemed to have much more to say on the subject.

Jack looked at the younger boy, taking in his hunched shoulders and the downcast look. He wasn’t the gambler Race was, but he had a feeling that he could place a safe bet on what his friend was thinking. He’d been there himself. At first, Jack considered saying nothing. Now that Race seemed to have calmed down, he wasn’t quite sure what to say. Conversations like this had never been his strong suit. Usually, he left them up to Crutchie, too much of a coward to really discuss feelings with anyone. Race was the same way; Jack had seen it. If he tried to hand this one off to Crutchie, or anyone for that matter, Race would run. This time, Jack was going to have to talk to his brother himself.

"Listen, Racer..." he started hesitantly, rubbing at the back of his neck. "When the old man used ta knock me around, he used ta... say stuff too." Race's ears perked up at the mention of Jack's father, nearly as taboo as the mention of his own. He turned to face him, curious. Taking that as a good sign, Jack continued. "Stuff about how I wasn't worth nothin', I was trouble, I was shit." He looked at Race, meeting the younger boy's eye with a serious expression. "Y'can't listen to what they says, alright? You's worth bein' 'round, and we wants ya 'round with us. Anythin' else he said ain't true. We's yer family, and we cares about ya, and we's always gonna. You's better than anything he coulda ever come up with. Ya gotta remember that."

Race blinked at him. When he realized that Jack was finished, he looked away, sniffling once again. Jack’s words echoed in his head, helping to drive out the horrid ones his father had used. Race held onto them tightly and let them remind him. He had a family. People cared. "Thanks, Jackie," he said, unable to fight the small smile his brother's words had encouraged. "Means a lot."

Jack grinned at him and ruffled his hair, to which Race responded with a sour face and flailing arms. The moment was lost, but neither was sorry for it. "Any time, kid. Now c'mon, let's get ya outa the cold, 'fore ya gets sick. It's late, I'm sure they's long gone by now, and if they ain't, we'll take care of 'em together." He stood up, offering Race his hand. Race took it, wincing when the other boy pulled him to his feet. Everything from his head to his toes ached, reminding him that he had been out for far too long.

"You busted up too bad to walk home?" Jack asked with concern. The blond shook his head with a too-bright grin.

"Nah, I'll live. What's a soakin' when ya got a friend ta have yer back?"

Jack raised an eyebrow, unconvinced. "Well, ya looks like shit. We'll get ya cleaned up when we get back," he decided, poking at a bruise on Race's arm to prove his point.

Race winced and swatted his hand away. "You's... prob'ly right," he admitted sheepishly. "Guess they got me pretty good, huh?"

Rolling his eyes, Jack made for the ladder. "Lucky you's got a brother what knows how to fix ya up."

Race grinned. "Y'think Specs'll still be up this late?" He asked. Jack threw him a dirty look as he climbed down, before they both laughed.

"I see how it is," the older boy said, still feigning hurt. Race slugged him on the shoulder.

"Nah, I'm jus' teasin'. Thanks for comin' lookin' for me, and for... well, y'know," he finished as they reached the street, fiddling with the sleeves of Jack's coat. He took a step, but grimaced as his weight shifted painfully.

Jack tugged one of Race's arms around his shoulders, wrapping his other around him to support some of his weight. "Any time, Racer. Any time."

[geminiwriting]

Road Trip

Your eyes wandered over the bleak terrain that whizzed by, hills and hills of fresh fallen snow left untouched because there was nobody around for miles to disturb it.

Taehyung kept a steady pace of 80 miles an hour and an easy peace had taken over the small car as the two of you sped down the freeway. You glanced at the blinking numbers under the dashboard.

4:43

Neither of you had said a word for about three hours now, but it was hardly an imposition. Nights like these weren’t uncommon, in fact there were hardly ever nights that you weren’t moving around, it wasn’t safe to stay in one place too long. 

Although you hadn’t been his caretaker for long, Taehyung was generally easy to get along with, save for the mood swings he had when in need of another meal. You’d adopted this job since you became of age seeing as it was passed through your lineage and had finally befallen you. And while becoming his guardian was not something you’d chosen to do yourself, if this was your inescapable fate– to be bound to a monster such as he– you ought to do the best you could. 

Lame jokes, fast food, and a boxy smile were a constant in your life now and you were glad they didn’t take too long getting used to.

You were just beginning to doze off when Taehyung gave you a nudge and pointed out the shabby looking inn coming up on your left. You didn’t know why the owners of the place thought the middle of nowhere would be an ideal spot for tourist resting, but then again you two were going to be spending the day here so that was that.

Taehyung pulled into the inn’s parking lot and you slid out of the passenger side, telling him to wait in the car while you went to check yourselves in.

The air had a chill to it and there were no other cars in the lot, which meant no other tenants. You worried about how long Taehyung would be able hold out until he fed again.

Your feet crunched ice beneath you and you tugged your jacket closer to your body. White puffs of air escaped your lips and disappeared into the night.

The lobby of the inn was a single room with a table and two armchairs in it and a front desk. At the desk was a woman who looked as old as the oil paintings that decorated the nearly bare walls.

