#Jackie lockely fanfiction

[januaryembrs]

LAST KNIGHT IN SOHO | Steven Grant x Reader [1]

description: Steven finds his life slowly turning upside down when the man in the mirror starts talking back, he's sleepwalking all the way to the Alps, and the woman he's besotted with from work finds herself more caught up in all of it than he'd ever wanted. [Last Night in Soho inspired]

word count: 11.1k

trigger warnings: gore, blood, swearing, reader has a dark past that will be explored more read at discretion, third person & no use of Y/N, death, reader will become an avatar eventually,

main masterlist | series masterlist

Authors note: I have been in love with this show since I watched it and have finally started the fic I’ve been wanting to since it came out! The chapters are going to be long and readers backstory is dark but this is a piece very personal to me and I hope you enjoy!!!

She felt someone picking up her limp body. The museum lights had long since been shut off, but through the darkness of the exhibition she caught a tall figure standing over her. Her lids were heavy, vision bleary, yet she blinked a few times to try and straighten her mind that still felt like it was pulsing stiffly in her tight skull. Her voice was no better, the only sound she could let out was a guttural whine as the stranger pressed hard on the three deep lacerations on her abdomen that were now gushing blood like a scene from a 90s slasher movie.

They were broad, blocking out the minimal slither of light as they crouched over her and seemed to be yelling something. Probably scolding her for getting copious amounts of thick blood over the freshly mopped floors, she thought numbly. The sound came to her in something akin to static, a muffled string of nonsense. All she knew was they were talking loud and fast. Or maybe she had a concussion too? That thing had thrown her through that glass wall pretty hard. 

She couldn’t see a mouth moving, nor could she actually see their face, just two beams of white blinking down at her. 

This couldn’t be happening, this couldn’t be happening for real. She thought maybe someone had slipped something in her drink when she was at the club, but that was two days ago. There would be no reason for her to be feeling the effects only just now. And when she had been jumped on by one of those things she’d sure as hell felt it. She'd seen it with her own two eyes the way her clothes had been ripped as something plunged its claws deep into her, heard the air whoosh out her lungs as it hurled her through the partition wall. 

She’d felt, still felt, the open wound seeping so harshly that she knew it was going to be fatal. 

There was no coming back from whatever fever dream this was. 

She blinked again up at the mystery guy who seemed to be holding her heavy head gently, but the hot, red wetness on his hands that smeared on her cheek said he also knew how fucked she was. He was muttering something, was there someone else here? Oh god, where was Steven? 

“Stev-” Came her broken murmur, but the metallic taste crawling its way up her throat cut her off as a blob of viscid blood rolled down her chin. 

“He’s here, he’s okay. It’s gonna be okay,” Said the voice back to her, his grasp on her hair tightening as she garbled. The breath, life, was leaving her now. Every time she tried to get air into her lungs, she was met with more of the thick liquid spraying into her mouth, her chest retching for oxygen.

She didn’t have long left, she realised numbly. 

The room was blackening round the edges even more now, sped up by the way she felt her hands grabbing his arm in a panic. She’d thought she would welcome the cold hands of Death, it wasn’t a stranger in her home. Death rooted himself in her very soul, and yet as it dragged her under consciousness, she couldn’t help but feel like a scared little girl and she tried to cling onto the mystery figure as if he could keep her from Death’s greedy clutches. 

It was sweet poetry, knowing she was drowning from the inside out. She had always known her biggest monster lay within her, in her every cell, festering and rotting her, since the moment she was born. There was really no other perfect way to sum up her whole life than it ending this way, choking on her own body. Grabbing onto a stranger, trying to plead for help as a few precious tears wet her face and she realised she was crying. Scared, vulnerable to her own demise like she had always known she would be. 

How do you fight off a monster coming from within? You don't. You can’t. So she didn’t. 

No amount of soft words or desperate touches on the figure helped her, it only made the departure messier, a bigger pool of blood for them to find her in.

The world felt surprisingly calm the moment she was snatched ruthlessly into Death’s open arms.

FOUR DAYS EARLIER

“Come the fuck on, Steven” Cursing under her breath, she cradled the two disposable cups of coffee tightly, her rosewood coloured lipstick surrounding only one of the lids. The London air whipped her coat around her shins, frigid and unwelcoming as it was even on a good day. 

As per usual, Steven was late for work. The two of them had an agreement to meet each other outside the museum every Wednesday and Thursday, which meant his lateness slid in her own time. She could of course just meet the undoubtedly dishevelled man inside, but what kind of a friend would she be then? Leave him to face Donna’s wrath on his own? No, if he was in for a bollocking then so were she.

Friends didn’t exactly come easy to her nowadays, either. So if waiting in the bitterness for another five minutes meant she could keep this one, then so be it.

She had even taken the time on her commute to work to grab him a drink, the thin, black ink on the sticker reading: LATTE, + CARAMEL, -XTRA ESPRESSO SHOT, -XTRA HOT. she had banked on him being late despite the fact she had left him three messages this morning asking if he was awake (he wasn’t) and called him last night before bed to remind him not to sleep in. 

A minute or so before she would have figured he was just calling in sick today, she caught sight of a slouched figure dashing off the bus, the grey knitted cardigan belonging to only one person his age in London. His thatch of messy black curls were a next dead give away, as well as the bags under his eyes that never seemed to budge even if he were to sleep two days in a row. Yet, she couldn’t help but smile at the way he seemed to apologise to a flock of pigeons he nearly trampled on in his haste up the many steps leading to their workplace.

“Donna’s going to serve our heads on sticks to scare away rude customers, you know that right?” She said, handing him his drink, now lukewarm, as he nearly crashed into her own body.

“Thanks, Dove,” He said absently as the two of them headed quickly to the entrance, “Yep, I’m aware I’ve buggered us. Bloody weird dreams again,” Steven shook his head as if to rid himself of the odd thoughts. “Sorry though, love. You must be freezing,”

She was freezing, but the way he was quick to worry over her warmed her insides more than she’d care to admit. The nickname crafted just for her, the bird symbolising ‘Quiet innocence’ in Ancient Egypt, as Steven had once told her. Sure enough, the endearing term had stuck quickly, and it warmed her to know she had a special enough place in his life to have a pet name. 

It was plain to see just by looking at the twenty-five year old she was smitten with her co-worker. No sane person stands outside in Brittain’s April winds for just a friend. But Steven was different, which she knew was what every naive young girl said about their work crush, but he truly was. Steven had a kindness she had never known someone to offer without wanting anything in return, which he didn’t. He was so sweet to her she understood why he loved the sugary caramel syrup in his coffee so much, she thought often it glazed his every word with a honeyed tone. His face was a blend of a greek god and a lost puppy, a combination she never would have banked on being so damn attractive until she met him. 

Even his smell alone of a quiet library, a rain soaked meadow and freshly brewed coffee had her inebriated. 

“It’s fine,” The woman reassured as she cut through the main lobby where it was already lively with school kids. A few queued up at the gift shop to pay for their treasures; she smiled when she saw a girl with an Anubis plushie tucked under her arm. “I’m sure she would have found a reason to snap today anyway,”

She adored her job, she really did. Graduating university with a degree in Ancient Languages, working in London’s heart of archeological texts had been a linguist’s version of Broadway. Sure, her talents were beyond soured working in the gift shop, but anything was better than the life she’d fled to get here. 

No amount of sneers and dry remarks from Donna could ever drag her kicking and screaming back to that time before she left for Soho. 

“What did you dream about this time?” She asked, her black, kitten heels clicking against the freshly polished marble floor. 

A ghost of a smile spread across his face, and her eyes couldn’t help but linger on the way his brows lifted, giving away his amusement at his own head. “It was the weirdest thing. I felt like I was flying over London, but not, like, in an aeroplane or anything, like I was flying. Like, me. No wings or anything. Like I’m bloody superman or something.” Steven shook his head again and she gave a small laugh.

“Certainly beats getting the underground. You know, I saw a rat the size of a dachshund this morning, swear on my life. I thought it was about to ask me for spare change,” Steven smiled at his colleague as they entered the Ancient Egypt area. She took a sip of her own hot latte, sweet cinnamon with whipped cream that had long since melted, the liquid already half devoured when she was waiting for him to show up. 

“Don’t you ever have dreams like that, then? That feel so ridiculous. It's like, how can my head even come up with it?” Steven asked, and her smile wobbled a little as she saw her manager set her predatory gaze on the two of them. The people pleaser in her wanted to cower at Donna’s furious expression. 

In all honesty, she wished for dreams as ludicrous as flying over Piccadilly like a Mary Poppins wannabe. She wished she had Steven’s innocent look on life, that the world around her didn’t terrify her, that it could be as gentle with her as he was. 

But that was not real life. 

Her dreams were not filled with silly fantasies of flying like heroes. They were filled with dark monsters that looked too much like men to be supernatural, that managed to catch her no matter how many times she ran, begged, screamed. They always caught up to her. Always. Leaving her clawing at the duvet, drenched in sweat and a pulse that could challenge a hummingbird’s. 

“Brace yourself,” She ignored his question, muttering the words to him as the blonde came strutting over to them with a daggers look. Ah, Donna. The woman that made her job so joyful, so easy, a delight to be around.

Donna hated her almost as much as she made it clear Steven was on a metaphorical hit list the moment he stepped foot into the museum. 

“You pair better have a good explanation,” Donna snapped, dumping a tower of boxes in Steven’s arms. 

“Bus times-” Steven said at the same time she came out with:

“Road works-” 

They both stopped, hesitating a glance to one another. The blonde looked between them, shaking her head with a furrowed brow and a scornful sigh. 

“It’s like tweedledum and tweedledee having you two together,” She muttered, nudging the younger girl towards the stands in the middle of the gift shop, “Dum, you’re stock shelves today, love,” The term didn’t sound nearly as friendly coming from her mouth, nor did it make her chest flutter like it did when Steven said it. It was condescending, rude. Made to make her feel inferior, which it did. She pointed at the man then, shoving a basket of insect themed sweets to him behind the till, “Dee, you’re selling these.” 

Donna looked between the two of them one last time, her steely blue glare never wavering, as if checking they could be left alone together without wasting company time, before going to set her unforgiving jaws on some other poor creature.

The girl set her bag behind the counter and got to work organising the merchandise, twisting the ceramic scarabs to all be facing the front. 

It was a menial job at best, being stuck stacking shelves as mothers and fathers reached over to inspect the new stock, most of the time messing up the meticulous order she’d put them out in. Kids got their grubby mits all over the glass pyramid paperweights, making her eye twitch since she knew she’d need to polish them up again, only to flash them a smile and ask them kindly if they had the pocket money to pay for it. 

They didn’t, kids just liked to fiddle with priceless things and their parents were too busy on their phones to notice. 

She was half way through showing two young girls to the sarcophagus themed pencil cases when she caught sight of Dylan at the front counter, leaning in to talk to Steven. 

Dylan was a nice woman to work with. She was one of the only people who’d tried to coax conversation out of the greenie the first week she started there, which had been painful for both of them since she had never been known to be sociable. Companionship did not come easy to her and it was only by sheer luck that Steven seemed so similarly awkward in a charming way that she was able to feel comfortable around him. 

It was childish really, a silly work crush that she had no intention of ever letting slip. He was too good for her anyway. He was sweet and kind, gentle, innocent. Everything she was not.

Steven Grant deserved someone who could give him the world. Which is why it shouldn’t have come to too much of a stab to the chest when she heard what the two of them were talking about. 

“We still on for seven tomorrow?” Dylan asked, her hair falling in those beautiful, tight curls over her shoulder. Dylan was the type who showed up to work every day looking effortlessly gorgeous which clawed at the younger girl more than she cared to acknowledge. She liked Dylan, she really did. She was friendly in a way that was genuine, didn’t have her second guessing whether she meant the compliments she gave to anyone. 

Some days she wondered if Dylan pitied her. A plain Jane girl with no family to lean on, trying to make ends meet in a city as extortionate as London and chin deep in university loans. It was enough for any attractive, confident adult woman to kiss their teeth and “Awww”. 

The girl watched the two of them, waiting for the teenagers to decide which stationary sets they wanted. They were looking for ‘different but matching’ they had said, not that she was paying much attention to them. Steven’s face was the picture of lost as he stared at the grown woman, seemingly entranced with her face. And she couldn’t blame him. Dylan flashed him a teasing smile, brilliant white teeth poking out from behind her luscious dark lips. 

“Seven tomorrow?” He asked, despite nodding happily as if he understood what she was talking about. But his friend didn’t miss the confusion blaring on his face, his eyes as brown as the coffee she’d bought him scrunched up slightly in bewilderment. 

“Best steak in town?” Dylan prompted, her smile not faltering though she seemed to also be slightly thrown off that had forgotten. 

Their unknowing audience kept her head down, not wanting to watch for a second more of their conversation. She didn’t need a degree to see the way Dylan had leaned in, her body language turned completely towards him as if to tease him with what could come if their date were to go well, her own almond eyes trailing over him with the air of confidence her younger counterpart lacked. 

“Oh right, yeah. Yeah,” Steven replied. She could tell he still had no clue what Dylan was talking about. 

“Yeah? Okay,” Dylan replied, oblivious to his dilemma, and stepped away from the desk to go tour the new group of school kids waiting in the hallway. 

Steven followed her trail hotly before she could leave, “Sorry but,” He stepped towards her to talk a little quieter, almost embarrassed about how forward he was being, “Are you asking me out?” 

Dylan stopped, reeling slightly in shock before she wagged a finger to him and chuckled. “You’re funny. I’ll see you then.” She seemed unbothered by his ‘joke’ though she could hear in his own voice he was muddled. The woman walked away with a sultry looking smile, her eyes flicking to her where her other coworker silently arranged the pencil sarcophaguses. “Morning, babe,” She gave the girl a friendly squeeze on the upper arm as she passed. It only made it more difficult to writhe in jealousy knowing the woman he was seeing was downright lovely.

“Morning, Dylan,” She returned the smile, though the bitterness festered inside her. She had no claim over him, and she really couldn’t blame the two of them for gravitating towards one another. Not only was she merely twenty-five, a decade under Steven and Dylan’s thirty-five years, but Dylan was sexy, confident, flirty. Knew what she wanted. She was incredibly smart too, not an airhead like some other people trying to live the big dream in London. Dylan was a tour guide at the British Museum, and what was she? A graduate with a dead degree, pun intended, and a job that could be done by any wannabe walking in here.

Taking a moment to rearrange her feelings, shoving down the way her heart wriggled in her chest as the little green monster worked its way through her veins, pumping disappointment around her body like a drug. 

The two young girls seemed to only then decide which pencil boxes they wanted, unbeknownst to her inner turmoil, and she remained silent as she led them over to the till to talk to Steven, more for her own benefit than theirs. 

“I didn’t know you’d asked her out,” She said finally, though it came out as a croak, which she cleared from her throat quickly. Steven scanned their items as the girls both fiddled with ten pound notes, the great Queen Elizabeth staring at the woman from their hands as if she even knew how childish she sounded.

“Neither did I,” Steven replied honestly, printing off the receipts for them, “And you would think for a woman like her there’d be no chance I’d forget a date, you know what I mean?”

Ouch. She smiled tightly, waving the younger girls off as they caught up with Dylan’s tour group. The woman of the hour. Of course he’d be elated at the sound of that, what man with eyes wouldn’t? Anyone would count their stars lucky to be given a chance by a temptress like her. 

“Must have needed that coffee today after all,” She joked, though she couldn’t bring herself to smile properly, instead finding a middle ground between a grimace and a simper. 

Steven chuckled at her, shaking his head. “Must have. What would I ever do without you?” She grinned painfully at him, looking away to try and hide the way her face grew hot at his thoughtless words. “Am I still walking you home tonight?”

Another of their routines. She lived closer to Islington than the lovely apartment Steven had in Whitechapel. Despite paying a lot per month to live so close to the city centre, some areas of London like the borough she lived in was still ridden with some of the highest crime rate in the county. Steven was more thoughtful than anyone she had ever met, a rarity in this place, and on the days they were at work together he would ride the underground home with her before detouring around to his own apartment even further away. 

“Uh, no,” She replied, busying herself with unloading one of the boxes Donna had dumped in Steven’s hands earlier. She loved spending time with Steven, loved it so much that she felt guilty of lusting over him without his knowledge, but she couldn’t bear to hear any more about this date that he would no doubt want to pick her brain apart over. He’d want to ask what to wear, how to style his hair, if he should buy her chocolates and flowers even though she already knew he would. And the whole time she’d be hoarse in the throat from holding back the urge to say Date me instead, I’m begging you.  “No, I have a date of my own tonight,”

Liar. Liar. Liar. 

It was like their monarch Elizabeth was still glaring at her, judging her through her inky lashes and driving the dagger in further at the fact that this kind of behaviour was exactly what made her too immature to be considered for a real date with Steven.

He raised his brows, surprised. It wasn’t uncommon for her to have an occasional fling with a guy every now and then. But none of them really progressed to a date, just a single night of passion to groan over in embarrassment when Steven asked how her weekend went. 

“Oh, who’s the lucky guy?” Steven asked, nudging her shoulder in a tone that was nothing but teasing. 

“No one, just someone I met on tinder,” She brushed off, the lack of excitement making the man stop trying to pry a smile out of her. 

“What’s the matter?” She shrugged at him, not coming up with a response in time. What he took as nerves was in fact guilt and disgust feasting on her insides at the fact she was lying to him. Lying. There was no mystery man, no one coming to save her from this awkward display of what pure jealousy can do to a reasonable person. “You can always cancel if you don’t want to go.”

“I just…” she trailed off, stuck for what to say. He was looking at her with those puppy eyes no grown man should be able to perfect. And yet he was patiently waiting for her to stumble on the right set of words, his entire focus on whatever it was troubling her. That was another thing, for as chatty as a person as Steven was, he was just as good a listener, and she could tell he gave her everything every single time they would talk.  “I just don’t know what to wear, is all,” 

He seemed content with her answer as his eyes trailed down her body. She squirmed under his gaze but hid it well (not at all) by pulling her cardigan sleeves over her hands and balling her fists to fidget with, “Wear what you’re wearing now,” He said simply, as if it were obvious.

She looked down. A large top and casual jeans did not exactly say date worthy, though she wasn’t sure if there were actual rules to hypothetical dating, seeing as her man was fucking imaginary. 

She giggled at him nonetheless, shaking her head, “These are my work clothes, Steven. I can’t go like this.”

“Why not? I think you look lovely,” Steven’s comment was passing, tiny in the scale of things. Yet it sent her heart scrambling for a grip on reality. He was just her friend, complimenting her on her perfectly ordinary clothes. Nothing more. 

It wasn’t until she found herself smiling at a set of metal Pharaohs that she realised she needed to get a date for this evening fast. If Dylan and Steven could find someone in this wide city, surely it couldn’t be too hard for her to.

Sound was the first thing that came back to her. The crappy animated kids show she had been watching out of pure boredom last night was still playing after being left on all night. No doubt running up her already high electric bills. The exaggerated, slapstick bangs blared through the speaker. That caught her attention, drawing her into the awake like a fog horn from shore. The midday sun slipped through the open curtains, flicking over her lids and coaxing her to open them. She did so gently, lashes batting over her cheeks as she tried to make sense of where she was. 

Her sofa. 

The two empty mugs glared back at her from the coffee table, making her eyes wince in confusion. Why was she making tea so late last night?

Then the stench hit her. The smokey yet overwhelmingly powerful smell of a gentleman caller named Jack Daniels wafted up her nose and brought back a panorama of memories flicking through her head; The date. A real date that had been scheduled since Thursday. A completely ordinary blonde named James. The restaurant. Him being almost too charming. Fake laughing at his jokes she had already seen on Twitter weeks ago. Him touching her thigh every chance he could get. Suggesting they go to a club. Dancing. Shots. More dancing. Sharing a beer she pretended not to think was the most horrendous thing she’d ever tasted. More shots. More dancing. Him grabbing her hips. Her waist. Him kissing her neck, cheek, lips. Him grabbing her more, something she would find sleazy if she wasn’t desperate to force Steven out of her intoxicated brain. 

Which led to her apartment. The sofa, as classy as it sounded, was seemingly a better option than her bed. She had been quick to shut him down when he suggested moving it to her room; that was too intimate. That was her space, which would only be tainted by this stranger wanting to bend her over. So the sofa it was. 

Whiskey served in old mugs she got from the gift shop being chugged for Dutch courage. The same mugs she had bought with Steven as part of a set. They had taken two each, promising that they would be used whenever the other visited. 

She had given him Steven’s mug out of spite, even in her vodka riddled brain she was burying her feelings six feet under. 

Her hand shot out when she heard her phone buzzing, not wanting it to wake up her actual gentleman caller. 

The phone was clumsily brought to her ear, not even bothering to check who was calling before she swiped the green icon.

“Hullo?” It came out a horrible croaky mess and had her coughing the second she’d asked. 

“Hi, Dove! Just called to see how your date went.” Steven’s voice blared through the speaker, which only served to have her pulling it away and groaning. “And also to tell you about my dream, I think it was the weirdest one to date!”

“Woah, slow down, Steve-” She tried to say, but the man had clearly a mouthful to tell her and continued on regardless.

“I was in the alps, but it was all so real. There was this group of people taking it in turn to hold hands with this weird American guy, and then I got into a high speed cupcake-van chase with the lot of them because they started saying I’d stolen this little scarab thing from them, I don’t know where I get this stuff from-” Her eyes scrunched together in pain, though she lay in the quiet and tried to gather her bearings. She sat up from the sofa, shivering when she saw it was around midday outside and she had forgotten to close the window. 

“Sounds intense,” She mused to keep him talking, pulling a blanket over her still nude body as she stood to close it and preserve the heating. Her head spun as she stood, a rush of bile rising to her throat dangerously, which she choked back down and looked around the room. Quickly realising she was alone in her flat, she shuffled over to the kitchen in her blanket cocoon to find her purse to see how bad the damage her little excursion had done to her limited stash as any responsible youth did after a night out in London. 

“It was! I swear it was like I could feel the cars smashing into me- Oh right! How was your date?” 

She blanched, head still pounding, “Uh. Yeah it was great.�� It was average at best. “He was super funny,” For a Twitter fraud. “So romantic,” If romantic was the new word for ten minutes of missionary and not even making her cum. “He took me wine tasting,” She was sure she’d be tasting the wine she’d bought at the club any second now judging by the way her head spun, “Yeah, he was great,” He wasn’t you, Steven.

