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bokunoheroanalysisforthefuture · 3 years

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Okay, so the brain’s a bit caught up in one of my other writing projects, but I refuse to abandon this entirely. So I’m gonna just power through this and then get back to Vibing™.

Actually, it’s kinda cute that the hero Thirteen is introduced in chapter thirteen. I wonder if Hori did that on purpose or just managed it as a fun coincidence.

[No. 13 - Rescue Training]

So we start off on Wednesday morning (which would be April 12th/11th) at 7:35 AM. There’s a hostage situation by a villain who looks like a goddamned pokemon (my brain has made the ‘buff ditto’ comparison and now I am Shook) who is, according to Mt. Lady, a serial robber and murderer by the name of Habit Headgear. Kamui Woods, whose wood bindings have apparently been broken trying and failing to contain the guy, is tossed back on the ground as he notes the villain is strong and a quick strategist.

Seems like she and Kamui Woods have teamed up together! Or at least responded to the same villain attack again. Also, who’s this dude?

Random Mii Blaster escaped from Smash Ultimate and is now in BNHA, when will the madness end.

Naturally, the hostages are not handling this situation super well, though the crowds watching don’t seem as worried? IDK hard to tell from far away. The buff ditto villain uses double team, no wait I mean agility, actually his high speed to show how outclasses the heroes on the scene are.

As he announces his plans to escape, we see All Might rushing in loud enough for the stomps to be heard. He announces his arrival mere moments before he fucking snaps the villain’s neck with a handchop - or, well, not really, but damn that had to be a hard hit. All Might also managed to grab the family out of harm’s way in the process, announcing that he’s on his morning commute.

The crowds cheer for All Might, while Mt. Lady and Kamui Woods are somewhat put out - they appreciate the help, but also worry All Might will put them out of business.

(I guess this is where all those fics that do bring up how All Might cuts down the hero job market on his own pull from? Or just coincidence, who knows.)

The police thank All Might with salutes for the help, and All Might give his own quick responding salute before he declares he needs to head off so he won’t be late. Of course, that’s when he hears about a hit-and-run (that super hearing lol) and takes off, just so coincidentally in the direction of said trouble. Despite that fact that he needs to get to work. This man.

While he’s in the air, he considers how his speed has dropped, and that he’s been weakening since he passed on his power. Not to mention that after his rescue of Izuku and Katsuki from the sludge villain, his maximum time went down. Which is not at all referencing him about to overdo it again and lose more time, no siree.

We descend into a flashback to right where we left off after the battle trial, with All Might confronting Izuku about telling Katsuki about (some of) One For All. All Might is surprised and a bit nervous? Worried? Or that bead of sweat in the flashback might be from the strain of holding the form when he’s about to run out of time.

In any case, Izuku in the past apologizes and says he hasn’t even told his mom, but that he had to tell Katsuki something… All Might determines this might be a consequence of not being explicit enough about keeping the secret, since Izuku isn’t the type to brag or boast. Also calls Izuku too sincere, hah, isn’t that the truth. All Might says it’s lucky Katsuki thought he was joking, so All Might can forgive the slip this time, but that Izuku cannot tell another soul.

(Stares at this.) (Looks at recent manga events.) Whelp.

Anyways, All Might catches the car of the hit and run guy (and man, that face the dude is making) while thinking about how, suitable successor or not, Izuku’s still just fifteen, so All Might had to make things clear. Of course, then All Might overhears about a hostage crisis the next town over, and, well.

We transition to right after lunch (12:50) with Aizawa announcing that that day’s hero training plans - something supervised by himself, All Might, and one other teacher. Izuku realizes it has to be a special class, while Sero raises his hand to ask what they’re doing. Aziawa’s reply?

I swear this is exactly the same shit All Might did before the battle trial, gimme a second-

Bahahahaha incredible. Though then again, I wonder if those are security cards keys to certain locations. It would make sense, though then I wonder how Katsuki and Izuku were able to get into Training Ground Beta without one… hrm…

Anyways! Kaminari, Ashido, and Kirishima end up talking about it; Kaminari says it’ll be a rough day, with Ashido pumped as she agrees, and Kirishima also pumped as he says that it’s what being a hero is all about. Asui notes that she’ll be right as home in a flood. Aizawa silences them with a glare, saying he’s not done. He presses the button to unveil the costume lockers, telling the class that it’s their choice whether or not to wear their costumes, since some of them are ill-suited for this kind of activity.

Oh boy, will this put you on the path to the hero you’ll be come… but not for the reasons you think, buddy. The joke here is trauma.

It seems like most of the class does still choose to go in costume, barring Izuku - whose costume is still being repaired after the damage done to it in battle training. However, he still has his belt, gloves, knee pads, and mouth guard (with the mouth guard being new) on him.

Golly, I wonder why your costume needed to be replaced, Izuku.

(thonk.)

Also Tenya jkfdkjdgfkj Oh My God You Dramatic Egg. He’s got a whistle and he’s directing the class to line up by ID number so they can fill the seats in an orderly fashion.

I’m love this boy so much. And it’s even funnier because the bus has an open layout, meaning it was pointless. Poor Tenya is in Despair, with Ashido teasing him for his efforts being wasted.

Savage. But yeah, looks like it’s Sato, Izuku, Asui, Kirishima, Tenya, Ashido, Aoyama, and Kaminari in the front seats. And Asui - sorry, Tsuyu - just outright says she says what’s on her mind, which startles Izuku since he didn’t expect her to talk to him I guess? She tells Izuku to call her Tsuyu, then turns to him and just says his quirk resembles All Might’s.

Izuku, being the sincere boy he is, stutters and stumbles out something that almost looks like a denial, before Kirishima, bless his himbo soul, points out that All Might doesn’t get hurt by his own quirk, so they’re already different in that way. He then goes on to state that that kind of simple, strength enhancing quirk is awesome and that a lot of cool stuff can be done with it.

Kirishima then goes on to show off his hardening, saying that it’s good for a fight, but otherwise boring. Midoriya ‘holy fuck I love quirks’ Izuku thinks otherwise, actually sparkling as he proclaims the quirk to be neat and more than enough for going pro. Kaminari notes that heroes also have to worry about popular appeal. Aoyama says his navel laser quirk is both strong and cool, and thus perfect for heroics. Ashido then kneecaps him by adding in that that’s as long as he doesn’t blow up his own stomach.

Ashido’s Savagery: The Sequel.

In the next panel, we see Katsuki’s been paying attention to this convo, which has me wondering if this is when he was first starting to piece together OFA from Izuku’s mention of ‘getting the quirk from someone else’ and ‘like All Might’s’. However, when he is brought up in the conversation (alongside Shouto) as examples of ‘strong and cool quirks’, he feigns disinterest and looks away, trying to play cool.

(Also, he doesn’t seem to have his gauntlets on him here, though I know he’s brought one with him as seen a bit later. I wonder whether he chose to leave one of them behind or if he might have been restricted from bringing more than one by Aizawa… interesting either way.)

Tsuyu then brings up how Katsuki being so unhinged means he’ll never be popular. Katsuki, naturally, takes offence and slams his hands on the rail in front of him, demanding to know what she just said. Tsuyu sticks out her tongue as she points at him making her point. Poor Jirou, having to be seated next to someone so loud.

And the moment literally the whole discord was waiting for, Kaminari’s brutal vocabulary takedown of Katsuki, something cut entirely from the anime. Friendly reminder that Kaminari is, in fact, a major lit nerd! He’s Not Dumb! Stop Making Him Dumb In Fics! He not only has the most verbose vocabulary in the class that isn’t from the rich kids (and in some ways is even more so), he also has Katsuki absolutely pegged despite only knowing him for a few days. He Earned His UA Spot.

While Katsuki snaps back at Kaminari, Izuku is hunched over in disbelief that Katsuki’s the one getting bullied for once, but he supposes that that’s UA for you…

To the side, Yaomomo declares the conversation vulgar, while Ochako is laughing and saying it’s fun. Offscreen, I’m assuming that it’s Kaminari mock-marvelling at how he didn’t think Katsuki’s mouth could get any fouler.

The last panel on the page is Aizawa interrupting them to announce that they’ve arrived at the training grounds, and to look sharp. The whole class (I guess?) snaps to attention.

And that’s the halfway point, so I will leave the USJ proper for next time! This has been a Savage Mina and Smart Denki appreciation post, so appreciate them, or else.

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grelleswife · 3 years

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maybe slice of life headcannons with grellrin?? 💕

I'd be happy to! These ladies own my heart. >w< Doing these for a modern human AU!

Although Mey Rin never received formal musical training, she has a sweet, pretty voice, and often sings to herself when she's puttering around the house or in the shower. Grelle will listen to her sing with a hopelessly smitten grin on her face. Although Mey Rin gets flustered when she realizes Grelle overheard her, Grelle just gushes about how amazing she is ("You far outclass those silly little pop stars, darling!") til Mey is a blushy mess and hides her head in her hands.

One of Mey Rin's hobbies is making craft jewelry, and she'll often give Grelle a pretty new necklace, set of earrings, etc. on important anniversaries. She also likes taking Grelle to quirky antiques stores, vintage clothing shops, and indie book stores, and the ladies rarely leave empty-handed.

When the weather's nice, they ride their bikes together through their neighborhood. Grelle's is a flashy red one, while Mey Rin's bike is a sparkly pink with a wicker basket and rainbow streamers.

Although it took a few years to really get it growing, they have a little vegetable garden out back behind their house. Mey Rin does most of the weeding (Grelle is horrified at the thought of ruining her nails), but Miss Sutcliff helps out, too. She also made a few pairs of gardening overalls for Mey, with cheerful flowers and hearts sewn on to add a little something extra. If Grelle does say so herself, the wife looks very cute in them! >w<

Grelle is an accomplished pianist and plays regularly; not only is music a great emotional outlet for her, it's also an excellent way to flirt with Mey Rin. ;) If Mey's around, she'll come over, sit down, and shyly lay her head on Grelle's shoulder. Miss Sutcliff melts every time.

I headcanon that Mey Rin has anxiety, which can make grocery store runs, socializing, or unanticipated life stressors quite harrowing for her. If Grelle is with her, she tries to serve as a buffer, holding Mey's hand, putting her arms around her, talking her down, escorting her away from the situation, or whatever else the other woman needs. And if Mey is on her own when she feels herself becoming overwhelmed, all it takes is a text or phone call for Grelle to come to the rescue.