The old woman gave you a kind smile as you approached, cheeks rosy and skin weathered. 

There was a door on her left where you assumed was her living space. Who else would run the only inn in sight for miles and be up at this ungodly hour if not a tenant of its own residence? 

She clasped her hands on the tabletop and you gave her a small smile of your own.

“Room for two please.”

Her eyes were soft and brown, the eyes of a mother. 

“You’re a little younger than the folks that come by here,” she remarked as she reached behind her to grab a pair of keys off the rack behind her, “are you out here all by yourself?”

“Oh no, uh, I’ve got someone back there, actually,” you said gesturing to the car parked out front. The old woman grinned.

“Honeymoon, perhaps?” Your eyes went wide and the tips of your ears flushed as you stuttered and the old woman let out a hearty laugh.

You were still red in the face as the old woman gently pushed a clipboard to you. 

“Just sign your name here, sweetie,” she said gesturing to the roster. You noticed that the last check in was nearly six months ago and wondered how to old woman could stand to be holed up in this icy wasteland by herself.

“What about you, miss? Are you out here with anyone?”

You gave your identification information, fake of course, to her and slid the clipboard back.

“Nobody to spend cold nights with anyway. My honeymooning days ended a few years back.”

You frowned, “Oh. I’m sorry…” The old woman smiled knowingly.

“It’s okay, honey. It’s been a while. Every now and then my son comes by to stay for the winter. He’s always bringing back traveling stories, but never any grandchildren,” she sighed. 

She handed you your keys. 

“The fee is $60 a night, $10 more if you have a pet. The nearest grocery center is about a 20 minute drive straight down that road. Sundown is at 7:30 and try not to be too loud, it’ll bother the neighbors,” she listed off with a wink. You thanked her once more and in a second you were out the front door.

It was around 5 in the morning when you had settled into your temporary home place; the sun had just began to rise so you shut Taehyung in the dreary inn room while you unloaded your single suitcase from the car. 

Upon entering the room you tossed the case on the floor and made your way to a dusty looking couch that you happily flopped onto. The place was pretty average, if not less, for a run down inn: a fold out couch, an ancient looking television that looked like it hadn’t been used in years, and a bathroom that was separated from the rest of your living space by a moldy door. Home sweet home until Namjoon managed to find a more or less permanent place for you two to stay.

You closed your eyes, letting your nerves calm, and felt something brush your forehead. 

Opening one eye, you were met with Taehyung’s ruby red irises that curved, upside down, in a playful smile. You gave him a tired one back.

“You should get some rest. I won’t eat anyone ‘til you’re up again! Promise!” 

You arched a brow. “Oh, like the missing boy four towns back?” you teased with a hint of a smirk.

“Oh please he was hardly a boy, he was seventeen, and nobody is going to miss a homeless druggie,” your partner dismissed with the flick of his hand. His smile fell and he gave you a pleading look, “seriously though, get some shut eye you’ve been up for at least 20 hours.” His worried tone and furrowed brows eased your tension and you let your head fall back onto the couch.

“Wake me up if anyone comes to the door, alright?” your voice was drowsy and trailing and Taehyung gave an “m'kay” in response. With one last glance to your undead partner, you shut your eyes and let darkness pull you into a much needed embrace.

“Taehyung, away from the window.” You chided from the sink. 

Dusk had fallen a time ago, but there was still a smidgen of light out. You could tell he was itching to go out for a bite (no pun intended) judging how he hadn’t gotten down from the ceiling from half an hour ago. 

You’d promised him to go out once night had completely taken over, which was hopefully soon before he got any ideas of going out by himself. 

After, your thoughts moved to the sheer ridiculousness that was your situation. Here you were, drying your hair and picking out clothes to shield you from the cold outside, essentially getting ready to choose whatever poor soul crossed your path and throwing them to the blood hungry carnivore that was your best friend. It was laughable, but it was your reality. 

You pondered the thought of how Taehyung fed. Bloody it was, you’d cleaned the messes, but he was the type to leave his victims more or less intact. 

It made you think about the durability of the human body, of the fragility of human life. You recalled how you had been told that the body was merely a vessel to hold one’s spirit, but if it was as useless as it sounded, how did it translate the fantastic and impalpable anomaly that was a soul? You lived through your body, but were alive because of the soul hidden somewhere inside the mass of muscle and tissue. Physical phenomena were nothing short of impressive, but the very essence of your being was lived out through your 

“Hey, Tae, can I ask you something?” you called out once more. 

Taehyung hummed in response.

“Do you ever stop to feel their heartbeats before you… y'know,” you asked.

He hesitated mid step, but continued his pacing around the perimeter of the ceiling and meditated on the thought.

“Not really, no.” 

It was a strange question, at least stranger than what you would ask him when your fascination of the vampire world got the best of you. It wasn’t the usual curiosity that came with the misleading information of the vampire world from pop culture. The kind of things that led you to believe that vampires actually slept in coffins at the bottom of a mansion cellar– there was no need for a coffin if you were already shielded by sunlight, dummy– or if it was really possible for him to turn to vampire veganism, to which he would tell you that it wasn’t impossible, but it would mean twice as much blood to nurture him. 

