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iwadori · 3 years

Note

Hiiii!!!! can you do like when you guys are supposed to meet up and they waited for about an hour or so and kept texting you you but you haven't replied so they thought you ditched them and got mad at you and stuff then they decided to go home and while on their way home not too far from their school they found you unconscious body with a large wound on you back and your head bleeding?.

can you pleaseease do tsukishima, yamaguchi, ushijima, bokuto (I'm sorry if that's a lot)

Haikyu Boys when you get hurt Pt 2 (Ushijima,Bokuto

Part One Part Two Part Three

Word count: 2.6K

Genre: angst, fluff

masterlist

Ushijima

You were having the worst week this week, from battling a cold and your boss making you do all sorts of extra jobs (that were definitely not under your job description.) As easter was swiftly approaching you and Ushijima had your annual plans of going to the local kids community center and helping them with an easter egg hunt. But you don’t think you can manage it this year.

Ushijima gets home from practice with 4 bags just filled with easter eggs ranging from all different sizes, “woah there Toshi, you’ve got enough there too feed all of england” you laugh

“I don’t think these eggs will be able to sustain England Y/N” he says seriously making you laugh even harder. As you were laughing, you felt another migraine come along making your cringe in pain. “Toshi, I don’t think I can do the easter egg hunt this year?”

He sits down next to you alarmed that something is wrong, “why what happened Y/N” he asks

“I’ve been feeling terrible all week, and I even have a migraine right now” you say to him thinking he would understand.

“That’s it?” he questions thinking what you said was a joke “I think you can handle a migraine, remember we’re doing this for the kids”

His words were making you feel slightly guilty since maybe you were being over dramatic. “Y/N if it’s really ‘that bad’, i’ll make you some tea so you can feel better,” he says going into the kitchen to start on your tea. You murmur a quiet “thank you” and you end up falling asleep, hoping that by the time you wake up your head stops pounding.

As you wake up, you realise you slept all the way through the night and over to the next day as when you look at your clock it says 12:32 pm. You look at your nightstand and saw that Ushijima wrote you a note saying:

Y/N I've left out early to set out the easter egg hunt, I’ve made you breakfast so eat up and get prepared for the event which starts at 4pm. Please don’t forget.

Sincerely – Ushijima Wakatoshi.

You chuckle at the fondness of the note, before realising your pain. Your brain felt like it was having a live concert inside that definitely was not going to end soon but you still got up prepared for the day. You didn’t want to let Ushijima or the kids down.

When you go to the kitchen , you see the cute breakfast that Ushijima made you consisting of all of your favourite foods and with another simple note of him saying ‘ I love you. ‘ Ushijima has always been a lovely boyfriend, treating you like the queen you are always making sure that you were okay. Of course, his bluntness and his lack of social cues was something to get used to but when you did get accustomed to it, it only made you fall in love with him more.

You got ready, feeling even more sick as the piping hot shower that you usual have, did not help as when you were showering you felt heavily faint. However, you persevered since you did not want to let Ushijima down.

You finally were prepared to leave the house, with the community center being on 15 minutes walk away you were leaving out at 3:50pm since you were planning to take your car anyways. When you leave your home, you realise that you forgot your car keys so you dash up the stairs (a bit too quickly) to go and find them. Scrambling through your draws, your head is pounding harder and harder and the more it pounds the quicker your moving making you even more faint. You eventually find your keys and you’re ready to zoom to the community center but your body gave out and you pass out tumbling down the stairs landing at your front door.

Ushijima was waiting outside of the community center waiting for you to arrive it was 4:05pm and he was wondering where you were (knowing that your place was only a 10 minute drive away) he sent you a few texts asking where you were but when you don’t respond Ushijima becomes slightly annoyed, plastering a fake smile on his face and entering the community center, starting the easter egg hunt.

The easter egg hunt came to a close at 8pm and Ushijima assumed that you would’ve showed up some time in the middle of the event, but you obviously didn’t show. After making sure that all the kids left safely Ushijima decided to call and text you more and when you continuously don’t respond and your calls go to voicemail he says ‘Y/N, im really disappointed with you right now. How could you do this to me? You said you would show up, the kids were really upset, how could you be so selfish?’

He walks to your house knocking on the door, but when you don’t immediately answer he knew something must be up now, since you haven’t responded to any of his texts and calls and didn’t show up he figured there was something deeper then you just ditching the event.

He used his key to open the door, surprised when the door hit something. He tried again hitting the ‘object’ that was laying at the door again. He carefully pushes the door to make enough room for him to fit through the gap. When he entered, he was startled at the sight of you, there you lay completely knocked out with a blood stain next to your head. He knelt down next to you and touched your cheek you were extremely cold, he had to get you to a hospital stat. He called an ambulance, panicked. Worrying about how long you’ve been out for since it would have to be atleast more than 4 hours he assumed.

You woke up in a foreign room, with your head slightly stinging. You place your hand on the back of your head and wince, then you remember you need to be at the easter egg hunt so you bolt up ready to move.

“I don’t think that’s wise for you to do that Y/N” Ushijima says to you

“Toshi, what happened?” you ask still in pain

“It seems you fell down the stairs and hit your head” after he said that all your memories come flooding back, and you remember rushing to the community centre, looking for your keys, and then falling down the stairs and everything going black.

“I’m sorry Ushi for missing the easter egg hunt, I really tried to get there,” you say with an apologetic look on your face

“It’s fine Y/N of course you wouldn’t of been able to get there after falling down the stairs” he says “Also, this is proof of why you shouldn’t run down the stairs”

You eventually get discharged with the doctor telling you all you need to do is rest and stay off your feet. Ushijima took the doctor's orders very seriously, becoming your loyal servant and waiting on you hand and foot, tending to your every need. He did also make you were eating healthy and taking all your medicine so you could have the best recovery possible.

Also, after realising that this could’ve all been avoided if Ushijima didn’t guilt trip you in the first place for having a migraine, he made sure to never ignore or dismiss when you say you are ill or have anything wrong with you even if it’s a migraine, a lost limb or a simple paper cut.

Bokuto

The Olympics were coming up and Bokuto couldn’t be any more excited than he already was. Everything he’s talked about for the past month he manages to find a way to relate to the Olympics, and as annoying as it got sometimes you were just as excited for it as much as Bokuto was.

Bokuto was heavily busy with extra practices so you were bored and lonely, since your boyfriend was at practice all the time so you chose to take up a new hobby. You decided to paint, although you weren’t an award-winning painter you still found joy in it. Being Bokuto’s girlfriend you had some slight unwanted attention on you: the usual fans of Bokuto that just followed you to have an extra aspect of him in their life's, or his fangirls that adored him.

You didn’t mind the fangirls for the most part since majority of them were pretty tamed and did fawn over your relationship. However, there was the minority of fans that did make it known to you that they DID NOT like you at all. When you started posting your paintings, it seems their hate for you amplified since they always found the need to leave an astray of mean comments on your post. But that didn’t mainly bother you since you thought that they only had that energy behind the screen.

The days went by getting closer to the Olympics, with Bokuto always asking you every day “Y/N you are coming to my games, right?” to which you always replied “Of course Kou, I’m coming” which always made him smile.

When the Olympics came, you’ve went to all the games cheering Bokuto and the team on as they were winning round after round. Whilst this was going on, the group of girls that were sending you horrible messages and making mean posts about you weren’t stopping. At first, you didn’t care for them but it seems their posts only gotten worse making comments about your artwork, your face, your body type ect.

You didn’t want to tell Bokuto as you felt that it would ruin his Olympic momentum and you thought you could handle it all on your own.

It was nearing to the final game of the Olympics, and Bokuto was ecstatic he made sure that you promised you’d be there claiming that you was his ‘good luck’ charm.’ You were excited to go too, the feeling of watching Bokuto play was exhilarating seeing him fully in his element was great for you to see.

On the last game day, Boktuo was already at the stadium since him and the team had to be there earlier to practice and you planned to meet him there just before the game started at 4:30. You went to a florist before the match getting Bokuto the biggest boquet that you could buy.

On your way to the stadium you here somebody whistle from behind you, you turn around and see a group of girls waiting behind you smirking. “Hi?” you say more like a question then a statement “do you want something from me?”

Some of them laugh, but the one standing at the front who you mentally lable the ‘main one’ steps closer to you and says “We want you to stay away from Bokuto” you realise that these were the girls sending you hate online for these past weeks.

Before you can even blink, the girls jump you, hitting, kicking and clawing at you. You are in pain, screaming and crying for them to stop and leave you alone. You lay there, letting them beat you up thinking that you’ll probably end up dead out of this. All you can think about is Bokuto, you didn’t get to wish him good luck, or give him your flowers (that you spent a fortune on) or even tell him that you loved him one last time.

You think the girls eventually stopped but you couldn’t tell because your body was throbbing and you hurt all over. You tried to get up still wanting to go to the match but you collapse going out cold.

Bokuto was scanning the crowd over and over for you, hoping to spot you there. But he couldn’t, he was wondering where you were getting sadder and sadder by the second since he really believed you were his good luck charm and he probably wouldn’t be able to win without at least seeing your face once.

They didn’t win. Bokuto knew he wasn’t playing at his best, since all his mind was on was thinking about where you were. You’ve never missed one of his games, so he was incredibly worried. After he accepted his second-place medal, he rushed out the stadium to go to your house but he was stopped by some fangirls ‘I guess signing autographs is the least I can do’ he thinks, the fans were being a bit odd today but he didn’t have time to focus on that as his mind was racing thinking about you and your whereabouts.

One of his fans did give him an alarmingly big boquet of roses which he appreciated ‘these must of cost a fortune’ he thinks. Although it was a probably a long shot, he decided to ask the fan if he saw someone who looked like *whatever you look like* to maybe see if someone else saw you. Which the fan replied “yeah I saw them with some guy at this restaurant whilst we were going to see you!” they exclaimed.

‘A guy’ he thought ‘that most likely wasn’t you.’ Seeing Bokuto’s confusion, the fan followed up with “I'm pretty sure it was her I mean we all know who Bokuto Koutaro’s girlfriend was.” Bokuto didn’t reply just walking away making sure to thank them for the flowers.

He was rushing towards your house on foot (since all the taxi’s and ubers were fully booked because of the Olympics) whilst running he stumbles across your passed out body all black and bruised with scratch marks and bleeding all over you. “what happened” he whispered, knowing you obviously weren’t going to respond.

He picked up your near-dead body, and cradled you in his arms taking you back to the stadium (since he knew that getting an ambulance to come here or running to the hospital would basically be impossible.) When he got back to the stadium, he did get odd looks from strangers but he didn’t care, his only agenda was making sure you were okay.

You woke up, and saw Bokuto pacing the room repeatedly you tried to get his attention by saying his name but your throat was damaged. He eventually notices you and runs to your side, stroking your face softly and giving you a gentle hug making sure not to hurt you.

“Who did this Y/N?” he asks with worry in his eyes

You ignore his question and look at the silver medal wrapped around his neck making you sad “I’m sorry I didn’t make it to the match, I tried I really did try” you said with your voice sounding even worse after you said every word.

“Don’t be silly, I’m just glad that you’re okay babe, I was really worried about you.” he said

The Medic came in and said that you had multiple broken ribs, but beside that you were fine you just needed to rest your throat and let your bruises heal. You eventually told Bokuto that it was some of his fans, he was upset that you hid this from him for so long but he was just glad that he got to you as soon as he did. He managed to play at the next Olympics and you were there fully present, with your even bigger boquet of flowers watching win gold.

Authors Note: I tried to make it as close to your request as possible, but I hope you enjoy as I really do think this is my favourite work so far.... :3 Comments and feedback appreciated.

#haikyuu x reader comfort #haikyu scenarios #haikyu #haikyu angst #haikyu fluff #haikyu headcanons #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu-fluff #haikyu x reader #ushijima imagine #ushijima oneshot #ushijima angst #ushijima x reader #bokuto x reader #bokuto angst #koutarou x reader #bokuto scenarios #signedwithane😌

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sunflowerfromthefog · 4 years

Text

The Trouble with Vaulting Pt 2

Description: Frank learned a thing or two from the Entity, and he likes to share these perks with his friends.

WARNINGS: rape/non-con, violence, little bit of blood, Frank is once again a great big jerk

You can also find my writing on AO3!

A/N: I’m sorry I totally forgot I had made a Tumblr for my DBD stuff. Anyway, I don’t think I posted this one or the clown one here yet so here you go!

You couldn’t find a single soul in all of the wrecking yard. You’d searched the area, found the generators you needed to power, spotted the exit gates, destroyed a totem, but no people. Unfortunately, you’d spotted Joey, a friend of Frank’s that seemed just as perplexed as you about the lack of humans in the trial. He’d stood on top of a hill and spun in circles for a good five minutes trying to find someone, but for some reason the entity left you two alone. In a way you were happy for it; maybe it would be a little easier to avoid him if you didn’t have to rush around trying to save others. You were good at hiding after Nea and Meg showed you how to stay low to the ground and silent as you jumped over anything. Still, as you worked on a generator you felt a chill along your spine. Glancing over your shoulder you spotted Joey heading right in your direction. You sped off, dashing around a corner and going to leap silently over a window when suddenly you were stopped. The very same black claws that had stopped you in a previous trial grabbed around your waist again and locked you in place “Damn it,” you swore. You wiggled as hard as possible, but it did nothing. Kicking and pounding your fists you let out a scream. “What the fuck!” A leaf crunched beneath a heavy foot. You flinched, slowly raising your eyes to look at Joey’s half-skull mask. His head tilted to the left as he twirled his blade in his right hand. At least this member of Legion didn’t have an obsession with you like their leader did, but you still didn’t like how he was staring down at you. It wasn’t until he looked to his left that you realized he was waiting on something...someone. “Heya, doll,” a familiar voice sang. The skirt of your dress flipped up and you felt two warm hands grab your hips before one slapped your cheek. “Oh, same panties? Dirty girl. Doesn’t the entity give you a change of clothes once in a while? I’d really like to see you in that little red number the one chick’s got. Mmm, tearing that apart would be fun.” You struggled to look over your shoulder, finding another smiling mask. “What?” you questioned. Two killers in the trial? That never happened. That wasn’t possible! “How the hell--” “Lotta questions, eh, Joey,” Frank said. Joey nodded. “Let’s just say...I learned a thing or two from my time in the fog and well, Joey just thinks you’re really cute. And I don’t mind sharing.” Your heart leapt into your throat. No, this couldn’t be happening again. You began to hyperventilate as you kicked at Frank, swung your fists at Joey and warn them to stay away. “Aw, come on baby,” Frank chided, “you had so much fun last time. Don’t you remember begging me?” He began to grin his clothed crotch against your ass. In front of you, Joey continued to twirl his knife. Despite yourself you felt a small spark in your core. Damn it, why did the warmth of another have to be so tempting? Even when it’s a killer. “You remember begging me don’t you?” Frank asked again, his voice lower. A zipper in front of you drew your attention, Joey’s black jeans directly in front of your face. He undid the button and pulled out a very dark, throbbing cock, pressing it against your closed mouth. You pressed your lips together as tightly as possible, but all it did was force your assailant to grip your hair and force your head upright. He held the knife towards your face but you didn’t dare open your mouth. Instead you glared at him. A thrust from Frank pushed you into the blade and cut your cheek lightly. Joey pulled it down and slid it between your lips, nearly bringing it to the corner of your mouth for a cut. “Hey, hey,” Frank said, stopping the man. “Easy with the merchandise--I like blood but not--you know--blood.” Your breaths were coming out quick through your nose, still defiant. Joey pulled the knife away and stabbed it between the metal beside you. “I’ll give you a hand,” Frank said with a fake sigh. “Just like old times, eh?” Joey shrugged and nodded, giving his member a stroke. It was longer than Frank’s, thicker too. Frank took his knife and tore through your dress, from the bottom of the skirt to the tag at your neck. You were about to tell him to stop but instead clenched your teeth. Joey was ready for any opening--literally. Pushing the fabric aside, Frank then cut off your panties, leaving you completely naked before the men. You covered your mouth with one hand when you felt the black claws of the entity moving. The tickled along your middle, gripping at your sides and shoulders and hips until you were shifting as it wanted. It turned you around, placing you on your back and grabbing at your wrists, locking them to the window. Despite your best attempts, you screamed, “No! This isn’t--” Joey took the opportunity to grab the sides of your face and shove his dick into your mouth. Your lips stretched painfully as you felt him reach the back of your throat and further. You gagged as he pulled back, only to push back in a little further. You did your best to relax your throat and just as you were about to bite down on the bastard there were fingers inside your cunt. “I like playing with you,” Frank said, “and my mom always said I should learn to share my toys. But if you think of hurting my dear friend here, well, I can’t guarantee what might happen to your friends.” You stilled, the salty taste of precum flowing across your tongue as Joey slowed his pace. He was gentler now, rolling his hips along to make sure you felt everything. “Yeah,” Frank whispered. You couldn’t see him but you could tell his mask was off; his voice no longer muffled. Joey gave a deep thrust, his balls hitting your forehead. He stayed there a moment, his grip getting tighter on your face. One hand moved to your throat and gave a squeeze, making him shudder. He must have liked the feel of your throat tightening even more. “Give her a second,” Frank ordered. Joey listened and pulled out, leaving you a sputtering, gasping mess. Joey gave himself another stroke with one hand and began to grope your breasts with the other. He rolled your nipples between two fingers roughly, holding them too tight and making your body tense. Your thighs held around Frank’s hips, and it was only then you noticed his own cock was out and resting against your lower lips. “It’s fun when you struggle, but it’s also fun when you’re compliant,” Frank said. He gave you a grin, clearly loving the sneer you shot at him. “Be a good girl, and we won’t do the same to your friends next time we see them.” Your breath froze in your chest. Did he...had they done this to the others before? “Mhmm,” Frank hummed. His fingers drummed along your stomach, sliding down your thighs and pushing your knees towards your chest. Joey hooked a thumb in your lips, pulling your attention towards him. Frank continued, “I mean, you’ll always be my favourite, but you can’t always go for the same thing at the buffet, right? Well, I will. If you’re good for daddy.” Joey tugged at your lips, bringing his head to the tip of your lips but not forcing himself in. “You going to be good for daddy?” Frank asked. His tone was sickly sweet. You didn’t want to, obviously. But the idea of this happening to Claudette, Meg, Kate, any of the other survivors made your gut churn. So you nodded. “Then suck that dick, girl,” Frank ordered. You gulped as well as you could with Joey’s thumb still hooked in your cheek. You stuck your tongue out and he was more than happy to close the distance. He slipped into your mouth until his pubic hair tickled your chin, sliding back and forth with small grunts. “Yeah, that’s just perfect.” Frank lined himself up with your entrance and pressed in with one thrust. No preparation like before, nothing. He shoved himself in and made your walls burn, forcing a scream from your lungs and into your throat. The vibration caused a loud grunt from Joey, who pulled back squeezed down on your throat. He stroked himself through his orgasm and shot it into your mouth, ensuring your tongue and lips were coated with his seed. With his hand around your throat you couldn’t spit him out or even swallow to get rid of the bitter salty taste. After a few seconds he seemed spent, his dick softening before your eyes. He finally let go of your throat and just as you went to spit his cum out of you another hand covered your mouth. Frank’s hand. “Swallow, baby, swallow. Don’t waste any of that!” You were still sputtering in an attempt to breathe, but obeyed. Frank was still fully sheathed inside of you, and you would never admit that you wanted him to move. The pain you felt was nothing compared to the desire to have this over with...and maybe get yourself off in the process. Swallowing what was left in your mouth, Frank finally released you and placed his hands on your legs. He pushed your knees further up until they nearly touched your breasts, giving him ample access to push hard into you. “Hey, hold these,” Frank said to Joey. Joey did as he was told and grabbed behind your knees, keeping them wide open. His mask was staring down at your breasts, clearly enjoying the way they bounced with each of Frank’s thrusts. Soon enough Frank began to rub your clit with a light touch. He started to press harder and harder, giving your painful burn a delicious pleasure. Your walls started to clench, no longer desperate to push him out and instead rubbing along his shaft searching your own release. “Ah,” you breathed as Frank pressed his palm to your sensitive nub. “Ngg.” Joey’s head tilted to look at your face and you desperately wanted to cover it. Your arms tensed against your restraints, trapped at your sides. There was nothing you could do to hide the fact that you were getting hot and bothered by your own abuse. So you closed your eyes, pants coming faster and faster to match Frank’s. “What’d I tell ya, Joey?” Frank asked, his hands finding both your breaths and pinching hard. “She loves getting fucked. Loves getting raped.” He laughed loudly. “N-No,” you argued. It did little to prove him wrong. “I-I don’t. I don’t want this or any of th--” Without Frank rubbing your clit your high started to drift away. You moaned in despair--why did he have to drag these out? “Good girls that obey their daddy’s would always agree with them,” Frank told her. Joey pulled your knees harder, making you squeak. “Maybe we’ll have to see if one of the other survivors are good girls…?” You pursed your lips. “I…” “Yes baby? What do you like? Tell daddy.” All through his his thrusts were going from fast to slow to fast again. He leaned down and took one of your nipples into his mouth, sucking on it. Your back tried to arch but barely moved against the entity’s hold. “Fuck,” you groaned. Could you really say it? What he wanted… “I...I like it when you fuck me.” “And?” “Sh-share me…” Don’t make me say it, you prayed, please… “And?” “I like it when you rape me,” you whispered. “Louder!” Frank shouted. He straightened and started to pound into you, furiously rubbing your clit with two fingers. You shrieked at the change of pace. The fierce power Frank was putting into fucking you made you want it to stop. It didn’t feel good anymore, though that rubber band in your core was still ready to snap. “Say it!” Frank ordered. “I like it when you rape me!” you screamed. Tears streamed down your temples as you wailed, your orgasm ripping through your while Frank laughed. The electricity shooting through your body, tingling your fingertips and forcing your body to practically convulse in an attempt to move, made your mind numb. Frank continued to taunt you through your orgasm, but soon his own came across him and he pressed as deeply into you as possible to spread his seed. His hips shook with yours, hands holding you there as if you could escape if you really wanted. When your breathing began to slow you swallowed audibly, and Joey released your legs. They fell on either side of Frank, his dick softening inside of you. “What do we say when we get a gift?” Frank asked. “Th-Thank you,” you mumbled. You turned your head away, eyes closed as he pulled out of you and you felt what he left dripping from you. “Thank you.” You heard fabric rustling as Frank put himself back into his pants, and then a sudden heat back beneath your thighs. You opened your eyes, finding Joey’s mask at your lower lips. “What are you doing?” you questioned. “He recovers quick,” Frank behind his friend. He shrugged. Joey had your thighs over his shoulders, and as he dragged his mask from your clit, up your stomach, and nuzzled your breasts you felt his cock against your entrance. With one hand he lined himself up, and then lifted your legs as he slowly slid in. “Nnnn...no,” you mumbled. “No!” “Hey!” Frank said. “That’s not being a good girl.” He leaned against the edge of the window. “I don’t think I’ll let you come this time.” Despite what Frank left in you, and your own juices, you still felt a burn from Joey’s intrusion. He didn’t care for your pleasure as Frank pretended, and used you as if you were a doll. Each thrust gave you a pang as his head reached your cervix. You started to cry and struggle harder. “Hey, remember to pull out,” Frank said, giving Joey a tap on the arm. Joey growled something but when you felt his dick twitching he did what he was told. He pulled out and stroked himself to completion as he had before, spraying onto your stomach and chest. Long thick threads of white decorated your body, both of the men laughing. Frank came around to run his hands through your hair. “Now what do we say?” He played idly with one of your breasts. Weakly, you replied, “Thank you.”

#frank Morrison x reader #frank morrison smut #the legion x reader #the legion smut #legion joey x reader #legion joey smut #dead by daylight x reader #dead by daylight smut

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watchmegetobsessed · 4 years

Text

Different - Adam Sackler (pt. 3)

thank you soooo much for all the love and support you’ve been showing to this series, this means so much to me! this series has been pretty dear to my heart so I’m happy that so many of you like it! this part is a little shorter than the previous ones, but for the sake of the plot this is where I had to cut it. given the fact how fast I’m writing the story, I’ll probably stick to the daily posting, and there will be approximately 5 parts all together, meaning 2 more until the end! as always, feedback is very much appreciated!

series summary: Hannah lets you move in with her and Adam as you are her second cousin and in need of a place to live. Your relationship with Adam starts rocky, but things soon seem to be taking a turn.

pairing: Adam Sackler x Reader

word count: 3.3k

PART 1 - PART 2

masterlist

It’s been hard on Adam as well and he has been struggling just as hard as you. The past couple of weeks has left him with a lot of emotions and he has been working on sorting them out, but it’s a situation he hasn’t faced just yet. Following Hannah’s departure Adam definitely had fears, but it took some time for him to realize they weren’t about her, but more about you. Living with you alone, with no third person scared him, because he has already been having inappropriate thoughts about you before and now that Hannah was away, he felt like he had one less thing to keep him in his place.