Shortly after they started dating, Mey made matching charm bracelets for herself and Grelle, and they've worn them ever since. Mey Rin will add a new charm every time they reach a milestone in their relationship (going on their first roadtrip together, getting married, etc.).

On weekends, they'll go to the local park to have picnics next to a charming little pond with ducks (this was also the spot where they had their first kiss). Mey always brings some birdseed so that she and Grelle can feed the ducks together once they've had their own lunch.

Although Mey Rin isn't an assassin in this AU, she excels at competitive archery, and Grelle attends every match she's in, usually with a large, hand-painted sign in tow that she holds aloft while cheering Mey on. Mey Rin is equally supportive of Grelle's involvement in the local theatre scene, and attends every production her wife is in.

The two ladies enjoy playing paintball, whether on the same or opposing teams--and Mey is a crack shot! She loves Grelle, but that won’t stop her from getting her wife good if they’re on rival sides. >:3

One of my oldest Grelle headcanons is that the red lady loves breakfast for dinner. Keeping that in mind, Mey Rin and Grelle will occasionally stay up late making waffles or pancakes while playing some upbeat music in the background, or drive out to Grelle's favorite crêpe place when they don't feel like doing any cooking themselves.

Mey Rin learned to prepare various Chinese dishes from her mom, and often makes traditional treats for Grelle, including ones like the moon cakes and egg tarts shown in this artwork here by @champagnecake

They share a love for anime and video games, though Mey sometimes needs to bury her face in Grelle's chest/pass the controller to her wife during the extremely gory bits (since Grelle has a higher tolerance for that sort of thing).

Because owls are one of Mey Rin's favorite animals, Grelle likes to get her little owl-themed gifts (T-shirts, figurines, rugs), and Mey's collected quite a few over the years!

Between the two of them, these bi queens have a ton of pride merch--from cute buttons for Mey Rin's purse to a massive flag that Grelle placed on their lawn (along with a trans pride flag, of course). Unfortunately, since Mey Rin was raised in a very strict, conservative home, she wasn't really able to come to terms with her bisexuality until college...and even then, she struggled with those lingering feelings of guilt instilled by her upbringing. But watching Grelle unapologetically own her identity as a bi trans woman was incredibly inspiring for Mey Rin, and gave her the courage to embrace her queerness. And needless to say, Mey Rin is always on the lookout for trans pride items that she thinks Grelle would like!

#kuroshitsuji #grellrin #grellerin #grelle sutcliff #grell sutcliff #mey rin #femslash february

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elliemarchetti · 4 years

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Red Queen Pride and Prejudice AU (Part 2)

Part 1

Masterlist

Tag list (if you want to be tagged in all my work or only a specific fandom/fic dm me or write an ask): @lilyharvord

Words: 2164

That Miss Skonos and Miss Barrow should meet to talk about the party was perfectly obvious, but the attentive invitation Wren received from Miss Samos and Lady Haven was a real surprise: her gentle manner increased the two's goodwill towards her, and although her mother was considered unbearable and some of her friendships, including Gisa and Tramy, not even worthy of mention, the feeling of wanting to get to know better both her and Mare was openly expressed. Wren received this attention with great pleasure, but Mare still saw arrogance in their behavior towards everyone, barely mitigated in the presence of the homeowner, whose admiration for Wren, reciprocated, was more than evident, although the younger had noticed with pleasure that it wasn’t likely to become public knowledge, since Wren combined a great intensity of the feelings with a composed temperament and a uniform cordiality in the manner, which protected her from impertinent suspicions. Mare talked about it with a dear friend, Miss Farley, the daughter of a colonel discharged after a bad wound that had practically made him blind in one eye.

"Maybe in this case it can be positive", Diana replied, "to be able to hide it from other people, but sometimes to be so wary has its drawbacks. If a woman hides her own affection with the same skill to the one who is the object of it, she can lose the opportunity to conquer him, and it’ll be a very poor consolation to think that the world is equally unaware. We’re all free to start a slight preference, is more than natural, but very few of us have such feelings that they really fall in love without being encouraged. Nine times out of ten, a woman would do better to show more affection than she feels. It’s indisputable that Samos likes Wren, but he may never express more than that if she doesn't help him do so.”

“But she’s helping him!” exclaimed Mare.

"Remember he doesn't know her the way you do, therefore he may not understand it," the other wisely suggested. Although Diana wasn’t married, she always had good advice, whether it was sentimental, about family or neighborhood disputes, and the suggestions she was giving her, if it hadn’t been the romantic Wren she was talking about, would’ve been really good; although closer in age, Mare's two closest friends were very distant in terms of social class, and couldn’t be more different in character, which made the idea of organizing a cognitive meeting that wasn’t a social event of extended dimensions, a folly.

"Well," Diana said, "I wish Wren with all my heart to be successful, but if she married him tomorrow, I believe that she would be as likely to be happy as she would be studying his character for a year. Happiness in marriage is just a matter of luck: as much as two people can know each other thoroughly previously, or have similar characters, that won’t affect their happiness in the slightest, as they will always find something later that will divide them. Maybe it's better to know as little as possible the defects of the person with whom

you’ll spend the rest of your life, or we’re all destined to die alone.”

Both girls burst out laughing, and in the hilarity of the moment, it was far from Mare's mind to be in someone else's thoughts; General Calore had barely admitted at first that she was pretty, and at the ball he had looked at her without any admiration, as it had happened in their subsequent meetings, where he had done nothing but criticize her with his friends. But as soon as he convinced himself that her face barely had any nice features, he began to find that her intelligent dark eyes were able to render her expression beautiful, and although his critical eye spotted more than one symmetry flaw in her physique’s proportions, he was forced to acknowledge that she had a lean and pleasant body, and those discoveries had only been followed by others, equally embarrassing. Of all this, she was completely unaware; for her he was only a man who made himself unpleasant everywhere and didn't think she was beautiful enough to invite her to dance. Yet he began to want to know her better, and as a first step towards a direct conversation, he paid attention to her exchanges with others. This way of doing caught the girl's attention, and while they were at the Skonos’ house, where a large group had gathered, she spoke to her friend about it.

"Why was General Calore listening to my conversation with Colonel Farley?"

"It's a question that only he can answer," replied the other, "but if he does it again, let him know you're noticing his strange behavior."

Mare took her friend literally, and the girl soon found herself forced to distract her from teasing the poor young man, who seemed incredibly uncomfortable, inviting her to play and sing for the little gathering. Following her performance, it was her sister who took her place on the stool in front of the piano, and though the youngest of the Barrows had neither genius nor inspiration, vanity had provided her with determination and a pedantic and presumptuous way of doing things that made her get everything she wanted. Mare had been listened to with much more pleasure, although her voice didn't sound so good, but Gisa, at the

end of a long concert, was still pleased to obtain praise and gratitude from everyone, except for the General, who had remained in indignant silence for that way of passing the evening, which completely excluded conversation, and was too busy with his own thoughts to notice having the owner of the house next to him until he started talking.

"What an enchanting pastime for young people!" the man exclaimed, looking at the couples, including his daughter and Mr. Samos, who had started dancing. "On the other hand there is nothing like dancing; I consider it as one of the main refinements of civil society. "

"Of course, sir; and it also has the added bonus of being in vogue among the least civilized societies in the world. Any savage can dance. "

The man just smiled, as if he had realized something that was obscure to Cal, an attitude that annoyed him immensely, but never as much as his attempt to make him dance with Miss Mare, who seemed to have no intention of giving him the honor, despite his good disposition. Her reluctance, however, hadn't hurt her in the eyes of the gentleman, who was thinking of her with a certain satisfaction when he was approached by Miss Samos.

"Can I guess the subject of your reverie?" she asked, turning her gaze to the room and covering her thin, pale lips with a glass.

"I would say not," he replied, sardonically.

"Let me try: you are considering how unbearable it would be to pass many evenings like this, in such company, and I absolutely agree with you. I was never bored that much! The nonsense, plus the noise; the nullity and the importance that all these people give themselves! What would I give to hear your comments on them! "

"Your hypothesis is totally wrong, I assure you. My mind was engaged in more pleasant things: I was meditating on the great pleasure that two beautiful eyes can give. "

Miss Samos immediately stared into his face, and asked him to tell her who was the lady who had the merit of inspiring such a reflection. Cal replied intrepidly, mentioning Mare's name, but had to quickly placate his friend's sarcasm and remind her that he hadn't forgotten their agreement, if only not to attract too much attention. Unfortunately, the General couldn’t suspect that he had been overheard by the young Gisa, who, returning home, reported everything to her sister just for the sake of hearing the malice that her mother would’ve expressed towards that man so cold that he hadn't even bothered to compliment her performance.

"From the way I hear you talk, you must be the silliest girl in the neighborhood," her father retorted. "I had suspected it several times, but now I'm convinced. "

Gisa was so disconcerted that she almost began to cry, and it was only her mother's intervention, and the subsequent quarrel between her and her husband, that allowed her to reach her room undisturbed. As for Mare, she listened, since her father's opinions were always well thought out, and certainly more reliable than those of her mother or even her brothers.

"From what you say, those two have been friends all their lives, and even their parents were friends before them, so it wouldn't surprise me if they secretly agreed to get married, if they were left without a partner for too long,” Mr. Barrow decreed, putting an end to the discussion, at least aloud, as his words reverberated for days in his daughter's mind, until the importance of the news was outclassed by a letter that came directly from the Hall of the Sun: Wren had gone on horseback to a lunch with Miss Samos and Lady Haven, but she had been surprised by a thunderstorm and now remained a guest of the Samos until her indisposition, which consisted of a severe sore throat and a pounding headache that had barely allowed her to write that note, had passed. Seriously worried about the matter, and despite her father arguing that she was going to be fine, Mare had decided to visit her, even though, with the ground made extremely muddy by the rain, making the carriage completely unusable, and given her ineptness as a horseman, she was forced to go by foot.

"How can you be so foolish?"asked her mother, rhetorically, " You won’t be presentable once you get there!”

