#look at the little snakey hand gestures | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

areweevercameraready · 2 years

Text

more than beliefs (6: you're welcome)

A/N: i literally had to look up how to format these again LOLLLLL anyways, i wrote a very long chapter end-note on AO3 and i'd feel real bad putting it at the top here, so i'm also going to put it at the bottom of this chapter and you can read it if you want. enjoy! love y'all!

WARNINGS: slime and gross imagery, gore, knives, sexual innuendos — i actually dont remember any real warnings but there probably are some. remus.

Words: 2480

AO3 link!

enjoy <3

For all his tricks, Patton was fairly taken aback when Janus just took out a lock picking kit in front of Remus’ door. The lock wasn’t anything Patton could recognize (in fairness, the door was just….oozing) and he was surprised that Janus even found the lock hole. Logan watched idly, a blank look on his face, and Patton was never one to just stand there, ya know? He wrapped his arm around Logan’s, elbows resting in each other, and gave Logan a small smile that wasn’t exactly returned.

Everyone was pretty frazzled with all the arguing. Patton understood….why they were arguing, but he didn’t understand why they had to argue, if that made any sense. Roman obviously wasn’t going to immediately come to peace with things enough to apologize to Janus or even accept an apology for him, and Patton understood that.

Still, Roman ran off almost in tears. There wasn’t any way Patton was letting any of them hole themselves up in their rooms when they’re that upset, no sir. He should make Roman some cream of broccoli! That’d cheer him up!

Then, the door of ooze popped open. Janus stood back up, brushed himself down, and gestured for Logan and Patton to follow him. “Come. If Remus isn’t here, we’ll have to be fast.”

“How long have you known how to do that?” Patton asked, starring at the door.

“It wasn’t locked,” Janus said, stuffing the tools into his back pocket as he looked around the room, “That’s just how to open Remus’ door.”

“In some perspectives, that makes sense for Remus,” Logan said as well.

The room was...interesting, to say the least. Everyone’s eyes ran over every detail, crevice, decorum. Even Logan raised his eyebrows.

“He and Roman certainly share their dramatics,” Janus murmured, motioning everyone a few scoots forward, “This way. The Imagination’s entrance is always fairly recognizable…”

As Patton and Logan tried to scooch around the many, many interesting things in Remus’ room, Janus stopped with a hand on the Imagination’s door. It was often a mirror in Remus’ room. Janus hadn’t been in Roman’s room enough to know what shape it took, though last time he saw, it was a decorated door.

Instead of falling through the mirror, though, Janus’ hand stuck. And that was his first indication that there was something.

“Wait,” Janus hissed, but it was too late.

Patton stopped, as did Logan. Both watched Janus with confusion as he turned around, about to tell them to leave.

Then, a rope net appeared below them all, scooping them up into one bundle and raising them far above the ground, which then shifted into a vast ocean. Of water.

“Well, well, well.” The dulcet tones of Remus’ voice broke through the waves as the water parted, the Duke himself rising up on a platform of stone, “Lets break in through Remus’ room, there’s no way he’ll notice it twice, huh. Fool me once, snakey!”

“Remus,” Janus’ voice choked a little as he tried to straighten himself up in the net ball, but Patton winced behind him.

They were pressed back to back, Janus’ face firmly against the rope while Patton and Logan figured things out in their tangle of limbs. Janus held up a finger, as though to indicate for Remus to wait. Outside, Remus rolled his eyes at the motion, but at least he waited. Logan winced, too, as Patton helped him straighten up in their tight confines. This was certainly not ideal.

Once Patton turned around and gave Remus a thumbs up, he perked up again. “You gettin’ comfy in there?”

“I wouldn’t call this a comfortable situation,” Logan snapped, almost annoyed.

“Remus,” Janus said again, making sure Logan didn’t continue before he himself turned to Remus. “We were just trying to get passage to the Imagination.”

Remus was actually wearing something comfortable, for once. Well, comfortable for him. Shorts and a tight t-shirt, and a cape that looked to be made of fleece blanket tied off around his neck. Fitting for a day in. Janus almost felt bad for disturbing him like this, when it’d been a good day for the other side of Creativity.

“Oh, shoot, sure! Why didn’t you just say so?” Janus winced at the sarcasm in Remus’ voice, “No shit, dumb-truck, I can tell. But why’s everyone sprinting into the Imagination?”

“We’re looking for Roman!” Patton called out behind Janus, and he had to wince at how quickly Remus’ expression went from playful to dour.

He reached out and pulled his morning star out of an ominous green light. Remus twirled it around once, like a bat, then sat it on his shoulder. A show of intimidation. While Janus himself was used to these kinds of displays, he heard Patton squeak in fear behind him. As though Remus would do something as boring as kill them with his morning star when they’re hanging from a rope sack over his room.

