#I studied the stuff I knew would be in the short multiple choice questions and so I was able to answer those ten questions instantly

[melonpond]

two exams finished now I just need to finish my video project. I'm so ready for finals to finally be over

#melon rambles #vent #I think I did really well on both my exams though! #I friggin sped through my computer science one today #I studied the stuff I knew would be in the short multiple choice questions and so I was able to answer those ten questions instantly #and the pseudocode questions were all things that we had worked on in previous assignments so I knew how to do them #I had two hours to finish the exam and I would have finished it in 40 minutes if not for fact that half way through the exam #my teacher revealed that we had to write the pseudocode AND flowchart for the last question #and the flowcharts always take so long to do I hate them #so that added an extra ten or so minutes #but I think I did really well

[felix21im]

"Ice Cold", a Leon Kennedy x reader fanfiction

As an Art and Design student all you want to do is just knuckle down and finish that one goddamn piece you've been working on for months. Too bad your time is constantly stolen by your Waiter job with minimal pay, but hey, at least the tips are good if you unbutton your shirt that one more time.

Masterlist

Chapter 1: Bourbon

“That’s gotta be moved over like two inches to the left.” You muttered to yourself. Your eraser ran across the sketches and removed the pencil lines that you had created earlier. Studying interior design was one of the best ways to secure you that internship you’ve been working so hard for.

“Yoo hoo!” A whistle was heard from beside you, your fellow colleague and best friend tapped you on the shoulder, pulling you out of your study-induced trance. “You’ve got another table to serve. They literally just sat down so make sure that you greet them.” You let out a sigh, laying your latest drawing to the side. On the way to the table you check your hair in a mirror before putting on a smile. You can see two middle aged men talking while looking at multiple files placed on the table. You walk toward them. "Good evening, is there anything I can get for the two of you?"

The larger man with the shorter hair began to speak for the both of them. “Two bourbons please.” He said simply.

“Will they be with ice?” You ask, beginning to write down their drinks order on your small notepad.

“Yeah I’ll have ice in mine please.” The one with longer hair requested with a polite point and a smirk. The other man simply shook his head at the question of ice. You smiled at the two of them as you turned around. A few minutes later you return with both of their drinks and put them in front of them, being careful not to spill anything over their work-stuff. They both thank you with a small nod before you go around to your other tables. A few hours pass and people come and go but these two men still sit at their table, talking, drinking and taking some notes. You went over to their table a few times that evening to refill their drinks or bring some small things to nibble on, but you couldn't find out what they were talking about. It seems that as soon as you went over to them they changed the subject. “A super secret mission.” You chuckled to yourself as you stood at the bar, packing your study materials away. You can’t clean a bar with books and paper all over it.

While cleaning you heard someone clear their throat and you looked up. In front of you stood one of the men, the one with longer hair. “Oh my, excuse me. Can I help you with anything?” The man chuckled lightly and looked at the mess in front of you. “My friend over there and I wanted to get another drink before paying. But it seems you are quite busy here.” You looked at the mess and then at him and you couldn’t stop yourself from checking him out. It seems he noticed it, but didn't say anything. “I’m sorry for that, it won’t happen again. I’ll deliver your drinks to your table right away!” The man nodded and went back to his friend, sitting directly opposite them but also facing the direction of the bar. You let out a small sigh before putting the books away and preparing the drinks for the men. The man never said what drinks he wanted but considering the two of them have only been drinking bourbon, bourbon was a good choice. Before starting you tightened your apron, greatly exaggerating your waist, although you could barely breathe you knew that it made you more attractive to patreons. The patreons liking you equals more tips. While making the drinks you made sure to add enough ice in the second drink, so they just might forgive you for your behaviour. As you placed the two glasses on your serving tray you noticed the long haired man give you a small smirk. You went to their table once more and put the beverages in front of them while smiling at both of them. You also left a bill on the table before heading back to the bar, the echo of your shoes making you feel anxious as you walked, causing you to begin holding your tray in both of your hands in front of your stomach. On your way back you heard one of the men say something, which made the short haired one shake his head. You were wondering if they talked about something you did but didn’t want to be rude and ask them about it. It was pretty late already so only a few other people were still at the restaurant. You wanted to get home at some point that night so you hoped that the last guests would be leaving soon. Just as you thought that, you saw the two men you were serving get up and leave the restaurant. Before going through the exit door the man with longer hair looked back at you and gave you a wink. You let out a small laugh and shook your head. You went to the table they left from to clean up and collect the money. You noticed a small note with something written on it. A phone number, you realised. “Call me ;)” was written beside it. You looked around and put the piece of paper in your pocket with a light smile on your face. That smile quickly turned into a shocked face though as you noticed a massive tip laying next to the bill. You didn't even know what to do, so you just stood there looking at the money. As you looked at the flurry of green bills you could hear footsteps behind you and soon your coworker stood next to you, also looking at the money.

“Well, someone seems to like you”, they laughed “Maybe those apron and shirt tricks you do work too well.” You shook your head and left your coworker standing there as they chuckled at their joke.

A little while later the restaurant was empty thanks to the closing hours, and you cleaned the last tables. But before you had the chance to leave as well, you saw the door opening once again. “I’m sorry, we’re closed!” You looked up and saw the long haired man standing in the doorway. Other than just his hair you could instantly tell it was him, the fancy suit helped a lot. “Did you forget anything? I actually think you left too much money when you left with your friend.” You picked up the cash that was placed in an envelope under the bar and began to get the money out of it. “I can give it right back to you, if that's why you came back.”

The man shook his head and slightly chuckled. “No, the tip was meant to be like that. I was actually wondering..”, he stepped closer toward the bar you were standing at. “..Why didn't you text me yet.”

You had to laugh. “Oh, I’m sorry. Maybe I didn’t have the time yet because I had some work to do and you left that note like ten minutes ago!” You chuckled yet again. “Trust me I was going to call you!”

Now it was his time to let out a dry laugh. “Yeah, I'm sure you would have. Anyways, now that I’m here again and it seems your work is done, how about we get your favorite drink together?”

“I mean we are closed…” You raised your eyebrows and crossed your arms over your puffed out chest. “But I’ll let you get a drink this one time.” He seemed satisfied with that answer so he sat down on one of the bar chairs, followed by him tapping the empty space next to him. “At least let me make your drink before I sit down!” You playfully rolled your eyes and began pouring liquor into a shaker. You noticed him looking at his phone after receiving a message from someone. “Someone at home is missing you already?” You asked jokingly as you placed your fruity, yet strong, favourite drink on the bar.

He shook his head. “Not at all. Just my.. Colleague asking what I'm up to.” He put his phone on the counter. You went around the bar and pushed a glass towards the man and sat down on the empty stool beside him. “I never got your name. I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.” He smirked as he took a sip from the drink. “Not bad.”

You chuckled as you pointed at the name tag that was attached to your shirt. The man looked at you dumbfounded. “Well, this is awkward now. Doesn't seem like a fair trade anymore.”

“I’ll just hope that you were being respectful and you didn’t want to look at my chest.” You winked and couldn’t contain your laughter as you did up the buttons on your shirt, hiding the “money makers” as your best friend would call them. The man looked at your chest for a moment as you did up your buttons before quickly looking away. You could see his face get a little red, although you weren't sure if it was a reaction to what you just said or the alcohol finally showing effect. He cleared his throat and seemed to want to change the subject. “Ehem..the name’s Leon S. Kennedy, by the way.”

“Ooo S. Kennedy huh? Am I going to have to guess what the S stands for?” You tucked a strand of hair behind your ear as you talked.

“Go for it.” He laughed and took another sip of the drink.

“Uhhh… Steven?” A head shake. “Sam?” A no again. ”Sexy?” A chuckle but still a no. “Ugh I give up!”

“It’s Scott.”

“Scott, huh? Sounds kinda cute.” You laughed as you looked at Leon and then the clock behind him. “Even though we haven’t spent much of an evening together we’re going to have to call it quits, I have to lock up now.”

Leon turned around to look at the clock. “That’s a shame.” He turned back to face you. “Y’know I’ve got some drinks back at my place if you’re interested.” He raised his eyebrows as he asked for the date to continue.

You thought about the offer for a moment, you didn’t have any classes in the morning so maybe it would be fun. “Wine?” You asked and he replied with a nod. As the two of you stood up from your stools you quickly paced around the restaurant making sure everything was perfect. The lights were off. All of the switches were off. And finally the security alarm was turned on. You shuffled Leon along as you left the restaurant, making sure that he wasn’t trapped in there when you locked the door. “Alright, that’s everything!” You placed your keys into your work bag and slung it over your shoulder. As the two of you walked to the parking lot you looked down at your phone and secretly texted your roommate saying you were going to be out much longer than anticipated and that your location was being shared with them. Just in case.

Leon fished his keys out of his pocket and tapped a button on the car keys, causing a nearby car to light up. With the size of that tip that Leon left an expensive black sports car belonging to him shouldn’t have been a surprise. “Woah! What car is this?” You asked, not knowing anything about cars apart from the fact that most of them have four wheels.

“It’s a Porsche Nine-Eleven.” He replied. “It’s my favourite.”

“Your favourite? Meaning you have multiple cars?” You questioned. “Can I borrow one? I don’t even have a car.” You chuckled as you opened the door to the luxury car. Leon chuckled too as he got into his seat and tapped a few buttons on the dashboard. The entire car began to roar as it’s engine was turned on, making your entire body shake. Making your entire body heat up. “Is it hot in here or is it just me?” You asked.

He chuckled. “It’s because your heated seat is on. I can turn it off if you would like.”

As the car traveled you looked out of the window and when turning to your left you noticed that the lights in the car softly lit up Leon’s face as he drove the car. Showing off his sharp jaw and slight stubble.

After a twenty minute drive you step out of the car onto the gravel driveway and you hear the stones crunching underneath your feet. Leon walks up beside you and leads you up the stairs to the front door. Reaching into his front right pocket he pulls out his keys and unlocks the double doors, allowing you to walk through before he did so too and then close the door behind him. “Woah! You have such a cool house!” The large modern chandelier reflected onto the marble flooring in the entryway. Leon kicked off his shoes and pushed them over to the side of the wall, prompting you to do the exact same. “You have no idea how much I hate these shoes, they are so uncomfortable, especially when you wear them for twelve hour shifts without sitting down.”

“Why on earth do you wear them if they hurt you?” He asks as he takes off his jacket, hanging it up on a coat rack beside the door. He reaches out his hand to take off yours as well, to which you respond with a smile. You turn around and he carefully takes it off of you, followed by him then placing it on the coat rack next to his own.

"I don't have much to choose from when it comes to clothing. Just in general our work uniforms aren't really the best of the best."

Together the two of you went into the kitchen and you sat at a bar stool, leaning on the counter. As you waited for Leon to fix you up a drink you noticed just how empty the house has been so far. “Wow it’s quite empty, going for the minimalistic vibe huh?”

Leon shook his head as he placed two wine glasses down on the counter, both with ice. “I just haven’t gotten around to decorating this place yet.” He poured both glasses full and sat then leant on the counter in front of you, placing your drink next to your hand. “I mean I’ve only been here for like 3 years but I’m a busy man.”

You picked up your drink and almost dropped it after hearing that response. "Three years? You must be reaaally busy if you didn't have time for at least some decoration. What are you doing all the time anyway?" You took the drink and a small sip before standing up with it still in your hand. Leon looked at you kind of confused, but following you nevertheless. You walked around the kitchen, then the other rooms. You were talking nonstop about the stuff Leon could put on the walls, the floor or just anywhere really. He couldn't even say anything because it seems you were in your own world already planning the entire interior design of his house. Leon was following you through all the rooms as if he was actually visiting you and not the other way around. While planning the designs for Leon’s home you realised just how excited you were to do this officially as a job in the future. Creating your own interior design company and being your own boss was something you had in mind ever since you were a child. After who knows how long you both finished your drinks and also the house tour. You ended back at the kitchen where you started and both sat down on what seems to be the only chairs in this humongous house. Leon went away for a few seconds before returning with yet another bottle of what appeared to be some expensive wine. “You’re not just trying to get me super drunk so you can kidnap me, right?” You asked him jokingly, but also slightly worried. After all, what were you doing here in a complete strangers house?

“If I was going to kidnap you I would have done it already, buttercup.” You gulped but shrugged it off after looking at Leon, who smiled at you. Maybe it wouldn't be too bad being kidnapped by him. He's got quite the nice home after all. Leon stopped you in your thoughts as he handed you a glass of wine. "It's really good, trust me. Nothing against your favourite drink, but still very tasty." You took a little sip from the wine and looked at him with big eyes.

"Wow. This is actually really good. I've tasted many different brands of wine but never one like this. You do know your stuff, huh?"

He let out a small laugh which also made you smile. You didn't know if it was the alcohol but you suddenly felt really hot sitting so close to this handsome man. "Anyway, what are you doing besides working at that restaurant? I saw some school books at the bar earlier, were they yours?"

You nodded lightly. "I'm currently studying Art and Design but I needed some money to even afford all that stuff. So that's why I ended up at that restaurant." He looked at you, maybe even a little sad. But maybe you just started imagining things.

"You don't have any family that supports you or anything?"

You shook your head. "That's kind of a difficult topic. My parents aren't really what they used to be after.. well, let's just say some inconveniences." You took another big sip, showing Leon that you didn't wanna talk about it anymore. Even though he wanted to ask, he stopped himself before ruining the whole evening, or well, night. You sighed and looked at him. "On our tour I think we missed the bathroom. Mind showing me the way?" He nodded and led you through the house. As you were in the bathroom Leon went up to his workroom and picked up an envelope. He went downstairs again and hid the filled envelope in one of your jackets' pockets. After a while you rejoined him in the kitchen looking really tired. "Leon, I don't wanna sound rude but I’ve had a long day and I think I really need some sleep. Do you mind calling me a taxi?" He saw just how tired you were so he didn't try to make you stay any longer. He grabbed his phone, called you a taxi and gave you some money for it.

You wanted to decline, but Leon didn't want to argue so you had no chance but to pay with his money. "I brought you here in the first place so the least I can do is pay for your ride home", he said. You both then went to the entrance where Leon helped you put on your jacket. After that you both sat down outside on the stairs waiting for the taxi to arrive. Neither of you said a word, but it wasn't a weird silence, you both really enjoyed each other's company and after a few moments of sitting on the cold stairs a car arrived. Leon brought you to the door and you told the driver your address. You gave Leon a small wave as the taxi began to drive off...

#resident evil #re2 #re4 #re6 #resident evil vendetta #leon Kennedy #leon s Kennedy #leon x reader #leon Kennedy x reader #leon s Kennedy x reader #x reader #resident evil x reader

[marjansmarwani]

the truth always was

[Read on Ao3]

Owen has watched his son suffer and hurt, and he wants nothing more than for him to heal and find happiness again. So when he notices a certain young Officer appearing more and more, he takes notice and makes an effort to get to know this Carlos Reyes.

Or, Tarlos from Owen's perspective

---

Tarlos Week Day 4: Tarlos and Owen + fun

Day 4 of @tarlosweek2020 and I’m not sure how much “fun” is in this (there’s some though!) but it is definitely Owen and Tarlos so I think that’s good for the prompt, right? 

-----

Owen watched as his son disappeared from the bar on the arm of the young cop from earlier. He wasn’t naive - his son was 26 and no saint, and under normal circumstances, Owen wouldn’t even blink an eye. 

 But these were not normal circumstances by a long shot. 

 He could still see the image of his son unconscious, unmoving, not breathing on the floor of his apartment just a few short weeks ago. It was an image that would be forever ingrained in his mind; burned there by the panic and fear he had felt in that moment. 

 He would do whatever it took to make sure they never ended up there again. He still believed that his son had a good head on his shoulders, but he was in turmoil; still reeling from everything that had come before, from the changes it had caused. As much as he wanted to let him be, as much as TK would want him to let him try and fail on his own he knew he wouldn't be able to. He knew that he couldn’t just leave it be - not when the risk was so high. 

 Even if that meant keeping a closer eye than usual on his son and his romantic escapades; even if it meant stepping in where he normally would not. He knew the idea wouldn’t go over well with TK, but the fear of losing his son for good was louder than TK’s discomfort. 

 At least, Owen reasoned grimly as he took another sip of his beer, if his son ended up hating him for this, he would be alive to do so. 

 ------

There is something going on between his son and Officer Reyes, but he’s not quite sure what. 

 Though to be fair, he’s not too certain they know either. 

 They stand closer to each other than strictly necessary at calls and TK must be delusional if he thinks no one notices how much he brightens when he sees the young officer. He knows that TK keeps disappearing, coming and going at odd hours but he believes him when he says he doesn’t need to worry; that there are no substances involved. From what little he has seen of the young officer, he’s fairly certain he approves. He seems like someone solid; someone he can trust with his son’s happiness. 

 Owen still keeps an eye out, still watches for red flags. He wants to pull TK closer, to find him a protective bubble just to give his nerves a break. And he is ready and willing to step in as soon as the situation warrants it. But he loves his son more than anything and as much has he wants to shield him, he has come to accept that the only way for him to truly ever heal is to do it himself, despite how hard it is for Owen to watch him struggle. 

 That doesn’t change the concern he feels when TK lets himself into the house one night, fuming and swearing under his breath; opening and closing the drawers and doors in his bedroom with far too much force. Owen allows himself a quick check-in, just to make sure that there is nothing truly wrong. When he sees TK whole and unmarked, not willing to talk about it and very truly pissed off, he makes his exit - leaving his son to stew and work through whatever this is on his own. 

 When TK attempts to sneak in unnoticed just a few nights later and Owen - up in the pursuit of some water - catches sight of the blood and bruises gracing his skin, his heart plummets. He immediately closes the distance between them, eyes roving his son, searching for any sign of further injury or harm. 

 “What happened? Are you okay?” he asks, voice taut with worry.  

 TK’s eyes flick away from him, his busted lip pulling into a straight line. “Nothing, I’m fine.” 

 “TK…” 

 “I did something stupid, but I’m okay,” TK announced, looking up. Catching sight of the desperate fear in Owen’s eyes he adds, more gently, “not that stupid.” 

 Owen allowed himself to breathe for a moment before studying his son one more time. These were injuries caused by fists; injuries found after a fight. His heart rate quickened. 

 “What happened TK?” 

  Who did this to you? Was the unasked question. 

 “I got into a bar fight with some random guys. It’s fine, no charges - it was stupid, but it’s all good.”

 “No...no charges? Tyler Kennedy Strand, were you  arrested ?” 

 “But not charged?” TK offered nervously. Owen stared back at him. They stood in silence at the edge of the kitchen for several moments before Owen groaned and ran a weary hand down his face. “TK…” 

 “Dad, I know I did something  unbelievably stupid…”

 “You’ve got that part right.”

 “...but I think that maybe it finally gave me the clarity I needed. I’m just...going through some stuff right now and....”

 “And what? TK, I’m trying to help you, but this…” he paused and ran his eyes over the bruises. There was blood soaking the collar of his white t-shirt. “This is something I don’t know what to help with. I don’t know what’s going on and frankly, it’s scaring the hell out of me. What can I do?”  

 “I don’t know,” TK admitted softly, “I don’t think there is anything. I think I need to figure it out on my own.”

 Owen sighed heavily. He had known that answer, but it went against every single fatherly instinct he had. But his son was an adult and he knew what he needed better than anyone. “Can you just  try  not to get arrested again anytime soon?”

 TK gave him a small grin, “I’ll do my best.”

 “That’s all I’m asking.” 

 TK nodded and started to walk away, but Owen called him back. 

 “You know I am here though if you need anything, right?”

 “I know Dad,” he answered softly. Then with another smile, he was gone and Owen was left alone in the kitchen. 

 He leaned against the counter and ran a weary hand down his face. He desperately hoped that stepping back was the right choice. He didn’t know what he would do if anything happened to TK. He couldn’t go through that again. He couldn’t help but wonder how Officer Reyes fit into all of this. He had no idea, but he was determined to find out.  

--------- 

He is still pondering the mystery of Carlos Reyes over a late-night cup of tea at the station when Captain Blake joins him. It had become something of an unspoken ritual after the first time. They drink their tea in silence until Owen decides he may as well ask the question that has been lingering in his mind. 

 “What do you know about Officer Reyes?” 

 “Carlos?” Michelle asked, looking up from her mug with a startled expression, “Quite a lot actually - why do you ask?” 

 “Just between us, I think something is going on between him and TK and I just...want to know if I need to be worried.” 

 “I can assure you that Carlos Reyes would never do anything to intentionally hurt anyone.”

 Owen raised an eyebrow, “You seem pretty certain of that.” 

 Michelle shrugged as she stirred her tea, “I am. He is one of my closest friends.” 

 Owen couldn’t even hide the surprise he felt at that even if he had wanted to, “I had no idea.” 

 Michelle nodded, “He was friends with my sister when they were growing up and after she went missing, he helped me out a lot. He still does. We’ve gotten really close over the past couple of years. I would trust Carlos Reyes with my life without hesitation, and I can say with complete certainty that you don’t have to worry about him with TK. He is a good person - one of the best I know.”

 Owen gave her a smile and though their conversation veered in another direction, he ruminated over what she had said. It was still on his mind as they left the kitchen and headed to their respective bunks. He lay staring at the ceiling for a long while, wondering if it was truly possible that TK had found someone as good as Michelle said. He loved his son dearly, but past experience had shown that his taste in men was questionable at best. The thought that maybe he had found someone actually worthy of his time and affection thrilled Owen. 

 But even that feeling was wrapped in caution. Owen knew his son. After everything that had happened, he was gun shy; likely unwilling to fully give himself over to anyone. Owen understood that - he had every reason to be cautious. He just hoped that he didn’t miss out on a good thing because he was scared. He hoped if he had feelings for this man, that he didn’t push him away. He hoped that maybe, against all odds, his son might finally find the happiness and love he deserved. 

 As he rolled over in another attempt to sleep his last fleeting thought was that he hoped this Officer Reyes was up to the challenge. 

---------- 

As the Texas winter faded into spring and the temperatures began to rise to what Owen considered early summer heat, he couldn’t help but notice that TK seemed happier. He seemed lighter; he smiled more. Owen could almost see the person he had once known before Alex, before the overdose. It made his heart swell and helped him sleep a little easier at night. 

 He had a feeling that a certain young officer had something to do with it and while he wasn’t about to thank him outright (though he longed too) he was making an effort to get to know the young man a little better - inconspicuously, of course. 

 He made it a point to speak with Officer Reyes whenever the opportunity presented itself, he listened to Michelle’s stories of their escapades keenly. He wanted to get to a better idea of who this person was. Michelle could (and had, on multiple occasions) spend an hour singing her friend’s praises and while he did trust her and her judgment, it was clear she was more than a little biased. 

 These little conversations pay off and more and more of the picture that is Carlos Reyes reveals itself to Owen. He is startled to realize that one day without him truly knowing it, he had come to like the young officer all on his own. He was polite and compassionate, professional and even-tempered. Owen had been startled the first time he heard him crack a wry joke as they were wrapping up at a call, but he had come to learn that Carlos Reyes had quite the sense of humor when he wasn’t wrapping himself in professionalism. 

 He was pretty certain that the young officer in question was a good part of what was making his son happier these days, and he could certainly see the appeal. 

----------- 

Owen had known nothing but pure terror since the moment he realized what had happened. The instant he connected the sound and the blood splatter to the image of his son collapsing onto the hallway floor; panic and fear had engulfed him and they hadn’t left. Even now in the relative calm of the storm, now that the immediate danger was behind them and all that was left was the waiting, he could still feel the fear pulsing through his veins. 

 But he had only ever seen his son this still one other time, and that was a time he had spent months trying to forget. To see it again after everything TK had been through, after all the work he had done to heal was just as heartbreaking as it was terrifying. He was facing the very real possibility of losing his son for good, and he couldn’t handle that. He was dreading the worst and knew that it would destroy him, should it come to pass. He squeezed the limp hand in his grasp again, praying for some response; some proof that his son was still with him. 

 None came. 

 He could feel the tears from earlier threatening to return, but the sound of hurried footsteps coming to a halt outside the door distracted him enough to push them off - for now. 

 He turned to see Carlos Reyes in the doorway. His chest was heaving as if he had run here and his red-rimmed eyes were filled with a look that was all too familiar to Owen - desperation and fear. 

 “Officer Reyes,” he said by way of greeting, “would you like some time with him?” 

 Carlos pulled his eyes from the bed before them where he had been studying for TK, looking for any sign of life, and turned his gaze to Owen. He swallowed before he choked out: “I don’t want to impose.” 

 Owen could almost feel his heart breaking all over again. He could feel how much this man cared for his son in the waver of his voice; he could see how much TK meant to him. He had had his suspicions but to have the confirmation now - when TK wasn’t here to receive the love that he so desperately deserved - was just another cruelty piled on. He pulled himself up from the chair he had been glued to for the past two hours and crossed to the young officer. He stopped in front of him, placing a hand on his shoulder as he spoke, “I think he would appreciate it. I know I would.” 

 He let his hand linger on the younger man’s shoulder as he held his gaze. There was so much he wanted to say that he couldn’t bring himself to say aloud.  I know  , for starters; but  thank you,  most of all. 

 Carlos nodded and Owen had the feeling that he understood. He clapped his shoulder again and stepped out of the room, clearing the path to TK’s bedside. He lingered in the doorway for a moment, watching as Carlos closed the distance quickly, as he fell into the chair beside the bed. As he reached out a tender hand to caress TK’s face, as he used his other hand to wipe away the tears that had begun to slide down his own. 

 He allowed himself this pause, this momentary intrusion to see for himself how well Carlos loved his son. Despite it all, Owen allowed himself the smallest of smiles. 

 It looked like TK had finally found the love he had always wanted for him - now he just needed to wake up. 

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

As the batter made contact with the ball and sent it sailing into the outfield Carlos and Owen gave a cry of surprise in unison. 

 “I did not think he could hit like that,” Carlos noted with a shake of his head as the watched the player in question take a leisurely jog around the bases, allowing the rest of his team to cross home plate while the other team scrambled to find the ball in the outfield. 

 “I don’t think the other team knew either,” Owen responded with a chuckle, “but based on the first half of the game, who would’ve guessed?” 

 The two men were sitting in the Strand’s living room, watching the Houston Astro’s game while dinner cooked in the oven. Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of the front door opening and they turned to see TK enter. He paused on the threshold, eyes widening in surprise at the sight of his father and his boyfriend sitting together on the couch. 

 “Hi guys,” he said skeptically as he set down his keys, “what are you up to?” 

 “Watching the game, waiting for you,” Owen responded as Carlos beamed at TK from beside him. “How was your meeting?” 

 “It was good,” he responded, walking around the couch to plop down next to Carlos, who immediately wrapped an arm around his shoulders to pull him closer. “Have you really just been watching baseball this entire time? I have been gone for a while.” 

 Owen shot Carlos an exasperated look, “TK has never shared my appreciation for anything athletic.”

 TK rolled his eyes when Carlos gave him a curious look, “It’s not that I don’t like them, it’s more that I don’t really enjoy  watching them and significant experience has shown me that I am not good at participating in organized sports.”

 Owen chuckled appreciatively at that, “That’s true. I remember this one time you tried out for the basketball team and…” 

 “And this is me changing the subject,” TK cut across, speaking loudly to drown out Owen’s story. “How’s the game?” 

 Carlos shrugged as Owen, still chuckling, reached for his glass of iced tea, “Not bad. I mean, it’s no Yankee’s game…”

 He stopped at the sound of Owen choking on his iced tea. Both TK and Carlos shot him concerned looks until he managed to stop coughing long enough to speak. 

 “You’re a Yankee’s fan Carlos?” 

 Carlos nodded, “I mean, the Astros are the closest thing we have to a home team here in Austin, but if I want to watch quality baseball then there is nothing better than the Yankees.” 

 There is silence for a moment before Owen turns to TK with a serious expression, “If you don’t marry this boy, I just might.” 

 Carlos instantly blushes and looks away, but TK just rolls his eyes and groans, “Really dad?” 

 Owen holds up his hands defensively. “I’m just saying.” 

 TK shakes his head but turns back to Carlos who is still trying to look anywhere but at them and allows a small smile to spread across his face. He reaches over to gently turn Carlos’s face to meet his and gives him a light kiss. 

 “Ignore him, you should know that by now,” he tells Carlos who chuckles sheepishly. TK turns back to Owen, giving Carlos a moment to gather himself again. 

 “Did I miss anything else exciting since you two have apparently been hanging out since I’ve been gone?” 

 Owen shrugged, “We made dinner, it’s cooking right now and...oh!” he exclaimed leaning forward with a grin as he recalls, “You are officially off the hook because it turns out your boyfriend here golfs and he and I have a tee time scheduled next week.” 

 TK turns back to Carlos with raised eyebrows, “What, I leave for a few hours and you two suddenly become best friends?” 

 Carlos nods solemnly, “It’s true. Your dad is becoming dangerously close to being my favorite Strand.” 

 “Well, I have a few ideas as to how I can change that.” 

 Owen sighs wearily, “And that is my cue to leave the room before I see something I don’t want to ever see.”

 He gets up and gathers the glasses from the end table to bring with him into the kitchen. He turns back after he has deposited them in the sink and sees a sight that makes him pause. TK and Carlos are wrapped up in each other; talking closely. The smile on TK’s face shines even from the next room. As he watches Carlos places a light kiss on his son’s forehead and TK smile grows even more leaning down so he is tucked into the crook of Carlos's neck. 

 Owen turns away before they can notice him watching; before they can see the tears glimmering in his eyes. After everything, seeing his son this happy is enough to nearly make his heart burst. These past few weeks, in the aftermath of the shooting and the solar flare, somewhere amongst the tragedy and pain TK had found himself again. The person he saw each morning was no longer the stranger that had been born of betrayal and heartbreak. Now it was  his son - the TK he had known and loved his entire life. He was happier than words could express to have his son back; to see him happy once again. 

 Owen had had a strong suspicion that Carlos Reyes had had a roll in that transformation, but to see them like this; to see that smile on his son’s face - well, Owen knew two things for sure. 

 One, he was grateful for Carlos Reyes. 

 Two, TK finally had the love Owen had always wanted for him; the love he had always deserved.

 [Ao3]

#911 lone star #911 lone star fic #tarlos #tarlosweek2020 #Owen Strand #tk strand #carlos reyes #my writing

[snowdice]

Finding the Time to Study Fic 2 [Day 17]

Here is my starting post for today’s study break stories session. See this post for more details and feel free to send me asks to keep me going! It’s been a lot of fun so far! I will reblog this post with the story as I write them today. I’ll be constantly looking for ideas of times and places for Janus to have missions, so feel free to send in any you can think of at any point!

If you are a new follower or just don’t want all of these posts clogging your dash, please feel free to block the tag “study break stories” as all posts and voting about it will go there. You can still see the finished product of the story even if you are blocking that tag as I will not tag the edited chapters with “study break stories” but with the tag “folds in paper.” See edited chapters below. Chapters 3-8 and what I have of Chapter 9 are under the cut.

My Masterpost Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

I also have a playlist on youtube (because Spotify didn’t have one of the songs I wanted). It’s short, and not really for serious listening, but I had fun with it.

I have homework due Friday and it’s long so let’s go.

Chapter 4

Janus was frozen in surprise for a few long moments after Pat disappeared. Which had been, admittedly, his mistake, because, while their window had technically been until 11:17pm and it was only 11:10, the loud crack that whatever Pat had been using for time travel made, garnered the attention of someone else.

“Uh oh,” Remus said, likely hearing footsteps. “Hide.”

That snapped Janus into action, but instead of hiding immediately like a sensible human being, he chose to go for the only link to the man who’d just stolen time travel tech and waltzed away, the mask.

Which was why he ended up getting arrested.

 Remy tsked the moment they were all alone in the police car having come to ‘transfer Lee to another facility.’ Remus was already waiting in the front seat, and flashed Janus a smug smile. If Janus wasn’t still handcuffed, he’d slap him.

“Well,” Remy said. “At least you didn’t shoot anybody like I asked. I was joking by the way. I didn’t really want to pick you up from a 1920s police station period.”

“It wasn’t my fault.”

“Mmm, nah, ‘cause Remus managed to not get arrested this time, so you defiantly screwed something up.”

“Oh, he defiantly wanted to screw something all right,” Remus said joyfully.

 “Remus,” Janus hissed.

“What?” he asked. “I’m not the horny one for once. Well, no, that’s a lie, but it didn’t affect the job this time.”

Janus groaned and leaned his head back against the seat.

Remy pulled into a seemingly random garage around 20 minutes later. “Alright,” he said. “Here we are.” He got out of the car and then helped Janus out before uncuffing him. “Here’s your ‘watch,’” Remy handed him the timepiece that had been confiscated when he’d been arrested.

Janus put it on and activated it. “Shit,” he said.

“What?” Remus asked.

“An appointment with cultural outreach has already been downloaded to my calendar for once we get out of decon.”

 “Oof. Going to baby jail,” Remy laughed. Remus was cackling.

“This,” Janus said, “was not a cultural faux pas. I did nothing that indicated that I was not from this time. I am not some rookie.”

“Don’t forget cell phones don’t exist in the 1920s,” Remus sang.

“The real question is whether or not my foot exists in your…” Remus disappeared before he could finish, a smirk on his face. Janus growled. “By Remy,” he gritted out. He selected the decontamination chamber from his queue, ignoring the appointment that came after it for now.

He knew exactly where Remus would be standing when he landed, which was why he stepped forward on reentry to ram into him.

 He yelped in surprise. “Sorry,” Janus said pleasantly. “I must have also forgotten landing procedures.

Remus laughed good naturally. “Aw, come on Jay,” he said, bumping Janus back, albeit much gentler than Janus had been. “It’s not a big deal. You just go talk with some crusty old college professor who is far too interested in spoons and then everything’s fine.”

“It’s the principle of the thing,” he growled. “They’re treating me like I’m an idiot who accidently invented disco in the 1920s when I was conned by some free agent time traveler.”

“‘Conned,’ Remus said. Is that what they’re calling it now?”

 “I know where and when you live Remus,” Janus said.

Remus gave him a dopey smile as the decontamination cycle finished and the door unlocked. Janus’s wrist buzzed telling him that the coordinates to the cultural outreach office were now unlocked. Instead of pulling them up, Janus walked to the door.

“Um,” Remus said, following him. “Aren’t you supposed to be going to your appointment?” Janus just kept walking towards their office. “Uh… Jan?”

“It’s absolutely ridiculous that I have to go to cultural outreach,” Janus said. “In fact, no one can make me. If they want me to go have a discussion about the definition of ‘bushwa,’ they’re going to have to have me dragged there.”

 “Mmm, I feel like The Boss won’t be too happy about that, and I have a feeling she’d be 100% down to dragging you there herself.”

“Well, then, let her,” Janus said, stalking through the door to his office. “I’m not going to…”

“Ah, Agent Picani,” the woman standing next to his desk, clearly waiting for him, said when he came through the door. “Dr. Picani was informed that there were complications with your last mission and wishes to have a conversation with you and asks that you meet him in his office at the AMO.”

“Oh, um,” Janus said, stumbling a bit before plastering on a regretful half smile. “Unfortunately, I actually have an appointment right now at Cultural Outreach. It’s mandatory and very important, and I have to go now. So, I’ll have to take a raincheck on that.”

 “But-” she started, frowning.

“Remus, work on the report!” Janus said quickly as he waved his hand to bring up his timepiece display and jammed his finger at the glowing appointment card in his queue. A few moments later, Janus was at Cultural Outreach.

Cultural Outreach was not part of the TPI, though it often worked very closely with them. It was a collaboration between the government and multiple universities to help government workers, politicians, and other citizens understand and bridge cultural gaps. It had existed before time travel was invented but had expanded to also teach people who needed to time travel how to behave in unfamiliar times and cultures.

 After it had to be expanded to provide for the TPI, it had been moved to Silver Mountains University. The building had once just been a museum, but it had been thoroughly renovated and there had been add-ons for office space and some classrooms. It was still a museum, however, its purpose had expanded greatly and there were many areas that were off limits to the general public.