"I'll definitely be presentable to see Wren, which is all I want," she replied, and Gisa's objections were to no avail since she was even supported by Shade and Tramy, who were willing to visit the Farleys, who lived right off the street. It was just dawn when the trio left the house and took the road to the Hall of the Sun, but as soon as she separated from her younger brothers, Mare continued along the shortcuts she remembered from when she was a child, walking briskly through field after field, climbing over fences and leaping puddles with agile impatience, eventually founding herself in sight of the house with sore ankles,

muddy socks and a face that shone, warmed by the exercise. She was ushered into the breakfast room, where all the residents, except for Wren and Mr. Lucas, were gathered and where her appearance caused a huge surprise; that she had walked three miles so early in the morning, in all that mud, and alone, was almost unbelievable to the two young ladies, and Mare realized they despised her for it, yet they welcomed her with great courtesy, as opposed to General Calore, who spoke very little, and the owner of the house, who didn’t said a word, probably upset by her unannounced arrival, or feeling as if she was questioning whether her friend was being properly cared for. The answers she received regarding that specific issue weren’t particularly encouraging: Miss Skonos had slept badly due to the high fever and she wasn’t feeling strong enough to leave her room. Mare was pleased to be immediately led to her, and Wren, who had refrained from expressing in her note how much she desired such a visit only for fear of creating alarm and disturbing, was very happy to see her come in, although she couldn’t have much conversation, and once Miss Samos had left them alone, the two merely had breakfast in silence. Once they finished eating, they were joined by their hosts, and Mare began to like them more when she saw how much love and care they showed for Wren. The pharmacist arrived, and after examining the patient he said, unsurprisingly, that she had caught a severe cold, and that there wasn't much to worry about; he advised her to go back to bed, and promised to get her some medicine. The advice was promptly followed, as the fever had risen and the headache had worsened. Mare didn’t leave the room even for a moment and the other ladies weren’t away for long either, but since the gentlemen were out, in fact they had nothing else to do. When the clock struck three times, Mare realized she had to go, and she said it very reluctantly. Miss Samos offered her the carriage but Wren seemed so anxious about parting with her that Miss Samos was forced to turn the carriage offer into an invitation to stay for the time being at the Hall of the Sun. Mare accepted gratefully, and a servant was sent to warn the family and to bring back a supply of clothes.

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jessethorn · 4 years

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Some Los Angeles Tips

People are always asking me what they should do when they visit LA. I am by no means the greatest LA expert on earth, but I’ve lived here more than a decade now, and I have some ideas for you. Note that I live in the far Northeast corner of LA, and really rarely travel to the western half of town. So if you are looking for advice on Beverly Hills stuff or Malibu stuff or whatever, I am not that helpful. Also this is very subjective and really non-comprehensive in general. Just some stuff I like!

In General

Rent a car if you drive, but don't be afraid to take the bus or subway. There are some very long distances to traverse, and not everything is convenient to transit, but the transit is reasonably comfortable and efficient for a lot of purposes (going downtown, for example), particularly when combined with some judicious ride-sharing. There's plenty of parking everywhere, despite what Angelenos would have you think. Don't try to do too many things in one day, or cross town on the 10, 101 or 405 at anything even resembling rush hour (ie between like seven and ten thirty or three and seven on weekdays). Stick to one area for the day, maybe two.

The Museum of Jurassic Technology This is the best thing in Los Angeles and one of the best things in the world. It is part museum, part art project. To explain it much further might ruin the experience of visiting it, but please take my word that it is one of the most amazing places in the world.

The Watts Towers As the name suggests, they're in Watts, a bit out of the way for some trips, but absolutely without a doubt worth the travel. They're an incredible artwork/building built in a backyard out of rebar, concrete, glass and tile by an illiterate Italian immigrant in the mid-20th century. Worth signing up for a tour, they are cheap (it's a city park) and not all that long. There's also a little gallery on the site. One of the great works of American outsider art and a deeply beloved city treasure.

Other, More Regular Museums LACMA is a world-class art museum. The collection is a bit scattered (and as of this writing a wing is closed for renovation and replacement), but it's really good. It's in Mid-City on the Miracle Mile, and surrounded by other museums. The Petersen Automotive Museum is pretty cool if you're into cars. La Brea Tar Pits are more park than museum, but the museum is fun in a kitschy way, if you're into prehistoric creatures. It's also a nice place to eat lunch. In Exposition Park are a few major museums - the Natural History Museum is pretty good, though not better than others in other major cities (the Field Museum or whatever). The science museum is OK but significantly outclassed by the competition (it's no Exploratorium), though it does have a real space shuttle, which is pretty sweet. The Annenberg Space for Photography does what it says on the label. A good mid-size museum of photographs, check what show is up. The Broad is a nice contemporary art museum in a beautiful building that's right near Walt Disney Concert Hall, also an incredible building. They have a second campus in Little Tokyo that's very nice but smaller.

Architectural Stuff The LA Conservancy runs affordable walking tours that take you into some of the most fascinating built environments in LA. The subject matter ranges from Art Deco in downtown to the modern skyscrapers of the 50s through 90s. They're mostly Saturdays, but a few also run on weekdays. Can't recommend them enough if you're up for a couple hours of walking. You can go inside the Bradbury Building and up into the upper floors! It's cool. (The Conservancy also runs screenings in the big movie palaces downtown, which are mostly otherwise closed to the public. Definitely recommend those.) A couple of other architectural highlights: the Hollyhock House is in Barnsdall Park in Los Feliz. It's a restored Frank Lloyd Wright estate willed to the city many years ago that as of relatively recently runs regular tours. Also in the park is the city art museum of LA, which sometimes has some cool shows. Cal Poly Pomona students run tours on Saturdays of the Neutra VDL studio and residences in Silver Lake, which can be combined with a nice walk around the lake and some middle-aged-hipster watching. The Gamble House in Pasadena is an absolutely breathtaking craftsman mansion with a lot of

Griffith Park Griffith Park is one of the largest urban parks in the United States. It has all kinds of stuff within it - the LA Zoo, the Griffith Observatory, some great hiking. It's a great place to spend some time. If you have little kids, they will love Travel Town, a train graveyard/museum that's inside the park (and free!). The zoo is good if you like zoos, though not incredibly great or anything. The Autry Museum of the American West is worth a visit if you're into that kind of thing.

The Grove I know that we talk about The Grove a lot on Jordan, Jesse, Go. Please do not waste your vacation time at the Grove. It's a mall. It's fine. This also applies to the Americana at Brand, which we sometimes talk about because we have talked about the Grove too much. Also a mall. A little nicer than some? I went there when I needed a new power cable for my Surface.

Dodger Stadium Look, I am a Giants fan and hate the Dodgers, but if you are a baseball fan, Dodger Stadium is a great place to watch a baseball game. Even I can admit that. Angel Stadium is about as generic as it gets, but if you go on a weekday you can take a train from Union Station in LA.

The Getty Center The Getty Center is a beautiful building on a breathtaking piece of real estate. It's pretty cool to visit, but be aware that most of the art is pretty early, so if you don't like busts or paintings of feasts and stuff from the bible, then it might not be your jam art-wise. And getting up there is a whole thing. That said: it really is a beautiful building and an incredible view, so you probably won't feel like it's a waste. And if you like busts, then get your ass over there.

Downtown Stuff I will again recommend the LA Conservancy's walking tours to get a flavor of downtown LA, which is very walkable and full of incredible stuff. The main library is a beautiful edifice, the history of which is detailed in Susan Orlean's The Library Book. Worth wandering around in. Grand Central Market is a great place to get a bite, though pretty bougie at this point. Right next to Grand Central Market is Angel's Flight, a block-long funicular that is a lot of fun and costs next to nothing. Besides this, there are still functional specialized commercial districts in downtown LA. The flower district is particularly fun - the big flower market opens early for wholesale sales but is open to the public and there are tons of stores selling silk and artificial flowers which are very fun to wander through. There are also areas with stores specializing in selling imported toys, store fixtures (a favorite of mine), jewelry and fabric. Most of the fabric is kinda garbage honestly but there is a good tailor supply store called B. Black and Sons and a great hat making store (worth visiting even if you don't make hats) called California Millinery Supply. FIDM also has a thrift store with cheap fabric leftover from LA-based factories.

Movies The Arclight is a fancy movie chain, and the Hollywood location (near Amoeba Records) is also the home of the Cinerama Dome, which is pretty fun. The Vista is a great single-screen theater on the east side. There are some great rep houses on the west side - check your local listings.

Comedy Stuff The UCB has a few great shows every night at both locations. It's hard to go wrong, though you should be aware you will be seeing things that are a little rougher than whatever makes it to your town as a road show. The signature improv show is Asssscat, which is absolutely as good as it gets. Dynasty Typewriter (right by our office) has a lot of great shows these days. A great standup show is Hot Tub at the Virgil. The big comedy clubs have pretty comedy-club-y comedy in them, not necessarily what I'd recommend, though you will certainly see a lot of relatively big names doing sets. The Improv Lab sometimes has MaxFun-adjacent headliners who've put together their own lineups, as does Flappers in Burbank. Largo has bigger-name shows of this variety as well, and if you go see a show there headlined by a Sarah Silverman or Patton Oswalt, the lineup will likely be packed with their pals, even if they aren't advertised.

Some Places To Eat This is NOT a comprehensive list. First: Jonathan Gold died a few years ago, but he is still the king of LA food. Anything he recommended in the Weekly or Times is still the gold standard (no pun intended). He was also a wonderful writer and a champion of foodways that are unfamiliar to many in LA, much less outside LA. If you are a food nerd, KCRW's Good Food is a superb local food show (and podcast) produced by Nick Liao, who used to work at MaxFun.

Philipe's The French Dip A restaurant that's been around for literally a century, with sawdust on the floor, big jars of pickled eggs, ladies in hairnets and really tasty French Dips. They have competing claims to having invented them but the other competitor turned into one of those goofy sleeve-garter-barman subway tile exposed lightbulb places about ten years ago. Philipe's is totally for real and great.

Pie N Burger This is just a burger place in Pasadena that sells classic SoCal-style burgers and is really great. Cash only, though.