He knows it’s not okay to watch you do your everyday things and think about how much he loves to just look at you, that catching himself thinking about you several times a day is not what he should be doing and that the endless jealousy he felt when he found out that you are going on a date scared him more than almost anything in life. When you told him the truth that’s hard to accept for the both of you, he kind of realized you were right, but when he lied in his bed that night, sleepless from his racing thoughts, he still couldn’t make himself believe it’s best if he keeps himself away from you. He has tried that already and it ended with him sleeping in your bed after that night you got drunk. There is just something in you that keeps pulling him in and he can do nothing against it. And slowly, he realizes he doesn’t want to do anything. He is tired of fighting with himself.

He wants to know where this could lead, he just doesn’t know how to figure it out in a way that doesn’t hurt anyone.

A few days later Tyler asks you out on a second date to which you say yes and because of everything that went down you don’t tell Adam. Hannah is set to come back for the weekend exactly when you are going to go out with him again so you think it’s the perfect timing.

The week goes by pretty uneventfully. You and Adam hang out on evenings, usually having dinner together when he gets home in time from work, but when he doesn’t, you’re still up when he arrives so you just watch TV together for a while before you feel like you can’t keep your eyes open any longer. He is nice, chatty, seems to be okay with where you two are heading and it brings you a little peace too, knowing that you might have finally found balance.

Coming home from work that Friday, when you walk into the apartment Hannah greets you with a scream.

“Hey!” she throws herself on you and you barely catch her keeping your balance.

“You’re back!” you chuckle hugging her.

“Yeah, just got here like twenty minutes ago. How are you?”

“I’m good! Everything is fine.”

As you reply Adam walks out of their bedroom and joins the three of you, kissing the top of Hannah’s head and a rush of jealousy washes over you by this small gesture. It’s been quite long since you saw them together and almost forgot the fact that they are really a couple.

“How was living with Adam without me? Did he drive you crazy?” she asks grinning, glancing up at Adam and you notice the anxious look in his eyes that he tries to cover with a warm smile.

Did he drive you crazy? Kind of, and you guess he knows the answer too, he is just scared what you might tell Hannah, but you are not a petty person.

“No, he was alright,” you exhale smiling.

“Good, I’m glad you two got along well,” she nods as you and Adam look at each other and chills run down your spine from the look he gives you before turning back to Hannah. “We are having dinner at that new place a few corners from here, you wanna join us?”

“I’m sure you’d rather be alone.”

“No, I want you to come! This is my time for everyone here, not for just Adam. We’ll have the rest of the weekend together.” “Yeah, but…” you sigh, not wanting to go into the details why you don’t want to go, but she forces it out of you.

“What, do you have a date or something?”

“I…”

“You do!” she gasps. “Who’s the guy? Oh my God Y/N, that’s amazing!”

“Is this the Tyler guy again?” Adam sternly asks and looking at him you can’t really decide what his expression means.

“Yeah.”

“Wait, you’ve met him already? So it’s not the first date?”

“No, we had one already.”

“Is he taking you to dinner?”

“No, he said we are going to this art gallery opening.” “Okay, then you can have an early dinner with us, tell us everything about him and then meet him, this is just perfect!”

“I think she doesn’t want to share the details, Hannah,” Adam chimes in, trying to hold his girlfriend back, but she is just too stubborn and you both know that.

“I demand to be told about it! Go, get ready, we are leaving in thirty,” she urges you and you just know you can’t say no to her.

An hour later the three of you are sitting at a small table in this restaurant that you just can’t tell if it’s Italian or Japanese, but you let this detail slip.

“So, let’s hear everything! How did you meet him, what is he like, is he treating you right?” Hannah seems excited to hear all about Tyler, but she is probably the only one feeling that way at the table.

“Maybe not everything,” Adam mumbles, his eyes focused on the menu even though you’ve already ordered. Hannah dismisses his comment.

“Um, we work at the same place, he is on HR. He is nice, I guess,” you shrug, feeling nervous to talk about it all, especially with Adam sitting right in front of you.

“Is he cute?”

“He… is.”

“Has he kissed you? Or have you already slept with him?”

“Hannah,” Adam growls and she looks at him confused as you try not to choke on your own saliva by her blunt questions.

“What?” she growls turning to Adam. “Out of the three of us you are the least prude person, so what is your problem?”

“We are in a fucking… restaurant. Have some morals,” he quietly tells her, but she just rolls her eyes at him before turning back to you.

“Um, nothing has happened yet,” you say and your eyes meet Adams. You wish you could read his thoughts right at that moment, because there is something in his eyes, but you just can’t tell what it is.

“Oh, he is moving slow, how romantic,” she smiles to herself as you just awkwardly nod. You don’t share the detail that he has tried to kiss you last time, you just ducked and his lips ended up on your cheeks. You were really not into getting physical so fast and luckily he seemed to understand and accept your decision.

“So, how is Iowa?” you ask with the pure intention of diverting the attention away from you to her. You watch her face drop a little, but then her smile is back a moment later.

“Oh, it’s nice. I don’t have many classes, so I have tons of time to write.”

“That’s nice! I’m glad you are enjoying your time.”

“Yeah!” she nods, but you feel like it’s not genuine.

The rest of the dinner is just as awkward as the beginning was. You hate sitting there and watching Hannah and Adam be affectionate with each other. This is a whole new level of third-wheeling, because when they kiss at one point, you catch Adam’s eyes on you and it makes you want to scream. The intensity of the moment is just throwing you over the edge, you hate this, you hate seeing them together and you just don’t understand. It’s not like a new thing, you literally lived together for months before she left, what’s so different now?

You can’t wait for the moment it’s time for you to leave and when it finally comes you basically flee.

“It’s been great to talk, I hope you’re gonna have a nice evening together!” you say forcing yourself to smile before hugging Hannah goodbye and heading towards the exit.

You’re almost out the door when someone grabs your wrist and turning back you see Adam standing in front of you.

“Wait, I just…”

He struggles to find the right words as you wait for him to finally tell you what he wants.

“Yes, Adam?” you urge him to speak.

“What I told you before the last date still stands.”

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” you furrow your eyebrows at him confused.

“That if you need help, just call me.”

“Thanks, but I’m sure everything is going to be alright. Besides, just enjoy your time with Hannah.”

That second part comes out a little spicier than you intended, you can actually see the change in his eyes, but before he could say anything else you just turn around and walk out.

You take a few minutes to yourself outside in the cold night air. This past few hours has been harder on you than you would actually admit and now the thought of them spending the rest of the evening together just makes you want to cry even though this is the most normal thing to happen on the planet since they are a couple.

You hate this, you really do, because you really thought things are going to get better after what went down recently between you and Adam, but Hannah’s return just made it a hundred times harder and made you feel worse than ever.

When you finally get your shit together you head to the subway because you are already a little late.

No matter how hard you try, you can’t get your mind fully away from Adam and it shows. Tyler is trying his best to make this evening as nice as possible, but you just can’t wait to go home, crawl into bed and cry yourself to sleep probably. The date cuts shorter than last time as you tell him you’d really like to head home when he suggests to go for a walk just like last time.

“Thanks for everything, Tyler,” you smile at him when you arrive to your building.

“I hope you didn’t find it too boring,” he chuckles scratching the back of his neck.

“No! I really liked it, so thank you.”

“Alright…” There is a short pause before he steps closer and he tries to kiss you again.

And you turn away, again.

But this time, the reaction is a little different.

“Okay, this is not cool, Y/N,” he sighs, clearly frustrated by the situation.

“I’m sorry?”

“This is not middle school where you hold hands for six months straight before you let the guy kiss you for the first time.”

“Are you mad because I’m not kissing you? I’m really not feeling well, this is why I would rather not.”

“Why do I feel like you’ll always have an excuse? You know what? Last time I let it slip because I thought you are just a little shy, but this gotta be something else.”

The fact that he is pissed at you for such a nonsense thing is making you mad as well, wanting to just punch him right now.

“Grow up and learn to respect others, Tyler,” you spat at him, but he just scoffs.

“You telling me to grow up is the joke of the month, honestly. Other girls usually ask me to come up at this point and you don’t even let me kiss you, this is just ridiculous!”

“Well I’m not like other girls!” you retort and you are just about to turn around and leave this unbelievable conversation when he grabs your wrist and yanks you back, causing you to almost lose your balance and fall.

“I’m not fucking done with you! You can’t just walk away from me when I’m still talking!” he sneers through his teeth, hand gripping your wrist tightly.

“Let me go, asshole,” you hiss at him trying to free yourself, but he is just too strong and his hold is starting to get really painful, probably already leaving a mark on your skin.

He is just about to say something else when the door to the building flies open and the next thing you know is that someone just throw a punch at Tyler, and he lets go of you to cover his nose that immediately starts bleeding.

“Oh shit,” you gasp, in shock at the sudden events and you turn to see a very angry looking Adam, shaking his hand lightly and he definitely looks like he is ready to kill Tyler any moment.

“You better get the fuck away from here, you fucker, before I break your neck!” he warns him and Tyler stares back in shock, the blood staining his shirt.

For a moment you feel like he is going to hit back, but then he decides it’s better to leave. He mumbles something under his breath before spitting on the pavement right in front of you and then walks away.

“Are you okay?” Adam turns to you, the threatening tone is long gone from his voice, turning soft in just a heartbeat. He cups your face in his hands, checking if you have anything on you, but there’s nothing, just pure shock in your eyes.

“I-I’m alright. It’s just my hand,” you whimper, feeling the tears building up in your eyes as it all crashes at you once. He gently takes your hand, taking a look at it and it’s a deep shade of red and you’re already sure it’s going to bruise by the morning.

“Come on, let’s go back inside,” he softly says wrapping an arm around your shoulders as he pulls you to his side and walks you up to the apartment.

You sit on the couch, sniffing quietly as he gets you an icepack, and you still can’t believe this just happened.

“Here,” he sighs joining you on the couch, handing you the icepack. You mumble a faint thank you as you push it to your skin, hissing at the sudden coldness of it. “Are you sure he didn’t hurt you anywhere else?”

“No, he didn’t have the chance, you arrived in time,” you say with a sad smile.

“What the fuck happened though?” he asks with a grimace, running his fingers through his hair.

“He… got mad at me because I didn’t want to kiss him. He said we are not in middle school and girls usually ask him to go up at this point. Told him I’m not like that and he didn’t take it well.”

“That dickhead!” he curses shaking his head.

“How did you know you had to come down? And where’s Hannah?” The questions start to flow into your mind as you slowly adjust to the happenings around you. The apartment seems quiet, you’re more than sure she is not home.

“She went out with Jessa and Marnie,” he shrugs and you find it odd that she spends her first night out with friends instead of being with Adam, but you don’t say anything about it.

“And my other question?” you ask remembering he never answered the first question.

“Huh?”

“How did you know you had to come down?”

“I uhh… I was just looking out the window and spotted you two. When I saw his annoying ass face turn from a smile into that fucking frown I knew something was about to happen.”

“Were you waiting by the window?” you quietly ask.

“What? No, I wasn’t.”

“So it was all one big coincidence?”

“Yeah,” he nods, but you see right through him and he knows it too. “Okay, fuck it! I was waiting at the window, you happy now?”

“But why?”

“Why? Because I’m one big fucking loser and I wanted to see the fucker you are seeing. I wanted to see how you look at him, if he makes you laugh, if he is what you deserve.”

He exhales sharply, pouring his heart out finally. He has been holding it all back for too long and he just can’t keep himself back anymore.

“I hated the thought of you being with someone, I could barely sit still after you left and when Hannah said she is meeting her friends I just came home and stood at the fucking window like some fucking creep, waiting for you to finally come home.”

You stare at him completely shocked at his sudden confession, not knowing what to do or say, but one thing is for sure; his words are making your heart flip.

“I can’t keep pretending like I’m fine with just being friends with you, because I’m not! And it’s literally the worst feeling ever, and I—“

He doesn’t get to finish, because without really thinking through what you are doing you move forward and press your lips to his, kissing him hard, dropping the icepack from your hand to cup his face in your palms.

It takes him a moment to realize what’s happening, but when he finally does, he doesn’t waste any more seconds. Wrapping his arms around you he pulls you to his lap and you put a knee on each of his sides, pressing up against him while your lips move in sync.

You feel him in every bit of your body, it’s like electricity. You’ve thought about what it would like to kiss him before, but reality is nothing like those ridiculous daydreams. The way he pulls on your bottom lip, how his fingers dive into your hair on the back of your head and feeling his broad shoulders under your palms, it’s just making your mind explode. You want to kiss him every day for the rest of your life, feel his plump lips on yours all the time, the weight of his arms around your body, the way his hair sticks to your forehead upon touching.

It all crashes when you suddenly hear Hannah’s laugh coming from outside and in a blink of an eye you push him away and jump off him, shocked at what you just did. The two of you stare at each other for a moment at a complete loss of words for what just happened, but when you hear Hannah’s key wiggle in the lock you decide it’s time to disappear.

Covering your mouth with your hand you run into your room and shut the door closed just when she walks in. You press your back against it sliding down to the floor and you hear their conversation while you just sit there in utter shock.

“Y/N?” she calls after you. “I wanted to ask how her date went,” she sadly sighs.

“Um, she… It wasn’t the best,” you hear Adam answer and your throat closes up at hearing his voice.

“Really? What did she say?”

“The dude was a dick. I think she just wants to sleep it off,” he cleverly says so Hannah won’t come into your room to interrogate.

You hear him talk about her evening before they move into their bedroom and the voices become too muffled to make out what they are saying. You don’t know how long you sit there on the floor, but after a while you just blankly crawl up to the bed and pulling the covers over your head you pray to wake up with an easier heart, because right now it feels like you are carrying a rock in your chest, thinking about what you just did.

general/forever taglist for Adam Driver

i do separate taglists for different people, but not for different works of mine! if you ask to be on my Adam taglist, you’ll be tagged in all of my Adam fics!

@superdriver @siren-queen03 @holacherrycola90 @spencer-is-amazing @unusual-kindred-spirits @hailthemightywoecloud @holy-kylo-stars @kowalskibro-adamdriverblog @hurricanesunset

if you’d like to be taken off or added to the list, please let me know!

#adam #sackler #driver #adam driver #adam sackler #adam sackler imagine #adams ackler au #adam sackler imagines #adam sackler fanfiction #adams ackler fanfictions #adam sackler fiction #adams ackler story #adam driver imagine #adam driver fanfiction #adam sackler x you #adam sackler x reader #adam sackler x y/n #hbo girls

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the-tragic-hero-and-you · 4 years

Text

Let’s make a secret pt 2

A/N: I’m just being an idiot. Let me have this. Anyways, a little Actor!Mark x Y/N for those of you who likes rats. In this chapter you find out that things got a little out of hand between you and Mark’s drunken shenanigans. more like things got handsy if you know what I mean~.

Story: You and Mark use to be fast friend, but these days you barely talk to him anymore. Now with the Divorce approaching, Damien is worried for his dear friend and sends you to Markiplier Manor to keep him company. Mark doesn’t want to talk about life, preferring to just drink his troubles away with you…

Everything was still black. The only thing that came to your attention was the fading sound of your heart beat, getting louder and louder. Each beat seemed to only contribute to the throbbing headache that seemed to only get worse. Eventually you were able to feel your limbs, the aching and nauseous sensation that was growing all over. You tried to move about, not at all comprehending your surroundings as you rolled to your side, the sickening sensation sitting in your stomach not at all getting any better. You tried to open your eyes, the light seeming to make the headache worse than usual, but it didn’t deter you from your attempts to wake up.Your vision was still a blur, but little by little you could make out where you were at. It wasn’t the room you last recalled being in before blacking out, rather it looked to be like a private room of some sort, complete with a dresser, vanity table and night stand.

'Wait.’

Just then your mind clicked, your ability to comprehend dropped on you all at once as you became fully aware of your surroundings. The hard floor that you passed out on last night as no longer beneath you, instead the surface was a soft mattress that was gentle to the touch, the clothes that covered your body was replaces with a thick blanket and sheets that caressed your skin with each movement.

“Oh no, did we-?!’

Frantically you looked over to the side of the bed, afraid to confirm your suspicious. Your heart was relieve that it didn’t sink into your chest as you found no one sleeping next to you. None the less, you had so many questions at this point, and hopefully the last man you were with last night would remember more than you.

Looking around you spot a blue silk robe that was conveniently hanging off the bed post. Cautiously you slip out of bed, pulling the rob over your body before making your way towards the door. You pause as you heard the door knob suddenly turn, frozen in place as a familiar face casually walks in. He looked just as terrible as you do, but at least he made some attempt in neatening himself out.

“Good, gooood, good, good, you’re awake. You look like shit, but you’re awake.” Mark muttered as he quietly closed the door behind him, possibly having just as terrible of a head ache as you are. It was only then you noticed he had two cups of coffee with him as the Actor made his way towards you, handing you one of the steaming hot mugs while muttering ‘Careful, it’s hot’. Taking the cup from him, you sat yourself back down on the bed, blowing on the piping hot drink before taking a sip. Sugar or not, you needed this.

Mark sits himself down next to you, letting out a long and miserable groan. “You better appreciate this. I haven’t made coffee in a long time and it took me a few tries with this fucking hangover.” He grumbled, truly digging for some form of appreciation. All you did was force a smile and nod before taking another sip. Such a big baby, as always. After a small moment of silence, you figured that now would be a good time to ask about what happened last night, because God knows that your curiosity was far worse than your hang over right now.

“Look, I know you’re probably recollect about the events that unfolded last night.” The actor finally spoke. Well, at least this spared your from bringing up the subject yourself. “I can’t recall much myself either. Hell, you’d think I’d be better with this considering how much drinking I’ve been doing lately. All I remember is things got out of hand, but that’s about it.”

‘This is not reassuring.’

“Anyways” Mark started back up again, “I appreciate you coming over when you did. I really needed a good friend last night, not two faced bastards and fucking morons.” He groaned under his breath, taking a drink for his coffee. You simply nodded with an exhausted smile, still wanting him to think it was your idea and not Damien’s.

oh shit, Damien!

Looking over towards the clock on the wall, your heart skipped a beat when you noticed it was One in the afternoon. Damien was probably an anxious mess from not hearing anything from you just yet. Setting your coffee on the night stand, you indicated that you needed to make a quick call. “Oh, that’s right, I forgot you work with that judgmental prick.” The actor spoke with such grimace, rolling his eyes before gesturing you towards the door. “Well, go on then. Don’t want to keep Mr. Mayor waiting.”

You muttered a sorry under your breath, though hit was barely even saying anything at all due to how hush your tone was. Taking your time getting up off the mattress so you don’t collapse on the floor, you start to make your way towards the door, going through your head about excuses you might need to make to the Mayor. Hopefully he’ll be understanding and not go into another panic attack over the phone.

You didn’t comprehend the sudden tug the sash of your robe at first, thinking you were merely tumbling backwards. But everything that followed imminently after snapped all your senses awake, feeling a pair of arms snaking around your waist, the chill that shot down your back as someone embraced you flush against them from behind. A startled sound got caught in your throat as moment you heard Mark’s voice purr into your ear. “Just one little request; Let’s keep what happened last night between us. Damien doesn’t need to know about how physical things got. Promise?” You froze, even as the actor place a warm kiss against your neck, you couldn’t bring yourself to respond. The only reaction your body could muster was a mere nod of agreement, still quiet and nearly limp in his arms. Mark possibly took this as a good sign as he let’s you go, making his way back to the bed and flops himself on the mattress.

“Good, good. I’ll give you a call later today. First I still need time to figure shit out once this hangover goes away.” He muttered. You didn’t say anything as you finally made your way out of the room, closing the door behind you and staggering your way down the hall. Eventually you slowed to a stop, leaning against the wall as the weight of the situation collapsed so suddenly. Too far. It went too far as you feared. What if word of this gets out? Damien will be devastated, you might lose your position, the constant harassment of reporters will be nonstop, and to top it all off; Mark’s divorce isn’t final just yet. The hangover was the last things that was on your mind now as the stress caused your body to tremble, your mind filled with so many concerns and voices arguing and panicking.

‘It’s the damn sex scandal all over again!’ ‘Things between Mark and Damien are bad enough.’ ‘Way to scrape the bottom of the barrel by fucking a married man!’ ‘This career is over if people found out!’ ‘Damien needs to know. It’s what friends do.’ “You premised Mark not to tell.’

You paused, your overwhelming thoughts starting to fade as a single voice continued.

‘ Y̥͏̖͖̋o̢̠ͯ͂̃̽u͈͌̅̒̆᷆͘ I promised not to tell Damien of this. and friends keep promises. Right?’

Leaning yourself away from the wall, you continued you think through this with a more clear mind, trying to settle your heartbeat that was pounding in your chest.

‘Besides, Mark’s marriage is gonna be ending anyways, so no harm done there. She was the one who was unfaithful and left him like this. You’re just being a good friend. He needs one right now. Who knows, maybe things will work out just fine. What Damien doesn’t know won’t k̄i̤l᷊l̙ him.’

You steadied your breathing, finally going back to making your way down the hall once more. It seemed logical and rational enough, looking at the class half full. You did have a habit of over thinking things after all, so maybe this wasn’t as bad. After all, it wouldn’t be any different from your years back in university. Damien still doesn’t know about those reckless nights between you and Mark either. So how should this be any different?

‘It’s not.’ It’s perfectly f̸̗̎ị̝̔n̰̭ͬe̸̞̭. . .’

(( To be continued?? ))

#WKM #Actor!Mark #Actor!Mark x Y/N

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cupcakemolotov · 4 years

Text

Scatter the Die: Part 2

Okay, this was supposed to be part of @lalainajanes birthday present, and in true birthday form, exploded. And since I cannot imagine giving a birthday present without some kind of smutty bits, this is going to have to have more added onto it later. But my brain has been stubborn and I am hoping that getting something posted will help me get something else done!

You can read it here at A03 (including Part 1) if you prefer!

Warnings: death, monsters, discussion of murders, dismemberment and so on.

Caroline shifted her weight uncomfortably, lip caught tightly between her teeth as she bit back a hiss, stubbornly rotating her ankle. Stiff and sore, today was her first full week without cast or crutches, and she refused to spend one more minute than necessary desk bound. The two weeks she'd been forced to take it slow had seriously rankled. Her partner's running commentary about pre-apocalypse medicine had not improved her temper. Witches’ spells could do a lot, but broken bones still needed time to heal.

There was no one here yet to see her wince through the PT exercises anyway. Taking a slow breath as she finished the motion, Caroline glared at the paper files that had recently become her life. Not that she’d been given much of a choice.

If you’re stuck on a desk, Detective Forbes, we might as well make use of you. Salvatore did a number on the servers. Find me what he wanted to hide.

She supposed it at least had given her something to do as she’d never sat well for long periods of time, and digging through the files of old ghosts hadn’t improved her mood. Lifting her eyes, she gazed across the silent desks, frowning as her eyes lingered where she'd nearly died. She’d made a point to walk over it every day since her return, refusing to let the nightmares that left her sweat-soaked and shivering gain root here.

They'd replaced sections of the concrete floor, patches that hadn't quite darkened to match the rest. They were a bitter reminder of the blood of the cops who had died under Tyler’s teeth, and his escape along with the fae-witch he’d brought in under the pretense of an arrest still burned a hole in her gut. It was a poor consolation that the bullet she’d put in Tyler would have done almost as much damage as what the collapsed wall had done to her leg.

Of the injured survivors, she'd been the luckiest. A mangled ankle was at least fixable. Alaric had lost a hand to the fae, and not even magic had been able to reattach it. Matt was still in a coma, his condition unknown. There were a dozen others simply outright killed.

Brushing a hand down her face, she rubbed her tired eyes. It would be a long time before the precinct forgot the horror of being betrayed by their own. A longer time still, before she stopped re-playing the scene in her head and wishing her bullet had been a half of an inch further to the left.

Noisy, and deliberately loud whistling broke into her thoughts and she rolled her eyes as her partner came around the corner. Caroline shook her head as she took in her partner of four year’s messy hair and stubble. Clearly he hadn’t slept yet. “You're late.”

Detective Enzo St. John snorted and dropped a bag onto his desk before shuffling the paper cups in his hands to offer her one. “Someone is picky about her donuts. I'll never stop being surprised at the line at this time of night. It’s three am. People should be sleeping, not trying to clog their arteries.”

Caroline accepted the coffee and made grabby hands at the paper bag. In the seven decades since the barrier had gone up, humanity had clawed its way out its primitive post-apocalyptic society. They'd restored the US Government, running water. Electricity. Phones.

Donuts were her personal favorite.

She scowled when Enzo reached into the bag produced something that was decisively not a donut. “Were they out of the good stuff?”

“I've got two glazed in the bag for you, Gorgeous, but you need to eat something that isn't puffed sugar,” he drawled as he wiggled the napkin in her direction. “I don’t want to have to explain to that witch-friend of yours why you keeled over on my watch.”

Sighing heavily, Caroline accepted the sausage roll. Gia would have many, many words to say to her if she fainted on the job. “This better have cheese.”

