#you: I’m a monster. a hideous thing with claws and fangs

[bones-of-a-rabbit]

Pov u think ur an ugly, bloodthirsty monster but ur husband is a simp and would happily spend hours every day reminding u how beautiful u are

[mordenheim]

I know you better

Eliza grinned as she hugged Will around the neck.  He spun around, holding her close, lifting her right off of her feet.  Her blonde hair flew around her head, blinding her, but she laughed and smiled.  He chuckled as he slowly lowered her to her feet.  She giggled as she staggered back from him, nearly falling flat as he caught her hand and steadied her, pulling her in close to his chest.

“Weren’t you scared?”  He asked, suddenly realizing what he’d just done.  “I could have lost my grip and hurt you.”

“You’d never hurt me.”  She said as she stroked his cheek, “I know you better.”

A few years later, Eliza was standing at the altar.  Will was running late.  Nobody had seen him since he left his hotel room hours before.  Her maid of honor was trying to console her future mother-in-law as she seemed about to have a mental breakdown in the front row.  The bridesmaids were practically in tears, the groomsmen were frantically on their phones, trying to get ahold of him.  The best man was standing by the doors, occasionally looking down the hall when he suddenly gave out a shout and vanished through the door, only to return with Will in tow!

She simply stood there, a serene smile on her face.  He raced into the venue, hair mussed and tuxedo torn.  He looked like he’d been in a traffic accident.  He ran to her side, panting and apologizing as she just shook her head and smiled, assuring him that he had nothing to apologize for.

“I might not have made it!  I’m surprised you didn’t think I got cold feet and left you at the altar!”

“You’d never hurt me.”  She said as she stroked his cheek, “I know you better.”

Sitting outside of his hospital room door, she waited patiently for Will to wake up.  She had let him go away for a few weeks to try to find himself.  She knew it was just a bit of a mid-life crisis at the time.  Her heart had ached while he was away on his camping retreat and lept into her throat when she heard he had been airlifted out of the forest and taken immediately to the nearest trauma center.  She heard about him being attacked by some kind of animal.  Finally, the doctors let her inside.

His arms, legs and chest were covered in thick mounds of bandages and even still some blood still seeped through the cloth here and there.  He slowly opened his eyes and reached out, taking her hand in his and squeezing it with what little strength he had. He shook his head as he saw her smiling face, a beam of pure sunlight to his heart.

“I nearly died out there.  But through it all, the thing I was most afraid of was leaving you alone…”

“You’d never hurt me.”  She said as she stroked his cheek, “I know you better.”

Three months later he healed almost entirely, not even a scar on his body in spite of the hideous wounds he had been inflicted with.  He had changed so much.  He was short with her, snapping at her over every little thing.  Will was constantly trying to start a fight, like he was trying to push her away from him.  He had left their house, heading out to the woods.  Her love had actually yelled at her to leave him alone, not to bother him, speak to him, or try to follow him.

In spite of everything, Eliza followed at a distance.  Trailing him through the woods and trying desperately to keep out of his sight, she eventually found him.  He had chained himself to a tree deep in the forest and was doubled over in agony.  He screamed when he saw her, yelling at her to get away, he would kill her!  Fur burst forth from his flesh as powerful muscles swelled and distorted his growing form.  Fang and claw grew wickedly sharp as he snarled at her, straining against his chains.  She strode towards the ravening monster, only for it to sniff at her, then crouch down, lowering its head as if in shame and whining softly. “You’d never hurt me.”  She said as she stroked his cheek, “I know you better.”

[intimidating-fettuccine]

Monster - Eyeless Jack

Not really any warnings on this one, just EJ going through some trauma and the reader being there to comfort him. There are mentions of blood and injury, but I don’t think this is all that bad

--

Jack doesn't like to look in mirrors.

They always point out the things about himself that he can't stand. The monstrous qualities of himself. Large, furry ears, sharp and dangerous fangs, scars littering his form, inhuman eyes.

Inhuman. That's what he was. Jack didn't have very many memories from when he was a human, and the only ones he remembered were the most violent and brutal ones from his horrible upbringing. He never had a shot to be normal then, and he certainly doesn't have a shot to be normal now, even though that's all he really wants.

He drags a sharply clawed hand up to trace along the contours of his face, over the various spotted markings decorating his body. He drags the tips of his nails along his skin, twitching to sink them in. It would be easier, he thinks, to fade into nothing if he didn't look like this. If he didn't look like such a scary, horrible monster, then maybe he wouldn't have to suffer through this anymore.

He doesn't hear you approaching him, his eyes transfixed on his form.

He doesn't hear you stepping over the destroyed and clawed pieces of furniture littering his floor, past the shattered and bloodied pieces of wood clattered around and scraped off the wall from his earlier fit.

He doesn't see your reflection standing behind him in the mirror as he stares at himself, clawed hands scratching lightly at his flesh, oh-so tempted to dig in. He scratches himself harder as he feels tears falling out of his eyes. He doesn't even hear the loud smashing sound echoing around him. He doesn't notice you over the monster he's seeing, over the hideous, ugly, misshapen, disgusting-

"Jack." Your voice, while quiet, cuts through the silence, and he jolts, whipping around and staring at you like a deer caught in headlights. You swallow, holding your hands up slowly in a show of peace.

"It's okay. It's okay, honey, it's going to be alright." Your voice wavers as you feel tears falling down your own face, moving your hands to hold them out for him to grab. "But please, honey, step away from the glass."

The shattered glass from where he'd just punched the mirror in anger and disgust. Jack blinks at you, looking down at his right hand, now profusely bleeding and dotted with shards of glass. He can't feel the pain, but he knows it must hurt from how hard his hand is throbbing. He looks up to you again, standing before him. You're crying and shaking, but you aren't running away like he thinks you should. You should be running from him.

"I'm not going to run away from you, Jack. I'm not scared of you, and I'm not going to leave you. I'm not going to abandon you." Ah, so he'd said that out loud.

He feels his feet moving without even thinking about it, walking over to you and towering over you at his large height. Too tall, he thinks, but as you look up at him as you always do, you don't seem to mind. You reach a hand up, cupping his cheek and wiping off the tears falling from his own face.

"You're okay, Jacky. You're alright. Everything is okay." Your words drift over him, and as his numbness begins to wear off, he feels his breathing getting heavier, choked, as more tears flow.

He thinks it's odd, as he doesn't normally feel this way. This must be what shame feels like, he thinks to himself as he looks down at you, his eyebrows scrunched up in sadness. The blood from his wound continues to drip onto the damaged floor beneath your feet as he shakes in front of you, fists clenched.

"You're alright, baby boy. You're going to be okay, you just need to breathe for me." Your voice stays soothing as you pull him into you, wrapping your arms around him, and he chokes on a sob as he clenches onto you with his hands, holding you as tightly as he can. You both spend a few moments like that, comfortingly stroking his back as he sobs, getting out all the tears.

"I j-j-just- I wish-! I wish-," he sucks in a big breath as he tries to speak through the tears, "I wish I could b-be normal for you..." His voice dies out as he finishes his sentence, and you hold him tighter in your arms.

"But I didn't fall in love with someone normal. I fell in love with you." He wails out again, burying his face into your shoulder to hide himself. "You don't need to be normal for me. You just need to be yourself." You soothe him, running your fingers through his hair in the way that always calms him down.

It wasn't often Jack had episodes like this. It could be scary, loud, and violent, but you wouldn't back down from it. You promised him many times, you'd never leave him, you'd never abandon him. You'd do whatever you could to help him, to comfort him, no matter what. This was one promise you'd never break.

"Can we go get your hand cleaned up?" You whisper into his ear, and he nods weakly against you.

The mansion is empty as you escort him to the med bay, as they knew to provide space when he was like this. Jack follows you like a clingy toddler, sliding easily onto a table as you guide him.

Silence fills the room again as you remove the remaining shards of glass, disinfecting the injuries and cleaning them up, wrapping his hand up in bandages. When you press kisses all over the bandages he feels himself shake, unsure of what to do with himself.

"I love you, Jack," You look up at him, a small smile blooming onto your face as you cup your cheek with his injured hand, "Whether you're human or demon, you're the one I've chosen for myself." Your face looks so small to him with his hand cupping it.

He wants to open his mouth and protest, argue with you and point out all the things he thinks about himself, but he finds the words dying in his throat, settling for a whimpered cry as he leans forward into you again. You press a few kisses to his lips before slotting him back into your neck, and he breathlessly tells you that he loves you too as he slouches, exhaustion taking over.

You loved him so much, and you'd always be there to help him love himself too.

[gayestnerdsinfiction]

An Encounter with the Beast

tw: descriptions of blood/injuries

Edward had been sleeping peacefully, dreaming of winning arguments against his high school tormentors with witty one-liners, when the whole building shook violently around him. He was jolted awake by the sound of something thudding heavily on the roof, scraping and scrabbling around and creating quite an unpleasant racket. Edward groaned, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he sat up in bed.

When the noises showed no signs of subsiding, he slid out of bed and grabbed a fluffy, green bathrobe off the hook in the closet. He thought perhaps a group of feral cats or raccoons or some other vile beasties had decided to take up residence on top of the dilapidated apartment building he had been living out of and needed to be chased away from the premises. Ordinarily, he would send Echo or Query to complete such a task, but he was still working on securing their release from Blackgate. Unfortunately, he would have to take care of it himself this time. He briefly wondered if he should bring a weapon to threaten the creature with, but ultimately decided that, no, he should be able to handle a small animal in hand to hand combat if the necessity arose.

Edward opened the front door of his apartment, stumbling out into the hall and heading towards the stairwell that led up to the roof. As he ascended, he had the gnawing feeling that he was going to regret not being better prepared, better armed, that whatever was awaiting him on the rooftop would be more than a simple animal. He paused at the landing, hand on the push-bar, his confidence wavering. Pressing his ear up against the cool surface of the door, he listened. He could hear something writhing and rustling, like wind snapping in a sail. He pushed the door open, stepping tentatively out into the cool night air.

At first, Edward couldn’t even understand what he was looking at. The sight he was met with was unlike anything he had ever encountered before, and that was saying something. He took in the huge, heaving body before him, the dark feathers rustling like a heavy curtain in the wind. Carefully, keeping as far from the beast as he could without falling off the edge of the roof, he made his way around to its face. If it could be called a face.

The creature had a long, leathery snout, its lips pulled back in a snarl to expose a row of wicked fangs, slick and gleaming. Its maw was smeared with drying blood, as were its feathers. It was strange; the being seemed stuck somewhere between a canine and a bird while still seeming uncomfortably humanoid in its physique.

“What on Earth?” he muttered, staring in shock and awe and disgust at the monster before him. As he inspected further, Edward could make out a small, circular wound buried beneath the matted feathers, steadily oozing dark blood.

One of its beady eyes snapped open, swiveling in its socket to look at Edward. When it caught the sliver of moonlight peeking through the fog it flashed silvery white, reflecting the light back at him. Edward balked, his blood running cold in his veins as he backed away. The creature croaked out a woeful sound that made Edward’s blood run cold, somewhere between a howl and a squawking bird.

“Only in this city,” he grumbled, keeping a careful watch on the creature. It made no attempt to pursue him, just stared back at him with its shining eyes. The beast shifted suddenly and Edward tensed, preparing to evade, but it just ruffled its feathers in a way that didn’t look at all satisfying. As it did, something limp and brown shook out of its wing. Edward couldn’t make out what it was in the dark, but it looked eerily like a long strip of skin.

Trying to get out of the monster’s line of sight, he crept around to get a better look at the mysterious item. He was relieved to find upon further inspection that it wasn’t, in fact, skin. Rather, he found himself looking at a torn piece of fabric. Burlap. He looked back up at the creature, beginning to notice other scraps of brown and black fabric hanging off its hulking body. He felt a sick lurch of recognition as he worried the cloth between his fingers.

It could be a coincidence, Edward thought as his gaze flitted back to the beast’s eye. It was still watching him, unblinking, chest rising up and down as it took in rasping breaths.

“I’m going to feel like an idiot if I’m wrong,” Edward said, cursing himself for not being able to keep his thoughts silent, unsaid. With great hesitance, Edward approached the creature’s face again. He stood much closer than was comfortable and he was nearly overwhelmed by the stench of blood and filthy water and that awful smell that birds have. “Are you… Do you know me?” he asked, unwilling to voice his exact conclusion for fear of being mistaken.

Edward stared at the beast and the beast stared back and it was unresponsive for so long that he was beginning to wonder if it could even understand English. But just as he was considering abandoning the attempt altogether, the beast jerked to life. An arm, previously unseen within the mass of feathers, darted out and captured Edward’s small body in a set of curved claws. He yelped as he was pulled close to the beast, so close he could see his reflection in the black expanse of its eyes.

Before he knew what was happening, the creature had opened its mouth wide and a long, sandpapery tongue was dragging across Edward’s face.

Edward squeezed his eyes shut, sputtering as the beast licked him. “God, Jonathan!” he exclaimed, annoyed at the gesture—albeit affectionate. “What the hell is this? Some new experiment of yours gone wrong?” His hand settled on Jonathan’s snout, feeling the bumps and wrinkles along his skin. When he pulled away, his palm was smeared with blood. “Oh, darling,” he murmured. “What happened to you?”

He knew the question was futile. In this state, Jonathan could only let out a guttural sound in response. But Jonathan didn’t need to use words for Edward to understand the pain he was in.

“How can I get you back?” he asked; another rhetorical question. “It’s going to be hard getting you inside and patched up and everything in this condition and I really don’t think I can remove a bullet from you up here in the dark, so… I need you to be human again, please.”

Of course that did nothing, and he almost thought he saw Jonathan rolling his eyes.

“Well, it was worth a try,” he said. “Who would I even… call for something like this?” Edward wondered aloud. “Maybe Victor? But—damn, he’s in Arkham isn’t he? Is there… something in your lab that I could go—” he cut himself off, startled as Jonathan’s grasp around him disappeared and his claws moved to point up at the barely visible moon.

“What are you—oh!” he said brightly, the meaning of the gesture coming together in his mind. “Werewolf rules?”

Jonathan’s hand—because it was quite like a hand, Edward thought—lowered to settle on the rooftop, which Edward took to mean he was correct.

“Will you be alright through the night?” Edward asked as he ran his palm along Jonathan’s flank, smoothing his crumpled feathers with the grain until he neared the still bleeding wound in his side. “I suppose I could get a flashlight and try—”

Once again he was interrupted, this time by a wing moving to knock Edward awkwardly into Jonathan’s body. His face was engulfed by rough feathers and he gagged slightly as the smell became truly overpowering, but it didn’t deter him from burying himself deeper into Jonathan’s chest. His large body was radiating heat and Edward was grateful for that because he knew it was going to be a long, cold night spent on the rooftop with this creature. His creature.

“It’s… It’s going to be okay,” he mumbled into Jonathan’s feathers, speaking more to himself than the other being. “I’m going to stay.”

Jonathan’s chest rumbled and it was almost akin to a purr, vibrating against Edward’s cheek. He couldn’t help but laugh a little at that, at how ridiculous this whole thing was. Really, things like this could only happen in Gotham. And only Jonathan could show up at Edward’s home in the middle of the night as a hideous monster and still receive a warm welcome. “You just get stranger every day, don’t you?” he said softly. “Usually I can keep up, but I will admit, this… this caught me off guard.” He pulled back slightly, peeking out to see if Jonathan was looking at him.

He was. It sent a silent thrill through Edward, having this creature’s gaze on him, knowing what it meant.

“Never a dull moment, my dear,” he said with a chuckle. “That’s one of the things I like about you.”

[sparklingchan]

Chapter 1|| Stormbringer- Stray Kids Demigod AU

Pairing : Reader(fem.) X Felix

Word count : 2k+

Warnings : Profanity, descriptions of mythological monsters, monster killings, not edited.

Genre : Romance, Demigod AU, fluff, angst.

Description: Felix and you have your first encounter - but why did it have to be under life threatening circumstances?

A/N : I’m so sorry this chapter took so long skskskkksks ugh I’ve been having some personal issues as well as midterms. For those of you who waited, thank you!

Enjoy!

SERIES MASTERLIST ||  Click here for introduction to the story and glossary and here for the Stray Kids demigod diaries!

"So.. you are not allowed to use cellphones because it attracts deadly monsters?"

"Yes," you snicker at Zeus, "No thanks to you, dad."

Zeus - the king of all gods on Mount Olympus, the god of sky and lightning - sits on the couch beside you in a simple striped shirt and loose baggy jeans, his long hair tied in a braid. He doesn't look anything like a Greek God or a king, he doesn't look grand or royal or powerful. He sits on your couch with his legs crossed, back slouched - like a normal father of a normal twenty one year old.

He rolls his eyes at you, "Yeah, yeah, blame it on your poor, old dad. " he's immortal, by the way.

You grab a cookie from the plate your mom had put on the coffee table before driving to work. You're kind of glad she's not here to see Zeus - your mom and Zeus didn't exactly part on good terms. Of all the times you'd met your father, she's not been there to witness any of it, fortunately.

"What do you want, dad? I'm sure you're not here to eat cookies and talk about mortal technology with me. "

Zeus nods, sighing. The distressed expression clawing it's way back to his face. "When are you going back to the camp?" He asks.

"I was about to leave before you decided to show up. "

"And with who exactly?"

"Oh, with Minho."

Zeus runs his fingers through his flowing beard, "The Dionysus kid?"

You nod - yes, Minho's father is the Greek God of Wine and fertility but your friend's never been much too proud of it. So you know better than to add to his insecurities, even behind his back.

"Dad, can you please tell me what you're here for?" You insist, now slightly annoyed.

"Ah, fine, fine," he nods, frowning like a little kid, "I actually need your help, y/n. I cannot ask this of anyone but my own child, which is why I have come here."

It's normal for God's to let their demigod children do the bidding on their behalf - it's nothing surprising or new, but you're taken aback since you're father has never asked you to do anything for him before.

Before you can reply, he continues, "It's Poseidon, y/n. He's...He's been sick."

Poseidon? Sick? Isn't he an immortal God? How could he ever fall sick!

"He can just drink some nectar and ambrosia and he'll be as good as new, dad." You deadpan.

"No, not this time. Poseidon's trident is lost. Someone stole it, apparently. And the trident holds in all his power. He's weak without it, and with him gone it's hard to control what goes on in the Oceans. The monsters and demons and even the Nymphs are out of control. "

"I would be very grateful if you could do something about it, y/n. Tell your camp director about it and go on a quest with your demigod friends. Find the trident, please. We need it back or else the mortals as well as the demigods will not be safe anymore. "

As if they'd ever been, "Okay, fine..I'll put in a word at camp."

Just before Zeus speaks again, you hear the loud honk of a car outside your house. Minho.

"I have to go now, " you quickly grab your bags, "And dad?"

He stops munching on the cookies to look at you. "Please clean this place up and go back before mom comes home."

He winks at you as you close the door behind you, jogging to Minho's old Hyundai that stands near the side of the street.

He waves at you enthusiastically and you almost feel bad for your friend.

Oh, Minho, you’re not going to be happy with the news I have.

*

Halfway into the drive, you realise that you're not the only who has news - Minho too had information to share - more like rantings, but you liked to classify them as information.

"I fought with my parents again. " he sighs, his eyes focused on the road ahead, "They don't want me going back to camp every year. It scares them, y/n, can you believe it!"

Minho - unlike you - had never met his birth mother. He was adopted right from the hospital. Sadly, Dionysus visits him more often than he wishes he would.

"They're just worried because you keep getting yourself in trouble there. Try to keep calm, you'll do just fine." You mutter, shaking your leg, your mind running through numerous possibilities as to how you can break Poseidon's news to Minho.

"Well that's not all. So I fought with them and came to camp a month earlier. While I was out with the annoying Satyr, scouting for demigods, I found three more washed up on the shore of the beach where we first met you. They'd been attacked apparently, and we brought them to the camp and guess what, the youngest one is as old as you are! It's so fascinating for once to not have to deal with unruly teenagers."

You scoff, "First of all, the annoying Satyr has a name. He is called Eden. And second of all, how is it possible for demigods our age to make it this long without living behind a protective barrier?"

Minho shrugs, taking a sharp right to the road that leads home to Camp Levanter. "Beats me, y/n. They must have lived like nomads without anyone to protect them from the monsters, but I'm glad we found them. You'll like them too. The other boys love them."

You nod, not giving too much thought to a bunch of new demigods. You've been with demigods all your life so there's nothing to worry about. What you are worried about is Poseidon and his lost trident, because no matter what, this new development does put all mortals and half-bloods at risk.

"Um, Minho?" You start, playing with hem of your checkered shirt, "I might actually know why the new demigods were attacked by a sea monster- "

However before you can speak out the next word, your eyes land on a huge blue wave of water, as tall as a ten floored building, engulfing everything within it's vicinity. You see mortals run in alarm, screaming and crying. The cars rush away, trying to escape to a safer place. The earth vibrates beneath you, as if to warn about an approaching danger.

"What the hell is that!"

"It's a sea monster... a Cetus."

Minho slams on the accelerator, speeding away from the approaching sea monster. The camp is only a two minute drive from the highway you are on so if the Gods are kind enough, the both of you might just make it before the monster catches your scent. 

And if it does, then Minho and you are as good as dead.

"Can you see it, y/n?" Minho asks you in an urgent voice, his eyes fixed on the road ahead of him, "Do you think you could create lightning and kill that thing?"

You make the mistake of looking behind you, because as soon as you turn around, you see a gigantic dragon- like creature chasing close behind your car, baring it's fangs. Your blood turns cold.

"Minho, drive faster! I think it has smelt us!" You yell in panic, "We're not enough to defeat a sea monster; even with your vine growing power and my electrokinesis."

Minho does as he is told, driving the car faster than the mortals do in their stupid car races, his hands tightly gripping the handle and handsome features twisted in agony. 

You roll down the window and glance outside, estimating how much time you have to summon lightning before the monster catches upto your car.

Sucking in a deep breath, you pray to your father for help and thrust out your hand towards the sky, and see small electrical impulses begin at your fingertips. Rolling the window further down so as to be able to aim the lightning directly at the monster, you concentrate all your energy into your right hand. 

The lightning may not kill it, but it’ll surely slow it down.

Electric sparks cover your entire arm like it were some kind of jewelry. 

A deep breath, and you release.

“Its hurt,” you whisper as the monster stops on its tracks, its googly eyes closing as if in immense pain and in a spilt second, they open and stare right at you. The monster is angry. At you.

“Shit! Shit! Y/n!” Minho panics.

"Keep driving." You reassure Minho, "I'll slow it down."

You see dirty green scales of the monster when you glance at the rear view mirror and your immediate reaction is to grab your bow and arrows from the backseat of the car.

Minho nods and you position yourself such that only your arrow is pointed directly at the monster's direction while you squint one eye and careful peek out without showing too much of your face. Monsters have very good memory.

The monster hisses, his long, red tongue rolling out of his mouth as if in annoyance. The mortals do not bother coming in between your car and the Cetus - all thanks to the Mist. 

The Mist creates an illusion that hides any supernatural beings like monsters or titans or giants from the mortal's sight so it is safe to believe that the mortals are perceiving the Cetus as something as simple as a huge storm.

"It's coming closer." You warn Minho.

"I can't go faster than this! Has no one from the camp received any news of a sea monster coming out of the water and roaming out in the streets yet?" He yells back.

You stretch the bow string, the arrow aimed right between the monster's two hideous eyes.

"Stop! Y/n!" Minho suddenly says, slowing down a bit, staring at the rear view mirror, "There's something on the monster's head."

His words seem to fade away in the background as you see the monster's tail - resembling that of a fish - flying up behind him, and then thrashing hard against the concrete road. The ground shakes.

"I'm shooting." you mutter, "It's going to kill us all!"

"Y/n, no - don't."

"What! Why?"

You loosen the string and pull back the arrow, trusting Minho's judgement better than yours.

"Just trust me, okay?" Minho mutters, slowly pulling up by the sidewalk.

Propping yourself up on your elbows, you quickly glance out the window.

"What the.."

You catch sight of a blonde man, probably only as tall as Minho, standing on top of the monster's head and thrusting his shining bronze sword right into the Monster's forehead.

The man looks in your direction, as if he’s known you all along and nods, with what you perceive to be a smile on his lips.

"Shoot now, y/n." Minho says from beside you.

You immediately act on it, stretching the string tighter, the arrow pointed at the ugly monster that now cries desperately. You let go of the string and the arrow cuts through the air and stabs the Cetus right at his neck.

A loud, thundering wail leaves it's mouth and then it disappears into millions of dust particles, on it's way to the depths of Tartarus ; the underground prison of all monsters.

"That's Felix, y/n." Minho says, unlocking the doors with a slight grin on his face. He looks proud. "He's one of the new demigods at the camp."

The said man quickly jogs up to your car, panting and huffing, and knocks at your window.

"Hey, can I have a ride back home, Minho?" He smiles, "And you must be y/n, right?"

And you sink back into your seat as you see his entire form up close.

