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#i picked my name at 13 and never entertained the idea of changing it again and now im just sitting here like. hm.
mycannibalromance · 3 years
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by absolutely no means do i regret my name change and my first name does feel very good but i cannot stop thinking about the name francis/frances. it haunts me.
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hintofelation99 · 3 years
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Kate Babysits
Bruce: Kate I have an emergency.
Kate: What's up Bruce?
Bruce: A sorcerer put a deaging spell on the kids and-
Kate: And you need my help tracking down the sorcerer? No problem I-
Bruce: Actually I was going to see if you could babysit while I figure this out.
Kate just glares at him: Why can't Alfred babysit? Or your Justice League friends? Or, maybe, just maybe, you could hire a fucking babysitter!
Bruce, sighing: Please Kate, just stay back and babysit, please?
Kate: ...fine, but just remember I have no idea how to entertain kids, so if anything goes wrong it's on you.
Bruce, rolling his eyes: Sure, what's the worst that can happen?
-> 30 minutes later <-
Kate holds a two month old Damian as she looks down at a 4 y/o Duke, 5 y/o Tim, 5 y/o Steph, 6 y/o Cass, 6 y/o Jason, 11 y/o Dick, and 12 y/o Babs.
Kate: Okay kiddos, remember what auntie Katie taught you, no shooting in the house or at eachother.
Hands the kids guns.
Babs: Miss Katie, are you sure this is a good idea?
Kate: Of course it is swe- JASON! You will not try to shoot Tim! And stop chasing him before- Oh no...
Tim falls down the manor stairs, knocks out his front teeth. Kate shifts Damian to one arm and runs to the now crying Tim, picking him up and holding him on her hip, she checks him over.
Kate: Oh fuck! Bruce is gonna kill me!
Steph: Fuck!
Kate slowly turning to look at Steph: ...no
Steph, runs away yelling: FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!
Kate: Shit!
Dick, opens his mouth
Kate: Don't you dare! Go swing from a chandelier or something.
-> 5 minutes later <-
Cass: F- fu- fuck!
Kate: What?! How??
Steph, looking very proud: Cass and I played school and I taught her a new word!
Kate: Why would you-
A loud crash comes from the foyer.
Kate: shitshitshitshit.
Sees Dick on floor, mostly unharmed other than some bruises and a cut on his hand from a sharp metal edge on the chandelier.
Kate: What did you do?!
Dick: You told me to swing from a chandelier!!
Kate: It's called sarcasm!
Babs, sticking her tongue out at Dick: He's only 11, and my dad says that sarcasm is for adults. Like me!
Kate, looking unimpressed: How old are you?
Babs, looking very proud: I'm 12!
Kate: Well, that sucks because sarcasm is for 13 and up.
Babs looks offended and Dick sticks out his tongue at her.
Kate, shoves Damian into Barbara's arms: Take this, Tim I'm gonna need you to let go so I can bandage up Dick's hand.
Tim, now speaking with a lisp: Noooooo! I'm still sad!
Kate: Tim, please.
Tim just sniffles and gives her puppy dog eyes.
Kate: Fine! I can do this one handed.
-> 10 minutes and one bandaged hand later <-
Kate: Okay Dick, this time you stay near me.
Dick immediately treats Kate like a jungle gym and climbs on to her shoulders.
Dick: Okay!
Kate: Oh my god you're heavy, aren't you a little old to be carried?
Dick: But my hand hurts too much to walk!
Kate, rolling her eyes: Okay okay fine. At least I can still hold the baby, now where did Babs go?
Now with Dick on her shoulders, and Tim on her right hip she walks into the study to find the entrance to the batcave open.
Kate: Shit!!
Kate runs into the batcave and sees Cass practicing with all the weapons while Steph runs in circles around her. Damian has been placed on one of the lab tables near several tubes of acid, fear toxin, cuddle pollen, etc. instead of watching Damian Barbara is typing something on the batcomputer. Duke is still yelling fuck, but now he's also playing with a flame thrower.
Kate, picking up Damian with her left arm: Barbara stay away from there! Steph, Cass, come here right now! Duke, do not play with fire! Wait, where's Jason??
Looking around frantically Kate sees a holding cell. She puts Dick and Tim in there while she goes to catch the others.
Tim: Nooooo!!!
Kate: Dick, your brother is sad, give him cuddles!
Dick immediately pulling Tim into a hug and soothing him: Okay!
Kate takes away Duke's flamethrower: Do you know your abc's?
Duke, looking offended: Of course I do! I can write my name and all my abc's and-
Kate, pulling out a pen and a pad of paper: That's great, show me everything you can write.
Duke nods excitedly and Kate ushers him into the holding cell with Dick and Tim. She gives him the pen and paper, Duke starts to slowly write his name and the alphabet. Kate grabs Steph and Cass.
Kate: Hey Stephie?
Steph: Yes Miss Katie?
Kate: Duke is trying to learn how to write big words, and since you're such a good teacher I thought you could help!
Steph nods excitedly and immediately follows Kate into the cell to help. Kate picks up Cass and leaves the cell, locking the door on her way out.
Kate: Okay, Babs, what are you doing?
Barbara: Playing a video game.
Kate looks on the screen and sees that Baba has accessed the watch tower security cameras and is repeatedly turning alarms, lights, weapons systems, etc on and off. Superman and Green Lantern are freaking out while frantically searching for an invader.
Kate, nods looking slightly concerned: Okay, you have fun with that...
Kate runs upstairs to find Jason, after looking for an hour she finds him twirling a gun and reading a book in the library.
Kate: Wow, I guess somethings never change.
Jason looking up: What'd you say?
Kate: Nothing. Hey, where's your old DS?
Jason: Upstairs in-
Kate: Sweet, show me.
Jason: But I'm-
Kate: Show me now and I'll give you cookies.
Jason: hmmm... okay!
-> After grabbing the DS <-
Kate: Okay, grab all the books you want and follow me to the batcave.
They walk down to the cave and Kate puts Jason in the holding cell with Duke, Steph, Tim, and Dick. Jason is completely unphased by the others surrounding him, instead of addressing them he starts reading again.
Kate: Hey Babs, come here!
Babs: I'm in the middle of a game!
Green Lanterns screams can be heard coming from the speakers.
Kate: Wouldn't you rather play Cooking Mama?
Babs turns on all the alarms in the watch tower, turns off all the lights, and activates all major weapons before taking the DS and playing with it in the holding cell.
Kate: Uhhh, okay Cass, what do you like?
Cass looks at her confused. Kate looks around and sees a knife on the table.
Kate: Here, play with this, just keep it away from the others.
Cass happily walks into the cell while twirling the knife. Kate sighs in relief as she locks the door. She starts to sit down when Damian starts screaming.
Kate, rocking him: Shhhhhh, okay, okay. Uhhhh.
Damian starts flailing around, occasionally he's able to pull on a lock of her hair. She holds him at arms length and continues to rock him, this time it's more awkward due to her arms being completely extended. She sets him down a training mat to find something to sooth him. When she looks back on him he's giggling and gnawing at the handle of a sword.
Kate, shrugging: That works
-> 2 hours later <-
Bruce walks into the cave to see Kate asleep on the training mats, 2 month old Damian beside her chewing on a sword, and all of his other kids entertaining themselves in a holding cell that contains several knives and guns.
Bruce: KATE!! Did you give the kids weapons?!
Kate, opening her eyes sleepily: Wha-? Oh, yeah, couldn't find any toys.
Bruce: ...Next time I'm calling Roy.
Kate just shrugs as Bruce opens the cell door. Steph and Duke come running out, chasing eachother. Cass follows the two timidly. Jason keeps reading. Dick awkwardly carries a sleeping Tim. Bruce smiles takes Tim from Dick.
Bruce, as Tim slowly blinks his eyes open and yawns: Hey Timm- What happened to his teeth?!
Kate: ...uhhh, gotta go!
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andreafmn · 3 years
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Collision - Chapter 1
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Word Count: 3,434
Characters: Female Reader Uley Character, Sam Uley, Allison Uley, Charlie Swan, Bella Swan, Seth Clearwater, Billy Black, Jacob Black, Emily Young, Paul Lahote, Harry and Sue Clearwater, Leah Clearwater
Story Description: (Y/N) Uley is back home after being away for four years. Her life at it’s first standstill and she is taking this time to find out who she is without school. But she never thought that coming back to the reservation would turn her whole life around. In the midst of secrets and mystery, a man crashes into (Y/N)’s and her life will never be the same. 
*DISCLAIMER* I do not own in any way Twilight, all credits of the pre-established characters, script, and storyline belong to Stephanie Meyer and Summit Entertainment. The only thing I own is Uley Reader insert, any upcoming characters, and her storyline, as well as her effects in the others’ story line.
Chapter: 1/?
A/N: There’s no Cullen’s in the first chapter, we’ll see them soon though. Also, Esme is in the story but her and Carlisle are not together romantically. If you enjoy my writing I’ll also be posting them in AO3 and Wattpad along with other stories (I also hope to start taking requests if ya’ll want) Hope you enjoy and all constructive criticism is encouraged.
Next->
Chapter 1
Going back home felt bizarre for (Y/N). It had been 4 years since she had moved away from the La Push Reservation on a scholarship to a prep boarding school in Seattle. Although students were expected to go back home during summer break, she spent her time in summer taking college classes or attending internships in the area, so going back didn’t fit into her plans.
But she had just graduated from high school and decided that taking a gap year could not hurt. Seeing her family wouldn’t be that bad either.
(Y/N) Uley had not reunited physically with Sam and Allison Uley since she left for school, only calling occasionally but always being to busy for anything else. The mother and son duo had grown accustomed to the short phone calls and vague emails they would receive from their studious family member. The Uley siblings used to be a very close pair, being only a year apart helped their bond. But since (Y/N) had invested all her energy into her high school career, their relationship rapidly dissipated; replaced by untold secrets and life-changing details.
The Uley girl had no idea what was in store when she went back home. She had left when she was 14 and was coming back an 18-year-old with a high school diploma and a bachelor’s degree. (Y/N) had always been an over achiever and applying to the school she had and taking dual enrollment was no surprise to her mother and brother.
The bus ride from Seattle to La Push lasted almost eight hours, so (Y/N) equipped herself with two books, plenty of snacks, and a fully charged iPod to handle the ride. She had gotten the earliest ride available always enjoying the intriguing mystery that 3 am travels brought. Her brown eyes surveyed the curious characters that voyaged alongside her a young woman sat with a sleeping baby in her arms, the dark circles under her eyes signaled the baby was still a newborn getting adapted to a sleep schedule; there was a middle-aged man, his eyes attached to a computer and a briefcase tight to his side; there were two teenagers, backpacks at their feet and shared headphones in between them. They were wearing light blue polo shirt and her school insignia embroidered on the left side of their shirt. She had seen them in passing, two freshmen still energetic and excited for their school life. She looked at them and smiled, remembering being in their shoes four years ago.
Four hours in, (Y/N) had finished one book, and the bus made its first stop in Port Angeles, the place where everyone that traveled with her got off. It wasn’t surprising to see from the top of her book as everyone got off, she didn’t recognize any of them from the reservation so it would have been surprising if any of them had stayed in the bus. For the next four hours, (Y/N) continued to read her second book surrounded by a comforting silence. The sun had risen about an hour ago and a nice warmth was streaming from the bus window and (Y/N) felt herself drift in bliss.
Her eyes fluttered open once again when she felt the bus finally rolling to a stop. She blinked a few times as she adjusted her vision to the bright midday sun and her brain restarted normal functions. The brunette gathered the bag with her travel companions and got up from the chair she had been glued to for eight hours.
“Have a good day,” the driver chimed as (Y/N) was walking down the bus.
“You too, drive safe!” The girl smiled and got her two suitcases out of the side of the bus.
(Y/N) got startled as she felt two arms wrap around her midriff and quickly swung her elbow back.
“Woah, woah, careful with those arms, (Y/N). It’s just me,” the girl turned around, a gleaming grin adorning her face.
“Sam!” She jumped onto the open arms of her older brother, seeing the years that had passed on his tired face.
“Look at you, darling. All grown up,” Allison Uley smiled, tears threatening to spill from her eyes.
“Mom, I’ve missed you.” (Y/N) hugged her mother tightly, noticing the difference in heights of her and her mother. Another thing she noticed was the strain between her mother and her brother. Before she left, they all had a very close relationship but now it felt like so many things had interlaced into their bond. “Let’s go home yeah?”
“I’m, actually I gotta go to my house,” Sam scratched the back of his neck.
“What house?” (Y/N) chuckled.
“I moved out, but I’ll come over for your welcome dinner.”
“Sam, she just came back. Don’t you wanna spend time with your sister?” Allison begged, wanting to have both of her children under the same roof again.
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“I just can’t, mom. Leave it.” Sam sighed. “I’ll see you at dinner, (Y/N).”
He kissed the top of his sister’s head and left. He wanted to tell them the whole truth, but he knew he couldn’t. Knowing that information would put them in a level of danger that he didn’t want them to be aware of.
(Y/N) stared at the retreating figure of his brother as he ran down the street, leaving her and their mother.
“What’s up with him?”
“Oh darling, if only I knew.” Allison sighed grabbing one of the suitcases her daughter had brought. “Let’s just head to the house so you can rest.”
“Yeah, let’s.” (Y/N) gave Allison a comforting smile and wheeled the second suitcase towards the truck.
The drive home was as short as she remembered, and the house hadn’t changed a bit. She walked up the steps to the porch and opened the old wooden door; it still made the same creaking sound. The house still smelled of seawater and pine, an odd mix but a comforting scent. (Y/N) regretted all the summers she missed here and all the days she spent away from her family.
She made her way up the stairs and entered the first door to the right. She ran her fingers through the stickers she had pasted on there when she was 13: a wolf, a rainbow, a heart, and a picture of her family. Her name still carved at the highest point of the door and she smiled at the memory of that. She sat atop Sam’s shoulder when she was just 12 years old, a trembling hand holding a pick as she carved as best as she could the name “(Y/N)”.
The doorknob as it was turned let out a squeaky groan and the door needed an extra push to open. The room had not changed at all. The walls were still painted a light green, the light switch still had the pink princess cover, the bedding had the little purple butterflies embroidered on them, and the pillows were all pink and purple. In a corner rested the five boxes (Y/N) had sent to the house from her dorm room.
“It hasn’t changed a bit,” (Y/N) commented as she felt her mother’s presence behind her.
“I didn’t want to change it until you came back,” Allison smiled. “But I’m sure you’d like to give this place a bit of a makeover.”
“Definitely,” she laughed. “I think I’ll go to Port Angeles this weekend, doing some shopping can’t hurt.”
“That’s true.” Allison side hugged her daughter as she laughed. She headed towards the door but stopped when she was called upon by her daughter.
“Hey, mom?”
“Yes, darling?”
“By any chance, do you know where Sam’s living?” Allison’s body stiffened but shared the information with her daughter. Maybe she could figure out why he’d just disappeared.
(Y/N) was surprised to hear he was living with a girl she barely knew. She knew of Emily Young through Leah Clearwater, but not much after that. Last thing she had heard Leah and Sam had been dating. She certainly had missed some very important pivotal points in her brother’s life.
The house wasn’t far, so she decided to walk there. Upon arrival she could feel the warm and inviting aura that the quaint house emanated. The blue door called to her as she knocked on it. It finally opened and revealed her brother.
“(Y/N), what’re you doing here?”
“I’m here to see my big brother. Is that such a crime?” She laughed.
“No, of course. Come in,” he smiled begrudgingly. “I don’t have much time so we gotta make this quick.”
“Wow, feeling the love there,” she chuckled passing through the doorframe.
“There’s just some things that I have to do before dinner tonight.”
“It’s okay, I get it. I just wanted to ask if you could help me on the weekend with my room. I’m bringing it four years into the present, gotta make sure it looks like an 18-year-old sleeps there.”
“Yeah, I’ll come over Sunday afternoon and help you then. Anything else you need?”
“Well, not exactly, but it wouldn’t help to catch up. You know make up for four years of chit chat conversations and get me up to date with at the happenings in your life.”
“There’s not much to say other than I moved out and I’m engaged.” He said nonchalantly.
“Excuse me?! You’re engaged and failed to mention that to me?”
“It’s not that big of a deal, (Y/N).”
“Yes, it is, Sam! You’re getting married and this is the first I’m ever hearing of this or the fact that you moved out or the fact that you’re engaged to your ex-girlfriend’s cousin. I think it is a big deal.”
“Okay, yeah. Kind of a long story on that one.”
“Enough time to tell it to me?” Sam hesitated. He could hear Emily’s truck approaching and two male voices coming back from patrol. He needed to get (Y/N) out of the house before they got here.
“Maybe another time. I’ll call you on Sunday, yeah?” Sam asked as he nudged his sister out of his house.
“I guess.” (Y/N) mumbled as she was pushed out the front door. “Bye.”
“See ya.” Sam kissed the side of her head and closed the door.
(Y/N) left the house with more questions about her brother that she had begun with but didn’t want to press on. There was no use if he wasn’t going to talk, so she walked back home.
Her mother had gone out, possibly grocery shopping for tonight’s dinner, giving (Y/N) time to catch up on some much-needed sleep. She walked up the stairs and into her room, plopping down on the bed not caring how she landed. All she wanted was to close her eyes and rest.
By six in the afternoon her eyes fluttered open once again. She could smell the dinner her mother had been cooking. The room had darkened as the sun was going down and thankfully her mother had turned on a lamp for (Y/N) to have some vision. The girl got up from bed and grabbed some clothes from her suitcase to take a quick shower before dinner. She stripped all her clothes off and let the water wash away all the hours of the day. As soon as the water started turning cold, she shut it off and got out.
For a second, (Y/N) stopped and stared at herself in the mirror above the sink. She barely recognized the girl staring back. The bags under her eyes were deeper than the last time she had seen herself in this specific mirror, her cheekbones were more defined than before, her skin paler than usual since she hadn’t really seen the sun in a while.
It didn’t take her long to change into some new clothes and head downstairs, where she saw her mother on the phone. Disappointment evident in her eyes.
“Sam, it’s your sister… please… ok, fine. Just don’t flake on her on Sunday,” Allison sighed, turning off her phone and slamming it on the counter.
“Everything okay, mom?”
“Oh, yeah, darling. Your brother won’t be able to join us, but Billy and Jacob, and the Clearwaters are on their way, and I also invited Charlie and Bella Swan. I hope you don’t mind that they join in.”
“No, I don’t mind. What about Paul?”
“You know I’ve never liked that boy, honey.” (Y/N) stared at her mother. Refusing to continue the conversation until Allison answered the question. “I did invite him, but he couldn’t come.”
“I love seeing you make an effort,” (Y/N) laughed and kissed her mother on the cheek. “I’ll set the table.”
“Thank you, darling.”
(Y/N) grabbed the 10 plates needed for the night and the respective cutlery. She still remembered how her mother liked the table arranged and set it as such. She set the vase filled with fresh flowers in the middle of the table, leaving space on the sides for the dinner platters. The arrival of the guests was soon after. (Y/N) had grown alongside Jacob and Leah, and on the summers, she would spend her times with the Swan girl. Once Seth was born, he became very close with the Uley girl.
“My oh my, (Y/N), how you’ve grown.” Billy Black grabbed Uley’s hand and smiled up at her, with the warmness that summer brought.
“Indeed, I have, and you haven’t aged a day in four years. What’s your secret?”
“It’s in the genes,” he laughed alongside the young girl. She’d always been a charmer, he thought “You remember my boy, Jacob, right?”
“How could I ever forget? Hey, Jake!”
“How you’ve been, (Y/N)?” Jacob approached his friend and wrapped her in a hug. “Been an awful long time.”
“Four years, that’s not much,” she smiled. “Come in.”
The father and son duo entered the house, and next came the Clearwaters. Harry, Sue, and Seth. No Leah. They had always been close to the Uleys, a bit of divide coming after the rupture between the eldest offspring of each family.
“Oh, wow, where has the time gone?” Sue commented, greeting the girl with a tight hug.
“4 years really do go by quick, don’t they?”
“They sure do, Harry.” (Y/N) smiled, motioning the couple in.
Finally, Seth walked in and engulfed (Y/N) in a tight hug. The girl was 5 years his elder, but he considered her one of his best friends. Seth and Paul were the only two people (Y/N) kept in close contact other than her family. For some time, Paul and (Y/N) had drifted apart but Seth always sent his monthly excited letters, updating her on what he had been up to.
“I missed you, (Y/N)!” Little Seth spoke into a bundle of brunette hair.
“I missed you too, Seth.” She smiled as he walked past her, joining his parents.
The last to enter were Sheriff Swan and Bella. The cop smiled at the girl and gave her a quick hug, commenting on how much she had grown, a low chuckle leaving his throat. Bella entered with hunched shoulders, possibly not wanting to be there but she still smiled at her old friend. Vague memories filled the girls’ heads of summer play dates and days at the beach.
“It’s been quite some time, huh?” Bella muttered.
“It sure has. It’s great to see you again,” (Y/N) smiled. “How have you liked Forks now that you’re back full time. Still hating cold weather?”
“Yeah,” the pale girl chuckled. “But it has its better days.”
The girls joined in a quick giggled before joining the rest of the group at the dinner table. Allison had already set the table and had said her hellos to the group.
The three males had engaged in sports conversations and the teens were all huddled in the kitchen munching on cheese and crackers and engaging in small chit chat.
“So, (Y/N), 18 and already a degree, how does that feel?” Jacob asked, stuffing his mouth with cheese and ham.
“Well, as good as it can be. Don’t know exactly what I’m gonna do now. All I know is that I’m taking a year off and taking a breather for the first time.” (Y/N) chuckled.
“I just can’t believe you’d spend all this time going to school, twice as much. I don’t like school at all,” Seth chimed in, picking apart the cheese and filling his mouth.
“So, you spent these past four years studying, including your summers?” Bella added.
“That’s correct,” (Y/N) smiled. “And now I have a degree and nothing to do with it.”
The group chuckled and moved towards the adults as they were being called to dinner. In the center of the table was a big platter of spaghetti and meatballs, (Y/N)’s favorite food, a tray of toasted garlic bread, and a bowl of a colorful mix of spring salad.
(Y/N) always enjoyed her mother’s cooking. Even on her saddest days, Allison’s cooking could warm her heart at any time. She and her mother had a very close relationship, even after four years of distance. Since her father left early in her life, her mother had always tried her hardest to make sure both her children were loved and cared for. And she stayed wondering where she had gone wrong with Sam and hoping (Y/N) didn’t stray away as her eldest had.
The dinner group had all taken their seats at the dinner table and were passing around the various platters, serving themselves their desired portions. Jacob and Seth were overfilling their plates, receiving a laugh from their respective parents. Charlie, Harry, and Billy were filling their plates with more protein than carbohydrates and the moms at the table smiled at the males engulfing the meatballs. (Y/N) looked around the table and smiled. It had been a long time since she had sat down with the important people in her life and was relaxed, even if two of them were missing.
After everyone was served, everything went almost quiet. Some background music could be heard from the living room and the sound of forks hitting plates and mouths chewing filled the environment. Everyone was comfortable with the silence, but there was still one question in everyone’s mind.
“Where’s Sam?” Seth spoke up, voicing everyone’s question. The whole table paused in action and Seth felt like a deer caught in the headlights. Sue softly elbowed her son. “What?”
“It’s okay, Sue,” (Y/N) smiled. “He couldn’t be here, bud.”
“Maybe he was feeling bad, like Leah.” He added earning a burning stare from both his parents.
“Maybe, Seth.”
“I just wanna apologize for our daughter missing this dinner. I know she really wanted to see you, (Y/N).”
“Oh, Harry, it’s really no problem. I’m sure I’ll catch up with her soon enough.” (Y/N) smiled trying to ease the tension felt in the room. She could see her mother gripping her fork tightly as she kept her head down. “But I would also like to apologize on behalf of Sam, I know he wanted to be here.”
Everyone simply nodded and went back to their plates. The rest of the evening was enjoyable. No one mentioned the pair that was missing, and (Y/N)’s past four years were questioned in depth. She had an answer for everything except “What are you gonna do now?”
She didn’t know and that’s what she answered. She mentioned she wanted to study medicine, having finished a degree in biology and always loved taking care of other people. Sue was excited, being a nurse herself. But (Y/N) had landed at a standstill in terms of her life and career. A vast portion of her life had been defined as a student and now that this part was over, she didn’t know who she was.  
The dinner festivities were over soon thereafter, leaving Allison and (Y/N) to clean up after the group. The Uley pair put everything away in silence, exhausted from the eventful day. (Y/N) could see as her mother wiped away a few stray tears, sniffling behind her hair. The girl knew better than to bring the topic back up and left her mother with a kiss on the temple and a good night.
Upstairs, (Y/N) prepared herself for bed. The event had drained nay energy still left in her and she plopped down on the bed with a small thud. She had prepared her clothes for the next day, knowing her energy would also be drained but still excited to have this change. Her eyes fluttered close as she heard in the distance her mother’s quiet footsteps on the staircase, darkness overtaking her.
Next->
A/N: if you wish to be tagged for the next parts, please let me know. I’d be happy to. <3
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nat-20s · 3 years
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Part 5 of Wonderful! Au. *boyband voice* banter’s back alright!
Also on AO3
~*~
Jon: Hello everyone, and welcome back to our regular format. If my husband being horribly soppy-
Martin:-hey!-
Jon: -turned you off the how, this should be a refreshing return to formula, though I can’t guarantee there won’t be further horrible soppiness-
Martin, performatively under his breath: -most people thought it was charming-
Jon: -as that tends to happen when one is recording with the love of their life. If last week’s episode is the only one that you like, too bad, I’m back in full form, and should be at least through the rest of the season.
Martin: This show doesn’t have seasons? Due to the whole lack of a narrative thing?
Jon: I was referring to spring.
Martin: Oh, right.
[A beat passes.]
Martin, flatly: Oh. Great goof hon.
Jon, smug: Thank you.
Jon, sincere: Also, before we get properly started, I did want to actually thank everyone who sent well wishes.
M artin: Yes! We got positively inundated with lovely messages, it definitely brightened both of our days. I would even say it was wonderful.