Still, the same sense of genuine, innocent wonder came from you as it had then.

“So you kinda just go right into it?” you pondered.

“Pretty much,” he concluded.

You hadn’t actually seen Taehyung sink his fangs into anyone’s jugular, and you probably wouldn’t want to if you actually knew it was never as simple as that, but you couldn’t help wondering what it was like to hold life in your hands and to be able to witness it leave the vessel in which it’s held. 

And to do so without stopping to actually feel it happening? In a way it was disrespectful, an exploitation of sorts. You thought of it as a “dine and dash,” of course with greater ethical values at question. 

You weren’t one of them yourself, nor had you ever killed anyone, but you thought it was somehow rude not to see out the soul as it rose (or descended) to its final destination.

Or maybe it was just morbid on your part, either way you wondered.

“Do you remember what it’s like to have a heartbeat?” 

To this Taehyung actually stopped and gave you a quizzical look, but answered honestly,

“No.”

Merely two hours later you leaned up against the tiny car you’d driven for two days straight in and waited for the sound of tearing flesh and garbled chewing to come to a stop as Taehyung finished off whoever it was the two of you picked up off the road.

The stars were beautiful that night, and you thought that maybe being stuck out in the middle of nowhere wasn’t so bad after all. Less pollution, less noise, less prodding eyes. Of course that also meant less people, so you had to be even more careful with your movements. Still, it was a nice change of scenery. 

You’d almost lost yourself staring up at the tiny white lights twinkling in the dark, until you noticed the night was silent again. 

You peeked over the top of the car to see Taehyung wiping blood from his mouth onto the sleeves of his hoodie. The body of a mangled, ravaged hitch hiker lay in the center of blood stains that stretched every which way and you scrunched up your nose at the stench of iron that rose from it. 

You rounded the car and fished around in your pockets for plastic gloves. Taehyung wore a satisfied smile as he pat his stomach and you rolled your eyes at him.

Sure he’d be happy. All he does is sleep, drive, and feed. You had to stage the scene and touch the dead bodies. 

You suppressed your shivers and got to work on the poor guy. Taehyung must’ve felt a bit more hungry than usual seeing as he’d left the place looking very much like an animal attack. Usually you would have to ask for a bigger tear here, or claw mark there, maybe something to distract from an obvious wound on the jugular. But this time around, all you had to do was sneak a little cash off the corpse and you were good to go.

You did your best to avoid smearing any blood to suggest tampering and looked through his bag and wallet.

I.D’s, credit cards, food supplies, bedding. Nothing you could really take that wouldn’t lead back to you nor look suspicious on your person. You did see a pair of sunglasses that caught your eye. They were wooden, genuinely wooden, and had what looked like etchings of a mountain pass on the temple. You shrugged to yourself and plucked them from his collar. Snow did reflect sunlight after all.

After nudging around the body for a bit you came back with $20 and a new pair of shades on top of your head. Taehyung gave you a bloodstained smile, fangs retracted to a length passable for a set of human teeth. You returned a smile of your own before frowning at his figure.

“Tae your jacket, that’s the fourth one this month!”

The man looked down at the tattered, bloody garment and shrugged before peeling it off his back. You headed for the trunk and pulled out a bottle of lighter fluid labeled “for emergencies” with duct tape and sharpie. Evidently, the pair of you were prone to them.

You came back to Taehyung and he handed you his sweater. You soaked up the cloth as your partner pulled out a lighter from his pockets.

You handed him the sweater, now filled with blood and lighter fluid, before peeling off your gloves and stuffing them in there center of the bundle.

Taehyung struck the gears of the lighter, birthing a small orange flame from its mouth. You patted his shoulder and headed back to the car as he readied his hand and set the bundle ablaze.

The cloth burned in his palm and Taehyung grit his teeth. He let it cinder for a few more moments then with tremendous force, he hurdled the evidence over tree tops opposite of the inn.

He turned and made his way back to the car and the two of you retired for the night.

Four days had passed until news of the hitch hiker torn apart by wolves reached the little, isolated inn. And it was only relevant because the victim had, apparently, been the only son of the inn keeper.

Usually you never felt an ounce of remorse with a feeding, but as you stood in front of the mourning woman, on the day of checkout, you remembered her words from the night you arrived. No husband, no other children, no grandchildren. She was going to be truly alone.

All you could do was give a sorrowful gaze and toy with the ends of your sleeves, a nervous habit. 

The sun was starting its trek down the sky and cast a pale orange glow through the small windows of the lobby.

“We’re selfish, you know? Everyone expects another day on this earth, but are we really entitled to it?” 

The old woman sniveled in her handkerchief, “I thought he’d at least have another day.“

You bit your lip. 

“I’m so sorry,” you managed, guilt swelling within you.

You looked on at the woman, pity in your eyes.

Soon the sun fell below the trees, the warm light of day vanishing with it. In the next instant the front door opened and you felt Taehyung’s presence behind you.

