#also ignore me typing out all the math i was double checking it to make sure i didnt make any like. addition mistakes | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

outoftimewriting · 4 years

Text

Imagine (based on the incomplete fanfic Son of the Underworld) (Son of Hades! Percy AU) (5/5) or (5/10)

Hey so, this is the last part of PJO - I follow into HOO, so before you read this, check on the masterpost - and read the warnings before proceeding :)) Good reading!

Annabeth comes to him, at the end of his fifteenth birthday party, and shows her Daedalus laptop. There's a document open in it, and it's labeled Achilles' Curse.

Percy doesn't read it - he hates reading, in any way or form or language - but she does, out loud.

"I'll think about it"

They have a year. Most of them, even those who aren't year-rounders, are going back to camp, to draw battle plans and stock on the armory.

He feels kinda selfish - for a whole five seconds before he remembers he'll probably die next summer, so he just shrugs it off - Percy deserves this year.

They all leave to go back to camp. Nico seems conflicted over something - but Perseus doesn't question it, there's enough bad blood between them.

Paola is really cool - and Sally really loves her. It's kind of bizarre at first, to see his Mom dating his teacher - and of a subject he hates - but Paola is calm and well-tempered and she laughs at his stupid ass jokes.

He visits Persephone afterward - and it really feels like he has three moms to fulfill his lack of a father - well, he is absolutely grateful for the women in his life.

Percy isn't truly in good terms with his father. The man doesn't really seem to care much for him as a person - he is much more of a trophy son.

Perseus loathes being a trophy son, but at least he has someone to help with his powers - not something a lot of half-bloods can claim.

So he goes back to school with Rachel, and they pretend everything is normal. He tells her about his quests - all three of them. He thinks she understands him better now.

He opens up to her. Tells her about Annabeth - the adrenaline-fueled kiss - and Rachel stops talking with him for a week.

She apologizes when she comes back. She needed to figure some things up - firstly, the redhead tells him she is probably asexual - and maybe aromantic too, but she is not certain because the internet wasn't really clear about that.

Then Rachel confesses that she is not jealous of him in a romantic way - she is envious of his friendship with Annabeth. Percy is her first genuine friend that really appreciates her.

This is the first grudge Perseus lets go for real before it even takes place - Rachel didn't leave him because of teenage drama, she ignored him out of confusion. Everyone is allowed space - he knows this better than anyone.

They don't kiss anymore. Not because Rachel doesn't like it - no, she is all for it - but because Percy is starting to think kisses should mean something - he is saving them.

They kiss once - when Rachel father calls for the first time this year - not to ask about her, but to tell Rachel he found this amazing all-girls school. To Percy, kisses mean comfort.

They cuddle a lot, though. These past few years of fear have made Percy very touch-starved.

It's sophomore year - and Percy is in five AP classes: Macroeconomics&Microeconomics, Statistics, Calculus AB, Physics 1, and Comparative Government and Politics.

He is planning on taking both AP Computer Science classes, Psychology, Physics 2, and Calculus BC next year; leaving only Electricity&Magnetism, Mechanics, Chemistry, and World History for his senior year.

If he lives, he is working on a tight schedule here. He doesn't know what he wants yet - and if he is in constant danger, it's already pretty lucky he can do high school - but probably something with Math.

Rachel says fourteen AP courses are ambitious - that he'll burn out. But math comes to him easily enough - it's in his blood.

She is also overworking: She is taking AP Environmental Studies, Art History, Drawing, 2-D Art and Design, and English Literature and Composition.

They complete each other. Rachel is planning on taking as many Art, History, and English courses as she can - he is taking as many Physics, Math, and Science as he can handle.

(She is also going to take on Japanese studies for some reason - probably for her GPA, but Perseus just teases her that she is getting too invested in anime)

Perseus doesn't care about languages anymore - the only languages that matter to him are C++ and JavaScript now.

They study together, they take naps together, they climb to the roof together, they flee school to visit Sally together - he is the Pinky to her Brain, the Scooby to her Shaggy, the Lois Lane to her Superman, the Robin to her Batman.

They look like troublemakers - They are honor roll students, but she is always with ripped pants dirty with paint, and he is always full of flowers everywhere, even in his muddy converses - a cliche to kill all cliches.

They're both nerds - he is the classic one, all polo shirts now, the first chair for every number-related class - and she is the artsy one - there's a brush behind her ear and her hair is so messy that half the time it covers her face.

Paola gifts him a pair of cheap frames without lenses once - saying it adds to the aesthetic - he totally uses them.

Persephone just makes him flower-crowns, and giggles when he matches them with his polo shirts.

When winter comes, he goes back to his hoodies and sweaters and gloves - to find out he doesn't miss them a lot.

Rachel introduces him to polaroids - and they look eerily pretty in the winter, her hair looking like blood spilling over the snow - and he loves it.

If he survives - he can feel Rachel slapping him - when he survives, his college credits will be remarkable. The idea of doing SATs makes him want to cry - reading always does - but he'll get somewhere good - he knows it. Perhaps Stanford. Or NYU. Or the dream of his life, MIT.

He is living his life to the fullest - he starts reading comic books, he gets really (really) into Tony Stark once Iron Man 1 comes out (even if he has to kill at least three monsters just to go to the movies), he plants trees and Rachel starts teaching him how to play her ukulele - but half his mind is still on the upcoming war.

Christmas vacation comes - and he goes to visit Camp Half-Blood, before heading back to his mom. It's quite memorable, if only by the fact that Nico Di Angelo freaking betrays him.

He tells Percy to come to the Winter Solstice with him. Most of the campers are not going - the war effort is in an all-time high - but Percy has never gone before. Hades will be there - it'll be great!

Perseus should absolutely be less surprised with the outcome - seeing that Nico is inviting him in Cabin 1, post-dinner, and they don't even stop to talk to Chiron about it.

But Percy goes. Because Percy wants to make amends.

There's no time to really talk to anyone. They travel in Blackjack for the Empire State Building - and it's fine.

They go up to Olympus, Nico shows him everything in the god's land, the temples are a work of art, if not kind of old, and the meeting is kind of okay, even if the gods are squabbling children.

Then the gods leave, and Perseus thinks they're leaving too.

"My father needs a word with you"

Perseus feels the betrayal claw on him. There are no shadows in the white hall, there's no way for him to escape. Nico looks apologetic - Percy wants to clock him in the face.

"He promised to tell me more about my mother" Nico pleads "He will tell me more about where I've come from. Please, Percy."

Nico is cute. He is, for a soon-to-be fourteen-year-old. But his pretty face and exquisite white eyes don't make him any less of a freaking liar. All his handsome male straight friends betray him - it's a worrying pattern now.

He muses for a second that they also all have a crush on Annabeth - gods, the blonde attract the worst types.

It's double-crossing - Percy ends up in an all-white cell that burns his retinas without any weapons because Zeus wants praise in the middle of this freaking war - doesn't matter if a hundred demigods die, if he only has the glory.

Nico ends up with barely any information - Zeus didn't promise anything. The god of the skies is a lying-ass motherfucker - literally.

And Zeus justifies it - He says Perseus is a criminal because he awakened Typhon. So Hephaestus issues a quest so he can save a hundred demigods, he destroys a powerful titan weapon of doom, and he is the villain? Sure, Jan.

Perseus writes this grudge in his heart - that's where trust will take you. To a cell. Betrayed by a "friend". Again.

He flinches when Nico comes into his cell, pins him to the wall and promptly begins to try and strangle him. He wants to melt in the boy's shadow - to go and never give him a chance to explain - but he looks so guilty Percy waits for his repentance.

The son of Zeus saves him, but Perseus is still pissed off. The god of thunder has threatened to kill him off at least two times now, what is to say he wouldn't have killed off Percy for the sake of glory?

He half hopes Zeus had killed him off. The war is close, too close - Nico wouldn't be the Prophecy's child. There would be no child. Olympus would fall - and Percy would have seen it all from his very comfortable couch in Elysium.

He wants Kronos gone - but he kind of wants Olympus to fall with the Titan.

Nico flies him down to the Earth - the elevator is monitored. Zeus has left, like many others - not to bother with the war effort against his main enemy, but to go to the human world mess with people.

Some gods are doing something - He has heard from Annabeth that Artemis is leading the widest hunt ever, with her brother by her side; Hermes (with Hephaestus help) is delivering Celestial Bronze, other metals, old schematics and a whole lot of fuel to Camp Half-Blood every few weeks; Poseidon is fighting his own war, in the ocean; Dionysus is at Camp - and this time, he is really helpful with the battle formations; Demeter is on the Underworld - Chiron seems to think his father is preparing for war, but Percy sorely doubts it.

Percy is taking some people with him to Sally's Christmas dinner. Just Annabeth, Clarisse, Rachel, Connor, Travis, and Charles - people who don't have a present family to celebrate it with.

Grover is coordinating the dryads up in San Francisco with his second cousin, Gleeson Hedge - they are the first to fall if anything goes wrong in Mt. Othrys.

"I think you should stay." He tells Nico.

"You don't trust me anymore." It's not actually a question.

Percy doesn't trust the boy. Not at all - it's the third time he does something shady to achieve his ends based on emotional turmoil. But he is a good person - it's just his father's cursed temper and his grief.

"It's not that. You're needed for the war effort."

Both of them know it's a lie. Percy doesn't care - he deserves to be bitter a little longer.

Percy goes back home. Christmas is amazing - even if Rachel asks him where Nico is because he is talking about making amends with the boy for a while now.

He goes visit Persephone - but she is occupied, so he wanders through the Underworld after Bianca di Angelo - someone he, for some reason, never been able to reach. It's a pointless endeavor by now.

He finds her. Or else, he finds a shadow of her - she is blocked from his view. Bianca doesn't talk to him - they weren't close - but she guides him to a girl.

Her name is Hazel Levesque.

She seems lost - like most ghosts - but something in Percy calls for her. It's the color of her skin and the sparkle in her golden eyes - Hazel remembers him of himself.

He promises to visit more - even though he doesn't think she'll remember it - and leaves to go back to the surface - he will finish the sophomore year.

And Percy does. After a very distressing break, he is doing his best. His grades drop a little in English because he can barely focus - half his mind is on the war and Nico's betrayal and Hazel Levesque's golden eyes.

Miraculously, his GPA doesn't fall - he still is taking a ridiculous amount of AP classes, and barely has time to breathe - dark circles grow under his eyes, and he looks like a mess - but now he is a Junior.

That's why, as soon as the year ends, Rachel takes him on a road trip with Connor. They go all the way to Boston, then Portland, Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa, Syracuse, Baltimore, and Filadelfia, before going back to NY.

They are stopped five times by the police - because Percy is black, and it's Rachel driving the Camaro, because she has a learner's permit and Connor is, somehow, an approved license holder.

They are on a pier, enjoying the view of the beach. They did the last week alone because Connor wanted to go check on one of his cousins - at least, that's what he said, with an over-exaggerated wink that both Percy and Rachel ignored for the sake of their sanity.

She tells him about Clarion Ladies Academy - but that her father is at least mildly happy with her GPA this year, even if he disapproves of her Art focused AP classes. Percy thinks Mr. Dare would love him, with his APs on Economics and Politics, if only he was rich. And white.

This time, when Charles Beckendorf arrives in a Pegasus to tell him it's time, Rachel doesn't kiss him - she justs hugs him and makes him promise to call her.

Perseus doesn't go to the Andromeda Ship - he is needed in Camp. He is useless on the water - but they do need him to improve battle strategy.

Charles Beckendorf is dead. Thalia is the one to tell them - she was in her father's palace helping with a monster under her Lady's orders - he went on the mission alone.

Percy talks briefly with Beckendorf's ghost - is his worst developed power, and he can barely hold the "seance" for more than a few minutes. He does it with only Nico di Angelo for witness - the others are the way to close to the situation.

There's a spy passing information to Luke.

They look at him. Doesn't matter how much he does, he is always the first suspect - he is a son of Hades. He was friends with a lot of people on the other side. He was gone for a year and a half, who knows where.

Perseus wants to say that he has helped to save their asses four times now - that without him in the Labyrinth, they would all be dead right now - and that Charles was basically his older brother.

Then he points out he wasn't even here - he had no idea of any plans of anything - and he told him about the spy, so he is not the freaking spy, go point fingers at each other instead of him.

When they start yelling, he stops them - this is not the time, he was just angry at their accusations. They have to burn Charles shroud. Silena is inconsolable - Percy is not very far from it, but he is not a public crier. The last time he cried in public, Luke was dead on a cliff.

Percy speeds up the line for Elysium to Beckendorf - his brother deserves it.

They read the prophecy together - Perseus already read it last summer, he doesn't even care anymore. They look at him anxiously - no one has forgotten that he abhors most of the gods.

Clarisse and Michael Yew fight, but Lee Fletcher - with a mechanical arm built by Beckendorf himself, still re-learning how to shoot arrows and forever incapable of playing the guitar again (but the keyboard is not ruled out yet) - stops them: They can share the chariot. The war is more important - is not the time for petty fights.

Chiron shows them Typhon - and Perseus has a sliver of hope that they can destroy Kronos and be free of the gods at the same time - It's a horrible hope, because he loves Persephone and some of them are even okay sometimes, but he really wants Zeus to go to Tartarus for at least a century, so Perseus doesn't meet him again in this life.

But he also wants the gods to win, because there's a lot of dead people - innocents, people who have nothing to do with this war.

He dreams of Rachel. Rachel is painting Luke - and Percy wakes up crying, for the boy the gods took away.

Annabeth takes him aside and reminds him of Achilles' Curse. He is off to May Castellan's house - the last place Luke has been - for it's his best and only chance, its what Annie thinks. And she is scarcely wrong.

Perseus hates the gods. They wrecked a family - and for what? May Castellan - forever waiting for a son that will never come back, haunted by visions of his future, plates of burned cookies everywhere.

Perseus doesn't pity her - he rages against the gods, who brought madness upon this woman and then left her to it. Where was Apollo, the god of health? Dionysus, who is supposed to control mental health? Artemis, whose job is to protect women?

Hestia is kind - but she is still a goddess. She could've prevented this - but she hides in her hearth and abstains - and that's enabling. Hestia enables the other gods to do as they please, even when she is the oldest. She says they ignore her - oh well, she ignores them right back! He has no time for the laments of another all-powerful being.

So he goes to his mother and asks for her blessing. Then, just to be sure, he asks Persephone's too.

He thinks about his anchor - where does he want it to be in his body. He doesn't want somewhere in his back - where he can't see it - or in his gut - where anyone can stick a sword. He settles for the bottom of his back - where he can at least touch it and it's well protected by armor - and dives.

Perseus hates water - and he has an uncanny fear of drowning. He feels pain - everywhere, horrible pain.

His vision now doesn't have Annabeth's face - the blonde is his link to the demigod world, Persephone is his link to the Underworld and his mom is his link to childhood - but the person who grounds him is Rachel.

He is stronger. He feel his powers at his fingertips - Perseus feels the Underworld as a whole, and it's overwhelming.

Green flames explode from his hands. Flowers made of shadows curve around his ankles - he has been training since he was 12, but now his body can sustain all of his power. This is all his.

He goes meet with his father - Perseus manipulates him. He tells Hades he'll be the hero, but the god himself can be praised for more than being his father. That he should join the battle against Typhon - That's his chance of proving himself. Also, there's less paperwork for him if there are fewer dead people.

His father is amused with his blatant bribing, but he thinks about it, Percy can tell. In a way or another, he excuses himself and goes back to the surface where he is needed.

Persephone stalls him. She asks him to stay, just for this night. He can go back in the morning - he sleeps, and dreams of Rachel again, drawing in the sand. In greek.

He is scared for her - she is having demigod dreams, but she is mortal. Something is wrong.

Typhon is getting worse - and Kronos draws closer to NYC. It's time - he calls for Blackjack and leaves - Mrs. O'Leary, who has become more or less of a mother to his own hellhound, follows. Persephone promises to convince Hades.

They have about sixty campers able to fight heading for the Empire State Building, and five healers. The ones too young to lift a sword or string a bow stayed back at Camp with Argus - fifteen children between 5 and 9 years old.

Percy knows he looks different - he looks just like his father. He has gained a godly aura - he has no scars anymore, no imperfections. Perseus looms over all of them - he went from 5'7'' to 6'2'' - it's a weird view, from up there. It's still strange when they look at him with a mix of fear and admiration.

Perseus Jackson is officially their leader. He hates Olympus - but he will give his life to defend every single one of his demigods.

The vision Hestia shows him just makes him want to tear this throne room with his bare hands - Luke was a kid. He was a kid - and the gods corrupted him. Thalia was a kid - and the gods took her life, twice. Annabeth is still a kid - they all are - and she is here planning battle strategies.

Annabeth missed an extra year of formal education - while Percy is a Junior, Annabeth barely qualifies for a Freshman - because the gods took this from her too.

Percy rages. The ground of Olympus trembles beneath him - he wants to kill something.

Then Hermes appears - like this whole war is not his fault in the first place, the literal bastard - just to relay a message from Athena that gives them a plan that Annabeth was already putting into works and tells Percy to stay away from Annabeth.

Like she cares. Like Athena has ever, ever, done anything for Annabeth.

Perseus can't punch Athena, so he punches the messager (also, because he freaking guilt trips both of them about Luke). He has nothing to lose - he is going to die by the end of the day anyway, and they need him too much.

He has punched a god before - Ares, in a desert in the middle of Los Angeles - but this time, it's satisfactory. He feels good after it.

Hermes seems strangely resigned - He feels guilty about Luke too, but Perseus doesn't think it's enough. It'll never be enough, not while the gods leave their children to rot in a cabin of rejects and May Castellan bakes cookies for a son that will never come back.

Hermes leaves, ashamed. It's only fair, Perseus thinks. They all should be ashamed.

They see the city asleep - the prophecy is in the works.

Perseus executes their strategy - every cabin is covering a tunnel, with the exception of Dionysus, because Pollux is with the Demeter kids, and the Hecate kids stay behind to use spells to overlook the city. Lincoln Tunnel is getting covered by Ares - who, this time around, is actively participating.

The undetermined who didn't desert are with Hermes - and the minor god's children are divided by specialty - most Hypnos and Morpheus children follow him directly, but the two sons of Iris go with the Apollo Cabin.

Annabeth executes Plan 23, automatons, mounting on Mrs. O'Leary (who has strict orders to take Annabeth anywhere she wants without stopping to play around) - she doesn't need his help with this, and Percy has a tunnel to defend.

That left the rivers uncovered - until Thalia appears, with magical sand money, and made the rivers cooperate.

The hunters join the Aphrodite kids - who are half a dozen children between 11 and 19 - the oldest being Silena Beauregard, who uses a crossbow that looks exactly like her immortal half-brother's one.

His bridge is completely covered on skeletons - but no monster comes, even if he hears explosions. He leaves an English Lieutenant from the Battle of Yorktown in command of the bridge - with Tyene, the oldest daughter of Morpheus, to be in alert and don't let Clovis sleep through the battle. Because he did it before - and while it is funny, it can't happen right now.

Perseus mounts Blackjack - and go see where the noise is coming from. It's the Williamsburg Bridge - where are most of Apollo's Cabin.

They fight - and Percy almost cries when he sees Luke, who is not Luke anymore. Luke, who is a puppet controlled by Kronos.

Perseus kills the Minotaur and the weight of his stone spikes collapse the bridge - and Michael Yew dies. This time around, the bridge falls silently into shadows, and he doesn't bother about searching for the corpse - he saw the boy falling, and his screams will haunt all of them, forever.

This time around, Annabeth is not there to protect him - Ethan also doesn't try to kill him. The Son of Nemesis doesn't leave Kronos side for a second - but there's regret in his eyes.

After the bloodlust is gone, Perseus collapses - Will has to bride carry him back. Overuse of his powers - he summoned skeletons and produced shadows, melted enemy swords (with the bonus of incapacitating them without killing), and sprouted stone spikes everywhere - there's even a vine or ten that he used to hold his friends from falling.

Perseus doesn't sleep quickly enough to not hear the yell of anguish that comes from Lee Fletcher - the pain of losing a brother and not being able to fight beside him.

But he does sleep - and he dreams. He dreams of Hades killing Maria Di Angelo, not Hera, like Zeus told Nico. He dreams of Zeus cursing the Oracle - and he seethes, because he also sees what happened to May Castellan.

He keeps getting angrier and angrier at the gods - it's building inside of him. But his friends are still here, still fragile. He can't let them suffer more.

Perseus wakes up, checks on everyone - most everyone is either injured and/or exhausted, but he checks on every camper. He knows all of their names, their ages, their cabins. - and promises to sit up to talk with Thalia and Nico - war makes him prone to peace - and promptly goes back to sleep.

He dreams of Rachel. He wants to scream for her not to come: but she'll anyway.

Perseus dreams of a boy. He is his age - maybe a little younger. His hair is blonde and his skin is whiter - but Percy glances at his eyes, and there are waves in them.

There's a girl by his side - she is familiar to Percy, somehow. They're climbing a mountain.

The dream ends and Percy can't make heads or tails of it. He asks Thalia if she has a brother, but she says that she doesn't, looking wistful.

Prometheus is tempting - but he knows there's no Luke anymore, there's only Kronos. And the gods are horrible, vile and immature - but they never killed any of Percy's friends. Some of them died for the gods - but never by their hands, so for now, Perseus would toe the line.

He does want to punch Hermes again. He takes the Pythos - if everything goes wrong, he will not hesitate in going down for the sake of his friends - but there have been six deaths, and it's enough.

"Was it worth it?" He asks Ethan.

"Alabaster is alive" And it's all the answer Percy needs.

He dreams of Ethan and Alabaster. Alabaster is alive, yes, but he is missing half a leg - courtesy of Clarisse herself. Luke - Kronos - is indifferent, and Ethan curses the daughter of Ares - "The sword that took from us will take from you"

He contains Hyperion with his shadows. Then he helps Grover (who was half asleep, because of Morpheus) to make the Titan into a tree. It's a pomegranate tree - then he sets hellish fire to it and sacrifices it to Hades and Persephone.

A pig is in the sky - this time around, Annabeth and her frightening army of automatons kill it with Nico's help.

Perseus laughs - because Annabeth has about two hundred automatons under her command, Martin Luther King and Alexander Hamilton leading the charge with a giant bull being ridden by the Mad Hatter behind them.

It's weird to see historic figures Percy admires - like Jane Bolin, Sylvia Mendez, or Abraham Lincoln - fighting alongside people he downright despises - Thomas Jefferson and the goatfucker, herpes-ridden, Colombus. His Comparative Government teacher would have a field day.

Annabeth and Nico's pair up is amazing - They fight alongside like they have been doing it all life.

Nico is a force of nature, flying and commanding the winds to do his bidding - His eyes shine in the midst of the stormy clouds. His specialty is weather manipulation - he hasn't had much success with direct energy or electric discharges.

Annabeth has her mother's tenacity for war - and her clever mind for strategies. It's clear in her eyes - she is racking the weaker points of the Clazmonian Sow in her mind and destroying it. The automatons hold the pig in place - and she makes bacon of it.

Hercules couldn't do it. Nico and Annabeth can, because they have the power and the mind.

Perseus is still fighting off monsters - but they're too widespread, so they retreat to the doors of the Empire State Building.

Percy does a mental tally: of sixty-two campers, six are confirmed dead, twenty are injured and nine are out of commission on exhaustion. There should be 27 orange shirts here - but there's only twenty.

Percy wonders if the seven missing are injured, or dead, or under a pile of rubble somewhere with no one to help them. Is there someone being slowly eaten by monsters? Is there someone alone and injured and abandoned? He doesn't know.

He prays that those seven deserted them - at least that means they probably are alive and well.

Perseus looks at Phoebe's grief-stricken face, and he knows it's not probable - she had almost three dozen hunters with her, and now there's barely fifteen still fighting, Thalia nowhere to be seen.

They prepare for their last standing - Percy keeps conjuring skeletons, but they're no match for the sheer strength of the hyperborean giants. Nico is shoulder to shoulder with the Stoll brothers against a group of telkhines - Clarisse is bringing down a whole giant by herself.

After the Party Ponies save them - Chiron leads the charge against his own father, and Perseus is so proud of his mentor he can't even put in words how much - he goes to sleep. Fighting gets him tired quickly, and they'll come back.

He dreams of Dionysus. Perseus is not fond of any god who is not Persephone, but Dionysus is mostly okay sometimes. He seems to care about his children.

Perseus couldn't care less about the Western Civilization - but he'll care for Pollux. It's one of his demigods, after all, and Underworld people are possessive of theirs (i.e. Hades and Persephone).

He dreams of Thalia, in her father's palace, begging Poseidon to leave the underwater war and help with the invasion - His wife is none too happy with the presence of his immortal bastard daughter.

He wakes up to Rachel's helicopter falling - how is Rachel even awake, is a mistery.

The improbable pair Nico and Annabeth strike again: The girl knows how to fly helicopters, and the boy can fly himself. They save the redhead and the pilot - everything is fine.

"You're not the hero"

"Why did you risk yourself to tell me something I already know?"

Rachel doesn't explain - she can't. But she has a vision that says that he is not the hero. The hero of what? Perseus has no idea. But there's no way any of his cousins is dying for this stupid prophecy.

Suddenly, there's a drakon there. Rachel has another prophecy - Perseus fears she will walk the path that led May Castellan to destruction - that only a child of Ares will be able to kill it.

Bad news: All children of Ares are otherwise out of battle.

Clarisse is resting after a nasty concussion - and her brothers and Apollo's children are fighting yet again because Lee Fletcher is in no condition to stop them and Michael Yew is dead. Ares' side refuses to fight without the chariot - which Cabin 7 has hidden somewhere.

The best they can do is fend the drakon off until a miracle occurs. And it does: Clarisse, in full armor, manages to lead her brothers into battle.

Clarisse is dead. Something shatters inside of Perseus - and he leaves the drakon for the Ares' children to solve - he can't kill it anyway - and starts to vaporize the army behind it.

He is so caught up in bloodlust, that he almost misses Clarisse slaying a dragon. Clarisse, who has no armor. Clarisse, who is alive.

Ethan's curse rang true - Clarisse's weapon took something from her.

Silena is a traitor. She is also dead - which makes her a martyr, and probably going to reunite with her boyfriend in Elysium.

He remembers how easy is to fall for Luke's charm - he was - is - still in love with the guy. Percy thought the son of Hermes could do no wrong - and he wonders how much of his rage against the gods sprout from his influence.

Something evil inside of Perseus's mind tells him she deserved it. It tells Perseus that better her than Clarisse - but he shuts it down, and concentrates on his shining red friends.

He hates Ares. But he might just have an okay side if he can produce such a magnificent daughter.

Silena is the Patroclus to Clarisse's Achilles, and the Drakon is Hector - and the daughter of Ares is sure to parade its dead body.

It's the first time they feel like they are winning. It doesn't last - but as he hugs Clarisse tightly, he thinks he might cry of relief.

Clarisse looks tough - but she is a wonderful human being. She loves Silena with her whole heart - even more than she loves Chris, her best friend. Silena might've been in love with Charles - but she and Clarisse? They are soulmates.

The damned Pythos is following Perseus - and he is done with it. He knows where hope will survive best. Rachel wants him to give it to Hestia - but he owns the fire goddess nothing.

She has never interfered, not once, to help the dozens of demigods with no family that is abandoned in Cabin 11, and he won't forgive her for it.

He sacrifices hope to Persephone because that's what spring is. Spring is the hope of a new life. Maybe, Perseus thinks, it'll convince his father to come.

They go down to make their final stand against the forces of Kronos. There's not a lot of them - but they're not getting through those doors.

Well, his father doesn't come. But Poseidon does, with his whole army, Tyson and Thalia behind him, and the scales seem to turn.

And then Kronos cuts the barrier. Perseus can see his Mom (why is his Mom here with a handgun?!) and Poseidon fighting against the monsters under the eyes of extremely confused mortals.

Some are trying to break the barrier - but it's futile. Kronos has corraled them like sheep for the slaughter.

It's just him, Grover, Annabeth and Nico, fighting against Kronos vanguard - which is big, but not as strong as they are.

Kronos passes him without resistance - Ethan follows, but there's anger in his eyes - not for Percy, but for the monster he is leashed to. Alabaster is not there.

As soon as Kronos powers stop working on them, the four follow the titan - and some things never change, no matter the universe.

This time, it's Nico who falls because of Hera - it's her curse over all of her husband's bastards.

Ethan takes one look at Perseus, and they don't even need to fight. They have been friends for longer than they have been enemies - and they both loathe the gods, but Kronos is as much of an all-powerful controller being as any of the Olympians.

They battle against Kronos - Perseus has only his ax against his scyther - a true Underworld fight.

Ethan dies. And Perseus bloodlust consumes him - it clouds his eyes and he can only keep fighting.

"If... if we've had cabins... and they had thrones"

It's true, and more than ever, Perseus wishes Kronos wasn't such a bastard. He wouldn't bother killing the gods - but the titan is a way worse option.

"LUKE, PLEASE" It's Annabeth. He doesn't have her faith - she didn't saw his transformation. But he tries anyway because he loves Luke just as much as he hates Kronos.

"Luke, remember our summer" But his words are caught up in his throat when the titan throws him against the wall.

But the amalgamation of his friend and an all-powerful being looks confused, so props for his genius best friend.

Kronos shows them a rainbow message of Typhon - and that's where Perseus it's pretty sure he starts liking his father.

Because the Lord of the Dead opens up the earth and gets out in a black chariot guided by skeletal horses like a king. By his right side, is Persephone, in armor battle as a queen should be. By his left, is Demeter, who looks every single bit like the matron she is supposed to be.

Behind him, a hundred thousand dead roars. Charon is mounting Cerberus - and literal hell is unleashed upon the Father of Monsters.

The gods strike down Typhon, sending him back to be locked away - this time, in the depths of Tartarus instead of Mount Etna.