Langer's The only one of the Jewish delis in LA that's really worth a special trip. The #19 (pastrami, cole slaw and swiss on rye) is truly one of the world's greatest foods. Pastrami here is better than anywhere else I've ever eaten, including those famous delis in New York.

Park's BBQ

One of many great Korean BBQ restaurants in LA, but the only one recommended to me personally by Jonathan Gold. (I also like Soot Bull Jeep, which barbeques over charcoal and will leave you smelling like smoke, and Hae Jang Chong for all-you-can-eat.) (There are LOTS of different kinds of Korean food, but I am not an expert on the soups and blood sausages and bibimbaps and etc., but if you're adventurous, you could eat a different Korean food at a different spot every month in LA and make out well.)

Guelagetza Oaxacan food is one of the best kinds of food in the world, and Guelagetza is an LA institution that serves good-quality Oaxacan food. Moles, tlayudas, queso fundido. If you've never eaten any of this stuff, a couple of chicken moles are a great place to start (as is Guelagetza).

Dim Sum You can drive all the way to the San Gabriel Valley and eat at one of the many wonderful dim sum places there. That's where the best stuff is. If it's not worth a special trip to you, I like a place called Lunasia in Pasadena, and they also serve dim sum for dinner. Not a HUGE menu but good food.

Mozza This pizzeria, now a sort of group of restaurants, is an unimpeachably excellent Fancy Meal in LA. So (per my producer Kevin) are the other restaurants run by the same chef, Nancy Silverton.

The Dal Rae This is an old-timey fancy restaurant in Pico Rivera, a semi-industrial part of LA. It's just a great place to wear a suit to and eat Clams Casino. Famous for their table-made Caesar salad (legit great) and pepper steak (too peppery for me). Generally the food is excellent in a 1955 sort of way.

Bludsoe's Best Texas-style barbeque I've had outside of Texas. Used to be a window down by the airport, now a fancier place on La Brea, but I'm told the food is just as good at the fancy place.

Pupusas I love to eat pupusas. Maybe my favorite food. I really like to eat pupusas at Los Molcajetes on Hoover in Westlake (near Koreatown). Note they are weirdly big here (a regional variation of some kind) and they only take cash. (Note also this is one of 10,000 restaurants in LA named Los Molcajetes.) I also sometimes eat at a nice sit-down Salvadoran place called Las Cazuelas on Figueroa in Highland Park.

In N Out In N Out is good! It will not change your life! But it is very tasty, especially for a $4 food! Some people complain about the fries, which are fresh-cut and fried only once and thus are less crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside than some others! I think they are fine! Try In N Out, why not! But maybe don't make a whole special trip to do so!

Tacos and Other SoCal Mexican Food Stuff Everyone has their own favorite taco places, and none of my favorites are so special they should be destinations. They are mostly my favorites because they are close to my home and work. But I can tell you that I like to get sit-down Mexican-American food at La Abeja on Figueroa in LA, where I eat a lot of carne adovada and enchiladas and sometimes albondigas or breakfast. I also really like to eat carne en su jugo at Carnes Asadas Pancho Lopez on Pasadena in Lincoln Heights. I eat tacos from Tacos La Estrella on York in Highland Park or the truck (with no name) across from the Mexican consulate on Park View at sixth in Westlake. At night I sometimes get cheap tacos (I like buche) from the place that opens up on Pasadena at Avenue 37. I like the shrimp and fish tacos at Via-Mar on Figueroa. I like Huaraches from Huaraches Azteca on York. The burritos at Yuca’s in Los Feliz (or Pasadena) are great, though they are totally different from the SF-style burritos that I grew up eating. I sometimes get nachos at Carnitas Michoacan on Broadway in Lincoln Heights, which feature meat and cheese sauce and are gross but also really, really good. I have also eaten at the very fancy Mexican restaurant Border Grill and to be honest it is really good even though the interior feels a little like a cross between a fancy restaurant in 1989 and a Chili's.

El Coyote This is a famous Mexican-American restaurant from the early part of the 20th century, but you shouldn't go there because the food sucks.

Stores I Like This is going to be REAL subjective, but a few stores I like which sell the kinda stuff you'd expect me to want. &etc - A great (small) antique store at 1913 Fremont in Pasadena. The Last Bookstore - A downtown bookstore that is the closest thing to a "destination" book store in LA. Good selection and reasonable prices on used books, and a nice art book room. (Records as well, but they're not very good.) Gimme Gimme Records - I like this record store in Highland Park. You'll pay retail here, but reasonable retail, and the selection (while not immense) is really excellent. Good stuff in all genres.

Secret Headquarters - One time at this small comics store in Silver Lake the lady at the counter asked if I was Jesse from Jordan Jesse Go and they won my business forever in that moment. Don Ville - My friend Raul makes and sells shoes (and repairs them!) in the northern part of Koreatown. If you have the dough, get him to make you some shoes! The Bloke - A really great little menswear store in Pasadena. Sells cool (expensive) trad-ish brands like Drake's and Hilditch & Key and Alden. The Good Liver - A beautiful shop in Little Tokyo specializing in perfect home goods. The perfect scissors, the perfect dish towel and so forth. Some things are expensive, some aren't. H Lorenzo Archive - The "outlet" shop of a designer clothing store on the west side. Discounts aren't huge, but the selection is really interesting, and they have a good collection of one of my favorite brands, Kapital. Sid Mashburn - Excellent classic clothing shop on the west side. Suit Supply & Uniqlo - if you haven't got these where you live, they're the places I usually send people for reasonably-priced tailored clothes (Suit Supply) and cheap basics (Uniqlo). Olvera Street - This is an old-timey tourist attraction, a street of folks selling Mexican handcrafts (and their Chinese-made analogs). Right near Union Station and Philipe's, and a great place to buy factory-made huaraches (the shoes, not the food). They even have sizes big enough for me, which is pretty much impossible to find in Mexico or most Mexican-American shoe stores. Thrift Stores - I go to a lot of thrift stores but if I told you which ones you might buy something I would have bought so I'm not going to tell you which thrift stores.

Flea Markets You may know I am at the flea market every weekend. The good fleas are on Sundays, and there's one every week. First Sunday of the month is Pasadena City College, a big (and free) market with pretty reasonable pricing. PCC has a pretty big record section in addition to the regular flea market stuff. Second weekend is the famous Rose Bowl flea, which is HUGE and has a big new goods section (blech) and vintage clothing area (good!). Third weekend is Long Beach Airport, which is a great overall show. Fourth is Santa Monica airport, which is smaller and a little fancier but very nice. The Valley flea is also fourth Sundays, at Pierce College, and that's not huge but sometimes surprises me. With all of these, the earlier you can arrive, the better you'll do (not least for weather reasons). I usually try to get there around 7:30 or 8:00. The Rose Bowl in particularl is a 4-6 hour operation if you do most of it. There are also a lot of swap meets - I don't know enought to recommend any in particular, but these are much more about tube socks and batteries and bootleg movies than antiques and collectibles. Still can be fun, though, and are certainly a proud SoCal tradition. (The Silverlake Flea and the Melrose Trading Post are garbage, don't go there.)

Going to the Beach I'm not a huge beach goer, but by all means go to the beach if that's your thing. The Annenberg Community Beach House in Santa Monica is a great place to base your operation, though you have to arrive in the morning on busy days to get a parking spot.

Kid Stuff I mentioned Travel Town, that's pretty great. Kidspace in Pasadena is a very good children's museum. The Bob Baker Marionette Theater is a great place to see a marionette show straight out of 1966. There's a good aquarium in Long Beach though it's a bit nutty there on weekends, and the zoo in Griffith Park is a good zoo. I really like Descanso Gardens, a big botanical garden northeast of LA. Huntington Gardens is also very nice, though it's much more expensive and hotter.

Geography Los Angeles is BIG. I'd say try to spend each of your days within about a sixth of it, geographically. It's entirely possible to do west side and east side stuff on the same trip, but don't try to do them on the same day. Look at a map and look at driving times when you're planning. Neighborhoods in LA are BIG, geographically speaking, don't assume two things in the same neighborhood are an easy walk. There aren't a ton of urban neighborhoods suitable for wandering in the way there are in some places. A few manageable general areas for stuff you might like: Silverlake/Los Feliz/Echo Park, Koreatown, Highland Park, downtown, Little Tokyo and the Arts District. (I live in the northeast part of town, and don't spend much time on the west side, which is one reason why this list focuses more on east side stuff. Some folks like West Hollywood and Venice on the west side. Long Beach and Pasadena are both neat towns with their own thing going on that might be worth a visit, too.)

Books & Media The Great Los Angeles Book is probably City of Quartz, a socialist-leaning history of LA. I really loved Susan Orlean's The Library Book, which is about the library as an institution, but also specifically the LA central library and the mysterious fire that nearly destroyed it. And a wild guy named Charles Lummis who was one of the founding fathers of LA culture and was really something else. (You can visit his house - it's right off the 110 near Highland Park.) An LA movie I love is The Long Goodbye, which is sort of a predecessor/inspiration for The Big Lebowski. A shaggy mystery directed by Altman where Elliott Gould just sort of wanders around LA. Another really cool one is Los Angeles Plays Itself, a long (long!) film essay about the ways the real Los Angeles has been used to create fictional worlds in film over the decades.

TV Tapings I'm not an expert in TV tapings. I can say that I've been to a few Conan tapings, and while it takes a LOOOOONG time to get in there, the show is fun to watch live. This is generally true of talk shows and most game shows, which tape more or less as-live. Sitcoms take WAY longer than you were expecting them to. Make sure to try to book tickets early if you have something you want to see. No matter what it's a most-of-the-day thing.

Nightlife Is a word that describes evening activities - especially dance clubs. I am old and don't know about these things.

The Magic Castle I can't get you in, please don't ask me to. I went a couple times. It's fine. If you're not into magic you're not missing too much. If you are, then obviously, it's a priority.

The Walk of Fame and Hollywood Not recommended, not worth it, don't bother.

Disneyland Why would you want my opinion about Disneyland? It's Disneyland. You're in or you're out.

San Diego If you happen to plan a side trip to San Diego, you can take the Amtrak there, and it is a breathtakingly beautiful and exceedingly pleasant trip. I have no San Diego expertise to impart beyond that, however.