One of these areas was the fourth floor, where Janus’s timepiece had dumped him. This was the floor that was almost exclusively for TPI agents and staff of Cultural Outreach who worked with them.

 He immediately turned away from the reception area, hoping that he could escape and go sit on the university’s quad or something of the like for the next hour or so in hopes the woman his brother sent to fetch him would give up and go back to the AMO. Yet, the receptionist apparently saw him.

“Janus Picani?” he asked.

Janus grimaced and turned back towards him. “Yes,” he said.

“Is something wrong?” he asked. “You’re 5 minutes late for your appointment and seem disoriented.

“Nothing’s wrong.”

“Is your timepiece malfunctioning?”

“No.”

“Uh… okay. Well, if you sign in here, I can take you to your appointment.”

“…Fine.”

 He begrudgingly stepped forward and touched the screen he’d gestured to sign with his fingerprint, and then let the man lead him down the hall.

The door they stopped at was propped open slightly, but he still paused and knocked. “Professor Eran? Your 2:30 is here.”

Janus had just a moment upon hearing the name to think that maybe there was actually some sort of intelligent design of the universe and whatever being of ultimate power had crafted it was a dick.

The door opened and Virgil Eran’s eyes immediately narrowed on him. “Janus.”

“Virgil.”

“I see you’re still late for everything.”

“I see you’re still a bastard.”

 Janus saw the receptionist slowly back away in the direction they’d come.

“Why don’t you come in?” Virgil said faux pleasantly.

Janus did, because he really didn’t have much of a choice at this point unless he wanted to jump out of a window… or push someone out of a window.

Virgil turned back into his office and took a seat behind his desk. Janus unhappily followed him in and sat across from him.

He took his time pulling up whatever the TPI sent him and reading it over. “So, I see you failed your recovery mission and were arrested in 1923.”

 “It wasn’t like that,” Janus said. “I shouldn’t be here.”

Virgil gave him that same suspicious look he used to give Janus whenever Janus claimed to have not eaten his hot pockets out of the freezer in the middle of the night. He’d only been lying 80% of the time. Virgil had a tendency to forget what he’d eaten in a half-conscious state at 3 o’clock in the morning.

“I shouldn’t,” Janus snapped defensively. “Nothing went wrong with anyone from the time period. An illegal time traveler screwed up the mission details.”

“Well, it is still protocol to make sure nothing slipped when agents go off script. You weren’t prepared to be in a jail cell, and it is possible that you screwed something up.”

 “I didn’t screw anything up,” Janus growled.

“Alright,” Virgil said pulling up a document on his desk. “The mission started on July 27th, 1923 at 9:58pm, correct?”

“Oh, god, we’re not really going to fill out a time sheet. I don’t have time for that today.”

“It is protocol and best that the information is documented when it is still fresh in your mind. Besides, your schedule has been cleared for the rest of the workday.” The bastard was enjoying this. He knew how much Janus hated this stuff.

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” Janus said, “it was the damned illicit time traveler.”

“And I will be the judge of that,” Virgil said. Janus should have just bit the bullet and had coffee with his brother. “If you truly did nothing wrong, your supervisor will see that when I send this to her.”

 Yet, despite the fact that Virgil clearly relished in his suffering, he was charitable enough to do most of the actual filling out of the forms. He’d read out the questions and write down what Janus said instead of making him do it himself. Janus really only had to do a quick quality check and sign it at the end.

He still was an asshole about the details, but really he’d been like that about stupid thing like the settings for the dish washer and how the pantry was organized during their college days before they’d had their falling out, so Janus wasn’t particularly surprised. When they were finally done, Virgil sent it off to get filed by the TPI.

 Then, they were left staring at each other with nothing between them but almost a decade of radio silence and a whole lot of awkwardness.

“I should go,” Janus finally said, standing up.

Virgil tilted his head slightly to the side and gave him a half smile. “Don’t lock the door behind you,” he said. “Not that I’d expect you too.”

Janus took it for the clear attempt at a joke it was intended to be and puffed out a breath of amusement with a head shake. “No risk of that,” he said. Then, he turned and walked out of the office.

 Chapter 5

Janus stepped back into the reception area and booted up his time piece. Instinct said to go back to the office despite the fact that it was late enough that most people had gone home, but he hesitated. Surely Emile had given up by now, but considering he’d sent someone to ambush him in his office, Janus wasn’t sure if he should trust that. He could just go home, but he already knew his mind was racing too much to sleep tonight so he’d probably just end up staring at the lake for the next 6 hours. So, he decided on the only other legitimate option he had. He pulled up Remus’s home coordinates and selected.

 The home that Remus had chosen (after his long line of rejected requests) managed to somehow make no and absolute sense simultaneously to anyone who knew him. It was a small farm in the United States just west of the Mississippi in 1842 in what would be ratified as the state of Iowa in a few years. When asked why he would choose that time and place, Remus always responded with “I thought it was funny,” whatever that meant.

Unlike most time agents who simply used the identities assigned to them by the AMO as a cover, Remus actually lived his part time.

 Janus was… fairly certain he was cheating a bit to get everything done, but he maintained his small farm all on his own, growing most of his own food. The neighbors he had lived very far away, but he still spoke with them far more than Janus did his own.

Janus appeared inside the small home, his eyes already shut. “Are you hear and dressed?” Janus called. Something bumped lightly into his legs.

“I’m in the kitchen!”

Janus peaked his eyes open and squatted to pet the cat at his feet. “That doesn’t answer my question!” he called back to Remus.

 “It’s a surprise!” Remus said.

“Remus.” Diesel Fuel the cat flopped to her side on the ground as Janus continued to pet her ears. He heard Remus’s footsteps, and saw cloth covering his legs, so risked looking up. He was currently not only dressed, but wearing an apron that Janus was fairly sure was not time appropriate judging by the fabric and cat pawprint design. He had a bit of flour on his hands, and it may have been a bit too white for the time and place, but Janus couldn’t be completely sure.

“What’re you doing here?” Remus asked.

 “My day has been an endless series of frustrations,” Janus said. “So, I have come to see the only tolerable being in the history of the universe.”

Remus snorted. “Since I know that isn’t me, I’ll assume you’re talking about the cat.”

“I still don’t understand why you tolerate this creature,” Janus addressed Diesel Fuel. She blinked slowly up at him. “To be fair, he was assigned as my partner. I didn’t have much of a choice in it. You could go always run away and become feral in the woods if you’d like.”

“So could you, technically,” Remus pointed out.

“I’m thinking about it after today.”

 “Would you like some bread?” Remus asked. “That’s all I’ve been making this afternoon. Some fresh should be coming out of the oven in a few minutes.”

“Do you have anything stronger made out of wheat?”

“Ew, no, but I do have vodka.”

“Vodka works.”

“Want me to mix it with something?”

“No.”

“One of those night then,” Remus said, easily. “Let me finish up the bread, so I don’t burn the kitchen down. You can go get the alcohol from the cellar while you wait if you want, or you can just flop down on the couch.”

He was going to just flop down on the couch.

 He did just that as Remus disappeared back into his kitchen. The cat hopped onto his stomach, proceeding to purr loudly and kneed at chest. Janus petted the cat and listened to the noise of Remus moving around in the other room, letting his mind drift. His mind drifted to Virgil for a bit and he steadfastly did not allow it to drift to his brother. Yet, the thing that most was on his mind was the strange man who had flirted and charmed Janus all night before mercilessly screwing him over. ‘Pat’ he’d said his name was, but surely that was not his real name.

 Janus sighed and scratched the cat’s ear. “He certainly wasn’t an amateur,” Janus mused to the cat. “With that amount of precision to get in before we did, he must have someone not on the ground feeding him information. Perhaps more than one.” He was part of a group of time traveling thieves perhaps or something worse. “I didn’t get a good look at his face since he was wearing a mask,” Janus said, “but I spent a lot of time with him, and I’m sure Remy swiped the mask from the police since it had been on me when I was arrested. It’s a good lead.”

 He continued to pet Diesel Fuel. Eventually, Remus came back in, noticed Janus hadn’t bothered to get the alcohol and went outside to the cellar. “I’m going to find him,” Janus told Diesel Fuel. “I’ll stop whatever it is he’s doing, and I’ll bring him in.” Diesel Fuel mewed her support, and Janus patted her on top of the head.

Remus came back in with the bottle of vodka and handed it to him without a word. He sat down on the couch near Janus’s feet and patted his lap so Diesel Fuel would come over to him and allow Janus to sit up.

 The bastard waited until he was approximately 3 shots in (he didn’t have a shot glass and was just taking drinks from the bottle) to ask the questions Janus really didn’t want to answer. “Are you mad at Emile?” Remus asked.

Janus groaned, trying to wash out the bitter taste of shame and grief with the sharp sting of vodka. It didn’t work. “No,” he said to Remus.

“Then why have you been avoiding him?”

“Shit, I’m here because I didn’t want to think about it. Can’t we just not.”

“Don’t want to think about what?

“It’s none of your business, Remus.”

 He could feel Remus frowning at him, but Janus stared resolutely ahead. At least, he did until a foot poked his face. He slapped it away, but it did the job of getting Janus to look at Remus.

“It is my business,” Remus said, foot still in the air. “I’m your partner and your friend.”

“If I’m your friend, you’ll drop it.”

“So, you’re not mad at Emile,” Remus continued, contemplatively. “Did you do something to him, then?” Janus bit his lip and looked away. “What?” Remus asked. Janus didn’t respond. “Look, I’m sure he’ll forgive you for whatever it is. He’s a good guy. Just talk to him about it.”

 “I can’t,” Janus said.

“Whatever it is, it’s probably been long enough that he forgives you. You literally just have to have a conversation, say you’re sorry, and everything will be A-OK.”

“I can’t,” Janus repeated.

“Why not?”

“He doesn’t know about it.”

Remus paused. “So, as far as he knows, you just cut contact with him all of a sudden for no reason and have been avoiding him ever since?”

Janus looked at his shoes. “Yeah.”

“That…” Remus said, “is not fucking fair Janus.”

“I know.”

“Then why the hell are you doing that to him? He’s like… soft and feeling-y. He’s probably really upset.”

 “I know, Remus.”

“Tell him. Whatever it is.”

“I can’t.”

“Look,” Remus said. “You tell him and he either forgives you or he doesn’t. If he does, everything’s fine. If he doesn’t… well, it’s not like it would be any different from you two never being in the same room the last few years. Either way, you can’t just do this to him. He’ll probably forgive you. He’s your brother. Brothers don’t… brothers would forgive each other.”

Janus laughed softly and met Remus’s eyes. “That’s the problem,” he said. “He’d definitely forgive me.” He turned away and opened the vodka bottle again. “Now, if you’ll shut up for a few minutes, I’m going to drink until I black out.”

 Chapter 6

“Really, Khalid,” Janus said, storming into his boss’s office. “A yellow?” It had been about a week since the 1920s incident, and his incident report had finally been cleared. Sure, it wasn’t a red or a black and he wasn’t facing any reprimand, but it should have been a green.

She looked up at him, clearly unconcerned. “There was an incident,” she said. “You handled it well, but there was one. Therefore, yellow.”

“It wasn’t a time travel incident! It was a rouge time traveler.”

“Janus, you helped me make these rules,” she said impatiently.

“Which is why I know this is bullshit,” he snapped.

 She rolled her eyes. “If it was anyone else, you would agree with me. While you didn’t go against protocol and had no time related incidents, the fact of the matter is, you were still distracted by this ‘rouge time traveler,’ didn’t complete your mission, and were arrested.”

“He was good,” Janus said. “You can’t fault me for that. He also could be dangerous and you’re busy handing out yellows instead of working to track him down.”

She raised an eyebrow. “We are working on tracking him down,” she said. “We have done an analysis on the mask and found fibers dating to the 2010s and some DNA. Though it isn’t exactly a high priority.”

 “We have no idea who he is or what he’s planning to do. Why is that not a high priority thing?”

“At the moment?” she asked. “Because we have reports of a time bomb being activated.”

“What?” Janus asked sitting up. “When?”

“New Years Eve going into the year 3,000 in Brazil,” she said. “Which you’d know about if you’d bothered to check your integration port this morning before storming into my office.”

“It’s my mission?” Janus asked.

“The incident investigation is over and your active again despite the dreaded yellow,” she said, clearly making fun of him a bit. “So, yes, and it’s a high priority mission, so I’ll be running it.”

 “Who all is going?” he asked.

“Other than the two of us, Remus, Lena, and Fred,” she told him. “We leave in three hours, so, you might want to run off to Rhi before Fred gets to her and ties her up for an hour on details.”

Janus nodded and got to his feet. He turned back at the door. “I still don’t deserve the yellow,” he hissed.

She waved him off. “I’ll see you in a few hours, Picani.”

He ground his teeth a bit about the dismissal of his worries, but his resentment was slightly soothed by the fact that she’d assigned him to go on such a high priority mission and with only senior agents.

 He took the advice and grabbed Remus from the office, noting Lena hadn’t been able to wrangle Fred yet as she was still at her desk, and they both headed off to see Rhi.

A few hours later, they were all in decontamination together, decked out in truly god-awful costumes. The turn of the third millennia had been a wild event, and the best way to fit in was to look like you’d grabbed something from every century in recorded human history, dyed it in neon paint, and rolled around in a vat of glitter.

Remus had opted to stick his head in a vat of glow in the dark green paint that costuming had offered them, and it wasn’t even going to be slightly disruptive to their covertness.

 In fact, costuming had frowned when Janus had insisted he not get his hair dyed and instead wore a bowler hat. They had required him to have flowers made out of glitter on it.

There were five people waiting for them when they landed 6 hours before the turn of the millennia. Three were touchdown agents, including Remy, and two were on location tech support. Usually it would be overkill to have that many people there just for support even with five agents in the field, but today the TPI needed to be cautious because they were planning on instituting a time lock.

Time bombs were dangerous things that would ripple through time if not contained. Even if it did end up going off (killing everyone in its reach), the time lock would serve to prevent most damage outside of the city and, more importantly, the year it was planted.

 Janus had only been in two time locks before, and he was one of the most senior agents in the TPI, outranked only by the founder: Lia Khalid. Time locks were designed to keep all time linear in a certain fixed time and geographical area as well as prevent any time travel in and out. Once it was engaged, all forms of time travel would not work for the duration, bar the pin device. Khalid was already switching out her regular timepiece with the slightly bigger one that was designed to support the time lock.

There was a failsafe back at the TPI that could be engaged in an emergency, which was why tech support was here, but other than that, the only thing that could break the time lock was that timepiece, and it would break the moment the time lock ended.

 As soon as it was on Khalid’s wrist, she looked up at them all. “Our information says the time bomb was planted in the costume of one of the ‘Millennium Birds’ who are the organizers of the different events,” she said. Janus had seen a photo of the identical costumes in the mission details. They were all robe like garments with giant fans of feathers coming from the neck that coalesced in a peak a foot above their head to hold a fake bird egg. At least they’d be easy to find. “There are 25 of them throughout the city. We need to find each of them. So, we don’t double count, you’ll need to subtly,” her eyes touched on Remus, “scan each one you find for the bomb and tag them with a tracker if it’s not on them. You can view the already tagged ones, as well as the rest of us on your timepiece even once the time lock is engaged. When you find the bomb, call it in.”

 They all nodded, and Khalid looked over at one of the techies. She nodded at her and then the techie flipped a couple of switches. “Three, two, one,” the techie said. There was a slight shift in the air that most people would disregard, but Janus as a seasoned time traveler could feel the change even before his wrist buzzed. He glanced at his timepiece to see it had a big red ‘X’ across its display. He tapped it and was still able to bring up the map of the city with 10 green dots on it all clustered together in their current location.

 After that, he tested the scanner on his timepiece that he would use to search for the bomb, just to make sure the time lock hadn’t messed anything up with his equipment. He glanced up to see everyone else was doing the same.

“Keep in contact,” Khalid said before everyone split up. Janus and Remus started by going North while Fredrick and Darlene were to go South. Khalid was a floater who would tag any Birds she saw but was mostly there for backup and orders.

Janus and Remus stepped into the chaos of New Years Eve before the turn of the third millennia. The streets were already swamped with people and it would only be getting worse the later it go.

“Where should we start?” Remus asked.

 “Let’s go all the way North to the games area,” Janus said. “We can work our way back here.”

“Okay!” Remus said. “I wonder if they have those fun little genetically modified goldfish as prizes. I’ve always wanted to eat one and see if I end up getting whatever design was on the fish on my body.”

Janus gave him a disgusted look.

“What?! People eat fish all the time!”

Janus shook his head. “We’re not playing the games anyway. We have work to do. Important work.”

“Boo,” Remus replied. Janus chose to ignore him as he spotted one of the Millenia Birds letting people into the gaming area.

 They walked over towards the entrance. Janus got in range first and moved to subtly scan the Millenia Bird, Remus doing the same the next moment. After a second, Janus’s timepiece buzzed and lit up red, meaning the bomb was within range. “Well, that was easy,” he said. “It was on the first one we found.”

“Uh…” Remus said. “Jan.” When Janus looked, he was holding up his wrist to show his green lit time piece.

“What?” Janus asked. He quickly moved to rescan the Millenia Bird, and his timepiece came up green as well. Which, meant the bomb was not in range, even though the Millenia Bird had not moved. “But…” He and Remus’s eyes met, and they quickly both started turning in a circle to look at the crowd around him. No one looked like they’d just stolen a time bomb off the Millennial Bird, but then Janus’s eyes caught on a man. He blended in perfectly to his surroundings. He was wearing the disgusting garb of the times, a large light blue piece that bubbled near his hips, and had most of his skin covered in rainbow neon paints. Yet, something about him, the curl of his hair or the way he moved, drew Janus’s eyes to him. He recognized the man immediately even in a completely different dressing style. Yet, what cinched it was the moment Janus’s eyes met his and they seemed to sparkle slightly in the afternoon sun. The next moment, the person Janus knew as Pat, turned to disappear into the crowd.

 Chapter 7

“Him,” was the only thing Janus said before taking off after the figure who had just disappeared into the game area.

“What?” Remus’s voice followed after him. “Janus! What?!”

Janus did not pause, just continuing to run after Pat, hopping over two barricades as a shortcut. Janus cursed when he lost sight of the man for just a moment near the prize table filled with colorful goldfish, but he was able to spot him once again walking into one of the tents. Janus blasted into the tent. It was a game where they raced rats, and when Janus entered, Pat was cooing at one of them.

 “Who’s a tiny little squishy precious baby?” he was asking one of them, wiggling his pointer finger at it.

“You,” Janus growled stepping up to him.

He turned and tilted his head at Janus with a frown. “Um, me?” he asked, pointing to his chest, all sorts of innocent, but Janus could see a spot of hidden amusement in his eyes.

“Where is it?”

His eyebrows drew together, but it was an act. It was clearly an act! “Where is what?”

“The…” he glanced around them at the people surrounding them. “Thing you just took.”

“I didn’t take anything,” Pat said with a frown.

 “Oh, no,” Janus said. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fooling me twice is not an option.”

“I’m sorry sir,” Pat said. “I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Bull. Shit.”

Just then, Remus jogged into the tent. “What’s going on?” he asked.

“It’s him,” Janus said pointing. “He took it. He has it.”

“I… don’t know what you’re talking about,” Patton said. He looked over to Remus with a confused frown.

Remus looked at Janus. “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” Janus said. “It’s him. It has to be him. He’s the mask guy.”

Remus squinted at Pat. “He is?”

“Whoever you think I am, I’m not. I haven’t worn a mask all night. I just did the face paint,” he pointed to his cheeks.

 Remus raised his wrist and his timepiece lit up green. He looked at Janus.

“I lost sight of him for five seconds. He must have stashed it somewhere,” Janus said. He turned on Pat. “Where did you put it?”

“…Are you,” Pat asked, his eyes going back and forth between Janus and Remus, “… the police?”

“We are, actually,” Khalid said as she stepped into the tent. Remus must have called her. She inserted herself between Janus and Pat. “Agent Khalid,” she said, offering a hand with a smile. Pat looked at it in surprise and then smiled back hesitantly as he took it. “Apologizes, one of the big game prizes was stolen by someone matching your description. Would you mind coming down to security for questioning? Just to clear it up.”

 “Oh,” Patton said, hesitant. Janus expected him to refuse outright, but then he said. “Uh, sure.”

“Thank you very much, Mr…”

“Jonas,” Pat told her earnestly. “Do I need to be handcuffed?”

“No,” Khalid said. Janus frowned at her, but she ignored him. “It’s just a talk for now.” She gestured to the tent entrance. “Come with us.”

He did without argument, and Remus and Janus followed behind the both of them. Khalid did not lead them back to the base, but to a little spot that said “security” near the center of the event. Remy was already there waiting for them at a desk.

 “Remy, would you please take Mr. Jonas to go sit down?” she asked.

“Sure, boss,” Remy said, standing up. He led Pat away.

Khalid turned to Janus and Remus once they were out of earshot. “What is going on?”

“It’s the mask man,” Janus said, “the one from 1923, and my scanner said the time bomb was on the Millenia Bird outside the games entrance, but then it was gone the next second, and I saw him, and then he ran away.”

“So, does he have it on him?”

“No. I lost sight of him, and he must have stored it somewhere, but I know he took it.”

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“He’s the man from 1923?” she asked.

“Yes! Remus, that’s him, right? You recognize him.”

“Well,” Remus said thoughtfully. “He was in a mask, and it was dark in the room with the necklace. Other than that, I only really saw his back, and he was wearing pants. Mr. Jonas is wearing a dress, so I can’t really tell if their asses match.”

“Okay, but I was with him for hours. I swear it’s him, and I swear he took it,” Janus just about shouted.

“We’ll question him,” Khalid placated, “and Fred and Lena will keep looking in the meantime.”

 “He knows where it is,” Janus insisted. “I swear.”

“Okay,” Khalid said, before leaving to follow where Remy and Pat had gone. She stopped Janus with a hand on his shoulder. “I think Remus and I will do the interrogation.” He opened his mouth to argue. “You know the most about him, so observe from the sidelines and see if he makes any mistakes that indicate you’re right.”

“That’s just to placate me and you know it.”

“Observation’s over there,” she said pointing.

He got a thumbs up from Remus as he walked by, and Janus glared at his back before walking off to the indicated location.

 He watched as Remus and Khalid entered the room, and Remy left it. Remy joined him in the observation room after leaving and leaned against the wall.

Pat was sitting at a table and watched Remus and Khalid with that same rubbish placid confusion that he had before. “So,” Khalid said, “Mr. Jonas.”

“You can call me Nick,” Pat interrupted.

“Lia,” Khalid replied. He smiled at her happily. “So, are you enjoying your day?” she asked.

“I am!” he replied. “It’s a big day. You only get to see the turn of a millennia once in your life.”

“Ah, yes,” Khalid said. “Doing anything special for it?”

 “Um, not really,” he said. “Other than the party. I’m going to meet up with my roommates after dinner. Kevin doesn’t like this sort of thing, and Joe couldn’t come.”

“Your roommates,” Khalid said, considering him. “Do you live around here?”

“Uh huh,” Pat replied.

“Do you have any ID?”

“I do, want me to get it?”

“If you wouldn’t mind.”

Pat unzipped one of the bubbles on his waist and handed her a chip. “Remus, would you mind going out and getting the ID scanner?” she asked, even though her timepiece would be able to read it.

“Ah, shit,” Remy said. “Props. What do those things even look like?”

 As Remy scrambled to find something that would pass for an ID reader so “Nick” didn’t get suspicious of Khalid using her timepiece, Janus watched the two alone in the room like a hawk.

“I see you’re wearing a dress inspired by the 2770s,” Khalid noted, as Remus came to stand next to him.

“Yeah!” Pat replied. “Joe made it for me. He’s really good at fashion design!”

“Can I see?” she asked.

With a happy smile, he reached over the table to let her get a look of the sleeves. Janus saw her subtly scan the fabric, probably to make sure it was from the 2990s and not actually from the 2770s. Considering she didn’t mention it, Janus assumed it checked out.

 Remy came back with some sort of device then and handed it to Remus who saluted and wandered back into the interrogation room. Khalid pretended to scan the ID in her hand. She handed it back to him without comment. “So, you said you live with your roommates: Joe and Kevin?” she asked.

“Yep!” he replied. “We’re practically like brothers.”

“Would you mind calling them?”

“Erm,” he titled his head like he was confused by the question. “Well, like I said, Joe is a bit busy, but I could definitely call Kevin.

“Here,” Khalid said, “use my phone.”

“I have my own,” he said with a frown.

“Humor me,” she requested.

“Uh, okay,” Pat agreed. He took the offered 2999 phone and dialed a number on it. Khalid reached over to put it on speaker.

“Hello?” a voice asked after a few seconds.

“Um, hey Kevin, it’s Nick.”

There was a sigh on the other end. “Hello Nick, is something wrong? Why are you calling me from someone else’s phone?”

“I’m fine, I think.” He looked up at Khalid. “Why am I calling him exactly?”

“Hello, I’m Officer Khalid,” Khalid said. “I just wanted to confirm that you are Nick Jonas’s roommate, and he does live in Manaus.”

“Yes, we live together with our other roommate,” the man replied flippantly. “Officer? Is something wrong?”

“I believe there was just a case of mistaken identity,” Khalid said.

“Bullshit there was!” Janus hissed, though she could not hear him.

“No need to worry,” Khalid continued.

“I’m good Kevin,” Pat said.

“Are you absolutely sure?” Kevin asked.

“Don’t be Paranoid, Kevin. I’ll see you Tonight for the New Years Celebration. You know I Live to Party.”

“I am hanging up now,” Kevin said.

“No! Comeback.” The line went dead. Pat handed the device back to Khalid.

She took it and smiled at him. “Give us just a couple of minutes,” she requested. He nodded easily, and she and Remus exited the interrogation room. “I… think we’re done here,” Khalid said.

“No, he’s lying,” Janus insisted, and got a dubious look in return. “I know he is! Remus!”

“The alibi is pretty solid…” Remus said, “and he doesn’t have the bomb on him.”

“Oh, come on,” Janus said. “You can’t say there is nothing fishy going on here.”

Khalid and Remus shared a look. “Janus,” Khalid said. “I respect your intuition. It is usually very good, but you have been a bit intense about the man from the 1920s, and I think that may be blinding you a bit...”

“I am not imagining this!” Janus said. “That’s him and he took it.”

“You only met him once while he was wearing a mask,” Khalid pointed out with a frown, “and you didn’t see him take the bomb, did you?”

“No, but he looked at me and I knew,” Janus argued. They both gave him a skeptical look. “Oh, come on!”

“You know that’s a little weak, Jan,” Remus said.

“Let me talk to him,” Janus requested. “Just give me five minutes to talk with him.”

Khalid raised one eyebrow. “Fine,” she agreed. “You have five minutes, but after that, you have to let it go. We can’t waste any more time.”

 Chapter 8

Pat looked up as Janus stepped into the interrogation room. “Hi,” he said with an innocent smile that could cut steal.

Janus didn’t say a word as he took a seat; he just watched him intently. He leaned slightly over the table and steepled his fingers in front of his chin. “So, your name is Nick this time?” Janus asked.

“Nicholas Jonas,” he said. “Always has been.”

“Stop it,” Janus said.

“Stop what?”

“Cut the crap. I know.”

Pat leaned forward, mirroring Janus as he leaned closer, interlocking his fingers and laying his chin on top of his knuckles. “What did you say your name was again?” he asked, pleasantly.

 “Janus,” Janus replied.

“No, I’m Jonas,” he said, pointing to his chest.

“Not Jonas,” Janus spat. “Janus.”

“Um,” Pat said, eyes alight with amusement. The bastard. “Those are the same words.”

“No, they’re not. It’s Janus. J-A-N-U.-S.”

“Well, that’s confusing,” Pat said with a frown, but his nose was crinkling. “It’s close to my name. You should go by a nickname instead.”

“What?” Janus said. “No.”

Pat hummed. “How about Love Bug?”

“What! No!” Janus sputtered, almost flipping the table, as Pat winked at him.

“BB Good?”

“What does that even mean?!”

“Mandy.”

“No!”

“Okay, okay, how about Macy Misa.”

11594

Janus stared at him for a moment. “Fine. Whatever. What was I even talking about?”

“Hmm. I Believe we were talking about my name and how you think it’s not my name.”

“Right,” Janus said. “So, Nick. That was your roommate, Kevin on the phone, right? He seemed a bit unhappy with you. Any reason?”

“Nah, we’re Cool” said Pat. “That’s Just the Way We Roll.”

“Not because you’re messing up a mission right now?”

Pat’s eyes crinkled together. “A mission?” he parroted. “I’m not messing up a mission.”

“Oh, really?” Janus growled. “Because you’ve been captured by the TPI, and I know who you are and what you’ve been doing.”

“I have no idea what the TPI is,” he claimed.

“Yes, you do!” Janus said, standing up. “You obviously do! Or you wouldn’t be playing this game!”

 “Game?” Pat asked. “Macy I ask you what you’re talking about.”

“This is all just a game to you isn’t it!” Janus said, slamming his hands down on the table in front of them.

“Whoa,” Pat said, putting his hands up. “Calm down. Your face is getting all red. You must be Burnin’ Up.”

“I’m not sure what, but something about what you just said pisses me off.”

“And that is five minutes,” Khalid said, bursting into the room. He felt a tug on the back of his shirt and glared back at Remus who was putting his own body between Janus and Pat.

 “There was no way that was five minutes,” Janus growled.

“It was five minutes,” Khalid gritted out. “Remus, get him out of here.”

“Come on Jay,” Remus said, dragging him back towards the door.

“Remus, I swear to god.”

“Just chill, Janus,” Remus said, slamming the door closed behind them.

Janus shrugged him off. “You chill!” he snapped. “He’s playing you all for the fool.”

“Wow, Macy,” Remy drawled like an asshole. “I’ve never seen you so fired up.”

“Oh, my gosh. No one is going to believe me, and he’s going to get away with this.”

“You’re not really helping your case, babe,” Remy said.

 Remus grabbed him by the shoulders again. “Here, let’s go get some water.”

“I don’t want water,” he said even as he let Remus lead him to another room to get a glass of water.

“Look,” Remus said. “I know the Mask Guy thing really sucked, but you have to look at the facts.

“I am looking at the facts,” Janus insisted, “and the facts are, he’s fucking with me.”

“You don’t know what mask guy looks like,” Remus said. “You didn’t see Nick take the time bomb, he has an ID from this time period and a roommate in this time he called on the phone, and he legitimately seems to not know what any of us are talking about.”

 “Did you even listen to our conversation?” Janus asked. “He was screwing with me the entire time!”

“Janus…” Remus said.

“What?” Janus said, narrowing his eyes at Remus’s tone.

“I know you recently had a bad experience, but not everyone who flirts with you is doing it out of evil.”

Janus’s mouth hung open for a few seconds. “That’s what you got out of our conversation?”

“He called you Love Bug.”

Janus felt his face heat a bit at the reminder. “That’s not… I. I’m stealing your cat and then never speaking to you again.”

Remus laughed. “Ah,” he said. “Young lust.”

Janus elbowed him roughly in the side. “No!”

“Yes!” he crooned, pleased.

 “You are the worst partner,” Janus hissed. “When I’m right you owe me 10 loafs of your fresh bread.”

“Branching out from poptarts?” Remus asked.

Janus shook his head. He still wasn’t happy about the state of things, but he could feel himself cooling down a bit.

Khalid came out of the integration room after a few minutes, leaving Pat with Remy. “What was that?” she asked him.

“He got under my skin,” Janus said.

“We’ll talk about it later,” she said. “For now, we’re letting him go and then going back to looking for the bomb like we’re meant to be.”

 “Fine,” Janus relented. “Just do me the favor of tagging him before he leaves. Just that. I beg of you.”

“Sure,” she agreed. “If it will calm you down.”

He nodded.

“Then, let’s go,” she said. When they met back up with Remy and Pat, he saw Khalid make the subtle gesture that would tag Pat like they would have for the Millennium Birds. Pat sent him what could pass as a sweet smile if Janus didn’t know better. Then, they walked him outside, leaving Remy on clean-up duty for the make-shift security office.

“So, I’m free to go?” Pat asked. His bemused expression edged far too much on the side of amused verses confused for Janus’s taste.

 “You are,” Khalid said. “Have fun at the festivities.”

His hands went flapping about. “Oh, you too!” he said. “Well, I guess you’re working, but you can have fun anyway, I’m sure.”

“We’ll do our best,” she said.

He gave her a blinding smile and reached forward to shake her hand enthusiastically. Janus rolled his eyes and looked up at the heavens. “It was nice to meet you!” he said, “and you too, Remus!” He turned to meet Janus’s eyes. “Macy Misa.”

Janus pressed his lips together.

Then, Pat turned and walked away.

“Well, now that we’re done with that,” Khalid said, turning to them. “We have only a few more hours before midnight and we really need to find the time bomb.

 “Oh,” Pat called. He’d paused a few yards away and turned back to them. “Thanks for letting me go so easily by the way,” he said, “and just in the Nick,” he winked, “of time too.” Janus narrowed his eyes at him. He smiled back. “Wrist check,” he said holding up his arm to show off the timepiece there. Khalid immediately looked down at her own wrist just to see that the one timepiece that could move through the time lock was no longer there. Pat made a gesture and disappeared.

All three of them stared at the spot he’d been for a long moment.

Janus was the one to speak first. “I want. The yellow. To be erased. From my record.”

 Chapter 9

Khalid immediately called everyone back to base.

“What happened?” asked Fred when he and Lena arrived. The tech people were already scrambling to get through to the TPI and get the time lock broken from the outside.

“Remus, Remy, and Khalid got played by Pat or whatever his name is. It certainly isn’t Nick. He was just setting up a joke,” Janus told him.

“Stop being smug,” Remy said. “It’s not a good look for you.”

“Pat is…?” Lena asked.

“They guy who fucked me over in 1923,” Janus said, “and is currently in the middle of fucking us all over because he stole the pin timepiece, and by extrapolation, probably the time bomb too.”

 “It will be fine,” said Khalid, “because what he doesn’t know is that timepiece has a tracker on it. Wherever and whenever he went, we’ll have his coordinates.”

“Speaking of,” one of the techies said. “It’s about to break. You might want to hold onto something.” Janus grabbed for a support beam next to him as the techie put a device on the ground in the center of the base. It blinked once, twice, and on the third blink the ground rumbled. There were sounds of panicked yelps outside. The fail safe for the time lock was not nearly as gentle as ending it correctly.

 Everything settled after a few moments, and they all straightened themselves out. Janus’s timepiece buzzed to indicate it was now functioning normally. Khalid had returned her usual timepiece to her wrist and now used it to open a display they could all see. “The pin timepiece’s closest time/space coordinates are…” she trailed off. “Right outside?” She frowned. “That’s strange. Why would he still be here?” She turned to march outside, following the coordinates to a trash can. She pulled the pin timepiece out and stared at it. “Fuck,” she said.

“What just happened?” Remy asked.

“He ticked us,” Janus said. “Again.”

 “He was stuck in the time lock,” Khalid said. “That’s why he got our attention. He couldn’t leave with the time bomb unless he had the pin timepiece or we broke the time lock. Apparently, he’s smart enough to know that if he took the pin timepiece away from here, we’d probably be able to find him, but he knew we’d break the lock as soon as the pin went missing. So, he must have stashed his own timepiece and went back in time within the time lock to grab it while we were distracted with the past version of him. As soon as the time lock went down, I imagine he left.”

 “Probably with the time bomb,” Janus said.

“Probably with the time bomb,” she confirmed.

And everyone knew the only thing worse than a time bomb was a time bomb you didn’t know the location of.

They evacuated after that, of course, and time locked the location once they were out just in case they were wrong, but midnight 3000 struck without thousands of people dying in Brazil, so the time bomb had defiantly been removed from then.

