#I gave the kitty so many scratchies

[damnprecious]

you know, it's incredibly rude that my parents' cat Mauno, whom I see a few times a month and love very very much, gives me a shitton of allergies while my uncle's cat, whom I see very, very rarely (but still love very much), doesn't give me any allergies whatsoever

#noopa rambles #time to go catnap Tikru I guess #he deserves better than my uncle anyways #I unexpectedly met the cat at my grandma's place bc apparently uncle and co. is out of town for the week #so the kitty cat is under my grandma's care for that time #kitty cat was being incredibly friendly considering that I haven't seen him in ages #pretty much not since I moved out of my childhood home several years ago #(bc uncle was our neighbor then so I sometimes popped by to play with the cat) #I gave the kitty so many scratchies #but it's honestly incredibly unfair how much allergies mauno gives me in comparison #I don't think I've ever gotten allergies as bad from any other cat than mauno??? #like. I consider mauno my own even tho technically he's my folks bc I did live in the same house as him for a year or two #he's the family cat you know?? #except I can't be in the same room with him without my allergy meds bc otherwise I might as well die fjhgfd #this guy was no issue at all #it's incredibly bonkers how different the reactions to cats can be depending on the kitty allergy-wise #the allergies won't stop me from hanging out with mauno but they sure make me suffer jfdjhfdg

[zintranslations]

Kaleidoscope of Death, Extra 3

Kaleidoscope of Death by Xi Zixu Link to Chinese / Novel Updates

Extra: Shameless Couple (2)

Ruan Nanzhu's stint as an actor was purely for fun, so nobody took the matter very seriously. But months later, as Ruan Nanzhu sat around bored at home with nothing to do, he got a call from Zhang Yiqing. The movie was premiering, and Zhang Yiqing sent him two free tickets for him to go have a look.

Tickets in hand, Ruan Nanzhu invited Lin Qiushi to go see the movie together. The two arrived happily at the theater, Lin Qiushi bought a bucket of popcorn, and they sat down in the audience.

The movie was a hundred minutes total; Lin Qiushi didn't have high expectations coming in, but afterwards, he was completely blown away. Though Zhang Yiqing had been an actor and had never gone through an official director’s program, he obviously had quite a lot of talent in the realm of directing. At least, the techniques he used to shoot this wuxia film that Ruan Nanzhu got a cameo in were good enough to provoke cheers and applause.

Ruan Nanzhu, playing the prince in the movie, was also exceptional.

But after they watched it, that was that. Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu went home without thinking too much on the matter, until the next day when Lin Qiushi opened up his social media and saw that Ruan Nanzhu's character was trending…He didn't understand such things very well. He clicked into the tag and found many people gushing about Ruan Nanzhu's acting and good looks, and asking how come they'd not seen this new actor before. No one thought that this new guy with so few lines would be so eye-catching.

Lin Qiushi woke the bleary-eyed Ruan Nanzhu and pushed the phone in front of his face.

"Nanzhu, are you famous?"

Ruan Nanzhu opened his eyes and peered once at the phone screen before pushing Lin Qiushi down into bed again. He kissed Lin Qiushi's chin and said, "forget about that…"

Lin Qiushi, "oh…"

Ruan Nanzhu had little actual concept of himself going viral, so when he was having lunch with Lin Qiushi one day, he was actually pretty irritated to get Zhang Yiqing's phone call.

"I'm just a minor side character," he said, "why should I go on your publicity tour? What? Blacklist me? Did you take the wrong meds this morning? I'm not even in the industry, blacklist me all you want—"

Lin Qiushi listened at the side and found it funny, but then Zhang Yiqing said something at the end, and Ruan Nanzhu actually stopped refusing. Brows furrowing, he looked up once at Lin Qiushi before agreeing to Zhang Yiqing's request to go on a publicity tour with him and the cast.

After hanging up, Ruan Nanzhu said that Zhang Yiqing wanted him to go do publicity for a bit of time.

"Go," Lin Qiushi said. "But if you really dislike it, don't force yourself. We lack for nothing."

"Mh." Ruan Nanzhu nodded, taking Lin Qiushi's words to heart.

After that, Lin Qiushi's projects got busy as well, and he didn't have the time to pay attention to developments around Ruan Nanzhu's movie. The point at which he realized Ruan Nanzhu was well and truly famous was when he discovered that a young employee had switched her desktop screensaver to a picture of Ruan Nanzhu. Lin Qiushi had even thought he'd been seeing things at first, pointing at the screensaver and asking the girl, "who's this?"

The girl turned to Lin Qiushi with an expression of excitement and began a fanatic recommendation of Ruan Nanzhu, saying how this was a super popular newcomer named Yu Qiuqiu, and not only was he good looking but is acting was also amazing!

Lin Qiushi, "…" Alright alright, enough already. I know exactly how amazing his acting is.

That night, Lin Qiushi stared thoughtfully at Ruan Nanzhu, who was in his pajamas in the kitchen, watching TV.

Ruan Nanzhu noticed Lin Qiushi's gaze. He turned around to ask, "what is it?"

Lin Qiushi, "Nanzhu…"

Ruan Nanzhu, "hm?"

Lin Qiushi, "are you famous?"

Ruan Nanzhu, "famous? What do you mean?"

Seeing his bewildered expression, Lin Qiushi had no choice but to change his wording: "Is Yu Qiuqiu famous?" And this bastard even debuted with his pseudonym.

Ruan Nanzhu slapped a hand to his thigh. "Yeah! Our Qiuqiu is super famous! Zhang Yiqing recommended me to his friends trying to make me the main character—"

Lin Qiushi, "isn't that a good thing?"

Ruan Nanzhu, "how is it a good thing? If I'm making movies I have to run around all the time. I can't keep you company like that."

Lin Qiushi thought about it.

"But you're just doing it for fun, so you don't have to worry about all that. You don't have to film if you don't want to. If you're tired you can just take a break." Other stars may have burdens, but Ruan Nanzhu didn't.

"Okay then," Ruan Nanzhu agreed. Then he seemed to recall something. "Right. The newcomer from Obsidian came to set a couple of times. I ignored him, but tell Ye Niao that if he keeps coming, I might not be able to handle it."

It took Lin Qiushi a long while to remember the existence of this person—it seemed to be the newcomer coveting Ruan Nanzhu for his good looks, who was under the impression that Lin Qiushi had taken Ruan Nanzhu by force.

He asked, "what do you mean by not being able to handle it?"

Ruan Nanzhu, "I might not be able to handle it and end up decking him, of course."

Lin Qiushi, "…"

The facts were, after being baptized by the doors, their bodies had all become stronger than those of normal people. This was the case for Lin Qiushi. He'd thought at first that he would be around Ruan Nanzhu's level, but then one evening, he’d discovered that he wasn't Ruan Nanzhu's opponent at all. Ruan Nanzhu, who'd wanted to try some fun little technique, restrained Lin Qiushi with ease; a single hand was all it took to pressed both of Lin Qiushi's above their heads. That hand that looked as pale and delicate as jade had felt just like a metal shackle, and no matter how Lin Qiushi struggled, it hadn’t budge an inch.

Also, every time he picked Lin Qiushi up to go wash, Ruan Nanzhu could lift him, a healthy grown adult male, in one arm.

Afterthis discovery, Lin Qiushi had laughed at himself for worrying about Ruan Nanzhu getting mistreated outside—Lin Qiushi counted all of them lucky that Ruan Nanzhu wasn’t mistreating people.

"Don't worry about it." For the above reasons, Lin Qiushi said as much. "If he really annoys you, do what you must."

Ruan Nanzhu nodded.

Just a few days after they'd discussed the matter, Lin Qiushi went to check in on Ruan Nanzhu at work. Ruan Nanzhu was filming a modern movie this time, and played a handsome serial killer in the script. Lin Qiushi thought this character setting rather suited Ruan Nanzhu.

He was waiting on the curbside at first. But then his ears caught onto a strange noise. It sounded like a person…keening. Lin Qiushi heard this, and his brows puckered. He turned and looked into a small, dark alley. The film was being shot in the studio backlot, which was complicated and filled with architecture of various styles. So naturally, there were plenty of out-of-the-way spots that the cameras can't capture.

Just as Lin Qiushi was wondering if he ought to take a look, he heard Ruan Nanzhu's voice.

And Ruan Nanzhu sounded a bit dark, a bit scratchy, when he said, "feels good?"

Lin Qiushi, "…"

He padded silently to the entrance of the alley and saw Ruan Nanzhu standing inside. There was another person kneeling in front of Ruan Nanzhu. Though it was dark enough that Lin Qiushi couldn't really make out the other person's face, the scene before him wasn't anywhere as raunchy as he'd imagined.

That person was lying on the ground like a dead dog. Ruan Nanzhu heard his footsteps and turned around, and when he saw Lin Qiushi, he hung a faint smile up where a cold expression had previously been. His motions were natural as he rolled down his sleeves, approaching Lin Qiushi.

"What brings you here?"

Lin Qiushi glanced at the man hanging on his last breath lying on the floor.

"He's not dead, is he?"

"Of course not, I know when to stop." Ruan Nanzhu came over, seeming like a sweet and adorable big kitty, as if the icy ruthlessness from before had all been an illusion. "We'll call him an ambulance. He'll be fine."

"I…I'm calling the cops…" The person's call from the ground was as faint as a mosquito's. "You…you hit me…"

It was only then that Lin Qiushi identified this person. Wasn't this the newcomer from Obsidian that Ruan Nanzhu had mentioned only a few days ago? Lin Qiushi hadn't expected the guy to still be harassing Ruan Nanzhu, and had apparently pissed Ruan Nanzhu off enough to get beaten up so badly that not even his own mother could recognize him.

Man, how complicated his feelings must have been when a single slap from Ruan Nanzhu, who’d seemed like nothing more than a little white bunny, was enough to take him down.

Lin Qiushi said, "if he still has the strength to threaten us, then we probably don't need to call an ambulance."

Ruan Nanzhu, "no need. I avoided all the vital areas—'tis all just flesh wounds."

Lin Qiushi nodded, fished out his phone, and gave Ye Niao a call. Ye Niao was furious. He said he was on his way and urged Lin Qiushi not to be angry.

After Lin Qiushi hung up he lifted Ruan Nanzhu's hand.

"You're not hurt, are you?"

"I am," Ruan Nanzhu pouted. "Look, it's injured."

Lin Qiushi searched the hand all over at this, and finally found a single patch of broken skin no bigger than his pinky. He looked back at the man beaten to a pulp beside them, then back at the wound on the back of Ruan Nanzhu's hand. Finally, he couldn't hold in his laughter anymore.

"You're so…"

Laughter also surfaced in Ruan Nanzhu's eyes.

Ye Niao came quickly and dragged that person off like he was dragging out the trash. Before he left he even apologized to Lin Qiushi for his poor judgment and for choosing such a person…

Lin Qiushi said, "don't worry about it. Everybody makes mistakes."

The matter pretty much ended there. Lin Qiushi never saw that person again, and no police ever came to bother them. Ye Niao took neat care of the matter.

"They didn't give you a hard time, did they?" This was what Lin Qiushi asked Ruan Nanzhu after they got home.

Ruan Nanzhu, in response, "who's they?"

Lin Qiushi, "the cast and crew, of course."

Ruan Nanzhu slid off in thought. "They think I'm being kept by some heavy hitter, and mess around with the mob…"

Lin Qiushi, "…"

Ruan Nanzhu, "so, they're actually pretty respectful?"

At this, Lin Qiushi didn't know for a moment whether he ought to laugh or cry. Ruan Nanzhu himself was the heaviest hitter—why would he possibly be the kept boy of one? But since he liked to act so much, there was no harm in Lin Qiushi playing along. They still had a long time together, after all. There were plenty of things for them to try.

Ruan Nanzhu scooted close to Lin Qiushi, setting his chin on Lin Qiushi's shoulder and mumbling something about being sleepy. Lin Qiushi stroked his hair like he was petting a giant cat. This animal, when tamed, seemed just like an overgrown kitty, but if you actually pissed him off, he was actually a ruthless beast.

But this was a beast that would never extend its claws at Lin Qiushi, was all.

Translator’s Note:

The term translated as “heavy hitter” here, 大佬, has actually appeared often in the text. It’s a slang term that kind of means “the big guy,” as in the boss, the one with the most experience, etc. RNZ gets called this a lot, especially in the Hako Onna door.

[Extra: Shameless Couple(1)] | [Extra: Twin Lives, Twin Deaths(1)]

#kaleidoscope of death #xi zixu #cnovel #chinese translation #死亡萬花筒

[muffindaddystyles]

𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐄𝐒 𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐄𝐃

Author note: Mention of drugs, sickness and blood (if you're not comfortable with it don't read it) . It mighty be heart warming fluffyyyyyy.

You're his kitten. No matter the consequences you're. Cause even in his anger sometimes (which's rare and it's on the silly go-to's) he still sticks to that pet name because he met you like that under the bus stop's shelter in a heavy rain offered you an umbrella (while you were huffing and puffing like a kitten annoyed with the weather), walked you home, had a tea with you and some chocolate chip cookies. Been bestfriends from that year and there isn't a red light to your guys wild adventures—but he's been having a rough time recently. Had a cruel heart shattering breakup from a relationship that he thought was a never ending dream (she brought him happiness in a weird way he couldn't put into words) indeed it tightened your chest but his happiness's most important to you. To overcome it he's been scribbling notebooks over notebooks with lyrics that screams he miss her and the sex for the most part of it. It breaks your heart.

He's usually the one to melt all over you, give you forehead kisses, cuddles you when your periods are the bitchiest, makes you brekkie if he stays a night, runs you a bath and sometimes brings you pomegranate berried candles (he lies that he got them as a gift, he's one hell of a liar). He takes care of you with so much gentleness and helps you with study after wiping your tears and reassuring you telling you how proud he's of you. It made you guilty sometimes 'cos if you'd be in camille's place. . .you'd never be able not to get jealous. She was cool with it. Fills you with another curiosity that maybe she treated it like a fling.

He was devastated. Knocking on your door feebly. Then the moment your small confused body was under his weary gaze, boom!! It crashed upon him like a pitch storm and he fell to his knees tucking his head in your armpit crying his heart out. At that moment you felt his pain radiating to you and twisting your own stomach with a dagger, it was insufferable. He gave out no-deep scrapes but not to freak your bones muttered that he lost her. Eventually his bottled up emotions seeped into hues infront of you by passing week and to your littlest of information you got to know that they didn't ended up well in some perspectives so their relationship turned out to be a downfall. So As, you do with your girlie best-friend when she have a breakup you did it with Harry too. It didn't included feral clubbing (you left that part to his mates) but watching sappy movies that could fill your ice-cream bucket once you eat it whole, doing homemade face masks, playing drunk uno and knocking on your neighbours door to run way at last, dragging his arse to museum and in all of this you ended up convincing him to adopt a kitty (she lives with you thou).

The roles have been reversed completely!

He's been living at your flat for five weeks now. It's fading his usual cheekiness and the itch to annoy you every second he gets. Instead, it's just eating, spending bits of hours with you, going out with his mates and coming back to crash at your couch padding in your room in the wee of night demanding a warm coddle from you and that his back hurts from the cruelty of that single spring popping from the leather, staying with him when he'd wrench his stomach out in the morning. He's sensitive. His heart's soft that's one of the reason he gets hurt real quick, you admire that about him and reminds him that it's one of his qualities you're totally in love with. You're gentle with him. Giving him space and time to recover. Going with him at his friend's birthday little get together not drinking at all knowing one would have to stay sober as he chugged red wine staining his hawain shirt and when he clumsily poked his pink tongue out lazily to reach for the cigarette in her hand you tugged him back into you before he'd burn his tongue with sparkles announcing it's time to head back home and he'd be a pain in arse (a beautiful one though because his antics makes you all mushy) when he pretended to steal sandwiches from the table hiding them under his shirt saying that "'m pregnant with twins and it's hard to carry them" while you dragged him outside making him wear his coat like a stubborn toddler. Making him cupcakes sometimes, playing with his fluff of curls while he reads the book she gave him. It hurts. But, it subsides down with his single amiable glance that tells you he needs you. He always had. He always will. You give him extra forehead kisses and pecks on cheek while leaving for UNI, because it's irresistible to give dust to his pouty sulk.

It's seven in the morning when he tumbled through your door (has a key, you even brought his clothes and toothbrush from his house—he even uses your strawberry scented shampoo and body wash) his nose tip blushed matching his cheeks, eyes pooling with haze and hair poking in every direction. You were studying for a class you've in an hour. When you saw his irirses blown out you arched your brow putting the cup down beside your thick book, to mingle his sadness he's experimenting different fun wild things (told you bout it and you even called Mitch to take care of him).

"How many am I, pet?" You asked walking towards him seeing him struggle to get out of his vans and your giggles echoed into coldness when he peers down at your crouched state with his gold fish-y eyes, "dunno. . . but ye'r seem like. .like a-a sunflower floatin' in me head." His lips molding around his each word agonisingly slow drawl and his voice hoarse and scratchy. "You need rest, bambi." You got him out of his jeans and socks knowing he despises to sleep with layers on. "I'll be back with you in some hours. Hmm? Then we'll snuggle into blankets, you me and. . .salsa the pussy cat." You have to control your laugh everytime you take the kitty's name (Harry's worst at giving names you were horrified when he once joked that he loves chelsea boots so much he could name his daughter Chelsea) He whines at that nodding his head but not loosening his grip from around your wrist while you tucked him under your baby green patch work quilt. It's like his brain and heart can't decide how to choose.

On your way back you got Jeff's call asking why Harry isn't picking his phone his own voice resembling that of Harry's and you know he'd be looking shit at the time. Harry was still snoring out like a bulb in bright day on his tummy and you shook him gently at first but when he didn't woke up you had to be a bit harsher. "Harry wake up pet. . . Jeff's been calling ye for since." But, not even a hum in response so you placed your finger under his nose checking if he's even alive. Gratefully he was just sleeping like a literal corpse (he argues that he isn't that bad of a sleeper but in fact he is. Everything around him would burn down and he wouldn't even change a side).

It was seven in the evening when you were preparing for dinner when he woke up grumpy. His nose scrunched up, lips quirked up as if he tasted something yucky and his gait jello. You eyed him quietly even when he came in kitchen to drink water.

"Jeff was callin'. . ." You quipped stirring the veggies before pouring soup into a bowl and sliding it his way on the counter, "I know bombarded me phone with calls—" He gruffed spooning a mouthful and you flinched when he tried to cool it inside his mouth with "hawahhoohaha" little sounds (he knew it was hot, he's just an impatient leech).

"Stop being a gremlin. He told me ye' aren't writing, leaving everything like a cliffhanger neither you're attending the meetings he calls you at. . . I think you're done with your mourning it's time to do what you actually love and is there for you. Your music." You frown seriously trying to put some senses into his forever high brain. He drops the spoon back and dips his brows frustratedly, pinching his eyes shut.

"Fuckin' hell. Stop being my mama!" It's not the first time you guys are arguing and you're not gonna take it to heart. You stood up towering him and jabbing your finger to his chest, "you better stop filling your system with drugs before eighteen year olds come to you thinking you're a drug dealer—" He snickers at that a total mocking one (you know he's doing nothing hard it's just shrooms in the safe environment otherwise you'd have never never allowed him) but still you had to bring him back to his line so it was necessary. "Piss off." He mutters still slurping on his soup and you left him there with a loud smack on his head, "Wanker."

You care about him. Always did. Always will. He's the love of your life. Even your love has nourishment of just water and lacks sunshine from your sun it's still there into existence, how could you see him like this? Wasting his precious time and energy. It's impossible.

All you heard before going to deep slumber was the tinsy creak of your main door after that it was silent and darkness until now your phone buzzed under your pillow resonating Niall's tired words. You were a wreck havoc fumbling for your coat and wallet, covering pathway to tube with shivering legs hallucinating that everyone's eyeing your fiddly self with judgemental stare even though there're few.

You rushed to Niall's doorsteps knocking like a maniac, "where's he? Is he okay? told ye—" You pushed him aside marching inside to look for him. "He looked fine, he's a strong guy y/n they took him to hospital." You snaps your neck raising your brows.

"What the fuck, d'ya mean hospital!?" Your heart hammering in her ribcage overthinking the worst scenarios. "Take me there. right. fuckin' now." You tell him firmly not caring even if he's high too. Niall leads you to his car heating it up in the first beat taking glances of your petite body leaning against the glass with lips sucked in, eyes watered and legs constantly on bounce so placed his hand atop your knee giving you reassuring squeeze and a genial smile.

Your pink cheeks warming up with the heat of hospital radiating your way and loud growl left your chest when your blurry vision cleared to the sight of dishelved Harry sitting on the bench outside of ER, his irirses weary, mouth stuffed with cotton and has few scratches of rashes on his elbows otherwise he's fine. With each step of yours towards him something kept breaking inside you like you're walking on the nails and it's ripping you raw. He raised his head timidly hearing footsteps and when his eyes fell over your worried state panic flashed over his features and his only gaze turned you a puddling emitting heavy sobs within you before reaching towards him. The reality of situation dawning upon you because from what Niall told you in the car that they were high trying to have some fun, drove around neighbour hood and Harry jumped out of the window and bit his tongue between his teeth resulting in heavy bleeding a deep gnash (the fuckin' dumbstick he is).

"I hate you. I hate you so fuckin' much! you bastard." You tried to shout at him but the voice that came out of your mouth was that of mice as you threw harsh blows at his chest, bottom lip jutting wet and salty tears tricking down. He wraps his hand around your wrists ushering you closer down to his chest speaking muffled, "'orry." causing you to grunt angrily into the crook of his neck.

"Sorry my ass!" When you tried to pull back he tightened his hold round your neck snuggling you warmly to him with a hum. Jeff came back with medicines and when he parted his lips to speak in his defence you ignored him wiping your tears with the heel of your palms muttering a, "I hate you guys." The drive back was silent and the walk to your flat too, you passed by him to lock yourself into your room (you wouldn't because of the fact you wouldn't be able to sleep if not sure he's okay few feets away from you). When Harry attempted to roll his tongue to make some words nothing came out but a hiss making you spin, "'s okay we'll speak in the mornin'." Saying this you headed to bed and when you were bout to turn the lamp off he was lurking at the foot of your bed with a pillow in his arms smushing his face into it and squeezing it close to his chest gesticulating you that he wants a cuddle.

"Only 'cos y're adorable." You muttered moving your bum to make space for him suppressing your cooe when he grinned showing nothing but snow cotton, fuckin' hell being this cute should be illegal! He snapped his finger to call Salsa and she instantly galloped to shrink into his side while you spooned him. You woke up to the running tap and the time you were stretching under your quilt with yawns he padded out looking healed than last night.

He got a little lisp as he spoke, "can we talk?" You nodded knuckling at your sticky eyes criss-crossing your legs. "'Forgive me kitten." He continues, "sorry fo' mistreatin' ye' last night." You shake your head not realizing tears are dropping down your collarbones.

"Please. . .I don't wanna be a party-pooper in your life. you can live your life to finest but not at the sake of your life Harry– and. . . and if you're trying to invade the feelin' of sadness with all of this I don't approve it. What bout me? dunno what'll do if somethin' will happen to you, pet. S'not fair to me. is it? Just. . . love y—" your confessions cameflouging with sobs.

"Oh baby. ." He immediately cradled you in his embrace trying to soothe you with 'sorrys' and 'I'll never do somethin' like that again, promise'. Smooching slobery kisses all over your face and when you gazed up at him attracting him closer to your clean warm features all he did was peck the corner of your lips tenderly pulling away to pat your hair with a sigh.

"So. . .ye' love me." He teased you and you rolled your eyes grabbing his chin with your fingers, "show me your tongue." biting down your laugh when he retorted misheviously, "hmm. Wanna kiss it better?" Blowing him off with a remark that he's an utter pervert hiding the fact it splashed crimson to your neck.

"Mind makin' me poor self some brekkie?" He pouts and you giggled pecking the corner of his burgundy lips getting a timid smile in return, "in trade of?" He hip-checked you straddling Salsa over his shoulder and grabbing her little paws to expertise her in some dancey-dance moves.

"Mind bloggin' orgasm–ique dinner." He cackled loudly at the end when you shook your head in fake disappointment at him and he clinged by your side helping you to make some breakfast.

Think so you guys will figure it out.

#harry styles #cute harry #harry styles blurb #hsh #fluff #harry angst #harry smut #harry styles smut #dom harry #harry styles fanfiction #naughty harry #harry #harry × y/n #solo harry #harry x reader #harry dirty one shots #harry styles dirty imagine #fanfic #harry styles fanfic #harry fanfic #harry art

[agere-fandom-time]

Hello! Could you please make a fanfic about regressor!eraser head and caregiver!Present mic?

Yes I can! If you haven’t already read Mod Kat’s fic with these two, you’re missing out: it’s on AO3 right here! 

Here’s your new story, written by me! It’s below the ‘keep reading’ or you can check it out on AO3 if you prefer. 

Content Warnings: Shouta and Hizashi are married in this fic, and at the end they share some affection as a couple when Shouta isn’t regressed (cheek kisses). Aizawa is a non-verbal regressor. Sensory issues are mentioned but don’t flare up, as is Hizashi’s loss of hearing. Vague mentions of villains (and villain-related trauma). Shouta experiences memory loss as part of his regression and finds this distressing. 

-Mod Stella

“Hey Shouta, I’m home!”

Hizashi closed the door behind him and tossed his keys onto the table beside the door, bending over to begin the long process of unlacing his boots. Silence greeted him in the house, which wasn’t unusual. Shouta could be asleep, or just focused on his work. It was hard to guess what Hizashi would come home to, on the days that he patrolled alone. Shouta’s sleep schedule was erratic by nature, and had been since they were teens. The chaotic hours of hero work and heavy workload as a teacher had only added to the uncertainty, and Hizashi was lucky to get one night a week where Shouta slept next to him in their bed.

Kicking off his boots, Hizashi turned his attention to the speaker around his neck. It was held on by a series of metal buckles, only unlocked by his own fingerprints so that it couldn’t be torn off by villains that got close enough for hand-to-hand combat. It was second-nature to reach behind himself and fit his fingertips into the divots that would unlock the device and let it drop into his other hand.

Breathing deeply, Hizashi stretched his neck from side to side and dropped the speaker on the table beside his keys. Shouta’s capture weapon was hanging on the set of hooks, and Hizashi threw his jacket beside it on his way into the apartment.

Shouta wasn’t at the coffee table, although there were some papers spread out across it, many of them already bearing Shouta’s scratchy comments, his pen strokes as sharp as his criticism. The kitchen was empty, no sign of how recently he’d eaten. Finally, Hizashi pushed the door to their room open.

Sure enough, Shouta was in the bed, but he wasn’t asleep. He was sitting against the headboard, his knees drawn up to his chest and his gaze fixed on the opposite wall. As the door opened, Shouta’s eyes moved towards the hallway.

“You okay, babe?” Hizashi asked, staying in the doorway. Sometimes Shouta needed space and quiet, and Hizashi didn’t want to intrude if this was one of those times.

Shouta blinked at him, a slow and deliberate motion, and didn’t reply. His hair was pulled up behind him in a messy ponytail, and he was wearing one of Hizashi’s pyjama shirts with an American band logo on the front.

Hizashi recognized that expression. “Are you feeling little, baby?”

Shouta blinked again.  

“Do you want company?” Hizashi stepped inside the room, but didn’t approach until Shouta gave another languid blink as confirmation. “Okay, gimme space there.”

Shouta obediently pushed the covers back, and Hizashi wiggled his way underneath. The bed was pure heaven after a shift on patrol, and he sighed happily as he took his feet off the floor and shoved them under the nice warm blankets. One of them brushed against Shouta’s leg, who made a small noise of complaint.

“Sorry, baby. Cold feet, I know.” Hizashi made more of an effort to keep his toes on his side of the bed, stretching out an arm to invite Shouta to cuddle. He really needed a shower after the work shift, but as heroes, the two of them never minded cuddling while one or both of them was sweaty.

Sure enough, Shouta shifted over and tucked himself under Hizashi’s arm, pressing into his side.

“There we go.” Hizashi curled his arm around Shouta’s back, getting him settled. “Long day, huh? It’s good to see you.”

Shouta stayed quiet. Hizashi didn’t mind that. When Shouta felt little, he was usually quiet. Hizashi could talk enough for them both, easily. And Shouta didn’t mind listening to him babble.

“I was thinking of this bed the entire way home,” Hizashi confessed. “And a little bit of patrol before that. Just daydreaming about how soft the sheets are. It’s the good stuff. Thank god we dished out for them.” Hizashi wiggled his butt on the mattress to make his point. He could feel Shouta smiling against his chest. “I was thinking about you too,” Hizashi said. “Hoping you were in the mood for some cuddles.”

Hizashi kissed the top of Shouta’s head, where he’d curled up under Hizashi’s arm. Shouta grumbled and burrowed deeper, almost disappearing into Hizashi’s armpit.

“Oh, come out of there,” Hizashi laughed. “I’m a stinky man, you don’t want to hide under there.” He tugged the shoulder of Shouta’s shirt, who emerged to frown up at Hizashi.

“Yeah, I know, I’m the meanest for not letting you nap in my armpit,” Hizashi said. “Come on, baby, let’s get you a smoothie. I’m guessing from the lack of dishes that you haven’t had dinner, and you’re gonna be cranky in the morning if you don’t eat anything tonight.”

Shouta visibly considered this, twisting his mouth slightly as he thought. Finally, he sighed and nodded, sitting up and away from Hizashi’s embrace.

“Here, you can have my soundblockers for the blender.” Hizashi took them off his head and hooked them around Shouta’s neck for when he would need them. They protected what little hearing Hizashi had left when he was using his quirk on patrol, but when they were at home they were more often in use by Shouta. They helped with his migraines and generally bad sensory days. Hizashi knew from experience that little Shouta usually had problems with big noises, so he was always careful to suppress his quirk and keep the volume on electronics low while Shouta was regressing.

Shouta raised a hand and touched the soundblockers around his neck, looking down at them for a moment. Then he raised his eyes to meet Hizashi’s and offered a big toothy smile.

“There’s my precious Shouta,” Hizashi grinned back. “Hi, baby.”

Shouta reached out and took hold of Hizashi’s face, one hand on each cheek. He kept Hizashi turned towards him, their gazes locked. Still smiling, Shouta’s eyes narrowed as if he were trying to use his quirk. To anyone else, the expression would have looked entirely terrifying, but luckily Hizashi had almost two decades of experience with reading Shouta when he didn’t feel like verbally communicating.

“Uh-huh, I love you too,” Hizashi said, bopping Shouta on the nose.

Shouta withdrew, wrinkling his nose and brushing his fingers against it like he was trying to rub off the remains of Hizashi’s affection.

“You wound me,” Hizashi told him, pressing a hand to his chest. “Come on, kiddo, time for dinner.”

Hizashi popped out of the bed, trying to hide his wince as his work-weary feet hit the floor again. Shouta was slower to untangle himself from the blankets, but eventually got to standing. Hizashi hid a smile as he realized that Shouta had discarded his pants somewhere along the way and was wearing some cat-patterned boxers with the stolen shirt.

“Is light bad? Do you want some sunglasses?” Hizashi asked before he opened the door. The light in the bedroom had been off, the glow of the city outside the open curtains leaving the room dim.

Shouta hesitated, glancing towards the city lights behind them, and then shook his head once.

“Let me know if that changes,” Hizashi said, and led the way out into the hallway, Shouta following close behind. Their apartment was familiar, the bathroom to the right and the open living area where their belongings mixed on the shelves. Mostly Hizashi and the various things he’d bought for Shouta over the years, honestly. The other man would live like some kind of monastic hermit if left to his own devices. Thank goodness he had Hizashi here to spoil him. Speaking of which…

“Where did you leave Hana?” Hizashi wondered out loud, glancing around the apartment. Shouta’s stuffie usually lived on their dresser in the bedroom, but Hizashi hadn’t seen her while he was in there.

“Mmm.” Shouta wandered into the living room and retrieved the stuffie from under the table, careful not to disturb the papers spread across the top.

“Oh, was she keeping you company while you were working? What a good kitty!”

Shouta came back to Hizashi’s side, Hana in his arms. She was a big stuffed cat, soft as anything and patterned with a tortoiseshell coat. Satisfying to hug and perfect to use as a pillow when Shouta fell asleep on the floor. One of Hizashi’s best purchases, if he did say so himself.

Shouta pressed his cheek against Hana’s head, rubbing it back and forth with his eyes closed.

“Okay, kiddo, here’s your chair.” Hizashi pulled out Shouta’s chair at the kitchen counter and watched him take his place, Hana held in his lap. “Do you want music or quiet while I make your smoothie?”

Music, Shouta answered in sign language, then wrapped his arms around Hana again. A little smile was curling his lips, and Hizashi found it impossible to resist smiling back.

Hizashi shot back the sign for awesome!! and made sure the volume was pretty low before he switched on the radio on top of the fridge. It rarely left the frequency of Hizashi’s station: Shouta liked to listen to Hizashi’s shows when he was away, and Hizashi liked to check in on the interns and other hosts when they were running things. Made it easier to solve problems on the fly when people started blowing up his phone if he already knew what was going on.

Music flowed into the kitchen, and Hizashi hummed along as he assembled the various pieces of the smoothie, frozen fruit from the freezer and fresh bananas sliced into the blender with practised ease. Whenever Hizashi checked on Shouta, he saw him rocking slightly to the music, hands busy with Hana’s fur, eyes following Hizashi’s movements around the kitchen.