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bapydemonprincess · 4 years

Text

Saving Mey Rin

Hello everyone! ❤️ Got another AMAZING collab story to share with you guys!! Another Sebagrellerin story with my lovely partner in crime @grelleswife!! There’s LOTS of hurt/comfort in this one to please the eyes, and I’m pretty sure this takes place in basically the same universe as the others! ;) I hope you all enjoy our little masterpiece!! 😘

Sebastian continued to smirk as he raced downstairs, tossing out another batch of knives at the next group of foolish humans to come parading in. It was fascinating that some had managed to get in at all, what with Finny out there tossing as many heavy objects (usually tree trunks) as he could and Mey-rin already on the roof taking out men with her perfect crack shots.

But oh well, this would clearly be the end of their sorry attempts now.

What also amused the demon was that they always seemed startled when they were met by the head butler. Were they expecting the Earl himself to be coming out and attacking as well?

While the young master did know by now how to shoot someone with a gun, he definitely was not ready for this level of combat.

Some, of course, had the artillery available to rattle the demon’s human form with bullets, but by now it was an easy fix; just expelling the bullets and tossing them back to the poor horror-struck mortals.

It was all just a typical day, really. Once all the forces were cleared he could get right on to serving lunch.

Hm, what to make today…

But before Sebastian could come up with any likely options for his master’s meal, the unmistakable sound of a window shattering in another room met his fine-tuned hearing, and Sebastian whirled around just in time to see Grelle Sutcliff’s grand entrance from the drawing room.

“Miss Sutcliff? I wasn’t aware you’d be joining us, at least not today…” Sebastian responded, quirking an eyebrow almost casually. Then there was another man barging in, uncaring of if he were interrupting two lovers greeting each other. Sebastian kept his eyes locked right on Grelle, awaiting her response as he grabbed the man by the back of his jacket and simply sliced his neck clean open.

“I saw that quite a few humans on the daily to-die list were scheduled to meet their end here, and I just knew there would be excitement in store! Can’t a woman have a little bloody fun with her lovers?” Grelle laughed. Another attacker entered, lunging toward her. Grelle whirled around with the fluid grace of a tigress and plunged her scythe into his midsection with gusto. Crimson blood sprayed from the wound. When Grelle turned back to grin at Sebastian, he saw that a fair amount had spattered her face. She reached up and deliberately smeared it down her cheek. “My favorite makeup…the blood of my enemies!” she trilled, striking a pose.

“It’s a good look on you,” Sebastian smiled, his eyes turning scarlet. Grelle Sutcliff’s vicious beauty in combat always filled him with dark exultation. A worthy mate! “But I wouldn’t want you to get in trouble for killing these mortals prematurely, rufina.”

Grelle waved aside his concerns. “Nonsense, darling! They’re going to die anyway, so no one will care if I off them a little ahead of schedule. Now, onto more important matters, where is our Mey Mey?”

Sebastian’s eyes crinkled fondly. “Most likely still on the rooftop, picking off these vermin one by one.”

“Let’s keep her company, then!” the reaper exclaimed. “A threesome with my loves!”

The demon chuckled. “Always happy to oblige a lady.”

Grelle grabbed ahold of his arm above the elbow, and in a trice they had “leapt” to the roof. Some distance from where they were standing, Sebastian saw their Mey Rin. Her glasses were pushed to the top of her head, allowing those owl-like eyes to scan the ground below for intruders. Sebastian only sensed a few souls racing desperately about the premises—she had done her work well, it appeared.

“Deadly gorgeous,” Grelle sighed dreamily, and Sebastian couldn’t help but concur. Russet hair blown back, gaze steely with determination, that delectable figure shown to perfection as she stood silhouetted against the sky…exquisite. They watched proudly as she took aim and fired. Sebastian sensed a pathetic life snuffed out of existence a few moments later.

Suddenly, Grelle swore. Sebastian’s head whipped around, and he saw what she had spotted. Crouched in the shadows on the rooftop not too far behind Mey Rin, a figure stealthily pulled out a pistol. Sebastian froze in horror.

“Fuck,” Grelle snarled, racing forward in a desperate attempt to halt the attack. “Watch out, Mey!” Sebastian shouted as he took off after her. His heart lurched painfully in his chest as he saw that cursed finger pull the trigger.

For once the bullet seemed to outclass the demon’s supernatural speed, as Mey-rin’s body lurched within seconds of hearing her loves as well as the sound of the gun going off.

Pain exploded in her shoulder region before her legs could even move, and a scream of agony escaped her as she went down on the rooftop.

All the maid could do now was lie there and listen to the roar of Grelle’s death scythe tearing at flesh, along with a barely garbled howl from the man while it happened.

Next thing Mey-rin could make out was Sebastian’s voice, frantically speaking to her, and touching her arm and shoulder carefully as he did. He must be trying to free her arm from the confines of her dress sleeve, to inspect the wound thoroughly. But Mey-rin was only aware of so much, as it was suddenly like there were plugs in her ears, and shoved in tight, keeping her from making out any exact words at all. The part of her mind that WAS aware of all this, tried to make sense of it, and all she could come up with was it was just her body being in shock, nothing to do with the noises of the gunfire or the bullet, but just the whole situation itself.

“THERE!” Grelle roared, finally pulling away her scythe from the gruesome remains now splattering a corner of the manor roof. “That’ll show you not to mess with a lady’s true love, you bloody bastard.” She growled, and whirled around to get back to the love in question.

Her heart lurched at the sight as she ran closer, though, and she slowed down and dropped to her knees next to her demon.

“Bassy, please tell me she’ll be alright!!”

“She likely will be,” Sebastian confirmed, a hint of a bitter growl in his tone, though. “However we must bring her inside to get the bullet out safely and to assure her recovery comes sooner than later.”

“Oh my Mey-Mey! Her eyes look so haunted, is she in shock??” Grelle got up in sync with the demon as he cradled their precious human so close to his chest.

“Yes, and it’s no surprise that she is, as this has not happened before…” The demon’s eyes glowed with a raging hellfire the likes only those few who truly were damned had ever seen. “When I get my hands on whoever sent that man, I will make sure this never happens again.” He promised, voice dipping even more.

Sebastian pressed his hand firmly to Mey Rin’s wound to quell the flow of blood. His glove was instantly stained crimson, a sight that caused his stomach to tie itself up in anxious knots. The demon’s heart pounded as furiously as any mortal’s. If that bullet had struck an artery…but they didn’t have time to spare. He carefully picked Mey Rin up, cradling her awkwardly with one arm while his other hand continued to apply pressure. Grelle hurried to his side to help him support Mey Rin, whose face had gone chalk-white. Those beautiful brown eyes were glazed over in uncomprehending pain.

“We need to bandage her up now,” Grelle said, voice strained with tension, though Sebastian could tell she was trying to put on a brave front for their injured maid.

“Can you take us to the kitchen? We have gauze and disinfectant there.”

Grelle nodded. “It’ll be all right, my sweet girl,” she whispered to Mey Rin. After planting a quick kiss on her forehead, Grelle grabbed Sebastian’s shoulder (physical contact was required for a reaper to take a companion when they leapt), and, after a blurry few seconds, they stood in the kitchen.

Sebastian closed his eyes, forcing the whirlwind of frantic thoughts to settle into some semblance of calm. He directed Grelle to the appropriate cabinet, and she frantically rifled through its contents before dashing back—deadly efficient.

Sebastian gently lowered himself and Mey Rin to the floor so that the maid lay across his lap. The fear and pain emanating from her soul were excruciating, as were the tears that sprang to her eyes.

“I’m…it ‘urts, Sebastian, it ‘urts so bad…” she whispered. Her lips trembled, and the tears began streaming down her face.

“I know, dearest, but Miss Sutcliff and I are here. There’s nothing to fear, I promise,” the demon said, as much to convince himself as Mey Rin. His free hand moved to caress her cheek, and Grelle knelt beside them.

“Deep, calm breaths, my sweet. Being shot is terrifying as hell, but it’ll be harder to stop the bleeding if your heart’s going a mile a minute,” the reaper said soothingly. She met Mey Rin’s panic-stricken gaze. “Inhale, hold, exhale. Can you do that for me, darling?” she coaxed, holding the maid’s hand. A wobbly smile appeared on Mey Rin’s face, and her ragged breathing began to settle down.

Now that that was taken care of, Sebastian needed to assess the damage. What if the bullet had ricocheted, fragmented…? He concentrated on the presence of the damned thing that had harmed his beloved. The demon let out a shaky sigh of relief when he detected the lead object lodged in Mey Rin’s shoulder. Though uncomfortably close to a few of them, it hadn’t ruptured any of the major arteries and seemed to be intact. Thank the nine circles! His mind raced to decide on the best course of action. Although they could leave the bullet at it was, Sebastian didn’t like that prospect; the lead might leach out and poison Mey Rin a few years later. Having far keener senses than a human, Sebastian was confident that he could extract the bullet without causing further injury, but would kitchen knives be sterile and precise enough? He didn’t want to take any chances with his precious Mey. Of course, when you had a form you could change at will, there were…alternatives.

Sebastian spoke to the maid as tenderly as he knew how. “I’m going to see if I can remove this wretched bullet, dear. It may hurt, but I’ll be done in a trice, I swear it.”

“O-okay,” Mey Rin squeaked, though she couldn’t stop herself from trembling. Grelle squeezed her hand and smiled encouragingly. “Relax and focus on me, Mey Mey. Don’t you worry about a thing. If Bassy couldn’t handle a little bullet, what kind of butler would he be?” The last sentence was uttered in a perfect imitation of Sebastian’s voice, and Mey Rin giggled in spite of the grave circumstances. Grelle beamed, even as shadows of worry lingered behind her eyes. Meanwhile, Sebastian swiftly removed his hand from the wound, and a dark, shifting tentacle rose to plug the gap, reaching deeper for the offending object.

Mey Rin indeed continued to look into her reaper’s beautiful gaze, having gotten used to the strange sharp teeth long ago, by now all the maid saw above her was a beautiful, sweet and emotional woman who was clearly trying her best to comfort her. And this was much appreciated, especially now as she started to feel the strange sensation of something else entering the wound where the bullet was.

Her teeth gritted and her eyes began squinting, as she tried all her might to hold back shouting, to hold back from jolting up and away from the uncomfortable situation.