The, they initiated a time travel lockdown for all nonessentials, not willing to let random history students get caught up in an explosion if Pat decided to set the thing off somewhere.

 Then, it was a matter of figuring out everything they could about ‘Pat.’ First, they checked the tracker data as Khalid had tagged him with one of the Millennium Bird trackers. It wouldn’t work outside of the zone they’d set up that day, but the record would show his behavior during the time lock after he’d escaped with the pin timepiece.

There had been many little green dots on the map that day as Fred and Lena had actually been doing the job they’d set out to do, but most of those were running around in the south. There had been one green dot, however, that appeared suddenly in the game area about 10 minutes before the time bomb had been stolen.

 They could see Janus’s yellow dot almost brush his when he’d been chasing the earlier Pat down, around when he’d lost him briefly. The earlier Pat must have all but handed it off to his future self.

“He doubled back,” Remus commented when they watched the recorded data. It was a ballsy move and one that most people balked at, because there were inherent dangers any time you interacted with yourself from a different point in the timestream. It was ripe for paradoxes. It made everyone at the agency even more worried, because if he was willing to risk that, then what else was he willing to do?

 Because of the lockdown of all nonessential time travel, people working for the TPI were not allowed to go home for the night. They were allowed to pick up anyone or anything dependent on them for care like kids and pets if there wasn’t someone in their home time to care for them, but other than that, they were unfortunately all sleeping in their offices for the foreseeable future.

“You are the only tolerable one,” Janus told the cat who upon being let loose in the office by Remus, immediately jumped on Janus’s lap.

“I have literally done nothing to you,” Lena said, but then added. “Yet.”

 “You exist. In my space.”

“Can’t we just all get along?” asked Fred. “It’s only been an hour past when we’d usually go home. I went and grabbed milk and I have my giant thing of different flavored hot chocolate under my desk. We can try them all and vote on which is better.”

“Fuck your hot chocolate, Fred,” Janus growled, having been one of the three who had chipped in to buy it for him on his last birthday.

“Don’t go after Fred, jackass,” Lena spat.

“He’s just testy because his boyfriend escaped,” Remus contributed.

Janus’s lips turned down into a frown and he cupped Diesel Fuel’s face. “We agree we’re eating him first, right?” he asked her.

 She purred her agreement.

“I’d have it no other way,” Remus replied.

“There is plenty of food,” Fred said, sounding stressed. “In fact, I was thinking we should all chip in on ordering take-out soon. “What does everyone like on pizza?”

“This is not a slumber party, Fred,” Janus pointed out.

“Shut it,” Lena snapped and turned to Fred. “I’m fine with almost everything, except…”

“Bananas and tuna salad!” Remus interrupted.

“…whatever Remus is about to say.”

Janus rolled his eyes as that started a debate about whether or not fruit and/or fish belonged on pizza. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, which was when there was a knock on the door.

 He froze when he heard the familiar voice. “Hello, hello,” said Emile, cheerfully. Janus looked up to see Emile standing at the open office door. Shit. Apparently, the man had decided to give up on sending lackeys to come fetch him and had decided to track him down himself when Janus couldn’t even escape without breaking a time lockdown. They met eyes briefly and Janus could see irritation if not anger in his eyes despite his otherwise cheerful expression and tone.

“Janus,” he said when he’d gotten their attention. “I’d like to have dinner with you.” The word choice told Janus everything he needed to know. Usually Emile was careful with how he said things to make sure people knew they had a choice. Typically he’d say something like, “I was wondering if you’d have time to have dinner with me tonight,” or “I’m about to go get food, would you like to come?” Today, there was no choice in the statement.

 Janus still dried to dodge anyway. “Uh,” he said. “We were actually about to order pizza.”

“Go ahead,” said Fred kindly. Janus wanted to strangle him. “We can order pizza with olives if you’re not here.”

“I…” said Janus. “Guess, I’ll be going with you.”

“Great!” Emile said. “Let’s go.”

“Oh,” Janus said. “Uh, now?”

“Now,” Emile said a bit of uncharacteristic steel to his tone.

#study break stories #not writing

[maggyme13]

Sugar (16/?)

AN; I am sorry for the long delay (again) but Work was hell and still is..

I also apologize if this chapter seems out of place; i simply haven´t written in a long while for this story, so please forgive me for that and any mistakes I made as well... I might edit it later.

Warnings:  none (?)

Wordcount: around 2000

Masterlist

Sugar- Masterlist

Part 15

It was christmas eve  that you finally were allowed to leave  the hospital under the condition to be closely monitored by your friends.

“Now that you are free again, what do you want to do.”, Sam teased.

“Burger. I need some meat!”, you groaned, even with Loki´s ´Luxurious´-hospital charge, the food had been mediocre.

“If that is what you want.”, Loki hummed, trying to hold Hati back from attacking you with kisses, “The ones of the local diner are alright, I heard.”

“Yes, they really are.”

“Good, then we will go and have lunch there.”, the CEO decided.

“And then I want to go and see Ma.”, you stated with a nod.

“Of course. But I can send Thor to retrieve her and joins us for lunch.”

“Na. I will go and see her. There are things I have to discuss -things that should not be spoken of publicly.”

“Again, if that is what you wish.”, Loki breathed into your ear, “But I will join you. No arguments.”

A shiver went down your spine and you nodded, “okay.”

“Boss!”, Sam called out from ahead, “I just called the diner and reserved a table fro everyone. We have three hours before they close for Christmas.”

“Thak you Wilson. You lot heard him, hurry up your lazy asses.”, the last part was more of a laughter and everyone piled into the cars.

The diner was already filled with families and small groups of friends, when the five of you and two dogs entered.

“You must be Mr Wilson. Please follow me. There is a small table I was able to reserve for you. As you can imagine we have a lot to do today. So please except my apology for any trouble.”

“It´s alright.”, you smiled, “We came on a rather short notice. Please don´t stress yourself.”

“Thank you Miss. Please, take a seat and have a look on our menue. I will be back in a bit to take your order.”

“Thank you, Anne.”, Bucky winked, sending her away with a shy smile.

“I will take the Double Cheese with Onions, jalapenos, extra bacon, fries and Soda.”, you declared after a quick glance at the menu.

“For me it will be the ´Meatlover´s` with Fries and Soda.”, Thor exclaimed with his stomach agreeing.

“Same for me, only with potato wedges instead of fries.”, Bucky hummed.

“I am gonna eat the wings with fries.”, that was Sam.

“I think I will take the Mac´n´Cheese.”, the dark haired CEO hummed, “And some baked-apple-pie ad dessert.”

It took Anne fifteen minutes to return to your table and another five to take the order, because Hati and Skali kept begging for attention by the waitress.

“I will be back as soon as possible with your orders. Just give me a few minutes to get you your drinks.”

“Thank you Anne.”, you grinned.

-..--..--..--..--..--..--..--..-

The food was delicious and after around one hour your little group was finished.

“Here is the check, Sir.”, Anne said, “Do you want to play cash or using card?”

“Cash, if that is alright with you.”

“It is fine by me.”

“Good. This is for the food.”, Loki said, handing over some money, “And this is for your excellent service, and this for the people in the kitchen.”, another two 100 Bills landed in the girls hand, who in return was lost for words.

“Uh-uhuh. Th-Th- Thank you, Sir. But this is far too much. I – I can´t take this.”, she spluttered and you piped in.

“Yes, you can. And believe me: If you don´t take this money now, he will find a way for you to get this somehow. He doesn´t take ´no´ for an answer.”

“Uhm. This… Thank you so much, Sir. God bless you!”, she almost squealed.

“It´s fine. Have a Merry Christmas!”

She thanked him once more when she closed the door of the diner behind them.

.--..--..--..--..--..--..--..--..--..--..--..--..-

“Are you sure you want to do this?”, Bucky asked one last time before turning into the parking lot of Teller-Morrows.

“Yes.”, you spoke with determination in your voice.

“Well then. We will stay at the cars, you know what to do if you need our help.”

“Rosebutt”., you nodded.

“Rosebutt.”, the security nodded back in union.

“Looks like we were already found out.”, Thor stated, nodding to the entrance of the clubhouse where multiple bikers had already gathered, including your brother and his brothers Tig and Kozik.

Stepping out of the cars, you noticed the way the biker´s tensed statures changed once they realized it was you, to a more relaxed. And most of them even left to go inside.

Anger rose in your heart with every step to took towards your brother, and being usually calm and not known for using physical force, a round of surprise noised were heard all around. You had punched your brother in the face, hurting yourself in the process, but also (hopefully) hurting him while bringing your point across.

“Fuck you Happy Lowman!”, you growled, shaking out your hand, “Fuck you and your stupid way of thinking! Damn that hurt. I hope I broke your nose.”

You did not. You were not even sure that this punch had hurt him at all, but at least he was looking down ashamed.

“You heard that? Or did your Boss tell you?”, he grumbled.

“I heard you. For real? I can understand why you did what you did. At least when I was younger. But I am sure, you could have explained everything once I was, what, maybe 18 or just before I left to study? Did you think me this stupid?”

“You ain´t stupid and don´t ever believe someone who claims you are!”, he growled with so much love in your voice you nearly laughed.

“I know I am not! But seriously? Do you know what I had to go through because I believed I was alone and did not want to pull Ma into my trouble? When I thought I had nowhere to go? When I had to live on the streets!  When I was fucking harassed my a swine of a man. When I was sure I would end up in jail? And don´t even think about going into full big-brother mode or something! You lost that right up until the point of a few days ago! But you may have it now, if you stop being an asshole from now on and more of a brother. I do not forgive you right now, but maybe I will in the future. For now I am happy to maybe start anew?”

“ I would like that.”, he nodded, “And I really am sorry. For everything.”

“Good. You do deserve a broken nose though!”, you grumbled, “Where is Ma?”

“In the clubhouse. Hasn´t spoken to me really since I send you away. Deserved that.”

“Yes you did. And before this goes further: how the heck do you know about the account? No one knows about that!”

“I have my informants. Though they never told me about what you had just told me.”, he rumbled, “If anything like that happens again, call me. And I mean it- I will ride my harley to that damn city if I must.”

“Mhm… And you-”, you pointed at your mother who had just joined the two of you,”- don´t you ever be angry or disappointed because I don´t tell you thinks. And do never argue with me if I want to buy you things or help with stuff. If I didn´t know that bafoon of a brother as well as I do, I would be more than disappointed with you not telling me all of this shit. But alas, as we all are as stubborn as they come, there is no need to argue. It was what it was and what done is is done. No need to fret over thinks that can´t be changed anymore.”

Your mother smiled, “God help me with such stubborn children.”

“And us with such a stubborn mother.”, the two of you hummed in union.

“I am sorry to interrupt this moment.”, Loki´s voice suddenly piped up, “May I suggest having some pie or other baked goods together? To celebrate this?”

“And I have just the right cake for this in the fridge. If you have a place. We have a deal, Mr Laufeyson.”, your mother exclaimed and you knew there would be no other choice now, not that you would have wanted.

“As a matter of fact, I have. I am sure your brother is aware of the address. “

“Yeah.”, the brother in question grumbled.

“Good. You go ahead. I will get myself and the cake ready and Happy will drive us there. Say 4pm?”

“My pleasure.”, Loki nodded and offered you his arm, that you happily took.

“We will take care of everything else.”, the CEO smiled his charismatic smile.

“See you later Ma, Happy.”, with these words you allowed Loki to escort you back to the cars.

-..--..--..--..--..--..--..--..--..--..-

The five of you had returned to New York two days later and were now in the middle of planning how the lot of you would celebrate  New Years Eve.

As you learned, there was usually a big Party at the Bifrost, because of that every one of the friends group was able to celebrate together while still being at work.

“Are there any rules on what to wear?”, you asked Loki one evening while cooking dinner, as he was sitting at the table looking at some designs for a new collection.

“Whatever you like. You could go naked for all I care, but then I would suggest having a private gathering with only the two of us.”, amusement and a bit of flirting was in his voice.

“Maybe after the official part. For now I just need to know if there will be others apart from us at the VIP or if there will be -others.”, you asked again, turning towards the CEO over your shoulder.

“If you are hinting at someone like Quill, then don´t worry your beautiful head of. Our Area of the VIP lounge will be private and separated from the rest. There will be no unwanted attention.”

“That´s exactly what I was hinting at.”, you poked out your tongue, “But seriously, I am representing you and whatever I do will reflect on you and your business. I don´t want to do something wrong or disappoint.”

Having stated this, you turned your attention back to the food, so you did not realized the man hat gotten up from his seat and stepped beside you.

His hands reassuringly caressing your shoulders and arms, he spoke with the warm tone you loved so much.

“No matter what you do, you can not do anything that would reflect badly on me. That is not who you are and even so, I don´t care what others think of you.”

“Maybe.”, you hummed.

“What else is troubling your mind. It is not only the question on what to wear.”, he stated, his arms snaking around your middle.

A deep sight left your chest and you allowed yourself to lean into his embrace.

“I haven´t repaid you for the other night.”, you mumbled, the slight feeling of guilt had been plaguing your mind for the last couple of days. Just as Loki himself you liked to take care of those that are important to you, and so having been brought to a release without your partner finding one had you feeling that way.

“That night was about you and what you need. Not what I need. And trust me, I have just as much enjoyed that night as you did. Just because I did not came to a release, does not mean I got nothing out of it. I got you and that is far more important than any release you could have given me. You gave me your trust.”, he hummed, his nose buried into your hair.

But still…

“Now, may I ask what is for dinner?”

“Chilli.”

Part 17

AN 2.0.

REBLOGS and comments are appreciated:)

Thank you very much.

~MaggY

Taglists:

Permanent:

@jadepc​@pacifyhxlsey​ @thankyoukarenclifford​

@thankyouforanonymity​  @punkrockhufflefluff​

@scarletraine @buckycaptspideypool  @markusstraya @graveyard-groupie @markusstrayya @randomgirlkensy @the-soulofdevil

@marshyrebelcloud

MCU:

@yknott81​    @banner-and-bucky-are-life @forext20 @dyanlzbb​  @so-finster-die-nacht @emmii4 @bitchwhytho @ladyofmyst   @jilldsumner @momc95 @appreciating-fanfics

Sugar:

@bits-and-bobs-and-kawaii-stuffs @mimmie666   @fullranchwolfoperator

@cluelessnitwhit @youknowitsclouds @his-paradox @purplerainharry

@spootgaai2000 @iamsuperjenna @nikkipea   @alexakeyloveloki @timelordy-fangirl2 @girrafeeeeeee @emilyjane44x @randomgirlwholoveskpop @deathkat657

I couldnt tag a few of you… sorry.

Want to get tagged as well? Comment, Reblog or send an ask to let me know.

#sugardaddy loki #sugardaddy Loki x reader #Loki x reader #Reader insert #SOA #Sons of Anarchy #Happy Lowman #sugardaddy AU #ONLY AN AU #I AM NOT LOOKING FOR A SUGARDADDY

[relishredshoes]

Interview given to The Severus Snape and Hermione Granger Shipping Fan Group.  (sharing here Admin approved)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/199718373383293/

Hello Oracle Obscured and welcome to Behind the Quill, thank-you for letting us get to know you a little better.

Many readers will know you already and if they don’t I encourage them to look your works up including Teaching Miss Granger and How I learned to love teachers’ meetings

Okay, let’s jump right in.

What's the story behind your pen name?

Hmmm ... that’s kind of a weird answer for me. I wanted to choose a name that didn’t immediately indicate whether I was male or female. I’d noticed a certain freedom afforded to authors of indistinguishable gender. With no societal construct about the “nature” of the creator, the story stood on its own, without prejudice or conditioned expectations.

I brainstormed about six or seven names and then picked the one that appealed to me most. I’ve always felt drawn to the idea of oracles (those who see beyond). And I definitely felt obscured in that department. (Hell, at the time, my whole life felt obscured.)

Which Harry Potter character do you identify with the most?

I don’t know if I do. I guess if I had to pick, I’d say Hermione, as I have a tendency to be an obsessive perfectionist when it comes to work/studying. I like to be organized and plan things out. And I can be quite demanding and harsh with myself when I feel like I’m not measuring up to my own insane ideals.

But I took that openpsychometrics.org statistical quiz a while back, where you answer like a bazillion comparison questions (I did the longer version), and my highest HP match was Remus Lupin (83%). Yeah, I can see that.

Luna is my favorite character, but I don’t know if I identify with her more than anyone else.

Do you have a favourite genre to read? (not in fic, just in general)

It used to be horror/suspense, but ... I don’t know ... I’m just not as into it anymore. Maybe it’s because the real world is horrifying enough without adding fictional monsters to the mix.

Now I mostly read classics.

Do you have a favourite "classic" novel?

To Kill a Mockingbird.

At what age did you start writing?

Just writing stories in general? Maybe second grade. It wasn’t a passion or anything, just something I was pretty good at. I only really did it at school, though, not so much at home. I read A LOT growing up, so I naturally imagined that I might be an author one day. I tried to write a book when I was about 13 or 14, but less than one chapter in, I decided it was too hard. (I was NOT a Hermione growing up. Planning and perseverance were not my style.)

I took a massive break from thinking after high school (the smorgasbord of medications I was on didn’t like me using my brain too much, and my plans for college went out the window when my depression become unmanageable). I didn’t really start writing again until I was about twenty-seven. That was when I found fanfiction. I consider that when I really started writing.

How did you get into writing fanfiction?

I found fanfiction while looking for erotica. Needless to say I discovered the motherlode, and I was hooked. Over the years, I’d written bits and pieces of my own sexy scenarios (which is what you do when you grow up without the internet and you have to depend on your imagination for all your kink requirements), but I’d never really thought about taking someone else’s “story world” and using it as my setting. For a little over a year I read/devoured all the HP fanfiction I could, and then I realized I could take all the fantasies in my head and play them out with my favorite characters.

The first story I wrote was a funny/smutty Ginny/Draco thing, and it was HORRIBLE. The story and the sex were fine, but the writing was a nightmare. I submitted it to The Restricted Section, which was the only site I knew at the time, and they vetted their stories, so I had to get approved. They wrote me back saying it needed work and I should get a beta. So I went on the forum and found one (which was rather brave of me now that I think back). The person who helped me must’ve had the patience of a saint, because he/she(?) never said a damn thing about all the mistakes and shitty-ness. Suggestions and corrections were made, and I changed some of the pronouns to names so it wouldn’t sound so repetitive. The next time I submitted it, they accepted, and I got a decent response for a first-time writer (like three or four nice reviews). No one seemed to hate it, and the reviewers said the sex was hot, so I tried again, hoping to do better.

That’s when I wrote the first chapter of Teaching Miss Granger. It started out as just a oneshot. And it got a much better response. I wanted to write more, but I became extremely depressed and lethargic, and I didn’t really do anything for the next six or seven years. (I mean nothing. Unless you consider watching every episode of Law & Order CI and SVU ten times over to be an accomplishment.)

I came back to it years later, intending to add a few chapters to TMG where they have sex, but ... it just sort of evolved into the monster that it is. I worked on it pretty much every day for about a year. I’d never stuck with ANYTHING that long in my entire life.

What's the best theme you've ever come across in a fic? Is it a theme represented in your own works?

I would say love or “the power of love” is probably my favorite theme. But that includes synonyms for love as well. (Like wholeness, which is the theme of Quartet.)

What fandoms are you involved in other than Harry Potter?

None. I like other fandoms, but I don’t write for them, and I don’t usually read their fanfiction.

If you could make one change to canon, what would it be? Do you have a favourite piece of fanon?

I’ve never really thought about changing cannon. I mean, I change it to suit my fictional purposes (like Snape lives etc.), but I wouldn’t want to change canon for real. The deaths in HP serve a purpose, and while I find many of those deaths heartbreaking, that’s kind of the point. Hatred is bleak and destructive, and good people don’t survive wars simply because they’re good; bad things happen to good people all the time. As for changing something about the individual characters, I can’t get behind that either. The reasons people do things are multifaceted and complex and they’re colored by a lifetime of experiences I will never know or understand, so I don’t feel I can really judge. I can’t say I understand all the choices I’ve made in my own life, and there’ve been plenty of times where I had no choice at all. I can’t hold others to more rigorous standards than I myself can meet. We all have our shortcomings. (And that’s cool. Without them, there would be no growth or diversity.)

Do I have a favorite piece of fanon? Hmmm ... probably Head Boy and Head girl rooming together or having private rooms.

Oh! And uniforms.

Do you listen to music when you write or do you prefer quiet?

I used to listen to really quiet classical music while wearing headphones. Every little sound in the house distracts me, and I have to block it out. But lately I’ve just been running this old box fan that drowns out the noise.

What are your favourite fanfictions of all time?

Crap, I don’t know if I can choose. (Plus I feel like I’ve forgotten a lot of what I’ve read.)

My friend Desert Sea is my fav Hermione/Severus writer. Out of her stories, the ones I like best are In Their Hands and At the Headmaster’s Discretion.

After a brief search of my accounts, I’ll go with:

Do Not Go Gentle by senlinyu

Another Dream by dragoon811

The Last Twenty-Four Hours of Severus Snape by CryingCinderella

Pretty much everything by Aurette

Pet Project by Caeria

Post Tenebras, Lux by Loten

All the SS/HG stuff from snapeslittleblackbuttons

There’s a Teddy Radiator story that I like a lot, but I can’t remember the name of it. (Or what it’s about.) (Yes, very helpful, I know.)

And in a category all it’s own is Farmer Granger and the Most Glorious Cock by MyWitch. (Seriously, I read this like once a month and it makes me laugh every time.)

I read a lot of Drarry too. Drarry stories I love:

Everything by bixgrl1, but especially Balance Imperfect and In Evidence of Magical Theory

Everything by lq_traintracks (even the non-Drarry stuff). The writing is amazing.

I love all the advent stories by Saras_girl.

I like all the Drarry stories I’ve read by Faithwood.

I really like RZZMG’s writing. (No particular story or pairing.)

And I just rediscovered a story I found in 2007 (the first m/m fic I ever read). It’s a Snarry, which I know isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it was excellent. Snape: the Home Fries Nazi by pir8fancier

Are you a plotter or a pantser? How does that affect your writing process?

I enjoy a bit of both. My oneshots are all pantsed. TMG was totally pantsed. But Getting Personal and Quartet were both plotted and planned. For GP I did sort of a chapter by chapter synopsis before starting my rough draft, and for Q I went into even more detail—EVERYTHING was planned out ahead of time. The only thing that changed during the first draft was I ended up combining some of the chapters.

How does plotting affect my writing process compared to pantsing? It streamlines it. In a oneshot there’s not much to streamline; the basic story (or general idea) is all you really need. There’s not enough story to get muddled. But when I’m writing something longer, with multiple chapters, I find it’s better to know where the story is going. How deeply I go into that planning can vary. Sometimes there’s just a basic outline of the major plot points and then I fly by the seat of my pants from there. Sometimes I write out a very rough synopsis (sort of like a short and loose first draft) and then start writing as if it’s my second draft. Things inevitably get changed once I really start writing, so the planning isn’t set in stone by any means, but when I plan, the story goes in the general direction I intend without veering too far off course and there aren’t any plot holes. After I wrote TMG (with no planning) I saw that there was A LOT I could have cut or combined without affecting anything important. I learned a little more with each story I wrote, and when I got to Q, there was a lot of complicated ideas that I wanted to incorporate, and there were so many characters (and character arcs) going on that I had to plan extensively to make sure everything fit together. If I hadn’t worked it out ahead of time, it would’ve been like throwing a heap of puzzle pieces on the table but not being given a reference picture to know what it was I was working toward.

What is your writing genre of choice?

I have no idea. Plotty sex? Erotic dramady? Some of it is just straight up PWP, but I usually like to have something meaningful in there too.

Which of your stories are you most proud of? Why?

Usually the answer is whatever I’ve most recently written, as it’s the most likely to represent my current “best.” In terms of writing, I’ll go with A Brush with Magic, but Quartet is probably my best storytelling. A lot went into that (symbolism, planning, obsessive re-writes) and it holds a good deal of personal meaning to me. So, I guess I’ll go with Q due to the time and effort involved.

Did it unfold as you imagined it or did you find the unexpected cropped up as you wrote? What did you learn from writing it?

The unexpected always crops up (even with all my planning), and it’s the unexpected that makes the magic.

While I had many insights into my own nature while writing Quartet, in the end I think it taught me to trust/listen to myself more.

Later, however, it brought me a very different message. While writing it, I felt a lot of tension and anxiety; I wanted to “do it right” and present my story in the best light. But after some time away, I realized I’d been so worried because I felt as if that story represented me, as if it defined me. And the pressure of being judged worthy or unworthy had been eating me alive.

But I don’t feel that way anymore. Now it’s like I wrote all my stories in another lifetime. While they all might be a snapshot of a fraction of my mind, nothing I create ever says a damn thing about who or what I truly am. Since letting go of that, I’ve found a sense of freedom around writing. I still like to express things as clearly and beautifully as I can, but it’s more a celebration of words than a search for acceptance.

How personal is the story to you, and do you think that made it harder or easier to write?

Quartet was extremely personal to me when I wrote it, and in a lot of ways I think that made it easier to write. When I have to go strictly by imagination, I feel as if I’m missing some depth of understanding (like I’m getting the surface-level stuff, but missing the nuance). When I write from experience, it has an entirely different quality. Richer. More intimate. It’s work to write what I don’t know, but it’s easy to write the truth.

Posting, however, is an entirely different story. Other people don’t always want the truth, and if you feel like your story is an extension of you, it can hurt to have any part of it rejected.

What books or authors have influenced you? How do you think that shows in your writing?

I think everything I’ve ever read or seen has influenced me. In terms of writing, I guess I’d say I’m inspired by beauty in all its forms. When I first started reading fanfiction, I just searched for the kinks I liked; it was all about the sex (with bonus points for having a decent plot). Then one day I read an extremely well-written PWP (I don’t remember what), and the way the author described the sex was so unlike anything I had ever read, it totally blew my mind. It was art. Exquisite art. And before that, I didn’t know sex could be art. That author didn’t just recount the characters’ actions, they painted a word masterpiece—they turned porn into poetry. THAT was what I wanted in my life. And I didn’t know it until that moment.

Books/authors that stick with me:

The Harry Potter series (obviously).

Shel Silverstein (Love the poetry, but The Giving Tree is one of my favorite books of all time.)

Dr. Seuss (Always.)

Judy Blume (I still have my copy of Are You There God it’s Me Margaret from when I was, like, 10. Tiger Eyes is my favorite of hers.)

R.L. Stine (I got hooked prior to the creation of the Goosebumps series, but I had EVERY Fear Street Book he wrote when I was in middle school.)

Weekend by Christopher Pike (This was the first YA thriller I ever read. *Sigh* memories. I still have my original copy, and I still read it every once in a while. The characters and plot are great.)

Stephen King (Carrie is my fav.)

Anne Rice (I’ve read all the vampire and witch books, but The Witching Hour is the only one I’ve read multiple times. Blackwood Farm is my next favorite.)

To Kill a Mockingbird

Charles Dickens (David Copperfield is my fav.)

Jane Austen (I can’t pick between Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility.)

Thomas Harris (Brilliant writing, and Hannibal might be one of the most intriguing anti-heros ever.)

Stieg Larsson (Another brilliant writer with a brilliant character.)

The Giver by Lois Lowry (I haven’t read the rest of the trilogy. And I haven’t seen the movie. I refuse to besmirch my childhood love with Hollywood’s interpretation.)

Bridge to Terabithia (This book devastated me as a child.)

Gillian Flynn (Sharp Objects is my fav.)

Liane Moriarty (I like all of her books, especially Big Little Lies. The way she plays with the timeline is masterful.)

Frank Herbert’s Dune. (I grew up on this. It’s my dad’s all-time favorite book. And, yes, we’re looking forward to the new movie.)

Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid’s Tale is horrifyingly wonderful. And Atwood herself is fascinating. Watch her Masterclass if you get the chance.)

Steinbeck’s East of Eden (This might be my second favorite book.)

The Lucifer Effect by Phillip Zimbardo (This isn’t fiction, but it was the first book that really affected the way I see the world.)

Eisler’s The Chalice and the Blade (Also not fiction. If you’re interested in the divine feminine and a more egalitarian society, this is the book for you.)

Loving What Is by Byron Katie (The only self-help book that’s ever actually helped me.)

Daphne Du Maurier (I love Rebecca, but she also has a story called “The Blue Lenses” that isn’t really intended to be scary, but it freaked me the fuck out.)

The Secret History by Donna Tartt (Gorgeous writing, and the plot left me seriously disturbed.)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey (Gah! I love this. The writing and the story and the characters and EVERYTHING!)

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (I Bradbury’s writing style, but the plot of F451 is pure horror for any book hoarder lover.)

The Lord of the Flies by William Golding (This might be my third favorite book ever. No, wait, I might like it better than East of Eden. I can’t choose!)

The Diary of Anne Frank (How in the hell could anyone read this and not be affected by it?)

Do people in your everyday life know you write fanfiction?

No. This is my own private world, and I like it that way.

How true for you is the notion of "writing for yourself"?

Very. I write what I want to read. There are certain adjustments I make when I write for other people as opposed to what I do when writing strictly for myself, but nothing major. I refuse to write things I have no interest in, and I don’t write to make people happy. I write to please myself. (But it’s nice when what pleases me pleases others. It’s wonderful to share that connection.)

How important is it for you to interact with your audience? How do you engage with them? Just at the point of publishing? Through social media?

I like hearing from my readers. I don’t have a lot of time to interact, but I like talking to my audience and listening to their insights. I try to reply to all the comments I get on AO3 (it’s just too hard on FFN). And when I have free time (which isn’t often) I check my FB groups to see what’s going on. To me, the interaction kind of completes the creative cycle; it helps me set the story free and allow it to be. It really belongs to the reader once I’ve published, and it’s nice to see the ripples creativity creates.

What is the best advice you've received about writing?

Unless it’s absolutely necessary, stop using the word “was.” Completely changed my writing.

What do you do when you hit writer's block?

It doesn’t really happen that much, as I usually know where I’m going with my story, but there can be glitches between scenes or times when I can’t find the words for something (like ending a chapter). When that happens, I usually just leave it and come back later—I can’t force it if it won’t come.

If I really need to get it done for some reason, I read what I have over and over, adding a little bit more each time, trying out words that “sound right” and building what I need bit by bit. What I come up with isn’t always right or what I want, but at least I have something to work with. Sometimes seeing what’s wrong makes what you want more obvious.

Has anything in real life trickled down into your writing?

Yeah, just about everything Sex, depression, anxiety, personal growth, likes/dislikes, insights, interests, philosophy, all my little neuroses. Every once in a while I’ll even include some dialogue from real life.

Do you have any stories in the works? Can you give us a teaser?

I’m juggling about five long stories right now (plus a couple oneshots). And I haven’t worked on any of them in ages. I don’t know what’s going on with me; I’m just not in the mood. I don’t want to say what they are, as I might never finish them. (Two are Drarry and three are Sevmione. One is a compilation of oneshots. Four of them are completely planned out and just need to be written. The unplanned Drarry was always just meant to be for myself and I doubt I’ll ever release it.)

Any words of encouragement to other writers?

Yes. Enjoy the whole writing/creative process as much as possible. Try not to beat yourself up, and don’t try to force yourself to be better. You will naturally get better the more you write. Change is inevitable; allow it to happen. Read books about writing, and read good writers. Notice what brings you the most pleasure when you read and tap into that same pleasure when you write. Play with words and ideas just for fun. Watch and see what appears. There is no perfect.

If you’re writing about sex (because I get asked about that a lot), write what turns YOU on. Don’t try to be sexy. Don’t try to write what you think other people want to hear. Don’t worry about what other people think (at least in the first draft). If they don’t like it they can go read something else. But if YOU like it, it will shine through in your writing, and that will have a bigger impact on your reader than any activity you describe. Also, the physicality is only a fraction of the sexual experience. Don’t turn your sex scenes into a play-by-play. You’re not really writing about what the characters are doing so much as how what they’re doing affects them. It’s a personal experience, and the more personal you make it (the more honest and vulnerable you are as a writer) the more satisfying the story will be for your reader. Wise words! Thank-you so much for speaking with us today Oracle Obscured.

#snamione #writing #fanfiction #fanfic

[rocksandrobots]

Of Rocks and Robots Ch. 20 - Therapy

Varian sat on the leather couch inside the doctor’s office nervously bouncing his knee up and down. He didn’t want to be here. He wanted to run, but he knew that would upset Aunt Cass who was seated on the chair next to the door.

This was meant to be his first therapy session and he didn’t know what to expect, or to say, or what to do. Both Hiro and Wasabi had told him that all he had to do was talk to the doctor about his problems, but Varian didn’t really feel like talking. He didn’t feel like delving into his past and reliving those painful memories. Moreover, he didn’t want anyone in this world to know of his mistakes, even if they were just a stranger.

Just then the door opened and a tall woman with short bobbed hair and glasses walked in. She wore a white lab coat and held in her hand a clipboard and pen.

“Hello, Miss Templeton. Are we here to see Hiro today?” The woman asked Aunt Cass.

“Oh hi, Dr. Mcguire.” Aunt Cass stood up to shake her hand. “No, I called earlier and told the secretary this, but I’d like you to meet Varian. Varian this is Dr. Mcguire. She’s our family therapist.”The woman smiled and shook his hand as well, as Aunt Cass contunited. “Varian is from Europe and I’m fostering him while he’s here in the states.”  

“Oh exciting!” The woman enthused. “Is this your first therapy session, Varian?”

Varian nodded his head numbly, still too unsure of himself to speak.

“Well there’s many different types of therapy. I’m a grief counselor. I use different techniques to help people deal with loss or trauma, such as, listening to people talk about their feelings and problems, helping people develop healthy coping mechanisms for anxiety or depression, helping people pinpoint or understand where their underlying issues are and what might cause them to react the way they do to certain situations, and basically anything else that helps the patient cope with their grief.”

Varian listened to the woman intently but none of what she said made any sense to him. He knew what all those words individually meant on their own but all together it just sounded like a word salad to him. He had no idea what any of that actually entailed in practice.

"Well, now Varian, tell me a little about yourself?" The doctor asked as she sat at her desk.

Varian only stared blankly at her, unsure what she wanted to hear.

Dr. Mcguire expounded "Do you have any interests or hobbies?"

Varian looked back to Aunt Cass questionly and she gave him an encouraging smile and a go on motion with her hands.

"Ummm...I like alchemy."

"Alchemy? Like the history of it, or is that some new video game I haven't heard of yet?" Dr. Mcguire gently laughed at herself. "My kids are always trying to get me into the lastest gaming craze and I can never seem to get the hang of it."

Varian once again could only stare. He'd played a few video games with Hiro and Fred, but he had no idea what was deemed popular or not. Nor did he know how to explain to this woman that he was a practitioner of a long dead science.

When this didn't elect a response from him the doctor tried a new line of questioning.

"Do you have a favorite video game?"

Varian shrugged. "I don't know. I haven't played many of them. We didn't have video games back in Old Corona."

"That's the city he came from." Aunt Cass explained. "Varian is from a Russia territory."

"Oh. Well, what did you play in Old Corona?" Dr. Mcguire asked.

"Not much." Varian racked his brain for a childhood game, but there had been no other kids to play with and his dad was not much for chess.

"My cellmate and I would play 'Noughts and Crosses' to pass the time. It's a little like Gomoku, but you try to get three in a row instead of five, and you just draw an X or O on to a grid you drew in the sand instead of having a board and colored pieces.'

"Oh we call that tic-tac-toe here." Aunt Cass cheerfully said, not immediately picking up on his mention of being in jail.

The doctor however did notice. "Cellmate?" She asked with concern.

Varian clamped his mouth shut at that. He didn't want to go into why he had been in prison, certainly not with Aunt Cass there.

Sensing the Varian's discomfort and seeing Dr. Mcguire's confusion, Aunt Cass spoke up. "I'm guessing the secretary didn't give you the forms we filled out?"