“I’m so pleased for you, love!” Her best friend cheered, a part of her writhing in repulsion that she had lied to him again. Though maybe that was the wine begging to make an appearance. She stuck the lever down on the kettle to get the water boiling, sure that a fresh cup of strong tea would be the only thing to pull her through this hangover.

Part of her, the dark, twisted part, wanted him to be jealous. Wanted to make him as frustrated and envious as he had unknowingly made her. But he would never, could never. Steven was tender and good. He was too sweet to ever think a single bitter thought towards her, towards Donna even. Which only served to make her feel even more rotten inside. 

“How was your date with Dylan?” She forced herself to ask. It was selfish for her to think, but she wished more than anything for him to tell her that it went horribly. She hated the part of her inside that sang with glee at the idea of him hating his date. She truly was wicked inside, and the idea only reminded her more of why she would never be asked on a date by him. Maybe he could see it too, how sick she was for wanting the world to suffer if she couldn’t have the one man she’d ever truly wanted. 

“That’s not until tonight, love, remember?” He said casually, as she fumbled around her kitchen for her handbag. She locked eyes on the little black clutch sitting on top of the counter. Her brows furrowed in confusion, she could have sworn Dylan said they were meeting Friday, two full nights ago. Her heart plummeted, maybe it was a second date. 

Ofcourse it was. Ofcourse they hit it off, who wouldn’t. He was as smitten as anything and Dylan wasn’t that kind of woman that was too afraid to tell him exactly what she wanted. If she wanted to see him again, then Steven would give her exactly what she asked for.

“Tonight?” She asked, squeezing the phone between her shoulder and her head as she popped open the clasps to her bag. 

“Yeah. I wouldn’t forget a woman like her twice in a row,” Steven joked. But what should have made her gut curdle in pain only fell on deaf ears. 

Her purse was gone. Her purse that never left her damn bag, that she had stuffed her rent money in as soon as she’d gotten it was missing. 

“I-I’m gonna have to call you back, Steven,” She uttered through the heart sized lump in her throat. Her palms were already clammy with sweat, both from the drink and from her sheer panic, “Good luck on your date,”

“Alright, gators!”

She barely got a chance to murmur their goodbye back before she had thrown her phone down on the plain, white counter and dumped out the contents of her bag. 

Hair ties, the odd two pence, a pen she stole from the bank. But no purse. 

She turned her coat pockets inside out, the blanket falling down her waist and exposing her round breasts to the cold air. But she couldn’t care less. The goosebumps slithering up her arms did nothing to fight the hot panic as the sofa cushions were thrown off their frame, the young girl still turning up empty handed. 

Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, Fuck. 

This could not be happening. She hadn’t opened her bag all night, even when she got out of the taxi she had her phone readily in her hand and the bag tightly closed. Someone could have taken it in the club, sure, but that made no sense seeing as her bag was definitely still heavy with the wallet when she had gotten home, not near empty like it was now. 

Which only meant…

Her date had fucking stolen from her. 

“FUCK!” She yelled, throwing her vacant bag across the room with tears brimming her eyes. 

It seemed life had been digging a trench underneath Rock Bottom reserved for her at a time like this. And she was left clutching at the muddy walls, trying to drag herself to safety and anywhere that wasn’t her shitty situation where she pined over a man she could never have, where she was still walking the line between sane and whatever else was brewing inside her, fighting against tendrils of hatred and chaos, malignance, that wrapped around her organs and reminded her where she came from, what she was. A life where she got mugged by the men she fucked at her expensive pity parties. 

She just hoped Donna wasn’t too hard on her tomorrow after this shit show of a weekend. 

“Late, again,” Came the chiding voice the moment she stepped in the building. 

Sweat dripped down her back from her long trek through London to get to work. 48 minutes of power walking is what she had been reduced to, unable to get the bus or underground for lack of money. 

And she was still late. She was expecting a nice, fat kick to the teeth any time now.

“It’s five minutes, Donna,” You pleaded, yanking an earphone out. Music was the only thing that could block out the thrum of anger and agony she was in from the weekends chaotics. 

“Even Stevie-”

“Steven,”

“-Was on time today and he’s the worst for it,” Donna snapped, and the young girl could do nothing but slump in defeat. 

“I’m sorry, Donna. It won’t happen again.” She promised. She wasn’t sure if she meant it yet with her lack of transport, but she couldn’t lose this job. She didn’t even know how she was going to pay for this month’s rent let alone catch the bus, breakfast itself had been skipped in an attempt to conserve food. Her stomach ached from the exercise, crying out for anything to fill its distressed cavern. “I got robbed yesterday so I walked,” She murmured, avoiding the blue eyes that had narrowed in on her. She hated feeling pitied, feeling as though people were sorry for her. But it was the truth, and the truth sucked sometimes. 

She wasn’t sure what beam of light had shone out of Donna’s ass this morning, or whether she really did look just that pathetic, but the blonde woman just sighed and nudged her towards the gift shop.

In perhaps the nicest tone she’d ever spoken to her, Donna quietly said “Last warning, girl, alright?” The younger woman thanked her quickly, her small voice sheepish. Her boss looked down at her in discontent, “Alright, get going. And you’re on inventory with Steven tonight so best behaviour, I mean it,”

She nodded, turning on her heel to speed towards the gift shop. 

Turning from the main lobby to enter the Ancient Egypt exhibits, she’d not gotten halfway there when she’d caught up to Steven seemingly helping a customer. Odd considering the fact he wasn’t even in the shop yet, but knowing Steven he’d probably stopped to chat the guy’s ear off about something he knew too much about to be just a giftshoppist. 

She went to wave when he looked up and met her gaze, but the forlorn, scared expression she found there had her already negligent smile drop completely. Steven seemed relieved to see her, too nervous to say anything to the man himself as he stood too close for his comfort.

Her eyes fell to where the stranger held Steven’s hands tightly, murmuring something to him that seemed to have her friend freaked out. The whole sight threw her for a loop, and she called his name on instinct, the new man’s head shooting up to stare at her blankly.

Speeding up her pace, she met the two as Steven pulled away from the stranger’s strong grasp. “Steven, are you okay?” She asked gently, looking from her friend to the lithe figure of the man. He wasn’t tall by any means, but his presence, the way he dressed and held an intricately woven cane seemed meant to make himself superior. His hair was long and greying, still young enough to be attractive but probably a bit older than Steven. A neat sort of scruff sat on his chin, and old blue orbs took her in head to toe where she stood. Not out of lust, but out of intrigue.

“We were just talking, weren’t we, Steven?” The man said calmly, seemingly sizing her up himself. She looked over her shaken friend quickly, the alarm written over his face that had near brought him to tears telling her all she needed to know. 

This man was no friend. 

“Sorry, I don’t remember asking you,” She snipped in the cold politeness English people all knew how to enact, bringing her friend’s hand into her soft one for reassurance. Steven had never seen her so infuriated. And perhaps it was the weekend she’d had or the way the man so gentle he refused to kill insects seemed to be trembling beneath her hand, she wasn’t sure, but a fierce frown was deep set into her face that dropped into concern the moment she looked back to him, “Are you alright?” 

“Can we go, please?” His round, nut brown eyes were soft and welled up as he quietly spoke, as if asking for her permission to be away from here despite being the older of the two. Her heart dropped at his sad expression, and she felt him squeeze her hand as if needing to reassure himself someone was there to save him. 

She had no time to note the way the butterflies swelled in her stomach as he did so, focused on getting him away from the strange man. 

“Ofcourse,” She said softly, turning to direct him to their little corner of the museum, hoping that the stranger would get the hint and just leave them be. 

That seemed short lived when a cold hand wrapped itself around her lower arm, a gasp drawing its way from her lungs. She could feel the panic of being grabbed by the unfamiliar man crawling up her spine, her limbs going numb, her hearing dipping in and out of static at the adrenaline flushing through her system. 

She heard Steven say her name as her head snapped to where the man’s strong grip tightened around her wrist. He seemed to stare at her with something calculating, and she wished she hadn’t run her mouth despite the fact she did so to protect the same person who was now behind her, a deeper sense of panic blaring in his eye than before. 

“Let go-” Taking a deep breath to overcome the bubbling fear rising in her chest, her only words were cut off by a much clearer voice. 

“There is a darkness in you,” The stranger said, as if he knew it for a fact. 

Her heart plummeted. 

Was it so obvious? No one had ever been able to see it, she buried it so deep in the hopes no one would ever get a glimpse beneath her kind shell. But it was a facade, and even he knew it. The shock must have read clear on her face as he pushed on, as if to reopen scar tissue with his bare hands.

“And chaos, oh there is chaos.” Her lips quirked between her teeth as she tried to stop them from trembling, “A shadow looms over you, little dove.” She felt Steven pull her closer to him, but this man had her every morsel of attention. How did he know, if he knew then surely Steven knew too. Knew she was born so dead she felt she was living a lie by being here. The man laughed to himself, just a small breath but it was enough to break her spirit, “What is it those witches say about Macbeth? Something wicked this way comes.” He asked though he already knew the answer, as if to entrance her with his own spell, “And I see you are truly something wicked.” 

Her breath left her chest. The voice escaped her throat. Every intention of protecting Steven had practically evaporated out of her body as her co worker tugged her arm hard enough that the stranger let go of her. 

“Leave us alone or I’ll call the police, alright?” Steven murmured with a new sense of courage, “I don’t care if you’re friends with the security here, you leave us alone,”

But the man’s eyes hadn’t left her, as if he knew just how deep his words had struck with her. He wormed his way into her brain even as Steven led her away with a kind hand on her back, his own words of reassurance coming to her as if she were underwater. As if she were being dragged under a current.

“He has no clue what he’s talking about, love. He was trying to get into my head too,” Steven said, but he could tell by the lost look in her eyes it was barely being registered. 

“Who the hell was that?” She asked after a moment, the feeling in her fingertips just about awakening once they were far enough away to be considered safe.

“You won’t believe me if I told you-”

“Steven, please,” She begged, looking up at him with a desperation he had never known from her. That man, Harrow, one of the women in the alps had called him, had truly shaken her up with the near omen he had given her. 

Steven couldn’t understand why, she was possibly the loveliest girl he had ever met. There was no one who so much as held a torch to her light in Steven’s eyes. She was kind. Gentle. Good. This Harrow had no idea what he was talking about saying she was wicked. She was anything but. 

Steven sighed, looking at her gravely. “Remember yesterday when I said I had that dream the other night. When I was in the alps, and those men were chasing me for some scarab I’d stolen,” 

She blinked at him emptily. In her defence, her brain had still been riddled with alcohol when he’d been rambling, and she had gotten caught up in her own personal issues since then to take much notice. But the scenario sounded familiar as she wracked her brain for the information, some light sparking in her eyes when it clicked to their phone conversation the day before. 

She stayed silent, eyebrows furrowing, “You said that was a dream, Steven. That man is very much real,”

“I know, I thought it was a dream,” Steven explained, “But now they’re here, and they keep saying I’ve got this scarab and what not. I don’t understand any of this, love. I’m sorry. I just know he’s dangerous and we need to stay far away from him,” 

The younger woman looked at him sadly. He was clearly in distress himself, and she felt a flash of sympathy run through her at his lost expression, yet his eyes were full of concern for her well being. 

She knew what it was like to struggle to know what was real and what was not. What it was like to feel as though you're barely keeping your head above the waters of reality. Yet she trusted Steven would tell her if he knew what was happening. 

She knew he was more honest than anyone she’d ever known, so she didn’t push. 

“Alright,” She said with a heavy sigh, rubbing her eyes to relieve the pressure building in her frontal lobes, “Alright, let’s just steer clear of him, okay? And if he comes back, we go to the police together.”

Steven seemed relieved, which wasn’t a surprise since he knew it was a big ask to have someone trust such a ludicrous story. Yet he didn’t know why he doubted her. She was loyal and would never dream of ridiculing him like other people might. She just took his word as gospel. 

She was too good to him. 

“Okay, yeah. Good plan,” He said, nodding and checking behind him to see if the guy was still after them when a smaller body pressed its way into his chest. 

She didn’t know why she did it, whether it was for his benefit or hers, but she hugged him. Tightly too, as if she had been holding back for a while (she had). They hugged all the time, when saying goodbye at her train stop, when they saw each other on a morning given they weren’t running late. But it never felt like this, so intimate. So much like she needed him so desperately. 

Perhaps it was childish, but the way he drew her closer, resting a head on top of hers as if he needed the contact as much as she did made her heart flutter even with the strange circumstances. For a moment, they both felt safe, like Harrow couldn’t get in their heads entirely because they had each other to ground them, reassure the other that they were not alone in the web his ominous words had spun them into, and that was enough for now. 

Yet the two of them barely spoke all day. 

Whether it was they were too busy with their actual work, or they were both in their heads thinking just what Harrow had meant by his prophesying. 

It wasn’t until inventory was nearly done that she spoke first. 

“We’re going to be alright, aren’t we?” She asked, his head cutting to hers from where he was scanning some Beefeater Rubber ducks. He seemed to notice the slight glint of fear in her tone, “As in, they don’t know where you live do they? Or me?” 

“No love, of course not,” At least he hoped they didn’t. Steven realistically couldn’t promise anything, he had no idea how far this Harrow’s network of followers ran. But he knew for certain he couldn’t stand to see her so scared. It ran a streak of anger in him that was unusual. Steven never found himself particularly angry, but it had run red hot when he saw the way Harrow had grabbed her and knocked the soul out of her with his words alone. “If you want, you can stay at mine tonight? I’ll take the sofa, you can take my bed,” After he’d swept away the giant ring of sand of course. 

She smiled at him finally, maybe the first proper one she’d shown him all day. And he couldn’t help but feel his chest grow lighter that he had done that. Gods be good, she was pretty when she smiled, he thought. 

“Thanks, Steven,” She said quietly. He was confident the two of them could figure this out together, and if he was sure of her, then how wicked could she truly be? 

She knew it was a cop out, that she hid so much from him that he didn’t know the real her; that if he did he would turn tail and run as far as he could from the monster in front of him. That he would curse himself once he realised Harrow was right; she was polluted down to her marrow.

“I’ve only got this box left to do, love, then we can get out of here,” Steven promised, his eyes flicking over where she collected two half full crates of merchandise and headed out of the gift shop to the stockroom. 

“I’ll take these out and meet you in the lobby?” She called over her shoulder, hearing him agree as she walked away to the area meant for employees only. 

Sighing deeply, she put the crates down gently, sliding them into a bottom shelf out the way of clumsy feet (most likely her own). A thought jumped in her tired brain, and she was quick to turn out her pockets for any spare change she could use for the train fare back to Steven’s apartment. 

Just as she suspected: empty. Because why would she be so lucky as to have anything good happen to her. She could always try and persuade Steven to walk home and save the embarrassment of revealing what actually happened to her Saturday night, but she knew the pitiful look he would give her if she told him the truth of her date. The sad eyes that would flash that neither of them needed after a morning of such anguish. 

They didn’t need another of her pity parties today, and she grimaced at the thought of how horrendously the last one ended. Though she knew Steven was different, that he would never do anything so cruel to a stranger let alone herself. 

It only made her heart yearn for him more.

Sighing, she thought on her feet as to what to tell him as she left the stockroom, locking the door behind her with the key Donna gave them all a copy of. Her heels rhythmically clicked on the freshly polished floor that reflected her frowning face back at her as if to remind her to stop looking so tormented. 

She saw the light of the main exhibit at the end of the darkened hallway, heading towards it at no rush since she figured Steven would likely just about be done himself. Lost in her own head as to what excuse to give the man she called her only friend, she almost missed the deep sound snarling in the shadows behind her. 

Whipping her head around with a wide eyed expression, her eyes flicked around the hallway for any glimpse of what made that sound. 

But she saw nothing. Not in the way shadows were nothing, dark patches of nothing, as in she saw nothing there. Had anything been lingering behind her, she would have at least caught or heard any movement. 

She paused for a second to take another look, only to still come up empty. Her foot warily continued its original path, figuring the sound must have been the cleaners dragging something against the floor. 

“Hey, Steven,” She called upon approaching the lobby where he’d be waiting, “Do you reckon I could owe you a coffee for my train fare? It’s just-”

Her voice cut out when she heard the low growl again, much louder this time. Loud enough to have her wince and stop in her tracks in the centre of the room. 

She caught sight of the navy blue jacket she knew too well walking backwards slowly, his eyes trained on something in the adjacent corridor. 

“Steven-” She whisper yelled, his panicked eyes snapping to hers, “What the hell is that-”

His arm raised out to point at the shadow illuminating the wall. Her gaze fixed on the shadow of a wild dog of sorts, its snout long and open in a fierce grin. She could practically see the outline of the drool dripping from its sharp teeth, at least she hoped it was saliva she thought gravely. 

Her breath left her instantly. What the fuck was that? Her knees felt as if they were about to buckle underneath her, calves going numb as the adrenaline flushed over her body in tidal waves. She was always a dog lover, she’d had two as a kid, but something told her whatever kind of beast this was, it was not nearly as friendly as a tamed canine would be. 

And it seemed Steven realised it too as he was quick to cower behind a display of an ancient relic clutching his bag to his chest tightly. 

His frantic eyes pleaded for her to move, but she seemed frozen to the spot. 

The overhead tannoy rang melodically, as if God was preparing to make the announcement that they were truly fucked, something she didn’t need a bulletin to know. 

“Steven Grant of the gift shop.” The sound of that familiar voice had her heart plummeting into her gut that twisted painfully. Did this guy have attack dogs or something? How had he gotten them past security? They looked huge. “Give me the scarab and the two of you won’t be torn apart,”

The scarab? Everything Steven had said about his dream was true. And if that was true then that meant this guy was a nut job capable of having his entire team hunt her down for so much as associating with poor Steven who looked as lost as she felt. 

The shadow moved, shifting around the corner of the hall to enter the open lobby. A scratch-like sound found her ears, as if someone were running knives over a cold slab, and she realised with a shiver this thing must have claws.  

And they were approaching. 

An open mouthed growl echoed through the room, which only served to confuse her even more. From the volume alone she knew the thing was big, and in the very same room as her. Which meant she surely should be able to see it as she could see the entire length of the room it had to be walking down. 

But that was the thing. There was nothing there. 

“Steven,” She whimpered quietly. It was stupid, making that noise and attracting attention to herself. But she was scared. She wanted to know what to do. Wanted comfort that she wasn't going insane, that maybe this was all a practical joke and there really was nothing there. 

A second set of razor sharp nails entered the room from the same direction, yet again she could only decipher that on sound alone. The chorus of snarls that only got closer did nothing but have her step back on instinct. 

“Steven-” She said again, only to see him standing in a rush. 

“RUN!” He yelled, taking off towards the exit. 

She didn’t need to see the dogs to know they were in the way of her and the same route Steven had taken, so she settled for scrambling back the way she came. The black heels she wore for work to seem professional only proved to be useless when running from wild animals, it seemed. Who’d have thought it? 

Her feet pounded down the maze of exhibits, trying to make it to the exit where Steven had headed towards. But for every one step she took, two paws advanced on her like an apex predator heading for its kill. 

Which she no doubt would be. 

Turning past the Anubis exhibit her stomach dropped when she heard a strong body colliding with the same wall she had practically skidded past. Her lungs burnt with effort, her breaths coming out in wheezes. She had one last turn and before she would be seconds away from the fire exit that she could barricade from the outside. 

The feeling of the dog’s hot breath on the back of her ankles had her pushing herself harder, too scared to look over her shoulder. She was coming up to where the hallway split into two and she headed for the right where she was sure the back exit was. She couldn’t help but wish Steven was able to outrun the mutt on his own heels, having not heard from him since she had taken off in separate directions. 

Taking the turning past a remaining chunk of what was once a Cleopatra statue, her eyes adjusted to the dark corridor. Where were the slab paintings of the sphinx? Where were the memorials to King Tut? They should be here, they’re always next to this exit-

Her chest constricted when she realised her mistake. Her grave mistake.

In the panic of escaping the creature, she had taken the wrong turning. She should have gone left. 

Yet judging by the way the animal grunted with the effort of the chase, she had no option but forward. 

Forward to a dead end. To the Setekh exhibit room. 

The walls were alive with paintings recovered from ancient tombs. The god of Storms, among other things, was feared through all of Egypt in the later dynasty. He was associated with all things evil, mysterious and disordered. The huge altar that held the statue of Set, his long face foreboding and as cold as the stone it was preserved in, looked down at her in almost malice as her feet took her into the one place she had left to go. 

It wasn’t until she felt the walls surrounding her, the penny dropped how fucked she was. There was no way out, no cutting back the way she came as the creature ran into the vast room with her. Dodging one of the plinths containing statues of the demon god, she had barely a second where her pace slowed down as she considered how she was going to turn back before she felt it. 

A force stronger than a freight train hit her from behind. She heard every molecule of air get pushed from her lungs at the sheer weight of it, her throat audibly yelping. Its body collided with hers with a weight that she was sure must be pure muscle, and she was thrown to the hard floor with less effort than a child tossing a ragdoll. 

The impact had her ribs rattling in her chest, brain bouncing against her now bleeding forehead. The cold floor was harsh against her raw skin. Her nose made a loud pop as it smashed against the marble, a hot sting erupting over her entire face.

But the worst was yet to come. 

There was a moment when she was collecting her thoughts, head spinning from the collision. She was sure she’d damaged something in her skull as it pounded, harder than it ever had with any hangover. 

She’d give anything to be back on her sofa feeling sorry for herself. 

She hadn’t the time to pick herself back up when she felt something large do it for her. It must have been eight feet tall with how big its behemoth paws were as the one grabbed her leg and dragged her on her stomach towards itself. Like a cat playing with a mouse. Not ready to devour, not yet. Just playing. Torturing. Tormenting. 

Then came the claws. Her eyes looked down at her ribs, the thin air surrounding them making her cry out in horror - there still wasn’t a fucking soul in sight. No dog, or animal. Or human even. Nothing. Yet her shirt ripped almost too easily as it let out a deep hiss of what she would call a near laugh and sunk its talons into her side. 

That was when she started screaming. 

Her throat hurt from the volume alone, a banshee shriek akin to a horror movie. It reverberated through the museum halls, but she couldn’t find it in herself to care. 

Vision started slipping then. Whether it was panic or her mind protecting her from what was coming next she didn’t know, but all she knew was everything felt weightless for a moment. 

She thought maybe she was dying and ascending at that moment there and then. But she wasn't so lucky. She was still being made this creature's bitch as the God of chaos watched. What beautifully horrible irony.