Enzo rolled his eyes, pulling out a jelly filled donut and biting into it, mumbling through his mouthful. “As if I dared give you subpar food. Well, not twice, at least.”

Glaring at him for his lack of manners, she polished off the snack in quick bites. Her partner was a good man, someone who’d been her friend before they’d gotten thrown together. He’d migrated from Britain at some point, and stubbornly maintained that crisp accent, and was mostly human. The non-human part of him was classified as void.

It was his void magic that made a lot of cops nervous, but Caroline hadn’t minded his oddity, fully aware that magic always came with a price. For her partner, when he absorbed magic, his body converted that magic into harmless energy, but that energy had to go somewhere. Most people would’ve considered being somewhat immortal a gift, but Caroline had seen pictures of the wife he had buried.

Still, having a partner who could eat magic was extremely helpful when magic fireballs started getting tossed about. The number of times Enzo had saved both their asses with his magic had risen exponentially over the past twenty-four months. She knew that he stilled raged that he hadn’t been on sight when Tyler had sprung his trap, that he and others believed that things would have gone differently if he had been here.

“How's the eye-bleeding going?”

Caroline shrugged and dusted her hands, studying her friend. “It's all organized and set to be added back into the database.”

Enzo threw his feet onto his desk and grinned, tossing her the paper bag which she caught with a scowl. “Find anything interesting?”

She grimaced and dug out her first slightly squashed donut. “Only in regards to what is missing. It's like the files were scrubbed long before I got my hands on them.”

Which made sense in a way. Mason had been their commander for six decades, for nearly as long as they’d had a precinct to work from post-apocalypse. He’d likely been keeping an eye on the written reports as long as they’d been making them.

It was why Caroline had always been so very careful with what she put into writing. Mason had been someone she’d trusted to do his job, and that trust sat in a bitter knot in her chest, but that trust had had limits. There were some things she’d only ever trusted Enzo with and after everything that had happened, that wasn’t likely to change.

“We knew Mason was most likely a figurehead for the group,” Enzo said tightly, jaw working harshly as he mentioned their previous Commander. “Any chance you can figure out what's missing? Computers might not work as well as they used too, but usually stuff isn’t really gone. Or so I’m told.”

She snorted at the wry note in his voice. Computers didn’t always work right around Enzo and he was lucky she didn’t mind doing the bulk of their reporting. She was pretty sure it was why he’d been shuffled to her in the first place.

“Maybe,” Caroline said. “Most of the detectives originally assigned to the cases are dead, but one or two did survive into retirement. I can call in a favor, meet them to see what they remember, but I'm not sure we’ll get much. Whatever Mason was hiding, he was thorough.”

Enzo leaned back in his chair, arms crossed behind his head as the springs groaned. “The new Commander won't like that.”

Caroline grimaced.

Interim Commander Katerina Petrova had shown up two days after Mason Lockwood had disappeared. Caroline had still been in the hospital recovering, but Enzo had done a dramatic retelling of how she'd strode in on her Louboutin heels and turned the entire precinct on its ear. Most people grudgingly agreed she'd been mostly fair, but some of the older detectives were considering more than grumbling.

It certainly hadn’t helped Commander Petrova’s popularity that she was zero percent human. Most cops could accept a certain amount of weirdness, Enzo and then a few others who were witch born or shapeshifter were eyed suspiciously, but mostly ignored. And while Changelings were considered less dangerous than some of the other fae species who’d been cut off when they'd raised the barrier, nothing about them was human.

Their new Commander was gorgeous, demanding, and dangerous. She wasn’t the sort who Caroline would have pegged as a cop, much less one that played at a local level. Magic users with any power preferred state and federal politics, and they played viciously. The Feds enjoyed little more than stepping in and taking over from the locals as soon as there was a whiff of anything interesting.

Cops, in turn, generally distrusted anything with true power. They saw too much from the creatures that slipped through the cracks, and New Orleans’ barrier was notoriously thin. It made the city a hotbed for any number of political maneuvering, and too many good cops died in the crosshairs of some FBI agents' personal agenda. Magic users would bleed each other dry if given the opportunity, and even dead, Fae magic lingered.

Having an FBI Bureau located in New Orleans meant keeping cases local and off the radar of coven or Fae families difficult. Once an agency got involved, the answers they could provide to a family were limited to the most political of answers, if they could even give them that much. Missing persons cases were rarely solved even if they had recovered bodies, and some murders were pushed under the rug entirely.

Caroline hated it.

Before his betrayal, Commander Lockwood had given the impression that he'd fought for his people. He’d gone toe to toe with the feds, had occasionally won. Werewolf or not, he'd been trusted. But Mason had used his people's acceptance of his werewolf nature to betray them, and it was still a bitter taste in the department's collective mouths.

It would be for years.

Now the Feds were watching them closely and they'd put a changeling in the precinct. Tongues were wagging, and Caroline wasn't certain who to trust.

“I’ve got a buddy or two,” Enzo interrupted her thoughts, words slow. His chin dipped so that his eyes met hers, gaze serious. “A couple of ties to some of the alphabet agencies.”

“Do you?” Caroline murmured, intrigued. It didn’t surprise her. Enzo knew a lot of people. “What sort of gossip has been going around?”

“You aren't going to like it,” he warned.

Caroline paused. “It doesn’t have to do with any of our past cases, does it?”

Enzo eyes darkened as he absorbed her words and his head moved in a barely perceptible no. The fist around her lungs loosened, and she bit into her donut and motioned for him to continue. His expression turned rueful, and she braced herself.

“Rumor has it our new Captain has some fascinating ties to a certain Mikaelson.”

Caroline’s eyes closed in silent aggravation.

When she'd been a fresh faced street cop, determined to work her way up the ranks to detective, she'd never have imagined it wasn't magic that was going to cause her the most aggravation, but the politics. She’d learned how complicated they could be at her mother’s murder, had watched it destroy good men who promised to find her answers. But she’d never thought herself incapable of traversing them. What had been important was bringing closure she’d been denied to families. But the better she became at her job, the more she found herself staring at insurmountable roadblocks.

And of those cases, Special Agent Klaus Mikaelson was a particular pain in her ass.

She'd met him nearly a half a decade earlier during a case involving a kelpie that had tried to kill her. The Irish water horse had taken on a humanoid form and drowned her victims on land, and New Orleans had been ideal hunting grounds for her. She might have even escaped notice for a few more years but her preferred meal had been male cops.

Caroline had been one of the detectives hunting the cop killer, but it’d been Mikaelson she'd butted heads against repeatedly. Klaus had thought she was unnecessarily reckless and Caroline had been frustrated by his unwillingness to share information. The fact that he came from a family with deep pockets and even better connections had left her teeth grinding, particularly since she'd known he was keeping things close to his chest.

To make it worse, she’d found herself grudgingly admiring the fact that he'd never backed down from the bite of her temper. She'd told herself repeatedly during those first few months that the urge to bite his smirking mouth, to see how well he'd bluster with her tongue against his was the result of her dry spell. The chemistry between them had been explosive, and if he hadn't been a Fed intruding on her territory, she might have been intrigued enough to let him charm her.

But later, he’d shown her the truth of himself and she hadn’t really known what to think. She still didn’t but whatever was between them it wasn’t fear. Fear was a cold sweat and tight lungs in the middle of the night, the ice of possibilities. Klaus burned, and the heat between them threatened to send them both up in flames if she gave him even an inch.

“How fascinating?” Caroline said, voice taut with frustration. “Is she in his pocket?”

Enzo pursed his lips, gaze flicking across the mostly empty bullpen and he pushed his chair closer. “That's a question I don't have an answer too.”

“God dammit.”

He nodded in agreement, gaze careful as he phrased his next question. “Have you found it curious that the FBI is so interested in you? Because I have. No offense, but smart and resourceful aren't necessarily what they are looking for. And they rarely try to recruit full humans.”

Caroline had no answers for him. Whatever Klaus thought he’d seen in her, he had offered no explanation. If it hadn’t been for the way he kept popping up in her life, in her cases, she’d have written it off as a whim. The man was mercurial enough for it but he was also unyielding when it fit his fancy. But there was no good way to explain to her partner the way Klaus watched her when it was just the two of them. “Who knows what goes on with the Feds?”

Enzo sighed. “I don't think it's much of a secret that the veil between worlds is getting thinner each year; that we're looking at a catastrophic break here in New Orleans. Whatever prisons the supernatural made, whatever it is that they’ve tried to vanish beyond our world, we both know they are starting to slip back through in higher and higher numbers.”

She nodded tightly, thinking of the cold iron knife she always wore, the cuffs that set heavy against her hip. Standard police ammo included silver bullets and her medkit had fresh sage and blessed salt. “I thought finding a way to close those weak points is a priority.”

“Sure, that's what our departmental memos are going to keep spouting, but you don't exactly see the witches succeeding at it,” Enzo drawled, brow arching as the truth of their jobs sat in his eyes. “Shit is going to go down eventually, and humanity is going to be the collateral damage. We’ve already seen it.”

Caroline grimaced. She'd seen the trend, over the years. Humanity made the perfect buffet for a lot of the nightmares behind the veil, and as a species, humans reproduce quickly, unlike many of the supernaturally gifted. Most Fae and the other not-humans thought of humanity as nothing more than an easily replaced buffet.

Then there had been Silas.

Enzo nodded, voice low. “So we’ve got a situation brewing in New Orleans. The Bayou is a perfect place for things that go bump in the night to find a hiding place while they regain their power. And even keeping both eyes on a situation, we don’t always know about a problem until it goes boom.”

More and more bodies dumped into the bayou were never recovered. Gator hunters were home well before dark, and will o'wisps haunted the water. The kelpie that had attacked cops was the first of three that had been killed in five years. There were rumors of sirens in the Mississippi and gremlins lurked in the shadows of the most brightly lit alleys.

New Orleans was a powder keg.

“Yeah,” she said tightly, mouth thinning. “We have seen it. We’ve also reported it to all the right channels.”

And until Tyler had killed twenty percent of the cops in her department, until his fae-witch had sunk her hands into the chest of good men and turned them feral, no one had listened.

“Did I ever tell you that I requested a transfer here?”

Caroline blinked, shook her head. “No. Why on earth would you?”

“Voids aren’t born, Caroline. We’re made.” His mouth twisted in an old memory, eyes dark. “The process is terrible. If anyone survives. After my wife died… well. This city has very established ancestral magic, and a bureau ready to stick its nose into the smallest hint of trouble. Not to mention that the federal government cannot afford to show weakness when it's becoming clearer and clearer every year that humanity is no longer the apex predator; and those that are just happen to wear our skins, sometimes. New Orleans should appear to be a lot safer than it manages.”

Caroline winced, tried not to think about how literal that was about faces. She’d killed a doppelganger three years ago who had worn her face and sometimes that case played a part in her nightmares. “That doesn’t explain why you wanted to be here?”

“I wanted to know why the strength of humanity and the power of witches was failing,” he said bluntly. “Why I was tortured and suffered and lost years with my family if we were only going to fail in the end.”

“Did you find your answer?”

He shook his head. “The veil falling might be inevitable. But I know why we’ve held it so long. Being here, having you as a partner, it’s reminded me that not all of humanity is bad.”

She wadded up the donut bag, tossed it as his face. He ducked with a frown and Caroline smiled. “You’re not so bad yourself.”

“Thanks, I think.”

“So what does all this have to do with the Commander?”

“She’s tied to the State AG, not the local prosecutors. From what I've been able to glean, we’re not the first precinct she's been brought in to clean up. She was in Ireland five years ago, New York before that. She did a short stint in Chicago, but didn't stay long. What I can't find is where she goes once she leaves.”

Caroline licked her lips, pondering those words. “Wait… the new AG? I think I saw something about a replacement when I was in the hospital. It was Elijah something, right?”

“Full name is Elijah Mikaelson.”

“Elijah Mikaelson? Please tell me he’s not…”

“Related to the Very Special Pain in your ass?” Enzo interrupted with a wry grin. “Oldest living brother. There is also a younger sister and brother, both witches. You'll be interested to know she’s recently relocated into the area. And the younger brother has moved stateside.”

Caroline ran a hand down her face. “How do you know all this?”

“Been around awhile,” Enzo said. “Got a few friends, still willing to give me a tip or two. But the Mikaelson horde isn't the only family making a move into the area. There's been an uptick in the locals complaining about being priced out of good apartments and the housing market has taken a surprising turn for a place full of monsters.”

“A State AG,” Caroline said slowly, eyes narrowing, ignoring his grumble about housing. “A Special Agent with the FBI who has enough leeway to fly into the city as he wishes, and witches. What are the Mikaelsons looking for?”

He shrugged, something almost sympathetic behind his eyes. “Good question. You might get a chance to ask him sooner than you think.”

She eyed him warily. “What's that supposed to mean? I'm not exactly on regular speaking terms with any of them.”

Not that it did much good. The first hint of something powerful in her case and Klaus turned up, butting his perfect nose where he wasn’t wanted. She cursed him for it, often. If she’d learned who was tipping him off, they would have had words.

“Yeah,” Enzo drew out slowly, inching his chair back. “Did anyone mention he showed up at the hospital during your surgeries?”

She froze. “What?”

“Hmm,” Enzo held up his hands in a placating manner, still moving slowly backwards. “Brought in his sister, the witch. Rebekah. Interesting girl, very prickly.”

Caroline blinked at the edge of amusement in his voice, that faintest hint of interest. “Wait, did you flirt with her?”

“Regretfully, I didn’t have a chance. Agent Mikaelson was pretty determined to get her into your theatre to make sure that whatever magical damage was done could be corrected.”

Her jaw dropped, lips parting as she gaped. “No one thought to mention this?”

“Yeah, killing the messenger? That's something most people are pretty sure you'd attempt. I'm telling you now,” Enzo said with a shrug. “Besides, that's not really the fun part.”

Her stomach dropped at the word fun. “What does that mean?”

“Your Very Special Agent has relocated. Rumor has it he's now Supervisory Special Agent, and New Orleans is considered his territory.”

“Goddammit.”

Enzo nodded his agreement. “So the real question for all of this is now pretty much isn’t if there is going to be a second apocalypse, Forbes, but when. And are these folks here to stop it or to capitalize on it?”

Caroline dug out her second donut with an air of someone on the executioner's block. Klaus had made New Orleans his home. He was in her city and she’d no doubt he’d turn the FBI Office into his personal fiefdom. She hadn’t forgotten that show of power from him, the truth about himself he’d shown her as she’d sat in the ambulance, half drowned by a kelpie.

“I guess we’ll have to find that out, won't we?”

“You up for that?”

She sighed. “I don't think I've much of a choice.”

Enzo echoed her expression, mouth twisting. “Good luck, then. If you need me to distract his sister, just let me know.”

She glowered until Enzo spun around at his desk, shoulders shaking with silent laughter.

When Caroline had learned a Bennett witch had moved to New Orleans, she very deliberately went out of her way to avoid her. She’d potentially had time during her PTO to arrange a meeting with her old friend, but hadn’t. Bonnie Bennett was an old ghost, if no longer a familiar one. But while Bon was no longer part of her nightmares, the things she represented still lingered like a bad taste in her mouth.

Liz Forbes had never liked witches. Caroline couldn’t remember if she’d had an opinion before her mother’s murder, but after, the sly smiles and flashy spells from ‘expert consultants’ had sat like lead in her chest. Something about the ease of finding her mom’s killer, the neat little bow tying up all loose ends had always seemed wrong.

Years later, she’d been proven right.

But as a grieving teenager, her last real memories of Bonnie had been wrapped up in that grief and a sense of abandonment. She remembered Grams quiet disapproval of the witches invading Mystic Falls, and she’d kept Bonnie confined to the house until the investigation was all over. Caroline had known that hadn’t been Bonnie’s fault, but it had still hurt. Her life had been so violently turned on its head, and she’d wanted her closest friend. In the end, when Caroline walked away from Mystic Falls, she'd gladly left those ties behind.

Bonnie moving to New Orleans had been a quiet reminder that while she’d solved her mother’s murder, leaving her past completely behind was an impossibility. It had also been another warning that whatever was going on with the barrier, it was getting serious. Caroline might have left Mystic Falls behind, but she’d kept a distant eye on its on-goings.

And Bonnie was a power.

But finding her childhood friend ankle deep in mud, frowning over the corpse of a rotting body in the swamp wasn’t how she’d imagined what was probably an inevitable reunion. The tip about a dead woman in the swamp had come through dispatch, and Caroline had called in her response as she’d driven out to secure the scene.

If she was lucky, the worse she’d seen would have been gator marks. If it was worse, having her partner on hand would be the wisest course of action. She had no real desire to be cursed or eaten. The swamps were dangerous and she had a healthy sense of caution when it came to finding what was potentially a feeding ground.

But all thoughts of containment had disappeared when she realized she’d been beaten to the body, and by who. The visible surprise when Bonnie had watched her get out of the car had echoed her own. The witch’s dark eyes were hidden by a pair of neat, designer shades that were in such contrast to her clothing that Caroline wondered if she had borrowed them.

“Caroline,” Bonnie started and then stopped, flipping her glasses on top of her head instead. Her hair was twisted away from her face, the elegant bones of her cheekbones surprisingly delicate for the force of the personality behind her eyes. “Or is it Detective Forbes?”

Caroline let her lips curl. “It’s Detective.”

A hint of what might have been sadness briefly tightened her mouth, but then it was gone. Giving a short nod, Bonnie’s eyes lowered back to the corpse. “I thought I was the first one to the body.”

As far as Caroline knew, Bonnie was correct. Dispatch had said the call had been from a gator hunter, and they were too smart to linger where a dead body had washed up. Very few things ever made it to a shoreline. This body was situated about five feet from solid ground, a strange mudflat having made an appearance around it. “News spreads quick, I suppose.”

Those dark eyes studied her, and the right side of her mouth tugged upwards. “I’d heard that about you.”

Caroline arched a brow as she considered the mud between them. It was likely that Bonnie would be fine, and while the mud was a problem, something else about the scene itched at her. Grabbing a camera, she checked her side piece and knife before moving to join Bonnie. Sighing heavily because she liked her boots, she moved carefully down the sharp drop of the bank where the swamp should have pushed up against the shoreline. It was almost as if this area had been drained of water, leaving nothing behind but the thick, sludge-like carpet of mud. It didn’t smell, but there was a disturbing lack of debris and the only visible movement was from Bonnie.

“Be careful, the mud is deeper than it should be,” Bonnie cautioned as Caroline made her way over. “Something altered the swamp around here, and it’s not good.”

Pulling a face as her boots deeply into the muck, Caroline scowled. “I can see that. And what exactly did you hear? I didn’t think you’d been here that long.”

“Nothing bad, just that you still have a nose for trouble.” A small noise as if Bonnie was remembering something amusing. “And that you’re quite stubborn, but I already knew that.”

“I didn’t really keep up with anyone from home,” Caroline said. “I’m not sure who’d be telling tales.”

“I asked around when I got here.” Her teeth worried her lip for a moment and Bonnie shrugged. “Not that your fellow cops talked much. I barely managed to find out that you were hurt, and that came from different sources entirely.”

Caroline carefully came to stop a foot from the body and studied the remains. Bloated, with her face scarred beyond recognition, whoever this had been had spent enough time in the swamp they should either have started to decompose or been eaten by a gator or worse.

So why hadn’t she? And where were the insects?

“I didn’t catch what you're doing here,” Caroline said after a moment, tugging a pair of latex gloves free from where she stuffed them into her back pocket. It took a moment to tug them on, the humidity leaving her skin sticky. “You seem pretty prepared for a witch who just happened upon a body.”

Bonnie also wore what looked like police issued latex gloves, the material spelled with a little more protection built in than the average pair. But as a witch, Bonnie could have done the spells herself. It was the neat little kit next to her, filled with what were probably samples of the mud and whatever she had been collecting from the body, that really said that Bonnie wasn’t here as a concerned passerbier.

Huffing, Bonnie used her forearm to wipe at her cheek, her skin sweat damp in the muggy heat. “I’m the new Forensic and Magical Anthropologist for the Bureau. And no one ‘happens upon’ these things, Detective. I’ve been seeding the area with detection spells for weeks now. I just didn’t expect them to pop quite like this.”

Caroline snorted as she absorbed that bit of info. “A Fed? Really, Bon? Did Grams shit a brick?”

Shooting her an exasperated look, Bonnie bent back over and continued her examination. “We’re not that bad.”

“Uh huh,” she retorted. “If you stayed out of my cases, maybe I’d believe that.” If they stayed out of her cases and had been more willing to tell the families the truth. Secrecy left behind open wounds.

“I could say the same thing,” Bonnie shot back, eyes challenging. “You do realize that since I was here first, this scene belongs to me? My boss will make the decision if we turn it over.”

Caroline frowned, trying not to think of who that boss was. “The remains are a bit fresh for your field, aren’t they?”

Bonnie shrugged, unconcerned. “I’ll have the body delivered to the morgue; we’ll have to dispose of the flesh anyway. Whatever happened to this victim isn’t quite right, even for a fae-mauling. They should have started to decompose and nothing here has tried to eat it. That concerns me.”

Warily, Caroline glanced around. “You think it’s a trap?”

“I’m not sure, but I’ll hit us both with a bit of magical napalm to kill anything that might try to attach when we’re done here.” She blew out a breath as she sketched a few quick runes over the body, the symbols glowing faintly for a few quick moments. “Though it seems clean, I don’t trust it. We’ll need to make sure the bones are contained.”

Caroline glanced at her. “Contained?”

A solemn look. “Monsters aren’t the only thing interested in the dead bits and pieces of potential biohazards, Detective.”

Considering those words, the truth of them, Caroline finally sighed. “Do you need help moving anything?”

“Nope. I think anything else will need to be collected once we get the body situated.”

“Alright, I won’t kick up a fuss if you share whatever you find.” Caroline lifted the camera off her neck, and she started snapping careful pictures. Whoever the Feds sent to move the body would likely do the same, but Caroline liked to have her own copies. Plus, the camera was special.

Bonnie nodded. “Deal. But I want a copy of your pictures. That camera isn’t standard. In fact… It feels like void magic. But that’s impossible.”

Lips curling into a smirk, Catoline agreed. “It’s an experiment.”

Looking interested, Bonnie tipped her head to the side. “What does it do?”

“In theory, it’ll filter out any magical interference.” Gia and Enzo have been working with Enzo’s magic, to see if they could embed it. They’d started the project after what had happened with Silas and the collected evidence had been magically corrupted. So far, they’d only had mixed results.

Bonnie’s brows lifted. “In theory?”

“The pics will either turn out or end up a weird mess of colors,” Caroline shrugged. “Your forensic minions should have more reliable equipment when they show up.”

“True,” Bonnie said slowly. “But Void magic is still mostly a big mystery. So very few survive the process. I’d be interested in watching these experiments.”

Caroline made a noncommittal noise. Enzo was her friend and her partner, not a science experiment. He could decide what experiments to allow, but that was his business. No one else's. Even if she was found surprisingly comfortable around Bonnie Bennett after all these years.

“Did you find anything interesting?” Caroline pointed the camera away from the body, snapped a few pictures of the swamp around them. “I don’t like this place.”

Bonnie sighed. “Agreed. And it’s hard to say what I’ve found. I’ll know more later.”

“Well, I trust your magical nohow over whomever took over for Alaric. Grams never trained a fool in her life.” Caroline reluctantly admitted as she straightened, glancing back towards her car as she heard the sound of vehicles driving carefully along what there was of a road. Backup was finally arriving.

“You clearly don’t remember my mom well,” Bonnie replied dryly but there was no heat. “And I think the position of Medical Examiner is still technically vacant. Didn’t you hear?”

“Hear what?” Her gaze narrowed as she recognized the SUV’s pulling up as Federal. Her phone beeped in her back pocket, but she didn’t dare touch it until she’d been cleared of magical contamination. The camera had enough of Enzo’s magic to eat anything that tried to attach itself.

She was still glaring at the slow moving vehicles when Bonnie spoke. “With the growing concern that we are likely to experience a catastrophic breach of the barrier, the State Legislators have decided that full cooperation between our departments and yours is necessary. We don’t need a morgue. You have one. Though I’m told it’s going to receive a few magical upgrades. Rebekah is… particular.”

Caroline muttered a few choice words under her breath as a familiar figure stepped out of an SUV, the door shutting loudly behind him. His ruffled curls were as recognizable as the tense line of his shoulders. Something twisted in her stomach at the first sight of him, awareness brushing along her skin. For a moment, she faced him, tongue tucked between her teeth as she tried to absorb the impact of his presence even so far from her. Shoving his sunglasses into his hair, Klaus stared back, the long line of him tense as he watched her.

Deliberately turning her attention back to Bonnie, heart a staccato in her throat, she pulled a face. “Oh, goody. More Feds.”

Bonnie laughed softly and finally straightened, her field kit held firmly in one hand. “I don't think I can learn much more here. We should probably head back to shore, let the paramedics pack up the body.”

