#you have to go through the scary section of echoes to get down here but once you're already here its a great time

[asurrogateblog]

I like pink floyd lore because its like a reverse iceberg where all of the metaphorical scary deep sea creatures are at the top and the lower you get the more silly and unserious it all becomes

[shibaraki]

A FISH OUT OF WATER ┊ MIYA ATSUMU

synopsis: you are his constant in a life shaped by an ever changing element. he wants you. but you are the most oblivious creature he has ever met.

tags: GN reader, merfolk au, merman atsumu, human reader, childhood friends to lovers, fluff, falling in love, courting behaviours, obliviousness, cultural differences, first kisses, getting together

wc: 3.5K

↱ written for the mermay collab hosted by the teahouse server ↲

As a child Atsumu never understood other finfolks fascination with humans, good or bad. Ma was never reluctant to explain, rather, he just didn’t care to ask. There were far more important things to do in the reef. Like hunting shelled crabs, riding the currents, and eating oysters so he could spit pearls at his brother's head until he gave chase.

But three moons before his twelfth birthday, he found you.

Suspended in the water, bubbles dwindling around your frame as the fight bled from your muscles. You sank into a lifeless repose. A human. Small, smaller than him. Thoughts whirring to a stop, his mind blanked, and his tail propelled him forward in a blink.

You were light in his arms at first. Breaching the surface had been the scary part. Worse then, as he needed to drag you up onto the shore where he could be seen. The section of beach close by was secluded. Shielded by large rocks, tide pools formed in the crevices. Atsumu deposited you onto the sand, hissing at the tides that crawled behind and splashed at your chin as if to scold them.

You convulsed and curled in onto yourself like the tiny dumbo octopus that lived in the crevasse near his home. Water spurted from your nose and mouth. It gathered in the corners of your eyes and rolled down your cheeks. Atsumu stared as you wailed and felt his own tumultuous emotions swell dramatically. Restless under his skin was the urge to calm you. To comfort you. But he had never been any good at that kind of thing.

So he reached out to pat your leg. It was covered in clumps of sand. Your shorts and shirt were drenched, and one of your feet had lost a flip flop. Then he repeated what Ma always told him, “Don’t worry, guppy. I’m here”.

That distracted you enough that your attention fell on him. Your immediate petrified screech reverberated harshly in his sensitive ears, both pressed flat to his head as he hissed and squirmed further back into the ocean to escape the sound.

“A—A monster! Get away!”

An odd sense of vulnerability washed over him. Embarrassment, shame, anger. At that moment, Atsumu decided all his assumptions must have been correct. You were clearly a few fish short of a shoal. “M’not a monster,” he’d shouted back, fins flared irritably. “Be grateful I saved yer life, Ugly! Ugly, ugly, ugly!”

Your face scrunched up at the insults, covered in salt water, tears and bile. A dull ache struck against his skull, hard and sudden. You had kicked him in the head and ran away.

Osamu laughed at the mark upon his return. Atsumu endured, kept his mouth shut and resolved never to go back to the surface. Ever! But curiosity still drew him back the next morning. And the next. Every day he checked, you were there, standing awkwardly on the beach and squinting at the horizon. Searching.

Ma’s voice echoed through his thoughts while he hid from view. Atsumu was great at lots of things. Loads better than Osamu. Racing, hunting, splitting shells, tying knots, playing ball. Not so great at making friends. Try to meet ‘em where they’re at, she said. Smile. Be nice. Find what they like and ask about it.

When he finally plucked the courage to make his presence known you’d been back in the tide pools. The ends of your shirt pulled out to hold all the shells you were collecting, heavily weighing on the wet fabric. A few tumbled down as you crouched to pick up a limpet, mouth curling into a pleased grin. Limpets are boring, he thought. And an idea struck.

Diving lower, Atsumu combed through the sand and seaweed until he spotted an iridescent spiral of orange and purple. The snail went helplessly as he clasped it between his webbed fingers, shooting for the rocks. You were still there, filling the silence with a directionless hum.

Atsumu broke the surface quietly. Enough distance between that you could not kick him again. “Hey!” he called, hands thrusted out toward you, head already turned toward his shoulder to brace for another scream. “Got a snail. Wanna see?”

Nothing came. He hadn’t realised how much your acceptance meant to him until then—when you crouched excitedly close by, unheeding of the tide soaking you further, and gasped as he presented the gift. Relief burst in his chest, warm and tingly to the tips of his fins at the careful prodding of your fingers to the creature in his palms; so intense that a wave of luminescence washed through his scales.

“I was looking for you,” you later admitted, voice softened in apology. “Thank you for saving me. I’m sorry I kicked you and called you mean things”.

Atsumu detailed the slight pout to your lips. Knees shifting in the sand. Eyes wide, gleaming hopefully as you waited for his reply. Something fluttered in his stomach the longer you looked at him. Horrified, the longer he looked back, the more it dawned on him that you were not ugly at all.

“Good. So y’should be,” he grumbled, smacking his tail up onto the shore. Heat blotched across his cheeks when you glanced at it in awe. Timid, he added, “…S’fine though. Didn’t hurt”.

Smiling gleefully at that as his gaze darted back and forth, you held out your pinky and promised to always be his friend.

Time elapsed. Seasons passed. No longer a juvenile, his colours started to come into full bloom. Rich gold around his hips and waist, tapering into black toward his large ruffled tail fin. Even his hair lightened as he took to adulthood. After his twentieth birthday the months seemed to come and go faster than he liked. You were his one constant in a life shaped by an ever changing element. Atsumu’s blatant affection for you remained his worst kept secret but none of the finfolk scorned him for it.

Osamu’s steadfast teasing was the only downside. Offhanded or feigning disinterest, he’d always ask, “What d’you keep doing up there?”

Atsumu bounced a hard clam off his brother’s thick skull, “Nothin’. Told’ya a million times, I just like the surface”.

“Uh-huh. Does the ‘surface’ in question happen ta’ have a name and a pulse?”

“You’ll soon have neither if you don’t shut yer trap, ‘Samu!”

Summer comes along and once again, Atsumu decides to remain in the reef. There’s a new den for him in the alcove, carved out from the outcropping of rock with his own hands, right next to a dense forest of kelp. The afternoon sun filters through it in rays as the currents shift, dewy light dancing on the walls.

Two years he has been eligible to migrate and find a mate. This will make it his second absence from the celebrations. Ma never pushed him despite the worry written plain on her face. Osamu only pinned him with a knowing look as he went. It will be the longest they’ve been apart from one another and he doesn’t like it.

Realistically he still could have attended—should have, maybe, lest the other pods find his refusal disrespectful. But Astumu had no compulsion to go. The very idea of leaving you threw his instincts into high gear and he needed to race the currents just to calm the urgency wracking his bones. Because somewhere amidst the years spent with you he became aware of the voice clamoring in the back of his head. One that had been growing in intensity for some time, but hadn't been quite as loud as it was until the elders advised him to take a partner.

You were his mate.

Atsumu had been subconsciously courting you since you were children. Bringing you food and gifts, letting his display scales flash lurid in your presence. He kept guard as you slept on the sand, picked the seaweed and dirt from your hair, swam in synchrony with you when the tides were calm, wrapping your legs around his tail until you become a knot of a person. In hindsight, it was embarrassingly obvious—

Yet you are still blissfully oblivious to it, and that nags at him like nothing else.

Raking claw tipped fingers through his hair, Atsumu paces the length of his den with thoughts of how to be more deliberate in his courtship. Human relationships were complex—purposefully difficult, in some cases. You might respond better if he simply confessed what his intentions were.

You’ve promised to come by the cove as soon as you’re free today. Adulthood came with plenty of changes for you as well as him. You have to work more than he likes. It means less time together; hours spent with other people, any of which could stake their own claim and take you from his reach.

Agitated, Atsumu darts to the surface the instant the sky settles into evening. The sun spreads a blush across the ocean’s surface, tepid but pleasant when it kisses his cheeks. Your distant figure is climbing over the rock formations with careful movements. At first he lingers in the deeper water, submerged below the nose to watch like he used to all those years ago.

“‘Tsumu!” arms high in the air, you wave and bounce on the balls of your feet when you spot him. Lazily, he rides the small wave that floods onto the shelf you are standing on, arms folding on the craggy surface to keep his upper half above water.

There’s a bag over your shoulder. It drops low with the weight it carries. “Look what the tide dragged in,” you let the bag drop, contents half spilling out across the floor. Familiar things. Suncream, bottled water, a change of clothes. Your foot comes to rest atop the worn volleyball as it rolls toward the edge, flinching when he splashes at you in retaliation. “You’re here earlier than usual. Did’ya miss me?”

Atsumu bobs, eyes rolling. “Was too busy making up my new den to think twice about’cha, sunshine,” he cracks a grin. You bat at the hand that threatens to circle around your ankle as you lower yourself to sit on the shelf’s edge, legs swinging over the depths.

“All grown up and living on your own now,” you pat his head in what is intended to be condescension but only ends up conveying fondness for him as your fingernails scratch gently at his scalp. “Proud of you”.

“Stupid,” he mumbles, tipping into the touch without shame as he bobs in the water. Peeking up at you through the hair drying unruly over his eyes his heart sits prominent at the back of his throat. You’re in your swimsuit under your clothes again, he notices. “Ya gonna get in with me today?”

“Planned on it,” you replied coyly. Atsumu inhales deeply. Gills flutter. He feels his fins flare around his hips and smothers the need to hide himself, nudging his cheek to your bare thigh. A beat passes and your smile dims somewhat, “I’m sorry I’ve been so busy lately, ‘Tsumu”.

He rumbles his disapproval. Turning to nose at the skin there, Atsumu loosens his jaw and gently pincers your flesh between his teeth. Just enough to serve as a warning. The muscle and sinew remains relaxed despite it all, entirely sure he wouldn’t hurt you.

A heavy warmth drapes over his being at the heat, blood and beating heart echoing through your veins. “Gross,” you say without malice, flicking his temple at the lave of his tongue over your nonexistent wound.

“Ugly,” he returns, affectionate cadence unrestrained. You temper a smirk, kicking water his way as you tug your t-shirt over your head. Atsumu sinks into the sea’s cool embrace while you undress. Years ago you would have shied away from his blatant staring.

You’re welcoming to the arms that circle your waist as you turn to lower your body into the water. Atsumu doesn’t need to hold you up anymore, not like when you were young and easily drawn into the stronger currents, but he does so regardless. It earns him a soft huff, and a weak protest that is patently for show, but you let him.

A pleased sound vibrates in his throat before he can bite it back. You’re truly the softest thing he has ever laid hands on. Your fingers trail along his biceps, tracing the scales decorating his shoulders. Bioluminescence pulses through them with a shudder and you laugh at him, though not unkindly, “You’re lookin’ a lot brighter lately”.

Your ignorance is a blessing sometimes. Hiding his face in your hair his tail undulates and pushes your entwined bodies back toward the reef. Pride swells as your thighs cinch around his hips. The tides break around you, paving a pathway of foam from the shore to the corals. Below are vibrant formations, each unique and intricate, shelter for shoals of fish darting from the shadows stretching across on the seabed.

“Hey… can I ask you something?”

“Just did,” Atsumu snarks reflexively. You tighten your hold around his neck, leaning back to glare at him. You are about as intimidating as a sea bunny. He hums, “Alright, I’ll bite. What is it?”

Something flits across your features. Hesitance, maybe. Then your anxieties are spilling out into the open, “Why’d you split off from your group? Are they mad at you or something? If it’s because of me—”

Words stutter into a pitched plea for mercy when he pointedly tucks his chin to suck a mouthful of water into his cheeks. You flinch preemptively, throwing your hands up to your face. Atsumu holds a moment longer, pursing his lips as if readying to fire. You push at his chest in a fit of nervous laughter, “Okay, okay! I get it, it’s not my fault—don’t spray me!”

He doesn’t spit it at you. The seawater falls from his lips, trickles over his chin and returns to the tide. “Yer ability to overthink never fails to amaze me,” your breathing hitches as he brings your foreheads together. The flustered look you cast him makes him squeeze tighter, unwilling to let go. “They’ve gone to the mating grounds, that’s all. Figured it was as good’a time as any to find my own territory”.

You pause, a crease forming between your brows. “The mating grounds? You’ve never mentioned that before”.

Atsumu shrugs. The movement ripples out around you in broad rings. “Never needed to,” he says. “Wasn't important. M’here, aren’t I?”

“Why?” the pressure from your thighs lessens, just a fraction, but he’s already scrambling to cup the back of your knees and keep them there. You freeze. Scrutinising any minute change to his expression, eyes bright and flickering. Atsumu avoids your gaze with his inner cheek between his teeth. Slow, a smirk pulls at your lips. “Don’t tell me you’ve got no suitors”.

Atsumu chitters, displeased. You shouldn’t find the idea amusing. He wants you to hate it. Sulking, he says, “Glad ya think that’s funny”.

Your face falls, then. And you are seeking the strong grip he had on you before, clutching at his shoulders. Your hands slide carefully up the column of his neck, featherlight over his gills. A shiver breaks out across his skin as you take his face into your hands. “Hey, no. I didn’t mean—” you stop to sound a frustrated groan. “I didn’t mean it like that, ‘Tsumu. I just—I thought you were joking. Why wouldn’t a mer like you have everybody vying for your attention?”

His mouth shapes around a small ‘o’. Then it draws wide, crooked and teasing. “A mer like me, eh?” he echoes, slipping back from your grasp to circle you in the water as a thrilling static buzzed under his skin. Need grips him and hems his scales, saturating them with rich gold hues. “Like what?”

“Stop fishing for compliments, loser. You know,” you struggle to tread water and spin to track his circular motions, pushing a vindictive wave of water at him. “You’re the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever seen”.

The glow from his display is bleeding into the blue-green waters and attracting the attention of the reef dwellers but he’s too pleased to be mortified. He halts his stalking, crowding into your arms, “Y’think I’m—?!”

Your fingers thread into his hair. With all your might you dunk him under, cutting his sentence short as a wave rushes to fill the space in his open mouth. He laughs through the descent of your body, the force having pushed him low enough that he is facing your bare stomach. Remaining there, even as you relinquish your grip.

Other finfolk never really commented on his colouring. They hadn’t attempted to initiate courtship, either, not with his priorities elsewhere. You have praised his scales before but this feels different. In the context of being wanted—desired as a partner. Maybe it’s just pretty words. But you would not have submerged him in a fit of embarrassment if there weren’t some truth in it.

Fins vibrating eagerly, small trails of bubbles rise to the surface. You're patting at his arms now, worried why he won’t come up, expression distorted by the water. He sinks forward, face pressing up against your midriff. Your abdomen immediately clenches. Nails dig into the curve of his shoulder as he mouths at your sternum. Arms rise to wrap around your waist and your knees flank his ribs, squeezing tight.

A mer’s senses are that much sharper here. He feels your stuttered breath, hears your heartbeat quicken, smells the beginnings of arousal. It tastes like victory, overwhelming all rational thought. Head to tailfin his instincts are begging to drag you to his den and fuck you to sleep.

But he can’t. Not yet, and not the way he wants to.

Pushing into a soft, resting stomach, Atsumu takes a breath, shakes himself from his reverie and blows hard against the skin. You immediately convulse, trying to squirm out of his grasp. Overhead, your sweet laughter; muffled by the white noise around him but just as euphonious.

You’re panting when he finally resurfaces, your head tilted to keep your chin above water. The tide must be coming in. He supports you against his chest, making you a few inches taller. “You dickhead. Fishbrains,” you chide breathlessly, betrayed by the fond look in your eye. “Shit. Don’t do that again”.

“Mean. What happened to gorgeous?” Atsumu’s pout trembles, struggling to keep his amusement at bay.

“I'll take it back!”

“No take backsies,” he croons, nuzzling at your jawline. Dangerous. “Glad ya think I’m hot and all but that’s not the only part of courting. Like, proving yer able to take care of them. Hunting an’ preparing food. Presenting gifts. Helping them groom. Keeping guard. S’why it takes the whole summer”.

As he speaks a slither of dread settles heavy in his gut. The memories practically flit across your face, visibly connecting the dots. “But you’ve always done those things—” your voice loses strength, mouth opening and closing a few times before finishing, “for me…?”

The sky is bruised. Clouds have gathered by the cliffs, and the sun is almost tucked beneath the horizon, casting a final burst of orange across the glittering ocean’s surface. His display dims. “Yea’,” he clears his throat, summoning a playful tone, “Real sharp, angel. I sure know how to pick ‘em”.

Any confidence he had slips between his fingers like dry sand the longer the silence draws between you. A sad note catches in his throat. His gills twitch as he waits with bated breath. Warm, soft hands come to cradle his face. Your thumb sweeps gently back and forth beneath his eye.

You don’t laugh. You don’t even splash at him. Rather, reverently, you say “…‘Tsumu”.

He peers up to meet your gaze. Softened by dusk, you are watching him through lidded eyes, crinkled at the corners. A sharp sensation frissons up his spine. You tilt his chin, bringing him into a chaste kiss. Atsumu shudders, hands pawing desperately at your hips. You pull back a hair’s breadth only to kiss him again, full lips sliding together, a more deliberate press that grows fervent at the cautious lick of his tongue.

When you seek air with a sharp inhale your eyes flutter closed for a moment. Atsumu doesn’t bother to dull his purr, nor the soft flow emitting from his tail, forming a golden ring of light around your entangled bodies. Mirthfully, you murmur, “I can’t believe it. You like me”.

It feels right; like finally letting himself have everything he’s ever wanted.

He laughs quietly, tucking a kiss beneath your ear, “Somethin’ like that”.

[theladycarpathia]

She hates bug themed villains.

“Gross,” Chrissy complains, wiping a sticky green smear off her cheek. Robin looks up and grins.

“Maybe don’t punch them head on next time?” she suggests, neatly sidestepping what might have been an oversized thorax. The street is littered with bodies after their battle, and the constant thrum from overhead lets them know that they’re not done yet. Chrissy sighs. Seriously? She has homework to finish. Evil super-villain battles on a school night is just cheating

“That’s kind of my deal,” Chrissy says grumpily. The others have better options – Billy burns things, Steve sends them flying into walls, Nancy conjures weapons…all of which can be done at a distance.

“Well, you’re super strong,” Robin suggests, neatly sending a stream of water crashing into the nearest section of the swarm. They smash into the nearby building, buckling under the pressure of Robin’s wave. The fifth member of the team, she joined after working with Steve on a summer job. A power cut gave away her powers when all of their ice cream stayed perfectly frozen. “Maybe throw them?”

Chrissy nervously eyes the stinger that’s as long as her arm. She’s not so sure she likes that idea.

But before she can answer, her earpiece crackles.

“Sky Star, can you take a look?” Jonathan says, his voice fuzzy. He, Nancy and Argyle headed uptown, intent on dealing with a nest of super sized spiders. Divide and conquer had really been their best option, what with Moth Man deciding to branch out. Seriously though, Moth Man. Really scraping the bottom of the barrel with that name.

Also, he’d realized a few months back that giant moths weren’t all that lethal. He’d branched out instead, which is why there’s giant house spiders intent on webbing up the high school.

Chrissy is really glad that she didn’t pull that job.

“What am I looking for?” Chrissy says, gesturing to Robin that she has to go up. Robin easily salutes and then traps a giant centipede, encasing every one of its legs in a thin layer of ice. Chrissy pushes off from the ground, the wind whipping through her hair as she rises. It takes her only seconds to skim the top of the buildings, the whole of Hawkins spread out in front of her.

“Supposedly, Moth Man has come to join the party,” Jonathan continues, no doubt using his shadow powers to eavesdrop on the police scanners and news feeds. “We have intel that he might be making his way to town hall. Do you see anything?”

Chrissy hovers in mid-air, twisting to scan every possible inch of the landscape. The villains always have to show up, just to see their handiwork. Hubris at its finest.

There’s a flash a few streets over, Billy and Steve fighting their own battles. Chrissy winces at the fireball that arches into the air, the heat warming her skin even from here.

“Blaze, please watch your fire,” she says into her earpiece. Billy is responsible for more property damage than the rest of their team combined. And that includes the time that Magician used the mayor’s Porsche as a projectile.

Steve is one of the founding members of their group, along with Nancy and Jonathan. He’d hated being the third wheel to their couple, but it hadn’t lasted. Billy Hargrove – Blaze – had transferred to their school last year, promptly getting in Steve’s face, screeching into the parking lot in his camaro every morning, and generally being an asshole. They hadn’t realized he had powers until he appeared one day to save them from a necromancer intent on storming the city with an army of the undead.

Billy’s voice comes back indignant and shrill.

“Come and fight these giant ladybirds and then we’ll talk!” he hisses. Steve’s laughter echoes down the earpiece. As Billy’s boyfriend, it’s a move the rest of them couldn’t get away with.

“Ladybirds aren’t scary,” Robin says pragmatically, because honestly the ladybirds feel like the better option. Centipedes, wasps and spiders were not made to be six feet tall. Billy makes a sputtering noise.

“That one was as big as a car!” he protests. “I can promise you those little fuckers are less cute when they have eyeballs as big as my head!”

“Awww, babe, are you creeped out by the cute little insects?” Steve coos. Their resident telekinetic seems to be having more fun than the rest of them, judging by the way that a giant worm shot past them at fifty miles an hour earlier, confusion on its little worm face before it crashed into the river.

“You threw it at me!” Billy shouts hysterically. Huh. Big bad Billy Hargrove freaked out by bugs. Who knew. “You owe me!”

“I was helping,” Steve retorts, and Chrissy rolls her eyes. Their team has quite a few couples on it but no one else delights in bickering as much as Billy and Steve.

“Guys!” Nancy’s voice cuts through, tense and irritated. She hates spiders but as their leader, she wasn’t about to back down. “What have we said about chatter on comms?”

“Sorry!” they all chorus and Chrissy returns to her search. Normally Moth Man arrives on a giant moth so not too hard to miss. But aside from her teammates fighting their battles, there’s nothing too out of the ordinary.

“What am I looking for here, Vigilante?” she asks, spinning around slowly in the air, wishing she had super vision to go with her strength. “I’m not seeing our guest of honor anywhere.”

She never gets to hear Jonathan’s answer. The hit from above is so unexpected that she doesn’t have time to right herself before she plummets down to the cold, hard concrete below.

The breath is completely knocked out of her as she meets the unforgiving road below. The concrete gives way beneath her, splintering into rubble. For a moment she lies there, completely stunned, head spinning, as she struggles to breathe.

“Sky Star, report!” Nancy barks into the earpiece, her voice clear and commanding over the anxious chatter from the rest of their team. Billy is cursing loudly, Robin is calling her name and Argyle is just plain unintelligible.

“I’m okay,” Chrissy winces, peeling herself out of the indent she’s made in the road. Ugh, she can see the headlines tomorrow. Main Street closed due to a giant pothole caused by a teenage superhero. Great. “Something hit me.” 

The only reason that she’s not dead from a hit like that is because she’s invulnerable. Any of the others would have broken bones and a concussion, minimum. Chrissy can slam her way headfirst through three brick walls and barely feel a headache the next day.

The buzzing of giant wings behind her makes her twist her head round.

“Ahh, Sky Star,” Moth Man purrs, face immensely smug underneath that hideous mask. “Nice of you to drop in.”

Chrissy rolls her eyes. Different villain, same script. There must be a cliched monologue class that they all take.

“Is that a hornet?” she asks, incredulously. Their opponent is sitting aside a giant black and yellow wasp.

