#OH IMAGINE SWIMMING WITH HIM IN HIS ENCLOSURE

[dotster001]

Scientific Chapter Two

Summary: Floyd x gn! Reader. Floyd has agreed to study you, for Jade, for three days. He'll have to find some way to make things fun, or he'll lose his mind.

A/N: if you're new...I never write the next chapter this fast. Don't get used to it...but I had quite a bit of inspiration for this 😁

CW: you're trapped in a lab, use of tranquilizer gun (not on you), Idia is an incel loser

Chapters One Three

Three days. That's all he has to put up with. Then he could leave the stuffy lab, and take off the stupid safety goggles. He'd seen your claws. If they could even be called claws. There was no way you could gouge his eyes out with those things. So why would he need the goggles?

But Jade insisted. Something about the paperwork if things went wrong. Something too boring for Floyd to even care about it.

He swam up to the glass and waved. He'd gotten permission to enter the enclosure, but only if you reacted positively to his presence. And right now, you weren't reacting at all, other than peeking up from your corner.

Floyd could be patient. Especially knowing that once you gave him the go ahead, he could come in and get all his curiosity sated. 

He tried so hard. He sat in front of the glass, waiting for you to come up to him like you did that last time. But you didn't. You didn't even move from your corner.

An intern shakily swam in and handed him his lunch, as well as your lunch. They nervously asked if anything had happened, but he ignored them, in favor of staring at you.

They left, and he opened the panel to give you your food. You didn't move.

He grumbled and moved back to his sitting space. And that's when it hit him. The goggles. With the goggles on, you probably thought he was Jade. He knocked on the glass until you fixed him with a glare, then made a show of removing the goggles. 

You stared for a moment, like you were trying to process the new information, then your eyes widened.

You swam up to the glass, and placed your hand up against it. Just like last time. He grinned and placed his own against it. You heaved what looked to be a sigh of relief, which made Floyd giggle. Usually, when people saw him, they knew they were fucked.

He motioned to himself, then to your enclosure. You tilted your head, but after a couple attempts at the motion, you nodded.

And so he entered your domain.

You immediately started "speaking" to him. Jade had referenced that you had a different language, but he'd never imagine it was so foreign. Even the sounds you made were different, most syllables only making it a short distance in the water.

"I can't understand you," he said slowly, shaking his head, and you huffed in frustration. You nibbled your bottom lip in thought.

Then you pointed at yourself, and pointed at the exit door to the lab.

Oh. Now he got it. You recognized the staff who was keeping you here. And despite his resemblance to Jade, you recognized he was not one of your captors.

You thought he would help you.

At first, he didn't say no because he was supposed to be gaining your trust. But he thought for two seconds, and a grin split his face.

Wouldn't it be absolutely hilarious if he did help you escape?

Not bothering to think twice, he snatched your wrist, and opened the panel, dragging you with him towards the door.

He heard what sounded like a shocked laugh leave your throat, as he ripped the lab door open.

Only to swim straight into a wall of scientists all of them armed with tranquilizing devices.

Jade stood at the forefront, a disappointed frown on his face.

"Floyd." He knew that was his only warning. But he looked at your shivering form, and decided to make the attempt anyway.

He was immediately tazed, and watches numbly as three scientists grabbed you and held you in place.

Jade glared at him, grabbing his hair and dragging him back into the lab. He threw Floyd into the enclosure, then the other three scientists put you back.

"What the hell, Jade?" He snapped.

"I'm giving you shared trauma," he shrugged, seemingly holding back a smile. "Now they'll trust you even more. Don't worry, it's only for two more days."

Floyd growled. "You planned this?"

"Floyd, you are my only brother, the other half of my soul, and I love you. But you are predictable, and I need results."

Floyd flopped a little, trying to bring some feeling back into his body. You immediately swam over to him, saying things in a distressed tone as you searched him for injuries. Then you began shouting at Jade. Jade only grinned.

"It seems humans are very open to bonding. I almost can't wait until we get that second human. Perhaps we'll see them form a pack!"

There was the mention of that second human again. Floyd hated them already. What human could be better than this one?

"I'll get you in two days, Floyd, just as promised. Until then, try to have some fun, and get to know the human for me," with a sinister grin he swam out of the lab.

You continued to look him over in distress, repeating something over and over again. He realized you were probably asking if he was okay. He smiled, and that put you at ease a bit. You looked into your lap, almost apologetically.

"Aw, Shrimpy feels bad that I got in trouble?" He grinned, finally able to move his arm a little to cup your cheek. "It's okay, I wouldn't have done it if I didn't want to."

He knew you didn't understand the words, but you seemed to get the sentiment.

You pointed to yourself, and said a word that got garbled in the water between you. You noted his confusion, and repeated it.

"Y/N."

He opened his mouth to attempt to replicate it, but it was difficult. One had to open their mouth wider, and speak from the back of their throat. Is that how all of you spoke.

"Y/N." He tried it. It wasn't good, but you smiled happily.

Then you pointed at him, and he grinned.

"Floyd."

You furrowed your brow, and groaned. You attempted the whistles and clicks that made up his name, but they were all wrong. He laughed hysterically, then repeated, 

"Floyd."

You took a deep breath, and made a close approximation to his name. 

He giggled and wrapped his arms around you, so excited that he forgot about boundaries.

But you didn't mind. Your arms tentatively wrapped back around him, and squeezed him back with your puny human muscles.

Floyd woke up the next day, completely forgetting where he was. It wasn't until he felt something nuzzle into him even closer that he remembered. He looked down, and noticed you huddling into him, a slight shiver wracking your body.

It was odd. As much as you seemed to trust him the night before, he didn't think you trusted him this much. But then he felt the temperature of the water around him. It was definitely colder now. Had the warmer broken? But the real reason came to him quickly.

Jade must have turned it off to see if you would come to him for warmth. Not that he could provide much with his cold bloodedness.

If he has to describe how you felt, it was soft. Your skin was silky, no secretion under his touch. And you were soft. Him and Jade were hard muscle, but you weren't. You weren't soft like Azul, either. You were soft like the warm blooded sea creatures and mers who provided their own heat. Like an orcamer he beat up a few months ago.

If he decided to talk to Jade after this, he'd tell him about it.

Speaking of, the lights in the lab turned on, waking you up and making you push away from him. He pouted and continued to hold his arms out, which made you relax a little. You were still cold, after all, so you slipped back into his arms.

Damn, he wanted to just squeeze you until you popped. So soft.

Jade swam into the room, an irritating grin on his face. And much to Floyd's surprise, behind him swam Azul.

"Azul! Where were you?" He asked. He hadn't seen him in a week or two, which wasn't all that abnormal. He'd disappear from time to time, so it wasn't worth worrying about. But it didn't explain why he was here. With Jade.

"I was on an exploration trip. I was testing a few things out. Things that I am going to sell to Jade today."

His interest was piqued, but not enough to remove you from his arms. Now that you'd seen Jade again, you were nuzzling deeper into him, like he'd protect you. It felt kind of nice. He'd never protected anyone before.

"If this works, Floyd, I might be able to let you go early."

"But first!" Azul pulled out a flat screen, and fiddled with it a little bit, before turning the screen to face the glass. "I'm a mer of my word, after all."

Light flooded the enclosure, and your eyes widened. You left Floyd's arms and swam up to the glass, speaking fervently. He swam up behind you with a humph. The human talking to you on the screen had blue hair that looked like it was made of moving light. He, unlike you, had sharp teeth. Sharp teeth that turned into a malicious grin.

The tablet must have been enchanted, because Floyd could understand what the man said perfectly.

"Sorry, not sorry though. If you'd agreed to be mine I might be able to help you right now. But as it is, I promised I'd let Azul go in exchange for only a chat with you."

You angrily spat something at him, but he interrupted you with a cruel laugh.

"Sorry Y/N. But on the bright side the Octomer is going to give you a translation spell, so that you can chat with your new besties."

"Really?" Floyd perked up excitedly.

The man's eyes flickered to his, then imperceptibly hardened.

"Azul, you never mentioned someone else was in there."

"I can't tell you what I don't know," Azul shrugged. 

"Who are you?"

"Floyd," he grinned. Was this firefly squid threatened by him being around you? Even though he'd seemingly sold you out? How cute.

You said something angrily, and the human laughed again.

"Y/N, he's clearly one of them, don't be stupid."

"I am not," yes Jade was his brother, but he loathed the insinuation that he was a scientist as well.

"Whatever. I'm finished with you. Have fun with your new life, Y/N."

And then the screen went black again. You banged your fist against the glass in a rage, and screamed. Floyd had never seen you this angry, and it seemed like your human sized body had no idea what to do with that anger other than to yell and bang on the glass. Floyd gently wrapped you in his arms, petting your head to calm you down.

"Please hold them like that, Floyd, I'm going to apply a translation spell on them," Azul said, pulling out a mage stone and beginning to chant.

You stiffened, but couldn't go anywhere as a light purple haze surrounded you.

"What the fuck!" It was the first thing he'd understood you say. It was beautiful.

"Shrimpy!" He giggled, and you froze.

"Floyd?" You whispered.

"Yes! I can understand you!"

You paused. "Can they understand me too?"

"Yes," he said stiffly. Why would you want to talk to them?

"Good."

You released yourself from his arms and slammed into the glass again.

"Let me out, you demon! You can't keep me here!" You screamed.

"I? A demon?" Jade pressed a hand to his chest in mock offense. "I am just a scientist trying to learn more about your kind. Now that you can answer my questions, you can leave much sooner."

"At least let Floyd go! All he did was try to help me!"

"He has committed high treason by trying to help you. He's lucky to be alive."

It was a lie, and not one of Jade's best, either. But you fell for it. Hook, line, and sinker.

"Floyd, I am so sorry," you looked at him with broken eyes.

"Don't worry about it. I made my own choice," he shrugged. A half truth, not entirely a lie.

"If I answer your questions, can you let Floyd go too?"

Jade tilted his head, thinking. If Floyd knew his brother, he knew full well that tomorrow evening, he'd be allowed to leave, as promised, and you would remain here indefinitely. Maybe you'd get a more enriching enclosure, but he had no doubt you may never see the world outside the institute ever again. And yet, here you were, pleading for someone, from a different species, who you hardly knew.

"Answer my questions honestly, and I'll discuss his freedom with the board," he said with a close-eyed smile.

Azul rolled his eyes, and huffed. 

"Payment first, or I'm removing the spell."

"Azul! You wound me!" Jade snickered and handed him a check. Azul smiled, and saluted on his way out.

And then Jade began the questioning. Some of them you knew the answers to, most you didn't, seemingly having no awareness beyond the basics of how the human body, and human psychology, worked. Some of the questions were quite invasive, but you did your best, even if you were uncomfortable.

By the end, Jade frowned at his clipboard. Then he looked back up at you, his eyes glinting with something dangerous.

"This is why scientists are so important. Think of how little you know about yourself, and how much more you'll know when I'm through with you!"

You stiffened. "Other humans have your answers. I'm just not qualified. Hell, if you called Idia back, I bet he'd know. He's a genius, even if he is a bastard."

"But it's so much more fun to observe myself! And if he's human, he surely doesn't think about some of the questions I have. I don't frequently think about the psychology of eel mers, now do I?"

You glared. "Look I answered your questions, and you said-"

"I should have specified that I needed satisfactory answers. Until I know what I need to know, I can't just set you loose."

"This is kidnapping!"

"Is it?"

"Yes! You are illegally detaining me in a place that is nowhere near my home."

"Your friend doesn't seem to mind."

"We've already established he's a bastard!"

Floyd watched the back and forth mindlessly. He was beginning to grow tired of your attention on Jade instead of him. But you were one of the first people to not be scared of him. He had to be subtle.

And subtle he was, as he wrapped his tail around you ,and began petting your head, singing lightly to a tune he invented himself, "Shrimpy, little Shrimpy, you are so little, and Shrimpy, Shrimpy, Shrimpy."

The nonsense song brought you back down, and more importantly, back to him.

You exhaled heavily, then affixed a glare at Jade.

"What about Floyd? You said you'd discuss his freedom?"

"Are you sure you wish to be alone in there again? You seem awfully close."

You sputtered for a moment, thrown off by the question.

"That's…that's not the point," you wrestled out of Floyd's grip, ignoring his protests.  "No one deserves to be locked in a cage."

Jade smiled softly. "I'll discuss it with the board. We'll see what we can do."

Then he left. As angry as you were, Floyd was happy to be alone with you, especially now that he could understand everything you said to him. Plus, he had promised Jade he would study you. And he was an eel of his word. When he wanted to be.

Hours later, Floyd held your calf up to his ear, listening intently. He was fascinated by yours legs, and had asked if he could touch them. You'd allowed it. It was the least you could do. 

But the innocent intensity of his studies was making it hard not to laugh.

"What are you listening for?" You held back a giggle.

"I dunno. Maybe they do something," he furrowed his brow. "I think this one's dead though, I can't hear a heartbeat."

You laughed. "That's not how it works."

"Why not?" He pouted.

"Can you hear heart beats in a tail?"

"No."

"Well, there ya go!"

He cocked a brow. Then he lunged forward, dropping your leg, and pressing his ear to your chest. You stiffened, your face burning, but he was listening just as intently as he was when he held your leg to his ear.

"Your heartbeat is fast, Shrimpy," he hummed, pressing himself even closer to your chest.

You bit your lip, holding back the retort about how you were nervous, of course your heart rate was faster.

"Oh, it's slowing down now," he said after a while of listening. He slowly wrapped his arms around you, pulling you even closer, continuing to sit in silence as he listened .

After a long while, where you started to slowly drift off, he spoke again.

"I've been wanting to ask you something," you nodded and he continued. "Jade is my twin." You nodded again. "So how did you know you could trust me?"

You tilted your head, thinking. "I didn't. But your eyes are kind. So I took a risk." You gently reached for his hand. "And I was right to. I like being around you, Floyd."

He was immediately filled with joy. You liked being around him! Then, almost as quickly, came the guilt. It wasn't that he had tricked you. He never said he wasn't here because Jade asked him to be.

Maybe he just wasn't used to someone aside from Jade and Azul trusting him so implicitly. It was nice, but it also made his insides hurt.

"I like being around you too, Shrimpy," he drawled lazily, sliding his head from your chest to his lap, grabbing one of your hands and placing it in his hair. You stiffened, but then gingerly began to run your fingers along his scalp. He hummed happily.

"Who's the blue haired guy on the tablet?" He asked.

You stiffened again, then gently continued your hair stroking.

"An ex friend. Apparently he took it a little too hard when I told him I only wanted to be his friend," you groaned at the recollection. "Guess I dodged a bullet."

Then you giggled. Your hand stopped moving, and Floyd almost snipped at you, but your laugh began to turn hysterical. He sat up and wrapped his arms around you tightly as you laughed and cried.

At some point you managed to spit out, "Did I really dodge a bullet? I wouldn't be in a fucking cage right now if I said yes to him!"

Floyd gently rocked you, trying to hush your pain, but it didn't seem to ease. And eventually, you passed out from the strain, drifting off into a restless sleep.

It was late into the evening, you were still fast asleep, seemingly worn from the events of the day. Jade swam over to the door, and placed food down for him and you. Floyd continued to watch your sleeping form, a sense of longing and heartbreak filling his chest.

"What's wrong with pretending we escaped?" He whispered. Jade tilted his head, confused. But Floyd could also see the anger that was starting to build.

"I just mean, wouldn't your research be more accurate if you could see how they interact with life outside of a lab?"

"I don't trust you to bring them back. You prefer fun over progress in my experiments."

Floyd pouted. "I have one day left in our agreement. Can't I use it how I see fit? It's not like I can get very far with them. They're too small, and not a strong enough swimmer."

Jade huffed, seeming to see the logic, despite not wanting to.

"You have until tomorrow evening to get yourselves out, and get me valuable information. If nothing of note is happening, I'll be retrieving them early. I don't care about your little crush. At the end of the day, they belong to me and the institute."

Floyd's stomach churned, but he covered it with a lazy glare.

"Duh. But at this rate you're gonna bore both of us to death. At least it'll give you some time to get them a better enclosure."

Jade sighed. "You already have my permission. No need to keep arguing."

He pulled the door closed, but left it infinitesimally cracked.

"Besides, now that I know it's capable of complex thought, it would be unethical to keep them in an empty glass enclosure," Jade finished with a slight snicker. "Have a great day, Floyd. Keep me entertained!"

He politely waved as he left the lab. Floyd took a calming breath. He'd been in countless situations of life and death, yet this was what made him nervous? His pop and his men would never let him hear the end of it if they knew.

One more day. One day where he could show you his home. Then you'd belong to Jade again, unless he saw fit to extend the contract. But he knew Jade far too well.

So this might be his last chance to be with you.

....

Tag list- @that-random-girl-on-the-internet @tricky-dog

#twisted wonderland x reader #twisted wonderland #floyd leech x reader #floyd leech

[that-foul-legacy-lover]

Happy i Just recognized its May this is my season bc Im addicted to Sea Monster FL.

Imagine you're a marine Biologist or at least someone studying Marine biology. One of your buddies tries to mess with you by making you walk into the depth exhibit in an aquarium alone. It turns out theres a giant anglerfish-like beast who seems more curious, the depths exibit doesn't get many visitors as some claim its too scary even for most adults..yet you weren't scared

So you met a new friend! He responds to lots of names but he's overjoyed to see you.

Bonus: abyss octopus Kaeya and a monster Falcon called Diluc are also in this aquarium/sanctuary. You volunteer often and they only wanna see you now lol

YOU AND ME BOTH MY DEAR SEA MONSTER FOUL LEGACY IS AMAZING

ohohohoho i can only think about how lonely Foul Legacy is..... he's not trying to be scary, he's really not!!! but people always think he is and word spreads pretty fast, so no one ever visits his part of the aquarium </3

until one day he sees the door open, and you walk in!! you don't look scared at all, simply curious and determined as you explore the depths exhibit, and Childe wonders if you'd also be afraid of him. it's been so long since he met new people, and the way you examine every part of the exhibit intrigues him. he overhears you mumbling something in amazement about his particular species and has to keep himself from rumbling with pride!!

he's been watching and following you for a while when you suddenly turn to the glass. Childe is mostly hidden beneath your point of view, but you can still see the top of his head and his horns so you blink in surprise! you heard that the Abyssal mercreature wasn't particularly social. Childe's glowing patterns flare brighter when he realizes he's been seen, but instead of walking or even running out of the room, you step closer to the glass. he peeks over at you, letting out a low, curious trill as he watches you extend your hand to touch the glass. he reveals himself completely to meet you halfway, his much-larger claws on the opposite side of the window; he sees a smile grow on your wonderful, fearless face, and with that smile his heart grows with it.

you learn from a staff member that the Abyss-mer's name is Childe, and when you call him that the next day he chirps in delight, tail splashing in the water!!! but his favorite names are ones you give him, ones that are only between you and him, ones that he can sense are full of affection. it's his own little heaven, to have his head laying in your lap and dozing on and off as you pet his hair, calling him sweet nicknames and quips.

oh i LIKE this idea of a sanctuary/aquarium.... maybe when the staff saw how well you worked with Childe, they asked you to come look at some other lonely creatures!!! who all end up getting pretty attached and protective of you (especially Diluc towards Childe) to the point where if they can afford it, they refuse to be cared for by anyone but you <333

#genshin impact #genshin childe #genshin tartaglia #foul legacy #foul legacy childe #childe #tartaglia #genshin tartagalia #abyss diluc #abyss kaeya #genshin diluc #genshin kaeya #chit chat #UM SO THIS ENDED UP GETTING LONG..... #listen i have a lot of thoughts about this i like this very much #childe may look scary and monstrous but he's a sweetheart!!!! wants to be friends so bad <333 #that's partially why he's so clingy he really fears losing you because he was so lonely before #OH IMAGINE SWIMMING WITH HIM IN HIS ENCLOSURE #eheuhguehueheuee so many thoughts #also how dare you forget albedo /j /lh #short scenario #other's stuff #sea monster au

[phoenix-manga]

The Curious Case of Frankenstein Fish

⊖ Phoebe would want to keep Dracovish away from the dorm and the main building. Due to the Pokémon’s tendency to switch temperaments like a certain eel boy, she wouldn’t want to risk anyone getting mauled by mismatched prehistoric parts.

⊖ Like the other fossil Pokémon, they get their own secluded area, with the exception of Cradily who is allowed to share a pond with the other Water types. It has its own hiding spot deep in the bottom.

⊖ Dracovish would just wander around its enclosure and would bump into things due to his large head not properly supported because the body is a tail. One could hear something make an impact a few meters away.

⊖ Grimm swears that sometimes he gets spooked when he hears a loud bump in the middle of the night, the noise echoed to Ramshackle where it sounded really spooky.

⊖ Phoebe should’ve expected that despite her best efforts to keep other students away with a fence and a warning sign, dumb b*tches will do what dumb b*tches do and would hop over the fence.

⊖ A few were lucky to just encounter a confused Dracovish, thinking this weird Frankenstein amalgamation is just a cuddle bug before leaving quickly. Most are not so lucky…

Mob student: Aww, this one’s alright! I’m going to boop its face!

⊖ Foolish mob student almost got his hand chomped off when the damn fish went “I eat you now” and chases the students out of its enclosure. Those poor souls are left shaking and traumatized as they run back to the main building.

⊖ Of course, this would spread amongst the students regarding the Frankenstein fish. A lot of the students became curious now.

⊖ Cater wanted clout and is the only one who had common sense and asked Phoebe if he could film Dracovish. Phoebe was okay with that and was muttering how Cater had more manners than the last students who try to sneak into the enclosure.

⊖ Cater is already recording but he starts to feel concerned when she puts on a bunch of metal gauntlets (courtesy of Diasomnia as they had a banged-up suit of armor that was durable but dirty) and a feeding pole that was very thick with a hook on the end.

Cater: Umm… Phoebe? What’s that for?

Phoebe: Oh this? It’s to feed Dracovish, it tends to switch personalities like a cat but those jaws are not to be trifled with. I learned the first two times when I tried to throw the food…

Cater: W-what…

⊖ He almost dropped his phone at the thought of a kid trying to feed a fish that had more jaw strength than an alligator. Phoebe is just treating this as if the Pokémon was like a toddler throwing a fit. Though he wasn’t disappointed when they arrived at the enclosure, it really was a weird Pokémon.

⊖ The other fossils looked much more natural in regards to body parts, but this was a bit odd. Phoebe had to explain to him that scientists, where she came from, had the technology to revive fossils but a certain scientist was careless and mixed two parts that don’t match.

⊖ She did this explanation casually as she fed Dracovish a bunch of meat on the pole. She was fiercely tugging against the Pokémon as the jaws clamped shut on the meat and savagely ripped it apart. He was almost scared to imagine her falling into the pond, the sweet boy just stepped close just in case but it wasn’t needed.