Knowing that she couldn’t avoid Klaus forever, Caroline nodded but hesitated, letting her eyes scan along the swamp. Bonnie paused as well, looking around. “What’s wrong?”

Caroline shook her head. “I’m not sure. It just feels like there should be more here. It’s too clean. I don’t trust clean. Not in the swamp.”

Bonnie looked troubled, and jerked her chin towards solid ground. They both started the trek back, and tension ran down Caroline’s spine until she noticed that Klaus was watching the swamp behind them, ignoring everything else. The tense line of her shoulders eased a hair. They’d at least get a warning if something charged them.

“I don’t disagree,” Bonnie finally murmured as they neared the incline. “Did you get anything useful from your tip?

“Just a tip that there was a body lying out in the open without a single scavenger,” Caroline replied. “My money is on a gator hunter who knew better than to stick around. I’ve got a twenty pound bag of rock salt in my trunk if you think you’ll need to ward the area.”

“I might.”

Caroline looked up when a hand appeared in front of her as they approached the bank. She frowned to find Klaus waiting on her. His eyes were blue today, and there was something about the set of his mouth that prickled warning down her spine. He arched a brow and she bit the tip of her tongue to keep from doing something dumb. Enzo would never let her hear the end of it if she fell into the mud instead of accepting help with her ankle still healing.

She was still tempted. Touching Klaus was risky, it gave her dreams too many details and left her wondering about things that were better left as mysteries, but today it didn’t look like she had any choice. Taking his hand, Caroline let Klaus help her back onto solid ground. It was a strain, not to notice how solid he felt beneath her fingers and palm, the heat of his skin noticeable even through two layers of latex.

“Thanks.”

He nodded, studying her face, and he didn’t immediately release her hand. “Of course, Detective. My understanding is you’ve just been cleared for field duty. I’d hate for you to relapse.”

She wasn’t at all surprised he’d been tracking her recovery, especially if Katerina was a mole for his family. Giving a slight tug, she refused to feel relieved when he finally let her go.

“Is it?” She shrugged. “I heard you got a promotion.”

Stripping off her gloves, she kept an eye on the Feds as Bonnie gave orders as she secured her kit in what looked like a box fashioned from cold iron. Beside her, she watched the slow curl of Klaus’ mouth out of her peripheral vision. A herd of wild horses couldn’t drag out of her just how unfair she found the shape of his mouth, but her abdomen went tight at the hint of dimple in his cheek.

“Keeping track of me, Caroline?”

She snorted and tossed the latex into the biohazard bag one of Bonnie’s people brought over. Several more were slugging through the muck with a body bag. She did not envy them that job.

“I don’t need your people butting into my cases,” Caroline reminded him firmly, ignoring his question. “It was bad enough when you were sticking your nose into things. Now you have minions.”

“That may be so,” Klaus said, studying her with an intensity that felt like a touch. “But even you must recognize that there are some things your department doesn’t have the firepower to deal with.”

Setting her jaw at the carefully worded reminder of the recent events, she lifted her chin to growl back when the ground suddenly bucked and someone screamed. She staggered hard, ankle twinging painfully, and Klaus caught her. For a moment she froze like that, the hard line of his biceps beneath her palms as he steadied her, the feel of his skin fever hot.

When the ground continued to shake, he yanked her up against him, and the firmness of his hand and arm a brand against her spine and side. The smell of him changed to the scent of an open flame, and she felt the magic gathering around them. Curling her fingers into his shirt, she hung on as the shakes continued to turn the ground violent beneath their feet.

Someone started screaming.

Klaus barked a handful of orders, the edge in his voice easily carrying over the shrieks of his people. Gripping his shirt with both hands, Caroline twisted her head to stare at the swamp to see and inhaled sharply. Where the dead body had laid earlier, there were tentacles, nearly a dozen of them. The largest was at least seven feet in length.

The Feds who had been sent out to collect the body had been scattered. Two were being swung through the air, their screams full of pain filled terror. One agent was scrambling through the mud towards the bank, her face bone white as she tried to get to safety.

Caroline couldn’t find the fourth.

But it was clear the Feds weren’t the main attraction. Instead, unbothered by the mud and lack of deep water, one of the large tentacles wrapped around the body and dragged it back beneath the mud. The ground shuddered violently, but Klaus remained rock solid against her.

Terror turned her mouth to ash as she watched the thing move. The tentacles were more than long enough to reach the shore and grab more victims. Only the feel of Klaus, hot and solid, kept her from sprinting for cover. She had a shotgun in the truck, but she wasn’t sure even rocksalt would penetrate the thickness of those tentacles. Horror closed her throat, and she heard seams pop from her grip on Klaus’ shirt. He remained rock steady against her, fingers splayed against her hip fever hot.

“Bennett,” he growled. “A little urgency.”

Bonnie stepped forward, palms lifted, but before she could cast whatever spell she’d been planning, the tentacles suddenly retreated with alarming speed. The agent who had nearly reached the shore screamed as a tentacle snagged her around the waist. The sounds of guns firing seemed to do nothing as it dragged the agents beneath the mud. For several tense minutes everyone was unnaturally silent after the boom of the last expended cartridge died as they waited for it to come back. Caroline’s breath burned harshly in her throat, and she was unashamed by the grip she had on Klaus.

Giant tentacle monsters were way outside her paygrade.

“Bennett, secure the perimeter. Kol, help her.” The sound of Klaus’ firm voice broke through the shocked silence. “Someone secure those remaining samples and find me a response team. I want to know where it went and if we have a chance of recovery, and I want it five minutes ago.”

Forcing herself to release his shirt as the feds scrambled, Caroline leaned back. Klaus didn’t move, hand curved firmly against her hip. Biting the tip of her tongue to hold in her wince as she put pressure on her ankle, she tapped his wrist firmly.

“Agent Mikaelson. I need to call this in.”

His gaze lowered to hers and she forced herself not to flinch when she saw his eyes. The blue was gone, the white hot center of his pupils bleeding his iris gold and turning his gaze inhuman. There was something dangerous about the set of his mouth, the angle of his jaw but she had never let him intimidate her and she wasn’t going to start now.

“This is our scene, Detective.” His gaze flickered over her shoulder. “The veil is far too thin here.”

Caroline nodded. This was way past her precinct's ability to handle. Whatever was going on in the swamp was dangerous. Most cops weren’t equipped to deal with tentacles and unholy swamp mud. “Agreed. But I still need to call it in. We get a half dozen reports a day that a body has been found in a swamp; real and fake. I’ll need to let the precinct know that those investigations need to be directed to you. My partner is also on his way, he needs to be warned.”

Klaus’ head dipped, eyes sharp and too bright against her face. “You’re not usually so helpful.”

She gave him a tight lipped smile. “That’s because you usually stick your nose into places you aren’t needed. This?” She jerked her chin, encompassing the swamp and everything in it. “Totally your kind problem.”

Those bright, calculating eyes narrowed but his hand fell away from her side. His gaze lowered, dragging down the line of her legs and lingering on the mud encrusted mess of her boots. Something his jaw shifted, mouth compressing before his eyes lifted to her face. “Agreed. It is my kind of problem. And as such, we’re going to need your boots, love.”

Caroline dropped her eyes to her feet and groaned. She was caked to her ankles in mud, and after seeing what had come out of the mud, she was wearing evidence. “Goddammit.”

Klaus made a noncommittal noise in his throat. “You’re probably not going to want to track that around. We’ll get you some plastic to wrap up in, but you’ll need to come with us to the morgue. I’ll have one of the agents drive your car.”

Glancing at the baby faced agents wandering around, she gave him a look full of disbelief. “You must be joking.”

His lips curved, the hard gold light in his gaze finally softening into a more familiar blue as he finally stepped away from her. The air was hot and muggy, but somehow she still felt a chill now that he wasn’t holding her. “Afraid not. Driving with both feet wrapped in plastic seems a bit unsafe. You can take the front seat in my SUV, if you like.”

The only thing worse than being chauffeured around by Klaus would be being stuck in the back seat. Huffing, she shifted her weight and couldn’t quite hide her wince as her ankle throbbed. His gaze sharpened, and she shook her head, cutting off whatever he was going to say. “I’m fine. It’s nothing that needs immediate attention.”

She watched as he clearly considered fighting her. Gaze dropping back to her muddy feet, he finally exhaled harshly. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his keys. Offering them, his head tipped towards one of the large SUVs. “Let’s get your feet wrapped and you tucked into my car, then. Bekah can look at your ankle when we’re at the morgue and you’ve gone through decontamination protocols.”

Caroline frowned, trying to pin down the familiarity of that name. “Bekah?”

A slashing look. “Dr. Rebekah Mikaelson. My sister.”

Turning on his heel, he started snapping out a series of orders. Bonnie twisted around a moment later and stared down her feet with an irritated expression, mouth drawn tight. Her gaze snagged Caroline’s, and for a moment they stood with mirrored expressions of complete exasperation. It almost made the way she had to bite her tongue as they wrapped her feet in plastic worth it.

The clothes she’d been given after decontamination were two sizes too big and worn thin after too many washes, and she really wished she had a jacket. Morgue’s were never warm, and the hum of the air conditioning was a steady buzz to combat the muggy heat of New Orleans. The ice that Klaus’ sister had all but slapped onto her ankle wasn’t helping much either. Dr. Rebekah Mikaelson’s gaze had been frosty enough to freeze a dead body solid in thirty seconds as she’d demanded Caroline keep the bag in place for fifteen minutes before she’d disappeared with both her and Bonnie’s boots.

Bonnie had shrugged at her, warm and cozy in her back up clothes, expression slightly sympathetic. “Rebekah takes some getting used to.”

Caroline snorted. “I can’t say I’d have noticed.”

Her old friend relaxed enough to smile, eyes warming a little. “Honestly, the whole family is like that but they do… grow on you, I suppose. Some of them, anyway.”

She made a noncommittal noise, unwilling to comment on anything about that particular family. She’d be willing to bet a significant portion of her life savings that there were a number of spells in the room monitoring their conversations. She’d have assumed Bonne would have noticed them, but she wasn’t taking any chances.

“How long have you been with the feds?”

“Almost a year,” Bonnie answered easily enough. Her head tilted. “You’ve been here, what, six years?”

“Almost seven,” Caroline corrected. That information would give no secrets away and was a matter of public record. “A detective for most of that.”

Bonnie nodded, eyes going a little distant as she fell into her own thoughts. Caroline let her, the familiar tug of post-adrenaline exhaustion tugging at her bones. Needing a distraction, she took a moment to study the room. She had never spent much time in this section of the building, wouldn't even have known a break room existed if one of Klaus’ minions hadn’t ushered her and Bonnie into the small, but tidy space. Klaus had disappeared further into the morgue, and she hoped the staff here was used to him. It wouldn’t be easy studying samples while he prowled behind them, his impatience and temper sharp in the air.

She sympathized.

It’d been a long ride back into the city limits. They hadn’t spoken much, but she’d gotten the impression he was riding a knife edge of anger and if he tipped the wrong way it would be disastrous. She couldn’t help but think about the feel of his magic, the heat of it burning in his eyes. She’d done a good job over the years, not letting the mystery that was Special Agent Klaus Mikaelson niggle at her in those rare, quiet moments in her life. But sitting in his oversized vehicle, the tense muscle and bone of him next to her, she’d wondered if the status quo between them had inevitably changed. The veil between her world and the nightmares the fae had tried to banish was weakening at an alarming rate and the witches had no answers.

No one did.

But it was starting to look like more than one magical family had a plan, but only time would tell just what those plans were and how badly humanity would come out on the other end. The first apocalypse had taught a lot of hard lessons, and left deep scars. What did it mean that Klaus had angled himself into this city, into a position of such authority? What did he want? And what did she do with the knowledge that watching him fume, the line of his jaw and the set of his shoulders rock hard, his magic noticeable to even her senses that she wasn’t worried his temper would pick her as the target?

There were too many questions she didn’t have the answers for. What she needed to figure out was what exactly he wanted and how deeply involved his family was in this mess. Dr. Rebekah Mikaelson seemed competent, and if Enzo could be believed, she was responsible for the magical repairs on her ankle.

Deciding that was something to deal with later, she studied the seemingly mundane around her instead with cop eyes. There was a coffee pot, a small mini-fridge, and the couch was clearly new. Rebekah’s influence, she decided. None of those items came cheap, and department budgets were always stretched too thin. Here, most of the allotted money would have gone to maintaining the air conditioning. No one wanted dead bodies exposed to warm, muggy air. The mini-fridge was a relic of the past and probably had been converted to an icebox which was easier to maintain with spells, but the look of it was cool. She wondered what kind of favors it’d take to get a pot of coffee going. She’d bet whatever Rebekah had on hand would be far better than the swill she’d spent her shift drinking.

At least the couch was super comfy, and if she’d been anywhere else, she’d have settled in for some quick shut eye. Whatever had happened that afternoon was going to cause a stir and nothing good could come of it. Giving herself a moment to mourn the bed she wasn’t likely to see for several hours yet, she settled in to wait instead.

“How long have you known Klaus?”

Caroline glanced at Bonnie as she broke the silence between them. “What do you mean?”

Bonnie's gaze was curious. “You seemed familiar with each other. I expected that but…” her words stopped and she frowned, gaze darting behind Caroline. “Ah. I think your partner is here.”

A moment later, Enzo strolled in carrying a very familiar bag over his shoulder. His expression was tense, but the hard line of his shoulders relaxed at the sight of her though his mouth tightened as he caught sight of her ankle. He offered her the bag he was carrying with a sigh. “I thought we’d agreed to fewer life or death situations when you were on your own.”

She accepted the emergency bag she kept at Enzo’s place with a murmured thanks, yanking on the zipper and digging for the sweater she knew was buried inside as well as her spare pair of sneakers. “It’s not like I planned on there being a giant tentacle monster hiding in the swamp, Enzo. And I did call you even though dispatch should have messaged you.”

“And yet, somehow I didn’t manage to make it out of the city limits before the fun was all over,” he replied dryly. “Exploring the swamp by yourself isn’t exactly wise for any number of reasons.”

Caroline rolled her eyes as she pulled on the extra layer. “I wasn’t by myself.”

Enzo’s gaze shifted to the witch next to her. “Oh? Replacing me already?”

Taking the hint, Caroline made introductions. “Enzo, meet Dr. Bonnie Benett, the new Forensic and Magical Anthropologist for the Bureau. Bonnie, this is Detective Enzo St. John, my partner.”

Bonnie smiled. “It's a pleasure.”

Enzo lifted a brow. “Bennett? From Mystic Falls, that Bennett?”

“Yes,” she said slowly, head tipping to the side.”But how would you know that?”

“You exposed that little heretic cult problem that was trying to bring down the veil. Helped catch Kai Parker. It was memorable.”

Bonnie’s eyes narrowed. “I’m surprised you know about that. Not many people do.”

He smiled, charm thick in his voice.“I had an interest in keeping an eye on that case file, and I know people. I hear things.”

Her old friend didn’t look impressed with his explanation, and Caroline wished her luck. When Enzo clamped down on a source, not even a strange, self-proclaimed fae-god could get him to talk. She knew, because she’d seen Silas try, right before Enzo had sucked him dry. Shifting the bag, she carefully slid her camera inside, tucking it between her second favorite set of sweats before closing the bag and casually tucking it behind her legs.

“Dispatch sent around a very interesting warning about fifteen minutes ago and is requesting that all patrol calls check in every half hour.” Enzo continued, his gaze moving between the women with something hard behind his eyes. “Quite a curious change of events, when they were so adamant that things were getting back to normal. So what exactly did you two do?”

“What do you mean what did we do?” Caroline questioned, gaze narrowing. “This wasn't my fault; blame dispatch. I was just following up on the tip since everyone else had their hands full.”

“And the fact that you were off duty and should have been heading home to grab some shut eye?”

She shrugged her shoulders. “Semantics.”

Enzo let out a long sigh. “And you wonder how you find so much trouble.”

A muffled cough filled the room, and Caroline turned her head to glare at a clearly amused Bonnie. “Really, Bon?”

The childhood nickname slipped out, but Bonnie only smiled. “He’s not wrong. You do have a knack for trouble. You always have.”

“It seems to be something you share in common.”

The clipped, british accent broke into their conversation without warning, and Caroline turned to find that Klaus had finally joined them. She narrowed her eyes, she hated it when he snuck up on her, and he met her gaze unflinchingly. Behind him stood his sister and another dark haired man who shared their dimples and Rebekah’s cheekbones. Another family member then.

How many did Enzo say he had?

Bonnie’s chin lifted. “I followed protocol to the letter.”

“Come now darling, going into a swamp all by your lonesome with only a human cop as backup?” The dark haired man tsked. “Seems risky. Did you not take my warnings seriously about what I would do if you managed to be pulled into the otherside of the veil?”

Definitely related, she thought, recognizing that particular brand of threat. Bonnie didn’t seem particularly impressed by it, and it made Caroline like her childhood friend just a bit more.

“No one takes anything you say seriously,” Bonnie returned flatly. “The idea that you’d do something for someone else without expecting an equally great favor in payment is even less believable.”

Kol’s eyes narrowed, and as much as Caroline wanted to let the argument play, see how much they could learn, now wasn’t the time. Enzo’s gaze met hers and the exasperation there had her fighting a smile. But her partner gamely inserted himself smoothly into the conversation.

“Must have been something pretty impressive at the swamp to get your team so riled, Dr. Bennett.” He crossed his arms and smiled, ignoring Kol’s narrow-eyed look. “What exactly did my partner get herself involved in?”

“It was a kraken,” Rebekah answered, her back still to the room and her voice bored. “A tiny one.”

Enzo straightened at those words, expression going flat. “A kraken.”

“I thought kraken kept to deep waters,” Caroline said slowly, something cold settling in her gut. “There hasn’t been a sighting in a few decades.”

Rebekah huffed and walked across the room to what would have once been an electric teapot that had been converted to run on magic. Hitting a button, she stared moodily at it as it started to heat the water. “We’ve known for some time that there was a possibility that the creatures on the other side of the veil are adapting, mutating. It seems like we now have proof.”

Bonnie reached up and rubbed a fingertip between her eyes as if to chase away a growing headache. “The veil shouldn’t be receding this quickly; the magic that formed it isn’t breaking, it's disappearing. Not even Kai was able to do that, and he did more than enough damage.”

Caroline wondered if that was why Bonnie had been putting out so many detection spells and made a mental note to ask Enzo about Kai Parker, and what exactly his little cult had hoped to accomplish. That Rebekah had named the monster at the swamp a kraken, that it was a small one…

Uneasy, she glanced over at Klaus to find him watching her. His eyes were blue now, the worst of his rage tucked back into the hidden spaces where he kept it. There was something about the tilt of his lips, the angle of his eyes that concerned her far more than the words that Rebekah and Kol had been tossing around.

The veil was going to fall.

“How much time do we have?”

To his credit, he didn’t pretend to misunderstand her.

“Days,” Klaus said. “Maybe a week, if the deterioration continues at this rate.”

The dark haired witch smiled brightly, eyes gleaming. “I, for one, can’t wait. This is going to be so much fun.”

“Kol,” Bonnie snapped, voice hard.

Kol sighed and shrugged, hands sliding into his pockets. “Oh, don’t look so annoyed, witchling. Everyone in this room has known this was coming for years. That something sped up the timeline just makes it interesting, don’t you think?”

“A lot of people are going to die,” Caroline said flatly. “I don’t find that interesting.”

An amused look full of cocksure arrogance. “It's not like you're going to be one of the unlucky ones going into something’s gullett, darling. Not with Klaus keeping both eyes on you, though I’m not particularly sure of the appeal.”

Caroline didn’t bother responding to his baiting, recognizing his type. She didn’t doubt that Kol was a powerful witch, but he was as likely to use that power for a prank as for anything else. Any help from him was likely to bite.

Enzo gave him a lazy smile. “Short sightedness does seem to be an affliction of witches.”

Those dark eyes narrowed when Rebekah laughed, and then Kol smirked. “The Void. I had forgotten you existed. You do collect the most interesting friends for a human, Detective Forbes.”

“That’s enough,” Klaus cut in before Kol could keep going. “Rebekah, what do you need?”

She turned with a mug in her hand and stalked over, shoving it at Caroline. “From you? Nothing. The spells here will contain whatever magical residue the kraken left behind. Human flesh is its preferred choice for a meal, so I imagine more bodies will start popping up in the bayou.”

“Of course they will,” Kol said. “Human’s never stay where they are supposed to.”

Rebekah pinned him with a glare. “Then you won’t mind finding me one. Between us, I’m sure Bonnie and I can give a much more thorough report once we’ve had a recently dead specimen to study instead of just scrapings of rotting mud.”

“If I must.”

“You must,” Rebekah replied. “Until then, stay out of my morgue and stop terrifying my people.”

Bonnie frowned a little, brows bunching together. “The spells I’ve layered on the bayou will give us some warning if the deterioration escalates, but I’ll need to check them manually to confirm.”

“You’ll take another witch with you,” Klaus said firmly. “There will be no more solo missions.”

“What am I supposed to do with this?” Caroline asked when it was clear that everyone was done making demands, chin dipping towards the mug of steaming liquid she’d been given as she eyed the clearly annoyed witch.

“Drink it.”

“Yes, thank you.” She managed to say through a somewhat polite smile. “Why?”

“I spent a lot of magic putting your ankle back together,” the blonde said coolly. Tossing her braid over her shoulder, she gave Caroline a tight smile. “That will ensure the healing sticks. Drink it or not I suppose, but I won’t be fixing your ankle a second time.”

“Charming,” Enzo murmured as Rebekah swept out, his lips curling slightly in the corners. “I like her.”

Bonnie stood with a snort. “I suppose someone should. If that is all, Mikaelson, I’m going to go see just those slides Rebekah’s minions are studying for magical contamination.” Klaus tipped his head in silent permission and Bonnie paused in the doorway. Her eyes caught Caroline’s and they flickered briefly towards the gym bag at her legs. “We’ll talk later, Care.”

To keep from having to answer immediately, she took a cautious sip of whatever it was that Rebekah had shoved at it. It wasn’t the worst tasting tea she’d ever had, so she took another and very, very carefully didn’t look at Klaus. She’d wondered if Bonnie was going to bring up the camera in front of Klaus. She wondered what it meant that her old friend hadn’t.

Kol didn’t bother saying goodbye as he followed Bonnie down the hall, a jaunty whistle echoing down the hallway.

“Your brother is a piece of work.”

Klaus lifted a brow at Enzo’s words, unbothered. “He’s been called worse, all of it accurate.”

“I’m assuming I’m free to go?” Caroline asked when it looked like her partner was going to say something else. The last thing she needed was him picking a fight with Klaus. She wrinkled her nose, glanced at her tea. “After I finish this, at least.”

“I have no intention of keeping you here longer than necessary,” Klaus murmured, gaze lowering to skim along her body, a hint of gold glinting in his pupil. “But there are a few things we must discuss. How did you end up at my scene, love?”

She narrowed her eyes. “Its Detective, and I was responding to a request to investigate from dispatch. Information from the call should be logged.”

“I’m sure our delightful Commander-in-Chief is digging into the details,” Enzo supplied cheerfully. “She wasn’t particularly thrilled to learn that you were almost tentacle bait. Particularly since you were supposed to be off duty.”

Caroline shot him a sour look. “Thanks.”

“Welcome.”

Klaus tipped his head, considering her words. “There are still a number of locals determined to make a living off the swamp despite the dangers, I’m not sure we’ll get much from that front.”

“You think it was a set up?”

A shake of his head. “Unlikely. At least, it wasn’t a trap meant to catch anyone specific if it was a set up. More likely, someone wanted me to know they have power.”

“Wanted you to know?” Caroline repeated. “A bit arrogant, don’t you think?”

Something terrible moved behind his eyes, hot jagged lines of gold barely visible before disappearing. “Not at all. The veil is going to fall, Caroline. And when it does, the lines of power are going to change. I’ve claimed this city as mine.”

There were so many things about that statement that pinged her instincts. The glint behind his eyes, the set of his mouth told her he meant those words. He thought them true. The edge of his mouth kicked up, something possessive and territorial bleeding through his expression as he watched her before it disappeared again. “But I won’t keep you. You just finished your shift, if I heard correctly? Rebekah has cleared you of any potential magical contamination, but I expect you to call it in if you have any reason to think otherwise.”

Enzo made an amused noise. “She feels clean.”

Klaus studied her partner for a long moment before nodding. “Understood, but the orders stay the same.”

Caroline frowned at them both, eyes flickering from one to the other, exasperation turning her voice sharp. “Seriously? I’m not a rookie.”

A hint of a smile tugged at Klaus’ mouth but disappeared as he glanced back at Enzo. “I assume you can get her home?”

“I can drive myself,” Caroline tartly interjected.

“That’s the plan,” Enzo agreed, ignoring her pithy comment as his hands slid into his pockets. “I’ll make sure she makes it safe and sound.”

Klaus’ eyes gleamed as they met hers before something caught his attention down the hall. “I’ll have someone drop your car off. Do try to stay out of trouble for the rest of the night, love. The next few days are likely to keep us all busy. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you soon.”

