#THEY TURNED HER INTO AN IDIOTIC MASS MURDERER

[ecce-felix]

Sometimes I think abt how I went into HOTD with rhaenys being my favourite from f&b and ended HOTD hating her hypocritical idiotic war criminal ass

#I was so excited for rhaenys too I’m so sad #supporting rhaenyra even tho she thinks she KILLED HER SON #rhaenyra who is usurping her granddaughter’s birthright to driftmark #team black whines abt how hbo ruined Daemon or whatever but WHAT ABT RHAENYS #THEY TURNED HER INTO AN IDIOTIC MASS MURDERER #that stupid speech she made at Alicent abt Alicent crawling before men #meanwhile she was trying to sell her baby girl to her old ass cousin #for her husband a MAN so he could have more power #like sure I’d like that speech if it didn’t come from her

[hollowed-theory-hall]

re.: the weasleys + parenting

what's always bugged me most abt percy's fight with arthur (especially in the fandom, where everyone's like 'oh, he turned his back on harry and betrayed his family to side w the ministry) is that. that's hardly what the fight is about at all. the fight is about the fact that percy, an 18yo kid who just got promoted to his dream job instead of straight up losing any chance at ever being Minister (because they tried to scapegoat him into taking the blame for the crouch business even though he managed to keep the whole department running while his boss wasn't even there), comes home all excited to tell his parents that "Hey, he's not unemployed and bereft of any and all hope for his biggest dream", but rather that his skills and competence got recognized by The Most Important Man In The Government, and molly and arthur look him straight in the face and go—"no you didn't."

there is no mention whatsoever that they even try to be gentle about it, that they congratulate him first and then bring it up later like "just be careful around Fudge, he's always looking for people to get information from and you are the best of both worlds, close to the action and actually good at the job he hired you for", nothing of the sort. they straight up don't even consider how any of those factors might've weighed in Fudge's decision to hire him.

and, perhaps worst of all, they have no faith in Percy. he tells them "I'm working for the minister", and not only do they not spare a second to be happy for him over this frankly momentous achievement (or at the very least concern for the position it puts him in), they jump straight to conjectures and accusations. "you only got this because of Harry" has got to crush Percy, who was raised to believe that good things come to honest, hard-working people and who has been working for this since he was a small child. and it digs the knife deeper when you realize that most of his siblings have basically replaced him with Harry. Harry, who also plays Quidditch and also keeps throwing himself into death-defying dangers and overalls fits much better into the family dynamic than Percy ever has.

and there's just this. crystal clear implication that they do believe Percy would spy on them. he's so Different and Other and Un-Weasley/Gryffindor-like and they've alienated themselves from him so absolutely that they can't see any reasons he wouldn't willingly and consciously jeopardize his parents' livelihood and Harry & his siblings safety just to stay in the Minister's good graces, when if anyone's actually at risk of losing their job for siding with Dumbledore is his father, who's still working there quite merrily and continues to so for a long time afterwards.

Percy, who runs into a freezing lake mid-February while attending an international event as Crouch's replacement to make sure Ron is alright, who pesters Ginny to eat and have a pepper-up potion most of her first year bc she doesnt look well, who tails Harry and Ron a lot of their second and third years bc there's something petrifying kids and then Dementors on the grounds and a mass murderer on the loose and they all just think he's being willfully bothersome like no you idiots he's worried.

of course he left. of course he left. what did he have to gain by staying at the Burrow, beyond fresh home cooked meals harassment and disagreements? why wouldn't he leave?

sorry I have a lot of feelings about this.

No need to apologize, this is brilliantly written!

I don't even feel like I need to add anything as you summed up the Percy situation perfectly.

But I can't help myself because I love discussing the Weasley family dynamics, so it's a bit more rumbley than my usual...

Percy cares so much for his family. When Voldemort is revealed and the war actually starts, he puts all his disagreements with his parents aside to come and help and make sure they're okay, because he cares. And still, he is being shunned and treated like an outsider.

Arthur and Molly Weasley are just really good at alienating their kids because it isn't just Percy.

Somehow all of them succeded in feeling like outsiders in a family of 9. Bill shows frustration with his parents and only returns to Britain because of the war, Charlie's in Romania for most of the series. Fred and George run away the moment they can and are treated like trouble by their parents most of the time (Molly and Arthur assume they are selling stolen goods from Mundungus when they hear they have money, not that they, idk, somehow earned it), Ron has a whole complex of low self-esteem and a tendency to blame himself for everything. Ginny is isolated from her brothers as the only girl and youngest...

And Percy cares and tries to be the best and most responsible sibling and gets scorned in turn.

Harry and Ron do acknowledge Arthur's and Molly's accusation towards Percy was awful and that he was right to respond negatively in OOTP. Ron is just sensitive about their family's financial state which soured Percy to him after Percy blew up at their dad (rightfully so, honestly, I'd say way worse to Arthur if it was me).

The thing is, Percy also gets scorned by his siblings, not just his parents (like Fred and George do). He gets grief for trying to be responsible and for wanting his siblings to do well in school and not get in trouble, Fred and George lock him in a pyramid...

That being said, do I think Percy is perfect? No, he is pretentious and overbearing at times, but he is a child in a large family who tries to find a place to fit himself in. According to child psychology, usually when it comes to siblings, the eldest would usually (at least in childhood) try to be everything the parents want (Bill), and then each next sibling will carve a different niche for themselves, and we see this with the Weasleys. I think the twins being born right after Percy and demanding a lot of attention from their parents from a young age as they were little troublemakers from the start is a big reason why Percy chose the niche of being bookish, ambitious, and responsible for himself. To contrast himself with them and his older brothers and get some attention from their parents.

I'm not a fan of the epilog (like everyone), but I find it hard to imagine Percy being close to his family post-books. I think he never fully got over the sting of not being seen as skilled and competent and that his parents believed he'd turn on them all without a second thought. Nor do I think he should just get over it.

Like, I'm really salty that Percy was the only one to apologize:

“I was a fool!” Percy roared, so loudly that Lupin nearly dropped his photograph. “I was an idiot, I was a pompous prat, I was a—a—” “Ministry-loving, family-disowning, power-hungry moron.” said Fred. Percy swallowed. “Yes, I was!” “Well, you can’t say fairer that that,” said Fred, holding out his hand to Percy. Mrs. Weasley burst into tears. She ran forward, pushed Fred aside, and pulled Percy into a strangling hug, while he patted her on the back, his eyes on his father. “I’m sorry, Dad.” Percy said.

(Deathly Hollows, pages 512-513)

Like, yes, it's great he was smart enough to realize the ministry is corrupt, but this demand only for him to apologize when Molly and Arthur Weasley were just as much in the wrong. Fred and George weren't beacons of sainthood here either. But none of them have apologies demanded of them. None of them are demanded to confess they are "morons". Just Percy.

Who even after his apology is still an outsider. Probably always will be one.

You said it best: "Why wouldn't he leave?"

And that's what we see him do (if temporarily).

#harry potter #harry potter thoughts #harry potter theory #hp theory #wizarding world #percy weasley #the weasleys #arthur weasley #molly weasley #asks #anon ask

[heaven4lostgirls]

You’re my happy place

husband!elijah mikaelson x wife!fem!reader

tags: fluff, happy ending, soft!elijah

a/n: if u guys even read this pls pls pls send me requests for fics u want me to write!! ok enjoy<3

You had spent the entire day at the compound waiting for Elijah and Nik to get back. They had gone on some stupid witch hunt again because Nik believed that the witches were plotting against him as usual.

You sat on the floor of the compound playing with baby hope when you hear the hurried footsteps of the two brothers and the stench of blood nearly made you vomit on the spot.

You hurriedly put Hope back in her cot before running to see if anyone was hurt. Nik looked like he had just committed mass murder but by the look in his eyes you knew better than to ask him what had happened. All you did was beckon hun closer and take a look to see if any of his injuries were major, thankfully he just looked like he had a bruised ego.

To the left of his Elijah stood in a ski liar state however he seemed to be clutching his side. You knew whenever Nik would put himself in dangerous situations your idiot of a husband would not be far behind, always looking out for his little brother.

You made your way to him slowly whilst looking over him to see if anywhere else seemed to be causing him pain, once it looked like his side was the only place he seemed to be clutching you sighed in relief.

As you reached him you carefully placed your hands on his face, he seemed to be avoiding your eyes and you somehow knew exactly why.

“Is that blood Eli?” You questioned harshly, you knew that when you both moved to New Orleans that the witch community wasn’t exactly fond of the Mikaelson family however the lacerations on Elijahs side didn’t seem to be healing and this has been an all time low for them, never had the witches hurt them so badly they couldn’t heal it. You were on relatively good terms with all of the witches however seeing your husband in this state all you could hear was your heart pounding and your blood boiling.

Elijah looks almost embarrassed as he utters a small “No?” You sigh and shake your head with a small smile, your husband would always be the one trying to make you laugh even if he did seem like he was bleeding out.

“That isn’t normally a question you answer with another question darling” all he does is smile back innocently.

“Cmon let’s get you cleaned up” you motion for him to sit on the couch as Hayley ends up attending to Nik as he grumbled about the ‘stupid witches’. You just sigh and look at Elijah pointedly

“You can’t keep running head first into ever fight that Nik picks so you can save him, it’s not safe” you tell him as you brush his hair out of his face to clean the small scratches surrounding his eyes.

“I know my love, he’s my brother, I simply can’t let him get himself in trouble, I made a vow to my mother to always protect him and it is what I plan to do as long as I’m alive, alongside you of course” you can’t help but smile at his loyalty to his family, you know it hasn’t been easy for him and Nik to gain back their mutual trust of one another especially after decades of daggers and heartbreak however for the most part they seem to have moved past all of that.

“I love you Eli, I can’t stand to see you hurt” He can feel your worry and although he and you both know he will continue to put himself in harms way to save Nik he hugs you and mumbles affirmations that he will try harder and be safer when he travels with Nik. You can’t ask for much more and you know that so as you both make your way to Freya’s room so that she can heal Eli’s wounds you squeeze his hand as a reminder he’s okay and Freya will most likely know how to heal him.

After the quick visit of Freya healing his wounds and researching about the kind of magic used by the witches that was somehow strong enough to hurt an original you both lay in you shared room.

“Do you ever wonder what it would be like if we were never turned?” You turn to him in confusion, you had been one of the first vampires that Elijah had turned after his mother had used to spell however even after decades of being together you always thought that you were both content with how life was. “Sometimes, but I am quite happy with how we are right now…Are you not?” You admit and question almost insecurely.

As if Elijah has read your thoughts he backtracks “No no no, my love I just meant that I would have wished for us to have a family of our own, little children for us to take care of and I am sorry that I can’t give that to you” you feel tears welling up at the thought of what your life could have been. You grasp Elijah’s face in your hands and assure him that you are perfectly happy with how things have played out.

“Even if you hadn’t turned me with you Elijah I would have been heartbroken to see you outlive me, you have been my rock and compass our entire lives, seeing you daggered by Niklaus only ever brought great heartache to me, so please don’t think for a moment that this life has not been more than enough, I will always choose you over and over again my love” You can feel his smile as you rest your head on his chest.

“Do you remember the 20’s? Where we had gone to that jazz club with Niklaus? We had just changed our names and anytime someone spoke to us we would make up elaborate stories of where we came from, we spent the entire night dancing and once we got home you told me that you loved me and that you wish we could have had that life-“

“You proposed to me that night and promised you would show me the world”

“I plan to keep that promise everyday we have each other”

“I love you Elijah Mikaelson”

“I love you more Y/N Y/L/N”

#elijah mikaelson x reader #elijah x reader #elijah mikaelson #niklaus mikaelson #the orginals #juliwrites

[sophiiwrites]

sliced watermelon ft. lee haechan

“a police officer's job is never easy. it's unpredictable, with lots of twists and turns."

word count: 4.4k

genre/archetypes: fluff, comedy, angst, mystery, gets pretty dark at the end, includes mentions of serial killers, from a fluff story to a dark, murder story (butttt it does have a little bit of romance!)

synopsis: when the very incredibly annoying pain in the butt madam jung asks you to watch her watermelons, you grudgingly accept. however, soon, there is a twist that no one expects to come.

notes: well so originally this was going to be a cute fun lovey story but i really wanted to include a dark twist: so i did and here it is! it’s kind of weird, and this is my first time writing fanfiction so yes, it’s going to be pretty awkward. the romance could probably have been a little more fleshed out. 

warnings/potential triggers: mentions of murder, mentions of guns, mentions of weapons, VIOLENCE!! serial killer involved story (one of the characters is the target of a serial killer, reader and haechan are protecting victim of serial killer)

Being an officer in a small town was not always the best of jobs. In fact, it was possibly one of the worst.

When the government had offered police training options to the masses, you had signed up. You were in need of a job, and you thought police work could be your ticket out. Of course, you wanted to help the country and everything, but you would be lying if you said the pay wasn’t a reason.

Sure, life was nice in this peaceful town, and you had a source of entertainment (see: Officer Lee Haechan, obviously) but you were constantly tired from dealing with petty squabbles and theft. With long shifts and low numbers, you had been reduced to talking to Officer Haechan, the only other officer who was your age. Everyone else was above sixty years old and in need of retirement. Sometimes you wondered if they were even qualified.

But this took the cake. 

“Let me get this straight. You want us to stakeout your watermelons for a week because you think someone’s coming to steal them? You don’t even have a suspect!”

You looked at the older woman sitting across from you. It was easy to dismiss her as someone who wasn’t very bright. But the eyes of Madam Jung scared everyone in the precinct: they were blue, sharp, and piercing. Madam Jung tried to convince everyone she had been born with blue eyes, but everyone knew she just put colored contacts in to scare the visitors.

“I am not joking around with you, young lady,” Madam Jung said condescendingly. “This is a real threat. Someone is coming to steal my prized watermelons! My precious babies! My very own melons!”

You successfully muffled your snickers, but the person behind her didn’t. Madam Jung’s head moved at lightning speed, staring coldly into the person’s eyes behind you.

“Is there… something funny?”

“No, no! Just laughing at, um, the bulletin board behind you! Oh, it’s incredibly funny,” replied Officer Haechan. 

You and Madam Jung looked at the bulletin board. It was full of murder pictures from a serial killer case that the headquarters in Seoul was investigating. There were talks of the serial killer coming to the small town you served at, but it hadn't happened yet, and you decided not to think of it. You turned back and looked at Haechan, trying to muffle his laughter. 

“Wow, that bulletin board is incredibly funny,” you deadpanned, rolling your eyes. 

Madam Jung rolled her eyes as well. “I hope you will not let this idiotic officer take my case. In fact…”

“What is it?” You replied, trying to stay on task. Haechan was still giggling behind her.

“Would you be willing to take it on? Officer Haechan clearly cannot handle these kinds of serious tasks,” Madam Jung asked. “I would be so happy if you did. Of course, I understand if you’re busy…” Madam Jung trailed off, looking pointedly at you.

“Fine, I’ll do it,” you sighed.

“Thank you so much,” Madam Jung smiled, clasping your hand. She stood up, glared at Haechan one final time, and strutted out of the room.

you spun around in her chair to glare at Haechan. 

“How is this funny? You just got me stuck with one of Madam Jung’s impossible cases! She’s never satisfied!”

“This is pretty funny… to me! Good luck,” Haechan snickered. “Madam Jung’s going to wring you out so bad. Maybe you’ll finally grow a few inches more and actually be able to look me in the eye.”

“I literally can look you in the eye! You’re not that tall.”

“Sure,” Haechan smirked as he walked away.

“Oh, no. You don’t deserve to walk away,” you spit out as you pulled Haechan by his sleeve. “You’re going to go on this stakeout with me. I know for a fact you don’t have any open cases and you’ve just been sitting at your computer playing Tetris.”

“No fair!” Haechan complained as you dragged him out the door.

Even if Madam Jung’s cases were ridiculous, you still had a duty to the people, and so you were sitting with Haechan outside her yard. You could see the watermelons from where you were, and your mouth started to water. There was a reason Madam Jung was known across the town for her watermelons.

“Feeling hungry?” Haechan asked.

You nodded. 

Haechan took out a bag of shrimp crackers and started to chomp on them obnoxiously. You rolled your eyes.

“As if I would accept your stupid shrimp crackers anyways. Who do you think I am?” You averted your eyes, trying not to focus on the delicious smell wafting from the bag.

“You know you want some!” Haechan trilled, waving the bag in front of your face. “Delicious shrimp crackers… super delicious shrimp crackers…”

You closed your eyes and pinched your nose.

“I refuse to let you distract me from this very important job. Come on, focus! If those watermelons actually get stolen, Madam Jung’s going to have us fired.”

Haechan rolled his eyes.

“Like there’s actually someone gunning for her watermelons. We all know she’s constantly lying…” Haechan trailed off as he noticed Madam Jung. She had just gotten out of her car, and had clearly heard every word Haechan said. His face turned bright red, and you cackled.

“That’s karma for you!” 

While Haechan apologized furiously to Madam Jung’s cold stare, you focused on the rows of green watermelons in Madam Jung’s front yard. As you stared at them, you noticed something strange. 

In front of the rows of watermelons, there was a small dark object with a weird cover on it.

You looked towards Haechan, who was still apologizing fervently as Madam Jung walked up the stairwell. As Haechan apologized for the umpteenth time, Madam Jung rolled her eyes and closed the door. 

You motioned for Haechan to walk over, and he did, his face bright red.

“Don’t say a word.” 

“No, Haechan, look.” You led him to the rows of watermelons and pointed down towards the strange object.

“Is that a camera?” Haechan asked.

You pulled the object out from the ground. It was one of those cameras attached to a stick for vlogging and selfies. The camera had been facing Madam Jung’s house. Inspecting it, you noticed the red dot was blinking. You quickly slammed your palm down on the camera and Haechan pressed the power button. 

Both of you looked at each other.

“Maybe Madam Jung wasn’t lying after all,” you mused.

Haechan frowned. You looked at him, surprised to see that the usual mischievous face had been replaced with a nervous one.

“What is it?”

“I really hope it’s not what I’m thinking it is,” Haechan replied.

“No, actually, what is it?”

“Remember that serial killer case? One of the witnesses who saw the killer running away said that the killer had been holding a camera with a stick attached to it. And the camera had a flower cover attached to it.”

You both looked down at the camera in your hands with a flower attached to it. Then you both looked up.

“Madam Jung’s in danger,” you breathed.

“We have to call the detectives in Seoul!” Haechan cried, running to his car.

“Did you reach them?” you asked. Haechan shook his head, his normally mischievous face showing anxiousness. You both knew that you weren’t prepared to take on such a huge case like this: especially without the help of the detectives, experts in the case. 

“They said they’ll be here in about two hours.”

“TWO HOURS? Are we that far from Seoul?” you replied.

“Considering that it takes us four hours to drive from here to Seoul, we’re lucky they can get here in half the time. They’re probably flashing their sirens and everything,” Haechan replied. “We should probably move Madam Jung to the police station.”

You sighed. “I don’t want to tell Madam Jung about this. She’ll be really scared.”