It was then that it clicked in her stress-addled brain that she was not in fact weightless. That the reason she felt so was because she was now being suspended midair by the thing that had her in its vicious grasp. 

It took shockingly little effort for the creature to throw her through the wall-sized fortified glass surrounding the monolith and for her whole body to crumple to the floor. 

Steven slammed the bathroom door shut with a panting “Oh God”, his coffee brown eyes never leaving the thick metal that shook with the weight of the monster throwing itself at it violently. 

What the fuck was his next move? What even was that thing? He retreated further into the bathroom with a lost expression, clutching his arms for a semblance of comfort. 

“Steven,” The man in the mirror spoke in the same American accent he’d been hearing in his own home. 

Looking at his reflection, he was agog to find the man identical to him moving on his own, as if independent from Steven himself. That was not his reflection, he knew that much, no matter how much it looked like it. “Steven, I can save us,” He said darkly, his eyes and frown much meaner than any expression Steven would ever wear. 

The way he stood was entirely different too, as if he were bigger in stature despite being encased in the exact same body as Steven was. 

“W-What?” Steven whispered, backing away from the door that weakened by the second. 

He thought of Dove. Had she been able to get away, run out the front door and get help from anyone who would believe her? He hated the thought of those adorable little heels she wore clattering against the floor, he wouldn’t be surprised if they’d slowed her down. He always heard women complaining about walking in heels let alone running from fucking monsters in them. 

Where was she?

“But I can’t have you fightin’ me this time,” He had felt like he’d been playing tug-of-war with his body for some time. But against what, he hadn’t known. His own reflection? This man staring back at him in the mirror with a scowl he knew wasn’t plastered on his own expression? “You need to give me control. You understand?”

He swivelled on his heel to see the man in the full length looking glass behind him, who seemed to tower over him in frame. 

“No, what? Control of what? What are you talking about?” Steven bumbled, his eyes looking over the stranger’s shoulder to see the door shaking on its hinges now. Dents were appearing now where the monster was caving its way into the bathroom, and one look at the length of its claws told Steven all he needed to know. He stood no chance against this thing alone. 

“That thing’s about to break through the door. We’re out of time.” The man said, realising their predicament as much as he did. This couldn’t be real. This had to be a dream, the lot of it. The entire day. From that Harrow guy to the idea that he could possibly lose her to some ancient wild dog. 

“No! No!” Steven cried, flinching as the door clattered one more time, the frame whining with the effort at which it held the assailant at bay. 

“All right, hey. Listen to me,” The mirror man tried to reason, but Steven was panicking too much to hear him. 

“Dammit, no! Stop it!” Steven slapped himself around the face a few times, begging with anything listening to wake him up from the worst nightmare he’d had yet. The image of her being chased by that thing wouldn’t leave his welled up eyes. He wanted to run to her, god knows he would have if that thing hadn’t been stood in between the two of them, blocking his way to her. “This is not real! You’re not real!”

“This is real. I’m real.” The man spoke calmly, as if a diametrical opposite to his own mood. He seemed to know more about what was happening, what that thing was, what it could do. Perhaps that was why Harrow had been chasing him in the first place.

Either way, Steven didn’t care. Not now at least. When the only person outside of his parents that he had ever held affection for was in danger. Imminent danger. 

“No! You’re not,” Steven yelled back at his reflection through tears. 

It was then he heard the screaming. A howl of visceral pain enough to rattle his bones at the familiar feminine tone to the voice. 

It was her. 

It was like nothing he’d ever heard, like an animal in a slaughterhouse. He trembled in his place at the thought. She was in danger. Oh god it had her. 

“I’m gonna die- She’s gonna die-” Steven whimpered, the tears rolling down his olive cheeks at the thought. He really was useless. 

“Steven, look at me.” He finally listened to his reflection with a pitied sniff, “You’re not gonna die, I can save us. But she is if you don’t give me control right now. Let me save her, okay?”

That was the straw that broke Steven’s resolve, the idea of her dying. He had never found it so easy to concede.

He just hoped the man using his body got to her in time. 

She felt someone picking up her limp body. The museum lights had long since been shut off, but through the darkness of the exhibition she caught a tall figure standing over her. Her lids were heavy, vision bleary, yet she blinked a few times to try and straighten her mind that still felt like it was pulsing stiffly in her tight skull. Her voice was no better, the only sound she could let out was a guttural whine as the stranger pressed hard on the three deep lacerations on her abdomen that were now gushing blood like a scene from a 90s slasher movie.

They were broad, blocking out the minimal slither of light as they crouched over her and seemed to be yelling something. Probably scolding her for getting copious amounts of thick blood over the freshly mopped floors, she thought numbly. The sound came to her in something akin to static, a muffled string of nonsense. All she knew was they were talking loud and fast. Or maybe she had a concussion too? That thing had thrown her through that glass wall pretty hard. 

She couldn’t see a mouth moving, nor could she actually see their face, just two beams of white blinking down at her. 

This couldn’t be happening, this couldn’t be happening for real. She thought maybe someone had slipped something in her drink when she was at the club, but that was two days ago. There would be no reason for her to be feeling the effects only just now. And when she had been jumped on by one of those things she’d sure as hell felt it. She'd seen it with her own two eyes the way her clothes had been ripped as something plunged its claws deep into her, heard the air whoosh out her lungs as it hurled her through the glass wall. 

She’d felt, still felt, the open wound seeping so harshly that she knew it was going to be fatal. 

There was no coming back from whatever fever dream this was. 

She blinked again up at the mystery guy who seemed to be holding her heavy head gently, but the hot, red wetness on his hands that smeared on her cheek said he also knew how fucked she was. He was muttering something, was there someone else here? Oh god, where was Steven? 

“Steve-” Came her broken murmur, but the metallic taste crawling its way up her throat cut her off as a blob of viscid blood rolled down her chin. 

“He’s here, he’s okay. It’s gonna be okay,” Said the voice back to her, his grasp on her hair tightening as she garbled. The breath, life, was leaving her now. Every time she tried to get air into her lungs, she was met with more of the thick liquid spraying into her mouth, her chest retching for oxygen.

She didn’t have long left, she realised numbly. 

The room was blackening round the edges even more now, sped up by the way she felt her hands grabbing his arm in a panic. She’d thought she would welcome the cold hands of Death, it wasn’t a stranger in her home. Death rooted himself in her very soul, and yet as it dragged her under consciousness, she couldn’t help but feel like a scared little girl and she tried to cling onto the mystery figure as if he could keep her from Death’s greedy clutches. 

It was sweet poetry, knowing she was drowning from the inside out. She had always known her biggest monster lay within her, in her every cell, festering and rotting her, since the moment she was born. There was really no other perfect way to sum up her whole life than it ending this way, choking on her own body. Grabbing onto a stranger, trying to plead for help as a few precious tears wet her face and she realised she was crying. Scared, vulnerable to her own demise like she had always known she would be. 

How do you fight off a monster coming from within? You don't. You can’t. So she didn’t. 

No amount of soft words or desperate touches on the figure helped her, it only made the departure messier, a bigger pool of blood for them to find her in.

The world felt surprisingly calm the moment she was snatched ruthlessly into Death’s open arms.

#Steven grant x reader #Steven grant fanfiction #Steven grant imagine #marc Spector x reader #marc Spector imagine #marc spector fanfiction #Jake lockely x reader #Jake lockely imagine #Jackie lockely fanfiction #moonknight x reader #moon knight x reader #moonknight imagine #moon knight imagine #moonknight fanficiton #konshu x reader #konshu imagine #layla el faouly #Oscar Isaac x reader #Oscar Isaac imagine #Oscar Isaac fanfiction

[corpocyborg]

WIP WEDNESDAY

Tagged by @merge-conflict! (Thank you!)

I'll share a bit of Chapter 4 that I don't think you've seen yet, @merge-conflict, since it's newer.

From Secure Your Soul Chapter 4 - Hall of Mirrors:

As the loading screen appeared, [V] said to [Jackie], “There's more we can offer each other, if you’re interested.” 

“More? This ain’t enough for you?” His initial answer came quickly. But after a second, he sighed and added, “Like what?”

“You’re new to the Valentinos, right? Got contacts there. Could pull some strings. Keep you safe, help you rise.”

“Valentinos wouldn't make deals with ‘Saka.”

“Are you sure about that?” 

“Yes,” he insisted. “Honor means something to 'em.”

“Honor means something to us too, Jackie.”

“Right.” His voice was heavy with sarcasm.

The loading screen reached a hundred percent. She unplugged the drive and handed it to him, then closed the laptop and placed it under her arm. “Think about it,” she told him as she pulled out one of her business cards. “Here's my contact info.”

He took the drive from her and plugged it into the port in his head, confirming that the data was on it. Then he took her business card. “Okay. I'll... think about it.” He started to turn away, but then he paused and asked her, “What about Blackburn?”

It took her a second to place the name. “The guy who hired you? He's a dead man. But you don't care about him.”

“How would you know?” 

She chuckled slightly. “If you did, you'd have brought him up way earlier.” 

Tagging: @illusivesoul @kirschewine @fereldanwench @luvwich @gamerkitten

No pressure! Only if you feel like sharing something!

#she's such a dick #cyberpunk 2077 #valerie locke #jackie welles #wip #secure your soul: a cyberpunk 2077 fanfiction

[looby1302]

I have found no Jackie and Cole fanfiction, so decided to write it myself. I hope you all enjoy. This is part one. Please be kind I’m not much of a writer ❤️ let me know if you want part 2!

COLE AND JACKIE

My life with the Walter boys.

Guilty conscience 

This carries on from the ending of my life with the Walter boys, the Netflix series.

Before Cole can say anything to Alex, in response to his question. Alex takes out his phone and Calls Jackie. It goes straight to voicemail. “ I’ve already asked you, what did you do?” Alex shouted. Cole Mumbles in response, “ I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’ve done nothing”. “ I saw the teapot, I saw it in her room, and now she’s just suddenly vanished, it’s not a coincidence Cole. I know that you’ve done something, you just couldn’t help yourself could you!.. There is no way that she would leave without saying goodbye”. Alex walked out the room.

Cole lays there in his bed, staring at the note. Thinking if he had made a mistake. Did he get the wrong end of the stick? Did he make her feel uncomfortable?. And then the thought of her lips pressed against his entered his mind. And any doubt subsided. He could feel her moan against his skin. Her hand snaked around the back of his head, pulling him in closer. There’s no way he got it wrong.

He pulls out his phone, looks up New York and presses the call button, just like it did with Alex. It goes straight to voicemail. He hangs up. and typed out a text.

“Where did you go? Please call me. We need to talk.”.

Meanwhile Jackie, uncle Richard, and Danny. All arrive at JFK Airport. They get their luggage. get into Richard’s car, and head to his apartment. as soon as the key enters the door lock, Danny looks around with a big smile on his face exclaiming, “that this is gonna be awesome!”. Jackie can’t shake the feeling though, that she’s forgotten something. She hadn’t planned to leave, but after that steamy, make out in the barn with Cole. She couldn’t bear the thought of breaking Alex’s heart.

After getting all settled in, unpacking, both Danny and Jackie are sat on the couch. Danny asks “ what’s up with you?, you haven’t been yourself since we left, you ok?”. Jackie looked at him, she had an embarrassed look on her face. “Look I don’t know what happened, but you need to be true to yourself Jackie, do you have feelings for Cole?.”

Jackie started to tear up all those thoughts and feelings started to bubble inside her and she couldn’t hold it in anymore “I’m sorry, I can’t”. She stood up and walked into her bedroom. As she slumped on the bed, her hand luggage bag fell over revealing her phone. She picked it up and turned it on while her heart was beating extremely fast. The phone came to life and then beeped 11 times one after the other.

KATHRINE 4 missed calls

GEORGE 2 missed calls

ALEX 3 missed calls

COLE WALTER 1 missed call and 1 text message

As soon as his name appeared it was like a knife went straight through her. She couldn’t bare the thought of him, being left in the dark for the next three months, wondering why she left. as she’s about to get up from the Bed her phone starts ringing, on the screen it, says Cole Walter. She presses the answer button.

“Jackie” she hears in a deep relieved hushed voice.

Please let me know if you want part two, This is heavily Cole and Jackie. Romance, tragedy, smut! Lots of love.

#cole walter #cole and jackie #my life with the walter boys #jackie howard #cole x jackie #Spotify #SoundCloud

[yelenasgreenvest]

Lottie x Nat Band AU Headcanon

Lottie is the good girl, queen bee child prodigy pianist of Wiskayok High School

Natalie Scatorccio is the lead singer of a rock band that covers 70's/80's rock classics

Also in the band is Shauna Shipman as lead guitarist and Jackie Taylor on Bass with Van Palmer on Drums

Shauna and Jackie are constantly bickering and fighting in the background and lowkey dating

Van is dating Taissa who's in another band but both super supportive of each other

Lottie is under a lot of pressure from her parents and her school and the parents fund the school to give Lottie every chance at practising piano and she wins loads of trophies for the school trophy case. a win win scenario for the school and her parents

Lottie and Nat used to be childhood best friends till Lottie's family put a stop to it and made Lottie focus on Piano instead.

Piano has now become a chore for Lottie and she wishes she could do something for herself for just once

Battle of the bands is coming up and the band decide they need a keyboardist.

Jackie designs a flyer and sticks the up around school but the jocks, aka jeff and randy stick Lotties recital flyer over them

jackie doesn't even notice and is ecstatic that her flyers came out okay while Shauna massively rolls her eyes in the background.

Lottie sees the flyer sticking out behind one the recital flyers and decides to show up to their rehersal.

Nat is an immediate "no" to the idea but the rest of the band wouldn't mind.

"As if you've ever heard a rock song in your life" - natalie

"I don't need to, I just need the sheet music and I am good to go" - Lottie

"I like her"- Shauna to which Jackie bickers with her about

Natalie comes around to the idea when they play Everybody wants to Rule the world and it sounds a million times better with the keyboard in it.

She makes Lottie mixtapes and quizzes her on the music when the bands meets privately.

They start to bond and slowly fall for each other

Nat turns the mic to look at Lottie when singing and sings certain lines of songs to make her see her feelings

Shauna and Jackie pick up on the lingering looks between the two girls

"somebody's got a crush" - Shauna sing songs to nat

"I do not" - nat

"Oh really? how come you've never sung crimson and clover to me like that then Nat?" - jackie presses with a smile

"oh shut the f*ck up weirdos" - nat and storms out the door with that knowing smile on her face

Lottie makes Nat listen to one classical song for her

"No, when I say I like 70's music, I don't mean the 1700's" - Nat jokes

"Come on, I've listened to all your songs, please listen to just one for me??" - lottie pleads with her doe eyes

"Fine" - Nat says and the opening melody to Clair De Lune plays

Nat never knew that stupid old classical music could be so beautiful.

Nat and Lottie lock eyes as the music swells

Nat pictures Lottie playing the song, her fingers dancing on the keys with her face locked in concentration.

The song made her want to actually see Lottie play

See what all the hype is about

But then the cold front comes up from Nat and she remembers how Lottie shut her out

When the song ends, Nat turns to make a quick exit but Lottie grabs her hand.

"Thanks for listening" - lottie, and nat leaves

On the next mixtape, clair de lune is tucked into the playlist.

That's pretty much all I got at the moment, but i'd love for someone to write a proper fanfiction of this. I have tons of ideas but just not the time to write at the moment.

#yellowjackets #lottie matthews #lottienat #lottie yellowjackets #nat scatorccio #nat yellowjackets #shauna shipman #shauna sadecki #jackie taylor #jackie x shauna #yellowjackets band au #band au #fanfic #yellowjackets fanfic #lottienat fanfic #lottienat band au #headcanons

[leverage-ot3]

jackie. beloved. the love of my life. my very Good Friend. the answer to my call that echoes from the opposite shore. i don't remember what your eye color is and at this point i'm too afraid to ask (is it blue???? i think it's blue???)

bro wtf we facetime like every day 😭😭😭

#they’re brown/hazel #the fact that you decided to ask me by going on tumblr and sending me an actual ask is sENDING ME #LIKE WHY #THIS IS LITERALLY YOU GETTING SHAMED ON CYBERSPACE FOR EVERYONE TO SEE #it’s the equivalent of that thing they would lock you in in a village town square for punishment #i looked it up it’s called a pillory #that. #babe why are you asking like this 😭😭😭😭😭 #this is going to be forever documented on my blog congratulations #no I do not have fanfiction blue eyes #all-things-breathing #friends #asks #answered asks #mine #not leverage #jackie talks

[igotlockedintothisfandom]

Aieeeeeeee I just recently hit 100 followers! I love all of you a lot you have no idea!

Thank you all so much, I hope you continue to enjoy the content I put out! ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

Love,

R

#locke and key #tumblr #tyler locke #kinsey locke #bode locke #nina locke #rendall locke #scot cavendish #jackie veda #eden hawkins #get this kids a babysitter #angst #fanfiction #they only have one brain cell #key keepers #bodeneedsababysitter2020 #the characters made me angry #so im going to fix season 1 #fluff #cuddles #precious tyler #tyler is a himbo #change my mind #i write on ao3 #im writing hella good angst right now #these children are traumatized #they need help #like ASAP #i hope i make y'all proud #memes

[mirclealignr]

2 YEAR CELEBRATION !

well everyone, it’s been two years writing fanfiction on this site. i don’t get “raw” or particularly open (without some humour mixed in) here, but writing re-entered my life during a time i really really needed it and it’s got me through some tough periods. but i couldn’t have imagined that it would bring me here. i’m truly grateful for this blog, every interaction i have, the mutuals & friends i’ve made, the followers i have, and to be able to share my writing with all of you. it’s been amazing to find people who are as obsessed with fiction as me and this little community here is my safe circle <3

since starting here i’ve expanded my blog so much— so far with 21 fandoms, 57 characters, 174 fics (excluding headcanons), 82 dialogues, and 4215 followers. and still more to come. it’s been super fun so far so here’s to another year !!

fandoms; harry potter, marauders, bridgerton, lord of the rings, pirates of the caribbean, marvel, stranger things, gilmore girls.

u can send more than one (of course) but please send them in separate asks

nothing nsfw please!

[MADAME BOVARY] — tell me your ideal holiday destination and i’ll you who’d go with you! [please specify fandom. these are platonic!!]

[NORTHANGER ABBEY] — send me a gif of a character (from one of the fandoms above) and i’ll write a scenario/blurb for it.

[LITTLE WOMEN] — show me an outfit you’d wear for a seaside day and i’ll ship you with a character [please specify fandom and gender preference]

[JANE EYRE] — give me a page number between 1-300 and i’ll choose a book from my shelf and give you a quote from that page.

[A ROOM WITH A VIEW] — send me your favourite song lyric and i’ll tell you what character you remind me of.

[FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD] mutuals only! get a playlist from me based on your vibes. [inspired by @cupids-crystals ]

[MIDDLEMARCH] — give me a song and i’ll tell you what character it reminds me of.

[MAURICE] — games: cym, fmk, unpopular opinions, ask me some random facts about me etc

tagging some of my wonderful mutuals; @velvetcloxds @cupids-crystals @enviedear @foralwaysandforever @harrysweasleys @henqtic @iliveiloveiwrite @locke-writes @mendesxruel @moonlitmeeks @oliverwoodmarrymepls @retvenkos @swanimagines @sereinegemini @willowbleedsonpaper @nevsluvr @jackys-stuff-blog @scandalous-chaos @cryonme @cap-n-stuff @entishramblings @johnmurphyisqueer @natashxromanovf @mellifluousart @peppers-analytics @spxllcxstxr — im sure i’ve missed people but i love u all <3

#2 year anniversary #mirclealignr

[stephspurs]

A Family Affair | Euro 2020 Football Fanfiction

BESTIES!! PART 10 IS A HOT ONE!! Enjoy reading it as much as I did while writing it (and re-reading it because its probs one of my fav parts of the whole series) Love Always, Steph xx

Part 10 | parte dieci

warnings; heavy-petting, almost-smut, and a hot jack grealish - read at your own risk ;) word count; 2469. writing tools; third person until dashed line, first person thereafter. next update; Monday 16/08 5pm AEST. Updates are three times/week (Monday, Wednesday & Friday)! tags (as requested by users); @footballffbarbiex @obsesseds-world @abysshaven link to fic masterlist here

Longing glances and shy smiles. That  was how Amelia and Ben both spent the next morning at Cobham together, prior to travelling to Stamford Bridge for the fourth match of the season against Aston Villa. The two had spent the rest of the evening relaxing on the couch; no additional kisses were shared between them as they had both agreed to keep things friendly, and no matter how hard Ben tried, Amelia had no intentions of going any further just yet. She had admitted to him something that she had never uttered out loud before: she still needed to work out how to exist without Fede.

While their situationship had been as unconventional as it was, it was still something that Amelia had grown to live with and love. Fede’s personality was unlike no other she had come across, perhaps closest to that of Jack Grealish. Friendly, flirtatious, charming, to the point where she found herself blushing sometimes - not many people had been able to make her shy enough to blush, but Fede had, and now Jack was too.

hot boy grealish

mornin mils, can’t wait to see ya today.

I’ll be the hot one with the good hair and even better ass.

hot gal mils

morning my dear jacky, looking forward to seeing you too.

Is Tyrone not playing?

His bum has always been my fav bum to stare at.

hot boy grealish

cut it out, you.

Banter-filled texts had been a constant stream of entertainment throughout the days leading up to the match. Jack has been preparing Amelia for the possibility of her losing, constantly picking on the girl for being an overachiever and saying that she needs to be brought down a few pegs, having been quite some time since her team had lost a match. Amelia however, with enough self-confidence to rival that of the villa boy, wouldn’t even let him finish his sentences. Far too superstitious for that to happen.

The girl believed in superstitions, and she was not about to tempt her fate. She even went so far as to have her family name and a small Italian flag embroidered onto the inside of her collar of every polo shirt she would wear for match days. She did it at Juventus and organised for it to be done to her new Chelsea uniform. It was a personal choice, something that happened to run in her family also, her father and brother also having the White family name stitched to the inside of their kit. It was a way of keeping them all tied together, no matter what side of the pitch they were on. The Italian flag was there to remind her of all that the country had given her: her grandparents and a chance to be brilliant at what she loves most.

Arriving at Stamford Bridge off of the team bus, Jorgi had insisted she sitwith him and they spoke exclusively in Italian for the 30-odd minute drive from Cobham. Despite Amelia purchasing a new car a few days prior, Jorgi insisted they continue to carpool. It worked out well because now Amelia wouldn’t have to catch the team bus back to the training ground after the match. She had spent the better part of an hour out on the pitch with some of the boys, running through the plays she had in mind before she ushered them back into the changeroom, allowing the Aston Villa men to have their time out on the grass.