"No, I'm afraid not. I saw your name on the appointment and just assumed it was time again for Hiro's session. I'm sorry, that was unprofessional of me to assume and not come prepared. Would you like to reschedule?"

Aunt Cass looked to Varian. "It's up to you, sweetie."

Varian really didn't want to go through all this again. "No. I'm good."

"Well do you feel like talking about what's wrong then?" Asked Mcguire.

Varian tightened his jaw, unsure how to say no to the woman. But Dr. Mcguire knew her business and understood what Varian meant even without words.

"It's ok." She soothed. "You don't have to talk about anything you don't want to. We're not here to make you feel uncomfortable. Therapy is supposed to help, not hurt."

This relaxed Varian a little, but only a little. He didn't know what either adult wanted from him then.

"Varian, would it help if I left?" Aunt Cass offered. "Or would you prefer that I stay? Either one is fine. It's your choice."

Varian looked back and forth between both women trying to decide. He honestly didn't know which would be more stressful; dealing with the doctor alone or risking slipping up again and having Aunt Cass find out about his past crimes.

"I...maybe?" He eventually answered.

"Alright then. I'll be just right outside the door if you need me." She stood up, walked over to Varian, gave him a peck on the forehead and an encouraging smile before closing the door and leaving.

Varian had to admit, he could breath more easily now that she'd left the room.

"Well," Dr. Mcguire spoke back up, "if you rather not talk about your issues right now, would you like to write about them instead?"

Varian gave her a confused look and in response she dug into a drawer in her desk and pulled out a notebook.

"Sometimes people find it easier to write about things than to talk about them. I often give my patiences journals, so that they can get out their feelings about stuff, make goals and plans, or to help keep track of their triggers and their responses."

She handed the notebook to Varian. It was thin and curiously printed on the front were images of lizards with hats and sunglasses riding upon skateboards. Varian might have thought it absurd looking but he was distracted by something that the doctor had said.

"Triggers?" He asked.

"A 'trigger' is anything that might make someone remember their trauma. It can be anything from a familiar sound or object, to an action or situation that is similar to an event that the person went through. When someone who's been through trauma comes across one of their triggers they might experience a panic attack, flashbacks, get angry or upset, or even completely shut down so to speak."

Varian studied the woman thoughtfully. Wasabi had described what a panic attack felt like and it sounded eerily similar to what he had felt when he ran away that day. The way he felt after having a nightmare. The way he'd felt when he had come home to find his dad unmoving in the amber.

“Do..do nightmares count?” He asked hesitantly.

“Well, yes, in a way. Nightmares are often associated with PTSD. They are a way for your mind to process what has happened to you. But they can also be caused by other things, like stress, anxiety, or just a lack of sleep. You’d have to dream about something multiple times and analyze those dreams in order to figure out their cause.”

She paused and studied Varian intently before continuing. "Some people write dream diaries to track the patterns of what they dream and when. You write what you've dreamed, good or bad, when you wake up. You also may write things like what time you went to bed, how long did you sleep, or what you may have eaten that day as those can affect how well you sleep."

"You could use your journal for that." She gently suggested.

"Then...then I show it to you?" He asked in kind.

"If you want to. Though, once again, you don't have to do anything that you don't want to."

"But, if I did, would it help?" Varian pressed, "Would it get rid of them?"

"It might help." The woman said measuredly. "Though it might not. Or you may need to do that along with a combination of things. The only way to find out is to try it."

Dr. Mcguire gave him a soft smile and Varian turned her words over in his mind. He would love for the nightmares to stop. They had only become more frequent since he moved in with the Hamada's. As if deep down he feared this new change in his life would become permanent and his subconscious was warning him to return home before it was too late. But, even still, while the doctor was right about not knowing till you tried, he worried over his past and what she or others might think of him once known. Then again, no reason to take a dream literally, right?

"I've..I...I've been having nightmares lately." He finally admitted. Dr. Mcguire only nodded along. She most likely had already guessed as much, but she didn't interrupt.

"They're always different. Like they're about different things. Sometimes they're about my home or my dad, sometimes about my friends, both old and new, and sometimes about, ummm, being in jail." He muttered this last part but then quickly contunited on, "They all end the same way though. With me being alone."

He met the doctor's eyes questioningly, wondering how she might respond. She looked to be contemplating over what he'd just confessed.

"Hmmm…Well dreams are rarely the same each time. It's usually just the repeated elements that we look for when analyzing. That's how the journal would help. But it looks like you figured out one of those elements on your own. Does being alone scare you?"

Varian looked at her wide eyed. He didn't know how to feel about having one of his greatest fears pointed out to him. It was true of course, but he didn't like to admit it.

"A, little." He admitted sheepishly.

"A lot of people fear being alone. We're social creatures. Humans need other humans and so we seek out relationships. It's nothing to be embarrassed about." Mcguire tried to ease his fear.

"Were you on your own in jail? Did you feel alone there?" She pressed.

"No, well sometimes, but like I said I at least had a cellmate. That's better than when I was completely on my own before then."

Dr. Mcguire face grew more concerned but she didn't pursue anything else about his time alone. Instead she asked, "Were you friends with your cellmate?"

"No." Varian scoffed, complaining about Andrew was easier than talking about his time spent on the run. "Dude was a creep."

"Oh, did you fight with him often?"

"Not usually. In fact we got along fine, but that's only because he'd pretend to be nice to get what he wanted. I always knew that's what he was doing, but I, guess I just went along with it because….because it was better than not talking to anybody at all."

Dr. Mcguire furrowed her brow, "What did he want from you then?"

Varian wiggled in his seat at that. He didn't want to go into the prison break and what followed thereafter. "Just….stuff."

This did not ease the doctor's fear. "How old were you when you went to jail?"

"I had just turned fifteen." He didn't know where this was going.

"And your cellmate was what, also fifteen, sixteen?" She guessed.

"Oh no. Corona doesn't have, what did the policeman call it, 'juvenile detention center.' Anyways, uh, I'm not sure what age Andrew was. He never said, but I would guess, like, late twenties?" Varian shrugged but he only became even more confused when he noted the look of horror on Dr Mcguire's face.

"And where were the guards when he was making you do… stuff?" She tried to hide it but Varian could still hear the way her voice shook.

"Ummm...well the guards make their rounds of the cells every ten minutes and stand guard at the door between then. Or they're supposed to, anyways. Sometimes they're late or they're switching shifts, or even sometimes asleep." He broke from his matter of fact statement with a little laugh. "I once saw Pete the guard fall asleep while standing up and Stan, the other guard, had to prop him up with his spear to keep the Captain from noticing." He whispered conspiratorially as if imparting some juicy bit of gossip.

But the doctor wasn't amused.

"It would appear that your home country has a very different legal system than ours." She stated as if trying to find a way to navigate Varian's revelations.

"I'll say." He snorted. Complaining about the conditions of the dungeon itself didn't bother him as much as admitting how he'd got there. He supposed it was because everyone suffered the same indignity as he did while there. So he didn't feel singled out.

"I saw what those cells down at the police station here looked like last week. Let me tell you. They were pristine." He began to number the differences on his fingers." Clean, not drafty, there were toilets, electric lights. I was on the bottom floor of the dungeon and all we had was a grate on the ceiling that let the tiniest bit of light and air in from the cell above us. Of course that wasn't much cause that cell only had a small window to begin with."

The doctor interrupted his ramble. "But what about when you were aloud outside?"

"Outside?" He echoed in confusion. "We never went outside. Who'd let criminals out of their cells willingly?"

Dr. Mcguire darted her eyes back and forth as if equally flabbergasted. "But, but what about for exercise!? Showers!? Mealtimes!?"

Varian looked at her unsure how to answer, now only realising just how vastly different the two realities really were.

"We ate in the cells." He said flatly in lieu of anything else. "Is the food better here too?"

"I don't know? What did they serve you?"

"Usually gruel, or bread and water. Sometimes we'd get scraps from the castle's kitchen. Like leftover bone broth before it went bad. I guess not to starve us completely."

"Castle?" She echoed hollowly.

"The jail is underneath the government's palace." He explained.

"And is that the only prison? Wouldn't that get over full?"

"Yeah, it does. That's why they only keep people there until they ship them off on the prison barge or…. til they hang them." He quietly admitted.

This seemed to be the last straw for the doctor.

She took a deep, shuddering breath and tried to compose herself.

"Well, that..uh..we seem to be reaching near the end of our session. How about we bring Miss. Templeton back in?" She flashed him a strained grin, but Varian knew she was rattled and he feared he'd said too much or had done the wrong thing.

"You mean Aunt Cass?" He asked.

"Yes. So you call her 'aunt' too?" He nodded. " Well let's get your aunt in here and we'll talk about how best to continue your therapy."

Dr. Mcguire walked out and Varian could hear her and Aunt Cass having a hushed and hurried conversion. He couldn't make out what they were saying, but he knew it was about him. Soon after, they both reentered the room and Aunt Cass took a seat next to him on the couch.

Dr. Mcguire sat at her desk again and proceeded to make an announcement.

"So Varian and I have talked a little and he's decided that he's going to keep a dream diary, which he can share with me during our next few sessions if he would like. However, I feel that Varian might benefit from seeing a specialist."

Varian heart dropped. He was being turned away? He'd somehow managed to screw up his first therapy session so bad the doctor was pawning him off to someone else.

"But, aren't you a specialist?" Aunt Cass asked, equally confused.

"Yes, but I deal with post trauma, sudden events, like a car accident or the recent death of a family member. After talking to Varian, it appears he's been through prolonged trauma. It'll take a few more sessions to confirm this but, he may have Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It's related to regular PTSD, there is some overlap in symptoms, but ultimately it requires different treatment."

Varian's stomach began to churn and he felt his heartbeat quicken. All he heard, behind the doctor's unfamiliar terminology, was that he was somehow, wrong or broken, more so than even the troubled patients she normally worked with. He wanted to cry, but instead he blinked back tears as Dr. Mcguire contunited.

"I have the name of a psychiatrist that I can recommend. I've worked with him before alongside other patients."

She handed a business card to Aunt Cass who leaned forward to take from her. As she read it the doctor went on.

"Dr. Brown deals with former soldiers, war refugees, abuse victims, and others who've had to endure extremely harsh conditions. He's better experienced in such cases and as a psychiatrist he can also prescribe any medicine that Varian might need."

"Medicine!?" Varian exploded and both women looked at him with concern. "But, but I'm not sick." He whined in protest.

Dr. Mcguire stood up and walked over to him. She knelt down to his level and looked him in the eye.

"I don't know if you are or aren't, diagnoses of mental illnesses take time, but you might still need prescribed medication even if you don't have an illness. You mentioned not sleeping well, something as simple as a herbal tea with added melatonin could help with that. However as a psychologist, and not a psychiatrist, I can legally write you a prescription for that, nor should I."

Varian darted his eyes about the room in confusion. Logically what the woman said made sense, he supposed, but that didn't stop his anxiety from raising. He felt cornered. He wanted to run again, but the gentle hand of Aunt Cass upon his shoulder rooted him to the couch.

"Look, you're still welcome to come see me." Dr. Mcguire reassured him. "I'll gladly help you in any way that I can. I just think Dr. Brown could do even more to help you."

"We just want what's best for you." Aunt Cass interjected. "Thank you, Dr. Mcguire. I'll give this Dr. Brown a call today when we get home."

And that was the end of it. They said their goodbyes and left.

On the whole way home, Varian sulked in the passenger seat as he stared dispondingly out the window. He could feel Aunt Cass nervously stealing glances of him, probably afraid he may jump out of the car again and try to run away.

She attempted to say something a few times, but thought better of it and kept quiet. The uncomfortable silence weighing upon them both until they arrived back at the Luck Cat.

Varian tore out of the car, pounded up the stairs, and was just about to run towards his new room, when he heard Aunt Cass say. "We need to talk."

Varian found himself sitting on a couch for the second time that day. This one in Hamada living room. He eyed Aunt Cass pensively and waited for yet another lecture.

"Sooo, I know that didn't go as well as we hoped today, but hey, we made some progress!" She gave him a plastered grin as she tried to find the silver lining. Varian only gave her a look as if she was crazy and rolled his eyes.

She heaved a heavy sigh.

"Varian, there's nothing to be embarrassed about. Lots of people see special psychiatrists. That's what they're for. They wouldn't exist if people didn't need them."

Varian still refused to meet her gaze.

"Also, not everyone finds the right therapist on their first try. It took me a whole year and three different doctors before I found Dr. Mcguire."

Varian did look at her upon that revelation, this time with surprise on his face.

Aunt Cass gave him a small smile.

"Did you think you were the only one who needed therapy?" She gently teased, before admitting, "I was only 24 when I took in Tadashi and Hiro. I didn't know how to be a parent. I didn't know how to handle two grieving little boys nor the emotional roller coaster I was on as well. I had to get help. I had to try out different doctors, different types of therapy, even took medication for a little while, and it took time but in the end it did make things better for all of us. I just want you to get better as well."

Varian processed this confession as he wrestled with his growing sense of shame and despair.

"But...but…you never did anything to deserve that. It was just a bad thing that happened to you.. I… I on the other hand…I wasn't in that jail for no reason." He confessed before bursting into tears.

"I don't care." Aunt Cass quietly said.

Varian looked back in surprise again. She stood before him with worry etched onto her face.

"I don't care what you did." She reiterated. "It doesn't matter."

She bent down and cupped Varian's face into her hand, just as she did when he returned after running away.

"Varian, no one deserves to be treated the way you were. Especially a child. That..that was just cruel." Her voice broke. "Cruel, and inhumane, and oh god, what ever did they do to you to make you think you deserved it?" It was her turn to cry as she scooped Varian into a hug.

Varian blinked rapidly, both because of the tears and because he hadn't been expecting this reaction. He knew he was at fault. Everyone in the kingdom knew it. They all blamed him for what happened and threw nothing but scorn his way. The only reason that Aunt Cass and everyone else didn't hate him too was because they didn't know, surely. But the sincerity in her voice, the tender loving embrace, the way she put up with him and his stupid mistakes around the house, all made him desperate to believe her. So he hugged her tightly back.

"But.. But.. I'm not 'no one'" The tears flowed freely now. "I'm...I'm…I'm not like anyone. The doctor said so herself, today."

"No!" She pulled away from the embrace to look him dead in the eye. "No. She said you needed help that she couldn't give. Dr. Brown, though, can. He deals with people who've been through what you've been through. You're not alone. You're not broken. You're not weird. And you are most certainly not deserving of being thrown in a dungeon."

She wiped her fingers through his bangs, a sign of affection he'd come to recognize from her, and blinking back tears said, "Oh how I wish I could have been there for you sooner. But I'm here now. And so is Hiro, all your friends, Chief Cruz, Professor Granville, and Dr. Mcguire. Ok? We are all here for you now, and we love you, and nothing is going to change that. And now Dr. Brown will be there for you too. So please, let us help you."

Varian searched her eyes. These were words he had longed to hear for who knew how long, but when faced with them for real he had trouble giving into them; to believing them. The nagging voice in his head was screaming at him, warning him that it wasn't true, that they would all abandon his as soon as he screwed up or they found out the truth of his past, the same as how everyone else had given up on him, told him how he didn't deserve such kindness, ect.,but he didn't care. He wanted it to be true.

He nodded yes and flung his arms around Aunt Cass again. They remained that way, just holding each other for several minutes. While Aunt Cass stroked his hair and cooed reassuring words. How she loved him, how she wasn't going anywhere, how he was her child now and nothing would change that. He wasn't sure if he was ready to accept her as a parent yet, to him his dad was the only parent he needed, but he deeply appreciated all that she had done, all that she promised to do, and it felt good to finally be accepted somewhere, to be wanted .

When they finally stopped hugging Aunt Cass said she was going to call Dr. Brown and set up an appointment. She then stroked the top of his head again and asked if he wanted to help her bake something special for dinner. He nodded yes and they both put the unfortunate incident at the therapist behind them.

#Varian #Tangled #BH6 #aunt cass #cass hamada #big hero six #tangled the series #rapunzel's tangled adventure #BH6 the series

[kyuflix]

➤ 𝐈'𝐌 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄| 𝐒𝐞𝐨 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐛𝐢𝐧

𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐑𝐄:  angst as always, tiny fluff at the beginning if you squint

𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆:  weapons, violence, blood, a lot of swearing, some creepy guy, a little/tiny plot twist at the end

𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐘: changbin was always there for Y/N. right?

𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐒:  +4k (almost 5k)

𝐒𝐔𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐄𝐒 𝐒𝐊𝐄𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊: this took me so long because of school oh my god. but now that I’m on holiday, i have more time to write. at least I hope so. i hope you enjoy this! and let me know if you caught my little plot twist. it isn’t one directly but one for me because i actually didn’t plan for it to end the way it did. anyway, i hope you enjoy it!

That’s it. That's finally it. You handed in your last project to your professor. You bowed at him with a small smile and walked out of the room. Once you closed the door a heavy sigh escaped your lips. With closed eyes, you leaned against the wall and took a deep breath. 

“Yo, you finally finished?” To say you were shocked was an understatement, you flinched, a small scream rippling through your throat and banged your elbow against the wall. 

“What in the actual-” when you opened your eyes your expression darkened immediately as you saw the small smirk on his lips. You furrowed your eyebrows and shot your hands in the air. “Changbin what the fuck! Are you trying to kill me?” Said boy laughed and leaned his side against the wall, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“Actually, I’m not. Now move aside shorty, you’re not the only one that has to hand in their projects.” Your scowl deepened at the choice of his nickname and you puffed your cheeks as you crossed your arms in front of your chest like him. “I am not short, thank you very much! Besides you’re short yourself!”

A chuckle left his lips as he pushed himself off the wall and walked toward you. As he was only inches away from you he leaned into your ear and whispered. “Still taller than you. Shorty.” With that he opened the door and disappeared into the room, leaving you with a blushed face and all flustered. “Seriously what’s with this guy.” You mumbled under your breath and started walking in the direction of your locker.

As you opened your locker, a small note flew out of it and landed on the ground. You cocked your head to the side and bent down to pick it up. “I’m watching you.” You read out loud. You took a good look around you, nothing. The hall was completely empty besides you. “Must be some kind of prank.” You mumbled and threw the little note in the nearest trashcan. With your books now in your locker, you locked it again, your feet carrying to the library.

You spent most of your time in the library to study as much as you could as it was exam season. Not this time though, you were finally finished with writing all of your exams, essays, and projects. Now you could enjoy the next weeks with no studying. Maybe hang out with your friends again, as you were so busy with school stuff you didn’t hang out with any of them.

The library was empty, just like you expected at this time of the day. It was currently lunch, so the students were all gathered in the cafeteria. Well most of the students, some just kept lounging on the school grounds or in your case in the library. 

You placed your backpack on a chair and wandered to the section of the library that had your favorite books in it. You skimmed the titles, looking for something that caught your interest. You slid your fingers over the back of the books. You took out one of your favorite books and slid your fingers over its cover as you walked back to your seat, only to find it already taken by none other then Changbin.

You sighed as your eyes landed on his figure casually sitting there his head propped up by his hands behind his head and his legs crossed over the chair next to him with his eyes closed. A small smirk crept on your lips as you an idea went to your mind. Slowly, you tiptoed as to not make any sounds behind him and slammed the book onto the desk with all of your might. 

Changbin jumped out of the chair and landed on the ground, his eyes wide. You bit your lip to try and not laugh but you couldn’t hold it in and started laughing. Changbin looked at you through hooded eyes with a scowl on his face as he stood up and rubbed his back. “Very funny shorty.” You nodded with a smile on your face and pointed your finger at him. “Payback bitch.” Your smile grew wider and you plopped down on the seat, previously occupied by Changbin. He shook his head but couldn’t wipe the smile off his face as you kept laughing at him. “I guess I deserved that.” He shrugged and sat back down. 

You opened the book and took a quick glance at Changbin who was already looking at you. “What?”

“What?” He mimicked you with a smirk and you groaned. “What do you want? You’re following me. Why are you not with the others. Did you fight again? Changbin I swear to god if you-” He cut you off. “No, I didn’t. Everything’s okay. Are you though?” His question caught you off guard. You blinked a few times and furrowed your eyebrows. 

“What do you mean. I’m perfectly fine.”

“Bullshit Y/N. I know you since we’ve been kids and I think I know you very well. So what is it? Do you think that I haven’t been noticing your eyebags or that you’ve gotten visibly thinner? Tell me what’s wrong, you know you can talk to me Y/N.” You sighed and closed your eyes for a second. “I told you everything’s fine Changbin.” You spoke through gritted teeth and looked away. You couldn’t meet his stare. Not when you were lying to him and Changbin perfectly knew that.

“Y/N I know you. We’ve been the closest friends since forever. Now tell me what’s been bothering you. You know that I can’t help you if I don’t know what’s going on so tell me.” He put his hand on your arm and gently stroked it. 

You blinked back the tears that were forming in your eyes. You smiled and looked at him. “I just feel so empty right now Changbin. I’ve been studying my ass off, just living off of tons of coffee. My parents constantly shout at me for doing something wrong. I-I just can’t take this anymore. On top of that work is just complete shit. The customers are all so rude. My boss always makes me work overtime these days. It’s all too much.” Changbin pulled you in his arms and you broke down. He patted your back to try and comfort you as he couldn’t form words that would comfort you.  

You sniffled and pulled back wiping your tears away. You smiled at him and smiled back at you as he wiped a stray tear away. “Everything’s going to be okay. I’m here for you you know? If you need a place to crash, I’m here. If you want to talk, I’m here. If you want someone to talk some fucking sense into your boss, I’m here. Y/N, I’m here. I’ve always been and always will. You pulled him back into a hug and nuzzled your face into his neck.

’‘Thank you Changbin. I love you.” He was sure that you didn’t mean it in the way he wanted you to, but he couldn’t help himself as his face flushed and his heart started beating faster. 

Oh, how whipped he was for you. He would do anything for you.

“Y/N, a frappuccino for table 7!” You sighed and started working on the order. Your eyes followed the retreating figure of your coworker, as she put on her coat, bid your boss goodnight and walk out of the door. You scowled, you were supposed to already be out this cafe 2 hours ago. But once again, your boss made you work overtime. And of course, as if it couldn’t even get any worse, he didn’t even pay you the time you worked overtime. So needless to say; it’s complete shit.

You rubbed your tired eyes and put the frappuccino on a plate. You walked to table 7 and put the drink down onto the table. “Your drink, sir.” You smiled at him and disappeared back to the machines. You didn’t notice how the guy you just served his drink to, kept staring at you as you continue your work. 

A few minutes later another coworker swapped places with you, stating that they were getting creeped out by this one guy that kept staring at them and smiling creepily. You didn’t even listen, you just walked to the front and put on a small, tired smile.

'Breathe in and breathe out, you got this.’ An hour past and you looked at the clock. 23:04.

Your shift was supposed to end 3 hours ago. You sighed for the nth time that day and went back to work. Ten minutes later your boss came to you and told you that you could go home. You thanked him and put your coat on. When you stepped out of the cafe and started your route back home, you didn’t notice that the guy who was staring at you the whole time you worked was following you. Still unaware, you pulled your phone out of your pocket and plugged your earphones in. Maybe a little music will let you relax, right?

It seemed like the world wanted to laugh you in the face that day as a cold hand wrapped around your throat from behind you. A shriek escaped your lips and your eyes widened. Your body went into complete shock. You couldn’t move. The guy ripped the earphones out of your ears and threw them to the ground. He leaned in and you could feel his breath on your neck. He took a shaky breath and gripped your throat a little tighter. “Hello, doll.”

Changbin’s head spun around as a scream disrupted the silence of the night. He looked back at the figure he pushed to the wall just a few moments ago. He sighed and took the gun from his back pocket. With a 'click’ Changbin readied the gun and aimed it at the target. “Orders from the boss.” He smiled at the figure and pulled the trigger. Blood splattered over his white shirt and he shook his head. “God damn it.”

Another scream echoed through the night and Changbin took off in its direction. Multiple screams followed and he sped his pace up. When Changbin reached the place, a guy was bent over a girl. As he stepped closer, he silently took his gun again and aimed it at the guy. “Come on baby! Don’t be so persistent! I just want to have some fun!” “Get off her.” The guy’s head spun around, the smirk still on his face, but it quickly disappeared when he saw the gun Changbin aimed at him.

Changbin’s eyes widened and a gasp escaped his lips as the light of the street light illuminated the girl’s face. “Y/N? What in the actual fuck?” You looked at him with tears rolling down your cheeks and your lip quivering. The guy looked back at you with a smirk now on his face again. “Ahh, so you know this guy huh? Is he your boyfriend?” He leaned closer to you again, so close that only a few inches were left between you. You could feel his hot breath on you and closed your eyes. Whimpers escaped from your lips and you pressed your cheek against the street more.

“I said get off her!” Changbin readied his gun once more and with a click, the safety was gone. Changbin was a lot closer than he was before. He pushed the head of his gun against the guy’s head. “I’ll say it again, one last time. Get off her. Or I swear I’m gonna blast this bullet right through your fucking skull.”

The guy stood up from your figure and you immediately curled into a ball, the only sound that was your sobs. The guy turned around slowly and with a wicked grin plastered on his face, he cocked his head at Changbin and tried to run away.

Changbin took off after him and tackled him to the ground. He pushed his gun against the guy’s head one more time. But the gun was quickly tossed out of his hand. The guy punched Changbin in the face and scrambled toward the gun. Changbin shook his head and swiped his lip, a little stripe of blood coating his finger now. He quickly got up again and ran after the guy, in hopes to get his gun back again. 

He stopped in his tracks as he saw your figure hovering over the guy who kneeled on the ground before you. You held his gun in your hand and aimed it at the man in front of you. He quickly composed himself again and stepped beside you. He took your hands in his and guided your hand toward the guy’s head. Changbin leaned in and whispered in your ear.

“Are you sure you want to do this?.” You shook your head vigorously with tears streaming down your face and Changbin felt your hands going numb around his. He nodded and took his gun again. “I’ll call of one my friends and you’re going to be so fucking sorry that you hurt her when they’re done with you.” Changbin directed his speech toward the man and leaned in closer so you wouldn’t hear what he was about to say next. 

“They’ll torture you to no end, maybe slice a few parts of your skin. Who knows? Who knows if you will even come out of this situation alive.” He pulled back and wrapped his arms around you, calling his one of his friends, his eyes never leaving the guy who curled up in a ball. Pathetic. 

Changbin rolled his eyes and dialed Felix’s number again. Even though Felix was one of the younger ones in the mafia he was certainly one of the strongest. He was the second-best in hand combat after his other friend Minho. His flexible muscles allowed him to be quick on his feet and dodge quite well and he threw good punches. Changbin scoffed at the memory of him and Felix practicing hand-to-hand combat. 

“Come on, Felix! Is that all you got?” Changbin shouted at Felix across the practice room and the younger one smirked. Felix got into another fighting position. He put his right foot behind his left one and bend his knees. With a shrug of his shoulders, Felix put his arms in front of his face, ready to punch. Changbin took off in Felix’s direction and lifted his hand, ready to punch him.

Felix smirked as he saw the wide space Changbin left between his legs and crouched down and slid through the space of them. In the next moment, he was on his feet again and threw a punch between Changbin’s shoulderblades. The boy fell to the mat upon impact and rolled on his back to face Felix. “Where in the actual fuck did you learn that?”

Changbin stood up by Felix’s help and rubbed the place that just took a good punch. “You don’t want to know, trust me.” Felix responded in his deep voice and flashed Changbin a little smirk as he heard the older one wince slightly as he kept rubbing his shoulders. Changbin watched in surprise as Felix left the room.

“Fucking hell, Felix pick up!” Changbin screamed at his phone and apologized as he saw you flinching in the corner of his eyes. Changbin groaned and decided to call his leader, Chan. He knew that Chan would pick up and he did. “What’s wrong Changbin?” The voice of his leader filled the silence and he sighed.

“Well, I have a little problem over here. I’ll explain once I’m back, but please send a car over here right now. I’ll send you the coordinates.” Changbin ended the call and turned toward you. You were staring intently at the guy, who assaulted you a few moments prior. Changbin waved a hand in front of your face and smiled slightly as he saw you flinch a little.

“You okay, shorty?” You nodded hesitantly and Changbin took you in his arms. You immediately wrapped your arms around his torso. As Changbin stroke your back in an attempt to calm you down your shoulders began shaking and choked up sobs escaped your throat. He pulled back from the hug and looked deep into your eyes. “I’ll protect you from now on Y/N. I’m here. I won’t let anything happen to your ever again, I promise.”

You nodded and closed your eyes for a moment but opened them quickly. “If I close my eyes I s-see the things that he…” You trailed off and tears rolled down your cheeks again. Changbin wiped them away with his thumb and took you in his arms again.

Almost 5 minutes later a black, expensive-looking car strode to a stop in front of your figures. Out came a guy you have never seen before, not that you expected it. “Get in.” The unknown guy commanded and got back in the driver’s seat. Changbin took the guy who assaulted you and pushed him in the car harshly, next he helped you in the car and got in himself. The guy on the left seat, Changbin in the middle and you on the right. Changbin still had his gun in his hand, just in case your assaulter tried something.

The man who drove the car looked in the rearview mirror and began talking. “What happened Changbin?’' 

’'Honestly, I don’t know myself, Hyunjin. I was after our target, you know? I heard Y/N scream so I fulfilled the mission and rushed to help. That dude was all over her and assaulted her.” Changbin purposefully avoided the word 'kill’ and shook his head a little. 

“I understand.” Hyunjin said and gripped the steering wheel tighter as he sped up. “Everything alright there Y/N?” Your head shot up at the question and you looked into Hyunjin’s eyes through the rearview mirror. He seems nice. “Oh yes, I’m okay.” You nodded in a sorry attempt to convince yourself that you were indeed fine. Changbin placed his right hand over your left one and squeezed it.

You gave him a weak smile and put your head on his shoulder. Changbin put his head on yours and could feel you relax a little as your breathing got slower. You fell asleep.

When you woke up a black ceiling filled your view. You furrowed your eyebrows and sat into an upright position on a bed. This certainly wasn’t your bed, neither your ceiling. You definitely weren’t in your room. You stood up from the bed and took a look at the white sheets that contrasted the stark colors of black and red on the walls. You walked over to a little nightstand and took the photo that on it in your hands. You recognized Changbin on the picture but not the other people on it. You put the photo back on the nightstand and went out of the room.

Out of the room, you were met with a completely white-gold, marble hallway. Two staircases connected the level you were one to the main hallway. When you looked down a white piano was standing in the middle of the main hallway. To your left, the marble became darker in color. A transition from white marble to black marble. The walls were decorated with pictures of all kinds of flowers, with the exception of a few doors here and there. And to your right the exact same copy of the left wing.

There were 9 doors in total. Eight of them you couldn’t look through and you didn’t dare to. One of them was Changbin’s bedroom as you discovered. The door that was in the middle of the hallway was made of glass. You walked through it and stood on a balcony now. You walked to the fence and turned around as you took a good look around the balcony. It was full of plants and flowers, just like the pictures in the hallway.

You turned around once more and watched as the sun let its rays hit the earth and warm it. With a little smile on your lips, you walked back in the hallway and into Changbin’s room. You sat on the bed again and waited for someone to come in. You waited for Changbin to just walk in the room and comfort you like he always did. He was always there for you. You stood up again and walked toward the bookcase next to the window. Might as well read a little until someone comes and gets you, right?

With a book in hand, you sat on the bed again and opened it with the idea in mind to fully indulge yourself in it. But in the next moment, the door burst open and swung back with such force that it hit the door with a loud 'bang’. You flinched heavily and the book flew out of your hands, a shriek leaving your lips. You looked at the person that just burst through the door. You didn’t know him either. You were in a house with people you didn’t know with the exception of Changbin. Just great.

“I was told to come to get you, come with me.” The deep voice this guy surprised you as it certainly didn’t match his face. With a smile, he introduced himself. “I’m sorry if I surprised you. I’m Felix.” You smiled back and stood up. “That’s okay Felix. I’m Y/N.” He nodded and held his hand out to you. “Take my hand. We don’t want you getting lost now, do we?” You shook your head and took his hand.

Felix took you down to the main hallway. He walked to the back of the room and went through a door, soon going down a flight of stairs. The walls were no longer marble. They were dark grey with absolutely no windows. It was a heavy contrast, considering how it looks just above the staircase. Felix went into a room and pulled you with him. When you stepped into a room 7 other boys sat around a table, one of them Changbin who gave you a small smile. Now the only people you recognized were Changbin, Hyunjin, and Felix. Felix took you to a seat next to Changbin and sat opposite of you afterward. 

Changbin took your hand under the table and gave it a light squeeze. The guy at the head of the table cleared his throat and averted his gaze from the whiteboard at the end of the room toward Changbin. “So. What happened Changbin?’' 

Changbin cleared his throat and stood up and walked out of the room. Your eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he left the room. But the confusion quickly turned into a slightly scared feeling as he brought the man who assaulted you with him. The man was littered with bruises and cuts, dried blood all over his body. Some wounds were still fresh, the blood not having dried yet. 

Changbin pushed him into a sitting position in front of the table and stood behind him. Changbin looked him all over and a small smile formed on his lips as he registered all the bruises and cuts. 

’'Well you see, my friend, Y/N got assaulted by this little shit.” The last part of his sentence he just spits out through gritted teeth. Changbin took a deep breath and took a glance at you.

“I was after our target and when I found him she screamed. So I quickly killed him and ran in the direction of her screams. When I found her, this guy was all over her. I didn’t see what he did to her. I pulled him off of her and the two of us had a little fight. You know the rest.”

The guy at the head of the table nodded and stood up. He walked toward the man and walked in circles around him, examining his wounds, cuts, and bruises. “Seems like he got a good beating.”

Changbin smiled at this and cocked his head to the side.

“I took care of it myself, I hope you’re not disappointed, Chan.”

The leader, Chan turned his head in your direction and took a quick glance over your figure. No cuts, no bruises, no sign of any harm.

“Get this man out of my sight. I heard enough.” With a wave of Chan’s hand, two guys stood up and escorted the man out of the room. Chan nodded and motioned to the rest of the guys to leave the room. The only ones in it were Changbin and you now.

“So it was it you?” Changbin’s head spun in your direction and he furrowed his eyebrows. “What was me?”

You looked at the door. “The man. You beat him up.” Changbin nodded and took a step closer toward you but you took a step back. 

Crack.

Changbin swore he could feel his heart break into a thousand little pieces.

“What kind of organization are you? Y-You, kill people.” You whispered. “That’s a long story…” Changbin tried to avoid the subject. He was scared you’ll leave him if you find out.

“No!” You screamed and again hot tears rolled down your cheeks. Changbin took a step back at your sudden shout and gulped.

“You want to know the truth?” ‘'Please.“ You whispered and Changbin nodded. He took you by the hand and walked out of the room. You could hear distinct screams from afar, a lot of 'please no!’s following.

Changbin smiled at the screams. A memory of where he felt so happy coming back.

Changbin closed his bedroom behind him after he laid your sleeping figure on the bed. With a wicked grin, he walked down the flight of stairs, to the back of the room, through the door and down a flight of stairs once again. As he saw the next door in front of him his grin widened even more. 

He walked through it, now looking at the chained figure to the wall.

’'Comfortable are we?” The figure’s head banged against the wall as he flinched and Changbin looked into the terrified eyes of the man. 

He smiled and walked toward a closet. He opened it and took a look at the various amount of knives. One bigger and sharper than the other. He took the smallest knife and turned around. With a grin, he cocked his head to the side and walked toward the man chained to the wall.

“Let’s get started shall we?” Changbin grinned and the first part of his skin was sliced.

The whole house was silent the only sounds heard the screams and cries of the man.

Changbin seated you on a couch in the living room and sat next to you.  “Are you sure you want the truth?” You nodded.