Kronos gets mad. Utterly, undoubtedly mad. He talks about burning Luke's body. Then he hurts Annabeth and breaks two promises in one fell swoop.

"Luke.... remember family" It's what Annabeth utters, but Perseus, already certain of their own demise, is crying now.

"That summer Luke, you promised to never hurt her again. You remember it? YOU PROMISED LUKE!!"

Annabeth's promise was already broken - he had hurt her, all those years ago, in Mt. Othrys. But the promise he made to Percy - that he would never hurt her again - is new and broken, in the river Styx no less.

Luke regains his own body, for a minute, and Perseus runs to him like a man in a desert with no water.

"Please, please tell me there's a way to undo this, Luke, please, please"

"There isn't one, Percy" And it's the first time he hears Luke call him Percy, Percy and not Perseus, in his own voice, in two years. Percy cries.

"We... we don't have much time, hellebore. Give me Annabeth's dagger. Before he... before he takes back"

Luke calls him hellebore and it makes him start crying all over again. He gives him the dagger - and Luke kills himself, taking Kronos out with him.

Luke doesn't need to ask if Percy has ever loved him - Percy kept loving Luke, one-sided as it was, even when Kronos was there.

He still crying over Luke's body when the gods arrive. Luke is dead. Ethan is dead. Silena is dead. Michael Yew is dead. Charles is dead.

He lost three of his best friends in two days. Ethan is dead. Luke is dead. Luke is dead.

Perseus can't stop crying. They take Luke's body away - but he can't stop. Annabeth explains what happened to the gods - most of it, anyway. Apollo says he is in shock - his father says he is a hero.

Perseus doesn't feel like a hero. Was this all worth it? Was it worth it the pain and the death and the suffering?

Persephone touches him - and he has no tears to cry anymore. She can't hug him here, but she'll do so later.

He stares at the walls, listening to his friends being awarded - compensated by their siblings and friends' deaths - with a blank stare. Perseus wants his mom.

They call for him. He raised his head but doesn't bother getting up. He just saved their asses - for the fifth time in a roll. He deserves to grieve.

They offer him immortality. A place between the gods.

He laughs. Zeus looks murderous, but he can't stop laughing.

"My apologies, but I have to refuse," he says. But in his mind, he is thinking about how could they even think he might want to sit between them and be an all-powerful being, be another god ignoring his children and messing with mortal lives while thousands die for him.

"Promise me, on the river Styx, that you'll give me the wish that I want."

They promise him, that if it's within their capabilities, they shall grant him his wish.

"I wish for every child at the age of twelve to be claimed. I wish for cabins in Camp Half-Blood, for every single minor god, and my own father. I wish for Calypso to be free, and to the demigods from the opposite side of this war to be given amnesty. It's not their fault. It's not any of our faults."

"You dare to-" Zeus begins, but Percy is really tired of Zeus.

"We fought your war, we won your battles. We, the unclaimed and rejected stowaways of Cabin 11. We, the children of minor and Underworld gods. We deserve respect. Just like my father deserves a throne, just like the minor gods deserve justice."

"Don't you fear us?" Athena asks, something weird shining in her eyes.

"I thought I would be dead today. At least if I die now, I'm dying for something I believe in."

It stays unsaid that he doesn't believe in them. The other demigods look at him worried - but he is not afraid of the gods.

They grant his wish. Some of them aren't happy with it, but they have to do it. He meets Calypso at the front gates of Olympus - and her smile can brighten the pits of Tartarus. He sees Alabaster talking with Lou Ellen - they are both crying.

He thinks it's the end - it's not. Thalia tells him Rachel left for Camp in her Pegasus - and his father has lift the curse, the Prophecy is gone, but he fears for his best friend.

Perseus is too tired for shadow travel - he does it anyway. He flickers, but anyway, he is too late.

It works. Rachel - his best friend - is the new Oracle. Someone jokes they can't be together anymore and Rachel lifts an eyebrow.

"We never were. Didn't you see the last few hours?" Well, he did out himself. Mostly - they might say it's just friendship, and he will hate the way they twist it. Luke wasn't a villain, and Perseus isn't a pure hero with a heart of gold.

Perseus is healing from lost love - and Annabeth is too. His crush on her was only a crush, he thinks - She is his best friend first and foremost. They cry together at the bonfire that burns away the shrouds of 43 demigods - from both sides - and 16 hunters of Artemis. Their souls all rest in Elysium now.

Alabaster comes back to Camp and helps his siblings to build the new Cabin for Hecate, full of spelled blocks and magic chimneys. Clovis and Tyene have their hands full with their own cabins - it doesn't help they keep getting sidetracked with naps.

Somehow, Nico, Thalia, and his bond over helping construct Cabin 13 - They are both way too invested in the goth vibe, mostly because Cabin 1 looks like a temple, and Cabin 3 looks like a beach cabin. And both of them are so over it.

Perseus doesn't want a goth cabin - he is fighting against the aesthetic for years - but sometimes, there are no arguments. His Cabin is made of black marble, and there are skulls everywhere, with torches shining with green fire. Outside, at least. Inside, it looks like Persephone's garden, with input from the queen herself. It's ready just shy of the end of summer vacation.

Rachel tells the next Great Prophecy. Perseus isn't such a positive person to think it won't affect him - he hopes at least it'll wait until he is done with High School.

That night, he dreams of the blonde boy again - it's his first night without nightmares since the battle. He has a scar in his lip, and his green eyes pierce Percy's soul. Perseus wonders if they'll ever meet, wonders if this boy is one of the Seven of the Prophecy.

But alas, Perseus lets it go. The summer is over - he is sixteen, somehow. He is alive and going to go back to his mortal life and his junior year, and grief. Not everything is fine - but eventually, it will be.

It's not the end. Not yet.

118 notes · View notes

barry-j-blupjeans · 3 years

Text

@taznovembercelebration - Day 21 - College/school

BUT ALSO this is the first chapter of that blupjeans college fic i mentioned yesterday. i’ll probably post it to ao3 or something later, but yea :O!

Being in college and opening a bakery at the same time was not the smartest choice, but Lup couldn’t really stop doing one or the other. There was no way in hell she was going to waste the scholarship she had been given, but the idea of leaving her brother to open and manage a bakery by himself was ridiculous in its own rights. Still, they were only three weeks into the semester and Lup’s schedule was overbooked and crumbling apart.

And now, on top of it all, her math professor had told her to go to tutoring to make sure she was able to do the work. If he listened to one goddamn thing she said, then he’d know that she could do math perfectly fine, she just needed a little extra time to fit it in with the rest of her schedule.

Also who the fuck needed to do college-level math while getting a goddamn music degree?

Lup made her way into the campus library, already ten minutes late. She spotted a library volunteer and made her way over, putting on her best smile to hide how frazzled she was.

“Hey,” Lup said and they looked up at her. “Do you know where the uh, student-led intro to algebra study group is? We were supposed to be meeting here at three.”

“Should be in the corner over there,” the person said kindly, sitting up a little to point towards the back of the library. “Behind the whole non-fiction section.”

“Thank you so much,” Lup said, adjusting her bag and turning away. Just as the volunteer said, the study group collected back there, spread out over two tables. It only had about six people, two of whom were obviously in charge. Lup dropped herself into a chair and put her stuff down. One of the tutors looked up. Lup couldn’t help but notice how obnoxiously thick his glasses were.

“You here for the study group?” he asked and Lup nodded.

“I don’t need help,” she said before he could get another word in. “I just haven’t had time to do my assignments and my professor told me to come. I can do it by myself, thanks.”

“Oh,” the man said. “I- alright. Well, I’m here if you need anything, okay? My name’s Barry.”

“Charmed,” Lup said, not feeling charmed at all as she pulled her book out of her bag. She didn’t tell him her name. He didn’t need to know it. There was always the chance that if she did tell him her name, word would get out that she needed to come here for help. Lup knew it wasn’t high school anymore. She knew gossip didn’t travel like that and that probably no one would care if she came here, but she couldn’t shake the habit quite yet.

She tried to ignore the group as they talked. The other tutor was named Lucas and he had a nasally voice and bandaids on all his fingers. Lucas wasn’t particularly trying to hide the fact that he thought he was better than everyone here. Maybe because of that, the other students flocked towards Barry. From what Lup could tell, though, Barry wasn’t the greatest either. Don’t get her wrong, he seemed like a decent guy, tutor, whatever. But he kept asking her if she needed help. She’d always say no. Then she’d go back to work and ten minutes later, he’d be asking again.

“Hey so-” Barry started, but Lup cut in again.

“I don’t need help,” Lup said, looking up at him. That’s when she realized there was no one else besides them here. The chairs were all empty. Barry was cleaning up the table.

“I… wasn’t gonna ask,” Barry said uncomfortably. Okay, Lup felt kind of bad for that. “Everyone else went home. I was gonna go home. Just wanted to make sure you, uh, you realized.”

“Oh,” Lup said blankly. And then, “Yeah, okay. I’ll pack up, too, I guess.”

“Alright,” Barry said. The silence was terribly awkward as they both gathered their things. Even more awkward when Lup remembered that the library only had one exit and they both were heading that way. She sped up and got ahead of him, reaching the door before he said anything else.

“Uh, hey!” Barry called out and Lup cringed, pausing at the doorway. “You coming Thursday?”

“Maybe,” Lup said, which meant yes because her professor wanted her to go to at least three groups. “I’ll check my schedule and see.”

“Cool,” Barry said. “Um, see you then. Maybe, I guess.”

“Yeah,” Lup said offhandedly. “See ya, Bluejeans.”

“I- what?”

“Blue jeans,” Lup said, waving a hand at his pants. “You wear ‘em. Like… the mom-type too. Don’t expect me not to say anything about it.”

She walked away. Calling him Bluejeans was better than calling him Thick Glasses, so she didn’t feel to bad about his flustered look.

The bus ride home was okay. Well, not okay because it was a bus ride, but, still, she was used to it. Plus side was that there were fewer people than usual. She got off at the stop closest to her apartment and climbed up the stairs until reaching her door. There was a slight moment of panic where Lup couldn’t find her keys, but it was fine because they had just fallen off her keychain and into her bag.

The apartment was… still a mess. Not that she expected any different. She flicked on the lights and set her bag down near the door. She heard movement and talking from the kitchen and went to check it out.

Taako was there, hunched over some papers, talking to someone on speakerphone. His hair was a mess and he was still in pajamas, which probably meant he hadn’t left the apartment all day. There was a bowl of baby carrots near him, a half-eaten one sitting next to his papers.

“...just got home, so I gotta go,” Taako said saying. “I’ll call soon, yeah? You’re a fuckin’ miracle worker, Steven.”

“Eh, it’s all in a day’s work,” Steven’s voice said from the phone. “We’re on your side here, kiddo.”

“Not a kiddo,” Taako said, like he always did.

“Uh-huh,” Steven said, in his the same doubtful tone he always replied in. “Talk to ya soon. And get some rest, huh? Bye.”

“Bye,” Taako said, hanging up. He turned to face Lup, looking tired but happy. “How’d your study sesh go?”

“Fine, I guess,” Lup said, sitting next to him. She grabbed a few of the baby carrots from the bowl and he scowled at her. She grinned. “It was just a buncha nerds doing nerd things.”

“Bet Luce would love it,” Taako said and Lup shook her head.

“Nah, Luce is better than these nerds. Get this- one of the tutors claims that his grandfather made millions off inventing stuff. And he’s just bragging about it. He’s a fuckin’ prick, Koko.”

“Ouch,” Taako said.

“Yeah,” Lup said. “And the other dude kept asking me if I needed help every three seconds and I was like, pssh do I look like I need help? I’m only here because my professor fuckin’ made me come. Lemme work in peace.”

“Double ouch,” Taako said. “I’m sorry, Lu. I can help you if you want. Or maybe we can call up Dav and he can-”

“No,” Lup said. “I- no. You’ve got the bakery to work on, right? We need to get that set up. And Dav is probably on a business trip, who knows.”

“He’s not, actually,” Taako said, which surprised Lup. “Luce texted me earlier to tell me he came back early. There was a situation.”

“A bad situation?” Lup asked.

“Maybe,” Taako shrugged. “Luce said he hasn’t talked since he got back so I’m guessing something happened and he’s gone non-verbal for a while again.”

“Damn,” Lup said, leaning back in her chair. She took a bite of one of the baby carrots. “That sucks.”

“Yeah,” Taako said. “Brighter news, though? Steven’s helpin’ me with the business shit now.”

“For what price?” Lup asked.

“We gotta let Julia work there,” Taako said. “For experience, you know? But Maggie’s already wormed his way into our staff, so no doubt Julia was gonna end up with us anyway.”

“That’s true,” Lup said. “But hey, more hands can’t be bad, right?”

“Right,” Taako said. He shuffled through a few papers. “We’re still going with ‘For Goodness Bakes” for the name, right?”

“As long as ‘let’s bake the world a better place’ is still our tagline, for sure,” Lup said, snorting. They had come up with the name on the fly, after a night of no sleep and then never fulfilled their promise to choose something better. She shoved another baby carrot in her mouth. “What are we doing for dinner? Have you even eaten today? Besides baby carrots.”

“Baby carrots are food, Lup,” Taako said, snatching the bowl away from her. “And I have work to do.”

“Let’s get some takeout or something, then,” Lup said. “Put on a movie.”

“Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2,” Taako said. “And maybe some good takeout rather than the shitty burger place down the street. We’ve fuckin’ earned it, Lulu.”

She stole the carrots back with a scowl.

#taz #The Adventure Zone #lup #taz lup #taz november celebration #mine #hope u guys like it :O!#ise cube writing

33 notes · View notes

teacherunicorn · 3 years

Text

A/N: I really see OneRepublic's 'All This Time' as Five & Delores' song. I feel like it has the right vibes to it. Am I wrong?

@tomisbaeholland @universsdaughter

Delores Theadoisa Hargreeves

Chapter Sixteen

The Hargreeves kitchen was silent as five of the occupants stared at the one other, who just went about making his sandwich.

"What's the date? The exact date."

"The 24th." Vanya offered uneasily.

"Of?!"

"March...."

Number Five paused and seemed to think for half a second. "Good."

"Are we gonna talk about what just happened?" Luther put forward, only to be ignored. He stood in Five's way and said in his 'I'm Number One' voice: "It's been seventeen years."

"It's been a lot longer than that." Five snapped and with a flash teleported behind him.

"I haven't missed that...." Luther sighed.

"So where'd you go?" Diego questioned.

"The future." Five blinked between the cabinet and the table. "It's shit by the way."

"Called it!" Klaus piped up.

The next thing out of Five's mouth made everyone else stare at him like he had three heads: "I should have listened to the old man. You know, jumping through space is one thing, but jumping through time, is just a roll of the dice." He looked up from spreading peanut butter on his sandwich. "Nice dress."

Klaus lit up. "Oh, well danke!"

"Wait how did you get back?" Vanya asked in confusion.

"In the end, I had to project my consciousness forward into a suspended quantum state version of myself that exists across every possible instance of time."

Beat.

"That makes no sense." Diego looked at him with a furrowed brow.

Five didn't even look up. "Well, it would if you were smarter."

Number Two jumped up to attack, but Luther was quick to hold him back. "How long were you gone?"

"Forty five years." Five shrugged, closing the peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich. "Give or take."

"So what are you saying? That you're fifty-eight?"

"No, my consciousness is fifty-eight." Five corrected with a glare. "Apparently my body is now thirteen again."

"Wait how does that even work?" Vanya asked.

"Delores kept saying the equations were off." Five took a bite of his sandwich and shrugged. "Eh, bet she's laughing now."

"Delores?" Alison frowned. "Our Delores?"

Five turned to face them and seemed to notice for the first time that the caretaker was not among the group. "Where is she?"

"She was working in Germany when she got the news." Diego informed. "Pogo said she was flying in."

"Oh, she called; her connection got delayed. She won't be in for another few hours." Klaus commented idly.

"What?!"

"You didn't think to mention this earlier Klaus?!" Alison demanded.

"Well I'm sorry, when between Luther accusing us of murder and Five jumping through time was I supposed to relay a message?"

Everyone in the room collectively groaned. They all knew that they were doomed to insanity until Delores arrived to straighten things out.

"Well, nice to see that nothings changed." Five sighed, strolling past the group and out the door.

"Really? That's all you've got to say?" Alison called after him.

"What else is there to say?" He called back, taking another bite of his sandwich. "Circle of life!"

*******

Upon entering his old bedroom, the first thing Number Five did was open the door to his closet in search of something to replace the suit that had become far too big on him.

Flipping a few hangers to the side, it quickly became apparent that all the closet held were the Umbrella Academy uniforms he'd left behind. Cursing under his breath, he sighed and selected one off the rack at random.

Turning, Five paused when he noticed the large pile of packages occupying his bed. Wrapped in various colors of paper in various sizes, he noticed that the ones toward the bottom of the bunch seemed faded, as though they'd been there a while. A quick count showed that there were forty packages in total.

One for every birthday and Christmas he had missed.

"She waited." He smiled fondly. "Well, nice to see she didn't forget about me."

Leave it to Delores Theadoisa Hargreeves to go the extra mile for her kids. Had the situation been different, he may have been worried his caretaker would have planed a future without him in it; but this was Delores he was talking about. The single ray of sunshine that even the Apocalypse couldn't snuff out.

Seeing the small signs she'd left for him to find through the years he'd been gone had kept him going. A mark scratched into the stone of a building or sidewalk, small doodle in the corner of a historical paper that the Commission thought to be stray ink marks; it kept her voice with him.

It also made him all the more anxious to see her again in person.

******

*Several Hours Later*

Muttering to herself about about the fact that, for all his eccentricities, Reginald Hargreeves had never bothered to invest in a private plane, Delores unlocked the front door and pulled a large rolling suitcase in behind her.

Huffing, she propped it up on it's wheels and dropped her duffle bag on top of it. She turned to the empty entry hall and frowned.

"Come on! I know I can't have been the only one who came to make sure the old man was dead! Where is everyone?"

Her voice was still echoing down the halls when a familiar flash of blue blinked in the corner of her vision and Delores stumbled backwards when a weight was thrown against her and a pair of arms locked around her torso.

She blinked. Once. Twice.

The rest of the Umbrella Academy appeared in various doorways, but Delores failed to notice,her eyes locked on the person burying his face into chest.

She opened and closed her mouth serval times before hesitantly wrapping her arms around him.

Solid. Real.

"....Finny...?"

The only response she got was Five squeezing her tighter, as though she was the one that had been gone for nearly two decades and would disappear once more if he let go.

Blinking again, Delores looked up to see the faces of her other charges watching the pare of them. She skimmed over a quick headcount; Luther, Diego, Alison, Klaus, Vanya. All accounted for, and all the same age they had been when she'd seen them last.

In the doorway leading to the sitting room, she saw her mother and Pogo. Feeling more like a lost child than she had since she had properly been one, she looked to the pair that had raised her with a bewildered look.

"W-What did I miss?"

*******

Number Five was very much the type of person that hated having to repeat himself, but he gladly recounted the story he had told his siblings mere hours ago. Delores seemed to understsnd his explanation for his return better than the others had, but gave him a look when he mentioned the off equations that had put him into his thirteen year old body.

“Five what was the number one rule of all your lessons?”

“Don’t start fights with my siblings?”

“That was trainings.”

Five smirked. “Double check my math, then double check it again.”

“There you go.”

He chuckled. “I’ve missed you, E. Obviously....”

“The feeling’s mutual. Obviously.” Delores smiled at him. Finally turning to address her other charges, she did a quick head count to see who had actually shown up. When glancing over Number One, she blinked and did a double take. “What the hell Luther, you’re not supposed to be taller than me!”

“You didn’t know about this?” Diego raised an eyebrow.

“Spaceboy has been keeping radio silence for a while now.” Delores folded her arms.

“Oooo, somebody’s in trouble!” Klaus sang from his slouched position on the couch.

“Well while she’s already mad at you, why don’t you tell her about your theory of how dad died?”

“Diego—“ Luther tried to cut him off.

“An old man in his seventies had a heart attack.” Delores frowned. “While I admit that’s the most normal thing to happen in this house, what’s to theory?”

“Well- I- you see-“

“Luther.”

“He was anxious the last time he contacted me.” Luther tried to reason. “Told me to watch my back.”

“Sounds like the paranoia he instilled in all of us.”

“Maybe, but —“

He was cut off by the sound of the front door opening. Everyone frowned and looked towards the noise. They were all here, who the hell could that be?

“Oh little digits, I’m home!”

#tua #tua fanfic #tua imagine #umbrella academy imagines #umbrella acedmy #ben hargreeves #deigo hargreeves #vanya hargreeves #allison hargreeves #klaus hargreeves #five hargreeves #luther hargreeves

21 notes · View notes

japaneseadventures · 4 years

Text

“National Tournament Report” Tezuka and Fuji Version Part V

INDEX: [Part I] [Part II] [Part III] [Part IV] Audio commentary from Prince of Tennis OVA: National Tournament Arc, FAN DISK White heat Remix, translated by me. It's finally the last part!! Part V is Tezuka and Fuji’s commentary on Echizen vs Atobe match. Audio linked in the Content Source below.

Fuji: It’s finally the last match. Tezuka: Yeah. Fuji: I was convinced that you wanted to have another match with Atobe. Tezuka: Atobe and I know each other’s cards too well. That’s why I wanted to try placing my bet on Echizen’s potential. Fuji: Hmm... Tezuka: What? Fuji: That’s not the only reason you chose to have him play Atobe though, is it. Tezuka: Hm? Fuji: If you get him to play against Atobe, Echizen’s skills would definitely grow. Wasn’t that why you placed him in Singles 1? Tezuka: Ngh. Fuji: Right on the mark, huh. I can tell how big your expectations are for him from that. Tezuka: I think of this year’s tournament first and foremost, of course. But this year isn’t the end of Seigaku Tennis Club. I’m the captain. I have a responsibility to make sure the club 2-3 years from now will be strong. Fuji: *laughs* Tezuka: What? Did I say something funny? Fuji: No. I just thought of how I liked that part of you. I’m really glad you are the Seigaku Tennis Club’s captain.

Tezuka: Is that so? Fuji: But to be honest, it’s not the club’s future I’m interested in; I just want to see Echizen climb higher and higher. That’s it, really. Tezuka: I too want to see where Echizen will end up. Fuji: *laughs* So that really is the reason you had him play against Atobe. Tezuka: Developing one’s skills is best done in real matches. There’s no better way to learn than fighting someone strong. Fuji: That reminds me, Inui said something similar in his memo. He wrote that there’s no better training than playing matches with someone strong. According to one of Inui’s sources, before the tournament, Atobe apparently went to Rikkai Dai Fuzoku alone to have a match against Sanada and the others. Tezuka: Did he really? Fuji: He got the info from Yanagi of Rikkai Dai Fuzoku, so it must be true. Tezuka: Inui’s childhood friend of sorts. Fuji: How surprising. Atobe seems like a cool-headed guy at a glance, but he’s actually pretty passionate. Tezuka: Atobe is the passionate type. Fuji: Oh? You really understand Atobe very well, don’t you. Tezuka: No, I don’t. That’s just the feeling he managed to convey when we played. Fuji: I see. Speaking of which, was Atobe not offended when you told him you’d be absent from today’s meeting? Tezuka: No. He called to talk about how the meeting would progress, and when I told him I wouldn’t be coming, he said, “You weren’t invited in the first place.” And quickly hung up. Fuji: I think you should be more concerned about that... Tezuka: Why? Fuji: He’ll resent you for that.

[Atobe in video: Even here you’re still getting in my way, Tezuka?!]

Fuji: *laughs* Look! He’s mad. Tezuka: But that was clearly a move Echizen pulled off with State of Self Actualization. There’s no reason for him to blame it on me. Fuji: I guess that’s just how much everyone is affected by you. Tezuka: I still don’t see how it’s my fault. Fuji: Around this part, they started pulling out all their skills, and it became more of a battle between their stamina and mental strength. Tezuka: They were very evenly matched. Fuji: When one side gains a point advantage, the other side is quick to change the tide. Neither of them yielded, did they. Tezuka: Mm. Fuji: Your match with Atobe was pretty fierce too, but this was also a great match. Even just rewatching it in video gives me chills.

[Lights fall during Atobe-Echizen match]

Fuji: Oh, this moment unsurprisingly made my blood run cold. Tezuka: Mm.

[Atobe: Tezuka! Seigaku’s going to lose because you let a little first year become Seigaku’s pillar!! Tezuka: He's not the pillar yet.]

Fuji: But you always give a proper reaction to what Atobe says, don’t you Tezuka. Tezuka: Mm. Fuji: Tezuka? Tezuka: Mm. Huh? Oh, I was… I apologize. Fuji: You were thinking of something else again. Tezuka: I can have-- Fuji: 10 different thoughts at the same time. Tezuka: You have a good memory, Fuji. Fuji: Out of curiosity, what exactly is going through your mind right now? Tezuka: Listening to you. Fuji: And? Tezuka: Analyzing the video. Fuji: And? Tezuka: Whether Oishi is holding up well. Fuji: And? Tezuka: Having to collect the club budget by tomorrow. Fuji: And? Tezuka: Needing to get the book I reserved at the library. Fuji: Get it then. Tezuka: This year’s sweetfish fishing season started early. Fuji: Is that really relevant right now? Tezuka: I’m planning on climbing the Southern Alps next. Fuji: Shall I lend you a map? Tezuka: loga aᵇ=? Fuji: b. Tezuka: Ich liebe dich. Fuji: When exactly do you plan on using that line? Tezuka: Lastly, answering your question. Fuji: *laughs* I see. Tezuka: Mm. Fuji: Say, I tried to be like Inui and collected some data. Tezuka: Oh? Fuji: The truth is, the real reason I called you out here today was to show you this. Tezuka: How intriguing. Fuji: Look at this. Tezuka: What is this piece of paper? Hm? I see a lot of tally marks. Fuji: I tried my best to count it all while watching the whole video. Tezuka: Sounds tough. But what for? Fuji: What do you think? Tezuka: I’m sorry, but I have no idea. Fuji: It’s the number of times you ignored someone else’s comment. Tezuka: Ignored? Fuji: When you watch people’s matches, you only ever listen with half an ear, even when someone’s talking to you, don’t you. Though you may not be conscious you’re doing it. Tezuka: What’re you talking about? Don’t tell me this is the problem you mentioned earlier? Fuji: Honestly, it’s just like you, not to notice. Oh, right! There’s something I need to do after this. Tezuka: You’re leaving? So did you find a solution for your problem in the end? Fuji: Sorry, but I have to leave the cleanup and lockup to you, Tezuka. See ya! Tezuka: Oi, Fuji! Fuji! Fuji! He left… But what exactly did Fuji want to say? I don’t understand. I’ll at the very least clean up and lock up before I leave… But what exactly did Fuji… What…. Need to lock up... Fuji: Tezuka sure is interesting!

♔ Tezuka, after Fuji presents him a tally of the times he ignored someone: So what was the problem???? Gee man, I wonder what.😂 ♔ It’s been more than a decade since I studied about logarithms, and I didn’t even study how to do math in Japanese, so this was interesting to say the least lmao. I had to read about log identities on Wiki and double check with a similar question on Quora, no big deal I guess.🙃🤣 (It’s correct, right? Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong😂) Honestly I had to look up wild plants, mushrooms and fish for Dokidoki Survival and that was funner than this lmao. I kind of hate Tezuka now for making relearn math and science (in Part I).😂 ♔ I wonder if Tezuka meant the Southern Alps in New Zealand, or the Southern Alps in Yamanishi prefecture, which is also the second highest mountain in Japan. I guess its more likely the latter tho, since that’s what first comes up when searched in Japanese. ♔ Every time Atobe addresses Tezuka while he’s having a match with Echizen, everyone’s just like... who exactly is he having a match against?😂

#prince of tennis #tezuka kunimitsu #fuji syusuke #white heat remix #tefu #perfect pair #tenipuri #national tournament report #translation #tbh posting this last part feels a bit stale since everyone already knows what happens lol #but here have it anyway #lol tumblrs superscript html isnt working so i had to copy paste it from a superscript generator #so long im back to hiding under a rock lmao

38 notes · View notes

halothenthehorns · 3 years

Text

THE KNIGHT BUS

A/N: Wow, I hardly had any author's notes in the last two, and so far I've had really stinking long one's in every chapter of this. I love it! I'm enjoying commenting back as much as you guys seem to be reading, so here we go Guest: (sucks in deep breath even though I'm typing.)

I'm glad you like the way I do Lily. I always pictured her more fun-loving than a lot of people seem to, she married James Potter for crying out loud, she has to have some sense of humour, but she's also fiercely overreacting in protecting people. Lots of you have noted that she does seem a little too forgiving of Snape in this series, and I promise that will start wearing off real soon in this book. She was big on it in the first book, mostly due to her instinct and flashbacks of how they treated him through their school years. He didn't have much to do in the second book, so there wasn't much time to show that she really was getting sick of how he treats Harry. Mostly when she berates the Marauders, it's more of a trying to rein them in type thing, rather than outright disapproving of them.

They don't know that the person who broke out was from Azkaban. It appeared on the Muggle news, and so their first instinct really was to think it was just a muggle who shared the name.

Sirius doesn't keep track of his family; I think he states in the fifth book that he didn't even find out Regulus died until he got out of Azkaban. I certainly don't see him keeping up with him to know now. If you want other candidates, Bellatrix before she got married (and who doesn't go to prison until after the downfall of Voldemort), maybe his Dad since we know so little about him, etc. but again they were mostly joking and fixing a random name to someone they knew.