“Time for soundblockers, baby!” Hizashi warned, and made sure that Shouta had the headphones over his ears before he screwed the lid onto the blender and smoothied it up.

Retrieving a swirly straw from the drawer, Hizashi added it to the smoothie and put it in front of Shouta.

All done! Hizashi signed, and Shouta pulled the soundblockers off, pushing them across the counter towards Hizashi. “Thank you!” Hizashi said, and went to hang them by the door with the rest of their hero gear. There were doubles of most of it inside their bedroom for emergencies, but their work costumes remained in the main space.

By the time Hizashi got back, Shouta was working on the smoothie. If their lives were different, Hizashi would love to snap a photo of his adorable husband with his hair up, dressed in his shirt, and drinking a bright pink smoothie with a straw shaped like a heart. But with the constant threat of hackers, and public appearances to keep up, that wasn’t the sort of thing that Hizashi could take a photo of. Instead, he just smiled and tucked the memory into his mind where he wouldn’t forget it.

Hizashi sat next to Shouta and let the radio fill the silence, bobbing along to the music and keeping his humming low as Shouta worked away at his late dinner.

“Mm- Hizashi?” Shouta asked, and Hizashi immediately turned his attention to him.

Shouta was blinking down at Hana and the smoothie in front of him, clearly a bit lost.

“Hey, babe. Welcome back.”

“How long was I- gone?”

“I dunno, you were little when I got home. You had Hana with you while you were marking, so you must’ve been fighting it at some point.”

“I remember that.” Shouta rubbed his eyes, and Hizashi quelled the urge to tug his hands away and remind him to use his eyedrops. Adult Shouta got to make decisions like whether he rubbed his eyes when they were itchy. “I wanted something to do with my hands, so I got Hana. Marked some more, and then- I think I was going to take a nap?”

“Makes sense with the outfit,” Hizashi teased lightly.

Shouta looked down at himself and shrugged. “It’s cozy.”

“Uh-huh. Softie.” Shouta frowned at Hizashi and took another slurp of the smoothie through his swirly heart straw. “You were in the bedroom when I came home, spaced out. You didn’t seem upset, though, just out of it.”

“I might have fallen asleep.” Shouta dug his knuckles into his temples. “I don’t remember.”

“It’s okay, I don’t think you were there for long. I only got home a couple hours after you, and you did a lot of marking.”

“Yeah.” Shouta was trying to sound like he wasn’t bothered, but Hizashi knew he didn’t enjoy when his regression ended up giving him gaps in his memory. It was too much like villain quirks that got in your head and messed things around. Every hero had a horror story about lost time, missing memories.

“You were really cuddly when I got home, but I knew you hadn’t eaten yet, so I dragged you out here, found you Hana, and made you a smoothie. I’ve only been home for about half an hour.” Hizashi glanced at the numbers on the microwave to make sure he was telling the truth, and nodded. “Yeah, thirty-five minutes.”

“Thanks.” Shouta discarded the straw, throwing it perfectly into the sink, and drank the rest of the smoothie straight from the cup.

“Any time, babe, you know that. But I do really need to take a shower.” Hizashi had been putting it off until Shouta was ready to take care of himself, but he was desperate to get out of his work clothes.

“Go ahead,” Shouta said. “All yours.”

“I love you, babe. And seriously, it was no trouble.” Hizashi slid off his chair and pressed a kiss to Shouta’s cheek, resting his forehead against his husband’s temple. “I don’t mind taking care of you when you’re tired.”

“I know.” Shouta’s little smile was back, pulling at the corners of his mouth. He turned his head and kissed the tip of Hizashi’s nose. “I love you too, now go take a shower. You reek.”

“So mean!” Hizashi pouted. “So mean to your loving husband!”

“My loving husband is a stinky man.” Shouta poked Hizashi in the side, making him yelp and back away. “Go shower. I want cuddles in bed, so dry your hair before you join me.”

“Yes sir!” Hizashi grinned, and stole one more kiss before he headed for the bathroom. Life was busy, but life was good. And that was all Hizashi needed.  

#bnha agere #fandom agere #agere fanfiction #agere writing #sfw agere #cglre #mod stella #bnha

[snowdice]

Big Bang (Sort of) Editing Story [Day 38]

I started writing this fic while editing my Big Bang story, but am going to continue doing it for other things now that Kill Dear is out. I will write and publish 100 words of the story every time I finish doing whatever task I’m doing. If you’d like to block these proceedings, please feel free to block the tag proofread stories. I will reblog this post with the parts of the story I do today. Edited chapters are linked; everything else I’ve done so far is under the cut.

My Master Post Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14

Not sure how long I’ll go. Maybe be an hour may be six. We’ll have to see!

Chapter 15

Patton strolled up to the doors to the royal wing, his arms crossed casually around his middle.

Kalani raised an eyebrow as he approached and gave her the most innocent expression he could. “Whatcha got there, Pat?” she asked.

“Hmm?” he asked, as his sweater squirmed. “What do you mean?”

She considered him for a moment. “Well, I see nothing suspicious here,” she said. “Do you Owen?”

“Nothing,” he replied without hesitation.

Patton grinned at them both.

Kalani leaned in like she was going to tell him a secret. “Who is it?”

Patton made a show of glanced around like he was hiding it from anyone passing by. Then he shifted around to pull up just the bottom of his sweater.

 A small black paw reached out from the depths of his sweater and swatted at the air.

“Ah, I see,” Kalani said, reaching out to touch the little paw. “Hello, Mittens.”

Patton giggled as Owen poked the cat’s stomach gently through the sweater, making her wiggle a bit and try to bite him.

“Well,” Patton said. “I better be off with my totally normal sweater.”

Kalani nodded and stepped to the side, and Patton was free to head down the hallway to Logan’s room. Patton knocked on the door with their new extra secret knock and Logan all but ripped open the door. “I’m late. I have to go,” he said, darting past Patton.

 Patton smiled, happy that his plan to be running a little late to come watch Virgil had worked so well, even though he felt a little bit guilty about it. He hoped Logan wasn’t late to his meeting, but he also knew that if Logan had noticed Mittens, he wouldn’t have let her into the room.

Virgil was already out of the closet, sitting on one of the chairs. Patton came in and smiled at him. Unlike Logan, Virgil’s attention was immediately drawn to the oddly shaped lump in Patton’s sweater.

“You’re not very good at hiding things,” Virgil said.

 “It worked on Logan,” Patton defended himself.

“Logan was about to rocket into space if you didn’t show up in 5 seconds,” Virgil pointed out. Patton just shrugged, and Virgil tilted his head. “What do you have?”

Patton grinned wide and carefully pulled Mittens out of his sweater. She did not resist this maneuver at all, simply purring. He held her up for Virgil to see. “Ta da!”

“A cat?” Virgil said.

“This is Mittens,” Patton said. He then turned to Mittens. “Mittens, this is Virgil. I thought I’d introduce the two of you!”

Virgil blinked at the cat. Mittens blinked back. Patton thought maybe he should have let them sniff each other from under a door before doing this.

 He didn’t need to worry though, as Mittens started purring after a moment. “You can pet her,” Patton offered. Virgil looked up at him. “Just…” he said.

“She likes chin scratchies!” Patton prompted.

Virgil reached out a hand to scratch under her chin and that was the end of it. Mittens stretched out her chin happy to get the attention and Virgil’s eyes widened at how soft her fur was. It was a work of minutes before Virgil was sitting down on the floor and Mittens was happily kneading his thighs and spinning around in circles to make sure he pet every inch of her.

“I did not understand why people like cats,” Virgil commented. “All I’ve seen of cats is people coming back with bloody scratches from trying to pet them, so I never even tried.”

“Well,” Patton said. “Cats are just like people. If you’re nice to them, they’re more likely to be nice to you.”

 Virgil’s hand paused briefly on the cat’s head, but then continued with the petting a moment later. Patton wondered what he was thinking about, but didn’t press.

“She seems to like you,” Patton said.

“Don’t know why.”

“Hey, don’t be mean.” Patton scolded.

Virgil hands jerked away from the cat he’d been petting and then were forced abruptly to his side in reaction. Mittens meowed, seemed very unhappy with the jostling as well as the sudden lack of petting.

“Sorry,” Virgil said, eyes wide. “What did I do wrong. I didn’t mean to be mean to her.”

It took Patton a moment to sus out what he was talking about and felt a pang in his chest when he did. “Oh, no honey. You didn’t do anything wrong. I meant don’t be mean to yourself.”

 Virgil gave him a confused look. Mittens bumped her head against his chin and with a blink, he cautiously went back to petting her.

“Of course, she likes you sweetie, you’re a good boy.”

“I came here to kill the king. I’ve killed before.”

Patton smiled sadly. “I don’t think you ever wanted to,” he said. Virgil seemed to grow very interested in mitten’s ears. Patton scooted over so he was sitting beside him and carefully brought a hand up to touch the top of his head. Virgil sort of curled into him, pressing his face against Patton’s shoulder, but continuing to pet the cat.

 “It’s fine. You’re going to be okay now,” Patton said softly.

Virgil shook his head against Patton’s shoulder.

“Yes,” Patton insisted. “You’ll be okay. You won’t have to go back.”

Virgil didn’t respond for a long moment. “You can’t keep me in Logan’s closet forever,” he said softly. “When his dad comes back, you’re going to have to turn me in.”

Well, that was true, but… “It’ll be okay. No one will hurt you.”

“The kings would be assassin?” Virgil asked skeptically.

“Thomas is nice. He’ll understand.”

“He’s nice to you. He’s nice to Logan. Maybe he’s even nice to the people he rules over, but what am I? An enemy assassin who would have slit his throat if I hadn’t gotten the wrong room.”

 It…it did sound bad when he put it like that, but, but… “Thomas will understand,” he promised, hugging him tight. “He will, and we’ll keep you safe and I’ll introduce you to every single cat in the castle. In fact, we’ll get you a cat to keep as a pet if you want and he or she can snuggle you as much as you want. I’ll show you all around the gardens and introduce you to Mama and help you figure out what your favorite type of cookie is. You’ll never have to hurt anyone again and no one will ever hurt you again.”

 Virgil drew away a bit and shot him a half smile. He clearly didn’t believe him, and it made Patton’s stomach twist a bit. Patton knew. He knew Thomas would be nice. There was no way he’d hurt Virgil. Virgil was just a kid and with Logan and Patton on his side, there was no way anything bad would happen to him. He could see it from Virgil’s perspective though.

“I like her feet,” Virgil said, touching Mittens’ little black paw that contrasted her otherwise white coat. Mittens purred and began kneading his legs again with those paws. “I’m guessing that’s why she’s named Mittens?”

“Yeah,” said Patton softly. “‘Cause she looks like she’s wearing mittens.” Virgil leaned forward to kiss her little head and that little action made Patton’s heart ache for him. He deserved so many kitten kisses. So many.

Patton was determined to make sure he got them.

  Chapter 16

“Well done,” Logan complimented when Virgil looked up at him for approval. It was the first time Virgil was trying to make the protection charms without Logan’s instructions. Logan was of course still in the room in case he had questions and the boy had a written set of instructions next to him, but for the most part Virgil was doing it on his own.

“Now,” Virgil said squinting down at the paper next to him, “we wait for 35 minutes.”

“Fifty actually,” Logan corrected offhand, focused on his own potion.

“Oh, yeah, right,” Virgil said. He grabbed the timer and set it for the appropriate time.

 Then, he stepped away from Logan’s nontoxic potion station. Logan saw him edge a bit closer to peak at what Logan was working on, though he was careful to maintain a distance. Logan wasn’t sure if this was because he’d been warned of the possible harmful substances Logan sometimes used at his experiment table or because he was worried Logan might not want him to approach.

Logan looked up at him. “You can come closer. Nothing here is very dangerous.”

Virgil nodded and walked over to peer at the boiling pot. “What are you making?” he asked.

“I am once again attempting to invent a potion that will reliably remove cat hair from surfaces,” Logan said, glancing over at Patton.

 Patton looked up from the bracelet he was making and stuck his tongue out at Logan.

“I can never seem to find an adequate solution,” Logan said.

“The solution is to accept all parts of kitty love!” Patton insisted.

“Or maybe the solution is to exile you from my room for the rest of time,” Logan muttered. Patton chose to ignore him and go back to working on the bracelet.

“Do you want any help?” Virgil offered Logan.

Logan smiled at him. “I’m actually almost finished with this step and there isn’t much left to do but thank you.”

Virgil nodded. “Oh, okay,” he said. He shifted back and forth a few times.

 “You’re well on your way to mastering this potion,” Logan said. “I was thinking that next I could teach you how to make a tracking charm. I marked a passage about it in the book on that shelf.” He gestured to one near the station Virgil had been working at. “Why don’t you go ahead and read that while you wait?”

“The…” Virgil said. “The green book?”

“Yes,” Logan said. “I left a bookmark in the correct page.”

“Um… yeah, sure. I’ll go… read that.”

Logan nodded and turned back to put the finishing touches on his own potion as Virgil walked away.

 Logan finished up his potion up after a few minutes and covered it to let it simmer. He looked over to see that Patton had flopped onto his back, still working on the bracelet and Virgil had sat near to him with the book on his lap open. Logan walked over to them.

“What do you think?” Logan asked.

Virgil glanced up at him. “Erm,” he said. “Looks good.”

“Which option do you like better?”

“…The second one.”

“Really?” Logan asked, surprised.

“Uh… yes?”

“I’m surprised,” Logan commented. “I figured you would shy away from the ones that required a blood sacrifice.”

Virgil’s eyes widened. “Oh,” he said. “I… didn’t notice that. I would like to not do that one, please.”

“You didn’t notice?” Logan asked. “Half of the entire first page is dedicated to a discussion of it.”

There was a beat of awkward silence.

“Virgil,” Logan said. “Can you read the first paragraph on that page?”

 He grimaced.

“You can’t read?!”

“Logan, tone,” Patton snapped when Virgil flinched.

Logan took a breath. “I am not upset that you cannot read, but what have you been doing for the past week when I have given you written instructions for the protection charm potion?”

“Not… read it.”

“How have you been making the potion?” Logan asked.

“I just remember the steps, and if I’m not sure I ask. You’re usually distracted enough that you barely notice.”

“If I had known this, we would have done a completely auditory explanation.”

“Sorry.”

Logan sighed. “You didn’t need to pretend, Virgil.”

 Virgil blinked up at him. “Sorry.”

Logan just shook his head. “There is nothing for you to be sorry for. In fact, you are the one who is owed apologies from many people in your life for a multitude of reasons.” He knelt down to take the book from him. “Here,” he said. “For now, I will read this passage to you while we wait for the potions to finish brewing. Later we can talk about changing my lesson plans in reference to the potions as well as adding reading lessons into your schedule.”

“You… want to teach me how to read?” Virgil asked.

 “If you are willing,” Logan replied. “It’s a useful skill to have and opens up many doors.”

“I don’t know if I’ll be any good at it,” Virgil said with a frown.

“If you can memorize an entire potion recipe from start to finish with inadequate vocal instructions, I’m sure you can learn the alphabet perfectly well.”

“Okay,” he replied sounding a bit doubtful.

“And once we get you to an appropriate level, I’ll let you read a book about stars I enjoyed in my youth.” He seemed pleased with that prospect, and Logan smiled at him. “For now though, let’s read this together.”

 “Okay,” Virgil said. Logan opened the book in his lap and started to read. He noticed that Virgil was leaning over to look at the page despite the fact that he couldn’t read it, and so he began to point to the words as he read. His reactions to the words on the page were honestly quite funny when Logan caught them. His nose would scrunch up in confusion every time he thought an instruction nonsensical, and he’d squint his eyes at the words as though willing the sounds and letters to connect in his head. Logan wouldn’t be surprised with his memory if he had parts of it memorized by the end.

26422

After a few minutes of reading, a light weight descended on Logan’s shoulder. Virgil had settled his chin on Logan’s shoulder to peer at the words. Logan did his best not to draw attention to this fact and shot a glare at Patton when he clearly noticed, sitting up to smile widely at them. Luckily the boy was sensible enough not to squeal as he oh so clearly wanted to. Logan pointed out a picture while explaining what the caption said and then giving a personal antecedent. Virgil touched the page curiously and asked a question about the story before laying his head back down on Logan’s shoulder. They continued in this way until the potion was finished.

  Chapter 17

Virgil’s suspicion was growing. Logan and Patton seemed to have something planned. Luckily, whatever it was didn’t seem to be malicious, at least, Virgil hoped it wasn’t. He truly didn’t think that Patton had it in him to be so clearly excited about anything cruel. He also didn’t think Logan had it in him to be cruel, he was just was better at masking his excitement.

“What?” Logan asked innocently when Virgil gave him a pointed look the second Patton left to do ‘something’. Virgil would almost believe he truly wasn’t planning anything if it wasn’t for the way his lips twitched just a bit at the corners. Virgil glared harder.

 Logan dared to laugh lightly at the expression on his face. “Come here,” he requested. “Patton wanted me to make you pick out a book for him to read to you tonight since, I quote ‘You’ve gotten to read him all sorts of stories the last few days.’ I attempted to explain that it was not purely for fun, but he insisted.”

Virgil grumbled, but wandered over to look over at the books laid out on Logan’s bed, settling his chin on Logan’s shoulder. “What do they say?” he asked.

Logan pointed to each in turn. “Five Dragons and a Flame. The End of May. A Stone in the Meadow. Or you can continue to read The Never-ending Garden.”

 “I want to finish The Never-Ending Garden,” Virgil decided.

“Good choice.”

“Now will you tell me what you’re doing?” Virgil asked.

Logan just chuckled. Honestly, it was like he didn’t know that he had an assassin right next to his carotid artery. “Why do you think something is happened?”

“Patton’s a shit liar.”

“Be careful,” Logan said. “I might just have to tell him you said that.”

“Then I’ll tell him what you said when you accidently dropped the lavender into that potion,” Virgil threatened back.

“Hmm,” Logan said. “Truce?”

“On that,” Virgil agreed, “but you still need to tell me what’s going on.”

 “It is a surprise. A nice surprise,” Logan informed him. He looked at Virgil’s face. “Don’t pout at me.”

Virgil had not been aware that what he was doing was pouting, but he did whatever it was harder.

“Patton would murder me,” Logan claimed, “but I suggest you try that on him the next time you have a chance. You will certainly get whatever you want.”

Virgil sighed and gave up, figuring he’d learn whatever the surprise was soon enough. He chose to flop down on top of the pile of pillows on the floor that had been laid out already. It was his fourth ever slumber party and the first had only been a week ago. He did not know much about slumber parties, but that felt like a lot.

 Goodness, it had already been two weeks. He looked up at the ceiling. He felt safe here. He felt like he didn’t need to watch Logan’s every move as he organized things in his room, but it wasn’t going to last, was it? The king was set to be back in a week. Virgil needed to actually attempt to escape soon. He hated that fact. He didn’t want to leave, and he certainly didn’t want to go back. Maybe he wouldn’t. Maybe he’d figure something else out, but no mater what, he did have to escape, and soon. He looked over at Logan who was slotting the books Virgil hadn’t picked back into place on the bookshelf. Not tonight.

 There was a knock on the door in a familiar pattern, and Logan walked over to open it for Patton. Virgil sat up to shoot a confused look at the giant thing that Patton rolled in.

“Ta da!” Patton said excitedly.

Virgil blinked at him.

“It’s food,” Logan explained.

Virgil perked up immediately. That must be a lot of food if he needed that to carry it.

“I know you haven’t gotten a chance to try a lot of different foods, so I asked Mama if I could use the kitchen earlier today and made a bunch of different type of food samples for you to try.”

 That sounded like literally the best idea in the universe. These people were very good at surprises and Virgil would not question them again ever for the rest of his life (or, well, the next couple of days he was around them before he tried to escape and either managed it or died a bloody and painful death).

Patton seemed to feed off of Virgil’s excitement, practically vibrating himself as he gestured to different parts of the cart. “We have a bunch of types of cheese and crackers, mini sandwiches, different smoked meats, six types of pasta, and every leftover I could find on this shelf. On this shelf, we have things with hot sauce, things with spicy dry rubs, curries, and things with a lot of peppers. I’ve ordered them by spiciness level so we can what you can handle, and we’ll only go as far as you want. Then this shelf is a bunch of types of cookies, mini cakes, pies, and ice cream!”

 “We are not starting with the sweets,” Logan said firmly.

“But Lo!” Patton whined.

“We do not want to make him sick, do we?” Logan asked.

Patton pouted. Virgil honestly had no preference. All food was good food in his experience.

“Fine,” Patton said. “We’ll start with the cheese.”

They had him sit back in the center of the blanket pile and handed him little portions of things. Some of the cheese tasted weird at first and Patton would giggle at the faces of surprise he made, but Virgil managed to if not like, then tolerate almost all of them.

 Then came the different sandwiches, some hot and some cold and all of the pasta and leftovers. Virgil eyed the plate of fettuccine alfredo long after they had moved on.

“You can have some more at the end if you still have room,” Logan promised with a fond smile. Virgil frowned at him. “You want to try all of the food, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Then you can’t eat an entire plate of fettucine alfredo.”

“Maybe you can’t,” Virgil said darkly.

Logan just rolled his eyes and passed him another plate.

Eventually they moved on to the next shelf full of what was deemed ‘spicy food.’

 “Part of this is figuring out what level of spiciness you can handle,” Patton said. “So, tell us when it gets to be a bit too much and we’ll move on two the deserts. Also, milk helps wash the spicy stuff that so drink some if you need to!”

Virgil nodded and accepted the first dish on that rack.

Virgil, it turned out, liked what they called “spicy” food even though some of it made his nose run a little bit. It was kind of fun to eat them, honestly. Some of them hurt a tiny bit, but they also tasted really good. It was strange.

“I am impressed and horrified,” Logan said when he finished that shelf. “Do you… have nerve endings in your mouth?”

 Virgil shrugged. “Well,” Patton said, sounding pleased. “Now it’s time for the best part! Assuming you still have room.” Virgil nodded immediately and Patton handed him a plate he’d covered with chunks of cookies he’d torn off. He ate every single one of those and then went through the rest of the deserts. Everything was fantastic and he’d like to investigate a few of the cakes once more, but…

He pointed insistently at the fettuccine alfredo.

Logan shook his head but handed it over. “How many stomachs do you have?”

Virgil did not care to respond, choosing instead to shove his mouth full of pasta.

 When he was done with that, he laid back to relax and digest the food, feeling very content. Logan and Patton had also eaten a bit of the different dishes and were finishing up themselves.

“You good there?” Patton asked after a moment of Virgil just laying with his eyes closed.

Virgil nodded.

“Did you like your surprise?”

“Uh huh.”

“It seems he will not be doing any of the other planned activities for a little while at least,” Logan said. “So now might be a good time for you two to read,” he suggested. “I’ll get the rest of the food stored in case we want something more later.”

 “Okay,” Patton agreed. Virgil didn’t open his eyes, but felt Patton settle next to him. Virgil rolled slightly, so his head rested against the side of Patton’s leg. A hand touched softly down on the top of Virgil’s head and Virgil heard a page flip. “So, let’s see. I’m not sure when exactly you fell asleep last time, but how about we start at the Troll Bridge?”

Virgil hummed his ascent.

“Okay,” Patton agreed as he started to read. “‘Melly stepped onto the bridge backwards while sticking her tongue out at Al, but Lydia’s eyes widened as a large looming figure stepped up behind her….’” Virgil listened happily to him read about the four children. He liked this book. He hoped they managed to finish reading it before Virgil had to go.

  Chapter 18

They made it all the way to the big blowout between Al and Melly where Melly got mad and left the group to their fate in the magical garden by the time Virgil awakened completely from his food coma (he’d never actually fallen asleep, or at least he always responded when Patton asked) and squirmed around for a bit before sitting up.

Logan hadn’t been particularly interested in the story he’d heard many times before and was reading a book of his own on Patton’s other side, but he put a bookmark in his book when Virgil sat.

“Want to take a break from reading?” Patton asked. “We can do a bit more later, but we have more than just food and books planned for tonight.

 “Okay,” Virgil agreed easily.

“Great!” Patton said clapping his hands. “We’re going to introduce you to the most fun sleepover party event ever!”

Virgil tilted his head.

“Dress up!” Patton said. “Also make-overs. We’ll do you first and then we’ll help you learn how to help pick out other people’s outfits and make-up. If you want to, of course.”

“Sure,” Virgil said with a shrug.

“Yay!” Patton hopped to his feet. “You stay here. Lo and I will get everything ready.”

He pulled Logan to his feet and over to the chair that was the perfect height for doing make-up.

 They set up what they’d need for make-up and then Patton instructed Logan to grab the clothes of his they usually used for this sort of thing out the closet that Virgil wasn’t set up in while he grabbed the pieces he himself had brought upstairs and strew them over the bed so they could see anything.

Smiling happily, Patton looked over at Virgil who had stood up in the giant pile of pillows and blankets to watch him with intense eyes. He looked like he was memorizing every action Patton took as though expecting a test at the end. He was so adorable. A rush of affection and a touch of mischief hit him suddenly.

 “Hey Virgil,” Patton said. Virgil looked over at him. “Can I tackle hug you into that pile of pillows?”

“Tackle hug?” he asked.

“I run over and hug you so hard that we fall into the blankets. I do it to Logan all the time without warning, but I didn’t want to confuse you.”

Virgil considered the offer for a couple of seconds. “Okay,” he finally decided.

“Great!” Patton did a little hop before launching himself across the room. He slammed into Virgil, who apparently had very good balanced because they didn’t immediately fall backwards, but then he seemed to remember that he was supposed to let Patton slam him into the pillows, and so he fell back on his own power.

 Patton giggled when they hit the ground and drew back to look at his face. “I got you!” He leant forward to kiss him on the nose. “Oh wait! I should let you fight back.” He propped himself up on one arm and held out the other hand. “Pinkie promise not to hurt anyone if I let you use the 3rd setting again?”

“Pinkie promise,” he agreed with a grin, linking their pinkies.

“Great!” Without hesitation, Patton did the hand motion to allow the restraints to be in the third setting.

Patton was on his back almost instantly, but he didn’t even have a chance to think about worrying before Virgil pressed a kiss to his nose in a mirror of what Patton had done a moment before. “I got you,” he said proudly.

 “So, you do,” Patton agreed with a laugh. He reached up on of his hands to card it through Virgil’s hair. Virgil leaned into the touch and then practically melted on top of him. “Virgil,” Patton laughed. “It isn’t nap time.”

He grumbled something unintelligible into Patton’s neck making Patton giggle more.

“Sweetie, please.”

Thankfully Logan saved him from the unrelenting cuddling by poking Virgil in the side. “I have finished preparing the stations for the makeover and dress up. You need to get up now.”

Virgil made a noise that sounded like a growl, but he did roll off of Patton.

 Patton hopped to his feet and helped Virgil up before pulling him over to the piles of clothes. “We pick the outfit first, but you don’t put it on. Then, we do your make-up and hair based on it. Then, we get you dressed and do touch ups. Okay? Pick anything you want.”

Virgil looked over the options, eyes going a bit wide. “It…” he said. “It all looks really fancy and expensive. Are you sure you want me to touch any of it?”

“We wouldn’t be offering anything we didn’t want you to touch,” Logan said gently. “In fact, I insist you touch all of it. Beyond just appearance, making sure the texture of the fabric is agreeable is a large part of this activity.”

 Patton picked up one of the pieces of fabric he knew was very soft and offered it to him. He touched it with careful fingers, his eyes lighting up at the feel of it. They had to continue nudging him into feeling the different fabrics, and he hesitated when they asked him to pick his favorite at the end, but eventually he shyly pointed at a dark purple dress.

Patton clapped. “Great! Ooo, I already have some ideas for make-up that will go with that.”

Virgil let Patton pull him over to the chair they’d set up and settled down on it.

29009

Patton hummed. “I think silver and purple make-up mostly?” he said.

Logan nodded and they grabbed a few things from the make-up kit. Logan let Patton do most of the make-up as he tended to be better at the more creative parts, but Logan was the one who gave him the fancy winged eye liner with purple sparkles because he was really good at them.

“You look fantastic!” Patton squealed when they were done. He held up a hand mirror for Virgil who studied himself in it for a long few moments. “Do you like it?”

“It’s really nice,” Virgil confirmed. Patton smiled and hugged him.

“Next hair. We have a lot of accessories. I’ll let you pick from the purple ones.”

 He and Logan sorted through the jewelry box full of different hair accessories for the royal family and ended up finding three purple ones. Patton hesitated a bit over one of them, but Logan picked it up and set it in front of Virgil for him.

“Your choice from these three,” he said.

One was a purple feather with little hooks to braid into hair, one was a smattering of purple and silver stars that would weave through the back of someone’s hair, and the last was a string of silver leaves with purple tips that would wrap up the back of a person’s head from a bun.

Virgil thought for a moment and then pointed to the one made of leaves.

 Patton glanced at Logan who took the hairpiece. “I’ll do your hair right for that one,” he said. “I know how it fits.”

He grabbed the brush and carefully ran it through Virgil’s hair. Virgil seemed to like the attention, leaning into the touch, and a smile flickered over Logan’s face. Logan started gathering the hair together to make the low bun that would be the base of hair arrangement. Patton honestly did not expect him to speak, but then he did as he started to secure the piece with pins.

“This was my Pa’s favorite hairpiece,” Logan said. “Not the father you came here for, but my other one. He died when I was six.”

Virgil went shock still. “I don’t have to...”

“I wouldn’t have let it be offered if I wasn’t okay with you using it,” Logan said.

 Virgil didn’t move as he finished securing the hairpiece. “There,” Logan said when he was done. He picked up the hand mirror and positioned it so Virgil could see. “It suits you.”

“I…” Virgil said. His eyes were wide, and he clearly didn’t know what to say.

“Now,” Logan said. “I believe there are some other pieces of jewelry that would match this very well in the other room. I…” he turned away. “If you will excuse me.”

He turned away and exited through his bedroom door into the hallway. Patton watched him go and then turned to Virgil. “I’m going to go make sure he’s okay, okay?” Patton asked. “You didn’t do anything wrong, there’s just a lot of emotions.”

“I can take it out…” Virgil said.

“No,” Patton said. “I think he likes that you’re wearing it.” Virgil bit his lip. “He never really moved on,” Patton felt inclined to say. “This is… a lot for him, but I think it’s good too.” He leaned forward to kiss the top of his head, being careful not to mess up his artfully done hair. “I’ll be right back.”

He turned to follow Logan out of the room.

  Chapter 19

Thomas sighed in relief as the door to the royal wing finally came into sight. He was exhausted from his journey to Lamir for many reasons. Beyond just the physically taxing journey, he’d also had to deal with the emotions of loosing someone he had thought of as a friend while also trying to help her young daughter who had just had the crown thrust upon her.

Now he just wanted to see his own child and curl up into bed. He smiled at Owen and Kalani as he approached. “Is Logan here?” he asked.

Owen nodded. “The prince and his royal advisor are having a slumber party.”

Thomas smiled. “Of course, they are,” he said.

 He said goodnight to the two guard as they’d be getting off duty soon even if he did manage to drag himself out of his room again tonight and walked past them into the hall.

He walked past the room where they kept the jewels, though was unsurprised to see that the room was unlatched as Patton loved playing around with the different jewelry and had probably left it open when he grabbed them. He was however surprised when his son’s room’s door was thrown open, as Logan usually couldn’t stand for the thing to be open with or without him in it.

 Thomas didn’t think much of it however, and simply walked over to look inside. He was surprised when he didn’t see his son or Patton and instead saw that the only person in the room was a young boy that Thomas did not recognize. He was seated in one of Logan’s chairs and had his head tilted looking at himself in the mirror. He seemed to be trying to get a look at the ornament on the back of his head, and Thomas felt his heart seize a little bit when he recognized the hairpin.

He hadn’t recovered from that gut punch when the boy’s eyes drifted and met his in the mirror. There were a couple of long seconds where the two of them stared at each other in silence.

“Hello?” Thomas finally managed to get out.

Panic. There was suddenly horribly intense panic in the child’s eyes, the likes of which Thomas had never seen before. Thomas could only blink dumbly as he hopped to his feet like his seat was suddenly made of hot coals and then threw himself across the room to the opposite side from Thomas.

He looked around himself, back to the wall and considered Thomas with wildly spooked eyes. Clearly, he realized that he was pinned in Logan’s room by Thomas being in the door.

The boy dropped suddenly and disappeared under Logan’s bed.

 “Uh,” Thomas said, confused and shocked and still a bit in pain from seeing that piece of jewelry in use. He crossed slowly over to the bed and bent down to look under it, moving the bed skirt slightly to the side. He saw a small shaking blob curled up into itself under the bed. “Um, hi,” he said softly.

The blob did not respond except to continue shaking.

Thomas frowned and settled himself onto the floor. “It’s okay,” he said softly. Had he been here stealing things? Thomas had to wonder as he wasn’t sure why someone here for legitimate reasons would be acting so terrified of being caught. Though, that posed the question of how he’d gotten past the guards, and why Logan hadn’t noticed him. “I’m not mad,” Thomas said. “You’re fine.”

The boy looked up briefly from his knees looking terrified. Thomas tried to smile at him gently, but that just made him hunch into himself more, his breathes coming faster. That wasn’t good.

