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eddo-tensei · 1 year

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More thoughts on Derision (Spoilers, obviously)

I think it's amusing that the default counter-argument to anyone who criticizes this episode boils down to "Well, you're just a Chloe Stan!" Which is something I had to deal with myself recently. Apparently, you can only hate this episode if you're a Chloe apologist. First off, hi, I'm Eddo. I wrote a fanfic where Chloe literally gets thrown into the dirt and suffer an allergic reaction to cacti, both times being her own fault. I feel like my Chloe Stan license should be revoked after that.

Anyways, I'm not surprised with the direction they went with Chloe in Derision. It's been stated since around Season 4 that Chloe was on a "Damnation Arc", so they've been doing everything they can to make her worse and worse. So, I'm not surprised or even angry that they continued this here. I'm annoyed, but not angry. What I AM angry about would be the other characters who got mangled in this shitshow.

Writers? Could you please stop having Chat threaten people with Cataclysm after he's shown regret doing it to people by accident TWICE?! This has happened three times now, counting what happened with Scarabella. Yes, I know he did this before with Darker Owl, but that just makes it worse because that happened right AFTER he regretted doing this to Monarch. You know, the guy who's been tormenting and attacking everyone for over a year? I guess to Chat, Damocles and Kim deserve it more for ripping away a fantasy and pulling a shitty prank respectively.

I know I complained about this a lot already, but this needs to be stressed upon. If we're going to take Cataclysm seriously, especially with what later episodes showed us, maybe DON'T have your hero threaten people with it for relatively petty reasons? "BUT IT'S FOR TRUE LOVE!!!1!!" Yeah, no. When he tried to do it on Darker Owl, Ladybug told him to cut that crap. It then happened again with Dark Humor with Ladybug telling him not to do it. It doesn't matter if it's for "true love." Both times he did this so far, Ladybug made it clear that this was a bad idea. So, maybe you guys should stop trying to encourage it. I refuse to believe that Chat believes that Monarch is more deserving to live after everything that he did than Kim after what he did. Speaking of Kim...

My friendly neighborhood dumb jock, why would the writers do this to you? When we only had the leaks to go by, I actually tried to scour for any interactions Kim had with Marinette and I can confirm that with the revelations we got in Derision, they REALLY don't make sense. Yes, Kim was a bit of a douche in the first season. Origins had him push Ivan around to the point of being the trigger for the Akuma. But he wasn't THIS much of a douchenozzle. Moreover, I have a hard time believing Marinette would be as friendly as she is with Kim throughout the series given what he did to her as revealed in this episode. Also, I know this is going to sound offensive, but...Kim was Marinette's first crush? Really? That's what you're going with? I'm not trying to insult Kim, but there was NOTHING that hinted to this. I can't help but think this was the thought process of the writers when they brought this up:

"So, we need to have Chloe do something to Marinette that would explain why Marinette struggles to be with Adrien. It has to be something big and traumatic. More importantly, it has to involve Marinette actually having a past crush that Chloe ruined and it has to be a character we're familiar with, so we can't make up an OC for it. We can't use Nino because he had a crush on her and it wouldn't make sense for her to reciprocate. We can't use Nathaniel because his crush went almost completely unnoticed by Marinette and he's also gay now. We can't use Ivan because he likes Mylene and we can't complicate that. We can't use Max because most people think he's ace and subverting that would piss a ton of people off. Oh, and we can't have it be any of the girls either because our show would get cancelled if Marinette isn't straight. So, let's just make it this guy."

"This. Fucking. Guy."

I'm having a hard time thinking of any other reason. I know some people theorized in the past that Kim and Marinette might've had a thing, but I don't think they held any water. Even now, however, I really don't think people should be happy it was canonized in this way.

I always held the belief that Chloe was responsible for Marinette's behavior, but my idea of it was that Chloe had been bullying Marinette for a long time and those years of sustained bullying took its toll on the poor baker girl that made it difficult for her to not only open her heart to people she loves, but have difficulties making friends in general until Alya came along. Yeah, Chloe doesn't look good in this case either, but it would've been more reasonable and would probably resonate with a lot more people who probably had to deal with bullies messing with them for a long time because these effects usually aren't instant. They get built on for a long time and it can really mess up their perception on things.

I think a good story would've been Marinette having to heal from that sustained trauma and while it is difficult since nobody can just quickly heal from trauma, it'd be a good journey for Marinette to be able to open up again with Alya and Adrien being just the first two pieces Marinette needs for her recovery.

But now, instead of all that, it turns out Chloe just pulled a prank that just unleashed a cavalcade of trauma on Marinette all at once that is hyper-specific to how she handles her crush that Adrien and ONLY Adrien can heal. All the while, it turns out that the prank was actually pulled by a guy who I really thought was just kinda fun and cool, but now I can't talk about him in the same way again because he's been thrown under the bus for the sake of this nonsense plot that's difficult not to call a full-on retcon. Do you know what I can call a retcon, though? Or rather who?

I am sorry to all of the people who are probably stanning Socqueline right now, but I CAN'T vibe with her. I'm not saying you're not allowed to like her either, because that would be dumb, but I DON'T like how she was presented in Derision. First off, to get this out of the way, we're no strangers to characters being introduced out of nowhere. Felix and Zoe are both characters that come to mind. The thing is you can at least explain their respective absences easily. Felix had likely been distant from Adrien for a long time with him only coming in out of obligation with Amelie. Zoe is actually even more easy to explain given that she was shoved into a boarding school by Audrey and wouldn't really be able to connect with any of the characters until she was forced to transfer. Socqueline, however, does not have that luxury and cannot be easily explained away not only with how we found her, but for the fact that there was NO hint to her existing until Season 5 and that is inexcusable given how much importance this character now has. To put it in perspective, this is how we are introduced to Socqueline in Jubilation:

Marinette: That fake Ladybug from this morning, I think it was Socqueline, a school friend from last year. Knowing her, I’m sure she means well. But I have to convince her to stop putting herself in danger like that.

That's it. She just calls her a school friend. Yes, it's clear that she's at least important enough for Marinette to remember her name, she was just called a school friend. At the very least, she did have an interesting story with her trying to be Ladybug in order to help people. Of course, she had to be talked out of it because it's causing issues with the real Ladybug, but it's a decent story and Socqueline had only made a few appearances here and there.

And then Derision.

Yes, Socqueline referred to Chloe as "that monster", so it's clear that they planned her to have something against Chloe since her first appearance. However, Derision showed us that Socqueline wasn't just a school friend. She was Marinette's closest confidant in the school years prior to the start of the series. She actively protects Marinette from bullies, particularly Chloe, and was clearly a huge inspiration for her until Chloe got her suspended from school.

First off, in case I haven't made it clear, we haven't seen Socqueline AT ALL until Season 5. Not even a hint to her existence. So given how significant she was made out to be in Derision, WHY HASN'T SHE MADE ANY APPEARANCES IN THE SERIES BEFOREHAND?! She doesn't even have the excuse of being outside of Paris like Felix and Zoe do because she's STILL there and in an arts and crafts store no less, which probably would've been a great place for Marinette to hang out in with her friends if the writers thought this through. But they didn't and Socqueline's debut comes off as severely jarring because we have this character who was really important to Marinette's life just not show up until she started cosplaying as Ladybug.

Secondly, it muddles Marinette's own backstory as well as severely hampering the significance of Alya. Now instead of being alone with nobody to help her against Chloe, which makes her friendship with Alya all the more stronger, Marinette just had this super cool friend who was always there for her until mean ol' Chloe got her kicked out of school. Doesn't that sound like something you'd see in a fanfic, specifically one that's salting Alya given how Socqueline was depicted as Marinette's BFF?

Thirdly, if Chloe was able to get Socqueline suspended so easily, then why hadn't she been able to do that with the other students? Yeah, she got close with Alya, but that didn't stick. If Chloe really had the ability to just make students disappear even if it happened once, she would NOT hesitate to try and do this again with any other student who slighted her, ESPECIALLY Marinette. But she doesn't. Once her attempt on Alya failed, she didn't try again. Hell, LILA had more attempts to get Marinette kicked out of school than Chloe did and actually got closer to doing it than Chloe would ever get, which is weird since she doesn't have the title of "Mayor's Daughter" to throw around like Chloe would. This just feels like something done to explain away why Socqueline didn't show up in the series which doesn't work because she's STILL IN PARIS and I'm pretty sure Marinette would be more than happy to meet with Socqueline given how close they were, but that never happened.

Fourthly, I'm guessing nobody felt like pointing it out because it felt too obvious, but doesn't Socqueline just come off as the writer's answer to Bridgette? You know, the older Marinette based on the anime PV that some fan writers implement into their own stories? Yeah, she's not one-to-one similar to Marinette like Bridgette is, but it definitely feels like another instance of the writers pulling stuff out of fanon just to put a canon spin on it. And like all the other instances, it's a bad spin.

Lastly, this whole incident with the prank and Socqueline's suspension took place a few months before Origins. Not even a year at the earliest. It was specifically stated that Socqueline was suspended three weeks before the end of the school year. Given how close that time gap, the way everyone behaves in Origins makes almost no sense. Marinette would be a lot more horrified of Chloe if Derision was anything to go by and Chloe would be more willing to try and cast Alya out so Marinette doesn't have any allies given that Derision showed Chloe REALLY wanting to make sure nobody helps Marinette. The only point I could even give any leeway to is Kim and even then, again, he's not that much of a douche in Origins as he was in Derision. So, really, it all just comes off as a blatant retcon specifically to try and explain the new direction the writers are taking with certain characters. And do you want to know the dumbest thing? Apparently, Socqueline was such an inspiration to Marinette that the latter changed her hair to be more like Socqueline's.

No, seriously. That's also how they explain why Marinette has different hairstyles. I know Expository Hairstyle Changes are a thing in fiction, but this is just awkward as hell given how traumatic and melodramatic the whole thing is. You don't need to say that Marinette's hairstyle came from someone who she considered a hero because nothing about Marinette indicated that her hairstyle is important. This isn't like Josuke changing his hairstyle to be based on the man who saved him as a child. It's a purely cosmetic change that's suddenly given a shit-ton of significance because now it's connected to this horribly traumatic incident. In fact, you know what this reminds me of?

Actually, the whole segment where this Linkara clip came from seems to sum up a lot of things wrong with Derision. It's not just bad because it makes some characters look bad or introduces stuff out of nowhere. It's bad because now everything in the flashback is now part of all of the characters! Every prior episode will now have to be viewed with a lens tinted by the events of this episode. Now nobody can discuss Kim without people salting on him for the prank, now nobody can talk about how important Alya's friendship with Marinette because of Socqueline's sudden boost in significance (In fact, it's very likely that Alya salters will try to use Socqueline as a replacement friend), and now nobody can speculate the intrigue of Marinette's past because EVERYTHING about her behavior is linked to this specific incident and nothing else. That's what pisses me off about this episode. That's why I share that Double D meme so frequently. I could care less about how much of a monster Chloe was depicted to be in this episode, but I am going to complain when other characters are butchered in the process. I will complain about one thing concerning her, though.

Isn't it amazing that you can tell the writers are trying DESPERATELY to squish any and all positive interpretations of Chloe, even trying to downplay parental neglect because "this character also didn't have a mom and they didn't turn out this way" even though Mylene's and Chloe's situations are still VASTLY different? You can make the argument that Audrey's absence doesn't excuse Chloe's actions. In fact, I don't think it really does either, but saying that there's only one valid response to an absent parent is EXTREMELY insensitive to people who might be going through similar situations.

Oh, and to cap this all off? This is the favorite episode of one of the main writers. Said writer possibly being considered to be the new director for Season 6 of Miraculous and onwards. I'm not gonna name which one for obvious reasons, but it's been confirmed.

I feel like this is a good indication that you need to hop off this series.

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thefanficmonster · 3 years

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Strictly Professional

Corpse Husband x Reader (Gender Neutral)

Warnings: Swearing

Genre: HUMOR, Fluff, RPF (Real Person Fic)

Summary: A slip of the tongue leads Corpse to make an unexpected confession which leads to him getting lectured by his best friend. That’s all you need to know, the rest shall unfold before your eyes.

Requested by Anon. Hi dear! Thank you so much for your lovely request! I’m so sorry it’s been so long overdue but here it finally is and I really hope you come across it and read it. If so I hope you enjoy it! Love, Vy ❤

I’ve buried my head under my arms, resting it on my desk as my ears are still violated by the hollering coming from my headset. I don’t know what in me snapped out of nowhere or what caused the slip-up, but what matters is that it happened and now I’m in some hot water. I’m practically the soup everyone in this Discord call at the moment will be eating for dinner tonight, getting a real kick at my expense - some even having the audacity to be mad at me over it - ahem, Rae, ahem - but bottom line: I won’t live this down easily.

“Hey everyone! What did I miss?“ Sykkuno, who was running late and missed this entire debacle makes an appearance. If it were any other occasion, I’d be overjoyed to hear he’s finally joining us, but his question of what he had missed renders me only able to cringe and wait for my friends’ next move.

“Sykkuno!“ Rae exclaims ecstatically, “Oh, strap in, imma tell you what you missed...“

“No, you won’t tell him, Rae.“ Toast cuts her off, sounding uncharacteristically serious, especially when taken into account how hard he was laughing just a moment ago, “This is Corpse’s tale to tell, don’t spare him the shame of telling it one more time.“

And just when I thought this fucker would prove himself to be a true friend...

“Oof, this sounds serious...“ Sykkuno says to fill the silence I purposely let linger just so I don’t give these bullies the satisfaction of hearing my embarrassment all over again even though they inevitably will.

“It is...“ I sigh with a heavy heart, hiding my face in the palm of my hand, “It’s really bad and embarrassing and...I’d rather not retell it at all let alone for a second time, but here it goes...“ I inhale as much air as I can as a method of gaining confidence before I start talking, “So you know MGK and I made a song. Yeah well, we’re gonna be making a music video for it and I asked Rae to be in it. Thing is, I wanted to ask Y/N first. Buckle up, this is where it starts going downhill: ok so I went over to their place so we could just chit chat an marathon a few movies like we usually do over the weekends but I also wanted to bring up the whole ‘hey, wanna be in my music video’ thing but didn’t know how. Mind you, we were drinking beers this whole time, might’ve had a few too many actually. Ok, we definitely had a few too many, but back on track: as I was blabbering and stumbling over my words, nervous as all hell and unable to string the simple question inside my head, all Y/N did was tilt their head and smile at me. You know, the odd thing is it was a genuine smile, not a drunken grin like you’d expect from someone on their fourth beer bottle. And then, out of the blue, they had the audacity to hit me with: ‘You’re so cute’ and I just sat there frozen for a few seconds. I mean, my reaction was on point - who wouldn’t react like that if their crush told them they found them cute. Anyway - I was like ‘what?’ and then, out of an even bluer blue, they freaking kissed me. I nearly had a heart attack damn it!“

“And he never asked them to be in the DAYWALKER music video!“ Rae clearly couldn’t hold it in any longer.

“I didn’t get the time! I was out of there in the blink of an eye!“ I bark, feeling my face heating up with embarrassment and regret. God, I should never ask how stupid I can get because I keep surprising myself in the end with just how far my stupidity goes. It’s fucking insane.

“Oh God, poor Y/N.“ Sykkuno sighs, sounding only a tiny bit as though he’s about to laugh. I appreciate his self-control honestly, the rest of these fuckers were dying laughing as though our friends and my crush kissing me and me responding like I had an allergic reaction was the best joke to ever be told.

“Poor Y/N?“ I snap a little, “What about me?“

“Yeah, poor Y/N!“ Rae backs Sykkuno up, “Poor Y/N and poor me for the missed opportunity to me in a music video for a song of one of my best friends with another one of my best friends. Corpse, you better fix this!!“

“How?!“ I’m aware I sound desperate but I seriously wanna fix it just have no idea how to go about it. I mean, if this looney group of nine people over here don’t come up with a plan no one will so not all hope for me is dead just yet. Even if we all had only one braincell we’d still be able to figure it out - I mean, ten braincells ain’t as bad as it sounds. Truth be told, Y/N’s the real brain of the group and they’d most definitely be able to help me - so fuck the irony.

“Call them.“ Sykkuno suggests so casually as though it’s a no-brainer. I’d go as far as to say his nonchalance almost made me laugh. Has he forgotten who he’s talking to?

“No way.“ I turn that down real quick, unable to even imagine the course of that phone call without cringing.

“No, Sykkuno’s right, call them right here right now. Ask them to star in the music video and then swerve the conversation to that kiss.“ Charlie’s suddenly decided to join the torturing being preformed upon me over here.

“What will I even say? I have no idea what to tell them!“ I complain, aware that I sound like a tantrum-throwing toddler but it’s really not my fault.

“Corpse. Corpse dear, listen to me, follow each word I say really carefully, ok?“ Rae asks, her voice now pitched as though she’s addressing an actual child. Yeah, that’s her well-known way of mocking me. “How about you say the actual fucking words. You know: ‘Hey Y/N, MGK and I are making a music video for DAYWALKER, wanna be in it?’“

I sigh, clearly defeated.

I pull out my phone, muttering to the crowd I’m about to speak in front of to be quiet as I put the ringing call on speaker, sweating like a pig the whole time. The room has risen in temperature and this hoodie has thickened, providing more warmth that’s more suffocating than comforting when it’s a hundred degrees outside. Or when I’m about to talk to my crush after THAT incident.

“Hello?“ Y/N’s voice on the other side rips me from my thoughts’ grasp, reminding me I’m on a mission.

“Hey Y/N, what’s up?“ I reply a little too quickly. Not giving them the time to reply with anything, I continue: “Hey Y/N, MGK and I are making a music video for DAYWALKER, wanna be in it?“

DAMN IT WHY DID YOU HAVE TO SAY IT WORD FOR WORD?!?!

“Oh....“ They sound confused - and rightfully so - but then regain their composure finally, “I-I’d love to. Thanks for the opportunity, Corpse. I’m so happy you’ve made it so far. I’d be honored to be in the music video.“

Ok, that’s partial relief. Now - time for the second phase of this plan

“Uh....“ and there goes my whole vocabulary out the window, “You’re welcome.“

“Cool...cool...“ they mutter awkwardly, clearly looking for a way to end the call, “Um, by the way...this is strictly professional, right?“

No! No it’s not! Of course it isn’t! I’ve been head over heels for you for a year now, damn it!

“Of course, o-of course it is. No worries.“ I reply, once again, a little too quickly. Faster than I could’ve prevented it.

“Ok cool...well, text me the details....“ They once again trail off, hoping I’ll catch the hint.

And so I succumb.

“Will do.“ I sigh, “See ya.“

“See ya.“ They reply and hang up.

I’m left there staring at my phone screen with utter self-disappointment and frustration that’s so intense I cannot even express it in any way.

The whole lobby is at a loss of words too - all nine of them astonished by my stupidity. Fortunately though, Charlie is quick to pull himself together and speak up because God forbid Charlie ever falls speechless, then we’d be SERIOUSLY in danger.

“Corpse. You. Are. The. Biggest. Fucking. Idiot.“

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toujoursmiraculous · 3 years

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Thoughts and Reaction to Mr. Pigeon 72!

I knew this was going to be a really good episode, just because the synopsis we got and the trailer seemed pretty bland. Whenever ML does that, a lot of big things happen in that episode. I screamed and choked on my water in the opening scene where Ladybug's with Alya in Marinette's room. I've been looking forward to Alya and Marinette scenes sooo much since Gang of Secrets! Wayzz & Alya: Hey Marinette, you should take a break and rest. Marinette: Nah, I'm good I gotta keep working Alya: YOU'RE LOSING IT, GIRL! Marinette: Don't care, must work Alya: Okay... you know Adrien and Kagami broke up, right? Marinette: Wait what?! Oh no, Kagami needs me! Alya: Not the reaction I was expecting but okay "Let's not wait for the storm to pass, but let's dance in the rain." I really like this quote! Even during bad times, you need to find the good and enjoy it. And Marinette reaaaally needs to do that. But in a literal sense, please don't dance outside during a dangerous storm.

ALYA AND TRIXX ALDJFSLJDS oh I love them, I'm so happy we'll get to see more of them. The way they both reacted to Marinette saying she has to go console Kagami, they weren't expecting that. xD But I was! I find it very amusing how in episodes like Frightningale she was more upset with Chloe being Ladybug than Chloe being in a video with Adrien that Alya's shocked by her decision, and in Frozer where Marinette was putting Adrien's wants before hers. I really don't understand why people think just because she likes Adrien, she'd not want to help make those around her happy even if it wasn't what she wanted for herself. I'm not surprised at all that Marinette would do this for Kagami, but I'm very happy that she is. "Alya, in Paris, Kagami has no other friend except me. Only I can console her." This makes me so happy. The only times in this show I like Kagami, is when she's with Marinette. After watching this episode, I'm more and more thankful she finally told Alya about being Ladybug I don't even want to know the state she'd be in had she not. O.O She almost ran out of her room as Ladybug (whoops), then almost ran out in her pjs (again, oops). Thanks to Alya, she didn't do either. xD That little detail where Marinette runs out and the sun's really intense, letting us know she's been inside a really long time, so everything outside is really bright. I really appreciate the little things like that. Or at least, that's what I take it as. Unless they're hinting at summer coming up soon... Dang Marinette, just jumps on Kagami's back LOL Kind of reminds me how Chat Noir likes to come up on Ladybug. xD "Your so original friend." Marinette is pretty original! I know the tone implies that's not a good thing, but eh. She's letting her go with Marinette and spend time away, so who cares! Marinette trying really hard to convince Kagami to get back with Adrien and how she's going to help her. I think it's really sweet of her, but Kagami of course clearly doesn't want to. Plagg: What's wrong with you, jumping into ice water! YOU'RE LOSING IT! Adrien: *exposes duffle bag full of Camembert* Plagg: I take back everything I said about you Also huh, Alya just told Marinette she's losing it, now Plagg tells Adrien he's losing it...hmmm. Bob Roth is a horrible person and each time we see him, he does something else to show it. Poor Adrien's allergic to pigeons specifically. I guess he's okay with some birds but not others? Idk? But he told Gabriel it'd be doves, so he approved. But it turned out to be pigeons instead. To be fair, at least in the US, Mourning Doves are often mistaken as pigeons, at least where I live, so they'd make a decent substitute... if it wasn't for Adrien's allergy. Adrien in Gorizilla to Wayhem: If you stop following me around screaming, I think we could be good friends! Wayhem with Cardboard Cut-out Adrien in Mr. Pigeon 72: ADRIENNNNNNN! :/ Marinette has a bag full of everything she may need in all kinds of situations. Comes in handy but good grief girl! How do you lug that all around??? What kind of scenarios do you think up to think of

some of that stuff!? Marinette's so adorable in her bathing suit awwww! Dude. Bob Roth. He said he's allergic to pigeons! And you blame Mr. Ramier because Adrien sneezed and it scared the pigeon away? How is this man successful again? He doesn't listen to anything or anybody. Marinette's like hey Kagami, look at Adrien. You'll start liking him again. Do you feel your heart beating fast now? And she's like "I feel especially bad for the trainer (Mr. Ramier)". I mean same though. He's being treated horribly! x.x Next take, Adrien dives and he sees Marinette with Kagami. But I think he only saw Marinette. Because he says he thought he saw a friend from school (Kagami doesn't attend their school, just the fencing class, as far as we're aware) and also he makes no mention of Kagami at all in this episode. Which means...