I am just as bad at math as JK, so my idiocy for not double checking dates was my fault. I will go back and fix it saying that this takes place during '80 the year Harry was actually born. The part about the Fidelius charm only lasting a week, is something I genuinely forgot but did go back and check and Fudge himself saying that the charm barely lasted a week, thank you for pointing that out, but it doesn't change my timeline of events that they go into hiding just before Harry's first birthday, but I suppose they didn't actually use the Fidelius Charm itself until the week before Halloween, why it wasn't used at once and that subsequent thing won't be touched in this particular story, or any of these books, because I've no idea honestly and the character's wouldn't either. I like Guest's idea though that Dumbledore was researching stuff about the Charm in the meantime while they were lying low.

I know in canon it says that all four past people who are present were full-time members of the Order, but I cannot see Remus or Lily just 'living' off of James and Sirius. So, since I can't decide yet what kind of 'work' any of them are doing for the Order, the only thing we really see them do in the book is guard the Prophecy, they're kind of on hold for the reading, and I might touch as I go on what they do more specifically if I come up with any good ideas. I know Remus specifically 'spies' on the werewolves on Voldemort's side, but I really can't see James and Sirius letting him do this too much, they'd throw a fit. James and Sirius together could kick up enough of a fuss he couldn't do it too often, while an after Azkaban Sirius probably isn't in any kind of good position and couldn't do as much to stop anyone from doing anything.

I'm afraid I'm still refusing to answer any and all actual question like the one Guest asked, that's as the story goes, and in the chapter below coincidentally. HAHA dang this is probably the longest A/N ever, and I'm sorry if it seemed a little rambly. It's probably a bad reflection on my writing that I couldn't just sit down and explain this in story...but oh well.

HPHPHPHP

"Honestly Harry," Lily began, shaking her head from side to side, "I'm afraid to ask, but how come you've never ran away before then?"

Harry just sighed miserably as he answered, "the Dursleys ignored me more than anything else growing up. They never sat around insulting me like she was, that's why I lost my temper. I guess I'd just never been driven that far before."

"Best thing to happen, honestly," James nodded in total agreement, "mind you, I hate what led to that, but if you never go back, that will be the happiest part of this."

"Where's he going to go though?" Remus asked in concern, stating the one thing that really could make this an awful situation very quickly. "Ron and Hermione are out of the country, and even if they weren't, would they really just let him move in like that?"

"I'm positive they'd let him live there," James scoffed, "the Weasleys let him stay most of last summer, right?"

"He could stay in the Leaky Cauldron," Sirius offered, "I ran away from home a few times and stayed there, always went back eventually but it was a good place to cool off for the weekend, especially when James did go out like this."

"But does Harry think to do that?" Remus prompted.

"Well let's find out," Lily shrugged, turning to her chapter.

It took Harry several blocks before a new emotion made him stop, panic.

"Completely understandable," James nodded.

His mind couldn't seem to find a way out of this mess. He was alone in the Muggle world, and he'd just done some of the most obvious of magic, which probably meant he was going to be kicked out of school as well.

Remus cut in, saying, "Harry, you do know now you really shouldn't be expelled for that. It was uncontrolled magic."

"Do they actually know the difference though?" Sirius asked, more puzzled than actually concerned. This crime really wasn't that bad, it certainly wasn't the worst he'd heard of. "Between wandless magic and, ah, wand magic."

"No," Lily frowned, "but once they come upon the situation, and hear Harry's side of it, there shouldn't be punishment. In fact, I'd like to think the Ministry will actually do something to get Harry out of there."

Harry remained quiet, ignoring that pull in his gut that said his Mom's words weren't ringing true. Out loud he responded to Remus' original question, "yeah, now. Back then, not so much."

Harry had just broken the law, and really wasn't sure why the Ministry hadn't yet appeared to take his wand away.

"Actually kind of hoping for that here soon," James sighed, "now that Lily's said it, it seems obvious that the Ministry's going to come and see what happened and then take Harry somewhere else."

Sirius frowned, biting at his lip and trying not to argue. He personally had little to no faith in the Ministry, and he had a really bad feeling they might just try to brush this whole thing over and simply leave Harry there again once they'd fixed this situation. The after effects of which would plague him no matter what really did happen.

Harry shivered in the cold weather as he glanced around himself, mind spinning in all directions. All he could think about now was that he was a criminal, and would be cut off from the magical world. He knew Ron and Hermione would help him out given the chance, but they were both out of the country, and he had no way to get a hold of them.

"You're starting to depress me," Lily sighed, an old now familiar pang back in place as she realized no one was really there for her boy in this moment when he needed them most.

He didn't have any Muggle money either.

"So, no one ever did tell you about the Gringotts exchange then," Remus pointed out something he'd noted back in the first book.

"Nope, no one had told me then, and even if they had I might not have anyway. Didn't want the Dursleys questioning why I suddenly had money on me." Harry reminded, frowning and suddenly wondering why he was getting a mounting feeling of apprehension. Alone on Magnolia Crescent, the night that he had been most desperate to leave the Dursleys...why did this feel so important to him. The longer he sat here, wondering if he was going to have to go on the run...did that remind him of someone.

Lily cut off his train of thought by reading.

Harry did have some wizard money in his vault, but he could never drag his stuff all the way there, unless...

"Oh please tell me you grabbed your broom," James frowned in concern.

"Yes, it was inside my trunk," Harry nodded. Remembering vividly back during the summer of his first year when he had been packing away all of his stuff and worried about how to carry his cauldron, when he realized that the trunk would magically expand to hold quite a bit of stuff, even if it was so heavy he could hardly lift it.

He glanced at his wand, and came to the conclusion that if he was already expelled,

"Please stop saying that," Sirius huffed, "you're starting to depress me now."

"Can't help it," Lily pointed out as she continued with a bit of curiosity now, wondering what cockamamie plan Harry would consider doing before the Ministry got a hold of him.

he could just continue to do more magic to get himself out of this. He'd enchant his trunk to be light enough he could rope it to his broom, throw on his invisibility cloak and fly to London to empty out of his vault, and then what? Go on the run the rest of his life?

"While it's not an awful plan," James snorted, "you're either ignorant or forgetting a very important detail."

"What's that?" Harry asked.

"The trace," Remus pointed out, "that allows the Ministry to find you until you turn seventeen. Plus, and no offense Harry, you really don't know enough magic that you could make it on your own anyways."

Harry nodded in understanding, not exactly up to arguing the point. While his thirteen-year-old self might have argued the matter, he also hadn't known about the trace back then and hadn't realized just how easy it would be for him to be found.

He did not enjoy this future, but he could hardly sit here forever lest a Muggle policeman come by and ask why Harry had luggage full of spell books and a broom.

"That would be a story," Sirius agreed light-heartedly, "though personally we never exactly stuck around long enough for them to ask any questions."

"When did any of you get a run in with Muggle police?" Lily demanded suspiciously.

Sirius went a little shifty eyed and declined answering, while James laughed with far too much unease and said, "don't be silly Lily, he was joking."

Lily snorted, they weren't even trying to hide the fact that they were kidding, but she was too curious about the book to really interrogate them now. She'd wait until later.

Plan decided, he went rummaging through his stuff to find his cloak, when he felt a tingling go up his spine. He stood up straight and glanced around himself, the lone streetlight showing no one else around.

"Well this can't be good," they all muttered at once. Harry already had an impressive track record when it came to getting into bad situations. And now, here he was, alone and feeling off again. One glance at Harry now showed they weren't wrong about being worried either; he had a frown already in place as he remembered exactly how he had been feeling at that time.

He went back to his stuff, only to stop again at once, wand now in hand as he glanced more suspiciously at the dark surroundings. He thought he caught sight of something moving between the gaps of the houses.

Lily already wanted to stop and bite at her lip in worry. Way too many horrible things could be lurking behind her boy. The boys were all thinking of their joking comments about a convict being around, and violently berating themselves as they realized their joking may have come true.

He strained his eyes in the shadows, trying to make out if it was just an animal, or something worse. He lit the tip of his wand with the spell Lumos, which shone so brightly that Harry was momentarily blinded as it shone off of the garage door, but he just had time to make out the shape of something very large, with watchful eyes.

Lily's voice was heading into outright fear now, even if it was just a stray animal she didn't like that it was scaring her son.

Harry though, was frowning in remembrance. Wasn't he supposed to have a good feeling about this? That was his first reaction, but he knew his thirteen-year-old self had acted in fear at this startling sight. He wasn't even for sure what he had seen then...

He took an automatic step back, fell over his luggage, and ended in the gutter with his wand arm thrown out to catch his fall. There was a very loud BANG from just to his right, and Harry barely had time to roll back onto the sidewalk before wheels landed where his head had just been.

The whole time Lily had been reading that, her voice had continued to edge higher in fear. She was almost quaking in terror; the book almost slipped from her grasp. She still wasn't quite back to normal after that horrid dinner scene, and Harry coming so close to death right after that caused her to want to fling her arms around her son and hold him as close as she could.

For a moment Harry was sure he'd been knocked silly as he looked up at a triple deckered bus, which was bright purple,

"Thank Merlin," Sirius breathed, his eyes lighting up at once as he recognized the description, and then he released a bark of laughter and said, "you just called that by accident."

Harry was rubbing at his head and looking marginally embarrassed as they really did give a light chuckle at that, but his mind was still on the thing he'd seen. It was a dog, but massive. Why was this so important to him? It must just be a stray, so why should he care?

Lily was the only one who still looked on edge about the matter, Harry had never said what he'd seen in the dark, but now that the Knight Bus had appeared, surely everything was going to be okay now.

with the label The Knight Bus on the side. Before he had time to process this fully, a young man was stepping off in uniform and announcing himself as Stan Shunpike, a conductor for the bus, then he saw Harry still on the ground and asked why he was down there.

"Nice of him to notice," James said lightly.

Harry got to his feet and said that he'd fallen over, and Stan asked why he did that.

"Just seemed like a fun thing to do obviously," Remus snorted.

Harry snapped back he hadn't done it on purpose.

"Wow, getting a bit snippy there Pup," Sirius laughed.

Harry suddenly jerked; he looked like he was on the verge of something really important. Back when they had told him about their decision to be Animagi, and the subsequent animals, he hadn't thought much on the matter. It did explain the random nicknames, and beyond that he'd never questioned it. Now...

Lily hadn't seemed to notice Harry wasn't paying much attention to them, she was still stuck on the fact it had yet to say what Harry had seen to startle him so badly. So for once she didn't take note of her son in the room now eyeing Sirius curiously, but instead read.

Harry then turned to look behind him, but there was nothing there where the headlights clearly shown. Stan asked what he was watching, and Harry explained that he'd seen a humongous black dog.

Now that finally struck a chord with everyone in the room. Sirius looked like he'd just been clubbed over the head. Harry was still eyeing him like he'd never seen him before, no that wasn't right. He was staring right at him like he was trying desperately to remember something...

"So, err," James began, looking from Harry to Sirius and back warily, "who wants to count the odds of this?" A guy named Black had been heard from on the news, and a giant black dog which happened to be Sirius' animagus form, had been seen around Harry.

They still didn't believe in coincidences, but none of them really knew what to make of this. Because if that was Sirius, then that meant that first of all he was still alive! That alone made their heads spin, because what force on Earth would keep him away from Harry for all of these years. Which brought up the most confusing part, had it really been him on the news? Was it Sirius who had escaped from a prison, meaning Azkaban itself? How would anyone even go about doing that? They had been kidding earlier in even suggesting it was a relative of his, since it was impossible to escape from that place. Was it simply two unrelated instances and they were just trying to over-read it?

Sirius looked likely to pass out, not finding this remotely funny anymore. The possibilities were endless and far too horrible. Lily and James were eyeing each other, unsure what to make of all this. The past few times they jumped to a conclusion, they weren't always right. Remus was beside himself; lost in questions he wasn't sure he wanted an answer to anymore.

Harry wasn't helping anyone, he hadn't spoken a word through all of this, simply sitting there watching Sirius. His mind and gut were at war with each other the longer this continued. He knew him, he had been so sure of that, and simply from the small amount of time he had interacted with him now he was convinced Sirius was as close to him as his own parents. He should be happy at the very thought of Sirius being alive, his gut told him that. So why was something very dark and bad building up inside of his mind even as he sat there? A pounding headache was forming again, not knowing what to think or even what instinct to trust.

Finally after a very long, drawn out silence where no one offered anything, Lily finally convinced herself to just read on. Coincidence or not, she had a very nasty feeling they would find out sooner rather than later.

Stan didn't seem all that impressed, he was still watching Harry and asked what was on Harry's forehead. Harry reacted by brushing his hair in the way and saying nothing while trying to cover his scar.

"Can't blame you for that," James muttered, not even slightly distracted from his best friend's odd mentioning, if it was even that at all.

Harry knew that if the Ministry was after him, he didn't want to help them along.

Sirius finally came out of his torpor to release a surprised snort, shaking himself firmly like a wet dog. He was being paranoid, they all were. So why didn't he believe that? Well Harry eyeing him every other second now wasn't helping the matter. Out loud he said, "credit for trying anyways."

Stan then asked for Harry's name, and he gave the first one that came to mind, Neville Longbottom.

"At least it wasn't Ron's, you don't exactly resemble him," Lily agreed, trying in vain for some normal mood again, though none of the boys looked remotely up to it.

Then Harry changed the subject to asking about the bus, and where it led? Stan promptly explained it would take him anywhere except underwater.

"Where would I even go underwater?" Harry asked loudly, not having meant to pitch his volume like that, but hoping to distract himself from the way his head seemed to be developing its own pulse.

"Err, guess you could go visit mermaids or something," Remus blurted, finally pulling him away from his thoughts.

He told Harry, in a very thick accent, the different prices for the ride, and extras such as hot chocolate, or a little more for a toothbrush.

James finally made a brave stab at humour again, saying, "Lily Flower, please never try and mimic that accent again. You're doing a horrible job."

Lily took a small moment to stick her tongue out at him, but didn't bother defending herself. It's not like she could skip what Stan was saying.

Harry paid his dues and loaded his stuff onto the bus, and instead of seats inside he found beds. Stan set him up right behind the driver's seat, a man named Ernie Prang at the wheel.

"Is he still driving that then?" Sirius asked, dully, and the others were slightly concerned to see that he hadn't really bounced back yet. Sirius was pretty well known for not letting things get to him for too long, so the fact that he was clearly still upset and distracted by all of these horrible implications about him wasn't boding well.

No one answered him, mostly because it was a rhetorical question anyways.

Then Stan took a seat behind the driver, and told Ernie they were good to go. There was an equally loud BANG as the one that had arrived, and Harry was tossed onto his bed with the speed of force.

That finally earned a half-hearted chuckle from them, knowing all too well the sensations of riding that bus for the first time.

Stan was still eyeing Harry curiously, but Harry asked first where they were. Stan said somewhere in Wales, and Harry asked how come the Muggles couldn't hear the bus.

Harry closed his mouth sheepishly, finally distracted from his impending thoughts and was fixing to ask that himself. Lily smiled indulgently at him before reading.

Stan just laughed, saying those Muggles never saw anything proper, while Ernie told him to go and wake a woman whose stop was coming up.

"Well that didn't really explain it," Remus said lightly.

"It's okay," Harry said quickly, "magic makes it hard to see and hear, got it."

Well Harry hadn't stayed distracted long. He was already over his curiosity at this new magical object, and the brief feeling of wanting to object why this was okay but Mr. Weasley's car was illegal, and back to wondering why he felt like this should be the most important night of his life. He still had no answers though, and so he didn't want to delay the reading much.

Harry began watching out the window as Ernie spun crazily through the streets, while cars, mailboxes, and street lights all jumped out of the way only to go right back when they'd passed.

Harry raised his brows in surprise, he did find that pretty amusing, but not enough to interrupt again.

Stan came back down the stairs with an elder woman, and the bus screeched to a stop. While Madam Marsh tottered out, slightly green from the trip, Stan tossed her luggage out after her,

"Well he's a polite one," Lily snorted.

and then they were off again. Harry spent the next while sitting on his bed, but knowing he could never sleep. He was too busy thinking about if Marge had stopped floating around the Dursleys house yet.

That gained a weak laugh from the group, happy to have something to distract them and that delightful mental image worked fine.

Then he caught sight of Stan holding a copy of the Daily Prophet, and the large image on the front was of the same man Harry had seen on the Muggle news.

"Wow, wait!" Remus said in surprise. "So the person who did escape, was a wizard?"

"But, how is that even possible?" James demanded. "No one should be able to escape from Azkaban, no one!"

Sirius looked almost mildly amused as he said, "well, props to them for being the first one to do it."

"Knock it off Sirius," Lily snapped, getting a little huffy at once at such a prospect, "it's not funny, this could be a problem."

"Quit fretting Lily," Sirius scoffed right back, "so it's weird, kind of freaky, and I'm going to insist still cool, but it's probably nothing to do with Harry."

Lily wasn't the only one who disagreed with that, Remus also had a bad feeling that trouble seemed to go out of its way to find Harry, and an escaped prisoner who shared a name with Sirius seemed almost likely by this point. Remus had met Sirius' family only once, and it had been far from a pleasant experience, one he would never wish on Harry.

James dearly wanted to side with Sirius, but he still didn't like the uneasy way his son was acting now, it didn't bode well.

Stan looked back at the front page,

Lily froze dead in her tracks as she looked down at the name, the first name, of this convict. Harry didn't even need to ask this time, one furtive look from his mom to his godfather and he knew his answer. James wasn't having it though, he tore the book away and glared down at that name like it was the worst trick in the world.

"Someone's dead," he snarled, his hands beginning to shake so hard the book was in danger of being broken all over again. "Whoever the hell framed you for whatever the bloody hell you ended up in there for, they are beyond dead!" He got to his feet and began pacing the length of the couch, continuing his violent mutterings about how his best friend had been set up for something.

Sirius said nothing, he looked almost mummified, and for a horrible moment Remus thought he'd stopped breathing. "Ah, Padfoot," Remus said gently, since James was still yelling at the top of his lungs and Lily and Harry were watching him wearily. Sirius was still losing colour, and were his lips tinged blue? Remus poked him, hard, in the ribs which only elicited the smallest of reactions that he sucked in air through his nose finally. He still wasn't reacting though, just gazing straight forward with a look of utmost horror on his face.

His friends had seen him in quite a few ways, so excited he couldn't hold still, so angry he couldn't spit out the words, and one single moment before this where he had been terrified. Then though, Sirius had done the opposite and had sat around talking almost nonstop in an effort to show how 'not afraid' he'd been. This shell-shocked display was something none of them had seen before, and it was beginning to scare them all.

"Sirius," James said loudly, finally having noticed he was the only one shouting. He waltzed over and placed his hand on his friend's shoulder.

The man jumped like he'd just been electrocuted; suddenly his eyes went flying around the room like he had no idea where he was. Blinking so fast there was no way he could really be clearing his vision, he stammered "s-sorry. Zoned out there, what was that?"

"You kind of went mental there for a moment," Remus told him kindly, trying to put some warmth into his voice that Sirius didn't even register.

"Di-did I?" he muttered, and then he shook himself like a wet dog with a rabid cat on its back. When he was done doing that, he looked around again with far more sense, and his eyes landed on Harry. Sirius swallowed hard, and opened his mouth as if to say something, but no words came out. What exactly he was trying to say, apologize for being absent, ask him if he knew what had happened, or anything else for that matter just wasn't getting past his lips.

Harry took pity on him and addressed both of those questions, "I'm not mad at you Sirius. I've only known you for a few days and I know you'd never do anything to get sent there." Harry very carefully avoided using the word of said prison; Sirius still looked likely to faint at any moment. "I still don't know what happened either, I just knew I remembered you. I'm not afraid of you though, and don't you think I'd be afraid of someone who I knew was a mass murderer?"

"Murderer?" Remus repeated eagerly, as Harry immediately dissolved into grimacing and rubbing at his temple as words slipped out that he had no knowledge of. Just this small little dig and he was already back to that horrid pain that sent white hot flashes through him.

Remus retracted at once, very much wanting to find out exactly what Sirius had been accused of, but unwilling to persist Harry in the matter. It was ridiculous after all, Sirius was a hot headed idiot on a good day, but he would never do something like murder. Or, well, maybe he would...

Harry cut in with another question instead, "but how did you know where I was? I didn't really think you'd ever been to the Dursleys?"

Sirius didn't really answer, he still looked like he was in a daze, and Lily answered, "the Order knows where Petunia lives, her address anyways. I've it listed under people who should be contacted if I die, which I need to fix," she added to herself with a mutter, ignoring the flinch that caused James for the suddenly very real threat. "It's how Dumbledore and McGonagall even knew where Petunia was living back in the first book. It was dangerous though," she finished with a sharp look at Sirius, "for him to still go there. Any fool who knew you would know you'd go and seek out Harry."

Still this gained no reaction from Sirius.

James was still grumbling mutinously as Lily finally convinced him to take his seat, the parents still eyeing Harry with some concern. Experience had already told them if he continued in this way, his body would rebel and he would end up crumpling to the ground in pain, so Lily was now very eager to keep going and read. James only shut himself up for now so that he could see what exactly was going on here.

where the name Sirius Black plastered across the headline.

Sirius convulsed slightly, hearing his name like that. He had been, well not content per say, but had accepted that he must have died shortly after James to have been absent so long. Now that he found out where he had been, he pondered whether he'd just as soon be dead. Then he grit his teeth and began mentally pummeling himself for that thought. He was alive, which meant that he really could get out and find Harry. It all came together very clearly in his mind now. Whatever he had been accused of doing didn't matter, how he had even gotten out didn't matter. That black dog Harry had seen, it must have been him! Which meant he would finally be able to do what he'd always swore he would, look after his godson. The why's and how's didn't even matter, so long as he could just do one simple thing and keep an eye out for him.

Stan laughed, saying he'd been all over the news, yes even the Muggle's and Harry should keep up more. He handed Harry that section of the paper, and Harry began to read,

Lily released a very shaky breath, mixed feelings twisting inside of her as she realized she very well might just find out what had happened, and almost not wanting to find out. Whatever it was, this wasn't going to be pretty, but she pressed on anyway.

about this man who had been held in Azkaban was still on the loose. The Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, was trying to stop the public from panicking, and denied any knowledge of how the escape had even happened. Everyone had been warned to keep an eye out for this deranged man, who'd been locked away twelve years ago for killing thirteen people with one spell.

Some kind of life finally reappeared on Sirius again, but it wasn't the kind anyone wanted to see. He laughed, and it wasn't his usual jovial cheer, this already had an edge of madness tinging it as he leaned as far away from everyone as he possibly could.

Remus punched him on the shoulder, hard.

"Ouch," Sirius whined, and Remus sighed in relief to finally have gotten a normal response out of him. "What was that for?"

"Shut it," Remus snapped, "and quit acting like an idiot or I'll do it again."

"How does someone so scrawny hit so hard," Sirius muttered, slumping back down, and wondering if he could get away with listening to this on another continent.

Remus hadn't really meant to hit him that hard; he had actually been projecting his own annoyance at himself in that throw. How could he have thought something like that of his friend, even for a second? Yes, Sirius had made quite a few threats against members of his family, even Snape from time to time, but he'd never meant them! That accident when they were kids was just that, an accident. He'd forgiven Sirius for that a long time ago, so to even consider him to do something like that now felt like a betrayal.

"This is foul," James snarled, looking far more likely to rip someone's head off than Sirius himself in that moment, "how could anyone think you'd done this!"

They were all stumped. They of course knew Sirius quite well, but to the general populace he was simply a name attached to one of the pure-blood households. It really wasn't much of a stretch at all to think a Black would pull this off.

Lily wanted very much to sit around questioning how all of this had gone in trial, what kind of evidence had been used against Sirius in the matter, but since no one here actually knew the answer she didn't even touch on the question. She gave all of the boys a pitying look, but with James' almost comforting words still in mind she read out the full charge.

Harry looked at the picture again, of the man with such sunken features it was a wonder he was even breathing.

Sirius then balked and shuttered all over again, remembering Harry saying how non-human he had looked. He'd heard stories about how that place sucked the life out of you, but it was more unpleasant to picture yourself like that.

Harry had only ever seen pictures of Vampires before, but he would have put money this man looked just like one.

Remus jerked away from Sirius in surprise as he made a pitiful noise deep in his throat, and then bent towards him in concern all over again. "Sirius, I think you stopped breathing again."

"Sorry," he muttered, "just trying to picture it, and it's not much fun."

James was bouncing in place in his seat, still with that manic energy that he needed to go curse someone into oblivion for this slandering, and also dearly wanting to go sit next to Sirius now and hug the life back into him. They could hardly blame him for reacting like this, but it was still creeping them out how he had yet to regain any of his normal coloring and actually seemed to be getting paler the longer this went on.

Harry handed back the paper, Stan not even fully looking at the picture as he commented on what a creepy looking man he was. Harry was stunned as he asked that Black had really killed thirteen people at once, and Stan was nodding along, adding details that he'd been caught doing it in broad daylight, with witnesses all around.

"Bollocks," James hissed, "a big, rotten pile of steaming-"

"James," Lily sighed, "we're all mad at this, but I want to hear it anyways."

James' upper lip curled in a sneer, he didn't look like he was going to back down one bit, until Sirius finally gave an intelligible sentence again and said, "let it go James. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you find this so ridiculous, but I want to hear this too."

"Might help us figure out who really did do it," Remus added on quickly.

James huffed and crossed his arms, while Harry simply sat there nodding along with his Mom. He knew the answer to this. He had never been so sure of anything since he'd woken up here, and he dearly wanted to find out now because it felt majorly important to him. Like something bad had happened, simply because he hadn't known this information...

Ernie added on that Black had been a well-known backer of You-Know Who,

Lily couldn't read that sentence without snorting in disbelief, while the other four boys made choking noises of disgust at such a ridiculous accusation. "Where is he even getting that from? He didn't know you," Lily demanded of the book.

Sirius gave her a wan smile, pleased she seemed to find this as outrageous as anyone else. Sometimes he wondered how much she really did like him, considering how often she threatened, yelled and berated him. And now her snarky little joke from before actually seemed to have come true. Watching her now though, he no longer had a doubt in his mind.

Harry corrected Voldemort without thinking about it.

"Well this should be fun," Remus noted absently, noticing Harry still didn't seem to realize he shouldn't be spouting that name without thinking about it.

Ernie jerked the wheel of the bus so hard in shock, a whole building had to jump to the side.

"Still love that you do that so casually," Sirius said a little too loudly, obviously trying to force a devil may care attitude. The others didn't buy it, but it was a nice attempt.

Stan looked likely to faint from shock, demanding to know why Harry would say that name! Harry apologized, saying he'd forgotten people didn't like that.

"You forgot?" James laughed lightly, not anywhere near over his shock and anger that his best friend had survived, but enjoying Harry's unintentional humour all the same.

Stan wasn't buying it, still rubbing at his chest from shock, and Harry tried to change the subject by repeating that Black had been a supporter of You-Know-Who.

Sirius went so bug-eyed all of a sudden, Remus had to stop himself from reaching out and grabbing hold of him to make sure he really didn't fall over this time as Sirius nearly shouted, "oh bloody hell!"

"What?" James yelped in concern, Sirius was more than scaring him now with these awful freak out moments he kept having.

"This!" he snarled, and it finally looked like he was edging back to his normal self, except now he was truly pissed at something as he continued to nearly shout. "This is the first thing Harry hears about me! He's grown up not even knowing my name, and the first thing he ever hears about me is that I, I'm a-"

"Oh Sirius-" Lily muttered, while Remus really did look like he was fixing to hug him. Sirius was in no mood, he had built up enough steam that he was going to keep going until someone forcibly muted him.

"Don't any of you apologize! I've dealt with a lot of crap so far, but this!" He continued in this way for so long, he actually started to go hoarse, but none of them stopped him. They felt he more than deserved it.

When he finally did subside, now absentmindedly rubbing at his throat and looking far calmer and more himself, Harry was quick to cut in, "if it helps at all, I know you now."

Sirius grunted, though maybe he didn't verbally reply because his vocal cords were still coming back, but, after a quick look from James, Lily decided to keep reading now before Sirius got his voice back.

Stan agreed, telling Harry about how some of You-Know-Who's other followers had been caught right after his downfall, and had come in without much of a fight, but not Black. Others said he was his second in command, and was even going to take over for You-Know-Who.

"The fact that anyone believes that is sad," Remus sighed. "I've heard of some pretty nasty Death Eaters, and even they don't have the gall to go around saying that, they'd be killed by Voldemort himself."

"Most likely this is all rumours that happened after Sirius was framed," Lily pointed out, "details were exaggerated; the worst of it always comes after the act itself."

"Glad you two think this is so interesting," James huffed, since Sirius' indignant look clearly said he was thinking that, but he was still rubbing his throat and couldn't say it.

Remus looked slightly offended for a moment that James thought he meant it, but then he backed down when he realized it was more of a really dark joke.

Lily didn't deign them with a comment at all; she just kept going and hoped for more actual evidence than slander.

Then he told how Black had been found in a Muggle neighborhood, and that he blew up the street rather than go in, killing twelve Muggles and one wizard.

"Ah, how would someone go about making that look like me?" Sirius said in mild concern, finally getting his voice back and seeming to lose it all at once.

"There are several ways," Lily frowned, "but my main issue is then what happened to you?"

Remus snapped his fingers and said, "what if the person who did this simply made themselves look like Sirius, then the Ministry came and got him after the fact."

"Wouldn't be the first time someone blamed him for something he didn't do, because of his name." James agreed, hardly looking pleased that they might have figured this out, since he still wanted to murder the fool who had thought they could frame his best friend and get away with it.

Harry was pondering how he felt about this. For some reason, it didn't feel right. There were huge chunks missing, and the set up his family had offered wasn't quite right, but as always he just wasn't sure how to best put those pieces together.

Then he told of what Black did after the fact, he sat there and laughed. Just sitting in the streets laughing when the Ministry showed up and properly arrested him, probably because he was mad.

"Mad in the emotional sense," Sirius sniffed. "I like to think I'm a little saner than just standing around after something like that ouch-" he cried again, giving Remus the stank eye. "Why do you keep hitting me? You're supposed to be the nice one."