Grelle was lowering her head further, nearly draping and enveloping her poor girl’s face with nothing but her own and her long, right red locks.

“Shhh, it’ll be alright, it’ll all be fine..” The reaper was cooing, moving her hand to stroke that sweaty jaw and brow.

“Almost… almost..” Sebastian hissed out, for all three of their sakes as this tiny bit of his essence encircled the bullet and very, VERY carefully pulled it out.

Sebastian had never had to do this. Not like this. With his own body, it was a simple reflex to push bullets and other such things right out and get them out with no issue.

But this was a human.

HIS human.

At this point the demon admitted he knew if he were to ever harm Mey Rin, even just by accident, he would be filled to the brim with regret.

Thankfully, centuries of learning to be careful when it was truly required finally paid off as his black essence slipped out, quickly reforming to a hand holding the dreaded bullet, and looked instantly to Grelle to help get the wound disinfected and covered up in bandages.

By now, Mey Rin had lulled her head up, eyes still open but looking quite glazed again.

“Sweetie?” Grelle asked as she noticed this. “Mey Mey??” She asked again when suddenly Mey Rin’s body drooped entirely in their demon’s lap.

“It’s alright, rufina. It’s alright.” Sebastian quickly called her while adjusting their poor human’s weight a little. “She’s simply passed out. I think that it’s fine in this case, though, now that the true danger is out of the way. Let’s let her rest and recuperate.”

“Oh thank goodness.” Grelle sighed out. “I swear, this poor thing is going to be the DEATH of me…”

“Hush now, you know as well as I by now how fragile humans are.” Sebastian smirked despite his sass, confidence that everything was alright now starting to return as they both stood from the floor.

However, that was very short-lived as the head chef took that moment to rush in.

“Oy, Sebastian! Where the hell were you?? I thought we were keepin’ the plan for you to take the main floor covered, why’d you–”

Bardroy’s voice left him instantly at the sight of the butler standing there with an unconscious Mey Rin in his arms, her arm out of it’s sleeve and covered in a bloody bandage wrap. Not even the vibrant red-headed oddity that was Grelle Sutcliff surprised him more.

“Holy shit,” Was all he could utter next, and scratched his scruffy head frantically. “What the hell happened?!”

“Mey Rin’s been shot,” Sebastian replied. After the ordeal they’d all been through, he frankly didn’t have the energy for a lengthy explanation.

Bard’s cigarette fell from his lips. He viewed Mey Rin as a sister, not just a comrade-in-arms, and distress smothered his spirit like the smoke that permeated a burning building. Bard had lost his share of friends on the battlefield; did this spectacle bring back those tragic memories? “Is she—” he croaked out.

“Yes, she’s alive, and should recover, but it will some time, I fear,” Sebastian said. The demon gathered Mey Rin in his arms and gingerly got to his feet, as did Grelle. “Has the enemy been eliminated?”

Bard ran a hand through his hair and cast another worried glance at Mey Rin. “Got all the bastards…well, Finny an’ I kept one o’ ‘em alive in case ye wanted t’ interrergate ‘im.”

Sebastian felt his lips curl in what, if Bard’s disconcerted expression was anything to go by, must have been a devilish smile.

“It would be a delight,” the demon hissed. They’d pay for hurting Mey Rin. Oh, how they’d pay.

“I trust you’ll let me join you?” Grelle purred in his ear. “After we’ve tended to Mey Mey, of course.”

“By all means. But onto our first order of business—we need to put her to bed. Bard, you come with us; we’ll need someone to keep watch over her while Miss Sutcliff and I question our uninvited guest.”

The three quickly made their way to Mey Rin’s room. Sebastian laid her down with the greatest of care, and he and Grelle tucked her in. Her face retained the pallor it had acquired, but she seemed peaceful. Grelle bent down to press a quick kiss to her cheek. Sebastian petted her hair compulsively—he needed confirmation of Mey Rin’s presence, proof upon proof that she had survived. It was with great reluctance that they withdrew, leaving Bard to pull up a chair and take one of the maid’s hands in his.

Still, as demon and reaper strode towards the room where the sole remaining miscreant had been bound and gagged, Sebastian felt a twinge of dark satisfaction. After the fright they’d all suffered, he intended to return the favor with interest. Grelle’s eyes glittered like those of a predator that had just spotted its next meal.

“How I love to play the butcher! We’ll paint his final moments pretty, pretty red, shan’t we?”

Sebastian sensed his teeth sharpening to fangs in vicious anticipation.

“Most definitely.”

---

After cleaning up the mess they’d made (they’d gotten a bit carried away, but Sebastian wasn’t sorry in the slightest), the two made haste back to Mey Rin’s room. Bardroy still sat alert, a faithful sentinel.

“How is she?” Grelle and Sebastian both asked at once.

“Sleepin’ like an angel. No fever or nuthin’, neither,” Bard reported with a smile of relief.

“Well done. You may go now—you and Finnian should try to get some rest for tomorrow.”

“But Mey Rin—”

Sebastian held up a hand to ward off his protests.

“Miss Sutcliff and I will tend to her for the rest of the evening. I can assure you that we’ll give her the best of care.”

Bard wavered, but finally relented. With a quick “G’night, Mey Rin,” and a brotherly squeeze to her hand, he departed. Grelle and Sebastian sat on the mattress on either side of her and gazed down at their human. Her breathing was slow and even. She looked surprisingly peaceful, considering how close her brush with death had been. The reaper gently reached out and lightly placed her hand on Mey Rin’s chest, over her heart. Sebastian instinctively put his hand atop Grelle’s. I’m still here, Mey seemed to tell them with each rise and fall of her chest. Sebastian heard a sniffle, and looked up to see that Grelle had tears in her eyes.

She trembled. “Oh gods, what a night. Bassy, what if we’d lost her?”

Sebastian touched his forehead to Grelle’s, noticing to his chagrin that his own eyes had grown watery. How peculiar.

“I know, I know.” His free hand moved to stroke Grelle’s hair. “But we saved her, Miss Sutcliff, and I swear on my aesthetic that we will heal her.”

The reaper huffed a quiet laugh at that particular phrasing.

“Just on your aesthetic, little Sebas?” She simply asked while wiping her eyes.

Sebastian openly looked confused at this question, and out of nowhere as well.. the reaper had known by now how important such things meant to the demon.

“Of course, what else would I swear on?”

Even as he asked, truly curious where she was coming from, there was a nagging feeling coming on that he should’ve understood already.

Grelle seemed to take that in a moment longer before smiling to herself and closing her eyes. She shook her head briefly and replied with a quiet “Oh, nevermind.”

She definitely didn’t feel like going into that just yet. They’d cross that bridge eventually, but for now their focus should remain on their human.

After another brief peaceful gap of time where they sat in the same spot on the bed and kept their eyes glued on Mey Rin, Sebastian broke the silence with a sigh, taking out his pocket watch.

Grelle knew what that meant.

“Time to face the bratty music, eh?” She quipped sadly

“Unfortunately,” Sebastian muttered, and then promptly leaned in to kiss his saddened lady. “But you know I will return once he’s in bed.”

While Grelle accepted the kiss, she still frowned with concern.

“If he will go to sleep once he knows there was a bloody sneak attack that took out Mey Mey and caught you, his demon butler, off guard.”

“Now Grelle– ”

“Don’t “Now Grelle” me, Sebastian, you know damn well I’m right!“

Sebastian grimaced with the prospect that she was right in this vein, his mind once again racing to think up a fix for this…

“Well, we are certainly not going to force Mey to continue working while she heals. I’m sure even my young master, despite all his cruelty, is not that unfair. He will understand she may be inhumanly efficient with sniping, but is very much human in other respects. Even if, as I said earlier, this has… Never happened before.”

The demon’s eyes drifted back to the sleeping human in question, once again that strange feeling of constant concern rising in his gut. It made him almost want to grab it, check his own vitals to see if everything was still intact.

“Oh! Oh!” Grelle gasped out of nowhere, breaking the demon’s train of thought just in time before he felt too enveloped in these emotions to even risk leaving the bed.

“Yes? What is it, rufina?”

“I know this is a long shot, darling, I know, but.. what if I offered to take her place for the time being!”

Sebastian’s glowing eyes bulged in the darkness of the room.

“You- you want to take Mey’s place, and help guard the manor and the young master?!”

Grelle instantly struck a brave pose while still sitting, of flexing her arm out, bending at the elbow, and putting her hand over her upper arm as if there were an impressive but of muscle there standing out.

“Why not?! I may get into a little trouble back at work, but it’ll be worth it to stand in for my precious Mey Mey!”

As much as Sebastian inwardly wanted to embrace and cheer his beloved on for this sudden display of kindness, his mind reminded him instantly of why this couldn’t possibly work.

“As much as I’d love to be wholly on board with this Miss Sutcliff, aren’t you forgetting you severed any chances of my master trusting you when you killed his aunt?”

Hence why they always had to sneak around like this in the first place…

“Oh come on, what other option will he have? Just go with one guard short? Give that little snake guy from that circus a gun??”

Sebastian instantly snorted at that, the mental image of Snake with a gun quickly taking over, but he shoved it back just as fast and cleared his throat.

“Of course not, but I still doubt this’ll be an easy sell all the same, rufina.”

“Maybe so, but.. it’ll be worth a try, won’t it?” Grelle decided to attempt puppy eyes, as well as pulling Mey Rin’s limp hand up, gently rubbing her own cheek over it while she looked up into the demon’s cat-like eyes. “For her?”

A loud, long suffering sigh answered her, but the demon smiled all the same.

“Very well, I will try my damnedest to sway him.” He gave the delighted reaper a kiss, and then also moved to kiss the soft, cool hand she was still holding as well. “Stay here and watch over our human, my dear.”

“Gladly, my sweet, soft Sebby.” She couldn’t help but purr out.

This, of course, got the result she had been hoping for. The demon’s face flaring up with heat. He gave her a look at that, then stood from the bed and hurried off to do what he intended.

Ciel may have gotten a little suspicious and impatient after another hour of waiting for someone to come get him and confirm that everything was clear.

It certainly sounded like everything was settled, no shouts were heard echoing from outside or downstairs, no gunshots either.

