#you were taught at 13 to go up and shake your opponent’s hand

[rickybaby]

“If the stars don’t align …”

[mochiswifey]

CHASING THE GAMBLER

KOKONOI HAJIME X GAMBLING ADDICT

<REPOST FROM OTHER ACCOUNT>

CW: MNDI*GAMBLING*RUSSIAN ROULETTE*ADDICTION*SUICIDE*ANGST

"ROYAL FLUSH MOTHER FUCKERS!" You showed them your cards and their jaw dropped. The money at stake was too high and Kokonoi couldn't afford to lose to anyone. Not to the old fucks around the table and certainly not to you. But he did.

"Ey, suck my dick stupid ass bitches!" You cheerfully yell before pulling all of your opponents chips closer to you.

"H-how what the fuck...." Kokonoi Hajime couldn't believe he just lost to you. He was more baffled compare to the others. It's the first time he played with you and he didn't expect you to hit him with a royal flush.

"I'm a good poker player, my daddy taught me. My brother is a professional poker player too." You explained to him.

"N-no. How? You just won 29 million you-" He couldn't form a sentence making you chuckle. He underestimated you. He didn't think you had a chance of winning. Hell! He was confident no one had the chance of winning against him.

"One more game." He says panicking over his 7 million lost.

"You already lost 7 million are you ready to lose more?"

"I'm not gonna lose again."

"Oh, darlin' I bet you all of these chips you're going to lose again." He shakes his head not believing that you're challenging him.

"S-sure, let's play again." You smirked and snapped your hands three times catching one of the servers attention. He served you a bourbon and you chugged it at one go before returning your attention to Kokonoi.

"I only play one game every night but I'll make an exception if you agree to play Russian roulette with me." Kokonoi doesn't like Russian roulette but he was too absorbed and pissed at you to back out now. That's how the two of you ended up facing each other with a revolver on your hand. People gathering around curious to see if one of you will blow their own brains. What was at stake? Well, 36 million and your own life. What more could you ask for? You look like a normal human being outside but inside you're twisted. Having a loaded revolver on your temple would make a sane person tremble from fear but you? Having it on your temple makes you tremble from arousal. Being close to the other life is your pleasure. It gives you an unexplainable adrenaline and euphoria. That's the main reason why people who knows you well refuses to play games with you. They know you'll go further and further until death finally opens the door you've been knocking at since you were 13.

"She's fucking crazy." Someone from the crowd says as you pull the trigger of the revolver four times in a row pushing your luck or simply just asking for death.

"What the fuck!" Kokonoi shouted at you. You only left him with three more slots to go through. One bullet filled one slot and his chance of survival is low but if he manage to pull it off he'll win. He was about to take the gun from your hand but you pulled the trigger once more.

The crowd was petrified. Only two slots remaining. Kokonoi froze his chance 50/50. You were fearless and didn't hesitate to risk your life. After the first pull of the trigger his heart got eaten by fear but yours weren't. It only lit up your darkest desire and it made you pull the trigger four more times. You sighed disappointed that you didn't get your brains blown off and you hesitantly push the gun towards him. He was shaking from fear. If he pulls this off... He'll win. But 50/50 was his chance... You exceeded the odds of dying. Pulling the trigger five times was out of the ordinary and he was sure that you'll get yourself killed after the second pull but like earlier he was wrong. You are not normal. It seems that even though you're running towards Satan he refuses to let you enter hell. It shows how sick and twisted you are.

"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR TAKE THE GUN!" You screamed at him after a minute passed and he hasn't taken the gun from you yet. His breathing fast and his throat dry. His eyes that are engulfed with fear fell on the gun on your hand but still. He refused to take it. You got impatient and in a swift move you were straddling him. Your eyes wide and psychotic not liking the fact that he's refusing to play the game.

"Take the gun and pull the trigger."

"I-I I...."

"Why don't I pull the trigger for you!" You came up with a good idea. You alinged your head with his and placed the gun on his temple. He tried to push you off but you didn't let him. You keep a firm hold to his body.

"Isn't this beautiful? Two strangers dying together. A beautiful end for the two of us..." He felt your fingers slowly move towards the trigger and he knew he messed up.

"YOU WIN!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"YOU WIN! OKAY! STOP!"

Kokonoi screamed stopping you from pulling the trigger. A dark chuckle came out of your lips.

Coward.

His chest rapidly rose and sank. Diamond shape sweat drips from his forehead, iron grip on your waist. You moved your face in front of him the gun still pointed on his temple.

"STOP! YOU WIN!" He yelled again wanting the gun to be away from him. You pulled his chin down and made him look into your bored light pink eyes. You were unimpressed and dissatisfied. And he was fearful. Fearful of a girl he barely knows.

"You fear death?"

"GET OFF!" You only laugh to his commands.

"See? I was right. I'm never wrong. I warned you but you didn't listen to me. Now.... you lost 14 million." You mocked him as you moved the gun from his temple down to his throat making his tension rise.

"I'm a Bonten executive you won't get away if you kill me." He yells desperately wants to be away from you.

"Kill you?" You chuckle.

"What's fun of killing someone who did nothing to you?" Kokonoi can't understand you. Not one bit.

"Your fear of losing money will someday kill you." You said before putting the gun on your temple pulling the trigger.

*

But once again. Death didn't want you. Yet.

The crowd gasped both in fear and amazement. 6 in a row. You escaped death.

"You could've won if you didn't chicken out." You tell him before shooting the ceiling. Kokonoi was immediately relief when the bullet was finally shot. The crowd backs away as fragments of the ceiling falls down.

"I don't like seeing fear. I love seeing fearless opponets." You pat his shoulders with your hands before getting off of him.

Kokonoi. He's... surprised? It's the first time he wasn't able to read someone. And it's the first time after years his heart beat weirdly. It's stupid. You were just a second away from killing both of you but he can't help but to feel an attraction for you. It's a strong one for him because he wasn't able to take off his eyes off of you as you walk away disappearing through the crowds of shocked people leaving all of the chips you've won. His eyes landed on them and he realized money meant nothing to you. Another reason for him to-

You're not Akane- you're far from Akane. She was.... gentle, delicate, kind, she's not someone who will play games of death. She's someone angelic and perfect and his one love. And you're the girl who... You're the girl who almost sent him to his death. The girl he lost 14 million to. That's it... That's all you are. He kept telling himself as he walks around the casino trying to find you. Hoping to see your long raven black hair and light green eyes. That's all you are his opponent. You're just a psychotic girl he needs to take revenge to. You're not someone who will make him happy. You're just a gambling addict. He forcefully punch those thoughts into his mind while grabbing the girl he thought was you.

You're just a gambling addict.

He repeats as his heart sank realizing he got the wrong person. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If he met you again, what would he say? What would he do? As he keeps searching for you every time he goes to the casino those thoughts run to his mind.

He tried asking for your name. Going as far as starting a man hunt but no one could ever find you. People around him says you're not worth the trouble and you'll just leave him in a dark place but he didn't care.

He felt sick to his stomach when he realized satan might've finally opened his door for you. He dropped his cards on the table not minding the money on the line.

He ran towards the bathroom and threw up. He was scared. Scared for a girl he barely knows.

"You were looking for me?"

His tired and restless eyes widens as he saw you through the mirror. Leaning on the wall with your arms and legs crossed looking beautiful as ever.

"You shouldn't be looking for someone like me."

"You didn't take your money." He tried to mask his excitement not wanting you to think of him as pathetic.

"I don't mind the money baby, I'm fucking rich as fuck. What I do mind is you starting a man hunt for my head and me not being able to play for my death." You pulled out a pocket knife and tapped it on your head 3 times.

"You misunderstood- I I want- would like to get to know you." An amused smile appeared on your face as you uncrossed your arms standing straight.

"Wash your mouth and come with me."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You led him to the rooftop and you sat on the egde.

"Come." You motion him to sat beside you and he did. Not remembering the fact that you're suicidal.

The night skies are pretty and you couldn't help but to admire them. Hajime watched you his heart slowly getting warmer and warmer despite of the cold night.

"Why do you live?" Your sudden question stunned him.

Why do I live?

He has no answer.

You softly smile before tossing the diamond dice on your hand he didn't noticed in the air.

3

Finally.

He was confused. He didn't know why you tossed the dice and he didn't know why you looked so happy when it showed 3 golden dots. But he didn't questioned you. As long as your happy he's content.

"I'm Ayaka." He nods taking off his jacket and draping it on your shoulder. You thanked him and handed him the dice.

"What's this for?"

"Token of our friendship."

"You're odd." You laughed and rolled your eyes.

"I am."

"Are you free around 3 pm tomorrow?" He asked you hiding his red face.

"I am. I'll be free anytime starting tonight."

"Great, let's go on a date."

"Sure."

He was surprised that you agreed. He thought you'll reject him but he was happy you didn't.

"Don't lose that dice for me will you? You'll definitely need it someday." You made him promise before asking him to bring you your favorite drink. "Pina colada."

Kokonoi was overjoyed for the first time in years. He was happy. And his happiness faded as soon as it started.

"A GIRL JUST JUMPED!"

His body froze. He was climbing the stairs when he heard the frenzy about a girl's body lying limp in front of the casino.

He went out with your requested drink still in his hand. The crowd parted as the Bonten executive made his way to you.

You look so peaceful lying in front of the casino. Blood oozing out of your body.

His heart shattered for the second time.

Why do you live?

Your question echoed in his mind. He had no reason. No reason at all.

You were just alive and you were just warming his freezing heart. Now you're rapidly chilling. He slowly kneeled in front of you moving your head onto his lap.

Even after witnessing deaths of multiple traitors and even after causing death. It was a disturbing sight for him to see.

It was disturbing for him to see you happier now that you're lifeless. It was so disturbing to realized you've always been in misery, and death was the only thing that helped you achieve peace.

Kokonoi placed a kiss on your forehead before looking at the dice you gave him.

"Token of our friendship."

You could've been the reason he lives. But he'll never be yours.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Thank you for reading. <Reblogs&Replies are greatly appreciated.>

Don't copy.

[springgirlwaiting4fall]

Kenny Omegas “Talk”

@wheeler-omega-kingston

Kenny Omega had traveled the world, wrestled dream opponents, became one of the greatest wrestlers of his time, and helped create and put AEW on the map. Those accomplishments were important to him of course, but they were nothing compared to his girls. He had married his high school sweetheart Steph, she stood by his side while he traveled, cried, and bled for professional wrestling. And she had given him the greatest gift he had and would ever received his baby girl Luna. Only Luna wasn’t a baby anymore, time flew by and long where the nights were he kissed skin knees and she cuddled him on the couch late at night because of a thunder storm. Tonight his 16 year old daughter was going to prom with boyfriend.

He listened in the morning and afternoon as Steph helped her get ready. He wasn’t invited to help after the dress shopping incident, all he wanted was to add a modest shawl to the outfit and suggested a comfortable ballet flat over stilettos. That evening when Luna walked down the stairs it was the first time he realized that his daughter was a women. A young women who thanks to her mother had no curfew tonight. Bless Kenny’s heart, he had no idea that Steph also rented a hotel room for Luna and her boyfriend at where the prom was being hosted at. Some things dads just didn’t need to know. After telling Luna how pretty she looked and he took about 1000 pictures he asked her to sit with him. Just for a little chat.

“You’re a young lady now.” Kenny cleared his throat, he couldn’t look his daughter in her eyes. His wife sat next to him, he ignored her eyes roll. “And while I think you should wait until your married for um sexual intercourse, I want you to be prepared in case you choose uhh not to wait.”

Lunas face was bright red. “It’s okay Daddy. Mom gave me this talk when I was 13. We don’t need to go over it. I remember.”

Kenny didn’t remember Steph telling him this talk. “Okay. Well I would also like to talk too. Im sure your mom went over the science of it all. You do know you have 3 holes right? I didn’t know that until your mom was pregnant. Anyway-“1

Steph interrupted this time. “Kenny I want over everything.”

He felt himself getting frustrated. “Ladies please. I’m just trying to say I love you and that if you choose to have sex. I want you to be safe. And if you think you want to and than change your mind. That that’s okay too. And if your boyfriend doesn’t accept that. You take the palm of your hand and slam it against his nose as you hard as you can. Remember how I taught you that? And than call me and I will be there right away.” He watched as Luna shook her head. “How about we get up and try it a couple times.”

Kenny stood up and began shaking his limbs out getting ready to take a hit to the face. “After the palm to the nose, I want you to lick David in the dick. That’s easy to remember. Right baby?” He waited for Luna to get up and attack him.

“Honey can I talk to you for a second?”

[bringbackthebastard]

Bring Back the Bastard Daily Prompts

Hello, folks! I'm posting these two weeks before we begin our fest, on September 1st, to give folks some inspiration on what to write each day as we celebrate Severus Snape's pettiest, most dastardly moments. I specifically picked out moments Snaters always harp on, that Snapedom personally enjoys--from any moment with Trevor to bitching at Lupin at Sirius, to the moments that Lily turns away and Dumbledore's face flashes with disgust--sure, he's a bastard, but he's our bastard, and that's what we like about him. You don't want him? Good. We'll keep him. Here are 30 scene prompts for 30 days--it's a long list, pulled chronologically from all seven books, but I found that it reminded me of everything I love about this character. The moments where he's called deranged, the moments where he slips into all-caps, the ugliest moments of the soul. Hope yall enjoy. Excited to kick off the fest starting September 1st, and absolutely excited to see what Snapedom will do. Let's Bring Back the Bastard! The prompts are below the readmore.

Day 1: The Scar Professor Quirrell, in his absurd turban, was talking to a teacheer with greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin. It happened very suddenly. The hook-nosed teacher looked past Quirrell's turban straight into Harry's eyes--and a sharp, hot pain shot across the scar on Harry's forehead. "Ouch!" Harry clapped a hand to his head. "What is it?" asked Percy. "N-nothing." The pain had gone as quickly as it had come. Harder to shake off was the feeling Harry had gotten from the teacher's look--a felling that he didn't like Harry at all. "Who's that teacher talking to Professor Quirrell?" he asked Percy. "Oh, you know Quirrell already, do you? No wonder he's looking so nervous, that's Professor Snape. He teaches Potions, but he doesn't want to--everyone knows he's after Quirrell's job. Knows an awful lot about the Dark Arts, Snape."

Day 2: Bad Impressions Snape, like Flitwick, started the class by taking the roll call, and like Flitwick, he paused at Harry's name. "Ah, yes," he said softly. "Harry Potter. Our new--celebrity."

Day 3: Potions Class "Potter!" said Snape suddenly "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" Powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of what? Harry glanced at Ron, who looked as stumped as he was; Hermione's hand shot into the air. "I don't know, sir," said Harry. Snape's lips curled into a sneer. "Tut, tut--fame clearly isn't everything."

Day 4: A Horrible Sight Snape and Filch were inside, alone. Snape was holding his robes above his knees. One of his legs was bloody and mangled. Filch was handing Snape bandages. "Blasted thing," Snape was saying. "How are you supposed to keep your eyes on all three heads at once?" Harry tried to shut the door quietly, but-- "POTTER!" Snape's face was twisted with fury as he dropped his robes quickly to hide his leg. Harry gulped. "I just wondered if I could have my book back." "GET OUT! OUT!"

Day 5: Maybe He's Ill "Hang on..." Harry muttered to Ron. "There's an empty chair at the staff table...Where's Snape?" Professor Severus Snape was Harry's least favorite teacher. Harry also happened to be Snape's least favorite student. Cruel, sarcastic, and disliked by everybody except the students from his own House (Slytherin), Snape taught Potions. "Maybe he's ill!" said Ron hopefully. "Maybe he's left," said Harry, "because he missed out on the Defense Against the Dark Arts job again!" "Or he might have been sacked!" said Ron enthusiastically. "I mean, everyone hates him--" "Or maybe," said a very cold voice right behind them, "he's waiting to hear why you two didn't arrive on the school train."

Day 6: Slytherin Takes the Field "But I booked the field!" said Wood, positively spitting with rage. "But I booked it!" "Ah," said Flint. "But I've got a specially signed note here from Professor Snape. 'I, Professor S. Snape, give the Slytherin team permission to practice today on the Quidditch field owing to the need to train their new Seeker.'"

Day 7: No Quidditch For You! "I suggest, Headmaster, that Potter is not being entirely truthful," he said. "It might be a good idea if he were deprived of certain privileges until he is ready to tell us the whole story. I personally feel he should be taken off the Gryffindor Quidditch team until he is ready to be honest." "Really, Severus," said Professor McGonagall sharply, "I see no reason to stop the boy playing Quidditch. This cat wasn't hit over the head with a broomstick. There is no evidence at all that Potter has done anything wrong." Dumbledore was giving Harry a searching look. His twinkling light-blue gaze made Harry feel as though he were being X-rayed. "Innocent until proven guilty, Severus," he said firmly. Snape looked furious.

Day 8: Expelliarmus! "Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape," said Lockhart, flashing a wide smile. "He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about dueling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don't want any of you youngsters to worry--you'll still have your Potions master when I'm through with him, never fear!" "Wouldn't it be good if they finished each other off?" Ron muttered in Harry's ear. Snape's upper lip was curling. Harry wondered why Lockhart was still smiling; if Snape had been looking at *him* like that he'd have been running as fast as he could in the opposite direction. Lockhart and Snape turned to face each other and bowed; at least, Lockhart did, with much twirling of his hands, whereas Snape jerked his head irritably. Then they raised their wands like swords in front of them. "As you see, we are holding our wands in the accepted combative position," Lockhart told the silent crowd. "On the count of three, we will cast our fist spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course." "I wouldn't bet on that," Harry murmured, watching Snape baring his teeth. "One--two--three--" Both of them swung their wands above their heads and pointed them at their opponent; Snape cried: "Expelliarmus!" There was a dazzling flash of scarlet light and Lockhart was blasted off his feet. He flew backward off the stage, smashed into the wall, and slid down it to sprawl on the floor.

Day 9: Only Bite Him A Little Bit, Please "Don't move, Potter," said Snape lazily, clearly enjoying the sight of Harry standing motionless, eye to eye with the angry snake. "I'll get rid of it..."

Day 10: Poisoning Trevor The end of the lesson in sight, Snape strode over to Neville, who was cowering by his cauldron. "Everyone gather 'round," said Snape, his black eyes glittering, "and watch what happens to Longbottom's toad. If he has managed to produce a Shrinking Solution, it will shrink to a tadpole. If, as I don't doubt, he has done it wrong, his toad is likely to be poisoned." The Gryffindors watched fearfully. The Slytherins looked excited. Snape picked up Trevor the toad in his left hand and dipped a small spoon into Neville's potion, which was now green. He trickled a few drops down Trevor's throat. There was a moment of hushed silence, in which Trevor gulped; then there was a small op, and Trevor the tadpole was wriggling in Snape's palm. The Gryffindors burst into applause. Snape, looking sour, pulled a small bottle from the pocket of his robe, poured a few drops on top of Trevor, and he reappeared suddenly, fully grown. "Five points from Gryffindor," said Snape, which wiped smiles from every face. "I told you not to help him, Miss Granger. Class dismissed."

Day 11: Insufferable Know-It-All Everyone sat in motionless silence; everyone except Hermione, whose hand, as it so often did, had shot straight into the air. "Anyone?" Snape said, ignoring Hermione. His twisted smile was back. "Are you telling me that Professor Lupin hasn't even taught you the basic distinction between--" "We told you," said Parvati suddenly, "we haven't got as far as werewolves yet, we're still on--" "Silence!" snarled Snape. "Well, well, well, I never thought I'd meet a third-year class who wouldn't even recognize a werewolf when they saw one. I shall make a point of informing Professor Dumbledore how very behind you all are..." "Please, sir," said Hermione, whose hand was still in the air, "the werewolf differs from the true wolf in several small ways. The snout of the werewolf--" "That is the second time you have spoken out of turn, Miss Granger," said Snape coolly. "Fire more points from Gryffindor for being an insufferable know-it-all."

Day 12: Your Saintly Father "I would hate for you to run away with a false idea of your father, Potter," he said, a terrible grin twisting his face. "Have you been imagining some act of glorious heroism? Then let me correct you--your saintly father and his friends played a highly amusing joke on me that would have resulted in my death if your father hadn't gotten cold feet at the last moment. There was nothing brave about what he did. He was saving his own skin as much as mine. Had their joke succeeded, he would have been expelled from Hogwarts." Snape's uneven, yellowish teeth were bared.

Day 13: Don't Talk About What You Don't Understand "KEEP QUIET, YOU STUPID GIRL!" Snape shouted, looking suddenly quite deranged. "DON'T TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!" A few sparks shot out of the end o his wand, which was still pointed at Black's face. Hermione fell silent. "Vengeance is very sweet," Snape breathed at Black. "How I hoped I would be the one to catch you..." "The joke's on you again, Severus," Black snarled. "As long as this boy brings his rat up to the castle" --he jerked his head at Ron-- "I'll come quietly...." "Up to the castle?" said Snape silkily. "I don't think we need to go that far. All I have to do is call the dementors once we get out of the Willow. They'll be very pleased to see you, Black...pleased enough to give you a little Kiss, I daresay...."

Day 14: A Great Disappointment "He must have Disapparated, Severus. We should have let somebody in the room with him. When this gets out--" "HE DIDN'T DISAPPARATE!" Snape roared, now very close at hand. "YOU CAN'T APPARATE *OR* DISAPPARATE INSIDE THIS CASTLE! THIS--HAS--SOMETHING--TO--DO--WITH--POTTER!" "Severus--be reasonable--Harry has been locked up--" BAM. The door of the hospital wing burst open. Fudge, Snape, and Dumbledore came striding into the ward. Dumbledore alone looked calm. Indeed, he looked as though he was quite enjoying himself. Fudge appeared angry. But Snape was beside himself. "OUT WITH IT, POTTER!" he bellowed. "WHAT DID YOU DO?" "Professor Snape!" shrieked Madam Pomfrey. "Control yourself!" "See here, Snape, be reasonable," said Fudge. "This door's been locked, we just saw--" "THEY HELPED HIM ESCAPE, I KNOW IT!" Snape howled, pointing at Harry and Hermione. His face was twisted; spit was flying from his mouth. "Calm down, man!" Fudge barked. "You're talking nonsense!" "YOU DON'T KNOW POTTER!" shrieked Snape. "HE DID IT, I KNOW HE DID IT--" "That will do, Severus," said Dumbledore quietly. "Think about what you are saying. This door has been locked since I left the war ten minutes ago. Madam Pomfrey, have these students left their beds?" "Of course not!" said Madam Pomfrey, bristling. "I would have heard them!" "Well, there you have it, Severus," said Dumbledore calmly. "Unless you are suggesting that Harry and Hermione are able to be in two places at once, I'm afraid I don't see any point in troubling them further." Snape stood there, seething, staring from Fudge, who looked thoroughly shocked at his behavior, to Dumbledore, whose eyes were twinkling behind his glasses. Snape whirled about, robes swishing behind him, and stormed out of the ward. "Fellow seems quite unbalanced," said Fudge, staring after him. "I'd watch out for him if I were you, Dumbledore." "Oh, he's not unbalanced," said Dumbledore quietly. "He's just suffered a severe disappointment."

Day 15: Haven't You Heard? "Blimey, haven' yeh heard?" said Hagrid, his smile fading a little. He lowered his voice, even though there was nobody in sight. "Er--Snape told all the Slytherins this mornin'....Thought everyone'd know by now...Professor Lupin's a werewolf, see. An' he was loose on the grounds las' night...He's packin' now, o' course."

Day 16: I See No Difference "And what is all this noise about?" said a soft, deadly voice. Snape had arrived. The Slytherins clamored to give their explanations; Snape pointed a long yellow finger at Malfoy and said, "Explain." "Potter attacked me, sir--" "We attacked each other at the same time!" Harry shouted. "--and he hit Goyle--look--" Snape examined Goyle, whose face now resembled something that would have been at home in a book on poisonous fungi. "Hospital wing, Goyle," Snape said calmly. "Malfoy got Hermione!" Ron said. "Look!" He forced Hermione to show Snape her teeth--she was doing her best to hide them with her hands, though this was difficult as they had now grown down past her collar. Pansy Parkinson and the other Slytherin girls were doubled up with silent giggles, pointing at Hermione from behind Snape's back. Snape looked coldly at Hermione, then said, "I see no difference."