Why's your jaw dropping at the sight of your "just a friend" in a bathing suit, Adrien? And, you know, Kagami's literally right there in a bathing suit, too. Just saying. But it's like she's not even there to him. Hmmmmm. Poor Kagami's like, this entire thing is embarrassing, I feel embarrassed for me, Adrien, and this situation. Kagami: Marinette, stop! It's getting crazy! Marinette: Love is crazy! Don't think about it! I love how the more Marinette tries to help Kagami, the more things are working out in Marinette's favor. Interesting, isn't it? The more she tries to tell Adrien her feelings and make opportunities for them, the more they fail. The more she tries to help Kagami, or someone else, the more opportunities for her land in her lap. Hahahahaha the way they both fall LOL "Marinette? 😮" *guilty smile* AND THEN THEY TAKE DOWN POOR EDGAR! :( Mr. Ramier's in the background giving the poor bird CPR as he's drowned and Marinette and Adrien are just casually talking not paying attention lolol "What are you doing here?" "I came to surprise you." Kind of, she was hoping to help Kagami get back with Adrien. So that's a kind of surprise! "Uh, well to relax!" True too, actually. Alya did send her off because she needed to get out of the house and relax from her Ladybug and Guardian duties. Marinette, everyone needs to be careful when at a pool. Clumsy people like you especially need to be careful! lol Good thing Adrien's already seen her fall so many times, it's nothing new lol Gabriel: It's a failure Bob Roth: It's not my fault, it's his! Mr. Ramier: You are under arrest! Edgar is my best friend. He's the most intelligent of the pigeons! Gabriel: It's a pigeon Bob Roth: WHAAAT? IT'S A PIGEON? RAMIER, YOU LIED TO ME. Sorry Gabriel, I'll replace this man! I know a shark trainer First off... LOL that whole scene XDD I actually knew Bob Roth was going to say that entire thing before I heard it lolol Second... awww Edgar's okay! c: and third... I'M SORRY, YOU WANT OUR PRECIOUS BOY TO BE AROUND SHARKS?!?!? Who keeps this man employed?!?! Idk why but this whole time I thought that everyone would turn into giant talking pigeons lol ah well "I realized my mistake! We'll recreate the moment where you fell in love!" ohhh? Like I mentioned earlier, whenever she tries to do something to help Kagami (or someone else) that's when her intentions work out best for her. 😉 One of my favorite things from Style Queen was Plagg and Ladybug working together. Now they're working together again and just... ahhhh I gushed so much at that scene! x3 YESSSSSSS what I've been waiting for! Ladybug can just call Alya now and be like hey, I need your help! And Alya can just be like okay cool, and either goes to her room to get the Miraculous herself, or finds her and gets the Miraculous. So cool! Of course, I'll be most excited if she ever gets to just keep it on her, but... baby steps. Rena did a phenomenal job speaking as both Ladybug and Chat Noir lol. She's such a fan of them both, she knows just how they are around each other. Oh, oh no. We're trapped against a wall by a few pigeons. Looks like our only option is to give up and remove our Miraculous and reveal our identities. Are you seriously buying that, Gabriel? Plagg's like HELLO I'll be taking this! Alya did everything from inside Marinette's room. Ladybug was trapped in that room at the pool the entire time. All it took for this akuma to be defeated was Illusion that can be done from anywhere and Plagg getting the object off Mr. Pigeon. That's amazing! Also, this is the first time Ladybug didn't have to actually see things around her to know what to do. She just focused and thought about it. o.o Okay so hold up. Thanks to Alya, Marinette now knows she can create charms to protect past akuma victims and keep them from getting reakumatized, which is wonderful. I love how much of an impact Alya knowing is having! BUT How exactly does Monsier Rat come about then if he has a charm to protect him??? 🤔🤔🤔 I really like how her drive to want to figure things out was

especially because Mr. Ramier's been akumatized so many times, and she wanted to help him from having to continue to go through that. "This girl is truly Miraculous" awww cute how he got to just watch that this time.

I screamed at this moment because I knew. Since Origins, we have not seen this exact sky. Even during rainy scenes like in Chat Blanc or New York, they didn't look like this. YES, Kagami knows that the way Marinette feels about Adrien shows how much she loves him, but she knows she doesn't feel that way about Adrien too. And "You're right, Adrien is perfect... perfect for you." With a smile and everything! Awwwwww! This acceptance, and the Marinette and Kagami friendship in this episode is really, really good! 😭 "Wow, have you kept it [the umbrella] all this time?" She sure wasn't expecting that!! But wow Adrien, you noticed? Then Coup de Foudre happens again. Yeah, this girl is never getting out of her feelings for him.

Of course she's having trouble with her words still, but that's okay. But she's like oh, I'll give it back, and he just pushes it to her and says she'll need it to get home... unless she'd like a ride with him. AND SHE ACTUALLY ACCEPTED AND WRAPPED HER ARM AROUND HIS OMG.

To then only have the umbrella close on BOTH of them!

AND THEN ASKS IF HE WANTS TO WALK INSTEAD BECAUSE THEY HAVE THE UMBRELLA! She's come so far! And the sheer disappointment when he remembers he can't because of his Chinese lesson :/ And then, because he can't not be looking at Marinette, he hits the back of his head on the car, making himself look silly, just like in Origins she made herself look silly. This time she laughs, and he laughs with her. And it's literally Umbrella Scene 2.0 and it's absolutely everything.

DORKS ❤️❤️❤️ "They are made for each other." awwwww instead of Master Fu, this time it's Kagami. And she sounds very okay with that, that's so nice. "Let's not wait for the storm to pass, but let's dance in the rain." Then proceeds to dance in the rain!

Ahhh what a refreshing, good episode after how much she's been struggling and crying! So lovely! Her friendships with Alya and Kagami were really strong in this episode, her doing her best to help her friend with the guy she herself has always liked, and then Kagami was the one that wasn't really into it, and it made both girls realize that Marinette loves Adrien and is the one best for him, not Kagami. And I'm pretty sure this episode helped Adrien to open his eyes to Marinette more too. At least, this is the beginning of that, anyway! Alya's such a tremendous help to Ladybug now, which is everything. I do wonder if more friends will very slowly start to find out her identity and they end up contributing more to bringing down Hawk Moth, so she really, really isn't alone like she once thought. I don't really have any complaints about this episode at all! Just a bit sad we had no actual Chat Noir, but we got Ladybug and Plagg from it, so it's fine with me! x3 I know some may see it as "Chat Noir isn't necessary, how dare they do this to him!" but no, he's very necessary, sometimes he just can't be there and she can't do it alone. You have to remember how much Chat Noir means to Ladybug, and that she wouldn't even BE Ladybug if it weren't for Chat Noir! I'm really curious now about what episode 5 is, since now we've gotten Episodes 1-4, 6, we're getting 7,8, and 13 later, and we've already gotten 11. Filling in the gaps for the first half of the season! This entire week is going to be crazy with the new episodes, and for each one I'll be writing one of these posts for, so be on the look out for them!

#ml #miraculous ladybug #miraculous tales of ladybug and chat noir #ml spoilers #ml spoilers season 4 #ml season 4 spoilers #mr pigeon 72 #mr pigeon 72 spoilers #adrienette #marinette dupain-cheng #adrien agreste #ladybug #alya cesaire #rena rouge #plagg #ahhhh such a sweet ep!

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calcifermovesthecastle · 4 years

Note

Ooh you're lookin for requests? Ok imma hit u up. How bout reacting to reader having a wardrobe malfunction and immediately grabbing them to cover up? (Foe example, if their shirt comes off, they hug them tightly to avoid anyone else seeing but now theres a half naked reader clinging to them 😂) You can write for whoever you want! I'd love to see some CaeJose, Pol, and Mista especially 🥰

Are Caesar and Joseph together for this? Yes? No? Im doing both anyways because I want to. I originally was going to add other characters but I had an allergic reaction when I went to the gas station today and I had to take benedryl so I'm tired.

Another PSA, theres no limit to amount of characters or how many requests you send in. I’ll write it all.

Also, I’m currently reading Jojolion so as soon as I finish that, I’ll let you guys know so you can send in requests but i s2g dont ever make me write for Joshu i fuggin hate him.

Im also assuming it’s an AFAB reader because of the situation, I’m going to use they them pronouns though but BLEASE if I am wrong PLEASE tell me and I will edit the whole thing no problem.

CAESAR:

Okay so Caesar was my favorite Jobro for the longest time until Bucciarati came in and then Bucciarati was my favorite until Gyro and literally Gyro is the greatest character ever in anything but anyways

-Your shirt snags on the back of your chair, or a pole when you’re walking. And rips off. (Or someone else rips it off)

-You immediately grab him and press into him, trying to cover up. He notices, looks down to see your shirt in tatters, and B L U S H. His face gets so red.

-He immediately takes his jacket off and covers you with it, making sure you’re decent.

-”Oh, what happened, Cara?” His voice S h a k e s it’s actually cute.

-Your face is also flushed in embarrassment, so it doesn’t matter what you were in the middle of. He gets you home soooo fast, blushing the whole while, so that you can get a change of clothes.

-At this point it doesn’t matter anymore, so you invite him back to your room and just change in front of him, telling him “Well I guess now’s a good of a time as ever to let you see, huh?”

-Oh?

-Really?

-You don’t even get a chance to pull the new shirt over your head as he’s pressing you against the wall, kissing you with a heat you’ve never seen from him before.

-You had plans? Not anymore. 👀

JOSEPH:

-Oh surprise hug?

-Oh

-He will tease you but only because you’re embarrassed and because you are h a l f n a k e y and pressed up against him. His heart is pounding.

-”Well if you wanted this kind of attention you should have asked!”

-Will cover you up though pretty much immediately, securing his jacket around you, getting you home in no time at all.

-Joseph is not respectful. He will watch you change clothes because it’s hot.

-You tease him a little too, just to get back at him.

-”Well if this is the show you wanted to see we should have just stayed home in the first place, Jojo.”

-When he gets up, you shake your head at him, your eyebrows shooting up.

-”No sir, no touching. You just sit there and watch.”

-”Baaaabeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.” His voice is whiny at first, but keep teasing and he’ll change his tune.

-”You’re so needy, aren’t you, Jojo? This is probably a dream come true for you.” You go to slip the new shirt over your head, and he’s on top of you in a moment, leaning close, pressing You into the wall.

-”Keep running your mouth and I’ll show you exactly what I want from you.”

-Rip

CAEJOSE

-The moment it happens you grab whoever’s closest and shield yourself with their body, flushing with embarrassment.

-The other one will probably threaten or beat up the perpetrator, depending on who it is that you’re not holding on to.

-They’ll cover you up and get you home so that you can change, but god help you because they’ll tease the hell out of you. This situation caught all of you off guard.

-”You didn’t tell us how attractive you are, Cara.” Caesar eyes you, a smile playing on his lips. Joseph will run his hands up your sides while Caesar talks, kissing the back of your neck.

-”Well if you wanted to see you should have just asked, tesoros” you make it a p o i n t to use Caesars mother tongue, making a big show about picking out a new shirt, discarding the ripped, tattered one.

-Rip to you honestly because you're teasing 2 men who are probably twice your size. You won't win this round.

-Caesar's eyebrow quirks up when you use the italian phrase, and Joseph will grab you and set you on the former's lap. Unfortunately for you, Caesar's arms will wrap around your waist and lock you into place while joseph leans in close, his face centimeters from yours.

-You're in for one hell of a night with them if you're down. (If you aren't, they'll let you get dressed and sit with you at home playing cards or something)

POLNAREFF

-Will be a blushing BLUSHING mess the moment you hug him out of nowhere.

-His sould will proceed to leave his body when he sees that your shirt has, uh,

-"Oh, jesus christ, mon ange, Let's get you home?"

-He'll help you cover up as soon as you can, glaring Daggers at anyone who just so happens to even glance in your direction.

-Will make it more obvious in an attempt to make it less obvious.

-Literally shouting "Oi, oi, oi, don't look at them! Look away!" While covering your chest. Cut him some slack. He means well.

-Once you're home, getting re-dressed, you tease him to no end.

-"Jean-Pierre, you seemed to really enjoy yourself today." You flash a grin at him, relishing in the heat that rises on his cheeks.

-He can't help but stare as you pull the shirt over your head and down your body, clearly finding the words he wants to say. You grin at him, fully dressed, and plop yourself in his lap. His arms find their way around you, securing you in place, and he presses a kiss to your nose, a lopsided grin on his face.

-"If you're up to it later, maybe I'll let you see me some more." You're obviously embarrassed at what happened, and you want to crawl into a hole and hide from the public eye for at least 10 years, but he's being so cute that you can't help but joke around.

-His arms tighten around you, and he presses a kiss to your cheek, grinning.

-"Maybe let me see more now?"

MISTA:

-He knows the feeling of skin, so when you press against him, he immediately recognizes the skin on skin contact. (He wears a crop top ffs)

-Speaking of the crop top, it's off in a heartbeat when he sees your situation. He'll walk around shirtless, he doesn't mind. At the very least, you can wear that until you two can get home so that you can change.

-"Oh, no, Zabaione!" (Rips shirt off of his body and yanks it down over yours, keeping you covered the whole time.) "Here, wear this."

-He does not stink despite what Trish says. You know how some people have a distinct smell? He smells like gunpowder.

-What's more embarrassing? Having your chest accidentally exposed, or wearing your boyfriend's shirt while he walks around half naked with a gun sticking out of his pants right above his crotch.

-Your face is pretty red, but he's honestly living for this.

-"Oh my god, Bombolone, you look so cute in my shirt. You should wear it more often."

-"Yeah? And what are you gonna wear?"

-"What, you think I don't have other clothes?" He snakes an arm around your waist, leaning in close, murmuring in your ear. "Do you mind seeing me exposed like this?"

-He'll laugh good naturedly, getting you home and putting a shirt on himself, preventing you from changing yours because he continues to insist how absolutely adorable you look in his shirt.

-Indulge him BLEASE he's so cute when he's flirty.

#jojos #jjba headcanons #jojo headcanons #jojo x reader #jjba #jjba x reader #jojos bizarre adventure #jojo no kimyou na bouken

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moonelf19 · 3 years

Text

C2E122

Widofjord Highlight Masterlist

While Lucien is asking what everyones goals are

Lucien: What about you?

Caleb: I’m not there, but only Lucien hears in his ear-

Travis, looking worried: Only Lucien?

Caleb: Yeah through the wire

Travis: Oh, ok, good good...

When the Nein return to the dome after talking with Lucien

Fjord: Y’know the last time we shared something we shared a vial of our blood and that did NO favors for us

Caleb: You know you don’t have to stand outside of the dome you can come inside of the dome

Fjord: Oh yeah, it’s uh, white colored...

Jester: Hey Caleb. Here’s your cat.

Caduceus: Here’s your ... shit

Caleb: *takes the mug* what.. is this?

Jester: Chewy shit!

Fjord: *haltingly* So... so good...

Sam: *pulls out his flask with a picture of Matt lookin evil on a carousel combined with travis to create travis’ mustachioed character from a project?*

The table: *various reactions of delight and confusion*

Liam: That’s just MATH!

Travis: mm.. Mmmhmm.

Right before the Nein go to bed

Beau: It’s easier to hate someone the less you know about them

Fjord: Facts

Caleb: You want to fax somebody?

Fjord: Yes *pretends to think really hard*

After Lucien shows Caleb and Beau the book for a few minutes

Matt: For the first time Caleb, even with your keen mind, you are having a hard time remembering what you just read

Fjord/Travis: *exasperated/horrified movement as he removes his hat and rubs his eyes in worry*

A little bit after that

Lucien: I’ve shown you something precious to me... now at least show me you still have it

Jester: Caleb, show him your wang

Caleb, without batting an eye: Fjord, show him my wang

Fjord, also without batting an eye: Yeah alright... I reach and pull out... from the bag of holding the amber

Lucien: *holds his hand out for it*

Fjord: *looks to Caleb for confirmation*

Caleb: *nods assent*

Fjord: *hands over the amber*

Lucien: Now why shouldn’t I just take this right now?

Caleb: If you hold onto it you won’t be able to stay in my tower tonight

Fjord: It is so warm in there :)

Jester: Lots of good food...

After Lucien gets them lost and they lose a day

Lucien: Alright we camp out for the night!

Jester: Do you want a tower?

Lucien, pointing at Caleb: If you don’t mind...

Caleb: Ja that is why we are friends

Fjord: *just grins cheekily at Caleb*

When they enter the tower

Fjord: Ahhh I prefer this so much mo- UP!!!

After leaving the Tomb Takers in their rooms, Caleb takes the Nein to the 8th floor

Caleb: You don’t have to say up, you can just...

Fjord: Don’t we? *smarmy look at Caleb*

Caleb: Well you have to

Fjord: UP!

Liam: Caleb makes a mental note that central chamber DOES NOT work for Fjord unless he says UP

Travis: *laughs hysterically* That’ll never be a problem

Liam: Everyone else is fine!

Caleb: As we float up to the 8th floor we come into a central nine sided chamber and there are nine doors. Numbered. Pick three.

Jester: How much do you think it’s weirding Lucien out that everything is 9 9 9 9 9

Caleb: A whole lot

Veth: Pick three?

Caleb: Yeah

Fjord: Three doors?

Veth: I’m going to pick door four

Beau: *quickly after Veth* Door nine.

Fjord: *also quickly trying to get his choice in* One.

Caleb shows them Astrids room behind door 4, then takes them to door 9 and describes the Nestled Nook

Fjord: *narrowed eyes as he realizes what might be behind door 1*

Caleb: Yeah so it’s almost dinner, and you said you wanted to see door number one...

Fjord: *stays silent*

Caleb: *pushes open door one*

Caduceus: Oh...

Caleb: *stands outside the door for a long moment*

Jester: *apprehensive* What is it...?

Caduceus: Home

Beau: Is it your childhood home?

Jester: Why did you put all of this at the top of your tower?

Caleb: Wherever I go.... they are with me

Jester: They are

Fjord: *soft voice* It’s so funny, they say you can never go home, but you’ve created an ingenious way to do just that.

Beau: But this is your first time being in this room

Jester: This would still be here, even if you didn’t make the rooms

Caleb: *uncomfortable* It’s just my way.... It’s just my way

Fjord: Was your room upstairs?

Caleb: *turns to give Fjord a tight smile and nod*

Fjord: Would you mind if I... *points up

Caleb: *smiles at Fjord again* Sure

Liam: Caleb goes to the steps, pauses, skips to the second step which creaks. Smiles a little bit. Then goes up.

Fjord/Travis: *short little amused laugh*

Liam: The loft is just a window, a small bed that would fit a teenager, and a little circle of rags

Fjord: All to yourself?

Caleb: Almost. *bamfs Frumpkin into the circle of rags*

Fjord: *smiles, then sees that Caleb is struggling with something and frowns*

Caleb: I’ve thought about it so much... I’ve thought about it so much. It probably isn’t a good idea to have this, but it’s just my way. I don’t think I’m allowed to forget it.

Caduceus: I don’t think you do, I don’t think this room will change that. I don’t want to speak to how smart you are but, it’s not that you’re doing it wrong you’re just not using it the right way.

Fjord: *confused*

Jester: It feels less like a memory and more like a punishment for yourself Caleb

Caleb: *distraught* If it exists here, it exists. It exists somewhere.

Caduceus: Even without here it would exist somewhere. What you’ve done here is beautiful, I hope you know that.

Fjord: *nods along in agreement*

Caleb: It is, it is, I have those memories, I have them, and I’ve struggled with it for a very long time. My feelings, about these things. There are good memories.

Caduceus: It only takes one bad one.

Caleb: I can’t help... *looks around at the others but lands on Fjord and stays there* ...wanting more.

Fjord: *nods gently*

Veth: Do you still wish to go back... and undo it?

Caleb: Of course.

Caduceus: Do you think Lucien has one of these rooms? Is that what’s happening? ... I don’t know. Maybe.

Caleb: Well... I understand that you all care for me very much. And I am very grateful for it. There is a part of me that will not- *cuts himself off*

Beau: Will not?

Caleb: So the tour is almost over, you wanted to see the ninth floor as well? Come along.

Veth: If that’s alright with you?

Caleb: Ja ja, it’s beautiful.