⊖ The next one to meet Dracovish was Floyd, he skipped another class because he was bored and decided to take a walk into the woods leading him to the enclosure. He saw the rumored fish swimming around casually, Floyd being Floyd, he jumped into the enclosure to get a closer look.

⊖ Phoebe was NOT happy to see a familiar eel wrestling with a raging Dracovish trying to wrangle itself out of the eel’s slimy body. Azul and Jade were forced to leave the lounge when Floyd wasn’t there on time.

⊖ It was a wild time for the two as they saw Phoebe in the enclosure with her safety gear trying to pry Floyd off Dracovish. Azul was the only one who had to intervene because Jade didn’t give a damn and was more than happy to watch this scene unfold. This incident didn’t stop Floyd as he now declared Dracovish as his friend.

⊖ Azul and Phoebe had to compromise by just giving him supervised visits and of course, Azul paid her because the trips made Floyd in a good mood which means more customers and quality service which would grant him more money. He was at least considerate when it comes to paying her for her help (unlike a certain crow).

⊖ Trein was unexpectedly interested in this fossil Pokémon. Phoebe would’ve been sure that he would be more interested in something like Cradily or Aurorus but it was Dracovish that he wanted to see.

⊖ She was quite anxious and she upped her safety gear to 11. Trein was cool as a cucumber as if he was going to see someone’s pet. Dracovish was in a bad mood and was charging at them despite the fencing. Phoebe tensed up and prepared to distract it with meat but for some odd reason, the Pokémon froze before it scurried back into the pond like a coward.

⊖ She just looked so dumbfounded, she was going to ask Trein what did he do? Was he just that intimidating that not only students but also her most chaotic Pokémon just become obedient before his gaze- no wait, it was his cat. Dracovish is scared of his cat. Unlike Grimm who almost got his tail bitten off when he tried to show Dracovish whose boss, Lucius eyes narrowed and instantly was alpha.

⊖ Trein then proceeds to have a discussion about asserting dominance over familiars as if what just happened was not awesome and badass. Trein is now a cool grandpa in Phoebe’s book.

⊖ I’m pretty sure that the students got the message to NOT bother or sneak into the enclosure without permission, or risk losing a limb. Lilia was an exception because he gets into the enclosure without Phoebe noticing. He was so curious about this Pokémon after he heard Phoebe mention to Cater how it was a Water, Dragon-type.

⊖ No one witnessed this but imagine this… a small boy plays with a large Frankenstein fish that was clearly trying to chew him to bits. But Lilia simply just goes along with it and manages to enter and exit the enclosure unscathed.

Lilia: What kind of dragon are you? The body certainly looks like a Dragon but your top half…

Dracovish: Unraaaaghhh!! *Angry biting motions*

Lilia: Aww, is someone mad? You must be a grumpy dragon, huh~

⊖ Ignihyde students saw Cater’s video and are having heated debates on what exactly those two parts are classified as on Dracovish, what kind of creature were those different halves supposed to be, and how the heck can it survive if two parts can’t be on the environment the other half can’t endure.

⊖ What happens in Ignihyde stays in Ignihyde though, those debates are kept in the dorm. Idia adds in his two cents on the debate and he is just as heated as the rest were that his hair would burn bright red.

#twst x pokemon #pokemon x twisted wonderland #headcanons

[cowboymirio]

They Want To Get A Pet - Headcanons

Summary: Your S/O wants a pet and adorable antics ensue~ 

Characters: Hizashi Yamada, Taishiro Toyomitsu, Aizawa Shouta, Eijiro Kirishima, Tenya Iida, Hanta Sero, Takami Keigo

Contains: Gender neutral reader, lotsa fluff, Reader has arachnophobia in Sero’s part! Crackheadery in Aizawa’s part

Hizashi Yamada - Cockatoo

📣 You guys totally didn’t plan on getting a cockatoo, or any pet for that matter. Y’all just moved into your new place for christ’s sake! 

📣 But after a visit to a lil exotic pet store downtown, your plans changed. And now you’re stuck with a bird with the intelligence of a toddler

📣 According to Yama, the bird just ‘called to him’ and by that, he means the bird literally screamed at him

📣 They’ve got the most bougie cage ever like MTV cribs hit them up. 

📣But he doesn’t spend too much time in there as you guys let him roam around the house all day until it’s time for bed or if you leave for a while

📣 If they’re not attached to Yama’s shoulder, you often find them waddling around the house, picking things up off of the floor and throwing them, and squawking at you when they want attention

📣 Sounds like someone else you know huh…

📣 Yama and the bird dance together so much omg. They do the lil head bobs together, he’ll blast some music for them and they go to town he even chirps along to the lyrics omg-

📣 He doesn’t even have to teach them words, they just pick them up on their own… and then never stop saying them… ever 

📣 ‘YEAHHHHH’ then from the other side of your home you hear another ‘YEAAHHHHH’

📣 Make it stop

📣 You taught them cuss words for the shits and giggles though

📣 Yama finds it funny too though because he’s got that 8-year-old sense of humor… you all do to be honest 

📣 But when the bird chooses to sit on your shoulder you bet your ass Yamada’s gonna fawn over the two of you for the next hour :’) 

Taishiro Toyomitsu - Pyrenean Mastiff

🍢 Really wants a pet 

🍢 But also really scared of crushing them so…

🍢 You guys settle for a big ‘ol Pyrenean mastiff!

🍢 And when I say they’re big they are big like… I mean knock you over if you’re not careful big

🍢 They’re literally perfect for each other

🍢 They’re both massive units, insanely adorable, and they for sure share the same appetite

🍢 Speaking of food, he makes sure he’s feeding them the best of the best foods even if that means y’all are making it yourselves

🍢 Not as afraid to roughhouse with them as he thought he’d be

🍢 Lots of fetching, frisbee throwing, ‘wrestling’ even?? They’re so rowdy and for what? My heart, that’s what <3 

🍢 The dog definitely sleeps on top of him I don’t make the rules

🍢 Mf just hops on up, curls up and they’re ready to go like--- Is that- is that not y’know,,, HEAVY?? 

🍢 I mean,,, you sleep on top of him too so I honestly don’t think Tai cares too much

Aizawa Shota - Cat

💤 You guys already know…

💤 If he were to get any kind of pet it’d be a cat.

💤 They’re chill, independent, and sometimes want attention. Just how he likes it.

💤 Well… that’s how he thought that things should be but-

💤 BOY was he wrong

💤 After living together for quite a while, stalking animal shelter websites for the perfect cat, and finding the right one, you bring them home!

💤 When you met them at the shelter, they were a sweet lil baby with an aloof attitude that you both fell in love with

💤 But when you brought them home… They became an absolute crackhead.

💤 Forget having ANYTHING on the tables or countertops. It’s on the floor now thanks to them. Fuck your water glass, fuck those papers you were helping Aizawa grade, they’re gone! Shredded! Positively destroyed :)

💤 Forget having free hands, they’re literally attached to his side and won’t stop rubbing against his hands while he’s grading papers and such

💤 If you’re not watching his little dude/ette will try and eat food WHILE YOU’RE COOKING oh my fuckingf god

💤 Heaven forbid this dude tries to leave the room. They’ll ‘cry’ until he comes back.

💤 ‘Go to your other parent, they’ll give you attention.’ ‘mEEEOWWW’ ‘Oh my god fine come here.’

💤 Honestly though he really appreciates when they’re down to sleep. Their purrs and their cuddles are very appreciated

💤 And literally just imagine seeing them curled up on his chest while they sleep on the couch ;; im so somft

Eijiro Kirishima - Bearded Dragon

🏮 This man wants to get THE manliest pet of all,,, a bearded dragon

🏮 He probably saw one on a movie or something and immediately came to you like

🏮 ‘Okay but we neeeeed one just look at their lil beards!! And their tongues!!!’

🏮 You tell him to put it off for a bit, do some research, and see if he still wants one later

🏮 Homeboy is DEDICATED so he puts in the time and ofc he still wants one after the fact

🏮 After a good amount of time, he comes back with a books worth of reasons as to why you guys should get one and you’re honestly shocked

🏮 You just can’t say no to those eyes </33 so you oblige and go out and get one from an owner who’s surrendering it (Because we don’t support chain pet stores in this household)

🏮 You guys can’t pick a name for them so for the longest time they’re just called ‘the lizard’ or ‘little fella’ or whatever else you guys come up with

🏮 Anyways- he’s infatuated with them it’s so funny. He spends all of his freetime watching them get used to their new habitat like,,,, all of it. It’s 1am and he’s just watching it hang out and you’re like ‘Kiri if you love it so much then why don’t you sleep with it’ (not in that way ya nasty)

🏮 HE TAKES IT SERIOUSLY

🏮 Next thing you know he hops out of bed, brings them back and puts them between your pillows.

🏮 Lil homie’s just vibin there.

🏮 You’re done tbh but if Kiri’s happy then you’re happy <33

🏮 Absolutely lets it sit on his shoulders when he’s walking around the house

🏮 He has a leash for them and he takes them out during the warmer months

🏮 Dedicates a good portion of his day to clean out their habitat when need be

🏮 Their relationship is just so cute you can’t help but melt every time you see them together

Tenya Iida - Tropical Fish

🌟 After a particularly rough finals season, you figure that Iida needs to have some sort of hobby that can help him chill out, but also has some sort of brainwork in there because that’s your boyfriend for ya

🌟 You suggest getting some fish!

🌟 He rly said ‘I’ll think about it’ then proceeded to do a shit ton of research on it because he literally does that every time you express interest in something. King behavior!!

🌟 You guys settle on getting a few tropical fish and a super nice fish tank for ‘em

🌟 He lets you name all of them and of course you have to name one ‘Iida junior’ like how could you not-

🌟 But seriously though he finds it so endearing and sweet ;;

🌟 You can’t tell me he doesn’t buy all of the nicest shit he can for their tank too.

🌟 Fresh aquatic plants, huge rocks for them to swim through, a nice ass heater, the WORKS

🌟 He’s gotta treat yall’s babies right like what did you expect

🌟 Constantly checking their water to see if it’s alright for them

🌟 He’s usually the one to feed them so whenever he comes up to the tank, they all crowd up by the top like doggies when their owner comes home omg

🌟 He finds the noises from the tank to be really good background noise when he’s reading or studying

🌟 Iida’s honestly glad that you suggested to get fish ‘cause taking care of them is such a relaxing hobby and lord knows he needs some of those

Hanta Sero - Rose Haired Tarantula

🧵 So he wants a Rose Hair Tarantula...

🧵 ‘Absolutely not’ - You, 2021 (sorry if you actually like spiders lol, if a singular person wants hcs where y’all both like spiders please @ me)

🧵 Lots and lots of begging and promises

🧵 ‘You won’t even have to clean the cage, I’ll do it!!’ ‘We can keep them in the spare room’ ‘c’mooon pretty please???’

🧵 He had to bust out the puppy eyes for you to say yes

🧵 And with that, you’re now the proud parents of a demon rose hair tarantula!

🧵 ‘We can keep them in the spare room’ your ass. He lets it climb all over him while he’s walking around the house!!

🧵 Not you actively avoiding him when you see them coming down towards you

🧵 ‘But I wanna kiss!!’ ‘Kiss your tarantula smh’

🧵 After he realizes he’s not gonna get any with his lil buddy (yes, that’s what he calls them) he tries his best to help you familiarize with em

🧵 I’m sorry but he’s trying so hard not to laugh as you freak out when they crawl up your arm

🧵 He takes things more seriously after that though. He’ll give you lil words of encouragement, back pats and such

🧵 He’s so happy that you become… tolerable after a while of you guys just hangin’ out that you can’t help but feel proud too.

🧵 You still can’t stand spiders though.  

Keigo Tamaki - Bunnies

🐤 Just like Aizawa, he wants something that’s quiet and can be independent since his schedule is a bit busy but he still wants to have a lil buddy to love on

🐤 You’re actually the one to bring up the idea to get a bunny, it’s part of a long list of ideas you had come up with, but for whatever reason, the bunny idea just stuck with him

🐤 You two hop (im a comedic genius hi <33) on over to the nearest rescue you can find, and browse through the enclosures looking for the perfect bunny for you guys 

🐤 Ok so like- here’s the thing,,,

🐤 You totally didn’t plan on getting two bunnies… But you guys found a pair that were literally inseparable and y’all had to have them

🐤 He’s already calling them ‘Our children’ straight off the bat like- y’all JUST got home and he’s already giving you baby fever UGH

🐤 He bunny-proofs the FUCK out of the house so they can roam freely ‘cause he didn’t just get these babies to stick them in a cage smh

🐤 Will lay on the floor and just watch them romp around cus he finds it relaxing and funny 

🐤 Also please get on the floor and watch them with him. Prime cuddling hours

🐤 They burrow under his wings… I repeat- THEY BURROW UNDER HIS WINGS

🐤 They WILL flop together don’t @ me 

🐤 They (and by they I mean all three of them)  flop on you when they want attention can I jst--- *cries*

🐤 Have fun trying to get up, this is your life now. 

🐤 But are you really complaining? You shouldn’t be smh 

#my hero academia #mha #my hero academia x reader #mha x reader #boku no hero academia #bnha #boku no hero academia x reader #bnha x reader #x reader #x male reader #x female reader #x gender neutral reader #headcanons #my hero academia headcanons #boku no hero academia headcanons #mha headcanons #bnha headcanons #fluff #requests open #present mic x reader #hizashi yamada #hizashi yamada x reader #fatgum x reader #aizawa shouta x reader #kirishima x reader #taishiro toyomitsu x reader #tenya iida x reader #hanta sero x reader #hawks x reader #takami keigo x reader

[bitterepiphany]

pawprints

Archive Of Our Own

warnings: none

summary: annie decides she wants to buy a cat

**reposting this on here since i moved it’s place on ao3**

Annie suppressed the urge to sneeze as the combination of the pet store’s scents invaded her nose; a vaguely unpleasant mixture of that distinct ‘furry animal’ smell, the sharp tang of disinfectant and bleach, and something that reminded Annie of straw, strangely. 

She adjusted quickly though, and wandered further into the shop, smiling noncommittally in response to the greeting of the young girl behind the counter. She surveyed the room. This was the third pet store they had been to that week, in search for the perfect companion following their conversation the previous weekend. 

****

Annie had been the one to bring up the subject, surprisingly. The thought struck her in the afternoon randomly as she was lazing around their living room, when it occurred to her that there was a gap beside the fireplace that would perfectly fit a cat tree. The idea didn’t repulse her, as many of her’s often did. She usually left the life decision-making stuff to Armin, finding that any period of time surpassing half an hour discussing something as menial as where to buy bedsheets or how to arrange the kitchen would lull her into an exhaustive stupor, without fail. 

The last time they went to a homeware store together, searching for an infuriatingly long amount of time for the perfect set of dinner plates, of all things - “They match the bowls, see!”, Armin had insisted - it had ended with Armin dangerously close to having said plates shattered over his head, and a terrified looking cashier who’s hands didn’t stop trembling as he scanned their items, spooked by the ‘I have been here to two hours too long’ look on Annie’s face. She and Armin had agreed afterwards that he would do the rest of that kind of stuff on his own, with the occasional help from Mikasa to carry things around. 

After waiting another hour and finding that the idea still persisted, she got up and searched for her boyfriend. After poking her head into a few empty rooms, she found him in the study at his desk, frowning at a document with a pen pressed up against his lips. He must be working on his paper for some fancy job application his old professor Hange had heard through the grapevine and recommended him for. Knowing he was in that type of zone where he barely registered his surroundings, she tapped on the doorframe, not wishing to startle him. 

He didn’t react at first. She leaned on the frame and knocked a little more forcefully. Armin jerked, blinking, and looked over at her.

“Annie!”

His face broke into that stupidly large, happy grin that he always wore when he saw her. Annie blushed unwillingly at the sight, automatically averting her eyes. He never failed to make her stomach lurch when he looked at her like that.

He leant back in his chair. She heard his spine crack as his back bent over the frame. “Hey, what’s up?”

“Oh, I wanted to run an idea by you,” she said, walking over to him. Armin pushed himself away from the desk, giving her room to climb onto his lap. His arms encircled her, and he pressed a gentle kiss to her exposed collarbone. “I’m all ears,” he murmured.

“Well…” She hesitated, struggling to formulate the ideas in words, despite its clarity in her head. “I was thinking… um… well I was sitting on the couch, and…”

Armin watched her patiently as she stuttered, eyes unblinking. A soft smile played upon his lips. 

God, just say it straight Annie.

“I wanna get a pet. Uh.... a cat, in particular.”

Her cheeks reddened immediately, and she ducked her face into his shoulder, finding the whole thing embarrassing  for some reason. Armin gently pushed her up straight so he could look in her eyes. He raised his eyebrows questioningly. Then he grinned. “Really?”

Why was she blushing so much? Still staring firmly at his shoulder, she nodded. 

Annie squeaked in surprise as she was suddenly lifted into the air. Armin pushed out of his chair and spun her around, humming happily. He set her down, hands sliding to rest on her shoulders, and beamed. He began to talk excitedly.

“Ooh yay, I’m so happy to hear that Annie! Do you want a girl or a boy cat? Should we buy one as a kitten or get a rescue? Hmm, we’d have to get litter if we don’t want it to go outside, but that’s kinda gross to clean… oh! Do you have any colour preference? Or the length of fur, or…”

He trailed off, blushing as he realised he was rambling. Annie just smiled and reached up to brush his bangs back off his forehead. 

“We’ll figure it out”

****

So here Annie was now, scanning the store for the cat section. She had been particularly partial to getting a rescue, feeling a kind of kinship with the abandoned animals. But their local shelter didn’t have any cats at the moment, specialising in dogs more, and Annie didn’t feel like travelling and searching for another one hours away. So Armin had eventually convinced her that buying a kitten from a pet shop would be just as good - “It means that this one won’t ever need to go into a shelter!”, he had said - and they began kitten searching. 

They had gotten the general supplies - things like food and water bowls, a bed, a tree (which fit perfectly into that space that Annie had imagined it to), toys, and litter from the other stores they visited. But they lacked the essential - the kittens themselves. Armin had to make some calls, and they finally found a shop in a neighbouring town that had a litter come in a few days ago. 

Annie walked past the dog collars, looking for the enclosures.

“Do you think they’re over here…?” 

She trailed off as she glanced to her side, realising Armin had completely disappeared. She frowned, glancing around. He was nowhere to be seen. Annie huffed. Trust him to get distracted in a place like this. She had an idea about where he might be, and set off to find him. 

As she made her way to the other side of the shop, a sharp yip to her left caused her to jump. Her head whipped around, startled, but she soon relaxed when she saw what made the noise. Annie was not very comfortable with dogs in general - there had been incidents with shitty neighbours and their untrained mutts throughout her childhood - but puppies were different. They were just too small and soft to do any damage, and she found the way they chewed on your hands with their little teeth to be endearing. 

A mish-mash of different puppies rumbled around in an open enclosure next to her. Annie crouched down and watched them as they played for a moment. A curious daschund pup came up to her, and she smiled as it sniffed and licked at her fingers through a crack in the enclosure’s glass. 

I wouldn’t mind getting a dog with Armin if they stayed this size forever. 

Right. Armin.

Annie stood back up, spotting the section she thought he would be in. Her suspicions proved right as she turned down the fish aisle, spotting her boyfriend crouched in front of one of the tanks, gazing at the little fish swimming around with a curious, awestruck shine in his eyes.

They already owned some fish. Annie didn’t think she would have ever been able to stop him from getting some, the crazy ocean nut he was. She let Armin take care of them though, terrified she would kill them immediately if she tried to do anything with them at all, satisfied with occasionally admiring their bright colours as they swam around in their tank. 

She approached her boyfriend, placing a hand on his head. He looked up at her, that starry-eyed look still on his face. 

“C’mon Armin, you know we aren’t here for more fish,” she reprimanded gently, running her fingers through his hair. 

“I know, I know, but I can’t help it…” He pouted his lips, that puppy-dog look entering his eyes. “They’re just so cool!”

Annie chuckled lightly, shaking her head. “You know that doesn’t work on me Arlert,” she said, tugging on his hair to hide the fact that that look did indeed work on her very well. Armin’s face melted back into that easy smile and he stood up, catching the hand on his head, pressing his lips against her fingers. “Sure, Annie,” he replied. “Ok, let’s go look at these kittens.”

He laced their fingers together and led her to the back right corner of the shop. “I spotted the sign over here on our way in,” he explained as an in-built wall enclosure came into view. Annie hummed. 

Something caught in her chest as she spotted the kittens. 

There were four of them, all tiny, little balls of fluff with stubby legs and wispy tails. Two were dark brown, one was ginger, and the last one was cream coloured. The brown ones were snuggled on a suspended platform sleeping, the ginger one was sniffing at a bowl of food, but the cream one was tottering around on its little legs, and came up to the glass and stared directly at Annie. 

Almost trance-like, Annie approached the glass and crouched down, locking eyes with the kitten. It had pale blue eyes, like hers, and it tracked her finger as she raised it up and hovered it over the glass near its head. She vaguely heard Armin walk over to one of the employees and requested if they could hold the kittens. Annie moved her finger around, entranced as the kitten pounced about, trying to catch it, its little paws pressed up against the glass. 

“Excuse me miss,” came a voice from behind her. Annie turned to see Armin and a female shop assistant with a pair of keys in her hands. “Would you like to hold one of the kittens?”

“Oh, yes please,” Annie replied, stepping back to allow the girl to unlock a side door and step inside the enclosure. 

“This one?” The girl pointed at the cream kitten Annie was playing with a minute ago. Annie nodded, and watched as the girl gently lifted the small cat into her arms and walked back to the couple. Carefully, the girl placed the kitten into Annie’s outstretched hands.

Annie gazed down at the tiny animal in her hold, feeling it squirm slightly, paws pressing into her bare arms, its long whiskers brushing against her skin. She bobbed it up and down slightly, almost automatically, as if she were carrying a small child. It wriggled a little more, before finally settling and resting its small head on her wrist. Annie watched it, wide-eyed, hardly daring to breath, lest she disturb it. Her fingers began to stroke through its soft, downy fur. Her breath hitched as its sides began to vibrate. It was purring.

Annie glanced up at Armin, a smile forming on her lips. He was grinning, looking very pleased. He approached them quietly, and bent down slightly to face the kitten. “Hey there little one,” he whispered. He offered his fingers for it to sniff; it regarded him with its big eyes and let out a tiny mewl. Armin’s smile grew even bigger. “Yeah, I know…” He looked up at the shop assistant. “Is it male or female?” he questioned.

“Female, sir.”

Annie stared down at the kitten, who seemed to be falling asleep in her arms, purring all the while. Armin looked at her. “I think we’ve found the one, huh? You two even match!”