He saw the pair of you, piecing together the woman’s sorrow and your frozen figure, and put a hand on your shoulder.

“You ready to go, honey?” he asked.

You turned slightly, looking at him through the corner of your eye, and nodded.

The old woman dabbed at her tears.

“Oh, you must be their partner,” she sniffed.

Taehyung gave her a small smile.

“Yes ma’am.” You turned stiffly to Taehyung.

“She recently lost her son in an accident. Wolves they said.”

The vampire flicked his eyes between the two of you and gave you a stern look. You shook your head.

“She doesn’t know anything,” you thought to him.

He paused before bowing slightly to the grieving woman.

“I’m awfully sorry for your loss, miss. We’ll have to get going now.”

He turned to move out the door and the woman nodded solemnly.

“Well I’ll let you go dear. Thank you for taking the time to charm me. You have a safe trip-“

She looked up for the first time since you’d been in the lobby and her eyes fixated on you neck.

“Those glasses.”

Immediately your blood ran cold. You refrained from looking down at the item that hung on your collar, but felt as if its weight had increased ten fold under the stare of the inn keeper.

“My son had a pair almost like those.”

You could feel Taehyung’s demeanor shift, he had gone silent behind you.

You silently begged with your eyes for the old woman to stop speaking.

“They were customized, though.”

You saw suspicion in her face, yet she seemed not to notice your pleading gaze. She reached for the glasses and turned them around in her palm. You stood, paralyzed.

“With the mountain line inscribed on the…”

The gears inside her head turned and a spark of realization blew up her entire face.

“You-!”

In a second, Taehyung leapt over the table, taking down the woman with him. Your eyes were wide and for a moment, your brain unwillingly processing the image of the blood splattered wall in front of you and the chokes and gurgles in between the carnivorous grunts and growls that came from behind the counter.

You said nothing and turned away from the scene. Your feet carried you to the single car parked out front and you slid into the passenger’s seat, waiting, again, for Taehyung.

In the next minute, he emerged from the front doors of the inn, stained jacket already shed from his body.

He made his way to the car and plopped down into the driver’s seat. He looked over at you, still staring at the little, run down building.

“Did you need to fix it up?” he asked.

You were silent for a moment, but then shook your head.

“Winter is ending,” you said simply.

Nobody would be around for a while. And when they did come, you’d be far, far away from the little inn beneath the mountains. 

[mclennunf]

