#gonna let my queue run out and then we’ll see how things go I guess

[inner-sakura]

to the five people who care! I am on hiatus

#everything is overwhelming! #this applies to both blogging and writing lol #just wanted to let y’all know #in case u were wondering #gonna let my queue run out and then we’ll see how things go I guess

[dialovers-translations]

Diabolik Lovers LUNATIC PARADE ;; Ayato Route ー Chapter 2

ー The scene starts in the hotel room

*Rustle*

Yui: Nn...Hm...?

*Rustle*

Yui: ( ...I wonder how long I slept...? )

Ayato: Zzー... Zzー...

Yui: ( Ayato-kun’s still asleep. I better be careful not to wake him up... )

*Creaaaak*

Easy...There.

ー The scene shifts to the balcony

Yui: Hm...?

( ...What’s this smell...? )

( Somehow there’s this really nice scent coming from downstairs. ...A food vendor of some sorts, perhaps? )

*Groooowl*

Yui: ( ...Guess I’ll go take a quick look... )

ー The scene shifts to the wagon area

Pretzel vendor: Aah, miss! What do you say? Are you hungry for a freshly-baked pretzel?

Yui: ( Wah...There’s more different kinds of pretzels than I thought... )

Pretzel vendor: I studied the art of the pretzel for an extended time over in the human world, so I can guarantee the taste.

They’re quite popular amongst my customers down here as well. So, which one would you like?

Yui: ( Hm...What should I do? I can’t decide... )

*Rustle*

Yui: Um...Which one would you recommend?

Pretzel vendor: A recommendation, huh? ...I’d love to say I would recommend them all but...Let’s see...

Male punk A: Oi, old geezer. Give us one of those pretzel things as well.

Pretzel vendor: ...Aah In that case, please get in line over there.

Male punk B: Aah!? We’re askin’ for some right now. Come on, hand them over!

*THUD*

Yui: ...!

ー The crowd grows restless

Yui: ( What’s their problem...? )

Pretzel vendor: Don’t be ridiculous! I’ve got other customers waiting in line. ...!?

*THUD*

Male punk A: ...Oi, old geezer. Who do you think you’re talkin’ to, huh? You want us to get in queue? 

Male punk B: If you keep tryin’ to get all cute with us, we’ll ensure you’ll never do business here again, understood? Take that!

*THUD*

Yui: ( This is outrageous...! )

E-Excuse me...!

Male punk B: Aah? What’s this chick’s problem...?

Yui: Why would you try and pick a fight with this man when he has done nothing wrong at all...?

Pretzel vendor: ...Miss...!

Male punk A: Hah...Hilarious. This chick’s tryin’ to get in our way, see?

Male punk B: ...Seems like it. We can’t let her get away with that though.

*Rustle*

Yui: Kyaah!

( H-He’s so strong...! Oh no, at this rate...! )

???: Don’t touch her!

*THUD*

Male punk A: Uwaah!!

*Thud*

Yui: ...!?

Ayato: Oi, the fuck are you...? Don’t be tryin’ to mess with my woman!

Yui: A-Ayato-kun...!

( Don’t tell me...He jumped down from the hotel’s veranda...!? )

Male punk B: O-Oi...! You alright, mate!? ...Now you’ve done it!

Ayato: What? ...Wanna throw some fists? Fine by me? I’ll be your opponent if you’re that insistent on gettin’ your ass kicked!

Male punk B: ...F-Fuck...! Oi, let’s go!

Male punk A: Y-Yeah...Oi, we’ll remember this!!

ー The two punks run off

Ayato: Phew...Geez...Oi, Chichinashi!

Why did you sneak out while I was asleep? I was worried, you know!?

You got lucky I just so happened to look outside at the right time, but do you realize what could have gone down if I didn’t...?

I know you’re not bein’ targeted now that you don’t have your heart and all.

But that doesn’t mean you should go wanderin’ off on your own.

Yui: I-I’m sorry...

Pretzel vendor: Calm down, you. Please don’t be too harsh on her, okay?

Ayato: Aah? And who are you...?

Pretzel vendor: As you can tell, I’m the owner of this stall. Thanks to her, my precious shop wasn’t destroyed.

*Rustle*

Pretzel vendor: ...This is the only thing I can offer, but consider this my way of thanking you. Enjoy it together, okay?

Yui: Eh...?

*Rustle rustle*

Yui: ( We got so many pretzels...! )

Ayato: You sure?

Pretzel vendor: Yes, of course. Please enjoy the Parade while you can.

Yui: Thank you very much!

Ayato: ...Hmph. Well, guess I’ll have one since we got them for free anyway...

Yui: Yeah. Shall we go sit down on one of the benches over there then...?

ー They sit down

Ayato: Nn...This stuff’s not half bad, considering it’s pitch black. 

Mmh...What flavor is this though? Oi, Chichinashi. You have a bite too.

ー He leans in

Ayato: Here, open your mouth.

Yui: Eh? ...Nn...

( ...He just forced it inside...! )

*Rustle rustle*

Ayato: Hehe. How is it? Pretty good, right?

Yui: Nn...Yeah...I wonder what it could be...? It tastes a little like...black sesame?

( The vendor from earlier did say he got his training in the human world... )

Ayato: Haah? Black sesame here in the Demon World? Well, I guess it’s fine. It’s not bad and that’s what matters.

So? What are we gonna do now? We have to clear the assignment given to us by Walter, right?

Yui: Yeah...

( ...Our ‘wrongdoings’... )

( ...It has to be... )

Say, Ayato-kun? I’ve been thinking ever since...

Ayato: ...? What...?

Yui: While we were running away from the Gatekeeper after coming to the Demon World.

We caused trouble for many people, didn’t we...?

Ayato: Trouble? ...Did we?

Yui: We broke into the basement of someone else’s home, knocking over their cupboards...

Ayato: ...Oh. Now that you mention it, that did happen, didn’t it...?

Yui: So I thought maybe that’s what the Count meant with our ‘wrongdoings’...

Ayato: Hmm. Let’s assume that’s what he meant...What should we do then?

Yui: ...I’m not quite sure myself, but for now, I guess the best we can do is go and apologize...

Ayato: Haah? Apologize? That’s...

Yui: But...The Count said we should redeem ourselves so...I don’t think there’s much else we can do but say sorry...

Ayato: Hmph, I don’t like the sound of that.

Yui: ...

Ayato: But, well, I don’t exactly have a better idea either. Guess I have no other choice but to roll with your plan for now.

Yui: ...Ayato-kun...!

Ayato: ‘Kay, let’s get goin’ right away then.

Yui: ...Yeah!

( Thank you, Ayato-kun. )

ー The scene shifts to the underground passage

Yui: ( It was around here, right...? )

*Rustle*

Yui: Kyah!

Ayato: Shh, quiet!

Yui: ( ...? )

Ayato: Oi, take a look. The atmosphere’s not quite the same as yesterday.

*Knock knock*

Suspicious man A: ...It’s me. Open up.

Suspicious man B: Everyone’s present, right? ...Don’t worry, nobody should have followed us down here.

*Clunk*

Yui: It’s that room...Right?

Ayato: Yeah. I’m sure of it. It’s the basement we broke into yesterday.

I don’t know why, but they were bein’ all secretive. What’s going on?

Yui: ( Ayato-kun’s right, something seems a little off... )

*Rustle*

Yui: Anyway, it’d be bad if we were to get yelled at again for interrupting, so perhaps we should wait here for a bit?

Ayato: Che. We have to wait down here in this gloomy place?

Oi, Chichinashi. Help me kill some time. Nn...

Yui: Eh!? Hold on! Not here...!

*Rustle*

???: ...Well then, we will put our plan into action tomorrow night.

Yui: ( ...Hm? I can hear a voice from the other side of the door... )

Ayato: Come on, scoot closer.

Yui: ...! Ayato-kun, be quiet for a second...! 

ー She pushes him away

*Thud*

Ayato: ...!?

???: ...Exactly. While everyone else is too preoccupied with the Parade.

???: ...I will act as the decoy. ...As for the location, is Zartan’s Mouth okay?

???: Yes, I do not mind. However, there’s a few issues...

Yui: ( ...Is this some sort of strategy meeting...? )

Ayato: ...Oi, Chichinashi...You little...

You sure have some guts to push me away like that!

I’m gonna have to suck you right here, right now then! Come here!

Yui: A-Ayato-kun! Hold up...!

???: ...Who’s there!?

*THUD*

Owner: ...You two...You’re the people from yesterday!!

Ayato: ...!

Yui: ( T-They saw us!! )

Suspicious man A: ...Did you hear us just now!? Which means...You two must be spies, right!?

Ayato: Aah? Spies? The fuck you talkin’ ‘bout?

Yui: Spies? ...You’re wrong! We simply came here to apologize for what happened yesterday...!

Suspicious man B: Shut up! We can’t let you run free now that you’ve heard our plan!

Yui: We’re speaking the truth! We really did come here to say sorry for yesterday!

( Please believe us...! )

Owner: To apologize, huh...? Oi, brat. How about you?

Ayato: Aah!? Who do you think you’re calling a brat!? Don’t fuck with me...

But it’s exactly as she said. We did kind of invite ourselves in yesterday...

Owner: ...I see. Well, but...

You heard our plan. Furthermore...

You did quite the number on me yesterday. You can say sorry all you want, I’m not forgiving you.

Yui: ( No way...! )

Ayato: A number...?

Owner: Hmph...You knocked over one of the cupboards when you ran away, didn’t you?

My precious key broke in the process. See?

*Rustle*

Yui: ( ...It’s snapped right in half... )

I-I’m so sorry...!

Ayato: ...Hah. That’s all?

Oi, old fart. Gimme that key for a sec. I’ll fix it.

Then you’ll forgive us, right?

Owner: ...Well, I would. If you can fix it, that is.

Ayato: Aah? That’s a piece of cake, isn’t it? You just take it to a locksmith and have them fix it for you.

Yui: ( It really is that easy...right...? )

( However...Something seems a little... )

Owner: Hmph. You seem rather confident. I’ll leave this key in your care then.

*Rustle*

Owner: However, you only have until tomorrow. If you fail to repair the key by then...

Ayato: Hah, don’t worry, one day is plenty. See you later, old fart.

Let’s go, Chichinashi.

*Rustle*

Yui: Y-Yeah...

( I have a bad feeling about this...I hope it’s just my imagination... )

*TIMESKIP*

ー The scene shifts to the wagon area

Ayato: Let’s see, a locksmith, locksmith...Aren’t there any ‘round? ...Guess we just gotta ask someone.

???: Welcome!

Ayato: Ah, oi. Mister! Is there a locksmith somewhere ‘round here?

???: ...! You’re that brat from yesterday...!

Ayato: Ah...?

Yui: Ah! 

( This guy, if I recall correctly...! )

ー A flashback ensues

Ayato: Oi, Chichinashi! We’re takin’ a shortcut! This way!

Crepe vendor: Crepes! Who’s hungry for some fresh crepes?

Ayato: Get out of the way!

*THUD*

*CRASH*

Crepe vendor: Uwaah! My stall!

ー The flashback ends

Yui: ( From back then...! )

Crepe vendor: Oi! How dare you destroy my stall back then!?

Ayato: Haah? The fuck you talkin’ ‘bout? Anyway, hurry up and tell us where we can find a locksmith!

Crepe vendor: And why exactly should I do that?

Ayato: Aah? Excuse me...!?

Yui: ( ...! )

Selection

→ Stop him by tugging onto him (☾)

*Thud*

Yui: Ayato-kun! You can’t!

*Rustle rustle*

Ayato: ...Let go! What’s your problem!?

Yui: Calm down...!

*Rustle rustle*

→ Stop him by shouting

Yui: Ayato-kun! You can’t!

Ayato: Shut up! You keep quiet!

Yui: ( He totally forgot! )

You don’t remember how you flipped this man’s stall upside down while we were on the run yesterday!?

Ayato: Hm? R-Right...Now that you mention it, I vaguely remember somethin’ like that...

Yui: Mister! Let us apologize for what happened back then. We truly feel sorry...!

Crepe vendor: Hah! It’s a little late to apologize now.

Yui: But...We really need you to forgive us...!

( If not, we can’t complete the Count’s assignment... )

Crepe vendor: Hmph. You sure say some strange things, young lady. I’m sorry, but I don’t plan on forgiving you any time soon.

As a result, I lost half a day of business yesterday. My sales figures are doomed!

???: Calm down, sir. Don’t be so hasty.

Yui: ( ...That’s... )

Crepe vendor: ...You’re the guy who sells pretzels...

Pretzel vendor: I happen to know those two.

They helped me out when I was being pestered by a duo of punks this morning.

Crepe vendor: ...These two did?

Pretzel vendor: Yes, exactly. So, what do you say? Why don’t you do me a favor and forgive them?

Yui: ...!

Crepe vendor: ...But still...I can’t just forgive them for free...

Hm...I suppose it can’t be helped. What do you think of this offer? You have to run the shop for half a day in return.

Ayato: Run the shop? You mean the crepe stall?

Crepe vendor: Yes. I was actually just thinking of going to watch the Parade with my wife. 

If you two can take over the shop in the meantime, I’ll forgive you for what happened yesterday.

Yui: Really...!? 

Ayato: Hm, a crepe stall, huh...? Well, I don’t mind. Sounds kinda fun.

Yui: I’ll help out too! Thank you very much!

Pretzel vendor: Glad to hear! Good luck, you two.

Yui: Thank you too, sir!

Crepe vendor: I’ll teach you how to make the crepes, so come here.

Yui: Yes!

( Seems like he’ll forgive us somehow. Thank god...! )

*TIMESKIP*

Ayato: ‘Kay, let’s get straight to business. Of course, I’ll be in charge of making the crepes.

Yui: Yeah, sure.

( Fufu. Despite his complaints from earlier, he’s very motivated right now! )

ー Ayato starts baking the crepes

Ayato: Here I go! Voila!

*Plop*

Yui: Ah, Ayato-kun! If you pour on that much batter at once...

Ayato: Ah? I’m sure it’ll turn out fine somehow! Now I just gotta make it round...Huh...?

*Pshhh*

Ayato: Fuck, it’s not workin’ at all...The fuck’s goin’ on...?

Yui: A-Ayato-kun, at this rate...

( ...Actually, this smell... )

*Pshhhh*

Yui: ( ...I knew it, it’s burning!! )

Ayato: Che, fuck...This isn’t workin’ out at all. Fuck this! I’m done! It’s up to you now, Chichinashi!

Yui: Eh!? H-Hold up...!

( ...Geez, in that case...! )

*TIMESKIP*

Yui: ( ...Seems like I got the hang of it somehow...Thank god. )

Female Vampire E: Those look delicious. May I have one crepe?

Female Vampire D: Me too~!

Yui: Y-Yes! I’ll make one right awaーー

( ...What do I do? The shop suddenly got crowded. )

???: Ah-ahー Guess I can’t trust you alone with the store like this. I’ll help you out a lil’.

Yui: ...! Ayato-kun!

( Thank god, he came back...! )

Ayato: ...Oi. You over there, which flavors do you want? Make it quick!

Female Vampire E: A-Are you talking to me...? Then, caramel and...

Ayato: Hah, think again!

Yui: Eeh!?

( How could he treat a customer like that...!? )

Ayato: ...Hmー Let’s see. While I’m at it...There.

*Splatter*

Ayato: Yeah, lookin’ good! Behold, Ayato-sama’s special edition blood-drenched crepe!

Yui: Blood-drenched...!?

( There’s lots of strawberry sauce oozing out from the sides...! )

( I’m sure this will upset the customer... )

Female Vampire F: W-Wow! I’ve never seen such an innovative crepe before!!

Male Vampire D: For real...! This crepe encompasses everything a Vampire loves perfectly...!

Male Vampire E: I’d like one of those as well, sonny!

ー More customers crowd around the stall

Yui: ( A long line formed in front of the shop in no time...! )

Ayato: Hah, if you want one, you better wait there patiently!

...Oi, Chichinashi! Keep on baking those bad boys!

Yui: R-Roger...!

( I can’t quite explain why, but Ayato-kun is something else... )

*TIMESKIP*

Crepe vendor: Geez, you really did me a huge favor. Seems like the store did great business thanks to you two!

Ayato: Hah, Yours Truly made those crepes, so what else did you expect?

Crepe vendor: Haha. Anyway, let’s forget about what happened yesterday. I’ll tell you where you can find a locksmith as well.

Yui: Really?

( Thank god...! )

Thank you very much!

ー The scene shifts to Diamante Fountain

Yui: ...Hmー I’m pretty sure it should be somewhere around here...

( According to the map the crepe vendor drew for us, the locksmith should be on the plaza with the fountain... )

Ayato: Oi, hold up one sec.

Yui: Eh? ...Kyah!

*Rustle*

Yui: ( W-What...? )

Ayato: Hehe, Chichinashi. You’ve got some cream stuck on your face, you know? Just how frantic were you back there?

Yui: Eh!? 

*Rustle rustle*

Ayato: Che...Don’t move. I’ll get it for you...

Nn...Nn...

Yui: ( ...He licked it off...! )

Ayato: ...Heeh, not bad. What you’d expect from a famous place. However...

*Rustle*

...I prefer this. Nn...

*Smooch*

Yui: Nn...!

( Ayato-kun, we’re in public right now...! )

*Rustle rustle*

Yui: A-Ayato-kun...! Now’s not the time to mess around...!

Ayato: Oh? Oi, check that out! That shop has a signboard in the shape of a key. Couldn’t that be the place?

Yui: Eh!? Ah...You’re right. It might be.

Ayato: Let’s go take a look!

ー He walks towards the store

Yui: ( ...! I feel like he just skillfully talked his way out! )

*Knock knock*

Yui: Excuse me!

Ayato: Oi! Anyone ‘round!?

*Thud thud*

Yui: ( Could they be closed...? )

Flower shop owner: Yes, if you’re looking for the locksmith, he has been on vacation for quite some time.

Yui: Eh...!?

Flower shop owner: He always closes his shop during the Parade because he has very few customers at this time of year.

Yui: ( N-No way... )

Ayato: Fuck! We finally made it here and the bastard’s on holiday!? Fuck that!

Ahーah. There goes all of my motivation...I’m already exhausted after all the shit that went down today...

Yui: ( ...Now that he mentions it, I’m a little tired too... )

Ayato: Say, Chichinashi. We have until tomorrow to get the key repaired, right?

Yui: Yeah...

Ayato: Let’s go on a full-on search for the locksmith tomorrow then.

For one, I doubt we’ll have an easy time finding a stranger amidst this large of a crowd.

Yui: ( He does have a point... )

( Besides, Ayato-kun really tried his hardest today, from helping fend off those punks to selling crepes as well... )

( I want to give him some time to rest... )

Yui: ...Right. Let’s head back to the hotel early todaーー

Ayato: Idiot. Who’s so stupid to return to their hotel room at this hour?

Yui: Eh?

Ayato: Why don’t we have a look ‘round the Parade now that we’re here as well?

I’m sure things will work out if we give it our all tomorrow. That being said, let’s get goin’!

*Rustle*

Yui: Ah, wait, Ayato-kun...!

*TIMESKIP*

ー The scene shifts to Saint Nore Park

Ayato: Ahー The Magic Carpet ride really is the best! So, where should we go next?

Yui: ( Ayato-kun looks like he’s having fun. ...I’m glad. )

( We still have a whole lot of issues to tackle, but the Parade only happens once a year, so I want him to be able to enjoy it a little... )

Ayato: Oh, they’ve got something interesting goin’ on over there. Oi, let’s go!

Yui: Yeah!

ー The scene shifts to the venue

Ayato: It’s on! Let’s see who can make their way out of the House of Mirrors first!

Yui: Sure!

Ayato: Hehe. I won’t lose! I’m goin’ in this way. See you at the exit!

ー Ayato runs inside

Yui: ( Okay! I have to try my best so I don’t lose either! )

ー The scene shifts to the House of Mirrors

Yui: ( Hm... )

( Everything looks the same, so I feel as if I’ve just been going in circles this whole time... )

*Riiiiing*

Yui: ...!?

ー It flashes white before her eyes

Yui: ( W-What’s going on...!? I feel dizzy all of a sudden... )

( Did the House of Mirrors make me feel sick perhaps...? )

*Riiiiing*

Yui: ...! 

( ...No...I’m not just dizzy... )

( There’s something wrong...With my heart...With the Kleinod... )

*Riiiiing*

ー Yui collapses

*Thud*

Yui: ( Everything’s going black...before my eyes... )

( ...Ayato...ku...n... )

*TIMESKIP*

???: ...Lady...Young lady...

Yui: ( ... )

???: ...Young lady...Hang in there, young lady...!

Yui: ( ...Somebody’s calling me...? )

ー Yui wakes up

Yui: ...Uu...Hm...?

Vampire gentleman: Aah, thank god! You regained consciousness!

Yui: ( Ah...Right. I fainted in the House of Mirrors... )

Vampire gentleman: I was shocked to find you passed out here! Did you come with someon...ーー

ー Ayato runs up to them

Ayato: ...Oi! What are you doin’ to her!? Back off at once!!

*THUD*

Vampire gentleman: Uguh!?

Yui: ...! Ayato-kun!?

*Rustle*

Ayato: Yui! Are you okay!?

Oi, you bastard! She’s mine! Try to harm her and you’ll regret it!

Vampire gentleman: Kuh...Harm her...? I simply...

Ayato: I don’t need to hear your excuses! I’ll beat you to pulp right now! 

Yui: ( ...! He’s definitely got the wrong idea! )

*Rustle*

Yui: Ayato-kun! You’ve got it all wrong!! It’s a misunderstanding!

He only helped me out when I was feeling unwell...!

Ayato: Aah...? What didya just say...?

Vampire gentleman: ...Hmph! So this is what I get for trying to be kind...!? I’ll excuse myself now!

ー He walks away

Yui: Ah...

( He left... )

Yui: You can’t deny that you went too far just now, kicking him out of nowhere...

Ayato: Che, I had no other choice, did I...?

From my angle, it looked as if that bastard was tryin’ to suck your blood or somethin’...

...Geez, I was waitin’ by the exit but you just wouldn’t show up, so I came lookin’ for you...

Yui: ( ...Ayato-kun... )

I’m sorry for making you worry...

Ayato: Oi, more importantly. I heard you were feelin’ unwell...? Are you alright now?

Yui: ...Yeah, I’m fine now...

*Riiiiing*

Yui: ...ーー!?

( ...Again... )

Ayato: ...!? Oi!

Yui: ( I can’t...My consciousness is... )

ー She faints again

Ayato: Yui!

*TIMESKIP*

Yui: ( ...What’s happening...? My body feels light... )

???: ...Yui...!

ー She wakes up in the hotel room

Yui: Uu...Hm...?

( I’m at...the hotel...? )

Ayato: Ah! You finally woke up...?

Yui: Ayato-kun...I...

Ayato: You passed out. It gave me a scare. I carried you back here for now.

...Are you alright?

Yui: Yeah, I’m fine now.

Ayato: Mmh. Glad to hear that. Don’t push yourself, ‘kay?

*Rustle*

Yui: ( ...He’s stroking my head... )

Ayato: ...Haah, anyway. It’s already late, so just stay in bed, ‘kay?

Yui: Yeah, I will. I’m sorry for causing you so much trouble.

Ayato: ...It’s fine. Besides, I never thought of it like that.

I don’t care as long as you’re safe and sound...

Yui: ( Ayato-kun...I’m so happy... )

( ...Now that I’m feeling more relaxed, I can suddenly feel the fatigue kicking in... )

*Rustle rustle*

ー She falls asleep as the scene shifts to her dream

Yui: ( ...Where am I...? )

( Could it be, again...? )

Mysterious man: ...Hello there, it’s been a while.

Yui: ( This voice... )

Are you...Count Walter, perhaps...?

Mysterious man: ...Fufu. I wonder?

Yui: ...

Mysterious man: That Ayato...He seems rather attached to you.

He jumped the gun and kicked a man he had never seen or met before, what am I going to do with him?

Yui: ...You were watching, it seems...?

Mysterious man: Yes, I saw everything...I wonder why exactly he seems so devoted to you?

Yui: Why...?

Mysterious man: Yes. Have you never asked yourself that question?

Yui: Well...

Mysterious man: Do you perhaps think...He is doing it out of love for you?

Yui: ...

Mysterious man: Fufu, seems like I am correct. However, if you do, I think it is time you think again.

Yui: ...What do you mean?

Mysterious man: That man, you see, only ever thinks about being the best there is.

Therefore, he does not want to lose you, the person who has a heart like nobody else does. ...Am I wrong?

Yui: ...That’s not...!

( Is he implying that Ayato-kun only protects me because of my heart...? )

( That just can’t be...I mean, Ayato-kun is...! )

He isn’t that kind of person. He really does... (1)

( It’s not because of my heart...But because he cares about me as a person... )

Mysterious man: ...Kuku...Hahaha...!

Yui: ...What’s so funny?

Mysterious man: Oh no, my bad. I was just thinking what a foolish, pitiful girl you are...

Do you truly believe a Vampire such as himself is capable of grasping the meaning of true love?

...If you do, you are gravely mistaken.

ー Yui wakes up

*Rustle*

Yui: ...Haah...! Haah...Haah...

( ...Was that a dream just now...? )

*Rustle*

Yui: ...Ayato-kun...? 

( ...He doesn’t seem to be around...Did he head out, perhaps...? )

ー She recalls her dream

Mysterious man: Do you truly believe a Vampire such as himself is capable of grasping the meaning of true love?

...If you do, you are gravely mistaken.

ー The dream sequence ends

Yui: ( ...That’s not true. Ayato-kun isn’t like that. )

( I have faith in him... )

ーー TO BE CONTINUED ーー 

← RETURN TO CHAPTER 1

→ PROCEED WITH MAIN STORY [CHAPTER 3]

→ SUB-SCENARIO #1 [W/ REIJI]

→ SUB-SCENARIO #2 [W/ LAITO]

→ SUB-SCENARIO #3 [W/ AZUSA]

→ SUB-SCENARIO #4 [W/ CARLA]

#diabolik lovers #dialovers #ayato sakamaki #dark fate #diabolik lovers translation #dfayatochapter2

[hyperion-moonbabe-art3mis]

Songwriting

Julie and the Phantoms

Pairing: Luke Patterson x Reader

Word Count: 2.5k

Masterlist

A/N: Here’s my first JATP fic. This is loosely based on the “Edge of Great” ep. This ended up being much longer than I expected, but who’s complaining I guess. Please let me know what you think and if I should write more. I hope you all enjoy!