Annie didn’t think she could leave this kitten behind if she tried. “I love her,” she murmured. She lowered her face, pressed it into the silky fur, and breathed in her scent. Unbeknownst to her, Armin smiled and grinned at the shopkeeper, nodding. He pulled out his phone and quickly snapped a picture of the new pair.

****

A sharp yowl cut through the air, wrenching Annie out of her fitful slumber. She lay there silently, waiting, hoping, praying that it wouldn’t continue. Of course, her wishes were ignored. Another cutting meow ran through the house. Annie groaned, rolling herself onto Armin’s chest.

“Armin,” she hissed, “I swear to god if that thing doesn’t stop whining right now, I will take it back to where it came from.”

She felt his arms wrap around her and his face nestle in her hair. He mumbled something incoherently, chest rising as he sighed. The thing in question let loose another cry into the night.

“Armin!”

He sighed again, arms tightening, then relaxing as he pushed himself up into a sitting position. Annie followed suit, watching him as he rubbed his face tiredly. “Just ignore it,” he grumbled, “She’ll stop eventually.”

Annie shoved his shoulder weakly. “What?” he whined. 

“Armin, I’ve woken up five times in, what - “ she glanced at her phone “- two hours, and if I don’t get solid, unbroken sleep soon I’m… god, I'm gonna be fucked in the morning.”

As if on cue, their new pet, who had been named Donut on the car trip back home, cried out. It sounded like she was right outside their bedroom door. Armin cringed and Annie buried her face into a pillow. 

“Alright,” her boyfriend huffed, throwing back the covers. “Let’s try this then.”

He walked over to the door and swung it open, cueing a surprised sounding meow from the kitten, who looked up at the man in the doorway.

Armin bent down and gathered Donut into his arms. “Hey little one. What’s wrong? Are you lonely out there all by yourself?”

Keeping the door cracked open, he padded back to their bed, setting the kitten down onto the covers. He settled beneath the sheets again, watching as the cat began to sniff around, making soft, squeaky noises. Donut’s head jumped up as Annie shifted, locking onto her. She mewed loudly, before bounding over to Annie, and promptly began to crawl all over her body. 

“Aagh, no don’t step there, no- ow ow claws, Donut, stop-”

Armin laughed, making the bed shake, which only served to aggravate the kitten further into her scramblings. “Seems like she just missed her mummy, huh?”

Annie protested as she felt tiny pinpricks sink into her skin again. She grabbed the offender and gently placed her next to her chest, running a hand over her tiny body. This seemed to calm the kitten, and Donut settled and curled up, shoving her soft head beneath Annie’s chin. Vibrations ran through her, as she began to purr lightly.

“Ah, I can’t stay mad at you if you do that,” she mumbled, glancing up at Armin, who seemed to have fallen asleep again already. “Hmm… I guess you’ll have to stay with us until you get used to this place then…” Content, with warmth spreading through her body from the soft bundle of fluff nestled against her, Annie drifted off.

They slept through the night

#aruani #armin arlert #annie leonhardt #oneshot #shingeki no kyojin

[citrinekay]

a prompt!!: (established relationship) they're out on consult in the middle of bill's divorce. he's angry and lashes out at holden even though it's not his fault, holden's like 'i'm ging for a swim'. he comes back and they make up! hope this makes sense :)

Thank God it’s the weekend! I missed my babies. Thanks for the prompt 💕

The shimmering whorls and loops of the Galveston Pleasure Pier is a distant outline against the fading sunlight beyond the window of their hotel room. Five stories below, the fenced-in pool offers a cool escape from the summer time heat and the crushing gravity of stress. If they hadn’t been here on consult, Holden might have found this island retreat butting up against the cerulean stretch of the Gulf of Mexico relaxing, and he imagines most of the people staying in this hotel with them are enjoying their vacation. Maybe they know about the string of murders, dead bodies on sandy beaches, and missing posters, and maybe they don’t; some of them probably don’t care because it doesn’t affect them. 

It’s affecting Holden. The case, and every other outside force that had already been bearing down on them before they arrived in Texas. 

Stripping out of his suit, Holden changes into swim trunk and a t-shirt. He grabs both his room key from the desk, and slips out into the hallway. 

Bill’s room is only three doors down from Holden’s, making for a short trip. When he reaches the door, the sound of Bill’s voice reaching past the walls makes him stop with his hand around the knob. He can only make out bits and pieces of what sounds like a telephone conversation, but he instantly recognizes the strain and frustration spiking in Bill’s tone. 

Stomach sinking, Holden rests his forehead against the door. Some days, he wonders if he’d been incredibly reckless and irresponsible to strike up a relationship with his partner directly after returning from Atlanta, a case which had worn both of them thin, and just as Bill was beginning the process of divorcing his wife. The separation, despite being mutually anticipated, is complicated by Brian’s situation with the courts and CPS. He’d chosen perhaps the worst time to let his feelings for Bill run free, but Bill hadn’t stopped to consider the consequences either. 

When Bill’s agitated tone comes to a stop, Holden knocks softly on the door.

The knob turns and the door swings open. Bill stands on the other side of the threshold with a frustrated frown pinching his brow and his jaw clenched. His eyes soften when he sees Holden, but the tension in his shoulders lingers. 

“Hi.” Holden says, “I was going down to the pool. I thought you might want to join me.”

“I don’t know. I’m beat.” 

Holden nods, slowly. 

Their gazes hold, a quiet exchange traversing underneath the banal conversation. Holden leans against the doorjamb, one foot creeping across the carpet into Bill’s room. 

Bill leaves the door open, and turns to walk back into the room. 

Slipping inside, Holden pushes the door shut behind him. He watches Bill’s stiff movements as he lights a cigarette, and sits down on the bed with a weary sigh. The case files are open on the bedspread beside him. He bites the inside of his cheek. 

“Is everything okay?”

“Yeah. Fine.” Bill says, leaning over to tap ashes into the tray on the nightstand. “You know. Same shit, different day.”

“Was that Nancy?” 

Bill’s gaze cuts up to meet Holden’s. His eyes are tired, stress wearing nerves thin, leaving him reactionary and frayed. The ripple of tension in his jawline casts resistance across the space between them, igniting hesitation in Holden’s chest. He thinks of adding, “We don’t have to talk about it.” But, Bill clears his throat. 

“Yeah.” He says, shifting back against the pillows with a dour nod. “The custody hearing got pushed because I’m out of town.”

Holden licks his lips anxiously as he wanders closer to the bed. “She was mad?”

“The courts move slow enough as it is. I’m making it harder than it needs to be.” Bill says, waving sloppy quotation marks. 

“You want this to be over just as much as she does.” 

“You think I haven’t told her that?” Bill asks, scoffing in the back of his throat. “I can’t make her understand my job.”

Holden sits down on the edge of the bed, and tentatively puts a hand on Bill’s thigh. Peeking up at Bill, he quietly watches the frustration sift across Bill’s profile, exhaling steadily inside the cloud of smoke seeping past his lips. 

“Ah, fuck. I don’t know what it matters anyway.” Bill mutters, absently dropping his hand over Holden’s knuckles. “The judge is going to rule in her favor.”

“You’re not going to fight it, are you?”

“He’s my kid, too. Part of me feels like I should.”

“But, doesn’t this situation right now prove that she’s right? You’re out of town so much-”

Bill’s hand pulls away, and his gaze swings from the window to grip Holden’s with flaring anger. “Whose fucking side are you on?”

“Yours, of course.” 

“Doesn’t sound like it.”

“I’m just trying to think of it from a logical perspective, and-”

“I didn’t ask you to come over here and try to logically fix my divorce, okay?” Bill says, swinging his legs off the bed, and climbing to his feet. 

Holden presses his mouth shut as a wounded flinch expands in his chest. 

“There’s no fucking logic to it.” Bill continues, his hand jabbing angrily at empty air. “The whole situation is fucked up.”

“I … I’m sorry.” Holden whispers again, his cheeks growing warm. “I was just thinking of what’s best for Brian.”

“Oh, so now you know what’s best for my kid before I do?”

“No, I- I just … I’m wondering if anyone has asked what he wants in all of this.”

Bill’s nostrils flare as he crushes his cigarette purposefully in the ashtray. 

“Look,” He says, his voice dropping to a strained, flat tone. “None of this would be happening if those kids hadn’t murdered a fucking child - if Brian hadn’t stood there and watched it happen, and did nothing about it. He’s eight years old, Holden, and apparently, he doesn’t know right from wrong - and now, because of that, we’ve got Child Protective Services rooting through our life, and a therapist dissecting his every thought and action. Because of him, this divorce is going to take two times longer than it should have - so, no, he doesn’t get a fucking say in what happens. And neither do you.”

Holden glances away from Bill’s cutting glare, trying to suppress the burn of pain in his chest. Swallowing back the sting in the back of his throat, he stiffly rises from the edge of the bed. 

“I’m going out to the pool. I’m sorry for putting my nose where it doesn’t belong.”

Bill’s hardened expression cracks with a sigh as Holden brushes past him, but he doesn’t turn around or try to stop Holden from leaving. He stands still, his fingers braced against the bridge of his nose as Holden marches across the room and out into the hallway.

As he rides the elevator down to ground level, Holden tries to smother the flinching pain in his chest. It’s understandable that Bill is upset. They spent all day talking to family and friends of the latest victim, an emotionally harrowing task by any seasoned detective’s standards, and then he had to come back to the hotel to argue with Nancy about hearings and their child’s precarious future instead of trying to unwind from the long, stressful day. Holden shouldn’t have intruded. He shouldn’t have offered his advice, or even his opinion. As Bill had so succinctly pointed out, it’s none of his business.

He’s still kicking himself when he pushes past the door toward the pool enclosure, and the muggy heat hits him in the face. Drenched, yellow sunlight washes across the pool, reflecting blinding rays across the water that offers a buoyant escape from his thoughts.. A young family of four splashes joyously in the shallow end, creating ripples that travel all the way over to the deep end where Holden has the section of the pool all to himself. Stripping out of his t-shirt, he draws in a deep breath, and dives in. 

The shock of the cold water immediately quashes the sweaty layer of heat gathering on his skin. Channeling the bursting hum of frustrated energy into his strokes, he swims cleanly, rapidly across to the other side. When he reaches the opposite wall, he rises up to get a breath of air for only a moment before pushing off into the next lap. 

As his body cuts through the water, he focuses on controlling his breathing and the rhythm of his arms and legs propelling his momentum. He lets the fire in his chest burn, lets it fuel him. After ten laps, he clings to the edge of the pool with gasping lungs and wet cheeks, but he isn’t crying. The adrenaline-laced shudder in his limbs feels good, and it masks the lingering frustration simmering in his chest. 

After less than three minutes of rest, he launches away from the wall again. 

This round of laps is slower as his energy burns lower, his tired body protesting after a long day on little sleep, but he keeps pushing himself until his muscles are trembling, until the sharp edge of wounded pride and hurt feelings abates into a sickly knot in the pit of his stomach. When he can’t make one more stroke through the water, he rolls onto his back to float in the center of the pool with his gaze turned up toward the open dome of the sky. 

While he watches the sunset unfold in glorious pinks and purples, the hum of adrenaline fades and his body cools in the water. He thinks of going back inside, but he has no idea if Bill will still be angry, especially when he has a justified right to be; and so, he stays in the water as the colors elongate, oversaturate, melt, and fade.The light is almost entirely gone from the sky, and he’s shivering from deep in his belly when movement at the edge of the pool draws his gaze. 

The water splashes quietly, breaking the utter silence, as Holden rolls off his back and treads water. 

Bill stands at the edge of the pool, holding a six pack of beer at his side. His eyes are shielded by his sunglasses, but the quietly extended olive branch is clear. 

They share a long, silent gaze while a breeze comes in from the gulf, blowing warm, night air across the strained distance between them. 

Drawing in a deep breath, Holden swims over to the edge of the pool. 

“Is one of those for me?” He asks, nodding at the beer. 

“No. Three of them are.”

“Okay. That seems fair.”

Bill’s mouth tugs ruefully as he bends down to extend his hand to Holden. 

Grabbing onto it, Holden pushes off the lip of the pool surround while Bill hoists him up out of the water. He crawls onto the sun-warmed cement, his body shivering as cooled air strikes his bare, wet skin. 

Bill sets the six-pack down on one of the plastic lounge chairs, and snags Holden’s towel. He tosses it to him, and Holden catches it mid-air. 

Wrapping the towel around his shoulders, Holden watches quietly as Bill sits down on the lounge chair, and cracks two of the beers open. He tries to gauge Bill’s frustration, but his silence means nothing - he’s a pro at the cold shoulder. 

Bill nods for Holden to join him. “You want your half or not?”

Holden shuffles over to the other lounge chair, and takes the offered beer. Leaning back, he takes a slow sip of the beer, and studies Bill’s profile. 

In the dying light, Bill’s mouth is damp from the beer, and his jaw is a tempered line of frustration. He pulls his cigarettes out of his shirt pocket, and lights one. The motions are familiar, his hands recognizable, his mouth and nose and sunglass-shielded eyes known to Holden, but he doesn’t understand this space between them, this friction. It’s new and unwieldy, a stretch of landmines he isn’t sure how to navigate. 

“Do you ever think we made a mistake?” Holden asks, sinking lower against the lounge chair with the towel tucked against his chin. 

“With what?” Bill asks, not looking over at him. “Sleeping together?”

“I was going to say ‘having a relationship’.”

Bill sighs, softly. “Yeah.”

“Maybe we should have waited until the divorce was over.”

Bill laughs, a small, wry chuckle that draws Holden’s gaze over and a frown to his brow. 

“What?” 

“You can’t approach everything from an analytical perspective.” Bill says, taking a drag of his cigarette. He tilts his head back to exhale smoke toward the open, dusky sky. “I couldn’t have made myself wait any longer even if I tried.”

Holden purses his mouth against an unbidden smile.

“Fuck,” Bill mutters, shaking his head. “I wanted you so bad, and now-”

“Now what?”

Bill takes his sunglasses off, turning to cast Holden a somber gaze. He tucks his beer in his lap, and reaches over to touch Holden’s knuckles. 

“Now, I’m … I’m trying to ruin it.” 

“You’re not. You were upset, understandably so.”

“I shouldn’t have yelled at you.”

“And I shouldn’t have acted like I know more about your situation than you do. I’m fine with just forgetting about it and moving on.”

“That’s the problem.” Bill says, swinging his legs over the side of the chair to face Holden completely. “I’ve already made that mistake - a million times.”

Holden purses his lips as Bill’s fingers curl tighter around his fingers. His chest tightens, a quiet flood of emotion wanting to break free. He’s good at repressing his feelings and leaving them to rot deep in his chest. That’s how he prefers it, and he wants to beg Bill not to make them face this - the raw honesty, the vulnerability that could undermine his entire emotional structure. 

“I’m sorry.” Bill says, quietly. 

Holden draws in a shuddering breath. “It’s okay; I’m already over it. Do you want to go inside? We could go back to your room or mine-”

“Holden.” 

“What?” 

“I’m serious.” Bill says, the corners of his eyes pinching with worry. “The divorce is far from over. There’s a chance today is going to repeat for months. If you don’t want to go through that, I understand.”

“What are you saying?”

“Well, you admitted it yourself - this could have been a mistake.”

Holden pulls his hand away from Bill’s, fresh anger of a different sort surging through his chest. He rises to his feet, clutching the towel closed at his chest. 

“No.” He says, sharply.

Bill squints up at him. “No?”

“No. I am not falling for that.”

“Falling for what?”

“You, manipulating me into breaking up with you because you won’t do it yourself.” Holden says, jabbing an accusatory hand at Bill’s alarmed expression. “I’ve been through that before, too, Bill. I’m not doing it this time. If you want to break up with me, you’re going to have to do it yourself.”

Bill’s mouth falls open slightly as Holden grabs his t-shirt and shoves his feet into his sandals. As he marches toward the hotel, Bill bolts up off the lounge chair and rushes after him.

“Holden.” 

Holden keeps walking, his vision swimming with enraged, hurt tears. 

Bill grabs at his arm, catching him by the wrist just as he reaches the pool gate. He pulls Holden back around, his other hand bracing firmly against his hip. 

“Please, stop.” Bill whispers as Holden tries to wrench away from him. “Holden, look at me.”

Holden stops, slowly lifting his misty gaze from the ground. His pulse thumps against Bill’s grasp, skin singing to the touch despite the frustration surging through his chest. 

“I came down here to apologize.” Bill says, softly. “Not to break up with you.”

“Then why are you saying these things?”

“Because, I … fuck-” Bill says, glancing away, his jaw clenching. He lets out a low sigh. “Because, as much as I love you, I can’t put you through this without at least giving you the chance to cut your losses and walk away.”

Holden swallows hard as fresh tears crush to the corners of his eyes. This time, they aren’t tears of pain or anger, but a rising relief climbing his chest like a tide. 

“You … you love me.” He whispers, the words sounding awkward and foreign in his mouth. He heard Bill say them out loud, but he’s not convinced it’s real. 

Bill lowers his head for a moment before lifting his eyes somberly to Holden’s. 

“Yes.”

Holden draws in a hitched breath. “Oh.”

“Yeah, so … that’s why I can’t drag you into something you didn’t sign up for, or not warn you that things could get worse before they get better.” 

“Well, that’s … that’s going to be a problem.”

Bill’s brow flickers worriedly. “Why?”

“Because.” Holden says, lifting his chin defiantly. “I love you, too. And I’m not walking away, come hell or high water.”

Bill gives a choked laugh, his eyes gleaming as he pulls Holden closer. Their mouths collide in a brief, warm kiss, shielded by the flimsy layer of the fence around them. When he pulls back, they’re both fighting quivering smiles. 

“Come on.” Holden murmurs, nodding towards the hotel, “Let’s go inside.”

“Yeah, okay.” Bill agrees, giving Holden’s waist a squeeze. 

He drops one more kiss on Holden’s cheek before going back to retrieve the six-pack from the lounge chair. 

They cross the deserted lobby at a distance, but when the doors of the elevator slide shut behind them, Holden reaches over to nudge his fingers against Bill’s. 

Bill smiles softly as he extends his fingers, entwining them loosely with Holden’s. 

Inching across the space between them, Holden lowers his head to Bill’s shoulder, and watches the floor indicator blip through the numbers. His heartbeat slows down, sinking into that melted, calm place that Bill so easily constructs with his touch. It’s a small moment in time, a lapse between storms, but Holden stubbornly defies the odds. Even if the water rises up over their knees, he isn’t letting go; whatever darkness lies ahead, this light, this happiness, is worth the struggle.

#bill x holden #mindhunter #my writing #Anonymous

[procrastinatingnerd]

Lions are Cool (A Logicality One Shot)

Logan and Patton go on a special anniversary date to the zoo, cuteness ensues.

Word Count: 1.7k

Warnings: None (though please feel free to suggest any that I might not have thought of!)

Patton loved celebrations. Any excuse to have a party and spend time with his favourite people in the world. He was the friend who bought extravagant birthday presents and hosted the biggest Christmas parties every year. If one of his friends achieved something, he was the one who suggested they all go out for dinner and organised the entire thing. 

His favourite celebration, however, was his anniversary with Logan. The two had only been together for 3 years, but he looked forward to it more than anything. Every year, they would re-create their first date by spending the day at the zoo. They were both members and visited countless times a year, but going on their anniversary always felt special. 

It was a sunny day in April, and Patton bounced through the main gates, grinning widely.

“I can’t believe we’re finally here! It’s been so long, I wonder if they’ve changed anything!” He squealed, dragging Logan by the hand.

“Patton we were here last week.” Logan laughed, squeezing Patton’s hand. He rolled his eyes at Patton’s excitement, but he too was bouncing on his toes. This year, their anniversary happened to be on the day of the zoo’s weekly penguin parade. The penguins would form a line and follow their keepers out of their habitat, along a set path, and then back through the gates. The march would only last a couple of minutes, but a large crowd would always gather to join the fun. Penguins were Logan’s favourite animal, and he had been talking about going to see the parade all week. 

Making their way through the enclosures, Patton and Logan stared at the various animals with their mouths wide, as if they were seeing them for the very first time. Patton had Logan pose in front of all of them, refusing to put down his camera for even a second.

“Patton I’m pretty sure this is the exact same panda we took a photo with last time, is it really necessary?” Logan said with an awkward smile, as a group of tourists walked by, some laughing at the way Patton waved his arms while getting Logan to look at the camera. 

“Of course it’s necessary, he didn’t have that leaf in his hand last time!” Patton said, gesturing to the panda as if it was obvious. “Besides, if I don’t take any pictures then I don’t have anything to put in the scrapbook for this year’s date. And I refuse to let my future self believe we didn’t do anything special today.”

Logan laughed, gave a shrug and began doing silly poses and pulling funny faces, joining in with Patton’s fun. As embarrassed as he was, he was determined to make this year’s page be the best one in the whole scrapbook. After a few more minutes of ridiculous photos with a tired-looking panda, Patton finally put his camera down.

“Okay! Onto the best part! To the lions!” He said in a dramatic voice and began marching off. “We’ve got to hurry if we want to see them before their midday nap!”

By the time he and Logan had made their way over to the lion enclosure, however, the lions were fast asleep. But even this couldn’t spoil Patton’s fun.

“Lions are so cool!” He said quietly. He stared in awe at them, camera dangling around his neck. After a minute or so, one of the lions stood up and stretched, and Patton, remembering he should be taking photos of this wonderful moment, got as close as the protective barrier would allow. 

"Woah, easy there," Logan said with a smile. He took Patton by the shoulders and gently guided him slightly backwards, so not to make the keepers mad. It wouldn't be the first time. 

"Oh come on, you let me get closer the first time we came here," Patton said with a fake pout. 

"Yeah because I didn't realise how close you would get!" Logan laughed.

"It's not my fault they keep them so far away! A zoom lens can only do so much." Patton replied indignantly.

"What do you mean, you got a perfect shot!" 

"Yeah, because I got so close! Do you see my point?" 

"Haha, yeah okay, I concede." Logan put his hands up in mock surrender. Despite his protests, Patton took the rest of his photos well behind the barrier, and once the lions had fallen back asleep, he joined Logan in sitting on a bench opposite the enclosure. The two sat in silence, enjoying the view until after a while, Logan spoke up again.

“Remind me why you love lions so much?” He asked, turning his head to face Patton.

“Well, why do you like penguins so much?” Patton countered, raising an eyebrow.

“Because their sense of family is so strong. They all seem to truly love each other, it’s quite admirable, really.” Logan’s eyes lit up as he spoke. 

“Exactly, they’re cute, that’s why I love lions.” Patton smiled, “To me, they’re just big house cats! Also, I watched The Lion King a lot when I was younger, so that helps.” The two laughed, and just as the lions in the enclosure were waking up again, the zoo’s tannoy came to life.

“Attention patrons, our weekly penguin parade will begin in just 30 minutes, thank you!” A voice boomed over the speakers. Logan immediately stood up.