This Boy - Chapter One

I hope you enjoy the first chapter :) there are no warnings (yet?) quick summary is just Paul and john meeting ect anyway I think it's cute :) Thank you! ~ Paul had a lot of things on his mind a lot of the time. The rest of the time he just felt.....numb. Paul McCartney had a rough childhood, what with his mother passing away, his fathers drinking and being bullied at school. John was almost the same as Paul. But he was outgoing - popular even. John Lennon had no idea who Paul was. Yet, that is. They two shared a class in the morning and their lockers were only separated by a three or four. There were multiple occasions where Paul had been shoved, punched or laughed at within John's earshot. ~Paul's~ I sat down in my usual seat, close to the front of the class so I could see. My father couldn't afford to buy me glasses, so squinting and looking like a teachers pet would have to do for now. "Bloody fag!" Someone coughed under their breath as they walked by my desk. I rolled my eyes. It's sad, but I had become used to the fact that nobody looked at me as anything other than a loser, a nerdy fag. With seconds to spare, George hurried into the room and threw his book bag down beside his seat. "Aye McCartney!" He sounded winded. "Aye, Geo." I mumbled. After class, George and I shuffled slowly to our lockers. "Well, tomorrow night might work better for me, mate. Me younger brothers got his birthday today so me mum is makin dinner." George informed me. We were suppose to meet in the park to practice guitar and work on some songs. "I understand Geo! You don't need to feel bad." He nodded and waved as he walked out toward the parking lot. His place was much closer than mine. Suddenly, I found myself scattered on the floor and shuffling my books back together. "Jesus, son I didn't even see ye' there, I'm so sorry," an older boy said as he stretched his hand out to help me. I looked at his hand and stood up on my own.. One thing I can't do, is touch strangers. Hell, I could barely speak to someone I didn't know. "S'ok," I mumbled with my head down. "Aye aren't you in me first period class mate?" He asked as he lowered his thick rimmed, Buddy Holly like glasses. "Uh, I-I-uh yeah, I am," I shook my head. "Well again, I'm sorry fer bumpin' yer books. Me names John, by the wa-" John was immediately cut off by the same boy who had called me a bloody fag in my earlier class. "Lennon! What are ye doin' talkin' to this bloody wanker? He's a poof dontcha know?!" He said as he nudged my books back out of my arms. I quickly scooped them up, and walked outside toward home. I didn't look back, but I could feel them watching me. ~John's~ I shoved Pete away and started following that small boy. I finally caught up to him. "Aye mate I'm sorry bout me friend back there he's a bit of a cunt." I said. The boy looked at me shyly and nodded. "You alright kid?" I asked. He nodded, "you don't have to uh-y'know, uh feel bad for me, I'm used to it...." I rolled my eyes. This kid was odd. Then I noticed his book had a Elvis Presley bookmark sticking out. "Aye! The king! You fancy rock n roll mate?" I asked him, trying to give the kid a break. I'd only ever seen him with that Harrison kid, he must not have many friends. "Ye, just learned blue suede shoes on me guitar." He spoke more clearly now. "You play?! I do too! Maybe we should jam sometime!" I stopped in my tracks. We had walked to the turn to Mendips, where I lived. He turned, "Ye, maybe, I'll see ya round John. I'm Paul, Paul McCartney, by the way." He began mumbling again. ~Paul's~ I began to walk away from John. It's not often somebody just talks to me and tries to befriend me like that, it made me uneasy. I lied in bed stared at the ceiling. Something was just, off, about that Lennon kid. Should I trust him? Why was I questioning this so much, it didn't seem very likely that I would actually see that bloke again. ... I looked at my clock, 3:24AM. Why must I wake up like this? I thought of John Lennon. For whatever reason. Maybe his kindness made a bit of an impact. Maybe I wanted to see him again. Maybe I wanted another friend? George was a great friend, but he was also my only friend. I was not his only friend. That didn't bother me, though. I had no need or yearning for attention. I was happy on my own. Stupid 3AM thoughts. I gazed across the room and saw my guitar. I had the urge to get up and play it, but it was so early my father and brother would not appreciate this. I stood up and put my jeans and a hoodie on and began to crawl out my window. A walk would do me good. As I began to walk down the road, I noticed just how dead Liverpool was around 4AM. I wasn't surprised, really. I guess I could sing to myself, nobody could hear me. Nobody had heard me sing beside George, and he fancied my voice. Love me tender Love me sweet Never let me go You have made my life complete And I love you so Love me tender Love me true All my dreams fulfilled For my darling I love you And I always will Suddenly I wasn't the only one singing. I turned the corner, and there was John Lennon, sitting on a bench facing the docks. Love me tender Love me long Take me to your heart For it's there that I belong And we'll never part Love me tender Love me dear Tell me you are mine I'll be yours through all the years Till the end of time I sat down beside him, he reeked of alcohol. "Figured I'd be the only one out 'n about at this time, McCartney." John shoved me with his shoulder a bit, and surprisingly, his touch didn't make me panic. He almost made me feel....calm. Although, I did notice the flask in his hand. "What's got you up?" He asked. "I-ugh, just couldn't sleep, y'know, just couldn't shut off my mind..." I mumbled. ~John's~ "Ye' mumble a lot, kid. But hell, ye've got some amazing pipes on ye." I said. Paul had big doe eyes, almost looked like a bird. He nodded. We both looked up at the stars. I looked over at at the young lad, and smiled. "You're a wee bit broken, ain't ye?" I laughed. He slowly looked down to his boots, and cocked an eyebrow. He began to shift uncomfortably. "M sorry lad, your eyes just have some pain behind em, and I've seen ye get pushed n shoved round at school." I said, and sipped on my flask. Pure whiskey, thanks to Aunt Mimi's stash. "Meh, I'm used t'it. M'not sure why you of all people decided to be nice to me.." Paul was speaking more clearly. "It's only cause yer pretty," I laughed and took a long swig. This little boy was talented, beautiful even... Jesus Christ what was I thinking?! I took another long swig of whiskey. "John, s'not much my business, but why are ye drinking whiskey? Yer only what, 17?" Paul said, as he actually looked at me, showing off his big hazel eyes. I took another swig before answering. "When ye've dealt with as much as I have lad, you'll be drinkin' whiskey too." I admitted. Paul's eyes didn't come off me. I assumed that meant that he wanted some. I pointed the flask toward Paul. His eyes looked down at the flask and back up at me. He took it, looked down the flask, and took a long swig. "Wow, I wish I'd found this a long time ago..." the whiskey had clearly already gone to Paul's head. "Eases the pain, dunnit?" I half laughed. "What are you doing out here at this time, John?" He asked as he took another swig and handed the flask back to me. "Me Aunt told me, 'John Lennon, you stop the coming home so late or you do not come back into my home!' And I said something naughty and left," I did my best posh accent to mock Mimi. "So ye live with yer aunt then?" Paul asked. That was the tip of the iceberg. "Aye." I nodded. "Well, Lennon.. I believe the sun will be making an appearance soon. Would you like to come have a kip at my place?" Paul offered, again hypnotizing me with his hazel doe eyes. They had a small hint of drunkenness behind them. "Jesus, Paul I've only known ye a day!" I joked and looked down at my feet, "but I mean.. if that's no problem. I don't know where else I would go, honestly." I mumbled. Paul nodded and stood up. "C'mon then," this was the first time I'd seen this kid smile, and my god... it was captivating. I couldn't deny it. Ah, it must've been the whiskey making me feel like a poof. Or the fact that Paul had such feminine features. I followed the younger boy until we reached his flat on Forthlin road. I'd passed this house hundreds -no, thousands of times. I followed Paul through the window into his dimly lit bedroom. The first thing I noticed was his guitar, gently leaned against the wall beside his bedroom door. I smiled a bit. Then I noticed a small notebook that said "Songs" on the front. I smiled a bit more. Paul must have notice me looking at it, because he immediately picked it up and put it in his top drawer. He grabbed a blanket and pillow off his bed and put them on his small love seat. "This alright, John?" He asked me. "Ye son, that's great.." I mumbled. We lied down in the dark, in silence. I was comfortable, that was not the problem. It was the sound of Paul's nightmares. The poor kid, I would be mad and annoyed if it were anyone else, but I obviously had a soft spot for Paul. I wanted to get up and hold him and tell him everything was okay. I had no idea who Mary was, but he said her name a lot. ~Paul's~ I shot up from a dead sleep, covered in sweat. I hoped that I wouldn't have a nightmare with John sleeping on my love seat, but of course I did. Maybe he hadn't noticed. I looked over at him, and he seemed to be sleeping soundly. I got up and snuck to the bathroom to wash the sweat off my face. This was basically a nightly ritual for me at this point. I tip toed back into my bedroom, to see John sitting up, rubbing his eyes. "Ye alright lad?" He asked me. I nodded and climbed back under my blanket. "Who is Mary?" He blurted in a whisper. He had obviously heard me talking in my sleep. "Erm, M-Mary was, ugh- me mum." I mumbled. John nodded his head, clearly hearing the word 'was'. "Sorry son, ye don't have to talk 'bout her." He said back, crossing his legs now. John just looked like he was ready for a conversation. Maybe I could open up to him... for some reason, he made me feel comfortable and safe. These were things I hadn't felt since my mother had died. "She was really sick, for a long time. I went to visit her after surgery, and uh-she was bleedin' through her sheets. Didn' make it. Me Dad likes his scotch a bit much now, and me younger brother has nobody to look up to other than his pathetic older brother." I blurted out. I hadn't uttered those words to anybody, ever. I looked up at John, and our eyes met. His eyes almost pierced through me. "Yer not pathetic, Macca." John said to me, his eyes not leaving mine. The nickname made me feel calmer. I could tell neither of us wanted to break the stare. "Me dad left when I was wee, and me mum passed not to long ago too. Hit by a drunken copper. Broke me heart, haven't been able to fix it. Because I'm sure you were wonderin' why I live with Mimi." John admitted. Our stare still hadn't broken. We were connecting, and in some way bonding over our deceased mothers. "M sorry 'bout Mary." John concluded, standing up and sitting beside me on my bed, still not breaking our stare. "M sorry 'bout... uhm?" I trailed off. "Julia. Her name was Julia." John let a smile creep out the side of his mouth. "Julia. Beautiful name, I do say." I mumbled. There was no breaking the stare between us, it felt too good. In a weird way, yeah, it felt good. Before I knew it, I was waking up again. There I was, asleep on John Lennon's chest. His arms were wrapped around me, and I was clenching his t-shirt in a fist. I froze, I didn't know what to do. If I moved it could make things awkward, if I stayed it could make things awkward. So instead of doing anything I just closed my eyes. It felt like nothing more than a blink, but when I opened my eyes again John was gone and my father was beating at my bedroom door. He was mad.