______________________________________________________________

“I would know that bum anywhere.”

“Hello Jack, nice to see you too. I’ve been well thanks, so has my bum. I’ll let my face know you said hello, too,” I spoke as I stood up from my crouched position, where I had been tying my laces.

“Just kiddin love, actually no I'm not - I love your bum. But I am happy to see your beautiful face too!” Jack spoke, as he pulled me into a hug - wrapping both of his arms around my head, effectively pushing me further into his chest.

“You saw my face a couple days ago when we were on FaceTime!”

“I saw your bum a few days ago on FaceTimetoo, doesn’t mean I'm not happy to see it!”

“So that's why you like helping me do my laundry, so you can see my backside as I reach into the machine!”

“Now I’m not a religious man, but I have prayed to God a few times that you drop a sock or two riiiiiiight in front of the camera.” He laughed back at my shocked expression.

“Jack! You are ridiculous! Stop being such a perv! No wonder you don’t have a girlfriend” I play-shouted at him as I smacked him with my rolled up matchday program.

“I’m holding out for you, my love.”

“Always the joker, Jack. Get out there and prepare for the worst match of your season.”

“Dream on Mils, we’ve got this in the bag.”

“Sure thing Jacky, sure thing.”

I walked further up the tunnel towards the changeroom, getting ready to deliver my strategy talk to the boys.

“Stop looking at my ass, Grealish!” I shouted without turning around. The boisterous laugh that followed my exclamation was enough to know that I was correct. I didn’t need to turn around to be able to predict what the laddish lad was already doing.

60 minutes of football later.

Amelia was correct in saying that Chelsea were going to win the match, her quiet confidence only getting louder and louder as each premier league match went on. She was apprehensive at first to see if her tactics were going to work in the Prem, or if there was to be some compromise on skill due to the fast-paced nature of the game. So far, however, the Chelsea men were quick learners and even quicker to execute.

One thing she wasn’t prepared for, however, was the absolute worldie that Jack had scored just before half-time at the Bridge. There was an element of familiarity in his goal, recognising the play as one of her own. A small smile crossed  her face after he scored, running to celebrate with the away fans before jogging down past the bench and mouthing a quick “all you baby” at her as he moved back into position. She must have told him about it back when she was in Italy, knowing that there was no chance she would have exchanged her trade secrets to an enemy in the same league. It warmed her to know he paid enough attention to her to be able to practice that on his own with his team and execute it flawlessly in a live game.

What Amelia also wasn’t prepared for was for anyone else to recognise the play. Behind her on the bench sat an oddly-inquisitive Ben. He saw the tactic as it was playing out, recognising the run that Jack had to make to put himself in the box at the exact moment that John McGinn crossed the ball. Better yet, he saw Jack run down the sideline, nowhere near where he should have been, and mouth those words to Amelia. He wanted to know what was going on, was that why she wasn’t ready to commit to him?

Later that same evening.

After a hot shower, Amelia was curled up on the couch, ready to continue the docuseries she was watching the night before when she had an unexpected visitor pop round and confess his feelings to her. Thinking back on the night prior, she was happy that things ended up working out the way they did. Of course she wasn’t exactly thrilled with just how they happened but she could forgive the sweet boy. His intentions were pure and that's not something she was used to. It made her giddy to think about him, and about where things may go in the future.

A ring of her doorbell, almost to the exact hour that it had the night prior, made her get off her couch and walk down the small hall to the front door with a smirk on her face. Expecting to see the same brown-haired, blue-eyed boy that seemed to enjoy ringing her bell after hours. What she saw on the other side, however, was not what she was expecting.

“Jack, what on bloody God’s earth are you doing here?! You should be halfway back to Birmingham by now!”

“Are you gonna let me in love, it’s bloody cold out ‘ere tonight. Come on, shove over,” The slightly-less-than-6-foot-tall footballer commandeered her hallway, shutting the door behind him and locking it. This,  coupled with his overnight duffle bag hanging off his shoulder let Amelia know that he had no other plans but to stay with her.

“Sure, Jack, I suppose you can come in and spend the night crashing in my spare room.”

“Now now, don’t pretend that you’re not happy to see me, love. And a spare room? I believe you promised me a cuddle.”

Rolling her eyes, she couldn’t help but smile at the charming young man. Feeling the blush start to spread from her chest up her neck and across her cheeks, she quickly turned and walked into her kitchen, calling out over her shoulder to ask if he wanted a cup of tea. Feeling a sense of deja vu from the night before, she shook her head and reminded herself that this is nothing like the night before. How could it have been - there was no kissing involved.

“Was that a blush I saw? Do I make you nervous, Amelia?” Somehow, Jack had moved to be right behind the girl at her kitchen counter. Hands on her hips, chest to her back, lips to her ear. Amelia felt herself freeze, and then relax into his hands.

“Jack, please, I don’t think we should do this.”

“Why not, Mils? You can feel it, too. The tension through the screen’s enough to force me into a cold shower most nights.”

And just like the night before, the whistle of the kettle was the only piercing sound resonating around the townhouse. Whilst all she saw was truth behind Ben’s eyes, Jack's eyes were clouded with lust and affection. Just once, she could give in, right?

Leaning her head back to rest on his right shoulder, he attached his lips to the left side of her neck. Hands rolling from the side of her hips, to underneath her shirt, feeling the small navel piercing between his fingers and smirking.

“Didn’t take you for being the kind of girl to have a piercing, Mils,” He spoke into her collarbone, a small nip to the sensitive skin as the girl continued to focus on her breathing.

“Piercings, Jack. I have more than one” She breathlessly spoke, knowing exactly what she was doing now. The admission of having more than one piercing that he could not see was all of the consent Jack needed to continue his exploration of her body.

“Are you going to let me see them, darling?”

“If you’re lucky.”

“I’d say I'm the luckiest guy in the world right now, especially in this position.”

She was unsure how it had happened, but Jack had pressed her further into the countertop. With her back still to his chest, his waist was at the perfect height to press into the small of her back. His leg had settled between both of her own and his hands had found the bottom of her bralette and were gently caressing her rib cage, desperate to get closer to where he presumed her other piercing was.

“We shouldn’t be doing this Jack,” she breathed out into the air, hot air escaping her lungs to resemble what she felt brewing in the pit of her stomach. Desire.

“Why the bloody hell not?” he mumbled into her sweet spot, where her jaw met her neck.

“Because I've been here before. This is bad.” With her eyes shut, he continued his way down her neck. The fabric of her top shifted so he could slide one of her straps down her arm.

“If it's bad, why does it feel so good? '' Whilst his lips got to work on her collarbone, and his hand was busy toying with the elastic line of her bralette, his other hand began to fiddle with her fingers. Entwining them with his own, the kind of strength she needed to feel to make her next decisions.

Pushing back off of the counter, meaning her ass had pushed right into the part of his body where he wanted her most, Amelia turned around and faced Jack. The two stood there, slightly panting, staring at each other. Amelia being the kind of girl that she is, decided that she wanted to have a little slice of the dominance pie. Maintaining eye contact, she lifted the bottom of her t-shirt over her head and dropped in on the floor, that second piercing now very clearly visible through the sheer fabric of her bralette.

“Come on Jack, aren’t you an athlete? What’s got you so out of breath? I thought you’d be able to last a little longer than some heavy petting.” She taunted at the smirking man, wanting nothing more than to mess up his hair as he nestled himself between her thighs. That's exactly the position that they found themselves in not more than 5 minutes later, this time upstairs in her bedroom.

Throughout the multiple rounds of passion that the two so-called friends shared that night, not once had their lips touched. Of course, her lips had touched parts of him and he had definitely been all over a completely different set of lips a few times (and from a few different positions), but face to face, eye to eye, nose to nose - their lips had never met. That told Amelia enough to set her anxiety on fire. Had she just gotten involved with a carbon-copy of the man she left behind in Italy?

The regret seeped through her bones and settled into her heart by the time that the Villa boy had fallen asleep next to her. What had she done? This was not the girl Amelia wanted to be anymore. She was done being the girl that was loved only when the lights went out. She wanted love under the sun, she wanted breakfast by the river, double dates, family parties. She wanted the kind of love that you could never try and hide even if you wanted to. She knew that this wasn’t what Jack was able to offer her. She was grateful for their friendship, she truly was, he made her laugh more than most people but for the first time in a very long time, she was certain that that's all she wanted from him.

Part 11. | parte undicesima

#football imagine #football fic #jadon sancho #ben chilwell #mason mount #declan rice #ben white #jack grealish #tyrone mings #kyle walker #ben chilwell imagine #jack grealish imagine #mason mount imagine #football one shot #tyrone mings imagine #x reader #a family affair fic #steph writes #stephspurs #italian national team #jorginho #federico bernardeshci #jorginho imagine #bernardeschi imagine #juventus fic #juventus imagine #italy nt imagine #england nt imagine #three lions imagine #azzurri imagine

[silver-rings-and-rabbits]

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Landry should have been the one to join the diagnostics team

Long post incoming.

Remember when @playchoices made stories that actually told a story? When there was a slow build-up over the course of several chapters, drawing us in? Remember when everything happened for a reason? Remember when stories actually had a satisfying conclusion (because I don’t actually remember the last time Choices gave a book a satisfying conclusion)?

Landry joining the team would mean the drama would relate to MC and co, centring them to the story, possibly coming full circle to book 1. MC has spent this whole book like Jiminy Cricket: the conscience in someone else’s story.

Having just finished the penultimate chapter of what is likely to be the last book in the Open Heart series...all I feel is emptiness and I think it might be largely because I didn’t care about what was going on.

At the beginning of book 3 (I thought it was a strong opening chapter, but it was all downhill from there) there were a lot of points about things not being what they seem: Bloom’s unsettling attitude, all the shiny new upgrades, Binx, illusion cakes, cutting corners in research to get to the results quicker. I thought this could lead to something dramatic happening in the hospital: a collapse due to shoddy building work, or a fault in the electrics causing a fire (think the subway crash from book 1 chapter 14; dramatic but grounded). MC gets hurt and their LI goes crazy worrying about them and takes care of them for a couple of chapters (maybe the LI gets hurt as well, but I can’t stand the idea of Rafael going through the ringer for a third time) and then this leads to a court case against Bloom, he’s declared unsuitable to run a hospital or something and has to leave but court rules he has to keep funding Edenbrook or something, and then life can finally go on as normal.

Instead, we got a lot of plotlines that ended up dropping off to nothing, and a court case that appeared out of nowhere two chapters ago. Wow, PB, considering how much you’re worrying about funding, you’ve sure wasted a lot of filler on this book. You ruined Ethan for me as an LI by forcing him down my throat in book 2, and now you’ve ruined him as my MC’s mentor with book 3. And then I had to care about this court case that happened ten years prior to the start of the book? No! I still feel like I’m waiting for the main plot to get going and the book has reached it’s end! 

I don’t have high hopes for chapter 16. I don’t think I even have hopes.

Why were you so weird about locking down our LI, given that one of the MAJOR complaints throughout 2 and 3 has been the distribution of screen time? And even when we had the chance to spend time with our LI you glossed right over it: my MC and Raf were about to get it on at the end of the last chapter and they forgot about that in favour of researching Ethan’s case. Would it have killed you to put a scene in before that? Heck, you could have ended the scene with MC looking for comfort, cue a diamond scene with the LI OF OUR CHOICE.

Why did you gloss over Bryce and Jackie’s storylines? Bryce’s family could have been handled better in book 2, and book 3 we see Keiki and his mom for one chapter and Bryce is forced to forgive and that’s that. Alternatively he gets too cocky in surgery, makes a mistake, accepts the mistake and moves on. Jackie had moments in book 2 that make me think she has self-esteem issues: “Go easy on yourself, OK?” “I’ll try” and everything about her chapter 12 diamond scene, but they were never brought up. Book 3 has her thriving as chief resident but one chapter she’s ignoring Jade’s strengths and in the next she realises she’s wrong and that’s all wrapped up. Storylines are usually a little longer than two chapters.

I’d ask why you glossed over Rafael but I already know he was supposed to be dead and a lot of his scenes were just there to keep us from complaining again. I see you @playchoices

Why did you try and set up this jealousy/insecurity plot with Harper and Ethan when that was going to go nowhere except for villainising Harper?

Why was there no PTSD from last year?!?!?!

Speaking of last year, all that drama with Esme boiling down to a scene where she either says hi or gives you the cold shoulder. Somehow I knew that would happen. Her entire character deserved better.

Caroline? I feel like her illness might have been part of the rewrites resulting in a few hastily added lines to remind us that she’s allergic to Bloom.

And the book 1 hearing didn’t have an effect on anything, not even someone being slightly suspicious of MC, and as far as we know Landry got away with all the shit he did. In hindsight, I shouldn’t be surprised that nothing else had consequences.

On the lighter side, the best parts of chapter 15 were Rafael reminding MC of how much he cares, and the chinchilla sensing when MC was upset and nuzzling their cheek. I would die for Spooky.

But I’m tired. I’m so very tired. I can’t even gather up enthusiasm for LoA or AVSP. I don’t want to spend diamonds on them, because LoA might not go anywhere, and AVSP is a one-shot. You have recently developed a pattern of badly-written, disappointing books, and now you’ve destroyed what could have been your crowning glory.

Damn, I thought I’d be angry writing this post but I don’t have the energy for that. Ah well, anything I forgot to say I can save for the finale I guess. In the meantime, I’m off to eat pizza, watch Friday Night Dinner, and write fanfiction to fill the gaping holes you have left in your story.

@playchoices I get that you can’t tell us everything. But you have GOT to do something soon or you will have no fan base left, and you’ll only have yourselves to blame.

#open heart #choices #pixelberry #rafael aveiro #jackie varma #bryce lahela #ethan ramsey #casey valentine #long post

[perriewinklenerdie]

Gave into the fire (Ethan Ramsey x MC)

Open Heart, Ethan Ramsey x MC

A/N:  Hello, hello, hello! Guess who's alive :D Exams are officially over, thank god for that, so that means that writing can be back in session. We also are kinda sorta more or less about a month (and no, I couldn't fit in more 'maybe' words into that sentence) away from OH coming back (I said maybe, because it's an enigma at this point). So yeah, I finally am able to fuel all my brain power into writing (and playing Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled because it's the best game ever and you can't change my mind). I hope you're all okay and taking care of yourselves

AO3 link:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/25362976

Tag list: @paleweasels, @kittykatchoices, @valiantlychaoticbarbarian, @radlovedreamer , @usuallyamazinglyaverage, @strawberrwess @palestazure, @cordoniaqueensworld, @universallypizzataco, @princess-geek, @faithhasnowords, @mightyfangirlofthefandoms, @drakewalkerfantasy, @timmagicktoad, @laceandlula, @greywitchyshots, @llamasgrl, @gingerjane15, @bucket-harrington , @marywrites-things , @ethanplaysfavorites , @mfackenthal , @betelgeusebee , @simsvetements,  @i-only-signed-up-for-fanfiction, @buzz-bee-buzz, @owleyes374, @cora-nova, @aworldoffandoms, @l822, @cream-ray, @ughhhxjazzy, @silverlitskies, @justendlesssummerfeels, @togetherwearerapture, @desmaranj, @edgiestwinter, @friedherringclodthing, @daisy-ashton, @waytooattuned, @choicesgremlin , @lapisreviewsstuff, @the-soot-sprite, @writerapprentice, @chasingrobbie, @choicesobsessedd, @x-kyne-x, @thisperfectmemory, @drakewalker04, @rookie-ramsey, @jlynn12273, @thepinknymph @dr-brianna-casey-valentine, @a-i-n-a-a-s-h @justanotherrookie 

  Enjoy! <3

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Even though it’s been hours since their fate had been decided by a bunch of rich people that were willing to spend their money on their cause, their nerves eased only when they finally sat down in the booth at the bar, Reggie serving them drink after drink. The unsettling feeling that followed them since the day the news of Edenbrook losing its funding has reached them, finally gave way to a wave of relief and unrestricted happiness. At least for one night, all their worries faded away, overshadowed by a glowing victory.

The regular circle of residents has been joined by one more person. Sitting right between Bryce and Sienna was Alex Morrow. Claire and Alex have known each other since they were kids, there was probably no one else that knew her as well as he did. Jackie called him ‘a walking Claire’s diary” and then tried to bribe him into spilling all her secrets, which Claire did not appreciate.

Since he lived in England, they didn’t see each other often. For that reason, her friends have never seen him outside of the computer screen before. Now, there he was, sandwiched between Bryce and Sienna, telling yet another story from their childhood, completely ignoring the kicks he’s consistently been getting from a sitting across from him Claire.

“That’s not how it went down and you know it!” she exclaimed, slamming her palm against the table. “You were the one who set the tree house on fire, I wasn’t even near that thing!”

“You did what?” Jackie choked on her drink, throwing herself into a coughing fit interlaced with a string of laughter.

“It was an accident, most of which was my fault, I admit. But it wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for Claire who decided to announce that my aunt was taking us out for ‘real food’ as she used to say, by which she meant the most gross concoction ever known to human kind. ” Alex admitted, shrugging his shoulders like it was the most logical thing in the world.

“Dude, I was only delivering the news. How is that my fault?”

“We didn’t go out with her and didn’t die eating that abomination, so I say it’s a win in my books. I was seven, my view of the world was different back then”

“So, you’re saying you wouldn’t set that tree house on fire again, just to spite aunt Kate?” grinning widely, Claire took a sip of her drink, her eyes sparkling playfully.

“Oh, hell yes I would, that woman is nasty.” He answered in a heartbeat, nodding his head just a bit too enthusiastically, causing the whole group to laugh. Alex’s eyes scanned the room, coming to a stop at something by the bar. “Someone’s staring. Is that him?”

Claire looked over, not knowing what to expect and at the same time knowing exactly who he was talking about. Right next to Reggie was Ethan, nursing a drink, looking over his shoulder from time to time. Their eyes met and she expected him to look away, but that didn’t happen. Instead, he insistently held her gaze, an unreadable spark causing a shiver to run down her spine.

“You should go talk to him.” Sienna muttered softly, her eyes sympathetic. “It’s been almost two months since you really talked to one another, and I don’t want to push you into doing something you don’t want to do but maybe you guys need… closure.”

“I agree with Sienna.” Alex joined in, looking at her with a smile. “You’ll feel better afterwards.”

Claire looked between the two of them. The whole purpose of staying away from Ethan was so that she wouldn’t have to talk to him. It’s been two months of trying and somewhat succeeding at keeping their relationship professional while trying to not be short with each other when they did have to talk. No one knew what exactly went down between the two doctors, and they wanted to keep it that way.

A war was waging in her head, both sides screaming loudly, pulling her in the opposite directions until one of them won. “Ugh, I hate you all.”

“We love you too!” Sienna called out after her, sharing a tense smile with Alex.

She stood up, squaring her shoulders as she mentally prepared for what was to come. It was easy, right? She just had to… walk up to him and start a conversation. Pretty easy.

Except it wasn’t. Because with Ethan, nothing was ever as easy as it seemed. It filled her with dread almost as much as it excited her, most of the time at least. Talking to him was thrilling, his intelligence challenging her and drawing her in the more she tried to resist.

Being near him was exhilarating. Every last one of her nerve endings was sparking with electricity, her body tuned to his presence. If his behavior towards her was any indication, he was tuned to her too. She moved, he felt the tug to follow. He stepped closer, she felt the invisible force, pulling her to him.

Her walk came to a stop, right by his side. She felt his eyes on her before she saw them, hot and intense trail, enveloping her whole body. When their gazes finally met, there was that spark again, thinly veiled by indifference.

“Hi.” She decided to be the brave one and start the conversation. Though brave didn’t exactly describe the way she spoke the word. Slowly, quietly and shyly, like she was afraid of shattering the fragile balance they managed to achieve in the past two months.

“Hi.” He responded, just as quietly and uncertainly, his shoulders tensing slightly. A long moment of silence followed, their eyes locked onto one another securely, refusing to look away. Finally, after what seemed like eternity, he asked. “How are you?”

“I’m good. So relieved that we’re out of the troubled water. It feels like a heavy weight has been taken off my shoulders. I can breathe again.” she let out a nervous breath, laughing slightly. He smiled at that, his eyes softening just a bit, tension in his body lessening.

“Don’t suffocate on me, Rookie, we can’t afford to lose you.” Ethan’s voice sounded like he tried to be nonchalant, but ultimately failed. It carried so many emotions and had so much depth to it that he himself could drown in it, searching for salvation that was out of his reach. He couldn’t get out of this feeling if he tried. To an outsider, it seemed as though the longer they were so close to one another, the softer Ethan was becoming, the closer to each other they were leaning. Like they were unable to resist it, like they didn’t want to resist it.

“Don’t worry, Dr. Ramsey, you’re stuck with me for a long time.” She muttered, shifting from one foot to the other. Her gaze fell to the ground, the floor suddenly more interesting that the conversation they were trying to have. Finally, she looked up, biting the inside of her cheek for a quick moment. “Anyway, I just wanted to check in on you. Enjoy the rest of your night… Ethan.”

“Claire?” he called out after her, making her turn back towards him. Her eyebrow shot up in question. “Let your hair down. It brings your eyes out.”

A blush spread across her cheeks, accompanied by a soft smile, but not another word was spoken. She felt his eyes on her, walking her back to her friends, and then the warmth was gone once again. He turned back to his drink, trying to refocus and shake off the feeling of her effect on him.

Sienna and Alex waited until Claire sat down, watching with surprise as she took apart the braid that her hair had been in, and only then did they bombard her with questions.

“What did he say?”

“What happened?”

She held her breath before letting it out, shrugging her shoulders with a blank expression. “We… talked. That’s it, actually.”

In the corner of her eye, Claire noticed Ethan getting up and going towards the garden in the back. She tried not to let it distract her too much, tuning back into the conversation her friends were having, but the temptation to follow him has became too strong to ignore. “I’ll be right back.”

Her feet carried her towards him on her own, like she was being pulled by a magnet. Once she was sure that she’s out of her friends’ sight, her pace had picked up, but as she stepped outside, she saw it empty. No sight of Ethan, or anyone else for that matter. Just the soft tune, flowing in the background, blending flawlessly with the wind that moved the leaves on the trees.