@im-a-writer-right​ YOUR TURN!!!

Ever since Julie’s mom had passed away you had been hanging around a lot since you knew what it was like to lose a parent. But ever since you found out that Julie had 3 ghost boys in her garage you found yourself hanging out at her house much more often. It was interesting and you really had nothing else better to do. And considering you’re the only other person that can see them without music playing Julie felt more comfortable having you watch over them if she thought they’d get into any trouble.

You had been hanging out in the garage waiting for Julie so you could watch her and the boys practice. You were writing lyrics in your journal when all of a sudden Luke popped in onto the couch next to you. 

“Whatcha writing?” He asks peeking over your shoulder.

“Nothing!” You say slamming your notebook shut.

“Shutting your notebook isn’t nothing. Come on, what is it?” Luke asks turning himself to you.

“Ok, how about. None of your business,” You respond. 

“Y/N when are you gonna tell me what’s in your notebook? You hug that thing like it’ll be the death of you if someone reads it,” Luke chuckles.

“It’s my personal journal when are you gonna get that?” You say and get up to put it in your bag. 

“When you let me see what’s inside?”Luke asks.

“You’re so damn nosy, Luke,” You chuckle as Julie walks in.

“What’s going on here?” Julie asks, clearly thinking something is going on between you and Luke.

“Luke is trying to get me to show him my notebook,” You say showing Julie. 

“Ah, your mu--” Julie starts before you run to cover her mouth.

“Wait she knows?” Luke asks.

“Well yeah. She’s my best friend,” You say with your hand still covering Julie’s mouth. Julie muffles something through your hand but it was incoherent, so you remove your hand.

“Where’s Reggie and Alex? We need to practice,” Julie says. 

“Oh! They were just out doing their own thing. They’ll be here,” Luke says. Just like on queue the two popped in. 

“Hey, guys, ready to rock?” Reggie says.

“Yeh, so we’re playing Edge of Great first. Let’s start on that,” Julie says. You sat and watched as the band practiced for the show Julie’s dad put on. 

“So what do you think?” Julie asked you.

“It was great. You all are gonna do amazing!” You say. After the boys were gone for a break before the show, you wanted to show Julie what you were working on.

“Hey, I was wondering if I could show you a song I was working on,” You say.

“Of course,” She says.

You go over to pick up one of the acoustic guitars and make sure it’s in tune. As soon as you were ready you started playing some chords. “One moment you’re here and the next you’re not. But I know you’re watching over me and you’re still with me,” You sing. You continue until you finish the chords you have set out. 

“I have all the lyrics but I’m still working on the tune. What do you think?” You ask Julie as you finish. 

“It’s great. Is it about your dad?” She asks.

“Yeah, it’s been in the works for months and I just finished the lyrics before Luke so rudely interrupted,” You respond.

“You know...” Julie starts with a look on her face.

“No. No. I know that look on your face. You’re gonna suggest something that I won’t like,” You say.

“Come on. Just hear me out?” She begs.

“Fine,” You say, and cross your arms.

“You should ask Luke to help you finish the tune and open for us at the show,” She suggests.

“Nope. Nope. No,” You quickly say.

“Come on. You write amazing music and have barely shared it in the last few years,” She says.

“You know that’s because a lot of my songs are super personal, especially this one,” You say.

“Ok, well do you have a song you’d be okay singing?” Julie.

“I have one, but I don’t have any tune for it,” You respond. 

“Ok, ask Luke to help. He’s amazing at creating tunes for lyrics,” Julie says.

“No,” You sternly say.

“Why are you so scared to let the boys know you sing and write music?” She asks.

“I don’t know. It’s not something I really like to publicly announce,” You respond.

“You don’t publicly announce it, but you’re one of the best artists in the school music program? Come on what’s the real reason?” Julie questions.

“I guess it’s just because it’s been a long time since I’ve performed solo and my songs have seriously been lacking. Plus there are only a few hours until your show, I’m not sure if I can pull a full song out before then,” You respond.

“Your songs have not been lacking. And if I can bounce back. Then you definitely can. Just ask Luke, I know he’d be more than happy to help and to find out what’s in your notebook. You have the rest of the afternoon. Plus,  I’ve seen you pull songs out 1 hour before you went on stage, you got this,” Julie says. 

“You really think I can pull this?” You ask.

“I know it. And you can find out if there really is anything going on between you two,” Julie smiles and pokes at your stomach.

“Stop. There’s nothing between Luke and me, he’s just a good friend,” You say.

“A friend that my best friend likes. The way you two look at each other and talk to eachother that can’t be nothing,” Julie says.

“So this is why you want Luke to help me?” You ask.

“Ehhhh. Also if you don’t play, I’ll hunt you down and make you,” She says as you two walk out of the garage. 

“Fine. Fine. I’d rather not die at your hand. But there is NOTHING between me and Luke,” You chuckle.

“I guess we’ll find out,” Julie says as you glare at her.

~An hour Later~

You walk into the garage hoping to find Luke or even one of the guys hanging out, but it was completely empty. After looking around for a bit you decided to leave and come back later. But just as you were about to leave you, hear two feet hit the ground.

“Hey, looking for Julie?” Luke says as your turn around.

“Uh, no, actually I was looking for you,” You say looking at your feet. 

“Oh uh, what’s up?” Luke asks.

“I don’t know if this is too much to ask but ummm, Julie was thinking that I could open up for your guys’ show in a few hours and I kinda need help finding a tune to some lyrics I wrote. Julie thought you could help,” You say.

“Wait you sing? Why didn’t you tell us?” Luke asks excitedly.

“Yeh, I don’t usually play outside of school or my room anymore,” You say.

“Well, it’s not much to ask and I’d be glad to help,” He says and sits down next to you on the couch.

“Thanks,” You say and pull out your notebook.

“So that’s your lyric book,” Luke says.

“Yes, and you promise not to peek at any other songs after showing you?” You ask and Luke nods. You flip to the page of the lyrics for the song you’re gonna play. “Here’s the song. I uh wrote this a while back when uhh, I was finally feeling like myself again after my dad passed. It’s called Sunflower,” You say hesitantly.

“I’m sorry,” Luke says as you can feel his eyes trained on you. He clears his throat, “So let’s see what you have,” Luke says and you pass your notebook to him. “This is great,” He says after finishing.

“Thanks, I play the guitar, mostly acoustic,” You say and pick up your guitar. 

Luke reads the first few lines of lyrics trying to figure out a good tune, “From dusk til dawn,” Luke mumbles reading through the first verse. He grabs the guitar from your hands and starts to strum some chords. “So here’s what I think,” Luke says and starts to play chords while singing your lyrics. 

“That’s great and what do you think if I stung this note out a bit,” You say taking back the guitar and playing the chords back while singing. 

“You have an amazing voice,” Luke says as you finish singing.

“Thanks,” You chuckle. The two of you sit for the next few hours creating a tune for your song.

“Ok, so this is what we have. Not like we can change it, the show is in 2 hours,” You say. You start to play the chords and sing. You expected to Luke join in like he normally would but he just sat there watching you sing. “So I guess that’s it,” You say after finishing the song. 

“It’s great! You’ll do amazing, I know it!” Luke smiles at you. You couldn’t help but think about what Julie said earlier, and Luke’s cute smile wasn’t helping. 

“What’s going on here?” Reggie asks. The two of you scoot away from eachother.

“I was just helping Y/N with a song, “ Luke says.

“Y/N sings?” Alex questions.

“Yeh I do, Julie wants me to open for you guys tonight. Luke was j-just helping me put a tune to my lyrics,” You say.

“Can we hear it?!” Alex asks excitedly. 

“I’m gonna leave that for the show,” You say.

“But guys, I promise it’s amazing! Y/N’s amazing,” Luke says as you chuckle. You feel chills move throughout your body at the comment Luke made. 

“Hey, guys! Ready to set up?” Julie asks walking in. She smiles seeing that you had actually asked Luke for help.

“Yeah,” The guys respond. You help Julie set up the equipment before heading inside to get ready for the show. 

“So, how was it with Luke,” Julie asks looking in her closet.

“It was good,” You respond.

“Just good? Come on, I need details girl,” Julie stops her task.

“Ok...fine. Luke is as good as you say in finding tunes. And he was very helpful,” You say.

“Really? I mean like did you feel something? Like a connection?” Julie asks.

“Julie,”

“I’m serious. You didn’t hear from me but I know Luke likes you. He just doesn’t know how to say it,” 

“Wait really?”

“Ah Ha! So you do like him,” 

“Me questioning if he likes me does not prove that I like him,”

“If I know Y/N and I do. I know when she likes someone. And you like Luke. I promise I won’t say anything,”

“Fine will you get off my back if I tell you how I really feel about Luke?”

“Promise,”

“Okay. He’s a great guy. And I can tell he’s really passionate about his music and that he loves playing. He’s also really sweet, cute...and stupidly annoying,” You chuckle.

“If I didn’t know better a certain someone likes Luke,” Julie smiles.

“Yes, your hunches were right,” You smile.

“Hey, you guys ready?” Luke says popping his head through Julie’s door.

“Uhh… yeah. We’ll be down in a bit,” You say.

“Cool. Y/N you’re gonna do amazing. And Julie we’re gonna kill it,” Luke says and leaves.

“I really hope he didn’t hear any of that,” You bury your face in your hands a few seconds after Luke leaves and Julie chuckles. You and Julie finish getting ready and head downstairs where Flynn was waiting. 

“You ready, Julie?” Flynn asks.

“Yes. But there’s a slight change of plans. Y/N is gonna open up for us so you’ll just have to introduce her first,” Julie explains.

“Yesss….I’ve been dying to hear you sing again,” Flynn squeals. The three of you make your way to the garage. You, Julie, and the boys prepare for the show. You find yourself shaking as soon as you hear Flynn speaking over the speakers. 

“Hey. Hey. You got this. Your song is amazing and you’re gonna kill it. If I could give you a big ‘good luck’ hug right now I would, but--” Luke says as his hand passes through yours. 

“It’s ok. Just...some jitters,” You say right before Flynn says your name. You make your way to the front of the garage. 

“Hi, I’m Y/N and I’ll be opening for Julie and the Phantoms,” You say and get ready to sing. You look up to find Luke standing in the front of the crowd and he gives a big smile, “You got this,” He says. 

You start off with the chords Luke played. As you continued to play and sing you felt like you were home again. Like you were meant to play in front of people and share your music. Once you finished, you headed out and let Flynn introduce Julie and the boys. You watched as they played “Edge of Great” and couldn’t be happier to watch them all do what they love most. After the party ended you found yourself staying the night at Julie’s. 

“Hey, can I talk with Y/N alone?” Luke asks as Julie is putting away a few things and the boys are hanging out.  They all nod and start to head out. As Julie leaves, you see her giving you a smirk like she knew what was gonna happen.

“What’s up?” You ask Luke as soon as everyone cleared out. 

“I just wanted to say you did amazing and that you should perform more,” Luke says giving a nervous chuckle after.

“Thanks, you guys did great too. I mean it was your show,” You say. A few moments of awkwardness passed. “Was that all?” You ask.

“N--No. I--I--” He hesitates.

“I know you like me,” You blurt out. After the fact, you realize what you had said. “I didn’t mean to say it like that, Uh,” You say nervously.

“Y/N, you’re an amazing songwriter and an even more amazing person. And yeh, you--you’re right I do like you. And I know we can’t exactly touch each other and I’ve been dead for 25 years, but that doesn’t change how I feel about you,” He says.

“Luke. I don’t really care that you’re a ghost. I feel the exact same way. And yeh it’s a little weird to say I like a ghost, but one day I feel like you’ll really be in front of me and I’ll really get to touch you,” You say.

“I umm wrote this song. It’s actually about you, “ Luke says and picks up his guitar. He starts to play the chords and sing. 

“I love it,” You say after he finishes. You hear a clap from outside the garage doors and you quickly shoot a look and see three heads quickly move down. 

You get off the couch and open the doors, “We’re you guys really eavesdropping?” You ask.

“How did it go?” Julie asks hesitantly.

“Does ‘alone’ really mean nothing to you guys?” You ask.

“If you guys really want you to know...it went great,” Luke says and smiles at you.

“Hey, you guys can’t blame us for wanting two of our friends to get together,” Reggie says putting his hands up in defense.

“You guys are seriously ridiculous,” You say and walk out of the garage.

#julie and the phantoms #julie and the phantoms imagine #jatp #jatp x reader #jatp imagine #luke patterson #luke patterson imagine #luke patterson x reader #luke patterson oneshot #luke patterson fanfiction

[kanerallels]

Heyy, I saw your prompt list— could you maybe do Mackelena (with a side of Philinda and Huntingbird, if possible) and soulmates? Congrats of 111 followers!!

Thank you so much!!! I hope you enjoy this-- it's my first AOS fic so here goes nothing!

Pairing: Alphonso Mackenzie/Elena Rodriguez (minor Philinda and Huntingbird)

Word Count: 3,143

Tags/Warnings: rated G (for giant simp, which Mack is, good talk), character death mentioned, as is divorce

For most of his life, Mack had believed in soulmates. He’d grown up being taught that he’d meet someone, and when they first touched, their respective soulmate marks-- for him, a mark on his right hand, very dark brown streaked through with honey-gold-- would light up, and they would share a Moment. A brief snippet of time from the future that would show them their life together, if they chose to move forward with their relationship.

Some didn’t. Mack knew people who hadn’t stayed with their soulmate. But he’d seen, overwhelmingly, that when a person found their soulmate and stuck with them, they were far happier than if they didn’t.

He’d always thought that the only woman he’d ever be in a serious relationship with would be his soulmate. But then he’d met Nicole. The two of them had fallen hard and fast, and even now, after their divorce, Mack would never say he regretted it. Regretted how it ended, yes. But he had loved Nicole, even if she hadn’t been his soulmate.

Some days, Mack wasn’t sure if he’d ever find his soulmate. But he was fine with that for now, fine working at the mechanic shop that he co-owned. He had friends around him, and he visited his brother whenever he could. So he’d wait, and that was okay for now.

There were days, though, when he wondered. Was there really one woman waiting out there for him somewhere?

The sound of arguing broke Mack out of his musings, and he looked up from the car just as Fitz stalked into the back of the garage, looking irritated. Running a hand through his already messy hair, he said, “I’ve had about enough of this, it’s your turn. Have fun.”

“Have fun with what?” Mack asked, wiping his hands off on the rag he had resting next to his toolbox. “Something wrong, Turbo?”

Clearly trying to calm himself, Fitz took a deep breath and pointed over his shoulder. “There’s an irate customer out there, demanding that we hurry up and fix her car. I tried telling her that we’ve got a queue and we’re going to start on hers soon, but she didn’t exactly give me a chance. She wants to talk to the mechanic who’s working on her car.”

“Which name is that?” Mack asked.

“Rodriguez-- she’s on your list, I think.”

“Great.” Suppressing a grimace, Mack set aside the rag and headed towards the door that separated the garage where they worked and their main office. “I’ll be back in a minute or two.”

“If you’re lucky,” Fitz muttered.

Ignoring that, Mack stepped through the doorway. He spotted the customer almost immediately-- a Latina woman with dark brown hair braided back from her face, dressed in a black leather jacket and jeans. She caught sight of him and stomped up towards him. “Oh, you must be the turtle man who’s working on my car,” she said, her low voice furious.

One of Mack’s eyebrows shot up, despite himself. “Turtle man? We’ve only had the car for a couple weeks.”

“Yes, and I need it fixed,” the woman said emphatically. “Fast, so why don’t you get a move on? If I’d known you were going to take all year--”

Holding up his hands, Mack said, “I understand you’re upset, Ms. Rodriguez. But one of our best workers quit last week, and we’re having a hard time catching up. Obviously we’ll get your car done as soon as possible, but there are a few other cars before it. I should be done with them over the next few days, and I will personally make sure that your car is taken care of. Does that sound fair?”

Ms. Rodriguez eyed him for a moment, looking skeptical, but then let out a sigh. “Okay. I’m-- I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were short-staffed.”

“Nothing we can’t handle, it’s just a little backlog,” Mack assured her. “But I promise you, Ms. Rodriguez, your car will be one of the next ones.”

“Good to know,” she said with a nod. “And you can call me Elena. I mean, it’s the least I can do considering I kind of chewed out your friend back there. And you.”

Releasing a chuckle, Mack said, “Fitz can handle it. You can call me Mack, and we’ll call you as soon as your car is ready.”

Shaking her head, Elena said, “Oh, I don’t think so, Turtleman.”

“Sorry?” Mack asked, caught off guard.

“After how long it’s taken already? I’m coming back here to make sure you don’t start ignoring me again. I’ll be back in two days. See you then.”

With that, Elena breezed out of the office, leaving Mack with his mouth open as he stared after her. Huh, he thought, eventually turning to head back to his work. It looked like he’d be seeing a lot more of this Elena.

Sure enough, Elena was back two days later, just as Mack finished work on the last car and had started an assessment to see what was wrong with Elena’s. The short answer was, he soon learned, everything. This car was not going to be a short project.

When he told Elena that, she just shrugged. “Guess you’ll be seeing me a lot, Turtleman. Get used to it, and get to work.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Mack said, hiding a grin as he headed off to find his toolbox.

~ ~ ~

“Soulmates definitely aren’t real,” Bobbi told him.

Mack raised a skeptical eyebrow at his friend. “What makes you say that?” he asked, taking a sip of his drink. They were at a bar, celebrating the promotion Bobbi had gotten at her job-- although Mack had a feeling there was another reason they were here. He’d known Bobbi long enough that he could figure it out when there was something she wanted to tell him.

“It doesn’t make any sense, scientifically,” Bobbi explained. “And it’s definitely not logical. I mean, touching someone and you see the future? It doesn’t really make any sense, Mack.”

“Maybe not,” Mack admitted, deciding not to expand on his own theories in that area. “But there’s a lot about love that doesn’t make sense, and it’s not like the whole world had one mass hallucination.”

“Maybe not,” Bobbi said, sounding skeptical. “But unless you can provide me with a scientific explanation for it, I’d say it’s a load of bull.”

“Uh-huh,” Mack said. “So the soulmate thing had nothing to do with the fact that you’re back with Hunter again?”

“Of course not--” Bobbi stopped. “Wait. You knew?”

“Didn’t take much to put it back together,” Mack said wryly. “You only take me out for drinks out of the blue like this when you need to tell me something important, and it’s usually about you and him. Also, he changed his Facebook photo to you and him again.”

“Wha-- I told him to be subtle!” Bobbi let out a groan, burying her face in her hands. “He is so typical.”

“So, you are back together,” Mack said, and he saw a small smile start across Bobbi’s face.

“Well… yeah. We are. We’re taking it slow, and he’s at least trying to not make soulmate comments-- but that’ll last.” Giving him a sideways glance, Bobbi asked, “How do you feel about this?”

“What, you and Hunter?” Mack took another drink to avoid answering right away. “I’m happy for you two, obviously. I just don’t want to see either of you hurt again. I’ve had to bail Hunter out of too many drunk tanks for that.”

“I know-- that’s part of why we’re taking it slow this time,” Bobbi said with a laugh. “For your sanity.”

“My sanity appreciates the effort, but I’m not the one in the relationship,” Mack pointed out. “It’s up to you two, not me. But seriously, I am happy for you guys.”

“Thanks, Mack,” Bobbi said. “By the way, I might have asked Hunter if he’d meet us for dinner nearby.”

“I had a feeling there was another part to the plan,” Mack said. “Well, if you two are paying, I’m in.”

They made their way to the restaurant where Hunter was waiting, and had just settled down at the table with him and were starting to flip through the menus to order when Mack’s phone buzzed.

“Ah-- hang on one minute,” he told them, pulling out his phone and checking it. He was pleasantly surprised to see it was a text from Elena, who had gotten his phone number the second time she’d come by the garage, in order to ‘make sure he was keeping on task’ in her words.

The text held an image of a turtle, and the words, at the zoo earlier. I think I found your long lost brother.

Mack found himself grinning as he texted back, For someone who wants their car fixed fast, you’re not very nice to the guy fixing it.

Elena’s response was quick. What, are you gonna not fix it now? I found your long lost brother! Mack chuckled as her next text came a few seconds later. Besides, you’re too much of a softie to refuse to finish the job for me.

Guess you know me too well, Mack responded.

Well enough to know you’re a softie.

Shaking his head, Mack put away his phone and looked up to see Bobbi and Hunter watching him, both wearing sly grins. “Who was that?” Hunter asked, innocence dripping from his tone.

“Just a friend,” Mack said. He knew better than to give Hunter too much information when he was in a mood like this. Grabbing his menu, he flipped it open and started browsing, ignoring the sly looks that Bobbi and Hunter exchanged. He was going to get interrogated about this, he knew already. But there would be nothing for them to find out. Elena was just a friend, after all.

~ ~ ~

“By the way, soulmates are definitely real,” Phil Coulson told him.

Mack gave him a surprised look as he took the paper bag from the older man. He’d stopped at Phil’s coffee shop on the way into work, as he did from time to time, and was picking up coffee and desserts for the shop. “Why do you bring that up?” he asked.

Shrugging, Phil said, “Something Bobbi and Hunter mentioned when they were in here yesterday.”

“Let me guess-- Hunter brought up him and Bobbi being soulmates again?” Mack said, grinning wryly.

“Surprisingly, no,” Phil said as he rang up his bill. “They were discussing you. Hunter is under the impression you’ve met your soulmate for some reason, and Bobbi was telling them that they don’t exist.”

“Huh. Sounds about right,” Mack said, trying to hide his surprise. Although it shouldn’t shock him that Hunter immediately made the leap from “texting someone he likes” to “he has a soulmate and hasn’t told us”. Bobbi would probably handle things a little more cautiously, thankfully. “Looks like I’d better tell him he’s wrong.”

“Really? No one yet?” Phil asked.

Mack shrugged as he handed over cash for the order. “I have no idea who she is or where she is. I have been married before, but I guess that was part of why we didn’t last. Part of it, anyway.”

Nodding, Phil said, “I know the feeling. I was in love quite a few times before May and I finally met.”

“Really?” Mack said in surprise.

“Sure. Just because there’s one specific person out there for you doesn’t mean you won’t be attracted to other people. It’s normal.” Putting the cash in the register, Phil said, “But there’s something different about the woman who’s the one for you. I could tell right away that she was special. Just took a while for us to realize just what was different.”

“What he’s not telling you,” came the voice of Melinda May as she came in through the front door, a duffel bag over her shoulder, “is that it took us two years to finally figure out that we were soulmates, and it was only because he’d just been hit by a car and I had to give him CPR.” She held up one hand, stained a sunny yellow.

“We all find love in different ways,” Phil said, giving May a soft, loving grin. “How was class?”

“We’ve got some new idiots to beat up on,” May replied, moving behind the counter to drop a kiss onto her husband’s cheek. “And Daisy kicked a practice dummy through a wall, so she’s getting even better.”

“My wife and daughter are terrifying,” Phil said, grinning even wider. “Here’s your change, Mack.”

“Oh-- thanks.” Pocketing it, Mack gave May and Phil a nod before heading out the door and down the street.

It only took him a few minutes to walk the short distance back to the garage, and when he got there, he found a familiar, slight figure waiting for him next to her car, with a sly grin on her face.

“Late again, Turtleman,” Elena teased him as Mack set the paper bag down on the nearest clean surface.

“I’m pretty sure you’re always here early, Yo-Yo,” he told her.

“Yo-Yo?” Elena lifted a curious eyebrow at him.

“Yeah, cause you keep coming back here.”

“You’d almost think you minded me showing up,” she teased as Mack pulled open the paper bag and pulled out two disposable cups of coffee.

Handing her one, he said, “I don’t mind.”

The smile Elena shot at him was brighter than the sunshine coming through the window in the corner, and it warmed Mack as he got to work.

~ ~ ~

“Hey, Mack?”

Mack looked up from his work on Elena’s car to where Daisy was sitting in the back of her dad’s 1962 Chevy Corvette, which he affectionately referred to as “Lola.” However, Lola needed a little work done, so Phil had relinquished the car into Daisy’s hands, and she’d brought it to Mack for him to look at.

“What’s up, Tremors?” he asked.

Daisy didn’t respond right away, fiddling with the edge of her jacket as she bit her lip. “Do you believe in soulmates?” she blurted out.

One of Mack’s eyebrows shot up, and he almost asked what prompted the question-- but stopped abruptly as he remembered what day it was. A year to the day since Daisy’s boyfriend, Lincoln, had died when a robber had broken into his house and shot him when he’d tried to protect Daisy. The man had been arrested, but Mack knew that only soothed part of the pain for his friend.

“I do,” he said cautiously-- he’d never learned whether Lincoln was Daisy’s soulmate or not. Regardless, he decided to speak the truth. “I believe in soulmates. But I also believe you can be truly, deeply in love with a person who’s not your soulmate. It doesn’t make them any less important to you and your life.”

Daisy jerked a quick nod, staring determinedly up at the ceiling. “He wasn’t mine,” she said suddenly. “Lincoln. May and Dad already know, but I just…” She trailed off, blinking hard.

Mack nodded slowly. “Maybe he wasn’t. But I knew Lincoln. He was happy with you, and he loved you. In the end, that might matter more than being someone’s soulmate.”

Taking a deep breath, Daisy nodded. “Thanks, Mack.”

“Any time, Tremors.”

They dropped into silence after that, until Mack heard someone knock on the office door. “Hey, Mack!”

Mack felt a smile crossing his face as he moved from behind the car to see Elena strolling towards him, hands in her pockets. “Hey, Yo-Yo,” he said, and Elena returned the smile.

“You know, the nickname is growing on me, Turtleman.” Turning her gaze to the car behind him, she said, “So? Do you have good news for me?”