[imaginejamesandsirius]

Hey, I love your writing! Could you please write one where it’s slytherin! Sirius and gryffindor!james. Can you make it that they find out their mates like they have creature inherences ( since their both pure bloods). At Hogwarts btw if it was unclear. Don’t feel pressured to write this if you’re busy.

((A/N: I’ve never written creature inheritance before, so it’s a little choppy))

Personally, Sirius thought this whole thing was a load of shite. Not like it was fake, because it was definitely real, but it was an absolute pain in the arse. It was going through puberty again, and he'd hated it the first time, thanks. And also? This was worse. He felt like a bloody toddler again, unable to control his magic. It's not like it was lashing out at random or summat, but his spells rarely turned out the way he wanted. Too much power or not enough, and he never knew which way it would go.

Regulus kept assuring him that he'd be ecstatic when he finally settled and got his creature inheritance, but Sirius would prefer to just be comfortable now. Besides, the only creature in the Black line was Veela. Sirius had too many people staring at him without adding a magical element to it. Did he mention the whole process was shite? Because it was. In addition to his magic not responding like it should, his entire scalp itched and his eyes responded to any big change in lighting with pain and his gums ached like a fucker. It made eating ridiculously difficult, and it had been that way for three weeks straight. It was supposed to all even out on his birthday, but that didn't make it any less miserable to live through.

He would love to commiserate about it with someone, but there were only a few other people in Hogwarts that had the possibility for a creature inheritance, and he wasn't exactly friends with any of them. He wasn't friends with anyone other than Regulus actually, so commiserating-- if it was going to happen at all-- would have to wait a few years.