“Quick Pat, we’ve got to get going!” He said, pulling Patton up and dragging him in the direction of the penguin enclosure.

“Woah, calm down Lo-Lo, the announcement said we’ve still got half an hour!” Patton said, jogging to keep up with Logan’s pace.

“Yeah, but we said we were going to get lunch first, and we have to get there early if we want to get the best spot!” Logan replied, marching forward. 

No less than 10 minutes later, Patton and Logan had found food and had made their way over the penguin enclosure. To Logan’s surprise and relief, other tourists had only just started making their way over, which meant he and Patton were able to claim a bench for themselves, right by where the penguins would be walking.

“This is going to be so great! We haven’t seen the parade in ages!” Patton said in between bites of his sandwich, camera at the ready. Logan nodded in agreement, tearing through his food as quickly as possible. 

“Be careful Lo-Lo, if you eat too fast you’ll choke!” Patton said in his best teacher voice. 

“I just don’t want to be eating when the penguins come out, otherwise I can’t film it!” Logan said, his mouth still full.

“Well don’t talk while you’re eating, you’ll make it worse!” Patton laughed.

By the time the parade started, the two of them were practically bouncing on the bench in excitement. They set up their phones ready and joined the other visitors in filming the event. 

“They’re so cool!” Logan whispered, staring in awe at the line of penguins.” Patton smiled and reached for his bag. The penguins were getting closer, and he wanted to get some close-ups with his camera.

When the penguins reached Patton and Logan, one of them noticed a piece of Patton's sandwich he had dropped on the ground during lunch. He made his way over, and before anyone could stop him, began to pick up and eat the sandwich. 

“Oh my gosh! He’s beautiful!” Patton whispered, slowly aiming his camera towards him.

People laughed and took photos, but when Patton looked up he noticed that Logan was almost frozen. The penguin had stopped right next to his feet, and he couldn't help but stare in awe at the little guy. 

As quickly as he had run over, one of the penguin's keepers walked over and guided him back towards the others. The parade ended without any other interruptions, but Logan remained still, the look of awe still on his face. 

After a moment of silence, Patton turned to him and said, "And you didn't want me to get the tuna." The pair looked at each other and laughed. They sat there on the bench, Patton showing Logan the pictures he had taken of the rogue penguin when another announcement was played over the tannoy.

“Good afternoon everyone, a quick reminder to all of you that our aquarium will be undergoing renovations, which means that it will be closed for three months starting tomorrow.” A new voice came over the speakers this time. Patton gasped and immediately stood up, mimicking Logan’s actions from before.

“We have to go! This is our last chance to see inky!” Inky was Logan and Patton’s favourite fish in the aquarium. He was an octopus who would always swim right up to the glass to say hello to the tourists, and while they couldn’t see it, both Patton and Logan were convinced he smiled at them every time he saw them.

“Okay, hang on!” Logan rushed to gather up his things, and the two made their way over to the zoo’s aquarium. 

Upon entering, they made a beeline straight for the octopus display, where inky was happily swimming by the glass. There was a small group of people watching him, kids pointing and laughing as he swam by them. Logan turned to Patton and said,

“Do you want to walk around for a bit and wait for inky to be less busy?” Patton nodded, and the two wandered off.

They walked in silence for a bit, Patton watching the fish, and Logan watching how the aquarium lights lit up Patton's face. He wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but at that moment, under those lights, Patton had never looked more beautiful. As he thought about all the memories they had shared under that roof, Logan had a thought. 

"I just realised, things like the penguin happen every year." 

"What do you mean?" Patton said with a confused look on his face.

"You getting too close to the lions, the penguin, plus there was that angry bird last year." 

"Haha, yeah you're right! Only ever on our anniversary." Patton laughed, not taking his eyes off the fish. "Maybe it's the universe's way of saying it wants to keep us together." 

Logan stopped walking. "... That might be the cheesiest thing you've ever said." 

"Yep! And I challenge you to beat it."

After a moment's silence, Logan said softly, "Will this do it?" 

Patton turned around, and found Logan down on one knee...

#logicality #sanders sides #logan sanders #patton sanders #thomas sanders

[getcooler]

A Date Vlog

Felix Lee (Skz) x Fem!Reader

Word Count: 1,6k

Genre: Youtuber!AU; lots of flfufff

A YOUTUBER!AU in which after losing a challenge, Felix is forced to vlog your date and let Han Jisung edit it. 

“Hey!” he greeted his viewers, hand uncovering the camera lens as he walked down a street. “So, as you might know, I lost yesterday’s Minecraft challenge.”

He paused, earning a strange look from a passing elderly lady, and spoke, “If you didn’t already know that, then I recommend you go and watch ‘Minecraft Survival Challenge’ on our channel. We had a lot of fun making the video and you’ll probably have an equal amount of fun watching me die within 13 minutes of the game.”

Felix let a tight-lipped smile appear on his face as he stared into the camera. Many viewers referred to this facial expression as the ‘Felix Face’ but he just liked to think of it as his natural meme-ness.

“Anyways,” he continued walking, looking around in hopes of spotting a familiar figure, “as punishment for losing so badly, I have to make a vlog and have it edited by my dear friend whom I absolutely love, Han Jisung.”

[a tiny caption appeared on the screen: what a complete liar - HJS]

“Coincidentally,” he dragged out, “today just so happens to be the day where I take my dear love out on a date.” He sighed. “This is gonna be so much less romantic with the camera involved. WOW.”

After a brief pause, he added, “Just FYI, if the video seems like it’s terrible quality, it’s cause I’m filming on my phone. Not cuz I don’t know how to work an actual camera, but because I forgot it at Changbin’s place last night and I don’t want to face his teasing today. So, cut me some slack.”

Felix lifted up the camera, a wide smile on his face and eyes sparkling as he stared at his phone screen. “Look at my baby. What a beauty. I am legit the luckiest guy in the world.”

“In everything but Minecraft, apparently,” (Y/n) laughed and waved at the camera. 

“I’m trying to be sweet and romantic here but you’re just making this so difficult,” Felix gasped in mock disbelief. “Let’s go and get this date done and over with.”

(Y/n) smirked at the camera. “Such enthusiasm.”

“Oh, shush!” Felix laughed and threw an arm over her shoulder. “I’m doing my best over here.”

“So, where are we going?” she asked him, leaning into his touch as he hummed in thought. 

He made brief eye contact with the camera before suggesting, “The zoo?” He turned back to his girlfriend. “We haven’t gone there in a while. I hear they have a new baby bear.”

“We HAVE ARRIVED AT THE ZOO,” Felix all but screamed into the camera, giggling right after. His girlfriend offered a stern glare at him before turning back to look at the map.

Felix smiled and continued speaking, “We’ve bought the tickets. We’ve got the map. We’ve got each other.”

“If you get any cheesier, I swear I will break up with you and date Jisung instead,” (Y/n) joked with a halfhearted glare fixed on her boyfriend. 

[a tiny caption appeared: please dooooooo]

“Noted,” Felix gulped, staring wide-eyed at the camera.

“Do we want to see the bears or the seals first?” (Y/n) asked after a brief pause. Felix zoomed in on the map, causing her to wonder, “Are we allowed to film the map?”

“If we’re not, we’ll have to take the video down afterwards and that honestly suits me,” Felix’s deep voice sounded from behind the camera. “So, where are we?”

“We’re at the entrance,” she deadpanned. “It’s marked here with bright red.”

Felix let out a sound of recognition before focusing once again. “I think we should go to the seals first. And end our tour with the baby bear and souvenir shop.”

“As you wish, my love.”

The male behind the camera gagged audibly. “And you say I’m cheesy??”

“Yayyyy sealllssss,” Felix dragged out in a high-pitched voice. His girlfriend couldn’t help but laugh at that. She grabbed his phone to show him shimmying in his spot, a wide smile on his face.

She laughed once again when he leaned over to stare at the seals. “Jisung’s gonna have a field day editing this. I feel sorry for him.”

[a tiny caption appeared: at least someone cares T.T - HJS]

Felix grabbed the phone to shoot a short clip about the seals playing around with a ball. “They’re so adorable. I could hug all of them.” 

“Let’s move on?” (Y/n) asked hardly a minute later. “To the penguins.”

“Penguins!” Felix perked up immediately, shaking the phone in his hand. “Let’s go see the penguins!”

Following close after (Y/n), Felix eventually made it to the penguin enclosure and gasped audibly. “Look at them waddle.”

(Y/n) chuckled. “Do you have to say that about every single penguin you see?”

“Yes,” Felix emphasized, “Because it is a fact.”

His girlfriend shook her head but turned back to the penguins. Felix filmed the animals for a while before focusing and zooming in on a particularly clumsy penguin. He spoke, “Hey, Jisung, do you see this one? I think it’s you as a penguin.”

[a caption appeared: I still look cuter than you - HJS]

“We’ve reached the tigers,” Felix announced proudly, looking into the camera. A large feline appeared right behind him and made him giggle. “Look, I’m in the same shot as a tiger. How cool is that?”

[a caption appeared: probably not as cool as you think it is - HJS]

“I prefer lions,” (Y/n)’s voice sounded and out of habit, Felix turned the camera to her. She smiled a bit shyly as she spoke, “Can we go see lions next?”

“Of course,” Felix chuckled. “Why do you even feel the need to ask?”

He filmed his girlfriend walking over to the lion habitat, humming in the background. As they reached the viewers’ platform and leaned on the railing to gaze at the lions, Felix asked no one particular, “How many people do you think have been eaten by lions? Could I walk into a lion habitat and be eaten?”

“Why are all your thoughts so morbid?” (Y/n) snorted, snatching the phone from him and making him the centre of attention for once. “How are you liking the lions?”

“The big female one looks so majestic,” Felix spoke in awe. “She’s exactly how I imagined a lioness to look like.”

“Big and scary?”

Felix grimaced in thought before nodding, “Sounds about right.”

(Y/n) filmed the lions for a bit before turning back to Felix. “Who next?”

“I think we’re starting to reach the end of our zoo journey,” the boy sighed. “Next up is the deer, then there are some raccoons, and then it’s the bears.”

“Do you think they have polar bears over there?” Felix asked, in clear view as his girlfriend filmed their journey. 

“Check the map,” sounded (Y/n)’s suggestion. 

Felix grabbed the map from her and flipped it open almost majestically. Keyword: almost. “Okay, so they have brown bears and a polar bear right across from them. Which one should we see first?”

“Didn’t you want to leave the bear cub for last?”

The boy hummed in agreement before attempting to fold the map back together. He failed at that, terribly. After trying once, twice, he gave up and just shut the map in half, carrying it that way all the way to the polar bear habitat. 

[a caption appeared: prepare for stupidity in 3… 2… 1.]

“That polar bear is way bigger than I thought it would be,” Felix all but exclaimed in awe, staring at the bear with his jaw dropped and eyes wide. 

[another caption appeared: aannnddd there it is - HJS]

(Y/n) laughed. “It’s a bear, Lix. What exactly were you expecting?”

“I don’t know,” he shrugged. “Not this size though.”

“I’m starting to understand why Chan never takes you anywhere.”

“Shush,” Felix frowned and grimaced playfully. “Can you get a shot of the polar bear and then we could go see the bear cubs.”

On command, (Y/n) turned the camera away from her boyfriend and focused on the majestic white creature instead. The action was perfectly timed to catch the bear jumping into the pool and swimming towards the pair. A quiet giggle sounded from behind the cameraman. 

“He’s not camera-shy, that’s for sure,” said Felix through giggles. “Look at how cute his little nose is.”

“First of all,” (Y/n) focused the camera back on the Australian boy and declared, “the bear’s a she. Her name’s Hilda.”

Felix blinked. “How would you know?”

“It says so on the sign right there.”

“OMG LOOK AT HOW CUTE THEY ARE!” Felix all but squealed as the two reached the brown bear enclosure. The camera settled on the three cubs rolling around and playing in the grass. 

[the frame froze and a big pink Comic Sans caption appeared, surrounded by heart emojis: don’t tell anyone, but I think I am in love - HJS]

“So cute,” (Y/n) cooed from behind the camera.

As she was about to say something else, the camera shook and the next thing the viewers knew, (Y/n) was the centre of attention and the camera was in Felix’s hand. 

“I think you’re cuter.”

(Y/n)’s ears flushed red and she laughed, “What did I tell you about cheesy comments?”

“Yes, but consider this,” Felix enunciated, “if you break up with me and start dating Jisung, it’ll just be awkward and you won’t ever, and I mean ever, hear my cheesy comments again.”

“Intriguing.”

“Come on, don’t lie. You know you love my cheesiness.”

She laughed and hugged him. “I suppose I do.”

The scene froze and then faded to black. Soon a caption appeared on the black screen:

“I’m sorry but I just could not bring myself to continue editing this cheesy, romantic nightmare. It only gets cheesier from here. If you want to see the rest of the two’s date, start a petition or smth. IDK. I just don’t wanna see these two continue acting lovey-dovey. Bye.”

A/N: omg this was a bitch to edit. someone save me from me. also, feel free to leave feedback. our askbox is always open and waiting your input :)

#felix lee #felix lee scenarios #felix lee fluff #han jisung #stray kids scenarios #stray kids fluff #admin vy #help me lord this was a bitch to edit #it has been sitting in my wips for like a month and a half #or maybe 70 years #you can't prove anything #enjoy #feedback is always welcome!

[fuwafuwamedb]

Mr. Phone Sex Man Pt 2 (Gilgamesh, Hakuno, Enkidu, Siduri)

He had to call before he started his day, opting to change the time of his wake up to five in the morning. He had to end his day with calling her, opting to rest earlier than he would have otherwise. They chatted after his larger meetings. She called him after her longer days and larger patients.

She sent him a picture of Utu. He framed it in his office.

He sent her a picture of his marketing cover, with him draped across a plush couch and holding the bottle of cologne in his hands.

Bold golden writing declared him a woman’s next meal, something he’d laughed about endlessly as the marketers had praised him.

His precious Lion Tamer had laughed at the image, telling him that she would pin it up on her office wall like a pin up model.

“Try not to get too jealous of the model,” she told him. “He has to look at animal backends for half the day.”

He laughed so hard at those words that his chest hurt.

It was after one of these calls that the file landed on his desk.

“What’s this?”

His assistant moved one of the chairs on the other side of his desk closer.

“I’m doing you a favor.”

“Oh?”

Amusing, but there was nothing that he needed at the moment. In fact, he was quite pleased with the arrangements that he had in place. Everything had its place and that was with him at the center of things.

“I found the information on the person that you call each day,” Siduri told him, flipping open the folder. “Financial reports, credit information, education, occupation-“

“Siduri, I don’t want this.”

“Hmm?”

He closed the folder, only glimpsing brown hair in the resume photo before the folder was shut.

“I have no need for this information.”

“The woman has spoken to you up to a dozen times in one day.” Siduri shook her head. “Why don’t you go visit-“

“I have no need.”

That would ruin things.

Right now, he could speak to her for hours on end, a stranger with sound wisdom who merely bantered with him. He could imagine her in any manner that he wished, naked and draped across his chest. Fully dressed and sweating from a long day. He could picture her in a dress that “rode up too much and the thong isn’t helping much either. Why was it laundry day”.

Knowing a single fact more would shatter the illusion. She was his without needing to be seen. She was perfect in that he could fill in the blanks about her. He could imagine how she pined for him in the middle of the night, how she would wander to her own windows and look out them at night and think.

“Sir,” Siduri scooted closer, but he simply handed her the file and headed for the door.

He wouldn’t hear this nonsense about needing to know the identity of the woman on the other end of the line. Right now, the two of them were entire strangers to one another. They laughed, they had a good time, and then they went their separate ways.

That wasn’t to say that he hadn’t taken the opportunity presented by that soothing voice on a frustrating day, but he was sure she had done the same.

“Gil!”

“Just the person I wanted to see.” Gilgamesh grabbed the being’s arm. “We’re taking the day and going wherever you’d like.”

“Oh?”

“Yes.”

“There’s been a new exhibit that opened up at the zoo,” Enkidu told him. “Let’s go.”

He wasn’t listening. His eyes were on the woman standing in his office door, looking after him as he grabbed his coat and headed out of his office.

They meandered the streets, avoiding any opportunity that Siduri could contact them. Gilgamesh went so far as to turn off his phone and Enkidu’s.

Crossing streets, with his coat wrapped around himself tightly to protect him from the wind, they headed to the zoo area.

The place was packed, despite the terrible weather building up. He could see a few of those little school groups huddled together, looking at all the beasts in the area and jabbering away. He could see the teachers were barely paying any heed, allowing for nonsense to occur.

“This way,” Enkidu told him.

He yawned, nodding and being tugged along.

It was in the large cat area where he saw the child teetering on the edge of the exhibit.

The child fell straight in, creating pure chaos in the area. The screams could be heard as both he and Enkidu were sprinting for the area.

Lions.

Gilgamesh leaped over the side, dropping straight into the murky waters of the habitat below. He could see the child go under and dove, swimming as hard as he could to reach the child. He came up again, gasping for air before he was back underneath.

Further and further down, until he felt the lump of a body and yanked it up with him.

There was someone swimming out to them, he felt his heart stop as he looked directly into the eyes of a lion.

“Utu, be good.”

Her voice was the same, just more demanding.

“Hold onto Utu,” the woman told him, hair plastered to her face. She pulled his arms over the lion’s back, encouraging the large cat to swim. They were moving, slowly, with the child looking down and nuzzling against the lion’s fur.

Cheers could be heard, but the woman was pulling him and the child towards the enclosure nearby. Utu was cuddling the child now, nuzzling hard before the woman clicked her tongue at him.

“Come on, Utu, you don’t need to be begging her for treats.”

The girl looked over at the beast as the woman that could only be a zookeeper began to handle giving the cat something to eat.

“…Can I pet Utu?”

“As long as you put a blanket around yourself,” the woman told her, grabbing one from beneath the counter and tossing it over.

He had one thrown to him as soon as the girl had hers.

“Thank you.”

The woman paused, staring at him.

His eyes drifted away from her, to a nearby wall where one of his advertisements was hanging. The latest one, actually.

“Gil!”

Enkidu was hurrying through the door, escorted by a couple of people in actual uniforms.

That was right. The woman wasn’t-

“Dr. Kishinami, that was astounding!” The zookeepers went over to the woman as Gilgamesh stared over at her.

She was covered in mud and dirt like him, but…

“Ms. Lion Tamer.”

Enkidu paused as he called the name out, watching the woman nearby turn and smile. She waved off the zookeepers, herding the child to them and out the door before she closed it.

“I didn’t expect you to be so close.”

“Hold on.” She went to the desk, riffling through it a moment before she pulled out a card.

He glanced at the number on it and started laughing.

Kirei’s Holy Sexcapades Hotline

“I’ve been saving that card just in case I ever got the chance to meet you,” she told him.

The self-satisfied, pleased look on her face was what did him in.

His blanket was lost a moment before he was cupping her cheeks in his hands and kissing her.

“That’ll cost extra,” she argued against his lips.

“I’m going to tell Siduri you’re fine,” Enkidu called from nearby. “And call around a car. I think we need some soup or something warm after that swan dive into the waters outside.”

“You’re covered in shit, I think that last kiss should be free.”

“Oh do you?”

He leaned in, enjoying the challenging gleam in her eyes.

“I just got you a phone number to a hotline that I have, on good authority from the internet, been told does just average on pleasuring people over the phone.”

“Why would I do that when I could just call you again?”

She was grinning, despite the blush on her cheeks now deepening in color.

“We’re going to go to my place to warm up,” he told her.

“Oh?”

“I’m going to sit you in front of my fireplace and watch you gawk at how nice it is compared to your sterile office.”

“I’m going to complain about every gaudy décor choice.”

And he’d enjoy arguing back.

“Guys?”

Enkidu was back at the door, snickering as they saw them together.

No doubt Siduri had shown them the file with Dr. Kishinami’s information in it before trying to give it to him.

 They’d been set up.

He’d reward them later.

#drabble #drabbles

[generallynerdy]

Adore (Theseus Scamander X Half-Mermaid!Reader) Part 1

Summary: Being half mermaid is a bit of an issue when it comes to communicating with humans. You can grow legs and walk perfectly on land, but only speak Mermish above the water. When a handsome stranger wanders into your place of residence, Newt Scamander’s basement, your inability to speak his language is more than inconvenient.

Key: (Y/N) - your name, (f/c) - favourite colour

Warnings: cursing probably, The Scamander Brothers Are Too Good And Pure, Crimes of Grindelwald? What’s that? (in short, fuck canon)

Word Count: Part 1 - 1909, Part 2 - 2166, Part 3 - 2051

Note: aad;lkjs;lkdfalskj the Scamander brothers would own my soul if i had one

Mermaids, as most people knew, thanks to Newt Scamander’s book, were only classified as beasts because they wished to be classified as so. Knowing they were intelligent and able to communicate with humans, though only in certain circumstances, made it completely inhuman to keep them for viewing. This was what most people, out of a group of no more than six that Newt had shown his home, thought when they met you.

See, you took residence in Newt’s home base-- well, his basement. It was roomy and full of magical creatures of all kinds. You were never bored, to say the least, and that was actually the reason you wanted to stay in the first place.

Newt would introduce you as his friend, (Y/N), rather than just some mermaid he was studying. You liked that about him.

He also gave you complete free reign over the basement, so you would help Bunty out whenever you could. Of course, she didn’t really understand what you were saying all the time, but you could understand her. This meant she was primarily talking, though you didn’t mind. At least someone was talking to you.

As Newt brought more and more friends, which was definitely new to you, your circle of friends increased with his. Soon, you knew Jacob, Queenie, and Tina, who you knew Newt was very fond of. You made it a point to fluster him whenever she was around, usually teasing him about her, since she couldn’t understand you. It was days like those that Newt stopped talking to you, but he was back to happy conversations within a few hours.

As far as Newt and his friends were concerned, you were just as human as the rest of them. Though, there were a few added features…

One morning, you were playing with the baby Nifflers, some of your favourite residents, when you heard the door to the basement creak open. You looked up with a smile, surprised that Newt was already home. He was usually home about ten minutes later, not that you were keeping track. You nudged the Nifflers back toward their mother and started toward the staircase, a skip in your step.

However, an unfamiliar voice came from upstairs. “Newt? Newt? Are you down here?”

Your eyes widened and you stopped in your tracks, suddenly unsure. Looking up, you saw a tall man with bright blue eyes and rather messy brown locks at the top of the stairs. That was not Newt, nor anyone else you recognised.

For a second, you considered sending a Fwooper with an emergency message to the magizoologist, but then you realised that this person knew Newt’s name. He would have entered silently if he had malicious intentions, so you figured he must be friendly.

You remained where you were and waited as he descended. When he finally saw you, he looked around. “Uh, I’m sorry, I’m looking for Newt. Is he around?”