Day 17: The Dark Mark Snape strode forward, past Dumbledore, pulling up the left sleeve of his robes as he went. He struck out his forearm and showed it to Fudge, who recoiled. "There," said Snape harshly. "There. The Dark Mark. It is not as clear as it was an hour or so ago, when it burned black, but you can still see it. Every Death Eater had the sign burned into him by the Dark Lord. It was a means of distinguishing one another, and his means of summoning us to him. When he touched the Mark of any Death Eater, we were to Disapparate, and Apparate, instantly, at his side. This Mark has been growing clearer all year. Karkaroff's too. Why do you think Karkaroff fled tonight? We both felt the Mark burn. We both knew he had returned. Karkaroff fears the Dark Lord's vengeance. He betrayed too many of his fellow Death Eater to be sure of a welcome back into the fold."

Day 18: If You Are Ready...If You Are Prepared... "Severus," said Dumbledore, turning to Snape, "you know what I must ask you to do. If you are ready...if you are prepared..." "I am," said Snape. He looked slightly paler than usual, and his cold, black eyes glittered strangely. "Then good luck," said Dumbledore, and he watched, with a trace of apprehension on his face, as Snape swept wordlessly after Sirius.

Day 19: Obviously "Now...how long have you been teaching at Hogwarts?" she asked, her quill poised over her clipboard. "Fourteen years," Snape replied. His expression was unfathomable. His eyes on Snape, Harry added a few drops to his potion; it hissed menacingly and turned from turquoise to orange. "You applied first for the Defense Against the Dark Arts post, I believe?" Professor Umbridge asked Snape. "Yes," said Snape quietly. "But you were unsuccessful?" Snape's lip curled. "Obviously." Professor Umbridge scribbled on her clipboard. "And you have applied regularly for the Defense Against the Dark Arts post since you first joined the school, I believe?" "Yes," said Snape quietly, barely moving his lips. He looked very angry. "Do you have any idea why Dumbledore has consistently refused to appoint you?" asked Umbridge. "I suggest you ask him," said Snape jerkily. "Oh I shall," said Professor Umbridge with a sweet smile. "I suppose this is relevant?" Snape asked, his black eyes narrowed. "Oh yes," said Professor Umbridge. "Yes, the Ministry wants a thorough understanding of teachers'--er--backgrounds...." She turned away, walked over to Pansy Parkinson, and began questioning her about the lessons. Snape looked around at Harry and their eyes met for a second. Harry hastily dropped his gaze to his potion, which was now congealing foully and giving off a strong smell of burned rubber. "No marks again, then, Potter," said Snape maliciously, emptying Harry's cauldron with a wave of his wand. "You will write me an essay on the correct composition of this potion, indicating how and why you went wrong, to be handed in next lesson, do you understand?"

Day 20: Very Like His Father "How touching," Snape sneered. "But surely you have noticed that Potter is very like his father?" Yes, I have," said Sirius proudly. "Well then, you'll know he's so arrogant that criticism simply bounces off him," Snape said sleekly. Sirius pushed his chair roughly aside and strode around the table toward Snape, pulling out his wand as he went; Snape whipped out his own. They were squaring up to each other, Sirius looking livid, Snape calculating, his eyes darting from Sirius' wand-tip to his face. "Sirius!" said Harry loudly, but Sirius appeared not to hear him. "I've warned you, Snivellus," said Sirius, his face barely a foot from Snape's, "I don't care if Dumbledore thinks you've reformed, I know better." "Oh, but why don't you tell him so?" whispered Snape. "Or are you afraid he might not take the advice of a man who has been hiding inside his mother's house for six months very seriously?" "Tell me, how is Lucius Malfoy these days? I expect he's delighted his lapdog's working at Hogwarts, isn't he?" "Speaking of dogs," said Snape softly, "did you know that Lucius Malfoy recognized you last time you risked a little jaunt outside? Clever idea, Black, getting yourself seen on a safe station platform...gave you a cast-iron excuse not to leave your hidey-hole in future, didn't it?" Sirius raised his wand. "NO!" Harry yelled, vaulting over the table and trying to get in between them, "Sirius, don't--" "Are you calling me a coward?" roared Sirius, trying to push Harry out of the way, but Harry would not budge. "Why, yes, I suppose I am," said Snape.

Day 21: Wormtail's Whine "We...we are alone, aren't we?" Narcissa asked quietly. "Yes, of course. Well, Wormtail's here, but we're not counting vermin, are we?" He pointed his wand at the wall of books behind him and with a bang, a hidden door flew open, revealing a narrow staircase upon which a small man stood frozen. "As you have clearly realized, Wormtail, we have guests," said Snape lazily. The man crept, hunchbacked, down the last few steps and moved into the room. He had small, watery eyes, a pointed nose, and wore an unpleasant simper. His left hand was caressing his right, which looked as though it was encased in a bright silver glove. "Narcissa!" he said, in a squeaky voice. "And Bellatrix! How charming--" "Wormtail will get us drinks, if you'd like them," said Snape. "And then he will return to his bedroom." Wormtail winced as though Snape had thrown something at him. "I am not your servant!" he squeaked, avoiding Snape's eyes. "Really? I was under the impression that the Dark Lord placed you here to assist me." "To assist, yes--but not to make you drinks and--clean your house!" "I had no idea, Wormtail, that you were craving more dangerous assignments," said Snape silkily. "This can be easily arranged: I shall speak to the Dark Lord--" "I can speak to him if I want to!" "Of course you can," said Snape, sneering. "But in the meantime, bring us drinks. Some of the elf-made wine will do."

Day 22: A Loving Caress Snape set off around the edge of the room, speaking now in a lower voice; the class craned their necks to keep him in view. "The Dark Arts," said Snape, "are many, varied, ever-changing, and eternal. Fighting them is like fighting a many-headed monster, which, each time a neck is severed, sprouts a head even fiercer and cleverer than before. You are fighting that which is unfixed, mutating, indestructible." Harry stared at Snape. It was surely one thing to respect the Dark Arts as a dangerous enemy, another to speak of them, as Snape was doing, with a loving caress in his voice? "Your defenses," said Snape, a little louder, "must therefore be as flexible and inventive as the arts you seek to undo. These pictures" --he indicated a few of them as he swept past-- "give a fair representation of what happens to those who suffer, for instance, the Cruciatus Curse" --he waved a hand toward a witch who was clearly shrieking in agony-- "feel the Dementor's Kiss" --a wizard lying huddled and blank-eyed, slumped against a wall-- "or provoke the aggression of the Inferius" --a bloody mass upon the ground.

Day 23: Better People "What does it matter?" said Malfoy. "Defense Against the Dark Arts--it's all just a joke, isn't it, an act? Like an of us need protecting against the Dark Arts--" "It is an act that is crucial to success, Draco!" said Snape. "Where do you think I would have been all these years, if I had not known how to act? Now listen to me! You are being incautious, wandering around at night, getting yourself caught, and if you are placing your reliance in assistants like Crabbe and Goyle--" "They're not the only ones, I've got other people on my side, better people!" "Then why not confide in me, and I can--" "I know what you're up to! You want to steal my glory!" There was another pause, then Snape said coldly, "You are speaking like a child. I quite understand that your father's capture and imprisonment has upset you, but--"

Day 24: Revulsion and Hatred Etched on His Face "Severus..." The sound frightened Harry beyond anything he had experienced all evening. For the first time, Dumbledore was pleading. Snape said nothing, but walked forward and pushed Malfoy roughly out of the way. The three Death Eaters fell back without a word. Even the werewolf seemed cowed. Snape gazed for a moment at Dumbledore, and there was revulsion and hatred etched in the harsh lines of his face. "Severus...please..." Snape raised his wand and pointed it directly at Dumbledore. "Avada Kedavra!"

Day 25: Don't Call Me Coward Mustering all his powers of concentration, Harry thought, Levi-- "No, Potter!" screamed Snape. There was a loud BANG and Harry was soaring backward, hitting the ground hard again, and this time his wand flew out of his hand. He could hear Hagrid yelling and Fang howling as Snape closed in and looked down on him where he lay, wandless and defenseless as Dumbledore had been. Snape's pale face, illuminated by the flaming cabin, was suffused with hatred just as it had been before he had cursed Dumbledore. "You dare use my own spells against me, Potter? It was I who invented them--I, the Half-Blood Prince! And you'd turn my inventions on me, like your filthy father, woudl you? I don't think so...no!" Harry had dived for his wand; Snape shot a hex at it and it flew feet away into the darkness and out of sight. "Kill me then," panted Harry, who felt no fear at all, but only rage and contempt. "Kill me like you killed him, you coward--" "DON'T--" screamed Snape, and his face was suddenly deranged, inhuman, as though he was in as much pain as the yelping, howling dog stuck in the burning house behind them-- "CALL ME COWARD!"

Day 26: The Guest Voldemort raised Lucius Malfoy's wand, pointed it directly at the slowing revolving figure suspended over the table, and gave it a tiny flick. The figure came to life with a groan and began to struggle against invisible bonds. "Do you recognize our guest, Severus?" asked Voldemort. Snape raised his eyes to the upside-down face. All of the Death Eaters were looking up at the captive now, as thought they had been given permission to show curiosity. As she revolved to face the firelight, the woman said in a cracked and terrified voice, "Severus! Help me!" "Ah, yes," said Snape as the prisoner turned slowly away again.

Day 27: I Regret It "All this long night, when I am on the brink of victory, I have sat here," said Voldemort, his voice barely louder than a whisper, "wondering, wondering why the Elder Wand refuses to be what it ought to be, refuses to perform as legend says it must perform for its rightful owner...and I think I have the answer." Snape did not speak. "Perhaps you already know it? You are a clever man, after all, Severus. You have been a good and faithful servant, and I regret what must happen." "My Lord--" "The Elder Wand cannot serve me properly, Severus, because I am not its true master. The Elder Wand belongs to the wizard who killed its last owner. You killed Albus Dumbledore. While you live, Severus, the Elder Wand cannot be truly mine." "My Lord!" Snape protested, raising his wand. "It cannot be any other way," said Voldemort. "I must master the wand, Severus. Master the wand, and I master Potter at last." And Voldemort swiped the air with the Elder Wand. It did nothing to Snape, who for a split second seemed to think he had been reprieved: But then Voldemort's intention became clear. The snake's cage was rolling through the air, and before Snape could do anything more than yell, it had encased him, head and shoulders, and Voldemort spoke in Parseltongue. "Kill." There was a terrible scream. Harry saw Snape's face losing the little color it had left; it whitened as his black eyes widened, as the snake's fangs pierced his neck, as he failed to push the enchanted cage off himself, as his knees gave way and he fell to the floor. "I regret it," said Voldemort coldly.

Day 28: You Hurt Her! "Tuney!" said Lily, surprise and welcome in her voice, but Snape had jumped to his feet. "Who's spying now?" he shouted. "What d'you want?" Petunia was breathless, alarmed at being caught. Harry could see her struggling for something hurtful to say. "What is that you're wearing, anyway?" she said, pointing at Snape's chest. "Your mum's blouse?" There was a *crack*. A branch over Petunia's head had fallen. Lily screamed: The branch caught Petunia on the shoulder, and she staggered backward and burst into tears. "Tuney!" But Petunia was running away. Lily rounded on Snape. "Did you make it happen?" "No." He looked both defiant and scared. "You did!" She was backing away from him. "You *did*! You hurt her!" "No--no I didn't!" But the lie did not convince Lily: After one last burning look, she ran from the little thicket, off after her sister, and Snape looked miserable and confused....

Day 29: Save Your Breath "I'm sorry." "I'm not interested." "I'm sorry!" "Save your breath." It was nighttime. Lily, who was wearing a dressing gown, stood with her arms folded in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady, at the entrance to Gryffindor Tower. "I only came out because Mary told me you were threatening to sleep here." "I was. I would have done. I never meant to call you Mudblood, it just--" "Slipped out?" There was no pity in Lily's voice. "It's too late. I've made excuses for you for years. None of my friends can understand why I even talk to you. You and your precious little Death Eater friends--you see, you don't even deny it! You don't even deny that's what you're all aiming to be! You can't wait to join You-Know-Who, can you?" He opened his mouth, but closed it without speaking. "I can't pretend anymore. You've chosen your way, I've chosen mine." "No--listen, I didn't mean--" "--to call me Mudblood? But you call everyone of my birth Mudblood, Severus. Why should I any different?" He struggled on the verge of speech, but with a contemptuous look she turned and climbed back through the portrait hole....

Day 30: Anything "If she means so much to you," said Dumbledore, "surely Lord Voldemort will spare her? Could you not ask for the mother, in exchange for the son?" "I have--I have asked him--" "You disgust me," said Dumbledore, and Harry had never heard so much contempt in his voice. Snape seemed to drink a little. "You do not care, then, about the deaths of her husband and child? They can die, as long as you have what you want?" Snape said nothing, but merely looked up at Dumbledore. "Hide them all, then," he croaked. "Keep her--them--safe. Please." "And what will you give me in return, Severus?" "In--in return?" Snape gaped at Dumbledore, and Harry expected him to protest, but after a long moment he said, "Anything."

[radishaur]

May I request a female reader x zuko where both the reader and zuko have burn scars on their faces and the gaang asks about it? the reader has the scar because she tried to jump in front of zuko and protect him when he faced his father but he still got scarred anyways. Then ozai decides she should face the same fate so she ends up getting burned as well? (Also can the reader be a firebender and zuko and her have been dating since childhood??) sorry if it’s a lot I’ve had this idea for a while

For sure! I hope you like the concept. I know it’s probably very different than you were expecting but I hope you like it nonetheless.

- Zoe

•••

Scars of Love (Zuko x Reader)

Warnings: Burn imagery

Genre: Fluff

Part: 1/2

Summary: See request

•••

The temple was silent as we both stared as each side stared at each other. Y/N stood slightly behind me as I introduced myself. The tension in the air was thick as I spoke.

“Hello, Zuko here,” I said, giving a small wave to the group.

I began to explain why I was here as the group held their defensive positions. Y/N stood awkwardly by my side, but I could tell she was trying her best to keep her head up high. She had always been shy around new people. Now that she no longer had her black mask, which covered her burn scar, she was even more so.

The Gaang dropped their positions slightly upon hearing my intent, but then immediately got back into position again. They only spoke once or twice to argue against what I was saying. When I finally finished, I waited eagerly for a response.

They eyed me cautiously before turning their attention to Y/N. She shuffled slightly closer to me and gave a small wave. I realized I hadn’t actually introduced her before. I smiled reassuringly at her before turning to face the others.

“This is Y/N. She’s the girl you’ve probably seen by my side when...I was tracking you. And also my girlfriend,” I said sheepishly.

The Gaang was surprised to know I had a girlfriend, but they didn’t question it. Instead, they began to question why she hadn’t spoken yet.

“Why hasn’t she said anything? Isn’t she gonna try and convince us of your change of heart?” Katara asked, her voice filled with venom.

Y/N shuffled uncomfortably before looking at me. She began signing to me and I saw the Gaang watch in shock out of the corner of my eye.

“What’s happening?” Toph asked, not understanding what was going on.

I gave Y/N a small smile as she finished and began repeating what she said to them.

“Y/N is mute. She says she’s sorry for chasing you all and that she would also like to teach you firebending,” I translated, looking at them all as they stood still in shock.

“I always wondered why she never spoke,” Sokka mumbled quietly, mostly to himself.

The Gaang looked to Aang to see what to do. Y/N grabbed onto my sleeve out of nervousness. I watched Aang as he looked at me.

“You both want to be my firebending teachers?” he asked cautiously.

“Y/N and I are some of the best firebenders in the Fire Nation. We both want to help you defeat my father,” I explained.

I saw Aang look over at the group to see what they would say. Katara and Toph were too busy watching us to notice, but Sokka gave his a small shake of his head to say no. His gaze hardened when he turned back to us and told us to go.

We obeyed and only got to join the group once we saved them from the assassin. Both Y/N and I thanked them and we began to grow closer to them as time passed. Y/N accompanied me on all of the, as the Gaang called them, life changing field trips and they all warmed up to her much quicker than me.

Technically, most of the things they endured during our chase of them was from me. Y/N was usually not the one to actually capture them and was usually only there as my support. She wasn’t the one to instigate anything, so they forgave her quicker.

She, in turn, became more comfortable around them as well. She taught them some basic signs so that they could understand her and the Gaang tried their best to understand what she was saying. Most of the time, I ended up having to translate for her but when they did happen to understand, Y/N never looked happier.

I knew it weighed on her heavily that she couldn’t speak like everyone else did. Like she used to be able to. I bore a large amount of guilt for that fact. After all, it was my own mistake that caused her to get the scar on her face and loose her ability to talk.

We never discussed it, but I knew we would have to sooner than later. The Gaang always looked at our scars when they thought we weren’t looking, not out of disgust but curiousity. My scar was not as easily hidden as Y/N’s was, but her’s was much more intense. Her’s covered the entire bottom right side of her face, from her cheekbone to her neck. It went entirely over her right ear and the corner of her lips as well. It was much bigger and noticeable than my own, which was why she usually wore her mask.

I knew the Gaang was curious as to how we had both gotten scarred, so when we were all sitting around the campfire one night getting to know each other better at the Ember Island house, I wasn’t surprised when one of them finally asked.

“So,” Sokka began, clearly nervous about approaching the topic, “How did you guys get your scars?”

Y/N clutched my hand harder and looked at me confidently. She always hated having to hear the story again, but I could tell she didn’t want to lie to them. Usually, we just lied and said we had aquired them in a training exercise. But Y/N’s expression told me that she wanted them to know the truth.

I sighed, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead before turning to the group. They were all waited patiently for me to explain. Y/N squeezed my hand reassuringly and I took a deep breath. I would have to start at the beginning.

“Y/N and I have known each other since we were kids. Her father was a high ranking General in my Father’s military and her family would be at the Palace almost every day. We grew to be friends fairly quickly and were even engaged when we were only 10,” I started, bracing myself for the harder parts of the story.

“You guys were engaged at 10?” Aang asked in shock.

“Fire Nation children usually get married as soon as they’re of age, but especially when you’re a part of the Royal Family. They want to ensure that the throne will be passed down, which usually means your significant other is chosen from a young age,” I explained, looking over at Y/N before adding softly, “Very few are lucky enough to be engaged to someone they actually love.”

Y/N smiled at me and pressed a small kiss to my shoulder before encouraging me to continue. Toph was making fake gagging noises while the rest of the Gaang watched with happy smiles. I blushed slightly before continuing.

“Y/N and I had been dating for a few years before my father aquired the throne. My grandfather passed away and my Uncle, who was supposed to inherit the throne, didn’t have any kids so my father got it instead. Learning I was going to be Fire Lord someday made me want to start learning everything as soon as possible,” I continued, the feeling of dread growing in my stomach as I explained, “I begged my Uncle to let me into a war meeting when I was 13. He warned me not to speak out, but I didn’t listen. I criticized an old general’s plan and in doing so, disrespected him.”

Y/N scooted closer to me and gave my hand another supportive squeeze. I could tell she was just as nervous as I was for me to continue, but she was being strong for me. It was something I always loved about her.

“I was challenged to an Agni Kai. It’s a firebending duel that ends when someone gets burned,” I spoke, noticing them beginning to connect the dots as I continued, “I thought I would be fighting the General, but...I turned to face my opponent and saw my father instead.”

The faces of the Gaang immediately filled with horror. Y/N had tears brimming her eyes as she remembered the fateful day. She and I both remembered what had happened like it was yesterday.

“I refused to fight him. I begged for his forgiveness instead. He insisted that I get up and fight, but I didn’t. He was just about to burn me when Y/N stopped him. She jumped into the ring and stood in front of me, screaming about how what he was doing was wrong and that he wouldn’t let him hurt me,” I said, my voice cracking slightly as I finished explaining, “My father burned her for her disobedience and then burned me for my dishonorable refusal to fight. He banished both of us, only allowing us to return when I captured the Avatar.”

The group was silent as they let my words sink in. I had a small stream of guilty tears threatening to fall from my eyes and pulled Y/N close to me. I still felt so guilty about everything that had happened. I felt Y/N wipe her tears away before encouraging me to continue. I took a shaky breath before explaining the last part of the story.

“Both of the burns scarred, but Y/N’s burn was worse as added punishment. In the Fire Nation, your country comes before everything else. Feelings are seen as weak, especially those of love. Since she had put her love for me above what was “best for the nation”, she got a worse burn. When she was screaming...,” I trailed off, not trusting my voice to actually produce any sounds if I continued.

Y/N hugged me closer and then pulled away from me to face the group. She began signing and waited expectantly for me to translate. She always knew it was easier for me to translate her own words than to speak my own, especially when I was emotional.

“The fire managed to make its way into her mouth and throat. It burned her vocal chords and caused her to loose her ability to talk. She went mute as soon as the fire hit her throat,” I managed to say, my voice wavering as I spoke.

The guilt of her injuries was enough to crush me from the inside out. If I hadn’t of spoken out at the meeting, none of this would have happened to her. She could have lived a normal life. One without a scar and a disability. I would never forgive myself for it.

Y/N must have seen what I was thinking because she smacked my arm and began signing furiously. I barely had time to read what she was saying.

“Don’t blame yourself. I chose to stand up for you. I don’t regret it, even for a second,” she signed, her caring gaze empty of any signs of hate.

I smiled weakly at her before kissing her forehead once more and pulling her in for a hug. She signed I love you onto my back and I couldn’t help but laugh slightly before signing it on her back as well.

I almost forgot the group was there until I heard Aang speak.

“I knew the Fire Lord was evil, but I never thought he could do something like that,” he said quietly.

“I’m gonna kick his ass next time I see him,” Toph exclaimed, punching her own palm.

“Seriously, Aang if you don’t kill him then I will,” Sokka added, wiping a stray tear of his own.

“I guess that explains why you were so set on capturing Aang,” Suki said softly.

Y/N began to sign once more and the Gaang did their best to translate it. I could see them struggling so I just decided to translate it for them.

“She says that the reason I wanted to capture the Avatar so bad was because I felt guilty about causing her so much pain,” I said, smiling at her as she nodded to me in thanks.

“You guys are lucky. I don’t know a lot of people who love each other like you guys do,” Katara said, a small smile on her face.

“Yea. I’m the luckiest man in the world,” I whispered, my attention returning to the beautiful woman beside me.

The rest of the group escaped my consciousness as I pulled Y/N into a kiss. Her lips were soft besides a small rough patch from her scar. I didn’t mind though. I would kiss her again and again and again for the rest of my life. She truly made me feel like the luckiest man in the world.

I would love her until the end of time.

[fsketchart]

Hunger Games AU - Daminette

WARNING : Hunger games includes murder, I don't condone it & I don't write it in detail. However, if it can still be triggering for you this is not the best head canon/AU for you.  No shame if you're uncomfortable with it!  You take care of you and your needs first!  The hunger games has 24 children from ages 12-18 tossed into an arena, and are forced to battle with only one tribute allowed to keep their life.  If you're not comfortable, I hope you find an AU that better suites your tastes!

WARNING 2 : If a character is killed off, it's to highlight that everyone that was killed in the hunger games (as there can only be one winner) was killed off NOT because I "hate" the character, but because I felt like it would be more important to remember that the people killed were not faceless characters.  There were good people killed off, the hunger games doesn't ever really have a true victor.  Everyone loses someone or something in the end.  So if a character you like is killed off by someone else it's because I didn't want characters to kill off faceless people.  I don't want anyone to forget that the people who are killed were real people with families.

LAST NOTE PROMISE : Tim is 19 in this one.  Why?  Because you'll find out.  MWUAHAHAHAHAHAH (it's actually not that serious but let me have this.)

Also the I call the peacekeepers and people like them capitol guards to make it easier for people who haven't read the books to understand!

Heads up this is gonna be the 100th annual hunger games, the hunger games books didn't occur here.

If you read the books/seen the movies skip to the part where it says NOW in all caps.

For background info in case you haven't read the books / seen the movies, there are 12  districts not counting 13.  Districts 1, 2, and 4 are the wealthier districts and every district essentially works for the capital.  The capitol hosts a hunger games every year where 24 tributes, 1 girl and 1 boy from each district (District 13 doesn't participate, and won't be mentioned here) and the tributes are forced to kill each other for the capitol's entertainment.

Children from the wealthier districts volunteer tributes, by having the previous victors of the hunger games train them from a young age.  Only one tribute can walk out of the arena alive.  The poorer districts hate the hunger games and no one wants to participate in then, no one volunteers.  All districts, to find a tribute, pool their names and have them written on a paper.  Then, the names are chosen from a bowl, one girl and one boy, from the two bowls filled with names.  The names chosen are forced to participate in the hunger games, unless someone else volunteers.  Out of all 24 tributes, only one can live.  Some people add their names in the bowl multiple times in exchange for extra food.

