#I mean I guess technically we were the long lost cousins

[hbyrde36]

Life is a Game (and True Love is a Trophy)

ao3 link

Chapter 1

*Eddie  - 1986*

“That was amazing, Eddie!” Will exclaimed, with a wide smile.

They’d been playing for over 10 hours and Eddie was exhausted. He was only a few years older than the other boys, so he knew it was a poor excuse, but he was getting too old for these marathon sessions. Where he felt dead on his feet, the other boys looked like they could go for another 10 hours, no sweat.

It was well past curfew for the younger boys but since it was Saturday, and spring break, it hadn’t taken much convincing to get all the kids' parents to agree to the late session, as long as Eddie got them all home safe. 

The small group said goodnight to Mike and Mrs. Wheeler before walking Lucas next door to his house. Then, Eddie, Dustin, and Will piled into the van. Technically Dustin’s house was closer but Eddie drove Will home first. He liked to drop his cousin off last, so he could stop in and say hello to his aunt if she was home. 

Eddie was a little distracted during the drive. He’d been trying to keep busy for the last few days, anything to help him forget about the fact that it’s the anniversary of Steve Harrington’s disappearance, but today that had been impossible. How could he not think about the guy who inspired one of the main characters in a game they had just spent all day playing?

When it's finally just him and Dustin in the car, he allows some of his thoughts to spill over. 

“It’s one thing that we use ourselves in this crazy story but do you ever think it’s fucked up that we kept Steve as an NPC after his disappearance?”

Dustin shrugged. “I don’t know, I mean, I didn’t know the guy. Mike always said he was an asshole, so, who cares?”

Eddie almost slammed on the breaks, it’s only for the sake of his beloved van that he didn’t. He can’t believe the kid would say something so insensitive.

“Dude he’s like your best friend, how can you say that!?”

“In the game, Eddie. He’s my character’s best friend, in the game . You always take it too seriously.”

An uncomfortable silence fell over them when Eddie didn’t respond, too upset and lost in his thoughts to make conversation. He pulled his van into the driveway behind his Aunt Claudia’s car and shut the ignition off. 

“Mike was wrong, y’know. Steve wasn’t an asshole, not really.” Eddie said, as he followed his cousin up the path to the front porch.

Dustin stopped abruptly, turning on his heel to look at Eddie. “Wait. Did you know him? Were you friends?”

Eddie sighed. His feelings about Steve Harrington had always been…complicated.

“I knew him my whole life. We were in the same grade till I got held back, and it’s a small town. We were never friends, exactly, but I saw him almost every day in school. We talked sometimes in the halls, on the bus. Maybe he was a bit of a dick to people occasionally, but who isn’t? That’s what kids do. He was always nice to me.”

Dustin stared at Eddie like he’d never seen him before.

“I'm sorry, man.” He stuttered. “I didn't know. Why didn’t you ever say anything?”

It was Eddie’s turn to shrug. “I don’t really know. I guess I was trying to keep the real Steve and the game Steve separate in my head. I always thought he’d turn back up eventually. That maybe he’d just run away from home, and someday he would come back when he ran out of money or something.

“It could still be that. It's not like they ever found a body.” Dustin offered, not really sounding like he believed it, but wanting to be supportive.

“It’s been 2 years, almost to the day. The Harrington’s have more than enough money to hire fancy private detectives and shit. If he was alive, they’d have found him by now.”

*Steve - 1983*

Steve Harrington had just started dating Nancy Wheeler when Will Byers went missing. Later, he would be embarrassed to admit it, but at the time he was a little pissed off that she wanted to ditch their date to join in the search for the boy. The kid was probably just out playing and lost track of time or something. Everyone knew Joyce wasn’t exactly the most stable person in the world. He knew Hopper only humored her with this search to get her off his back. 

When he told Nancy as much, she called him an asshole and stormed out. After sulking about it for an hour after she left, he realized she was right. He didn’t want to be that guy. He didn’t want to turn out like his dad. So, he threw some sneakers on and set out to join the search party. 

He walked through the woods looking for Hopper, or anyone else who could assign him an area to search. It started raining before he could find anyone, and he was just getting ready to head back to his car, when he heard rustling in the bushes off to his left. He turned in the direction of the sound, squinting in the dark to try and see if someone was there. He thought he saw movement and then a twig snapped. It sounded loud in the quiet of the trees.

It was so dark out here, he wished he had a flashlight or something. 

“Will?” Steve asked, taking a tentative step forward.

The only response was a quiet gasp from the dark. There was definitely someone there.

In a stroke of pure luck, the moon chose that moment to come out from behind the clouds. Her soft light illuminated things just enough for Steve to make out the shape of a small child with a shaved head, wearing a gigantic yellow t-shirt. This was definitely not Will Byers, but the kid sure did look like she was in trouble. 

“Hey there, I'm Steve. Do you need some help?”

The girl stared up at him with wide eyes. She didn’t answer, but she hadn’t run away from him yet either.

He tried again.

“Do you want to get out of the rain? My car isn’t far from here.” He didn’t step any closer but held his hand out to her to take, or not, whatever she chose.

The girl studied him for a long time. She looked into his eyes like she was trying to read his soul. He didn’t know what she saw there, but it must have been enough to convince her that he was safe. She nodded, pushing her tiny hand into his, and the two of them walked together back to the warmth and safety of Steve’s car. 

-

It wasn’t ideal, bringing the girl back to his house, but at least his parents were out of town. Once he’d gotten her into the car he had tried to take her to the hospital, or at least the police station. She’d shaken her head slowly, ominously, and uttered the first words he’d heard her speak. 

“Bad men.”

Steve didn’t know what to do, he was in way over his head. He needed help. He needed people much smarter than him to tell him what to do. The idea occurred to him to take her to Nancy’s. She was smart, and a girl. Surely she'd be better suited for this, she’d know the best course of action to take. But, the girl refused that too. She seemed to only trust Steve.

Tired, and out of options, he went home. 

He gathered some dry clothes for her, old sweatpants and a Hawkins High swim team t-shirt from his freshman year, and sent her into one of the guestrooms to change. The clothes would be huge on her but it’s the best he could do for now. 

It was late and he kind of expected her to just go to bed once she changed. They could always figure things out in the morning. But, a few minutes later, there she was, standing in his doorway, looking around the room curiously.

“It’s okay, you can come in.” He said, as he shut the closet door. “In fact, why don’t you come sit down. I think we should talk about some things.”

She looked hesitant, but joined him, cross-legged on the floor. She still hadn’t said more than those two words to him but clearly she could speak, and she understood him fine, so he had to try. They’d start small.

“What’s your name?” He asked, voice gentle as he could make it.

She shook her head. 

Somehow he knew it wasn’t a refusal, but more like a confusion on her part. 

He pointed to himself. “Steve. People call me Steve. What do people call you?”

She pressed her lips into a thin line and held her shaking wrist out to him.

He was confused at first, until he noticed the small writing there.

011

“Eleven?” He asked.

She nodded vigorously, a hint of a smile playing on her lips.

That was, well, it was so not good. Shaved head and a number tattooed on her arm. Steve wasn’t a genius but even he knew that something was seriously messed up here. Who would do this to a little girl? Where were her parents?

“Is that what your parents call you?”

“Parents?” She sounded the word out slowly like she was saying it for the first time.

“Yea, like your mom or dad? Mama or Papa?”

“Papa" She agreed, nodding. "Bad man.”

O..k. Well that certainly answered some things.

“Is that why you were in the woods tonight? Were you running from Papa and the bad men?”

She nodded. 

That was enough for tonight, he decided. They were both tired and he really needed some time to think, to make a plan.

“I think we should get some sleep. We can talk some more in the morning. Okay?”

She blinked at him and nodded again. She definitely preferred non-verbal communication. It didn’t bother Steve, he could roll with it. 

“You can sleep in that other room, the bed in there is really comfy.” He said, rising up off the floor as she did the same.

“Where do you sleep?” She asked.

It was a little jarring, hearing her string together a full sentence like that. It was stilted, the way she spoke. Obviously talking wasn’t something she did very much.

“Here.” He answered, motioning to his bed. “This is my room. So i’ll be right across the hall if you need anything.”

She looked over her shoulder at the doorway and then back at Steve. She made no motion to leave.

“Would you rather stay here?” He guessed and there was that little smile again.

“Safer in here, with you.”

Steve’s heart broke. He kind of hadn’t thought about it until that moment, the night had been so full of weird things and it had all happened so fast, he hadn’t realized how utterly terrified Eleven was. He wanted to fold her up into his arms and squeeze her tight. Promise her that he’d keep her safe from the bad men of the world.

But he couldn't do that. He couldn't promise anything when he had no idea what was going on. He wasn’t sure if she would welcome his embrace either, so he held himself back. Instead he got into bed, scooching all the way over to the wall, and then patted the big space he’d left for her. 

She crawled onto the bed and almost immediately curled into a ball. He watched her as she settled on the pillow. She looked so small. He vowed to himself that he would do whatever he could to protect her. He’d hide her in this house forever if that’s what it took. He didn’t yet know what she’d been through, but he knew it was bad, and something no little kid should have to go through.

The rain had turned into a storm while they talked, and it raged now on the other side of his window. A loud crack of thunder startled them both. Eleven was shaking again. Steve laid his hand out, palm up, on the bed between them. An offering of comfort he thought she might accept, since she had taken his hand in the woods.

She hesitated for only a moment before placing her hand on top of his.

Chapter 2

#steddie #steddie fanfic #eddie munson #steve harrington #stranger things #ao3 #steve harrington/eddie munson #steve x eddie #fanfic #ao3 link #life is a game #Canon is just a crazy game of D&D #Eddie Munson and Dustin Henderson are cousins #Steve Harrington is missing #This idea has been simmering in my brain for months

[whathappenedtomyweekend]

It’s Just A Spark Ch. 19 - Hundred Per Cent

Story: It’s Just A Spark

Author: TiliaofAnkh (me)

Read it on ao3 here and on ff.net here

_____________________________________________________

"Hello? Hiccup?"

Hiccup felt his heart unclench at the sound of her voice on the other end of the line and exhaled, leaning against his locker.

"Hey," he mumbled, closing his eyes.

"Everything okay?"

He smirked, his other hand coming up to rub his face. "Yeah, everything's - depends on how you look at it. I'm okay. It's, uh, it's about my cousin, Scott. He … his Dad found out he's bi and kicked him out - after beating him up."

He heard her gasp. "Oh, my God. That's horrible, I'm so sorry."

He sighed. "It's alright, he's been meaning to get out of there anyways. He's gonna stay with Gobber and my Dad for a few weeks until he's found something. But anyway, I was really just calling to tell you I won't be able to make it to come round, I'm really sorry. I've got to be here, for support. Also, he's technically on duty right now so I'm pulling a double shift to cover him."

There were a few moments of silence on the other side, but then Astrid asked, "Does he like tea?"

Hiccup stopped, taken aback. "What?"

He imagined her shrug. "Well, I mean - listen, I don't want to intrude. But if he likes tea, I've got this really nice loose leaf tea blend at home, and I could bring some over. If you'd like," she added and Hiccup's heart did a little jump, chasing a smile onto his face.

"He's more of a coffee guy," he said then, still grinning. "But I'd love a bit of some really nice loose leaf tea blend."

Astrid snorted lightly and replied, "Alright, so one coffee and three teas, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"I'll see you in ten, then."

"Yeah," Hiccup repeated, feeling completely at peace for the first time since he'd set foot into the department today. "Sounds perfect."

Memories of exchanged keys and a way too long work break flooded her mind as she spotted him, standing in the door.

Last time he'd been leaning against it, grinning at her with crossed arms.

Tonight, he was simply stood there. Upon stepping closer to the light, Astrid saw the expression on his face, her heart softening at the sight of him.

"Hey," she whispered into the darkness and gently laid her hands on his shoulders, pressing a light kiss onto his lips.

"Hey," he echoed, wrapping his arms around her just before she could pull away and hid his face in the crook of her neck. "Thanks for coming."

"Of course," She in turn hugged his middle, gently running her hand across his back. "You okay?"

"Yeah," he sighed out, hugging her tighter. "Now I am."

She smiled at that, hugging him a bit tighter as well.

"You wanna go in?" Her voice was quiet in the darkness, and yet echoed through the hallway. He nodded against her and slowly - reluctantly - let go of her. And so she half-led, half-followed him into the command room, blinking as her eyes accustomed themselves to the light flooding the room. Hiccup led her through a door on the left-hand side of it and Astrid couldn't help but get lost in the way he was running his thumb across the back of her hand as he did so, warmth blooming in her chest.

They ended up in a rather small room with a sofa, a table and a kitchen area at the opposite end of the sofa.

"I'll put the kettle on," Hiccup mumbled and strode over to the hob. Astrid watched him carefully as he filled the kettle with water and took four mugs out of the cabinet above him.

He was stood hunched over, hands clenching around the handle of one of the mugs as he filled it with water and spoke, "It's weird, you know – growing up, I knew they had problems at home. But I really thought it was getting better for him."

"When did he know? That he was bi, I mean?"

Hiccup shrugged. "I think he just kind of always knew. But I don't think he always wanted to let it on; not only to others but also to himself. A big portion was just being in denial, I guess. He used to be a bit … difficult. We had some rough patches. Lots of shoving around and stupid nicknames." He smirked. "More stupid than now."

Astrid smiled at that. "I like your nickname. It's cute."

He chuckled and handed her the mug. "Thanks."

His hand laid down on the back of her shoulders as he gently motioned her towards the sofa, Astrid's heart fluttering as they sat down, his arm coming up around her, one of her legs draped between his.

He was staring into his mug for a while, shadows dancing on his skin, almost mocking it. A light stubble grazed his jawline, she realised as she took a closer look in the dim light. He looked tired, distracted.

Finally, he spoke, his voice soft. "Sorry I'm bombarding you with this. It's just … strange, you know? I mean, on one hand I feel really sorry for him because I know how important his relationship with his Dad is to him, I mean … he's always wanted to make him proud and do right by him. And I know," he quickly added as he saw the look on her face. "He hasn't done anything wrong. But in his father's eyes he has. And that's the problem. But you know, on the other hand, I also have the feeling this is gonna be good for him. He's been wanting to move out for a long time, and I think being away from all the judgement is going to do him some good. Having his own space in a couple of months."

"You said he's living with your Dad and Uncle for a while?"

"Yeah – but I mean, it's my Dad and Uncle," Hiccup smirked. Astrid frowned.

"How do you mean?"

He shrugged. "Well, my Dad's pretty chill about most things and Gobber gay. So this is kind of the best environment for Scott to be in right now. Having someone around who celebrates him for who he is."

Astrid hummed. "Alright. Well, to be honest, all of this doesn't really sound that bad – I mean, don't get me wrong, being kicked out is fucking horrible," she added with a slight sarcastic smile on her face. "But you get used to it. And you then have the freedom of being yourself. You can create yourself new, become who you've always wanted to become and stay true to yourself above anyone else."

The look on Hiccup's face was taking her by surprise. She'd expected anything from confusion to pity, but instead, she was met by pure tenderness.

The mug was set down onto the table. He reached out and gently took her hand.

"You've never told me that," he said, softly, his eyes dancing over her face, settling on her own. "Thank you."

Astrid could only stare back at him, completely flabbergasted. She couldn't get the 'You're welcome' over her lips. Instead, she mumbled, "I don't think I've ever said that to anyone. I don't usually speak about this. But I – with you it's okay. Ish. I guess."

He cracked a small grin at her. "Okay-ish? Good enough for me."

She laughed at that, realising how stupid she must have sounded. "Sorry, I didn't mean – you're great. And I like telling you things."

Hiccup hummed, gently resting his hand on her thigh, his face inching closer to hers. "I like telling you things, too."

And with that, he closed the distance between them, their lips meeting in a soft collision, and Astrid closed her eyes, the sound of his heartbeat in her ears.

Hiccup suddenly pulled back, his hand still on her thigh, and Astrid frowned, looking at him with a searching expression. He was looking almost sheepish.

"Speaking of telling you things," he started, quickly reaching out to take a sip of his tea. "I realised something."

"Oh, God," she dead-panned. "Is this the part where you tell me that you don't actually like tea? I don't think our relationship would survive that," she quipped, nudging him lightly. She could see the nervousness written blankly on his face. It seemed more than that – Hiccup looked absolutely terrified. "Should I be worried?" she asked softly then, reaching for his hand. He shot her a small smile.

"I … don't know," he admitted then and ran the other hand through his hair. "I mean – it's just." He stopped, closed his eyes, breathed out and then inhaled deeply. "Do you remember that time I was on emergency response and got a call at like 3 in the morning-"

"You mean literally this morning?" Astrid's voice was as light as she could keep it, and she squeezed his hand, smiling up at him.

Hiccup grimaced. "Right, that was today. Huh. Well – yes. This morning. Well, I realised something. My job is dangerous – like, actually dangerous. Like 'I could die any given day' dangerous. And I just – I don't know, I feel like it's a risk. Being with me. I feel like there's so much at stake, for me being on the job, and for you being in a relationship with me. And I don't know whether you want to take that risk."

She was looking at him, her hand still in his and he couldn't make out the emotions behind her expressions.

"I-" she started, broke off and stopped. Her gaze fell onto their intertwined hands, and suddenly the words were stumbling over her lips. "I get that your job is dangerous, but I – I'd never not be with you just because you've got a dangerous job."

She looked him straight in the eye, blue waves crashing against the shore. "You're worth every risk."

I love you, Hiccup thought and said, "I've never written that message to anyone outside of work before. When I wrote you that I made it out okay."

They looked at each other for a few moments, and before Hiccup could ask her if she really was sure, Astrid whispered, "I didn't go home before I got that text," she looked up at him again, a small smile playing on her lips. "So good job on getting out of there, otherwise I would've made camp here and annoyed Gobber all day."

Hiccup chuckled, feeling all the weight he had felt before falling off his shoulders, and gave her a soft kiss on the top of her head.

"Is that gonna be our routine, then? You pulling all-nighters until you know I didn't get fried?" he smirked.

"Honestly? I'd probably get a lot more work done that way."

He laughed at that and pulled her close again, his free arm coming around her, closing his eyes as Astrid rested her head on his shoulder. "Alright. I'll check in with you about that in a week or so."

"Is that a challenge?"

He laughed at her sudden enthusiasm. "Maybe," he shrugged, grinning impishly. She lightly nudged him in the stomach.

"No, but really though," she continued, her tone getting serious again. "I meant it when I said you're worth the risk. I'm not going to let that stop me from – you know. I'm all in on this."

"One hundred per cent?"

"One hundred per cent."

#ijas #it's just a spark #hiccstrid #hiccstrid fluff #hiccstrid fanfiction #fanfiction #mine #tiliawrites #httyd #httyd 2

[bbnibini]

I came here from your black haired Solomon and eventually read your CYOA and wowowowow I had no idea fanfic can be so creative and out of the box! Literally I read PSISLY for a whole week with my proverbial yarn strings pinned on a corkboard. This is amazing! I even had to borrow my cousin's AO3 account because I couldn't access the other contents and I couldn't wait days before I get a membership. How did you managed to do this and do you have any tips?

Omg yessss Airin did such an amazing job with black haired Solomon! <3 And thanks for reading my CYOA! And also...for a whole week?! 😱 I saw some other people in the comments also mention when they binge this series(there were readers who live commented too and fdslfjsdfdks it made me so happy aaa ;A;!!).

As for advice...sdlfkjsdfj I honestly don't know what to advice. I mean...look at this old screenshot of me agonising over my writing process idkwhatimdoingeitherjdlfjd

I guess the only thing I can say is...go for it? I had no prior experience with CYOAs before this. But I took inspiration from otome games and stat raising otome games like Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side for the formatting.

As I wrote and wrote and done more research (both biblical and canon obm), I got more used to outlining the CYOA format and things kinda just fell into place.

Though it became more and more challenging to write as I get closer to finishing it. (We still have a few more endings left for Barbatos before the final route). In my case, that's my struggle right now. Barbatos' route was definitely super challenging especially OE A because it was so action packed and had so many things going on. Partner that with formatting and coding it, to even crossposting it and coding it again (and the skin failing to show in AO3 because I wrote the code wrong 🥲 now I just gave up lol) and I almost lost my mind haha! (I have more rants about the process below if you're interested, but fair warning, it's mostly complaints about Barbatos' Overflowed Ending A hahaha)

(spoilers for Barbatos' Overflowed Ending A under cut)

The most challenging obstacle I faced was making the timeloop chapters work. It's more than just a repetitive series of chapters. The passages have to make sense and have to integrate with the following time loops perfectly. An example is this passage:

This passage is meant to be vague and meant to represent a sense of familiarity but also longing. The initial draft I had, actually contained a confrontation scene between MC and Author (I had to scrap it because it ruined the continuity), which was then revised to a line which says,

"I think I read this (the letter) before, but I can't remember where."

...then another revision until you have what you have now.

You can see nuances of this paragraph gaining different meanings in the time loops. So yeah. There's definitely a lot of technicalities involved in writing them. There's many other examples but I'd leave it for you to figure out! c:

The length of the timeloop chapters is also meant to be tediously long to represent how maddening, exhausting and egregiously long-winded it was for MC to experience it, while also showing how determined Barbatos was to keep you stuck in it forever so you wouldn't leave him. c:

#ask #obey me #obey me fic #i rambled #non gave me a chance to complain about oe a and i took it hahaha

[c00lkidvibes]

Braids

camilo madrigal x reader

desc. this is just a little snippet, even tho there is no NSFW in this short, both the reader and Camilo are 18, but are still in school. do not read if you are under 18. the reader is insecure about her hair, and camilo slowly encourages her to become more confident with her hair being down. Don’t even know if that makes sense lol, but have at it anyway.

Ever since you were a little girl, you had always been insecure about your hair. It was dark, thick, curly, and untamable. You hated anyone touching it, especially when your mother tried to brush it down or fix it. The only solution, is braiding it every single day. You hated braiding your hair. It made your arms tired, it took a lot of work since it was so thick. But, that’s how it had to be.

And that’s how it was this morning, trying to braid your mess of a hair, while your best friend, Camilo Madrigal, of the amazing Madrigal family, was standing in your doorway, waiting to walk together to school. He was the only person aside from your family who was allowed to see it down. You’d known him since you were 4, you watched him get his gift, watched him reunite with his long lost uncle, Bruno. You trusted him with your life, so, he could see your hair.

“I really don’t understand, amor, you look so beautiful with it down… it’s obvious you don’t like doing this every morning.” He says, while sitting on your bed, staring at you through your mirror on your vanity. You blush slightly at his nickname for you, sigh, and answer, “Camilo, we’ve been through this. I hate how it looks, and everyone else does too.” He looks at you shocked, and slowly says, “You.. really think that? Y/N, I can’t believe you just said that.” You turn around confused, you had never heard him speak in that tone. You decide to just shrug as an answer. You tie the final braid with a tie and stand up, Camilo standing up with you.

The whole day, you had been analyzing his words, his tone, the way he said that. He sounded… wounded. Like he thought you were conditioned to think that way of yourself and your appearance. You never had any other problems with yourself, just your hair. You couldn’t figure out what his deal was.