When Sirius got his creature inheritance-- gasp! Veela! what a surprise!-- he walked into the Great Hall and wanted to walk right back out again. He didn't really know how to control the allure. Make that, the allure was running rampant and he couldn't make heads or tails of it-- the fire throwing part had been easy; he hadn't even had to practice-- but even that wasn't enough to make him want to leave. He took one glance at the Gryffindor Table, saw one James Potter, and realised there was a connection.

His parents had sent him a book about Veela inheritances when he started showing signs, and there had been a section on mates. Recognizable on sight. And that's what James Potter was. Sirius had two words for that: 'hell' and 'no'. It's not like Potter was bad looking or an unforgivable arse, but he didn't exactly like any Slytherins, and Sirius was one. He knew that mates weren't something that could be avoided, but how the hell did he explain that to Potter? 'Hi, I know the most time we've spent together was in detention from hexing each other for like, the entirety of fourth year, but you're bloody gorgeous and also we're mates? Wanna hook up sometime? Maybe spend the rest of our lives together?' Yeah. That wouldn't go well.

Sirius wished he could leave-- after all, who needed breakfast every single day?-- but there were appearances to keep up, and everyone would give him shite if he left right now. He was supposed to not act any different now that he had his creature inheritance. He was supposed to pretend he felt the same and didn't think he was better than anyone and all that rot. Nevermind that Sirius had thought he was better than everyone else from the age of five.

He didn't bother to keep in a sigh as he walked to the Slytherin Table.

"What?" Regulus asked, because of course Regulus was with him-- just to be clear: not complaining.

"Everyone's staring."

"Of course they are. You're the first wizard to get a creature inheritance at Hogwarts in the last decade."

"Hooray," Sirius said flatly. "I'll just pose for photos then, shall I?"

"There's no need to be a prick."

"How long have you known me?"

Regulus rolled his eyes, which was pretty much the response that Sirius had expected.

*

Sirius might have stared at James. A lot. It wasn't his fault, okay? There was no ignoring your magic screaming at you to go be with someone, but Sirius refused to give in so easily-- just to give him something to do, his classes were kind of boring right now.

So he stared, but he didn't talk to James. Maybe he should make friendly chit-chat between classes so that they had a foundation other than rivalry and the other person being gorgeous. And okay, it's not like they were total strangers, but being friendly with each other wasn't something they were familiar with. Like he said, rivalry. 

He got caught by James one time in the corridor, but he didn't bother to pretend like he hadn't been staring. It was only the two of them, after all. An empty corridor was a rare thing this close to the Great Hall, but not so surprising this time since it was dinnertime. They were probably the only people not eating right now.

"Is there a reason you're looking at me all the time?" James asked.

"Yes," Sirius said and didn't elaborate.

As expected, James looked bewildered. "Are you going to tell me why?"

"No. What were you in the library for?"

"Books," James said. He was trying to make his voice flat, but it was obvious to Sirius that he was hiding something.

He cocked his head curiously-- an unfortunate habit he'd picked up since his creature inheritance, replacing his usual skeptical eyebrow raise. "For what?"

He shifted, holding his bag tighter like he thought Sirius would snatch them from three meters away. "Nothing," he muttered unconvincingly.

"C'mon, who am I going to tell?"

"Stop mocking me."

"I wasn't aware that was something I was doing."

James glared at him.

It was probably the mate part of him that found it attractive, but Sirius had never had the smartest taste when it came to men. "Honestly. It was an innocent question."

"So you weren't staring at me because you... y'know, know?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Sirius said honestly.

James sighed, relaxing from the somewhat rigid posture he'd been holding. "That's good. Or- I guess bad? If you knew, I could ask- but no, we're not friends."

"What's got you in a spin?"

James chewed on his lip.

Sirius's heart beat a little harder in his chest at seeing that-- his imagination was more than happy to provide him with ideas about James's mouth-- but he was going to ignore that for the moment. There were more pressing matters, like what the hell James was talking about. "Honestly, who would I tell?"

"Your brother."

"Right, but who would he tell?" Regulus didn't have any friends either. Their parents had made a point to tell them that they could only trust family, and now look at them. "And who would care?"

"Most people care about creature inheritances. You should've heard the way everyone fawned over you when you presented."

Sirius snorted. "Yeah, I have eyes, love; I'm well aware of how much attention people were paying me." Then, because it was more important, he said, "So that's what this is? You're coming into a creature inheritance too?"

"No," he said instantly, then he shifted. "Maybe. I dunno, that's what the books are for. I thought you could, like, tell from looking at me or summat."

"I don't have a creature sensor."

"Well how was I supposed to know that?" James asked defensively. "Nobody knows anything about creature inheritances unless they have it, and then they keep it in the family because it's personal. It's not like I could just ask you."

"Couldn't you ask your parents? Like you said, it's a family matter."

"There's no history of it in the Potter line. Whoever was a creature that married in? They never recorded it. I went over the bloody family tree with a fine tooth comb, and I came up blank."

"I don't know how much help I'd be. Different families, different creatures," Sirius said, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the wall.

"I don't need specifics, but- Merlin, did it buggering itch like this for you? I feel like I'm going to crawl out of my skin."