"You don't get to joke about this," Remus told him with one of the sternest looks anyone had ever seen. "Not this Sirius."

Sirius opened his mouth, a nasty little retort already in place, when he shut his mouth just as quickly and nodded his ascent. The joke had slipped out before he thought about it, same as most of his jokes really. Now though, looking at his friends, he recognized it was only going to make this worse.

Then to everyone's surprise, Lily spoke up, "don't be too hard on him, Remus. You know he plays off things to show how aloof he thinks he is. If making stupid jokes helps him to cope, don't beat him for it."

"My jokes aren't stupid," Sirius snapped at once, then he went bright-eyed and cooed, "aw, Lily, that's the first time you've ever defended me."

"Don't get used to it," she smirked at him.

James and Remus didn't really look happy, feeling they'd rather strangle someone who made light of this situation regarding their friend, but so long as Sirius was the one doing it they couldn't really say too much.

He'd spent the rest of his life in Azkaban, though Ernie reflected that if he wasn't mad before he went in there he most certainly was now, of course he did deserve it.

"Someone certainly deserves that place," James agreed, "but it's too good for what I owe them."

There was a big cover up from the magical community, telling how the big explosion had been some sort of gas leak, but now Black was out again, and he was the first to ever have done it, and nobody knew how.

"That is still a very good question," Sirius nodded to himself, cocking his head to the side and actually considering the matter. "Or why I didn't do it earlier, like as soon as I got there. Why now?"

"I got nothing," Remus shrugged.

"Can we not think about this," James moaned, "I really don't want to think about this anymore than I have to."

Harry frowned, he had honestly wanted to hear if his family had any theories on the matter, but his Dad now looked as ghastly as Sirius had before. His anger seemed to be subsiding, and James was starting to push past his outrage at Sirius being there, to Sirius being there. Alone in that dark, creepy place where no one would normally survive more than a few years, and Sirius had been there for twelve!

The others recognized this as well, and Lily was quick to move on.

The two elders were still talking about how terrifying that prison was, and Harry couldn't help but reflect how this conversation would go in a few weeks when word got around that Harry Potter had broken wizarding law. Would he end up in Azkaban to? Were Ernie and Stan going to be sitting around laughing then about how he'd blown up his aunt and made a run for it?

That released a startled laugh from Remus. They had just found out something major, life altering even. Nothing this bad or emotionally horrifying had come up since the first chapter of the first book, and here Harry was. Thirteen and caring nothing for his would be Uncle's state, but simply still worried about something as petty as accidental magic. It wasn't really funny, but it made him laugh anyways.

Sirius was dearly tempted to punch him then, more for payback than actually wanting him to stop, but he was already trailing off and Lily was still eager to keep going.

Harry had broken the law, just like Black.

Sirius made to open his mouth again, but this time it was Lily who cut him off and said, "don't. I do not want to hear some stupid joke about that one."

Sirius huffed, she had just defended him and now was the one stopping him from saying 'he takes after me' but on retrospect, that really was a little too dark of humor even for him.

Was inflating Marge bad enough to land him in Azkaban?

"Not even close," James shuddered in disgust, wanting to vomit all over again at Harry going anywhere near that place.

He'd never been there himself, but he'd heard nothing but terrible rumours about the place, even Hagrid, the strongest man Harry knew, had all but begged not to be sent there.

While it did keep things in perspective for Harry, Lily dearly hoped this was the last time that horrid prison would be mentioned, because now every time it was all three of her boys winced at the very thought of the place.

The trip wore on, and the scenery outside continued to change around as passengers got off. At one point Stan went to go get Harry his hot chocolate, but managed to spill it all over him at the next take off.

"What, it didn't have a lid?" Sirius asked absently.

"Not the best time to drink that anyway," James shrugged. Their light commentary still seemed to be lacking, and they were now beginning to wonder how long it would take before they could actually sit around and absorb this new information.

When Harry was the last one aboard, the Knight Bus set off for the Leaky Cauldron, daybreak beginning on the horizon.

"Wow, you were on that thing all night," Lily said in surprise.

"You said the ministry would be tracking me," Harry frowned, "how come they wouldn't have caught up by then?"

"You would have been moving around too fast," Lily shrugged when it looked like none of the boys were, "so by the time you were pinpointed, the bus would have been off again. I'm sure they'll catch up to you before you leave Diagon Alley though."

Harry frowned, not looking remotely comforted by that. The horrid news of Sirius had distracted him now, but his thirteen-year-old self was still firmly upset by the matter with Marge, and even more so if he was going to be forced back to the Dursleys for the rest of the summer. He might have been the only one thinking about this though; the others were clearly still out of it.

Harry's plan was still in place, now deciding what he would do after he got his money.

"Could go see the country," Remus joked, "might be fun for a while anyways."

Lily just ignored him, knowing full well Harry wouldn't be able to get that far.

The bus came to a stop, and Harry was getting help from Stan unloading his stuff when a voice behind called out a greeting to Harry.

"Who do you think that is?" James asked, finally an actual distraction from the fate of his best friend.

"He knew Harry by name," Lily puzzled, noting just the first name and not his full name like some awestruck person might have, "you think they sent someone who knew Harry personally?"

"Well you tell us," Remus pointed out.

Harry nearly dropped his stuff in shock as he saw the Minister of Magic.

"Say what!" The ones without the book yelped.

"Surely the Minister himself wouldn't have come after you?" James said in surprise.

"Well why not?" Remus acknowledged once the shock had worn off. "He is the famous Harry Potter after all. He might have gotten some special attention for his bit of acting out."

"I keep wanting to forget that honestly," Lily sighed, "but I guess it does make sense."

He came forward and placed his hand on Harry's shoulder, while Stan was caught off guard, saying how he'd thought this was Neville. Fudge looked at him curiously as he corrected that this was Harry Potter, and Stan shouted that he'd known that all along.

"Sure he did," James scoffed, now frowning as he realized Sirius seemed to have gone quiet again. He was still obviously paying attention, but normally that would have been his line.

Fudge turned back to Harry then, inviting him inside and then asking the bartender, Tom, for a pot of tea in one of the rooms, hand still firmly holding onto Harry's shoulder.

"That's starting to annoy me," Lily frowned, "where does he get the right to hold onto you like that. He doesn't think you're going to make a run from him does he?"

Harry just shrugged; he had no idea about the Minister's motives.

Stan and Ernie were coming in from behind, carrying Harry's stuff, and Stan asked why Harry had lied, still calling him Neville.

"Is he going to keep calling you that?" Remus asked, slightly amused.

"I'm okay with this," Harry smiled weakly, "it's better than being treated like famous Harry Potter."

The Minister dismissed the pair, and Harry was led away into a private office where he was seated, and then Fudge introduced himself and his title.

"Glad you already knew that, or this would have been even more awkward," James nodded.

Harry had already known this, having once seen him in person, but as he'd been hiding under his cloak at the time, he didn't think Fudge needed to know that.

"It might have been a spot funny if you had though," Remus pointed out.

"Still glad he didn't," Lily frowned at him, "it's too odd to explain."

"Could have seen him in the papers or something couldn't he," James shrugged, still keeping an eye on Sirius who was still being far too quiet for his liking.

Then Fudge turned to telling Harry that he'd been quite worried when Harry had run away from his family's house, something terrible could have happened, he had been starting to think...but then changed the subject.

"Started to think what?" Harry asked with interest.

"I've no idea," Lily frowned, "perhaps that you were going to head out somewhere else and it would be harder for them to find you."

No one offered anything else, but they did wonder if Harry's name really was the only reason Fudge was there. What else could it be though?

Telling that they had deflated Marjorie Dursley,

"Still one of the best sentences I've heard all day," Remus muttered to Sirius, and then frowned when he only gave a weak grin back.

and that her memory had been changed so that she didn't remember a thing,

"Almost a pity," Lily sighed, "might teach her not to go spouting such crap to a child."

"I love you," James grinned at his wife, adoring that she had only beaten him by a second on saying that.

concluding that no harm had been done. He then looked over Harry with a warm smile, like an uncle watching his favourite nephew.

Which caused Remus to sniff in disdain. He, much like Lily and James, seemed to find it personally offensive when anyone compared themselves to Harry's family, only a few exceptions came to mind. It bothered him all the more when Sirius didn't even flinch at the sentence.

When Harry said nothing, Fudge did say that Harry was probably worried about the Dursleys reactions, and while they had been angry, they were willing to let Harry come back next summer,

"No," James moaned, putting his face in his hands now.

"My sentiments exactly," Harry sighed, unable to think of anything else to say to that.

"Here I thought you'd finally gotten away from those..." Lily trailed off into a few foul mutterings before clearing her throat and reading.

but Harry protested he never wanted to go back there again! Fudge was shocked, saying that he was sure Harry still loved them, erm, deep down.

"Like the pits of hell deep," Remus huffed, "where fondness equates to hatred."

"Poetic," Lily noted.

"And true," Harry agreed.

Harry in no way agreed, but didn't argue the point. Fudge then spoke about what Harry would do in the meantime, and suggested he just stay here at the Leaky Cauldron for the remainder of his vacation. Harry interrupted by pointing out, what about his punishment?

James made a funny choking noise like someone had just elbowed him in the throat. "Did you really just ask that? Harry, why on earth would you?"

"It didn't make sense," Harry shrugged, still finding this odd now as he explained, "every other time I'd done magic, I'd at least gotten a warning. Now, here I had done something really serious, and nothing."

Harry had used that word on purpose, he had been trying to elicit a reaction from Sirius like everyone else, but the man still seemed so out of it he wasn't going to bite. James and Remus exchanged very worried looks, wondering what had made him bounce back so hard when he'd been trying for a moment to come out of it, while Lily offered an explanation. "Perhaps because they went there themselves and saw what happened? No one could possibly blame you for your actions, the way they were treating you."

Harry didn't really agree, but he wasn't going to argue the point either.

Fudge gave an uneasy laugh, saying why would he do anything like that? Harry insisted that he'd been told off last summer for a house-elf doing magic in his house, and the Ministry had warned him he'd be in real trouble if it happened again.

"Are you trying to get yourself kicked out," Lily demanded of her son.

"I just wanted an explanation," Harry reminded.

"Well, they didn't know a house-elf had done that last summer," Lily reminded him, "and they say expelled as a severe warning. You still haven't done anything bad enough for that to be a real threat."

Harry nodded in acceptance.

Fudge brushed him off though, trying to say that things were a little different now, given the fact that, well- then he blurted that Harry shouldn't want to be expelled?

While most of them simply put this down to Fudge being really bad at explaining the system to Harry, none of them noticed Sirius finally reacting again, by his eyes narrowing with suspicion.

Harry agreed he didn't, then Fudge declared there was no more need to talk about it. He got up and left, but Harry still couldn't believe this. Then he reflected it was odd enough that the Minister of Magic himself had even shown up here.

"I think you're reading too much into it," Lily told him lightly, "it's really not that unusual for someone to have come after you. Maybe not the Minister himself, but still."

Harry still wanted to disagree with her on that, there was something he wasn't quite remembering that would prompt said Minister's motives, but he had no clue as to what.

It really didn't add up that the Minister would come after wayward school children to deal with this. Fudge came back then, saying that Tom had a room for Harry, but then Fudge requested that while he stayed there, he shouldn't go into the Muggle world.

"Who's he to tell you that?" James scoffed, finally dragging his eyes away from Sirius to look at the book in annoyance. "It's none of his business where you go."

"I don't really blame him for this," Lily shrugged, "he is underage by all accounts, so it's not that weird for wanting to keep him in a smaller, magical community."

Harry agreed, but did ask why.

"Glad at least Harry questions it," James huffed, still rather annoyed by that.

Fudge just said that he didn't want Harry to get lost again, it was better for now, then he trailed off again.

Sirius narrowed his eyes further, taking note of that as much as Remus and James noticed him doing it. Was this really what was bothering Sirius so much, the Minister appearing? Sirius hated the Ministry, which had only increased, they were sure, because of what they had just found out, but this seemed a little odd for him to have such a dislike of someone who really hadn't done anything wrong yet.

Sirius declined telling them what was really on his mind. Which was that, like Harry, he was wondering if there wasn't something more going on right there, something to do with a supposed supporter of Voldemort suddenly breaking out.

Harry then randomly asked if there was any news on Black, and Fudge flinched in surprise.

Far from looking pleased, Sirius slumped back in his seat and grumbled something under his breath Remus didn't catch. He noted the act though, and he and James shared another look, hardly wanting to wait until the chapter was over anymore to get him to talk.

Fudge tried for a laugh that didn't work, saying that they had nothing yet and the Azkaban guards were quite angry about it all,

"Can Dementors be angry?" Lily asked, never having considered this. "I've never known them to hold an emotion really."

"They can certainly express themselves if they wish, just not the way you're thinking," Remus offered, realizing in that stretch of quiet he was expected to answer. He didn't look up to elaborating, which was odd enough for him, so Harry didn't ask what a Dementor was.

Fudge made to leave then, but Harry jumped in with one last question, reminding that as a third year he could go to Hogsmeade,

James smirked then, happy his son still had a way of distracting him from something like his best friend acting weirder as time went on. "You would ask something like this after the night you've had."

"I had to put up with all of that crap, and I still didn't get it signed," Harry shrugged, "it was worth a shot."

but no one had signed it for him. Fudge tried to stall by saying he wasn't Harry's parent or guardian of any sort.

"He's got a point," Lily frowned, hating the way this was turning out for him. "I hate to admit it, but it really doesn't look like you're not going to get to this year. You'll have to try something else with those Muggles next summer." The taste those words left in her mouth made her wish she could bite her tongue off so she'd never have to hear that again.

Harry tried to protest, pointing out his position, and that if he gave him permission,

"Too bad it doesn't work like that," James agreed absently.

but Fudge declined, saying this may be all for the best for now. Then he did leave.

Since they were watching for it this time, James and Remus noticed Sirius give an imperceptible nod at yet another action from the Minister. Remus, growing sick of trying to guess what Sirius normally would have said himself anyways, asked, "how much is there left Lily?"

She checked and told him, making them all feel a bit relieved, more than ready to take a break after this monster of emotional baggage had been dumped on them.

Harry was lead to his room, to find Hedwig inside.

"How did she know to go there?" Lily asked in surprise. "I thought she went to Ron in Egypt?"

"I've no idea," Harry beamed, more than pleased anyways.

Harry was as surprised as anyone while Tom explained that she'd just arrived a few moments after Harry, then he left. Harry sank onto his bed, staring around this room and the perspective freedom, without any Dursleys, for the next two weeks.

"No," Remus corrected himself from earlier, "that's the best sentence I've heard yet."

They all nodded in agreement with that.

He was tired though, so he slumped down onto the bed and fell asleep without even taking his glasses off.

"That's the end of the chapter," Lily declared, closing the book with a sharp snap of disgust.

Harry, who had noticed Sirius acting odd just as much as his Dad, decided he'd like to try and get a happier subject going.

"Err, so, about that police thing?" Harry asked hesitantly, since Sirius still looked a little vacant and Remus looked like he might not speak again for some time. James was shifting his weight around in so much unease he was practically bouncing in place, but decided to answer anyway. Yes Lily might get mad, but it was better than sitting around thinking about...

"Sirius and I were out doing some business for the Order when we realized we were being followed. We were on his bike, and so we hit the concrete since we were a lot bulkier in the air on it, and not ten seconds later we got the Muggles chasing after us, lights flashing. Still we gave them a chase around, hoping to lose both pursuers, when Sirius shouted back that he was going to pull over and for me to get ready. Of course I had no idea what that meant, but since he was steering I couldn't argue when he lead us into a dead end."

He glanced back over at his best friend, and while it was clear Sirius was listening, he still didn't look up to interrupting and stating his side of the story. More than concern was beginning to tighten up in James, that expression was really starting to scare him, but he finished off the story anyways. "So we were kind of cornered and being chased by two parties. The three Death Eaters who were chasing us above kept circling lower and lower, so we chatted up the cops until the Death Eaters finally lined themselves up and tried charging at us. We used the cop's cruiser as a wall, they crashed into it, and we bolted out of there before anyone recovered. Got the Ministry out there later to deal with the Memory charms and such. We didn't even get in trouble for the whole thing." He ended, sounding quite pleased with himself.*

He then turned to Lily, expecting a barrage of questions. It was clear from her expression she was annoyed she'd never heard of that before, and was going to demand to know exactly how old they had been, what they had been doing for the Order, etc. but she didn't. She remained just as quiet as everyone else. The silence dragged on into near uncomfortable levels until James finally took the book from Lily, checked his chapter, and then closed it and put it down, wondering what he could say.

HPHPHPHP

Finally! The Big Reveal! Hope I did it justice guys.

*I recognize in reading that fun little thing you can find at ( headsup. freeshell drumsticks/) that it states the boys are in their late teens, maybe just seventeen, but that means Sirius got his bike well before I said, so I went back and changed that. Hope you enjoyed the short, and started crying when you realized there's really not going to be a prequel.

More A/N, I know you guys are all sick of my words by now, but this is also something I need to address, a few people have pointed out that Snape heard the Prophecy and started this whole mess and Dumbledore immediately went to the Potter's and put them into hiding, but to that I say you really think his first thought was the Potter's? Dumbledore was running a war, and when this came to him, I like to think he had to actually look around even outside the Order to establish that only two current families fell under this threat, the Potters and the Longbottom's. Even after this, no due date is literally exact so he probably still would have waited until he was sure these two families were the ones. Even then, I still insist they wouldn't have immediately gone into hiding. If the Potter's had gone into hiding while they were still pregnant, then how on Earth did the rest of the world know Harry (and Neville) even existed if they were in hiding literally so much of the first year of their life. I don't think I'm making any sense...and I hope you all enjoyed the chapter you've been dying for so I'll stop talking/typing now.

#The LIfe that Never LIved #Harry Potter #fanfiction #James Potter #Lily Potter #Sirius Black #Remus Lupin #reading the books

1 note · View note

hallelujah-lockandload · 3 years

Text

Sweet Venom 2

Here is a link to the first chapter on here

The Wattpad link that has more chapters. I take a while to post here since AO3 and Wattpad give me more feedback :c

The first three days of school went by fast which is nice. Now it's Friday which means sleepover with Mikey! It's something we’ve always done the first week of school but also because we are literally best friends and my parents don’t care enough to realize I’ve slept over his house multiple times. The Way’s mom is always really sweet and makes us leave the door open cause we’re “teenagers and teenagers are horny”. She didn’t say that to us but I already know that's what she thinks and I’m also the only girl allowed to stay the night at all at their house unless it's a group sleepover.

I got up as usual and dressed in some black bottoms today and a smashing pumpkins tee. Walking down stairs to an empty kitchen is always nice, it means I get to take my time and actually be somewhere in peace that isn’t my room. I got breakfast ready and sat at the table scrolling through my phone texting Mikey.

y/n/n: Sup loser.

Mikey: morning punk.

u excited for tonight?!

y/n/n: OF fuckin course!!

Watchin movies and complaining and catching up

Even though i see you all the time

Mikey: I still look forward to our yearly first week of school Shit Talk Sleepover

y/n/n: SAaaammme!

Mikey: Gotta watch some shitty hs movie this time

cause its your last first week shit talk

y/n/n: I don’t know mikes I still got college and youll be a senior

Mikey: tru

As I ready Mikey’s “tru” I finish my breakfast and then head up stairs to finish getting ready. I put on my usual makeup and brushed my teeth. My hair looks decent so I’m leaving it, no one will tell I didn’t brush it unless they run their fingers through it so whatever. As I reach the bottom of the stairs I hear a car honk outside my house. I go to the door and peek out and there’s Mikey and Gerard to pick me up. I wave and go grab my shoes and check my phone to see if Mikey said they were coming at all cause I didn’t think they'd be here.

Mikey: we be picking u up early loser. (timestamp 5 minutes ago)

Of course the one time I don't check my phone so they have to wait a few minutes for me to tie my hightops and grab my bag. I lock the door as I close it behind me and head to the back seat of Gerard’s kind of beat up black Corolla. It's an older used car but it works for getting us all places.

“Morning guys” I say, throwing my backpack into the back seat and stepping in.

“Morning y/n/n. You were late” Mikey said while Gerard just hummed in response to my greeting. I closed the door and off we went.

“Yeah well I didn’t see your text jerk” I said hitting Mikey’s shoulder lightly. It's too early for being rough. Mikey just laughed and we rode in silence to the school with Gerard’s playlist coming through the speakers.

The school day passed slower today than the last few. Probably because I was excited for the sleepover tonight with Mikey. I looked over at him in math and it seemed like he felt the same way. Once classes were out for the day I went to grab my stuff from my locker.

“Hey cutie” I turned to look at Patrick.

“Where’ve you been all day, jerk?” I laughed as I pushed him away from me.

“Places…” He smirked turning to lean against the lockers. “Mostly hiding from Carry which meant I couldn't hang with you cause I knew she would look for me there.”

“Dude.” I said staring at him.

“I know, I know. I just need to find her a new boy to crush over”

“Fast,” I added, closing my locker.

“Hey guys!” I turned to see Pete and Mikey heading our way.

I leaned over to Patrick, “I'd say point out Pete to her but that would just be cruel.” I laughed and so did he.

“What are you two idiots giggling about?” Pete said, stopping next to us.

“Nothing.” Patrick and I said together. We looked at eachother and just cracked up even more.

“Ugh” Pete groaned and turned to Mikey, “Control your bestfriend.”

“You first” Mikey responded with a smirk.

Pete rolled his eyes, “Lets get the fuck out of here, schools been out for like 10 minutes.”

“Oh that's so long” I said sarcastically as I fixed my backpack on my shoulder.

“Shut up.” Pete said smiling as we started to head out of the hallway and make our way to the front of the school.

“Hey Mikey how's operation Sweet Poison going?” Patrick said over my head.

“I’m working on it.” Mikey mumbled giving Patrick a glare.

“Oooooh! What's Sweet Poison?! Let me help!” I said turning to Mikey.

“You can’t help cutie, it's a secret” Patrick said next to me.

“Yuup. Only us boys get to know” Pete said. I glared at Mikey who was looking everywhere but me. Looks like I’ve got some secrets to get out of Mikey now. Mikey keeping a secret from me is new and only a bit concerning.

“Alright,” I said, shrugging and turning back around, “Keep your secrets. I’ll just assume it's about your crush then.” I smirked as I walked over to the cars seeing Gerard leaning on the hood of his car talking to Frank and Ray.

“Do not,” Mikey rushed up behind me.

“Yeah it's actually not concerning Mikey’s crush for once. Plus isn't that one called operation Heart Eyes?” Patrick said.

“Oh yeah!” Pete nearly shouted, “Fuckin forgot about that. Gotta get moving on plans for that.” Mikey’s face was turning red, which is ahh sweet revenge for keeping me out of the loop.

“Hey guys” Ray said, waving as we got to Gerard’s car.

“Sup Toro-saurus” I smiled at him as he pulled me into a side hug laughing at my usual greeting.

“So any plans for tonight?” Pete asked the group.

Frank and Ray had a consensual nope and Gerard said sort of. But question? How do you sort of have plans? That's so weird but no one questions it. Patrick says how his only plan is to come up with a plan to get rid of his ex-girlfriend Carry. We all laughed at him but also gave sympathy cause who knew she was the obsessive type?

“Y/n and I are having our annual first week of school shit talk sleepover” Mikey said.

“We are going to roast all of you behind your backs” I added with a smirk.

“Thats so fuckin rude” Pete said knocking his shoulder against me chuckling. The others laughed lightly too. We chatted for a little while longer before everyone was sick of being on campus and there was almost no line of cars trying to leave the campus. We said our goodbyes and parted ways.

“You guys can drop me off at my house and I’ll walk over later. I gotta pack for tonight and make sure my parents remembered.” I said as we drove back to our houses. Thankfully Mikey only lives like a five minute walk from my house so I never feel weird walking there even at night.

“Okay” Mikey said. Gerard just hums and continues to drive. He never talks to me much. I literally have no clue what happened to make him not like me. We have been in the same grade since like 6th grade, I mean he’s older than me cause he got held back in like elementary school but Mikey and I are 90% sure its cause he didn’t want to leave Mikey behind. Which is actually really sweet. But Still! Why the hate? Or dislike. Whatever it is, it kind of makes me sad because we probably could be awesome friends like Mikey says. One day I’m going to figure it out. Or like ask Mikey what the fuck is up. But its not at the top of the to do list just yet. I’m fine with the awkward ignoring for now. Well I mean… for the past 3 years. This will be 4 if things don’t change.

We pull up to my house and I thank them both for the ride, “What time am I coming over Mikes?” I say before closing the door.

“Uuhhhhh idk 7?” Mikey said looking over his shoulder at me.

“Did you just say idk out loud?” I ask him, chuckling with a smirk.

“Shut up. See you later bye.” Mikey says turning around. I laugh and say bye again then close the car door. I walk up the steps, unlock the door and turn around and wave at the boys goodbye to signal I am safe and can get in my home. They always wait to make sure I’m safe, Mikey is a good friend. As I step in I drop my backpack on the table by the door and kick my shoes off before heading to the kitchen to get a snack. I plop down in a chair as I eat some dried fruit and sip at my water while sending a text to my mom telling her I was having a sleepover tonight.

Mom: Okay. Be safe. Love you.

Y/N: I will. Love you too.

I put my phone down to finish my snack and think about what movie I wanted to make Mikey watch tonight. Maybe Carrie, I mean it's fitting since Patrick was talking about his ex Carry. Or maybe Mean Girls cause it's a classic. Maybe even High School Musical just to fuck with Mikey. We shall see. I smirk to myself thinking of how mean I’m feeling like being to Mikey. I mean he is keeping a secret from me soo.

Once my snack is done I head upstairs to change into more comfy clothes for the day. But I kinda realize I should shower first cause school is fricken gross. So I grab a pair of black leggings and a baseball tee cause uhh no one needs to see my butt thanks, even if it is just Mikey and Gerard. I spend probably too long in the shower singing and just enjoying the heat but it's not like I don’t have the time. After I get out I brush out my wet hair and throw it back up in a dry towel to help get more moisture out. (real tip right there, double towel dry) I pull on my clothes and head out of the bathroom back to my room. I grab a bag from my closet for sleepovers and pack some pjs, an oversized New Jersey Devils shirt and a pair of shorts along with a pair of pants cause sometimes Mikey’s room is a fricken ice box. Then I grab some shorts and a shirt for the next day just in case we decide to get dressed and go somewhere.

After I finish packing I head back to the now aired out bathroom to dry my hair and put some much needed moisturizer on my face. No makeup cause it's Mikey and we’ve seen the worst of each other in the past that I don’t ever feel pressured to wear makeup around him. Plus my skin has been looking nice lately. I head back to my room and throw myself onto my bed. The clock next to me reads 4:15, I’ve got enough time to try and take a nap so I can stay awake later tonight. I set an alarm on my phone for 6:15 since I know I might just end up watching tv or playing on my phone but I need to make sure to eat a snack because pizza probably won't happen till 8. I lay down, put on some calming music before setting my phone down and closing my eyes for a bit.

The sound of chimes wake me up. Where the heck am I? What time is it? I look around and realize I’m still in my room. Damn I actually fell asleep, who knew I could nap? I turn off my alarm and slowly pull myself up out of bed. I rub my eyes and grab my bag and some socks to bring down stairs with me so I don’t have to come back up after my snack. I walk down the stairs to a semi dark house. The sun is going down and neither of my parents are home. Cool. I turn the porch light on and drop my bag and socks off at the front door before heading to the kitchen for some snackage.

y/n/n: we still good for 7??

I text Mikey to double check. Sometimes he forgets when we are supposed to hang out and goes to do something before realizing he’s now late for our hang out. I grab a pb and j sandwich from the fridge and sit on my phone for a bit as I chill down stairs. I check the time after my second pb and j… they are so good I can’t just have one! It’s 6:50 which means I’m allowed to go over and bother Mikey early. I check my phone and still no reply so I send a quick text letting him know that I’m on my way.

Grabbing my socks and shoes I sit on the floor by my bag taking my time just in case Mikey says not to go over yet. Once my black vans are on I stand up grabbing my bag and keys and checking my phone one more time. It's 6:53 and still no response so I’m heading over anyway so I can bug him. I head out my door, locking it behind me and taking a shortcut through my grass to the side walk. It's only a five minute walk and the sun is setting so it's still nicely lit, plus our neighbors usually stay inside at this time cause it's like family dinner time. I head to the Way house and check my phone at least three more times but still nothing. What a bitch. I think at Mikey, if only telepathy worked with us. Coming up on the Way residence I see the down stairs lights on but Mikey’s light isn’t on in his room. He better be downstairs and not out of the house right now.

I knock on the door but there is no answer which means Mikey isn’t downstairs or he has headphones on again. I use my spare key, Thank you Mrs. Way, and open the front door.

“Honey I’m home” I say sarcastically as I close the door. Still nothing. I peek around into the living room and no one is there. Odd cause the lights are on. The Way parents are out at dinner at the moment with some clients or something is what Mikey told me during Music Theory today. Next I head to the kitchen but still nothing. I head over to the staircase to go find Mikey upstairs.

CRASH

I jump at the sudden sound nearly dropping my phone, my heart racing and I have to take a moment tocatch my breath. I look toward the basement door that leads to Gerards room. I hope he’s alright. I look back up the stairs and the nonexistent light of Mikey’s bedroom. Mikey’s light wasn’t on, maybe he’s with Gerard in the basement and they are just messing around. I leave my bag at the bottom of the stairs and kick my shoes off too before heading to the basement door. Why are basements always so creepy? Or is it cause no one is up here that it makes it worse than usual. I’ve been in Gerard’s room before but only to borrow comics and Mikey took me down there. I open the door and listen for a moment before doing anything. There’s just silence and if I didn’t know this house as good as my own I would be feeling way more scared but I still feel like I’m in a horror movie right now. I open my phone up and dial 911 just in case I’m about to be fucking murdered in my best friends basement.