At lunch, you sat where you normally sat, waiting for Camilo. After a few minutes, you saw him walking over with the usual, at least 10 arepas. He always got extra because he shaped himself into other people. You laughed a bit as he struggled to balance them on his plate. “Wow Camilo, you ever leave any for anybody else?” He looks at you, with a fake angry expression, and jokes, “Of course not! I mean technically, in the Lunch Lady’s eyes, everyone’s eaten.” He smiles at you, and you blush again.

When you were 10, you finally realized what your true feelings were for Camilo. You never acted. He had dated girls here and there, you never really got too interested with anyone else. It was always him. You were always too shy, though, so you buried those thoughts deep down. You never thought he felt the same. Of course, there were moments. He had asked you to dance at his little brother’s gift ceremony, of course his sister and multitude of cousins hassled him about it for AGES, but you never thought it meant anything. He has always been there for you, and you for him, purely and platonically, even if you always wanted more.

So finally, the school day ends, and you and Camilo were walking back home. You always went to his casita, his home, to hangout in his room and sometimes have dinner with his huge family. As you two sit on his bed, in his huge room, all expertly decorated to his abilities and aesthetic, you felt him staring at you. “Y/N, can we talk about something?” Once you made eye contact with him, he asked that, and quickly looked down at his sheets. “Yes, of course Camilo, what’s up?”

“I just feel like you don’t appreciate yourself, especially your hair. And I know it sounds cringey, and I’m sorry, but you’re perfect. In every way. I guess I’m just saying I don’t understand.” He rambles, and you just stare at him. “Camilo, I believe every word you say, but I just don’t know. I’m so used to hiding it. I hate it, i do. I just feel like I need it.” You speak softly, and unexpected tears prick your eyes. You had never given so much thought to something as simple as hiding your hair. You were so used to it.

“Please, amor, do not hide yourself. Ive been wanting to say this for awhile. I love you, so much, for forever I’ve seen you hide yourself. I can’t bear it.” He looks down quickly, and you look at him shocked. He had said I love you before, never like this though. This felt different. “Camilo, I love you too. I will think about it.” Your mind is racing, did he mean it as friends, something more? Why did you say it back? You gather your things, wanting to go home and think things over.

The next morning, after a long night of consideration, you wake up, and decide that maybe, it is time for a change. You grab some hair products from your mother, and begin working. It takes 10 minutes of work, but… it looks.. amazing. You stare at the mirror and you feel beauty like you’ve never felt before. You look back through the mirror, and see Camilo, standing in your doorway. But, this morning, it’s a small smile.

“Mi amor, you look gorgeous. Come here.” He says, and motions with his hands for you to come to him. You hug him, and he leans back slightly, so the both of you are eye to eye. He stares a bit before speaking, “Dolores may or may not have told me… she heard you rambling… about whether or not I meant what I said last night.” He pauses and continues, “I meant every word, Y/N, I’ve loved you for awhile.” You look at him, smile, and lean forward so your foreheads are touching. “I love you too, Camilo. No more braids, no more lying to myself, and no more lying to you.” You say softly, and as he listens to your words, he holds them in his mind, in his memory, as he slowly leans forward and kisses you.

As you two are walking to school, hand in hand, you think to yourself that maybe letting down your hair wasn’t the worst thing in the world.

an. ha. i don’t even know if this is good or if it’s all over the place but… here it is! just felt like writing it. thank you for reading of you got this far!! lmk what you think!

#camilo madrigal #camilo madrigal x reader #camilo fanfic #encanto 2021 #encanto x reader #encanto #encanto camilo #camilo x you #camilo disney #camilo encanto #madrigal

[theoreticslut]

When Wizards and Muggles Meet

pairing: fred weasley x reader

 requested: yes ( @sarcasticallywitty15 )

word count: 4k

warnings: none, maybe a bit angsty but not really

A/N: Hi, Thank you so much for this request! I am so sorry it’s taken a bit to get it done and posted. I’ve been swamped with work & stress for classes and I just hadn’t been writing a lot for a few days. Anyways, I hope this is interesting and what you were hoping for! To anyone wondering, I am still taking requests (I have a prompt list you can check out if you want)! I don’t plan on closing my requests anytime soon so send them in!! Also, don’t forget that I’m still doing a 300 follower sleepover in thanks to every one of you that has followed me and continues to support my work/me. It really means the world to me and I just can’t say thank you enough. Lastly, I finally got a masterlist made and posted so check that out to see a full collection of my works as of right now, as well as in the future! Xx

Taglist: @justmesadgirl @xuckduck @yikesyikesyikes95 @filipi-yes @aestheticwh0r3 @siredkai @matsuno-nadeshiko @msmarklee1213 @immajustreadwritereblog @msmimimerton @lauren2408 @mischievous-queen @bunnyboo7 @grandeoptimist @kaitlynw011 @daddystevee @slytherinxhunter @streetfighterrichie @softlyqoos  @sarcasticallywitty15 @isthereanymorejello 

^let me know if you’d like to be added/removed! Xx

You frown watching your younger brother bully your guys’ cousin. Harry has never done anything wrong, yet Dudley and your parents are absolutely atrocious to him.

“Dudley, knock it off.” You hiss, making your way over to the two.

“Why should I? You’re not mum or dad, y/n.”

“I’m still older than you, Dudley. Knock it off.”

“I’m just playing.” He whines, going to start terrorizing your cousin again.

“C’mon, Harry. Let’s go outside. We can go down to the park?” You suggest, holding your hand out for your younger cousin.

“I’m telling mum that you’re not letting me have any fun!” Dudley pouts as you lead Harry outside.

“Go ahead, brat face. I’m not scared.”

Once you and Harry have gotten to the park you let out a sigh. Everyone in your family drives you absolutely crazy. Well, everyone besides Harry. In all honesty, you and Harry were closest to each other than anyone else.

Sure you were only two when Dudley was born and then Harry showed up on your doorstep, but you felt responsible for your younger cousin.

Maybe it was because you could relate with him not having his parents. Technically you still had your parents, but in all actuality you were just as alone as him. They didn’t care for you even though you’re their oldest. They routinely pushed you aside as they did with Harry in order to please their little baby Dudley.

“Y/n, you’re going to get in trouble for this you know....” Harry trails off.

“I don’t care, Harry. There’s no reason for Dudley to be so mean to you and I’d rather take whatever my parents dish out than see you miserable.”

“But you don’t deserve it.”

“I can take it, Harry.” You smile, starting to swing beside him.

~.~

It’s hard to imagine that that was only 9 years ago. Honestly, it felt like a completely different life. You suppose it could be since shortly after that Harry had left for Hogwarts and you moved in with your best friend.

With Harry gone and having found a safe home with a friend, you didn’t see the need to stay with your parents and endure their abuse. A few short years later you emancipated yourself and changed your last name. You didn’t want any association with your birth family, and they didn’t mind one bit.

Since leaving you’ve been having a great life. Sure you had the same ups and downs as everyone; drama with friends, stress over school and grades, problems with boyfriends and dating, but it was still a lot better than having to deal with it on top of your parents toxic environment.

You hadn’t heard much from Harry since he left, which upset you a bit, but you figured he had probably found a better life too. You had gotten a few letters the first few months he was away, but they soon dwindled down to nothing. In all honesty you hadn’t heard a word from him in just about 8 1/2 years.

You were sure he had graduated by now and you only hoped he was doing well. You hope he found a job and had kept his friendships, maybe has found a girlfriend. You truly only ever wanted the best for him, but you weren’t going to lie and say that it didn’t bother you not hearing from him.

You often wondered if he had truly cut you off that easily, if maybe he grouped you in with your family even though you had always fought them. You knew that you weren’t anywhere near as interesting as whatever witches or wizards he met at school, but you had been a main part of his life before he left. You had been his friend. You hoped he hadn’t just blocked you out of his mind, but it was always in the back of your thoughts.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” You exclaim as you run face-first into somebody, both of you stumbling backwards, but you’re the only one to lose your balance. You feel a hand reach out and grab your arm as another reaches around to catch your back.

“Why are you apologizing when you’re the one falling down?” You hear the person ask, amused as they chuckle at you. You recognize the voice as male, which only furthers your embarrassment.

You’ve never been good at interacting with guys. You always get far too flustered and awkward, which is probably why you’ve only had a few boyfriends to this day.

“Are you alright, love?” The man asks as he steadies you back on your feet. You nod, straightening out your clothes before looking up at whoever you had run into.

You have to remind yourself not to drop your jaw when you see him. The first thing you noticed about him was his height, he had to be a good foot taller than you. No wonder you lost your balance; you had practically run into a wall.

Secondly, you noticed how fiery his hair was. Sure you’ve seen ginger-haired people before, but you swear his was the brightest. It was honestly quite mesmerizing and you had to force yourself not to stare.

On top of that he was just extraordinarily attractive. His eyes were a gorgeous shade of brown, almost looking like pools of maple syrup. Even though you could see mischievousness inside them, his eyes were also surprisingly caring and comforting. And then his smile was so bright and sweet. You felt intoxicated by the man which is why you couldn’t help but flush when he smiles at you, quirking an eyebrow at your lack of response.

“You sure you’re alright?”

“Positive. I, uh, well. Thank you, I guess, and I am sorry for running into you. I guess I wasn’t really paying attention to where I was going.” You stutter, chuckling a bit at the end to try to play off the fact that your heart is racing a million miles a minute and your palms are starting to sweat.

“No worries, darling. In all honesty, I wasn't really paying attention either.” The man chuckles, smiling at you. “Maybe I could make up for it over lunch? That is if you haven’t got anywhere to be?”

You smile, chewing on your bottom lip as you nod.

“S-sure. I haven’t got anywhere I need to be right away.”

“Perfect. Well, let’s go then, yeah? I’m Fred, by the way.”

You nod, smiling as you chuckle at how excited this guy seems to be over the smallest things. He was so collected and confident, you honestly wonder why he would even bother offering you to lunch, but you weren’t going to complain.

“Y/n. It’s nice to meet you, Fred.”

~.~

You sigh, attempting to swallow your nerves. You and Fred have been dating for about four months now, and you’re finally going to be properly introduced to his family. You’ve met his twin brother, George, and you’ve heard more than enough to feel like you know his parents and other siblings, but you haven’t ever met them.

You were honestly surprised when he mentioned he’d like you to meet his family. For a few weeks you had been suspecting that he was hiding something, but you had no idea what. Sure you had plenty of possibilities cross your mind, but you hadn’t ever asked about any of them, not wanting to come off as insecure or bossy.

However, it had been getting harder and harder to ignore when he’d start talking about something and then would abruptly stop as if he was going to say something incriminating. Not to mention the fact he’d use words that you had never heard of and couldn’t find in any dictionary. Add all of that to how confused he seemed at the simplest of things, you were honestly starting to wonder what he could possibly be hiding.

You hear a knock on the door before you hear the click as the doorknob is turned. You smile, knowing it’s Fred.

“Hello, princess. How are you today?” He asks, walking into your bedroom and smiling at you.

“I’m...alright. I’m a bit nervous in all honesty.” You chuckle, turning around to look at your boyfriend.

“No need to be, love. I just know they’re going to love you. You’re honestly the sweetest person I know. Not to mention how gorgeous, kind, and smart you are. You tolerate my personality, but you also compliment it to no end, which my mum will adore. I promise you, hun, you have no reason to be worried.”

You smile, rolling your eyes at him as you blush. He always knew exactly what to say to comfort you and to make you flush in a matter of seconds. It’s one of his favourite things to do. He loved seeing your cheeks flush a light pink when you get embarrassed.

“You’re too sweet for your own good, Freddie.” You chuckle, moving to put in your earrings.

“That’s why you love me, though, right princess?”

“One of the reasons.” You smile, blowing him a kiss in the mirror.

He watches as you finish getting ready, only really needing to put on your jewelry and grabbing your jacket. Before long he’s leading you out to his car, ready to drive you over to meet his family.

Sure there was no reason for you to be nervous, but he had every reason to be. He hadn’t told you anything about him being a wizard, afraid you’d get too freaked out and leave. He was way too in love with you to risk you leaving him.

That's part of the reason he suggested you meet his family. He can tell you've been getting suspicious of something and he doesn't want you to think he's cheating. He thought maybe if you met his family, you'd feel a little better about what he actually is hiding.

Having you meet his family brought on a whole different wave of worries, however. He had asked them to pretend to be muggle just for the night, but he knew it would be hard seeing as he finds it hard to keep pretending.

"Freddie, love. You look worried." you point out as he drives, after a good few minutes of no conversation.

"Worried? No. Tonight will be really nice. I'm excited for you to meet everyone."

"You can be excited and worried at the same time, hun. Are you afraid I'll embarrass you? Or that I'll embarrass myself?"

You gasp as he swerves a bit, taken aback by your question. Why would he ever be embarrassed by you? As he's said, you are the sweetest person he knows and he would love to be able to show you off, its just he's more worried about his friends and family embarrassing him.

"Princess, I could never be embarrassed by you. I love you more than anything. No, I'm actually afraid that my family will embarrass me." he confesses, sighing.

You smile, squeezing his knee with your hand.

"That's what family is for, Freddie. I couldn't imagine introducing you to my family because I know they'd be more than embarrassing. Not to mention how much it'd ruin my mental health to be near them."

"You know, you've never really said much about your family. Why is that?" he asks, looking over at you in curiosity.

"Well, because it's really complicated. See, I left my actual parents and younger brother when I was fourteen. They, to put it lightly, were the worst people I've ever encountered in my life. I ended up emancipating myself and changed my last name. You've met my sister before, yeah?"

You watch as Freddie nods and you smile. He could be a really great listener when he needed to be, which is one thing you absolutely loved about him. It was really nice to cuddle up with him after a long week and tell him about what's happened.

"Well, I call her my sister, but in reality we have no relation to each other. I moved in with her and her family after I left mine, and her parents were kind enough to let me change my last name to theirs when I emancipated myself. They never adopted me or anything though, so I guess when you look at it, I don't really have a family. Just one I've made for myself."

"I never would have guessed that, princess. It makes sense now that you've never talked about them."

You nod, shrugging. It's nothing you were embarrassed or ashamed to admit, but it certainly wasn't something you would share with just anyone.

~.~

You sigh as Fred pulls into the driveway of his house. You smile at the cute, odd-shaped home and only hope that his family will like you.

He's mentioned how his family is a little odd, but how sweet they are. You can tell by the way he talks about them that he's really proud of them and it warms your heart. You figured that if you love Fred, then you'd love his family, but that didn't do anything to calm your nerves.

"You ready, princess? I just know they're going to love you. Besides, you already know George so it's not like you're not going to know anyone else."

"I know. I'm ready." you smile as he takes your hand. He places a kiss to your knuckles before opening the door and leading you inside.

You're immediately enveloped in warmth and the smell of baking and cooking. You realized this is exactly what you picture home smelling and feeling like, even though you've never had any experience with it before.

"Fred, dear, Is that you?"

"Yeah, mum. Y/N is here with me."

"Oh, perfect! dinner is just about done!" You hear the woman reply as she comes into view. Just like Fred, she sports fiery red hair as well. You smile and blush a bit as she greets you, wrapping you up in a hug right off.

"It's so nice to meet you, dear. Fred has told me so much about you, but he lacked in informing me of just how beautiful you are. No wonder he fancies you so." she chuckles.

You look over to Fred who has a light blush starting on his cheeks and you smile, hugging his mum back.

"Thank you, Mrs. Weasley. It's wonderful to meet you too."

"Oh, call me Molly, dear. There's no need to be so formal. Come sit while I call everyone else down."

You smile, happily following her into the kitchen as Fred follows you, wrapping his arm around your waist.

You look around to see family pictures and homey knick-knacks all around. You wondered if this is what a family home is supposed to feel like. You remember your mum having pictures around, but they were mainly of her, your dad, and younger brother...if your parents even got in on the pictures. Normally there were pictures of Dudley everywhere.

"How are you feeling, love?" Fred asks, leaning over to you and resting his head on your shoulder.

"Good." You smile, bringing a hand up to run through his hair. He smiles, letting out a small sigh as you play with his ginger locks.

"I love the atmosphere here, Freddie. You can tell you guys are really close and share a lot of love for one another."

"Yeah? I've always liked it here. I'm glad I get to share it with you." he smiles, kissing your cheeks just as his mum comes back into the kitchen.

"It's so nice to see you so happy, dear. I mean, you were happy about opening up the shop, but it's really nice seeing you share life with someone." Molly smiles, watching the two of you happily.

"Thanks, mum. I'm really lucky to have met Y/N. I don't think anyone else could keep up with my antics as well as she does." he jokes to which you roll your eyes at.

"Y/N?"

You turn at the call of your name, wondering who would be calling you. The only other person you knew that would be here is George.

You nearly gasp when you realize it's your cousin. There's no way to stop the dropping of your jaw, which is why Fred turns around to look at harry confused.

"Harry? What are you doing here?"

"I, uh, well, I'm dating Ginny." he sputters, just as shocked as you are.

"How do you two know each other?" Fred asks, looking between the two of you. You turn your attention to your boyfriend who looks thoroughly confused.

"Harry's my cousin...from my family, not my best friend's." you state, clarifying the relation.

"So, you're parents are?"

"Harry's Aunt and Uncle." you finish for him.

Fred still looks completely confused, but he seems to understand how you're connected. You can see his mind slowly connecting the dots and filling in the blanks.

Harry continues to look at you surprised, as you do to him. You honestly never thought you'd see him again, not after he cut you off when leaving to be a wizard. It wasn't his proudest decision, but it was his decision nonetheless and he had to acknowledge that.

"Freddie!" you gasp, your mind finally making an important connection.

He jumps as you turn to him, surprise covering your face.

"What, love?"

"You're a wizard, too?!"

you watch as he opens and closes his mouth, trying to figure out the right way to say this. He never would have guessed you knew anything about wizards and magic, but you must have seeing as you're related to Harry. That still doesn't give him the answer of if you're cool with it or not.

"How would you react if I said yes?"

"What do you mean? I'm not going to run off, if that's what you're worried about. I just, I never would have guessed."

Fred lets out the breath he's been holding, feeling the weight on his shoulder from the worry melt away to nothing.

"Uhm, well, I am. Surprise, princess."

"Well, that's lovely to have out in the air. I know it's been worrying you to no end, dear." Molly states, attempting to move things along.

"Dinner's done, if we're ready to eat."

~.~

You smile as Fred's siblings talk about their day, enjoying that they don't have to lie about what they do now. You have finished dinner awhile ago and have been sitting around the table just talking. Your head is still buzzing at the newfound information, but really all your focused on at the moment is how seeing Harry again has made you feel.

At first it was a total shock and you were a bit excited, but now as the night has progressed you've only been spiraling into a pit. Harry hasn't said much directly to you, and it makes you wonder what you could have done. Have you done anything, or has he really just ignored the fact that you're related?

"You're not saying much, princess. Is everything alright?" fred asks, leaning closer to you so only you can hear him.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm good, freddie. Just still surprised is all." you smile, trying to convince him.

He frowns, looking over your face as you almost immediately seem to fall back into your thoughts. Something is bothering you and he needs to know what.

He's aware of how much of a shock it is to find out your significant other is a wizard, but he's hoping it isn't too much of a shock that you decide you can't handle it.

"Let's go sit in the living room for a bit, yeah? I think we need to talk."

You shrug, nodding slightly as he stands up, holding his hand out to help you up. You smile at everyone as they look to the two of you.

"Keep talking. Y/n and I just need to talk privately real quick."

the rest of his family nods, including harry and ron's girlfriend Hermione, who you found out is a friend of Harry's from school.

You follow Fred into the livingroom and smile when he pulls you onto his lap as he sits on the couch. He wraps his arms around you tightly, burying his face in your neck. You press a kiss to his temple as you rest your head against his.

"What are you thinking about, love? Honestly." he asks once he looks up at you.

You frown, trying to figure out what to say. There's so much going through your head right now and you're not sure what you should mention first.

"How do you feel about me being a wizard? It's not...upsetting is it?" he asks, hinting at his biggest fear.

You shake your head, smiling at him.

"No. No, it's not upsetting at all, hun. I just, never thought I'd meet another one, much less be dating one. I'm not upset about it at all, though. In fact, it explains why our relationship has always felt so magical to me." you chuckle, causing your boyfriend to roll your eyes. He knew you had a love for bad puns.

"You're such a bloody idiot sometimes. I love you more than anything, though." he smiles, kissing you as you smile.

"I love you too, freddie."

"Well, if it's not about us being wizards, what's got you thinking so much, princess?"

You sigh, frowning slightly as you look over at his family...well, more like your family.

"Honestly? Its about Harry. I haven't seen him, or even heard from him for about nine years now. It's just really odd to see him after all this time, especially since he's so different now being a wizard and just grown up and everything. I mean, I grew up with him, freddie, and I feel like I barely know him."

Fred nods, realizing now why you've been so distracted. He can't imagine what it's like to find out your cousin, that you haven't seen or heard from in years, is friends with your boyfriend.

"And i don't know, I guess I'm a little upset about it all too." you confess.

"Upset about what, love?"

"Well, Harry and I used to be really close. I'd protect him from my parents and my brother, usually getting the wrath of it myself, but it didn't matter. At least I'd done something to upset my parents to receive their abuse. I couldn't stand to see Harry being treated so terribly for just, existing."

"So I protected him, and I always thought we were really close. Then he went off to school and just...forgot about me. Or so it seems, anyways. I got a few letters the first few months after he left, but then he just stopped sending me anything. I always wondered why. Did he just not care for me anymore? Did he want to forget me along with my family, even though I had never been like them?" you ask, finishing your thought to Fred.

He frowns, tucking some hair behind your ear as he gets you to look at him. He hates seeing you worry over such things. He could understand how upsetting it could be, but you shouldn't have to worry yourself out over it.

"Princess, I know it's confusing, but I'm sure Harry had his reasons. I doubt it had anything to do with you being related to your parents though. He probably just got busy with classes, and when he had the time, he probably just didn't know what to say."

"Yeah. I don't know. I've just, I've worried about it for years and just ignored it. It's really hard to ignore it when he's sitting at the same table as us, you know?" you chuckle, trying to seem like you're okay.

"I know, princess. Maybe you could try asking him? I know I'd sure love to know why he's never mentioned you. Maybe I would have run into you sooner if I knew there was a sweet and beautiful muggle out there."

You roll your eyes, smiling and shaking your head at the dork you have for a boyfriend as he chuckles, pulling you into a hug as he presses a kiss to your lips.

"I love you, princess."

"I love you too, freddie."

#harry potter #harry potter imagine #fred weasley #fred weasley imagine #fred weasley x reader #fred weasley fluff #fred weasley fanfic #hp imagine #hp fanfic #requested

[stitch1830]

Reassurance

Happy Kantoph Mondangst! These titles may be getting worse, but hopefully the chapters aren't... time will tell ope. Despite the angst, I hope you enjoy :)

......

“Are you up?”

His form shifted in the bed as he lazily turned to face her. She could hear the tiredness in his breath that indicated that no, he wasn’t up, but even if she didn’t perceive that, she would’ve known he was lying when he replied, “Yeah, what’s up?”

A gentle hand rubbed her arm in an attempt to comfort her, and the combination of his casual fib and sleepy gesture of comfort made Toph smile just a bit. But even then, she couldn’t ignore the unsettling feeling that sat in the pit of her stomach and made her toss and turn for the past few nights.

When she didn’t answer right away, he called out again, his tired state wearing off. “Toph? Is everything okay?”