Every 25 years, the hunger games has a, "special," game where they add in special ways to choose the tributes who participate in the games.  Examples being voting who becomes a tribute, double the amount of tributes, choosing from the remaining pool of victors, etc.

Children are the ones who participate in the games, ages 12-18.

NOW

•The 100th annual hunger games decided that this year, instead of everyone putting their name in the bowl or volunteering, the last names of families would be placed in.  If a family was chosen, the family would then decide who of their eligible children would fight in the hunger games.  Essentially being voted to be killed by their own family.

•Damian lives in district one, the luxury district.  District one manufactures and trades luxury goods like perfume, fur coats I believe, jewelery, that sort of stuff (<---big vocabulary word.)

•Damian has trained for the hunger games since he was a child.

•He knew how to wield several types of weapons due to the excessive training he was put under.  However, he easily injured himself and would require stitches often for his injuries.

•As he grew older, he realized he didn't want to die in the games, he wanted to live his life to the fullest.

•Marinette is born in the 8th district, the textiles (fashion) district.

•Her parents run a bakery there, but Marinette, having grown up surrounded by fashion, quickly became fascinated by it.

•However, she mainly focused on the bakery and quickly became handy with stitching and using a knife (in the kitchen.) She eventually became quiet experienced with a knife, and safety stuff (<---Big vocabulary word) as well.

•Her parents would sometimes injury themselves in the kitchen or her friends would try to rebel against capitol guards (district 8 is well known for uprising and rebellions.) She would often have to help stitch them back up once the capital guards became violent.

•The Wayne family was reaped from the pooling. Since Damian was the only minor in the Wayne family (Tim=19) he had no choice but to enter the games.

•The Dupain-Cheng family was also chosen for district 8.  Marinette was the only one who could go.  Her parents fought against it, but when the capitol guards threatened to get violent, Marinette jumped it and said she would fight, and gritted through her teeth about how it was such a huge, "honor."

•All tributes get 3 days to train / prep for the hunger games and they train in the capital.

•When they arrive at the capital, they were put in training, and would start a test to see their best strengths.  Then, they would be ranked.

•People who had a higher ranking were more likely to get sponsors.  Sponsors = packages would drop from the sky that would give food, water, medicine, etc.  If the capital people liked you, they would place bets on you that you're gonna survive.  To win those bets they try to keep you alive if you're their favorite.  Thus, everyone puts on an act, a facade in front of the cameras and TV show interviews right before the hunger games start, and try to score the highest in the strength tests.  The more the capitol likes you and thinks you have a shot at winning = more sponsors.

•Damian scores a 12.  (Hella hecking high.  Like most people who train their whole lives get like a 9 or 10)

•Marinette scores a 2, only for her ability to repair clothes and stitch stuff together using left over cloth.  (Don't worry, we'll get back to this later.)

•Marinette spends the 3 days before the hunger games eating as much as she can to lower her metabolism so she won't starve in the games and improving her knife skills (which she didn't show at the strength tests.) She also studies as many books as she can about useful knowledge for the arenas.

•Damian spends it learning about his opponents, so he knows what to expect.  The one thing he refuses to learn however are their names.  He doesn't want to humanize the children he will soon have to compete against.

•There is a cornucopia at the center of the arena that has all the good weapons, however most people die at the cornucopia trying to retrieve supplies, especially at the beginning.

•When the games begin, Damian darts for it.  He needs to get his hands on a weapon and he needs it ASAP.

•Marinette is like screw that I'm out!  And runs away from the cornucopia to explore the rest of the arena and find a suitable water source.

•Water is often tampered with in the arena.  The game makers (capital people who design the arenas) in previous games have tried to to poison it, only making it available if you slice open trees, make all the water salted, etc.  A suitable water source is scarce.  They almost always make it hard to find a good source of water.

•Damian survives the cornucopia and snags a sword but wasn't able to grab much else without risking his life.

•In the process, he already killed two people.  He never even knew their names.

•But luckliky for you, I'll let you in on their names.  District 7, lumber tribute was Luka.  Luka went straight to the cornucopia so he could wield a weapon, trying to find a good axe to use.  He promised Juleka he would make it back.  Juleka screamed and cried when she saw his death on screen.  She didn't leave her house for a few days.  Neither did their mother.

•Ivan was also killed, district 12 of coal mining.  He was sent in along side Mylene as the female tribute for their district.  He thought that when Damian grabbed the sword he was aiming to kill Mylene who was nearby and tried to attack Damian first.  Damian was alarmed and killed him right then and there.  Mylene saw the whole thing but Ivan just screamed at her to run away from the cornucopia as he bled to his death.  And so she did.

•Damian was shaking as he ran away from the cornucopia with her sword.  He could only think that killing was nothing like Talia described.  She said one stab, that's it's.  Plain and simple.  But it isn't plain and simple.  Damian, for the first time in a long time, felt like crying.

•However, he was determined to make it back to his family.  At any cost.  So he brushed away the tears threatening to spill and moved onwards.

•Lila was from district 2, rock quarrying.  The district is wealthy because they were loyal to the capital in the first rebellion, where other districts tried to rebel against the capitol, and failed.

•Lila wanted to make it back to the comfort of her mother, and was also willing to do it at any costs, similar to Damian.  In the process of doing so, she killed one of district 4's tributes.

•District 4 is the fishing district, and was relatively wealthy.  The tribute Lila killed was Kagami.  Kagami was trained from a young age to kill, her mother taught her that she should have pride, and should be honored that she was able to participate in the games.  And she believed her.  Only in her dying breathes, did she realize that dying for the sake of glory and pride, spending her last few moments with the goal to murder other children, held no honor at all.

•Marinette's fellow tribute from district 8 was Adrien.  His father was well known in the district and his family was respected among the capitol.  His father designed the suits for the capitol guards and constantly made improvements to make them better for battle.  When the Agreste Family was chosen, Gabriel was devasted.  He begged and pleaded with them to stop, he was willing to make bigger, better, fancier, stronger, you name it suits.  Anything to keep Adrien alive.  However, the rules were rules.  And Adrien promised to make it home to his father, to make sure his father would not be left alone in the world.

•Marinette and Adrien split up in the games.  Gabriel warned Adrien not to make allies, and if he had to choose, be allies with districts the careers (will be explained later.)  They were the ones with the best sponsors, and most surviving tributes came from the careers.  Adrien tried to argue back that he was friends with Marinette and wanted to stay by her side, but his father silenced him.  The hunger games was a place of survival and murder, there was no room for morals.  You kill or be killed.  If he teamed up with Marinette, he would have to kill her eventually if he wanted to win, and she would have to fight him as well.

•During the 3 day preparation, they spoke it over.  Marinette and Adrien understood.  They felt it would be best if someone else ended the life of the other, rather than having to kill the other themselves.

•Adrien agreed to it and Adrien, Lila, Alya, Nino, and Felix formed the career pack.

•Every year, the career pack is formed of the best districts, sometimes an exception being made (this case being Nino, district 3 of technology.) The careers split resources and sponsorships and work together to eliminate the weaklings first, and then betray one another near the end.

•Felix was district 2, like Lila.

•Alya was district 1, luxury, the female tribute alongside Damian.

•They agreed Damian was their biggest threat.

•And so the hunt began.

•When they fought him, a blood battle began.  Damian was outnumbered but managed to get away.  However, his right arm was severely injured, filled with stabs and cuts, not including the ones covering him all over.  Damian managed to kill Nino and Felix however.

•Damian was stumbling as the first day turned to night.  He passed out.

•Marinette found him rotting, nearly dead on the ground from bleeding.

•(Heads up I'm no doctor-)

•She had already found a small stream that provided clear water which she tested, and found some edible berries she recognized from her families bakery and the fruits they would use.  There were no animals placed in the arena to hunt.

•Suddenly, Damian got a sponsorship, medical supplies.  (I'm sorry I could never be a doctor people would die if I was-)

•Marinette used it to keep him alive and cleansed his cuts and stuff (wow look at my vocabulary.)

•When Damian woke up, Marinette was there tending to his sounds still.

•Damian immediately thought she was poisoning him and nearly tried to grab for his sword, but realized he was disarmed.

•She explained what had happened.  And Damian saw the stitching and what not. (Writing skills level 100000000-)

•He asked why she did it.

•She explained that she didn't quite know.  But she felt like she couldn't just leave him there.

•Damian felt guilty, like he owed her something for her kindness, but still didn't trust her.

•The look her gave her must have given it away, because she nodded in understanding.

•She offered him the remaining med supplies.

•"Where are they from?"

•"Your sponsor."

•"You could've lied and kept them for yourself."

•"I could've." She agreed.

•Damian stuck around for a little while.  He told himself he needed to pay her back.  She didn't accept the med supplies, stating she already did some research and read books on medicinal herbs and plants the preparation week for the hunger games.

•He never told her his real name, sharing names make you attached.  His mother always taught him to avoid sharing names.  It makes it harder to kill.

•So she called him Robin, and he called her Ladybug.

•Damian tried to justify him tagging along.

•"You kept me alive for 3 days, let me do the same."

•"...I can do that on my own."

•"Yeah...but...I got a higher score in the strength tests.  I'll tag along.  Besides, what if you're keeping more sponsors from me that belong to me?"

•He found every excuse to stay by her side.

•She found herself growing attached to his presence.

•She showed him things like water sources and certain berries that were edible.

•Of course, he stayed by her side gathering all these supplies.

•"What if the careers attack you gathering water?  I need to repay my debt-"

•"Really, Robin.  You don't need to repay me."

•"But Ladybug-"

•"No.  Really-"

•"No I insist.  I'm repaying my debt.  Please?"

•"...fine."

•"( ◜‿◝ )♡"

•However, these fun times would soon end.  With fewer and fewer tributes left, 7 in total, they knew it would only be a matter of time before they too were killed, or had to kill.

•It happened so soon, Marinette had been trying to keep a downlow profile to avoid becoming a target.  But it seems like District 6's tribute of transportation, Garfield, deemed her a safe target.

•He found his Target and a stranger, a boy with black hair, sitting and talking under the comfort of a tree.  They seemed at peace, almost content.  He found it bizarre they would find it peaceful and take pleasure in small talk in the middle of the hunger games.

•When he began to attack, Damian immediately jumped into action.  Garfield was using a trident he picked up at the cornucopia.  Damian, however, was caught by surprise.  He struggled to keep up with Garfield's moves.  He was quick, deceptive, and swift.  Garfield was caught off guard when he realized who the boy was, and wasn't expecting Damian, but if he could take out Damian, the girl would be no problem, right?

•Damian was knocked down and Garfield took advantage of that.  He tried to aim for the chest but Damian quickly moved out of the way.  Instead, it plundered into his leg.  Damian screamed in pain.

•Marinette leapt into action.  She was quicker than he was, and lighter on her feet.  What she lacked in muscle she made up with in precision and quick thinking.  She grabbed her knife and wielded it like an extension of her arm.  She would not relent.  The fight continued for about 5 minutes, of Garfield's strength versing Marinette's speed and quick thinking.

•Damian was left in shock.  Finally, Marinette took advantage of Garfield's poor footing, knocked him off his feet, and aimed for the kill.

•Garfield's eyes wide in shock.  He fell to the ground, shaking.  Marinette's eyes looked horrified, and she just stared at her hands with the blade and back at him in shock.

•"I understand." Garfield said looking at her eyes.  "It had to be one of us."

•He glanced over at Damian.  "You know, I have a feeling we could've been great friends in another lifetime.  Guess it doesn't matter anymore."

•He closed his eyes, and the canon that symbolized the death of a tribute was fired.

•Damian realized then, what Marinette was doing.  How no one attacked for so long and how she fooled even him with her low score in the strength tests.  No one but Garfield towards the end actually came to kill her.  Everyone only saw her as a target to save for later.  How in the interviews she acted helpless, and innocent.  He knew now that she wasn't and that she was dangerous.  And he knew for sure now that if she wanted him dead she would've done so a long time ago.

•Marinette didn't speak to Damian for a day.  She just kept to herself.  He made sure she ate well, and gathered food for the both of them that day.

•Marinette at night, just began to sob uncontrollably.  Damian tried to comfort her but realized he too was crying.  They just hugged each other and cried.  Eventually, they became silent tears streaming down their faces until they drifted off to sleep.

•It was down to the final 4, tributes.  Adrien, Lila, Damian and Marinette.

•When they went to gather berries the next day, all the soil was ruined.  Water from the edges of the arena came in and crushed all the berries.  The waves of water came from the outer edge of the Arena but the waves seems to grow weaker as they traveled to the center.  The only suitable source of berries were at the center near the cornucopia.  And with no animals in the arena and no suitable berries, they knew where the capitol wanted them to go.

•Before they went, they figured they should refill on water.  However, one close look at the water shows that the water supply was contaminated with a special type of liquid, probably what was helping the water ruin the crops/plants/fruits.

•When they reached the Arena, Marinette and Damian are greeter with Lila and Adrien already fighting one another. There looks of betrayal at one another mixed with their anger and hatred.  Marinette was shocked while Damian wasn't surprised.  It was common for the careers to betray one another towards the end.

•Marinette's eyes hardened as she leapt into action to take advantage of the situation, Damian joining beside her.

•Adrien managed to get a good hit in Lila, and she stumbled and fell over.  He aimed for the final hit before she dove underneath him and twisted his arm behind his back and killed him right then and there.

•The cannon fired.

•Marinette screamed as she ran over.  She eyes were wide open and she charged for Lila.  She swung her knife, no longer as precise or as swift as before.  She was almost hysterical seeing her childhood best friend on the ground dead.  She knew it would come, but she never knew she would have to see the light drain from his eyes in person.

•Damian tried to attack Lila but Lila was swift.  She was too close to home, too close to her mother's hugs to let them take it from her.  She took advantage of Marinette's sobbing and stabbed her and ripped the knife out immediately after.  The knife cut straight through her skin and when it was pulled out Marinette was screaming as blood pooled out.

•Lila almost felt guilty, but she knew it was kill or be killed.  Now to just get Damian-

•Damian let out a piercing cry.  He grabbed his sword and began to charge.  Unlike Marinette, he wasn't rigid or swinging wildly.  Each slice of his slices unlike before, were precise.  Each aimed to with one goal in mind.  He was swift and would not relent.  Never stopping, never pausing to adjust his grip.  Lila couldn't catch her breath.  With each step he took, she took another backwards.  Until eventually, Lila had no place else to run, and the canon for her death was fired.

•Damian ran back to Marinette as she was coated in blood.  Damian could only pray it wasn't hers, but he knew better.

•"LADYBUG!"

•"R-" Marinette sputtered and choked on her own blood. "Robin…"

•Damian was full on sobbing.  He tried desperately to find something, anything to stop the bleeding.  Marinette just looked with a sorrowful smile and clasped his hands.

•"Ladybug…" Marinette shook her head.

•"Call me, Marinette."

•"Marinette," Damian said, trying out the name.

•Marinette smiled and closed her eyes.  •Damian kissed her forehead, wanting to stay strong for her final moments, and the canon fired one last time.

•With Marinette gone, Damian saw no reason to act strong.  Damian's eyes pooled with tears, as his nose became stuffy and his eyes became shiny like glass.  He began hiccuping and sobbing uncontrollably, as his body began shaking.  His face was heated and he was almost incapable of speech.  He only screamed out her name in sorrow as his voice was filled with pain.  When his voice was nearly gone, he just quietly whispered apologies.

•A voice boomed from the sky.  "THIS YEAR'S ANNUAL HUNGER GAMES VICTOR, GIVE IT UP FOR DAMIAN WAYNE!" Damian just held her hand, tears streaming down his face as warmth gradually left her hands.

•"This year was an exciting one, folks!  I'm sure you all had fun watching at home!" the voice boomed.  "I haven't seen such an entertaining hunger games in over 59 years!  Bravo, Damian Wayne.  I hope you walk out of this arena with great pride at the man you've become."

TAG LIST :  If you wanna be added to my regular daminette post list (not daminette december) just let me know!

@kuroko26 @mystery-5-5 @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @mooshoon @littleredrobinhoodlum @ellerahs @emotionalsupportginger @constancetruggle @shamefullove @resignedcatservant @kceedraws @noirdots

[qandnoablog]

Returned (Marvel Imagine)

Title: Discovered

Pairing: There is no final pairing (since I follow along with the movies as accurately as I can) but [Y/N] does gravitate towards Loki

Warnings: Based on the movie - Avengers: End Game

Part: 17, [16], [15], [14], [13], [12], [11], [10], [9], [8], [7], [6], [5], [4], [3], [2], [1] Short story: [3], [2], [1]

Key: Y/N - Your Name Y/L/N - Your Last Name

Word Count: 2,280

Summary: Without much time to mourn the Avenger’s most recent fallen, the team resumes their original mission in returning all that have been dusted. Sadly, before anyone has time to rejoice, the compound is under attack and chaos ensues. What more awaits [Y/N] and will peace ever come?

Note From Author: Here is another part, finished, edited, and out for all of you! I hope you enjoy it and stick around for the next part :)

Part 17 - Return

The moment [Y/N] felt her feet on solid ground, her eyes scanned the room for two specific people. When her eyes landed on them, she first felt relieved, then furious.

“Are you two insane?!” [Y/N] hollered as she knocked both of them over the head with her abilities, gauging each power to do a good amount of damage to each one.

“Easy there, Tiger,” Tony began, rubbing the sore spot on his head, but [Y/N] didn’t let him finish.

“I already felt crappy about letting you all down when I lost the Tesseract back in New York, but now you both make me sit out when I could have helped you get back another one? Stephen Strange already pulled that stunt over on me back on Titan, but you… You both did the exact same thing!”

[Y/N] would have drone on and on, but suddenly the atmosphere in the room plummeted. She sensed something amiss and then turned her attention to the loud sound behind her.

Clint had fallen to his knees, his expression solemn, and his eyes did not meet anyone else's. Everyone focused their attention to him and then realized the one person missing from their group.

“Clint, where’s Nat?” Bruce asked.

That’s right. Natasha Romanoff was nowhere to be found. And Clint had the air of grief and mourning around him. His smile during their departure was gone and all that was left was sorrow and guilt. Tears glimmered in his eyes as the immense emotions he felt poured onto everyone around him. He didn’t need to say a word. Everyone already knew the answer.

Bruce fell to his knees while the others bowed their heads. [Y/N]’s anger vanished into thin air and she stared at Clint for a good few seconds before tears fell from her eyes and streamed down her face. She took one step forward, then another, then another, until soon she was right in front of the man. Then she kneeled down and embraced him, both to comfort him as well as leaning on a friend who understood the pain of loss she was feeling.

Natasha was one of the first few Avengers [Y/N] had gotten to know. And throughout their journey, Nat was always helping her out. She had trained her in some self defense, taught her how to wield some weapons, and was there for her when her family had turned to dust. Natasha had stayed at the Avengers compound and allowed [Y/N] to stay with her when she had nowhere else to go. She had considered Natasha as her family, and she had also seen [Y/N] the same way.

And now, that strong, unbreakable woman was gone.

Holding onto Clint, [Y/N] cried and cried. She didn’t care if she was the only one that wailed out in sadness, or that the only sound coming from the compound was from her. She just held on to her friend, who must have been feeling much worse than her, and cried. Cried at the unfairness of it all.

~

“-!” a voice called out to her, stirring her back to consciousness, but she could barely make out the sounds, let alone who the voice belonged to.

Sore all over and unbelievably dizzy, [Y/N] just wanted to close her eyes and sleep for the rest of her life. But someone kept shaking her, rattling her as if in a panic. A groan escaped her throat as she resisted, not wanting to open her eyes, but the person just wouldn’t leave her alone.

“Hey, hey, hey! [Y/N], stay with me!”

Finally, she was able to register the words and her eyes flickered open. Though the image was fuzzy, she could make out the shape of the man behind the voice. Groggy and disoriented, she tried to recollect her thoughts while blinking away the haziness that clouded her sight. That’s when she remembered what had just happened.

After the team had finished up the new gauntlet, placing all six stones into the gear, there was a brief debate of who would put it on and snap those dusted back into existence. It was ultimately decided that the safest option was Bruce, because the stones consisted of mostly gamma radiation. None of them knew if he would survive, so everyone stood by, ready for any potential risks at hand.

Everything should have been over after the snap. Everything should have worked and gone back to normal after Bruce had succeeded in bringing everybody back. Everything should have ended, peace finally being restored… But then… But then something happened.

All hell broke loose as the whole compound began to crumble under the surprise attack. Clint was knocked unconscious and [Y/N] acted purely on instinct. She jumped down into the gaping hole of the floor, tackling into him, and her barriers encased the two as they plummeted down. The last thing she remembered was… Was holding onto Clint as she braced for impact.

“Oh, thank god,” Clint breathed out as he saw [Y/N]’s eyes coming into focus. “Thank God…”

“Clint?” [Y/N] coughed, the debris all around them making the air difficult to breathe. “What-?”

“I don’t know,” he answered as he took out a light and inspected their surroundings.

Given the circumstances, the two had made it out with very little injuries. Seeing how the whole compound seemed to be laid to waste, it was a miracle that no bones were broken. Clint had been unconscious when the two fell down, but he could guess that it was thanks to [Y/N]’s abilities that the two were relatively alright. And when he woke up and she didn’t, his heart nearly stopped in his chest. He had lost one friend that day. He couldn’t lose another.

Looking up and around, calling through the comms to see if they could get in touch with anyone, Clint happened to spot something lying under the rubble not too far from them. It was the gauntlet! Now the size of Hulk’s hand, it had fallen down with them during the pandemonium. How all this had happened was unclear at the moment, but thankfully the infinity stones did not end up lost or worse… In the wrong hands.

A low growl echoed through the tunnel, snapping them into battle positions. Clint reached for his arrow, his bow ready, while [Y/N] quickly got up and readied her powers. Seeing no enemies from one end, Clint quickly turned to the other. [Y/N] followed and noticed something move under the dim, red lights. He fired an arrow, lighting up the tunnel, and both were alarmed to see several alien figures creeping towards them.

“Shit,” she muttered.

Outnumbered, Clint retracted his bow and [Y/N] sent out a wave of her powers to push the enemy back. The animalistic creatures were thrown off, and in that brief time period Clint grabbed the gauntlet and the two retreated into the opposite direction.

Sprinting in the cramped space, it was only a matter of time before these beasts caught up with them. Still, neither Clint or [Y/N] were willing to go down without a fight. The moment the aliens got too close, [Y/N] sent out a blast of her powers and sent them back just a few more spaces. But being unable to stop and actually go against them face to face, it was hard to do any permanent damage.

Thinking fast, Clint placed a few arrows along the path. She wasn’t sure what he was planning, but she didn’t have time to ask. Instead, she just trusted him and tried to provide him with a little more time.

“Shield!” He instructed, leaping forward, and [Y/N] acted without a second thought.

The two were wrapped in a bubble of her energy, just when a chain of explosions went off in the dimly lit tunnel behind them. Thrown by the force of the trap, the two stumbled onto the metallic floor, her shield coming down as they rolled to safety.

Still, it was not enough to bring all the aliens down.

Clint tossed [Y/N] the gauntlet and held onto her waist as he shot out a grappling hook from his other arm and hooked it to his belt. Then the two shot into the air, right before the animalistic alien could pounce on top of them. Still, they persisted.

With his free arm, he drew his sword and sliced through the first alien that jumped at them while [Y/N] adjusted her weight with her powers to lessen the burden on Clint. With that, she gathered up her energy, condensing the air before her, and shot out several waves that sliced through her opponents. Though it wasn’t as clean as Clint’s blade, she disabled enough for them to safely make it to the top.

Landing hard onto the solid floor, Clint released [Y/N] and turned back to the hole with his sword raised, ready for any more oncoming attacks. She quickly got up, ignoring the new bruises and cuts, and was about to join when the two realized that no more were making their way towards them.

Slumping back down, [Y/N] caressed the gauntlet as both she and Clint finally were able to take a breath.

“Oh, hey,” Clint panted as he lay on the floor, noticing footsteps approaching them. “I know you.”

It was Nebula. She had fought with them against Thanos, her father, and had stuck by them after all this time, and though Clint didn’t know her all that well, she was a part of their team now. Relieved to see a friendly face and not an enemy, the two let down their guard.

She reached out for the gauntlet, and having no reason to doubt a friend, [Y/N] extended it towards her. But the next words that came from Nebula’s mouth rattled her to the core.