“I do,” Mack said, patting the side of her car. “After almost a month of work, I finally finished it. Your car is finally fixed.”

A grin flashed across Elena’s face. “About time-- but thank you. I owe you. Literally and figuratively. I probably owe you for all that coffee you bought me.”

Waving a hand, Mack said, “Don’t worry about it. I was happy to do it.” He paused, the reality of it finally hitting him. If his work was finished… he wouldn’t be seeing Elena again.

No sense in moping about it, he told himself sternly. Grabbing the keys from the table next to him, he dropped them in Elena’s outstretched hand. “All yours,” he told her.

Elena nodded, stuffing the keys in her pocket. “Thanks, Mack.” She paused for a second, then extended a hand to shake.

Mack blinked in surprise-- he hadn’t expected such a formal goodbye. But he went to shake her hand, and it was only as his fingers were curling around hers that he noticed the dark blue soulmark on her palm.

A flash of light radiated from their hands, and Mack felt himself transported away from the garage:

He was sitting on the couch in his apartment, leaning back and relaxing. He could hear voices in the kitchen-- a man’s baritone, and Daisy laughing-- and music was emanating from a radio a little ways away.

A soft noise from next to him caught his attention, and he glanced over to see Elena, curled up next to him, her head resting on his chest as she hummed along to the song. Mack wrapped an arm around her and dropped a kiss onto her forehead, and she let out a soft noise. “Te amo,” she whispered, and Mack felt a smile pull at the corner of his mouth.

“Love you back,” he said as a wave of contentment swept over him.

Mack’s eyes snapped open and caught hold of Elena’s. To his shock, a slow smile was spreading across her face. “I knew it,” she said.

“Oh, you knew it?” Mack said, trying to steady his voice. “How exactly did you know it?”

“You’ve got your mark on your hand, too,” she said with a shrug. “Other than that… put it together, Turtleman. I wasn’t just hanging around here waiting for my car. Well, other than the first time.”

Mack felt a smile start to grow on his own face, and then another voice broke through his thoughts.

“Holy. Crap.”

Both of them looked at where Daisy was still lounging in her dad’s car, her eyes wide and a huge grin on her face. “This is awesome,” she said.

Mack exchanged a look with Elena. “I’ll call you?” he offered, and Elena snorted.

“Knowing you? I’ll call you first, Turtleman.” Shooting him a wink, she turned and strolled out of the garage, a spring in her step. For a long minute, Mack watched her, feeling himself grinning like an idiot. Then he turned back to his work, making a mental note to learn Spanish.

#alphonso mack mackenzie #alphonso mackenzie #elena rodriguez #yo yo rodriguez #mackelena #daisy johnson #phil coulson #melinda may #bobbi morse #lance hunter #agents of s.h.i.e.l.d #aos #aos fanfic #111 followers celebration #it was dope. the end

[yo-im-a-bisexual]

This is my first time writing and i'm definitely no writer. English isn't even my first language. It is kinda long but I swear it's going somewhere. I just really love them and this will only work untill we get a new kieutou clip so whatever. Hope you enjoy. And I'm sorry if it sucks. constructive criticism is always okay but I will probably not take it into account because I am already depressed. Enjoy!!

Basically what I wish happened today for kieu my.

'but we'll definitely see each other when you come back?' 14:31

Kieu my stared at fatou's text notification on her phone, not knowing what to answer.

She still didn't know how to feel about their interaction on Tuesday, it all happened so fast and the last thing she wanted was to fight with her girlfriend.

At the time, leaving seemed like the best solution and Kieu my had every right to feel conflicted about what fatou said.

"you're the only thing distracting me from everything else at the moment"

The words resonate in her head. It hurt. Kieu my couldn't hide that those words are the ones that kept her up that night. And obviously, also the crazy situation they were in right now.

"Kieu my?" The words broke her out of her trance and she looked up from her phone to see Zoe looking at her with a worried look on her face.

"Are you okay? You've been checking your phone every five minutes since we got here" Zoe added getting closer to her

"yeah, I'm fine. I'm just... Forget it." She answered her best friend. "We're gonna lose the guys if we don't keep up" she said looking straight ahead.

Zoe didn't push her and just agreed. Kieu my put her phone back in her pocket. They jogged a little to catch up with their friends and they just kept walking.

She looked at the small group and laughed dryly to herself, which earned her a weird look from Constantin. Somehow her tall dumb friend got himself all the way to fricking Brandenburg and couldn't remember how. When Ismail told her about a 'Consti-emergency' she figured they would have to go get him from a ditch somewhere, she just would have never guessed it was from the countryside, one (1) and a half hour away from Berlin.

On the way there Ismail had told them that Constantin had called them completely trashed asking for help.

Kieu my really hasn't been keeping up with what's been happening in her friends lives. She felt bad. But at the same time, how could she? She's had so much to deal with between her parents and the shop and school and... Fatou. There she goes again. Even when she tries to be mad at her she just can't keep the skater out of her head. She reaches for her phone in her pocket when she hears a commotion ahead.

When she looks up she sees Contantin throwing up in a bush. She looks away not wanting to throw up herself.

"You guys go and head back i'll take care of... This" she hears Ismail say and when she turns back around she sees them patting the blonde's back

"are you sure?" Finn asks them and when they only nod their head 'yes' he looks at Zoe.

"yeah... okay let's go then" Zoe finally says after a minute of staring at the ground. "Text us if you need anything and when he... Calms down." She adds with a tight lipped smile. Zoe grabs her boyfriend's hand and her Best friend's arm and they start walking away.

"well that was... Unexpected?" Kieu my says after a few minutes of silence.

"yeah/yeah" both Finn and Zoe answer at the same time. "I'll text my brother and tell him we're coming back" Finn adds.

They got lucky this time around. Last time, they had to drive an hour to go get Constantin and drive back to Berlin in the middle of the night. But luckily Finn's brother somehow lived in Brandenburg so they didn't have to drive all the way back. When they got there and found the passed out boy they decided they all needed a break.

After about a twenty (20) minute walk and a small bus ride they finally got to the small house. It was cozy. Kieu my really couldn't complain. She got to share a room with her best friend while the boys would have to try and fit on the couch in the living room. Although she's pretty sure she's gonna sleep alone because Finn somehow managed to find another bed in what seemed to be the attic and with some good arguments managed to convince Zoe to sleep with him in there. But she's also pretty sure she won't be able to sleep anyway.

Like every winter day, night falls pretty fast. It's past 8 p.m and they already ate. Constantin is passed out on the couch and the others are talking about all sorts of things in the kitchen. Kieu my takes it as her queue to go to her room.

"I'm gonna get some rest. I need my beauty sleep" she tells them. They all say goodnight and she's left walking to her room alone.

It's only ten (10) minutes later when someone knocks at her door. "Can I come in kieu?" It's Zoe.

"yes, please"

"so are you ready to tell me what happened with Fatou or not?" Zoe asks nonchalantly.

"how did you even-" she gets cut off

"Come on Kieu, you're my best friend... and I saw the dozen texts she left on your phone" Zoe drags out

Kieu my falls on her bed and zoe sits next to her playing with her best friend's hair.

"I feel like I messed up... Like somehow I did something wrong and now she's pulling away from me" she starts and even before Zoe can say anything she continues. "But I just wanted to help her and she..."

"she what?"

"she said I was a distraction. And that I should leave her alone and she just got angry at me and I didn't want to fight with her so I... Left. Oh my god, I shouldn't have left right? Now she's gonna think I was there only for school stuff. She probably needed me and I left... Am I a terrible person Zoe?" She let out in barely one breath.

"See now you're spiraling. Take a breath, okay? No you are not a bad person. You were just upset and Fatou probably was too but those kinda things happen in a relationship. Me and Finn argue all the time and most of the time it's because one of us misunderstood something the other did or said" Zoe reassured her

Kieu my took a few deep breaths and sat up in the bed. She started playing With her fingers like she always does when she's feeling things.

"I guess I'm just scared that right now she's into me because I'm a good enough distraction but the moment she doesn't need me anymore... She'll just move on to someone more experienced or more interesting." The words leave her mouth with shaky breaths. Kieu my's eyes start shining but she blinks a couple time to keep the tears away.

"oh Kieu, you are such an idiot sometimes" the blonde laughs while kieu my looks at her dumbfounded. "Fatou is not like that. Nora once told me that one time, when the girls had a sleepover Fatou couldn't stop talking about you for the entire afternoon, so much so that when she fell asleep she was still saying your name" she continues. Kieu my blushes at the statement, thankful that the light is dim enough for her friend not to notice. Before Kieu my can say anything her very talkative friend continues. "She's smitten, Kieu. Maybe she just as some stuff going on. I mean don't we all" she adds wich earns a small laugh from her friend

Before they can continue their conversation someone knocks at the door and comes in without waiting for an answer. It's Finn, with a big smile on his face.

"hey girls!" He says way too excitedly. "I was wondering if Zoe.." he says looking at his girlfriend. "..Would like to come join me in our fine chambers?"

Zoe looks at her friend who is smiling at her. "Duty calls. Sorry. But if you wanna keep talking-" Kieu my cuts her off.

"Go, don't worry I'm fine. Thanks for the talk"

Zoe smiles one last time before running out of the room hand in hand with Finn.

Kieu my lays back down and closes her eyes. She can't help but think about Fatou. How does she manage to always be on her mind, it's unrealistic. She thinks about their date at the museum. Their date. She smiles to herself and covers her face with her arm to hide it. She thinks about how she nerded out to her and she just answered with something as nerdy. About how at that moment she kissed. About how well their lips fit together. About how happy she was that day. Maybe Zoe was right maybe she was spiraling.

Her phone rang and snapped her out of her thoughts. She looked at it for the first time since they got back. She gasps

It's Fatou. Of course it's Fatou, she probably thinks she ghosted her again. The moment she picks it up it stops ringing. Kieu my hesitates but puts it back down. She gets a text and as fast as she put it down she picks it back up. It's a text from Fatou. She also notices she's got some texts from her mom and a missed call from Ismail.

'hey, I just saw on your Insta you're doing a 'social media cleanse', sorry for calling you it's probably against that whole thing' -21:37

Right, Kieu my thinks, the social media cleanse.. that was Zoe's idea honestly. Another text.

'you looked really good in those pictures tho, real 'twilight' vibes🧛 -21:38

Kieu my smiles at her phone and starts to write an answer when she remembers that they haven't actually resolved their issue. And yes Fatou apologized but Kieu my expects something better than a text. On another hand she did tell her girlfriend to call her when she calmed down.

'can I call you again' -21:40 'please?' -21:40

Her phone rang again but this time she picked it up and answered. She waits a few seconds.

"hey.." she hears her girlfriend's tired voice from the other end

"hi." She says back, trying to keep her composure even behind the phone.

"how are you? I saw your posts and got worried"

"I'm.. fine, it was all pretty last minute" she answers

"Oh okay, It's good to hear your voice"

There's a silence, it's not awkward, somehow it's sad.

"Fatou?"

"yes"

"are you..." She begins but can't find the strength to finish.

"i'm not" she hears more than sees the sad smile. "I got fired"

"what- Why? When?" Kieu my asks

"Saturday. I messed up a bunch of times. Was late even. I don't know..." Fatou sounds so defeated

"I'm sorry. Why didn't you tell me?"

"I don't know.. it's not your fault"

"Fatou. I just want you to know that I didn't come to your place just for school stuff. I wanted- I want to help you and I just feel so helpless because you can see right through me and I can't seem to understand any of your problems. I'm sorry." Kieu my starts rambling but gets cut off by Fatou laughing dryly.

"Are you serious? I was the asshole and you feel bad. I'm the one that should be sorry and I am. I am sorry. I don't have an excuse I shouldn't have snapped at you like that" Fatou says and Kieu my thinks that they don't have the same definition of snapped.

"Look, I don't like this, you being mad at me and us not talking so if you just give me a chance to really explain myself I would really like it if you would come and meet me when you get back" the skater girl continues

"yeah, I would also like that" she says with a small smile

"oh okay.. great.. well would you be up for a date at a ping-pong table bar then?"

"definitely"

"great, okay then I guess I'll just leave you to your cleansing"

Kieu my laughs

"goodnight Kieu my"

A pause

"goodnight Fatou"

She hangs up.

Kieu my knows that their conversation isn't over but for now she'll take it. For now it's good.

"was that Fatou?" A voice startles her from the doorway. It's Ismail.

"Shit- you scared me." She paused "Yes it was Fatou"

"Great cause I couldn't handle your sad moping face anymore. What'd you guys talk about?" They ask

She ignores his question. "I do not have a moping face." She says with a hurt look across her face. They look at her.

"Was it that obvious?" She asks with a frown

"Yes! Babe come on even Consti could have noticed if he wasn't puking his soul in the bushes" Ismail says dramatically. "Now come on give me the details. I need to know everything that is happening between my bestie and the mother of my tortoise" they sit next to Kieu my.

"you're so dramatic" she laughs. "Relax, we had a... Quarrel on Tuesday and she apologized and asked if we could meet up to talk about it" she tell them

"a quarrel? Okay m'lady... About?"

"some stupid school stuff" she lied.

"well you're a terrible liar because I overheard that entire phone call so what's up inside that little head of yours"

"Ismail, boundaries, please"

"oh please I've seen you at your lowest miss vu. There's literally nothing you can hide from me now."

She hesitates but starts talking anyway. "You know how I told you about me officially 'meeting' her friends last week" they nodded. "Well when she got there she was visibly upset and I didn't know why and then she got a text and got even more upset and now she just told me she got fired." She takes a breath. "And I just feel bad because those are all things I'm supposed to know about my girlfriend you know? Except she doesn't talk to me about that stuff and I don't know how to get her to open up.." she finishes breathless.

"you poor disaster" Ismail smiles and shakes their head. "You ask her" she's about to cut him off but they put their finger in front of her. "You find the right way to ask her. Love language Kieu my... Love language." They stand up and put their hand up like a shakespearean poet and goes on. "Give her time to open up, this is Fatou Jallow we're talking about. And remember communication is key." They finish, winking and walking backwards to the door and closing it behind them.

Kieu my was about to laugh at her friend's theatrics when the door opens up again and Ismail walks back in.

"no, but I just wanted to ask if I could sleep here cause Constantin has taken the whole couch and he smells like a dead body so...?"

The both of them laugh and Ismail slides next to Kieu my in the bed. "I'm gonna take that as a yes" they say.

"sleep well, ice queen" they mumble already falling asleep

"shut up" she smiles.

That night she dreamt about her girlfriend. She remembers all those weeks ago when her friend sleeping next to her asked her how the dreamy skater girl made her feel. At the time she hadn't known how to put her feelings into words. At that time her girlfriend was just a silly crush. Except Kieu my vu never got silly crushes. But she had instantly known Fatou was different. She was different then and she's different now. And with that thought she drifted into a peaceful sleep. Her insecurities forgotten for the night. She should have never worried about any of this in the first place. Soon she's gonna see the girl she loves again and everything will be alr-

*record scratch*

She woke up with a gasp.

"I love her"

She panted

"congrats, you're the last one to know" she heard Ismail mumble in their pillow.

She smiled to herself, feeling dumb for realising this just now. Looking at her phone she saw 5 a.m. deciding she deserved a little bit more sleep she closed her eyes and with a content sigh drifted back to sleep.

"when I get back we'll definitely see each other" she thought

Okay so I'm too lazy to read this and check for any mistakes so if there are any point them out and i'll fix it. Hope you enjoyed and if you took the time to actually read all this thank you I appreciate. Should I make a part 2? Or Fatou's pov maybe?

Update: the response as been amazing. Like I'm actually shocked by how nice some people can be. Thank you so much.

Re-update: I had my exams this week and am really fucking exhausted and i'm just gonna wait and see what happens tonight. If it's a sad clip i'm probably gonna write the version I would've wanted to happen but i guess we'll see. Sorryyy

#druck #Fatou jallow #kieu my vu #fatou jallow x kieu my vu #I wrote this instead of studying for my bio exam #zoe machwitz #ismail inci #constantin ostendorf #constanpain is present but has no dialogue because I don't value him

[tinkonka]

things that have happened in my yttd au

this is your typical ‘au where nobody dies and they just happen to know eachother’ but all the participants are very close and... i’ve just thought up random scenarios n headcanons to go along with it. (also a lot of these r influenced by .shintsukimistan’s headcanons so please check out their blog if you wanna see good headcanons!) canon ships in this au: joemaru, keiji x kai, rekonao. (we also have hinakanna but im not really sure about shipping children, so we’ll just place it as platonic for now :] ) long post undercut

- q-taro is very very competitive, and he’s confident in his sports ability. so one time, joe challenged q-taro to a round of twister, in which q-taro obviously one, but then kai was like ‘i’d like to have a go.’ q-taro is like very intimidated by kai lol so he’s tryna impress him, and a move calls for kai to put his hands on, let’s say red. q-taro’s leg is in the way. queue kai doing a backbend and landing flawlessly. And keiji was laughing his ass off. like everytime you remind him of this he’ll laugh.

- they were all sleeping over at mishimas house on thanksgiving. unfortunately mishima lives next to a person who’s a spider enthusiast, and a tarantula got loose and ended up right next to gin somehow.  he woke up and screamed, every1 came running in (except for shin he kinda just walked in n then turned around saying ‘nope nope nope’) EVERY1 WAS SCREAMING and kai just *calmly places it in a jar* 

- nao: babe. wake up. please. i need to tell you something. honey. wake u- reko: what is so important that you had to wake me up at 4am on a tuesday nao: i love you - one time q-taro was drunk, and he gets competitive as hell. he was sitting at a table with kai, joe, keiji and alice, going On and On about how he was the strongest. joe dared him 2 arm wrestle keiji and in doing so, keiji got ready and simply just slammed his hand down before joe started counting (it took him off guard) keiji is smug as hell so q-taro is yelling that it wasn’t fair n keijis going ‘haha lol guess you aren’t the strongest’ and q-taro was progressively getting more annoyed

- kai is a stickler for proper posture and one time whacked shin in the back with his ladle thingy (is it called a ladle)... shin got a bruise LOL  - gonna talk about the ships for a little! reko and nao have been dating for 1 yr n 4 months. they met at a cafe (lol classic cafe au ooo) and reko was just entranced with nao’s hair. she went up to go say that (she doesn’t like to just ogle in silence lol) and nao told her she looked really cool. they exchanged numbers after small talk, and nao confessed 2 months later. very healthy relationship, yin to eachothers yang :]

- still not sure about keikai?!? how they’d date n stuff.. they’re both very reserved.. maybe kai wld confess

- ranmaru confessed w a letter! after being talked into it by sara, he wrote a note to joe telling him to meet at their hangout spot after school. joe came n was like ‘hey someone said 2 meet here have u seen them- OH WAIT’ it was a very slow confession.. ranmaru was very nervous. made it clear his feelings for joe were beyond friendship. joe asked him what being romantic w eachother meant, n ranmaru explained. joe didnt realize his feelings for maru were romantic up until that moment, and accepted his confession :D he and ranmaru sat down and joe asked him about what he felt comfy and uncomfy w, and talked about what they shld n shldn’t talk ab. it was sweet. they told the others soon later. 

- speaking of others, i mentioned this before, but best friend squad!! ryoko, joe, sara, anzu, ranmaru and kugie are all friends! :D joe and sara and ryoko were friends prior, and anzu was ryokos friend (they were both in band). after ryoko introduced anzu to joe and sara, ranmaru came along and anzu befriended him, introducing him 2 joe sara n ryoko. then kugie got expelled from her last school and came 2 the school.. sara befriended her quite easily bc she does not take shit from anyone and kugie found that attractive LOL and boom! bsf squad! they hang out often! (i’ll make headcanons ab them later lol)

- hinako and kanna met at school :D they were paired 2gether for a project, n kanna was REALLY scared of her at first. but after like a few minutes she realized hinako wasn’t that scary n actually kinda nice (hinako was exhausted that day, if she wasn’t she probably would’ve tried 2 scare kanna a lil more tmjiwt). kanna and hinako became friends after that, hinako did have a bad case ‘ohh is she pretending to like me?’ but it quickly faded after kanna did kind things out of the blue. they have sleepovers like a lot (n they cuddle platonically :D its just kanna going ‘..hinako’ ‘yes’ ‘can kanna be cradled’ ‘okay’ and then they fall asleep like that)

- joe: hey you two are kinda similar (to ranmaru and shin). you’re both kinda quiet, kinda emo, skinny, kinda good with tech, n ur both relatively the same height *ranmaru and shin look at eachother* ranmaru: yeah except i dont look like this *over exaggeratedly slouches* shin: .___.

#yttd #kimi ga shine #anzu kinashi #ryoko hirose #kugie kizuchi #sara chidouin #joe tazuna #ranmaru kageyama #keiji shinogi #qtaro burgerberg #reko yabusame #nao egokoro #hinako mishuku #kanna kizuchi

[winryofresembool]

Caleo fic: It’s all about the name

Chapters 1-2

Summary: Calypso is a barista at a coffee shop and one day she gets a customer who refuses to give her his real name. At first he seems really annoying but eventually Calypso finds out not all is what it looks like on the surface.

a/n: Surprise! The coffee shop AU we Caleo shippers deserve! This fic is based on @caldez /minervaparadi-no's headcanons so a /big/ thank you goes to you for allowing me to work with your headcanons! Here you can read them if you want to! I might have modified some of them slightly to go better with this exact storyline but I tried to stick as close to them as possible.

Anyway, this fic got way longer than I anticipated because I wanted to see more than just the first meeting, so that's why I'm going to split it into 5 short-ish chapters. The first 2 I'm posting today but the rest of the fic, while almost complete, is still unedited so I will probably post more in a few days. I'm not sure exactly how long it will take because my little niece will visit us starting from tomorrow and I'm really bad at focusing when there's a lot going on around me... but know that more is coming soon. Same goes for Things We Lost in the Fire!

As usual, remember to let me know what you think because it will literally make my day!!

Words: 3,1k+

Genre: fluff, humor

Warnings: none

AO3 (Btw I’m considering changing my posting platform but more about that later)

...

Calypso wasn’t having the best of days. If she was honest to herself, being a coffee shop barista had never been her dream to begin with, and busy days like this particularly reminded her of that fact. The coffee shop she was working at was currently low on staff because one of Calypso’s coworkers had hurt her ankle on a slippery road and another one had caught a cold. Calypso felt like she would have needed at least 5 extra hands to get everything she wanted to do done, and it didn’t help that some of the customers had decided to be extra difficult that day.

One older woman had already tried to run from the coffee shop without paying for her order and Calypso had had to run after her, finally managing to make her come back to pay by telling her that she would call the police if the woman wouldn't obey. Another customer had yelled at her for supposedly messing up his order, claiming that he had ordered an iced mocha instead of iced coffee. Luckily Calypso’s manager had shown up just in time and explained very calmly to the customer that mocha was coffee, but the incident still left a sour taste in Calypso’s mouth. Afterwards, the manager just shook her head and told Calypso to not care about it; she knew the young woman was quite a perfectionist so she took the setbacks quite hard.

Either way, after serving the customers for four hours straight, Calypso felt she was in a serious need of a break. She was just about to let her coworkers know she’d go to the backroom when a new customer stopped in front of her, changing her plans. It was a young man, probably around her age, Calypso guessed, with curly black hair and tan skin. Thanks to his messy outfit and the mischievous gleam in his eyes he gave her an impression of one of those guys who caused chaos wherever they went just because it was fun.

Tapping his fingers nervously on the desk, he asked: “Double espresso, to go, and please be fast because my boss is gonna kill me if I’m back late. I don’t normally drink coffee but desperate times call for desperate measures.”

Calypso had already been on the edge before this customer had showed up but something about his ‘be fast’ order really rubbed her the wrong way.

“Alright, then,” she said, still trying to stay calm and refraining to tell him that they worked just as fast for every customer. “And what name should I write on the cup?”

“Bad Boy Surprise,” he replied, remaining completely poker faced. Calypso made a growling sound before managing to stop herself.

“What was that?” the young man asked, not missing her reaction.

“Nothing, must have been our coffee machine,” she lied and pretended to be focused on the espresso making. The guy still didn’t leave the queue, though, as if he wanted to say something more. “Now, Bobby, would you please move so we can serve the next customer. Your drink will be brought to that counter over there in a minute.” Calypso pointed at the said counter.

“OK, Sunshine,” the guy said, giving her a quick grin before finally leaving her alone. What a nuisance, Calypso sighed to herself as she wrote the name Bobby on his cup instead of Bad Boy Supreme. Still, she would probably have to apologize for her behavior because she did not want the guy to complain to her manager. It wasn’t really his fault that she had already had a lousy day and his arrival was simply the final straw that cut the camel’s back.

Soon she finished making the drink and found the ‘Bad Boy Supreme’ waiting at the other counter. His back was towards her, as he was checking out the coffee shop, and Calypso noticed he was carrying a big backpack. Maybe he was carrying some of his work equipment there, she guessed, before calling his name.

“Ahem. Mister Bobby. Your drink is here.”

‘Bobby’ turned towards her, for a moment clearly amused by the fact that she still refused to use the name that he had given her. Unfortunately, him turning caused a series of unfortunate events. The backpack accidentally hit a small milk jug that had been a bit too close to the edge of the counter. It fell, spilling the milk all over the counter and startling Calypso who had still been attaching the lid to the espresso cup. The cup slipped from her hand, the espresso spreading on the counter, floor and Calypso’s clothes. For a moment both Calypso and the guy just stared at the mess, not sure how to react. Calypso’s mouth formed an ‘O’ of shock before she finally snapped.

“IDIOT! LOOK WHAT YOU JUST DID! It will take me ages to clean this mess! Ugh, my clothes are wet too!” She tried to dab her wet apron with a paper towel. The guy seemed genuinely sorry, even though Calypso was too angry to pay attention to it.

“Look, I can replace the…” he started but Calypso didn’t let him finish.

“I just want you to go,” she said in a low voice. “Please, leave before I call my manager.”

“You’re not being fair now,” the guy said but conceded anyway. “I would have paid… But fine, I’ll get my espresso elsewhere.”

‘Bobby’ left and once the dust settled a bit, Calypso noticed her coworkers were giving her disapproving glances.