“Yes,” she quickly reassured, but then bit her lip. Technically, things were okay, but she still felt uneasy. “Well, maybe? I don’t know…”

Kanto’s hand instinctively went to her stomach, coincidentally landing precisely where the baby was kicking. His thumb swiped across her belly, calming down the baby’s activity temporarily, and Toph let out a sigh that was a combination of exhaustion and relief and apprehension. Her hand fell on top of his, and she found the words to describe her thoughts. Well, some of them.

“I’m… I’m just worried, I guess,” she confessed.

“About the baby?”

“Yeah. Well, not the baby specifically. I’m worried about me.”

“Are you worried about the pain—”

“No, no. I mean, I’m not looking forward to it, but... fucking spirits,” Toph muttered. She wasn’t exactly describing her fears in the most coherent fashion, and she was losing the courage to admit what was on her mind.

“Toph,” he whispered, and his voice gave her focus. “You can tell me whatever you want, but only if you want to, okay?”

Toph took a deep breath as she calmed her nerves and felt the rhythmic motion of his thumb across her stomach. He grounded her like the earth, his touch and voice never failed to bring her back to reality. And everyday she thanked the spirits or whoever she needed to thank that fate brought them together.

Courage and actual words found her once again, and she pressed her forehead to his and confessed her fear. “I’m still worried about being a mom.”

Kanto said nothing, but waited for Toph to continue, so she did. “I know we’ve talked about this, but the baby is due any day now, and I just… I still feel like I’m not ready for this. I have no motherly bone in my body, I’ve never even thought about becoming a mother.

“And then the fact that my upbringing was pretty shit? Not the best references. All I know are piss poor parenting techniques.

“And if our kid hates us because of me, I… I don’t know what I’ll do.”

His hand moved to wipe away her tears (when did she start crying?), then settled back to her belly, their fingers intertwined this time. He said nothing for a while, and part of Toph cynically thought that perhaps he felt the same way. She prompted him to speak. “Is this your way of saying you agree?” she asked in an attempt to lighten her own mood.

“I wish…” Kanto paused; it was his turn to find the right words. “I wish you could see that you already are an amazing mother.”

Toph blinked, confused. He continued, “Everything you do is for our baby, and even your fears are all because you are worried about their wellbeing and happiness. That tells me everything about the kind of mother you will be. Selfless, thoughtful, loving…

“You could do motherhood in your sleep and by yourself, Toph. That’s how great you’ll be. But you don’t have to do it alone. You’ve got me, and we’ve got your friends.

“I know we won’t be perfect parents, but we have each other to lean on, and if you’re ever worried about anything, I’ll be there.

“And like I’ve told you before, my fatherly intuition says that we’re having a girl that will be just like you, and I couldn’t be more excited about that. I know all your tricks, Chief.”

His teasing remark got a scoff out of Toph, and she removed her hand from his to give him a light shove on the chest. Kanto’s hand captured hers again immediately after, and they laughed as he kissed it.

But everything else that he said, it felt reassuring. Not just in the moment, but as Toph thought through their future as parents, Kanto’s words gave her hope. He was right. Technically, they could be okay parents alone, but together, they would be amazing. And they’d lean on each other not because one would be a better parent than the other and needed help, but they wanted it.

That made all the difference.

Before she could even thank him for talking with her in the middle of the night, he smothered her with kisses all over her face until she was in a fit of laughter. And when she caught her breath, his warm hands found her round belly and so did his lips. He kissed her stomach lightly and spoke to their baby in a mock whispered tone. “Hey baby badgermole, I’ve got a secret for ya.

“Your Mama and I can’t wait to meet you, but there’s something you should know about Mama…

“She’s the Greatest Earthbender in the World, but she’s also the Greatest Mama in the World. She’s always gonna love you and protect you, just like I will.

“I thought you should know how amazing your Mama is before you meet her. And I don’t have a doubt in my mind that you’re gonna be just like her.”

He gave another loving kiss to the baby and hummed a goodnight to them before he made his way back to Toph. Once he settled back in bed, Toph inched her way as close to him as she could, burying her head in his chest and finding comfort in his warm embrace. His chest hummed in content as sleep found them again.

She remembered hearing him whisper right before she soundly slept, filling her with the reassurance that everything would be okay.