[Jon groans.]
Jon: I am..not proud of the energy we’ve created for this episode so far, and we haven’t even hit the small wonders. Speaking of, do you have a small wonder this week?
Martin: Mine’s bad action movies.
Jon: Really? I had no idea you even liked them, let alone consider them wonderful.
Martin: Okay, so, saying I like them is a bit of a misnomer? It’s more that I like what they can do more than the movies themselves?
Jon: Elaborate?
Martin: It probably comes as a surprise to no one that I’ve tried my hand at a fair amount of mindfulness and mediation techniques. I’ve found poetry and journaling have been helpful for actually processing life events and whatnot, but when it comes to giving your brain a hard wipe and reset, nothing is half as quick and effective as a shitty shoot-em-up. Somethings about 2 hours of cartoonish, pg-13 violence held together with the absolute loosest of plots brings me to a state of mental blankness that would make a monk jealous.
Jon: How have I never witnessed you doing this? When are you sneaking off to go see Micheal Tarantino or who ever films?
M artin: That’s definitely not the right name.
Jon: Martin, dear, I don’t care. And you’re dodging the question.
Martin, fond: I’m not dodging anything. Since apparently we’re getting into it, you haven’t caught me cavorting with a movie involving more explosions than character development lately because I haven’t been. Haven’t needed it, in recent years. Turns out when you’re not crushingly lonely and working a literal nightmare of job, there’s less of a drive to try and escape your own thoughts. Shocker, I know. Still, to anyone out there that feels like their brain is on fire, go try watching a fast and furious. Any of ‘em, it doesn’t matter. Or even better, Chronicles of Riddick. I can’t remember a single goddamn detail of that movie, which makes it perfect for what I’m talking about.
Jon: I have the strong feeling that th is is a “mileage may vary” scenario.
Martin: Well, yeah, that’s this whole podcast. Plus, I imagine that movies like this would cause more stress to someone who cares about, say, world-building or rules consistency.
Jon: I wonder who you could possibly be referring to.
Martin: It’s a purely hypothetical person, love, don’t worry about it. Any small wonders?
Jon: Yes! Particularly relevant to the last week, my small wonder is stripping the sheets from your bed when it’s been too long between washes.
Martin: How very specific. M ost people would just say ‘clean sheets’.
Jon: Well, for one, I’m fairly certain that we’ve already covered clean sheets-
Martin: Shit, have we? Thank god other people keep track of this, otherwise this show would be unbearably repetitive.
Jon: Christ, yes. I typically check the website a good three times while prepping, and every about one out of those three times I find I’m trying to do an topic we did 30 episodes again. Anyway, um, it’s just nice, I think. When you’ve been too busy or sick or away for awhile, tossing the sheets in the wash makes a room instantly seem nicer. Of all the chores out there, this one, at least for me, has the highest reward to effort ratio.
Martin: Hard agree. Especially when the y have that slight funk of having been around to long, getting rid of that is such a relief. Speaking of, we need to change our sheets soon.
Jon: We can do it after the episode. Who goes first this week?
Martin: Considering last week was only me talking, I’m gonna say it’s you.
Jon: Alright, then. My first thing this week is Martin K. Blackwood.
Martin: Absolutely not!
Jon: Oh, you can do a whole episode on me, but I can’t do one little segment on my husband, whom I love very dearly?
Martin: Not while I’m sat here, no!
Jon: So you’re saying you don’t want me to tell the internet that your resolve to be kind even in the face of indescribable cruelty is one of the mot breathtaking things I’ve ever witnessed, or how I find it incredibly endearing when you get so emotional that your voice comes out as a squeak, or even that, on a more base level, you’re very physically attractive, and I could lose entire days thinking about your arms alone?
Martin, audibly blushing, voice the aforementioned squeak: Oh my god, Jon!
Jon, laughing: Then it’s probably for the best that my actual first thing is best friends.
Martin, peaking the audio levels: Oh you absolute bastard! Do you enjoy this? Do you get some sort of perverse sense of entertainment from riling me up?
Jon: Oh, don’t you start. As if you’re not as bad as I am. Maybe even worse.
Martin: That’s not…
Jon: Yes?
Martin: Okay. Maybe it’s slightly true. Really, what is romance for if not flustering your partner with compliments?
Jon, teasing: I certainly can’t think of anything.
Martin: Hush, you.
Jon: No, I don’t think I will.
Martin: Fine. I suppose you can tell our delightful audience about the power of friendship or whatever.
Jon: I would’ve assumed more enthusiasm, considering this segment is still, indirectly, about you.
Martin: In what way?
Jon: In the way that, to the shock of all, you’re my best friend.
Martin, pleased: Oh, is that what I am?
Jon, exasperated: Yes, dearest husband, I wouldn’t have married you otherwise. Though, upon reflection, I knew you were my best friend before I knew I held romantic feelings for you.
Martin: When was that?
Jon, letting out a breath that vibrates his lips: God it was...2016? I think it might’ve literally been the day after you told me about your CV.
Martin: That early? Huh. I wonder if that’s what people were picking up when they said they we were close.
Jon: What people?
Martin: I don’t know specifically, that’s just what Daisy told me.
Jon: Daisy? When the hell-?
Martin: It...was when she was interrogating me? And, because sometimes I have to be a parody of myself, pretty much my only take away from that interrogation was “people think me and Jon are close”.
Jon: Well then. It’s not like they were wrong.
Martin, smug: No, no they weren’t.
Martin, sincere: And you’re my best friend, too.
Jon: I was certainly hoping that you’re in this relationship for more than my good looks and incredible fortune, both in the monetary and luck sense.
Martin: You say that as if you aren’t good looking, which we all know is patently untrue.
Jon: You’re biased. You’d say I was good looking if I were nothing more than some primordial ooze with thoughts about its station.
Martin: I’m being completely objective. If you were primordial ooze with thoughts above its station, you’d be the cutest ooze of them all. That’s just scientific fact.
Jon: I’m starting to think we might be insufferable.
Martin: Starting to? Might be?
Jon:…
[Jon clears his throat]
Jon: What I find wonderful about the concept of best friends is, to me, they’re the closest thing real life has to soulmates. I don’t personally believe that there’s some..grand mystic force that drives people to be tied together in the manner that narrative typical soulmates are, and if there was I don’t think it would necessarily be the kind of emotional, heartfelt bond one would hope for, but I do believe that there’s individuals that get to know one another, and because of that knowledge, they chose to stick with one another. It doesn’t have to be a romantic, which is why I say best friend rather than specifically ‘spouse’, but I would argue that the basis of a strong romance like you and I have, is very much rooted in that connection. A true best friendship is an equal partnership, and there’s a sense of..matched sensibilities and understanding that can be utterly incandescent when it happens.
I also think that having one or more best friends makes living life on a day to day basis both better and just flat easier. The dark times aren’t as dark, and the bright times shine even more. I know from my own personal experience there are events that I..that I don’t know how I would’ve made it through without you. Hell, last week my..recovery period would’ve taken much longer if you hadn’t been there.
It’s an amazing thing to have someone to share things with, both triumphs and burdens. Um, also, according to Dictionary.com, the term best friends in English has been around since the 1200s. Something about that delights me, like, yes, we’ve had this casual way of referring to a Favorite Person for roughly 800 years. That makes it a hold-out from early Middle English. I dunno, it’s one of those things that make me feel overall very charmed by humanity.
Martin, audibly smiling: No, yeah, hard agree.
Jon: What’s that look for?
Martin: Nothing. Just. I love you a whole lot, you know that?
Jon, voice soft: I may have heard you say that once or twice. Per hour.
Martin: Only that often? I really need to be more diligent about that.
[There’s a bet of silence, presumably where they’re making doe eyes at each other.]
Jon: What’s your first thing?
Martin: Oh, um, right. Rats!
Jon: The expression or the animal?
Martin: Jon, have you ever once heard me say “rats” as an expression? Obviously I’m referring to the animal.
Jon: Ah. Should’ve known, considering that what, a third?, of all your segments have been on animals.
Martin: Yeah? And? You got a problem with critters? With creatures? With lil guys?
Jon, laughing: No, no, it’s very sweet. I’m just surprised you never became a vet.
Martin: Oh believe me, I wanted to. But then I learned that it was not, in fact, a job composed entirely of getting paid to play with other people’s pets.
Jon: You had that job, though, didn’t you? I thought I remembered you mentioning a month long stint at a doggie day care.
Martin, sighing dreamily: Best job I ever had. Too bad that place was shut down after it was revealed to be a money laundering front.
Jon: Good lord.
Jon: Martin did you...did you know it was a money laundering front at the time?
Martin:
Martin: Would it make you feel better if I said no?
Jon: Martin!
Martin: I figured it out like a week in, but, like, who cares? The pay was decent and the floor was super easy to clean, which is very much a plus for even a front of a doggie day care.
Jon: That’s...rather a lot. How about instead of getting into that any further, you tell me about rodents.
Martin: I would love to. But first, we have a shoutout!
Jon: Ooo, a shoutout. Does it specify who should read?
Martin: Let me check. It...does...not…..
...
Jon: Martin?
[A beat.]
Martin: Right! Sorry, um. This week’s shoutout is from Tim, to Danny. It says, “Danny! My favorite person who shares genetic material with me! I wanted to say thank you for your podcast obsession from 4 months ago, and specifically for telling me about these marrieds. They’ve gotten me through many a dull hour at the publishing house. Also, with this shoutout, I’ve officially gotten ahead on the Superior [Last Name Redacted] Brother scoreboard, so suck it. Love you lots, and looking forward to your visit next month, Tim.”
Jon: Oh.
Jon: Um. That’s very..sweet? I think? Mostly?
Martin: Yeah, I’d say so. Uh. We have to take a quick break because, uh, someone is..at our front door! Be back with you all in, from your side of things, just a moment.
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scolopendress-tag · 3 years
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I said I'd make a post detailing my kid Asra working for Lucio theory in this post so here it is! 
So Let's get STARDED.
So! To start off, how it began. We do know when Asra and Muriel were kids, Lucio came to them each seperately with a deal.
Essentially: work for me, or I'll hurt your friend.
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This was the sentiment he repeated for both of them. So, not wanting the other to be harmed, they both agree - unaware of the other's deal.
For Muriel, it was playing heel/excecutioner at the coleseium. For Asra, it was doing... Well, we never know, aside from he worked under Lucio. But that's what we are here to discuss in any case.
Continued under the read more, for the sake of people's dashes.
Now presumably, if I got my timeline right, Asra at this time would've been around 12 or 13. We don't know much about how Asra was when he was younger, other than that he has certainly changed.
It's also worth noting that it's not amiss to say they were both also still homeless at the time, and the hut hadn't come into the play until after.
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Asra was still living on the streets.
This all isn't overly important for any of my claims later, but perhaps someone else could make something of it. It does provide us with some framing for the situation as a whole, though.
Now onto Asra's time under Lucio. I don't know that we have any indication of how long it was, but presumably at least a year if not more.
We do also know that Lucio knew who Asra was. Both in that he knew Aisha and Salim had a kid, and that he knew Asra was said kid.
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This is bring this up because we know Aisha and Salim were incredibly talented, and likely incredibly powerful. Lucio wouldn't settle for any run of the mill magician or alchemist for the work he needed. So he must've had some idea that Asra may take after that power as well.
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To top it off, he also interacted and talked with the dock kids he also used, (two of which would actually later become palace guards,) and seeing as this is seemingly how he learned of Muriel, it's not off to think that this is also how he heard of Asra again to start. The kids knew of Asra's magic, and roughly where he was, and could've even continued talking about both Muriel and Asra to Lucio for unknown amounts of time.
So now Lucio knows that the kid of his two powerful practitioners of magic is not only still around, but taking after them as well.
If Muriel's intimidating size and physical power are what drew Lucio to him, why wouldn't Asra's considerable metaphysical power and talents draw Lucio in as well?
We know how much Lucio loves power, and that he has an interest in magic because of it, as mentioned in the main story. (no ss sorry... If you have one send so I can add. )
Plus, homeless kid in a vulnerable spot. Easy pickings.
That's what I think this whole thing was about, really. It's all power. Though Asra likely didn't have the full scope of power he does in the current game, he was probably still considerably talented, and was only getting better.
What Lucio specifically probably wanted from Asra then was either to be taught how to use that power, to use Asra for things that required it, and/or use his power for entertainment akin to how he used Muriel.
I think out of these however, using him for his power was most likely. Why? (And teaching him now, more on that further down)
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(Sorry for bad quality lmao it's a small image. Also thanks to @8-bit-space for showing these to me like months ago. As you can see I can't stop thinking abt it)
These are screenshots from the old prologue. While they're not canon any more, there's reason to believe they still hold merit as to how Lucio feels about Asra.
Two things to me are major here. First is the "powerful potent magic," and how it's the "real deal," equating to a large part of how he views Asra yet again tying back to a heavy interest in his power. Now, you could argue this relates to using his powers in the palace during the plague, but the second point stands out even more to me.
"The one who broke him for me?"
What this implies to me is that Lucio could never quite get all the way through to Asra or control him when he was younger, and he's been dying to do so. He wanted Asra broken, presumably so that he'll become essentially a tool for him to use for his skill and not put up a fight- something Asra likely did as a child.
Because it seems that Lucio for the most part relied on control through fear when it came to Asra, threatening to hurt Muriel, lying to him about how he executed his parents, likely other things as well. But things seem to point to that never quite working like he had hoped.
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This could allude to this as well. Though "impossible" is something Asra's been called a few times, namely also by Julian, there's no reason to assume Lucio wasn't also including his work with him as a kid in "always". Impossible to hate could be his draw to Asra for his power, his talent, his skills, the prospect of which I'm sure Lucio found practically mouthwatering. Impossible to love could be his stubbornness or reluctance to do what Lucio wants, always pushing against him or being hard to deal with, both as a kid and during the plague.
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And lines like this, where he calls him a coward. I find it hard to relate this to the plague ritual as he was for the most part willingly helping with that, so it could be resenment for when Asra eventually ran off as a kid, unwilling to put up with him any longer, or his reluctance to do certain things for him then in general.
We know, and it has even been mentioned by a character within the canon, that Asra can be incredibly stubborn, to back that up. Plus, he could've been even harder to work with then both being a kid and as I mentioned earlier he has changed from how he was then, so he could've had more spunk to him or such.
This also easily means that what Lucio was trying to get Asra to do then was something Asra was quite obviously opposed to. Being used for his power is already degrading enough, but there could be more to it.
You'll notice in the post that was linked at the top (the reason I'm writing this) I mentioned pushing Asra to his physical limits and magical extremes. This could be one of the reasons for a push back.
If Lucio was having Asra do things for him involving magic, it's not out of pocket to assume he'd practically run him into the ground- I'm sure he really wouldve loved testing the limits of what Asra could REALLY do.
Wether it be huge expendure of power all at once, or tons of smaller things one after the other, it would absolutely take it's toll. We are shown a few times that using magic can exhaust someone, and I don't remember if this is shown in canon ever (tell me if so!) but pushing it even further could definitely lead to other things such as passing out, (Or nosebleeds, for the aesthetic,) alongside likely being incredibly painful and draining, both mentally and physically.
Basically, abusing his powers and the body that commanded them. It's also possible that the stubborness to work with Lucio could also be partially percieved because of this- Lucio taking Asra's literal physical inability to continue as defiance.
Another reason for push back from Asra would be making him do morally compromising things. This is a little more vague, but intimidation is a common headcanon I see for what Lucio made Asra do, and that could tie in here. Other things could be meddling in things and business he shouldn't, but again, it's a vague thing. Make of it what you will. Fucked up stuff all around.
[EDIT - TEACHING LUCIO]
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(THANK YOU @tea-tye for showing me these, and credits to @hangedman-magician for the video they came from!!!!!!!)
...I cannot BELIEVE I forgot this, I KNEW I was missing something. Especially when I was fairly certain I remember Lucio being obsessed with the idea of magic. SO, MOVING ON,
There's not terribly much to pick apart here as it's rather direct- Asra saying he has in fact tried to teach Lucio magic. So in my eyes this solidifies that this was a component of Asra's time under Lucio. I still think my points about Lucio treatment (pushing Asra to his limits) stand, as well.
This can also tie in the stubborness mentioned as, well, can you imagine teaching Lucio? Asra backs this up by saying nothing he has ever said stuck with Lucio, and you know how Lucio gets when things don't go his way. He would've blamed his inability to learn on Asra, likely.
Looking to other quotes mentioned: the 'broke him' line still rings to me like he was trying to use Asra in other ways, and the 'coward' line could go either way from refusing to teach Lucio certain things, or refusing to do certain things for Lucio when he was merely being used. The "impossible" line could also go for others, as trying to teach someone like Lucio would've undoubtedly caused some head butting.
This is certainly really exciting and interesting to me as it gives a more complete picture on the exact situation at hand here. I still stay by my reasoning for Lucio simply using Asra as well on top of being taught because it seems highly likely that Lucio would've been too impatient to learn to do certain things himself, and like I said as well, I don't doubt he also just wanted to see what Asra was REALLY capable of. Something he could've saw as a tantalizing insight into the kind of power he could aquire of this kid would just... work with him.
NOW we have a MUCH clearer answer as to what exactly Asra was likely doing under Lucio, or at this point, almost certainly doing. It's a sad picture for Asra of course, but with this you can draw some interesting points as to how he could've been affected by this, as I'm sure it would've left some kind of imprint on him.
Sure it may not have been as traumatic as what Muriel went through, but when you look at it, it's hard to say it DIDN'T leave it's scars. If we consider all the points presented in this post truth we have:
A 12/13 yo homeless child, threatened with his friend's life to work for the Count that he knew was the one responsible for orphaning him and making him homeless in the first place.
Said child believing his parents are still alive, and as we see in Travel at Night, could very likely still be trying to find them. In a situation like Asra's that glimmer of hope probably was a big deal in helping him push on. This may also be a reason he agreed on top of Muriel's safety.
While working under the count, he is told that his parents were executed, no doubt devastating. The manner in which this was mentioned is up for debate, and could affect exactly how it was taken. Options could be Lucio joking or bragging about it (treating it as trivial or an accomplishment), or using it to threaten Asra, (as in I killed your parents, I'll kill you too,) both would work when it comes to controlling by fear.
It is also mentioned that Lucio told him the reason for his parents execution is that they messed up his gold arm, so Asra also has the knowledge that his parents were killed over something so unbelievably trivial.
Being used as a source of power and nothing else, both for teaching and pure work/entertainment, all for the man who killed his parents, day after day.
Being pushed to physically painful and mentally draining limits, expending so much energy that he completely exhausts himself, day after day.
Likely taking all sorts of verbal abuse from Lucio, day after day.
Like mentioned earlier, it seems clear that Lucio wanted to break Asra, so some other form of trying to chip away at his psyche to make him more convenient for Lucio is likely as well.
Those points alone, to yet again a CHILD no less, seem more than enough to cause some traumatic impact, and depending on certain specifics of what exactly went on during that time, it could be worse. I may make a post looking into the long lasting effects of this on Asra, I may not. It would mostly be headcanon regardless. If you want to add your hc relating to this situation though, I'll gladly reblog it!
And now that we are closing out, it's time to revise my summary. So, without further ado, THIS is what I think was going on during this time.
Lucio knows of Asras existence and parentage.
Lucio learns Asra is around and that he's got power.
Lucio LOVES power, so he threatens Asra into working for him.
Lucio uses Asra for his power and to be taught how to use it for himself.
While using Asra for his knowledge and power, runs him into the ground by pushing his limits to physical and magical degrees, possibly even moral.
Asra pushes back against a lot of this, or is at least percieved to, frustrating Lucio.
Lucio does what he can to try and control Asra even more, primarily via fear, but can't seem to crack him.
Eventually it's too much, and Asra leaves. Likely when the plague hit like Muriel, but it's possible it could've been somewhat sooner. Lucio is PISSED, because he wanted that magical power all to himself.
Less related, I can see Lucio trying to brush it off and pretending to be fine with it, excuse being "he was too difficult to work with, anyways," or something.
...And then... years later, as far as Lucio sees it, Asra comes crawling back- and he's tamed down to a degree! He's actually working with him. Lucio might not know what or who did it, but Asra is finally broke for him, and I'm sure he was absolutely ecstatic to have that power back in his hands- and more than ever before.
Think of all of this as you would like!
At the end this is all still speculative, so definitely feel free to make your own points or say if you feel any different abt anything- expansions or counters on this theory/headcanon welcome!
And if you also have any other screenshots or info not here that could add to the theory or change the outlook of certain things definitely add them!!! I feel like I'm missing stuff for sure, and my memory has probably muddled some things (hopefully I didn't get anything wrong, though.)
And @asrascherry thanks for the offer in helping word my hcs also! I forgot to say that. This one is just so long I wouldve felt bad bringing it all to you 😔 it's probably still messy as a result but I tried lmao (worried it's repetitive or unclear 😬)
Uh yeah! That's mostly it for NOW.
+All the love to Asra for going through so much I'm so sorry bb,,
Thanks for reading!
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infjsnightmare · 3 years
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How You Met: Rats in the House of the Dead + DOA Style
***SPOILER ALERT*** Manga spoilers
A/N: Back at it again! Spoiler alert for this one, since it contains manga-only characters. Also, I will be including the last two mentioned members of the DOA in separate editions since one of them thematically is a bit more difficult to write for and the other one will fall into a different group for their edition. I mashed the Rats and the DOA together because neither had very many characters. I also didn't include Pushkin since we don't get much of his story, although if there is anyone particularly interested in him, I could write him in the extras. More brief author's notes under the cut for those who don't mind spoilers.
Spoiler A/N: Bram Stoker will likely be included in the extras since I will have to write it for him being pre-impailed, so I'm thinking something victorian or gothic stylistically. "Kamui" will be included in the Hunting Dogs edition for obvious reasons, so he does not appear in this one. So, here we go?
Fyodor: The top shelf. Of course that's where the canned peas you needed were. You'd been staring down the cans for at least 5 minutes now, wrestling with your pride about whether or not you should climb the shelf in the supermarket. Your eyes began to glaze over in thought, but you were brought out of it by a low hum to your right. A tall, pale man stood there beside you. He must have been watching for a good few minutes, too. The second he saw your eyes turn to his direction, he put on a honey-sweet smile and it had to have been the fakest one you'd ever seen. Your eyes narrowed as his slender arm moved past you to reach up and grab the can for you. Except... he put it in his cart and began to walk away, leaving you incredulous. Just then, he stopped, tilting his head to look over his shoulder at you. A devilish smirk had taken root on his face.
"Oh my, did you need one, too?"
Ivan: The cafe you frequented was crowded during the lunch-time rush, but you were lucky to have gotten there early, finding a nice window seat. You'd been sipping your tea, eyes focused dreamily on the book in front of you. The romantic fantasy between two strangers, the air of mystery as lovers meet. The book was all that you could focus on to drown out the onslaught of customers and chatter around you. Suddenly there was a slight shadow blocking the light from the cafe. You looked up, seeing a slender man with long, angelic locks and the most serene expression of joy on his face. Your eyes scanned the porcelain cup on his hand, noticing the tag for the tea was the same as yours. When his pale lips opened to speak, the most pleasant voice rang through.
"Excuse me, but is this seat taken? There don't seem to be many open spots at this time of day."
Mushitaro: You were at the bookstore, perusing the shelves half-heartedly. You'd been bored at work and your colleague had mentioned picking up reading as a hobby. Except you had no idea where to start. You thought that maybe a mystery would keep you entertained but, beyond that, you were clueless. You saw a well dressed man in a suit with slicked hair sheepishly glancing through the mystery section, while carrying what looked like an occult-based novel. You must have looked as out-of-place as you felt, since his eyes kept wandering from the shelves back to you. You quickly snatched a random book from the shelf and turned to go check out. The man grabbed a book from an author named Yokomizo and haughtily replaced the one you had taken. He sighed dramatically, rolling his eyes in exasperation.
"If you insist on reading a mystery, you should at least make sure it is one of quality."
Sigma: You'd heard about the sky casino from the old lady at your grocery store a few days ago and thought that it might be a fun weekend trip with a few friends. So, here you were getting settled into your room before heading out to test your luck. You were wandering through the hallways for at least 10 minutes before you realized you were thoroughly lost. Your friends had already headed out together as you said you would stay behind to unpack some things. You wished you had gone with them when you had the chance. You hastened your pace as you looked around each corner for any indicator of where you should go. You quickly turned into another hallway, crashing headfirst into what may just be the most gorgeous man you'd ever seen. Your face flushed scarlet as you began an incoherent stream of "I'm sorry"s. He held his hands up to placate you, a warm smile on his face, framed by his silver and lilac hair.
"Don't worry at all. I should be the one apologizing. After all, I'm the manager. It's my job to make sure everyone is alright and here I am bumping into a customer."
Nikolai: You had just gotten done viewing the latest installment in the SAW horror movie franchise. You were jittery as you exited theater number 13. All the excitement had your nerves on fire. You enjoyed watching horror movies, but sometimes you wished your friends would agree to come with you. You threw your empty popcorn container in the trash can. Standing next to it was a super lifelike jester mannequin. It must have been, since it didn't move even a centimeter and the expression never changed. You were admiring how well made it was. It must be for a new movie coming out and you wondered what kind of movie it would be. But, it suddenly moved out of position and grabbed you, the white braid swaying behind the tall man as he smiled a maniacal grin. He let out a laugh similar to the doll jigsaw uses.
"I want to play a game!"
~After Note: You ran screaming as the man chased after you. You heard him apologizing profusely as he caught up behind you. You stopped to hear the man out as he explained that he had just wanted to get the attention of such a cute human bean. You couldn't stay mad as he bowed his head in apology with a playful wink and a mischievous smile.~
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dangermousie · 3 years
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2020 End of Year Post - cdrama edition
This is only going to cover cdramas that aired in 2020; if I had to make a post about all the cdramas I watched this year, I would still be doing it in three months...
Overall it’s been a fairly decent cdrama year (certainly better than the very lacklustre kdrama year.) It’s no miracle that 2019 was (so many excellent dramas!) but overall pretty solid.