“No, shh,” Thomas said softly. “It’s okay. I promise it’s okay.” He did not seem to believe him, and Thomas winced. What was he supposed to do? He couldn’t just leave him here but trying to talk him down himself didn’t seem to be working.

Luckily, a familiar voice spoke from behind him then. “Dad?” Logan asked.

Thomas looked back at him. Both Logan and Patton were standing at the door, a couple of pieces of jewelry in their hands. They seemed very surprised to see him.

“You… seem to have a guest,” Thomas informed them.

 “I…” Logan said, beginning to edge into the room like he was expecting something to blow up at any moment. “Yes.” He got to Thomas and squeezed himself between him and the bed, putting a physical barrier between Thomas and the boy. Confused, Thomas took a couple of steps away without challenge. “That,” Logan glanced behind him. Patton had moved to the opposite side of the bed from Logan and Thomas and had gotten to his knees to look under it. “That is Virgil.”

Thomas blinked at him. “Virgil?” he asked.

“He’s… new to the castle,” Logan explained. Patton started speaking softly the boy, but Thomas could not make anything he said out. “Patton and I… invited him to a sleepover.”

“The guards didn’t mention anything,” Thomas said, sure that they would have warned him if there was a stranger in the royal wing.

“Uh, well, Virgil is… shy and we didn’t think you’d be back for another week. So, we snuck him past them.”

“Shy?” Thomas asked doubtfully. That was a lot more than shy.

“Particularly of adults,” Logan said.

Thomas took a moment to let that sink in. “Oh.” He was… scared of adults. Thomas could imagine many reasons why that might be the case and none of them set well. “I see.”

“Hey, no, sweetie, stop that,” Patton said, sounding distressed. Patton had managed to draw Virgil out from underneath the bed, though they were both still mostly hidden behind it and Thomas had no question in his mind that if he went to step towards them, Virgil would be back underneath it in a moment. Currently the boy seemed to be clawing at his own head. “No, baby shh,” Patton said, trying to stop him from tearing the pinned in hairpiece out, Thomas realized. “I’ll get it out,” Patton promised him. “Just calm down and let me do it.” He sounded close to tears, and Thomas couldn’t particularly blame him with the way the boy was acting. “You’re hurting yourself, baby.”

He must know, Thomas realized. If Logan had known he was here, then he must have allowed him to use that hairpiece. He’d probably even told Virgil that it belonged to his dead father. Now he was probably terrified that Thomas would be mad at him for touching it, especially when he’d come in to find Virgil alone without Logan to explain.

Patton managed to get all the pins undone and placed the piece delicately on the bed before wrapping himself protectively around the boy and hushing him.

Logan was looking back at them as well. He looked between the puddle of upset on the floor and Thomas. “Could…” he said. “Could I maybe come and see you in a few minutes, Dad?”

“Of course,” Thomas said. “Of course, I’ll go wait in my room. Take as much time as you need.”

He was careful to move slowly as he stepped towards the door, so the poor thing didn’t notice him move and mistake it for him approaching. He closed Logan’s bedroom door softly behind him feeling even more drained than he’d been before as well as anxious and a bit sickened. He went to his own bedroom to wait for Logan.

  Chapter 20

Logan let out a slow breath as his father closed the door behind him. That could have been very, very bad. He turned his attention to Virgil and Patton. Patton had curled himself around Virgil as much as physically possible and had tucked the boy’s head under his chin.

Logan slowly rounded the bed and knelt in front of them. “It’s alright,” Logan said, cautiously moving to put a hand on his shoulder. Virgil didn’t pull away. “I asked him to leave. It’s alright.”

Virgil tilted his head slightly too look at him. Logan rubbed a circle into his back as he slowly got control of his breath.

 Logan smiled softly at him and reached out to touch his cheek with a gentle hand. “You… didn’t hurt him. You didn’t even try to hurt him.”

Virgil shook his head.

“Why not?” Logan asked curiously. “It was a perfect opportunity.”

“Promised Patton,” Virgil mumbled, and the idea that perhaps the thing that had saved his father’s life was a pinky promise just about gave Logan a migraine, but then Virgil ducked his head. “And it would make you sad.”

“I see,” Logan said, heart in his throat.

Virgil kept looking towards the floor, his eyes starting to fill with tears again. “Are you going to turn me in now?”

 He was shaking and barely holding back a fresh wave of tears. Logan knew of course that no one would hurt him here if he turned him in to his father and the guards, but he also knew that Virgil would be terrified if he did so. He was already terrified. Logan didn’t want to know what he thought the fate Logan would be condemning him to.

“No,” Logan said before he could even truly think it through. “No, I’m not.”

“You’re not?” Virgil asked.

“Well, there wouldn’t really be a point, would there?” Logan asked. “The reason we planned to turn you when father got back in is because you posed a danger to him, but you have just demonstrated that is no longer an issue.”

 “Really?” Virgil asked, sniffling a bit and Logan saw Patton’s arms tighten even more around him.

“We will have to figure out a better cover for you than just that you’re new to the castle, but I believe it will work fine. No one besides the two of us would ever guess your origin anyway.”

“S-so I can stay?” Virgil asked, “and you won’t throw me into prison or execute me?”

“I promise you were never going to be executed Virgil,” Logan said. “Even if we turned you in, but yes you can stay with us. We’ll figure out a backstory for you that doesn’t involve assassinations and you’ll have to keep up the lie, but I doubt anyone will question it.”

 “I’ll do whatever you want,” Virgil said, chocked up. “Thank you. I really didn’t want to go.”

“Well, you’re our friend now so there will be no going anywhere,” Patton said kissing him on the cheek. Virgil relaxed back into his hold, pleased with the affection.

Logan smiled at them both. “Can I see your wrists, Virgil?”

Virgil blinked but offered them and Logan tapped the restraints doing a quick incantation. They popped off after a moment.

“You’re letting me go?” Virgil asked, eyes wide.

“Of course,” Logan said. “We’re not just going to keep you prisoner for no reason.”

 “That’s…” Virgil said, eyes watering as he clearly was trying not to cry. “You’re the best people I’ve ever met.”

“I wish that was not so clearly the case,” Logan replied. He slowly reach up and set a hand on his shoulder. “I’m going to go speak with my father. Patton will stay with you.”

“Okay,” Virgil agreed, seeming a bit hesitant.

Logan smiled softly and leaned forward to gently touch their foreheads together. “I will be right back,” he assured. “We will finish our slumber party, though perhaps we will table the rest of the dress up activity for another night.”

 He stood then, leaving Virgil in Patton’s capable hands to exit his own bedroom and cross the hallway to his father’s. He took a brief moment to compose himself before knocking on the door.

“Come in,” his father called.

Logan opened the door to see his father sitting on one of the armchairs in his room. Despite the almost disaster that had taken place a few minutes ago, Logan found himself smiling at the man. It was nice to have him home.

“Sorry about that,” Father said.

“It was more my fault than yours. If I knew there was a risk of you coming home today, I wouldn’t have left him alone.”

 “Is he alright?”

“I believe so,” Logan answered. “Patton is with him and will certainly smooth out any lingering distress.”

“Good,” his dad said. “That’s good.” There was a pause and then he gestured at the seat beside his.

Logan settled himself down on it. “How was your trip?” he asked. “You’re back a week early.”

“Yes,” Father said. “The trip went better and worse than anticipated.

“How so?” asked Logan curiously.

“Well,” Dad said. “The purpose of the trip was to convince the new queen of Lamir, Cecil not to ally with Mocnejsi, but by the time I’d arrived there wasn’t really a risk of that.”

 “Why not?”

“After investigation, it turned out that Cecil’s mother had been poisoned by an assassin from Mocnejsi.”

“Oh,” Logan said, mind already racing.

“They figured out that one of the young women who had been hired on in the kitchen for the winter had done it, and had learned her origin when they questioned her,” Dad informed him. “Considering Cecil was immediately approached for an alliance with Mocnejsi, their aim was likely to manipulate her going forward because of how young she is. Luckily, Cecil is a smart girl and has the help of her mother’s advisor as well as her own. By the time I got there, my only real role was to extend my condolences and reaffirm out alliance. I would have stayed longer, but the possibility that Mocnejsi may think to attack us in a similar way hastened me home.”

 “That…” Logan said. “That is wise. I assume you are going to institute more security.”

“I am, yes,” Dad replied. “I would like your input on plans in the coming day.”

“Of course,” Logan agreed.

Dad smiled at him, “But for now,” he said, “I think it’s time you get back to your slumber party and I get to finally go to sleep.”

Logan nodded and got to his feet. He leaned over to hug his father perhaps a bit longer and harder than was strictly necessary, but Dad did not seem to mind at all. “Goodnight,” Logan said.

“Goodnight, son.”

  Chapter 21

Virgil woke with something soft but kind of stringy in his face. That was weird. He didn’t know what in the closet would feel like that. In fact, as he woke more he noticed more things that he couldn’t sus out the origin of, particularly the warmth curled up against his side. Curious, he blinked open his eyes. Oh, right. Patton.

The soft stuff in his face was Patton’s hair and the warmth next to Virgil was the rest of the boy’s body. Patton had all but refused to let Virgil go last night after Logan had taken off the restraints and Virgil hadn’t minded the attention. They must have fallen asleep together in the piles of pillows and blankets on the floor.

 Virgil brushed his hair gently away, internally (for fear of disturbing him) shaking his head at him. He’d fallen asleep hallway on top of an assassin. He had no self-preservation instincts. He looked at his wrists. It seemed no one had any self-preservation instincts. This of course, included himself as instead of running off when free in case they decided to turn him in after all, he had fallen asleep on the floor with Patton too.

He looked to the side and saw Logan was already awake, reading on one of his chairs. He seemed to sense Virgil’s eyes on him because he looked up after a moment.

 “You can get up if you like,” Logan said. “He is a heavy sleeper and won’t wake up if you squirm out of his grip.”

Virgil frowned, unsure if he wanted to risk it.

“I have breakfast ready for you.”

Okay, Virgil was going to risk it.

He carefully squirmed out of Patton’s grip, leaning down to press a kiss to his forehead in apology for leaving him before getting to his feet.

Logan handed him a plate of eggs and toast when he walked over and gestured to the chair next to him. Virgil sat there to eat while Logan continued to read.

 Virgil ate his food quickly, and then glanced over at Logan once he was done. Virgil was honestly at a bit of a loss. Usually, they came and got him out of the closet only once they were ready to do something, but Patton was still sound asleep on the floor and Logan looked engrossed in his book.

Virgil fidgeted slightly, unsure what he should be doing or even if he should be doing anything. Considering Logan hadn’t given him any instructions, he should probably not do anything. He didn’t want to screw up the first day of… whatever this was now.

 Logan glanced over at him after a few minutes. “Don’t forget about the potion,” he reminded.

Virgil nodded and stood, walking over to the closet since it would still be in there from the previous morning. It was about half gone now and it had gotten to the point where Virgil didn’t feel any immediate affects from it anymore other than some warmth. It basically just felt like drinking tea.

He said as much to Logan when he walked back over to him.

“That’s good,” Logan said, “it means it has been working. It has healed any damage it can from malnutrition. Any internal organs that were damaged should be mostly healed. You may even notice your eyesight getting slightly better. Your immune system should also be boosted. You will likely also find it is easier to gain muscle and while you likely will never be as tall as you could have been, you will likely still grow a few inches during your next growth spirt.”

 Virgil studied his hands where they were sitting on his thigh now as though he could see the changes that allegedly had already taken place in his body. “Thank you,” he said quietly.

“Of course,” Logan replied, eyes already back on his book like it was some normal thing and not a huge kindness he’d bestowed on Virgil before even really knowing him. As though Virgil didn’t just owe him more than just his life going forward.

They sat in silence then for a few more minutes, before the was a soft sigh from the floor and Patton started to wake. He sat up and looked around. His eyes landed on both Virgil and Logan sitting together and he seemed to light up.

 “Good morning!” he chirped.

“Good morning, Patton,” Logan said as Patton popped to his feet, “I have breakfast for you.”

“Thank you Lo,” Patton said, throwing his arms around Logan’s neck, and giving him a kiss on the cheek. Virgil presumed from the lack of surprise on Logan’s face that this was normal for morning Patton, not that the fact surprised him considering how night Patton acted.

He still managed to be somewhat surprised by the fact that Patton turned to hug Virgil a second later. Patton’s lips were pressed briefly to Virgil’s head and then he turned to grab the plate Logan had saved for him.

 “So, what are we doing today?” Patton asked.

“I was thinking Virgil and I could continue our reading lessons if he is not opposed,” Logan said. Virgil nodded, happy with that prospect. “Other than that, I have no plans. I have already spoken with my father before the two of you woke. He is going to spend most of his day catching up on things he missed and said I could take the rest of the day off royal duties.”

“A whole day to relax then!” Patton said, happily chewing on his toast. “Reading sounds fun, but we should do something more active too.”

 Logan hummed. “We can show Virgil the courtyard after the reading lessons,” he said.

It took a moment for it to register, but then Virgil froze. “Wait,” he said. “We’re going outside?”

Logan raised an eyebrow at him. “Yes.”

“So, we’re leaving your room?”

“Are you alright with that?” Logan asked cautiously.

Virgil nodded quickly.

“Oh,” Patton said at his enthusiasm. “I guess you have been cooped up a while, haven’t you?” He smiled sadly and turned to Logan. “Maybe we can do reading lessons in the garden.”

“That would be satisfactory.”

“Great!” Patton said. He looked over at Virgil. “If we’re going out, we should probably put your hair up and get you in some clean clothes.”

 Logan nodded. “You finish eating, and I will help Virgil find something to wear.”

Logan found him an outfit, though it was a bit baggy on Virgil and the hem of the shirt went halfway to his knees. When Patton finished breakfast, he sat Virgil down and carefully worked a brush through his hair.

“Can I braid it?” Patton asked.

Virgil hummed his consent. Having his hair brushed and done up by another person was a lot more enjoyable than he’d anticipated. He’d liked it when Logan did it the night before, though he had to very firmly push away thoughts of where that led.

 “Okay!” Patton said after a few moments. “You look good. Ready to go?”

Virgil nodded and they both led him out into the hall. He paused before they got to the door. “What about the guards?” he asked hesitantly.

“I’ve already given them the same story as I did Dad,” Logan replied. “They know you’re here.”

Virgil still hesitated.

“It’s okay,” Patton promised. “Here, hold my hand?”

Virgil took the offered hand immediately, and Logan stepped in front of them both. Virgil felt himself relax a bit knowing the prince was between him and the guards.

They led him to the door.

 Logan greeted both of the guards at the door, and they said good morning back. Both of them glanced at Virgil curiously for a moment making him shrink into himself, but they quickly averted their gazes.

Patton pulled him past them without incident and soon they were in the small dining hall Virgil had passed through his first night here. He remembered how he’d snuck around at the edges of the room in the shadows with the aim to kill the king, but now he was being pulled through the middle with the prince having just wandered past the royal guards in broad daylight like it was nothing.

 It was so strange, and Virgil still couldn’t totally believe this was happening. The retraced his exact steps back down the spiral stairs near the kitchen and out of the door he and the nice gardener had came through. He could even see the shed he’d been hiding in from here. With a blink, he remembered they were going to the garden, and he wondered if he’d see the man again.

For now, he just looked around them as Logan and Patton led him past the garden shed towards an area with many trees. Orange and yellow leaves were starting to fall from many of the trees.

 They made a satisfying crunching sound under his feet as he was led to a tree. He had seen the group of trees when he’d first arrived here and had even thought about hiding amongst them instead of in the shed, but they’d seemed scary in the dark. They were pretty in the daylight, however, and Virgil found himself tilting his head to watch the branches sway in the slight wind.

Logan sat down under it and pulled out a book and some writing materials from the bag he’d brought. Virgil settled down next to him so they could both look at the book at the same time and Patton flopped down on the other side, immediately setting to work tying fancy knots in the yarn he’d brought with him. Patton shuffled slightly to the side so they bumped shoulders as Logan opened the book and started Virgil’s reading lesson.

  Chapter 22

Patton bit his lip to keep from laughing or awing. “Do you like the flower, Virgil?” he asked.

Virgil glanced up at him briefly and then his eyes returned to the flower he’d found. “It’s nice,” he said.

They’d finished the reading lessons and let Virgil explore the garden a bit. He’d found a dark purple and yellow flower (a pansy, Patton thought) and seemed to be endlessly fascinated by it. He’d been staring at it for minutes now, almost as though he expected it to do something. Patton did not quite understand his interest, but he was still adorable.

 Logan sat next to him and the flower, smiling at him softly. “I imagine you’ll enjoy the garden in the spring,” Logan said. “There are many more flowers then. Of all types. We’ll have to show you all of the best spots. Mr. Deknis has a particularly good eye for colors, and it is always quite beautiful.”

“Who is Mr. Deknis?” Virgil asked.

“He’s the head gardener,” Logan said. “He’s a nice man, though a bit prickly when it comes to his garden. We may see him today if he’s in this part of the garden.”

“Would he have been the multrum I saw in the gardening shed when I hid there?”

 “Ah, yes, that would be him. I was unaware you interacted with anyone in the castle.”

“He caught me in his garden shed, but he wasn’t mean,” Virgil said, he tilted his head curiously at Logan. “Why…” he trailed off.

“Yes?” Logan asked.

“Why is he the gardener?”

Logan looked confused, “Well,” he said, “I guess because he wants to and is good at it.”

“No,” Virgil said with a frown. “I mean. Shouldn’t he… he’s…”

Logan seemed to think hard for a moment. “Right,” he said. “You’ve been under a blood compulsion. I’d guess you would have only worked with multrums in the military.”

 “I guess I didn’t realize that they could be other things…”

“Of course, they can,” Logan said. “Their abilities don’t make them any less of people. Mr. Deknis likes to garden so he gardens.”

Virgil blinked at him.

“…Of course, all things considered, that may not be a familiar concept to you.” Virgil turned back to look at the flower instead of answering. “Right,” said Logan.

There were a couple of awkward beats of silence. Patton bit his lip and happened to glance up. “Oh,” he said. “Speaking of Mr. Deknis.” He gestured to the gardener who was coming up the path between the trees.

 Logan sat up on his knees as Patton waved at him. He saw Patton and turned to walk towards them. “The two of you had better not be up to mischief in my garden,” Mr. Deknis called, his voice a bit gruff. He clearly did not see Virgil who had laid flat on his stomach to stare at the flower.

Logan rolled his eyes automatically. “We were just reading Mr. Deknis,” he said. “Your piles of dirt are safe.”

“No mud cakes?” Mr. Deknis asked skeptically still coming towards them.

“It has been a literal decade…”

Patton saw when Mr. Deknis was close enough to see Virgil.

 He stopped in his track and looked down at Virgil who was already watching him a bit warily. “Hello,” he said, his voice a lot softer than it’d been a few moments before. His expression completely flipped in a moment to something very gentle when he saw Virgil and the cautious look on his face. Virgil did seem to have that effect on people.

“Hi,” Virgil replied.

Mr. Deknis looked at Logan and then at Patton and then back at Virgil. “This is our new friend, Virgil,” Patton offered.

“Hello, Virgil,” Mr. Deknis said with a nod.

“Virgil, this is the gardener Mr. Deknis.”

 “He’s not nearly as grumpy as he sounds,” Patton assured.

“Well,” Logan said, “yes he is.”

Mr. Deknis shot him a look that only served to prove Logan’s point if Patton was being honest. Logan just smiled back. Mr. Deknis apparently decided to let it slide because he turned back to Virgil.

“It’s good to see you again,” Mr. Deknis said. “Are you feeling better?”

Virgil nodded. “I’m a lot better,” he said. Mr. Deknis considered him for a moment, clearly reading how true that statement was. Patton was glad he seemed satisfied with the answer.

“I see you’ve met these two.”

 “Yeah,” Virgil said.

Mr. Deknis smiled slightly. “Be careful with this one,” he said, pointing to Logan. “He’s a bad influence.”

Virgil frowned in confusion. “He’s the prince,” he pointed out.

“And a bad influence,” Mr. Deknis repeated. “He’s a beacon of irresponsibility and mischief and he corrupts that one,” he nodded to Patton.

“I am completely responsible,” Logan replied.

“Need I remind you of the cucumber incident.”

“I was 8,” Logan said.

“I know how old you were,” Mr. Deknis replied, “and you are hardly any older.”

“I resent that.”

Mr. Deknis just smiled and turned back to Virgil who was watching the interaction with pure curiosity.

 “I just picked a few more of those apples for Patton’s mom to make into apple sauce. Would you kids like some?”

Virgil glanced over at Logan and Patton.

“That would be nice, thank you,” Patton replied for them all, standing up. Seeing that, Virgil also climbed to his feet.

“It’s back this way,” Mr. Deknis said, inclining hid head back the way he’d came and then turning to lead them that way. Patton followed him. He glanced back to see Logan put his hand on Virgil’s shoulder and give him a gentle push to get him going. “So, what are you kids up to today?”

#proofread stories #not writing

[artificialqueens]

A Purr-fect Day (Branjie) - Athena2

Summary: Vanessa decides to adopt a cat, and finds herself instantly crushing on Brooke, the beautiful cat shelter volunteer. Featuring short cameo appearances from Rose/Denali and Raja/Manila. 

A/N: This is just pure fluff, and I really hope you all enjoy it! I also put in small cameos of Rose/Denali because I wanted to write them a little, and Rajila. Thank you so much to Writ for suggesting this idea, and for betaing! Please leave some feedback if you like. Sorry not sorry about the title.

Even with the fluffy cats running around and meowing, the blonde is still the first thing Vanessa notices.

She’s at the information desk, going over something in a notebook, pausing now and then to sip coffee and glance at the cats in their kennels—fluffy ones, big ones, little ones, striped ones, spotted ones—and Vanessa doesn’t know if the woman or the cats will make her heart explode first.

“Hi,” Vanessa says, approaching the desk.

The blonde’s green eyes widen and her teeth shine in a brilliant smile when she looks up to see Vanessa. “Hi, how can I help—no, Mr. Tibbles! We don’t attack our friends!” She runs over to an enormous gray cat who’s swinging paws at a frightened orange kitten. Vanessa can’t stop smiling as the blonde carefully scoops up the attacker and returns him to his side of the kennel, soothing the orange kitten with some gentle strokes before breathlessly running back to Vanessa.

“Sorry,” she says, fixing her hair. “We’re a little short staffed. It’s just me and Ida, and she’s on break.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Vanessa says, heart fluttering at how the blonde’s—Brooke, according to her slightly crooked name tag—cheeks are tinged bright pink.

“So, um, how can I help you?”

“I want to get a cat.”

Brooke nods. “Any kind in particular?”

“I was hoping I could just play with them and pick one,” Vanessa says sheepishly.

Brooke’s smile is huge. “Of course! That’s how I picked mine out.” She leads Vanessa around the corner, into a tiny room with even more kennels. There are so many kitties rolling around that Vanessa all but melts, dropping to the floor and opening her arms for the balls of fluff to run into.

Brooke grins, and then she’s on the floor too, gently petting a striped brown cat.

“Okay if I join you?” Brooke asks sheepishly. “I love playing with them.”

“Of course. They really like you,” Vanessa says, watching three cats fight for position on Brooke’s lap.

Brooke nods. “They’re used to me, that’s why. And I give them treats. Isn’t that right, Pepper?” She pets a chunky black cat and blushes. “Look, that one likes you, see?”

Vanessa looks down at a fluffy white cat that’s butting his head into her knee, letting out little mrrps.

“His name’s Thackery.”

“Thackery.” Vanessa tries it out, hand melting into his soft fur. He purrs beneath her, looking up at her in wonder, and Vanessa’s sold. “I’ll take him.”

She almost wishes it took her a little longer to find one, because now she’ll have to say goodbye to Brooke.

—-

Vanessa fixes her hair in the rear view mirror. It’s lame to be back at the shelter so soon, she knows that, and Brooke gave her paperwork on feeding and care instructions, but Vanessa has a question on Thackery, and who better to ask than Brooke? Sure, there’s Google, but every website gives her a different answer. Brooke is definitely a cat expert, and any opportunity to see her is one that should be taken.

There’s an older woman at the desk when Vanessa walks in, peering at her through pointy turquoise glasses that look into Vanessa’s soul. Vanessa wonders if Brooke isn’t here today when she turns and sees Brooke feeding all the cats, and breathes a sigh of relief.

“You need help, hon?” The scratchy voice comes from the counter, and Vanessa marches up to the woman, name tag reading Ida.

“Um, I just had a question for Brooke.”

“You her friend or something?”

“Kinda …” Vanessa sweats under Ida’s glare. Nothing like an old lady’s stink eye to steal her usual charm. “I mean, she helped me before, and we talked a little, and I wanted to talk to her about my cat.”

Ida nods. “BROOKE!!! Girl here has a question for you!! I’m goin’ on break!”

Vanessa checks her ringing ears while Brooke bounds over to the desk, and her face lights up when she recognizes Vanessa.

“Hi,” Brooke says.

“Hi. I’m Vanessa, by the way. I never told you last time. I mean, I know I signed my name on the paperwork but anyway–” She forces her lips shut to stop her rambling. “Just wanted to introduce myself.”

Brooke just grins. “I’m Brooke. Which you probably know because of my name tag. Um, Ida said you had a question?”

“Right!” Vanessa latches onto the thread that will save her from the awkwardness. “So, Thackery keeps sprawling out all over the place and rubbing his back on the rug? And I looked it up, and one site said he might have an itch, and another said he might be stretching, and I just wanted to make sure he’s okay.”

If Brooke thinks her coming here to ask a relatively simple, clearly Googe-able question is weird, she doesn’t show it. “Well, it could be either of those, and if you think it’s an itch, you might want to call the vet. But with most cats–mine too–stretching out like that means they’re happy and safe. That they trust you.”

“Oh,” Vanessa says softly. “So he–he really likes me then?” she asks, heart swelling at the thought of Thackery liking her.

“I would think so.” Brooke’s whole face turns fiery red as she adds, “It’s easy to see why.”

Now it’s Vanessa’s turn to blush, eyes flitting down to her feet. “I took this video of him the other day, you gotta see it. He got stuck in all the pillows, look–”

Brooke leans in close as they huddle together and watch the video, dissolving into laughs and squeals. Vanessa almost can’t breathe with Brooke this close to her, smelling faintly of strawberry shampoo, her eyes bright and shining. Vanessa scrolls through some more Thackery pictures on her phone, and Brooke shows Vanessa pictures of her two cats pouting in Santa hats, the whole thing coming to a stop when a couple comes in with their kid, wanting to look at the cats.

“Sorry, Vanessa,” Brooke says quietly. “Ida’s still on break.”

“Don’t worry about it. You do your job, get another kitty a nice home.”

Brooke smiles. “I will.”

“I’ll be back if I have more questions and stuff. If that’s okay,” Vanessa says, holding her breath.

“Absolutely.”

Brooke brings the couple over to the kennels, and Vanessa starts thinking of cat questions she might need answered.

—

Vanessa doesn’t even pretend to have a question in mind when she heads back to the shelter. It’s been almost two weeks, and though she doesn’t want to look desperate, every day is a day Brooke might forget her, even though Vanessa doesn’t think that’ll happen from the wide-eyed smile Brooke has for her all the time.

She can’t even think of a reasonable question anyway. Thackery has been great, really settling into Vanessa’s apartment like he owns the place. He eats all the food she carefully pours into his bowl, and he even figured out how to jump across the couch without getting stuck in the pillows, an act that means Vanessa has to vacuum cat hair off her couch a lot more often. But when he purrs when she holds him and falls asleep curled up at her feet in bed, it’s all worth it. She doesn’t know how Brooke manages to work at the shelter without bringing home every kitty she sees.

Things are quiet when she walks in. Ida is back at the front desk, filling out a crossword puzzle and cursing under her breath.

Vanessa walks closer. “Um, is–”

“You’re the girl who was looking for Brooke before,” Ida says plainly, sharp eyes peering out from her turquoise glasses.

Vanessa blushes. She’s definitely not as slick as she thought, if even Ida remembers her coming here to see Brooke. “Yeah. Is she here today?”

Ida nods. “She’s in the back. We have a litter of kittens ready to be adopted. Brooke’s been taking care of them.”

Vanessa rounds the corner and breathes out a soft aww when she sees Brooke on the floor, stroking five fluffy kittens, their fur swirls of browns and whites and oranges. She loves how much Brooke cares about the cats, how her affection comes through in her soft whispers and gentle pets. Her movements are so soft and delicate, so careful and caring, and Vanessa wonders what it would be like to have Brooke’s hands stroking her hair, rubbing her back.

“Five new kitties?” Vanessa asks quietly.

Brooke turns to her and grins. “Yeah. Come see.” She motions for Vanessa to sit at her side, and Vanessa does, getting down on the white tile. The kittens nuzzle against each other, tiny paws outstretched. “We posted about them online and there’s two couples interested. They’re coming by in a bit.”

“I love them!” Vanessa squeals. “Have you named them yet?”

“Not yet. There are five, though, so maybe we should name them after the Spice Girls.” Brooke blushes. “My friends and I did a group costume of them one year. Somehow they convinced me to be Sporty Spice.”

Vanessa squeals. “First of all, you have to name them that, it’s adorable. Second of all, there better be a picture of you in that costume!”

Brooke sighs. “There is.” She pulls out her phone and surrenders it to Vanessa, who actually gasps. There are four other people in the picture, but Vanessa only has eyes for Brooke: bright red sweatpants clinging to her hips, blue sports bra showing off her toned stomach and every curve and muscle in her arms, eyes shining in her cheesy smile.

“Damn.” Vanessa whistles, hoping Brooke can’t notice how hot Vanessa’s face is. “Look at y’all all organized and stuff. I tried a cowgirl group costume with my friends and A’keria misheard and showed up in a freaking cow costume.”

Brooke bursts into laughter at her side. “Is there a picture of that?”

Vanessa obliges, and then she and Brooke are in a comfortable silence, their shoulders touching as they watch the cats snuggle and pet their heads occasionally. Vanessa could stay like this all day, and she’s wondering if maybe she should ask Brooke out, get to know her somewhere without cats meowing, when a shout makes them both jump.

“BROOKE!!! The first couple for the cats is here!!! I’m goin’ on break!!”

The couple by the reception desk is a lesbian power couple if Vanessa’s ever seen one. There’s a tall woman with dark hair and bright blue necklace proclaiming her to be Raja, with a shorter woman with big black waves at her side. They’re both definitely in fashion or art or something—aside from their delicate hands that are built for sketching, Raja’s leather jacket is covered in hand-painted swirls and the other woman’s Hostess cupcake earrings are clearly handmade. They look like the cool aunts who’d let you have wine at the family gatherings, and Vanessa feels a surge of pride when Raja nods at approval at her jean jacket.

“Which one should we get, Manila?” Raja asks.

“We have to get Posh.”

“Of course,” Raja agrees.

“Do you think I could sew cat clothes? I could definitely sew cat clothes,” Manila answers her own question.

Raja grins. “We’re gonna have the best dressed cat in the city.”

“In the state, Raja. Maybe even the country.”

They’re barely out the door when the next couple walks in, and Vanessa does a double-take, because apparently it’s lesbian power couple day at the cat shelter. These two are a little shorter than the first two, but no less impressive. The one with brown hair glides across the tile floor and squeals when she sees the kitties, the blonde in the royal blue power suit behind her waving and cooing at all the other cats.

The brunette strokes one of the kittens. “I want to take all four!”

“Denali, honey, we really only have room for one,” the blonde says.

“Four.”

“One.”

“Four.”

“One.”

“Two?”

The blonde pauses. “Okay, two.” She smiles and grabs Denali’s hand. “We’ll get Sporty Spice for you, Miss Figure Skater, and then Ginger Spice for that time I tried to dye my hair pink and it came out red.”

“That was more like Scary Spice,” Denali mumbles.

“Denali!”

“It’s true, Rosie. But I love you anyway.”

Vanessa fades back as she watches the couple grab their cats and fill out the paperwork Brooke gives them. She springs back to Brooke’s side once they leave, and all she can think is what it would be like to be with Brooke in that way, to have stories and jokes between just them. As much as she wants to ask Brooke out, the moment is gone. Ida’s still on break, and Vanessa sticks around a little longer, passing Brooke the bags of food for the cats and watching her organize paperwork. Vanessa heads out, vowing that next time, she’ll make her move.

—-

Today’s the day. Vanessa’s red skirt is a little–definitely–too much for a cat shelter, but this is the day she’s really going to go for it. Even in just minutes at the shelter, Brooke makes Vanessa smile in a way no one has for a while. She wants to have time to be with Brooke, time to talk as long as they want without cats needing food or people asking questions.

Ida looks up expectantly when Vanessa walks in, a smile on her bright pink lips. “Brooke’s in the back,” she says, before Vanessa can even ask.

“Okay–”

“BROOKE!!!! Your friend is here!! I’m goin’ on break!!”

Ida shuffles off with her crossword puzzle book under her arm, and Brooke runs out breathlessly, grinning when she sees Vanessa. “Hey,” she says. “Everything okay with Thackery?”

“Will you go out with me?” Vanessa blurts, ignoring Brooke’s question before she loses her nerve.

Brooke’s cheeks are bright pink, but she’s still smiling, and Vanessa doesn’t think she’d be smiling if the answer was no.

“I–I’d love to go out with you, Vanessa. I finish up here at four, do you want to get coffee or something?”