“Oh, you’re looking for Roman? What’re you gonna do, break his heart twice?” Remus bit in a laugh.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Janus asked, almost earnestly.

Remus swung his morning star down, setting the bulbous end on the indescribable ground while he folded his arms over the top of the handle. He squinted at the troupe and for a moment, serious as his eyes trailed over each of them. Then, his face split into a grin that seemed infinitely more terrifying.

Always scary when the Duke was feeling playful.

“You know how many times I had to watch Beauty and the fucking Beast with him?” his voice was low, careful, such a detachment from what Janus is used to. “If I hear Tale as Old as Time any more, I’m gonna light myself on fire again.”

“I take it you and Roman are closer than either of you let on,” Logan stated, only to be interrupted with Remus’ harsh voice.

“I don’t need the sass, today, Professor Peabrain!” Remus snaps with much less patience than he’d previously seemed to have, tone dropping once again. “I don’t know where Roman is, but I do know he probably wouldn’t want to see Dumb, Dumber, and Dumbest.”

“Remus, please. You know all of us have roles,” Janus spoke smoothly, though he did flinch when Remus swung the morning star closer to his face.

One of the spikes pressed against Janus’ cheek. He winced, trying to shimmy away from it, but Remus made the smallest of adjustments to keep it on his face. In fact, given how Remus ever so slightly twisted it, poking the spike against his cheek, it feels like….yeah, there it was. Remus managed the spike beneath one of Janus’ scales. He was even sticking his tongue out with the focus of it all.

Remus giggled.

Janus relaxed ever so slightly, panic replaced with exasperation. He had to keep it together. Couldn’t let it look like he was anything other than held together proper and prim. “Remus. We want to find Roman to make sure he’s okay—” And the spike was back, pressed even more firm against the soft skin beneath his scale. “Once we know he’s not splitting again, we’ll leave.”

Remus snorted, though he looked unnerved over the insinuation that Roman might be splitting. Again. “He’s probably doing pretty princely without any of you bothering him.”

After all, Remus was the only one who really knew how that must have felt. Roman doing it for a third time, what a nightmare. Every bit of your body pulling against each other, away and separate, opening up into completely new beings. A soul being split, boxed in, claustrophobic and open-wounded at the same time.

There was something else, too. Something more than recognition sitting in Remus’ expression as he thought about the worry of Roman splitting again, something that warned to Janus that the worries didn’t stop there. It was painful, sure, emotionally and physically. He had to imagine that.

But, then again, when the split stays. When severing a limb, cauterizing the wound still hurts. Brings phantom pains.

“Well, actually, uh,” Patton’s voice wavered as he interrupted Remus’ thinking.

The Duke’s head snapped up, cracking in seven different ways that were entirely not natural, and Patton yelped. His flinching dislodged the ropes a little, making Logan lose his footing with a yelp. Even though Patton bent down to help lift him, though, Logan reached a hand up and waved erratically for Patton to continue. Whatever he interrupted Remus for had to have been important for him to interrupt Remus of all people.

Patton pushed his heels into two of the openings between ropes and pulled up, too, to steady himself. Then he cleared his throat and said. “Virgil’s probably already in there bothering him, so, uh. I don’t know if we would be any more of a bother.”

Remus rolled his eyes. So much for keeping Roman’s alone hours alone.

“Ugh. So that’s why V-card broke in earlier,” he grumbled. “And here I thought he wanted to take a tour of my big titty anime figure collection.”

Logan butted in once more, piggybacking off of Patton’s statement once he’d managed to regain his footing. Hanging over a whatever-the-fuck Remus’ room was while in a cartoonish rope trap was not as condusive to actual conversation as one might think. “Most likely the same way we plan on allegedly bothering Roman. We want to ensure his safety.”

“Boo hoo, just make your own door into the Imagination, then.” Remus rolled his eyes at Logan’s reasoning, though he did pull his morning star away from Janus’ face.

Janus breathed a sigh of relief. As collected as he was trying to be, it was undoubtedly unnerving to have something so sharp and threatening against his face, literally under his scales. It was a place Remus knew how to get to well.

Still, he backed off. That must mean that Remus was thinking about it. He wouldn’t want to leave Roman alone when he’s upset, and Remus must understand their angle here. They just wanted to make sure Roman was okay. Janus couldn’t just let Roman get hurt. Again. And Roman was so easy to hurt.

Yes, Roman didn’t like him much. That was understandable. He just wanted to know he was okay, and then Janus could go back to sitting in the shadows.

“If you’re concerned about Roman, then perhaps you should come with us. I’m sure he’d trust you more than us if he was upset,” Janus suggested, despite how Patton immediately gripped his shoulder at the insinuation that Remus would be following them around.