DRAMAS WATCHED
(In order of liking from least to most as opposed to pure quality; I am including if I’ve seen enough to make up my mind; yes I realize that’s inaccurate, but that’s my list)
44 The Legend of Jing Yan - the worst cdrama I have seen this year, and possibly the worst drama of 2020, period. The hero and heroine were both uncharismatic, incapable of acting and saddled with such shrilly moronic characters, the only suspense was how they haven’t both perished long since from forgetting to breathe. Nor was anyone in the rest of the cast much better; the screenplay was written by a lower mammal and the cinematography was the best a third-rate wedding cinematographer could offer. Stay the HELL away from this one.
43 Unicorn Girl - the only unicorn about this bland yet irritating piece of pap was the fact that I was supposed to believe the leads are hockey players.
42 Autumn Cicada - I like spy stories, Allen Ren, and Republican Era settings. I can tune out Communist propaganda with the best of them. Yet, the propaganda ate the story to such a degree that there was nothing left; pre magic change Pinocchio was less wooden then this narrative.
41 You Complete Me - no you do not.
40 Skate into Love - the only positive thing I can say about this is that at least it’s better than Unicorn Girl, if for no other reason that only one of them is supposed to be a hockey player.
39 Irreplaceable Love - how do you make a story about fake siblings with a mad mother falling for each other boring? I don’t know, ask the makers of this.
38 Eternal Love Rain - I hate to rain on their parade, but these two actors cannot act, have about as much chemistry as a piece of bread, and are trapped in a story perfect for entertaining the mental abilities of the leads of Jin Yan.
37 For Married Doctoress - ummmm, you could do worse I guess. It only made me break out in mild hives. The sadistic ending did make me laugh though.
36 Dance of the Sky Empire - why you get Xu Kai and waste him in this insipid mess of a story is beyond me.
35 Love Designer - it’s inoffensive except to my sense of entertainment. There is nothing wrong with it but oh God is it bland.
34 Love a Lifetime - It felt like a lifetime watching this, but I didn’t love it. The story is incoherent, the actors have no chemistry and it’s all an epic waste of time.
33 Love is Sweet - so sweet it gave me diabetes. I like Luo Yunxi and Bai Lu, but there is literally no plot. I don’t need to sink into a plotless morass to watch pretty people engage in PG-rated make-outs. I am an adult with access to stronger stuff if I am thus inclined, though to be fair they could get x-rated and I still wouldn’t be able to sit through so many episodes of plotlessness for that.
32 Fake Princess - I love Zhao Yi Qin, but the guy needs to pick better projects. The female lead in this one has the voice and personality that can strip paint but the story is also doing nobody any favors.
31 The Changan Youth - I lost my brain checking this out. I had to go and read a dense treatise on medieval coinage or Mayan farming to try to recover it.
30 My Dear Destiny - kinda cheesy fun. It honestly shouldn’t be as low except it really feels like community theater.
29 Handsome Siblings - why is the Nic Tse version so good and this one so bad? True mystery for the ages. Chen Zhe Yuan is the sole reason this isn’t lower, because that kid tries SO HARD to make this drama bearable and almost succeeds. I can’t wait to see him in Sha Po Lang which actually will give him something to do.
28 In a Class of Her Own - see my comment on The Changan Youth. But at least Song Weilong is gorgeous to look at.
27 General’s Lady - inoffensive, pretty and so utterly pointless.
26 The Blooms at Ruyi Pavilion - those two leading actors are a no go to me but at least they considerately acted with each other instead of ruining two dramas for me. It’s very pretty though.
25 Jiu Liu Overlord - it’s a mess and I bailed, but I placed it this high merely due to the fact that Lai Yi finally gets a leading role and he’s sexy as fuck and I am shallow. Whoever styled Bai Lu should never work again except at a circus, however.
24 Cross Fire - not my genre and Luhan will always look too much like my cousin for comfort, but it’s a surprisingly gripping and dark drama. I liked it!
23 God of Lost Fantasy - if you want to watch a mediocre wuxia/xianxia, this is not a bad choice. Probably better than Legend of Fei actually, because at least it doesn’t have an A-list cast to waste and gives us Sheng Yilun himbo and shirtless.
22 Renascence - the insane cuts (it went from 70 eps to 36!!!) made a fairly cheesy story into a total mess. But I had a good time until I finally bailed mainly because of the male lead (Chen Zhe Yuan yet again carrying a not-good 2020 drama on his shoulders; the guy should be nicknamed Atlas) and the insane but in a fun way story. The female lead (both the character and the actress) were not up to par but oh well.
21 Legend of Fei - only this high because objectively there is nothing I disliked it. But there is nothing I liked either. The most uninspired drama on the list. If you could eat cardboard, this is what it would taste like.
20 Ever Night 2 - compared to EN1, it’s a waste of film. On its own merits, it’s not very good (the cast replacements are uniformly inferior and Dylan Wang is so wrong for Ning Que I cannot even put it into words; the script is useless.) But it had some parts I loved so very VERY much (all the shippy stuff was perfection) so I don’t feel too bitter.
19 Castle in the Sky 2 - a lovely if not too complex fairy tale. It is inferior to its prequel because it doesn’t have Zhang Ruo Yun who elevated it, but it’s still a solid bit of fun.
18 The Great Ruler - it’s very high fantasy, very pretty, and surprisingly involving.
17 (tie) Legend of Two Sisters in the Chaos - the secondary couple steals the show but the rest is not too bad if not too involving.
17 Legend of Awakening - a solid bit of fun with a seriously BDSM streak (theme this year apparently - but come on, the lead’s powers only activate when he’s in extreme pain!) It’s a bit generic and the costuming is done by a blind person, not to mention the OTP is a NOTP, but the rest of relationships (romantic and platonic) are wonderful (I live for the found siblings story in this one) and I like most of the characters.
16 Consummation - a rare modern cdrama I liked; a sweet coming of age story (and love story) even if wrapped in a pretty weird virtual reality concept.
15 Oops the King is in Love - this is how you do a low budget, sweet, silly piece of fluff. Our heroine pretends to be a eunuch and crosses paths with a powerless young king and they are adorable, even more so than the drama.
14 Song of Glory - pretty solid, though draggy and I didn’t love the toothpaste filter. But A+ cast, excellent leading couple chemistry, Li Qin being a BAMF and a leading man (Qin Hao) who is actually an adult.
13 And the Winner is love - objectively kind of a mess (and the heroine has the brainpower of a gnat), but the OTP chemistry is excellent and Luo Yunxi fighting and flirting with a fan as finally a leading man is worth the price of admission.
12 Miss S - snazzy and snappy and stylish and whatever else starts with S.
11 Eternal Love of Dream - I don’t know if it would work for you as well if you weren’t a hardcore shipper for this OTP in Three Lives but I was and this was such a darling, wonderful, shippy delight; plus I love this type of high fantasy.
10 (tie) Maiden Holmes - solid and sweet and a wonderful OTP. Proves that functional doesn’t have to mean boring. If you watch one cross-dressing drama this year make it this one.
10 Qin Dynasty Epic - srs bsns history epic. I am not far into it but it’s so good and smart and visually stunning (if you love battles, this one is for you.)
9 Love Lasts Two Minds - I adored this so much more than I should objectively have, but it’s so beautiful (and no I am not just referring to Alan Yu’s face) and the OTP has wonderful chemistry and the story is solid, and the whole trope of her memory being wiped but falling for him all over again while he’s constantly and utterly devoted is a fave; plus he’s in pain and semi-dyng for most of it so sluuuurp (happy ending, don’t worry)
8 To Love - yes, a modern drama is this high! But it involves intensity, tragedy, genuine adults and sexiness that is Lin Gengxin. And there is an actual plot and darkness OMG!
7 Legend of Xiao Chuo - so beautiful, so fun, so full of gorgeousness of Shawn Dou. Plus, Liao is a rare setting for a cdrama and there are a lot of characters and stories I liked a LOT. Less ship content than I wanted but more than I expected.
6 The Romance of Tiger and Rose - so so delightful. I was literally laughing out loud. I have no idea if it will work as well if one isn’t a seasoned watcher of period cdrama/reader of web novels, with bonus for watching/reading Goodbye My Princess, but it was a complete delight for me (and yes, I shipped for real, as well. Best of both worlds.)
5 Twisted Fate of Love - Jin Han gets a leading period drama role! And he’s enjoying it to the hilt, excellent as a smart, twisty bastard who is also charming and so madly in love with heroine. Sun Yi is beautiful and tough and her chemistry with JH is on fire, the story never drags, and it’s so twisty and fun and just awesome.
4 Love In Between - the most underrated drama on this list. It has no big names or big budget, but it’s wuxia that’s clever, driven, tragic, hopeful and so beautifully shot. Three separate (amazing) OTPs, a leading man who is so not typical (a doctor who cannot fight and who never acquires this ability) and who is intense and smart and damaged, a heroine who puts her quest ahead of her emotions, an unhealthy degree of involvement by yours truly. This is a drama Fei should have been.
3 Love and Redemption - such a lovely, addictive, utterly romantic fairy tale. I was obsessed with it for a reason. All the tropes you love and some you didn’t know you did, a star-crossed OTP to the nth power (and a secondary OTP I hardcore love), a twisty yet coherent plot, some insane chemistry and so much whump and hurt/comfort they must have bought blood packets in bulk.
2 Go Ahead - yes, I can’t believe it either. A contemporary slice of life cdrama made it this high on my list. But the way it feels so real, the found family perfection, the characters I love and loathe, the perfect cherry of a wonderful OTP that hits my narrative kinks on top, and just a perfect storm of loveliness all around with this one.
1 The Wolf - is that any surprise to anyone who’s checked out this tumblr for the last couple of months? Tragic, intense and gorgeous; so romantic and angsty and passionate it made me lose my mind (though some of it was gone the moment the camera panned to Darren Wang) - all my favorite tropes and then some; this is a drama that may not be perfect but it is 100% and then beyond perfect for ME.
FAVORITE DRAMA
The Wolf - I have seen objectively better cdramas; even this year. But it has been literal years since I have been this hardcore obsessed, this utterly pleased, this emotionally catered to and devastated at once. A beautiful dark fairy tale that manages to own me despite the storytelling gaps due to censorship, it took me for one of the biggest emotional roller coaster rides of my drama watching career. Visually gorgeous, poetic, intense, and so romantic it took my breath away, this is not just my favorite cdrama of 2020, it’s my favorite drama this year period, and the one cdrama this year to make it into my permanent Top 10 cdramas list.
WORST DRAMA
Legend of Jin Yan - see my write up for it for why as I refuse to waste more time on this stupid mess.
FAVORITE MALE CHARACTER
Wolfie, The Wolf - he is such a haunted, tormented, complex, dark mess; loving and violent, severely damaged and with a hidden yearning softness, longing and aloof. And the amount of charisma and sheer masculine sex appeal Darren Wang brings to the role is insane and not something I see much of in a cdrama. Plus, that character arc with its rapid fall and slow painful redemption is A++++
Runner Up:  Sifeng, Love and Redemption - has a male lead ever loved more utterly and selflessly, suffered more thoroughly and beautifully, and managed to have such chemistry with both his leading lady and his leading man (that his leading lady temporarily turned into) at once? The answer is no.
Almost made the cut - Feng Xi, Twisted Fate of Love, Han Shuo, The Romance of Tiger and Rose, Qing Ci, Love in Between.
FAVORITE FEMALE CHARACTER
Xiao Qian, The Romance of Tiger and Rose - so funny, so much the reason this drama was such a delight. I adore her beyond words.
NEEDS TO BE MURDERED
Murder Daddy, The Wolf - I am sad the censors robbed us of seeing him die on screen. He was fully human but nonetheless managed to be the worst monster in a drama full of literal ones.
Ling Xiao’s Mom, Go Ahead - I hate her so much I don’t want to look up her name. She abused the kid, the disappeared and came back to abuse him some more. I mean she literally gave her child mental health issues. She is the WORST.
FAVORITE SHIP
Xing’er x Wolfie, The Wolf - are you kidding me? Who else could it ever be for me? They destroyed each other and saved each other, sworn enemies and childhood lovers, soulmates and epic messes, they couldn’t live with or without each other. The longing, the passion, the intensity, the angst, the epicness. LIKE THERE ARE NO WORDS!!!!
FAVORITE SECONDARY OTP
Si Yuan, Shen Manqing, Love in Between - I loved them as much and often more than the main OTP. So much angst and passion and a happy ending! She is a seeming sect darling (except the sect is horrible and also sexist so her only worth is as a marriage candidate) and he’s an information broker who is actually one of the members of a destroyed sect that’s blamed for the massacre of her family. That chemistry and yearning is insane. The scene where she touches his face when he’s unconscious was in serious running for my favorite scene of 2020.
NOTP
Legend of Awakening - I have never seen a couple that didn’t just have no chemistry but exhibited actual revulsion towards each other before watching Chen Feiyu and Cheng Xiao try to act as lovers in this one. It was almost entertaining to be honest.
FAVORITE SCENE
It’s a tie and both are from The Wolf. One is a sequence where Wolfie marches to the walls alone, seeking death at Xing’er’s hands and the whole sequence with the battle and rescue follows. The other is the intercut between Xing’er going to her wedding and Wolfie going to his execution, and the auto-da-fe being intercut with her wedding.
BIGGEST CRUSH
Wolfie, The Wolf - Ummm have you seen this tumblr lately, it’s basically a drool shrine to the man.
BEST SCENE STEALER CHARACTER
Yelü Yansage, The Legend of Xiao Chuo - I have loved this actor since The Myth and he continued to competently steal every scene he was in.
NEEDS A SEQUEL
To Love - come out of the coma, dammit!!!!!!!
NEEDS A DIRECTOR’S CUT
The Wolf - duh. It started out as 59 eps and got cut to 49. I reaiize some stuff is never gonna get put in due to censorship, but some of the stuff that got cut got for time reasons because they were deluded and hoping to get a TV broadcast so ep count had to be under 50. I mean I doubt the censors would care if they kept scenes of Wolfie building her a swing or whatever. I really really want a director’s cut the way Goodbye My Princess did even if like with GMP it’s only three extra eps. Hell, I will take extra three minutes, as long as those three minutes are Darren Wang shirtless or with a sword. Ahem.
NEEDS SCISSORS TAKEN TO IT
The Song of Glory - it’s a fairly solid drama but honestly it didn’t need to be as long as it was and kind of got draggy and I got lost interest. (I could have gotten snarky and said all the dramas I didn’t like needed scissors taken to them in their entirety but decided to play nice.)
TOO MANY SCISSORS TAKEN TO IT
There are a number of dramas I could complain about with regard to this (hi there, darling The Wolf!) but this award goes to Renascence - poor Renascence was never going to be a masterpiece, but it had the potential to be a bit of good cheesy fun until it had its run time cut by more than half and became an incoherent piece of insanity.
TROPE THAT NEEDS TO DIE
Dumb shrill innocent heroine who can’t tie her shoes - see basically all the cdramas I didn’t like this year.
FAVORITE TROPE WE’VE SEEN A LOT OF
Male lead torture - I mean it’s always open season on that in cdramas, but between Love and Redemption, The Wolf, Love Lasts Two Minds, Love in Between and so on, it was a banner year!
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT
Legend of Fei - what a waste of that cast; what a waste of our finite time on this Earth. What a waste of my intelligence to hope for something better and stick with it for a dozen eps. I have had stale wonderbread that had more personality than this drama.There is absolutely nothing that stands out about this drama in any way,  from half-dimensional characters, to actors who are sleepwalking, to a plot that moves at the speed of an arthritic snail, to uninspired cinematography and direction, to lack of any chemistry between anyone in the cast. If paint-by-numbers was done by a group of particularly linear robots, it might come across the same way as this drama.
BIGGEST GOOD SURPRISE
The Wolf - honestly, I did not expect it to come out AT ALL EVER let alone to become my favorite drama of 2020. I was not familiar with the leading man (hahah), I liked Li Qin but wasn’t yet obsessed with her, and Xiao Zhan was excellent in The Untamed but I was hardly going to follow him from drama to drama (and I don’t do SLS any way.) And the trailer was enjoyable but unlike seemingly everyone, I didn’t think it was going to be some epic masterpiece. And then it came out and while it wasn’t objectively an epic masterpiece, it pulled out all the favorite tropes, shippy and narrative kinks from the deepest darkest recesses of my id. And I fell harder than I have in years. 
2020 DRAMAS I HAVEN’T SEEN THAT I MOST WANT TO WATCH
None. Covid Year gave me PLENTY of time
BEST NON-2020 DRAMA I’VE WATCHED IN 2020
Novoland Eagle Flag and Joy of Life - they are in my Top 10 dramas from anywhere now. They are quite different except being smart and giving me protagonists to obsess over.
ETA: Also The Untamed because @idlewilds3 pointed out I actually watched it in 2020 even though I didn’t think so because this hellyear has lasted about three decades.
MOST ANTICIPATED IN 2021
I am gonna limit it to dozen and leaving out ones that aren’t necesarily supposed to air next year (Joy of Life 2, Love in Flames of War, Novoland Princess from Plateau.)
Monarch Industry, Novoland Pearl Eclipse, Silk Washing Stream, Dream of Changan, Sword Snow Stride, Wu Xing Shi Jia, Ancient Love Poetry, Immortality, The Long Ballad, Mirror Twin Cities, The Imperial Age, Fall In Love
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spiderling-space · 3 years
Note
Could I please request MC as that conspiracy guy with the hidden mickey’s? I saw it on your prompts list and I am still laughing at the possibilities!
Thank you Rell for asking this when the inbox was open and finally igniting green light for me <33<33
I decided that this idea is too crack to only apply to numbered characters so this is going to be a mini-series and crossposted on AO3. This mini-series is based on this prompt I have.
There will be 9 chapters in total including prologue and epilogue. I can’t promise any update schedule, I go with the flow. A meme to summarize the fic.
Special thanks to @serenitystarrie for allowing me to utilize their perfectly organized Hidden Mickey Mouse locations.
The Prologue's Locations #1 and #2. Spoiler yourselves on your own risk.
Italics indicate thoughts
Everywhere I Go, I See His Sign
Prologue
No one could blame (Y/N) for occupying themselves with something else to stay awake during Trein’s class. It wasn’t their fault at all, there was just something in Trein’s voice that made people want to sleep. So they just tried to focus on everything but Trein and to be the only one who managed to stay awake in their friend group. At first, (Y/N) just stared outside through the window get got bored and started to count the bricks on the wall but there weren’t much to begin with and their endeavor ended quickly. Their eyes flicked to the bookshelf, it was impossible to read the titles from where they were sitting, hence that didn’t hold their attention for long.
Maybe I should start listening to what Trein is saying, I might learn something.
Not a minute later, (Y/N) was yawning. So much for trying… They decided listening to the professor wasn’t going to work out, in order to stay awake, they continued where they left off. On the top of the bookshelf, there was a purple globe and golden signs on the surface, curved lines and a couple of dots. I bet there are more than 10 dots on it. 1…2…3…4… (Y/N) stopped counting when they noticed an abnormality on the globe. There was a shape that didn’t follow the pattern, two small circles were connected to a bigger one. That’s strange… Everything is in perfect condition in the NRC… Maybe they didn’t notice something as small as that. Either way, there was no point of thinking about something as trivial as that. Though, it was way more entertaining than the history class.
(Y/N) poked Ace, “Shhhht, how many minutes left until the class is over?”
Ace opened his one eye and glared at them for waking him up. He took a peek at his phone told them that 13 minutes left then he went back to sleep.
13 more minutes… It seemed like they started the class hours ago and it still had 13 more minutes. As (Y/N) waited the time to pass, they kept glancing at the globe above the shelf as if the abnormal mark on it was calling for them.
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Finally, the class was over and it was lunchtime. The gang went to the cafeteria and was waiting in the line, chatting about the assignments Trein gave after he saw people sleeping. (Y/N) was having fun at their expense because they didn’t get an assignment for being awake during the class. Ace, Deuce and Grimm were complaining about the amount of pages they were going to write, which was making (Y/N) crack. They turned their head to the side to conceal their chuckle. While they were turning back, a shape on the wall caught their eyes. There on the wall between the torch and the column stood the 2 small circles being connected to the bigger circle, just like the one they saw during the class. This one was bigger since it could have been seen from distance.
Before (Y/N) could dwell on the shape anymore, the line moved and it was their turn to grab the food. They dismissed the thoughts about the shape, thinking that they saw wrong. It was food time and there was no need to think about anything else.
After getting their lunch, the gang went over to sit at their usual table. “I think you should have gotten an assignment too, (Y/N).” Ace talked before taking a bite out of his meal. “You weren’t sleeping but you weren’t paying attention either. Right, Deuce?”
Deuce was in the middle of chewing his meal when Ace tried to include him in the discussion. He answered after gulping, “They managed to stay awake. I think that deserves an award.”
Ace’s face cringed, “Traitor.” He then turned to Grimm tp get his support. “C’mon~ You must agree with me.” Unfortunately for him, Grimm was too busy chunking the food down his throat, completely ignoring Ace who finally shut up after getting no support.
“I’ll help you pick up the books since I’m a supportive friend.” (Y/N) said cheekily, chuckling afterward. They really needed to go the library too. Grimm needed the books to finish the assignment and he wasn’t capable of carrying them with his tiny paw-paws.
Their stomach grumbled, reminding them to eat sustenance. After (Y/N) finished eating, they pushed their tray further onto the table so they could have space to put their hands on while they waited others to be done with their food as well. There, on the table, was another symbol, the 3 circles one looking almost identical to the others they saw. They openly stared at the symbol, tracing the outline with their fingers. Am I imaging things? The one on the globe could be a stain and the one on the wall could be the deformation of the brick. And this one… Maybe a mistake of the carpenter. Though, it is strange to see mistakes such as this in the NRC.
They must have zoned out too much because Deuce was tapping them on the shoulder. “Our next class is about the start.”
“If you want, we can leave you alone with the table. Seems like you are falling in love with it.” Ace quipped as he took his tray from the table and started walking to the trash.
“Jerk…” (Y/N) mumbled under their breath.
“Hey, henchperson!” Grimm was pulling their sleeve. “Carry me!” It was annoying that Grimm was giving them comment but he was small and cute so they didn’t mind carrying him occasionally. They allowed Grimm to climb on their shoulder and took both his and their trays to throw away the trash and put them to where the dirty trays are collected.
After putting the trays, they exited the cafeteria, then changed into the sports uniform in the locker room. The moment the bell rang, Vargas told everyone to start doing warm-ups, followed by 10 laps around the field and 30 pushups. (Y/N) held themselves back from groaning, not wanting to increase the number of laps or pushups.
(Y/N) was only human and not the most athletic person in the world and they doubted even the most athletic person could run 10 laps without stopping for a moment to take a breath. They sat on the grass, trying to adjust their breathing as they were looking around. They had to admit the sports field had a perfectly splendid sight with all the shades of green.
They were about to get up and continue on the track when they spotted a sign on one of the bushes. 3 circles again? It was dark green colored, standing out on the bushes. Was it always there or is my brain playing tricks on me and making me see things? They decided to check the sign from a closer distance to make sure it is real.
“(Y/N)! 2 more laps for trying to sneak away!” (Y/N) startled as Vargas’ voice boomed on the field. Damn it! They just got punished because the sign distracted them. “You will have two more if you keep standing there!”
(Y/N) knew there was no point in arguing against Vargas unless they wanted to add more laps as punishment so they ignored the sign and went back on the track. I will take a closer look after the class.
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Unfortunately for (Y/N), they were too exhausted to move a finger, let alone have the energy to examine the weird symbol after the class ended. They just wanted to get back to Ramshackle, take shower, eat junk food and never get up from the bed but they still had one more stop to make, the library. Because of Grimm’s actions, they needed to walk more. God damn it… I can’t feel my legs.
Finally, they reached the library and began browsing for the book. Grimm started looking at the book on the computer and find which aisle it was located, meanwhile (Y/N) sat on one of the seats as they waited for him. Yeet, I hope we don’t need to get one of those floating books. What is even their purpose? Students would spend extra effort to see the title of the book and waste time. Or are they here for aesthetics? They sighed, lowering their head. What an unnecessary way of using magic… They had to admit the library was impressive, having all those books while looking at the endless corridor of the library. As Grimm was still looking for the book, they turned their attention to the other objects of the library. None of the lamps were in the same shape and the columns had different designs. One of them had frequent dots while the other more scattered dots. Their attention turned to the other column between Aisle I and II which had larger dots than the others.
Wait for a second… Is that? (Y/N) got up from their seat and stepped towards that column, crouching to see the sign better. Are you kidding me? Here too? Nope! This is just some random symbol, there is no way, it is the same one I saw in other places. Besides, all other columns have dots. Coincidentally, this one had two circles connected to a bigger one. (Y/N) was determined to just forget about it since they knew it would be a ridiculous idea for these signs to have a pattern.
“Hey Henchperson, I found the name of the book now bring me it.” Grimm ordered them as usual. Normally, (Y/N) would teach him some manner but they were too tired to care so they asked which aisle the book was in so they can grab it and go back to Ramshackle.
As soon as Grimm told them the number of the aisle and the book and the color of the book as well, (Y/N) didn’t wait for Grimm and just went to grab it. They were looking at the shelf numbers in that disorganized aisle. Libraries are supposed to be tidy and organized. Why is everything in this school so chaotic? And who even color codes the books?! This should be a crime!
“Alright green color and number 4…” They whispered faintly, looking at all the shades of green and number 4 then checking the title. After checking a couple of books, their attention turned to 3rd shelf. “Ah there you are, The Developments in the Last 100 years. Finally, I can go to my bed.” Whilst they were reaching for the book, the red book with golden marks caught their attention. The book wasn’t titled, having only shapes on it, that 3 circles shape was one of them. Maybe the book is about the meaning of this symbol. I’ll check it out after resting. They grabbed both Grimm’s book and the red colored one and walked towards Grimm. Together, they checked out the books from the librarian and head over to Ramshackle.
---------------------------
(Y/N) couldn’t wait to get read the strange book so that they would know they aren’t seeing unordinary things. As soon as they entered their dorm, Grimm dashed to the kitchen saying that sports class and the library made him hungry. They were also hungry and would never say no to some snacks. They put the books on the coffee table in the lounge before joining Grimm.