Beau: *stays behind and holds eye contact with Fjord for a long moment after the others leave*

Caleb calls for desert to be brought in

Caleb: One of the cats has a tray of cut fruit, and the other has a basin and a fountain of chocolate

Fjord: Holyyyyyy shit

After reminiscing about the cults they’ve dismantled

Fjord: Are we... relatively alone? Should we go somewhere else- another level, to avoid prying ears?

Caleb: We can distance ourselves but I’m assuming at any given moment we are more likely than not, he’s overhearing us

Fjord: I was going to ask if your tower offered any protection from prying ears, but also we should contact Essek and see where he’s stationed since it seems like we are closing in on Aeor

They discuss using the cats to hide what they are saying

Veth: To the Salon!

Fjord: UP

Caleb: It’s actually a floor down, so...

Fjord: Shit- DOWN!

Fjord: Ok so is this place battle ready? Can we trap them, or can it be damaged and they escape?

Caleb: Don’t worry about destroying anything, it will be reset to my liking.

Fjord: I meant more like can we trap them on a floor, keep them from leaving, restricting an entrance in and out of a room?

Jester: Anything that happens I mean he can cancel this tower...

Caleb: Right now there is not, but tomorrow there will be... if we imagine it

Fjord: *nods along: That’s what I meant... just a thought

Fjord uses his sword and notices they are being scried on

Fjord: Admittedly they have been kind of... nice? I figured they would have tried something by now but perhaps all of our... *casts around for the word and talks at Caleb* judgements were misplace?

Caleb: *eye contact with Fjord*

Veth: You view them as allies now, do you Fjord?

Fjord: I don’t know about that, but they seem to be at least participating in their half of the deal

Caleb: Well, they’ve been listening to us shit-talk them quite a bit on multiple nights, so... I don’t think there’s a lot of illusions here. *still talking to Fjord* It’s an uncomfortable alliance at best. But we are curious *now to the scrying eye* to see the end of the road. *to the cats* You can cut it. Cut it.

Travis: One prima donna cat is just *mimes singing dramatically*

They figure out the orb is following Yasha, then appears over Fjord

Caleb: I walk over to Fjord, and look up at where the scrying eye is, and kind of stand in front of [Fjord] so I can get in it’s view, and say what are we going to do here? We’re working together, you don’t really trust us, we don’t really trust you. You have some idea what you want to do to us. Are you having fun at least?

Matt: The orb disappears

Fjord: You’re actually looking a little off, but, it’s fine

Caleb: I was messing with it

Discussing how to fold Essek into the plan

Caleb: He’s told us to our face he bears more allegiance to us than any nation- whether that’s true or not...

Fjord: *sassy mmHMMM sound like he doesn’t believe it*

Caduceus trances to ask the wildmother questions and finds out Lucien doesn’t need them all alive

Fjord: Not ALL of us... angel-blood

Caleb: We’ve seen angel blood before *mimes tear tracks in reference to when they found the creepy ass weeping angel statues*

Fjord: *brain explosion as he realizes what Caleb means*

Back to discussing strategy which was like.... most of this episode. Waffling on decisions

Fjord: I’m a big fan of the home-field advantage, that’s the only reason I’m pushing to kick it off

Caleb: For those of us interested in getting our friend back- we don’t have a method. Our hope is to get to Aeor and find something there

Fjord: Ah

Caleb: Seems pretty thin

Fjord: *shakes head*

Matt: At this point Fjord notices the orb appear again

Fjord: *pretends to have an allergic reaction to alert the others*

Caleb: Several cats do now approach you at my telepathic bidding

Fjord: no no NO. NO!. No.

After Jester leaves to have cat adventures with Lucien

Caleb: Are we done for the night? Ja? Ok, I tell frumpkin telepathically to clog the arteries on five. Fjord, cover your eyes.

Fjord: *covers his eyes*

Caleb: Cat after cat after cat start vomiting up from the bottom-

Fjord/Travis: *plugs his ears as well*

Caleb: not in the room we are in! *holds out hand to Fjord* not in our room! in the central chamber it starts to fill with spectral cats

Caleb and Beau share a nightmare and shoot upright awake at the same time

Fjord: *points at the two, looking concerned* That’s... rare.

Beau: *grabs her notebook and starts scribbling*

Fjord: *stops pointing at her but keeps his hand up at Caleb, who rubs his eyes* What, what are you doing?

Beau: Shut-- just shut up, shh.. shhh sh sh

Caleb: *looks at Beau*

Beau: That’s not good.

Matt: Caleb, perception check

Caleb: I was also asking if anything I saw made any more sense... 18

Matt: As she’s sketching, you see on the back of her hand... a single red eye

The table: *loses their shit to varying degrees*

Travis: OH! OH! *looks angry and upset*

Beau: *unaware, continues sketching*

Caleb: St... Stop

Beau: What?

Caleb: *takes her hand and twists so its on top of his to show her*

Caleb: *checks the back of her neck but finds no other eyes*

Beau: *checks the back of his neck, nothing*

Beau: His arms- he had one on his arm

Liam: *to Travis* Check the gooch?

Travis: *breaks severity to laugh at Liam*

Liam: That’s the last place we’ll look

Caleb: *pulls off his shirt so he’s bare chest and arms to see if he has any eyes*

Fjord: *Nodding along and inspecting*

Matt: On his right shoulder you see an eye

Fjord/Travis: *leans back in exasperation and fear*

#critical role #widofjord #widofjord highlights #what a spicy episode

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thestupidhelmet · 3 years

Note

I always got the impression that during Zen breakups, Donna more sided with Hyde than Jackie. What do you think?

Donna is often seen through an undeserved negative lens by a portion of T7S fans. Contradictions in her characterization do exist, thanks to inconsistent writing. But when her behavior, dialogue, and choices are examined closely, her true character is revealed. I do this in the metas linked below.

In Defense of Donna (an essay in eight parts).

In Defense of Donna: Supplemental

In Defense of Donna (Yet Again) in Her Relationship with Eric

Was Donna Mean to Jackie from Throughout Their Relationship?

Analyzing the facts burns away the foundation on which the biases about and misinterpretations of Donna’s character are built. After the cut, I discuss in detail her reactions to Jackie and Hyde’s breakups. She’s a far better person, and friend to Jackie, than is often recognized.

Jackie and Hyde’s first breakup occurs in “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You” (5x14), after Jackie shouts, “Get off my boyfriend!” to Annette about Kelso in the previous episode. Below is Donna and Jackie’s first discussion about it.

Donna: So, have you talked to Hyde about the whole, “Get off my boyfriend,” disaster? Jackie: No! And why is everyone making such a big deal about it? It's like every time I walk into a room, people look at me funny. Donna, how do you deal with it? Donna: Jackie, the reason people are making a big deal about it is because it sounds like you still have feelings for Kelso. Jackie: Well, I don't. I think the only reason I said it was because I was having an allergic reaction to the Formans' cheap, generic soda.

Here, Donna is being supportive of both Hyde and Jackie. She cares about them and their relationship. Jackie, however, has a tendency toward denial and self-delusion, which Donna has experienced extensively. She wants Jackie to be honest with herself, face reality, and not put herself or Hyde through the pain she went through with Kelso during seasons 1-4.

The next time in the episode Donna talks about this situation is with Annette at The Hub.

Annette: Guys, I really think there's some unfinished business between Michael and Jackie. When they were together, did she make him happy? Donna: Well, she totally dominated him and made him feel bad about himself. Annette: I guess what I'm really asking is, was she ever fat or anything?

Donna’s assessment isn’t accurate and nowhere near complete. This is not the fault of Donna but the writers, whose take on Jackie and Kelso is made clear in “Everybody Loves Casey” (4x26). Despite the few concessions the writers make during Jackie and Kelso’s exchange that give Jackie some sympathy, the onus for the toxicity of their relationship is put on Jackie. New “facts” that are never mentioned or shown in the series before this episode are introduced so that Kelso can give Jackie the responsibility for his cheating and the audience will agree with him, at least in part.

Donna’s assessment of Jackie and Kelso’s relationship in “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You” reflects the point of view given in “Everybody Loves Casey”. What actually occurs during seasons 1-4 contradicts this assessment. Jackie encourages Kelso and bolsters his self-esteem (see “The Forgotten Son” [4x09] for one of many examples). She buys him so many presents that he owes her $8,265 in 1977 (see “Baby Fever” [3x07)], which is the equivalent to $35,525 today (due to inflation).

Yes, Jackie also berates him, but she most often does so when he mistreats her by lying, cheating, and generally disrespecting her. She also tries to control him in certain situations, like how many of her stuffed animals she’ll keep in his van or refusing to break up with him when he asks to in “Red’s Last Day” (2x02).

But the so-called total domination Donna claims Jackie had over Kelso is false. If it were true, Kelso never would’ve cheated on her with Pam Macy, Laurie, a girl from Sacred Heart. He wouldn’t have avoided her for a week after the first time they have sex or treat her like a servant once he gets in contact with her again. He wouldn’t have ignored her many nos about having sex until she’s exhausted by his relentlessness and given into what he wants. The list goes on.

The point, though, is that real!Donna would not have said Jackie “totally dominated [Kelso] and made him feel bad about himself.” Real!Donna -- who’d tried to get Jackie to break up with cheating Kelso then stay broken up with him -- would have said that Jackie and Kelso made each other miserable and that it wasn’t a healthy relationship for either of them. This assessment would have given Annette, a virtual stranger, enough information without betraying Jackie’s privacy.

Jackie enters The Hub soon after this conversation.

Jackie: Donna, Steven broke up with me. Donna: Oh, Jackie, I'm sorry.

Donna is sincere in her compassion. She doesn’t say, “You deserved it,” or, “What did you expect?” Her friend is hurting, and Donna feels for her.

This is the last interaction between Donna and Jackie before Jackie and Hyde reconcile in this episode. Donna’s empathy is obviously for Jackie. We get no scenes between Donna and Hyde or dialogue from Donna that shows she believes Hyde is in the right for breaking up with her. She just wants Jackie to recognize why Hyde might feel hurt by Jackie calling Kelso her boyfriend.

Jackie and Hyde’s next breakup happens in “Nobody’s Fault but Mine” (5x23). Kelso tells Donna about Hyde sleeping with the nurse.

Kelso: [Hyde] doesn’t know it but I saw him kissing this lady at the hotel. Donna: Oh, my God, that’s horrible. Kelso: I wanna do the right thing, right? So I’m thinking that I’ll just tell Jackie, and then she’ll feel really bad. Then I’ll console her, and -- presto! -- we’re making out topless! Donna: No, Kelso! The thing to do is to tell Hyde that you know and then give him a chance to tell Jackie.

Again, Donna is concerned for the well-being of both Jackie and Hyde and their relationship. She cares about both of them, but Hyde’s behavior / choice is likely incomprehensible to her at this point.

Once Jackie breaks up with Hyde and the full truth is out, Hyde calls Jackie at Donna’s. Donna wants Jackie to talk to him, but Jackie hangs up the phone, and Donna pleads Hyde’s case

Donna: I think this whole thing was a misunderstanding. Hyde didn’t know what was going on. Jackie: I know, okay? But after Michael, I promised myself that I would never be with another boy who cheated on me. Donna: But Hyde’s so good for you. Since you started dating him you’ve completely stopped quoting Nancy Drew.

Donna’s point of view, again, reflects the writers’ -- that Hyde’s transgression is a “stupid, one-time thing.” If Hyde had actually been written as real!Hyde during this episode and arc (after sleeping with the nurse), he would’ve put Jackie’s pain and feelings ahead of his own, shown true and lasting contrition along with self-awareness, and not expect forgiveness.

Donna’s argument would be much stronger if Hyde hadn’t displayed similar behavior to Kelso’s in season 2 (e.g., acting entitled to Jackie’s forgiveness and growing hostile toward her when he doesn’t get it in his desired time frame). Hyde’s relationship with Jackie does inspire her to grow and change, but that doesn’t negate his betrayal of her -- or vice versa.

Donna needed to give Jackie empathy in this moment rather than try to fix what Hyde had broken, but she does so right after Jackie rejects Donna’s argument to give Hyde a chance. Jackie cries on her shoulder, and Donna holds her during it.

Before Jackie and Hyde reconcile in “Join Together” (6x02), Donna continues to point out the positive effect Jackie’s relationship with Hyde had on Jackie. She’s neither Team Jackie nor Team Hyde. She’s Team Jackie-and-Hyde. She’s supportive of and compassionate toward Jackie while also maintaining faith in Hyde’s innate goodness.

Donna believes that Hyde, at his core, isn’t a cheater. That he isn’t Kelso, but this doesn’t excuse Hyde’s transgression. What’s missing during this breakup arc is a scene where Donna confronts Hyde about what he did, why he chose to act out instead of talk to Jackie, and where she tells him he has to own his crap. This would have connected nicely story-wise (or grown out of) the lessons she should have learned with Eric in season 5 had the show not rushed into their engagement arc.

Donna could have brought up Hyde’s childhood, the source of his deep fear of abandonment, and how he allowed this fear to seep into his relationship with Jackie. Hyde, then, might have admitted he’d fallen for Jackie when she’d chased him back in season 3 and felt betrayed by her ultimately rejecting him for Kelso.

Hyde: I guess that crap came up again when she became my girlfriend. Part of me always believed she’d always go back to him.

Unfortunately, the writers didn’t make these story and character connections, and the characterization and story suffered because of it.

During Jackie and Hyde’s season 7 breakups, Donna behaves similarly as described above. She’s Team Jackie-and-Hyde. She supports both her friends and believes they’re happiest (and best) when together. She brings Jackie to her martial arts class to get out her rage at Hyde in a healthy way. She consistently teases Hyde about his love for Jackie so he won’t deny it to himself or quit fighting for it. She’s always got a hug for Jackie when she needs it, and she calls Hyde on his B.S. (finally) in season 7.

So, no, Donna doesn’t side more with Hyde over Jackie after their breakups. She an equal friend to both of them, despite the flaws in the writing.

#That 70s Show #That '70s Show #Donna Pinciotti #Jackie x Hyde #Jackie Burkhart #Ask #Anon #My Meta #My Essay #Essay #Meta

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lunarthedragon · 4 years

Text

Demon!Jaskier Part 2

Part 1: here

+++

He had been so many things in his past. So many iterations and forms. So many bodies and lives.

A boy with bones so fragile he needs braces to walk, but who never dies. Never dies. Never dies. His smile bringing joy to his small village.

A girl, deaf, who is shunned by her family but taken in by the sirens that cannot sway her with their songs. She is vengeance on the tide, her hands louder than her tongue.

A man filled with anger - at the world, people, himself - who sets into motion some of the most gruesome wars known to man.

A woman with thunder in her steps, mighty and heroic, wearing armor forged by poor workers and wielding a damaged sword she found lodged in her father’s ribcage.

An elf who slips along the blood-drenched fields, washed with the screams of his people, delivering mercy upon the suffering and as his tears mix with the blood.

So many lives. So many timelines. So many worlds.

Nothing ever looks the same, feels the same, but it is always him-her-they. Returning and returning, wanting to live and learn and grow in a way his brethren refuse to.

He will be better.

+++

Sometimes, when people want to get at Geralt, they choose the cowardly method of going after his bard. They believe him to be an easier target and hope for an easy prize.

Geralt always worries, even though he never says it. Jaskier can feel it, wafting off of him as he charges into the temporary prison and sees the dead bandits-mercenaries-fools already strewn across the ground.

Over the years the Witcher has learned and accepted that Jaskier has a profound talent for getting into trouble, but also getting out of it.

Still he worries.

Even when he knows of Jaskier’s true nature.

A group of bandits abscond with him to their camp, set to bribe the Witcher.

The night has barely fallen when Jaskier runs into Geralt on his way out of the bandit camp, blood smeared over his hands and face, yet his clothes miraculously untouched.

“Are you okay?” Geralt still demands, reeking of concern.

“They tore one of the buttons out of my doublet. How do you think I am doing?” Jaskier grumbles, ignoring the concern, even though it makes him feel all warm inside. Like the shadows are stretching with a brighter sun. Like some of the darkness boils back.

It is a good warm.

He does not need worrying, though. He does not need rescuing. He has been a damsel before, but he has never been in distress.

Still... it can be a little nice... on occasion.

+++

Jaskier tells Geralt some of his own stories.

His words have been prettied and empty for so many years, the occasional story bracketed from when “Jaskier” began and the present.

Now, he tells Geralt anything and everything. Of worlds far beyond his own. Places hidden away unless you know where to look. History long forgotten.

Geralt pretends not to listen, but his awareness is firmly planted on Jaskier when he talks of these things. It appears these stories can even intrigue a grumpy, old Witcher.

“The monsters in your song,” Geralt suddenly cuts in one night when Jaskier is recounting his life as Damalt, a “Wastelander” from far, far away many years ago, where he hunted monsters not unlike a Witcher. “I said they didn’t exist, but...”

The Witcher looked deep in thought and it takes Jaskier a moment to realize he is talking about when they first met. “You were not incorrect,” he assures, smiling, “They do not exist... in this world. Alas, I occasionally get my histories jumbled up when high on adrenaline. Terrible habit, that.”

“It must happen often, then,” Geralt huffs. His pride is wounded. He is meant to be the monster expert, and yet...

“I often call out the wrong name in bed,” Jaskier replies with a shrug.

“That’s hardly terrible,” Geralt’s lips twist and a brow arches.

Jaskier shrugs. “Sure, unless you say it like, ‘G̸͙̅̀Ŕ̸̠̖ḥ̶̀͋h̸̘́K̸̥̇͒̐͛͋͗̏b̶̥͕̠̪͉͛̆ą̶̘͈̟̼̰̟̓̌̀̐T̶̝̠̙̍̽̈́̄̈́C̶̥̫̝͐̄͋́̏̀ḧ̶͍̟̟̠̫̎́̇̈́h̸̬̅́Á̸̬̱͎̗̓̃͂̇͊͠L̴͕̗͛̀̓̔̾̂̈́ͅ.’”

Geralt has leant back as if smacked, his eyes so wide the whites are visible all around his irises, and his mouth is hanging open.

It makes Jaskier laugh for five minutes straight.

+++

He cannot eat salt. It will not kill him, but it causes the closest thing to an allergic reaction in him that he could ever have.

It burns where it touches tongue or skin or organs or bone. He feels it deeper than the flesh, the body, and he writhes, like a black, foaming slug. It makes him screech but no one hears, air running cold until icicles form but no one shivers, a chittering vibration that sets ears bleeding but no one cares.

He cannot eat salt.

+++

The thing in the mansion is ancient. Almost as ancient as him. He can hear it long before the mansion - dilapidated, abandoned, hopeless, taken back by nature - comes into view.

Geralt doesn’t hear it. He keeps walking, looking out for the monster on the contract.

The monster is gone, if it was ever here to begin with. Dead, dead, dead. Like the air and the earth and the sea. Dead but ancient and crawling without moving.

And Geralt doesn’t hear it.

“We shouldn’t go closer,” Jaskier finally says - voice not-quite-right at the edges, like a burning photo - because Geralt knows. Knows what he is. Accepted what he is. It is fine to speak up and protect that which he holds dear. That which he cares for more than he should.

Geralt is looking at him now, confusion in his eyes, and he wishes he could put into words that they need to stay away from that mansion because the thing inside will be the Witcher’s undoing.

He can move on, find a new body, find a new life, but the flesh bodies with the fleshier souls of mortals do not have that privilege. And he quite likes this particular mortal.

“What’s wrong?” Geralt asks, voice low, stepping towards Jaskier as if to protect.

“E̴v̵e̶r̴y̷t̵h̷i̶n̴g̸,” his voice twitches around something too big and forces it back down. “It will kill you. You need to get away.”

“Is it a spirit of some kind?” Geralt asks, his face set in concern. Jaskier offers a nod. “Is it like you?” Jaskier opens his mouth to reply and it rushes out.

“Me but not - screaming where I whisper - the fly in your soup the fly on a corpse - bear trap on your leg gnaw it off gnaw it off - viscera from an eye split in half - war as bloody as birth - ”

Geralt grabs ahold of his arms and drags him away, sprinting in the opposite direction as the mansion, and Jaskier has never sensed fear on the Witcher like he does in that moment.

They don’t return to the town they came from. They never completed the contract. There was no monster to kill.

Instead, in complete silence, they make camp and Jaskier curls up tight to Geralt’s side under a thick fur. If he shakes a little, drained from a battle that never happened, Geralt doesn’t say a word and only holds him closer.

+++

Djinn are an ancient spirit as much as Jaskier is. Not horrors, but rather entities. Embodiments. Powerful and feared and unable to flee from the imprisonments of man.

They hate the things that Jaskier is. Envious of him and his brethren. They are not as ancient as he, but they possess powers long forgotten.

Jaskier should have stopped things sooner. “I can’t sleep,” Geralt had said as he fished for a djinn. Jaskier had seen the problem, seen the issue, knew the outcome, and he should have just stepped in forced a stop.

Instead, he tried to talk Geralt down. Claim a lovely cup of chamomile tea with honey and whiskey would do the trick! Perhaps a back rub to sweeten the deal? Just please get away from the water. Please.

It doesn’t work and the jug in Geralt’s hands sends Jaskier into a panic, shooting out to grab ahold of it and tugging. Geralt doesn’t let go. Just glares at him.

“Seriously, Geralt, you’re being ridiculous! This isn’t going to help you. They’ll trick you and put you to sleep for good, never to rise again. How can you not see--”

The jug opens with a “pop!” The engraved lid in Geralt’s hand, jug in Jaskier's, and he can FEEL the energies around them shift. Compress. Tug and squeeze until it is hard for him to breathe.

“Nothing happened,” Geralt growls to himself, looking around, growing more and more frustrated, but Jaskier’s attention is glued to the surface of the lake. There is a shadow there that hasn’t taken form. Watching without eyes. Laughing without lips.

A djinn’s aura is not a scream or a cry. It is a vibration. A roll of thunder and the long, belting roar of a giant.

They stare at each other, through eyes beyond this plain. Eyes that see each other for what they truly are. Wind is picking up, actual wind, the sky darkening, and with the first bolt of lightning the djinn attacks.