Patton thought he’d get back up—he looked at Logan, likely hoping for some—but he’d thought woefully wrong. “You can eject us faster, too, should we do anything to increase Roman’s displeasure,” Logan suggested.

Remus raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms now.

They could almost see the gears turning in his head—no, they did, they saw the gears turning. Literally. Out in the distance, like moons in the sky above the vast expanse of water, were a set of dark green gears. When Remus reached up to rub his jaw, they turned, creaks echoing in the emptiness.

Janus knew that was a very, very good sign, but Patton just gestured to it with a soft “huh?”

After a few rotations, Remus sighed. “Fair enough.”

Thank goodness. Janus sighed, more than happy to have the Duke’s support. The Imagination was a fickle creature, something only half-sentient, caring of Remus and Roman and absolutely none of the rest of them. It was ambivalent, if anything, and uncaring at its worst.

Janus could almost tell it was mad for what he did, but come now. At the end of the day, they were on the same side. Janus thought they should have gone to the callback, too.

Logan was the one who couldn’t keep his mouth shut. In fairness, though, Logan was confused about why they weren’t moving anywhere in their rope sack. “That was much easier than it seemed it would be.”

“Look,” Remus rolled his eyes and his wrist (how did it crack so many times?). “I’m not much of a liar, even though my pants’re on fire. I wanna make sure goody two shoes is safe and sound, too.”

With the roll of his wrist, though, the rope sack began to lower.

Patton coo’ed. “That’s really sweet of you, Remus!”

The water beneath them, as the rope sack landed, turned out to just be glass that looked strikingly like water. It was definitely at least a photo of water. Logan stepped out first, frowning at the ground, walking around and tracing his foot across some of the faux waves. Fascinating. Would it have cracked if they fell?

Patton followed him out, a hand on Logan’s back to keep himself steady. It was like an optical illusion!

Remus snorted at Patton’s support. “Don’t patronize me.”

Janus smiled, just a little. That was the nicest kind of response they could have expected from Remus.

Everyone was promptly surprised that Remus managed to teleport them right to the front of Roman’s castle. Of course Remus has that power, though. It’s the same as how Roman can get to anywhere in the Imagination, too. Remus was almost smug over everyone’s surprise, almost relishing in the secret closeness he and his brother have.

His brother. Remus sucked in a breath and puffed up his cheeks, shoving open the large double doors of the castle with much less effort than the doors’ weight.

And it’s obvious where the advisors are, once he does. Just follow the angry yelling.

“David, calm down. It’s possible he-it’s-it’s possible-He could be in another setting.”

“But he’d never just ditch me like that without letting me know what’s up. And you should’ve seen the backstage, I almost fuckin’ shat myself.”

“And he’s ghosting you?”

“Yes! Motherfucker! I’m going to torch his bowtie collection, stupid faux Faust. I’ll break out the fabric paints and make them all spell out idiot when he wears them.”

“You know he’s bad at checking his phone. Besides, he could be wherever Roman’s gone.”

That gave Remus pause, as well as the rest of them, but it did make for a real sexy dramatic entrance. Slowly, the group made their way to the doors of the banquet hall in the back, where the voices had been coming from. All of the voices were identifiable as other Roman advisors, other pieces of Roman’s psyche he’d given form in his last absolute mental breakdown.

All voices except one.

“I hope so. Cadence, you said Marlowe would be the guy to find him, if someone did. Right?”

That was Virgil.

Remus threw open the doors and struck a pose leaning against one. “He~ello, boys!” he shouted, stunning all six of the gathered Romans and the one Virgil into silence.

A/N part 2:

thank you literally to everyone who's been commenting on these and reading through this series. i got a comment a few days ago (maybe a week?) and it's gotten me to go back and reread comments and read over this series again. and i remembered i have up to chapter 8 written. and i know exactly what happens in it, so we're trying this again.

another life update, though. i'm halfway through graduate school :') right now is the summer, though, so i am also an intern LOL a lot's happened and my life is in disarray but it's going well!

i also. exported these OCs into their own human au (along with like, 20 or something other aus with a friend, but. i digress) and i've written basically two books about all of them getting into an ot7. so you know what time it is LOLLLLLL

anyway. tl'dr. thank you for sticking with me through all of this. i'm hoping to bring this story home. it's prolly going to be longer than the original chivalry. and i hope y'all enjoy it. i love you so much.

#more than beliefs #tw knives #tw gross imagery #tw gore #we're fuckin back in action baby #i am SO tired but W IW WOOWOWOOOOOOOOOO #i care them so fucking much #headcanon for the tags of this chapter: marlowe is very bad at actually writing his writers block is insurmountable #this is because in the split david got all of the raw creative energy #marlowe fucking hates writing he hates it with every fiber of his being #and the only thing he's ever written and is somewhat proud of is once he wrote a poem #cadence put it to a tune and played it as a song #it's a love song #marlowe is so proud of it #but otherwise he fucking hates writing

7 notes · View notes

missdawnandherdusk · 3 years

Text

Will You Go With Me?