“I know, but realistically it’s the best decision to make. There’ll be more police officers at the station, and it’ll only be a five minute drive there.”

You nodded. 

“Okay, let’s go get Madam Jung.” Turning on your heels, you made your way to the front door. You rocked back and forth anxiously as you looked through the window. 

Finally, Madam Jung came out, clearly disheveled. She had tried to maintain appearance by frantically putting one contact in, but the absence of the other made her look incredibly strange.

“What is it?” she snapped.

“Madam Jung, we’re going to have to relocate you to the police station. This is a matter of your personal security,” you said.

“What do you mean? I’m staying here. My watermelons absolutely cannot be stolen,” Madam Jung replied.

“Madam Jung, I swear to you that you are in danger, and you matter more to me than your watermelons do. Please come with us to the police station.”

Madam Jung frowned. 

“What’s going on?”

“I’ll explain at the police station. Please.” You put on your best pleading face, ready to beg Madam Jung if you needed to.

Madam Jung stared at you for a while. Finally, she nodded.

“I’ll come with you.”

You smiled, and led her to Haechan’s car. Haechan opened the door for Madam Jung, and you both got in. Still holding the flower camera, Haechan carefully put it camera-side down on the passenger seat, then started the engine. He slowly started to back out of the driveway.

Out of the corner of your eye, you saw movement, and started to panic. 

“Haechan, drive!” you screamed. 

Haechan saw the movement and frantically stepped on the pedal. The car screeched and abruptly stopped, knocking everyone back in their seats. Madam Jung slumped to the side. Your head snapped towards her, immediately reaching out to cradle Madam Jung’s head in your hands. 

Meanwhile, Haechan was trying his best to turn onto the street, but Madam Jung’s curved driveway wasn’t letting him. Finally, Haechan decided to crash onto the grass, squishing more than one watermelon in the process. The mysterious person was running towards the car.

“Haechan, what are you waiting for? We have to go! I think Madam Jung’s lost consciousness!”

Haechan sped up, and the car peeled away from the driveway. The person slowly disappeared behind the car, and you slumped into your seat, exhausted. You looked down at Madam Jung and inspected her head. No bumps.

Madam Jung’s eyes opened suddenly and you leapt out of your seat. 

“Madam Jung! Don’t scare me ever again.”

Madam Jung rolled her eyes. 

“I’m fine, you idiot girl. Now let go of my head and tell me the truth. I’m an old lady, but I’m a stubborn and brave old lady.”

You sighed.

“Madam Jung, we believe someone’s trying to kill you. We found a camera in your yard with a flower cover on it, facing your house. A witness recently claimed that they saw a serial killer holding the same camera and running away.” 

Madam Jung’s face blanched. 

“Who is this serial killer?”

“I don’t know. I’m not on the case, and most of the information is stuff I can’t see. But I promise, you’re going to be safe. We just have to go to the hospital first.” 

“No, don’t go to the hospital. We should go to Seoul first,” Haechan said. He was still driving like a maniac. 

“What, are you crazy? Madam Jung hit her head hard!” you said. “We should be prioritizing her safety first! Besides, we have a police station.”

“No! We have to get to Seoul. We need police protection. Actual police protection, not our station with all the old people who are over sixty. We don't know how determined this killer is, and we don’t know if he’s following us or not. If he is, we have to keep driving and try to lose him,” Haechan said, while looking in the side mirror. “Stopping now would be bad.”

“Okay, first of all, our police station is the closest, and the police officers at our station are still certified! They can still protect Madam Jung!”

“Do you really believe that?” Haechan said doubtfully. “You know HQ only sends older, in need of retirement officers to small towns like ours.”

“...Okay, you have a point,” you muttered.

“I would like to go to Seoul, please. The bumbling idiots at our police station are not up to protecting me,” Madam Jung interrupted.

“Okay, we’re going to Seoul,” you said. 

“I wish we knew if the killer was following us or not,” Haechan said. “We should try to drive as far as we can. Nope, scratch that. We do know if he’s following us or not,” Haechan sighed.

“Why are you so certain it’s a he?” you asked.

“Because he’s in a car, right behind us, and he’s holding a gun,” Haechan said.

You and Madam Jung screamed. 

“Step on the brakes! We have to get to Seoul!” you shouted. “And don’t stop, either! We have to keep moving!”

“What do you think I’m doing?” Haechan yelled back. You looked out the back window. Thankfully, Haechan was on a side road with few cars. Not thankfully, the road was paved with gravel and Haechan could only go so quickly.

“We have to get to the highway and get to Seoul. Now,” you ordered. 

Haechan nodded, for once agreeing with you. He quickly turned onto a hidden side road and sped up. 

“I know this road. We can get to the highway from here, I promise,” Haechan said. You nodded, past bickering with him. Madam Jung sat to the side, eyes closed, trying to maintain her composure. You suddenly thought of a quote you had read once from a book, something about how fear made bonds stronger. Well, it was certainly true in this case. 

Haechan made a right turn, then a left, and flew up a ramp leading to the highway. You didn’t dare look back at what was happening behind you, but Haechan did.

“We lost him!” he announced. Madam Jung breathed a sigh of relief. You slumped onto the back seat, heart beating a million miles a minute.

“Do you have a way to call the officers in Seoul?” you asked. Haechan reached for his phone, tossing it at you. It was still on, and you tried to call. 

“It’s not working,” you said.

“Oh no,” Haechan replied.

“Don’t tell me something else has happened!” you cried.

“No, I just realized I forgot to pay my phone bill,” Haechan said.

“Why would you- you know what, never mind. We really should have prepared for something like this to happen. Or taken the squad car. Oh my god, there are so many things we did wrong today,” you said, sinking into despair. You wanted to cry as you took out your phone, trying desperately to call the police station in Seoul. When your call reached an automatic system, you hung up and sank further into your seat. 

Haechan looked at you in the rearview mirror. 

“Hey, it’s going to be fine. We’ve trained for this,” he said.

“Yeah, but I haven’t had to use a weapon in a long time. I’ve only ever used it on a practice range, and I don’t know if I can do it,” you replied. “We’re driving on a highway without any help, without any way to call someone, and with a serial killer on our heels.”

“You just have to focus all your energy on protecting Madam Jung. Don’t think about anything else. Just think of the next steps we have to take, and be on a lookout for the serial killer. Right now, we just have to get to Seoul, by any way possible,” Haechan stated.

“That was really reassuring, thanks.” you said, smiling weakly.

“No, I mean it! That’s how I’m keeping myself together right now,” Haechan said. “We have to keep it together.”

You nodded, and looked at Madam Jung. In shock, you noticed that she was crying too. Her bravado was all gone, replaced by horror and fear.

“Madam Jung, don’t worry. We are all going to get out of this, safe and sound and alive and breathing air and we’re going to eat all of your watermelons. All of them,” you reassured, patting Madam Jung’s back.

Madam Jung started to cry harder.

“I don’t want to die,” she blubbered.

“Madam Jung! Right now, we have to focus on getting to Seoul. And we have to all focus on that. Not our fear, not our terror, but this. We just have to get there, and we can do it,” Haechan said. He looked at you in the mirror, giving you a reassuring smile. 

Madam Jung nodded weakly. You knew she was still scared, but there was a hint of determination in her eyes. Inspired by Madam Jung, you nodded as well. 

“We should take the highway until we get close to Seoul, then take the side roads. If there’s cars in between us and the killer, it’ll be harder for him to get to us,” you said. Haechan nodded, and the mood of the car settled into a determined one. Of course, there was still fear, but right now, there was only one thing on everyone’s minds.

Getting away from the killer, and getting to Seoul. 

The tall buildings and skyscrapers of Seoul were a tremendous comfort to your eyes. As directed, Haechan had used the highways to get close to Seoul, then abandoned the highway once it was clear the traffic was hindering the car’s speed. Now, you were on a side road heading towards the police headquarters.

Still, adrenaline was pumping through your veins, and you couldn’t figure out why the killer hadn’t followed you yet. But you didn’t want to think about it. Right now, you were focused on getting Madam Jung to the police headquarters in Seoul.

Haechan’s eyes were droopy but he was pulling through. With Madam Jung’s head on your lap (probably worn out from all the action), the scene felt almost like a comforting one. But you knew otherwise. And with every second that passed, you worried more and more. For it was only a matter of time until the serial killer came. You knew that this killer, whoever he was, was one of the more determined ones. The ones who didn’t stop until they had reached their target.

“Haechan?”

“What?”

“Do you think the serial killer is following us as we speak?”

Haechan shook his head.

“Come on, let’s try not to think about that. It’s just going to scare us.” 

“But seriously, I’m not joking. We have guns, and we have weapons. We have to think of a way to fight back if something happens.”

Silence met your ears, and you looked at Haechan. You could hear something spluttering, and the car rolled to a stop. 

“Haechan?”

“Oh no.”

“What happened? Haechan? What happened?”

A puff of air came from the engine, and Haechan’s hands fell off the steering wheel. 

“The engine’s broken,” Haechan muttered. “The stupid fu-”

“No! No, no no no no. Haechan, tell me you can fix an engine. Tell me now. Please.”

Haechan shook his head. “I’ve been pushing it, to be honest. My car’s not that great, and I’ve been going at the highest speed possible for a while now.”

“No! No, please. The killer- we don’t freaking know where the killer is. We don’t. Freaking. Know. Where. The killer. Is. I refuse to give up in the middle of a small road leading to Seoul. I refuse.”

Haechan slumped down in his seat. 

“What can we do?” 

“Well, the killer’s not here yet. We can-”

Just then, you heard, in the distance, the sound of a car approaching. 

“Ohhhhhhh no,” you groaned.

“We have to do something,” Haechan stammered out, looking at you. You nodded. 

“We have to do it for Madam Jung.”

Making sure your weapon was ready, you looked at Madam Jung’s sleeping face, and carefully put it on the car seat. You got out of the car with Haechan and stood facing the road. Haechan’s hand found yours, and in your state of horror, you took it. Both of you stared down the road at the approaching car.

Time seemed to slow down as you watched the car make its way towards the two of you. Haechan held your hand perfectly: not too tightly and not too loosely. A sudden thought hit you: Haechan would make a lovely friend. He was someone you could banter with but still someone who you could lean on.

You admonished yourself. It was not the time to think of these things. But standing there, with Haechan by your side, gave you all the confidence you needed to face whoever was hunting Madam Jung. 

You steeled yourself, wiping your tears. Haechan did so too.

The car stopped, and a man got out, holding his weapon at his side. You closed your eyes. Haechan gulped. You both took your weapons out.

“Police! Hands on your head!” Haechan yelled.

The person smirked, and raised his hands in the air, his weapon hanging on his thumb by the trigger. Your hands started to shake. You whimpered and almost fell down, but locked your knees. Haechan tried to put on a menacing glare. He would have succeeded if there weren’t traces of tears near his eyes.

“Get down, hands on your head.” Haechan reiterated.

The person smiled. 

“You can’t stop me,” he said as he pointed his gun at the both of you and moved to fire. You fired your weapon quickly. The man in front of you fell down,  reeling from the impact, but Haechan fell down as well.

“Haechan!” you shrieked. 

Haechan shook his head. “You have to go! Go! Get the person’s weapon!”

You ran quickly to the person on the ground. You frisked the person, throwing his weapon to the side, and cautiously moved to feel his pulse. The man’s eyes shot open, and he grabbed your wrist, pulling you to him. You fought it, firing your weapon into the killer’s side. He ignored it and stood up, wrestling your weapon away from your hands. You felt something being shoved into your side and started to cry. The fear had gotten the best of you. 

Haechan had just gotten up. He groaned, holding his hands to his shoulder, and froze as he saw the situation in front of him. There you were, being held by the serial killer, weapon pointed at your side. 

“Bring the old woman to me,” the killer said.

Haechan shook his head. 

“Please, don’t do this,” you blubbered, shaking in the killer’s grasp. All your training had flown out the window. You were too scared to do anything except cry. The killer held you even tighter, digging the weapon into your side. 

“Don’t do it, Haechan!” you screamed.

“Give her to me,” the killer repeated.

Haechan closed his eyes, thinking hard. You shook your head no.

The killer screamed, frustrated. 

“Give her to me, now!”

Haechan sighed, and moved to the car. He motioned something with his hands, a signal of sorts, but you couldn’t understand it. He opened the door slowly, and as he did, the killer relaxed, loosening his grip on you.

You realized you had an opening. Haechan locked eyes with you, nodding slightly. Only your fear and adrenaline were keeping you up right now. You quickly stamped down on the killer’s foot, and shifted away from him. The killer howled in pain, shooting his gun. It hit you in the side, and you doubled over, pain racketing through your body. The killer moved to fire again, and you fell onto the ground, rolling, trying to get away as fast as possible. 

Haechan acted quickly, firing his weapon.

The man fell to the ground, dead. 

You looked up at Haechan. Haechan ran to you, helping you get up and keeping pressure on your side. You started to cry, and Haechan sobbed too. You could hear Madam Jung’s cries as she got out of the car. Faint sounds of sirens hit your ears. You knew someone was coming, but you were too tired to care.

After the police arrived, they had sent all three of you to the hospital immediately. In the first two days of your stay, you slept, too tired and in pain to care about what was happening around you. 

Madam Jung, thankfully, was all right physically. Mentally, she hadn’t been doing well, so the doctors decided to keep her in the hospital. You frequently went for walks with Madam Jung around the courtyard, admiring the flowers and the various butterflies. It felt good to be alive and stress-free. 

Haechan’s shoulder was doing better. His bone had been shattered, so the doctors had also decided to keep him here in the hospital. You and Haechan had spent most of your time together, eating lunch in one of your rooms or watching anything that was on TV. It was nice. You realized that you hadn’t ever really gotten to know Haechan at work, and the time you spent together strengthened your friendship. Possibly even into something more. Of course, after two people save each other’s lives, bonds are changed forever.

One day, Haechan leads you into the courtyard to celebrate your birthday. Madam Jung brings a cake and a few slices of watermelon, which you all laugh at. The watermelon was indeed the best thing you had ever had. 

“I heard the police chief wants to give you two medals of honor,” Madam Jung said, setting down her slice of watermelon. 

“Really?” Haechan asked, looking at you. You smiled.

“We should celebrate after, and eat more watermelon. Madam Jung, you have to tell me your secrets!” you exclaimed. 

Madam Jung smiled.

“After what you two have done for me, I would do anything for you,” she replied. You shook your head.

“It was something that we needed to do. It’s part of our job,” Haechan replied. “But then again, I’d never say no to a medal of honor.”

You laughed. 

After Madam Jung left, you and Haechan sat for a while in the courtyard in comfortable silence. Slowly, Haechan reached for your hand, and you let him. The sunset was beautiful, and everything felt right within the world.

#haechan fic #haechan scenarios #haechan #donghyuck #lee donghyuck #lee haechan #haechan x reader #haechan x y/n #donghyuck x reader #donghyuck x y/n #nct #nct dream #police officer #police story #lee haechan x reader #lee donghyuck x reader #fiction #fanfiction #nct fanfic #nct fanfiction #nct imagines #sophiiwrites

[kitthepurplepotato]

Chapter 13 - You are my Number One.

Summary: Katsuki is more freaked out about Y/N’s appointment than Y/N herself.

Warning: Swear words, nothing too cheeky this time!

First Chapter Master List

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It’s 5AM in the fucking morning but Katsuki is already freaking out.

He’s not worried. He has no reason to be; he’s not a fucking doctor but he knows there is no way Y/N’s appointment will bear anything but good news; she’s healthy and full of energy, her movements are back to normal even without the meds, so really, there is no reason for him to be a big ball of anxiety right now.

No reason.

But… he still can’t stop spiraling about the ‘what if’s.

What if she only looks fine and after a few tests the doctor decides to put her back on the meds? His woman is strong, the strongest person in the world but she would break down to hear that after all the work she’s done to get better.

What if the doctor tells him to wait another year before she goes back to actual hero work? Again, she would loose her shit. She would probably burn the whole hospital down out of frustration. Katsuki is not a big fan of rescue missions and it’s also way too fucking early for that shit. He does miss the adrenaline of being on the field but he definitely does not miss the smell of burnt flesh and he might be the number two hero, but he definitely can’t save more than 3000 people in one go, especially as at least half of them are disabled and incapable of running.

“Woman.” Katsuki shakes his still sleeping girlfriend with a manic face. “Whatever happens today you can NOT burn the hospital down.” He yells with a serious face but his woman only snorts at him.

“The fuck, Katsuki?” She laughs and oh god, he absolutely fucking loves her sleepy little laugh. “Why are you the one freaking out? You look I just went into labor.” Honestly, Katsuki wishes that was the case. Even though, now that he said that, Y/N would probably burn the hospital down due to her frustration from being in so much pain for so long. Okay, no kids for Katsuki then. It’s a small sacrifice for the greater good. “What the fuck are you muttering about?” She giggles at him so Katsuki decides to change the topic by pushing a big cup of coffee into his girlfriend’s hands. It works every time. Nothing is more important than a morning coffee. Not even mass murder. Good.

Katsuki feels like he’s about to throw up. His face must be really pale as the Menace looks at him with worry etched into her features.

“We need to leave in twenty minutes, hurry up.” Katsuki makes a hard turn and stomps towards his dresser to find something normal. What do people wear to hospitals at all? His usual attire in a hospital usually consist of a hero suit soaked through with his own blood. Or ridiculously oversized trousers and a hoodie three times the size of him topped up with a cap and a face mask or at least that’s what he used to wear when he was forced to go to therapy.

This time, Katsuki wants to look… well… proper. He’s not going there alone, he’s going with his partner, his future wife (probably?!), the woman he’s so fucking proud of; he wants her to be proud of him too. It’s stupid, he knows, but somehow, it feels like this is important; this is the first time they attend an important appointment together. This is the first time he’s going to be seen as Y/N’s boyfriend. Katsuki feels like he’s about meet her parents or some shit.

“You don’t need to come with me, I’ll be fine alone.” She mutters, but that’s the last thing Katsuki wants to do.

“Do I fucking look like I’m capable of sitting on my ass right now, you idiot?” Katsuki lashes out. “I want to be there, I want to hold your hand and shit. I want to… fuck, I want to be there with you. I want to share the burden. You see, I’m already freaking out so you don’t have to. You can just giggle and be fucking adorable while I shit my pants. I’m perfectly fine with that.”

“Katsuki, you don’t make any sense but… thank you?” She giggles again and Katsuki swears he would be able to survive without water and food and get his nutrients from Y/N’s laughter instead. He’s so fucking fucked, isn’t he?

“Put some clothes on and let’s go.” Katsuki takes a plain black T-shirt and some tight jeans out of his dresser and makes a beeline to the bathroom. “If you don’t have proper clothing on by the time I come back you are going to the hospital in your pajamas.” Katsuki threatens but it doesn’t have an edge.

“Roger that, boss!” Y/N salutes before Katsuki slams the bedroom door aggressively.

~•💥•~

“Keep your eyes on the road, Kats, I won’t disappear.” You smile at your boyfriend who’s absolutely freaking the shit out right now, for no reason at all. It’s a little bit endearing.