“I’m part of a mafia. We call us Stray Kids or SKZ for the shorter version. I’m one of the members who stayed here the longest together with Jisung and Chan. Chan, our leader founded this mafia and Jisung and I joined. The rest of them joined after some time. We kill or rather eliminate people who do bad stuff. Criminals, sexual assaulters, Murders, you name it. Chan gives out a list for them and we kill them. Sometimes we even go out to eliminate other mafias or big corrupt politicians. Anything more you want to know?” His tone was stone cold.

“Why did you join this mafia?” Fear filled your system with every part of your body.

“I needed the money. There were many people I wanted revenge on. And I did.” Changbin grinned as he recalled all the people he killed in his mind.

“You’re crazy Changbin.” You said and he shot up his eyes piercing through yours. “Crazy for you.” He said and grinned.

“No. Changbin you need to get help this isn’t normal!”

Changbin looked at you in shock and sat on the table in front of you.

“I don’t need any help! I only need you can’t you understand that? I’ve always been here for you! I love you god damn it”

“What? Changbin you can’t love me. You really need a doctor!” He started screaming. “No, I don’t! I don’t need anyone beside you. Why won’t you love me?” You stood up and pushed him away from you when he tried to grab you. 

“How can love someone who enjoys killing? I can’t do this Changbin! I don’t want this. No! Let me go!” You screamed and struggled against his hold. He grabbed you when you started walking away from him. Changbin turned you around and pressed you flush against him. 

“Changbin you’re crazy!”

“Crazy for you.” He said and put his lips on yours forcefully.

You pounded your hands on his chest and he grabbed them with force and put them behind your back. “You’ll learn to love me.” You shook your head. “I’ll never love a sick guy like you and I thought you were my friend.

’'Oh, shorty, you will. I’ll just have to force you to.”

#stray kids #stray kids fluff #stray kids angst #stray kids imagines #bang chan #lee minho #seo changbin #hwang hyunjin #han jisung #lee felix #kim seungmin #yang jeongin #yandere #yandere stray kids #yandere!stray kids #yandere!changbin #stray kids mafia #stray kids mafia au #kyuflix

[myhoneststudyblr]

what a levels did you take and how hard are they? do you enjoy them?

hi anon! i'm still actually taking my a levels - i'm coming up to the end of my first year studying them. 

i take:

English lit

German 

History

i enjoy all of these a levels so much but i kinda knew that i would before i chose them because these were consistently my favourite subjects and i was good at all of them. 

as to how hard they are? well, that is a bit more tricky to answer.

the short answer is that all a levels are hard. there is not really an ‘easy’ choice to make but they are all hard in different ways. i personally do not find my subjects hard - i’d say they are intellectually challenging in that i have to think and i can’t just turn up at the lesson and get full marks but i wouldn’t say that they are so hard that i’m struggling and can’t cope. 

please note here however that these have always been subjects that have come very naturally to me and that my experiences are not shared by everyone.

that said, i’d like to give the main things that people find ‘hard’ for each of the subjects:

English - English at a level is very different to GCSE. usually at GCSE you are studying a book and a play and some poems. at a level you study all of those (plus a few more books) but you are also studying the literature aspect much more heavily so you are looking a lot at context for the author and the time it was written, other novels and pieces of work in the same genre, all the different critical interpretations. basically, it is no longer enough to just know the book/play/poems and its language, you have to know all that other stuff too. the essays often reflect this a lot more as well so the essays seem really different to what you are used to at first

German (can be applied to all the languages) - so obviously, the language and grammar gets more complicated but this is expected. what is probably more difficult is the amount of ‘background’ knowledge they expect you to have. essentially, at a level you are looking more widely at the culture and country and there are many more in-depth topics that you do. for example, you often need to have a basic knowledge of the history of the country (for german, this often is from about 1918 to now), the societal trends of the country (eg family, youth culture, digital media), politics in the country (or multiple countries if numerous speak the language) and lots of other areas. this means that you could end up having to spend some time on a topic that you find really difficult/do not enjoy (for me this is art and architecture)

History - this is something that is difficult about history through pretty much all levels of studying history. THERE IS SO MUCH CONTENT. honestly, there is so so much of it - my history notes are the longest and most extensive of all of my subjects by *a lot* and it can be quite hard to get your head around all of the new content and learn it all. however, after a while, things start to make sens and as long as you keep on top of your notes, it’s not actually that big of a jump up from GCSE because many of the skills (eg essays and source analysis) and types of content are very similar

i really hope this was helpful and if you have any other questions about a levels or how to choose what you should choose your subjects feel free to send me another ask or message me! also: even though i study these, essentially ALL my friends study science subjects so i have a lot of knowledge about these and could easily find the stuff out for you if you have any questions about these subjects!

as always, if anyone else has any comments or advice, feel free to comment! <3

#sophie speaks #advice #tips #a levels #ask #answered #anon #text post #me

[xhxhxhx]

“The Only Real Exception”

After writing about the education-polarization thesis and the future of Europe and Asia, I was curious: Has Japan polarized? One of Thomas Piketty’s students studied the question. They came to a surprising answer.

As Western Europe and North America have become increasingly polarized around education and income, Japan has actually depolarized.

Western Europe and Japan started in different places. In Western Europe, the educated classes traditionally supported parties of the right. In postwar Japan, they supported parties of the left. They moved in different directions. In Western Europe, the educated moved left. In Japan, they moved right.

From Amory Gethin, “Cleavage structures and distributive politics”: 

7.6 The end of ‘cultural politics’

One of the other specificities of Japanese electoral behaviour is the fact that higher educated individuals have continuously supported left-wing parties, especially during the twenty years following the end of World War II. The historical strength of education levels in predicting party choice in Japan is well-known: it reflects the freezing of the party system which had emerged in the context of the ‘cultural politics’ of the 1950s (Watanuki, 1991).

Even when controlling for the significant improvements in citizens’ education levels since the 1960s, this pattern has persisted for most of the second half of the twentieth century. In the 1960s, 65% of the 20% least educated voters supported the Liberal Democratic Party, against 41% of voters belonging to the top education decile (figure 7.3c). During recent years, however, these differences have decreased considerably, and popular vote for the LDP has oscillated between 40% and 45% for all education groups in 2009-2014. Looking more closely at intellectual elites confirms this evolution (figure 7.3d). In 1963-1967, top 10% educated voters were indeed less likely to support the LDP by about 15 percentage points (8 percentage points after controls). This figure remained broadly stable, staying between 5 and 10 percentage points during the 1963-1996 period. Starting in 2009, however, education lost significance, even when including controls. The decline of the Social Democratic Party during the 1990s and its replacement by the Democratic Party of Japan – which culminated by its victory in 2009 – therefore seems to coincide with the disappearance of what was one of the most fundamental political divisions of Japanese society. The fact that this dealignment was sudden and occurred at the same time as shifts in the structure of party politics suggests that this process is driven by top-down mechanisms rather than long-run evolutions in collective beliefs. 

7.7 From a multiple elites party system to political indifferentiation? 

Bringing these two dynamics together points to a trend which is the exact opposite of the one observed in most Western countries (figure 7.4). In the 1960s, intellectual and economic elites were clearly separated into two different groups. On the left of the political spectrum, university graduates were highly supportive of the Japanese Communist Party and the Japanese Socialist Party, who based their appeal more on liberal values than on class antagonisms. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democratic Party attracted both low income earners and business elites. Through its defense of organized capitalism, it created strong ties with top executives and industrial leaders who participated in developing Japan’s growth model. This structure of political competition suddenly ended in 2009, when the LDP was defeated for the first time. 

While these figures suggest that Japan was originally a perfect example of a multiple elites party system, this characterisation should not be over-emphasised. Persistently strong levels of support for the party among low income earners demonstrates that the LDP has never favoured exclusively economic elites. As was highlighted above, part of its remarkable hegemony came from its ability to distribute equally the fruits of the country’s long periods of growth. The non-linearity of the relationship between income and electoral behaviour is, to some extent, an interesting representation of the Japanese social compromise, which came with its dominant-party system. 

Piketty describes Japan as the exception to the education-polarization rule. From Capital and Ideology:

The only real exception to this general evolution of the structure of political cleavages within the electoral democracies of developed countries seems to concern Japan, which has never really experienced a party system of classist type comparable to those observed in European countries and Westerners during the post-war period. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has been in power almost permanently in Japan since 1945. Historically, this almost hegemonic conservative party has achieved its best scores in the rural and agricultural world and among the urban bourgeoisie. The LDP thus succeeded in synthesizing between the economic and industrial elites and traditional Japan, around a project of reconstruction of the country, in a complex context marked by the American occupation and an anticommunism exacerbated by the Russian-Chinese proximity. Conversely, the Democratic Party (main opposition party) has generally achieved its best scores among modest and average urban employees and among the most highly qualified, who are willing to protest against the presence of the United States and the new moral and social order embodied by the LDP, but without succeeding in sustainably gathering an alternative majority8. More generally, the specific structure of the political conflict in Japan must be linked to the particular form taken by Japanese cleavages around nationalism and traditional values9.

8. See A. GETHIN, Cleavages Structures and Distributive Politics, op. cit., p. 89-100. See also K. MORI MCELWAIN, « Party System Institutionalization in Japan », in A. HICKEN, E. MARTINEZ KUHONTA, Party System Institutionalization in Asia, Cambridge University Press, 2015, p. 74-107.

9. In The Game of the Century [The Silent Cry] (1967), Kenzaburô Ôé magnificently evokes the complexity and the violence of the relations between the intellectual elites and the popular classes in Japan, in particular around the urban-rural divide, traditional values and the question of the modernization of the country since the beginning of the Meiji era (1868), without forgetting the role played by the geopolitical positioning of the archipelago, the relationship with the United States and the antagonisms aroused by the presence of Korean workers.

Perhaps Japan was a precociously modern society in the 1960s, with an educated left and a uneducated right. Or perhaps it was a “post-colonial” society, with a self-consciously anti-imperialist left. 

The Japanese experience of the 1960s can certainly sound precociously modern. In Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood (1987), one working class student was put off by the 1960s educated left:

"You know, when I went to university I joined a folk-music club. I just wanted to sing songs. But the members were a load of frauds. I get goose-bumps just thinking about them. The first thing they tell you when you enter the club is you have to read Marx. ‘Read page so-and-so to such-and-such for next time.’ Somebody gave a lecture on how folk songs have to be deeply involved with society and the radical movement. So, what the hell, I went home and tried as hard as I could to read it, but I didn't understand a thing. It was worse than the subjunctive. I gave up after three pages. So I went to the next week's meeting like a good little scout and said I had read it, but I couldn't understand it. From that point on they treated me like an idiot.

“I had no critical awareness of the class struggle, they said, I was a social cripple. I mean, this was serious. And all because I said I couldn't understand a piece of writing. Don't you think they were terrible?"

"Uh-huh," I said.

"And their so-called discussions were terrible, too. Everybody would use big words and pretend they knew what was going on. But I would ask questions whenever I didn't understand something. "What is this imperialist exploitation stuff you're talking about? Is it connected somehow to the East India Company?' "Does smashing the educational-industrial complex mean we're not supposed to work for a company after we graduate?' And stuff like that. But nobody was willing to explain anything to me. Far from it -- they got really angry.

“Can you believe it?"

"Yeah, I can," I said.

"One guy yelled at me, "You stupid bitch, how do you live like that with nothing in your brain?' Well, that did it. I wasn't going to put up with that. OK, so I'm not so smart. I'm working class. But it's the working class that keeps the world running, and it's the working classes that get exploited. What kind of revolution is it that just throws out big words that working-class people can't understand? What kind of crap social revolution is that? I mean, I'd like to make the world a better place, too. If somebody's really being exploited, we've got to put a stop to it. That's what I believe, and that's why I ask questions.

“Am I right, or what?"

"You're right."

"So that's when it hit me. These guys are fakes. All they've got on their minds is impressing the new girls with the big words they're so proud of, while sticking their hands up their skirts. And when they graduate, they cut their hair short and march off to work for Mitsubishi or IBM or Fuji Bank. They marry pretty wives who've never read Marx and have kids they give fancy new names to that are enough to make you puke. Smash what educational-industrial complex? Don't make me laugh! And the new members were just as bad. They didn't understand a thing either, but they pretended to and they were laughing at me. After the meeting, they told me, "Don't be silly! So what if you don't understand? Just agree with everything they say.'"

[...]  

"So then what happened with your club?"

"I left in June, I was so furious," Midori said. "Most of these student types are total frauds. They're scared to death somebody's gonna find out they don't know something. They all read the same books and they all spout the same slogans, and they love listening to John Coltrane and seeing Pasolini movies. You call that "revolution?"'

"Hey, don't ask me, I've never actually seen a revolution."

"Well, if that's revolution, you can stick it. They'd probably shoot me for putting umeboshi in my rice balls. They'd shoot you, too, for understanding the subjunctive."

"It could happen."

"Believe me, I know what I'm talking about. I'm working class.”

But those dynamics changed. Today, Japan is about as polarized by education as France and the United States were in the 1970s and the United Kingdom was in the 1990s: the more educated and the less educated vote the same way. 

I am still interested in whether Japan has depolarized at the level of opinion and policy. Under Shinzo Abe, the country has liberalized. It has more immigration and more women in the workforce. Perhaps that reflects the preferences of an increasingly educated population.

But it might be something else. The Liberal Democrats have a freedom of action that parties in competitive systems do not enjoy. In the United States, Democrats and Republicans must respond to changing preferences. In Japan, the Liberal Democrats can, more often than not, ignore them.

Perhaps Abe simply decided that cultural conservatism is not a winning program. But perhaps the country is changing beneath his feet. 

#effortpost

[eirist]

Hello there! How are you? Love your page and fics! 💚 So, here's a prompt: Zoro and Nami end up drinking alone (During Wano), and realising how much they've missed these moments alone, and maybe show a little how they care about each other? ;)

LITTLE BITS AND PIECES OF HEAVEN

CALM BEFORE THE STORM

One-shot #: 14

Disclaimer: One Piece (and its characters) belongs to Eiichiro Oda-sensei.

Reminder: I have no beta-reader. Any grammatical and spelling errors are solely mine.

Warning: OOC possible. One shot.

Rating: T (Light fluff)

Note: To be honest, this one-shot just won’t cooperate. I have drafts after drafts. I’ve re-written multiple times and finally, it let itself be written. To anon who requested this, I'm really glad you love my page and fics! And sorry for the long wait! Enjoy.

Summary: The swordsman and the navigator share a calm-before-the-storm moment.  

“Please don’t tell me that you are actually drunk?”  

Zoro reluctantly opened his eye and wasn’t at all surprised to see Nami looming over him as he leaned against a random tree trunk, about to lose himself into his much needed nap. With a hand on her waist and hips cocked to the side, she stared at him with one eyebrow raised.

“And what if I am?”

She pursed her lips at his answer. “Tch. That’s just disappointing Zoro.”

The swordsman snorted. “You’d like that wouldn’t you?” He drawled sarcastically, cocking his own eyebrow at her. Like he would get drunk with the measly amount of sake they all had during dinner.

A cheeky grin appeared on Nami’s face. “Well if that finally settles who’s the real heavy drinker between us… then yeah.”

Zoro huffed before closing his eye again; intent on ignoring Nami and just sleeping off his discontentment with the inadequate drink earlier.

He felt her settle beside him before a hard object was suddenly rammed into his abdomen, momentarily cutting of his air and prompting him to let out an undignified ‘ooofh’. 

“What the hell Nami!?” He shouted, gritting his teeth and glaring daggers at her. 

The navigator’s eyes crinkled with mirth at his reaction. He drew back a little, a bit surprised to find himself almost face to face with her.

“Provisions,” she answered nonchalantly, prodding his middle with the object she was holding in a rather forceful manner.

Zoro looked down, surprised that the thing she was shoving at him was a sake gourd.

“Sanji-kun made sure you have enough sake to keep you in tip-top fighting condition.”

“Ero-cook?”

“Ain’t that sweet of him?”

The green-haired man scoffed. “You think I’d believe that swirly cares about my needs?”

Nami rolled her eyes at his response. “Whether you believe it or not, the important thing is you have enough alcohol to stuff down that throat of yours and knock yourself out cold.”

“Oh really? And to what do I owe this honor?”

“Who to be more specific,” she corrected. “Well aside from Sanji-kun… me of course! That’s roughly a hundred thousand belis on your tab.”

“…”

“Come on, who do you think convinced him to get all that meat and alcohol huh?“ 

Zoro smirked at her. "Knew that aho cook doesn’t give a damn about what I want.”

The navigator narrowed her eyes at him. “Hmmm? And you are saying that I do?”

“You got me the alcohol witch.”

“Touché.”

“You shouldn’t have bothered." 

The mapmaker regarded him disbelievingly for a moment. "Oh you don’t want it?” She moved to withdraw her hand but Zoro was faster. He closed his own around her wrist, stopping her.  

“I never said I didn’t want it.”

They stared at each other for a few seconds before Nami let out a ‘hmph’ and pulled her hand away from his grip.

Well… tried to pull away to be exact.

She frowned at him. “Zoro!”

His other hand moved to snatch the sake away from her. 

Her lips curled into a smile. “And here you got me thinking that you don’t want it. Too bad… I would drink it myself.”

The swordsman huffed. “You don’t even like sake.”

“Hmm… not quite true,” Nami tapped a finger on her cheek. “I have preferences. But beggars can’t be choosers right? Alcohol is still alcohol.” She swiftly filched the sake gourd from his grip and winked at him while uncorking it.

His lone eye widened as she brought it to her lips and drank the potent liquid as if it was just water.

“Oi!” 

“Aah! That was nice!” She remarked, licking her lips and grinning mischievously as she handed the sake back to him.

Zoro was looking sullen as he shook the container, trying to gauge the amount the cat thief had drank, knowing she can guzzle it all until the last drop without keeling over.

That’s actually one of the reasons why the navigator is secretly his favorite drinking buddy.

“What’s with that expression Zoro?” Nami pouted at him. “I saved some for you.”

The former pirate hunter just shrugged as he flicked a glance at her before returning his attention back to the gourd.

“Problem?” Nami shifted closer to him, peering at his face. “I don’t have cooties Zoro!” She growled at him when she realized his hesitation. “The nerve! I didn’t know you are this finicky!”

“I am not!” Zoro snarled at her.

“Could it be…” Nami drew back a little with a gasp. “You’re thinking that it’s kinda like an indirect kiss?”

“The hell Nami!!!”

“Oh Zoro, you’re making me blush,” she cupped both of her cheeks with her hands in an attempt to look like an embarrassed, bashful maiden.

“Teme…”

“Why… you’re blushing as well Zoro!” She teasingly pointed out.

“Shut up Nami! Don’t you go pulling that crap on me now,” Zoro groused. “How many times have we drunk in the same bottle huh?”

Nami suddenly dropped her teasing facade. “Too few since we arrived here in the New World,” she replied with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

It made him pause when she unexpectedly turned a bit serious at his question. “You’re counting.”

The mapmaker shrugged her shoulders. “Not hard to remember since we haven’t been drinking together a lot.”

Silence enveloped them at her answer. True it had been a long time since they have sat down together to drink. It’s not like they have a choice. From the moment they sailed into the New World seas, the crew had spent more time separated than together.

“When was the last time we did this Nami?” Zoro inquired after finally taking a drink of the sake he was holding.

“Fishman Island,” Nami responded, the wistful smile never leaving her face. “Before Usopp crashed our two-man party from too much eating.”

“Heh,” the memory made him grin. “Before Chopper appeared dragging that ero-kappa who nearly fainted from ogling at the mermaids too much.“

"Yes. Before you decide to just sleep on me since we’ve got company.” Nami added, taking the sake gourd from him as he wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his white yukata.

“That seems long ago, huh?" 

Nami nodded. “Yup. We weren’t able drink together when we were in Zou.”

“That’s because you were too busy worrying about that stupid cook.” The swordsman grumbled.

“Be nice Zoro. He’s your crew mate too.” Nami drank, letting the sake’s taste fill her mouth.

“Pffft.”

She threw the gourd lightly towards Zoro who caught in effortlessly. He scrutinized the sake container in his hand, coming to a conclusion that it wouldn’t last long. Not when he and Nami are the ones drinking it. 

"So, are you ready for the upcoming battle?” Nami asked out of the blue. “It’s just in a few days…”

Zoro paused midway to bringing the container to his lips. "I’m always ready for battle Nami. I’m a swordsman.”

“Aren’t you nervous?”

An arrogant smirk appeared on his face. “As if.”

She laughed despite herself. “What a stupid thing to ask…”

“Yeah.”

“Hmmm… This is a disaster. Yonko after yonko.”

“Can’t help it. We will eventually face them one way or another.”

“But not like one after the other.” Nami complained with a pout. She grabbed the sake from Zoro again after he finished drinking. “We just faced off with Big Mom now here we are about to face Kaido.”

The green-haired man just grunted something inaudible as she gulped down a mouthful of sake. He watched her in the corner of his eye with concealed admiration. A flush had found its way to her cheeks but he knows that she was still far from inebriation.

She made a smacking sound with her lips after drinking and he motioned to her to hand him the sake gourd.

Nami shifted closer to him as she complied. “Are you really ready?” She queried again, looking at him curiously. “You just got this new sword and you only have a few days to get used to it.”

She knows how Zoro takes pride in mastering his katanas.  But with only a short time left until the battle…. 

The former pirate hunter tilted his head towards her, meeting her gaze at her with one serious gray eye.

“It’s more powerful than your last one,” Nami continued. “And kinda frightening.” She glanced at the black sword he just recently acquired and recalled how he managed to cut off a rather large part of the land with just one swing as it sucked the haki from him. 

“Why? Worried?”

Nami’s head snapped up towards him at that. She felt her face turned a deeper shade of red as he voiced out what she was hoping wouldn’t be obvious.

“Like hell am!” She scowled at him, trying to cover up her embarrassment.

Zoro was looking amusedly at her as she folded her arms across her chest and looked away.

“You don’t believe in me Nami?”

That made her stop. She worried her lower lip and forced herself to look at him straight in the eye. “Of course I do,” she admitted albeit glumly.

“Then there’s nothing to worry about, right?”

Nami studied his face as he held her gaze. Zoro is so strong—a fact that she should not forget. It was just probably the pre-battle jitters getting to her. 

She glanced at his swords again. Three katanas that helped made him formidable. Her eyes lingered at the black one, Enma, the replacement of the one he got from Thriller Bark. 

Hitetsu had said something about how a normal swordsman would’ve turned into a dry husk from using it. Zoro merely got his arm sucked dry before reclaiming his haki back from the sword. A feat that left most of their allies impressed.

“I keep forgetting how much of a monster you are and it would take a lot to defeat you.” Nami said with a sigh, leaning back against the tree.

“You sound disappointed,” Zoro said with a laugh. He scrutinized her for a moment before nudging her with his shoulder as he handed her the sake back. “Thanks I guess.” He spoke softly, clearly understanding what was going on inside her head.

Nami puffed her cheeks at him. “I’m not really worried about you!” She retorted, taking a hefty swig of the sake, to cover up her mortification. Zoro had just read right through her.

Zoro raised an eyebrow at her and chuckled. “Don’t choke on it witch.”

She glowered at the Supernova after she finished drinking. “I’m actually more worried about me!” The navigator declared in a feisty manner.

“That’s so typically you.”

“Of course! I’m not made for battle! Not everyone in the crew’s formidable you know.”

“But eventually you’ll see it through if need be.”

“How sure are you?”

Zoro shrugged. “You wouldn’t be here with us if that’s not the case.”

Nami stared at him. Stared for a long time that Zoro began to feel uneasy under her gaze and felt a warm sensation creeping from his neck to his face. 

“Sometimes you are not so bad Zoro,” she whispered with a genial smile.

He scoffed, trying to hide his now blushing face by grabbing the sake from her and chugging down the liquid. 

This time they silently drank; passing the container back and forth as the wind blew and rocked the bamboo trees around them. The soft rustling of its leaves and the rattling sound emanating from the stalks was amazingly soothing as they both enjoyed this rare and—unknown to each other—much-anticipated time together.  

Nami noticed his relaxed expression and the way the corner of his lips were quirked up. 

“You are smiling,” she observed when she passed him the sake again.

“Can i not?”

“Means you’re enjoying this.”

Zoro just chuckled at her. But did not elaborate.

Of course he enjoys drinking with her. She’s the only one in their crew who can keep up with him after all.

But what he likes most about drinking with her is when they get to share some quiet instances when they are just alone with each other without fighting, without getting in each other’s nerves. 

They are just together to simply enjoy each other’s presence.

And truth be told… it just sink into him tonight just how much he actually missed these kind of moments with her.

“Are you not enjoying it too?” He casually asked, but realized from the smile adorning her pretty face that she was thinking and feeling the same thing as him.

“I honestly like drinking with you,” Nami admitted, even though she did not answer his question. “We almost never do it anymore.”

“You missed it?”

She grinned. “Didn’t realize how much until now. How about you? You didn’t?”

Zoro smiled. Not his typical downright irritating smirk. But a genuine, happy smile. 

“What?”

“Wouldn’t have shared this sake with you if not.”

This time her smile reached her eyes, as her warm, brown orbs gleamed enchantingly with delight.

He shook the sake container, showing her that the drink they were sharing was nearly gone. 

Nami laughed softly. “What do you say to catching up?”

The smile on Zoro’s face widened. “I say yes.”

They looked at each other.

“I just hope shitty cook’s provisions can last long.” Zoro said as he drank the remaining contents of the alcohol, shaking it a bit to make sure not a single drop was left.

“Of course,” Nami said confidently. “I made sure of that.” She threw a mischievous smile at him. “Are you up for pilfering the stocks?”

“Right under aho cook’s nose?" Zoro’s grin was shark-like. "Definitely." 

She laughed as Zoro stood up. And he surprised her by offering his hand to help her to stand. 

"Come on. Let’s get our drinks and continue this Nami.”

“Better do something fun first… in case we die on the raid or something.” Nami said cheekily as she took his hand and let him pull her up.

“I’m not planning on dying in the upcoming battle witch!”

“Good.”

“Besides I want to look for that Touji’s sake, said to be the finest here in Wano,” Zoro grinned at her. “I’ll find it then we can drink it ‘til one of us keels over.”

“And see who can really outlast each other!” Nami agreed. She squeezed his hand. “I’ll take you up on that.”

“It’s a promise.”

Nami smiled radiantly at that. He never breaks his promises.

She was about to take a step away from him when he stopped her.

“’Til then don’t you go dying evil witch,” Zoro murmured, shifting closer to kiss her forehead.

Nami closed her eyes, reveling at the sensation as he let his lips linger longer against her.

“Right back at you,” she whispered when he pulled away. “You still owe me that sake.”

He laughed. It was something to look forward to once everything is over. 

“Yakosoku.”

#zoro x nami #ZoNa #zonami #roronoa zoro #nami #zonalove #zona one-shots #zoro nami fanfiction #zona prompts

[leejihoonownsmyheart]

Click, Click

Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4 , 5 , 6 , 7, 8 , 9 , 10 , 11, 12, 13

Chapter Fourteen:

Your friends had been pretty mad when you finally showed back up at the hotel. While you had the forethought to text your teacher sometime in the night that you were out and safe, you didn’t say anything at all to your friends.

When you finally drug yourself back over to your room, still in the same clothes from the night before looking pretty disheveled and unable to stop smiling you were greeted by a handful of frowning adults.

“And where have you been all night?” Julia demanded, crossing her arms over her chest. You closed the door silently behind you.

“Just…  Sightseeing,” you stated softly.

“Yeah, but with who?” Caitlin insisted. Your cheeks reddened, betraying almost immediately who you had been out with. You still tried to deny it.

“Who even says-”

“Have you not seen the post yet?” Julia interrupted before you could speak. She rolled her eyes. “How is it we see all the stuff about her boyfriend before she does?”

Your eyebrows raised in a way that must have seemed a little comedic because it made Paige- who was also in the room for some reason- giggle. You pointed at her.

“Did you guys tell her?” You exclaimed accusatorily, your brain doing a mental 360. While you trusted Paige not to tell anybody or make a big deal out of this, you worried what would happen if too many people knew about this. You didn’t want anyone to find out and get mad at Jihoon, especially since the two of you weren’t even sure exactly what you two were.

“Oh they didn’t have to tell me anything,” Paige stated in response, putting her hands on her hips. “All I had to do was look to my left to see him kissing you.”

Your face turned beet red.

“Wha-”

“How could you two be so careless, you idiot?” Julia asked, sharply hitting you over the head. You pouted again.

“I told him not to,” you mumbled softly, but no one in the room seemed to care. Caitlin just shook her head slowly and reached forward as if she were about to hit you too. “Don’t do that! You should be hitting him!”

“How long have you two been a thing?” Paige practically squealed, rushing over to you and grabbing your hands. You were surprised by the action but forced a laugh from your lips instead of showing your discomfort.

“Oh, we aren’t a thing,” you mumbled. “Uh, just friends I guess.”

“Friends who are with each other for the first time in weeks for ten seconds and he is already dramatically pulling you into a kdrama worthy kiss?” Paige asked, raising her eyebrows. “Seems plausible.”

You scoffed and dropped your bag to the ground, sliding your shoes off your feet.

“It’s complicated,” you mumbled softly. “I’m exhausted. I’m going to bed.”

Before anyone could say anything else you shuffled past them and fell face forward on your bed, glad to be back in your hotel, but already missing the time you had spent with Jihoon.

-

Once you got back to Korea from Japan, the first thing you did was start working again.

You picked up more hours at the little store than you ever had before and started spending all your free time there. You studied on breaks or between gaps in shifts and did your homework in-between sleeping and everything else.

Your friends were giving you space, even though you didn’t really need it. They had just assumed you were trying to consume yourself into as much as possible to help you forget about the fact that Jihoon was still in Japan.

But you weren’t upset really, you were fine.

Happy even.

You finally felt like you were in the groove of things again. Like you had control over your life again.

You had just gotten through a short rush at work and were turning to grab some supplies to restock when the bell to the store dinged sweetly.

“Hi! Welcome! If you have any questions! You can just ask me!” Instead of a grunt in response, you heard the sound of something falling and a sharp gasp.

“Y/n, you’re back.”

You turned around in surprise and found yourself staring at a boy your age. He was in a black shirt that was a little long on him, and he had on dark jeans and colorful shoes. You vaguely recognized him, but you had to think of…

“Jongin?” You asked hesitantly. He broke out into a large smile.

“You were in Japan for so long!” He blurted.

“It was only a week,” you mumbled back.

“A week too long, I’ve been itching to hang out with you.”

He strolled over to the front counter and rested his elbows on it staring at you with a strange expression on his face. It made you frown a bit. You hated to be scrutinized like this, especially by someone you didn’t know. And even more so, you were confused with his excitement at seeing you. The two of you had only ever met once. There was no reason for him to have missed you at all.

Somewhere in the back of your mind, you knew that he hung out with Caitlin and Julia and that he had been asking you guys if you would all ever hang out all together, but you had a habit of canceling on those plans, insisting you had homework or work itself.

Eventually, they stopped asking you to come, but they always told you when they were hanging out with him.

“So when do you get off today? You’re not doing anything afterwards are you?” He asked you. You wrinkled your nose.

“Well-”

“Don’t say you have homework, I swear all you ever do is study and work. Hang out with me y/n!”

You stared at him silently for a long moment, wondering what his angle could possibly be.

He didn’t know you, but he was clearly intent on hanging out with you. It was honestly hard for you to tell someone no once, much less multiple times in one sitting. You didn’t want to hang out with him. That much you knew for sure. But you also didn’t want to disappoint the oddly excited guy.

All you wanted to do, to be entirely honest, was to go home and see what Seventeen had been up to. Their promotions in Japan should be coming to an end soon. You would surely see Jihoon again soon. He could be back in Korea today for all you knew and if you went out you might run into him.

“When does your shift end,” Jongin repeated. “I know you want to say no, but you aren’t giving me a chance! Hang out this one time with me, and if you don’t have a good time you never have to again.”

Before you could respond Jongin wrinkled his nose.

“God, I sound like such an atypical nice guy,” he mumbled, partly to himself. “I just really want the chance to get to know you!”

He still seemed bothered by his own words, so he kept rambling, leaning back away from the counter a little bit as he did, silently putting space between you too.

“It’s just your friends talk about you so much and you seem so cool and I just really want to get to know you and they said I have to be assertive, but I don’t want to make you uncomfortable and-”

You cut him off with a small giggle, one that startled you and him. You didn’t want to admit it, but quite honestly it was pretty cute the way he was tripping over his words just to convince you to come hang out with him. You hardly ever met anyone who was this willing to put in the effort to hang out with you one on one.

You liked to cancel plans with people if it seemed like other people might not go, and while you thought it could come off pretty evident when you didn’t want to be alone in a room with someone, your message didn’t ever really come clear with some people even when you didn’t budge. It meant you being stuck in some situations that left you wildly uncomfortable.

His eyes lit up as he looked at you.

“So?”

“I get off in an hour,” you replied with a roll of your eyes. “I mean, if you really want to hang out that badly-”

“I’ll just stay right here,” Jeongin replied, hopping up on the counter of the little store. You stared at him in surprise, which just made him roll his eyes. “There’s no one here, join me up here.”

You squinted at him, so he patted the space next to him.

“Come on now, don’t be such a stick in the mud,” he mumbled. You sighed and crawled up onto the counter next to him, scooting over so that you had plenty of space in-between you had him. He laughed at the action. “So it’s true then.”

“What’s true?”

“You’re always an anxious mess,” he replied. “I’m not going to bite, you know?”

You hated the way that specific choice of words ripped yourself from your current situation. You thought back to that warm day with Jihoon. You thought about the park, and the sun in your eyes as you looked at the other boy wondering why on Earth he was so insistent on spending time with you.

“Come closer, I only bite when people want me to.”

You remembered the way Jihoon would laugh when you said something that amused him. The cute little way that his fingers would hesitantly prod at you, hoping to get you closer to him, hoping to make you more comfortable in his presence.

You thought about the pictures the two of you had taken that day. You didn’t think that you appreciated them enough. You had gotten to be that close to him and take a picture right there next to him. Even though you had been confused at the time, looking back on it all you could do was wish to be in that situation again.

“Why do guys always say that?” You mumbled back. “I don’t think you are going to bite me.”

“You sure act like it,” Jongin commented. “But you sure shake a lot less now.”

Your eyebrows furrowed as you looked at the boy next to you.

“What do you mean?” You mumbled. He reached his hand out, waiting for you to put your hand in his. Normally you wouldn’t do it. Normally you wouldn’t bother even humoring a guy like him. Someone who thought they knew you at a glance. But even so, something about this whole situation- being out of your comfort zone so radically like this- it made you think of Jihoon.

If you were going to be a better… Whatever you were to Jihoon then you would have to learn to be more social with him, more trusting of other people. More like you used to be once upon a time.

You put your hand in his, and after only a mere second his fingers prodded at your hand. He traced his fingers along the lines on your palm and flipped your hand palm up, palm down, palm up, and palm down a few times before pausing to just hold your hand.

“When I first met you, you were shaking like crazy, but today you’re just normal,” he replied. You looked at your hand in his and shrugged offhandedly.

“Yeah, I have been shaking a lot less I suppose,” you mumbled.

You thought back to when Jihoon had mentioned your shaking hands, frowning a little deeper.

“Is it really that obvious?” You asked softly. Jongin pondered the question.

“Not to most people I don’t think. I always just paid more attention because of how your friends talk about you.”

You pulled your hand away from Jongin’s, an action which he didn’t seem to find too troubling as he just looked at his own hand, glanced at yours and then slid his hands under his legs.

You decided he was a little weird. A different weird from everyone else that you had met here in Korea. While Jihoon was weird, he was weirder because he was an idol who had actually developed some sort of interest in you. He paid attention to your mannerisms, more so than most people at least. He seemed to care about how you felt, liked your company, actually wanted to kiss you. It was more than you could say for most people you met.

Jongin seemed to kinda want to get to know you, but even right now you couldn’t understand why. He kept saying that it was because of what your friends would say, but you couldn’t imagine that they were saying such great things that it would make him this interested in you.