Beautiful. Ethereal. And every other synonym of those words in the English dictionary fall weak if it ever comes to describing the man standing in front of you.

You don't even need to ask who his godly parent is because you already know now - Aphrodite, goddess of love, lust and beauty.

****

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[of-forossa]

❝ the dagger reversed, death claims you ❞ (MERCY KILL AND DESPAIR. LET'S GOOOOO) It was with regret and little hesitation that she raised her rifle and watched him struggle now, gurgling on his own blood and bile. Watched him with beneath his own monsterous weight. He could no longer stand, no longer form words, just harrowing growls that bubbled up from his gullet and spilled through split and slavering, broken, jaws.

@derjaegermond // to the bitter end we rage and fight, till hope burns out in that dying light // not accepting.

Yharnam lives. Beneath the light of a moon now pale and pure, the town and her people have been wounded and scarred by the ordeals they've only just been delivered from. In the crumbling safety of their homes, husbands and wives hold each other for comfort, parents huddle with their frightened children, and the few of them that remain wholly sane and not taken by the hunger of the blood hold one another entirely ignorant of their salvation. For once all is still in these dreaded streets, the howls and snarls of the wolf-things silenced and the crackling of any loose flames dying as both are deprived of something to gnaw upon.

For all horrors of the unending night, for the beasts and bastards and belligerent gods, the hunt is at long last over... and all that remains is for that knight of the dawn to clean up what remains before morning can truly come.

"There's one last thing, Helena." Time is nearly up, he knows, not only for himself and their partnership but for this entire cursed town. From the windows a harsh light pours in, hideous and malformed from that paleblood sky and the moon that sits upon it-- proof enough to him that the end has well and truly come. "You know what you have to do. What you may have to become... and where you have to go. To a place where I cannot follow."

Truly, truly, he is a terrible thing to behold. Even in all the hellish glory bestowed upon him by these gifts gods-given, he would have been a sight that would haunt and stalk the dreams of even the bravest hunter. From the sheer bulk of his muscular, monstrous frame that could crush brick and mortar with a mere swipe of a hideous paw to that slavering-slick maw that could swallow a man whole and crush him between macabre jaws, the beast that had once been holy knight and determined conspirator and Brom resembled nothing of the sort as he growled with a sound not unlike thunder and roared so fierce it shattered the windows of the buildings between he and her.

His grasp in hers is fierce, crooked claws tightly clenched against her hand, not from anger but for fear. Fear for her, for what could befall her far from the reach of his sword and strength. "You may save this wretched place, these ungrateful people, but there will still be monsters stalking the streets even should you succeed. Enough to leave this city a blood-soaked tomb with or without your intervention." With a tug he urges her to sit, and from the window that same paleblood light reveals truths he'd have rather kept hidden. Brom's tattered eyes burn low, filled with the shadows of a restless and tormented mind. His breaths are heavy, uneven things, and his once well-kept appearance is haggard and frayed-- his hair is matted and loosened from their braids, his once stalwart face gaunt and pale with fears writhing beneath the surface... all that remains of the man he once was is the determination in his tone no matter how it shakes. "Leave them to me."

They war against one another as though from a tale torn from myth or legend, a desperate knight turning cleaver and rifle against the bloodthirsty dragon that this town and his own willful ignorance has turned him into. Cobblestones torn up from frenzied swipes of dagger-claws, gunshots that crack against thick hide and thicker bone, jaws outstretched to seize her slighter form and swallow whole this worn and weary woman only to be deterred with the baring of silver sword against wretched fangs-- they tear one another apart with a savagery beyond men but more terrible than proper beasts of the earth and wild, hot blood spilling onto the streets in a river of wasted life.

"Our... compatriot gave me this, should my sword alone not be enough." From with his tattered and stained cloak, once as pure and white as fresh-fallen snow, he withdraws a lump of molded flesh. Immediately what remains of his pupils dilate, claws flexing involuntarily, and the ominous creaking of his jaw echoes loud and harsh enough to be audibly heard at merely the scent of this last resort. "You know what this is, don't you?" It's not framed as a question, not hardly as he stuffs it away and sucks in one deep breath after another to steady himself. "A beast blood pellet, forbidden and for good reason. Where or how that ragged scarecrow came about this, I don't care to know." He swallows hard, thickly, and the resignation in his face is clear even despite the small smile he offers her. "He gave me three, Helena. More than enough to... to ensure a change. One I won't be returning from."

He's slowing now. Even before the jagged teeth of her cleaver hacks again and again into the thick meat of his tendons, even before her rifle scores one blow after another upon his enormous skull, the sluggishness from a night of slaughtering his kindred doomed and damned has taken its toll on him. Their vengeful claws and desperate teeth had found purchase time and again, an entire city of monsters fighting for survival against the one he'd become, and for the dried blood on his gaping maw and the litany of wounds he carried before their battle even began it's clear that dominance didn't come without a price. Every snap of the jaws that misses and is returned with gunfire, every swipe of fiendish claws that crashes against only stone, they all weigh against him until at last he stumbles before the weight of the night and the blows she has rained upon him, his great bulk crashing to the cobblestones with a shuddering quake.

"I know what you'll say," and those ruined eyes for all their weakness and weariness are firm in this, in dissuading her from turning from her task as that small smile departs. "That there is still a chance. That with the break of dawn I may yet become something more than I ever could've been beneath the weight of my misguided faith, beneath the very convictions that brought me to the cusp of madness I teeter upon even now... it was a nice dream, Mephistopheles. I'm glad you shared it with me, after everything I've done. I hardly deserved it, after all, and this... even this is more fitting an end than I have any right to claim." Brom's hand in hers trembles, for weakness or sorrow, and if the gentle squeeze he offers her is more so for himself then he doesn't admit it. Carefully, he reaches for the twine hanging around his neck and withdraws a single hunter's badge-- his own sword hunter badge, still somehow pure and radiant despite all the slaying and butchery these nights have foisted upon him. With a tug it snaps free easily, and he turns her own hand palm up before pressing it into her grasp, closing her claw-tipped fingers around the proof of his former convictions; of what he should have been for all those lost to the blood and horror of the endless hunt. "Take it," he says quietly, hoarsely. "For you have done more in the name of the people here than I ever could have, Helena. You who have healed them and tended to them when their shepherds grew fur and fangs and turned their teeth to them. You who would lay down your life for a people that will not thank you for it, for all you have given up for them..." Another pair of claws cradle her own, and he presses a kiss to her knuckles soft and chaste before letting her go, the strength seemingly sapped from him. "Goodbye, my dear friend... and thank you. For everything."

What once was a man had become far less, and what had been far less has become something even feebler with its shallow breaths and helpless gurgles and growls. Blood and bile spill from between its slavering jaws onto the already filth-laden street, the Oedon-twisted bones of that fearful face fractured by her careful aim and further flayed by the teeth of her cruel cleaver. Forelimbs powerful enough to reduce brick and mortar to mere dust have been torn apart, not even strong enough to raise the bloodied bulk from the ground, and every breath from the beast seemed harder fought for than the last. Tattered eyes, ruined things that seemed less like burning coals and more the last cinders of a snuffed flame peer at her hazily, unseeingly as she approaches. There's an attempt for it to struggle onto its malformed paws, to snap or snarl, but all it can manage is a frail whimper and whine as she levels her rifle for what once was the face of a friend.

"Strange, isn't it? This pact of ours, I mean. For all your talk and supposed intent..."

Cool metal rests against that massive skull as the barrel is pressed against its temple, hammer pulled back with a resounding click. A single, malformed eyes swivels up to meet her own at the sound.

"... somehow I seem to have come away with more than you, Mephistopheles. But... that's not how the story is supposed to--"

Her rifle kicks against her shoulder, the shot shattering bone and pulping the flesh beneath. Beastly eyes still with a sudden jerk, a breath stilling in hideous lungs and a grisly heart stills its beating at long last.

[vampire--dad]

Can’t Win A Battle For A Lost Cause - Part 1

Part 2

I don’t think I’ve ever written something so quickly, wow

I just love writing Lambert. I love exploring his character and breaking it down. And of course, as with any of my favourite characters, I love hurting him :DD

——————

Fucking vampires.

Monsters are so much easier to deal with when they’re stupid, like nekkers. Nekkers are idiots that would probably walk into a sword on their own if you gave them the chance. Vampires are smart, which is half the reason Lambert hates taking contracts on them. They know how to hide, or even worse, they know when they don’t need to. The whole damn duchy knows the duke’s new wife is a vampire, but none can get close enough to kill her. So what do they do? They hire a witcher, someone who can add more fuel to this political bonfire and walk away unscathed, right? Yeah, sure, that’s what we’ll go with.

From this spot in the lower gardens of the duke’s mansion, Lambert can see the vampire on the balcony. The guards are well aware that he’s there, they’re the ones that hired him, but they couldn’t let him inside in case a servant alerted the duke of an unwanted visitor. So here he sits, hidden among the bushes, watching. She’s ballsy, this vampire, sinking her teeth into his neck under the moonlight. The power she has over the duchy must have gone to her head, or the blood, but he knows he can’t underestimate her. Blood is almost like alcohol for a higher vampire, but that doesn’t mean she’ll be weak, if anything, this is going to be even more of a pain in the ass.

The duke stumbles back into their bedroom and the creature turns her face to the moon, her skin a ghostly white and nearly shimmering under the pale light. It seems to pass right through her, as she casts no shadow. Lambert shifts his weight under him and stays low as he creeps along the wall. The ivy that clings to the bricks is strong enough for him to haul himself up to the balcony. As quiet as he can try to be, he’d be an idiot to think she didn’t notice him.

“Tell me, witcher,” she says, opening her icy blue eyes but not turning away from the sky. “How much did they offer you for my head? I’d like to know how much they thought I’d be worth.”

“Looking to buy your way out of this?” Lambert replies. “I’ll warn you, it won’t be cheap.”

“Please, witcher. Killing you will be easier… and more fun.”

Lambert barely has time to roll his eyes before the vampire launches herself at him and they tumble over the edge of the balcony. He was really hoping she wouldn’t say that. He hits the ground with a grunt, barely holding the snarling duchess back. He mumbles something under his breath and suddenly she is launched across the garden, hitting the far wall and slumping against it for a moment. Lambert draws his sword and rolls his neck, considering what he might do with his reward for killing her. Well, not that he can really kill her. Hopefully her body being burned will teach her a lesson while she spends a few decades regenerating.

Her head lolls for a moment, but then she becomes very still. Her neatly manicured nails grow into long, razor sharp claws. The delicate features of her face are drawn back into a hideous, animalistic form. She lifts her head with a disgusting grin. Lambert centres himself and raises his sword as she launches herself at him once again. The duke’s blood has her all riled up. She’s crazed, swiping her claws at him and screeching, only to be met with his blade, at the very least redirecting her attacks away from his body. The witcher can’t risk taking his eyes off her for a second, lest he lose an arm to her talons. She’s lightning fast, but she is at a disadvantage. If she slips up, his sword will tear through her like paper.

His blade catches against her arm. She roars, more out of indignation than pain, but her pause gives him an opening. He surges forwards and his blade plunges through her lithe figure, lodged just beneath her ribcage. A crimson stain blooms across her abdomen and her breath leaves her lungs suddenly. Her claws recede, followed by the rough features of her face. She assumes the gentle beauty she used to get herself into this mess in the first place. Lambert smirks cruelly and cocks his head.

“Fucking vampires. You’re all the same,” he says. “You all think you’re the biggest and baddest thing out there. It’s pathetic, really, how cocky you all are. I’ve faced far worse things than you, sweetheart. You really think your kind is the worst on the Continent?”

His words light a cold fire in her dying eyes. She grins, baring her fangs.

“See for yourself.”

She grips the hilt of his sword and pulls herself into it, the blade sliding through her body with an obscene sound. With the last of her strength she throws her weight forward, opens her mouth and latches onto Lambert’s neck. He groans out a curse, expecting to feel a drag against his skin. He’s been bitten before, but those before her quickly learned that witcher blood tastes vile. But he feels no such drag from his veins, rather he feels a burning sensation spreading across his skin. Suddenly he feels dizzy and short of breath. He feels her smile wickedly against his throat. His knees buckle beneath him. The last thing he hears is a cruel laugh, a sputtering cough, and the sound of his own body hitting the ground.

Lambert wakes with a yelp in an unfamiliar room. He grips the sheets and feels something sharp pressing into his palm through the linen. As he recoils, he notices the pointed nails on his fingers and frowns. Then his memory comes flooding back.

The vampire. His hand finds a bandage wrapped loosely around his neck. She bit him, but didn’t feed. No, he felt something going in instead. It burned like hellfire through his veins. He vaguely remembers being picked up by the guards… then everything ached… he vomited a few times, he thinks. It wasn’t unlike the trials that made him a witcher. With wide eyes he stumbles out of the bed and, in the soft light from the window, looks for a shadow. Nothing. He looks up at the window now, expecting to see his reflection, but yet again, there is nothing.

Shit.

Shit.

He runs his tongue over his teeth and tastes blood. His canines have grown long and sharp.

Fuck.

She turned him. He’s a vampire.

He runs a hand through his hair. What the fuck is he meant to do now? He was made to hunt monsters, it’s all he knows, and now… he is one. Destiny really can’t give him a fucking break, huh? He sighs and sits back down on the edge of the bed, his head in his hands. What are his brothers going to think? They wouldn’t try to hurt him… would they? He’s their brother…

He stops that train of thought the moment tears threaten to well up in his eyes. Now isn’t the time. He needs to figure out what to do. Perhaps there’s someone who can help him… His mind wanders back to his brother’s, but instead of getting emotional, he latches onto a vague memory. Geralt’s friend, what was his name…? Regis. That was it. A higher vampire that Geralt had befriended on his search for Ciri all those years ago. He mentioned he had taken up residence in Nilfgaard. Lambert can think of no better person to go to than another vampire.

Well, he can. He wants to go to his brothers. He wants to find them and just hear them say that they still love him. That’s all he wants and all he fears he won’t get. How could anyone love him like this?

Lambert shakes his head and stands, finding his things in the corner of the room. His medallion rests atop his jacket. He puts it on and clutches it to his chest, ignoring the feeling that he shouldn’t wear it at all. He dresses quickly, collects his things, and emerges from the room into a shop he recognises. The healer’s. He bought a few herbs from the woman who now stands at her workbench across the room. She looks up at him with a friendly smile.

“You’re up,” she states. “Good. How do you feel?”

“I’m fine,” he lies quickly. “I should be on my way.”

“A moment, witcher. I assure you I won’t breathe a word of it, but… can witchers be turned if they’re bitten by a vampire?”

“No,” he lies once again. “Our bodies reject their… venom, I guess you could call it. We can’t be turned.”

He notices her glance at the floor behind him as he makes for the door.

“Very well,” she says carefully. “I wish you the best in your travels.”

Nilfgaard, to Regis’ surprise, is quite peaceful. Winneburg is a big enough place for him to fade into the background, but small enough that he doesn’t run the risk of getting involved in any silly political games again. His home is humble, but thankfully filled with books and things to keep the endless days passing by quicker.

It came as a relief to him to live a normal life again, or at least the mirage of one. He is generally regarded as one of the more reliable surgeons in town, as he had studied enough to know that blood-letting and leeches never work and opts for the use of medicinal herbs and salves for wounds. After all, he’d had almost 400 years to perfect his trade.

He knows he has a visitor well before the knock at the door sounds through the small house. He hears footsteps, hurried and nervous. Regis closes his book and sets it aside, expecting someone in need of his care. Instead, on the other side of the door stands a witcher. He has dark brown hair, a scar across his right eye, and he wears the same medallion that he saw around the neck of an old friend.

There’s a look in the man’s yellow eyes he’s never seen in a witcher before. Fear. Geralt was good at hiding his emotions, brilliant at it. Over the years he saw many things in his friends’ eyes; joy, despair, anger, content, but never fear. That was the one thing he never showed. But this one seems unable to hide it.

“Regis?” he asks.

“Yes, witcher?”

Given a moment to analyse the man before him, Regis quickly realises why he is here. Small details give him away. The bluish tint to his skin that makes him look far paler than he should be. The small cuts around his lips. The pointed nails that he digs into his palms as he looks around nervously.

“I need your help,” he pleads.

“I know. Come in, we have much to discuss.”

He stands aside and lets the man in, noticing the tension in his shoulders and the bags under his eyes. It’s not uncommon to see such things when someone is turned, but he’s never seen a witcher turned. He can’t imagine what this must be like for him.

“What is your name, witcher?” he asks as he closes the door.

“Lambert,” he says. “I’m one of Geralt’s brothers.”

Regis can’t help a small smile as he says, “Yes, I do remember him mentioning you. He spoke of his little brother quite fondly.”

Lambert seems to grow even more nervous at the mention of his brother. Regis drops the subject and gets to the point.

“How long ago were you bitten?”

“A week or so.”

“Where? Show me, it’s not uncommon for bites to get infected.”

Lambert sheds his leather jacket and rubs his neck before tilting his head to bare the scar. He had spent what little coin he could spare on a new jacket with a higher collar. Regis notes his lack of eye contact. Anxiety isn’t a good look on a witcher.

“That healed quite nicely, actually. Of course. Now, where was this?”

“A duchy in Maecht. The duke’s new wife was a higher vampire. She was slowly draining him of—”

Lambert pauses and curses under his breath. His fingers come away from his lips bloody.

“Pull your fangs back a little,” Regis says. “It should feel like tensing the roof of your mouth, and it might hurt a bit, but try it.”

Lambert finally looks up at him with a look of surprise, like he didn’t expect to be met with compassion. He makes an odd face as he tries, then clamps a hand over his mouth and squeezes his eyes shut. Regis chuckles slightly.

“I told you it would hurt.”

“Yeah, a bit…” Lambert grumbles

“You’ll get used to it. Now, a higher vampire in Maecht? What has become of her?” Regis asks.

“I assume the duke’s guards burned her body like I told them to. It’ll at least put her out of action for a few decades.”

“Good. I assume you know there is nothing I can do for you in terms of curing you—”

“Yes, I know,” Lambert snaps. “I just… I needed someone to… I needed…”

Now that he thinks of it, he can’t explain exactly why he came here. He just thought seeking out someone who knew better than he did what was happening to him would be a good idea.

“Guidance,” Regis finishes for him, his tone comforting and soft. “That is what you’re looking for. Guidance and reassurance. Would I be right in thinking so?”

Lambert nods meekly. Regis offers him a comforting smile.

“Fret not, dear witcher,” he says. “You can stay with me while you find your footing. I may not have been turned myself, but I can understand what this must be like for you.”

Lambert resembles a puppy more closely than a wolf. He looks far more vulnerable than Regis had ever pictured him. Geralt had described a man with biting humour, a tendency for sharp remarks, and more often than not, a cruel smirk. But the man Regis sees before him is, for lack of a better word, broken.

“Thank you, Regis,” he mumbles, rubbing his neck again.

“Come, Lambert. Let’s get you settled in. I have a spare room, you can stay as long as you like.”

——————

Tags: @elliestormfound @jaskierswolf @lovelyeskel @feral-jaskier @patchwork-doublet

Please let me know if you’d like to be added to my taglist!!

[the-goddessfighter]

[ Alien vs Predator Batarou AU - Part 1 ]

by: Little1993lamb

for: Temperans-sama / @the-goddessfighter Word count: 7252 Warning: Background characters' death. Some violence and gore mentions, but not too explicit.

Not exactly a fanfic but more of a long scenario AU headcanon. Caution for bad English and very limited vocabulary as I'm not native English speaker and still not fluent enough, OOC characterizations, and lots of inaccurate concepts compared from the movie plotline as this headcanon is just loosely inspired by it, so please forgive me if this not so good I'm so sorry 🙇💦

----------------------------

This AU headcanon was based on my weird "Alien vs Predator" movie-like dream I had weeks ago. But for this AU, the story has slightly modificated to fit Batarou situation:

• Badd as a Spaceman, working for the extraterrestrial research scientists organization, unexpectedly met Garou in one of his mission.

• Garou as one of the Yautja/Predator warriors, aiding Badd on fighting against the Xenomorphs Aliens.

The other headcanon concepts, like Garou's concept designs for the AU, are written on the notes at the end of story below.

As I promised before, this is my present for you to begin the year 2021, Temperans-sama (and of course also everyone in the fandom). I hope you enjoyed this AU headcanon!

Let's get started! 😊😉👌💖

-----------------------------

Badd was working for Space and Extraterrestrial Research Organization as their Spaceman. Not as the researcher because he hates to work in a lab, he rather to do some actions in the field or outdoor works. There were several divisions for Spacemen jobs in the Organization, but what Badd specialized was the ones who could do fighting or combat. Basically like security guard to ensure the safety of Research Organization members. Sometimes he also being included in a rescue team when there was something life-threatening emergency situation happens.

One day, he got a mission along with his other coworkers in rescue team to save their crewmates, who previously were sent to investigate an unknown spaceship that was approaching Earth's orbit but then they were trapped in there.

Just after arriving on the ship and navigating their crewmates' location, they found a bunch of terrifying monstrous Xenomorph aliens attacking them. Battle was ensued, many of them died because they weren't expected these creatures' presence in the spaceship. None of the hostages crewmates informed them because turned out either they were already dead or incapable to send complete information to the base.

In the middle of fighting inside an alien spaceship, Badd finally met one of the hostage crewmates who is also one of his bestfriend and he joined to fight along with his friend against the creatures.

At the end of exhausting battle, Badd and that one friend survived on escaping from the ship along with some few other crewmates. When Badd asked him on a private room, "Why didn't you send help request more sooner?", the friend just answered, "Because I was waiting for this moment".

Badd saw his friend's appearance changing into an unknown stranger figure: a spiky white haired humanoid alien with heavily intricate armored body. Surprisingly, he is not so hideous like the other alien creatures but still has an otherworldly figure.

Badd was stunned when the stranger alien explained his intention using some language translator device on his helmet armor,

"Initially, my warrior troops were gonna invade your precious Earth but unexpectedly our spaceship was infested by those creatures you've seen before. I'm the Leader and the only survivor during the ambush and that's when your naive crewmates coming to our already wrecked ship. They sent SOS signal to your base when they were under attack. Because I want a chance for long-term survival, I borrowed your dead friend's appearance by shapeshifted as him".

He continued, "Luckily, you found me and think of me as your friend! I must gained your trust by playing along as your crewmate the whole time so I could hop into your ship together with you, thus fulfilling my intention to invade the Earth. Thanks for bringing me along, tiny human..".

The alien warrior ended his speech with a growling voice into the still stunned Badd's ear. Then he reached on his armor helmet mask and slowly took them off, revealing the true face of him:

A humanoid monster-like face with wide ridged forehead, intimidating-looked narrow hollowed eyes in which have round big golden-coloured irises, no nose, has these huge mandibles complete with two sets of long pointed tusks on them, and when they opened a bit Badd could see rows of sharp teeth inside. This alien warrior also has swept-back long spiky white hair, it was the most eye-catching feature on him.

Realizing Badd was observing his unmasked face, the white-haired alien suddenly snarled by opened his mandibles up in front of Badd's face to scare him. He wanted to test if this human would weirded out or cowering in fear from seeing his real appearance or not. But Badd only jolted back in reflex from getting surprised, without any hints of fear detected in his eyes. "You.. aren't scared by me?"

Badd was taken aback by the question, "Huh? Nah. I've seen much worse and it wasn't you, obviously".

"Not for a little bit? Nothing at all?", the alien didn't convinced by Badd's statement at all.

"Yep. 'Sides, I rather looked at your face than have to witness those Lovecraftian abominable creatures in that spaceship before. Hey what are you trying to do, by the way, huhh??", Badd could swears this white-haired alien just wanted to make fun of him. 

The white-haired alien just humming and nodding to himself, "Hmm.. You're indeed an interesting one.", as he placed his hand under his chin and rubbing it, it seems like he found some amusement in Badd.

Although he was indeed caught off-guard by the surprise snarl, Badd didn't afraid of him on a slightest, instead he actually was mesmerized by the alien's charm. Badd blurted out, "Are you gonna eat me?".

The white-haired alien just giving a funny look for a second and then grinning widely after hearing that silly question, showing all of his sharp teeth and fangs inside his mandibles, "No, not yet. Not until I know you better..", a chuckling sounds like a cat's purr was heard from him as he caressed the human's soft cheek with his long claws.

Badd frowned on what the alien had said, 'So in the end he will devours me if I'm not useful anymore?'. He didn't wanna think what he should explain to Zenko when the time has come.

When Badd said he didn't afraid to die, it doesn't mean he wanted to leave his beloved little sister alone, not when she hasn't finished her education in college and reaching her dream! Also, sure as hell not by being eaten by this strange alien!

Seeing Badd was slightly affected by the threatening words, he retreated his hand back. "Well I'm just joking, I never and wont eat humans, don't worry. They make a good prey but totally not good for consumption at all". Then he laughed loudly at Badd's dumb-strucked face. Badd started to feel pissed off: they both had just met and this alien already have the guts for teasing him twice??