Grimm and (Y/N) brought their snacks to the lounge and sat on the couch, chatting while eating their respective food though Grimm tried to take what’s on their plate 5 times at least. After finishing their food, (Y/N) leaned back on the couch and stretched themselves out. Then they just looked around the lounge. It looked way more different than the first night they stayed there. Now everything was tidy and organized. Dare they said, it was cozy and the fireplace just increased the coziness of Ramshackle.
Hold up… The clock on the fireplace caught their eye and they got up to see it better. This age-old clock has that symbol too. I can understand the others since they are fairly new but this dorm hasn’t been occupied for decades. They wondered if there are more signs in the lounge so they turned around, their eyes scanning the room quickly. There was another mark in the lounge, on the painting hanging above the door. Hmmm, that could be the painter’s signature or something.
“Why are you acting weird?” Grimm asked after burping. Ew!
“Nothing nothing… I’ll just go take shower then nap. You do Trein’s assignment. I’m not going to lower my score because of you.” (Y/N) wasn’t going to tell Grimm about the symbols before they were certain that there was a pattern with it. Now they were going to search upstairs if there were more signs while Grimm was busy downstairs then took shower because the smell of sweat was killing their nostrils. “And don’t even think about slacking off or you won’t sleep on the bed tonight.”
With that, (Y/N) took the red book and headed towards their bedroom, putting the book on the small table near the armchair. Then they took off their shoes to not make noise as they searched the rooms for that damned sign.
Here I go…
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prorevenge · 3 years
Text
Bridezilla Karen ends up looking like a pauper at her own wedding.
I (F48) have known “Pat” (F48) for decades. As far as I can remember, she was fixated on having 5 children and a picket fence dream life. I slowly cut ties with her in college because she was an opportunist and I didn’t trust her. She is both manipulative and forceful. Her idea of cute rubs me the wrong way. Pat likes to walk like a penguin when she wants to elicit pity, and she usually does this when she wants to evoke the underdog narrative. I’ve never seen someone act so despicable and ridiculous at the same time.
I moved on with my life. Happily got rid of her for years. Pat eventually found me on facebook. I accepted her friend request out of politeness.
Pat has become the epitome of a permissive mother. Her (5) kids do as they please and she never calls them out. She tried to force a relationship between me and her daughters and made them call me Auntie. Pat tried to drop them at my house uninvited. Her phone calls were insistent, she tried to monopolize my time and she began to show up at my job. I created some boundaries so she tried to find loopholes. It was a nightmare.
My husband and I hosted a party for the community center (not the real name) new members. The community center is actually a very informal initiative and my husband and I mainly serve the homeless population. We prefer to help strangers instead of catering to potentially narcissistic acquaintances. We don't mind lending a hand but we have encountered truly dishonest choosing beggars.
There are other services, like one of the members who helps women get their wedding and prom dresses for free.The community center location “headquarters” is actually a farm owned by an elderly couple. There is a barn, a venue and a very nice green field with an artificial lake and some fowl. They charge for the use of their facilities (weddings , etc.) but not for community oriented stuff.
Pat had always been salty at her husband for demanding that she go back to work after baby #3. In the meantime, he worked three jobs. She demanded he get her pregnant to fulfill her dream of having 5 kids. He didn’t agree, because he was already nearly 45 and felt like he might never be able to retire. She got away with bringing new babies into this world anyway. Her fascination with being pregnant comes from all the attention she gets. She had at least one miscarriage in between each kid.
Pat latched on to our group. She never missed any of our activities. I hated having her in my house, but it was an open invitation that included virtually everyone and she was very active as an event organizer. I didn’t like the way her kids behaved. We have a designated area for parties and entertainment, but her kids ended up inside my bedroom. We ended up having to keep watch of them and enjoyed zero of our own party.
I called her days later to get my point across (regarding their overall behavior) but she completely cut me off and began talking about herself and said her kids wanted to come visit again and use our pool. I never answered that. I didn't want to say “no, I will not have your brats over”.
She also called me as summer was approaching specifically to let me know her middle daughter was bored and wanted to spend a WEEK at our home. I politely declined, citing that me and my husband have to work and cannot entertain guests. .
Pat paid no heed. Her kid called me on the weekend,calling me “auntie” and attempted to coax me by saying “Mom says you invited me to spend SUMMER with you”. I quickly clarified, and offered an explanation to avoid hurting a kid’s self esteem. Nevermind. Her daughter just hung up on me.
Pat’s facebook also showed some red flags. Some cryptic rants here and there were visible, along with friends’ comments and complaints on how she asked a particular person to watch her kids only for a couple of hours and ended up leaving them all day. Another of her friends criticized her “girls night out “ because Pat had just asked them to be patient and wait until she could pay back some money that she owed them, yet she had money to spend on Friday night outings. I thought those very public comments on private matters were more like a cry of lost patience.
Unpleasant things began to happen. Like the time she volunteered to wrap the Xmas presents for underprivileged kids. We all wanted to create a mix of less costly gifts with really nice ones. Surprisingly, some nice and eye-catching toys and games went missing but turned up under her Christmas Tree (courtesy of her mother in law’s FB posts). No one could prove anything but it was hate-inducing. Or the time my daughter called me in tears to pick her up after she attended Pat’s daughter’s birthday (Casey). My daughter had been ignored all night because she didn’t gift her the expensive gaming stuff Casey practically demanded. My daughter did ask, but I said no. We would buy her a very nice and thoughtful present according to her taste. So when I went to pick her up my daughter was sitting alone in the living room while Casey and her friends stayed outside.
Stories about Pat and her family multiplied. The owners at the farm (community center) decided keep their their gates locked unless they had guests or events because Pat got in the habit of driving in whenever she pleased and it was either her kids screaming and disturbing on-going weddings, throwing rocks at the koi in the lake or harassing the geese in the yard. Or how she stiffed another soccer mom with the lunch bill and then pulled the struggling financially card. Or how other parents hated her because she created unnecessary hostile competition.
When my daughter turned 13, I allowed her to wear my grandma’s ring. It's not an expensive piece of jewelry, but it's vintage and girls nowadays wanna look boho. My Granny gave it to me when I became a teenager so I passed it on to my kid so she could wear it on her birthweek.
It was weird that she became quiet and distracted after that. She also didn’t want to go to school and my husband and I became suspicious. She never opened up, and my other kids had no clue.
We went to her school but her teachers assured us nothing had changed in her environment. My husband and I suspected she was being bullied but our kid gave us no tools to support her. My kid is very sunny, and very compassionate. She has never had any problems with other kids. I called her best friend’s mom. Natalie, my kid’s BFF, told us what was going on. Casey (Pat’s eldest) and my daughter had become “close”. I knew this and wasn’t too thrilled. I found the age (Casey was 17) gap not exactly inappropriate but I’d rather see my daughter spend time with friends in the same age range. Casey is very beautiful and a gifted student. She is also very conceited. To make this story short, she asked my daughter if she could try on the ring and refused to give it back. She later claimed that she lost it but “would look for it” so my daughter was distraught. My daughter kept asking for her ring and as a result, Casey shunned her and spread the word that my kid was trying to steal HER ring. Some kids at school took Casey’s side. So now Casey just wore my kid’s jewelry to school like nothing happened. If that doesn’t qualify as taunting I don't know what does.
My guilt comes from not being able to get my daughter to open up and feel safe telling me the truth. I talked to her and she burst into tears. I was both pained as a mother and furious that some teenage b!tch was doing this under our noses.
I went straight to Pat’s car after school. I asked to talk as Casey was about to go in. So I grabbed Casey’s hand and asked to see her jewelry. Casey froze and she tried to make a fist, so I became relentless. Casey yelled “Mom!” and Pat struggled to get out of the car. I slid the ring off (Casey has tiny hands and wore the ring on her index finger). First Pat yelled at me. After I confronted her with the engraving on the band (my grandma's maiden name), she argued it was loaned to her daughter by my kid. Then she said she bought it. I paid no heed. I did warn them that I knew Casey had become an abusive friend to my daughter.
Pat called me to tell me off. She said she was trying to raise an assertive young woman and I had just messed that up by being “overbearing”. She never apologized for her thief of a child.
Pat's husband ( Hank) is what can be described as a doormat. Pat wore him down to a knob. He had no choice but to “obey” her to keep the peace. She was a bully who actively withdrew affection when he didn’t follow her wishes, even in public. So she got kids #4 and #5 after a relentless campaign that included leaving him for two months. Her pregnancies were a nuisance because she expected to be treated like the only lady who has even been pregnant. She strolled around in a wheelchair almost immediately after getting pregnant and she would “get very sick” on weekends, so her kids were often sent to friends and family so that she could “rest”.
Pat systematically bullied Hank. She would leave town and take the kids with her. Poor Hank would look distraught, drinking on his porch or just looking really lonely. This is how she got off the hook and was able to leave her job. Hank had virtually no voice, so he struggled to keep the marriage together. Everyone liked him, but hated her equally. Hank loved to talk to other people but seemed concerned that Pat would be upset. Over time, according to my husband, Hank began to show signs of depression and mental distress.
Our friend, Lenah, runs the wedding/prom dress initiative. It's not complicated. Dresses are sourced from donations, ebay, trunk shows, etc. Unusually beautiful dresses are retained so that more than one bride gets to wear them. In some cases, a bride will pay 50 bucks, but most of the time, the dresses are donated to the bride.
Pat was involved in this. Lenah kept her in because they never had any issues and her task was limited to just shipping the dresses out.
Pat decided to renew her vows and her bridezilla Karenzilla attitude became the icing on the cake. For starters, she bullied another couple into giving up their wedding date at the farm because she “needed her renewal to match her exact wedding date”. They were not impressed with her harassment, so they booked another venue. As a result, the farm owners were pissed because Pat was already costing them money after she had successfully negotiated a cut in their rate “because she couldn't afford it but will repay by doing maintenance work around the venue” (she never made good on her word).
Pat became attached to a particular dress that was already assigned to another bride. Lenah made it clear that she would need to pay for her own dress. So Pat played it cool and shipped the wrong gown instead. She was adamant that it was the right dress, despite all the notes on Leah’s agenda. The other bride was truly gracious about it. She was obviously disappointed, but never made a scene.
What bothered me most is that I picked that dress and bought it for 40 bucks at a garage sale (not my money, Leah’s money). It was a vintage dress, ankle length, white with lots of lace and a huge bargain. Again, when confronted, Pat “did a Casey” and used the “this is mine” strategy. We felt so bad for the other bride that we did our best to get her something nice to wear. The other bride was a true fighter, she had pulled out of welfare, earned her high school diploma and was working to get on her feet by trying to earn a certificate as an acrylic nail technician. So, her reward was to have some Karen steal her dress? Pat never admitted to messing up, but just by the fact that she claimed it was her dress, we knew.
Lenah never allowed her in her warehouse again. Their last phone fight ended with Pat bringing up the other bride’s past (like it mattered) and “this conversation is over, it's my dress and you are mistaken”. That was weeks before the other bride’s wedding.
Pat went all out on her wedding decor. She spent way too much. She hired a caterer for some food (mainly mimosas and appetizers), but the wedding invitation included a request for specific dishes for her Sunday brunch wedding. Either she ran out of banquet money or was on a complete moocher mode.I picture the penguin walking upon practically asking everyone to supply her wedding reception grub and I cringe.
There is nothing wrong with potluck weddings. In fact, they can be a nice addition to a very cozy and family oriented wedding reception. But, don’t you need to at least be close to your guests in order to ask for such a thing? Even I got an invitation. I told everyone I wasn’t going because I was very uncomfortable being told what to bring and was probably expected to give them a cash gift on top of that. Some of the older ladies in our group agreed. Some said they would not decline in advance because she is a bully and they didn’t want a confrontation.
Lenah called me the night before Pat’s re-wedding. Lenah was there to close the Saturday night bingo and Pat was awfully friendly, but that’s what she does whenever things are going her way. Lenah peeked into the garment bag and saw the exact same dress while Pat was caught up supervising the wedding decoration.
The thing with Karens is that they expect everyone to suck it up, or make their dreams come true, or they simply underestimate everyone and think we are all fools.
Lenah is a very straightforward person with a “so sue me” attitude. She told me she would just ruin the dress. After all, it was hers, so she could do whatever she wanted. If Pat wanted to take legal action, and should things get ugly, she needed to prove ownership. However, the dress was the same, the marks inside the hem and the tags were the same. Even the tag numbers that were punched to identify each dress for logistics purposes matched.
Pat had the dress altered, with some extra beading and dyed to a deep cream color. But it was obviously the same garment. Lenah and I snuck in before the venue was closed for the night. All brides are allowed to stay in a small bedroom for a small charge, so that they don’t need to drive in on their wedding day. Honestly, the makeshift chapel was gorgeous, I don’t know how she paid for it but it was full of flowers and presumptuous details. I naively brought in some ink to spill on the dress, but Lenah said she wanted “something more awful, like a nasty surprise”. Ink would be too obvious and if she saw it ahead, she may be able to snag another gown from somewhere. No, the ideal thing was to have her trust the dress was fine. So Lenah locked herself in a bathroom stall and completely cut out the back panel. She patiently put it back on its hanger and zipped the bag. We left through the emergency door with the back of the dress stuffed inside Lenah's purse. I completely hate people who target and steal from anyone they (Pat and her kid) calculate to be in a weaker position.
The wedding was scheduled at 9 AM. Pat called me at 7 AM, but I ignored her calls. I picked up by 8 AM, both curious and wondering if she suspected anything. Pat was frantic.She was crying that her dress was “missing by half”. I purposely made her explain, being annoyingly dense and continually interrupting like she does, and stalling the conversation. She asked me if I could lend her my wedding dress. I said no, sorry. She then asked me if I would help her get a dress. I was satisfied to remind her that the town's bridal shops were closed on Sunday and the others that would open were almost an hour away. The farm is already almost one hour away from our town.
If Pat could get a shop to rent a dress, she would need to try the dress on, and get it steamed. Even if the dress was ready to wear, it would easily take more than two hours (roundtrip). She tried to ask me to go pick a dress (who would pay for this??). Even if a shop were open and brought her a dress, it would add to the cost. Also, these shops open at 10 or 9:30 at earliest. By time they got to her, it would be time to wrap up the wedding because she needed to clear the venue by 12:00 for the next event.
She broke down and mumbled some stupid stuff I didn't understand. So Pat hung up on me and called Lenah instead.. She asked Lenah to bring her “anything she had available”. Lenah and I ended up delivering the most outdated, moss smelling, oversized dressed. Pat’s disappointment was a mix between angry and emotional. She also tried to wear her knee length silk bridal slip as a wedding dress but it was too obvious and it really looked cheap. She tried to get her daughter to give her her own dress to wear with an open back zipper (due to fitting issues) but Casey refused, asking if she was supposed to attend the wedding naked (she got a point, plus Casey is petite).
The dress needed a petticoat to plump up the skirt, which wasn’t available. So it dragged all over the floor and Pat had to keep pulling it up. Pat walked down the aisle with one hand on her bouquet and another one grabbing her dress. The dress looked limp and weird with the arrangements of pins (they didn’t show) that caused the sleeves and neckline to pucker into messy rims. She spent the ceremony looking uncomfortable and out of place. Very few people attended but that was not part of any revenge, that was just how people reacted to her entitled attitude.
The dress looked awful. The reception portion of the wedding had all this princely decoration, a very nice cake and a bridezilla with a dress from hell. I didn’t stay, but I was told, she was so disappointed she spent her wedding sulking. There was no dance, no actual speech. She had to change into a shirt and leggings because the dress was too uncomfortable. Everyone talked about how Pat put on her flip flops and walked around aimlessly until she ordered the ushers to start folding up the chairs within one hour of the reception. So she practically kicked everyone out and the cake was never cut.
Pat wasn’t the same after this.She was not as loud and avoided everyone. I think she was disappointed that nobody ran to her rescue, not even her family who came from out of town.
Her husband finally cracked under all the pressure and sought some help. He was slaving away and coming home to clean the house while Pat used her kids as an excuse to spend like crazy. Hank also had to do kid homework because Pat never had time or never had patience. She also refused to get a partime job so her kids could attend an afterschool and get help with their school stuff. Therapy seemed to help Hank because the last time Pat left with her kids, he didn't seem distraught. He would be riding his bicycle and could be seen more relaxed while mowing his lawn. Hank told my husband that he had contemplated suicide after their third kid. When Pat returned, he maintained the routine but was interested in going out by himself and doing things for himself. We began to see Pat alone all the time. Hank was seen less and less in the same car and eventually moved in with his parents. He filed for divorce on the grounds of emotional cruelty and I don't think he won. Instead (I’m not sure of this because this is what I was told) there was some sort of a settlement or agreement that she would not get close or interact with him unless it has to do with the kids).
I also don’t know if Pat even actually suspected who/what happened to her dress. She slowly pulled away from the community center and became less active in social gatherings. Pat also removed me from her facebook as well as mostly everyone else from school and the center.
TLDR
Bridezilla stole a wedding dress from an underprivileged woman. The actual dress owner destroys her big day.
(source) story by (/u/forestcabin123k)
174 notes · View notes
catherine-parr-1512 · 3 years
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SixVengers - The Beginning (Fic 1) Chapter 6
@kenneth.mark.82 Mark Keeneth
Who would have thought that London might be destroyed tomorrow lol
13 replies 20 retweets 2031 likes
@spider_woman_fan_club Spider-Woman Fan Club
England is about to get destroyed and all I can think of is Spider-Woman flying today through London, looking good as always :/
303 replies 1025 retweets 70K likes
@superheronewsuk Super Hero News UK Official
BREAKING NEWS:
The City of London and surrounding areas are evacuated due to the upcoming Alien invasion that will hit London. The Prime Minister will release an official statement at 7 p.m. about the situation but unofficial sources claim that British heroes were asked to defend London.
20K replies 32K retweets 801K likes
Katherine closed Twitter and looked outside the window. She was in a car with Agent Blount and Anna on their way towards Parr Tower. It was decided after the meeting, and once everyone had cooled down, that the best thing for the team was to stay the night together and the best place for it would be Parr Industries Headquarters in central London. This meant that if by some chance, the attacks started earlier, the group of heroes would be able to get there faster than if they were travelling from their homes, most of them being on the edges of the city.
To pass time through travelling through central London, she was on her phone like any normal teenager would be and she was surprised that people didn't freak out that much. Kat knew that, that would change when the attack would take place.
After travelling for 30 minutes through busy streets of London, the cars containing the heroes and three agents *kidnappers* thought Katherine, finally arrived at Parr Tower, where they would spend the night getting to know the other members of the team and getting ready to fight Henry.
The three of them left the car and met up with Parr, Boleyn and Lee who arrived just a minute before. The group were joined by Aragon, Seymour and Salinas after a short while, the trio arriving last. The nine women made their way inside the tower and Katherine was impressed, to say the least. Whoever designed the building had taste. It was modern and white with blue accents. Very tasteful and minimalistic.
Kat could see many people walking around, minding their own or company businesses, nobody paying attention to the large group of women that had just entered. One of the security guards approached Parr and whispered something to which she nodded and led them towards a large elevator on the left side of the entrance, bypassing the security. It was fortunately large enough to fit all of them comfortably. The door closed but nobody clicked any buttons.
“BRIAN? Please take us to floor 80.” Said Catherine and everyone looked around, not seeing who this Brian was. However, all of them jumped when she got a reply.
“Of course Miss Parr, right away. I will also put the light on and adjust the temperature.” Said the robotic voice from inside the elevator and quickly started moving upwards.
“I presume it was some sort of computer?” Asked Anne awkwardly, not knowing what to say about the whole situation. “But that’s just my observation.”
“Actually, it’s an AI, fully functional and capable of thinking for himself,” Parr said with a small, proud smile. “I named him after my uncle who took care of my brother and I after our parents died.”
“That’s sentimental.” Smiled Seymour and the whole elevator went back to a (somehow) comfortable silence until the elevator stopped with a ping.
The door opened to show a large living room. It had a see-through wall on the opposite side of the elevator. Along that wall was a row of white, comfortable-looking couches and chairs. The walls were painted a light sky blue and grey, giving the whole room a calming look.
“Whoa, this looks nice, Parr. What a nice room to greet your guests. It’s very… you.” Joked Anne, jumping on the nearest couch, and putting her legs on the coffee table.
“I think it’s just parrfect.” Said Seymour and everyone looked towards her weirdly. “Sorry, I was trying to make a pun.” She chuckled to herself.
“I heard that you were a comedian but I don’t understand how anyone would laugh at that.” Replied Anne, earning a chuckle from both Katherine and Anna. However she also received a stern look from 3 Agents in the room - Salinas, Aragon and Lee - and a sad puppy look from Seymour. Parr and Blount just shook their heads.
“If most of you stopped behaving like children, I would like to point out that it’s my living room that most of my guests never see so be grateful,” Catherine said before anyone could say anything else. “This is one of my 3 personal floors so please don’t wreck it too much. I still want to spend time in my living room without it being destroyed… again.”
“What do you mean again? Did a group of women with some sort of abilities destroy it before?” Asked Bessie, sitting down on a nearby couch next to Anna and Katherine.
“Nope. It was BRIAN and me. Well, I mean he was in one of the suits and I was in another. We had a mock fight in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep which definitely wasn’t my greatest idea. We ripped a huge hole in the ceiling.”
“Now I want to see you do it again if I’m being honest.” Said Anne.
“I’ll bring popcorn for the entertainment.” Added Anna and the two of them high fived each other in the air from a distance.
“I think we should pick someone to be your leader for the mission. While Director Meutas will be controlling the whole operation from the TOWER along with many agents, there will have to be one of you making sure that everything out there on the field is going okay. It will be just the six of you. Military and a few agents will help you but they will mostly have to make sure that any civilians in the city will be safe.” Stated Salinas as an unofficial leader of Agents (other than Aragon)
The heroes looked between each other, silently debating the choice.
“Well, I am underage so I’m out” Said Katherine with a smug smile.
“I have anger issues that count me out as a reliable leader.” Added Anne, smirking slightly.
“Don’t look at me, I can barely look after myself to make sure that I don’t accidentally die. No positions of power for me, hey!” Laughed Anna, getting comfortable on her couch.
The remaining three women looked around, each looking at the other two women in silence.
“I think each one of us would be a good leader…” Said Jane, looking at Aragon and Parr, meeting their eyes. “However, as the oldest person here, I think I have the most experience in this type of job. Let us also not forget that I was and still am a Captain in British Army.”
“Sorry? You were frozen in ice for 70 years. I think that means you still are as young as you were back then, Seymour. I, on the other hand, am an agent in a secret government agency who knows how London works and I know this city.” Countered Aragon jumping towards Seymour, looking straight into her eyes.
“Really? Everything you do is being told to you. I led men into a battle and we won. You don’t have that experience, Aragon.”
“Unless you haven’t noticed, I’m not sure if being in the freezer for so long damaged your vision, but we are not men. We are women and we need someone who can lead us. You are not that so just step down and let me do it.”
“I don’t think so. I am not letting you do it. I won’t let some random woman lead this team and possibly cause us to lose.”
“YOU LITTLE-” Started Aragon, grabbing Seymour by her suit before they suddenly found themselves on opposite sides of the room, thrown against the walls.
The room was silent as they looked at what happened only to see Parr standing where they were before, wearing her Iron Woman gauntlets in each hand, with a hard look on her face.
“Both of you behave worse than 5-year-olds, we are supposed to be bonding and yet you squabble over something we don’t even need! I thought you would be better but if that’s how it will be, personally I think it’s better if we all decide on the field what we are doing, no leaders. I think we are all mature enough to make sure that it won’t be a problem.”
“Or maybe you want to become a leader?” Asked Jane, stepping towards Parr, the tension getting heavier in the room.
“Yeah. It seems like you want to be the one to lead us.” Added Aragon, tilting her head at the other woman. “Look at me, I am Catherine Parr and I say what is the best for everyone!” She added in a high pitched voice, trying to imitate Parr.
“I have to agree with you on that one, Spy, but don’t think that it makes us friends,” Seymour grumbled and moved closer towards the centre of the room.
The other agents didn’t know what to do with the newfound tension but fortunately, the other 3 heroes knew that they had to do something before 3 women killed each other.
“I REALLY THINK COFFEE WOULD BE NICE RIGHT ABOUT NOW!” Mused Anne, very loudly, making it seem like she was talking to herself. Parr, Aragon and Seymour stopped looking at each other, Boleyn now being the centre of their attention.
“Uhm, yeah… Right… I have a kitchen right there. I’ll make everyone coffee or tea.” Catherine said and quickly disappeared from the room towards where she said the kitchen was and the tension in the living room quickly disappeared.
Seymour and Aragon sat on the couches as far as possible from each other and the room was silent now, the only noise heard was breathing and some fans working.
“I think I will go help Parr with all of those cups. I also have this difficult coffee order. I don’t drink it any other way.” Anna quickly fled the room, leaving Anne and Katherine looking as if she was an evil witch who had killed their dog and laughed about it at the end of a song. The others didn’t seem to pay her any attention.
“Hello,” She said as she entered the kitchen, seeing Parr standing with 9 cups and 2 pots, probably with either coffee or tea inside them. “Wanted to see if you needed any help, Cathy Parr.”
“Cathy? Really?” Asked the other woman with a small smile on her face.
“Well, I decided everyone needs a nickname. When I say Katherine or Catherine it sounds the same. Or Catherine and Katherine. And then we have Catalina. Honestly, how many women can have similar names? This is like 33% of this group!”
“Don’t forget Anna and Anne. Those two are very similar.”
“I know, right? Stupid green imposter, I’m the superior Anne/Anna.”
“Fortunately for everyone we only have one Jane, Elizabeth, Maria or Margaret. I think that Lee is called Margaret but don’t take my word on that.” Joked Cathy, snorting lightly.
“I am also not sure about that one. I just call her “Mean Agent” in my head. Honestly, all the time I look at her, it looks as if she was getting ready for some kind of war. I mean, I know that we might be having a battle for humanity tomorrow but honestly, smile a little. Jeez, is that a lot to ask?” The woman dressed in red acted dramatically, clenching her hand across her chest as if she was being hurt.