“You’d think you would have chosen a more intimidating bug as a moniker,” she comments, brushing flecks of tarmac off her clothing. She pulls herself up, pushing herself up to hover off the ground, just eye level with the hornet. “Captain Hornet is a bit scarier than Moth Man.”

She can practically hear his teeth grind.

“But then I guess you wouldn’t have that alliteration,” she comments. There are voices in her ear again, the careful layout of a plan. All she has to do is talk and draw his attention. She’s not quite as good at winding people up as Robin or Billy, but she can talk just long enough for Strummer and Aegis to get in position. And she doesn’t have to wait long.

When the order comes, she shoots up into the sky and drops into a roll down on the nearest building roof, covering her ears with her hands. The sound wave that shatters the street breaks every window in a two-block radius, contained only by one of Aegis’s shields. The brilliant green glow is visible even from six stories up and Chrissy waits for the shield to disengage before she pushes herself up to float back down to street level to meet her teammates.

She lands gracefully, toes skimming the ground before she steps down, admiring the chaos in front of her.

“Nicely done,” she says, watching one of Moth Man’s legs twitch. There’s a devastating amount of shattered glass in the street, and no doubt the insurance companies won’t be happy about paying out for this. All of the nearest trees are blown clear of leaves, the brilliant Fall colors a swirl around their feet.

Chrissy’s two teammates stand in the middle of the chaos, one tall and dark, the other petite with red hair underneath her mask.

Aegis – Vickie – plucks a stray twig out of her hair. Robin’s girlfriend, she joined the team only a few months ago. She can erect giant shields and project just about anything she can see in her mind. She’s usually the one to contain most of the destruction, or watch their backs while they charge up an attack.

“We’re going to be in so much trouble for this,” she sighs, ruefully nudging a large shard of someone’s front living room window with her toe.

“Legally, we can’t be held accountable for any damage caused to structures or the environment during a crisis,” Nancy’s voice trickles down the earpieces. Steve snorts.

“Yeah, the mayor had a different view on that when I used his car against that guy with the giant robot tiger,” Steve mutters bitterly. “Like how I was I supposed to know that his Porsche was parked in front of Family Video?”

“The custom license plate?” Robin quips.

“Also, I don’t think the dude was there for Family Video so much as he was for the adult section in the back,” Argyle comments. Nancy sighs heavily, the sound of a leader who still cannot enforce the ‘no chatter on comms’ mandate. 

“So long as they can’t sue us,” Strummer says, bending down to peer at the remains of someone’s suncatcher, the shattered glass reflecting rainbows in the sunlight. Also a recent addition to the team, Strummer…Eddie manipulates sound: the soothing sounds to lull a wild animal to sleep, a siren song to distract an angry mob, a devastating sonic attack that results in the kind of destruction they have now.

“Well, if you kill someone that’s a different matter,” Nancy says briskly. “Okay, we’re all clear over here. We’re heading back towards you guys. I’ll call in the clean up crews, let them know what they’re dealing with.”

“Your morning commute has been delayed by big bug guts,” Robin says, mimicking their morning news guy. “Please find an alternate route.”

“We’re on our way,” Steve informs them, he and Billy apparently having completed their section too. “All bugs are down. See you guys soon.”

“This guy should be in jail for a while,” Eddie muses, poking Moth Man’s fake antenna. Vickie screws up her tiny nose.

“Thank God,” she sighs. “I hate giant bugs. You know, when I’ve squished bugs before I don't hear that horrendous squelch sound, you know? And after this, I don’t think I’ll be able to kill a spider again.”

Sometimes Chrissy thinks that Robin and Vickie are a perfect match.

Something brushes her hand and she startles before she realizes that it’s just Eddie.

“Are you okay?” he asks gently. “That was a pretty bad hit you took.” He gestures to the crater in the ground, the indent of her body from where she’d landed. She shrugs, trying to ignore the tingles that ignite from where his skin had touched her’s.

“I’m fine,” she says, with a weak smile. “Indestructible, remember?” She taps her head for emphasis but his concerned frown doesn’t ease.

Alright, so teammates falling in love is a cliche. Just look at how many couples exist on Chrissy’s team alone. Nancy and Jonathan fell in love after they started fighting together and seeing Billy burn down an incoming army of zombies is what caused Steve to fall hard. Vickie and Robin are the exception, crushing on each other before Vickie joined their group. Even Argyle isn’t exempt, long distance dating a girl in Utah with the power to manipulate plant life.

It’s a risk, because it puts emotion out into the field. The day Steve was poisoned during a fight is the day that Billy became uncontrollable. When Nancy was kidnapped by Warlock, Jonathan stopped thinking like a leader. You stop thinking about the team as a whole and think only about the person who means most to you.

It’s a stupid idea and Chrissy vowed to never date another superhero.

But her heart wants something else entirely.

Robin slides along the street, ice glittering under her boots and she flings herself at Vickie, picking her up and twirling her around. Billy and Steve arrive next, Steve’s magic neatly dropping them into the street. 

“Dude,” Billy says, sounding impressed. He offers a bemused Eddie a fist-bump. 

“I can probably fix some of this?” Steve offers, inspecting the damage. His telekinetic abilities have come in handy before, to turn over cars and reform some torn down buildings. “Maybe undo some of the structural damage?” 

“Aww, babe,” Billy coos, pressing a kiss to Steve’s forehead. “Have you thought about wearing tights and a cape in your do-gooding activities?”

“You’re a fucking superhero, Billy,” Robin remarks, raising an eyebrow. She has an arm wrapped around Vickie, and there’s a large scratch across her face. 

“I’d like to see you in tights,” Steve suggests, with a smirk. Robin makes a horrified face as Billy sweeps her best friend into the kind of kiss that’s meant for the kind of films their mayor supposedly prefers.

“Okay, gross,” Argyle says, strolling up the street behind them. He’s followed by Nancy and Jonathan and all three of them are covered from head to toe in thick, white web. It clings to Nancy’s hair and there’s a large glob of it wrapped around Argyle’s foot. “When they’re done macking, can we get pizza?”

“Clean up first, then pizza,” Nancy says wearily. “We’re not the kind of superheroes who disappear into the sunset and leave others to clean up their mess.” Eddie looks sheepish. 

“Got a bit carried away,” he says, jabbing a thumb at the still unconscious Moth Man. “But pizza sounds good after. Sky Star?”

Her stomach doesn’t jolt as much as it does when he says her actual name but it’s enough when she looks up and finds his dark eyes staring at her from behind his mask. 

“Sure,” she says shyly. She catches Robin’s smirk before she turns away, burying her face in Vickie’s bright hair. 

Oh God, she’s being so obvious. 

She lets Nancy steer her towards righting cars and holding up beams while Steve moves the foundations back into place. Occasionally she twists her head around to see Eddie sweeping up stray glass, the rocker carefully working a broom. 

It’s stuff like that that makes her want to cave. The fighting alongside each other, the cleaning up debris, the slices of pizza shared while they pass around bandages and neosporin. As dangerous and reckless and stupid as it is to date another hero, a civilian just…wouldn’t understand.

But there’s a shiver down her spine as she watches Eddie throw back his head and laugh at Billy wiping bug guts off his foot. Eddie is unguarded, hopeful, sharp and exuberant. He’s every shimmering color of a rainbow, the clarity after a storm, the feeling as she rises above the clouds, the wind ice-cold and pure in her chest.

If she feels like this now, she can’t imagine how happy she’ll feel if she really falls in love with him.

But she already knows how badly it’ll destroy her to lose him.

@hellcheerweek

[dreamerleamer]

Last night I had a dream. It was unsettling, the environment. It was like I was in one of my old homes, the brown house. There was nothing that resembled the brown house, but the feeling I got from the area told me that it was the brown house. Strangely enough, I had no family there. It was like I was alone, but that is not what scared me. I was frightened because I was back where I did not want to be. I'm walking around the dark halls, there was a light coming from above, but it was white, not yellow like sunlight. What is strange is that the roof was still there, but there was light from above, but not ceiling lights. Anyways, I'm walking through the rooms, and I hear people screaming, so I run toward the screams. Eventually, I see a girl who I think is a year or two younger or older than me. I can't tell her age; I just know that she is old enough to know that she is scared and knows how to take care of herself. I can't figure out why she's afraid because I can't see anything, but I run to her and try to calm her down. I get her to calm down, but what happens in between that moment and the next I don't recall. The next thing I remember is sitting with an old lady. She has gray hair in a high bun and she's wearing a blue and purple shawl. I'm not sure why but I trust her enough to be around her. The girl from before is gone. The old lady and I exchange very few words. I don't remember what she said exactly, but it had something to do with the truth and realizing that monsters can hide anywhere if you allow them to. There was something cryptic about what she said, like she knew me. I think we sat in silence for a moment, then I decided to walk around the halls. I walked into a room and there was a broken bridge. I walked and remembered that it creaked and moaned with each step. I felt scared but kept going because there was something I needed to see or know about. At some point I stop, and I look down, and all I see is a dark endless ravine. For a moment I am scared I will fall in, but at the same time it is comforting because it is familiar. I don't know how long I was there staring into the dark pit surrounding me, but I keep moving. I reach the other side and, instead of a door or new room, it's another bridge, but this one has spiral stairs all around it. If I choose to go up certain flights, I know I will find myself in another place, so I keep on the same ground. The lighting hasn't gotten any better, in fact, it's gotten worse. Wherever I am walking to gets darker, but it feels almost safe, it is uncharted territory, but it feels safe. Some sections of the bridge have holes in them, so I take special care to walk around them. This bridge is not as creaky as the one before. It's actually quite silent. I hear no more screams, but there is a strange breathing around me. That sound is the only scary thing here because it's constant and I don't know where it is coming from. There comes a point where I reach a door, but I can barely see anything. I go through it and the room I'm in has almost no light at all. I keep walking through, but on the other side I can see a very faint white light. I walk toward it but there's nothing at all. It's just light coming from some unknown source. I'm not sure how, but at some point, I'm talking with the girl again. The only thing I remember before I started talking to her were screams, and they were loud terrifying screams. But I am here with her, and the light has gotten better. I can kind of see her face, but I don't remember it. I can't remember what she looks or sounds like. The room is still dark, but there is a gray bed with gray walls. I have no clue how I got here or why I am here, but I am regardless. We are talking about something that has to do with monsters again and why this place always screams. Like there are screams that echo, but if you aren't tuned into them at the moment, you can't hear them.

[not-museing-around]

@long-gone-dream

Interviews were something that could be good or bad. It all depended on who she was talking to and if they wanted to talk. But Remus seemed an interesting fellow. A friend of a friend had some very interesting things to say about him. Apparently he’d been alive a lot longer than it looked, had a ton of crazy scars, and from what she said he had a bad attitude. That last little bit she wasn’t really looking forward to but Billie arranged for them to sit in a smoking section so he could smoke without having to leave the table. Her notebook was  neatly placed in front of her, the cafe was supposed to be open all day so even if they went over the hour she expected with him, they wouldn’t have to run. It all seemed as good as it could be. So why was she nervous? Something about meeting a stranger alone prickled that part of her brain that said she should run. Absentmindedly she rubbed a hand over the strap of her watch that hid one of her scars. Was he late? Or was she just anxious? Checking her watch, she read the time and found she was still a few minutes early herself. Miles definitely had warned her no to go. This was clearly a bad idea. Remus was supposed to be a scary guy. Some part of her though, the curious little bit of her brain, the writer inside of her was screaming for her to hear his story. It was as close as she was ever going to get to a real life superhero so she had to, right? If she ran now, just because she was a little jumpy, she would never forgive herself for it. At the last minute though, she closed her notebook. That might make him a little uncomfortable, right? Of course. Her purple pen she slipped through the ring binding where it fit so perfectly and she slipped both into her bag when she saw the man in question coming down the sidewalk. Or at least, a man that matched the description absolutely perfectly. 

Oof she was in trouble. Tall, dark curly hair, brilliant dark eyes. She could feel her heart racing already. Before she could properly register what she was doing, Billie shot up from her seat at the table and waved with both hands like an absolute idiot. “Hi! You’re Remus, right? Stacy’s friend? I’m Billie. Thank you so much for meeting me,” The woman greeted and offered her hand to him to shake. Miles voice echoed in her head, wish you weren’t so awkward bud. “Honestly I didn’t think you were going to show. This is such a weird thing to ask someone but I love hearing people’s stories so here we are,” Billie tucked a golden tendril behind her ear with her free hand before taking a seat back in he safety of the patio chair with a little gesture for him to join her. A waitress came by and refilled her cup of coffee. “Please, order whatever you like. My treat.” 

[aslitheryprinx]

can we get a part 2 to the smolbois inc story? What happens next to Tommy?

Sure!

Sorry this is so long; I haven't figured out how to add the read more section, and I kept thinking of more I wanted to add.

TW for a panic attack!

Rising Tensions part 2

How was he going to get out of this one?

When in doubt, Tommy thought, bluff your way out.

"And how do you know it wasn't a mouse?" He asked, acting offended. The giants exchanged a look.

"It's fucking rude to accuse someone you just met of stealing, did you know that? You're being rude right now," he said.

"You were sneaking around our house," Tubbo pointed out. Tommy puffed himself up, glaring at the giant with all the indignation he could muster.

"And did you consider that I'm lost, big man? Maybe I just wandered into your house by accident. Now you've accused me of sneaking and stealing." Ranboo raised an eyebrow.

"You came out of the walls," the taller giant said.

"Well… well," Tommy stammered, trying to come up with an excuse, "well, that's how I accidentally wandered in! We found these caves and found these caves, and they were all twisty and shit and we got lost and then ended up here." He realized his mistake and tried to backtrack. "I mean I got lost-"

"We? There are more of you?" Tubbo asked eagerly. Tommy felt a shiver of unease. Wasn't Tubbo some sort of scientist? Anything that made him sound that excited worried him. Besides he wasn't going to sell out his family just because the giant noticed his fuck up.

"It was just a slip of the tongue, man, fuck off!" He snapped.

"It sounds more like a slip up that you didn't want us knowing about. And you said 'we' twice," Tubbo argued, seeing right through his bullshit. Tommy stiffened. Why was he so bad at lying? Was Tubbo going to try and lure his family out now?

"Why are you trying to hide that there's more of you? Are you some sort of secret agent? Probably not, you're shit at lying. Maybe you're hiding someone important like a prince or government official! Or you're part of a traveling circus!" Tubbo rambled.

"There's not more of me, you dick!"

Tommy was having trouble staying calm. He'd been too busy trying to bullshit his way out of trouble that he hadn't focused on the situation he was actually in. What was going to happen to him? What would the giants do to him? If they caught his family, what would they do to them?

"Are you going to fucking let me go, now?" He snapped, only a tiny bit of the nervousness he felt creeping into his voice.

"Sure," Ranboo said.

"No," Tubbo said at the same time. Tommy's heart dropped.

"What do you mean no," Ranboo asked, sounding confused.

"I still have more questions! He can't go yet!" The smaller giant whined. So he wanted to keep Tommy here? Like a prisoner- or worse, a fucking pet. Breathing suddenly seemed really hard to Tommy.

"Like what?" Ranboo asked. Tubbo's eyes shone with excitement as he started to list off questions.

"Like where he's been living this whole time- I don't buy the mouse thing, I think it's been him and whoever else the whole time. It explains why there was no mouse shit. Also why is he here in the first place? And I wanna know about humans! What do they even eat? Is it the same as giants or something else? Where do humans even live? And how do they-"

"Tubbo! Tubbo, stop for a second," Ranboo interrupted, and Tubbo's rambling about human came to a halt. Ranboo was peering down at Tommy, the same concerned expression on his face.

"His… his heart is beating really fast," Ranboo said. Huh. Tommy hadn't really noticed, but it was pretty fast. It was kind of loud and uncomfortable now that he was paying attention.

"Oh, shit," Tubbo exclaimed. Then he was leaning down, peering at Tommy with wide eyes. A finger reached out and he flinched, but it never touched him. Ranboo had pulled him back away from Tubbo.

"Stop poking at him," the giant said, annoyed.

"I'm just trying to see if he's sick or something!" Tubbo protested.

"He's probably having a panic attack! I think we scared him," Ranboo said.

Panic attack? Wilbur and Techno both got those sometimes. He'd never had one, but hey, maybe it was genetics or some shit.

His vision went a little blurry, and he tried to breathe. It felt like something was sitting on his chest. Why was it so hard to breathe? He thought panic attacks just made you breathe really fast, not make you suffocate!

"Woah, woah! You've gotta breathe… um… human," Ranboo said awkwardly.

"Human?" Tubbo repeated, sounding unimpressed.

Tommy was trying so hard to breathe in. It seemed like no matter how hard he tried, none of his breaths were doing anything. He inhaled again, and there was a slight wheeze.

"I forgot to ask his name earlier!"

"What the hell man?"

"Hey, um, what is your name?"

…

Oh god, they were talking to him.

In between the struggling breaths, Tommy tried to focus on actually listening to what was going on rather than just let the noises pass over him.

"W-what?" He asked, hating how shaky his voice sounded. He blamed it on the lack of oxygen. He was ignoring his pounding heart and shaky hands.

"Your name?" Tubbo prompted.

"T-Tommy," he managed to force out between panicked breaths.

"Ok, Tommy can you try to breathe s-" Ranboo started.

"'m fucking trying to breathe!" Tommy gasped out. He meant to sound pissed, but his voice sounded weak and shaky. He hated it.

"Slowly," Ranboo said gently. "try to breathe slower."

Tommy gave him a doubtful look.

"It'll help, I promise," Ranboo said. "I get panic attacks a lot, it really does help."

Tommy tried. He did. But he kept freaking out, thinking if he didn't keep inhaling he'd just run out of air. Some part of him recognized that breathing slowly should help, but he just couldn't quite manage to do it.

"You've got this, boss man," Tubbo said softly. "Just keep trying."

He kept trying. He felt like he was going to pass out, but he managed to force himself to take longer to breathe. It did help.

"You're doing great," Ranboo encouraged.

"Yeah! Kick it's ass!" Tubbo cheered. Tommy managed a strangled sounding laugh.

It took several painful minutes, but Tommy managed to start breathing normally again. He had a headache, but he kind of thought he'd gotten off easy. He'd seen some of Wil and Techno's attacks and they could last for hours.

Now that he understood what it really felt like, he felt a sense of horror that they had to deal with this so often, and a sense of pride that his brothers were strong enough to fight them off and keep enjoying their lives. He thinks he would hate existence if this happened to him multiple times a month.

"I'm really sorry for scaring you, Tommy," Tubbo said. Tommy was still a little nervous about what the giants wanted from him, but Tubbo seemed so genuine. It was hard to believe they wanted to hurt him when they both seemed so concerned. And they'd been really gentle so far. So maybe… maybe his fears were unfounded and he was just being a little bitch.

"As long as you're not keeping me here forever, it's fine," he said. Well, he had to make sure. Just in case. Tubbo made a face.

"What like a prisoner? That would be fucking weird, boss man. We're not doing that."

"You can leave whenever you want," Ranboo told him. "Tubbo was just being nosy earlier."

"I am not nosy!" Tubbo protested. Ranboo rolled his eyes but kept his focus on Tommy.

"Can… can I go now?" Tommy asked, putting Ranboo's statement to the test. He may have decided that the giants wouldn't hurt him, but he was still overwhelmed and ready to go home. He was exhausted from the panic attack.

"Of course," Ranboo said. He paused, and Tommy fidgeted nervously as he made no move to set him down. "Um… do you want me to set you down here or take you back to where you were earlier?"

Ah. It had only been a few quick steps for Ranboo, but it would probably take Tommy forever to get back there on his own.

"If you wouldn't mind giving me a ride, big man," he said, trying to sound causal. Ranboo grinned.

"RanUber coming up," he said.

"Why not RanbUber?- Wait."

"Oh no," Ranboo muttered as he walked across the room. Tommy felt a grin growing on his face.

"RanBOOB!" He shouted.

"Oh, wow, never heard that one before," Ranboo grumbled. "I'm putting you down now."

He lowered his hand, and Tommy hopped off onto the ground. He was a little wobbly for a second, which was weird. Maybe it was kind of like being on a boat for a while, and he had to get readjusted to solid ground.

Once he got his balance back, he started to walk towards the tiny cave entrance. He stopped when Tubbo called out.

"Wait!" Tommy tensed slightly, wondering if Tubbo was changing his mind about letting him leave. But Tubbo just sat down next to where Ranboo had crouched.

"Will you come back and talk to us sometime?" He asked. Tommy hesitated. One the one hand, the giants were kind of fun to talk to, and they had been really nice. On the other hand, they'd also been pretty scary and he wasn't entirely sure he trusted them yet.

"Maybe," he settled on. "No promises." Tubbo looked a little disappointed.

"Alright. I hope you will. Bye, Tommy."

"Bye Tommy," Ranboo echoed.

Tommy gave them one last look before he ducked back into the smaller caves. He walked towards the cave where he and his family had been living. He'd only been walking for a few minutes when he was almost bowled over by Wilbur, who was barreling around the corner like a madman. He'd barely registered who it was when he was pulled into a crushing hug.

"Ack! Wil you're squishing me!" He whined.

"Where were you? I couldn't find you anywhere, Tommy I was so worried-"

"Wil, calm down. I was just in a cave that's kind of away from the others. I… I can show you later," he offered a little reluctantly. He hadn't actually gone to the cave he meant to sulk in, but he still kind of wanted to keep it to himself.

"You- it's fine, you don't have to. Just… are you ok? You kind of look like shit." Wilbur had gone full mother hen mode, fussing over him like he was still a baby. The motherfucker was even fixing his hair. And people thought Phil was the overprotective one.

"I'm fine," he said. Wilbur didn't look convinced.

"I'm fine now," he amended. He added quietly, "I uh… I kind of had a panic attack." Wilbur clutched him tighter. God this bitch was clingy when he was upset. Tommy couldn't find it in himself to complain though. The hug felt kind of nice.

"Toms, I'm so fucking sorry," Wilbur said.

"Huh?" What was he talking about?

"About what I said earlier." Oh shit, Tommy had forgotten all about the fight. A little bit of guilt churned in his stomach.

"I should not have said that. I was just pissed, and being a dick, and wanted to say something to make you feel bad. But it was such a stupid thing to say."

"Why, because it's true?" Tommy muttered glumly.

"No, because it's a fucking lie, Tommy, and I never should have said it," Wilbur said fiercely.

"But-"

"You didn't know," Wilbur cut him off. "It's not your fault anymore than it is my fault for jumping down after you when you fell, or Techno's for getting us lost, or Phil's for taking us camping to begin with. Not your fault. Alright?"

"Alright, Wil," Tommy muttered. He was still being held hostage by Wilbur's clingy octopus impression. He really had been worried. It was a good thing that Tubbo and Ranboo weren't all that bad, or who knows how freaked out Wil would've gotten.

It occurred to Tommy that he should probably tell his family that he talked to the giants. That they knew Tommy was there, and knew others were with him. It seemed like something important. But… he kind of wanted to talk to them again. He didn't think Wil would let him go if he found out, let alone his actual father.

So he just… didn't say anything. They didn't need to know. If it ever came up, well… he'd cross that bridge when he came to it.

Part one

[averytiredfanfictionwriter]

Sic Semper Tyrannis

A syndicate x Platonic! Reader/ Technoblade x Reader

Warnings: murder, kidnapping, blood, a somewhat graphic depiction of getting stitches

Word count: about 2800

Ao3 Link: wow.