Frowning, you bit your lip. This man was very pretty, you thought, though in a way different from Newt. Tina always told you Newt was of extremely high standards for humans, wizards and muggles alike, but you could never be sure if she was right, seeing as she was biased.

Meanwhile, this curious new wizard, as you could see by the wand tucked into his jacket, was extremely pretty in mermaid standards. Perhaps pretty wasn’t the right word. Newt had sputtered nervously when you called him that, while Queenie giggled along, so you felt that ‘pretty’ had a negative connotation. When you first met Tina’s sister and called her pretty, she took it in great stride, but Newt had a strange reaction. Apparently, pretty was only used for girls in human culture, which didn’t seem right to you.

“Er, hello?” the wizard got your attention. “Sorry, have you seen Newt?”

You didn’t want to make him feel awkward trying to talk to him, when you knew it wouldn’t work, so you had to try plan B.

You nodded lightly and waved for him to follow you. He furrowed his eyebrows when you started walking away, but you heard his footsteps echo across the room. Hearing his loud steps versus your utterly silent ones, he realised that you were barefoot, oddly enough.

He followed you to the stone walkway overlooking the Kelpie’s enclosure. This was also where you took residence, having built a little home for yourself resembling a classic mermaid settlement’s architecture. Newt had gathered the supplies for you and had the Kelpie bring them underwater so you could use them. The Kelpie was quite nice to you, though that was to be expected.

There wasn’t much you could do to explain to the wizard why you had led him there, but you tried your hardest. You gestured to the water and pointed to your mouth, but he only tilted his head. Desperate, you even grabbed his arm and lightly tugged on him, gesturing again at the water. You didn’t dare shove him in, not wanting to give the wrong impression, though you hoped he would gather what you were trying to say.

“Get in the water?” He asked, raising his eyebrows. You nodded enthusiastically, a small smile on your expression. He chuckled a little, “I’m not exactly dressed for the occasion, am I?”

You sighed and let your shoulders droop, doing what Newt called ‘blowing a raspberry’. It was meant to show disappointment, he told you.

Figuring that you couldn’t convince this wizard to go in by himself, you backed up so you stood right above the water. You looked straight at him and outstretched your arms, before doing a graceful backflip into the warm waters Newt had specifically altered to fit the sort of environment you were used to living in.

The wizard gaped and looked over the edge to make sure you were alright, sure that Newt had some kind of dangerous beast in the water.

When you came up to the surface, you had a shimmering (f/c) fish tail rather than legs. You made sure to stretch it out where he could see and waved at him pointedly, sure that he would understand now. The only thing he did was gape, jaw dropped and eyes wide. You giggled a little, a very human reaction to the situation. Then, you waved for him to join you, though he looked doubtful.

Just then, he was joined by another figure, one you recognised this time. “I see you’ve met (Y/N), then,” came Newt’s soft tone, chuckling at this wizard’s expression. He looked absolutely floored and it was rather amusing. “Hello, (Y/N)!” Newt waved.

You replied in a language that only the two of you could understand, which only made the new wizard look more awed. He glanced between you and Newt, rubbing his temples as if checking whether he was dreaming. While he was busy contemplating, you swam up to the stone wall on which they stood, smiling up at Newt. You hoped he would introduce you to this new person. He was very funny.

“(Y/N),” he said, pointing to the wizard, “This is my brother, Theseus.”

You grinned when he said that, waving yet again at him. So this was the infamous Theseus! He was nothing like you imagined, what with all the stories Newt told of his older brother, but maybe that was a good thing.

“Theseus, this is (Y/N),” he nodded to his brother, who waved hesitantly.

You wanted to stick around, but the Kelpie called for you across the enclosure. You called back to it, mimicking its voice before swimming toward it at a rapid speed. He was a needy thing, but you didn’t mind.

Back above the water, Theseus and Newt did not stop talking about you, though you were unaware of this.

“She’s...something,” Theseus muttered.

“Yes, she is,” Newt smiled to himself, sorting out feed for the Kelpie in a bucket to the side. “She’s a good friend, too. I don’t think we’d manage without her, Bunty and I.”

Theseus frowned, “She chose to stay here? I thought mermaids lived in societies.”

His brother shrugged, “They do. She said her home was nowhere near as fun as mine. She likes creatures almost as much as I do. I think she enjoys helping them, especially our Kelpie here.”

Meanwhile, his brother leaned on a stone pillar, watching you from afar. You played joyfully with the Kelpie, giggling every time it splashed or nuzzled you. Oddly enough, Theseus couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off of you. You were the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen, that was for sure.

“She’s not like any mermaid I’ve seen,” he said, remembering the ones in the Black Lake at Hogwarts.

“Yes, well,” Newt looked up from his work, “She comes from warmer waters, where the more stereotypical or muggle fairy tale type mermaids live. They’re a little less...reptilian, for lack of a better word.”

Theseus hummed thoughtfully. “And do they usually try to get people to swim with them within seconds of meeting them?”

Newt laughed and shook his head. “You never did pay attention in Care of Magical Creatures, Theseus.”

“Oh, c’mon,” He rolled his eyes. “I just asked a question.”

“Mermaids can’t speak anything but Mermish when they’re above the water,” Newt said. “She was probably just trying to talk to you. She would usually call me if someone odd was in here, though. Not sure what’s so special about you,” he teased.

Theseus ignored his offhand comment, continuing to ask about you. “And mermaids are prone to growing legs?”

“She’s actually half mermaid,” Newt said, “She can switch between legs and a tail.”

His brother furrowed his eyebrows and tilted his head. “How do a human and a mermaid even--?” He started to ask.

“Don’t. You don’t want to know.”

“Noted.”

It was at this moment in the conversation that you swam back over. Newt handed down a basket of food for the Kelpie, since you always enjoyed feeding him more than he did. He didn’t like having to change out of damp clothes every day, so he usually left the job to you. You couldn’t complain.

Before you left, Newt sparked a conversation. “Well, what do you think of Theseus, (Y/N)? He bother you at all?”

Theseus glared, but you only smiled. I think he is very nice, you told Newt, for only him to hear. And pretty for a human.

This made Newt laugh, while his brother looked on concernedly. “All good things,” Newt reassured him. “What were you here for again?”

With a quick wave goodbye, the brothers walked away, leaving you to take care of the Kelpie. Though you did your job, you couldn’t help but watch them as they left, chattering about some dinner at the Scamander house or other. You smiled to yourself as you saw Theseus glance back at you. He almost looked away, his face an unnatural red colour, making you wonder if he was sick. You waved at him and he did the same, though his movement was significantly smaller.

You smiled to yourself when he was gone and turned your attention back to the Kelpie. Earlier, when Theseus first showed, he trusted you nearly instantly. For some reason, you could have sworn he would have followed you into the water if Newt hadn’t arrived.

Well, you would never know, you supposed. You could only imagine.

Adore Tags: @marsbars101, @abovethyfold

Part 2

Masterlist

#theseus scamander #theseus scamander x reader #theseus scamander x you #theseus scamander x y/n #xreader #x reader #xyou #x you #x y/n #reader insert #you #reader #y/n #fbawtft #hp #harry potter #fantastic beasts and where to find them #fantastic beasts #fantastic beasts: crimes of grindelwald #hp x reader #hp x you #hp x y/n #harry potter x reader #harry potter x you #harry potter x y/n #newt scamander #theseus scamander imagine #hp imagine #harry potter imagine #fanfiction

[seeasweetsmile]

Hey ! Here a Kimdine oneshot that nobody asked for. I already talked before : it’s about a race between Kim and Ondine. Ondine will be on subway, and Kim at foot. (because, let’s get real ; Kim is crazy enough to do this kind of bet). @snekwami I’m permit myself to tag you in it. Hope you don’t mind ! ^^

On ff.net in French. On Ao3 in English.

Title : Race against time Pairing : Kim x Ondine (Kimdine) Disclaimer : Characters are not mine, I’m just have fun to write them. Summary : After Kim once again praised his abilities for the race with Ondine, who only half believes him, he decides to prove to her that he’s right in the form of a challenge : Ondine by subway. Kim running. From the Louvre to the Place d'Italie. Whoever arrives first at the fountain wins.

.

"Are you sure you want to do that ?”, asked Ondine for the umpteenth time, looking down at Kim's squatting figure next to her. Indeed, he was curled up on himself and was firmly tie his laces. The challenge he was about to do had begun earlier this week. While they had walked the streets of the city and had seen a runner with expensive sneakers on the poster of a pub stuck on a bus stop, Kim had again boasted of his capabilities for the race with Ondine because "pfff, I don’t need these big shoes to be the fastest in Paris". Of course, the redhead had only half believed, as evidenced by her little head movement accompanied by her amused smile. Vexed, the sportsman had decided to prove to her that he was telling the truth. And what's better than turning that into a bet ? The rules were simple : Ondine would go by subway. And Kim on the run. From the Louvre to the Place d'Italie. Whoever arrives first in front of the fountain wins. Ondine's only difficulty with her subway trip was that she had to take a connection and not take Line 7 – which was a direct route. Otherwise it would be too easy and she would win in advance. She should take Line 1 towards Château de Vincennes, then change to Bastille to take line 5 and stop at Place d'Italie. So, it would take about 25 to 30 minutes by subway if all went well. While Kim had calculated the distance time : If he walked quietly, his route would take him 50 minutes. But Kim wouldn’t walk. He was going to run. And the boy would run fast, so you could compare his speed to that of a bike. As a result, his time would be halved and he would travel the distance in just 25 minutes. Their times were about equal, so it was playable.

And now, they were here on a misty Saturday afternoon, posted next to a metro entrance, waiting to begin their foolish challenge. “I’ve never been so sure of my life.”, he replies, switching to his other shoe. While she was in her thoughts and she crossed her arms behind her as a sign of timidity, Ondine smiled with a mischievous air – despite her cheeks that took on an adorably pink hue, and sank a glance towards him. “So… do you want a good-luck kiss ?”, she teased as her heart beat faster. But Kim stood up at once, resting his fists on his hips, while a confident smile stretched his lips and his gray eyes twinkled with determination as he crossed her eyes. "No need for luck. You will see that my abilities are real. I already won the inter-college tournament last year, remember ? So this course will be a breeze.” Ondine blinked, disconcerted by the assurance of her boyfriend who was so focused on the race to not consider that she offered him a implied kiss. She smiled awkwardly as the hope in her heart was slightly deflated. It was Kim, after all : there were times when he did not really grasp the subtlety of things. Or he had only listened to half of what she had said and only retaining the word "luck ". Yes, it was very likely that this is the second possibility.

"My train arrives in two minutes ; I should go there.”, she says after consulting her phone. She put her phone in her bag and said, "Well, I'm waiting for you in front of the fountain, then !”, as she greeted him with a wave of her hand. "Yeah yeah, get smart with me, Ondine.”, Kim laughs. "I'd prove you that I'm right." "That's what we are going to see.”, she concluded in a wink. Then the redhead disappeared on the stairs of the subway. Kim looked down at the watch on his wrist, whose two-minute counter was decreasing second by second. He closed his eyelids, jumped on the spot to warm up, then set in position : the fingers placed on both sides on the ground, one leg stretched behind him while the second was folded, buttocks slightly raised in height. He ignored the intrigued and confused glances of passers-by around him. Eyelids closed, he took a breath, released his overflowing air, re-opened his eyes as gray as sharp in front of him, then waited. His watch emitted two distinct beeps and the athlete burst into the air, sliding his soles on the asphalt. When the wind gently stroked her face, Kim had a good feeling and allowed herself a confident smile.

.

On her side, Ondine let the last people go down on the platform and went up in the wagon. Despite the few seats that were available, the redhead strategically chooses to stand beside the doors. In this way, she would be able to get out as quickly as possible and access the other tunnel. The stations run at the same rate as the doors open and close. Although she has her headphones in the ears and the sound at a decent level to hear the lyrics of her music, the squeak of the wagon on the rails twists her eardrums and makes her cringe. She has lived in Paris for years and uses public transport, but she can never fully get used to this kind of noise. Once the stop "Bastille" reached, the train slowed and Ondine takes a step forward to be in front of the doors. She glances at her mobile phone and finds that she is on time. The door of the wagon opens automatically to vomit his passengers, and the redhead starts running again. She hurries to run in the corridors, avoiding and doubling other users, to catch her next subway. When she hears the sound of her train ringing earlier in the corridors, her heart misses a beat and she starts down the stairs, hoping to get it on time. But once on the pier, she is forced to watch, helplessly, the departure of the train that sinks inside the tunnel at the other end of the wharf.

A woman's voice then announces that the next train is in three minutes, and Ondine slams her tongue to the palace. "Shit... !”, she pleads to herself. Frustrated at having to wait and waste precious time, she ran her hands over her face and short strands, trying to calm her nerves. Damn, at this rate, Kim was going to win. She imagined him almost doubling her own subway, and this thought snatches her a brief smile. The scariest thing was that this idiot is quite capable to do it... Her green eyes fixed on the train, which stopped in a scream as horrible as it was deafening, she was selfishly begging for Kim to be slowed down by piles of red light, and a monster crowd to slow down his extraordinary speed. Once supported against the window of the wagon that would lead to victory, the redhead can’t help but tremble anxiously her leg watching the stone wall scroll at a crazy speed. Let’s hope that she arrives before Kim despite the slight delay she took. She knew from experience through swimming that every second counted. That's why she couldn’t afford to hang out once out at her station. And although it was not as excessive as him, she also had the spirit of competition.

Especially that, apart from the simple pride of being right, the loser will have to pay for each other's new accessories for their respective sports :

So if Ondine wins, she could have a swimsuit that would unleash her full potential, more powerful glasses, and maybe even the green-turquoise bath towel with flamingo motifs on which she had flashed a few weeks ago.

And if Kim won, he would have the right to the full panoply of the perfect runner ; an undershirt that perfectly sculpted his muscles, a pair of light shorts that exposed his thighs, a cotton cuff for his wrist, and if she was generous, maybe she would take sneakers that were even more comfortable than the ones he owned already. Soon, the stations "Quai de la Rapée", "Gare d'Austerlitz", "Saint-Marcel", and "Campo Formio" gave way to the long-awaited station : "Place d'Italie". As soon as she was released from the train, the redhead hurried off the platform, climbed the steps two by two, passed the turnstile with a sudden movement that earned her the outraged look of a little old woman, and ran quickly in the corridors to take the stairs two by two. Once outside, in the open air, she didn’t have time to catch her breath and rushed on the first pedestrian crossing she saw.

"Come on, faster... faster...", she mumbles in her breath.

As she skirted a lot of people in a quick step and mechanically apologized when her broad shoulders jostled the others' handbags, Ondine glanced up at the trees and the fountain that spat out her jet water in the center of the square, hoping not to see a red hoodie.

But her prayers were unfortunately not heard, since at the arrival of the iron enclosure that bordered the park, her green eyes caught the red garment and the blonde lock of his competitor a few meters from the central fountain. Her infernal rhythm stops dead, just as her steps creak on the gravel. She does her best to catch her breath. Inhale through the nose, exhale through the mouth, swallow, and so-and-so.

When she sees him shaking his arm with a huge smile in her direction, she still doesn’t believe it. Kim had won. Her shoulders sag and a bittersweet fragrance floats in the air. Despite the result, she closes her eyelids and greets the victory of her boyfriend with a proud smile.

Joining him, the smile on her face froze when she noticed that he was limping slightly and had the side of his head stained with blood. She gasps, instinctively putting her hands to her mouth to avoid screaming in horror.

"Kim ! Oh my god, what happened ?!”, she asks as she raises her fingers and hesitates to touch the wound in his head.

"Oh, I got hit by a car. Nothing serious.", he replies as if he were telling her that he had been buying a wand at the baker's.

"What ?”, she lets go of her lips.

"Yeah, that was crazy. I was running on the sidewalk but the traffic light in front of me went red, so I went – because I did not want to waste time, do you understand ?, but a car arrived and hit me. I roll on a meter or two. But I felt good, so I continued to chart my way.", he says, proudly bulging his chest, his fists on his hips.

“Usually, it’s the cars that make hit-and-runs offence when they overthrow a person, not the other way around...", Ondine managed to answer in an Olympian calm that surprised her herself.

"I know !”, Kim continued, extending his arms, "But I didn’t have time to stop or wait for help to examine me ! I shouted "I'm in a hurry, sorry !” And then I left. I think it was the adrenaline that kept me going all the way. I even think I was in the Zone. Ah, but now that I'm at rest, my leg starts to hurts and - oh my god, you hid me that you could using the multiclonage.” he says before tilting his body to one side and squinting his eyes. "You're not akumatized one more time, are you ?"

Ondine sighs and gently takes his hand in hers to squeeze it in comfort. For him or for her, she didn’t know too much. She crosses his gray eyes which examines her with a dubious look and shakes her head, tired.

"No, I'm not re-akumatized, Kim.”, she answers before making a move towards the fountain. "Come on, come over there : we'll chill out a moment."

They landed on the stone outline of the fountain, which spewed its water in a throbbing sound. Once seated, she immediately took her bottle of water from her backpack and a handkerchief to soak the tissue and dried blood on Kim's temple. Except for the small start in contact with the cold water on his wound, the latter didn’t flinch and let himself go. After checking the result, the redhead asked him to hold a new handkerchief soaked in water against his wound - in case the wound would re-open, then get up. "Don’t move.”, she ordered away, hand raised while the other pulled out her mobile phone. "I will call the helpers to take care of you." While on the phone, part of her mind is aware that Kim – with his arm still raised to hold her handkerchief to the side of her forehead, watches her pacing. When she hangs up and approaches her boyfriend to sit next to him, he lowers his arm and puts the tissu next to his thigh. "They arrive.”, replied Ondine at the sight of his questioning gaze. "You drank your bottle of water, by the way ?" "Fifteen minutes after my departure.”, he informs, nodding his head. Ondine acquiesces in a "good”, then dig into her backpack to get out a cereal bar. "Here. For you to regain strength." Eyebrows arched in astonishment, Kim blinked at the snack she was giving her. "What about you ? You don’t want it ? It's yours, nah ?”, he asks. "I already ate it on my way.”, she lied, shaking her head. "But I thought of taking several just in case." "Oh.”, he answers simply, before gently smiling at the candy. "Thanks, Ondine. You're awesome." She then watches him open the package and chew in the cereal bar to store the piece in his cheeks as if he were a hamster. His gaze softened at the sight of the young man who seemed happy to have something sweet to put in his mouth, no more shocked than that to have had an accident. "You're really an idiot... do you know that ?”, she blows. Kim throws a glance at her, and she notices at that moment that his features stretch with an amused air. "There must be one who has everything in the muscles and nothing in the brain !”, he jokes. But that did not make Ondine laugh, who looked at him with pursed lips and a frown. Seeing that she had just disappointed, Kim swallows what he has in the mouth and shamefully drops the eyes at the same time that his shoulders collapse. Using his thumb, he triturates the paper from his cereal bar with a slight noise.

"Sorry...", he mumbles. "I know very well that I do not have much in my head but that's the only way I can draw attention to myself. I prefer to be stupid and take everything lightly rather than being serious." "Hey.”, she called, banging her elbow gently against her boyfriend's blank. She crosses his gray eyes, the edges of which were slightly slanted - a detail she loved so much, then smiled reassuringly. "You don’t have to show off or do the interesting thing to get noticed. I mean, it doesn’t bother me ; I think you're awesome enough and funny to appreciate that side of you. And for having seen you at work, I know how fast and enduring you are. It's just that... ", she said, shrugging her shoulders,"... when you brag too often, you have a hard time showing modesty or restraining yourself when you want to do the clown for example. And it tends to annoy others." Then Ondine was silent, giving him time to digest what she had just said. She turns her attention back to her backpack to catch her bottle of water again, and open it to take several sips that instantly made her feel good. Hands resting on his thighs, Kim looks down at his shoes, staring at his outstretched legs without actually seeing them. He stays silent for two solid minutes, occasionally raising his protein bar to bite in and chew it. "I'm sorry, Ondine.”, he finally said as he tossed the empty paper of his treat into his fist. "I promise you that I will make an effort for my oversized ego." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ondine's hand making his way to hers and gently taking it to intertwine his fingers. Looking up at her, he saw that she gave him a proud and confident look at once, slightly pink cheeks. "I know you'll get there." And then, just as gently, she leans towards him and kisses him in the corner of his mouth. While he is vaguely aware that his ears are heating against his will, Kim feels stupidly smiling at the small gesture of affection. His mind naturally thought of words of love that bubbled in his chest, words of love that immediately went up in his throat, and pricking his tongue, ready to go out. Despite his discomfort that remained on his colorful cheekbones, Ondine looked at him in expectation, as if to encourage him to speak. However, Kim's brain blocked the routing with other facts and made him say something else : "It's me who won." The redhead fluttered her eyes as she descended to Earth and gave him a disillusioned disbelieving look. "What ?"

Seeing the tender look Kim had given her just before, she was sure he was going to say something sweet, but that's clearly not what she expected. Was his brain derailed at the last moment ? The boy continued his explanations, not in the least disturbed by the confusion of his girlfriend. "The bet.", he says. "In the end, I was faster than you. Even if you took the transports..." "I ...", hesitates Ondine, still partially lost, before approving the facts by shrugging her shoulders. "Yes. I missed my connection." At this answer Kim hummed thoughtfully while leaning his head slightly to one side, his eyes absently raised to the sky. "We could have arrived at the same time.”, he thinks aloud. "It's very likely, yes.”, she agrees calmly. Kim continued on his way. "I'll have to update my picture of victories..." The redhead watched a dog waddling proudly as he walked on the gravel while his master quietly followed him. She gently tightened her hold on Kim's moist hand before making a comment. "It was still really stupid bet." "No more stupid than the time I had to go around the pool gym in the middle of the winter just wearing my swimsuit to prove to you that idiots could catch cold !”, retorted the sportsman while coughing a laugh. Her lips curled in an amused smile as she nodded slightly, remembering this precious – and oh so absurd – memory. She then heard Kim take a long breath. "Ahh !”, he sighs openly. "To be honest, I would have liked to go to the sports shop to buy my new racing equipment directly after our challenge..." He had a slight, disappointed pout, and while she was going to wonder at the fact that he had been confident at this point, his attention was attracted to something else: between the trees, she could see the blue beacons as well as the Ambulance van park on the edge of the roundabout, at the park entrance. She closed her eyelids and smiled. "Well, we'll go next time.”, she says, standing up. "Your carriage has arrived." "Where ?”, he wanted to know, leaning over to the side, as if she could have hidden the help behind her. "Over there.”, replied the redhead pointing the officers down the stairs and heading towards them. While turning his head mechanically to the left, Ondine glanced at his forehead and found that the dried blood had already been removed thanks to the handkerchief and the water she had given him a little earlier. The wound did not look very deep ; he was probably going to have to do a medical scan to make sure he didn’t have a brain injury, as well as having a forced rest because of his limping leg, but otherwise, Kim should be able to get away with it. He is a strong boy. Obnubilate by bets as dangerous as idiots, certainly, but she will not trade for anything in the world. All she was hoping for was that he should be more careful in future challenges.