But that did not explain why his usually perfect demon butler was not arriving straight after to make sure he was alright and to take him to bed.

The boy was seconds away from finally commanding the demon come when he did come, just as he was, nothing missing or out of place that he could see.

Stopping in front of him, Sebastian bowed deeply at the waist.

“My sincerest apologies for the late arrival, my lord. Unfortunately a matter came up that I had to see to at once in the midst of battle.”

“And what “matter” would that be?” Ciel responded flatly, the obvious translation being ‘What was so much more important than coming to your master?’

“Mey Rin had been attacked from her position on the roof, my lord.” Sebastian opened his eyes and stared at the boy, making sure he knew how serious this “matter” was indeed. “A surprise attacker somehow got up there and managed to wound her in the shoulder blade with a pistol before he was.. taken care of.”

“They what?!” The boy instantly roared, straightening up from his slouched position and planting his hands on the arm rests.

“Do not fear, Mey Rin was seen to. Hence why I took much longer than usual. I managed to get the offending bullet out myself, and her wound was quickly sanitized and dressed.”

“Will she be alright to carry on, then?” The boy had to ask straight away, propping up his elbows this time and putting the tips of his hands together in a steeple pose in front of his mouth.

“That is the current issue, I believe she needs bed rest for the wound to heal properly, or else it’ll be aggravated if she has to still work with it.”

“And how long will that take, Sebastian?”

“In her case it will likely take up to ten days for the wound to properly heal.”

Ciel’s eyebrows scrunched up, his eyes going off to look away into space as he thought on this. But his next words were not exactly what the demon had expected..

“Where were you when Mey Rin got attacked like this, Sebastian?”

Sebastian’s mouth opened and, as per the order to “never lie”, he was about to say exactly where he had been at that moment, but after five years of playing this game with this brat, he knew that the boy already had the upper hand.

“I was clearly unable to stop the bullet from hitting it’s target, if that is what you’d like to know, my lord.” He decided on.

“You claim you know it was a surprise attack, Sebastian. How would you know as such when the likelihood that Mey Rin herself would able to tell anyone after being shot is very low. You must’ve had to have been there on the roof yourself to have known it was a surprise attack, if it was.”

Sebastian felt irritation shooting straight to outrage, but he quelled it, and kept that perfect poker face of his.

“You are a very good detective, my lord, as you have proven time and time again, but I frankly do not see why you must resort to such now when I am merely telling you what has happened to your loyal servant, and the current situation.” He smiled a little, tilting his head. “Do you still doubt me after all these years?”

“Oh shut up, Sebastian, this is a matter of uncovering what your roll was in all this.”

“I told you, sir. I took care of her wound.” He even raised his hand, revealing the still blood-stained glove he hadn’t had a chance to throw out yet. “Do you believe me now?”

The sight of the blood made the boy freeze up entirely. He had seen blood about a million times by now, and so the fact that this hit him so hard was confusing even to him.

“What happened after you took care of the wound?”

“Bardroy met me in the kitchen, and informed me that all was clear. He also told me that he and Finny had kept one particular unfortunate soul alive for interrogation.”

Ciel decided to skip any in between details at this point.

“What did the bastard say, Sebastian?”

This made the demon smile, “Oh not much. He was quite stubborn up until his last breath, I’m sorry to say. But from what I observed from him, he was new to the area, and the likelihood that so were the rest is very high.”

“A new group trying to rise up in the ranks, perhaps?”

“Perhaps, and they certainly have advantages.. Seeing how I must confess no other crime families have ever snuck up on one of our own like that before.”

Ciel lifted an eyebrow, immediately hearing a mild bitterness rising in the demon’s tone. He had a feeling it was not related to anything involving himself, but concerning what had happened to their maid.

“So, this means we have to be on high alert for more sneak attacks..” Ciel frowned thoughtfully. “And with our sniper out that’ll be harder to manage for sure.”

And so Sebastian saw his opening for Grelle’s idea.

“I have a suggestion, if I may be so bold, my lord.” He carefully spoke up before the young Earl could come up with anything himself.

“… Out with it.”

“You and I are both aware of how dea- Ah, efficient grim reapers are, yes?”

“… Considering one almost killed you, yes.”

Sebastian instinctively wanted to argue that he most certainly hadn’t, but no, no no.. He needed to stay on topic!

“Well, young master, what if we were to try allowing a reaper to help us during these ten days that Mey Rin is down?”

The boy’s eyebrow twitched noticeably.

“You, a demon, actually suggesting the help of a grim reaper?”

“Yes, I know it seems odd, but it seems far easier than hunting down another unique human like the ones we have gathered so far. Especially considering reapers tend to usually come to us.”

“You mean Sutcliff, don’t you, Sebastian.”

“Well, that’s-”

“Sebastian,” Suddenly the boy was out of his chair, blue eye blazing with indignation. “Why do I get the strangest feeling that that reaper is already HERE?!”

“Now my lord, there’s no need to get so riled up, especially so late at night.”

“Sebastian-”

“Even if the reaper was here, she is currently not in this room with us, yes?”

“SEBASTIAN!”

“Please lower your voice, the other servants have likely retired by now. You wouldn’t want them to-”

“I ORDER YOU TO TAKE ME TO WHERE EVER THAT BLOODY REAPER IS NOW, SEBASTIAN!”

---

Grelle heard the young earl several seconds before she saw him. Judging from his tone and volume, he was in a state of high dudgeon.

“I don’t know what the hell you were thinking, letting that person muck about in the middle of an attack on the manor!”

“My lord—”

“I don’t want excuses, you bloody demon!”

This wouldn’t do at all. Really, the little brat was going to wake dear Mey Mey if he kept this up. Sighing wearily, Grelle rose and flung open the door. An actress should always make a grand entrance. The earl skidded to a halt. A sorely chastened Sebastian stood at his side, looking like he’d been through a war. Grelle shot him a sympathetic look before turning her attention back to the wrathful bluenette.

“Good evening,” she said in as cheerful a tone as she could muster. Might as well try to keep things cordial.

The Watchdog shot her a withering look that would have felled a more timorous soul. “Spare me the pleasantries, Sutcliff,” he spat out contemptuously. “You have no business here.”

“My business, as you may recall, is death, and there’s certainly been plenty of that at the Phantomhive manor tonight. I just so happened to be assigned to reap the souls of those buggers who came to call.”

“And flirt with my butler, no doubt,” the earl interjected, wrinkling his nose as if a foul odor had just assailed his nostrils. “Come to think of it, that’s probably why he let Mey Rin get shot—because you were running around making a bloody nuisance of yourself.”

Both demon and reaper went stiff with rage, and Grelle thought she saw Sebastian’s eyes darken with remorse. He was supposed to be the perfect butler…of course he blamed himself for Mey Rin’s injury, and here the damned brat was rubbing the salt in the wound.

“YOU—” Grelle started to shout, before Sebastian shook his head firmly and pressed a finger to his lips. The reaper exhaled slowly through her nose and crossed her arms. Only with difficulty did she rein her temper in. Do it for Mey Rin, she reminded herself.

“Demons have their flaws, but Bassy didn’t let anything happen to Mey Me—to Mey Rin. He helped save her. But she’ll be out of commission for a while, so why not let death lend you a hand in the meantime?”

The child sneered. “If your performance as a butler is anything to go by, I’d rather do without. Besides, do you expect me to trust the person who killed my aunt?”

The words hit Grelle like a punch to the gut. She’d been expecting this, of course, but that did nothing to dull the pain of lost love. Despite her resolve, she flinched.

“Those were vastly different circumstances, young master, and Grelle bears us no ill will. She’s also far more competent than she initially led us to believe” Sebastian jumped in. Grelle felt a warm surge of gratitude. Her Bassy always had the right words for any occasion.

“But why would Sutcliff care about Mey Rin in the first place? What were you doing in her room, anyway?” the earl asked crossly, clearly unconvinced. A sharp little blighter.

“We ladies are sentimental creatures, and helping a dear acquaintance is the least I could do,” Grelle purred. Far too complicated to explain that she and Bassy were both Mey Mey’s lovers; the pipsqueak probably wouldn’t know what to make of that!

His icy blue eye glowered silently at Grelle before he spoke. “Take me to her. I want to see her condition for myself.”

As they entered the room and the Phantomhive caught sight of Mey Rin, his mouth set itself in a thin, worried line. The boy hurried to her bedside. For a while, he just stood there, gazing at the slumbering maid with a deeply troubled expression. He was a fragile little thing, and Grelle imagined that seeing one of his private soldiers in this battered condition must be a harsh blow.

“You’re certain about the ten days?” he asked finally, that blue eye downcast.

“At the very least, my lord. Considering the forces this new enemy has at their disposal, it’s inadvisable to be one staff member short. Grelle’s expertise would be a benison to us.”

The earl pinched the bridge of his nose with a weary air. Fatigue was probably getting to him at this point.

“Sebastian, if I did let Sutcliff…assist us…can you keep the reaper in check?”

“Most definitely.” The demon winked at Grelle behind his master’s back, and she had to suppress a giggle.

The boy straightened. Fixing his butler in an imperious gaze, he declared, “Very well. I shall allow this miscreant to substitute for Mey Rin, but you must ensure that Sutcliff does not cause any trouble. If the reaper poses a threat to us at any point during Mey Rin’s recovery, I expect that threat to be eliminated immediately. This is an order.” Sebastian’s jaw tightened. One of the dangers of their unconventional courtship was the possibility of him being commanded to oppose Grelle. But with Mey Mey’s well-being on the line, Grelle was willing to take the risk.

“Now that that’s settled, you really should be getting to bed, young master,” Sebastian added. “Grelle, can you stay with Mey Rin in the meantime?”

“Anything for you, my dearest darling Bassy.” She grinned at the earl’s nauseated expression. Oh, she’d toe the line, but the next few days were going to be interesting.

---

Even later on into the night, Mey Rin finally stirred, as one does when passing out much earlier in the day than to be expected.

She felt absolutely horrible too.

What time was it? What day was it? What had happened while she was out?

The girl grumbled and rubbed at her eyes, though she knew it would do nothing for her eyesight in such complete darkness.

But suddenly, a flicker of candlelight came on in the corner of her vision, and she turned a little to see a form lying beside her, mostly in all white, with black blotches here and there..