“Father,” she said through some sort of communication device, raising alarm bells for both [Y/N] and Clint, “I have the stones.”

“What?” Clint asked in disbelief, but before he could stand, Nebula had put her foot down on top of him and pointed her gun to his head.

“What are you-!” [Y/N] began, her powers just about ready to knock the gun from the blue woman, but another voice interrupted her.

“Stop,” a woman commanded, stepping out from the shadows with a gun pointed at Nebula.

She was just as alien as Nebula, but her skin was green and her hair a mix of black and red. And unlike Nebula, she was someone [Y/N] had never seen before. But her gun wasn’t facing neither her nor Clint. Instead it was directed at Nebula, whose side was currently in question.

The blue and green alien had their weapons at the ready, one pointed at Clint while the other pointed at Nebula, but neither were ready to fire. [Y/N] was beyond confused and didn’t know what to make of the situation. So instead of going for the offensive, she focused her powers around Clint and herself to solidify their defenses.

“You’re betraying us?” Nebula questioned, her eyes never leaving the stranger.

Then, the next arrival that walked into their standoff made [Y/N]’s head spin.

Another Nebula walked into the room, her hands up to show that she was unarmed. Startled, the first Nebula stepped back and shifted her aim from Clint to the other Nebula. Using that opening, Clint rolled away and dragged [Y/N] back to a safer distance, away from all the guns.

“You don’t have to do this,” the unarmed Nebula said, trying to reason with her other self.

“I am this,” the first Nebula countered.

“No, you’re not,” the green alien argued, resolute in her claim.

The three went back and forth, two trying to convince the one, while Clint and [Y/N] tried to make sense of what was going on right before their eyes. It seemed that the unarmed Nebula was the one [Y/N] had gotten to know over the years, but the other Nebula and the green woman were a mystery to her. And Clint was beyond confused, since he had only just met Nebula and didn’t know what to make of any of this.

“No!” The green alien cried out just as the enemy Nebula pointed her weapon at her.

In that split second, the Nebula that [Y/N] knew drew her gun and shot her other self right in the heart before she could fire. Groaning in pain, the enemy Nebula backed up to the fencing and slid down to the ground, the light in her eyes fading and the tears that had welled up dripping to the floor.

Though she was no longer able to make a sound, it was clear as day that the enemy Nebula did not want her life to end this way. Just like the one [Y/N] had gotten to know, she wanted to abandon her orders and join the two before her. Sadly, she was unable to break free of her father’s hold on her.

Brushing aside the questions that bubbled within her, [Y/N] slipped away from Clint and picked up the gauntlet. Although she didn’t quite understand all that went down between the three of them, she knew one thing was crystal clear.

The enemy Nebula had reported to someone and called him, “Father.” And having known Nebula for those past five years, [Y/N] knew exactly who they were dealing with. The monster that started all this tragedy was back.

Thanos had returned.

[PART 18]

Tags: @themeanestlittlewitch  @stressedandbandobessed7771 @moistpotatobear @fxckingfat​ @e7here4l

[ctl-yuejie]

the grandmaster of demonic interior design or mound squatting & a smitten renovator

⇨ for @howdydowdy​ who wisely suggested a home renovation tv series au based on my crack gifset

Ia . IIa . IIIa . Ib . IIb . IIIb. Ic . IIc . IIIc . Id . IId . IIId . Ie . IIe ⭐︎ . IIIe ⭐︎⭐︎ . extra

Id.

He hadn’t expected to see Lan Wangji again. Meeting him on top of Burial Mound was even more of a peculiar twist of fate.  During their school days he’d never been sure whether Lan Wangji liked him or was just too well-mannered to tell him to get lost. Well, he had been told to get lost at one point, but that had been after a rather crude practical joke so maybe it doesn’t quite count.

However, being a nuisance on purpose had let to the great discovery that beneath his cold demeanour Lan Wangji’s way of thinking was quite alike to his and he had gotten to enjoy detention, Lan Wangji proving to be a worthy opponent in an argument when riled up enough.  There had been a lot of detention.  He’d just correctly assumed that their relationship wasn’t to be long lived after they graduated and went different ways. The family heads sometimes met at conferences but Wei Wuxian was never interested in attending those. Lan Wangji must have sat there every single year, looking attentive while possibly being bored out of his mind. How couldn’t he have been without him there.

He hadn’t realized that he had actually missed the level stare he often was the recipient of.

People who follow the old customs talk about Lan Wangji with the greatest respect. Nevertheless, most accounts of meeting him don’t miss a pitying comment on his icy stare and aloofness. These people are just not able to see what he does. The warmth that radiates off his good deeds, just a vague taste of how compassionate Lan Wangji truly is, and the way his face pulls into a tiny smile when he’s truly happy.

Wei Wuxian tries to remember Lan Wangji’s smile.

It’s way past midnight, and while he long has gotten used to the eerie silence on Burial Mound he’s still rolling around in his sleeping bag, not able to stop the thoughts running in his head. The stone plateau he’s sleeping on doesn’t help in the frontline of comfort either. How soft Lan Wangji’s hotel bed must be.

He could bet that Lan Wangji doesn’t even appreciate it properly. No jump test, no pillow fights. Lan Wangji would just lie down, perfectly still on his back, hands folded over his chest and fall asleep immediately.  As if hotel beds could be exchanged with just any bed.  Whenever he and his siblings had shared a room at hotels or traditional inns, they had pushed their beds or futons together to create one giant cushy paradise to roll around in. He’d always wake to Jiang Cheng laughing at his weird sleeping position, mocking his hair that always looked terrible in the morning before smacking a pillow back at him in retaliation. 

Lan Wangji would look pristine in the morning, no puffy cheeks and no grit in the eyes.  Very boring.  Maybe if they’d share a room some time he’d be able to see it. Have Lan Wangji’s immaculate face turn to him to take in his disheveled state.   Would he have to smile? Would he scold him? At five in the morning he’d probably have to deal with a very grumpy version of himself. He might lie down in Lan Wangji’s bed and pull him down with him just to get him to sleep some more.

Now he regrets not pestering Lan Wangji about sharing a room during his stay at the Cloud Recesses. If Lan Qiren would have ever found out he’d crawled into his nephew’s bed he would have burst with anger.  But down at the hotel they could’ve just slept in, take their breakfast in bed and Lan Wangji would’ve definitely fixed the strands of Wei Wuxian’s hair that were in danger of falling into his coffee. Would his fingers feel soft against his cheek? Or calloused from his Guqin practice?  Wei Wuxian falls asleep to the thoughts of Lan Wangjis fingers carding through his hair.

The shooting starts early in the morning with Wei Wuxian guiding an unusually meek Nie Huaisang through the outer area of the compound. His excited voice easily carries over the soft footsteps of the elderly who tend to the fields.

The air is still cold and crisp, morning dew lazily gliding to the centre of lotus leaves, waiting to get scooped up by the tiny hands of Ah-Yuan.

It’s the first time that Nie Huaisang is commenting on something other than the lack of Wei Wuxian’s sense for interior design. He looks genuinely amazed, voicing his confusion at how Wei Wuxian had managed to build a lotus pond in this hostile environment.   He is rather proud of the pond and even though the seeds are inedible it is a piece of home in this wasteland.

Around noon Wei Wuxian finds himself rambling on about the importance of the cause, his inventions, what farming has taught him, the community in shared values, and really just how brilliant his inventions are. Sometimes the producers have to intervene because he gets too caught up in his stories, and name dropping the Wen family as one of the instigators of the astronomical rents doesn’t help either.

Throughout shooting, Lan Wangji doesn’t say much. He’s mostly tagging along, having quickly gotten used to putting in minimal effort to fulfil his sole role as eye candy.  After all, most people aren’t that well-versed in cultivation anymore and it might be for the better not to dig too deep into the demonic kind.

Even so, despite not saying much and the cameras definitely not being able to catch it, his silence is contemplative. It looks like Lan Wangji is actually listening to him. Listening very attentively. Just really listening. And that hasn’t happened before.

Wen Ning just enjoys the company in general and spending time with Ah-Yuan. Wen Qing is brilliant but also can’t be arsed to put any ounce of her energy into humouring him. Shiejie is supportive as always, but he knows that she doesn’t fully get it. Jiang Cheng, well, he listens and somehow understands totally different things. The other squatters are mostly just fondly exasperated. He doesn’t blame them. For them the cause is much more important. This project means their survival in the city.

But it is nice to show someone how he views the world, to share his interests and light eyes meeting his in understanding. He shoots a cheeky but appreciative wink back but Lan Wangji simply looks away.  Well, that’s not fun then.

Nie Huaisang is filming a solo-portion on appropriate colour schemes.  While the remodelling itself is unnecessary in Wei Wuxian’s mind, some of the ideas on how certain colours can improve moods actually don’t sound half-bad. He has to admit that he has underestimated Nie Huaisang and his dedication to deliver not only a perfect house remodelling but genuinely try to improve the lives of the inhabitants as well. Nie Huaisang is obviously stumped by how little he has to work with in terms of traditional architecture but he makes a commendable effort, even venturing into the historical significance of the statue guarding the cave.

Lan Wangji steps a little bit closer, robes flattering in the afternoon wind. “Isn’t this illegal?” His whisper tickles Wei Wuxian’s ear. “Lan Zhan-ah, Lan Zhan-ah, of course it is. That’s why it’s called squatting.”  He can’t believe that now is the time for Lan Wangji to question the legality of this project. “Wei Ying. You could get in trouble.” He sounds forceful. “That – is the point?” Lan Wangji looks like he has trouble finding the right words. “Wei Ying could just leave, you have a home!” Something squeezes him on the inside and his arm shakes when he points to the collective around them. “You know I can’t leave them behind.” Lan Wangji doesn’t relent. “You could take class-action. My family’s firm could help. If you are willing.” His voice goes soft at the end.  “What the Wen’s do isn’t against the law, they are just using the system to their benefit. Much as I hate them, they’re not that innovative...and Lan Zhan, you are great–“ Lan Wangji’s face softens in surprise– “but I know your dad.” Lan Wangji’s eyebrows ever so slightly draw together. “He does pro bono work.” Wei Wuxian laughs in delight at this. The confusion on Lan Wangji’s face that’s just visible to him is hilarious.  “Money isn’t the issue. Would he really want to have his firm’s name associated with going against the Wen clan?” The associated with me part is left unsaid. Lan Qiren is wise and righteous, but had never been fond of seeing Wei Wuxian pestering his nephew.

It seems like Lan Wangji has many things he wants to say. Maybe berate him like he used to. Wei Wuxian is amazed that even though they haven’t seen each other in a long time, he has gotten better at reading Lan Wangji. Standing this close he not only sees the inner fight Lan Wangji’s seems to be having for the second time today, but how despite the diffused light his eyes are gleaming, how his long hair softly falls against his cheeks, how long his eye lashes are.

The cultivator world calling him the second most eligible bachelor really is a deserved title. Zewu-Jun might be attractive to other people, but compared to Lan Wangji he appears to be rather boring.

No mask to crack with playful banter, no smile to coax out with a teasing remark, nothing Wei Wuxian could do that would make Zewu-Jun wear the same expression of soft surprise, to have that something in his eyes that almost seems to shine through when he is looking at Wei Wuxian and that Wei Wuxian can’t seem to pin point even after 13 years.

Even after getting better at reading him.

“It’s against the law.” Lan Wangji’s voice interrupts his musings. “Well, the law is bullshit,“ he retorts pointedly. Wei Wuxian knows that what he’s doing is the right thing. They stand in silence.

The last scene of the day features the last chamber of the cave.  Wen Ning is delighted at Wei Wuxian’s invitation to join them. The crew has already set everything up for filming and Wei Wuxian, Nie Huaisang and Lan Wangji are politely ushered inside.

Lan Wangji halts in his tracks immediately after entering the chamber. Wei Wuxian is very much delighted at surprising him successfully. “I tried to go for a hyggelig vibe,” he says cheerily as if nothing was amiss. It is very hard to not just laugh out loud at how everything about Lan Wangji screams ‘incredulousness’.

“Wei Ying – there is a demonic blood pool – in your cave!” Wei Wuxian is very adamant on finding out how much it takes to break adult Lan Wangji, so he just hums in affirmation. “Wei Ying, too much blood,” Lan Wangji says with stronger conviction. “It does go great with Wen Nings goth attire!” That is a good enough reason to have a spring spew blood into a big pool in your home in Wei Wuxian’s books. Wen Ning pats down his black, heavy robes in satisfaction.

There is a tiny smile tugging at the corners of Lan Wangji’s mouth.

“Beautiful.”Is the only thing Wei Wuxian manages to think. 

IId 

[missjosie27]

Year 1 Part 8- Trapped in Ice

Hey, guys! Back with another chapter of my story! For those of you who are Merula fans (which includes myself) there is a lot of her in it, unfortunately though, she’s still a bratty first year haha. Please leave a comment or thought if you’d like:) I’d love feedback. Enjoy!  

Unfortunately for David, the excursion into the 13th corridor was the furthest he would get to solving the mystery of the vault for quite some time. As well as their increasing schoolwork, teacher patrols, as well as the presence of Filch visibly increased. David supposed it might have been his imagination, but on the rare occasions he crossed paths with the grumpy caretaker, he could have sworn he received several ‘stink-eyes’. Perhaps, their escape from Mrs. Norris had been a closer shave than they originally thought.

“It seems like the whole faculty is on edge,” Rowan observed one day as spoke in Charms. “Do you really think the situation with the cursed vaults is that serious?”

In truth, David had no idea. He was still nowhere closer to finding the truth about these vaults than anyone else and it didn’t appear as though the Professors had much idea either. But knowing more about them meant knowing more about Jacob and if possible, the key to finding him.

The young Gryffindor didn’t entertain the idea very often that such a thing was possible. His brother had been gone for years and it he had taught himself as soon as he was old enough to understand, that it was best to think of him that way permanently. But coming to Hogwarts changed everything. If there was even the slightest chance…

“Serious enough for them to keep everyone away from them,” David surmised, as he tried to lift his feather off the desk (‘Wingardium Leviosa’ was today’s lesson). “By the way, did you discover anything on that weird language we found?”

“Nothing as of now,” Rowan sighed. “It’s probably pretty ancient to begin with, but the biggest problem is that I didn’t have enough time to properly discern what it was. Sadly, the library holds no answers.”

“Then we need to go back and take a closer look.”

“Normally, I’d hesitate about possibly getting caught again but it’s pretty urgent that we go back. There are rumors…”

David raised his eyebrows, his concentration diverted from his feather.

“What do you mean?”

Rowan looked as though he didn’t want to get into specifics, but a hard stare from his best friend forced his hand.

“Some of the Slytherins keep mentioning Merula is going after the vaults herself.”

At that moment, the feather David was casting on exploded in a bevy of flames, earning him a shake of the head from Professor Flitwick.

“I do believe you’ll be practicing that charm for homework, Mr. Grant. It’s not often I see a student make a feather burst into flame.”

Rowan started laughing while David began to sulk. He would take all of the extra charms work in the world if it meant Merula didn’t so much as sniff a cursed vault. Merlin only knew what someone like her if she ever came across the inside of one: wealth, power, ancient secrets of alchemy, whatever it was, the Slytherin girl couldn’t be allowed to get there first.

The race was officially on.

More roadblocks were to follow, however. The next two times the two boys tried investigating the 13th corridor, they were nearly caught again- once by Filch, who had his shackles ratting menacingly, and the other by Snape and each instance was closer than the last. Clearly, their frequent tips were being noticed and after the Potions Master nearly nabbed them lurking, they decided to put on hold any further activity until they came up with a proper plan.

Well November turned into December and December turned into January. The holidays passed without much incident as David endured a happy but awkward reunion with his parents at Christmas. Evidently, Dumbledore and McGonagall had been kind enough not to mention his early run ins and so did not bring them up. Even so, the shadow of Jacob loomed over the Grant household. The morning of the 25th always held an underlying melancholy to it. It only served to motivate him more to find the vaults.

However, even with the extra motivation, things stalled even more as winter turned to spring. In contrast to the jam packed action of the fall, Hogwarts had become standard procedure than anything else. Classes were normal, homework steady, Quidditch matches in abundance, and the halls of the school were abuzz with the usual assortment of chatter and gossip. David continued to spend most of his time around Rowan, Ben, with the occasional Weasley joining them for tea. Penny and her Hufflepuff friends were also frequent visitors. By the time April ended and entered into May, David hadn’t necessarily forgotten about the vaults or Jacob. But the school had a habit of sucking you into a routine not easily broken.

It was only when a bona fide enemy gave him a nudge did the race resume its frantic pace.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The nudge came during a random potions class.

Merula’s incessant bullying had lessened considerably since their duel. She was still aggressive and obnoxious, but she had learned to pick and choose her battles to a certain degree, reserving her worst in the form of insults and taunts that could just as easily be ignored. But this particular class, to disregard her would be unwise.

As David and Rowan sat down in their usual seats, so did Merula and her evil smirk was out in full force. Instead of throwing her usual jumble of sardonic remarks, she simply stared at them.

“What?” he asked her, not in the mood to deal with whatever antics she had in mind.

“A thought just occurred to me, Grant, have you told anyone about what we heard awhile back between Snape and Filch?”

“No,” he answered quickly hoping to end the conversation right then and there.

“You’re such a terrible liar,” she sassed him. “I know you’ve told four eyes next to you and maybe that complete coward Copper.”

“Why do you care?”

“Because I want to make sure you don’t jeopardize my own chances of finding the vaults,” she replied as if the answer were obvious. “You almost ruined it once last semester.”

A thought occurred to David that he hadn’t considered. Merula was dead set on discovering the cursed vaults but her motivations remained a mystery to him.

“Why are you after them, anyway, Merula?

“None your business.”

It was moments such as these that really pushed his patience. The Slytherin loved to dish it out but couldn’t take it in return. Pushing and prodding until her opponents slipped and then she would retreat.

“On the contrary,” he said. “It’s entirely my damn business. My brother was searching for these vaults and I’d rather not see the most annoying witch at Hogwarts get her hands on them.”

“Make all the jokes you want, Grant. I will get to them before you,” the Slytherin girl challenged him, her violet eyes twinkling darkly. “Now shut up and pretend to study before Snape catches us talking about the vaults.”

He had no time to retort as the Potions Master began his lecture on the forgetfulness potion at which students were invited to talk at their peril. Still, it took a tremendous amount of effort on David’s part to stay focused on his brew and not let Merula get under his skin. Loathe as he was to admit it, her natural talent at potions surpassed his, and it was difficult enough to concentrate without her constant attempts at sabotage.

Thankfully, with Rowan’s help, he was able to stay on track, reading the ingredients board twice before gathering, chopping, and measuring what he needed. He triple checked the instructions in the book for good measure and by the time class was at its end, it appeared that he’d succeeded in maintaining his effort far better than Merula had. Far from her usual confidence, she was constantly scribbling notes in her book that in all likelihood had nothing to do with potions, only occasionally looking up to add ingredients or focus on her potion. In fact, her absentmindedness was such, that David had to warn her before she melted her cauldron.

“Merula.”

“What!? Grant, I’m trying to concentrate here.”

“Right. And I’m sure you’ll be able explain to everyone else here why your potion exploded because you stirred it five times clockwise instead of seven.”

“Shut up,” she shot back. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m way better at potions than you.”

A deep clearing of the throat brought them both to the attention of Professor Snape, lurking over them like an overgrown bat. David wondered briefly if talking during class would dock him points but he need not have worried. For once, Snape seemed to be on his side.

“Much as I hate to acknowledge it, Grant is correct Miss Snyde. Seven turns clockwise is the correct number of times for this particular potion. I am disappointed in your lack of detail.”

He turned towards David, his usual leer somewhat less pronounced.

“I suppose a broken clock is right twice a day. A point to Gryffindor. Dismissed.”

The eleven year old was so shocked, he almost forgot to bottle a sample at the end of his class. Rowan could barely contain his glee.

“That was brilliant, Dave!” he remarked as they exited the dungeons. “Not only did you tell off Merula, you earned points from Snape of all people!”

“It was a single point,” he responded with a small chuckle. “Should have been fifty for saving his classroom from becoming a heap of rubble.”

“The fact that you got him to give you any points at all is a miracle in itself,” Rowan pointed out. “Based off conversations with older students, I’d say the odds of Snape giving points to Gryffindor are less than one percent.”

“The fact that you ever shut your trap Khanna, is a miracle,” came the nasty voice of Merula Snyde from behind them.

Both boys whipped around prepared to fight her if need be.

“If I wanted to duel you, I’d have hexed you already,” she said rolling her eyes.

“Then go away,” David told her. “I think we both know how that turned out for you the last time.”

Merula frowned and drew herself up in response.

“You got lucky, Grant. I promise the next one won’t end so well for you.”

David sighed. He really didn’t have the energy for a war of words with her right now.

“Is there something you want, Merula? Or can I go to my next class without you following me around.”

Stepping forward, the Slytherin girl’s face as now only a foot away from his, which was disconcerting to say the least.

“Well, this is awkward. I feel like you’re either going to spit on me or kiss me.”

“Shut up,” she snarled. “One successful potion and a house point doesn’t erase what you are, Grant: a failure. I’m going to get to those vaults first and when I do, Hogwarts will see me for the greatest witch that I am.”

David didn’t back nor did he blink. In fact, he upped the ante.

“You’re on, Merula. And when I find them before you, I hope you’re prepared for a big ‘I told you so.’”

The Slytherin girl merely gave a ‘hmph!’ and brushed past them with her shoulder and around the corner.

“That could come back to bite us,” Rowan observed, rubbing his chin.

“On the contrary, it’s an opportunity,” David disagreed. “She should know better than to try and out-bold a Gryffindor.”

“But what if she does find the vaults before us? We’re no closer than we were months ago.”

“Then we’ll just have to try that much harder, won’t we?”

David smiled reassuringly at his friend and though he felt a certain amount of anxiousness himself, the stakes were raised that much higher. He wasn’t about to let Merula connive her way to the cursed vaults, not when finding his brother was at stake.

I think it’s time I called in a few favors

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It took some time to piece together but by dinner, David had formulated a plan in his mind to get to the 13th corridor and enter the mysterious door they had discovered back in November.

Step one was getting rid of Mrs. Norris. Without the pesky feline to bother them, Filch wouldn’t know what they were up to, allowing sufficient time to enter the door. If it was locked, hopefully Alohomora, the unlocking spell, would do the trick.

As to how to ensure Mrs. Norris was out of the way, there was a certain Hufflepuff who could assist with that.

“You sure she’ll do it, Dave?” Rowan asked, skeptically when he told him the plan.

“What do you want me to do? Ask Snape?”

“Good point.”

“Besides,” David pointed out as he caught sight of the pretty Hufflepuff entering the Great Hall for dinner. “She did say to ask if needed help with anything. And she’s the best in our year at Potions.”

Leaving his seat, with a mouth full of turkey in his mouth, he quickly swallowed it while managing to catch Penny before she reached her typical spot at the Hufflepuff table.

“Hey, Dave!” she said brightly. “You want to sit with us tonight?”

“Of course, but I was hoping I could talk to you privately for a quick second.”

“Sure. What’s going on?”

“Can you brew a sleeping draught?”

Penny raised her eyebrows, but otherwise gave no indication of surprise.

“I can, but what do you need it for?”

“It’s kind of a long story.”

It took less time than he originally thought, but David still had to ensure he didn’t leave out key details about his quest for the cursed vaults. He didn’t think Penny would say no, however it was still best to put her at ease as much as possible. Thankfully, she didn’t need much persuasion.

“So…will you help us? I know it’s a bit risky but…”

“Relax, Dave,” Penny laughed good naturedly. “Of course, I’ll help you.”

“Wicked! Thanks, Penny! So you don’t think I’m mad or dangerous to try and find these vaults?”

“The thing is, living with Tonks makes you a little less afraid to break rules,” she explained. “But I can tell how much this means to you, what with your brother and all. And I’d much rather see you reach these vaults than Merula,” she added frowning at the thought of the Slytherin. “I do have to warn you though; it’ll take me a week to brew it. It can be a tricky one if you’re not careful, plus all the homework we have.”

“No problem,” David said, immensely thankful for Penny’s assistance. “That gives me and Rowan more time to plan the next phase of the plan.”

“Which is?”

“We’ll need a third person for this trip,” David smiled. “And I know just the person.”

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Rowan, however, was not sold on Ben Copper coming with them to the mysterious door.

“Um, David, not to question you or anything but why exactly do you want to bring Ben? He’s not exactly the bravest Gryffindor in the world.”