A finger flicked you in the forehead, which startled you into looking over at Jongin, he had an amused expression on his face.

“What are you thinking about?” He asked. Then he furrowed his eyebrows. “Your boyfriend? How’s he?”

Your eyebrows rose slightly.

“What boyfriend?” You blurted despite yourself. He laughed.

“Don’t be embarrassed about it, I won’t tell anyone,” he insisted. “It’s that idol right? Lee Jihoon?”

“I’m not dating Lee Jihoon,” you argued back, hitting him lightly on his arm.

“Ah, are you guys not using labels?” He asked. This time you weren’t nearly as gentle. You put both of your hands on his shoulder and pushed him off of the counter. He laughed as he almost stumbled into a display of food, just barely catching himself.

“Seriously, though you must miss him. He’s in Japan right now, right? Did you see him while you were there?” He asked. He hopped back up on the counter and gave you a sincere smile.

Normally you wouldn’t say anything to him, but you couldn’t help it at this point. He looked like he really wanted to know and you honestly really wanted to talk to someone about it. You felt like trying to hold in all of your feelings towards Jihoon was driving you crazy.

“Yeah,” you admitted softly, looking away from him to look at the palms of your hands. “We like kinda went on this huge date cause he said I should get out and see the city, and he kissed me like… Everywhere we went.”

The smile that spread across Jongin’s lips was borderline addictive. It made a smile cross your lips too.

“Shut up,” you mumbled.

“You really kissed all that much?” He teased lightly. “What else did you guys do?”

“Nothing crazy. Talked,” you replied. “But it was the most time we have ever spent together. We were together the entire night. He said that we did good for our performance, and reassured me-”

You cut yourself off, hating the way you sounded- like some stupid school girl who liked a boy for the first time and knew nothing at all, but it just made Jongin smile harder.

“Have you ever dated someone before?” He asked. Before you could answer him, he sighed. “Wait, I know this you haven’t.”

“And I still haven’t,” you repeated. “Jihoon just sees me as…”

You weren’t sure how to finish that which made Jongin chuckle.

“It’s so cute how clueless you are,” he mumbled. “Jihoon definitely likes you. He’s not the type of idol to go around just kissing fans.”

“Oh cause you know him so well,” you replied with a roll of your eyes. He shrugged.

“I know you don’t want to get your hopes up or get too excited over something that could very well amount to nothing,” he said softly. “I’m the same way honestly.”

He began to fiddle with his own fingers, seeming to get a little nervous to just talk about it.

“I kinda have a crush on…” He trailed off uncertainly and then shook his head. “Look, just- You gotta stop acting like this relationship with Jihoon is life or death. Just enjoy it! It’s your first relationship and Jihoon likes you. It’s that simple.”

The word made you completely drop the topic of who Jongin had a crush on. Instead, you just stared at your lap.

Simple.

Another reason that you couldn’t believe that Jihoon liked you. This situation was anything but simple. For crying out loud you were an international exchange student, who would only be in town for another handful of months. You two hardly got to talk or see each other, and when you did you had to be careful about who saw and you couldn’t just take pictures with him and go on dates because he was an idol and if the fans knew who knew what they would do.

So how come when you were with him it was like all of that went out the window?

You didn’t think about your time left here, or how unlikely it would be for you guys to stay together forever, or even think about how careful you had to be to make sure no one would find out about you two. All you thought about was Jihoon’s smile when you looked at him. The soft tone his voice took when you two were together.

You pressed your lips together.

“Just enjoy it, huh?”

“I mean look at yourself, your spending your time in Korea, what? Studying and working? That’s all?” He asked. “You need to have some fun. Live a little.”

“Yeah? Live and what? Go hang out with you tonight?”

Jongin’s eyes gleamed with light.

“Well, I mean…”

“Shift ends soon,” you replied with a sigh. “After that, I’m all yours.”

Chapter Fifteen

#Click Click by leejihoonownsmyheart #woozi #seventeen series #Seventeen #seventeen woozi #svt woozi #say the name svt #say the name seventeen #say the name #lee jihoon seventeen #lee jihoon #jihoon #kpop #kpop fanfic #kpop fanfiction

[a-damson-in-distress]

Havoc - Chapter 3

Pairing: SasuSaku

Plot: Sasuke knew people were still afraid of the club and especially of its Sergeant at Arms – and he wouldn’t have it any other way. He had been untouchable then and still was now. Indeed, there was nothing and no one in this world that Sasuke Uchiha feared. Except Sakura fucking Haruno. Biker AU.

Note: I absolutely did not plan on going into so much detail for the action of this chapter, but here we are. Also, if you want some background music to get you in the mood for this particular scene (especially the Zippo lighter moment), here’s my recommendation: Heavy Young Heathens - Being Evil Has A Price. Hope you like it, let me know what you think.

                                                        ----------

“So what are you gonna do about your kid’s grades?”

“I don’t know, man. Got any good tutors you could recommend?”

Kai could hear muffled voices right next to his head, though he couldn’t see anything. He just regained consciousness, and it took him a few seconds to remember where he was and what had happened. The last thing he recalled was being cornered in a bar by one of the Havoc’s enforcers and his men, who promptly proceeded to beat the everloving shit out of him.

He wanted to move his tongue to lick his dry lips when he suddenly realised they gagged him. Kai tried to move his head to see if he could shake off whatever they put over his head, but it was futile. It seemed to be some sort of dark cloth, maybe burlap, and they tied it tightly around his neck.

“Don’t ask me about tutors, you know my kid scared off the last three.” He was now conscious enough to make out every word the two men said. If he heard right, they were both standing to his left and right.

“Well, I don’t know what else to do. He doesn’t wanna study on his own, and when Nami or I try to help him he gets all defensive and accuses us of thinking he’s incapable.”

The man to Kai’s right scoffed. “He’s thirteen, of course he’s going to give his parents hell. Don’t worry about it too much, he’ll grow up soon enough.”

There was a deep sigh to his left before the other one raised his voice again. “That’s exactly what I’m worried about, that he’ll grow up too soon. Suddenly, our main worry won’t be school anymore, but doing drugs, jumping off cliffs, and bringing girls home without asking.”

The man to Kai’s right let out a teasing chuckle before asking, “Wasn’t that exactly what you were doing during puberty? Come on, man, you sound like some sort of suburban dad who wears polo shirts and drives a minivan instead of a Harley. Your entire family is part of an MC and your kid was always bound to grow up around certain stuff other kids couldn’t even imagine in their wildest dreams. Instead of shielding him from it, show him the ugly truth, scare him off a bit, toughen him up. Don’t worry man, he’ll turn out just fine.”

There was an undiscernible murmur to Kai’s left which was interrupted by the roaring sound of multiple motorcycles approaching.

“Looks like the show’s about to begin,” the man to his right chuckled in a menacing tone.

He could feel hands grabbing the cloth tied around his head and ripping it off with such force his head jerked back. While his eyes adjusted to the dim light in the hall, another hand grabbed the gag and released it form his mouth. Kai immediately took the chance to make his anger known. “What the fuck is wrong with you two fuckheads? You kidnap me and tie me up in this reeking warehouse and have a fucking heart-to-heart?!”

The only thing he was met with was silence and the two men grinning down at him with smug satisfaction before turning their heads to the right. Kai followed their gazes and when his eyes landed on a third figure casually leaning against an oil barrel and sharpening a knife in silence, he gulped.

“Oh shit.”

The grey-haired man slowly raised his head and fixed Kai with his signature bored stare. Only there was also a hint of a threat in them, enough to make the young man question every last one of his life choices so far.

“Oh shit, indeed,” the man drawled.

It was then Kai heard the distant chatter from outside mixed with heavy boots stomping around and drawing closer. Clattering noise echoed through the room a few seconds later, and Kai could hear a door hit a wall from the other end of the hall. The voices became louder and louder until Kai realised the entire Havoc MC was swarming into the warehouse and forming a circle around the chair he was tied to.

The sea of people parted around the Havoc’s president still leaning against the barrel to Kai’s left. Kakashi kept his calm and scrutinising look on him, but Kai knew the old man was seething inside. The Prez shoved his knife into his right boot and proceeded to slowly approach the middle of the circle in languid strides, his gaze never once leaving Kai.

Even though Kakashi was known for his unperturbed and relaxed disposition, never allowing himself to lose his cool and basically being the opposite of aggressive intimidation, he had the uncanny ability to bring the meanest motherfucker to his knees with just a stare. No furrowing of brows, no baring of teeth. Nothing.

Just a good old-fashioned menacing glare.

Kai could feel a bead of sweat rolling down his forehead. His mouth felt dry, and his pulse quickened. He had always been scared shitless of the Havoc’s President, because he grew up during the club’s bloodthirsty past. Despite giving up a majority of what made them so feared back then, the President and his club hadn’t lost a single bit of their intimidating aura.

After Kakashi studied him for what felt like an eternity, he finally raised his voice.

“So, you thought you could use my baby girl’s book shop to sell drugs, huh?”

The grey-haired man cocked his head to the left and crossed his arms in front of his chest. There was still no visible sign of anger to be found anywhere on his face. And yet his calm and collected demeanour hid a raging storm ready to be unleashed upon any fool who dared to cross his precious little girl.

Everybody knew the Havoc’s President’s only weakness was his daughter, even Kai was aware of that. What he didn’t know, however, was that she owned a book shop – the book shop. He would have mentally slapped himself to death for not noticing that teeny-tiny impractical detail, if it weren’t for the fact that the Prez – or anybody else for that matter – barely talked about Sakura fucking Haruno or what the fuck kind of shop she owned.

Kai gulped as he felt the vindictive eyes of the entire club staring daggers into him. He wished Kakashi would just get on with it, beat the shit out of him, and be done with it. The intense stares, the palpable tension, and the heavy silence filled with threatening promises were killing him.

He was torn from his thoughts when he heard the President’s voice again. His frightful eyes shot up to meet Kakashi’s deadpan expression.

“You know the Havoc has sworn off drugs decades ago. You know the Havoc has sworn off unnecessary violence and bloodshed. But even though we no longer pillage, burn, and murder,” Kakashi walked around Kai’s chair and was now standing behind him, placing both his hands on his shoulders, painfully digging his fingers into his flesh, “we’re still damn good at breaking bones. If someone crosses the club, you can bet your ass we’re going to rip ‘em a new one. If someone crosses my daughter,” the President leaned forward and grabbed Kai’s chin in his left hand, squeezing so hard his jaw was seconds away from being dislocated, “the club will hunt you down. We will break each and everyone of your bones in alphabetical order. And we’ll shove our boots so far up your ass, you’ll taste nothing but leather and dirt for a year.”

At this point, Kai was trembling in his chair, frantically trying to keep his head still so that Kakashi wouldn’t dislocate his jaw.

“But,” with a booming voice the President suddenly let go off his face and straightened himself again, “I promised my daughter that I would no longer get my hands dirty with that kinda shit. So unfortunately, I won’t be the lucky one who gets to gut you like a pig. I reserved that honour for someone else.”

Kai felt the older man’s fingers digging into his shoulders again. His panic-struck eyes jumped back and forth between the countless Havoc bikers, his breath was coming out in quick, short gasps. A mixture of sweat, tears, and snot ran down his face while his brain was frantically trying to think of whoever else Kakashi could have assigned to kick his ass.

Jiraiya? Too old for this crap.

Asuma? Got a kid, he’d grown too soft.

Naruto? Too much of a goofball, not torturer material.

He was torn from his thoughts when he watched the crowd of Havoc bikers part, exposing a long corridor right in front of him leading to a darkened room behind the murderous mob. Kai realised then that many of the bikers had smug, satisfied smirks gracing their faces while turning their gazes to the pitch-black room in the back.

A slap on the shoulder reminded him of the president’s presence behind him.

“Enjoy the show, I know I will. Once he’s done with you, you’ll think a brain tumour is a birthday present.”

The crowd went silent.

Seconds ticked by where nothing happened.

Kai had his eyes focused on the same blacked-out room everybody else was expectantly staring at. There was nothing there. No outline of another person. No sound. Nothing.

Just darkness. Silence.

Click.

A Zippo lighter was ignited in the shadow, enveloping parts of the room in its warm, subtle light and revealing the outline of a broad chest, undoubtedly male, dressed entirely in black. Kai couldn’t make out a face, since the man held the lighter rather low. After another second, he started moving his hand, revealing parts of his biker vest with various Havoc patches sewn onto it, a jaw with a prominent three-o’clock-shadow, a mouth set in a grim line, and jet-black eyes staring at him with a silent promise of vengeful terror.

“Oh shit,” Kai whispered.

The fucking Sergeant.

He watched the Havoc’s Vice-President and Sergeant-at-Arms narrow his eyes before he lowered himself to a crouching position, right hand still clutching the Zippo lighter illuminating his face. The Sergeant’s eyes landed on something on the ground right in front of his feet, and he moved his lighter towards it. Though the tiny flame was no longer close to his face, Kai could clearly see his lips tugging into a devilish smirk.

It was then Kai realised that what captured the Sergeant’s gaze on the ground to his feet was wet and glistening. Kai’s eyes followed the liquid and trailed from the crouching Sergeant all the way to the ground in front of his own chair, and his eyes widened.

The fluid formed a straight line from him to the Zippo lighter held threateningly close to the tiny puddle at the Sarge’s feet.

Sasuke’s eyes shot up to meet his again. His grin widened ever so slightly as he let the lighter fall into the fluid, setting it ablaze.

“Oh shit shit shit shit, fucking holy shit, no, fuck this man, shit, fu – “

Sasuke watched with glee as the prospect struggled to free himself from the ropes tying him down. He wiggled around, desperately trying to get the chair further away from the line of gasoline. By the time the fire almost reached him, he was squealing like a pig in a slaughter house. Which, Sasuke had to remind himself, he was, in a way.

Kai could no longer watch the fire approach him, so he closed his eyes and let out a long, agonised scream, adding some high-pitched wailing for good measure.

It was even more pathetic than Sasuke imagined.

After a few seconds, where nothing but the prospect’s sobbing filled the otherwise silent warehouse, Kai seemed to get a hold of himself and opened his eyes again, only to find the fire ended a few centimetres in front of his chair and had no way of enveloping him in its flames.

The snivelling prospect shot Sasuke an incredulous look before another long, strangled wail was released from behind his clenched teeth.

Rolling his eyes, the raven-haired biker stepped around the fire and stomped towards the chair in the middle of the room. He didn’t waste a second with punching the sobbing prospect right in his face, effectively shutting him up. Sasuke gave the kid a second to catch his breath and spit out the blood gathering in his mouth before he reached back with his right hand, grabbed Kai’s hair, and yanked back his head.

Sasuke was now towering over the young man, his fingers painfully digging into his skull. He gave him one long hard look of barely restrained rage before growling, “You should’ve thought twice about messing with her.”

Placing his other hand on the back of Kai’s head, Sasuke pulled it down as far as the ropes allowed it and kicked his left knee into his face with such a force the chair was knocked back and Kai almost toppled over. In that instant, Sasuke placed his left foot on the front stretcher of the chair and yanked it back again.

The Sergeant let out a long, content sigh and ran his hands through his hair. “If you had done what you did a few years ago,” he drawled while sauntering over to a tool trolley close to the chair, “I could have pretty much done whatever I wanted with you.”

Sasuke held up a pair of pliers as if to examine their usefulness in his hypothetical torture scenario. With the pliers in hand, he walked back to Kai, forced his mouth open and clamped down the jaws on his front tooth. “Could’ve pulled out your teeth. One by one. Real nice and slow, make sure you feel every bit of it.” Sasuke could feel his lips tugging into a devilish smirk at the sight of the prospect’s eyes widening in terror.

He let go of his chin and walked back to the tool trolley. After picking up a hammer, he flipped it in his hand before pointing it at the quivering heap of misery in front of him. “I could also use this to hammer some nice big splinters into your nail bed.” Another sob broke free from the prospect.

With his grin widening, Sasuke dropped the hammer and picked up a big wrench with adjustable jaws instead, weighing it in his hand before raising it for the prospect to see. “Ah, the things I did with this beauty.” Sasuke widened the head of the wrench, then pointedly turned his gaze to Kai’s crotch before letting the jaws snap shut. The sound of the wrench’s head closing made the prospect flinch and press his knees together in a half-hearted attempt to protect his crown jewels.

The Sergeant’s gaze darkened suddenly, the grin slipping off his lips as he put away the wrench and approached the prospect with slow, deliberate steps. Dressed entirely in black and with a murderous look in his eyes, Sasuke looked every bit as a starved panther encircling his prey. Growling. Waiting. Calculating the perfect moment to go in for the kill.

The raven-haired biker came to a halt right in front of the chair and looked down at Kai.

“You should count yourself lucky you did what you did now and not years ago. Otherwise I would have gutted you like a fish and hung your insides out to dry and nobody would have stopped me. Though none of that changes the fact that you crossed one of our own. You fuck with us, we fuck you back. You fuck with her,” Sasuke growled while leaning down and grabbing Kai’s chin between his fingers, murderous rage emitting from his pitch-black eyes, “and I swear to God I will disfigure you so much not even your Maker will be able to recognise you.”

With that, Sasuke reached back with his right arm and punched the prospect in his face with such a force he knocked out a few teeth.

And he didn’t stop there. The next minutes were filled with the sounds of Sasuke violently landing blow after blow to Kai’s already battered face and the poor bastard’s pained and strangled groans. The Sergeant was sure if he kept this up for much longer, he probably would have beaten him unconscious – if it weren’t for that voice suddenly calling out to him from behind.

“Sasuke.”

His fist halted mid-strike, hovering centimetres above the bloodied and busted lip of his victim. Sasuke could suddenly hear his own breathing coming out in quick and shallow gasps, he could feel his heart pounding in his chest and the adrenaline coursing through his veins at the prospect of taking revenge on that piece of shit for putting her in danger.

Letting out a deep, controlled breath, Sasuke lowered his hand and fixed his cold eyes on Kai. He leaned down and whispered threateningly, “You’re lucky I’ve got a soft spot for her,” before straightening himself and turning to face the woman behind him.

His gaze immediately softened at the sight of Sakura staring at him with a mixture of concern and determination before allowing her eyes to rest on the battered bastard in the chair.

“It was my book shop he used. Pretty sure I get to do the honours, don’t you think?” she asked while strutting towards both men.

Sakura came to a halt right in front of the chair and fixed Kai with her signature I’m-about-to-fuck-you-up glare. “Anything you have to say in your defence?”

The poor fucker was so badly beaten up, he couldn’t even keep his head straight. So Sasuke grabbed a few strands of his hair and yanked his head up to meet her gaze while growling, “You look a lady in the eye when she speaks to you.”

“’msorry,” came the weak, gurgled response from behind bloodied teeth.

“You’re sorry. That all you’ve got to say?” Sakura crossed her arms in front of her chest.

The only reply was a broken sob.

“You have no idea of the scale of the damage you could have caused with your half-baked attempt at dealing drugs. Not only did you jeopardise me and the future of my entire career, but you could have been the one responsible for the deaths of countless drug abusers. If anybody OD-ed on the shit you were trying to sell, do you think you could still live with – “

“I’m sorry, okay. Jesus fuck, woman, I’m sorry, is that what you wanna hear? Just- just get this over with, man,” Kai yelled out sobbing, which immediately resulted in another punch in the face from Sasuke.

“Don’t interrupt a lady when she talks to you.”

Sasuke’s eyes landed on Sakura when he heard her sigh next to him. “Alright, I think this is enough. Let’s finish this.”

She turned away from the chair and walked over to Kakashi, still leaning on his oil barrel, a blow torch in one and a branding iron in the other hand. She grabbed the cold end of the iron rod, turned around, and strutted back. Sasuke watched her come to a halt right in front of the chair, her gaze jumping back and forth between the branding iron in her right hand and the beaten-up bastard tied to the chair.

Sasuke took another step to close the distance between them. Raising his fingers to her chin, he lifted her head and forced her gaze to meet his. In that moment, he didn’t care that he was being gentle in front of his hard-ass biker friends, he didn’t care that her father was watching, who he was sure would bust his balls later on for getting all touchy-feely with his precious daughter. Sasuke didn’t care about anything but the fact that for the first time in years, Sakura’s jade-green eyes weren’t looking at him with contempt and regret.

For the first time in years, his Sakura was staring at him with the same look she had when they were young and stupid and in love, full of honesty and vulnerability.

Sasuke’s thumb stroked her chin as he softly whispered, “You don’t have to do this, sweetheart.”

Her doubtful gaze landed on the branding iron again. “You’re too pure for this kind of shit. Let me do the dirty work Just say the word and it’ll be done. I’ll do it. For you.”

When Sakura raised her eyes again to meet his, Sasuke was met with a look of pure determination.

She turned her head, releasing her chin from his hold, stepped forward and planted the hot branding iron right on to Kai’s naked chest.

After relishing his screams for a few seconds, she lifted the iron rod and marvelled at the sight of the mark she left behind: the words Havoc and Rogue were now clearly branded into his bloodied skin, marking him as an outcast in the world of outlaw MCs. The Havocs were still one of the most feared motorcycle clubs in the country, and there were not a lot of bikers who dared to cross them or question their judgement. Whomever they branded as a rogue would be treated as such by other bikers as well. This mark would make sure Kai would never again find a place in another club.

Sasuke watched Sakura’s shoulders slump as she let out a long breath. Though a part of him was concerned for her well-being and would like nothing more than to shield her from such dark and ugly things as the one she just experienced, there was another part of him, admittedly an even bigger one, who was immensely proud of her, the part which would love to put her on a pedestal, shine a spotlight on her, grab her hand and raise it in the air like she was a fucking boxing champion.

Sasuke’s eyes landed on the now unconscious Kai slumped in his chair, head hanging down, drool and blood dripping from his busted lips. The Sergeant’s gaze focused on the mark on his chest.

His girl did that. Sakura stepped in, did what was necessary, stood up for herself, and proved her strength in front of the entire club. If anybody had any doubts about the fact that Sakura fucking Haruno was a hair-raising, spine-chilling, blood-curdling badass, Sasuke was sure she just annihilated them.

With a proud grin tugging at his lips, the raven-haired biker turned around to face the crowd of Havocs. “If any member of our club decides to cross a line like that ever again, you can bet your asses that I will hunt them down and fuck them up. I don’t care if you’re a prospect who’s only been with us for a month or a dedicated patch holder who wipes the Dope’s ass whenever he gets shitfaced,” his best friend made his complaint about that remark loudly known from somewhere in the crowd, “there will be no mercy. The club looks after its own. And if you think for one second that doesn’t apply to her,” Sasuke grabbed Kai’s hair and yanked up his battered face for all to see before growling, “then take a good look at this fucker and think again.”

                                                           ----------

It was one in the morning when Sasuke entered the kitchen of the Havoc’s clubhouse to grab a bite to eat. He had spent the last two hours in the gym blowing off steam after returning home from dealing with Kai. In the end, it turned out he had more rage bottled up inside him than he initially thought, and since Sakura had stopped him from properly working through his anger, he still had some punching to do.

Slapping together what looked like a piss-poor and half-assed attempt at a sandwich, Sasuke left the kitchen and was heading towards his room when he saw Sakura staring holes into her laptop in the bar across the hall. He slid into her booth and placed the plate with his sandwich in front of him, which seemed to tear her from her thoughts and made her look up in surprise.

“It’s one in the morning, what the hell are you still doing up?”

She blinked a few times before answering, “Uh… couldn’t sleep. So I’m going through my inventory and browsing through lists of newly published books, trying to decide which ones to buy.”

“Any good ones?” Sasuke asked before taking a bite out of his sandwich.

Out of the corner of his eye, he watched her take off her reading glasses and rub her eyes while sighing. “Honestly, they’re all crap,” she murmured with a laugh.

Her shoulders slumped and she sunk deeper into her seat, leaning her head on the backrest of the booth and closing her eyes. She looked exhausted, Sasuke noted, and yet she still couldn’t sleep. He wished he could take all of that away or take her away from all of this crap.

“I know what you did today wasn’t easy. Wanna talk about it?”

Her head rolled to the left and she opened her tired eyes again to look at him with an undiscernible expression for a moment before opening her mouth to speak, “I’m not weak Sasuke. What I did to that prospect doesn’t bother me.”

“Then what is it?”

Sakura sighed and looked up at the ceiling. “Honestly? I’m kind of bothered by the fact that it doesn’t bother me. Does that make sense?”

She turned to him again and looked at him questioningly. Sasuke just nodded and allowed her to continue. “I mean I get it, in a way, you know. I grew up in an MC, I was surrounded by weird shit for the majority of my life. I get that my moral compass is fucked up. Things that would scare other people shitless never really bothered me that much. But I got out, you know? I left all of that behind. For a long time now, I’ve been living a normal life – whatever that is. I thought I grew into it. But then this shit happens and I need to come back to the club and I just dip one toe in these waters and I’m immediately sucked back in again. Like all of that emotional growth I thought I had gone through over the last years went up in smoke. If anything, tonight just proves that no matter how much I try to shut out this part of my life, I’ll always be a club member. I’ll always be the crazy biker bitch whose daddy taught her to wield a Butterfly knife at twelve and who tortures little kids with a branding iron and feels no remorse about it.”

“And that’s bad?”

Sasuke watched her eyes widen in shock and look at him as if he sprouted a second head.

“Yes, that’s bad, Sasuke. I’m supposed to feel horrible about what I did tonight.”

“No, I mean the rest. What’s so bad about you always being a member of the club? You said it yourself, you were raised in an MC and you can’t undo that. Much like people who were raised in an orphanage can’t undo the fact that they grew up without parents. Your upbringing sticks with you for the rest of your life, why would you wanna hide from it?”

Sakura kept her pensive gaze fixed on the ceiling above her and answered with silence.

“I watched you during the party, you know. Playing pool, goofing around with Ino, catching up with old friends. You didn’t seem out of place at all. You seemed comfortable, like you never left.” Sasuke carefully raised his right hand to tug a strand of hair behind her ear before murmuring, “Like this is where you actually belong.”

When Sakura didn’t make a move to stop him, he ran his fingers through her hair and started playing with the ends as he continued, “As much as you try to hide it, I know that deep down, your heart is still tied to the club. To its members.”

To me.

“You’ve been running from it for so long, pretending to be someone else. Why don’t you just embrace what really makes you happy? Fuck what other people think about you branding little wannabe drug dealers, we do that all the time here, it’s called a Tuesday morning.”

Sasuke could feel his heart skip a beat at the sight of her lips tugging into a tiny smirk. His fingers closed around a strand of her hair, tugging it gently down to force her head to face him.

“You know you belong here, Sakura.”

They both shared a long intense look. Sakura’s eyes shone with the same sort of openness and vulnerability as they did when she looked at him in the warehouse earlier, and Sasuke had serious trouble not letting his gaze drop down to her inviting lips.

“Don’t do this, Sasuke,” she murmured.

“Why not?” His eyes swept back and forth between her jade-green orbs and his fingers who were still lost in the sea of her pink hair.

“Because I’m still mad at you.” Sasuke fixed his gaze on her face where he found the exact opposite of an angry expression. And still, he knew there was resentment left inside of her, a deeply-festered regret not allowing her to move on.

“Don’t let me stand in the way of your happiness. I mean it, Sakura.”

“What if that happiness doesn’t involve the club? Or you? Will you be in my way then?”

Sakura stared at him expectantly. Seconds ticked by where they just looked at each other, because Sasuke seriously didn’t know how to answer that question.

He heard her sigh and watched her close her eyes, before she raised her hand to grab his own and pull it out of her hair. Grabbing her laptop and reading glasses, Sakura stood up and was just about to leave, when she turned around, leaned over the table and pinned Sasuke with a threatening glare.

“If you tell anyone I had a heart-to-heart with you, I will gouge out your eyeballs while you sleep, understood?”

She didn’t even give him a chance to answer, instead turning on her heel and strutting out of the bar.

Sasuke couldn’t help but smirk proudly as he yelled after her, “Told you you belong here!”

#naruto #naruto fanfiction #naruto fanfic #sasusaku #sasusaku fanfic #sasusaku fanfiction #Sasuke Uchiha #Sakura Haruno #sasuke uchiha fanfic #sakura haruno fanfic #sakusasu

[loverscreation]

4- FIRST CHRISTMAS

YOOOO This took so long! For that I'm sorry, but know I have a lot of stuff on the way and it's going to be nonstop until November! Hope you enjoy <3

I paused before the double doors to gather my nervous thoughts. Hello, Dolly! aside, this was our first proper reunion since we started going steady. And it was Christmas night. The thoughts of gift exchanging was put out of the picture early as I had no money to afford gifts to share in return, though I still feared the idea of rule breakers to grow my guilt. 

A breeze rolled by, causing me to tighten the coat around my form with my free hand. The other hand held a plate of promised peanut butter cookies. With every added second spent out here I risked freezing. the air back home on the west coast could not bite this hard.

I knocked on one of the doors and waited for a good few seconds before someone opened it. Standing before me was Sister Imperator. 

“Hi! I'm Alys, I was invited over by The Second,” I informed her with a kind smile. No matter how hard I tried to stand still, I resembled a Chihuahua with how heavily I was shivering.

Imperator moved aside to let me in the delightful warmth. “Come in, come in! You must be freezing, you poor thing.” 

A weak chuckle left my lips as I entered the church, immediately being soothed by the temperature “Thank you, Sister. It's nice to meet you!” Creating a gap in the plastic wrap protecting the plate, I offered her a cookie. There was one for everyone.

After shutting the door, she took the treat and gave me a gracious nod in return. “It's nice to meet you as well, I've heard many good things about you.” I looked away shyly and hooked a piece of hair behind my ears. 

“He should be in his study just down the hall. It's the fourth door on the left,” she instructed. A naturally shaking finger pointed me down a rather dark hallway with blue tinted lights hung along the walls. Festive touch aside, there was no way the place wasn't haunted.

My stomach twisted about in excitement. “Again, thank you. I'm sure I'll see you again tonight?” She gave me a nod of confirmation before sending me on my way. 

With my destination in front of me, I let out a deep breath to calm myself and tapped upon the door.

“Come in,” his voice came through. 

Doing as instructed, I entered with a large grin and shut the door behind me. “Merry Christmas! I brought cookies if you’d like one?” 

He slid his chair out and patted his lap. “Come here, darling.” 

Without hesitation, I practically skipped to him. His legs supported my weight nicely and his arm hooking around my waist added extra comfort. A treat was snagged from the plate, followed by a hum of approval. 

“An excellent baker. Is there anything you cannot do?” 

My eyes rolled so hard I feared they may fall out of my head. “You flirt,” I snorted. 

No doubt my reaction was considered success to him. “So tell me, how was your family dinner? If I am not mistaken, you were dreading it.” He gave me an expectant look, showing me he was willing to listen to whatever I may have to say about the matter. 

“It sucked, like always. The political comments mixed with being the only one without their partner there made me want to leave so badly.” A nervous chuckle escaped me as I raised my eyebrows. 

A hum of disapproval reverberated from The Second. “Let Papa make it all better. You once told me you wished to sit by my fireplace in my arms, yes?” There was not a single complaint from me, only a smile. He remembered. “Let it be reality. I will stoke the fire, you pick out a blanket. And would you please dim the lights for me while you are at it, darling?”

I shot up for his lap and he soon stood with considerably less energy. A few blankets rested on his bed, making a good selection to choose from. In the end, I picked the black throw blanket. The fluffy texture won me over. 

Before anything, I knew I had to make myself comfortable. Shedding my jacket and shoes, I placed them by the door. The blanket took the entire span of my hold as I carried it to the chaise lounge directly across from the fireplace. 

He peeked over his shoulder. “Ah, an excellent choice,” he commented. I giggled and spread the cover over the elongated chair. 

A moment later, the satanic figure joined me. He took the spot closest to the armrest, legs spread out on the seat. Once comfortable, he opened his arms in my direction. 

Though my shy nature was no secret, I tried not to hesitate while I crawled up his legs. My body lowered onto his and I nuzzled my face into the crook of his neck. The smell of his aftershave hit my senses in calming waves.

A large hand gently rubbed my back, smoothing away the remaining tension of my muscles. If only every day was this peaceful.

“I am glad you made it,” he whispered into my hair. Just the statement alone unleashed shivers through my being. Words of appreciation were spread thin in my circle these days, but he never fell short of filling the gaps. 

My lips curled into a smile and parted, emitting a relaxed sigh. “There is no way I’d miss an evening with you.” 

His free hand curled under my chin, lifting my face back into view. Only an inch stood between us. With a racing heart, I tried to recall any other time our lips had been so close. My memory came up empty. 

“Dinner is ready,” called the muffled voice of Sister Imperator. 

The Second frowned deeply. “We will be right there, Sister.” He removed his hand from my chin. “Up you go.”

I obediently followed his words, reluctantly pulling myself from his warm embrace. To keep myself from awkwardly shifting, I strolled to his desk to retrieve my cookies. 

The two of us joined the family in the dining room. A rather long table with a feast placed upon it awaited our arrival. I gaped at the sight, frozen in the doorway. No restaurant could even touch tonight’s menu- and to think I only brought a small plate of sweets.

The Third cleared his throat rather dramatically to gain my attention. That smirk wreaked of mischief.

“What did you do?” The question was out of my mouth before I could stop it. 

“Well, dear Alys, look above you and find out.” He twirled a gloved index finger, the tip landing to point upwards at the end of the loop.

Dark green leaves that came to multiple points, accompanied by fake red berries. It was tied to a hook by a matching red bow.

Heat ran to my face and I gazed at The Third with helpless eyes. “You didn’t...”

“Oh, but I did. Now onto tradition!” His hand gave us a hurrying motion before he crossed his arms over his chest.

My hazel eyes of shock snapped to my lover. For once, displeasure didn’t plague his features at his brother’s antics. He wanted this. The thought of him wanting to kiss me was something I couldn’t fathom, but the truth couldn’t be mistaken.

He took the lead, resting a hand on my lower back and urging me closer. In no way would I resist. Only an inch separated us and I lifted onto my tiptoes to help close the height gap. He leaned forward.

His mustache tickled my skin as his soft lips captured mine. With my eyes fluttering closed, I cupped his cheeks and he held my waist. The kiss ended too quickly for my liking, but his family shouldn’t witness any more than they had already.

I snickered nervously as we parted. Never had I thought our first kiss would happen like this, but who was I to complain? Smiles seemed to be shared by everyone present, but The Third looked all too smug with himself. The youngest brother turned to us with a flourished swing of his arms, spreading his wingspan in his proud moment. His victory came in a heavily cocky silence.

The moment broke as I stepped away from the doorway, settling at the table with the rest of the family. On my right sat my sweetheart, and his father to my left. Sister Imperator worked at making sure everyone had been served to their liking.

However, my focus didn’t concentrate on the food. “This may be a weird question, but why do you celebrate Christmas like this?” I gained their eyes. “I mean, this is the Christian adaptation of the holiday.”

“Mockery more than anything,” spoke the ever quiet eldest brother. “As I assume you know, Christmas came from the origin of the winter solstice- A pagan ritual.” I nodded. “We do put our twists to it, taking the commercialized holiday from the captures themselves.”

I softly snickered into my hand. “You’re outdoing Christians at their own game. I love that!”

“This does raise the question, however. What is it that you believe in?” This question was due to come up at some point, considering I decided to see a satanic pope in a widely Christian country. 

“I consider myself spiritual more than religious,” I answered simply. “Whatever higher power is out there or what happens when you die is beyond me, but I do believe in what I’ve seen. Things like spirits and energy.”

The First took a liking to this answer. His gaze stopped shifting between his food and I, his piercing stare giving itself to me fully. “And do you have a spiritual practice?”

The response delayed this time, embarrassment flooding my cheeks. “Sort of, but it’s not solid. I mostly do research out of interest, and my family and I do what we can to protect ourselves.”

“Hm. A more neutral approach, then. Perhaps- if you get curious- I could teach you a thing or two from my own practice.” Was that the start of a smile I saw? “There is no better method of research than to learn from the source itself.”