“Um, Calypso, was that really necessary?” One of them asked. “It was quite clearly an accident. Could have happened to any of us. And he really seemed sorry.”

All the anger suddenly left Calypso and she felt like an airless balloon. “I’m… I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to… I… need to do something in the backroom…” she excused herself before she started crying in front of everyone. Dashing past them, she left the perplexed coworkers clean the fallen drinks.

Once alone in the backroom, she buried her head into her arms and let the frustrations of the day come out. She wasn’t allowed to be alone for long, though, because soon the manager came in and started talking to her.

“I just came back from running some errands and heard some things about you causing a scene while I was gone. What was that about? You’re pretty much the last person in my staff who I’d expect to lose it in front of customers.” The manager raised her eyebrow questioningly.

Calypso started by saying that she didn’t want to make any excuses but it was a result of several things having gone wrong that day. She knew she had been totally inappropriate, but she just hadn’t been able to stop herself in that moment. Still hiding her face behind her hands, she also mumbled she would understand if the manager wouldn’t want to keep her around after that incident, but to that the manager just snorted.

“Listen, Calypso,” she said once Calypso had finished her story. “Mistakes happen to all of us. Do you think I have never snapped at idiotic customers? Even if the drink spilling was an accident, it sounds like that customer kind of deserved it for being a jerk towards you.”

“But… what if he spreads the word about my behavior and people start avoiding our coffee shop?” Calypso asked worriedly.

“I don’t think one person will have that big of an effect on our coffee shop,” the manager smiled. “We have survived our previous setbacks just fine. However,” she got more serious. “There is something you can do. To avoid the bad feedback from spreading, you will apologize to the guy for the yelling. And you could also offer him a free beverage since he got nothing to drink this time.” “But I have no idea who he was!” Calypso exclaimed, not happy about the thought of having to encounter that customer again. “He didn’t even say his real first name; he just gave me some joke name when I asked what I should write on the cup.”

“You can ask the others if any of them have seen him here before,” the manager suggested.

“Alright,” Calypso complied. “I will do that. But if they don’t know who he is…”

“Then we’ll just have to live with the fact that one customer out of the hundreds we get daily is not happy with us,” the manager said lightly before getting more serious. “Calypso, it’s not the end of the world. The main thing is that you understand what you did wrong and will do your best to not repeat it.”

Calypso was very relieved her boss took her incident that calmly. Not everyone would have been that patient, she thought, remembering some very unpleasant memories from her childhood. Already calmer after her manager’s words, she washed her face and changed into a dry apron before joining her coworkers to ask them about the guy she had yelled at. Turned out that one of them in fact remembered seeing him before.

“Yeah, I remember that guy,” Reyna, the coworker said. “He was here a couple of days ago and gave a fake name even then. I think it was Super-sized McShizzle or something like that. Anyway, he was wearing a work shirt that had a logo of a place called Waystation printed on it. I think it’s a car repair shop or something like that, but I’m not entirely sure. That could be a clue, though; maybe he works for them.”

“Waystation?” Calypso repeated, memorizing the name. “Alright, I’ll try to see if I find something with that name. Later. I’m not sure I’m mentally able to talk to him right now… I’m still a bit on the edge, to be honest.”

“Alright,” Reyna said understandingly. “If you want to, you can take care of the dishes for the rest of the day. I’ll deal with the customers.”

“Thanks,” Calypso said gratefully. “That would be good.”

“Hey, Cal?” Reyna asked tentatively, pulling her into a more private corner before she left for the dishes. “Are you sure you are OK? I don’t know, you have just seemed a bit off for a while now. Not just today.”

“Um, it’s nothing…” Calypso replied hesitantly, pretending to be interested in her hands. Reyna kept glaring at her suspiciously, though, so she continued: “Well, it’s not nothing, but… you know. It’s about /him/. I just heard the other day that the real reason why he broke up with me was because he wanted to date someone else. Yeah. Not the first time that has happened. I’m starting to get used to it.”

“Calypso…” Reyna said sympathetically. “I think I know what you’re thinking right now. It doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you. You just… weren’t meant to be with him. Trust me, I know. I was pretty upset after I found out about Jason and Piper, but… it kind of forced me to think what I really want. And I realized that I can be happy even without a romantic partner. I’m not saying that’s your solution, but I’m saying that maybe there’s a reason why it didn’t work out with Percy. Maybe there’s someone else waiting to meet you.”

“Like who? That Bad Boy Supreme guy?” Calypso attempted to joke.

“Who knows, maybe even him,” Reyna said teasingly. The conversation ended there because a new customer was waiting for Reyna to serve her, and Calypso withdrew into the backroom to do the dishes.

…

After work Calypso laid down on her bed in her small studio apartment and decided to do some research on the mysterious Bad Boy Supreme. She searched for Waystation on her phone, learning that besides the car repairs they also sold flowers and had an animal shelter in the area. Checking the staff information, she hoped to find the names or even pictures of their employees so she could maybe progress with her search. However, it seemed they did not have up to date information on their workers on the website so instead Calypso decided to check where the place was located. It was only about a kilometer from their coffee shop, close enough that she could go there before or after work and ask for a Bad Boy Supreme. Deciding to do that the next day, she put her phone down and blew the frustrations of the day out of her system. Even though many things had not gone her way, she felt grateful that the people at her work were so supportive. It was very different from what she had gotten used to earlier in her life.

...

The next day Calypso had an evening shift at the coffee shop, but she decided to leave an hour early from her apartment so she could drop by Waystation on her way to work. It took a while for Calypso to find because the area was full of similar looking buildings and there weren’t a lot of signs around telling her where to go. Knocking the door, Calypso secretly hoped that the Bad Boy Supreme himself would open it so she could just get done with her business, but of course she wasn’t that lucky. The person showing up was an older woman, Calypso guessed probably in her 60ies, who looked fit for her age, though. The woman looked at her questioningly for a moment before finally saying: “Hello. How can I help you?”

“I am looking for a guy who presumably works here,” Calypso started. “At least, that’s what my coworker thinks. He visited our coffee shop yesterday and, um… there was this little incident I wanted to talk to him about. I don’t know his real name but he was probably around my age, kind of short, dark, curly hair, and he called himself ‘Bad Boy Supreme’. Does that ring any bells?”

“Oh, yes, I know who you are talking about.” The woman’s eyes flashed in recognition. “Did he get into some kind of trouble again? Goodness, he may be our best mechanic but he seems to be quite a trouble magnet…”

“Oh no, it isn’t like that. It was just an accident. I’m the one who’s here to apologize,” Calypso corrected her.

“Alright, then. I’ll get him now. You can come in to wait,” The woman said before disappearing further into the building. Calypso stepped inside and looked around curiously. It seemed like the people working at Waystation also lived there; from the hallway she could see a big kitchen and a stairway presumably to the bedrooms. On the walls there were pictures of two women (one of them Calypso recognized as the one who had opened the door) and a little girl looking happy to spend time together. There were also pictures related to their work: some of the nicer cars they had fixed and animals they had taken care of. Before Calypso had time to check them closer, though, the woman arrived with a young man following her. He seemed really surprised to see her.

“Alright, I’ll leave you to it,” the woman said before going back to her work.

“You’re that girl from the coffee shop. What are you doing here? And how did you find me?” the ‘Bad Boy Supreme’ asked suspiciously once they were alone. He crossed his arms, giving him the kind of glare that told Calypso he wasn’t very happy to see her, and to be fair, she couldn’t really blame him.

Suddenly Calypso felt silly about having dashed into the guy’s workplace without a warning like some kind of stalker. “I… I, um, asked my coworkers if they knew you because my boss and I agreed that I should apologize for my behavior… and someone thought you probably worked here because you had this place’s name on your shirt… so, yeah, here I am. To apologize. I’m sorry. And I realize now how weird this is. You know, me coming here. But I still wanted to let you know that if you still want to visit our coffee shop, we’ll give you a free drink because you didn’t get what you asked for yesterday.” The guy listened to her intently. He seemed to try to determine if she was being sincere, and eventually he asked: “You sure you want me there? If I remember correctly, the last time you wanted me out of there even though it was an accident.”

“Hey, I’m trying to apologize here.” A flash of anger went through Calypso again, but she tried to bite it back. “I realize I wasn’t acting like a decent coffee shop barista should back then. If you want to, we can even have someone else serve you, but I mean what I say.”

Suddenly the ‘Bad Boy Supreme’ started laughing. Calypso just stared at him, feeling slightly offended, until he finally managed to speak.

“I’m sorry for laughing, but girl, you have guts. I mean this in a good way. Not all the people I know would have come here to apologize to me after that kind of incident. You wouldn’t have needed to do that, I think I would have just forgotten about the whole thing eventually. I’m kind of used to being yelled at, you know? But I appreciate you coming here.” Then he grinned at her. “You know what? I think I’ll accept your offer. I’ll come to your coffee shop tomorrow; today Jo is making me work on this really challenging yet beautiful car and I don’t think I’ll have time to leave the place. But I’d like you to be the one serving me because it’s your apology, right?”

“Are you always this annoying?” Calypso asked, not quite sure how she should react to his response. Luckily, the guy didn’t get offended by her question.

“Some people I know may say yes, but I myself say I’m annoying only when I’m nervous around a pretty girl.”

Calypso was surprised by the compliment. She had noticed that he hadn’t had that mischievous glint in his eye when he had said it, which probably meant he was being sincere. “Oh, OK... Thanks, I guess?”

“Welcome. Just saying what I think.”

Calypso felt a bit flustered all of a sudden and didn’t know how to respond to that so she ended up tugging a loose strand of her hair behind her ear and checked the time from her phone. “Well, I should get going now, but ask for a Calypso if you can’t see me when you come to our coffee shop.”

“Calypso?” the guy seemed to evaluate the name. “Aw, I thought Sunshine suited you better. Can I at least call you Calie? Or Cal?”

“Whatever floats your boat,” Calypso shrugged. “Um, sorry but I only have like 15 minutes until my shift starts so I really should go now. But I’ll see you soon.”

“Alright, see ya.”

When Calypso was already out of the building, she realized she had still not asked the guy’s name.

#caleo #leo valdez #calypso #heroes of olympus #percy jackson and the olympians #my fics

[sapphire-strikes]

Since the season calls for it, could you share some Halloween/Fall headcanons for the Habiticians?

• The air began to chill, the sun began setting sooner and the familiar sent of dying leaves filled the air as mid autumn was already around the corner.

• With this change in season came your first autumn in town as well as Boris' first time celebrating with friends.

• You'd been straddling the fence on whether or not to do anything festive this year, openly at least. It was entirely possible that no one in town even celebrated Halloween and it wasn't to unpopular to ignore other more mundane fall festivities altogether. You were getting older anyways, maybe it was about time you put the apple bobbing and costumes behind you.

• This train of thought was short lived as you made your way down the sidewalk. You were going to be passing Boris and Kamal's place soon, maybe seeing if they had any decorations out would help you make your decision? Truthfully, Kamal didn't seem like the type of person to over-celebrate holidays and you weren't entirely sure if they even did anything for autumn or Halloween in Russia.

"Flower Power!"

You turned your head in the direction of the excited voice and found yourself sizing up what was probably the biggest leaf pile you had ever seen sitting in Kamal's front yard. It was easily 5ft tall and twice as wide.

The owner of the voice was no where to be seen as you continued to stare amazed at the massive hill of leaves. "Hello?", you called out, stifling a flinch as something moved from within the mound. A second later Putunia jumped out of the vast sea of leaves and tackled you into a hug.

"Did I surprise you?!" The young girl asked excitedly as she swung around your neck to put you in a choke hold.

"Yeah, I'd say so!" You mused, stumbling a bit as she climbed over you like a jungle gym, flicking away the leftover leaves that fell from her hair into your own.

"Excellent!", Putunia let out a laugh of victory then leaned over your head to meet your eyes. "Flower Power, you should help us finish!"

Before you could respond she jumped off your shoulders and sprinted around the leaf pile, "Menace! Flower Power is here to assist us as well!"

Following her around the leaf pile you caught sight of Boris who was gripping a rake and focusing intently on adding to the ever growing sea of leaves that was beginning to encompass their yard. When he finally noticed you he smiled widely.

"Ah, Y/n! It is good to see you!"

"Same, but what exactly am I helping you guys with?" You asked, always happy to see the two of them playing around together. Before Boris could answer your question Putunia once again burst out of the massive pile of leaves.

"Help us complete the ultimate leaf base of course!" She stood proudly with both hands on her hips then looked prudently around the yard. "But we're running out of material! ...Menace!"

On queue, Boris dropped his rake and saluted her before walking over to a tree at the left side of the yard. Sticking his tongue out of the corner of his mouth in concentration, he framed the tree with his fingers for a moment before gripping the trunk and shaking it.

The way the massive tree creaked as it was forcibly shook was an obvious tell of the kind of strength it must have taken to even make it budge in the first place.

After the first few shakes you understood exactly what he was doing as the two of them were gently pelted by the rain of dried leaves that were prematurely coaxed from their branches.

You couldn't hold back a snickers as the trees on the opposite side of the yard caught your attention. All of them as bare as they'd be in late winter. That certainly explained where they got foliage to make that pile as big as it was.

You turned back just in time to see Tim Tam fall from the tree Boris was shaking. Without missing a beat they were caught by him on the way down. "So that is where you were, Teem Tam!"

Putunia was quick to run over and chew out her purple companion for fooling around while there was work to be done. Tim Tam on the other hand looked as indifferent as ever, seemingly not minding being held by Boris. They did look away from Putunia for a moment when they noticed you, even returning your small wave before staring emotionlessly back down at their passionate friend.

• "Augh, come on. Why are you taking so long...." Millie whined from the chair she stood on to better reach the counter.

"Hey, good things take time, kid. 'Sides, you don't have to help if you don't want to, go play with Boris, Putunia and Tim Tam if you want." Kamal offered, not looking away from the orangish brown mixture he way stirring together.

"No thanks. Where's the fun in playing around in a bunch of stupid leaves? Sounds like baby games to me. She crossed her arms and blew a bit of hair out of her face before continuing much more quietly, "Plus, it's...getting dark outside."

"Oh, I see." Kamal wore a knowing smile "Anyway, you done moldin' the crust yet?"

"No! I mean, yes! Maybe, I don't know. It doesn't look good but I'm not gonna do it over so you'd better not complain!" She pushed the pie dish roughly in his direction and pretended to look away in disinterest

"Hmm..." Kamal rubbed his chin to playfully exaggerate his inspection of her work.

"What!?" Millie looked nervously from Kamal to the pie crust. "Fine, of course I didn't do it right, I'm like 5 after all!"

Her defensiveness was interrupted by Kamal's laughter. "No no, nothing like that!" He ruffled her hair despite the way she angrily smacked at his hand. "It looks really good, Mil. Specially for yer first time."

"Tch, you're just saying that..."

"Nah, I mean it! Ya even used a fork to pattern the edges. Where'd you learn that?"

"Saw my mom doin it..." She spoke in an angrily embarrassed whisper.

"We're doing three total so you can take one home just for the two of you, that way you can show off how well you did. Sound good?"

Even she wasn't able to hide the smile that appeared on her face at that idea, "I-I guess that'll work!"

After working to pour the filling into the crusts, the pies were ready to go into the oven. Millie even inssisted on helping clean up despite Kamal's assuring her that she could go watch TV until they were done baking.

A moment later the chime of the door sounded as Boris stepped inside.

"You guys finally done out there?" Kamal asked, undoing his apron to hang it on the wall.

"Not quite, but it was getting quite dark so I thought it best to head in!" Boris responded. Putunia rode proudly on his shoulders and Tim Tam was held like duffle bag under his arm. Putunia quickly slid down his arm to rush to Millie who was currently staring down the slowly browning pies in the oven while Tim Tam was content to remain is his hold as he made his way to the kitchen.

"That is not all though! Y/n came to visit us as well!" Boris exclaimed, happily turning around to gesture in your direction.

Stepping through their threshold you were met with a wave of comfortable warmth, reminding you just how cold it was beginning to get outside. The cozy atmosphere of their house was amplified by the various shades of orange and brown that decorated the livingroom and kitchen. You plucked a few more leaves out of your hair and tossed them away before closing the door behind yourself. You weren't exactly planning on visiting today but you had a soft spot for Boris and he was just as excited as, if not more than Putunia was by your arrival. While Tim tam wasn't one to speak much, or show emotion, your first mention of heading home had them silently clinging to your leg, so you got the message that your company was most certainly welcome.

The next thing that caught your attention after shutting the door was the warm smell of cinnamon and pumpkin spice that was fresh in the air.

"Are you making pumpkin pie, Kamal?" You asked curiously, not quite paying attention to Boris' introduction of you.

"Actually-", Kamal started

"WE'RE making pumpkin custard pie!" Millie clarified, having suddenly appeared beside you.

"Heh, yeah. I'm trying to get back into the groove of baking so I can make some for Trencil's party. They won’t be done for a bit, but you want to stick around and have some? I consider it one of my specialties so it'll be a real treat." Kamal flashed you a thumbs up and a cheeky smile.

"Trencil's party?", you questioned, but before you got any kind of answer Putunia made an excited gasp and ran in your direction.

"Flower Power, you should stay to carve pumpkins with us too! Our moms aren't gonna be back until late so we'll have plenty of time!"

"That's an amazing idea!" Boris added clasping his hand together happily.

Suddenly all four sets of eyes were on you with Boris, Putunia and Kamal's looking at you hopefully while Millie’s almost seemed to be threatening you. You were just about to give your answer when you realized someone was missing and once again felt that familiar pressure grip your lower leg. Guess that answers that.

It's kind of hard to straddle a fence when you have friends that tackle you over the side.

• Boris never celebrated Halloween growing up and probably would have overlooked it once again this year if it wasn't for Kamal questioning him on whether he wanted to do anything.

• While Kamal hasn't done anything for fall or Halloween since he was young, he was surprised when he didn't hear anything from Boris about participating in the season. As it turns out, Kamal just bringing it up was enough to make Boris realize that he can actually celebrate holidays now, like for real and with his friends! And so the seasonal festivities were put in motion for the both of them.

• Kamal even surprises him by taking him to one of those pick your own pumpkin patches. Boris either picks out a little white Cinderella pumpkin or one of those absolutely giant, orange ones. There is no in between.

• As for the ex-habiticians; Jimothan puts up some spooky decorations around his lounge and gets a kick out of trying to scare the kids from around town. It's real cheesy stuff; fake spiders, pretend decapitation, animatronic hand in a bowl of candy. But with kids like Petunia, Tim Tam, Nat and Trevor, he ends up with more property damage than successful scares and the only person that actually gets spooked by his tricks is Parsley.

• While he often prefers to keep is vampirism on the down low, Trencil is a huge fan of Halloween and plays it up just for that night, even dressing the part. He sees it as his chance to look "cool" in front of Nat since her friends all get a kick out of it. The Varnia’s Halloween party is the place to be on the 31st if you want to have a good time.

• While Nat doesn't quite share her dads love of Halloween, she plays along since she can tell he really enjoys himself. Gives you an invitation herself, remarking that you have to come. She has to attend every year and now that you're friends, so do you. She also actually dresses up this year thanks to Trevor’s influence.

• Trevor's a Halloween fanatic. What day could be better for monster hunting?! Convinces Nat to break him into their party so he can make sure there's nothing suspicious going on. And by "break in" I mean she invited him and lets him come in through the back door so he feels sneaky.

After a good bit of investigating the only suspicious thing he can find about the party is how good the pie is. Once he's satisfied the two of them go trick or treating then spend the rest of night in a cemetery eating candy and testing out Trevor's new EMF sensor.

• Unsurprisingly, the two of them dress up as a vampire and werewolf respectively.

• You, Boris and Kamal take Millie, Putunia, and Tim Tam trick or treating while Lulia and Jerafina go to the Varnia's party.

• It might be more accurate to say that You and Kamal take, Boris, Millie, Putunia and Tim Tam trick or treating.

• Millie was actually scared to go out and despite doing her best to hide it, Kamal caught on pretty quick when he noticed her reluctance to change into her costume. As it turns out, she'd never actually gone before and was only agreeing to go because Putunia was so excited about it.

• After a pep talk, Kamal assures her that no one will be upset with her if she'd rather stay home. Shortly after that she regains her fire and remarks that Putunia looks up to her so she can't let her down! (Before they set out she makes sure to clarify to Kamal that his pep talk had nothing to do with her feeling better!)

• Boris plays into his natural glow and goes as Frankenstein's monster, Putunia goes as the Mask Diver (obviously), Millie goes as a Viking and Tim Tam didn't actually bring a costume so Kamal grabs a sheet, cuts out some eye holes and BAM~ a ghost!

• Kamal also gives in after some encouragement from you and Boris and ends up going as a Zombie, even if he is just chaperoning.

• If you weren't planning on going trick or treating yourself, you tended to hang back with Kamal, leaving Boris to escort the three kids up to the doors. You swear he must have given a good handful of people heart attacks with the way they flinched or stared wide eyed upon seeing the 7'4 green, monster man standing behind the three kids.

• Boris doesn't actually eat any of the candy he gets, happily giving it to Kamal who was more than willing to except. He's still not a fan of candy or soda and just because it's Halloween doesn't mean he's going to comprise his values. You're gonna get an earful too if he sees you going overboard with the sweets!

• You end the night by meeting up at Trencil's party with some of your other friends. Trencil is quite the host; playing up his greeting with ominous warnings and an almost exaggerated Romanian accent. The house is decorated from floor to ceiling with spooky décor and he's laid out quite the spread.

Jerafina came as a sexy nurse, Gillis was a football player, Randy came as a...crow? And of course Rondo came as a clown. Mirphy and Lulia also attended, though not in costume.

• It might be fun to make a point to stop by Jimothan’s on the way home. Tiff, Dallas, Parsley, Jimothan and Wallus seemed to be having their own little party among the other customers of the lounge.

• Getting to hear Tiff sing Thriller is also quite the treat.

• Before you head home for the night, give Parsley a break and least pretend to be scared by one of Jimothan’s surprises. It’ll make Jimothan happy and he’ll finally be satisfied enough to stop trying.

• Be sure to bring some candy back for Pabit!

#smile for me #boris habit #dr. habit #Haven't posted in forever #but I NEEDED to get this out #You ever been literally thrown into a leaf pile #well you have now #Petunia and Tim Tam were lining up to get tossed #you were just standing there so he figured you'd want in on the fun too! #Boris is going to be really happy if you actually find one of those houses that gives away toothbrushes or apples #Remebers where they live and is excited to go back next year #I love the potential dynamic between Millie and Kamal

[starchildwannabe]

Landing in New York

Genre: fluff

Pairing: bang chan x reader; side minlix

Word count: 5.3k

Warnings: this fic is mostly just fluff but they also drink

Author’s notes: I wrote this based on a prompt generator to try to finish a full story. It’s unedited but I hope it’s not too bad! Also it’s short but I hope you like it :)

Summary: you meet Chan in New York on New Year’s Eve

2:58pm. I rub my eyes as the fatigue of 3 o’clock starts to slip in. How ironic (or cruel really) that New Years Eve was on a Thursday this year and that the deadline for this month’s project was today instead of next week. I let a slightly exhausted sigh escape from my lips as I finally look up from the computer screen.

“3 o’clock already,” a familiar voice on my left says prompting me to swivel my chair in their direction. A smile slips onto my face.

“You know what that means,” I say, holding out my hand to my lovely desk mate and exceptional best friend, Felix, who takes it without even slight hesitation.

It’d been a while since the honeymoon phase of working in a new place passed and both Felix and I started crashing around 3pm on workdays. It hadn’t been long, though, since we decided that the 3 o’clock fatigue meant stretching our legs and walking across the street to our favorite (by default) coffee shop to get a little pick me up. Today, however, I was more looking forward to the after work festivities rather than the assured line out the door of the Tom N Toms just for 3pm coffee. On December 31st in New York, everywhere was crowded no matter what time of day, and especially in Times Square from about rush hour on. So today was not a day you wanted to be stuck in the office after 5, let alone at all, but sacrifices had to be made for the dream of working and living so close to where the ball would drop at midnight.

When I step outside, already pulling my scarf tighter around my neck to escape the brisk wind and soft snow flurries, I’m surprised to see that the line hasn’t made it out the door yet and take that as a queue to get across the street as fast as possible.

“I’ll race you,” I say, giving Felix a mischievous look and a wiggly eyebrow.

“What are we, five?” He says giggling.

“No, six.” I say and take off across the crosswalk before the blinking green man changes to red. I glance over my shoulder when I get to the door of the Tom N Toms to make sure Felix actually made it across the street, and when I see him behind me, open it to reveal the warm air trapped inside the shop.

After waiting in the incredibly slow line for 10 minutes, we make it to the counter and give our order.

“You think Mr. Kim will be mad if we take a little longer than the usual 15?” I ask Felix and check my watch again as we walk toward the pick up counter to wait. Names are being called in the background, surely for other customers to get their orders, but I don’t really pay close attention because it’s too soon to be ours. I look up when Felix starts to reply, but I miss what he says because my attention is fully on a guy less than a few inches away from me holding an iced coffee in the hand closest to me and brace for impact because it’s too late to sidestep him. In less than a second I can feel coffee running down my shirt and thank God that it’s just cold and not scalding my chest instead.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry,” a panicked voice is saying as I awkwardly hold my shirt away from my body, “I didn’t even see you I don’t even know how that happened I’m really really sorry,” he says in a somehow even more panicked tone. I give an extremely awkward smile to try to lighten the situation and that’s when I actually take a second to look at the person frantically apologizing and all I can think is holy shit, is he beautiful.

“Ah, um, it’s okay,” is all I can manage to say because he’s shoving napkins at me. Then one of the staff with a mop is at the area where the coffee spilled and Felix is pulling me towards him and the boy is being pushed by the crowd the other way and the conversation ends before I can even ask him his name.

“Are you okay?” I hear Felix ask behind me and then the boy is gone because I turn my head to look at Felix instead.

“Yeah, I’m just a little uncomfortable, and coffee stained is all,” I make a mental note that I would probably be more upset if the person behind why I was covered in coffee was less attractive and then mentally kick myself for being shallow. “I’m gonna go to the bathroom to try to get this off, can you handle getting the drinks?”