#kimdine #miraculous ladybug #miraculous fanfiction #myfanfiction

[bittykimmy13]

Tidepool (GT)

Here’s an introductory short to mermaid AU @little-miss-maggie and I conjured up for The Heart Between Kingdoms!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Esmae’s arms shook. She craned her neck back, teeth clenched as she searched for another handhold on the sheer rock face. With a grunt, she reached up, but her other hand lost its grip on the slick rock. She slipped, lurching back to avoid scraping herself.

She hit the water with a splash and let herself sink below the surface, her tail flicking with frustration. The storm that ravaged the shoreline had ended far sooner than she was prepared. If she had noticed the waves were receding, she wouldn’t have gotten stranded in the tidepool, encaged on all sides by craggy rocks.

It was humiliating. She’d never heard tales of other merfolk getting trapped so foolishly. It was an inconvenience more than anything. The tide would swell again eventually, and she would have no trouble swimming back out to the sea. Until then, she was stranded with nothing to do with her time but conjure up excuses to give her father when she returned home.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a faint vibration rippling through the water around her—a low noise that became stronger and stronger with each beat. All at once, her annoyance was doused with fear.

Human footsteps.

One of those towering leviathans was nearby.

Esmae looked down at herself, clutching nervously at the tips of her hair. The night sky was overcast. She was the only source of light in and around the tidepool. The scales of her tail and the ancestral runes upon her skin were aglow with magenta luminescence that she couldn’t simply shut off.

Cursing the pitifully shallow pool, she dove straight to the bottom, curling into herself to conceal as much light as she could.

As she human’s gait trailed closer, she ducked her head and prayed the worst of the tremors would pass her by and fade into the distance. Out of the corner of her eye, she could make out a bobbing glow—likely one of those strange glass vessels humans trapped light in. A lantern. She peeked up and found with dismay that the yellowish glow was not nearly bright enough to cancel out her own light.

The tremors worsened, then stopped altogether.

For a dozen fluttering heartbeats, nothing happened.

And then the calm surface of the water was shattered by something bigger than Esmae. She swallowed a scream and scrunched down, sharp rocks scraping against her tail as the shadowy form of a massive hand plunged in her direction.

It seemed to hesitate for a moment. A fingertip smoothly grazed the scarf tied around her waist, and the hand flinched as though the contact stung. Pushing off the wall, Esmae swam for the far side of the tidepool, exposing herself worse than ever. Something possessed her to glance up at her tormentor.

Her eyes widened. It was him. Of course it was. He must have postponed his nightly walk on the shore until after the storm. The water distorted the view of the human looming over the pool, but she knew that face. He was the only human she would have ever recognized.

The very person she had been fascinated with for weeks was cornering her.

She cowered against another rough wall, heart threatening to climb from her throat. Though the hand had been deterred by surprise, it did not last. Both hands were closing in on her now, moving with more certainty. Her light reflected off the reaching palms and fingers as though the walls were caving in.

The hands cupped beneath her, fingers forming an enclosure to block her escape. Her desperate attempt to swim upward was thwarted as the hands scooped her up faster than she could move. The sheer force of it pushed her down into the pit of his palms.

She broke the surface of the water, gasping as she sat up in the shallow pool trapped within the human’s hands. Below, the tidepool fell further, until jumping out would risk injury on the jagged rocks. She kept her eyes down for a moment, trembling in the night breeze. The human’s lantern sat abandoned on the sand, flickering.

Steeling herself, she lifted her gaze and was caught by two incredibly blue eyes—bluer than the sky on a cloudless day. Those eyes stared down at her in astonishment, sweeping her up and down. Even slack-jawed, he was more handsome up close than she could have imagined.

And terrifying. Handsome or not, he was a human, and she could very well end up on his dinner plate.

He looked embarrassed after a long moment of staring, a faint twinge pink surfacing on his cheeks. Before she could interpret that look, he brought her up higher, water sloshing over the sides of his cupped hands. Esmae flinched back, raising her arms in defense and gauging whether she could take him by surprise if she pitched herself over the side of his fingertips.

“Oh!” he breathed, immediately pulling away. “No, no, it’s alright! I mean you no harm! You’re just… Look at you! How can you be real?” Even at a whisper, his voice shook through the air—nothing like the way voices moved underwater.

She couldn’t be sure if he was looking for an answer from her, but it made no difference. She opened her mouth, and all that came out was a dry croak. Her voice refused to manifest in the open air, no matter how she strained to get words out. All the while, he stared at her with a mix of pity and fascination.

“You poor thing,” he sighed. “Were you stranded in there? Why on earth would you come to the beach? If someone else had found you…”

He glanced down at the tidepool, then at the calm waves behind the rocks. Esmae’s heart gave a hopeful lurch. He sounded sympathetic, kind. He knew that she was stuck, and he sounded like was going to help her. The human she had been swooning over could be her rescuer.

“It’s safer at the shore than out there, I suppose,” he murmured, seemingly more to himself than her. “The sea is treacherous enough for sailors; I can’t imagine how awful it must be for a little thing like you.”

She stiffened and shook her head at him, but he seemed too lost in thought to notice. Before she could get his attention, the hands beneath her shifted and the water spilled out completely between his fingers. A choked cry escaped her as she was shuffled to one side, wrapped from tail to waist in his long fingers.

“Shh, it’s alright,” he hushed as she squirmed madly. “This will only take a moment.”

He pulled something off his belt—a container several times bigger than her. Water sloshed within it. As the human dunked the container into the tidepool and filled it to the top, Esmae realized what his plan was. Disbelief flooded her. She writhed and twisted, mouth open with silent screams and pleads.

The human held the container just beneath her, murmuring gentle assurances as the hand restraining her adjusted to grip her ribs with the thumb and forefinger. Her tail thrashed wildly, her hands clawed at his fingers.

When he managed to catch her tailfin in the opening of the container, she knew she was doomed. The rest of her tail slipped in easily, and the fingers released her. She threw her hands overhead, managing to hang by the lip of her enclosure. She strained to lift herself out, arms shivering. The human gave the container a slight shake that made her desperate fingers lose their grip.

“I’m sorry,” he said, a wince in his voice. “But you’ll be alright—I promise.”

Esmae’s glow bounced off the cramped walls around her. She cried out, throwing herself back and forth against the confines of her prison, pounding everything within reach with her fists, but it was no use.

The sound of the rolling waves was already fading away.

#thbk mermaid au #the heart between kingdoms #mywriting #gt #gt writing #daniel #esmae

[mintyjin]

mermaid au: jooheon

I’ve heard your cries for part two of mermaid! au changkyun and shownu (seriously, guys, you’ve flooded my ask box lmao), but listen, this concept is vibing with me tonight. enjoy!

once, a long time ago, there was a war between two cities

no one knows for sure why it started, but everyone agrees on one thing: it had something to do with magic

one city specialized in magic capable of moving and creating fire and earth, the other in taming the wind and water

you can kinda see where the conflict arose

years passed, bringing bloodshed and loss to everyone involved

to this day, it is the ugliest war to take place on the grounds and in the waters of your kingdom

and with all ugly wars come stories

this war is no exception, but the stories have a bit more of a peculiar tone

you see, it’s rumored that, to protect their magic and their lives, citizens of the wind and water city did something strange

they dove into the ocean and their legs morphed into tails, their necks creating small gills

and there, in the ocean, is where they dwelled as the earth and fire lineage took the throne, afraid of persecution, of further genocide

and there, it’s said, they remain

no one can definitively prove they exist, but every now and then, there are sightings of these mythical, magical people

and everywhere you go, there are murmurs saying one day, perhaps someday soon, they will grow weary of the ocean and walk back onto land

and on that day, the age-old war will continue

you see, the current monarch is a wielder of fire and earth

and he hasn’t forgotten the stories of his grandfathers

how do you know this so certainly?

well, you’re his only child, the first in line to the throne

while the story entertains you, you’re not so sure it’s entirely accurate

would generation after generation really subject themselves to a life of constant concealment?

magic, too, has its limitations. you know of gill spells and swimming potions, but could there really be a magic powerful enough to allow an large group of people to survive for so long underwater?

that said, you can’t just shrug off the legends completely. the war, after all, did happen

one day, during a particularly heinous arithmetic lesson, you gaze in boredom out of your window, which overlooks the sea

the sight of the rolling sea, ornamented with birds diving in and out of the water, gives you an idea

you should escape this lesson for a little while and go let the water run over your toes

the castle gets so stuffy, and not just because nearly everyone within it is a fire wielder

you excuse yourself to the bathroom, quickly ducking into the hallway of servants’ quarters and slipping through the door at the end

you leave your shoes at the door and dash over to the sand, relishing the way it shifts beneath your feet

and then you sprint as fast as your legs allow so that no one sees you leaving

and when the castle is out of sight, your lungs are burning and your feet feel heavy but you’re so exhilarated at the feeling of freedom that you throw off your unnecessary layers of clothing and hurl yourself into the ocean

with strong strokes, you pull yourself to the calmness of the deeper waters

you turn so that you’re floating on your back, feeling the cool, gentle lull of the waves beneath you, closing your eyes against the sun 

and it’s so warm and peaceful that you just lay like that for a while, feeling your stresses melt away

when you grow bored of that, you watch the sun send specks of light dancing along the waves and you decide to try to mimic that light with your magic

you conjure up some small sparks in your palm and lightly blow, casting them onto the sea

they spark and pop like tiny fireworks, the ashes crumbling in the water

not exactly what you wanted 

but then you hear a splash behind you, followed by a voice 

“Woah... that was actually very pretty.” 

you whip around, hand raised, ready to fend for yourself if need be 

but the sight that greets you forces you to falter 

there, in front of you, is a boy. a very handsome boy, to be exact. with small, dark scales on the sides of his eyes and neck 

and unless your eyes are tricking you, you can see the beginnings of a silvery tail beneath the water 

mermaid... he’s a mermaid

you shake off your surprise, still poised and on guard. “Who are you?” you ask

“Jooheon. You don’t have to be so tense, I won’t hurt you.” 

you still hold your stance, aware that his people don’t have a great relationship with yours

he just sighs and narrows his eyes and says, “Just because our ancestors fought means we have to? And here I thought this could be a fun conversation.” 

and you finally put your hand down but you’re still unsure 

this could be a trick. he could be waiting for you to relax. 

“What do you want?” you ask

he shrugs. “Not sure. I’ve never spoken to a human before.”

and you're like... huh

“I’ve never spoken to a... mermaid... before.” 

and to your surprise, he laughs, throwing his head back a bit, his smile magnificent 

“Then this should be interesting. Have you ever seen water wielding before?” 

you shake your head, no, and he smirks 

he dips one hand into the ocean and cups some water in his palm, blowing a bit of air into it not unlike how you did

and then the water seemingly comes to life, taking the shape of a dragonfly and flying to you, landing on your shoulder 

and it’s beautiful magic, you can’t deny it 

you also can’t fight back the astonished smile that spreads across your face

what you don’t know is that jooheon is like, wow.... she's cute...

“This is amazing!” you exclaim, your previous hesitation forgotten 

and jooheon’s like, “Naturally.” 

you roll your eyes but seriously, you’re impressed 

“Ok, Jooheon,” you say, noticing how he starts when you say his name, “but can you do this?” 

you hold your hand palm up, concentrating 

and then a flame bursts from your hand and you focus harder, controlling its movements so that it forms a small orb of fire floating a few inches above your palm 

and jooheon is already transfixed because he’s never seen fire this close before, but then you snap your fingers and he watches in amazement as it blows away in some invisible wind 

and naturally, he has to one-up that, so he shows you another trick of his

which leads to a whole thing where you’re each showing off your magic to the other 

you end up laughing a lot, half at this boy’s antics and half in amazement as he conjures things you never could’ve imagined possible 

but then you notice he’s giving you a funny look and you ask why and he goes, “You never told me your name.” 

“Oh, it’s Y/N.” 

“Ok, Y/N, do you trust me?” 

“Depends. Why?” 

he points behind you, towards the direction of the palace. “I think someone is looking for you.” 

you turn and he’s right- even from a distance you recognize the silhouette of your teacher and groan 

“I know a place you can hide out,” jooheon says, “but you have to trust me.” 

and you’re a little hesitant again but you nod and he pulls you underwater with him

your eyes fling open, bearing the sting of saltwater so that you can see what jooheon is doing 

he makes a fist with one hand and then brings it to your mouth, motioning for you to open

when you do, he pushes what feels like a small bubble into your mouth and, to your surprise, you can feel yourself breathing 

breathing..... underwater

you even notice the sting in your eyes disappearing 

you’re sure your surprise is written all over your face because jooheon laughs, but when you go to open your mouth, he clasps a hand over your lips and shakes his head

you take the hint- don’t open your mouth

from here you can see the entirety of his tail, which is gorgeous

 it’s silver, like you thought, but with dark translucent fins 

he gently grabs your wrist and pulls you towards him, wrapping an arm around your waist so that you’re pulled right up against him

and it’s not like you mind,,, he’s very warm,,, and uhhhh also very attractive 

then he places his mouth above your ear and whispers, “Don’t panic, ok?” 

and starts swimming, still holding you

and you’re just looking around in amazement because on one hand, there’s jooheon, who is very fun to look at, but then there’s also schools of fish you’ve never seen up close before swimming by 

and you’ve never seen the sun through water like this 

it’s all so beautiful and fascinating and you can’t believe you’ve gone your whole life without seeing it

but before long, jooheon swims to the surface and you emerge from the water to find that you’re in a small sort of enclosure 

like a small cave

“Where is this?” you ask

“Right behind the castle,” he says

you can’t conceal your surprise, saying, “What? I never knew-” before catching yourself

jooheon has been friendly enough, but that might change if he finds out you’re a member of the royal family 

the family that caused his people to jump into the water in the first place 

thankfully, he doesn’t seem to have any suspicions 

“So, what’s human life like?” 

“Kind of boring, to be honest,” you say, launching into descriptions of your teacher and various classes 

and you think it’s horribly monotonous but he’s hanging on to your every word and asking questions left and right 

he’ll interrupt a story to ask what a bathtub is

and you're like oh yeah I guess you wouldn’t really have a use for one would you

he tells you stories of his life, too

of exploring sunken shipwrecks and huge, expansive corals with his friends 

and it’s all so alien and interesting that you figure you could listen all day

but before long, it gets dark and a bit cold, so you think you should go

he notices your glances and is like, “Ah, they’re probably looking for you back at the palace, aren’t they?” 

you flinch. “How did you know I live at the palace?” 

“I get that our societies are a little separated, but my people know of your family.” 

“Oh.” 

and he senses that you’re uncomfortable so he takes your hand in his, a blush dusting his cheeks 

“I think you’re a good person. Regardless of what our families did to each other, you’re good,” he says

and you squeeze his hand, not meeting his gaze

“Y/N,” he says, oddly serious, “I don’t want this to be the last time I see you.” 

and you’re like.... yeah, me neither 

and you agree to meet him in that small cave behind the palace wednesday night

you pull yourself out of the water, jooheon’s hand steadying you to keep you from falling

and once you’re on dry land, you bend down to kiss his cheek, smiling to yourself as it turns bright red 

“Goodbye, Jooheon.” 

“Nononono don’t say it like that it sounds so depressing and as if I’ll never ever see you ever again-”

you just laugh and wave goodbye 

as you leave, you turn around and jooheon is just staring at you, watching you leave with his chin resting on his hand

he gives you a smile and waves goodbye with the ferociousness of a little kid 

and you’re like.... if the rest of the kingdom could see this, peace would stand a fighting chance 

but for now, you’re just excited to see jooheon wednesday night

#monsta x #monsta x scenarios #monsta x imagines #monsta x reactions #monsta x jooheon #monsta x jooheon scenarios #monsta x jooheon imagines #monsta x fluff #monsta x jooheon fluff #jooheon #jooheon scenarios #jooheon fluff #jooheon imagines #mermaid au

[diamantinemind]

Risky Business

Summary: The Frosts practice risky corporate strategies while visiting an old wartime ally and business rival at his secret research facility in Flushing, Queens. Several days later, Emma and Elias decide to insure a potentially auspicious business asset as they inspect the aftermath of Natalia's visit to the great city of New York.

Pairing: Natasha Romanoff x Mutant!OC (Enemies to Friends)

Word Count: 10,374

A/N: Thanks for reading! Feedback is always appreciated.

“I wonder what the homeowners insurance rates are like in the area?” Elias mused aloud to his mother as he drove his white Ferrari 275 GTS convertible northbound down Whitestone Expressway.

He glanced to where Emma sat in the leather passenger seat of his roadster. Her long ash blonde hair was piled atop the back of her head by a handful of hairpins and sheer willpower, and it was tucked behind a satiny white polka dotted headscarf that was baby blue on one side and canary yellow on the reverse. The sunlight glared off the reflective lenses of her 18 karat gold-plated Cartier sunglasses, danced down the sleek powder blue leather of her Tibetan lamb fur-trimmed coat, and reflected off her high-waisted dove-white palazzo pants. She idly thrummed her French manicured fingernails on the door panel as the clement mid-March breeze gently tugged at the fur of her coat and the ends of her hair.

“This munitions plant of Howard’s has not been officially operative since October of 1945, so I cannot believe it would be as exorbitant as you imagine it being,” she said as Elias steered onto Exit 14 and coasted along the off-ramp. Emma cast her attention down to Flushing Creek below them as they crossed it. “I remember when this place used to be beautiful. Marshes, water fit for swimming, greenery as far as the eye could see.”

“I only ever remember this part of New York, borrowing the language of Fitzgerald—damn the oleaginous toad and his puerile, psychologically vacant writing—being but a great valley of ashes,” Elias recalled, his pale eyes flickering along the industrial landscape. “I can still taste the bitterness of char on my tongue from when we used to go this way to visit clients and investors in Port Washington.”

“I should have had you a century sooner so that you could have seen this place before humanity ruined it, darling,” Emma sighed wistfully as she turned her focus back to the road upon the off-ramp’s termination on the other side of Flushing Creek. Elias merged onto a road that he drove along until he came to the turn lane for Linden Place. When the traffic light changed to green, he made a right onto Linden. “Did I ever tell you that, after we read it, I burned the signed copy of The Great Gatsby that Fitzgerald gave us?”

“What?” Elias snorted in delight, his gaze skimming over a bowling alley, an endless stream of brownstone apartments, a hotel painted one shade darker than his convertible, and aging townhouses as they traversed Linden Place. “Mother, you didn’t!”

“I did,” Emma grinned. Elias’s shoulders shook with laughter as he turned onto 32nd Avenue. “I packaged the ashes and had them shipped to his doorstep.”

Lined with rundown graffiti-littered red brick warehouses, grease-smudged automobile shops, and dirt-stained brownstone apartments, 32nd Avenue stretched on for several blocks before it culminated in the bustling intersection of 32nd and College Point Boulevard. Beyond the intersection lay a long strip of land along the eastern bank of Flushing Creek where the Queens-based Stark Industries munitions plant loomed like the carcass of an aged grey beast.

“Well,” Elias said after a beat of driving in silence. “That explains it.”

“Explains what, darling?”

“Why I could never find that bloody book when I tried to burn it myself.”

The sound of Emma’s laughter, so very much like the musical sound of frozen rain tapping on a windowpane or like the crystals of a ballroom chandelier tinkling above a grand ballroom, bubbled from her throat to rest upon her son’s ears. With a wry grin, Elias came to a stop at the intersection at the end of 32nd Avenue and flicked on his blinker. As he waited for the traffic light to change in his favor, Elias and Emma observed through a steady stream of traffic the seemingly abandoned Stark Industries plant where Howard’s people made munition, missiles, and napalm for the U.S. government during the Second World War. Unknown to virtually everyone, though, was the fact that life still teemed within what externally seemed but a carapace of a place that had seen far better days. Hell, Elias and his mother had only uncovered the hidden purpose of this low profile location of Howard’s through some good-natured corporate espionage.

“Can you feel the guards?” Emma leaned forward in her seat, tipping her sunglasses low and casting her icy eyes along the bank.

A long compound of connected buildings encircled in barbed wire and chain link fencing, the Stark Industries munitions plant stretched from 32nd Avenue to 34th Avenue under the shadow of Whitestone Expressway and alongside the brackish waters of Flushing Creek. Despite it being widely believed to have been left unused since the end of the war, as a neighbor, Elias personally felt that nothing would delight him more than to look out his window every morning as he listened to Don McNeill’s Breakfast Club on the radio and know that he was only a single deviant spark away from a conflagration of God knows what kind of explosive that could still be lying around in Howard’s old plant that would force all of Flushing to be evacuated and consequently send everyone’s property values plummeting.

Regardless, neither Elias nor his mother had to rely on their telepathic talents to grasp that if there was ever a reason for America’s middle-aged and infamously overt Mustachioed Casanova to operate with what scant subtlety he possessed and work out of what appeared for all intents and purposes to be a deserted factory instead of one of his more highbrow and cutting-edge locales around the world, it must have been a good one. Naturally, Elias and Emma could already confirm that what Howard was hiding behind the thick concrete walls of his plant did indeed necessitate a certain degree of… well, subtlety, especially considering the oft apocalyptic tensions between the United States and the U.S.S.R. that had only been exacerbated since Elias and his mother (and the rest of the Western World for that matter) had lost Kennedy to an assassin in Texas a year and four months ago. The last thing Howard would want the public hearing was that he had been working alongside a Soviet, let alone an authority on electromagnetism and fusion reaction that was formerly on the KGB’s payroll, since 1946.

“I can sense the guards,” Elias nodded as the light turned green and he made a left onto College Point Boulevard. “Twenty-five professionals hired from a private military company as well as a team of Stark Industries scientists.” Elias drifted into the lane closest to the razor-edged enclosure surrounding the munitions plant and eyed the locked gateway up ahead on the side of the road. “I do wonder why Howard chose to hire PMCs to serve as guards instead of capitalizing on his position as one of the directors of S.H.I.E.L.D. to staff this facility.”

“You can ask him soon enough, darling; he’s working alongside his boffins and the Soviet as we speak.”

“Splendid,” Elias’s irises silvered as they remained trained on the road before him.

He reached out with his mind and caressed the fragile psyches of every single one of Howard’s PMCs, his influence casting far and wide throughout the plant and shimmering in the atmosphere over the factory like a great steely net before ensnaring the pliant minds of the hired guards in his telepathic grasp. Twenty-five budlike brains burst into open-petaled blossoms for Elias, proffering to him all their knowledge and skills and secrets for his use. Twenty-five sets of eyes extended Elias’s sight to all reaches of the building, no dark corner left unseen, no act left unwitnessed. From the former warehouse-turned-state-of-the-art security and surveillance station to the long production lines remodeled into a number of high-tech laboratories, Elias saw it all. With hardly half a thought, he compelled two PMCs posted in the security and surveillance station to begin redirecting the incriminating gaze of any security camera onsite that even held a fraction of a chance of capturing Elias and his mother on film, and he urged another pair of guards to rush to the gate.