“You’re gonna be an amazing mom, Toph. I just know it.”

~~~

“I’m a terrible mother, Zuko.”

The Fire Lord shifted in his seat, startled by the bold statement and waited for an explanation. As he silently stared at her, he took in the beautiful surroundings before their focus turned to the morose topic that lingered over them.

It was a beautiful day in the Fire Nation, one of the first warm days of the season. The Beifongs traveled to the Fire Nation for a bit of a reprieve from Republic City. With the change in season, Zuko and Toph took advantage of the weather by sitting in one of the palace gardens with the children. Zuko watched as Lin clumsily ran around in the grass after Izumi while Kya coaxed the turtleducks to the edge of the pond.

They didn’t have a care in the world, not yet, at least, and Zuko naively hoped they never would.

Toph exhaled deeply, disrupting his observations. “I’m letting her down, I know it.”

Zuko furrowed his eyebrows. “What makes you say that, Toph?”

“I just—” she hesitated. Time made her more closed off, and it always took her a moment longer to admit more feelings.

But Zuko was patient, and he knew if he waited long enough, she’d open up.

Toph took another labored breath. “She’s looking for him. Everywhere we go. She wants him, not me. Which, I get, because I’d want him instead of me, too. If that wasn’t hard enough, everything she does reminds me of him.

“And I can’t stand it. I can barely hold her or take care of her because every other word she says is ‘Dada’ and I nearly break down when he’s mentioned. What kind of mother can’t even take care of her kid without wishing her dead boyfriend was around instead? What does that say about me?!”

He glanced over at Lin, who was crouching down to the ground with her cousins and gently patting the shell of a baby turtleduck. She seemed happy, content. Even if her mother was struggling.

“You’ve just had to deal with a lot right now, no one expects you to be perfect, Toph,” he reassured her. “Lin’s okay, she’ll be okay.”

“She won’t be okay if her mom keeps sulking around like this. Sure, maybe it’s fine now while she’s a baby, but she’s gonna grow up, and she’s gonna think I hate her.”

“No she won’t.”

“You don’t know that.”

Zuko said nothing, and Toph cynically chuckled. “He said she’d be just like me, but I can only see his traits in her. She’s got his heart, the noises she makes when she sleeps are his, and her hands are his. And I just know she’s gonna have his laugh, and it’s gonna break me.”

“Toph—”

“He said I could do this in my sleep,” she interrupted as she rubbed her eyes. “That I would be a great mom on my own if I had to, but he was wrong.

“He should be here, he’d be better at this than me.”

“Toph,” Zuko began again, “he’s only been gone a year. We’re here to help so you both can heal. Please don’t think you’re alone in this with him gone. You’ve talked with Aang, but have you talked with Katara at all about how you feel? I can interrupt her meeting if—”

“No, your lives shouldn’t change because mine did,” she interrupted.

“Our lives don’t have to change dramatically, but you also shouldn’t think that this is all your weight to carry.”

“But it is,” she insisted, her voice raising with every word she said. “Lin is my kid, I lost my partner, I have to raise her alone, even if I can’t.”

A heavy silence fell between the two friends. All they could hear were the sounds of children giggling and turtleducks quacking.

It pained Zuko to see Toph like this. She was trying to be so strong for Lin, and she was strong. Her ability to persevere was unlike any he had seen. Toph went to work, searched for Kanto’s killer, stayed in touch with her friends and kept them up to date on her feelings, and raised Lin. And she was raising Lin well, amazing even, considering all that they had been through.

He just wished she would see that as well.

But that was a tough sell to convince Toph that she was doing amazing in spite of everything. No matter how many ways he spun it, Zuko’s words didn’t reassure Toph; it seemed that no one’s words of encouragement comforted Toph anymore.

Lin approached Toph, and their conversation ended as abruptly as it began. Zuko watched as Toph picked up Lin without hesitation, a hint of a smile grew as the toddler rambled on about her day with the turtleducks. In between the story, Toph’s head leaned in toward Zuko, and she quietly suggested, “Think it’s time for a snack.”

So they left to grab an afternoon snack, and Zuko’s eyes never strayed from Toph and Lin, not even when Kya and Izumi asked to run ahead. He just couldn’t shake his vision away from them as he saw the adoration Lin had for Toph, and the love and anguish in Toph’s eyes as she listened to her daughter chat. Zuko could visibly see Toph’s strength and perseverance as she walked into the palace, and yet, she remained unconvinced of her capabilities. The Fire Lord sighed, wishing he knew how to help Toph, what to say. But not many could reassure Toph. Well, Kanto did. He knew all the right things to say to calm her, to give her strength.

Who could she lean on for that now that he was gone?

Zuko didn’t know the answer.

#kantoph #toph #toph beifong #kanto #zuko #lin #lin beifong #kya ii #izumi #atla #lok #writing #the long winding road to you #like a boomerang i always come back to you series #the chief and dep series

[hb-writes]

A Little Reflection

1923 

Clara was seething as she looked down at her company diary. She groaned aloud at the appointment scratched down there under today’s date. Polly’s tight script wrote out two simple directives: Church - 4 o ‘clock 

She glanced at the clock. It was already quarter ‘til and it was a twenty-minute walk, but Clara still hadn’t decided whether she was going to pull herself from the solace of the office to sit through what was sure to be a lecture. She had already sat through a full day of school so she wasn’t keen to receive any further lengthy speeches. 

In the end, it was Michael who got Clara up and out, offering to walk her as far as the edge of Digbeth since he also had a meeting that way, but she wasn’t eager for his company. Clara thought it might be her cousin’s fault that she was being summoned to the church, but she didn’t want to risk two lectures in the span of one afternoon, and potentially another from Tommy when he and Grace made it home from New York, so it was without much of a fight that Clara shrugged into her coat and marched alongside her cousin in something close to silence. 

The heels of Clara’s boots announced her arrival in the church, bringing a bit of unwanted attention to her lateness as she strolled down the center aisle. Polly was already settled in a pew, her eyes drawn closed, her mind seemingly lost in some silent vigil. 

“I saved you a seat,” Polly said, her words quiet but clear. The woman’s eyes remained closed as Clara glanced around the empty church, snorting a bit at her aunt’s dry wit. 

Clara slipped in beside her aunt and Polly opened her eyes, quiet as she waited for the girl to settle. 

“Has your cousin spoken with you?” 

“Well, just like the rest of them, your son speaks at me all the while, so I’m afraid you’ll have to be a little more specific."

Since they'd had some friends to Polly's Sutton Coldfield house over the weekend while she was visiting Ada, Clara guessed it had to do with that. She couldn't imagine anything else would require her being hauled down to the church on a Tuesday afternoon, but Clara had no plans to offer up that information.

"Have you forgotten you're speaking to Aunt Polly and not your brother?"

Clara glanced at her aunt. "So, we’re here for a lecture, then?”

“We’re here for a little reflection,” Polly answered. “Seems you need it.”

Clara didn’t understand her aunt’s insistence on reflecting from the pew of a church. Clara did plenty of reflection on her own, twisting and turning over every little thought until she’d assessed just about every realistic possibility, and a few unrealistic ones as well. She certainly didn’t need a church to do it. Clara had no trouble getting lost in reflection—not at school or in bed late at night or while out for a little walk.

And if the draw of reflection at church was presence of God, Clara didn’t agree with that either. If there was a God, and Clara thought that might be quite a significant if, she couldn’t imagine they only existed within the four walls of a church. 

"So, a confession, you mean?" Clara said. She knew that's what her aunt was truly after. Polly wanted Clara to tell her a bit of truth about something. The reflection would come later, like when she wasn’t allowed any fun for the rest of the week. "Why aren't you dragging the boys in for confession as well?"

Polly nodded towards the door. "Your brother just left."

Of course, she would start with Finn. He had the loosest lips of the three of them and was by far the easiest to pull a confession from.

"That little—" Clara started.

"Don't go bad-mouthing your brother. He tried to tell me you weren't even there,” Polly said. “He’s loyal to you to a fault, that boy.” 

Polly’s words forced a brief smile from Clara. She and Finn had their fighting moments, but he was exactly what Polly had said, loyal to his twin sister to a fault. 

"So, it was Michael, then, I suppose?" Clara said, straightening the already straightened gloves that sat in her lap. "Well, whatever he's told you, I can assure you he's lying."

"About what?" Polly said, her sharp words quickly following Clara’s.

Clara hummed, the sound she made acting as a question.

“What is it Michael’s lied to me about?”

"Oh, um, about…" Clara cleared her throat. "Well, about whatever it is he's told you."

Polly stared at her niece with an eyebrow raised, a nearly amused smile on her face.

"About…about the whiskey?" Clara offered into the quiet between them.

"And what might Michael have told me about the whiskey?"

"That I had a very small amount of your whiskey?" Clara held up two fingers to demonstrate the amount.

"Well, your cousin didn't mention any whiskey," Polly said, "but he did mention a get together and a broken—"

Clara’s reaction took over her whole body, a bit of poorly-veiled shock coming to her face as she slid her now rigid body down the pew to put a measure of distance between herself and her aunt. "I didn't—" 

Polly cleared her throat. "A broken vase," she said, her voice a bit raised, "which Michael has taken full responsibility for. Already purchased a replacement from his wages and insisted it was an accident. Now I suppose that's what Michael must be lying about?"

Clara sucked in her bottom lip and began idly chewing as she contemplated her response. Michael was lying about that. It was Clara and Finn who broke the vase, or Clara supposed it was technically Finn’s arm which hit the vase and sent it crashing to the floor, but Clara had shoved him just before. 

Polly never should have known any of that though. They’d cleaned it up and agreed not to speak of it again. Polly didn’t care about all the little trinkets. They’d rearranged the shelf and assumed it wouldn’t come up, and if it did, it would be so far in the future they’d all be safe enough from any true retribution.

"Well, um, actually—"

"He said to me, 'Mum, don't be cross with Finn and Clara. It was my fault. They had nothing to do with it’."

Clara nodded her head a few times. "Well, good. It’s good Michael decided to come clean. Sounds like we're all squared up, then, eh?" Clara made to stand up but Polly caught her arm, the gentle application of Polly's fingers enough to stop Clara. Without a word, she lowered and once again settled back against the pew.

"So, you think he's told me the truth then?" Polly asked, her tone a bit softer than it had been up until now. 

Polly knew Michael had lied to her about the vase. It wasn’t the first thing Clara and Finn had their hands in breaking. And the twins always tried to hide their mishaps rather than just coming clean. And despite knowing better, they always assumed they could simply clean up and rearrange some things without Polly noticing.

Clara nodded. "Well, I believe so. If Michael says he's done it and he's paid for a new one, then—"

"Well, he also said that you let someone out of your room at four in the morning, so what was that one truth as well? Or a lie, do you think?"

Clara gulped, her throat and mouth suddenly going scratchy and dry. She thought about calling her cousin’s words a lie, not bothering to elaborate on the fact that the only part of it that was untrue was the time. She'd let someone out of her room at half-past three in the morning, not at four.

"And before you answer, remember who it is you're speaking to."

"Aunt Polly, it's really not what it sounds like."

"Well, I certainly hope not because it sounds like you were drunk on whiskey with a boy in your room."

Clara didn't answer and Polly turned towards her. "Am I meant to take that silence as confirmation that this was exactly what it sounds like?"

"No, not exactly," Clara answered. "There was a boy," Clara shifted in her seat. "And there was a very insignificantly small amount of whiskey. And they were both in my room, but it wasn't like that."

"Who?" Polly asked.

"What?"

"Tell me the boy's name."

"No."

"No?"

"Why would I? So you can tell my brothers and they can threaten to cut whoever it is. And anyway, I'm sure Michael's already—"

"Michael didn't see who it was, only heard the click of the door and you whispering out in the hall."

Clara was regretting her claim of the bedroom beside her cousin's. It had a nice view of the garden and she had fallen in love with it before Michael rejoined the family, but it was becoming more trouble than it was worth.

"Well, good," Clara said. "It's not particularly important who it was. All that's important is that nothing's happened, nothing like you're thinking anyway. It's not like that."

Polly gave Clara a long look as she determined whether or not the girl was telling the truth.

"You’re lucky it was your cousin who heard you and not one of your brothers, lucky he came to me instead of them with this nonsense."

"If I was lucky, he would have just kept his fu—" Polly shot her a look and Clara shut her mouth. "And it's not nonsense. It's—"

"Love?" Polly said, cutting Clara off before she could even begin. "We all think it’s love at your age, sweetheart. The feeling will pass and you’ll be grateful you didn’t waste your time.”

"I never said anything about lo—"

"There will be plenty of time for boys," Polly said, "when you're a little older. You’ll settle down with a nice—"

"A nice boy my brothers choose for me?” Clara laughed. “I think I'll take my chances and just do as I please instead."

“You will not,” Polly answered, the sharpness of her tone startling Clara a bit. “You’ll listen to your brothers and your cousin and to me because it’s not only your safety we’re concerned about here, now is it?”

“My safety’s not even—”

“It is a concern. There’s things... business you don’t know about and your safety is always a concern. And when those boys are concerned about your safety, they're not thinking of their own. When they’re thinking about whether you’re off somewhere you’re not meant to be or making friends with someone you’re not meant to be making friends with, their heads are with you. So, you tell me who you were with and let me decide whether or not it’s a concern."

Clara considered her aunt’s words and knew they were at least a bit true. It was why they all liked her to be tucked away safe when Blinder business was afoot. Knowing she wasn’t at risk freed up a bit of space in their heads and allowed them to focus. Clara took a deep breath. "It was just Isiah."

"Just Isiah?"

"Just Isiah," Clara repeated. "We were just talking and we fell asleep. I swear."

Polly barely took a second to study her niece and determine the authenticity of the statement. It was the plain truth and Polly knew it. “I thought you and Isiah weren’t on speaking terms?”

Clara shrugged. “We are now.”

Polly nodded. "Well, I believe you were both told several years ago that you’re much too old for sleepovers, even if he is just Isiah." Polly stood up, pulling on her gloves as she stepped past Clara. “And this best be the last I hear you’ve been in the whiskey, understood?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Clara muttered.

“And Clara?”

Clara glanced up at her aunt who was now standing a few pews away.

“Don’t think I don’t know it was you and Finn who broke the vase.” 

Clara bit her lip. “But Michael—”

“Is another boy in this family who’s loyal to you to a fault,” Polly answered. “He only came to me because he was concerned about you.” Polly watched Clara working through her words. “More concerned about his cousin than what his mum would do to him over a party and a broken vase.” 

Polly waited for Clara’s acknowledgment and then turned and walked away, her heels clicking as she made her way down the center aisle.

Clara stayed in the empty church, settling in for a bit of reflection.

#peaky blinders #peaky blinders fanfic #shelby!sister #shelby sister #polly gray #clara shelby #little lady blinder #I love you prompts #300 follower celebration #michael gray

[sp00kyapricotz]

Send Her to Me: Teen! Kit Walker x Reader

Description: basically high school kit walker is trying to ask y/n out to the dance but everytime he tries to ask her out he keeps on missing her so he asks for his friends to send her to him

Word count: 1,702

Warnings: cursing, fluff? Nothing else that I can think of :)

A/n: I had a lot of fun making this, I’ve been in my 60s/70s phase as of recent so I’ve been listening to a lot of 60s garage rock and this is inspired by “send her to me” by the dark knights which is amazing you should go check the song out expeditiously. This is taking place in November of 1957 btw :)))) enjoy!!! Sorry if this is messy I finished writing this at 3:48 am  which explains lots of the spelling and punctuation errors it’s whatever 

Link to send her to me by the dark knights-https://youtu.be/BJKQks4neiI

It was November of 1957 and it was Kit Walkers final year of high school

He just wanted the stress of all of the work and uncertain future to be over

But there was one thing he would miss, you

He’s had a huge crush on you ever since you were in 9th grade, but only now worked up the courage to ask you out

You were putting your things away in your locker when you saw kit coming towards you

“Hey y/n”

“Oh- hi kit! what class you got next?”

“History. you?”

“English”

“Oh- uh… cool”

“Yeah.cool?” you chuckled

“Um-“

“Yeah?”

“Would you want to-“ he stops for a while

“Would I want to what?”

“Would you want to-“

he gets cut off by a loud bell

“Sorry! I gotta go i can’t be late again that’ll be three days in a row, catch you after this class though?”

“Oh. yeah sure” Kit says almost whispering and looking down at his shoes after waving at you

He went to history, though his attention was on the clock waiting for the next chance to see you

Finally, the bell rang and he went right to your locker, but…you weren’t there

He didn’t know, but you just didn’t need to go to your locker that class, but he knew he’d be able to talk to you in lunch

He went to his friends and asked them if they would send a message for him. He knew at least two of them had that class with you

“Hey- hold on wait, Jimmy tell y/n to meet me at the 6th lunch table, I keep on missing her at hall time”

“What for?”

“Nothing I just wanted to talk to her, if you don’t have her class next ask Henry I know he has the same class as her right now”

“Alright good luck… on whatever crazy shit your doing”

“Yeah thanks” he chuckled and looked down at his shoes

You were in your class when you saw one of Kits friends walking into your class, which was normal. But, he never talked to you in particular

He approached you and spoke quickly and quietly

“Kit wants you to meet him at the sixth table in the cafeteria in lunchtime”

“Why”

“I don’t know? He didn’t give a reason”

“Alright… thanks”

*45 minutes later*

Finally, it was lunchtime and he spotted you sitting alone in the corner of the cafeteria,where he told you to meet him

He walked over to the table and sat right in front of you

“Hey what’re you doing here all alone again”

you smiled and put a strand of hair behind your ear

“Sorry about forgetting to tell you i wouldn’t be at my locker, i forgot i didn’t need any books for my class after english”

“no don’t worry about it it’s fine”

“So what did you wanna tell me kit?”

“Oh,uh i wanted to actually show you something”

He walked over and dragged his lunch to your side and sat down

He pulled out a photo from his bag

“Here it is”

He slid the photo to your side

“Oh my god Kit! That’s us! God we were so little” you laughed

“But- how’d you find these i thought you lost all your pictures in the move”

“Yeah, but we found a tin inside of the box with my moms clothes and it had all my baby photos and stuff like that”

“You got any more?”

“Yeah, If you wanna come over afterschool and I could look through them with you. I haven’t gotten a chance to see them all yet?”

“Yeah, of course! we’d have to walk though, i can’t go alone”

“yeah that’s no problem,meet me by the front of the school at around 2:00?”

“K, see you then”

He knew this was going to work perfectly, you would be thinking about the past you guys had and then he’d ask you out and you would just have to say yes

2:00 came and you were out in front waiting for about 8 minutes, he was a little late but he came out eventually

“Sorry i kept you waiting so long. That son of a bitch Mr. Wells made me stay after class for not finishing the test in time”

“No don’t worry it’s okay,it’s only 2:08 you didn’t keep me waiting for that long” you said while smiling at him

“Alright,let’s go- wait did you call

your house and tell them you were coming over?”

“ Uh-yeah I told my mom i’d be home a little late and i’d be at your place for school”

“For school?”

“She wouldn’t let me at any guys house if it wasn’t school related,even though she’s known you since you were born”

“Makes sense” he laughs and looks at you

The cold november breeze made you start to shiver and you put your books close to your chest but it was no use

Kit noticed you were getting cold and gave you his jacket, and even though you told him you weren’t cold, he knew you just didn’t want to seem like you needed anything, so he put it on you anyways

you made it to his house and he got his key out

you went in and his parents weren’t home

His dad was at work, and his mom left a note saying she wouldn’t be home until around 8 as she was out running errands

“Well i guess this is my house for the after noon” he said smiling

You laughed and smiled back

You asked if he wanted his jacket back, but he said you could keep it, so you put it on completely

“So,you wanna eat anything?”

“No, thanks though”

“I’ll go get the box then wait here”

You sat on the couch and heard him coming down shortly after you touched down on the seat cushion

“got it!”

you sat on the floor and the both of you looked through the box and uncovered dozens of forgotten memories

“Oh my god that was your 12th birthday”Kit said pointing to a photo from 1952

“Look at this one we were babies here!” you pulled out the photo form the small stack

“Kit is that you?” you pointed to a picture of him in a bathtub as a baby

He grabbed it and slid the photo under the couch

“No uh- thats my cousin. You won’t see him much because he’s- twice removed? Yeah”

“Yeah sure. don’t be embarrassed you were cute”

“Yeah whatever” he rolled his eyes

“It’s so crazy that we’ve known each other literally since we were born” you say still looking at the pictures

“Well technically…i’m older by a month so since you were born” Kit whispers

“You’re only older because you were born premature” you patted him on the back while getting up to go to the couch

He got up to sit next to you and turned on the tv for background noise

He scooted in closer to you and eventually you found that he had his arm wrapped around you and you were falling asleep

“hey it’s only 4:15, wake up” he tapped your shoulder

“Yeah i know- i just went to bed super late last night and i-“

“No it’s fine- do you want me to drive you home i could use the extra one we have”

“no i uh- i like it here it’s quiet, plus i can’t sleep now. I won’t be able to make it to school tomorrow”

“y/n. Its Friday ?”

“Oh.yeah well still”

“Okay nevermind” kit faintly laughed

You got up to get a snack as you hadn’t eaten for quite some time,then went right back to the couch

You sat crossed on the floor, looking right at the pictures on the wall

You observed all of them, specifically just seeing how much he’s changed over the years

He suddenly spoke out of nowhere

“Hey, so you heard about that senior ball the schools havin in a couple weeks”

“Yeah what about It?”

“You uh- planning on going”

“Probably, I just don’t really have anyone to go with”

“If you want, I could take you. I- I mean it doesn’t have to be like as a date or anything we could’ve go as friends if you wa-“

You hugged him and stopped him from saying anything else

“Thank you so much kit,I didn’t wanna have to go alone.And… yes we could go as a date ”

“Really?” He scratched his neck

You nodded and looked at him for a while, contemplating what you were going to do

You kissed him, out of nowhere

Now, you had just had your first kiss, and he had just had his

It was extremely awkward afterwards, you both just stared at each other and didn’t know what to say

“So uh- what’re we gonna wear” you said, still being in front of him as you were after you kissed him

“ Uhhh- i”

“we could match?” You started to get up to leave

“Yeah, we could match “ he spoke breathily

“I- uh, I gotta go my moms probably worried sick about me it’s” 

you look down to check your watch 

“7:15!”

“I could drive you and take the spare car? It’s kinda cold out”

“Oh yeah thanks sure “

The short 7 minute drive was quiet but lovely and you couldn’t help but stare at him for the whole car ride

You arrived home and quickly  walked to the door

You rang the doorbell and your mom opened the door, she looked pretty pissed but nothing over the top

You turned around and Kit was still there in the car, and your mom moved away from the door

You walked back a little closer to the where his car was  and he said “ come by my place tommorow … for school”

You laughed quietly and whispered “yeah for school… goodnight kit”

“Goodnight”

And he drove away into the distance, back to his house

You went to your room, and got ready for bed, and all you could think about was Kit and the wonderful day you had with him. And about the wonderful day you would have with him tomorrow

#kit walker #kit walker x reader #AHS #ahsfx #ahsfanfiction #ahs asylum

[kinglazrus]

Not Your Danny – Ch 1. Moving Day

Phic Phight | Next | FFN | AO3

Submitted by @ecto-american: After Danny’s untimely death, his family and friends turn to Dani for comfort. She was so much like him in every single way. And she never felt more like a clone. A replacement for the “real” thing.

Summary: Maddie and Jack learn a lot of things about their son after his death: his powers, his secret life as the local hero, the truth behind his accident three years ago. And his clone who is so much like their boy. When Dani gets the offer to join their home, she thinks it's too good to be true. And she just might be right.

Word count: 2761

Two weeks after Danny dies, Danielle moves into his bedroom. It's a lacklustre affair. Dani has no belongings to bring with her, except the few trinkets stuffed in the pockets of her shorts. She only owns one pair of clothes, two of you want to be technically and count her ghost form. But that's tenuous at best when you consider the circumstances of her creation, and that her clothes were created withher, not given to her. She doesn't like to think about that too much, though.

Neither of Danny's parents are home for the occasion. Dani doesn't blame them. Her face time with Maddie and Jack Fenton over the past three years equals an hour at most—hour and a half if she really pushes it. And most of that time was with an ectogun between them. If she counts the times where she hasn't been staring down a glowing green barrel, then it's probably only five minutes, maybe less. And that only happened a few days ago.

Suffice to say, Dani and the Fentons don't have a good relationship, or a relationship of any kind. So she doesn't blame them for being out of the house when their dead son's clone, who they only recently found out about, takes over his bedroom. Although take over might be too strong of a phrase.

Dani floats next to Jazz, hovering in front of Danny's open bedroom door.

"Is it... okay?" Jazz asks.

Dani drifts inside, turning her head from side to side as she looks around. She likes the blue walls, and the open brick on the outer wall is kind of cool. The bed, covered in a purple bead spread, topped with a fluffy pillow, looks softer than anything she's ever slept on. The room is nice, if a bit messy with Danny's stuff still inside. Posters decorate the wall, some about space, others from some band called Dumpty Humpy. The shelves are stuffed full of books and model spaceships. His dirty clothes lie next to an open hamper in the corner of the room.

The sight surprises Dani more than anything.

"What are you gonna do with his stuff?" she asks. "Do people usually just," she gestures toward the room, "leave it like this?"

"What? No." Jazz shakes her head and quickly wipe her hand across her eyes. "When someone dies, their family or friends eventually pack their stuff away. Not always right away, though."

"Two weeks isn't long enough?"

Jazz's breath hitches. "Don't– don't say that. It's inconsiderate."

Dani's cheeks go hot at Jazz's admonishing tone. "Oh. Sorry." She floats further into the room, if only to escape the awkward air settling between them.

If Dani didn't know any better, she would guess that Danny had just stepped outside for a second and would be back any moment. Lowering herself to the floor, Dani settles on the carpet and walks toward the desk. A controller of some kind sits on the desk chair, its cord tangled with a headset. Dani picks the controller up and turns it over in her hand. She only vaguely recognizes the X logo in the middle of it; her travels over the past couple of years haven't exactly involved a lot of gaming. Or any.

There was a small handheld system she picked up at a garage sale once. She carried it for a few months but lost it somewhere along the way.

Dani tosses the controller onto the chair and turns back to Jazz. "So, now what?"

"Well, if you're not comfortable with Danny's things still being in here, we can get some boxes and start packing. I think we have some in the basement. If you want." Jazz tacks on the last three words with a soft voice.

"No, it's fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, course." It's just stuff, after all. Dani doesn't quite get it, which also means she doesn't care. If the Fentons don't want to move Danny's stuff yet, then it can stay. He was their son before he was Dani's cousin/DNA source.

"Okay. I guess I'll just... let you get settled, then. I have to work on some plans for the memorial, but Mom and Dad should be home in a couple hours. They said they wouldn't be gone long," Jazz says.

Dani nods. A few seconds of silence pass, and once it's obvious that neither of them is going to say anything more, Jazz turns and walks down the hall. Finally alone, Dani lets her ghost form fall away. The transformation rings prickle as their bright light ghosts over her skin, and when it fades, she's left in her typical shorts and hoodie. Dani rubs her arms until the prickling fades, then flops onto the bed.

Damn. It really is the softest thing she's ever lain on. And the blankets are warm. They smell like Danny, too. That's something Dani never thought she would think. She didn't even realize Danny had a smell, but it's hard to ignore now. It's not the most tangible smell. The best word Dani can find to describe it is crisp, like a cold day. She would bet her beanie that it was because of his ice powers, an ability they had never shared.

Dani shakes her head. Everything is weird enough right now. The last thing she needs to be contemplating is how Danny used to smell. It's also, like, a super creepy line of thought, yeah? Yeah.

As she stares up at the ceiling, a blur of movement catches her eye. Her gaze jumps toward it, in the corner of the bedroom closest to the door. A small brown lump clings to the ceiling. A bug, no doubt. Dani can't tell what kind, and she doesn’t care enough to find out. It's not too surprising, considering how messy Danny's room is. There's probably some old pizza hiding under his bed or something.

Dani rolls onto her side and closes her eyes. A little bug doesn't bother her, not after the places she's slept. And if the Fentons won't be home for a while, and Jazz is busy, she might as well take advantage of her new bed and the next few hours to get some shuteye. God knows she needs it.

—

Maddie feels sorry for Vlad's receptionist. She bears a striking resemblance to Maddie herself, with short auburn hair just a touch redder than Maddie's own, a curvy frame, and a sharp, pointed chin. She's even wearing blue, bless her heart. The girl is pretty, and young, and kind. Can't be too far out of high school, and hoping a job at the mayor's office will look good on her resume. Maddie hopes it pays off. The girl deserves it for putting up with Vlad daily. Working for him seems to be taking a toll on her, judging by the distressed look in her eyes when she looks up from Vlad's appointment book.

"I'm sorry, there's no appointment for you. I don't know if I can let you in," she says.

Maddie sighs. "Mr. Masters left me a message"—or several—"asking me to come in."

"I'm really sorry, but he didn't mention expecting you... oh no." The receptionist's eyes widen and she starts digging through papers on her desk. "Did I forget to write it down again? He got so upset last time."

Maddie reaches out and touches her shoulder, stopping the frantic search. "It's all right, dear. It's not your fault."

She suspected, when Vlad left numerous messages on her cellphone rather than calling the house, that something more was up. How Vlad even got her cellphone number she doesn't want to know. She will also be changing it very soon thanks to this incident.

"He's particular about his meetings," the receptionist says. "I really can't let you in."

"Just let him know I'm here, and I'll take care of the rest."

The receptionist nods. While she goes for the phone, Maddie steps away from the desk and turns back to the waiting area. It's empty besides her and the receptionist—not surprising this early on a Monday, and all the better for Maddie. She pulls her cellphone from her purse and checks the time; It's just after eight. Dani is due at Fenton Works soon, but Maddie and Jack won't be back until noon, at least. The reminder makes her wince.

Missing half of Dani's first day at home isn't ideal, but Maddie wants to get this meeting over with as fast as possible. They had other plans in the city, anyway, made before they invited Dani into their home. Better to get everything done at once.

Maddie eyes plush waiting room armchairs, wondering if there's any point in sitting down, when the receptionist calls out, "Mrs. Fenton?"

Maddie opens her mouth to answer, but her phone—still in her hand—buzzes at that moment. Jack's name stretches across the screen. "Excuse me." She steps toward the elevators on the far side of the room and turns her back to the receptionist, the closest semblance of privacy she can get, before answering her phone. "Hey, Jack. Is your meeting done already?"

"Not even close! How goes the shopping?"

"Fine so far. I forgot we didn't ask...." She tenses, feeling the receptionist's stare at her back. "We didn't ask what she might need, so I'm just grabbing the basics. Do you want me to pick something up for you? Are you waiting on the park board?"

"About that... I'm with them now, and—what day did we settle on for the memorial, again?"

Maddie shakes her head, but not out of annoyance. Jack forgetting the day hardly surprises her. He tends to forget the little details. If anything, it makes her feel grounded. The past two weeks have been a lot, to put it lightly. A lot of changes. A lot of revelations. But she can always rely on Jack to be his usual self.

"A month from today," she says.

"Thanks, baby! You're the best! See you later." The phone beeps as Jack hangs up. Maddie sighs while the corner of her lip twitches upwards. It's the closest she's come to smiling since Danny died. She holds like that for a moment, caught between the ache choking her heart and the desire for things to get better. They won't, not for a long time. She won't fool herself into thinking otherwise. But it's nice, for a moment, to pretend things might be okay.

"Leaving Jack alone with the DPR? I feel sorry for them." Vlad's slimy voice ruins the moment after the first syllable.

Maddie tenses, clutching her phone tighter, and turns to face him. "Vlad. It's bad business to ask for a meeting, then make your guest wait."

When Vlad smiles, his whitened teeth cut a bright slash across his cheeks. It's too wide, too sharp. Never reaches his eyes. Maddie remembers, long ago, when Vlad had a soft smile. He used it sparingly, doling it out to only the most deserved. She can't imagine him smiling like that now.

"Well, I don't mean to be presumptive, but when I phone a friend hoping for a visit, I expect them to stop by my house, not my work."

"Your mistake, then."

The receptionist's typing falters. Her have yet to stray from her screen, but Maddie already knows she's listening in. Vlad probably does, too.

"Natalie!" he snaps.

The receptionist jerks upright. "Yes, sir?"

Vlad rests a hand on Maddie's back and pushes her forward. She moves, if only to step out of his reach, and heads toward his office. Vlad reaches into his suit jacket as he walks. He pulls out his wallet and pinches a few random bills, tugging them out without looking. "Take a break. I'm sure you could use a coffee to perk you up."

He leans in front of Maddie to drop the bills on Natalie's desk. The contact makes Maddie grimace, and she hurries ahead into his office. When she turns, Vlad is already closing the door. The last thing Maddie sees of the waiting room is Natalie's frown as she glances at a paper cup sitting in plain view on her desk.

"Now, Maddie." Vlad turns. Rather than heading to his desk, he steps toward Maddie and touches her arm. "How are you doing?"

"You left me seven messages just so you could ask that?" Maddie brushes Vlad's hand off. In three long strides, she cuts across his office and takes one of the visitor's chairs. While the waiting room had plush armchairs, these are made of dark wood, armless, with firm leather cushions and straight backs. A deliberate choice, no doubt.

Vlad comes up beside her, his hand on the second chair. Before he can sit, Maddie swings her purse off her shoulder and drops it on the empty cushion. Vlad pauses, glances between her and the bag, but relents and takes his seat at the desk instead.

His chair sits considerably higher than Maddie's.

"I can imagine the pain you're going through right now," he says.

Maddie's fists clench. "Can you really?"

"Believe it or not, yes, I can." He pauses, giving her a chance to respond. But whatever question he wants her to ask, whatever game he wants to play, Maddie refuses to give in. She might have put up with him once, but after what he's done, he will be lucky if she willingly suffers his presence ever again after today.

She waits for Vlad to elaborate.

"I'm sure you've wondered, all this time, where Danny went whenever he disappeared for hours. Being our city's young hero explains a lot of it, yes, but to be honest, that wasn't everything." Vlad stops to take a deep breath, closing his eyes for a brief moment. It's quite the performance. "To tell you the truth, he was often with me."

Bullshit! Maddie wants to shout, but she bites it back. Her jaw aches from how hard she clenches her teeth.

"I discovered his secret a long time ago and gave him a safe place away from home. You know, when conversation at the dinner table got to be too much." Vlad pauses again, letting his words sink in.

Maddie hates that she knows exactly what he means. All those times she and Jack discussed their inventions, their plans for when they finally captured the ghost boy. Most of what Vlad is saying might be a lie, but the truth within it cuts her deeply. "Really?"

Vlad might think himself a great actor, but he's apparently ignorant to Maddie's own deception. He nods at her questioning tone, eyes low and mouth pressed into a grim line. "I understand this is hard to hear. I did my best to make him feel safe, and we actually became close. Over the years, I came to think of him as something of a son. And his death has affected me deeply."

He stands, trailing his hand along his desk as he walks around toward Maddie. His shoulders droop, as if Danny's absence weighs on him. It really is a good performance. Peering closer, Maddie sees that he even looks pallid, and purple bags rest under his eyes. A look easily accomplished with some pale foundation and smudged eyeshadow.

"It's like a piece of me is missing without him. I'm sure you feel the same. We need each other, Maddie. To make us whole again."

Vlad reaches toward her, but she ducks away from him, slipping out of her chair. His hand falls through the empty air and he stumbles, nearly falling into the chair.

Now he's being ridiculous, Maddie thinks. She could have fallen for the makeup and the sob story if she didn't know better, but the off balance act? The distressed look in his eye when she pulls away? She's insulted that he thinks she would fall for it.

"You're right Vlad. I'm in pain. Danny is gone and it feels like he took a piece of me with him when he died. But I have my family to help me through it." She grabs her purse off the other chair and heads for the door. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have somewhere to be."

"Madeline, please—"

"Vladimir!" Her shout tears at her throat. She turns on him, blinking to fight back the burn in her eyes. He stands frozen where she left him, crumpled pathetically against her empty chair, one hand still outstretched. Maddie swallows the lump in her throat. "Enough."

She leaves without another word.

Next

#phic phight #phic phight 2021 #notyourdanny #nyd chapter one #phanfic #phicc #dp fanfiction #danny phantom #dani phantom #danielle phantom #hurt/comfort #family #danny phantom fanfiction #trans danny #trans danny fenton

[lex-malla-non-est-lex]

Tatiana, Belial, and their plans relating Jesse in the past

I’ve dabbled on this topic a few times but your comment really got me thinking. @delilahssbard

This turned out long so I’ll put it beneath the line.

Like, ever since CoI I’ve been highkey thinking Tatiana intended for Jesse to be possessed, but the specific phrasing you used reminded me of a part of ChoG and suddenly everything fits even more now.

- Chain of Gold

Back then, I honestly assumed Belial was talking about preference here, especially since he’s made it clear the reason he could possess James without destroying his body is they share blood, but that’s clearly different in Jesse’s case.

Considering how it’s repeatedly clarified that the anchor was placed on Jesse while he was a baby, that fact is probably significant. If anything, I’d dare say the anchor seems to be a workaround Belial’s destruction not just because he was literally anchored to Jesse’s soul, but by way of tolerance, especially since James also seems to have drawn a similar conclusion.

- Chain of Iron

There it is. Belial would have the anchor and a body to possess, as Jesse grew older. The anchor was in him since almost day one, and Tatiana clearly knew about the anchor, but what’s to say she wasn’t involved? We know the only one who was reluctant to place the anchor on Jesse’s soul was Gast. At no point is Tatiana mentioned in this until Belial outright says that he owed her a favor.

Jesse is just Nephilim, unlike James and Lucie, so by all accounts, a normal possession by Belial would have destroyed him, but the anchor intervened in such a way that there didn’t seem to be any visible consequences at all to him being possessed repeatedly (unless we subscribe to the theory that Jesse’s ghost started fading faster near the end because of the possession, but as of right now we honestly have no way to be sure about that specific fact).

We know Jesse’s childhood sickness involved fevers, and perhaps weakness, the latter coming from the statements in which he’s specifically referred to as weak. We also now know that the real reason Jesse died was because the rune he was given reacted badly against Belial’s essence inside him. Jesse’s description of his own death is that he collapsed into bed after getting the rune, then woke up feverish and in agony. Honestly, that just sounds like a worse version of his alleged childhood symptoms.

Considering his death was basically the result of a rune’s angelic magic clashing with the demonic essence inside him, it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch to assume his sickness was just his nature as Nephilim having a bad reaction to Belial’s essence, even if he only died because of the rune. I find it frankly impossible to believe that the anchor wasn’t hurting him, because we know under normal circumstances Belial would destroy a body within hours.

And let’s be real, Tatiana knew this. The only question in relation to her is whether she intentionally let him die.

The following are all quotes from A Lightwood Christmas Carol.

“He is very delicate,” said Tatiana. “Nephilim like yourself wish to put Marks on him, because they are intent on killing my boy as they have killed everyone else I love. You sit on the Council, do you not? Then you are his enemy. You may not see him.”

“I would not force Marks on the boy,” protested Gideon. “He’s my nephew. Tatiana, if he is that ill, perhaps he should see the Silent Brothers? One of them is a close friend, and could come to Jesse at our house. And Jesse could know his cousins.”

Before CoI, lines like these could be shrugged off to Tatiana being paranoid about her son being hurt by marks because he’s sickly, but no, we know now that Tatiana is entirely correct.

And it makes perfect sense that she refused to even let the Silent Brothers examine Jesse. No doubt they’d have been able to notice what was wrong with him wasn’t a sickness. Tatiana made a show out of it to exacerbate her own hatred of Nephilim, but she isn’t unaware of things, she just likes to spin them in a way that can be used to blame her enemies for things.

“Father planned alliances for us, when we were children.” Tatiana shrugged. “How ashamed he would be of you. How is your grubby servant?”

Then there’s her attitude, of course. The implication that she thinks it’s perfectly normal to involve children in alliances and plans. We know she didn’t hesitate to have a dark power forced onto Grace, if anything, it’s implied she requested it. We know Tatiana only sees Jesse as something that is hers, not as his own person, so it’s completely within the realm of possibility that she involved him in her own plans for revenge, even if he was just a newborn with no choice in the matter (or perhaps because he had no choice in the matter, considering how badly she reacts to the fact that Jesse *gasp* has a different worldview than her).

“I don’t care!” Tatiana shouted. “My son is of the blood of two of the oldest of the Shadowhunter families. He is not weak like your son. Go back to your weakness, Gideon. Get out of my sight, get out of my house, and do not darken my door again. I have not missed your company, nor your brother’s, and I am relieved that my child will not grow up under the corrupting influence of either of you.” 

Now, this one isn’t so relevant as much as it’s interesting, because while it looks like Tatiana is just flexing and being mean to Gideon, that whole implication that Jesse isn’t weak does compare to how Belial views Nephilim in general.

- Chain of Gold

Belial had the anchor placed on Jesse alongside his protections as a newborn. Humans never get such protections against possession, and Belial still chose one of the Nephilim as his alternate vessel. He was that plan of his as completely viable.

And much like Tatiana, Belial clearly sees Jesse as a tool, as a method to push his agenda.

- Chain of Iron

And assuming Tatiana knew of the anchor from the start, that checks out. Belial wanted Jesse as a vessel to get closer to his goal. If he’s never seen him as an end-goal, then he’s always planned for Jesse to be a temporary vessel. Tatiana wants the Nephilim destroyed. Letting Belial possess Jesse probably sounds like a completely reasonable thing to her. It solidifies her alliance with Belial, makes things easier for Belial, and as Belial himself implied, Belial owed Tatiana a favor.

- Chain of Iron

Seriously, I can say with reasonable confidence that Tatiana knew Belial would use Jesse, perhaps even agreed beforehand to the anchor itself being placed, because to the both of them, Jesse was basically a puppet. (I mean, even the clothes she had him dressed in within his coffin literally scream Belial)

Then of course, what I believe to be the nail in the coffin for Tatiana’s involvement is just what she tells Grace near the end.

- Chain of Iron

She literally has the audacity to claim Jesse was to blame for his own death and basically defended Belial. You know, Belial, who was possessing and controlling her son. Belial, who placed an anchor in the soul of her newborn son and has basically robbed him of anything resembling a normal life or even afterlife. Tatiana is taking Belial’s side on that without any hesitation.

If anything, Tatiana might have let Jesse get runed just to be able to tell him off, like “ha, told you you were too weak to be Nephilim” or something like that, despite knowing damn well the reason runes would kill him was Belial. Tatiana had literal demons to do her bidding, I don’t doubt she could have physically prevented Jesse from following up on his threat to run to Alicante if she didn’t let him get runes, had she wanted to.

Belial probably can control the dead like Lucie can, most likely having far more experience at it. Tatiana surely knew that. Belial said Tatiana called him after Jesse died, and that he owed her a favor, hence the preservation of Jesse. Obviously, Belial benefited from this, but clearly Tatiana saw Jesse’s death as an opportunity to bend him to her will, because he never shared her beliefs during his life.

Now, this is actually where I believe Tatiana and Belial’s views of the situation diverge. Belial outright says raising Jesse as Tatiana wanted wouldn’t suit him. He had Jesse kept in that so-called twilight state that certainly proved useful to Belial, but I don’t think whether Jesse was alive or not mattered pre-Cortana. Not only does Belial clearly not care about consent, he also probably wouldn’t need it, because his anchor was already deep within Jesse’s soul. Jesse being dead or alive was likely irrelevant to the possession, since the one part of Tatiana’s statement that’s correct is that Belial probably wouldn’t have guessed Jesse would die as he did.

Tatiana wanted Jesse resurrected for herself, for her own desire to have her son follow her beliefs and intentions. Belial just cares for Jesse as his vessel. While they’re allies, I don’t think those two usages were as compatible as Tatiana thinks they were, which is probably why Belial outright says reviving Jesse wouldn’t have suited him, and honestly both of them seem pretty angry about losing control over Jesse.

(Belial’s clearly salty that Lucie exorcised him and Tatiana’s mad he’s “in the clutches of a Herondale”, but clearly both of them lost something they valued as an instrument, none of them are actually mad about their loss of access to Jesse as a person, because they’re honestly both terrible people, to say the least).

I know I called that other one the nail in the coffin, but in relation to Tatiana letting Jesse be runed even though that was practically bound to kill him, Belial outright says Tatiana killed him, even despite recognizing the rune was technically the cause.

- Chain of Iron

TL;DR: Tatiana definitely knew about the anchor, Tatiana definitely knew Jesse would be possessed and used by Belial, and Tatiana also definitely let her son die just because it suited her.

#coi spoilers #choi spoilers #chain of iron spoilers #tlh #the last hours #tlh theories #jesse blackthorn #belial #james herondale #tatiana blackthorn

[neonthewrite]

Washed Up Winchesters 8 (Final)

The mystery is solved and the case closed! It seems the Winchesters didn't quite expect things to go this way, but when there's a giant involved, all kinds of things go differently!

Cowritten with @nightmares06, the writer behind the @brothersapart multiverse!

( 1 ) ( 2 ) ( 3 ) ( 4 ) ( 5 ) ( 6 ) ( 7 ) -8-

Story Tag

Read Time ~10 minutes

~~~~~

Chase pushed himself up and shook his head. He was more used to being swept up in a giant hand, but toppling over a few times had winded him. He frowned over the edge of the hand, then over at Sam. “What?”