The laughing finally ceased, "I think we should cooperating from now on. What is your name, little human?", the alien curiously asked, those bright yellow irises staring deep into Badd's rich dark chocolate eyes, searching for any hints of fear emotions but instead found some fire ablaze in them.

"Badd. My name's Badd, just remember whose human who had saved your sorry ass", he answered while removing the clawed hand that caressed his cheek, boldly swatting it away from him.

The charming white-haired alien quickly caught Badd's hand and clasped it with his palm, "Ooh a feisty one! Seems like I was right for choosing to fight along with you minutes ago, you're quite strong for a mere human. I like that. And you can call me 'Garou'. Nice to meet you, Badd..".

From the corner of his eye, Badd saw 'Garou' took something from his pocket. It was a small piece of the Xenomorph's sliced finger. He squished it a bit until the green-ish blood residue leaked out from the cut, then slowly moved it closer towards Badd's face.

"Stay still, Badd", the warrior instructed him.

"WHOAA NONO NO NO, GET IT AWAY FROM MY FACE!!", the young spaceman tried to swat that finger thing from Garou's hand and moved away as far as possible, refusing Garou's request.

"I said stay still! Calm down it's just a quick little brush", Garou insisted as he keeps holding Badd's hand to prevent Badd from swatting and moving too much.

The moment Badd's forehead being brushed by the blood as Garou carved a symbol on him, his skin sizzled from the contact of corrosive acid fluid and those left red scratched marks as the result.

"OUCH OW THAT HURTS! IT BURNED MY SKIN, JACKASS!!", Badd shouted then grimaced at the burned sensation on his forehead, he let out pained moaning. "Uuh.. What's that for?"

"I'm 'marking' you. You fight along with me, you even managed to kill those creatures despite being a human. Therefore, you earned my respect to bear an honourable mark from me," Garou smiled proudly at Badd, genuinely happy to find such a strong fierce human at the first meeting.

Badd didn't know how he should reacted at the explanation, but after seeing Garou's genuine proud expression he thought maybe it was actually a very rare honourable thing to be given outside his clan. From the spaceship window glass reflection, Badd could see the fresh carved scratched-like mark. He was admiring how neat the mark Garou has carved onto his forehead. An honour mark.

"Umm.. Honestly I didn't expected it, but.. Thank you, I guess?", Badd muttered while caressing his freshly marked skin.

"You're welcome, tiny human. So, right now we are heading towards your precious Earth, right? Do you have any spare room in your house for me, hmm?", Garou grinning confidenty, expecting for more interesting things from Badd after they live together.

Badd felt an impending huge migrane forming in his head, as well as the sudden urge to facepalm so hard, "... Goddamnit."

This would changed his normal daily life.

----------------------------

As the consequence of accidentally helping Garou, Badd must hide his existence from the Research Organization. So, after arrived back to the Earth, Badd must gives false-report for the base that their rescue mission was failed and only a few of team members were survived.

During that time, Garou made himself invisible but also could shapeshift into anyone for more advanced stealth tactics. Badd allowed Garou to live temporarily in his house, as long as Garou wont harming his beloved little sister Zenko and his cute cats.

At first, Garou forgot to shift into his human form in front of Zenko when Badd sneakily brought him into his house at late night. He didn't know Zenko was still awake at that hour because she was waiting for his comeback.

Badd wanted to smack himself after noticed Garou's big mistake, but after staring intensely at Garou for a full minute, Zenko just nonchalantly said,

"So you've got back from the space and you're bringing an alien boyfriend home? Hmm.. Not bad. Nice choice by the way, I always know your type, big bro", and she gives Badd thumbs up of approval.

Garou takes a liking on Zenko's bravery, maybe he could get along with her more easier later. On the other hand, despite his attempt at correcting Zenko that Garou isn't his alien boyfriend (yet), it makes Badd feels relieved that his little sister doesn't really mind of him bringing an extraterrestrial being as a new roommate in their house.

Garou spending most of his time at Badd's home by trying to learn human's behaviour and any other knickknack Earth-y things out of curiousity, that he slowly forgetting his original intentions and getting more interested on building a newfound relationship with Badd.

Badd also slowly growing fond of this charming alien, especially when Garou becomes more protective to him and his family, not to mention Garou actually learning humanity better than actual human. He was actually surprised that Garou had decided to develop a new "adaptive" form, in which a mix between his real form and human form, to help him communicate better with Badd while still maintaining most of his real appearance. Especially when it requires him speaking by human language more fluently.

Sometimes when Badd wasn't working or taking a day-off, they would spending time together at home and exchanged stories of their life. After Badd promised Garou that he wont tell any information to the higher up in the Organization, Garou explaining his life as a Warrior from his own planet, the secret history behind the invasion mission toward Earth and the super advanced technologies they owned compared with what human have currently.

It's kinda fun to have someone from another world to talk casually with, since Garou himself didn't have many close friends in his own troops. Not even to the old Elder warrior, Bang, who Garou regards as his adoptive father and his former trainer.

In return, Badd telling Garou about his favorite things, his childhood stories, his family including his late parents, everything about Zenko as he adores her so much, also about the reason why he took such adventurous yet dangerous job as Spaceman for the Research Organization. If Garou ever curious for some Earth-y stuff that he still didn't understand (as he called those things "outdated ancient stuff"), Badd will also explaining about them to him.

On special occasion, Badd would brings Garou and Zenko out to go shopping together or having fun on amusement park. He thinks it's good idea to take Garou with him and introducing many fun things humans usually do in daily life. It feels good to have a sense of having a full family again after he lost his own parents years ago. Besides, seeing how adorable Garou trying to enjoy human's entertaintments or bonding with Zenko was amusing.

To blending himself in public when they're going outside together, Garou usually shifted onto his "human-persona" so he wont attracts unwanted attention from people. But when he's around Badd's house, Garou just shifted back to his original form or his adaptive form since Badd loves it so much and wants Garou to be comfortable as himself at home.

Fortunately, it seems Badd's neighbourhood was inhabited by chill people. They never questioned further or suspicious about who Garou really is, especially after Zenko purposely introduced him as "her big brother's new boyfriend who just moved in from another city". Badd immediately blushed or flustered everytime they mentioned his "handsome boyfriend", as they also greet Garou warmly and saying that Badd was so lucky to have this gorgeous man as his lover.

Garou persistently asking Badd what is this "boyfriend" supposed to meant and why did Badd always deflecting his genuine questions while being all bright red faced with higher heart rate. Despite never got the answer, Garou likes to tease the cute little spaceman that he adores so much.

-----------------------------

After staying on Earth for months in Badd's home, Garou started to questioning himself.

Garou wondered if his original mission is really worthy or not, because in truth what he had said to Badd about the reason why he comes to Earth is not entirely true.

The real story was, Garou was just wanna visit the Earth for sportmanship and training himself to become the best hunter warrior. He was going to prove the Elites that he is worthy enough to get more superior rank that the one he currently is. That's why he also brought the Young Blood packs along with him to train them once they arrived on the Earth.

Until that accident happened because of a miscalculation: the Xenomorph alien larvaes that supposed to be used on humans, the supposed hosts, for initiation and hunting ritual were infesting his packs when they were still in the middle of their journey towards the Earth. Garou's plan was destroyed spectacularly, he lost all his pack members before he reached their destination. At least on the better side, because of that accident he could meet Badd along the way, so it feels not too bad.

On the other hand for personal fulfillment, he wanted to seek different challenges in another planets to polish his hunting skills and adding new experiences. So, the invasion plan was actually just his secondary mission, in fact it was actually just a bluffing. But it sounds like a more cooler way to threatened Badd back then. 

Not that he ever cares about human civilization and the entire human population in Earth, as he remains indifferent for them and regards them as mere weak prey for hunting sport. But he found out this one particular human is very fascinating to him: Badd. The more he interacted with Badd, the more he gets attached.

Not to mention lately Garou sensed something wrong with himself that only occured everytime they spend time or hanging out together, like there's warm feeling in his chest or sudden protective instinct whenever he is near Badd.

And while Garou considers humans are ugly, for some unknown reason he thinks Badd, in human's expressive language, is "beautiful". Inside his fierce hot-headed appearance, Badd has the kindness and all the sweet personality package in his heart. Which is total opposite with Garou, who is ruthless and cunning. Those contrasts has really melted Garou's own cold heart, surprised that he could managed to find such special human being.

Badd was supposed to be his prey, not a companion. If only Badd were born as the same kind like him, without doubt Garou was 100% sure Badd would be a perfect Warrior partner to fight along with, as he had already seen Badd's remarkable strength as a human. Such the best dream-like scenario ever that will never happens to them, but still very good 'what-if' situation.

The moment Garou saw Badd could kill the Xenomorph aliens alongside him in a combat and capable to defend himself, he respects Badd so much. It made Garou wanted to initiate Badd as one of his kind, a honourable strong Warrior. Or taking Badd with him to train as his personal human Apprentice.

For his bravery and incredible fighting abilities, Garou presented Badd a gift as a sign of respect for him. It was one of his exotic Yautja warrior's weapon collections that he managed to bring along in last expedition: an unbreakable metal bat.

Garou thinks it suited Badd's brawler fighting style, and because the bat made from special metal from his planet it can't be destroyed with anything on Earth. Except if it was smeared with corrosive acidic Xenomorph alien's blood, it would slightly melt. Whoopsie. But anyways, still an honourable thoughtful gift! Garou hopes he can witness the day Badd will using the metal bat in a combat.

Maybe it's not really bad he prolonged his stay on Earth for the sake of Badd and Zenko, although just for a bit. Garou wanted to have more "connection" with Badd before he continued the original plan. He wanted to know more about this special human, always being near him and protected him.

At least before the old man Bang realizing Garou has been missing for awhile after last Xenomorph attack and doing some search party for him by sending reinforcement army towards the Earth. 

------------------------------

At the same time on his workplace at the Research Organization, Badd was contemplating his life decision.

Badd was thinking why should he still insisted to hide Garou's existence? He could just secretly reported the truth to the Organization behind his back, handed him to them as new research subject and thus ended the Earth's next possible threat.

But that's so wrong!

Just thinking about Garou being treated as a test subject like some lab guinea pig made Badd's blood boil. Not that they can ever catch Garou and managed to survive from him, though, as he knows how strong Garou is. Surely Garou is an extra-terresterial being, but in reality he's not so different from human. There's also alot things that separated him from another Alien species he had encountered before.

Garou has a good heart and moral despite being an asshole sometimes. He's super intelligent and quick to learning something new, willing to cooperate once they're bonded over mutually trust.

Speaking of morality, Garou has better grasp of humanity than most people. Although he is a ruthless warrior, he wont bringing harm to those who are already weak or sickly people, unarmed opponents, childrens, or females especially the pregnant ones. Those are basically the Yautja Clans' Warrior Rules, as they only do fair fights. Badd thinks Garou's own kind are very cultured people, that's cool.

One thing Badd didn't expect before was the fact Garou is kind of "nerdy guy". He thought Garou was a ruthless jock-type warrior who only likes hunting or chaotic things, but in reality he is just the biggest nerd Badd ever known. Garou has always been curious about anything he deemed interesting enough, like human's lifestyle, social classes, education, or even the cuisine. Currently Garou is obsessed with martial arts and his homemade food, also when they're going out together he always asked for buying some fast food preferably with Cola for the drink. Truly an example of alien with unique taste.

The more Garou learned from Badd and observing people around them, the more he understand what human and their "humanity" is, both good side and bad side. Garou said he considered himself on grey area. But he would try to be on the good side, just for Badd.

About Garou's appearance, Badd never got scared of Garou's real form. In fact, he finds Garou in his full warrior armory looks charming and kinda handsome. He had seen Garou in the middle of daily training to sharpen his instincts during his stay at home, surely Garou got a lots of cool fighting techniques and movements, both bare-handed or with weaponry. Truly showing a professional experienced Warrior skills. Or when Garou shifted into the adaptive form so he can spar with Badd more comfortably without really hurting him.

Not to mention his unusually bright golden irises when Garou stares intensely at him, the way Garou tilted his chin up with those long slender clawed hand, that teasing smug grin with those sharp teeth show-off, and those surprisingly soft slicked back spiky white hair..

Yeaah okay, Zenko was totally right about him being into monsters. Fortunately to Badd, she wont and never judges his taste on men.

And Garou is actually a very good friend.. Or maybe more, if only his feeling ever reciprocated. Badd wondered if he could asks Garou to just stay forever on Earth together with him.. 

------------------------------

Badd was just coming home early in the afternoon from the work, as he only finishing yesterday's home paperworks and delivering it to the office. Time to get some rest after working the whole night filling the mountain pile of papers, Zenko still in school at this hour anyways so he would take a brief nap before picking her up.

Strangely, the house was too quiet. He usually hear some noises from across the room, whether it was Garou watching some tv programs or news or movies, or sneaking around the kitchen as he attempted to raid Badd's fridge contents (nowadays he often found out all the meat stocks or even any of homecooking leftovers in his fridge vanished thanks to Garou's huge appetite).

Badd tried to calling for Garou and checking on his room upstairs but there still no sign of him. He guessed maybe Garou went to their sparring place in the woods, training by himself to polish his hunting skill. Or maybe Garou was lurking on city downtown again?

Badd wished it was the former, he doesn't want Garou to make some trouble with humans when Badd was not with him. Even if Garou indeed goes to town he hoped he just do sightseeing or observing people from afar. Whatever, Badd will take a nap while waiting for Garou.

Just as Badd started to sleep, he heard the bedroom window clicked open suddenly. He immediately jumped out of the bed and grabbing his metal bat, ready to whack anyone who dared to sneak into his house like this. Nothing on sight, though, until some invicible force putting down Badd's metal bat and revealing it was Garou in his "adaptive" form, who just deactivated his invisibility cloak after entering his room from the window.

"Yo Badd!", he grinned widely, happy for successfully surprising Badd again. 

"Oh for fuck's sake Garou, please just use the front door! I already gave you my spare key, right? What if someone sees you and thinks you're a robber- Forget that, you were in invisible mode nobody could ever see you anyways, Mr. Ninja Warrior". Badd flomped down on the bed again, feeling ridiculously tired by Garou's antic yet relieved that his favorite alien is back. "Where did you go?"

Garou sets his knapsack down while explaining his disappearance, "I was so bored doing nothing in your house and my instincts will slowly dulled if I don't practice my routines, so I sneak out to nearby forest hoping to get some good prey for hunting practice. But it seems like Earth's creatures are not challenging enough to become my prey. It's either too small, too tame, too weak, or too pitiful it can't satisfy my hunting urge".

Garou sat beside Badd on the bed and stared at him, "Why can't I fight your people? It would makes alot things more interesting..", he whispered the last sentence with a naughty shit-eating grin on his face.

Badd propped himself up from the bed to grab Garou's arm and pointing his index finger in front of Garou's face, "No, I wont allowed you to do that! No hunting on humans, not on my watch. If you want some fight you can spar with me like what we always do. I'll take you on in a fair fight. Was that still not enough?". Was I'm not enough for you, Badd left it unsaid. He frowned at the though of Garou not satisfied with his effort.

"Ugh, what a let down, I would love to add human skulls on my trophy room when I get back to my planet soon. But your wish is my command, Badd. I promise not doing that for your sake", Garou huffed and rolled his eyes, but his tone softened. "About our sparring, while yes we can still spar with eachother, it doesn't fullfil my hunger for hunt. That's different", he shifted closer to Badd and gazing deeply into his rich dark chocolate eyes.

He continued, "You're not a prey anymore and I hate to see you getting hurt everytime I went overboard in our fights. You're my human companion, I only wish to protect you. But thank you for letting me spar with you every week, it was really fun", Garou touched Badd's forehead, where an initiation mark as fellow Warrior was given by him after their first encounter. Then slowly he put his clawed hand on Badd's cheek, caressing the soft skin gently while looking at Badd with much tenderness.

Badd just averted his eyes from Garou's uncharacteristically tender gaze, face heating from blushing too much as his heart-rate spiked. Of course Garou would know he was flustered by his touching words, he could see it by his vision, by the way. Not that Badd hated to be treated like this, in fact he felt so happy that Garou considered him as a human companion, a "someone special" for Garou.

"Umm yeah you're welcome, then.. Don't worry I know you will never really hurt me. Besides, I'm a tough guy, y'know? I can totally revive through fighting spirit and have another go with you", Badd placed his own hand on top of Garou's, letting the charming alien caress his face more. It's very comforting he loves it when Garou showing some rare affection to him.

They enjoyed the heartwarming moment until suddenly Garou moved away from Badd, "Oh I just remember something! Wait here", he let go his touch on Badd as he rushed to get his knapsack on the floor, picking its content and shoved it in front of Badd's face. "Here I got this for you, accept it!".

It was a flower bouquet. A simple makeshift one, but what made Badd astounished was Garou's choice of flowers: all of them were rare exotic flowers, which only grows on mountain or on the deepest part in forest. All of the flowers were wrapped by a wide green leaf as replacement for plastic wrap ('is that a banana leaf??'), and tied together by a thin rope.

"Wow.. Thanks, Garou, these are very pretty ones", Badd carefully took the beautiful bouquet from Garou's hand, still mesmerized by the exotic colourful flowers. He cradled it close on his chest. "Where and how the hell you get these flowers? I didn't even know that they grow or ever existed around our sparring place??"

Garou scratched his head, "After I got bored by pitiful failed attempt of hunting and start heading back to your house, I saw one kind of wild flower plant growing at hidden small valley near our sparring place. I though you would like it so I took some then continued searching for more wild flowers in the middle of forest until on the top of hills. Worth it for a passing time aside from going hunting", he shrugged like it was no big deal.

"But why?? What's the real reason?", Badd was honestly baffled by Garou's whole effort to flatter him.

"I saw from TV or on the street when we were going outside that you humans like to giving and receiving flower present as, what is that, "courting attempt"? Also you always go 'Aww that was so sweet~" or swooning like a fool everytime you and Zenko watched that scenes in some sappy drama movies. I don't understand why humans feel an enjoyment from getting a reproductive part of plant. Is that something meaningful behind that?", Garou raised his non-existed eyebrows in honest wonderment.

Badd tried to answer him, "Well.. It was--".

Garou continued his rants, effectively cutting Badd's explanation, "On my planet everyone courting their companion with a head or remnants of deadly dangerous prey, showing how great their hunting skills are. The more kill count the better. While your people giving a flower bouquet, a plant, really? You humans are just weird", he was shaking his head.

"So.. You didn't deny that you were courting me, right? You realized what I like and tried to do it for me even though you didn't understand the meaning of it, so that you can make me happy. Was that true, Garou..?", Badd slowly connecting the dots and stated the conclusion to Garou. He clutched the flower bouquet tighter, as once again he feels warmth in his heart. Not expecting the ruthless alien warrior has a soft spot.

So this meant his feeling is reciprocated? Garou feels the same as him? 

"What-- I'm-- Okay, you're right I was! There you have it now. Happy? Damn, this still weird to say..", Garou awkwardly confessed to Badd, not sure what should he says next. If he were in human form at that time, Badd was sure he was flustered heavily.

"Mmhm..", Badd hummed in agreement, as he placed the pretty flower bouquet on the nightstand carefully. Then Badd clung his arms around Garou's neck and pulling him down together with him on the bed, so now Garou was on top of Badd.

"Whoaa what are you doing?!", Garou propped on his elbows not to crush Badd directly with his weight. He wanted to protest but stopped himself when he saw Badd smiling softly full of fondness at him.

From very close distance, Garou could see how Badd's eyes are twinkling and the pinkish blush on his cheeks made Badd looked more prettier than usual. Those are something that made Garou was at lost of words when he tried to describe how beautiful this human is. His own companion.

Without saying anything, Badd released his hold around Garou's neck. He was caressing Garou's jaws and then cupping his face gently, before pulling Garou down towards him to peck his forehead. Looking briefly at Garou's softened eyes, Badd smiling again then finally kissing his lips. It was a light kiss but also a lingering one.

After a minute that feels like eternity, Garou released himself from the kiss and asking Badd in a soft whisper, "What was that for?". Not with the tone of rejection but instead searching for confirmation.

Beside the "human's courting", Garou also had seen this kind of acts on TV dramas or in real life, where a couple of "lovers" touching their lips onto eachother's for the purpose of showing their affection. So, he wanted to know if Badd was also meant it.

"Do y'know, when someone accepting the other's courting attempt, they would hug or kiss them. To show how much they loved and appreciated the other. I was doing the same to you, Garou.. You don't understand how long I was waiting for this moment", the raven-haired human answered while caressing Garou's face, the adoring smile still haven't leaving his face.

"Huh, I guess this proved what Zenko told me weeks ago was right, you have the hots for monster guy", Garou was smirking in victory, glad he was the one who captured Badd's heart.

"Don't be such a bighead, you silly alien warrior", chuckled Badd while he ruffled Garou's spiky hair. "You were the one who fell so hard on me, as far as making me your companion, swore to protect me in the name of warrior honour and do the whole 'weird human courting' for me. While noone ever dared to do the same as you. Admit it, you're a dork".

"What did you say?! A dork?? How dare you--", Garou offended complaint was halted as he processed Badd's entire words. "Wait, you said noone ever trying to court you before? Why? You seems more than average people in appearance or attitude", he showed pure confused look to Badd.

Badd gladly took Garou's appreciation remark before answering, "Have you seen my temper? Or listening on my way of speech? Or knowing my habit on ditching someone for Zenko if I'm not very interested in them? Nobody could handle that, Garou. Maybe except you, you're the only one who ever wanted me..", he pulled Garou down again for more soft kisses.

Garou hummed in their kiss, "Hmm, then it was their loss. For not considering you an amazing person". He swept the wild strands of Badd's hair away from his forehead, peppering kisses on it gently. Garou has learned it from Badd and now he tried to do the same for him.

"Aww thank you, Garou. Besides, I like my man being tall, strong, dangerous, loyal, and have lots of adorable soft spots behind the whole cocky bravado", Badd purred in bliss from Garou's affection.

"Says the one who said he hates skyscraper-like tall man. Which was the truth, hmm, Short-stack?", Garou lifted one of his non-existed eyebrow in amusement. He likes to tease Badd with that endearment term.

"Sssh it was for the public, lemme have my preference in secret. And don't call me a Short-stack, say that once more I'll bash your head using your metal bat gift!", he pushed Garou aside then hit his sternum hard enough before closing his eyes and snuggling his head on Garou's chest.

Garou just let himself being pushed aside while chuckling, "Whoa okay Short-stack, I wont call you with that name again-- Badd?", he found his companion looked sleepy.

"Mmmh lemme take a nap for awhile, there's still 2 more hours before I have to pick Zenko up at her school. Please staaayyy with meee..", Badd slurred the last line from sleepiness, he curled his body against Garou's own big body, snuggled even more closer to him.

Garou just taking Badd into his embrace, made sure his human companion feels comfortable in his sleep. He caressed Badd's soft silky raven hair, "So, are we 'boyfriends' now?".

"Whut are you talkin' 'bout? I already introduced ya as mah 'boyfriend' to our neighbours, right? Always has been..", Badd tried to answer despite getting more sleepier.

"Oh right", Garou nodded at the memory. So Badd was really meant it that way? Glad to know.

Badd purring at Garou's caresses on his head, "Mmhm.. Love ya, Garou". After the unconsciously big declaration of love, he finally went to sleep, peaceful smile still plastered on his beautiful face.

Garou was at lost on words again. He heard the Love word and his mind just exploded. Badd loves him. The human loves him, an extraterrestrial being.

Thinking about it again, is that even allowed? To love someone from different world and different species? He wasn't sure if the Warrior code would let him taking a human as anything else outside as a prey, an apprentice, or a companion.

Honestly this is the first time Garou received a romantic love, not a friendly love or familial love. Because as a warrior who dedicated himself to be the best hunter, romance is not even listed on his priority list. He can't say for other fellow Elites who seek love interests by charmed them with their hunting abilities, but for himself Garou doesn't even interested on that thing back then.

But with Badd? How can he rejects his love, not when this special kind of human is compassionate, wonderful and not to mention worthy of his full respect. Badd is also the only human who doesn't cower in fear in front of him at their first meeting. Even as far telling him that he adores his soft side.

Him, a ruthless hunter, a "monster", was loved by a kindhearted human.

"... I love you, too, Badd."

Garou whispered it softly into Badd's ear, he embraced the sleeping boyfriend's body tighter before following him into the dreamland.

Both were smiling in their sleep.

-----------------------------

-Few months later-

There was another new exploration mission from the Research Organization to obtain alien egg or larvae samples from the same wrecked spaceship on the previous expedition, so they could studying and observing the newfound alien species.

The newest mission was successful as the researchers team bringing the samples with them and be able to come back with minimal casualty. Thus Badd didn't need to join because he is working in rescue team.

At first week, everything was okay according to the plan. It seems the autopsy of larvae samples was successful as the Organization researchers have gotten some new informations from it.

Until an unexpected accidents occured during the second week of research.