I’m excited to share this. I did write a version with an angsty ending, which is up on my Ao3 account here if you want to read that one as well. Fair warning though, while writing it I found myself dying inside so I don’t know how you guys would feel. It was the original way I wanted to take the story but as I was writing I also created this one which is an alternate, fluffier ending. Reader is a raccoon hybrid in this one. Don’t forget to like and follow for more. Enjoy!

It almost seems to be a mistake, Techno thinks. The woman- no girl- standing in front of him never struck him as the anarchist type. She was always too soft, too nice for any of it. Yet here she stands next to Philza, shivering from the chill of the cave and rubbing her bare arms. 

“This is the new recruit I was telling you about.” The winged man smiles at Techno.

“She seems… soft.” He mutters, taking in her shivering form before handing her a cloak.

She only nods, accepting the cloak gratefully and clipping it around her neck with ease before burrowing into the thick material. 

“Trust me. You wouldn’t be saying that if you knew her how I do.” Phil mutters, rubbing at his shoulder.

“Fine. But do you swear to uphold the values of the syndicate? Do you promise that you’ll help in our mission to destroy the corrupted governments that threaten the freedoms of its citizens?” Techno stands over her, red eyes practically glowing.

She nods hastily under his seven foot tall frame and he seems satisfied as he backs away. “Okay then. Come take a seat. We have a lot to talk about today.” 

Techno makes his way up the stairs to the table behind him, taking a seat facing the entranceway. Y/n looks up at Philza and he only shakes his head. 

“Don’t worry about him. He seems scary but he won’t hurt you. In fact, that’s the nicest he’s been to someone that’s tried to join yet.” Philza says before walking towards the table.

“Wait- what do you mean ‘tried to join’? Phil, what happened to them?” Y/n says in a panic.

“We don’t talk about them.” Ranboo chimes in. “Now, come on. Don’t want to be late to your first meeting.” 

Y/n scurries up to a chair at the table, taking the one across from Phil and next to Ranboo. She sits furthest from Niki and Techno who both seem to be scrutinizing her every move.

“Now, let’s get this meeting started. First things first, we have a new recruit. This is Y/n. You all know her, but she’s going to be joining us. You’ll need a codename.” Techno states, and Y/n thinks a moment as they stare at her.

“Dolos. I’ll go with Dolos.” Techno nods, eyes flashing with an unknown emotion before returning to their usual blankness.

“Okay. Now that that’s over with, is there anything in particular you guys wanted to discuss? Any new information or governments?” 

Phil nods, standing as he stands from the chair and speaks to the group. Y/n zones out a little for the rest of the meeting, nodding along but not really listening. Soon, it’s time to go and they’re all standing, the sound of chairs scraping on the floor loudly and Ranboo’s laughter at something Niki said echoes through the small space.

“Y/n, can I speak to you alone.” It’s not a question, and the woman swallows thickly as she follows the piglin hybrid into a small room that connects to the main one.

“So why Dolos? I mean, of everything you could’ve chosen, why’d you choose Dolos?” He asks, standing against the door to the room, blocking her in.

“Ah, well- you see, I’ve been told I’m good at deceiving people and that I’m so good at it, no one ever knows until I tell them, and even then they don’t believe me. I think that it’s a good codename, that’s all.” She stutters out, and Techno’s eyes narrow.

“I’m not easily fooled. If you’re lying, or you’re here as a spy, I’ll figure it out. And then not even Phil will be able to save you. Do you understand me?” He grunts out, standing over her with his sword held in his hand.

She nods and all but teleports out of the room to get away as quick as possible. He looks after her, seeing the disappointed look on Phil’s face outside and the confused glances from Niki and Ranboo. He steps out of the room as well and leaves the meeting hall without another word. 

It’s a week before anyone hears directly from Y/n again, and when they do it’s not for reason they would have ever expected. 

“I need your help.” Techno takes in the sight of the blood soaked clothing that covers the young woman.

“What happened?” He’s bewildered, the first time he’s been surprised in a long time.

“It’s not my blood. Most of it’s from the people we were fighting, but some of it’s his.” She points behind her where Phil stands, holding up a severely injured Tommy.

“Come on.” Techno grunts, ears twitching. The voices chime in, but he pushes them aside. 

“Set him on the couch.” Phil lays him down gently and gets to work brewing potions for the young boy. 

Y/n sits next to him, clutching his hand tightly with one of hers as she continues putting pressure on the gaping wound in his stomach. Her striped tail swishes nervously on the floor behind her and the large black ears lay back against her head.

“Get his shirt off. I need to sew it up.” Techno has his sleeves rolled up to the elbow as he comes over with a small first aid kit.

Y/n uses her sharp nails to cut away the stomach section of Tommy’s shirt, revealing the ugly looking gash. She pales at the sight of it, getting up and running to the bathroom to most likely vomit. Techno only sighs as he gets to work, wiping off the dried blood around the wound and starting to stitch it up. Tommy shifts uncomfortably on the couch, crying out at the needle threading in and out of his skin. 

Once done, Phil shoves the healing potion in Tommy’s face, which he drinks and then promptly passes out. Y/n comes back from the bathroom, hair tied back from her face.

“What happened?” Techno asks, standing in front of her.

“We were running through the woods, having fun- y’know, kid things- when we came across a small group of people. They started to attack us, and we started to fight back, thinking there weren’t anymore of them. Well, we were wrong. Very wrong. We wouldn’t have escaped if it wasn’t for Phil. Before we got away though, they said something like ‘down with the order’. I don’t know what they meant though. It was hard to understand them through their masks.” Y/n spews out and Techno only stares at her.

“‘Down with the order’? That sounds like they know something. What did they look like? Any distinct markings for kingdoms or anything?” Techno says softly.

She shakes her head. “Nothing that I could see, unless I missed it. I could probably lead you back to the place we fought at. I don’t know if more came to collect the bodies or not.” 

“Take me there. But first, go get cleaned up. We don’t need you walking around drenched in blood.” Techno says, nodding to the bathroom. 

One shower and change of clothes later, the pair are on their way to where Y/n and Tommy were attacked. Techno notices her fidgeting more than usual, constantly looking around them and watching as she jumps at the smallest of noises. He chalks it up to having been just attacked and they continue walking.

She stops in a clearing and he stands beside her. No sign of bloodied bodies is anywhere to be found. In fact, there’s no evidence a fight even occurred here. No blood spots on the ground, no scrapes in the ground, no disturbance of wildlife.

“Are you sure this is the place?” He turns to look at her, but she’s gone. Suddenly, something hits him from behind and the last thing he sees is Y/n, crying softly as someone holds onto her.

Techno slowly opens his eyes, registering the cold metal against his wrists and multitude of people surrounding him. The voices scream out in rage- rage at Y/n for getting them captured, rage at himself for allowing this to happen, anger for not trying to stop him and Y/n from being captured. They’re angry at a lot of things, and he grunts as he feels a headache coming on.

Y/n stirs in the chair across from him, whimpering softly and her tail waves behind her slowly. “Where-”

“That doesn’t matter. What matters is that you need to tell us who the rest of the members of your little club is, or else you both die. Tell us, and you live. It’s that simple.” A voice speaks out, a young man with brown hair and light eyes.

He rests a sword on Y/n’s shoulder and looks Techno in the eyes. He says nothing, glaring at the man instead.

“Are you going to tell me? If not, then I guess I’ll need to encourage you to do so.” The young man sighs, and takes out a knife, grabs hold of Y/n’s tail and presses the knife against the base of it.

Y/n screams loudly, and Techno hates the sound of it more than any other sound he’s heard. The voices seem to hate it as well, yelling at him to just tell the man the names of the other members to end it.

“Fine.” Techno gives in. 

The young man smiles, dropping Y/n’s tail and wiping the knife off on her shirt. “Oh good! That’s very good.” 

“Don’t do it. It’s not worth it. My life’s not worth it.” Y/n mumbles, tears falling down her face as she clenches onto the armrests of the chair tightly.

“You might know one of them. His name is Zephyrus. Has black wings, wears lots of green. Another one is named Lethe. He’s half enderman. Good luck catching him though. The last one is Nemesis. You might never find her though. She spends most of her time underground.” Techno states and Y/n almost laughs at the use of the codenames.

“You’re lying.”

The young man holds the knife to Y/n’s throat and presses gently, causing a small trickle of blood to run down her neck. “You have one more chance to tell me their names before I kill her and then you. I’ll give you to the count of ten. Ten…” Techno growls at the man before him, the sight of his knife pressed against the woman's throat more than angering.

“I told you. Those are their names. It’s not my fault if you don’t believe me. Now let her go. I don’t even like her. Killing her wouldn’t get me to reveal anything.” Techno says calmly.

The man considers this, pausing his counting. “You’re still lying. I saw you help her and her friend, the blonde. I’m surprised the cut didn’t kill him, to be honest. I think I’ll have to go back to your cabin when I’m done here and finish the job.” 

Steam is basically pouring out of Techno’s ears and his eyes glow a bright red. “Don’t fucking touch him.” 

“Yes! I will, unless you tell me the real names of the other members of your little club.” He releases Y/n’s head from his grip, and pulls his knife away from her neck. 

“Phil, Niki, and Ranboo. Those are their names. Now let her go.” Techno growls and Y/n shakes her head.

“He’s lying. Those aren’t their names. There’s not even more than one other member of the group. The third member of the group is named Dream. He’s currently in prison for killing several people and blowing up a country not once, but twice as well as manipulating kids. He’s the only other member of the group.” Y/n says, hoping that they don’t know she’s lying and buy her bluff. 

The god currently sits in prison, waiting out his days monotonously. They would definitely all die the minute they try and kill him- if they even do get to him, considering Sam would kill them the minute they step foot in the prison.

“Finally, someone here is telling the truth. You’re going to give me the exact coordinates of where the prison is, and then you two are going to stay here while we go kill him.” Y/n gives him the coordinates and the man is almost bouncing in joy. “For your sake, we better not be walking into a trap. Let’s go boys.” They leave the room and Y/n sighs, her head hanging forward heavily, as if her neck can’t hold itself up anymore.

“What was that?” Techno asks and she shrugs.

“I told you. People don’t believe I’m capable of lying to them. They’re all going to die trying to get to Dream, or he’s going to kill them himself.” Y/n yawns.

“Yeah, and we need to get out of here in case some of them survive.” Techno says, struggling against the restraints holding him to the chair and eventually manages to break them.

“Alright, let’s get you out of here.” Techno mumbles, picking the lock on Y/n’s restraints and lifting her up easily in his arms.

The maze of hallways is nearly impossible to escape, but they do it somehow and step outside to a snowy tundra. The wind blows frozen ice shards through the air and it bites at their skin. They were stripped of gear and their cloaks. The cold is no match for Techno, who produces enough body heat to stay warm enough, but Y/n shivers in his arms and presses her face against his chest in an effort to keep warm.

Techno’s communicator beeps as it regains signal, and he works it out of his pocket, seeing the messages from Phil and quickly shoots one back with their coordinates and a request for blankets.

Looking around, the only shelter Techno can find until Phil arrives is the building they came out of but that’s not an option in case the people come back. Techno settles for sitting on the ground and hugging the woman to his chest, doing his best to protect her from the wind and cold. 

“Oh my god…” Phil says as he lands in front of the pair, quickly grabbing Y/n and wrapping the cloak around her.

“Take her back to my cabin. She needs to get warmed up and is going to probably need stitches in her tail.” Phil nods, passing his sword to Techno.

“Will you be fine walking back? I can zip right back here to get you. Tommy’s healed and can look after Y/n while I do so.” 

Techno shakes his head. “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me. After all, you need to check on Ranboo and Niki. Make sure they’re okay. We’re not extremely far from the cabin, I’ll make it back before the end of the night. Now go already.” Techno says and Phil nods, taking off quickly with Y/n.

He looks back at the building they were in, and heads back inside. If there’s anyone left here, they’ll pay for what happened.

It’s a few days before Techno comes back and Philza spends the time either worrying over it or about the worsening condition of Y/n, who seems to have developed a bad cold or flu or hypothermia or all of it, really, as well as making sure Tommy doesn’t rip his stitches trying to do stupid stuff. When Techno does come back, he’s covered in blood and doesn’t even stop to talk to the members of the syndicate sitting in the living room or even wash up, instead going straight for the room where Y/n is sleeping and peeking in.

“She’s not doing well at all. I stitched her tail up, but she’s developed a fever and is still freezing cold all the time and isn’t getting any better, even with a ton of healing potions. I don’t know if she’s going to make it.” Phil mutters beside Techno and he only nods.

He steps out of the doorway and leaves to take a shower, taking extra care to scrub the blood out of his hair and changes into comfortable clothes. Peeking into Y/n’s room again, he sees her shivering underneath the blankets. Well no wonder she’s sick, she’s still freezing cold, he thinks to himself before opening the door further and stepping into the room. He climbs under the covers and Y/n instantly curls up to him, soaking in his natural warmth.

“Thank you, for getting me out of there.” She mutters, before falling back asleep.

“Anything for you.” He whispers, holding her tighter against him in an almost protective manner. 

Phil watches from the doorway, smiling as he watches Techno fall asleep curled up with her.

Tagged: 

@thegeekisheere

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

raven-san, can we please have a wedding crashing where jade needs to marry this girl from another crime family to consolidate power and become the next head of the leech mob :)) but floyd's like I'M BORED and annoyed that his brother's being snatched up by a random chick, so he asks basketball bros, and azul, to help save jade?

This one is super long, so I added some extra sections and placed the rest of the wedding crashing below the cut!

***Spoilers for Jamil and Floyd’s Unique Magic!!***

"I object to this wedding...!"

Pre-Wedding Jitters

A call comes for the twins in the dead of night, without warning. It’s their parents with exciting news: they’re naming Jade as the next Don Leech. The catch? The Leech mob’s in the middle of a merger with the Worm mob, and he’ll have to marry Don Worm’s daughter to secure the deal.

Jade, ever the dutiful son, is honored by his future title and calmly agrees to the arrangement. On the other hand, Floyd’s annoyed by the idea, and can’t keep quiet about his irritation. He calls out to his twin in the darkness.

“... Ne, Jade.”

“Ee, Floyd?”

“Are you really okay with going through with this? You’re just gonna do what they said? Even though you don’t know the Worms at all? Even if you’ve never met that girl before?”

“It is a request coming directly from father and mother. How could I refuse them? And, furthermore... If I do not undertake this task, then it would fall to you, the next choice to inherit the title of Don Leech. I cannot allow that to come to pass--fufu. You do so enjoy your freedom, yes?”

“... Jade, you’re so dumb sometimes. What’ll happen to your freedom, then? Will you get so busy with being the big boss and being married... that you won’t have time to play anymore?”

“... Perhaps. But that is a sacrifice I am willing to make.”

That thought doesn’t sit well with Floyd--not at all.

“I trust that you will make your own fun of the situation,” Jade reassures him. “You always do.”

As the weeks pass, Floyd sees less and less of Jade around, since he has to prepare for the wedding. Jade reassures him that he’s doing just fine, but Floyd can see right through his lies. He can tell that Jade’s more frazzled than usual--there’s a lingering to his words, and a longing in his eyes, savoring every last bit of autonomy he has before his fate is forever sealed.

Floyd hates it. He hates being lied to by his own brother, and he hates feeling powerless to stop the wedding. Floyd’s so angry that he develops this murderous aura in the weeks leading up to the wedding, which makes everyone around him shy away.

One day, he gets sick of being in the water--it’s a reminder of the wedding to come--so Floyd plays basketball on land to vent. He ends up chomping down so hard that he deflates a ball, then dunks another basketball so hard, he breaks the net.

He sprawls out on the ground and angrily shouts at the sky. His basketball bonks him on the head... and that’s when an idea hits him: maybe he can’t stop the wedding alone, but no one said he couldn’t phone some friends.

Assembling the Dream Team

Floyd first dials up Azul, who agrees to help after some whining and signing a contract agreeing to pay Azul handsomely for his services (... although truthfully, the octopus does want to help Jade, but doesn't immediately agree to do it because of his pride as a businessman).

Floyd also calls his old basketball buddies for help! Jamil and Ace are much more adamant than Azul, but Floyd strongarms them into pitching in. ("Umihebi-kun, Kani-chan, if you don't help me rescue Jade, I'll get suuuper mad, you know? I don't think you'll like me when I get mad. Moray eels are strong hunters, so I don’t think it’ll be a problem for me to track you guys down and give you a good squeeze~" "OKAY, OKAY, WE'LL DO IT!!")

Together, the four boys meet up to scheme of a way to disrupt the wedding without jeopardizing the Leech mob's future. Floyd actively leads the discussion, allowing his hidden genius to come to the surface.

Ace doesn’t contribute much to the strategy (laid out by Azul), but he does keep the spirit up with some jokes. Meanwhile, Jamil provides snacks for them when they work late into the night (though he keeps passing semi-glares to Azul whenever the octopus compliments him or tries to be friendly).

In preparation for the crashing, Azul brews some potions to give Jamil and Ace so they can take on temporary merforms. After all, the wedding will be underwater, in the Coral Sea, and they’ll need tail fins.

The date of destiny draws ever closer... and Floyd's never been so excited to cause chaos in his whole life.

The Crashing - Team Azul & Jamil

They split into two pairs on the day of the wedding—Azul and Jamil, and Floyd and Ace. Floyd uses his position as the future son-in-law to Don Worm to arrange a meeting between himself and the don... except Azul and Jamil will show up instead.

Don Worm shows up to the meeting in his finest clothes (which is very little, given that he’s a merman), sounding a bit annoyed the sudden summoning. “Make this quick, I’ve got to go see my baby girl’s big day... Wait. You fellas aren’t the F. Leech boy.”

“No, we aren’t, sir. We are his representatives... Proxies, if you will,” Azul insists, giving his warmest and most welcoming smile. He uses a tentacle to tug on Jamil’s tail, forcing him to smile too. “You see, there is an important business matter we needed to discuss with you on behalf of Floyd.”

“Hoh? And what would that be?”

“I believe my business associate would be better off explaining the matter than myself.” Azul gestures to Jamil, who has his head down.

“Oi, what’s with you? Don’t you know who I am, boy? It’s rude to not look your elders in the eye when they are speaking to you!! Show me the respect I deserve, from one professional to another!!”

“My apologies, sir.” Jamil looks up, locking eyes with the mob boss. “... Is this better?”

“Yes, that’s...”

“Snake Whisper.”

Don Worm suddenly goes glassy-eyed and slack-jawed. Azul claps at the sight, showering his partner with compliments. “As expected of the talented Jamil-san! Even one look from you can bring a mafia lord to his downfall. Truly, your Unique Magic is most impressive!”

“Save your flattery for later.”

Azul’s lips curl into a smirk as he whips out a golden contract from his briefcase and offers it to the don. “Now then, if you wouldn’t mind, sir... sign on the dotted line.”

The Crashing - Team Floyd & Ace

Ace and Floyd rush to the wedding venue, their tails cutting through the water like knives as they swim at a breakneck pace. Ace can barely keep up with Floyd, who surges far ahead.

“H-Hey, should we really be barging in like this?! Don’t mob families have weapons and other dangerous stuff? Is there a backdoor we can take instead? Hello?! Floyd-senpai, are you listening to me?!” (He isn’t.)

The open, underwater comes into view, and Floyd barrels in without any hesitation, tearing right through some decorations and knocking over the wedding cake with his tail. A loud CRASH! echoes through the waters, drawing eyes to him.

Jade stares at his brother from the altar—wide eyed, but a mirthful smile on his lips. Floyd waves to him, and then to his mom and dad in the crowd of guests. “Hiii, Jade! I’m here to pick you up now.”

The Worm girl starts sobbing, wailing something about how her special day’s been ruined, and where is her papa to put an end to this? At her signal, security guards, and some of the rougher looking guests—Worm family associates—lunge at Floyd, claws and teeth out. A few of them have produced wands, and what seem to be guns—loaded with harpoons.

“Bind the Heart!” Objects and stray magic go flying in all directions, hitting both people and wedding decorations. Cloth tears, columns crumble—but it’s one man against many, and he can only bind so many hearts before the blot starts to stack.

Ace makes it just in time, sending their foes and their weapons hurtling through the water with a blast of wind. “This is why I said to be careful, dammit! Your Unique Magic’s such a crapshoot—don’t just use it whenever, or you’ll be sushi!!!”

“Ahahahah! Kani-chan’s being all heroic today! That’s so cute. Don’t worry, I can play my part, too...!!”

Using his tail, Floyd hooks around a drifting merman and chucks him straight into another. They collide with a CRACK!—but Floyd barely registers it. He’s already bolting off, grabbing heads and smashing them together, slicing through others like a knife through butter.

There’s a crazed, frenzied look to him, gleeful laughter cutting through the waters and mixing with the Worm bride’s screeching. I forgot how scary Floyd-senpai can be, Ace realizes. (Jade and Floyd’s parents are cheering for him from their seats.)

Jade looks quite proud of his brother, even laughing along to the brutal slaughterfest. His bride stares at him incredulously. “Stop that brute! He’s ruining MY special day!!”

“No,” Jade replies calmly. “I don’t think I will. This is far too amusing to let it end so soon.”

She lets out a frustrated scream and launches herself at her groom, hands going for his throat. The Worm girl is slammed back with a strong hit to her gut, courtesy of Jade’s tail.

She flies back, slamming into a column—and feels a tail wrapping around her and squeezing tight. Constricting her to the point where it was difficult to breathe. A livid mermaid glares down at her, teeth bared in a snarl.

“No one lays a hand on my children,” Mama Leech declares. “No one.”

From the corner of her eye, the Worm girl can see that Jade has cast off his bow tie and flitted over to Floyd, embracing happily in a battlefield adorned with red ribbons trailing through the water. Her vision is abruptly blocked off by a broad-shouldered merman wearing a grimace.

“Now then, what shall we do with this one?” Papa Leech wonders aloud—though from his tone of voice, he has nothing good in store.

The Aftermath

“You’re all fish bait when daddy hears about this...!” the Worm girl warns, her words raspy. “Th-The merger won’t go through...! There’ll be war between the Leeches and the Worms...!”

A loud throat clearing comes from behind. “Fortunately, that won’t be happening.”

Azul and Jamil make their appearance, the octopus merman smugly showcasing a contract. “Ashengrotto—Azul Ashengrotto, legal and business extraordinaire at your service, Don Leech and Lady Leech.”

Papa Leech grunts. “What’s that you’ve got there?”

“This?” Azul’s smirk widens. “Why, it’s a prenuptial stating that, in the case that an act of violence is enacted by the bride toward the groom, the marriage is considered null and void... and the bride’s family assets are to be claimed by the groom. Signed by Don Worm himself.”

“Wh-What?! Impossible!! How did you get daddy to sign such a stupid deal?!”

“Oh,” Jamil says nonchalantly, “we have our ways.”

“So... Uh, Jade-senpai’s still gonna be the next Don Leech?! And he’s gonna be in charge of an even bigger and richer family... How is that any better than the situation before?! You’re just giving him more resources for committing crimes!”

At that moment, two hands come down on Ace’s shoulders, causing him to freeze up.

“Kani-chaaaaan! Everyone!! Thanks so much for your help~”

“Yes, you have my sincerest thanks, Ace-san, Jamil-san... Azul.”

“It is my pleasure to assist such VIP clients. Ah, but there remains the matter of my promised payment—” (Jamil and Ace internally groan at Azul’s words.)