Jacob’s other hand lifted to be level with them. Minnie was clinging to his thumb and scanning the flock of sheep warily. They were all still milling around, keeping a tight group, several of them aiming disdainful baaas up in the air. Dean’s defiant stand over their heads certainly had not gone unnoticed. Minnie had never seen sheep act like that, certainly not in the shadow of a giant. “Sam?”

"Th-the sheep!" Sam gestured in the direction of the hostile flock. "We're chasing skinwalkers, not werewolves! They can be any type of animal, so long as it's what the pack started out as!"

The confusion on Dean's face cleared. "So you're saying this flock is the people we've been chasing the whole time?"

Sam nodded at the silver knife in Dean's hand. "One way to find out for sure."

Jacob frowned pensively. Even after hearing about how dangerous the skinwalkers were, he could hardly imagine the flock of fluffy sheep before him causing much trouble. Mostly they milled around among each other, all keeping tabs on Dean with his glimmering knife. It was weird that they didn't even want to run from Jacob, but he hadn't made any moves against them.

Even Chase and Minnie had been mostly spared. Chase had only fallen over because he kept trying to pull Dean up.

Jacob decided to throw in his two cents. "I mean, they're… they're not really doing anything," he pointed out.

"Except yelling at us," Chase agreed, waving a hand at a ram that bleated insistently up at him.

"Wait," Minnie chimed in, her brow pinching with confusion. "Do they understand what we're saying when they're in their whatever-form?"

Sam circled a hand through the air aimlessly, trying to gather his thoughts and what he knew of their current enemies. "Skinwalkers aren't like werewolves, who give in to their more... animalistic side when they transform. They maintain their regular consciousness and memory. The main danger is that they can transfer their ability with a bite, increasing the size of their pack... or flock." Sam gave the flock of sheep a strange look. He'd never encountered supernatural creatures in the guise of herbivores like the sheep. This case was shaping up to be unique in more ways than one.

"That means," Sam continued, "they know just who we are, and anything we said while we were here. Which is why they were so quick to lunge at me and Dean. They already found us once on the ship, when they were in their human forms. We couldn't stay under cover, and ended up tossed overboard."

Minnie frowned critically over the side of Jacob’s hand, even as the giant lifted everyone slightly higher. If those sheep really were skinwalkers, and at this point they certainly weren’t acting like normal sheep, they’d just let the group wander among them. She’d patted their heads and tried to click at them like she did with her lambs back home and everything. The feeling that wormed into her gut was something like betrayal.

“So these guys might be the reason I found you floundering out in the waves,” Jacob echoed, a disapproving frown on his face.

“Well what do they--” Chase began, asking Sam first before looking over the side of the hand at the nearest sheep bleating up at them. “What do you want in Lilliput then?!”

For a long moment, it appeared as though Chase's demand would go unanswered. The sheep milled restlessly around, giving Jacob's feet a wide berth as they bleated.

Then, the ram that had given Dean a runaround when he was on the ground stepped out into an opening that formed in the flock. It cocked its head, fixing one eye on the hand that held Chase, Minnie, Sam and Dean. Its expression was impossible to read as it looked them over, one by one.

There was a shift, and then the ram's horns appeared to melt away. Several cracks could be heard as its back shifted to an upright position, and the hooves split into four fingers and a thumb.

After less than ten seconds from when the shift started, the ram stood there as a regal and distinguished looking man, dressed in a simple white shirt and dark pants. He frowned at the people in Jacob's hand, then up at the giant himself.

"As I recall," the man said, "you were the ones to smuggle onto our ship when we had done nothing to you in turn, stinking of silver and gunpowder."

Seeing the transformation had been more than enough to leave Jacob, Minnie, and even Chase speechless for a hesitant moment. Jacob’s mouth opened slightly, as amazed as he’d been the first time he met Chase. He had never really thought about tiny people existing anywhere before. He definitely hadn’t imagined them having the ability to turn into tiny sheep. “Uh. Wh… what,” he muttered.

“I mean. I guess that’s technically true,” Chase finally admitted, sending an uncomfortable sideways glance at Sam and Dean. He frowned down at the apparent leader of a flock of sheep skinwalkers. “So … are skinwalkers usually dangerous, or not? ‘Cause I feel like that would clear up a lot, knowing what you actually plan to do in Lilliput, right?”

The man’s lip curled in disgust. “Oh, please,” he said disparagingly. “Unlike our more… wolf-ish cousins, we have no interest in anyone’s hearts.”

Next to him, a second sheep transformed back. This one was shorter, and he had very mousy features in comparison to the ram’s dignified look. “But we like Romaine hearts,” he stuttered out insistently. “Right? Right?!”

“Please, Jerimiah,” the ram said. “This situation is delicate enough without your help.” He turned to look up at the Lilliputians and Blefuscians held in the giant’s hand. “Haven’t you ever heard ‘The grass is greener on the other side?’ We are here in search of better pastures. Nothing more.”

Chase’s mouth opened in a delighted grin over the bad pun. Before he could try to chime in with his own, Minnie slapped his arm with the back of her hand. In her opinion, she had enough to deal with without her brother adding to the pile. She’d thought this was a poor lost flock of sheep. Not an intentional group of … magic shapeshifting squatters. “So are Sam and Dean the only ones you hurt, or …?”

Jacob heaved a slow sigh. Minnie had a point. If they had left behind more than just Sam and Dean, it would be dangerous having the shapeshifters around Lilliput too. “Yeah, I mean. I’m pretty sure I can outrun you guys, but what’s to stop you from sneaking along later and trying something again? Are Chase and Minnie here in danger because they know your secret?”

The ram’s mouth twisted in annoyance. “All we want is green fields and calm waters,” he explained. “Any Blefuscans that we ran into, we ran off, nothing more. These… hunters that followed us were the most persistent, and I couldn’t risk the safety of my flock. Throwing them off the ship was only done as a last resort.”

Looking over the rest of the flock, and a brief glance at the twitchy Jerimiah, the ram shook his head in doubt. “Perhaps it was merely a pipe dream to find a place free of warmongering, but we had to try.”

“So…” Sam tentatively leaned forward. “Your main plan is to get as far from civilization, and stay there?”

“Sammy…” Dean started, but was ignored.

The ram nodded. “It seemed like a more likely situation to find in Lilliput compared to Blefuscu. Such an idyllic land…” He turned to Chase and Minnie. “No one here is at risk from my flock, I give you my word. Even if we get sent back to Blefuscu.” The last statement was said with a sideways glance at Dean.

The guy seemed genuine enough. Having lived in Lilliput for a bit, Jacob knew the locals to be fussy but harmless. They would likely be too caught up in their own drama to notice an extra flock of sheep up past the hills, especially since no one really wandered this far anyway. He decided that he believed the stern little guy.

It wasn't really up to him, though. He lowered his hands a bit, not enough to put his passengers at risk but at least to bring them more level with the ram. "Whatcha think, Chase? Minnie?"

"It's weird," Chase said, practically bursting for an opening to speak up. "Sheep-people .... sheepshifters!"

Minnie smacked his arm. "How is that helping?" she scolded, before addressing the ram again. "I don't think anyone uses these pastures so you won't get anyone upset. But will you even be safe out here? From wolves and things, I mean?"

The ram looked down his nose at her. “Wolves have been our problem since the start,” he said with a sharp look sent in Dean’s direction. “We haven’t been able to shake them yet.”

Sam stepped between Dean and the ram with an arm to separate them, before thoughtless words could be thrown. “If we leave you be, does this mean you’ll leave the Lilliputians alone?” he asked, trying to keep the focus. “We’re only here to deal with threats.”

The ram sighed. “We won’t bother a soul, you have my word. So long as we have our pastures.”

Sam put his arm down. “I think our job’s done then,” he said. “They’ll just need a safe place to call home now.”

“This works,” Chase agreed, gesturing at the current pasture. Aside from Jacob looming over the field with several people standing on his hands, it was a simple, idyllic view. The area was lush, if a bit wild, and unbothered by Lilliput or Blefuscu. “We even have Jacob here to come check on you sometimes if you need anything.”

Jacob rolled his eyes at being volunteered so easily. It was his lot in life anymore, to have Chase suggest him for any task that needed doing. “I have a pretty easy time getting over here,” he agreed anyway. “If you need supplies.”

Minnie glanced over at Sam and Dean. Sam seemed mollified, though Dean looked as ready for a fight as ever. Looking back at the sheep, she gave them an exaggerated shrug. “Looks like everyone’s okay, so … it all worked out? This time?”

The ram gave Minnie a stiff half-bow, looking uncomfortable with the unfamiliar gesture. “We will hold up our end of the bargain,” he promised.

With a quick shift, the man again turned into a ram. Large, curving horns came out of his forehead first before he fell forward onto a new set of hooves. By the time he hit the ground, he could have blended in with any herd of sheep and proceeded to walk amongst the others. Jerimiah followed suit next. Then, a slowly stirring wave expanded throughout the herd until they were all heading in the same ambling direction.

Sam sighed, blowing out his bangs. “Case closed.”

“Weirdest case ever,” Dean complained. “Almost as weird as running into the actual giant in the lands.” He sent Jacob a side-eye. “Maybe next time we’re in Lilliput, we can enlist some extra help again?” Despite his usual gruff tone of voice, the interest in having a giant helper shone right through.

Chase drew himself up proudly, though he still stood notably shorter than either brother. “We’re totally ready to kick some ass, anytime we’re needed.”

Minnie rolled her eyes. “Preeeetty sure they were asking for Jacob,” she pointed out, nudging Chase with an elbow.

“Hey! I helped!”

Jacob smirked. He’d gotten somewhat used to the surly attitude from Dean. It seemed the little folk over in Blefuscu could be just as excitable as the Lilliputians he’d come to know. Chase and Minnie’s antics were practically a given. “I’m basically a glorified taxi,” he warned. “But I’ll be here.”

#mywriting #collab #washed up winchesters #chase in lilliput au #chase lisong #minnie lisong #sam winchester #dean winchester #jacob andris #supernatural fanfiction #gullivers travels fanfiction #g/t #g/t handheld #it's over .... just like that

[eleanorfenyxwrites]

Request (from this post):

@scarlet-gryphon suggested: Modern pre-3zun AU where for whatever reason, Meng Yao is challenged to do a tough rock climbing wall. Cue the italicized ‘ohs’ from Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue at his flexibility. (also posted to Ao3)

This kind of thing is very much outside of my usual wheelhouse of ideas so thank you so much for the challenge, it was super refreshing! Hope you like it ^_^

--

Fucking work retreats.

“ ‘It’ll be fun’ he says,” Meng Yao grumbles to himself as he plasters an extremely fake (perhaps slightly manic) smile on his face. “ ‘Lighten up, A-Yao’ he says,” he mocks again, his grin twisting into a mocking sneer for just a split second before he smooths it away again.

The benefit of being wildly unpopular is that no one milling around stops him on his hunt to try to chat, and finally after a few minutes of prowling he finds his prey.

“Nie Huaisang,” he says icily and he has the immense pleasure of seeing the Jiang Corporation heir and his brother look sharply at him over Nie Huaisang’s shoulders in (slightly eerie) synchronicity, both of them looking sufficiently aware of whatever it is they see on his face that promises danger for Nie Huaisang. Of course it’s in their own ways, which means Jiang Wanyin glares first at him and then at Nie Huaisang, and Wei Wuxian’s usual happy grin goes a bit manic as well, eyes glittering as he scents fresh mischief.

“A-Yao, there you are!” Nie Huaisang cries far too cheerfully as he turns, his ever-present fan already fluttering nervously in front of his chest. Why he insists on carrying that thing everywhere he goes Meng Yao doesn’t understand whatsoever, but he’s currently wishing he had the guts to tug it from his hands and snap it right in half.

“Could I speak to you for a moment?”

The fluttering of his fan gets a little faster. “Ahhhh hah, but we’re about to get started!! You know how da-ge is, hit the ground running and all that. Can’t it wait?”

“No,” he says with such a poisonously sweet smile and a faux-innocent little tilt of his head that even Wei Wuxian takes a step back, the brothers leaving their best friend high and dry to face his wrath alone. Sensible of them.

He holds his arm out for Nie Huaisang to take and, with no safe alternative options, the other man reluctantly takes it and lets himself be led away from listening ears.

“Now, A-Yao -”

“When were you planning to inform me that my father’s company would also be present at this retreat?”

“Oh good, you already know! So now the answer doesn’t matter, does it?”

“I’m going to murder you in your sleep, A-Sang. I’m in charge of our company’s hotel assignments. I know exactly where to find you.”

“Aiyah you do not, who in the world stays in their own hotel room during company retreats? Well I guess some people have to, But I definitely don’t. I’ve already found myself better accommodation,” he says breezily, flicking his fan shut to tap him on the forearm a couple of times. “And you’ll lighten up a little if you do too! I heard the Lans are coming~,” he adds, his glance at him out of the corner of his eye far too sly. Meng Yao can’t quite resist glaring at him right back. Nie Huaisang just walked headfirst into dangerous territory, but part of him (a very small part of him) can admire that his sort-of-friend, sort-of-employer is daring enough to tease him when he’s clearly irritated.

“You’re horrendous,” he replies sweetly and Nie Huaisang laughs as he turns them around to head back towards where everyone else is gathered.

“Oh hush, stop glaring at me and go find Xichen-ge, stare at him until you feel better. I’ll bet he’s dressed casuallyyyy~~,” he teases as he snaps his fan open again to flutter it and add to the flirtatious lilt in his tone.

“Lan Zhan!!!!” Wei Wuxian suddenly cries loudly enough to carry over the general chatter and in the next instant he goes flying across the spacious hotel lobby, a blur of black and red as Jiang Wanyin shouts after him for him to stop. Nie Huaisang giggles at his side behind his fan as heads turn to watch Wei Wuxian’s progress to where the Lans have stopped to check in.

“Oh perfect timing, and you won’t even have to waste any time searching! Wei-xiong is so useful, don’t you think?”

Meng Yao says nothing, just glares at Nie Huaisang until the man winks over his fan and carefully extricates himself from where their arms are linked to return to Jiang Wanyin’s side to pat his shoulder as the man fumes. Meng Yao sighs and after a moment he follows in the bemused wake Wei Wuxian had left behind himself on his way to his boyfriend. Though the retreat isn’t being held on any participating company’s actual properties, the Nie Corporation is still technically hosting it so it’s not entirely out of character for him to go and greet the new arrivals.

And if Lan Xichen’s smile when their eyes meet makes his frustration with Nie Huaisang and the presence of his own family melt away like snow in spring, then that’s his own business.

----

A few days into the retreat, Nie Mingjue’s patience is at its limit. He hates these things, he can’t remember just why the hell he let Nie Huaisang talk him into hosting this bullshit, but he can’t change it now. At least the Lans agreed to come - without Lan Xichen here to force him to enjoy himself he really would have become too miserable to bother staying for the whole retreat, he would’ve already packed up and dragged Meng Yao home with him to get back to work. Not that it would take much dragging, most likely. Meng Yao is as much of a workaholic as himself, maybe even more of one (which he hadn’t thought was possible prior to meeting him), and the Jins have been extra insufferable to him on top of that. It wouldn’t surprise him at all if Meng Yao was looking for an easy out of the whole affair.

“Oh dear,” Lan Xichen says softly at his side and Nie Mingjue pulls himself out of his ruminations to glance at him and then look at where he’s focusing on only to sigh as he spots Meng Yao being harassed by his horrible cousin - again.

“How long has that spoiled brat been talking to him this time?” Nie Mingjue growls as he pushes his sleeves up to his elbows and flexes his fingers a few times. God he’d like to use that asshole’s face as a punching bag. Mostly because he feels like Meng Yao would appreciate it and Nie Mingjue is maybe slightly too interested in doing things that make Meng Yao get that pleased little smirk on his face. But in his defense it’s also because he’s seen that smirking face far too many times to not want to rearrange it a little. If it happens to be because he’s bothering Meng Yao then that’s the perfect excuse, just two birds with one stone.

“About a minute, but it seems that’s long enough to behave unpleasantly,” Lan Xichen sighs, crossing his arms over his chest in a rare show of open disapproval, his lips turned down in an uncharacteristic frown. “What could he and his friends possibly have to bother him about now?”

“Don’t know, don’t care. I’m gonna beat the shit out of him, I’m tired of this.”

“Mingjue!” Lan Xichen cautions with a sudden grip on his arm. “Please, don’t embarrass A-Yao and make a scene, it won’t help him.”

“Well what do you want me to do?! We can’t just leave him over there.”

“Ah...I believe we are not his only knights in shining armor,” Lan Xichen says, suddenly sounding amused and Nie Mingjue follows his gaze again to see Wei Wuxian, of all people, shoving his way through the crowd looking positively gleeful at the sign of trouble brewing, Lan Wangji trailing along behind him as serenely as ever. Such a weird pair, in his opinion. And of course, because it’s Wei Wuxian, his voice carries perfectly over the general hubbub of people chatting and the clink of carabiners from the people currently scaling the rock wall they’re all supposed to be taking turns climbing.

“Meng Yao!” Wei Wuxian cries and Nie Mingjue can see the man in question’s shoulders tighten all the way from here as Wei Wuxian throws his arm around them to lounge against him. “Are you holding back to spare the rest of us from having to watch you kick our asses without breaking a sweat? Oh. Hey asswipe.”

“Wei Wuxian!”

Nie Mingjue snickers just a little at the scandalized tone in Jin Zixun’s voice, and even Lan Xichen chuckles softly next to him.

“Yeah? Hi uh...hm. Can’t say I remember your name, Jin something-or-other, right? No, don’t tell me, it doesn’t matter and I want to keep thinking your name is ‘Asswipe’.”

“What the fuck is your problem?!”

“Problem? I don’t have one. What’s yours?”

Lan Wangji says something then, far too low to carry the way Wei Wuxian and Jin Zixun’s voices do, but whatever it is makes Wei Wuxian laugh and turn to Meng Yao. He lets go of him to turn and face Meng Yao fully, putting his back to Jin Zixun, but whatever he says next is lost in the noise of someone reaching the top of the wall and hitting the buzzer. 

“Are you sure we should trust whatever Wei Wuxian just did to solve this?” Nie Mingjue grumbles, already knowing what his best friend’s answer will be.

“He’s a good man,” Lan Xichen replies, because of course he does. “I trust him wholeheartedly, and it’s a good solution don’t you think? Everyone expects him to make a scene anyway, A-Yao need not be embarrassed about being rescued if it’s him.”

“Are we sure he even fixed whatever’s going on?” Nie Mingjue watches Meng Yao square his shoulders and step up to take a spot next to one of the employees at the rock wall and he can’t help but frown, still concerned. “A-Yao didn’t want to participate.”

But then he’s quickly strapped into a harness around his hips and thighs and maybe it wouldn’t hurt to just….watch...for a second...

Lan Xichen’s slightly choked noise at his side is all the confirmation he needs that they’re in agreement. 

Nie Mingjue tears his eyes away from Meng Yao just long enough to see that he’s lined up with the rest of the Jin employees that are in attendance and he blinks as he realizes what’s going on.

“This is Wei Wuxian’s solution?” he snaps. “To put A-Yao up against his stupid cousin and his cronies? He’s supposed to get A-Yao away from them!”

“Patience, Mingjue, trust Wei Wuxian’s methods, he knows what he’s doing,” Lan Xichen soothes, returning his hand to his arm though he still hasn’t looked away from Meng Yao as the man listens to the instructions and allows himself to be fitted with a rope attached to the front of the harness.

“You just like seeing A-Yao tied up.”

“Mm. Multiple things can be true at once.” 

Nie Mingjue snorts at that but shakes his head in defeat and goes back to watching, staying still as Lan Xichen subtly steps closer to him and tucks his hand into the crook of his elbow as the start timer counts down from five.

Whatever Nie Mingjue was expecting before the competition started, it certainly wasn’t what ends up happening as soon as the buzzer sounds.

His eyes go wide as he watches Meng Yao instantly take the lead by putting his foot above his head and launching himself a full body-length up the wall while everyone else is still trying to find their first handhold.