The alien eggs samples in the special laboratory room were suddenly hatched and bursting out the new "facehugger" larvaes. Some of the lab staff were infested by it, while the other larvae strays were killed on the spot to prevent any infestation happening on more victims. Therefore the research was cancelled and the lab staff who became its alive hosts were quarantined until further notice.

The higher-ups were tried to keep it down so nobody outside The Organization know about this accidents. All the scientists and other staff members also tirelessly forced themself to solve this emergency situations. They tried to save the victims who currently become the alien's host, as far as preparing extraction operation for them hopefully it will have successful result.

But just a few days after that incident happened, all of the matured embrios inside the alive hosts bursted out from their body when they were still in the middle of intensive body examinations. The victims were died immediately, leaving a bunch of terrifying creatures that emerged from the wounds and crawling out attacking people in the laboratory.

Everyone was shocked by those horrible gorey sight, some of them were panickly calling for help while the others trying to escape from the room but stopped by the juvenile aliens' quick attack. When the security team came to rescue, most people in the room were either already dead from fatal wounds or barely alive still struggling to avoid getting attacked by the creatures.

The team quickly eliminate the rest of juvenile aliens by shooting it all, ensuring it wont leave past the entrance door. After ensuring no more alive aliens detected, they immediately sent the survivors to the hospital while the dead ones were sent to the Organization's morgue.

By this horrifying incident, the Organization executives hold the emergency meeting on that day They discussing how to solve this unexpected catastrophe during the research, how they should tell to the victims' family about the incident, or if this research are really worth it with these casualties. The higher-ups commanded them to call or reaching everyone who were involved on the newest expeditition mission, to make sure if there is nobody else got infested among the crew members.

Someone reported that most of expedition members along with other spaceship passengers on that mission have gone missing for days, and a few of them were found dead at their home with the same wide gaping hole wound on their chest. Two recordings from CCTVs on one dead victim's home clearly showed 3-4 Xenomorph alien younglings that just born or bursted from the victim's body, crawling outside the house towards neighbourhood area.

From those reports and evidences, it was confirmed that the crew members who participated on the newest exploration mission actually contained alive Xenomorph larvaes before they landed back on Earth, and somehow the infestation itself couldn't be detected because it was still on very early stage at that time. By the calculation of every "chestburster" larvaes that would be born into juvenile Xenomorph aliens from the total 30 suspected victims, it could be up to 120 individuals. And one of the juvenile aliens could be the next Queen that will reproducing new batch of eggs on somewhere else right now.

The plan has failed. This accident has shaken the Research Organization to the core as they prepared for worst scenario: the Xenomorph alien has already reproduced and multiplied itself inside or outside the Organization building complex. Not to mention they haven't managed to supervise the suspected victims current whereabouts prior the incident. Thus, as for the first step action to prevent bigger fatalities happens, they alerted all of the Research Organization members.

At home, Badd got the emergency messages from his higher-ups as he also explaining Garou about what was happened at the moment, that there was infestation of Xenomorph aliens among the researchers in the Research Organization. The higher-ups already deployed all of their hunter squads towards several different locations based on victims' last sighting or their home address. The higher-ups also instructed him to join the hunter squad for outside building complex area or near the suburban area to search the rogue Xenomorph aliens or at least for any survived suspected victims.

Garou suggested that he will also doing the hunt with Badd as it's the Warrior's duty to banish those alien species' existence, as it was their main prey. He asked Badd to always stay near him during the hunt so he wont get hurt by those beasts. Garou promised Badd that he will protect him, no matter what. But he wont promised to do the same for the others, no guaranteed he will helped them. Mostly they will be on their own. 

Both had agreed to eachother, they set their own combat gears. Garou wore his warrior armor and brought all his hunting weapons. Badd also did his part, not forgetting to bring Garou's metal bat gift, he couldn't wait to finally trying it out to smash those aliens' head off. He strapped it on his backpack, shoving all of other combat equipments on his car trunk, then driving his car out along with Garou towards their destination.

Before they go to the mission location, Badd dropping Zenko first to their neighbour family house to make sure someone watching over her and keeping her safe during dangerous situation. Garou shifted into invisible stealthy mode on their way to the squad assembly point, secretly blending with the rest of Badd's hunter squad members.

They started to investigate the forest near the suburban area which was previously has been reported for most recent Xenomorph alien sighting.

----- ⭐To Be Continued⭐ -----

--------------------------------

Notes:

So I made this headcanon because I had a dream which was strangely similar like the movie's plot, although not exactly same. Still don't know why and how I got that kind of dream since I haven't watch the movie again for so long 😅

The dream was about where I was accidentally saving the Queen of Xenomorph who infested my friend and took control of her mind, then turned out I must ensured the Queen's next survival 😱😰

But the difference between my dream and this Batarou AU is that I met a Queen of Xenomorph alien, while in the AU story Badd met one of Yautja warriors as I've decided to make Garou as The Predator instead. I thought it would be cooler than him being a Xenomorph alien, lmao! ✌😁

Coincidentally, besides getting an inspiration from my own dream, this AU especially for Garou as Predator also inspired by the fact we getting his Awakened Monster form from Murata 😳✨

Combining both the ideas, his Murata-styled Monster form and the amazing Predator figure appearance, WHAM, we got badass concept of Predator Warrior Garou! 👏👏😤

By the way, because I've made Predator Garou and his entire clans can do some shapeshifting as the more advanced hunting skill, he has 3 forms in this story:

1. Original form:

Exactly like the Predator in the movie, but the differences are the hairstyle, body build, and the ability to speak human language. Instead of dreadlocks, his hair is swept-back long spiky white hair. His body is more on slender-built than buff as Garou is an agile-type warrior, but he is so much taller than his canon-self, approximally 200 cm, unless he was shapeshifting into another form. He can speak human language in original form, but a little bit difficult to do it because of his mouth's structure so whatever he spouted when he talks would sounds like either growling or hissing. 

It's Garou's default form when he was among his own kind. Showed this form the first time he met Badd in rescue ship to threatened him (but failed as Badd didn't afraid of him at all), or when he was facing off some Xenomorph aliens in combat during the research organization's incident catastrophe.

When Garou revealed himself in front of the Organization executives at the next part (spoiler!), he refused to show his true face as they aren't worthy enough to see it, unlike Badd and Zenko. Hence he only shifted into adaptive form at that moment before Badd comes to defend him.

2. Adaptive form:

After living together with Badd for months, he has adapted into a new hybrid form, a mix between his own original Yautja form and human form. The result is like Monster Garou in Murata's style! No more arthropod-like mandibles with tusks, but instead human-like jaws with rows of sharp teeth and fangs (just imagine it like Murata's Awakened Garou). His hair is just like his canon-self with the iconic long horns-like spiky white hair, but at some point Badd cuts his hair shorter for more easier maintenance, so it now looks like Awakened Garou with short hair-style.

Mostly Garou showed this adaptive form when he was around Badd and Zenko at home. He knows Badd likes it so much thus alot of teasing, so he decided to make this adaptive form as a new default appearance during his stay on Earth. More practical to use as he doesn't do much hunting at that time, also the new set of jaws makes him easier to communicate by human language with Badd without his tech-armor helmet mask.

In this form, Garou still in his super tall self even though the height can vary around 185-190 cm, depends on the situation, ex: sleeping as he's a big boy Badd's bed or couch wont fit, so he'd shrink a bit. Sometimes Garou and Badd would spar at their secret place in the middle of woods using this form.

Despite the adaptive form is not quite suitable for hunting strong prey like Xenomorph aliens, Garou prefers to use it whenever he was training with Badd. Also, he can kiss Badd while in this form. Actually even more easier when he was in human form, it's just Badd loves this form more. Don't kinkshame Badd, he is one of monsterfucker, lmao. 

3. Human form:

Because he has shapeshifting ability, Garou can create his "human persona" everytime he blends into human crowds, especially when Badd asked Garou to go outside with him, occasionally also along with Zenko. Exactly like Garou in canon, but now with short-hairstyle as Badd said it suits him more. Garou interpreted it as a way to say "You look more handsome" but denied profusely by Badd.

He still maintained his lean-muscled physique like his other forms, but Garou shrink his height down into 177 cm because not only being too tall would catch many attention from people (Garou: "It's not my fault you all humans are just so goddamned short!"), Badd hated it when he was being towered by his own "boyfriend" when they're walking together in public. Although Badd accepted his tall monstrous height when they're only with eachother.

Badd's neighbours were successfully charmed by this "camouflage" appearance, Garou in a very cocky way tried it on Badd but it seems Badd only tolerates Garou's human form. Honestly, Badd loves his adaptive form as it shows Garou's own will to connect more with Badd while still maintained personal aspects of himself. Badd also totally didn't mind his original form as it was Garou's true face, and to be shown the real Warrior's face behind the mask is a great honour for Badd.

-----------

I just remember that I've been in Batarou fandom for a whole year since January 2020, so you can think this headcanon AU as a new year gift and a thankful gift for the fandom 😆😚🎂🎁🎉🎊

Special thanks for:

🌸 @kaincuro​ and @the-goddessfighter​

Thank you so much for being huge inspirations! You guys introduced me about the beautiful side of Batarou ship via your awesome blogs and encourage me to also participating by sharing ideas to the fandom. Because of you, I managed to stay in this fandom for 1 year full despite 2020 being a hard year.

Thank you Cain, for being a wonderful person and providing us the Good Quality™ Batarou contents, both headcanons and arts! Whenever I'm on bad days and want to read Batarou stuff, I always go to your blog, it never fails to makes me feels alot better! Seeing your fluffy Batarou drawings and your amazing explanation on headcanon about them are absolute mood booster, it really helped me going through my hard days, seriously. So I wanna thank you from the deepest pit of my heart, because of you I could passed a difficult year more easier.

Please keep running your amazing blog, you're great and we love you! 😉👍❤🌸

Thank you Temperans-sama, for being one of greatest Batarou artists I've ever known in the OPM fandom and for your dedication on always working hard making many beautiful Batarou drawings to deliver to the fandom! Everything you've made are PERFECTION, really a God-tier artstyle. Not to mention your Batarou art always the Softest and Fluffiest! 😚👌💖💖

Thank you for kindheartedly willing to listening my super random headcanons or AUs, even as far liking it and drawing the illustrations for it, all of the arts are magnificent I'm so grateful for that AAAAA thank youuuu- *sobbing happily* 😭🙏💕💖 I feel so happy for being able to talk and sharing ideas with an incredible artist like you waaah THANK YOUUU!! Please accept my promised thankful gift for this year, I hope you like it 😚💕🎁♥

Biggest respect, support, and neverending love for you~ 😘❤💜💙💖💝💐👏

🌸 @lovelybutnot-ablankcanvas​ and @guby1620​

You guys are such very good friends during my stay in the Batarou fandom throughout the year, thaaaank youuu! Both of you deserved the best! *hugs tightly and never let go*

Thank you Eir, for being one of the most talented Batarou fanfic writers and most supportive understanding friend! I feel blessed to ever know you through your first Batarou fic a year ago, I still remember being one of your first reviewer and we shared alot of new ideas or random stuff. Now you already become a multitalented artist on both as fic writer and art drawing I'm so proud of you! 👏👏😤✨

Also, thank you for writing so many Batarou fic gifts last year, all of them are my favorite stories until now I really appreciate them! Keep being awesome, Eir, and yes you have my endless supports~ 😉💖✨

Thank you Ruby, for being a very talented Batarou artist with the most loveliest artsyle and I really admired you for that! You always have fluffiest ideas for arts and I love your handsome Garou + adorably sweet Badd drawings. I always enjoyed our interactions whenever we talk about our HCs, you're very easygoing and fun person to talk with, also you always successfully cheer me up with your cutest Batarou art 😉👍💯✨

I should thank you for liking my AU stories, even making one of them into a Doujin THANK YOU SO MUCH I didn't expected you would included the Reincarnated Demon/Angel AU into your long project I feel both grateful and honoured AAAA THANKS A LOT! *died from happiness* 😭💞💖💝

Undying supports and greatest appreciation for youuu, Ruby! I will always waiting for your new creations 👏💝🌸🌻💐

🌸 @garous-nipple​

I wanna say thank you for being one of the most talented Garou-centric fanartists in the fandom, you're amazing and I always love seeing your progress on evolving your artstyle throughout the time. You have great drawing skill and trust me you have already on the path to become next Murata! May this year will becomes Garou year as his inevitable comeback in the manga is near, so you will get loads of new art inspirations 😤👍💯🌟

Thanks alot for always accepting my requests or art idea suggestions! You absolutely deserved all of the best appreciation for your hardworks, we the OPM fandom are loving you 😉👌💖

I hope you enjoyed Garou's "the Predator" concept design headcanon as a humble new year gift from me 😆💝🎁🎉

And lastly for special mention:

🌸 @himbo-in-limbo​

I know we haven't interacted yet, but knowing that you love both Garou and AvP after stumbling into your lovely blog, I've decided to include you, too! As someone who only saw AvP once and not too familiar with the story, I honestly kinda embarassed of myself and afraid if my headcanon wont makes any sense so I apologized if there's alot mistakes and inaccuracy in here or if it's too OOC, please forgive me 🙇💦

I realized it's not perfect but I hope you like my concept design of Garou being a Yautja! Also sorry for the Batarou hints I hope you wouldn't really mind about it 😅😉💕💝🎁

(btw, all of your OCs are fantastic and very thoughtful-made! ❤)

----------

Once again I'm so sorry if my writing sucks, I wanted to share the idea but I don't have good writing skill at all please forgive me.. 😭🙇

I hope I can continue for the second part which is also the last part, it's currently on 1/4 way of completion. I'm currently stuck on the action scene why does it so hard to write battle scenes heeeelpp! 😫💦

So please wait for me, yeah? Wish me luck I could finished the story 😅🙏

Thank you so much, we will see again on the final part! 💖

-Little1993lamb-

-------------------------------

Temperans:

Anon! Thank you very much for sharing another fantastic fic for this fandom! Sorry for taking time to post it here. You know? My vacation will be over soon and I'm getting ready for TuT school

I would like to have dreams as interesting as yours, I hardly dream anymore, and it is nice that you can capture an idea from that. Honestly I've been a bit off these days, I miss our guys a lot and the way the webcomic is unfolding really distresses me (I'm so scared for Badd X'C). But your fic lifts my spirits every time I read it! So I wanted to reward your hard work with a drawing. I really like H. R. Giger's art and I tried to give that vibe to my art (I tried X'D). Thank you anon for always being there to support the fandom unconditionally! I hope you have a better year and health! 😘❤💜💙💖💝

[voidstilesplease]

leverage

Notes: It's that scene from At World's End's fault.

---

A slight rustling noise snaps his eyes open. He lifts his head from where it's dipped between his folded arms, then promptly smiles at the silhouette of a man in the shadows. He stands to grip the thick iron bars of his jail that are separating him from his beloved. But as soon as his hands close around the bar, they begin smoldering, and he retreats with a hiss. Looking down, his palms have imprints the shape of the bars, so he sends a regretful look at the man in the shadows, for he can't come any closer without hurting.

"My love," he smiles again and calls to the darkness, softly - the longing from so many years. "You came for me."

"You were expecting me?" The man answers, voice gruffer than he remembers and much colder than the floor of his dingy cell.

His heart clenches. It has been so long that they are apart - far too long. "It has been torture," he admits, clutching his hands together and rubbing the charred skin absently. His expression sours when he gazes down at his fragility and spats with bitterness: "Trapped in this frail body." Then his eyes search his in the darkness, "Cut off from my world, from all that I love - from you."

Finally, the silhouette steps out of the shadows, the small light in the cell revealing a cruel face glaring down on him. When the visitor speaks again, it radiates anger amplified by low growls and grinding of elongated canines. "Ten years I devoted to the duty you charged to me," he begins without preamble, taking measured steps forward. The man's unchanging beta form is sneering viciously and twisting his hideous features some more. The olive of his skin darkening another shade until all the man is for ignorant eyes is inhuman. "Ten years I looked after all the bitten wolves that negotiated servitude to you in exchange for power." Another step closer: clashing fury and yearning. "And finally, when we could be together again-" the man halts, inches away from what divides them. Their gazes lock and the man's irises bleed into the most spiteful of blood reds. "you weren't there."

He looks down in shame, noticing the man's unmoving chest. Then, he closes his eyes in remorse.

"Why," The man growls accusingly, "weren't you there?"

He gazes up, pleading with his human eyes. "It's my nature," he whispers mournfully, for it is the truth. Humans promise him their lives, not the other way around. "Would you love me if I was anything but what I am?"

The man - or rather, the werewolf who cannot find the man in himself anymore - snarls, "I do not," he punctuates each word with spitting rage. "love you."

He shakes his head, reaching for the iron bars again to be a little closer. The skin immediately burns, but he endures it, pressing in desperately to eliminate the years of distance and betrayal between them. "Many things you were, Theodore," he whispers, reveling in the emotions flickering on the hardened facade at the sound of the man's name from his mouth. He reckons the man has not been anything but the "demon wolf", as many like to call him, in so long that he forgot he wasn't always it. "-but never evil. You have corrupted your duty, and instead of lending power, you stole it. And so you corrupted yourself. And you hid away what should-" Unmindful of the scalding pain, he inserts his arm in between the bars to finally touch his love, his Theo, right on the space in his chest where his beating heart should have been, "always have been mine."

Right as his fingertips touch the raised scar of the man's hollow chest - from where he cut himself open and took his heart out to bury it where nobody is supposed to find it in the name of invulnerability - Theo's skin shed its decaying color to show the rich bronze underneath. The werewolf's fangs and claws retract, and he is once again glimpsing the beautiful face of the man that Theo was.

Theo peered up to him, where his eyes are the man's mirror. He feels the man shudder at seeing his face and not the monster after all these agonizing years.

He smiles, his forearm blistering and smoking in their midst, as he brushes his fingers on Theo's unmarred face. Theo's eyelids drop close at the gentleness of the contact. After all these years. And his heart clenches once more when Theo whispers his name like a prayer - his name that no other human knows and no other human will ever pray to as much as they curse it.

"I'm Stiles in this body," he says. "But I will be free and I would've promised you my heart. We would have been together." He withdraws his burnt hand slowly, wistfully. "If only you had a heart to give."

Just as quickly, Theo's face shifts back to its beta form, and the irony would have been laughable if it's not brutal. The demon is bound to a human form, and the human is now a monster akin to a demon.

Theo snarls, banging the cage with woeful crying, chasing his lost humanity. When he faces Stiles, his eyes are back to red from bright blue. He easily extends a clawed finger to Stiles's face, leaving a scrape that bleeds. "Destroy the Hales who befouled you. Bargain your freedom for my defeat; it's the only way they can achieve it. Then destroy them."

Theo pulls away, backing into the darkness again.

"Is that the fate you wish for, Theodore?"

Before he disappears, his vow hangs in the air. "You can have my heart and do with it what you desire. It will always belong to you."

~•~

steo a-z: part 12

[ammalythic]

The diary of a Norwegian troll

[Sorry for my bad English, I'm French. I do my best]

My oldest memories date from my 5 years.

I remember my last year of kindergarten. During this period, I had a "click" compared to other children my age. I quickly felt out of step. First of all because my way of defending myself was very childish but also because I was a clumsy, hypersensitive, anxious, nervous, anxious, obsessive, maybe even having a certain dyspraxia. I was diagnosed much later with Asperger's.

It is true that, since my elementary school, I have always had the role of the "scapegoat". I couldn't integrate myself. They called me "the plague". I was the contagious beast that you should never approach.

I do not know the exact origin of these mockery (which lasted until college). I have always been stigmatized by others without ever really understanding why. I wasn’t an unhappy kid though, it was just like that and that’s all, "fatality". Sometimes I was jealous of well-integrated people but nothing more.

Many children have been subjected to bullying at school. Many children have been stigmatized, described as "bizarre" or "different". And, while this is absolutely terrible, other children have experienced sexual assault. Not all of them, however, began to identify as creatures. No, in reality, something happened in my head. In fact, I began to consider myself "non-human." Maybe because of the stigma, maybe because of the disgust of the human being, or whatever.

After all, in my stories, humans always played the role of villains. At that time, I was already clearly saying to myself "I am not a human". I thought I was some kind of alien sent to Earth, on a mission or something like that. It must, among other things, explain my difference from other kids. I don't know if I really believed it, but I know I wanted to believe it. I thought I was close to Adi / Adibou, an alien character from a French video game / children's series.

I remember, at the end of the lessons, I explained to my "best friend" that my father secretly built a rocket to bring me back to my real planet.

In primary school, I started to read many fictions. Harry Potter being my favorite (especially fantastic creatures). I read about witches, fairies, vampires, dragons and werewolves. I felt like they could understand me better than anyone.

I particularly liked the comic strip "Witch". In this fiction, there is a “Metamonde” named “Méridian” populated by “hideous” but nice creatures. I felt good reading these stories and made up my life there, accompanied by these benevolent monsters.

My favorite scene was obviously the one where the professor turns into a monster: her true form.

So I saw my creatures like this: Often green/brown skin, troll or elf ears, triangles on the coat, fangs, claws, often horns and a long tail.

I invented for them a new way of life, more wild and animal (because in this book, the beings of Méridian live as in the Middle Ages). I was this kind of alien from an alternative world, I also saw myself with a lion or cat tail. My imaginary diet consisted of insects, snakes, fruits and berries.

I saw myself living in a cave or a burrow (or a house like that of the Barbapapas / Teletubbies) and I developed a passion for digging in the ground. Listening to the song “dig a tunnel” (The Lion King 3), watching “The Magic School bus” or reading “My adventure under the ground” (French children's book) giving me real well-being and a feeling of inexplicable complicity with the characters. So, my aliens liked to play in the mud, get dirty, dig, collect insects and molluscs, just like me.

  Our way of life was simple, a bit like Peter Pan's “lost boys”. The group behaviors were mainly animal (body, ear and tail position) and play and behave like animals (in one of my “fictions”, I said that the aliens bit their tails to play) .

Mine wore a simple loincloth, clothes didn't matter (just like for me in "real life".)

I remember a few anecdotes about my aliens: I imagined their daily life before sleeping or whenever I had time.

I don't prefer to go into details. I just remember that I had two imaginary best friends and I visualized them in our world as soon as possible. We had a special treasure, made up of spiders, snakes, insects, bones, feathers and snake molts, something that wicked human villains. My creatures could speak "human" but it was extremely painful for them.

Subsequently, I invented all kinds of stories of humans "not quite human" but these "aliens" were the first.

When I was 9 years old, I started to lock myself up mentally, to live only in my head. I discussed my creatures with my friends, my need to see them, to imagine their suffering as an outlet One of the girls spoke about it - at school - in the canteen, in front of all the students. I was so ashamed that I erased my texts with white corrector before tearing them up and throwing them in the trash (something I bitterly regret today).

Right after entering school, I reconciled with my mental critters and tried to accept them. During an alien-themed drawing assignment, I was shocked to see myself having a bad grade when I had a strong feeling of having shown the "absolute truth".

I also created a fiction about my aliens, to explain on the internet how they exist. Then I was ashamed, I was afraid of mockery, so I erased everything (I'm even more disappointed now).

When I was 12, I experienced the most incredible trip, that of visiting Norway. I saw the troll figurines, the songs, the landscapes and it was a revelation: I was also a troll, from the start! Everything matched: The physical, the way of living, the habitat, the food, the animality ... EVERYTHING! I later had this strong feeling of having an invisible tail and ears that only trolls could also see.

Small comparison between the creature of my 5 years and that with which I identify myself today:

Then, over time, I moved away from the trolls, I developed - badly influenced by "friends" - that I had to be a much more powerful and fierce creature, like a vampire or a werewolf. I was lost, turning sometimes to angels, sometimes to wizards: I was magic and non-human, it was obvious.

Screen capture from one of my blogs in 2011 (in French)

Translation : “I always felt a little different from others but for me all the weird phenomena I was going through were part of me! I thought everyone was like this! Then one day, I realized that what was happening to me was strange. I was a little panicked and asked on the internet if it was okay to act like this. Two people made me understand that no and that I should not worry because after all, I have always been like this and learning who I am will not change anything. For about a month, they didn't explain the basics to me, what to do and what not to do. Then, little by little, I tried to manage on my own, continuing to ask them for advice from time to time.” (2011)

Translation : “I’m a creature of the night, half animal half human “ (2011)

Traduction : "I am very close to nature, the forest is my favorite place. I feel close to plants and animals, maybe even more than human beings, I think. I am more animal than human." (2011)  "I feel different from other humans, I feel more like a 'forest human'. I feel constantly connected with nature and animals. I feel closer to animals (especially wolves and foxes) than men. Sometimes I feel like I can go so far as to lose control: I attack, I bite, I claw. Humans probably see me as a monster. " (2011)

See the movie Twilight played on my animality (I was young, too). And many people tried to convince me that I was an overpowered werewolf ...

Then I discovered the otherkins community in 2012, after very long researches to discover myself, I was disturbed by this resemblance. I then turned to therianthropy and the European badger, abandoning this "troll" side that was also in me ...

So today, I search over and over for ancient writings that would have survived. I'm trying to find bridles from my non-human childhood.