Vanessa’s smile is so huge she can hardly get the words out. “That’d be great, Brooke.”

“About damn time!” Ida’s voice soars through the break room wall. “I thought I’d be on break forever waiting for you two to get together already!”

#rpdr fanfiction #brooke lynn hytes #vanessa vanjie mateo #branjie #rosé #denali foxx #raja gemini #manila luzon #rajila #rosnali #lesbian au #cat shelter au #fluff #athena2 #concrit welcome #submission

[ryqoshay]

Happy Life: Cat Café

Primary Pairing: YohaRiko Words: ~2.7k Rating: G AU: Angelic? Time Frame: Early February of Riko’s 2nd year and Yoshiko’s 1st year of high school Story Arc: Stand Alone

----------

Author’s Note: 2020 was a bit of a blur for me, so I’m not sure why I decided to start writing this scene well after Valentine’s and after I had already posted a YohaRiko Vday scene earlier in the year. And yet, despite confirming on Sukutomo that the cards that inspired this scene were released in 2020, it feels like I’ve been writing this since 2019. Probably doesn’t help that 2019 was also a blur for me as well...

----------

“Welcome, Aqours!” The café owner greeted with arms open wide.

“Thank you for having us.” Dia replied with a bow.

“Th-Thank you…” Ruby also bowed next to her sister.

“Please take care of us.” You followed suit.

Chika, Kanan and Riko were about to offer greetings of their own when they were interrupted.

“Mirai, zura!” Hanamaru marveled, eyes wide as she took in the scene before her.

“<Shiny!>” Mari exclaimed, grabbing a themed cat toy with a sparkling pink heart near the end. Immediately, she began dangling it in front of a cat on a nearby platform.

“Ku ku ku” Yoshiko chuckled. “The fallen angel Yohane needs not such trinkets to attract a new familiar!” She pointed to a cat with leopard spots. “Tepēyōllōtl! Yohane summons thee to her side!”

For its part, the cat continued on its way past the group with nary a glance toward the blue-haired first-year.

“Cait Sidhe!” She tried again with a white bellied black cat. “Thou shall make a fine familiar for Yohane!”

To her credit, at least this time, the feline in question turned its head at the call but made no move to approach.

“Tepe-whatsit?” Hanamaru inquired. “Kite Shee? What kind of strange names are you trying to give them?”

“No stranger than Laelaps…” Riko murmured under her breath.

“Sorry for that.” Dia apologized to the owner.

“Don’t worry about it.” The owner chuckled at the continuing antics. “Many of the cats here actually don’t have names yet.” She explained. “If you girls can get them to respond to some you might come up with, we will certainly consider them.”

Several of the gathered school idols gave their affirmations.

“So, if you’ll follow me” the owner continued “we’ve set up a changing area in one of our private rooms. The photography company has already placed your outfits in each section.”

And yet another Valentine’s Day theme. Riko thought to herself as she followed her fellow second years to the mentioned room. There, she found her area as designated by a small handwritten sign. She pushed back the sheet to enter and found a pair of costumes.

So we’re doing idolized versions as well this time. She continued to muse to herself as she changed into the one that seemed more appropriate of a normal café employee, the one not decked out with lace and ribbons and extra accessories. Despite this not being for the idol magazine…

In fact, though they were utilizing the same publishing company to take the pictures and assist with costuming, this photoshoot was instead being sponsored by the café itself. The pictures were to be used for advertising and celebrating their grand opening. So, in that light, perhaps it wasn’t just another Valentine’s set. And the outfits were quite cute.

“Alright,” The head photographer said as the girls began to exit their changing booths “if I could have Kunikida-san, Kurosawa-san and Tsushima-san follow me to the kitchen.”

“You mean me, right?” Ruby asked, pointing to herself.

The woman checked her list. “Ah yes, that’s right, sorry for not being clear.”

“The kitchen?” Yoshiko inquired. “Are we not taking pictures with the kitties?” There was no mistaking the disappointment in her voice.

“We want to get a few pictures of everyone performing duties of the café as well.” The photographer explained.

“Yoshiko-chan just wants to play with the cats.” Hanamaru teased.

“Of course!” Yoshiko rebuked as she reluctantly followed the others. “They’re all so adorable and deserve all of the attention and affection we can give them. And I intend to do my fair share.”

“Probably more than your fair share.”

Whatever Yoshiko said in reply was cut off by the door closing behind the group heading to the kitchen.

Riko felt a small smile turn her lips as she realized that the younger girl cared far more about the animals than the photoshoot. Not that this came as any surprise to her, based on the behavior she had observed with Anko, but she couldn’t deny that she saw an endearing quality to it all.

----------

The grey cat sniffed the collar in Riko’s hand once before stepping closer. Gently, Riko slid the faux leather band around the cat’s neck and secured it. She then leaned back to admire the accessory and decided she’d made the right choice. Pink worked well with grey.

Riko smiled as the cat climbed up into her lap then giggled as she continued to climb and stretch up to lick her cheek.

“Perfect.” The photographer spoke up. “I think that might be the shot.” Though saying as much, he continued to snap more pictures in case an even better one presented itself.

Suddenly the cat’s ears perked up and her head snapped around to the side. Riko followed her gaze and after a moment was barely able to pick up a tiny, plaintive mewl.

“Sorry, sorry, Bastet!” Yoshiko’s voice followed. “I didn’t mean to sca-kyaa!”

Riko flinched as a thump sounded and the whole structure of a nearby tower bumped up, disturbing the half dozen cats perched upon it. Due to the commotion caused by the younger girl, Riko barely noticed that the grey cat had leaped out of her lap and made a beeline for where Yoshiko was now backing out from under the structure.

“I’ll leave this here for you for when you decide to come out, alright?” Yoshiko said gently before pulling herself out completely. “Hear that, Kankyo, Nunogire?” She directed her attention to the two cats who had not fled the tower. “That treat is for Bastet. But you can have… oh, hey there.” Her gaze shifted once again, this time to the grey cat who had arrived at her side and seemed to be staring daggers at her.

“Seems you met the shiest of our new arrivals.” A nearby staff member commented. “And earned the ire of another.”

“Who, her?” Yoshiko questioned as she let the grey cat sniff her finger before petting her. “Seems Anhur is just a little protective of the little baby, nothing to wrong with that.”

Anhur? Riko’s knowledge of the Egyptian pantheon was not the greatest, but she was fairly certain Anhur was the brother of Bastet, not her sister.

“They’re both quite protective of her.”

“Both?” Yoshiko asked.

The young woman glanced around for a moment before saying, “Oh, here he comes.” Sure enough, a golden chinchilla cat came trotting around the corner. “We took all three in at the same time and they bonded almost immediately.”

“Such a good big brother, Horus.” Yoshiko grinned as she reached over to introduce herself to the newly arrived cat. “Sorry I scared your little Bastet, I was actually just trying to follow Kankyo.”

“You’re still trying to give them names?” Riko inquired, moving over to the grey cat she had been working with earlier.

“They’re all too cute to not have equally cute names to refer to them with.” Yoshiko replied in a tone similar to the one Riko remembered her using when fawning over Nocturne. “Isn’t that right, Anhur?” She scratched under the grey cat’s chin before giggling as the golden cat refused to be left out and began petting himself on her free hand.

Did naming cats after Egyptian gods count as cute? Well, Bastet made sense as she was feline in nature, but the others…

“Cute collar, by the way.” Yoshiko commented, offering a treat to the grey cat… Anhur, apparently.

“I thought it would look good on her.”

“You have good taste.”

Riko was about to thank the other girl for the praise when she noticed something. “Say, those don’t look like the treats we were given, where did you get them?”

“Oh…” Yoshiko chuckled a bit abashedly. “Yeah, I ran out a while ago, and even went through a second bag they gave me… so I bought more.”

“You’re on your third bag already?”

“I can’t help it!” Yoshiko admitted. “They’re all such good kitties! And even Tepe and Sidhe wouldn’t ignore me when there were tasty treats to be had. And head pats, of course. And lots of scratchies and belly rubs.” She seemed rather proud of the last part.

Riko smiled. The younger girl certainly was enjoying herself. And was displaying a rather rare side of her personality; her grandiose entrance and continued use of strange names notwithstanding, Yoshiko seemed to have all but forgotten her fallen angel persona. She hadn’t even used her strange nickname for Riko, despite Riko deciding to allow it just the other day, for the time being, at least. Yoshiko may have still used Hanamaru’s nickname though, at some point.

“Well, if you run through that bag, I’ll let you use some of mine.” Riko offered after a moment.

“Thanks, but those are yours.” Yoshiko shook her head. “Far be it for me to deprive you of your own bonding experience with these adorable purr boxes.”

“You seem to be bonding quite well with them.”

“The treats help.”

I believe it’s more than just the food. Riko thought to herself as the other girl turned to offer a few niblets to another cat.

Riko looked up to see some of the other girls heading back to the changing room. “I think it’s time for the second round.” She said to Yoshiko.

“Alright,” Yoshiko nodded as she inspected her stash of treats. “I’ll join you guys in a minute.” She upended the bag into her palm and started distributing the remaining pieces among the cats gathered around her.

----------

“We should probably get a few shots of your iconic poses.” The photographer said. “Your fans always comment on them when we put them to print.”

“Very well.” Yoshiko nodded. “If that is what my little demons demand, Yohane shall accommodate.”

Riko glanced over from where she was posing for her own shots. Was that the first time Yoshiko had mentioned her fallen angel name since the group had arrived? And she hadn’t even dropped her voice to do so? Strange.

“Good, that will… oh?” Despite expressing her surprise, the woman’s fingers did not stop pressing the shutter button and continued to capture the scene in front of her.

“Eh?” Yoshiko glanced down. “Bastet?”

So that was the kitten Yoshiko had been so intent on befriending earlier. Riko watched with amusement as the small cat jumped and batted at the large ribbon streaming from the back of Yoshiko’s outfit. Of course Yoshiko would pursue a black cat.

“I think that’s the best one yet.” The photographer commented, checking the screen on her device. “I’ll let you two be.” She added before turning away.

Yoshiko laughed merrily and pulled at the ribbon to move it more for the cat playing with it. “But of course!” She replied, not seeming to notice the photographer was already leaving. “Any shot with a kitty as cute as Bastet in it is going to be the best.” She knelt to pet the cat who rolled onto her back to paw at the hand rubbing her belly.

“I must say, I’m impressed.” A staff member said as he paused to watch. “I’ve never seen that one out of hiding, especially without the other two nearby.”

“She just wanted to play.” Yoshiko barely looked up at the young man. “Although, you’re right.” She glanced around for a moment. “Ne, Bastet, shall we go find Anhur and Horus?”

As if understanding the question, Bastet jumped up towards her. Yoshiko didn’t appear to have been ready, but managed to catch the cat anyway, throwing herself off balance in the process. She quickly righted herself and laughed while cradling the kitten in her arms.

“Sakurauchi-san, if you could pose something like this?” The young woman working with Riko held her arms up with hands mimicking cat paws.

“Eh?” Riko turned her attention back to her own photo session. “Sorry, urhm…” that pose is kind of embarrassing… “will this do?”

“Perfect.”

----------

“Oh, is that the time?” You asked, looking at her phone. “Geez, I really need to head out.”

“I’ll go with you, You-chan.” Chika said. “You coming too, Riko-chan?”

“Uhm, one moment.” The redhead surveyed those around her. “Do we have everyone?”

The photoshoot had come to an end and the crew had already packed up and left. The girls had changed back into their street clothes before accepting an invitation to stay for a light snack provided by the café. But now things were winding down and everyone was looking to head home for dinner or to study or whatever other plans they had for the evening.

“We’re missing Yoshiko-chan.” Ruby pointed out.

“I don’t think she left our table.” Hanamaru chimed in.

Sure enough, as Riko scanned the area they had left a few minutes ago, there remained a blue-haired girl still lounging on the booth bench. Riko sighed and made her way back.

“We’re all heading out, Yoshiko-chan.” She said as she approached.

“This place is surely heaven on earth.” Yoshiko sighed contently as she closed her eyes and leaned back.

Wait for it… … What? That was it? Nothing about angels or demons or…?

Yoshiko’s smile grew as Bastet wrapped her front paws around her arm and nuzzled into the crook of her elbow. Anhur, Horus, Sidhe, Tepe, Kankyo, Nunogire and several others Riko couldn’t remember, but likely had received strange names, surrounded Yoshiko; on her lap, at her side and even across the top of the bench behind her head. Their combined purring could be heard from halfway across the room.

“I think this place broke Yoshiko-chan…” Hanamaru mused as she caught up.

Or fixed her, Riko thought to herself, this is the most at ease I’ve ever seen her. And she looks pretty cute sitting there, surrounded by cats and apparently about to fall asleep. She may very well have found her heaven here on Earth.

“I think…” Riko started “I might stay for a little while longer as well.”

“You sure?” Chika asked. “We could just wake her up.”

Riko shook her head. “I think we should let her rest. She had a busy afternoon.”

“Yoshiko-chan did have the most fun today, I think.” Ruby pointed out.

“Anyway,” Riko continued “I don’t want her to wake up and think we all abandoned her. And I don’t have anything in particular planned tonight anyway.”

“Oh, alright.” Chika shrugged. “You-chan, wait up!” She scurried away to chase the departing ash-haired girl.

As the rest of the girls said their goodbyes, Riko took a seat on the bench next to Yoshiko. Or, at least as next to her as allowed by the gathered cats.

“Care to order anything while you wait for your friend to wake up?” A menu entered Riko’s field of vision. “You girls worked hard today, so feel free to pick out whatever you want.”

Riko looked up to see the smiling face of the café owner. “Thank you, but you already gave us a snack a little while ago.”

“True, but I have a feeling you two might be here a little while.” The woman nodded her chin towards Yoshiko.

“Right, uhm… do you mind if I get something for Yoshiko-chan as well?”

“Of course, if you see something she might like.”

Riko scanned the menu, easily settling on a sandwich that looked good. And something for… her eyes found chocolate covered strawberries. Perfect. She placed her order.

“Just a dessert for her?” The owner inquired.

“She can have half of my sandwich if she wants, in exchange for some of her strawberries.”

“Very well, we’ll bring that right out.”

“Thank you.”

Riko smiled as she glanced over at the sleeping girl beside her, surrounded by a purring mass of fur. There was no denying this side of Yoshiko was incredibly adorable.

Riko pulled her tablet out of her bag, set it up on the table and continued her work on the new song on which she and Chika were working. A few minutes later, a server came by to drop off the food she had ordered. Riko swapped half of each item onto the other plate and slid one closer to Yoshiko’s side.

Though the official holiday was still a little ways off, Riko couldn’t help saying, “Happy Valentine’s Day, Yoshiko-chan.” before returning to her work.

----------

Author’s Note Continued in Followup Post

#YohaRiko #YoshiRiko #Sakurauchi Riko #Tsushima Yohane #Love Live Sunshine #Happy Life #fanfic #Tsushima Yoshiko #Happy Valentine's Day!

[aspiestvmusings]

WandaVision: details matter

The little details & clues that have been scattered throughout the series that mean... a lot: 

SPOILERS...til ep 8

"Previously on WandaVision" - with each episode Wanda's voice gets more tired & weaker as she says this line at the strat of each new episode of her TV sitcom. (is it cause Agatha is feeling on her magic/powers...draining her of energy? Is it cause she's becoming more aware of the reality?)

"Home is where you make it" - town slogan on the WV sign. THis is essentially what Wanda did...literally. She made a home & life

HEART: The heart on the calendar [Wednesday, August 23rd] in ep 1 & The heart on the calendar [Friday, the 10th] in the sitcom opening credits of 1x07 & The heart drawn aboive the building..in the ep 1x02 sitcom openign credits animation = the heart is a reference to the heart drawn on the propery deed. And the abbreviation is for Vision's name being abbreviated next to the message.

Wanda = red, Monica = blue, Agatha = purple, Vision = yellow. So what's missing is green & orange. What are the kids colours: Billy's & Tommy's? And what is Fietro's colour? And... what is White Vision's colour...white or blue or...? And will Dr. Strange (green timestone, but orange power colour) get there for the battle? But, also, Dottie's roses are yellow... #allthecoloursoftherainbow #thewholespectrumofcoours

Their magician (stage) names in epsiode 1x02 reveals Hex Visions state - he, like his stage name suggests, is kind of an Illusion.

I suspect that Vision will once again sacrifice himself...for others. Cause both Vision & Wanda seem to know/suspect he cannot exist outside hex/he's (still) dead. I mean...Vision's look says "I know why", when Darcy says she doesnt know why he can't exist/go outside the hex. To their knowledge he cannot survive/exist outside this hex....in this form.

During her pregnancy Wanda is seen eating different fruits: orange (getting the nursery reaady scene), pineapple (braxton hicks contractions scene)... & Dr. Nielsen was comparing the growth of the fetus to the size of different fruits....

Wanda = magic & Vision = science. To sides of the same thing/coin. As Thor put it: "Your ancestors called it magic, but you call it science. I come from a land where they are one and the same." And in Dr. Strange it's also mentioned how science & magic both exist in the universe. He was born a "robot", she was born a witch. They are connected by the MindStone..which is part of both of them.

Auntie A's kitty litter - an add on the supermarket wall in the ep 1x02 opening scredits = seem to refer to nosey neighbout Agnes & her "kitty litter".

I was pretty certain it was Agnes who was trying to keep Vision away in ep 7, creating all those roadblocks and distractions. Divide & concour. Cause since he's a robot she doesn't seem to be able to really control him. Neither does Wanda. So...perhaps it was neither Wanda, nor Agatha...

The cereal box design tells Vision & Darcy's journey in  episode 7. It's a maze, with a "goal" at the center, and circus elephant in the outside. They start at the barrier or the hex, and need to reach the center (where Wanda & Agnes and that basement are).

The book in Agatha’s basement could be one of several important books from the comics or MCU. But when hexagons are involved, and with the kowledge that "Wanda" will appear in the new Dr. Strange film, then while I do not know what book it is, it's most likely the one missing from the wall of books inside hexagons in Dr. Strange.

The secret project Hayward was working on, named "Cataract" is so obviously related to Vision (go look up what the "disease" cataract means regardin eyes & vision: it can cause doible vision & it "clouds" your vision)

The banging noises that wake up/scare Wanda & Vision at the start of episode 1x02 and that they mistake for wind/tree branches are, most likely, the drones that SWORD is sending into the hex & that keep disappearing. But.. it's also a callback to the time when she was watching the sitcom episode the scene is based on...on TV as a kid, when the missile hit...

What is going on with Agathas rabbit, Senor Scratchy? This is not your ordinary bunny. It purrs, it eats meat... It could be a someone trapped in an animals body, but perhaps it's not the secret villain. I'm gonna put my bet on that rabbit actually being a "cat", but not really a cat at all. My guess is that thats a Flerken! (Either Goose, or some other one from their species). Based on the name it could be Goose, because it scratched Furys face! No idea how that would fit the general storyline (how & why would Agatha have that creature, etc), but this is my final bet.

It was obvious that Agnes was not under Wanda's spell in ep 6 when Vision found her sitting in the car close to the hex barrier. Everyone else was almost frozen, but she could interact with him, move, drive away. Just another trick to make Vision want to explore what's outside of hex (leave the hex)...so Wanda would use her magic more (and Agatha could feed on it). I wondered why he didn't pick up on the trick...

Monica's contact might not be as random as it seems. The lady who she meets up with is probably the skrull girl/daughter she bonded with as a child, during "Captain Marvel"

According to Monica the person who controlled her mind was a woman, and she claims (she thinks) she heard Wanda's voice telling her what to do/controlling her. She says the person contolling her mind seemed to be sad, morning... We know this all fits Wanda. But what if it also fits someone else, Agnes? And Monica's description of the feelings matches Wanda's description...exactly: its grief, drowning her...

Agnes lets Wanda know that she/you can't control children. Wanda doesn't seem to know this in the beginning (as she's trying to make them stop crying). But it seems she also cannot control Vision, because he is evolving & he is his own character, not her puppet. In ep 6 she is surprised that he goes off script (that's not what you're supposed to...) & in ep 7 she tells the kids that if he doesn't want to be there (at home, in the hex) she can't do anything about it. That's after she has told him in ep 5 "Can't I?" when Vision tells her that "You can't control me like the others."

Every time Wanda's made aware of another aspect she follows the "new script". She is writing the script based on what she has learned, what's in her subconsious. She is writing the scripts based on her memories - references to her past & to what the people of WV say...she builds the story around these details, but changes the settings...

Could SWORD losing the signal in ep 7 have to do with the world going from analog to digital at about the time period he WandaVision show had reached by then? (around 2009) Maybe they just didnt figure that out? Or maybe Wanda or Agnes cut the signal to outside world...for some reason.

The commercial, to me, seem most about Wanda's trauma. Sure, they seem to also kind of represent the infinity stones, and their colous (toaster = yellow/mind, watch = green/time, soap = blue/space, towels = red/aether=reality...), but it's mostly just her life story. The toaster is the blinking Stark missile that she & her brother waited to explode for 2 days when they were 10. The watch is the experiments done to her & her twin. The paper towels are about the unintentional mess she created in Lagos with her powers... But the commercials seem to shift  from the past towards the current situation in hex & the future later on: the shark & the yoghurt (Agnes 6 Wanda), the nexus pills (her being a nexus being)... And, interestinly the turn comes with the Hydra soak, which refers to the Mind Stone experiments, which revealed the goddess within her...the vision she saw..of her future self.

Vision is often seen reading/holding a newspaper in the sitcom episodes. In episode 1 the front page news title says "Little baby June's first word tickles mother Sue." IN episode 5 the top of the front page reads "More dramatic details about the lights in the sky" (is this referring to the SWORD headquarters lights?)

The first thing in the room that glitches after Wanda sits down to eat & watch TV in ep 7, is the plant that gnes gave them as a house-warming gift in ep 1. You can still see the ribbon on it. It goes from the small plant into a "tall tree"...

...just a few...of the many... 

#WandaVision #SPOILER #WandaVision spoilers #WandaVision spoiler #WandaVisionSpoilers #Wanda #Vision #The Vision #Wanda Maximoff #Wanda Vision #Wanda x Vision #MCU

[azaraspirit]

Transfusion-Chapter 2

here it is!!! chapter 2 for Transfusion! I really like how its coming along and i hope you do to!

Chapter One

warnings: car accident, mention of blood

summary: You get hit by a car and Peter does everything in his power to make it up to you for he blames himself 

word count: 2985

tagging: @angelic-holland @angelhaz11 @hoforhaz @blissfulparker @foreverstuckwritingandimagining @heyhihellowhatsup0 @hypnotized-so-mesmerized @starksparker @madmadmilk

By the end of the day you and Peter have become inseparable. It amazed you how quickly you two have bonded. You reminded yourself that you didn’t have a true reason to hate him in the first place other than your own jealousy. But once you put that aside, Peter was actually a good kid and a better friend.

You two were lost in a video game in the living room, having no idea that Nat was watching from nearby.

Nat smirked at the sight, seeing you two playfully shove each other trying to mess the other up.

“No!” Peter cried out when he died. “God damn it y/n! That doesn’t count! You cheated!”

You giggled and laughed. “You never said we couldn’t play dirty.” you shrugged.

Peter glared over at you. “You suck.”

“Aww is Peter a sore loser?” you teased.

“So they seem to get along.” Tony said, approaching Nat.

She looked over at him, smiling. “Yeah. I knew they would.”

“You worried?” Tony asked.

“Not in the slightest.” Nat replied. “If anything I hope they end up together.”

Tony raised a brow. “Oh?”

She nodded. “I know she doesn’t have many friends but if they become something more…” She shrugged, smiling.

Tony just rolled his eyes.

You and Peter lost track of time, getting obsessed over trying to beat the other in the video game. Your stomach was growling loud enough for Peter to hear.

“Hungry?” he chuckled.

“How long were we playing for?”

“No idea..but it was daylight when we started.”

You looked outside to see it was pitch black, only the bright moon lit up the room.

“Wanna grab a bite to eat?” he asked.

You blinked at him, blushing, glad in that moment it was too dark for him to see. “You mean like...outside?”

“Yeah. There’s a great sandwich place I know of nearby.”

“Should we be out this late?”

Peter scoffed. “Please, I’m Spider-Man. We’ll be fine.”

You rolled your eyes. “Okay, Spider-Man, what place did you have in mind?”

“Delmar’s.” he said simply with a shrug.

“Alright, fine.”

You went along with Peter though inside, you felt guilt eating away at you. You never snuck out before but then again you never had a friend before. Surely your mother wouldn’t be too upset as long as you two came back in a timely manner and that no one got hurt.

“So! What does it feel like to be out of the tower, Rapunzel?” Peter grinned as he walked backwards ahead of you.

Your eyes narrowed at the nickname. “That’s not a very accurate nickname ya know.”

Peter chuckled. “I like it anyways. Besides you have pretty long hair and you wear it in a braid.”

You rolled your eyes. “Kinda creepy out here.” you admitted, looking around.

“Don’t worry, y/n, we’ll be fine. C’mon. Delmar’s is just a couple blocks away.” He took your hand and pulled you in a faster pace. You played along, almost skipping behind him, laughing. Yeah it was late but you put that thought aside and decided to have some fun. Like they say, better to regret than not to do anything at all, right?

You looked all around the city before you. It was dark but also full of light? Once you got used to it, wasn’t that scary and you felt more at ease with Peter’s hand in yours. It was a little chilly but you didn’t care as you enjoyed the cool air on your skin.

“You’re taking us to a gas station?” you asked dully, seeing the Delmar sign across the street.

“Don’t judge. It’s so good. C’mon!” You both ran across the street, not waiting for the light considering it was dead, not a single moving car in sight.

“Hey, Peter!” an older greeted from behind the counter.

“Mr. Delmar!” Peter beamed. “This is my new friend y/n!”

The man seemed rather friendly but you had your guard up. He was a complete stranger. “Hello.” you greeted with a little wave.

Wow that was cute, Peter thought to himself, smiling.

“Why you here so late, Pete? Isn’t it a school night?”

Peter shrugged. “We were getting hungry and I thought y/n and I could have the best sandwiches in Queens.”

The man muttered something in Spanish, rolling his eyes. Peter spoke back in Spanish also which caught you off guard. You had no idea he could speak another language.

“Trying to sweet talk me, eh Parker?” he grinned. “What will it be?”

Peter looked up at the menu when you noticed something warm brush against your leg. You looked down to see a furry cat rubbing itself on you. “Aw, hello.” You bent down, never really getting to pet one before. “So soft.” you giggled.

“Hey, Murph likes you.” Peter chuckled, petting it as well. The kitty purred into his hand and went back to you. He perched on your knees, making you sit down on the floor.

Peter ordered for you both, you not really caring about food anymore as you got lost in the soft fur of the cat. Murph rubbed his face against your cheek, making you giggle.

“Looks like you have some competition there, eh Parker?” Mr. Delmart teased as he handed him your sandwiches.

“Funny, Mr. Delmart, real funny.” Peter replied as he handed him the money.

“Must be a good person.” Mr. Delmar spoke up so you could hear, giving Peter his change.

You looked up. “Huh?”

“Murph doesn’t like many people but those he does have a good heart. Like Parker here.”

Peter shrugged. He handed you your sandwich. “Try it. It’s good.”

You got up, gently setting Murph back down to take your food. You pulled the wrapper back, inspecting it before taking a bit. Your eyes widened as you hummed. “Damn, that’s good.”

“Told you!” Peter chuckled.

You and Peter stayed at the shop to eat the rest of your sandwiches, Murph still at your feet, meowing for attention. When you finished, you picked him back up, the kitty purring.

“You better come back now ya here?” Mr. Delmar asked you.

“I will, promise.” you smiled, kissing Murph on his head.

“It’s getting late, we should get back.” Peter said. “We’ll be back again soon, Murph okay?” He gave Murph a good head scratch.

“Bye, Murph, I’ll be back soon!” you told him.

The cat meowed sadly from the counter where you put him as you and Peter left, saying goodbye to Mr. Delmar.

“That was so good.” you said, happy that your stomach is full.

“Told you. Who knew Murph would like you so much.” Peter said.

“Guess I’m a good person, right?” you smirked.

“Right.” Peter nodded. “Let’s get going before anyone notices we’re going.”

“Hey, I noticed you didn’t give him my last name.” you said.

“Oh, well he doesn’t know I’m Spider-Man so if he knew you were a Banner, he might figure it out.”

“Oh, okay yeah that makes sense.” It never occured to you having to keep your identity a secret. The world knew about the Avengers but you, not so much.

“Just gotta keep your last name on the down low.” Peter explained.

“Banner is a common one though isn’t?” you smirked.

“I’m serious. I don’t think your parents want the world to find out about you.”

“Oh, Peter being serious. Watch out, everyone.” you mocked.

“Funny.” Peter laughed.

“I haven’t known you for very long, Pete, but if there’s anything I do know, is that you don’t have a serious bone in your body.”

“Nuh-uh, take that back.” Peter pouted.

You paused, about to look both ways but thought why bother because there weren’t any cars around. You walked into the street, your hands in your hoodie’s pocket.

“Take it back, y/n. I can be serious.” Peter demanded.

You stopped walking half way in the crosswalk, turning to face Peter. “Okay, I’m sorry. You can be serious. Sometimes.”

“Thank you.” Peter said.

His eyes widened, his hairs standing up on end. His spidey senses were going crazy but he couldn’t see any threat. “Y/n maybe we should-Y/n look out!”

A speeding car came out of nowhere. Peter heard the squealing tires before you did. You were in the middle of the street, completely vulnerable. Peter was too stunned to do anything. He was caught off guard. All he could do was watch in fear from the side lines as the speeding car swerved right into you.

It happened so fast. You didn’t even scream. One moment you were looking at Peter, the next getting a face full metal as the car slammed into your waist, your head slamming on the hood. Your body flung back, your head slamming on the concrete. Your ears were ringing, vaguely hearing tires squealing and Peter screaming your name. His frantic voice sounded so far away. That was the last thing you heard before your blacked out.

***

You gasped awake, the memories coming back like a tidal wave. The urge to throw up became too much to bear. You leaned over, puking in a trashcan.

“Y/n! Take it easy!”

You looked up to see Peter, his hoodie stained with ketchup. No wait. Not ketchup. Blood. Your blood.

“P-Pete?” you asked, feeling groggy.

“Yeah, y/n, it’s me. Lay back down, please. You’ll bleed again if you move too much.” He gently laid you back on what you realized was a hospital bed. Your eyes looked around, recognizing the medical bay of the tower. He handed you some kleenex to wipe your mouth clean and a glass of water which you took graciously. You didn’t even realize you were thirsty till he hovered it, the scratchy dryness of your throat becoming unbearable.

“Again? W-what happened?”

“The-the other night...when we went to Delmar’s…you remember that don’t you?”

You nodded. “But the rest is fuzzy…” You tried to remember what happened after you left the shop together but it hurt to think about. Kinda reminded you of white noise.

“A car...it was speeding and it hit you…”

“A car?”

He nodded, sniffing. “Yeah. You lost a lot of blood…”

You focused on the stains of his hoodie. “So...that’s not ketchup.” you decided.

Peter chuckled, wiping his nose. “N-no. It’s not ketchup.”

“Am...I...okay?” You have never been in an accident before so the state of your wellbeing was a mystery.

“Not sure...your dad has to run some tests but...you lost a lot of blood…”

You sighed. “Guess I’m stuck here then…”

“I’m sorry.” Peter apologized. “This is all my fault.”

“Peter, it’s not your fault. It was an accident.”

“No, we snuck out. It was my idea. If I haven’t brought you to Delmar’s…” His head fell as he leaned on your bed.

“Peter…”

“Speaking of which...you’re grounded.” Your father’s voice spoke up as he came in wearing a lab coat, holding a clipboard and pen, a stethoscope around his neck.

“G-grounded?” you asked.

“For a week. Your mother’s orders. Sorry, honey.”

Your head fell back, rolling your eyes. “Great.”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Banner, it’s all my fault.” Peter apologized again.

“Peter, it’s fine. She’s alive, that’s all that matters.”

Uh-oh. You thought. It was anything but fine. You knew your father better than almost anyone. He was angry with Peter. Course. Why wouldn’t he? .

“Am I gonna be okay, Daddy?” you asked, a little more innocent than you normally would have.

Bruce caught on and smirked. “Think you’ll be fine, sweetheart. Just need to take it easy. You lost over a pint of blood so you will need a blood transfusion but other than that, you’ll be okay.” He gently squeezed your forearm. “I promise.”

You smiled at your father, believing his words.

“Don’t think I didn’t notice the Daddy card.” Bruce smirked.

You just giggled, feeling like a little girl again.

“I’ll just leave you two alone.” Peter said, feeling awkward.

“Don’t go too far though okay?” you asked.

“I won’t.” Peter promised.

You watched Peter leave you and your father be.

“I don’t want you angry at him, Dad.” you said, knowing very well he was.

“Too late.” he said as he went on with checking your vitals.

“Dad, please. It wasn’t his fault, it was an accident.”

“Y/n you’re my daughter, how am I supposed to feel?”

You sighed, not really having an answer.

“How’s Mom?” you asked.

“A little distraught but she’s okay. She said you were grounded not me. So what does that tell you?”

“You think she’ll murder Peter?” you asked, truly concerned.

Bruce shook his head. “No, but that doesn’t mean she may not kick his ass later.”

“I’m sorry, Daddy...I didn’t wanna go out but...Peter asked and...well I never had a friend before…I couldn’t say no.”