This offer baffled me. "I would love to do that! Thank you!" 

The table went silent for a moment, though not in any sort of discomfort. Mouths were being filled with delicious food, relaxation being shared through the air. Small bouts of conversation sprouted up and died down naturally. 

While I mostly kept to myself and stuck to listening, a hand snuck onto my thigh. I looked beside me to my Papa. His eyes were already on me. 

"Are you enjoying yourself?" I nodded. "What is your opinion of my family, now that you've gotten to see them for what they are?" 

I looked around at every member of the table before gazing at him once more. "I like them. They make me feel right at home, and they seem to like me, I think." 

The hint of a smile traced his lips. "It pleases me to hear this." 

A smile of my own formed and I put a hand on top of his own. 

Once the meal drew to a close, most of the men took off to pull out presents. However, I stayed behind with Sister Imperator and The First to clean up. 

"Such a doll," commented the Sister, "no wonder you've been the new family buzz." 

I blushed as I made my way to the sink with her. "You all are way too nice to me, I swear!" 

She shook her head like a mother would. "Nonsense! You're something special for The Second to hold onto you, you know."  

The First handed me dishes to clean and I did so as efficiently as I could. They were handed off to Imperator to dry and tuck away. While I enjoyed helping, the magic of Christmas lies in the company by the tree. 

"What's it like to live here?" I shifted my attention between the dishes and Imperator. 

She hummed a bit. "It depends on the church. You see, The Second is the only one that truly lives in this church. Our family is scattered." 

"How so?" 

"Papa Nihil, The First, and I run the home church in Italy. The Second, here in New York. And The Third in England." While she said it factually, no thrill coated her tone. 

My eyebrows knitted together softly. "Must be hard." 

"It's quite alright, dear. Such is the life of the busy," she responded softly. 

Before we knew it, the sinks were empty. Imperator rested a cold hand on my lower back and led me out with The First. 

Across the way in the recreational space sat a glorious tree with many gifts underneath, all wrapped with care. I took my usual spot by my partner and he gazed down at me with soft eyes. I returned the silently given love before turning my fixation to the activities. 

"Mine first-" announced the youngest brother as he shot up from the couch. He all but bounced to the tree and a number of gifts were passed about. 

However, his head dropped a bit and he shuffled my way. I raised my eyebrow as he smiled sheepishly. "I know you said you didn't want any gifts, but these called your name." 

The box was handing off to me. It wasn't too large, though with a bit of weight, and the wrapping was a beautiful muted red pattern. I tilted my head in curiosity. I ripped away at the paper and he lifted the top. 

Three different types of polished crystals lay on their padding, identification cards on top of them. Amethyst, black tourmaline, and rose quartz. "Holy shit," I breathed and reached in. 

My fingers traced over the smooth textures. A hot tingling pricked my nose, though I wouldn't let tears form when I looked up at him. "Thank you so much, I-" I shook my head a bit "-I don't know what to say." 

The Third's grin returned, his arm pulling me into his side for a hug of gratitude after I set the box down. "I am glad you like them, however, I must take my leave. The lady awaits!" 

Hs partner was mentioned in my text conversations with The Second. Jehanna, a fellow sister taking a holiday vacation with her Papa. I've heard many good things about their relationship.

"Tell her I said hi," I beamed. With a nod and farwell, he was out the door in the blink of an eye. He must be excited. 

A large hand caressed my lower back. "I could not resist," murmured The Second. He held a small container in front of me. 

With a glance of hesitancy thrown his way, I took it. Whatever he could think to get me was lost on my mind. 

I opened the container to see a ring. No, not one for engagement, but a gorgeous emerald accessory. My heart almost stopped. 

"Babe," I called out softly, "you shouldn't have-" A tight hug was shared between us. 

He whispered in my ear. "Now you have a piece of me whenever we part."

He pulled it from its enclosure and cradled my right hand. He slid it onto my index finger for a perfect fit. 

A smile traced my lips. "It's beautiful. Thank you." Now that it's been done before, I lifted onto my tip toes and pecked his lips. 

That brought a smile to his face, though he was quick to move on.

Thoughtful items and thanks were passed about. As much as I wanted to stay around and bask in the good company, I knew I had to return to the hotel room The Second rented out for me. My flight back to Oregon would take off early that morning.

My hand slid into The Second's hand, the other one rested on top. Turning his head, he gave me his attention.

"It's getting late," my voice trailed off.

A moment passed before he looked away and nodded. "Let us get a driver ready for you."

The two of us searched the place, soon finding a sister on duty for driving. I stood before the door, turning back to him.

"Thank you, for everything. You've all given me the best night I could ask for."

We shared another kiss, this one more meaningful. Slowly, we parted, yet our faces remained an inch apart. Our eyes locked. I missed him already. The look in his eyes assured me he thought the same.

He pecked my lips before straightened himself back up. "Be safe, and message me when you arrive.

I nodded and hurried to the car.

#oct 21 2018 #stories #f/o #self ship

[snowdice]

Finding the Time to Study Fic 2 [Day 19]

Here is my starting post for today’s study break stories session. See this post for more details and feel free to send me asks to keep me going! It’s been a lot of fun so far! I will reblog this post with the story as I write them today. I’ll be constantly looking for ideas of times and places for Janus to have missions, so feel free to send in any you can think of at any point!

If you are a new follower or just don’t want all of these posts clogging your dash, please feel free to block the tag “study break stories” as all posts and voting about it will go there. You can still see the finished product of the story even if you are blocking that tag as I will not tag the edited chapters with “study break stories” but with the tag “folds in paper.” See edited chapters below. Chapters 3-8 and what I have of Chapter 9 are under the cut.

My Masterpost Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

I also have a playlist on youtube (because Spotify didn’t have one of the songs I wanted). It’s short, and not really for serious listening, but I had fun with it.

I have nothing really due this week, but a lot of big looming deadlines. Not sure how long I’ll be working today, but I want to do some planning and get some stuff done. :D

Arc I: Finding Cinderella

Chapter 4

Janus was frozen in surprise for a few long moments after Pat disappeared. Which had been, admittedly, his mistake, because, while their window had technically been until 11:17pm and it was only 11:10, the loud crack that whatever Pat had been using for time travel made, garnered the attention of someone else.

“Uh oh,” Remus said, likely hearing footsteps. “Hide.”

That snapped Janus into action, but instead of hiding immediately like a sensible human being, he chose to go for the only link to the man who’d just stolen time travel tech and waltzed away, the mask.

Which was why he ended up getting arrested.

 Remy tsked the moment they were all alone in the police car having come to ‘transfer Lee to another facility.’ Remus was already waiting in the front seat, and flashed Janus a smug smile. If Janus wasn’t still handcuffed, he’d slap him.

“Well,” Remy said. “At least you didn’t shoot anybody like I asked. I was joking by the way. I didn’t really want to pick you up from a 1920s police station period.”

“It wasn’t my fault.”

“Mmm, nah, ‘cause Remus managed to not get arrested this time, so you defiantly screwed something up.”

“Oh, he defiantly wanted to screw something all right,” Remus said joyfully.

 “Remus,” Janus hissed.

“What?” he asked. “I’m not the horny one for once. Well, no, that’s a lie, but it didn’t affect the job this time.”

Janus groaned and leaned his head back against the seat.

Remy pulled into a seemingly random garage around 20 minutes later. “Alright,” he said. “Here we are.” He got out of the car and then helped Janus out before uncuffing him. “Here’s your ‘watch,’” Remy handed him the timepiece that had been confiscated when he’d been arrested.

Janus put it on and activated it. “Shit,” he said.

“What?” Remus asked.

“An appointment with cultural outreach has already been downloaded to my calendar for once we get out of decon.”

 “Oof. Going to baby jail,” Remy laughed. Remus was cackling.

“This,” Janus said, “was not a cultural faux pas. I did nothing that indicated that I was not from this time. I am not some rookie.”

“Don’t forget cell phones don’t exist in the 1920s,” Remus sang.

“The real question is whether or not my foot exists in your…” Remus disappeared before he could finish, a smirk on his face. Janus growled. “By Remy,” he gritted out. He selected the decontamination chamber from his queue, ignoring the appointment that came after it for now.

He knew exactly where Remus would be standing when he landed, which was why he stepped forward on reentry to ram into him.

 He yelped in surprise. “Sorry,” Janus said pleasantly. “I must have also forgotten landing procedures.

Remus laughed good naturally. “Aw, come on Jay,” he said, bumping Janus back, albeit much gentler than Janus had been. “It’s not a big deal. You just go talk with some crusty old college professor who is far too interested in spoons and then everything’s fine.”

“It’s the principle of the thing,” he growled. “They’re treating me like I’m an idiot who accidently invented disco in the 1920s when I was conned by some free agent time traveler.”

“‘Conned,’ Remus said. Is that what they’re calling it now?”

 “I know where and when you live Remus,” Janus said.

Remus gave him a dopey smile as the decontamination cycle finished and the door unlocked. Janus’s wrist buzzed telling him that the coordinates to the cultural outreach office were now unlocked. Instead of pulling them up, Janus walked to the door.

“Um,” Remus said, following him. “Aren’t you supposed to be going to your appointment?” Janus just kept walking towards their office. “Uh… Jan?”

“It’s absolutely ridiculous that I have to go to cultural outreach,” Janus said. “In fact, no one can make me. If they want me to go have a discussion about the definition of ‘bushwa,’ they’re going to have to have me dragged there.”

 “Mmm, I feel like The Boss won’t be too happy about that, and I have a feeling she’d be 100% down to dragging you there herself.”

“Well, then, let her,” Janus said, stalking through the door to his office. “I’m not going to…”

“Ah, Agent Picani,” the woman standing next to his desk, clearly waiting for him, said when he came through the door. “Dr. Picani was informed that there were complications with your last mission and wishes to have a conversation with you and asks that you meet him in his office at the AMO.”

“Oh, um,” Janus said, stumbling a bit before plastering on a regretful half smile. “Unfortunately, I actually have an appointment right now at Cultural Outreach. It’s mandatory and very important, and I have to go now. So, I’ll have to take a raincheck on that.”

 “But-” she started, frowning.

“Remus, work on the report!” Janus said quickly as he waved his hand to bring up his timepiece display and jammed his finger at the glowing appointment card in his queue. A few moments later, Janus was at Cultural Outreach.

Cultural Outreach was not part of the TPI, though it often worked very closely with them. It was a collaboration between the government and multiple universities to help government workers, politicians, and other citizens understand and bridge cultural gaps. It had existed before time travel was invented but had expanded to also teach people who needed to time travel how to behave in unfamiliar times and cultures.

 After it had to be expanded to provide for the TPI, it had been moved to Silver Mountains University. The building had once just been a museum, but it had been thoroughly renovated and there had been add-ons for office space and some classrooms. It was still a museum, however, its purpose had expanded greatly and there were many areas that were off limits to the general public.

One of these areas was the fourth floor, where Janus’s timepiece had dumped him. This was the floor that was almost exclusively for TPI agents and staff of Cultural Outreach who worked with them.

 He immediately turned away from the reception area, hoping that he could escape and go sit on the university’s quad or something of the like for the next hour or so in hopes the woman his brother sent to fetch him would give up and go back to the AMO. Yet, the receptionist apparently saw him.

“Janus Picani?” he asked.

Janus grimaced and turned back towards him. “Yes,” he said.

“Is something wrong?” he asked. “You’re 5 minutes late for your appointment and seem disoriented.

“Nothing’s wrong.”

“Is your timepiece malfunctioning?”

“No.”

“Uh… okay. Well, if you sign in here, I can take you to your appointment.”

“…Fine.”

 He begrudgingly stepped forward and touched the screen he’d gestured to sign with his fingerprint, and then let the man lead him down the hall.

The door they stopped at was propped open slightly, but he still paused and knocked. “Professor Eran? Your 2:30 is here.”

Janus had just a moment upon hearing the name to think that maybe there was actually some sort of intelligent design of the universe and whatever being of ultimate power had crafted it was a dick.

The door opened and Virgil Eran’s eyes immediately narrowed on him. “Janus.”

“Virgil.”

“I see you’re still late for everything.”

“I see you’re still a bastard.”

 Janus saw the receptionist slowly back away in the direction they’d come.

“Why don’t you come in?” Virgil said faux pleasantly.

Janus did, because he really didn’t have much of a choice at this point unless he wanted to jump out of a window… or push someone out of a window.

Virgil turned back into his office and took a seat behind his desk. Janus unhappily followed him in and sat across from him.

He took his time pulling up whatever the TPI sent him and reading it over. “So, I see you failed your recovery mission and were arrested in 1923.”

 “It wasn’t like that,” Janus said. “I shouldn’t be here.”

Virgil gave him that same suspicious look he used to give Janus whenever Janus claimed to have not eaten his hot pockets out of the freezer in the middle of the night. He’d only been lying 80% of the time. Virgil had a tendency to forget what he’d eaten in a half-conscious state at 3 o’clock in the morning.

“I shouldn’t,” Janus snapped defensively. “Nothing went wrong with anyone from the time period. An illegal time traveler screwed up the mission details.”

“Well, it is still protocol to make sure nothing slipped when agents go off script. You weren’t prepared to be in a jail cell, and it is possible that you screwed something up.”

 “I didn’t screw anything up,” Janus growled.

“Alright,” Virgil said pulling up a document on his desk. “The mission started on July 27th, 1923 at 9:58pm, correct?”

“Oh, god, we’re not really going to fill out a time sheet. I don’t have time for that today.”

“It is protocol and best that the information is documented when it is still fresh in your mind. Besides, your schedule has been cleared for the rest of the workday.” The bastard was enjoying this. He knew how much Janus hated this stuff.

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” Janus said, “it was the damned illicit time traveler.”

“And I will be the judge of that,” Virgil said. Janus should have just bit the bullet and had coffee with his brother. “If you truly did nothing wrong, your supervisor will see that when I send this to her.”

 Yet, despite the fact that Virgil clearly relished in his suffering, he was charitable enough to do most of the actual filling out of the forms. He’d read out the questions and write down what Janus said instead of making him do it himself. Janus really only had to do a quick quality check and sign it at the end.

He still was an asshole about the details, but really he’d been like that about stupid thing like the settings for the dish washer and how the pantry was organized during their college days before they’d had their falling out, so Janus wasn’t particularly surprised. When they were finally done, Virgil sent it off to get filed by the TPI.

 Then, they were left staring at each other with nothing between them but almost a decade of radio silence and a whole lot of awkwardness.

“I should go,” Janus finally said, standing up.

Virgil tilted his head slightly to the side and gave him a half smile. “Don’t lock the door behind you,” he said. “Not that I’d expect you too.”

Janus took it for the clear attempt at a joke it was intended to be and puffed out a breath of amusement with a head shake. “No risk of that,” he said. Then, he turned and walked out of the office.

 Chapter 5

Janus stepped back into the reception area and booted up his time piece. Instinct said to go back to the office despite the fact that it was late enough that most people had gone home, but he hesitated. Surely Emile had given up by now, but considering he’d sent someone to ambush him in his office, Janus wasn’t sure if he should trust that. He could just go home, but he already knew his mind was racing too much to sleep tonight so he’d probably just end up staring at the lake for the next 6 hours. So, he decided on the only other legitimate option he had. He pulled up Remus’s home coordinates and selected.

 The home that Remus had chosen (after his long line of rejected requests) managed to somehow make no and absolute sense simultaneously to anyone who knew him. It was a small farm in the United States just west of the Mississippi in 1842 in what would be ratified as the state of Iowa in a few years. When asked why he would choose that time and place, Remus always responded with “I thought it was funny,” whatever that meant.

Unlike most time agents who simply used the identities assigned to them by the AMO as a cover, Remus actually lived his part time.

 Janus was… fairly certain he was cheating a bit to get everything done, but he maintained his small farm all on his own, growing most of his own food. The neighbors he had lived very far away, but he still spoke with them far more than Janus did his own.

Janus appeared inside the small home, his eyes already shut. “Are you hear and dressed?” Janus called. Something bumped lightly into his legs.

“I’m in the kitchen!”

Janus peaked his eyes open and squatted to pet the cat at his feet. “That doesn’t answer my question!” he called back to Remus.

 “It’s a surprise!” Remus said.

“Remus.” Diesel Fuel the cat flopped to her side on the ground as Janus continued to pet her ears. He heard Remus’s footsteps, and saw cloth covering his legs, so risked looking up. He was currently not only dressed, but wearing an apron that Janus was fairly sure was not time appropriate judging by the fabric and cat pawprint design. He had a bit of flour on his hands, and it may have been a bit too white for the time and place, but Janus couldn’t be completely sure.

“What’re you doing here?” Remus asked.

 “My day has been an endless series of frustrations,” Janus said. “So, I have come to see the only tolerable being in the history of the universe.”

Remus snorted. “Since I know that isn’t me, I’ll assume you’re talking about the cat.”

“I still don’t understand why you tolerate this creature,” Janus addressed Diesel Fuel. She blinked slowly up at him. “To be fair, he was assigned as my partner. I didn’t have much of a choice in it. You could go always run away and become feral in the woods if you’d like.”

“So could you, technically,” Remus pointed out.

“I’m thinking about it after today.”

 “Would you like some bread?” Remus asked. “That’s all I’ve been making this afternoon. Some fresh should be coming out of the oven in a few minutes.”

“Do you have anything stronger made out of wheat?”

“Ew, no, but I do have vodka.”

“Vodka works.”

“Want me to mix it with something?”

“No.”

“One of those night then,” Remus said, easily. “Let me finish up the bread, so I don’t burn the kitchen down. You can go get the alcohol from the cellar while you wait if you want, or you can just flop down on the couch.”

He was going to just flop down on the couch.

 He did just that as Remus disappeared back into his kitchen. The cat hopped onto his stomach, proceeding to purr loudly and kneed at chest. Janus petted the cat and listened to the noise of Remus moving around in the other room, letting his mind drift. His mind drifted to Virgil for a bit and he steadfastly did not allow it to drift to his brother. Yet, the thing that most was on his mind was the strange man who had flirted and charmed Janus all night before mercilessly screwing him over. ‘Pat’ he’d said his name was, but surely that was not his real name.

 Janus sighed and scratched the cat’s ear. “He certainly wasn’t an amateur,” Janus mused to the cat. “With that amount of precision to get in before we did, he must have someone not on the ground feeding him information. Perhaps more than one.” He was part of a group of time traveling thieves perhaps or something worse. “I didn’t get a good look at his face since he was wearing a mask,” Janus said, “but I spent a lot of time with him, and I’m sure Remy swiped the mask from the police since it had been on me when I was arrested. It’s a good lead.”

 He continued to pet Diesel Fuel. Eventually, Remus came back in, noticed Janus hadn’t bothered to get the alcohol and went outside to the cellar. “I’m going to find him,” Janus told Diesel Fuel. “I’ll stop whatever it is he’s doing, and I’ll bring him in.” Diesel Fuel mewed her support, and Janus patted her on top of the head.

Remus came back in with the bottle of vodka and handed it to him without a word. He sat down on the couch near Janus’s feet and patted his lap so Diesel Fuel would come over to him and allow Janus to sit up.

 The bastard waited until he was approximately 3 shots in (he didn’t have a shot glass and was just taking drinks from the bottle) to ask the questions Janus really didn’t want to answer. “Are you mad at Emile?” Remus asked.

Janus groaned, trying to wash out the bitter taste of shame and grief with the sharp sting of vodka. It didn’t work. “No,” he said to Remus.

“Then why have you been avoiding him?”

“Shit, I’m here because I didn’t want to think about it. Can’t we just not.”

“Don’t want to think about what?

“It’s none of your business, Remus.”

 He could feel Remus frowning at him, but Janus stared resolutely ahead. At least, he did until a foot poked his face. He slapped it away, but it did the job of getting Janus to look at Remus.

“It is my business,” Remus said, foot still in the air. “I’m your partner and your friend.”

“If I’m your friend, you’ll drop it.”

“So, you’re not mad at Emile,” Remus continued, contemplatively. “Did you do something to him, then?” Janus bit his lip and looked away. “What?” Remus asked. Janus didn’t respond. “Look, I’m sure he’ll forgive you for whatever it is. He’s a good guy. Just talk to him about it.”

 “I can’t,” Janus said.

“Whatever it is, it’s probably been long enough that he forgives you. You literally just have to have a conversation, say you’re sorry, and everything will be A-OK.”

“I can’t,” Janus repeated.

“Why not?”

“He doesn’t know about it.”

Remus paused. “So, as far as he knows, you just cut contact with him all of a sudden for no reason and have been avoiding him ever since?”

Janus looked at his shoes. “Yeah.”

“That…” Remus said, “is not fucking fair Janus.”

“I know.”

“Then why the hell are you doing that to him? He’s like… soft and feeling-y. He’s probably really upset.”

 “I know, Remus.”

“Tell him. Whatever it is.”

“I can’t.”

“Look,” Remus said. “You tell him and he either forgives you or he doesn’t. If he does, everything’s fine. If he doesn’t… well, it’s not like it would be any different from you two never being in the same room the last few years. Either way, you can’t just do this to him. He’ll probably forgive you. He’s your brother. Brothers don’t… brothers would forgive each other.”

Janus laughed softly and met Remus’s eyes. “That’s the problem,” he said. “He’d definitely forgive me.” He turned away and opened the vodka bottle again. “Now, if you’ll shut up for a few minutes, I’m going to drink until I black out.”

 Chapter 6

“Really, Khalid,” Janus said, storming into his boss’s office. “A yellow?” It had been about a week since the 1920s incident, and his incident report had finally been cleared. Sure, it wasn’t a red or a black and he wasn’t facing any reprimand, but it should have been a green.

She looked up at him, clearly unconcerned. “There was an incident,” she said. “You handled it well, but there was one. Therefore, yellow.”

“It wasn’t a time travel incident! It was a rouge time traveler.”

“Janus, you helped me make these rules,” she said impatiently.

“Which is why I know this is bullshit,” he snapped.

 She rolled her eyes. “If it was anyone else, you would agree with me. While you didn’t go against protocol and had no time related incidents, the fact of the matter is, you were still distracted by this ‘rouge time traveler,’ didn’t complete your mission, and were arrested.”

“He was good,” Janus said. “You can’t fault me for that. He also could be dangerous and you’re busy handing out yellows instead of working to track him down.”

She raised an eyebrow. “We are working on tracking him down,” she said. “We have done an analysis on the mask and found fibers dating to the 2010s and some DNA. Though it isn’t exactly a high priority.”

 “We have no idea who he is or what he’s planning to do. Why is that not a high priority thing?”

“At the moment?” she asked. “Because we have reports of a time bomb being activated.”

“What?” Janus asked sitting up. “When?”

“New Years Eve going into the year 3,000 in Brazil,” she said. “Which you’d know about if you’d bothered to check your integration port this morning before storming into my office.”

“It’s my mission?” Janus asked.

“The incident investigation is over and your active again despite the dreaded yellow,” she said, clearly making fun of him a bit. “So, yes, and it’s a high priority mission, so I’ll be running it.”

 “Who all is going?” he asked.

“Other than the two of us, Remus, Lena, and Fred,” she told him. “We leave in three hours, so, you might want to run off to Rhi before Fred gets to her and ties her up for an hour on details.”

Janus nodded and got to his feet. He turned back at the door. “I still don’t deserve the yellow,” he hissed.

She waved him off. “I’ll see you in a few hours, Picani.”

He ground his teeth a bit about the dismissal of his worries, but his resentment was slightly soothed by the fact that she’d assigned him to go on such a high priority mission and with only senior agents.

 He took the advice and grabbed Remus from the office, noting Lena hadn’t been able to wrangle Fred yet as she was still at her desk, and they both headed off to see Rhi.

A few hours later, they were all in decontamination together, decked out in truly god-awful costumes. The turn of the third millennia had been a wild event, and the best way to fit in was to look like you’d grabbed something from every century in recorded human history, dyed it in neon paint, and rolled around in a vat of glitter.

Remus had opted to stick his head in a vat of thick glow in the dark green paint that costuming had offered them, and it wasn’t even going to be slightly disruptive to their covertness. It was so caked on that Janus couldn’t even recognize him.

 In fact, costuming had frowned when Janus had insisted he not get his hair dyed and instead wore a bowler hat. They had required him to have flowers made out of glitter on it.

There were five people waiting for them when they landed 6 hours before the turn of the millennia. Three were touchdown agents, including Remy, and two were on location tech support. Usually it would be overkill to have that many people there just for support even with five agents in the field, but today the TPI needed to be cautious because they were planning on instituting a time lock.

Time bombs were dangerous things that would ripple through time if not contained. Even if it did end up going off (killing everyone in its reach), the time lock would serve to prevent most damage outside of the city and, more importantly, the year it was planted.

 Janus had only been in two time locks before, and he was one of the most senior agents in the TPI, outranked only by the founder: Lia Khalid. Time locks were designed to keep all time linear in a certain fixed time and geographical area as well as prevent any time travel in and out. Once it was engaged, all forms of time travel would not work for the duration, bar the pin device. Khalid was already switching out her regular timepiece with the slightly bigger one that was designed to support the time lock.

There was a failsafe back at the TPI that could be engaged in an emergency, which was why tech support was here, but other than that, the only thing that could break the time lock was that timepiece, and it would break the moment the time lock ended.

 As soon as it was on Khalid’s wrist, she looked up at them all. “Our information says the time bomb was planted in the costume of one of the ‘Millennium Birds’ who are the organizers of the different events,” she said. Janus had seen a photo of the identical costumes in the mission details. They were all robe like garments with giant fans of feathers coming from the neck that coalesced in a peak a foot above their head to hold a fake bird egg. At least they’d be easy to find. “There are 25 of them throughout the city. We need to find each of them. So, we don’t double count, you’ll need to subtly,” her eyes touched on Remus, “scan each one you find for the bomb and tag them with a tracker if it’s not on them. You can view the already tagged ones, as well as the rest of us on your timepiece even once the time lock is engaged. When you find the bomb, call it in.”

 They all nodded, and Khalid looked over at one of the techies. She nodded at her and then the techie flipped a couple of switches. “Three, two, one,” the techie said. There was a slight shift in the air that most people would disregard, but Janus as a seasoned time traveler could feel the change even before his wrist buzzed. He glanced at his timepiece to see it had a big red ‘X’ across its display. He tapped it and was still able to bring up the map of the city with 10 green dots on it all clustered together in their current location.

 After that, he tested the scanner on his timepiece that he would use to search for the bomb, just to make sure the time lock hadn’t messed anything up with his equipment. He glanced up to see everyone else was doing the same.

“Keep in contact,” Khalid said before everyone split up. Janus and Remus started by going North while Fredrick and Darlene were to go South. Khalid was a floater who would tag any Birds she saw but was mostly there for backup and orders.

Janus and Remus stepped into the chaos of New Years Eve before the turn of the third millennia. The streets were already swamped with people and it would only be getting worse the later it go.

“Where should we start?” Remus asked.

 “Let’s go all the way North to the games area,” Janus said. “We can work our way back here.”

“Okay!” Remus said. “I wonder if they have those fun little genetically modified goldfish as prizes. I’ve always wanted to eat one and see if I end up getting whatever design was on the fish on my body.”

Janus gave him a disgusted look.

“What?! People eat fish all the time!”

Janus shook his head. “We’re not playing the games anyway. We have work to do. Important work.”

“Boo,” Remus replied. Janus chose to ignore him as he spotted one of the Millenia Birds letting people into the gaming area.

 They walked over towards the entrance. Janus got in range first and moved to subtly scan the Millenia Bird, Remus doing the same the next moment. After a second, Janus’s timepiece buzzed and lit up red, meaning the bomb was within range. “Well, that was easy,” he said. “It was on the first one we found.”

“Uh…” Remus said. “Jan.” When Janus looked, he was holding up his wrist to show his green lit time piece.

“What?” Janus asked. He quickly moved to rescan the Millenia Bird, and his timepiece came up green as well. Which, meant the bomb was not in range, even though the Millenia Bird had not moved. “But…” He and Remus’s eyes met, and they quickly both started turning in a circle to look at the crowd around him. No one looked like they’d just stolen a time bomb off the Millennial Bird, but then Janus’s eyes caught on a man. He blended in perfectly to his surroundings. He was wearing the disgusting garb of the times, a large light blue piece that bubbled near his hips, and had most of his skin covered in rainbow neon paints. Yet, something about him, the curl of his hair or the way he moved, drew Janus’s eyes to him. He recognized the man immediately even in a completely different dressing style. Yet, what cinched it was the moment Janus’s eyes met his and they seemed to sparkle slightly in the afternoon sun. The next moment, the person Janus knew as Pat, turned to disappear into the crowd.

 Chapter 7

“Him,” was the only thing Janus said before taking off after the figure who had just disappeared into the game area.

“What?” Remus’s voice followed after him. “Janus! What?!”

Janus did not pause, just continuing to run after Pat, hopping over two barricades as a shortcut. Janus cursed when he lost sight of the man for just a moment near the prize table filled with colorful goldfish, but he was able to spot him once again walking into one of the tents. Janus blasted into the tent. It was a game where they raced rats, and when Janus entered, Pat was cooing at one of them.

 “Who’s a tiny little squishy precious baby?” he was asking one of them, wiggling his pointer finger at it.

“You,” Janus growled stepping up to him.

He turned and tilted his head at Janus with a frown. “Um, me?” he asked, pointing to his chest, all sorts of innocent, but Janus could see a spot of hidden amusement in his eyes.

“Where is it?”

His eyebrows drew together, but it was an act. It was clearly an act! “Where is what?”

“The…” he glanced around them at the people surrounding them. “Thing you just took.”

“I didn’t take anything,” Pat said with a frown.

 “Oh, no,” Janus said. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fooling me twice is not an option.”

“I’m sorry sir,” Pat said. “I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Bull. Shit.”

Just then, Remus jogged into the tent. “What’s going on?” he asked.

“It’s him,” Janus said pointing. “He took it. He has it.”

“I… don’t know what you’re talking about,” Patton said. He looked over to Remus with a confused frown.

Remus looked at Janus. “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” Janus said. “It’s him. It has to be him. He’s the mask guy.”

Remus squinted at Pat. “He is?”

“Whoever you think I am, I’m not. I haven’t worn a mask all night. I just did the face paint,” he pointed to his cheeks.

 Remus raised his wrist and his timepiece lit up green. He looked at Janus.

“I lost sight of him for five seconds. He must have stashed it somewhere,” Janus said. He turned on Pat. “Where did you put it?”

“…Are you,” Pat asked, his eyes going back and forth between Janus and Remus, “��� the police?”

“We are, actually,” Khalid said as she stepped into the tent. Remus must have called her. She inserted herself between Janus and Pat. “Agent Khalid,” she said, offering a hand with a smile. Pat looked at it in surprise and then smiled back hesitantly as he took it. “Apologizes, one of the big game prizes was stolen by someone matching your description. Would you mind coming down to security for questioning? Just to clear it up.”

 “Oh,” Patton said, hesitant. Janus expected him to refuse outright, but then he said. “Uh, sure.”

“Thank you very much, Mr…”

“Jonas,” Pat told her earnestly. “Do I need to be handcuffed?”

“No,” Khalid said. Janus frowned at her, but she ignored him. “It’s just a talk for now.” She gestured to the tent entrance. “Come with us.”

He did without argument, and Remus and Janus followed behind the both of them. Khalid did not lead them back to the base, but to a little spot that said “security” near the center of the event. Remy was already there waiting for them at a desk.

 “Remy, would you please take Mr. Jonas to go sit down?” she asked.

“Sure, boss,” Remy said, standing up. He led Pat away.

Khalid turned to Janus and Remus once they were out of earshot. “What is going on?”

“It’s the mask man,” Janus said, “the one from 1923, and my scanner said the time bomb was on the Millenia Bird outside the games entrance, but then it was gone the next second, and I saw him, and then he ran away.”

“So, does he have it on him?”

“No. I lost sight of him, and he must have stored it somewhere, but I know he took it.”

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“He’s the man from 1923?” she asked.

“Yes! Remus, that’s him, right? You recognize him.”

“Well,” Remus said thoughtfully. “He was in a mask, and it was dark in the room with the necklace. Other than that, I only really saw his back, and he was wearing pants. Mr. Jonas is wearing a dress, so I can’t really tell if their asses match.”

“Okay, but I was with him for hours. I swear it’s him, and I swear he took it,” Janus just about shouted.

“We’ll question him,” Khalid placated, “and Fred and Lena will keep looking in the meantime.”

 “He knows where it is,” Janus insisted. “I swear.”

“Okay,” Khalid said, before leaving to follow where Remy and Pat had gone. She stopped Janus with a hand on his shoulder. “I think Remus and I will do the interrogation.” He opened his mouth to argue. “You know the most about him, so observe from the sidelines and see if he makes any mistakes that indicate you’re right.”

“That’s just to placate me and you know it.”

“Observation’s over there,” she said pointing.

He got a thumbs up from Remus as he walked by, and Janus glared at his back before walking off to the indicated location.

 He watched as Remus and Khalid entered the room, and Remy left it. Remy joined him in the observation room after leaving and leaned against the wall.

Pat was sitting at a table and watched Remus and Khalid with that same rubbish placid confusion that he had before. “So,” Khalid said, “Mr. Jonas.”

“You can call me Nick,” Pat interrupted.

“Lia,” Khalid replied. He smiled at her happily. “So, are you enjoying your day?” she asked.

“I am!” he replied. “It’s a big day. You only get to see the turn of a millennia once in your life.”

“Ah, yes,” Khalid said. “Doing anything special for it?”

 “Um, not really,” he said. “Other than the party. I’m going to meet up with my roommates after dinner. Kevin doesn’t like this sort of thing, and Joe couldn’t come.”

“Your roommates,” Khalid said, considering him. “Do you live around here?”

“Uh huh,” Pat replied.

“Do you have any ID?”

“I do, want me to get it?”

“If you wouldn’t mind.”

Pat unzipped one of the bubbles on his waist and handed her a chip. “Remus, would you mind going out and getting the ID scanner?” she asked, even though her timepiece would be able to read it.

“Ah, shit,” Remy said. “Props. What do those things even look like?”

 As Remy scrambled to find something that would pass for an ID reader so “Nick” didn’t get suspicious of Khalid using her timepiece, Janus watched the two alone in the room like a hawk.

“I see you’re wearing a dress inspired by the 2770s,” Khalid noted, as Remus came to stand next to him.

“Yeah!” Pat replied. “Joe made it for me. He’s really good at fashion design!”

“Can I see?” she asked.

With a happy smile, he reached over the table to let her get a look of the sleeves. Janus saw her subtly scan the fabric, probably to make sure it was from the 2990s and not actually from the 2770s. Considering she didn’t mention it, Janus assumed it checked out.

 Remy came back with some sort of device then and handed it to Remus who saluted and wandered back into the interrogation room. Khalid pretended to scan the ID in her hand. She handed it back to him without comment. “So, you said you live with your roommates: Joe and Kevin?” she asked.

“Yep!” he replied. “We’re practically like brothers.”

“Would you mind calling them?”

“Erm,” he titled his head like he was confused by the question. “Well, like I said, Joe is a bit busy, but I could definitely call Kevin.

“Here,” Khalid said, “use my phone.”

“I have my own,” he said with a frown.

“Humor me,” she requested.

“Uh, okay,” Pat agreed. He took the offered 2999 phone and dialed a number on it. Khalid reached over to put it on speaker.

“Hello?” a voice asked after a few seconds.

“Um, hey Kevin, it’s Nick.”

There was a sigh on the other end. “Hello Nick, is something wrong? Why are you calling me from someone else’s phone?”

“I’m fine, I think.” He looked up at Khalid. “Why am I calling him exactly?”

“Hello, I’m Officer Khalid,” Khalid said. “I just wanted to confirm that you are Nick Jonas’s roommate, and he does live in Manaus.”

“Yes, we live together with our other roommate,” the man replied flippantly. “Officer? Is something wrong?”