The troll must also be seen as a pillar of my existence. A pillar that, unfortunately, that I absolutely don’t assume ...

[diyunho]

The Joker x Reader - The Delta Paradox. Chapter 1: Deceit

Rumor is the outbreak spreading like fire around the world is somehow Dr. Morbius’ fault: people turned into monsters after getting bitten by the ones already ravaged beyond the irreversible mutation. The last news broadcasted four months ago suggested not all creatures are mindless beasts, a few might still remember who they are and The Joker is about to find out if the story is true.

“Dad…” you whisper and point at the box on the shelves. “I found some peas.”

The Joker turns around and silently walks your way, signaling you to fill up your backpack while he patiently waits for his turn.

The King of Gotham and his 23 year old daughter are scavenging the convenience store on Halsey Street for supplies: food was running low and they had to come out of the bunker in order to acquire basic necessities.

It’s hard to see in the darkness with the tiniest flashlight since they can’t risk being detected.

“Did you find water?” you mumble under your breath.

“No.”

“Dammit, we only have six bottles left,” you sigh, upset at his disclosure. “Should we raid the mall too?”

The Joker covers your mouth, carefully listening.

You can’t discern much until an unnerving screech echoes in the air followed by others in the next second.

“Ssstttt,” J removes the restrain and you clutch to his arm, scared to death.

“Dad…”, you gulp at the commotion happening in the distance: the creatures are probably hunting and you are not willing to become the prey.

“What do we do?” you barely utter and The Clown shakes his head, worried.

“Let’s use the sewers entrance by the dumpster to make it passed the dangerous radius; it’s still open from last time we were here.”

“Ok…” Y/N quietly agrees.

J adds the rest of the containers to his rucksack and lifts it up when he accidentally knocks off a light bulb: the fragile glass shatters to pieces and the two of you stare at each other terrified for a few moments.

The turmoil outside immediately intensifies as The Joker urges:

“Run!”

The panicked Y/N follows her father and she can’t even hear what he’s saying over the deafening roars that seem to come from above the building. Suddenly, the mad man turns and gives you a violent push against the loading dock exit; it’s so unexpected you stumble and before you have the possibility to process what’s going on, J locks it.

“Dad?!” your eyes pop at the small, broken window just to distinguish him backing away. “Dad?!” you start crying. “What are you doing?! Let me in!” The Princess pleads with her parent.

The Joker bites his lip, conflicted at his desire to survive no matter the cost: even if the price to pay is his own daughter.

“Daddy?!” Y/N sobs, petrified at his behavior. “Please?...”

“Better you than me,” he grumbles and runs in the opposite direction, covering his ears when your screams reach him. J rushes out of the shop and drops in the sewer, three monsters already on his trail attempting to grab him; yet they fail because thankfully these beasts are so much larger than the humans they used to be: they can’t fit through the narrow gap The Joker used.

Your father keeps navigating the convoluted catacombs in the darkness while the dim flashlight fails to warn him of the obstacle floating in front of him. He staggers on the dead dog and plunges in the disgusting waters, instantly resurfacing after the initial shock of how bad it stinks. J crawls to near the concrete wall, panting up a storm succeeding the whole ordeal and it hits him: Y/N didn’t pursue.

How could she? The Clown sacrificed his daughter in order to save himself and her agony still resonate in his mind. She was brutally ambushed without any chance of escaping her fate: The Joker made sure of that when he forced her out of the mini-market.

The same daughter that came back for him at the Penthouse when it was clear things are going downhill - no other gang member ever returned; the same daughter that accompanied him in their perilous searching trips as it all went to shit; the same daughter that took care of him when he got sick in the bunker and risked her life in order to bring her father antibiotics; the same daughter that was the only family he had left on this God forsaken planet.

And now she’s gone.

The Joker is all alone like he was always meant to be: nothing can withstand his poison.

**************

8 Months Later

The King of Gotham sneaks in the blackness with precious cargo: tonight was a lucky one. He found soda, crackers and peanuts at a vending machine inside the mall. The road to the bunker is not a short one and he has to be alert; food is scarce and each time he has to venture further and further to find needed items which is why he’s still roaming at this late hour.

Surprisingly calm atmosphere in this neighborhood; J saw a lot of creatures on McCormick Avenue and then an infested Main Boulevard made him backtrack and take this path. It was the correct call because his progress has been steady: moving in shadows has developed into a skillful talent.

He abruptly stops noticing movement blocking his route West of 5th Street. The Joker had no idea it’s swarming with the infected also.

J barely notices something splattering at his feet and freezes: it’s difficult to discern what it is but he has a vague concept. He looks up only to see one of the winged scouts landing on the broken light pole whilst drooling and sniffing the air. The Joker’s body is stiff, his senses sharpened to the maximum: what is he supposed to do? Try to leave? That’s an enormous risk and motion could unleash a chain reaction among the beasts if the one above identifies the helpless individual. Stay? The threat would be equally menacing.

The high pitch snarl belched by the demon’s throat makes him inhale in fear: was he spotted? Or is this merely a power display from the crazed predator?

The Joker feels there’s something behind him and before he can act a sharp pain in his forearm makes him yell. Another bite in his leg makes him lose balance and he collapses to the ground, unable to defend himself from the hoard. The burning sensation is taking over completely: the creatures tear his flesh apart and he passes out without having the strength to shout for help anymore.

*************

The Clown opens his eyes and rapidly blinks since the sunlight is hard to endure.

“Ugh…” he groans and rolls on his side on the concrete pavement.

Everything hurts, including the brain: it’s as if someone drilled holes and he can’t concentrate or form thoughts.

He aims to lift his torso off the walkway unsure why it’s strenuous to accomplish such a simple task; J doesn’t register the reason why is the different anatomy he now has: scaly, gray skin, long, distorted arms with sharp claws, inverted knees and membranous toes. The wings certainly don’t add to his ability to sport the same agility he was blessed with while still a person.

He finally manages to gather himself up, surprised to experience an odd sensation: The Joker is so much taller after his mutation and everything crushes down once the hideous reflection shown in the partially broken glass belonging to “Macy’s” department store glares back at him.

“Ahhh!” J blurs out alongside an uncanny roar emerging from his transmuted vocal cords. The frantic sound gets the attention of beasts in his vicinity, then they ignore him because he’s one of them.

“Fuck…” he mumbles in disbelief at their reaction, grateful they didn’t attack.  

The Joker’s raspy breath scores big with a creature nearby though.

Apparently a female due to her red orbs, she’s approaching the former human with a certain restrain.

The Joker would love to bail: unless he can control the horror of what’s happening to him in a few moments, he might get out of there in one piece.

The curious monster is inches away and J had nothing better to do than articulate:

“… Do you… understand me?”

“Grrrrrrr…” the female sneers, unraveling her fangs.

“Y/N… is that…is that you?” The Joker tosses the question out there for the lack of a better plan.

No answer, just a low howl that makes a few males digging in rubble unhappy: why is the group’s favorite displaying interest in the newcomer?

They shriek and emerge more and more agitated, drawing the attention of others in the proximity. The displeased attitude seems to elevate the mood in a negative direction to the point of having a large flock landing on the same street too.

“Crap…” The Joker assesses his situation and it’s not good. “Shoo!” he gently gives the female a nudge and she coos as her distorted fingers touch his grotesque face. Nevertheless, her gesture unlocks the gates of hell: the female’s keen dart towards the unfortunate Clown with the sole purpose of finishing him off. Competition is not tolerated from a rookie and that’s how The Joker is perceived by the mindless crowd--a threat to the hierarchy.

A loud, eerie scream covering all others makes the murderous bunch halt in their tracks: a humongous female leading the group that arrived moments ago is making them retreat. She keeps shoving them and growling while followed by a huge specimen: definitely The Alpha Male with his yellow eyes and dominant figure that don’t allow disobedience.

The party showing The Joker affection gives up on her advances as you stand in front of your father, not necessarily excited about the encounter.

“Dad?...” you smell the air out of habit.

“… … Y… Y/N?... …” The Joker stammers at the inexplicable revelation. “You… You’re alive??!!”

“If you consider this being alive.”

“Delta, we have to go soon!” one of your fighters announces. “They might snap again!”

Your parent is baffled and you bother to enlighten him a bit:

“I’m part of a coven made of turned humans still self-aware. You’re lucky we flew by and saw you. I felt you were born but I didn’t know it was you until I sniffed you. I wished I knew so I won’t waste my time!!!!” the bitter statement brings to life past memories. “Let’s go!” you raise your voice.

“We’re not taking him with us?!” The Alpha Male inquires, baffled. “He’s self -aware!”

“Trust me, we don’t need someone like him amidst us!” you spread your wings and prepare to fly.

“Y/N… “ The Joker gulps. “Can I come?... Please?... I don’t want to die here.”

Y/N ignores his plea and angrily replies:

“Better you than me!”

How can he justify his behavior in these circumstances? It’s impossible to request forgiveness when you’re at an obvious loss regarding your daughter.

“I’m sorry I did what I did, ok… Pumpkin?”

“I am NOT your Pumpkin!! I am Delta!!!” Y/N mutters.

“Huh?” the clueless King inquires and your obvious disapproval suggests you hate where the conversation is headed.

“Delta is more valuable than any of us and we must protect her at all costs until we find Morbius,” one of your companions gives away details you don’t care your father knowing about. “She can do incredible…”

“Enough!!” you cut him off. “We’re leaving!”

“What… what things?...” The Joker attempts to distract you from the imminent departure.  

“None of your business!” you float in the air, the other 40 sets of wings following you while he is left behind with the horde that made him an outcast: brainless monsters already clustering around once more in order to punish his transgression.

“Hey!!!” The Alpha Male glides on top of The Joker. “Delta said you can come!”

“Really?” hope flourishes in his heart.

“Hurry up before they shred you to pieces!”

“I don’t know how to fly!” J shouts.

“Don’t be an idiot! Move your shoulder blades!”

Your father would normally go ballistic at such affront but he actually ignores the disrespectful sentence due to the insane events leading to today’s reunion.

What other choice does he have besides taking advantage of this unique opportunity?

The Joker clumsily bumps into a trash bin and finally ascends towards the blue skies trying to keep up with the flock.

His daughter might be a mystery now but one thing is undeniable: he would rather suffer a thousand deaths before abandoning her again.

 Also read: Masterlist

https://diyunho.tumblr.com/post/153664676321/joker-x-reader-masterlist

You can also follow me on Ao3 and wattpad under the same blog name: DiYunho

[nega-aria]

Gyro and Mark visiting a cemetery at night

Ok, I suck super hard at keeping things short, so these may go slower than I expected, but I’m having a lot of fun with this so thanks for the request!

“You First”

Rating: SFW

Characters: Mark Beaks, Gyro Gearloose, Falcon Graves, Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera

Ship: semi Beaksloose but not very shippy

Warnings: mild swearing

“You go first.”

“Like hell I’m going in there first! What happened to youproving how oooh so much better you are than me?”

“Pfft, don’t gotta prove facts, bitch.”

“That’s literally how they become facts.”

“Look just go already!” Mark yelled, his voice quivering andshrill in the cool night air as he finally turned to face Gyro. “Unless you’drather go back to the party and tell everyone you were too chicken.”

Damn that party, and damn that smirk on Mark’s face. Gyroscowled at the outstretched arm that was extended towards the gate, hiding hisown nerves behind a demeaning attitude. “For the love of Mewton, you are such ababy!” Gyro scoffed, pushing Mark aside roughly enough to completely relocatehim. The frustration fueled anger lasted long enough for Gyro to throw themetal gates open dramatically, but he cringed in that entryway when the ironrods gave way to the inky abyss before them.

The obvious click of a phone camera went unnoticed as Gyrostarted wide eyed at the scene before him. Trees twisted in seemingly unnaturalways, their shadows casting an army of demented branches, muddled up into aportrait of madness. The hints of moon that could be seen in the cloudy skydisplayed as nothing but an ominous slice of light: a mere tease in theterrifying darkness. It was like a set, something unreal plucked out of themost cliché of horror movies, but it was real and that was enough to make tiredtropes truly terrifying.

“See, just a depository for dead people erected solely to appeasethe irrational religious beliefs of society,” Gyro stated matter-of-factly,crossing his arms over his chest casually as though his heart wasn’t literallyabout to leap right out of it.

Mark rolled his eyes at the pompous display. “Whatever yousay, professor,” he mumbled. He jumped sharply when a soft rustling in the darkthat answered him instead of Gyro. “Did you hear that?” Mark squeaked.  

“What, you scared or something?” Gyro taunted. Quitefrankly, it made him feel better about his own fear to bother Mark about his.

Mark’s feathers puffed on cue. Gyro knew they would, thesmug bastard, but that didn’t stop Mark from going on the defensive. “Of thislame spooksville? As if!”

Gyro didn’t say anything, not so much as a hint of laughter,but he might as well have been cackling manically. He didn’t even look back ashe began a slow trek into the foreboding landscape, and that crude brush-offinfuriated Mark more than a real retort ever could. He didn’t retaliate –that wasexactly what Gyro wanted, after all—but his silent seething provided more thanenough satisfaction.

They occupied themselves with investigating the tombstones,argument pushed aside to allow frayed nerves to settle on something less agitating.Just to the far wall and back and this stupid bet would be satisfied.

The age of those markers shifted like fluid with each stepfurther into the cemetery, as if stepping back through time itself so smoothlythat one couldn’t even tell they were no longer in the right century. The olderthe graves got the more ominous they looked and the more it felt as if theiroccupants would simply rise from the ground and drag any trespassers with themto hell. The rows of crumbling stone were no longer organized and well caredfor. Any people who might wish to visit long were ago buried alongside theirkin, leaving nothing behind but markers of stone and iron to indicate they wereever there at all. A mossy pile of decaying rock was all that was left to markthe final resting place of many poor souls, while others still boasted toweringmonuments, guardians with their angelic features twisted by time into abstract monstrosities.

Mark swallowed at the terrified knot in his throat, but nomatter how hard he tried it proved too tremendous to gulp down. He clung to hisphone with trembling fingers, pointing its flashlight ahead of his every steplike a cross to banish evil. A boring bunch of rocks didn’t make for the bestdistraction, but Mark did his best with what he had.

“What do you suppose this dude’s story is?” Mark asked,pointing down at the grave near his feet.

“Sorry, I left my Ouija board at home,” Gyro said with anexaggerated roll of his eyes.

He scoffed at Mark when an investigation of his silencerevealed the other man to be currently predisposed with yet more social medianonsense, using a tube of red lipstick (that Gyro truly did not want to know whyhe had) to turn the dearly departed’s surname from “Buttshide” into “here liesButts”.

Gyro had never felt second hand shame so intensely in hislife. He could swear the entire graveyard was judging him from bringing such aloser into their domain. “What are you, five?”

“Yeah, wellll I wish you were five!” Mark snapped back. “Youwere actually fun when you were five! Was before you had that ginormous stickup your butt,” he concluded, turning his beak skyward in a very snottypunctuation.

In an instant the snooty demeanor was dropped to allow Markhis oh-so important task of documenting the journey via selfie timeline. It madeGyro scowl harder as he watched the parrot demean himself even further bygiving bunny ears to a headstone. “I loathe you, you know that right?” he said,but those words were not demonstrated in what came next.

A soft snap echoed in the dark. A twig rustled by an animalmost likely, but the logic of that couldn’t quite stick; in that fog filledevening, it was most certainly the breaking of bones, some animal gnawing inthe night, perhaps even a creature of such unknown horror that they couldn’teven fathom its likeness even in the most heinous of nightmares, but it was mostdefinitely something wicked.

Be it stick or monster, it had Gyro in full flight responsemode, cringing close to Mark as the other man did the same to him. “What wasthat?” Gyro squeaked.

“Totally not a horrendous monster,” Mark whimpered. “I mean,that would be super lame, right?”

Gyro actually tried to be comforted by Mark’s absurdlyinadequate attempt at a dismissive laugh, but it proved quite foolish to eventry. “It’d be preposterous.”

The night mocked him with a far more disturbing sound, likedeath itself clawing at a grave. They stood shoulder to shoulder, wanting torun but too terrified to move.

“Gyro?”

“Y-yeah?”

“Is it bad that I reallywanna hold your hand right now?”

Yet another eerie sound pierced the night, and Gyro’sfingers answered for him, quivering digits entwining tightly with Mark’s. Hegripped tighter when a dark shadow darted through the misty graves, but Marktook it one step further by clinging to Gyro’s entire arm when that same inkyfigure got closer and its hideous noises along with it.  

“What the hell isthat thing?!” Mark hissed in a panicked whisper.

“N-nothing, because it’s not real!”

That entity swept closer, moved faster, and growled louder. Theywere being surrounded, voices whispering from all directions and death droolingdown their necks, famished for their flesh. A typically effeminate scream burstfree as Gyro launched himself into the embrace of the man beside him, holdingon as if his life truly depended on it.

“WHAT?!” Mark asked, the pure terror seething from his voiceas he frantically scanned their surroundings with wide, petrified eyes.  

“It touched my butt!!”

“Oh, great a horny ghost! Just what we need. We can get laidbefore we die!”

Gyro did not appreciate the sarcasm. “Hey, don’t get pissyat me just because my ass is so fine that the even the afterlife can’t resistit!”

“THAT pathetic thing? It’s already living in the afterlife!”

“What does that even mean?!”

“I don’t know! I’m nervous, okay?!”

Another sound, this time louder and more sinister than allthe others, had Mark crying pathetically. “Gyro, if we die I just want you toknow that I never hated you as much as I said!” he wailed as he cowered intothe other man. “I just wanted you to think I was cool!”

“That’s stupid,” Gyro replied in the calmest tone he couldmuster, “We’re not gonna die…and I’m physically incapable of thinking you’recool.”

All at once the graveyard grew silent. Mark and Gyrostiffened in the eerie quiet, both feeling the presence behind them but neitherdaring to face it. They could hear it drooling, feel its breath, sense itsfamished growls, but it couldn’t really be there… could it?

It was Mark that actually looked first, turning slowly ashis eyes widened and his entire body quivered. It was large and menacing, andin that inky darkness it was easily eight feet tall and capable of breakingthem both in half. Blood red eyes pieced through the night and wet fangsglistened. Mark could swear he saw it lick its drooling maw, but he wasn’tabout to stick around and find out what that meant. He took off before he evennoticed that Gyro had thrown himself into his arms, but the hitchhiker didn’teven phase his stride, and they clung to each other, screaming in unison theentire way out of the cemetery. Gyro had to give Mark one thing, he was prettysure he’d win the fleeing for your life contest.

Behind them the monster cackled, maniacal laugher quickly devolvinginto elated gasps for air that struggled to allow enough room to actuallybreath.

“I can’t take it,” Falcon wheezed as he watched them, flee. “They’retoo adorable.”

Falcon pulled the mask from his face, slipping from theoversized ratty mass of fur that he normally wouldn’t let anywhere near him ashe dropped himself to the ground beside the smaller man who had been assistinghis deception. He lit a cigarette, leaning against the large gravestone behindhim and still chuckling lightly as he released the fumes into the cold night. Callit foolish self-indulgence, but when this opportunity had presented itself,Falcon couldn’t resist, and he was sure he had never laughed so hard in hislife.

“Dr. Gearloose is gonna killme when he finds out about this. You know he will find out about this right?!This was a terrible idea!!” Fenton answered, his tone growing more franticuntil he was waving his arms hysterically by the end of it.

Falcon chuckled at his partner in crime. He would likely beforever grateful that Fenton had been steamed enough at his boss to even offertechnical assistance and tipsy enough to actually go through with it. “No itwasn’t,” he answered simply.  “This was bloodybrilliant.”

Immediately outside the gate both Gyro and Mark were pantingfor air, the latter asking himself how Gyro was so out of breath when he hadbeen doing all the running.

Gyro was oblivious to the annoyed look as he smoothed hisjacket and cleared his throat. “Now, when everyone else asks-”

“Oh, dude we were total badasses. Hashtag crushed it.”

“Very good.”

The wind let forth a gust, laughing at the irony as it movedthe heavy iron gate behind them just enough to make both Gyro and Mark shriekin fear and back a good distance away.

Mark gulped nervously. “…Gyro?” The other bird looked hisway uncertainly. “Will you hold my hand on the way back?”

Gyro sighed. “You do realize this is supremely pathetic.”

“…does that mean yes?”

The second sigh was even more pronounced. “Yes.”

They instantly linked fingers, both holding tighter thanthey would like to admit as they braved the dark walk back to the party. Patheticit may be, but it sure did make them both feel better.

[looney-mooney]

Insecure Intimacy

Chapter 1/3

Badgerclops and Mao Mao each have their insecurities. But with time, patience, and passion, they will learn to love these things about themselves and eachother that most others would find repulsive. An established relationship Badgermao fic, includes art nerd Badgerclops, Adorabat with a bit more of a sense of independence (which involves learning how to be a magical hero from Camille), and Mao Mao’s personal insecurities! And uhh, since we’re using the citrus system... Orange, I guess? Will eventually be Lemon.

AO3

Mao Mao and Badgerclops had been sorta-kinda dating for a few months at this point. Their home on the hilltop reflected these changes: Mao Mao and Badgerclops had moved out of the triple-bunk bed, getting themselves a full-sized bed and setting up a room for Adorabat in the basement. Despite her enthusiasm for her caretaker’s newfound romance, Adorabat had been resistant to certain changes, especially the one with the beds. But it wasn’t long before she realized she kinda liked having her own space, especially once her caretakers had put in some extra effort to convert a portion of the basement Garage into something more personalized to their unofficial daughter: She had always used that room as a sort of refuge, after all, and it was already her favorite colors. They had relocated the triple bunk bed from their old room to the basement garage, and though the top and middle bunks remained untouched, the bottom bunk that used to be Mao Mao’s had been converted into a drafting table for drawing, making up new weapons, and (occasionally) doing homework. And the basement meant she got to have her own TV, extra couch, and they all pitched in to add beanbag chairs and extra fun carpets to the space. Adorabat liked making the room her own, liked having a space to get away from time to time, and liked having loving caretakers who really, REALLY loved each other. 

And her caretakers didn’t mind having a bit more space to themselves, either. 

It was a Tuesday night. Things tended to die down a bit on Tuesdays, usually just neighborhood disputes and no real attacks from monsters or pirates or any villains of the sort. It frustrated the everliving hell outta Mao Mao, not getting much to do. And Adorabat was spending the night at the witches house, having been curious about the process behind the creation of magical weapons and eager to be a witch’s apprentice for a few days. (Mao Mao pretended to disapprove, but Badgerclops had caught him sneaking proud looks at the pictures Badgerclops had taken earlier with his instant camera and put up on the fridge of her in her new witch’s hat, proudly holding a wand in her little wing. She was going to make a fine hero one day, that much was for sure, and she was sure to learn something useful from this experience. It was kinda sad to watch her start to gain a sense of independence and branching out in her knowledge, but at the same time, it was so incredible to watch her grow into the wonderfully unique hero she was always meant to become.)

Maybe the fact that Adorabat was seeking knowledge from another source than her number one hero was bumming Mao out a bit, too: it might have contributed to his antsiness, aside from the long, arduous day of settling disputes instead of fighting monsters. 

Badgerclops decided that maybe it would be best to check up on him, just in case. 

He found his partner in the Dojo, taking his frustrations out on a defenseless punching bag. 

Badgerclops decided to watch his partner for a moment. He really was... Beautiful, once you decided to let yourself see it. His muscles were wiry, but strong, and his fur was so dark it almost absorbed light, like the night sky before its first stars peeked through. He was fast, flexible, moved in impossible ways, his fangs flashing white against the inky darkness of his fur, eyes almost glowing that impossibly pure emerald green, his cape fluttering behind him, framing his movements like a comic book character. 

Badgerclops decided to try drawing him. It’d be impossible to get down a detailed sketch when he was like this, but it’d still make good figure drawing practice, and he was just so incredibly beautiful, it made him wonder how he never really noticed it before. 

Badgerclops popped out his sketchpad, and started doodling his love, right there in the doorway, as he went to town on the punching bag. It was impossible to reallycapture his beauty, of course, but this didn’t have to be perfect - figure drawing was all about capturing the feeling of the movement, after all. And... it was kinda nice, just sitting there, doodling that beautiful black blur of action.

After a while, Mao Mao took a small break, leaning down to grab a water bottle and downing it with big, thirsty gulps. That was when he caught Badgerclops sitting in the door jam, sketchpad and pen in hand, studying him intensely. It made him choke almost on his water in surprise.

“Uh... Hey, Badgerclops. What are you doing there?”

Badgerclops blinked himself out of it - he must have gone into hyperfocus for a while there - And smiled. “Oh, nothing, just practicing my figure drawing.”

“Wha - on ME?”

Badgerclops rolled his eyes a little, though the fond smile remained. “Yes, on you, silly! Who else would I be drawing?”

Mao Mao shuffled his feet a bit, coughing into his fist with a small, adorable little blush - whether the cough was out of bashfulness or simply to dislodge some more of the water caught in his throat was undeterminable. Probably a little bit of both.