“Payment?” Don Leech scoffs. “After the ballsy operation you boys pulled off today... I’m more inclined to give you job offers instead of a one time sum. How do you lads feel about being hired as the Leech family’s personal lawyer, interrogator, and... well, whatever the heart one is good at.”

“My, my! Such a generous and lucrative offer—“

“There is no way I’m accepting that, especially if that means working with Azul.”

“Oi, I’ll have you know I’m good at lots of stuff!! I’m the one that saved Floyd’s tail fins, is no one gonna acknowledge that?!”

“You did amazing, sweetie!!” Mama Leech chirps—her tail grip tightening until the Worm girl passes out. Ace leaps back in fright. “As a reward, why don’t you let me give you a hug?”

“S-STAY BACK!!”

“Ahahahah! Everyone’s getting along so well, Jade. Isn’t this fun? You wouldn’t be able to enjoy this if you had gone to get hitched.”

“Fufufu. You are correct, Floyd. How sad it would have been if I were to miss out on touching moments such as this. From the bottom of my heart... I thank you for thinking of me, and for rushing to my aid. I could not have asked for a better brother.”

... What Floyd doesn’t know is that this was all according to keikaku Jade’s own machinations. He would never take the order to marry lying down—but he couldn’t outright defy it without immediate consequences, either.

Thank the Great Seven Jade has reliable puppets friends to help him out of a pinch. I’ll be certain to put the additional funds we have gained to good use... Perhaps to start a little mushroom farm.

[rosiehunterwolf]

wait

(storm section inspired by @ambrosial-tea)

Prompts: Home and Memories

Word Count: 5,901 (hey i think i'm actually starting to get these back to a more reasonable number XD)

Characters: Lloyd and Garmadon

Timeline: Between episodes 13 (Day of the Great Devourer) and 18 (Child’s Play) with some flashback scenes

Trigger Warnings: Abandonment

Summary: Lloyd’s not so great at being patient. It’s not his fault though- maybe he would be better at it if waiting didn’t always end up being so disappointing- if people actually kept their promises. But this time’s going to be different, he knows it. His father will come back for him. And Lloyd’s going to wait.

As long as it takes.

Since I already got two bingos on the sparks board, I decided to switch it up and change to the warm board!

Read on FFN.net

Read on Ao3

Tumblr work under the cut

In the aftermath of the battle, Lloyd only had one thought on his mind.

Cheers and whoops from the citizens of Ninjago City- and the ninja themselves- rang through the air as the realization that the Great Devourer was dead hit them. Lloyd hardly noticed, though. Gripping the handrail at the edge of the building, he peered out over the city. He was around here somewhere. He had to be.

“We did it!” Kai cried, grabbing Lloyd’s hand and raising it high in the air. “We saved the city! The Great Devourer is dead!” We? Lloyd glared at him, although the fire ninja didn’t even seem to notice. My dad was the one who seemed to do all the saving.

“Ultra!” Cole cried as the dragon landed on the street near the foot of the building. Racing towards the fire escape, the ninja hurried down the stairs and over to the dragon. Cole threw his arms around Rocky’s snout, the others not far behind. “You’re safe, bud!”

As the ninja and Nya laughed and caressed the dragon, Lloyd hung back, feeling lost. This wasn’t right. They couldn’t go on celebrating when someone was still missing.

“Where’s my dad?” he burst out, his voice sounding a lot shakier than what he had hoped for. “I don’t see him anywhere.”

The others exchanged glances. Lloyd hated the way they looked at each other, trying to decide what to tell him, because he obviously wasn’t good enough to know what they were really thinking.

Nya walked over to him, putting a hand on his shoulder and bending over slightly to put herself more at his level. Her eyes sparkled with regret. “Lloyd-”

“Sensei Wu?”

Jaws dropped at Cole’s exclamation, and they jerked their gazes towards where he was pointing. Sure enough, Uncle Wu was sitting in the middle of the street, in a pile of green Devourer goo, looking lost as he pushed himself to his feet. Lloyd closed his eyes, letting his breath out slowly. So at least one of his mistakes had been fixed.

“He’s alive?” Jay gaped. “He’s alive!”

Kai grabbed Lloyd by the wrist, half-dragging him over towards their sensei as the ninja tackled him into a hug. Lloyd reached out to put a hand on his uncle’s back, but paused. He had no place here. Don’t get me wrong, I love the ninja, but… I was never supposed to be part of this. I’m only here because my uncle is their sensei, because I’m their beloved green ninja.

Wu pulled back from his students, grinning- only for his smile to falter as his dark eyes met Lloyd’s red ones. He tilted his head in that odd, knowing way of his. Lloyd wanted to break the contact, but couldn’t.

“Your father is gone, isn’t he.” Not a question, but a statement.

Lloyd let his gaze drop to the ground, remaining silent. His uncle reached a hand out for his shoulder but stopped short when Lloyd flinched away.

“Yeah, and with him, our golden weapons,” Kai growled. Nya elbowed him, hard, and he yelped, rubbing his side and scowling at her.

“Weapons or not, we will see him again,” Wu told him, “of that I am certain.”

“Yeah, only because your dumb prophecy says so.”

Wu flinched. “Lloyd-”

“Do I really have to fight my father someday, Uncle Wu?”

He sighed. “One day, nephew, that time will come. But I can hope that it is not for many, many years to come, when you are much older and stronger and wiser. Until then, we must not linger on the future. You ninja have done well today. You should be proud of yourselves, celebrate your victory for a little while.”

“Don’t worry, bigshot.” Kai ruffled his hair. “You’re the chosen one. And we’re the best teachers there are! You’ll be more than ready by the time the final battle rolls around.”

Lloyd clenched his teeth. Why couldn’t any of them see? He didn’t want to fight his father. He couldn’t. His father had come back for him when the Serpentine had trapped him, even when everyone else had lost hope. His father had been the one to comfort him about their futures, the one to protect him, the one to fix his mistakes with the Serpentine. So what if he had taken the golden weapons? If it weren’t for him, they’d all be inside the stomach of a giant snake right now. Were the ninja really so quick to forget that?

They didn’t know him like Lloyd did. Even his uncle had never seen the side of him Lloyd had seen. His father was a good man who had made bad choices. Couldn’t the same be said for Lloyd? If he had changed, why couldn’t his father?

Don’t worry, dad, he vowed silently. I won’t fight you. I’ll find a way to fix this. To make this right.

You see if I don’t.

---

Lightning illuminated the small room, dazzling Garmadon’s tired face as he carried the blanket over to the couch. Sitting down, he gazed out the window, the pattering sound of rain against the glass both comforting and incredibly lonely at the same time.

He sighed, turning towards the hallway. “I know you’re there, Lloyd.”

A small boy slipped into view, a stuffed dragon hugged tightly against his chest and his wispy, whitish-blond hair a mess as he blinked shyly up at him. “I’m scared of the storm, Daddy.”

Garmadon shook his head, scooting over on the couch and patting the space beside him. Lloyd needed no further encouragement, running up to him and hauling himself up to sit beside him. Lloyd burrowed himself against Garmadon’s side, and he made sure to pull the edge of his blanket a little tighter around his son.

Thunder rumbled loudly, and Lloyd whimpered, gripping tighter onto Garmadon. He waited a moment for the boy to relax before speaking.

“So. Mind telling me what it is you find so scary about storms?” Lloyd fidgeted. “They’re so loud! And the lightning- I don’t want it to get me, Daddy.”

Garmadon chuckled. “So you’re scared of a little noise and lights, eh? Somehow, I didn’t quite expect that from you.”

Lloyd yelped as another rumble echoed through the air, this one seeming to shake the house with its ferocity. Lloyd’s dragon slipped out of his grip and he quickly snatched it back up.

“It’s just a process of nature, son. There’s no need to fear it. We are safe here.”

Lloyd glanced up at him with wide eyes, and Garmadon sighed.

“It’s like a dragon, Lloyd. The storm is a big, restless dragon who’s bored and wants to play. The thunder is his roar, and the lightning is his fire breath.”

Lloyd’s eyes glowed, and he shuffled anxiously against Garmadon’s side. “Well, maybe it’s not that scary anymore…”

Garmadon huffed a laugh. “Dragons. That’s all it ever takes with you, isn’t it?”

Lloyd murmured something inaudible, nestling his head in Garmadon’s lap. They sat there together in the silence of the room, and long after Garmadon had thought his son had fallen asleep, he suddenly spoke.

“Daddy?”

“Hm?”

“Why did you and Mommy fight?”

Garmadon breathed out slowly. “Lloyd, you know it’s not nice to listen to people when they don’t know you’re there.”

“Sorry.”

“Look, son. There are some things in this world that are more complicated than you will ever know.” Seeing the confused look on the boy’s face, he elaborated. “Sometimes, people say things they don’t mean. Sometimes, mommies and daddies need to take a little break from each other.”

“Is that why you’re sleeping on the couch?”

“I suppose so. But it’s only for one night, Lloyd. We’ll sort things out tomorrow.”

“Oh.”

Garmadon gazed out the window again, running a hand through his thick hair. He tried not to think about the dark roots he had spotted there earlier, staining his deep chestnut hair the color of darkest night.

That was something no one needed to know about yet. The red eyes had already been hard enough on Misako, especially when their son had inherited them. He tried not to think about what that meant, either. The venom wasn’t hereditary, was it? Lloyd showed no signs of the snappishness he had felt as a youth. On the contrary, the child was pure of heart and bright of soul, one of the sweetest people he had ever met. Garmadon couldn’t understand how he had gotten so lucky.

“Did I do something to make you and Mommy fight?”

“What?” Garmadon started suddenly. “Heavens, child, no.” Taking Lloyd’s chin in his hand, he titled it towards him so that they were looking each other in the eye. “Honey, none of this is your fault. This is Daddy’s mistake, not yours. We both love you very much, you know that, right?”

Lloyd nodded, sniffling as he wrapped his arms tighter around him. “Can I stay with you tonight?”

Garmadon rested a hand on his head. “Whatever you need, my son. I will always be here for you.”

---

“Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon, what were you thinking?” Kai ripped the sword off of his back, sending it to the ground with a clatter. “We told you to stay on the bus, and what did you do? Go after a bunch of pirates?”

“Yeah, kid.” Cole crossed his arms over his chest. “You could’ve been seriously hurt.”

Lloyd glared at them. “I was only trying to help! You never let me do anything!” “Because you’re not ready!” Kai put his hands in his hair, yanking on it in frustration. “Augh, can’t you see? We’re only trying to protect you! What good is all this training if you don’t even make it to the final battle?”

“Lloyd,” Zane said more gently. “You need to take things one step at a time. One day, you will be ready to fight beside us. One day, but not today.”

Lloyd looked away, pushing down the bubbling anger inside of him. This didn’t matter. None of this mattered. If the ninja wanted to treat him like a baby, fine. It didn’t matter what they thought.

All he cared about was his father. He needed to impress him. Make him proud.

“Lloyd? Do you understand?”

“Yes, Zane,” he muttered, avoiding the nindroid’s gaze and instead choosing to kick at a rock. The ninja exchanged hesitant glances, but they didn’t press him further.

Nya sighed. “It’s been a long day. What do you say we get back to the Bounty, and-”

“Sorry! You snooze, you lose!”

The group whipped around towards the Bounty, where the thrusters were powering up as several Serpentine peered at them over the guardrails- as well as a familiar dark figure.

“Dad,” Lloyd breathed, lunging forward- only to be stopped by Nya’s strong arms. He squirmed against her, but she wouldn’t relent.

“Lord Garmadon!” Kai cried. “He stole our ship! I can’t believe he stole our ship!”

“Come on,” Jay groaned. “We just got it back! Can’t it go five minutes without being taken?”

“The Bounty belongs to us,” Cole warned. “We fought for it, fair and square. Give it back, Garmadon.”

The Dark Lord gave a dry laugh. “Like I’d give anything to you.”

Lord Garmadon’s head turned- freezing as he made eye contact with Lloyd. The same eerie red of his own eyes reflected back at him. He longed to say something, anything- but his mouth was dry and words refused to come. He hoped his father could tell what he was thinking, anyway.

Please don’t leave. Stay here. We can work something out. We’ll fix everything between us.

Please don’t leave me again.

For a moment, something that looked like doubt flashed in his father’s eyes, and Lloyd felt hope soar in his chest. My dad might actually- he could-

“You’re getting stronger, son,” Garmadon said, “but never strong enough to defeat me. Give up and turn back now, before it is too late.”

No. Lloyd felt himself fumble as the Bounty rose into the air and flew away, taking his father further and further from him. No, he couldn’t be leaving him again, this had been his one chance to get his father back, to earn his love, but Lloyd had blown it.

I’m sorry, dad. I wasn’t good enough. I let you down.

It won’t happen again. Next time, I’ll try harder.

Next time, I’ll make you proud.

---

Their apartment was quiet that night. As Kai and Nya washed dishes in the kitchen- it was their night for clean-up duty- the others crowded around the TV in their tiny living room, playing video games with the volume low. Their usual yelling was diminished to nothing more than hushed whispers.

Behind them, Lloyd was curled up on the couch, already out like a light even though it was only seven pm. The boy was undoubtedly exhausted from the fight with the pirates earlier in the day, Kai thought crossly.

It took him a moment to realize Nya was staring at Lloyd, too. “Kai,” she asked slowly, working her jaw. “Is Lloyd okay?”

“Why,” he asked quickly. “Is he hurt? Did something happen? Man, I told him not to-”

“No. I mean… do you think he’s been acting a little… odd, lately?”

Kai frowned, turning to look at the boy. His brow furrowed as he slept, the corners of his mouth twitching downward slightly. “I guess. He’s probably just tired from all the training. We’ve been working him pretty hard, as of late.”

“Yeah,” Nya nodded, although she didn’t look like the answer truly satisfied her.

If Kai was being honest, it didn’t feel right to him, either.

---

Misako stormed into the room, dropping Lloyd into his lap with a huff. “That’s it, he’s your problem now.”

Garmadon looked up at her questioningly. “What happened?”

“What do you think happened? He bit me again! So, get him to stop.”

“What makes you think I would be able to make him stop?”

“I don’t know, but the fangs come from your side of the family, so it’s your responsibility now.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“I don’t know, you’re a smart man, you’ll figure it out! I’m going to go make some tea. Good luck.”

Garmadon stared after her but was pulled out of his thoughts as something sharp chomped down on his hand. He glanced down at Lloyd. “Oh, mister. What are we going to do with you?”

---

When Garmadon returned home the next day, there was a plump green dragon plush stuffed beneath his arm. He handed it to Lloyd, who was sitting on the floor, playing with his wooden blocks as he sucked on his pacifier. “Here. Next time you feel the impulse to bite someone, bite this instead.”

Lloyd eyed the plush with interest, reaching out for it with grabby hands and clutching it around its middle, pulling it close. Spitting out his pacifier, he began to babble to the dragon, blocks forgotten. Garmadon picked up the pacifier, eyeing it closely and sighing as he caught sight of the puncture holes.

When he glanced at Lloyd, the boy was chomping down on the wing of the dragon. Garmadon rolled his eyes, crouching down next to him. “Hey, what is it with you and biting things you like? C’mon, bud.” He gently pried the wing out of his mouth. “You’re going to hurt him- uh, it- hey, don’t you think your little dragon friend needs a name?”

Lloyd stared thoughtfully at the stuffed animal. “Buhbuh.”

“No, no, no, he needs a noble, dragon-ly name! Like Blaze, or Windracer, or-”

“Buhbuh,” Lloyd said firmly.

“..Buffy?”

“Buhbuh.”

Garmadon sighed. “The fierce and mighty Buhbuh? That’s what you want?”

Lloyd cheered, hugging the plush tight. “Buhbuh!”

The name wasn’t the only thing that stuck. Over the following weeks, Lloyd fell in love with that dragon. Everywhere the toddler went, Buhbuh wasn’t far behind. In his playroom, in the crib, in the car, at meals, even in the bathroom. Misako had spent twenty minutes one night trying to wrestle the toy away from him before he took his bath.

It had solved the biting issue, at least, although Misako often muttered that he had just traded one problem out for another. He dismissed her worries, telling her that Lloyd would grow out of his dragon phase eventually.

Although, that certainly wasn’t happening anytime soon. As Lloyd got older, he only got more and more intrigued by the creatures. Suddenly, everything had to have dragons- his pajamas, the shows on TV, his pull-ups, and his many, many toys. While his biting habits faded, as soon as he learned to walk, he was tottering around the house, roaring and flapping his arms like wings. Even as his collection of dragon toys and figurines grew, however, Buhbuh was always his favorite.

Garmadon should’ve known better than to think the carefree times would last forever, though. Ever since Lloyd had been born, he had been so much happier- and he was certain that the presence of his son was slowing the spread of the venom. But it wasn’t gone. It was a curse that the damned snake had forced him to bear forever.

He wanted to put it off as long as possible, though. He was happier here than he had ever been in his life, and he didn’t want to lose all this.

He knew if anyone could help him, it was his brother. Wu understood how much he loved his wife and child. He knew how badly he wanted this. He would do whatever he could to help. His teas and meditations had always been helpful in the past, and he hoped this time wouldn’t be any different.

“Do you have everything, dear?” Misako asked, helping him slip on his coat.

He lifted the duffel bag in his hand. “All in here. I’m ready.”

A sharp tug on his pant leg distracted him. He glanced down to see Lloyd, sniffing miserably. “Daddy, why do you have to go?”

Garmadon crouched down next to him. “It’s only for a few days, pumpkin. I’ll be back before you know it.”

“Why?”

Garmadon sighed. “Daddy’s been feeling…” he glanced at Misako, at a loss, but she only shrugged. “… A bit under the weather lately. I’m going to pay a visit to your Uncle Wu so he can help me with my… impulse control.”

Lloyd blinked at him, and Garmadon smirked, realizing that every word he had just said had gone straight over his son’s head. He ruffled his hair, standing again. “Don’t worry about it too much. You’ll be fine. Your mother will take good care of you.”

As he turned towards the door, he stopped at the sound of sniffling. Turning back to Lloyd, he wiped the tears from his eyes with his sleeve. “Hey. It’ll be alright, okay? Daddy will be back soon. You can even call me tonight.” Glancing around, he spotted Buhbuh sitting on the end table and grabbed him, pressing him into Lloyd’s arms. “Buhbuh will take care of you when I’m gone, okay?”

Lloyd hugged Buhbuh tighter. “Okay.”

“Don’t worry, Lloyd. Buhbuh is the best protector there is. And remember, I’m the one who bought him for you. Whenever you see him, you’ll know that I’ll always come back.”

---

“Lloyd, steady!” Jay cried. “We’re wobbling too much!”

Kai yelped, gripping onto Cole’s leg, where he was struggling to balance on Zane’s shoulder. On the nindriod’s other side was Jay, and on top of Cole, Sensei Wu balanced, unfazed. Below them all, Lloyd stood, trembling under all their weight.

“Uh, guys, are you sure this is a good idea-”

“Ahhh! Watch out, we’re going to fall!”

The ninja screamed as they fell to the ground, landing in a tangled pile of limbs. Lloyd quickly wriggled his way out from underneath them, and the others extracted themselves more slowly, groaning.

“You gotta find your balance, Lloyd,” Cole said, rubbing his shoulder where Kai had landed on it. “You have the strength to lift us, but you’re not focusing enough.”

“Well, maybe I’m trying!” Lloyd snapped. “I don’t see you down here lifting all that weight!”

Kai frowned. “Lloyd, Cole is only trying to help.”

“Well, maybe I don’t need help. You’re putting too much pressure on me! I could do way better on my own!”

Sensei Wu put a hand on his nephew’s shoulder. “Perhaps it is time for a break. Let’s get you a drink of water and rest for a bit, then we can try again.”

Lloyd begrudgingly shuffled after his uncle, grumbling under his breath. Kai watched him go with a furrowed brow.

“What’s got the kid acting so irritable lately?”

Jay shook his head. “I don’t know. But he’s starting to get on my nerves. It feels like he’s just being stubborn for the sake of it.”

Zane frowned. “Maybe he’s right. Maybe we are putting too much pressure on him. Supporting the weight of all of us is probably asking too much for a nine-year-old boy, green ninja or not.”

Cole shook his head. “This is the same kid who put a crack through Dareth’s floor. If he can do that, he can lift us. I know he can do it. But he just seems… distant.”

“We’ll keep an eye on it.” Kai waved his hand, turning back towards the training space. “But we don’t have time for his moodiness now. Lord Garmadon is out there somewhere, and he’s not going to wait around for us to sort out our issues.”

---

“Uh, come on boy, we gotta catch up with the ninja, I’m not gonna fall behind again- woah!”

Ultra let out a mighty roar, careening forward with a mighty flap of his wings and sending the reins shooting out of Lloyd’s hands. He only just managed to snag them before they hurtled over Ultra’s heads.

“Easy boy, easy! Look,” he sighed, letting a hand rest gently on the dragon’s off-white scales. “We’re never gonna win this race and save the dojo if you and me don’t learn to work together. Besides, I’m the green ninja. I’m meant to ride you, anyway. Imagine how impressed the others will be if we come back and I’m riding you like a pro! We can rub it in their faces what a natural I am with dragons, heh. What do you say?”

Flame’s head snorted, letting out a puff of smoke, which wasn’t the most reassuring answer.

“Hey, wait a minute.” Lloyd squinted, staring at the vehicles racing through the canyon below them. There was the familiar shape of the Ultra Sonic Raider, but above it-

The ship appeared to have undergone some design changes, but there was still no mistaking the vast, furling sails or the dragon figurehead. The Bounty was in the race.

His father was here.

Lloyd’s heart skipped a beat. His father was here- he could see the black figure now, helping some of the Serpentine to point a cannon at the Ultra Sonic Raider.

Ultra tensed beneath him, but Lloyd hesitated, holding the mighty dragon back.

His dad was trying to hurt his friends. Lloyd didn’t want to get in his father’s way, but…

He couldn’t let him do this.

Lloyd gritted his teeth, digging his hands into the reins. “Okay, Ultra. Let’s put a stop to this.”

Ultra roared, diving towards the Bounty so sharply that Lloyd had to grip onto the saddle for dear life to keep himself from flying off. “Get out of the way!” he yelled at his father. Garmadon lurched back from the cannon, eyes widening, but it was too late. Ultra was already slamming into the ship, sending both himself and the Bounty spiraling.

Snapping up the reins, Lloyd pulled back, steering Ultra up, narrowly avoiding crashing into the ground.

“Woooo! Nice going, Lloyd!”

Kai’s cry sent a flare of warmth through his chest, but it quickly dissipated as his gaze fell on his father, who was barking at the Serpentine as they hurried to get the ship going straight again. He had made the right choice- the only choice- but at his father’s expense.

A wave of panic suddenly hit him. He couldn’t mess this up. He had been given another chance to make his father proud of him, and he couldn’t let this one slip between his fingers.

“C’mon, Ultra, let’s show ‘em what we got!” With a jerk of the reins, the dragon was shooting through the air like a bullet. Lloyd steered him up, and Ultra did a graceful loop through the air, followed by a swift corkscrew.

Lloyd blinked, surprised at how easily his dragon was listening to him. Usually, Ultra was as stubborn as possible, but apparently he enjoyed putting on a show as much as Lloyd did.

“Quit fooling around, Lloyd!” Cole cried from the Raider. “We gotta win this race, and we need your help!”