You always knew he cares so much more than he’s willing to admit; he’s secretly a big softie for all his friends, even though he does nothing but yell at them all the time, but this is the first time Katsuki feels safe enough to actually show his affectionate side to anyone else and it makes you so fucking proud to be on the receptive side of it even if it’s a tiny bit annoying.

You don’t want to know how has Katsuki felt when you were gone for a day of this is how he reacts to a doctor’s appointment. Maybe you should thank Todoroki and Midoriya for keeping him alive while you were away back then.

“Technically…” Katsuki is about to give you shit and go all nerd on you, but you don’t let him finish.

“Technically, I can disappear, yes, but it doesn’t matter if you stare at me or not, I can literally do that anyway.” You retort scoldingly.

“Sorry, I’m just really fucking worried.” Katsuki sighs, his eyes finally back on the road. You sigh and move your your hand to caress the blond’s thigh, drawing soothing circles on his jeans to calm him down.

“You have no reason to be. It’s over, Katsuki. I’m over it and I know I won this fight, I just need a stupid paper from the doctor that makes it official. I trust my gut and my gut tells me I’m good. Don’t you trust me, KitKat?”

Katsuki visibly shakes at the new nickname you just gave him; thank god you two were waiting for the light to turn green, otherwise he would’ve caused an accident by stepping on the brake so suddenly.

“What’s with you and your stupid nicknames?” Katsuki mutters with the most adorable pout on his flushed little face.

“I can’t help it, you are so fucking cute.” You giggle and Katsuki is about to explode out of embarrassment when a loud honk coming from behind startles you both; the light turned green and you didn’t realize. Oh fuck.

“You are insufferable.” Katsuki mutters in front of himself and the rest of the ride is silent. You know your boyfriend well enough to know that nothing will calm him down right now anyway, so you just let him mutter to himself for the rest of the journey.

For your surprise, Katsuki intertwines his fingers with yours right when you stand by his side after the ride. His hold is downright painful, but you decide to not speak up about it; Katsuki clearly needs this right now and seeing him so stressed about something that doesn’t even affect him in any way makes you realize how important you are for him. Bakugou Katsuki can’t seem to stop surprising you these days, in a good way.

“Hello.” Katsuki mutters at the entrance; it looks like it literally pains him to be nice to someone else for once, but he does it anyway. Why? You have no fucking idea. Katsuki looks at the amused lady at the front desk with a constipated face. “Appointment. For Y/N.” Katsuki mutters again, his face red as a tomato. You don’t have the heart to tell him that he doesn’t need to do this at all as everyone knows your face by now.

“End of the hallway, right side, 235. Good luck!” The lady gives you a thumbs up and you can barely smile back as Katsuki is already pulling you towards the fore-mentioned door. He knock three times aggressively and the door opens; the nurse’s face pales at the sight of the number two hero towering against her at 6AM in the fucking morning.

“Ahh, Y/N! Come on in, your guest can wait in the waiting room until we finish!” The nurse gives Katsuki a forced smile, already knowing there’s gonna be drama.

“I’m not a fucking guest, I’m her boyfriend! I took care of her fucking ass this whole week! I should be allowed to come in!” Katsuki almost yells at the poor nurse, but his voice gets quieter as he finishes his sentence. Fuck, he’s trying so hard.

“Sir, I understand but we need your girlfriend’s full attention. We need to do some tests as well today. Please, take a seat outside.” She points at the bench on the hallway. “Would you like some tea, or some coffee? We have some pastries as well if you are hungry!”

Wow, you do get a different treatment when you are the number two hero in the country.

“Do I look like I need caffeine, woman?” Katsuki mutters under his nose, his hands still in yours. “Just fucking… go…” the blond mutters, slowly letting you free from his grasp.

“I’ll be fine. I love you.” You hug your boyfriend tightly, hoping he can feel how grateful you are for everything. The nurse steps back into the office and leaves the door open for you to come in when you are ready. You didn’t miss the tiny fond smile on her face as she left.

“You are invincible. Whatever fucking happens today… you are… you are my number one.” Katsuki’s head is about to explode. Your heart skips a beat.

“I’m the luckiest fucking bitch to walk this Earth. Fuck, Katsuki.” You can’t stop yourself from jumping on him and kissing him fiercely in the middle of the thankfully empty hallway like your life depends on it. It takes him a few seconds to reciprocate but when he does it gets even harder to let him go; he kisses you with the same fervor, his touches hot and full of desire. He pulls away rather abruptly, takes a few deep breaths then he finally speaks up:

“Go before I devour you in the middle of this stupid hallway that smells like cheap bleach.”

“I’ll be out before you know it.” You smile and leave a last, lingering kiss on the blond’s lips before you close the door on his cute, anxious face. You’ve never been into the whole marriage thing but you kinda want to elope with him right here, right now.

“Let’s get this over with.” You sigh as you sit down in front of your doctor, who can’t hide his amused face as he takes in your red lips and disheveled hair.

“I really want to tell you off for coming to my office looking like that but I’m actually quite impressed. So who’s the lucky guy?” The doctor smirks at you; your cheeks flush, making you look like a ripe tomato but he only laughs at that.

“See it for yourself after we are done here, sir.”

This is it. This is fucking it.

Oh shit, you haven’t been anxious at all before but now it kicks you in the face as you take in your doctors office, the white walls and all the equipment he’s about to use on you.

“Whatever happens, you are my number one.” Katsuki’s words play in your head like a mantra as your body slowly lets go of all the tension that suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

It doesn’t matter what the doctor says; it might sound super cheesy but even if you can never be a hero again, having Katsuki by your side, saving people for the both of you is more than enough for you.

So this is what people call “love”. It’s so powerful it changes even the strongest, most determined people.

You can’t help but giggle to yourself from your own silly thoughts.

You really are the luckiest person in the world, aren’t you?

… Next chapter!

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Potato ramble:

- This story is about end in a few chapters. I gave this a lot of thought and I realized I don’t need to write down every single idea I had for this one otherwise this story will never end and I have so many other stories in my head I want to share with you all, so I made the executive decision to try to finish this in 5 chapters (you guys know me though, that will be 10 lol).

- My plan is to finish this one, take a bit of a break and continue posting only the Deku one for a few weeks then come back with the Kirishima spin-off and then later with a new Katsuki x Reader series. I already have a few chapters ready for both but I’m trying to aim for having almost the whole thing written out before I start posting to not overwhelm myself but I might change my mind about that as I really enjoy to hear your thoughts and add some things you want to see and I absolutely love to listen to your feedback and make the next chapters more enjoyable. It’s hard to be an adult, I just wanna write and read your comments 24/7 😂

- Ah, also! I got over excited and I already have edited the header for the Kirishima spin-off! I hope you like it!

Yes, there is a typo in it, I’ll sort that out later shut up 😂

- I hope you guys had a lovely week and sorry for being so late; I got some bad news from the doctors and it messed up my head a little bit, I also did several extremely early shifts in a row and was dead tired in the afternoon so I had a hard time writing this week. Next week will be even worse so yeah… sorry in advance 😂

TL: @sixxze @iwannahaveaprettyaesthetic @hanatsuki-hime @cloroxisadelectabletreat @cheesenmax @coffeent @smolsleepybat @therealpotatobish @qardasngan @canarystwin @unofficialmuilover @nanamomo1 @mikestuffffs @p4ndawrites @yao-ai

#bnha x reader #mha x reader #bakugou katsuki x reader #bakugou x reader #bakugo katsuki x reader #bakugou x self insert #bakugo x you #shenanigansbypurplepotato #bakugo x reader #bakugou katsuki

[tumblingxelian]

I saw a post earlier today that really kinda got my goat so to speak so I wanted to re-post my take without starting shit on tumblr dot com.

I categorically disagree with the idea that Adam was ever planned to be the main leader of the White Fang pre coup.

We meet Adam leading what was suppose to be a resource acquisition mission that he turned into an attempted mass murder for shits and giggles because he is a blood thirsty idiot.

Not only is that incredibly wastefully and politically stupid of him, it is also not reflective of what Blake described the White Fang's methodology as during Volumes 1. IE the methods that actually were working and were introduce by said new leader which Adam was blatantly ignoring.

It also makes clear his relationship with Blake is awful given the manipulation, the lies, the dismissal and using her as a shield, and maniacal cackling ETC.

The second time we see Adam its in volume 2 right after its revealed that a ton of Faunus died because of Cinder's plan and Mercury wonders if they will still obey. Adam arrives and promising to continue throwing his people's lives away for Cinder. Making it quite clear where Adam stands on the subject while showing the White Fang itself lacks any loyalty to Cinder.

Before V3 we have two possible mentions, one being the silhouettes in V1, one of which could be argued to represent Adam, but also contained two other people. & the masks reference which, if Adam was the leader, you'd think Blake would just say it was an idea their leader came up with. The fact she didn't should make it clear to any viewer that Adam was just popular, but not in charge.

Going into V3, we already know he's fine throwing Faunus lives away for Cinder, so anything he says when rejecting Cinder needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Yeah Adam wasn't just gonna work with some random human cos he doesn't like humans and his people are watching so his behavior is performative. Cinder leaves, then returns and makes it clear she can kill him if he doesn't obey and he instantly bows because, shock and horror the manipulative abuser is not actually all that brave when its 'his' ass on the line, setting the stage for what we already know happens by V2.

Adam was never meant to be the leader, Adam was never a genuine revolutionary, Adam was always an abusive cowardly liar and manipulator seeking power and appeasement for himself.

Losing Sienna was a tragedy and genuinely a huge mistake on the writers part and Ghira taking over again is in no way ideal, but Adam is not some tragic loss. He's one of a dime a dozen would be revolutionaries who only care about the 'revolution' for their own ends. Any passing glance at historical revolutions and rebel movements will show people like him.

One can criticize the White Fang plotline without needing to big up someone like Adam; just like one can endorse revolutionaries without advocating for war crimes. Discuss Sienna and how she could have been introduced earlier or avoid her demise. Bring up how Ilia's arc could have potentially led her to being the one leading a revitalized White Fang. Or how Blake herself could potentially have taken the reigns more overtly, as challenging as that might be to portray given the overall plot line.

There's plenty of ways to emphasize the new generation, and tackling bigotry head on without raising Adam as a viable candidate and especially without engaging in historical revisionism as to his slated role in the series proper.

#RWBY #Adam Taurus #the white fang #Sienna Khan #Sienna 'The Hero Queen' Khan #Faunus #ilia amitola #blake belladonna #White Fang

[kotias]

An Arrangement in Black (part 5) - angst war contribution

@daneecastle @gleafer @vavoom-sorted-art @lauramoon1987 @gahellhimself-blog @goodomensafterdark

Beginning - Part 4 - Part 6

Word count: 496 words

Trigger warnings: death, blood, mass murder

An idiot somewhere, probably down in Hell, had told him that forgiveness was exactly like death: a lot of screaming, and then silence. On that exact day, he could see that damned soul’s point, or at least part of it.

Dum.

Forgiveness was exactly like death, as it contained a lot of whining, begging and crying. But most of all, it was a lot of running until you dropped. He saw them all, one after the other, crying until that last breath stealing them away from the embrace of Life. One after the other, like flocks of poisoned birds, they fell to the ground, leaving the liquid contents of their bodies to expand between them until they covered the ground of the entire village and the spears and swords and knives and pitchforks of the self-righteous militia who raided them.

Dum.

Chained by his obligations, kept still by the vision, he bore witness to the hair waving with the movements of the cold tempest, red like the soil of the village and to the smile She gave before trotting away on Her auburn horse.

Dum.

He let out a defeated, ragged sigh. Yes, it most definitely felt like an end of times scenario, pushed forward several centuries. The village had died to freezing silence, as the militia’s crimson steps were trailing the path back to their outposts.

Dum.

“You’re late.”

Wrapped in a cloak dark like the ashes of Pompeii and light like a nighttime drizzle, Death had appeared by his side, mounted on Their skeletal horse. “That is more a show of the quality of your work than one of my failings.” Crowley remained silent, and the ancient being turned Their hollow head towards him. “Think of this assignment as a way to set the times back onto the right track. Their bodies might have come to an end, but their souls shall return to the Earth one day.”

Dum.

Forgiveness is exactly like death.

His chest was cold like the families carpeting the ground of the village, his heart barely dared make a beat. Death marched on, each of Their steed’s steps echoing into the silence left behind the Forgiven. Crowley watched from behind as Their cloak drew out until it shrouded the hamlet in a thin haze, covering all that shall not be seen.

“As always, Crowley,” Death whispered with the weight of a hundred voices, “I am confounded by your proficiency, when your aversion to the act is so palpable.”

“Well,” Crowley sighed, “the choice isn’t really mine to make, is it?”

“Dear boy.” Their voice tremoured into his chest, wrapped his arms and legs in an icy mantle. “Only one’s own death is inevitable. The Living hang onto that one certitude to walk free through the blink of their existences.”

Crowley was gently released from Their embrace as they turned away and left the village, the sound of hollow hooves ringing into the walls of the church as They passed it.

#good omens #crowley #aziraphale #angst war #GOAD

[morganski-19]

I Don't Know Which Way's Home

Chapter 17: Repair

ao3 link, Part 1, Part 16

March 1986

The news has been replaying the same story all day. It should be shocking, sort of is, but Julie’s kind of numb to it at this point. Each year, like clockwork, something big happens. Something this small town hasn’t faced in decades. A kid missing, turned up dead, just to be found alive again. A government laboratory had a gas leak that caused the death of many more people. The mall catches on fire causing a mass casualty. Now this.

She was awoken by sirens this morning. Ruined what was supposed to be a day where she slept till noon. It was spring break; she was allowed to be lazy. But instead, the spring break was wrapped up by police tape. The cause of a whole new type of stress.

Beloved student of Hawkins High School, Crissy Cunningham, found dead in the Munson’s trailer. Eddie Munson, the prime suspect, still at large. The body, found by Wayne Munson, a hard-working man of the community, is disfigured beyond belief. The police don’t have enough evidence to make a statement. But are advising the public to be aware and alert the police of any suspicious behavior.

Julie doesn’t know Eddie that well. They’ve only been neighbors, acquaintances. Sure, he drove her to school a few times. Made sure that she got there safely and was an ear when she needed to rant. But that didn’t make them friends. That didn’t make them close.

It didn’t take an idiot to see that Eddie wasn’t as big as scary as he was chalked up to see. Unfortunately, this town was full of idiots. Ready to point their fingers to the person the papers blame. Since they were already so influenced that metal music was from the devil and all dungeons and dragon’s players were Satan worshippers. It only took one headline for them to believe that. What’s stopping them from believing it now?

The evidence is damning. Wayne worked last night so it can’t be him. Multiple witnesses saw Chrissy leave with Eddie after the game last night. He is a known drug dealer, which most people would say is a step away from murder. His van was heard by the entire trailer park at both their entrance and his exit.

But there was one thing that Julie’s not sure anyone really heard. His screams.

Trailer parks are a hive for nosy neighbors fueled by the powers of thin walls. Lots of open air for noise to travel. It was nice outside last night, so Julie sat out on their little porch with a book. Peacefully reading.

Until Eddie pulled up with music blaring out the windows. Slamming on the breaks before he crashes straight into his own trailer. Right before the queen herself gets out of the car and walks right through his front door.

Julie says she’s better than gossip, but this she just had to know. Had to witness. Two people who never interact, going into an empty trailer. A recipe for disaster.

And disaster it was. Not long after, Julie can hear some yelling from the trailer. Something about waking up. Chrissy not being able to hear Eddie. It just increasing in volume until it devolves into a terrified scream. Then Eddie runs out of his trailer, gets into his van, and speeds away.

Julie doesn’t know a lot about how murderers act, but she can guess they don’t normally scream while killing their victims. That’s a pretty obvious sign that something’s wrong. But the police just brush her off when she tells them. The arrest has already written itself.

. . .

Present Day, April 1987

It’s been almost two full weeks since Steve and Julie moved into the new house, and Steve still feels off about it all. About taking the next step in the case. Passing the point of no return.

Steve doesn’t know what to do. It’s like he’s being backing into a corner. On the one hand, he could drop this and make himself a fool to his parents, to his friends, probably a good bit of the town. Or he can go through with it just to drag up his baggage all over again. Feel like shit all over again.

He doesn’t know what to do.

Then there’s all the other stuff. The looming piles of bills in his future, the fact that they still don’t have a couch. That Steve still doesn’t have a proper mattress. And the fridge is getting kind of empty, so he needs to go shopping soon.

These are new worries for him. Making a strict budget and making sure it’s enforced. Saying no to the kids when they want something, forcing Robin and Eddie to pay their share of the meals when they go out. Even though it was really always him ensuring he was alright paying the bill. Making small stacks of coupons and waiting deals to show up in the paper. It’s a lot.

Steve’s never been poor before. Not to say that he is now. Well, he kind of is. He has a good bit of debt because of this loan and lost a large chunk, most, of his savings to buying this house and the initial furniture. Paychecks are split between bills, food, Julie, savings, and then him. He’s the last on his list of priorities.

It’s all bringing up more issues, as if it already wasn’t enough. He’s always been the friend that picks up everyone’s tab. Pays for the check, the parties, the supplies, the fancy gifts. It’s all been from his money. His dad’s money. Which he doesn’t have anymore.

He knows it’s stupid to think that the friends he has now would care about that. Just because his old friends definitely would have. But these guys, they care more about the money. About the name. What Steve can give them.

Sometimes, it just doesn’t feel like it.

Steve’s always been a giver. It felt wrong to keep what he had just to himself. He never took, just gave. What would he be when there was nothing left to give?

Julie shuts the door just a hair away from a slam when she gets home. Giving her bedroom door a harsher treatment. It squeaks all the way shut. He’s been meaning to fix that, hasn’t gotten around to it yet.

She’s been like this ever since they moved. Her demeanor shifting almost immediately. At first, he chalked it up to the stress, having a new place that didn’t feel right. The change uncomfortably itching beneath the skin.

But after a week went by and it was the same thing every day, he knew something was up.

He walks over to her door, knocking lightly.

“What,” Julie yells through the door.

Steve’s taken aback. “How was school?” he asks calmly. 

She whips the door open. “Fine,” she huffs. “That all?”

“You ok?” he asks as if the question didn’t answer itself already.

“Yeah,” Julie rolls her eyes. “I’m fine.”

Steve crosses his arms. “You sure? Cause to me it seems like you’re upset about something. You know you can talk to me about this stuff.”

“Whatever.” Julie slams the door in his face.

It takes all Steve has to not rip the door open and give a whole lecture on how rude that was. To restrain himself from stepping into old shoes. To react differently than his father would have. Come back when the moment dies down and the anger stops bubbling. To be better. To be him.

Whatever he is at the moment.   

. . .

Julie tears another piece of paper out of her notebook. Crumpling it in her hands and throwing it across the room, watching it miss the trashcan. Landing next to the other balls of paper. Each one being more wrong than the last.

She should be doing homework. There’s an essay due for her English class in a few days and she hasn’t gotten around to writing it. Too busy with the move, then the adjusting. Now this. The same thoughts over and over again in her mind. All of them screaming that this can’t be happening right now.