“Yeah, dude, of course,” Felix says, and gives me a little push towards the bathrooms.

Fortunately, the rest of the hour and a half in the office passes without much problem. Unfortunately, I have to spend the rest of the afternoon and commute home with a horribly stained white button down. Fortunately, I have a coat to cover it when I go outside. Unfortunately, Felix hasn’t stopped talking about the boy that caused said stain since we made it back to the office, and as we’re walking out again at 5.

“But do you think you’ll see him again?” He’s saying for the 2nd time since I made it back from the bathroom in the Tom N Toms, “I think he was interested in you, and he was hot,” he adds and I sigh.

“I know,” I say in a pouty voice, “but like I said last time, I probably won’t. I’ve never seen him before today anyway, he could be a tourist for all we know. I mean, he did have an accent that was clearly Australian.” I look at Felix when I say the last part.

“Well I’m Australian and I live here,” he says, and adds, “I’m just saying,” when I give him a side eye.

“Well all I’m saying, is that it’s not likely.”

The conversation dwindles and then moves onto plans for that night and after about 10 minutes of walking and brainstorming the best way to get even remotely in Times Square without having to stand outside for the rest of the night the conversation somehow goes back to the coffee shop boy.

“You know, if he’s a tourist, he’s probably here for the ball drop,” Felix states. “And if he’s here for the ball drop, that means he’ll be somewhere in Times Square at midnight.”

“Who?” I ask even though I already know who he’s talking about.

“The boy.” He glances over at me and slits his eyes. “From Tom N Toms.” He deadpans.

“Felix, there’s going to be literally a million people in Times Square, maybe even more than that, we’re never going to run into him.” I sigh at the realization that we’ve been talking about someone, that I’m probably never going to see again, for the better half of the afternoon. “If we see him again, I’ll be convinced that he’s my soulmate.”

***

“I think if we leave now we’ll be able to be in the very very back,” Felix says from behind me. “And I’m sure if we squint, we’ll actually be able to see the ball drop.” I stop searching through my closet for a second to glance at Felix who’s casually sitting on my bed.

“Look it’s not my fault someone spilled coffee on my shirt.” I say and turn back to my clothes. From the other side of the wall, I could hear a slight pulsing from music that’s turned up too loud. “You’d think the owner would tell them to be careful about getting noise complaints.”

“Well it’s not like it’s illegal to rent out your place as an Airbnb anymore.”

“I mean I guess,” I glance down at my watch, “why are they even here still? If they don’t leave soon, they won’t be able to get anywhere near Times Square.”

“You’re telling me.” Felix says. I quickly grab a shirt and pull my coffee stained one over my head. Once I have the fresh one on, Felix stands and walks to the door.

“Wait,” I say and he turns his head in my direction. “Does this look okay together?”

“Yes, but I don’t see why it matters so much, your coat’s gonna be over it the whole time.” I turn my head towards my closet one last time. “Let’s just go.” Felix adds with a slight urgency in his voice.

“Okay, you’re right it doesn’t really matter.”

As I’m turning my key into the handle, I have a sudden urge to knock on the door next to mine and tell them to turn the music down, but I let it go because we’re leaving anyway and it’s their fault if they have to watch the ball drop from the very back of Times Square. I turn away from the door and give my watch one more glance as I head toward the stairs. 5:24pm. When I get the the stairs, Felix is already at the bottom of the first flight.

“We should get to the entry on 6th in less than 5 minutes, we don’t have to rush that much.” I say to his clearly urgent body language. He pauses for a second before replying and I lift my eyebrow.

“I, uh,” Felix hesitates, “kind of told someone we’d meet them at 6th at 5:30, but I didn’t think I’d mention it until we got there because I didn’t think it’d take this long to leave.” He lets the end drift off.

“Oh.” I say, “that’s fine, but like I wish you would’ve told me before. I would’ve spent less time changing.” An awkward laugh escapes, but I feel a genuine smile on my lips.

“Sorry,” he says and his hand comes up to rub the back of his head.

“Do I know them?” I ask to try to ease the tension.

“Oh, uh, yeah actually I think you’ve met one time.” Felix says and then adds, “but I don’t think you know his name.”

“And his name is—“ I say drawing out the last word.

“Minho,” I nod confirmation as he says it. “You were there, when we met.” I look at him with a confused expression. “It was a couple weeks ago at the bar,” when my expression doesn’t change he adds, “come on, you know, kinda tall, brown hair, cute nose, great laugh. I gave him my number?”

“And I was there?”

“Yes, you were there! You were literally sitting right next to me when this happened.”

“Wow, how drunk was I, jeez.” I shake my head a little and then say, “Well as long as he’s nice and doesn’t make things awkward for me, I don’t really care if I know him or not.” I chuckle and then look at Felix with pouty eyes, “but who am I supposed to kiss at midnight now?”

“Well it wouldn’t’ve been me anyway, so I guess that’s a personal problem,” he says and then gives a nice genuine laugh.

“I guess I’ll just have to go another year without a New Years kiss.” I feign despair and over exaggerate my sigh.

At exactly 5:32pm we make it to the entrance at 6th. We look around for a bit and then Felix jogs off toward someone that he recognizes. I stand awkwardly by myself as I witness their encounter, and confirm that Felix was right, he does have a cute nose. After maybe a minute, Felix turns around and walks back to me with Minho close behind.

“So this is Minho,” he says to me and I give a smile and wave to the boy standing behind him, and then he turns to Minho and adds, “she couldn’t remember you from the bar, can you believe that?” His laugh is light and fluttery, and I make a mental note to ask him about this later.

“You stole my midnight kiss,” I comment and wink at Minho and both boys’ cheeks flush pink.

“I, uh,” Minho’s voice is frantic and his eyes search Felix’s face for help.

“I’m just kidding,” I say and then laugh and pat Minho on the shoulder. I check my watch again. “I’d say we have like 20 minutes before they stop letting people in, so let’s make a quick bathroom stop and meet back here.” I say and then point toward a nearby building that I’m sure will let us in.

***

By the time the last hour of the year comes and is almost gone, and the sun has been gone for over 6 hours, the only thing that’s keeping me alive and not freezing to death in the brisk wind, is the sheer amount of people that are in Times Square (and also the alcohol that’s in my system from the very kind and very sneaky people standing next to us). Of course, Felix and I had forgotten to hide any booze in our coats before we left since we were rushed and now that I’m a little bit more than slightly intoxicated, I’m glad that we didn’t. I’m overly grateful for the people next to us, because they made the time pass while Felix was busy flirting with Minho next to him. Around 10 minutes before midnight, I could hear some commotion going on somewhere in the crowd in front of me, and then saw a small group of people making their way to the back of the crowd. As they passed by us, the people next to me said something like, “you know you can’t get out now, when it’s so close to midnight.” But they didn’t stop walking, just pointed vaguely behind us which seemed to be good enough for everyone. After that, the crowd shifted enough that Felix, Minho, and I got pushed away from the people next to us and into a new area of the crowd. I frown at the thought of not being by people I know anymore and push my coat back so I can look at my watch. 3 minutes to go. I look up at the ball on top of One Times Square and excitement floods my body. It’s almost to the bottom already.

I lean closer to Felix and Minho and ask, “Any last words before our lives change forever?”

Felix slightly rolls his eyes and then leans into Minho’s ear.

“She does this every year,” and then looks back at me and smiles and adds, “All I’m going to say is that I hope there isn’t an alien spaceship waiting for the last 3 seconds before midnight to blast us all off the earth.” Minho scrunches his eyebrows.

“He says that every year,” I say leaning toward Minho. Felix shrugs.

“It’s true though.”

“Minho?” I ask.

“Um,” he glances at Felix, “I hope that next year is at least as good as this year was.”

“Aw, wait that’s really nice, and a million times better than Felix’s” I say and clasp my hands by my chest. “I think for me, I hope that in—“ I glance at my watch again, “45 seconds I can get a New Years kiss.”

“Those are you last words of the year? Really?” Felix deadpans next to me.

“I don’t see the problem,” Minho says and shrugs.

I can hear someone around me yell “30 seconds,” and then the noise level of the crowd goes up from excitement and everyone’s eyes are glued to the ball ahead.

20 seconds. 15 seconds. 12 seconds.

At 10 seconds everyone starts to count.

9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4... 3... 2... 1...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Everyone in the crowd is shouting happy new year to the people around them and before I can even blink I’m being pulled closer to someone in front of me and they’re whispering in my ear with an extremely familiar accent, “can I kiss you,” and I’m whispering back “yes” and before I can comprehend what I’m doing, a kiss is being pressed to my lips. All I can think in the moment is what chapstick do they use? because their lips are so pillowy and smooth. When I finally open my eyes and reorient myself with my surroundings I see none other than the boy from the coffee shop standing in front of me.

“It’s you!” I blurt out before I can catch myself.

He laughs a honey sweet laugh and then says, “Chan or Chris, either is okay.” And then he smiles so wide his eyes almost disappear entirely.

“Okay, Chan or Chris, why? How? What? I’m so confused.” I say.

“Clearly,” the honey sweet laugh comes again. “Just call me Chan,” he says and glances at Felix and Minho giving them a little nod. I look at Felix when he does this and notice that his mouth is hanging open and let out a chuckle at the sight.

He grabs my arm and pulls me towards him and then says loud enough for only me to hear, “so you meet again, it must be fate.” I roll my eyes and then he lets my arm go and holds his hand out in front of Chan and says, “I’m Felix, we met earlier but you were in a bit of a rush, I’m assuming.”

“Ah, yeah sorry about that,” Chan says, he grabs Felix’s hand and lets his sunny smile cross his expression once more. “I’m glad we met again,” he turns to me when he says this, “it was really getting under my skin that I didn’t get to apologize to you properly.” An awkward chuckle escapes his lips.

“Oh, no, no it’s no big deal at all,” I say more rushed than I intend, “I’m sure you were busy, with it being New Year’s Eve and all,” I give him a little wink and his smile grows even bigger. “Plus I can kind of tell that you’re not from here,” he looks at me with a confused expression, “I mean your accent is obviously not American.” I say with a laugh.

“Looks like you caught me,” he laughs and puts his hands up by his shoulders. Before he can say anything else, though, one of his friends is leaning into his ear and whispering something to him. I try to catch what they’re saying but it’s too loud around me to hear. At this point the crowd has dispersed into a much less dense one and there’s enough room around to move freely. I glance over at Felix and at the same time feel a slight brush at my hand before it’s grasped by someone else’s. I look up and Chan’s attention has fully returned to me.

“We’re gonna head back to our Airbnb now, but I’m wondering if you want to come?” He asks with a smile plastered to his face.

I look back at Felix to see his reaction and then say, “I want to, but I would feel better if my friends could come too?” Felix is nodding behind me and Chan slips a quick glance to them before turning back to me and smiling again.

“Yeah, of course, the more the merrier!” He says. The friend that whispered into his ear before taps his arm and gives a little jerk of his head when Chan looks over. He starts to lead us through the still thinning crowd to the entrance, and I notice that Chan hasn’t let go of my hand since he first grabbed it. When he looks back at me when we make it back to the entrance, I can feel my cheeks heating up and hope that it’s too dark to see them change color.

“So,” he starts to say, “if it’s so obvious that I’m not from around here, what’s your guess?”

“My guess?”

“Yeah,” he says, “where do you think I’m from?”

“Oh,” I pause for a moment, “well your accent is pretty similar to Felix’s, so I’m guessing Australia?”

“You’re pretty clever,” he says in return, “I don’t think I could ever get used to it being cold in December though.”

“Really? Then why come to New York during the coldest time of the year?”

“Well, it’s on everyone’s bucket list isn’t it?” He says and then adds, “to come to New York for New Year’s Eve.”

“Yeah I guess so, but I don’t really see the big deal. You can’t even go to the bathroom once you’re in the barricades.”

“Yeah I know,” Chan says with a sort of defeated tone in his voice, “I wish someone would’ve told me that before we got inside.” He trails the end with a laugh.

As we round the next corner, snow starts to lightly fall from the sky. Chan’s friends in front of us start to murmur to each other like kids seeing snow for the first time and I let out a small giggle at that. After about a minute or so the road goes back to the calmer atmosphere it had before, and I realize that we’re walking directly toward my apartment. I give Felix a quick glance to see if he’s noticed it too, and when our eyes meet he lifts his eyebrow at me.  I shrug as if to say what’re the odds and then turn back to Chan who’s telling me that if he were in Australia today, he’d be wearing shorts and flip flops with a zero percent chance of snow in the forecast. Then he’s telling me about how he would probably be swimming too and I can’t help but wish I was somewhere warm while we’re walking down a freshly snow covered street.

“You know, I live really close to here,” I say at a break in the conversation.

“What? Really?” Surprise crosses Chan’s face.

“Yeah, actually it’s only like a minute away.” I say and then hear someone ahead of me say  “We’re almost there!” in a bright tone. I lift my eyebrows when we head toward my apartment building instead of turning down the street. I point ahead and then add, “that’s my apartment building.”

“No way,” Chan says as we inch closer and closer to it. “I think that’s where we’re staying.”

“Very funny,” I say.

“No, I’m serious,” I search his face to see if he’s lying, but we reach the stairs and it’s enough to know that he’s telling the truth. “What floor are you on?” He asks as we climb the first flight.

“3.” He’s silent for a moment too long so I add, “you guys aren’t on 3 also, are you?”

“Actually,” he pauses, “I think it’s 304.”

Then tension sits in the air for a moment before I say, “you should really think about playing music will less bass.” Chan gives me a confused look, “I’m in 305,” I let a smile fill my lips when I say so.

“Wow, what a coincidence.” He thinks for a second, “wait, that’s actually pretty convenient.”

“Why?”

“Because you can go home whenever you want.” We reach the 3rd floor then and the door to apartment 304 is already being opened by one of Chan’s friends. When we get into the main room, it looks the same as mine except the furniture has a vintage 70s vibe and the couch in the center of the room is an ugly green color. There are two more rooms splitting off from the main one, and after counting the number of Chan’s friends I’m assuming they’re bedrooms with more than one bed in each of them. The only light other than the dimmed overhead light is coming from different colored hexagon tiles that are hanging on the wall. Before long, there’s music bumping through the speakers on the entertainment center. Chan has to lean into my ear before saying, “pretty cool isn’t it?” because the volume is up pretty loud. After he leans away, he holds up a beer in front of me and tilts his head. I grab it from him and give a soft smile.

“Thanks,” I say and then add, “it looks nothing like mine, apart from the layout.” Chan leads me over to the couch, we sit, and cheers glasses before both taking big swings from our bottles.

2 and a half beers and 3 shots of soju in he asks, “Do you like living in New York?”

I think for a while and then say, “Yeah, I didn’t grow up here, but I always liked the idea of moving to a big city so I applied to college here and when I moved for my freshman year I just kind of never left.” I shrug and take another drink from the bottle I’m holding.

“Aw wow, it’s cool that you got to reach your goal.” I give him a slightly skeptical look.

“I wouldn’t say it was really a goal, more like an idea that I liked.”

“Yeah but it’s still cool,” he pauses, “I’m thinking about moving from Australia, but I’m not sure where I would go,” he pauses again, “just an idea I like, I guess.” He shrugs this time and I clink my almost empty bottle to his. “You know what else would be cool,” he eyes me and leans a little closer than he probably would if he was completely sober, “if you showed me your apartment.”

I let out a genuine belly laugh, “that’s what cool is to you?”

“You bet,” he pops up from the couch and throws his hand out to me.

“Alright, if you want.” I take his hand, finish the last of my beer, and place the empty bottle on the coffee table in front of me before standing up. As we walk across the room, I catch Felix’s gaze and throw up a peace sign with my free hand. He pushes himself off of the wall he’s leaning on and walks over to me.

“Heading out?” He says into my ear.

“We’re just going next door,” I chuckle, “So, yes and no.” He glances back at Minho, who gives him a bright smile when their eyes meet.

“Well if you’re gonna ditch, I think we’re gonna head out too.” Minho nods from behind him and then inches close enough to rest his head on Felix’s shoulder. I lift an eyebrow at him and he raises both of his back at me two times in quick succession.

“Text me when you get home,” I say and smile.

“Wouldn’t think not to.”

When I turn back to Chan, he’s talking to one of his friends. After 10 seconds or so he looks at me with a grin on his face and says, “ready to go?” I nod and we head to the entrance.

It takes less than a minute for us to get fully inside and situated in the apartment next door.  I flip on the lights and watch as Chan starts to wander into the living room.

“You’re right,” he says after a couple of moments of silence.

“I’m right?” I question from across the room.

“Yeah,” he turns to me, “that apartments nothing like yours.” He turns towards the doors the opposite wall. “But it feels like home.” I let out a muffled giggle and I can see his ears turning red before he whips around and adds in a rushed tone, “A home, a home, not my home, not my home at all, just a home,” my giggles escalates into a full laugh at his rambling. “Not that I don’t want it to be my home, just, uh, I’m trying to not be weird.”

“Aw really?” I say when I’ve composed myself, “I was hoping you’d move in.” I fake an exaggerated sigh and then continue laughing with Chan joining in. “You’re really cute when you’re flustered,” I say.

“Oh yeah, well,” he pauses for a moment and then says, “well, you’re just really cute.” He turns away from me and faces the doors again. “I’m gonna guess that the left one is yours.”

“Hmm, well, you would guess wrong.” I say and walk over to the door on the right side of the room. Chan gives a pouty expression and lets out a little “hmph”

“Does anyone live there?” He says pointing to the left.

“Yeah, but she’s out for the week on vacation for New Year’s Eve.” I glance over at her door and let out a little sigh. “Must be nice to have a job that lets you have the whole week off.” I push my door open and then lean on the door frame. “I do want to say, though,” Chan looks at me with a look of concern, “I don’t usually bring guys home with me the first day we meet, so—“ I let the end drop off.

“Oh, I wasn’t expecting— I didn’t think we’d— uh,” Chan gives a cheeky grin, “yeah no worries.”

I walk into my bedroom and lay my keys on my dresser before sitting on the bed. Chan follows suit but spends quite a lot more time making his way to the bed because he’s preoccupied with looking around the room. When he’s finally satisfied he stops in front of my nightstand and bends halfway over to inspect the tiny cactus and succulent trio that’s in a small pot.

“These are cute,” he glances over at me and then back at the plants, “do they have names?” He asks in a genuinely curious tone.

“Oh, actually,” I pause for a moment to think, “no they don’t.”

My face falls slightly and I only notice because Chan is saying “oh no don’t worry it’s okay,” and turning his attention fully onto me and away from the succulents. We stare into each other’s eyes for a moment and then he peels his eyes away and I can see his cheeks dusting pink. “How about we name them together?” He asks.

“Okay,” I say and smile. Chan plops down on the bed and then let’s out a low hmmm.

“How about, Chan,” he says.

“Oh my gosh, no.” I say laughing.

“Okay, okay, how about we name this one,” a second slips by, “Tom.”

“What? Why Tom?” I ask.

“Because that��s where we first met each other.” He says with a contagiously sunny smile.

“Oh that’s right,” I say, “it feels like that was 2 weeks ago, but it was literally,” I check my watch, 3am, “12 hours ago.”

“Wow can you believe that?” He kicks his feet up, resting his legs on my thighs, and lays down on the pillows with his arms crossed behind his head. “What if we didn’t meet again?” He lifts his head slightly to look at me.

“I don’t know,” I say and then lift Chan’s legs up and move onto the bed to lay next to him. He turns his body to face me.

“Well I’m really glad we did,” he says, his tone soft and sweet.

“Me too.” He inches a little closer to me and rests his forehead on mine.

“Can I kiss you?” I nod in response and lean into his pillowy lips for the second time that night. The kiss is soft and innocent and it feels like something out of a dream.

“I don’t want to leave,” Chan lets out an exasperated sigh.

“Then don’t,” I say and connect our lips again but this time the kiss is much more rushed and wanting, full of unspoken desire. I can feel my cheeks heating up and at the same time Chan is rolling us over so he’s embracing me. Our kiss deepens into something even more raw and I have to pull away before I can’t help myself. He peppers tiny kisses all over my face and I can’t help but giggle.

“This might be a weird question, but can I sleep here?” He asks.

“I would love that,” I say and place one more quick kiss onto his lips before pulling out of his embrace. “But if you’re going to stay I’m going to change into some pajamas.”

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[higherfurther-romanova]

Stronger Together (Pt. 3)

Warnings for the whole series: Transphobia, Racism, Language, Angst, Fluff, a long ass fic… Haha. 

Word Count: 1153

A/N: Thank you so much for requesting this! It was extremely fun to write. I may or may not try to do a part four to this, it would just be a really fluffy fic, but we’ll see! I currently have a few other requests I need to tend to. :) Thank you so much again. 

(Pt. 1 | Pt. 2 | Pt. 3)

~~~~~~~~~~~ℒ ~~~~~~~~~~~

“Are you kidding? It’s Lillian Luthor.” She scoffs. 

“What do you mean it’s Lillian Luthor?!” You shrieked. 

“Rao… She hasn’t told you… She’s nothing like her mom or brother… trust me on that. She’s a good person, one of the best I’ve met.” She rambled. 

“I know she is.” You sigh. 

Kara looks at you worried, but you smile softly, reassuring her that you’re not upset, just worried. 

“Her mother is probably the reason she isn’t here… She loves doing these things.” She sighs. 

“Well then let’s go save our girl.” You suggest. 

Kara nods. She starts walking towards her car, but you stop her. She looks at you questioningly. 

“Tell me her address... “ You mumble. 

She only heard you due to her super hearing. She looks at you with a confused look in her eyes. 

“Please?” 

She nods and tells you. You reach your hand out for her to grab and take off, flying towards her house. You land there within ten minutes. 

“Woah what?!” She exclaims.

“Yeah… Kind of sort of not human, I’ll explain later… To both of you.” 

You walk up and knock on the door. Lillian opens it and looks at you with a dark, cold expression. 

“What do you want? If you’re here about the protests, I don’t want to hear it.” She sighs. 

“We’re actually here to talk to Lena Luthor.” Kara steps in. 

“She’s busy.” 

“Is that why she’s sitting in her room staring at the ceiling?” You ask with a raised eyebrow. 

“Excuse me? She’s not even home.” She blatantly lies. 

You sigh and push past her with Kara not far behind. 

“Hey!” You hear her call behind you. 

You both ignore her and walk into Lena’s room. 

“(YN)..? What are you- Kara?” She sits up. 

“We’re here to get you out of here.” You state. 

“How did you find m-” 

“I gave her the address.” Kara interrupts. 

Kara walks further into the room. “Whatever happens, we’ll figure it out, okay?” 

“We’re stronger together.” You state. 

You’re about to walk further into the room when you suddenly feel like there are pins and needles stabbing into your skin. You start feeling dizzy. The brunette drives the kryptonite knife into your flesh, but you knock it out of her hand before she can do an extensive amount of damage. Your hand grabs your side and you crawl over to Lena with the little strength you have.  Kara looks over at you and sees you falling and the green glow coursing through your veins. 

“Shit… Alex, come in… Code green at the Luthor’s estate. Director Danvers, come in.” Kara mumbles into her earpiece. 

By the time you’ve fallen unconscious, Lillian has started getting up. Luckily, Kara being on her toes 24/7, she sees it coming and throws a punch, hitting Lillian in the jaw hard enough to knock her out for the time being. 

“What… what happened… Is she going to be okay? Kara… what do we do?” Lena panics, looking down at your unresponsive state.

Alex and a group of DEO agents show up in record time, containing Lillian and putting the Kryptonite weapon in a lead lined box. Alex walks into the room and sees you laying on the ground, green coursing through your veins. 

“Shit… I thought it was yo-” She starts. 

“It doesn’t matter, we need to get her to the DEO and under the sun lamp stat.” Kara commands. 

Her sister nods and picks you up with the help of Jonn. You’re taken to the DEO with Lena and Kara following close behind. 

~~~~~~~~~~~ℒ ~~~~~~~~~~~

“Your girlfriend is Kryptonian... “ Kara says, breaking the silence. 

“How do you-” Lena begins saying. 

“Kryptonite only has an affect on Kryptonians.” 

“I was going to ask how you knew if she was my girlfriend, Ms. Danvers.” Lena chuckles, nudging her friend. 

“OH… Well she risked everything, her identity and unknowingly risked her life for you…” Kara shrugs. Lena blushes at the statement. You hadn’t even gone on a first date, but she knew she was in love with you. You’re strong, powerful, physically and mentally… charming-

“Luthor… you okay there? You’re staring off.” Kara interrupts her thoughts. 

“Yeah.” She smiles and looks down at her hands. 

They pull into the DEO and get out. They’re informed that you have not awaken yet, but they want to be there when you do. 

~~~~~~~~~~~ℒ ~~~~~~~~~~~

You jolt awake on the sunbed, not remembering where you are all too well.

“Hey hey hey. Calm down, you’re at the DEO. It’s okay.” Lena lays a hand on your shoulder. 

“Are you okay? Are you hurt? Where’s Kara? Did they get your mother?” You babble. 

“We’re all okay. Everyone is okay. My mother has been dealt with thanks to you.” She smiles. 

You let out a sigh of relief. Kara walks in and smiles at you. You look at her Supergirl outfit and back up at her. She nods. “It’s me.” 

You nod and you all sit there in silence. 

“Guess I have some explaining to do…” You chuckle. 

Kara stares at you and starts giggling. 

“What the hell?” You laugh. 

“You’re Kryptonian.” She giggles. 

“Oh… No, I thought I was a white martian.” You say sarcastically. 

“...You guys are weird.” Lena rolls her eyes. 

You both shrug. 

Alex walks in and informs you that she needs to run some tests on you and inspect the stab wound. You nod and let her do so. 

“The wound should be healing soon due to the radiation of the sun bed, so I’ll have to ask you to stay here for another hour or so.” She smiles. 

“Thank you, Ms. Danvers.” 

She nods and smiles, stepping aside for Jonn to walk in. 

“Ms. (y/n) Lar-El. Glad to see you awake.” He walks up to shake your hand. 

“Pleasure to meet you..” 

“Jonn.” He informs you. 

“Pleasure to meet you, Jonn.” You smile. 

“Same to you. I wanted to ask you if you’d be interested in training here. Maybe work alongside Supergirl and everyone here.” He asks. 

“I uhm… I would be honored, sir.” You stutter. 

He smiles and nods. “Ms. Danvers will speak do you about the details later, get some rest.” 

He and Alex walk out. Due to your super hearing you hear Jonn quietly cheering and Alex chuckling. You and Kara both laugh slightly. 

“Thank you by the way…” Lena smiles at you. 

You smile at her softly and nod. “Always.” 

She leans closer to your face, you can feel her breath on your lips. You lean forward and close the gap, earning a cheer from Kara. The kiss grows more heated and Kara takes that as her queue. 

“I’m just gonna… go.” She says awkwardly, locking the door behind her. 

You briefly hear Kara let out a faux gag followed by her mumbling, “I did not need to see that...” 

You chuckle and pull away, staring into Lena’s eyes. 

“Do you really want to do this here? We haven’t even gone on our first date yet, Ms. Luthor.” You smirk at her. 

She desperately. You chuckle lowly. “Okay.” 

“Okay.” She repeats. 

She runs her hands through your coarse, curly locks and moves to straddle your hips. 