“Best finish your tea,” Enzo suggested into the silence after they’d watched Klaus leave. “We still have to call in an update to the commander and who knows how long that will take, and I for one am ready for my bed.”

Sighing, she gulped down the tea before shoving her feet into her sneakers and standing. Enzo took her mug as she gathered her things, putting it in the small dishwasher. Caroline paused for a moment to glance down the long hallway Klaus had disappeared. There had been something in his voice, the glitter behind his eyes that warned her she was only seeing a small part of the picture. Instinct and the nagging curiosity that made up the heart of who she was a detective was hyper aware of Klaus had gone. But she could let it go for now.

Because he’d been right.

She didn’t doubt she was going to see him very soon.

#my fic #klaroline #klaroline fanfic

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paganherbalwitch · 4 years

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Candle Making Time!

Hey all!

Since we’ve all collectively been told to stay cooped up at home, I decided to try a project that I have been wanting to do for a long time.

Candle Making!

I decided to use beeswax and coconut oil as the base of my candles (and oh boy did I forget just how good beeswax smells <3 )

Now, I did not go out and buy prewaxed wicks, but don’t worry, because it seems like its easy to do. Guess we will see!

(Remember, I have never done this before and I am writing this as I do it. So you get to see exactly how it works out for me as the post progresses. )

The needed supplies:

- plain cotton cord of some kind. Butchers twine would be good! - the Wax and oil you’re going to use. I used beeswax and coconut oil. - a double boiler, or like, a pan and a jar or bow. (a bowl or glass measuring cup would have made my life a ton easier!) - parchment paper- I put a towel under mine just to the heat didn’t mess up my counter - something to make the candles in. I used two dollar store votive holders - if you’re like me and used a jar, get some tongs to dip the cord! - stick of some sort to keep the wicks upright. I used toothpicks because my containers are small - Color agent, or essential oil, or fragrance oils.

The Measuring

I used an very very approximate measuring of four tablespoons each of wax and oil. I did not measuring it out accurately, and I guess we will see if that comes back to bite me. I did a 50/50 ratio, because why not!

(after having filled the votives, I would recommend using 5TBS/6TBS of each wax.Four gave me just a tiny bit too little to fully fill them.)

I am also going for a natural color, but if it goes well, I might try to color the next batch.

The Melting

Once you get the oil/wax combo together, drop it on the double boiler. Once it is melted, you could add color to it!

If you don’t know what a double boiler is, it is basically this (see below pic) A pot of water that another pot, bowl, or jar sits into. It helps heat up the contents without them getting wet or being directly on the flame!

Everything I have read about candle making says you need to have things at specific temperatures. Now, I do not have a random candy thermometer sitting around just waiting to get ruined by wax. I eyeballed this step because I like to live dangerously.

Once the wax is melted, I let it continue to keep warming for a minute or two.

Wicks

Now, while your wax heats up, measure the wicks out to be taller than your container. You want them to be long enough to wrap around a stick or pen or something to keep them upright. I ended up making mine way too long, but hey, live and learn.

Wicks pt 2

Once your wax is warm enough (I guessed at it), remove it from the pot of water carefully. Please do not burn yourself or hurt yourself from the hot wax, the fire, the bubbling water, or steam. Carefully dip the wicks into the wax and swish it around.

Another method I saw said you should put them in a shallow dish of somesort and let them soak from anywhere to a few minutes to 20min. It’s your choice!

Once you swish them, pull them out and let the drips drop back into the jar. Once it is no longer super hot, gently hold the bottom of the wick and pull them taunt. This will be your chance to make sure the wick is straight.

Wicks pt 3

After you have them straight, lay them out and let them dry. I popped mine into the freezer to make it happen faster because I am impatient. Repeat the wax dip a few more time, letting it build up and soak into the wick. I ended up putting the wax jar back in the double boiler so it didn’t harden. I only dipped mine twice. Again, I am being impatient and excited!

Wicks pt 4

Of course, I forgot to get a picture of this step, but, once the wicks have cooled, wrap them around the stick you have. Make sure you line up the bottom of the wick to the bottom of whatever container you are going to use. You need to wrap it tightly enough that it will stay in place as you pour the wax in, so don’t be afraid to Make Sure it’s on there tightly!

Candles!

Once the wicks are wrapped (see below picture), now its time to add any scent you want into the candle. There are lots of places online where you can find how much of anything you should add in, but I decided to wing it again. Life on the wild side, right?

For 8 TBS of wax/oil, I used 20dr cedarwood, 10dr mandarin, 15dr bergamot. Who knows how this is going to smell, but having the bottles together smelled great! I just hope it is enough for a pleasant scent throw.

After you have the smell good stuff added in, mix it up! I had to use a plastic knife, because I did not have any bamboo sticks I prefer to use for things like this, but it worked well enough.

After you mix the stuff, carefully pour the wax into the container, making sure you keep the wick still. This amount of wax let me mostly fill both of the containers. (what a coincidence! I had no clue how much it would make. Though I would recommend maybe using an additional TBS or two of each wax more than I did.)

Voila! Now you have two candles that need to cool off.

You need to let them sit for a few hours to fully cool before you can use them. Once they harden, make sure you cut the wicks down to about 1/4th of an inch, for optimal burning.

There are different sizes of cords, and if you find yours to be too weak of a flame, you can braid three individual lengths together for a better flame!

More updates to come, once the candles are done!

#DIY Projects #diy candles #OP

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bubblyani · 5 years

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Defined (Undefined Pt.2)

(Klaus x Fem! Reader)

Part 2 of Klaus Hargreeves Two Shot

Summary: You and Klaus have been best friends for ages. What if something unexpected makes you question what you really felt about him?

Genre: Fluff , Smut, Drama

Warnings: Mentions of drug use, Sexual themes, Hints of violence.

Author’s Note: When I posted Undefined, I did not think of doing another part. But @void-dreaming-dilemma’s comment tempted me and a continuation started bubbling up. @starlightmornings I still want to see your version of part 2 OR another Klaus story, which is even better. But anyways, here’s part 2. TUA fandom..Hope you all enjoy!

Part 1 : Undefined

Heavy breathing drowned your ears, surprisingly sounding like music to you as the sound of Klaus’ kisses added a melodic line to this piece.

Lips on your neck, he teased and took full advantage of your sensitivity. Completely weak, your hands even forgot their hold on his pants, and the fact you were trying to loosen him out of them. Opening your eyes, you suddenly felt his weight leave you, as he sat up, causing you to sit up in suit. Your hands were not patient to be polite when you helped him lift up his shirt, taking it off in a flash.

The sight of his bare torso was suddenly something you marveled, running your hands frantically around his lean, toned frame. Loosening your braid, Klaus kept you centered as he swept your hair back, fingers slowly traveling through your locks with such detail, even your scalp felt it’s own presence.

“Have I ever told you how beautiful you are?” He asked, you smiled. “You have...” you replied, “then we would give each other a hi-five...” struggling not to laugh by the thought of that. “Well...not this time” he breathed, interrupting your laughter with his kiss, holding your head.   Stroking his shoulder blades, you proceeded to relish him. Kissing his neck and his Adam’s apple, your own body ached to hear his moans. Your lips did not stop there, your kisses were generous to greet his collarbone, then to his chest, even all the way down to his bony hipbone. It did not feel a chore, especially when his vocal reactions were detailed, showing his upmost satisfaction with his fingers still in your hair.

Klaus pulled you back up, and you unwillingly complied when your lips parted from his bare skin, but had no regrets when his lips took over you instead. Kisses were in abundance, yet both of you still hungry. Smoothing your back, his hands stealthily reached under your t-shirt, unhooking your bra from the back.   You chuckled into the kiss, “Now...I get to take it off like in Flashdance” he sniggered, “Uh ..yeah that was the plan..” he later replied in a mocked matter-of -fact tone. You bit the side of your lower lip daringly. Taking the straps out from your sleeves, you expertly pulled it out, your t-shirt still intact on your body. As proud as you were of your achievement, you suddenly noticed how focused he was on your tee, only to realize how he was trying so hard to catch a glimpse of your bare chest through it. You blushed.   “Stop it” you said, folding your arms across your chest watching his gaze turn lustful, this was also unfamiliar to you. Granted, you’ve seen him lusting after many other things and people, but never you. “Stop..” you chuckled, shoving him away with your hand in front of his face. Grabbing it instantly, his grip was hard when he held it with both hands, kissing it religiously. Seeing Klaus like this, all in one moment overwhelmed you so much, you wished you could just cry. But at the same time, you never felt a level of attraction like this for anyone else ever.   Inching closer, you placed your palm on his stomach, allowing it to descend downwards. You caught yourself exclaim in a whisper as you felt his erection through his pants. Perhaps it was that, mixed with his hungry gaze washing over you, for you felt rejuvenated entirely, with that hungry heat forming in between your thighs.

Like a child greedy for candy, you pulled him closer to you, laying back down on the bed whilst quickly squeezing yourself out your shorts. Your underwear sliding alongside it, you pressed your thighs tightly together, watching him exhale deeply as you sat up. You felt daring enough, grabbing the ends of your top, only to slowly pull it up, bare skin revealed bit by bit till you took it off, finally naked before him.

You wished your words were as brave as your body was, baring yourself like that. Impatient, Klaus began pulling down his leather pants with haste, letting out frustrated sounds as the material appeared to be harder to remove than expected. Laying back on the bed, you watched him finally free himself, crawling back. His eyes wandered all over you, not knowing where to start while he slowly positioned himself, spreading your legs open.   You were no stranger to sex, you knew well enough. But you couldn’t help but wonder, why did you suddenly felt like this was your first time? To be frank, everything with Klaus suddenly felt like the first time. A loud gasp left your lips the moment he entered you.

“Sorry...sorry” he whispered apologetically. You shushed him softly with your hand on his lips. When you watched him kiss them again, you realized this has already become a habit, and you did not mind.

“Just...”you began,

“Just love me...” you whispered softly.

Laying his head down, you suddenly felt your skin burn when you felt the bridge of his nose brush against the center of your chest, his face finally settling there. The graze of his lips on the curves of your breasts hardened your buds in turn . The soft curls giving feathery kisses to your skin distracted you, giving you a surprise when Klaus finally began moving inside you. This was really too much, but he spared you in time, raising his head up to face you. Your fingers tangled in his curls, you let yourself get entranced by his sheer vulnerability displayed through his green orbs surrounded by his smudged eyeliner, listening to him call out your name, while you called out his in reply, as if those were the only words you ever knew.

 Refusing to be left out, his mouth swept over to yours, kissing and eliciting moans out of you, making up for lost time, as your bodies made silent yet amorous declarations, till release was met and the stars were in full view in your eyes.

****************

You felt slightly envious of the ceiling. For Klaus Hargreeves’s eyes kept staring at it, all the while recovering breath, sharing the silence with you. Jealousy never was your acquaintance in life, so why must it be one now?

 With your leg over his hip, you felt him hold on to it, fingers making circular motions on your thigh. You found yourself nibbling his ear, for it seemed too delectable to resist, as you rested your naked body against his own.   “I could eat..” he said, looking over to you, “…how about you?” You nodded, eyes widening by the sudden growl in your stomach. “Yep me too...” you replied embarrassingly, rolling your eyes as Klaus burst out laughing. “Did your stomach just?-“ “Shut up!” ****************

“Well well well ...didn’t expect to see you two down here” Both you and Klaus looked over from your sandwiches to find Diego and Luther Hargreeves walking into the kitchen. “Yeah well..we were starving so..” Klaus replied whilst chewing. You waved at his brothers, “Hey guys..” “It’s nice to see you Y/N” Luther smiled, while Diego looked down awkwardly. You raised your eyebrows in suspicion. “You fellas hungry? Y/N made PB&J and it tastes phenomenal” Klaus remarked, making you chuckle. “I did what I could , with what I could find ” you said, pointing at the shelves.

Looking back at his brother, Luther spoke, “Well you seem sober enough, let’s go Klaus”

“Wait…Where?”

“Didn’t Diego tell you? It’s something to do with Number Five ” Luther’s gigantic frame swayed as he turned to his brother, “I thought you told him...”

“I was on my way to tell him...” Diego spoke out loud in protest, “Just...” his voice grew softer, “..couldn’t” he added shyly. You froze.

“Wait a minute. Were you looking for him in his room?” You placed the sandwich on the plate as you asked. Rubbing his temples with embarrassment, Diego sighed, “ The door was half opened so…I didn’t know-“ “Oh my god...” you stood up, covering your mouth.

Klaus’ jaw dropped, “No! You didn’t..” Luther eyed each of you with confusion. “I didn’t see much I swear...” “Oh god” you cried out with a muffled tone, hands fully covering your face with embarrassment. Klaus guffawed with laughter, fists banging on the table. “Diego you sick bastard” he said, in a mocked dramatic tone, continuing to laugh. “Look I’m sorry okay” “No I’m sorry “ you looked up, pacing around the room, “This was all a mistake...I’m so embarrassed” you swore your face turned red as a tomato.

Getting up, Klaus walked over to you, “Y/N calm down ...Diego didn’t mean it..it’s not embarrassing” he said with a chuckle.

“No it is..this is probably the most embarrassing thing that could ever happen to me...much worse than the time I had to explain why I flushed my own earrings down to the toilet..” “Wait...What?” “Yeah..I was soo baked, I thought the toilet was the drawer” you said, with your hands on your hips. “I still don’t understand what’s going on here..” Luther asked, once more with desperation.

You sighed, “I’m afraid I won’t be the one to answer that Luther..I’m sorry but I gotta go” putting on your jacket, you were dying to make a run for it. Perhaps you were sober enough to finally feel a sense of embarrassment. “Y/N...” Klaus walked after you, “It’s okay Klaus..you have something to do..I’m sorry...” you said, throwing a glimpse at him one last time before heading out the door. Klaus sighed. “Never thought you two would ever..you know..” Diego muttered behind him. This time it was Luther’s jaw that dropped,

“Wait ..that’s what they were doing?”

**************** You slapped your own face several times as you walked. You had never felt this embarrassed, or so you thought. Normally you wouldn’t consider something in the likes of this embarrassing. Then why now?

Footsteps clicking on the pavement, you wished all this was a dream. Slowing down, you took back that wish. Frankly, you did not want to forget. Especially not what happened earlier.   “Hey Y/N!”

You looked up, halting in front of a burly man you knew well. With an expression that always seemed cross, he certainly looked intimidating.

“Big Joe!” You smiled, “Whats uuup?…Look…if you’re wondering whether I’ll be making a purchase today…then I guess I have to pass-“   “Well it doesn’t matter cause you owe me money..” Big Joe replied menacingly, looking down at you. Your face turned serious. “What? No…I already paid you up front last time. You know I always pay up front. I may be a junkie but I never owe anyone money” you said, watching two other men walk over to him. “Well…I ain’t leaving till you give me what you owe me” “Well then I’m sorry to keep you waiting, but I don’t have any money right now. Plus I don’t owe you anything” you replied bravely, only to regret it soon after when Big Joe grabbed you by your T-shirt collar. “What? You’re gonna beat me up then Big Joe?” You snarled. He shook his head. “Nah…but they will” he said, as the two men surrounded you. You sighed. “Ahh shit” **************** Ever since you left, Klaus felt uneasy with the way things were between the two of you. So it was no surprise why he seemed so irritating to both Diego and Luther when they were off looking for Number Five. Unfortunately, unable to find him, the three of them returned back to the Academy. They assumed his irritation was due to the lack of drugs in his system , when it actually was mere impatience to find you.

“I still don’t understand why you needed me to come...” he snapped, getting out the truck.

“This is our brother Klaus...don’t you care at all?” Luther looked at him from the window. With a Klaus turned, walking towards the door. Squinting his eyes, he opened them wide again, unable to fathom what he just saw.

“Y/N?” His voice was meek.

Leaning against the door, you sat there, breathing heavily. Slowly opening your eyes, you felt a sense of relief by the sight of Klaus.

“Hey...” your voice sounded throaty, “I’m sorry...I had no choice ...”

Running over to you, Klaus sat in front of you, looking closer to find your lips bloody with a deep cut, purple eye and from your crouched position, a possible beating to the stomach.

His heart sank deep. “Y/N…” voice shaking, “Oh my god…” he cried out, “LUTHER! DIEGO!” “I’m really sorry to bother you like this Klaus-” “No! Don’t apologize” he said, holding you gently, fighting back tears, “I’m sorry Y/N…”

Unable to hold out much longer, you slowly began to lose consciousness.

“…I should have protected you” he said, through gritted teeth as tears came pouring down. Your eyes felt droopy, as blurred figures of Luther and Diego started to appear closer beside Klaus. Sighing, your eyes closed automatically, and his voice was all that you could hear.

“Y/N please…don’t go”

I won’t ...I won’t ...Klaus

****************

Your eyes fluttered open, surprisingly finding yourself in Klaus’ bedroom the next morning. Sitting up, you groaned in pain, feeling the soreness in your stomach, something strong enough to remind you of the incident last night.

“Good Morning dear!” Grace’s voice made your head turn to see her standing by the door, “Looks like You’re healing just fine” she continued, walking over to you with a smile.

“G’mornin’ Grace” you greeted, pressing your lips to suddenly feel the sting of your cut.

“Ah ah…you’re healing but not fully yet, take it easy” sitting on the bed, she patted you on the shoulder.

 “Klaus…” you began, feeling your blackened eye “where is he?” “I’m afraid I don’t know dear…” Grace replied, pausing a while, then later smiling again. “Would you like some breakfast?” She asked.

You knew Grace might not be the best person get information from. A part of you grew worried for him. But he was sure to be alright if he was was with the others. You did not want to take advantage of their kindness. They already healed you and allowed you to rest for the night.

“I’d love that” you smiled at her, unable to refuse the sweet natured android.

**************** “Whoa Y/N! You look like shit”

Leaning against the booth, you scoffed at the DJ’s remark “Thanks...” you said loudly, flipping the bird at him. This particular nightclub was comparatively small, but you liked coming here for the familiar staff. The young man put his hands together apologetically.

“Sorry sorry…anyways, which song do i owe ya?”

Blinking through the Flashing lights, you headed over to the dance floor, intentionally avoiding the rhythmic walk to the sounds of EDM. Closing your eyes, you extended both hands into the air, when finally your song started playing in the background.

“Is that the song from…Flashdance?” A female voice asked from nowhere.

“You’re damn right it is..” you replied back to whoever it was. Throwing your head back, you allowed the melody to flow through you.

“Frightened by a dream, You’re not the only one.”

Unimpressed crowds of young folk let out protests at the sudden change of genres . You grinned selfishly as you felt those crowds disperse, providing you the spacious dance floor you needed.

“Running like the wind, Thoughts can come undone”

Swaying your hips, you spun around to the slow tempo. You were not high, but you certainly felt intoxicated. You felt intoxicated by the mere thoughts of last afternoon. Irreplaceable stares and irresistible kisses you craved to take back, just so you could relish them again in real time.

 “Dancing behind masks Just sort of pantomime”

A tight grip on your wrist woke you from your fantasy. Opening your eyes, you gasped to find Klaus standing in front of you.

“But images reveal Whatever lonely hearts can hide”

“Y/N! I’ve been looking all over for you” Klaus said, his voice filled with concern, clutching you by the shoulders. You merely smiled, happy to find him really there in front of you. “Dance with me Klaus…” you said, placing your hands on his chest. He looked at you with surprise.

“Lady Lady Lady Lady Don’t walk this lonely avenue”

Swaying together side to side, you quickly held him in an embrace, wishing this was not an illusion. To your relief, he held you tightly in return, as you both kept swaying to the music.

“Lady, Lady, Lady, Lady Let me touch that part of you You want me to”

It all felt so magical, feeling his chest rise and fall made you even more alive. Unfortunately, the others didn’t find this magical enough, for suddenly the song stopped, changing into another EDM track, leading to cheers from the crowd. Reality kicked in again.

“Sorry Y/N I tried!” The DJ called out from the booth. Looking over, you threw him a look of disappointment.

The loud music disrupted you, you were unable to think anymore. Fortunately you were not alone there.

“Let’s talk...outside!” Klaus yelled into your ear, tugging you by the hand. Nodding, you joined him, leaving the premises.

*************** It turned out, the pavement could be more relaxing in comparison. Sitting side by side, you both stared at the road, watching the people and the occasional vehicles that passed.

“How are you feeling?” He asked.

“Well if you’re talking about this...” you replied, pointing at the scars and cuts on your face, “it’s getting better...”

“You put up a good fight with Big Joe didn’t you?”

Your eyes widened, “how did y-“

“The three of us went looking for him..” Klaus said, chuckling “He did not look good with a broken nose...I was proud of you”

Suddenly reminded of the reason why your knuckles kept hurting, you grinned, “Why thank you sir “ taking a bow whilst sitting. Their chuckling died down a few seconds later.

“Please don’t tell me he’s dead” you looked at him worriedly. He shook his head.

“No no...Diego took care of it...As in...” he added, before you could protest “the cops got to him...Geez..calm down Y/N...now look who’s the drama queen”

Sighing with relief, you looked back at the road. Sharing a comfortable silence together was somewhat a usual activity for the both of you. But the moment a random skateboarder sped past, you felt a surge of courage inside you.

“I never put a label on how I felt for you Klaus” you began, turning to him whilst taking a deep breath, “...ever. But I knew, whatever I felt for you, it was ...strong”

With his hands on his knees, Klaus looked at you with surprise.

“To be honest I ...I never wanted to. I didn’t want to limit my feelings for you to one certain thing. All I knew was that...”you drew in a breath, “...your happiness mattered the most, your sadness broke me the most...Your..” you watched his eyes twinkle with emotion. You scoffed at your own self,

“Ha! I can’t believe I’m literally pouring my heart out to you right now. Right here in fact..” Pointing at the pavement, You burst out laughing , “It's like the flood gates of emotion just opened..”

Your laughter was interrupted when Klaus slowly extended his hand, his thumb grazing over your lips.

“Y/N..” he began, “...when I kissed you, I felt like I just...I just got…” struggling to come up with the right words, he went “you know what you get when you…”

“Smoked something...injected something ? ..got high?” You answered with raised eyebrows. He snapped his fingers in approval. Chuckling, you nodded frantically “yeah..I get it ...”

“Like…what the hell have I been doing all this time?” He scoffed, looking at you. “You’re not the only one buddy” you kept chuckling, for you just couldn’t stop. “And when I ..when we …happened” his voice grew unbelievably soft, holding you by the shoulders, “ It was just so amazing Y/N”

You would be lying if you were not moved by his tenderness.

“Klaus…I’m not trying to suck up to you. But I feel the same” you breathed, “..for a moment I felt like I could...I could be incredibly alive and-”

“For a moment I felt like I didn’t need the drugs to put up with myself..” Klaus whispered.

You sighed heavily. Resting your hand on his cheek, you stroked it lovingly with your thumb , “Oh Klaus...” you whispered back.

“We totally sound like we’re high right now…don’t we?” You added. Klaus giggled. “And we’re really not” “Isn’t it crazy?”

Funny how your hand still didn’t leave his cheek. It may have seemed odd to some, but you did not care, and neither did Klaus.

“I’ve known you for a long time Y/N..” he said, “ only to not know what I really felt about you. I-”

“I love you Klaus”

You blurted out. It was now or never. Suddenly you felt a beating heart inside you once more.

The green in his beautiful eyes grew warmer. Tilting on your palm, he kissed it gently. You were simply overwhelmed with how precious this man was to you.

Pulling you in, his lips clashed on to yours, kissing you tenderly. You finally felt a sense of perfection in your life as his forehead rested on your own as he breathed:

“I love you more….”

———————————————————————

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redrobinfection · 6 years

Text

Tim the Drake, Pt 9

EDIT (2019.10.17): So, I was re-reading Tim the Drake yesterday and realized... I forgot to post the entire first section to this part! Took me an entire year to figure that out. Oops 🙃 Well. Here it is now. Parts 9 and 10 should make better sense now. Enjoy 😅

<< Part 8

~*~

There was never any doubt in anyone's mind as to where Tim was headed. Dick brought his bike to stop next to Tim's, behind the tall fence bordering the back lot where Jason had been transformed, just as Tim made it to the corner of the building where it all had all gone down.

"I know you can hear me," Red Robin shouted to the rooftops. "We changed him back! I broke the second spell! How do we break the first one?"

The Batmobile pulled up behind Dick, and Steph rolled to a stop beside him. Dick dismounted and began scaling the fence.

"Answer me!" Red bellowed, scaring a handful of pigeons out of the eaves of another building. For a moment Dick thought Tim's desperate cries would go unanswered and that he could would make it to Tim before he could try another foolish call to summon the mage, but then the lights flickered, there was a whiff of cedar and sandalwood, and the mage appeared.

"Oh. So I see you two 'kissed and made up'," they teased lightly, orange eyes gleaming in the low light like a cat's.

"How do I change him back?!"