He screeches, unholy and enraged, as claws-talons-teeth, dig into the parts of him that go unseen. Black veins form on his body, growing and growing and growing, hands and eyes pitch black as he lashes back. A piece of him catches on a piece of them, rendering-cutting-ripping, until lightning flashes above like a scream. Like a scar.

Black oozes from his mouth with the next clash, veins surging along his face, his stomach, his legs, everywhere. His hands are grasping without moving - so many hands, too many hands - and he tears the djinn in two, flinging it away, but a bolt of lightning like a blade severs an arm. A leg. There’s a hole in his chest that bleeds black.

He hears a voice, deep and frantic in a way he isn’t used to. Terrified. He’s not meant to be terrified. Not for Jaskier. He...

“Stop!” Geralt yells out, loud as the storm, and time holds still. The djinn is still there, present, hovering, deliberating, before it pulls back and away with a thin smile despite having no lips.

Ah. Geralt has the wishes.

Isn’t that lovely?

“Jaskier,” Geralt says, sounding desperate and too close and Jaskier looks to his side to find he is laying on his back and Geralt is kneeling beside him. He looks horrified, his emotions apparently so sudden and strong he is unable to hold them in.

“Hi,” he says, black blood gurgling out with the word, smiling in such a way his dark eyes crinkle. He doesn’t think it puts Geralt at ease, though, with the way he seems to flicker. Stutter. Then lurch forward like he wants to hold Jaskier but stops himself short.

“You’re... you...” Geralt isn’t one for words, but when he does talk he doesn’t usually stutter. Jaskier doesn’t like this.

“Djinn and demons like me do not get along,” he offers. He feels tight in his skin, too much wanting to leak out. To crack more of his skin and ooze free. Fill the air. Fill the world. Fill everything.

He holds it in, but he can feel more of his body turning dark with more and more veins. The hole in his chest hurts.

“Could you pass me my arm and leg, please?” he asks kindly and, apparently too shocked to argue or question, the Witcher lurches sideways to scoop up the severed limbs. He hands them over and Jaskier takes them gratefully, before setting his arm to the bleeding stump.

It stinks, like rotten eggs, and Geralt’s nose wrinkles up but he doesn’t move away. Jaskier wonders if he’s in shock.

The limb knits back onto his body, slower than usual, but not unexpected for a wound like this. He does the same to his leg, pleased to have all four limbs back, less of himself wanting to leak out. He is still covered in black veins, though, with dark eyes.

Still, he turns to Geralt, who looks lost. He reaches out to lay a hand against Geralt’s cheek, the Witcher flinching but then pressing back into his palm. “See? I am fine. Death means very little to me,” he assures, his voice still full, like he has too many teeth-tongues-throats, but far more normal than it once was.

“You have a hole in your chest,” Geralt says lowly, seeming unable to speak much higher. Jaskier tries to think about what this must be like from Geralt’s perspective. His only friend, a demon of unknown power, changing horrifically and having a fight with an invisible force. Then, being torn apart before his very eyes...

Yes, perhaps this response was a bit more understanding...

“It will heal,” he says, but looks down at the hole, black blood gushing from it still, coating his front and back. He hadn’t gotten that from a bolt of lightning. This was a cursed wound.

Not enough to kill something like him, but enough to be a nuisance.

“I may abandon this body,” he considers aloud, “Find a new host. This will take years to heal.”

“No,” Geralt says suddenly, moving forward and grabbing Jaskier’s shoulders. “No. Tell me how to help. This is my doing--”

“This is not your doing,” Jaskier says, head tilting.

“I should have listened.”

“You should have,” he agrees, “But this is still not your doing.”

“Just...” Geralt looks down and away, avoiding eye contact. Jaskier still tries to catch his gaze anyway. “Tell me what I can do...”

“It is a magical wound,” he begins and brings a hand up to run his knuckles over Geralt’s jaw. It is so close and vulnerable, he can’t help it. “It needs magical treatment so that I might do the rest. I sense a sorceress in Rinde, the next town over. Powerful.”

Geralt looks up, listening intently. His face is set again, under control as it usually is, and his eyes are determined. He nods. “To Rinde,” he says as he stands and carefully urges Jaskier up, too.

There is a sense of vertigo upon standing and the black veins flair, spreading then receding. He feels disoriented, deep to the core. Perhaps the cursed wound was doing more to him than he thought.

“I think...” he begins slowly as Geralt leads him towards Roach, who is far enough away not to be spooked by the fight, but close enough to still be within sight. Geralt has a firm hand on his closest arm and the other arm wrapped around Jaskier’s shoulders, trying to support him.

“I think I need to pass out, now.” And he goes down to the sound of Geralt’s worried exclamation, the world blurring until it is void. It is nothing. It is all.

+++

Definitely gonna make a part 3! Also likely to put them all together, eventually, and put them on Ao3 later! Tell me what y’all think!!

Tagged users that commented on part one: @meody90 @zoeyszone @patrycjami-chan @emthegiantnerd @onelonelyforgottenbiscuit

#the witcher #the witcher netflix #jaskier #geralt #geralt of rivia #geraskier #demon jaskier #nonhuman jaskier #fanfic #part 2

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louiserandom · 4 years

Text

Of Nosebleeds and Allergies

Rating: T

Pairing: Senju Tobirama/Uchiha Madara

Summary: The sight of Madara waltzing around in the summer heat half-naked, muscles flexing beautifully, causes Tobirama to have an unexpected nosebleed. To hide the true cause from his overbearing Anija, he blames it on aggressive pollen allergies.

It seems fine, until it isn't, because of course Hashirama would then assume that his Mokuton is a devastating allergen and starts sobbing because he now has to stay away from his beloved baby brother.

A/N: for @tuliharja who is DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS MADNESS, SOMEONE ARREST HER😤😤😤 but also thank you asdfghjk i had WAY too much fun writing this😂😂😂😂 this is peak flail. PEAK FLAIL i tell you

Read on AO3 or continue under the cut :3 enjoy!

It's a cursed day, Tobirama decides.

For one, he'd always remained blessedly ignorant over why exactly Izuna swoons practically every time Tōka accidentally flexes her muscles—though whether or not it's ever truly accidental is up for debate—until today.

Today being the particularly sweltering mid-summer day when virtually every citizen of Konoha is frying alive, apparently, with only Tobirama, whose body temperature is naturally cooler due to his enhanced affinity for water, feeling perfectly content.

Madara, on the other hand, doesn't seem as comfortable, and that's Tobirama's only fully coherent thought before his mind blanks at the sight of Madara taking his shirt off, in their shared office no less, and stretching out his arms in a decidedly indecent manner.

Tobirama swallows heavily. Madara decides then to take a drink from his water bottle, so sloppily that stray droplets trickle from the corner of his mouth, along the column of his neck down his chest. Tobirama's brain, in turn, short-circuits.

Fuck.

Tobirama wonders if it would really be that strange if he runs away through the window right this second. Or douses the office with a Water Dragon.

He clenches his fists. Sighs. Berates himself for his ridiculous thought process.

Maybe Tobirama is overreacting. All right, maybe he's definitely overreacting, because of course, he logically understands that were it not for his stupid, godsdamned uncontrollable crush on the Uchiha Clan Head, he wouldn't be phased by the current display. He takes care to keep his face neutral and his posture more or less relaxed, focusing his gaze on the papers before him and away from the thick, bulging muscles, the tantalizing expanse of exposed, slightly tanned skin. It's more than a little horrifying for Tobirama to catch himself imagining how he'd licking the thin sheen of sweat on Madara's collarbones, chest, abs and—

Well. This is going nowhere.

Tobirama closes his eyes and takes a few deep breaths, frantically thinking of dead kittens and bloody battlefields in order to ward off the scorching flares of arousal.

Annoyingly, it doesn't work. He opens his eyes only to see drops of red on his—well, what used to be his top-priority tax proposal, and it takes his malfunctioning brain a few seconds to realize that he's been hit by what used to be Hashirama's constant plague during his sexually hyperactive teenage years.

A nosebleed.

A fucking nosebleed.

He scrambles for a tissue, keeping his gaze fixed downward and hoping to the gods Madara hasn't noticed the debacle.

"What the fuck is wrong, Senju?" Just Tobirama's luck. "Are you hurt?"

"No," Tobirama says, shaking his head erratically, "I just—I'm fine. A random nosebleed. Nothing to worry about, just—keep working." He even does a little wave with his hand, which is reminiscent of the flailing that's supposed to be Madara's specialty.

By the Pure Lands, this is embarrassing.

Madara watches him with narrowed eyes and then, because the universe doesn't care for Tobirama's mental stability, stands and walks over to him, removing the tissue from his face and inspecting the damage. Pale green flashes in Tobirama's vision, and he shuts his eyes closed, half-petrified, half-savoring the warm, comforting tingle that is Madara's chakra sizzling through him as he presses his fingers to the bridge of Tobirama's nose to heal him. The sensation stokes Tobirama's increasingly uncomfortable erection, making him resent the delectable pleasure.

(This is probably the gods' revenge for all the times he'd broken the laws of nature with his experiments. It's maddening.)

"Just a couple burst vessels," Madara says with a nod, finally (albeit regrettably) removing his hand. "Probably because of the damnable heat, yeah?"

"Mmhm," is all Tobirama manages, throat dry and mind ever more foggy as he's treated to a close up of Madara's taut, dangerously enticing nipples.

"You should maybe work from home the rest of the day," Madara suggests, pressing his palm against Tobirama's forehead. "You don't appear to have a fever, but you are a little flushed." He smirks then. "I thought you were blushing. It's a—it's a nice look—whatever, shut up!" Madara jerks away from him suddenly, both hands flailing a little.

Now that's... an interesting comment. Something to think about later.

"When did you become a mother hen, Uchiha?" Tobirama teases while Madara stutters through a bunch of incoherent insults. At least this is the Madara he knows and—likes, a welcome contrast to his uncanny concern earlier.

"Tch. Like I care," Madara glowers, "get a heat stroke, whatever, I don't give a shit. I mean—I do, but only because your brother would cry and get snot all over me if you get sick."

As if on command, Hashirama struts right through the door, the wood disassembling and patching itself back again once he's inside.

"Good morning!" he sing-songs.

"Stop abusing the fucking door!" Madara and Tobirama shout in unison.

"Oh, come on," Hashirama whines. "The door doesn't mind—I'd know!"

"We do," Tobirama says.

"Yes, and I also mind your presence," Madara growls. "You have your own office, so get the paperwork you need and fuck off."

"Madara, don't be so—Tobi. Tobi! Is that blood?"

Tobirama rolls his eyes. Great. Just what he needs right now.

"It's just a nosebleed, Anija. You don't need to heal it, Anija, Madara already did. Please, for the love of the gods, keep quiet." It takes all of Tobirama's self-control to keep his voice level as he talks alongside his brother's panicked whining, and it takes a particularly hard shove for Hashirama to shut up and focus on him. "Anija. I. Am. Fine."

"Okay," Hashirama breathes, worry never leaving his eyes, "you're fine—for now. But what if you get another nosebleed? How much blood did you lose? Is it the weather? Are you sick? Did Madara hit you, do I need to beat him up?"

"Hey!"

Tobirama scoffs. "I find it insulting that you think I wouldn't beat him up myself," he says, "especially considering his pathetic defeat in our last sparring match."

"You cheated, you fucking dick—"

"But none of the above," Tobirama goes on, silently laughing at Madara's attempts to get past Hashirama and presumably strangle him. "It's just..." His eyes trail treacherously over Madara's straining biceps. "Aggressive pollen allergies," Tobirama blurts out the first thing that comes to mind.

The right thing to say, too, because Hashirama heaves a massive sigh of relief.

"Oh. Gods, well, allergies are easy to treat at least," he says, "but they're still dangerous, Tobi, and they can hinder your breathing! You'll need to stay inside a lot, of course, and I'll prepare some medicine for you, and—"

"Stupid fucking Senju," Madara grumbles, a bit calmer now and simply glaring at both of them, arms crossed. "Make sure to stay away from your precious brother too, since your Mokuton is one big fucking allergic hazard," he sneers.

Well, fuck.

Hashirama's expression twists into one of terror, and Tobirama sorely laments the lack of much-needed alcohol in their vicinity.

"I'M AN ALLERGEN, OTOUTO," the God of Shinobi screams, his eyes welling up with tears. "No, no, no, that means I'll have to stay away from you and gods, all the trees I grew in the village—"

"Why," Tobirama says, fixing a confused Madara with a glare.

"—I'll have to draw away all my chakra and probably seal and oh no, think of the children! What if I've already caused deadly allergic reactions—"

"Why would you do this," Tobirama sighs as Madara grows more and more baffled by the spectacle. He obviously meant it as a (poorly contrived) joke, but has apparently forgotten that Hashirama is an idiot.

"—Tobi, you have to move out immediately!" Hashirama shouts at him, shaking is shoulders, then recoils with a yelp, and Tobirama senses him forcefully toning down his chakra. "And far away from me, until I find a suitable treatment—oh, Madara!" He turns to his friend. "Since Tōka and Izuna are on their honeymoon, Tobi should live with you for a while—I mean you've finally confessed and you can spend quality time together! Just, you know, don't sleep with each other until Tobi—"

"WHAT THE FUCK," Madara shrieks.

What the fuck, Tobirama's mind echoes.

"I DIDN'T TELL HIM, YOU UTTER ASSHOLE." Madara lifts Hashirama by the collar and pins him against the wall. "WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"

"But you told me yesterday—"

"I lied!"

"Well, you can tell him now," Hashirama whines, prying Madara's hands off himself, "while I quarantine and de-Mokuton everything, because Tobi could suffocate and die, Madara, this is serious."

"I won't." Tobirama raises his voice to be heard over Madara's cursing. He pinches the bridge of his nose. He can feel a massive headache setting in. "Anija, you do not need to quarantine yourself. It's all right. I am not allergic to the Mokuton."

"How can you know?" Hashirama demands, managing to restrain Madara's hands behind his back. "You've never had allergies before, only this year when we've basically moved into a village half-built by my jutsu, Tobi! It all fits."

"It doesn't," Tobirama growls, "because I'm not allergic at all. I lied. Go away."

"Why do you two keep lying to me? And then why did you have a nosebleed?" Hashirama tilts his head to the side, confused.

Tobirama sighs. "Madara hit me. We need to talk it out."

"Wh-what the hell, Senju?"

"What?" Hashirama growls, just as Madara yelps as his hands are squeezed tighter.

"I hit him first," Tobirama lies through gritted teeth, "and he hit back. Stop fretting. Now if you leave, I promise we'll talk, make up and maybe even hug it out like you always force us to."

Hashirama blinks. "Hm." He slowly releases Madara and drops the scowl, though his eyes remain narrowed. "You'd better be telling the truth this time. If you're not, I will ground both of you and issue a decree for that if I have. And I expect both of you over for dinner today along with detailed explanations from both sides because this kind of behavior is unacceptable," he chastises them before stalking towards their desks, grabbing the paperwork labeled for him and heading out in the same atrocious way, through the malleable door.

Leaving Madara and Tobirama drowning in a very uncomfortable silence that stretches on mercilessly.

Madara clears his throat, speaking first,

"Fuck."

With that concise assessment, he stalks back to his desk, dons his shirt back on and hides his face behind the high collar, slumping onto the chair like a disgruntled porcupine.

"So," Tobirama starts.

"Your brother is a menace."

Madara's chakra rages throughout the whole office, now almost painful as it burns against Tobirama's senses. He sighs.

"So," Tobirama says firmly, "when Anija said you meant to confess..."

Madara sinks further into his chair, half-concealed by his desk at this point.

"He meant—you like me?" Tobirama asks, wincing as Madara's chakra flares further.

"I hate him," Madara seethes.

Tobirama rolls his eyes. Such childish behavior.

"Well if that is what you were trying to tell me," he says, "I was going to say that I might—"

"Not attempt to kill me?" Madara cuts in.

Tobirama resists the urge to throw something heavy at the infuriating man. "That I might possibly not completely hate you too."

This has Madara fumbling to raise his head above his shirt only to gape at Tobirama for a few tense moments.

"Well, why didn't you tell me earlier?" he demands and even has the gall to sound offended.

"Why didn't you?" Tobirama parries. So many things would have been easier if he had, Tobirama's far-too-frequent hard-ons included.

"Because," Madara glowers, "because—why should I be the one to take initiative?"

Huh. Another interesting observation.

Tobirama smirks. "Fine then. This is me taking initiative: I say we ditch Anija's friendship bullshit and go get dinner together." He flinches. "Ditch him for as long as we're able, that is."

Madara blinks. "Dinner?"

"At your place," Tobirama suggests, dipping his voice lower, "if you'd like more privacy?"

Considering his embarrassing reaction to Madara's earlier display, it's viscerally pleasing for Tobirama to see the man blush, dark eyes glazing over prettily.

"Oh." Madara's lips curl in a grin. "I'd like that. I'd like that very much."

"Perfect." Tobirama barely reining in his own giddy smile. He motions to the thankfully small piles of paperwork they've left to get through. "Let's take care of these quick then, before Anija has the chance to sabotage us."

Madara huffs out a laugh. "Please. He'll be stuck with those missives until midnight, and that's if he's lucky."

"Do you remember that time when Anija had work to do and then didn't do it?" Tobirama muses.

"Hm. You mean every single time?"

"Exactly."

It's a bit of a surreal pattern that follows, both of them falling back on their usual banter, only with the added weight of their revealed feelings hanging over them. It's a comforting weight, for Tobirama at least, and for once, it doesn't feel wrong to let his gaze linger on Madara's lips, focus on the way his tongue darts out to wet them, stoking Tobirama's fantasies about how they'd feel against his own. His staring must give him away, though, and it's a few minutes later that Madara falls into abrupt silence, his eyes suddenly widening as he proceeds to stare at Tobirama like he's grown another head.

"Wait a second. Did you happen to have that nosebleed because—"

"Because you're an idiot," Tobirama interrupts him, his insides growing cold with renewed embarrassment, "and that raises my blood pressure."

Madara's mouth shuts, curving in a devious smirk. The bastard. Of course he wouldn't be fooled.

Tobirama clears his throat. "Listen, the sooner we finish work, the sooner we can leave and go on that fucking date," he says with a pointed glare. "So concentrate."

"As you wish, Tobirama," Madara drawls, a teasing glint in his eyes, "wouldn't dare to disobey."

Somehow, even without outright taunts, Tobirama feels like he's been defeated. It doesn't matter, though; what he may lose in dignity, he’ll make up for by preserving his outward composure.

Besides, the next hours give him the added pleasure of seeing how the mere promise of a romantic outing ramps up Madara's usually sluggish productivity to an astonishing degree.

It's a good day after all, he decides, and about to get much better.

#madatobi #tobimada #fanfic #madara uchiha #tobirama senju #humor #romance

88 notes · View notes

smolbeanieee · 4 years

Text

Once Upon a Time | Four

strangers to lovers au

pairing: Younghyun x fem!reader

genre: fluff, angst

masterlist

warning: mention of traumatic experience, moments of mental breakdown.

The 2 hours ride for the trip wasn't that bad as Dahee thought. In fact, it is comfortable and nice as Younghyun were really considerate for her as he trying not to make Dahee felt uncomfortable through the journey.

As soon as they arrived at the cultural village, they were assisted by the tour guide that been called prior to the visit by Dahee, informing their visit to the art and culture village for the project—the tour guide skillfully pouring out all the information needed by Younghyun and Dahhe for their report later.

Younghyun did most of the talking and interviewing part with the tour guide because Dahee thinks it suits him well as she plays part as the photographer, taking photos and video as part of evidences but sometimes she did asked few questions when Younghyun forgot to ask as he too immersed enjoying talking and playing tourist at the same time—making Dahee shook her head in disbelief, lips forming a tiny smiles on her face.

It took them about 4 hours to end the field trip—it's already 4:40 p.m. when they bid goodbye to the tour guide and went to Younghyun's car and got into it.

“We're done now, so we're going home, right?” Dahee asked, buckling her seat belt as she noticed Younghyun turns his head quickly to her.

“Home?? Hey, we did the interview as soon as we got here and we haven't eat lunch yet, you know that?” Younghyun asked as she nods her head lightly, unreadable expression plastered on her face, leaving Younghyun speechless “Don't you feel hungry?” He asked

“I'm not hungry” Dahee said nonchantly and as soon as she said that, her stomach growls—betraying her words, making Younghyun lets out chuckles upon her reaction as Dahee mentally slapped herself, turning her head from him.

“See, your stomach don't lie. So, I already search the nearest restaurant and we're going now. I hope you're not allergic to seafood” Younghyun said, giving her teasing smiles as he buckled up the seat belt and his feet pressed on the engine pedal.

Dahee lets out a defeat sighs, giving up as she also felt hungry at the moment her stomach betray herself. “Fine, let's go” Dahee softly said, almost come out as a whisper but go unnoticed to Younghyun

“Don't worry, I won't abducted you” Younghyun teasing replied as he drove his car slowly into the car lane—earning a side eye from Dahee making Younghyun let out a hearty laugh that echos throughout the car.

While they're having their lunch at the restaurant by the seaside, Younghyun aware that Dahee has been staring at the sea view a lot. When they're about to pay for the food, Younghyun spoke up “Since I'm the one who insisted to come here, I'll pay for our meal. You can go and enjoy the sea view. I'll catch up with you later”

“What? No, it's ok-”

“Just go. It such a waste if we didn't go to the sea” Younghyun cut her off before proceeding paying the bills.

Dahee hesitate at first but since Younghyun kept on insisted, she makes her way to the seaside as her lips turns into a small smile, walking out of the restaurant—Her happy trials go unnoticed by Younghyun, making him lets out chuckles upon seeing her walking away.

The sea breeze makes Dahee's mind at peace and calm. Sitting by the seaside and watching small waves slowly washes the sand makes she reminiscing the old times—how often she would came to the sea when summer comes with her family and how sea would calm her down just by looking at the view whenever she having hard times.