The lights are on down there which is better than anything else so I start to head down the stairs slowly. As I make it down the stairs I scan the room for the boys hoping they are just fucking with me and are trying to scare me. Reaching the bottom step I look around and notice a person laying on the floor by the open window.

“Oh shit! Gerard?!” I ran over to him once I recognized his black greasy hair. He’s slumped on his side and groans as I approach him. “Are you okay?” I reach out and grab his shoulder turning him to lay on his back so I can see his face better. I suck in a breath as I notice blood dripping down his chin and also the dark stain at the top of his blue sweatshirt which is probably more blood.

“Oh fuck!” I jump up and run to his bathroom grabbing a towel and running back crashing down next to him to stop the bleeding wherever the hell it's coming from as fast as I can. I press the towel gently to his face to try and wipe away some blood when his eyes snap open. Oh shit. In an instant I’m on my back, wind knocked out of me and towel still in my left hand with Gerard pinning my arms to the side of me while hovering over me with red eyes.

#Sweet vemon #mcr fanfiction #mcr fanfic #gerard x reader #gerard way x reader

11 notes · View notes

ak47stylegirl · 4 years

Text

Life Changes: Chapter 16

Chapter 16 is done! wooohoo! XD

This fic is dedicated to @gumnut-logic (also thanks Nutty for letting me use Jack XD)

The rest of the chapters can be found here. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! XD

----

Virgil pov

He rolled over in bed, staring blankly out at the city skyline; the sun having risen long ago. Three days have passed since that dreadful night, and Alan still hasn't woken up.

Their baby brother had fallen in to a coma.

The doctors had started to suspect that Alan could have suffered undetected brain damage, ordering brain scans to be performed. And as it became clear that Alan wasn’t going to wake up any time soon, the hospital had moved him to a more secure, more permanent room in the ICU.

Where they could visit him freely and without restrictions on how many of them could see him at a time. Kayo had also doubled their security immensely in the last couple of days, doing background checks on all of the hospital staff.

And it was no surprise to any of them that Dr Jim Smith was on the list of ‘don’t come ten feet near Alan or you die’ list. Kayo had been very insistent on that. As well as background checks, Kayo had also (somehow?!) compiled a team of vetted and trained security guards for them.

There were three guards standing watch outside their hotel room right now, along with two more guarding Alan’s hospital room. Plus Kayo, who insisted on protecting Alan personally and not even hell freezing over would change her mind.

And in a sense, Kayo was also guarding Scott, who had barely left Alan’s side; only leaving to eat, sleep and take bathroom breaks. Even Grandma couldn’t get him to leave on the threat of home cooking…

Which wasn’t a threat that you take lightly, she would actually follow up on it but even that time old trick has lost its magic in the last few days. Their world was falling apart, and a little bit of burnt food didn’t scare them like it used to.

The hospital was encouraging them to talk to Alan like he was awake and could hear them, that hearing their voices could help him regain consciousness.

But he couldn’t even step foot in the hospital after seeing Alan laid out on that hospital bed; Neck in a brace, unable to breathe on his own, almost lifeless in his stillness.

He had stumbled out of the ICU and into Scott’s arms, sobbing his heart out on his big brother’s shoulder. Repeating over and over again that he was to blame, that it was all his fault!

Scott had pushed him away slightly, his hands placed firmly on his shoulders with an almost furious look in his eyes. “It is not your fault, Virgil!” His brother had snapped, blue eyes ablaze with emotions.

“There nothing-” Scott’s voice cracked, wavering slightly, “-you could have done, so please stop this…”

He had been so startled by...well the fact that Scott had been pleading with him, begging him to stop blaming himself, that he had just nodded mindlessly. He was just so tired at that point, that he just wasn’t going to fight Scott on it.

That first night, he was in such a state of distress that the only way he was even able to fall asleep was because Grandma had chosen to sit by his bedside until he fell asleep; effectively comforting him enough that he was able to finally fall into a much needed deep sleep.

He was a complete wreck of his normal self. All while falling asleep that first night, all he could think about was how much of a failure he was. And he still was thinking that, because he couldn’t even muster up the will to get out of bed.

It was like his mind and body had just shut down completely. Before he was feeling too many emotions; now, he was struggling to feel anything. He couldn’t sleep, he couldn’t eat…

Every time he closed his eyes, he would see his baby brother bleeding out on that gala floor or on that hospital bed, so still, so lifeless…

And with every day that passed with no sign of Alan waking, his nightmares got worse and worse. He knew John and Gordon had noticed, how could they possibly not have? They were sleeping just a bed or two across from him.

He hated that he was worrying his brothers, because why else would they be here with him when they could be at Alan’s bedside instead? He thought with a sigh, looking over at his brothers, who were sitting on the bed across from him.

John was sitting in the corner of the bed, legs crossed as he furiously typed away at his tablet. All while ignoring Gordon, who was spread lengthways across the bed, half-heartedly strolling through his phone.

The room was filled with an anxious boredom as they waited for Grandma or Scott to call them with some form of news on the results of Alan’s brain scans.

But the nearly endless wait was driving them stir-crazy…

When will they hear some news? And would they like what they may hear? If he was being honest, he was dreading that phone call. Because what if the results came back positive?

Hasn’t Alan suffered enough?

“Honestly!?” Gordon yelled, causing him to jump and look over at his brother, who was glaring at his phone. “you would think they would have better things to report on then our family!”

“Unfortunately” John lowered his tablet with a weary sigh. “Anything happening to our family is front-page news to those people..”

Gordon scowled, throwing his phone down on the bed; missing John by a thin margin. “Well, I don’t care if it's front-page news or whatever, why can’t they just say out of it?!”

Gordon’s face crumbled slightly as he moved into a sitting portion, hugging his knees. “His face is plastered all over the interwebs John…” Gordon whispered, his voice losing its anger and in its place was an immense sadness.

“Along with those grainy photos of Virg-” Gordon frozen, suddenly realising that he was, in fact, awake and looking right at him “Um, I mean-”

He sighed deeply, forcing himself to sit up, “You mean those cellphone photos of me desperately trying to keep Alan from bleeding to death?” He answered almost emotionlessly as he rubbed at his face tiredly. “I have seen them already, Gords..”

He couldn’t even turn the TV on or go on his phone without getting blasted with reminders of what happened. And even then the news networks would be blasting it from the tallest skyscrapers.

It was like it was haunting him everywhere he went...

He frowned slightly, moving so he was sitting on the edge of the bed. He could feel John’s eyes on him, scrutinising him like he was a complex math problem John was trying to figure out. He didn’t like it...

“Um...yeah, those photos…” Gordon mumbled, rubbing his arm nervously, his eyes flickering between looking at him and not looking at him; Gordon’s reddish-brown eyes filled with barely masked concern.

Everybody has been giving him that look lately…

Gordon looked over at John, “Can’t you or Jack do anything about it? Like maybe get them taken down?” Jack was their lawyer and a pretty good one at that.

John sighed again, shaking his head. “Jack is already flat out busy with making sure the people responsible for all of this get life in prison..” John explained, his frustration and fury at the people responsible for hurting their little brother clear in his voice. “Doesn’t help that the GDF is being difficult…”

“Difficult?” He wondered softly; his curiosity peaked, “how so? I thought It would be clear and easy?”

They attempted to kill Allie; the GDF should easily see that they deserved to get life in prison?

John’s eyes flashed to him again with that same masked concern in them as Gordon’s eyes had. “You would think so, but the higher-ups of GDF are thinking of treating this as an attempted robbery gone wrong, rather than attempted manslaughter because, well-” John hesitated, avoiding their eyes.

“Because?” Gordon questioned.

John sighed wearily, looking up at them with a deadly serious expression, “-Because apparently to them there isn’t enough proof to prove that Alan getting shot was intentional...”

His eyes widened in horror.

What?!

“What?!” Gordon exclaimed, jumping up from the bed in outrage “Not enough proof?! Alan is in a coma and paralysed because of that asshole!” Angry tears had gathered in Gordon’s eyes. “Maybe even brain-damaged! How is there not enough proof?!”

He stood up and walked over to the window, pinching the bridge of his nose to try and keep some kind of control over himself; what happened to not feeling anything?

Deep breaths Virgil, deep breaths...

“What about all of the witnesses?” he questioned, facing away from his brothers as he glared out the window. “Everybody saw it, you…” his voice shook “you couldn’t miss it if you tried..”

Alan’s terrified eyes, a flash and a loud bang. Allie on the floor, blood everywhere; baby brother crying in pain. That man laughing...

He gripped the windowsill tightly, glaring out at the skyline, “Everybody knew why, it wasn’t an accident, it wasn’t a stray bullet…” He took a shaky deep breath, feeling his eyes fill with moisture, “He looked right at me and said ‘International rescue couldn’t save my sister from being paralysed, so now I’ll return the favour!’”

He turned to face his brothers, both their faces bleached pale; Gordon’s more than John’s. This was the first time he has spoken in detail about what transpired that night to his brothers. “There's no way that wasn’t intentional..”

“They’re going to get what they deserve Virg, Jack and Lady Penelope are confident of that…” John spoke, his voice taking on a gentler tone, the tone he uses when he’s talking to distressed and panicked rescuees.

He hated the fact that John felt the need to use that voice on them, on him...

“It may not seem like it but…” John’s shoulders dropped, his brother’s eyes filled with exhaustion. “But it only has been three days since that night; court cases take time...”

“Feels way longer than just three days…” Gordon muttered softly, scuffing the sole of his shoe into the carpet. “Especially with Allie not..” Gordon dropped back down on the bed next to John, wrapping his arms around himself tightly, “you know, waking up..”

Every single one of big brother instincts was screaming at him to go and comfort his brother, but he hesitated, and in that time, John had beat him to it.

“I know Gordy...” John sighed sadly, pulling Gordon in a loose one-armed hug; their little brother collapsing like a rag doll against John's chest with a little sniffle.

His already broken heart seemed to break even more at the sight of their mischievous and fun-loving little brother looking so down; so drained of happiness and hope.

Sometimes he forgot that Alan wasn’t just Gordon’s little brother but his best friend as well. How didn’t he noticed that he wasn’t the only one that wasn’t dealing well with Alan's injury?

The self-hatred he was feeling towards himself seemed to double at that thought.

“They’re not going to get away with this Virgil; I promise you that..” John promised, aqua blue eyes looking right at him, voice leaving no room for argument. “Jack, Colonel Casey, Penny and I are going to make sure of that..”

“I know…” He sighed, running his hand through his ungelled hair, turning to look out the window again; just being able to make out the hospital in the distance. “I’m going to have to testify, ain’t I?”

“If you’re willing and that is what you want to do, of course, you can..” John explained with an odd, almost worried tone to his voice. “but Scott, Grandma and I were talking, and we think it’s a better idea if you don’t..”

“What?” He turned around in astoundment. Even Gordon looked confused, looking up at John with a raised eyebrow. “What do you mean, don’t testify?” His fist clenched slightly as anger started bubbling in his stomach. “If I don’t, they’ll get away-I..”

He bit his bottom lip, glancing out the window as anxiety flooded him again at the thought of those people being able to walk free. “I…I have to testify, or else they’re...they’re..”

“Virgil..” John’s voice cut through his panic, sounding incredibly sad as well as concerned. “With how many witnesses there were, you don’t necessarily have to testify for there to be enough proof to prove them guilty..”

“But…” He glanced back at his brothers, and the first thing that hits him is just how concerned they looked, both of them; even Gordon. They weren't even trying to hide it from him anymore.

His fists clenched as he turned his face away from his brothers. They did think he was broken, didn’t they? Why else would they be acting like this?

“We just don’t want to push you too far by forcing you to relive that night, Virg” John explained gently, “you have been through a lot these last couple of days after all..”

Understatement of the year, he thought with a scoff.

John continued, “and we don’t want to see you get hurt any more than you have been..”

His eyebrows furrowed, the anger starting to bubble in his stomach again. He wasn’t the one that was hurt, what was John going on about?! Alan was the one that was hurt!

Not him! He thought as he gripped the window sill tightly, his eyes squeezed shut as he tried to push his anger down. He didn’t understand why he was getting so angry at his brothers; they were worried about him because they cared.

But maybe he wasn’t really angry at them but more at himself? Because deep down, he didn’t feel like he deserved their worry; he was the one that had let their baby brother get shot after all. They should hate him...

Like he hated himself...

“That’s why we think testifying in front of all those people, including the guys responsible for this, isn’t such a good idea..” John explained, his voice filled with brotherly concern; which just seemed infuriated him more. “Especially when you don’t necessarily have too..”

Things went silent for a moment; like his brothers were waiting for him to say something, but he wasn’t in the mood to talk, he didn’t trust himself not to start shouting if he did.

John sighed, sounding slightly disheartened “Scott wanted to be the one to talk to you about this, he thought you’ll probably take it better from him than anyone else..”

He rolled his eyes, looking out at the skyline. Of course, Scott would want to be the one to talk to him. That was typical Scott, always wanting to be the one to shoulder the burden.

But that meant that even Scott, his best friend, though he was..was broken? He realised with a shaky gasp, a feeling of betrayal missing into the anger he was feeling. Sure John had mentioned Scott being a part of this before, but the meaning of it all was only just hitting him now...

“I’m not made of glass…” He whispered tensely as he turned to face his brothers, anger seasoning his voice like a strong chili, hot and burning. “So will you please stop acting like it?!”

His voice had raised to a shout, like he feared it would; but right now, he didn’t care. John’s eyes hardened a touch, but they were still filled with that same concern that filled him with rage.

Gordon flinched, brown eyes wide with startled fear and concern, “Virg, John was only saying-”

“I know what he was saying, Gordon!” He snapped at Gordon and instantly regretted it as Gordon’s eyes filled with hurt. “Gordon I-”

“Forget it..” Gordon muttered as he got up from his position on the bed, “I’m going to take a bath; closest thing I'm going to get to a swimming pool for a while..”

The shared bathroom door slammed shut.

“We're just trying to look out for you, Virgil..”

Just as fast as his anger appeared, it disappeared just as fast; maybe even quicker, leaving him feeling empty and hollow once again. He turned to look at John, feeling horribly lost.

“I..i know, I just-” Suddenly being stuck in a room with the people he had just yelled at, was too much for him to take. “I’m going for a walk, call me when you hear news…”

Then he ran, only stopping long enough to put his boots on and grab his phone before he was out the door; not looking back.

He was getting really good at running away it seemed...

#thunderbirds are go #alan tracy #Virgil Tracy #John Tracy #Gordon Tracy #Scott Tracy #thunderbirds #thunderbirds fanfiction #Life Changes

12 notes · View notes

5eforgemaster · 5 years

Text

Conversion Kit: The Assassin

Continuing my Conversion Kit series of articles, we discuss the Assassin subclass! Turn any character into a master of ambushes and terribly efficient killer with just three levels of Rogue.

Below the readmore, you can find Additional Support for this kit, as well as Pitfalls and Character Suggestions.

Kit Overview

Investment Type: Multiclass Dip

Minimum Investment: Take 3 Levels of Rogue, selecting the Assassin archetype at level 3.

Overall Impact: Your character now has the mechanical backing to follow through on clever schemes with lethal force.

Investment

Much like our last conversion kit, once you select the Assassin subclass, you can immediately set off to do what assassins do best. Once again, you'll need to satisfy the multiclassing requirement- just a score of 13 in Dexterity, plus a score of 13 in whatever attribute your other class of choice requires.

You don't necessarily need a Dexterity higher than this, but remember that your bonus to Stealth rolls keys off of it. You can mitigate the problems of a low Dexterity score by taking proficiency in Stealth and using the Rogue's Expertise feature to double your proficiency bonus.

Truth be told, you can abandon Stealth entirely if it doesn't fit your concept. However, you'll want to keep in mind that the assassin's primary feature requires Surprise. While by the Rules as Written, Stealth is the only way to gain surprise, many GMs will allow betrayals or sudden strikes to grant surprise.

Perhaps you can take advantage of Deception or Persuasion to lure your target into a false sense of security, or use a spell like Dimension Door or Invisibility to suddenly appear behind (or even before) a foe and strike them down.

All that said, regardless of the method you'd like to use, you're very likely to want stealth proficiency. It's the least reliant on GM interpretation and applies to the greatest variety of situations.

Narrative Impact

Though the most apparent Narrative for a character using this kit is that of a professional murderer, it is by no means the only route you can take. Your character is now mechanically incredibly reliant on first strikes. Hunters-turned-warriors (such as most rangers) gravitate to this approach to combat by default, but characters lacking the stomach for battle might turn to this path to end fights quickly. Elite warriors might prefer ambush tactics, and even certain paladins may find a swift death to be all that their foes deserve. In truth, you could utterly ignore this kit's narrative impact and carry on as if you had never taken a single level in another class. However, I'm inclined to see that as something of a wasted opportunity to set your character apart- where did your character learn to fight dirty? Do they see it as a necessary evil and regret their actions, or do they believe they're justified as there's no justice on the battlefield?

Mechanical Impact

From a mechanical perspective, the Assassin offers lethal first-strikes. Whatever your method of attack- a greatsword, a spell, thrown dagger- your Assassinate feature guarantees you a Critical Hit, as long as the attack hits a surprised target.

I cannot emphasize enough how unbelievably good a Guaranteed Critical Hit is in Fifth Edition D&D, and believe me, if I had a way to highlight that bolded, italicized, underlined phrase I would use it. I thought about including a gif of someone slapping a desk. I need you to see those words and realize what they mean.

A critical hit multiplies all of your damage dice. If you can find bonus dice, you're going to hit incredibly hard. If you have multiple attacks, they will all be critical hits. A critical hit on a Paladin's Smite or Rogue's sneak attack is a lucky break. A full round's worth of critical hits on a Fighter's attack routine or a Wizard's Scorching Ray is a dream. Get the drop on an enemy, and that dream is your reality.

The simple truth is, the Assassinate feature alone is enough to enable ambushes as a tactic.

Kit Support

There are several feats you can take advantage of to make this kit more effective. However, even if feats aren't allowed in your game, or all of yours are already accounted for, you're not out of luck. If you keep some rules of thumb in mind, you'll find yourself faring better than someone who approached their build haphazardly.

This list is in no particular order. This is not an optimization guide, and I don't want to commit to the math necessary to rank these options, nor do I want to limit your creativity. That said, as an Assassin, you want to look for:

More attacks. These are easy enough to get: engage in two weapon fighting, pick a class that has the Extra Attack feature, or find a way to get Haste applied to you.

Extra dice for your attacks: Smite and Sneak Attack are good examples. If you have your eyes on a higher level Rogue feature, the extra sneak attack dice will help with this (if you're using an appropriate weapon).

Similarly, spells that grant multiple attack rolls such as Eldritch Blast or spells that have large dice counts like Chaos Bolt. Both of those can be picked up by classes that can't normally access them using the Magic Initiate feat.

You might also consider certain feats, depending on your build and game:

Alert gives you a large bonus to initiative. Depending on how your GM runs Surprise, you may need to win initiative to take advantage of Assassinate- Alert all but guarantees that you'll move first, especially if your Dexterity is already high.

Lucky adds some reliability to your assassination attempts by letting you try again when you roll poorly. Lucky is good to the point of being considered 'cheese' by the community, and many games ban it, but there is objectively no better way to ensure you don't ruin your big moment.

Skulker is somewhat similar to Lucky for ranged characters, though not as effective. If you're a ranged Assassin, this keeps your position from being revealed. You'd be hard pressed to convince your DM that the enemy is still surprised, but maybe you can retreat and try again. The other miscellaneous stealth bonuses are a nice plus.

Spell Sniper doubles your range for attack roll based spells- it'll be easier to surprise foes from a couple of hundred feat away. As a bonus, you ignore all but total cover and even get access to an attack roll based cantrip if you didn't have one already.

Actor might improve your odds of pulling off a social skill based assassin, just check with your GM to make sure they'll rule in your favor before you invest too heavily in the approach.

Pitfalls

There's not a whole lot you can do as a player to make this kit go wrong. Your biggest obstacles are overspecialization and, potentially, your DM.

In the first case, there will be times when Assassinate will fail you. Perhaps the situation isn't right, perhaps you missed your attack, maybe the enemy got the drop on you. None of that matters though- just keep in mind when making choices about your character that not everything needs to improve their critical damage. Dealing hundreds of points of damage with your first strike only matters if you pull it off.

In the second case, some DMs are combative. You might have a DM that feels as though you're somehow "cheating" by assassinating big threats and coaxing your party towards ambush tactics. Some DMs will simply grumble about it and you may need to back off somewhat.

Others will attempt to sabotage you, either by presenting scenarios that make assassinations difficult or impossible, overwhelmingly pitting you against foes that are impossible to surprise or are immune to critical hits, or, in the most egregious cases, abusing their power and arbitrarily depriving you of surprise when you should have it.

The best thing you can do here is keep a level head and talk to your DM. They likely don't actively want to ruin the game for you, and perhaps they have a reasonable motive- maybe you're taking the spotlight away from other players or even making the game less fun for the DM themselves (believe it or not, this is a reasonable concern for the DM- they should have simply been honest with you in the first place, but berating them now won't help either of you).

Whatever your DM's reasons, you can likely compromise if they're honest with you. If your DM gives you any variation of "this is your fault for picking a specialized feature" or "it's just the way it is", you may need to ask if you can rebuild, as they're unlikely to sympathize with your position. Ultimately, your playstyle may just not align with the DM's or group's. There are hundreds of articles about conflict resolution, some specifically tailored for D&D groups, so for the moment I'll table the specifics and perhaps update this article with a link to a quality one at a later date.

A Few Suggestions

I don't want to leave this article on a low note, so I'll close with some classes you can combine with the Assassin subclass for some exciting (if somewhat obvious) character concepts:

Way of Shadow Monk: This monk path offers several supernatural abilities relating to darkness, silence, and hiding- not the least of which is the ability to teleport between patches of shadow. If that doesn't scream "ninja" to you, I don't know what will. The monk also has access to Flurry of Blows, which can make your assassinations quite potent.

Oath of Vengeance Paladin: The Paladin's Smite might be the easiest on-demand way to take advantage of your Assassinate feature. Very few of this Archetype's features synergize with this kit, but access to Haste and Hunter's Mark doesn't hurt, and the narrative of an avenger fits well with the style of combat you'll be employing. If you liked Pathfinder's inquisitor class, this may be for you.

Fiend Patron Warlock: Eldritch Blast is always good, but you have an extra edge with it. Honestly, there's not much too this other than having an easy on-demand ranged damage option, but something about being a contract killer for your Patron seems like an exciting narrative. Works just as well for other patrons, but the fiend seems most likely to employ contract killers. You can take the Blade Pact Boon and Eldritch Smite invocations if you want to step on the Paladin's turf.

With some examples out of the way, I'll take my leave. There's near limitless potential for this kit, as there's some synergy to be had with nearly every class, so you can experiment with confidence.

#rogue #rogue archetype #roguish archetype #dnd #dnd 5e #d&d #d&d 5e #5e #dungeons and dragons #dungeons & dragons #conversion kit #assassin #multiclass #fifth edition #5th edition

8 notes · View notes

ghost-nabbers-imagines · 5 years

Text

A family: Larry x Fem! Reader Part 1.

A/n Small warning of mentions of sex and a couple sexual scenes will take place but I don't know if I'll do full lemons or not, they're won't be a dull lemon in this. As always theres definitely cussing. Takes place in high school. An au where the apartments have ghosts and the cult exists but the red eyed demon doesn't. Anyways enjoy this little story hope it's good.

I woke up with the weight of someone's arm around bare waist. Looking down I see everything was still bare from the night before. The arm wrapped around me belongs to none other than my very best friend Larry. Yep you read that right best friend not boyfriend. Considering how lonely and well horny we had both been lately we decided a friends with benefits relationship would be a good idea.

With a small stretch I carefully pulled Larry's arm off of my body and pulled myself from the bed. I let out a small giggle as Larry readjusted to where he was cuddling a pillow. "Goofball." I scoffed grabbing my underwear and sliding them on as well one of Larry's many Sanitys Fall shirts. I made my way out into his bathroom brushing my teeth and making my hair look like I hadn't just spent the night having sex.

I also made sure to slip on my skinny jeans from last night. I frowned feeling the way I struggled to get them on. "Damn it. How the hell did I shrink my jeans?!" I huffed looking into the mirror. I lifted the shirt that was way too big on me. I had noticed my stomach was sticking out a tiny bit more but not a lot. On the plus size it looked like my tits had also gotten bigger.

When I exited the bathroom Larry's mom Lisa was leaning against the counter sipping coffee. "Morning (y/n). I didn't know you were staying last night." She said flashing me her warm smile. "Morning Lisa. I wasn't planning on it but by the time we finished with our art project it was so late I didn't want to wake you or my parents so I just stayed." I shrugged. I felt kind of guilty lying to Lisa since she was more like a mom to me than my own mother. I also didn't want to risk her finding out and not letting me sleep over anymore.

She finished her coffee and set the cup in the sink. "Well you know you're always welcome here. Will I see you for family dinner tonight?" She asked collecting her things for work. She seemed to pause reaching around her pockets while looking around the room. I grabbed her keys from couch and handed them to her making her smile. "Wouldn't miss it!" I beamed. "See you kids tonight then. Give Larry a kiss goodbye for me." She joked hugging me goodbye.

Once she left I went ahead and poured two cups of coffee. As I was making two plates of the eggs and toast Lisa had prepared I heard the bedroom door creak open. Larry stumbled out still tired. "Morning sleepy head." I smirked. "Morning." He yawned making his way over to the table. I placed a kiss on his cheek handing him his coffee. "What was that for?"

"Its from your mom."

"I don't get one from you?"

"No way you have morning breath."

He grabbed my arm pulling me into his lap so I was straddling him. One of hands moved to my hips the other to the back of my neck. He pulled me into a heated kiss sliding his tongue in my mouth. I wrapped my arms around his neck as he deepened the kiss and pulled me closer. We stayed like that until we had to pull away for air. "Hurry up and get ready Johnson." I breathed getting up and eating my breakfast.

Once the two of us had eaten and he had gotten dressed we grabbed our bags and headed out to meet up with Sal. "You look good in my shirt by the way." He whispered as you approached your friends door. I smirked quickly tapping the door. Soon after Sal exited the apartment and the three of us left for school.

Sal and Larry had their first period together but I had it with our friend Ashley. The two of us were in the gym locker room changing into our Knockfell High uniforms.

"So then I told my mom i had important plans tonight and she actually told me that my brother was more important and to cancel. Can you believe that? So I told her you and I were studying for some exam."

I was laughing at Ashley's excuse when one of the other girls sprayed on her perfume and even though she didn't spray much it was like the smell surrounded me. My stomach bubbled and suddenly I could feel the eggs from that morning in the back of my throat. Nausea overcame me I couldn't help it so I ran into the biggest stall and collapsed onto my knees puking immediately into the bowl.

Ashley came over and knocked on the stall door. "You ok babes?" She asked concern lacing her voice. I finished puking and flushed the toilet. "Yeah I think so." I said confused. "Are you sure? You got sick this time yesterday too." She pointed out. I thought for a moment realizing she was right. Eveyday about this time I got sick. What the hell was wrong with me? I shakily stood up to leave the bathroom when a health poster taped to the door caught my attention. It was one of the new Planned Parenthood posters with information on pregnancy and STDs. My eyes grew at a sudden theory popped into my head.

"H-hey Ashes what's the date today?" I asked exiting the bathroom. "Its the fifteenth. Ohh Is it that time of the month that's bothering you?" She asked placing a comforting hand on my bag. I thought for a moment doing the math in my head. "I-I Ha-have to go." I stuttered grabbing my bag and running from the room. As I ran to town I silently prayed I was wrong that I had miscounted.

I ran straight to the store probably looking like a crazy person that passed by. But I got to the pharmacy quickly not even remembering most of my way there from how quickly I was going. The bell jingles as I make my way inside abruptly causing several shoppers and a couple employees to stop and stare. Ignoring their looks I made my way to the isle and started searching. I never knew how many types of tests there could be. I grabbed one I thought would work and made my way to the counter. The cashier was an older woman who started at me with a judging look on her face the whole time. I did my best to ignore her shoving the money onto the counter. The minute she handed me the bag I took off heading to the apartments.

I could feel warm tears falling down my cheeks and was breathing rapidly as I ran home. I ran straight into the building and into the elevator pressing my back up against the wall as it moved. Luckily my parents wouldn't be home at least I'd have privacy for my whole world ending. The second the doors open I bolted right into my apartment dropping my bag on the couch before running to my room. I went into the bathroom taking the test before sitting on the floor.

2 long minutes later the test read positive. I felt my whole world come crashing down around me when those little lines appeared. "How could this happen?" I mumble out loud. I was completely shocked, Larry and I were careful plus I had birth control. That's when a light bulb went off in my head. Struggling to pull myself off the floor I ran into my room. I didnt find what I was looking for in my bags or in my bathroom. I fished around in my dresser still not finding what I was searching for. That's when I remembered were I was last night and most nights.

"Shit shit shit!" I mumbled grabbingmy purse and my keys as well as hiding the test in my pocket before exiting my apartment. I made my way down to the basement hoping that Lisa wasn't home. Unfortunately as I opened the door she was in the kitchen making a fried balogna sandwich. As soon as I walked through that door the smell filled my nose and the nausea returned. I tried to swallow down walking farther into the apartment.

"(Y/n) dear why are you not in school what happened? Are you sick? You don't look like you're feeling too well?" She asked in her motherly voice. "Li-lisa I-" before I could finish my sentence I felt what was left of my food coming back up. I ran straight into the bathroom not bothering to close the door. As I threw up I could feel Lisa pulling my hair back. She held my hair back in one hand and soothed my back with the other.