“It’s okay, sweetheart.” He gently cupped your cheek, and your eyes closed, feeling the warmth of his skin.

“I’ll try to get you ungrounded okay? Not like you could go anywhere right now anyways.” He shrugged.

You chuckled at that. “You said I might need a blood transfusion?”

Bruce nodded. “We have to find a match though it won’t be easy. You have a rare blood type.”

“I do?”

“I have everyone’s on file and no one matches so...we’ll see.”

“What about Peter?”

Your father froze, thinking. “Maybe...he’s new so I don’t have him on file yet...I’ll do a blood test okay, sweetheart? Don’t worry.” He got up from his stool to peck your forehead, the top part of your head wrapped in gauze.

You felt helpless, wanting to go after your father but you were forced to stay in bed as he left.

“Peter, wait.” Bruce called.

Peter stopped, turning to face him. “You’re gonna Hulk Smash me are you?”

Bruce chuckled. “Uh, no. I’m not angry at you. But I think there’s a way you can help.”

“I’ll do anything.” Peter said, his eyes lit up with hope.

“Y/n needs a blood transfusion but no one here has the same time...but there’s a chance you might…”

Peter nodded. “How soon can we start?”

Bruce smiled.

***

Bruce thought it’d be best to test Peter’s blood separately from you in case it didn’t work out. The last thing he wanted to do was to get your hopes up and crush them.

“Let’s do a blood test in my lab,” Bruce said.

Peter looked back at the medbay where you were cooped up. “Shouldn’t we tell y/n?”

“I thought so too but I think it’s best if we wait till the results.”

Peter sighed. “Yeah. Guess you’re right.”

***

Natasha was too angry at you earlier when she heard the news. But now her heart was filled with guilt for grounding you over something you had no control over. She listened to her motherly instincts and made some hot food for you as she went up to visit you. At the corner of her eye, she saw Bruce and Peter disappear down the hall.

“Hey, honey, you okay?” Your mother stopped by with some soup. “Thought you’d be hungry.”

“Thanks, Mom. And I’m okay...sore..but...okay.”

“Where’s your father?” she asked, looking around.

“I don’t know...probably burying Peter’s body.” you joked.

Nat rolled her eyes. “Think I saw them heading towards his lab. Who knows what they’re up to.”

“Dad told me that you grounded me…” you grumbled.

Your mother sighed. “When he told me what happened...yeah. I was angry but...I take it back.”

You stared at your mother. She was the most stubborn out the three of you so it shocked you to see her like this.

“I realized that...it wasn’t your fault. Even though you did sneak out.” Your mother gave you a scolding look but when she saw the guilt on your face, hers softened.

“I’m sorry, Mom…” you apologized.

“It’s okay, Honey.” Nat gently sat next to you, holding your hand. “You’re alive and you have all your fingers and toes.” She pecked your forehead as you laughed but you winced, worrying her.

“Sorry, just hurt a little.” you explained.

“Mind if we come in?” Steve’s head popped in between the doors.

“Course, Steve.” Nat smiled.

He came in with a vase of flowers followed by the rest of the Avengers. Bucky was last, carrying a big teddy bear. Steve stared at him. “You really had to buy that thing?”

“If it will make her feel better, Steve, then, yes, I had to.”

“Can he be an avenger instead of Bucky?” Sam asked, pointing at the bear. Bucky glared at him, Wanda and Nat laughing at Sam’s joke.

“How are you feeling, y/n?” Bucky asked, ignoring Sam’s remark.

You smiled at everyone. “I’m okay guys, but thanks. I have a feeling that Peter will steal that from me, eventually.” you said, referring to the bear.

“Oh shit you’re right.” Bucky said.

“Language.” Steve scolded.

Bucky rolled his eyes. He went over to set the large stuffed bear in the corner.

“I got your favorite,” Steve said, handing you the vase of flowers that were filled with lilies.

“Thank you, Steve. They’re beautiful!” You sniffed their sweet scent and he sat the vase on the table next to you to enjoy.

“Where’s Peter?” Wanda asked. “Is he okay?”

“He’s fine and he’s with Bruce.” Nat explained.

“We’re all just glad that you’re okay, y/n.” Steve gently gripped your hand. “You’re one of us.”

A true smile grew on your face. You had your doubts about being part of the team but if Steve Rogers says you are an Avenger, you believed it.

#mysmileyspideyboi #my fics #transfusion fic #peter parker

[gray-autumn-sky]

HCBA Chapter 33 Preview

For OQ Prompt Party 2019:

Prompt #43: Bedsharing | Prompt #197: The meaning of the lion tattoo

______

Rarely do they have the luxury of sleeping in. Robin’s always been a naturally early riser, and motherhood had turned Regina into one; but today, neither are bothered by the fact that it’s coming up on noon when they wake.

The night before had been such a wonderful disaster. A broken wagon wheel left them stranded in a rainstorm and a kind farmer allowed them to sleep the remainder of the night in his hayloft. Of course, by the time they reached the barn, it was well past the earliest hour of the morning and, of course, they didn’t go right to sleep. By the time they dozed off in each others arms, the sun was beginning to peek up over the horizon, and like most farmers, the farmer who’d taken them in for the night, was in the barn milking the cows and collecting eggs from the hen house by dawn. After his morning chores were over, he and their driver went to fix the broken wagon wheel, and no more than an hour later, they were on their way back to Sherwood.

She’d used Robin’s jacket to cover the back of her dress to hide the fact that it was ripped and open and as they walked toward their bedchamber, Belle didn’t try to hide her giggle and John just shook his head. Robin uttered something to them both as they passed, but she didn’t pay attention to it. She was far too tired, and by the time they reached the bedchamber, she shrugged off his jacket, quickly pulling off her dress and petticoats before falling back onto the bed in only her chemise. Robin was a bit more deliberate about where his clothes fell, but was quick to join her, and as he settled himself on his side of the bed, she rolled over and cuddled into his chest… and then finally, she gave in to her exhaustion...

She’s still cuddled into his chest when she wakes, her eyes fluttering open and warm sunlight pours into their room. At some point, Robin must have pulled the blanket up over them… or maybe she did?... she doesn’t remember nor does it matter. What does matter is that she feels warm, rested, and content to waste away the day.

Tipping her head up, she looks at Robin. He’s still sleeping peacefully, his head turned away from her on the pillow. His cheeks are stubblier than they were the night before and she can’t help but reach out and rub the back of two of her fingers over his cheeks, giggling softly at the scratchy coarseness.

She giggles again as one of Robin’s eyes opens and a goofy little grin forms over his lips as he turns his head back to her.

“G’morning,” he murmurs.

“More like good afternoon.”

“Is it already afternoon?”

“Nearly,” she tells him, biting down on her lip as she looks to the clock on the mantle. “Though, I suppose it’s technically still morning for a couple more minutes.”

Robin yawns, stretching out his arms and legs--and then as his limbs relax, he hooks his arm around her and pulls her to him. She laughs and cuddles into him, nuzzling against his shoulder, drawing in a deep breath and slowly releasing it. Robin’s head rests atop hers, and her fingers strum up and down his chest, dragging slowly back and forth--and for awhile, she feels like she’s slipped into a trance. She truly could stay in bed with him all day without even a single regret.

Turning her head, she presses a kiss to his chest, grinning as his fingers sweep through her hair and tuck it behind her ear as she looks back up at him, grinning lazily. She catches his wrist and draws his palm to her lips, pressing a soft warm

“Tell me about your tattoo.”

“Hm?”

“Your tattoo,” she says again. “I’ve always wondered about it.”

“Ahh, there’s… not much of a story there.”

“But there is a story,” she tells him. “Or at least a reason you got it.”

“Mm, that’s true, I suppose.”

Grinning, she looks up at him. “So, are you going to tell me?”

His eyes shine and it looks like he wants to laugh, like he’s enjoying evading her--but then he shakes his head, leaning in to press a kiss to her forehead. “It’s... just a family crest,” he tells her.

“Your family?” she asks, realizing that’s probably a stupid question, but fully aware that it isn’t the same crest that hangs on an enormous tapestry in the dining room--something that her father-in-law frequently and loudly draws attention to whenever he has guests.

“Sort of,” he murmurs. “It’s from before,” he explains. “Before the money.”

She blinks and tips her head. “My father created the crest that’s associated with the name and estate.”

“Why change it?”

“Who knows?” he murmurs as he shrugs his shoulders. “But I always liked this one. My grandfather had the same tattoo, so when I was sixteen, I decided that I should have one, too.”

Her brows arch. “And how did your father respond?”

Robin laughs and she grins, feeling it rumble in his chest. “Exactly as he does whenever I do something he does approve of,” he tells her. “He threw a fit, did a whole lot of yelling and screaming, threatened to take away the estate, and then… we never discussed it again.”

“He wouldn’t cast you out.”

“I know,” Robin says with seemingly a hint of disappointment behind his words. “If he were serious about that, he’d have done it by now.”

Regina nods, and for a moment, neither of them say anything--and then, she lifts her head. “Did he throw a fit when you told him you were going to marry me?”

“Yes,” he says, nodding, making no attempt to hide it. “Though, he yelled far more about your mother than you.”

Her brow arches. “Even with my many indiscretions? The things he loves throwing in my face whenever he has the chance?”

Robin offers a sad little grin. “He disapproves of you, but he hates your mother.”

“That’s one thing my mother’s usually good for,” Regina murmurs, cuddling back into his chest. “No matter what people think of me, I usually rely on them thinking even less of her.”

Robin sighs. “I wonder why that is.”

Her brows arch and she lifts her head. “You’ve met her--”

“Yes,” he laughs, “But so many people have machiavellian personalities and--”

“Machiavellian?”

Robin grins. “Calling her a bitch seemed rude.”

Regina snickers. “It’s accurate, though.”

“I just… wonder if it’s something else.”

“I don’t know,” Regina murmurs. “I just think she… got on the wrong side of too many people and then lost what she felt she was entitled to, and that just made her bitter at the rest of the world.”

“Perhaps.”

“Can we not talk about her?” Regina asks, resting her chin on his chest as she looks up at him. “This has been a perfectly lovely morning. Can we not let her ruin it?”

“How could she? She’s not here.”

“You underestimate her.”

Robin laughs and presses a kiss to her head. “Okay, that’s fair.”

And then, a smirk edges onto her lips as her and slips slowly down his torso, grazing over his thigh before her fingers curl around his stiff cock causing his brows to arch and his eyes to widen slightly. “There are just… so many other things we could focus on.”

It takes no more suggestion than that. He reaches for her, pulling her up over him and lifting off her chemise. His hands slide up her sides, cupping her breasts as he looks up and her--and just as quickly as the topic came up, its forgotten, cast aside for other things more worthy of their attention.

Prompt: The Adventures of Roland and Toulouse

————

It’s dark as Regina leads Roland into the barn--and her heart aches as she looks to her father, looking quite disheveled as he sits back in a chair with his feet up on a table at the opposite end of the barn. There’s an open bottle next to him and beside that, an empty glass.

She looks to Robin who grabs Henry and lifts him onto his shoulders before nodding and taking Roland’s hand.

It seems odd that he’d have sent for them, not just at this hour, but while he’s in this state.

“Daddy?” she calls as she takes a few steps forward. “We got your message and--”

“I’m so glad you came!” he calls, turning to her and smiling brightly--and that’s when she sees the tiny orange kitten laying against his chest. “We… have a serious situation.” She laughs a little. Her father’s always been a happy drunk, but she’s not sure that’s what’s happening now--and if it is, there’s something else going on, too. “He’s the runt,” her father explains, slowly getting up. “And I’m afraid his siblings aren’t letting him get enough to eat.”

“Oh,” she murmurs, looking back over her shoulder at Robin and nodding for him to come forward with the boys. “How awful.”

“So, I’ve been feeding him,” he explains. “With an eyedropper.”

“That… sounds complicated.”

“It is,” he tells her in a serious voice. “It has to be done every hour or so.”

“That’s… worse than a newborn,” Robin says.

“Well, he is a newborn,” Roland says just before tugging on Regina’s skirt. “That’s the kitty I was telling you about.”

“He’s gaining weight though,” her father explains, motioning to a grain scale behind him. “I’ve been weighing him daily and tonight, he got up on all four paws and took a few steps on his own.” Her father beams as he looks to her and Robin before settling his eyes on Roland. “That means he’s getting stronger.”

“That’s good news,” Roland says.

“Very good news,” her father agrees, nodding seriously before looking back to her. “And I am positively exhausted.”

“I can imagine--”

“And then I remembered Mal’s mother used to do this sort of thing on the regular.”

Regina nods, remembering how she used to visit their little cottage as a girl to play with Daniel. There were always injured or abandoned animals inside--from kittens like this one to baby chicks to little goats, and even once a brown and white calf Daniel named Petunia--and his grandmother was able to nurse them all back to health.

“She was the one who suggested the eyedropper to me,” he adds.

“Mal did?”

“Yes.”

“Ah--”

“So I was hoping--”

“Daddy, we can’t take that kitten back--”

“Sure we can,” Robin says, cutting in with a grin. “My father will hate it.”

“But Mal has other things to--”

“She can teach the boys.”

Roland’s face lights up and a knowing grin edges over her father’s lips--and she can’t help think that all of this was somehow planned, that she was the only one who didn’t know the true reason for this late-night visit to Dragon Head’s barn.

“After all,” her father says, winking at Roland, “I think this one is meant to come and live at Sherwood.”

Regina’s eyes widen a bit as her father holds the tiny kitten out to Roland--and then she watches as Roland carefully takes him, cuddling him in his cloak. Roland leans in and nuzzles him, and in turn, the kitten nuzzles him right back. And when Roland smiles up at her--beaming--she sighs in resignation and nods.

“It’s going to be a lot of work, you know.”

“I do!” Roland exclaims, nodding vigorously. “I promise I’ll take the best care of him, Grandpapa!”

“I know you will,” he replies, grinning. “So, what will you call him? I’ve been calling him The Little Orange One, but that hardly seems like a proper name.”

Roland considers it for a moment. “Toulouse!”

At that, Henry finally lifts his head from where it rests atop Robin’s. “Like... the city in France?”

Rolands nods. “It's fun to say.”

Henry’s eyes roll. “We just learned about that today.”

“It’s called the Pink City,” Roland explains. “‘Cuz of the bricks on the building.”

“It’s actually the Rose City,” Henry says.

“But Rose is a girl’s name and Rose is a shade of pink.”

Henry’s eyes roll again and he sighs, resting his head back against Robin’s--and once more, Roland smiles proudly as though he’s won an argument with his older, and therefore usually quicker witted, brother. “Will you show me how to feed him, Grandpapa?”

“Of course I will,” he replies, holding out his hand and waiting for Roland to accept it--and then, as she watches her father lead Roland to the little room at the back of the barn where he’d been sitting when they came in, she hears Roland lean in and whisper to the kitten a soft, “We’re going to have the best adventures together. I promise.”

It tugs at her heartstrings, and she feels a smile pull across her lips--and as she turns back to Robin, she shakes her head, laughing softly as she accepts her fate as a cat owner.

#hcba verse #oq prompt party 2019

[byunnct]

cute cat, cute boyfriend [jeno nct]

pairing: lee jeno x reader

summary: jeno is a big fan of your cat and secretly a big fan of you. college!au

a/n: since i don’t have time to write a full fic but have been in the mood to write i thought i’d have a go at bullet point scenarios :D this was inspired by that viral tweet ‘whenever im sad i text this girl to show me her cat’!! hope it isn’t too bad <3

so you have a cat, a beautiful ragdoll cat, lovingly named cracker

and you have no idea why or how but certain places on your college campus allow residents to have pets

you’re not complaining because it means you were able to bring your lil friend from back home with you to college

and she has the brightest blue eyes that your best friend renjun swears hypnotises people into giving her treats

the top of her head, around her ears and just under her jaw, is an ashy grey with some parts a slightly darker grey

the rest of her is white

she’s the most elegant feline ever and her tail has a sassy sway to it whenever she walks around your dorm

at the beginning of the year someone created an instagram page dedicated to the campus’s pets and it was instantly popular

even endorsed by the college itself because it’s a pure expression of admiration and love for students’ pets and really what’s better than that

so your roommate submitted pictures she took of your cat to go onto the page after you offhandedly mentioned that cracker would be the most popular pet on the page

you were not wrong

cracker instantly captured everyone’s attention and became the most liked picture on the account to the point where the owner of the page messaged ur roommate to ask for more pictures (“i told you! it’s the eyes, i swear! she’s like a witch!” –renjun)

people on campus even started approaching your roommate to ask about the cat and she had to direct them all to you, each person asking you to start your own instagram page for your little popular queen

you said no every time because you’re a struggling college student who spends all her time in college or working to earn money which is then spent on ur damn cat you don’t have time to run an instagram account for her

and she’s already spoiled enough you don’t want to boost cracker’s ego too much

unbeknownst to you, jeno fell completely in love with cracker the second he saw her on the Instagram page (jeno, an avid visitor of the campus pet instagram page) and would always whine to his friends about how cute the cat is

since he’s allergic he can’t own them himself and his roommate, jaemin, uses this excuse every time jeno even BEGINS thinking about owning a pet

every time a new picture of cracker was posted on the campus instagram page he’d get so excited and be the first to comment and like

he’d get teased by his friends too because essentially jeno was a really big fan of cat, an animal, compared to donghyuck who would be freaking out over the new red velvet selfie – they’re in different worlds

BUT jeno can’t get over how enchanting cracker’s large eyes are, how fluffy her tail is, how photogenic a CAT is and he’s completely enamoured by your little feline

so one night there’s a big party to celebrate the end of the first term but you sadly can’t go since you don’t feel too good and don’t want to make yourself worse

it’s also cracker’s birthday and the SECOND you coughed and your throat felt scratchy you knew it was a sign from the gods to stay home and celebrate w your cat

your roommate goes tho, after feeding cracker one too many treats as a birthday gift, and since you offered to pick her up if need be she said she’ll text you later

at midnight you get a text from an unknown number

[00:17am, UNKNOWN]: heyyyyyyyyyyy

you think its your roommate texting from someone else’s phone because hers died so you respond instantly with ‘you good?’

[00:20am, UNKNOWN]: im great havea quesiotn

[00:20am, you]: shoot

[00:21am, UNKNOWN]: sned ur cat

[00:22am, you]: what? Call me

your phone rings a minute later and when you answer

it’s not your roommate

it’s a boy you’ve never heard before and he’s mumbling incoherently and it worries you

not only because you were expecting your roommate but because this guy sounds absolutely GONE and you can picture him swaying from side to side due to intoxication

you ask him his name about ten times before you get an actual answer: jeno

you recognise the name as one of renjun’s friends so you know you can at least trust him to some extent

he keeps saying ‘send your cat’ and you don’t quite know what he means so when you ask him he says

“i love your cat”

that’s it. He keeps repeating ‘send your cat’ and ‘i love your cat’ and no matter what else you say to him, ‘go drink some water!’ ‘where are you?’ ‘do you need me to call someone?’, he keeps going on about cracker and you look at the cat lying next to you, lazily cleaning her paws, and hang up on him

you take the party hat you had taken pictures of her in earlier and put it back on her head, telling her you’re sorry you have to put it back on and promise her treats if she sits still, and bring up the camera app on your phone

then you go back to your messages and send two of the best pictures you took of her to this jeno guy, hoping you’re understanding him correctly and that you can convince him to listen to you after he’s seen the picture

the response you get is a bunch of keyboard smashes

you call him back and he’s.. crying? kind of? he sounds choked up but he’s so drunk you wouldn’t be surprised if he actually was crying from happiness

he’s much more willing to listen to you after seeing cracker and keeps telling you how cute she is and it sounds like he’s trying to stand up from wherever he is from the shuffling on the other end of the call

then there’s more shuffling and another voice, much more sober, comes through the receiver

“im so sorry, whoever you are. jeno’s a mess. im taking him home now, im his roommate, he’s ok. bye.”

and the call ends

you go to sleep, still a little worried for jeno, but your worries are quashed when you wake up because jeno has texted you again

much more sober and embarrassed

[11:57am, UNKNOWN]: im so sorry omg

[11:57am, UNKNOWN]: you must hate me haha

[11:57am, UNKNOWN]: i got too drunk sorry you can block my number if you want

[11:57am, UNKNOWN]: thank u for the cat pictures tho im a big fan

your heart warms at the texts because he seems to feel guilty and it’s endearing, and then you smile when you read the text about your cat

you reply telling him it’s ok, you’re not mad at all and you’re glad he got home safe, but how did he get your number? you’ve never spoken before?

he explains that he has memory of drunk jeno asking renjun for your number, to which he was bluntly rejected and told no, and then asked around the party for who has your number until he stumbled upon someone who gave it to him with a wink

[13:10pm, JENO?]: i think people think i was trying to make a move on you haha

jeno apologises about twelve more times throughout the conversation and you tell him it’s ok every time

and ask if a picture of cracker will make him feel better

…to which he responds yes instantly

and from then on even though you and jeno barely know each other, your only connection renjun and now your cat, a bond formed

jeno would text you at random times with random messages asking for a picture of cracker

and if you were able to you were more than happy to oblige

renjun thought it was really weird that you two became almost..friends… just through occasionally texting and sending pictures of an animal to him

jaemin initially thought jeno finally got a significant other since whenever he’d look at him jeno would be smiling at his phone, texting with quick fingers to respond to whoever he was talking to

renjun broke jaemin’s heart when he told him jeno was happy over a cat

but he pieced it back together when he mentioned the owner of the cat was an attractive female

this goes on for several months before one day you receive a text saying there’s a package available to be picked up for you? and you’re like? Who

so you go pick it up and when you get back to your dorm you cautiously open it to find an array of cat treats and cat toys

there’s even a little post-it note with a cute message for cracker

to cracker, the best kitty cat in all the land! im your biggest fan!! –jeno :)

you can’t help but smile at the post-it, your cheeks heating and a small riot of butterflies in your stomach

you chide yourself because you really don’t know this boy, if you think about it, and you shouldn’t be getting feelings over someone you’ve only ever spoken to in person once or twice

and the post-it was written to your cat, not you..so..

you glare slightly at cracker as she sniffs and noses at the treats on the table

but then take pictures of her with her mountain of gifts and send it to jeno with a bunch of heart emojis

jeno, eating lunch with his friends at the time, instantly smiles and blushes at your response, replying with smiley faces

jaemin, nudging jeno: that your gf?

renjun: if it’s the damn cat jeno i swear to god

jeno: uh

jeno doesn’t bother mentioning that although the cat pictures were cute, he was happier about the hearts you sent to him

a week later, you have another package delivery

its jeno again

the week after, another package. Jeno

the week after that, yet another package. who? jeno.

this goes on for at least another two months

you’re stocked on treats for cracker to last you the next several years

enough toys that your dorm is covered constantly, as if you own a toddler instead of a cat

your roommate thinks it’s the cutest thing ever that jeno is doing this and is CONVINCED that jeno is doing it for YOU, not for cracker

you, with red cheeks and looking at the floor to avoid eye contact: shut up u know nothing

until

it’s a dark day, a dark night, looming dark clouds stuck in the sky that threaten to unleash downpours at any second

and you’ve just left the vet that isn’t too far from your dorm

cracker isn’t with you

it was sudden, so abrupt you didn’t have time to process everything and you’re still slightly dazed

when you get back to your dorm your roommate is there, sitting with cups of tea ready for whatever you want to give her

she notices the absence of your best friend and understands instantly, hugging you gently as you lean into her and break down

cracker had fallen ill suddenly, by no fault of your own, and when you reached the vet you were already in tears with a tight stomach, as if you knew what was coming

the vet told you with sad eyes the best option was to leave cracker with her and let her do what she has to, to save cracker a lot of pain

after a teary but warm goodbye, you saw cracker for the last time

the following day, at such bad timing it felt like the world was laughing at you, you receive another package from jeno

you pick the package up but don’t open it

you ask your roommate to inform that stupid pet instagram about cracker, a bitter tone to your voice

even though cracker was your cat and so her death shouldn’t be anyone else’s business, you knew people would start asking questions if cracker no longer appeared on the page

you assume jeno will see the account’s post about the loss of cracker and he does, sending you a short but sweet message saying cracker was the best cat ever, which she was, and that she lived the best life with the best owner, which she did

you don’t reply though, too choked up to look at the message for too long

jeno asks renjun about you every day and a week or two later he’s glad to hear you’re feeling much better and are getting back into routine

one night, a friday, you’re in your dorm typing an essay when you hear a faint meow

you instantly ignore it, putting it down to you still not being quite used to complete silence in your dorm

but then you hear it again, and again, and it doesn’t sound like cracker’s meows

it sounds smaller, weaker almost, and like its coming from right outside your door

even though you’re still slightly convinced that you’re going insane you walk towards your door

you open it tentatively and just enough that you can use one eye to look into the hallway

and there

is a little black kitten

staring up at you

it’s the smallest thing, all black with bright green eyes that look too big for it’s body

and it lets out the same meow you had been hearing that you thought you were imagining

you open your door fully, bending down to gently pet the kitten and look around the hallway to find who left the kitten here

you scan the hallway a couple of times before you notice a head of black hair peeking from the end of the hallway, their eyes wide when you make eye contact with them

slowly, the person steps out from the wall they were hid behind to approach you

it’s jeno

you’re still in shock when he reaches you, and you just stare up at him with an open mouth

“do you like him?”

the words bring you back to earth and you nod before looking at the kitten again, asking, “is he mine?”

jeno nods and smiles widely, “all yours.”

you stand up with the kitten in your arms, the soft creature already snuggling and getting comfortable in your arms, “are you sure?”

jeno giggles at you and you realise he’s much more attractive than you remember, so handsome it makes you flustered

“the second i saw him i thought he’d be perfect for you. there’s something special about him.” jeno shrugs

when you look at the kitten again you repeatedly say thank you to jeno

you’re so surprised by this gift you’re not quite sure what to do with yourself

or what this means

but jeno seems to understand that even though you’re thankful you’re not sure where to go from here

so when he reaches over to very lightly smooth his fingertips over the kitten’s head, he says

“i thought this kitten could be our child. you can have full custody, though. i’ll just stay over on the weekends.”

and you can’t believe what you just heard

your child? stay over at the weekend?

you laugh a little in disbelief

“what does any of that even mean?”

jeno forces out a laugh and jiggles his shoulders slightly as if to compose himself

“this is my, obviously terrible, attempt at asking you on a date.”

oh

you’re in shock all over again, and jeno reaches behind his head to scratch his neck awkwardly

“i mean- you don’t have to. im not forcing you to-though the cat makes it seem like i am, doesn’t it? i don’t mean it like that, i swear. the kitten is yours i promise-“

when jeno sees you smiling at him he stops talking, eyebrows furrowed to show he doesn’t quite understand why you’re looking at him like that

“i’d love to go on a date with you, jeno.”

jeno nods at you several times as he processes the words, then says “great!” with a thumbs up

you smile at each other then, and it’s a warm atmosphere with the sleeping small kitten in your arms

after your first date, and many others, jeno, true to his word, starts staying over on the weekends to look after the kitten

by that i mean he uses the kitten and his ‘custody’ over him to stay over and cuddle with you

even if it means he sneezes aggressively every five minutes

#nct scenarios #nct dream scenarios #lee jeno scenarios #jeno scenarios #nct imagines #kpop scenarios #i love jeno v much #and its the cutest thing ever that he owns three(?) cats #despite being allergic to them #AND I THINK HE RESCUED ONE FROMTHE STREETS??? #WOW DO U WANT TO BE ANYMORE PERFECT

[thievinghippo]

Birthday Fic for Bee!

Title: The Chronicler

Fandom: The Adventure Zone

Rating: General

Summary: five times lucretia wrote in her journal and one time she did not

Notes: For my dearest @theherocomplex. Happy Birthday! Thank you for yelling loudly enough about TAZ that I finally had to see what the fuss was about. <3

(Read on Ao3)

#

Lucretia’s momma told the best bedtime stories in the whole wide world.

Stories full of twists and turns. Full of daring princesses and brave princes. Epic fights between good and evil, with good always coming out on top. Once Lucretia thought Momma was going to let evil win and she thought her world would end until good finally pulled through.

But night after night, the details of the stories would change.

One night, the warrior-princess wore armor that looked like the stars in the sky. The next night, Momma said it was bright like the sun. And Lucretia was pretty sure the warrior-princess didn’t have time to change.

Lucretia was four now, and she noticed these things. Bedtime was one of the most important parts of her day, just after coloring and playing with Hilde, the new kitty. She wanted to remember these stories forever and ever and ever. Remembering was a lot harder when the details kept changing.

“Momma, the prince had blue eyes yesterday,” Lucretia said. She made sure she didn’t whine, or even hint at whining. Daddy told her she’s a big girl now and big girls shouldn’t whine.

“Look at you, always keeping me honest,” Momma said with a laugh as she ran her hand over Lucretia’s head. “What would I do without my storytelling assistant?”

The next day, Momma gave her a piece of parchment and a quill and taught her how to write.

Lucretia loved everything about writing. She loved the different color inks, the sound of a scratchy quill, and the texture of parchment. It became her absolute favorite, even more than Hilde, and definitely better than coloring.

But then Momma suggested she try to write her own bedtime story and Lucretia didn’t like that idea at all. She wanted to write down Momma’s story. And not just the words. She wanted everything. The expression on Momma’s face when she talked as the dragon. The way her hands fluttered as she talked about a beautiful garden.

To Lucretia, a story was so much more than words and somehow, she wanted to get the whole story down on the parchment.

She wanted to remember everything.

Night after night, Lucretia would ask her momma questions as she told the tale, demanding every detail. Her persistence paid off. Before long, a simple sentence like the archer nocked an arrow became the archer, wearing the blue and silver colors of the queen and holding a bow made of cherrywood, grabbed an arrow out of her half-full quicker, and effortlessly nocked it.

And Lucretia would write down every word, in a shorthand only she could understand.

Years later, the tables turned, and Lucretia found herself at her mother’s bedside. As her mother slowly died from the Wasting, Lucretia brought out those parchments from her childhood and read them aloud.

Her mother died with a smile on her face, just after the two princesses decided to live happily ever after.

#

When Lucretia turned thirteen, a famous war hero moved to the village. No one understood why he decided to move there. The village was tiny, barely on any maps. It was the type of place young people tried to flee the moment they could. People simply didn’t move there by choice.

It was a complete coincidence, if one believed in those sort of things, that Lucretia’s teacher assigned the class to write a five-page biography. And not just any sort of biography. It had to include a first-person source and no references from fantasy wikipedia could be used.

The rest of the class groaned at the requirements, but Lucretia couldn’t think of anything more exciting. Especially when the teacher announced that they would receive extra credit if the subject of the paper wasn’t related to you.

That was the moment when Lucretia decided she would write about the war hero.

He had mostly kept to himself since moving to the village. Instead of being all what a war hero should be - dashing and charismatic and full of entertaining stories - their war hero was the opposite. Cranky and given to public fits. More than once he screamed at people who only had a kind word to say.

After school that day, Lucretia slowly filled up her lungs and released her breathe inch by inch. Before she could doubt herself, she walked to the war hero’s cottage. But as she stood at the door, she wondered if this was the right thing to do.

He clearly wanted to be left alone and here she was, ready to barge into his life and ask for his time. All she could think about, though, were the stories he had. If no one wrote them down, if no one else remembered, who could ever say they happened.

With that thought in mind, Lucretia knocked on the door.

“Go away!”

She knocked again.

The door opened and there stood the war hero, his hair a mess with crumbs in his beard. “What do you want?” he snarled.

Be brave like momma’s stories, Lucretia thought to herself. She pushed back her shoulders and lifts her chin. She might only be thirteen, but she’s tall, almost coming up to his eyes.

“I’d like to interview you for a paper I have to write.”

The door slammed in her face.

“You have stories worth telling,” Lucretia yelled through the door, fairly certain the war hero could hear her. “I’d like to help you share them.”

After fifteen minutes of silence, Lucretia walked away from the cottage. She’d come back tomorrow.

And she did. For five days in a row, Lucretia showed up at the war hero’s cottage, at the exact same time, so he’d know it was her. She knew she was being rude, that she should leave the war hero in peace, especially considering her paper was due in two days.

But he had the stories she wanted to share.

On the fifth day, the front door was open. The war hero stood in the door frame, shaking his head. “Let’s get this over with,” he said, gesturing her to come inside.

With a shaky breath, Lucretia did just that. The cottage was messy, with papers scattered all around. She ended up on a chair with at least one day’s worth of dirty laundry. As quietly as she could, she took out a journal and quill.

The war hero started to speak. And Lucretia listened. And wrote.

Her paper ended up being seventeen pages long and it could have easily been double that.

Three years later, War Stories Best Left Forgotten, written by General Luxor Melfred and ghostwritten by Lucretia, became a number one best-seller.

#

Be brave, Lucretia, be brave, she told herself as she knocked on the captain’s door.

“Come in,” came the voice through the door.

Lucretia opened the door, her eyes darting around, taking in as many details as she could, before focusing on the gnome sitting behind a desk covered with papers. This Davenport had a kind face, and immediately she could sense a bit of tension leaving her shoulders.

After a quick introduction, Lucretia sat down in an uncomfortable chair and readied herself.

Davenport held up a piece of paper. “Do you know, I’ve read almost every book you’ve written,” he said. “But I still don’t understand why I would want a biographer on my ship.”