“I believe there was just a case of mistaken identity,” Khalid said.

“Bullshit there was!” Janus hissed, though she could not hear him.

“No need to worry,” Khalid continued.

“I’m good Kevin,” Pat said.

“Are you absolutely sure?” Kevin asked.

“Don’t be Paranoid, Kevin. I’ll see you Tonight for the New Years Celebration. You know I Live to Party.”

“I am hanging up now,” Kevin said.

“No! Comeback.” The line went dead. Pat handed the device back to Khalid.

She took it and smiled at him. “Give us just a couple of minutes,” she requested. He nodded easily, and she and Remus exited the interrogation room. “I… think we’re done here,” Khalid said.

“No, he’s lying,” Janus insisted, and got a dubious look in return. “I know he is! Remus!”

“The alibi is pretty solid…” Remus said, “and he doesn’t have the bomb on him.”

“Oh, come on,” Janus said. “You can’t say there is nothing fishy going on here.”

Khalid and Remus shared a look. “Janus,” Khalid said. “I respect your intuition. It is usually very good, but you have been a bit intense about the man from the 1920s, and I think that may be blinding you a bit...”

“I am not imagining this!” Janus said. “That’s him and he took it.”

“You only met him once while he was wearing a mask,” Khalid pointed out with a frown, “and you didn’t see him take the bomb, did you?”

“No, but he looked at me and I knew,” Janus argued. They both gave him a skeptical look. “Oh, come on!”

“You know that’s a little weak, Jan,” Remus said.

“Let me talk to him,” Janus requested. “Just give me five minutes to talk with him.”

Khalid raised one eyebrow. “Fine,” she agreed. “You have five minutes, but after that, you have to let it go. We can’t waste any more time.”

 Chapter 8

Pat looked up as Janus stepped into the interrogation room. “Hi,” he said with an innocent smile that could cut steal.

Janus didn’t say a word as he took a seat; he just watched him intently. He leaned slightly over the table and steepled his fingers in front of his chin. “So, your name is Nick this time?” Janus asked.

“Nicholas Jonas,” he said. “Always has been.”

“Stop it,” Janus said.

“Stop what?”

“Cut the crap. I know.”

Pat leaned forward, mirroring Janus as he leaned closer, interlocking his fingers and laying his chin on top of his knuckles. “What did you say your name was again?” he asked, pleasantly.

 “Janus,” Janus replied.

“No, I’m Jonas,” he said, pointing to his chest.

“Not Jonas,” Janus spat. “Janus.”

“Um,” Pat said, eyes alight with amusement. The bastard. “Those are the same words.”

“No, they’re not. It’s Janus. J-A-N-U.-S.”

“Well, that’s confusing,” Pat said with a frown, but his nose was crinkling. “It’s close to my name. You should go by a nickname instead.”

“What?” Janus said. “No.”

Pat hummed. “How about Love Bug?”

“What! No!” Janus sputtered, almost flipping the table, as Pat winked at him.

“BB Good?”

“What does that even mean?!”

“Mandy.”

“No!”

“Okay, okay, how about Macy Misa.”

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Janus stared at him for a moment. “Fine. Whatever. What was I even talking about?”

“Hmm. I Believe we were talking about my name and how you think it’s not my name.”

“Right,” Janus said. “So, Nick. That was your roommate, Kevin on the phone, right? He seemed a bit unhappy with you. Any reason?”

“Nah, we’re Cool” said Pat. “That’s Just the Way We Roll.”

“Not because you’re messing up a mission right now?”

Pat’s eyes crinkled together. “A mission?” he parroted. “I’m not messing up a mission.”

“Oh, really?” Janus growled. “Because you’ve been captured by the TPI, and I know who you are and what you’ve been doing.”

“I have no idea what the TPI is,” he claimed.

“Yes, you do!” Janus said, standing up. “You obviously do! Or you wouldn’t be playing this game!”

 “Game?” Pat asked. “Macy I ask you what you’re talking about.”

“This is all just a game to you isn’t it!” Janus said, slamming his hands down on the table in front of them.

“Whoa,” Pat said, putting his hands up. “Calm down. Your face is getting all red. You must be Burnin’ Up.”

“I’m not sure what, but something about what you just said pisses me off.”

“And that is five minutes,” Khalid said, bursting into the room. He felt a tug on the back of his shirt and glared back at Remus who was putting his own body between Janus and Pat.

 “There was no way that was five minutes,” Janus growled.

“It was five minutes,” Khalid gritted out. “Remus, get him out of here.”

“Come on Jay,” Remus said, dragging him back towards the door.

“Remus, I swear to god.”

“Just chill, Janus,” Remus said, slamming the door closed behind them.

Janus shrugged him off. “You chill!” he snapped. “He’s playing you all for the fool.”

“Wow, Macy,” Remy drawled like an asshole. “I’ve never seen you so fired up.”

“Oh, my gosh. No one is going to believe me, and he’s going to get away with this.”

“You’re not really helping your case, babe,” Remy said.

 Remus grabbed him by the shoulders again. “Here, let’s go get some water.”

“I don’t want water,” he said even as he let Remus lead him to another room to get a glass of water.

“Look,” Remus said. “I know the Mask Guy thing really sucked, but you have to look at the facts.

“I am looking at the facts,” Janus insisted, “and the facts are, he’s fucking with me.”

“You don’t know what mask guy looks like,” Remus said. “You didn’t see Nick take the time bomb, he has an ID from this time period and a roommate in this time he called on the phone, and he legitimately seems to not know what any of us are talking about.”

 “Did you even listen to our conversation?” Janus asked. “He was screwing with me the entire time!”

“Janus…” Remus said.

“What?” Janus said, narrowing his eyes at Remus’s tone.

“I know you recently had a bad experience, but not everyone who flirts with you is doing it out of evil.”

Janus’s mouth hung open for a few seconds. “That’s what you got out of our conversation?”

“He called you Love Bug.”

Janus felt his face heat a bit at the reminder. “That’s not… I. I’m stealing your cat and then never speaking to you again.”

Remus laughed. “Ah,” he said. “Young lust.”

Janus elbowed him roughly in the side. “No!”

“Yes!” he crooned, pleased.

 “You are the worst partner,” Janus hissed. “When I’m right you owe me 10 loafs of your fresh bread.”

“Branching out from poptarts?” Remus asked.

Janus shook his head. He still wasn’t happy about the state of things, but he could feel himself cooling down a bit.

Khalid came out of the integration room after a few minutes, leaving Pat with Remy. “What was that?” she asked him.

“He got under my skin,” Janus said.

“We’ll talk about it later,” she said. “For now, we’re letting him go and then going back to looking for the bomb like we’re meant to be.”

 “Fine,” Janus relented. “Just do me the favor of tagging him before he leaves. Just that. I beg of you.”

“Sure,” she agreed. “If it will calm you down.”

He nodded.

“Then, let’s go,” she said. When they met back up with Remy and Pat, he saw Khalid make the subtle gesture that would tag Pat like they would have for the Millennium Birds. Pat sent him what could pass as a sweet smile if Janus didn’t know better. Then, they walked him outside, leaving Remy on clean-up duty for the make-shift security office.

“So, I’m free to go?” Pat asked. His bemused expression edged far too much on the side of amused verses confused for Janus’s taste.

 “You are,” Khalid said. “Have fun at the festivities.”

His hands went flapping about. “Oh, you too!” he said. “Well, I guess you’re working, but you can have fun anyway, I’m sure.”

“We’ll do our best,” she said.

He gave her a blinding smile and reached forward to shake her hand enthusiastically. Janus rolled his eyes and looked up at the heavens. “It was nice to meet you!” he said, “and you too, Remus!” He turned to meet Janus’s eyes. “Macy Misa.”

Janus pressed his lips together.

Then, Pat turned and walked away.

“Well, now that we’re done with that,” Khalid said, turning to them. “We have only a few more hours before midnight and we really need to find the time bomb.

 “Oh,” Pat called. He’d paused a few yards away and turned back to them. “Thanks for letting me go so easily by the way,” he said, “and just in the Nick,” he winked, “of time too.” Janus narrowed his eyes at him. He smiled back. “Wrist check,” he said holding up his arm to show off the timepiece there. Khalid immediately looked down at her own wrist just to see that the one timepiece that could move through the time lock was no longer there. Pat made a gesture and disappeared.

All three of them stared at the spot he’d been for a long moment.

Janus was the one to speak first. “I want. The yellow. To be erased. From my record.”

 Chapter 9

Khalid immediately called everyone back to base.

“What happened?” asked Fred when he and Lena arrived. The tech people were already scrambling to get through to the TPI and get the time lock broken from the outside.

“Remus, Remy, and Khalid got played by Pat or whatever his name is. It certainly isn’t Nick. He was just setting up a joke,” Janus told him.

“Stop being smug,” Remy said. “It’s not a good look for you.”

“Pat is…?” Lena asked.

“They guy who fucked me over in 1923,” Janus said, “and is currently in the middle of fucking us all over because he stole the pin timepiece, and by extrapolation, probably the time bomb too.”

 “It will be fine,” said Khalid, “because what he doesn’t know is that timepiece has a tracker on it. Wherever and whenever he went, we’ll have his coordinates.”

“Speaking of,” one of the techies said. “It’s about to break. You might want to hold onto something.” Janus grabbed for a support beam next to him as the techie put a device on the ground in the center of the base. It blinked once, twice, and on the third blink the ground rumbled. There were sounds of panicked yelps outside. The fail safe for the time lock was not nearly as gentle as ending it correctly.

 Everything settled after a few moments, and they all straightened themselves out. Janus’s timepiece buzzed to indicate it was now functioning normally. Khalid had returned her usual timepiece to her wrist and now used it to open a display they could all see. “The pin timepiece’s closest time/space coordinates are…” she trailed off. “Right outside?” She frowned. “That’s strange. Why would he still be here?” She turned to march outside, following the coordinates to a trash can. She pulled the pin timepiece out and stared at it. “Fuck,” she said.

“What just happened?” Remy asked.

“He ticked us,” Janus said. “Again.”

 “He was stuck in the time lock,” Khalid said. “That’s why he got our attention. He couldn’t leave with the time bomb unless he had the pin timepiece or we broke the time lock. Apparently, he’s smart enough to know that if he took the pin timepiece away from here, we’d probably be able to find him, but he knew we’d break the lock as soon as the pin went missing. So, he must have stashed his own timepiece and went back in time within the time lock to grab it while we were distracted with the past version of him. As soon as the time lock went down, I imagine he left.”

 “Probably with the time bomb,” Janus said.

“Probably with the time bomb,” she confirmed.

And everyone knew the only thing worse than a time bomb was a time bomb you didn’t know the location of.

They evacuated after that, of course, and time locked the location once they were out just in case they were wrong, but midnight 3000 struck without thousands of people dying in Brazil, so the time bomb had defiantly been removed from then.

The, they initiated a time travel lockdown for all nonessentials, not willing to let random history students get caught up in an explosion if Pat decided to set the thing off somewhere.

 Then, it was a matter of figuring out everything they could about ‘Pat.’ First, they checked the tracker data as Khalid had tagged him with one of the Millennium Bird trackers. It wouldn’t work outside of the zone they’d set up that day, but the record would show his behavior during the time lock after he’d escaped with the pin timepiece.

There had been many little green dots on the map that day as Fred and Lena had actually been doing the job they’d set out to do, but most of those were running around in the south. There had been one green dot, however, that appeared suddenly in the game area about 10 minutes before the time bomb had been stolen.

 They could see Janus’s yellow dot almost brush his when he’d been chasing the earlier Pat down, around when he’d lost him briefly. The earlier Pat must have all but handed it off to his future self.

“He doubled back,” Remus commented when they watched the recorded data. It was a ballsy move and one that most people balked at, because there were inherent dangers any time you interacted with yourself from a different point in the timestream. It was ripe for paradoxes. It made everyone at the agency even more worried, because if he was willing to risk that, then what else was he willing to do?

 Because of the lockdown of all nonessential time travel, people working for the TPI were not allowed to go home for the night. They were allowed to pick up anyone or anything dependent on them for care like kids and pets if there wasn’t someone in their home time to care for them, but other than that, they were unfortunately all sleeping in their offices for the foreseeable future.

“You are the only tolerable one,” Janus told the cat who upon being let loose in the office by Remus, immediately jumped on Janus’s lap.

“I have literally done nothing to you,” Lena said, but then added. “Yet.”

 “You exist. In my space.”

“Can’t we just all get along?” asked Fred. “It’s only been an hour past when we’d usually go home. I went and grabbed milk and I have my giant thing of different flavored hot chocolate under my desk. We can try them all and vote on which is better.”

“Fuck your hot chocolate, Fred,” Janus growled, having been one of the three who had chipped in to buy it for him on his last birthday.

“Don’t go after Fred, jackass,” Lena spat.

“He’s just testy because his boyfriend escaped,” Remus contributed.

Janus’s lips turned down into a frown and he cupped Diesel Fuel’s face. “We agree we’re eating him first, right?” he asked her.

 She purred her agreement.

“I’d have it no other way,” Remus replied.

“There is plenty of food,” Fred said, sounding stressed. “In fact, I was thinking we should all chip in on ordering take-out soon. “What does everyone like on pizza?”

“This is not a slumber party, Fred,” Janus pointed out.

“Shut it,” Lena snapped and turned to Fred. “I’m fine with almost everything, except…”

“Bananas and tuna salad!” Remus interrupted.

“…whatever Remus is about to say.”

Janus rolled his eyes as that started a debate about whether or not fruit and/or fish belonged on pizza. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, which was when there was a knock on the door.

 He froze when he heard the familiar voice. “Hello, hello,” said Emile, cheerfully. Janus looked up to see Emile standing at the open office door. Shit. Apparently, the man had decided to give up on sending lackeys to come fetch him and had decided to track him down himself when Janus couldn’t even escape without breaking a time lockdown. They met eyes briefly and Janus could see irritation if not anger in his eyes despite his otherwise cheerful expression and tone.

“Janus,” he said when he’d gotten their attention. “I’d like to have dinner with you.” The word choice told Janus everything he needed to know. Usually Emile was careful with how he said things to make sure people knew they had a choice. Typically he’d say something like, “I was wondering if you’d have time to have dinner with me tonight,” or “I’m about to go get food, would you like to come?” Today, there was no choice in the statement.

 Janus still dried to dodge anyway. “Uh,” he said. “We were actually about to order pizza.”

“Go ahead,” said Fred kindly. Janus wanted to strangle him. “We can order pizza with olives if you’re not here.”

“I…” said Janus. “Guess, I’ll be going with you.”

“Great!” Emile said. “Let’s go.”

“Oh,” Janus said. “Uh, now?”

“Now,” Emile said a bit of uncharacteristic steel to his tone.

 Well, Janus was screwed. He swallowed his nervousness and got to his feet, taking Diesel Fuel with him. He turned to hand her off to Remus with a plea in his eye, but he just got an eyebrow raise in return. Traitor.

Then, he followed Emile out of the office door. “What would you like to eat?” asked Emile.

“Uh,” Janus said. “I don’t know. You asked me to eat, don’t you have any ideas?”

“I don’t actually,” Emile replied. Right.

“…Noddle Bar?” Janus threw out the nearest restaurant he knew.

“The one noodle restaurant? Sure,” Emile answered simply. They walked side by side out of the front doors of the TPI building. Janus actually couldn’t remember the last time he’d taken these stairs. He usually used his timepiece to get in and out.

 The noodle bar was only moderately busy at this time. They were quickly able to find a table near the back and Emile pulled his menu up in front of him. Emile hummed as he flipped through the different displays. “What are you having?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” Janus said, only then pulling up the menu himself, but still not quite looking at it.

“What about the fortune noodles,” Emile suggested.

Janus shook his head. “I don’t like those,” he said.

Emile glanced at him through the menu displays. “You used to.” Fortune noodles were a bit cheekily named. They didn’t actually indicate anything about your future. They were just supposed to taste like what you wanted from your future. A grad student might experience a feeling like they’d just aced a paper. A child that they got to stay up an hour later that night. Janus had liked the experience when he was younger, but in recent years, he’d begun to taste the underlying chemicals in the dish until that’s all he could.

 “Well,” Emile said lightly, eyes on his menu. “That makes me even more worried for your mental health than I already was because of the almost three years of you avoiding talking to me.”

“No small talk, huh?” Janus asked.

“Forgive me,” Emile said, eyes now focused on Janus, and tone much darker. “How has your life been since I last saw your face 5 months ago during a business meeting and you refused to look me in the eye? Anything interesting happen? Shave your head and let it all regrow? Develop an allergy to peanuts? Join a convent and take an oath of silence that you only just broke today?”

“No,” said Janus quietly into the table.

 “Great,” Emile said clipped. “Small talk over. Order your food.” Janus reached up blindly to select the first thing that came up on the food and drink menu as Emile punched something into his own and both menu displays disappeared, meaning there was nothing between their faces anymore. “You know, I was willing to give you a year,” Emile said. “I was willing to let you deal with it on your own because I thought eventually, you’d come talk to me about it, but apparently I was mistaken. The next year, I thought maybe you thought I didn’t want to talk to you, so I subtly made myself available, and you never took me up on the offer. I thought maybe I was just not being clear, and I should make my desire to talk to you more explicit, but as you have been routinely, clearly avoiding me at every single turn, I’ve decided I’ve had enough. So, let’s lay it all on the table. Is it me or do you need help?”

 Janus closed his eyes. “It’s not you.”

“Then you need help,” Emile concluded.

Janus shook his head.

“Yes,” Emile snapped. “Whatever this is has gone on far too long.”

Janus stood up and slammed his hand down on the table. “And it’s going to keep going on!” he said. The food popped up at that moment. It appeared Janus had ordered lasagna and bubble tea, and Emile had ordered something with spaghetti and a fizzy drink.

“So, you’re just planning to go on being miserable then?” Emile asked, and Janus wasn’t sure if it was worse or better that he didn’t sound angry anymore.

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Janus slapped his hand down on the “To Go” button and his dinner was insta-wrapped by the table. “Yes,” he said.

“What exactly do you think you’re paying penance for, Janus?” Emile asked.

“You wouldn’t understand,” Janus said, paying for both of their meals with his fingerprint.

“That’s a cop out and you know it,” Emile said. “All you’d have to do is talk to me. Or even just talk to someone else. Please.”

“Just…” Janus said, grabbing his bag of food to avoid looking at him. “Just, leave me be.” He walked out of the noodle shop without another word.

 Chapter 10

“And I thought Remus was going to be the most disgusting roommate in this equation,” Lena grumbled. Janus and Lena were apparently the earlier risers in the group as Fred was still curled up around a pillow and Remus was sprawled out under his desk.

Janus flipped her off.

“Protein infused Poptarts and caffeinated orange juice for breakfast?” she asked. “Just eat an energy bar and have a cup of coffee like a normal person.”

He took another pointed bite of his Poptart.

“You’re a horrible roommate. This is why they gave us different partners.”

“Yeah, well you snore, asshole,” Janus said after finishing off his meal.

 “I’d tell you to go eat shit, but you already did that once this morning.”

A pillow flew across the room and somehow managed to hit the both of them. “S’op fighting,” Fred mumbled. “It’s sleep time.”

“It’s morning Fred,” Lena said.

“No,” Fred mumbled.

Janus ignored them, turning back to his integration port to continue to keep plugging in phrases of interest, but he kept getting nothing.

“What are you doing?” Lena asked after a few moments of him huffing at his screen reader.

“Trying to do anything that may change our current living arrangements.”

She puffed out an amused breath. “Can I help?”

 “Can you see any connection between these words and phrases?” he asked, pulling away his screen reader and tapping at the words he’d typed out.

“Paranoid, tonight, I live to party, comeback, love Bug, BB good, Mandy, Macy Misa, I believe, cool, that’s just the way we roll, burnin’ up,” she said. “What are these?”

“They’re things Pat said when we interrogated that struck me funny,” Janus explained. “I feel like he was saying something more than what he said.”

“Hmm,” she said. “PTI for the first three?”

“Maybe,” Janus agreed, “but what about the rest of it? I feel like I’m missing something.”

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“Millennia,” Remus mumbled from under his desk. Janus hadn’t been aware he was awake. “He said something something about it being the only time he could see the change of the millennia.” He turned his head to look at Janus. “Considering he’s a time traveler, that’s definitely a weird thing to say.”

“Millennia,” Janus contemplated. “A different turn of the millennia. Oh no.”

“What?” Lena asked.

Janus sighed, and rubbed his temple. “I know someone who studied the 1700-2200s.”

“Isn’t that good?”

“No,” Janus groaned, “because now I have to go talk to him.” He stood with a sigh and then paused. “How do I even get to Silver Mountains University without my timepiece?”

 Luckily Sliver Mountains ended up only being about an hour away from the TPI by time adherent travel, but considering Janus was used to his travel being instantaneous, it was an aggravating trip. He had to show ID and be buzzed up to the fourth floor since it was usually locked to everyone not traveling by timepiece or who worked in the office.

The receptionist was the same man as before. “I’m here to speak to Professor Eran,” Janus said.

The receptionist nodded. “He mentioned you asked to meet him but didn’t know when you’d arrive. He’ll be done teaching his class in about 5 minutes. You can wait over there.”

 Janus nodded and sat, waiting for time to slowly tick by. Virgil arrived after a few minutes, lugging a giant bag with him. He caught sight of Janus and wordlessly jerked his head towards the hallway. Janus followed him.

“What’s in the bag?” Janus asked.

“Early 21st century cell phones,” Virgil said, dropping it on his desk. “I let my students mess around with them for their lab.”

“I see,” Janus said.

“What did you need?” Virgil asked. “You said it was official business.”

“You’ve heard about the lockdown, I presume,” Janus said.

“Yeah, it really screws up my research schedule for the summer,” Virgil said.

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“Do you know why the lockdown was instituted?” Janus asked. Virgil shook his head, so Janus explained briefly that they had been trying to find a timebomb on the eve of the year 3000, but it had been swiped by a free agent time traveler. “Some of the things seemed to be references to things that I couldn’t place, and I was wondering if you would recognize any.”

“Shoot,” Virgil requested, seeming intrigued by the prospect.

“Okay,” Janus said. “First, the alias he was using was Nick Jonas.” A weird expression crossed Virgil’s face immediately and Janus paused.

“You said the year 3000?” Virgil asked.

 “Er. Yes.”

“Nick Jonas. Year 3000,” Virgil repeated with a snort. “Were Joe and Kevin a part of this too?”

Janus blinked. “Yes, how did you know that?”

“Yo-you’re going to have,” his sentence was broken by a giggle, and actual full-fledged giggle, “have to give me a minute.” With that, he sort of listed to the side and seemed to purposefully fall off his chair onto the floor under his desk.

Janus blinked and when he didn’t surface after a moment, he stood up to lean over the desk and look down at him. Virgil had his arm thrown over his beat red face, as he shook from what Janus thought was suppressed laughter.

 “What?” Janus asked. “What’s wrong?”

“Just…” Virgil said, sobbing through his laughter. “Just tell me the things he said.”

“Er, mostly he just had weird inflections on words and phrases. There was ‘paranoid, tonight, I live to party, comeback…’”

“Wait, stop,” Virgil said. “Let me guess a few. That’s Just the Way We Roll, Burnin’ Up, Sucker.”

“The first two were, but not the last one.”

Virgil laughed. “Maybe the last one was just implied.”

Janus frowned down. “What are you talking about? What does this all mean?”

Virgil pulled himself out from under his desk and grabbed his bag of phones. He dug through it for a few seconds before pulling one out and handing it to Janus. “I have a lab for my students where they get preloaded phones from the early 21st century and are supposed to guess the demographics of the person who owns it. This one is an iPhone 3 meant to belong to a pre-teen to teenage girl from the year 2009. Look under music artists starting with the letter ‘J.’”

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Confused, Janus scrolled through the old style phone, finding the music app and opening it easily. Upon getting to the ‘J’s, he immediately paused on an artist called the ‘Jonas Brothers.’ He clicked on it and read a few of the song titles. They weren’t all there, but…

“That rat bastard,” Janus said.

“Scroll to the bottom,” Virgil said. Janus did and found a song titled ‘Year 3000.’

“You’re kidding me.”

“Click on it,” Virgil requested.

Janus did, listening to the fairly standard pop like intro from the time period. It wasn’t until he got to the lyrics saying, ‘He told me he built a time machine’ that he cursed, understanding exactly what Pat had been doing. When the singer a few lines latter proclaimed that his neighbor said ‘I’ve been to the year 3000’ he almost smashed the artifact to pieces right then and there.

“I have no idea who this guy is,” Virgil said, “but he’s a comedic genius.”

 Chapter 11

Khalid caught him on his way back into the TPI building. “I heard you went to Silver Mountains to follow up on a lead,” she said.

“Yeah, but it was garbage,” he seethed. “All I learned was ‘Pat’ knows early 2000s popular culture and likes to fuck with us.”

She hummed. “I’d still like a report about whatever you found. Who knows what we might end up getting from seemingly inconsequential data.”

“Sure,” he said.

“Anyway,” she continued. “I have a mission for you.”

“We’re on lockdown,” Janus pointed out with a frown.

“For nonessentials,” she said. “This is essential.”

 “What happened?” Janus asked.

“We picked up a small time distortion in France 2027. At the moment, it is small enough not to cause any disruptions, but it is slowly growing, and we don’t know what caused it. Usually we’d just send surveillance agents at this stage, but considering what’s going on, I think it would be best to send a field agent. And it would just be you, because we don’t want to send too many people out at once.”

“Is this related to the time bomb?” Janus asked.

“I’m not sure,” she said. “At the very least, it’s not it being set off as it was in 2999, but if it’s been altered for some other purpose…”

 “I’ll go,” Janus said.

“I’ll send over the mission directive to everyone who needs it. You’ll go in around 3 hours.”

He nodded. “I’ll be ready,” he agreed.

In less then 3 hours, he was dressed for 2027 France and in decontamination. “Well,” he said out loud when he was given the all clear sign, “I hope I don’t explode.” He selected the coordinates on the timepiece and the next moment he was in a small alleyway in the city of Montpellier, France in 2027.

It was a little bit warm, but not stifling even in the mid-afternoon and he could faintly smell the sea on the breeze.

 After a moment to get his bearings, Janus made his way out of the alleyway and onto a small street. The street was lined with restaurants and shops as people went about their daily lives. He carefully integrated himself into the crowd and began weaving his way through them. He needed to find the source of the distortion but doing a quick scan with his timepiece told him there wasn’t any sign of it yet. He’d have to wait for it to act up.

For now, he decided to get slightly away from people by heading towards the river. He found a park that had benches along water.

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As he walked towards the river, he noticed a man on the bench, angled slightly away from Janus and looking out at the water. He immediately recognized the man. “You!” he exclaimed.

Pat’s head shot around to look at him, and he gave a slight head tilt. Then, he smiled, amused. “You are not the person I’m here for,” he said.

“Well, I am now,” Janus snapped. “Where’s the time bomb?”

“Time bomb?” Pat asked, eyebrows drawing together, but amusement on his lips. “Oh sweetie, the time bomb happened a long time ago for me.”

“What?” Janus asked.

“Oh, you’re just a baby,” Pat laughed. “Don’t you get it yet? The two of us are out of sync timeline wise. You’ve been apparently running around with a much younger version of me, but all of that happened quite a while ago for me. Don’t worry though, it gets better.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The time bomb has been long deactivated. Here,” he reached into his pocket and tossed him something. Janus caught it on instinct. “Proof. Don’t worry, we took all of the dangerous bits out years ago from my perspective.” It was the core of a time bomb, the time bomb Pat had stolen if he was to be believed. “You can tell your people it’s safe to remove the lockdown.”

Janus curled his fingers around it. “I don’t get it.”

Something on Pat’s wrist beeped and he looked at it curiously before he stood from the bench, “and I don’t have time to explain it.”

Janus jerked forward to grab his wrist. “Don’t you dare.”

Pat reached up to pat his face. “Don’t worry honey, you’ll be seeing me later.” He twisted his wrist and a small electric current sparked between them. Janus jerked his hand away, and Patton smiled at him. “Or… earlier.” He winked, and then he was gone.

Janus cursed, but he didn’t have more than a moment to be angry because in the next second there was a yelp, and something landed on top of him. He was bowled over into a tangle of limbs and pained noises.

“Oh my god, we need to figure out the height thing,” a familiar voice groaned, just as Janus managed to pull himself away. Pat blinked up at him and his eyes narrowed. “You,” he hissed.

“…What?”

#study break stories #not writing

[art-of-slither]

Touched by Magic: My Life on Gratitude Once Upon a Time (Part 1)

Back when I was 13 years old, I was frustrated and sad about my life. I had few friends who were mean, demeaning and toxic. I longed having good friends just like Harry had Ron and Hermione. I did not excelled at school. My grades were avarage at best. I knew I was dumb. It wasn't depression, just a perpetual fog of unhapiness at worst and boredom at best.

I don't know exactly what happened and when exactly happened, but during my last year at school (a Catholic School) somewhere, somehow I received this piece of advice: Why do you want new friends, things and events when you don't even appreciate what you do have already?

Well, color me schocked! It was true! I thought about it and decided that I was going to be happy and content and grateful with all I did have already. Sure, it wasn´t a good life, it was quite nasty at the moment, but it was my not-good nasty life, dammit!

And little by little, progressively, cumulatively, my view of my life began shifting. Yeah, my friends were mean, but that wasn't necessarily the whole truth either. We celebrated each other's birthdays, we cooperated with homework, we made us laugh out loud several times. Those things were there, it's just that I was so critical about them, about our friendship that I took those good things for something meaningless.

Yes, my grades weren't good. But they were mine! I got them fair and square. I did learned things. I had the capacity of remembering things.

Yeah, I wished to be in another school, but this one was an imperfect home, but a home nonetheless. I could appreciate its green areas, the food they offered us, how they cared for us and had our best interests at hear. How many people would like having what I had?!

And suddenly I felt happier. My grades improved. I appreciated what my teachers tried to convey me. I appreciated my classmates enough that lowering my walls and actually engaging them in a friendly way came naturally. I even won two prizes, one in 1st place and the other in 2nd, helping our class gain a reputation for winning the most prizes in the year. Teachers loved us!

I was happy and content! Not even the school year ending and every one moving to different High Schools made me feel sad.

But everything was just getting started. Life was just getting started. What happened the next three years was uncanny and wonderful.

For starters, the provisional classroom I was in was full of uncannily nice people. I was used to having a certain level of toxicity around me, but it was not there anymore. It surprised me, but what's one thing, right? C'mon! I was a little bit of luck.

My definitive classroom was even better. Funny and kind people all around! And I began making friends like crazy, and through those friends I found the 9 friends I still hang out with even to this day, four of them joined me in the medical profession even!

My grades were good, above avarage. I began having this insane wish of going to the library daily and studying. It began coming natural to me. I enjoyed it. That never happened before with such intensity.

Each day I returned home thinking and feeling wonderful about all the good things that happened to me. I counted them with my fingers every night. I cherished each thing, big and small.

Everywhere I went in school there was always someone that treated me good. People were interesting. Not just my classmates, but my teachers and other adults.

I had a crush on a boy, which was the thing that freaked me out. I feared for my life with my family. I was gay! But, feared couldn't sabotage me completely. The right ideas were with me... It was like I was being told from the inside out that everything was fine, that I was fine just as I was. The moments I spent thinking about it were always surrounded with calmness and peace. Whoever loves you truly will never leave you or hate you... And then I would spend several minutes watching the breeze soothing gently an old tree. I remember that I often spent minutes marveling at trees and nature. My High School had that in spades. I loved my new school.

Things finally took a detour for bad by the end of my first year. Gorgeous dude found out I had a crush on him and gave me the cold shoulder. We were no longer even friends. I cried a lot and spent weeks feeling sad. My family, not knowing what I was going through, took me on vacation and I had time to heal. Little did I knew that all of that was for the better as you soon will see.

I had a lot of wonderful things to think about during that vacation, so many places to visit and see. So spending time in sadness never took over me entirely. I wrote stories and wanted to be a novelist. I let myself be inspied by every thing I say those weeks. I was satisfied and happy with my hobby and passion. When I returned for my second year, I came back thinner and healthier. Everyone was amazed!

I decided that if there was ever an opportunity for me to become that guy's boyfriend (I was allowed to dream, right? Ambition comes naturally to Slytherins) then I wanted him to have a smart boyfriend. That guy was Smart, very intelligent. In my opinion, he was a keeper.

So I began feeling inspired to play with my homework, play with my notes, make school something fun instead of a chore. When studying a little bit of laws (my school had that) I studied for our exams transforming each law into Yu-Gi-Oh cards. I aced every exam I had, including that one.

To add to the fun of everything, my intuition began developing in ways I couldn't believe were possible. All kinds of freaky stuff began happening to me.

Here is a sample:

When reviewing my notes for an exam, the very answers to the exam’s questions would catch my eye. Even if I tried to ignore them, something inside would tell me to memorize them. I studied very little, but at the end I always felt a sense of peace, and sure enough I would ace my exam. 

When doing an exam, if there was a multiple choice question, I always picked up the correct answer. Again, a mysterious voice would tell me which was the correct answer when I didn´t know it myself. 

I would know if I could get away with not doing my homework and play video games instead. Once, two weeks passed by and the teacher did not asked us to turn in our homework. A weekend before he did, I knew inside my heart that it was time to do so. Sure enough, he asked for it.

I would always feel guided around school. Once, something told me to go to this place. There I found one of our teachers, I chatted a little with him and out of nowhere he suspended the class. Everyone was rejoiced. 

I would know if someone was looking for me or if I needed to go to a certain place in order recieve something. Somehow, I was always guided to be in the right place at the right time frequently, several times a week. 

School was never a chore. It was something fun. Plus, I always got to hang out with cool friends. I felt blessed, touched by a magic wand. 

I could sense if someone was inside the school or not. It didn’t matter who: friends, teachers, classmates, my crush, etc. I would close my eys, sort of scan the school, and sure enough I would know. It didn´t freaked me out, but it was... weird... I was always right

When I got a chance at love was when I decided to calm down about the subject. Sure enough, I met someone that very same week. It didn´t last long, but it was something incredible. I knew what to do, say and how to act. He was my first kiss.

The guy I had a crush on never talked to me again, but I happened to catch him watching me in a most curious way many times. Regardless, one day I decided I had enough, and I logged in to my messenger account. I told myself that was the day I was going to meet my future husband. This was when I was 16 years old. I met this guy online. I decided he was not him at all, so I didn´t pursue a relationship with him. Well, he is now my actual husband having wedded thus very same year, but this is a story I will get into at another time.

Some of that reads funny, like I was a brat that only wanted to have fun and things always lined up for me to do just that and still getting very good grades. Indeed, I was top of my class. But that is my point: good feelings, love, appreciation, gratitude in particular, were the stuff that I always kept returning to, even when I was feeling bad or sad or angry. I still felt negativelym yeah, but it was so short-lived. Something inside me always told me to just let those things go, get on with my life, enjoy it, not allowing me to be petty. 

Years later I would be introduced to several authors about this topic, and every thing that had to do with the Law of Attraction. I read Lynn Grabhorn´s wonderful book Excuse me, your life is waiting, and I instantly knew that was it. That was what happened to me. That was the answer to the question I had once back during my late teens. I wanted to know what was that I did, or was doing. Why God chose me? I wanted to know because my friends struggled, were quite anxious, dissappointed, and always I felt bad for them, and dirty and guilty. How could I been having so much fun when they were struggling? But I never knew what to say to them to... make things happen for them. I would listen to them, I would soothe them, I would crack a joke just to make them feel better, but it never occured to me that my chronic gratitude, joy and appreciation for life was what did the trick. 

Now that I feel I know more about those year, I really want to go back. Because one day, the magic was gone. Or so I thought. I thought it left me... I pushed it away. 

#GratitudeMagic #witchblr #witchcraft #witches #witchlife #laws of universe #law of attraction #lumos #gratitude #grattitude #Pop culture magick #magick