Sighs left her lips when thinking about her family or should she said—a broken family? Dahee's heart swell with a bit of jealousy and happiness as she take a look at a family in front of her, playing with each other with full of joy and laughter. If only selfish and anger didn't take over last 7 years, she would be able to feel those happiness too.

“What with those sigh? Isn't the sea view is pretty enough to make you impressed?” Younghyun quietly comes to her side with a cup of americano in his hands as he hands over a cup of coffee to Dahee too.

His presence startled Dahee as she looks at him up, Younghyun mouthing to her to take the coffee. Dahee mutters a soft thank you as she took the cup of coffee into her hands and to her surprise, Younghyun got her favourite—iced mocha, making her scoff to herself.

Younghyun turns his attention to her who sitting beside him “Aren't the coffee tasty?” he curiously asked, waiting for her answer

“Iced mocha?” Dahee question him back, raising her eyebrow.

Her question makes Younghyun flustered and stumbles upon his words “A-ah about that...I-I just randomly pick out of the menu”

She shook her head in disbelief as Dahee continue feasting her eyes with the wide sea view with Younghyun silently accompanying by her side.

As Dahee lost in her thoughts, Younghyun took a glances over her, carefully watching her drifting apart into the sea view but her heavy expressions catch his attention as if something bothering her. Of course he has the urge to ask her what is going on inside her head but still kept his distance as a classmate or stranger—surely she would open up whenever she want is what he thought.

“The view is amazing, isn't it? You like it?”

His question makes Dahee snaps out of her mind, taking a moment before she spoke out “I like how calming is the sea is despite lots of people coming over here” she said, wriggling her toes that covered in sand.

“You're right. But who knows how violent the deep ocean is, right?” Younghyun words had Dahee thinking as if he could read herself—leaving Dahee chuckles as a response to him. Not wanting she felt uncomfortable with him, Younghyun suggest something to brush off the edgy moment “As we already at the beach, why not we play a game for our so-called-ice-breaking?”

“What game?” Dahee nonchalantly asked, putting down her coffee on the sand as she watch Younghyun energetically stands up from his place—brushing off some sand from his jeans.

“Just a typical game at the beach. We built up a pile of sand and put a stick on top and slowly remove the sand from the side without making the stick falls. The loser has to answer any question asked by the winner”

“Okay but all those question stay between us only. If I heard any rumors about me, I'll find you.” Dahee strictly makes up one rule—atleast protecting her privacy.

Dahee’s request makes him let out hearty laugh as he nods his head in response “Yes ma'am!”

With that, the so called ice-breaking game start and Dahee won the 1st round and she decide to take the game lightly by asking why did Younghyun bought the iced mocha instead of others coffee and to his defeat, Younghyun said that he notice every time both of them had discussion, she always ordered iced mocha so it must be her favorite coffee.

The game continued as Younghyun kept on winning and had the chance to ask questions such as if she felt awkward with him or something like ‘you don't have friends other than me right?' and other stupid questions. For the first time, Younghyun saw her smiling and giggles—not a smirk or scoff but a full smiles that makes her face radiates joyfulness and giggles that ringing in his ears, something that he felt happy hearing that.

As the sunset set downs, they're sitting side by side, enjoy the evening to the fullest—heart feeling warm for each other company for the day.

“Hey, it's nearly 7p.m. I think we should get going now before it's get dark” Dahee suggested as they slowly make their way to the car.

Just as both of them get in the car, Younghyun starts the car but failed—making him flustered. He tries again but it just the same, the car won't start. Dahee notice that he is been struggling with the car.

Concernly, she worriedly asked “Why? The car isn't starting?”

“U-uh y-yeah” he answered timidly whilst he’s been trying hard to start the engine all over again but it just won’t start.

“Perhaps we’re out of oil?” Dahee asked, biting her lips nervously

“I don’t think we’re run out of oil because there is no signs showing the oil is finished. Look at here.” Younghyun said as he show the oil meter is still left with half “Wait, I’ll check at the front” he spoke as the hood opened up.

“Damn it” Younghyun softly curse after 10 minutes he went to check up on the engine but didn’t go unnoticed by Dahee as she went up to him.

“Did something happened?” Dahee softly asked, eyeing the man in front of her with his rolled up sleeve up till his elbow, messy hair as Younghyun looked up to her with both hands smeared with dirt and black oil.

Younghyun took a deep breath and let out deep sigh before he spoke up “The fuel pump broke so that is why the engine won’t start.” Younghyun said as he wipe his hands with tissues given by Dahee “Thanks” he softly mumbles.

Lots of thoughts running through Dahee’s mind right now. There is must be something they can at least to make the car back to normal. “What should we do now?”

“I’ll try to call my mechanic, we’ll see if he can come over right now to fix it” he said, taking out his phone and immediately called the mechanic.

‘Thank god’ Dahee thought she leaned over the car door, waiting for Younghyun response.

“We’re doomed. They can’t come over as they short of workers right now. The earliest they can come here is at 6 in the morning tomorrow” Younghyun said after he end the called and went up to Dahee.

“What? You’re kidding me, right? There is no way no one can’t com—”

“It’s true though. Why would I lied to you? Do you think I expect this to happened?” he snapped at her, feeling as if Dahee accuse her causing all the chaos but he just received silence as response. Younghyun notice deep sighs left Dahee’s lips as she turn her heels away from from him—pushing her bangs to the back in frustration in process. He think for a moment as something popped off his mind—felt sorry for her. “Wait here. I’ll go to the restaurant and asked if there is any workshop near here” Younghyun said as he makes his way back to the restaurant they had their lunch without waiting for Dahee’s reaction—leaving Dahee in utterly annoyed and speechless.

After 15 minutes Younghyun came back. His heart nearly stopped when he look Dahee is nowhere to be found but then calm again when he found her sitting in the car at the passenger seat—writing something on her notebook. Younghyun cleared his throat as he stands near the car door, catching her attention as Dahee quickly stop writing and close her book hurriedly.

“They said, the nearest workshop is down at the town which takes about one and half an hour to reach there and they don’t have towing car...For public transportation, the last bus and taxi is at 6:30 p.m.” Younghyun explained to her, hoping she would understand

“Okay. I guess we’‘ll just wait till 6 a.m. in the morning then” Dahee bitterly smiled to him—already giving up to going home. Staying in the car would be the last choice.

Upon seeing her reaction, Younghyun felt wronged for snapping to her just now. “Are you hungry? I’ll go buy some foods from the convenience store there” He nervously asked.

“Anything would be fine” Dahee flatly answered without looking at him as she busily writing on her notebook. Younghyun left her at the car as his mind thinking of ways to apologize to her soon.

Younghyun hurriedly runs to the car after buying some food and drinks as the clouds starts to rains heavily—startling Dahee in process. Before she could asked what made him run, the rains starts hitting the car’s roof hard making the question in her mind answered itself.

Rain—something that makes Dahee felt self conscious and triggers something in her mind from last 7 years but she just brush it off.

Few moments later, Younghyun took out some sausage rolls and canned mocha drinks, handed to Dahee as he softly called her “Hey”

Dahee who lost in her train of thought while watching the droplet of rain rolls down the window, snapped back into reality when she heard Younghyun called for her, turning her attention to him, raising her eyebrows in confusion when she saw the foods handed by him.

“Symbol of reconciliation? I’m sorry for lashing out to you just now. I know I shou—”

“That’s okay. It’s not your fault anyway. Both of us are tired, I understand. I’m sorry too—for causing you distress” Dahee’s said, slight chuckles at her owns words, giving Younghyun small smiles as she takes the food, muttering a soft thanks to him.

Big grins plastered on his face upon hearing her words as his face lights up. “So, we’re good now?” he eagerly asked as Dahee just hummed in response while opening up her canned mocha drink.

One hour passed by but the rain seems doesn’t want to stop but instead it rained more heavily. Both of them kills the time by talking random topics from Younghyun cracking lame jokes to he ranting how desperately he wants people call him at least Young K, not Brian.

“You’re the first person to call me Younghyun. Why Younghyun, not Young K or Brian?” he curiously asked

His question makes Dahee’s lips unconsciously curled into smiles “I don’t know. It’s just feels right and I think that name really suits you well” she said, looking up to him as Younghyun looked proud with her answer and a shade of pink tinted his light cheek, making Dahee slightly chuckles whilst he continue to stare at her face—a moment of silence in the car as Dahee clear her throat to shook off the awkward silence, making Younghyun realize he’s been staring at her for too long, turning his head to the side, taking the cold water and gulped down to calm himself down.

“I’m sorry” he softly mumbles as his hands awkwardly holds the steering handle while Dahee just continue staring at the window, looking at the non stop rain that start to have thunders and lightning—something triggers in her mind. Guessing that she might feel uncomfortable again, Younghyun decide to let her alone with her thoughts.

The thunderstorm and lightning scares her so much, bringing back her memories from 7 years ago. Dahee tries to stay calm but her mind clouds with so many bad memory and she could felt herself shaken a little bit when there is thunders.

“Y-Younghyun, I’m scared” Dahee let out her concern to the man beside her without looking at him with her voice shaking and cracking.

Sensing something is off, Younghyun quickly turns his attention to her, worriedly he asked “Hey, you okay? What are you scared of? Tell me” he persuade.

“The t-thunder reminds me about the accident” Dahee said, hands anxiously clasped together, still not looking at Younghyun.

“What accident? Hey, can you look at me?” with that, Dahee turns her head to him, tears threaten to fall from corner of her eyes, her dry lips quivering as her body shaken making Younghyun shocked. Carefully, he asked “Why? why? I don’t understand.”

“My m-mom’s accident. It’s raining and the thunder makes me scared. What if something happens?” Dahee said as tears falls hard from her eyes, sobbing quietly with her head down.

Her words quickly makes Younghyun realized—it is about her trauma.

Yougnhyun thinks hard how to calm her down, nervously, he brought his hands towards her head—softly patting her “Hey hey, there is nothing gonna happens as long as I’m with you. Okay? Can you trust me?” He said but her crying doesn’t seems like gonna stop. “Tell me. What can I do for you? I’ll do everything.” Younghyun said, lifting up her face with his hand, wiping off her tears with his thumbs softly as he patiently waits for Dahee to response.

“I don’t want to be here.” Dahee stated, with tears streaming down her eyes.

He needs to bring Dahee to a much safer place and calm her down. His quick wits remind of the small home stay beside the restaurant they had lunch. He quickly took his bag at the backseat and his extra leather jacket. He puts on the leather jacket on Dahee, covering her head at least from the rain and slung his bag over his shoulder before he dash out from the car and went up to the passenger side.

“Let’s go!” Younghyun said as he pulled Dahee out of the car into his embrace and shut the door before hurriedly runs towards the home stay.

He quickly settled with the cashier at the lobby with Dahee standing behind him, holding tightly onto his jacket that wrapped around herself, tears still visible and hiccups still can be heard.

As they reach at the room, it just a small room with a little touch of old style village but it doesn’t matter at this moment.

Younghyun let Dahee sit, making herself comfortable as he opened up the water bottle, hand over to her, signaling her to drink up and she gladly take it into her hand, muttering a soft thanks to him. He quietly sat beside at Dahee, waiting for her to calm down and taking things slowly at her own pace as his eyes wondering around the house, hoping his presence helps her even a little bit meanwhile Dahee is slowly recovering her own traumas as tears slowly dried out with hiccups and sniffling left. It took her for good 40 minutes to come back to her senses, wiping off the left over tears and tidying herself to make it look less miserable in front of Younghyun. She softly hand over his leather jacket that been wrapping around her, catching his attention, as she mouthing a thanks.

He took a quick glance over her, ensuring she truly calm. Just as Younghyun tried to open up his mouth to asked something but Dahee cut him off first.

“I’m not ready to talk about this yet. I hope you understand this” Dahee said, pleading with her eyes, hoping Younghyun would understand her situation.

“Yeah of course I won’t force anything out of you.”

“Thank you...for everything” Dahee trailing her words as she shifting her attention to the floor, avoiding Younghyun foxy eyes that has been staring at her. ”And I’m sorry you have to see that��

Her words makes him chuckles at herself “That’s okay, there is no need to be sorry about that. I’m sure everyone been experiencing that too” Younghyun ensuring her and somewhat leaving them in silence, making him clearing his throat to brush if off “Here, change your clothes. It’s not good to wear damped clothes.” Younghyun said, passing over the bag to Dahee

She took a look into the bag and found that only his clothes can be found. “It’s your clothes?” Dahee questioningly asked.

“Did you bring any extra clothes?” Younghyun asked her back and she just shook her head slowly, pouts slightly visible on her lips “Then just use mine”

“What about you then?” she looked up at him

“That’s okay. I’m not drenched that bad.” Younghyun assure her as he lay down on his back against the floor, closing his eyes and putting his arms on his forehead whilst the other one support his head as the pillow.

His act makes Dahee a little guilty towards him. He has done a lot for her tonight. She can’t let him sleep with his clothes soaked with rain. “Younghyun.” Dahee called him out

“Just get changed. I’m going to sleep here and you can take the other side of the room.” he said, without sparring her glance.

“You going to get sick if you don’t get changed.”

“I’m going sleep first~” Younghyun replied, totally ignoring her words with a slight of smile from corner of his lips which Dahee didn’t notice—leaving her speechless with the reaction.

After a moment of thinking, she decide to change into his clothes and wash up. When she came out from the toilet, Younghyun been sleeping like a log without a movement. Dahe moves slowly across the room and place her own clothes at one side and sat across him.

Dahee let out a deep sighs—rethinking about what happened today. If it wasn’t for Younghyun, she would be a mess and for that, she felt thankful for having him for today. Maybe he wasn’t that bad, Dahee thought as she staring at him who still sleeping soundly on the cold floor without any comforter. Feeling guilty, Dahee starts to search for any blanket or comforter in the closet and took out two of it—one for her and another one, she covered the blanket over Younghyun sleeping state, resulting him stirring in his sleep.

Dahee makes herself laying comfortable across the room, trying to sleep as the night deepens but failed. She shifting left and right to but her eyes doesn’t seems tired from today thus she decide to call Taeyong. Dahee pushes the wooden door and stay outside the room to make the call, afraid her voice would woke Younghyun up and green scenery greets her when step out from the room—thankfully the rained has slowly stop.

“Hey, how’s your trip going?” Dahee asked when taeyong picked her call

“Good, the air in Japan truly different in Korea” Taeyong replied over the phone, making Dahee lightly chuckles to him

“You’re lucky I’m not there to punch you on the stomach” she jokingly said, earning high pitch laughs from Taeyong.

They take turns asking about each other day and slowly Dahee open up about what happened to her today, how guilty she is making Younghyun seeing the vulnerable side of her and Taeyong truly concerned about it.

“Are you sure you don’t want to me to come back early?” Taeyong asked, worries can be heard in his tone

“No it’s okay. Just take care of your business there, no need to rush coming back here. I’m okay now. I’m really mean it” Dahee assured him.

“Okay, I’ll be back in another two days and we can go get your favourite pastries, okay?”

His words makes Dahee let out small giggles “Yes sir!” she jokingly said and comfortable silences filled the conversation before Dahee decide to speak up again “Taeyong, I think I need to sleep now. I’m getting sleepy.” Dahee said, slightly yawned

“Okay, go to bed now. I’ll talk to you later. Hey! Immediately call me when anything happens!” he reminds Dahee, feeling worried leaving her alone whenever he has abroad schedule.

“Yes Taeyong-shii, I’ll keep it in my mind. You take care of yourself will you? Take a break for awhile!” Dahee replied, feeling as if being scolded by Taeyong. It took them for awhile to end the call and properly bid goodbye to each other.

As Dahee entered the room, she greeted by awaken Younghyun who is typing something on his phone but then stopped when he notice Dahee’s presence.

“Oh did I woke you up? I know I should keep my voice lower. I’m sorry.” Dahee flusteredly said, slightly bowing before make her way to her bed as Younghyun just silently eyeing her.

“No no. You’re not disturbing me. It’s okay. You going to sleep?” he asked and Dahee just hummed in response as she wrapped herself in the blanket and turn to face the wall instead of Younghyun as he leaver her alone to sleep.

One hour passed and Younghyun still can’t fall asleep as he kept on tossing and turn few times but failed. Lots of thing running in his mind. Younghyun felt something aches in his heart when he accidentally heard Dahee talked with Taeyong as Dahee laughs a lot with Taeyong but not with him. He felt a pang of jealousy when Dahee being friendly with Taeyong instead of him but he realizes that he is nothing to her other than stranger or her partner of the project—which makes him shook his head in disbelief, letting out deeps sighs in process.

“Did something bothering you?” Dahee’s words interrupt his train of thought as Younghyun snapped back into reality, turning his attention to Dahee who laying opposite him with her back facing him.

“Oh, you didn’t asleep yet?” he curiously asked

Dahee turns her body with blanket wrapped perfectly around body, facing Younghyun across her “Let say, I have trouble with sleeping?” she softly said, throwing him a flat smile and waits for his response but he just keep on staring at her so she asked him “So what’s keep you awake?”

Younghyun looks at her with so much of curiosity and adoration on his face as if he wants to ask something to Dahee but he just keep it to himself and answered her questions instead “My parents. I’m thinking about them”

“Why? Did they called you? Ah they must be worried about you. Did you tell them about what happened today?”

Tons of question blurts out from Dahee makes him chuckles at her and told that his parents didn’t call him and they didn’t know of what happened to him today. When Dahee asked him to call them, he just brush it off, telling Dahee that his parents didn’t care about such things as they were too busy with their business and didn’t spare much time for their son which Younghyun felt empty when growing up thus telling them of what happened to him today wouldn't make any difference. Younghyun is used to his parent going abroad so he just find himself playing bass with his friend and with that, his own band is formed—DAY6 is what they called themselves. They are family to Younghyun.

The band felt so familiar with Dahee as Taeyong keep them updated to her but she just brush it off so Taeyong stop talking about them. Seeing Younghyun open up about his family make she felt nothing is perfect as Younghyun lack of affection and loves from his parents while she just felt empty from her own family.

Dahee realized that as if both of them complete each other. She felt dark and empty inside from her past as if her own light faded whilst Younghyun needs someone to shows him loves, warmth and affection—deep down Dahee felt she wants to help Younghyun felt all those feelings but she feel like she doesn’t deserve to show him that as she herself despise against loves and affection.

Both of them keep on talking until Younghyun realized that Dahee has fallen asleep while listening to him talked. He went over her and carefully adjust her blanket up till her shoulder, afraid she would catch cold. He softly whispered ‘thank you’ as he pats her head lovingly before going back to sleep across Dahee.

The next day, the car is fixed when Younghyun’s mechanic came and fixed. When Younghyun insisted on dropping Dahee at her house as a way of him to apologize when the car broke down, she have no choice but to give in. She politely thanked him as they arrived and make her way up to her apartment—ready to sleep in and lucky her, she got no classes for the whole day. As for Younghyun, he receives an earful from his band members—complaining that he should contact him instead of waiting for the mechanic to come.

Few weeks passed, Dahee and Younghyun continue their usual discussion as they planned at the coffee shop—it become their routine and Younghyun silently observed her schedule. She would went to her part time work and Taeyong would pick her up. He doesn’t have the chance to ask about Taeyong to Dahee yet as he doesn’t want Dahee felt awkward about their bond now and all those things that happened to them few weeks before.

“I guess that is for today? We’re almost finish with the report so I think there will be once or twice meet up for discussion that would wrap up for our report before the actual presentation.” Dahee said, shutting down her laptop and packing up her stuff on the table without sparring Younghyun a glance.

“Yeah I think that it. You’re going to work? Already?” He asked, sipping the iced americano in his hand.

Dahee hummed in response, pushing her hair to the back in process before a notification pops up on her phone “Oh Taeyong’s here” Dahee chirped, bidding goodbye to Younghyun as she skipped on her way out from the cafe—leaving Younghyun behind with jealousy plastered on his face.

‘ah just who on earth is Taeyong to Dahee? perhaps her boyfriend? ey no way’ Younghyun thought.

Working at the snack bar makes Dahee felt she at home—the boys makes the atmosphere more lively with their constant bickering and having fun teasing the only girl at the kitchen as Grandma has her back, scolding the boys when she told her about them.

The front door chimed along with the bell, signaling someone just entered into the snack bar.

“Welcome to our bar! Please wait awhile~” Dahee cheerfully shouts to welcome the customer while wiping the other table without sparring a look to the customer who just entered.

Just as Dahee take a look at the customer, she dropped the rag on the floor.

“Oh you?!” Younghyun said, failed to hide his excitement in his voice, leaving her speechless and dumbfounded—feeling as if she has been busted.

Mouth slightly agape as Dahee watched Younghyun slowly approach her, with his friend tagged along behind him while Dahee’s brain works hard to remember who is his friend—looking familiar to Dahee.

Feeling flustered, Dahee slightly back way when Younghyun is nearer “O-Oh, your table is this way” she showed him his table.

“Wow, this is amazing. I never thought I’d meet you here” Younghyun as he taking his seat at the table as Dahee just showing him thin smile.

“What would you like to order?” Dahee asked, paper and pen in her hands, totally ignoring Younghyun at the moment and casually taking order from them.

As Dahee hand over the order to Taeil, Jungwoo and Mark quickly rushed to her, looking concern as if something bothering Dahee. She told them about Younghyun as both of them nodded in understanding.

“Do you want me to take over them?” Mark asked as Dahee ready to serve the foods where Younghyun sat with his friend.

“It’s alright. It’s not a big deal anyway” Dahee assure him and proceeds doing her job.

“Hey, is that your friend?” the boy with bunny looking asked Younghyun when Dahee walked away from their table.

“Yes, she is my partner in the field study too” Younghyun replied, continue eating his noodles with gusto right after Dahee served it.