“He’s jumpy, I’ll admit,” David shrugged as he sat in the common room finishing up a Transfiguration essay for Professor McGonagall (it was fast becoming one of his favorite subjects). “But that’s only when some of the Slytherins are around. And besides, you’ve seen how far he’s come this year, he’s almost not afraid of flying anymore.”

“Marvelous. That doesn’t mean he’s going to want to go into a cursed vault. He’ll probably run and hide the moment something goes wrong.”

“That’s the point, Rowan. Ben knows all the hiding places around here. He told me he used to find all sorts of rooms and spaces back when he tried to avoid Merula. Not to mention he’s the best at charms in our year by a mile. He doesn’t give himself enough credit.”

Rowan closed his History of Magic book, adjusting his glasses.

“And how do you plan to convince him to come along?”

“Guess we’re about to find out.”

Indeed, Ben had finally arrived in the common room, which was largely devoid of presence due to the last Quidditch match of the year about to commence. It was Ravenclaw versus Gryffindor, the latter of whom was about to finish last in the standings if they did not win today. It was depressing really, but then again Quidditch was still Quidditch.

“Charlie said you needed to talk to me?” he questioned he approached. “You guys know the game’s in ten minutes, right?”

“It can wait for a small little chat,” David said, getting up from his chair and greeting his friend warmly. “Especially for what we have in mind.”

That put Ben off guard and anxiety returned to his face.

“It’s not dangerous is it?”

“Not at all. Rowan and I are going to the locked door in the 13th corridor to try and find a cursed vault. Should be quite the fun.”

He had hoped a little levity might put him at ease, unfortunately, it only served to strike additional fear on his freckled face.

“You and I have a very different definition of ‘dangerous’. Why do you want to get inside the door anyway?”

“It’s simple, Ben,” David told him. He wasn’t going to baby his friend. He knew he could convince him with the right reasons. “My brother is out there somewhere and if these vaults lead me closer to what happened to him, I’m going to take that chance.”

“But why do you need me?” Ben continued to press.

(“That’s what I said,” Rowan muttered)

It was abundantly clear that despite the progress made over the year, he still didn’t feel adequate or brave enough for such an undertaking.

“I trust you, mate,” David responded, placing a hand on his shoulder. “And think of all the things you’ve been able to accomplish this year- wizard’s chess, flying, top of the class in Charms. You got what it takes and there’s no one else I’d have by my side.”

Though he sought to pump his meek friend up a bit, he meant and believed every word. Ben’s issues always stemmed from confidence, not ability. Having one more person take on the mystery of the door only ensured that chance of success was that much higher.

Thankfully, this finally seemed to convince Ben to come along.

“Alright, Dave. I trust you as well. If you really think I can help by going with you, I’ll go.”

“Excellent, I promise you, you won’t regret it. Now let’s go see our pathetic excuse for a Quidditch team get walloped by Ravenclaw.”

The three boys headed out of the common room and to the pitch and David could feel the adrenaline rush into his veins. Far from avoiding the vaults, he was coming around to the idea that finding them would uncover the mystery of where Jacob went off to. Talking about him still wasn’t his cup of tea but Merula’s challenge and constant taunts had lit a competitive fire within him. He wasn’t doing this for some abstract concept of power but for family.

“Just out of curiosity,” Ben asked interrupting his thought process as they walked down the corridor toward the grounds. “When exactly are we going to this door?”

“Just as soon as Penny finishes the sleeping draught,” he answered.

“We should probably wait until the weekend,” Rowan suggested. “Less people walking around to interfere.”

“Agreed.”

Indeed, there were only a few other minor details to take care of. Then, they would be ready at last.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Time has a way of passing by according to wants and desires in a given moment. For David, the day couldn’t come sooner where they finally entered the mysterious door.

Of course, there were several variables to consider. Any number of them could go wrong. He and Rowan agreed to put the sleeping draught into a bowl of milk, levitating it to where Mrs. Norris would drink it. However, that still left open the possibility of Filch discovering his beloved cat knocked out cold, which would surely enrage the caretaker to the point of no return. Discovery by a professor would be almost as equally as perilous. Furthermore, there was no guarantee the unlocking spell would suffice to enter the room, as many things in the magical world had stronger safeguards against it. All of this wasn’t even taking into account what actually be behind the door should they breach it.

Rowan, always the consummate organizer and planner was quick to point all of this out, and David knew they were all valid points, but at this stage in the game, the only thing left to do was to actually go out and execute. He could remember Jacob telling him something similar when he was nine.

“Pip, sometimes it’s better not to think too much about something. You have to commit yourself to an idea and have the courage to see it through.”

He shook his head, still not overly fond of the nickname Jacob always used for him when he was little. Careful not to let emotional memories of his brother cloud his judgement, he willed himself to stay focused as he met Penny outside of the Great Hall for the sleeping draught.

“Here you go, Dave,” she said, discreetly handing him a mid sized bottle filled with whitish liquid. “I made sure to brew this one with a little extra strength. Should be more than enough to knock out that old cat.”

“I can’t thank you enough, Penny,” he said, taking the bottle and slipping into his robes. “If all goes well, this will be the key to knowing what’s behind that door.”

“Let me know what happens, okay?”

“Of course.”

“I’m serious, Dave,” and Penny gave him a look the happy go lucky blonde rarely ever used on him or anyone. “Please don’t get hurt. And I want to know if it leads you to finding your brother.”

Preventing a mixed tide of emotion from rising in his chest, he forced it down and assured his Hufflepuff friend that he would acquiesce to both her requests.

“I promise, Penny.”

Knowing that they were heading to the door that same night, she gave him an enveloping hug and went into dinner to join her respective table, the young Gryffindor privately touched by her gesture.

The hours ticked by rather slowly that night. David, Rowan, and Ben had to pretend to be doing something productive in the common room whilst the other Gryffindors hung out, relaxed, did homework, or studied for exams. Gobstones, exploding snap, even a few lame quizzing sessions from Rowan, they exercised every distraction in the book to remain inconspicuous. Finally, after Charlie gave a final yawn and wished everyone goodnight, the three boys were alone, ready for whatever tonight would bring.

“I still say this is a bad idea,” Ben muttered aloud.

“You’re not backing out now, are you?” Rowan appraised him.

“No,” the blonde boy said a little more firmly. “I said I would go, and I will. But that doesn’t I’m not frightened of what I might discover.”

David sat up from the couch, a healthy amount of anxiousness surging through him.

“A wise cracking, pink haired Hufflepuff told me once that bravery isn’t about not being scared, but doing what needs to be done despite being scared.”

“Really? Tonks said that of all people?”

He laughed at Ben’s remark.

“She may be a goofball, but she’s brilliant in her own way.” He looked at his watch, careful to keep track of the time. “It’s almost eleven. We should start heading towards the corridor.”

Rowan nodded.

“If my estimation is correct, Mrs. Norris should be patrolling that area right about now. Have you got the sleeping potion from Penny?”

“Right here, mate,” he said, wiggling the bottle in his hands. “Let’s go.”

Tip-toeing quietly out of the room so as to not arouse any noise, the quest to find the first cursed vault had begun.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Just as Rowan had predicted, Mrs. Norris was roaming the hallway of the 13th corridor as soon as they entered it. They stayed out of sight to avoid her keen, crimson eyes as one slip up would have her alert Filch in a heartbeat.

David took out the sleeping draught as well as a bowl and some milk and proceeded to mix all three into an innocent looking snack that any greedy kitty would take a liking to.

“This next part is going to take some finesse in charms,” he whispered. “Ready, Ben?”

Swallowing, the blonde nodded nevertheless, whispering the proper incantation.

True to his prowess in the subject, the lifting and placement of the bowl could not have gone smoother. Ben managed to land it softly by the bench without the mangy tabby noticing a thing. When she finally did notice, she keenly rushed over to the bowl and began lapping it up with fervor.

From there, it took a matter of half a minute before Mrs. Norris stumbled over into a blissful sleep.

“Brilliant!” Rowan said excitedly. “First part of the plan is complete.”

The three boys headed over to the door, careful to keep their feet light and their voices down just in case anyone else was nearby.

“Would it be wrong to kick a cat whilst it slept?” David wondered aloud.

“Dave…”

“What? I’m not the only one thinking it. Everyone hates this stupid thing.”

“David, focus.”

He shook his head.

“Right, sorry.” He pulled out his wand and prepared to use it on the door. “Time to find out if Alohomora will do the trick on this.”

But just before he did, his right ear caught the sound of what sounded like boots shuffling echoing softly in the corridor.

“Did you hear something?” Rowan asked him.

“Yeah, but-”

Suddenly, three spells were fired off in rapid succession hitting each of the Gryffindors directly in the back or the side, causing their arms and legs to go rigid, snapping together like a makeshift plank and toppling over in a heap.

When the dust cleared, David found he couldn’t move anything except his eyes. No matter how hard he tried, no muscle or limb in his body would budge. But who or what on earth had caused them to freeze up like that? He wasn’t left guessing for long.

“I should have known you’d bring along that spineless mudblood, Grant. Pathetic.”

Merula

David didn’t know if it was possible to loathe anyone in the world at the moment more than the Slytherin girl. He wanted to get up and tear her to shreds with every fiber of his being, but that was nigh impossible. She stepped over his body and gazed down at him, a malicious twinkling dancing in her violet eyes.

“I was wondering how to unlock that door and get past that nasty cat. As it turns out, just waiting for you to do it for me was all I needed to do. I suppose I should be thanking you but then again I’d just be lying.”

She reached the door pulled out her wand, and uttered the unlocking spell, causing it to creak open.

“A cursed vault is inside here and as I told you before, I’m going to be the first one to get inside. Where’s that ‘I told you so’ now?”

She chuckled darkly.

“Guess you’ll have to wait until that body bind curse wears off. Should only take ten minutes. Unfortunately, I’ll be long gone by then. See you around, Grant,” she finished with a sneer.

Without a second thought, she stepped inside and closed the door behind her.

Had he been able to, David would have screamed in fury. Merula had gotten to the vault first.

[pinkjonginie]

Bitten pt. 20

Bitten

Part 1 - Part 2 -  Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8 - Part 9 - Part 10 - Part 11 - Part 12 - Part 13 - Part 14 - Part 15 - Part 16 - Part 17 - Part 18 - Part 19 - Part 20 - Part 21

Description: Hongbin and Baekhyun stare at each other and the room suddenly fills with tension.

Genre: Smut // Fluff // Slight Angst

Pairing: Byun Baekhyun x Reader

Mobile Masterlist | Request

After your talk with Hongbin you’re feeling a bit better about everything. With your decision to come here and leaving Baekhyun like that. If Baekhyun really is your true mate or just someone that actually cares about you then he should understand. You needed to learn about yourself and without Baekhyun.

So with that in your mind, the next morning you leave your room and walk across the hall to Hongbin’s room. You take a deep breath and raise your fist and knock on the door.

A couple of seconds go by and the door opens. Hongbin stands in front of you towel around his shoulders, hair dripping and and only wearing pair of shorts.

He rubs the back of his head with the towel. “Oh, hey Y/N. Good morning.” He smiles.

Your face heats up as you stare at his defined muscles. “I-Is this a bad time?”

He shakes his head no which makes the water from his hair drip down his abs.

“No. I was actually going to train in the gym. What’s up?”

An idea pops in your head. “Can I come?” You ask.

“Sure. Just let me get dressed.” He awkwardly closes the door so you wait against the wall patiently.

A couple minutes later, Hongbin walks out of his room now wearing a t-shirt and his hair semi dry.

The two of you walk in silence until you get to the gym doors.

“By the way, I’m going to be training with Sanghyuk so you can watch and see how we fight.”

You nod and walk over to a bench close to where the two boys were standing. They start off by stretching and after you watch as they both walk over to the wall and grab what looked like a sword similar to the one Jaehwan used.

“Y/N, come here.”

You walk over to the two boys. Hongbin pulls his sword out of his sheath and walks closer to you.

“So this is what foxes use to fight with. It’s called a katana sword and it’s especially deadly when the kitsune has an elemental power,”

“See look,” Hongbin points to the the blade in his hand. “It’s made out of this special metal that can absorb my power and use it to help me fight.” You see the blade light up, the characters on the handle glowing white.

“Mine glows white and Sanghyuk’s glows yellow.” He says pointing to Sanghyuk’s sword.

Hongbin tells you that they’re going to start sparing now so you take your seat. You watch with interest as the two men fight with so much energy and your surprised that anyone could do that.

After about 20 minutes of them training Sanghyuk gets a text from Hakyeon.

“Sorry hyung, but Hakyeon-hyung needs to talk to me.”

Hongbin waves him off. “It’s all good. See you later.”

Sanghyuk nods and waves at you. You watch him leave and you take it as your chance to go up to Hongbin. Now that you’re up close you can see that his hair is sticking to his forehead and he rolls the sleeves of his t-shirt up.

“That was pretty cool.” You tell him. He smiles and thanks you.

“Could I hold it?” You say staring at the sword. You were suddenly so drawn to it and wanted to touch it.

Hongbin walks over to you and gently places the handle in your hand. Once you feel the weight of the sword in your hands, Hongbin walks behind you. “Here, I’ll show you how to move with it.”

You feel his arms wrap around you as his hand cup yours in attempt to show you how to wield the sword. You almost stand frozen in his arms until you hear his voice again. His lips are close to your ear as he speaks.

“Ready?”

You take a deep breath and nod. Hongbin starts to move his arms with yours moving the blade through the air swiftly. Your heart’s racing from the feeling of finally holding something that’s connected to your fox and the fact that you can feel Hongbin’s breath on your neck.

“Now try it by yourself.” He tells you while pulling away. You nod and start moving the sword around just like Hongbin had taught you. You look down at the handle and realize that it’s glowing just like how Hongbin and Sanghyuk’s was only it was in gold.

“Is it supposed to glow?” You ask him curiously. Hongbin looks at the handle as well and his eyes widen.

“Oh my god, Y/N. You have an elemental power?” 

You look up at him as he comes closer. “What, really?”

He nods in excitement. “Yeah. The only way you can find out which one you have is if you wield the sword that’s been passed down through your family.”

You put the sword down and try to remember everything your grandma told you.

“But I can’t. My families sword is in Xiumin’s library.” You tell him sadly.

A smile comes over Hongbin’s face. “I guess we just have to get it then.”

...

“I won’t let you go.”

Hakyeon stares at Hongbin with crossed arms. For the past 10 minutes, Hongbin was trying to convince Hakyeon to let you two get your sword from Xiumin’s library. You’re sitting next to Sanghyuk who the two of you saw as he was leaving Hakyeon’s office. Before going in you told him about your mission and he said he’d come along to help.

Hongbin sighs and rolls his eyes. “Hyung seriously why not?”

“Because, it’s dangerous! You don’t know what Xiumin will do if he catches you. And what happens if he finds us? I’m not going to let anyone of us get hurt by a werewolf again.”

Hongbin nods. “Hyung, I understand what you’re saying, I do,” Hongbin rubs Hakyeon’s shoulder trying to calm him down. “But she needs her katana even more now and you know that. She didn’t come to us just to sit around. She needs to become a true kitsune.”

Hakyeon sighs while pinching the bridge of his nose. His head drops and he makes eye contact with you.

“Y/N, are you sure you want to do this?” He asks sternly. 

You immediately nod. “I do.”

Hakyeon sighs again. “What am I gonna do with you kids.”

Hongbin grins. “So is that a yes?”

“Yes, but on one condition. You can’t take Hyuk with you.” Hakyeon says looking directly at Sanghyuk who is sitting next to you.

“Hyung, why not?” Sanghyuk whines.

Hakyeon goes over to Sanghyuk and wraps his arms around the youngest. “Because I like you the best and I will not be sending you off on Hongbin’s suicide mission.”

You look at Hongbin as he gives you a thumbs up sign all while Sanghyuk tries to push Hakyeon off of him.

“Okay! Okay! I won’t go.” Sanghyuk groans as he manages to push Hakyeon off.

“I guess it’s time to figure out how were getting into that mansion.” Hongbin suggests.

“I guess so.”

...

one month later

You’ve been training everyday with Hongbin and it’s the day before your mission to get your sword. You can’t believe you’ve come this far. Hongbin has taught you everything you’d need in a fight and you thought you were getting pretty good.

At the moment you’re in a dual with Hongbin. You told him to not go easy on you so he was putting his full effort in trying to get your weapon out of your hand. 

“You’re good.” He smirks before he suddenly grabs your arm and bending it enough so that your katana falls from your hand. His chest is pressed against your back and you can feel his heavy breathing on your neck making a chill run up your spine.

“But not good enough.” He whispers.

You laugh. “You sure?”

With your quick thinking you remember how Hongbin taught you how to flip the attack on your opponent if your hands are trapped. With ease you trip Hongbin so he’s on the floor while you straddle him and manage to grab his sword and press it against his neck. Hongbin looks up at you with wide eyes.

“What were you saying?”

You hear clapping from the side so you look over to see Hakyeon and Jaehwan.

“Impressive work, Y/N.” Hakyeon compliments you. For the last month you’ve been trying to get Hakyeon to see how good you’ve gotten at fighting so you were excited that he caught the ending of your sparing with Hongbin.

“Thank you oppa.” You get off Hongbin and help him off the ground.

“How are you guys feeling about tomorrow?” He asks with concern. You knew from the beginning that Hakyeon was hesitate on you and Hongbin going to Xiumin’s base. He really didn’t want you especially going but he understood why you had to.

Hongbin shrugs and almost gets hit by Hakyeon.

“Fine, hyung. There’s nothing for you to worry about.”

He sighs. “There’s just more of them then there is of us. I can’t help but feel worried.”

Within the short month you’ve been here you’ve gotten really close to Hakyeon, Jaehwan, Sanghyuk and of course Hongbin. They all treated you like a little sister--well except for Hongbin. There was something about him that you couldn’t figure out. Was he just being friendly? You couldn’t tell, well that was until you were talking with Sanghyuk in the tree that the two of you found while on a hike a week ago.

“Really Y/N? Don’t play dumb.” Hyuk laughs as he reaches for your hand to help you onto the branch.

“I’m not! Seriously what are you talking about?” You finally sit next to Hyuk and he rolls his eyes.

“Really? You can’t tell that Hongbin likes you?”

You blink. You didn’t really see it. Yeah he was being nice to you but that was because Hakyeon made him. It could’ve been any of the other guys.

“He’s just nice. Besides, he has a mate somewhere waiting for him and I--”

Hyuk raises his hand cutting you off, “1. he doesn’t have a mate and 2. you need to get over Baekhyun.”

You pout. Ever since you started talking to Hyuk it was like you couldn’t stop. So now he knew all the details of what had happened with Baekhyun. It was different with Hyuk because he would just listen and let you vent about everything. With Hongbin you felt like you couldn’t spill all your secrets. It almost felt like you’d potentially ruin something if you ever did.

“It’s not that simple, Hyuk.”

He shrugs and runs his hand over the tree. “It could be if you just let it happen. I can tell hyung likes you. He wouldn’t be trying so hard, basically risking himself to help you get your katana back. I think after you get your sword you should talk to him about it. Just ask him.”

You groan. “Fine. Now will you drop this?”

You tried not to think about what Hyuk had said but it sort of threw you off during your next training session with Hongbin.

You fumble a little with your footwork, cursing under your breath. Hongbin looks at you and gestures you to take a seat next to him on the mats.

“Sit. Lets talk.”

“What’s going on? You’ve been acting strange all morning.”

You shake your head while taking a sip from your water bottle. “I’m sorry. I didn’t sleep well.” You lie. Well you actually didn’t sleep well but that wasn’t what was bothering you.

He crosses his arms. “Did something happen between you and Hyuk? You’ve been hanging out with him a lot lately.” Hongbin doesn’t look at you when he brings Hyuk into the conversation.

“No? We’re just friends.”

He raises a brow. “You sure?”

Your throat goes dry. Why would Hongbin ask you if you’re just friends with Sanghyuk? Then the conversation you had with him plays in your mind.

Really? You can’t tell that Hongbin likes you?

“I promise. We’re just friends.”

Hongbin wraps his arm around your shoulders not minding that you were sweaty and for some reason you didn’t mind either.

“Really hyung, you have nothing to worry about. Y/N knows her way around the place and she’ll have Jaehwan and I for back up with Wonsik waiting for us in the car.”

Hakyeon sighs. “I hope you’re right.”

...

You lay in bed trying to fall asleep but the full moon has you wide awake. You flip on your side as you look at the bright white light that seeps into your room and sigh. Just looking at the moon reminds you of Baekhyun and you’re feeling nervous about your mission.

Suddenly, you hear a knock on your door. The door opens a bit and you see Hongbin.

“You haven’t fallen asleep yet?” He asks you as he takes a step into your room. You shake your head.

“I’m not tired yet.” You say. You gesture for him to take a seat on your bed. The two of you sit quietly listening to the silence in the tree house.

“Whenever we have something important to do for the next day like a mission or as a kid all those training tests, the elders would give us this to eat.” Hongbin pulls out two wrapped candies from his pocket and hands one to you.

“They’re called Yeot. It’s a type of sticky and sweet candy made from rice.  Because it is so sticky it is believed that good fortune will stick on to you.” 

You take one of the candies after thanking him.

“My halmeoni used to give me these before my parents stopped me from seeing her.”

“Did you miss her?”

You nod. “Everyday. It felt like my best friend moved away. I never knew why until I went to her house almost a month ago.”

“I remember your halmeoni was one of the nicer elders. She wouldn’t get mad at us and she would always tell me that I would someday find my mate and she would be beautiful.” He looked at you.

You’re glad that the two of you are sitting in the dark. Only the light from the moon was there so you were thankful that he couldn’t see your blush.

“Well we should really get some rest.” Hongbin mutters. He’s about to get off your bed but you grab his hand to stop him. 

“Do you mind if you stay here?” You ask nervously. 

Hongbin blinks. “I promise I won’t touch you and these beds are huge. I just sleep better with someone else in the room.”

Hongbin giggles. “Y/N you had me at stay.”

...

“What are we going to do with these two?”

“It’s not like they have all day.”

“Oh just let them sleep they look so cute.”

You hear voices as you slowly start to wake up the next morning. 

“Oh it looks like Y/N is about to wake up.”

You groan rubbing at your eyes. You try getting up but you feel like something is holding you down. Some thing that felt really warm and cozy. You almost didn’t want to get up but you were so curious as to what had you trapped.

“Look at hyung’s face. I’ve never seen him smile while he slept.”

Your eyes snap open and you immediately see Hakyeon, Jaehwan and Hyuk standing next to you. Hyuk had his phone in his hand and it looks like he’s taking pictures.

“What’re you guys doing here?” You narrow your eyes trying your best to block out the sunlight.

“Y/N don’t you remember? We were supposed to have breakfast together but you two never showed up. Long night?” 

Hakyeon hits Hyuk to get him quiet while you furrow your eyebrows in confusion. Jaehwan snickers at your reaction and Hakyeon sighs.

“Sweetie, has Hongbin been here all night?” He asks you nervously.

You eyes widen a bit and that’s when you look down to see an arm wrapped around your waist. Your face suddenly gets hot and you don’t think because you’re aggressively pushing Hongbin away and he somehow lands on the floor. 

You hear Hongbin groans as you pull the covers over your body. You just realized besides Hongbin there was 3 other boys in your room and you were suddenly feel self conscious. 

Hongbin places his hands on the mattress and looks at everyone. “What happened?”

Everyone bursts out laughing and you try your very best to hide under the covers.

...

You’re about to climb into the van that will take you and the boys to Xiumin’s mansion when you feel someone pull at your arm.

“Hey could I talk to you?” Hongbin asks while still holding onto your wrist. You nod and let him pull you over to the side so you could talk in private.

“I just wanted to apologize about last night or this morning. I don’t want it to be awkward between us.”

You smile a little. “Hey don’t worry about it. I was the one who asked you to stay.”

Hongbin sighs. “So we’re good?”

Remembering what Hyuk had told you you’re suddenly feeling confident. You place your hands on Hongbin’s shoulders and place a chaste kiss on his cheek.

“All good.”

...

“It’s just down this pathway.” You tell Wonsik. He nods. “I’ll park a bit into the forest so it looks like we’re camping.”

Once everyone is out of the car you start heading towards the mansion. Your heart starts to race the closer you get and you slowly become more nervous. You suddenly feel a hand clasped around yours and you look up to see Hongbin. He smiles down at you before squeezing your hand.

“Don’t worry. I have your back.”

“Me too!” Jaehwan says taking a hold of Hongbin’s other hand. Hongbin groans and tries to push him away. “Hyung stop it. You’re seriously so annoying.”