"Can't say that happened to me, no. Mostly it felt like my teeth were about to fall out."

"Right," James said, nodding, "Veela have fangs."

Sirius cocked his head again. "Most people don't know that." 

James blushed. It wasn't very noticeable, but Sirius had eyes on him-- he had a theory that he had enhanced eyesight specifically when it came to his mate, but there was nothing to verify that; it just felt like he was capable of noticing more about him since becoming a creature. "I've done some research."

Sirius hummed, smiling.

*

"Nice wings," Sirius said, trying to keep from looking overly delighted.

One of James's wings snagged against a suit of armor because he'd been walking too close to the wall. "They're a pain in the arse," he muttered, flushing bright red as he tried-- and failed-- to get himself out.

Sirius walked over and stepped behind him. It was a lot easier to do it from this angle. Push, nudge, and he was free. "I kind of thought your wings would be red."

James turned to face him, and Sirius had to step back or risk getting hit in the head with a wing. "Why? Because I'm in Gryffindor?"

"That, and because you look so good in it. I'm not sure black is your colour."

"I look great in black, and you know it," James said.

He did, but Sirius wasn't about to say that. "Do these things not go away?" Sirius asked, looking at the wings curiously. This was the first time he'd seen him since his birthday, and it was no exaggeration to say that James had never looked better. Ill-coloured wings aside. It's not like the black feathers made him look bad or summat, but red would look better.

"If they do, I haven't figured out how." Then James squinted at him. "Did you change your hair?"

"No? It's the same it always is." Which is to say, fabulous. But he hadn't changed it at all. When he'd become a Veela- oh, maybe that's what it was. It had looked different to him in the mirror after that, but Regulus had said he didn't notice anything. "It did change on my birthday though. Maybe you can finally see it."

James reached out, strands of Sirius's hair sliding through his fingers. "It's beautiful," he breathed.

"I get that a lot," Sirius managed to say while sounding normal, but all he wanted to do was step closer and lean into it.

*

Unsurprisingly, James was the one to kiss him first. Sirius kept wanting to, but he also kept chickening out. So it wasn't really a surprise that James made the first move. What was a surprise, was about a month into their relationship-- still a month away from the end of the school year-- and James stopped a rather delightful snog to say, "Does this seem kind of sudden to you?"

"Er, no, we had to sit through like ten hours of class in order to get here."

James chuckled, pressing leisurely kisses to his cheek and down his neck. "No, I mean..."

"You mean?" Sirius prodded when he didn't continue, running his hands down James's back and into his wings. His fingers worked on straightening his feather automatically.

"I dunno. Like, I always fancied you, but after my creature inheritance, it's like I couldn't take my eyes off you."

"I know what you mean. Probably the whole 'mate' thing."

Abruptly, James stopped what he was doing and tilted his head up to look at him. "What mate thing?"

"That creatures have." When James still looked confused, he added, "Because we're mates?"

"Like... soulmates?"

"I guess? There wasn't a whole lot of information about it in the books my parents sent me. I don't think they thought I'd meet my mate at Hogwarts." Sirius snickered. "Their heads would explode if they knew it was you."

"Wait," James said, sitting up, "you knew about this?"

"Er, yeah?"

"Since your birthday?"

"Yeah."

James looked upset, which Sirius didn't understand in the slightest. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Sirius sat up when it was clear that James wasn't willing to let this slide. "Because we weren't exactly friends? You say that you fancied me back then, but it sure as hell didn't look like it. What was I supposed to do? I wasn't going to walk up to you and say we were destined for each other. You would've hexed me."

"I would not have."

"Sure," Sirius said flatly.

"Alright, so I might have overreacted if you told me, but it's not like you wouldn't have too in my place."

"Is there a reason this is bothering you?" Sirius asked. "It all worked out. I didn't trick you into anything by not telling you."

James opened his mouth to answer, then paused and frowned. "That's true," he said, sounding a touch bewildered. "I mean, this goes both ways, doesn't it? You didn't tell me, and I didn't tell you when I first noticed something was going on so..."

"So we can keep kissing?" Sirius said hopefully.

"You're so bloody weird."

"That sounds like a yes."

James snickered. "It's a yes."

*

"Woah," James said, eyes wide.

Sirius may or may not have snarled unkindly at being woken up before he was ready. "Sorry," he muttered. It was a gut reaction to flash his fangs when he wasn't happy, and when he was tired, it just sort of happened. He yawned, fangs retracting.

"I didn't know you could do that."

"Mm."

"Really though, you have to get up. You'll get caught if you leave any later."

"Don't care," Sirius said, snuggling his face into the pillow.

"You told me to make sure you get up."

"Past-me was an idiot."

"I trust past-you more than tired-you."

Sirius opened one eye to glare at him. When that did nothing, he turned to pouting. "Are you really going to throw me out?"

"Using your allure is A. cheating and B. not going to work."

"I should date someone who's nicer to me," Sirius grumbled, slowly pushing himself up with another yawn.

James snorted. "You have fun with that." He nuzzled at Sirius's cheek before giving him a quick kiss.