When I finished throwing up I flushed the toilet and Lisa put my hair up into a ponytail. I learned up against the bathroom wall feeling tears spill down my cheeks again. Silent tears cascaded to the floor. Lisa filled up a dixie cup with water and dampened a wash cloth handing the cup to me and wiping my face with the cloth. "There there dear its alright. Why don't you and I go sit on the sofa and talk?" She suggested as I swallowed a majority of the water.

The two of us made our way into the living room sitting on the couch. Lisa left a comforting hand on my back as I struggled to breath. I let it all come out spilling every detail like more vomit coming out as words. Lisa continued to comfort me with a shocked expression on her face. "Are you sure did you take a test?" She asked handing me a tissue. I handed her the test before wiping my nose.

"Does Larry know yet?" She asked. I shook my head in response. "I just figured it out and got the test today." Lisa nodded her head for a moment clearly in thought. "Wait right here." She said grabbing her phone from the coffee table. She came back in probably ten minutes later purse in hand and changed into casual clothes. "Come on were gonna meet a friend of mine at planned parenthood. Just to double check. And they'll give you information on your choices." She informed me. The two of us made our way out to Lisa's pickup truck silently.

"Are you mad?" I asked breaking the silence as we turned off the road. She sighed stopping at a red light and putting her hand on my shoulder. "A little disappointed maybe but never mad." She smiled. It didn't take very long for us to get there. There was a handful of protesters outside the building as well as a few people passing by who stared at me with the same look as the cashier earlier. Lisa wrapped her arm around me glaring at the others.

About an hour later I was exiting the clinic with a handful of pamphlets and brochures and my head spinning. "Do you have any thoughts on what to do?" Lisa asked me as we climbed into the car. "I think I should talk to Larry before I make any decision." I sighed leaning back into the seat. Lisa nodded and we drove back home.

"You should call your parents over for family dinner tonight. Once the other kids leave we can all sit down and talk." Lisa suggested. She was always so smart and caring. I knew she would be mentally freaking out so it meant a lot that she was being comforting. "I just hope they're as nice as you're being. Thank you so much Lisa." I said with a small smile. She smiled back as we pulled back to the apartments.

Once we got back to her apartment I hid the test and pamphlets in my bag. "Larry should be home any minute now if you wanna wait in the treehouse to talk to him. Just promise me you'll be careful climbing up there." She said softly. I nodded giving her a hug which she returned tightly. When we pulled apart she handed me a water bottle. "Drink this while you're waiting. After throwing up you need to make sure you stay hydrated. Especially with my grandbaby in your tummy." She smiled winking. I smiled grabbing the water before making my way out to the treehouse to wait for Larry.

I walked around the small treehouse admiring some of the polaroids and pictures that Larry painted. I smiled seeing one of Larry and I. Sal had taken just a month ago. Larry had his arms around me as we painted something. He was trying to teach me how he paints but really it came out as a mess on the canvas. "That's a good picture of us." A voice said from behind me. I turned to see Larry standing there smiling at me. "Sure is. Look Larry I need to talk to you about something serious. Can we sit down?" I asked gesturing towards two beanbag seats he kept up here. He looked confused but nodded.

The two of us took a seat and I was suddenly nervous. We were only 16 we couldn't be parents. "Hey what's wrong (nickname)?" He asked grabbing my hand. I took a deep breath squeezing his hand before grabbing the test from my pocket. "I'm pregnant." I said simply despite the fear in my chest. Larry's eyes got wide and he grabbed the test from my hands. "Dude if this is a joke it's not funny." He said jumping up. By now the tears were starting to fall. "Its not a joke Larry." I sniffed standing up with him. "B-but how?" He asked running his hand through his messy long hair.

"I must've missed a pill or something."

"You missed a pill? How could you have missed a pill and not tell me!" He asked upset. "It happens Larry I don't know. But this isn't just my fault we did this."

"You're right sorry. What do you want to do have you made a decision on keeping it?"

"I don't know I wanted to talk to you."

"We're sixteen (Y/n) were too young."

"I know I know. But I don't think I want to abort it, it just sounds wrong. I believe women should have the right to choose but I don't want to abort our baby."

"Of course you don't I mean I wouldnt either if I was you. I don't know how I feel about adoption. I mean I love my mom and she did a great job but not knowing my dad and not knowing that part of myself was hard. I don't think I could do that to my kid. I always told myself I'd be there for my kid unlike him."

"That only leaves one option Larry."

He sighed looking at me for a moment before coming over and wrapping his arms around me. "Looks like we're gonna have this baby. If you're sure that is." He whispered holding me close. "I'm sure I want us to keep our baby." I replied. Larry pulled away a bit wiping away my tears. "Your mom went with me to the clinic and everything but we should go tell her we're keeping it." I told him looking up to meet his eyes. He honestly looked kind of happy. "Guess so much for strings attached huh." He joked laughing his melodic laugh. I laughed and we made our way out and back to the treehouse.

Ok that was it for the first chapter let me know what you think if you'd like but I'm definitely making it a series.

~Lex💛

40 notes · View notes

sleepyfan-blog · 6 years

Text

first bit of the nano fic below. please tell me if it’s dumb or not

When Connor was a kid, he hadn't really understood why his mom had been so insistent that he keep most of his magical abilities a secret from the other kids. Many of his fellow students enjoyed showing off their abilities, and everyone had several magical courses, along with such things as math, geography and language classes. But she had insisted that he be very careful while using his magic, and not reveal the full nature of what he was... Which was also confusing, as far as the young man had known at the time, that most magical beings didn't bother to hide what they were - even dark or previously thought evil beings, such as Vampires and Wendigos.

But he promised her every day before classes - or when he was invited over to a friend's house to play or for a sleepover, that he would be careful using his magic, and to not reveal the type of magical being that he was. Once every other week, his mom would take him on a road trip, to one of the nearby National Parks, where there wasn't anyone around, so that he could practice his magic in full - and when he had finally been able to get rid of the last of his fledgling down as a teenager - practice to learn how to fly. By then he had figured out why it was necessary to hide his abilities, as Connor had no wish whatsoever to be taken away from his human mother.

Connor hadn't realized that certain kinds of magical beings were thought of as myth - such as Angels... Or rather, those who had wings, such as he did. In addition to having bird-like wings, he had healing magic... And he had figured out as a teenager, that he seemed to be a great deal more powerful than most if not all of his classmates.

Connor was aware that, as per the laws, he probably should have reported himself when he was fifteen, and after finding a dead mother cat - whose kittens were mewling and pawing anxiously at, had broken down into tears and pushed as much of his magic into her as much as possible... And finding out that the mother cat - who had been very clearly dead - was alive and she seemed to be well. Connor had taken the mama cat and her kittens to a local vet clinic, just to double check, and when telling them the truth - that he'd found them out in the street, the little family of felines had been sent to a local animal shelter, and all of them had been adopted. He should have gone to the local authorities and reported that he might be of an arch-mage class and tested, to see if he needed to be sent away for more intensive training... But Connor hadn't wanted to leave his mom.

Besides, he would have also been pressured into revealing his magical heritage and Connor was distinctly nervous about anyone finding out that he had wings. Connor was grateful that they drove out to the middle of nowhere every other week, so that he could fly as much as he wanted, as the young man always got incredibly restless towards the end of the two weeks. It didn't matter if it was a beautiful, cloudless sunny day with blue skies as wide as the horizon... Or pelting down rain that froze once it hit the ground. Connor wondered if he needed to fly a certain extent - if that was an instinct that those like him possessed, or if it was simply that he had the ability to fly without needing to use a spell or a spelled object to fly.

His eighteenth birthday had been in March, and he had just graduated high school. Connor wanted to become either a veterinarian or a doctor - and not simply because he had healing magic. He genuinely wanted to make a difference, and had been hard at work at school, taking all of the Advanced Placement classes that he could manage to get into, so that he had some college credits under his belt as he searched for colleges to apply to. He'd done very well in his classes - magical and mundane, and had graduated as the valedictorian of his year. A deep, uncertain sigh left his lips and the Â young man rubbed his face a little, still uncertain as to what to do.

There were a couple of local community colleges that offered courses that would let him take the undergraduate courses he needed in order to qualify to get into a veterinary school... Btu the best veterinary school was on the far side of the state, several hours' drive from home. All of this additional schooling would cost money, and though he could apply to financial aid, the young man was wary of getting into financial debt of any kind - as he had heard... Stories of what happened, if you were far behind on your financial aid. That a government representative would find where you were living and in order to pay back the debt, a Contract would be forged, and you would have to do... Something for years, if not decades, in order to pay off the debt - and it didn't matter how much money you made in the meantime, they wanted magical spells and potions and any items you could craft, once the Contract was forged... Or so he'd heard the rumors. There was another rumor that you might just disappear into a government funded lab, as though there were a significant number of magical beings, there were far more non-magical humans in the world, and though humans tended to live much shorter lives than most kinds of magical beings, they were clever and could be more ruthless and terrifying than any magical being.... Or so Connor had heard.

Connor wasn't sure if he believed those rumors or not, as he lived in a small magical community, at the edge of one of the Fae claimed forests, so they didn't see non-magical humans very often... Apart from the occasional curious tourist, who would be carefully assigned a guide, lest they get snatched up by one of the more... Capricious or old-fashioned Fae who didn't care much for the pretty pieces of paper that the four courts had officially signed, in order to avoid their borders from being cold Iron Bound and salt sealed. There were online classes... But again, it depended on whether or not he would be able to afford classes, on the fast food job that he was working. A deep, unhappy sigh left him as he clocked out, shaking his head a little and frowning.

"Why the long face, young one?" An elderly looking person asked, their finely lined face crinkling further as they peered at him.

Connor smiled politely and nodded at them. He could practically taste the magic around them, besides he'd met this person before - though their face changed every time they came into the burger joint he worked at. It was rude to recognize a Fae, unless they revealed themselves as someone you'd met before - even if you could recognize their magical signature. Apparently that was a difficult task for a lot of people to do, although why, Connor honestly couldn't imagine. Then again, it seemed as though most people didn't have an innate sense of who and what the beings around them were "Oh... It's just I graduated high school a little over a month ago, and I'm trying to decide if I want to go straight into college, or wait a couple of years... I kind of want to go backpacking across the states, to see the sights but... I've never been away from home for that long and... Yeah." It was also unwise to share too much of yourself at once to a Fae, which was why he stopped himself.

They hummed a little, a small smile appearing on their face "You're still so young yet, and despite the hustle and bustle of the humans with their lives that come and go so quickly... I wouldn't worry about such things. You have many years ahead of you, little one. Enjoy life as it comes, and knowledge will come to you as you need it."

"Wise words, I will make sure to keep them in mind." Connor responded, also knowing better than to thank a Fae. There were laws against a Fae taking advantage of a human slip of the tongue... But he was far from human.

They chuckled at that, their eyes shining in amusement - going from a soft brown to an electric purple "You always do have a sweet tongue, cast in silver. You are also the most cautious little one that I've met in some time... Then again, Â you do have reason to be. If you do go wandering, I would suggest that you stay away from the large cities - full of humans and a watchfulness you've never encountered. Some like to see birds captured in gilded cages - but I'd rather you fly freely."

Connor choke, all of the air in his lungs leaving him. His hands were shaking as he sputtered out "I... I have n-no idea... W-what do you..? I..." He took several steps back, a decidedly anxious expression on his face, reaching into one of his pockets for several packets of salt.

"Peace, peace. I mean you no harm, little one, although your caution does you credit. There is more than one way to bind powerful young ones like you, and there are those outside of this small village who will be more than happy to clip your wings and put you on display. Tread lightly if you are to walk in large cities - where there are many humans with little to no magic. Greedy and vicious, while not being bound to the same rules as we are. This advice is freely given, for a young one who has always been kind and warm - and whose food warms and heals these old bones of mine." The Fae murmured, sounding vaguely amused at how wary Connor was, a small smile on their face - though it didn't seem to be a malicious one, only entertained.

"I... I will definitely keep that in mind. Stick to the path, ignore the floating lights in the forest and don't cross without looking both ways." Connor murmured, reciting several common sense safety phrases. They helped him calm down.

"Just so." The Fae responded, a laugh in their voice. "For the entertainment, I will tell you this; when your second set of wings comes in, your magic will double. Once your third set come in, you won't be able to hide your magic, no matter how you try. You will have either needed to have found someone who has the strength to protect you, little healer, or one will be assigned to you. Or you can always come into the forest and stay with us. Healers are celebrated and welcomed always."

"I... Will think about that..." Connor responded, not wanting to turn down such an offer, but not wanting to sound as if he was going to accept it, and thus be whisked off and trapped in Fae service for the next fifty years.

The Fae chuckled softly at that, their eyes a shining amethyst color now "Good luck, and remember, fortune favors the bold but punishes the brash." With that, they vanished from sight, leaving Connor to ponder what they'd just said.

#nanowrimo 2017 #magical creature au #wheeee

3 notes · View notes

onespoongirl · 6 years

Text

Chapter 5 | Lacrosse the Line

Pairing: Stiles/oc/Lydia (polyamory)

Fandom: Teen Wolf

Read on ff.net or AO3

Summary: Beth has just moved across the Atlantic to be closer to her father, who lives in Beacon Hills, but she arrives just in time for a dead body in the woods and something monstrous prowling the school hallways. American teen sitcoms really didn’t prepare her for this.

Word count: 8603

Chapter Index

Chapter 5: Lacrosse the Line

When the bell rang, signalling the end of school, Beth wasted no time fleeing from her accursed maths class. Her teacher tried to shout the assigned homework over the commotion, but nobody was listening. Least of all Beth who was zigzagging down the hall, getting jostled every step towards her locker.

Allison stood by her locker, rummaging through her book bag but without really seeing the contents.

“Fancy seeing you here. Come here often?” Beth asked as she punched in the combination to her locker. Decorated inside was various photos, most of them selfies with people whose expressions ranged from cheerful to annoyed. One of them showed a smiling Beth and a surprised, clay-covered Jaime.

Allison blinked and looked up. “Hey Beth.”

“Not closer to finding out what you’re going to say to Scott, eh?” Beth asked, as she messily stacked her books at the bottom of the locker. She slammed the door before they could topple out.

“Not even a little bit.” Allison shot a look at the boy in question’s locker. “Doesn’t everybody deserve a second chance?”

Beth shouldered her bag. “Sure, I guess.”

“So I should give him a second chance?”

Beth shouldered her bag and said, “If you want to then sure.”

“Beth!” Allison apparently heard how whiney she sounded because she frowned and gave herself a little shake. “I’ll give him a second chance. I kind of miss talking to him.” She flashed a small smile and started walking with Beth towards the exit. “But. But!” She gave a little jump and looked at Beth. “Only if you give Lydia a second chance, too. Or-or forgive her. What did you say the fight was about?”

Beth grimaced and folded her hands across her chest. “Negotiating doesn’t work when you don’t have anything I want. I don’t really care what you do about Scott. Wait, I mean I do care that you do what makes you happy. Sorry.”

“Well, what makes me happy is to give Scott another chance, but I won’t do that unless you talk to Lydia. So there.”

“You manipulative bastard, you!” Beth laughed and shook her head. “Very well, Argent. I’ll do this, but only for you. I think Lydia’s at lacrosse practice, actually. If Jackson goes more than an hour without getting praised, he’ll spontaneously combust. Being a wanker isn’t like a lacrosse thing, is it? Because then I might change my stance on the whole ‘give Scott a second chance thing.’” She pushed open the door and held it for Allison.

“Um, didn’t you just say you wanted me to be hap-thank you.”

“Not at the expense of my own happiness, sorry. I like you but not that much.” The Californian sun was bearing down on them as soon as they stepped outside. The heat, which had been nice at first, was quickly become a nuisance. “You want to come with me?”

“I can’t, sorry. My dad’s picking me up,” Allison said, nodding towards a red SUV parked in front of the school. Mr Argent was leaning against the door. When they looked at him, he waved. “I’ll talk to Scott tomorrow before class. No harm in letting him sweat an extra day.”

“Huh, even though I’m all for making boys suffer, you could also just talk to him now.” Beth stopped and pointed stealthily towards Scott. Evidently, it wasn’t as stealthily as she thought, because Allison quickly slapped her hand away. He sat on a bench that bordered the main path, already clad in his lacrosse gear, and a look of distress on his face.

Allison turned around so she stood with her back towards Scott, in case he’d glance over. “So you think I should go talk to him?”

“Allison we literally just had this conversation! Go talk to him. I’m off to find Lydia. Go!” Beth tried to shuffle Allison along, but she was surprisingly hard to push. “Wow, your core strength is amazing.”

“Alright, I’m going. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Allison waved a hand goodbye and strode purposefully towards Scott. As soon as she neared him, he jumped to his feet and followed her as she powerwalked by. Beth stayed around to watch them but they were already too far away to hear. When Allison glanced her direction, she gave her two thumbs up.

With that whole spectacle over, Beth walked to the lacrosse field. It was mostly empty, save for Coach who ran around dropping orange traffic cones at what looked to be random intervals.

It didn’t take long to find Lydia on the stands. Even if her glossy red hair didn’t give her away, her easy confidence made her stand out in a crowd even doing something as mundane as checking her phone.

Beth took a moment to swallow her pride, not an easy thing to do. With a sigh, she went over and plopped down beside Lydia, who eyed her with clear distaste.

“Hello Lydia. Uh, nice weather, innit?” Beth kicked out her legs, nearly hitting the guy in front of her in the back.

Lydia sniffed and studiously studied her phone.

“Come on Lydia. You’re really ignoring me? I would expect that from me, but that is way too childish for you. I thought you had snubbing people down to a fine art. You don’t ignore people; you expertly exclude them until they crack.”

Lydia finally looked at her but the look of legitimate anger on her face made Beth cringe. They stated at each other for an uncomfortable amount of seconds before Lydia returned to her phone.

They were silent for a beat before Beth cleared her throat. “Right, so you’re still mad at me. So, I’ll just do the talking, how does that sound? I’m good at that, as you know.” She waited for an answer but Lydia was clearly not inclined to respond. “Okay, so … we both said some things we might regret. Some worse than others.” She could see that Lydia was listening. She was still typing on her phone, but it was considerably slower than before. “I realise that, in the heat of the moment, we both said some … let’s say not very kind stuff, like basically comparing you to Heather Chandler, which is, yeah. Not very nice. What I mean to say is that I know you’re not stupid. Uh, and I would appreciate you saying something because I’m starting to panic here.”

Lydia turned in her seat and regarded Beth with a guarded look. At least it wasn’t as angry anymore.

“Heather Chandler? Really? That’s the first mean girl that comes to your mind? What about Regina George, the actual Mean Girl?” Lydia pursed her lips, and Beth decided it was because she didn’t want to smile.

“I watched Heathers with Chloe as a way to prepare myself for American high school.”

Lydia shook her head with a mere hint of a smirk. Beth silently congratulated herself for getting her to show any emotion other than anger or disinterest. “That’s an awful choice.”

“Take it up with Chloe; she was the one who picked it.”

Lydia rolled her eyes and returned to her phone.

“So, um. I’m really sorry. I lacrossed the line.”

For a split second, Lydia’s lips quirked up, before she schooled her face back into a careful mask.

“Does that mean you … accept my apology?”

Lydia looked thoughtful for a moment before she nodded once.

Beth looked expectant for a few seconds before she said, “but I’m not getting one in return?”

Lydia shot her a pointed look, although it lacked the hostility from before.

“Well, it’s like the good book says: you can’t always get what you want,” Beth said a little weakly before she turned her attention to the players who had started warm-ups.

“You still have the photographs from the party,” Lydia said after a couple of minutes.

“I totally forgot about that. I was going to hold them hostage if you still ignored me.”

“Oh right, I’m the childish one. Are they any good?” On the field, Coach blew his whistle hard and screamed something unintelligible.

“You know, after the party, I actually found out I’d forgotten to take off the lens covers. Crazy right? So they might be a tad dark.”

Lydia sighed and rolled her eyes but it looked to be more for dramatic effect than actual exasperation.

Down on the field, Jackson took defence in front of the goal and the players lined up to try to get a shot in. There was a lull in the game when it was Scott’s turn.

“McCall, what are you waiting for? Let’s go,” Coach yelled across the field. Scott – whom Beth only recognised because of the eleven stamped on his chest – moved forward in a slow jog. When he reached Jackson, he didn’t even have a chance to swing his stick before they slammed together and Jackson disposed of him on the ground.

“Ouch,” Beth winced, when Scott didn’t get up right away.

Beside her, Lydia sniffed. “He’s fine. They wear a ton of protective gear for a reason. Besides, if he wants to suck it’s better that he does it now instead of at the game.”

Scott stood up but he was doubled over as if he was trying to catch his breath. Finstock was bending down to give him what was probably a bizarre pep talk, before sending him to the front of the line.

Scott and Jackson stared each other down like two cowboys from an old western movie. “Who knew watching people practice was this exciting?” said Beth to no one in particular.

Finstock blew his whistle and Scott shot forward. If Beth had been in Jackson’s place, she’d be pissing herself in fear of the walking spinal injury thundering towards her, but Jackson was evidently made of stronger stuff. Scott and Jackson slammed together yet again, but this time Jackson went down. Even from the bleachers, Beth could hear his pained grunt as he grabbed his shoulder.

In an instant, the entire team surrounded their fallen comrade. All except for two. Beth looked with narrowed eyes at Scott and Stiles, who were racing towards the school, although Stiles did most of the running, dragging Scott behind him. Was he hurt, too? Then why was he running away instead of staying and getting help from the coach?

Beth’s train of thought was interrupted when she saw the person she’d least want to see again: Derek Hale was standing by the lacrosse field, looking like a bad-tempered Instagram model. She turned away from him, lest he’d caught her looking at him.

“What the hell is he doing here?” she asked, looking at Lydia, or rather where Lydia used to be. She was halfway across the field by the time Beth had gathered her stuff to run after her.

When Lydia reached the team, they wordlessly parted for her like the red sea. Beth got a glimpse of Jackson on the ground before they converged again and she had to fight through a crowd of bulky boys in bulkier uniforms.

When she could see Jackson again, he was sitting up. That was good, so at least his spine hadn’t been snapped in half. Someone had removed his helmet and his pained grimace was on full display. Beside him crouched Coach, Danny, and Lydia, each wearing a worried frown, and Lydia was holding his hand in what looked to be a painfully tight grip.

“Jackson,” Coach said in a surprisingly soft voice, “I need to see your shoulder real quick. HEY EVERYBODY!” He barked, “GIVE HIM SOME SPACE FOR GOD’S SAKE.”

When Coach gently moved his arm, Jackson grunted and the tendons in his hand showed as he gripped Lydia’s hand even harder. Lydia, to her credit, didn’t show her discomfort at all except for a tiny wince that Jackson was too preoccupied to notice anyway.

They stood in silence for a few minutes and while Coach carefully examined the arm.

“It’s dislocated all right,” he said with a sigh and gave Jackson a clap on the back, which made Jackson whine in pain. “Get to the ER ASAP. Danny, stay here. Everybody else!” he yelled, making Beth jump out of her skin. None of the team members reacted, and she reckoned they were used to their coach’s antics. “Hit the showers! Practice is over.”

The players shuffled towards the school, leaving Beth standing a few metres from Jackson. She wanted to say goodbye to Lydia but before she could, Coach turned towards her.

“You,” he barked, “get back to class.”

“Um, school is over for the day,” Beth said tightly. She waved at Lydia to get her attention, but she was too preoccupied with watching Danny help Jackson on his feet without jostling him too much.

“Then get off the property. Go to a mall or whatever you kids do.” Coach waved her off and returned his attention to Jackson, who tried to stifle his whimpering.

“Uh, right.” She waved awkwardly at Lydia and turned around on stiff legs. Walking back to towards the school, she stopped periodically to look at the small group still huddled on the pitch. Jackson may be a dick, but she still hoped he would be OK.

Lydia was in a foul mood that Friday leading up to the game. The cause of her mood was no secret, as she had been ranting about it all morning until even the good-natured Allison had had to excuse herself from lunch to get away from it. Beth and Lydia had planned to go shopping after school but Beth honestly contemplating faking a sickness to get out of it.

With a flick of the hand, Lydia made a thick, red line across her canvas. They were in art class, which Beth normally liked, but now she was contemplating showing a paintbrush through an eye to distract herself from the angry tirade. It didn’t necessarily have to be her own eye.

“We need to get Allison to talk to him. I tried to use her as blackmail but apparently-“ Lydia scowled at her canvas“-he doesn’t care enough about her.”

We? There definitely wasn’t any we involved, although Beth knew if she pointed it out to Lydia, she would be on the receiving end of her wrath. “So you’ve moved on to the ‘use your friend as blackmail’ part of the relationship. That’s lovely.” While she wasn’t about to outwardly oppose Lydia, she didn’t want to give her the impression that she wanted anything to do with the ridiculousness.

“Honestly Beth, where’s your school spirit?” Lydia had returned her attention to her painting and was trying to cover up the red streak with careful brushstrokes.

“I’ve only been here for two weeks! My school spirit builds up like radioactive waste. Give me a couple of months and I’ll go nuclear, I promise.” She shot Lydia a wide grin. “Ha! Nuclear Vinther.” That earned her a scoff and an eye roll.

Beth took a step back and critically regarded her own painting. She hadn’t inherited her father’s skills but photography had given her excellent spatial understanding.

Lydia made a displeased sound. “I thought you of all people would understand. You said, and I quote: ‘I would miss my best friend’s wedding if it meant I could see Pro14. Whatever that is.”

“Okay, one: that was an excellent Welsh accent and you should be really proud of that, and two: I’m certain that Scott has an excellent reason not to play this weekend! Not that he’d ever care to explain himself,” Beth added mostly to herself. “And besides, the team’s managed the last two years without Scott; I don’t think it’ll fall apart without him after one game. You still have Jackson.”

“It wouldn’t have been a problem if Scott hadn’t maimed him-“

“Don’t you think you are exaggerating a little? He has a sore shoulder, right? I think his pride is the one that’s hurt the most.” That was true. The only one saltier than Lydia had been Jackson, who had been angrily snapping at whoever so much as looked at him even more so than usual.

Lydia huffed. “That reminds me, we have to go to the hospital after school. Jackson needs a cortisone shot before the game. It won’t take long.”

Beth stopped painting and shot Lydia a look. “Seriously? Can’t you pick me up afterwards? I don’t really fancy going to the hospital with Jackson. In case you haven’t noticed, Jackson is this close to snapping and killing someone and I’m a prime target.”

Lydia rolled her eyes and sighed. “If you don’t want to be dragged around then get a car yourself. I’m not driving a huge detour just because you don’t like hospitals.” Her voice left no room for arguments. “Jackson can’t drive himself because he was maimed-“ she looked sharply at Beth –“by McCall.”

Before Beth could answer, the bell rang and everyone got busy cleaning up their station. Beth and Lydia were standing in line to clean their brushes when Beth said, “for your information, I am actually getting a bicycle so I won’t be relying on you for transportation for long.”

The resulting sound from Lydia made clear what she thought of that.

When it came time for going to the hospital, Beth considered faking her own death to get out of being confined to a small space with the angriest couple on earth. Lydia had calmed down a bit but Jackson was still fuming mad, and they bickered the whole way to the hospital. For once in her life, Beth was glad that she was being ignored.

“I am not going out with McCall after the game, forget it,” Jackson said through clenched teeth. He sat on the passenger’s side with his arms crossed, looking like a petulant child. Beth found it best not to remark on that.

Lydia sighed and gripped the wheel with more force than necessary. “I’m not telling you to go on a date with him. We’re all going out. Beth will be there too.” Jackson turned around in his seat and shot her an icy look.

“I-I guess so,” Beth said meekly, not having heard about that little outing before now.

“I don’t care who’ll be there, I’m not going. That loser isn’t even playing anyway.”

“Oh, yes he will,” said Lydia, sounding vaguely threatening. “He is playing because he doesn’t want to lose Allison and you’re playing because you don’t want to be stuck in this town forever.” Lydia flipped her red hair over her shoulder in that primly way that, for the people who knew her, meant not to contradict her.

Jackson did not heed the warning and snorted loudly. “McCall is a coward, and you’re overestimating how far guys will go for some pu-“

“Jackson!”

“Hey!” Beth glared daggers at the back of Jackson’s head. She’d only known Allison for a short while, but already she had a deep respect for Allison, and besides, no one deserved to be talked about like that. Scott she knew less but he seemed like he really cared for Allison.

Jackson seemed startled by their outburst, but from where Beth sat, he didn’t exactly look ashamed. “I only meant,” he bit out, “that McCall is a self-serving loser. Now he has to be a big boy he taps out like a little bitch.”

When they got to the hospital and located a spot in the overfilled car park, Lydia slammed on the breaks a little harder than necessary. She got out of the car and wordlessly flounced towards the front doors. Jackson followed after and Beth made up the rear. She glared at the back of Jackson’s head and hoped that that cortisone shot would really hurt.

They sat in the waiting room stewing in tense silence.

Jackson sneered. “If they don’t hurry up in there I’m going to contract-” the rest of his sentence was swallowed by a loud, hacking cough. The look on Jackson’s face would’ve been priceless if Beth hadn’t also been slightly scared of catching something from the sick people around them.

A doctor came through a door nearby and consulted her clipboard. “Jackson Whittemore,” she called sounding impatient. There was a rustle of air as the people in the waiting room let out a collective exasperated sigh.

When Jackson disappeared around the corner, Beth turned towards Lydia. “Can you believe he said that-“ she stopped when she saw Lydia had just clipped a Bluetooth headset to her ear. She didn’t even seem to register that Beth was sitting right there.

“Yeah, hello? This is Lydia Martin. I’m calling to check my order I made five days ago.” She caught Beth’s unimpressed stare and lifted a carefully shaped eyebrow.