Lloyd glanced back at the Bounty, but his father wasn’t even looking at him, just waving the Mega Weapon around as he yelled at the Serpentine. Lloyd sighed, guiding Ultra towards the guys. This obviously wasn’t working.

As the Raider sped over the rocky ground below them, it slowly shifted into a softer, lusher landscape- and then came the snow. Lloyd stuck his tongue out, letting a flake land on his tongue.

“Birchwood Forest!” Kai cried. “Oh, we’ll never get through all these trees to catch up!”

There was a roaring of an engine behind him, and Lloyd glanced back to see his father coming in the Bounty, not too far off. I still have a chance! I can still impress him!

“Let me find a shortcut,” he called to the ninja. “Ultra! Up, boy!”

Scanning the woods below, he quickly eyed out a path, then swooped down with Ultra, racing through the trees. “Follow me!”

The turns were sharp, and Lloyd barely avoided crashing into the trees on more than a couple of occasions. But he didn’t, Ultra’s movements swift and precise below him. Lloyd let out a whoop of exhilaration. He was finally getting the hang of this! Ultra was listening to him! Taming a dragon was no easy feat, his father would have to be proud of him now-

Suddenly, Ultra let out a pained cry, and before Lloyd could process anything, the dragon was being yanked backward and plummeting towards the ground. Lloyd screamed, clutching onto the saddle, and Ultra threw his wings around him, sheltering him as they hit the ground with an almighty crash.

---

Lloyd groaned, blinking stars from his eyes as something bumped against his cheek. When it finally came into focus, he saw Wisp’s head staring at him, grunting in concern.

“I- I’m fine, boy,” Lloyd huffed, grabbing at the dragon’s muzzle for support as he pushed himself to his feet. “What in Ninjago just happened? We were doing so well, now we’re going to lose the race!”

Ultra groaned, raising his left foot and shaking it, where chains clanked loudly.

“No, no, no-” Lloyd raced over, examining the cuff and finding long, curved bones secured tightly around Ultra’s ankle. “The Skulkin! They sabotaged us! Those scheming, no good boneheads!” Lloyd yanked desperately at the chains, trying to get them to budge. “Augh, now we’re never going to win the race, and my father will never-” Lloyd cried out as his hand scraped against the sharp edge of the bone. Immediately, Flame’s head was at his side, nosing him away from the cuff and whining softly as he gently licked Lloyd’s scratched hand.

“I… I just wanted to make him proud,” Lloyd sniffed, burying his face against Flame’s scales. The fire dragon felt comfortingly warm in the cold of the snowdrift.

Rocky’s head butted him softly, before carefully taking the edge of the cuff between his teeth and crunching down on it, shattering it into a dozen pieces. Lloyd sucked in his breath, giving Rocky’s muzzle a quick hug before clambering back onto Ultra’s back.

“If we hurry, we can still catch them now! C’mon, boy, we have a lot of ground to make up for!”

---

Lloyd didn’t win the race, but by the time the finish line came into view, he could see the ninja crowding around the golden winner’s cup, cheering. In front of them, Garmadon was yelling at the referee, insisting that he had won and that the ref had made a faulty call.

Lloyd’s breath caught in his throat. His father was right here. Closer than he had been since the defeat of the Great Devourer. Part of Lloyd wanted to run up and hug him, but he knew he couldn’t. That wouldn’t last. He needed something more permanent.

His eyes strayed to the Bounty, resting a little way behind the Dark Lord. With his father out yelling at the ninja and the race staff and all the Serpentine left behind in the Glacier Barrens, the ship was empty.

If Lloyd took it back- his father wouldn’t be able to fly away again. He’d have to stay. They could talk, work things out. As soon as he could get his father to stop running and just listen, he knew he could get through to him.

Lloyd eyed his father warily, but Garmadon was too distracted to notice the giant dragon behind him, as were the ninja. Quietly, Lloyd instructed Ultra forward, and the dragon padded across the ground, climbing up onto the deck of the Bounty.

“That’s not even street legal!” Garmadon was yelling. “My ship was clearly-”

“Your ship?”

His father whipped around, and Lloyd froze as they stared at each other for a long moment.

Please. Please, please, please. Lloyd reached a hand out. “Dad-”

Police sirens sounded behind them, and suddenly two officers hopped out of the car. “Alright, Garmadon, you’re coming with us.”

“Wait!” Lloyd cried, slipping off of Ultra and landing on the ground mere feet from his father. “Dad, it doesn’t have to be like this. You can-”

A screeching of tires, and suddenly Skales was pulling up in his bus. “Look who needs who now!”

Garmadon scowled, turning to go. Lloyd’s brain screamed at him. This was his one chance to stop him. If he did nothing, who knew how long it would be until he got to see him again?

Lloyd lunged forward, grabbing Garmadon’s wrist. The man looked back in surprise. “What are you-”

“Dad. Please. Don’t go.”

Garmadon fell silent, staring at him for a moment. Time seemed to stand still.

Then Garmadon was yanking away, shaking his head. “I’m sorry, son. We both know I can’t do that.” In two steps, he was aboard the Serpentine bus and speeding away.

No. Lloyd felt tears well in his eyes. There were others here, and Lloyd hadn’t cried in front of anyone in a long time, but he couldn’t bring himself to care anymore. His father had been right here. He had touched him.

“Way to go, bud!” Kai whooped, running over to him, the other ninja close behind. “You got the Bounty back- hey, woah, what’s wrong?”

Lloyd quickly tried to cover his eyes, but Kai was already crouched down next to him, pulling his arms away and gently wiping at his tears with the sleeve of his gi.

Jay put a hand on his back. “You’re not hurt, are you?”

Lloyd shook his head, sniffling. “I just… I thought… my father, I thought he would… I thought if I could make him proud, he would stop leaving…” Lloyd choked on a sob, burying his face in Kai’s gi. “Why does he keep leaving? Why does everyone leave? What did I do wrong?”

“Oh, bud,” Kai whispered, running hands through Lloyd’s hair gently. “This is what’s been upsetting you, hasn’t it?”

Lloyd whimpered miserably, and Kai hugged him tighter- his grip so firm, so protective, that it made Lloyd think maybe everything could be okay again, eventually.

“You look at me,” Kai demanded, tilting his chin up. “None of this is your fault. You hear me? None of it. All the people that left you were jerks who didn’t appreciate how amazing you were. They don’t deserve you. We don’t deserve you. But you’re our true family, Lloyd. We will never, ever do what they did.”

“You hear that?” Cole punched him lightly in the chest, his voice sounding suspiciously choked up. “You’re one of us, now, green bean. You can’t escape us, whether you like it or not.”

“Your father will never understand this, Lloyd.” Jay gestured at the group with his hands. “I wish it didn’t have to be this way. You deserve a father who will be there for you, one whose love is not clouded by dreams of vengeance. But that’s how things are. So you’re stuck with us, instead.”

“I’m sorry he couldn’t be here, Lloyd,” Zane murmured. “But we are. And we love you. So if there’s ever something bothering you, talk to us about it. We want to do everything we can to make you feel wanted.”

Nya crouched down next to Kai. “You and me against the world, bud. Remember that? We’re not giving up on you. Ever. So your father can stuff it-”

Zane elbowed her, and she grinned sheepishly. “Sorry. Now’s not the best time for that. But you get my point. I’ll fight stupid destiny for you, Lloyd Garmadon. We all will.”

Lloyd’s eyes welled up again, but this time the tears were happy as he collapsed against them. Five pairs of arms hugged him back, warm and strong and safe.

His father had left again. But that wasn’t what was important right now. His true home was here, with the ninja.

And he had hope it always would be.

---

Garmadon gazed down at the bundle in his arms. His posture was stiff and unnatural, his rough hands as gentle as possible as they supported the weight.

This was easily the most precious thing he had ever carried.

Lloyd stared up at him with wide, curious eyes. Every curve and inch of him was perfect- and he was his. Garmadon could see himself in the curve of his son’s nose or the outline of his jaw, Misako in the shape of his eyes or the hue of his skin.

He still couldn’t believe it.

It had taken Misako hours to convince him he wasn’t going to hurt Lloyd, and now, here he was, carrying his son for the first time.

His son. He loved the way that sounded.

Garmadon shifted his grip slightly, and suddenly Lloyd began to fuss. Garmadon glanced to Misako for help, but she simply shook her head, smiling.

At a loss, Garmadon cradled Lloyd closer to his chest. “Shh, shh, Lloyd, it’s okay. Daddy’s got you.”

Lloyd stopped almost immediately at the sound of his voice, cooing in wonder as he reached a chubby little hand out. Garmadon bowed his head, closing his eyes and letting Lloyd trace his fingers gently across his face.

Garmadon felt the tension ease from his shoulders. This was a person. A living, breathing being, and he and Misako had created him.

Nothing in the world could’ve ever prepared him for the wonderful gift of fatherhood. This was one thing in his life he vowed not to mess up.

“You’re safe, little one,” he murmured. “I will always be here for you.”

[woogyu]

9. “mine”

20. “You look really good in my sweater.”

28. “Are you planning to stay glued to my side the whole day?”

Drabble Prompts; fluff | angst | funny // Requests; OPEN

notes; hello!! thank you for requesting!! so like i know it’s basically summer, but is there ever really a bad time for an autumn date w/ soonyoung to a haunted corn maze? the answer is no, there is not.

wc; ~1067

Dating Soonyoung was… interesting to say the least. You never knew what to expect from the day to day, and you loved how spontaneous he was with his affection. Little notes saying “I love you” or “have a good day” slipped into your pocket. Or taking time to learn how to braid hair after you complained about how difficult it was to do by yourself. He loved to joke around and be silly, but when it came to loving you he never treated it lightly. In his eyes you were the entire world and he wanted to make sure that you always knew how special you were.

“Love… wake up… we’re almost there” you heard a soft voice whisper, stretching as much as the car would allow as you took in the surroundings. It was Soonyoung that planned this surprise date night, he said he wanted to take you somewhere the two of you had never gone before. Your eyes scanned over the scenery rushing past the window, looking for any signs as to where you were going.

You perked up when you saw a sign that read ‘Apple U-Pick, trail rides and corn-maze’, turning to Soonyoung with a bright smile. “Are we going apple picking?” you asked excitedly, it was an activity you talked a lot about wanting to do but had never found the time to do it. 

“Autumn is almost over and I wanted to make sure we made it before they closed for the season” he explained, reaching out and intertwining his hand with yours. It was times like these that you were in awe of how closely he paid attention to the things you talked about. “Thank you” you whispered softly, pressing a soft kiss to the back of his hand. He flashed you a warm smile as he turned into the establishments parking lot.

After paying for entrance and collecting bags to put apples in, the two of you were now freely roaming around the rows and rows of apple trees. “All the good ones down low are gone” you said with a pout, looking up at the shiny red apples on the higher branches. When you found one that looked close enough for you to reach, you stretched up on your tippy toes to try and grab it.

You felt Soonyoung’s chest press against your back as he effortlessly plucked the apple you were reaching for off the tree. “Mine” he said with a teasing smirk as you settled onto your feet. “Also, Mine” he jested, smacking your ass before pecking your cheek and jumping away before you could hit him. “Hey!” you said, grabbing a small apple out of your bag and sending it flying his way. He easily dodged the projectile before he took off running through the trees with you not far behind.

You finally caught up to him back at the grassy clearing by the entrance, grabbing the back of his shirt and sending the two of you rolling into the grass. Your laughter echoed through the mostly empty fields as you came to a stop half laying on Soonyoung’s chest. He reached up and brushed some grass out of your hair, looking at you like you had just walked out of the heavens instead of having just rolled around in the dirt.

“I love you so much” he whispered, smiling as his hand came to rest on your cheek. You returned his smile and leaned into his touch. “More than you love tigers?” you asked cheekily, smirking as he gasped and looked at you offended for asking him to choose. You laughed and smoothed away some dirt that had settled on his forehead, “I love you too baby” you said softly, leaning in to press a gentle kiss to his lips.

»»————-　♡　————-««

After collecting more apples than the two of you would probably ever be able to consume, the staff let you know that maze would be opening up soon. You found yourself nestled against Soonyoung’s side as the horse drawn wagon took the two of you to the adjacent section. You shivered a little bit as the wind picked up, the thin sweater you had put on not suited to nightly activities.

“Cold? Here” he said, unzipping his sweater and wrapping it around your shoulders. “But now you’re gonna get cold” you pointed out with a pout, but the warmth was too alluring, so you slid your arms into the sleeves.

“I’ll be fine” he waved off your concern, leaning in a little bit so he was close to your ear. “Plus, you look really good in my sweater” he whispered to you, winking when he leaned back. You felt your cheeks flush at his comment and pulled the sweater a little tighter around your shoulders.

»»————-　♡　————-««

You were usually okay with creepy and scary things, but for some reason the mixture of pitch-black darkness, tall corn and jump scares were just too much for you. You gave up trying to walk on your own long ago, and instead elected to hide yourself in Soonyoung’s shoulder, letting him guide you through the winding maze.

“Are you planning to stay glued to my side the whole day?” he asked with a chuckle, amused by how cute you were acting. He smoothed a hand over your hair as you let out a whine at his comment. “You never told me the maze was haunted” you protested, jumping at the sound of another actor jumping out at you two.

“I’m sorry love” he said, but you could hear the smile in his voice. He liked situations like this, not when you were scared but when you needed him. “I won’t let anything hurt you, ever, okay” he reassured you, maneuvering you a bit so you were better tucked into his arms.

“We’re almost at the end now” he informed you as he started to softly hum one of your favourite songs. You felt yourself relax a little bit and peak up at him, your heart swelling when you saw the focus and determination on his face to protect you from this ‘threat’.

“If I have nightmares tonight, I’m blaming you” you grumbled, to which he merely laughed, the sound vibrating through you. “Don’t worry, I’ll be there to protect you from them too” he said, his lips pressing against the top of your head.

[writertothemaximum]

Summary: Fem!Niki fucks the shit out of Rinne at the beach.

Word Count: 2.2k

Warnings/Content: nsfw/18+, Niki x Rinne, Female Niki, Face-Sitting, Cunnilingus, Anal fingering, femdom

Notes: Normally I don't post character x character stuff on this blog, but as this is femdom, this is the one exception. I hope you guys enjoy!

Ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/33432565

Inspired by this pic [Please click!]

With a groan, Rinne drove the van down the sandy road, trying his best not to hit the small child that decided to walk in the middle of the road last second. It was going to be one of these days, wasn’t it?

First, Niki begs him to lunch, it’s the middle of summer and 400 degrees outside, and now she’s proceeded to drag him to the beach so she can ‘eat ice cream on the sand’ or whatever. And here Rinne thought he was the annoying one. She should get her license, it’s bad enough she didn’t graduate high school.

Well, at least she made sure he was well fed and…Well, well-fed.

In the other way.

She was always really forward about that. Or maybe it was him and his sluttiness spilled off onto her.

Yeah, it was probably his fault. He should stop getting stoned with strangers in the living room.

Although Rinne wasn’t like that. Like, aggressive like that.

Neither were any of the men he slept with.

It was scary, almost.

No, it was just scary. She was scary when she got horny.

She always got him so embarrassed, why did she have to take her sweet time with him? Well, it’s not like she could just fuck-and-dump, but still. He always busted it too quickly, far too fast for his liking. Maybe he should go back to just being gay.

Niki thought Rinne looked super sexy today. She supposed he always did, almost to an annoying degree. To the point where men would hit on him in the street and he’d take them home and Niki would be witness to some random dude fucking him on the couch. It was almost never girls for some reason.

Was he gay?

No, she and him fucked all the time, Niki was a girl, that wouldn’t make sense. Rinne was definitely bi, like 100% bisexual.

Ah, he was 100% a bottom, that was all.

Can’t get off without his ass—The absolute whore.

He liked getting called a whore, too, maybe he was also 100% masochist, too. That would make a lot of sense, actually, now that she thought about it some. The way he groaned when she slapped his ass, when she bit his nipple, when she chomped on his neck, nibbled on the tip of his dick—yeah she liked biting him a bit too much.

Well, it was a hot day and it was time for ice cream and sausages on the beach. A nice tan would be cool, too, she was getting a little too pale for her tastes.

He didn’t really ever hit on her, he just kinda let her fuck him. He never got that embarrassed when he was with his male partners. It was like Niki was different to him, somehow. Like he wanted to get teased. Like he was annoyed by it, but secretly, he begged for it.

He always ended up begging for it.

Parking in a non-parking spot, Rinne popped out of the van and opened the side door in the back, grabbing a yellow floatie, a big towel to lie down on, and some sunscreen for good measure.

“Rinne-kun! Did you get the picnic box?” she shouted, running to the back.

“No, because you’d fucking grab it out of my hands, anyways, dick,” he said, sniping back.

Niki held her hand up to punch him in the gut, when she realized.

“Yeah, I would do that,” she said, chuckling out a snort.

Niki climbed around the back of the van, not really caring that her ass was in view for everyone who walked by. Rinne, feeling slightly embarrassed for her, walked in front of the door to block the view.

“What?” she asked.

“I well your, uh,” he said, stumbling. “Your fat ass was falling out of the fucking car!”

She poked a finger out, booping him right in the nose.

“Lmao someone’s embarrassed,” she said, chuckling.

“Oh god, stop using texting lingo in public again,” Rinne said, walking off to the shore, giving up.

“Wait, wait, I know a good spot!” she said, shouting at him.

Niki’s ‘good spot’ was actually a very nice, secluded section of the beach. It took them about ten minutes to find, and they had to climb over a dozen or so rocks, but it ended up giving them some nice shade, and Rinne was never opposed to a good workout.

Rinne spread his arms out to the nice summer wind and took in the world around him, finally allowing the toxic fumes of arrogance and annoyance to leave his body, and breathe in the fresh air of confidence and being a massive dick again.

Niki poked him in the ass.

“Bitch!?” he shouted.

“Are you going to set up the towel or what?” she asked. “I have lunch to eat.”

That’s right, she had carried four lunchboxes over the rocks.

Four. Plus a full tub of Ben and Jerry’s.

“Do I get any this time?” Rinne asked, leaning in. He was a bit hungry, now that he mentioned it.

Niki put a finger to her mouth, the fabric handles of the bags falling down to her elbows.

“Hm,” she said, earnestly considering it. “Maybe if you suck me off.”

“Jesus fuck Niki. You’re horny too?” he said.

She pointed at him, accusatory.

“And you’re not? Who the fuck isn’t horny!?” she shouted.

Rinne sighed and rolled the towel out. He sat down, crossing his legs. He should have invited HiMERU or Eichi or Ibara, or really anyone he could irritate into fucking him. This was wrong, Rinne was supposed to be the tyrannical crazy one, why was Niki walking all over him? It was unacceptable, absolutely unacceptable.

The crashing waves really were relaxing. It was a good thing he had come in his bathing suit.

“Fine,” he said, crawling down on his hands and knees. Niki didn’t seem to hear him, taking a big scoop of sweet chocolate ice cream and dumping the thing directly into her mouth.

His nose pushed into the bottoms of her swimsuit, far too skimpy for any good-natured girl to wear. Tufts of her hair pushed against him, and Rinne wondered why she didn’t shave down there. Whatever, it was just a little hairy and it was about to get a lot wetter.

Niki recoiled in the softness of the towel when she felt shivers ride down her thighs. Rinne flicked his tongue across her clit, stirring up a small sound of approval. He had always been so good at this. Niki wondered if he was just as good at sucking cock. The whole thing felt so relaxing under the heat of the summer sun, she was melting, just absolutely melting.

“Fuck, Niki!” Rinne shouted, jumping up and wiping the glob of ice cream off his back. “Why’d you spill the shit on me?”

“Dunno,” she said, the spoon sticking out of her mouth. She grabbed his head by the puff of his hair and shoved him back into her crotch. “I didn’t tell you to stop. Don’t you want some ice cream?”

“Hanernangh,” was Rinne’s response, his nose suffocating in vaginal secretions.

Leaning back, she squashed Rinne’s head in her thighs, small tufts of red poking out from the little sandwich. Ooh, a sandwich, she should have taken one out of the picnic box, that would have tasted really good right about now.

The wet rubbing felt so good, so good to just squash him right there, struggle around for air, struggle around, knowing that he’d get something out of this, knowing that he’d get rewarded for all his hard work. It god Niki madly turned on knowing that Rinne was getting off to this. Knowing that he liked to get scrunched, to get manhandled.

Niki sat up.

“Hey, Rinne-kun, flip over,” she said.

“Hah? Do I get some now?” he said, snarling. “I wanna get some before you spill it all over me.”

“Turn the fuck over, idiot,” Niki snapped back.

“Fine,” Rinne sputtered out, flipping over to his back.

Niki immediately decided to sit down.

“Hanaefng!?” Rinne shouted, obviously surprised.

“Keep going and you’ll get some ice cream, sheesh,” she said.

Niki began to pat down Rinne’s body, feeling a bit of sand, and a really nice tan beginning to form. And wow, really nice abs, really nice, firm, strong abs. But that wasn’t what she was looking for.

“Aha!” she said, pulling the bottle out of his pocket and slightly raising her ass off his face. “So you did bring lube you fucking whore.”

Rinne took a huge gasp of air, finally able to breathe.

“Jesus fuck, and just what are you going to do with that? It’s not like I can suck you off and fuck you at the same time,” he said, crassly.

Niki, annoyed, sat back down.

“Who said you were going to be the one doing the fucking?” she said, irritated.

Rinne struggled a bit before shuffling his ass out for better access. She had fingered him before, maybe she should invest in a strap-on. Then he wouldn’t have any need to do all of those one-night stands. She could just fuck him on her cock.

“Ooh, someone’s hungry for fingers,” she said, mocking. “Wanna come here for a smoochy-smoochy? I think you deserve it, Rinne-kun!”

Rinne, not being able to speak due to still having pussy in his face, responded with a large groan.

“Or do you prefer these lips?” she asked, rubbing all of her secretions in his face. She wondered how it tasted. Salty, for sure.

Niki leaned forward, taking one last scoop of partially melted ice cream before setting it to the side on the towel. Wow, the heat felt great. The sun, the way the waves lined up, it all just filled her with elation.

So when she leaned her face down to his groin, it made her all the happier to see that Rinne was hard. He liked getting humiliated like this, didn’t he? Wow, what a masochist. When Niki tugged at the hem of his swim trunks, Rinne lifted his hips, allowing her to get them off quicker. Someone was excited. Well, a large glob of lube, a finger made its way to the entrance of his hole. She felt Rinne hesitate on her clit as she pushed in, a loud groan echoing through the rock cliffs.

He was so soft inside. He always was. It was like his ass was made for pleasure, made for this lovely squeeze, caressing her fingers in an absolutely perfect massage. He was always so loose, too, she supposed that’s what being a cock-whore did to someone.

Hm, well, speaking of cock, his dick was right there. He was pretty hard. Would be a shame if someone were to maybe…suck it?

In a moment, her lips were around the tip.

“Haarhrhah! Nik—Niki!” she heard, Rinne tilting his head off her ass.

Retaliating, she sat back down, crushing his head hard into the towel.

God, it was too much at once. With the two fingers pounding his ass, the suffocating aroma on his face, and now the condensing suction on his tip. He was going to cum, he was going to cum—

Niki gripped the bottom of his shaft hard, not letting a drop out.

“You’re supposed to get me off, first, asshole,” she said, her glare enough to kill a man.