She folded her hands in her lap, expecting this argument. From her research on the mission, even adding just one extra person would require a great deal of work. From extra food, to more fuel for the bond engine. It wasn’t a decision that could be made lightly.

Which meant Lucretia had to prove her worth.

By the age of twenty-seven, Lucretia had ghostwritten more than a dozen books, and she was bored. A complete lark led her to the IPRE: overhearing a brother and sister talk about a mission at a coffee house.

The more Lucretia heard them talk, the more she wanted in. And soon, she realized she hadn’t wanted anything as much as this in her entire life.

“I am a chronicler, but I’m also an observationalist,” Lucretia said. “Your team will be making discoveries that no one can even imagine. Having me there will give them time to make even more of those discoveries, because I’ll be able to catalogue everything.”

Her heart started to race slightly at the thought. To be able to witness the cornucopia of knowledge this team would be able to find, it was everything she ever wanted.

Davenport leaned back in his chair and she worried she had lost his attention. “I’m able to remember details and words without hardly any effort at all,” she said, not wanting to sound desperate. “I can even write with both hands at once.”

Now that had gotten his attention. “Both hands at once?” Davenport asked, raising an eyebrow. “That doesn’t seem possible.”

Lucretia could tell him about the years of work she’d put in, how she had been practicing since she was eight years old and saw a man do the trick at a carnival. “Let me show you,” she said, bringing out two journals and pens from her bag.

“Here, take my desk,” Davenport said, standing up.

With a nod, she moved behind his desk, which was meant for a shorter race. Even so, she managed to squeeze into the chair and set both journals in front of her. When both hands held a quill, she looked up at Davenport. “Tell me about the mission. About what you hope to find.”

Davenport’s face lit up and the moment he opened his mouth to speak, Lucretia started to write.

Five minutes later, she was officially part of the IPRE team.

#

Somehow, after one hundred years, this was the hardest decision she ever had to make.

Not the decision to go forward with her plan; that had actually been easy. Her friends were trying so hard to be brave for each other that no one was willing to admit that their plan had failed. That creating the artifacts hadn’t done just as much damage as the Hunger.

None of them would ever agree to try things her way. She understood that. Perhaps if she had more charisma or leadership skills. But she was a chronicler.

A chronicler who had a decision to make.

Two months had passed since Lup’s disappearance. When Lucretia originally had the idea to make everyone forget, she planned on keeping Taako and Lup together. Have them forget the mission but not each other.

But Lup’s disappearance changed all of that. Wouldn’t it be kinder to Taako to make him forget he ever had a sister? Surely that would be the best thing to do. Then once she had the barrier in place, then she could give them back all of their memories and a new search could commence.

Decision made, Lucretia started a list of everything Taako and Lup would need to forget about each other. The length of the list frightened her by the end.

At a knock at her door, Lucretia hastily covered up her work under a pillow. “Dinner in five,” came Magnus’ voice from the other side of the door.

Lucretia tried to remember if she had eaten lunch. Knowing the answer to be no, she stood up, her bones creaking slightly in protest, after sitting down for so long. She wouldn’t eat with the team; she hadn’t done that since she started this project.

When she spent time with them, with any of them, it made it that much harder to keep writing.

Merle and Davenport were already sitting at the table when Lucretia entered the galley. The table looked lonely, with only four place settings, because of Taako and Barry continuing their search for Lup.

Well, they hadn’t needed to set a place for her. Not tonight. “I’ll just eat in my room,” Lucretia said. “I’ve got work to do.”

Magnus stood at the stove, stirring a big pot. “You sure?” he asked. For a moment, Lucretia could see the questions behind his eyes. Because what work did she actually have to complete? Technically, their mission was over.

She wondered how she would answer if anyone ever called her out on that.

“I’m sure,” Lucretia said, her voice resolute.

Magnus carefully scooped out a portion of stew “We’ve already lost Lup,” he said quietly, handing her the bowl. “We don’t need to lose you, too.”

The words were almost too much for Lucretia to bear. She nodded, blinking back tears, and headed to her quarters. The blue journal with the silver trim sat at her desk, mocking her.

They had already lost Lucretia and she had lost them. The only difference was they didn’t know it yet.

#

Her hands wouldn’t stop shaking.

Lucretia balled her hands into fists as she walked up the stairs to her small apartment in Goldcliff. Everything around her felt cold and she knew things weren’t quite right. All because of Wonderland.

Wonderland…

She thought she was better than that. Thought she was better than leaving behind someone to die to save her own skin. But what choice did she have? If she died, eventually the planet would die, too.

So she sacrificed what she could and when the chance came, left Cam behind without a second thought.

As she opened the door, Lucretia tried not to pay attention to her hands. They didn’t look like her hands anymore. They were the hands of an old woman. But they were hers now, and the sooner she accepted that, the better.

All but slamming the door behind her, Lucretia marched into the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror. The first mirror she’d seen since she left Wonderland. 

She didn’t recognize herself.

Her hair was a light grey with a number of white strands mixed in. And her face… Soft jowls. Age spots on her cheeks. Plenty of crow's feet lining her eyes. Lucretia closed her eyes, and told herself she wouldn’t cry. She wasn’t vain, she wasn’t, but to have sacrificed so much and for what?

The Animus Bell was just as far away from her now as it was before she started. A solid year of work and all she had to show for it was her own staff. At this rate, she would never be able to find the rest of artifacts.

“Davenport!” came a cry from the other room.

Lucretia left the bathroom without another glance at the mirror. There stood her captain in the kitchen, holding a bowl of cereal out towards her.

“Is that for me?” Lucretia asked, trying to keep any sort of disappointment in her voice. “Thank you so much, Davenport.”

He beamed at her before walking over the couch and sitting down, staring straight ahead. Barry and Lup had disappeared, Davenport was a shell of himself. Every time Lucretia looked at him, she wondered where she had gone wrong in her journaling.

At least Taako, Magnus, and Merle were safe. That was something to hold onto. But oh how she missed them. She missed all of them, a constant ache in her side.

She sat down at her desk, and started rooting through one of the drawers, looking for an empty journal. There she found some scrolls with that looked like her childhood handwriting, but in a shorthand Lucretia simply didn’t understand.

For the life of her, she couldn’t understand why she would have kept them. Wonderland, no doubt. And before she could start to mourn for memories she would never have again, she shut the drawer.

Another drawer gave her the bounty she sought. Placing the journal on her desk, she took a breath, and wondered if this would be the journal to eventually contain the solution to her problems. If the words written on these pages would help her find the artifacts so she could cast the ward and get her family back.

With a grim determination, Lucretia started to make a list that would eventually led to the formation of the Bureau of Balance.

#

Lucretia watched the ceremony from the back of the room, her heart close to brimming with joy as two members of her family pledged eternity to each other. And for liches, eternity meant something very different than it did for humans.

The ceremony itself was quite lovely and for Lucretia, it was enough to simply be invited. She would never presume to actually be included. Not anymore.

But freedom from expectation was almost a relief of itself. After almost two years of playacting in front of Taako, Merle, and Magnus, to simply be herself again was a luxury.

The crowd started to move into the next room, where dinner would be served, and if Lucretia knew Lup, there would be plenty of dancing.

The music had already started, something with a deep techno beat, which reminded Lucretia of some of the dance parties they had on the Starblaster. Some nights, when things had looked unbearable, they would drink and dance right in the middle of ops. She cherished those memories and sometimes, she wondered if any of them did, too.

Lucretia found her name on the seating chart, and furrowed her brow. The IPRE table. That she didn’t expect, but perhaps that would be the table for Merle and Davenport. She ached to be included, but didn’t want to make anyone uncomfortable.

All she could do was try. So she started towards the table and halfway there, stopped. Taako sat at the table, along with Kravitz. As she stared, Barry sat down, loosening his tie.

And then she realized there were eight seats at the table. One for everyone in the IPRE, plus Kravitz.

Lucretia’s pulse quickened and she wondered if she should leave. This was Lup and Barry’s wedding. The last thing they needed was for her to ruin everyone’s mood.

But then she felt two arms wrap around her waist from behind. “Lucy,” Lup said quietly, kissing her on the cheek. “Whatever happened, you’re still family.”

She wanted to refute that, she wanted to apologize, but she also knew this happy occasion was neither the time nor place. The last thing Lucretia wanted was to make this about her.

Be brave, Lucretia. Be brave.

So hand in hand with Lup - and how she reveled in the warmth of her skin - Lucretia walked to the table. Taako stiffened up as she expected, but a look from Lup was all it took. Lucretia sat down, in-between Magnus and Merle, the two who had been the most understanding.

Dinner was magnificent, as any prepared by Taako would be. The conversation was even better. Lucretia didn’t talk much, only when asked a direct question. But just listening to her friends and hearing about their recent adventures felt like more than she deserved.

And then the dancing began.

Everyone eagerly left the table to head to the dance floor, except for her. Lucretia leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs, content to watch them all have fun.

That’s when an idea popped into her head. Rummaging through her bag, she brought out a fresh journal and a quill. She could record the reception for Barry and Lup, give them a written account of the evening.

For one night, she could be a simple chronicler again, instead of Madam Director.

Just as her quill was about to touch parchment, a shadow passed over the journal. She looked up and saw Magnus towering over her. “I don’t think so,” he said, shouting over the music. “Tonight, you’re with us.”

Lucretia shook her head, not wanting to yell out her reasoning. It would be better for everyone if she stayed at the table, she was sure of it.

But then Magnus said the one word guaranteed to work. “Please.”

She had taken so much from him, from all of them, that she couldn’t find it within herself to deny Magnus this simple request. So she stood up and straightened her dress before following him onto the dance floor.

And there, with her family, Lucretia danced.

#the adventure zone #lucretia taz #theherocomplex #my headcanons let me show you #I love lucretia so much #hippo writes fanfiction

[snowdice]

Big Bang (Sort of) Editing Story [Day 39]

I started writing this fic while editing my Big Bang story, but am going to continue doing it for other things now that Kill Dear is out. I will write and publish 100 words of the story every time I finish doing whatever task I’m doing. If you’d like to block these proceedings, please feel free to block the tag proofread stories. I will reblog this post with the parts of the story I do today. Edited chapters are linked; everything else I’ve done so far is under the cut.

My Master Post Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14

I only have a bit of stuff to finish up, so I’m not sure how long this will go.

Chapter 15

Patton strolled up to the doors to the royal wing, his arms crossed casually around his middle.

Kalani raised an eyebrow as he approached and gave her the most innocent expression he could. “Whatcha got there, Pat?” she asked.

“Hmm?” he asked, as his sweater squirmed. “What do you mean?”

She considered him for a moment. “Well, I see nothing suspicious here,” she said. “Do you Owen?”

“Nothing,” he replied without hesitation.

Patton grinned at them both.

Kalani leaned in like she was going to tell him a secret. “Who is it?”

Patton made a show of glanced around like he was hiding it from anyone passing by. Then he shifted around to pull up just the bottom of his sweater.

 A small black paw reached out from the depths of his sweater and swatted at the air.

“Ah, I see,” Kalani said, reaching out to touch the little paw. “Hello, Mittens.”

Patton giggled as Owen poked the cat’s stomach gently through the sweater, making her wiggle a bit and try to bite him.

“Well,” Patton said. “I better be off with my totally normal sweater.”

Kalani nodded and stepped to the side, and Patton was free to head down the hallway to Logan’s room. Patton knocked on the door with their new extra secret knock and Logan all but ripped open the door. “I’m late. I have to go,” he said, darting past Patton.

 Patton smiled, happy that his plan to be running a little late to come watch Virgil had worked so well, even though he felt a little bit guilty about it. He hoped Logan wasn’t late to his meeting, but he also knew that if Logan had noticed Mittens, he wouldn’t have let her into the room.

Virgil was already out of the closet, sitting on one of the chairs. Patton came in and smiled at him. Unlike Logan, Virgil’s attention was immediately drawn to the oddly shaped lump in Patton’s sweater.

“You’re not very good at hiding things,” Virgil said.

 “It worked on Logan,” Patton defended himself.

“Logan was about to rocket into space if you didn’t show up in 5 seconds,” Virgil pointed out. Patton just shrugged, and Virgil tilted his head. “What do you have?”

Patton grinned wide and carefully pulled Mittens out of his sweater. She did not resist this maneuver at all, simply purring. He held her up for Virgil to see. “Ta da!”

“A cat?” Virgil said.

“This is Mittens,” Patton said. He then turned to Mittens. “Mittens, this is Virgil. I thought I’d introduce the two of you!”

Virgil blinked at the cat. Mittens blinked back. Patton thought maybe he should have let them sniff each other from under a door before doing this.

 He didn’t need to worry though, as Mittens started purring after a moment. “You can pet her,” Patton offered. Virgil looked up at him. “Just…” he said.

“She likes chin scratchies!” Patton prompted.

Virgil reached out a hand to scratch under her chin and that was the end of it. Mittens stretched out her chin happy to get the attention and Virgil’s eyes widened at how soft her fur was. It was a work of minutes before Virgil was sitting down on the floor and Mittens was happily kneading his thighs and spinning around in circles to make sure he pet every inch of her.

“I did not understand why people like cats,” Virgil commented. “All I’ve seen of cats is people coming back with bloody scratches from trying to pet them, so I never even tried.”

“Well,” Patton said. “Cats are just like people. If you’re nice to them, they’re more likely to be nice to you.”

 Virgil’s hand paused briefly on the cat’s head, but then continued with the petting a moment later. Patton wondered what he was thinking about, but didn’t press.

“She seems to like you,” Patton said.

“Don’t know why.”

“Hey, don’t be mean.” Patton scolded.

Virgil hands jerked away from the cat he’d been petting and then were forced abruptly to his side in reaction. Mittens meowed, seemed very unhappy with the jostling as well as the sudden lack of petting.

“Sorry,” Virgil said, eyes wide. “What did I do wrong. I didn’t mean to be mean to her.”

It took Patton a moment to sus out what he was talking about and felt a pang in his chest when he did. “Oh, no honey. You didn’t do anything wrong. I meant don’t be mean to yourself.”

 Virgil gave him a confused look. Mittens bumped her head against his chin and with a blink, he cautiously went back to petting her.

“Of course, she likes you sweetie, you’re a good boy.”

“I came here to kill the king. I’ve killed before.”

Patton smiled sadly. “I don’t think you ever wanted to,” he said. Virgil seemed to grow very interested in mitten’s ears. Patton scooted over so he was sitting beside him and carefully brought a hand up to touch the top of his head. Virgil sort of curled into him, pressing his face against Patton’s shoulder, but continuing to pet the cat.

 “It’s fine. You’re going to be okay now,” Patton said softly.

Virgil shook his head against Patton’s shoulder.

“Yes,” Patton insisted. “You’ll be okay. You won’t have to go back.”

Virgil didn’t respond for a long moment. “You can’t keep me in Logan’s closet forever,” he said softly. “When his dad comes back, you’re going to have to turn me in.”

Well, that was true, but… “It’ll be okay. No one will hurt you.”

“The kings would be assassin?” Virgil asked skeptically.

“Thomas is nice. He’ll understand.”

“He’s nice to you. He’s nice to Logan. Maybe he’s even nice to the people he rules over, but what am I? An enemy assassin who would have slit his throat if I hadn’t gotten the wrong room.”

 It…it did sound bad when he put it like that, but, but… “Thomas will understand,” he promised, hugging him tight. “He will, and we’ll keep you safe and I’ll introduce you to every single cat in the castle. In fact, we’ll get you a cat to keep as a pet if you want and he or she can snuggle you as much as you want. I’ll show you all around the gardens and introduce you to Mama and help you figure out what your favorite type of cookie is. You’ll never have to hurt anyone again and no one will ever hurt you again.”

 Virgil drew away a bit and shot him a half smile. He clearly didn’t believe him, and it made Patton’s stomach twist a bit. Patton knew. He knew Thomas would be nice. There was no way he’d hurt Virgil. Virgil was just a kid and with Logan and Patton on his side, there was no way anything bad would happen to him. He could see it from Virgil’s perspective though.

“I like her feet,” Virgil said, touching Mittens’ little black paw that contrasted her otherwise white coat. Mittens purred and began kneading his legs again with those paws. “I’m guessing that’s why she’s named Mittens?”

“Yeah,” said Patton softly. “‘Cause she looks like she’s wearing mittens.” Virgil leaned forward to kiss her little head and that little action made Patton’s heart ache for him. He deserved so many kitten kisses. So many.

Patton was determined to make sure he got them.

  Chapter 16

“Well done,” Logan complimented when Virgil looked up at him for approval. It was the first time Virgil was trying to make the protection charms without Logan’s instructions. Logan was of course still in the room in case he had questions and the boy had a written set of instructions next to him, but for the most part Virgil was doing it on his own.

“Now,” Virgil said squinting down at the paper next to him, “we wait for 35 minutes.”

“Fifty actually,” Logan corrected offhand, focused on his own potion.

“Oh, yeah, right,” Virgil said. He grabbed the timer and set it for the appropriate time.

 Then, he stepped away from Logan’s nontoxic potion station. Logan saw him edge a bit closer to peak at what Logan was working on, though he was careful to maintain a distance. Logan wasn’t sure if this was because he’d been warned of the possible harmful substances Logan sometimes used at his experiment table or because he was worried Logan might not want him to approach.

Logan looked up at him. “You can come closer. Nothing here is very dangerous.”

Virgil nodded and walked over to peer at the boiling pot. “What are you making?” he asked.

“I am once again attempting to invent a potion that will reliably remove cat hair from surfaces,” Logan said, glancing over at Patton.

 Patton looked up from the bracelet he was making and stuck his tongue out at Logan.

“I can never seem to find an adequate solution,” Logan said.

“The solution is to accept all parts of kitty love!” Patton insisted.

“Or maybe the solution is to exile you from my room for the rest of time,” Logan muttered. Patton chose to ignore him and go back to working on the bracelet.

“Do you want any help?” Virgil offered Logan.

Logan smiled at him. “I’m actually almost finished with this step and there isn’t much left to do but thank you.”

Virgil nodded. “Oh, okay,” he said. He shifted back and forth a few times.

 “You’re well on your way to mastering this potion,” Logan said. “I was thinking that next I could teach you how to make a tracking charm. I marked a passage about it in the book on that shelf.” He gestured to one near the station Virgil had been working at. “Why don’t you go ahead and read that while you wait?”

“The…” Virgil said. “The green book?”

“Yes,” Logan said. “I left a bookmark in the correct page.”

“Um… yeah, sure. I’ll go… read that.”

Logan nodded and turned back to put the finishing touches on his own potion as Virgil walked away.

 Logan finished up his potion up after a few minutes and covered it to let it simmer. He looked over to see that Patton had flopped onto his back, still working on the bracelet and Virgil had sat near to him with the book on his lap open. Logan walked over to them.

“What do you think?” Logan asked.

Virgil glanced up at him. “Erm,” he said. “Looks good.”

“Which option do you like better?”

“…The second one.”

“Really?” Logan asked, surprised.

“Uh… yes?”

“I’m surprised,” Logan commented. “I figured you would shy away from the ones that required a blood sacrifice.”

Virgil’s eyes widened. “Oh,” he said. “I… didn’t notice that. I would like to not do that one, please.”

“You didn’t notice?” Logan asked. “Half of the entire first page is dedicated to a discussion of it.”

There was a beat of awkward silence.

“Virgil,” Logan said. “Can you read the first paragraph on that page?”

 He grimaced.

“You can’t read?!”

“Logan, tone,” Patton snapped when Virgil flinched.

Logan took a breath. “I am not upset that you cannot read, but what have you been doing for the past week when I have given you written instructions for the protection charm potion?”

“Not… read it.”

“How have you been making the potion?” Logan asked.

“I just remember the steps, and if I’m not sure I ask. You’re usually distracted enough that you barely notice.”

“If I had known this, we would have done a completely auditory explanation.”

“Sorry.”

Logan sighed. “You didn’t need to pretend, Virgil.”

 Virgil blinked up at him. “Sorry.”

Logan just shook his head. “There is nothing for you to be sorry for. In fact, you are the one who is owed apologies from many people in your life for a multitude of reasons.” He knelt down to take the book from him. “Here,” he said. “For now, I will read this passage to you while we wait for the potions to finish brewing. Later we can talk about changing my lesson plans in reference to the potions as well as adding reading lessons into your schedule.”

“You… want to teach me how to read?” Virgil asked.

 “If you are willing,” Logan replied. “It’s a useful skill to have and opens up many doors.”

“I don’t know if I’ll be any good at it,” Virgil said with a frown.

“If you can memorize an entire potion recipe from start to finish with inadequate vocal instructions, I’m sure you can learn the alphabet perfectly well.”

“Okay,” he replied sounding a bit doubtful.

“And once we get you to an appropriate level, I’ll let you read a book about stars I enjoyed in my youth.” He seemed pleased with that prospect, and Logan smiled at him. “For now though, let’s read this together.”

 “Okay,” Virgil said. Logan opened the book in his lap and started to read. He noticed that Virgil was leaning over to look at the page despite the fact that he couldn’t read it, and so he began to point to the words as he read. His reactions to the words on the page were honestly quite funny when Logan caught them. His nose would scrunch up in confusion every time he thought an instruction nonsensical, and he’d squint his eyes at the words as though willing the sounds and letters to connect in his head. Logan wouldn’t be surprised with his memory if he had parts of it memorized by the end.

26422

After a few minutes of reading, a light weight descended on Logan’s shoulder. Virgil had settled his chin on Logan’s shoulder to peer at the words. Logan did his best not to draw attention to this fact and shot a glare at Patton when he clearly noticed, sitting up to smile widely at them. Luckily the boy was sensible enough not to squeal as he oh so clearly wanted to. Logan pointed out a picture while explaining what the caption said and then giving a personal antecedent. Virgil touched the page curiously and asked a question about the story before laying his head back down on Logan’s shoulder. They continued in this way until the potion was finished.

  Chapter 17

Virgil’s suspicion was growing. Logan and Patton seemed to have something planned. Luckily, whatever it was didn’t seem to be malicious, at least, Virgil hoped it wasn’t. He truly didn’t think that Patton had it in him to be so clearly excited about anything cruel. He also didn’t think Logan had it in him to be cruel, he was just was better at masking his excitement.

“What?” Logan asked innocently when Virgil gave him a pointed look the second Patton left to do ‘something’. Virgil would almost believe he truly wasn’t planning anything if it wasn’t for the way his lips twitched just a bit at the corners. Virgil glared harder.

 Logan dared to laugh lightly at the expression on his face. “Come here,” he requested. “Patton wanted me to make you pick out a book for him to read to you tonight since, I quote ‘You’ve gotten to read him all sorts of stories the last few days.’ I attempted to explain that it was not purely for fun, but he insisted.”

Virgil grumbled, but wandered over to look over at the books laid out on Logan’s bed, settling his chin on Logan’s shoulder. “What do they say?” he asked.

Logan pointed to each in turn. “Five Dragons and a Flame. The End of May. A Stone in the Meadow. Or you can continue to read The Never-ending Garden.”

 “I want to finish The Never-Ending Garden,” Virgil decided.

“Good choice.”

“Now will you tell me what you’re doing?” Virgil asked.

Logan just chuckled. Honestly, it was like he didn’t know that he had an assassin right next to his carotid artery. “Why do you think something is happened?”

“Patton’s a shit liar.”

“Be careful,” Logan said. “I might just have to tell him you said that.”

“Then I’ll tell him what you said when you accidently dropped the lavender into that potion,” Virgil threatened back.

“Hmm,” Logan said. “Truce?”

“On that,” Virgil agreed, “but you still need to tell me what’s going on.”

 “It is a surprise. A nice surprise,” Logan informed him. He looked at Virgil’s face. “Don’t pout at me.”

Virgil had not been aware that what he was doing was pouting, but he did whatever it was harder.

“Patton would murder me,” Logan claimed, “but I suggest you try that on him the next time you have a chance. You will certainly get whatever you want.”

Virgil sighed and gave up, figuring he’d learn whatever the surprise was soon enough. He chose to flop down on top of the pile of pillows on the floor that had been laid out already. It was his fourth ever slumber party and the first had only been a week ago. He did not know much about slumber parties, but that felt like a lot.

 Goodness, it had already been two weeks. He looked up at the ceiling. He felt safe here. He felt like he didn’t need to watch Logan’s every move as he organized things in his room, but it wasn’t going to last, was it? The king was set to be back in a week. Virgil needed to actually attempt to escape soon. He hated that fact. He didn’t want to leave, and he certainly didn’t want to go back. Maybe he wouldn’t. Maybe he’d figure something else out, but no mater what, he did have to escape, and soon. He looked over at Logan who was slotting the books Virgil hadn’t picked back into place on the bookshelf. Not tonight.

 There was a knock on the door in a familiar pattern, and Logan walked over to open it for Patton. Virgil sat up to shoot a confused look at the giant thing that Patton rolled in.

“Ta da!” Patton said excitedly.

Virgil blinked at him.

“It’s food,” Logan explained.

Virgil perked up immediately. That must be a lot of food if he needed that to carry it.

“I know you haven’t gotten a chance to try a lot of different foods, so I asked Mama if I could use the kitchen earlier today and made a bunch of different type of food samples for you to try.”

 That sounded like literally the best idea in the universe. These people were very good at surprises and Virgil would not question them again ever for the rest of his life (or, well, the next couple of days he was around them before he tried to escape and either managed it or died a bloody and painful death).

Patton seemed to feed off of Virgil’s excitement, practically vibrating himself as he gestured to different parts of the cart. “We have a bunch of types of cheese and crackers, mini sandwiches, different smoked meats, six types of pasta, and every leftover I could find on this shelf. On this shelf, we have things with hot sauce, things with spicy dry rubs, curries, and things with a lot of peppers. I’ve ordered them by spiciness level so we can what you can handle, and we’ll only go as far as you want. Then this shelf is a bunch of types of cookies, mini cakes, pies, and ice cream!”

 “We are not starting with the sweets,” Logan said firmly.

“But Lo!” Patton whined.

“We do not want to make him sick, do we?” Logan asked.

Patton pouted. Virgil honestly had no preference. All food was good food in his experience.

“Fine,” Patton said. “We’ll start with the cheese.”

They had him sit back in the center of the blanket pile and handed him little portions of things. Some of the cheese tasted weird at first and Patton would giggle at the faces of surprise he made, but Virgil managed to if not like, then tolerate almost all of them.

 Then came the different sandwiches, some hot and some cold and all of the pasta and leftovers. Virgil eyed the plate of fettuccine alfredo long after they had moved on.

“You can have some more at the end if you still have room,” Logan promised with a fond smile. Virgil frowned at him. “You want to try all of the food, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Then you can’t eat an entire plate of fettucine alfredo.”

“Maybe you can’t,” Virgil said darkly.

Logan just rolled his eyes and passed him another plate.

Eventually they moved on to the next shelf full of what was deemed ‘spicy food.’

 “Part of this is figuring out what level of spiciness you can handle,” Patton said. “So, tell us when it gets to be a bit too much and we’ll move on two the deserts. Also, milk helps wash the spicy stuff that so drink some if you need to!”

Virgil nodded and accepted the first dish on that rack.

Virgil, it turned out, liked what they called “spicy” food even though some of it made his nose run a little bit. It was kind of fun to eat them, honestly. Some of them hurt a tiny bit, but they also tasted really good. It was strange.

“I am impressed and horrified,” Logan said when he finished that shelf. “Do you… have nerve endings in your mouth?”

 Virgil shrugged. “Well,” Patton said, sounding pleased. “Now it’s time for the best part! Assuming you still have room.” Virgil nodded immediately and Patton handed him a plate he’d covered with chunks of cookies he’d torn off. He ate every single one of those and then went through the rest of the deserts. Everything was fantastic and he’d like to investigate a few of the cakes once more, but…

He pointed insistently at the fettuccine alfredo.

Logan shook his head but handed it over. “How many stomachs do you have?”

Virgil did not care to respond, choosing instead to shove his mouth full of pasta.

 When he was done with that, he laid back to relax and digest the food, feeling very content. Logan and Patton had also eaten a bit of the different dishes and were finishing up themselves.

“You good there?” Patton asked after a moment of Virgil just laying with his eyes closed.

Virgil nodded.

“Did you like your surprise?”

“Uh huh.”

“It seems he will not be doing any of the other planned activities for a little while at least,” Logan said. “So now might be a good time for you two to read,” he suggested. “I’ll get the rest of the food stored in case we want something more later.”

 “Okay,” Patton agreed. Virgil didn’t open his eyes, but felt Patton settle next to him. Virgil rolled slightly, so his head rested against the side of Patton’s leg. A hand touched softly down on the top of Virgil’s head and Virgil heard a page flip. “So, let’s see. I’m not sure when exactly you fell asleep last time, but how about we start at the Troll Bridge?”

Virgil hummed his ascent.

“Okay,” Patton agreed as he started to read. “‘Melly stepped onto the bridge backwards while sticking her tongue out at Al, but Lydia’s eyes widened as a large looming figure stepped up behind her….’” Virgil listened happily to him read about the four children. He liked this book. He hoped they managed to finish reading it before Virgil had to go.

  Chapter 18

They made it all the way to the big blowout between Al and Melly where Melly got mad and left the group to their fate in the magical garden by the time Virgil awakened completely from his food coma (he’d never actually fallen asleep, or at least he always responded when Patton asked) and squirmed around for a bit before sitting up.

Logan hadn’t been particularly interested in the story he’d heard many times before and was reading a book of his own on Patton’s other side, but he put a bookmark in his book when Virgil sat.

“Want to take a break from reading?” Patton asked. “We can do a bit more later, but we have more than just food and books planned for tonight.

 “Okay,” Virgil agreed easily.

“Great!” Patton said clapping his hands. “We’re going to introduce you to the most fun sleepover party event ever!”

Virgil tilted his head.

“Dress up!” Patton said. “Also make-overs. We’ll do you first and then we’ll help you learn how to help pick out other people’s outfits and make-up. If you want to, of course.”

“Sure,” Virgil said with a shrug.

“Yay!” Patton hopped to his feet. “You stay here. Lo and I will get everything ready.”

He pulled Logan to his feet and over to the chair that was the perfect height for doing make-up.

 They set up what they’d need for make-up and then Patton instructed Logan to grab the clothes of his they usually used for this sort of thing out the closet that Virgil wasn’t set up in while he grabbed the pieces he himself had brought upstairs and strew them over the bed so they could see anything.

Smiling happily, Patton looked over at Virgil who had stood up in the giant pile of pillows and blankets to watch him with intense eyes. He looked like he was memorizing every action Patton took as though expecting a test at the end. He was so adorable. A rush of affection and a touch of mischief hit him suddenly.

 “Hey Virgil,” Patton said. Virgil looked over at him. “Can I tackle hug you into that pile of pillows?”

“Tackle hug?” he asked.

“I run over and hug you so hard that we fall into the blankets. I do it to Logan all the time without warning, but I didn’t want to confuse you.”

Virgil considered the offer for a couple of seconds. “Okay,” he finally decided.

“Great!” Patton did a little hop before launching himself across the room. He slammed into Virgil, who apparently had very good balanced because they didn’t immediately fall backwards, but then he seemed to remember that he was supposed to let Patton slam him into the pillows, and so he fell back on his own power.

 Patton giggled when they hit the ground and drew back to look at his face. “I got you!” He leant forward to kiss him on the nose. “Oh wait! I should let you fight back.” He propped himself up on one arm and held out the other hand. “Pinkie promise not to hurt anyone if I let you use the 3rd setting again?”

“Pinkie promise,” he agreed with a grin, linking their pinkies.

“Great!” Without hesitation, Patton did the hand motion to allow the restraints to be in the third setting.

Patton was on his back almost instantly, but he didn’t even have a chance to think about worrying before Virgil pressed a kiss to his nose in a mirror of what Patton had done a moment before. “I got you,” he said proudly.

 “So, you do,” Patton agreed with a laugh. He reached up on of his hands to card it through Virgil’s hair. Virgil leaned into the touch and then practically melted on top of him. “Virgil,” Patton laughed. “It isn’t nap time.”

He grumbled something unintelligible into Patton’s neck making Patton giggle more.

“Sweetie, please.”

Thankfully Logan saved him from the unrelenting cuddling by poking Virgil in the side. “I have finished preparing the stations for the makeover and dress up. You need to get up now.”

Virgil made a noise that sounded like a growl, but he did roll off of Patton.

 Patton hopped to his feet and helped Virgil up before pulling him over to the piles of clothes. “We pick the outfit first, but you don’t put it on. Then, we do your make-up and hair based on it. Then, we get you dressed and do touch ups. Okay? Pick anything you want.”

Virgil looked over the options, eyes going a bit wide. “It…” he said. “It all looks really fancy and expensive. Are you sure you want me to touch any of it?”

“We wouldn’t be offering anything we didn’t want you to touch,” Logan said gently. “In fact, I insist you touch all of it. Beyond just appearance, making sure the texture of the fabric is agreeable is a large part of this activity.”

 Patton picked up one of the pieces of fabric he knew was very soft and offered it to him. He touched it with careful fingers, his eyes lighting up at the feel of it. They had to continue nudging him into feeling the different fabrics, and he hesitated when they asked him to pick his favorite at the end, but eventually he shyly pointed at a dark purple dress.

Patton clapped. “Great! Ooo, I already have some ideas for make-up that will go with that.”

Virgil let Patton pull him over to the chair they’d set up and settled down on it.

29009

Patton hummed. “I think silver and purple make-up mostly?” he said.