~~~~~~~~~~~ℒ ~~~~~~~~~~~

@rebornpoet​

#lena luthor x reader #lena luthor owns my black hole of a heart #lena luthor #lena luthor angst #lena luthor fic #supergirl #katie mcgrath #arrowverse fic

[anonymouswriter2311]

The Pastor’s Daughter, Chapter 2

Link

Her fingertips traced over the doorknob, her mind screaming, begging her to change her mind. But she had to know, no she needed to know how it felt. Taking the deepest of breaths, she enters. Her heart is pounding in her ears as she finds Toni waiting for her with that kissable smirk taunting her.

“Took you long enough,” Her voice is deeper - if that was even possible - and her eyes are full of hunger. In one swift movement, she’s pushed me against the door slamming it shut. Her warm breath tickles against my neck, as she reaches behind to lock the door. “I don’t want anyone interrupting this.” She whispers directly into my ear, causing my entire body to shutter.

“Toni…” I whimper, as she runs her thin fingers through my hair, tugging slightly as she rests her hand on my neck.

“Tell me to stop.” She’s so close now, our lips are practically touching as she speaks. But I have no time to respond, as she pushes her knee between my legs, spreading my thighs apart. She bites her lip as I quiver, “I know you want me, Shelby Goodkind...you’re practically trembling for me.” She taunts, as she leans in for a kiss, but serves at the last second choosing to litter kisses all over my neck and exposed collar bone. ‘Sweet Jesus, her lips are so soft.’

“Please...Toni…” I moan as she bites down on my neck, “Sweet Lord.” I sigh.

“Say it. Tell me what you want.” She winks, that assertiveness making me go almost weak at the knees. “Say. It.” Her fingers tiptoe down my thigh, as she reaches to pull at the fabric of my dress. She knows what I want, and she’s more than ready to give it to me...and damn, I’m more than ready to feel her touch me.

“I want you to…”

“Shelby…” She stirred slightly, as her fingers danced along the waistband of her PJ bottoms.

“I want you...Toni.” She mumbled as her fingers dared to disappear under the waistband.

“Shelby Goodkind! If you don’t move your booty, yer gonna be late!” Shelby shot up like a woman possessed. Sweat pellets streaming down her face, as she combed shaky fingers through her hair. ‘What was...no! I can’t! Not again.’

“I’m up! I’m up…” She tried her best to get her breathing under control, as the arousal from her Toni-filled dream continued to surge through her. Shelby had convinced herself time and time again that she’d gotten over these kinds of dreams. That they weren’t an indication of her own perversion, simply just dreams of admiration. But things had never gotten that far, nor that heated in the past. Shelby wasn’t ready to face the world today, and she certainly wasn’t ready to face Toni. Laying back down she grabbed her pillow and placed it over her face, it acting as a muffler as she let out an unladylike scream and kicked her legs violently. “Why her!” She mumbled into the pink pillow, before throwing it across the room.

"Hey, kiddo." Dave knocked as he peaked his head into the room. "Mom's on the warpath this morning, so you might wanna get a wiggle on if ya know what's good for ya." He smiled sweetly, as he took in the oddly disheveled room. “Everything alright, buttercup?”

“Yeah, just a weird dream is all.” Her heart was beating so fast she was convinced her dad could hear it from his place at the door.

“Good. Good...well, don’t slack off now. Don't wanna keep Miss Shalifoe waitin’, now do we?” Shelby’s eyes widened as she pounced at her phone. 8:45 ‘Shit!!!’

***

Toni kicked the curb as she stared at the slowly filling car park. She’d been there since 8:20, armed with two latte’s in hand, but there was no sign of Shelby. Toni was pissed. But she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t completely surprised at Shelby being a no-show. She could tell how uncomfortable she’d been making her, but that still didn’t stop her. That was always Toni’s problem, she never knew how much was too much, not until it was too late.

Placing the - now cold - coffee’s on the steps she pulled out her phone, 8:50, thirty minutes until first period, Toni never bothered with homeroom, athletes at Hopewell Lake had to maintain an 100% attendance score, only way out was a phone call from your doctor stating that you were dying or some shit, so she never bothered to get marked as present. The steam was practically sweeping from her ears as she forcefully grabbed the two cups and stormed towards the main entrance, violently throwing the full cups into the trash as she passed. 'Last time I do something nice,’ she swore to herself as she headed towards the locker room, she needed to let off steam and fast, before she did something that she’d regret.

***

Shelby was lost. That much was obvious. With her paper timetable in hand, books tucked under her arm and a dazed look plastered on her face as she walked against the flow of student traffic, even the most oblivious could fathom that she was new.

By the time she had arrived at the main entrance that morning, there was no sign of Toni, and even if she had been there, there would have been no time for any kind of tour. While a part of the blonde felt bad for standing her up, on the other hand, she had no idea how she was going to look her in the eye without turning red, after what happened this morning. What she had been doing...it was wrong, on so many levels. Self-pleasure was a big no, no. And a rule Shelby had stuck to...for the most part. Her mind - and fingers - seemed to forget about this rule whenever she'd find herself in a 'nightmare’  like last night. It was unnatural, perverted... so good. No! She mentally scolded herself, she wasn't about to let herself fall down that rabbit hole again. She wasn't gay. She knew this. She was just confused by what she’d saw, fascinated by Toni’s character. Her cockiness, her smug smirk...her eyes, her lips...her soft skin, her athletic physique. Enough! She screamed to herself, just as she collided with another person, sending both her belongings and the other person flying to the ground.

"Oh my lord, I am so sorry," Shelby muttered as she frantically gathered her belongings, before looking over at the stranger she had just assaulted. A cheery grin met her eyes, as the short girl laughed off the whole situation.

"Don't sweat it. I wasn't paying much attention either." The tan-skinned girl shrugged as she picked up a few of Shelby's belongings before standing up with a small jump as if nothing had happened.

“I was in another world, just there.” The blonde smiled nervously as she flung her backpack around and tried to squeeze some of her books in the already filled bag.

“You know you have a locker for that?” The cheery girl raised a questioning eyebrow at the blonde.

“If only I knew where it was, it’s my first day.”

“No kidding. I’m Martha, but most people call me Marty.” Martha beamed, as she reached out to take some of the books from Shelby.

“Shelby.” She nodded. “Thanks.” She looked relieved, as she carefully tucked the remaining books under her arm as she dug into her jacket pocket for the small piece of paper with her locker number on it.

"Give it here," Marty smirked as she snatched the paper. “Three down from mine, come on.” She gestured as they joined the correct dying-down flow of traffic.

“This place sure is big,” The blonde mumbled as they walked down the never-ending hallways, that seemed to blend into each other.

“Wasn’t your other school like this?”

“Not even close. The one before it, maybe, not that was quite some time ago.” Shelby shrugged, thinking back on every first day she’s had over the last ten years. Five in total, this one hopefully being her last until college.

“You move around much?” The smaller girl asked over her shoulder before she slowed her pace as they entered a less crowded hallway that allowed them to walk side by side.

“Some. My father is a Pastor, so...we go where the Lord needs him, I guess.” Shelby admitted, watching carefully as Martha smiled at every person they walked by. She had never met someone so...happy before, and she wondered how much of it was real. How much of herself she put away, just like Shelby had been doing for years.

“Sounds like an adventure.” Her eyes sparkled, her mind racing with countless scenarios of how she’d react if it was her in Shelby’s place.

“It can be.”

"That sounds amazing, I've never even so much as left the state," Marty confessed, a small frown gently creeping onto her face for a fleeting second. She'd give anything to travel the world, to wake up in a different place, to meet all kinds of people. But life had other plans. Her parents, her friends...her life was there, and Marty couldn't see herself wanting to give any of that up anytime soon, not even for a second. “Here we are.” She smiled once again as she popped open the empty locker and placed the books she was carrying inside.

“I can’t thank you enough, Martha.” Shelby threw her arms around the stunned brunette, who happily returned the hug. “But...I do have one more, tiny favor to ask.” The blonde smiled shyly as she pulled away, her hand still resting on Marty’s shoulder as she spoke.

“At your service.” She bowed.

“Where the heck is the science block?” She asked as a faint blush crept onto her perky cheeks.

“You poor child, let's get these books shoved away, then we’ll get you where you need to be.” She winked as she took the stack of books from the blonde and placed them with the others.

“Thank you, I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn't...collided with you.” Shelby laughed nervously as Marty returned the piece of paper with her locker combination.

Looping their arms together, Marty hummed, “You can thank me by buying me a milkshake at lunch.”

“Deal!”

***

Toni was the first to sit at her regular table at lunch, her brown paper bag saving her from the time-consuming queue her friends would be waiting in. Relaxing back into her seat, she lifted her feet to rest on the token free chair at their table. Her body ached from the intense workout she put herself through that morning, the anger that bubbled inside of her forcing her, taunting her to work harder and faster. Closing her eyes as she sunk into her seat, the sound of the busy cafeteria soothed her. She'd always hated the quiet, a painful memory of her early childhood, of being left alone in a small dirty room while her ' mom’ worked up enough money for a box of frozen turkey dinosaurs and a bottle of vodka. It’d been years since she’d seen her, but the memories that remained still haunted her.

Leah was the first to arrive at the table, juggling her lunch tray with one hand as she kept her nose buried in some book that Toni had no interest in. It had been Marty - Toni's best friend since fourth grade - that had invited the bookworm to join their duo, and while she wouldn’t have been Toni’s first choice, she wasn’t the worst person to have around.

“New book?” Toni questioned, she’d been putting the effort into their friendship as of late, now that she was settled with her foster parents of two years.

“‘The Nature Of Her’" She read aloud, as she sat. Her eyes skimmed the remainder of the page before she slipped her bookmark into the spine and set the book aside.

“Any good?” Toni asked with her mouth full of bread and turkey goodness.

"Not sure yet. I'll get back to you." Toni saluted before they both burst out laughing. "No Marty yet?"

“Probably in the milkshake line as we spe-” The shorter froze mid-sentence as her eyes landed on the smiling blonde by her best friend’s side. “You have to be fucking with me.”

“What are we staring at?” The bookworm questioned as she scanned the cafeteria for signs of some kind of disturbance.

"More like who," Toni muttered as she slumped further into the hard plastic seat, her arms crossed tightly over her chest as she watched their every move.

“New girl? She’s in my English class, she seems nice.” Leah shrugged as she turned back to her plate of pasta, and began to pick out the peppers.

“Yeah, super nice.” The athlete narrowed her eyes as Marty’s laughter drifted over, making her blood boil for the second time that day. Toni didn’t think of herself as possessive, she loved how nice and caring her best friend was, but she wasn’t about to let Shelby flake on her.

Toni’s eyes watched carefully as the pair made their way over to the table, giggling together as they neared the table. And as their eyes finally met, she could see the nervousness build up in Shelby, as she quickly looked away.

"Hey, guys! This is Shelby," Marty excitedly presented the blonde, like that picture of Will Smith with his wife at some awards show. ‘Look at me, I’ve found my very own princess!’ “Shelby, this is Leah, she has literary quotes for every occasion!”

“‘You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.’ Winnie The Pooh.” Leah smiled brightly, taking pride in her vast knowledge of all things literature.

“That’s...quite the talent.” Shelby plastered on a fake smile as she shook Leah’s hand.

“And this.” Marty skipped over to the grumpy brunette and lovingly wrapped her arms around Toni’s neck. “This is Toni, my bestest friend in the entire universe.”

"Is that my only character trait?" Toni joked as she laced her fingers with Marty's, her eyes never leaving Shelby, who uncomfortably acknowledged Toni's presence at the table.

“The only that matters to me.” The tan-skinned girl replied in a sweet sing-song like voice, before placing a small kiss on Toni’s cheek. “Come, sit.” She gestured to the spare seat where Toni’s feet were still resting.

Shelby averted her gaze once again, as she pulled out the chair, forcing Toni's feet to fall to the ground with a thud. But just as she was about to sit, the bitter basketball star pushed against one of the metal legs, sending both the surprised blonde and the chair falling to the ground. On the ground, Shelby looked up at the table in disbelief as Toni peered down, that addictive smirk on her face. "Whoops." She muttered as Marty and Leah jumped up to help her.

“Toni!” Marty hissed, as she helped Shelby back to her feet and grabbed some napkins to clean up the milkshake spilled down her dress.

“It’s hardly like I meant it!” Toni shot back as she moved to pick the chair up and carefully place it behind the embarrassed blonde.

“It’s fine.” Shelby finally spoke, her cheeks a fluorescent pink as she peaked past her messy hair at the three girls staring at her. “No harm done.” She forced a smile onto her light pink lips and slowly sat, taking extra caution.

Toni huffed back into her seat as Marty sent her a warning glare. The basketball star hated that she’d let her anger get the better of her, but she was also slightly impressed that Shelby stayed. It was obviously going to take a lot more than a little trip to get rid of this blonde princess, good thing Toni was an expert at playing the long game.

#Shelby x Toni #Shelby Goodkind #Toni Shalifoe #Shoni #The Wilds #The Wilds ff #Marty Blackburn #Fatin Jadmani #Dot Campbell #Leah Rilke #Rachel Reid #Nora Reid #Internalized Homophobia #Religion #Goodkind Family #lgbt fanfiction #enemies to friends to lovers

[deweysdenouement]

House of Cards

a/n: this has lived in my mind rent free for longer than i care to admit but i only actually wrote it all tonight. somethin’ a little different. somethin’ likely not that good.

or: years after beatrice and bertrand leave vfd, beatrice and frank get trapped under a desk together during a bank robbery. mostly just them, cameos from bertrand, violet, and ernest + much discussion of kit and dewey

TW for guns and blood (nothing graphic, no death)

“Well,” Beatrice says brightly as a bullet flies over their heads and dislodges some beige coloured plaster in the wall. “This is no good.”

“I thought we were just amicable strangers in a queue,” Frank replies flatly, folded up like the origami swans on the tables at his hotel, trying to keep his body hidden under the desk. 

“Amicable strangers surviving a bank robbery together,” she says. “It brings people closer.”

“That’s never been my experience of the world,” Frank says, and it’s punctuated by another two shots, an effect she imagines he rather enjoys. “In my experience, when people get scared, they just leave.”

‘Well,” Beatrice says, as her heart breaks behind her ribs, “I am actually stuck here right now.”

“You haven’t changed,” he replies, and a hint of softness creeps into his voice. “I thought being a mother would force you to learn to actually listen to people.”

It’s a dig, and an accurate one at that, but they might be dead in a few minutes, so she leaves her arsenal of words she could throw back at him alone. Partly because she’s listening for the footsteps of the man keeping them all in here, partly because Frank looks more pitiful than annoyed.

“I have two children now,” she says softly. “So I should be doubly good at it.”

“I saw. Dewey kept the clipping from the birth announcement in the paper.”

“How is he?”

“You know Dewey,” Frank says, tone carefully even. “If there’s a silver lining, he’ll find it.”

Someone on the other side of the room starts to cry. A few scattered voices hush them.

“He’s not great,” Frank finishes. “So we should try to avoid dying here.”

“We’ll be fine,” Beatrice says easily. “They just want the money. We’ve got nothing to do with it.”

“Bad timing,” he murmurs.

“Because you’re stuck in a hostage situation, or because you’re stuck in a hostage situation with me?”

Frank smiles crookedly for the first time since they had noticed each other in the queue.

“Oh, the latter,” he says. “If I was stuck here with Bertrand? No complaints.”

“Bertrand could have talked that guy down by now,” she says glumly. “You could run off back to the hotel and avoid any awkward conversation at all.” 

“Don’t you always claim to be some genius with people?” Frank shifts slightly, and she hears the crack of his bones. They’re both getting older.

“I can’t even get toddlers to go to bed,” she says ruefully, and it feels more honest than she means it to. “You think I can stop a hostage situation with the power of love?”

“Well, it would be nice. I have a meeting in an hour.”

“I cannot believe you are worrying about work,” she hisses. “Are you gonna try telling him that?”

“I’ve never seen the emotional card work in the movies,” he says, and she thinks he might be joking with her again. “Who can know what’ll work?”

“I do feel very inclined to tell him I have a husband and two children,” Beatrice huffs, and slides down the smooth wood so she’s half resting on the small of her back. “If anything happens to me-”

“Don’t be dramatic,” he says sharply. His face is closed off again. “Nothing is happening to you.”

“Never knew you cared.” She grins at him, knocks her shoe against his. “Anyone else would have let me have my moment.”

“Kit would tell you to shut up,” he says. “Then threaten to run you over with her taxi.”

“That was definitely her thing.”

“It still is her thing,” Frank says. “We didn’t all stop existing when you left.”

“I know,” she says, a little ashamed. “How is she?”

“How much have you forgotten about us that you think Kit and I are talking about feelings?”

“Good point,” she says, and laughs a bit. “But you can tell, can’t you?”

“I guess,” he hums. “She’s pretty mad at you.”

“That’s fair.”

Footsteps move right past their desk, separated only by a thin slice of wood, and they both hold their breaths for a moment.

“She does miss you both though,” he carries on, and she thinks maybe he’s using Kit as a shield, that they’re not really talking about her anymore. “Probably more than she’s mad at you.”

“I guess you can’t know,” she says.

“I guess not.”

“I really am sorry,” Beatrice whispers. “And you can tell her that, if you want. I think a lot of people would have made our choice if they’d been able to.”

Being friends with Frank, she remembers, is a lot like building a house of cards. There’s a lot of fragile and strategic placing, and a wrong step usually means starting over. It’s a shame this isn’t really a good time to be hesitant.

“I would have,” he says eventually, and she breathes a sigh of relief. “But then VFD made the hotel too critical to their operations, even though we just wanted it to be a hotel. And then there’s my brothers. Obviously.”

“I didn’t know you wanted it to be normal,” she frowns.

“Told you you didn’t know everything,” he says, smiling weakly. “What better way to keep us where we were than monopolising our only source of income?”

“Not very noble,” she mutters, then, “Why do you always talk about it like you’re not a part of it?”

“Don’t start reading into things,” he huffs. “I look at most things from the outside.”

“Well, that’s because you have problems,” Beatrice quips teasingly, and she’s about to make an excellent joke when there’s another round of shots so close to her ear that for a second her head is full of ringing, and then Frank is groaning next to her.

When the ringing subsides and she hears the feet move away and sees the light shining through the holes in her desk, she scrambles over to Frank.

“Oh shit,” she says, when she sees blood on the floor. “Are you okay?”

“Oh yeah, feeling great,” Frank snaps, shifting so she can see the wound in his leg. It’s not deep, and he doesn’t look in any danger of dying, but it still makes her a little dizzy after a few years of mainly cleaning up baby food. “Not the first time.”

“When was the first time?” Beatrice asks, stripping off her cardigan to press it against his leg and trying to sound normal. “And why haven’t I heard this story?”

“Oh, it was meant for Ernest,” he says, and hisses when she applies pressure. “I kept up the ruse. Long story.”

“We have time,” she says.

“Not much,” he replies. “I heard police outside.”

As much as she would like to not be hiding from a man with a gun, Beatrice knows that when this is over, so is this conversation. They’re only trapped here together by freak coincidence and her pulling him down next to her when the first shots went off. He’ll be gone with the wind as soon as the doors open.

“Hey, Beatrice,” he says, snapping her out of her reverie. “Listen to me for a moment and don’t say anything.”

“Fine,” she says. “Don’t confess your feelings for me though.”

“Hah,” he snorts. “Well, if I do, it’s the blood loss.” 

“Making you reveal what you’ve felt all along,” she says brightly. “Come on now, before you pass out.”

“I’m not passing out,” he says stubbornly, and she believes this because she’s seen him go three days without sleeping before. “I just needed to tell you that if I die and you live-”

“Obviously not happening.”

“I said don’t say anything,” he grumbles. “If I don’t make it out of here and you do, I need you to tell my brothers-”

“That you love them? We know, Frank, maybe you should just show some affection sometimes.”

“Will you shut up?” Frank narrows his eyes at her. He’s a little pale and sweaty, but still as sharp as ever. “I need you to tell them one of them can take my place. If they want to. It’s probably easier than whatever they’ve got going on.”

“Well,” Beatrice says. “That’s insane.”

“I didn’t ask your opinion on it, I just asked you to do it,” Frank snaps. “Beatrice, for god’s sake, let a man bleed in peace.”

“You’re hilarious,” she says. “I don’t think you have it that easy though.”

“Your opinion isn’t really part of my life anymore,” he says bluntly, and closes his eyes. “I’d pass on a message for you.”

“Eh,” she says. “I think I’m kinda obvious now. I love my family, I want them to move on, I was very noble, blah blah.”

“Duly noted,” he replies. “You have fun with that.”

Then the doors break open, and there’s a cacophony of yelling, and when Beatrice peers over the top of the desk, she sees that the man who took them all hostage is in handcuffs.

“Told you we’d be fine,” she says. “I know you thought we were both done for, but you gotta learn to listen to me.”

Frank flips her off, and she helps him to his feet, slinging one skinny arm over her shoulder.

Outside, there are crowds of people all with their gloved hands over their mouths and some cheer as the little group of hostages trails out.

“Hi!” A little voice calls, and Beatrice looks down to see Violet toddling towards her at top speed, Bertrand hurrying behind her with Klaus in his arms.

“Oh,” he says slowly when he approaches, and sees Frank with her. “Hi.”

“Hi,” Frank says, making some vague attempt to look dignified despite barely being on his feet. “I hope you’re well.”

“Are you?” Bertrand asks, nonplussed. 

“What do you think?” Frank says flatly, and Beatrice nods subtly to the blood seeping down his leg so Bertrand will understand the sudden absence of a filter.

Before Bertrand can come up with any reasonable response to that (and she’s sure he could and she would admire him greatly for it), Ernest is swooping in, and it’s another punch to the gut of a familiar face even if it’s the exact same face.

“There you are,” Ernest says, pulling Frank off Beatrice to lean on him without a word to her. He looks dreadful, but she can’t tell if it’s the present stress or a new normal. “Dewey’s worried sick. Kit drove me here, that’s how dire things got.”

“Hi, Ernest,” Beatrice says. Bertrand stays wisely silent.

Ernest gives her the once-over.

“Thanks for helping,” he says shortly. “You probably shouldn’t come to the taxi.”

“Good call,” she says weakly. “Bye.”

It feels just as hard the second time.

“Bye,” Ernest says, and Frank raises a hand. “Okay, come on, you’re off work for at least a week.”

“It’s a graze,” Frank sighs, and then they’re both gone into the crowd, and Beatrice stands among the bustle of people with Bertrand’s hand on her shoulder and fresh blood drying on her dress.

#beatrice baudelaire #frank denouement #asoue #a series of unfortunate events #beatrice x kit #is kinda implied #if you wANT IT TO BE #(i want it to be) #my writing

[ptergwen]

starting at the end

warnings: nope

summary: peter takes you to a new year’s eve party

a/n: hey hi i hope everyone’s christmas was lovely if you celebrated! this is gonna be my last post of the year which is so ??? i just want to say thank you for reading my work and in general being so sweet to me always. i really do appreciate all of you and i’ll talk to you next decade! and as always enjoy <3

—

peter is nervous. not that that’s anything he isn’t used to; being nervous is one of his personality traits. but this kind of nervous? it’s different. it’s the kind of nervous he gets only because of you. the amount of butterflies he has right now makes him feel like he’ll burst into millions of tiny pieces the second he sees you. he just really wants tonight to be perfect.

flash is throwing a new year’s eve party, and peter asked you to be his date. he’d been working up the courage for months now to ask you out. what convinced him to finally do it is that it’s the last day of the entire decade. he doesn’t want it to end without you knowing how he feels. now or never situations always give him the push he needs.

peter’s day is spent getting ready. he has may teach him new dance moves, calls ned for last minute tips on flirting, and does his hair the way you like it. you told him once before that his curls are “too pretty to drown them in so much gel,” then used your fingers to fix them. ever since, peter decided that would be his new hair style.

never having been to a new year’s eve party before, he texts you at some point to ask what he should wear. you’re pretty much his personal sylist. he brings you shopping basically every time he goes. it makes him all blushy when you watch him try on clothes, getting him to do a spin in them. peter always thinks the smile on your face is worth it.

you text peter back saying to dress how he usually does and rememeber to be at your apartment at seven, with a smiley face. his heart practically pounds out of his chest when he looks at the time and sees it’s a little past six thirty. your first date is happening so soon.

wanting to wear something you’ll like, peter ends up choosing a blue and white flannel you picked out for him. he throws on the rest of his clothes and shoes, then checks his hair one last time. may hugs peter and asks him tell you hi for her before he leaves to pick you up.

the walk to your apartment doesn’t take too long, which peter loves, except for tonight because he’s freaking out and has to keep wiping his sweaty palms on his jeans. he goes over all ned’s advice while taking the stairs. when he makes it to the front door he’s been through so many times he can’t count, he just stands there. he uses the time to give himself a mental pep talk.

you got this, peter. it’s just y/n.

taking a breath, he knocks on the door. your dad opens it shortly after.