“Oh my god,” Lan Xichen breathes at his side and Nie Mingjue is in full agreement. Meng Yao practically flies up the wall, taking the lead by miles simply by virtue of skipping over at least five footholds at a time to get to the highest one he can reach - which is never lower than rib- or shoulder-height.

Nie Mingjue has never seen anything like it and he can’t take his eyes off him. He doesn’t even hesitate, he just makes these impossible jumps and pulls until he smacks the buzzer at the top and turns to sit on the top of the wall, feet dangling and the dimples in his cheeks visible even from this distance as he grins down at the others still halfway down the rest of the wall.

“Oh shit,” it’s Nie Mingjue’s turn to exclaim as Meng Yao wiggles his fingers in a little wave while Jin Zixun slips and falls a few feet before tension gets applied to his rope, leaving him dangling in front of the hardest course on the wall like a sack of turnips.

“That was..oh my.”

“Uh-huh.”

“So flexible,” Nie Huaisang pipes up suddenly from his other side and Nie Mingjue doesn’t yelp but he comes close.

“Huaisang!!”

“Hi da-ge, er-ge. Enjoying the view? It’s very scenic.”

“Don’t be crude, A-Sang,” Lan Xichen chastises without any heat and Nie Huaisang snorts.

“I’m not the one checking out Meng Yao’s ass like a couple of creeps. He’ll want a drink this evening, by the way - he hates dealing with his family.” Nie Huaisang leans forward to look up pointedly first at him and then at Lan Xichen next to him. “Maybe even two drinks.”

“I can feel you winking at me, A-Sang,” Lan Xichen says with a smirk without taking his eyes off Meng Yao and Nie Huaisang laughs behind his fan. 

“Good, then we’re on the same page! Does this mean I should tell Wei-xiong not to talk him into going up there again or do you need more convincing?”

Nie Mingjue coughs at that and does his best to glare. “No one said he has to stop. If he wants to go again to prove his point to that smarmy jackass cousin of his then who are we to stop him?”

“Subtle, da-ge,” Nie Huaisang drawls. He stretches his arms above his head with a little sigh before he steps away to look at them over his shoulder with a sly wink. “As many times as he’s willing to go, then? Noted, I’ll let Wei-xiong know right away,” he teases and then he’s off with a laugh.

“Well. That was..”

“We’re definitely buying him drinks tonight, right?” Nie Mingjue checks and Lan Xichen’s responding hum is perfectly easy to interpret as they watch Meng Yao rappel down the wall and set up to go again. “Good.”

#the untamed fanfic #3zun #Nie Mingjue #Lan Xichen #Meng Yao #modern AU #prompt fill #I hope this is coherent lol #basically act like this 'work retreat' is like a discussion conference #and Jin Zixun was being his usual dick self and boasting that he was better than everybody at everything or whatever #and just being generally shitty so NHS went to grab WWX who was like ohhh yES LET'S GET THIS FOOL

[louiseleblancdiggory]

It’s Nice to Have a Friend

Ok, so here it is!! I would have post it yesterday but unfortunately I lost 3000 words and had to rewrite. I love the friends to lovers trope and I think that INTHAF is unbelievably underrated, so I wrote this!! There is a smut part that I had to cut out, but I promise that I will post it separately later! (It was getting too long). Anyways, enjoy!!

October 2000

Aelin Galathynius had a terrible temper.

Her mother Evalin, since she was only a baby, used to announce to everyone that he had gotten her father’s temper. Unfortunately, her father Rhoe would add, she has got her mother’s impulsivity. Her uncle would then finalize it by saying it was a terrible combination.

And it was.

She could still remember the first day of grade 3. She was only eight, the youngest of her class filled with nine year olds, and had to promise her dad that she wouldn’t get into an argument or fight with anyone during the school hours. Later that day, when she and another boy arrived all sweaty at home, she would tell her dad that she obeyed.

Technically, she got into a fight after school hours.

Everything was fine during the day, to be honest. Aelin was excited to be a third grader, and her cousin and best friend were in the same room as she was. Aelin had no problem staying calm throughout the day as she stuck to Aedion and Lysandra. They had their classes, lunch, some more classes and Aelin was ready to walk home and tell her dad how well behaved she had been.

Until she saw the new student.

To be honest, Aelin hadn’t found him interesting enough to talk to during the day. The only thing that actually caught her attention about him was the silver hair, but he was so quiet, brooding and aloof that not even his hair made him seem interesting enough to Aelin go talk to him. She would have gladly lived the rest of her life not talking to him, but as she was walking home after the school bell rang and saw some of the kids in the fifth grade picking on him, Aelin felt curious enough to approach just a little to know what was happening.

Only to listen and watch. Stay out of it. You promised dad you would stay out of fights.

She was resolute on that up until the moment she actually managed to hear what the other boys were saying.

“Is it true you don’t talk because your accent is so strong no one would even understand you?” Hamel asked, but there was no childish ignorance in his tone. He knew what he was doing.

“I hear you and your father had to run from your country because he killed your mom.” One of the boys, Archer, was saying. “Are you a freak like your dad?”

The silver boy’s cheeks turned red, and he tried to walk faster through the snow. It was only fall, but snow usually came early to Orynth.

“Are you mad your dad killed your mom?” Archer pressed, and before she could even control herself, Aelin was walking in their direction.

“You guys are idiots.” She announced, getting the attention of the three boys. Archer rolled his eyes, but Sam just stared at her. Aelin ignored both, turning to the new student. “He’s not a freak, and he talks. I heard it before.”

It was a blatant lie, but the boy just nodded, some red leaving his cheeks.

Aelin crossed her arms, staring at Archer. “Maybe he doesn’t want to talk to you.”

“Oh, yeah?” Archer imitated her pose, mimicking her voice.

Aelin felt that very bad temper stirring.

“Yes.” She said, matter-of-factly. “Because you look stupid, sound stupid and act stupid. No one wants to be friend with a stupid… asshole.” She said, putting in the last word and hoping that she was using in the right context. To be honest, she had heard her dad say it a few times but had no idea what it meant.

By the red now on Archer’s face, she had used it correctly.

“You little…” Archer started saying, coming on her. Thinking about it in the years after the event, Aelin would admit she could have handled the situation better, but at that time she had been only eight, almost nine, and a boy three years older was coming on her direction.

And so she let her mother’s impulsivity take over.

And so when Archer was close enough, she kicked him between the legs and ran like hell.

She could hear Archer’s grunt as she turned around, picked the new boy by the elbow and forced him to run with her. She immediately knew it had been a bad idea, and it would only cause Archer to pick on both of them for the rest of their school years, but she could worry about that later.

“You have to run.” Aelin grunted, pulling the silver haired boy with her. He hesitated for a second before gripping her hand and running with her. For the next four minutes, both ran all around the neighborhood, Sam’s steps not too far after them. Aelin hoped Archer was in enough pain to not come after them.

Despite the snow and the cold, Aelin felt sweat going down her back. She should have already been home, and as they ran, they just got further and further away from it. The new boy was breathing just as hard as she was, and they were too young at the time to be able to run much longer.

Suddenly, he pulled Aelin by the hand. The boy forced them out of the Main Street, taking a little path through the woods nearby. He ran a little bit more before arriving at a huge trunk. Breathing hard, he pulled a part of the wood away from the tree, revealing an empty inside. Without being told to do so, Aelin rushed inside, feeling her back pressed against the inside of the truck when the boy got in too.

They tried to remain silent as they heard Sam steps approaching. As in synchrony, they both let out their breaths as they heard Sam’s steps going away. The two kids waited an extra minute before leaving the inside of the trunk.

“Oh, I think I lost one of my gloves while we ran. Mom is gonna kill me.” Aelin turned to be boy, looking him up and down and then the empty tree. “That’s nice. You found it during the summer?”

He nodded.

“Ok…” Aelin said, somewhat uncomfortable. “Do you talk?”

He just nodded again.

Aelin felt her temper rising once more, and she crossed her arms, frowning at him. “Well, can you tell me your name then?”

The boy just stared at her in silence. He took a step forward, taking something out of his pocket and handing it to her. Aelin examined the black glove. It was like hers, even though a little bit larger, but she thought it would be enough to convince her mom that she had just swapped it with someone rather than have lost it.

“Well, thank you.” Aelin said, pocketing the glove. She stared him up and down again, shrugging to herself as she continued. “Wanna hang out? My cousin and best friend can’t go to my house today. Playing video game alone is boring.”

He immediately nodded, taking another step forward. Aelin turned around, starting to walk in her house’s direction. From the corner of her eye, she kept trying to analyze the boy. He didn’t seem like a shy person, so maybe he just didn’t like to talk?

“You know,” Aelin started, unable to withstand the silence. “You don’t have to talk. I can talk enough for both of us. But it would be nice to know your name. And where you’re from. I mean, I guess I would ask you some normal stuff but you don’t talk. I mean, you talk but don’t, right? You chose not to talk? I don’t think I’d be able to stop talking, it sounds boring. How do you ask for things? Oh my gods, what about when you need to go to the bathroom? Do you talk then? Why did you stop talking?”

Aelin stopped for a second when she saw the boy staring at her wide eyed. She blushed a little, realizing that she had babbled. Her dad would always laugh whenever she did that, and while Aelin didn’t mind it with her family, she didn’t know if this stranger minded her talking so much.

“Sorry.” She said. This time, when she started talking, she tried to go slower. “You know, if what Sam said was true and you do have an accent, I wouldn’t mind. I mean, I can learn to understand you. But if you don’t want to ever talk, I wouldn’t mind either. Did you have to learn to understand me? If you did, was it hard? Do you think we speak funny? How old were you when you came here?”

“My name is Rowan.” The boy— Rowan— said. He did have a strong accent, but Aelin found it rather nice how he pulled his Rs.

“You talk!” Aelin said animatedly. “Thank the gods. I mean, I could talk for both of us but talking alone is kinda strange. I think I would get used to it, though. Oh, or we could talk through notes!”

Rowan smiled a little at that, nodding. “I do believe you could talk for both of us. And it was strange to see how you all talked, but it’s normal now. I came when I was eight, but I’m nine now.”

Aelin nodded as if she understood even though she had never really interacted with that many people that spoke differently from her. Until now, at least. “That’s nice. Do you only talk to a few people? How do you communicate with people who you don’t like talking to? I have a cousin in Perranth who is mute, so the whole family knows how to use sign language to interact. If you prefer to use sign language, we can. Do you know sign language?”

“Aye, you talk.” Rowan said, but he didn’t make it sound mean. Actually, the smile on his face had widened. “I do not know sign language. I’m just really quiet around most people. If I ever need something I can ask, but normally I prefer not to.”

“Who do you talk to?”

“My dad. My cousins.” Rowan thought a little. “My friends back at home.”

“And now me.” Aelin said, as smug as an eight year old could be. “I’m the only person you talk here? Does that make me your best friend friend?”

Rowan blushed, looking down as they approached Aelin’s home. “You want to?”

“Of course.” Aelin said, frowning again. “Why else would I have invited you to hang out?”

“I—“

Rowan was interrupted by Aelin’s mom coming outside, scolding at her daughter. She took in the sweaty face, the clothes dirty because of the inside of the three and shook her head. “Not even a day, Aelin?”

“It wasn’t my fault!”

Her mom sighed. “It never is.”

“Ask Rowan!” She said, turning to him and narrowing her eyes. “Was it my fault?”

He shook his head, looking at Aelin’s mom. She raised an eyebrow at him, looking between the two kids.

“This is Rowan. He doesn’t talk to anyone here but me.” Aelin put her hands on her hips, smiling at her mom. “I’m his best friend.”

Evalin took in Rowan’s similar appearance, sighing again. “Gods help me.”

Aelin turned to Rowan, a smile on her face, whispering. “She likes you.”

He chuckled, smiling shyly at Evalin. She looked at him for a few seconds before giving a warm smile back. “I don’t know if that smile of yours means that you’ll keep Aelin out of trouble, if you’ll get into trouble with her or if you’ll be the person taking her out of trouble.”

“It’s Aelin. She’ll corrupt him for the second option.” Her dad said, coming from inside the house. He eyed Aelin and Rowan, a smile on his lips. “Let me guess, not your fault.”

“It wasn’t!”

Rhoe simply raised his eyebrows, shaking his head. “Never is, jellybean. It never is.”

Aelin crossed her arms, stomping into the house. She stopped a few steps inside, turning around to see that Rowan hadn’t moved a step. She sighed, imitating her parents. “Rowan, what are you waiting for?”

He looked at Aelin’s parents for a second before rushing into her house. He stopped near her, whispering so silently that only she could hear. “Can I call my dad?”

“Can he call his dad?” Aelin said, staring up at her parents. They looked at each other, confused, but nodded. Rhoe handed Aelin the phone, but she didn’t do anything with it. Instead, she just kept staring at her parents. “He only talks to me! You can’t be here!”

“Sorry, sorry.” Rhoe said, raising his hands. Her parents left for the living room, and only then Rowan called his dad. It was quick— Rowan let his dad know where he was and, surprisingly, discovered that his dad worked with Aelin’s mom.

“Thank you.” Rowan said, handing back the phone.

“It’s ok.” Aelin took it, running to the living room and giving it back to her father. “We will play video game. Do not go there! I’ll talk to Rowan and you can’t hear him talking.”

“Ok…” Her father said, but it sounded more like a question.

Aelin glared at him for a second more before turning around and going back to Rowan. She grabbed him by the elbow and pulled him to the TV room.

“What just happened?” Rhoe asked baffled.

Evalin, however, was sitting relaxedly on the sofa, a newspaper in her hands and a soft smile on her lips. “Your daughter found a new best friend. He doesn’t talk around strangers. Gods, man, it’s not that hard.”

———————

December 2003

“Ro. Ro. Ro!” Aelin tried whispering. “Rowan!”

Rowan turned to her from his seat, eyes wide as if to say “What?”.

Aelin merely smiled, handing him a note over his shoulder. Although years had passed since they became friends and Rowan was more comfortable around Aelin, he still preferred to not talk too much around other people. He was always polite and quiet, and Aelin honestly didn’t mind his silence in public. They had other ways to communicate. Because Aelin was so close to Aedion, her cousin and Rowan became friends with time. The same happened to Lysandra and, since all three of them had learned sign language since they were little because of Elide, the three of them taught Rowan how to use it too.

Most times, however, they just shared notes. Aelin would always walk with paper in her pocket, and Rowan usually had a pen.  They used sign language in more formal occasions, usually when her parents or his dad would tell them that bluntly sharing notes on the table while ignoring everyone else was impolite.

Rowan passed the note back, and Aelin smiled.

I can’t believe The Return of the King is out today. R u ready, Legolas?

Rowan’s terrible handwriting was right below hers. U only talked about this for six months. Ofc I am. And stop calling me Legolas.

Aelin eyed the teacher as she wrote a response, making sure that they weren’t calling any attention. It wouldn’t be the first time they got caught passing notes, and most times teachers weren’t really happy about Rowan and Aelin talking about The Mummy or The Goonies or anything else rather than learning math.

She passed the note to him, getting a response seconds later.

U love that I have nicknames for u. Shows the beauty in our friendship, Legolas. N Gods, u need to work on ur handwriting

U r a pain in the ass

Aelin was trying very hard not to smile, and was about to write another response when the teacher’s voice rang through the room.

“Aelin Galathynius and Rowan Whitethorn!” They both snapped their head up at the same time, and from the corner of her eye she saw Aedion trying to contain his laughter. “Again? I don’t understand how they let the two of you stay in the same classroom.”

Aelin heard Aedion snickering, and Lysandra too if the fake cough was any indication.

“The two of you are the bane of any teacher’s existence!”

“We don’t even talk out loud!”

“Galathynius!”

Aelin saw Rowan raising a fist to his mouth, faking a cough just like Lysandra had to hide his smile.

“The two of you are to stay after school today. If you’re so eager to play with paper during class, you can help me organize some files.”

Both Aelin and Rowan groaned, and Aelin was probably going to argue more had the teacher not turned back to the board. She continued the lesson as if nothing had happened.

It took less than a minute for Aelin to scribble something on the piece of paper, passing it to Rowan. When he saw the note, he shook his head in exasperation, but took it nonetheless. This time, when passing it back and forth, Rowan and Aelin were more careful to not call attention.

Can u believe it??? We r not even interrupting her

U don’t learn, do u?

Stop complaining. U r passing the not back to me. This is a group effort

Whatever u say, G.

Every time u play the bigger person in the friendship I want to shove my fist in ur mouth

:)

“Oh, Gods, I can’t believe it! Seriously?” The teacher shouted again, staring at both of them.

Aelin tried to give an apologetic smile as Rowan closed his eyes and groaned.

—————————

November 2009

“Hey, Mr. and Mrs. Galathynius.” Rowan said, walking into the kitchen and grabbing an apple. “How are you two doing today?”

“I’m ok, sweetie. You?” Evalin asked, a maternal smile on her lips.

“Aelin is not home.” Rhoe said, looking up from his newspaper.

Rowan smirked. “I know.”

“I’m gonna start making you pay rent, boy.”

“Will you believe if I told you my dad said the same about Ace?” Rowan mused, taking a bite from his apple.

“I miss when you didn’t talk to us.” Rhoe said, turning to Evalin. “Don’t you miss when he didn’t talk to us?”

Evalin hit her husband on the shoulder. “You adore Rowan, stop being grumpy.”

“Yeah, you adore me, stop being grumpy.” Rowan’s smirk only widened as Rhoe’s eyes narrowed.

“My daughter’s arrogance is rubbing off on you.”

“If you can deal with Ace, you can deal with me.” Rowan replied. He motioned to the stairs, walking backwards as he still talked to Rhoe. “Now if you’ll excuse me, your daughter asked me to water her plants.”

“And then you leave.” Rhoe grunted.

“And then I will have a movie marathon in here with Ace when she comes back from Lysandra.”

“I mean it about the rent.”

Rowan only grinned, winking at Rhoe. “I’ll be in your daughter’s room.”

As he went up the stairs, Rowan heard Evalin laughing at Rhoe’s curse.

Rowan had been friends with Aelin for months before her parents even heard him saying a word. In the beginning, when there were people around them, they would talk through shared notes. Since the day Aelin asked him to hang out with her, they spent most of their time together. Everyday they would go to his or her house after school, she was always around him at school and now, almost ten years later, both of them remained as united as ever. More, even. They had reached a point in their friendship that there was little to no thing that they didn’t know about each other, that they couldn’t tell each other.

She never made him feel uncomfortable, never pressured him to talk when he didn’t feel like it. Rowan had always been a quiet kid, and Aelin had found that to be more of an extra thing she liked about him rather than an impediment in their friendship. She would say he was the stoic and intelligent silence to her witty and unstoppable words.

Aelin became part of his daily routine, and so did her parents. Rhoe and Evalin had always treated him as if he was family— Evalin as the loving mom and Rhoe as the very witty dad. He had never thought he would feel so comfortable around people that weren’t his family, but the Galathynius had gotten through all his barriers during the years.

Rowan entered Aelin’s room, throwing his bag and shoes at the floor by one of her bookcases.

“You know, if Aelin wasn’t completely insane, she would be watering you.” Rowan mumbled to the plants as he watered them. While she was a messy person overall, Aelin was very methodical with some things. Her books were always organized, she had crazy rituals for random things and a very strict schedule to water her plants.

He finished watering the plants, opening the curtains to allow some sunlight in. Unceremoniously, Rowan laid on Aelin’s bed, taking his phone out of his pocket.

“Your stupid plants have been watered.” Rowan announced when she picked up the phone. He put it on speaker, setting the device down on top of his stomach. “Where are you?”

“Left Lys’s a while ago, I’m at the supermarket. Anything you want?” Aelin said mindlessly. Rowan could picture her with the phone in between her shoulder and ear, attention focused on the products in front of her rather than on him.

“Celery.”

“Ok, I’ll buy popcorn.”

“I said celery.”

“I refuse to have a movie night with you if you’re gonna eat celery. That shit is disgusting.” She complained. “Besides, you’ll make me self conscious if you’re eating celery and I’m eating a bowl of chocolate. Be a good best friend.”

Rowan huffed a laugh, resting an arm above his eyes. “I don’t like chocolate, Ace.”

“If you had told me that years ago, I would have let Archer beat the shit out of you.” Aelin huffed, throwing something in the cart. “I’ll buy your stupid celery.”

“You love me.” Rowan smiled.

“You love me.” Aelin mimicked, her voice sounding stupid. “Shut the fuck up. And take a goddamn shower if you’re gonna stay in my bed.”

Rowan didn’t even take his arm away from his eyes, didn’t even ask how she knew he was sprawled in her bed. “Also, buy vodka.”

“I don’t hate you enough to let you have celery and vodka on a Tuesday night.” Although she tried to sound impatient, Rowan could picture the smile on her face. Imagining it, Rowan smiled too. “And I mean it, buzzard. Go take a shower.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Also go to hell.”

“Your wish is my command.”

Rowan was laughing when she ended the call abruptly. He remained laying down for a few moments before getting up, groaning. He was only half awake as he went to the bathroom, picked the stuff Aelin usually left for him under the counter and took a quick shower. It was a good thing they had grown up together, because Rowan though it was very unlikely he would ever have a friend with as much intimacy as he had with Ace. Things like showering on each other’s house, sharing beds and spending most of their time together seemed strange to Rowan when he thought about it with anyone but Aelin.

They had been through elementary school together. Had made their class selection in middle school together so they would end up in the same classes. Now, in their last year of high school, they still tried to coordinate their schedules. Rowan and Aelin were applying to the same colleges, and although they were focusing on different areas, both we’re going to law. There was no Aelin without Rowan, or Rowan without Aelin. Neither of them minded, and things were so natural that it had never been a problem.

Rowan grabbed some shorts he had left at her house during the summer and one of the shirts Aelin had stolen from him, dropping on the bed again. He promised himself he wouldn’t sleep, that he would wait for her so they could start the movies soon.

However, when Aelin arrived at home forty five minutes later, she had to bite her lip to keep herself from smiling. Rowan was asleep and, despite her absence, he had kept to his side of the bed. Aelin sighed, throwing her shoes and backpack where Rowan had thrown his. She went into the bathroom, changing from her jeans and crop top into one of Rowan’s old t-shirts and a pair of basketball shorts.

Part of her wanted to wake him up. It was almost October and they had to make the Lord of the Rings marathon now, because they wouldn’t have time during the next month due to the 31 days of Halloween movies challenge they always did. And yet, Rowan seemed so tired and calm, that Aelin merely climbed up the bed and immediately fell asleep by his side. When she woke up again hours later, she noticed that it was already sunset, meaning they had slept for at least three hours.

Aelin groaned softly, rubbing her eyes and turning to face Rowan. She nudged him gently with her knee until his eyes fluttered.

“Let me sleep.”

“We’re watching Lord of the Rings. Wake your hulking ass up.” Aelin murmured.

“Sleep.” Was all Rowan replied, eyes still closed.

“Don’t you want to see Legolas?” Aelin asked, a sly smile on her mouth.

At that, Rowan opened his eyes. He glared at her, each second his glare worsening as Aelin’s smile grew.

“The joke is not funny anymore.”

“Yes, it is.” Aelin was smiling so much it hurt her cheeks.

“Is your whole personality based on acting like a bitch?”