"Red, don't!" Dick called desperately, jumping down on the inside of the fence. He heard Bruce and Damian scrambling up the other side while Steph looked for a way to come in from another angle.

The mage tilted their head, as if listening to something no one else could hear. "How do you change him back? You don't change anything, little boy-duck. He'll change back on his own. Once the conditions are met."

"Which conditions? We alrea-"

"Same as before," they purred, waving their hand in a grand gesture.

Dick didn't even have a chance to call out a warning before a flash of light and the taste of honey hit them, and then in place of Red Robin there sat - surprise, surprise - a duck. A very shocked duck. The mage was nowhere to be found.

---

To everyone's surprise Jason the Todde did not immediately attempt to eat Tim the Drake. In fact the fox didn't even attempt to chase the duck.

Instead, when Batman stepped out of the Batmobile with the duck cradled in one arm, Jason the fox let out a whine so heart-wrenching that Dick worried that he had somehow injured himself while they were gone. The fox followed closely at Bruce's heels, waiting until the man paused, at which point he rose up on his hind legs and nosed at his elbow. When Steph tried to chase him away from the trembling bird in B’s arms, Jason let out a screaming bark[3] that made everyone, including Batman, jump.

Tim freed himself from B's loosened grip and fluttered down to the floor. The fox slowly stepped forward and carefully sniffed the duck from head to tail, letting out a low whine as he did. The duck turned and began preening the fox's fur, picking and pecking gently in obvious affection. Everyone stared.

When it came time for them to head up, Tim pointedly avoided being picked up by anyone - waddling away from Dick, flying away from Damian, and glaring threateningly at Bruce until he backed away slowly, both hands raised in surrender. Instead, Tim kept close to Jason, following him and Alfred into the elevator. Dick met them on the first floor and helped feed Tim strips of lettuce - bread is apparently very bad for ducks, come to find out - while Alfred shredded cooked chicken for Jason. They eventually gave Tim a bowl of peas in water to keep him from sneaking bites of Jason's chicken.

Jason never once snapped or growled, instead gently nosing Tim away from his dish, eventually leaving a small pile of chewed-up chicken to one side for him to peck at. Tim brought over a few of his peas for Jason that the fox then chased around the kitchen gleefully. Dick's eyes prickled with tears of pride for how brotherly they were to each other.

After that Dick and Alfred accompanied them out into the yard to do their business, then led them upstairs. When they made it to family wing, Tim turned toward his room while Jay loped past and scratched at the doorway to his. Alfred scolded him for his impatience - and the new scratches in the wood finish - but opened the door for him only for Tim to suddenly fly in out of nowhere, begin snapping at Jason's feet - all the while quacking loudly and insistently - and effectively herd the fox back into the hallway.

Tim scuttled over to his door and began vigorously pecking the wood. Alfred sighed - more damage to the wood finish to worry about later - but opened it for him. As soon as the door opened, Tim circled around behind the fox and began herding him forward into his room. Once Jason picked up Tim's intent, he eagerly trotted into the room and stood by the bed, waiting for Alfred or Dick to turn it down for them. Dick let Alfred handle the bed while he went in search of of a water dish for the two of them.

Dick returned a few minutes later to find the fox curled up loosely on Tim's bed, in a nest of blankets, while the duck nestled down against his side, encircled securely by the pen formed by the fox’s legs. The fox cracked an eye, but the duck's head was tucked snugly under his wing and the breaths that expanded his feathered body were slow and steady. Dick successfully resisted the urge to coo at sight, gently set their water dish down near the door, and quietly backed out of the room.

When he checked on them a few hours later - just to make extra sure the duck hadn't become a snack or the fox hadn't had his eyes pecked out - he was shocked to find human Tim and human Jason, fully dressed in ducky and fox footie pajamas, respectively, that he knew they hadn't owned before all of this, curled up together in Tim's bed. Jason was the bigger spoon, pressed closely against Tim's back, legs curling around Tim’s protectively. Tim, in turn, hugged the arm Jason had slung around him tightly to chest.

Dick struggled valiantly against the urge to pull out his camera phone and snap a couple photos, but he did allow himself to stand there for a few minutes and stare, burning the image into his memory while internally "oooh"ing and "awww"ing and crying happy, older brother tears.

It hadn't been more than five or six hours since Jason had reverted back to a fox and Tim had subsequently gone after the mage, he mused to himself once he finally managed to tear his eyes away from the touching scene. The only way they could have changed back so soon, he reasoned, was if they had satisfied the unspecified "conditions" the mage had mentioned earlier. Was this - Tim and Jason cuddling together in Tim's bed - what the mage had been after all along?

The mage's words echoed in his ears as he silently backed out of the room, locking the door from the inside on his way out. "So I see you two kissed and made up". Yeah, Dick thought, smiling to himself, they really did.

~*~

Part 10 >>

[3] What the fox actually says is very startling o_O: https://youtu.be/zk1mAd77Hr4)

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sojourner-between-worlds · 6 years

Text

The Problem of Susan, pt.2

In case you missed it, the first part is here. You don’t have to read that first, but if you’re curious on reasons why all views are valid on this subject or why the witnesses are, indeed, reliable, then head on over to that link.

This post, however, is my own personal view on Susan’s fate, in regard to the series itself. There will be a third post with a Biblical perspective, as well. (It was supposed to all be in one, but I think this is far long enough for one sitting.)

I’m not trying to convince anyone to change what they think (I’ve already stated more than once that every view is a valid one), but I do hope I can get you to think about your own view -- question it, refine it, make it better. (Differing opinions don’t have to be bad, yes?) Feel free to comment/message me/reblog/whatever; I’m down for discourse on this. (Dangerous words, I know. I might even change my mind!) So let’s get started, shall we?

(All quotes taken from the 2008 HarperCollins Edition, which is a 7-in-1 volume so page numbers will not reflect single books.)

Susan Pevensie is never reunited with her siblings and Aslan.

I debated starting with the typical passage everyone practically has memorized from reading it so many times in posts like these (you know the one, from the Last Battle, that literally everyone sites no matter their stance), and decided against it. If you want to see what I have to say about that passage specifically, you can head on back up to that link and read part one. The bits relevant to this post can be summed up as follows: None of her siblings deny what is said. It would be one thing if they were just talking among themselves, but Tirian is there. Tirian who knows nothing of the Gentle Queen except of her life in Narnia. Why would they want him to start thinking badly of her? They wouldn’t. But they also don’t want to deny the truth or sugar-coat it either. So good ol’ Peter changes the subject, and that’s all. He can’t deny that she indeed did say that Narnia was just fantasy, but he doesn’t wish to see her time in Narnia tainted either.

What I take from that popular passage? Susan disowned Narnia.

So let me take this a little further, and very simply refute a lot of popular opinions in one go: Aslan did not abandon her; she abandoned Narnia. If you think Aslan abandoned her, you need to go reread the entire series because thinking that He abandoned her goes against the very character established over the course of the books. The reason she was not allowed to return with them was not because she ‘grew up.’ She grew up in Narnia, too. She had suitors. (...Or did you just miss that entire subplot in the Horse and His Boy?) As a queen, she would have had many beautiful gowns. She didn’t like to go to war, but nowhere was she ever made out to be less of a queen because of that (and, let’s face it: ruling a country is a lot more than just marching off to war; she may have opted out of battle, but she definitely wasn’t just sitting on her butt doing nothing while her siblings were away). In fact, nowhere was she made out to be less of a queen for any of the above mentioned things. In fact, Tirian immediately recognizes that she’s missing. If those things had made her less of a queen, why would he know her just as he knew the others? She was seen as a powerful queen for her femininity just as much as Lucy was seen as powerful for being a warrior, because those things were not, of themselves, bad things.

So what really happened then?

It was a choice. Plain and simple.

Just like her siblings, she made a choice when she returned to England. They choose to remember and talk about it often. She choose to forget.

I might add here, though, that it may not have necessarily been a conscious choice -- to forget, at least. If you’ll all remember how, at the end of the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, they had all forgotten England as if it had been “a dream, or a dream of a dream.” They forgot England because it wasn’t a prominent part of their lives and it wasn’t relevant to ruling in Narnia. Susan could have just as easily forgotten Narnia the same way.

However, it was still a choice. It was still a choice for her to stop talking about Narnia with her siblings. And when she stopped talking about it, she genuinely forgot that it was real. But what drove her to the choice of forgetting? Choosing to become so engrossed in England and choosing to regard everything that happened in Narnia as unimportant.

“But she was just doing what Aslan told her to do! To move on!” Yes, that is true. But not entirely. We don’t know what exactly Aslan said to Peter and Susan before they left for the last time, but if we’re assuming they were told the same as Edmund and Lucy, then we have to assume they were told everything the same, which means that not only were Peter and Susan told to live in their own world but they were supposed to try to find Aslan as he was known there. Completely forgetting and becoming engrossed in the world doesn’t fit the second half, now does it?

It was a choice. Plain and simple. And Susan chose wrong.

So now that I’ve established that the fault is hers and hers alone, why do I think she never made it back eventually?

Let’s start by talking about materialism.

Because it’s about her faith, not materialism.

A lot of people argue about what role materialism plays and just how far it goes towards her eternal destination, so let me offer this: Materialism was not the issue, but it did play a part. Susan’s materialism (lipstick and nylons and invitations) was the visible quantity by which they measured her spiritual decline. We can’t see anyone else’s heart, but people’s hearts are reflected in what they value. Susan placed value on material things, and that’s what other people saw and recognized, and that’s why Jill made a point of it in the Last Battle. She couldn’t see Susan’s heart, but she could see the things Susan appeared to value.

But material things were never the problem in and of themselves -- as I already stated.

It was her faith -- or, rather, her lack thereof.

Again, I’d like to draw your attention back to the idea of forgetting. When they were in Narnia the first time, they all forgot England. It wasn’t relevant to their current lives, so they didn’t talk much about it or think much about it. When Susan returned from their second trip, the same was true for her. Living in England and knowing she would never return, Narnia was no longer relevant to her. Unlike her siblings, she didn’t seek to hold onto that knowledge and so didn’t talk about it anymore or even really think about it.

I’ve always been told you make time for the things that are important to you. When you love something, you want to talk about it, right? (I mean, c’mon, be honest with yourself: you wouldn’t be on tumblr if that wasn’t true. We all have things we love to talk about to the point that we’re willing to talk to perfect strangers about it, even.) The things that you love and that are important and that you value are the things you want to talk about. And, as Eustace tells us in the Last Battle, Susan no longer wanted to talk about Narnia.

When Narnia was no longer before her, what did she use to fill the void? Lipstick and nylons and invitations. Instead of finding faith, she chose to find the world.

(As an aside, I do fully believe she could have brushed it off as irrelevant at the first partially out of anger or bitterness or flat-out hurt at never being able to return. As time passed, perhaps she held a grudge, but perhaps she also came to realize that it was truly irrelevant and there was nothing else behind her forgetting. Regardless of either situation, it was still a choice, she still forgot, and it still happened over time, not right away.)

The progression of her fall can be summed up as follows:

Susan left Narnia and found it to be no longer relevant to her life.

Susan stopped talking about Narnia because it was no longer relevant to her and, as a result, became infatuated with worldly things.

Susan forgot Narnia and denounced it as a silly game.

But why would someone give up so easily on something they once loved?

Maybe because she didn’t really believe in the first place.

Let’s start with the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe:

Even more than Peter, Susan didn’t want to believe Narnia was there in the first place.

After talking to Professor Kirke, Peter almost seems willing to believe it could be true (not that it necessarily is, only that it could be).

“But do you really mean, sir,” said Peter, “that there could be other worlds -- all over the place, just round the corner -- like that?” --- “Nothing is more probable,” said the Professor. (Pg. 132)

And Peter leaves it at that.

“But what are we to do?” said Susan. She felt that the conversation was beginning to get off the point. (Pg. 136)

She couldn’t leave it alone, and felt that Lucy believing was solely the problem, not at all concerned with whether or not her sister had, in fact, been telling the truth. She refused to accept that it could be the truth and only wanted to know how to make her sister stop believing. She wouldn’t even consider it.

Susan starts out by making excuses.

“I -- I wonder if there’s any point in going on,” said Susan. “I mean, it doesn’t seem particularly safe here and it looks as if it won’t be much fun either. And it’s getting colder every minute, and we’ve brought nothing to eat. What about just going home?” (Pg. 136-137).

She only changes her mind for Lucy’s sake. She understands Lucy feeling guilty about Mr Tumnus, so, even though she’d rather go home, she gives in.

She tries to get them to turn around.

“Let’s go home,” said Susan. And then, though nobody said it out loud, everyone suddenly realized the same fact that Edmund had whispered to Peter at the end of the last chapter. They were lost. (Pg. 139)

The only reason she consents to follow Mr Beaver is because she realizes they are lost anyway so there’s no point in arguing over it.

Unlike the others, she regrets being there.

"How perfectly dreadful!” said Susan as they at last came back in despair. “Oh, how I wish we’d never come.” (Pg. 148)

Yes, those words could have just been spoken in regret over losing track of her brother, but she’s the only one to utter these words; Peter, instead, immediately asks what can be done. He and Lucy immediate look to what can be done instead of bemoaning their situation.

No one else tries to make any excuse to leave (except for Edmund, but we all know what he was like at that point in the story, and even he doesn’t fight as hard against it as she does).

In summary: She was the only one who, even after seeing it for herself, didn’t want to stay.

And then in Prince Caspian:

Even after having ruled for fifteen years previously, Susan doubted.

“Where do you think you saw him?” asked Susan. --- “Don’t talk like a grown-up,” said Lucy, stamping her foot. “I didn’t think I saw him. I saw him.” (Pg. 373)

“Don’t be angry, Lu,” said Susan, “but I do think we should go down. I’m dead tired. Do let’s get out of this wretched wood into the open as quick as we can. And none of us except you saw anything.” (Pg. 374)

“Down,” said Peter after a long pause. “I know Lucy may be right after all, but I can’t help it. We must do one or the other.” (Pg. 374)

Peter at least acknowledges that Lucy could be right. Susan flat out refuses to believe Lucy saw anything because no one except her saw. As Edmund pointed out, this same type of situation had happened before, and Lucy had been right. And he says that before Susan casts her vote. Susan decides that doing what she would rather do is more important than trusting her sister and believing in Aslan.

Just like in LWW, she refuses to believe that Lucy is telling the truth and refuses to believe in Aslan.

Then she tried Susan. Susan did really wake up, but only to say in her most annoying grown-up voice, “You’ve been dreaming, Lucy. Go to sleep again.” (Pg. 381)

“Can you [see Aslan], Susan?” --- “No, of course I can’t,” snapped Susan. “Because there isn’t anything to see. She’s been dreaming. So lie down and go to sleep, Lucy.” (Pg. 383)

“Don’t talk nonsense, Lucy,” said Susan. “Of course you can’t go off on your own. Don’t let her, Peter. She’s being downright naughty.” --- “I’ll go with her, if she must go,” said Edmund. “She’s been right before.” --- “I know she has,” said Peter. “And she may have been right this morning [.]” (Pg. 383)

“You’ve no right to try to force the rest of us like that. It’s four to one and you’re the youngest,” said Susan. --- “Oh, come on,” growled Edmund. “We’ve got to go. There’ll be no peace till we do.” He fully intended to back Lucy up [.] (Pg. 384) (Technically three to two, since Edmund had already agreed to go with her. Susan doesn’t know how to count, lol.)

Even in Narnia, Susan’s first instinct is to tell Lucy, “You’ve been dreaming. It isn’t real.” Edmund fully backs her up; Peter doesn’t completely doubt her. Susan plays it off as make-believe because she can’t see Aslan with her own eyes.

Susan is the last of the Pevensies to be able to see Him -- and for good reason.

This time Edmund saw him. “Oh, Aslan!” he cried, darting forward. But the Lion whisked round and began padding up the slope on the far side of the Rush. --- “Peter, Peter,” cried Edmund. “Did you see?” --- “I saw something,” said Peter. (Pg. 385)

[A]nd always the glorious, silently pacing Beast ahead. Everyone except Susan and the Dwarf could see him now. (Pg. 385, emphasis mine.)

“I see him now. I’m sorry.” --- “That’s all right.” --- “But I’ve been far worse than you know. I really believed it was him - he, I mean - yesterday. ... I mean, deep down inside. Or I could have, if I’d let myself. ...” (Pg. 286, emphasis mine.)

Then, after an awful pause, the deep voice said, “Susan”. Susan made no answer but the others thought she was crying. “You have listened to fears child,” said Aslan. (Pg. 386)

Edmund could see Him by the time they crossed the river. Peter could see Him before they got to the top of the other side of the gorge. Susan couldn’t see him until they were well on their way after getting to the top again. Why did it take her so much longer? Because even in Narnia -- when she could see the world before her -- her faith in Aslan was weak. She said it herself: that she could have believed if she’d let herself. But other things -- fear in this case -- got in the way, and those fears were only swept aside after she could physically see Him with her own eyes.

In summary: Susan spends the majority of their time in Narnia the second time doubting Aslan is there, even though fifteen years of experience should have told her otherwise.

“Or, I could have, if I’d let myself.”

Susan didn’t just forget Narnia. She didn’t really believe in the first place. I don’t think she really wanted to believe, either.

From the very beginning, she had been dragged in, kicking and screaming the whole way. She adjusted to her life there by forgetting England. Then, suddenly, she was back in England again. I suppose maybe, just like her siblings, she had hoped to one day get back. But after she was told she could not return again? It didn’t matter if she remembered if she was never going to be able to go back. That knowledge wasn’t practical in England; it had no use for her, so she didn’t need to remember it.

During their second trip in Prince Caspian, she was in Narnia, she could see it with her own two eyes, and yet she didn’t believe when Lucy had said she saw Aslan. Even when Edmund and then Peter said they could see Aslan, she still could not because she didn’t believe He was there. It took her a long time to be able to see what was right in front of her the whole time. (What changed in that time? We don’t know; CS Lewis didn’t tell us her thoughts anymore than he gave us her definite fate. But, at some point, she relented to the fact that Aslan was there, probably because of her siblings and no other reason, just as she only ever really believed anything because of her siblings.)

From the very beginning, she couldn’t bring herself to believe something existed unless she herself could see it right in front her.

And if, while in Narnia, she couldn’t believe Aslan was right there in front of her, why would she be able to believe when all of that was stripped away?

Including her siblings. Her only remaining tie to Narnia.

She has forgotten, she can no longer see it with her own eyes, and her siblings aren’t there to remind her of what once was.

Without going back again herself, there is nothing to bring her back to the place she once loved, even if she actually wanted to be there.

Susan Pevensie is never reunited with her siblings and Aslan.

#chronicles of narnia #the problem of susan #susan pevensie

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daebakinc · 7 years

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We Make the Kingdom - Pt 15

Image by silverdagger865

Pairing: Yongguk x OC Genre: Fantasy, with Angst and Smut to come Summary: After a vampire attack leaves you almost dead, you are rescued by a group of werelions, powers long thought to be extinct. Upon discovering the same magic flows in your blood, you join their fight against encroaching vampires and another, very human monster, to save the kingdom. A/N: I’m really sorry this is late when I promised it’d be posted this weekend! This chapter is just so dense and so important I couldn’t mess it up. Sorry again for the delay! Previous parts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 , 8, 9(M), 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16(M), 17, 18, Final

Himchan and the others only ever gave you the barest details of their time in the Capitol. Yongguk would never speak of it. You only asked once. The deep scars inflicted by whip and brand that cover his back in defiance of your were healing abilities told you enough to not press the issue.

The tale is far worse than you could have imagined.

Unsurprisingly, each band of weres elect their alphas to tell their stories before Lady Kim and the State Council. They make a contrasting trio as they stand side by side on the vacant dais. Hyunwoo in his pristine royal uniform that strains against his broad chest, and Yongguk and Junmyeon in torn common clothes that seem to barely restrain the wild animals still prowling behind their eyes. Yongguk taps his fingers against his thigh in impatience at losing time that could be spent preparing for Lamia’s arrival, but he has studied the law. He knows if it is to go in the right direction, it cannot always do so in haste, like an old man with failing vision trying to locate the correct book from his library.

Junmyeon begins after sharing questioning looks at his taciturn counterparts. Yongguk and Hyunwoo add their voices only to offer particulars that Junmyeon forgot or did not personally undergo. There is very little the king did not subject them to. Your hearts twists and your hands curl into trembling fists. How can Junmyeon so calmly describe each time they were beaten, each time they were forced to watch each other punished, each time they were subjected to inhumane acts designed to break their spirits? Your sole consolation is observing faces of the counselors grow darker with anger and disgust.

Junmyeon breaks off after telling of Yifan’s murder to steady the quiver in his voice and for the second time, Hyunwoo looks at him.

Hyunwoo keeps his voice low, but the chamber was designed to carry sound. “We did not betray Yifan,” he says. Although there is no change of expression on his face, something in his voice begs for the other alpha to believe him. “Yifan came to us and we concealed him in our barracks, but a patrol found him when he was with his mother. The king made us to watch him be tortured and killed. To the end, Yifan did reveal that we helped him. We will always be thankful for his courage.”

Junmyeon nods after recovering from surprise and quickly begins speaking again, but not before exchanging a look of what appears to be the beginning of understanding. Yongguk keeps his eyes on the alpha bear, considering his unflinching gaze. Instinctively, you know Hyunwoo is telling the truth. You hope Yongguk can sense the same. A blood grudge long held is difficult to abandon, but if ever one needs to be reconciled, it is the one that divides the weres.

Your attention wanes as the patches of sun slide across the wooden floors and your feet start to ache. You notice Lady Kim motion a servant over and whisper something in his ear. Automatically cautious, you follow him with your eyes until he ducks behind a tapestry, temporarily distracted from the alphas. A few minutes later, the servant reappears with several others, bearing stools that they set out before you. The first servant helps Hyosung onto the foremost seat.

He then approaches you, consciously oblivious to the dozens of scowls shooting in his direction. “My lady, your chair.” He motions to the stool just behind Hyosung and extends his hand to you.

Jongup swipes your uncertain hand out of reach of the servant. “I will take her, thank you,” he growls, sounding anything but grateful.

When you gratefully sit down and look at the dais again, Yongguk’s eyes are on you. You smile faintly, half to assure him everything is fine and half to encourage him. To the Council, he undoubtedly seems nobly stoic, but they misread his discomfort at being the focus of so many gazes. At least his time before the Council is nearly complete as Junmyeon is now on Lamia’s infiltration of the palace and her bargain with the king.

Lady Kim stands after his voice dissipates from the air, hoarse now that he is finished with his narration. “Thank you, Sir Kim. You have given this Council much to contemplate and discuss. It is distressing that such events and loss of life have been ongoing within the kingdom under our very noses for so long. I swear the crimes against you all will be fully and diligently investigated when there is time, which I know we do not currently possess. Goddess willing, we will. Before we progress, I have one question for you, Sir weres: How did you know this apparition was the Queen Lamia aside from her word?”

“Only one of us has personally encountered her aside from this instance,” Junmyeon admits tentatively, glancing at Yongguk.

“Who?”

Yongguk catches your eye and raises an eyebrow. He knows you aren’t particularly at ease here, so he will not expose you without your leave. You give your permission with a nod. These officials need to hear a first-hand account of Lamia to prove yourselves.

Yongguk takes over from Junmyeon with a shuffle forward. “It was one of my lions. Lamia knew what she was when her vampires attacked the village and tried to turn her. Thankfully, her were-blood is strong and Lamia’s test did not succeed.”

You keep your eyes on Yongguk as you feel many gazes turn toward you, the only woman in the midst of the male weres. Trying your hardest not to fidget under their scrutiny as you are painfully aware of your ragged state. Muddied boots, dirt stained pants hem, hair loose in disarray, while they sit without a seam out of place.

“Rise, lady lioness, please,” Lady Kim says. How these Capitol people keep their careful masks to conceal their thoughts is beyond you. “Your name?”

“Ness.”

“And your family name?”

You almost casually shrug before you catch yourself. Clasping your hands to limit your impulse to move as you speak, you reply, “None. I have no memories of my life before Lamia massacred my village. Even the name I go by is not truly my own; the other lions gave it to me.”

“I am sorry for your loss,” the older woman responds politely. You actually believe she means it from the way she meets your eyes. “Can you tell us what occurred on that night or would you prefer a companion of yours to?”

“No one speaks for me but myself, Grand Minister.”

A glimmer of respect comes into Lady Kim’s eyes. “Proceed then.”

You tell them everything you remember and more. Sometimes your words tumble together when you let yourself look away from the calm attentiveness of Lady Kim’s face and into the sea of officials, but for the most part, you speak well. You speak of the chaos of the raid, the screams and the blood and the destruction. You speak of Lamia’s paralyzing power, her poisonous beauty and her contempt for human life. You speak of your discovery of her name in the annals of the weres who came before you, their warnings and false victory.

By the time your mind is empty of more to say, your tongue is heavy and your cloth belt wrinkled more than before from your fingers knotting in it. You sink back down on to your stool in relief that your part is done when Lady Kim gestures for you to do so.