Slight movement of the door leading inside the smaller building in the back caught her attention, and suddenly she knew exactly where she was supposed to go. Her hand pushed the handle, closing the door as she stepped into the dimly lit room, her breath shallow and fast, uncertain of what was about to happen.

Pretty much as soon as the door closed, his warmth surrounded her like a thick blanket. His arms went around her and pulled her back towards him, embracing her gently. “I was worried you wouldn’t come.”

“I think you’re lying” she whispered, her hands sliding down his arms until they reached his palms, fingers tangling gently. “You have a hard time staying away from me, and so do I.”

“Are you suggesting I don’t have any self-control, Claire?”

“When it comes to us? No, you don’t.” she responded lightly, leaning back against him. “But then again, neither do I. Prime example is us being here, Ethan.”

He took her hand, bringing it up to his lips for a lingering kiss as soon as he spun her around to face him. She took a step towards him, her other hand resting on the side of his neck comfortably while his other arm slipped around her waist, pulling her as close to him as he could. Eye to eye, nose to nose, body to body, they fell into the comforting motion of swaying, back and forth. Her eyes fell shut, his scent calming her senses, her breathing in sync with his.

“I’m not sure I can let you go.” Claire’s voice broke the tender silence that fell upon them after what felt like forever. His embrace got tighter, his lips pressing against her forehead.

“I’m not sure I can either.”

----------

Rain rang against the windows of his apartment, creating a soft contrast to the discussion they were having. Seated on the couch were two doctors, sitting under a blanket, two cups of now cold tea on the table near them. He raised his eyebrow at her idea.

“That’s it! That’s the one!” Claire’s voice rang out, laced with a delighted laugh. Ethan looked at her in confusion. Mostly because the whole discussion of the ‘code’ seemed ridiculous to him at the time, but he would find out later on that having a silent way to say ‘I care about you’ would come in handy more times than he would be able to count.

“But I do that all the time. How will you know what I mean by that?”

“That’s the added bonus. No one will be able to tell if you’re professing your feelings to me or being annoyed. As for me…” she leaned towards him, her lips brushing against his as she spoke. “I already know that you can’t get angry at me, really, so there’s no conflict there.”

“But-“

“Find some other way to express you being annoyed at me, then, because this one is sticking.” She kissed him, for real this time, climbing into his lap and tangling her fingers into his hair.

“How about you?” he panted after they separated a few moments later, his hands running up and down her back. She combed her fingers through his strands for a bit as she thought her answer through.

“What would you say about…” she tapped her cheek three times, right in the place that he’s always chosen to kiss in the past. “… this.”

His lips followed right where her finger was just a split second ago, pressing a lingering kiss to her skin. “Perfect.”

---------

Somehow, neither of them was sure how, they ended up by the wall, Claire’s back pressed against it as Ethan’s lips assaulted her neck. Her soft moans got lost under the music, flowing from the outside. He tangled his hand into her hair, pulling on it slightly. “I’m glad you followed my advice.”

“I had a feeling you would get your way somehow, so I decided to make it easy for you.”

Their lips met in a hungry kiss, no holding back, no reservations. It’s been a couple of days since they could just let go and not stress about the outside world, and every time they got the chance to do so was a small victory they got to celebrate.

That’s how it’s been for quite some time now. Ethan got fed up with his own stubbornness and decided to give himself a chance to be happy. That meant that he finally got the chance to see where his feelings for Claire would lead him. Very soon, pretty much the moment he kissed her with the purpose of never letting her go, he realized that he has been, in fact, an idiot for trying to suppress this feeling. Naveen has told him, time and time again, that he should stop trying to be correct all the time, and instead go for what was right.

Because what they had was right. It felt right. There weren’t a lot of times in which Ethan could say he experienced ‘right’, but here it was. Claire just… was. And that was enough. It was enough to pull him away from unhealthy work habits. It was enough to pull a smile onto his face. It was enough to pull that heavy weight off his chest. It was everything.

The kiss slowed down, until they just stood there, lips pressed against each other, breathing the same air. When her eyes opened, she found his already on her, filled to the brim with warmth and softness that she didn’t see in there that often.

Her arms went around his neck, pulling him closer to her, taking a deep breath to remember his scent, even though she’s had it memorized by now. “We should tell Naveen.”

���I think he knows” Ethan muttered against the skin of her neck, the motion tickling her a bit.

“We should tell him regardless. Maybe he’ll have an idea as to what we should do. I’m not sure if I can keep you hidden for much longer.”

“I’m that tempting, huh?” he snickered, earning himself a pinch on the side of his ribcage, followed by a shriek as he tickled her back.

“Irresistible.” She breathed out, pulling him into a short kiss, trying and failing to not fall into him again. Neither of them was sure how much time has passed before they came up for air again, but judging by the change in music, it must have been a while.

“Where are you going after the night is over?” he asked, pulling her hair back over her shoulder, smoothing it out to his best ability. She shrugged, her face spelling out innocence.

“My apartment of course.” Her response was met with a low hum, his finger following the line of her cheekbone.

“I think you meant mine.”

“Why? Are you implying something, Dr. Ramsey?”

“Only that I will miss you dearly if you leave me alone, Dr. Herondale.” He admitted with a boyish smile that lit up his features, making him even more handsome in her eyes than he usually is.

“You’re asking so nicely…“ Claire muttered, her lips kissing his chin tenderly. “… how could I possibly refuse?”

They had a hard time letting each other go, pulling the other back in as soon as they got too far, but at last, their embrace broke and she went back to her friends, praying that her appearance didn’t give her away. They’ve gotten good at pretending, but if there was to be any indication of what was happening between them, her friends would pick up on it instantly.

Luckily for her, no one seemed to notice anything, and as soon as she sat down next to Sienna, she was brought into the conversation. If Alex had noticed her being flushed, like she always was when even so much as talking about Ethan, he didn’t say a thing.

About five minutes later, Ethan walked back into the main building with a purpose of going home, where he would wait for her to join him. As he passed them by, he raised his eyebrow at her, and she tapped her cheek three times.

#ethan ramsey #ethan x mc #mc x ethan #dr. ethan ramsey #mc x ethan ramsey #dr ethan ramsey x mc #fic #fanfiction #open heart #open heart fanfiction #choices fanfiction

[thestupidhelmet]

Do you have any fics recs where Hyde and Jackie go on a date?!

Fics I’ve Written

1. Welcome to Hydeville (One Difference: Hyde Doesn't Toss Jackie's Bag) 

Links

Summary: When Jackie tries to prove her coolness to Hyde, Hyde shows her just how uncool life with him would be.

Rated: M

2. Locked Out, Locked In

Links

Summary: Jackie confronts Hyde at the Fotohut months after their first real kiss, but he locks her out in every possible way.

Rated: T

3. One Difference: The Answer’s Probably Yes 

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Summary: In a desperate act, Hyde seeks advice from Jackie, a girl who thinks he's scum. He's not fond of her either, but she makes him a crazy yet strangely-appealing offer.

Rated: M

4. Not Just For Show

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Summary: After ignoring Kitty at the Kenosha auto show, Red intends to prove his devotion to her. He enlists Hyde's help, but Hyde's relationship with Jackie causes Red trouble he didn't anticipate.

Rated: T

Fics I’ve Read and Enjoyed

1. Sweet Summertime: Ferris Wheel by nannygirl 

Summary: Jackie and Hyde ride a Ferris Wheel and one of them isn't too happy about it. Find out who and why! 

Rated: K+

2. Valentine's Day in Point Place: Valentine’s Day by nannygirl 

Summary: [This installment] stars Hyde and Jackie. There's not particular season that this occurs in, though in my mind as I wrote it I pictured it a few years into the future since there was a Valentine's Day episode is season five, and after that the timeline gets weird, lol. But really it's completely up to you.

Rated: K+

3. Sweater Weather by nannygirl

Summary: It's a chilly day in Point Place and Jackie is without a sweater but has her eye on her boyfriend's. A short Autumn JH story.

Rated: K

4. Hidden Stash Box: Chapter 6 by nannygirl

Summary: Today I have for you a new mini-oneshot with one of the most popular pairings in T7S fanfiction: Hyde and Jackie.

Rated: K+ 

5. 13 Fanfics of Halloween: Couples Costumes by nannygirl

Summary: [This installment stars] Jackie and Hyde, and though there's not particular season for it, I myself kinda pictured it taking place in season 5

Rated: K+

Fics I Haven’t Read (So I Can’t Vouch for Their Quality)

1. A Day in the Park by alyak0807 

Summary: What happens when Hyde and Jackie decide to go on a "date" together at the Six Flags theme park? Short one-shot. No specific timeline. Enjoy!

Rated: T

2. Daddy's Girl by DemonicXaliv

Summary: Jackie's father would do anything to keep his little girl happy. Even if that something was paying the burnout, Steven Hyde, to date her. AU

Rated: T

#That 70s Show #That '70s Show #Jackie x Hyde #Jackie Burkhart #Steven Hyde #Ask #Anon #Fanfic Rec #Fanfic

[xthexrawringx20sx]

who are your comfort characters? wanna talk about them for a bit? :)

oh my god thank you so much!!!!! i actually went to my computer so i can type better/faster with shaky hands lol

added a read more because it’s long

tw for: hallucinations/delusions, idk what else let me know if i need to tag it!

okay so...some of these are because i’m a dumb kinnie but yeah lmao

uh. basically the entire avengers group, but specifically the first movie time period. yknow the fanfictions about them all living in the same place and clint climbing around the vents and thor eating poptarts? yeah, that kind. kinda cringy but i used to vividly daydream living there and them all being my friends.

in a similar note, the most popular creepypastas that were involved in the “slender mansion” type of fanfic/headcanons are also super comforting! i used to imagine that ticci toby, ben drowned, and jeff the killer were all like. my best friends and we’d have huge cuddle piles or whatever lmao

the grunkles from gravity falls! i’m a dipper kin so i guess that makes sense, but even before i knew that they were super comforting. stan because he’s grumpy but still cares about his family, and also just...how easily he accepted people into his family (like when it shows how/why he offered wendy a job, soos, etc). ford because he’s weird!! and everyone’s pretty cool with that! honestly everyone in that show is comforting because they’re weird and it’s okay! seeing how he’d be so involved with whatever dipper was obsessed with made me so happy.

also winnie the pooh! it reminds me of when i was a kid and had sleepovers with my nanny (grandma) because i moved schools a lot and was bullied constantly so i never really had any friends. we’d watch winnie the pooh, chitty chitty bang bang, milo and otis, and sometimes random movies with jackie chan/abbott and costello/elvis because they were her favorite. also mary poppins! i remember she’d let me stay up late and watch whatever i wanted as long as i didn’t tell my parents about some of the games she played on her computer. that was my favorite, because i could watch adult swim and teen titans and goosebumps without getting in trouble

anya from anya’s ghost! i’ve mentioned this before, but she is such a big comfort to me. her negative body image, developing bad habits just to fit in, and forcing herself to change to just...disappear/be “normal” is so relatable. especially when she talks about how her mom is an immigrant from russia and she’s trying to leave all that behind. i really relate to that because that’s something i’ve experienced a lot and felt so alone with it (my mom + grandma are from germany). that distance from who you are, knowing almost nothing about your family, is hard. i’d hear classmates list off family members who were some of the first europeans in america, then i’d be able to back 1-2 generations to say something about germany, and on my dad’s side irish and native american. but that was it! and everyone on both sides of my family know almost nothing about our family past that because here it was a reason to be bullied or hurt. kids would joke that i was from space, or that i was a robot or a bad person and i was “hiding” stuff about my family. i dealt with horrible jokes about world war two. and once i read that book, i cried knowing that someone else understood. someone else felt alone, like that part of them that was supposed to be so important was just...gone. that someone else knew their parents + their siblings, their grandparents, and nothing else.

all of welcome to nightvale. all kin stuff aside, this is about the weirdness and how normal it is. but also, how janice is treated specifically. in old oak doors, when kevin is telling her dad about how they’ll basically “fix her” so she can walk, he tells him that she doesn’t need to be fixed. all my life, any sort of disability has been viewed as either my fault or something that needs to be fixed. my parents tried everything to cure my diabetes, and it eventually led to them blaming me for it at parts of my life where i was still coming to terms with it. i wasn’t diagnosed with anything for most of my life, my mom genuinely thought my scoliosis just “went away” along with asthma. disability was a bad word in my family, and still is. if i can’t fix the issue, i’m supposed to hide it/act like everyone else. they shame me when i can’t do a bunch of things because of my legs or back. they tell me every way i can fix it, even if those things will cause me more pain and suffering. it’s nice to see someone’s disability treated like a part of them, and not something that needs curing.

dan torrance from the shining/doctor sleep. especially doctor sleep. i know they’re not hallucinations, but when i saw it i just...felt so much for him. i’ve tried a lot of things to get rid of hallucinations. some of which i still struggle with. i kind of sometimes imagine him telling me that it’s okay, that they might seem real but that i’m in control even when it doesn’t feel like it. the part of the movies where he locks them in boxes? that’s one of my coping skills. it doesn’t always work but it makes me feel better when it does. i can’t always convince myself they’re not real. that’s the hardest part, so many of the advice i see involving hallucinations/delusions is making yourself believe they’re fake. but i can’t always do that! like right now, i know logically what is outside shouldn’t be there. but they’re there, they’re big and scary and very real. it helps to feel like someone’s there telling me “it’s okay, we’ve seen scarier and can make it through this”. not anything like “it’s in your head”, “they’re not real”, etc because they are and it makes me feel like i can’t trust people when they do that randomly.

that’s all i can think of right now, thank you so much it helps me a ton to just ramble like this! sorry it’s so long and probably a little embarrassing...have a wonderful day/night!!

#thank you! #hallucinations #tw hallucinations #tw delusions #tw psychosis #psychosis tw #i think that's all? #comfort characters #asks

[septic-dr-schneep]

​JSE Fanfiction - Imperative

A/N: A general follow-up to this. Warning for drug addiction/aftermath.

Recovering from the addiction felt worse than being addicted.

Every inch of Jackie’s body ached as he hugged the toilet, sweat and vomit beading down his face into his beard. The mere fact that he’d sprinted all the way here before his stomach ended up on his bedroom floor was a miracle, considering the dizziness and sleeplessness that had possessed him these past…How long had it been now? Every day was a blur, one more spin around the same ride. He could only hope Henrik kept a more conclusive chart than he did.

Shivering against the cold air drifting from the overhead vent, he inhaled the stench from the toilet bowl and held it, biting down against his gag reflex. In the silence he could hear his temples pounding. They kept it up all day, all night, like a drum solo that never ended, and the strictly regimented pills he received were just barely enough to assuage it. The cost of progress.

Frustration and anger cramped his chest with nowhere to go as he struggled to maintain the hold over his lungs. Could anyone truly call this progress? Why did this have to be so hard when getting addicted had been so easy?

He was meant to be a stronghold for his city and his family, a protective force that wouldn’t—couldn’t be shaken until his work was done.

The air burst from his lips in a feeble gasp, not quite a laugh, almost a sob. His gag reflex quieted, leaving his throat raw and tight. Drained, he leaned his heavy head against the toilet rim. He was empty as the nearby bathroom cupboard, his pack, his stashes, and there was a combination lock on each of Henrik’s cabinets now.

In all honesty, none of them mattered. Jackie had the strength to tear them all off without a second thought; Henrik had to be well aware of that, but every one was a test of his trust. One broken lock would break Henrik’s heart, and hadn’t he done enough of that already? Not to mention what might happen if Marvin found out.

The tremors trailing through Jackie’s body shook him with more noticeable force. He and Marvin were not on good terms; he didn’t want to think about how much trust had been lost there. To Marvin it didn’t matter if Jackie was trying to get better. He probably wouldn’t forgive him until he was completely clean again. Marvin had been forced to take over his role as leader and protector, pouring into Henrik and now the newborn.

The newborn. Chase Brody. Did he have any idea how much they had to thank him for already? It was his innocence that made Jackie even consider weaning off. He was ashamed to be in front of him like this—which was probably why he jumped when he heard his voice from the bathroom doorway, young and uncertain.

“Jackieboy? You okay?”

Cheeks burning, Jackie turned his head, trying not to look him in the eye. What was he going to say? What could he say?

“No…” he rasped faintly. “Not yet.”

And that was all it took. Chase’s eyes lit up with concern for this man, this supposed hero, who he barely knew, and he came to a decisive nod. “I’ll get you some water.”

If that didn’t make his heart turn and his vision blur, Jackie wasn’t sure what could. Chase was a chance for a clean slate, someone he hadn’t screwed up with yet. He had a feeling that was exactly who Jack meant him to be.

#youtube #jacksepticeye #fanfiction #youtube fanfiction #writersofjack #jackieboy man #marvin the magnificent #dr schneeplestein #chase brody #addiction #withdrawals #whump #angst #backstory

[thdorkmagnet]

Light of the Sun and Star Chapter 39: Once Upon a Starco

Summary: His whole life Marco Diaz has been raised by monsters, living under the cruel rule of their leader, Toffee. But one day Marco escapes into Mewni where he meets a magical princess and Mewman like himself, who begins teaching him all about her world. Together they will learn about life, love, and the lights within each of them, as they change their world forever.

Chapter Synopsis: While Marco and Janna are busy in the Impure village, Star tells the twins a bedtime story, one that happens to include a young couple that is quite a bit similar to another couple we all know and love. Just a cute mini-chapter for you all.

Check out my other stuff on Fanfiction! 

Index

Disclaimer: Star vs and all its characters are owned by Daron Nefcy and Disney. All rights go to them.

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Star sat on the floor with her young cousins watching as they played together with their toys, trying to fight back a yawn as exhaustion threatened to take over. It had been a very long day for her. After Marco and Janna had left for their "camping trip," Star and Jackie had spent a couple of hours playing and entertaining Daisy and Violet, trying to distract them from their pestering thoughts and questions about where the others had gone off to.

That was until the blond had been whisked away by a group of servants, telling her that the princes and princesses had arrived for their meeting. That had let to a strenuous few hours of peace talks (it seemed Star's Free Travel Act had done the trick on calming many of the more violent Monster's fears, giving them more free reign to come and go as they pleased in the other kingdoms all except the stubborn Johansen's but Star and Rocky were starting to get them to crack), dodging bits of pudding sent her way by the messy Glossaryk, and, of course, Pony Head's long-winded speech about how she was the prettiest member, leading to everyone collectively agreeing she was just to get her to finally stop.

But that had hardly been the end of it, practically the moment Star called the meeting to adjourn, Violet and Daisy had appeared (almost as if they had been waiting in the shadows for her this whole time) jumping in her lap and telling her to come play with them. Before the blond royal could even think to decline, they had each grabbed onto a hand and pulled her out of her chair, eagerly dragged her out of the room and straight into theirs. They had picked up their game right where they had left off which Star spent the rest of the day finishing with them. Jackie had joined in at some point (Star really couldn't say when) and had been happy and eager to play along with the three Butterfly's.

Now it was all Star could do to stay awake, her eyes threatening to close at any moment. The only thing keeping her going at this point were thoughts about Marco, wondering where he was and what he was doing. She'd be lying if she said she didn't miss him terribly and the only good thing about staying busy was that it kept her mind off of her boyfriend and friend's escapade into the unknown.

Still, despite her efforts, Star felt her mind beginning to drift, her body leaning heavily against Jackie, who sat on the floor beside her. "Star!" came a tiny yell and the blond royal sat up straight, snorting once as she was forcefully pulled from her sleep. She looked over with droopy eyes as the twins glared at her, Daisy shouting, "You're supposed to be helping us save the princess from the ferocious dragon!"

"Oh right," Star said, yawning into her hand. "Where were we again?"

"The princess was locked in the tower after being poisoned by the dark mage," Violet explained quickly.

"Dark mage?" Star repeated in confusion.

"Yeah, y'know Star, the one with the magic ball that can see the future," Jackie pitched in helpfully, giving Star an encouraging glance.

"Ah yes, that dark mage," Star said with a nod, trying to hide her smile.

"Okay than Star you can beeee..." Violet began, rifling through their toys for one that fit her cousin, frowning in concentration.

That was until they heard the dreaded call. "Girls, it's time for bed." Star and Jackie looked over to see Lily standing in the doorway, only to jump in surprise as the twins began to whine loudly.

"But moooommm," Violet cried. "We're in the middle of our game."

"Well you can finish it tomorrow," Lily replied, her face neutral despite her two grumbling childrens' best efforts to break her.

"But we won't remember where we're at," Daisy said, giving her mom a pouting look.

"Well I'm sorry but bedtime is bedtime," their mother stated fairly, showing zero signs of changing her mind on said subject. "Now go brush your teeth and get ready."

The two rose reluctantly, angrily stomping out of the room, still mumbling things about how unfair their mother was or how stupid bedtimes were. Star had been watching quietly, not wanting to risk jeopardizing her aunt's efforts, that was until she heard little Daisy whisper, "This stinks, Marco's not even here for our bedtime story."

This caused Star to pause, her mind wandering to her boyfriend for just an instant, and without thinking, she rose to her feet and said, "I could do the bedtime story tonight, y'know since Marco's not here to do it."

Everyone in the room turned to Star in surprise at this statement, but the girls quickly asked in elation, "Really?!"

"You promise?" Daisy added a second later.

"Sure, why not?" Star said with a confident shrug. "But you have to get ready super quick or I won't be able to."

The girls let out a cheer before racing down the hall to the bathroom, not wanting to miss out on an opportunity like this.

Lily watched her daughters go, before turning to Star with a worried frown. "Are you sure about this, Star?" Lily asked as she looked her niece up and down. "You look awfully tired."

"Aw, I'm fine," Star said with a wave of her hand, ignoring the stiffness in her body at the sudden motion. Or the fact that her brain was trying to desperately shut down for the night. A promise was a promise and she didn't break those, no matter what. "I can handle a simple bedtime story. How hard could it be?"

…

Star watched as Lily finished tucking Daisy and Violet into bed: kissing them on the forehead, pulling the sheets up to their chins, brushing the hair out of their eyes, the whole works, all the while, the blond was doing her best to look awake and alert, despite not feeling either. She made sure to sit up straight in her chair in the hopes this would somehow convince her aunt. Jackie sat beside her, her body facing backward on the chair with her head resting on its back as she watched the mother-daughter moment silently. If Jackie was tired, she didn't show it, her eyes full of energy and radiance even at this moment, but Star thought she could spot her friend's body drooping just a little bit more than usual.

Once Lily was done, she said softly to the girls, "Goodnight, my darlings. Behave yourselves for Star."