“Yes, you should be aware of that by now.” Aelin said, sitting up. “Come on, Ro. Like old times? We make the tent  over the bed and watch the movies together. I’ll make Legolas jokes and you’ll sulk pretending I’m not damn funny. We’ll probably fall asleep during the last one and wake up tomorrow to find out the tent fell on top of us during the night. Just like when we were young.”

“You are not funny.” He grunted, but also sat up. He ran his hands through his hair, and Aelin watched every movement in silence. When he finally turned to her, she smiled at him. “And the tent always fell because you’re shit at following instructions and always set it up wrong.”

“I’m hilarious.”

“Nope.”

“You’re boring, I’m funny. It’s the very essence of our friendship.”

“No, I’m a prick and you’re an asshole. That’s the essence of our friendship.” He smirked a little at that, and Aelin narrowed her eyes.

“Remind again me why we are friends.” Aelin said sarcastically, getting up from the bed.

Rowan simply laid back, arms behind his head. “You kicked someones’s balls for me when we were eight. Always had a terrible temper.”

“My temper always helped your sorry ass.” Aelin came back from her closet with the tent sheets. “Little Rowan couldn’t throw a punch.”

“See?” Despite what Aelin was saying, Rowan grinned. “A fucking asshole through and through.”

As much as she tried to contain, Aelin smiled, a breathy laugh coming out. “Yea, sure. I’m an asshole. And yet you’re still here after ten years.”

Rowan’s grin became a soft smile, and he got up to help Aelin with the tent. “Of course I am. Can’t leave you all alone after a decade, can I, Ace? You wouldn’t know how to live without me.”

Aelin only rolled her eyes, huffing. She looked to the other side of the bed where Rowan was standing, holding the opposite side of the tent sheet.

Aelin then smiled when he winked at her.

———

June 2012

Since Rowan and Aelin had become friends, he had to hear that he and Aelin were each other’s half. He was what kept her grounded to Earth, and she was what kept him from having an awfully boring life. They were the perfect combination for best friends— one cautious and the other one reckless. Even Aelin would sometimes joke that Rowan was the prudent part of her.

In short, in their friendship, Rowan should be the smart one when it came to these situations.

And since he obviously wasn’t this time, it only made everything worse.

“I’m so happy to see you two!” Evalin said, hugging Rowan and then Aelin. “I feel like it has been ages.”

“Only a few months, mom.” Aelin said, a huge smile on her face. As much as she loved the freedom of living without her parents, Rowan knew she missed them dearly. “Me and Ro had so much to study, otherwise we would have come earlier.”

“College is a bitch.” Rowan added, earning a smile from Evalin and a wink from Aelin.

He quickly but discreetly averted his eyes from Aelin, looking at the house he had spent most of his time since third grade. His childhood and teenage years in that house had been happy and uncomplicated, only him and his best friend.

Things seemed everything but uncomplicated now, and Rowan wanted to punch himself every time he looked at Aelin and thought that maybe, just maybe, being more than friends wouldn’t be so bad. He couldn’t remember when the feeling started, nor could he understand how it could have grown so fast. He had always loved Aelin, but this was… it was different.

For most time, he tried to keep the feelings in check. He refused to distance himself from Ace, but he wouldn’t make a move either. They had been best friends for twelve years, and he wouldn’t throw all of that away only for the shot at a relationship.

“Me, Rhoe and Viktor will go out tonight, but we can all have lunch tomorrow.” Evalin was saying, looking at Rowan. He nodded, already knowing that from when he called his dad to let him know he was back in town. Evalin looked down at Aelin who was resting her head against her mother’s shoulder. “You two can stay here and order something.”

“Yeah, that was the plan.” Aelin said, leaving her mother’s embrace. She walked up to Rowan, resting her back against his chest. He tried his best to not perceptibly tense. He put his hands on her shoulders, trying to act casual. “Ro was thinking Thai.”

Evalin nodded, pointing to the kitchen with her thumb. “Jellybean, can you help me before you two go up? It’s something with the internet and you know how bad me and your father are with technology.”

Rowan smiled, and Aelin laughed. She walked up to her mom, turning around and walking backwards as she pointed at Rowan. “Don’t break anything.”

He rolled his eyes. “I have never.”

Aelin grinned. “Yes, you have.”

“That was you.” Rowan narrowed his eyes as Aelin entered the kitchen. “You broke it and put all the fault on me.”

She laughed, winking at him before disappearing.

Rowan stared after her, both glad and disappointed she wasn’t with him anymore. They were roommates and had almost every single class together, and so they spent most of their time with one another, meaning that Rowan knew that it was a stupid reaction. He shouldn’t be glad his best friend left, and he also shouldn’t immediately miss her.

Gods, he was pathetic.

Rowan’s head snapped up when he heard a chuckle from the stairs. When his eyes landed on Rhoe staring at him, he smiled.

“What’s up, old man?”

Rhoe’s smile turned into a grin as he went down the stairs. “Any reason why you were oogling my daughter, Whitethorn?”

Rowan’s heart stopped dead inside his chest, and he had to control his urge to cough, clear his throat, fidget or just straight up run. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Rhoe chuckled again, tapping Rowan on the shoulder. “You and Aelin were always terrible at lying when it was about your feelings for each other. Aelin was always great at pretending she hated the world when she was mad, but it was never convincing when she used to say she hated you because she was angry at you. It was all over her face and voice that it was a lie.”

Rowan shifted on his feet, crossing his arms. His restlessness made Rhoe smile even more. “You’re getting mad. Probably the age.”

“Don’t bullshit a bullshiter, boy.” He announced, walking past Rowan to the kitchen. He was almost at the door when he turned back to Rowan, eyes strangely serious. “She wouldn’t say no, you know that, right?”

Rowan didn’t answer, only adverted his gaze. It was obvious someone would notice at some point, and it made sense it was Rhoe. Aelin’s dad had spent so much time with them throughout the years that if someone was gonna pick up on a change, it would be him.

“Wouldn’t say no to what?” Aelin asked, coming out of the kitchen with her mom. She quickly hugged her dad, giving him a kiss on the cheek before walking to Rowan. “And who’s she?”

“No one.” Rowan said, not taking his eyes away from Rhoe. He only smiled, winking at Rowan before hugging his wife.

“We’re leaving.” He announced, pulling Evalin to the doors. He looked directly at Rowan when he said the next words. “Behave.”

Rowan felt his whole face heating, and he wanted to tell Rhoe to fuck off. By the smile on his face, Rowan’s expression had taken care of it.

“Twelve years and you still think you can lie to me.” Aelin crossed her arms, looking up at him.

Rowan looked right back at her, and his heart skipped a beat as always. Rowan had always known Aelin was beautiful— it had never been an opinion, but a fact. With blonde honey hair, flawless creamy skin and a mouth that always seemed to be inching towards a smirk, Aelin could have been a model. Her body was just as attractive as her face, even though Rowan made sure he was always looking somewhere else other than below her neck.

Aelin Galathynius was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. And Rowan though she was also intelligent, and funny and wickedly interesting.

And he also knew that he was both very lucky and very unlucky. Lucky for having her as his best friend, unlucky for being completely in love with her.

Aelin usually wore heels, heeled boots or shoes that made her seem taller. Now, as she had discarded her shoes somewhere, she barely reached his chin. If Rowan ever had a death wish, he would tell her how adorable and non threatening she looked from his point of view.

“I have to keep trying, isn’t that right?” He grinned at her. She groaned, brushing past him. She started going upstairs, not turning around to see if he was following her.

Naturally, he was.

“Want to play twenty questions?”

“No.” Rowan answered, throwing himself at her bed.

Aelin crossed her arms, frowning down at him as she sat on the bed. “Stop being a little bitch.”

“The game is pointless. I know everything about you and you know everything about me.” Rowan noted, putting his arms in the back of his head. “What the fuck would you even ask?”

“What’s your favorite color?” Aelin asked, a grin on her face.

Rowan snorted.

“It’s ok, I know the answer. It’s me.”

“You?” He raised an eyebrow.

Aelin smirked, pushing herself to sit down closer to Rowan. Her hips were touching his waist, and Rowan was trying very hard to concentrate. “I’m your favorite everything, buzzard.”

Rowan merely laughed, not commenting on how right she was.

“Your turn.”

He rolled his eyes, but asked nonetheless. “You’ve been stressed out lately?” He smiled when Aelin groaned. She had spent the whole drive from the university to the house complaining about how stressful classes were and that she was about to drop everything and try to marry rich. “Yeah, me too.”

They were just making questions that they already knew the answer, exactly like Rowan had said.

Aelin raised her eyebrows suggestively, wiggling her shoulders. “Are you a virgin?”

Rowan choked on a laugh. He knew Aelin knew he wasn’t. “Yes, and I actually plan on dying one. College is already fucking me enough for a lifetime.”

Aelin guffawed, throwing her head back. Rowan smiled at her, his eyes trailing the slope of her neck. When she looked back at him, Rowan wasn’t so reluctant to keep playing this game if it meant Aelin would keep laughing. “Do you ever regret dating Cortland?”

Aelin groaned, and Rowan smiled. “Exes are prohibited here.”

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

“Stop smiling.”

“He was a bitch. I wanted to punch him whenever he went out with us.”

“Careful, Whitethorn,” Aelin mused with a grin. “Or you’ll start sounding jealous.”

Rowan scoffed. “Just ask your next question.”

“If you could take me anywhere in time, where would we go?”

Rowan stayed in silence for a few seconds before replying. “1999.”

Aelin’s brows furrowed in confusion. “Why?”

“I would have liked for you to meet my mom.”

Aelin felt her whole body constricting and warming at the same time. Through some nerve, she grabbed Rowan’s hand, sweeping her thumb gently on top of his knuckles. “I would have loved to meet her.”

Rowan very rarely talked about his mom, and Aelin knew him enough to know she shouldn’t push the conversation. In the twelve years they had been friends, Rowan only occasionally would talk about his mother. Aelin had so many questions about how she was, what their relationship had been like, but she also loved Rowan more than she was curious, so she never asked if h didn’t provide the information himself.

Rowan smiled up at Aelin, and it was filled with so much love and mourning that Aelin felt her heart skipping a beat. “You would have loved her. She was your type of person.”

Aelin smiled softly at him. Without thinking any further, she laid down in bed, resting her head on Rowan’s chest and their joint hands on top of his stomach. Rowan’s free hand started massaging her scalp, and Aelin closed her eyes as she breathed Rowan’s scent in.

“Do you think she would have liked me?”

“Oh, yes.” Aelin could hear the smile on his voice. “She would have loved you. You are exactly the type of person she wanted me to be close to. She always said I was too cautious, too calm. I needed some recklessness in my life, and since I mostly refused to go out during myself childhood and be reckless by myself, my mom thought that having a friend like that would be perfect. She would have adored your personality, and how important you were in my life.”

“She sounds amazing.”

“She was.” Rowan breathed.

“No wonder you turned out like this.” Aelin said and immediately felt Rowan gripping her tighter.

“Thanks, Fireheart.”

Aelin smiled, opening her eyes and looking up at him. Rowan was staring at her, and Aelin winked at him. “Whenever you need some ego boosting, Ro.”

He chuckled, still massaging her hair. “If you could be anywhere right now, where would you be?”

“I like it here.” Aelin tried shrugging. She felt Rowan tensing, and a part of her wondered if she had said something wrong. She didn’t want to ponder on it, didn’t want to think about what it meant and how it would make her feel if it was true. Instead, she just changed the subject. “My turn. What were you and my dad talking about? And who is she?”

The question only made Rowan tense further, and Aelin raised, holding herself on her elbows as she looked down on him. “Nothing and no one.”

“Bullshit.” She spat, narrowing her eyes. “If you don’t want to tell me, fine. But don’t lie to me, Rowan.”

He sighed, rubbing his eyes with one hand. “It’s nothing you would like to know.”

“Are you seeing someone?”

Rowan looked directly into her eyes, and Aelin resisted the urge to shift under his gaze. “Would that be something you wouldn’t like to know, Aelin?”

Aelin felt her heart beating stronger inside her chest, each beat sounding so loud that it was a wonder Rowan hadn’t heard it too. She refused to think about the question, just like for the last months she had tried ignoring every similar question when it came to Rowan.

No, she wouldn’t like to hear that. At all.

Instead of telling him that, she just shrugged. “Are you?”

“Careful, Galathynius,” Rowan repeated the same words she had said minutes ago. This time, however, there was no humor on his voice. “Or you’ll start sounding jealous.”

Aelin rolled her eyes, forcing a snort out. The conversation had taken a completely different path than she had originally intended. It was enough to get on the bad side of her temper, and before she could even think about what she was saying, she raised her chin and replied. “What if I am?”

Rowan’s eyes widened ever so slightly, and Aelin wanted to punch herself. He stared at her in silence for what seemed to be an eternity. “Are you?”

She had fucked up, she knew that. Rowan had been the closest person to her for more than a decade, and even if she lied and said no, he would know the truth. She knew that she should have kept her mouth shut, should have dropped the subject. She had spent months trying to make sure Rowan wouldn’t even suspect that she was interested in him in a more than friendly way.

And she had fucked that up with a stupid teenager game.

There was no going back anymore, and maybe because of this Aelin felt confident enough to do what she had been aching to do for a while now.

She didn’t stop to think about how things would be after this, didn’t stop to think about what Rowan’s widening eyes meant as she brought her face down and pressed her lips against his.

Rowan was like a stone under her, and Aelin moved her lips softly on top of his. There was a voice in her head screaming at her, telling her to pull back and try to fix the friendship. She was going to do just that when she felt Rowan raising his hands, putting them on her hair as he kissed her back.

Rowan rolled on his side, one of his hands sneaking down to Aelin’s back to pull her against him. Aelin laid on the bed, one of her hand going to the back of Rowan’s head, her fingers playing with his hair.

Aelin bit Rowan’s lower lip, moaning when he opened his mouth, tongue sweeping over hers. She pressed herself against him, one of her legs intertwining with his.

“Ro.” Aelin breathed, arching her neck as Rowan kissed the expanse of her throat and collarbones. One of his hands sneaked inside her shirt, palm cupping her breast as the other one gripped her hair more tightly. Aelin ran her hands through his back, coming back through his front until she was cupping his face.

Aelin raised Rowan’s face back to her, kissing him deeper than she had before. Rowan’s tongue entered her mouth, and Aelin’s mind emptied of any thought that wasn’t about him. About his hand against her breast, fingers in her hair. All her focus was on how he was making her feel, and Aelin felt completely intoxicated by him.

Rowan put one of his legs in between Aelin’s thighs, pressing it against her middle as Aelin grinded her hips softly against him.

“Ace, do you—“ Rowan was breathing against her mouth, but was interrupted when they both heard the main door opening and voices filing in.

“I can’t believe you forgot you wallet, Rhoe!”

Aelin raised her head immediately, eyes widening when she saw the bedroom’s door open and heard her parents coming up the stairs. She rolled over Rowan, almost falling off the bed as she ran to the door and closed it louder than she intended to. She closed her eyes, putting her back against the door as she heard one set of the footsteps going in the direction of her parent’s room. The other one stopped in front of her door, and a hesitant knock sounded.

“Is everything alright, Aelin?” Her mom’s voice seemed more curious than confused.

“Yeah.” She answered, trying not to sound too breathless. “You guys are already back?”

“Dad forgot his wallet. We just came to pick it up but we are already leaving.”

“You sure you’re ok, Ae?” Her dad asked, having come back from his room.

“Yeah, yeah. We’re fine. Rowan just has a terrible habit of not closing the door after his tail enters the room.”

Aelin heard her dad and mom laughing. “Ok the, jellybean. We’re out again, we’ll see you later or in the morning.”

“Love you guys!” Aelin shouted as she heard her parents’ footsteps going down the stairs. She remained with her eyes closed until she heard the front door opening and losing again, and only then she opened them again.

Rowan was sitting on the bed, eyes stuck on her face. His cheeks were pinkish, lips swollen and hair a mess. Aelin supposed she wasn’t too much better.

They stared at each other in complete silence until Aelin cleared her throat, pushing her hair back from her face.

“Well if this isn’t a fucking surprise for both of us.”

——————

October 2016

Aelin though that the rice on the ground looked like snow.

Among the screams all around her, she could hear the church bells ringing, the soft song playing on the background.

She looked to her right, watching her newly husband grin at some of his friends from uni.

They both had wanted a small wedding, but both Rowan and Aelin’s parents insisted that they needed a big ceremony, something big enough to encompass their whole relationship.

Rowan turned to her, grin only widening as he realized she was smiling at him. “What are you looking at?”

Aelin shook her head, eyes closing when she felt Fenrys and Aedion throwing more of that rice thing on them. “Nothing.”

Rowan laughed, hugging her as they walked to their car. “Sixteen years and you still think you can lie to me, Mrs. Whitethorn.”

Aelin held Rowan’s face in her hands, kissing him deeply and lovingly before drawing back, a smile never leaving her face. “I have to keep trying, isn’t that right, babe?”

Tags:

@in-love-with-caramel-macchiato @abookishfreak @faerie-queen-fireheart @maastrash @morganofthewildfire @queen-of-glass @annejulianneh111 @heirofthenightcourt @jlinez @courtofjurdan @aelinfeyreeleven945tbln @ladywitchling @lexflame @sleeping-and-books @perseusannabeth @linshryver @mu-si-ca-l @camilamartinezdunne @dank-queen7 @minaidss @starborn-faerie-queen @booksofthemoon @loveofbooksandwine @jesstargaryenqueen @bluejaberry @multifandommessblog @yesdreamblog

#rowaelin #rowaelin fanfic #rowaelin fanfiction #rowaelin au #rowaelin oneshot #rowanaelin #rowaelin ts #ts!rowaelin #rowan whitethorn #aelin ashryver galathynius #aelin #rowan #throne of glass #throne of glass au #throne of glass fanfiction #throne of glass fanfic #throne of glass oneshot #INTHAF rowaelin #fluff #ts rowaelin #writing #ts #my writing #mardu writes

[fiddlepickdouglas]

Viva Las Vegas, Pt. 18 -Chemistry

Summary: Sunset Curve Alive AU, Willex, what will they do?, 2.5k

@trevor-wilson-covington is the bestie who makes these lovely edits, we stan supportive friends

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17

“Two, three, four!” Alex counted off and the band sprung into action inside the studio. The one good thing about the drums was that it made him hyper aware of every limb on his body. There was no room for distractions or intrusive thoughts when he was keeping time. It was almost like the euphoria of being dizzy, only without the dizziness. He could be okay in this state for a little while - just long enough to reset his mind and declutter itself.

As they finished their take, they heard a familiar voice from the sound booth.

“Sounds incredible boys!”

Caleb. There went the whole ‘reset and declutter’ thing he had going.

Each of the guys looked around at each other, knowing they would have to do their best to pretend they didn’t know anything. This was the first time they were seeing him since Alex had given the news to the rest of the band. None of them had actually discussed what they would do the next time Caleb happened to stop in. Setting down their instruments and slowly filing into the sound booth, they all greeted Caleb, trying to appear happy to see him.

“Let’s hear that playback, shall we?” he said as they all sat together. He pressed a few knobs on his soundboard and they all listened closely to their own song. It was just gonna be another session with notes on where they could dub vocals here and there or duplicate tracks to fill things out - it had to be normal, Alex prayed.

“And let’s stop here for a minute,” Caleb was saying after getting into a couple minutes of the track. “Reggie. What happened to the bassline?” Reggie sat up, blinking at being called out. “That’s not what was on your demo; why did you change it?”

Reggie’s face had already fallen as he made flustered attempts to respond.

“I-I...I just liked that line better...I think it fits the style and the direction of the song,” he stammered, shoulders slumped, avoiding eye contact. His hands came together in his usual fidget - the one he did when he got yelled at. Alex saw Bobby’s hand curl into a fist.

“Alright, alright, trust me,” Caleb placated. “I understand, probably more than any of you, why improvising a part feels so good. I wouldn’t host a jazz club if I didn’t get that. But here the difference is that no one knows your songs yet, boys.”

“We’ve had faithful fans for years,” Luke interrupted.

Caleb cut him off with a mere look. Shutting his mouth, Luke scratched the back of his head nervously. After taking a breath, Caleb simply let out a sigh.

“Boys.” His tone was really drawing on the charisma, Alex noticed. “My job in helping you reach the stardom that you all one hundred percent deserve is to help you create a footprint on the walk of fame. A footprint means as beginners we can’t mess with the core elements that make your brand. These songs need to stay consistent until we have thousands of fans singing back to you in the audience the very lines you wrote in your humble garage. They need to know the first few seconds of that drumbeat and recall who you are on the radio. They are going to learn those basslines and those chords and add them to their own repertoire while they aspire to be legends like you! Don’t you see how important that is? I know. Playing around is fun; experimenting with new ideas and sounds is the whole reason we’re here. But from now on, I want you boys to stay in one lane, and I will match your speed.”

Eyeing each other warily, they all awkwardly murmured and nodded to agree with him. None of his words had been all that comforting. Alex was stuck thinking about how Caleb had made an appeal to every single one of them and somehow been right on the nose. It was like he could read their minds and it felt rather invasive.

“We’ll remember that,” Alex told him. He knew the other three were battling with their fight or flight responses and it would be suspicious.

“Oh, good,” Caleb replied. “I can see we’re having an off day, but maybe Alex can get the rest of you on board. Let’s run that song again.”

Exchanging glances, the guys stood up and headed back into the recording booth.

“Man, chemistry sucks,” Bobby complained from his seat in the armchair in his garage. Books were spread out around him, as well as about a dozen crumpled up pieces of notebook paper. “Reggie would get this.”

Alex looked up from the history homework he’d been focused on. He was gaining such an ear for whenever Reggie or Bobby mentioned one another and it made him laugh inwardly. For now, though, he had to hide the smirk.

“Well, I would call him, but he’s taking care of his sister tonight.”

“Yeah, I know. I don’t want to bother him anyways.”

This was one of the rare occasions where it was just Alex and Bobby together. Usually at least Luke would be around, but he was out on some date with Julie and there was no telling when he was expected back. Bobby had been helping Alex with history for a little bit but about half an hour ago remembered his own homework in a panic. Now they were both having trouble focusing. Their time in the studio that morning was clearly still on both of their minds.

“Hey, did Reggie tell you we were playing for his cousin’s wedding?” Alex asked in a non sequitur fashion.

“What?” Bobby said, finally sitting up and tearing his eyes off the diagram he was making. “No, he didn’t. Since when was that happening?”

“I’ve known for a couple weeks,” Alex told him casually.

“Oh.” Bobby looked down at the floor. “Any reason you haven’t mentioned it until now?”

Alex shifted in his seat on the couch at the suspicion in Bobby’s voice, but tried to play it off with a shrug.

“I just forgot. We’ve had a lot going on since he mentioned it to me.”

It did the trick. Still, Bobby sat in thought for a while, playing with his tongue inside his mouth absent-mindedly. Alex physically bit his own tongue to keep himself from asking what was on Bobby’s mind and pretended to turn his attention back to his history work. There was a long, static pause.

“Reggie’s been really weird lately,” Bobby said.

“Is that so?” Alex didn’t look up this time.

“Yeah. I mean, he’s always been goofy and everything, but I mean, he’s been unusual even for him. You know what I mean?”