About a minute later the three of you make it to the house. You look at the boys once more. “Let’s do this.”

You never understood but Xiumin always had the front door unlocked so it was easy to get into the mansion and even easier to locate the library. It only took the three of you a couple minutes to get there and finally stand in front of the display with your sword inside.

“Wow, I can’t believe it was that easy to get in here.” Jaehwan whispers.

“Yeah you would’ve thought they’d have more security or something.” Hongbin adds.

You roll your eyes. “Alright guys, enough talking so we can get the heck out of here.”

In a few minutes you have the glass open and the pieces of the sword in your backpack ready to go when you suddenly hear the door to the library open. The three of you freeze ready to hide when you hear his voice.

“Y/N? Is that you?” 

You spin around and standing only a few feet away from you is Baekhyun. He looks the same except his black hair was now white.

He takes a few steps towards you. “Y/N, what’re you doing here?”

Hongbin immediately steps in front of you and pulls out his sword. “Back up man, we were just leaving.”

Baekhyun narrows his eyes. “Y/N, who’s this?”

Hongbin and Baekhyun stare at each other and the room suddenly fills with tension. All you want is to get out of here in one piece so you grab at Hongbin’s arm.

“Put your sword down and let me talk to him.”

“What? That’s not happening.” Hongbin spits back as he glares at Baekhyun.

You pull Hongbin around and make him look at you. “We need to get out of here and the only way is if I talk to him. Please, Hongbin. I still trust him.”

Hongbin’s face softens at your words and he reluctantly lets you past him over to Baekhyun.

You can see how shocked Baekhyun is to see you. He thought he’s never see you again. Not after what happened that night.

“Y/N, what’s going on?” Baekhyun immediately takes your hand in his. “Why are you here?”

“I’m sorry, Baekhyun but it’s really complicated.”

“Then explain why you did what you did? Besides being my mate you’re supposed to be my best friend.”

You can see the hurt all over Baekhyun’s face. You wish you could explain everything but right now wasn’t the right time.

“Baekhyun I’m—” Hongbin cuts you off.

“Y/N, we really have to go.” His voice pulls you away from looking at Baekhyun. Time is running out and if you stay any longer with Baekhyun you know that you’ll eventually get caught by Xiumin and the others.

“I’m so sorry Baek, but we have to go.”

You’re confused and upset but without another word you and the guys leave Baekhyun standing in the library. You’re trying your best not to show the guys how upset you are from seeing Baekhyun so push your feelings aside and focus on getting back to the car.

Finally the three of you make it to Wonsik’s car hidden in the forest and you’re about too climb into his car when Hongbin pulls you back.

“What the heck was that back there, Y/N?” Hongbin looks mad and you can understand that he has every right to be. You could’ve blown the mission but it was Baekhyun and you knew he wouldn’t let you leave without saying a word to him.

“You know I only did that to get us out of there, right?”

Hongbin rolls his eyes. “Sure, how are we supposed to believe that? You obviously still have feelings for him.”

Jaehwan steps in, “Calm down Hongbin. You don’t have to be an asshole.”

“Am I wrong though? You still love him don’t you?”

“Y/N!” You turn around to the sound of your name and see Baekhyun running towards you.

“Baekhyun? Did you follow us?”

Baekhyun’s breathing heavily but shakes his head. “No but there’s something I need to tell you.”

“Ever since you disappeared Xiumin knew you’d come back for that sword. He knew that because he knew all along that you were a fox. It’s a long story but he knew you’d come for it so he made sure to take one of the swords pieces and it’s sitting in his desk. You can’t leave without that last piece.”

Hongbin grabs your hand and you automatically look at Baekhyun for his reaction. He looks annoyed but doesn’t dare to look at Hongbin. “You can’t trust him. This could be a trap, Y/N.”

“I’m not lying to you Y/N, you know that I would never.”

You’re conflicted at this point. You’re not sure who to listen to but as you look into Baekhyun’s eyes you know that he’d never lie to you. Despite everything that has happened you still care about him deeply and you know that in the end he’ll always be there for you.

You pull away from Hongbin and go over to Baekhyun. “I believe you but how am I supposed to get the last sword piece back?”

“It’s not going to be easy but I’ve been keeping an eye out for Xiumin. He usually leaves his office around 3:15 to have tea with Luna. I can sneak into his office and get the sword piece for you.”

“You’re going to betray your alpha? There has to be a catch.” Wonsik mutters.

Baekhyun chews on his lip nervously. “If I do this there’s no going back to being a member of this pack. I knew that the day you left me but I can’t be without you anymore. Even if it means you’ll just be my friend. If I do this Y/N, please take me with you.”

[smoaking-greenarrow]

#13 if you're still taking prompts?

Arrow Out of Context Part 2!

“Once you let the darkness inside, it never comes out.”

(Post 6x20 fic!)

Felicity’s words circled his mind over and over, a never ending loop that had him spiraling downwards, his carefully constructed walls crumbling to the ground around him just like his city.

She was his glue. His foundation. His rock. And she had warned him.

He didn’t listen.

“Oliver, I love you. And I trust you, but this plan is crazy. What makes you think Anatoly will forgive and forget?”

“I’m hoping he doesn’t forgive and forget, honey. We need to find Diaz. Anatoly will take me right to him.”

A long silence filled the space between them, ringing through his ears in their apartment that felt so much more like home ever since she’d come to call it hers, too. “Diaz is not Slade Wilson, Ra’s al Ghul, Adrian Chase, or Damien Dark.” She argued, crossing her arms.

He could see that she was getting upset, and he closed the distance, standing in front of her and rubbing his hands up and down her arms. “I know,” he said, offering her another smile. “He’s a thug, Felicity.”

“Exactly, Oliver,” she snapped. “Slade had his revenge, Ra’s had a code, Adrian had a plan, and Damien had a method to his madness. Diaz has none of that.”

He stared down at her, stepping closer and wrapping his arms around her. “Right,” he said carefully, “Diaz has narcissism…and that’s about it.”

She shoved him backward, pushing on his chest until he let go of her, “it’s not funny, Oliver! This isn’t a game to me.”

His eyebrows shot up, and he raised his hands in surrender, surprised by her temper. “Okay,” he nodded, “okay, you’re right. Felicity…you’re right. Diaz isn’t like the men we’ve been up against before.”

“You underestimating him is going to be what gets you killed.” She fumed, her anger bubbling up more than he’d seen it in a long time.

“I’m not underestimating him,” he defended gently, “I see him for what he is.”

“A thug?” She asked, raising an eyebrow.

Oliver hesitated, seeing that she was challenging him, that it wasn’t the answer she wanted, but he shrugged anyway. Because it was true. Diaz was child’s play compared to other people they’d encountered.

His wife nodded, glancing away from him, “and how many thugs have you known who fight fair, Oliver?”

After that, she’d walked away, heading into their bedroom, leaving the door open for him. Always. And he knew that he could follow her. He could curl himself around her in their bed, hold her while they went back and forth like this for a few more rounds. Disagreements always felt better when she was between his arms…but he didn’t have time. He had a meeting with The Bratva to get to.

Step one had been clearing Anatoly’s debt. Getting him back into the graces of The Bratva. Step two was pretending to believe it was enough to mend their friendship.

He’d expected that Anatoly wouldn’t accept the olive branch. He couldn’t say he predicted getting tazed, but the outcome remained. Step three, of course, was getting himself in a room with Diaz. Even the fight he saw coming. If there was anything he knew about Ricardo, it was that the poor guy always had something to prove. And he always had to use his fists to do it.

Oliver never hoped that Diaz would keep his word. Men like him didn’t go by any kind of honor or respect…Felicity was definitely right about that. But he’d felt good, the whole thing had gone as he’d expected it to. He just needed Diaz to yield, and for Anatoly to realize that they were brothers, they’d always been brothers…and then he’d be exactly where he wanted to be. It was all working…until he’d felt Diaz stab him.

So now he stared at the wall of his holding room, his hand cuffed to a metal bar, and his wife’s words running through his head. “And how many thugs have you known who fight fair, Oliver?”

He should have known better. Every mentor he’d had had drilled it into his skull; expect the unexpected. He’d known that…but his problem wasn’t that he’d underestimated Diaz. It was that he’d overestimated him. He’d expected the man to hold himself with the same pride and dignity as The Bratva. He’d expected his opponent to fight with the same honor and morality as The League of Assassins.

He’d kept telling Felicity that Diaz was nothing more than a thug. Yet he hadn’t walked into that battle prepared to fight a thug. He’d prepared as if he was about to face Ra’s on a mountaintop, when he should have had his eyes open and his instincts ready to fight a cheap-shooting loser.

Thugs don’t fight fair.

On the other side of the door, Felicity was sneaking her way through the precinct. She’d called in a fake sighting of Black Canary and Spartan that half of the crooked cops took off to deal with, then she’d set off one of the armed doors on the other side of the building, distracting a few more. The security cameras were feeding a loop from an hour ago, so the hallway was clear.

Aside from the two stooges guarding the room where her husband was.

Having no more tricks up her sleeve, Felicity simply approached them, watching as a smile spread across Anatoly’s face and Black Siren arched an eyebrow. “Open the door.” Felicity demanded, ready to show Black Siren how her punch had improved since the last time her fist met the woman’s mouth.

Anatoly stepped aside, still smiling, even though Felicity was ready to knock some of his teeth out, too.

She glared, her eyes shifting from Anatoly to Black Siren. One guard dog was already yielding as soon as he’d seen her. But Black Siren was a little more hesitant. She didn’t want to get in trouble with her Diaz, and Felicity had a hard time holding in a sadistic laugh at the idea of Black Siren being his pet; one who barked, or screamed, on command…one who sat when told to sit and bit when told to bite.

The woman had already tried to kill Felicity once, and her friends a handful of times more. There was no point in playing nice now. Black Siren was a whole head taller than her, but it didn’t stop Felicity from lifting her chin and squaring her shoulders, stepping close until she had to look up at her. “If I let you in there,” Black Siren seethed, “he’ll kill me.”

Shaking her head at the frightened, unbelievable tone, Felicity rolled her eyes. Did Quentin actually buy this act? She’d tried to play the same card when it was Adrian Chase’s thumb she was under.

But this woman was no caged bird. 

She could sing and shatter the eardrums of any man who tried to control her…going along with them was her choice. It was plain to see. “You know,” Felicity said, stepping closer to her, “I’m sure you’re sick of Quentin comparing you to the Laurel from this earth. Trying to force you to be like her.” Black Siren’s eyes narrowed slightly, as if she thought Felicity was sympathizing. A look flashed in her eyes as she stared down at Felicity; a predator who believed she had her prey exactly where she wanted it.

But she couldn’t be more wrong. “When I look at you, I don’t even see our Laurel. The Laurel I knew was full of compassion, motivation, and kindness. I think you know that from the moment I saw you…the night you came to the bunker claiming to be her…I didn’t see you as the Laurel I knew. Do you want to know why?” Felicity asked. Black Siren cocked her head to the side, listening. “Because you’re not her. You never will be. You’re a sick, sad woman and that’s the reason you align with men like Ricardo Diaz, Cayden James, and Adrian Chase.”

Black Siren scoffed, fighting not to be offended. “Telling me that I disgust you isn’t going to help you get into that room.”

A flash of anger ignited Felicity’s next words, “once you let the darkness inside, it never comes out.” She shook her head, “I’ve watched every hero I know try to fight that darkness…slay their demons. But you? You are your demons. And I feel sorry for you.” Felicity exhaled, seeing that her words were melting the anger right off of her. “You don’t have darkness inside of you, Laurel. It consumes you.”

The woman in front of her was taking too long to get the hell out of her way, and Felicity was really considering how many options she had to remove her from the path to her husband. But Anatoly reminded her of his presence before she had to put any of her ideas into action.

He came up behind Black Siren, catching her neck in a choke hold that quickly had her eyes rolling back. As the woman passed out, Anatoly dragged her weight over to a bench along the wall, mumbling “your husband taught me that one,” as he left Black Siren in a slump.

Then he walked back over to the door, pulling out a set of keys and opening it for her.

Shouldering past Anatoly, Felicity came into the holding room and her eyes immediately found Oliver. He blinked at the sound of someone coming in, but aside from that, his face and his body remained motionless.

She closed the door behind her, leaving Anatoly in the hallway to take care of Black Siren. “Hey,” she sighed, coming around the table to kneel in front of Oliver. His face looked worse in person than it had on TV, and she gently ran her fingers over the gash on his eyebrow. “You okay?”

Oliver’s eyes finally shifted to look at her, but it was only for a moment, then he closed his eyes, not meeting her gaze. “What are you doing here?” He asked instead.

“I’m checking on my big dummy of a husband,” she teased, nudging his knee. But he didn’t smile. He opened his eyes, but only to stare at the table in front of him. She cringed, “Oliver…it wasn’t stupid, bad joke…sorry. You took a risk.”

He shook his head, “and look where it got me.”

“I know it seems bad right now-”

“Felicity,” he cut her off sharply, leveling her with a look. “I’m about to be put on trial at the hands of the most corrupt officials this city has ever seen.”

“They don’t have any solid evidence, Oliver,” she argued, her hand sliding up his thigh, trying to comfort him. “You’re the mayor and a bit of a media attention hog. There’s nothing they can do without every news station broadcasting it to the world. Diaz is an idiot…he can’t go anywhere near this trial unless he wants to be next on Samanda Watson’s list.”

He glanced down at her, “they don’t need evidence. Not real evidence, at least. Diaz can do whatever he wants. I’m sure he has a judge in his pocket that would gain a nice paycheck for this trial.”

“Maybe,” she shrugged, “then we’ll just have to make sure that we can prove without a doubt that you aren’t The Green Arrow.”

Her husband hesitated, glancing at her like she was crazy for a moment before he finally moved, leaning closer to her. “How are we going to do that?” He asked lowly, raising a blood-soaked eyebrow at her. “I am The Green Arrow.”

“Says who?” She asked, a slow smile spreading across her face as she got an idea. “The only photo Diaz has was fabricated.”

“I know,” Oliver mumbled, his hand finding hers, “but how are we going to prove that I’m not The Green Arrow?”

She smirked, “by showing the city who is.”

He cocked his head to the side, and then his face fell, his eyebrows furrowing, “No one else is taking the fall for me, Felicity…especially not John. I let that happen with Roy, and I will never do it again. I don’t want any of this to be happening either, but we can’t let him do that. Do you hear me?” He asked, his eyes pleading, “I know you love me, and I love you too,” he rambled. “So much, honey. But I would confess to everything…before I let Dig or anyone else give up their life for me again.”

“Slow down,” she chuckled, rubbing her hands over his legs. He took a deep breath, keeping his eyes on her face as he stopped to listen. “I didn’t mean John. We have a certain friend who takes bullets for a living?” she prompted, “can make himself look like anyone we choose.”

Narrowing his eyes, he considered her words. “Christopher Chance…” he nodded, “but who? Felicity, even if you called him, even if he crashed down into the courtroom and-”

“Oh,” his wife interrupted, her eyes widening, “I like that idea.”

He sighed, because he’d meant for it to sound too dramatic, but he could already see the wheels turning in his wife’s head. “Even if we ask for his help…” He mumbled slowly, “Chance has to take on someone’s face…we’ll be putting a bounty on that person’s head. Every criminal who felt wronged by The Green Arrow will know his face. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to let anyone, not even a stranger, be a scapegoat. Are you really ready to paint a target on someone’s back like that?”

She chewed on her lip, considering his words, and he could see that she already had at least a couple of ideas. He trusted her, he really did, and he knew that she would never let someone get hurt, not even to save him.

“Hey,” he whispered, interrupting her thoughts, waiting until she met his eyes. “Promise me you’ll be careful.”

She smiled, nodding quickly. “Always, baby.” She said with a wink, making him shake his head, amused.

“I’m being serious here…Felicity, you were right. I should have just taken Diaz down when I had the shot. I shouldn’t have bothered with all of these games. I played right into his hand.”

“No,” she soothed, standing up just so she could move over him, taking a seat on his lap. He wrapped his one free arm around her waist, balancing her on his knee. Felicity hugged him, her arms winding around his neck, and he made sure to inhale, to take a deep breath in as her hair grazed his nose. He wasn’t sure how to tell his wife, but he was afraid of how long it’d be until he got to breathe her in again. “Oliver,” she whispered in his ear before pulling back to look at him, “you were right about Anatoly. Your plan worked. He let me in, and he’s outside that door right now, making sure we’re safe in here.”

Oliver’s eyes closed at that; the slightest relief, the smallest victory in a war he shouldn’t be losing. “And we’re going to be fine, Oliver.” Her hands ran through his hair, her cheek pressing against his head as she murmured to him. He leaned into her, resting his head on her chest. “Diaz was a fool to speed up your trial. He clearly doesn’t know who he’s dealing with. You and me?” She squeezed him a little tighter, “no one has a shot against us when we’re on the same team.”

Pulling back, her husband smiled up at her. “We’re always on the same team, honey. Forever.”

She chuckled, leaning down to kiss him. As she pressed her lips against his, he slid his tongue across her lower lip, tasting her…again, out of fear he might be able to for a very, very long time. It wasn’t the time to think about that, though. “I love you,” he told her instead.

She nodded, pushing her forehead against his. “I love you, too.”

“Well isn’t that sweet,” Diaz’s voice made Felicity gasp, whirling around to look at the doorway.

Oliver didn’t react aside from his back stiffening, but when Felicity tried to jump out of his arms as if she was going to lunge at Diaz with a sharp “you sick son of a bitch,” he gripped her tighter.

Ricardo just raised an eyebrow at his firecracker of a wife, nodding as if he was impressed with her temper. Oliver wasn’t. Her habit of antagonizing psychopaths would never be okay with him. She tried one more time to wiggle off of his lap, but he honestly had no idea what she would do, so he held tight.

With a huff, Felicity relented, her tiny hands balling into fists in her lap instead. “What do you want?” She spat, “because my husband might have one hand cuffed to this table, and you might think you’d actually have a chance at beating him without having to cheat like the scum that you are-”

“Felicity,” Oliver hissed.

“I promise you’d be wrong, though.” Her eyes never left Diaz as he paced in front of the table where they sat. “He’ll kill you with one hand if he has to…” Felicity whispered, “but you’ll be especially sorry if my six inch heels happen to find themselves in your eye sockets.” She finished, flashing the man a sarcastic smile.

Diaz just watched her for a moment. Felicity’s anger was enough to make her stare back, but Oliver could see the cold and calculated assessment behind Ricardo’s eyes.

He was studying her. For what? was the question that had his heart beating a little too fast, that had his fingers gripping into her waist a little too tightly. “I’m not a monster, Miss Smoak.” Diaz said lowly. His voice and the emotionless look in his eyes said the opposite. “I have compassion for your situation. You must be frustrated and upset…to see your husband so emasculated. I’ll give you a moment to say goodbye.”

Oliver’s eyes narrowed as Diaz crossed his arms, backing up until he was leaning against the window. His lips twitched with a grin as he waved his hand in front of him, “go on.” He winked.

“You’re disgusting.” Felicity seethed.

Oliver sighed, “hey,” he spoke to her. Only her. Putting his index finger under her chin, he softly guided her gaze back to his own, giving her an ‘it’s okay’ smile. And then he nodded once, her eyes on his the whole time as they came to an understanding. She’d call Christopher Chance, whether he wanted her to or not. But it wasn’t a bad plan, and he trusted her to find the best way to make it work without anyone he loved suffering because of him.

There wasn’t a chance in hell he was going to kiss her while the sick freak in the corner watched, so he pressed his lips to her cheek, shifting his eyes to Diaz as Felicity hugged him one more time.

But then Oliver wondered where she was going to go. He didn’t even want her to have to pass by Diaz on her way out of the door, let alone have him leaving with her. Would he follow her home, try to hurt her? 

Oliver was just about ready to refuse to let her go, to make good on her words that he’d kill Diaz with his hand cuffed to the table if he had to.

Before he had to worry about it, the door swung open and Anatoly appeared, his hands behind his back. He was flanked by men that Oliver recognized from Russia…and he couldn’t help but smile in relief.

The Bratva were here.

“Mrs. Smoak,” Anatoly spoke with the confidence that made Oliver proud to call him a friend. The honor that made him admire him from the day they’d met. “Car is ready to take you home.”

“I drove myself,” Felicity frowned, glancing from Anatoly to Oliver.

He looked up at his wife, “let Anatoly and his men drive it, and you, home…please?” Felicity searched his eyes, finally nodding in agreement, probably hearing the desperation in his voice.

“What the hell is this?” Diaz asked, still leaning on the window as if the sight of the Russian mob wasn’t intimidating him.

Oh, but it was.

“This is Bratva, Mr. Diaz.” Anatoly said proudly, giving Diaz a smug smile.

“You said that they cast you out,” Diaz replied.

Glancing at Oliver, Anatoly winked, “Friend of mine fixed mistake, so I suggest you stay away from Queen family now.”

Ricardo’s eye actually twitched. Having The Bratva on their side, between Oliver’s contacts and Anatoly’s, they were already a step ahead of Diaz. Add in his brilliant wife and whatever she’d scheme up with Christopher Chance to drop a bomb on Diaz’s plan for the trial, and he felt more confident than he had since Diggle left the team.

He was proud, too. Of his friend and his wife. His friend, who he knew would keep Felicity safe, nodded to him in a silent promise. She was safe with Anatoly. The Bratva may be criminals themselves, but they could protect her and William. It lifted a burden from his chest to know that they could step in during his absence. And then there was his strong wife…and god, if that woman wasn’t the love of his life…she kissed his forehead before standing up and straightening her dress. 

Felicity only allowed one glance to Ricardo Diaz, her eyes shifting over him as if he was the gum on her shoe as she walked by.

The Dragon noticed, and he wasn’t backing down.

As Felicity moved past him, she was conscious not to let any part of her touch any part of him, squeezing between the table and where he stood. But Diaz grabbed her elbow, stopping her in her tracks. She froze for a moment, and Oliver did too.

Felicity tried to pull her arm away, and Diaz’s grip tightened. 

Anatoly took a step closer, and Oliver yanked on the cuffs, preparing to break his thumb and slip out of it if Diaz kept his hands on her for one more second…

“I’m sure I’ll be seeing you soon, Miss Smoak.” Diaz said, ignoring Oliver, ignoring Anatoly. His gaze and his words were focused on Felicity. “Maybe under less…hospitable conditions next time.”

Felicity stared back, her own voice dropping to match Diaz’s, “wouldn’t that be unfortunate for you.”

[denyansu]

Beast Chronicles ~The Flameclad Beast~

It’s time to duel!

Cast:

Hideo - 轟 ｲｸｻ, Todoroki Ikusa Kanon - 万宝塚･ﾏｼﾛ･ｸﾛｲﾂｪﾙ, Mahouzuka Mashiro Kreutzer* Nao - 氷剣 ﾏﾓﾙ, Hitsurugi Mamoru

Seiji - ﾐｽﾀｰｴｯｸｽ, Mister X Shiro - 大神 ﾗｸﾞﾅ, Oogami Ragna Ryu - 焔 ｺｳｶﾞ, Homura Kouga**

*I tried searching for the reading of 万宝塚 but legit no one seems to know and there’s no clues anywhere lmao. Some suggestions were Manpouzuka/Mahouzuka/Mahoutsuka. I just picked one at random. **Homura or Honoo, I dunno. Both surnames mean flame. Please help me, name reading isn’t my speciality.

Story

Chapter 1 Mofumofuen learn that they’re going to be in a drama for “Beast Chronicle,” a popular card game they always play in the dressing rooms. Nao and Kanon are happy to be part of it, but Shiro is over the roof - he’s casted as the drama’s leading role!

Chapter 2 FRAME are trying to figure out the ins and outs of the card game. They got pointers from Mofumofuen and want to put things to the test. Using the decks Mofumofuen gave them, Seiji challenges Hideo to a duel. Hideo tries getting started right away but Ryu stops him; at the start of a battle you’re meant to shout, “Wake up!“ Hideo asks if it was really necessary but they were taught by Mofumofuen that it was a super important phrase!! Although embarrassed, Hideo goes through with it.

Chapter 3 FRAME continue with their duel. Hideo’s deck is a powerful offensive type, similar to his role in the drama. Seiji’s deck is balanced in attack and defence, also similar to his role’s. They feel like they’re getting the hang of the game by playing it themselves.