Logan nodded and they grabbed a few things from the make-up kit. Logan let Patton do most of the make-up as he tended to be better at the more creative parts, but Logan was the one who gave him the fancy winged eye liner with purple sparkles because he was really good at them.

“You look fantastic!” Patton squealed when they were done. He held up a hand mirror for Virgil who studied himself in it for a long few moments. “Do you like it?”

“It’s really nice,” Virgil confirmed. Patton smiled and hugged him.

“Next hair. We have a lot of accessories. I’ll let you pick from the purple ones.”

 He and Logan sorted through the jewelry box full of different hair accessories for the royal family and ended up finding three purple ones. Patton hesitated a bit over one of them, but Logan picked it up and set it in front of Virgil for him.

“Your choice from these three,” he said.

One was a purple feather with little hooks to braid into hair, one was a smattering of purple and silver stars that would weave through the back of someone’s hair, and the last was a string of silver leaves with purple tips that would wrap up the back of a person’s head from a bun.

Virgil thought for a moment and then pointed to the one made of leaves.

 Patton glanced at Logan who took the hairpiece. “I’ll do your hair right for that one,” he said. “I know how it fits.”

He grabbed the brush and carefully ran it through Virgil’s hair. Virgil seemed to like the attention, leaning into the touch, and a smile flickered over Logan’s face. Logan started gathering the hair together to make the low bun that would be the base of hair arrangement. Patton honestly did not expect him to speak, but then he did as he started to secure the piece with pins.

“This was my Pa’s favorite hairpiece,” Logan said. “Not the father you came here for, but my other one. He died when I was six.”

Virgil went shock still. “I don’t have to...”

“I wouldn’t have let it be offered if I wasn’t okay with you using it,” Logan said.

 Virgil didn’t move as he finished securing the hairpiece. “There,” Logan said when he was done. He picked up the hand mirror and positioned it so Virgil could see. “It suits you.”

“I…” Virgil said. His eyes were wide, and he clearly didn’t know what to say.

“Now,” Logan said. “I believe there are some other pieces of jewelry that would match this very well in the other room. I…” he turned away. “If you will excuse me.”

He turned away and exited through his bedroom door into the hallway. Patton watched him go and then turned to Virgil. “I’m going to go make sure he’s okay, okay?” Patton asked. “You didn’t do anything wrong, there’s just a lot of emotions.”

“I can take it out…” Virgil said.

“No,” Patton said. “I think he likes that you’re wearing it.” Virgil bit his lip. “He never really moved on,” Patton felt inclined to say. “This is… a lot for him, but I think it’s good too.” He leaned forward to kiss the top of his head, being careful not to mess up his artfully done hair. “I’ll be right back.”

He turned to follow Logan out of the room.

  Chapter 19

Thomas sighed in relief as the door to the royal wing finally came into sight. He was exhausted from his journey to Lamir for many reasons. Beyond just the physically taxing journey, he’d also had to deal with the emotions of loosing someone he had thought of as a friend while also trying to help her young daughter who had just had the crown thrust upon her.

Now he just wanted to see his own child and curl up into bed. He smiled at Owen and Kalani as he approached. “Is Logan here?” he asked.

Owen nodded. “The prince and his royal advisor are having a slumber party.”

Thomas smiled. “Of course, they are,” he said.

 He said goodnight to the two guard as they’d be getting off duty soon even if he did manage to drag himself out of his room again tonight and walked past them into the hall.

He walked past the room where they kept the jewels, though was unsurprised to see that the room was unlatched as Patton loved playing around with the different jewelry and had probably left it open when he grabbed them. He was however surprised when his son’s room’s door was thrown open, as Logan usually couldn’t stand for the thing to be open with or without him in it.

 Thomas didn’t think much of it however, and simply walked over to look inside. He was surprised when he didn’t see his son or Patton and instead saw that the only person in the room was a young boy that Thomas did not recognize. He was seated in one of Logan’s chairs and had his head tilted looking at himself in the mirror. He seemed to be trying to get a look at the ornament on the back of his head, and Thomas felt his heart seize a little bit when he recognized the hairpin.

He hadn’t recovered from that gut punch when the boy’s eyes drifted and met his in the mirror. There were a couple of long seconds where the two of them stared at each other in silence.

“Hello?” Thomas finally managed to get out.

Panic. There was suddenly horribly intense panic in the child’s eyes, the likes of which Thomas had never seen before. Thomas could only blink dumbly as he hopped to his feet like his seat was suddenly made of hot coals and then threw himself across the room to the opposite side from Thomas.

He looked around himself, back to the wall and considered Thomas with wildly spooked eyes. Clearly, he realized that he was pinned in Logan’s room by Thomas being in the door.

The boy dropped suddenly and disappeared under Logan’s bed.

 “Uh,” Thomas said, confused and shocked and still a bit in pain from seeing that piece of jewelry in use. He crossed slowly over to the bed and bent down to look under it, moving the bed skirt slightly to the side. He saw a small shaking blob curled up into itself under the bed. “Um, hi,” he said softly.

The blob did not respond except to continue shaking.

Thomas frowned and settled himself onto the floor. “It’s okay,” he said softly. Had he been here stealing things? Thomas had to wonder as he wasn’t sure why someone here for legitimate reasons would be acting so terrified of being caught. Though, that posed the question of how he’d gotten past the guards, and why Logan hadn’t noticed him. “I’m not mad,” Thomas said. “You’re fine.”

The boy looked up briefly from his knees looking terrified. Thomas tried to smile at him gently, but that just made him hunch into himself more, his breathes coming faster. That wasn’t good.

“No, shh,” Thomas said softly. “It’s okay. I promise it’s okay.” He did not seem to believe him, and Thomas winced. What was he supposed to do? He couldn’t just leave him here but trying to talk him down himself didn’t seem to be working.

Luckily, a familiar voice spoke from behind him then. “Dad?” Logan asked.

Thomas looked back at him. Both Logan and Patton were standing at the door, a couple of pieces of jewelry in their hands. They seemed very surprised to see him.

“You… seem to have a guest,” Thomas informed them.

 “I…” Logan said, beginning to edge into the room like he was expecting something to blow up at any moment. “Yes.” He got to Thomas and squeezed himself between him and the bed, putting a physical barrier between Thomas and the boy. Confused, Thomas took a couple of steps away without challenge. “That,” Logan glanced behind him. Patton had moved to the opposite side of the bed from Logan and Thomas and had gotten to his knees to look under it. “That is Virgil.”

Thomas blinked at him. “Virgil?” he asked.

“He’s… new to the castle,” Logan explained. Patton started speaking softly the boy, but Thomas could not make anything he said out. “Patton and I… invited him to a sleepover.”

“The guards didn’t mention anything,” Thomas said, sure that they would have warned him if there was a stranger in the royal wing.

“Uh, well, Virgil is… shy and we didn’t think you’d be back for another week. So, we snuck him past them.”

“Shy?” Thomas asked doubtfully. That was a lot more than shy.

“Particularly of adults,” Logan said.

Thomas took a moment to let that sink in. “Oh.” He was… scared of adults. Thomas could imagine many reasons why that might be the case and none of them set well. “I see.”

“Hey, no, sweetie, stop that,” Patton said, sounding distressed. Patton had managed to draw Virgil out from underneath the bed, though they were both still mostly hidden behind it and Thomas had no question in his mind that if he went to step towards them, Virgil would be back underneath it in a moment. Currently the boy seemed to be clawing at his own head. “No, baby shh,” Patton said, trying to stop him from tearing the pinned in hairpiece out, Thomas realized. “I’ll get it out,” Patton promised him. “Just calm down and let me do it.” He sounded close to tears, and Thomas couldn’t particularly blame him with the way the boy was acting. “You’re hurting yourself, baby.”

He must know, Thomas realized. If Logan had known he was here, then he must have allowed him to use that hairpiece. He’d probably even told Virgil that it belonged to his dead father. Now he was probably terrified that Thomas would be mad at him for touching it, especially when he’d come in to find Virgil alone without Logan to explain.

Patton managed to get all the pins undone and placed the piece delicately on the bed before wrapping himself protectively around the boy and hushing him.

Logan was looking back at them as well. He looked between the puddle of upset on the floor and Thomas. “Could…” he said. “Could I maybe come and see you in a few minutes, Dad?”

“Of course,” Thomas said. “Of course, I’ll go wait in my room. Take as much time as you need.”

He was careful to move slowly as he stepped towards the door, so the poor thing didn’t notice him move and mistake it for him approaching. He closed Logan’s bedroom door softly behind him feeling even more drained than he’d been before as well as anxious and a bit sickened. He went to his own bedroom to wait for Logan.

  Chapter 20

Logan let out a slow breath as his father closed the door behind him. That could have been very, very bad. He turned his attention to Virgil and Patton. Patton had curled himself around Virgil as much as physically possible and had tucked the boy’s head under his chin.

Logan slowly rounded the bed and knelt in front of them. “It’s alright,” Logan said, cautiously moving to put a hand on his shoulder. Virgil didn’t pull away. “I asked him to leave. It’s alright.”

Virgil tilted his head slightly too look at him. Logan rubbed a circle into his back as he slowly got control of his breath.

 Logan smiled softly at him and reached out to touch his cheek with a gentle hand. “You… didn’t hurt him. You didn’t even try to hurt him.”

Virgil shook his head.

“Why not?” Logan asked curiously. “It was a perfect opportunity.”

“Promised Patton,” Virgil mumbled, and the idea that perhaps the thing that had saved his father’s life was a pinky promise just about gave Logan a migraine, but then Virgil ducked his head. “And it would make you sad.”

“I see,” Logan said, heart in his throat.

Virgil kept looking towards the floor, his eyes starting to fill with tears again. “Are you going to turn me in now?”

 He was shaking and barely holding back a fresh wave of tears. Logan knew of course that no one would hurt him here if he turned him in to his father and the guards, but he also knew that Virgil would be terrified if he did so. He was already terrified. Logan didn’t want to know what he thought the fate Logan would be condemning him to.

“No,” Logan said before he could even truly think it through. “No, I’m not.”

“You’re not?” Virgil asked.

“Well, there wouldn’t really be a point, would there?” Logan asked. “The reason we planned to turn you when father got back in is because you posed a danger to him, but you have just demonstrated that is no longer an issue.”

 “Really?” Virgil asked, sniffling a bit and Logan saw Patton’s arms tighten even more around him.

“We will have to figure out a better cover for you than just that you’re new to the castle, but I believe it will work fine. No one besides the two of us would ever guess your origin anyway.”

“S-so I can stay?” Virgil asked, “and you won’t throw me into prison or execute me?”

“I promise you were never going to be executed Virgil,” Logan said. “Even if we turned you in, but yes you can stay with us. We’ll figure out a backstory for you that doesn’t involve assassinations and you’ll have to keep up the lie, but I doubt anyone will question it.”

 “I’ll do whatever you want,” Virgil said, chocked up. “Thank you. I really didn’t want to go.”

“Well, you’re our friend now so there will be no going anywhere,” Patton said kissing him on the cheek. Virgil relaxed back into his hold, pleased with the affection.

Logan smiled at them both. “Can I see your wrists, Virgil?”

Virgil blinked but offered them and Logan tapped the restraints doing a quick incantation. They popped off after a moment.

“You’re letting me go?” Virgil asked, eyes wide.

“Of course,” Logan said. “We’re not just going to keep you prisoner for no reason.”

 “That’s…” Virgil said, eyes watering as he clearly was trying not to cry. “You’re the best people I’ve ever met.”

“I wish that was not so clearly the case,” Logan replied. He slowly reach up and set a hand on his shoulder. “I’m going to go speak with my father. Patton will stay with you.”

“Okay,” Virgil agreed, seeming a bit hesitant.

Logan smiled softly and leaned forward to gently touch their foreheads together. “I will be right back,” he assured. “We will finish our slumber party, though perhaps we will table the rest of the dress up activity for another night.”

 He stood then, leaving Virgil in Patton’s capable hands to exit his own bedroom and cross the hallway to his father’s. He took a brief moment to compose himself before knocking on the door.

“Come in,” his father called.

Logan opened the door to see his father sitting on one of the armchairs in his room. Despite the almost disaster that had taken place a few minutes ago, Logan found himself smiling at the man. It was nice to have him home.

“Sorry about that,” Father said.

“It was more my fault than yours. If I knew there was a risk of you coming home today, I wouldn’t have left him alone.”

 “Is he alright?”

“I believe so,” Logan answered. “Patton is with him and will certainly smooth out any lingering distress.”

“Good,” his dad said. “That’s good.” There was a pause and then he gestured at the seat beside his.

Logan settled himself down on it. “How was your trip?” he asked. “You’re back a week early.”

“Yes,” Father said. “The trip went better and worse than anticipated.

“How so?” asked Logan curiously.

“Well,” Dad said. “The purpose of the trip was to convince the new queen of Lamir, Cecil not to ally with Mocnejsi, but by the time I’d arrived there wasn’t really a risk of that.”

 “Why not?”

“After investigation, it turned out that Cecil’s mother had been poisoned by an assassin from Mocnejsi.”

“Oh,” Logan said, mind already racing.

“They figured out that one of the young women who had been hired on in the kitchen for the winter had done it, and had learned her origin when they questioned her,” Dad informed him. “Considering Cecil was immediately approached for an alliance with Mocnejsi, their aim was likely to manipulate her going forward because of how young she is. Luckily, Cecil is a smart girl and has the help of her mother’s advisor as well as her own. By the time I got there, my only real role was to extend my condolences and reaffirm out alliance. I would have stayed longer, but the possibility that Mocnejsi may think to attack us in a similar way hastened me home.”

 “That…” Logan said. “That is wise. I assume you are going to institute more security.”

“I am, yes,” Dad replied. “I would like your input on plans in the coming day.”

“Of course,” Logan agreed.

Dad smiled at him, “But for now,” he said, “I think it’s time you get back to your slumber party and I get to finally go to sleep.”

Logan nodded and got to his feet. He leaned over to hug his father perhaps a bit longer and harder than was strictly necessary, but Dad did not seem to mind at all. “Goodnight,” Logan said.

“Goodnight, son.”

  Chapter 21

Virgil woke with something soft but kind of stringy in his face. That was weird. He didn’t know what in the closet would feel like that. In fact, as he woke more he noticed more things that he couldn’t sus out the origin of, particularly the warmth curled up against his side. Curious, he blinked open his eyes. Oh, right. Patton.

The soft stuff in his face was Patton’s hair and the warmth next to Virgil was the rest of the boy’s body. Patton had all but refused to let Virgil go last night after Logan had taken off the restraints and Virgil hadn’t minded the attention. They must have fallen asleep together in the piles of pillows and blankets on the floor.

 Virgil brushed his hair gently away, internally (for fear of disturbing him) shaking his head at him. He’d fallen asleep hallway on top of an assassin. He had no self-preservation instincts. He looked at his wrists. It seemed no one had any self-preservation instincts. This of course, included himself as instead of running off when free in case they decided to turn him in after all, he had fallen asleep on the floor with Patton too.

He looked to the side and saw Logan was already awake, reading on one of his chairs. He seemed to sense Virgil’s eyes on him because he looked up after a moment.

 “You can get up if you like,” Logan said. “He is a heavy sleeper and won’t wake up if you squirm out of his grip.”

Virgil frowned, unsure if he wanted to risk it.

“I have breakfast ready for you.”

Okay, Virgil was going to risk it.

He carefully squirmed out of Patton’s grip, leaning down to press a kiss to his forehead in apology for leaving him before getting to his feet.

Logan handed him a plate of eggs and toast when he walked over and gestured to the chair next to him. Virgil sat there to eat while Logan continued to read.

 Virgil ate his food quickly, and then glanced over at Logan once he was done. Virgil was honestly at a bit of a loss. Usually, they came and got him out of the closet only once they were ready to do something, but Patton was still sound asleep on the floor and Logan looked engrossed in his book.

Virgil fidgeted slightly, unsure what he should be doing or even if he should be doing anything. Considering Logan hadn’t given him any instructions, he should probably not do anything. He didn’t want to screw up the first day of… whatever this was now.

 Logan glanced over at him after a few minutes. “Don’t forget about the potion,” he reminded.

Virgil nodded and stood, walking over to the closet since it would still be in there from the previous morning. It was about half gone now and it had gotten to the point where Virgil didn’t feel any immediate affects from it anymore other than some warmth. It basically just felt like drinking tea.

He said as much to Logan when he walked back over to him.

“That’s good,” Logan said, “it means it has been working. It has healed any damage it can from malnutrition. Any internal organs that were damaged should be mostly healed. You may even notice your eyesight getting slightly better. Your immune system should also be boosted. You will likely also find it is easier to gain muscle and while you likely will never be as tall as you could have been, you will likely still grow a few inches during your next growth spirt.”

 Virgil studied his hands where they were sitting on his thigh now as though he could see the changes that allegedly had already taken place in his body. “Thank you,” he said quietly.

“Of course,” Logan replied, eyes already back on his book like it was some normal thing and not a huge kindness he’d bestowed on Virgil before even really knowing him. As though Virgil didn’t just owe him more than just his life going forward.

They sat in silence then for a few more minutes, before the was a soft sigh from the floor and Patton started to wake. He sat up and looked around. His eyes landed on both Virgil and Logan sitting together and he seemed to light up.

 “Good morning!” he chirped.

“Good morning, Patton,” Logan said as Patton popped to his feet, “I have breakfast for you.”

“Thank you Lo,” Patton said, throwing his arms around Logan’s neck, and giving him a kiss on the cheek. Virgil presumed from the lack of surprise on Logan’s face that this was normal for morning Patton, not that the fact surprised him considering how night Patton acted.

He still managed to be somewhat surprised by the fact that Patton turned to hug Virgil a second later. Patton’s lips were pressed briefly to Virgil’s head and then he turned to grab the plate Logan had saved for him.

 “So, what are we doing today?” Patton asked.

“I was thinking Virgil and I could continue our reading lessons if he is not opposed,” Logan said. Virgil nodded, happy with that prospect. “Other than that, I have no plans. I have already spoken with my father before the two of you woke. He is going to spend most of his day catching up on things he missed and said I could take the rest of the day off royal duties.”

“A whole day to relax then!” Patton said, happily chewing on his toast. “Reading sounds fun, but we should do something more active too.”

 Logan hummed. “We can show Virgil the courtyard after the reading lessons,” he said.

It took a moment for it to register, but then Virgil froze. “Wait,” he said. “We’re going outside?”

Logan raised an eyebrow at him. “Yes.”

“So, we’re leaving your room?”

“Are you alright with that?” Logan asked cautiously.

Virgil nodded quickly.

“Oh,” Patton said at his enthusiasm. “I guess you have been cooped up a while, haven’t you?” He smiled sadly and turned to Logan. “Maybe we can do reading lessons in the garden.”

“That would be satisfactory.”

“Great!” Patton said. He looked over at Virgil. “If we’re going out, we should probably put your hair up and get you in some clean clothes.”

 Logan nodded. “You finish eating, and I will help Virgil find something to wear.”

Logan found him an outfit, though it was a bit baggy on Virgil and the hem of the shirt went halfway to his knees. When Patton finished breakfast, he sat Virgil down and carefully worked a brush through his hair.

“Can I braid it?” Patton asked.

Virgil hummed his consent. Having his hair brushed and done up by another person was a lot more enjoyable than he’d anticipated. He’d liked it when Logan did it the night before, though he had to very firmly push away thoughts of where that led.

 “Okay!” Patton said after a few moments. “You look good. Ready to go?”

Virgil nodded and they both led him out into the hall. He paused before they got to the door. “What about the guards?” he asked hesitantly.

“I’ve already given them the same story as I did Dad,” Logan replied. “They know you’re here.”

Virgil still hesitated.

“It’s okay,” Patton promised. “Here, hold my hand?”

Virgil took the offered hand immediately, and Logan stepped in front of them both. Virgil felt himself relax a bit knowing the prince was between him and the guards.

They led him to the door.

 Logan greeted both of the guards at the door, and they said good morning back. Both of them glanced at Virgil curiously for a moment making him shrink into himself, but they quickly averted their gazes.

Patton pulled him past them without incident and soon they were in the small dining hall Virgil had passed through his first night here. He remembered how he’d snuck around at the edges of the room in the shadows with the aim to kill the king, but now he was being pulled through the middle with the prince having just wandered past the royal guards in broad daylight like it was nothing.

 It was so strange, and Virgil still couldn’t totally believe this was happening. The retraced his exact steps back down the spiral stairs near the kitchen and out of the door he and the nice gardener had came through. He could even see the shed he’d been hiding in from here. With a blink, he remembered they were going to the garden, and he wondered if he’d see the man again.

For now, he just looked around them as Logan and Patton led him past the garden shed towards an area with many trees. Orange and yellow leaves were starting to fall from many of the trees.

 They made a satisfying crunching sound under his feet as he was led to a tree. He had seen the group of trees when he’d first arrived here and had even thought about hiding amongst them instead of in the shed, but they’d seemed scary in the dark. They were pretty in the daylight, however, and Virgil found himself tilting his head to watch the branches sway in the slight wind.

Logan sat down under it and pulled out a book and some writing materials from the bag he’d brought. Virgil settled down next to him so they could both look at the book at the same time and Patton flopped down on the other side, immediately setting to work tying fancy knots in the yarn he’d brought with him. Patton shuffled slightly to the side so they bumped shoulders as Logan opened the book and started Virgil’s reading lesson.

  Chapter 22

Patton bit his lip to keep from laughing or awing. “Do you like the flower, Virgil?” he asked.

Virgil glanced up at him briefly and then his eyes returned to the flower he’d found. “It’s nice,” he said.

They’d finished the reading lessons and let Virgil explore the garden a bit. He’d found a dark purple and yellow flower (a pansy, Patton thought) and seemed to be endlessly fascinated by it. He’d been staring at it for minutes now, almost as though he expected it to do something. Patton did not quite understand his interest, but he was still adorable.

 Logan sat next to him and the flower, smiling at him softly. “I imagine you’ll enjoy the garden in the spring,” Logan said. “There are many more flowers then. Of all types. We’ll have to show you all of the best spots. Mr. Deknis has a particularly good eye for colors, and it is always quite beautiful.”

“Who is Mr. Deknis?” Virgil asked.

“He’s the head gardener,” Logan said. “He’s a nice man, though a bit prickly when it comes to his garden. We may see him today if he’s in this part of the garden.”

“Would he have been the multrum I saw in the gardening shed when I hid there?”

 “Ah, yes, that would be him. I was unaware you interacted with anyone in the castle.”

“He caught me in his garden shed, but he wasn’t mean,” Virgil said, he tilted his head curiously at Logan. “Why…” he trailed off.

“Yes?” Logan asked.

“Why is he the gardener?”

Logan looked confused, “Well,” he said, “I guess because he wants to and is good at it.”

“No,” Virgil said with a frown. “I mean. Shouldn’t he… he’s…”

Logan seemed to think hard for a moment. “Right,” he said. “You’ve been under a blood compulsion. I’d guess you would have only worked with multrums in the military.”

 “I guess I didn’t realize that they could be other things…”

“Of course, they can,” Logan said. “Their abilities don’t make them any less of people. Mr. Deknis likes to garden so he gardens.”

Virgil blinked at him.

“…Of course, all things considered, that may not be a familiar concept to you.” Virgil turned back to look at the flower instead of answering. “Right,” said Logan.

There were a couple of awkward beats of silence. Patton bit his lip and happened to glance up. “Oh,” he said. “Speaking of Mr. Deknis.” He gestured to the gardener who was coming up the path between the trees.

 Logan sat up on his knees as Patton waved at him. He saw Patton and turned to walk towards them. “The two of you had better not be up to mischief in my garden,” Mr. Deknis called, his voice a bit gruff. He clearly did not see Virgil who had laid flat on his stomach to stare at the flower.

Logan rolled his eyes automatically. “We were just reading Mr. Deknis,” he said. “Your piles of dirt are safe.”

“No mud cakes?” Mr. Deknis asked skeptically still coming towards them.

“It has been a literal decade…”

Patton saw when Mr. Deknis was close enough to see Virgil.

 He stopped in his track and looked down at Virgil who was already watching him a bit warily. “Hello,” he said, his voice a lot softer than it’d been a few moments before. His expression completely flipped in a moment to something very gentle when he saw Virgil and the cautious look on his face. Virgil did seem to have that effect on people.

“Hi,” Virgil replied.

Mr. Deknis looked at Logan and then at Patton and then back at Virgil. “This is our new friend, Virgil,” Patton offered.

“Hello, Virgil,” Mr. Deknis said with a nod.

“Virgil, this is the gardener Mr. Deknis.”

 “He’s not nearly as grumpy as he sounds,” Patton assured.

“Well,” Logan said, “yes he is.”

Mr. Deknis shot him a look that only served to prove Logan’s point if Patton was being honest. Logan just smiled back. Mr. Deknis apparently decided to let it slide because he turned back to Virgil.

“It’s good to see you again,” Mr. Deknis said. “Are you feeling better?”

Virgil nodded. “I’m a lot better,” he said. Mr. Deknis considered him for a moment, clearly reading how true that statement was. Patton was glad he seemed satisfied with the answer.

“I see you’ve met these two.”

 “Yeah,” Virgil said.

Mr. Deknis smiled slightly. “Be careful with this one,” he said, pointing to Logan. “He’s a bad influence.”

Virgil frowned in confusion. “He’s the prince,” he pointed out.

“And a bad influence,” Mr. Deknis repeated. “He’s a beacon of irresponsibility and mischief and he corrupts that one,” he nodded to Patton.

“I am completely responsible,” Logan replied.

“Need I remind you of the cucumber incident.”

“I was 8,” Logan said.

“I know how old you were,” Mr. Deknis replied, “and you are hardly any older.”

“I resent that.”

Mr. Deknis just smiled and turned back to Virgil who was watching the interaction with pure curiosity.

 “I just picked a few more of those apples for Patton’s mom to make into apple sauce. Would you kids like some?”

Virgil glanced over at Logan and Patton.

“That would be nice, thank you,” Patton replied for them all, standing up. Seeing that, Virgil also climbed to his feet.

“It’s back this way,” Mr. Deknis said, inclining hid head back the way he’d came and then turning to lead them that way. Patton followed him. He glanced back to see Logan put his hand on Virgil’s shoulder and give him a gentle push to get him going. “So, what are you kids up to today?”

 “We wanted to show Virgil the garden and courtyard,” Patton said. “He’s been cooped up inside for a bit.”

“I see,” Mr. Deknis said. He glanced back at Virgil. “Feel free to come out in the garden anytime you like. As long as you don’t go about purposefully destroying stuff, I don’t mind you being out here.”

“I won’t destroy anything,” Virgil promised instantly.

“Well I hope you manage to keep that attitude even while befriending the large upright groundhog behind you.”

Virgil looked a little bit nervous. “He’s just teasing Virgil,” Patton assured. “He loves Logan.”

Mr. Deknis glanced back again and seemed to read the same thing Patton had read on Virgil’s face.

 “Yes, of course,” Mr. Deknis said. “I have simply known the prince for a long time and joke with him in that way often. Logan is aware of that.”

“Indeed,” Logan agreed, his hand squeezing a bit on Virgil’s shoulder. Virgil relaxed a touch.

Mr. Deknis stopped and reached down into a bucket next to a tree. “I wouldn’t offer my apples to people I don’t like,” he said, tossing an apple underhand to Logan. Instead of trying to catch it, his eyes widened and he dodged out of the way.

“You would however throw apples at them despite knowing they have never been able to catch things.”

 Mr. Deknis just rolled his eyes fondly, but Virgil frowned and turned to Logan. “You don’t know how to catch things?” he asked scandalized. “You should know how to catch things. What if someone throws a knife at you?”

Mr. Deknis looked… probably the right amount of concerned about that statement coming from a 14-year-old’s lips.

“Haha, yeah,” Patton said awkwardly. “Maybe you can teach Logan how to catch things Virgil, but later. Right now, why don’t we just get the apples and then show you the courtyard.”

Virgil was still frowning, but he did not argue with Patton’s suggestion.

 Thankfully, Mr. Deknis did not push, though Patton did have to dodge many a meaningful side eye. He might… need to make sure he did not get cornered by the gardener in the coming days… or brush up on his lying without lying skills.

For now, though, he just handed out the apples, not tossing them this time. Virgil thanked him softly and Patton could see the way the usually fairly gruff man went all melty at that. He even slipped an extra apple to Virgil for later which Virgil perked up at.

Patton and Logan pulled him away gently after that so Mr. Deknis could go back to work, but Virgil seemed happy with the apples and copied Patton at waving goodbye to him cheerfully.

Despite the fact that he liked Mr. Deknis and he’d been nice, Patton still took a calming breath when they were no longer at risk of lying about something and getting caught by the man’s powers. They went back into the castle towards the courtyard.

  Chapter 23

Logan was unsurprised that after showing Virgil the large courtyard, Patton almost immediately decided to instigate a game of tag. They were, after all, here with the goal of getting Virgil a bit active after having had him only in Logan’s room for weeks.

He was also unsurprised that Virgil seemed confused about the concept of tag, and Patton had to explain the game in detail to him.

It made him wince, but he still was unsurprised when Virgil went about inquiring after the consequences of losing the game.

He was, however, very surprised when, after getting all of the facts about tag settle, Patton was chasing after Virgil trying to tag him and suddenly the boy disappeared.

 Patton almost ran into a wall in his confusion. He stared at his hands stretched out and just a couple of inches from touching the wall for a moment, before slowly looking up.

“Virgil!” Patton exclaimed. “What?”

“What?” he asked.

“…What are you even hanging onto?”

“The wall,” Virgil replied.

Logan walked closer to the two of them and tilted his head up to look at him. Virgil had jumped up and somehow managed to find hand and foot holes on the seemingly smooth wall. He climbed about 5 meters above their heads and was peering down at them curiously.

 “Okay,” Logan said. “New rule. Virgil is not allowed to scale walls during tag.”

Virgil frowned down at him. “Why only me?”

“Because Patton and I cannot do that anyway,” Logan said. “We would not be able to actually play if you remain up there.”

Patton glanced over at him and reached over to touch Logan’s shoulder. “No tag backs,” he said. Logan glared at him. “Why don’t you come down sweetie?”

“But Logan will tag me,” he said.

“Well, honey, that’s part of the fun,” Patton reasoned. “Don’t you want to try being it?”

Virgil seemed to consider this for a long moment. “Okay,” he agreed.

 To Logan’s terror, he simply let go of the wall, falling straight down and landing crouched. He blinked at Logan. Right. With a start, Patton took off, so he’d have a head start. “No tag backs means a 10 second head start for me,” Logan reminded. Virgil nodded, and Logan reached out to poke him in the arm before immediately running off in the opposite direction as Patton.

Logan’s strategy worked out since, knowing he couldn’t go after Logan for a few seconds more, he chose to turn and go after Patton. After finding one of the statues to hide behind on the edge of the courtyard, Logan risked glancing back.

 Virgil was faster than Logan (and likely Patton) had accounted for. Patton had gotten a good head start on him, but Virgil closed it quickly. Patton shrieked as Virgil barreled into him, bringing them both to the ground.

“Virgil!” Logan heard Patton giggle. Logan figured he was more than okay despite the tackle. “This isn’t how you play tag!”

“I combined tag and tackle hugs,” Virgil declared, making Patton giggle more.

“That’s very innovative, honey,” Patton said. “Now are you going to let me up?...Virgil… I’m counting down your 10 second head start in my head, and if you don’t let me up I’m going to tag you again.”

#proofread stories #not writing

[rgmonzon-folio]

From Glass Slippers to Lightsabers

At the tender age of three, I have usurped my parents and became Supreme Lord of the Television set. Under my command, the T.V. blared the Disney Channel 24/7. From what I can pluck from my foggy memories, I would sit at the lowest step of our staircase, swivel the big, black box that was our T.V. to face me, and watch as it blared to a fantastical life with a press of a button.

I hummed along to the music my favorite Disney princesses would sing. I clasped my hands to my mouth at jaw-dropping twists and turns reminiscent to Aladdin’s carpet rides. My heart would pound along with the drum beats as Mulan fought China’s foes. I was completely enthralled in worlds within the black box, which kept me from the lure of potential playmates in our neighborhood of back-to-back row houses. The rubbery clop-clop-clop of their slippers as they chased each other on the eskinita pavement and their shrill cries of taya! were drowned by the whimsical tunes I never grew tired of.

Within the confines of our white walls and beyond the fairy tale renditions of Disney, I learned to create worlds of my own. I learned I could fashion my pambahay garb into gowns as magical as Belle’s and Cinderella’s, I learned to will images and drawings from books to come to life and undertake adventures of their own - under my own terms.

I even learned, despite my still developing skill with my native tongue, to speak English. I pieced together the words Mickey Mouse and friends uttered with their animated actions, and built my vocabulary before I even started going to school. Growing up, my parents would remind me that in my pre-preschool age I would only occasionally ask them what certain words meant - and it wasn’t long before I could speak coherent English sentences on my own.

Language weaved itself into the fantastic world of moving images, and storytelling took to a whole new level. I knew what magic and adventure meant, and I loved it.

It wasn’t long before my parents updated my old, vandalized boxed set of Grimms’ fairy tales - which was gifted to me during my first birthday. You could see it in an old photograph, where I was in the living room in blue jumpers, huddled with a pile of dolls and toys, beside me was the boxed set which I now wish I had preserved better. Luckily my parents eventually gave me other storybooks to enjoy, which got me into drawing as soon as I got school notebooks and crayons with blank pages at the back. At five, despite my scratchy handwriting and drawing skills, I wrote my first story, about Hello Kitty who dug too deep into her garden and found relics of an old world.