She remains silent, gazing out the window but clearly noticing none of the clouds and birds outside them. The other council members talk amongst themselves in hushed tones. If you tried, you could listen, but you do not. The excitement and strain of the day gnawing at your remaining reserves of strength, already depleted by lack of sleep and food. Adrenaline only lasts but for so long. The bears remain erect in their seats, ever the alert guardians, but many of the wolves and lions’ shoulders and eyes sag under the same weight as yours. Only pride and the need to listen keeps you all upright.

Lady Kim stands again, bringing all voices to a hush with her simple movement. With her bearing, she could have been an empress in another life. “Fellow council members, I believe we can agree by all that has been demonstrated thus far that the Princess spoke the truth. The vampires have returned, but so have their mortal enemies and our saviors of old, the weres. They stand before and have given witness. Do any still doubt their claims’ legitimacy?”

No one raises a hand.

“Acknowledged. We are now at war, councilors. We are short on time, but it will be a short war. We will live, or we will perish. We all know our history. There is no surrender with these creatures. There is no mercy.

“We will send for our generals and advisors immediately, but it will take time to gather everyone. When they arrive, we will begin planning our defense. Meanwhile,” Lady Kim turns her keen eyes to the floor where you all sit, “Princess Hyosung, we will listen to your testimony. Some piece of information your spies gathered may prove invaluable. However, I believe the weres could use a short reprieve before we continue to seek their guidance. I assume there are rooms we may provide for them to rest and refresh themselves?”

“Yes. Of course.” The princess immediately stands, already beckoning a servant forward. “I believe the vacant apartments near my compound will suffice. I will send for them to be prepared. They should be ready by the time the weres arrive.”

Yongguk shakes his head. “I would prefer to remain here, Your Majesty.”

Hyunwoo and Junmyeon nod in agreement, causing a rumble of consensus from the weres. Regardless of animal form, you are united in this: where your alphas go, you go. When they stay, you stay, regardless of how you feel.

“Go.” Yongguk steps down from the dais to speak to you all without projecting his voice. “Himchan, you may stay if you wish, but the rest of you, go to the princess’ apartments. You will need all your strength, mental and physical, when it comes time to prepare and fight. Recuperate while you can so you are of the utmost use,” he says when you all begin talking over each other in protest.

A few steps away, Junmyeon and Hyunwoo are also surrounded by their men, whispering, arguing, while the Council waits.

“We can rest when you do. We do not want to miss anything,” Youngjae counters instantly.

“Or leave you alone,” you add. On the surface, the danger may have temporarily been eliminated, but like a sudden thunderstorm in the summer, it could return without warning.

“I will report all the proceedings back to you later,” Yongguk promises, raising his hands to stop your words, “and I will be safe. The king cannot summon anyone from wherever the bears are holding him, and magical harm is impossible. I will come as soon as the princess is done. Go. Please.”

You share a look with the others. Ultimately, none of you can deny Yongguk anything for your love and devotion to him. So, with reluctance, you all submit to his wish.

When the maid slides open the door of polished wood and paper so fresh you can still smell the pulp it came from and bows aside, you cannot cross the threshold.

“This cannot be mine,” you murmur. You look at the servant, sure the poor woman made a mistake. She’s been sending you so many curious looks, maybe she took a wrong turn after she showed the other lions to theirs one hall down. Word of what conspired in the council chamber has no doubt reached every corner of this palace.

“It is, my lady,” the servant replies demurely. “The Princess Hyosung specifically chose it for you and your lord. Is it not satisfactory? I can find another that is more to your taste if you so wish.”

“It is not… unsatisfactory. It is just much more than I am used to.” You don’t correct her on your lack of title or Yongguk being your ‘lord.’ The room demands too much of your attention to do so.

Wooden paneling, the tranquil ashy brown of camphor, covers three of the walls with one holding a single, wide window that is latched tight against winter’s chill. The fourth wall is plaster and covered with a painting of a plum tree in full bloom, its limbs graceful despite their dark gnarled bark and surrounded by sunrise-kissed blossoms that flutter and pirouette on the invisible wind the unknown artist captured forever. A vase of chrysanthemums warms the room with their spicy scent, as if trying to soften the priceless sumptuousness.

Each piece of furniture is a perfect melding of simplicity and luxury, plain lines embellished with embedded gold and silver cut into elaborate shapes. Calligraphy of a courtly poem flow down the wheat-colored silk of a folding screen that offers its privacy in the corner. The thick burgundy silk blankets on the low bed in the center of the room, its bedposts carved into opening rosebuds, barely cover the overstuffed mattress.

Your shared bedroom at the keep seems like a beggar’s derelict hovel, but you suddenly wish you were there rather than here. You don’t dare step in the room for fear of sullying it with your grubbiness.

“The Princess insisted esteemed guests such as yourselves receive only the best.” The maid gives you another look over before offering, “May I bring you fresh clothes, my lady? And perhaps warm water for a bath.”

Eagerness flutters in your stomach. To let water steep your bones in heat and to wear clothes not stiff with days of wear sound like a dream. The heated floor tickles your feet in invitation to step inside and finally lower your guard. Most of the way. “If it isn’t too much trouble…”

“Right away, my lady. I will return shortly.”

It is a wonder that such humble items as soap and fresh clothes can make a person feel human again. Yet the ones you used were anything but. The soap was smooth and heavily scented with perfume, and the fine, cool silk skirt and jacket that brush your skin is so supple it makes your modest cotton clothes feel rough in comparison.

Your fingers trace the meticulously embroidered suns on the blanket. It’s finer work, more expensive material, than any you would have ever encountered in your lifetime if your life had continued without interruption. But you are not one to linger on such things. You return your eyes to the door. The jewels a maid stuck in your hair tinkle against their gold pins when you move your head.

The servants have come and gone, their tongues silent but for asking after your needs even though their eyes search for hundreds of answers to share amongst the servant halls. They left a generous bowl of fruit and a hot pot of tea on the long delicate table that sits in front of the bed, but you are waiting for Yongguk before you touch it, even though your stomach grumbles in displeasure at your choice. But the steam has long stopped lazily drifting towards the ceiling and no one else has knocked at your door. Not even the other lions have appeared.

They are safe, you can feel that. Better than safe. Though the underlying tension of waiting to act still trickles through each of you, there is also a peaceful restfulness you have not felt since leaving the keep. The calm before the breaking of the storm.

A soft rap on your door brings your thoughts back.

“Come in,” you call as you stand, thinking it is the servant again or maybe one of your friends come to look in on you. You step back in surprise when instead three of the bears step inside. You identify the tallest in the back as one of the bears from the Cage. His sleeves do not quite hide the healing pink skin at his wrists from the shackles.

Although none have Hyunwoo’s bulk, they still carry the same intimidating air of strength that’s synonymous with the bears. Yet they are the picture of subdued. Their hands are clasped politely in front of them, their shoulders slightly hunched forward, eyes not quite meeting yours. You could almost call them shy.

Unsure of their errand, you slowly say, “I’m sorry, but Yongguk is still with the princess.”

The one from the Cage elbows the bear in front. You recognize him as the bear who had been behind you on the way to the dungeon, who had so regretted being the cause for his friends’ sentence in the Cage. “We know. We came with the intention of calling on you, my lady.”

“Is it true you survived a bite from the queen vampire herself?” the instigator blurts out.

“Seokwon, your manners! I’m sorry,” the first bear says to you. “He’s still young and we have not interacted with many people outside of our group since we came to the Capitol.”

“And we’ve never seen a female were before,” the other adds, openly examining you, but his gaze holds none of the king’s leering, only innocent interest.

“Minkyun!”

Instead of taking offense, you chuckle. These three almost remind you of Himchan with Junhong and Daehyun with their interplay, immediately warming you to them. “I’m very sorry to disappoint you, gentlemen, but I am very much like any other woman in the kingdom.”

“Except you’re a lion and can fight,” Seokwon says.

“I do apologize, Lady Ness.” Their spokesman sends a glare at the others. “We should have introduced ourselves open our entry. I am Kwangji. This is Choi Seokwon and this is Park Minkyun.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you.” Recalling dusty etiquette to save you from your uncertainty of what to do next, you gesture to the set table. “Would you like to join me? The tea is cold, I’m afraid.”

“Thank you, my lady,” Kwangji says, bowing slightly at the waist. The others mimic him before Minkyun rushes to the wall to grab the sitting pillows that lean there.

“I prefer Ness, please,” you tell them. “I am not a lady. Oh, thank you.” You smile at Minkyun when he places a pillow in front of you first. The smile he sends you back is blinding.

“Ness then.” Kwangji settles on the pillow Minkyun brought him. When you reach for the pot to pour, he quickly slides his hands beneath yours. “Please, allow me. You must still be tired from your journey.”

“I am rested enough,” you object, but he is already pouring the tea. You notice Minkyun eyeing an apple, so you take it and pass it to him. You pass persimmons to the others. “You have undergone as much as us. I am glad you are recovering from your time in the Cage, Seokwon.”

Seokwon’s fingers don’t pause picking off the persimmons’ leaves, but a wave of guilt passes over Kwangji’s face that he quickly squelches.

“I have been inside for longer,” Seokwon says as if it is nothing. “This time wasn’t so bad. The Princess snuck us food every day. I thought it was just because she felt sorry for us. Who knew Changkyun was her spy.”

“No one. That the point of a spy.” Minkyun laughs and shoves Seokwon’s shoulder. From your seat, you can tell that playful push would have sent a normal person skidding across the room, but Seokwon barely rocks in place. He looks to you again. “Are you as strong as the other lions? The king didn’t allow us to mix when we trained, but we got to watch sometimes. Jongup was so strong I think he could defeat one of us with very little trouble, wasn’t he, Kwangji?”

“They would all be formidable opponents,” his friend replies. “We are lucky to not be their enemies.”

You accept a cup of tea from Kwangji. “Jongup is even stronger now and certainly our best warrior. I’m not quite as powerful, but I am faster, which is of great use against vampires because I can follow their movements more accurately while I am a lioness. I can pounce and shift to drive a stake through their heart whereas the others generally have to shift back and forth more to wear down the vampire before going for their heart. We can kill them by beheading them with our bites, but vampire blood tastes horrible. Like ashes and rancid meat, so we prefer not to.”

Minkyun chokes on his mouthful of apple when he tries to speak without swallowing. Kwangji pounds his back and the instant he can breathe, he uses his first gulp of air to say, “We read each of the reports Yongguk sent. Hoseok stole them after the king read them, but what’s it really like fighting vampires? Are they really that fast and wild? We’ve only practiced on each other.”

Your smile fades a fraction of a degree. Not because of his questions, but because of the revelation that dawns on you. These men, all the bears, are untested against vampires. The wolves and lions have years of skirmishes to aid them in the upcoming battle, but the bears, none. Their strength is obviously formidable, but will that be enough to see them through?

You realize your guests are waiting for your reply, Kwangji concealing his enthusiasm better than the others. Your worries can wait until they can be properly addressed. Now is not the time for such dark thoughts when a flood of them loom just out of sight. Reviving your smile, you take a sip of tea and deliberately relax into your pillow for a very lengthy conversation.

The opening door’s thud against the wall that interrupts your conversation causes all of you to jump. For the first time you notice your shadows lying thick on the floor. You were previously too deep in conversation to notice that lanterns now provide your light instead of the sun. Yongguk stills in the doorway as a servant moves out of sight. His mouth holds a dark frown and his eyes thunder, but his mind is not here. Princess Hyosung must have revealed more troubling information on the king’s treachery. The bears hurriedly climb to their feet. Seokwon and Minkyun imperceptibly shift closer to Kwangji, suddenly nervous eyes glancing between the two of you as if Yongguk will strike them for being in your room.

“Sir Bang,” Kwangji greets respectfully, bowing again while Seokwon and Minkyun follow suite.

Yongguk blinks at them before inclining his head in acknowledgement. “You are Hyunwoo’s weres?”

“Yes, my lord. We will take our leave so we do not disturb you.” Kwangji turns to you. “Thank you for sparing time to speak with us. Excuse us, my la- Ness.”

“Of course.” You smile at them again. They were nothing but charming and polite during your time with them. You can easily see them becoming your friends, and friends with the other weres if they can discard their misplaced bitterness. “Goodbye.”

Once the door closes, you round on Yongguk with a glare. “There was no need to scare them like that, Yongguk. They were just curious about us.”

Your words seem to bring Yongguk back to himself. He looks at the door that just closed behind the bears. “I apologize. I did not do it on purpose.”

Because you know it is true, you do not comment further. Instead, you step around the table to move closer to him. “What did the princess say?”

“I will tell you everything later. She has invited us to dinner with her within the hour.” His mouth pushes upwards in a small smile as he turns to you. “And Himchan told me I am not allowed to go as I currently appear under any condition. They are bringing a bath and some new clothes for me.”

“Good.” Glad that the lines on his forehead are temporarily banished, you jokingly warn, “Just be careful. I had to repeatedly fight off the maids who brought mine. They wanted to put makeup of all things on me. They only relented when I let them arrange my hair.”

Yongguk looks at you again, finally seeing you for the first time since he opened the door. His face softens further as his eyes seem to absorb every bit of you. He closes the small distance between you, rests his hands on your shoulders, and kisses your forehead. “You are so beautiful, my love.”

Your cheeks heat at the comment and you bury your face in his neck. He could call you that every day for a hundred years and it would still make your heart jump every time. “I feel ridiculous. It’s these clothes.”

“No. You could wear a ragged rice sack and still be the most gorgeous woman in the entire kingdom to me.”

Another knock on the door interrupts your reply, but you do not mind. In this case as in many others, Himchan is correct. Before Yongguk goes anywhere, he is in need of a bath.

Your hand tightens around Yongguk’s in anticipation as a servant leads you further into the princess’ compound to her banquet hall. A wave of greetings and approving calls from your friends come the instant you round the last corner. Each looks princely in new clothes and scrubbed faces, weariness’ grip banished to the very edges of their faces. The bears hover in the back, though not completely separate, and you notice some of them exchanging small words with a few of the wolves. Yixing and Minhyuk are even laughing at some joke between the two.

Dressed in a new morning glory pink gown, Princess Hyosung smiles at the both of you. “Welcome, friends. I presume your clothes and lodgings are more than acceptable?” Hyosung asks. Her barely masked worry scours any doubt her words are sincere. “If there is anything not to your taste, you need only tell me.”

“I believe we are all more than well satisfied, Princess,” Junmyeon replies, not turning around to see the wave of agreeing nods. “Thank you.”

“I’m still hungry,” you catch Daehyun mutter.

The princess’ hearing is better than you give her credit for. “I will remedy that soon, Master Jung. I have called for a feast to help you all regain your strength.” As she turns to the doors and grasps the handles, she adds, “I did invite a few additional guests to join us, but I do not think you will be opposed.”

Hyosung leaves no time to reply, flinging open the doors. The room beyond is smaller, cozier, than the Council chamber, with six large tables laden with overflowing platters of every kind of food imaginable and two open fires providing light and warmth against the night’s chill that tries to creep through the walls. A large group of older, well-dressed men and women huddle near the tables’ feet, murmuring amongst themselves.

The rest of the weres go stiff like dogs catching a scent. The other group’s voices trail off as its members turn and stare back, faces freezing in shock. You glance between the two, trying to understand the sudden change when a woman breaks from the crowd.

Arms outstretched and cheeks wet, she runs straight for Junhong. He catches her up in his arms and buries his face in her shoulder, tears wracking his whole body as he hunches over the woman. As if a spell is broken, the two groups come together like two waves, crashing and scattering, happy exclamations and sobs equally resounding against the walls. Yongguk drops your hand and vanishes among the crowd so swiftly you hardly have time to notice he’s gone.

Suddenly, you see the similarities in their faces, their bodies, their mannerisms. These are your friends’ families. You cannot blame Yongguk for abandoning you. He hasn’t seen his parents in five years, has barely had word of their well-being.

As you watch the reunions, you shrink back into the threshold, into the shadows. Happy though you are for your friends, you have the immediate feeling that you do not belong. You do not have a family who was waiting for you, worrying about you, to now cover your face in kissed and clasp you close to their hearts. The abrupt stab of loneliness drives your feet backwards. You should leave your friends to reconnect with their families in their own private world. You are out of place. There may still be some food left in your room to bribe your growling stomach with.

You turn to escape, but someone grabs your elbow. It’s Hyosung.

“Where are you going, Lady Ness?” she asks, genuinely concerned. “If you left something in your room, I can have it fetched for you.”

Your mind scrambles for some reasonable excuse. “I-”

“Ness? Ness! Come here,” Yongguk pushes his way through the throng to you, the widest smile you’ve ever seen on his face even though the rims of his eyes are red and the wet paths of tears still mark his cheeks. He holds out his hand excitedly. “I want you to meet my parents.”

“But wouldn’t you-”

Yongguk does not give you time to finish, dragging you into the room with its warmth and tearful laughter.

His parents had followed him and wait on the edge of the throng, but you would have recognized them instantly. Yongguk inherited most of his features from his mother, but there are echoes of his father’s face in his and their bearing is the same.

Yongguk doesn’t release your hand when he comes to a stop in front of them, “Father, Mother, may I present my partner, Ness.”

“It is an honor to meet you.” You bow your head and attempt to curtsy, but Yongguk’s mother catches you by the shoulders and hugs you to her.

“Thank you for looking after our son,” she whispers in your ear. She pulls away with a smile, her eyes not missing the way Yongguk son clasps your hand so tightly and watches for their approval of you as anxiously as you.

“You are mistaken. It is he who cared for me; I owe him my life many times over,” you are quick to tell them. “I should thank you for raising such an admirable son.”

“We could only train the flowers, it is the quality of the seeds that determines the bloom,” his father answers, but the pride he takes in Yongguk is obvious.

Yongguk’s face suddenly falls in somberness. He is thinking of the siblings his parents are probably expecting to appear soon. You squeeze his hand in support. You understand his reluctance to crush their hope and ruin a golden meeting, but there is no possible manner to avoid it.

“Has the princess told you about… about-”

He stops to clear his throat to press on, but his mother reaches out for his other hand. Her smile becomes sad as she softly says, “We know. We knew a long time ago.”

“How?” Yongguk asks, stunned.

She gestures to the other parents. “We began asking questions when none of you returned in the first two years after you were taken. The king explained your studies were almost through and he would send a ship to bring you all home, but when the time came, he told us the ship capsized in a storm. No survivors. We mourned for you all as lost without even being able to properly bury your bodies.” Two tears trickle from the corners of her eyes as she touches Yongguk’s cheek. “But the Goddess gave us back one child. We must be thankful for each small blessing.”

Yongguk closes his eyes with a shaky sigh. Like his father, he holds back his tears. Opening his eyes again, he cautiously asks, “And you know what I- we are?”

Both of his parents nod.

“The Princess told us everything when she brought us here yesterday,” his father says. He suddenly appears older with regret at failing to protect his children years ago. “We would have done anything to spare you if we had known why the king called us to the Capitol.”

Again, Yongguk hesitates, and while his question does not surprise you, it breaks your heart nonetheless. “You are not afraid of me? … Disgusted?”

“My son, we will always be proud of you. To have a were in our family is a great distinction, and one who has comported himself so admirably in service of the greater good is the greatest honor to our family.”

You can feel some of the burdens fall from Yongguk’s body like a heavy pack he’s carried for the past five years. His parents’ unconditional acceptance graces him with a long-denied peace he probably never realized he sought, one not even your love could provide.

“Honored guests,” Hyosung’s voice unexpectedly rises above the hum of conversation, waiting to have everyone’s attention before continuing, “please, take your seats. Alphas and your esteemed families, please grace my table and sit with me.”

They do as she asks, but people continue to move between the tables as if unable to sit still in the face of such a fortunate occasion. The other lions find you as well, introducing their parents to you and Yongguk. The swirl of faces and voices overwhelms you, as does the staggering affection your friends’ parents offer you solely based on their sons’ love of you. They know next to nothing about you, but they accept as readily as if you were a daughter.

You do not speak unless spoken to while you eat, preferring to simply observe. Your mouth molds into a soft smile as you watch mothers constantly touching their child with tender hands, showering them with the love and company they were denied for years, fathers clapping their sons on the back with pride and slipping the choice pieces of food onto their plates.

These are families. A connection of love and loyalty that finds light and joy in darkness and tragedy and endures all hardships through the shared strength of its members. You may have lost your birth family, but the lions became your new family. Then the wolves. Now, by extension, their families have become yours, as will the bears.

This is what you will fight for in one day. A fight you cannot and will not lose.

Previous Part

Kingdom Map, The Keep Map, Weres scale, Were Guide

#yongguk scenarios #bap scenarios #kpopwritingnet #kpop scenarios #bap #yongguk #b.a.p

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onewfantaesy · 7 years

Text

secret boyfriends; post-senior homecoming

pt.1 / pt.2 / pt.3 / pt.4 / senior homecoming

The Monday after Homecoming hadn’t been entirely terrible. Sure, Taemin and Kai’s friends all knew they screwed each other after the dance, and there were more than a few underclassmen pointing fingers at them in the halls, and their Calculus teacher may have not-so-subtly called them out for holding hands as they walked inside the classroom and then changed the seating chart so they were on opposite sides of the class, but it wasn’t horrible.

Well, it wasn’t so horrible until the activities director caught Taemin right before dance practice and presented him with a Saturday Detention slip for “pulling that horrible prank on Krystal during the first dance.”

“What?” Taemin asked, staring at the slip in his hands. “What prank?”

“You and Kai probably thought it was so funny to mess with school traditions,” she told him. “Just like how you and your dance team have been using inappropriate songs at every performance this year.”

“But it wasn’t a prank,” Taemin said, still not understanding. “We were just dancing together.”

“I don’t want to hear your excuses,” she told him. “You joked around at the dance, and it’s not going to be tolerated.”

“It wasn’t a joke!” Taemin said. “This is bullshit! Are you gonna give a Saturday’s to everyone who danced together?”

“No, Taemin, because it was only you two who turned the dance into another of your little jokes.”

“It wasn’t a joke!” Taemin repeated.

Taemin could only stand at the end of the gym, his hands gripped around the slip of paper in his hands until his coach came over to him and asked what was wrong.

“I got a Saturday’s for dancing with my boyfriend at Homecoming,” Taemin spat, and he stomped over to the other side of the gym to drop his bag next to Jimin’s.

“Congratulations, Taemin!” a couple of the underclassmen on the dance team said.

“Wooh, Homecoming King!” another said.

“Yeah, Homecoming is real fuckin’ swell, isn’t it,” Taemin spat.

“Jimin, lead the warm ups today,” their coach called, putting an arm around Taemin’s shoulders and pulling him off to the side.

She had Taemin sit on the bleachers, and he put his face in his hands and leaned forward to put his elbows on his knees.

“We just shouldn’t have done it,” Taemin mumbled. “We shouldn’t have gone together, and we should’ve just danced in your office like we did every other year.”

“No, Taemin,” she said, kneeling in front of him, “you had every right to dance together, just like everyone else who went to the dance.”

“God, I just wanted to dance with my boyfriend at Homecoming, is that really so much to ask for?” he groaned.

Taemin rubbed the heels of his hands under his eyes when Kai came rushing into the gym wearing his football practice uniform. After talking with Jimin for a second, he looked over towards the bleachers and went running over to Taemin.

“Did you get one of these?” Kai asked, holding the slip up.

Taemin scoffed and made a disgusted face, slapping the paper away from him.

“It’s fucking stupid,” Taemin spat.

“Let me see it,” the coach said, holding her hand out for the slip. After looking at it for a moment, she sighed at them. “The next Saturday session isn’t for another two weeks, so you two should go try to talk to the Principal about it as soon as possible.”

“It’s not fair,” Taemin whined. “We weren’t making fun of Krystal, and it wasn’t a joke.”

“I know that,” she told them. “But if you go explain the situation, the Principal might do something about it.”

“This is such bullshit,” Kai muttered. “No one else got a detention for dancing with their date.”

Kai went back to his own practice after a couple minutes, Taemin telling him he needed to make sure he practiced hard so the football team could win at playoffs. Taemin rubbed at his eyes one last time, pissed that he had started crying over something so stupid, and he went to go join Jimin as the team ran laps around the gym.

That night, after all the anxiety he had over telling his parents about the fact that he and Kai had sex after Homecoming, he forgot to tell them about how they got a Saturday’s for dancing together.

The next morning, Taemin and Kai got to school early so they could go to the office and see if they could talk to someone about their detentions. After talking to their class counselor, the Dean of Students, and the Vice Principal, they ended up in the Principal’s office while their parents were called to come have a meeting. When Taemin was told his dad was the one coming since his mom couldn’t leave work at the moment, he let his head drop into his hands and groaned.

They had already missed homeroom, and by the time Taemin’s dad got there to join Kai’s mom, first period was half-way through. At this rate, Taemin was sure they were going to miss at least half of their classes. They’d be lucky if they were out by lunch.

“Why didn’t you tell us last night you got a detention for dancing at a dance?” Taemin’s dad asked.