Every time Julie thinks she can have any sort of break, another thing comes along just to punch her down again. Her mom died, then she moved, then she moved again, then she started getting better but that’s this whole other thing, then she gets kicked out, moves again. Now she has a crush on one of her best friends. What a great fucking life this is.

Julie tugs at the roots of her hair, pushing her fingers under the tightness of her braid. Hoping if she squeezes long enough, the unwanted thoughts will just leave. She’ll be able to think of a theme in the Catcher in the Rye that speaks to her enough to get five pages out of. Be able to write enough in her stupid notebook that makes sense. Get her grades back to where they were before and her life back together again.

Falling apart is a tune run dry and Julie’s tired of playing it. All she wants to do is go back to being normal. Like she was a year ago. Happy, kinda pissed at the world in different ways, but happy. Where there was something that didn’t quite make sense with the way she felt about girls, but it was easy to brush it all off. And her mom came home smelling like syrup and bacon grease instead of alcohol. Her knew sobriety chip kept proudly in the pocket of her apron. Constantly reminding her what the tips really needed to be spent on.

Life was good. It was normal. It was everything. Julie misses everything.

She misses the way the house always smelled a little stale and like mildew. The flowery candle her mom burned doing nothing to cover it up. She misses the way she would trip on the pile of shoes by the door. And how the singular hook on the wall would always drop her coat so much she started to throw it over a chair. How the kitchen would always be a little bit messy, and there would be dishes in the sink and pots on the stove. The couch that had it’s built in divot made by someone else with cushions that were squished beyond compare. Doors that fell off hinges every year or so and the sounds of the radio flowing through the walls.

All of it aches in her heart the more she moves on. The more she grows away from the place she called home. Having to keep retracing it all in her mind so she won’t forget it. Hold her mom’s sweatshirt close to her nose and pray to smell her cheap perfume again. But all that’s there is Julie. All there is left is Julie.

Julie is the only thing left of her mom other than the picture sitting on her desk. Which sucks for so many reasons she can’t find the words to explain. Mainly because looking in the mirror gets harder. Each time looking a little less like herself than the day before. Not quite knowing who she is anymore.

Reflections almost heighten to the imperfections on Julie’s face. The darkness underneath her eyes, the red dots forming on her chin and forehead. The fakeness of her smile, the way it can’t seem to reach her eyes quite right. Growing into a face that lost its childhood. Fighting to keep all she can of what’s left.

Growing up was always going to be hard. Slowly seeing herself morph away from childhood dreams and expectations. Having them crushed by the cruel realities of the world. Having memories trapped in confines of the mind that can’t seem to be open again. Becoming someone is hard in a normal life, let alone one with as many hurdles as Julie’s.

Julie can’t even begin to fathom what she would say to herself half a year ago, five years ago. How could she crush that little girl’s dreams right before her eyes. Witnessing the pain from the outside rather than the in. Tell her that there would be no princess wedding, or even one at all. That her mom wouldn’t even be there if she could. Gone far too soon. She left Julie far too soon.

Childhood isn’t missed until it’s stripped away. Until it can never return. For what its worst, Julie’s mom made sure she had it for as long as possible. Before the inevitable kicked in and took it away for her.

Now Julie’s filled with hate again. At herself. At Steve for trying. At him for not being who she wants on the other side of the door. A constant reminder that this good thing could only come once her mom was gone. Finally, a house, but without the mother to make it a home.

It’s not fair to blame him, she knows that. Can hear the upcoming words of her therapist as she relays this all to him in the next session. How she’s placing Steve in a box that he was never meant to fill. Just because the emptiness was too crushing to face in whole.

Giving up on the homework, Julie lies on her bed. The new mattress smell still seeping through the covers. She takes her Walkman and presses play on whatever’s in there. Noise blasting through her ears, loud enough to hopefully cover these thoughts. She grabs a pillow, wanting to squeeze something close to her chest. All of her childhood stuffed animals gone with the first move. Another piece of her that is forever lost.

The tears start to form, and Julie lets them fall.

. . .

The next day doesn’t seem to be any better. She insists on biking to school today. Doesn’t really make it a choice as she hoes straight from her room to the door. Without saying as much as a goodbye.

Steve doesn’t push. Thinks it would be best after the outburst yesterday.

The last time Julie acted like this was her mom’s birthday. Where she was hurting so bad that she decided to hit at the closest target. If that’s what she needs to do again, he’d be happy to take it all. Hold some of the hurt so she didn’t have too anymore. Distract him from his own hurt at the moment.

It’s so bad that she forgets her lunch on the counter. Even though it would probably have ended in the garbage. Like how last night’s dinner landed right into a container to be revisited later. Still sitting in the fridge when Steve went to make breakfast this morning.

He’s not quite sure the last time she’s eaten more than half her plate. Too busy with his own stuff to notice her dip back in her progress. Kicking himself that he didn’t see it all sooner. That it took for her slamming a door in his face to understand how bad it had really gotten. Not like he could have stopped it. But it might have helped.

“That conversation you had with Julie while me and Eddie were out getting the pizza,” Steve says while explaining the situation to Robin. “Was that about her mom? About the move?”

Robin takes a second to think. Physically stopping and starting her movements a few times before speaking. “No, it was about something else.”

Something else. Steve didn’t know about a something else. “Was it because of me?”

“No, no. It was just something really private that she wanted to talk to me about. I would tell you but it’s really not my place to.”

Steve ignores the alarm bell ringing in his head. She’ll tell him about it, whatever it is, when she’s ready. “But you would if you thought it had anything to do with the way she’s acting.”

Robin shrugs. “It depends. If I thought, it would help. But honestly,” she takes a deep breath. “I think telling you about it might make it a million times worse.”

“Make what a million times worse?” Eddie asks after walking in. Sliding into his designated spot at Steve’s side and placing a kiss to the side of his head.

Robin rolls her eyes. “You guys can’t be this happy while Nancy’s away at school.”

“Oh boohoo.” Eddie sticks out his tongue.

“I thought you had work today?” Steve asks Eddie.

He shrugs. “I’m sick.”

“You’re going to be jobless if you keep calling out for no damn reason,” Robin chastises.

“Well clearly, I was needed elsewhere because there is a situation that needs dealing with. Make what worse? By a million times?”

Robin rolls her eyes again, gesturing Steve to fill Eddie in on the situation.

“Julie’s hitting a low point again, she slammed a door in my face yesterday.”

“Do you think it’s about her mom?” Eddie gets a soda out of the fridge and sits on the countertop.

It could be. One of the first things Julie said when she saw the house was how it reminded her or her mom. How a place like this was all her mom ever wanted for the two of them. That had to drag up some feelings. Especially since they were now living here.

Steve shrugs. “It could be. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was.”

But there was something else. Either the thing she talked about with Robin or him pushing yesterday. Something going on in school. Anything.

There were so many places to mess up. For Steve to fuck up something that didn’t just involve him. He’s bad at dealing with things. Pretending his problems don’t exist so he doesn’t have to think about them. Or lashing out just to feel more powerful than them.

Steve just didn’t want Julie to feel like she had to keep it in. That she had to keep the war in her mind because no one cared enough to listen. Or that she would burden him just for talking to him about it. He wanted her to be better than himself. Maybe that was too high of an expectation to have.

“Just talk to her about it,” Robin says softly. “She’s always come around to telling you how she feels. She just needed to blow off a little steam, that’s all.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

Maybe was a lot of things right now. None of them made Steve feel any better.

“Hey,” Eddie kicks Steve gently. “What’s really going on? Other than the Julie thing?”

“It’d be easier to say what isn’t going on than what is?” Steve pulls out one of the metal folding chairs from their makeshift kitchen/dining table and sits down. It squeaks under his weight, proving his point for him. “Maybe I bit off more than I can chew.”

Robin pulls out the chair next to him. “You did what you had to. It just happened to be very overwhelming.”

“I’m not talking about that. Well, I am but not really. It’s just,” Steve takes a deep breath. “This case. If I’m still going through with it. It’s just adding more to the pile and I’m now realizing I didn’t really think it through as much as I should’ve.”

“What do you mean,” Eddie interrupts. “You seemed liked you thought it over a lot, actually. Had evidence all laid out, contacted people, got witness statements. People to testify. Had multiple people who know their shit tell you that this was a good case. You checked off all the boxes.”

“Yeah, sure. But I don’t think I’d realized at the time that I might be going to court twice in a short amount of time.”

Steve asked Sarah a few weeks ago what it would take to make him the permanent guardian for Julie. Maybe even adopting her. If that’s what she wanted, he hasn’t brought that specifically up yet. Sarah mentioned something about permanent guardianship, since Julie’s only a year away from becoming an adult.

But no matter what, it probably leads to presenting his case before a judge. Having them make the final decision. With all the things that have happened in the past few weeks, and Sarah pulling some strings she shouldn’t have, the risk of relocation raised a bit. Making this permanent would get rid of the risk. Neither of them would have to worry about this anymore.

“Wait, twice,” Robin questions.

“Yeah, once for this case against my parents, twice to get permanent custody of Julie.”

“Is that something you guys have talked about?”

Steve shrugs. “A bit. She definitely wants to stay with me long term, and I said I’d start asking about the options. I just haven’t talked to her about which one she would prefer, since she’s got less than a year before she turns eighteen. Most of them involve at least going in front of a judge to prove that I have the means to care for her until she’s an adult.”

“And if this case falls through, it might look bad on you,” Eddie connects the dots.

“Exactly. And I’ll have to pay all the legal fees out of my own pocket where I would have gotten that back from the money I won.”

Then there was the reason for doing this all in the first place, getting them to understand what they did to him. How he was affected because of their neglect. Would they even listen? Would this change anything? Would this all just become another story to tell their friends?

They would go around telling their friends how much of a disappointment he is. How he is ungrateful of everything they’ve done for him. How he wouldn’t even be here without them. As if that makes up for the fact that they were never around.

Creating someone doesn’t immediately garner respect. It still has to be earned. Each time he was left, his respect, his love for his parents shrunk. Now all that is left is a sliver so small, yet it still feels like a mountain. Still crushing him.

He doesn’t want to be crushed by it anymore.

Steve gets up, goes to his room and pulls out all of the evidence he’s built. The entire case against his parents laid in a binder. Copies of bank and credit card statements. Highlighted lines of hotel stays and flights books. Lined up with dates that Steve could recall they missed. Birthdays and holidays lost. Memories begged to be made. Years gone.

Statements of the many nannies that he had. Each confirming their own payments, the lengths of their stays. Empty cards filled with not even the signature of their names. Cursive congratulations and happy birthdays printed instead. Hospital records that show his own signature on the discharge form. Mrs. Henderson’s name on the contact form since his parents couldn’t care to show up.

It was enough, it had to be.

He brings it out to the kitchen, laying it all out on the table. Asking Robin and Eddie to go through it. Tell him if they think it would be enough.

Witnesses, one of them asks. Steve could think of a few. One of the nannies had offered when he asked. She would still do it. Hopper said he would not only be a character witness, but also get the records for that one house party he broke up where Steve was caught underage drinking. How he had to drive him home, his parents nowhere to be seen. Nancy probably would too. She could tell the courts how she knew his parents were never home, even if he was seventeen.

It is enough.

Eddie grabs Steve’s hand. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”

Robin grabs his other hand. “If this would be too much, no one would blame you for walking away.”

Here in this small kitchen with old cabinets with squeaky hinges and tile that he absolutely hates. In a house that he bought on his own, for the family that he made, it’s finally starting to feel like a home.

The walls were never what made it empty. The unopened rooms and unused furniture. It was the energy that never flowed through the doors that made it devoid of all life. Sucking what it could from the person in it to make up for the loss. Now, as people come and go, as Steve and Julie live here, the house feels full.

With these people by his side that showed up by surprise. Chose him for whatever reason that he might never understand. But circumstances led them to each other, and they don’t leave. Even when he tried. Gave them the opportunity to. Yet, they stayed. Every. Single. Time. They helped him learn what home should feel like.

Steve is enough. He always was.

“I want to do this,” Steve says without a doubt in his voice. “Even if they still won’t believe it, or be pissed at me for the rest of their life. I want to show up to the court with rows of people behind me, while their side is empty. Show them the real thing they lost was me.”

. . .

When Julie gets home, she goes right to her room. Ignoring the happy mood Steve is in. Ignores the fact that she saw Eddie’s van drive down the street as she was biking home from school. Ignores the slight rumbles in her stomach and the ache in her legs. Lets her body fall limp onto her bed after her bag slips off her shoulder. Filled with work that won’t get done. Marked with a big red “F” when she turns them in blank.

Just adding on to how Julie is already feeling.

What would her mom say to her? Her daughter’s grade dipping. Another new home. Not eating. Slamming doors in the face of the one person who was beside her during all of this.

Liking girls.

She would pull some of her mom wisdom out of her ass for some of it. Not really helping or making much sense, but it worked out in the end. Julie always ended up figuring out something. Got better after some time and picked herself up again. Kept moving.

Time just keeps moving. It’s endless and doesn’t stop. Forcing all to move along with it. Whether they want to or not. Even when life gets in the way and forces them to stop. To become stuck. Julie feels stuck again. Did for a long time. It was easy to become stuck when there was security blanketed around her.

Julie doesn’t really feel like time moved as fast as it did. How it was six months, almost seven since her mom died. And Julie still feels like it was yesterday sometimes. Especially right now. Transported back to the day the police officers knocked on her door. Took her away. When she was frozen, but kept moving. Had to keep moving.

She doesn’t have to keep moving anymore. There’s no goal anymore. No checkmark in her progress or hurdle she has to jump over. Just a pile of tasks that are too overwhelming to acknowledge or unpack. So she lets them pile up. They aren’t important right now.

Julie winces when she tugs off a scab on her thumb. Starting the bleeding all over again. With a deep breath, she forces herself off the bed and to the bathroom. Digging for the first aid kit under the sink for another band aid. Ignoring her reflection in the mirror. The greasy strands of hair pulled back into a French braid. The dark circles around her eyes. That person isn’t her anymore.

Julie isn’t Julie right now. She’s something else. Unrecognizable. To herself. To her mom. To anyone.

“Hey, Julie,” Steve says before she can escape back to her room.

She takes another deep breath, ready to push him away again. Not ready for a talk. “What?” she asks, too tired to even sound pissed.

Steve holds out the phone. “Phone for you.”

Julie presses her lips together, taking the phone and holding it closer to her ear. Curling around herself. “Hello.”

“Julie, it is me, El.”

Great. “Hey, El. What’s up?” Julie tries to feign excitement. Terrified at the brief flutter of her heart that spawned by the sound of El’s voice.

“I realized I never got around to asking you this at lunch, but are you free next Friday?”

“Uh, I think so. I’ll have to double check.” No, she won’t. She doesn’t have anything going on, just wants to seem like she does.

“Would you like to come over for a sleepover? I know we just kind of had one, but I want a better one. And then Max can be there too.”

Julie doesn’t want a sleepover. Well, she does, but not one with Max. Because it would be Max and El on the bed. Because why would they make the girl in the wheelchair with chronic pain sleep on the air mattress on the floor. That’s rude and stupid. And it’s El’s room, so she would also be in the bed.

Meaning that Julie would be alone on the floor while her two friends share a bed. Which normally wouldn’t be a problem. Normally she wouldn’t care. But now she does. Because she knows what it’s like to sleep in the same bed as El and the midnight talks that are kind of really serious but also really nice. The nervousness that creeps under her skin every time El’s eyes meet hers. The pounding of her heart as she tries to get a singular word out.

But she can’t say no. Can’t see the disappointment in El’s face or hear it in her voice. Would rather be there, suffering in silence, than miss out on time with her friends. Which she would enjoy for a majority of it, and could kind of need right now.

“Sure,” Julie says. “If I’m free and everything.”

She wishes she sounded more excited, but she can’t.

“Yay. Let me know as soon as possible if you are free. I will see you at school tomorrow.”

Julie’s slight smile drops. “Yeah, tomorrow. Talk to you later.”

The phone clicks onto the receiver as tears start to spring to Julie’s eyes. For reasons she doesn’t really know why but feels deep inside her chest. A pain she’s never felt. Crushing. Terrifying. A tear rolls down her cheek as she runs to her room, wiping it away quickly so Steve doesn’t see.

But he sees.

“Hey, are you ok?” he asks as Julie crosses into her bedroom.

“Just leave me alone,” she yells with a sob, slamming her door. Right in his worried face.

She can’t even make it to her bed before she falls. Slamming her back into the door and pulling her knees close to her chest. Wet patches forming on her knees. Breathing in stutter breaths just to let them out as broken sobs. Trying to pull herself together. Trying to keep it quiet. Knowing Steve is right behind the door, wondering what he can do.

What Julie’s feeling can’t be fixed. No matter what she tries. No matter how hard she tries. She can’t be normal anymore.

A slip of paper gets slid under the door next to her. After the sobs start to slow and Julie can see things again. She picks it up, unfolding it.

When you’re ready to talk about it, I’m here.

All it does is start Julie’s sobs again. How could she have been so lucky to have someone so understanding waiting for her outside the door? When her life went to shit. When things just keep going to shit. He’s still there. Even when she slams doors in his face and uprooted his entire life.

Without even blinking, he’s still there.

“Steve,” she says to her empty room when the tears slow. Hoping he can hear.

“Yeah,” the answer comes from the other side of the door.

Julie lets out a wet laugh. “When you said you were waiting, I didn’t think it’d be right outside the door.”

“Well, technically, it’s right next to your door. Only since I slid the note, though. I gave you space for a bit.”

Her knees fall to the ground, hands falling in her lap. Resuming the picking of her unbandaged thumb. “I appreciate that.”

A beat of silence. “You’re talking to me again. Does that mean you want to talk about it?”

“Maybe, I’m not sure.” She takes a shaky breath. “I’m not sure how to talk about it.”

“That’s ok. Do you want to wait to talk about it, see if you can find the words later?”

Her head gently bangs against the door. Mind racing to find the words. To say something so he can find the solution for her and the pain can go away. But it all leads to a question so unfathomable that she can’t even bear to ask it. Gets mad at herself for even thinking about it.

She does though. Over and over again. Her mind finding answers she doesn’t like. Doesn’t want to believe were a possibility. Truth is, she will never have an answer to that question. No matter how hard she searches for one. The one person who can give it isn’t here anymore. Leaving an uncertainty that would weigh over her head forever.

“I’m sorry,” Julie says instead. Apologizing for the things she can instead of searching for what she can’t. “For slamming the door in your face.”

“You can slam the door in my face as many times as you need to. Just as long as you agree to talk to me about it, when you’re ready to. I may not always follow my own rules, but it’s better to talk about things before they start to build up.”

Julie wipes away the stray tear rolling down her cheek. Moving to pick at the strands of her jeans so she doesn’t need another band aid. “I think this has been building up for a while now. I just didn’t know it was there.”

There’s silence across the door for a minute or two.

“You know what I kind of really want right now, chocolate chip cookies,” Steve says suddenly.