Fuck, fuck, thoughts poured through Rinne’s mind as he licked her clit as fast as he could, desperately trying to get her off, trying to get himself off, he was too hard, too overwhelmed.

Rinne felt Niki convulse above him, her hole tightening up, clenching around pure nothing as she came on his face. Noises spewed out of her mouth as she couldn’t control herself, everything coming all at once.

And that’s when Niki finally let go of his dick.

Like the grossest milkshake in the world, Niki kept sucking.

Popping her head off in a moment, she gave off a sigh of relief, as if she had a nice big sip of coffee, drinking all the semen up like a fat noodle.

Niki unplugged her fingers from his ass and Rinne shoved her off, letting her laugh as she rolled off the towel and into the sand.

“That was fun,” she said, still unable to hold her laugh.

“Bitch! You got sand up my ass!” Rinne shouted, making a motion in the air to slap her, obviously missing.

“Your fault for being such an anal fiend,” she said, the heat of the sand proving to be very relaxing. Ooh, she was right next to the lunch box. Time for a sandwich.

“Can I get my ice cream now?” Rinne asked, like a petulant child.

“Yeah, go ahead,” she said, diving right into the lunch box.

Rinne picked up the abandoned tub of Ben & Jerry’s only to realize.

“It’s fucking melted!” Rinne shouted.

“Well, suck faster next time,” Niki said, taking a big bite of her sandwich.

“Well, maybe if someone ate better, her fucking cunt wouldn’t taste like that fucking sourdough starter you keep around the apartment,” Rinne said, snapping.

“Hey, you love my pussy, don’t joke with me,” she said, right back.

Rinne grimaced, embarrassed, knowing she was right.

Pouting, Rinne forced the spoon into the chocolate wonder, scooping it up and landing it right in his mouth. It wasn’t all melted.

Yup, ice cream was good. Ice cream was always good.

[four-loose-screws]

FE8 Novelization Translation - Chapter 17, Section 1

If you would like to start from the beginning, read a missed part, etc., click here!

FE Game Script Translations - FE Novel Translations - Original FE Support Conversations

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I call this a “section” because it is not a separate part of the chapter in the book, but divided from the rest of the chapter by a scene break.

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Chapter 17 - The Demon King's Shadow

There were five Sacred Stones total, and all of them were passed down within each of the nations of Magvel. Eirika and her army had safely obtained Renais' Sacred Stone, but Grado, Frelia, and Jehanna's Stones had already been destroyed.

They now were seeking the last one, and so they decided to march to the Theocracy of Rausten. Their guide was none other than Princess L'Arachel.

Once they left Renais, they traveled in peace for a long while. They were not attacked by any enemies nor any monsters. They were also blessed with good weather, and L'Arachel was in a fantastic mood.

"It's good to return home sometimes. I wonder if Lord Uncle is doing well?"

Dozla was walking alongside her. His guffaw echoed through the air. "Pontifex Mansel is sure to be very surprised! You've grown into an even finer young woman than you were when you left home, Lady L'Arachel!"

"Oh, Dozla, stop it!"

*Can I ask you somethin’?" Rennac was trudging along behind them. He said with a bored, apathetic look on his face, "This Pontifex Mansel person will pay me my money, right? Every gold coin his niece has avoided paying me…?"

"Oh, that's right, Eirika! There are many exceptional bards in Rausten. And the one we all talk about most, Saaga, is so amazing that he moves me to tears no matter how many times I listen to him perform. I want you to hear him as well!"

"...Uh-huh..." Eirika turned back and caught a glimpse of Rennac out of pity for him. 

He looked utterly exhausted and worn out as he muttered, "...She ain't even listenin’." 

Eirika didn't know whether L'Arachel really didn't hear him, or whether she just pretended not to, but either way, L'Arachel's voice gradually became more and more cheerful.

"But this time, it is my turn to tell the bards of my many adventures! Our services for the greater good are sure to become a beautiful poem passed down for many generations to come!"

"If so, I wonder if I will be in this poem as well?"

"Oh, Dozla, of course! You will go down in history as my loyal servant!"

"Ohhhhhh, what an honor that will be! You have moved me greatly by saying so!"

"You don't have to record much of anything about me. Just pay me." Rennac muttered.

"We will soon reach the Narube River. Dozla, do you remember when we crossed it? Monsters were trying to attack a boat traveling upon it, so we gallantly rushed in and saved some ordinary citizens who were trying to escape…"

"We should be able to rendezvous with the Frelian Army here." Innes forcefully cut into their conversation. He unsurprisingly seemed to be fed up with L'Arachel's cheerful banter.

Eirika smiled and added to show that she heard what he'd said, "Yes. And when we do so, it will make all of our battles from here on out much easier."

"Of course. We will be teaming up with Frelia's most elite unit."

The Frelian Army had departed their home country following a different route from Eirika's army, and were now going to Rausten as well. Eirika had received a report from the pegasus knights that they should be able to meet up somewhere within the vicinity of Narube.

They would combine with the Frelian Army to bolster their numbers, then obtain Rausten's Sacred Stone so they could capture Lyon this time with all of their forces. That was her army's current strategy.

No matter how powerful Lyon's Dark Stone may be, they had nothing to fear if they had two Sacred Stones. The army he led was now nothing more than the survivors from Grado, so his numbers and weapons likely wouldn't compare to Eirika's. L'Arachel and all of the other members of her army were making cheerful expressions because they could feel hope for the road ahead.

But their cheerful march did not last for much longer. The moment they reached the Narube River, they froze. Two ordinary citizens were cowering alongside the road.

They were a young girl and an elderly man. The exhausted man was comforting the girl, who appeared to be his granddaughter.

The girl noticed Eirika's army and pulled back in fear.

Eirika dismounted her horse and quietly approached her so as not to surprise her. "What happened? Do you live around here...?"

"...You're not with the Grado Army? You're not, right?" The tension drained from the girl's body with a sigh of relief. 

But on the contrary, her words made Eirika's army nervous. "You saw the Grado Army? Somewhere close to here?"

"Yes."  Terror flashed through the girl's big eyes, and she nodded. "They attacked us suddenly. A group of soldiers wearing Grado’s armor came here… and set our village on fire. They killed all of the men who tried to stand up to them… Just when we thought it was all over for us, Frelia's pegasus knights rushed in and saved us. But… the Grado Army is so strong it's terrifying… most of the soldiers from Frelia were killed."

"What? The Frelian Army was killed by the remaining soldiers from Grado?" The color drained from Innes' face, and he pulled in closer to the girl. 

His angry expression spooked her. She shrunk back closer to the old man, then nodded. "Y-Yes…"

"Not all of them were defeated, right? For every last member of Frelia's elite to be gone…"

"No, there is a unit still fighting. But only one. The other units were all defeated. There's still a few friends in our village who have yet to escape… The last of the Frelian Army is still doing everything they can to protect them. Please save them! Please…"

"Understood. Let's go, Eirika!" Innes shouted.

However, Eirika was worried about the look on the face of the crouching old man that the girl had protected. His face was twitching like he'd suffered a horrifying experience, and his lips moved as if he was trying to say something.

Eirika approached him, bent down next to him, and gently said, "You're okay now. We will defeat the Grado Army and save the villagers. Please try to relax and…"

"...No match… for him." The old man muttered something in a muffled voice. 

"Huh?" Eirika responded.

"You are… no match… for him. You are no match… for a terrifying person… like him…"

The man was shaking all over, and continued speaking in a mumble. The words that she only just barely managed to make out were ominous. "No… he's not… a person… He's not... human… He's… a monster… He's… the Demon King…"

"The… Demon King? What does that mean?" Eirika felt a chill crawl down her spine for no discernable reason, and her voice lowered to a hush.

The old man's eyes were wide open, and his breathing was shallow. 

His granddaughter noticed this and wrapped a blanket around his shoulders, then she said to Eirika, "I'm sorry. Grandfather rushed right out when the village was attacked… and seems to have seen him. The commander leading the Grado Army…"

"Their commander? Who could it have possibly been…?"

"I didn't see, so I can't say anything at all, but… Grandfather was saved by the Frelian Army when he was in danger. Still, he's absolutely terrified. I have no idea what he saw."

"...Can you tell us what kind of person the enemy commander was…?”

The moment she tried to ask the man for more details, L'Arachel suddenly cried out, "Look at that! There's someone over there…"

Eirika looked up in the direction L'Arachel was pointing to.

A black shadow rose over the grass.

Or so it appeared to be at first glance, for it radiated a gloomy aura all around it. Then Eirika realized that it was someone she knew well, standing with his back slightly hunched over, not moving a muscle. 

Eirika whispered before she even knew what she was saying, "Lyon…?"

Grado's prince was staring at her from beneath his long bangs. His eyes were cold and unfeeling.

Eirika's heart was filled with a sense of relief. Even though they were currently enemies, they could communicate with each other from the heart. ‘I'll always be your ally…' She could hear his voice clearly even now.

'I want to talk with him. I want to ask him for the answers to all of my doubts.' With her mind focused on only that one thought, she tried to walk over to him.

But Ephraim saw her moving and sharply yelled at her to stop. "Stop, Eirika! Don't get anywhere near him!"

"Brother…?"

Ephraim stood in front of her as if to shield her from something, and glared at Lyon.

Lyon's expression abruptly softened. Considering Ephraim's threatening look, his was so gentle it was strange. "Hey, Ephraim… What's the matter? Why are you making such a scary face…?"

 "Lyon! How dare you appear before me with such a calm look on your face!"

Lyon tilted his head at Ephraim’s violent words like he didn't know what Ephraim meant.

"You remember the time we met in the capital, right? Don't tell me you forgot!" Ephraim's voice became more and more harsh with each word. Lyon, by contrast, was calm, and even smiling.

"Of course I remember! I would never forget… Ephraim, we're finally meeting again after so much struggle… Why are you so mad? Did I do something to upset y-?"

"Shut up!" Ephraim sharply cut him off.

Eirika anxiously looked for an opportunity to stop her brother. If he continued to speak with such hostility, they would lose their chance to talk with Lyon.

However, his anger was so fierce that she couldn't carelessly call out to him. All she could do was watch over them, with all of her apprehensions weighing on her mind.

"What did you say then? That you were the one who instigated this war… and that you were the one who invaded Renais and killed my father? That was what you said, right?!"

"Ephraim…" Lyon suddenly made a sad face in response. 

Eirika couldn't stay silent any longer. She softly placed a hand on her brother's back and said, "Please stop. Brother. Don't talk like that."

"Eirika…"

Ephraim turned around and said in a strong tone to warn her, "He's not the Lyon we know. He's being controlled by an evil power. Probably the Dark Stone…"

"That can’t be… You're not yourself today, Brother…" Eirika could feel that Ephraim had made up his mind.

Eirika didn't know exactly what their conversation in Grado Castle had been like. Everything she knew was from her brother's report. She didn't think that he had lied to her, but they couldn't say there wasn't a chance that he lost himself when he was agitated, and interpreted everything Lyon said as animosity, even though Lyon might have come seeking reconciliation.

"Why are you looking at Lyon like he's suspicious? He's our dear friend, isn't he?"

"Eirika…"

 "Lyon said that he will be our ally no matter what. Isn't that right, Lyon?"

"Yes, of course! I'm so happy, Eirika. You really are very kind. Why don't you come… closer…" Suddenly, Lyon's body stiffened. He bit his lip, signaling that he seemed to be enduring intense pain. But he couldn't suppress his voice, and a quiet groan escaped his lips.

"Lyon? What's the matter? Are you alright, Lyon…?" Eirika remembered that Lyon's body was not very strong.

Since long ago, he often broke out with fevers, and his swordsmanship never improved significantly. He was even embarrassed, and it made him feel inferior. But though his body was weak, because he possessed superior intelligence and sensibility, Eirika thought he should be more proud. Yet he still seemed to lack confidence in himself and be troubled by his weaknesses.

Lyon's face twisted, though now it was less in pain and more in anger. "Gah…! Don't get in my way…!" The moment Lyon shouted in frustration, his knees gave out, and he fell atop the grass.

Eirika tried to run straight over to him, but his sharp voice made her feet stop moving.

"Get away from me, Eirika!"

"Huh?"

The anger vanished from Lyon's face. In its place a desperate, pleading expression formed before he shouted, "You can't come near me! Hurry, get away…! If you don't, then I'll…"

"Lyon! What's wrong? What's happ-"

"I'll destroy you… Run… Hurry out of h-" Lyon cut his words short, and hid his face.

Eirika was utterly shocked. She was worried about his health, but he had told her to run. She found it hard to decide what to do, and didn't move.

Lyon slowly raised his head. On his face returned the same cold smile he had when he first appeared. He said in a calm voice, "Sorry for worrying you, Eirika. I’m alright now. That was just a light spasm."

 "...Lyon?" If they were true, then those words should have reassured her, but for some reason, they only made her feel all the more worried. She took a step back against her own wishes.

This was not Lyon. That was the first thought that immediately came into her mind. Lyon didn't smile like that. He would never coax her in such a terrible way 

"Be careful, Eirika. Don't leave any holes in your stance. He's not Lyon." Ephraim said. 

Lyon… no, this being with the same face as the prince, laughed in amusement. "I'm not Lyon? Don't say such strange things, Ephraim. Oh, I get it. You don't like seeing me with so much energy? Would you be satisfied if I suffered a more severe spasm? You always looked at me like you would. You said that Lyon is a weak, pitiful child. But that was just your impression. You did not know anything about me…"

"That's not true." Ephraim refused to be provoked by Lyon’s attempts to agitate him, and responded in a calm voice, "We were friends. Of course, that doesn't mean we knew everything about each other. It wasn’t that simple. But I knew what was most important. You… Lyon was not the type of person to ever deceive or betray us. He wasn't a terrible creature like you, trying to enchant us with whatever words we wanted to hear. He wasn't a horrible person like that. You are not Lyon. You cannot be him.”

Lyon tilted his head to the side and stared straight at Ephraim, but, little by little, his expression began to change. The smile he was directing at them twisted into an arrogant smirk that could even be considered brazen. “Hmph… I see. It seems that human feelings are not something that I can underestimate.”

Eirika could not believe her ears. His tone was more sarcastic than any she’d ever heard before in her life. 

“Pretending to be human was more fun than I ever expected it to be, but… there’s no need to keep up that facade any longer. You saw right through me, Prince of Renais. This body no longer belongs to Prince Lyon.”

“Damn you! ...I knew it! So you have taken over Lyon’s body?!” Ephraim shouted. “I don’t know what you are, but get out! Get out of Lyon’s body right now! Or else I’ll…!”

“Or else you’ll what? Come now, what are you going to do, you foolish prince? Prince Lyon’s heart is already almost entirely gone. I’ve eaten it all up…”

“What did you just say…?”

“Didn’t you hear me? I ate it. Though it resisted and screamed, I ate it up. For a descendant of Grado, he had such a weak heart…”

“Damn you…!” The anger disappeared from Ephraim’s voice. He tried his very hardest to keep himself together, but his voice still shook slightly.

Eirika was taken utterly aback. This was the first time she’d ever seen her brother tremble before an enemy.

“What are you?!”

“You still don’t know? You really are an utter fool, prince of Renais. You should remember your legends that have been passed down through the ages. The name of the enemy you sealed away.”

“He can’t be…” Eirika whispered.

“The Demon King… of ancient times…” Ephraim growled.

He burst out laughing, the sound echoing through the air. He'd already given up his human facade, and a malicious aura radiated around him.

He was the being known as the Demon King, that had existed eight hundred years ago and was feared by humanity. He’d led countless monsters and did as he pleased with the continent of Magvel. The fire his monsters breathed burned down the villages and towns, and drowned the people in the depths of despair.

What became the people's final hope was the five Sacred Stones and the hero Grado. He led his soldiers, challenged the Demon King to battle, and in the end, succeeded in sealing away the Demon King’s soul. This finally brought peace to the continent, and humanity created new towns atop the ashes. The hero Grado founded an empire, and the brave soldiers that fought with him each built their own countries. 

That was all supposed to already be a thing of the distant past, and become legend. The Demon King wasn't supposed to be resurrected ever again. But the seal had been broken, and the Demon King revived. And he’d even taken the body of a descendant of Grado, the very man who’d defeated him.

The Demon King said with satisfaction in his voice, “Prince Lyon will never appear again. This body has already yielded to me. It is mine now!"

But then the Demon King clutched his chest with one of his hands. It appeared that the gesture meant that Lyon’s heart continued to try its hardest to resist, and the Demon King was trying to keep him suppressed.

“Don’t worry, I will grant you your desire to kill Prince Ephraim of Renais, and claim Princess Eirika. That was what you wanted, is it not?

“Damn you…” Ephraim tightened his grip on his lance, however, before he could launch his attack, the Demon King vanished.

“He ran away…?” Ephraim looked around.

Eirika turned her head towards him. “No, Brother. He’s not running, but trying to lure us somewhere. I think his target is more likely the people of Narube that haven’t escaped yet and the survivors of the Frelian Army. He wants to attack them and lure us to him.”

“You’re right. Let’s hurry, Eirika. We must save Frelia’s unit!”

“Yes, we must…” Eirika nodded, but did not feel like giving the order straight away. 

Ephraim noticed her expression, and looked at her. “What’s the matter, Eirika?”

“Brother, I wonder what Lyon’s… No, the Demon King’s final words meant. About Lyon’s desires…”

Ephraim winced and said, “It was just part of an enemy’s plot to make us falter. Don’t worry about it. It’s more important we think about the Frelian Army and the people of Narube first.”

“...Yes, it is.”

Ephraim was right. Their allies were fighting desperately to protect the citizens. Rescuing them came first.

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

HASO, “Diplomatic Breakdown.”

Had a really hard time writing today, but I have gotten something out, so I hope you all enjoy :)

He felt the ship change course.

It seemed strange after five years to feel something moving beneath him. Most of the time you couldn’t tell as the ship was going steadily in one direction, but occasionally a course correction could be noticeable through the ship.

It was odd though, he thought they were heading back to the Bran home planet.

He had been laying in the temporary crew quarters for the mining party, playing with a shiny piece of metallic rock. He didn’t think most people had a favorite rock, but this one was his favorite.  It’s magnetic properties were enough to burn out small metallic circuitry if held up right against it. Nothing had been done to the rock to make it that way, it was just it’s natural way of being.

He found it fascinating.

However, that fascination was starting to wear off as he tried to determine where they could be going.

Curiosity got the better of him.

It wasn’t something he noticed immediately, as curiosity had been what had gotten him in trouble in the first place so many years ago. If he hadn’t gone hunting to see what that sound was maybe none of this would have happened. Ever since then he had done his best to squash any of his curious urges.

He thought they were gone now, though his silent trek through the ship was demonstrating that to be wrong.

He made his way past plenty of other aliens in the hallway. Humans, Drev, and even one of those Fuzzy little Celzex aliens, which he tried to keep a wide birth around. They were relatively dangerous creatures or so he was told, not particularly intimidating when close and personal, but with the most powerful weapons in the galaxy and an angry streak to mainin. 

The Drev were almost the opposite. They were scary in person, and could probably kill you as soon as look at you, but their personal space technology was barely capable of getting them to their home planet’s moon, and so they mostly borrowed from others.

The stairs up to the bridge were clear, and it gave him a good enough perspective, where he could sit in the door and watch as the Admiral gave orders.

This human had come a long way since being the one to scare ket into the deepest hole in the galaxy.

He was now Admiral of the entire galactic Armada, though Ket wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about that particular decision.

Looking through the open door and onto the bridge he watched the Admiral lean forward in his seat.

Through another door, came the mining foreman, who stepped up beside the Admiral, “Sir, why are we changing courses. I thought we were heading back to-”

“The GA has called us in for some kind of emergency meeting. I promise from there we will be able to warp back to your home planet within the day.”

The foreman went silent.

One of the other officers walked up, “What is the GA calling in about?”

“I am not entirely ure, but they said it was urgent…. Sounds like something has gone wrong, but knowing the GA, it could be anything..” he waved the foreman away and continued talking to some of his other officers.

“Do you think it’s the kree again sir…. Or maybe….”

“I feel like they would have told us if it was something that urgent, but they didn’t talk specifics over the com so I am thinking something like the leviathan or Deus.”

The other officers shrugged, and they went silent

“Preparing for warp sequence.”

The announcement came over the comms ust as Ket began wrapping his tail around the nearest railing.

The wrap of his tail turned into the wrap of his entire body around the metal structure, and he curled tight as the warp countdown began.

He wouldn’t be able to make it to a seat in time, so this was going to have to do. He heard that warp on human ships was a nightmare, but as the countdown hit one he was surprised to find that it wasn’t too bad. They must have borrowed a warp dampener off of one of the other species.

It didn’t take more than twenty minutes until they were in position before the GA headquarters. On either side the two glowing warp gates pulsed as ships began to arrive. They were flashed in to one of the docking stations, and ket had to pull to the side as the Admiral and some of his others marched down the walkway and towards the docking bay.

He followed them at a distance, still to curious for his own good, feet padding across the open metal.

No one really noticed he was there, as they all seemed very intent on their current work, so he followed with near impunity, out the docking bay down the ramp and into the human controlled section of the station. The air was a bit to humid for Ket’s liking. Like the rundi, they didn’t react well to water, though the Bran weren’t SOO bad as to have to worry about it being in the air.

The Admiral and his men were waylaid at a checkpoint.

“Identification please.”

The Admiral frowneed, “This is new.”

“This is protocol now.

“I guess then, how would you like us to proceed?”

The man waved the group of humans off to the side and held up something in one hand, “Chip reader for implanted devices, the easiest way to identify someone based on the device serial number.”

Ket watched very carefully as the man held up the device to the admiral’s head.

There was a bright flash so he didn’t really see what happened, but the Admiral took a staggering step to the side, one hand on the side of his head. His men rushed forward to catch him, “Sir, sir are you ok?”

He wobbled a bit and shook his head, “yeah I…. fine.” He turned to glower at the other man, “That thing feels like being punched in the head.”

The man shrugged, “The price we pay for security, sir.” He motioned the man forward and then waved in the other humans who approached with some apprehension as the man used the device on them too.

It seemed very odd.

Ket would have thought they might just use the device’s inherent wireless barcode to scan, and he couldn’t think why it would cause something like that.

But he wasn’t a mechanic.

It seemed strange to him, as he stepped inside, that this protocol only seemed to apply to the humans. Everywhere else on the station he found no men with their strange devices. He wondered if that was because they were testing it on humans to make sure it worked. Something like that might kill another species depending on how fragile they were in comparison to humans.

In fact the entire things struck him as odd. \

Every conversation he overheard, and every group he passed seemed just as confused about what was going on as he was.

No one seemed to know what they were here for, which seemed rather odd to him.

Soon the entire group of them had been crammed into that center sphere of the station. Ket was surprised to find that no one stopped him as he tried to get in. Was it just him, or did security seem a little lax?

He didn’t know much about these things though.

Maybe they just didn’t see him as much of a treat.

Someone called the room to order and the chairwoman stood up, “Order!.”

The crowd fell silent.

She turned to look at the Drev, “You called this emergency meeting.”

There was a silence in the room for a moment as the Drev delegate turned to look in confusion, “I didn’t call anything.”

There was a murmuring around the room.

“What do you mean, I got your transmission no more than an hour ago.”

There was a grumbling from around the room.

“You called the meeting counselor.” The human’s voice was loud in the echoing space.

The chairwoman turned to look at the human who had his arms crossed over his chest, a peeved expression on his face.

“No. I made no call for an emergency council.”