“Do you have any other nicknames? For the others?” Asked Parr, filling one of the pots with hot water and turning her head to look at the other woman.
“I mean, yes. So we have Catalina as Lina. I think that’s actually a word for rope in Polish and to be honest, I would not be surprised if she had a rope hidden somewhere in that uniform of hers. Anne is Anne or Shrek.” At that, Catherine burst out laughing. “HEY! Don’t laugh. Just imagine her saying ‘What are you doing in my swamp?!’” Said Anna in a deep voice, trying to imitate Shrek. "And you will understand where I am getting this from. Jane is Cap or just Jane. Might buy her a cap after all of this is done. Then we will have Cap on Cap. If we buy two and she stands on one of them, we will have a cap sandwich. Little Howard is Kat because she reminds me of a cat but we put K at the start. And by we, I mean me and maybe you in the future. You, Catherine Parr, are of course Cathy. Lee we already talked about, Blount is Bessie and Salinas is Marrrrrrrrria. Remember, the more you roll the r's, the better the effect.”
Catherine Parr chuckled at the last comment, thinking what Salinas would think about it.
“You’ve known us for a few hours and you already came up with those? It’s pretty impressive.”
“It is not impressive. I was just bored.” Replied Anna, smirking. “So what are we having here?” She pointed at the pots, now filled to the brim with hot liquids.
“One of them has coffee, normal black. The other has tea, Earl Grey. I have milk in the mini-fridge in the living room so anyone can add it if needed by themselves.”
“Can I have hot chocolate? I am not a huge fan of coffee.”
“Yeah sure, I’ll make it for you right now. You know, like the good host I am haha.”
"Thanks." The two stood in silence, waiting for the drink to be made in a fancy machine Cathy had. Anna, however, was bored and wanted to start a conversation again. "You know, I am not sure what happened there in the living room. With Seymour and Aragon."
Cathy sighed "I don't know either. I get it that we should have someone to lead us on the field but… but I haven't thought that those two would make an issue out of it. They were just so…. Different, I guess, from what we saw in T.O.W.E.R. HQ."
"Maybe they are hormonal? Or need some sleep? Or coffee?"
"If they need coffee, we better head there quickly before I will have to use my repulsors on them again." Cathy pointed towards her two gauntlets that were now in the form of bracelets around her wrists.
"That's what they’re called? Cool." With that, the two women grabbed everything, Cathy with the two pots of tea and coffee while Anna used her powers to take all the empty cups and her hot chocolate.
"Your powers. They are rather impressive. I never saw anything like that."
"Not you nor C.O.U.R.T.. When I got them, a few years ago, nobody knew what I could do but with time I learned. They come pretty handy when I only have 2 hands and 10 things to hold." Said Anna using her powers to juggle the cups, earning a soft smile from Cathy.
The two women entered the living room again to be met with an uncomfortable silence. All of the women were sitting on their phones but it seemed like Anne and Kat were playing something together and didn’t really notice their two teammates entering.
“Hello! We have drinks.” Announced Anna, making everyone turn their heads towards her.
The two women put everything on the coffee table next to them and everyone made their way towards, eager to drink something warm while Cathy brought milk and sugar for anyone needing them. However, a problem arose when Katherine poured herself coffee.
“You will not be drinking that, young lady.” Said Jane, taking the cup from the teenager's hands. Kat just looks at her with a betrayed look. “You are a kid, you cannot drink that. Drink tea instead. It will be healthier for you.”
“I don’t like tea.” Kat stubbornly replied, not liking what the other woman was doing but knowing better than to fight with a super-soldier.
“She can have my hot chocolate if she wants. I’ll get coffee.” Cut in Anna, before Jane could say anything and wanting to stop any new conflict from happening… again.
“I’m okay with hot chocolate. Thanks.” Mumbled the teenager, sitting on a couch with her new drink, Anna sitting on the opposite end with a nice cup of steaming coffee.
When Jane turned around, pleased with herself, Anna used her powers to swap two cups and winking at Kat, making the young woman smile at her new friend. When they turned around, they could see Anne, Cathy and Bessie covering their smiling faces with their selected mugs as they drank their chosen beverages..
“Um, Miss Parr?” Asked Kat after their quick tea/coffee/hot chocolate break. “Do you have any sewing supplies here? Preferably a needle and some red and blue thread?”
“Why are you asking? Do you need it for something?”
The girl sighed and reached towards her backpack. From there she removed something. It was her Spider-Woman costume.
“It was destroyed in a few places today while I was patrolling. I was meaning to do something about it when I got home but I’m here instead.” The teenager said with a small chuckle and turned to look at Parr.
Cathy looked as if she was hit by a bus.
“This… is your suit?” She asked, pointing towards the fabric.
“Yeah. Made it myself. Bought all the fabric, sewn it together and all that.”
“...”
“Is Parr okay?” Asked Anne when she saw that Cathy.exe stopped working. Anna just shrugged and waited for the situation to continue.
“Am I OKAY?! OF COURSE, I AM NOT! I DON’T CARE WHAT ALL OF YOU THINK BUT I AM NOT LETTING A TEENAGER GO OUT THERE TOMORROW IN A SUIT MADE OF COTTON!” Screamed Cathy.
“It’s actually polyester” Replied Katherine but stopped when Parr looked at her with murder in her eyes.
“Is polyester that good? Wouldn’t she sweat a lot in it?” Whispered Anna to Anne and the other woman just nodded, questioning the life choices of the youngest member of the team.
“Howard, you are going with me now and I do not care what you think about it.” Ordered Catherine, dragging the younger woman with her.
“Please don’t kill me! I’m too young and pretty to die!”
“You won’t be dying kid, we are going to be making you a suit. And be we, I mean you give me a design and what you need, I choose the materials and other stuff while BRIAN will make it happen. Okay?” Asked Cathy as the two of them left the room, leaving the others to themselves. A minute later Cathy came back. “Oh, and if any of you want to rest, straight ahead there are guest rooms. Just pick one. If you need me, ask BRIAN and he will lead you to me.” She said and disappeared again, not staying to hear what the other women had to say.
Anna and Anne laughed at that, Bessie shook her head, Lee and Salinas started talking quietly with each other whilst Aragon quietly sipped her tea. Only Jane looked towards the corridor where Cathy had just left, her blue and grey eyes flashing yellow for a moment before she blinked and the unusual colour disappeared.
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Final Fantasy XIII Review
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Year: 2009
Original Platform: PlayStation 3
Also available on: Xbox 360, PC, Android, iOS
Version I Played: PlayStation 3
Synopsis:
On the planet Cocoon, those who come into contact with anything from the planet Pulse are purged to that planet. Pulse is a feared planet full of monsters and strange creatures. Both planets are ruled by fal’Cie, mechanical godlike beings who sometimes brand humans as their servants for specific tasks, called a focus. Those who fulfill their focus are turned into crystals and obtain eternal life. Those who do not fulfill their focus turn into mindless monsters. Lightning is a former soldier whose sister, Serah, is branded by a fal’Cie and taken to be purged. Lightning sets off to rescue her.
Gameplay:
Going to say this now – the worst gameplay in the entire Final Fantasy series.
The battles are Active Time Battles but instead of you inputting individual commands, there are what’s called paradigms. Paradigms are somewhat like Job Classes from the old Final Fantasy games, except less fun and more automated. You can switch to a Medic paradigm in battle and every time you press “Auto-Battle” your character automatically performs a series of necessary cure and restore spells, based on what’s going on in the battle. The Sentinel paradigm specializes in keeping the enemy at bay. The Ravager paradigm uses magic. The Commando paradigm uses physical attacks. You get the picture.
As a result, the gameplay could be best described as:
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With occasional switching of paradigms whenever you see fit. You can set up a number of combinations across the characters. Two Commandos and one Sentinel. One Sentinel and one Ravager and One Commando, etc.
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The party automatically heals after each battle – you can even press start during a battle and restart the battle.
I probably only used an item once or twice. I honestly don’t see why they bothered putting any items if you hardly ever use them.
You can upgrade your weapons with pieces and junk you find after battles. You find so many of them that you hardly ever think about what you’re upgrading so long as whatever you make upgrades your stats. Is this better? No? What about this? Okay, good. Moving on.
Like Final Fantasy X, the game is linear. Much more linear. You follow a long hallway for about 30 hours of the game before you can do sidequests. The sidequests involve completing other people’s focus. That’s about it. There are no towns, no inns, no villages. You are entirely on the road, constantly in battle (Okay, there’s like one time where Sazh and Vanille are in a casino or something but that’s about it).
I wrote a blog piece a while back about what exactly was wrong with Final Fantasy XIII, and it’s not that it’s linear. We play really great linear games all the time. It’s the automation – the feeling that you’re not really doing anything.
There isn’t an ounce of customization. Leveling up is similar to the Sphere Grid of Final Fantasy X. It’s called the Crystarium but it follows a strict path. You can’t actually stray anywhere or customize anything. If that’s the case, why bother making you open the menu to level up through the Crystarium? Why not just automatically do it? I guess they want to give you some ounce (more like a milligram) of control over the game.
Basically – you’re watching a long movie and occasionally get to move the people around. That’s how I see it.
Graphics:
PLAYSTATION 3 HD GRAPHICS HOMG DO YOU HAVEA BONER YET? LOOK AT THIS. FIRST FINAL FANTASY GAME IN GLORIOUS HD.
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Everything is pretty in this game. Everything. There is nothing wrong with this at all.
Story:
The characters appear to reference those in Final Fantasy VII. Director Motomu Toriyama wanted Lightning to essentially be a female Cloud Strife. She’s a no-nonsense, athletic female lead. While Cloud and Squall were introspective and antisocial, Lightning is slightly different by actively ordering people around. She comes off as a dick to everyone, and that’s due to her ex-soldier background. Think of your stereotypical ex-cop/ex-CIA/ex-military action movie hero, like Liam Neeson (Bryan Mills in Taken) or Bruce Willis (John McClane in Die Hard). That’s basically Lightning.
Can we go on a short tangent for a moment to talk about how weird it is that Lightning was also used as a model for advertising in Japan?
Here she is driving a Nissan.
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And wearing Louis Vitton.
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Cool? I guess? Unless you start to realize that Toriyama wanted to design his own personal waifu, and that he’s completely obsessed with her. That gets really weird. And sad? A little? Anyway.
Vanille has some reminiscent of Yuffie from Final Fantasy VII, although with more character via her inner monologues and narration. Fang is vaguely like Vincent Valentine. Sazh takes the place of Barrett as the token black dude, except instead of being aggressive he’s more like the comic relief and wants nothing to do with anything. Every time you control him, jazz music plays, because black people I guess. Hope doesn’t appear to be reminiscent of anyone – he’s just this boy who yells and complains a lot with Lightning. Snow meanwhile is a ripoff of Zell from Final Fantasy VIII, except somehow even more annoying.
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(Every time I see his picture I think about your typical dude bro at a frat.)
The story starts of a bit choppy as you follow almost each character separately, then they run into each other, then separate again, then join again. The first 30 hours or so gives flashbacks of 13 days prior- BECAUSE IT’S FINAL FANTASY XIII GET IT? Vanille actually narrates some events but it’s not exactly clear why or from when – but that’s a spoiler. Along the way, I got really confused because I didn’t know why some people were fighting each other when they were on the same side a moment ago. The concept of the “focus” is really weird and sometimes confusing. People with a focus simply have visions or a general idea of what they’re supposed to do, but they don’t actually know for sure unless they actively seek it. If the gods granted them a focus, wouldn’t it make more sense if the gods just told them what to do? Seemed to work in Final Fantasy XII. 
In short, the narrative weaves around a lot. If you stop playing in the middle and pick up the game again months later, you’re bound to forget what’s going on. I know I did.
The characters didn’t annoy me as much as you would think they would on paper. They all have character development and that’s good. The only character that effectively got on my nerves was Snow. Snow is Serah’s fiancé, and Lightning hates him because of course you need some family drama. I don’t blame Lightning though. Snow shouts cheesy lines left and right, like “Heroes never die!”. He shouts Serah’s name the same way Christian Bale shouts Rachel’s name in the Christopher Nolan Batman films. Snow is quite possibly the most irritating character of all the Final Fantasy games. He will not shut the fuck up about what it means to be a hero.
The rest of the cast works well in that their motives and desires clash with each other. But I’m still sore about the wasted potential for a great character in Jihl Nabaat. Sazh wants his son Dejh back, who was taken to be purged by the sinister and extremely hot Jihl Nabaat.
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 Goddaaayyyum. Seriously, look at her.
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Too bad, because she’s only featured in a handful of scenes and then dies. Her death isn’t a major spoiler, at least one that I consider, because she hardly does anything except get in the way for a moment. You don’t even fight her. How lame is that?
Then you have this annoying bastard – Primarch Dysley.
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When I think of him, I think of Mitch McConnell.
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Old. Disagreeable. Been in power for too long. Always in the way of progress.
Primarch Dysley happens to be as annoying as Seymour from Final Fantasy X, so expect to be overjoyed every time you run into him.
Overall, the story isn’t as bad as you’d think. You just have to pay close attention. The gameplay is far worse than the story. I could easily slip into a coma while playing this game and still make it pretty far.
Music:
Final Fantasy XII saw the departure of Nobuo Uematsu (well with the exception of the pop song “Kiss Me Goodbye”). Final Fantasy XIII continues to head into the unknown without the beloved longtime composer. This game’s score is composed entirely by Masashi Hamauzu, who if you haven’t been paying attention, already partly worked on Final Fantasy X.  I immediately saw how “Saber’s Edge”, the boss theme, is similar in nature to the boss theme of Final Fantasy X.
Final Fantasy XIII made the most radical changes to the score. There are no signature themes from the series. No “Prelude” theme, no “Main Theme”, no “Victory Fanfare” theme. Instead, we get a theme called “Fabula Nova Crystallis”.  It plays frequently throughout the game, and almost acts as Serah and Snow’s love theme. In some portions of the game, some woman is singing along. Yes – this is the first time where you roam around a world in a Final Fantasy game with actual pop music playing in the background – “Sunleth Waterscape” to be exact. Final Fantasy XIII’s music gets pretty poppy.
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Not saying it’s a bad idea.
Just.
You got pop music playing in the background now.
“Lightning’s Theme” is pretty sick. Her theme plays during the battles in a rendition called “Blinded by Light” – HA GET IT BECAUSE SHE’S LIGHTNING. SO CLEVER.
But Hamauzu was a good choice – the entire score holds up well and sounds like a movie score, with varying motifs running across. It can be a bit more subdued but that’s how contemporary instrumental music is nowadays, especially with film composers like Hans Zimmer.
 Notable Theme:
“Blinded by Light”
Really epic, unique song. I always scat along to it as it plays.
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Verdict:
Uff. 
Look, if you just search on YouTube for all the cutscenes, there you go. That’s the game. And it’s entertaining to watch. But it has the worst gameplay that doesn’t feel like you’re even doing anything. No sense of customization or originality.
Direct Sequel?
Yes, two.
Final Fantasy XIII-2.
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I started it around the time it first came out, but I’m still in the middle of playing it and I have no idea what’s going on in the story. NO idea. NONE at all. They use time travel but none of it makes sense. Apparently changing things in the future can change the past. I don’t know how. I only understand a vague semblance of a plot with the bad guy Caius. While it doesn’t tarnish the dignity of the original like Final Fantasy X-2 did, it’s still offbeat with its metal (yes, metal) music and utterly confounding story. It’s infamous for this metal rendition of the sweet and innocent Chocobo theme.
Then there’s the third game, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII
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I plan on playing it after I finish Final Fantasy XIII-2, if I don’t already die from an aneurysm by then. It’s supposed to be better than Final Fantasy XIII-2 but lacking in graphics.
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theright-sideofme · 4 years
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Stable Boy. Lee Minho
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pairing: princess!reader x stableboy!Minho
Warnings: verbally abusive concepts, a bridge mention of physical abuse, a slight suggestive part.
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 “He’s a fine man, he’s more than capable of ruling, he just had the unfortunate luck of being born last” The king, your father spoke. Every word that fell from his mouth made you nauseous, hitting you deep in the pit of your stomach. “Well thank you for informing me so last minute, father” you spat, your tone harsh and cold. “You knew this day was coming Y/n,” was all your father said with the dismissive wave of his hand, which was your que to leave.
 Prince Lee Felix, god you despised the name. It was all anyone was talking about now a days. He was you fiance as of a few weeks ago, and since the news got out, the castle has been buzzing. You couldn’t find a moment of peace, hand maids and trusted advisors would congratulate you on you engagement any chance they got. Prince Lee Felix, every time his name left you lips it left a bitter taste in your mouth. You had met Felix a few years ago, he was kind, and smart, and funny, you actually enjoyed his company, he wasn’t like the other prince’s you had met. You two could have been good friends if your father hadn’t forced your hand in marriage.
 “Rough day, princess” a sweet, velvety voice asked you as you walked into the stables. You looked up at the man, and let relief wash over your body. Lee Minho, the man your heart belonged to. He was orphaned as a child and left on the palace steps, your mother had practically forced your father to take him in. One of the older men that worked in the garden took him in a raised him until he was 13 and he was moved to the stables. Ever since you were young you had found comfort in Minho. On the outside he was a cold, hardworking man, but to you, he was just Minho, the boy that would listen to you cry at 3 o’clock in the morning when you planned on running away.
 “You have no idea” You breathed out as you walked over to his open arms, nuzzling your face into his chest. “Did you know Felix was coming in a week” you asked, everything about you bodily language screamed that you were absolutely defeated, Minho could see that clearly, and he hated it, all he wanted was to put your beautiful smile back onto your face. “The staff talks, Princess” was all he said as he ran his hand through your hair soothingly. “Please don’t call me that... I’m so fucking tired of that title, princess this, princess that, oh princess... it’s utterly exhausting.” Minho couldn’t help but chuckle as he rubbed your back comfortingly, which helped you to calm  down, everything he did seems to calm your nerves, not matter what the situation.
 You were completely and utterly in love with Minho. His beautiful brown eyes and soft skin, his caring nature he held only with you and the horses he tended to, everything about him absolutely enchanted you. You knew your feeling for him ever since you were a child and you found him crying in the kitchen. He was young and broken just like you, while you had no one figuratively, he had no one literally, and that loneliness you two both held in your hearts brought you closer together. As stupid as it may seem, seeing as you were told you whole life your father was going to pick your husband, you had dreams of marrying Minho, of running away and living in a small cottage, just the two of you enjoying each other’s presence for the rest of you lives, maybe even having a child or two. That was part of the reason who despised you engagement to Felix, some part of you was still holding onto that fantasy, despite how impossible it was.
  “Why’d you stop me that night” you asked, catching Minho completely off guard. Despite the vague question, he knew exactly what you were talking about; the night you were going to run away. You were 9 and already so tired of the court and all their written and unwritten rules, even as a child you knew you weren’t cut out for the corrupt rule your father lead. It made you question what god could be so cruel to put you in a place were you felt so alone and out of place all the time, like you were just a dancing monkey for everyone entertainment. You packed a bag with clothes, food, and jewelry to sell and then set off to the woods. You didn’t make it far though, Minho stopped you before you could even reach the woods. The two of you stayed up all night as you told him about your troubles and he just listened, hugging you tight. You were so starved for touch that you instantly fell into his arms and cried. You looked a lot like you did right now, eyes welled up with tears, your bottom lip trembling. 
  “You wouldn’t have lasted long out there and you know it” “maybe that would’ve been better” you mumbled, but Minho caught it. He pulled back to face you so you could see the seriousness in his eyes as he spoke. “Don’t ever say that again, do you understand me” All you could do was nod. 
  The sound of boots made both of you jolt away from each other, Minho quickly busied himself with his work while you turned your attention to your horse. “Y/n, there you are” Your mothers honey like voice, a total contradiction to her personality, rang out through the stables as she made her way over to you. “You have your first dress fitting, the maids have been looking all over for you.” Your mother roughly grabbed your arm and started pulling you out of the stables as she started droning on about how a princess shouldn’t be spending all her time in the stables with stinky horses.
—                                                                                          —
  Three days, that’s how long you had until prince Felix arrived and a week until your wedding. Miserable wasn’t even close to what you were feeling. You had been dragged around all week for wedding preparations, from cake tastings to dance practices to dress fittings, it was all too much; and to top it all off, you hadn’t seen Minho since that day in the stable when your mother came to get you.
  Now here you were, sneaking off to the stable in the down time between wedding preparations, hoping to get a moment alone with Minho.
Minho hadn’t expected to see you, and you could tell by the confused look on his face when you had snuck up behind him and scared him while he was working. “What are you doing here” he asked as he let a surprised smile settle on his lip, “I needed to see you... I’ve missed you” Minho’s smile widened as he pulled you into his arms, “I’ve missed you more” he whispered before ducking his head down to capture your lips with his own. The kiss was soft and slow, but it showed every ounce of need and longing the two of your shared. It made butterflies erupt in your stomach and heat raise to your cheeks. You pulled away first to catch your breath and Minho let out an objective whine, chasing after you lip which made you giggle. “I’ve missed you so much” he whispered to you, smiling softly as you, making your heart skip a beat, “I’ve missed you too-“ “but you’ve been busy” he finished for you, knowing exactly what you where gonna say. You nodded sadly, trying to hide your face from him but he wouldn’t let you.
“You know I don’t want this, right” you asked, you had to be sure he knew, cause even if it was fairly obvious, you needed him to know that he was it for you. You needed him to know that no other man, even if that man was your husband,  would never make you feel the way he does. Minho smiled and you and nodded, “I know, love” he said reassuringly as he rubs your cheek with his thumb gently. You just closed your eyes and moved into his touch, not knowing how much longer you were going to be able to be like this with him.
—                                                                                          —
  Today was your last day with Minho before Prince Felix showed up. You rushed through all of your scheduled preparations just so you could see Minho. He told you to meet him at the lake the two of you would go to when you were kids, so that’s where you were headed now.
  You tried to hurry up getting there, but you couldn’t help but admire how much the forest had change since the last time you had been there. The trees were bigger, the ivy was thicker, and there were more beautiful flowers. Everything had changed so much, and so have you. While you grew into a sad existence while the local flora grew into a beautiful existence, one untouched by the corruption of man. You couldn’t lie, you were a bit envious. 
   You finally reached the clearing to the lake and froze, it was even more beautiful than you remember. You didn’t get to look long before a pair of arms wrapped around you, slightly startling you. “You showed” “you thought I wouldn’t?” You teased as you turned in Minho’s grasp, wrapping your arms around his neck to pull yourself closer. “I had my doubts” he admitted. He didn’t doubt you, of course not, he doubted that time would actually allow you to sneak away. He knew how busy you were with wedding preparations and with your mother constantly breathing down your neck. But, luckily, none of that mattered right now, what matters that you are actually here, with him, right now. He leaned in, his lips ghosting over yours but never filling meeting, “Beat you to the lake” he whispers before breaking away from you, sprinting to the water, “Cheater” you yelled out after him as you tried to catch up. Once you were in the water you were grateful you had opted for a simple white flowy dress instead of one of those god awful huge, frilly dresses and a corset. The two of you splashed around just like you had done when you were kids. You even played some stupid games like marco polo, or seeing who could hold their breath the longest. It made you feel like you were a child again, and you couldn’t keep the smile off your face. Minho would tease you every time he won, but then pout when you won. You would simply kiss his and his pout would be replaced with a goofy, content smile. 
  “It’s getting late, we should dry you off before you catch a cold” Minho said as he pulled you out of the lake and wrapped you with a towel “What if I want to stay here” “love, you can’t-“ “I don’t want to leave, I want to stay here, with you” Minho looked into you pleading eye and his heart broke knowing that he couldn’t do anything about it. “Don’t make me go back there” “you have to” “I can be with you freely here... I don’t want to go back to hiding you.” Your breathing became uneven as you thought of going back to your mothers harsh words and your fathers uninterested stares, the thought of marrying a man you didn’t love and having his children- you didn’t want any of that, you wanted Minho. Before Minho could respond you cupped his face and pulled him down to meet your lips. Everything you couldn’t say was in that kiss, in the way your lips moved against one another’s so gently yet so wantonly. Minho moved to lay you down on the soft, plush grass, one hand cupping your face as the other landed itself on your hip, giving it a gently squeeze as he rolled his hips into yours. You disconnected your lips as a soft moan left you mouth, a moan that was like music to Minho’s ears. He latched his mouth onto your neck and rolled his hips into you again, getting another moan out of you. Soft whimpers and moans mixed with heavy breath and growls was all you could hear. Everything Minho was doing had you in a trance. However you were ripped from that trance as Minho was torn off you.
  Your wide eyes met Minho’s and you almost started sobbing, he was being held by a guard, one of your fathers personal guards. You turned around and that’s when you lost it. Your father was standing there, a look of contempt and anger on his face as he stared down at you. “Father-“ you wanted so badly to reason with him, to have him let Minho go because you knew exactly what would happen to him if you didn’t, but he didn’t even let you speak. “I ask one thing of you, ONE THING” your father’s deep, grumbling voice rang throughout the forest so loudly, it scares the birds off. “I ask you to be a good daughter, a good wife, stay pure for your husband, and you can’t even do that” “Father please-“ “You has to go an whore of with some lowlife-“ “don’t speak to her like that.” Everyone goes quite at the sound of Minho’s voice, all heads snapping in his direction, the guard holding him sends a sharp blow to his ribs making your cry out. “Leave him alone!” Your fathers had enough, he yanks you up by your hair and pulls you so that your looking him directly in the eye. “You will not be without a guard until you can be trusted by yourself, do I make myself clear” you nod the best you can with your hair in his vice grip. He drops you, your knees giving out making you hit the floor, before turning around and leaving. You turn back to look back at Minho, tears overflowing and blocking your vision, but you can still make out the comforting smile in his face as he reassures you everything will be alright.