“We kind of had more important things to talk about last night,” Taemin mumbled. “It slipped my mind.”

“Oh shit, did you-” Kai started, but Taemin stomped on his foot.

“Shut up,” Taemin hissed.

“Mr. Lee, I-”

“It’s fine,” Taemin’s dad said. “Let’s focus on the problem at hand, shall we?”

“I really don’t even want to know,” their Principal said. “The problem here is that the activities director is convinced that your sons pulled a prank during the first dance to mock school traditions.”

“It wasn’t a prank!” Taemin cried, his voice getting higher. “What do we have to do to prove that we were seriously just dancing together?”

“What I don’t understand is why our sons are being punished for dancing with each other,” Taemin’s dad said.

“Well, the activities director-”

“I don’t care about the activities director,” Taemin’s dad said. “If my son is being punished for dancing with his date, then I fully expect every other student who danced with their date to get the same treatment.”

Taemin laughed to himself at how his dad wasn’t taking any of the Principal’s shit.

“The fact of the matter is that many of the chaperones felt your sons were mocking the Homecoming Queen,” the Principal told them.

“We weren’t mocking Krystal,” Kai said.

“She thought it was funny,” Taemin told them.

“So you admit it was a joke.”

“It wasn’t a fucking joke!” Taemin screeched.

“Language,” his dad hissed at him, gripping his shoulder.

The four of them kept going back-and-forth with the Principal for a solid hour before Taemin and his dad finally got fed up with the entire situation.

“I don’t know how we’re supposed to prove that us being together isn’t a joke,” Taemin spat. “I wore his Letterman all day yesterday, we held each other’s hands in the hallway, what else are we supposed to do? Fuck each other on the lunch benches?”

Kai snorted and mumbled that they’d just get a detention for PDA, but Taemin’s dad squeezed his shoulder tightly to get him to stop.

“My son isn’t serving that detention,” he said. “This is ridiculous. You’ve kept them out class all morning over this. They danced with each other at a school dance, and I really don’t understand why they’re being punished for having fun.”

“Why don’t you just call this Krystal girl in here and ask her if she really felt like they were making fun of her?” Kai’s mom suggested.

When Krystal walked into the office five minutes later, she looked confused. The Principal asked very calmly if she felt that Taemin and Kai had mocked her during the first dance, and she laughed.

“No,” she said, looking at the two of them with a smile before looking back at the Principal. “Taemin and I didn’t go together or anything, so no offense, but I didn’t really wanna dance with him anyways. It was awkward.”

“Thank you,” Taemin hissed. “Can we please not have these detentions anymore?”

“You two got detention?” she asked. “Why?”

“For mocking you,” Kai said.

“Is this a joke?” Krystal laughed.

“I swear to God, if one more person says our relationship is a joke one more time, I’m going to scream,” Kai said.

“Calm down,” Taemin whispered, squeezing his hand. “That’s not what she meant.”

“Can I go back to class now?” Krystal asked, rubbing her arm.

“I want our sons to go back to class as well,” Kai’s mom said. “They’ve missed enough for one day, and this entire thing is ridiculous.”

The three of them all went back to class, Kai’s arm secured around Taemin’s shoulders as they both walked into their third period class with notes from the Principal to excuse the fact that they were tardy. By the end of the period, they both received notes from the office that their Saturday Detention had been taken away.

#taemin #kai #taekai #shinee #secret boyfriends au

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kathrynmjaneway · 7 years

Text

‘Aliens Among Us’ and ‘The Torchwood Archive’ - blowing my mind (again), this time: Mr Colchester (... again)

(spoilers for both, obviously, and will include theories about Mr Colchester, Ng and some other characters, as well as The Committee)

I decided that this morning would be a good time to listen to ‘The Torchwood Archive’ again, for the first time in weeks and for the first time after ‘Aliens Among Us’ came out.

Now, I knew that this audio was BRILLIANT and that it explains a lot of unanswered questions about ‘The Committee’ etc., but I forgot a lot of things since I listened to it the last time (and only time I think?). I just finished listening to and I’ve got some thoughts and things I need to say, because. WOAH.

So I’m a few minutes in, I’m doing the dishes from last night, not expecting to have my mind blown in the first few minutes (since I thought I remembered that bit quite well), and then, about 10 min or so in, IT HAPPENED.

MR. COLCHESTER APPEARED. AS A TORCHWOOD OPERATIVE FROM 2017.

So that obviously made me notice and question a few things:

first of all - I know that Big Finish had been planning a 5th series for Torchwood since they started working on the Torchwood releases. What amazes me though (and I’m just gonna say, i don’t know how long it usually takes to plan/write/produce these audios), is that they obviously had Mr Colchester’s character planned and in mind for quite some time (especially seeing that James Goss not only produced these audios, but also wrote both The Torchwood Archive and the first two episodes of AAU - IT’S SO BRILLIANT). IT JUST ALL CONNECTS.

secondly - MR. COLCHESTER IS TALKING TO ORR IN THE BACKGROUND (and Mr. Colchester hates doing those reports, to which Orr apparently complains that he shouldn’t complain about doing paperwork). Mind blown pt. 2. It has obviously been planned for quite a while and it seems like Orr will actually be a proper member of Team Torchwood!!!!

Mr Colchester heard about The Committee, and I quote: “[…]Torchwood has a lot of unfinished business and loose ends - of course it does. One such mess was The Committee. Mrs. Cooper had been hearing rumours that they weren’t as dead as Torchwood thought. Problem was, no one was telling me what The Committee were, that includes the Computer, and it turned out, secret conspiracies don’t have wikipedia pages. […] Apparently there was a way you can find them - in an old people’s home. […]” And Mr Colchester did find them, “The Committee is here.”

Now, this recording/report from Mr Colchester takes place in 2017 - which means around the time of AAU, most likely after the first part that has already been released, since Orr seems to be a fully included member of the team by the time of that report. And the Committee is obviously still around!

And I have wondered before, if they would bring The Committee into the storyline of AAU, since it is the backstory that connects many/most of the Big Finish Torchwood releases. With that backstory from The Torchwood Archive, it now seems very likely or at least plausible for The Committee being brought up again. And I’ve got some theories how!

Cardiff has been taken over by aliens and it really changed in the last couple of years (as it’s frequently mentioned). The Sorvex are everywhere, even have that hotel in ep4 (for Sorvex and allied alien races). They have infiltrated the mayor’s office, shops, the night life, there is an alien black market, they crashed the real estate market, etc. They are properly influencing EVERYTHING that’s happening in Cardiff.

Does that remind you of anything??? Yes! The Committee has similar tactics that they operate by. They are alien, but also have humans working for them - some knowlingly, others unknowingly (frequently mentioned in “The Conspiracy”, “Fall To Earth”, “Uncanny Valley” and ofc “The Torchwood Archive” [I haven’t listened to all the Committee related audios yet, so of course there’s more])

What if the Sorvex are somehow related to or allied with The Committee? It doesn’t seem to be that far fetched, does it?

Additionally: Ro-Jedda practically screams The Committee, from the way she works and acts!

(of course, the Sorvex claim that they have all been washed up in Cardiff by the Rift - but come on, while that might be partly true, so many of them at once? Completely accidentially? The rift is very instable and Torchwood still doesn’t know all about it. Of course it’s easy for the Sorvex to blame the rift, but can we completely cross out the possibilty of The Committee ‘influencing’ these occurences? We can’t.)

Now, if we’re going to take that theory even further: What if The Committee has something to do with Ng “taking over Gwen’s body”? (for lack of a better way to put this) We know from The Torchwood Archive that the original purpose of The Committee was to train Torchwood and to make them better at what they do (never mind that that escalated quite a bit). Wouldn’t taking over a body of a Torchwood operative be the best way to not only infiltrate Torchwood of course, but also to “train” them? How often does Torchwood have to deal with someone trying to get into Torchwood in one way or another? How long does it take them to notice that? The universe is infinitive, they barely scratched the surface with what Torchwood knows about aliens (even Jack!). So far, no one has noticed anything being off or wrong with Gwen, and Ng has taken over her body for at least a few weeks (according to Gwen’s mum).

If my theory from yesterday (in my last reply/reblog of that post) turns out to be rights (that in episode 5 of AAU, when Jack doesn’t come back alone from the dead, someone like Ng has taken over his body/mind, meaning he no longer is ‘alone’ when he comes back to life) - will Jack not only figure out that/what is wrong with Gwen, but also make a possible connection to The Committee?

Lots of questions and theories and POSSIBILITES!!!

I realize that those are all just theories and I might be on a completely wrong path here, but it actually makes kinda sense to me, and it would be really cool! Especially, since at least parts of AAU (Mr. Colchester and Orr) have already been teased about almost a year ago in an audio book that is all about The Committee.

(And even if they don’t “bring back” The Committee in AAU, then one can safely assume that the recording of Mr Colchester in The Torchwood Archive takes place after ALL the events of AAU, meaning that neither Mr Colchester nor Orr would die in AAU!!! - and this is something I’m really scared about tbh. And it’s definitely just fun to theorize about all this :D)

So yes, I’m really excited about all this and just how BLOODY BRILLIANT ALIENS AMONG US IS, ALONG WITH EVERYTHING THAT BIG FINISH HAS DONE. I just really love how it all seems to connect and how good and well thought of all these ‘tiny’ details are.

(you’re really missing out if you don’t listen to all of this)

#torchwood #aliens among us #big finish #the torchwood archive #mr colchester #orr #my thoughts about torchwood #my post #the committee

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lukeysgirl · 7 years

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Relentless | Calum Hood Series Pt.4

Part F O U R

Request: Being the cousin of Ashton Irwin was exciting, especially when invited to their tour to hang out with his best friends. You found yourself becoming fond of Calum Hood, who finds you annoying from your constant appearance. But what would happen if you stopped giving him that attention?

Word Count: 3k+

A/N: guys, im soooooo sorry that i posted this late! i was sleeping over at a family’s house and i forgot my laptop and couldn’t write part 4! but here it is so i really hope you guys like it!

Parts: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty. [DONE]

I M A G I N E

Helsinki, 20:34 P.M. (same night as their landing night)

“Man, I am pooped!” Michael announced, belly flopping on one of the fluffy beds as everyone piled in one of the hotel rooms.

“So we accidentally booked 2 rooms with 2 bedrooms each,” Ashton announced, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. “I swear I had every other hotel planned and covered but I guess I forgot this one detail in Finland. M’sorry, Y/N.”

“No worries!” You quickly blurt out, shaking your hands in front of all the boys. “I can just pull out the bed from the couch in wherever room I stay in.” Luke, Ashton, and Michael placed their eyes on you, staring sternly as you stood awkwardly.

“We’re not letting our guest of honor sleep on a shitty, convertible couch-bed,” Michael claims before he drops his face back into the bed.

“Isn’t this a 5-star hotel?” You chirped, but the boys ignored you as Ashton walked over to Calum, who was looking at Michael distantly.

“You’ll be sleeping with me and Calum in our room,” Ashton assured as he went for your bag to carry it for you. “I’ll bunk with Calum so you can take my bed.”

“No no, it’s okay, seriously--”

“Just shut up and take his bed already.” Everyone turned to look at Calum, who was walking over to the door. He slowly walked out the door, walked a bit, and entered the other room. Slamming the door shut, you flinched from the impact and looked up at Ashton.

“He seems a bit crabby, eh?” Luke commented as he walked over and sat on his bed.

“That’s a regular for Calum ever since Y/N arrived,” Michael said, planting his face once more into the bed. Muke began getting comfortable in their beds, having it be you and Ashton’s queue to leave the room.

“Goodnight,” Ashton said as he quickly escaped from the room.

“Goodnight.” Muke said in sync. You walked over to Luke, kissing him gently on his head before going to Michael. You kissed the back of his head before ruffling it a bit.

“Goodnight, you two,” you whispered, giving Luke a smile as he smiled back.

“N-night, Y/N,” Michael stuttered, his face still planted in the bed to hide his flushed cheeks from you. Leaving the room, you softly close the door and walk over to Cashton’s suite. Knocking the door, you wait a moment before the door opened and you were quickly introduced to Ashton.

“C’mon in, Y/N!” Walking in, you already noticed a mess. Luggages were open, with clothes spewing out of it. Several shirts were also ornate around the floor as you cautiously walked around them. “Sorry for the mess, we were exchanging clothing for a minute.”

“What, did you have some of Calum’s shirts?” You teased, having Ashton blush before looking away.

“Maybe.” His muttering made you giggle as you went over to your bag that was on (you assumed) your bed. You take out a top and pants for you to sleep in, with underwear as well as the products for your nighttime routine. Taking all that into your arms, you began heading towards the bathroom.

“Oh hey, knock before trying to get in there,” Ashton warned as he grabbed a soda from the mini fridge. “Calum is taking a shower.” Nodding at the warning, you turned back at the bathroom door. Your hand was making its way towards the door, aiming to knock at it. But before you could, the door suddenly opened to reveal Calum. Shirtless.

A pink towel was wrapped around his waist, covering his man bits as well as his thighs. His chest was still a little moist, with his tattoos glistening from the water. Your eyes couldn’t help but look down to see his toned, emphasized abs that he was obviously developing. Veins were crawling up and down his forearms as he stood there looking down at you.

“Stop checking me out, pervert,” Calum hummed as he walked passed you. You blushed, turning around to look at Calum’s back.

“I am not a pervert!” You exclaimed before rushing into the bathroom and locking the door behind you. You heard Ashton chuckle a bit as you pressed your back against the door. Sinking down to the floor, you couldn’t help but let out a sigh.

I really was checking him out, you thought, blood rushing into your cheeks some more as you thought about the Maori boy. You pondered as to why you were so attracted to him. Was it because of your previous crush on him? Could it be that it’s an extension of the crush?

It felt incredibly wrong to like him again. He grew up, and you did, too. He’s probably getting laid all the time and going to parties and drinking until his heart was tired. You were just continuing your studies with a shitty job.

Two completely different worlds with a shared past.

Sighing in frustration, you decide to get back on your feet and begin your showering. You need to cleanse yourself from the thought of Calum and what had happened on the plane and car. But as you were turning on the water, you couldn’t help but think about your head on his shoulder as he held you close.

“Fuck!” You hissed at yourself as you undressed and hopped into the shower.

21:56 P.M.

After an hour or so, you were finally clean, dried, and moisturized from your appointment in the shower. The water helped you relax a little bit and allowed you to think more about being clean than the rude, asshole-ish Calum Hood. Fuck, you thought angrily. I’m thinking about him again.

Exiting the bathroom, you adjust the wrapped towel on your head as you felt the coolness of the room hit you. Goosebumps began crawling around your arms as you were introduced into the darkness of the room as well. You heard Ashton snoring, listening as he was already passed out.

How long was I in the shower?

Using the light of your phone, you walk over to your bed and put your bag down on the floor beside it. You grabbed the small quilt that came with the bed and wrapped it around your body. Sitting down on the bed, you yawned and found yourself growing just as groggy as Ashton was. But, you looked up slowly to notice that the balcony door was open and letting in the fairly cool breeze.

“Calum?” You called out quietly, rising from the bed to go towards the balcony. Looking through the sliver, you saw Calum outside, leaning against the rail. Fully clothed, thankfully. You quietly walk through the sliding doors and slowly approached him. “Calum? Are you okay?” You called to him once more, having him look back a bit to notice you before he looked back into the distance.

“Mhm.” The moon was shining brightly down at the two of you, having it be the only source of brightness in the sky that you two could see. You hesitantly joined Calum by getting beside him and leaning against the rail as well. Letting out a deep sigh, you look over at Calum, who already had his eyes on you. “Why are you out here?”

“I was looking for you,” you said quietly, your eyes distantly looking down at his Indian tattoo. “It’s rather cold out, you should grab a sweater.”

“I’m alright,” Calum admits, but you knew he was lying. In a simple, white tank top and grey sweats, you knew he was pretty cold. Goosebumps were even collecting on his toned biceps.

“How long have you been out here?” You asked him politely.

“Since you went into the bathroom.” He responded.

“You’re gonna catch a cold,” you urged him, receiving nothing but a snort as he continued looking down at the country side and the few houses ornate around them. You sighed, studying the concentrated boy before moving a little closer to him. In his peripheral vision, Calum watched as you wrapped the quilt over his shoulders and secured it so it didn’t sink off his back.

“Y/N, what are you doing?” Calum said coolly, looking over at you. You were getting cold from the lack of warmth, hugging yourself in attempt to keep yourself a little bit warm.

“Making sure you don’t get sick,” you whispered, looking down at your bare feet as you felt the coldness making you shiver. Sighing a bit, you watched the white smoke form right in front of your very eyes. Little did you know that Calum was staring at you with a bit of fascination.

Swiftly, you felt the quilt wrapped on your once more, having you look over at Calum, who was watching you sternly. His almond eyes were looking at you seriously as his stubbornness was showing again. He looked back at the sky, staring distantly at it. Watching him, you rolled your eyes and wrapped the quilt back on him.

“Y/N--”

“Just keep the fucking blanket.” Hands quickly cupped your mouth as you were quickly pulled into Calum. Suddenly, your back was against him as both of his arms closely wrapped themselves around you. He removed his hands from your mouth to lean them against the rail once more. “U-uh, C-Calum...”

“If we share body heat, we won’t be as cold,” Calum said with his typical monotone voice, having you feel blood surge into your cheeks. The closeness was killing you, having your heart race from feeling Calum’s chest upon your upper back. “I know it’s awkward but you’re too stubborn and I want to stay outside.”

“I’m stubborn? Yeah, okay.” You hissed, getting a chuckle from Calum as you smiled as well. It felt nice to bond like this with Calum. Although you’ve only been with the boys for a fair week now, you felt like you’ve finally gotten closer to Calum by just a bit. It didn’t feel like he totally hated you.

“You are, though,” Calum began, causing you to roll your eyes.

“Okay, Calum, whatever you say,” you gave in sarcastically, allowing silence to swallow the conversation. Crickets began to play as the two of you stood on the balcony to admire the night sky. You then realized something and blushed a bit before letting Calum know. “You know, they say that sharing body heat would be more effective if the two people were naked...”

“So you really are a pervert,” Calum said simply, having you turn around and hit Calum’s chest slightly hard.

“I’m not!”

9:05 A.M.

Achoo! A sneeze escaped from Calum’s nose as he was cuddled up in several blankets and pillows. Everybody was looking down at the Maori boy, who was suffering a fairly bad cold. You couldn’t help but giggle from the fact that he actually got sick and you called it.

“You’re not coming to practice today,” Michael said as the band’s doctor was checking Calum’s pulse. Calum gave him a bitch face before he was told to sit up to check his heartbeat from his back.

“I can go to fucking practice, asswipe,” Calum declared, his voice raspy and more nasally than it usually is.

“Sorry, Mr. Hood, but you can’t,” the doctor began, having Michael stick his middle fingers at Calum as Calum sulked back into the pillows. “You currently have a stuffy nose and a developing sore throat. You need to rest a bit before you can get up and start using your vocals.”

“Sucks to be you,” Luke jokes, poking at his legs while Calum tries to swat him away.

“I’ve left some medicine by the bedside table there,” the doctor informed as he began to rise and lock his bag. “He should drink those pills right after he eats his breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I’ve also left a nasal spray for that stuffy nose of his.”

“Thanks, doc,” Ashton said, showing the doctor out as you, Luke, and Michael looked down at the sick Calum Hood.

“Man, it’s gonna suck for you to be alone here while we rehearse,” Michael hums as he goes over to you and grabs your hands. “I want to show you all the awesome tricks I’ve been learning on the guitar.”

“Hold your horses, Mikey,” Luke began, grabbing him by the back hem of his shirt. “I think Y/N should stay with Calum.” Your heart skipped a beat when you heard those words uttered from Luke’s mouth.

“I dunno...” Ashton began, seeming very hesitant as Calum let out a dry cough. You looked over at the sick patient, feeling very bad that you couldn’t get Calum a blanket in time last night. Feeling down about it, you look over at the boys who are having a small conference about it.

“But she’ll miss out on my amazing guitar playing!” Michael pleaded, pouting a bit at Ashton. Ashton simply shoves him away with his hand on his face as he looked over at you sympathetically.

“Would you mind staying with Calum, Y/N?” Ashton began. “You can definitely say no if you’d like.” You look over at Calum, whose almond eyes is studying you tiredly but intensely. He looked too sick to do anything on his own, and he doesn’t appear to be declining it...

“I don’t mind, you guys go,” you say confidently, having Michael drop down to his knees in disappointment. “Next time, Mikey, I swear I’ll be there to watch you practice!”

“Sound check when we go to Ireland, okay, Y/N?” Michael asked, sticking out his pinkie to you. You wrap your pinkie around his and shake on it. Helping him up, you hug all the boys and pay them farewell.

“We’ll come back by lunch to take care of that loser,” Luke calls from the hallway, having you giggle as Ashton is the last to join them.

“Good luck, lil cuz,” Ashton says, giving you a wide smile before closing the door. You turn around to find Calum looking at you sleepily.

“I’m hungry,” he announces, having you roll your eyes before heading to the kitchen to see what there was. There wasn’t much, but just enough to make the sick boy some soup.

“Does soup sound okay?” You began, receiving a loud ‘mm’ from Calum. You quickly took out a pot, a knife, and a cutting board to prepare. Boiling a bit of chicken broth, you go ahead and begin chopping up some carrots, celery, and onions.

“Do we have actual chicken to put in the soup?” Calum asked weakly.

“We don’t, unfortunately,” you say shamefully. “I can go get one if you’d like, I can--”

“No,” Calum said abruptly, pausing your cutting to look up at him. “Don’t leave me...” You blushed, looking at Calum distantly while taking in his words.

“O-okay...” you whispered, looking away to continue preparing the soup for him. You seasoned the soup nicely, not putting heavy spices due to Calum’s weak taste buds at the moment. You made sure to boil the soup nicely so it took all the flavors of the vegetables you diced. Furthering, you put a bit of pasta in it so Calum could have a decent solid to digest.

“Finished!” You announced, walking over to the bedside table with a poured bowl of soup, a spoon, and a cup of water. “Let me help you sit up, okay. Come over here a bit.”

You watched as Calum scooted over towards you to be closer to the bedside table. With urgency, you grabbed a few of the pillows and stacked them so Calum could have better elevation. Offering your arms, he used it to sit himself up. But it ended up being you hugging him and lifting him up with all the upper body strength you had. You felt his broken breath upon your neck, sending all sorts of goosebumps around your body as you assisted him.

“Mm, here we go,” you begin, grabbing a chair over to sit by Calum better. Grabbing the small bowl, you hold it in one hand while using your other hand to hold the spoon. Getting a spoonful of soup, you offer it to Calum. “Here.”

“I can’t eat that.” You pout at his words, dropping your shoulders as you looked down at your homemade soup.

“But I made it just for you, Calum. How can you even say--”

“It’s too hot,” Calum began. “I’ll burn my tongue and that won’t be any fun.” You silently oh’d yourself while taking back the spoonful of soup. Blowing on it a few times, you offer it once more to Calum as it didn’t have much steam anymore. Calum slowly opened his plump lips and took the spoon in his mouth. You removed the spoon as Calum gulped down the soup. An expression of pain was painted on his face as he crinkled his face.

“Good?” You whispered, noticing how close you ended up being to Calum. He blinked a few times, studying your eyes as you two were 2 inches from touching noses. He remained silent while watching you, having your heart race a bit faster than before. “C-Calum...”

“Can I have some more?” Calum asked softly, quickly looking away to cough into the bend of his arm. You nod, taking more spoonfuls of soup and cooling it down for him before feeding it to him. With the consistency he ate, he managed to finish the entire pot within 30 minutes.

“Wow, you must’ve been real hungry,” you hum as you begin taking out one of the pills from his medication. “Alright, lets have you drink this first before you lay back down, okay?” Calum nodded obediently as you gave him the pill and the cup of water. Watching him swallow it, you take the cup from him as he goes back to laying down. Grabbing the bowl as well, you rise to take them to the kitchen to wash.

“Y/N.” Calum called for you, having you quickly clean the dishes before rushing back to Calum’s side. You remove the chair from beside the bed and put it back where it was before going back and sitting on your bed that was across from Calum.

“D’you feel better?” You asked, having him shrug a bit.

“Come here,” he asked gently, having you stand up once more to go and see what Calum wanted. “Sit,” he said, patting at the space of the bed next to him. Sitting down, you look down at Calum who barely had his eyes open.

“What is it, Calum?” You asked, watching the sick boy slowly get into a deep slumber. He suddenly took you into his arms and held you tight. You flinched from the sudden action, worsening your heart beat easily. His fingers grabbed your shirt as he held you. You felt him bury his face in your neck, feeling his heavy breaths against the sensitive skin.

“Thank you... for choosing to... stay with me..” he mumbled, his arms losing energy as he let you go. Pulling away, you found yourself completely flushed as you watched the Maori boy instantly fall asleep.

please please tell me what you think about this part right here ! i hope you all enjoyed and tysm for the support for this series, i love it sooo much!

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