"Night mom," Daisy and Violet replied in soft mutters, sounding like they were already half-asleep.

Star smiled as she watched Lily exit the room, closing the door softly behind her. See, she told herself. Nothing to worry about. I'll be lucky to make it through one book before they're asleep.

The moment the door was shut though, the girls sprang up from the bed, instantly ruining their mother's efforts to tuck them in, bright and (more importantly) energetic smiles on their faces. Daisy hopped off the top bunk, using the side railing to help fling herself onto her sister's bed, landing on the soft mattress with a giggle. The two began jumping on the bottom bunk while chanting, "Story! Story! Story!"

Star's mouth dropped open, unable to believe the girls could have so much energy this close to bedtime, while her mind simply commented, Or maybe not. But luckily for her, Jackie was able to regain control of the situation. "Girls, if you don't calm down Star might not want to read to you two tonight," she said simply and the two instantly ceased their jumping. They laid back down on the bed, side by side, and now facing toward Star, their heads propped up on their elbows and their little legs kicking behind them. "Okay, we're ready," Violet said in a barely contained shout.

Star stared at the girls blankly for a second, until she felt a tap on her shoulder from Jackie and quickly snapped out of her stupor with a shake of her head. "Oh right," the blond royal said, bending down to look through the books she had grabbed from the shelf beforehand. "So what would you guys like to hear? We've got 'The Princess and the Peacock' or 'The Littlest Piggoat'. Oh here's one of my favorites from when I was a kid, 'The Year the Stump Stood Still'!"

"Star, Big Brother doesn't read us a bedtime story," Violet stated as if it were obvious.

"He doesn't?" Star asked, looking up at the two with confusion.

The girls shook their heads. "No. He tells us a bedtime story," Violet replied.

"Wait, he does," Star said

"Yep!" Daisy said with bright enthusiasm. "Big Brother's the best at bedtimes stories!"

Star wasn't too surprised by that. Marco was the best at everything he did, always putting his heart and soul into every task. But while normally she admired that quality about him, she now realized just how difficult it was going to be to try and take his place. How could she possibly follow in his footsteps when he was most likely leagues ahead of her on the story game? Especially since she had never done anything like that before. But she knew she needed to say something so she asked, nervously, "Okay, um, well, how does Marco usually start?"

"Once upon a time," the twins said as one.

"Right, uh, 'Once upon a time...'" Star began hesitantly, looking over to Jackie for help, but the skater girl just shrugged, mouthing, 'Make something up'.

"Once upon a time," the blond royal repeated, biting her lip as she looked around for any idea of what to say next. Her eyes landed on the small dragon toy sitting on the floor and she said immediately, "Once upon a time there were dragons."

The twins shared a look, before Violet asked, "Dragons?"

"Yes. Hundreds of dragons who lived in mountains and volcano," Star said, thinking on her feet.

"Were they nice dragons?" Daisy asked curiously.

"Uh yes, they were very, very nice dragons." The blond royal paused as she saw Violet starting to look bored, rolling her eyes. "All... except one."

This gained the creepy child's attention as she instantly perked up and stared at her cousin with a curious expression and Star felt a spark of inspiration, wanting to keep their interest longer, saying in a dramatic tone, "A horrible, bad dragon who would go around burning down people's houses and villages. The people hated the bad dragon but he was too powerful for them to stop."

"What a meanie!" Daisy shouted, her cheeks puffing up in anger.

"Why didn't the other good dragons stop him?" Violet asked.

"Because they were afraid of the bad dragon," Star explained, growing more and more confident with her story as it went on."But one day while one of the good dragons was out flying, he found something..."

"What? What did he find?" Daisy and Violet asked as one, their cheek marks glowing more than usual.

Star smiled confidently, knowing she had the two right where she wanted them, saying softly, "A young boy."

…

The dragon was in the middle of his morning flight, enjoying the cool morning breeze brushing against his scales as he soared through the endless blue sky, when he heard a cry from the world below. The dragon curious what the sound was began circling the area, listening intensely for any further sounds. After a few seconds, more cries were carried up to him by the wind as if warning him something was wrong and begging for his help. The dragon feeling his heart go out to whoever was in need decided to fly down and see what was making all the racket.

He descended quickly, the clouds parting as he finally was able to spot the source of the cries, a small baby lying in the soft grass, screaming its head off. The dragon was surprised to see the tiny soul, completely alone with no signs of any people nearby. It seemed like the baby had crawled away from his parents. The dragon raised its nostrils and sniffed the air, hoping to smell humans nearby but instead got a whiff of smoke and ash in the distance and turning in that direction he could see the dark pillar rising in the distance. It seemed that this boy was alone after all.

The dragon looked back down at said child, the lone survivor it seemed of the terrible accident and wondered what to do with him. He watched as the child continued to scream and cry, its tiny legs and arms kicking and waving wildly, and the dragon decided right then and there to help the child, knowing its heart couldn't take the sound of bawling much longer.

So, very slowly it flew closer to the child, waiting for its screams to turn to ones of fear, as did most things when they saw a dragon for the first time. But to the dragon's surprise, the child didn't scream or cry, it started to laugh, its chubby little hands reaching out to touch the dragon's snout.

"Wait! The baby liked the dragon?" Violet interrupted loudly.

"Yes," Star said.

"But why? Wasn't it afraid?"

"I guess the baby knew the dragon was friendly and wasn't going to hurt him," Star explained.

"Yeah Violet, that was obvious," Daisy added with a know-it-all tone.

"Was not!"

"Was too!"

"Ahem," Star said, clearing her throat. "Can I please continue the story now."

"Oh right, go ahead," Violet replied.

The dragon startled by the child's reaction stared at it in confusion for a second. But seeing its innocent, smiling face staring up at with no fear or concern, the dragon moved closer. It snuffled the boy's hair with its large nostrils, checking to make sure he wasn't hurt, making the baby laugh again. But seeing no damage to the child upon closer inspection, it very gently used its snout to push the boy over onto his chest so that it could grab onto the back of the baby's shirt with its massive fangs, being very slow and careful to avoid hurting him, before lifting off the ground again and flying away.

"Wait shouldn't the dragon check and make sure the baby's parents really aren't around, cause otherwise wouldn't he be kidnapping him?" Daisy suggested.

The dragon lifted off the ground again and flew away, but not before sailing over the burnt down village a few times to make sure there weren't any other survivors, eventually coming to the conclusion that the baby was indeed the only human around and flew him back to the cave he lived in.

…

"So why'd the dragon decide to raise the baby himself?" Violet asked, cocking her head to the side with a curious look.

"Cause it was the right thing to do," Star explained simply. "He saw the baby needed help and did what he could to help him."

"And he did it cause he loved the baby, right Star?" Daisy added, giving her cousin a bright grin.

Star nodded. "Uh-huh, that too," the blond royal agreed. "The dragon became the baby's dad and took care of him."

"Aww, that's so sweet!" Daisy cooed, squishing her cheeks with her hands as her eyes shimmered with joy.

Violet hid her own smile, finding that very sweet too but not wanting to show it. "So what happened next, Star?" the creepy child asked.

"Yeah did the bad dragon find out about the baby?!" Daisy exclaimed in fear.

"Well, you two will have to be quiet so Star can tell us," Jackie reminded them and both girls immediately covered their mouths with their hands to stifle any further outbursts. Star giggled at her cousins' antics before continuing the story where she had left off. "Now where was..." the blond muttered. "Oh right, so after that, the boy spent years living in the cave with his dad and the other dragons..."

…

Many, many years went by and the boy lived in peace with his dragon family. But with every passing year the boy found himself craving knowledge, curious about the outside world, and although he loved his family very much he wanted to leave to see the world. But the boy kept his secret dream to himself, fearing hurting his family's feelings by telling them his true desires, knowing he was safe so long as he was in the caves.

Or so he thought.

One day, the bad dragon found out about the boy and became furious. He knew this boy came from one of the villages he had burned down and was angry that someone had managed to escape right under his nose.

"I knew it was the bad dragon that burned the boy's village down!"

"Violet shhh!"

And not only had the boy survived but the others had kept him a secret from the bad dragon all these years. The bad dragon was so enraged that his roar shook the mountaintop, making the earth beneath the boy's feet rumble, causing him to shake in fear. The bad dragon then declared that humans were not allowed to be in the caves and that he should be cast out at once.

The other dragons said they wouldn't do this for he was their son and they loved him.

The bad dragon laughed evilly, a horrible, terrible sound that made the boy shake even more. "Love?" he fumed. "You fools actually believe in such a pathetic emotion. Love makes you weak, love makes you helpless. True strength comes from hatred and since all of you have forgotten this then you can stand aside so that I may dispose of this nuisance myself!"

The bad dragon went to gobble the poor boy up, who was too frightened to move, but before he could the other dragons did the unthinkable... they attacked the bad dragon!

The bad dragon roared in anger as his own kind fought him, shouting vile curses at them, but the others did not care, they no longer feared the bad dragon's evil. Then the good dragon, the one that had found and raised the boy, shouted to his child, "Quickly, you must run from here and never come back!"

The boy obeyed, turning and running from the cave as fast as he could, he never looked back but he shivered as he heard the bad dragon promise to get his revenge on the child for causing the dragons to betray him. The boy kept running and running and running until he was far away from the mountains, the cave he had once called home but a peak in the distance.

When the boy did finally stop, he was tired, his legs hurt and his lungs ached. He collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath, his heart still pounding in fear from the bad dragon's chilling words and threats. Only now, looking around him the boy realized that for the first time ever, he was all alone. There was no one to comfort him or take care of him and the boy felt sadness creep into his heart as tears spilled from his eyes.

…

“Aww, that's so sad!" Daisy suddenly said, her face full of sorrow for the imaginary boy. "He had to leave his family and everything! He must be so worried and scared!"

"Did the bad dragon find him?" Violet asked, her eyes full of intrigue. "And what happened to the other dragons? Where did-"

"Whoa, whoa, slow down," Jackie spoke up with a small laugh. "I'm sure Star's getting to that."

"Yeah, don't want to spoil anything before I get there," Star added, winking over at the twins.

"Okay," Violet agreed with a small nod. "So what happened next?"

"Wellll," Star replied, biting her lip in thought. "The boy met someone.”

"Who'd he meet?" Daisy asked curiously.

"U-Uhhh... h-he met," Star stuttered nervously, the pressure getting to her as she struggled for an idea.

"A dark mage?" Violet suggested.

Star nodded with a relieved smile, but she paused before saying, "A light mage."

"Oooohh even better," Daisy said, her eyes sparkling with joy.

Violet made a face of disgust, even going so far as to stick her tongue out and gag, before muttering under her breath, "Speak for yourself."

…

The light mage had been out for a stroll in the beautiful woods, enjoying all the simple joys the morning had to offer. She loved seeing nature and hearing the gentle call of the birds or feeling the wind breathing against her skin, it gave her more delight than all the magic in the world. At least, so she thought. For on that fateful morning she was about to meet someone who would become a new, even greater, source of joy in her life.

“The boy!”

“Daisy shhh!”

The light mage quickly picked up on the sound of sobs and sorrow and was immediately drawn to it, her heart aching and her kind nature seeking to soothe the troubled soul she could hear nearby. She made her way toward the sound, her steps quick and hurried, wanting to help him as soon as possible, but when she did finally emerge into the clearing, she stopped, her heart doing a double-take. The boy was quite adorable if she was being honest, even if the sight of him crying was heartbreaking to behold. He had soft brown hair that danced in the gentle breeze, a pair of gorgeous chocolate brown eyes that seemed to be endless the more the mage stared into them, which she found herself doing as tears poured from there with no sign of stopping. His clothes, which consisted of just a hoodie and jeans were a bit too big on him, making him look somehow even smaller and more delicate. Everything about him screamed innocence and the mage was taken aback that such a gentle soul could even exist.

The boy, meanwhile, had finally noticed the mage's presence and he found himself staring mouth-agape at the beautiful form before him. She had long, almost glowing blond hair that seemed to match the color of sunshine itself, vast blue eyes that looked like a piece of the sky had been captured and replaced with her pupils. Staring at her outfit which was a blue robe and skirt, a magician's hat, and purple boots, the boy realized she must be someone important if her fancy clothes were anything to go by. And if that didn't tip him off of how special she was, then the large magical staff he could see strapped to her back was a dead giveaway.

The mage quickly recovered from her shock, though, as she raced over to check on the boy. "Are you okay?" she asked, bending down and examining him closely. "Did you get hurt? Is that why you're crying?"

The boy shook his head, his cheeks flushing some in embarrassment. "No. I'm fine."

The mage let out a breath of relief, before asking him in concern, "Well what are you doing out here all alone? You're lucky you didn't get attacked by a beast or something?"

"I-" the boy began but tears burst from his eyes again, making it impossible for him to continue as he wept pitifully. The mage watched him for a second, before gently wrapping her arms around him in a hug, hoping to soothe his troubled mind. She brought him closer to her chest and he happily rested his forehead there, tears continuing to stream from his eyes as all his worries and grief flowed out of him.

The two stayed like this for minutes on end, the girl rubbing gentle circles onto his back, while the boy soaked her clothes in tears, but she didn't seem to mind. Finally, the boy was able to recover enough to chock out, "I lost my family. The bad dragon- he took them away from me!"

"What?" the mage said in confusion, pulling out of the hug and holding him at arm's length. "Bad dragon? What are you talking about?"

The boy sniffed a few times, rubbing at his swollen eyes, before he confessed to her, telling her his story, leaving out no detail as he laid his soul bare for her. And when he was done he burst into tears again as the pain of all he had lost came crashing down on him again.

The girl's heart plummeted as she listened to his story, finally understanding why this boy was so torn up. That sounded awful, he had been through so much in such a short time. "There, there," the mage soothed, pulling him into another comforting hug. "Everything will be alright. I'm sure the other dragons are fine, dragons are nearly indestructible, even fighting one of their own. "

"But what can I do?" the boy cried. "The bad dragon will be hunting me now, I can't go back if he finds me, he'll- he'll-"

"He won't!" the mage said firmly, squeezing his small frame in a protective embrace. "He won't ever find you or hurt you. Not on my watch!"

"Wait, what-what are you saying?" the boy asked his cheeks blushing a deep red.

"I'm saying I'm taking you with me," the girl said, leaning back so she could look into his eyes, giving him a warm smile to try and battle the coldness of the bad dragon's actions. "You can stay by my side and I'll protect you. I have magic, so even a dragon as powerful as the one you spoke about won't be enough to stop me. What do you say?"

The boy blinked, in complete disbelief by this girl's offer. Was this girl for real? Did she really want someone like him, someone who barely understood the outside world and all its complexities by her side? Was she really offering to protect him even though they had only just met? It seemed almost too good to be true.

"Um, are you sure you want me to stay with you?" the boy asked hesitantly. "I mean, we kinda just met and I'm not sure how helpful I'll be to you."

"Nonsense," the girl insisted, giving him a positive grin. "I wouldn't ask if I didn't want you to come with me. We may have just met but I can see you have a good heart. And I'd like to help you if you'll let me."

The boy paused for a second, before he nodded, a smile slowly growing on his face. "Okay, yeah, thank you so much. I promise you won't regret it!"

The mage squealed in joy, glad to finally have some company on her long journey. It could be very boring traveling alone. But she recovered quickly enough, clearing her throat as she stood, offering the boy a hand up which he eagerly took. "Then come on, let's go find you something to eat, I'm sure you must be starving by now," the mage said sweetly as she led her new friend away from the silent clearing.

Suddenly, a loud rumbling sounded and the boy blushed bright red as his stomach humiliated him at the worst possible time. The girl just laughed though and said with a wink, "I'll take that as a yes!"

"Uh, haha, yeah," he sheepishly muttered, his cheeks still a darker shade of red than his hoodie. But trying to quickly change the subject he asked, "So where are we going anyway?"

"Wherever we want," the mage replied, grabbing the boy's face and pressing it against her own while she did a cute little dramatic flourish to the world around them. "We do what we want, go where we want, and let nothing hold us back! What do you say?"

The boy's eyes glittered with joy at that. Go wherever they wanted. See the world. That was literally his dream come true! It seemed like he couldn't have picked a more perfect companion and protector. What were the odds of him meeting someone with the same desire to travel and explore as he did?!

"I say that's perfect!" the boy screamed, pumping his fists into the air, his heart practically leaping from his chest he was so excited. "Th-That's all I've ever wanted to do! I can't believe I'm actually going to see the world!"

The blond giggled. "Well since you're so excited, I'm gonna have to show you some of the wonders I've come across since I started traveling!" the girl said with a bright grin.

"Really? Like what? How many?" the boy asked, his curiosity beyond peaked at this point.

"Oh wow, there's kinda more than I can count actually," the mage replied thoughtfully, before putting an arm around the boy's small frame. "But don't worry, we've got all the time in the world to see them."

…

"Wow, that is so romantic," Daisy said with a wistful sigh. She paused letting out a tired yawn, before continuing, absentmindedly rubbing at her eye. "They are so perfect for each other. They should totally get married."

"They can't get married yet, Daisy. They just met," Violet pointed out, although there was hardly any emotion in her tone at all, showing the first signs of drowsiness, her head leaning heavily against her arm and her eyes just barely beginning to droop.

"Well that never stopped mom and dad," Daisy replied, her own head beginning to lull to the side as if fighting to stay upright. "Mommy said they got married after only two dates."

"Mommy also said that she and dad didn't get along and that's why he left," Violet argued weakly. Star and Jackie, meanwhile, shifted uncomfortably in their chairs, feeling suddenly awkward at the sudden turn in the twin's conversation, neither sure if it was a good or bad thing the way the two casually talked about seemingly terrible events in their younger lives.

"Then they weren't really in love," came Daisy's immediate response. "Unlike the light mage and her friend, right Star?" The two girls looked over at their cousin for conformation, hoping she could straighten this argument out.

"Uhhh," Star began hesitantly, the sudden pressure to say the correct thing causing her to freeze. A quick glance over at Jackie yielded no results as the skater just shrugged and gave her an equally lost look to the one she currently felt. A part of Star even debated on running to go get Lily in hopes of avoiding having to engage in this conversation herself, but seeing the quizzical looks on the girls' faces staring at her with such intensity, she knew there would be no easy way out of this situation. So she just sucked in a deep breath and told them in the most straightforward way possible, "Well some people are good for each other and sometimes they're not. Things don't always work out but that's okay."

Daisy and Violet gave the nervous Star a confused look, before the latter simply asked, "So do the light mage and her friend love each other or not?"

"Uhh they care about each other and sometimes that's the first step to falling in love," Star explained, feeling a little less uncomfortable now that the focus was off of Lily and her past failed marriage.

The twins nodded at that, before Daisy said, "Yeah, I guess that makes sense." Star breathed a sigh of relief, only to immediately freak out as the cutesy girl added, "I mean, that's what you and Big Brother did when you fell in love, right?"

Star let out an unexpected squeak, her cheeks flushing a deep red, in total shock by Daisy's out of nowhere question. "U-Um well, yeah I guess," the blond royal replied, still trying to will away her blushing cheeks as she stared off into an abandoned corner of the room in hopes of not having to meet anyone's eyes. "Only, I'm not sure if we're..." Star began only for her voice to trail off, not even sure where she was going with this conversation now.

Thankfully, Jackie became Star's saving grace, telling the twins, "They haven't said 'I love you' yet. Right now they just really care about each other a lot and that's okay too." The two girls nodded in understanding, before letting out simultaneous yawns. "But right now, I think it would be best to let Star finish the story before you two sleepyheads fall asleep on us," Jackie added with a grin.

"I'm not a sleepyhead," Violet said with a halfhearted pouting look, still struggling to keep her eyes open.

"Me neither," Daisy added, her head now leaning against her sister to try and stay upright.

Star and Jackie shared knowing smiles before the blond continued her story.

…

The light mage kept true to her word, showing the boy almost every inch of the beautiful world they lived on, the boy finally seeing exactly what he had been missing living in a cave all his life. And the boy was not disappointed, every day was filled with new adventures, new sights and wonders some of which he couldn't have thought up in his wildest of dreams, and every moment he spent on the new world was better than the last.

And it was all thanks to his new friend.

The boy couldn't thank his blond companion enough for allowing him to experience such wonders but whenever he mentioned such things the girl would just shrug and tell him it was no big deal. Even though, to the boy, it was the biggest deal in the world! And part of him felt bad that he had no way to repay the light mage, even if she insisted just having him there was all the payment she needed.

Which wasn't too surprising considering who he was dealing with, the boy didn't think he had ever met someone so nice before, this girl's kindness seemed to know no bounds, the boy witnessing first-hand how she used her magic to help others. She would cast spells to help get cats out of trees, or save people being carried away in a flood, or fend off dangerous beasts, or even just something as simple as creating a meal for a hungry family. And to the boy, it seemed like his new friend didn't seem to have a selfish bone in her body.

The more time he spent with her, the more he grew to care about her as she quickly became the most important person in his life. So much so, that the boy wasn't sure if he loved going on adventures because it was what he always wanted or because he had his blond friend there to experience it with him. Either way, he wouldn't want to change a single minute of their time together.

For whatever reason beyond either of their understanding, the two got along flawlessly. They laughed and joked with each other like they had been friends their entire lives, talking for hours on end about whatever was on their mind while being sure to pay close attention to what the other had to say, and just taking care of each other. Whenever the boy would cook meals he would be sure to give his friend an extra portion even if it meant losing some off of his own plate, while the girl would oftentimes give up her own blanket if she noticed the boy looking even slightly cold at night. The two were more than just companions or friends, they were each other's family and they depended on one another more than they could ever know and the two silently vowed to never part, to stay together forever no matter what.

Or at least, so they hoped.

One day the two arrived at a small town, one that even the light mage in all her travels had never come across and the thrill of a new adventure caused both of them to grow eager and excited. They rushed around the village, pointing and gawking at every new sight they saw, taking in as much of the town as they could at once. But as they ran around, brown and blue shining with fascinated interest, they made sure to hold hands so they wouldn't risk accidentally getting separated or lost. This was a pretty common thing for the two of them to do when they were out and about, after one particularly traumatizing incident where the boy lost sight of his friend in a crowd and had thought he heard a dragon roaring in the distance, curling up into a ball out of fear the bad dragon had returned to exact his revenge. Now the two were much more careful and aware of where the other was at all times.

But as the two explored the village, so lost in their own thoughts, they didn't notice a dark form descending from the clouds above, nor did they notice the citizens of said village pointing and muttering amongst themselves at the odd sight. But as the dragon slowly came into view, the people were entranced since none had ever seen a dragon before, most didn't wander out this far from the mountaintop and many began speculating why a dragon would journey all the way there.