“That’s very 2001, that is,” Beth mumbled and got up. Leaving Lydia to her business, she started roaming around the waiting room.

Beth didn’t dislike hospitals, or rather, she had no real opinion about them. Having been lucky enough to avoid a hospital visit, the only time she had ever visited someone in one was when her mother fell and sprained her wrist.

Her shoes squeaked on the white linoleum floor and the air smelled slightly of disinfectant. Around her people bustled to and forth but from the many jumbled voices, no one sounded like they were in mortal peril. Close to the waiting room, she found a vending machine offering packs of crisps and empty calories. She was considering what to get when a shout came from the end of the hall. She turned around just as a gurney rounded the corner. It was pushed but no fewer than five people, three of them in white lab coats. On the gurney lay a person but it was impossible to discern other features, as whoever it was covered in blood and gold foil. One of the doctors was pressing a blood-soiled bandage to the person’s forehead.

Beth stood stock still as the macabre sight bustled past her and disappeared through a door labelled ICU. She stared at the door, too unnerved by the sight to move from the vending machine. Her overactive imagination tried to come up with what had happened to the person to make them look like that but that train of thought quickly became too morbid to consider. Abandoning the vending machine, she moved back towards the waiting area.

Lydia was still talking on the phone, so Beth loitered around, craning her neck to see if Jackson was finished. She had just come back from the bathroom when she heard a voice.

“Hey Lydia.” She recognised Stiles’s voice. He hadn’t seen her standing behind him and she was about to open her mouth to greet him when he continued. “You probably don’t remember me. I sit behind you in Biology.”

Lydia fiddled with her hair, looking around with unfocused eyes. She was clearly listening to someone on the Bluetooth headset.

Beth extended her hand to tap Stiles on the back when he said something that made her stomach clench in second-hand embarrassment.

“Uh, anyway,” Stiles continued, with a forced casualness, “I’ve always thought that we had this kind of connection. Unspoken, of course.”

Beth’s eyes went wide and she covered her mouth with her hand to clamp down on the shrill giggles bubbling to the surface. Ever since she was little she’d reacted in two ways whenever she was faced with such a mortifying situation: either cry or laugh hysterically. This time it seemed to be the latter.

Stiles, seemingly encouraged by Lydia’s polite but empty smile, continued, “Maybe it’d be kinda cool to … get to know each other a little bit better.” His head bobbed up and down.

Behind him, Beth was frozen to the ground in sheer embarrassment. She had to use both hands to pinch her lips together to keep from laughing out loud. Lydia hadn’t heard any of it. Lydia hadn’t heard any of it! She was probably still talking to some store clerk, happily ignorant of the excruciating declaration that just went down in front of her.

Stiles realised that too when Lydia pushed back her hair and revealed the headset. “Hold on, give me a second,” she said to the person on the line. Finally, she regarded Stiles with a proper look. “I didn’t get any of what you just said, was it worth repeating?”

That was probably the worst thing she could’ve said. There was a beat of silence where Stiles’ mouth seemed to catch up quicker than his brain. He fumbled with his words until he finally settled on a breathless “no. Sorry.”

Beth wanted to run and hide and pretend to have never overheard what he said. It seemed like a very intimate thing to witness and she didn’t even know Stiles.

Before her feet registered the command from her brain, Stiles turned around and they locked eyes. His mouth dropped open in surprise and the blush that coloured his cheeks seemed to get darker. There was an uncomfortable length of silence where they both seemed frozen to the spot. The hurt look in his brown eyes made Beth’s inside squirm uncomfortably. A snort escaped her hands and the sound seemed to snap Stiles out of it.

“Oh, um … I-I’m just gonna …” he flapped one hand loosely towards the exit while the other furiously rubbed his hair. Beth didn’t trust herself to speak but she waved half-heartedly at him and watched him walk down the hallway. He nearly fell over his own legs twice before he rounded a corner and disappeared.

Turning around on stiff legs, she walked back to the bathroom. Getting there, she didn’t feel like laughing anymore but took a minute to compose herself. Her heart was beating fast and she took a couple of deep breaths and looked in the mirror. Her own blush-tinged self looked back at her.

When she came back, Lydia and Jackson were locking lips in the waiting room.

“Do you two need a room, maybe? I’m sure they can find some nook for you somewhere. Maybe even a bed,” Beth said jovially, as she stopped beside them. She still felt a little jittery after witnessing Stiles embarrassing himself

They broke apart and Jackson scowled at her. “Where were you? We almost left you behind.”

“Call of nature,” Beth said and curtsied in what she hoped was a sarcastic manner, which made Lydia roll her eyes.

“Come on,” she said a bit testily. “Or maybe I’ll leave you both behind.” Without waiting for them to answer, she turned around and sashayed down the hall towards the exit.

It felt like it took forever but Jackson was finally dropped off at home (in considerably better spirits than before), and eventually, Beth and Lydia arrived at the mall. Lydia wasted no time steering Beth towards a newly opened boutique and going through the first rack of clothes she saw, giving each piece of garment a critical look before putting it back.

Beth shifted through another rack of clothes at a more leisurely pace. The entire mall was teeming with people having just gotten off work or school. “Are you looking for something in particular or are you just trying to shop your feelings away?” Beth asked and grinned cheerfully over the top of the clothing rack.

Lydia harrumphed but didn’t look up. “Don’t interrupt me when I’m trying to shop for two.” She nodded briefly to herself when she found an acceptable blouse and added it to the growing pile on her arm.

“Uh—do you and Jackson have something you’d like to tell me?”

Lydia looked up and give her an unamused look. “I’m trying to find something for you, sweetie, something which description doesn’t contain the word ‘distressed.’”

Beth looked down at her trousers, which were indeed ripped at the knees. Even though Lydia had never held back in criticising Beth’s clothes, she’d never said anything about the rips and tears. “Uh, Lydia? Is this because of the argument? Because you don’t have to-“

“No it isn’t,” Lydia snapped. “It’s for tomorrow after the game, when I’ll introduce you to the team. You and Allison.” She picked up a dark green dress and added it to the pile.

“Oh, good, it’s not like I don’t see them a lunch every day.”

Lydia made a noise. “You know what I mean. You can meet them properly and also look ridiculously hot. It never hurts to have a few options.”

Now it was Beth’s turn to make a noise. “Uh, well, I don’t think any of the players are really my type, sorry. Except for Danny of course, but I think there are some fundamental problems there that we just can’t work through.”

“What is your type anyway? You’ve never talked about dating anyone in Wales.”

“That’s because I didn’t. Didn’t really feel it, I guess. I did kiss Lauren Patel once at a party but all I could think about was that time in Year 3 when she ate an earthworm and had to go to be excused from school for a week.”

Lydia pulled a disgusted face. “Ew,” she said and shook her head. “I guess that can take the romance out of anything. What’s your type, then?” They had slowly gravitated towards the changing rooms. When they got there, Lydia dug through her pile of clothes to find the pieces for Beth.

“Lydia, I really don’t need you to try to … set me up, or anything,” Beth said, as she was laden with what felt like several pounds of clothes. “I’ve just moved here; I think I want a bit more time to – uh – settle in.” She nearly fell over her own feet as Lydia ushered her into a changing room.

“Allison just got here and she’s dating Scott,” came Lydia’s voice from the stall next stall over.

Beth slipped off her blouse and held a powder blue sweater up in front of her. It looked nice when she found it, but now it looked rather weird and lumpy. She discarded it without even trying it on.

“Yes, well, that is also sort of surprising, really. She doesn’t seem like the type to move so fast but I guess it’s good for her. That doesn’t change my answer, though.”

Lydia tsked, but dropped the subject. They talked about school until Beth reached the dark green dress Lydia had picked out for her. It went to her mid-thigh and was a little too form fitting. It tightened a little uncomfortable around the chest when she breathed too deeply. It was pretty, though.

“The dress is nice,” Beth remarked, examining herself from every angle. “Just a touch too fancy for a high school lacrosse game, yeah?”

There was a scoff from the stall next door. “It’s not the event that makes the clothes, it’s the clothes that make the event,” Lydia trilled. “Get in here so I can see it.”

Beth got out of the stall and tiptoed over to Lydia’s stall, making sure her feet touched as little of the stone floor as possible. She found it weird walking barefoot in public like there were germs not found in houses, being trod into the floor by thousands of strangers’ shoes. In all reality, the floor was probably cleaned more often than in Beth’s bedroom.

With some degree of difficulty, Beth squeezed herself into the tiny stall, which was definitely not built for more than one person. Lydia backed up until she pressed against the mirror to get a good look at her. She hummed thoughtfully, like an art appraiser in a museum and twirled her finger in the air to make Beth turn around herself, which she did even though it made her feel like a living mannequin.

“This looks really nice. You should get it,” Lydia said and turned around to pull on an almost see-through white top, which, paired with the black suede skirt, it didn’t look half-bad. Somehow, even though Lydia had had a way bigger pile of clothes before they went in, she was almost through with hers.

Beth nodded and looked at herself in the mirror, at least what she could see that wasn’t obscured by Lydia. “Maybe I will,” she said and ducked out of the room again.

When they were standing by the cash register Lydia plucked the dress from Beth’s hands.

“Look, Lydia, I told you I can pay for that myself.” Beth stepped forward to take it back but Lydia held it out of her reach with an impatient sigh.

“I found it so I will pay for it. This has nothing to do with apologising-“

“Still, it’s way too much-“

“Beth! Just let me pay for the damn dress!” Something in Lydia’s tone of voice made Beth stop in her tracks. Lydia looked … not sad, Beth had honestly never seen her look sad, but maybe annoyed, although it was not the kind of annoyance Beth was used to seeing on Lydia’s face. She looked impatient.

They looked at each other for a beat before Beth slowly nodded, and Lydia paid for her clothes and the dress for Beth. When they got outside the boutique, Beth was talking a mile a minute, trying to clear the awkward tension between them.

Beth kept her promise and wore the dress to the game. Jaime, who had never been fond of neither sports nor crowds had elected to stay at home, but both Louie and Chloe wanted to see the first game of the season.

Beth had tried to de-fancy her dress as much as possible. She wore her black leather jacket and a thick rainbow-coloured scarf with matching gloves. She considered wearing trousers under the dress, but that was an argument she hadn’t the energy for and opted for the thickest tights she owned.

Louie was waiting downstairs with Chloe. He snorted when he saw her. “You do know you’re not going to a five-star restaurant, right? You’re going to be caked in freezing mud.”

Beth stopped when she reached the bottom of the stairs and crossed her arms over her chest. “Do you know that lacrosse games generally don’t encourage spectator participation?” She felt a little self-conscious with them both looking at her like that.

“That looks cold,” came a voice from the living room. Jaime was sitting on the couch with a book in his hand and a gentle smile on his face. “Pretty, but cold.”

Beth frowned and clapped once. “Yes, well, that’s enough of ragging on my choice in clothing. Shouldn’t we be getting on? We don’t want to be late for the first game of the season,” she said with exaggerated cheerfulness.

Louie laughed and gave her shoulder a familial squeeze, before saying goodbye to Jaime and walking out the door. Chloe came up to Beth and linked their arms before waving a goodbye to Jaime and dragging her out of the door.

As soon as the cold hit her, she immediately regretted putting on the dress. It was cold enough that her breath misted every time she breathed out. The dress was also way more restrictive than she remembered, even if she had tried it just the day before, and every time she lifted her arms too far up the dress tightened uncomfortably.

Already the school car park was filled with cars and people. Beth, Chloe, and Louie hurried across the road, all of them eager to reach the lacrosse field even though it wouldn’t be much warmer there. None of them was colder than Beth who already couldn’t feel her toes. She wished she’d worn a hat.

When they reached the pitch, Chloe spotted some of her friends and disappeared into the crowd. Beth and Louie made their way to the bleachers where Allison and Lydia were already sitting with Mr Argent. Beth pointed them out and they made their way there.

While Louie and Mr Argent introduced themselves to each other, Beth sidled in so she was sitting beside Lydia who raised an eyebrow at the sight of the tatty scarf. “Well, you’re wearing the dress but also … that.”

“Give me a break, Lydia, I’m freezing my tits off.” Beth was bouncing her legs with lightning speed to try to get some warmth back in them.

Allison shot her dad a startled look to make sure he hadn’t overheard her. “If you’re so cold then why did you wear a dress?” She asked when she had made sure her father was too preoccupied talking to Louie to hear Beth.

Beth shot Lydia a dry look. “Because I am an excellent friend who always keeps my promises.”

Lydia rolled her eyes but otherwise didn’t seem interested in having a conversation. She was looking down at the pitch, where the players had made tracks in the rime covered grass. She smiled imperceptibly when number 11 came out on the field. She had apparently succeeded in convincing him to play.

“So, are you excited about the game?” Allison asked, leaning forward so she could see Beth around Lydia.

“Allison, I feel like-like a kid on Boxing day.”

Allison snorted and raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you mean Christmas morning?”

“Nope, I’ve always liked Boxing day more. You’ve already got your presents and the sting of disappointment when you find out your grandmother got you a useless journal for the fourth year in a row has lessened somewhat. And there’s leftover Christmas candy and there’s always the best movies on the telly.”

The shrill sound of a whistle drowned out Allison’s laugh. Neither of the girls had noticed how Jackson and a player from the other team had gravitated towards the middle for the faceoff to start the game. Beth squinted her eyes as she tried to find the ball that zipped from player to player across the field.

Even through the haze of cold, Beth felt the electric energy that came whenever she watched a team expertly, or at least as expertly as high school lacrosse could get, weave in and out between each other as bulky ballerinas. She had to give it to them: the Beacon Hills Cyclones were very talented.

Beth’s eyes widened and she cursed.

“What is it?” Lydia asked while still looking at the game.

“I forgot my camera,” Beth said sullenly and took out her phone. It would have to do. She opened the camera and started snapping photos, frowning when she saw how blurry they were.

Down on the pitch, one of the home team players was pushed so hard the ball flew up in the air and landed on the grass. Beth whooped loudly and almost got up from the bench when she saw McCall tearing through the field towards it.

Scott was only a few metres from the ball when Jackson rammed into him sending him tumbling to the ground.

“What? He can’t do that! That’s his own bloody team!” Beth screamed but loud cheering downed it out. Beth shared a look with Allison for a brief second before a bouncy redhead obscured her. Jackson scored the game’s first goal and the bleachers exploded in cheers. Beth surged to her feet screaming and clapping with the others, forgetting everything about the unfair play before.

Beside her, Lydia and Allison held up a sign saying ‘We luv u Jackson,’ jumping up and down in joy. Beth did notice how it looked like 11 – Scott - paused for a second before continuing back to his spot.

Beth’s confidence in the Cyclones slowly diminished as the game went on. They were good, but the opposing team knew what they were doing. It seemed like they’d rather pass to someone closer to the goal than Scott, who had stopped short of doing windmills to get the attention of his teammates.

The umpire blew a whistle signifying it was halftime. Beth stood bouncing on her feet to keep the warmth her body had generated from cheering like a maniac.

Beth slid past Lydia and Allison stamping the ground as she walked trying to get some warmth to her poor toes.

“So what do you think of your first lacrosse game?” Louie asked, bouncing a bit in place to ward off the cold.

“That’s it’s pretty much like a rugby game only with sticks and totally different rules. Although, I thought there’d be more hot dog vendors. In the movies, there’s always at least one hotdog vendor.” Beth rubbed her ears and once again lamented at not having worn a hat.

“Ah yes, I remember that scene in The Shining where Jack finds a hotdog vendor in the bathroom. It’s a cinematic masterpiece,” Louie said and laughed. “When I have time, we should drive down to San Fran and see the Giants play. There you’ll get your hot dog vendors. There might be some nachos too.”

Beth’s eyes lit up and she started to bounce, not from cold but from excitement. She’d spent nearly every summer in Beacon Hills but she’d never seen a baseball game.

Something caught Louie’s eyes and he nodded towards the field. “There’s Sheriff Stilinski. I actually have some questions for him, I should really go and say hi,” Louie said more to himself than Beth.

She looked towards the field to see a middle-aged man with sandy hair standing by the edge of the pitch. So that was Stiles’s dad. “Is it about the body in the woods?” She asked excitedly.

Louie smirked. “Sorry, I can’t comment on an ongoing investigation.”

Beth gave him a little shove. “You’re a journalist, that’s kind of your job, yeah?”

Still smirking, Louie put an arm around her shoulder and steered her towards the sheriff. “Let’s go say hi. Maybe I can slip in some questions about the investigation. Not that he’d answer them anyway,” he said cheerfully.

When they stopped in front of the sheriff, he shot Louie a wary glance. Louie could be very persistent, and Beth didn’t envy the sheriff’s job trying to fend him off while still trying to keep Beacon Hills safe.

“Good evening Sheriff Stilinski. Is your son playing here tonight?” Louie said jovially still keeping his arm draped around Beth’s shoulder.

Stilinski still looked a little wary but he nodded his head in greeting. “Sandoval.” He looked to the side where the home team were huddled together. Sometimes Coach could be spotted between the red-clad bodies waving his arms around his head and frequently almost slapping one of the players in the face.

Beth was immeasurably relieved that Stiles wasn’t nearby. The confession she heard the day before still made her cheeks burn.

“He’s, um. On the bench right now.” Stilinski looked back and noticed Beth. She smiled and waved at him.

“Oh, this is my husband’s daughter Beth. I think she’s the same grade as your son.”

Beth stepped forward to shake his hand like a real human being. “Yeah, we have English and Chemistry together.”

“She moved here a month ago,” Louie added when the sheriff’s brows furrowed in thought.

“Beth,” he said slowly. “You’re the one with the cheese rolling.”

Louie shot her a bewildered look and she smiled weakly. “Yep, that's me alright. The cheese girl.”

“Wh-“ A loud ringing interrupted Louie’s question. The sheriff grabbed a phone out of the pockets of his khaki pants.

“Excuse me. Sandoval. Beth,” he said before moving backwards and away from the bleachers.

Louie practically vibrated with curiosity, bouncing up and down on the soles of his feet.

“I wonder what that was about.”

“They’ve arrested someone on suspicion of murder. The girl in the woods,” Louie said distractedly. He was still watching the Sheriff.

Beth tugged at his sleeve. “What? Who?”

Louie looked at her. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “My source couldn’t give me a name. Maybe I could-“ He was cut yet again, this time from the umpire’s whistle. “C’mon, we better get back.”

They started towards their seats. “Do you work with him a lot?” Beth asked over the sound of the spectators.

“I handle a lot of the criminal cases, so sometimes, yeah. He’ll even answer my questions once in a blue moon but I have a feeling this is one of those times where I have to work to earn my keep.”

When they got to their seats, Beth squeezed past Lydia and Allison and sat down.

Lydia leaned towards her, her eyes still on the pitch where they were gearing up for the faceoff. “Where were you?”

As soon as Beth sat down, she felt the energy again. She started bouncing her right leg for both warmth and nervous energy. “Louie saw someone he wanted to say hi to,” Beth said distractedly.

The ball flew up in the air and was caught by the nearest player. Beth hissed, as he scored a goal not even two minutes after the game had started again.

The tension rose amongst both the players and the spectators as the clock ticked closer to endgame. Had Beth not been wearing thick gloves she would’ve bitten her nails to the quick.

The ball had been thrown out of bounds and the players shuffled back in their designated spots, all except for one. Scott was standing close to the edge of the pitch, bend over as if he was about to lose the content of his stomach on the grass. Even from the bleachers, Beth could see huge puffs of mists when he breathed hard.

Mr Argent leaned towards Allison. “Which one is Scott again?”

“Number eleven,” said Lydia icily, staring at Scott as if the weight of her gaze could get him to pull it together. That or to eliminate him so someone else could take his place. “Otherwise known as the only one who hasn’t caught a single ball this entire game.”

Allison rocked back and forth. Like Lydia, she was looking at Scott but her eyes were a great deal gentler. “I hope he’s okay,” she whispered, more to herself than the others.

“I hope we’re okay,” Lydia snapped and eyed the clock like it had personally offended her family.

While Lydia and Allison waved another sign around, Beth looked down at the player benches and searched for a closely cropped head. Stiles was practically bouncing out of his seat gnawing what looked to be his padded glove.

The umpire blew his whistle for faceoff and Jackson and the other team’s captain fought to gain control of the ball. It flew high up in the air and fell towards two white-clad players.

Suddenly, Scott came sailing in to view jumping over the players and catching the ball. He darted down the pitch skirting around the other team’s players with more elegance than should be possible in a high school boy.

When he scored a goal, the crowd rushed to their feet. All except one. Beth noticed Lydia remained seated beside her, looking sour and she bumped her shoulder with her hip. “We scored a goal!” Beth screamed over the ruckus around her. She pointed at the scoreboard and grinned manically, which only made Lydia glower at her. Lydia had been the one complaining that Scott wasn’t going to play and now she was a bad sport because her boyfriend didn’t score the goal.

Nobody remained seated as the game started again. Even Lydia got up even though she still looked cross.

Beth caught Allison’s eyes and they grinned wildly at each other.

Down on the field, the opposing team had gotten the ball. The player was about to pass it to one of his teammates when he suddenly faltered. There was a confused moment when nothing happened and then he passed the ball to Scott.

It was silence for a beat as people processed what had just happened before the crowd erupted a loud albeit confused cheer from the stands.

“Is that even allowed?” Beth asked bewildered and gestured wildly towards the players. No one answered her.

Yet again Scott ran down the pitch, dodging one of the opposing team’s players. It looked like the players on both teams were keeping their distance.

With a mighty swing of his lacrosse stick, Scott hurtled the ball towards the goal. The goalie caught it but the ball kept going and tore a hole in the netting.

As before there was silence when the spectators processed what had happened but when the roaring cheer started it seemed like there was no end. Beth, Lydia and Allison were screaming at the top of their lungs, jumping up and down and clapping as loud as their glove-clad hands would permit. Beth had forgotten all about being cold or wearing an uncomfortable dress. The score was even and there were 39 seconds until the end of the game. Had anyone else been playing, Beth would have celebrated a tie but if anyone could pull a victory out of thin air, it seemed to be Scott.

Beth breathed out shakily and drummed a nervous beat on her thighs with her hands. They could win this. They could win this if they passed the ball to Scott.

Jackson won the ball and retreated a couple of steps. Beth was about to scream out ‘PASS TO SCOTT,’ but it seemed like Coach and Stiles had that covered. They were both screaming loud enough to be heard over the roar of the crowd and it almost looked like Stiles was trying to write Scott’s name in the air.

In one breathless moment, Beth thought Jackson was going to pass to someone else but he deftly swung his stick under a white-clad player and Scott caught the ball.

Beth had already begun cheering for the victory when Scott stopped dead on the field. The loud whoop died on her lips. She grabbed Lydia’s hand and squeezed it. “Lydia, the clock is ticking! Lydia, he has to score the goal, Lydia!” she was tugging at Lydia’s hand but the girl in question didn’t even seem to notice it. Her gaze was frozen to Scott as if she was watching a car crash in slow motion.

Scott moved back and forth on the spot. Slowly, two opposition players edged closer, sticks ready for an interception.

It felt like every second lasted a minute. Allison clutched her chest, mumbling something that Beth didn’t catch over the ruckus. She hoped it was a prayer to give Scott a kick in the arse.

Just as the two players had gathered enough courage for an attack, Scott tore forwards and swung his stick. The ball sailed right under the goalie’s stick and the bleachers erupted in cheer. Beth screamed at the top of her lungs and almost jumped into Lydia’s arms. The two girls jumped up and down while the crowd cheered.

When Beth finally detached herself from Lydia, there were a lot fewer people on the bleachers. Most of them were milling out over the field, some of them towards the players celebrating in the middle and some of them back towards the car park.

Beth beamed at Lydia who smiled back at her. Lydia’s cheeks were dusted with red from jumping up and down and a couple of locks of her usually neat hair were flying around her head but she paid it no mind.

Grabbing Beth’s shoulders, Lydia gave them a little shake. “We won!” She yelled breathlessly.

“We won!” Beth replied and took her hand.

Together they ran down to the team celebrating in the middle of the pitch, still holding hands.

Previous chapter - Next chapter

#teen wolf #fanfiction #stiles stilinski #lydia martin #stiles/oc #lydia/oc #stiles/oc/lydia #oc #let sleeping wolves lie #beth

1 note · View note

academla · 7 years

Text

Summer 2017 Update

Hey guys! Finally, another big update post. If you haven’t read these before, I split it into sections: Academic, Financial/Professional, Social, Mental Health, and anything else I feel like. Feel free to skim! (Give this a like if you’re actually reading it because I feel like most people ignore these update posts, which is fine, I’m just curious haha.)

Academic

I go back to school on September 5. I’m super excited, but I think my underlying anxiety has been affecting me a bit.

Classes I’m taking on campus: Classics of Children’s Literature, Abnormal Psychology, and Ethics & Society (an Honors seminar).

Classes I’m taking online: History of World Civilizations Before 1500 & Child Psychology.

Here are some comments on each class so far (I’m nothing if not thorough, guys):

Children’s Lit: Well, Harry Potter is on the reading list, so I’m already there. I’ve emailed the professor already and she seems super nice, so I’m pretty excited. The syllabus is a bit intimidating; I’m sure it will be fine, though, and having a nice professor makes a huge difference.

Abnormal Psych: I’m going to have the same prof as I did for Intro, and I’m really pumped about that (so is she). I’m nervous because the tests are harder and longer, but she was very reassuring that I’ll be fine. There was a whole issue because I thought that Abnormal had service learning linked to it (service learning is basically where you get experience doing things related to the course, so essentially volunteer/internship work) and was planning to use an internship that has been in the works since the winter for that. However, turns out that it isn’t linked. My prof was super nice and said she would be flexible. I emailed my adviser in a bit of a panic, and she informed me that actually service learning is no longer a requirement of my major. So, I’m going to go ahead and do the internship for my resume, but not have to worry about the assignments and grade aspect.

Ethics & Society: I don’t know anything about this really, but I do know that the professor is well-liked and I’ve seen him a few times.

History: Okay, so I hate history. I’m quite well-rounded as a student and I know that I’m lucky that most classes, I do very well in and enjoy. But history just... I don’t even know. My history teachers in the past have all thought I was really good, and I was grade-wise; I simply didn’t enjoy it. So to make this bearable, I know I need to have a professor I like. I was going to take it on campus, and emailed briefly with the professor I was going to have, but he had bad RateMyProfessors ratings and struck me as not very personable or understanding or nice. I checked about online courses and saw that there is one being taught by the director of the Honors College that I’m in, whom I really like and has a great reputation and ratings. Unfortunately there is a $125 fee associated with online courses that I wasn’t aware of, but cost-benefit wise, I really think I’ll be happiest like this.

Child Psych: Oh GOD. Why am I so extra? I emailed the prof once and she was super nice. Then I replied, and since online courses are different from real-life ones in that you don’t really get that ‘getting-to-know-you’ vibe with professors because it’s so remote, I mentioned that I can be an anxious student. I just said basically that means sometimes I’ll ask a lot of questions or check and double-check things for reassurance. I also asked if she was a professor willing to look at drafts or not. She completely got the wrong impression and sent back an email (that was quite final too; signed it “All the best”) as though I had been a hysterical student coming to her with anxiety that I had no idea how to handle. She told me that there are personal counseling services offered by the college as well as the writing center with writing tutors. I’ve had outside counseling for 7 years, and I’m a writing tutor... so that was ironic and also a little embarrassing. Whoops. Honestly, when I get embarrassed about things like that (which I often do) I kind of remind myself that I’m just there to learn and hopefully earn that A, so what they think of me doesn’t matter that much.

All and all, I’m excited for school to start. I want to learn things and take notes and have stuff to do. I also have waves of anxiety, which I’m working very hard to combat with reality checks and focusing on the positives. Oh, and I got an A somehow on my chem accelerated summer course :)

Financial

I have worked two jobs this summer after a lot of miscommunication and lack of clarity:

A preschool, the same one I worked at during my gap year. It was unfortunate because I thought I was going to work full-time there after my chem course, but they didn’t need me because they had so much help. I ended up working Thursdays and Fridays there and Monday through Wednesday at my dad’s job. Now that all the summer help is leaving, though, they’re back to being in desperate need. Everyone there is pretty stressed (and families have been leaving).

At the place my dad works. They produce food and formula for people with metabolic disorders (primarily PKU). I was extremely appreciated there, which was nice, and I got a $4 raise on my second week! They’re desperately understaffed and having problems with their products, as well as not being able to keep up with general demand. I electronically filed faxes dating back to 2016, stuffed envelopes (my favorite), put in tons of orders (one day I put in 34 out of a total 62 orders that day), and by the end was allowed to check emails and reply to some of them. I LOVED the job. However, there’s the possibility I might be able to work there on Fridays during the school year, which I would love. It’s stressful there because there’s so much shit going on and people are basically running around putting out fires all day, but I enjoy my work so much.

During the year, I’m hoping to work at my dad’s job on Fridays, do my psychology internship (if you don’t recall, I’m going to be working at a VA hospital helping with a study on suicide prevention), and tutor! I’m a math and writing tutor. They’re two completely different trainings and types of tutoring, so it should be interesting. Luckily we get to shadow a writing tutor for awhile before being on our own.

I’m not doing well with money, guys. The entire year of 2017, I’ve only made $300 or so. I’ve spent $1,800 on school, even with scholarships, and $940 on medical things such as medication and copays. I did win a $1,000 scholarship which has been very delayed in arriving and I’m praying it will get here by the end of this week or next week so it can be applied to my account. I didn’t work over winter break, which was really my downfall; I needed the time for a mental health break, though... so I’m trying not to beat myself up over it.

Unfortunately it took awhile too for me to lock down my jobs, meaning I only got to work for like 4 or 5 weeks. That really isn’t very much money even with the raise I got. Right now I’m owing $615 per month for my payment plan, and even with tutoring and potential Fridays at my dad’s job, I’m definitely going to lose money. I’m considering taking one winter class online, so I can still work all winter break. That $125 extra fee from my web class sure didn’t help me.