“I don’t know, yourself? I mean, I know I’m a dashing hero and all, but I’m... not exactly much of a looker, ya know?”

Badgerclops tilted his head. “Well, I don’t know about you, but I think you’re beautiful. And there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“Shhhhut up."

“It’s true! I mean, look at you! You’re GORGEOUS. Here, look:” He turned his sketchpad around, revealing page after page of Mao Mao studies. “I mean, it’s hard to capture your real beauty with just some lines, but you’re kinda fun to draw anyway, you know?”

Mao Mao looked at the drawings, and really, REALLY looked at them. They looked like him, but like... He couldn’t be that... elegant, could he? That fierce, or that smooth, or... it looked more like one of his sisters, really; truly heroic, with a natural deadly grace. But then again, his sisters weren’t that cocky, quite that sly, or sexy, or... wait, what?

Did Badgerclops think he was... Sexy???

Mao Mao glanced up, to see Badgerclops looking at him, a smile on his features. It made Mao Mao swallow with unexpected emotions.

“Badgerclops, these are... these are incredible.”

“Awww, shucks...”

“No no, I really mean it. Are these like, pure ink sketches, or something?”

“Yeah, I like drawing you with my brush pens! It really shows off how fluid and dynamic you can be, and makes it easier to capture how dark your fur is. These are just figure drawings though, I was just seeing if I could draw you in motion. The way you move is kinda spectacular, Mao Mao.”

And there goes his face, sacrificed to the firey hot demons of passion. Fare thee well, we shall miss you, forever concealed behind a now eternal blush. God dammit, did his partner really have to be so genuine? He wasn’t even being smooth on purpose, the bastard . 

“Yeah, well - psh. Of course I’m - uh - sp-spectacular. How... How else would I, uh... become the greatest hero of all - of all time?”

“You are really spectacular, dude. Don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise, okay? Cuz you’re awesome. And you’re also mine. And nobody gets to insult my boyfriend but me, and I only insult you when I’m teasing or when you’re being a dingle, so that’s okay. And you get to insult me when I’m being a butt.”

“To be fair, you do have a very nice butt.”

“Oh, stop it! Your butt’s pretty awesome too, you know.”

“No it’s not, are you kidding me? It’s all gross back there, with a disfigured tail stump and everything. It’s a hideous butt, that’s why I wear a cape, ya butt.”

“Well, I don’t know man. I mean, once I got past the fact that you had gotten that badly hurt, I realize it’s not actually all that gross back there. It’s kinda awesome, really, how intricate the scarring is back there...”

Mao Mao gasped, feeling a wandering hand on his backside, carefully tracing one of the scars on his tailstump with a delicate claw. That thing was... REALLY sensitive. Holy SHIT . He shivered, hard, and wobbled on his feet, allowing his partner’s robot arm to steady him. He felt Badgerclops lean forward, his face Juuuust nextto his twitching ear.

“You know, Adorabat’s not gonna be home for a few days. ... Why don’t we take this to our room? Spend some... quality time  together ~ ”

Holy SHIT. “O... Okay.”

Badgerclops, the fiend , scooped him up in a bridal-style carry with impossible ease, and carried him over through the kitchen and into their shared bedroom. Besides the situation with the rearranged beds, nothing much had really changed about the room. Up until this point, they hadn’t really done much other than make out and grope, though there had been that one incident with the closet...

Up next: the Closet Incident

[yellowcanna]

Stray Dogs

Summary:

When Nakahara Chuuya opened his eyes, he had expected everything to be the same as it did for the past five years. The jingling sound of chains rang through the air as he slowly pushes himself from the cold ground. He brushed off some dirt from his cheeks—not that it will make him any cleaner. When he sat up and took a proper look at his surroundings, he realized it was not the same... 

“Great, of all things it’s a fucking leech.” He groaned. 

“As if I want to be roomed with an animal that looked like it hadn’t bathed for a decade,” said leech fired back. 

This was the beginning of their long journey. 

The story of how two stray dogs met.

Pairings: Soukoku (Dazai x Chuuya), Shin Soukoku (Akutagawa x Atsushi)

Rating: T

Author: Canna / Yellow Canna

Series: Part 2 of Those with Claws and Those with Fangs

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••

◅ PART 1                               Main Page                               PART 3 ▻

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••

The same pitiful cries.

The same foul stench.

The same depressing atmosphere.

When Nakahara Chuuya opened his eyes, he had expected everything to be the same as it did for the past five years.

The jingling sound of chains rang through the air as he slowly pushes himself from the cold ground. He brushed off some dirt from his cheeks—not that it will make him any cleaner. When he sat up and took a proper look at his surroundings, he realized it was not the same.

Ocean blue eyes stared flatly at the other existence sharing his room.

“And here I was wondering when the kitty would wake,” said the raven-haired boy seemingly his age.

The boy had a metal collar on his neck and hands as well. Thick iron chains stretched from the cuffs with the other end nailed deeply into the stone wall. He was covered in grimy bandages with ragged clothes like everyone else in this cursed place.

Chuuya furrowed his brows as he tried to process what his new roommate had said. It's been like this ever since he was shipped to this foreign land. The lack of having someone to converse with also didn't help his language improvement. After all, humans didn't need him to speak their language to become their source of entertainment.

“Great, it’s a fucking leech.” Chuuya groaned. Why of all things did he get locked up with a vampire? Was this some sort of new torture method?

“As if I want to be roomed with an animal that looked like it hadn’t bathed for a decade.”

“What was that?! I’ll beat the shit out of you, brat!” Chuuya shouted out of reflex, only to freeze when he realized that he understood the other just now. The vampire was speaking Japanese.

Chuuya really looked at this vampire for this time. His eyes scanned over the vampire's delicate Asian features that he hadn’t bother noticing before.

“You’re a brat as well!” The vampire countered. Burnt umber eyes looking over Chuuya in a way that made the redhead wanted to slam his fist into that smug face. “Not to mention you’re just a shrimp! Should have drank more milk when you had the chance!”

“Mind your own business!”

The two glared at one another. They could already tell that they were not going to enjoy rooming together.

Their glaring contest was interrupted when the metallic door to their confinement slammed open. An old, shaggy gruff man stomped in. He was someone Chuuya seen regularly during mealtime. As usual, the man threw a chunk of raw meat at the redhead's feet before he turned to leave.

The heavy door slammed shut, leaving the two in silence.

"Is there discrimination against vampires here?" The vampire asked in a bored tone. "Why wasn't I given a meal?"

Chuuya ignored the vampire and grabbed the piece of meat that barely got any blood left despite being raw. The meat was covered in dirt and the flesh was an unhealthy dark brown hue. A sour stench was practically emitting from the thing. The meat was spoiled, that much was obvious even to the vampire who was scrunching his nose in disgust.

Chuuya didn’t even bat an eye as he bit into the old meat and tore it apart with his teeth.

“I’m amazed you can eat that.” The vampire commented after Chuuya had already devoured half of it. “No wonder you’re short.”

The sound of knuckles cracking echoed through the tiny room.

“Do you even know the situation you’re in?!”

“Isn’t it obvious?” The vampire responded blankly. “I got captured while testing out a new suicide method in a well. Now I’m stuck here with a werebeast.”

Said werebeast’s brows twitched. This was just perfect. Not only was he locked up with his race's sworn enemy, the said enemy was suicidal. Just great!

“Go hang yourself and die.” The redhead went back to eating what little food he had left. After that, he began to lick the sour blood off his dirt-covered hand. 

The vampire appeared thoroughly grossed out by his action, but Chuuya couldn't care less of what his roommate felt. He had long thrown away the pride he once had. To survive in this hellhole, he had to lower his head to these humans that captured him. His body has been worn down over the years. Now, he was practically just a skeleton wrapped within a thin layer of skin. 

That was what this place does to them. They were beaten and starved until submission, then used for those veil creatures’ entertainment.

Chuuya could still remember that night eight years ago when his village was raided by humans. Older werebeasts were killed off and the young ones were all captured. Chuuya didn’t know where the other kids got sent off to, but he was the only one they bothered shipping across the ocean due to his unique bloodline.

Apparently, humans found it entertaining to watch monsters like him kill one another.

“So? How did you get captured?” The vampire suddenly asked.

Chuuya glanced at the vampire from the corner of his eyes before turning away to ignore him. Sadly the raven didn’t get the message, or perhaps he chose to ignore the fact that the werebeast did not want to talk to him. “Did they wave some catnip at you and let you jump into a cage?”

“I ain’t a house cat!” Chuuya barked before being hit by a wave of dizziness. He collapsed against the cold floor as his ears started to ring and his vision spinning.

“Hey,” the vampire called, but Chuuya ignored him. He closed his eyes to fight off the wave of nausea. After lying still for a bit and having some blood flowed back into his head, Chuuya felt mildly better.

“You dead?”

“Are you an idiot?” Chuuya grumbled before sluggishly pushing himself up. The vampire frowned as he examined the werebeast’s movement.

“You’re starving.”

“No shit.”

Chuuya leaned back against the wall. He didn't have the energy to argue with the vampire. 

“Do they only give you that much to eat every day?”

“Every day?” Chuuya huffed. “That was my meal per week. Now shut up unless you want a rotting corpse next to you. I heard you leeches hate the smell of dead things despite sleeping in coffins.”

“We sleep in actual beds. Those are just human superstitions.” The vampire deadpanned.

Chuuya didn’t bother with him as he closed his eyes. He needed to store up energy if he wants to survive to get next week’s proportion. It didn’t take long for him to submerge into the familiar, welcoming darkness.

Chuuya didn’t know how long he has slept for. Being low on energy like this, it wasn’t unusual if he slept for days or even a whole week. Time was something impossible to tell when trapped in a small room with no window. The only thing he could tell was the number of years he has been trapped here for from the passing seasons every time he was let out.

When Chuuya woke up, it was from a harsh kick to his side, knocking him into the cold stone ground.

An angry voice shouted something, but Chuuya couldn’t understand the language.

The werebeast slowly opened his eyes. He stared up at two men standing over him, clad in heavy-looking armours. A black cat was perched on one of the men's shoulders. Its tiny head tilted up haughtily as golden eyes looked down upon him as if looking at a piece of filth.

As usual, Chuuya wanted to know how that cat would react if he were to gouge out those disgusting eyes. His raven-haired roommate just sat there, watching silently as Chuuya was dragged out the door by the chains on his neck.

The humans sitting around the large stadium cheered when Chuuya was thrown up onto the stage. Torches were burning brightly, illuminating the field and the hideous faces of the humans. A barrier was soon cast over the stage, preventing both creatures from escaping.

Chuuya’s eyes were dilated as he tried to make out his opponent this time. He was starving and his head still hurts. He flipped around and got onto all four. He couldn't see his opponent properly due to the hunger that's making his vision blurry, but that didn't matter. It was pointless to see who or what he's going to kill off anyways.

With a roar, Chuuya began to transform.

The crowd went wild as crimson glow shrouded the werebeast’s body. In a burst of blinding light, the petite boy was gone. In his place was a tiger that was all skins and bones, yet the ferociousness it was displaying made anyone that saw at a close distance cowered.

The cheering from the crowds went up by ten notches at the sight.

“…So noisy,” A certain vampire mumbled as he sat in the small, confined space. The entire room was pretty much shaking from the intense cheers coming from above.

He continued to count the seconds in his head. Picking up a pebble next to him, he slowly drew another line to the tally chart next to him.

As of this moment, this marks the seventh day since he got been thrown in here.

The noise eventually died down after half an hour. Soon, he heard footsteps and the jingling sound of chain approaching the room. When the door was kicked open, a familiar redhead drenched in blood was thrown ruthlessly onto the ground like a ragdoll.

The human secured the werebeast’s chain to the wall and left without giving the broken youth another look.

Chuuya curled into a ball, shivering and panting as he cradled his right leg that has been ripped off at the knee. The redhead tore what little piece of clothing he had and tied it around the wound to slow the bleeding. 

The vampire’s eyes gleamed the moment he sniffed the werebeast’s blood.

He reached out, pale hands extended towards the other boy only to be stopped by a sharp tug with metallic rattling sound resonating throughout the room. The raven looked down at the chains preventing him from going any further. His eyes widened in surprise. He hadn’t even realized he had reached out like that.

Chestnut brown eyes observed the alluring blood pooling over the ground. Unable to resist, he stretched his hand out as far as he could. He was able to reach out just enough to brush the tip of his middle over the edge of the crimson puddle. He immediately withdrew his hand and licked the small red stain off his fingertip.

The blood was so rich and filled with vitality that just a small taste filled him with strength. Just a tiny morsel and it left the vampire desiring more. It was a feeling he had never felt in his entire life.

This was the feeling of being alive.

Unable to contain the thirst for blood, the brown in the vampire’s eyes were completely gone. His pupils were dilated and gleaming in the purest, uncontaminated red.

Chuuya sluggishly opened his eyes when his instincts flared up, warning him of danger. He squinted his eyes at the other occupant in the room and was met by a pair of predatory gaze.

For the very first time since their meeting, ocean blue eyes softened.

The werebeast slowly uncurled his body. He stretched the stump of his leg towards the vampire. A pool of blood began to form as it expanded towards the vampire. 

The raven looked at the werebeast with a flicker of surprise in his glowing eyes before he hid it. Pale hand reached out once more. He was nowhere near touching the werebeast, but a good half of his hand was able to touch the blood. Hot red fluid bathed his hand as he ran his tongue over his palm, savoring the sweetness of the divine blood.

Chuuya observed the vampire for a while before finally closing his eyes. Completely worn out from the battle and injuries, he fell into a deep slumber…

When Chuuya woke up, it was to the smell of food.

Without even thinking, he reached for the source of the smell and grabbed onto a piece of old meat. He practically gulped it down without chewing. The fight and losing a leg took a huge toll on his body. If he doesn’t eat, he won’t be able to last much longer. Thankfully his captors knew that as well, so the meat he was given this time was a tad bit bigger than what he usually gets.

After the food rested in his stomach, Chuuya laid there with his eyes closed. He wasn't going to drift back to sleep, but the less movement he makes, the easier it'll be for his body to store up lost energy. He wiggled his toe a little, just to confirm that his leg has completely regenerated. He wondered how long he had passed out for this time…

“Why did you do that?”

Chuuya reluctantly looked to his roommate who just can’t seem to get the concept of leaving someone alone.

The vampire was still sitting against the wall like before. He didn’t even look like he had shifted from that spot at all. The easy-going look he wore on his face was gone. He stared at the redhead with those dark eyes that didn’t reflect a spark of the dim like hanging over their heads. His face was expressionless and impossible to read.

Chuuya wondered if this was what the vampire’s really like under all that façade.

“Did what?” Chuuya shut his eyes again and rolled into a more comfortable position with his back to the vampire.

“Your blood.” The vampire pointed out with a deep frown on his face—not that Chuuya could see. “You could just let me starve. It’s not like I can do anything to you.” To emphasize his word, the vampire held up his hands and shook them, causing the chains dangling off the metallic handcuffs to jingle.  

"You were hungry," Chuuya muttered, more like telling that to himself than to the vampire. "Do I need more reasons than that?”

His response seemed to have caught the vampire off guard.

The silence dragged on as Chuuya waited for a response, but it didn't come. Just when he was pondering of going back to sleep, the vampire finally spoke. 

“…You don’t make any sense. We’re technically enemies.”

“Hah?” Chuuya impatiently snapped open his eyes and glared at the vampire from over his shoulder. “I don’t care about whatever stupid grudge is between werebeast and vampires. It got nothing to do with me. Don’t group me with the rest of those idiots.”

That seemed to spark the vampire’s interest as he looked over the redhead.

“You’re an outcast of your clan.” The vampire said certainly as his sharp eyes relaxed by the slightest bit. “Werebeast has intense training right at birth to drill the hatred of vampires into the younglings. For a werebeast to say something like that means you've never gone through those training."

“For a leech, you sure like to blabber to your enemy," Chuuya said dryly. “I’ve never heard of a vampire drink a werebeast’s blood. You didn’t even hesitate. I thought leeches rather die than drink from animals.”

“Oh? Were you testing me?” The vampire’s eyes twinkled in amusement.

Chuuya clicked his tongue and looked away, refusing to answer to that. Truthfully, he had forgotten about that until the vampire started giving him a lecture about his own culture. All he saw was that the vampire was hungry and needed blood, so he gave it to him.

It was just as simple as that.

Unknown to Chuuya, the vampire was grinning as he looked over the werebeast.

“I’m an outcast as well.” He suddenly said.

Chuuya looked back in surprise.

He hadn’t expected to hear that. Then again, perhaps he should have expected it. Chuuya met a vampire once. It was right here on this very stage humans set for them. When the vampire laid eyes on him, the look of disgust and excitement to kill was something Chuuya was all too familiar with. It was the same look on the villagers’ faces back home whenever vampires were mentioned.

Chuuya never understood why.

Just like the raven-haired vampire had said, werebeasts educate their young ones the moment they’re born to hate vampires. Vampires do the same. When asked why, nobody can give out a proper, non-racist answer. All they knew was to hate one another. No one remembers the reason that started it all, nor do they care.

It had become a part of who they are to hate each other. It was stupid.

“The whole werebeast and vampire fuel got nothing to do with me. I just wanted to find a quiet place where I can painlessly die." The vampire sighed. "Of all places I ended here, where I'll be tortured for the rest of my life."

"After they starve you enough for about a month, you'll get your first match," Chuuya informed him curtly. “Just let your opponent tear you into shred and die.”

“No way.” The vampire chided as if Chuuya had suggested something outrageous—which he probably did, but the moron’s suicidal. “I hate pain! Why else would I say painless?”

“…I’m starting to see why you were kicked out of your coven.”

"Well, you're wrong about that!" The vampire announced proudly. “I wasn’t kicked out. I left on my own.”

“Yeah right.” Chuuya wasn’t buying it.

"So what did you do to get toss out?" The vampire seemed pretty interested in the werebeast’s backstory.

Chuuya leveled the vampire a look. He remained silent for a while before finally speaking.

“Ever heard of Arahabaki?”

“The God of Calamity.” The vampire’s expression turned serious as he looked over Chuuya. “You’re from the royal bloodline?”

“Yeah.” Chuuya snorted, his tone filled with sarcasm and mockery. “Only one out of a thousand to possess it. I drew that lucky card.”

Arahabaki was this ancient bloodline that brought immense power and fame to the werebeast.

It was said that Arahabaki was once the god of werebeasts. Only those with royal bloodline—the ones that made contracts with Arahabaki—can use its power of destruction. It was this power that allowed the werebeasts to climb up the food chain and stand next to the vampires at the top of the pyramid as equals. In the past, werebeast with the royal bloodline were worshipped because in a sense they are god’s vessel.

Nowadays, everyone just viewed this bloodline—viewed him—as a curse.

Throughout the long history of werebeasts, the method to control Arahabaki had been lost. Any werebeasts that uses its power would just go on a rampage. Their powers will increase immensely and they will go on a rampage until the user dies. They will destroy everything in sight, regardless of allies or enemies. Nowadays, Arahabaki is simply known as Corruption.

Ever since the villagers discovered he got the cursed bloodline, they treated him like the plague. The only fortunate part was that although Corruption brought him scorn, it also brought him protection. As much as his entire village wanted to kill him, they feared that it may unleash Corruption. They fear him more than their hatred for him. Every day when Chuuya went outside, he was faced with loathing and frightful looks from everyone around him. When the adults weren't looking, he would even get rocks thrown at him by kids his age.

That was why when the village was raided by the humans, Chuuya didn’t particularly felt anything. He didn’t care about the villagers that were killed, nor did he care about the fate of other kids his age.

That was how detached he was from his race.

“That’s why I was sent here. Werebeasts with royal bloodlines are more durable and won’t die too easily.” Chuuya’s tone was filled with mockery as he said that. "There were witches among the humans that attacked my village. They were able to detect my bloodline with some sort of device. Put some sort of spell on the collar to seal away my ability and Arahabaki.”

Chuuya wondered why he was telling the vampire all these things. Perhaps it has been too long since he had a decent conversation, or perhaps he was lonelier than he thought…

“You saw that black cat, didn’t you?” Chuuya continued. "That's the witch responsible for keeping us under control here."

“Witch huh…” The vampire hummed before a smirk graced his lips. “I’ve heard some interesting things during my travels. Would you like to hear, chibi?”

“Who’re you calling chibi?!”

“The humans are plotting to start a Witch hunt.”

“…What!?” Chuuya blinked, unable to believe what he just heard. “That’s ridiculous! Witches are the only humans that can combat the other species!”

“Exactly.” The vampire nodded. “Once the human conquer all the other species, they will exterminate the witches.”

"You sound like the humans will win." Chuuya frowned.

"They will." The vampire nodded certainly. "They may lack power, but their numbers greatly surpass all other races. Of course, if all species unite, the annihilation of humans would be a breeze, but each species are too invested in their priorities and got too much pride to set aside old grudges. Even with humans raiding and capturing us, we're still fighting one another rather than ganging up against a common enemy. The human knows that, which is why they will win this war. Once they do, we'll all be under their control."

Chuuya wanted to argue. He wanted to say that’s impossible. After all, of all species on this planet, humans are the weakest. Sure they have witches, but every species got veteran fighters that know exactly how to deal with them.

However, he couldn’t deny what the vampire said was true. After all, his village was the perfect example. Had their village’s warriors not set off to the border war against the vampires, the humans wouldn’t be able to invade his village and massacred them. Even with the humans attacking them, they’re still fighting vampires at every chance they get.

Wait a minute…

Chuuya inhaled a sharp breath when he registered something Dazai said—specifically that last part.

Now that he thought about it…why did those humans choose night time to attack them? Werebeasts may come in many kinds, but they’re all nocturnal creatures. That was because they have higher advantages during the night with their superior senses, but most importantly, it was to defend against the vampires that are only active during nighttime.

Why attack them during the night when it's at their disadvantage? Chuuya could only come up with one answer. The humans masked their attack as an attack from vampires. They are using both species' hate for one another to their advantage.

Chuuya laughed.

He couldn’t believe how it took him this long to realize the truth.

Perhaps it wasn’t just the werebeasts. Perhaps the vampires will go home to find their coven slaughtered with evidence of werebeasts littered all over the place. The two idiotic races will continue to bite at each other’s throat while the real culprit walks free with a bunch of new slaves.

“What about the witches?” Chuuya asked curiously. “Why get rid of the only protection they have?”

“Once human wins this war, witches will be hailed as their specie's saviors." The vampire replied. "Despite being so weak, human are proud creatures—especially males. In their culture, males are the dominant creature. They will never accept or allow females to have more power than them."

“Just for that?” Chuuya gapped in disbelieve. Now that he thought about it, aside from the witch, all the humans he saw in this place are males. Even in the audience seats, there weren't any females around. 

“Just for that.” The vampire smirked. “To oblivious citizens, they’ll just say that witches are no different from us, and the mass will agree that they should be eliminated.”

“Heh!” Chuuya cracked out a smile as he flipped onto his back to stare up at the ceiling. “If that’s the case, then I’m starting to feel sorry for that witch.”

He snickered for a while before sitting up.

“I take that back. Witches can all burn in hell for all I care.”

“Chibi—”

“Don’t call me that!”

“You never gave me your name, what did you expect me to call you?”

Chuuya paused a bit, remembering that they never did exchange names.

“…Nakahara Chuuya.”

“Dazai Osamu,” the vampire—Dazai responded, “So, Chuuya—”

“Who said you can call me by my given name?!”

“—what plans do you have after leaving this place?”

“Who knows?” Chuuya leaned back against the cold wall. “Well…for the time being, it’s to eat my fill. I’ll think after that.”

“How like an animal.” The vampire commented with a smirk. “You don’t seem weird out by my question.”

“Like hell I’ll stay here forever and play games with those humans.” Chuuya spat as he glared down at the chains around his wrists. “I’ll leave this damn place. And when I do I’ll rip them into shreds—exactly the way they wanted me to on that stage of theirs.”

“What a brat.”

“Hah?!”

“But that’s not a bad idea~”

The vampire held up his hands with one hand readied in a snapping motion.

The werebeast looked at him weirdly.

With a snap of his finger, the metal cuff around the vampire’s wrists and neck suddenly opened up and clattered onto the floor.

Chuuya’s jaw almost hit the ground as he stared at the vampire who was up on his feet, rolling his shoulders around with his joints making satisfying pop.

“It’s only been twelve days and I’m already getting sore muscle~”

“H-how did you—?!” Chuuya stammered as he looked at the open cuffs lying on the ground. From here, he could see the written incantation on the inside of the vampire’s metal collar. Chuuya is certain that's the spell used to suppress their abilities. He had even tried to pick the lock in the past only to find that there's some sort of protection spell preventing him from sticking anything into the keyhole. So how did this vampire get out?

“I’ll give you two options.” The vampire said as he stood over the chained werebeast. “One, you will come with me. Two, you stay here and wait for who knows how long until your next chance to escape.”

Chuuya frowned as he glared up at the vampire. “What are you plotting?”