“I guess I haven’t been paying as close of attention.” Alex flipped a page in his text book. “But I’ll take your word. Are you worried about him?”

Furrowing his brow, Bobby frowned in thought.

“I’m not sure,” he said. “I mean, I always worry about him, you know, cuz of everything he deals with at home. But I don’t know...this is different.”

“Is it because of what Caleb said today?”

“I didn’t like that either, but no, that’s not it.”

He looked so serious that Alex couldn’t find it funny anymore. Actually, Bobby seemed so distressed by it that it was making Alex distressed.

“Hey,” he said with concern. “Why do you look so bummed about it?”

He received a glance as though a great weight sat upon Bobby’s shoulders. It was so familiar it shot him in the chest. His friend looked so lost and uncertain, so afraid to speak his mind. And Alex thought Reggie had been conflicted. It was a little worrying.

“I think you actually know what's going on, huh?” Bobby said in resignation.

Nope. Now it was just frustrating. Alex sat up and looked at Bobby directly.

“Okay, I know expressing yourself isn’t your strong suit, Bobby, but please say it out loud. You can do it. Especially with me.”

His friend’s eyebrows knit together even further, trying to convince himself to get it off his chest. A minute passed, and finally he shut his chemistry book, set it aside, and faced Alex.

“I have feelings for Reggie.”

Thank god.

“Good job! You’re officially the last to know!”

Bobby’s face fell into a confused expression.

“What?”

Alex merely shrugged. They were so helpless, but luckily he was better at trying to solve others’ problems than his own.

“I had to let you come to your own conclusion. It was exhausting; you took forever.”

Bobby folded his hands and fidgeted with his thumbs.

“How long have you noticed?”

“Technically? Since before playing at the Pearl. But that’s when it really started to be obvious.”

Smirking, Bobby just bowed and shook his head.

“You know,” he began. “When I was first getting to know you, I didn’t trust you. Luke and I were already so close, and he introduced me to you and Reggie and you two already were such good friends. For a while I couldn’t figure out when you were being sarcastic or serious and I didn’t want to admit I was too sensitive. Reggie helped me figure out the difference and I just sort of dropped anything I was upset about.”

Alex listened carefully, nodding at his words.

“And now you’ve started getting all personal because you know I’m the most trustworthy one here, right?” he half-teased.

Nodding, Bobby smiled a little.

“I guess this is the part where you tell me to get my crap together and tell Reggie?”

“Yep,” Alex said. “But go at your own pace. The last thing I want is you two making things even weirder than they already are by trying to discuss things when you’re not prepared. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great, but don’t forget the rest of the band in the process.”

“Oh, yeah,” Bobby pondered. “You have a point. Speaking of weird business, I’m still not cool about us pretending to go along with making the album while knowing what we do about Caleb.”

“Me neither, but I think Luke was right. We’re just being careful.”

“Since when is Sunset Curve careful, though? We would just set up and play wherever we could until we got chased off the property, and then we’d just find a new location the next night.”

“The difference is we were nobody fifteen year olds who didn’t have contracts signed. You said it yourself, we could risk losing the rights to our own music if we break things off.”

“We read the contracts, though, right?” Bobby insisted. “I made sure we did. I don’t remember anything that seemed too controlling in them.”

“Would we have known what to look for?” Alex responded.

Sighing heavily and flopping back into his chair, Bobby stared up into the ceiling. It felt like no good answer could be given. Alex was frustrated too, but he remembered what Tía Victoria had told him as well. He believed Willie, of course, especially since Victoria hadn’t actually seen or spoken to him. She hadn’t been able to get a sniff of Caleb’s true nature, and she was a professional investigator. If Caleb could fool her that easily, he’d tied their hands while they willingly held them out.

“Bobby,” Alex started. “What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking we should stop laying ourselves on the ground and letting him walk all over us. None of this ‘establish the brand’ B.S.”

Straightening his posture, Alex sat up and folded his hands. That was exactly what he wanted to do, too. Even if he didn’t know anything else about Caleb, the way he’d gone after Reggie had left a sour enough taste in his mouth. Before he could say anything else to Bobby, Luke stepped into the garage.

“Guys, I was thinking - ” he started.

“You wanna go after Caleb too?” Bobby said.

“Whoa, how did you know?” he sat back in surprise.

“Bobby and I were just talking about it,” Alex told him. Luke raised his eyebrows as he flopped onto the couch beside Alex.

“Were you guys mad when he singled out Reggie, too?”

“Yes!”

“Nobody shames Reggie like that!”

“Bobby, you should go cheer him up,” Luke suggested. “We all know you’re in love with him.”

“Oh my god!” Bobby cried, throwing his arms into the air in exasperation. Immediately he stood up and gathered all his books. “Just for that, I’m turning in you guys. Have a nice night, Alex. Luke, I hope it’s cold.” He stormed out of the garage and into his house while Luke and Alex simply laughed together.

“I, uh… I already gave him a speech about it,” Alex told Luke, smirking.

“Thank you!” Luke cried. “I know they tease me about being dense but at least I go for what I want! And so do you!”

Smiling at the acknowledgement of him and Willie, Alex slowly started packing up his homework. He could finish it tomorrow night.

“By the way, how was hanging out with Julie?” he asked.

Placing his arms behind his head, Luke got that dreamy far-off look on his face. The ‘Julie on the mind’ look. He smiled like he’d seen an angel and the angel had smiled back in kind.

“Oh, she’s awesome. She’s way better at roller skating than me. I wish there were two of me just so one of us could hold her hand while skating with her and the other could sit down and watch.”

Alex made a face at the odd visual, but he understood what Luke was talking about. He wondered what he and Willie looked like from an outside perspective. Did they look as happy as he felt? Did Willie bring out something in him that he’d never seen in the mirror? Or even something the rest of the guys didn’t know yet? That was something he really wanted to discuss with Willie now.

“I can’t wait until her mom gets out of the hospital,” Luke was saying. “I want to learn everything she can teach me. She told me she took two years just working on the production of an album for her band. Imagine what we could do with our songs if we had her in the studio instead of Caleb.”

“Wow,” Alex commented. “At this point, I really wish we were working with the Molinas. At least they seem to get us.”

Luke looked at him and Alex knew he’d heard all the underlying meaning in that sentence. All the guys had been accepted by Julie’s family in a way none of their own seemed capable of. Alex almost wished he hadn’t said it out loud because it only tempted him to forget about heading home.

“Maybe one day, we will, Alex,” Luke said, giving him an encouraging smile.

He chuckled as he shouldered his backpack and headed out the door.

“Yeah. That’d be sweet.”

#julie and the phantoms #jatp #fanfic #jatp fanfic #sunset curve #alive au #willex #willie #alex mercer #luke patterson #reggie peters #bobby wilson #julie molina #caleb covington #viva las vegas #vlv #chemistry #fiddlepickdouglas

[ninjaslegos]

Cousins of Storms

Where Jay goes to visit his biological cousin after the events of season 6.

Well, he certainly wasn’t expecting this. Not only was he adopted, his biological father was the Cliff Gordon, and he had an entire extension of family he didn’t know about.

So, logically, after the events with Nadakhan, he went to visit his aunt and uncle.

“Where are you off to, Zaptrap?” Cole asked, not looking up from his video games.

“Oh, uh,” he wasn’t sure how he was going to explain to the others that he was adopted, his parents are dead, and he’s now off to see the rest of his biological family. “Just...out, I guess. Nothing in particular.”

“Huh, really? Usually you’re up to something...do you have a secret girlfriend I don’t know about?” He teased.

“What? Never!” He cried out. He knew his heart belonged to Nya. “I’m visiting family.” It was technically true.

“Tell Ed and Edna I said hi, then.” Cole waved him off before going back to his games.

Hopefully Jay wouldn’t run into anymore problems. Having memorized the address already, he summoned his elemental dragon and made his way there with ease. The house was pretty far away, at the far edge of Ninjago in an isolated village. The closer he got, the more nervous he became. Would his aunt and uncle even like him? Would they be proud of him for being a ninja? What if they-

By the time his mind stopped racing, he saw he was already at the doorstep to their house. It was a pale shade of blue, and nicely sized. Various blue flowers sprouted from the front yard; so they liked the color blue, that was good. “You can do this, Jay, they like blue and blue is you.” He held his breath as he rang the doorbell. A few seconds later, a middle aged woman came and answered the door. “Uh, hi there, ma’am! My name is Jay Walk - I mean - Jay Gordon. My father was Cliff Gordon, do you happen to-”

“Jay?” She spoke with affection, “is it really you, my dear?” She began to tear up, “it’s been so incredibly long, we all thought you were dead! Please, please come in!” She shuffled to the side to let him in.

Well, this was going better than he thought, but what did she mean by ‘we’?

“Honey, come down, we have a visitor I think you’d like to see!” She called upstairs, then she turned to him, “go have a seat in the living room, I’ll go ready some snacks and juice, you must be starving.”

“Oh, no, you don’t really have to...” he trailed off. He went and sat in a chair, as told, and looked around. There were a couple toys and books scattered around the area, and he wondered who they belonged to. There were baby photos on the wall, but it was hard to tell who they were of. If a kid lived here, it sure was quiet. Were they...he’d better not bring it up.

A man who looked a lot like Cliff showed up at the bottom of the stairs, and looked him up and down. “Who’s this?”

“Jay!” His aunt exclaimed, coming out with a pitcher of juice, cups, cheese, and crackers all on a tray. “It’s our nephew.” She beamed.

“Well I’ll be!” His uncle’s eyes widened in surprise and disbelief. “The Jay Gordon! Look at you, all grown up. We all thought you were dead.”

“Scott!” His aunt snapped at him, “you don’t say something like that to your nephew!”

“Oh, uh, it’s fine!” Jay assured them, “I know this thing is kind of sudden.”

“Don’t worry yourself at all, dear! Your uncle just doesn’t know his manners.” She pours some juice and hands it to Jay, who thanks her and starts to sip at it. “When Cliff, your father, decided he couldn’t raise you on his own, we offered to take care of you, but somewhere along the way, he lost you! It was quite the tragedy, and we all thought you were gone. What a miracle it is to have you with us, now!”

“Funny story, actually, I was adopted by this really nice couple, Ed and Edna Walker. They’ve been taking care of me this whole time.” He explained with a grin.

“Oh dear, how thoughtless of me!” His aunt began to fret, “we’ve been calling you Gordon all this time, would you prefer Walker?”

“Walker is okay, but it’s fine if you call me Gordon.” Jay could really use a break. Sure he talked a lot, but he hardly knew his aunt and she was already acting like she’d known him all his life.

As if the Cloud Kingdom heard him, he heard a tiny voice from the top of the stairs, “mama, are the people gone? I’m hungry.”

So they did have a kid, and they were still alive... He had a cousin?!

“Come downstairs, (Y/N), come meet your cousin!” Your mother urged.

It was quiet for a bit, but then he could hear tiny footsteps coming down, until a little face peeked out from behind the banister. You were so cute! His own little cousin! You shyly stared at him, not saying a thing.

“Hi there! I’m Jay.” He smiled at you. This appeared to be the wrong thing to do as you squeaked and ran back upstairs.

“Oh, don’t mind them. They’re incredibly shy at first, but once you get to know them, they become a little chatterbox! You see, (Y/N) doesn’t have very many friends, so it would be nice if you could visit them sometimes.” His aunt told him.

Jay grinned, “of course! I’d be happy to.” He spent the rest of his time talking with his extended family, about himself, his work as a ninja, and a little about you. He learned that you were obsessed with the color blue, knew everything there was to know about dolphins, and even chewed stuff a lot when you were little.

He ended coming over once or twice a week when he had the day off, and soon after a month, you actually opened up to him. You were from avoiding him, to getting things from the living room while he was in it, to playing with your toys and reading out in the open. You hadn’t spoken a word to him until today. “Jay!” You peeped, waving to him from the kitchen.

He was surprised to hear you speak to him finally, but brushed it off for the sake of not wanting you to feel weird for talking. “What’s up, (Y/N)?”

“Look what mama got me!” You showed him a necklace with blue rubber balls around it. “She did it so I could stop chewing on my clothes.” You explained, talking to him as if you’d been friends since forever. You put the pieces in your mouth to show him.

"It looks really nice." He complimented. He didn't hear a thing from you for the rest of the day, but he didn't mind, at least he made some progress.

That's all he got for his next three visits, a little greeting and an update on what was happening in your life, until today when you were in the kitchen. "Jay!" You squealed, running up to him for a hug.

"My, isn't that a surprise!" His aunt giggled from the living room, reading the newspaper, "usually little (Y/N) hates hugging, and being touched in general. It looks like they really like you!"

He was surprised to hear of this. You were warming up to him! A lot, it seems! "Well, what's got you excited?" He followed you into the kitchen and you pointed to the oven.

"Mama and I made cookies. You can have some, and even bring some to your ninja team, too!" You started to chew on your necklace a bit, looking out to see your mother. "I want to show you something, it's a secret." You whispered, then started to run up the stairs.

"Hey, uhm, am I allowed to go upstairs?" He quickly asked his aunt, not wanting to overstep his boundaries.

"Of course! Just don't break anything, okay?"

He agreed, then followed you upstairs to your bedroom, where you locked the door after and had him sit on your bed. Your room was coated in the color blue, and you had several pictures of dolphins drawn and hung up on your wall, and little dolphin figures and toys scattered on the floor. Other things you had were neatly stacked on shelves or put in drawers. "You have to promise not to tell mama and papa about this, okay?" He nodded, and you sighed, breathing in and out once before you closed your eyes and focused on something.

A breeze flew by his face, and he looked around to see if your window was open, but it wasn't. Next thing he knew, the toy dolphins were floating around, jumping and swimming around as if they were real animals in an ocean of air. He awed at it for a moment, before turning to you. "So, wait, you have elemental powers? Of wind?" He sure hoped Morro wasn't related to you in any way, because then there was a chance he just helped kill off his great uncle, or something, for a second time. That would be an awkward conversation.

You nodded, "but you can't tell anyone! My parents would freak out, the kids at school would make fun of me even more, and-!"

"Hey, hey, it's okay." Jay assured you before you could rile yourself into a panic. You were already starting to chew on your necklace again, "I promised I wouldn't tell, right? And a promise is a promise. Plus, I have a secret for you." He winked. "Do you think you can make the air go in a really fast circle, right there?" He pointed to the ceiling, and you nodded, pointing with your fingers and waving your arms in circles. "Watch this," he used his index finger to zap the air, and the blue lightning spun around, containing itself and making a bright light in your room.

You squealed in delight, and used your element to move the lightning and shift it into different shapes. "Look, a cat! Now a tree! Now a dolphin!"

He spent four hours in your room with you, playing with your element and mixing it with his, and generally having fun with his beloved cousin. His aunt eventually called the two of you down for dinner, and boy were the two of you statically charged. You kept kicking each other under the table and zapping each other, giggling like children. Which was appropriate for you, but him, not so much. Nobody here judged him, though.

"Mama, can Jay sleepover today?" You asked.

"I don't know, you'll have to ask him." She answered, going to the living room to watch television.

Jay worried about if his team would mind, but he figured they might not even notice. He was going out without them more and more often. But at the same time, it wasn't like he could keep you secret from them forever. "Yeah, I can spend the night. I'll have to go early in the morning, though. I don't have anything packed."

He went back up to your room, where you played with your powers a little more before delving into the topic of dolphins. It wasn't exactly surprising to know that you knew nearly everything there was to know about dolphins, but it was still something, since most kids your age didn't know this much. This went on until you started to explain to him color theory and why blue was your favorite. "I like it mostly though because it makes me calm down. I can look at it and it makes me go to sleep at night."

"There's this girl I like, her name is Nya, and she also likes the color blue. I think she'd like you a lot. She also has water powers, so I bet she can talk to dolphins for you."

"Really?" You awed.

"Yeah!" Obviously it would take you a bit to become comfortable enough to talk to her, but he believed you could do it eventually.

Soon enough, the two of you had to go to bed, and Jay slept on the couch. When he woke up, he was surprised to see you all curled up on his chest, hugging your dolphin stuffed animal. Man, you loved those things. At least he knew what to get for your birthday in three months.

After a breakfast of blueberry pancakes and orange juice, he said his goodbyes to his little cousin and flew off on his dragon. When he got home, it was already after noon, and he was ready for some lunch.

"Where have you been?" Cole asked with a teasing grin. The other ninja were gathered around the living room, also curious about where he was.

"Yeah, you were gone all night." Nya added.

He shrugged, might as well rip the metaphorical band aid off. "I just had a sleepover at my cousin's house. No biggie."

"You have a cousin?!" Came the astonished shouts of his teammates. Boy, was this going to take a lot of explaining.

#ahh; something nice after all the sad stuff last post lol #ninjago #ninjago jay #jay and reader #fluff #oneshot

[cyclone-rachel]

After the incident with Jonathan (and incident was the kindest word that could be used to describe what happened) Jordan didn’t want to see anyone.

No- it was more than that. He couldn’t be around anyone. There was too much of a risk- his head hurt all the time now, his eyes burned, his hands shook. Who could say, if the next punch he happened to throw would end up causing someone to break even more than what happened to Jonathan’s arm, or if when he looked at someone the wrong way, they wouldn’t burst into flames? Whenever he got up to walk anywhere, he had no idea if it would turn into him running at super-speed, as far away from everyone he knew as he wished he could go sometimes, or if he would just take off and his feet would never find ground again.

And yet, people still wanted to talk to him.

After he and his dad left the Fortress of Solitude, Jordan went back to his room, wearing a pair of noise-cancelling headphones. They were supposed to help- along with the lead-lined glasses that Dad promised to make for him, that would cancel out his X-ray vision and heat vision.

(He didn’t want to wear the glasses, and knew he couldn’t for football, but at the same time, he couldn’t imagine not wearing them, and maybe hurting more people.)

Still, though, he heard the knock on his door.

“Go away.” He shouted, as he started up some video game or another.

“Jordan.” The person outside his door said. “May I please come in?”

It wasn’t a voice he’d ever heard before, and whoever it was didn’t sound like they were going to kill him. So he slowly took his headphones off, still carrying them in one hand as he got up and opened the door to find a still-unfamiliar man on the other side.

“I apologize, for the interruption.” He said.

“You weren’t interrupting anything.” Jordan answered, sitting down on his bed. “What’s going on? Are you gonna lecture me? Because my parents already did that, and I’ve had enough of it for one day.”

“No.”

“What?”

“No, I will not lecture you. In fact… I hope that I can help you, Jordan Kent. But for now, I just wish to talk.”

“Would be helpful if you told me what your name is.”

“Ah, yes. That was insensitive of me.”

He pressed some kind of invisible button on his forehead, and in place of his human appearance was a blond man with the same hairstyle, but green skin and a purple and gray super-suit, with three white circles on his chest that made a very familiar symbol.

“Brainiac?” Jordan asked, scooting backwards on the bed, away from him. “What the hell?”

The Brainiac sighed.

“Not the one you are thinking of.” He said. “I am Brainiac 5. Half-computer, half organic lifeform, all Coluan- and not to brag, but a recently uninhibited twelfth-level intellect. My name is Querl Dox, but my friends- past and present- just call me Brainy.”

“Brainy.” Jordan repeated. “Sure.”

“I work with Kara Zor-El- you may know her as your Aunt Kara, although she is technically your second cousin. Or, you may call her…”

“Supergirl?”

Querl nodded.

“Indeed.”

“What… why are you here?”

“You will have to be more specific. Does “here” mean Smallville, or this planet, or this century? There are different answers for each.”

“This century?”

“Yes, I am from the thirty-first- though it is unsafe for me to return, so I am here. Though in the case that that wasn’t the question you were asking and you just wanted elaboration on that one point… there is a long story as to how I came to Earth. And as for Smallville… well, there are versions of myself who once recruited your father, long ago. They trained him, helped him to accept and use his powers to best serve and protect humanity, uphold truth, justice, and the American way- as the phrase goes. I am not here for that exact purpose today, for you, but… I thought you could use another perspective.”

“So you came here out of the goodness of your heart or something, and not because Mom or Dad told you to?”

“If you want to think so, yes.” Querl said. “But I was informed of what has happened recently. Will that be more believable to you?”

Jordan shrugged, and Querl looked at the space beside him on the bed.

“May I sit down with you?”

After Jordan rolled his eyes, he nodded, and once Querl was sitting, he gave him the whole story.

“I… when I was younger than you are, I too hurt a family member I cared for deeply.” Querl said, turning to look at him once he’d finished. “My father- my one hope that I could become someone other than my ancestors. And yet… I still lost control of my emotions. I saw him as the enemy, depriving me of what was my right to have. My first bottled planet, given to me by my mother- I understand now that it is barbaric, but I thought the practice was beautiful. Inside of the bottle, the snow would never melt, time itself would stop- it cannot truly do so, but the point is that it would be preserved. That perfect moment, a reminder that once, just for a little while, I forgot who I was and where I came from. We were just a normal family, and I was playing in the snow, and it was good. I could not let my father take that away from me. So when he tried, I…”

He ran a hand over his forehead.

“It took a long time for me to accept that I did not deserve what he did to me in retaliation.” He said. “I hope, Jordan, that your path will be smoother than mine.”

“What he did…” Jordan murmured. “You said you were recently uninhibited. Did he… inhibit you, or something?”

Querl gave him a sad smile.

“I wish I could tell you otherwise. But yes, he did- and I let myself remain inhibited for over twenty years, because I was so afraid of what I could be without them. Because my own father ingrained such a fear of my potential, my ancestors, into me, that he did not trust me to overcome them, and as a result, caused me to not trust myself.”

“But you trust yourself now.”

“Yes. But as I said, it was not an easy thing to accomplish. However, you are still young, and your parents have no interest in inhibiting you.”

“What if I don’t want powers at all?” Jordan asked. “My brother’s the one who should have them. Especially after I- what I did.”

“I have heard that before.” Querl said. “In another circumstance.”

“And what happened with that?”

“It is a work in progress. But she is still learning, as are you- as all of us are.”

“Even you?”

Querl nodded.

“And Supergirl, and your father, and your mother, and Jonathan. Learning is, in some ways, the point of continuing to live- and just as I learned that I was more than my family, that I could use their power for good, you have so much to discover about your powers, and your own family and history.”

“And then I won’t hate myself?”

“I am not sure about that. It’s up for you to decide.”

Jordan scowled.

“Apologies. But… if you have other questions…”

Querl reached for a pocket in his suit, and withdrew a gold and black ring.

“This was in the Fortress of Solitude- it was your father’s. However, though it is now from a different timeline, it is still connected to every other Legion ring in this century. Namely, the one belonging to Supergirl, and my own. So if you wish to talk to either of us-“

“You’re always around, I get it.” Jordan said. “My dad has something like this.”

“Yes, the Signal Watch. I am aware of such technology.” Querl answered. “It is the same principle.”

“Right. I guess you have to get going now.”

“I do.” He said, and gently placed a hand on Jordan’s shoulder. “Farewell, Jordan Kent. And good luck.”

“Bye, um… Brainiac 5. Thanks.”

“You are very welcome.”

And, as it turned out as he started up a game, he found that he was- thankful, that is. And he already missed Brainiac 5’s presence, hoping that he’d see him again soon.

#papa don't look #superman and lois #supergirl #brainiac 5 #jordan kent #fanfics #supergirl season 6 #querl dox