“Sebastian..?” She mumbled out, her own voice so weary and tired and dry that it surprised her.

“Yes it’s me, don’t worry dear.” The demon responded in such a gentle whisper Mey Rin physically felt it, and lowered her head back down on the pillow.

Sebastian’s hand came out to gently run through her messy locks, and the girl sighed, feeling herself calm even further.

“How is your shoulder, may I have a look at it?”

The girl took a moment to answer, as her mind needed to recall why Sebastian was asking her such a question.

“Oh,” She finally got out, and then tried to instantly sit up, so she could look at the shoulder in question.

“Easy, easy, now.” Sebastian was going on, shifting so he was in even closer and grasping her arm with tenderness to hold it steady.

His now bare hands took hold of the bandages, unfurling them slowly and just enough to get a peek.

And then his fingers of one hand very carefully pushed on the area surrounding it.

And that was all it took for Mey Rin to suddenly jerk away, a noiseless yelp coming from her mouth.

“Mm, wha?? Mey??” Grelle uttered as she was woken up, feeling the girl inadvertently push herself into the reaper’s body on her other side.

“Oh dear, my deepest apologies,” Sebastian immediately said, trying to make up for it with moving closer to the poor human again and hushing her once more, dipping his head to kiss her face, especially where he felt it heat up and her tears slip down. “Shhh, it’s alright. I won’t do it again, I promise. I was merely trying to check how tender it was now. Shhh, please, I-I’m sorry, Mey. Please let me just redress it and I’ll let it be.”

“Oh my poor little Mey Mey,” Grelle cooed as she came to grips with the situation and also encircled the girl in her arms. “It’s still very painful, isn’t it?”

“Y-Yes…” The girl whimpered, nodding and trying not to spaz out any more as she let her demon get some new wrapping to redress the wound. It a lot harder to deal with that she thought it’d be.

But now that they were all awake, Mey Rin had to take the chance to ask her bedmates some questions.

“How.. l-long was I asleep?” She started with.

“Roughly twelve hours I believe, give or take.” Sebastian immediately answered, but even saying it himself made the demon actually realize how bad that sounded for a human to be unconscious for so long. Especially when said human was very important to him..

“Can I get you anything dearest? Food? Water?” He had to ask her now.

Mey Rin ran her hand up through her hair and groaned. “W-Water please,” She managed.

Instantly the butler was gone, and only a second later he had returned with a glass filled with water.

Mey Rin gratefully drank it while Grelle couldn’t help chuckling. “Show off. I thought you weren’t allowed to do little things like that.”

“For the young master, yes, I have to resort to doing things as humanly as possible. However, he never said anything about anyone else.”

Especially anyone else important to me, He added in his mind as he slipped back into bed and curled up close again to the girl, starting to purr almost instantly as she cuddled back after she’d drank her fill of water down and handed the glass back.

“So.. does the young master… know about what ‘appened?” She continued on, though this question clearly made fear and anxiety rise up in her. Not everything was coming together yet, but the implications of what had happened and how the next few days would likely be were beginning to come to the forefront of her thoughts.

Reaper and Demon glanced across the way at each other, both pairs of glowing eyes riddled with concern over this topic. They knew their human so well by now. Knew the girl did her very best each and every day as the head maid, as well as the group’s sniper. She had so much more pride than one would imagine at first glance. After everything she’d been through to get to this point in her life, she never wanted to take it for granted, or lose it. The demon especially always felt the roiling, beautiful passion, pride and happiness Mey Rin had gained, embodying her soul as he had come to be closer acquainted with her.

Unlike other times with such similar souls, he never wanted his Mey Rin’s soul to ever be manipulated or damaged.

“Yes,” He finally managed to sigh out. “I’m afraid so. I had to relay everything, and well.. I’m sure you know by now how sharp he can be.” Sebastian sensed tension building in the girl, and had to reach around to hold her, trying to soothe as much as possible despite still having to tell her all this. “He eventually figured out that Miss Sutcliff was here and insisted he be allowed to see her as well as what became of you.”

Mey Rin stared out into the darkness of her room. “Was… he angry at me? A-At Grelle??” She whimpered, fearing what would happen next despite half her mind knowing logically it must’ve not been too bad if Grelle was still there beside her, also moving in to cuddle her close.

“He was definitely sore with me, my dear, but I assure you that that brat was not angry at you.” Grelle told her firmly, and kissed her head for good measure. “AND.. guess what, Mey Mey?” She sung out softly, trying to get to the actual good part.

“Um, w-what issit, Miss Sutcliff?” She simply squeaked out.

“I’m not going anywhere any time soon, my sweet. I’m staying right here with you both, and I’m going to be deadly efficient in making sure you heal up right as rain!”

Mey Rin’s beautiful big eyes went even bigger at that.

“Wh-What?? Really?? H-How is that??” She asked, feeling elation briefly dominate her focus.

“Bassy and I managed to convince that little brat that his very important maid and sniper needed some time off while she healed, so of course, I get to stand in for you!” The reaper gave the girl a wink, hoping to delight her further.

Mey Rin’s mouth opened and shut continuously like a fish, looking from Grelle to Sebastian on her other side… and the more she looked the more her chest heaved and her eyes grew misty.

The two immortal beings found themselves baffled as their beloved human started to weep, but they both moved in even closer to hold her, both also covering her emotional visage in kisses and nuzzles and trying to comfort her in every way they knew.

“I… I… I am so happy.. to have you both, yes.” She gasped out, an emotion brewing so close to the surface she wanted to scream, but…she didn’t know if she could say the other thing that was right there, painfully obvious, in her mouth, just yet. It almost made her cry more at just being unable to say everything else she wanted to say.

---

The next few days were a mixed bag. The gunshot wound was awfully painful. Agony burst in her shoulder if was touched in just the wrong way. And being bedridden when she should have been up and about working for the young master was so bloody frustrating! Mey Rin couldn’t stand feeling like a burden and having people wait on her as if she was a fine lady. Still, it wasn’t all bad. Bard and Finny came to visit throughout the day. Bard would share the wildest tales from his army days, which made Mey Rin laugh so hard that she nearly forgot her pain. Dear Finny was sweet as an angel, far too scared to touch her for fear of causing harm, but showering her in love all the same. Like the little brother she’d never had.

Grelle and Sebastian had been just wonderful. Although his duties kept him busy, Sebastian checked on her every chance he could, even if he could only snatch a few minutes here and there. He inspected and dressed Mey Rin’s wound, which he said was healing just as it should. The demon would ask how she was and keep her abreast of what was happening in the manor, all the while holding her to his chest and stroking her hair. Sometimes they’d just sit like that, the companionable silence only broken by Sebastian’s purrs. Mey Rin merely had to say the word, and he’d be at her side in a flash with tea, biscuits, or whatever else might whet her appetite. He also insisted on bathing her. “You mustn’t overexert yourself, Mey,” he’d insist before scooping her up bridal-style and carrying her to the tub. His touch was gentle, gracious. Sebastian’s tenderness filled her heart with the same overwhelming emotion that had made her weep on the night of her injury.

Grelle’s vivacious presence never failed to take Mey Rin’s mind off her troubles. The reaper regaled her with stories of how she was getting on in the manor—she’d even helped the young master with his dancing lesson, would you believe! Grelle smothered her in cuddles and kisses, though Mey Rin certainly wasn’t complaining. She’d braid or comb Grelle’s hair, which the reaper inevitably adored, and Grelle painted the maid’s nails with the most intricate designs to help her pass the time. Of course, the very best hours were at night, when both Grelle and Sebastian could be there. Mey Rin’s contentment at being nestled between them was the best feeling in the whole wide world. Yes it was!

On one such night, though, Mey Rin couldn’t contain her restlessness. She shifted uneasily on the mattress. Oh, she hated being out of commission like this! How much longer would it go on?

Grelle lightly touched her good shoulder. “Something’s wrong, darling.” It was more a statement than a question.

The maid swallowed nervously. She didn’t want to seem petulant and ungrateful after what they’d been doing for her, but she had to get this off her chest. “I just feel so useless!” She burst out. “’ere I am, makin’ things ‘arder for everybody, and takin’ you away from your work at that dispatch place, an’…an’ I can’t stand it, sometimes!”

“It’s no trouble to me, darling. To tell the truth, I rather like having a little holiday from that boring old office, especially when I get to be with my loves!” Grelle assured her at once, wrapping her arms around Mey Rin’s waist.

Sebastian was quick to join in. He held them both and kissed Mey Rin’s cheek sweetly. “Dearest, we’re just happy you’re here. I’d wait on you hand and foot for the rest of my days if it meant you were alive and well. We were both scared as hell that night…I don’t know what I would have done if we’d lost you.”

Mey Rin’s eyes widened. Sebastian sounded more vulnerable than she had ever heard him.

“You do realize how much you mean to us, don’t you?” he continued, eyes glowing red in the darkness. “We’ll do anything to protect the woman we love—”

He broke off, seeming to realize just what he’d said. Mey Rin was speechless. They…they loved…her?

“Exactly right! We adore you, Mey Mey, surely you know that,” Grelle added. Her hug tightened, and Mey Rin’s emotions once again spilled over and turned to tears.

“I love you, too! So, SO much! I can’t imagine my life without you, now…an’…an’ I’m so grateful you’re here, I am! I’m the luckiest girl who ever lived!” she sobbed, clutching at the demon and reaper who meant the world to her.

Sebastian blinked dazedly. I actually said that. Ironic that, swept away by thoughtless sentiment, he’d finally recognized the feelings he’d been harboring for who knew how long. Though supposedly anathema to his kind, “love” had to be the only word that could describe them. He cared about the woman in a way he’d never cared for other mortals, and her near brush with death had forced him to come to terms with how precious Mey Rin truly was. And dear Grelle…perhaps Miss Sutcliff was right about the “red string of fate” that she claimed bound the three of them together. The trio nestled close in the darkness, exchanging three little words among themselves like a marvelous treasure that they had unearthed after much struggle and travail.

“I love you.”

#My Writing #Others writing #Sebastian Michaelis #Mey Rin #Grelle Sutcliff #Sebagrellerin #Sebagrelle #Grellerin #Sebamey #ot3 #kuroshitsuji #black butler #submission

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