It’s so random that is makes Julie laugh. “What?”

“Yeah, you know, freshly made, warm chocolate chip cookies. Doesn’t that sound nice?”

Julie smiles. “That actually does sound kind of nice.”

“Great. I’m going to go make some, you can join me if you want.”

She does kind of want to. After taking a deep breath, Julie picks herself off the floor. Wincing at the soreness of her legs from sitting on rough carpet for so long. Opens the door and heads to the kitchen. Steve is pulling out one of the many cookbooks he stole from his parents and turning to a recipe. Starting to grab the different ingredients.

He smiles when Julie searches their cabinets, searching for the mixing bowl they also stole from his parents. Probably thinking he’s had some sort of victory over this. Maybe he has. She’s out of the room, and probably about to eat something. It’s a small victory for the both of them.

The oven takes an eternity to preheat. Leaving the rolled-out cookies on the stovetop. Some of them mysteriously gone missing. Well, not mysteriously, she had a few more than she should. But so did Steve, so it was fine.

When the cookies are finally baked, Steve waits a few minutes before placing some on a plate and bringing them over to the blanket pile that is still acting as a couch. But instead, some of the chairs hold up the blankets, making a small fort.

It reminds her of the ones her mom and her made during thunderstorms. When the trailer would shake with each boom, but not the fort. With soft pillows and flashlight shadow puppet stories. Falling asleep when the thunder was far enough away that it became calming. Paired with the patter of rain on the roof. They were always safe in the fort.

Julie was safe in the fort.

She breaks the cookie in her hand, the warm chocolate smearing across her fingertips. Melting in her mouth as soon as they hit. Giving her the energy to say what she needs to say. What she wants to say.

“You know it was El that called, right.” Julie breaks the cookie again. “Well, of course you know. You’re the one who gave me the phone.”

Steve sits straighter, giving Julie his full attention. “Yeah, I know.”

“She was asking if I was free next Friday, for a sleepover.” Her heart starts racing as the words still stay unsaid. Trapped in her throat, even though she knows he wouldn’t care about them.

“That sounds fun. Did you want to go?”

Julie continues to stare at her hands, unable to look up. “Yeah, I do. It’s just. It’s harder now. Because I think, no, I know that I.” She takes a deep breath. She can do this. “I have a crush. On El.”

Steve takes a second to respond. Keeping the moment tense. Julie can only hear the sound of her own heart beating.

“That would make it harder,” he finally says.

“Yeah,” Julie chokes as the tears start to form again. “Yeah, it really does.”

Steve moves the plate of cookies out from in between them before scooting closer. Reaching out to place a hand on Julie’s shoulder. “Hey, it’s ok.”

“No, it’s not,” Julie stops him before he can try to comfort her. “I hate that I’m like this. It’s terrifying. I don’t want like this to be but I am. And I’m going to screw everything up.”

She pulls her legs up to her chest again, the tears retracing their tracks down her cheeks. Even when she thought the wells had dried, it keeps flowing.

“I know exactly how you feel,” Steve exhales. “I felt the same way when I figured out I liked guys. So much so, that I pushed it down and forgot it for years. Kept pretending that this part of me wasn’t a part of me. Hated myself for it. Pushed that hatred outward toward people who didn’t deserve it. Just because I was so angry with myself that I couldn’t be normal.”

Julie clenches her eyes shut, trying to force the tears to stop flowing. Wanting this hurt to stop.

“There were a lot of factors that made me want to hide who I was, I think. My parents, mostly. My reputation. I was the kid that threw parties and had all the nicknames. Hawkins High School’s poster boy. A Harrington. Any wrong move and I was done for. I didn’t need that wrong move to be dangerous.”

She pulls herself more inward. Wondering if she becomes small enough, the problems will just go away. No longer hunting the prey hiding in the bushes.

“It took a lot for me to realize that I wasn’t-. That I wasn’t broken.” Steve takes a deep breath, clears his throat. “That this part of me was normal. Is normal. Just doesn’t always feel like it in a small town. It took meeting other people like me to realize that this was something I could be and still be happy. And believe me, there’s so much happiness waiting for you.”

“Doesn’t feel like it,” Julie mutters into her knees. “It feels like everything keeps breaking apart over and over again.”

“Yeah, yeah it does.”

Julie lifts her head up, finally turning to look at Steve. “I just don’t want to mess up one of the first friendships I’ve had in years because I can’t stop acting weird around her. I can hate myself all I want, I can’t make her hate me too.”

Steve takes a deep breath, turning himself so he’s facing Julie completely. “And you won’t. El is one of the most loving and forgiving people I have ever met. Well, when she cares about someone. She can be pretty brutal to the people who she doesn’t like, but that’s not the point. El cares about you, she won’t judge you for this.”

“I can get not judging me for the liking girls bit. But liking her?” Julie doesn’t know how that could ever work out in her favor.

“Ok, so this next part doesn’t directly apply to your problem. And I’m not sure if any of this is even helping, but it just feels like it needs to be said and I know he won’t care if I share this for him.” He takes another breath. “But Eddie and I were kind of going through this same problem with each other. Only difference is I knew he was gay, and he didn’t know I was.”

“And the only difference between that situation and this one is that yours was a success story,” Julie says before he can continue. Shocking him. “You two aren’t as good as hiding it as you think you are. I picked it up a while ago.”

Steve snorts. “Yeah, kinda figured. I’m more just trying to say that this thing you’re going through isn’t unique. Hell, half of the people in our group have had that feeling some way or another. And we’re still friends. You’re going to be just fine, trust me.”

Just fine doesn’t exactly sound like anything she wants to be. She’s been just fine for months. It’s kind of shitty. Not feeling like anything important, knowing she should be feeling more but can’t. Moving without really moving through life. Just going from one day to the next, them all blending together. Right up until fine becomes a lie again.

Until something unearths itself in the mind and can no longer be ignored. Brings all of its own problems and piles on top of all the others. Dragging up old baggage with it, only adding to the problem.

Leaving Julie with one more question she’s too afraid to ask.

So much in her life has changed. So much is different now. She’s a new person, one her mom wouldn’t recognize. Overwhelmed by grief. Brought into this large group of people, a giant family. Surrounded by people who are like her. Who show her that this is a life she could have. If she just put enough trust in herself.

If she put enough trust in her mom. And stopped wondering if she would still love Julie the same knowing that she will never marry a man. An answer Julie will never actually get.

Steve reaches out and pulls Julie into a hug. Comforts her the way a brother can, but it doesn’t bring the same comfort that Julie craves.

It’s things like this that makes Julie’s heart ache the most. How she will go through these big life events and never hear the same words of comfort again. Never have her mother’s weight sit on the foot of her bed, telling her it will all be ok. That no matter what, she will always love Julie. Never will stop as long as she lives. And even then, the love will transcend death and continue for infinity.

Nothing can stop infinity. Julie hopes that means nothing will stop her mother’s love either. Even this.

“Sorry for taking your coming out moment away from you,” Julie says after she calmed down. “I know you were waiting to tell me about it.”

Steve shrugs it off. “That’s ok. I was really dragging my feet with telling you, I’ve been ready for a while now, just didn’t know how to bring it up.”

“For what it’s worth, it kind of helped. Made me feel a little better knowing that I’m not alone in this.”

“You’re not alone in anything, Julie. No matter what, there will be people behind you. Whether that’s me, your friends, anyone else lucky enough to meet you.”

She rolls her eyes. “Yeah, whatever. Thanks, though.”

“It’s what I’m here for.”

. . .

The notice from the courthouse comes a week later. Alerting Steve that it’s time to approve the court date. One’s been selected for him, but can be pushed back if he needs it to. But it’s there. It’s real. This is actually happening.

He goes over the evidence again, confirms with Hopper that he can actually witness. Get the files all ready on his end. Then contacts his old nanny and gets talked into coming over for brunch. To catch up and see how he’s doing. Make sure she is what he needs for this case. Which she is. She was the longest one he ever had and was extremely meticulous. Most likely still has her pay stubs after all these years.

The last person he has to call is Nancy. Who doesn’t even know that he’s moved yet. Or that his parents are home.

It’s been a while since he’s called her, obviously, and he’s been avoiding it. Not wanting an earful of her again. But he needs to know when she’s back and if she’ll testify for him. She he dials her number.

“Nancy speaking.”

“Hey, Nance, it’s Steve. I have some things to catch you up on.”

She sighs. “Oh, I know. Robin refused to tell me anything about whatever’s going on. I think it was to force you to call me.”

“Yeah probably.”

After a long conversation and a lecture from Nancy on the importance of phone calls, she agrees to testify on his behalf. As both a character witness and also to back up some of the evidence he has.

Everything’s starting to get put together. Now all there is to do is wait.

Tag list(let me know if you want to be added or removed): @homoerotictangerine, @mugloversonly, @thesuninyaface, @imyelenasexual, @anaibis,

@ilovecupcakesandtea, @brainsteddielyrotted, @jackiemonroe5512, @eddie-munsons-missing-nipple, @goodolefashionedloverboi,

@cinnamon-mushroomabomination, @lolawonsstuff, @writingandmushroomdragons, @stevesbipanic, @sierra-violet,

@steddie-as-they-go, @dauntlessdiva, @mousedetective, @the-daydreamer-in-the-corner, @zombiethingy,

@connected-dots-st-reblogger, @that-agender-from-pluto, @allyricas, @cheddartreets, @devondespresso,

@crypticcorvidinacottage, @queenie-ofthe-void @chronicpainstevetruther, @melonmochi

#stranger things #stranger things fanfic #steve harrington #eddie munson #robin buckley #julie lawson #nancy wheeler #el hopper #steddie #long lost/secret sibling #sibling au #i don't know which way's home fic #coming out #internalized homophobia

[808airsoftbros]

My Wives Reaction to You Getting Harrassed at Work (Haseul/Vivi/Yeojin/Nana/Miyeon)

Author: Suddenly felt inspired to write this after listening to a creepypasta story. Anyway hope you enjoy and if you want to check out more of my works do go to the Masterlist :)

Cho Haseul

You were being bullied by your co-worker and your manager was doing nothing about it since he was his son

Being the mother of the family she wouldn't tolerate such treatment for her loved one

"What?! Let me talk to your boss!"

Would confront the manager or the main corporate office no matter how much you begged her not to

At first your manager would laugh at her until he realized that your wife was a famous kpop Idol

In just a split second, he was on his knees begging her not to expose the company and what was going on behind the scenes

"P-Please don't report this! I need this job to pay for my rent! I'm sorry not only I'll fire my son! I'll give him a raise or hell even a promotion!"

In the end, the awful and useless co-worker was fired and of course, he didn't take it too well seeing his own father screwed him but she had private security on stand-by just for this particular result

However after just five months you'd quit that job and work at a bigger company but you were still grateful for what she did for you

Vivi

You were refused a raise despite all the hard work and effort you put into the company and when you just decided to work the bare minimum you were written up for being "lazy"

"What are you serious? What fucking idiot for him not to see the talent inside of you!"

Vivi would've taken a little much of different course of action to the situation

She would first consulted Haseul who's the head of the household and recommended reporting this to your boss's supervisor

But seeing that the CEO was just as useless greedy as the manager she ended up just buying the whole company

"W-What is this?! An ownership contract?!"

"Well, sir, you should've thought about this before treating my husband like shit so from now on, I'll be running this company,"

In just no time you became her secretary and it was a win-win for the both of you now that you get be at her side 24/7

Nana

You got a customer complaint from an actress whom Nana happened to once partnered up with in the past

She'd be perfectly calm about the whole situation and unlike Vivi and the others she'd handle it her own way

"Okay darling, just leave her to me and don't worry about a thing okay~?"

Confused at first but you decided to let her run the show and enjoy it from a safe distance because you know well it will get a bit messy

She'd review the surveillance footage and prove you were just doing your job enforcing the company's policies thus making the actress the guilty one

When she gathered enough evidence, she'd confront her former co-worker and obviously she denied it and made up stories that you were being rude

"Is that so? Well, mind explaining this?"

Shocked and caught red-handed, she knew her life would be over at this moment knowing Nana could just end her career in the blink of an eye

"I-I'm sorry! Please don't turn this into the media!"

Luckily for her, Nana was in a kind mood so she just asked her to apologize, and quickly she obliged

Cho Miyeon

Miss Cho Miyeon is someone you don't want to mess with especially since she is Lieutenant of the (G) I-DLE mafia

The second she heard that you were targetted by your company she wouldn't hesitate to send men to burn their building to the ground

"What is that, my dear? Are they bothering you? Are you okay? I can just send some of my guys to burn the damn place to the ground."

Of course, you begged her not to as this wasn't the first time she committed mass murder and arson

But she'd just bought the whole company and transformed it to serve the Mafia clan

You wanting to continue to live a normal life would just get hired by a different company with better co-workers and management

"Aww~ Baby are you sure you don't want to join us~?"

Sure the offer was tempting as you'd love to be close to Miyeon but it was too much of a risk having a target on your head 24/7

Im Yeojin

Being the youngest of the family and step-sister she'd be mostly concerned about your health and well-being

"Oppa, are you okay?" "Do you need some cuddles~?"

Yeojin wouldn't really do much besides just informing her mothers

"Eomma! Oppa was being bullied! It was his boss again!"

Sadly nobody would take her that seriously as she was too adorable to be intimidating

However she doesn't need to do anything as her Eommas take care of everything for her

"Baby! Eomma said that she voted the CEO out of his office so she's in charge! Isn't that great?!"

For the rest of the night, you two cuddled in her bedroom after partying

#kpop #kpop idol #kpop gg #bxg #x male reader #kpopidol #reaction #kpop reactions #loona #loona scenarios #cho haseul #im yeojin #yeojin #loona vivi #nana #after school #gidle #gidle miyeon #cho miyeon #gidle scenarios

[half-dead-ham]

I've waited this long

Day two of Shipweek is Soulmates! And so I offer the masses a humble Roy Harper/Danny Fenton ship, so rare they don't even have a ship name yet! Upon the offer of one, I may be tempted to make more of this ship, they are a match made in hell imo. ( •̀ ω •́ )✧

here's: [Ao3]

Despite how much Danny’s parents invest in the scientific method, they were never one’s to believe in things like ‘fate’ or ‘destiny’. They stood by their ideals that ghosts were real but soulmates were things people imagined so much a market grew for it, despite forty per-cent of the population having one.

 So of course the first thing Danny’s parents did when Danny showed off the white ring he got on his left middle finger was tell him to take it off.

 He told them he couldn’t, of course. Danny didn’t know what soulmates even were, he was only four. When he asked them why, they thought he was playing a prank. They tried to take it off his finger by force, but of course it wouldn't budge. They ran tests and did experiments and theorized and hypothesized and hummed and hawed until they were pulling their hair out.

 And still the ring would not leave little Danny Fenton’s finger.

 They finally settled on Danny having some sort of allergic reaction with the metal and surrounding samples of ectoplasm bonding the ring to his finger temporarily and told him to test it every once in a while to see if it came off.

 And then they forgot about it.

 Jazz found Danny later, curled up and crying on his bed after the whole ordeal. She comforted him, told him what the ring actually was, and said that if he ever did find his soulmate that he shouldn’t bring it up to his parents. He silently agreed, then drifted to sleep in her arms.

~~~~~

    Stupid idiot. Stupid Danny. Why did you follow Rory into a city you didn’t have the map for?

 Danny kicked a crumpled can along the sidewalk, watching it skitter along the pavement as he tried to remember which street he had turned from. He honestly didn’t even want to be here, in a city so far from Amity and his parents, it wasn’t his idea to sign him up for the end-of-school field trip; it was Jazz’s. Danny would rather be back in Amity Park, playing DOOMED with Tucker while they figure out what classes they were most likely to have together in high school.

 Instead he was lost in a city he’d never been to, thanks to his free time buddy, Rory, leading him around after stealing his phone and stranding him without the map they were given. Jackass.

 Another kick to the can sent Danny’s current stress relief straight into a storm drain. Danny froze, staring at the spot it had disappeared, before letting out a sound that was half growl, half groan. Stomping back on his original path, Danny sneered at his sneakers. He was going to murder Rory over this, there were enough tools in their stupid basement for Danny to beat that stupid smirk off that ass and- “Oof!”

 Danny staggered back a step, clutching his nose as he blinked up at what- who- he had bumped into.

 Concerned jade eyes met his lake blue as a boy slightly taller than him rushed to grab his shoulders and stabilize him. He froze, deer-in-the-headlights style as the stranger swept his eyes over the rest of Danny to make sure nothing was damaged.

 “You okay?” The other asked, jolting Danny out of his daze.

 “Uh, yeah, of course!” Danny squeaked out, feeling a small embarrassed flush warm his face.

 The stranger looked down slightly, to Danny’s confusion. He quickly realized he still has his hand over his face like an idiot.

 “Ope- yeah totally okay!” Danny quickly tore his hand away from his face in further embarrassment, really hoping he was right in not feeling any signs to the start of a nosebleed. Just to make sure, he checked his palm, giving a small sigh of relief at not seeing any red, just some light pink on his finger… Wait-

 He spun his hand around, making sure to check if his ring really had turned pink.

 “Holy shit,” the guy in front of him whispered, and looking up Danny could see him inspecting his own pink ring. Maybe he should thank Rory instead of murdering him, the guy led him to his soulmate after all.

 The guy- his soulmate oh god he needed to tell Jazz- looked up to him, stunned and a little awestruck. Danny, for lack of anything else to do, stuck his hand out with a goofy grin as he introduced himself.

 “Hey, my name’s Danny; Danny Fenton. Looks like you’re my soulmate.”

 ∆•∆•∆•∆

 So as it turned out, the guy -Roy was his name- was a Star city native. After they made their introductions Danny asked if Roy knew the way back to his hotel. Roy gave him the most confused look he’d seen on him (yet) and told him that he’d almost made it to a completely different part of the city, and “why the fuck are you in the south side to begin with?” And, well Danny sheepishly explained his situation as they started walking the right way back.

 While Roy didn’t say much to his explanation, the brilliant vermillion Danny’s ring turned probably meant that he and his soulmate had the same thoughts about Rory at the moment.

 It was nearing supper time by the time Danny and Roy made it back to the hotel, and Roy was unfortunately witness to the rant Danny’s teacher went on about “Staying with his buddy” and “not following strangers in a large city”. As soon as Roy held their rings up she redacted her last statement with a click of her jaw. Roy then proceeded to explain to Ms. Montal about how Danny’s “buddy” left him stranded in a different part of the city without his phone, and how if Roy hadn’t found him that she might’ve had to resort to calling the police and explain how unsafe it was to have kids running around the city unsupervised.

 Yeah, Danny was definitely glad Roy was with him at that moment. The nice shade of red that tinted Ms. Montal’s face -either in embarrassment over being so thoroughly called out by someone the same age as her students, or seething rage- had Danny moving a hand over his mouth to muffle his suppressed laughter. He didn’t know if it was any help, if the glare that could melt steel he got from his teacher was any indication.

 After they got to watch the lovely conversation Rory had with their teacher for leaving Danny behind, he asked if Roy wanted to come up to his room to talk some more after they had supper. Roy refused, saying he had somewhere to get to and the dinner was already pushing his time into the ‘late’ category. He asked if there was any good time for them to meet up the next day, but again their schedules didn’t line up. Roy asked about the day after, but they couldn't meet then, as tomorrow was their last day in the city.

 Danny stared at his shoes, at a loss for what to do. He really wanted to spend more time with his soulmate now that they’ve met, especially when Roy had so many stories about his mentor/foster father and his screw ups.

 “Well, you have a phone right?” Roy asked. When he nodded Roy’s face split into a grin. “Then you can just give me your number!”

 They ended up trading both phone numbers and emails, just in case. Apparently Roy had just as much of a chance to break or lose his phone as Danny did.

 With one last wave, Roy walked back the way they had come, the light of the dying sun setting his red hair ablaze. With how far apart they lived, Danny wondered if they would ever get to see each other again face-to-face.

 He hoped they would.