—                                                                                          —
  It’s 2 days since the whole lake incident and you couldn’t stop worrying about Minho and what was going to happen to him. As of now, your father was keeping him alive to keep you in line, but once you and Felix were married there was no way he would keep Minho alive then. Your father wouldn’t allow you to see Minho either, and it was killing you to not know how he was, if they were treating him fairly, or if he was even alive. God the very thought of Minho dying tore you to shreds, it sent shock waves of pain through your body until you could barley stand. And now Felix was around, and that didn’t help. It wasn’t his fault though, he was such a sweet guy, just not the guy you were in love with. Felix seemed to understand that the moment arrived, when he saw the tears welling up in your eyes, contradicting the sweet fake smile you wore. But of course he had no idea what was wrong, you’re father wanted to keep the whole Minho thing quiet. He couldn’t have people knowing the perfect princesses was off gallivanting around with the help. Felix had guessed it was the wedding, but would a wedding get you really upset?
  “You know, Y/n, you can talk to me. We’re meant to be husband and wife, it-” “don’t you think I know we’re supposed to be husband and wife, did you ever stop to think that maybe that’s the problem” you snapped at him. You couldn’t help it, he was so overwhelmingly nice and seemingly okay with all of this while you were in so much pain it hurt to even breath. Felix look at you with sad eyes, he wanted to reach out and comfort you, but he didn’t want to overstep and scare you away. “I know this isn’t ideal, but-” “But? There is no but Felix, I- I won’t ever love you like I do him, and I can’t live in a loveless marriage and-” “Him?” He cut you off and you froze. “Y/n?” You let out a shaky breath, your mind racing with what would happen if your father found out you had just told someone about Minho. “Please, forget I said that, please” you begged, and Felix heart broke seeing the fear in your eyes. “Hey, it’s okay, I won’t tell anyone” rubbing your arm comfortingly before he could stop himself, but to his surprise, and yours, you leaned into the touch. And without really thinking, you started pouring your heart out to Felix, telling him everything, from your love for Minho to the way Minho was currently in the dungeons, being used as leverage to keep you in line. To your surprise, Felix sympathized, telling you he was going through something similar, that he’s in love with the head of his guard, Changbin, but of course they couldn’t be together because Felix’s royal status and the marriage. You had to admit, being able to talk to someone who understands was so refreshing and made you feel a little bit better for the moment. After awhile of swapping stories and reminiscing on better times with your lovers, Felix said, “I think I may have an idea.”
—                                                                                          —
  Today was the day of the wedding and your body was completely wracked with nerves and excitement for what was to come. Felix’s plan was genius and if this worked out, you don’t think you’d ever be able to thank him enough.
  “This dress- oh,Y/n you look beautiful” your mother said, that was probably the only real compliment she had ever given you. But you had to agree with her, even if it was a little vain, you truly did think you look beautiful. The dress fit you like a glove on your torso, and then expanding into a gentle, flowy skirt that only barely trailed behind you. It was a cream ivory with faint golden accents around the waist where the bodice met the skirt and on the neckline. And if you were marrying the man you wanted to, you would’ve started crying at the thought of wearing such a stunning dress on such a significant day. Your thoughts were cut short when the door burst open to reveal your father. “Ready” was all he said to you, and you simply nodded.
  You and your fathers arms linked as he lead you to the door that lead to the ball room where you wedding was being held. “I’m glad you finally put your silly fantasies behind you” he said once you reach your destination, “I’m glad you have finally seen you duties clearly” he continued which made you want to roll your eyes at him, but you resisted and simply nodded, ready for Felix’s plan to play out. 
  Here comes the bride starts playing and the door opens, you’re father starts to walk you down the isle. Everyone stood to get a look at the beautiful bride on her special day, oh little did they know. Felix stood that the alter in a back suit with his hair slicked back, looking as elegant as always. He wore a big smile once he saw you, finally really feeling the excitement of seeing his plan play through. Your father handed you off to Felix and the two of you walked up to the priest.
  “Laddies and Gentlemen, we are gathered here today to celebrate the joining of Prince Felix and Princess Y/n. Marriage is a promise, a promise to love and cherish each other for the rest of your lives, it’s a promise to remain loyal and to stick with each other through thick and thin. Now, before we begin, is there anyone here who see’s reason why these two should not be married.” “I do” You heart skipped a beat as you heard the voice you hadn’t heard in weeks. Looking to the doors were he stood, you saw that he was thinner and that he had bruises all over his face, it made you want to cry. “Seize him” your father yelled, but before your guards could reach him, Felix’s guards stood to block him, and they vastly outnumbered your own guards. The guards made a path so that Minho could get to you, and once he reached you, you cupped his cheeks, scanning over the million bruises on his face. “They hurt you” “I’m fine, I promise” he said as he placed his hands over top of yours. He tore his gaze away from you to look at Felix with a grateful smile, “thank you” “no problem, just keep her happy, she’s special” “trust me-” Minho returned his gaze back to you, “-I know.”  The two of you just started at each other, completely lost in the moment until you father started shouting again. Felix looked at Changbin and the latter nodded before ordering some of the guard to lead him out. 
  Once your father was removed, Minho looked at the priest expectantly and your heart skipped a beat. “Minho” you question, “do you really think I’m going to lose you again” he asked, pulling you closer to him so that your foreheads were touching. “Y/n, will you please do me the honor of being my wife” something between a sob and a laugh left your lips and tears started welling up in your eyes, nodding frantically, “yes, oh my god yes” you giggle. Minho pulled you as close as he could.
—                                                                                          —
  “Ladies and Gentlemen, may I now present to you the new King and Queen of Haven, King Minho and Queen Y/n” The priest said at the end of the ceremony, as it was your father’s wish to pass the throne down to you and your husband as soon as you were married, unfortunately for him, he never specified who he wanted to rule next to you. And now you were the queen, with the love of your life by your side. 
  “Congratulation Y/n” Felix said, crushing you in the biggest hug which you immediately reciprocated with a giggle. “Thank you so much, Felix,” you said “I don’t think we’ll ever be able to thank you enough” Minho spoke up, wrapping an arm around your waist once you pulled away from Felix. “Please, don’t worry about it” he said but you shook your head, “We will never be able to repay you, but, I can at least do something for you” “Y/n-” “nope, won’t hear it” you said as you turned around to wave over Changbin. “Y/n” Felix questioned, feeling his heart start to pound in his head, “well, since I’m now queen, I can approve marriages, and almost no one can say no to a queens approval” you started and Minho started to pick up on what you were doing. Once Minho reached you three, you placed your hands on his shoulders and moved him to stand next to Felix. “And as queen, I really do think you two would make such a cute couple, don’t you” you asked, looking up and Minho. Minho smiled and nodded, “I do” you turned back to Felix who had tears in his eyes, “Y/n-” “I approve of this marriage, and if your kingdom doesn’t like it, you’re always welcome in mine.” Felix launched himself onto you, hiding his face in your neck since he was now full on crying, “thank you so much” Felix whispered and you just held him tighter, “you did more for me than I could ever ask, please don’t thank me, I owe you.” ‘
—                                                                                          —
*3 years later*
  “Felix I swear to god-” “I’m not doing anything” the younger boy whined as he plopped down on your bed. You let out a huff of annoyance before sitting up, “one reason why I shouldn’t kick you out right now” “you love me” he giggles. With the roll of your eyes, you stood up, which Felix was quick to stop. “Y/n, you’re 9 months pregnant, you can’t just move like that” “... you mean walking” “I thought I was supposed to be the protective one” The two of you turned your heads to see Minho in the door way with a cup of your favorite tea. “Well you weren’t here, so I was just stepping up” Felix said confidently which made all three of you laugh. “Well I’m back now, so you can go, Changbin is waiting for you in the garden” “bye Y/n” Felix said before practically sprinting out of the room.
  Minho placed the tea on you nightstand before helping you back in bed. “You know the doctor has you on bed rest until this baby is born” you pouted at him, “just a small walk, please, I’ve been in here for a week” “Baby-” “please” you begged, grabbing a hold of his hand and looking up at him with wide eyes. Minho sighed before grabbing your tea. “Tea first, then walk” “deal” you smiled. taking the tea from his hands. Minho watched as you carefully drank the hot liquid, admiring the way your nose scrunched up when you burnt your tongue. “Stop staring” you nudged him, “it’s creepy” “it’s not creepy to appreciate my beautiful wife” a blush rose to your cheeks and you looked down. 3 years of marriage and he could still make you blush. Minho took the tea from you and placed it down before pulling you in for a kiss, and you felt like you were teenagers all over again. “I love you so much my queen,” “I love you so much more my king.”
—                                                                                          —
; hi guys! with everything going on i just wanted to pop in to say two things. 1) pls don’t let your love of kpop compromise your morals, know the difference between wrong and right and hold those wrong accountable. and 2) if you easily sensitive and your feeding off all these negative energies, please know it’s okay to take a break, take care of yourself first, and if anyone needs to, i’m here to talk
73 notes · View notes
hoodharlow · 4 years
Note
could you pls do “Stop being grumpy, it’s lame.”, “OH you’re jealous!”, “Please just kiss me already.” with Calum and jealous reader? thank you 💕
Thanks for the request! 💕💕💕
AN: I suck a reader inserts so I gave “you” a name.  
Warnings: smutish things at the end lol
Word Count: 1.9 k
Claudia wasn't the jealous type. Hell, she's seen Calum’s fans shamelessly try to flirt him or give him their numbers when ever they are out and about at the grocery store or airport. 
But seeing Josie get close to Calum was not something she wanted to see. Her frown deepened every time she heard her laugh at something Calum said. Her blood boiled watching her squeeze squeeze his bicep as she casually leaned into him. 
Calum and Claudia, along with Mali, had flown to Australia for the wedding of a family friend. She had met the groom a few times whenever he was in LA for work, but she never met his sister. Calum barely ever mentioned her. 
A few nights ago at the rehearsal dinner, Josie had drunkenly mentioned that Cal and her dated for a bit until he moved to LA to pursue his music career. She went on about if it weren't for his music, they'd probably still be together. 
 Claudia didn't make much of the comment. Though seeing them now, in all her glory, made her feel somewhat insecure. She was perfect. Sofia thought deep down she couldn't compete with someone like her. 
On top of that, she hasn't seen much of him this whole time because he's in the designated table for groomsmen and bridesmaids. Cal asked her to sit with him, but she felt uncomfortable being the only one that wasn't closely associated with either the groom or bride. Instead she sat with Mali and his parents, which she didn't mind. David and Mali kept her and Joy entertained with their shenanigans. 
She pushed herself up from her seat and went to look for a drink. She couldn't stand watching that unfold anymore. She picked up the front of her dress, so she wouldn't trip over it as she beelined to the bar where she saw her trusted friend Patron and asked the bartender for a shot of tequila. She downed it without hesitation and asked for another, doing the same to two more shots. 
Claudia turned back to where Calum was, but he was gone, and she was gone too. Something brewed in her stomach. Maybe it was the four shots without having food in the past few hours, but she felt sick to her stomach. When she got up from her stool, her knees buckled. An all too familiar pair of hands gripped her waist, keeping her from falling. 
“Woah there,” Calum said. 
Calum couldn't be more relieved to find her. He hadn't seen her almost all day. Being the best man kept him busy, so he couldn’t spend time with her. Then there was Josie. He tried everything to avoid her, but she was always there. He couldn't escape her. 
 "Let go, Calum." Claudia said, pushing his hands off her waist. She used the bar to right herself. 
"You okay?" He asked her. The past few days he felt something off with her. 
"I'm fine." She replied curtly. 
"Wanna dance? I wanna show you off." He suggested. She almost scoffed at his offer, but didn't. 
"Not in the mood." She crossed her arms. Calum noticed the way her bottom lip curled up into a pout and her nose flared as she puffed. How her eyebrows furrowed. Yep, she's a little grumpy, Calum thought to himself. 
"Hey, stop being grumpy. It's lame." Calum pouted in a baby voice. He uncrossed her arms and placed them over his shoulders. She rolled her eyes playfully at him as Calum wrapped his arms around her waist. In her heels she almost reached his height, which Calum was thankful for because he wouldn't have to bend down as much to kiss her. 
"Callie, there you are!" Josie's voice pierced their ears. Calum’s shoulders tensed up when he heard the heels clicking towards them. 
"I'm gonna go get some air." Claudia sighed, pulling away her arms from him. 
"Want me to come with?" He asked her. She glanced over to Josie and then back to him. "No, catch up with your friend." 
Calum’s heart deflated as he watched her go. Though he did like watching her go. Claudia wore a dark burgundy custom Prabal Gurung dress. It hugged her body perfectly, and it showed off her ass beautifully. He couldn't wait to take it off her tonight, if she let him. He knew she was upset, but he wasn't sure why. His guess was because he was busy with his best man duties. 
“Don't you just love weddings, Callie?” Josie asked, taking the stool where Sofia was. 
“I suppose,” Calum shrugged. He took a sip from his rum and coke. It was watered-down. He signaled the bartender and asked for a refill. 
“Well, I've had my wedding planned since I was thirteen. All I need is a groom to realize what's infront of him.” Calum quickly noticed the change in her voice. It was soft, like she was trying to be flirty. It made him uncomfortable. He remembered in primary school she had a crush on him. He felt bad because he never shared those feelings. He's never seen her more than just a friend. 
"Hey, Josie!" Mali squeezed in between them. 
"Mali, darling, are you enjoying yourself?" Josie asked, turning her attention to her. 
"Yeah, so is Claudia. A while ago we were gushing about how beautiful the venue looks. I'm hoping that Cal gets a hint and finally proposes to her." Mali smiled at her. "Oh, I just remembered. I ran into one of the bridesmaids. She was looking for you. It seemed urgent." 
"Oh, I should take care of that. I'll be right back, so we can catch up Callie." Josie waved to them as she wandered off. Calum let out a shaky breath, letting his shoulders relax. 
"You would think that after fifteen years, she'd be over you." Mali commented, taking a sip from Calum's drink. 
"I owe you. I didn't know how to get rid of her. Everywhere I go, she's right there." 
"Yeah and it’s pissing Claudia off." 
"Really?" Calum almost choked on his drink. "Mum must've dropped you at some point. How can you not see it? Josie was all over you!" Mali wanted to smack his head. He could be a complete idiot. 
"No, she— Fuck! I've gotta find Claudia." 
Calum went out to the garden because he knew Claudia would most likely be here. During the free time he had between the ceremony and reception, they had walked around the garden. There was a small bridge over a pond, and she mentioned how pretty it must look at night. 
There she was. She had taken off her heels and dangled her feet above the water. She rested her arms on wood bars as she overlooked the water. 
"Thought I find you here." Calum said. He rolled up his pants and sat next to her. 
"Why are you here? I thought you were with Josie." She said quietly. 
"Because I‘d rather be with you." 
"Doesn't seem like it. I could've sworn she was the one that you've been with all day, not me." 
"She's something." 
"By something, you mean ex right? Ni te hagas menso. I know you dated." Calum cackled. 
"Oh, please don't tell me you're jealous." 
"Of course I am! Have you seen her? I can't compare." 
"Claudia, I only went on a date with her when I was 13. It was one of those group dates because her brother was nervous to go on a date, so he asked me to go along with the story that it was a double date. I never thought of her any more than being my friend's sister." 
"So you never dated after? She wasn't the one that you left when you moved to LA?" 
"God, no! Where did you get an idea like that?" 
"She told me." 
"And you didn't think of asking me? You know I've been pretty honest about my love life." 
"I'm stupid. I'm sorry." She rested her head on his shoulder. Calum wrapped an arm around her. They stayed like that for a bit. 
"Wanna get out of here?” He asked her. “I'm kinda tired." 
"Sure." 
They stood up and put on their shoes. Calum held his jacket over her shoulders, so Claudia could slip her arms in, welcoming his warmth. They went back to his parents to let them know they were going back to their hotel. They said goodbye to the groom and bride as they quickly made their way out without being noticed by Josie. 
The cab ride to the hotel was quick. Once they went into their suite all bets were off, or so Calum thought. Claudia kicked off her heels and plopped herself face first to the bed. 
"Let's get you ready for bed. Yeah?" He told her. He lightly patted her ass before making his way to the bathroom. 
Groaning, she pushed herself off and followed him. When Claudia walked in the bathroom, Calum was shirtless with his belt unbuckled. She bit her lip. When doesn't he look good. Fuck sleep, all she wants to do now is get on her knees and let him have his way with her. 
"Need help with your dress?" He asked her, bringing her back from her thoughts. 
"Um, yes please." She managed to say. Calum grabbed her by the hips and gently bent her over the sink. Their eyes met through the mirror. He pressed his hardened member on her ass, earning a moan from her. He ran his hands over her body squeezing here and there until he got to the zipper at the top. 
"Cal, why are you taking so long?" She moaned. 
"Just practicing for when I take off your wedding dress." He shrugged. Claudia's breath hitched. Sure they've talked about marriage as their next step, but she never took him seriously. 
"Had I known you were wearing this under this ungodly dress, we would've never left the room." Calum groaned. 
He pushed down her dress leaving her in her green La Perla set. He turned her around and sat her on the sink, so they faced each other. Claudia's breath hitched once again when Calum placed a hand on her stomach. She closed her eyes and enjoyed feeling his calloused hand over her soft skin. She felt his minty breath on her neck. Goosebumps dotted her skin as Calum felt her everywhere but where she wanted him. 
"Please just kiss me already." Claudia whined after what felt an eternity of his touches. 
"Okay." He smirked. He got down on his knees and pulled her closer to his face. Claudia's heart began to beat out of her chest in anticipation as Calum grabbed either side of her panties and ripped them with ease. Before she could scold him, Cal placed a chaste kiss onto her core. 
Claudia made incoherent noises when he placed her legs on his broad shoulders. He slipped his tongue into her core and devoured her. She rode his tongue trying to reach her high. Calum dropped one of her legs, giving him better access. He slid his ring and middle into her as his thumb pressed her clit. 
Claudia felt overwhelmed. Calum's fingers were moving in and out of her slowly. She needed him to go faster, but knowing him, he wouldn't. She began to clench around him, which only slowed his fingers down. 
Calum pulled his fingers out of her, looking into her eyes as he licked them clean. Her eyes widened in shock. He'd never done that to her, he usually lets her come at least once with his tongue. 
"Get in bed, we're not done."
254 notes · View notes
zodiyack · 4 years
Text
Happiness
Pairing: Thomas Shelby x reader
Warning: Swearing, fluff, mention of cheating (not Tommy), two sexual references, violence, alcohol, cigarettes, lyrics, me not proofreading
Words: 5279
Song: Happiness by Rex Orange County
Note: Lyrics = Bold + Italic | Memories = Italic
Tumblr media
masterlist | Peaky Blinders Masterlist
I'll be the one that stays 'til the end. And I'll be the one that needs you again
When Tommy met Y/n, she was a sad one. Her heart had been broken too many times. Being cheated on many times by one person affected her trust, but being cheated on many times by one person and then being cheated on by another person ruined her trust all completely. Tommy asked her out, she said that she didn’t know him well enough, he asked her to talk to him so they could get to know each other, she said “doesn’t work that way” and walked off.
She really grabbed Tommy’s interest. Even if she didn’t mean to, Tommy was now caught like a fish in Y/n’s fishing rod of love, and Tommy refused to let go, no matter what plants they got stuck in. One day, after weeks of him bothering her and begging her, he managed to finally ask her out successfully. They hung out and talked almost every day, so he took her to a surprise spot. The blindfold came off and a picnic blanket and basket were revealed. That date had went well, in fact it’s one of Y/n’s favorite memories.
The two twirled around in the now messed up blanket. Giggles escaped Y/n’s mouth as Tommy tickled her and wiped frosting onto her face. She squealed as a sign that she yielded.
“Alright love, sorry if I was too-”
The yield however, wasn’t the kind of yield he thought it was. She took the chance while he was distracted and pushed him down, straddling him to wipe some of the frosting on his skin. Their giggles that had stopped after Y/n pleaded now continued. Kisses were placed on Tommy’s face, some of them leaving frosting behind.
This went on for a while, the flirting and messing around seemed funnier and funnier. Tommy, a serious and intimidating man, was being goofy and genuinely chuckling. This didn’t happen a lot, so Y/n made note to find ways to cheer up the Shelby boy.
A year later, after many many dates, Y/n and Tommy had a conversation that would change their lives. In a good way of course, but it seriously meant a lot to them. “Y/n. Can I promise you something?” They were lying on a blanket
“If you can keep it.”
“Well, I promise you I’ll stay here...forever. Until you die or until I die. The point is, I promise to love you forever, and if we end up splitting, I’ll still be here as a friend, whenever you need me.”
“Thomas Shelby. I promise the exact same thing, but let me add one tiny detail.”
“Yes?”
“I promise to be here as I am currently, and if you need me just tell me. I’ll be here to support you and comfort you as your friend, as your lover, and as your wife.”
“Wife?”
“You’ve thought of getting married haven’t you?”
“Yes heh...but I just didn’t think you’d agree. I love you Y/n M/n L/n.”
“I love you too Thomas Michael Shelby.”
Now, they had been together for nine years. Tommy left for war two years after they got together. He had kissed her passionately at the train station, telling her that he loved her and would write to her. She promised the same to him and stayed there until he left, then leaving to go to the Shelby house, resting on Tommy’s bed and writing a letter to him right away.
When he came back, he wasn’t the innocent boy Y/n knew. But she also wasn’t the innocent woman he knew. They both had changed, and they both loved it. Y/n stayed loyal while Tommy was gone, she wrote to him and his brothers every day, even telling Tommy of the people who flirted with her or greeted her. She missed him and he missed her. His now protective and serious attitude fit well with her cautious and quick-but-good thinking one. Their sweet and innocent personas still existed, but only for each other to see.
Neither of them had broken their promises. And neither of them had broken the other’s heart.
And I'll be the one that proposes in a garden of roses, And truly loves you long after our curtain closes... But will you still love me when nobody wants me around, When I turn eighty-one and forget things will you still be proud?
The year 1921 and Y/n bear a slightly raised belly. She was pregnant, but it didn’t show much. Y/n and Tommy’s relationship was stronger than ever, their love for each other quite obvious. However, Y/n was slightly upset over one thing. Marriage.
Tommy impregnated her, yet still hadn’t done anything to prove that he wanted her to be his forever like he said he did when they were younger. Y/n was ready. She had been ready ever since he came back from the war. To be honest, she was half expecting him to drop on his knee right there...but he didn’t.
Her train of thought crashed when footsteps sounded down the hall.
“Y/n! Y/n!” A 13 year old Finn called out. “There’s something you need to see!”
The small boy took off outside, leaving Y/n to trip over her own feat and try her best to follow him. He led her to a garden like place, although, the only thing growing was the red flowers that symbolized romance. Roses.
‘When did they have the time to grow this?!’ thought Y/n. Just yesterday she had came out back and this was never here.
“Y/n L/n.” Y/n’s attention turned to Tommy, he was on his knee on a pile of rose pedals by the other roses. “You have been my best friend as well as lover for a long time. Nine years I have been loved by you, twelve I have loved you, and fourteen I have known you. I fell in love with you when I was only 19. You fell in love with me when I was 22. Your eyes and your smile lit up my day, your laugh and your voice made my heart skip a beat, there’s so much more. You now are bearing my child and I would do anything for you and them. I vow to protect you both with my life, to love you and put you before anything and everything-”
“I’m just gonna guess ‘except for work’?” Y/n was smiling and crying, and she laughed when Tommy shrugged and did a small nod.
“Sometimes. Anyways, I hope you know that I love you more than life itself. I keep my promise from 1913. Do remember it?” She nodded, thinking back to her dates and secret meet-ups with him. “Well, as I said, I haven’t broken that promise yet and I don’t plan on breaking it. I will love you now, then, and forever. When you die or when you change, I will still love you. If you regret being with me, I will still love you.” He stopped talking for a moment. A tear ran down his face as his thoughts filled his head.
Y/n walked closer to him, running a hand through his hair and pressing a soft kiss to his forehead. “What’s wrong honey?”
Tommy inhaled and closed his eyes, he took and held her hands for dear life. “You already know that some people don’t quite like the Shelby name. Well... would you still love me when absolutely everyone wants us gone? Would you still want to be a Shelby? A- And when we grow old...and forget things... do you think we’ll be proud of ourselves? Of each other? Do you think we’d remember our great moments?”
“Tommy Shelby. I love you so so much, you honestly have no idea. I would never be ashamed nor disgusted by the thought of being a Shelby. Fuck what the people think. And for your last question Tommy, I think we’ll be really fucking proud of ourselves. We can’t forget our love since it’ll continue to exist.”
Thomas smiled and nodded. Y/n had a point. He took a box out of his trousers and opened it to Y/n. “Would you do me the honor of being my present and my future, of being my happiness, of being my wife, of becoming Mrs. Shelby?”
“I do! I do, I do!” She let the tears run down her face with a smile as Tommy slid the ring onto her finger. As soon as he stood up, she jumped onto him and connected their lips with burning passion.
'Cause I am the one that's waited this long. And I am the one that might get it wrong, And I'll be the one that will love you the way I'm supposed to, girl
The day of their wedding came. 1922, after Charles Shelby had been born and alive for at least 5 months. Y/n’s dress was beautiful. She was beautiful. Tommy swore up and down that Y/n was breathtaking with and without clothing. He said she made his heart beat faster whenever she was around.
Y/n was smoothing down her dress and looking at herself in the mirror. The maids who were helping dress her and fix up her hair had left her to be alone for a bit but left the door open a crack. That was their mistake. The door creaked open a bit, a tiny Charlie in a cute little suit crawled in.
“How’d you get here? Well, my love, you can’t be in here, so I’ll have to find one of your uncles or Daddy’s friends to take you back to Daddy. Come on little man.” She picked him up and leaned out the door slightly. No one was in sight, and the sound of talking came from outside the building. “God damn it. Come one Charlie, let’s go find someone before your Daddy comes inside and sees me.”
She wandered around, attempting to search for anyone but her fiancé whilst entertaining Charlie. Y/n rounded the corner, eyes widening to find Tommy, John and Arthur chatting amongst themselves against the wall.
“Poppa!” Charlie giggled and pointed his finger at the three men. They stopped talking and turned their heads over to where Y/n was. Luckily, she moved in time, but unluckily, the boys had already noticed the noise. Y/n heard them pull out their guns.
“Wait! Don’t come around the corner, put your guns away and make sure Tommy doesn’t come over here. John, will you come over here and get Charlie?”
“Bloody hell Y/n! Scared us half to death!”