Of course you’d think all of these would be an immense advantage once I stepped into school, but with my classmates speaking Tagalog, I only became acutely aware of how different I was. And with the fact that I didn’t interact as much with other children compared to my T.V. screen, social interaction made me want to duck my head into my blouse the way turtles hid in their shells.

But somehow my classmates’ parents knew I could speak English, and they found joy in making me translate phrases into the language, to my utmost embarrassment. They found me smart and gifted, despite never having been on top of the class. Apparently, speaking in English made you smart.

Whenever I was singled out, I would squirm and try to hide behind my mother’s legs, who would in turn coax me to entertain the people fascinated in me. But that made me speak less, in fear of making mistakes and seeming less brilliant than people set me out to be - a trait I still have traces of to this very day.

Going into grade one, I decided not to highlight my difference, much to my mother’s dismay. Everybody else spoke Tagalog, so why should I do otherwise? But for some reason I had been branded, and people could not forget.

I revealed myself in writing, even in my earliest essays. Perhaps this marks the start of my love of the craft and my dream to become a writer, my dream to make people feel what I felt when I read or watched a Disney classic.

I learned to watch more action-packed cartoons in grade school, which aired in the usual Disney Channel. I was then introduced to a new world of heroes. While I did not fully trade my princesses with caped superheroes and super spies, I learned to anticipate stories in sagas when I went home from my classes.

I got hooked on stories of boys and girls with magical powers who fought crime and the dark forces of evil. There’s an allure in the charming protagonists, like Jake Long - the American Dragon, who went to school like me, but would switch to their secret lives through a magical transformation sequence.

American Dragon is one of the most beloved cartoons of my childhood, one that made me faithfully await new episodes as they aired. Its story was more complex than my preschool line-up of shows, as Jake came from a lineage that could transform themselves into dragons, with the task of protecting the magical world from evil, whilst maintaining daily lives as mortals. Plus, Jake still had to go to school. He had a sweat deal.

In that show, evil didn’t simply come from ugly monsters and beasts, as is the usual depiction in fairy tales. There was also evil among the dragons that supposedly protected humans and magical creatures alike, and evil among humans and magical creatures who were supposed to be protected.

These just made me love the story more - sprinkle in the classic subplot of Jake falling in love with Rose, who happened to be of a human tribe sworn to rid the world of dragons like himself, and I was hooked. For a cartoon written for the grade school demographic it was strangely complex (the fact that the main character is a Chinese-American in New York, with an African-American and Caucasian best friend also made it culturally diverse!)

This made me want to write my own novel and work for Disney all the more.

At eleven years old, we finally got access to the internet, which utterly changed the game for me. I was used to appreciating my animated media all by myself, my only companion the white walls of our living room, our Japanese-themed portraits behind the T.V., our wooden sofas, and the cold, green tiles with wispy patterns on the floor.

Internet showed me other people’s feedback on my beloved childhood classics - the shows which honed my hopes and dreams to this very day. People actually hated High School Musical, and I found that utterly heartbreaking.  

I’m not the least bit joking - my anger surged like boiling water in a kettle when I read youTube comments from crude teenagers unabashedly declaring the HSM sucked. It was corny and unrealistic.

And I could not have it.

In turn I did some bashing of my own when High School Musical’s biggest rival came out - Camp Rock. I hated the Jonas Brothers with a passion on the sole grounds that they threatened the popularity of the High School Musical cast (which is ironic, because I later on learned to love the brothers’ sitcom Jonas L.A.)

Upon discovering fanfiction, I even learned that my writing ability was heaps and bounds behind other people my age, and becoming a famed author and a Disney employee became bigger and bigger of a stretch.

In a nutshell, the internet ruined my life.

I even made it a point to avoid movie reviews of the films my favorite Disney actors would star in, in fear of the jolting pain and anger I would feel at the critics’ responses. That is until I matured, if only by a fracture of a degree, to try not to let these words hit me personally. In the first place, it was strange, since they were never really addressed to me, but to my favorite films and shows, and yet I would feel like they attacked my family with bolos.

Looking back on my pre-teen self makes me laugh, knowing how truly childish I was. Thankfully as i went into my later teens, I learned to accept criticism for my beloved films, after all, it is a basic requirement for a subject in college called English 103, or Critical Writing.

College had went out of its way to shatter many of my previous beliefs and providing me with lenses with which to view the world. With several workshop classes, I received criticism for my own works, which in turned helped my to hone my future projects. However, the attachment I felt, and still feel, towards my favorite films and shows is natural, as I write this very moment and trudge through the BA Communication Arts program because of them. I guess I just learned to accept their flaws when putting them under a critical lense.

I learned that Disney made better and better films because they learned from their criticisms. Had they not, girls would still be passively waiting in the towers their stepmothers locked them in for their princes to save them. Now we have Rapunzel in Tangled, a girl with agency who chose to climb down her tower to free herself from Mother Gothel’s abuses. Rapunzel became not a subordinate to her male love interest but a partner. We’re also blessed with Moana, a Polynesian heroine that depicts non-Eurocentric beauty, with her thicker limbs, her rounder face and nose, and her curly, windswept hair. She didn’t need a man to complete her.

Now I could say with ease that Cinderella had been sexist with lines like “Leave the sowing to the women!” Ariel in the Little Mermaid had absurd motivations, as she was willing to sacrifice her entire life for a stranger she’d just met, whose only known quality was his good looks. I do admit I still need work accepting that Mulan is sexist due to its adherence to the gender binary, this film is an absolute favorite, but I recognize I still need to be objective, as what the academe didn’t pay me to say.

And yes, I came to realize that High School Musical is unrealistic. Also, my English proficiency didn’t make me a smart student or a better person, as college slapped in my face. And I’m okay with that.

I am thoroughly relieved I moved on from my pre-teen phase. Now I have discovered more groundbreaking shows and films, which defy the standards of a hero (with the emergence of an anti-hero,) the binary opposition between good and bad (with morally ambiguous characters,) the very idea of storytelling (with experimental forms of film and stories,) and so much more.

Eventually I picked up a lightsaber with the Star Wars saga, which is a whole new epic experience, given the classic original trilogy and the mess of a prequel trilogy. It was a new brand of fantasy for me, yet still equipped with the epic adventures and heroes of my childhood. I am less protective of this series however, as I was before my childhood faves. I may have a crush on Anakin Skywalker, if only for his brooding looks, but I could still recognize the acting for him was flat and robotic. And while the prequel storyline had great potential, the execution was poor, specially with the script’s dialogue.

But that only prompted the creators to redeem the saga with an epic seventh episode, with a fantastic heroine in the form of Rey, a complex villain in the form of Kylo Ren, and a possibly gay romantic subplot between Finn and Poe.

In my journey from glass slippers to light sabers, I learned that being told that you suck could help you not to suck in the future. Criticisms for films, books, T.V. shows for that matter, aren’t meant to put them down, likewise workshops in writing classes aren’t meant to have your work’s flaws pointed out so you would quit writing forever. Criticism was meant to make the future body of art better, serving as reminders for creators not to make the same mistakes.

Right now, I’m glad professors and peers have told me what needed fixing in my writing classes throughout college. Otherwise, I wonder if I’d ever make it to my senior year...

#nonfiction

[and1she2will3be4loved]

A Bad Day

Also, yes, it’s on ao3

The wildest thing about Taako’s two cats is how intuitive they are? Like they know when he’s panicky and needs one of them to lay on his chest and purr his breath back into him. They know when he’s sad and needs both of them to kiss his tears away and bring him toys to play with. They know when he’s anxious and needs to lie in bed with company and Fantasy Netflix for a few hours. Right now, they’re sitting at the foot of his bed and he’s watching them give each other a bath. He doesn’t want to be touched, but he doesn’t want to be alone, and it’s as if they somehow know that.

They aren’t service animals per se – they’ve never been trained. He rescued them both at different times of their lives – Panther when he was an old man and living in a tiny room of the Fantasy Neverwinter Humane Society with thirty other cats who will probably never be adopted, and Princess shortly after she had been hit by a Battlewagon and the Fantasy Vets were going to put her down because she was too small to survive the head trauma. He hated the idea that each of these two cats would die alone, never knowing the full capacity for love and life they could have if he could just take them home.

So he adopted them and gave them every toy and treat he could find – they had cat trees all over the house, an entire room dedicated to soft surfaces and boxes to lay in, a fucking water fountain for their water dish. He learned that Panther preferred chicken and Princess liked seafood so he had separate food dishes for each of them. They lived the most elegant of lifestyles.

And in turn, this must be how they thanked him? With soft snuggles every night and the pitter-patter of their feet down the stairs to greet him whenever he came home.

He sighs and scoots down further into the bed into a laying position, angling his body so that he can watch Fantasy Friends on the TV at the foot of the bed. He’s not really paying attention – he’s seen every episode 10 times. It’s more just background noise to his thoughts.

He pulls the softest blanket up to his neck and sighs into the scent of laundry detergent. The shuffle misplaces the kitties a bit, so they snuggle up to his legs – Panther next to his feet and Princess into the space between his knees and thighs.  

He hears the creaking of a door opening into the den and knows that it must be Magnus returning from work. He imagines how disappointed his boys must be to find that he once again has not prepared them dinner and is instead hiding in their shared king sized bed. He pulls the blanket up higher to hide his face, like that’ll prevent them from finding him.

Magnus always arrives home shortly after 7:00pm, and Kravitz does his best to get off roughly around the same time even though time doesn’t work the same way in the Astral Plane. He’d synced a watch to what he calls Taako Time after their second date and hasn’t taken it off since. It makes Taako feel worse to know that he’s put so much effort into keeping up with Taako and why can’t he even just cook him fucking dinner in return – he’s been home all damned day what the fuck is wrong with him.

Taako feels the tears fall over his lashes before he can even realize he’s crying and Panther creeps up to his face to investigate.  He ends up burying his face into the soft black fur while Princess presses her body into the nook between his knees, purring loudly enough to vibrate his whole body as if to say “I love you, I love you, I love you”.

He hears the telltale rip that signals Kravitz’ return home and then hears some quiet greeting between his two boys, mumbled through the walls and doors between them.  The cats don’t even move from their places to greet their other owners, which should be a sign to the boys in and of itself.  

Taako imagines the two of them embracing and asking each other can almost hear them ask how their days went: “Kravitz, how was your day?” “Oh, it was splendid, love, I was able to slay so many necromancers and save our plane of existence for yet another day from the horrible atrocities they were trying to attempt. And how was your day, darling?” “That sounds AWESOME! I had a great day today, too, training dogs and what not! I also left work early so that I could help a local finish building her house by hand! Boy am I hungry, I hope Taako’s cooked us a great dinner!” “Me too, I am just beat from all of my work today – hey why don’t I smell anything?”

Taako’s ears droop low as he tries to convince himself that the conversation is just in his head – he can’t hear what they’re actually saying, and they don’t even sound like that in real life, why is he just torturing himself by imaging what they’re saying? But instead he drapes an arm around Panther and curls into a ball. Princess gets up to step to his front so that both cats are laying right in front of him and he can curl up into a smaller and smaller being and maybe even stop existing.

He hears clanking from the kitchen and assumes that at least one of the boys has given up on Taako ever cooking for them and is just going to do it himself.   The murmuring of voices seems to has dropped to a level he can barely even detect with his elf ears, if they’re even speaking to each other at all. Maybe they’re not. Maybe they’re too mad at him to speak.

Magnus comes into the room first, after what feels like seconds but also could have been an hour. He fumbles around in the dark – he doesn’t have night-vision like his boyfriends do – and sits on the foot of the bed.  The light from Fantasy Friends lets him see the lump of blankets that he assumes is Taako’s body.

“Hey,” he whispers quietly from the edge of the bed. Taako doesn’t respond, just closes his eyes tightly.  “You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to. Can I come cuddle, though?”

Taako ponders for a moment, but decides that there are worse things than having a big lug to share his bed with him. He nods. He feels Magnus crawl up the bed, kicking his shoes off in the process. They thunk onto the floor. Magnus carefully nudges himself under the blanket that Taako is under, sitting up so that Taako has the option to pull himself onto Magnus’ chest or to stay where he is if he’d prefer. It doesn’t take long before he chooses the former.

Magnus starts rubbing slow circles onto Taako’s back, and that combined with the slow breathing help Taako to unclench some of his muscles. He finds he’s able to uncurl and lay more straight as the minutes (seconds? hours?) pass.  

As one hand makes continue to make their circles, Magnus’ other hand comes up to run fingers through his hair.  Taako winces at that – he’s probably greasy and disgusting – and Magnus backs off immediately.

“Sorry,“ he whispers, and brings his hand back down.

“No, I’m sorry. I’m disgusting”. Taako’s first words since the morning come out scratchy over his raw throat.  The feeling makes his eyes well up again. He thought he was done with the crying.

“Baby, you are not disgusting. You are perfect and I love you so much” Magnus whispers back and pulls Taako closer to his chest. Taako’s ear rests right above his heart, and he listens to his heart beat for a little while.  It’s soothing all on its own.

After another measure of time, which Taako feels might have just been a few minutes, there’s the sound of Kravitz padding down the hallway and the room fills with smells.

“My love, how are you feeling? I made some beef stew if you’re feeling up for it” Kravitz enters the room with a tray that holds three bowls, each steaming with a big spoon jetting out over it. He sets the tray on the dresser next to where Magnus is laying, picking up one of the bowls.

Taako looks up at Magnus, who is basically salivating like a dog, and chuckles at how blown his eyes are just looking at Kravitz’ definition of “comfort food”. He sits up and gives Magnus his arm back so that he can take the bowl that Kravitz is holding.  He takes a big bite, but then almost immediately spits it back. Kravitz looks a mixture of amused and mortified.

“Magnus, that soup is piping hot! Be careful!” he chides, a bit louder than any of the boys had sounded all day. “Yeah, I fucking – I fucking guess so! I burned the roof of my mouth off!” He sputters, handing the bowl back to Kravitz, offended. “Ummm, I don’t think either of us want to eat your spit soup. You’ve claimed it now” he responds without moving to touch the bowl. Taako watches the whole interaction amused, sitting up a bit more and then reaching towards the dresser for a bowl of his own. Kravitz stands again, grabbing another bowl and blowing on a spoonful of soup to lean across Magnus and feed to Taako.   “Here, my love. I don’t want you to burn your mouth too” he smiles. Taako’s the master chef in this house, but Kravitz knows how to make a mean Beef Stew. He smiles as the broth hits his palette. “UNFAIR you didn’t blow on my soup!” Magnus pouts. Kravitz sighs, looking at him like he would a child. He begins to blow on another spoonful of soup. “I can feed myself, bubelah, but thank you for cooking,” Taako interjects quietly, moving his hands to take the bowl away from Kravitz. Kravitz hands over the soup and picks up his own meal.

The three of them eat in silence – save for the animal slurping and sounds of delight from Magnus, of course. He finishes his bowl first and moves to get off the bed. “Dude, did you make any extras? That’s shit is delicious” he leans over and kisses Kravitz as a thank you before making his way back to the kitchen. Kravitz watches Taako eat. Taako flushes.

“I’m sorry” he whispers, barely audible over the Fantasy Friends still playing on the TV. “Whatever are you sorry for, my love?” Kravitz asks, setting his bowl down on the dresser and scooting up the bed to be closer to Taako.   “I don’t know I just… didn’t do anything today and you guys were out working and shit and I know you come home and expect to have a meal waiting and I just… I didn’t do that and I-“ “Dove, we expect absolutely nothing from you. Where did you ever pick up that idea?” Kravitz hushes, putting his hand on Taako’s knee. Taako’s ears droop.  “You are allowed to have days where you don’t do anything. You are even allowed to call me up on my Stone of Farspeech and ask that I come home and do nothing with you” “Me too,” Magnus pipes in from the door, already devouring another bowl of stew. “You are the light of my life – of our lives. We love you so unconditionally” Kravitz finishes, looking into Taako’s eyes. It feels like he’s staring into his soul.

Panther brrps his agreement from the floor, and Taako looks around the room to smile at him and Princess.

“Thank you” he whispers, and Kravitz takes his bowl from him so that he can pull him into a long, enveloping hug.  Magnus lets them have their moment, before setting his own bowl down on the tray as well and climbing into hug Taako from the other side as well.

“Okay, I’m getting crushed” Taako mumbles into Kravitz’ shirt, and the three of them laugh and separate.

“How about I draw you a bath, and we can spend the rest of the evening pampering and relaxing? How does that sound, my love?” “Taako is always on board for pampering, my dudes! Hell yeah!” he jumps off the bed and starts for the door, both cats following expectedly.

“Umm… maybe you two can go play for a bit?” He says down at the two of them. He winks up at the boys, and Magnus blushes fiercely and looks away to Kravitz. “Taako’s good now”

#taz #taz balance #taz taako #the adventure zone #the adventure zone fanfic #fanfiction #ao3fic #ao3 #taako #taako taaco #taakitz #taagnus #taagnitz #anxiety #panic attack #panic disorder

[wars-of-writing-blog]

Two Persons, Four Crushes

Part 3!

Two Moons, Alone Together

(Notes: I listened to Lonely Together by Avicii and I Hate You, I Love by Gnash. Listen to them before or afterwards.)

FRIDAY

  Thump. Marinette frowned, wiping away her tears and putting down the half-finished sketch. Did, had she heard something…? She glanced at the wall clock, 1:30 AM. It was pretty early, or late and she still needed to help in the bakery today. Tikki peeked over the edge of the loft, looking straight at their chosen. Well that answered that. It couldn’t be an akuma, since Tikki wasn’t hurrying to her side. But it was a good distraction from what had happened today, on Friday no less. Ugh. “Where is it?” Marinette muttered, looking through her desk as softly as she could. She was and was notin the mood to deal with this, it was just a distraction from the thoughts swirling in her head “Clumsy, shy”-stop! Marinette shook her head. Aha! Pepper spray in hand, she crept up the stairs to her loft, laying her weight on it as gently as she could. Marinette nodded for Tikki to get behind one of her pillows, who readily obliged. Not an akuma, the only people who would be on her roof at this time at night were most likely burglars. She would be ready.

  Channeling some of her Ladybug confidence, soft as a quiet breeze, Marinette lifted up the window hatch and peeked through. Green eyes blinked at her, a wide grin underneath them. “OH HELL NO!” She sprayed them in the face, their yells intermingled with hers as they scrambled away. Marinette ducked down, slammed the hatch shut, and locked it. Well, if they were trying to scare her, they succeeded!

  “OW cough HOLY HELL MARI cough NETTE!” She paused halfway down the ladder. Mon dieu, they knew who she was?! This was even worse! What if they broke in and dragged her away? Her parents would never know what happened! What if they broke the hatch and destroyed her room looking for valuables?! What if- “Marinette!” Tikki shouted from behind a pillow.

  “Right! Right, right right.” Marinette muttered. Don’t get caught up in the spiral! Someone scratched at the hatch. She grimaced; whoever this was did not let up. But, somehow, that voice sounded sort of familiar…Marinette turned on the lights outside. She didn’t want to be caught unawares again. She opened the hatch again, the person scuttling backwards from it and backing against the balcony railing as soon as she stood up. “I still have pepper spray and I am not afraid to use it.” Marinette announced. She really hoped they weren’t a murderer or criminal, or-don’t spiral! But that voice… Awash in the pale light of flickering lightbulbs that she really should get fixed, her eyes swept along the messy blond hair, black leather suit-“Chat Noir?!” Marinette gaped. What was her partner doing, visiting civilians? And her no less? And why did he have to pick tonight?! At least it was Friday! That was the only silver lining to her situation right now!

  “H-coughhi. Ow.” He waved awkwardly, eyes still slammed close and grimacing. “Any cough any-uh reason cough you attacked one of Paris’s cough superheroes?”

  Okay, Marinette was feeling really bad now, but did he really just ask that question? She slipped the spray in her pocket and cocked her hip. “At one thirty in the morning, can you really fault me for thinking you were a predator? One of Paris’s superheroes visiting wasn’t on my mind.” She winced, stepping onto the roof. “But I am sorry.”

  Marinette snorted as her partner tried to wink, then hissed at the air pressing against his abused eyes. He scratched the back of his head embarrassedly. The motion was strangely familiar. “Heh, cough I-uh-didn’t really think-think cough about that. Did-didn’t cough consider that I would cough make a Princess nervous.” Marinette blinked at the nickname. Princess? That was new. “I’m cough sorry.” His cat ears flopped down nervously. He looked so earnest.

  Her head and her heart fought. She can’t entertain him. She couldn’t, shouldn’t cross this bridge. It was dangerous for them. It was dangerous for Chat to display favoritism with any civilian, especially her. And with what had happened today…Hawkmoth could easily take advantage of the fact. So logically she should just say sorry and send him on his way. She, Marinette, can’t be friends with Chat as a civilian. It was the most logical thing. It was the safest thing. But she was the one who had hurt him, albeit accidentally but justified. She had to help him, it was her fault. And he looked so sad slumped against her balcony… Marinette knew she would hate herself tomorrow, but…it was her own fault. She needed to make it up to him.

____________________________________________

 “So, what cough happened?” Chat asked. Marinette hummed and didn’t answer, instead stashing the pepper spray into a drawer and shutting down her computer. Steam rose from the two hot chocolates cooling on her desk.

  “It says that the effects will wear off in either half an hour or a couple of hours.” She said, climbing into the loft.

  “What are you doing?” Tikki hissed. Marinette frowned.

  “I-I was the one who hurt him! I-I have to help, so, just stay low.” Marinette whispered, grabbing a couple of blankets from her bed. Going back down the steps, she wondered what Chat’s kwami looked like. Maybe a black cat? Since Tikki looked like a ladybug…Hmm, something else to ask Chat next time on patrol. Marinette laid one blanket in Chat’s lap and snorted softly as his ears twitched, trying to tell where she is. Taking both of the hot chocolates from her desk, she pushed one into his hands, taking careful note of his claws. “So you’ll be stuck with me for a while.” Chat frowned. Marinette expected him to scoff, or pun about dragging to the cat in.

  “I like cough being with cough you Princess.”

  Oh. Um, was it getting warm in here? Face heating, Marinette grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around herself. She was extremely grateful now that Chat couldn’t easily open his eyes. Picking up the other hot chocolate from the floor, she leaned against the base of the chaise, Chat cross-legged by her feet. “Is-is that why,” Marinette swallowed. “O-one of Paris’s beloved superheroes is here so early in the morning? I-I doubt Ladybug would approve. And you don’t need, to worry about me.” Marinette spoke around the scratchiness in her throat and warmth in her cheeks. “It happens every day.”

  Chat frowned and shrugged, still not facing her, claws tightening around the mug. He took a long sip. “Ladybug…doesn’t cough know. I-I was cough trying to get home and re-remembered cough one of my favorite civilians lived here.” He sighed, smiling apologetically. “Guess cough I didn’t realize how early it was.”

  “Oh.” She was stalling, they both knew it. Marinette just didn’t want to talk about it. She took a sip of her hot chocolate, the warmth sloshing through her limbs. It felt nice.

  “But what happened today to make such a lovely Princess cry?” Chat turned to her, red-tinted sclera staring mournfully. Marinette winced. It will wear off, but still, shehad done that to him. Inwardly, Marinette scoffed. She had seen her kitty’s kitten eyes too many times for them to be effective. The words ‘I’m fine’ were on her lips, expecting him to pun back, when he continued, “Please, don’t pretend to be okay for my benefit.”

  Oh, okay wow. This, this was a different Chat than the one she patrolled with and fought akuma. The Chat she knew liked to goof off and flirt, always cocky and outgoing, taking hits for her. He was always by her side and called her out on her faults, but still had confidence in her. She had never seen this softer side to him. Ladybug had never seen this side.

  Marinette blinked rapidly, trying to shove back tears that threatened to choke her. “It-it was just some stupid words,” A crumpled copy of a smile crossed her face, “It about happens every day, I’m used to it.” She repeated. Chat’s mouth twisted, worry flashing across his features.

  “Well well well. Marinette Dupain-Cheng.” Chloe sneered the moment she walked through the door, “You’re looking as horrible as ever.” Marinette just rolled her eyes and ignored her rival, getting into her seat. Alya gave her a worried look, frowning at the the two mean girls. In the background, Marinette listened to the classroom’s hub of voices, falling and rising.

  Why did Chloe always have to pick on her? It was the last day of the week, last period. Couldn’t she give it a break? Marinette scowled as Chloe planted a hand on her desk, Sabrina following. Alya growled and was just about to speak when Chloe cut in.

  “So you’re a Ladybug fangirl huh? Ha! As if Ladybug would ever look at you. Clumsy, shy, untalented Marinette, always too flustered to talk to her crush.” Sabrina smiled cruelly from behind Chloe. As if on cue, Adrien walked through the door. The entire class stared at him. Two girls in particular balked; one smiled delightedly and the other froze in horror. “Oh Adrikins! Come over here?” Adrien just walked up with a confused smile, it melting when he noticed Marinette. Marinette sunk in her seat, giving him a little wave.

 Alya and Adrien spoke at the same time, “Chloe stop whatev-“ “Hey Chloe, what-“

  “Marinette has a crush on you!” Chloe shouted triumphantly. The school bell rang, and Mrs. Bustier swept in. “Good afternoon class, today we’re studying French classical authors!”

  Alya gasped. Marinette gaped. Mon dieu, what-why?! Why would Chloe do that?! How could she do that?! Marinette turned to Adrien, trying to form words. He was frozen in place, eyebrows taut, mouth stretched in a thin line and about to open. Even in the depths of her shock, Marinette waved her hand. “May I go to the bathroom?!”

  “Um, yes, just don’t be too long.” Marinette bolted, only subconsciously registering Adrien’s and Alya’s cries. She ran into the bathroom, startling a group of troisieme students who quickly left. Marinette locked herself in one of the stalls. She sat down heavily on the seat. Tikki slowly floated out of her purse and said nothing, just nuzzling their chosen as Marinette sobbed.

  “-cess? Marinette? Snap out of it! Please, talk to me!”   “Huh?” She came back into the real world. She stared at Chat confusedly. He was clutching her forearms and bent underneath her, his wide eyes searching hers. She guessed whatever he saw worried him as his frown deepened. What did he see? Did he, could he know? No, no, of course not. She was just spiraling again. He let go and tapped his pointer claws together.

  “Um, can-can I..?”

  Marinette gave him a tired smile and shuffled over to the left. He scooted next to her, looking up every couple of seconds to gauge her reaction. She sniffle-laughed and Chat paused, wide-eyed. Her kitty looked so cute when he was worried about her. He settled into place on her right. Marinette laid her head on his shoulder, and Chat froze. Her heart thumped loudly. She wondered if he could hear it too.

____________________________________________

   A light silence settled over the two, Chat biting his lip. His tail had wrapped itself loosely around her leg. She had started to slump against him, and he watched Marinette’s pigtails bounce with each breath she took. Marinette was almost asleep. She hadn’t opened her eyes in a while. Maybe, maybe he could…? He wrapped his arm around her waist and gently tugged her closer to him.

  “It was Chloe,” A soft whisper broke the quiet. Chat paused and fought down the instinct to shove his hands in his pockets and start whistling.

  “What-what was?” Oh, he knew, he remembered. Inwardly, Chat bared his teeth. He hadn’t known Marinette liked him, though it did explain why she was always so flustered and shy around him. She didn’t hate him like he feared at least. But he didn’t want to have found out through Chloe! And in front of the entire class no less!

  A tiny laugh rattled through her. She evaded his question. “Isn’t it just great? She’s always likes to pick on me. She just likes getting a kick out of it. And I’m used to it! But this-this was…horrible.” Oh Marinette…Don’t cry, please…

  “Just because you’re used to it doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt,” Chat said lowly. He certainly knew how thatfelt with so many things. His father, his crush… “I-I love Ladybug, and she-I don’t think she takes me seriously.” He laid his head against the chaise and stared at the ceiling. “I think about her all the time, as a civilian and as me. Ladybug’s just so amazing in so many ways. She’s so smart, always knowing what we need to do, and seeing her fight is something I look forward to every day. I get lost in her beauty every time I fight alongside her. The first time I saw her, she dropped out of the sky. Literally.” Chat chuckled, his eyes glazed in reminiscence. Marinette hung onto every word. “We got tangled up in her yoyo, so not the best first meeting. But when I saw her in action, I fell for her.” He stopped and grinned at Marinette. She just looked back, one brow arched.

  “When we fought against Stoneheart, she was so unsure. But she kept going anyways, fighting and outsmarting him. And when she stood on the Eiffel Tower, and said that we will always fight against Hawkmoth and save the day, I fell in love with the girl behind the mask. Her courage and determination were stronger than her fear of failure, and that’s just so miraculous to me. But I know Ladybug doesn’t feel the same way as me. I just hope that one day she might. I respect her. I’m willing to wait and see.”

  Chat fell out of his reverie and shook his head. He took another sip of his, now lukewarm, hot chocolate. Talking that long really hurt his throat. Chat looked to the side and froze. Marinette stared at him. Tears shimmered in her aquamarine eyes, blurring little gold flecks around her iris. Ooh shoot, maybe he shouldn’t have declared his love to a girl who was in love with his civilian self…Chat scratched the back of his head, pursing his lips. Yeah, that wasn’t the best idea he had. She buried her face against his side.

  “...” His ears twitched at the sound of her quiet tears. Anddd of course he made her cry. Could he…? Slowly, uncertainly, he stroked her hair. She hummed quietly, it vibrating through his chest and almost making himpurr. He fought down the urge with difficulty. “She-she told my crush I like him. And now he knows, and I don’t know what to do.”

  Chat swallowed. He knew Marinette liked him. But why didshe like him? As a civilian, he was just his father’s polished, pretty model. He had to keep his emotions in check, and his personality. What was there to like? “Why do you like him?” Chat hoped he didn’t sound jealous. From the look Marinette gave him, he didn’t manage it.

“He’s amazing! He’s really kind and can actually put with Chloe. He’s really hardworking, his grades are probably way better than mine. Especially in physics.” Marinette grimaced at the mere mention of the subject.

  “Marinette…”

  “He’s selfless and considerate, remember when he let me play instead of him in the Mecha Strike III tournament? Even though I was trying to play with him, in the first place.” Marinette grinned apologetically at Tikki’s frown.

  “Marinette.”

  “And he’s absolutely gorgeous.” Marinette leaned against a bedpost, a lovestruck smile on her lips as she gazed at one of the posters. She turned back to Tikki, a light blush dusting her cheeks. “Plus, he’s really kind. Do you remember when he gave me his umbrella? But, really, he’s simply a really good person. I’ve never met anyone like him.”

  “….Adrien is all of those things Marinette. But doesn’t he also seem, sad, to you? Lonely?”

  Marinette spoke slowly, her words muffled against his suit. “He’s…sweet, and kind. He puts up with Chloe even though he doesn’t have to, and really shouldn’t. He’s selfless, and considerate. And I don’t think he sees it, and I don’t know how he doesn’t! But really, he’s a good person.” Marinette looked up at Chat, narrowed eyes red with tears and cheeks flushed. His mouth popped in a surprised ‘o’. “Really, he’s like you.”

____________________________________________

  Chat sputtered, pupils thinned in ‘surprise’. “Wh-like me? Noooo….” Was she using him? That was the million-euro question on Marinette’s mind as she stared at her partner. She was Ladybug, and he didn’t know. Or was-was he using her? No. She hadn’t known the extent of his affection for her, for Ladybug.

  But Marinette liked Adrien. And Chat loved Ladybug, and she was Ladybug, but she also isn’t. And she was…knowing that Chat is Adrien, whichmeant that…Adrien liked her. But the way he talked about Ladybug, he was head over heels, happily-ever-after in love with her. Ladybug was the only thing Chat saw. But Chat said he fell in love with the girl under the mask, so... Marinette didn’t know what to think. She was too tired to think. She glanced at the clock, 3:00. And she still had to help in the bakery.

  Marinette yawned and placed her hand on Chat’s arm, cutting through his nervous ramblings. He stared at her, hands stilling and mouth closing. “I’m-I’m sorry Chat Noir, but I have go to sleep sometime. And I’m sure you need to too.” She flicked his nose. Wrinkling it automatically, he mirrored her sleepy smile.

  “Of-of course, I hadn’t realized how early it was.” He tried to get up the chaise and pick her up. Chat swore as instead he slipped on the blanket, crashing on the floor. Marinette gasped. Both paused. With that loud of a sound…Chat’s ears flickered, hearing nothing below. “Sorry, Princess.”

  “Are you okay?” Marinette whispered, helping him up. He nodded and picked her up, bridal style. With a shy grin, he climbed onto her loft and set her on the bed. Marinette slipped under the pink and white covers. She winced at a tiny squeak from Tikki. Chat started climbing out of the hatch. “Goodnight Chat.”

  He paused, halfway through. Balcony light flooded in from the open hatch, casting a warm glow on Marinette. It curved over her black pigtails and gave her a slight halo. It lightened the white pajama top she wore, and caught the slight glint in her drooping aquamarine eyes. Chat grinned and gave her a two finger salute, “Good night Marinette.”

#fanfiction #ml #miraculous ladybug #marinette #chat noir #marichat #fluff #angst