“hi, mr. y/l/n. how are you?” peter shakes the hand your dad extends. they’ve met a few times before. from what peter can tell, he likes him, or at least doesn’t mind him. “i’m good, thanks. how are you?” “i’m good, too. is y/n ready?” your dad glances back into your apartment. “i’ll check. do you want to wait inside?” he gestures for peter to come in. peter nods.

“sure. thank you, sir.” he follows with a small smile. peter hears you listening to a playlist he made you from your room. his smile gets even bigger at that. “y/n? peter is here,” your dad calls from in front of your door. “i’m coming!” the music shuts off, followed by fast footsteps. you spot peter right as you open the door. all of his nerves melt away when you make your way over to him.

you’re one of his best friends, what was there to ever worry about?

“hey!” you open your arms with a grin. peter dips down to give you a hug. “were you just listening to back in black?” “yep.” you tug at the bottom of peter’s flannel. “is this the one we bought you last weekend?” “mhm,” he hums proudly. the exchange makes your dad crack a smile from where he’s watching.

“you look... really good, peter. did you do your hair, too?” you bite your lip. the fact that you noticed makes him happier than probably ever.

“i thought you’d like it.” he offers you his (mostly dry) hand. taking it, you lace your fingers together. it’s not your first time holding hands, but there’s something new about this. a good new. “and you look beautiful, y/n.” “thank you,” you giggle. “we should probably go. wouldn’t wanna keep dj flash waiting.” peter laughs and nods. you turn to face your dad.

“bye! i’ll try not to be back too late.” “have fun, and stay safe! you too, peter. i’ll see you next year.” he waves goodbye. you wave back with your free hand, peter doing the same. the two of you leave your apartment, erupting into another short fit of laughter.

“dad jokes,” you sigh. you’re leading the way down the stairs. “that was nothing compared to the ones may makes. she says hi, by the way.” may is the sweetest. she’s always checking up on you. “aw, tell her i say hi back.” “yeah, of course.” peter gets more comfortable holding hands with you like this, running his thumb along the back of yours. it just feels right.

walking outside and into the windy night, you pull your phone out of your pocket. “flash texted me his address. i can navigate.” you wave your phone around to show peter the screen. “go for it. i have no idea where he even lives,” peter chuckles. you click your tongue at him jokingly. “oh, peter.”

there isn’t much to talk about on the way to flash’s apartment, since you and peter have hung out or facetimed every day of your winter break. the two of you communicate mostly by making weird faces at each other and pointing out random things that you see. as navigator, you also have to stop peter from walking in the wrong direction a couple of times. he doesn’t know where he’d be without you. literally.

it’s obvious which apartment is flash’s without even going inside the building. there’s blasting music and colorful lights showing from where you are. “i don’t know how we’ll ever be able to find flash’s place,” you say sarcastically, peter opening the door. “it’s almost like he doesn’t want us to,” he jokes.

you hold peter’s hand tighter as you two skip up the few flights of stairs it takes to get there. giving each other knowing looks, you both step inside.

“y/n and parker! you’re here!” flash leaves his dj table to greet you. he looks down at your intertwined hands. “guess i won’t be getting a new year’s kiss from you, huh?” your mouth drops open, you pushing flash’s shoulder. “get out of here, flash.” “i would, but i actually live here. gotta go queue up requests. you two lovebirds have fun!” he winks and points at peter before walking away.

“we will,” peter says just to you, laughing at your moment with flash. “he’s so...” “out there?” he finishes your sentence. “that’s one way to describe him.”

taking your other hand, peter tilts his head towards the crowd of people. “dance with me?” “god, yes.” a smile lights up your face as you pull peter further into the room until you two disappear into the crowd. peter twirls himself around you with your hand, wiggling his eyebrows at you. “not bad, peter.”

“thanks. may actually taught me how to dance a little bit.” he’s too pure. you put your arms around peter’s neck and move in closer to him. peter’s arms hug your waist. “really? what other moves did she teach you?”

peter dips you suddenly. you let out a small gasp, your breathing getting heavier as he holds you in place. he looks from your parted lips to your eyes before bringing you back up. “damn. can may give me a lesson sometime?” the two of you laugh breathlessly. peter moves his hands to your hips and sways you both. “if you’re serious, she definitely would.” “i’m so serious.”

you and peter spend so much time jumping around while flash plays the hits of the decade through his speakers. the only time you take a break is for snacks and soda, then it’s right back to dancing and singing along. you never want to leave peter’s arms. he never wants to stop holding you.

as it gets closer to midnight, flash puts on more chill songs. your head is resting on peter’s chest with your arms around his torso. he’s looking down at you, pulling you closer by your waist and moving you side to side slowly. “i’m really happy you asked me to come with you.” “me too.” peter gives you a tired smile.

“i was gonna ask you out myself if you didn’t ask me first.” “you were waiting for me to do it?” “yeah, peter. i like you a lot.” you close your eyes, sighing in content. “i like you even more,” he murmurs and closes his own eyes.

“one minute to midnight!” flash announces before either of you know it. people start scrambling to find who they want to be with when the year ends. you and peter stay right where you are. all you need is each other.

the one thing peter forgot to do was plan if and how he would kiss you. he doesn’t want to freak out and ruin the moment, so he tries to think of what may would tell him. something about not thinking at all. everybody is counting down from ten now, you included. peter just watches you.

“three, two, one, happy new year!” he hears. you’re about to say something, but peter’s lips on yours stop you. you kiss him back instantly, him leaning into it. you both pull back after with huge smiles. even though it didn’t last long, it was everything you’d ever hoped for. “what’s your new year’s resolution?” you yell over the noisemakers and cheers of people around you.

“to ask you to be my girlfriend,” peter surprises himself and you by saying. you take a step back to see him better. “that’s a dumb one.” peter’s nerves come back just like that. did he say the wrong thing? is he moving too fast? like you can read his mind, you peck his lips and hold his hands on your waist.

“resolutions are supposed to be goals you haven’t accomplished already.” he’s pretty much in shock at this point. “are you... are you saying you wanna be my girlfriend?” “i’m saying i really wanna be your girlfriend.” peter kisses you again without a second thought.

who would’ve guessed that the year ending would be the beginning of everything else?

#tom holland #peter parker #mcu #marvel #tom holland fluff #tom holland oneshot #tom holland imagine #tom holland x reader #tom holland x you #tom holland x y/n #tom holland headcanon #tom holland writing #peter parker fluff #peter parker x reader #peter parker imagine #peter parker oneshot #peter parker x you #peter parker x y/n #peter parker writing #spiderman #spider man #spiderman far from home #avengers endgame #endgame #avengers infinity war #infinity war

[darks-ink]

Naturalistic Observation

Prompt: maddie and jack learn a bit more about ghosts, but not through scientific study Prompt by: @imperfection-at-itsfinest Word count: 3,904

[AO3] [FFN] [more Phic Phight fics]

---

The dashboard of the Ghost Assault Vehicle beeped, and Maddie’s fingers tightened around the wheel. Jack leaned over to watch the screen.

“Looks like a group of ghosts,” he reported. “All medium to high level.”

“Guess that our shopping trip is coming to an early stop.” Maddie darted a look at the screen, then turned them in that direction.

Jack kept his eye on the screen, trusting Maddie to bring them to their destination safely. “Looks like they’re stationary, at least at the moment. Not far.”

“I don’t see them. Must be in that fenced in area.” Maddie’s gaze remained steady forward. “Odd. They must be low to the ground.”

They stopped, and Jack immediately swung open the door. Before he could even exit, though, he heard the clear voice of another human.

“Alright folks, here’s how this is gonna work!” the Red Huntress shouted, and a hush fell. Jack hadn’t even realized noise was happening prior to her yell.

He shared a look with Maddie, and they both jumped out of the GAV. Meanwhile, the Huntress kept talking.

“I’m gonna go over the rules in a minute, but, first of all, there’s the matter of teams.”

‘teams?’ Jack mouthed at Maddie, and she shrugged back. They crept closer to the fence, peeking over it.

Inside the fence was a flat area of dirt, a line drawn to separate it in two halves. On one side of the line, a large group of humans stood. Mostly teenagers, it appeared, but some adults were included as well. They were all dressed somewhat sporty.

Just next to the line, in the center of the field, stood the Red Huntress. Next to her, on the other side, stood Phantom.

And there, on the same side as the ghost, were the other three ghosts the GAV had detected.

“So, it’s very easy!” The Red Huntress swept out her arms. “If you’re a ghost, you’re on Team Ghost, on this side of the line.” She gestured at Phantom, who waved at the crowd. “If you’re alive and not a ghost, you’re on Team Human.” The Huntress gestured at the other group. “Don’t worry about the fact that there are way more of us humans than ghosts, or the fact that ghosts have powers, we’ll get to the rules in a minute.”

She bent down, picking up a ball that laid at her feet. “We’re gonna be playing dodgeball! The team that runs out of players first loses. The price is bragging rights.”

“I don’t recognize all those ghosts,” Maddie whispered to him. “But the big wolf in the back, it attacked us during that first ghost invasion. And Phantom has a little look-alike, too. I don’t trust this.”

“Let’s keep an eye on them,” Jack agreed, peeking over the fence again.

The Red Huntress bounced the ball on the ground. “So, rules. We’re gonna play a pretty basic game of dodgeball. If you get hit, you’re out, and you join the row on the side. If you catch a ball, the first in the queue gets back in. Now, that’s all the rules us humans have to worry about. Phantom?”

“Yes. Besides the fact that we kept the teams uneven, we’re also limiting the use of powers for us ghosts.” Phantom grinned at his captivated audience. “We’re gonna restrain ourselves, strength-wise, to make sure no one gets seriously hurt. In return, we do ask that you guys try to keep it reasonable, too. We want the dodgeballs to stay in the court, if possible. The spares are here for back-up, we’re hoping not to use them.”

“As for actual powers, we’re limiting the ghosts to just two of them.” The Red Huntress shook her head at Phantom. “Ghosts are allowed to go intangible, and they’re allowed to form shields, if they can. Because they are built to be anti-gravity, we’re also allowing them brief moments of floating, but no outright flight. Stay in touch with the ground as much as possible.”

Phantom nodded. “Now, as for introductions. You probably all know me. I’m Phantom, et cetera, et cetera. Here are my teammates for the day!”

He stepped to the side, gesturing at the first ghost behind him. She looked like… well, like a smaller female version of Phantom. Her jumpsuit was a little different, but still alternated between black and white, and she even had the same logo on her chest!

“This is Dani,” Phantom introduced, and the female ghost waved. “Yes, she’s my family. No, she doesn’t come to Amity very often. Yes, I’m expecting you all to play nice.”

Dani laughed, then stepped aside so Phantom could move over to the next ghost. This one was also a teenager, although a male. The entire ghost was monochrome, colored in varying shades of gray. He also appeared to be shy, flinching when everyone’s attention moved to him.

“This is Sidney Poindexter, and please, guys, call him Sidney.” Phantom patted the ghost on his shoulder. “All of you Casper High students might’ve heard of him before. Yes, the rumors are true! Now, as for our last member…”

Phantom clapped Sidney on the shoulder before moving on to the last ghost. The one Jack and Maddie both recognized, the wolf that had attacked them during the invasion.

“This is Wulf!” Phantom cheerily declared. The ghost was almost twice as tall as Phantom, broad, and with massive paw-like hands. It was also covered entirely in pitch black fur, its tail swishing eagerly. To its credit, though, the bipedal wolf did wear a bright green hoodie and tattered pants. “He might look a little scary, but no worries, he’s a big softie!”

The Red Huntress stared straight at Phantom, and Jack could guess at the look she was giving him underneath that helmet. “…Right. Anyway, those are your targets, people. You know the rules, you know the price. Any more questions?”

Phantom floated back over to her, landing soundlessly. “Not a question, but I wanted to thank everyone for coming here. Let’s all have some fun, shall we?”

The crowd—both humans and ghosts—cheered, and the Huntress shook her head almost exasperatedly. She offered her hand to Phantom, who quickly shook it.

“May the best team win,” he declared, a wide grin on his face.

“Don’t embarrass yourself,” she told him.

They separated, Phantom backing up into his half of the field. The Red Huntress placed the ball she held back onto the line, then gestured at some of the teens on the side. Two more balls were rolled over to her, and joined the first on the line. With that done she, too, got up to join her respective team.

“Ready?” she asked, voice loud and clear. “On three! One… Two…”

“Three!” she and Phantom shouted simultaneously, and the game burst to life.

Of the ghosts, only the female Phantom—Dani—shot forward to claim a ball. She lunged, faster than the humans on the other side of the line, and threw it the moment her fingers made contact. A girl on the human team yelled, then drooped off to the side.

In the wake, though, two human teenagers grabbed the other ones. The blonde nodded at his equally broad friend, and then wound back, throwing their dodgeballs at the same time.

Phantom rolled his eyes, the two balls phasing through him. Behind him, Dani and Sidney grabbed the missed dodgeballs off of floor.

The game continued like that for a little longer, neither side getting far ahead. The ghosts knocked out a few of the human players, but there were always enough players left to catch the balls and reclaim their victims. The ghosts, on the other hand, were almost impossible to hit. Between intangibility and the occasional shield from Phantom, only one got knocked out: the biggest target of them all, Wulf.

Who was then promptly brought back in by Dani, who lunged sideways to catch a ball that would’ve flown out of the fence otherwise.

To his surprise, Jack found that it was actually pretty interesting to watch. The ghosts all seemed content to play the game, all following the rules set up beforehand. Not much teamwork, though, unless they counted the fact that Phantom spoke for them all beforehand.

“It really is quite novel,” Maddie said, eyes on the game. “I wonder how they came to the agreement to play this game? It seems organized.”

Jack hummed, watching as Phantom formed another shield. One of the incoming dodgeballs hit it, bouncing back towards the humans side.

A second dodgeball bounced off, this one to the side, and Phantom… paused? The ghost seemed to still, slightly, before turning to look at Jack and Maddie.

Directly at Jack and Maddie.

His luminescent green eyes seemed even brighter through the shield. The ghost’s face split into a challenging grin. “If you’re enjoying it so much, why don’t you two join?”

The shield dropped, and Phantom caught the third dodgeball easily.

“Time out!” he shouted, holding up the ball. “Let’s give the human team a chance to switch up their players. Red, can we talk?”

The Red Huntress held up a hand, and the game came to a complete halt. “Sure thing, Phantom. People, anyone who wants in, or out, now’s your chance!”

A murmur started in the crowd as they dispersed, some of the kids leaving entirely. Their absence was immediately filled, however, by other people. Apparently the game had drawn more watchers than just Jack and Maddie.

He turned to shoot his wife a hopeful look.

“I don’t know, Jack.” She sighed, crossing her arms. “We’re not exactly the type for these kind of games.”

“It would give us a good opportunity to watch from even closer, though,” he pointed out. “And the Red Huntress is playing, too. Team human, led by ghost hunters?”

Maddie made a thoughtful noise. “I suppose it would put us right at the front line, should something go wrong…”

“And it would allow us to see what these ghosts will act like in a combat situation.” The more he thought about it, the more exciting it was to Jack. “All the knowledge, with far less risk!”

“Well…” she said, and Jack knew that he’d convinced her. “I guess you’re right, honey. Let’s show these ghosts why they shouldn’t mess with humans.”

Jack grinned at her, and they entered the fenced in courtyard. The Red Huntress nodded at Phantom, and the two of them moved back into the center.

“Alright, everyone in who wants to be in?” the Huntress asked, her voice raised. “I see we’ve got a few more members on Team Human, including the Fentons. Last chance, people!”

No one moved, and the Huntress nodded. “Alright. Phantom and I had a quick discussion, and we’re tweaking the rules a little. Team Human gets more players, and Team Ghost gets more powers. Because, admittedly, the last rules made it so that not all ghosts could participate equally. So, here’s how we’re going to do it now!”

The Red Huntress turned her head towards the humans, but gestured at the ghosts. “The ghosts can now use any of their powers except invisibility and flight. They are still allowed to briefly hover, if they can’t stop themselves. They are not allowed to target the human players with anything except dodgeballs. Phantom, give us some examples of the adjusted rules?”

“Sure thing, Red.” Phantom stepped closer to the line, nodding at the humans. “Ecto-blasts of any kind are a no-go, because they are a purely offensive ability. This rule, of course, extends to all purely offensive abilities, as well as superhuman strength. If we can find a way to use powers to defend ourselves, or to make it easier for us to dodge, that’s allowed. Duplicates, for example, are fine. It’s really dependent on the ghost, so we’ll have to play it by ear. If something seems too much, Red can call it out.”

“Let’s all play a fair and honest game of dodgeball, though, folks!” The Red Huntress turned to look at both teams. “Yeah? Alright. Let’s get the balls ready, and we’ll go on three again.”

Jack sidled up next to Maddie, right in the middle of the human front line. The two teens from the first game were on either side of them, bouncing with anticipation.

“Ready?” the Red Huntress called, backing up until she was right in front of Jack and Maddie. “One… Two…”

“Three!” she and Phantom shouted, and the game was off once more.

Much like last game, the two human teens raced forward to grab dodgeballs, as did Dani. The ghost was, once again, faster than the humans, but instead of throwing the ball, she jumped backwards with it.

The kids grabbed the remaining dodgeballs, winding back to throw them at Dani.

A green wall formed around the female ghost, though, Phantom standing right behind her. Both dodgeballs bounced off to the sides, where Sidney and Wulf grabbed them.

“Gotcha,” Phantom declared, as his three teammates wound back with the dodgeballs. And threw them!

Two of the dodgeballs veered off to the sides, but one came pelting right for Jack. He startled, raising his hands.

Maddie jumped in front of him, catching the ball. After a brief moment of hesitation, she wound back and chucked it at Phantom.

The ghost laughed as the ball passed through him, Dani picking it up afterwards. “Good try!”

After that, the pace picked up again. The three dodgeballs sailed through the air, neither side getting an advantage over the other.

One of them hit Jack, and he was forced to move aside. This did allow him to watch the game more carefully, though.

Phantom was definitely the most powerful, and the most versatile, among the ghosts. Wulf was by far the biggest, but made up for it by also being their best catcher. Sidney had opened up in the heat of the game, seemingly determined to prove himself, and controlled a stack of school supplies that had been laid to the side, possibly for this purpose. The ghost used telekinesis to drag books over to himself, using them as makeshift shields.

Dani, unlike the rest, seemed to have no special powers. Unlike Phantom, who she looked so much like, she didn’t seem to possess shields. Didn’t use them, at least. She was fast, though, and far more energetic than the rest.

Jack shuffled up the line as his team caught dodgeballs, until he was all the way at the front. From there, he could see that Phantom was behaving oddly.

The ghost had fallen back, relying on his three teammates to continue the game. His eyes, previously vibrant ecto-green, seemed to have changed colors to a cooler green. His glow was still bright, seemed even brighter, but had an almost blue tint to it.

“Ready, guys?” the ghost asked. Jack wondered who he was asking, but then the three other ghosts nodded.

They all jumped, simultaneously, and Phantom threw his hands out wide. The ghost’s eyes had gone icy blue, matching the rays he was sending out from his hands, which were aimed at the ground. He moved quickly and constantly, until the beams had swept over the ghost’s half of the field.

When the other three landed, Phantom was panting, but he had a wide grin on his face.

He had frozen their side of the field.

Jack hadn’t even known Phantom had ice powers, never mind that they were that strong. The decision to freeze the field was odd, though. He could understand it if it were on the human’s side, to handicap them, but that wasn’t allowed anyway.

One of the dodgeballs went flying towards Dani, but the ghost quickly darted aside. Hell, she didn’t even jump, she slid. Over Phantom’s ice.

That was… actually very clever. Phantom had given his team an ice rink, allowing them to move more swiftly. And, with the natural inborn balance of a ghost, they were much less likely to slip.

Maddie caught the dodgeball on its return, and Jack quickly returned to her side.

“Missed me?” he asked, playfully. She grinned back.

The pace of the game picked up even further, now. The ice had sped up Team Ghost considerably, and they were knocking more and more humans out of the game.

Dani had started throwing her balls from low, lunging into a slide before actually throwing, which made the dodgeballs come from unexpected directions. Sidney seemed to have picked up on this, and managed to throw a ball from high at the same time on occasion.

Jack caught a dodgeball thrown by Phantom, then grinned back at the ghost. He could return the throw, but Phantom would be expecting that.

Winding back his arm, Jack pretended to be aiming for Phantom. Then, at the last moment, he threw the ball at Wulf instead.

The ghost wagged his tail, shooting Jack a wide toothy snarl. Or, smile, maybe? The ball flew straight at him, with such speed that Wulf couldn’t possible dodge.

Had Wulf’s claws always been that long?

A cold wind picked up as Wulf swept both hands down, claws tearing through— through reality, revealing two slits of bright swirling green. Ghost Zone.

The dodgeball Jack had thrown flew right through the one in front of Wulf, then exited through the other portal. Immediately afterwards, the tears closed themselves again.

Briefly, Jack wondered if he’d just imagined it, but Maddie made a startled noise next to him.

“Phantom!” Red Huntress barked, over the din of the game. “No Portals to the Ghost Zone! We want to keep the balls in the courtyard, please!”

Wulf shook his head, barking something back at Phantom. It wasn’t English, though. Ghost speak?

“It’s still in the court,” Phantom countered, picking up the dodgeball. “He opened a return portal back to the human world. Sorry, Wulf, you’ll have to work around it.”

The other ghost scoffed, then nodded. The game picked up again.

Jack tried to keep an observational eye on the ghosts, but it was… hard. The game was exciting and fun, and he kept getting swept up in the fervor of it! And it seemed that Maddie was no better off than him.

Their team had steadily decreased, leaving them with barely a quarter of the players standing, when both Phantom and Dani came to a sudden stop. Blue mist emitted from their mouths, and they shared a startled look.

“Time out!” the Red Huntress shouted, and all other players stopped, too. “Phantom, Dani?”

“Ghost sense,” Phantom managed to explain. He opened his mouth to say more, but was interrupted by the noise of what sounded like jet engines.

The ghost that appeared over the fence was humanoid, but robotic. Made entirely out of metal plates haphazardly welded together. Plane-like wings jutted out from its sides, green ectoplasm flaring up from its head like a mohawk.

“Whelp!” it sneered at Phantom, ignoring everyone else present. “Finally, I have cornered you, my prey! Now— Ah!”

A dodgeball bounced off of its chest. The ghost turned its violently green eyes on the human team, snarling. “Who did that?!”

Two more dodgeballs went flying, hitting the ghost in its wings. Its flight faltered, and it crashed down in front of the fence.

“Brats!” it snapped at them, kneeling on the half-frozen dirt. “I will—”

More dodgeballs pelted it. The Casper High kids that had formed Team Human were all reaching behind them, grabbing spare dodgeballs—and any of the dodgeballs that bounced back.

Phantom ran towards the ghost, his aura once again going blue. He raised a hand, and froze the opposing ghost solid.

He then paused, making a face at the Red Huntress, who had also stepped forward. “I don’t have anything to capture him.”

“You’re a moron.” She scoffed. “Why not?”

“Was afraid it would get damaged during the game.” Phantom shrugging, then shot another beam of ice at the attacking ghost. “Can I borrow something?”

“I don’t have anything that isn’t part of the suit,” the Huntress admitted.

Jack threw Maddie a look, then turned towards the GAV, then back to her.

“I don’t know, Jack.” Maddie turned to look at the ghost, which Phantom was occasionally re-freezing when it cracked the ice.

“All four of them played a perfectly fair game of dodgeball,” he pointed out. “The one dubious case, Phantom immediately interfered.”

She made a face. “That could’ve been for any reason, honey.”

“Someone has to make the first step here.” He gestured at the three ghosts on Phantom’s team. All three now stood waiting, looking coiled and ready for action.

Well, Sidney looked a little hesitant. Not much of a fighter, it seemed.

“Jack…”

“Give him the chance to prove himself.” Jack nodded at Phantom and the Red Huntress, still standing side-by-side. “She changed her mind about him, too. Maybe there’s a good reason for that.”

Maddie sighed, but nodded. “Fine. But we’re keeping a close eye on him.”

“Of course we will!” He bounced forward, towards Phantom and the Huntress. “We have a Thermos you can borrow, Phantom, in the GAV.”

The ghost jerked towards him, clearly startled. “Oh. Uh. Yes, that would be… nice. Thank you.”

“Here it is.” Maddie came up next to Jack, holding out the Thermos towards Phantom. “We want it back at the nearest convenience, though, Phantom.”

“Gotcha.” He took the Thermos from her hand, nodding at both of them. “I promise, and… Thank you, really.”

He then turned around, walking towards the metal ghost. It was swiftly captured, and Phantom capped the Thermos again.

“Alright folks!” he shouted, the murmur of the humans quietening again. “Looks like we’ll have to end the game here! Thank you, everyone, for playing, and I’m sorry for the abrupt end!”

He grinned, cockily. “We were so close to beating you guys, too!”

As expected, the crowd went wild, shouting back.

“Yeah, yeah. We’ll just have to schedule another game for a rematch, won’t we, Red?” He leaned up against the Red Huntress, who shoved him away again. “Anyway, I’ll go dump Skulker somewhere far away from us.”

He jumped up, floating above the courtyard, and waved. “Cheers, folks, and stay safe!”

Phantom was off like a shot. The other three ghosts rose up in the air as well, following after him.

And then suddenly it was just the humans left. Even the Red Huntress walked off.

Jack blinked. Then realized…

“How long did we just spent around those ghosts?” Maddie asked him, sharply. “And we didn’t catch a single one, Jack.”

“And learned nothing?” he asked, shaking his head. “Nonsense, Maddie! Their teamwork, the creative application of their powers. Reacting to the changes in their environment? Learning from their actions?”

“I…” She frowned, considering this. “Yes, they… they did, didn’t they?”

“And they were so competitive!” he tacked on, grinning. “Such excitement over the game! Even that shy one, Sidney, seemed to open up.”

“Oh, well, I suppose.” She clicked her tongue, but looked far less downtrodden. “You are far more observant than people think, honey.”

He laughed, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “And you are much more vicious than people think.”