But their curiosity turned to fear and then to panic as the dragon suddenly let out a hot breath of fire, lighting the tiny village aflame. The people screamed and scrambled to escape, finally alerting the two teens of the bad dragon's appearance. They looked over in shock as the dragon continued its assault on the town, flames continually shooting out of its mouth as it tried to coat every rooftop in its destructive heat.

The light mage immediately drew her staff, preparing to attack the creature, but the boy stopped her, putting a shaky hand on her arm. The girl watched as her close friend shivered and shook, despite the rising temperature, his eyes wide and full of fear as he told the mage between chattering teeth, "That's him. th-that's the bad dragon."

The light mage's eyes widened as she looked from her friend to the dragon and then back, asking, "Are you sure?"

The boy nodded. "Y-Yes. P-Please d-don't fight him. He's too powerful!"

The blond didn't reply at first, just watching as the dragon continued to burn the innocent village down, her grip tightening on her staff as her desire to help these poor people was almost more than she could bear. But looking into the pleading eyes of her friend, she knew she couldn't, she had to focus on the most important thing right then, getting him as far away from the horrible beast as she could. Then she could focus on actually fighting the thing.

So, without a word, she grabbed her friend's hand and began leading him away from the horrible scent of ash and screams of terrified villagers, swallowing down the lump in her throat as she did so. She never turned, keeping her eyes trained on the opened gate leading out of the village, which the other people were pouring out of, and she did her best to push her way through the crowd without hurting anyone. But that was before she heard the roar, one that made her bones rattle and her head spin, but it was what followed after that caused her heart to plummet as the dragon loudly called, "There you are, boy! You thought you could escape from me!"

The two turned and watched as the dragon dived for them, dark, sinister smoke rising from its mouth as he sailed toward the two. The boy screamed, clinging onto his friend in fear, but the girl just pulled the staff out from behind her back and shouted, "Crystal Shield!" Suddenly a barrier formed around them and the dragon bounced off it with a loud roar of pain. The two smiled in relief, watching as the dragon shook its head, letting out low groans of annoyance before its beady eyes fixed on them again.

Soon flames tumbled from its mouth, hitting the barrier but it held under the intense heat. The blond waved the staff around before shouting, "Winterstorm Hyperblow!" and the shield instantly dispersed as a blast of cold magic shot out toward the dragon, instantly diminishing it's flames as puddles of melted ice fell to the ground.

The dragon opened its mouth to shoot flames again, but the mage was just a little bit faster than it was, chanting, "Raspberry Ribbon Lasso!" Glowing red ropes shot out of the staff, wrapping around the dragon's mouth and sealing it shut. The dragon growled in anger, smoke shooting out of its nostrils as it strained against the magic ropes, even using its sharp paws to try and claw its snout loose.

The blond, knowing that wouldn't hold for long, turned to her friend and shouted, "Quickly, you need to run from here! Get as far away as you can!"

The boy felt tears in his eyes, as a feeling of deja vu over-powered him and he shook his head frantically. "No! No, I won't leave you!" the boy shouted, grasping the girl's shoulders.

But she shrugged him off, saying in the calmest tone she could, "You have to. It's the only way! I can't fight this dragon and keep you safe, too," Still seeing the hesitancy in his eyes she added, "I'll come find you once this is all done, I promise."

The boy didn't say anything for a second, just staring lost into his friend's crystal eyes but finally, he obeyed her wishes turning and running from the village while wiping the tears from his eyes with his sleeve.

The mage watched her friend go, before turning around to face the dragon with a glare. The dragon finally managed to free its snout, but to her surprise, instead of attacking the dragon began to laugh, a low, throaty chuckle that put the mage on edge. Its beady eyes narrowed on her as it bent down so it was level with the girl, its hot breath wafting against the girl's skin, making her shudder. But all it did was whisper, "You shouldn't have done that. Now the boy will be mine."

"No he won't," the blond snapped, raising her staff to cast another spell. But the dragon was for once quicker, using its long tail to smack into one of the ash-covered buildings causing it to collapse, the rubble crashing down onto the mage. Once the mage was buried under a mountain of rubble the dragon lifted off the ground, no longer interested in finishing off the village, not when his revenge was so close at hand.

A few flaps of his wings and he spotted his target below, the boy running as fast as he could, but he was no match for the speed of a dragon. The dragon smiled evilly, before swooping down, its talons opened and ready to snatch up his prey. The boy turned at the last second, barely having a chance to scream before the dragon's thick claws latched into the back of his hoodie lifting him off the ground, holding him easily in just one of its massive paws. The boy, of course, struggled uselessly, scratching and kicking in any attempt to break loose, while screaming noisily to be let go or for his friend to come rescue him, but it was all pointless, the bad dragon had him again and this time he wouldn't be letting him go anytime soon. With a steady beat of its wings, the dragon carried its hostage far away from the burning village, eager to get home and soak in its glory.

The pile of rocks were flung aside as the barrier the light mage had created expanded before disappearing, thus freeing her from her predicament. She panted looking around for any sign of her friend, calling his name as she began running for the gate, hoping to somehow save him in time. But then she spotted a dark form on the horizon, she came to an abrupt stop, her heart aching as she listened to the faded but still desperate pleas of her friend, screaming for her to help him. The girl collapsed to her knees, lacking the strength to stand as tears poured from her vision, watching in failure as her friend was carried away from her forever.

But her tears of defeat, soon turned to determination as she remembered the promise she had made to him. No, she couldn't give up. She would save him. She wouldn't let this be the end of her friend. She would find him and rescue him even if it killed her. And so, gritting her teeth, she forced herself to stand, her hands clenched so tightly around her staff it was beginning to rattle. She spun the staff around a few times in her grip, letting the magic she needed gather, before she shouted, "Summoning Cloudy Charm!"

A pink, smiling cloud with wings appeared next to her. The blond didn't waste a second as she climbed on, letting herself get situated in the fluff as she shouted, "Follow that dragon!"

"Aye, aye, ma'am!" the cloud spell said, before zipping off in the direction the dragon had went. The blond mage watched intensely as the dragon's form stayed far ahead of them. Although the cloud was fast the dragon was faster and his head start meant they wouldn't be able to catch up to him before it reached its cave. The blond let out soft breaths to try and calm herself, while whispering, "Please let me reach him in time. Please don't let me be too late."

…

The dragon's lair smelled of ash and decay, the stone walls coated in scratch and burn marks from whenever the dragon would become enraged (which was often). The ground itself was hot to the touch, magma and molten lava resting just under the surface, making staying inside it unbearable for anyone but a dragon. The area was fairly well-lit by a fire pit in the center of the space, currently being used to roast the dragon's dinner, a large slab of meat which was already beginning to burn and ruin in several places not that the large reptile minded. He preferred it that way.

The boy sat with his back up against one of the walls of the cave, hugging his knees to his chest as his frightened eyes watched the dragon wearily as it focused for now on its food and not its prisoner, which the boy was thankful for. The boy risked a look around, trying to think up some sort of escape. Despite his attention being elsewhere, the dragon still kept his body close enough to the exit that making a run for that would be a death wish and the boy shuddered to think what this creature would do to him if he did attempt such a perilous escape.

But then again he also knew staying would end up just as badly considering how many piles of bones he could see scattered about the cave, the boy guessing they were from either creatures hunted and brought there like the boy or had been stupid enough to enter the dragon's domain on their own, but whichever it was the boy dreaded coming to the same fate. Beads of sweat poured from the boy's brow both from his growing fear and the suffocating heat and he shifted uncomfortably.

This seemed to draw the dragon's attention and the boy nearly choked on a gasp of fright but did his best to keep his eyes level with the beast, despite wanting nothing more than to cower away. He licked his dry lips and asked nervously, "What do you want from me?"

"Revenge," the dragon said simply, poking at the cooking meat with a sharp claw.

"Revenge?" the boy repeated hesitantly. "Revenge on who?"

"On those fools who dared to defy me," the dragon growled, the rumbling low its throat causing the boy to shudder. "They thought they could keep you from me, but I found out, I always do. And then they attacked me! Nearly killed me. It took me weeks to heal, I will make sure they all suffer the same fate."

"What does that have to do with me?" the boy asked fearfully.

The dragon grinned evilly at the child, its beady yellow eyes full of dark promises as it replied, "You. You're the example. Once I'm done with you, the dragons will not dare to defy me again, lest they suffer the same fate."

The boy felt his heart stop, swallowing once in fear, both for himself and his family, while his body began to shake from head to toe. "You-You won't get away with it," the boy defiantly replied, but it was halfhearted due to the noticeable quiver in his voice. "My family will come and so will my partner. She'll save me from you."

The dragon laughed at that, its wings expanding as it rose to its hind legs, wrapping its arms around its scaled belly. Once it was through with its laughter, its front claws slammed into the ground, cracking the stone beneath it and causing the whole cave to rumble, loose rocks and dirt raining down from above. The boy whimpered and pulled his legs a little tighter against him. "That mage is buried under a mountain of rubble," the dragon hissed out, looking incredibly amused by the boy's fearful expressions. "She will not be saving you. In fact, I doubt she will ever see the light of day again."

"No," the boy gasped out, tears flooding his vision as the dragon above him just roared with laughter again.

"Think again," came a determined voice, a blast of magic cutting off the dragon's cruel laughter, striking the dragon's snout and causing the reptile to stumble back in pain and surprise. The boy looked over to the entryway and nearly cried with relief as the blond mage stood triumphantly on a floating pink cloud, looking more beautiful and majestic than the boy had ever thought possible. She leapt from the cloud, landing delicately on the hot stone as she twirled the glowing staff expertly around in her hands.

The bad dragon had recovered enough to notice the girl, baring its sharp fangs at her as it hissed, "How did you survive, mortal?"

The blond gave the beast a smirk, replying smugly, "Easy, I couldn't die yet." Her eyes met the boy's as she added, "I made a promise I need to keep." The two smiled at each other, a look of love and longing passing between them, before a loud roar interrupted the moment. The two turned just in time to see the dragon releasing a breath of fire at the mage, who quickly cast, "Cooling Confetti Cannon!" and a cannon appeared beside her, shooting off bursts of ice-covered confetti that exploded as they met the dragon's fire. The dragon did his best to hold the cannon off but was soon overpowered and hit by the colorful explosions himself, his body covered in the rainbow substance as he growled in fury.

The blond, seizing her opportunity ran to her friend's side. "Hey, you okay," she began, only to stumble back in surprise as the boy threw his arms around her in a tight hug, one that caused the mage's cheeks to flush bright red.

"You came, I knew you would," he whispered into her shoulder and she smiled before hugging him back tightly.

But the hug didn't last long as the dragon had finally managed to destroy the annoying cannon, a blast of fire causing the spell to undo, poofing from existence. The dragon satisfied that the device was now gone, turned its attention onto the two teens. As its beady yellow eyes met them, the blond raised her staff to cast another spell but the dragon's tail lashed out, knocking both of them to the ground. "I've got you both now," the beast declared superiorly and the mage heard the dragon draw in a breath, no doubt to burn them both to a crisp, and ignored the ache in her body as she reached for her fallen staff, her fingers just inches shy of grabbing it. "No!" she shouted in despair, feeling the heat on her skin as the dragon's flames shot towards her and her friend.

But the flames stopped just in time as something suddenly struck the dragon's snout, making it let out a sharp wail of pain. The blond looked behind her to see the boy picking up bones from the floor and throwing them at the dragon, most of them managing to hit their target who growled in pain and annoyance. The blond smiled before rising to her feet, snatching up the staff as she did.

While the boy was providing a necessary distraction the girl breathed in a deep breath, feeling the magic filling her being as she tried to remember the necessary chant. Although she knew of a spell capable of destroying a dragon, it was a long time ago since she learned it and she was having trouble remembering the exact wording.

But before the mage could get a word out the dragon roared, "Enough!" before raising his wings in a single violent flap, the gust of wind that followed striking the two teens and sending them tumbling, the staff bouncing against the stone floor, now far out of her reach for the both of them.

The two teens rose slowly, grunting in pain before they looked up fearfully at the dragon that now towered over their fragile forms. The two, fearing what would come next, rose to their feet and tried to make a run for it but a plume of fire appeared before them, effectively cutting them off from the staff and any means of escape. The two tried to double back only for a second wall of fire to spring to life in front of them, effectively trapping them and leaving them at the mercy of the dangerous reptile.

The stared up in fear as the dragon loomed above, smoky breath pouring from its lungs as it shouted, "I will not be bested by such pathetic creatures!"

It sucked in a deep breath, preparing to burn the two to a crisp again and the two teens did the only thing they could think to do in that situation, they hugged. As the dragon breathed a final, sentencing breath the final thought that passed through both of their heads was that at least when someone found their charred remains they would know that they were friends.

But to both of their surprise, there was no pain and the two peeked opened their eyes in confusion. Only for both of their jaws to drop open as a new large form stood protectively in front of them, blocking off the fire with its own scaled body and the boy gasped in recognition of the old dragon that had raised him.

The bad dragon barred its massive fangs as the newcomer, hissing, "Get out of my way, old fool, or else pay the price!"

"No," the other dragon said defiantly.

"What do you plan on accomplishing?" the bad dragon asked, the two now pacing around in circles, trying to size their opponent up. "You will die here, you cannot hope to best me on your own."

"Then it is a good thing I didn't come alone," the other dragon replied, before a dozen more dragons quickly filled the cave, flying in from the shadows it seemed, some even busting through solid rock or emerging from the ground, covered in molten hot lava and glowing a bright red."The other dragons!" the boy shouted in disbelief. "They came too!"

They all began circling the evil reptile, clawing at him or shooting him with flames, while the bad dragon did its best to hold its own against a new army of opponents. "Get away from me, fools! You will regret defying me! You will all pay!" it shouted, though its voice was now desperate and full of obvious fear.

The older dragon, turned to the two teens, asking, "Are you two alright?"

The two nodded dumbly. "Good," the dragon said in relief, before using his long tail to put out the wall of flame blocking their path saying, "Quickly, while he is distracted."

The two snapped out of their daze, nodding once in determination, before grabbing hands, running over to the mage's fallen staff, dodging the battling dragons along the way. Ducking and weaving to avoid being burned alive or crushed under massive feet, without ever letting go of each other's hands.

Finally, they reached the staff and blond was forced to let go so she could pick it up, holding it out in front of her with both hands. She made sure to keep her aim steady, her staff pointed at the evil dragon at all times, as she let out a few slow breaths as she recited the spell from memory, "I call the light upon my side, to vanquish evil and turn the tide." The girl closed her eyes as magical energy began to surround her and the staff which glowed with otherworldly power. "Brightest power do hear my cries, to save the heart of the one I prize." The boy watched mesmerized as the girl's body began to glow pure white, her form nearly floating above the ground as the magic continued to cycle around her. "Cleanse my soul and fulfill my might, by destroying this foe.. with unyielding light!"

With that final sentence, all the magic came spiraling out of the staff, a flash of light flooding the dark cave and blinding everyone within as a loud roar echoed off the stone walls. But as suddenly as it came, the light was gone again, leaving everyone blinking as they struggled to adjust to the dim lighting once more. The mage panted, collapsing to her knees, the last of her magical energy depleted, leaving her tired and sore.

The others eventually recovered from the unexpected spell, staring in shock at the state of the bad dragon, a large rock statue now standing in its place. The dragon's scaled body was now made of thick marble, its body reared up on hind legs as if in a final, desperate attack, and its once dark eyes now blank and lifeless. The dragons and boy stared at it for a few seconds more before all cheering in victory at the bad dragon's defeat. No longer would it haunt them or cause them to cower in fear. They were free.

"You did it!" the boy exclaimed, helping his friend to her feet. "You defeated the bad dragon! You protected me, just like you said you would!"

The blond smiled at her friend, before saying sweetly, "We protected each other." The two pulled into a tight hug, grateful and relieved to be safe and together once more.

But the boy pulled away as he saw the dragon's approaching. The old dragon knelt down, telling him softly, "Thank goodness you are okay. We were worried sick about you, my child."

"Well I'm okay, thanks to you guys," the boy said in a choked tone. The boy ran up to the dragon, throwing himself onto its large snout in a make-shift hug as tears streamed from his cheeks. "I thought I'd never see you again!" the boy sobbed and the dragon let out a purring sound, nuzzling its nose against the boy as the other dragons gathered around to do the same, making him giggle and sob at the same time as dozens of noses rubbed up against him.

The blond mage smiled at the sight of the boy reunited with his family. But it slowly turned to sadness as she realized that he was now where he belonged and no longer had any need for her. Her heart fell as she realized this was the end of their adventures together. She was now alone, once more. But, despite her sadness, she knew better than to get in the way of the the touching reunion and decided it best to just show herself out, walking slowly for the exit, her head down.

The dragons finally pulled away from their youngest as the oldest said apologetically, "I'm sorry you were forced to be alone for so long, my son."

The boy shook his head, replying, "But I wasn't alone. I had someone taking care of me the whole time I was away." With that, the boy ran over and grabbed the blond's hands, causing her to blush with surprise as she was dragged back over to the dragons. "She was always there for me when I needed her and when I was at my lowest she took me in," the boy continued, pointing to said girl, who smiled hopefully and lovingly at her friend. "I've learned so much about the world because of her and she's easily the most important person in my life and I don't know what I would do without her."

The boy turned to her with a vibrant smile, one that set the mage's inside aflutter. "She means everything to me."

The mage returned the smile with one of her own, tears beginning to form in her eyes."I feel the exact same way," the blond whispered as brown and blue continued to meet. And then working up the courage she added, "Because... I love you."

The boy froze while all around them the dragons fell into chaos all cheering and crying in surprise, some even bouncing around the cave in delight that their youngest had found his soulmate. But the boy's eyes never left that of the mage's and after a few seconds, tears spilled from his own eyes as he said in a choked tone, "I love you, too."

And then, as if by some unseen force the two moved towards each other at the same time, their lips meeting in a passionate and intimate kiss that sealed their love and bond forever. The world around them vanished, time falling away, as all that existed was the two of them. Just the two lovers and their kiss, signifying not the end of their journey but the beginning of a new one, one they would now share together as one.

…

"And so the dragons were freed from the evil dragon's reign, the mage and her adventurous friend continued to travel the world doing together, and they all lived happily ever after... the end," Star finished. She let out a long sigh, glad to finally be done, it had been fun coming up with a story on the spot but pretty mentally draining and her already tired body could definitely use some rest about now. Still, she put on a smile as she looked over at the twins saying, "So girls, what did you think?"

But Star blinked a few times in disbelief as she saw the two sleeping forms of Daisy and Violet, their bodies leaning up against one another as they snored softly. "Yeah, they kind of fell asleep a while ago," Jackie told her friend, looking like she was struggling to stay away herself, staring almost numbly down at her phone.

"When?" the blond royal asked her friend and the skater shrugged.

"Probably somewhere between the mage and boy going on adventures and the bad dragon showing up," Jackie guessed.

"So wait they didn't hear any of the ending?!" Star asked in disbelief.

The skater nodded.

"Why didn't you say something?" the blond exclaimed in exasperation, though making sure to keep her voice down enough to avoid waking the twins.

"I tried to but you were in your own world and didn't seem to notice the world turning," Jackie replied. "So I figured I'd just let you finish up on your own."

Star immediately buried her head in her hands, annoyed as she realized she could have been done half an hour ago and already be catching up on some much-needed sleep, instead of wasting time finishing a story that no one was even listening to. "I can't believe I just spent an hour and a half telling them a bedtime story," the blond groaned softly to herself.

"Well if it makes you feel better, I thought it was really good," Jackie tried and Star let out a quick breath.

"Thanks," she said, giving her friend a heartfelt if not tired smile. Star turned her attention back to the twins and ignoring her tired limbs she stood, saying, "Come on, help me get them tucked in."

Jackie obeyed, creeping over to the bunk bed with Star, the two moving slowly and carefully to not wake the sleeping kids as they went about their respective actions. Jackie gently picked up Daisy, before laying her back on her own bed, pulling the covers up to her chin, while Star scooted little Violet onto her pillow, wrapping her in blankets and making sure to place her Charles plushie at her side, so she could cuddle with it if need be.

Once both girls were properly tucked in, Star and Jackie tiptoed from the room, Jackie flipping off the lights on the way out, leaving the room completely dark save for the flower nightlight Daisy liked to have on in case of bad dreams. Star paused briefly at the door, whispering softly over her shoulder, "Good night girls. Sweet dreams," before slowly closing the door shut behind her.

Once the teens were on the other side, they both let out simultaneous sighs, Star leaning heavily against the door as they both fought back their exhaustion. "Well that was a lot harder than I expected," Star muttered, massaging her aching eyes with her hands.

"Yeah, I know right," Jackie agreed. "How does Lily do that every day?"

"How does Marco?" Star added, sounding genuinely impressed with her boyfriend. "I can't believe he comes up with a new story every night! I could barely come up with just one."

"Well, it is Marco we're talking about here," Jackie pointed out and Star nodded, a loving smile flashing across her face.

"True," Star said softly, clearly daydreaming about a certain hoodie-wearing teen.

"Speaking of, I couldn't help but notice your story seemed pretty familiar, don't you think?" Jackie said, pretending to be pondering this as she tapped a finger to her chin while shooting her friend a teasing look. "Almost like you were speaking from experience or something."

Star blushed bright red, turning her face away to try and hide from her friend's quizzical and yet knowing stare as she quickly denied, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Uh-huh," Jackie said, a playful eyebrow raising as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Just like you have no idea about the hoodie you have hidden under your pillow right now, right?"

Star let out a startled squeak, turning to Jackie in surprise as she asked nervously, "How do you know about that?"

"I didn't," Jackie replied, before shooting her friend a wink. "Until just now."

The blond royal froze for a second, before her bashful look turned to one of annoyance, as she hissed, "Oh that was just mean!" Jackie laughed unashamedly at her clever trick, her playful smile never straying from her face. After a few seconds, Star smiled back, but added in a clearly forced, angry tone, "Y'know that seems more like something Janna would do, not you Jacks."

"Well, since you were filling Marco's role earlier, guess it's up to me to cover for Janna," the skater replied.

"I think we have enough of Janna as is without you copying her, thank you very much," Star said, doing a fake roll of her eyes.

"Come on you know you miss her Jannanigans as much as I do," Jackie pressed.

Star giggled once at that, before admitting, "Well, maybe a little." She paused before adding softly, "I hope they're both doing okay."