“What’re you doin’ out of the room Y/n?” Tommy seemed curious and worried, he knew of the time limit that was gifted to Y/n. With his knowledge came his protectiveness. Anyone could get her while she was unattended, hence him and his brothers staying near the room.
“Charlie got into my room so I was gonna find either John or-” John took Charlie from Y/n and whispered a compliment about how pretty she looked. She said a quick thank you before continuing, “or Arthur so that they could take Charlie. I didn’t realize you guys would be out here all together.”
“Oh...well please just call for us next time, never know what’s gonna happen when so many people dislike the Shelby name. You’re lucky Charlie called out, I would’ve been upset if anything happened to you.”
“Nothing would’ve happened to me...wait...” His voice was a lot closer, and she was leaning against the corner of the wall, keeping her dress out of sight. “Are you right next to me?”
“I guess you could say that.”
“Hmm...Let me come right back.” Y/n went back into the room, peaking up the biggest cloth she could find. She wrapped it around her figure and walked out to Tommy. “Now you can’t see my dress, so it’s not bad luck.”
“I don’t believe in that bad luck thing with the dress.”
“Eh, I do. Now shut up and kiss me.” Their lips connected and the fiery passion filled their kiss and it grew intense, he put his hand on the back of Y/n’s neck. Realizing where they were, Tommy pulled away, winking and walking back to his brothers. He stopped halfway and turned to Y/n a final time.
“Y/n. I promise you, I may not be the best man, nor the best man for you to love. I might turn into a bad husband, or just be a bad husband, but I swear, I will love you the way I should. I will treat you like the queen you are, I will care for you and I will never break your heart.”
The Shelby boys, not including Finn, walked back outside. Tommy left Y/n with a smile on her face and a blush on her cheeks. She couldn’t wait until she would be known as “Mrs. Shelby.”
. . .
The priest was talking, but Tommy and Y/n couldn’t hear him. They were whispering out of the sides of their mouths. It felt like it was just them in the room. No one else, just them.
“I’ve waited forever for this moment, ya know?” Tommy whispered subtly.
“Oh sure. You waited nine years to ask my to marry you. You totally wanted it more than I did.”
“Oh hush, I was taking my time...for...reasons I guess.”
“Sure, whatever. You’re lucky you’re cute.” Y/n turned her attention to the priest so that he could distract her from laughing aloud.
It had all gone so fast, the couple being distracted with each other or with trying to not giggle at each other. The smile on Tommy’s face was so big, you would never think that he was really the leader of the Peaky Blinders, or you would and you’d just think he’d gone soft. His smile matched the one on Y/n’s face.
“You may kiss the bride”
They turned towards each other. Tommy smiled sweetly at his newly dubbed wife, he took her face in his hands and kissed her passionately. Y/n grabbed his hand and pulled away, smiling widely again once they both opened their eyes. His beautiful ocean eyes were sparkling.
But will you still love me when nobody wants me around, around? When I turn eighty-one and forget things, will you still be proud?
Tommy kissed Y/n before she sat down. They were at the Garrison with the rest of the Shelbys...not including Finn. Anyways, an angry drunk walked over to the Shelby family. He had a disgusted look on his face, remains of food in his beard, and the smell of too much alcohol clouding around him.
Y/n and Ada’s face scrunched with slight disgust. He looked at Y/n in a way that made Tommy want to grab the back of his neck and slam his face into the table.
“Excuse me sir, could you please leave?” Y/n’s voice put Tommy at ease. She rubbed his arm while she gave her best attempt at shooing the man.
“I won’t take orders from a whore!” The drunk man itched his head. He seemed to be thinking but obviously was done when he spoke again, “How about this. You come with me, give me a good fuck, I’ll leave you alone.”
This agitated Tommy beyond Y/n’s repair. She couldn’t whisper her way out of this one. With one look from Tommy, the rest of the Shelby boys rose up from their seats and pointed their guns at the man. Thomas’ face looked dark and empty, all emotion wiped clean except for jealousy and vengeance.
“Listen here. Talk to my wife like that again, and you will be blinded by order of the Peaky fucking Blinders!” Y/n had never seen Tommy act this way before. He was red in the face, spit was flying out of his mouth when he spoke. The attention of the bar, not that there were many people currently, was directed towards the group.
Tommy connected his fist with the man’s jaw. The two men continued fighting, yet as flattered and in awe Y/n was, she couldn’t watch the violence. It wasn’t the violence itself, it was her need to yack and the excitement only making it worse.
Y/n was only 3 months pregnant, almost two years since their wedding. Polly and Ada knew of this, of course, and were quick to rush to Y/n’s aid and bring her outside. The fight went on as Y/n relieved her stomach through her throat. Rather nasty, but when you gotta do it, you gotta do it.
She decided to stay outside, not wanting to get involved with any more violence for the night. Ada brushed her fingers through Y/n’s hair and whispered softly to her. Pol tried to do the same, giving up half way through and pulling out a cigarette and walking away from the two girls.
“Y/n! Are you alright!” Tommy pushed through the front doors of the Garrison. Blood was leaking down his nose, his hair and shirt were disheveled, his fists were bloody and bruised.
“You didn’t use your hat did you?”
“Nah...it’s been a bit since I’ve used my actual fists. Felt nice.” He swapped places with Ada and smiled at his wife. “You’re beautiful, you know that?”
A blush filled Y/n’s cheeks. “T- thank you... Um... Tommy?”
“Yes?”
“What happened in there? After I left?”
“Well...He started insulting us, insulting you and insulting our family. He was crazy enough to do it right in front of us! I did what any Shelby would do and protected the family name and honor.”
“Thomas, please tell me you didn’t-”
“No. I didn’t kill him. I wanted to, but I know that murder would have to have a good reason behind it... Are you mad at me? All of these people hate me, some even want me dead... do you feel the same way now?”
Tommy looked down, his eyes were watery and tired. It had been a long night, Thomas and the other boys were drunk and the ladies were the only ones sober enough to do anything. Although, they do say that a drunk man’s words are a sober man’s thoughts.
“Tommy... I could never hate you or be mad at you just because other people feel that way. Fuck what the people think. I’m here, I’m your wife, I don’t care about what others think. All that is important is that I love you Thomas Michael Shelby.”
“I- ...I love you too Y/n M/n- hiccup Shelby.” The drowsiness and the “hics” were already starting to show. Y/n let out a small giggle at her man-child and helped him steady himself before walking him home. It’s safe to say that when they got home, Y/n and Tommy had the best sleep they’d ever had in their entire lives.
Proud of me and my short list of accomplishments, say, And me and my lack of new news. Me and my selfishness, oh me and myself, Wish you nothing but a happy new version of you
‘It’s or god damn anniversary. What the fuck am I going to get her?’ Thoughts like these filled Tommy’s head. Indeed, it was their anniversary and he did have nothing to give her. She was always so creative with her gifts.
A portrait of him, a new pair of knickers (A/N BACK THEN, THOSE WERE WHAT SOCKS WERE CALLED SO SHH) that were specially made for him, and some nice other stuff. Sometimes she even got her brothers-in-law or Charlie to help out. Her plans could never be foiled but they could certainly interrupt Tommy’s.
He gave up and sat down at his desk. There was still one more thing he could do. “Charles? Charlie, could you come here for a moment?” In rushed the little boy that resembled the Peaky leader.
“Yes dad?”
“I need your help. Do you have any ideas of a gift your mummy might like?”
Charlie thought for a moment before looking up at his father slowly and nodding. He ran off and out of the room, returning with a paper and pen. He handed them to his father and skipped too the doorway.
“Wait. Why would you mother want my to draw something?”
“No dad. Write something. Write about her.” Charlie finished off his help with a smile and continued skipping back to his mum. Y/n was still pregnant, only 8 months into said pregnancy. She was quite excited, so were Tommy and Charlie. A new addition to their small family.
Tommy sat down with the tools he was given. He rubbed his temples with confusion and thought. As he touched the pen to the page, he let his thoughts and emotions take control. Whoever knew Thomas Shelby was full of such beautiful poetry?
He finished writing and trifolded the paper with a large grin on his face. How did he not think of this? The idea was brilliant. No, his son and the idea were brilliant. The paper in his hands came from his heart as well as his child’s mind. A true gift made of genuine love.
The time came for the couple to hand each other their gifts. Tommy had received a photo album of their family so far, and a small portrait of them Y/n had made for Tommy’s desk. She tilted her head at the small paper she was handed, the smile Tommy loved appearing on her face when she noticed his familiar handwriting. She read it aloud after Charlie complained over and over again that he wanted to know what it said.
“My dearest Y/n, I know that we’re married now, and parents, so you must now at least a tiny sum of how much I love you, right? You stole my heart as soon as you were in my line of sight, I belonged to you right then and there, I just didn’t know it until two years later. It took me those two years to find out just how much I wanted you and how much I needed you.
I know it would be dramatic to say that I needed you, but it’s true. I was a 17 year old boy, not wise in the slightest and certainly not charming. When you confessed your love to me, I was 19, but you made my world seem brighter. I swear, my heart started to beat faster and faster.
We were only children. Okay so maybe not only children, but still, so young but so deeply in love. When I left for war, I missed you every second. My heart reminded me that you were one of the things I was fighting for. It reminded me that I needed to come home to find you and let you know that I wanted to marry you and make you mine forever. Unfortunately, I grew insecure with the marriage part.
I had feared that I wasn’t enough. I’m a Peaky fucking Binder for fucks sake! I didn’t do much in my life except for steal your heart and fight for my country. Why on earth would you love me? I was also a selfish man. Wanting your attention 98% of the time, and I still do, I’m selfish and there’s nothing else I can tell you.
You probably might just hate me and act like you don’t since you’re married to me and have a child with me....but what I really want you to know is that I love you more than life itself. I love you more than the stars, I love you and your insecurities. I love all of you, Y/n M/n Shelby.” 
She finished reading it with puffy eyes and a cracked voice. Her heart couldn’t handle it, Tommy’s words filled her with joy and a sweet melancholy feel. It wasn’t the sad kind, it was more of happy and hurt for him.
Because I, I mmm, mmm, yeah, I want you to tell me you find it hard to be yourself so I can say, "It's gonna be alright"
And I want you to love me the way you love your family, The way you love to show me what it's like...To be happy
"Y/n? What has you so worried? It’s almost time to go.”
“Exactly.” Thomas gave his wife a confused look, sitting down beside her and rubbing her back softly. “Well ya know...we’re going to meet my parents.”
“And? I already knew of that Y/n, that’s why I said it’s almost time to go. What’s really wrong? You can tell my, my love.”
“My parents. I- I’m scared that... that they won’t approve of you or the kids. I’m scared that I’ll have to put on a fake persona all over again. It’s just so scary and so hard...”
Tommy leaned on his wife’s shoulder. It was often that she got scared about this. It had been scheduled for about a month now. Ruby and Charlie’s grandmother heard of them and the couple’s marriage, she demanded that her and her husband meet the kids and the “lucky man.”
“It’ll be alright, we’re a family, family sticks together. I love you so so so much Y/n. You have no idea.”
“Mhm. Last night said otherwise.”
“I love you more than that!” He tickled her sides until she was begging for him to stop, laughter and playful cries for help filled the room. They pressed their lips together once they had calmed.
. . .
“Mom. Dad. This, is Thomas, but you can call him Tommy.” Y/f/n shook Tommy’s hand and watched as Tommy pressed a soft kiss to Y/m/n’s hand. He wrapped his arm around Y/n once more before they introduced their children to the Y/l/ns. “This is my son, Charles, and my daughter, Ruby. Although, Charles says he prefers being called Charlie.”
Her mother and father smiled at the family opposite to them. “Welcome home!”
Y/m/n and Y/f/n led Charlie and Ruby to the kitchen for some treats as Y/n and Tommy took off their coats. Tommy didn’t feel like Y/n had explained her family in full detail. Confusion clouded his brain. He brushed it off, seeing as it was a normal thing for grandparents to spoil their grandchildren with treats and candy.
A younger looking woman walked down the stairs with an even younger looking boy. They both looked like Y/n, so Tommy guessed right away that they were either siblings or cousins. Both hugged Y/n and stopped to talk to her.
“Oh! Guys, meet my husband, Tommy! Charlie and Ruby are both in the kitchen with mom and dad. Tommy, these are my little siblings.”
“Nice to meet you Tommy, I’m y/b/n.” The boy spoke. He shook hands with Tommy and walked into the kitchen. The girl greeted him next, “Hello! I’m Y/s/n. Thank you for loving and taking care of my sister. I apologize about Y/b/n, he can be very...shy.”
“That’s fine, I understand his trust issues. I wouldn’t trust a man Ada brought home if I’d never met him fully.”
“Ada? Is she the sister I’ve heard about?” Tommy didn’t know what she meant, but nodded at Y/s/n. She smiled and grabbed Y/n’s hand. “Y/n sent me letters about you guys and your family, she loves you a lot, ya know?”
Before Tommy could respond, Y/n was pushing Y/s/n to the kitchen. “Oookay that’s enough talking for you two. Mom, is dinner ready yet?”
“Yes dear. Everyone, come sit!”
The dinner table was clothed in a cute table cloth, plates of food and glasses of drinks decorated the top of it. Lively conversation started, smiles and laughs galore. It wasn’t something Tommy was really used to. The kids seemed to be enjoying it, so he was somewhat relaxed.
They passed food to each other, Charlie and Ruby earning winks when they asked if they could have a little bit more of something. When Tommy bit into his food, he smiled. It tasted amazing. This was a new environment for him. Laughter and hugs everywhere.
“Thank you Mrs. Y/l/n. This is very good.”
“Aw! You’re welcome Tommy, and please, feel free to call me mom or Y/m/n!”
The rest of the night was spend like that. No hatred, no mention of crime, no work, no anger. Just family, love and support. Tommy decided that it felt nice and that it was a little better than dinner with his family. He loved his family, but he had never seen a family love each other this much.
Y/n and Tommy were given a guest room to stay in for the night. Their children were sleeping in Y/n’s old room. A sigh of relief from the long day left Tommy’s mouth as Y/n kissed up his neck from behind him. He was nervous to meet her family, but now it felt like that nervousness was not even worth it. Y/n’s family was amazing, friendly, and funny. Her serious father and brother had dropped their protective personas after a bit and got to know Tommy a bit more.
Bedtime finally rolled around and Y/n and Tommy wanted their alone time. They hadn’t had much since Ruby was born, so this only made the trip worth it even more. Y/n’s delicate hands massaged Tommy’s shoulders. They were tense and sore, probably from all the working and worrying he had been doing, but Y/n was happy to help.
“Love?”
“Yes Tommy?”
“Your family...you guys are really close, aren’t you?”
She stopped rubbing his shoulders and looked at him. Her eyebrows were furrowed in confusion. Y/n moved around him and sat in his lap, “Yes, I suppose we are...why do you ask? Aren’t you close with yours?”
“Well yes, of course but...” His hand rested on her thigh, rubbing it every so often. “I never knew a family like yours. You guys are so happy and trusting, your parents are so kind, and your siblings are funny and smart. I can see it in your eyes.”
“See what?”
“When you sip your wine and look over at your family...you love them a lot. The look in your eyes is rare, yet comforting.”
Y/n didn’t get what he was hinting at for a few minutes. Her hands brushed through Tommy’s hair once she finally realized. A moment of silence was shared, just Y/n combing her fingers through Tommy’s hair and Tommy rubbing Y/n’s thigh with a small half smile.
“Tommy. I love you, a lot. I love you and Charlie and Ruby. You guys are my world, you guys are my life, you guys are my present and my future. You guys make me so fucking happy. You have no idea how much I love you three. When I look at my family, I see the people I grew up with. I see the people who raised me and taught me almost everything I know. But when I look at you. I see my husband, the light of my life, the man who stole my heart and refused to give it back. I see the father of my children, the keeper of the key to my heart. The man who could get me to do almost anything with a simple smile. When I look at you and our little ones, I see the finishing touch to my family. I see my purpose in life.”
“I-” He didn’t know how to respond. And that was okay.
“I love you Thomas Michael Shelby.”
“I love you too Y/n M/n Shelby.”
Their lips pressed together for the final time that night before they went to sleep. This kiss was passionate and true. This kiss shared love. This kiss was beautiful. And this kiss helped show Tommy the true meaning of Happiness.
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candlelight27 · 3 years
Text
Chapter 5: This Moment Lost in Time
Summary: Sylvain has been ignoring you since you met him. You had been in love with him since you met him. College is about to offer you a fresh start. New academic year, new life. You were ready to forget him. But fate seems to have other plans… (COLLEGE AU)
Series: Seeking Your Warmth If Only For A Day
Warnings: BLOOD, game spoilers and felony (don’t steal, kids)
Pairings: Sylvain Jose Gautier x Female Reader
Word Count: 5143
AO3: This Moment Lost in Time
A/N:  Thanks to @galamixx and their help!!! If you like this chapter, please consider commenting. My inbox is always open too, for suggestiong or just to chat! :)
You put a hesitant foot in Sylvain’s room, walking right behind him as he guided you. It was an ample space and it had a window that let the sunshine inside in the morning. The decoration was quite simple. The bed, placed under the window, was covered in white linen, and the walls were bare, without any pictures or posters. Its appearance broke your every expectation of what you had thought his room would be like.
You were surprised you couldn’t find anything that screamed ‘Sylvain lives here’, or any hint at all of his renowned affairs. You chastised yourself for thinking he’d have a box filled with panties he had stolen, or obscene magazines thrown around. He was now a close friend – perhaps something more, but your brain was trying to avoid that subject at the moment – so you’d have to stop assuming things about him. Especially regarding the high number of misconceptions you’ve had about him. Yet the truth was that you would have never suspected that he lived in such an austere manner. You began to understand how he got along with Dimitri so well.
Despite the absence of luxuries, there was something that caught your eye: the quantity of books he owned. His desk and shelves were crammed, and there were even a few piles over the floor. You identified in a glance some history titles, as well as fiction and philosophical essays. It was quite the collection for someone most people considered an airhead – a thought that made you slightly angry at those people.
“Sit wherever you want,” Sylvain commented. You sat on the bed, while he moved to take a seat on the chair in front of his desk. He carefully placed on the floor a board of chess, trying not to move any pieces. It was incomplete, with only a handful of blacks and whites. You wondered if Sylvain was trying to solve one of those problems that he used to do with Claude back in high school. Afterwards, Sylvain placed his hands behind his head and leant back. You looked around nervous, absentmindedly caressing the bed dressing with your fingertips, avoiding by all means ogling him.
“You have a nice room,” you said. This was awkward, and you didn’t know what to say. You felt once again you were invading his privacy by simply being there. And you were on his bed, where he slept. It felt very personal, and you were not sure if it was your place to be there.
“Not what you expected for someone like me, right?”, he hummed. You feared that he actually was able to read your mind after that line.
“How is Glenn?”, you changed the subject, hoping Sylvain wouldn’t notice.
“Oh, he’s fine! He’s conscious and recovering. Apparently, when he was going to work, a dog crossed the road and he crashed the car avoiding it.” Sylvain drew out a breath. “Honestly, I’m so relieved he’s alive.”
“That gives us time to proceed with our plan. But then again, Flayn is onto whatever is happening. It’s not just paranoia, there must be a clue somewhere,” you reflected.
You had a few days to come to terms with Sylvain’s crazy theories after that encounter with Flayn at the hospital. As if fate had been mocking you, you had even more visions of your classmates in times of war, which only reinforced Sylvain’s words. You started writing down the smallest details you could recall, hoping they’d be of help to clarify something. Anything. And you realised some names kept appearing time after time.
“I wanted to show you a few things,” Sylvain said. He turned around to look at the books opened on his desk. He moved a couple of volumes and used papers around until he chose one. The sound of papers being flipped frantically came from behind you. “Here it is!”
He stood up and gave it to you, waiting a minute for you to inspect it thoroughly.
“So?” He insisted. Sylvain was eager to know your opinion. “What do you think?”
“It’s…” you opened your mouth.
“Awfully familiar?”, he offered.
“Yes”, you nodded.
It was an ancient copy of Seiros’ precepts. There you could see a coloured engraving that displayed Saint Seiros, who had an eerie resemblance to Rhea, officially in charge of Garreg Mach High School and the cathedral annexed to it. Her light green hair, her bright and big eyes, her figure. Everything was exactly the same. She had a serene countenance, and she was surrounded by dragons. Once, you were taught that they represented the strength of Seiros and the four saints, but they had so many details, they looked real.
“And that’s not the only thing!” Sylvain added before you could finish examining it. He passed you another book. “This one is Linhardt’s, but he lent it to me indefinitely. He knows a lot about Saint Cethleann, he’s investigating her figure and plans to do a PhD.”
“What am I looking for?”, you asked, tracing the index with your finger.
“Look at the pictures first. There are a couple of engravings and drawings. Just look at any.”
You did as he told you. A chill ran down your spine. 
“This is Flayn,” you babbled, totally astonished. “But, like, it’s clearly Flayn.”
“Yes!” Sylvain was thrilled.
“They have the same face,” you repeated. You looked at the bottom of the page, where a footnote was written, and read it out loud. “‘Saint Cethleann was said to possess a kind heart and devoted her life to helping others in need. That’s why she developed an interest in medicine, and she is the patron saint of those who practice the art of healing. She healed countless wounded in her life, sparking the faith in those who met her.’ Is this real?” He nodded, an amused expression decorating his face. He seemed entertained by your reaction. “It looks like a set up.”
“It’s weird that all the pieces fit together as we go, right?”, Sylvain agreed.  
“If everything is so evident, why hasn’t anyone found out anything yet?”, you exclaimed exasperated.
“We’ve gone over that before,” he sat next to you on the bed. He crossed one of his legs and was careful not to touch you with any part of his body. After all, you were not the only one self-conscious about this meeting. He had been feeling vulnerable ever since he went all in with you – it was easy to recognise.
You wanted to tell him that it was okay to have physical contact and get close to you. And that you had similar feelings for him. But neither of you had said anything after his speech, and your conversations hadn’t got that way any other time. And now it seemed that you had lost your opportunity to give him an answer; it seemed forgotten and entombed.
“Yeah, yeah. Everyone has bigger problems. Except us, apparently”, you said ironically.
“I have plenty of problems”, he said with fake seriousness.
“Oh?”, you mocked him. “I’ve never noticed.”
“One of them is no one takes me seriously”, he smirked. You felt a pang of guilt on your stomach and averted your gaze towards the book. It was shameful to admit, but you had done it several times in the past. You didn’t know he resented it.
“I wanted to try something,” Sylvain said out loud, demanding your attention. He looked flushed, but you dismissed the thought.
That’s when you remembered his cryptic messages earlier.
Sylvain (13:25): I might have come up with a thing that can be useful 😊.
Sylvain (13:25): Come home whenever you want, I’ll be here.
He hadn’t texted you as regularly as he did during the previous days, thus when his icon popped up on the screen of your phone, your heart fluttered in your chest. Should you go right away? Should you wait? There were things unsaid between you, but you had been dying to spend time with your favourite redhead. You convinced yourself that curiosity was playing a big part in your decision, and not your own emotions, so immediately answered affirmatively to his proposition.
“Yes, you mentioned that before.” You looked at him in the eye. He was blushing, you had no doubts now. And it seemed that he was out of character, because who would have thought Sylvain would be ashamed at all flirting? “What’s wrong?”
“You might not like my methods,” he shrugged.
“Sylvain!” you sighed, annoyed. “We’re way past your mysterious phase! Just tell me!”
“No need to get mad, darling,” he laughed. Then, Sylvain coughed and recomposed himself. “I thought that maybe we could trigger memories so we can investigate them. Find a common pattern.”
“Okay.”
“What was the last thing you dreamt?” He inquired carefully. Sylvain knew that some dreams were… Unfavorable.
“That horrible nightmare where I bury an axe in your chest”, you said. It made you want to cry, just the mere mention of it. Such a brutal act, why would it have happened?
“Ah, yes. That one”, he made a disgusted gesture. “You could’ve picked a nicer one.”
“How are we going to trigger the memories?”, you questioned him.
“By touching,” Sylvain answered. You raised your eyebrows. “W-Wait, not in that way!”, he stuttered while waving his arms around, as if to clear the atmosphere. Hewas trying his best to correct his accidental innuendo. “We can hold our hands, or just bump our shoulders together? We don’t have to, of course, but–”
“Sylvain, relax. I don’t mind”, you took his hand in yours to downplay the issue. That warmth that had become familiar spread throughout your skin. “Besides, it’s a good idea. It’s worked before.”
“But it’s not working now,” Sylvain complained.
“What did you think that was going to happen? Fireworks and a narrated episode of the battle of Garreg Mach?” You mocked, while he simply smirked.
The situation made your heart fly. The light outside was fading, dying the room of orange and gold. Everything surrounding you belonged to Sylvain, and you were on his bed, holding his hand in yours. It was special. A great fluttery feeling was forming in your stomach, one that made you light in the head and giggly. You shifted your body around awkwardly, without changing your position, and his grip tightened.
You noticed the muscles in his arm flexing, and his palm becoming sweaty.
“It’s not working…”, Sylvain lamented again.
“Close your eyes. Let’s focus on that memory together,” you instructed, half hoping it would work, half hoping it would prevent him from releasing your hand.
You let your eyes close. Every sensation became sharper. His touch, his presence, his smell. Everything had a distinct scent, the detergent of his clothes, his cologne, his books. - ‘Put yourself together!’ you scolded yourself and tried to envision your memory instead of focusing on Sylvain.
The large field of Gronder; the confusion of bodies, some dead, some alive; the  fresh blood; Sylvain’s horrid expression.
And, as if it was magic, it worked. You could vividly see it. The world surrounding you disappeared, and you were immersed in that moment lost in time.
The heat was suffocating, and so was the odour of burnt bodies and death. The podium where the archers had been trying to knock down the wyverns and pegasi had suddenly burned when the infantry had reached it. Many had died from all three parties: Dimitri’s, Edelgard’s and Claude’s. The flames were consuming everything on your left. Your arms stung out of tiredness, for you couldn’t even remember how long you had been there, fighting enemies.