Upon hearing that, Wonpil tilted his head in confusion, feeling somewhat strange. “You didn’t introduce to us yet but why do I felt like I have seen her somewhere?” Wonpil asked

Wonpil’s words make Younghyun nods his head in agreement. “Right? That what I told her when we first met but she told me she didn’t knew me”

Wonpil just shook if off when nothing came up in his mind “Maybe it just her doppelganger”

After the coincidence meet up, Younghyun sometime would came over the snack bar alone to have his dinner and become a regular there—till a point that the boys become friends with him and Grandma is so pleased and happy to have him at the bar.

“Did Dahee come here to work everyday?” Younghyun curiously asked Grandma who sitting with him at the table he usually came.

“Everyday. She never missed one day working here unless she’s sick.” Grandma explained as she lovingly watched Mark being playful with Dahee.

“Isn’t her parents—I mean her dad. Didn’t she get scolded for coming home so late?”

Grandma lets out small smile upon hearing Younghyun’s question. “I guess she already told you about her mother.” Grandma profusely said and thin line of smile appear on Younghyun’s lips in response.

“Her dad—isn’t like the other dads” Grandma said, looking at Younghyun with a hint of sadness in her eyes as her hands clasped together.

Grandma told Younghyun a little bit about Dahee—about how she found Dahee alone, how she ended up working here and how tough she is when she had to face a family crisis 7 years ago, how empty she been feeling all this time but of course to protect her privacy, Grandma asked Younghyun to asked Dahee himself about herself, about her family if he wants to know more about her.

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drawlfoy · 5 years

Text

Truce

masterlist request guidelines requests are open ♥ per the usssual

this gif hit me in the face :/

pairing: draco x goldentriofriend!reader

request: yes! thank you :) sorry for not actually following the type of soulmate AU you wanted.....i took a creative plunge

summary: draco malfoy and the reader, while having rather tense relations before, are pushed into a strange situation and are forced to work together to get out of it. once they learn the reasoning behind their predicament, things are only complicated further.

warnings: cursing most likely because ~that’s me~ also there’s a mini anxiety attack (i don’t even know if it’s classified as that) so if that’s a trigger i don’t suggest reading this!

a/n: this is the longest fic i’ve writtten in one go and i also don’t have any beta readers or edit it closely, so i apologize for any errors i may have made. if you’re sick of soulmate aus, then this one may not be for you, but i tried to put a fresh spin on it instead of the run-of-the-mill names on their wrists/matching tattoos and whatnot.

music recs: please please please listen to the pride and prejudice soundtrack along with this! it pairs very well, especially with the songs living sculptures of pemberley, dawn, liz on top of the world, and leaving netherfield. so so so good. trust me on this one

word count: 8,596

Thursday morning. It was raining....again. Y/N was getting rather sick of the constant downpour that began the day earlier. She’d exhausted the use of drying spells and eventually stopped doing them--after all, there was no point in going through the trouble if she had to take the trek through the rain in just another hour.

Y/N was reminding her friends, Hermione, Harry, and Ron, of her plight as they walked to Potions.

“I can’t even imagine what would bring this weather onto us,” Y/N told the group, hoisting her robes up so they wouldn’t be dragged through another puddle.

“Can you cut it out?” Ron asked, rolling his eyes and pulling his cloak tighter around his body. “We’re all cold, we’re all wet, we’re all tired. I don’t want to think of it anymore than I have to.”

Hermione smacked Ron’s shoulder lightly, hissing a stressed be nice, Ronald! before turning back to Y/N.

“Be happy that it’s only been two days,” she told Y/N matter-of-factly. “I read in Hogwarts: A History that it once rained for 29 consecutive days. The weather surrounding the castle was temperate and per usual and no one ever found out why. The professors at the time hypothesized that someone got a little angry with the headmaster and messed with the weather. However, I believe...”

Y/N allowed Hermione’s analysis to take her where she wanted it to, instead choosing to study the various groups of students passing by. A group of 4th year Ravenclaws...uninteresting. She knew of some of their older Gryffindor siblings but had never spoken directly to them. A few strides behind, 2nd year Hufflepuffs were splashing around with a 5th year prefect, laughing and relishing the feeling of rain on their faces. Y/N couldn’t fight off the smile forming on her face--there was something about Hufflepuffs that inspired her to appreciate the present.

Then, as luck would allow, a much stormier group of students appeared around the corner: 6th year Slytherins, with, of course, Draco Malfoy at the very front of the pack.

Oh, how much she hated him.

He had a deep scowl etched into his face, his hood pulled taut over his blonde head. A few rogue strands of his hair were plastered to his forehead. Y/N chuckled to herself as the image reminded her of the Slytherin’s brief stint as a ferret in 4th year...except for this time, he resembled more of a drowned rat.

She decided to tell him as such.

“Oi, Malfoy, are ferrets allergic to water?” Her voice carried across the courtyard. Draco froze, his scowl deepening even further.

“What’d you just say to me?”

The Trio was behind Y/N in an instant, pulling back at her.

“Can we not start anything? Please?” Ron pleaded.

“Yeah, it’s too early for this,” Harry added. “Can you take a rain check?”

He yelled the last part out, clearly directing it at both Draco and Y/N.

Too late.

Draco was already in front of Y/N, his icy eyes ablaze.

“Maybe I should give you the same treatment,” he snapped, unsheathing his wand and rolling up his sleeves.

“Oh my god, he’s actually gonna do it Harry,” Y/N heard Ron whisper. “Are you gonna to help?”

“Listen, she got herself into it,” Harry mumbled back. “She could use this as a wake up call to not start any more shit.”

“Come on, Malfoy,” Y/N taunted, holding her empty hands out in front of her. “Do you even know the spell for that?”

“For your information, Transfiguration is one of my best subjects,” Malfoy snarled.

Oh. Now that she thought about it, Transfiguration was the only class he surpassed Hermione in. Sensing impending doom, Y/N reached for her own wand.

She hadn’t been holding it for more than a millisecond before she was disarmed, her wand falling down to the ground and just narrowly missing a deep puddle to her right. Flinching at the sight, Y/N bent down to snatch it up, praying that Malfoy would at least be a gentleman. She had no such luck.

She heard him begin to mutter something under his breath, no doubt the spell that would transfigure her into a ferret. Adrenaline pumped through her veins. He was really going to hex her while she was on the ground?

Y/N managed to jump up in time, abandoning her wand and instead dodging the spell by leaping to the side. Without her wand, Y/N only had one choice to save herself from the next attempt--she had to disarm him manually.

Before Malfoy could gather his bearings Y/N had sprung at him, her bare hands outstretched to knock his wand out of his arm. She was not successful--he jerked his hand out of the way before she could reach it. Instead, Y/N’s hands met the soft skin of Malfoy’s bare arm.

Pop!

The sound rang out, akin to the sound of apparition, but much louder, like everyone in the country decided to apparate at once.

Stunned, the two leapt away from each other. Y/N’s first instinct was to locate her wand, which she did without much trouble.

When she was sturdy on her feet again and ready to fight, she noticed something incredibly strange--not only was Malfoy not rapidly firing hexes at her, everything was completely silent, except, of course, the heavy breathing of Malfoy across from her. He was just as stricken as she was, but his eyes were darting around the scene surrounding him.

The first definite clue that something had happened was the rain. It was no longer falling--but that isn’t to say that the sky had cleared up. No, instead, the drops were stalled in the air, almost like what raindrops looked like when they hit the window if they were suspended in midair.

The second clue was the fact that no one was moving. The whirlwind of motion that had surrounded them in the instances before had halted. Curious, Y/N turned to her friends. Hermione was frozen, her wand up and pointing at Malfoy with a determined expression on her face.

Y/N would’ve smiled, pleased to know that her friends wouldn’t really leave her to be hexed without any help after all, but the situation was far too strange. Her best friend’s eyes were wide and unblinking. A raindrop that had just bounced off her hood was hovering above her brow, the silvery fragments levitating next to it.

“What is this?” Y/N’s voice had lost all previous conviction as the statement broke the crippling silence.

“I...er.....I don’t know.” Malfoy shifted his weight back and forth, deciding to flip his hood off his head now that it wasn’t being assaulted by rain. The fabric collided with the still raindrops above him. Y/N watched as the water fell into motion, pummeling back down to the ground.

“Maybe if we touch everyone, they’ll unfreeze,” Y/N offered.

Malfoy looked like he had something nasty to say in response, but he quickly closed his mouth before jogging over to his friends. He roughly poked Zabini, jumping back directly after to gauge his reaction.

Nothing. Zabini’s body swayed away from Malfoy’s jab, but he did not spring back to life.

“That was a horrid idea, Y/L/N,” he snapped.

“And yet you tried it!” Her frigid hands curled to fists at her sides. “This isn’t my fault!”

“That’s not true!” Malfoy fired back. “The last thing you did before...this...happened was grab my arm! That triggered it!”

“I wasn’t the one trying to hex someone with their back turned!”

The two continued sparring, yelling various insults back at each other and shifting the blame. Eventually, Y/N ran out of venomous things to say and just stood there, her cloaked chest heaving and her fists clenched tight.

“Are you done now?” Malfoy taunted, twirling his wand around his fingers.

“Are you?”

The pair glared at each other. Y/N took note of the fact that they had taken a few steps closer to each other during the yelling match and immediately felt uncomfortable with the proximity.

“What are we going to do?” she asked wearily as she took a step back. “Obviously this has something to do with the two of us...unless this is an elaborate prank pulled on us.”

“A prank!” Malfoy straightened up, a relieved smile on his face. “Exactly! It has to be a prank!”

Y/N furrowed her brow, shaking her head at him.

“You’re an idiot! How could so many people freeze at once! And look at that 2nd year--she’s frozen in midair!”

They both turned to where she was pointing to see a young Hufflepuff floating over a puddle.

“Plus, who would even want to prank us like this? It’s not very fun.” She drew her pointed hand back, crossing her arms instead.

“Well, gee, I don’t know, people don’t like either of us very much,” Malfoy said, his voice annoyingly void of expression.

“What do you mean they don’t like me? It’s you they have a problem with!”

Malfoy shrugged, reaching up to unstick the wet hair on his forehead before flipping the soaked strands back onto his pristine blonde head.

“I don’t know. I’m just brainstorming.”

She glowered for a few moments, refusing to let him off.

“Ok, princess, what would you like me to do?”

The pet name startled her out of her disgruntled state.

“Excuse me?”

“You’re standing there acting like you want me to do something,” Malfoy pointed out. “So, in interest of shutting you up, what is it?”

“Well, I’d certainly like to get back into a world where my friends are acting like they’re alive, yeah?” Y/N tilted her head at him and raised an eyebrow. “But I don’t know if I want to deal with such an intolerable partner such as yourself.”

Malfoy bristled up.

“I’d like nothing more as well. Can we just...call a truce? For the time being, until we get out of here.”

What? Y/N stood frozen as the rest of her classmates in that moment, her brain refusing to comprehend what her enemy had just told her. A truce?

“You mean it?” The words tumbled out before she could stop them.

“You’d think I’d say--” Malfoy stopped himself before he let out another biting remark, huffing dramatically instead. “Yes. I do.”

“Okay then.” Y/N stepped forward, extending her hand and tucking her wand back into her pocket. “Let’s start out simple. Maybe if we touch again, the world will return to normal.”

Malfoy raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything back, instead reaching his own hand out to grasp hers in a handshake.

“But,” he interjected, right before their hands met, “The truce ends when this situation does.”

“Deal.”

With that, they shook hands. Y/N was overjoyed when she felt an airy, light feeling in her stomach, almost like someone had set off sparks inside her at the meeting of their skin. It seemed as though Malfoy felt it too, as he glanced eagerly around at their surroundings. Y/N followed suit, dragging her eyes away from the blonde Slytherin and praying to see movement resume around them.

Nothing. Everything was still, and the thick, deafening silence hung in the air between them.

“Okay, so it isn’t reversed like that,” Y/N pointed out rather lamely. “What next?”

“Do you think time has stopped?” Malfoy suddenly butted in, ignoring her previous question.

“Well...” Y/N thought for a moment. “Yeah. That’s what I assumed. Do you think it could be anything else?”

“Let’s go find a clock,” he suggested. “I would think that time has stopped, but if it’s a prank, then it probably hasn’t...that would take immense and mature magic to do.”

“Okay.”

♥♥♥♥

It took a while to locate the big grandfather clock that Malfoy insisted was always on time, no matter the occasion. Malfoy kept saying “no, nevermind, other corridor” and grabbing her arm to pull her in another direction.

The most horrifying aspect of their trip was the sheer amount of still students and even faculty that they passed by. McGonagall was in the middle of lecturing a rowdy group of 3rd years, her crooked index finger pointed at them in emphasis.

Y/N found it hard to believe that such an esteemed woman would stoop to the level of a prank this concerning, but that didn’t mean she didn’t try pleading with her.

“Please, Professor,” she whined, turning her head as Malfoy dragged her down the hall. “If this is a prank, please make it stop. I don’t understand why this is happening...”

Malfoy scoffed.

“You really think McGonagall is going to do us any favors when I’m with you? You’re even more daft than I thought.”

Y/N shoulder bumped him aggressively, sending him a sour look.

“Truce, remember?”

Sighing dramatically, Malfoy just steered her down another side corridor, one she had never been down before.

“Ah, here it is.”

Malfoy cast a quick Lumos to observe the clock in the dim corridor and was cemented into his beliefs when he noticed that the second hand was completely stationary.

“Yeah, time’s stopped alright,” he reported, extinguishing his wand. “This probably isn’t a prank.”

He watched in shock as Y/N slumped to the ground by the wall, holding her head in her hands.

“What is it?”

“I can’t believe this is happening to me, of all people!” she exclaimed, vividly enunciating her words with her hand movements. “I’ve never done anything bad, I follow most of the rules, I’m only occasionally a pain in the arse, and now suddenly I’m stuck in a...glitch in the matrix or something, with you none the less!”

Malfoy raised his eyebrows.

“Truce, remember?” He took extra care to imitate the exact way she said just a few moments ago.

“It’s not an insult, it’s just the truth!” Y/N cried out. “You sure as fuck know how much you torment me and my friends on stuff we can’t change!”

Females. This was why Malfoy never lasted in relationships--girls were different. You couldn’t just treat them like trash and expect them to forget about it.

“Can we please just focus on the task at hand right now? You can yell at me all you want after this is all sorted out.”

Y/N lifted her head from her knees to glare at Malfoy. Perhaps it was just the low lighting that was messing with him, but he thought he could see the slight gleam of unshed tears in her eyes.

“Why? We apparently have all the time in the world,” she countered. “And plus, what if we never get out? What if I’m stuck in this with you forever?”

Malfoy ran a hand through his hair, leaning on the wall opposite of hers.

“We can’t afford to think like that right now,” he told her. “There has to be a reason behind this. People don’t get wrapped up in these things randomly without us knowing about it.”

“But what if the world is going on as normal right now? What if we just disappeared?” Y/N’s voice struggled to hold in a sob.

“Are you joking?” Malfoy scoffed. “You seriously think that I could go missing without someone noticing?”

“Please, Draco! Stop!”

“Stop...what exactly?” He sunk down to the ground as well. They would’ve been eye level with each other if Y/N wasn’t hung between her knees. “And why did you call me Draco?”

“Is that seriously what you’re concerned about right now?” Y/N wailed. “Whether or not I used your surname? Are you kidding me? We’re in the middle of a crisis!”

Malfoy couldn’t help it--he let out a small chuckle.

“What are you laughing about?”

“A crisis? Really?” He pushed his laughter back, leaving just slight amusement on his face. “I could think of plenty of girls that would consider this a blessing.”

“You’re deranged.”

“Truce!”

“Fuck you.”

Y/N stood up, brushing her robes off as she began to stride off down the corridor they came from.

“Where are you going?” Malfoy called, getting on his own feet as well.

“I’m going to find out how to get out of here,” she responded, raising her voice so it would carry. She didn’t even bother to look over her shoulder. “And since you’re so difficult, I want to do it by myself. Come find me when you want to behave.”

Her figure disappeared as she turned a corner, leaving Malfoy to sort out his own feelings.

Why had that hurt him?

♥♥♥♥

While she was afraid, Y/N couldn’t hide the fact that she was overwhelmed with possibility. If she truly had all the time in the world, then maybe she could read all the books in the library, or study for all of her N.E.W.T.S, or...she shut off the naughtier thoughts. If she had no moral backbone, perhaps she would go around messing with the frozen people surrounding her, but she knew that was a bad idea. Even suspending the concern for basic human decency, she knew full well that Draco was going to try and unfreeze time. If he managed to do so while she was in the middle of mussing up Parkinson’s hair, she would be brutally slaughtered.

So, naturally, she began to make her way to the library. Y/N’s first instinct would be to ask McGonagall for help, but she was clearly not a viable option, so studying and perusing books would have to suffice.

But what would she even search for?

The silence finally felt natural once she stepped into the library. There were a few students frozen in their spots, but not enough to disturb Y/N anymore than she already was. Madam Pince was at her desk, holding a book just inches above the table.

“Looking for something?”

The sudden sound made Y/N leap in the air as Draco appeared around the corner, holding a few books in his hands.

“You git!” she hissed. “Keep it down!”

“Or what? Madam Pince will throw me out?” His lip quirked.

Y/N let out a nervous laugh.

“Oh...guess you’re right.”

He rolled his eyes, turning his back to her to head back over to a bookshelf and shooting an “Am I ever not?” over his shoulder.

She chose to skip over the general Arithmancy, Charms, and Potions sections and headed straight for the restricted section. Without Pince to stop her, she’d finally have free rein, something she had never had before. Momentarily, Y/N was happy, even if it meant that she had to freeze time for it.

Y/N worked diligently, skimming through every book on the shelf. Nothing mentioned instances of time stopping under the conditions that occurred for them--rather, she read a fair bit on time turners and the like. But nothing, absolutely nothing, offered any information regarding time freezing over something as simple as a touch.

She was incredibly disappointed. If she were to choose any section that would help her with obscure magic, it would be the Restricted section, and even it managed to fail her this time.

The familiar rope of anxiety tightened around her throat, and suddenly she was fighting for her access to oxygen. Her breaths became shallow pants as she braced herself against the bookshelf.

Calm down, calm down, breathe, breathe.

“Oh, shit, Y/N, are you okay?”

A flash of blonde appeared in her peripheral, dashing towards her. The sudden movement should’ve startled her, but for some reason, the prospect of having a moving, breathing human with her was more comforting than anything. Even if she hated his guts. Even if he just recently tried to transfigure her into a ferret.

Y/N found herself unable to respond, instead choosing to focus on chanting her inner mantra of in, out for each breath she took. She could see that he was much closer now, sidled up to her left shoulder.

“It’s me, Y/N, you’re okay,” he told her, reaching up a hand to grasp her shoulder. It wasn’t necessarily the sweetest gesture, but the amount of pressure was just enough to ground Y/N and keep her breaths from shallowing into frantic gasps.

She nodded, still not trusting her voice to work. A pale hand that was not her own reached up to push a strand of hair out of her face.

I’ve really done it this time she thought. I’m so off my rocker that I’m hallucinating Draco Malfoy being nice to me.

Her eyelashes began to flutter closed as she swayed and lost her balance. This was new--any time she had felt too overwhelmed in the past, she had only gotten breathless and a little lightheaded, never actually woozy.

She attempted to use her voice to tell Draco that she needed to sit down, but it betrayed her, her statement coming out as a string of mumbles.

“What was that?” She could see his face, granted, it was fuzzy, but even she could decipher the concern etched into his face.

“I need to sit down,” she finally got out, barely hearing herself.

Realization flowed into Draco, and within seconds his arms were around her, guiding her way to the ground. Y/N was a tad shaky on the way down, but she managed to keep her head on straight. Once she was indisputably sitting on the floor, Draco retracted his arms and sat up straight, watching as she leaned back into the bookshelf and cast her eyes to the ceiling, breathing shakily.

He knew better than to push for an answer at the moment, so he waited for her to offer an explanation.

It didn’t take her long to regain her strength. Blinking the cloudiness out of her eyes, she leaned forward and looked Draco in the eyes.

“Why are you being so nice to me?”

“Truce.”

At some point in time, Draco had sat down opposite of her, his knees drawn to his chest, mirroring Y/N’s position. The aisle was cramped enough for their knees to brush every time one of them shifted, and she wasn’t so sure that she minded that. Not anymore.

“Do you want to tell me what happened?” Draco asked gently, reaching out a hand to place on her knee. He told himself that it was simply to steady her--nevermind that she looked fine and was no longer swaying anymore. He was just a gentleman like that.

“Er...” She swallowed, looking up at the ceiling so she wouldn’t need to meet his eyes. If he saw her now, he’d know just how afraid she was. “I was searching this section, hoping to find something, and I didn’t, and the Restricted section has everything and I realized that if it’s not in here then it’s probably nowhere and no one knows and even if they did they could’ve help us because they’re frozen--”

“Y/N, breathe,” Draco commanded, letting his fingers spread to hold onto her knee a little firmer. “It’s all going to be okay. The Restricted section only would’ve helped if this was Dark Magic, or had some kind of offensive secret behind it. It doesn’t feel like that, does it?” He motioned to the air around them.

Y/N had to agree. She was scared, but at the same time, she didn’t feel like she was in immediate danger. There was no essence of evil around.

“Have you found anything?”

“No, but I’ve only searched the History section. I didn’t find much in there. There were a few odd mentions about time stopping, but I didn’t really get what they were referencing...they were all very old books.”

Y/N nodded.

“Do you want to check Divination next? Just in case.”

Draco rolled his eyes.

“I can’t say that I’m enthused, but I guess that we have no choice but to do so.”

He jumped to his feet before Y/N could start moving, extending a hand out to her.

“I just got overwhelmed. I’m not going to die,” Y/N grumbled.

“You’re the only company I have,” Draco responded. “How do you think I’d feel if something happened to you?”

With that, he snatched her hand himself and pulled her up, albeit very carefully to her pleasant surprise.