“Such a peculiar place for a weapons factory,” Elias said as he pulled off College Point Boulevard and drove up to the gateway just as the guards were so generously slipping loose the final lock and pushing the gate open. When Howard’s two PMCs were safely out of the way, Elias eased his Ferrari forward into the compound and parked it at one of the loading bays. “I suppose we cannot judge Howard too harshly, though; we do have that one electronics factory in the urban heart of Tehran.”

“Oh,” Emma sighed longingly while she slipped off her designer sunglasses and set them on the dash. “I miss Iran, darling—the cuisine is scrumptious.”

“Now that you mention it, Mother, I could go for some of the stew we had last time; you know, the one with poultry and pomegranate syrup that was served with white rice. Khoresh-e fesenjān?” A pair of guards jogged to Elias’s roadster, Heckler & Koch handguns holstered at their hips, and opened the driver’s and passenger’s side doors with all the grace of well-trained valets. Elias slid out his car, tossed his keys to the guard nearest him, and patted him on the chest. “Be a dear and make sure my baby does not get hurt while we are gone, sweetheart; I just waxed and detailed him all by hand this morning, and I swear that if someone so much as puts their oily finger on him, I will damn well but a bloody dent in them and you.”

“You and your cars,” Emma snorted at her son as the second guard offered her his hand. She took his help graciously and rose to her feet before eying the vacant loading dock. “I’ll give Howard this much: he’s committed to the act of making this facility appear too ignoble for use by one of America’s most illustrious billionaires since the likes of Rockefeller, Carnegie, or us.”

Elias’s mother was far from wrong. The concrete loading bay which had once been a continuous sheet of smooth grey was pocked with potholes and had been reduced to cracked rubble in spots, allowing weeds to grow up from the earth and color the dreary ground. Faded newspaper shreds were caught in the links of the fencing and waved like banners in the breeze, empty aluminum beer cans dotted the lot outside the munitions plant like curious metallic flowers, and shards of glass lay hidden in the dirt like jewels waiting to be polished. The metal loading dock doors were streaked with rust and decorated with the most sophisticated of urban artworks. Though he was being unfairly sarcastic, some of the graffiti actually impressed Elias, such as the hyperrealistic rendition of Rosa Parks and Dr. King standing hand-in-hand or the art-nouveau depiction of Erik Lehnsherr’s helmeted profile in shades of oxblood and aubergine with the phrase “No more hiding, no more suffering” arcing around the crown of his anti-telepathy headgear. Elias shook his head. To a degree, Erik was right, and Charles was no different, and yet… their philosophies were two vastly disparate kinds of extremism.

Turning away from the graffiti and walking to his mother, Elias nodded at a nondescript side door: “According to Howard’s watchdogs, that is one of the two entrances to the renovated laboratories. There is another around back. Both are heavily fortified, but I have guards ready to let us in on my command.”

Emma looped her arm through her son’s: “Shall we?”

With the minds of Howard’s PMCs at their disposal, Elias and his mother made quick work of navigating the plant, which was as slovenly and slipshod on the inside as it was on the outside for much of their trek through the mechanized wasteland that was the vast majority of Howard’s secret facility. Just when Elias had been beginning to feel like he was going to need at least three separate highly thorough showers to disinfect himself of the dirt and dust, he and Emma stumbled upon the portion of the plant which had been remodeled for scientific study. Hidden behind a set of biometrically locked blast-proof doors, stepping into Howard’s laboratories was like stepping into a different plane of reality where grey grittiness and squalor were but distant dreams of an epoch long lost to the sands of time. Elias actually had to squint against the fluorescent lighting reflecting off the blinding sterility and brilliant whiteness of the renovated assembly line-turned-research center.

“Bloody hell,” he cursed under his breath, uncertain himself of whether he was more stunned by the drastic change of scenery or the glaring lights.

Blinking as his eyes adjusted, Elias quickly scanned the former factory floor while his mother telepathically cloaked them from mortal sight, molding the multicolored psionic energy in the room into a frigid white dome of power that swirled and glittered about herself and her son like a localized snowstorm. Austere walls marked with windows of reinforced glass, diagram- and equation-littered chalkboards, and machinery of the highest caliber—well, in the United States and not owned by Frost International, anyway; Elias had seen better in some of his and his mother’s own facilities and in Wakanda, but that was another story. Men in lab coats buzzed and droned about like studious bees across the room, arguing and hypothesizing and collaborating. Some pointed fervently at schematics sketched upon the chalkboards. Elias followed their gaze to see repeated figures appearing at least once on each chalkboard in the room: an all too familiar crystalline, cube-shaped vessel of unimaginable power and limitless energy and some manner of largescale toric…thingamabob?

“Do you see this?” Elias telepathically queried his mother as he walked past several of Howard’s scientists to inspect an unmanned chalkboard. “These equations? The schematics? Howard’s finally using his research on the Tesseract.”

“A few of the finer details regarding the physics are off,” Emma paced after her son and narrowed her sapphire eyes in scrutiny at the chalkboard. “Are these people not supposed to be the best scientific minds Howard has to work with?”

“Well, yes,” Elias conceded. “But that wasn’t my point, Mum. This torus-shaped device, is this supposed to be a...” He examined the equations and chemical reactions plotted about the diagram, his mind processing the data far faster than any of Howard’s supercomputers. “God in Heaven, it’s a prototypical energy source based off the Tesseract.”

“Well, Howard did drunkenly confess at the international Hellfire Club soiree of 1953 in Los Angeles that he believed the Tesseract could be the key to indefinite sustainable energy,” Emma reminisced as she smudged out an incorrect coefficient, picked up a nearby piece of chalk, and corrected the error. “But this blueprint doesn’t make sense to me; if the core truly burns isotopes of palladium like it says, then he’s making a cold fusion reactor of some sort, one that depends upon a palladium-103 and palladium-107 radio-isotopic decay cell to produce an electrical current.” Emma traced the stream of chemical equations with the piece of chalk pinched between her fingers, and Elias did the same with his eyes. “But how is Howard reconciling the balancing of the protons between the isotopes? Palladium-107 releases an electron via beta decay when it turns into silver-107, therein causing a neutron to turn into a proton.”

“And palladium-103 produces rhodium-103 via electron capture, taking an inner electron into the nucleus, combining it with a proton, and creating a neutron,” Elias nodded eagerly, pointing to the reaction in question on the board. “The electrons would balance the resulting atomic nuclei. If he’s aiming to create energy, there would, in effect, be no net flow of electricity, which means—”

“Howard has found a way to utilize the beta decay of palladium-107 ions as an electron source for palladium-103—”

“Thereby producing an electric circuit between two different radioactive isotopes!” Elias pointed to the diagram of the torus-shaped reactor, taking note of the band-like segments sketched intermittently along the ring of the apparatus. “He must be using electromagnets in the actual reactor, then, to ionize, control the electron transfer, and manipulate the radioactive decay of the palladium-103.”

“I must admit that it’s an ingenious attempt to replicate the Tesseract without causing the kind of destruction that the Tesseract itself is capable of wreaking,” Emma canted her head in acknowledgement and set the chalk down after correcting another numerical error. “The use of palladium, of course, as Howard likely knows, is dreadfully subpar and causing most of the complications he’s running into. He may be limited by the technology of his time, but vibranium would do wonders had he the resources, although I suspect from this data that he has already crossed that bridge and considered it a fruitless path to follow. The poor man likely still thinks that he used the last of this world’s vibranium cache to build Captain Rogers’s shield.”

Turning his searching gaze to the laboratories once more, Elias spotted Howard across the room. Elias himself vaguely recalled being 47—the year was 1891, Benjamin Harrison was the President, the Gay Nineties were treating Frost International rather well, and the suffrage movement was picking up speed around the world—but unlike Howard, Elias’s 47 years had not looked so… timeworn. The nearly ebony hair on which Howard had prided himself in his youth had faded in color, having greyed at the temples, and had receded back from his creased forehead. Small lines likewise furrowed the once tight flesh at the corners of his eyes and mouth, and his tanned skin was beginning to show the telltale signs of a man who had spent his lengthy bachelor years lazing in the sun with a drink in hand and women queued up for his affections when he wasn’t tinkering in some lab or fleeing the United States on charges of selling weapons to Russians.

Some things had and would forever remain the same, however. He was still trim, wore his signature mustache, and refused to don a lab coat in his own facilities where he demanded everyone else be dressed to strict protocol. Despite his wife’s laboring to make an honest man of him, Howard Stark’s psyche also still reeked of lifelong duplicity and self-interest behind the showman-playboy persona he wore like a second skin and clung to like a lifeline.

Alas, the prices one must pay to climb the menacing American ladder as the son of immigrants, the son of Jews, in an increasingly xenophobic and intolerant country. Though Howard may not have been one of Elias’s favorite wartime allies or business rivals or people in general, he admired the man’s will to claw his way out of the oppression and baseness of his childhood and clamber to the acme of American society. For someone whose father had been a fruit vendor and whose mother had made shirtwaists in a factory, Howard had risen from rags to riches, a regular American Cinderella sans bespoke crystal footwear.

“Do we feel like extending an olive branch before we neglect to tell Howard that Natalia is on her way with another K.G.B. agent to snatch his ex-Soviet colleague?” Elias asked his mother.

“Personally?” Emma turned on her heel, wound her arm through her son’s again, and walked them back to the center of the room. “No. Do you feel the need to do so?”

“I’m indifferent.” Elias admitted, his eyes trained on the future abductee­­, a pale and dark-haired giant of a man—Anton Vanko, mid-forties, defected from the U.S.S.R. at the end of World War II and sought asylum in the United States thereafter—as he conversed with Howard. “Vanko is…” Elias narrowed his eyes and honed in on Vanko’s mind; the Russian was hiding something, something which had been weighing upon his psyche for years—“Vanko is—no, was a spy. He just went rogue on the U.S.S.R. a week ago.”

“That certainly explains why my better judgment barred me from trying to steal him from Stark Industries and employ him as a lead scientist at one of our labs the second he stepped foot on American soil.”

Elias nodded slowly: “That also explains why the K.G.B. is sending Natalia and another agent to abduct him, then; his original defection had been a ploy, but this time it was too authentic for their liking.”

“Fickle as cats, the K.G.B.,” Emma snorted, and with a dismissive flick of her wrist, the swirling psionic energy shrouding them from detection dissipated into the rafters high overhead.

As per custom to those who are unused to the tricks of telepaths or the talents of superpowered individuals in general, the sudden appearance of two natty blonds from seeming nothingness not only caught the attention of every single person in the room but also gave them each quite a start. One man flinched so hard that he tripped over his own feet and nearly fell upon a rather fragile and highly expensive apparatus beside him. A thunderous silence descended upon the factory floor for several fleeting moments as all eyes then turned from Elias and Emma to Howard, whose composure had slipped seconds prior and whose visage revealed an array of rapidly shifting emotions: astonishment melted into fury which chilled into leaden recognition that in turn grew buoyant and became a sort of curiosity tinged with tones of uneasy caution and an almost fond exasperation.

“How—?” Howard began, shattering the tense quiet.

“Your security team are gentlemen, Howard,” Emma offered the man a charming smile and little else. “They were only too happy to open any door we wanted.”

“They’re also getting fired,” Howard muttered before jamming his hands in his pockets and striding toward Elias and Emma. His scientists scrambled to return to their studies as he walked by. Vanko’s gaze lingered on the Frosts until Elias caught his eye and the alleged ex-Soviet turned his back to the unfolding scene in the center of the old assembly line. “This is private property, you know. It’s also a top-secret facility that I’ve gone to great lengths to secrete.”

“Truly?” Elias shifted his attention from Vanko to Howard, whose nostrils marginally flared as he came to a stop before the Frosts. “We had no idea, sweetheart, I assure you.”

“Glad to see you’ve still got your scintillating wit and suavity,” Howard sighed heavily through his nose. “Since I assume you have my security team firmly under your thumbs, there’s no point in throwing you both out, so how can I help you?”

“Oh, Howard, darling,” Emma unlinked her arm from her son’s and patted Howard’s cheek, “as if you could even think of tossing your two dearest corporate competitors and most valued S.H.I.E.L.D. consultants aside like they were nothing more to you than trifles.” A single fluting chuckle escaped her, and she shook her head, patting Howard’s cheek more sharply this time, the smack and suction of flesh audible with each strike. “Now, my dear, let us get down to the brass tacks; we have simply missed you and the wonderful brain housed in that skullcap of yours so dearly that we came on a social call. Indulge a pair of old friends, won’t you, Howard?”

“The day that Emma and Elias Frost swing by unannounced for a ‘social call’ without a hidden agenda or twenty is the day that I drop dead,” Howard snorted, shaking his head in amusement as Emma’s hand fell back to her side. “Why the hell not, though, I guess? We can gab—it’s bound to be more interesting than anything else I had planned for the day.”

                                                       ~*~*~*~*~

“The bar is serving scotch on the rocks today, ladies and gents,” Howard cast a glance over his shoulder as he poured his drink into a crystal tumbler filled with ice chips. “Any takers?”

Elias examined the renovated foreman’s breakroom that Howard had made his personal office and all its ascetic décor: “More of a martini man, admittedly.”

“I too appreciate the offer, Howard dear, but I don’t drink that scotch,” Emma said as she idly inspected Howard’s cluttered desk before taking a seat in one of the man’s high-back leather chairs, conceivably the most extravagant furnishing in the room. Crossing one leg neatly over the other, she turned her wintery eyes then to Howard’s back.

“I think I recall you saying something like that at my first Hellfire Club party,” Howard hummed in thought as he capped his scotch decanter and set it aside on the bar behind his desk. He turned to face the Frosts as Elias moved to stand beside his mother, shifting his weight so that he leaned casually against the back of her chair. “Boston, spring of 1941, the New England branch’s annual gala. Sir John Braddock, Warren Worthington II, Sebastian Shaw, and I were there to be inducted. I was in the midst of speaking with a friend—”

“Hugh Jones, the head of Roxxon Oil Corporation and the man who you would later make a cuckold, you mean,” Elias reminded with a smirk. Without so much as a look in his mother’s direction, he accessed the psychic link between them and telepathically queried, “Are you ready?”

“I’m entering Vanko’s subconscious as we speak, darling.”

“Yes,” Howard cleared his throat, “thank you for jogging my memory, Frost.” Flicking his brown eyes between Elias and Emma, he continued: “And then all of a sudden, the real celebrities of the party show up—Club Royalty! Let’s see, Ned Buckman was the Black King at the time, and he introduced himself alongside you two and a pretty blonde piece of arm candy, his Black Queen. Paris Seville, I believe—”

“And then you revealed yourself to be highly intoxicated and a spoiled lothario riding into the Hellfire Club on a tide of entitlement if memory serves me correctly,” Emma smiled affably. Her glacial blue irises froze into a tundra white color defined from the off-white sclera of her eyes by a wire-thin ring of silver-cyan, and she telepathically said to her son, “The replication of Vanko’s knowledge on electromagnetism and fusion reaction has commenced.”

“Ah, yes, well…” Howard frowned, none the wiser to his sudden development of a case of something akin to acute induced visual agnosia thanks to Elias. With his parietal lobes temporarily impaired in such a way, Howard may have been able to see the piercing eyes of the two blonds visiting him, but he was ignorant to the fact that those eyes he beheld were no longer the jewel blue he was accustomed to observing; rather, they were psychically charged and colored in shades of white and silver. “Those were quite the days, weren’t they?” He took a long sip of his scotch and said, “Thank God people change.”

“People do change…” Emma said with a sigh, thrumming her manicured nails on the plush armrests of Howard’s chair in displeasure. Elias felt his mother sneer psychically before she said to him, “So, not only is Vanko an ex-spy, but he is also riding off of Howard’s coattails. For a so-called fusion reaction and electromagnetism genius, he certainly does not know much more than you or I, darling.”

“Does that then make us among the world’s foremost experts on fusion reaction and electromagnetism?” Elias asked his mother with a playful lilt. “I think it should.”

Emma offered her son a fond smirk before turning her attention back to Howard: “Despite the perhaps unwarranted verbal lashings, Howard, it is good to see you.”          

“Yes,” Elias nodded his agreement even though it was not entirely the truth. Like Howard had earlier stated, the Frosts had possessed ulterior motives for their visit today prior to finding out Vanko was a largely hopeless resource for further scientific insights. Perhaps, though, he could still be of use; corporate intel and Stark secrets were just as desirable as knowledge of advanced physics and chemistry, after all. Of course, Elias and his mother could have mined it all direct from the source himself, but psionically parasitizing people who could be considered friends mayhap crossed the already tenuous and hazy ethical line all psychics perpetually toed due to the nature of their burdensome gift. “We missed you at the last three Hellfire Club annual galas.”

 “Emma, Elias,” Howard’s eyes flickered to the drink in his hand, the ice clinking softly in his glass. “You know as well as I do that I’m trying to put my days of debauchery behind me. I’m not quite as young—or romantically available—as I used to be.” He chuckled, “And besides, the environment towards the end of my partying days with the Club was always so tense when I was sober enough to sense it.”

“In sooth?” Elias tilted his head as though ignorant to what Howard spoke of. It would be… beneficial to hear Howard’s perspective on the noted and dangerously authentic tensions within their Hellfire branch.

“Yes, in sooth, Shakespeare,” Howard scoffed. “I swore sometimes that you two were going to tear Shaw and his friends apart. Isn’t the Inner Circle supposed to get along? And also, what’s up with the Hellfire Club coordinating the Cuban Missile Crisis and trying to spark mutually assured destruction?”

“That was all Shaw’s sect,” Elias withheld a snarl. “Trust us; we had no idea the Black Court was going to do something so gauche and nihilistic behind our backs.”

“Moreover, Howard, don’t be daft,” Emma rolled her glittering snow-colored eyes. “From your time as a director of S.H.I.E.L.D. to your own experiences as creator and chief executive of Stark Industries, you know how it is to work alongside people just as headstrong as yourself. Also, when have you ever known the upper crust to ‘get along’?”

Though his mother was making generalizations to dissuade Howard from probing further into the dynamics of the New England Hellfire Club’s Inner Circle, the man was not inherently wrong in his assessment. There had been a time when the Inner Circle had run like a well-oiled machine (with a little bit of psychic policing as the lubricant, admittedly, though that was beside the point). However, that era of esprit de corps had come to an abrupt and bloody conclusion at the onset of the Second World War when Elias and his mother had been called to Europe to assist the Strategic Scientific Reserve in their mission to combat the forces of HYDRA ravaging the European, Mediterranean, and Middle Eastern theatres.

While Emma and Elias had been offering their services in whatever manner best helped the S.S.R.’s early war efforts—whether that be telepathically spying on, psychically lobotomizing, and/or brutally assassinating Nazis and fascists—Edward Buckman, the Black King at the time, had been charmed by Sebastian Hiram Shaw’s ambition and ruthlessness between the sporadic home visits Elias and Emma were able to make. Naturally, it was while they were across the pond that Buckman had idiotically decided to mentor Shaw for a leadership position in the Club. Buckman, the heedless oaf, may as well have signed his and his lover’s own death warrants. 

In August of 1943, Shaw, a closeted mutant and the CEO and founder of a weapons manufacturing company slightly less impressive than Stark Industries, had betrayed Buckman. Shaw had the Black King executed alongside his Black Queen and lover Paris Seville at her coastal Rhode Island estate and had the murders pinned on one of Seville’s maids with whom Buckman engaged in highly inappropriate relations on the side. With Buckman and Seville six feet under and Elias’s and Emma’s North American presence growing scarcer the longer the war raged on, Shaw had secured almost complete control over the New England branch of the Hellfire Club. It did not require an overly active imagination to grasp how unfortunate such a situation and the innumerable unseemly alterations to the Club Shaw was able to churn out in Elias’s and Emma’s absence turned out to be for all parties involved, save perhaps Shaw himself and his closest allies. Their time would come, though; in fact, it was coming, burgeoning on the horizon like a radiant dawn.

“So,” Elias felt the gears turning in Howard’s mind, felt him prepare to again press the issue of the Inner Circle, and cut him off. “How is Maria?”

“Good, good.” Howard accepted the conversational redirection. To a point. “She more or less banned me from ever attending one of your Club parties again.”

“A pity,” Emma remarked without much conviction. Howard, bullheaded as he was, was blatantly not letting talk of the Hellfire Club drop so easily. Emma heaved a prolonged psychic sigh, “I suppose this is the price we must pay for making an unannounced visit and lying about why we truly came.”

“We might as well let him jabber on,” Elias returned. “It will give you more time to root around in Vanko’s skull and see what kind of intel he had been sending the K.G.B. before he decided to quit and practically ask for them to send Natalia after him.”

Out of some quasi-Pavlovian reflex Elias occasionally acted upon at the mention of Natalia, he unconsciously glanced to his right arm. Beneath the silk sleeve of his dress shirt, the young woman’s Parisian parting gift remained on the far side of his bicep—a surprisingly clean silver-pink line spanning the muscle, the remnant of a wound bone-deep. He could have healed the scar much in the same manner he had psionically regenerated the damaged tissue and lost blood, but he had decided to keep it on a whim. Elias could not quite explain it, but in the moment and even now, it had felt and still feels wrong somehow to will it away with no more than a bat of his eyes.

It could be a result of his growing… fondness of Natalia. Receiving a live stream of updates on her without cessation through the psychic tag he had anchored deep in her psyche had certainly warmed Elias to a strange partiality from his initially scientific curiosity and pragmatic mindset concerning how the U.S.S.R.’s premier Black Widow might best operate as a pawn for him and his mother’s far-reaching ambitions. Though it was difficult to describe what exactly Elias felt for Natalia after she had unknowingly been a constant fixture in his mind for well over a year, he did hold for her a great deal of sympathy—or maybe empathy since he vicariously felt her suffering? Irrespective of sentiment, due to the bond that Elias had psionically forged with Natalia, he had gained a wealth of superliminal and subliminal knowledge from the young woman and likely knew her and the Red Room just as intimately as she herself did at the current moment.