~~~~~

  Star City

 August 28th 2006,

15:07 PDT

 While getting a ride back from Oliver's house Roy felt something. He didn’t know what that something was exactly, but it felt like someone just hit him with a live wire and dunked him in a bath of hydrogen peroxide.

 It hurt.

 It hurt like someone haddunked him in acid, slammed him into an electric fence then gave him a million paper cuts and bathed him in lemon juice. It hurt so much he screamed and blacked out.

 Apparently it hurt so much for Oliver to pull the car over, because the next time he could see clearly he was leaning up against the side of the car on the pavement. Olliver was in front of him, worry clear on his face. He blinked as his mentor fretted over him, thoughts not really deeper than ‘god that hurt like a bitch’. 

 A light wind brushed his cheek and the cold stuck in tracks down to his chin. Absently, he brought his hand to his face, feeling the damp trails that led to his chin. Was he crying? He groaned, twitching with aftershocks and trying to think about anything other than the feeling of full body pins and needles he had.

 “Roy,” his mentor called, voice shaken. Why was the Green Arrow so shaken over what just happened?

 Roy looked to his mentor, only to find that Oliver was looking at the hand he had raised to his cheek. Dread settling in his stomach, Roy shakily lifted his hand up.

 The band around his middle finger was charcoal black.

 It felt like someone had just squeezed all the air out of his lungs. It couldn’t- no. Danny was fine.  They had just talked yesterday, he couldn’t be dead! There was no way Danny could have died, it was impossible.

 Roy was shaking now, for a completely different reason than the pain he just felt. He jerkily grabbed the ring between two fingers, desperately trying to- to- to do something! Either to rub the dirt (it was just dirt it had to be Danny couldn’t be dead) or keep the piece of jewelry from crumbling off his finger. It still felt solid, despite its colour being the exact color soul rings turn when a person’s soulmate dies. 

 Desperately he looked to Oliver. He was the adult here, he should know what to do, right? 

 But the stare Roy got back from his mentor was one full of grief and sadness, not the look he got when he was able to help, just loss. Roy’s lungs weren’t drawing in breath. His hand went from his ring to his phone, ripping it out of his pants pocket and dialling the one number he needed to pick up right now. Please Danny please pick up.

 The Dial tone rang once, twice, thrice. The whole time Roy repeated please pick up please pick up please pick up in his head, eyes never leaving the black band on his finger.

 “Roy?” Danny’s voice rasped through the receiver and Roy’s lungs finally caught breath.

 “Holy fuck Danny, are you okay? What happened‽” Roy nearly screamed into the phone, to Oliver's clear shock as he looked between the still black band and the cellphone in Roy’s hand.

 “Nothing,” Danny groaned, clearly still in pain. “I just got a small shock from one of my parents' inventions.”

 “Bullshit,” Roy shot back. “If you call what you got a ‘small shock’ then where the fuck did the police TAZER shoot me from?”

 Another groan from the other end of the line, along with the sounds of hushed voices that he couldn’t make out. Rustling fabric and soft footsteps was all that he listened to for what he thought was too long until Danny spoke up again.

 “Look, I don’t really know what to tell you right now, Roy… I just feel like I got hit by a train and everything’s still kinda…” Danny trails off for a moment, making Roy worry that he passed out or something, but a sigh fills the call with static and then Danny’s back. “I just really need a bit to not feel like shit now, Roy. You think I can call you back tomorrow? We can talk more then.”

 Was- wh- is Danny really just brushing all that pain off? Like it was nothing?? Like ‘oh, of course Danny, all you need is a little sleep and you’ll be good to go tomorrow!’ Fuck no, thats not how this works!

 Another grunt of pain makes its way through the line, and Roy sighs. ‘Danny is alive,’ he reminds himself, ‘and he’ll still be alive then he wakes up tomorrow’. Even while thinking it the words sound like a lie. The band around his finger is still black. Logically Danny shouldn’t be talking with him at all, he shouldn’t have been able to pick up the call. A small voice in the back of his brain whispers to him, ‘Someone got to him, someone who wanted to use him to get to Green Arrow. That isn’t Danny on the phone, it's a fake’. It's a part he’s afraid to prove right.

 “Sure, Danny. Just- just tell me one thing right now, okay?” He’s practically begging his soulmate -who he thinks is his soulmate- as his voice grows dry. A grunt was all he got in reply.

 “What color is my ring right now?”

~~~~~

 Star City general hospital

 November 12th 2007,

15:07 PDT

 Danny is dead, for real this time.

 Roy doesn’t know when it happened, he’d been taken by Luthor and his goons for the last three months and the whole experience was a bit of a blur, but sometime during that Danny's ring finally crumbled off his finger.

 He sat in the hospital bed, refusing to acknowledge the tears coming from his eyes as he stared at his bare finger. ‘I should’ve been there for him, I should have made sure he was okay.’ His thoughts spiraled as he wished, begged, for the ring to magically reappear on his finger. He prayed to every higher power he could think of to bring Danny back. Just one more day with his stupid texts, his long rants about the stars, his anything. He’d give the world to hear his soulmate's voice again.

 A knock on the hospital room door had him scrambling to wipe his face of tears and clear his voice as quietly as he could.

 “Come in,” he tried not to croak. He could tell it was Ollie as soon as he opened the door, but still he didn’t turn his head.

 “Roy…” His mentor didn’t know what to say either, he almost wanted to scoff. Of course the old man didn’t know what to say, he didn’t know the first thing about having a soulmate. In the end it was something he had to deal with himself.

 They stayed there, silence choking them like a snake coiling around its prey. Roy really didn’t want his old man to see how bad he was taking it, and his old man couldn’t console him for the gaping emptiness he was feeling. So they just did nothing, frozen like a picture in time.

 Finally, a sigh escaped the man behind Roy. “I’m sorry I couldn’t find you sooner,” he murmured out. He sounded so broken. And still Roy didn’t turn to face him, he just struggled and failed to keep a sob from escaping him.

 That day Roy told himself to keep the memories he had of Danny close to him, and to never speak about him to anyone again.

~~~~~

Star City

January  19th 2011,

21:25 PDT

 ‘Everything… Was a lie. Everything I knew about myself isn’t real. I was just a pawn, a chess piece for someone else's game.’

 Vandal Savage, that asshole.

Roy (was he even really Roy if he was just a replacement?) was in… not his room. It was Roy’s room in Ollie’s place. It was dark, he didn’t bother to turn the light on when he came in and was just watching the lights of the city from out his window.

 What… What should he do now? He can’t just go on living somebody else's life now that he knows it isn’t his own. That would be wrong, and fucked up even for him.

 But Guardian, he had said that the light didn’t have the real Roy. If the light didn’t actually have him, then where was he? He refused to believe the real Roy was actually dead, those fuckers wouldn’t kill him off after cloning him. It was too easy, to just dispose of a chess piece that still has use? No, they wouldn’t do that…

 Right?

 He stood up and walked to the window, tracing the lights of cars criss-crossing along the roads like lines of ants.

 No. No, he refused to believe the real Roy was dead. He couldn’t be, he would eat his bow before he believed the real Roy wasn’t still out there.

 And Roy was, he would find him.

~~~~~

Washington D. C.

March 8th 2011,

21:07 EDT

Today's search with Jim was a bust, a complete waste of time. Even with the new tech provided by the league, the Wayne Ecogram unit told them the exact same thing as what we already found the last dozen times we went down there. Nothing. Not a scrap or clue or anything.

 He layed in bed on his stomach as he groused over the day. He could still feel that Roy was alive somewhere, like an itch just under his skin. It was telling him to keep searching, look, find him but people were starting to lose faith.

 He was just so tired. He hadn’t moved in hours since he got back, just thinking over what little they knew of what happened. He turned his head so he could see out of the window. The lights still shone from the city outside, people going on with their nights- with their lives- while he was stuck watching as time marched forward mockingly. His neck protested the movement, muscles sore from overwork and the strain of being still for hours making itself known as he finally moved to haul himself into a sitting position.

 On a brighter note, Jim had his lab work come back. They were in the same boat now, both being cloned from the same guy. Though somehow he still felt like they weren’t on the same page.

 Jim already had his own identity, his own self built personality. He wasn’t meant to be a copy of someone, a replacement. No, Jim wasn’t aware of the feeling of getting the rug ripped out from under your feet because you find out (in the worst way possible) that the life you’d been living, the fucking name you used, wasn’t your own. He was blissfully unaware of how that sucker punch to the gut felt, and so it left him alone even with someone like him to understand.

 And he was just. So. Tired.

 But he couldn’t rest.

~~~~~

Star City

November 9th 2011,

17:22 PST

 Ten months.

 It has been ten months since this search had started for the real Roy, and not even the Bats have found anything. The League has resorted to tailing Luthor on rotation for any clues, but they’ve started asking why they were still trying.

 ‘Roy’ had pulled Robin away to Star City with him, so they could go through the original Roy's things. He honestly hadn’t bothered to touch most of the older things in Roy’s room, he was too focused on the mission at the time to care for whatever little civilian interaction he had kept for convenience. It had taken some convincing, but Robin at least saw how hard he was working.

 “Dude, when was the last time you checked your inbox?” The Boy Wonder asked as he scrolled through old emails and spam on a laptop he had found buried under a clothes pile.

 “A while,” he drawled sarcastically as he searched an old box of trick arrowheads. Honestly why did he even have these in here?

 Robin continued to scroll as he quickly lost interest with the box, shoving it off his lap in frustration and moved to pick through the bottom of Roy’s closet. Quiet settled for a while, with only the occasional sounds of ‘Roy’s grunting and the clicking of the laptops trackpad keys.

 “Hey Roy…” He turned to look at the Boy Wonder as he read something from the laptop, eyebrows scrunched together behind his pointless sunglasses. “Since when did you have a soulmate?”

 The question struck him like an arrow to the heart, making him straighten where he sat. He had almost forgotten by now that he- Roy- had had a soulmate before he went missing. A wave of sadness washed over him as he realised Roy would never be able to see Danny again.

 “I don’t,” he replied softly, unsure of how to feel over those memories. “Danny died sometime while I was kidnapped by Luthor, I didn’t know about it until I was in the hospital.”

 “Who told you that?” Robin asked cautiously, eyes going back and forth from the screen to his face.

 “I…” He… couldn’t remember. He could’ve sworn it was Ollie, but he couldn’t remember having the conversation- with anyone. Just the immense feeling of loss afterwards. But it was something so important to him- to Roy- why couldn’t he remember? “Why?” He asked instead, “what did you find on there?”

 Robin just shuffled up the bed some, making space for him to sit down beside him. At first he didn’t understand what he was looking at, just a short message from Danny; nothing too personal, just saying something about him being worried over him and asking to get in touch when he could. It read like one of their old conversations they would have before Luthor got him, so why was Robin showing him this?

 “Look at the date it was sent,” Robin instructed, pointing to the little bar showing when the email was sent. His eyes grew to saucer size when he realized why it was of interest.

 “September eighth, 2009?” He mumbled out dazedly. The email was sent over two years after  he died? That didn’t make any sense, why would someone use Danny’s old email just to send him something like this?

 “Who told you your soulmate was dead, Roy?” Robin asked again, and he realized that he didn’t have an answer. No one had told him that Danny was dead, he just remembered it.

 “N-no one… I just remember that he died while…” The realization hit harder than Superman, knocking the air from his lungs and leaving the Boy Wonder to finish his thought for him.

 “You just remember that he had died while you were with CADMUS. You never thought to check your sources because you thought you just lost him, but maybe you should look into that now.”

 He could only nod in agreement as he reread the email over and over again.

~~~~~

Amity Park, Il

December 12th 2011,

11:27 CST

‘Roy’ knocked on the door of the townhouse that could hold the answers he needed to find the real Roy. He looked up, tilting his head at the chrome UFO stationed precariously on the roof of the building. Something told him that the Drs. Fenton did not have a permit for that thing, but from what he could remember of his -Roy’s- conversations with Danny, there wasn’t a government that could really stop the Fentons from doing what they wanted. Still, someone had to have tried, right?

 Robin was probably looking into it from where they parked up the road, along with whatever permits they needed to keep that thing that had just pulled out of the driveway from being impounded and torn for scrap.

 His head snapped back to the door as it opened, revealing- oh god.

 Danny was definitely taller than he remembered, paler too. His original’s soulmate now stood a head taller than he did, which when he was over six foot was saying something, with lean arms running up into a baggy t-shirt, no doubt hiding more lean muscle underneath. Maybe he did track or swim in high school? He was still Danny though, the same guy Roy met all those years ago when he was still trying to make Ollie take him on as an apprentice after his parents died. The same kid he helped get back to his school group and the kid he almost punched someone over.

 God, he missed Danny.

 Eyes a much brighter blue than he remembered widened so much it looked like they were about to pop out of their sockets, he almost wanted to laugh before they narrowed, zeroing in on where he knew he had his hands. Danny looked from his hand to his face -which he kept carefully neutral- before sighing, leaning himself against the frame of the door with a silent curse.

 “Please tell me Vlad didn’t make you,” he asked, looking even more tired than when he opened the door.

 “Whose Vlad?” He responded, twisting his face in confusion. Danny gave him a long, hard look. Neither of them blinked, and he was starting to get worried as to whether or not Danny would actually talk to him.

 Finally, with a sigh Danny turned to walk inside, leaving the door open for him to walk in. “No one,” he grumbled before he trudged into the living room. “Let's chat, clone boy.”

 ∆•∆•∆•∆

 When Danny had asked if anyone knew they were meeting, he hadn’t expected for him to ask to go get Robin from the car for the conversation. “My parents will be out for a while, they got a signal from the other side of town. Might as well take this chance,” he said to brush off the Boy Wonder’s concerns of them having their chat in the living room.

 “So,” Danny started as he clapped his hands together. “Since you haven’t attacked me yet, we can start with your names.”

 “You can call me Rob,” Robin said from the seat next to him.

 “Roy,” he reluctantly gave, to which Danny shook his head looking disappointed.

 “Nope, try again. I asked for your name, not the name of the guy you were cloned from.” Robin stiffened at the mention of the real Roy, having not yet been told about Danny’s earlier comment.

 “How do you know that?” The Boy Wonder questioned, falling into his mentor's way of interrogating.

 Danny just snorted, “You think I don’t know my own soulmate when I see him? This guy isn’t him; I know ‘cause you can’t clone a soul ring.” He held up his left hand, showing the grey band on his middle finger. A jolt of relief surged through him, the ring wasn’t black, Roy was alive!

 “And how are you so sure of that?” Robin prodded, keeping the conversation on track for the two of them so he could have his validation in peace.

 “Wouldn’t you like to know, waterboy,” Danny quoted at Robin before turning back to him. “So, do you have a name yet or do we need to think of one?”

 The question was asked with a tone so soft he thought Danny thought he might break at the suggestion. It was kind, just as kind as he remembered Danny to be. He glanced at Robin before looking at his own hands, uncertain.

 “I… I don’t- I haven’t thought of one yet,” he stuttered, feeling suddenly far too vulnerable. He didn’t want to look up at his originals’ soulmate's face, scared of what he’d see. Funny how he could face world ending threats and yet this civilian from some small ass town in the midwest was the thing that scared him more.

 He heard Danny shift from in front of him as he spoke, “Alright.” The word was spoken so gently he had to look up, just to see if he meant it like that. Pools of ice froze the breath in his lungs as he stared at an expression so full of melancholy. Fuck, why is Danny looking at him like that? Why is he looking at him like he’s seen what he’d done -what he is- and understands?

 Danny is just a civilian, isn’t he?

 Their stare broke as Danny looked to Robin. “So, if you aren’t here ‘cause of Amity’s problems or Vlad, what are you here for?”

 Robin was about to answer, but he cut him off. “We need your help.”

 Those icy-blues turned back to him with a tilt of his head. “Help? What help can I give you?”

 He swallowed, mouth dry, “We need to know anything you know about Roy- the real Roy. It might be a stretch but we’re running out of options.”

 “And why do you think I know anything about where he is when nobody’s told me anything about what you’ve been doing for the last five years?” Danny’s eyes glanced between the two heroes before him. “I mean, I know he’s not dead. I’ve checked more than a few times to make sure. And since I’m pretty sure he’s in the living world I can’t help you magically find him.”

 “Living world?” Robin asked before either of them had the chance to decipher what that could mean.

 Danny looked between the two across from him, face twisted in utter confusion. “You mean after all this time, even when I have two of the Justice league Juniors here-” he lifted his hand to stop whatever denials Robin was going to try to start. “-Yes I know you work with the Justice League, I’d be stupid not to know who works with the ignorant Super Friends when they’ve been ignoring every call for help we’ve sent. You also work in such a similar occupation to the town hero to have been cloned, but that's not the point. The point is, you came to Amity Park, the most haunted place on earth- to Fentonworks- and you haven’t done your research?”

 Silence filled the room as the two heroes looked at each other. What do they even say to that? Apparently Robin knew, as he looked back to Danny, sitting his elbows on his knees and steepling his fingers over his mouth.

 “How about we all start from the beginning?”

 ∆•∆•∆•∆

 So.

 Ghosts are apparently real. That was not something he expected to have confirmed today. Robin looked to be in a similar state of shock, though the bat-poker face kept his expression level for anyone not used to their microexpressions. Danny had a similar look of contemplation, though much less surprised.

 “So let me get this straight. You-” Danny pointed to him, “-were created five years ago by an evil extension of the American government with funding by an evil-er billionaire. You took Roy’s place so you could make it to the big leagues so that this evil billionaire and his evil friends could gain control of said big leagues. Because Roy had a soul ring and you don’t, they gave you the implanted memory of me dying so you wouldn’t think to check in on me and accidentally throw off your mission. You succeeded in getting control of the Justice League, found out you were actually a clone, then promised to find your original. Now you’re here because you're running out of ways to find him. Did I get all that right?”

 The two heroes nodded dumbly, before Robin piped up. “And let's see if I get what you’re telling us.”

 Danny nodded as Robin took a breath. “So. Ghosts are real. Your town has been dealing with ghosts for the last six years without help from the Justice League because you stopped trying to call for help after year three. Your town hero has fought world destroying beings and gods and no one ever noticed. Five years ago was the last time you heard from Roy, but you know he’s alive because A. You’ve tried looking for him in the literal realm of the dead, and B. Your soul ring hasn't gone black and crumbled yet. Did I miss anything?”

 “You forgot the part where the whole town basically has a bone to pick with the league now ‘cause they never even answered our calls, and the secret government facility trying to capture and experiment on anything with even an ounce of ectoplasm in their systems with a base right outside the town limits.”

 Robin took in another breath and held it. “Right, that too,” he squeaked out.

 Looking back to Danny, he tried to examine him more than he could at the door. Eyebags so deep you could sleep in them, musculature suited for dodging and running, rather than brute strength, faint scarring crisscrossing both arms reaching as far as his collarbones.

 “You fight them,��� he realized.

 Danny shrugged, “When I have to, yeah. You won’t find many people in Amity that don’t have these kinds of scars. Even the kids have a few good scrapes here and there.” He looked down then, eyes following the paths his scars made with an expression of someone who’d seen too much for his age. The same kind of look he knew greeted the Team whenever one of them looked in the mirror.

 Heavy silence engulfed the living room as the two heroes tried to come up with something to say to this civilian, to console or apologize or to rectify years of neglect- something. But there was no excuse for this. For what the whole town -for what Danny- had to go through, no words were enough to make that right.

 It wasn’t his place to apologize anyway.

 Instead he stood up, Robin following quickly after. “Well, this was enlightening in more ways than one, but since you can’t tell us where Roy is we have to go find answers somewhere else.” He remarked with no heat, he couldn’t even find it in him to sass.

 He was so hopeful that this would give them something, anything more than just to prove that the real Roy was alive. They found that out, at least, but no clue as to where Luthor might have hidden him. This was their last real lead, even if it was a longshot.

 A noise from behind them had him turning to see Danny following them. “Now where do you think you’re going?” Danny asked them.

 “Back? We need to track down more leads or nothing will be done,” he replied.

 “We also need to report the situation in your town. This was a major oversight, and it needs to be rectified,” Robin added on.

 “Not without me you’re not,” Danny said as he crossed his arms.

 He gave Robin a look of confusion as Danny continued. “I’ve waited this long to hear something about my soulmate and you think I’ll stay put when you tell me he needs help? Fat chance of that.”

 “It’s too dangerous for a civilian,” Robin tried to argue. “If we do find him he’ll be surrounded by highly trained guards. It would devastate Roy if he came back and you weren’t there.”

 “That’s why I’m going,” Danny argued back. “And who said anything about me being a civilian?”

 Before either of them could ask a bright light sprung from Danny's waist, splitting in two and crossing his body. Where the light passed Danny changed, from a t-shirt and jeans to padded cloth and armor. Green eyes stared at them under ethereal snow white hair, accented by a sharp smile.

 “Meet the town hero,” Danny quipped in a voice of static and screams.