♥♥♥♥

Between the two of them, it didn’t take long to skim a good portion of the books for anything regarding the freezing of time. Y/N was beginning to lose hope as they neared the final section.

Sensing her worry returning, Draco stepped closer to her, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“We still have the entire library to search,” he soothed, his thumb moving in a tight, slow circle. “Don’t worry.”

Against her better judgement, she leaned back into him, allowing him to support her weight as her eyes squeezed shut.

“How are you not scared?”

“How do you know that I’m not?”

“Truce.”

Draco immediately backed down.

“Sorry. You’re just so easy to disagree with.”

Y/N giggled--actually giggled, to her horror--and attempted to distract herself from the embarrassment by engrossing herself in the next book she had pulled down. Draco had turned back around and was reading his own finding.

Her eyes, tired from the mounds of books she had skimmed before, lazily flicked over the table of contents before seeing a title that stopped her in her tracks.

When Time Freezes, 394

Y/N quickly flicked to the page, her heart beating fast. Could this be it?

It was.

“Draco, Draco, I think I’ve found something!” she cheered, spinning around to grab him. He snapped his own book closed and peered over her shoulder.

Together, they scanned the page, and together, their faces paled and jaws dropped.

“So...we’re soulmates? And that’s even a thing?”

Draco had moved away from her, leaving a few feet in between them. It seemed appropriate given how surprised he was, but still. The desired distance stung Y/N a little, but she was determined not to show it.

“Ridiculous, I’ve never heard of ‘soulmates’ being anything but a fantasy some people get wrapped up in.” Draco’s mouth twisted back into a scowl. Y/N realized that that was the first time he’d frowned ever since they’d begun to work together.

“It makes sense that you wouldn’t,” Y/N prodded. “It’d be such a rare phenomenon...it doesn’t discriminate on whether or not you’re a wizard or a muggle, it doesn’t care if your soulmate is halfway across the world and will never meet you. It doesn’t care if your soulmate dies when you’re both children. To meet a soulmate, even if it was real, would be such a rarity that of course no one would speak of it...with 7 billion people on earth, how would you know?”

Draco nodded begrudgingly.

“So, instead, time just freezes until you can figure this out?”

“It says right here that in ancient times, before humans had moved all across the world, it was much more common and it that was fabled to have inspired the phrase about how one’s heart stops when they see someone they love. And I assume the frozen time, triggered by the first time their bare skin touches, is offered to give the pair time to connect, and er....naturally perform the act that would unfreeze time without even knowing why time is frozen.” Y/N’s cheeks grew embarrassingly hot and she was sure that Draco could see it.

“And...what exactly is that? I didn’t read that far.”

“You have to....” Y/N swallowed and closed her eyes for bravery, “...kiss the other person.”

She wished that she hadn’t looked so pathetic, sitting there with her flaming cheeks over nothing but a kiss.

The sound of laughter broke her out of her pity party.

“What’s so funny, Draco?”

“You’re this flustered by a...kiss? Seriously?” He was doubled over, his hands supporting his weight on the bookshelf. “You’re joking, right? This is no big deal. We just do it, forget about it, and move on, yeah?”

“I thought you’d be less agreeable about it,” Y/N confessed, her face impossibly red.

“I mean, on a normal day, I might have reservations, but I’d do just about anything to get back to normalcy. I don’t think I can take this much longer.”

Y/N felt an unexpected dagger twist in her heart. It was really that bad to spend time with her?

“Of course, let’s just get it over with,” she choked out, hoping that he didn’t see how conflicted she was.

“No, not yet.”

Y/N knit her brows together in confusion.

“We need to be back in the courtyard! If we’re there one second and gone the next, people will have suspicions,” Draco explained slowly.

“Oh...yeah, I forgot.”

♥♥♥♥

On the walk back, Draco laid out very clear rules--if this worked, neither of them would speak about it again. His reasoning was that every married couple he knew weren’t soulmates--if they were, they would’ve said so.

“So, it shouldn’t matter much whether or not we’re soulmates,” he rationalized. “You’re a muggleborn, I’m a Malfoy, this just isn’t going to work out. I’ll go off and marry a pureblood, you’ll go off, and...”

His voice trailed off, and Y/N was suddenly hyper-aware of the lump forming in her throat. All the affection that he had shown to her...fake, just simply the product of their bizarre circumstances. She had thought for a second that he... but she should’ve known better than to trust his kindness; it was all a front.

“What’s the matter, Y/L/N?”

“What?”

“You didn’t have a biting remark to my slight,” he pointed out, shooting her a curious look.

“I’m just distracted,” she lied, dragging her fingernails across her palms.

“What could be more enthralling than the fact that we’re about to unfreeze time!” He gestured grandly to the still students around them. They had arrived to their original spot and life as she knew it was about to resume. So why did she feel so bad?

“I don’t know, the fact that the universe thought that we were a perfect match for each other?” Y/N was horrified by the squeak her voice had become. “And the fact that you’re acting like it doesn’t matter?”

Draco shoved his hands back into his pocket, seeming to be deep in thought for a few moments.

“Soulmates are dated,” he finally offered. “Even if you are my soulmate--”

“I am.”

“Still.” His face was stony, expressionless. “We’d never work out. Not in my family. And after all, do you mean to tell me that you want to spend the rest of your life with someone who almost transfigured you into an animal against your will?”

“I...er...I...” Y/N’s tongue suddenly seemed too large for her mouth. He’d really backed her into a corner, and judging by the way he was observing her, he damn well knew it. “I don’t know.”

“Perhaps it’s better that we just don’t think about it anymore.” He took hold of her hand, gently leading her over to where they had been standing. “Throw your wand on the ground.”

Y/N did as instructed, letting go of his hand in the process.

“And you, put your hood back on,” she said, pointing at his head.

He did so without complaint.

“So this is it, then,” Y/N stated, a little part of her hoping that he would correct her. “We’re going back to our fighting. The truce is over. And we’re going to pretend like we aren’t destined for each other?”

“If soulmates really were destined for each other, then why do none of them meet?”

Y/N prayed that Draco thought that the wetness on her cheeks was from walking through the sheets of still rain. Perhaps if she kept telling herself that, she’d believe it too.

“Oh, and, Malfoy?” She was bitterly pleasured when he saw the hurt flash in his eyes with the usage of his last name. “Roll up your sleeves, will you?”

Poking his wand in his pocket, he made quick work of the job while Y/N attempted to pretend like he didn’t look like the most precious thing when he had his hood on.

“Okay, so,” he began awkwardly once his sleeves were taken care of, “You’re going to grab my forearm the way you were before, and I’m going to lift my other hand to cover our faces from my side...”

Y/N drowned out the instructions, instead suddenly panicking at what she was about to do.

“...and....Y/L/N, are you even listening to me?”

“No,” she admitted.

“Is something wrong?” She hated the way his eyes shone with what a bystander--or anyone, really--could interpret as genuine worry. She knew better now.

“I just...” Her breath caught. She had no reason to be confiding anything in him, but for some reason, the confession left her before she could veto the idea. “I didn’t imagine my first being like...”

She trailed off, giving up on finding the words to fit her inner turmoil. Draco’s ice blue eyes widened with amusement.

“You haven’t kissed anyone before?! I can’t say that I’m shocked.”

“No need to rub it in.” Y/N looked up at him with the nastiest glare that she could muster, which, unfortunately, was pathetic at best.

“Don’t worry, I’m good enough for the both of us,” he joked, placing her hand on his forearm. “Just shut your eyes. It’ll be over before you know it.”

He gazed down at her, waiting for her venomous objection. When it didn’t come, he took one step closer to her. “You ready?”

Y/N only had time to croak a weak “yeah” before he leaned in and pressed his lips to hers. It was wetter than she expected--but then again, the tears running down her cheeks had gained enough momentum to moisten her lips, and the rain certainly hadn’t done her any favors either.

Draco was right; he really did know what he was doing. It was all she could do to grip onto his forearm and allow him to lead. It began gentle enough, just the tender interlocking of his enviably soft lips and her inexperienced ones. Then, in a moment of bravery, his got more insistent, prying at hers tentatively, encouraging her to open them.

She was clinging onto his robes with her free hand, twisting them around and pulling him closer as her tears continued to flow. The salty taste of the kiss gave her away, but she had passed the limit of caring. It was all about to be over, anyways, and Draco had made it more than clear that he had no interest in having her.

Instead of giving into his demands, Y/N steeled herself and pushed him off her.

Pop!

The shrill sound bounded through the courtyard as Y/N bent down, snatching up her wand and pointing it back to a very shocked Malfoy.

“Try that shit on me again,” she spat, hoping that the now falling rain was disguising the wetness on her face. “I dare you. I will ruin you.”

He snarled.

‘Forgive me. I should’ve known better than to waste my time engaging with you, anyways.”

With that, he spun on his heel, turning back to the now breathing group of Slytherins. They were walking out of sight before Y/N could even comprehend what she had done. Had she just imagined all of that? No, that didn’t make any sense. She knew what happened, and she wasn’t a lunatic.

“Y/N, never do that again!” Harry exclaimed, rushing towards her and holding her face in his hands. “Are you okay? Why are you crying?”

Y/N sucked in a shaky breath, gazing up at Harry’s green eyes that were filled with actual worry, the exact thing that Draco lacked.

“I’m okay. Just tired. I don’t know why I did that...I’m sorry.”

She exhaled the apology, managing a weak smile to reassure the boy.

“Can we go to Potions now? The sooner it’s over, the sooner we get to lunch,” Ron complained a few feet away.

Y/N’s smile grew into a larger one as she was reminded of why she chose her friends after all.

♥♥♥♥

Y/N wished that Potions was filled with awkward eye contact and sexual tension...but unfortunately, Draco was treating her exactly as he had previously. Maybe she really was batty. Maybe she really had hallucinated it all.

But one touch to her tingling lips reassured her that she was not loony, and it was only when she brushed her fingertips over them that she noticed a certain blonde boy watching her out of the corner of her eye. The pit in her stomach that had existed since the kiss deepened.

Why did she feel so gross all of a sudden?

In the end, he did not try to talk to her and he most certainly did not try and make peace. Y/N was left to brew in her own confusion, but thankfully, she knew what to do.

After class, she took Hermione aside, telling Harry and Ron that she had “lady struggles” that she wanted to discuss. They both awkwardly nodded and dashed off, leaving the two to their own devices.

“‘Mione,” she began. “So, you know how Malfoy and I kind of...went at it in the courtyard this morning?”

Hermione raised her eyebrows and nodded. “And?”

“And, something else happened. I better show you; are you alright coming to the library with me?”

“Am I ever not alright with a trip to the library?” Her face cracked into a smile as the two made their way up to the library.

Y/N tried not to wince as they passed the corridor with the clock. The hole inside her sent pangs through her heart.

♥♥♥♥

“Divination? Er...” Hermione sent her a quizzical look as Y/N pointed to the section she had spent a considerable amount of time in that morning.

“Please just trust me,” Y/N breathed, dragging her friend as she desperately searched for the book. If she found it in the place they--well, her and Draco--had left it, then she would have concrete proof that it was real and not some weird daydream.

Her fingers pulled at a spine that looked suspiciously familiar, rejoicing when she recognized the cover.

“It’s this one, Hermione! Page 394! Read it, please!”

She thrust the book into her friend’s arms before she could contain herself, watching as she skimmed the pages, her eyebrows furrowed in concern.

“That’s what happened to me this morning,” Y/N told her. “I know that I must sound ridiculously mad, but it happened, and I just don’t know what to do, and now that it’s over, I just have this weird empty feeling inside of me...”

Hermione’s eyes were wide, and, for once in their lifetime, she didn’t look like she quite knew what to do.

“Tell me more. I want to understand.”

So, Y/N recounted the tale of the morning to her, attempting to gloss over the moments where Malfoy was especially soft but noticing that Hermione’s eyebrow cocked higher every time it was mentioned.

“So, he kissed you?” she asked incredulously.

“Yes, and I liked it,” Y/N choked out, fighting back a fresh wave of tears.

“I believe you.”

“What?”

“I said, I believe you.” Hermione rubbed the bridge of her nose. “I’m shocked that Draco Malfoy has found a match in anyone, but I love you, and you know that, so if he’s worthy of you...then maybe he’s not as bad as I originally thought.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Y/N argued. “It doesn’t matter whether or not he’s worthy of me. He’s not interested because I’m a muggleborn...but he’s my soulmate, Hermione! How am I supposed to get over this and forget about it? And that empty feeling inside of me is just getting worse by the minute, like this chronic homesickness...”

Hermione allowed Y/N to weep on her shoulder, wrapping her arms around her midsection and holding her close.

“Don’t worry, Y/N, it’ll all turn out alright in the end,” she soothed. “There’s more to life than love anyways. You have great friends, talent, brains, a loving family...”

Her hand stroked through Y/N’s hair as she began to calm. Y/N sat up, offering Hermione a weak smile in return.

“What would you do if you were me?”

Hermione sighed, clearly expecting the question.

“Well...I wouldn’t give up. I wouldn’t want to make a fool of myself, either, though. If I were you, I’d tell him how you feel at the moment and see what he says. If he still doesn’t want you, then that’s that and I’d count my losses and decide to start a business to fill the void.”

“Want to be business partners?”

Hermione just shrugged.

“We should go eat, you look weak. Perhaps you should send him a note, get him to meet you somewhere.”

Y/N smiled gratefully at her as they made their way to the Great Hall, hand in hand.

♥♥♥♥

She couldn’t bring herself to write the letter. The furthest she ever got was to the second line of the parchment...always beginning with a

“Dear Dra Malfoy, I can’t stop thinking about you and I want to see you again and I’m willing to forgive you for the past..”

She crumpled up the parchment before the ink even had a chance to dry, no doubt smudging the hastily scrawled words to the point of no repair.

There was no way around it. Y/N was never going to be able to send that letter, much less write it.

She needed a walk to clear her head. The cold air always helped, and when it rained, feeling the droplets on her face grounded her.

Slipping out of bed and padding quietly out of her dorm and common room, she was immediately hit with the rush of cold air. It was cooler than Y/N expected--normally when it rained in Scotland, the humidity in the air kept it from getting too frigid, but it was positively chilling outside.

She paid no mind to where her feet were taking her, accepting the fact that she was along for the ride. They seemed to have a purpose...she was no longer dawdling in the halls like normal; instead, her legs were briskly carrying her down into the lower floors of the castle.

The dungeons. Of course, how could she have been so shocked.

Y/N couldn’t be sure where the entrance was--she couldn’t see the door, after all, it only appeared once one uttered the correct password, but she just knew. There was no explaining it, it was just a fact that Y/N felt as sure about as she was her own name.

She stood there for a while, studying the stone of the wall and imagining Draco coming in and out, going about his everyday life casually, without a care in the world for her feelings. She couldn’t help but wonder if Draco had even considered honoring their destiny as soulmates.

“Give me a sign, please,” she whispered, not talking to anyone in particular. “Tell me whether I should try. I’ll leave him alone if you tell me to. I promise.”

Silence. Dead silence, just like when time had frozen, but she knew better. It was just the middle of the night and she was in the castle’s dungeons...the only people out of bed were tired prefects patrolling.

Speaking of which, footsteps broke the silence as they descended the staircase leading to Y/N’s corridor. She sat frozen in the hallway, unaware of where she could go. There was really only one way out of the dungeons that she knew of--the way that the footsteps were coming from.

Her only other option was to hide, and quickly. Thankfully, there was a tapestry covering an alcove and window that no doubt looked into the lake. She bolted behind it, hoping that she didn’t make too much noise.

The footsteps grew closer, allowing Y/N to hear the conversation going on between the mystery people.The empty hole in her stomach tugged.

There were two distinct male voices, one more painfully familiar than the other.

“--and thanks again for agreeing to help me get into the library at this hour. I completely forgot that that old bat wanted us to write an essay on this obscure Divination thing.”

Draco.

“Anytime.” Y/N could identify the second male voice as Theodore Nott, another Slytherin who was tight with Parkinson and Zabini.

“I think I’m gonna take a walk, so don’t wait up for me,” Draco said. Y/N wished that she could see him.

“Whatever you say.”

Nott murmured something under his breath, and the sound of stones softly moving apart filled the air.

Once he had stepped inside the common room, the stone sounded like it moved back into place.

Y/N had no chance to breath a sigh of relief, because just as she was about to let out a shaky exhale, she realized that a tall, slender shadow was standing right in front of her tapestry. A wand was poked around to the edge before it moved the tapestry away to reveal her hiding spot.

“What, are you planning on jumping me or something?” Draco asked, his eyebrows shooting up in inquisition.

Y/N felt her cheeks burning. Merlin, why couldn’t she do anything but blush when she was around him?

“Can you speak?” His words were deliberately slow and taunting.

“You know the answer to that,” she bit back.

“Ah, gotcha!” His face lit up briefly. “You know, that’s the easiest way to break the ice with you...get you mad.”

“I’m not mad!” Y/N huffed,

“I rest my case.”

“Arsehole!”

“Are you going to tell me why you’re standing outside my common room at 1 on a Friday morning?” He studied her for a second, seeming to realize that she was going to remain stubbornly silent no matter what he did.

“Fine. If you won’t talk, I’ll find another way.” Draco pocketed his wand, moved the tapestry away further, and sat down on the windowsill with Y/N beside him.

It was an insanely close fit--the windowsill was probably not even meant for one person. Y/N attempted to ignore the fact that their legs had been forced to tangle in the process of Draco sitting down.

“I was taking a walk,” Y/N told him. “And I ended up here before I heard you coming. I wasn’t sure if you were Filch or Snape or something, so I hid. Your point?”

If he seemed unsatisfied with the answer, he didn’t show it.

“Pity. And here I was, thinking that you were showing up at my doorstep, begging for me to reconsider my prior decision on...us.”

“Did I ever say I wasn’t?” Y/N dared. “I wasn’t planning on begging, though.”

There. There it was--a deep red blush that spread over his pale face.

“What?”

“You heard me,” Y/N grumbled. “This is weird, very weird, and I didn’t ever think that in a million years I would be pining after Draco Malfoy, but I guess things change. I’ve been--”

“Pining after me, huh?” His eyes had a dangerous glint in them.

“Besides the point. I actually came here because I wanted to.....ehm....” Y/N cleared her throat. “I wanted to tell you that I was having trouble moving past the whole soulmates thing without a hitch. It hurts, you know, and I didn’t even think i liked you that much before. It’s like there’s this hole--”

“In your chest? Yeah, I feel it too,” Draco admitted as he intently studied the book in his hands.

“Well, even without the empty feeling, I just can’t imagine willingly passing up my soulmate like this,” she confessed. “It’s easy to say that most people don’t meet their soulmate anyways so it shouldn’t matter, but I can’t imagine getting into relationships when I know that my soulmate is out there and it’s not the person that I’m with...”

“I’ve been feeling the same way.”

Y/N didn’t know how to respond, instead giving his statement time to hang dry in the air.

“Do you want to see if there’s anything else in the book?” he finally asked, stroking the leather cover in his lap.

Y/N nodded, and instead of placing the book in between the two of them, she just leaned over, her head just millimeters from his shoulder. She thought for a few moments before letting it fall onto his, squeezing her eyes shut when she heard him suck in a breath.

“Page 394, right?” Draco asked, even though they both could see the table of contents laid out clearly in front of them.

She didn’t even bother responding to his question, choosing to watch him flip through the book to find it.

They skimmed the first page they had read together that declared how soulmates discovered each other. Turning to the next page, they were both surprised to see a bit of an afterthought added.

“So, if you know who your soulmate is and choose to ignore it...” Y/N’s eyes flickered nervously up to his.

“Then you’ll live with a painful guilt forever unless they, or you, die,” he finished, the eye contact that he offered rather wobbly.

The thought sat with the two for a few moments as they pondered.

“Is it that worth it to you?’ Y/N asked after a while, breaking his gaze and looking down.

“Is what worth it?”

“Keeping your bloodline pure. Is it so worth it that you’d allow us both to live a lifetime of despair?” Y/N wished that she hadn’t sounded so much like she was pleading.

She could tell Draco was thinking, something she couldn’t tell disappointed or pleased her. On one hand, he was considering both options, but on the other, he even had to consider when to her the answer was as clear as day.

“No, I don’t think it is,” he breathed, letting the book slip to the ground. Y/N winced as the binding hit the floor with a smack.

“Don’t worry,” he whispered. “A simple Reparo will fix it.”

Y/N shivered when she felt his breath tickle her neck. She had moved her head off his shoulder before asking the question and tilted her head to the side, and now Draco’s face was leaned in, inches from her own.

This was too good to be true.

“Just like that? You’re going to forget the years of prejudice your parents pressed into you? You’re going to defy the wishes of your family?”

Draco frowned.

“Can’t I say one thing we agree on?” Unlike their past conversations, there was no venom behind his words. “You don’t need to be difficult anymore. I promise I’ll try not to be a nuisance.”

“How am I supposed to trust anything you...”

Before she could finish her rebuttal, Draco had placed a surprisingly warm hand under her chin to tip her face up, gazing sleepily into her eyes.

“Stop getting in your head about this,” he quietly instructed. “We can worry about the rest later. Just...close your eyes and try to feel, not think, alright?”

Y/N waited for the ominous feeling inside of her to warn her not to, but it never came. Without a conscious decision to do so, her eyes fluttered shut.

She did exactly as he told her to do--instead of thinking of the repercussions, she chose to feel each kiss that Draco pressed to her lips, her jaw, her neck. Her fingers curled around the lapel of his suit, desperately clinging onto him as he continued.

When he finally pulled back, she was an unraveled mess of breaths and flushes, and from what she could see, he was too. His ice blue eyes were half-lidded, his moonbeam blonde hair tousled.

Draco leaned on her, resting his head on top of hers.

“Truce?”

“Truce.”

final a/n: ooohhhh boy this was a long one, wasn’t it? sorry if the ending was a little anticlimactic. i’m much more into writing the buildup than i am the actual fluffy moments. my apologies for any typos or bad writing you came across in this fic...it was long so i didn’t spend as much time working on editing!