But I must soldier on! I’m going to make sure that none of my money ever goes to frivolous things and never goes to waste. Money is meant to be spent and not hoarded, as my mom reminds me, and it’s okay to spend some on things like going out every so often as well, so I shouldn’t be beating myself up for that (though I still am). School was always going to suck up money. I’m trying very very hard to stay in the moment now and not stress about next semester or worse, what will happen when I get hit with that $30k bill when I transfer and don’t have even close to that much saved.

Social

I’ve changed several times throughout my life socially. In 9th grade, I was extremely social because I needed to be and I had trouble being by myself. It was a lot like that through high school. When I made online friends in 11th grade, they were my social life while drama and bullying and shit went on in real life. Recently, I had a major burst in socialness online, and eventually reached breaking point when I became embroiled in drama.

Look, I’m 20 years old. I’m turning 21 in November. I had to ask myself, why the fuck am I on vacation with family, working on scholarship essays last-minute, and spending my time in the bathroom on my phone dealing with drama with someone years and years younger who’s slandering me to people whose opinions I shouldn’t give two shits about?

That was a big reality check. Because I wanted vengeance, I did. I wanted so badly to expose someone who was gleaning attention and convincing others and spreading half-truths and ruining people’s lives. But then I realized, you know what? That isn’t my goal in life. My goal in life isn’t to tear people down because they’ve torn others down. It’s so, so difficult. I was angry. I was upset. This person violated all of my principles. And we had the evidence against them, we could have potentially won most people over, and I wanted it not for my sake but for the sake of those they had hurt so much more than they hurt me.

But I couldn’t do it. In the end, I called it off. I backed out. I told people to lay off and let karma do its work. I realized how toxic the situation was, how absurd it was for me to be living on the internet when I’m in one of the most exciting periods of my life. How utterly imbecilic I was acting, getting caught up in so much senseless, meaningless, fruitless drama.

After that, I disengaged further from large social groups. I was already overwhelmed by the amount of people always trying to talk to me, so I had to cut myself off from that. And it feels so. Much. Better.

I’ve become more introverted, really. I work all day, then I write fanfiction and watch Netflix and color in my room by myself and I love it. I have any number of people I could hit up anytime and ask to hang out or video chat. But I don’t feel that push, that obsessive need, to be social all the time. Social media became addicting. I still work on that.

I’ve stayed in touch with real-life friends and done things with them when I had the energy, money, and time. Unfortunately my ex and then long-time guy friend both asked me out, and that was incredibly awkward, and the end of that. The trouble with my school is that there are a lot of dual enrollment students who are like, 16 or 17. Much as I love them, I’ve been thirsting for someone my own age with similar interests who I can hang out with. At the tutoring training I attended, I met someone (a guy, oooh). He’s 21 and we had a really good time together. I’m hoping we can hang out once the semester starts! I also met a girl who’s only 17, but she seems very mature and sweet and I also hope to hang out with her.

Things are good socially. I’m always working on that area of my life (with regards to mental health, mostly) but I’m still going strong. I have moments of loneliness for sure. However, I’m happy with myself and happy with my life. That’s what counts.

Mental health

If 10 is completely flawless and 0 is utter breakdown and 5 is rough, I would say my summer has been a solid 7 or 8. Which is pretty damn good!

Areas I’m working on still:

Body image. My ED voice has been loud this summer. That’s probably the area of most concern to me.

Anxiety. It hasn’t been too bad, but with transitions it usually increases, and I’ve noticed myself being more anxious (free-floating anxiety mostly) and irritable in the past few days.

Worrying way too much about others’ opinions. This pretty much traces to the internet. I mean, before I went on hiatus, I had tens of thousands of people criticizing my every word and move. That takes a toll. Moreover, as a fanfic writer, it’s pretty difficult to post things to the internet without craving comments and kudos and hits. I’ve turned off viewing hits for my own sanity, and taken breathers when I felt like I was getting too hung up on the ‘popularity’ of my fics. I write for myself, because I enjoy it. Not for the attention. I just have to remind myself of that from time to time, and I try not to be competitive. It’s really the numbers that get me - the hits and the kudos. I mean, I compare myself to people in different fandoms, fandoms I don’t even write for. It’s so dumb.

All in all, I’m proud of how I’ve been doing. I do have moments of stress mainly about money, but that’s par for the course. I would say I’ve made a 100% improvement from last summer/year and intend to continue doing so, even in light of the impending stressors.

Other

My new favorite movie is Gifted. Oh my god, I love it so much. I’ve seen it like, 5 times (2 of those were illegally whoops). I’ve been fairly active on Snapchat still - add me there edye327. I don’t really have much else to say, except thank you to people who have bought me things from my wishlist that I couldn’t otherwise afford. I haven’t gotten anything recently, but I just wanted to reiterate my appreciation.

If you’ve read this all the way through, reply with the color of your favorite shirt.

Much love,

Edye

#academlets #academla blogs #update #2017 #back to school

19 notes · View notes

yannasunflower · 7 years

Text

Concrete Flower ~ Chapter 2 am I stagnant or moving forward?

Sakura had already been awake for an hour when her alarm went off. She slammed her hand down on it, glaring at the red number that told her it was precisely eight in the morning. She had her first class at ten and she was going to need at least a half hour to find the damn classroom in the maze that was her school.

But first, she lay, staring at the pale sunlight filtering in through the blinds. Tiredness dragged at her bones, nearly convincing her to stay in bed until she died. Her bed was so warm, so comforting.

Groaning, she rolled herself out of bed and stumbled to the kitchen, pouring herself a cup of coffee and swallowing two mouthfuls, ignoring the way the hot liquid scorched her mouth and tongue. Without adding sugar or milk, she made her way to the shower, managing a half smile at the soft sounds of Ino's snoring. She reminded herself not to hum in the shower; waking Ino up sooner than she wanted to be awake was punishable by death. She was not eager to be on the receiving end of her wrath so early in the morning.

After her shower, she sipped at her coffee as she pulled shorts and a simple t-shirt on. She checked her reflection, frowning at the dark circles under her eyes before dabbing some concealer on. She didn't really want to look like a zombie the first day of school, after all.

Double checking that she had her keys, she shut the door behind her an hour later, cursing at how suddenly bright it was outside. The heat of the day was already settling in and she sighed at the prospect of another hot day. Making a mental note to remind Ino to keep the blinds closed, she started down the stairs, careful to avoid falling.

The walk to campus was pleasant enough. The sun was unforgiving on her head and she made a mental note to buy a hat some time that week to spare her poor scalp. She took sips of her cooling coffee, wrinkling her nose at the too-warm drink but still swallowing for the sake of the caffeine. Her sleep had been restless, disturbed all night by tossing and turning. The unfamiliar dark room and new sheets that didn't quite smell like anything yet seemed to be enough to throw off her sleep schedule. Before she knew it, her alarm was going off and she was forced to face her first day of classes.

Once on campus, she hurried to find her class, trying to adopt a somehow nonchalant fast-walk and also attempting to not look like the clueless first year that she really was. Achieving these two things at once turned out to be impossible. Finally, with only 15 minutes to spare until her class, she gave it up and asked a passerby for directions. The girl was friendly enough, pointing out the building – one she had passed three times, of course – and warning her that the stairs in that building were particularly small.

Sakura released a breath of relief when the air conditioning swept over her in the hall. She jogged down a few twisting hallways, thanking the signs that told her which classrooms were down which halls, and nearly wept with relief when she saw her room's numbers.

She was still ten minutes early, so she dropped into an empty seat near the front and took a few minutes to cool down and sip at her water. The lecture room was somehow even cooler than the hall just outside. Soon enough, she had goosebumps, and she thanked Deidara for the tip he'd given her at the karaoke bar.

"Bring a sweater to your classes. Professors like to keep the rooms cold enough to freeze you, yeah. No joke."

She'd been skeptical, considering how hot it was outside and Deidara's apparent penchant for drama, but had grabbed a light sweater on her way out that morning nonetheless. Turns out, Deidara had been right. She made a mental note to thank him as she shrugged the sweater on.

Sakura pulled out her notebook and pen, finally glancing around at her peers as the hall began to fill more steadily. Most had computers out while others fiddled with their phones or just stared ahead blankly. Eyeing the computers, Sakura wondered if they were a better alternative to her own note-taking strategy. She had a laptop back in her apartment and no doubt typing out notes on a computer was quicker, but she learned better when she physically wrote things down. She was also nervous to lug her computer around with her on campus all day. Humming to herself, she began formatting her notes, folding the paper carefully as she kept an eye on the time.

Ten minutes after their class' start time, the professor still hadn't shown up. Sakura shifted in her seat uncomfortably, the restless whispers of the other students growing louder every minute that went by. She was slightly annoyed by her own panic earlier; what was the point of being so early when the professor themselves was going to be late?

Finally, nearly fifteen minutes into the class, their professor strode in. He was a tall man with grey hair that contrasted with his relatively youthful face. Well, it looked youthful from what she could see, anyway. He wore a mask that covered most of it, strangely enough. He took a moment to set up his own battered laptop and begin projecting a rather basic PowerPoint on the white screen before he turned to face them.

"I am Professor Hatake. Please, call me Kakashi. If you have any questions about due dates, test dates, projects, or what have you, consult the syllabus. If you have any questions regarding my policies on late work, consult the syllabus. If you have any questions regarding my policies on missed lectures, consult the syllabus. If, for some reason, you are not intelligent enough to comprehend my simple syllabus, you may go to your TA with these questions. Do not bother me with them, I will ignore the e-mail and I will ignore you."

He smiled at them and Sakura felt the bizarre need to laugh. His voice was clear despite the mask covering his mouth and acting as a barricade between it and the small microphone he had clipped to his shirt.

"This is a relatively simple class. Read the text, attend the lectures," he emphasized, narrowing his eyes. There were a few giggles that faded quickly as he continued.

"You get out what you put in. Now, let's begin."

And so, university began.

Sakura had been warned that professors in university were unlike high school teachers. They didn't care. They were a no-nonsense, strict lot that weren't going to hold anyone's hand and were definitely not going to make things any easier. She realized that everyone who had told her this, was absolutely right.

Her math teacher was a great bear of a man, with a mane of white hair and broad shoulders.

"Do not come to me for questions unless you've tried every other option," he warned. He had told the class to call him Jiraiya and was giving them a summary of his syllabus. Sakura was quickly coming to learn that professors really loved their syllabus.

"This is university. Which means it's time for you guys to start figuring shit out."

She'd smiled nervously at the small joke. Because she had a feeling it was going to be reality sooner rather than later.

She learned later, in her last lecture for the day, that her professors thus far had been angels compared to what lie ahead for her. While Kakashi and Jiraiya were stern, they had also cracked jokes and helped put their students at ease.

"You first year is a confusing time," Jiraiya had informed them with a grim smile.

"But if you work hard, you'll become a better person from it."

Sakura's chemistry professor, on the other hand, was a demon woman.

When she had swept into the lecture hall, hazel eyes hard and red mouth pursed into a straight line, the class fell silent immediately. Sakura instinctively sat up a little straighter, never taking her eyes off the woman as she began speaking.

"I am Doctor Tsunade. That is how you will refer to me. Not Professor, not Miss Tsunade, and no, I do not accept Doc either. You will call me Doctor or Doctor Tsunade."

She paused, surveying the silent, breathless class for a moment before she continued. Sakura had looked her up, of course. Tsunade was a legend on campus and in hospitals. A renowned cardiac surgeon, she had been the first female Chief of Surgery in the biggest hospital in Japan; her teaching was a side job and somehow the woman still managed to publish research after research every year. Students came from all over the world to learn under her. Sakura had been surprised to see her teaching a first year class, but alumni on the forum Sakura had scrolled through had warned she did it for the sole purpose of cutting down numbers. Tsunade was known for weeding out the weak and she started with first years, the easiest prey on campus.

"Every year, I look for students with potential. Most years, I am disappointed. If I come to remember your name by the end of the semester, you can consider yourself a student with rare potential. If I request you to be put in all my classes by the end of the second semester, your peers can look to you as a rival. And if I personally extend an invitation for you to be one of my TA's by the end of your third year, your peers will see you as a god."

Sakura felt her chest tighten, her breath shorten. Fantasies of her, in a white coat, learning from this legend, being acknowledged by her, filled her head. She nearly didn't catch Tsunade's next words.

"The number of students this has happened to is precisely one," Tsunade said with a feral smile. Her bared teeth glinted in the light. A hunter who knew exactly how to discourage her prey. A collective breath was released by the class and students looked at each other, bewildered, fearful.

"My classes are difficult. Do not email me for faster grading, I barely have time to eat. You brats are my lowest priority class. You're first years, nobodies. The upperclassmen will eat you alive at the first hint of weakness. I will eat you alive. The medical field is for the strongest of the strong, for the ambitious, the smartest, the best. I will not go easy on you because this is your first year of university. I will not go easy on you because you are young. My classes are difficult and it is because they are difficult that your potential, or lack thereof, will be exposed. If you have the determination, my classes will challenge you, they will help you grow, flourish."

Sakura was leaning forward in her seat, mouth slightly open. She could almost eat Tsunade's words, could taste them on her tongue. The woman looked around slowly, eyes hovering ever so briefly on Sakura's face before they moved on.

"Welcome to your life. Do not disappoint me. The lecture will begin now."

Sakura sat on a bench, filling out her planner carefully, triple checking the four syllabus papers spread across the bench next to her to make sure she had the dates correct. She only had one project that semester, thank whatever gods existed, but she had a crowded schedule of tests and assignments due to make up for it. Her eyes scanned over the required readings, face paling as she mentally calculated just how much she would be reading every week.

"I'm gonna die," she muttered to herself, checking the time on her phone as she closed her planner. Tsunade's class especially had the equivalent of about a book a week, and the readings increased in quantity as the semester went on.

Sakura would be drinking a lot of coffee.

Her phone buzzed with a text from Ino.

school is hard and unfair!

Sakura snorted softly as she typed her message back.

It's only the first day, Ino-pig.

Her phone buzzed again, but this time with a text from an unknown number.

Art club is TODAY in just 20 MINUTES can't wait for you to meet everyone!

The text was ended with a superfluous amount of emojis and it wasn't very hard for Sakura to guess who the sender was.

She mulled over her possible responses for a moment before sending back a simple text.

Already on my way.

Finding the building and room for art club was somehow easier than for her classes. Of course, Deidara had given her very specific directions and had even drawn her a map the night before on a napkin in that karaoke bar. The building was a little smaller than the others, slightly more run down. The paint on the walls was peeling in some places and there were cobwebs in the corners. The lights were dimmer and the AC didn't seem to work quite as well.

Sakura peeked into other classrooms, seeing what looked like Dance Club practicing in one room and half-erased history notes in another. She guessed this building was where most of the clubs gathered and the classes that weren't sciences or business were held. She wondered briefly at the more run down state of it before realizing she had almost walked past her door.

As she reached out to push it open, it flew open with a bang and Deidara's face was suddenly beaming down at her, blue eyes wide and sparkling.

"You made it, yeah! Did you find it okay?"

Before she could reply, he had whisked her into the classroom, shoving her to the center of the room and throwing his arms out in front of him, fingers spread to gesture to her.

"Everyone, welcome Sakura," he declared triumphantly.

Sakura managed to wave, too dazed to really absorb anyone's greeting.

"Deidara, you go overboard," a deep voice murmured from the door. Sakura turned her head to see Itachi Uchiha lounging in the doorway, shoulder pressed to the frame in a strangely elegant pose. Anyone else would look lazy; the elder Uchiha made it look fashionable.

"Silence, Uchiha," Deidara growled, hands on Sakura's shoulders. "I'm excited and I want everyone to welcome her warmly!"

Sakura frowned at Itachi, confused by his presence. He paid no heed to her, instead choosing to bicker with Deidara quietly as the other club members began to step forward to introduce themselves.

A girl stepped forward first, blood red hair strangely familiar though Sakura couldn't quite place it. Her unvoiced question, however, was answered merely seconds later.

"I'm Uzumaki Karin," she introduced herself, in a much quieter tone than Deidara. Her red glasses glinted in the light. "Welcome to Art Club."

"Uzumaki?" Sakura blurted. Horrified by her lack of manners and tact, she covered her mouth with her hands, green eyes wide.

"I'm guessing you know my idiot cousin?" Karin replied smoothly, paying no heed to Sakura's awkwardness. "Yellow hair and a big, loud mouth?"

"That's the one," Sakura sighed with a roll of her eyes.

"An unfortunate relation," Karin sniffed.

Sakura narrowed her eyes. Karin's chin was lifted, her eyes sharp behind their glasses, thin mouth drawn into a straight line. Her hands were behind her back and she regarded Sakura coolly, eyes dragging up and down Sakura's body until they finally came to rest at her face, no difference in their warmth.

"I'm Vice President," she informed her seriously.

Sakura nodded.

"Thank you," she murmured.

The others introduced themselves, their names and faces blurring by Sakura until nobody was left. She breathed a quiet sigh of relief as the introductions ended and she was allowed to take her seat at last. Itachi settled next to her and she focused on not breathing in too deeply; his cologne or body wash or whatever it was smelled way too good. It was unfair, really. She just wanted to bury her nose in his shirt and inhale.

She flushed, embarrassed by her train of thoughts, attempting to focus on Deidara's speech instead.

"New year, great change!" he claimed, bouncing on the balls of his feet as he did. "You'll observe that Itachi has chosen to grace us with his presence once more; he's just here to observe so if you have any questions, bring them to me."

Sakura turned questioning eyes on Itachi, who smiled effortlessly at her.

"Deidara asks Kisame and I to pose for them sometimes," he informed her, lacing his fingers together and bringing them to the back of his head before leaning back in his chair. Every movement he made was completely unfair, graceful and poised and much too perfect. Sakura felt herself bristle at it, instinctively shying from it.

"I see," she replied curtly. She turned her head back to Deidara, who was writing that day's inspiration on the board. It was a simple word, one that made her stomach churn uncomfortably.

Love.

"I thought I'd start with something easy this year," Deidara said cheerily, placing his marker down and turning to beam at them.

Easy? Sakura thought, feeling her hands begin to shake and her skin grow clammy.

What the hell did she have to draw about this? Love was foreign to her; any love that didn't include her mother or her friends was practically nonexistent to her. She couldn't have identified romance if it smacked her in the face, something that Ino teased her for mercilessly.

While she panicked, Itachi glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, noting her suddenly pale complexion.

He opened his mouth to say something, interrupted instead by Deidara, who appeared out of nowhere and placed a hand on Sakura's shoulder, somehow understanding her need for comfort.

"Love comes in many forms, yeah?" he said with a smile. "Think about what it is to you."

Sakura breathed through her nose, accepting the plain paper and simple pencil from Deidara. She'd nearly forgotten that she'd joined to improve her sketching skills – and to appease Ino. She thought carefully for a few minutes, hands hovering over the paper, tracing imaginary shapes, filling in colors only she could see. Finally, she set the pencil to the paper, beginning her sketch carefully, breathless.

She was unaware of a certain Uchiha's dark eyes on her as she worked, seemingly emotionless even as they watched her intently, not missing a single movement. For lack of something better to do, he observed her, interest piqued by her friendship with his brother and apparent lack of attraction to him – an odd occurrence. He wasn't the boastful type but it was simply a fact: women tended to be attracted to him. Itachi's eyes traced the way her hair fell behind her ear, pink and soft-looking, draped over her shoulder and spilling down her back. Her pale, long legs swung restlessly beneath the table as she worked, mouth moving as she drew, pulling into a concentrated frown or frustrated purse of the lips. Her hands moved slowly but steadily, carefully outlining what looked like a loaf of bread to him. Her fingers were long and slender, grasping the pencil gently and she hummed to herself quietly after a short while. Itachi couldn't tear his eyes away from her.

Years later, he would tell people, This is when I fell in love.

Because he did, in that moment. Watching her hands move and her face contort and her body quietly adjust to her mental rhythm, he fell in love.

Sakura remained blissfully unaware, however. She was focused solely on her drawing, suppressing her mounting frustration with it. It was so average, so plain and simple. But it was all she had so she kept working, trying not to growl as she did so.

Half an hour later she leaned back, frowning. It looked off to her and she had no idea why. She wiped at the smudges on her fingers absently, chewing on her lower lip. Deidara appeared in front of her, fingers tracing her drawing as she stretched, taking distant notice of the fact Itachi had not moved from his spot beside her. He didn't look the least inclined to relocate either. Sakura ran a hand through her hair, huffing. She hated being watched as she worked.

"Why the bread?" Deidara asked, interrupting her thoughts.

"My mom's a baker," she explained after a beat. For a moment, she had forgotten why she'd chosen to draw what she had. "Whenever I had a bad day or for my birthdays, she'd make me a loaf of this nut bread I really liked. It always made me feel…happy."

Her words were halting, tongue stuttering over them. Her hands flapped uselessly in front of her as she attempted to explain without really explaining. How could he understand that the bread was merely a small apology, a gentle reminder that her mother loved her, despite the past? How could she describe the way her chest tightened when she ate it, the way it turned to ash in her mouth as she consumed the whole loaf, thanking her mother as she did so? How could she tell him all this and then say, "I stopped liking this bread when I was nine years old." It didn't make any sense, not even to her. But every year she ate it and hugged her mother and loved her tired, weary mother. And every year she told her she couldn't wait to eat it again.

This, she thought, was love. Silent apologies and nearly invisible sacrifices. All things small and quiet and unheard.

Itachi watched her, eyes and face as immovable as ever. Irrationally, Sakura wanted to throw cold water on him, if only to see some kind of change of expression in him.

The exact opposite of Deidara, who was now looking over her work with a critical, expressive eye. The hand that was not tracing her drawing was twisted in his long blonde hair, twirling the ends as he frowned at the drawing.

"Your shadowing," he suddenly said, using one long finger to gesture to the corner of her drawing. "It's off; with a pencil, you don't need to apply a lot of pressure. Let me show you."

He began to draw on his own blank page, explaining all of his steps as he went, eager to teach to an equally eager student. Sakura leaned forward to watch, forgetting Itachi's existence as her entire world became made of art.

When the clock turned four, Sakura rubbed at her eyes wearily. The page in front of her had begun to blur. She couldn't remember the last time she had focused so intently for so long on her drawing. It was Deidara's fault, really. He had essentially rambled the hour away, giving her an entire lecture and completely adjusting her original sketch. Sakura clutched it desperately as she moved to put it in her backpack. It had come out half-decent for once. Her mother's hands still weren't quite right and the bread's proportions were off. But it was a start.

Next to her, Itachi cleared his throat, gently. She stopped herself from gasping, having entirely forgotten he was there.

"You live in the same building as Sasuke, right? Is it alright if I walk with you? I have something I need to drop off to him."

Sakura nodded numbly, shoving her planner into her backpack and standing unsteadily. She tried to ignore the insinuation that he had asked where she lived, that he had thought about her outside their one interaction. Sakura waved a quick goodbye to Deidara, who flashed her a brilliant smile, and she started her trek home. Stepping outside, she was grateful the day was staring to cool down, even marginally. She had drank all her water and wasn't keen on trying not to pass out from heat stroke in front of Uchiha Itachi.

"How'd the first day go?" Itachi asked as they started walking. His hands were tucked into his jeans' pockets, and he walked easily, lightly almost but surely. After failing at coming up with different synonyms for how he walked, she realized he was actually waiting for an answer.

"Oh, um, good. I think," she stammered, cheeks flushing. "I have Tsunade for chemistry so we'll see how that goes."

Itachi let out a low whistle.

"I knew someone my first year who had her class. It was brutal. I think they were close to being hospitalized during finals," he admitted. He ran a hand through his stupidly perfect hair, a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. Sakura swallowed, forcing herself to turn and not think about his mouth.

"Yeah, she has that reputation," Sakura muttered. Her stomach churned at the thought of the amount of work she would be given. The image of the six page syllabus was burned into her brain, haunting her.

"Good luck," Itachi said. It was genuine, accompanied with a gentle yet real smile and Sakura couldn't help but smile back.

"Thank you," she replied simply.

Their walk was quiet and uneventful, save for their hands bumping together and Sakura awkwardly stuttering about a million apologies. She was gratified to see the tips of Itachi's ears were pink, at least, as he struggled to assure her it was fine.

When they got to her building, she started up the stairs, praying she wouldn't start panting halfway up. They got to the second floor no problem, Sakura sweating minimally and uttering a thousand silent thanks for it.

"Sasuke's is the fourth door down to the left," she informed him, using an arm to point. "I'm a floor above so this is where I leave you."

"Thank you," Itachi answered distractedly. He started down the hall, turning to wave at her.

"I'll see you next week," he called.

Her brow furrowed in confusion and he mimed painting. She laughed suddenly, surprised by the sound even as it escaped her. Art Club. Of course.

"See you," she replied, giving him a small wave and even smaller smile in return.

She started up the rest of the stairs to her floor, feeling somehow lighter than before.

Ino had always had a certain penchant for drama and gossip. Even so, Sakura was unprepared for the rather intense interest Ino attached to her dealings with the elder Uchiha.

"Think about it Sakura!" Ino cried, arms waving emphatically over her head. She was on the floor in front of the couch, the bottle of sake resting on the table. Sakura regarded her from the couch, legs tucked beneath her, waiting patiently for Ino's next stroke of genius. Her cheeks were rosy, probably having to do with the sake she had downed, a precious commodity swiped from her father's liquor cabinet.

"Why would he keep going to Art Club if he isn't even interested in drawing? He's not one to be self-absorbed with his looks, so he can't be constantly modeling. He can't draw, he's busy but still makes time for a useless club," Ino listed the rationale, ticking them off on her fingers as she went. Her voice grew louder with each point, teal eyes wide.

"He's interested in you!" Ino finally concluded with a wave of her hand. "That's gotta be it."

Sakura was shaking her head before Ino even finished her sentence.

"No way, Ino-pig, you're blowing this completely out of proportion," she argued, throwing back another shot of the sake.

"For all we know, it could just be a favor to Deidara or something. Chances are after next week, he'll stop coming," she reasoned. She was sure her words were a little slurred but she didn't care. Itachi had left her shaken and her classes had left her stressed to the point of tears. She avoided her mother's phone calls, choosing instead to drink with Ino and rant. Somehow, the conversation had taken a rather unexpected left turn and Sakura tried desperately to veer it back on track.

"Tsunade is a devil lady," Sakura growled into her cup. Ino burst out laughing.

"Does she have horns?" Ino asked with a hiccup.

Sakura laughed at the image.

"No, but she should," she replied grandly, arms outstretched. "She should be queen of the demons!"

Her declaration was met with peals of laughter from Ino. Sakura giggled with her, both of them starting at a knock at the door.

"Who is that?" Sakura mumbled, staggering to the door. Nothing like standing to make her realize just how drunk she was.

Peering out the small hole, she recognized Naruto and Sasuke, both looking absolutely murderous. Sakura sighed. Those two would really kill her one day.

After some fumbling, she managed to open the door, waving them in quickly.

"Come, come," she slurred. "Join our future failures club."

"Not the right name," Ino frowned. Sakura just blinked at her.

"The hell is the right name then?"

"You're drunk," Sasuke stated bluntly. Naruto looked on the verge of just about dying from laughter.

"Yes, and you're observant Sasuke-kun," Sakura answered petulantly, drawing out the last part of his abhorred nickname. She enjoyed the way his lips twisted into an expression of disdain, his eyes narrowing.

Naruto sat beside Ino, helping himself to the sake. Sakura sat as well, gesturing to Sasuke to join them. She took another drink, enjoying the burning that made its way through her stomach, right down to her toes. She relished in the fuzziness, in the way her problems seemed so far away just then. What were essays and tests? Who was Tsunade? What did it matter?

She could understand how alcohol made people want to throw their lives away. She wanted to throw her life away. What life was it, anyway?

"A good one," Sasuke said bluntly. Sakura realized belatedly she had said something out loud, though she wasn't sure exactly. Ino lay down, stretching out on the floor and moaning.

"Please, don't give me an existential crisis," she whined. "I'm too drunk for this."

"I'm just saying. You're in school, you have a future, you have a good life," Sasuke defended himself, swiping the bottle to take a drink himself.

Sakura regarded her mug, frowning, inhaling the smell of alcohol and Ino's perfume.

"Bullshit," she finally muttered.

"What?"

"I said," she repeated, enunciating the words clearly. "That's bullshit."

She was met with two blank stares and one confused one in Naruto's case. She continued, grabbing the bottle from Sasuke as she did.

"Achievements don't constitute a good life," she clarified.

"What does?" Sasuke challenged. She snorted, waving her hand in his direction.

"Depends on you," she replied.

"Cop out," Ino sniffed. Sakura glared at her, drinking more. It was growing harder to focus and she struggled to keep talking somewhat coherently.

"It does," she argued. "Think about it. For us, living a good life might be going to college and getting a good job and getting married. For others, it's about having kids. Or traveling the world. Or helping people, I don't know, normal shit you know?"

She never cursed unless she was drunk, and she was definitely drunk. Nonetheless, she plowed forward, enjoying the full attention her friends were giving her.

"But it's not always about achievements or what have you. You need," she floundered for a word helplessly, arms waving emphatically.

"Substance," she finally called out, smiling at her triumph. "Trophies and medals aren't substantial."

"What is?" Naruto asked, face beginning to color as the alcohol settled in.

Sakura took a moment to consider his question, pouring herself another drink as she did so, avoiding Sasuke's dirty look that clearly told her she'd drank enough.

"Tell me when you figure it out," she finally said, swirling the liquid in her cup. Suddenly, she didn't fell much like drinking.

"Because I have no clue."

#yanna speaks #text #naruto #my writing #itasaku #fanfic #concrete flower #chapter 2 #pls let me know what you think!!

8 notes · View notes