“Someone has to look out for us humans,” she joked back, as they walked towards the GAV. “I suppose we have a lot of data to process, now.”

“We learned so much!” he agreed. “And without doing any scientific study, too!”

#phic phight #phic phight 2020 #phic phight 20 #danny phantom #dp fanfic #phanfic #phanfiction #dp fanfiction #jack fenton #maddie fenton #dark writes #phic phight fics

[kinderes]

for forever

Summary: Virgil and Roman decide to have a sibling-free day. Warnings for very brief non-descript injuries, mentions of almost falling / being pushed out of a tree

Word count: 2285

Author’s note: part three of the boys will be bugs au! oops I started writing this almost exactly a year ago, but now that I’m done w/ my ts big bang project I really wanted to get back into this au! 

Virgil was ten years old and not in a great mood when someone tapped on his bedroom window. He groaned and considered ignoring it when there was another, more insistent tap on the window.

“Psst! Virgil! Are you home?” 

Virgil immediately recognised it as Roman’s voice. He drew open the purple curtains covering the window before pushing up the glass and glaring at Roman. “Hey Princey, you know most people just use the front door, right?” 

Roman hoisted himself up onto Virgil’s windowsill and climbed into his room. “That’s exactly what he would expect!”

Virgil rolled his eyes. “Hiding from Remus?”

At the mention of Remus, Roman let out a loud cry of frustration. “Ugh! You’re lucky you only have to deal with him at school! You have no idea what it’s like to live with such a loud, annoying, obnoxious-”

As if on queue, Virgil’s older brother Remy burst through the door, talking to someone on his phone. “Yeah girl, just gimme a sec,” Remy said, before pressing his phone to his chest and addressing Virgil. “Hey Virge, I’m gonna need you to keep it down in here, I’m trying to talk to Steph ‘cause her boyfriend’s being a real-” Remy stopped, apparently finally noticing that Roman was there. “Oh, is this one of your friends? Kinda thought you were lying about having them, but it’s nice to know you’re not a complete loner. Anyway,” Remy left the room again, leaving Virgil’s door wide open as he continued talking on his phone. 

“Remy don’t leave the door- ugh!” Virgil moved over to shut the door, sliding against it as it shut. “You know what, Ro? I kinda feel like having a brother-free day too, got any place we can go?”

Roman’s face lit up. “You know what, I just might!”

Virgil followed Roman as they both climbed out Virgil’s bedroom window. As they walked, Roman vented his frustrations about his brother. 

“...and he always makes such a mess, which he always blames me for and then I have to help him clean it up! And he always kicks my mattress when I’m trying to sleep! Honestly, I’d switch bunks if the top bunk didn’t give me the high ground.” Roman huffed, then turned to grin at Virgil. “And that’s why I’m adopting you as my new twin brother!”

Virgil rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I don’t think it works like that. For one thing, we look nothing alike.” 

Roman waved a flippant hand. “We can fix that! We’ll just dye your hair brown, problem solved!”

“Hair colour isn’t the only difference, Princey.” Virgil sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Besides, Dad says I have to be at least a rebellious teenager before I can dye my hair.” Plus we can’t afford it, Virgil added silently, but kept that thought to himself. 

“Well, we’ll have to wait a few years for you to be a teenager, but we can work on the rebellious part! Remus can teach you how to-” Roman paused, catching his mistake. “Wait, no, I’m disowning Remus… guess I’ll have to do it!” 

Virgil snorted. “Yeah, because you’re just as rebellious as Remus is.”

“I am!” Roman protested. “I get in trouble almost as much as he does!”

“Not sure that’s something to aim for, Ro.”

Roman hummed. “Hmm, perhaps you’re right. Ah!” He stopped dead in his tracks, almost causing Virgil to bump into him. “Here we are!”

Roman had led him and Virgil through the suburban streets and down a small wooded track as they had been talking, and they were now standing at the base of a tall tree with a wooden structure wedged between its branches. 

Virgil looked up at it. “A treehouse?”

“A tree castle, actually!” Roman said proudly. “Look, it has a balcony and everything!” He began climbing up the ladder. “Our uncle built it for us last summer, so we hang out here all the time. Of course, Remus won’t be allowed up here anymore but you can still come here!” 

Virgil frowned. “Won’t he be mad at us?”

“Probably!” Roman said cheerfully as he climbed up the last rung and into the treehouse. “You coming?”

Virgil looked at the ladder, then up at Roman. “Y-yeah, hold on.” He slowly began climbing up the ladder after Roman, and was almost to the top before he made the mistake of looking down and a worried noise escaped from his throat.

“Virgil?” Virgil heard Roman’s voice from above him. “Virge, you’re almost up!” 

Virgil looked back up at Roman, and Roman extended his hand towards him. With a shaky breath, Virgil took it and was pulled up beside him.

“So… don’t like heights, huh?” Roman nudged him gently, but even that made Virgil grip tighter to the side railings of the treehouse. 

Virgil tried and failed desperately to not look at the ground. “Yeah, and I uh… I don’t think I can get down.”

Roman hummed in thought. “That could be a problem… or you could just live up here!” He led Virgil further back into the treehouse, where there were two chairs and a couple of random toys scattered about. “I could bring you some blankets and food, and you can take care of the castle while Remus and I aren’t here!”

Virgil sat down on one of the chairs and grimaced. “Yeah, no thanks.”

They hung and talked with each other for a while. After about half an hour, they heard the sound of someone climbing up the ladder behind them, and Remus popped his head up. “Found you!”

“No! You’re not allowed up here Remus, I’ve disowned you!” Roman protested.

Remus climbed up and into the treehouse anyway. “I thought I disowned you last week?” 

“You did, but you took it back in exchange for you being able to use my Switch for the week! Which you then dropped and then mum had to get it fixed, which is one of many reasons why I’m disowning you! And-” he put an arm around Virgil, “Virge’s my new brother!”

Remus let out an offended huff. “That’s not fair! It was an accident, and how come Virgil gets to be your brother?”

“Because I saw him first! Now get out!”

Remus grinned and crossed his arms. “What are you gonna do, push me out? Make me go splat on the ground?”

Roman’s face scrunched up in disgust. “Ew, no! If you’re not going to get out, then I guess we’ll just leave!” He made a move towards the treehouse’s entrance, but Remus blocked him. “Remus, move!”

Remus grinned wider. “Make me!”

Roman groaned, looking around the treehouse for another exit. His eyes settled on one of the small windows and his face lit up. Without another word, he dashed towards it and started to climb out of it and onto one of the branches supporting the treehouse. Remus and Virgil both rushed to the window and watched as he climbed higher up into the tree.

“You can’t get out that way, you dork!” Remus called after him. Roman looked down at him and stuck his tongue out. Remus returned the favour. 

“He’s getting pretty high up,” Virgil said to Remus nervously. He wasn’t sure if the higher branches looked stable enough to support Roman’s weight. “Hey Roman, you can come down now!”

“Nah, keep going!” Remus called up to his brother. “See how high you can go!” He looked over and saw Virgil’s worried look. “Relax, he’s not gonna fall.”

“Challenge accepted!” Roman yelled back, quickening his pace as he neared the very top of the tree. One of the branches he tried to step on cracked as he put his weight on it. Roman yelped and grabbed onto the branch above him, just as the branch he’d just stepped on broke off and fell down onto the roof of the treehouse. Without much of a foothold left, he clung to the branch and tried to swing his leg up onto it. He looked down at Remus and Virgil, and for the first time looked about as nervous as Virgil felt.

“Okay, so he might fall!” Remus said. His tone was light, but his eyes were wide with panic as he stared up at his brother. 

“R-Remus!” Roman called down, his voice shaking. “I’m stuck, go get Mum!” 

“Yeah, okay!” Remus called back. He looked at Virgil and shrugged. “Not much you can do so just watch him and keep talking to him. Make sure he doesn’t freak out too much!”

Virgil nodded and kept looking up at Roman as Remus rushed out of the treehouse. He heard a whimper escape Roman’s lips.

“Y-you still there, Virgil?!” He said, sounding increasingly more panicked.

“Yeah!” Virgil replied, feeling helpless. “Just hang on, okay?”

“I don’t have much of a choice!” Roman snapped. He readjusted his grip and tried once more to pull himself up with little success.

Virgil looked back towards the ground, checking to see if Remus had come back. He hadn’t of course, since it had only been a few minutes and their house was at least ten minutes walk from the treehouse. Virgil watched as Roman struggled and was beginning to feel like they didn’t have that sort of time. 

Virgil took a deep breath and climbed out of the window and onto the tree branch. His mouth felt dry as he tried not to look down. He began a slow ascent up towards where Roman was, watching the whole time as Roman kept trying and failing to climb up onto the branch he was hanging off of. His grip was shaky at best and the whole time he thought he was going to fall, but soon he was only a few branches below. He took a break for the moment, sitting down and straddling the sturdy branch he was on so he could feel steady even for just a short while. 

Roman heard him and glanced down at him. “What are you doing?!” Roman hissed. “We don’t need two of us stuck in a tree!”

Virgil could see Roman’s arms were starting to shake from holding on. “Dude, you’re gonna fall!”

“No I’m not!” Roman shook his head, but it caused his grip to slip further. He panicked and squeezed his eyes shut as he completely lost hold of the branch and started to fall. 

Virgil realised what was happening and, wrapping his legs tighter around the branch so he wouldn’t slip, reached out his arms in an attempt to grab Roman. He was almost sure Roman was too far away to reach until he blinked and registered that he was holding onto Roman’s arm. Roman, who was now dangling beneath him, opened his eyes and looked up. Virgil could feel his grip wasn’t going to be strong enough with just one arm, so he reached out his other hand towards Roman. Roman used the last of his strength to pull himself up far enough to take it, and Virgil pulled him up onto the branch beside him.

Once they were both sitting opposite each other, they took a second to catch their breaths. Roman huffed. “Well now what?”

Virgil’s heart was pounding in his ears. “You’re an idiot,” he mumbled. 

Roman looked like he was about to say something in response, but just then they heard shouting below them. He peered down to the ground. “Mum?!”

Roman’s mum was standing at the bottom of the tree, carrying a tall ladder under her arm. Remus was standing beside her, waving up at the two of them. It didn’t take long until Virgil and Roman were safely back on the ground.

Mrs Duke pulled Roman into a hug and kissed him on the top of his head. “You are grounded, mister! What on earth were you thinking?!” 

“Remus was chasing me!” Roman defended himself weakly. 

“You aren’t hurt, are you?” Mrs Duke checked Roman over and found a scratch along his left arm. She tutted. “Well, it could be worse.” She turned to look at Virgil. “Are you okay too, Virgil? Didn’t expect you to be up there with him!”

Virgil ducked his head, embarrassed. “Yeah, ‘m fine.”

“It was my fault!” Roman blurted out. “I was… scared, so Virgil followed me up there. He doesn’t even like heights!” He glanced over at Virgil and smiled. “It was pretty brave of him, Mum.”

Virgil could tell Roman was purposefully leaving out the part where he’d almost plummeted from the top of the tree to avoid getting into more trouble, but the compliment still made his cheeks flush. “It’s fine, no big deal.”

“Well, I think my son’s very lucky to have a friend like you,” Mrs Duke said, smiling. Virgil couldn’t help but smile back. “Now come on boys, I think that’s enough excitement for one day.” She picked up the ladder and tucked it back over her arm.

Roman gave Virgil a quick hug before he left. “Seriously, thank you Virge,” he said quietly as he hugged Virgil. “I’m glad you were there with me.”

Virgil patted him on the back and pulled away. “Yeah. See you around?

“Of course!” Roman said, but his smile faded into a grimace as he remembered he’d been grounded. “Though maybe not that soon.”

“You’ll still see me around!” Remus said, giving Virgil a strong nudge that almost made him lose his balance. “I’m not grounded! That’s weird, Roman’s grounded and I’m not!”

Virgil snorted. “Yeah, that’s not gonna last long.”

“Oh, I guarantee it!” Remus said, apparently already having planned something that would eventually get him grounded as well. “See ya, Virge!” Virgil waved goodbye and watched as the two twins and their mum headed home.

au taglist: @nikoipond @sunflowerss0 @sparrow-flightninggale @nye275 @thgjclw  @jellopuffs @kai-the-person @fandoms-will-collide (let me know if you wanna be added or removed from the taglist!! c: I can’t promise I’ll keep it going, but I’ll try to for at least the first couple of chapters!)

#my fic #sanders sides #virgil sanders #remus sanders #roman sanders #platonic anxietwins #boys will be bugs au #sdklsd can't believe i finally finished writing this #i missed this au ;u;

[shaekingshitup]

unintended part two

A/N: ALRIGHTY FOLKS! WE ARE BACK WITH SOME MORE ACTION FOR MR. JACKSON! As of now, the face claim for the reader is going to be Keke Palmer

But, if you’re anything like me. All I did was just post a picture of someone who wishes they were you and in this fic with you and Trevor Jackson haha. Whatever floats your boats friends. Please note that echoic memory is a real thing. It just doesn’t work how I described it haha. More like echoic and As always thanks to @glittermakesmesmile​ for giving me the first feedback and confidence to even post these things. Also big shout out to @twistedcharismaaa​ who helped me challenge myself to write more even if I don’t feel like it. So, this series will hopefully get some more chapters coming soon!

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Pairing: Trevor Jackson x Black OC

Warnings: NONE

Word Count: approx 2500

HERE WE GO!

^ Jayden’s Song Association Fit

-----------------------------------------------

“Let me take my Black ass to the restroom while we got ourselfs a break. ROCKSY, what’s that cam’ra lookin’ like? We need another battery?”

“We’re good. Jayden, you want a snack?” Roxy redirected at their latest arrival. Jayden tried to sneak a look at the biggest one in the room and failed. He smiled at her. Her glance had caught both of them off guard and it made him feel giddy. It was the most beautiful and natural response she'd received from him-or anyone for that matter- in a while.

“I’m good.” she said hiding her own bashfulness behind her steely exterior. She maintained eye contact with Trevor. Roxy opened up a cabinet to pull out an assortment of Lays and refill the chip bowls that Trevor had demolished when he’d shown up 

“ Imma keep tryin. Venmo? Paypal? Zelle? CashApp? Damn, I can get it to you in Bitcoin if that’s what you prefer.”

“How have you done on the game so far?” Jayden again completely ignored his attempts to repay her. She wasn’t concerned about a few extra dollars. 

“I’m doin alright so far." He also refused to break contact first "So far Song Association has been the easiest game for me to navigate today.” Jayden blinked and conceded for now. Motivated by his win Trevor strolled over to the living room where she was admiring some of Terrell’s music selection.

“Clever.” she tossed over her shoulder as she reached for a vinyl. In one swift motion, Trevor had taken it from her mid-review. 

“Al Green?” He smirked. “ You’ve got taste J. Let me guess.. uh, track 5?”

“What?”

“That’s your single. I see it. No worries though. We can work on that.” he said just as he caught a glimpse of Terrell returning back into the room. Trevor placed the album back in her hands and returned to his stool, readjusting his mic. 

“Alright, Mr. Jackson. YA READY?! No more stoppin’ this midnight train to Georgia.” Terrell hollered. Jayden giggled at his silliness as she glanced at the tracklist for Al Green’s Greatest Hits. 

Track 5: Tired of Being Alone

Damn he cocky. Jayden thought. At least it wasn’t in an overbearing manner. It was a little endearing. He seems a little goofy. That smile was very telling.  But she wouldn’t show that just yet. Sitting back in her audience of one, Jayden watched them continue to play.

 “If I gave you the word “Never” what hits your mind?” Terrell asked the singer. Trevor starts going into a Jackson 5 single that Jayden honestly didn’t know. But, she knows that he is DOING IT. Her eyes go wide as his Michael impression is spot on and before she can even register her own body's movements, she's vibing with it. Music always had a way of helping her with her emotions and channeling a less.. “feisty”,as it had been put earlier, connection with herself and the rest of the world. She was moving around in her seat and doing her best not to spill her coffee over herself or her new friend’s floor.

"Oh shit!" she said clamping her hand over her mouth immediately. That was louder than she expected. Especially since it hadn't meant to leave her head at all. "I'm sorry," she whispered. 

"AHA HA" Roxy guffawed. "I tried to warn you. Don't worry Jayden.  We'll fix it in post anyways"

"Jayden you good girl. I had the same reACTion the first time I laid my eyes- I meant my ears on Trevor" Terrell stated taking a very pointed sip from his mug. Everyone knew he'd meant what he'd said the first time and it was causing them all to try not to break into laughter so they could push forward. 

"Yeah. Very natural response J. Hakuna matata" Trevor confirmed. Jayden playfully rolled her eyes. 

"What's the next word? He's a lil too comfortable" she spoke up.

Terrell nodded at Jayden and refocused on Trevor. "WAY. w-a-y" 

Without hesitation, he bursted into song. It was another that Jayden was sadly unfamiliar with. 

What is in this man's repertoire?

Soon enough Terrell explained that it was an original off of a project called Rough Drafts 2. At once Jayden grabbed her phone and opened her Spotify app. Creating a new playlist, she glanced up at the boys and locking in on Trevor she came up with an idea. "Thotful n Tired 💭" she titled it. She was adding damn near his whole discography when her ears perked up at the fact that he had an additional 200 unreleased singles on his computer at home. The more time spent in his presence the more the question of "Who the hell is this nigga?" rose in Jayden's mind. 

Trevor responded to Terrell all the while staring at Jayden and answering her unspoken question as well.

"So any fans that live in L.A. and you wanna just come and listen to new music not recorded.." he trailed off leaving an open invitation for Jayden and the rest of LA.

He really just said: Come find out

------------------

Jayden was both relieved and saddened when Trevor was finished with his Song Association. In a very short time, she'd learned a lot about this person she'd never even heard of until that afternoon. As his song had promised, he truly had her beggin for more.  The way they interacted and the feelings she felt towards him had grown quickly but it was familiar. It seemed as if they'd already done this dance before. Jayden was trying to figure out how to rationalize this to herself but she couldn't. It was the way that she and Trevor had silently held private conversations  in a room with others.  Even as they were learning one another, a lot of the pieces already seemed to be connected. 

Trevor was filming his spot for Terrell’s outro. It took every ounce of restraint in Jayden not to cackle out loud when he said “I think we’re gonna queue the rain right now. Mm hmm. You feel that? This is not a joke. It’s a motion in your ocean.” 

Trevor had made her feel a range of emotions in their time together. Jayden had laughed, she’d pondered a topic or two she’d never fully considered, she’d felt sexy and above all else- she felt noticed. Truly seen.  It was a lot. But, the girl was a hustler by nature. So, she was keeping up with each curveball that day had thrown at her. 

“Imma run to the restroom” Jayden announced. She wasn’t certain why she felt the need to do so. But it seemed far more courteous than roaming through Terrell’s halls. 

“Alright we gotta get ready for you when ya done Miss Jayden!” Terrell called out. 

When she returned, there was no Trevor in sight. Just Roxy and Terrell. Jayden wasn’t disappointed for them being there. Although she was a little put off that Trevor had exited so quickly and without saying goodbye?  She wasn’t about to let that show though. Sure, she really thought she’d felt a connection with him. But, she wasn’t going to let it get in the way of the single calendar event of her year- outside of her birthweek of course. 

“My turn?” Jayden asked as she returned back into the kitchen where the green screen was.  

“Mmmhhmm” Terrell affirmed “I just gotta follow you to this res’room. I dun broke my damn seal. Plus,  we waitin on Trevuh to finish his call.” As if he heard his queue, the front door opened and Trevor came back in. 

“Oh.” Jayden let out. Trevor studied her as Terrell turned towards his restroom. Roxy was on the balcony getting some air and making a call of her own. 

She was feening her cool, unbothered mask. But that one syllable had given her away. “What? You thought I left?” he asked. 

“I mean you were gone. So, yeah.” Jayden said shrugging her shoulders and throwing her wrist back dismissively.

  “Huh.” Trevor stared back quizzically. “I can’t do that just yet. One: I don’t think it’s fair that you got to see mine and I don’t get to see yours and two: I still need to figure out a way to make sure we’re even.”

“Ahh. So you’re stayin?”

“I got a little extra time. Plus, this is definitely worth it. But look, promise me something real quick.”

“Yeah, what’s that?”

“Since you’re so gung-ho on not taking back the money which is owed to you. Let me pay my debt another way.”

“What if I like the notion of Trevor Jackson being forever indebted to me?” The smolder he returned to her made her feel that someone had pressed play on Puddles again. But she simply crossed her arms and cocked her head at him. They were in yet another staring contest. 

Trevor let a beat pass as he wound up his pitch in his mind. “Aight, how about-

“Okay. I hope ya’ll enjoyed.. Ya break,” Terrell trailed off as he walked in on the tension that occupied the room. Jayden took a small step back from Trevor. She hadn’t realized that they were all in each other's personal space. 

“Yup. I’m ready.” Roxy re-entered from the balcony and grabbed the mic Trevor had used earlier that day to affix to Jayden. “Feel okay?”

“It does.” Jayden said. All of a sudden all of that calm she’d felt left her. She was getting the nerves again. She wasn’t certain if it was because of the game she was going to play or the one she’d been entangled in since she’d laid eyes on Trevor. He himself was still trying to figure out this woman. She had a hard exterior and a beguiling sexual energy that he couldn’t detach himself from. When she sat on that stool allowing Terrell to compliment her outfit and introduce herself a little bit, she radiated. She also had a pretty good voice too for a Shits and Giggles winner. 

“I’m mad at you” Terrell said. 

“Why?” Jayden

“I hear it. I hear that there in ya throat box. You got them vocals.” Terrell said. “Why you hidin?”

“Ohmygod. Hush. I can hold a tune here and there. But I don’t know about them vocals. I don’t know how to control it.” 

Terrell squinted his eyes. “I don’t believe it. Sing that song again. Because you got the emotion. I can tell you feel these songs here. You haf’way there but you too worried about sounded perfect. Let that go.” 

Jayden was quick to adapt. She took that advice from Terrell and moments later you could hear the difference. Closing her eyes she tried again

Have you ever found the one

You've dreamed of all of your life

Do just about anything to look into their eyes

Have you finally found the one you've given your heart to

Jayden tried her best not to get into her head about fucking up and pushed the nervousness down within her. Because when she became tense it would lock up her voice and she would miss her mark altogether

Only to find that one won't give their heart to you

She exhaled from her nose and smiled because she’d clearly sounded better than the first time 

Have you ever closed your eyes and

Dreamed that they were there

Jayden opened her eyes and stopped. She may not have control; but, she knew her limit 

“Now I know you didn’t stop.” Jayden picked up some of the liquid courage Terrell had fixed her. Her coffee was long gone by this point. She couldn’t keep the fear at bay. She didn’t want to make that big of a fool of herself today and have her voice crack like a pre-pubescent teen. 

Trevor was taking it all in.  She was a whole party when put on the spot and she easily gave off a coolness that made you certain to never cross her. She was not one to be played with.  But it was obvious that music opened up another avenue to Jayden. Trevor had seen it when their roles were reversed. She was empathetic to the emotions of  whichever song he sang. 

Her music taste was eclectic as well. She’d come through with country, gospel, r&b, showtunes and she seemed to have every Chicago rapper’s discography down pat. Trevor was genuinely impressed by her ability to copy and paste an artist’s essence into her own. She was fucking up the game and had songs for every word Terrell threw her way. 

“RIGHT R-I-G-H-T” Terrell announced. Jayden glanced a look at Trevor and then she gave her undivided attention to Terrell. 

Just stand right here

Let me show you what I'm about

To do to that body

And come down here

Let me show you where to touch my body

Let the foreplay begiiiin

Bet you never had this before

Cause once I go iiiiiiin

I'm gone have you begging for more

Boy, I'm talking right now, right now, right now, yeah

Right now, oh

Can we make some love right now? 

Jayden laughed and when she’d finished, there was silence. It was like someone had pressed the mute button in real life. Then the room erupted with noise at once 

“UH UH”

“hOw?” 

“Whoa whoa whoa”  all crashed on top of each other. 

“What?” Jayden asked. 

“WHAT?! This heffa really just said WHAT? TUH!” Terrell hollered.

“Wait. You said you’d never heard of Trevor before,” said a very baffled Roxy.

“Before a few hours ago, no. I hadn’t.” Roxy said. Jayden gave a shrug in Trevor’s direction. 

“But you just sang his song?” Roxy asked

“Yeah. Because I heard him sing it earlier. 

“You mean to tell me, that you heard this negro sang that song one time half an hour ago and you committed it to your memory?”

“Yes. I have perfect echoic memory. Obviously I don’t always process this in a way where I can duplicate it perfectly. But, I can mimic it pretty close.”

Trevor finally spoke up. “So when you hear something you can pull up that audio in your mind and not only play it back for yourself but you’ve trained yourself to be able to mimic it almost dead ass spot on?”

“Yeah. That’s pretty much it.” Jayden said as if she’d just read rattled off the day’s weather report. “You’re pretty sharp.” The compliment rolled off of Trevor in his astonished state of mind. Just then, his phone vibrated in his pocket. “Damn” he muttered looking at the screen. “Aite y’all, that’s my cue.” I gotta head out. Just as his mother had done, Trevor said goodbye to everyone individually. He saved Jayden for last.  “Good luck Jayden. It was nice meeting you. Matter of fact, let me get your info so I can follow up with you to see if you really get that perfect score” He offered his phone out to her with the keypad pulled up. 

“Oh, you already know that I came to win today.” she tapped some buttons and gave him back his phone. Looking down, Trevor realized that she’d followed herself on his Instagram account.  She smiled but her eyes only said one word: 

Checkmate. 

---

TAG LIST: @twistedcharismaaa​ @mygirlrenee @glittermakesmesmile @sarcastic-sunshines @chaneajoyyy @shewrites02 @ghostfacekill-monger @raysunshine78 @shewritestheblues @scrumptiouslytenaciouscrusade  @fd-writes @eyeknowmywrites​ @thadelightfulone​ @yoyolovesbucky

Imma update my tag list and this fic soon y’all. Hold me to it. 

#shaekingspeaks #trevor jackson #black oc #trevor jackson x oc #fics n shit #Terrell Grice #song association