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theangriestpea · 4 years

Text

The Killing Type | Five

Summary: Just when Lavender thought things were going great with Sweet Pea, a new girl comes back to turn to turn their entire relationship upside down. Now they have to navigate a world of drug dealers, rival gangs, and co-parenting. Sequel to Mercy Killing. (links now at the end of chapter)

Rating: Mature // Explicit

Pairings: Sweet Pea x OC // eventual Jughead Jones x OC

Warnings: Smut, restraints, cunnilingus, minor dirty talk, drug mentions, blackmail??

Word Count: 4.8k+

A/N: This shouldn't have taken me two weeks to write but it did. Between work and a bad bought of depression I just don't have much energy to do anything that's not mindless. But regardless I'm super happy with how this chapter came out. It was brought to my attention that links sometimes cause posts to not show up in the tags! Links will be at the bottom of chapters from now on to see if that solves the issue.

Chapter Five : The L Word

Lavender was rubbing her cheeks furiously in an attempt to dry them. She could hear Sweet Pea following her, but simply pretended that he didn’t exist for the moment. She didn’t want to be near him right now, not after everything that had happened since last night.

As soon as she got inside her trailer, she planned on calling Toni and asking if she could spend the night at Thistlehouse. Maybe some girl time would help her clear her head and mend her heart. Also being sandwiched between Toni and Cheryl meant that the likelihood of her having any nightmares was slim. She didn’t want to sleep with Sweet Pea or Fangs this time around, not since they both had spurned her.

She trudged up her front steps and quickly unlocked the door. Once inside, she attempted to slam the door shut but a large hand stopped it from closing. More anger and hurt welled inside of her. Why couldn’t he just give her some fucking space ?

“Sweet Pea, just leave me alo-” She began before he abruptly cut her off.

“I love you.” He said plainly, as if it were nothing. As if it were something he had said a million times before. Her heart twisted painfully in her chest, wrenching itself against her ribcage as it pounded with anxiety. Did he really just…?

She didn’t want to face him, not now. Not after what he had just said. He waited for her to verbally respond, however Lavender’s mouth and throat felt like they were so stuffed with cotton that she couldn’t say anything. Even her tongue felt like sandpaper, pressed against the hard palate of her mouth to keep herself from audibly sobbing again. Why after all this time did he say it? Why did he always pick the absolute worst moment to talk about his feelings? She wanted to scream.

If she had turned to look at him, she would have seen the scared and pained look on his face. The feeling of rejection creeping up his spine as he yearned for her to say something, anything to confirm that she felt the same way. That they meant more to one another than they had ever let on. That this went beyond acquaintanceship, beyond friendship, and beyond sex. There was more to it than that or so he thought…

“Shanna?” His voice cracked, making him flinch at how whiny it sounded. He dreaded for anyone to see or hear him like this. Already he was feeling tortured by showing so much soft emotion, even if it was to his girlfriend. If she had said something back then it wouldn’t be so bad, but her silence was more telling than not.

Lav finally turned to look up at him, her eyes watery again with more tears. She nodded her head and he finally realized she was unable to speak, whether it was due to the vitriol of emotion she was feeling or something else, he wasn’t entirely sure.

Finally after a few tense minutes, she found the ability to speak. “Do you mean that?” She probed, not quite trusting his utterance. Though Sweet Pea was honestly not one to lie about feelings, it was just so new to her to hear this from him. He had mentioned before how he had loved Lily, but he had never used such a word with her in regards to their relationship. It was a dream come true and for that she couldn’t trust the reality of it.

He stared at her, wondering if he could pull up the nerve to say it again. When he found that he couldn’t, he nodded his head numbly with his eyes never leaving hers to let her know that he was being sincere. Lav rubbed her eyes once more, smearing salty tears across her face for the dozenth time.

Should she say it back? She wondered, still finding it hard to even speak. Such a strange cacophony of emotions bundled up inside of her chest. “I…” She muttered, tripping over her own words, “I l-love…” She inhaled sharply, trying to power through it. “I love you too.”

They looked at one another wordlessly, Sweet Pea’s jaw set firmly as he clenched his teeth. All he wanted to do was sweep her up and kiss her, but he wasn’t sure if she would be up for that or not. He didn’t know how triggered she may have been by the Ghoulie from before. But Christ, he just needed to touch her.

Sweet Pea took two broad steps forward and grabbed her by the upper arm to pull her into his chest. Lavender didn’t even bother trying to resist him. She melted into his torso, taking a deep breath to inhale his intoxicating scent. Despite being upset with him, all she wanted to do now was just stay wrapped within his arms, enveloped in the illusion of safety.

She felt his nose nuzzle into the hair on the top of her head, the slow intake of air through his nostrils to take in the smell of her shampoo. He never felt more at home then he did when she was in his arms.

Lavender hadn’t realized how touch starved she was until this very moment. And she knew straight away that it would be difficult for her to let go of him any time soon. Not only that but she wanted more and while she knew he couldn’t resist her, she also wasn’t sure if she should give in to her own desires. He had been a raging asshole after all.

She heard him mumble something into her hair, but was unable to decipher it. “I can’t understand you,” She said, turning her head from out of his jacket so he could hear her.

He let out a small groan before lifting his face off of her scalp. “I said, I’m sorry for what I said at the Wyrm.” She didn’t have to see him to know that his face and neck were flushed red with embarrassment. He always seemed to have an allergic reaction to apologizing. Still, it was amazing that he even said he was sorry as usually he just acted like nothing had ever happened. Maybe he was starting to grow up, even if it was just the tiniest bit.

Her grip around his waist tightened a fraction, pressing her cheek into his sternum in an attempt to keep herself from crying again. The hurt was still so fresh in her mind that despite what she felt was a sincere apology, she still couldn’t help but think of his stinging words. Sweet Pea began to rub her back, sensing that she was on the verge of spilling more tears.

“You’re such an asshole to me.” She huffed out, managing to stop herself from crying. “I don’t understand how you can say you love me after acting like a total jerk.” She attempted to pull away, however Sweet Pea did not allow her to. His grip around her remained vice.

She felt him stiffen uncomfortably against her. “I don’t know how to do this.” He said quietly, almost so low that she didn’t even hear him. “I’ve never felt like this before, okay? I don’t know how to handle it.”

Lav looked up at him, wearing her confusion plainly on her face. “But didn’t you love Lily?” She didn’t understand how he could say he never felt this way when he had mentioned loving her before.

“That was different.” He admitted softly. “You drive me fucking crazy, you know that? I can’t ever stop thinking about you. When I was with Lily, I still thought about fucking other girls. I cared about her and I loved her as a friend, I guess but. The thought to cheat doesn’t even cross my mind with you. I get so freaked out by the way I feel around you that I just fuck it up. Because that’s what I do, Shanna, I fuck everything up. Just look at what I did to Lily.”

Lavender clung to him, afraid that if she loosened her grip then he’d fall apart right before her eyes. It wasn’t fair that he always had to pick up her pieces when he had his own issues to take care of. Maybe that was one of the points Lily was trying to make during that first week. Lav had never really given him a chance to be vulnerable and at the moment she hated herself for that.

“It’s okay,” She muttered to him. He wouldn’t look directly at her, choosing to stare off at a wall instead. When he didn’t respond or move, she reached up and put a hand on his cheek to force him to look at her. “I mean it, Pea. It’s okay to not understand what you’re feeling. It’s new to me too. I don’t think I’ve ever cared so much about someone before. Not like this.”

His eyes bore into hers for a tense moment as they stared in silence once again. He dared to lean down and press his lips against hers, which Lavender took in eagerly. She opened her mouth slightly, tongue prodding at his lips in desperation.

Sweet Pea opened his mouth for her, his own tongue reaching out to greet her. They collided, rolling and wrestling. Lav couldn’t help but let out a needy whine as she pressed herself flush against him, wanting more each second that passed.

He backed her up against the nearby wall, hoisting her upwards by grabbing the backs of her thighs. She wrapped her legs around his waist, securing herself against him as they continued their bruising kiss. His hands that were perched on her hips, pushed up her thin tank top. Their lips finally broke apart as he pulled it over her head.

Her bra was quickly discarded next as he wasted no time at all. They had both been wanting this for far too long now and it was all too easy to get caught up in the moment. Daisy wasn’t around,and if Lily dared to come by then Sweet Pea was going to give her a solid piece of his mind.

Sweet Pea was groping both her breasts, making her keen against the wall. His thumbs ran over her nipples, hardening them. Lav grabbed him by the back of the neck and pulled him in for yet another deep kiss, needing something to occupy her mouth to keep her from becoming a moaning broken record.

Lavender pushed off his leather jacket and he happily aided her in shedding it. She enthusiastically unbuttoned his flannel, making quick work of it. Why did he have to wear so many fucking layers?

Finally once his flannel was off, he tore off his undershirt. With his bare chest exposed, Lavender ran her fingernails across his pectorals. The pads of her fingers brushing past his nipples and down his semi-toned stomach. She rolled her hips against him, eager and wanting. He simply wasn’t moving fast enough for her.

Sweet Pea seemed to be ignoring her pleas for more as he continued to manipulate her nipples slowly as they kissed. Lav simply huffed, pulling her mouth away from him so he could see her pout.

“Can’t you let me enjoy getting you off first?” He asked in a threatening tone. “Or do you want my dick that badly?”

Lavender groaned, “You are the worst, stop teasing me!”

“No.” He responded, attacking her neck with his mouth as his hands jerked her skirt upwards so that it was bunched at her waist. His thick fingers caressed her clit through her cotton underwear, making her let out another needy whine.

He pinched the swelling bundle of nerves, earning himself another whimper from her mouth. Sweet Pea pulled away from the wall, causing her to grab onto his shoulders as he carried her into her bedroom.

“You’re not going to fuck me against the wall?” She asked playfully as he rubbed circles around her clit. Her words devolved into a moan towards the end.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? You little slut.” He hissed back. While other people absolutely could not call her that word, Sweet Pea definitely could. It was her own way of reclaiming it by telling him to use it. It sent a passionate thrill down her spine.

He dropped her onto the bed, causing her to yelp in surprise. She looked up at him, doe-eyed as he unbuckled his belt and ripped it free from his pants. In one swoop he grabbed both of her wrists, wrapping the leather around them before tying it to the headboard. Lavender was staring at him curiously, wondering where this had come from. He had never restrained her like this before, not that she minded. If she didn’t like it then she’d let him know, though he usually had a way of telling when something made her uncomfortable even more she verbalized it.

When she gave no outward sign of discomfort, he continued by ridding her of the rest of her clothing so that she was totally naked on the bed. He settled between her legs, kissing down her chest as she inhaled sharply with anticipation.

She had noticed that he only went down on her when he felt the occasion was particularly special. If it was a regular quickie then he usually didn’t bother. The action caused a warm feeling to wrap around her as she tried to squirm away from his fanning breath.

Sweet Pea shot her a look telling her to be still as he tightened his grip around her thighs. He attacked her clit with a series of licks and suckling kisses, a finger probing at the entrance to her core. Lav jerked in his grip, whimpering and whining for more as he was doing nothing but tease her with his mouth.

He latched on firmly, sucking hard as he swirled his tongue around her in a quick rhythm that had her quaking in his grip. Two fingers plunged into her wet pussy, curling inside of her before easing out. She couldn’t stop the mewls from coming out or the quiet begs for more. He worked her over, pumping his two digits at an incredibly fast pace as he continued to service her with his tongue. In minutes Lav was pushed over the edge, crying out for him as she pulled at her restraints.

Sweet Pea pulled away from her, pressing the two fingers that had been inside of her into her mouth for her to clean them off. She sucked on them, hollowing out her cheeks as she stared into his dark eyes. Once he was satisfied with her work, he pulled them out and wiped the excess saliva onto the bed sheets.

“Have I ever told you how great your pussy tastes?” He asked in a husky tone as he readied himself between her thighs. Lav shifted her hips to give him more room, spreading her legs as far as she could to get him ample space. There was a raging blush across her cheeks as she shook her head no.

Sweet Pea smirked, tip pressing into her folds but not quite entering her. “You look so pretty with your legs spread out like that, dripping for my cock.” She swallowed thickly, while enjoying the dirty talk she was unable to respond to it. It was still a new thing for her to hear as her other partners had never done it before. Being young and not nearly as experienced did have its downsides. Although if he were honest with her, he loved how flustered it made her.

“Do you want me to fuck you, princess?” He asked, still teasing her with his closeness. She moved her hips, trying to get him to enter her, however he simply pulled back a fraction just to spite her. “Tell me you want me to fuck you.” He growled.

Lavender whined at him pathetically, “Fuck me, Pea, please!” Her face grew a darker shade of red. Sweet Pea merely smirked as he slowly pushed into her, biting back a moan at how tight and slick she was.

She seemed to relax into the bed as he filled her, stretching her walls as he continued to plunge deeper inside of her. She let out a soft, breathy moan and her eyes slid shut so she could focus on the sole feeling of being completed by him.

He moved her legs so that they were flung over his shoulders haphazardly, leaning forward so that they were pressed into her chest. She pouted up at him, wanting him to move his hips to give her arousal some kind of relief. Sweet Pea was giving her a cocky look, knowing exactly what she wanted and purposefully not giving it to her.

“Pea,” She whimpered again, giving him the most desperate facial expression that she could muster. “Please? I love you-”

That seemed to be what he wanted to hear as he suddenly pulled his hips back and snapped them forward. He fell into a heavy rhythm, slamming against her as she moaned helplessly beneath him. Sweet Pea grunted as he bared his weight on his wrists, hands placed on either side of her shoulders.

He moved at a furious pace, pounding into her harder than he ever had before. Lavender couldn’t say anything coherently, simply falling apart as he reduced her into a shapeless mass of pleasure. She felt as if she was wound incredibly tight and he was yanking on the end of her string, daring her to unravel at any moment.

She let out a loud gasp as he adjusted the angle in which he drove into her, hitting deeper than before and making her toes curl with delight. Her stomach felt tense, clenching as she tried to keep herself from exploding too soon.

"Don't hold it back," he growled at her, knowing her body better than she did sometimes. "Come all over my dick, baby girl."

Lav cursed as he picked up speed again, throwing her mercilessly over the edge and into a sea of ecstasy.

Sweet Pea slacked his pace slightly, allowing his rhythm to become sloppy as he chased his own high. In minutes he was releasing inside of her, filling her to the brim with his load.

He gently lifted off of her, unfurling her legs so that she could lay normally. He crashed down beside her after undoing the belt that tied her wrists, pulling her into his chest as they both heaved for air. She nuzzled her nose against his sternum, inhaling the sensual mixture of sweat and sex as he rubbed her back soothingly.

“I love you too,” He mumbled back to her as he drifted into the twilight dimension of sleep.

There was a hard but tentative knock on the door to Sweet Pea’s trailer. Lily managed to gather herself up off the kitchen floor, having been crying there alone for the past ten minutes. Luckily Daisy had placated herself in the living room, playing with a few of the toys that Lavender had bought for her a few days prior.

Lily cleaned herself up the best she could in the time it took for her to open the door, finding the next in line for Serpent King standing there looking bashful. As if he knew something that he shouldn’t.

“Hey,” He said softly, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly, “can we talk?”

She bit into her lower lip hard to keep from crying again. She knew exactly what this was about and she really didn’t want to face up to it yet. Ever since she came back she found herself growing closer and closer to Jughead. Her heart seemed to thump loudly in her ears anytime they came into contact with one another. Even passing him in the hallway sometimes left her breathless. She absolutely hated this feeling, as she knew exactly what it meant. It had been similar to what she felt for Sweet Pea some time ago. Only this time it seemed so much worse, and she wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was just post pregnancy hormones raging.

Lily stepped to the side so he could walk in. He brushed past her, not meaning to touch her as he did so. Their arms touched for a split second, leaving a warm and tingling feeling in the joined flesh. Jughead quickly moved away, making a straight line to the couch in order to plop down on it as if he’d had a long and hard day.

He took his beanie off momentarily, running his fingers through his thick locks before roughly pulling it back over them. His hair resettled, framing his face perfectly. Lily gulped as she looked at him in an attempt to settle the uproar of nerves in the pit of her stomach.

She closed the door, locking it out of sheer habit and muscle memory before joining him. She chose to sit in the recliner adjacent to the couch, not wanting to risk visibly showing how much she needed the company right this very moment. Her teeth were clenched, hands balled up on her knees into tiny fists. She looked as if she may snap in two at any second.

“Are you dealing?” Jughead asked finally. The tension in the air seemed to throb painfully as Lily looked away from him and towards her little girl that was jangling a ring of plastic keys. She really didn’t want to answer him, however she knew that she had no choice but to. She had been caught red handed by Sweet Pea and Lavender the night before. While Lavender had tried to save her, clearly her ex had no intention of just letting this slide. He could be such an insufferable asshole when he wanted to be.

“Yes.” Lily admitted to him, knowing that she’d be unable to lie even if she wanted to. Nausea swept over her and she felt like she may start to puke her feelings out at any moment. She fidgeted with the fraying edges of a hole in the knee of her beat up jeans, hoping the tiny thoughtless movements would keep her sane for just a minute longer.

Jughead let out a stressed sigh, “you know I have to tell my dad, right?” He asked and she nodded numbly. “He wants me to take over when I turn eighteen, says he’s too old to keep doing this shit. So he’s making me handle the younger Serpents for now to learn how to deal with issues like this.

He paused, wanting to ask her for her advice on the situation before realizing that it would be really dumb to do so. Lily was the one to show him around Southside High when he first got there. She taught him all the Serpent Laws and helped him through the trials. He’d be lost right now without her, and yet here he was having to find some kind of fitting punishment for her.

“Is it the money?” He asked quietly, not wanting to offend her. Babies were expensive, he knew that. Maybe he hadn’t been giving her enough jobs to work lately, and the thought of her struggling made him feel incredibly guilty. “Because I can get you more money, Lils-”

“No, Jug.” She replied in a voice that was equally as soft as his. “I’m not getting paid to do it, at least not cash.”

A perplexed look crossed his face, “then why?” He probed, needing to know why she was doing something so risky. If she were caught, then Daisy would likely be taken from her and no one in the gang wanted that.

Lily tensed even more so than she already was. “Please, Jug, just drop it.” She said, her tone becoming more urgent. “I really can’t tell you why. I’m not doing this by choice, alright? I can’t give you any details.”

His eyes darkened. “Is someone blackmailing you?” If someone was threatening to harm her in any way then he needed to know. Not only for her safety, but for Daisy and Sweet Pea’s as well. Although he would totally deny the sheer amount of worry of her being in any kind of danger gave him.

Her mouth turned into a desert. She wasn’t sure if blackmail was truly the right word for what was going on. It wasn’t that the person she was dealing for was threatening to release any information on her, no it wasn’t quite like that. They would just stop helping her with her father’s appeal to turn over the conviction that landed him in jail. She couldn’t afford a defense attorney on her own. The person footing the bill was the one making her do such a risky thing as sell drugs on Ghoulie territory.

All she could do was shake her head at him, “That’s not-” She started before halting. The less he knew the better, or perhaps the less of the truth he knew the better. “Yes, Jug. Someone is blackmailing me and I have to do this, please.” She begged, allowing her eyes to go wide and desperate. “Please, I have to.”

“Law says I have to take your jacket, Lils...I can’t do that.” He admitted to her, unable to tear his blues away from her watery greens. “Do you know who is doing it? Or are they staying anonymous somehow?”

Did she lie again? Could she lie again? Would she just be digging herself into a deeper hole that may just collapse upon her one day and become her grave? “Jughead, I really can’t discuss this with you. Just know that it is not my choice but I have to do this. If I don’t then...then my dad may never get out.” The last part came out in a broken whisper as she choked back a cry for help.

Jughead’s gaze softened, hating seeing her so upset and wanting nothing more than to comfort her. However, he still had a job to do regardless of his feelings. “So they’re helping you get him out? I can help somehow, I’ll find a way, I promise I-”

“Jughead,” She said, shaking her head at him and letting out a small, tired laugh. “You don’t have the resources that this person does. They have money for a good lawyer, the Serpents don’t have that. If you have to take my jacket, then…” She hesitated, not liking what she was about to say, “then do it. My father never wanted this life for me anyway.”

The absolute last thing Jughead wanted to do on this Earth was to take her second skin from her. The thought alone seemed blasphemous. “If I do that, then you won’t be able to make money for Daisy. For now, we’ll keep this on the down low. The longer it takes for my dad to know, the longer I can stall. I don’t want to take away your livelihood, especially when you’re being forced into breaking the code.”

Lily heaved a heavy sigh, “When FP finds out, he’s going to murder you.”

A smile broke across his sullen face, “then who’d take over? Sweet Pea? Can you imagine?”

They both devolved into laughter, the air around them lightening. After a few moments, they stopped and fell into silence once more. At least this time it was less intense. “Promise me something, Lily.” Jughead said finally after he noticed her shoulders drop.

She looked up at him, eyes connecting once more. “What is it?” She asked, wondering what else he could possibly need from her. The seriousness on his face was causing her anxiety to ramp up again, the dial turning up all the way to eleven.

“If you’re ever in any danger, you’ll come to me and tell me?” He said gently, not wanting to further unnerve her. “I will do whatever in my power to help you. I won’t let anything happen to you. So please, it doesn’t matter what time of day it is or where I’m at, just tell me if you need my help. I’ll come running. Can you promise me that?”

A half dozen stray tears suddenly fell from her eyes, unable to hold them back at the sweet sentiment of him wanting to protect her. Even if it was just because he was her leader, even if it was just because they were such good friends, even if the reason wasn’t because he was infatuated with her as she so damn wished he was.

She wiped her cheeks with the palms of her hands, smearing the clear liquid across her soft skin. “I promise, Jug.” She mumbled, seemingly in pieces but somehow held together at the same time. “I promise.”

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