Chapter 4 Hideo loses to Seiji. They want to get a good grip on the game before shooting for the drama begins so they want to keep playing. Ryu eagerly wants to play the next game against Hideo because he thinks he’ll win. Hideo gets fired up but Ryu reminds him that he forgot something important -- to say “Wake up.”

Chapter 5 Turns out that Ryu thought wrong and he got completely owned by Hideo. In the drama, Ryu plays Shiro’s coach. In order to make the most of his deck and live up to his role he needs to practice more. 

Chapter 6 Shiro’s going over the drama’s script but came across kanji he can’t read and calls for Nao. He’s all fired up for the drama since it’s his first leading role, so he’s giving it his all and reading the script ahead of everyone. Shiro remembers that this week also has a shoot for their Mofumofu Kingdom show and asks Producer for a favour.

Chapter 7 Producer and Shiro are in a practice room at a TV station. Shiro wants to practice there alone, keeping this quiet between the two of them so he can surprise Nao and Kanon. He records himself acting so he can review his actions.

Chapter 8 Nao and Kanon are in the TV station’s dressing room, impressed when finding out that Shiro arrived earlier than them. Kanon wishes Shiro called them, though, so they could practice together. Shiro apologises and says he wanted to concentrate alone. They make plans to do joint practice after Mofumofu Kingdom recording and evaluation meeting.

Chapter 9 Mofumofuen start their meeting after recording is done. Kanon notes how energetic Shiro is. Nao says that when he and Kanon got leading roles they felt a lot of pressure, but Shiro is full of confidence. Shiro tells them they have to be all BOOM and KA-BLAM! and they all try practising that.

Chapter 10 Back at the office, FRAME are in another battle. Ryu practices a strategy he came up with against his younger brother with Hideo and wins. His brother is into Beast Chronicle as well and gave Ryu some of his extra cards to use in his deck. Hideo wants to strengthen his deck too and suggests they go to a card shop together. Seiji says he’ll ask Mofumofuen if they want to go with them.

Chapter 11 Seiji and Hideo get their hands on some good cards but wonder how they’ll incorporate them in their decks. Ryu goes through a bunch of booster packs but gets all doubles lol. Luckily! He comes across a bunch of grade schoolers who want to trade. He spots a kid in the corner he thought made eye contact.

Chapter 12 Ryu approaches the boy in the corner. The kid is a beginner so he’s worried about mingling with other players. Ryu tell him that he’s a beginner too so he understands, but it’s more fun to play with other people. If there’s anything he doesn’t understand Ryu will teach him. Ryu teams up with the kid to battle another player.

Chapter 13 The two end up winning and the kid mingles with the other kids in the store after that. Hideo calls Ryu ‘o great coach’ and Ryu seems surprised that he was watching their match in the tiny card shop. He still has a lot to go before he can be considered a great coach so he wants to practice more back at the office.

Chapter 14 The drama shooting begins here!

Ragna: “I’m Oogami Ragna. My hobby and special skills is Beast Chronicles! I just transferred here so I don’t know much about this place, though. Coach...? Ah, I was taught Beast Chronicles by someone in the upper division. I was boiling with excitement when I heard from coach that Seishin Academy is full of intense card battles! So with that said, I’m looking for worthy opponents! Feel free to call out to me any time! Let’s have a fiery battle that’ll burn into history!”

Chapter 15

Magazine ｵﾝとｵﾌ.

Next up is a battle between Shiro and Nao’s characters.

Ragna: “Go, Silver Soul Wolf! Break that iron wall shield with your fangs!” Mamoru: “Darn... To think my Phalanx Turtle would be... Hmph, not half bad.” Ragna: “Heheh, you finally smiled! As expected, battles should go like this!” Mamoru: Smile? In this situation... There’s no way. If it’s not a win then it’s worthless... But... Why is it that, in the depths of my heart I’m shaking... This feeling... What is it...!?

Kanon congratulates them on finishing the scene. During this scene Shiro realises that he’s still plenty behind Nao and becomes frustrated.

Chapter 16 Shiro and Seiji’s character are clashing.

Ragna: “....I see, that’s right. My only goal became winning... It’s the same as Todoroki Ikusa. I lost against him... I’ve been stupid. But now, I remember! Battles are meant to be more fun and passionate...! To be the strongest is to ‘have fun!’” [Red flashing light] Ragna: “Wah.. What is this light!? --Someone, inside my head... This voice, I heard it in my dreams...” Mister X: ���Come now, listen to the card’s voice and call its name! Awaken the beast that sleeps within!” Ragna: “Arrgghhh! The name engraved in history! Flame beast god, Blazing Fenrir!”

Shiro had tripped over his lines several times during this scene and starts thinking that if it were Nao he would get it perfect. He knows he can’t keep going like this..

Chapter 17 Kanon jumps Shiro and begins tickling him. He noticed Shiro acting off and casts his relax magic. He makes them all hold hands and Nao reassures him that everything will go smoothly since they’re together. Shiro regains his confidence and resolves to give it his all for the rest of the shoot.

Mamoru: “In the qualifying round, the biggest challenges are Todoroki Ikusa and Mahouzuka. Those two are strong. Are you ready?” Ragna: “Yeah. Me and you together are invincible! The strongest duo will use their power to get revenge!” Mamoru: “Fufu... To think I’d be partnered with you. That’s somewhat thrilling.”

Chapter 18 Nao and Hideo’s characters are battling.

Ikusa: “You brat... You’re about to lose so why are you smiling!” Mamoru: “...Because I’m having fun. They’re feelings you will have never known.” Ikusa: “Foolishness. I’ll make sure to crush you in the next turn! Now...” [Blue flashing light] Mamoru: “I hear a voice... Come, let’s carve history together --Guardian knight, Adamantia!” Ikusa: “What... How did I... Why... How in the world...” Mamoru: “Sensei, thank you for the game... It was a very fun battle.”

FRAME rave over the scene. Since they learnt the rules of the game they could grasp the way they’re meant to react better with card effects and how powerful certain cards are.

Chapter 19 Kanon and Nao’s characters face off.

Mamoru: “Arghh...! Amazing... To think you had that much power hidden away...!” Mashiro: “How is it? Mashiro is strong, right ♪ Sensei, Mashiro perfectly followed your instructions. Victory is everything. Although sensei has been dismissed since he lost to Mamoru-kun ♪“ Ikusa: “Y-You brat...!” Mashiro: “My next opponent is, let’s see... Ragna-kun, is it? Fufu, please to make your acquaintance ♪”

Ryu is shaking at Kanon’s performance. Hideo says that if he had a legendary card like Mashiro then Ikusa wouldn’t have lost, but Seiji says that’s just how the story goes. Ryu tells him that if this drama sells well then maybe he’ll win in a sequel lol.

Chapter 20 Ragna and Mashiro finally go one on one!

Mashiro: “No way... Mashiro lost...? Even though I fought seriously, why...!? I see, that trap from before was successful... If I drew a magic card then... Ugh~! One more round, if we play one more round I’ll certainly win~!” Ragna: “Mashiro’s Waker soul doesn’t hold anything back! You love Beast Chronicles too, don’t you! This battle between us, it’s engraved in my history!! Let’s battle again! Ahhhh! Let’s end this!! Flame beast god, Blazing Fenrir!! Direct strike on Mashiro!!”

Chapter 21 Kouga: “Ragna, Hitsurugi! Congrats on your victories! Those were some fine battles!” Mister X: “Yeah, the fighter’s blood was boiling. I’m anticipating the national competition!” Ragna: “Oh, you’re that suspicious old man from that time! What are you doing here...?” Mister X: “Heh, you’ll soon find out. That’s right, Kouga and I will be the exhibition match opponents!” Ragna: “Huh... Hm... WHAT!? Then that means you’re coach’s coach... You’re THAT Shidou Masamune!!?” Mamoru: “Star Waker Homura Kouga and the powerful Waker Shidou Masamune... Haha... This prize is too wonderful...” Kouga: “Then let’s go! Your Beast Chronicle soul, show it to us too! Wake up!!”

Chapter 22 Mamoru: “I summon Guardian knight, Adamantia! Do you think you can break down my fortress?” Masamune: “Wonderful...! Such power. In that case, I will respond to that soul! It’s my turn! Draw! Go, awakening summon call rank 5 Sunny Bird! Screech! Roaring thunder god, Shining Leo! Use your powerful fangs to break down the iron wall shield!” Mamoru: “Argh... So this is the strength of the most powerful Waker...! Fufu, it’s amazing... I’m trembling with excitement!”

Chapter 23 Ragna: ”In my history, this is the greatest, most fiery battle ever! Coach!” Kouga: “So you’ve remembered how to have fun during battles! That’s right, those who have fun are the strongest! Now, come, Ragna! Show me your Beast Chronicle soul!” Ragna: “Of course! I’ll give you everything I got! Roar, flame beast god, Blazing Fenrir!” Kouga: “Burn it, shining explosive dragon, Volcanic Dragon! Take that deadly blow!” Ragna & Kouga: “Ahhhh!! History is being carved!”

All that’s left is the ending. Shiro seems to have something to say to Nao but he decides he’ll tell him after filming and runs off.

Chapter 24 Ikusa: “All you brats are... That’s right, a coach’s defeat means my qualifications got revoked. That’s the law of the fighter’s school. Whatever, I’ll go. If one is to attain power then the fruits of hell will surely be worthy. Kukuku... HahaHAHAHAH!!” [Fade out] Mashiro: “Sigh... Sensei and Mamoru-kun, everyone’s gone... It’s boring...” Ragna: “If that’s so then let’s battle! And become friends!” Mamoru: “Fufu, exactly. In times like these we should battle. A fun battle, right?” Mashiro: “Wh- What’s this out of the blue!? Mashiro is an enemy, isn’t he? To be friends... I don’t understand!” Ragna: “Once the battle is over we’re friends. A person who fights a fiery battle can’t be evil! Come on, let’s go Mashiro! Mamoru! Let’s make Beast Chronicle history today too!”

Chapter 25 Shiro goes to tell Nao the thing he wanted to tell him before; he understands the pressure of being the main lead. For Nao, who has had several leading roles, Shiro thinks Nao is amazing for putting up with it every time. But Nao is the one who thinks Shiro is amazing because in his first leading he was too nervous and couldn’t act properly at all. Shiro beams at hearing that. Kanon pops up and asks them if he’s amazing too w. Nao says that Kanon is amazing because he’s able to do so much while being younger than them. Kanon smiles and says it’s because he’s an older brother~ And so Shiro concludes that Mofumofuen is amazing!! the greatest!! 315!!

[armyhat210]

Chapter 3 : Qualifications

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 

Summary:

Kiyoku finally learns how to be a proper Shaman and the Qualifications that it takes to be a Shaman. This is just one small step to becoming a powerful nature Shaman that we will see her grow into.

Now that Kiyoku had her first real prediction, Yohmei decided to take her training to the next level. Despite still being a child the first thing she would need to learn is how to harness the nature spirits into proper oversouls. “Despite nature being all around you, you’ll need to learn how to harness it into a proper oversoul. Different biomes will have different nature spirits as well so it’s best you keep other pieces on you in case you need their power” he explained to her. The girl nodded her head. “Your next mission is to gather these different pieces of nature,” he said, handing her a small brown knapsack.

He dropped her off at the base of the mountains and told her he’d be back for her in a week. Kiyoku used this week gathering items of nature that she kept in jars and practiced her oversoul. She collected green leaves that turned into the same little oversoul spirits that Yohmei used. River water for the water spirits. Lose dirt from the base of the mountain for the earth spirits. Ashes and sparks from the small campfires she made at night to stay warm for the fire spirits. And strong winds for the wind spirits. The spirits kept the items in her bag stayed fresh along with the help of her leaking furyoku.

When she returned Yohmei was pleased with this development. The next thing he taught her were cards. “You’ll need to get used to bleeding and pricking your finger. You will be able to write spells and create your own prediction deck.” Kiyoku’s eyes widened when she heard that. Yohmei chuckled. “That’s right. Shamans who create their own spirit decks tend to have a better connection with them and are able to produce clearer predictions” he told her. Interested Kiyoku listened to Yohmei with sparkles in her eyes. Yohmei continued on explaining to her how she would be able to use the items she collected from the mountain as a medium for her deck. “You’ll be able to put your oversoul in the deck and the spirits will tell you which cards you’ll need for your prediction as you have done so before” he continued on.

After his explanation he gave her some paper and a needle. “It will take time creating a deck that suits you. Do not feel rushed.” he told her and left her to learn. It was hard at first but the shaman first got used to the feeling of getting her finger pricked.

Once the finger pricking was easier she learned how to write the kanji for the spirits with her finger. This would take her a couple of months to get used to and learn. Unlike Yoh who got to go to normal school, Kiyoku was taught at home the most basic needs to survive in the world. To Yohmei, his great niece was someone who would die in the Shaman Fights or be married off as an asset to the Asakura clan.

Creating her own deck took time though. A two years went by before the young Shaman was able to create a deck she actually liked. For her small hands she was able to make a small deck that fit in her hands perfectly. There were plenty of cards of each element as that was the most comfortable for her to read. The next step for her was to get the different nature spirits into the cards and keep enough focus to make predictions.

Keeping focus for her was hard as she already had problems with her furyoku leaking out at all times. Despite her age she still struggled with this but Yohmei passed it off as something that couldn’t be helped because of the amount of natural furyoku she had.

Finally at the age of 12 she was somewhat able to control the amount of Furyoku she was leaking out as well as being able to make proper predictions. Although Kiyoku was taught to read prections on the table, her style of predictions was different than Yohmei’s. The cards and nature were something she couldn’t escape and it showed when she made predictions. The cards would float around her as she picked the cards and placed them on the table. Very much like Yohmei, Kiyoku’s predictions were spot on and perfect.

Yoh had turned 13 and moved to Tokyo to prepare for the Shaman Fights. He had his own guardian ghost to seek out now that he had somewhat recovered with the loss of Matamune. He wouldn’t keep in touch as he had his own struggles to deal with. The only excitement was when Yoh’s fiancee Kyoyama Anna visited during the new year and right before she went to go help with Yoh’s training in Tokyo. She was the one who kept the family updated with Yoh’s progress and adventures.

It was a pretty cold night when Kiyoku looked up in the sky to see a meteor shower. “Ah, Yohmei-sama!” she called for her uncle inside the house. He waddled out and saw the falling stars. “The shaman fights are among us,” he told her, looking at the meteor shower. Kiyoku stared at it, taken by how beautiful it looked. “It’s hard to think that something so beautiful is the prelude to something so dark and terrible” she muttered. Yohmei glanced at her. “Your guardian spirits could say the same thing about you. Nature itself is beautiful but it can be destructive.” he reminded her. She nodded her head as they continued to watch.

That night Yohmei made several predictions but he didn’t share any of them with Kiyoku. He also forbade Kiyoku from making any more predictions about the Shaman Fights. Afraid of losing her home she agreed not to do anything that would upset her guardian. As she headed to her room she saw Yohmei in his candle lit room still making predictions with his deck. She pulled her deck out of her dress pocket wanting to make a prediction as well but she knew better. Shaking her head she started to get ready for bed.

Kiyoku wasn’t the type who cared about appearances but tonight for some reason she stared at herself in the bathroom mirror. Without a doubt she had the Asakura hair, the tall brown bangs, and flaring out ends that sprayed on her shoulders. Once she had tried to grow it out but the wind spirits would make it go in her face distracting her and breaking her concentration. Her soft brown eyes were filled with kindness and they were softer than her older cousins.

She wore the same black dress that all the Asakura women wore. Her and Anna used to be the same size but now Anna was taller than her and Kiyoku was wearing her hand me downs. The young Asakura changed into her pajamas and got ready for bed.

The qualifications started to go out. A certain patch member wanted to test both Asakura children Kso one night before he went to see his closest relative he went to see this Shaman of Nature that the Great Spirit told him about. All dressed up in his full gear oversoul he stared down at the young shaman.

Kiyoku was checking the grounds before she was going to head to bed. That’s when this shaman showed himself. “You must be Asakura Kiyoku.” he said looking down at her. Kiyoku looked up at him floating in the sky. Trust him. Trust him. His spirits are one of us. One of us. “Yes. I’m Asakura Kiyoku” she said calmly. “I am Silva of the Patch Tribe here to test you to see if you qualify for the Shaman Fights in Tokyo” he introduced himself.

The younger shaman stared at him in awe and amazement. “Your test will be to land one hit on me with your oversoul” he told her. “Sounds easy enough,” she commented. “Good then let us begin” she heard a different voice on Silva talk. The Nature Shaman looked up to see the head of the eagle looking down on her. The attitude on this one. Attitude. Kiyoku’s face twitched and Silva’s eyes widened. “So it’s true. You can hear its voice” Kiyoku frowned. “I don’t see how it’s so shocking that I can hear the nature spirits. Many Shamans can hear the voices of lots of spirits and ghosts.” she explained. Silva smiled at her.

“It is true that shamans can hear the voices of those who have not joined the Great Spirit, but there are very few that can hear the Great Spirit. Those shamans who can hear are usually the ones who are in tune with its creations. Very much like yourself.” he explained to her. Kiyoku was amazed by this information. Not once had she ever been told that her shaman abilities were tied into the Great Spirit. Silva nodded his head and then said, “Now to participate in the Shaman Fights you must land one hit on me within the time span. You can use whatever medium but you must be able to produce an oversoul.” She nodded understanding this, after all this is what she had been training for, the right to battle in the shaman fights to support her older cousin.

Kiyoku went to reach into her bag but Silva’s eagle caused the knapsack to fall and all her material to fall out. “In the real world you won’t always have resources to use against your opponents.” he lectured her. “Go easy on her. She clearly has never faced real battle” the snake on Silva’s arm commented. Kiyoku on the other hand had a choice. She could try to gather her jars and hope to use one of them to land a hit on Silva or the young shaman could do something she never thought she’d be able to do before. Because the girl leaked furyoku she could actually fuel and give form the spirits of nature all around her. It was a tactic that Yohmei told her never to do but the fact of the matter is, Kiyoku doesn’t know the limit of her powers.

“You have ten minutes,” Silva said as Kiyoku continued to stare at her materials. The Asakura made up her mind as she looked up at Silva. Control requires concentration but letting go only took a single thought, freedom. With a deep sigh, Kiyoku let go of the control she had allowing her furyoku to fall off her body and embed itself into the ground. The earth ate her furyoku as each blade of grass created a small warrior around her. The wind inhaled her furyoku creating small birds floating around her. Silva felt his body getting heavy as he looked down to see these wind spirit birds appearing all around him and landing on him.

Silva looked at Kiyoku to see her distracted due to her trance-like state. He used the snake whip to try and grab her but a sword appeared in the snake's mouth. The little grass spirits had combined themselves and blocked him. The ground below shook with every step the grass warrior took. As it got closer to the Patch member, it grew in size. Silva prepared for battle but Kiyoku is a kind soul, the grass warrior was just a distraction. Instead it was the spirit birds made of our wind spirits that had been surrounding Silva, and went unnoticed by him. When the grass warrior was close enough that Silva was fully focused on him the birds circled Sliva creating a tornado that left several cuts all over Silva's body. The warrior stopped and Kiyoku blinked, snapping out of her trance.

The Patch warrior floated there for a moment before he let out a hearty chuckle. “Very good,” he told her, smiling. His spirits returned to their original forms as he went over to her. “Congratulations,” he said, giving her an oracle bell. Confused, she took it and looked at it. “This is?” she asked. “An oracle bell. And also your ticket to enter the Shaman Fights. With this the great spirit will summon you to the three qualifying rounds before the next stage” he explained. She nodded her head before she bowed. “Thank you.” he nodded to her and took off to the other Asakura he was supposed to meet.

Kiyoku looked at this oracle bell before she heard the door open and saw Yohmei there. He looked both pleased and annoyed. “You let go of your control” he said, frowning. She looked down. “But it wasn’t in vain. At least you got what you needed for the shaman fights” he said waddling over to her. “Pack your bag child. It’s time for you to meet Yoh and Anna in Tokyo” he said. She bowed and then headed inside excited to pack up. It would be the first time in seven years she would get to see a city again.

[imaginekpoplikethis]

7 Years - BadBoy! Jeon Jungkook X Reader - Part 10.2

Now that I technically have a two week break, hopefully updates will come faster.  To the anon who suggested a beach date, I hope this lives up to your expectations.

Thanks for reading guys, I really appreciate it. Love youuu

The end of 7 years may be approaching soon.

What are your thoughts on this part?

Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4  Part 5  Part 6  Part 7  Part 8  Part 9  Part 10.1  Part 10.2 - Here  Part 10.3  Part 11  Part 12  Part 13  Part 14  Part 15  Part 16  Part 17  Part 18  Part 19  Part 20 - Final

"Let's go out again." Jungkook's head rose from his desk and he stared at you as you stood in front of his desk, hands on your hips.

"You want to go on another date? Sure. Where though?" You sat down on the desk in front of his and placed your hands on your lap.

"Well, since we're literally on the verge of summer, it's gotten hotter so we should go to the beach." His eyebrows rose at your suggestion before he slowly nodded his head.

"Okay, I can borrow Namjoon Hyungs car and drive us down there."

"You can drive?" A small smirk spread on his lips at your question, and you in turn raised an eyebrow.

"Kind of. Hyung taught me, I just don't have a 'real' license." Your eyebrows furrowed and you stood from the desk, lightly smacking him on the head. "How do I know you won't end up crashing the car? I don't want to die."

A boyish chuckle escaped him and he rested his head on his arms once again, closing his eyes.

"I'd never hurt you let alone kill you. Just trust me on this one." Still a bit worried, you bit your lip before turning around.

"Oh and Y/N?" When you turned back to look at Jungkook, he had his eyes open again, eyebrows drawn together. He reached out and tugged your skirt lower down your legs.

"There's a shit ton of perverts in this school. I don't like when they look at you like you're a piece of meat."

Overprotective much? Not that you minded.

-

You had arranged to go to the beach on your next school break which was convenient since it was only two weeks later. When the Monday of your date rolled around, you found yourself eagerly packing your bag for the day out. Jungkook had said to be ready at 11am which was only a mere hour away. You threw in all the necessites needed for a day at the beach and double checked your outfit for the day.

A black crotchet halter top paired with a plain white skirt that stopped mid thigh and a large thin cardigan that reached down to your knees. Obviously you were wearing your swimming costume underneath to save time when you arrived at the beach. Your phone vibrated when a new message came through and you glanced at the screen, seeing that Jungkook was waiting for you outside. Grabbing your bag and slinging it over your shoulder, you headed downstairs and bid your family goodbye before slipping on your flats and exiting the house. Judging by the heat you were immediately  hit with, you had picked the perfect day to go to the beach.

A honk caught your attention and you spotted Jungkook sitting in a white convertible BMW. Jogging towards the car, you couldn't contain your surprised face as you opened the passenger door and slid into the seat next to him.

"Namjoon drives a BMW?" He glanced at you before returning his attention back to the window in front of him, slowly driving out onto the road.

"Not really, it's his but he doesn't really use it... I guess he's trying to keep it as new as possible since it took him ages to save up for it." Jungkook then reached to his side without taking his eyes off the road and handed you an iced tea from your favourite café.

"It's hot so I bought you a drink." You smiled at his thoughtful gesture and thanked him, gratefully taking the drink and sipping on it whilst staring at his unchanging face. Since the drive there would be at least an hour and a half, you passed the time by making small talk and before you knew it, Jungkook was parking the car in a parking lot. Grabbing your things, you stepped out of the car and stretched. Jungkook had taken a beach umbrella out of the trunk and begun raising the roof and locking the doors whilst you took it upon yourself to look for a spot. Not many people were out today so there was plenty of spaces available. Settling for one in between the ocean and the food stand, you gently placed your towel on the ground and sat down. Jungkook stabbed the bottom of the umbrella into the ground, providing you with relief from the sun.

"Are you not going in the water?" Laying back down on your towel, you glanced up at Jungkook's confused face before giving him a slight smile.

"Now's the perfect opportunity to try and get a tan. I'll go in later." Shaking his head at your reply, he stripped his shirt off and laid himself down next to you. You tried your hardest to not ogle at his defined abs.

"You're not even going to change into your swimsuit?"

That would have been a smart thing to do.

You smiled sheepishly and shimmied out of your skirt, pulling your cardigan and top off to reveal your black and white striped two piece. Jungkook didn't say anything and instead gave you a half smirk to which you shook your head in amusement. Slapping on a layer of sunscreen, you laid back down and closed your eyes. You weren't sure how long you were like that for but a sudden shadow that cut off the only light you had made you open your eyes again. A girl stood before you with a slightly embarrassed face.