~~~~~

Tibet

February 14th 2013,

02:01 BT

 “Your source better not be wrong, Phantom,” Will hissed at the half-ghost as he crouched behind the outer wall of a League of Assassins base.

 “Trust me Will, Dani knows better than to joke about something this serious,” Danny whispered back, scoping the place out from the inside just to make sure. Dani knew how serious this was, sure, but Danny said he still needed to see it with his own eyes.

 It had been a little over two years since Danny had joined Will on his search for his template. Another two years of searching for someone the rest of the League thought was dead, even if the evidence to the contrary wrapped around Danny’s finger. Even Dick and Jim, the two who had held out the longest, had turned their backs on the search. Now it was just him and Danny, and Danny’s clone whenever she decided to give them a lead with a call.

 “One more door,” Danny murmured through the comms. “This door is even more heavily guarded than the others, think this is the one Dani was talking about.”

 It was quiet for a few seconds as Danny bypassed the guards and the door, and the silence stretched longer than Will thought acceptable. “Phantom?” He asked through the line.

 A rough breath enhanced the light static that never seemed to go away with Phantom on comm. It was shaky, and Danny didn’t need to breathe in his ghost form. “Did you find something?” Will asked urgently.

 “It's him,” Danny croaked, before putting a little more force in his words. “It’s him, Will. We found him.”

 Will has wanted to hear those words for the last three years. He wanted to laugh, he wanted to cry, he wanted to scream and dance and hug someone. They found him. After three long years they found him.

 Now they just had to get him out of there.

 “Pull back, Phantom,” he ordered. “We’ll have a better time of extracting him if we get rid of the obstacles in the way first.”