Suddenly, you saw Sylvain. His horse was nowhere to be seen, and it saddened you. It was probably dead, too. A bad omen. You thought of the times he had insisted you rode with him, and the few times you accepted. Or when he stayed overtime to take care of the mount. You shook your head: he was now your enemy, and you had to kill him. Tears filled your eyes, and you voiced all the curses you could think of. How had everything turned into this? Where did it go wrong?
Sylvain was not aware that you were there. You traced his direction with your eyes. Was he escaping the fire? You hoped he was fleeing, but you knew him like the back of your hand. He had sworn loyalty to Dimitri and he wouldn’t leave him behind. Never. You looked far beyond.
When the realisation hit you, you started running.
He was heading towards Claude, who wasn’t riding his wyvern. Instead, he was supporting the infantry on the right flank with a sword and his bow. It was being effective in providing a much needed morale boost, but it wasn’t his brightest move. Damn him for not knowing how to keep himself safe.
Your gaze fell upon Byleth, who in this world had long hair, cuter clothes and was Jeralt’s daughter instead of his son. She had advanced more, leading the knights fighting the Adrestian forces, so she wasn’t going to save Claude, as she always did. Not this time, when she was risking her neck. You panicked, thinking about what disaster would happen if the heir to the Alliance, the only nation fighting actively against the Adrestian invasion, fell in battle.
You were almost there, axe in hand.
“Claude!”, you shouted. The Golden Deer leader realised Sylvain was about to stab him in the back, but dodged the hit just in time. Claude rolled on his side, while Sylvain’s lance got stuck in the ground.
You took advantage of this chance, arriving just a few seconds later, and with a swing of your weapon you broke the handle of his weapon in two. Moving with the momentum, your propelled the edge of the axe to Sylvain’s body. You contained your breath, wishing he would move away, that he’d escape. That you’d see him alive in the next battle, even if it meant going through another hell. Maybe you’d both survive, overcome your differences. But he didn’t move away. He stayed in place.
A lost arrow pierced your thigh. Even if you didn’t feel it at all thanks to the adrenaline pumping through your blood, it made you face reality.
Sylvain, disarmed, was on the other side of your weapon. You let go of the handle. It had cracked his armour, and his hot blood was flowing down. Sylvain fell to his knees, his face completely white.
“I’m sorry, Sylvain...” you said, as you fell backwards, unable to use your right leg due to the deep wound. He smiled but stayed completely still. Life was slowly escaping his body. You threw up on your side.
“Ignatz! Cover me!”, you heard Claude shouting. It seemed distant, while in reality he was too close. He was shouting your name, too, but your gaze was fixed on Sylvain. You couldn’t speak or move. Claude lifted you and placed you in his arms, carrying you somewhere safe. Sylvain was still alive, yet immobile. You couldn’t help thinking about him. Why was no one helping him? Is he going to die alone on the battlefield? Claude’s voice, assuring you that you were going to be alright, started to fade and his face was getting blurry…
 “Are you okay!?” Sylvain was shaking your shoulder. You were laid down on his bed and he was above you.
“Yes”, you answered, eyes open wide. You got up, and you returned to the position you had been in before on Sylvain’s bed. “What happened?”
“You’ve been gone for 5 minutes. As in, eyes opened, not responding to anything. I was about to call an ambulance.” Sylvain inspected you closely, quite worried. You could sense his breath on your skin.
“I’m fine”, you whispered, still a bit disoriented and dizzy.
“Are you sure?”
You nodded.
“Sylvain,” you called his name, his hand still on your shoulder. “What happened after you killed me? Did you see that?” Why did you want to know?
“Ah, yes. Ferdinand killed me afterwards”, he groaned. “He was avenging your death…”
“Typical of him. I’ll make sure to thank him, though. It was very thoughtful,” you joked. “What about Claude? And Dimitri?”
“They were dead too. Fallen in combat,” he said with an unsure voice. “Edelgard was the one reigning after that, or so I’ve thought. It makes sense.”
“I recall professor Byleth there, behind me. He was fighting side by side with Edelgard. They must have won.” You agreed with a gesture. “What about when we married? Was Byleth there?”
“Yes. Next to Dimitri. I think they got married too. That time, the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus got the victory.” He crossed his arms, but his leg was touching yours. “What are you implying?”
“I killed you to protect Claude”, you started. The redhead knitted his brows.
“We already know that,” Sylvain commented, annoyed.
“Why are you so irritated?” You got confused why he was hasty upon mentioning Claude, until a certain thought crossed your mind. 
“No reason, just that the last thing I got to see was you in the arms of Claude.” He sighed. A smile found its way on your lips, an eyebrow raising.
“Are you jealous?” You teased him.
“Then, you got together with Claude after that. He commented something once about it,” Sylvain continued, ignoring your question. “Okay, keep going. What are you trying to say?”
“The war is between the three countries of the continent of Fódlan. And the respective leaders of each are, coincidentally, the leaders of each House at Garreg Mach – former monastery, currently a high school.” He nodded, prompting you to carry on. “When I killed you, Claude was the winner. The other countries fell and the Alliance took over. And Byleth was at his side. The same happened with Edelgard and Dimitri respectively, right? So that might indicate that Byleth is the deciding piece of the board. Depending on what side he-”, you remembered how Byleth had different appearances, “-He, she, or they pick, the events change and makes their side win the war and, ultimately, take control of Fódlan.”
“And how did that occur to you?”, he looked concerned. “It’s plausible. I’m not questioning you, but it’s quite twisted.”
“Because they are the only thing that actually changes in the war. Everything seems the same until Byleth arrives.”
“Well, you changed from Houses all the time,” Sylvain pointed out.
“Every time, to join Byleth’s class. Don’t you see it?” You tried to convince him.
“It seems logical to think that Byleth has something to do with it but we can’t be sure…”
“It’s a hunch, Sylvain,” you explained. “I’m sure we have to talk to Byleth. We will find something. This time, when I saw Byleth fighting, something clicked.”
Sylvain hugged you without a warning. He buried his head on the crook of your neck and enclosed you in his arms. Your hands rested against his chest, you trapped and unable to make a single move. The warmth surrounding you felt so warm, so comforting. Everything was going to be okay, Sylvain was there, and he won’t be gone this time.
“I’m scared that this will lead to a dead-end street. But… at last we’ve found a clue. I’ve been waiting for this forever…” He said with a strained tone. Sylvain’s voice was quiet. He didn’t want to let you go.
“It’s thanks to all your work, Sylvain. Everything you wrote was very useful…” You smiled, leaning into his embrace, almost melting. “You had noticed too Byleth was an important factor–”
“I’m just really happy you’re here with me. That you haven’t chosen Claude or Edelgard over me this time.” He chuckled, trying to shoo away the remainders of sadness. “Not gonna lie here, I’m extremely happy you didn’t choose Claude. That bastard.”
“Hey,” you reprimanded him. “Claude is nice. It’s not his fault we’re in this mess.”
“Well, he took you away from me once”, Sylvain said as he hugged you closer. “Have I told you that you married him?”
“What did you want me to do? You were dead!” You chuckled. It was weird to talk so lightly about it, but Sylvain became more comfortable the less relevant it felt. “This feels nice…”, you muttered, turning your face to kiss the top of his head. His red hair was soft, and it smelt of citrus. “So now we’re on hugging terms?”
“Yes”, Sylvain affirmed. “I might never let you go now that we crossed that line.”
“I wouldn’t mind…”
But a loud gasp resounded behind you. The tender moment that you wished would last forever was suddenly replaced with surprise.
“I’m so sorry Sylvain!” A voice shouted, someone that you identified as Dimitri. He closed the door with a slam.
Sylvain moved away, averting his eyes. His cheeks were blushing, and your own were warm too.
“I’m going to explain to Dimitri that we weren’t doing anything weird, okay?”, he scratched his head, again, and you recognised it as a gesture he made when he felt awkward. Little by little, you had been learning his non-verbal language. “I don’t want him traumatized for all his life.” You giggled.
“Does it make you nervous that Dimitri thinks we’re banging? He only saw us hugging,” You questioned daringly.
“Shut up”, he flashed his handsome smile. Flirting was an art he had mastered, and he felt confident with it. “And say that you’re staying for dinner, instead.”
“Not if you’re cooking instant noodles, Sylvain”, you narrowed your eyes. “That’s not a real dinner. You won’t trick me – I’ve seen all the packages in the cupboards.”
“First, we’re in college, and everything’s valid.” He stood up with a flourish. “Second, Dimitri had gone to the supermarket, so he’s the one cooking. It relaxes him.”
“Okay, he cooks real food. I’m staying then.”
“Perfect.” Sylvain winked, as he ran out of the room. His voice could be heard all over the apartment, and Dimitri was still stuttering. You smiled to yourself and took out your phone and opened the app to write an email.
[From: YOU - To: [email protected]]
Dear Professor Eisner,
I hope everything is fine.
Sylvain Jose Gautier and I are having a few questions regarding the bibliography of our project. We’d like to meet you next week to settle the matter and discuss some work.
Thank you very much.
“I’ve never skipped classes legally before”, commented Sylvain casually.
You two were navigating the corridors of the building where teachers had their offices. Everything was dull and generic, except for the occasional cabinets that displayed trophies and nameplates that students and professors had earned long ago.
“That’s why you were in detention all the time”, you reminded him.
“It was intentional. I wanted to strengthen my relationship with Seteth”, he said, laughing. You had to give in and laugh too, not only because he was actually funny, but because his humour was contagious. You couldn’t help but mirror it.
You eyed him from head to toe. Your companion was wearing a pair of black jeans and a white t-shirt. He had a dark-grey, almost black blazer with rolled up sleeves on due to the chilliness in the air. His attire rang a bell.
“Why are you dressing like we did in the Monastery?” You wondered out loud to him.
“Because I’m pretty hot in black and white”, Sylvain chuckled in delight with a deep and sexy tone. He was right. You could outline with a glance his body, which was pretty well built. Of course, you did everything you could to deny it, so you put on your best deadpan face. “Okay, okay. I think it might make Byleth nervous.”
“Now that’s a joke,” you remarked. “Byleth barely showed any emotion during a war. Do you think it takes so little to irk him?”
“You might be right,” he conceded.
“Here!” You grabbed Sylvain’s sleeve, bringing him back after he walked past the correct door.
“The nameplate says Dr. Gloucester. Do you need your eyes checked?” Sylvain emphasized.
“Dr. Gloucester retired, and they gave his office to Byleth. He told us the first day! What were you doing?”
“Okay, okay,” he rolled his light brown eyes. “You knock.”
“What are you? Five?” You said while hitting the door with your knuckles.
“Come in,” Byleth’s voice came from the interior of the office.
You opened the door to see your professor encircled by lots of papers. No one can escape bureaucracy.
You stopped in the middle of the room. Right then, you felt an extraordinary sense of existence. As if all the years that had passed before your adventures with Sylvain were but a mere dream and your consciousness had come back to you a few weeks ago. You were sure that Byleth’s presence was having its own influence on you, now that you had regained a good number of your forgotten memories. There was a strange energy in the atmosphere.
Now that you considered it, this was just like that sweet time you spent at Garreg Mach Monastery. Wandering around to avoid boredom with Sylvain and finding much more than just entertainment, following Byleth around to ask all kinds of questions, spending the big seasonal events with your friends… That was what happiness looked like to you.
“You can take a seat,” Byleth said.
“Ah, yes, thank you.” You muttered. Sylvain was next to you in those uncomfortable iron chairs your university loved buying.
“What can I help you with?” He asked, ever so willing to help, yet enigmatic.
“Ah, we have a basic bibliography for the Crescent Moon War, but we’re lacking a few good articles in Loog’s biography”, Sylvain started, replaying the topics you had agreed on. “We don’t know if the authors are reliable.”
“I can take a look at those names”, Byleth smiled. “And I have a few books you could use.”
“That’d be great!”, you cheered with a fake façade. You had to admit, it was quite fun to play spies.
“They’re on that bookcase”, your professor pointed at the one right on your side. You stood up and started looking around.
“I had a question on Klaus I, that king of Faerghus, as well. What was the role he played in…”, Sylvain asked, so serious and well versed in the matter.
You disconnected from the conversation, turning to read the titles on the wall. You took a thick, blue book filled with dust, pretending it caught your interest. Then another black volume, with leather covers and golden letters. You kept investigating, about the Almyran invasion; the formation of the Academy of Garreg Mach, the base of your own high school; history of the Adrestian Empire… Nothing past the year 1000. It was quite suspicious.
You turned around, and Byleth was drawing a diagram for a focused Sylvain, who was all nods and questions. They couldn’t see you anymore, or at least it seemed so. Out of the corner of your eye, on the closest end of the professor’s large mahogany desk, you saw a bunch of letters. Discreetly, you looked up the sender. Curly letters with the address of Rhea were written there, right from the Cathedral.
You made sure Byleth’s vision was blocked by a stack of folders. With decision and a steady hand, you took the most recent one and hid it under your clothes. Desperate situations call for desperate measures, right? Besides, it wasn’t exactly stealing, and you had already made an excuse. ‘It got misplaced when I took the books you lent me, professor,’ you heard yourself say in your head. 
“Is there anything else you need?” Byleth said, when his discussion with Sylvain was done. He clearly intended for you to leave, as it was getting late.
“No, we were going away now,” Sylvain confirmed, walking towards the door. You followed him. Yet you grew bold.
“Can I ask just one more thing?” You said to the professor right before exiting.
“Of course.” The man with the dark blue hair.
“I can’t seem to find how the Crescent Moon War influenced the later war of 1180,” you stated.
Byleth remained silent for a moment. His jaw tensed. Your heart pounded. Did you catch him?
“That’s because there wasn’t any war that year,” Byleth responded. His demeanour was calm and serious as ever. Had he been practicing?
“Oh, really?” You tried to sound candid, feigning surprise. “I’m really bad with dates! That must be it!”
“You might have confused a couple of battles with a war. The battle took place around that year, but there wasn’t any declaration of war made” Byleth declared with a tense smile.
“Sorry for the trouble!” You exclaimed at last, urging Sylvain to go out with your elbow.
You closed the door behind you, and walked fast to distance yourself from any of the offices.
“What was that?” Sylvain was shocked.
“Wait until we get out of here,” You begged.
 Once you were on the common grounds of the student buildings, you stopped Sylvain. There was nobody around, as they were still in class. The ginger plopped himself on a bench.
“That was a good shot, but you were right”, he shrugged. “Byleth’s cold blood won’t make it easy. You were right, he’s special, I could feel a kind of connection… But we got nothing out of this…”
“I might have something”, you looked at him intently.
“On the books he gave you?”, he tilted his head. “Because I have revised all the library and –”
You took the opened letter out of your blouse. The silver details shone under the light.
“What the hell!”, Sylvain shouted. You shushed him, making desperate gestures with your arms to keep him from attracting any attention. You were paranoid, even though you were alone. Instead of any logical reaction, he had a fit of laughter.
“What?” You asked, irked.
“I thought you were physically incapable of anything remotely wrong in a moral sense!” He kept laughing, despite your attempts to quiet him down. “Why did you take it? Another hunch?”
“If you don’t get caught, you don’t get punished”, you said in a sarcastic tone.
“I knew it! You’re just as bad as me!” Sylvain was delighted.
“I might be,” You admitted because, well, he was right. Stealing the mail was a serious crime. But you took a small comfort in the pride and surprise Sylvain made you feel. You were no longer your dull, old self, that went on with the flow of events. No, you had a goal – multiple goals, in fact – and you were going to be an active participant in your life.
In that moment you wanted to kiss Sylvain again. But you had other priorities.
 “Are we going to read this or not?” You dared him.
“Don’t ask me twice.”
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kissjane · 3 years
Text
ANIMAL COMPANY / (Not so) Short fic
#13 from this prompt list
Guys! That’s it! This is the last one from the list! I did it! The file for these is 64.5k words, and I did them all in two months. It was super fun, but not gonna lie, I’m glad to be done with it. And as promised to a certain evil mastermind, “Mouse AU” is the last one posted. 
Both going to grab the same thing and touching hands, then making eye contact
For all Lucas’ lamenting about wanting to live alone, so he could walk around naked, eat pizza at every hour of the day, and never have to listen to any of his roommates get it on ever again, now that he actually was living out that long-desired dream, he was… lonely, for lack of a better word.
When he had realized he was talking to himself, and replying, he had figured he needed something alive to keep him company.
And so he had decided to go to the pet store, to see if he could actually commit to the immense job of keeping an innocent animal happy, healthy and alive.
It was, however, not an easy task. He’d had a staring contest with a black-and-white cat, and he’d been playing for a while with a cute Pomeranian, but he hadn’t fallen in love. The birds had been entertaining for a while, and he actually felt a connection with this yellow puff that kept flying into the cage and seemed to love taking baths and ruffling its feathers, but when the store clerk had started explaining about shells to sharpen their claws and different grain mixes and fake eggs for the bird to breed on, he’d given up.
The fish were pretty, but boring, and the tortoises had a temper. Lucas didn’t feel like sharing his flat with a snappy, mean animal – he was perfectly fine filling out that slot all by himself, thank you.
He had tried to find the walking sticks between the non-walking ones, and given up after a few minutes. The ant farm reminded him too much of a middle school science project. A chicken sounded good in theory – a fresh egg daily was a big boon – but the idea of a chicken in a flat was preposterous. And while he was all for recycling and taking care of the environment, a worm composting station just sounded dirty.
So he was getting a bit desperate, wandering further down the aisles. He turned a corner, and suddenly found himself in front of a cage with one single white mouse in it.
The animal was sitting up on its haunches, looking at Lucas, its whiskers trembling as it sniffed. It looked kinda cute, and Lucas wanted to pet it, to see if maybe he could take this tiny thing home. He opened the cage and reached out for the tiny animal, when suddenly a large hand, with silver rings on multiple fingers, carefully grabbed the mouse right before Lucas could.
“Hey!”, Lucas protested without thinking, turning towards the intruder. “I was going to pet him!”
“Well, I guess…”, a male voice replied, and the hand was extended towards Lucas, not letting go of the mouse.
Lucas gingerly extended a finger towards the animal’s fur, and touched it, trying hard to stroke the frightened little thing, who was now squeaking loudly. However, the hand of the guy was kinda in the way, and so Lucas looked up, and – promptly forgot all about the mouse.
The hand with all the silver rings appeared to belong to some sort of ethereal creature right out of Lucas’ gayest fantasies.
“So did you pet him enough?”, the god in front of him said, but Lucas suddenly had difficulty understanding French.
“Huh?”, he croaked out, undignified, sounding rather like the frogs he had given wide berth earlier.
The guy laughed, and fuck, if it wasn’t like the sun broke through the clouds and lit up the whole store.
“Did that satisfy your urge to pet him? I mean, I don’t mind if you want to do it again, but I promised Brian a mouse soon, so, yeah…”
His voice died off apologetically, and Lucas swallowed back a lump.
It was stupid, really, to get disappointed. Men like this weren’t put on earth for Lucas, as much as he might wish it to be otherwise. Of course this guy had better things to do than stand in a pet store with a mouse in his goddamn sexy hands, being drooled over by a total stranger.
“Oh! Oh, uh, yeah,” he said, praying his cheeks weren’t as red as they felt. “Sorry, uh, yeah, sure. Wouldn’t want to keep Brian waiting.” He chuckled in embarrassment.
The guy nodded emphatically.
“Yeah, my baby boy gets a bit impatient sometimes, so…”
Oh. Lucas hadn’t given too much thought as to who or what Brian might be, but it made sense. He pictured a cute toddler with the same messy hair and grey eyes as his dad – fucking adorable, there was no other word for it, waiting anxiously for its new pet. His vivid imagination played the scene out with full-colour detail – a spacious flat somewhere in Paris, a pretty wife holding on to Brian, the guy stepping through the door with the mouse in a small cage, Brian escaping his mom’s hold and hugging his dad’s legs, jumping up and down in excitement.
He had to swallow down another lump.
“Oh, yeah, I understand,” he said, while stepping aside so the guy could pass him on his way to the register. “Does he like mice, your son?”
“They’re his favourite,” the guy said, putting the mouse in a small box and moving past Lucas. “And it’s been two weeks, so you can imagine he’s pretty hungry. Have a nice day!”
Wait. What? The scene in front of Lucas’ eyes changed screeched to a halt, and then picked up again, this time with a creepy toddler biting into the mouse, blood smeared around the corners of his mouth, while the pretty mom wiped the back of her hand around her own lips, stained red, as the guy looked on proudly.
“He’s gonna… eat… that mouse?”, Lucas squealed in horror. The guy, who had almost turned the corner, slowed down and looked over his shoulder at Lucas.
“What else would he do with it?”
Lucas’ mouth fell open. He pinched himself, convinced he somehow entered a fucked-up horror dream, but he flinched at the pinch, so he must be awake.
“What… fucking parent lets his kid eat mice?”
The guy stared at him for a long beat, and then suddenly, that sunshine smile broke through again. He stepped closer to Lucas, who recoiled in disgust.
“Oh, I’m so sorry!”, the guy said as Lucas kept backing away from him. “I guess I did call him my baby, didn’t I? Brian is not my son, though, he’s my pet snake!”
Lucas’ head spun.
“First of all,” he spluttered, “who the fuck calls his snake Brian? What kind of a name is that?”
The guy shrugged.
“It suits him. If you saw him, you’d know.”
Lucas shivered visibly.
“Oh, come on,” the other man said. “Don’t tell me you don’t like snakes. Brian is cute, I swear.”
Lucas wasn’t convinced.
“If you say so… But anyway, more importantly, you can’t just let that tiny mouse be eaten by a snake! Look at him!”
The guy did look at the mouse, and then back at Lucas.
“But Brian needs to eat.”
“But I wanted to buy that mouse! I wanted a pet!”
It was a lie, because Lucas had in no way committed to the wretched thing, but he couldn’t just let it be taken to an early, gruesome death.
“Ah.”
The guy seemed to understand the issue, as he looked from Lucas to the mouse with his piercing eyes, biting his bottom lip. Dammit, Lucas really couldn’t look too closely at that, because he felt his resolve weaken. He might just agree to be fed to Brian himself, if only to keep the guy’s eyes on him.
“What if I helped you find another pet?”
Fuck. Suddenly Lucas didn’t give a damn about the fate of the poor little mouse – it seemed to look at him with hurtful eyes now, upset at Lucas’ betrayal – if the alternative was staying close to this guy while they wandered through the pet store together, discussing the pros and cons of each animal.
“Uh… well, I would have to warn you. That mouse was kinda my last hope.”
“I will take the risk. For Brian.”
Lucas dithered for only a few seconds, in which the mouse didn’t deign him worthy of another look, before he caved.
“I guess.”
“Okay, let’s go then! I’m Eliott, by the way. Brian’s dad.”
He laughed, and the sound of it made a shiver roll deliciously slow over Lucas’ spine. He managed to keep himself mostly in check though, rolling his eyes as he extended a hand.
“Lucas.”
And they set forth on another tour of the aisles, Eliott trying to emphasize all the advantages of the creatures they came across, and Lucas nixing them all with a sad shake of his head. Eliott had to agree with lots of Lucas’ arguments – spiders were too creepy to keep willingly in the house, hamsters were smelly, and chameleons sounded cool, but all they did was lounge around under a heat lamp.
So when they found themselves back where they started out, they both looked at the small box in Eliott’s hand.
“I mean, maybe Brian could wait another day to eat… He did seem very hungry but I’m reasonably sure it wouldn’t kill him…”
Eliott looked at Lucas with a pout and honest-to-God puppy dog eyes, and Lucas couldn’t help but laugh.
“I guess I can survive without a pet, too… It might be a close call, though.”
“Yeah,” Eliott nodded, suddenly serious. “Not a risk I’d be willing to take, though.”
Lucas’ breath hitched. Eliott was watching him intently, and Lucas was pretty sure this time he wasn’t succeeding at keeping the blush off his cheeks.
Suddenly though, Eliott jumped.
“Oh, Lucas! I know! I know exactly what you need!”
He grabbed Lucas’ hand, and for a dizzying second, Lucas was too distracted by the contact to move. But Eliott tugged, and Lucas had no choice to follow him, and before he knew it, Eliott was showing him an enclosure with a grand flourishing gesture.
“What’s that?”
Lucas peered in, and then –
“A rabbit! It’s perfect, Lucas!”
Inside the cage was a tiny grey rabbit with floppy ears, and Lucas felt his heart melt.
“Oooh, you’re cute! Look, Eliott, he’s so fucking cute!”
“He is,” Eliott said, his voice low, and Lucas looked over his shoulder to see if anything was wrong, but Eliott just smiled, his eyes sparkling.
“What do you think, then? Worthy alternative for a mouse?”
Lucas pondered for a minute.
“Yeah. Come on, help me flag down an attendant so I can take him home.”
Together, they listened to a tired-looking clerk enumerating the important points in rabbit care, and loading their arms with the necessary equipment and food before finally taking them to the register where Eliott paid for his mouse and Lucas for the rabbit and all its accessories.
“So,” Eliott said, as they stepped outside. “What are you going to name him?”
“I don’t know yet,” Lucas truthfully replied, looking at the ball of grey fur. “But it’ll be better than Brian, I know that. I’m a way better pet dad than you.”
Eliott laughed brightly.
“I feel like I’m kinda his dad, too. I mean, I helped pick out his house and his toys and everything.”
Lucas was inclined to agree, but sadly, this was as far as things were going to go. Eliott would go home and feed Brian the mouse, and Lucas would pour all his affection into his new roomie.
“Maybe, uh…”
Eliott hesitated.
“What?”, Lucas asked curiously.
“Maybe I could come visit him sometime? And you, too, obviously.”
Lucas whipped his head up in surprise.
“And, you could come see Brian, too, I mean, if you wanted…”
Lucas smiled widely.
“Is this your way of asking my number?”
Eliott mirrored Lucas’ smile.
“Yeah. After all, don’t you think our pets would be better off with two dads?”
And as he punched in his number into Eliott’s phone, Lucas’ imagination got kickstarted again, showing him vividly another flat somewhere in Paris, with a rabbit enclosure next to a glass aquarium in which Brian was leisurely devouring a mouse, and two boys cuddled up in front of them, kissing each other. It beat living alone, for sure. 
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