"Whatever do you mean?" The vampire's tone was so sweet and innocent that it was just reeking with ulterior motives.

"You could leave any time you wanted," Chuuya pointed out. “What are you playing here?”

“You make me sound like the bad guy here.” The vampire heaved out a heavy breathe as if the redhead was some unreasonable kid. “I simply want a collaboration.”

Chuuya narrowed his eyes, not believing a single word the vampire is saying.

"There's a huge barrier cast over this place. To nullify the barrier, I need to find the witch. But as you can see, I don't have that kind of fighting power to survive until I can find her in this place."

“What do you mean nullify?” Chuuya demanded, sharply catching that keyword.

"My ability allows me to cancel other abilities with a touch." The vampire explained. “Abilities and spells are useless against me. You should know what that means don’t you, Arahabaki?”

Blue eyes dilated as the werebeast stared at the vampire. Chuuya didn’t speak for a long time. He just stared at the vampire and the vampire stared back, waiting for his response.

"...How can I trust you to stop me?"

“You don’t.” The vampire replied tersely.

“Tch.” Chuuya clicked his teeth. He didn’t like not being in control, but this was the first chance he had gotten in years. Who knows when his next chance will be?

“I’ll kill you if you’re late. Even if I die I will drag you down.”

“I much rather want to die with a lovely maiden.” The vampire gagged as if the very thought of dying with the werebeast disgusted him.

“Take this off.” Chuuya tilted his head back, giving the vampire access to the collar around his neck.

Dazai’s hand reached down. When the tip of his fingers brushed by the collar, Chuuya felt whatever magic binding him disappeared, leaving just the cold body of the metal tightly gripping his neck. His keen ears picked up the sound of a lock being picked. Then, the weight around his neck vanished as the heavy collar fell off, hitting the stone ground and creating a rather impressive dent in the shattered rock.

The vampire whistled. He wasn’t showing the slightest bit surprised that the werebeast has been moving with such tremendous weight on him. It was as if he somehow already knew.

The redhead cranked his head, testing his new range of movement before looking up at a small pin the vampire was holding between his fingers.

“Need help?” Dazai drawled as he waved around his lock picking tool.

With a huff, crimson light outlined the metal cuffs on the werebeast’s hands. The thick metal began to deform, wrenching off the werebeast’s slender wrists and crashing into the stone ground with such force that a huge crater with a size that nearly took up the entire room was formed.

Chuuya sucked in a shuddering breath. A droplet of sweat rolled down his forehead. Using just this tiny bit of power was already taking a toll on his body. It was utterly pathetic.

“I won’t last very long.” He warned the vampire as he got onto his feet.

“Yeah, I know," Dazai responded with a smirk before he stepped back against the wall and melted into his own shadow.

Chuuya stared at the place where the vampire disappeared into. He could still feel the vampire's presence within the room. The other was hiding quietly in the shadows like those humans in the audience seats, watching the entertainment that's going to play out.

Crafty bastard.

The werebeast looked down at his wrists. The skins underneath the metal cuffs were red and wrinkled from years and years of abuse. Hearing the sound of roaring cheers coming from above, Chuuya looked up to the ceiling. A wide smile spread over his lips as he gazed at the ceiling.

He crouched down as crimson light outlined his silhouette. The werebeast crouched down as the ground under his feet was ripped out and suspended in midair—supporting the red-head.

“Better keep up, shitty Dazai.” The werebeast scoffed before he shot towards the ceiling. With a kick, he smashed a hole right through the ceiling.

The loud cheering was immediately stopped when a hole suddenly appeared at the edge of the stage. A boy with reddish hair flew out from the hole and into the sky, stopping just inches from the giant barrier covering the entire stadium.

Chuuya took a deep breath to calm his speeding heart as he stared at the full moon before his eyes. It was weird. He has always seen the sky whenever he was thrown up here on this stage, but for some reason, it felt like this was the first time in years that he was finally able to see the sky.

“Freedom, huh?” Chuuya mumbled as his eyes focused on the wall in front of him.

The barrier was made out of a layer of transparent membrane that is barely visible unless looked closer. It looked very thin and fragile, but a foul aura was practically radiating off the thing. There was even a weird attraction coming from this barrier as if it was alive and tempting him to touch it.

Chuuya felt his hair stood up as he realized what it was. He had seen it once, and it was when those humans invaded their village. A barrier like this was cast over the village to prevent anyone from escaping. 

Just a simple touch and this barrier will suck out the souls of any creatures that aren't human. The barrier itself was made purely of these unfortunate souls. The moment it sucked out a soul, the soul will be merged with the barrier, becoming one with it and enforcing its power. 

The one Chuuya has seen before was much weaker compared to this one. This barrier must have killed off a lot of creatures. Perhaps they were even fed to it for that sole purpose.

“Damn witches.” Chuuya cursed before another thought came to him.

If this is a barrier that sucks out souls of its victims, then what Dazai said about being unable to leave was a bunch of bullshits! Vampires were the only creatures that don’t have souls. They are creatures that dwell on the life force of other life forms to stay alive. Since they got no soul of their own, this blasted barrier wouldn’t have worked on that guy! The most it’ll do was probably make him feel even hungrier after walking through it!

“DAMN IT!” Chuuya snarled as he realized he’s been played.

That lying, scheming, son of a scoundrel!

If this barrier was an obstacle for the vampire, then they can call it even after he gets rid of it. However, if the barrier was never a problem to the vampire, then it won’t be a collaboration, but just the vampire one-sidedly helping him!

The first was freeing him; the second will be saving his life from Arahabaki.

These aren’t debts that he can easily brush off. The vampire must have done this knowing that he won’t be able to just walk away without returning some kind of favour to call it even. In other words, the vampire wanted something from him, but it wasn’t breaking out of this place.

With a frustrated scream, Chuuya shot down like a meteor and crashed into the stage, completely obliterating it. 

The two creatures fighting on the stage and blown off by the force.

Chuuya reached out, easily grabbing onto the tail of a giant lizard thrice his size and held it over his head like it weighed nothing. 

"This is perfect." Chuuya glowered at the hissing Basilisk desperately trying to break free. “I was just feeling hungry.”

In a blink of an eye, Chuuya transformed into a tiger. He slammed the Basilisk into the ground, breaking its neck before he used his sharp fangs and tore off its flesh.

The audiences cheered, believing this was part of their nightly show. The guards on the sideline were in a mixture of confusion and panic, not certain if this was a special event the higher-ups decided to host or not.

Chuuya knew he couldn’t stall. He swallowed the flesh of the Basilisk and drank its blood. Once he had enough, he transformed back into his human form. He wiped the blood staining his mouth with the back of his hand and laughed at the oblivious humans in the audience seats.

When his keen ears caught a string of gibberish, Chuuya used the power of gravity and leaped into the sky just as a yellow beam of light shot by where he stood, denigrating ground and the half-eaten Basilisk in a blink of an eye.

Chuuya landed next to the newly formed hole and glared at a woman dressed in all black with a pointed hat. Like all witches tend to be, she was a plain-looking woman—though probably beautiful by human standard—wearing a black dress that looked like a cheap rip-off from fairy creatures.

In Chuuya’s eyes, the woman was no less hideous than a blobfish.

Her lips that were painted in the colour of fresh blood were rapidly moving to cast her next spell. She twirled her twig and Chuuya took off into the sky as chains shot out from the ground in an attempt to capture him. Even now, she wore an arrogant look on her face, like she was dealing with a pest and not a werebeast that could potentially kill her and everyone else in the vicinity.

The witch was strong, but just from two attacks, Chuuya could tell she’s an amateur in battle. Perhaps this was the first time she even engaged in a fight. She was most likely put in charge of this place due to her high magic affinity. The witch was too full of her power and after years and years of governing these chained up creatures that lost their ability to fight back, she has forgotten just how strong they were. Even veteran witches don’t engage in combat without proper preparations and a bunch of human meat shields she could hide behind.

This dumb woman just charged in to show off how strong she is.

Chuuya had always thought that when this day came, he would tear the woman apart with his claws the second he gets the chance. Maybe he’ll also go up to those humans cheering from the audience seats and snap off their heads and rip out their hearts.

He expected a lot of anger and rage…but never did he expected calmness.

As he jumped around to dodge the chains, he felt nothing inside him. He looked at the faces of the humans, then to the guards that regularly abused them, and finally at the haughty witch.

He felt absolutely nothing when looking at them.

In his eyes at this very moment eyes, they were all just dead objects.

That was all there is to it.

“Grantors of dark disgrace,” Chuuya chanted as crimson markings appeared over his sickly pale skin, “you need not to wake me again.”

━━━━━━━━ ✠ ━━━━━━━━

"Do you have four stomachs or something?" Dazai wondered as he watched the weretiger shoved food into his mouth. Well, he supposed he couldn't say shove, as the other was quite elegant in how he ate…astonishingly.

Still, the speed he was displaying was not normal.

Chuuya ignored the vampire as he cleaned every single plate without leaving a morsel of food behind. At first, the humans around them would stare at the redhead with their jaws slack, wondering just how much the petite boy could eat. Eventually, they got bored and went back to minding their own business.

The waitress ran back and forth, taking away the empty plates and bringing up new ones.

"Bring another basket of baguette—actually make that two basket, five shepherd's pie, some more roast lambs, chicken, pork, beef, whatever you got," Dazai told the waitress as his eyes roamed over the menu. "You know what, just bring everything that is filing, no need to bother with the taste. If you can stuff him to death, I'll pay triple the amount."

The waitress screamed when a knife flew right past her and towards the raven's head. The vampire didn't even look up as his hand shot up, grabbing the knife by the handle before hurling it back. The woman's knees were shaking as she watched the red-head catching the knife with ease and stabbing it into the chicken.

"You got that?" The vampire asked disinterestedly, eyes never once lifted from the menu.

Nodding hastily, the waitress scurried away to have the cook prepare the next round of feast.

The vampire let out a long sigh. "I'm helping you order food and you tried to skewer me."

"Don't think that just because I don't understand that you can talk shit about me," Chuuya growled with a vein throbbing in his forehead. There was just something he didn't like about the vampire's attitude just then, so he acted.

"Animal instincts huh?" Dazai mumbled as he looked at the way the werebeast was glowering at him. He could almost imagine a small orange cat, hissing and puffing itself up to look big and threatening. The vampire suddenly felt a strange urge to tease his companion more.

Unfortunately, a hushed whisper soon brought his attention elsewhere.

Chuuya took a bite of his chicken while Dazai ran his finger over the rim of a wine cup. While neither of them acted out of ordinary, both of them focused their attention to the back of the restaurant where a group of soldiers sat. Usually, these human soldiers were loud and noisy, but this group here was unusually quiet.

They chatted quietly among themselves, all of their faces serious and some even started to get anger the more they conversed. After listening to them for a while, Chuuya turned to Dazai who had picked up a cup and was playing with the dark fluid inside.

"They're talking about your masterpiece from three days ago," Dazai informed him with a sly grin. "Since the witch is missing, they're convinced that the destruction of the fighting ring was her doing."

Chuuya lightly bit on the tip of his fork as he looked over those soldiers. "This is why you got rid of that witch's body?"

"I told you, humans don't trust witches. All you need is to give them a reason and they'll push all the blames onto the witches."

"How stupid."

Dazai set the cup he was playing around with in front of Chuuya. Chuuya looked at the weird liquid inside for a moment before picking it up and taking a sip.

He quickly spat it back out.

"What the fuck is this?!" He coughed, feeling the sour and bitter aftertaste sensation in his throat.

"It's call wine," Dazai sniggered, "Human makes it with fermented grape juice."

"Fermented? It's rotten?!" Chuuya choked in disbelieve. After eating rotten food for so long, he wouldn't even care if it's crawling with bugs. But why would human willingly eat rotten food?

"That's why you're a kid." Dazai deadpanned.

"Who are you calling a kid?!"

A man came by just then, dropping a large barrel right next to their table, saying something to Dazai before leaving. Confused, Chuuya looked down to the barrel. He could hear water sound coming from inside it. When he smelled the familiar scent coming from it and that iconic cow mark drawn on the wooden surface, it didn't take a genius to find out what it was.

The damn leech had ordered an entire barrel of milk for him!

People screamed as a table flew across the restaurant—along with the body of a raven-haired man—right into the group of soldiers at the very back…

Half an hour later, Chuuya and Dazai walked out into the busy street.

The restaurant workers and the owner lined up at the doorway, wide smiles on every one of their faces as they waved goodbye to the two youngsters walking away from the restaurant.

"How much did you pay them?" Chuuya questioned skeptically. He didn't understand human currency, but he could tell it's not a small amount. After all, he did nearly take apart the restaurant. The bodies of those idiot soldiers that tried to hack him with their swords were still piled up in the middle of the dirt road with white foams gushing from their mouths.

Dazai was humming as he twirled a brown leather pouch around his index finger. It was the same pouch he had swiped off those human soldiers when the werebeast threw him (and the table) into them.

Chuuya's blood boiled at the thought of being used by this bastard…again.

"Enough to let them buy a new restaurant," Dazai replied. "For mere foot soldiers to have so much money, it seems the higher-ups of this town are quite corrupted."

Chuuya couldn't understand the concept of money. Werebeasts never needed those kinds of things. They live pretty much like wild animals. They hunt for their food and make their own home. Whenever anyone needed something, they just share what they have.

Well, at least that's what it seemed to him anyways.

"Now what?"

"What do you mean?" Dazai was feigning innocence.

"You tell me, you're the one that made me come with you!"

"I never said you had to." Dazai countered, causing the vein on Chuuya's head to throb.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm just repaying the favour. The sooner we call it even, the sooner I can leave!" The werebeast grumbled. "You got something you want me to do, don't you?"

Dazai looked up to the starry sky, exposing his delicate pale neck wrapped up in bandages. His face was serious, lips slightly parted as he let out a long, thoughtful sound.

"Aaaaah…nope."

"What?" Chuuya blinked, wondering if he heard wrong.

"I don't have anything I want you to do."

"Then why the hell have me come along with you?!"

"Now, now, you're making a scene!" Dazai chortled, gesturing to the humans gawking at the odd Asian pair. "There's an inn just down the street! We should hurry before they run out of room!"

"Hey, bastard! Hold it!" Chuuya swore as he chased after the vampire.

In the end, there was only one room left—or that's what Dazai claimed anyways. That was fine with Chuuya since they still have unfinished business.

Once they've settled in their room, Chuuya was instantly on the lanky vampire.

"Explain yourself." He threatened dangerously.

Dazai sat on the soft bed, looking up at the werebeast standing over him with arms crossed over his chest. Sad that it's only at times like this that the werebeast would be taller.

Chuuya didn't know why, but the way the vampire's looking at him made his blood boil, so he slammed a foot into the side of the bed and loomed over the vampire.

"What games are you playing here? You can't expect me to believe you want me to follow you around without any reason."

"Of course not!" Dazai said in an offended tone. "You're going to be my dog after all!"

"…Hah?"

"If I tell you my leg is itchy, you scratch it! If I want to drink blood, you go kidnap a beautiful blond woman in her early twenties and bring her to me!"

CRASH

The entire bed was crushed into pieces as Dazai fell into the pieces of broken wooden frames and fiber fillings of the mattress. When he looked up, Chuuya has his foot hovering over the vampire's face.

"They say that vampires can live as long as their hearts are intact." The werebeast muttered, tilting his head to the side as murderous glint flickered within his eyes. "Want to test that out?"

"I hate pain, so I'll pass." Dazai sighed, putting both hands up in surrender. "You can't take a joke, can you? If you want a reason, you can say that it's to survive the war."

"What do you mean?"

"Since you were locked up pretty much all your life, you wouldn't know, but we're close to the final war."

"What final war?"

"The world war."

"World war?!" Chuuya gapped, unable to believe what he was hearing.

"A worldwide war involving every single species. The entire planet will become a warzone" Dazai spoke in such light-hearted tone it sounded like he was discussing the weather rather than an incoming apocalypse. "This is what will happen when you keep slaughtering and enslaving other species. Once they finally realize the peril they're in, every single species will see everyone and everything else as enemies that need to be eliminated, then a full out war will emerge."

"And human will come out victorious." Chuuya narrowed his eyes, still remembering what Dazai had told him. He slowly pulled back his foot, allowing the vampire to sit up. "You're saying this war will come soon?"

"In two years, to be precise." Dazai hummed. "When the war comes, nowhere will be safe. Money will mean nothing and survival will only be for the fittest. If you want to live, then we need to collaborate."

"I thought you wanted to die." Chuuya kindly reminded him.

"I rather die at the hands of a beautiful lady than some barbaric, racist animals."

"You want me to kill you off right now?" Chuuya gritted his teeth before pushing his anger back down. If what this vampire said is true, then he'll need this bastard alive. Being the only one that speaks his native language and the ability to keep Corruption under control, he needed Dazai.

And with only the ability to nullify other powers, the vampire needed protection.

It was a fair deal…given that everything he said was the truth that is.

"So, what will it be, Chuuya?" Dazai wore that knowing smirk on his face as he held out his hand.

The bastard was so certain the werebeast will take his deal. As much as Chuuya wanted to prove him wrong, he can't. He got no other choice but to accept this deal. He slapped his hand against the vampire's and held it in a brutal grip.

"If I catch you doing anything funny behind my back, I will put a stake through your stomach and roast you in the sunlight."

"Such a brat." The vampire grunted, causing a huge vein to throb as Chuuya applied all his strength into the handshake. The cracking sounds of breaking bones resonated throughout the room.

"GAAAH! You're such a brat!"

"You're a brat too!"

"Tell me that when you grow taller!"

"I'm only fifteen, I'm still growing! You're like what, fifty?!"

"I'm fifteen as well!"

(ﾉꐦ ⊙曲ఠ)ﾉ︵ ┻━┻

"Wow…so that's how you and Dazai-san met?" Atsushi said in fascination after listening to his mentor's story.

Chuuya sat on the barstool, sipping on a glass of wine as he regarded the young tiger's excitement. "You're more invested in this plain old story than I am."

"I just think it's amazing." Atsushi smiled sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head. "I know what happened during the Dark Age, but hearing Chuuya-san's story made it feel more real."

"Well, it was hundreds of years ago." Blue eyes drifted down to the wine in his hand. "To you brats, it might as well be a fairy tale."

"But Chuuya-san and Dazai-san lived through it, right? In that case, it's not a fairy tale."

Chuuya looked at his disciple with a small hint of surprise before a smile lifted his lips.

"But why was Dazai-san in Switzerland?"

"To escape from his coven," Chuuya answered. "That shitty mackerel came from a strong coven of pureblood vampires. At the time, they ruled over Yokohama and got connections all over Japan. After deserting his coven, he had to leave the country."

"Yokohama?" Atsushi's eyes widened. "You don't mean…?!"

"Yes. The same place where Akutagawa came from. That coven has merged with other species over time and turned into one big organization. That is the Port Mafia."

"Then is it safe for us to be here?" Atsushi asked with worries lacing his voice. "What if the Port Mafia—"

"Calm down, kid." Chuuya chuckled at the frantic look on his face. "We struck a peace treaty long ago. They won't bother us as long as we don't bother them."

Atsushi let out a sigh of relieve, glad to hear everything was alright. "So then…was Dazai-san captured by the humans the moment he left Japan?"

"Capture?" Chuuya snorted as he remembered the ridiculous reason that landed the vampire in the cell as him. "That moron didn't get captured. He let those humans take him."

"Eh?!" Atsushi was dumbfounded. That was certainly not what he had expected, but then again this was Dazai they're talking about...

"He heard rumours about a werebeast with royal bloodline in the dueling ring, so he came to find me." Chuuya rested his chin against his palm. "The bastard planned everything out from the beginning, just so I would team up with him for the Dark Age."

There was more to that though.

What Dazai had planned wasn't only for the survival during the Dark Age. Even back then, the vampire was looking even further to the future. Dazai had sought Chuuya out for the creation of Double Black. With their combined powers, they were quickly made known to the world. It didn't matter what species they were. Whenever people caught wind that Double Black might be nearby, they will flee the vicinity, fearing to get caught up in their battle.

It was due to this that they were able to live peacefully right now.

After human came out victorious during the Dark Age, life became harsher for all other species. It was only in recent years that they were getting fairer treatment, but many were still slaves made to serve the humans. A good example would be that creep Tatsuhiko Shibusawa. How many different species suffered at his hands? How many were tortured, wishing for death that just wouldn't come?

These kinds of humans exist all around the world.

Dazai being Dazai, had another reason to form Double Black. Perhaps that’s his ultimate goal from the beginning. Everything he did was simply to pull free from his old coven—the current Port Mafia. With Chuuya by his side, Dazai has a chip to bargain for his freedom. It was thanked to this that they were able to form a contract

Everything went exactly as that arrogant vampire had planned.

The only thing Dazai hadn't accounted for was the change in their relationship…as well as raising two kids. These two things were probably the greatest surprises that scheming mind wasn't able to predict.

"Honey~ we're back!" An irritating voice sang as the front door flung open, revealing the tall and lanky vampire carrying multiple bags of groceries with his disciple in toll.

"Oh, you're back," Chuuya said disinterestedly as he continued to swirl the wine around his glass.

"Welcome back, Dazai-san, Ryuu!" Atsushi greeted as he hurried over to take the load off the vagabond vampire.

"Did you miss me, darling?" Dazai pounced towards Chuuya, only for the redhead to shove a palm into his face to stop his advance.

"Don't touch me!" Chuuya snarled with veins popping up from beneath his forehead. "I told you not to come near me for a month!"

"Chuuya! Don't be so cruel!" Dazai whined. "If I keep sleeping on the couch like this my back won't be able to take it!"

"And my back can?!" Chuuya snapped, now using both hands in an attempt to push the vampire away. "You kept going even when I told you to stop!"

"That was Chuuya's fault!" Dazai held his hands to his cheeks and swooned at the beautiful memories of last night. "What kind of man would stop when their mate is looking at them with those teary sapphire blue eyes, cheeks blushing in cherry blossom pink and hiccupping when—"

BAM

With a simple push of his hand (and the power of gravity), Chuuya slammed the vampire face-first into the floor. Thankfully, he still remembered that they're at home, so he held back on his strength. Otherwise, they'll need to replace the finely polished floor. This was one good thing about moving to a new home. If this was back in their dusty old manor, Chuuya wouldn't have cared.

When Chuuya's sharp eyes snapped up, he saw Atsushi and Akutagawa sorting out the groceries bags and putting the food into the fridge. Akutagawa looked like he couldn't care less (or rather, too used to the scene), while Atsushi was desperately pretending not to have heard anything and failing miserably. The kid's entire face was burning up and his movements were very robotic.

"So Atushi-kun, what did you two do while we're gone?" Dazai appeared right beside the younger weretiger, surprising the poor boy and causing him to drop the carton of milk he was putting away.

Dazai stood there with his hands in his pockets, smiling brightly as if he hadn't kissed the floor just seconds ago.

"O-oh, Chuuya-san was just telling me how you guys met!" Atsushi spluttered, eyes darting every now and then at Akutagawa, signaling for help. The young vampire spared Atsushi half a second of his precious time before he returned to whatever he was doing, completely brushing him aside.

This caused a vein to pop over the white weretiger. He'll remember this.

"Ah, brings back memories." Dazai sighed blissfully. "Chuuya was so adorable back then~"

"AH?" Chuuya glared daggers at his mate.

"I don't mean anything bad!" Dazai hurriedly explained. With his mate mad at him like this, anything he says would be equivalent to stepping on a landmine.

He only wanted to tease his mate a bit last night, but he went overboard and pissed him off instead. This was all Chuuya's fault for being so cute though. Not his.

"Atsushi-kun!" Dazai spun around dramatically to white-haired boy cradling the milk. "Next year will be your eighteenth birthday! You'll finally be legal to bond with Ryuunosuke!"

The carton of milk fell back onto the ground. Atsushi's face was burning up to the point where steams could be seen rolling off his skin. Behind him, Akutagawa had frozen up. In fact, it wasn't just him. Rashoumon seemed to have frozen as well with how stiff the fabric became.

This spiked Chuuya's interest as he set down the wine glass he had been playing around with.

"That's right!" The redhead agreed as he leaned over the table. "Have you two talked over yet? Vampire's thirst for blood will increase during sex so you should—"

"CHUUYA-SAN!" Atsushi screamed, mortified that the older weretiger was going to give him the talk.

"What, don't tell me you're getting shy over something like this?" Chuuya teased.

"W-we um…" Atsushi fidgeted, embarrass and uncertain of how to tell their mentors.

"We decided to take more time," Akutagawa said as he came to stand beside his lover. Atsushi looked up at Akutagawa. There was a small look of surprise on his face before that surprise melted into warmth. With his lover beside him, he regained his confidence and nodded firmly to Chuuya.

Chuuya looked back and forth between the two. He smiled at how uptight they were being.

"Take all the time you need." He waved at the pair. "Once you perform the bond, it'll be for life. It's normal to need time to think about it. Took me fifty years to finally decide to bond with this mackerel." He said, jabbing a thumb at his lanky companion.