 “On it,” Danny responded. Will readied his trick arrows.

~~~~~

 Danny was reading when Roy woke up. He came to slowly, looking around the room first -checking for possible exit strategies- before his eyes fell on Danny. Danny could see a spark of recognition flash by before his face twisted in confusion. He glanced at his ring, then Danny, then did a double take at his lack of right arm. Panic rose in his face, so Danny put his hand over Roy’s, dragging his soulmate’s attention from his amputated limb back to Danny.

 “I know you want to freak out, but how ‘bout we explain a few things first, okay?” He suggested softly, to which Roy shakily agreed.

 With his other hand Danny snatched up his phone, sending a text to Will that Roy was awake. He ran into the room not five minutes later, followed by Oliver Queen, Roy’s mentor and -to Danny’s not so recent knowledge- Green Arrow. Ollie looked almost like he wanted to cry. Will just looked relieved, Danny could sympathize.

 He’s waited too long for this reunion.

 “Great, the whole gang’s here,” Roy quipped, drawing Danny’s attention back to him. “Now can someone tell me why Danny’s here, why there’s another me, and where the hell my arm went‽”

 Will and Ollie glanced at each other in uncertainty, unsure of where to start and how to let him know gently that he’s been asleep for six years. Danny scoffed, rolling his eyes as he gave Roy’s hand a pat and stood up to be next to the other two heroes.

 “Cowards,” he hissed at them before turning to face Roy, who was looking more than a little lost. “Well Roy, It's nice to finally see you again, now buckle up ‘cause this is one hell of a story.”

 ∆•∆•∆•∆

 Danny watched as the other two left the room, before turning back to Roy. For all intents and purposes he looked like a confused teenager that had just been told he was replaced for six years, but the ring on Danny’s finger was blazing with something hotter than confusion and loss.

 “I said I wanted some time alone, Danny,” Roy ground out. His acting was so clear Danny let a chuckle escape his throat as he sat back in his chair.

 “No luck Roy, I’m not leaving you this time.” A glare was shot his way from the boy on the bed, he brushed it off easily with a smile. “I’ve waited this long to be with you again, you really think I’ll leave you alone so you can ghost me?”

 Roy sneered, dropping the act entirely in favour of a glare so strong it would make Vlad quiver in his boots. “You can’t keep me here, not when Luthor needs a beating.”

 “Keep you here?” Danny chuckled, “who said anything about keeping you here? I want to go with you. If I can’t stop you from leaving I can at least make sure you don’t get yourself in another mess you can't get yourself out of.”

 Roy cocked his head, dropping the glare in favour of a confused look. “Danny, not that I don’t appreciate the sentiment, but you really think you can keep up?”

 Danny looked his soulmate over before he gave a sharp grin, exposing his fangs as he flashed his eyes to green. “If I could keep up with you but older for three years, I can keep up with you for as long as I want.”

 Only the book Danny was reading greeted Will and Ollie when they made their way back to the recovery room.

#dpxdcshipweek2023 #DPxDC shipweek #Day 2 #RoyxDanny #dp x dc crossover #dp x dc #dp x dc fanfic #danny phantom #soulmates #roy harper #will harper #danny fenton #Love these gremlins together #Pls let this not be the only one #I wish for more #Ham's fics

[tropes-and-tales-archives]

Whistle Down the Wind, Chapter Eight

Word Count: 3327

TW:  Idiots in love, angst, major injury (talk of hospitals and surgery).

AN:  Part of a series.  The series masterlist here.

You used to spend Christmas Eve with the Carisi family, even sitting through a Mass that seemed to last forever.  Obviously, that was off the table now.

Your mind tried to drift to Sonny’s confession, but you actively pushed it away.  You had made your choice, and you weren’t backing down now.  Bella told you that Sonny had broken up with Nicole that night, but you knew it was only a matter of time before he moved on with someone else.  Probably his partner at work.  You’d met the woman – Amanda – a few times, and she was just the right combination of hot and messy.  That was like catnip to Sonny.

You reached out to your mom, but she was headed to some resort in the Bahamas for Christmas with her other divorcee friends.  You didn’t even bother to call your dad.

Instead, you met up with your bandmate Jen.  She played her violin at a soup kitchen on Christmas Eve, and you joined her with your cello.  The two of you played happy music – Christmas carols and some lighter classical pieces – and you looked around the room at the people eating and talking in a low murmur.  You felt ashamed at your months-long pity-party.  People had it much worse than you.

The two of you played until the soup kitchen was done serving food and the kitchen was torn down and cleaned.  Then you stayed to help set up the emergency homeless shelter – New York could get bitter cold, and makeshift shelters popped up in church basements across the city to help protect the homeless from literally dying in the streets.

You and Jen finished up, then gathered your stuff.  You left the building and sat your cello case down for a moment so that you could wind your scarf around your neck more securely.

“Thanks for coming out,” Jen said, her teeth chattering.  “It meant a lot.”

“I enjoyed it,” you replied.  You hefted your case and turned away with a wave.  “Merry Christmas, Jen.”

********

Sonny was working Christmas Eve, but it was slow.  Rapists and perverts seemed to take the holiday off, so he just sat at his desk and worked on paperwork.

It was late when he heard the elevator ding down the hallway, and then heard footsteps rushing towards him.  He looked up and was surprised by who he saw.  Bella.

“You’re not picking up your phone!” she yelled as she strode into the precinct.  Sonny looked down at his cell and saw that it was silenced.  He must have missed it vibrating.  When he took it off the lock screen, he saw that he’d missed a lot of calls and texts from Bella.  And from an unknown number.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.  Bella looked awful.  Her hair was messy, and her coat wasn’t even buttoned. 

She said your name, tears spilling over her eyelashes.  She swiped at them with a gloved hand.  “Something happened.  Her friend called me.  Tried to call you.”

Sonny felt his heart drop into his stomach.  “What happened?”

Bella shook her head.  “I don’t know.  Her friend called from Bellevue.”  She gave a choked sob.  “Sonny, can you drive me there?”

On the drive to the hospital, Sonny let every possibility run through his head.  You went home with a bad guy.  You got mugged walking home.  You overdosed on weed.  Was that technically possible?  Maybe nowadays, with edibles.  His work at SVU crowded into his thoughts, and he imagined every terrible thing he’d ever seen at work happening to you.  Assaulted, raped, murdered.  His stomach churned and roiled, and Bella openly sobbing beside him didn’t help.

They found parking and made their way to the emergency room.  They found your bandmate, Jen, sitting alone alongside a wall.  Sonny looked her over and saw the blood on her clothes.  His stomach dipped, and he felt his gorge rising in his throat.

Jen caught sight of Sonny and Bella, and she shot to her feet and came over to them.  Her eyes were swollen from crying, and she reached into her pocket.  She pulled out your phone – Sonny would recognize the case anywhere.  He saw the crack that ran across the screen.

“I didn’t know who else to call,” Jen said, her voice watery with tears.  “I tried both of you because you had the most calls and texts to her.  Her parents didn’t pick up.”

“What happened?” Bella asked, and Jen filled them in.

You and Jen had been leaving the soup kitchen.  Jen had turned to walk away but heard a squeal of brakes and turned just in time to see the car that hit you.

“I told her not to jay-walk,” Sonny said angrily, but Jen shook her head at him.

“She wasn’t,” she insisted.  “She was just standing on the sidewalk.  The car jumped the curb and hit her.”  She shook her head again, harder this time.  “The car tried to leave the scene, but it swerved into traffic and hit another car.  Drunk driver, probably.  The cops arrested him.”

“How is she now?” Bella asked.

Jen’s eyes filled with fresh tears.  “She was in surgery.  I don’t know anymore.  No one will tell me anything because I’m not family.  I tried to tell them that her family wasn’t around…” She trailed off, her words breaking up around her fresh sobs.  She looked down at her front, her hands shaking in front of her.  “There was so much blood.”

Sonny led Jen to a chair and had her sit down, then he made Bella sit too.  “I’m going to go find someone,” he said.

He wandered around until he found the nurses’ station.  He gave your name with as much authority as he could muster.  The nurse looked him over skeptically, so he blurted out, “I’m her husband.”

The look on the nurse’s face changed to one of concern.  “Of course,” she said.  “I’ll have the doctor come out to talk with you.”

Sonny leaned against the counter and bargained with God.  He promised a lifetime of masses.  A million rosaries.  Anything, in exchange for your life.

A doctor eventually came down the hallway, and Sonny felt the now-familiar churn in his gut at the blood splattered across the doctor’s scrubs.  He extended a hand, said, “let’s go sit down, shall we?”

The doctor explained the situation.  You hadn’t seen the car coming for you, and that likely saved your life.  You hadn’t tensed up when it hit you, and your cello had absorbed part of the blow too.  Still, you were in fair-to-stable condition.  You had a broken arm, a broken leg, and numerous cracked ribs.  Your liver was bruised, you had deep abrasions from hitting the pavement.  You had lost a fair amount of blood through a number of cuts and scrapes to your head.  Sonny could see you eventually, once you were set up in a room in the ICU and stabilized.

 “Your wife is lucky to be alive,” the doctor concluded.  Sonny felt his heart lurch at the thought of you as his wife.  “But you should call her family, if she has any.”

-----

Sonny sent Bella home to rest, and he promised to call her if anything changed.  He sent Jen home as well after he took your cracked phone from her.  He tried to open it, but it was locked.

“Do you know her password?” he asked your bandmate. 

The woman sniffled and swiped a hand under her nose.  “7-9-3-4.  Beethoven’s her favorite composer, and those are her favorite symphonies in order.”

Sonny unlocked it and tried to call your parents.  He had to search a little – you didn’t even have them saved as “mom” or “dad.”  He found your mother saved under her first name, and your father’s contact information was saved under the moniker “Dumpster Fire.”  Neither parent picked up, so he used his most official NYPD voice and left them messages.  Then he called Liv and gave her the situation.  Then he called his parents, who were just leaving Mass.  They made their way straight to Bellevue.

Sonny was sitting in the mostly-empty waiting room when his parents walked through the door.  He didn’t even try to hold back his emotions anymore.  His mother reached him first, and she pulled him into a strong hug, and he cried for a very long time.

-----

The doctor let him see you eventually.  The nurse explained that, as family, he could stay on the fold-out chair in the room, so Sonny sent his parents off to his apartment to get him some clothes and toiletries.  Then he made his way to your room.

You looked so unlike yourself that Sonny almost thought that there had been a mistake.  One leg was in traction, and nearly every other part of you was covered by gauze or bandages.  Your face was a mass of bruises, and the only part of you that Sonny recognized were your hands.  They lay limp on top of the light blanket that covered you, and Sonny took one gently and held it as he sat beside you.

It wasn’t twitching this time.  You weren’t playing any music in your sleep.  You had a mass of wires connected to you that kept the machines by the bed beeping steadily, and you were deep asleep from the combination of sedatives and pain medication. 

The nurse that came in to check your vitals shot Sonny a pitying look when he asked if you could hear him.  “Maybe,” she replied, punching an update into her computer.  “It couldn’t hurt to talk to her.”

So Sonny talked to you.

It was like confession, almost.  He told you everything.

He held your warm hand in his and told you about the first time he met you.  He had helped his parents move Bella into her new quad during her sophomore year, and then you – a bright-eyed freshman – walked through the door.  Freshman housing was full, so you got lucky and were placed in Bella’s dorm.  You were laden down with too much stuff, and Sonny had bounded over like a puppy to help you.

He ended up helping you move your stuff, since your parents were too busy bickering in the parking lot.  You joked around with him, and by the time your last box was moved in, he was in love.

He told you about his sudden interest in visiting Bella – for homecoming weekends, for big school events – just to see you.  He was endlessly fascinated by your talent, and he came more than once to watch you play in concerts and open mic nights alike.  Sometimes he just sat back in the shadows and watched you, not even telling you that he was there.

He told you about how happy he was when you and Bella came to crash at his first apartment, sleeping on an air mattress in his living room so that you could go to concerts in the city.  He explained the exquisite torture of sleeping ten feet from you, separated by a thin wall, wishing he was stretched out on the air mattress beside you.  He described the conflict that his roommate’s comments caused in him – you looked so young and seemed so sheltered and innocent, Sonny felt like a complete creep for having any sort of feelings for you.

He told you about how he campaigned to get you to spend your summers at his parents’ house.  It made perfect sense – you had an internship in the city, and you could save money on housing, and his parents loved you like another daughter by then.  Suddenly, Sonny found reasons to come home over the summer.  He knew women liked a man in uniform, so he made sure to show up after his shifts in his police blues, hoping you were one of those women.

He told you about his sudden, intense interest in movies.  You’d mention a director or score composer, and he’d do furious research until he could talk intelligently about them too.  By then, Tommy was out of prison and Bella was spending all of her time with him, but Sonny started movie night to keep you close to him.

He told you, a bit ashamed, about how he’d crank up the air conditioner so that you’d drift closer to him on the couch for warmth.

What he couldn’t tell you was why he never told you any of this before.  He didn’t even know himself.  He supposed that there’d always be a better time or place for it.  The better place for it turned out to be the intensive care unit, and the better time was now.

********

Being hit by a car wasn’t like it seemed on television or in the movies.  There was no death-bed confessions that you heard, no waking up with the love of your life asleep in the chair beside you.  No moment where you had to choose between drifting into the light and returning to your body.

One minute you had been playing your cello at the soup kitchen.  The next minute, you were in a hospital bed and crying incoherently from the pain.

You drifted in and out.  You were never quite sure if it was day or night.  A lovely nurse, as beautiful as an angel, came in and gave you morphine on a regular schedule.  If you had the mental capacity to write her theme song, it would be nothing but the most ethereal music.  A chorus of sopranos.  The morphine made you emotional, but it obliterated the grinding pain that ruled your world.

Sonny was there every day.  You were either asleep or high on pain medicine, and you could barely string together a coherent sentence at first, so you missed a lot of his visits.  Sometimes you woke up to him holding your hand and talking to you.  Sometimes he came after work, handsome in his suits.  Once, he fell asleep beside you, his head laid in his folded arms on the side of your bed.  That time, you were able to lay a weak hand on his head, ruffling his hair, wishing you could follow a train of thought long enough to tell him how you felt. 

********

You woke up from your surgery, and Sonny was on his knees that night, thanking god for it.  You were alive – breathing, crying, healing. 

Well, you cried a lot.  You woke up confused, and you had a lot of delusions at first.  Sometimes you thought you were on a reality show.  Sometimes you thought you were dreaming and that you were in a coma somewhere else.  One time you were convinced that the IV drip had “superhero serum” in it.  When Sonny asked you what that meant, you had merely glared at him and slurred, “wouldn’t you like to know.”

When they shifted you from morphine to other pain medications, you reacted badly to those.  You cried at everything.  You cried at the hospital food, you cried at therapy.  You cried at daytime television.  Once, Sonny found you just sitting in bed, giant tears rolling down your face.  When he asked why you were crying, you told him, your breath hitching as you sobbed, that you felt badly because you had “said some rude things” about Brahms. “I just want to apologize to him one last time.”  It took him another few moments to understand that you thought you had been talking to Brahms at one point and that you wanted to, somehow, apologize to a composer who had been dead for a hundred years.  Sonny had to bite the inside of his cheek to stop from laughing at you – you were so distraught.  All he could do was wipe away your tears and tell you that all was forgiven.

Some of the tears were valid though.

You cried when you saw your cello, crushed beyond recognition.  It had helped save your life, but it was a one-of-a-kind instrument and the first real investment in your career that you had made.  In the depression that fell over you during your hospital stay, you became convinced that you’d never play music again.

You cried a lot about your parents, too.

Sonny always knew that your family was not like his.  Between the few spats he had witnessed himself and overhearing you and Bella making comments about them, he figured your parents had issues. 

Your father called him back when you were still unconscious from your surgery.  He made some lame excuses about trying to find a flight to New York over the holidays, and in the end, he just asked Sonny to keep him updated.  He promised to send along some money to help with your medical bills, but otherwise, your father was out of the picture.

You mother visited later, once you were out of the ICU and trying to figure out the next steps of your rehab.  There was no way you could go back to your apartment right away – it was a four-story walk-up, and you could barely walk with all your broken bones and diminished stamina.

Tentatively, you had asked your mother if you could go home to recover.  You could rent a car together and she could drive you home, then you could return to New York once you were healed up.

“Oh, I don’t know, honey,” your mother had said absentmindedly.  “You know I’m not good with stuff like that.”

Sonny was standing by the window, listening to your conversation and seething.  He could think of at least ten family members of his own who would gladly help you recover, and your own mother couldn’t be bothered.  But at least she showed up.  Your father never even made an appearance.

Sonny turned and watched you as you reacted to your mother.  He watched your face:  first the disappointment, then the stony, blank face. 

“It’s fine,” you replied, your voice flat.  “I’ll figure it out.”

“That’s my girl,” your mother replied.  She reached over and fluffed your hair before wincing at a healing cut on your forehead.  “You know, if you parted your hair on the other side, you can cover this.  Because it looks like it’s going to scar.”

“Good idea,” you said.  You stared off at the wall opposite to your bed until your mother left.  Her flight didn’t leave until the next day, but she had a ticket to see “Wicked” and wanted to grab dinner beforehand.

“I’ll call you and check in once I’m home,” she said.  She kissed your cheek and gave Sonny a wave and was gone.

Sonny watched you for a moment, and then he walked over to your bedside.  “You okay, doll?” he asked softly.  You shook your head slightly, and he could tell you were trying to hold back more tears.

“You don’t have to stay, stretch,” you replied.  You glanced at him for a second, then shifted your eyes to your broken arm.  You toyed with the edge of the plaster.  “I have to figure some things out anyway.  Make some calls.”

“You don’t have to do any of that.”  He reached out and laid his hand on your good arm, squeezing it gently.  “You’re gonna come stay with me until you’re healed up.”

You shook your head again.  “I can’t…”

“You can.  You will.”  He rubbed your arm and watched as the tears spilled over and ran down your face.  “My building has an elevator, I have plenty of PTO banked up.  Between me and Bella and my parents, we can handle it.  And when you get tired of the Carisi’s, your bandmates can help.”

“It’s going to be a month or longer,” you protested, but he shifted his hand to grasp yours.

“I’ve got plenty of movies queued up,” he replied.  He tilted his head at you and gave you his winningest smile until you couldn’t help but grin back at him.

#sonny carisi #sonny carisi imagine #sonny carisi x reader #law and order svu #law and order svu fanfiction #tropes and tales

[universallychaoticpan]

HIIII since its almost Halloween I have a hunted house request🏚🌃 where Dazai and Chuuya with their s/o go on a house of horror but s/o is not terrified ahhahah plus the boy become the third wheel of their date bc atsushi/akutagawa is clinging on s/o and preventing aku from killing an actor

Haha the chaos is amazing!! (I may or may not have written this eating candy corn lol.) Anyway, I've been suuuper low on requests so this was such a treat! (I will see myself out.) This ended up being a weird sort of college AU, but I hope that works. <33333

This reaally wasn't the way you were expecting to spend your night. Haunted house date? Sure, you were down. Not one to be easily frightened, you were mainly there for laughs. But really, it was Halloween and the chill in the air reinvigorated you; also, whatever was in the cider you'd had earlier totally had you buzzed.

You giggled as a pair of hands wound around your waist, a head burying into your shoulder. The floorboards creaked under your feet as you covered your mouth to stifle your laughter. If Dazai come through, he should be just around here. He hadn't told you exactly where, 'for authenticity's sake' he'd claimed, and even though he annoyed the hell out of you sometimes, you knew he would never miss a chance to pull some shit on your boyfriend.

SLAM

The door you'd just entered closed with a bang, making Chuuya and the dark haired freshman he's taken a liking to jump. One of them let out a small scream- for the sake of your boyfriend's dignity, you would never tell him you knew who it was. (He was already annoyed at Akutagwa's proximity to you.) Across the room, a worn down door let slivers of light peak through; if he was going to come through for you, it had to be now.

And then a tall, looming figure blocked out all your light. A sudden flash of light revealed the figure, swathed head to toe in black tattered clothes, now standing in the corner before you were all plunged into darkness. A few seconds later, whatever it was had emerged from the shadows a meter away.

Darkness.

Two feet.

Pitch black.

And then he was right in front of you, the arms around you tightening as the figure howled and shrieked, Ryunosuke and Chuuya screaming themselves hoarse on either side of you.

You couldn't hold back. Your faux horror melted into the laughter you were holding in, sending you into peels of laughter as the lights came on reveal one Osamu Dazai and a very disheveled, if satisfied, Edogawa Ranpo. Akutagawa's jaw fell open as you wheezed, Chuuya's face going from shock to annoyance as he scoffed at the three of you.

"Should have known" he spat.

"Oh calm down," you giggled, pressing a swift kiss to his lips. "It was all in good fun. Besides all of this was your idea!"

"Yeah yeah," the redhead muttered. "Great idea- my girlfriend betrays me, my friend steals my girlfriend- spend the whole night third wheeling while he clings to her for dear life and then a literal idiot in a trench coat shows up."

"Hey hey!! Credit where it's due- there were two idiots in said trench coat." Ranpo's eyes glittered mischievously in the dim light, as you led the way back out into the night.

"You're an idiot, y/n l/n." Chuuya slipped his hand into yours as you walked off.

"Oh shut up, you love me. Besides, it was fun!!"

"I suppose but I still- y/n where's Akutagawa?"

Turning back, you couldn't see the boy anywhere; which was odd since despite having a very distinct appearance, people didn't usually gravitate towards him en masse.

"That's odd," you murmured, "I would have thought the shock had gone and he'd be fine by now."

And then Dazai and Ranpo ran past, tripping over themselves as they laughed, and- like a summoned devil, the one and only Akutagawa Ryunosuke went tearing after them screeching curses, bloody murder and everything in between.

"Well," you grinned, "look's like it's time to save the idiots!!"

Chuuya rolled his eyes and groaned.

"Must we?"

Dazai was beyond annoyed. When he'd told Atsushi he could tag along with the two of you, he really really wasn't expecting the white haired youth to spend the whole night curled into your side, eyes flicking back and forth anxiously.

Sidled up to you was his spot!! That was his whole plan!

Served him right for not seeing it coming, he supposed, thinking grumpily to himself. So he trudged behind you, speakers outside the building blaring, not masking the sudden startled screams that ripped through the massive place.

"You've gotta admit, Atsushi," Dazai grinned, "this is just a wonderful place to have a haunted house. After all, in a building like these, who's to say there aren't ghosts?"

You rolled your eyes, a small smile at forming at the corners of your lips. "I don't have to tell you not to mind him, Atsushi. He's just being a baby because he has to face the consequences of dragging you here in the first place."

Dazai pressed a hand t his chest and fell against a nearby wall, moaning dramatically. "You wound me amore!! How could you."

"You're so whiny," you laughed. "Now can we please hurry up? I do have things to do early in the morning."

"I would love to, my love, however I seem to be caught in quite a situation-"

"Oh what now?"

Turning around, you were met with your boyfriend dangling two feet in the air, legs swinging uselessly as he was lifted up towards a gaping hole in the ceiling, revealing a pitch black opening to the floor above.

Damn, this place has quite the budget.

#chuuya x reader #dazai x reader #bsd x reader #chuuya nakahara x reader #osamu dazai x reader #bsd crack #bungo stray dogs #bungo stray dogs x reader #bsd

[bh-52]

Barriss talking to herself incorrect quotes.

Legends Barriss: I'm a Jedi, don't insult my Order with outlandish claims, or I'll relocate the shrapnel I'm surgically removing from your cerebral cortex into your spine.

Canon Barriss: I'm disillusioned with the Order and the Republic, not brain damaged, you goody two shoes nerd!

Legends Barriss: then why in the mass shadows of Malachor V did you frame my beloved Ahsoka for terrorism?

Canon Barriss: It was an accident, she wasn't even supposed to be in the room with Letta when I killed her.

Legends Barriss, spanking her Canon counterpart: Murdering that civilian in cold blood is one thing, but you don't mess with my wife! How dare you try to kill her in that warehouse?

Canon Barriss: At least she survived Order 66.

Legends Barriss: She was targeted by it anyway! If you hadn't caused her to leave the Order, her skills wouldn't have been so rusty when she fought Maul, and she would've been around to help Fives when he was on the run!

Canon Barriss: Speaking of that fight, what idiot sent her to fight Master Kenobi's arch nemesis, without another Jedi to support her?

Legends Barriss: It was Skywalker.

Canon Barriss: That explains so much.

Legends Barriss: Maybe if you hadn't turned to the dark side, we could've been there to help her.

Canon Barriss, with her eyes on the viewing end of a magnifying glass: Do I have Sith eyes? No! Why does everyone assume I've fallen to the dark side?

Legends Barriss: Terrorism and Force choking people to death aren't light side actions! And no, you don't have Sith eyes. But neither did Dooku or Ventress.

Canon Barriss, strips naked: the dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities, and big boobs.

Legends Barriss: Oh?

Canon Barriss: Just ask Ventress, Aayla, Aurra Sing, Phobos, Maris Brood, Vaylin, and Talon.

Legends Barriss: The dark side may be a pathway to many abilities, but those are considered unnatural.

Canon Barriss: Ouch.

Legends Barriss: Have you apologised to Ahsoka, or had a redemption arc yet?

Canon Barriss: Shut up.

#incorrect quotes #star wars #sw incorrect quotes #tcw incorrect quotes #incorrect clone wars quotes #incorrect star wars #incorrect star wars quotes #star wars incorrect quotes #ahsoka and barriss #barriss offee #luminara and barriss #incorrect sw quotes #barriss and luminara #barriss deserved better #barrissoka #barrisoka #incorrect Barriss quotes #jedi #the star wars saga #star wars the clone wars #star wars legends #swtcw #sw legends

[ineffable-gallimaufry]

shitty magnus archives summaries:

episode 1: guy gets a new job and immediately has to learn about a guy almost murdered by a fish (?) asking for cigarettes

episode 2: guy agrees to look after an empty coffin while high and gets the worst roommate ever for a year and a half

episode 3: woman becomes entranced by a man across the street who has a cool ass table and a bunch of books (he eats the books once)

episode 4: guy has a weird book that smells bad. he meets someone else who has a book by the same person and then her son takes his book and burns it

episode 5: trash shenanigans get a guy killed

episode 6: babe... would you still love me if i were a worm? well how about if i were a gross mass of flesh covered in black ooze filling your apartment with worms

episode 7: war sucks man

episode 8: guy works on a construction job. there's a weird tree that bleeds and has a box with an apple that turns into spiders (so kinda like when you buy fresh fruit from the grocery store sometimes)

episode 9: girl's dad is a serial killer. this makes her sink not work sometimes

episode 10: vampire hunting!!! wait they're real?

episode 11: guy has prophetic dreams and tells the person who had jons job before him she's gonna die for real. she is in fact dead for real so i guess he was right

episode 12: worst hospital shift ever. oh hey that's the guy who burned that other guy's book from episode 4!

episode 13: woman's fiance dies and then she runs around a non-existent field before getting hit by a car. i thought the plot twist was going to be that the guy's family ate him but i don't think so

episode 14: guy makes a deal with a witch to kill his business partner. when the guy just kills his partner on his own instead of waiting for the witch, she decides to cut off all his limbs. what an idiot

episode 15: woman tells fun story about a horrible cave diving experience with her sister. the entire story is a lie. she probably sacrificed her sister to the cave

episode 16: guy gets really freaked out by spiders

#tma #is this spoilers? #this is all i have watched #the magnus archives

[lilliryth]

Something I find so confusing but also so funny is that one line from Phantom where Christine goes “Have you gorged yourself, at last, in your lust for blood? Am I now to be prey to your lust for flesh?” and Erik responds with “That fate which condemns me to wallow in blood has also denied me the joys of the flesh.”

Like. sir????? Okay but you didn’t answer the question. In modern terms that’s like Christine going “So what’s next, asshole? Now that you’re officially a mass murderer are you going to be a rapist too?” followed by Erik panicking and yelling “I AM A VIRGIN”. Not addressing it at all, just taking a violent left turn in the driveway and winding up in the middle of a neighbor’s swimming pool at 3:00 AM.

It’s also hilarious because, on the one hand, it could imply that Erik is so utterly flabbergasted and uncomfortable from the implication that he misses the point of the jab completely—or, on the other hand, it’s him being a queer icon by effectively saying “do not insinuate such Things, i am merely a very angry asexual who wants a wife to play scrabble with.”

Imagine being such a dork that after murder, kidnapping, extortion, and a whole score of other things that being called a “pervert!!!!111!!!!11!” is what does your little head in. You’re out here writing fanfiction about Don Juan “putting his thingy in her you-know-what” and practicing in the mirror for when you rip off your sparkly cape to show off your slutty little waist to your crush and then she mentions sex and you die. Poor, unhappy Erik. Idiot baby. Silly man.

It’s a mood tho.

#christine a 4th grader: so are you going to SEX ME you GROSS STINKY MAN 😡 #erik another 4th grader: cease and desist!!!! i know not of this ‘pussy’ you speak of!!!!!!!! #phantom of the opera

[lytters]

recalculating, reevaluating || b. katsuki

katsuki has always had one plan since he was young – to be a hero. he’s been sure of it ever since he was born, hell, even in his mother’s womb. his mother likes to laugh about how he’d kick up a storm in her belly whenever she watched a hero fighting on television. she jokes that he was already practicing how to be one so that he could be born fighting.

throughout his childhood, he trained himself, pushing his body to its limits, working on his quirk until he has complete mastery over it. by the time he gets into UA, he’s already halfway to his end goal. now as much as UA was a school for potential heroes, it’s also still a highschool. and it means the the experience of crushes, and love, and heartbreak is a package deal.

katsuki watches as his friends (not that he’ll admit it to their faces, being the tsundere he is) fall in love, then out of love, and back in again. he watches as they get confessions after confessions because heroes-in-training is a huge appeal to the masses. and of course he experiences his fair share of confessions, he’s damn attractive and he knows it. but never once did he entertain any of them; he’s worked hard to reach where he is, and he’d be damned if he got distracted from his only plan in life.

he thinks he’ll never fall in love, because he’s already in love with one thing – being a hero.

until you. he never saw you coming until you were there, unassuming, all-consuming.

you, an unremarkable face in the crowd, just another civilian he’s saved and will continue to save, plain, little old you caught his attention. it hadn’t been in a life-changing moment. no, in fact, it had been an extremely mundane event that had him reconsidering everything in his life. and all you did was thank him sincerely with a little charm you had on you.

“i’m sorry i don’t have much to offer, but this charm has always brought me good luck, so i hope it brings you good luck too. for saving me.”

katsuki wants to scoff in your face, to throw the charm back at you. he doesn’t need luck; luck’s for idiots who waste their time wishing, never working. but the sincerity in your eyes, the gentle way you press the charm in his hand, it struck something in him. he spends nights thinking about you, tossing and turning as he dreams about the charm, how genuine you were in a world full of extras and fakes.

he can’t figure out what exactly it was about you that keeps drawing his attention back to you. he hates it. he hates you. who are you, a nameless face, to the rising pro-hero lord explosion murder: dynamight? why can’t he stop remembering your eyes, your touch? it’s months of this aggravating cycle, and without a name, he can’t track you down and demand you to explain to him these vexing feelings.

he’s finishing up patrol when he spots you in the crowd, smiling without a care in the world. he’s instantly angry: how can you be smiling like that, after causing him so much mental distress? you’ve costed him so many nights of sleep, and yet here you are, practically bouncing with joy. it is with these thoughts bouncing around that he storms towards you, ready to vent his frustrations.

all of these comes to a screeching halt when you turn that smile on him. everything clicks then, in one mortifying moment – katsuki had a crush on you.

he burns up in an instant, his palms sparking in a way it hasn't done since highschool. he fights to keep it under control, to maintain a cool demeanor as you make your way to him. he’s faced villains ten times scarier than you, taken them down in matter of minutes. and yet he can’t help his heart from racing, his face from flushing in ugly, blotchy patches as you stop in front of him with that damned smile.

“hey! i’m not sure if you remember me,” you look up at him shyly through your lashes, and he can’t decide if he wants to throttle you or profess his feelings for you. of course he remembers you, the one who’s been haunting his thoughts, his dreams. but he doesn’t say that, waiting for you to finish what you want to say. “you saved me a couple months back, and i gave you a charm?”

katsuki is a well-educated man. he’s scored consistently in the top five in his highschool cohort, and now holds a cumulative grade point average of 3.98 as he studies in university while working a pro-hero. the point is, he’s smart. but for all the words he’s learnt, he seems to have tossed them all out the window then, because all he can do is nod and grunt his affirmation.

that doesn’t deter you though, and dear god, it should be illegal how cute you are when your eyes light up and you bounce on your feet lightly.

“that’s great! i, uh, i hope the charm’s been working for you!” you bite your lip nervously, and katsuki wants to die. the thought must show through on his face, because your smile drops, and you back up uneasily. “uh, anyways, i just wanted to say hi, and thank you again. i’m sorry for bothering you, i’ll leave now.”

no, damnit, don’t leave. katsuki watches as you bow quickly, turning to leave.

“wait.”

katsuki has always had one plan, and one plan only – to be a hero. but here you are, and now he’s recalculating, reevaluating. he wants you; he wants to be yours. he’s going to be yours.

“i’m ending patrol soon, d’ya wanna get dinner?”

say yes, say yes because katsuki will die of humiliation if you don’t. you turn back to face him, a hopeful light in your eyes. say yes, please.

“i would love to.”

#bakugo katuski x reader #bakugo katuski #bakugo x reader #bnha #bnha x reader #bnha.myworks #l.writing