"I'm sure they're fine," the skater comforted.

Star smiled as she thought of her bestie/boyfriend, asking, "What do you think they're doing about now?"

"Probably getting some sleep," Jackie said. "Speaking of, we should probably consider doing that ourselves."

Star nodded, her eyes full of longing and fatigue. "Ugh, yes. Please," she slurred out, the promise of sleep causing her whole body to sway, her brain already beginning to shut down for the day. She yawned once, before adding, "I can't wait to get to bed."

"Me too," Jackie admitted. She put an arm around her friend, gently leading Star toward her room, the blond too out of it to even notice. The skater smiled before saying helpfully, "Then let's get you to bed." But another playful smile rose to her lips as she added more to herself than the drowsy Star, "After all, you got a hoodie to snuggle, light mage."

...

"When are Big Brother and Janna getting back?" little Violet asked for what had to be the fifth time that night.

"Star said they were on their way, they'll be here soon," Jackie reassured the girl, her and her sister groaning as they both flopped down onto their beds in boredom.

"But that was hours ago," Daisy grumbled in an over-exaggerated tone, causing Jackie to smile to herself.

It was the next night and the twins were once again in bed, though they had somehow coerced their mom into letting them stay up to greet Marco and Janna, promising to go immediately to sleep once they did, but the girls were quickly growing impatient with waiting. Jackie had offered to switch storyteller with Star for the night after the blond had seemed eager to get ready for her boyfriend's return and was doing her best to hold their interest with stories and legends she had could remember from her time on Earth but even that was starting to lose them.

Jackie calmly checked the clock on the wall just to see how much longer they would probably be, only to stare in shock at the startling amount of time that had already passed. It had been over an hour since Star informed her and the twins that Marco and Janna were headed back from their 'camping trip' and yet there was still no sign of them. They should have gotten back by now, the skater couldn't help but point out in her head. The skater did her best to shake these worries off, figuring the two had just got distracted or held up by something. Just cause they were late didn't mean they were in genuine danger, there was no sense in panicking... yet, at least. Though that didn't stop her from muttering under her breath, "Huh, wonder what's keeping them?"

"Maybe they got eaten by a multi-bear or a centipeedle?" Violet suggested groggily. It was getting late for them, after all, and the two were struggling to stay awake.

"Those are both just Earth myths, sweetie," Lily suddenly spoke up, nearly startling the skater. Jackie hadn't thought the older woman had even been listening, up till now she had seemed almost oblivious and stuck in her own world as she sat in the corner of the room, looking through the last bit of paperwork for the day and humming softly to herself the whole time. She hadn't even bothered to glance up as she spoke, her gentle eyes never even pausing to read the fine print of the document before her even as she corrected her daughter.

Though after a second, she too glanced up at the clock, frowned and said matter-of-factly, "Hmm, I do hope those two get back soon, the girls really need to get to bed."

Jackie nodded, although the twins grumbled and began arguing weakly about the fact that they weren't tired and their mom was being super unfair. The skater pulled out her phone offering, "I'll call and see where they're at."

"Good idea," Lily agreed, Violet and Daisy looking a little more awake and eager as they watched Jackie put the phone up to her ear, listening calmly to the ringing. After a couple of rings, the familiar voice of Janna spoke up, saying, "Hello?"

"Hey, Jan, it's Jackie."

"Yeah I gathered as much," Janna said in her typical sarcastic wit.

Jackie resisted the urge to roll her eyes as she asked, "Well, I was wondering where you are? Star said you and Marco would be back an hour ago."

"Yeah, its a long story but we kinda got held up," the creepy teen replied cryptically.

"Well do you know how much longer you'll be?" Jackie asked, trying not to let her impatience leak out of her voice.

"Actually it's funny you mention it, Jacks," Janna began. "Cause me and Marco are actually-"

"We're heeeerreeee!" Marco called in a sing-song voice as the door to the room slammed open, revealing him and the beanie-wearing teen, both grinning like dorks as they stared into the girl's bedroom.

"Janna!" Jackie shouted, jumping up from the chair.

"Big Brother!" both twins cried as one, all previous signs of exhaustion gone as they leapt from the bed and ran over to greet the two teens.

Marco, however, just turned to his creepy friend asking, "Did I do it right?"

Janna gave him a wink and a thumbs up, telling him, "Yep. Perfect timing! That was an excellent dramatic reveal."

The boy almost glowed with pride at his accomplishment, before being bombarded by hugs from Daisy and Violet, the two giggling as they said, "We missed you Big Brother!" Marco just laughed and swept them into an even tighter embrace, saying to them with a wide smile, "I missed you guys too!"

Janna was also hugged by Jackie, which she returned wholeheartedly, the skater saying, "Man, am I glad your back."

"What, don't tell me you actually missed me?" Janna said sarcastically, as the two pulled out of the hug.

Jackie rolled her eyes and playfully punched her shoulder saying, "Whatever, you goof." But she paused before adding seriously, "So how did it go?"

Janna flinched, her eyes filling with pain for a second, before she buried it behind a calm facade, whispering softly to her friend, "I'll... tell you later."

Lily, also moved to greet the two teens, walking over to them and saying, "It's good to see you two back, safe and sound."

"Thanks," Marco said sweetly, smiling nicely at the woman, who grinned right back. But he paused a moment, looking around the room, before asking, "Wait, where's Star?"

"She said she had some sort of surprise she needed to get ready for you in her room," Jackie explained.

Marco's eyes filled with wild curiosity his gaze drifting off in the direction of his girlfriend's room, wondering what crazy, amazing thing Star was cooking up for him this time. But before he could ponder too hard on it, he was suddenly pulled from his thoughts by Violet.

"Janna!" the creepy child suddenly shouted, switching from clinging to Marco to clinging to Janna in half a second, her small body practically hanging off the beanie-wearing girl's waist. "Did you miss me? Huh, did you?"

"Sure I did," Janna replied, ruffling the small Butterfly's hair. "I mean, how couldn't I miss my only apprentice?"

Violet practically glowed from the praise and attention her eyes shining brighter than a thousand diamonds. "Did you bring me anything from your trip?"

Marco and Janna shared a smile, before the creepy teen replied, "Actually, we did. In fact, we brought something for both of you."

Both Daisy and Violet gasped and began squealing at that, asking over and over again what it was while trying to peek around the two for any signs of the surprise, but saw nothing. After a few moments of searching the twins stared up at Marco and Janna with furrowed brows, Daisy asking, "Where is it?"

The two teens again shared a grin, before Janna suddenly gave a shrill whistle and said, "Come on out, Edith."

And from within Marco's hood, a small scaly head suddenly popped out, its beady eyes blinking tiredly as it had been asleep mere moments ago until she heard her master call. Violet screamed in delight, moving closer to examine the snake, while Daisy squeaked once in fright quickly hiding behind Jackie's leg. The skater just stared in disbelief of what she was seeing, "Uhh, what the heck is that thing?"

"Oh, this is Janna's old-" Marco began only to stop as Janna loudly coughed into her hand. "Uhh, I mean, this is a snake Janna found while we were camping," the boy quickly corrected himself, putting on the most believable smile he could.

"Is it... dangerous?" Daisy asked nervously.

"What, no way, Edith is a sweetheart, she wouldn't hurt a fly," Janna explained quickly, while Violet gently stroked her head.

"Wow, she's so pretty! Her scales look almost like diamonds or something," Violet breathed, her eyes incapable of growing any wider.

"That's because she's a Gem Feeder," Marco explained. "She only eats gems or rocks."

"Oh my I thought she looked familiar," Lily said, stepping closer to the snake. "Though I haven't seen one in years, she is quite remarkable!"

This seemed to finally get Daisy to move closer, as she asked hesitantly, "Can-Can I pet her?"

"Sure, go ahead," Marco said with a quick nod and watched with a bright grin as the little girl slowly crept closer, finally reaching out a hand and gently running a finger along the snake's scales. The girl giggled a little, before saying a bit more confidently, "She feels weird."

"Would you like to hold her?" Marco asked and the little girl nodded. The hooded teen gently lifted Edith out of the hoodie before handing her over to Daisy, who giggled as it slithered around her arm, Violet leaning over to pet her again. "She's sooo cute!" the cutesy teen cooed, causing the boy to grin brightly. He had expected Daisy to be way more afraid of Edith, but she had opened up to her almost immediately and it nearly brought tears to Marco's eyes for some reason.

"Can we keep her, mom? Can we, please?" Violet asked, hitting her mom with a pouting upper lip and glittering orbs.

"Well you will have to ask, Marco and Janna," Lily said, turning to the two teens.

Janna shrugged. "Well, that was kinda the general idea, figured these two would enjoy having her as a pet."

"Yes!" Violet screamed, before hugging her mentor again. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"That was very kind of you, Janna," Lily said in her typical sweet tone and the girl froze for a moment, staring at her weirdly before looking away and saying in a voice barely above a whisper, "Thanks."

Jackie gave her friend a worried look, while Marco just stared on sadly, but the moment was quickly interrupted as Daisy asked, "Mommy, Edith sleep in my bed tonight?"

"What?!" Violet shouted, angrily turning on her heels to glare at her sister. "That's not fair! Edith should sleep with me!"

"No, she should sleep with me first, because I'm the oldest!"

"That doesn't have to do with anything!" Violet argued loudly.

"Yes it does, it means I'm more mature than you!" Daisy said, before sticking her tongue out at her sister, which Edith mimicked immediately.

"How about you both share a bed tonight so you can both sleep with her?" Lily suggested fairly. "And then you two can take turns from there."

The twins thought that over for a second before nodding in agreement, Edith again replicating their joint movements. Now that that was settled, Lily clapped her hands together and said, "Okay, girls, say goodnight to Marco, Jackie, and Janna, cause it's time for bed!"

"Awww but mom!" came the expected response, but Lily ignored them, shooing them over to the bed, as she said firmly but patiently, "No 'buts' bedtime is bedtime and you two are way past it right now."

The two grumbled but knew it was pointless as they reluctantly climbed onto Violet's bottom bunk and settled under the covers, Edith curling into a ball between them.

Marco seeing that he and his friends were no longer needed, whispered softly, "Come on, let's go find, Star," before tiptoeing out of the room, Jackie and Janna following right behind him, leaving Lily to tuck in her two tired daughters and their new pet.

…

Marco, Jackie, and Janna stood outside Star's door, the two girls chatting softly as Janna filled her friend in on what all had happened, the skater giving her sympathetic smiles and nodding as she listened intently to her close friend. With Jackie and Janna talking amongst each other, Marco turned his attention on his girlfriend's door, knowing that right now the only thing that stood between him and Star was a thin piece of wood stood. The boy gave a quick knock, calling, "Hey Star! We're hom-ahh!" His cry was cut short as, out of nowhere, the door was flung open and Star wasted no time in sweeping the boy into her arms and into her room without a care. Jackie and Janna broke off their conversation long enough to stare as the door slammed shut again, before shrugging and heading back to their room. They still had a lot to discuss.

Marco blinked, looking around in confusion, his cheek marks spinning as he struggled to understand where he was and what had happened. All the lights in Star's room were off, but several lit candles were placed all over Star's room, creating a romantic atmosphere that left Marco's heart thumping, the delightful aroma's drifting up to his nose making him feel lightheaded. He could also see a plate of freshly cooked nachos over by Star's beanbag chair and his stomach growled, reminding him he had gone two days without eating a good meal. But that's when he noticed the biggest thing right now he was in Star's arms, being carried bridal style, and his cheeks flushed instantly. "S-Star?" he stammered.

"Hey Marco! Welcome back, I missed you!" the blond cooed, rubbing her cheek against his own, making him flush even more and causing both of their cheeks marks to turn temporarily white.

"I missed you too!" the boy exclaimed, before throwing his arms around the girl in a hug, Star still holding him tightly against her.

"So what took you so long, expected you to be back like an hour ago!" the blond asked, sighing in contentment.

"It's a long story," the boy replied sheepishly. But it slowly turned to realization as she added, "Oh wait, hang on, I want to check on Janna first."

The door to Star's room creaked open again and Jackie and Janna stopped, turning to see Marco's blushing face appear in the doorway. "Jan, are you okay? Do you need to talk or anything?"

Janna shrugged saying, "Nah, I'm good."

"Are you sure?" the boy asked, needing to be completely sure his friend was okay first.

But Janna just scoffed, waving a hand at them as he said, "Marco, I'm fine. I don't need you to babysit me. Go enjoy your time with Star, I know you two lovebirds missed each other."

Marco still didn't look entirely convinced, so Jackie added, "Look, if Janna does need anything I'm right there for her, so you're fine."

Finally, Marco smiled in relief, saying, "Okay, but if you ever need to talk Janna, I'm here for you."

"I know," Janna said sincerely, before adding in a teasing tone, "Now go spend time with your girlfriend already!"

The boy nodded before finally closing the door back, turning to face his girlfriend once again, their faces mere inches apart as Star asked, "What was that all about?"

"Uhh, just one of the many things I have to tell you," the boy said with a shrug.

"Can't wait!" Star said, smiling sweetly. But it slowly turned into a playful smirk as she added, "But first... I'm gonna need like a billion kissed to make up for you being gone."

"Wh-What?" Marco began, only to giggle incessantly as Star began showering him in kisses, covering everything on his face from his blushing cheeks to his cute little nose to even his forehead. As she did, she lifted him up into her arms again, carrying him over to the beanbag chair, where she could continue peppering him with much-needed affection. Once the two were settled, Marco began to kiss Star back, the two sharing a passionate kiss as the length of time they spent apart shattered in an instant. Suddenly it was just the two of them again, and if the two hadn't been so focused on their kiss they might have noticed a soft red glow from outside Star's window.

Finally, Star seemed satisfied with her kisses for the moment, though she kept her arms wrapped around his waist as she watched her Marco pick up the bowl of nachos and quickly wolf them down his throat, trying to hold in her laugh at how adorable he looked. "What did they not feed you at the Impure village?" Star asked teasingly and the boy shook his head, his mouth too full to answer.

He swallowed down the last bite, before saying, "No, but all their food was really, really bad. Like realllly bad!" His eyes widened with horror at the memory of their horrendous food. "Like I think I'd rather eat at Babs' restaurant again than eat any of their food ever!"

Star nodded thoughtfully. "Wow, it must have been pretty terrible for you to willingly want pain-peppers again!" the blond royal said in an equally worried tone, her face matching her boyfriend's perfectly. But it switched back to a loving smile as she nuzzled Marco's face with her own, saying, "So what else happened, other than them trying to poison you, I want to know everything!"

"Oh man, where do I even start?" the boy pondered. "There's so much to tell."

"Well we got all night," the blond reminded him, before gently kissing his forehead.

The boy blushed as his girlfriend's lips brushed his skin, just barely managing to squeak out, "Maybe it'll be better if you start, Star."

"Me?" Star replied with a small chuckle.

"Well yeah, I want to know everything that happened to you too, Star!" Marco said the innocent look he was giving Star causing her heart to skip a beat. He was too precious sometimes.

"Not a whole lot to tell," the girl responded a bit shyly.

"What about that story you told Daisy and Violet, what was it about?" Marco questioned and Star flushed bright red.

"Oh, you don't want to hear that," Star muttered, suddenly avoiding Marco's gaze.

"Sure I do," Marco responded immediately, his eyes shining with wonder. "I care about everything you do, Star! You're my best friend."

"Aww, Marco, stop it!" the girl cooed, putting a hand to her blushing cheek.

But the boy just smiled and continued, pleased he was could praise his girlfriend enough to make her smile like that. "Plus, it's so cool you just made up a story like that on the spot, you're so amazing Star!"

"Come on, you're the amazing one, Mar-" Star began only to pause, her eyes widening in surprise as his words finally clicked in her brain. "Wait, what did you just say?"

"Uhh, your totally amazing," the boy tried but Star shook her head.

"No, about making up the story," Star explained, her head spinning in confusion. "Don't you do that for them every night?"

Marco shook his head, giving his girlfriend a lost look. "No I usually just read them a book or tell them one of the stories Buff Frog used to tell me," the hooded teen replied quizzically.

Star's startled face turned to one of annoyance as realization finally stuck her and she scoffed loudly, "Unbelievable! Those girls lied to me! I can't believe I fell for that!" She quickly buried her face in her hands, groaning in both disbelief and embarrassment at being so easily tricked by children.

Marco just watched his girlfriend quietly, before curiosity got the better of him again and he tilted his head toward her, asking as subtly as he possibly could, "Soooo what was the story about?"

Star froze for a second before just sighing in defeat and saying, "Okay fine... Once Upon A Time..."

#Star vs #Star vs AU #My Writing #Light of the Sun and Stars #Starco

[igotlockedintothisfandom]

Why is there only incest in this fandom right now?

Guys, stop.

That's disgusting.

I dont even care about the fluff. I know there are tag warnings but just stop the incest please.

#locke and key #fanfiction #stop the incest #tyler locke #nina locke #kinsey locke #bode locke #scot cavendish #gabe #jackie veda #scot with one t #eden hawkins #smut #is good but incest is bad #fluff #angst #hurt/comfort #no incest anymore pls #i know there are tag warnings but incest and smut are literally the ONLY types of fanfic in this fandom right now #netflix #protect the lockes at all costs #they only have one brain cell

[soopranatural]

Prologue -Part 6

Summary: Your story begins like this: locked in a cold dark cell with no memory of how you got there, a strange man is sitting in the corner, watching you silently.

Pairing: Bucky x reader Warnings: Torture, violence, blood, nightmares, people doing things they don't want to do and being kept in places they don't want to be.

A/N: Currently stealing me some internet bc my apartment is web-less so, hope you give me a goddamn appreciate. (sorry if i’ve been inactive lately but there’s no internet I am going insaneee)

Words: 988

You can find my masterlist in my description :)

The door opens, one day. It’s nothing like that one time they took Bucky away, when it slammed open and let chaos into your small shared cell. Instead it opens slowly and soundlessly, but the shift in the air still sets you on edge.

Your unease only grows when you look over at Bucky, sitting still as marble with his mask back on, and he shakes his head minutely, ‘no’.

A man steps into the room, it disrupts the air strangely. You first notice his shoes, sleek black and polished to a shine. It makes you feel unexpectedly dirty, you’re still in the same clothes you were taken in and you can almost feel the grime and old sweat that clings to you. The man, in comparison, looks foreign in your dark cell. He’s tall and slim, bordering on lanky, his crisp white lab coat trails behind him for a moment before stopping with a swish at his side, he looks at you over his golden wire glasses with dead grey eyes.

A guard comes in behind him, wearing the heavy black uniform you are used to seeing. Despite carrying several obvious guns and having a strong figure, the man in the lab coat looks far more intimidating. They leave the door open behind them and your eyes dart in that direction. Maybe you’d be able to fight the grey-eyed man at any other time, but you’re weak and underfed, and even if Bucky could take on the guard, you’ve seen nothing of this place, you don’t know if you could get out. 

You glance at the grey-eyed man, the right corner of his lips twitches in what could maybe be considered a smile. The look in his eye makes you feel uncomfortably like he knows exactly what you’re thinking, like a scientist that watches a lab rat run around in a maze.

You remember Bucky, shaking his head only a moment before. You clench a fist into the new sheet -you refuse to think of it as a kindness- and swallow the urge to run.

Grey-eyes hums and scribbles on his clipboard before calling to the man behind him in Russian. They share a small chuckle, and you’re so startled by the sound that you turn to look at Bucky, he doesn’t look back, but his fists clench minutely on his lap.

The guard steps closer and you feel the air tighten around you, he looks you up and down, and even though you feel naked under his leering gaze you suppress the urge to hug yourself. Maybe it’s stubborn and pointless, but you feel just about frozen with fear, and you refuse to give him the satisfaction of having that power over you. Instead you look him right in the eye, as if holding his gaze would keep it from wandering again.

His smile is much wider than the grey-eyed man’s but no less unsettling. A moment passes, your eyes water but you don’t blink. Then Grey-eyes speaks.

It happens so suddenly that you have no time to react. 

The man lunges at you and a rasping yelp escapes you in a voice that doesn’t sound like your own. You hold your clothes tightly on instinct, but he grabs at your hair and pulls harshly until you fall to the floor.

You yelp again, but this time in pain as you land harshly on your hip on top of hard concrete. You lay on your side for barely a second before the man is on you again. You kick at him, but only a few hits land, there isn’t enough air in your lungs for a scream. Pain blooms on your ribs from a punch, then on your cheek when you go to cover your side.

And then he’s gone.

You don’t see it happen. There’s a shift in the air around you and before you can look the room flies past your eyes. Suddenly you can only see gray concrete, cold against your burning cheek. You gasp, too late for the swoop of your stomach, and when you turn to the right it takes you a moment to understand what you’re seeing.

You’re pressed into a corner, and Bucky is standing over you protectively, though the tilt of his head is submissive. His arms shield most of the room from your eyes, but when you stand on the tips of your toes to look you can see the guard laying unconscious on the floor, you can only see him for a second before Bucky shifts his weight and shields your view again.

You fight the sob that tries to escape you, you swallow once, the again before you hear the scratch of pen on paper and then Grey-eyes speaks again. “Soldat” he says, and Bucky flinches at the word. Gray-eyes says something else in a toneless voice and Bucky nods minutely.

“Soldat…” the man says again, this time there’s a warning in his voice.

“Da” Bucky speaks for the first time since the door opened. His voice is strong and his tone doesn't give away a thing, but when you press a hand to his back both in support and from fear his muscles are locked tight. 

The man speaks again, this time a bit louder, and immediately more guards step into the room. You realize they were standing right outside, hidden by the walls, and you follow their movements as best you can from behind Bucky as they pick the still unconscious man from the floor and take him outside.

Your eyes follow them out and land unexpectedly on Grey-eyes, who is looking right at you with that unsettling all-knowing gaze. 

“The first one made the mistake of trying to run, you look smarter than that.” His English is heavily accented, still his words ring sharp in your mind.

He leaves right after, but Bucky stays locked in place for a very long time. 

- Remember to leave feedback!! (Hearing what you think about it helps me improve and also makes me super happy) (You can be added to a series taglist, my forevers, SPN, Marvel, Sam or Dean tags, just shoot me an ask)

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#bucy barnes #Bucky Barnes #bucky x reader #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes fanfic #bucky x reader angst #bucky reader insert #reader insert #marvel #marvel fanfic #marvel fan fic #marvel reader insert #marvel x reader #angst #bucky angst #a thing that i wrote #prologue #part 6