Formally recognized in the U.S.S.R. as an invitation-only and little-known girl’s boarding school and ballet conservatoire named the Red Room Academy for the Advanced Education of Exceptional Young Women, the Red Room was in reality a remote espionage training facility for vulnerable and easily-acquired orphan girls across the vast U.S.S.R. As for the historical particulars of the facility and the Black Widow Ops Program instituted there, Natalia was not exactly well-versed. With a little digging and conversing with old former S.S.R. associates who had infiltrated the Red Room Academy in 1946, Elias and his mother were able to piece together some of the information beyond Natalia’s grasp. The Red Room itself was the brainchild of Russia’s Department X, a covert deep science and espionage government agency created by Joseph Stalin after the Great War to ensure that the Soviet Union would become the world’s leading superpower by having better weapons than both its enemies and allies combined. Despite founding the Red Room sometime in the 1920s and crafting the Russian Assassin Program—the Black Widow Ops Program’s precursor—to train young girls as elite spies and assassins who would grow up to hopefully be some of the U.S.S.R.’s greatest operatives, Department X produced rather unimpressive results. It was not until the final years of World War II when Department X experienced some form of smashing success—likely the replication or development of a variant of Erskine’s Super Soldier Serum paired with advancements in the field of psychotechnics or the acquisition of psionicially gifted assets—that inspired an overhaul of the previously middling Russian Assassin Program, thus birthing the Black Widow Ops Program which would go on to garner additional victories for the Soviet Union.

What Natalia did know about the Red Room, though, was all in lived experience, which was without a doubt just as crucial as the more historiographical information Elias and Emma had managed to uncover. At any rate, Natalia’s intel was by far more likely to be of immediate practical use. Located among the pine woods and swamps of northwestern Byelorussia, the Red Room was hidden well enough from public sight that evidence of its crimes against humanity could be buried in the winter snow or tossed into the nearby marshy lowlands for the forest’s resident scavengers to consume and thereby conceal. The facility’s inhuman abuses were many, though brainwashing, torture, murder, forced human experimentation, and the training of child soldiers certainly topped the list.

While Natalia’s childhood had been spent mastering the art of killing and weaponizing her budding femininity and learning the manifold ways to destabilize governments, other girls her age had been able to be carefree and happy in the summer years of childhood. Laughing, singing, playing, things that Natalia had never known, that she may never know. Such youthful innocence should not be a privilege for those able to afford it, and the fact that it indeed was an honor rather than a God-given right on this depraved chunk of rock floating in an unforgiving universe made Elias’s blood boil in his veins and gave him rash notions to astrally project his consciousness halfway across the world and psychically assassinate the monsters responsible for ruining the lives of little girls like Natalia.

“You doing fine over there, Elias?” Howard’s voice cut through the fog of fury that clouded Elias’s mind and brought him rushing back to reality. Howard’s gaze was wary, his hands wrapped carefully around his now empty tumbler.

“Lost in thought, Howard,” Elias forced a laugh and a tight-lipped smile. “Forgive me for my preoccupation.”

“No need for apologies,” Howard said with a much more reassuring smile than Elias’s. He cleared his throat awkwardly, his upturned lips slipping in mild concern. “Is it Rogers and… Barnes?”

“Uh…” Elias blinked, thrown. Emma tensed in Howard’s chair.

"Howard—” Emma warned at the same moment that Howard set his tumbler aside and said, “This month marks the 20th anniversary of Rogers’s flying the Valkyrie into the Arctic and Barnes’s—”

 “I may be a centenarian, Stark, but my memory has yet to fail me,” Elias lightly quipped. He swallowed, his throat growing thick with the melancholy that had been intermittently afflicting him for days, though, admittedly had receded since he and his mother had decided to investigate Howard’s secret research facility. “James—” Elias frowned. No one had ever referred to James by his first name other than Elias himself, James’s second-generation immigrant mother Winifred, and his headstrong Romanian grandmother, and that is how the man had liked it. “Buck would have been 48 years old on March 10.”

  Emma reached up for Elias’s hand, holding onto it tightly: “Why don’t we talk about something else, darling? Something like Howard’s laughably short-lived career as a film director or when Peggy knocked him into the Thames on V-E Day for trying to kiss her and how he would have drowned had he not been fished out by a group of frogmen.”

Elias squeezed his mother’s hand, grateful, but sighed instead, “I have missed him every day since 1945. Steve too; he was a remarkable man and one of the best friends I have ever had.”

“I…” Howard scowled, shaking his head. “I hate this time of the year. Reminds me of all the ways we could have done things differently back then. Reminds me of how the world lost some of the greatest men and left profiteers like me behind.”

“Howard, you are hardly to blame for anything that happened during that odious chapter in the text of human existence.” Emma massaged the bridge of her nose wearily. She always got weary when speaking of the war.

“That doesn’t mean I don’t feel guilty for helping to produce weapons of mass destruction, Emma, for working on Project Manhattan and making that godforsaken atom bomb,” Howard admitted in a rare moment of incisive and brutal honesty. “You know, my greatest creation was Captain America; he was the only thing I made that genuinely saved lives, directly and indirectly, instead of outright claiming them.”

Elias, in an even rarer moment of empathy, pursed his brow: “Oh, Howard...”

“What do you think this Earth would be like had Barnes not fallen?” Howard asked, his gaze faraway. “Had Rogers found some way to save the day without sacrificing himself in the end?”

“Thinking like that will not bring them back,” Elias pushed himself upright from the back of the chair his mother sat in, feeling the need to put his body in motion to better occupy his mind and the darkness which eddied at its outskirts. “But if you want my God’s honest opinion, I would have dragged Buck home from the war after the Commandos came back from their mission to capture Zola and returned him to his family like he wanted the whole bloody time he was overseas. He would be safe, happy. Likely a mite more rotund and softer in spots, but still as handsome as ever.” Elias exhaled heavily through his nose as he felt his voice begin to falter. He paced across the room, examining the sparsely decorated walls to distract himself. “As for Steve, well, he and Peggy would have gone dancing. Courted. Maybe married and had a few kids as obstinate as both of them.”

Elias turned and saw that his mother’s eyes were on him. They were no longer glowing white with telepathic power. Instead, they were just their regular pretty blue and so profoundly sad. He averted his gaze.

Howard broke the silence: “You really loved Barnes, didn’t you?”

“With every aching fiber of my being.”

                                                   ~*~*~*~*~

Shutting the passenger’s side door of his mother’s porcelain white Aston Martin DB5, Elias flipped up the wide collar of his Burberry peacoat against the frigid early morning drizzle sailing near-horizontal on the wind. The soft wool brushed the stubble of his jaw, reminding him that he needed to shave. Or maybe not—he could raise a neatly trimmed beard like he had in his twenties and thirties; full facial hair was slowly coming back into fashion since it had silently grown passé in the decades following the Civil War. He adjusted the brim of his beaver-fur fedora as a gust of wind tried to snag it from atop his head. He shoved his leather-gloved hands in his coat pockets, pushing all thoughts of grooming and haircare aside for the time being, and glanced around the lot surrounding Howard’s Queens-based research facility which had officially lost its top-secret status as of Natalia’s visit to it less than twelve hours ago.

Although he had remotely kept tabs on Natalia and her activities from the previous night via the psychic tag embedded in her psyche, Elias had to give his favorite Slavic spider a hand upon observing the physical aftermath of said nighttime activities. She had indubitably left a message. Grey plumes of smoke yet curled up into the cold rainy sky from the half-melted and warped remains of the warehouse where Howard’s security and surveillance station had once been located as well as from the ragged hole which had been blown in the graffiti-laden exterior wall outside the part of the factory where Howard’s laboratories had been. The smell of ash still hung heavy in the air, and a vaguely chemical odor slithered beneath the burnt scent, only detectable when the breeze happened to propel it in the right direction from the assembly line laboratories. Half-singed papers, broken lab equipment, and strips of metal rested upon the cracking concrete like fallen corpses before the plant’s newfound sharp-edged maw while literal blackened corpses littered the hard earth near the burnt warehouse. Picking through all the detritus as they slipped into and tramped out of the hole in the factory wall and the warehouse’s writhen skeleton was a team from Damage Control, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s official cleanup crew that assessed and controlled messes like the one the K.G.B. had left behind for Howard to find.

“What happened here?” Emma, in a dark trench tied loosely about her waist, a matching bucket hat, and white André Courrèges go-go boots, walked around her British grand tourer after locking it to stand beside her son.

“What you see before you is the result of the foolishness of another of the field chaperones the K.G.B. seems so insistent upon pairing Natalia with following the events which transpired in West Berlin and Paris.” Elias swept his gaze around the wrecked compound and inspected the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents as they went about their work with antlike efficiency. “While Natalia cleared the way for her K.G.B. babysitter, a veteran agent named Boris Turgenov, and then permanently took down the surveillance system by setting off high-grade explosives in the warehouse, Turgenov made his way to the labs. Howard was not onsite during the attack, but what PMCs remained from Natalia’s initial strike evacuated the other scientists and got them to safety by the time Turgenov broke through the lab doors—”

“And found Vanko still there?”

“Precisely,” Elias nodded. “Vanko refused to let Turgenov haul him back to the U.S.S.R. where he would be exterminated, tossed into the Siberian wilderness to fend for himself, or brainwashed into servitude, no doubt.”

“And the gaping hole in the factory wall comes in where?”

“Vanko and Tergenov scuffled. Vanko pulled out a highly unstable and untested ray gun of some sort that he and Howard had recently designed, fired it, and blew up not only Turgenov but also part of the factory wall and himself.”

“So Vanko is dead?”

The sound of wet concrete chips and glass crunching underfoot filled the silent compound as Elias and Emma impassively watched the Damage Control team clear the area, rolling charred corpses into body bags, sorting through seared and water-damaged classified research notes, and lugging damaged laboratory gear into S.H.I.E.L.D. cargo vans pulled up in the loading bay near where Emma had parked the GT she had fallen in love with after having seen it being driven by Sean Connery as James Bond in Goldfinger last year.

“Vanko was admitted into the ICU at Queens Hospital Center when first responders found him pinned under a massive slab of the collapsed wall,” Elias said. “He’s in critical condition and is suffering from… a lot.”

Taking a moment to parse through the colorful threadlike psionic signatures and layers of psychic imprints left along the bank of Flushing Creek, Elias found a trace of Natalia’s psyche almost immediately. Claret red as the blood she spilled or the hair framing her pale face and redolent of new leather, spring lilacs in full bloom, and scouring soap, it was a thing to which he had become accustomed over the years. He knew it like the back of his hand, and it was because of this that Elias had to suppress a troubled sigh.

It was changing, displaying telltale signs that Natalia’s Black Widow conditioning was deteriorating and had been doing so in an insidious manner for some time now. As best as Elias could tell, the only perceptible effects of the conditional degradation were still relatively minor: implanted Red Room memories and obedience were grudgingly shifting like once-settled tectonic plates encrusting the slumbering superdense core that was all that the Soviets had attempted to repress within Natalia as it turned fitfully in its dwindling sleep. The vague sense of wrongness that she had experienced intermittently a month after Elias had first planted the anchor had now become something akin to her new understanding of personal normalcy, and the corrective switches wired into her programming which set Tchaikovsky to thundering in her skull whenever her psyche deviated from the preset Soviet standard held for Widows before righting the abnormality were so eroded that they only flipped once every week or two.

This provided Elias with only an infinitesimal amount of comfort despite the fact that these results were the slow-growing fruit of his psychic anchor and his mother’s further splintering of Natalia’s conditioning in the middle of Paris’s leading military museum as he had kept the Black Widow preoccupied with his testing of her potential as an asset to be added to the Frost’s arsenal. Verily, the Frosts had wanted this to happen, had caused this to happen, and yet… Elias could not shake the niggling concern that wormed in the pit of his stomach at the thought of how his and his mother’s manipulations might impact Natalia should the K.G.B.’s psy-ops agents or her brutal handlers finally discover that the U.S.S.R.’s best Widow was compromised in perhaps the most compromising of ways. It was a reality that would precipitately come about if Natalia’s conditioning continued to flag at the rate at which it had been and the Frosts did nothing to either stop it or further secrete it. Given the circumstances, though, secreting it was going to prove to be an increasingly difficult option that would call for a drastic decision should Elias and his mother wish to circumvent future resource-draining complications.

Emma reached out and touched her son’s arm, shaking him from his thoughts: “Where is she now?”

“Preparing to land in Moscow from a nine hour flight aboard a small Soviet jet,” Elias honed in on his psychic connection to Natalia, and he saw her piloting the private aircraft through the heavy steely clouds of the Russian countryside. “When she lands, she will refuel and rest for a few hours before returning to the K.G.B. outpost in Novosibirsk where the Widows are all stationed.”

“We’re not letting the K.G.B. realize what kind of state Natalia’s conditioning is in and losing nearly two years of work and a potential asset,” Emma reassuringly squeezed Elias’s arm through his thick peacoat with her gloved hand as the concealed front entrance of Howard’s facility opened and Howard himself stepped out into the gloomy morning weather. “What would you like to do?”

“Go over the specifics later,” Elias said as Howard’s eyes turned to the Frosts, his countenance inscrutable. He was in his shirtsleeves, the cuffs rolled up to his elbows, and his tie was thrown about his neck more like a lariat than a necktie. “Summarily, to remove the Soviet psychics from the chessboard; they’re nothing but a nuisance at this point and present little reason to keep around any longer.”

Innocuous as it may seem when thusly phrased, that was the drastic decision: ridding the playing field and the K.G.B. of its psionically gifted agents. With them out of the picture, the risk of Natalia’s psychic developments and waning mental programming being discovered would be diminished by a factor of fifty. Bloody hell, maybe a hundred. However, what it really meant was the lobotomy or extermination of each and every agent under employ by the Soviet government who was in possession of a telepathic or empathic talent. To think that lobotomy would be the more merciful of the two practices was the misconception of a fool, though; the K.G.B. would kill the lobotomized psychics the instant the agency had no use for them.  

As Howard approached Elias and Emma with a stack of crinkled schematics in his hands, Elias felt his mother give him an assenting telepathic nod. She understood quite well what he had meant. Neither of them were exactly strangers to dirtying their hands when the situation called for such direct action to be taken to protect their interests.  Truthfully, they had dirtied their hands for much less. To do what Elias had in mind was not a delight nor would it be taken lightly, but it was going to occur regardless.

“You came,” Howard said as he paused before them.

“You called,” Emma replied. “Before I would typically even commence my morning toilette.”

“My apologies, Ems.”

Elias and Emma frowned in unison: “I beg your pardon?”

“Can we walk and talk?” Howard checked as he squinted up at the dreary sky, his upturned face collecting raindrops. Before either Emma or Elias could give their affirmation, Howard was on the move, brushing by them to hop into the back of a nearby black S.H.I.E.L.D. van. Emma and Elias shared a look before trailing after Howard, coming to stand outside the cargo van as his voice echoed out to them: “Were either of you responsible for exploding my warehouse, blasting my labs to bits, or hospitalizing my lead researcher by dealing him life-threatening injuries?”

“Howard,” Elias responded with equal parts cautionary deliberateness and affected woundedness. “You think so lowly of us.”

“Not at all,” came the man’s muffled reply and the sound of papers being shuffled from within the van. “I’ve always admired the both of you for your self-serving and scheming natures, really.” Elias blinked, uncertain how to interpret that comment, while Emma stared impassively at the vehicle. “I just want to know if this is some sort of corporate rivalry thing spurred by the sight of what my team was working on three days ago when you two stopped by for a visit.”

“As much as we would love to live up to your oh-so flattering expectations of us, Howard,” Emma rested her hands upon her hips as her stare crystallized into incisive ice, “it is with great regret that we must inform you that we are not the bombardiers for which you are looking.”

Howard was silent for a long moment, the only sound escaping the nondescript cargo van being that of the man’s sorting through salvaged materials and paperwork. The upturned collar of Elias’s coat tickled his cheek as a strong burst of wind whipped across the lot, carrying with it a storm of ashes. The knotted belt of his mother’s trench slipped loose and the long panels of fabric billowed around her in a most dramatic fashion, revealing the pleated white velvet mini dress she wore underneath. Arms still akimbo, Emma made no move to reclose her long coat.

Finally, footfalls. Howard stepped out of the back of the van and down to the concrete lot to eye the Frosts critically. Elias’s left eyebrow arced high on his forehead of its own volition, questioning and challenging and drolly entertained all at once.

“So,” Howard nodded tightly before crossing his arms over his chest, “the miscellaneous charred body parts scattered about Vanko’s lab don’t belong to an agent you hired to infiltrate my factory?”

“No, Howard,” Emma said coolly. “They do not.”

Silence. Rivulets of cold water trickled down Howard’s face. His pressed white button-up clung to his slender frame, dangerously close to being translucent if not transparent in some places.

Elias cleared his throat: “The man’s name was Boris Turgenov.”

“What?” Howard’s bushy eyebrows furrowed.

“The owner of the miscellaneous charred body parts,” Elias said. “His name was Boris Turgenov, a veteran agent of the K.G.B.”

“He was on a mission to procure his former Comrade—id est your ex-Soviet friend Dr. Anton Vanko,” Emma added. “Turgenov was to drag Vanko back to Rodina for cognitive recalibration.”

“How did you—?”

“We read the psychic imprints Turgenov left on this place in the short time he was here,” Elias explained, slipping a gloved hand out of his pocket to gesture to what Howard would perceive to be empty air. Of course, it was far from vacant; vibrant wisps of psionic energy drifted about, threadlike psychic signatures unspooled in the rain, and thoughts lapped like waves out from the ocean-deep or puddle-shallow minds of every sentient being surrounding them from Howard to the ant scurrying by his polished leather shoes. Sensing Howard’s confusion, Elias elaborated, “Yes, Turgenov may be dead, but he was not always. If you would like to cut straight to the pith, anything with a neuron produces psionic energy and leaves a nearly permanent residual trace of that energy wherever it goes. It is but a matter of tuning in to the proper frequency, I suppose, to be able to interact with it.”

“Huh,” Howard scratched his chin thoughtfully. “I always thought psychic mumbo-jumbo was more… well, mumbo-jumbo.”

“Yes, well, you would be wrong,” Emma said with a tap of her foot that suggested she was growing tired of the conversation. “Can we help you, Howard, or did you request our presence just to accuse us of arson and murder face-to-face?”

“That was actually about it,” Howard shrugged. “I appreciate the K.G.B. lead you two gave me, though.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked between the two blonds before him before asking, “While you’re both here, can I pick your brains?”

“It is much more likely for us to pick your brain, Howard,” Elias’s lips curled into a small smirk. “Ask whatever you would like.”

“Why do you two think the K.G.B. wants Vanko?”

“Why would they not?” Emma responded flatly. “Not only is he an expert in his scientific fields of study, but he has also worked alongside the famous Howard Stark, one of America’s brightest technological luminaries.”

“That must have tasted bitter on your tongue, Emma,” Howard chuckled without much enthusiasm.

“I did say ‘one of,’ my dear,” Emma flashed a feline grin.

Howard hummed in response, his forehead creased from the ponderous weight of his ponderings: “There’s not a snowflake’s chance in Hell that a single K.G.B. agent, no matter how much action he’s seen, could pull this op off. No human could have.”

Elias’s jaw clenched almost imperceptibly. Emma tilted her head slightly, her long hair spilling over her shoulder.

“Turgenov must have been some kind of metahuman,” Howard theorized. “A mutant or enhanced individual.”

“He got himself blown up, Howard,” Elias laughed dismissively. “He must not have been that good.”

“Fair enough,” Howard conceded. “I just thought… I don’t know. The Soviets have a history of metahumans.”

“I think that you mean they oppress and systematically murder mutants who fail to offer themselves up as tools and weapons to the government,” Emma said pointedly. “If that is indeed the Soviet history you are referencing.”

“That,” Howard nodded, “and Soviet attempts to make the perfect espionage agents and assassins. Black Widows, they call them now, but I thought they were an exclusively female force.”

“Your dream, I imagine,” Elias jabbed good-naturedly to keep Howard talking. As one of the three co-directors of S.H.I.E.L.D., it was possible that Howard may know something about the Widows that the Frosts had not yet picked up from the anchor in Natalia’s psyche.

“At one time, yes,” Howard snorted, shaking his head. “Now, not so much.” He paused, eying the Frosts briefly. “I admittedly don’t know much about these Widows. Intelligence gathering, spycraft, and espionage is more of Peggy’s area, but I do know that they’re out there and that they’ve got some kind of alternative Super Soldier Serum coursing through their veins.”

“Has S.H.I.E.L.D. managed to capture one of these Widows?” Emma asked. “Studied them to see how the U.S.S.R. miraculously created a strain of Erskine’s serum?”

“Unfortunately, no.” Howard’s shoulders fell as he sighed. “Widows are slippery and typically too dangerous for most of our agents to even attempt to tackle head-on, but Peggy and the Howling Commandos—” He paused, looking quickly between Emma and Elias before amending himself, “Dum Dum’s post-war Howling Commandos, that is, encountered a Black Widow in training back in 1946 in some Byelorussian boarding school-military base-mad scientist’s lair called the Krasnaya Komnata—”

“The Red Room,” Emma said under her breath.

“You know of it?” Howard was not surprised.

“Only in hushed whispers,” Elias lied. “We never knew what or where it was.”

“They apparently indoctrinate and desensitize girls from an early age to train them to be elite operatives,” Howard accepted Elias’s dishonesty and spoke on. “Peggy and the Howlies saw some disturbing stuff there despite it appearing to be abandoned. They found a girl, nine or so, supposedly left behind in the Soviets’ rush to save their skins from being discovered. Looked real sweet with her pigtails and alligator tears until she stabbed Dum Dum, snatched his revolver, and shot and killed one of the Commandos recruited after the war before she clambered into the ventilation ducts and got away. She popped out of the vents later in the mission, killed an S.S.R. agent, shot one of the other new Commandos in the leg, and still disappeared in the end.”

“Bloody hell,” Elias muttered in disbelief. Dum Dum had not exactly elaborated upon that information when the Frosts had inquired about the 1946 Red Room raid he had co-led with Peggy.

Elias wondered if the girl the S.S.R. and the Commandos had encountered could have been Natalia. No, the ages were wrong; Natalia would have only been four at the time of the S.S.R.’s storming of the Red Room. That fact, however, did not divorce the image of a young Natalia with her red hair twisted into pigtails hacking apart and shooting men over thrice her size and age from the mental picture of another orphaned Russian girl met during the S.S.R.’s 1946 Soviet raid doing just the same.

���Peggy and I ran into a proto-Widow on numerous occasions back in the late-40s who was trained in the Red Room before they developed their variant of the serum,” Howard confessed. “She was in her early twenties and absolutely stunning. Also extremely lethal. I can hardly imagine what she would have been capable of had she been hopped up on some knock-off Erskine biochemical treatments.”

“Anything,” Emma wrapped her coat about herself and knotted the dangling belt about her waist before looking over to her son. “She would have been capable of anything.”

#Black Widow #Natasha Romanoff #Marvel Fanfiction #Original Character #Mutant #Elias Gideon Frost #Natalia Alianovna Romanova #My Fic #My Masterlist #Thawing #On Ao3 #Marvel #Emma Frost #Howard Stark #The Hellfire Club #Historical Fanfiction #Steve Rogers #James Buchanan Barnes #Captain America #Wakanda #Vibranium #My Series #1960s #Erik Lehnsherr #Charles Xavier