The human shifted, his frown deepening.” Behind him the other human muttered, 

Ket crouched low behind one of the seats his rock still held tightly in hand.

Was it him or did the humans seem, off?

“Do you want to go ahead and explain to me why you called us in to waste our time.” The human’s voice was cutting and cold, and even ket, not having known the human for long thought it was a bit strange.

The chair woman looked a little taken aback, “Admiral-”

The human representative stood from their seat, “We knew your council was ineffective chairwoman, but now you don’t even know who called your own meeting.”

There was a mummer of surprise from around the room.

The human turned to look at them, “Now which one of you was it.”

The humans behind them seemed to be growing agitated, but not with the heightened level of anger shown by their counterparts, but they themselves seemed to be growing more and more restless.

Admiral Vir turned toward the counselor, his one eye narrowed,  “Do you ever know when to shut the hell up.”

“Excuse me.”

“I had this under control and now you have to pipe in when you aren't wanted.”

“You would disrespect me-”

“You're a politician, you deserve it.”

Behind them at least two of the humans were looking hungrily across the council chambers towards the iotins. Another pair of humans were looking hungrily at each other. The council chamber was frozen in shock. The humans were growing more agitated by the second. A fight broke out in the back row of the delegation, and one human went tumbling down the steps. The admiral and the representative had started a pushing match that soon devolved into a fistfight, which wouldn’t have lasted so long if the Admiral didn’t seem interested in, not only beating his opponent, but dominating him.”

He had him by the front of the shirt.

There was screaming in the council chamber now as the aliens kept up to flee.

Two humans vaulted the railing and raced towards the Iotins who screamed and ran.

Another human was stalking the Celzex delegation with great intent.

Unnoticed at the back of the room, that pair of humans that had been eying each other earlier now looked as if they were trying to eat each other’s faces.

Ket turned his eyes away as the room split into absolute chaos.

The Admiral had beaten the councelor bloody knuckle senseless and was now eyening the room, teeth barred. He was crouched down almost on all fours, but when he saw one of the other delegates from across the room, he vaulted the little walkway and began a chase.

The Drev delegates were the only one who had NOT run screaming.

One of them tackled the human chasing after an Iotin, but was having trouble pinning them down as the human snapped at them with their teeth and kicked violently this way and that.

The human was pressed hard into the ground as the Celzex delegation stood patiently waiting.

The human approached, and was immediately stopped with a current of force.

The human flailed, convulsed and then fell to the ground still.

Other humans were running INTO the room now, those that had been held back on the ship, and they raced forward confused, not sure who to help at first until one of them was tackled by a member of the delegation.

A human screamed as they were bitten by one of their counterparts.

The Drev named Sunny came charging into the room with a contingent of Drev From the Omen.

She caught the Admiral around the chest and sent them both spinning to the floor slamming him to the ground.

Ket thought he was going to try and fight her but instead his expression switched as he saw her, turning from livid…. To hungry…. Or something similar.

Sunny did her best to pin his hands.

Ket cowered under his seat confused and scared.

And then he remembered.

That strange human at the door. He tried to remember back to who the man had scanned and realized that all of the out of control humans…. Were the ones that man had scanned. He didn’t really know what that meant, and nervously clutched the rock to his chest.

Wait.

The rock.

Could it be?

Could it be that the man had done something to their implanted translation devices? And if so…. Would his magnet work through skin.

Off to his side two Drev were doing their best to hold down one of the marines who was sapping and flailing at them like some kind of beast.

The Drev pulled back a fist and slammed the human’s head painfully into the floor. It didn’t knock them out but they were momentarily dazed. 

In a moment of sheer panic Driven psychosis, for that’s what it must have been, ket ran across the floor towards the dazed human, and pressed the lucky rock against the human’s temple. The human went to move, struggled a little and then melted into a look of extreme confusion. They held a hand to their head, and curled up to moan piteously.

The Drev graved him by his shoulders, “What did you do!”

“Magnets… translation implants.” He squeaked out.

The Drev stood cupping his hands around his mouth and bellowed for the others, “Find something magnetic! It’s the translation implants.”

Below them, the once angry human looked up in confusion unable to understand them but no longer angry.

Across the room Sunny looked down at one of her arms where a small piece of her carapace had been replaced by a silver and gold bracer. She unhooked it from its magnetic stripping and pressed it to the side of the thrashing human’s head.

The man flailed for a moment, paused then grew confused.

He looked.

When he spoke, Ket could not longer understand him.

Sunny shook her head.

He said something in a guttural language and jumped to his feet. 

They were rallying now racing towards the affected humans, sometimes catching them just in time and pressing the magnets into the skull just behind the ear. Every reaction was the same, confusion followed by embarrassment or horror.

The entire episode hadn’t lasted more than five minutes, and by the time guards and emergency workers had arrived everyone was sitting around in various stages of shock and confusion. THe concealer had woken up and was holding a rag to his bloodied nose while the Admiral Sat next to him nursing his bruised knuckles. Neither of them could look at each other. In fact the entire delegation of humans was one big mess of confusion, embarrassment and concern.

A few of the other delegates demanded to leave and were let go, while a few others milled around in confusion.

Some of the delegates filtered back into the room, mostly the braver species.

The Iotins, Bran, Vrul, and gromm had up and left, leaving the Burg, Tesraki, Rundi, Drev and Celzex (and a few assorted others) as the only ones remaining.

The Tesraki delegate rose from their seat, “What was that!”

The human delegate wasn’t exactly in a palace to speak, so Amiral Vir stood. He opened his mouth to speak but that is when the Drev representative took to their feet.

“I believe someone is attempting to sabotage diplomacy in the GA.”

Admiral Vir leaned over to translate for the other humans, who could not understand Drev.

The GA chairwoman had something whispered to her, and switched her output speech to Drev for the convenience of the human.

“What do we know.”

“The implanted translation devices inside the human’s heads seem to have been tampered with upon entering the GA facility. We would need to examine one to find out what truly happened but we believe it-”

The Admiral stood cutting in, “I believe it has similar effects to a device I’ve run into in the past. I thought it was a one time issue, but it seems as if I Might just have been the test run. As I recall, the device stimulates the base center of the brainstem and heightens instinctive reactions, food, fighting and uh… other behaviors.”

“Then how did this happen?” Someone shouted

It was just then that two Tesraki security agents ran into the room, “We rewound the security footage.”

SOmeone walked up to the holoprojection and inserted something into one of the slots. The room watched silently as an unknown human pretended to ‘scan’ the incoming delegation.

“Do we know who that is?”

Someone did a quick facial recognition search.

“Nothing…. He’s not in the system.”

“Impossible, everyone who goes off planet has to has to be run through the software.”

“That still doesn’t change the fact that there are no matches, we are not infallible.”

The room erupted into pockets of speech and argument.

Ket remained were he had hidden under the Admiral’s chair holding his lucky rock to his chest. The admiral wanted him to speak on what he saw but he had argued against giving the man permission to lead people in the right direction.

It seemed clear to him what was going on.

Someone was trying to ruin diplomacy for he humans.

And it looked like tonight might have been a partial success.

[ais-for-alex]

The Scars of Our Past: Chapter 7

Did I forget to update this for the last couple of weeks? Yes, yes I did. Oops. Anyway, hope y’all like chapter 7 🥰

***

The moment Leo’s skate hit the ice he knew he was not alone in the rink, he could hear their faint voices drifting down from the upper levels of the stadium. A smile tugged at his lips as he did a warm up lap around the ice, eyes scanning the seats, searching. They had been here before, sneaking in trying their best to hide amongst the plastic seats, but Leo knew they were there. He could feel their eyes watching as he performed. He knew it was only a matter of moments before they noticed he was on the ice but until then he had the upper hand. Leo’s sharp eyes caught sight of them, Finn's bright hair a flaming beacon that instantly drew attention to where they were slouched over in an attempt not to be seen.

“You know,” Leo said loudly his voice ringing out through the stadium as he came to a hard stop directly in front of their section, “if you insist on sneaking into my practices the least you could do is come say, ‘Hey’” Finn and Logan’s hushed chatter instantly fell silent as their eyes snapped to Leo down in front of them.

They were too far away for Leo to see the flush that raised on Logan’s cheeks, but he sure as hell could imagine it.

“You may as well come on down,” Leo continued, “I don’t bite… much.”

There was an indignant sputtering sound before Finn's voice came echoing downwards, “We’ll be down in a minute.”

Leo chuckled and began skating again warming up his muscles as Finn and Logan made their way down stairs towards the rink. When they finally made it to the boards Leo grinned at the sheepish looks on their faces as he drew closer stopping hard where they were standing.

“Hey.”

“Hi,” both Finn and Logan said at the same time, making Leo chuckle again.

“So, what brings y’all to my practice today? Surely you didn’t lose your phone up in the stands,” Leo asked with a soft smile.

“Ah, no- I just- well we just…” Logan said stumbling to find a valid excuse as to why they were up in the stands.

“We wanted to see if you would like to hang out,” Finn finally said, “right Tremz?”

Logan glanced up at Finn with a relieved look, “Yeah, exactly. We didn’t have any way to contact you and didn’t want to interrupt.”

“Oh- um I see,” Leo wasn’t sure what to make of that.

“So would you? Wanna hang out with us?” Finn asked earnestly.

Leo felt his heart stutter at the warmth in Finn's melted chocolate eyes, and he wanted too. Leo yearned to know these men better, he still didn’t know why, but something deep within himself was calling out for them.

“Yeah, I think I would. It’d be fun,” he grinned at the happiness that flooded Logan’s features at his words.

You’re moving on already? Suddenly it felt like ice had been injected into his veins by the thought that echoed in his mind. Did it really mean that little to you? You’re pathetic, looking for attention anywhere you can get it.

“Leo?” Logan’s voice was soft, a hint of concern hidden somewhere in it.

Leo blinked pulling himself back into the moment, “I’m sorry?”

“Can we get your phone number?” he said again, Leo actually processing the words this time, “That way we don’t have to stalk you at the rink?”

“That is unless you like us watching you practice,” Finn said with a wink, and if Leo didn’t know any better he would say it was almost flirtatious.

Leo felt a hot flush rise on the back of his neck, “Um, yeah. Can I?” he asked, holding out his hand for Logan’s phone.

“I’ll send it to Fish,” Logan nodded towards Finn as Leo handed his phone back, “we’ll text you, and see about hanging out, yeah?”

“Sounds good,” Leo answered, still a bit dazed from his harsh thoughts.

“Well,” Finn began a bit hesitantly, “I suppose we should go, let you get back to practice,” he held onto the boards and leaned his weight back, like he was trying to convince his body to leave but he didn’t really want to.

“Or you could stay,” the words had left Leo’s mouth before he had a chance to realize what he was saying, “I mean- if you want to- you don’t have to- sorry I said anything,” Leo rambled.

“Would that be alright?” Logan asked, “For us to watch?” his sparkling eyes looked up at him and suddenly Leo felt his anxiety ebb away in warm, sun drenched grassy fields.

“Yeah, it would. For a bit. My coach doesn’t come in until later so you’re welcome to stay until then,” Leo couldn’t look away from Logan’s face. The soft pull of his smile, the warm tan of his skin, the little cluster of freckles right where his jaw met his neck, Leo wanted to suck on them.

“We’ll stay then,” Finn’s deep voice pulled Leos eyes back over to him, “keep you company while you practice.”

Leo fought the flush creeping farther up his face as he nodded, “Alright, good. I should get back to work then,” and with that Leo skated back out onto ice before he could let anything else embarrassing slip out of his mouth.

He breathed deep calming breaths as he skated another lap to finish warming up his legs before finally settling at center ice. Leo felt a zinging under his skin at the feeling of their eyes following him, watching him. He didn’t understand why he was so nervous it’s not like this was the first time people had watched him skate, it wasn’t even the first time these people had watched him skate, but something in the intensity of their eyes made him want to show the deepest parts of his soul and hide under a blanket all at the same time.

Leo relaxed into the slide and scrape of his skates, he let his body flex and move, each stretch of his arm each point of his foot, pulling him back onto solid footing. This was what he knew, skating, he could move like this for eternity, as he let Logan and Finn move to the back of his mind. Methodically, Leo worked through each element of his routine, analyzing each jump, each pose, the way his blade would catch on the ice looking for the imperfections. At even the smallest of missteps Leo would circle back and repeat until it felt correct, then begin again. He skated until his lungs were screaming, until his muscles began to ache, until he could feel blisters forming on his feet.

“Leo, stop.”

Leo looked up with a gasp at the sound of his coach’s voice, suddenly he was filled with panic as he turned to where Logan and Finn had been watching, but he was only met with empty space, suddenly disappointment flooded through his veins.

“What are you looking for?” Madam Maxine’s heavy accent carried over the ice, causing Leo to spin around to face her.

“Nothing,” he said and skated closer to where she was standing.

“I like your perfectionism,” she said, handing him a water bottle, “I’ve been watching you practice for a while, to see how you work on your own. You catch your own mistakes.”

“Um, thank you,” Leo replied, still trying to catch his breath and fight away the disappointment at Finn and Logan’s disappearance.

“You still need to work on your emotional expression, I can see it in your face, you calculate each jump, each turn, but I understand that will take time to remedy.” Leo nodded listening to what she was saying, “You could be more aggressive in your elements though. You should include a quad closer to the end, and in the combination.”

Leo spent the rest of his practice discussing how he could improve his program, he was a bit nervous to try the new elements Madam Maxine suggested, it definitely increased the difficulty level. Once he finally made his way off the ice and into the locker room, Leo pulled his phone out of his bag to find several messages there.

(You’ve been added to a new group):

(UNKNOWN): Hey! This is Logan :waving emoji:

(UNKNOWN): Finn :Fish emoji:

(Logan): Sorry we left without saying goodbye

(Finn): We saw the scary French lady coming and didn’t want you to get in trouble again

(Finn): Thanks for letting us watch you practice

(Finn): You’re incredibly talented

(Logan): SO talented I think I’d break an ankle if I tried even one part of that

(You): You guys are sweet, and it was probably for the best that y’all left before Madam Maxine got there, she can be a bit intense

(Logan): So we gathered

(Logan): I don’t think I’ve ever been more scared of my own language before

(You): You speak French?

(Logan): Oui

(Logan): It’s my first language

(Finn): A fact he likes to hold over my head because I can’t understand what he’s saying

(Logan): Tu as juste peur que je dise de la merde sur toi

(Finn): WE’RE IN TEXT FUCKER I CAN GOOGLE TRANSLATE!

(Finn): I KNOW YOU’RE TALKING SHIT ABOUT ME!

(Logan):: laugh cry emoji:

Leo laughed at his phone before slipping it back into his bag and gathering his things to head to the shower. These two just kept getting more and more interesting. Leo had no idea what they might bring into his life but somewhere deep inside he was excited to find out.

Read on AO3

***

French translation: You're just afraid that I’m talking shit about you

[bokoutoe-retired]

— setups, haunted houses, and confessions

characters; daichi sawamura, gn! reader

synopsis; after being set up by sugawara, a pining captain and a smitten team manager stumble their way through a very unplanned ‘date’

total w/c; 2154

warnings; a little mentioned of (implied) fake blood, and i mention clowns and zombies like once, just some normal haunted house stuff. otherwise nothing but awkward pinning here

「 a/n 」 requested by @girlontumblur! so i obviously failed at getting this out like i wanted (i went back and edited last minute smh) 😔🤚 but it’s here now! 😼😼 and i hope this does decent because although it doesn’t flow as well as i wanted it to, i still kinda like it lmao. anyways, daichi simps unite 🤝 enjoy!

you honestly should’ve known something was up the second sugawara approached you after practice with a sly grin plastered on his annoyingly pretty face. you should've known when everyone texted the team group chat with last minute cancelations or excuses for running late. and you definitely should’ve known when daichi was the only one you found sitting at the planned meeting spot. but, you didn’t and neither did he.

now you two were sat alone on the small blue bench. daichi had one of his hands tucked into the pocket of his thick army green jacket and the other hand scrolling through the same group chat you were looking at minutes prior. the two of you had agreed to wait for a little in hopes that maybe one or two other team members might show up. but unbeknownst to either party, both of you also hoped someone would show up and save you the pain of embarrassing yourself in front of the person you had been pining after for nearly three years. daichis phone pinged, interrupting the awkward silence. it was a text from suga and daichi can feel the tips of his ears grow warm as he reads the message;

have fun on your date! ;) -suga

of course it was suga. he shouldn’t have expected anything less from his scheming vice captain. how he got the whole team to go along with it, is a mystery he decides to leave for another day when he hears you speak up from your spot next to him.

 “is anyone else coming?” he’s thrown out of his thoughts when he feels you nudge his shoulder with yours and sees you nod to his phone. he quickly turns it off and pockets it before he turns his attention to you completely.

“i don’t think so, asahi was the last one to check in and he just canceled,” he sighs and shoves his other hand in his pocket. you two have been close friends for years, but a few recent incidents, (perhaps incited by suga now that he thinks about it…) have left you walking on eggshells around each other. all in attempt to not admit your feelings, the same feelings that are completely obvious to everyone except yourselves.

“oh.. well, i don’t mind if you don’t?” you wring your hands together in your lap as you look at him.

“yeah, yeah of course not. we’re already here aren’t we?” he gives you that big, warm smile you love so much. it’s practically infectious as you feel a wide grin spread across your face too. “lets go, yeah?” he stands up from the bench, and doesn’t hesitate to offer you his hand. you happily allow him to help hoist you up off the bench, but have to resist the urge to intertwine your fingers with his.

the walk to the pumpkin farm and haunted house combination is only about fifteen minutes, but the awkward silence from before is gone. replaced by comfortable conversation about your responsibilities as team captain and manager respectively, funny stories about your friends or talk about your shared classes. you’re so involved with the conversation neither of you notice the way you walk with your shoulders pressed together. maybe it’s a subconscious pull to one another or maybe just an attempt to escape the chill of the late fall air. 

upon your arrival, you can see the towering entrance archway, made of large sticks and corn stalks. built up into a curve with twinkle lights woven throughout. it welcomes you into the family owned farm turned halloween attraction. underneath the arch, families enter and exit, some with children in their costumes and some with parents carrying pumpkins. some young couples and teenage friend groups pass through as well. the small apple cider stand surrounded by hale bales emits that sweet spiced scent that so perfectly encapsulates autumn.

the original “plan” as stated by suga was to just go through the haunted house together and get some food together, just some team bonding. but without the lovable burden of the entire karasuno volleyball club with you, it’s easy for you and daichi to leisurely make your way around the entire farm and participate in all of it’s available activities. you made your way through a hay bale maze together. it may have been meant for children but you had fun regardless, laughing when you got separated and teasing each other when you hit a dead end. you got the treat of watching daichi attempt to bob for apples, and get nothing except for a slightly damp shirt collar.

you even purchased a bag of animal feed for you and daichi to share. you went around petting and feeding goats and a few chickens. at some point you reached into the small brown paper bag right when daichi did. your fingers brushed his and you both pulled back like you had been burned. each of you flusteredly spitting out apologies, until he takes a deep breath, chuckles and shakes head, telling you not to worry about it and it’s no big deal. his strong voice and calm words are a stark contrast to his worried apologies just seconds earlier, but it’s enough for you to relax and continue on with the afternoon.

eventually, daichi leads you to sit down across from him at a wooden table and you’re quick to fall into comfortable conversation. all while the warmth of the apple cider he had just bought you seeps into your fingers and keeps them warm.

if you didn’t doubt yourself so much, you would’ve thought this felt exactly like some sort of date happening. the two of you together, spending time doing things any real couple would. at the same time, similar thoughts raced through daichis mind. he thought about how much this must look like a date to any people passing, and how much he really did wish that was the case. to be able to call you his own and take you out on cute dates like this whenever you wanted. too concerned with his cheeks dusting red at the thought, he fails to notice the similar blush presenting itself on your face.

it’s so easy to get caught up as you keep talking with daichi, you don’t notice the sun starting to set and you don’t even catch him gazing at you with that soft look in his eyes. 

you crack a joke during your story about some of tanaka and noyas shenanigans and he laughs. he laughs this hearty, bright laugh that makes your chest tighten and your own smile widen. i’d like to make him laugh like that for the rest of my life you think.

“you know, i’m a little relieved. with the entire team here it would’ve been hectic to say the least,” he lets out another laugh at the thought of the whole club wreaking havoc on the poor farm, “and you know… i’m glad i got to spend time with you too. it was nice and i’m having a really good time” his soft smile is just as sincere as his words.

“i did too, daichi. thank you for today, i really had fun” you smile back at him and take a sip of your cider.

“ah ah! don’t say thank you yet, y/n. we’ve still got one last thing to do,” he shoves a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the haunted house. from your spot at the table you can see the flash of the strobe lights and artificial fog trickling from the attraction. “maybe we should go get in line?”

you nod, and he once again offers you his hand to help you stand. and just like before you resist the nagging push in the back of your mind to just intertwine your fingers with his. you make your way over, tossing your empty cider cups into the trash as you walk.

you purchase your tickets, or more so daichi buys both of them despite you insisting it’s your turn to pay after he bought cider, and get in the line of about ten people.

“you know i didn’t really consider the fact i wouldn’t have the whole team to hide behind anymore” you rock and back and forth on your feet, as you hear a couple of screams echo from inside the house.

“what, is your captain not big and strong enough to protect you?” he teases while flexing one arm.

“oh stop it, you know what i meant” you playfully roll your eyes and poke him in the ribs right before he swats your hand away.

“just remember, if you take me out now you won’t have anyone to hide behind” by now the line has moved up and there’s only two or three people in front of you.

they group in front of you goes and suddenly you and daichi are up next. the front of the haunted house is decaying and covered in those sticky store-bought cobwebs. you drop your tickets in the box and with a wave of their hand an employee motions you forward into the entrance.

you make your way through the halls of the attraction, going through different themed sections. a circus tent full of crazed clowns, a bloodied butchers shop, and zombies kept back by chain fences. each hall comes with its own set of spooks and scares. creepy sound effects, banging on the walls all around you and air machines puffing air into your face. you don’t even attempt to hide your terror as you scream and even grab onto daichis arm. he lets out his own shouts of fear, but manages to put on his tough act at least partially. you notice him place himself in front of you slightly as you walk, the arm you cling to held in front of your body protectively, although there was no true danger. you’d probably think something of it if you weren’t too distracted by the adrenaline pumping in your veins. it’s not all scary though, a couple of daichis screams make you giggle and act as momentary distraction from your surroundings. a particularly high pitched yelp of his has you gripping the back of his shirt, doubled over laughing. but a loud bang that rattles the wall next to your gives you a start and you keep venturing forward through the house.

you think you’re finally in the clear when you're walking down the hall that leads to the exit off the back of the house. you see an employee dressed in all black at the end directing people around the side of the house and back to the front. but it’s only when you feel your heartbeat start to slow that you hear the chainsaw start and the screams of the group behind you and daichi. you’re heartbeat picks up again and out of pure instinct you lurch forward. you make it out the hall and into the small gravel field behind before you realize daichi still had himself in front of you. you’re too late to react and go barreling into him. the momentum brings both of you tumbling forward into the gravel. you land halfway on top of him but his reflexes are much better than your own and they help keep you from going too far. one arm keeps you from rolling and the other cradles your head to his chest to prevent you from hitting it. the loud buzz of the chainsaw fades as the actor chases the friend group around the side of the house for a short distance. you immediately sit yourself up and attempt to apologize between labored breaths.