"Um, sorry to bother you but would you and your friend like to join me and my boyfriend in a game of volleyball? You don't have to if you don't want to." She kind of reminded you of Areum which caused a smile to grow on your face before you nodded enthusiastically. She returned your smile with a grin before she headed back in the direction she had come from. Turning to Jungkook, you were slightly shocked to see he had fallen asleep.

Well, you did kind of ignore him in favour of a tan so it's no wonder he fell asleep with no one to talk to.

Crawling towards him, you placed a hand on his cheek, lightly tapping. His eyebrows furrowed and he grabbed your wrist but made no move to remove your hand. Sighing, you bent down and placed a kiss to his forehead which caused him to shift slightly.

"Kookie? Come on wake up. Let's play volleyball." His eyes slowly opened at the mention of volleyball and he rose up from his position in the sand, running a hand through his hair. Blinking a couple of times, he then lent forward and rested his forehead on your shoulder, snaking his arms around your waist.

"Volleyball...?" His raspy voice made goosebumps rise on your skin and you patted the back of his head, encouraging him to lift his head. When he did, he stared at you with half closed eyes and a drowsy smile on his face.

"With who?" You pointed in the direction the girl had went and he followed your finger to see the couple standing before a net a little ways away, smiles on their faces. Rubbing his face, he stood himself up and grabbed your hand, hauling you up too.

"Fine but there's not going to be any real competition. You're dating the golden maknae so my skill has rubbed off on you." He began to walk in the direction of the net with you following closely behind, hands still joined together.

"I'm going to assume your calling me golden and take that as a compliment for your own good." You could tell he was smiling without even having to look at his face. Upon arriving, the couple greeted you and introduced themselves as Seo-Jun and Ha-Yun.

"You two are dating right? That's great! A battle of the couples then." You grinned at Ha-Yun's words whilst Jungkook looked out towards the sea, nodding his head with a blank look on his face. Settling on your side of the net, you watched with anticipation as Seo-Jun served the ball and Jungkook immediately sprinted forward, jumping up into the air and smacking it down on the other side of the net. You stood there in absolute shock at the speed and power he delivered and it seemed your opponents were just as shocked because Ha-Yun's mouth had dropped open whilst Seo-Jun's eyes were as wide as saucers.

At this point you knew without a doubt Jungkook could carry your team on his shoulders with no help at all.

But you happened to be extremely competitive too, not to mention now that you were dating the 'golden maknae' you had a status to uphold.

"1 point to Jungkook and Y/N. Definitely did not see that coming." Seo-Jun nervously chuckled and Ha-Yun blinked a couple of times before regaining her composure. Readying yourself for the next point, you tied your hair up in a high ponytail and made eye contact with Jungkook, to which he gave you a quick nod. Ha-Yun served this time and Jungkook watched as  you bounced the ball back over. Just as it was making its way back to your side, Jungkook took the chance to earn your team another point. It was at this point where the opposing team seemed to take Jungkook's skills seriously. Seo-Jun too, began scoring points and you had to refrain from jumping out of the way of the incoming ball. He was a lot stronger than you had initially thought.

The match continued on like this for at least twenty minutes before you and Jungkook had taken the lead. He seemed to be impressed with how you were currently playing and you couldn't deny that made you feel proud of yourself. The ball was served by Seo-Jun once again and Jungkook moved forward, preparing himself to score yet another point. However, he tripped right when his hand made contact with the ball and sent it flying straight up into the air. Scrambling up he glared up at the ball before he motioned for you to get closer to him. Hoping you understood what he intended for you to do, you jogged forward before placing a hand on his shoulder whilst he lifted you up, sending you into the air and you slapped your hand down on the ball. Whizzing past Seo-Jun, you watched as Ha-Yun attempted to return the ball but ultimately fail. Luckily Jungkook hadn't actually thrown you all that high so he easily caught you, placing you down on the ground.

"That was amazing! It was like something out of a movie!" Ha-Yun gushed over your improvised move and you grinned back at her, Jungkook shaking hands with Seo-Jun.

"That was a great game. We should play again sometime." Jungkook nodded, a small smile spreading in his face. When you parted ways, exchanging contact information with Seo-Jun and Ha-Yun, Jungkook turned to you and grabbed your hand, leading you back to your spot on the beach.

"I didn't think you had it in you to pull a move like that off." Laughing, you peered into his face.

"Well what did you think I was going to do?" Shrugging his shoulders, he brushed off the remaining bits of sand from his trunks. Taking two cold water bottles out of the cooler bag, you handed him one and went on to gulp down half of your own bottle, watching him do the same. He wiped his mouth with the back of this hand before replying.

"I don't know, bounce the ball in my direction?"

"I'm not that incapable." It was his turn to chuckle now and he threw his arm around your shoulder, leading you towards the sea.

"We should celebrate by getting wet." Rolling your eyes, you stopped in front of Jungkook, poking him on the bicep. There was more muscle than you had expected.

"That was so uncalled for."

He smirked before staring straight at you. "I really couldn't pass up the chance to say that. Besides, I've always wanted to do this."

He proceeded to shove you backwards and you stumbled a good distance back, regaining your footing. You had ended up waist deep in the water.

"Wow, how did I not see that coming? Typical beach move." Deciding to take revenge, you began to march through the water towards him. You hadn't even made it three steps before you stepped on a massive clump of seaweed, effectively making you slip backwards and disappear underneath the waters surface. When you managed to get back up,  Jungkook's distinct laughter was what you heard and your face burned crimson.

"Now that was anything but typical." Jungkook then walked into the water and when he noticed you were still vexed, he grabbed the sides of your face and lowered his head down to kiss you. When he released you, your annoyed expression was replaced with a delighted smile.

"Let's see who can hold their breath the longest!" Your suggestion made him raise an eyebrow.

"What are you, five?" Although he seemed to question your childish idea, he began counting down and you both dunked your head underneath the waters surface.

In the end, Jungkook had won and requested two more rounds. You goofed around for about two hours and then you found yourself lying by the shore on the sand, staring up at the sky.

"It's going to rain."

Turning his head in your direction, Jungkook gazed at the side of your face in fondness.

"Should we go then?"

Releasing air from your nose, you continued staring up at the grey clouds that were approaching.

"No... we're already wet anyway."

He didn't reply and instead continued eyeing you. When the first couple drops of rain had fallen, you shifted your body onto its side and faced Jungkook, returning his gaze with as much tenderness as he was showing.

"I'm sorry for ignoring you when we got here. It wasn't intentional."

His eyes closed a little and a soft smile he only ever showed to those close to him grew on his face. The warm drops of rain began to fall heavier, however, you made no move to get up.

"I know. Don't worry I wasn't feeling neglected or anything."

A relieved smile soon spread on your lips and you brought a hand up to his face, resting it on his cheek.

"Besides that fall you had made up for it anyway." Your face darkened and a glare settled on your face.

"I hope you catch a cold."

"I don't mind as long as you catch one too. Besides, you would have to take care of me."

"No I wouldn't. I'd just send Jin over in a pink frilly apron to torment you. He is the mother of the group after all."

"If you do that I'll make you sit through Jimin and Taehyung's English." A distant memory of Taehyung and Jimin discussing the word 'beach' in English crossed your mind and you shivered at the thought.

"Now that's just plain evil."

Your conversation ended there and a comfortable silence settled. At least twenty minutes later you decided that you should leave and you stood up, grabbing your things and finding the changing rooms and showers. After ten minutes, you reemerged sand free and changed. The rain had become a light drizzle and Jungkook was leaning against the wall outside of your stall. He motioned in the direction of the car with his head and you hoisted your bag further up your shoulder, trailing behind him.

Once you were both inside the car, you gave him a lingering kiss on the cheek.

"Thank you for driving out here."

"My princess is grateful? That's a first."

"Don't make me take back what I said."

"I'm just teasing. You're welcome, Y/N."

He ruffled your hair affectionately with one hand, his other still on the wheel and his eyes trained on the road. Smiling to yourself, you turned your attention to the window, watching the buildings pass by.

Looks like you were safe in a car with him for now.

[mirkwoodshewolf]

A God’s pupil Loki x teen reader

This one was actually a request that I was given on wattpad PLUS a prompt that I came across on “Imagine Loki”’s tumblr page, I may post this request on their pg idk I still need to figure out how do you submit other work onto other tumblrs and review their guidelines. Anyways I’m glad people are starting to like the stories I’m putting up :)

“Imagine Loki coming across a group of children picking on another child who is younger, smaller, and obviously defenseless. He comes to his/her’s aid, remembering how it felt when other Asgardian children picked on him growing up. After comforting the child, he offers to show them some magic, whereupon he accidentally discovers this child has a talent for sorcery. He decides to take the child under his wing and make him/her his student, watching them grow up over the years. He teaches them magic, how to fight, and how to outsmart their opponents. The two become very close, and consider each other family. One day, years later, Loki’s protégé is confronted by the same bullies who tormented him/her years earlier. Thanks to Loki’s training, his/her tormentors are defeated, and they call a truce. Loki watches from afar, secretly, with a proud grin on his face.“

Taglist:

@evyiione

______________________________________________

I can’t believe that witless oaf Thor has forced me to stay down here in Midgard as punishment for my crimes. I would rather be locked for eternity in the dungeons or even death would be a more pleasant punishment than staying down here, living with his ‘Avenger’ friends. I would give anything to be anywhere else in all the nine realms but here where hardly anyone is of use to me, the Midgardians always fighting amongst each other for the most stupidest of reasons, they needed to be ruled, which I would’ve easily done had it not been for those meddling Avengers.

Luckily I managed to sneak out of the Tower and disguise myself to hide among the crowd so those oafs wouldn’t find me.  One can only take so much from being in that tower.

It wasn’t until I suddenly came across a school yard of sorts to see a bunch of children making crude comments to a younger Midguardian girl.  I stood and just watched as these older adolescents gang up upon this petite young girl with short brown hair and glasses.  I took notice of these juveniles starting to push and shove this young child around making me feel something that I haven’t felt in a long time.

Empathy.

I began to remember the times I was teased back up in Asgard for my weak stature, and always preferring magic instead of brute strength and raw muscle like my cow of a brother.  

Having enough after seeing one of the bullies shove this poor girl towards a tree hitting her head, I trudged towards them heated with anger as I called out to them.

“Halt right there you worthless slugs!” The bullies turned towards me and one of the girls stated.

“Who the hell are you?”

“I think it be best if you don’t know. But what I will say is if you don’t stop tormenting this child, you lot are going to be very sorry”.

“Ha this guy thinks he can take us on!” A boy now taunted.

“I’d rather not pick a fight with children, but I will punish them to teach them a lesson”.  It was then I surrounded them in green mist and when the mist vanished I had turned them into pigs.  They all squealed and weed as they ran home like dogs with their tails between their legs. I smirked and stated.  “Classic pigs tale, never gets old. That’s one good thing that came out of this realm”.

It was then my attention turned to the young girl whimpering by the tree. 

I cautiously knelt down beside her and could see her shoulders shaking and hear her beginning to sniffle as if she were about to start sobbing.  Her hands blocked her face from my sights and I slowly reached out and stroked down her head feeling a slight bump on her head, focusing my magic on that spot I healed her and while I did that, she suddenly shot up her head and looked at me. Her (e/c) eyes glistened red with unshed tears that she was probably dying to release but refused in front of her tormentors.  I knew the feeling all too well, but this time she would have someone I didn’t back then.

“It’s alright now, let them out. They’re gone now, it’s okay”.  It was then she let out a sob as her head lowered down and she suddenly wrapped her arms around me and cried into my shoulder.  Normally I would push a person away and just go on about my business maybe even use my magic on them to get them off me, but this girl—I can’t explain why but I felt the need to comfort this girl as she needed me more than anything else, and I could almost sense some more greater pain than what had just happened.

I wrapped my arms around her with one hand rubbing soothing circles on her back and the other one stroking through her brown hair.  All the while I gently rocked her and whispered sweet nothings in her ear to hopefully give her some comfort.

“Shhhh, it’s okay little one, it’s okay. They’re gone now, I’m here, I’m here for you now, shhhh”.  I allowed her to weep as much as she needed and when she finally started to calm down, I separated from her just a bit and said to her as I wiped away some of her tears away, “watch this little one,” I then conjured up a beautiful star just for her.  

Her eyes widened and she cautiously reached out for it but retreated away.  

“Go ahead, it’s yours. It won’t hurt you”. I assured with a gentle smile.  She took the star and held it in her hands and just stared at it in pure amazement. As I looked down at this young child, my heart started to beat, my stomach to mush and I felt this sorta affection for her beginning to grow, like she’s more than she appears to be.

Little did I know how right I was because at that moment that star I gave her began to glow brighter.  I covered my eyes from the brightness only to soon see that she had created a constellation right there in her hand.

This child could do magic.

I just stared at her in shock when I heard her voice finally ring through my ears.

“You’re gonna mock me too, aren’t you? All the others ids do, and my parents disowned me as a child knowing I could do this. This thing has ruined my life ever since I first discovered it, I try to wish it away but everyday it grows more powerful and there’s no way I can control it. Sometimes I wish I wasn’t born a freak and just die”.  How could this sweet thing be saying this? She looked to be about 13-15 years old how could she wish for such a cruel fate at this delicate of an age? She had also said that her parents have abandoned her because of this gift and that is also another reason why the bullies pick on her. This child truly does remind me of well me in a way. Her parents disown her for a gift, children tease her and pick on her for it, and she feels all alone in this world because of such an amazing gift and what she could do with it with the proper training.

“No, no you’ve seen what I can do. That would mean that I pick on myself for doing magic. Listen dear one, magic is not a curse, it’s a gift. Where I come from magic is a wondrous thing, my own mother taught me how to do magic so that I wouldn’t be in the shadows of my father and brother. You are a truly gifted child among this rabble of humans, a true diamond within a rubble of rock and stone, all you need is time, patience and some training, and you can become the greatest star in the world”.  I stood up and gave her my hand and continued, “come with me. I can teach you all that I know of magic, I can teach you to shine and show you that you don’t have to hate this gift you’ve been born with”.

“You can teach me to do that?” she asked skeptically.

“Indeed I can”.  I gave her a soft smile and waited for her to take my hand.  She looked up at me then at my hand and slowly reached out her hand for mine until she finally took it.  I helped her stand up and I teleported us back to Avengers tower and said to her.  “Welcome dear one, your magic training begins now”.

*FF TO 16 YEARS LATER YOU’RE POV*

It’s been years since that day when Loki saved me from the bullies and had taken me under his wing and throughout all that time he and I became very close.  No not in the romantic kind of way, we sorta became like each other’s family, he became like a father figure to me and he looked at me in the proud daughter type of way. I couldn’t have asked for anything more than the day he found me and promised to teach me how to control my magic.

He taught me how to use it to defend myself, how to fight with it, to outsmart my opponents, and on the bright side to play pranks on the Avengers whom also have taken me in as part of the family but I was still rather close with Loki than anyone else.  

He and I were practically inseparable and even one day when Thor had said that since Loki has learned his lesson serving here on Earth and was allowed to go back home, he refused with pride and told Thor that it was because of me he found a reason to stay on Earth, and he refuses to leave until the end of my days, maybe even watch over my children should I ever settle down with a guy. 

And for his statement, I have been truly grateful of him and continued to strive to be the best.  Even now as a young adult he still teaches me some new tricks to help me become the greatest illusionist just like him.

And it was a good thing to because one day all those lessons would soon pay off.

I was on my way back to Avengers Tower after my day job at a big fashion company when I saw walking up the street were my old bullies.  As I tried to find another way to the tower I heard Tashi’s voice say.

“Hey isn’t that (y/n)?”

“My god that is her” said Aaron.  My heart raced as I could see them as well as the other bullies coming closer.  But it was then I remembered Loki’s lessons and it almost seemed like I could hear his voice speak out the rule.

Rule #3, Show no fear. Be confident in yourself. Never show your enemy you’re afraid. Trust in yourself and in your powers, and they will never fail you.

I took a breath then turned to see my group of tormentors now standing before me all grown up and I plainly said to them.

“Yes, it’s me. Surprised to see you all here, and still together”.

“Yeah well, sometimes you never lose touch after high school right?” Tashi said.

“It has been awhile hasn’t it (y/n)?” Said another female bully names Alyssa said.

“Yes it has, what brings you all here?” I asked trying not to show my impatience for them to share why they were here and not just because this was a simple stroll.

“Well, you see we’ve been looking for you?” Aaron began but I snapped at them.

“If you guys think I’m gonna fall prey to your torment think again! Now start talking your you’re going to be very sorry!” My anger suddenly snapped and I summoned a fireball in my hand ready to roast them alive.

“No! No! No! No! No! No! No! That’s—that’s not why we’re here! Please (y/n) just listen to us!” Aaron proclaimed.

“Yeah, we’re really, really, really sorry about how we made your life a hell back in school, we we’re just kids back then we were stupid and clueless to torture you the way we did. We wanted to make peace with you and hope that you would forgive us if we apologized!” The other groupies all nodded and proclaimed the same few statements all at once.

After all these years I’ve had to suffer with these guys always teasing me, abusing me and making the whole school turn against me they didn’t even deserve to live.  I could just let them feel all the pain they gave me. I had them here kneeling before me, so I could just let them burn slowly and painfully.  But—

But Loki’s voice rang in my head again.

Rule #1; Don’t use magic for vengeance. Using magic that way can lead to dark magic, and once you go down that road, the journey back isn’t easy. Trust me. I know. I won’t teach you to get revenge, but to control it and keeping it pure. You have the most purest of magic that I have ever seen, don’t you ever taint it for vengeance.

I dispersed the fireball and relaxed and turned to look at them still frightened by what I almost did then I asked them.

“You promise this isn’t a trick?”

“No, we really want to make amends with you (y/n) besides secretly we were jealous of you. You had these awesome powers and we didn’t”. Clyde, another bully said.  I softly smiled then said,

“I know a great Shawarma joint just a few blocks away, I’m buyin”.  They then stood up and we all walked towards the Shawarma joint, all the while talking about what we had all been doing.

Unaware that standing along the sidewalk watching us was a certain God of Mischief disguised as a typical business man.  He looked at me with gentle eyes and a proud smile spread across his face.

[d-clarence]

The next entry in my fan-made novelization of events from the Fifth and concluding Season of Samurai Jack continues!

Here, we dive into some uncharted territory in the series, namely the origins of the Daughters of Aku, and a little backstory I created of the High Priestess (of whom I named “Azula” as a nod to Grey DeLisle’s work for both characters).

Enough about me rambling, here’s a little excerpt from the story. Read, review and like, it really helps!

- - -...- - -

Words are truly peculiar.

They can sink deep into a person's mind, altering belief, thought, and action. They burrowed and bred deep inside Lilith's mind until she grew to be even more devout in her faith and her trust into Aku, even to the point of insane ramblings. This often put her as odds with both family and friends alike.

As one would expect, this ideology was not favored by the many. Her own parents distanced themselves from her because of her perverse and unshakable beliefs, and those she grew up with and once trusted mocked and bullied her for putting faith in such foolishness. She oft times returned home beaned and bruised by those posing as the Samurai. The slings of those around her grew too much to bear, and it was at this moment, she finally snapped.

She took it upon herself to run away from everything and everyone she ever knew. When she ran from home under the cover of night, she was barely into her mid-teens by then.

Little did she know that her inclination did not go unnoticed…

"There is no home for me out there… my own friends and family are worthless!" She muttered, fully believing no one would ever come to understand her.

As she ran through the dark and silent forest aimlessly, it no longer mattered where she went. She only knew to keep moving forward at all costs. For the first time in her young life, Lilith was more alone than ever. All she had left on her was her black leather jacket, worn blue jeans, and mid-calf length hiking boots.

When she vaulted over a rock, she did not pay mind as to what lay on the other side, for her surroundings took a sudden, sharp dive. As she fell down a sheer slide of dirt, he screamed as she fell and tumbled down the hillside, kicking up dirt and earning herself several scratches and bruises from the sharp brush and rocks. Eventually, she came to a sudden halt when her body impacted the side of a tree.

"Ughh..." she groaned as she struggled to sit up.

The night made it difficult to see. Standing once more, she reached above her for what she perceived to be a tree branch.

It was not.

A hand pulled Lilith out from the dirt much to her surprise. She looked up in shock as to who could have possibly followed her all the way here. While it was dark, she saw the figure clearly. Tall, enshrouded with a dark, hooded cloak that hid this individual's features from view. The skin on her hand felt oddly smooth and cool. It was covered in some kind of black, tar-like substance, melded onto the wearer's flesh.

And this hooded figure was not alone.

Six more emerged from their hiding places in the woods. From the way their robes or cloaks enveloped and hugged their lithe bodies, she can clearly see they were all women.

"Who… who are you?!" Lilith demanded, raising her fists up at them. Her past life of facing bully after bully taught her to be an effective street fighter, albeit an amateur.

"We know who you are, Lilith Rosewyn," the lead figure announced. "You are quite unlike the ones we recruited in the past… a desire for our Master… your alignment to his ideals…" she stroked the adolescent's chin whilst she spoke, smiling in admiration. "Most impressive…"

Swatting the hand away from her face, she spat, "What the hell is it to you?!"

"Now, now, young one," the figure rose her hands, pleading for peace. "Let us not fight…"

"No!" she shouted. "Let's!"

She screamed, throwing her fist out at the strange woman in front of her. She dodged at the speed of light, disappearing from view. The other six kept their distance, but had Lilith surrounded. The figure reappeared behind her, arms crossed and shaking her head back and forth in disapproval.

"Perhaps… an introduction… would allay your concerns," the strange woman proposed. "My name is…"

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Lilith counterattacked, throwing her fists and kicking in an impressive show of force. The unknown woman merely and effortlessly dodged each move with grace and skill. The feral teen had no reason to take the woman's word for it whatsoever. If there was one thing her mother taught her that still has any relevance, it was to never trust strangers.

Before long, her opponent's patience wore thin and caught Lilith's fist midair before twisting it, causing the young woman to fall on her knees in pain.

"She is strong," another admired.

"But needs discipline," her partner pointed out.

"And direction..." they all nodded in agreement.

"… As I was saying," the leader calmly continued, maintaining her strong grip on the rebellious teenager. "I am High Priestess Azumi, and we… are the Daughters of Aku."

Lilith wiped her tears from her eyes and relented. Seeing that this individual is no longer a threat, Azumi let her go, as Lilith throbbed at her aching wrist.

"What… ahh… what do you want from me?!"

"This exchange is not about what we want from you, but rather how we can help you."

She removed her hood, revealing herself to Lilith. Long, jet black hair tied into a tight bun on the back of her head, her light complexion fair and flawless, small lips painted with blood-red lipstick, and narrow eyes spelled out to the adolescent this so-called "High Priestess" was of Asian descent.

"And how do you plan on 'helping' me?" Lilith asked as she caught her breath, still remaining on her knees.

"By giving your faith the development it deserves. Think about it," as Azumi made her pitch, she casually walked around Lilith in a circle, letting her words sink into the young woman's thoughts. "We dedicate our lives away from the outside world, seeking to serve our Lord and Master, Aku. He imparts of his blessings to us, and we in turn follow his instruction. Sometimes that means partaking in sacred rites of passage that strengthen our resolve, other times it means… removing… dissidents who stand in the way of the Order of Aku."

"Ha, ha, ha, ha!" Lilith mocked. "You're just fanatics! A cult of assassins! What makes you think I'll join you willingly?!"

Bending down on bended knee on front of the teen, Azumi reasoned, "Because we both know you have nowhere to go…"

Rebuked, the smugness in Lilith's expression and voice disappeared. Instead of shooting back, she listened to the High Priestess more intently.

"What if I told you, there are more like you in the world? What if I told you, that you will see Aku for yourself? More importantly, what if I told you we are offering you a chance… to kill… the Samurai?"

Every fiber of the young teen's being told her not to go for this. This was obviously too sketchy, and is certainly a trap. But Azumi was right. Where else could Lilith go? Who could she turn to? The temptation and opportunity of a lifetime was before her. When the High Priestess of the Daughters of Aku arose, she offered her hand.

Lilith accepted.

The both of them standing tall once more, Azumi smiled at her latest candidate's decision and welcomed her in, proclaiming, "No longer, from this day forward, shall you ever go by that wretched name, Lilith Rosewyn, any longer."

The newly recruited Initiate nodded once.

"Henceforth, you shall be known… as… Azula… for your spirit of fire shall burn away those who oppose Aku, and you shall one day rule in my stead, and find favor in Aku's glory!"