"Chuuya, you wound me!" Dazai cried with a hand over his heart, yet his expression didn't have a hint of sadness for someone being hurt. If anything, his burnt umber eyes were twinkling in amusement.

"You two are worried whether or not you can stay together for the rest of your life, correct?" Dazai walked over to join own mate's side. He gently placed a hand onto Chuuya's shoulder. To his delight, the weretiger didn't throw him over his shoulder and allowed the contact. "The fact that you're worried about this means you won't have any problems. After all, werebeasts and vampires are destined to become mates."

"What do you mean?" Atushi exchanged looks with Akutagawa. This was the first time they were ever told of this. Since when did the two sworn enemies become destined mate materials?

"Oh, that's easy to figure out if you think about it," Dazai told them. "The difference in our body temperature is one. Vampires are creatures born in coldness. Unable to come into contact with sunlight or fire, it’s impossible for us to feel physical heat. Werebeasts, on the other hand, have unusually high body temperature due to their regenerative cells constantly being produced in their body.”

Dazai didn’t need to say the rest as the two already knew this. The huge difference in their body temperature was what made them want to be near each other in the beginning. It was this difference that made it so comfortable when they hold one another because it’s only with each other that they can feel the warmth of another living being.

"Werebeast's blood cells carry high regenerative properties. A single cell holds twenty times more nutrient than a normal blood cell. That's why their blood will taste sweeter and richer than other species. When we drink from them, werebeast's blood will help heal our body. And due to the werebeast's regeneration power, their body will instantly restore any blood that was lost."

"Meaning as long as we have food, we're an all you can eat buffet for them." Chuuya chipped in from the sideline. "There are many more examples…"

"But werebeasts and vampires can't see that." Atsushi finished for Chuuya.

"When you're trained to hate and kill from a young age, you will lose the ability to think rationally. When Ryuunosuke first met Chuuya, the first thing he did was to attack him~" Dazai chuckled, causing Akutagawa to flinch as if something invisible had slapped him across the face.

"Really?!" Atsushi gawked at his lover. He then turned to Chuuya who seemed so fond of the memory that he started cackling.

"I beat him up pretty bad." Chuuya snickered. "I even offered some blood to let him recover, but he said he rather die than to drink from me. So, I broke all four of his limbs, dislocated his jaw and just poured my blood down his throat.

"E-eeeeh…?" Atsushi looked back to Akutagawa whose face was scrunched up in what looked like shame. He suddenly felt very sorry for his lover…

"That is the hate drilled into young werebeasts and vampires." Dazai explained. "Chuuya and I were stray dogs in our clan. No one bothered to educate us. Ironically it's thanks to this that we're able to find out the truth."

At the mention of stray dogs, Atsushi looked over to Dazai. He knew why his mentor was an outcast, but he knew nothing about Dazai.

"But why?" Atsushi asked, unable to understand how these two strongest species fell so easily. "How did werebeast and vampires ended up like this?"

"…It's not hard to guess." Dazai shrugged. "If werebeast and vampires are allies, then this world will long be under their rule. Someone decided to break them up and turn them against one another, and they did for centuries to come. That's all there is to it."

"But—"

"While we're on this topic, allow me to tell you something more interesting!" Dazai cut off the young weretiger. "Atsushi-kun, what do you think is the most important quality between mates?"

"Uh…love?"

"Atsushi-kun sure has a pure teenage girl's heart."

"No! That's not—"

"The most important quality is rivalry!"

"…Rivalry?" Atsushi was dumbfounded. He did not expect that kind of answer.

"Your answer may be true for human, but for us it's different. Love alone won't maintain a relationship past a century. Humans wouldn’t know that, as their lives are too short. Atsushi-kun, has any of the other species you've encountered performed a mating bond?"

"No…" Atsushi replied after some thought.

During his travels with Chuuya and Dazai, he has met quite a bit of other species. He met agents working for the government, and then those that hid within the underground world. When he thought over all of them he had met, none of those species had bonded with anyone else. His and his lover's mentors were the only one he knew that bonded.

"For now you may love someone, but that love will eventually turn into boredom with time. Because of this, there are rarely any species that perform mating bond. After all, once you've mated, it'll be for life. Depending on how long they live, it could be for centuries or millennia. Even back when vampires and werebeasts were still thriving, they only mate to reproduce. Pure, sappy love doesn't exist in a fantasy world like ours. Those only exist within human's imagination. For us, a hundred years could pass in a blink of an eye and before you know it, the love you once felt got reduced to nothing.

That's another reason why werebeasts and vampires are suitable to become mates. Because not only are they lovers, they are also rivals. No matter how compatible their bodies may be, their personalities will never match. There's always one thing or another that will make them butt head, but that's what helps them understand each other beyond what pure lovers are capable of. That's the important quality you'll need if you want to be together."

"That's what you meant by destined?" Atsushi sweatdropped.

While his and Akutagawa's relationships were way better than when they first met, they still argue over a lot of things. Sometimes over small things, sometimes over bigger things…oftentimes their arguments ended up with them going at each other's throat.

There were many times where Atsushi couldn't put up with Akutagawa, and he's certain the vampire felt the same way. Yet strangely, never once did Atsushi ever stop loving Akutagawa despite all the issues going between them.

He supposed it's the arguments and fight that made them closer and able to understand one another so well.

Without it…

Atsushi's face turned green as he shuddered at the thought of a kind, patient and cheerful Akutagawa.

"What is it?" Akutagawa asked when he noticed his lover bending over the sink.

"I think I threw up a little…Ouch!" Atsushi cried when Akutagawa kicked him in the back of his knees, causing him to knock his chin against the hard counter. "What was that for?!"

"I just felt irritated." The vampire replied as if the answer is obvious.

"You!" Atsushi pounced towards his mate in an attempt to get him back, but the vampire easily side-stepped him. Atsushi already knew that's what the vampire would do. He knew him too well after all. He kicked his leg out, to trip the vampire, but Akutagawa had predicted his moment and already summoned Rashoumon.

"You two! Take this outside!" Chuuya bellowed when Atsushi bumped into the cupboard, causing the glass and ceramic tablewares inside to rattle.

"With this, life won't ever get boring, don't you agree?" Dazai said softly as he watched the two youngsters going at one another. Atsushi's arms have transformed into his tiger parts now.

"Not ready huh?" Akutagawa's word flowed back into Chuuya's head as he looked at the two's interactions. Chuuya wanted to laugh. He knew exactly what these brats were thinking.

Bonding was a sacred mating ritual that binds two people's lives together.

With the bond in place, the mated couples can feel one another at a higher level of intimacy.

The feeling of bond isn't easy to explain. If Chuuya had to describe it, it's like seeing a spark of light for the first time within a world of darkness.

The light wasn't blindingly bright or overly hot. It was a soft mellow light that carried only a tiny bit of warmth. Despite how tiny it is, its presence was impossible to ignore. That speck of light was so fragile and precious that it just makes him want to carefully cradle it within his hands and protect it.

Once a bond was formed, there was no way to undo it.

A bond was a blessing for two people in love. However, if that couple had fallen out of love, then the bond will become a curse. Despite no longer loving each other, they were forced to always be aware of the other's presence. No matter where they go, they won't be able to shake off the yearning in their heart to be reunited with the ones they never wanted to see.

Loving someone else will become impossible, as no matter how hard they try, they won't be able to shake off the longing to seek out their bonded mate.

The only way to break the bonding was through death. However, if one was to die, then the other will always follow shortly after. After all, to suddenly lose that speck of light and return to the world of darkness is a frightening process. It was enough to drive the one left behind insane.

Chuuya has seen failed examples of bond couples before. All those examples led to only one result.

Death.

When Chuuya looked at Atsushi and Akutagawa, all he saw was two dumb brats desperately trying to protect one another.

They love each other, so they were afraid of tying each other down. They were afraid that somewhere in the future, their partner would get tired of their relationship and wanted to leave, but can't because of the bond.

They were afraid that one day the other will hate them for it.

Hell knew how many times Chuuya wondered over that question. Even someone as smart as Dazai dragged it on for years.

In the end, the answer was always simple.

Neither of them was able to imagine a life without one another. Until they decide to bond, they will always yearn for something more, something that will connect them closer. It was just a matter of who will take that first step.

These two brats were more than ready, but that was something for them to figure out.

Chuuya grinned as he thought back to that night when Dazai extended his hand to him. It was the moment he decided to take that hand that both of their fate intertwined.

"…I suppose you can sleep in the bedroom again. I'm feeling quite generous right now, you better be grateful."

Dazai looked down at Chuuya in surprise before stars shone within in his eyes.

"CHUUYA!"

"Just this once!" Chuuya warned as Dazai nodded frantically with the face of a puppy that finally got the treat he deserved.

Chuuya couldn't stop the smile blossoming on his face despite knowing that this may very well be a part of his manipulative mate's plan. No, Chuuya is certain this is part of Dazai's plan to climb back into his bed. Why else would he be talking these bullshit lover qualities for no reason?

He wasn't going to believe his mate was genuinely doing it to educate their students. If anything, watching the two fretted over a problem that was never a problem had always been an enjoyment to this bandage wasting mackerel.

The worst part was, Dazai must have expected that he would figure it out. If Dazai wanted to keep something a secret, it stays a secret. No matter how long Chuuya had known him for, he would never be able to figure it out. The bastard didn't bother hiding his intention because he knew, either way, Chuuya would give in.

Sometimes, Chuuya hated how he could understand his mate so well. Many times he wondered just how he got bonded to such a bastard, yet he couldn't find himself to regret this decision. If anything, it was the best decision he had ever made—setting aside how he wanted to strangle the leech three times a month.

Well…he supposed he can follow through with his manipulation once in a while. He'll just have to properly beat up the damn mackerel the next time he tries pulling something like this.

"What did you guys get?" Chuuya asked as he crossed the kitchen to open the fridge. He let out a small, delighted hum when he saw how it was stacked full of food.

"It's been a while since we had some traditional food," Dazai said as he leaned over the weretiger and started picking out some ingredients out of the fridge. Chuuya's mouth watered when he saw three large packs of sashimi.

"Chuuya."

"Wha—hmph?!" The last half of the redhead's words became muffled when a Dorayaki was shoved into his open mouth.

"Eat that for now. I'll have food ready soon." Dazai purred into the redhead's ear, causing colours to crawl up the weretiger's neck as he nibbled on the overly sweet treat.

In that distant, he heard the sound of crashing coming from upstairs, but Chuuya couldn't bother to care. He sat back down on the barstool, slowly nibbling on his treat as he watched his mate grabbed a knife. Dazai was in an extremely good mood as he flipped the dangerous weapon around his fingers before getting to work…all while singing that dumb suicide song he came up with decades ago.

"Hey, shitty Dazai."

Dazai turned to see a Cabernet Sauvignon glass flying towards him. The vampire caught the glass by the stem, elegantly twirling it around the air to prevent the beautiful crimson fluid inside from spilling out.

"Drink that for now." Chuuya threw the vampire's word back as he took another bite into the Dorayaki.

Dazai swirled the thick blood around in the glass before bringing it up to inhale the sweet aroma of his mate.

Smiling, Dazai set down the knife and walked over to the weretiger.

"Chuuya." He called the name of his mate tenderly.

Chuuya looked up, meeting the vampire's soft brown eyes before he picked up his glass of wine. Smiles graced both of their lips as they tapped the rim of their glass against the other, creating a crisp ringing sound.

"To stray dogs."

♥　♡　♥　♡　♥　♡　♥　♡　♥　♡　♥　♡　♥

Extra – "Osamu"

♥　♡　♥　♡　♥　♡　♥　♡　♥　♡　♥　♡　♥

"Chuuya-san."

"Hm?"

"I've been wondering for a while now…why don't you call Dazai-san by his given name?"

"Pfft!" Chuuya spat out the wine he was in the middle of swallowing. He coughed heavily, trying to get rid of the fluid that entered his lungs before looking over to his disciple.

"W-what's with that all the sudden?!" He spluttered.

Atsushi thought his mentor's face looked oddly red, but it was probably from the choking. He swiftly handed over some napkins which the older weretiger took.

"I was just curious…you and Dazai-san are together for so long but I've never heard you call Dazai-san by his given name."

"Who the hell would call that bastard's name?!" Chuuya snapped, bringing the wine glass back to his lips. Instead of slowly savoring the taste of the wine which was what he had been doing, he was gulping it down like water. "His name is Osamu! It's just lame! I'm surprised he even kept such a plain name for three hundred years!"

"Oh? I had no idea you felt that way, love." A dark voice suddenly whispered right next to his ear, breathing icy breath down the soft curve of his neck.

"PFFFFT!"

"Dazai-san!" Atsushi shouted in surprise at the appearance of the vampire standing behind the choking redhead. "Y-you were here?!"

"Yo, Atsushi-kun~" The vampire greeted merrily, but for some reason that smiling face brought chills down the young weretiger's spine. "If you’ll excuse us, Chuuya and I will have some adult talk.”

“Hey! Put me down, shitty Dazai!” Chuuya shouted as he was thrown over his mate’s shoulder. He trashed around, but the vampire didn’t loosen his hold as he went up the stairs and disappeared into their shared bedroom.

A long silence followed.

Atsushi stared at that closed door for a long, long time before only one thought came across his mind.

Tomorrow’s training with Chuuya will be hell.

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••

◅ PART 1                               Main Page                              PART 3 ▻

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••

[pinkevilbobdoesthings]

EPILOGUE!! I hope you all enjoyed this fic. I kinda came out of nowhere for me, but was fun to write anyways. Thanks for reading! 

Here it is, the ending to “Make You Scared”.

It was a slow day at the Brenatto Apothecary. Caleb bit back the urge to sigh behind the counter. He liked his job there, and he was grateful for it and the room and board Yeza and Nott threw in for him(though sometimes Caleb wondered if they did it just so they could have Caleb as a built in babysitter for Luc), but on quiet days, it could be brain numbingly dull.

"How you doing out there?" Yeza asked from the back. Caleb had a feeling that Yeza was grateful that Caleb was now able to work the front of the store and that the chemist could now focus on the inventory and not having to be sociable with the customers in the front.

"Just fine," Caleb said. He was easier to understand now than when he had first became a monster three months ago, but Caleb struggled with kicking his lisp entirely. Jester and Nott insisted that it was cute and endearing, but Caleb wasn't so sure that he took their word for it. "Are you sure you don't need any help back there?"

There was a clang followed by a small BANG! from the back. "Doing just fine! Nothing to worry about!"

"If you say so." Caleb went back to reorganizing the shelves for the 6th time that day. He no longers was stabbing every box he touched and scratching all the bottles. And he had to admit that his claws weren't as much as a hindrance as he was afraid that they would be. His typing speed had actually gone up since he was no longer human. Also they were long enough for Jester to have plenty of fun painting them, so Caleb came to like them fast. Unfortunately the same could not be said for the bony protrusions coming out of his back. All they were good for was making him sleep on his stomach.

The bell jangled over the door and a pair of customers came in. For once Caleb was grateful for customers interrupting him and then he recognized them. They were a tall pale woman monster and a purple monster with curling rams horns on the side of his head. The purple monster made a beeline for Caleb. "Hello there. I was wondering if you had anything for polishing horns."

"Not this week, Mollymauk," Caleb said.

Mollymauk pouted. "How many times have I had to tell you that it's Molly?"

"Probably a countless number," Caleb said. "What can I do for you two?"

"Well, Yasha wanted to see if you-" Molly gave up under Caleb's stare. "Alright, I was bored and was wondering if Jester was available to play."

Caleb shook his head. Jester often hung out around the apothecary to make sure that Caleb was okay there. "Not today. She's over at the protest today with Nott."

"Another human rights one?" Molly asked.

"Ja," Caleb said not looking up from the fang paste. "This one is for better regulations of scaring."

Yasha picked up a tube of scale ointment. "I thought Jester was a scarer."

Caleb stood up and went to the next aisle. "She is, but she still thinks that there needs to be better regulations as some monsters don't care about their human victims."

"And what do you think about it?" Molly asked. "I've never seen you at a protest."

Caleb shrugged. "Too big of crowds for my taste." While that was true, it was awkward to be an activist for a separate species that he was technically part of. "But I think that it's a good cause. I'm proud of her."

Molly smirked. "I'm sure you are. So have you two finally started dating yet?"

"Molly," Yasha said with a hint of warning while Caleb sputtered.

"What? I'm just making conversation," Molly said. "Besides, we all know that they're going to start dating eventually, get married, and have a dozen little brats."

Caleb rolled his eyes. "It's not any of your business. We're taking our time before rushing into anything."

The door slammed open to the apothecary. "How's the best boyfriend ever!?" Jester shouted.

"Taking your time," Molly said with a smirk.

Jester skipped over and planted a big kiss on Claeb's cheek curling her tail around his. "Hi Molly! Having fun teasing Caleb?"

Molly did an over the top bow to Jester. "But of course. Somebody has to keep him entertained while you are gone. Now what's this about Caleb being your boyfriend?"

"It's none of your business," Nott said following Jester in. "But he finally got the nerve up to ask her out."

Caleb held his head in his hands. "Have none of you ever heard of privacy?"

"Nope!" Molly said cheerfully.

"You're not embarrassed by me, are you Caleb?" Jester asked.

Caleb looked up shaking his head. "Nein. Never. Our friends though are a different story."

Molly swooned dramatically. "I'm wounded."

"Caleb, you're a handsome young man who can get any girl or guy you want. You have to advertise that you're taken," Nott said.

Caleb looked over at Yasha who gave him a nod of sympathy. He bit down a groan and instead changed the subject. "How was the protest?"

Jester sat up on the counter. "Pretty neat. We’re trending on monstertwitter and Nott got interviewed.”

“Our own celebrity,” Molly said.

“Yeza, can I please throw out these unruly hooligans?” Caleb asked.

Yeza poked his head out. “They look like fine upstanding hooligans to me. But you can send the short, cute one to the back.”

“Honey,” Nott said with a blush, but she went to the back of the shop anyways.

Molly leaned against the counter. “That reminds me. I saw an article on that Ickithong guy.”

“Ikithon,” Jester and Caleb corrected in unison. Caleb reached out his hand and Jester took it giving it a squeeze.

“Right. So they finally released his research and turns out he was making a human monster hybrid,” Molly said not noticing how pale Caleb had turned. “Pretty wild huh.”

Caleb nodded stiffly. “Ja, wild.”

“That’s not really possible,” Jester pointed out, but her grip on Caleb’s hand became tighter.

“Oh, I know that,” Molly said, “but this Ikithon apparently didn’t. But it makes you wonder, doesn’t it. What a human monster hybrid would be like?”

Yasha stared out the window. “I think it’d be lonely.”

Molly looked over at Yasha. “I suppose you’re right. Probably be a hideous thing. Certainly wouldn’t envy it.”

“I think if I were it,” Caleb said, “I would hide. I’d find the darkest, deepest place and bury myself there.”

“You must be a delight at parties. You know what? I change my mind, if I were it, I'd do pornos," Molly said.

Jester snorted a laugh. "I'd love to see that."

Caleb went pale. "I wouldn't."

"I guess you have a point there," Jester said. "But I think that if there really was such a person, I'd want them to be happy. Like us."

Molly ruffled Jester's hair. "You would say that. Well, we gotta get going." He waved goodbye and swept out of the store with Yasha following silently behind him.

"See you two later. Say bye to Nott for me," she said softly.

"Will do!" Jester said cheerfully. She then turned back to Caleb. “Find the darkest, deepest place and bury yourself there? You don’t really want to do that do you?”

Caleb blanched. “I was trying to throw them off the trail. I know that if I ever tried anything like that you’d dig me back up.”

Jester gave him a big grin and gave his tail a squeeze. “You got that right.”

He kissed her cheek catching the corner of her mouth. “And I would do the same for you.”

“I know.” Jester returned the kiss. “But you won’t have to.”

Caleb gave it some thought. “You won’t either.”

[hermannsthumb]

im Really diggin the idea of a beauty and the beast au,,,,,,,

hey. ME TOO

in no small part inspired by @feriowind‘s au on their priv twitter, have some batb au featuring monster hermann and monsterfucker newt, because newt just being completely blase about fairy tale rules and conventions is endlessly funny to me (i might revisit this with the reverse, too, because newt does literally get possessed by monsters, and that would be interesting to play with in a fairy tale and specifically batb setting)

The day has taken a turn that Hermann did not expect when he woke this morning prepared to spend it alone and brooding as usual. For one thing, there’s a man in his foyer. For another, the man does not appear to be leaving any time soon. Typically when travelers stumble upon Hermann’s castle, it’s entirely by accident, and they flee the second they lay eyes on Hermann. But this man--

“Aren’t you frightened?” Hermann growls, half in irritation, half in bewilderment.

The man--who’s named Newton, Hermann learned, by way of quick introduction after Newton unceremoniously barged through his castle doors, deposited a little suitcase on the floor, and tossed his jacket on the coat hook, all the while yelling about the long walk there and how cold it is, the castle has fifty chimneys, how has Hermann not lit a single fireplace--scoffs. “Why should I be?” he says.

A number of reasons. The wolves lurking in the dark woods surrounding the castle. The castle itself--old, decrepit, deserted, rumored haunted by the locals in the village beyond (rumors that Hermann routinely stokes himself, what with all his lurking in shadows, to keep up his privacy). Newton should be afraid of Hermann, some seven feet tall, clawed and fanged, clothing torn and tattered, like some sort of walking nightmare or monster from a children’s book, and he should be afraid of the way Hermann emerged snarling from the shadows when Newton dared set foot on his property.

But Newton wasn’t afraid when he saw Hermann, and he isn’t afraid now. If anything, he looks--fascinated.

Newton reaches out towards one of Hermann’s claws, and Hermann flinches away. (Hermann hasn’t touched a human being in some ten years.) “The villagers told me ‘the devil himself’ lurked here,” Newton says, unperturbed by Hermann’s sudden movement, and he continues reaching out until he can stroke gently at a claw, “and that you’d eat me or something.” He gives Hermann a long (and appreciative?) once-over. “They didn’t say you’d be hot, man.”

Hot? “Hot?” Hermann says.

Newton grins up at him. There’s a little glint in his eyes. Newton isn’t bad looking himself, truthfully, now that they’re on the subject of attraction. He’s short (shorter than Hermann’s human form), a little soft around the middle, and he’s got messy brown hair and glasses that keep sliding down his nose. “One might say sexy,” Newton says. He wraps his fingers around the claw (nearly as big as a single one of Newton’s hands). “I certainly would.”

Hermann’s not sure if he’s even capable of blushing anymore, in his current monstrous state, but his face does feel distinctly warmer. “You sought me out willingly?” he says, once the full extent of Newton’s previous words have sunk in. Surely Newton must be mad, then--what kind of man is warned of a hideous beast lurking in the woods and decides to go look for it? (And then flirts with it?)

“Yeah.” Newton shrugs. “Everyone thinks I’m weird back home, you know, so I don’t have anyone to talk to. You sounded like you might be fun company.” He lets go of Hermann and rolls up his shirtsleeves, revealing ink snaking up his forearms. “What’s your name, anyway?”

“Hermann,” Hermann says. And, in case it matters (because Newton is appealing to look at, maybe it might make him want to stay a bit longer), adds, “You should know my state isn’t permanent.”

Newton looks up sharply. “It’s not?” he says. He sounds disappointed, which is a reaction Hermann did not anticipate.

“I was cursed,” Hermann explains. “I’m really as human as you.” Hermann usually tries not to dwell on his memories of being human, as it usually just upsets him, but he really does miss it. It was much easier to attend to his studies and work telescopes and pens and chalkboards when he was human, and (as his knee injury carried over into his monstrous form) he hasn’t been able to find a suitably strong enough replacement for his old, and unfortunately quite shattered, cane yet. He was also rather fond of his cheekbones.

Newton nods slowly. “Cursed,” he repeats. “Well, what’s the catch? How are you supposed to break it? True love?”

“Essentially,” Hermann concedes. It’s nice to get this all off his chest. He hasn’t had another person to talk to in--well, ever, now that he thinks about it, something that Newton evidently understands intimately. “Someone must fall in love with me. And I must fall in love in return. As you can imagine I haven’t had much luck in breaking it.”

Newton undoes a button on his shirt. “I see,” he says, sounding very much like he doesn’t see why Hermann hasn’t had much luck. It does wonders for Hermann’s ego. When Newton notices Hermann staring at his newly bared throat, he loosens his little cravat (patterned with flowers and what looks to be tiny lizards) and undoes another two buttons. “Well, Hermann, tell you what. You let me chill here with you for a bit, and I bet I can do it in no time.”

Newton smiles, and the corners of his eyes crinkle. Hermann doesn’t doubt him. “If you’re sure, then. Of course--” Hermann feels warm again, confound this odd little man, “--you’re welcome to stay for as long as you’d like. No caveats attached.” 

“Hey, cool!” Newton says, and just like that his demeanor changes from fascination back to flirtatious. “You know, for the record,” he bats his eyelashes and leans up on the tips of his boots to press a hand to Hermann’s large chest, “this is really doing it for me, too.”