“oh god, daichi. i- i’m so sorry, i just heard the chainsaw and i started moving. i didn’t even think. i understand now why you don’t like me back now. i’m so sorry” you hang your head in apology, not even registering the words that slip from your mouth in your scramble to say sorry.

“what?” he asks, stunned.

“...what?” you echo back slowly before the realization hits you hard. you struggle to spit out an explanation and you feel your face heat up, “i just meant-” 

daichis look of shock morphs into a soft smile as he cuts you off with another one of his warm laughs and uses the hand at the back of your neck to pull you down. his lips meet yours in a kiss thats just as warm and solid as him. he pulls away after a moment only to rest your foreheads together and smile at you softly 

“does that mean?” you breathe out, smiling back hopefully.

“yes, yes it does,” he chuckles and stands up from the ground. daichi offers you his hand one last time, you take it and pull yourself up. but unlike any previous offers, you don’t hesitate to lace your fingers with his.

[codylabs]

The Bottomless Pit

New scifi-horror story! Well, not exactly new, I’ve had it finished for a year or so now, but never shared it on Tumblr. It’s an entirely original story, so don’t expect any familiar characters or places. But it does introduce one or two pieces of worldbuilding for my original universe, which will be important for some of my other upcoming stories, so I figured now would be a good time to share it.

Enjoy.

Part 1

Once upon a time, far from here, at the bottom of the deepest shaft of the deepest mine, two boys stood regarding a pit that led yet deeper.

“You sure about this?”

“Yeah! C’mon, it’s not like there’s anything dangerous down there!”

Louis nervously leaned out over the fissure as far as he dared. It was true, there didn’t rightly seem to be anything at all down there; just blackness. The walls of the fissure passed beyond the range of their headlamps after the first twenty meters, and after that, floors and walls became nothing but indistinct void. It must be fifty meters deep, at least.

“You just let me down,” Peter pointed to the towing winch built into the belt of Louis’s suit. “Until I touch the bottom. And then when you see me standing down there walking around, you’ll be brave enough to come down too.”

“…What if there is no bottom?”

"...What do you mean 'if there's no bottom'? What else would there be?"

"I...? Uh... You know? I dunno."

"Every hole on every single one of the hundred million brazillion planets and moons in the universe has a bottom. Because if it didn’t, it would go straight through the place, and there’d be magma everywhere right? Which would make it not dark. But it is dark. Which means it doesn’t go forever.”

“That’s not what I mean.” Louis’s helmet was rattling around on his head as he shifted his weight this way and that, trying to find a comfortable position where he wasn’t sweaty. Even through a thick pressure suit, the body language was apparent. “I mean, like… Like… Okay, never mind.”

“C’mon dude. This is basic simple science stuff. And since basic simple science proves that there is a bottom, we can therefore find that bottom!”

“Yeah…”

“We know space pirates once used this moon as a hideaway. Maybe they hid treasure down there!”

“That’s stupid.”

“It’s not, it’s true. And it makes sense for them to hide their treasure down in the deepest, darkest hole they could find. And what’s deeper and darker than here? Nothing, that’s what! Look, my GPS says we’re… What, a kilometer below the surface already? No mines go that deep! This must’ve been dug by the first colony! You know. Before they disappeared.”

“Yeah, well…” Louis glancing at the floor behind them. “...Well, I guess the footprints were pretty weird.”

With no wind and no water on this moon, dust and dirt and stone remain exactly as they are until something disturbs them, meaning that footprints last forever, with newer ones layering on top of old ones. In a long-abandoned mine like this, one would have expected the most recent, top layer of prints to have been left by the mining tractor; the one that dug the tunnel. In most of the other tunnels, that’s just how it was. After all, there was never any reason the miners themselves to bodily enter the tunnel.

Except here, the tread marks weren’t the last tracks.

Louis and Peter had followed a set of three tracks, tracks from adult human boots, all the way down here… Two sets had been leading up to this very hole… But only one set could be seen returning…

“It must be pirates.” Peter nodded, as he gazed down into the crevice. “It’s the only explanation… That or aliens.”

“Aliens don’t exist.”

“Yeah, and that just leaves pirates, which makes more sense anyway.” Peter explained. “See, the Captain must have needed help from his second-in command to carry the treasure chest, but when they threw it in the hole, the Captian shot his buddy and threw him in too! Because the Captain knew that all pirates are nothing but dirty thieving buccaneers, so to keep his greatest fortune safe, he made sure that nobody else knew…! I bet we’ll find an evaporated mummy with a busted faceplate down there… And riches… Riches worth killing over… Gold and crystals and ancient forms of currency that have all been forgotten for centuries…”

Louis’s body language said he was almost convinced. (Not convinced enough to believe it, but almost convinced enough to try exploring it.) “But…” He offered one last objection. “Maybe they were just explorers or something. You know, like us. Maybe his buddy just got hurt down there, so he just carried him out… I mean, it doesn’t necessarily mean one of them died down there…”

“But there’s no piton left behind.” Peter gestured to the tunnel floor around them. “And no place where one was driven in… And they weren’t using jetpacks either, because there’s no disturbance in the dust from the downdraft… Which means they had no way back out.”

That tipped Louis over the edge, and he reluctantly began to unpack his climbing gear. “Oh-kaaaay…” He sighed, as he aimed the power-driver at the tunnel floor. There was a burst of compressed air from the driver, and a piton appeared in front of the barrel, embedded securely in the rock. He unspooled a length of cable from the winch and passed it through the piton’s pulley, then handed the end to Peter. “But… Uh… If you find anything scary down there, could you bring it back up so I can see it please?”

“You’re a baby.” Peter locked the cable into his harness, and stepped up to the edge of the crevice. “How are you a boy scout if you’re such a baby?”

“I’m a boy scout because I know everything.” Louis frowned, as he braced his feet against the side of the tunnel to balance out the winch. “I know how to maintenance all the types of engines that we use. I know how to build an airtight shelter out of nothing but rocks and resin. I know how to recycle urine without ever taking off my suit. I can signal for help in 23 languages. If we were crashlanded, then I would be the hero, and you would be the bumbling sidekick.”

“You also know how to be a baby.”

“I also know there was never any pirates on this moon.” Louis added. “Those are just rumors that sprung up around the old military depot in the Eastern hemisphere.”

“Which was destroyed by pirates!” Peter reminded him as he leaned into the cable. He bounced slightly, just to convince his mind that the thin material could actually hold his weight.

“Destroyed by themselves via routine self-destruction. That was standard scorched-earth policy back during the war.”

Louis leaned out over the blackness, at an angle where the cable was supporting the majority of his weight. And he prepared to step out into darkness. “Being a baby must be standard policy too, huh?”

"In certain circumstances yes, maybe being a baby is standard policy.”

“Your mom is standard policy.”

“Negative.”

“Line down.”

Naturally, Louis’s winch made no sound in the airless environment. All Peter could hear were his own boots scuffling and sliding down the first section of the crevice sides, and the faint rhythm of the winch vibrating down through the taught cable. And, of course, there were all the familiar background sounds: the hissing of the life support in his pack, the whirring of the water pump warming his extremities. And above all, his helmet echoed his own breathing back toward him, muffled and close and incredibly loud. That omnipresent, overbearing sound of breathing used to scare him when he’d first worn a space suit; made him feel either profoundly claustrophobic and alone, or feel like Darth Vader was standing behind him.

But now he was a boy scout. And boy scouts are many things. They aren’t babies, first of all. Second of all, they’re responsible, and dutiful, and they know their equipment. Third, they can survive outdoors. So in this day and age, when most doors opened into hard vacuum, you can know for darn sure that a good boy scout isn’t afraid to be out on his own in it, locking his life behind nothing but a little fabric and glass.

This fabric and glass was rugged, and tough, and meticulously well-maintained. It was his armor. And inside it, he was as safe. Safe as he was in his own home.

Peter found that the crevice was widening as he descended. The tunnel wall dropped sideways from beneath his feet, and he soon found himself hovering on his back, suspended from his harness like a sack of freight as the walls continued to recede above him. “Louis be advised.” Peter said. “Tunnel is widening significantly. I have lost physical contact with the wall. Over.”

“How is visual contact? Over.” Louis’s voice came through Peter’s radio, as it always had.

Peter looked left, and right. The ‘hole’ they’d descended seemed to actually be some sort of chasm or fissure, running through the moon’s crust like a cut or a tectonic crack. It stretched off into blackness to either end, far further than his beam could search, must be more than a hundred meters. As for the walls to either side of him, they were widening, dropping off into the distance steadily, like the incredibly steep, jagged walls of an upside-down canyon. He could still see them, but his light could only reach so far; if they became dim enough, he wouldn’t be able to focus on them past the slight glare reflecting off the scratches in his helmet.

And no, he could not yet see the bottom.

“Mediocre, and getting worse. Over.” Peter answered.

“Do you wish to abort? Over.” Louis asked.

“No!” Peter let himself hang flat on his back again, so he was looking straight up the cable at the opening above him. The glow from Louis’s light was brightly illuminating the inside of the mineshaft, forming a jagged splotch of bright brown surrounding the cable’s end. “No…” He repeated, talking to the light. “Just a bigger hole than I thought, that’s all. Don’t blame the Captain for throwing his treasure down here; it’s a good hiding spot. Over.”

Louis ignored that.

The winch continued to spin, the cable continued to unwind, the light continued to shrink above, the walls continued to recede.

“Peter be advised…” Louis’s voice was slow and careful, not quite nervous. “Tension in cable seems slightly uneven. Over.”

“Uneven?” Peter frowned up at his friend. “Louis, please elaborate. Over.”

“It’s decreasing… Like you’re getting lighter… Are you dropping rocks out of your pockets or anything? Over.”

“No… Is your winch speeding up?”

“No…”

There was a brief moment of silence while they both pondered all this.

“Maybe your legs are going numb.” Peter suggested. “Uh, over.”

“Maybe… Yeah, I dunno, I don’t think so… Seriously, if you’re messing with me-”

“I’m not messing with you…” That gave Peter an idea: mess with him. He began to flail his arms and legs to make the line bounce. “I… I think I feel it too!”

“You feel the tension decreasing?”

“No, it’s just kind of… Bumpy… Like somebody’s shaking it…! Are you moving around up there?”

“N-no, I’m not moving an inch!” Louis said. “Uh… Oh, wow, actually yeah, I can feel it bouncing too now!”

“I think something’s on the cable!” Peter cried out. “I think something grabbed it! Oh no, I can see it! OH MY GEEZ! It’s coming toward me!”

“WHATISWHATIS WHAT’S COMING TOWARD YOU?!?” Louis was getting hysterical.

The bumping in the line stopped. All was silent on the radio. Peter held his breath in gleeful anticipation.

“Oh.” Louis said after a few seconds. “Ha ha. Very funny. Over.”

“PFFWA HA HA!” Peter burst out in a spasm of laughter. “You should have heard you! Over.”

“Yeah, yeah, okay, you’ve had your laugh, now no more thrashing around, alright? Like seriously, you’ll freak me out… And if you were just planning on making a fool of me, you shouldn’t have invited me on the mission… Over.”

“It’s not a ‘mission’, and I didn’t ‘invite’ you. I said I was gonna go look for pirate treasure, and then you begged to come along. Over.”

“I didn’t beg.”

“Did too.”

“You’re stupid. Over.”

“You’re a baby. Now keep lining down; I never said stop. Over.”

Louis sighed and flipped the switch again.

The winch started spinning again.

Peter continued to drop.

Five minutes later, Louis finally spoke. “Peter come in; please tell me you’re getting near the bottom…! Over!”

Peter looked over his shoulder. “No, still can’t see a thing down there, over.”

Five minutes further, Louis’s voice had a sharpness to it. “WHEN should we abort, over?”

“Would you quit it with the abort talk?” Peter snapped, and shook his fist up at the fading light. “Just keep spooling down until I tell you to stop, okay? You’ve got, like, a barjillion meters of line in your winch, and it’s rated for, what, two tons?”

“Four.”

“Four! Four tons! That’s about 100 of me! In Earth gravity! This is, like, less than half Earth gravity, so that thing should be able to hold 200 of me, easy! I’m literally in no danger at all! Over.”

“But…!”

“Just keep spooling down until I tell you to stop. Okay? Over.”

“…Okay. Over.”

“Great. Over.”

“Yeah… Yeah, great. I will. Over.”

“Over.”

“Over yourself.”

“Over times two.”

“Over infinity. Over.”

The walls were getting wider and wider still, and Peter’s light was getting no brighter. Soon, the passing rock began to fade. Nothing mysterious about it, the walls just receded further and further until they merged with the black background, leaving nothing but blurs and shadows. And as Peter waited, it seemed that even those blurs were inching their way upward, to disappear into the ever-growing darkness he’d already passed.

Only the speck of light from the distant mineshaft remained clearly visible directly above; that and whatever length of cable was near enough to be seen. A pinpoint of light piercing down at him, and the cable pointing toward it like a finger, as if to remind him that he was not some lonely spider suspended on a web, but that there was light, and company, and good solid ground awaiting him above, whenever he should choose to return.

The last glimpses of rocks passed out of sight. There may as well be no more walls. He looked over his shoulder again, hoping, if not expecting, the floor to be coming up to meet him soon. Surely the bottom must be approaching soon, right…? But it was not.

His light had become utterly useless now, with nothing else around to illuminate. And when that realization struck him, it sowed the seed of doubt. Maybe Louis’s right. Maybe I shouldn’t do this. I should abort, let him reel me back topside, come back later with the scout leader and a big crane and some huge ol’ searchlights… Yeah… Yeah, this hole, this CHASM, was bigger than I ever would have imagined, and one kid with a headlamp isn’t enough to conquer it…

No…

No, keep going, Peter.

It’s got to end sometime.

He looked up at Louis’s dot of light above him. It’s got to end sometime. It’s not bottomless.

Unease built.

It festered in the back of his mind, surged forward every once in a while to try to bring him to panic, to get him to give up, but each time he forced it back. More and more he found himself staring upwards at the spot of light. Strangely enough, it seemed to be getting reddish. As if blood were throbbing forward into his eyesockets, or as if he was gradually being engulfed in some fog, or filter. Perhaps this pit was flooded with trace amounts of some heavy, reddish gas, and as he descended the depths of it clouded over.

However it was happening, he had become utterly fixated on that spot of light, measuring how it faded and shrunk and reddened, trying to estimate when that final singular anchor would fade away.

Five more minutes passed.

You know, it was bizarre. He hadn’t noticed it quite as fast as Louis had, since he’d been hanging comfortably by his harness instead of bracing against the walls with the winch, but Louis was right: the tension in the line was decreasing.

How was it decreasing? How did that make any sense? No, he wasn’t dropping rocks from his pockets, no, the winch couldn’t be gradually accelerating, as the motor only went one speed… It didn’t make any sense.

Ten minutes.

The light… Was the light getting fainter up above? It seems that now, Peter could barely make out the pinprick of red light that was the opening of the mineshaft. There was only the cable, and himself, hanging in the black.

Nineteen minutes.

Nineteen and a half minutes.

Peter found himself staring at the timer in his helmet, waiting for the seconds to finally add up to the big two-oh, and he’d finally have a good round number to affix to his boredom, and his boredom was the excuse he would affix to his request that they finally abort this pointless plunge.

“H-hey!” He radioed up to Louis. “Y-you know dude, th-th-this is a drag. It’s been twenty minutes. Let’s just reverse it now, eh? This is getting silly! Bring me back up! Over.” It felt really good to finally say it actually; to admit that his friend was right; to give up. It felt good, in a way, to never have to discover what lay at the bottom of this hole.

But horror beyond all horrors, there was no answer!

“Louis? LOUIS! Louis, come in! Louis, do you read?!? Over!”

He was still going down!

“LOUIS COME IN!”

His friend didn’t respond, but the line kept descending, and the tension kept lowering, and the light was very, very red and kept fading, and Peter found himself in tears, crying and trembling.

He looked back over his shoulder again, but he still couldn’t see the bottom!

What’s going on?!? Why can’t Louis hear me?!? How far down does it go?!?

In a sudden flash of inspiration, he remembered; he remembered what he should have done in the first place, before ever starting into the pit. How could I forget? In all the movies, whenever anybody descends into the dark, they always throw a flare or a flashlight or a torch first! They always drop a light so they can get a gauge of how far it goes! It’s only smart! Heck, forget movies, I’m a boy scout! I should have instantly known to do that, how could I forget?!?

I still can!

With shaking hands he fumbled the emergency flare gun out of his belt, and loaded a brightly-colored canister into the barrel. Then he twisted around in the harness, pointed the gun straight downwards into the exact center of that gaping black void, and pulled the trigger.

The flare burst from the gun, and flew straight down. Gravity continuously accelerated it, and without air resistance, it kept going faster and faster, a brilliant yellow missile glowing with incredible brightness, speeding ever faster.

And continued.

And continued.

And continued.

It slowly faded from yellow to white to blue, growing steadily more distant and small and faint with the distance. Finally, after craning his neck to watch it for what felt like minutes, he found he could no longer even see it.

Good grief! Up on the surface, those flares are normally visible from kilometers out! Kilometers!

Louis was right all along! It’s bottomless! IT’S A BOTTOMLESS PIT!!

He looked back upwards. His panic, which was already skyrocketing, was suddenly compounded when he realized that he couldn’t see the light of the mineshaft anymore. He hurriedly turned off the light in his own helmet, in hopes that he could see better without the slight glare. Yes, that was it; if he killed all his own lights, he could just barely make out the mineshaft, shining like a red star high above. “Louis!” He screamed into his radio. “Louis, bring me up! It’s bottomless! You were right, it goes on forever! You gotta bring me up! Abort! LINE UP!!”

No answer.

He fumbled a second flare out of his pocket, and reloaded. Taking careful aim, the very most meticulous and steady aim, he pointed the missile directly at the patch of light. Perhaps if he could be a totally bona-fide sniper with this little flare pistol, perhaps if the flare traveled dead-center, then perhaps it would get near enough to the shaft for Louis to glimpse its glow, and realize that their radios had been somehow compromised, and reverse the line.

He fired.

The second yellow missile streaked from the gun, this time in exactly the opposite direction of the first.

It went straight up, growing redder and redder as it did.

A minute later, it returned to its yellow color as it came straight back down. It passed by Peter again not 10 meters to his left.

And it disappeared into the dark below with the other flare, once again fading to white and then blue. Now that Peter had his lights off, he thought he could still see the first flare glowing in the incredible distance. It hadn’t hit the floor yet.

Bottomless, bottomless…

He squeezed his eyes shut, not wanting to look at anything anymore. Wanting to exchange the hungry, malicious blackness around him for the close, comfy blackness of the backside of his eyelids. Anything to pretend he wasn’t where he was. But the silence was heavy on his ears. Louis wasn’t there any more, only the hissing of his suit’s life support, the whirring of its heater, and his own breathing. And of course he couldn’t ignore the tension in his harness; The tension is still dropping! Now it’s about half what it should be; like for some physically impossible reason the cable is just stretching and I’m falling faster and faster forever and ever and I can’t feel it! Except I can feel it! I feel like I weigh half of what I ought, like I’m halfway to the moon’s center. But that’s impossible! How could he lower me so deep? And if I’m so deep, where’s the magma?!? Oh God, how can it not have a bottom?!?

God…

That’s right, God!

Without any hesitation, Peter curled into a ball, folded the gloves of his spacesuit against his helmet, and began to pray.

“Dear God…! Dear God, come in God! God come in, I’m scared! Please help! Please help it not be bottomless!” He wondered if there was some kind of enormous monster instead of a bottom, or if the moon was hollow and infested with Aliens, or if this pit led straight to hell. “Please make Louis reverse the line!” He pleaded. “Please make it be alright again…! And…! Andandand if you don’t do any of those other things God, then please, please, please make me brave…!”

He continued down.

“Please make me brave.”

He never stopped.

“A-a-amen… Over.” He stuttered. And as his prayer finished, he knew that even through a kilometer of stone, even across the vast reaches of space, even from out of the depths of this unbelievable void, God had heard him. That’s right… God is in control… God knows where this pit leads, heck, he probably created this pit! That means he knows when I’ll reach the bottom. He knows if I’m gonna get back out or if I’m gonna die… In fact, he knew all this before I ever got up this morning. He knows what I’ll find down here, and he still loves me… God loves me. He’s still looking out for me.

Even down here.

And God answered Peter’s prayer; God made him brave.

Peter opened his eyes.

And then he turned his lights back on, and found that the empty pit wasn’t quite so empty anymore. Way off in the distance to his left and right, his lights seemed to be illuminating something… Not a bottom, but something along the walls; yes, the walls seemed to be narrowing again, at least partially… That was a good sign.

The walls got nearer.

And now that they were back in range of his light, he could see something really quite strange: they were no longer made of rock. He could scarcely believe his eyes at first, but the walls were made of metal now, shinier and more uniform. On his left side, he was currently moving past some kind of enormous, curved surface, like the flank of an incredible water tank. A line of rivets bordering a seam confirmed its artificial nature.

On his other side, there was what appeared to be some kind of weight-bearing truss, like you’d see holding up the archways of an old bridge. There was another tank beside the truss too, and what looked like a ganglion of pipes, just on the edge of the range of his light.

As he continued downward, there were other structures. There were round, rivetted tanks similar to the first one, most of them smaller and miscellaneous, but a few quite a bit larger. In between the tanks and the trusses, great cuboid somethings were bolted to trusses, and the housings and shafts of unfamiliar machinery poked out and interconnected here and there. All through the labyrinthian industrial complex, pipes of every imaginable shape and size stretched and curled.

He sure was glad that God had made him brave. With that bravery, he hazarded another communication. “Louis, be advised.” He said, just in case his friend was still able to hear him. “The tunnel walls now appear populated with mechanical structures. Looks like it could be a factory or a refining installation of some kind. Maybe something else. Not seeing any movement or people, so I think it’s abandoned. And there are no lights, so I’m assuming it’s powerless. I’m also not seeing any words or language on any of the pipes, so your guess is good as mine as to who made it… Yeah. Anyway, it’s weird. Over.”

Louis evidently didn’t hear him.

“Louis, be advised.” He continued a few minutes later. “Looks like the machinery is ending. The last of it is passing out of sight, and I’m in blackness again. It was all just on the walls, and the pit itself is still bottomless… Over.”

The tension in the line was as low as it ever had been, perhaps a quarter of his own weight. He thought back for a moment to his science classes: Newton said that if he wasn’t changing speed at all, then that means the total amount of force on him balanced out to zero. Meaning the tension in the line must be equal to his weight, which meant that he must be getting lighter. But he wasn’t losing any mass, so that means the gravity must be decreasing. Somehow.

He imagined that if it continued, he would eventually be weightless entirely. It didn’t make any sense to him how that was happening, but he understood how the affect was progressing, and it was consistent and logical in its own queer way.

It was logical. It didn’t necessarily make sense, but it made a sense.

The logic and predictability of it made him feel a little better, and he allowed himself to relax. In fact, as he rested on the end of the tether under ever-decreasing stress, the inside of his suit began to seem very comfy. Indeed, he even began to feel sleepy…

Well… I can’t keep going down forever. Louis doesn’t have infinite cable in his winch, and his winch doesn’t have infinite batteries. He’s smart enough to know when enough is enough, and he’ll bring me back up eventually.

…

Thank you, God, for making me brave.

He turned off his light to save battery power in the suit, and settled back to wait.