Neville X Reader

Summary: Ginny turns Neville’s proposal to the Yule Ball, and you go to comfort him finding yourself in quite a situation.

A/n: I have no idea where this came from but boy is it PRECIOUS. It’s soft and fluffy and cute and Neville is just the best. It’s just a drabble so about 1k words, but so precious.

I was in the common room curled up with a book when I watched the events unfold before me and there was nothing that I wanted more than to curl up in my book and to not witness them.

“So, Ginny,” Neville dared to approach the fiery redhead, “I was thinking that maybe, you know that if you’re uh, not going to the Ball... with anyone yet, maybe that possibly you and I could go... maybe?” Stumbling over his words, he as flushed to the color of her hair, presenting a flower that he had no doubt grown himself. The tangible awkwardness could be cut with a knife.

“Wow,” Ginny stood, flustered. “That’s... totally sweet of you. But uh... someone else already asked me, sorry,” She left quickly after that and Neville sank down to the nearest couch, twirling the flower between his fingers.

I got up, setting my book down. Neville and I never really talked before. He was in some of my classes and when we were paired together, he’d keep his head down and barely say a word. I left something to be desired.

“Hey Neville,” I approached slowly.

“Sorry I’ll move,” He stood immediately.

“No, wait, hang on,” I reached out for him. “Sit,” I gestured as we both took our place. I... um, just wanted to say that I saw what happened with Ginny and I think it was totally unfair,” His unsteady hazel eyes flashed to mine. “Any girl in the school would be lucky to go to the Ball with a guy as nice as you,” I offered a smile and stood.

“Really? You mean that?” He looked hopeful.

“I do,” I went to go back to my book. To be fair I should have seen it coming.

“Will you go with me?” He offered his flower out, catching me off guard. He asked again. “Will you go to the Ball with me?”

“...Yes.” With a hesitant smile I took the flower he offered.

“Awesome,” The light shining in his eyes was something that I couldn’t dare take away. “I’ll uh... pick you up at six?” I nodded and he left the common room leaving me to my thoughts.

To tell the truth, I never planned on going with anyone to the Ball. I had a few friends who were going, and we were going as a crew. It was easy and nothing to stress about. I looked at the flower in my hands and smiled to myself. Maybe it wouldn’t be so awful to go with Neville. I just didn’t know anything about him.

“Oh, thank Merlin,” Ginny rushed back into the common room. “I’m so glad you said yes. I felt just awful,”

“I... yeah. It’ll be fun,” I smiled. “Neville is a sweet guy,”

It was the next day that I ran into a dilemma McLaggen in the common room. The Gryffindor Seeker had no insecurity as he walked up to me amidst the other students. It had been no secret that McLaggen had been trying to initiate something with me over the past few years. If he wasn’t so egotistical and bigoted, I might have said yes.

“So, Y/l/n,” He grinned. “Go to the ball with me,” He didn’t make it a question.

“Oh, uh, someone already asked me,” I gave.

“Who? Longbottom?” He laughed. “You can’t be serious. Ditch the nerd and go with a real man,”

From across the room my eyes met Neville’s. In despair, he shook his head and left the common room like a bat out of hell. My heart fell, clearly distracted.

“I doubt that’s you,” I snapped. “Keep dreaming McLaggen. At least Neville was a gentleman when he asked.” I pushed past him and the ruffling that out little scene caused in the common room and went to look for Neville.

The corridor was empty. Looking to the left and right, the cold night gave no answer as to which way Neville went. Muttering to myself, I took a chance of where he might be. Maybe I knew something about him after all.

“Neville?” I asked the greenhouse softly. “Are you in here?”

There was a rustling in the corner. A stool scraping against the tile floor.

“Neville, I want to talk,” I pleaded, making my way over to the sound. I found him hunched over a notebook, focused on the lines his pencil made.

“You want to go with McLaggen,” He didn’t look up. “I get it,”

“No,” I corrected. “Even if I did want to go with the sleaze ball,” I muttered offhand. “I still made the promise to you, and I’m not going to break that promise,”

He finally looked up.

“Really?” He seemed genuinely surprised.

“Yeah,” I smiled, taking the seat beside him. “You have to give yourself some more credit Neville. You really are a sweet guy,”

“You barely know me,” He mumble.

“Yeah... I thought that too. But I found you here didn’t I? That’s gotta count for something,”

“I suppose it does,” Neville smiled up at me. “You really turned McLaggen down?”

“Yes,” I laughed, gaze falling and catching sight of his paper. “Did you draw this?” I was amazed. It was a perfect replica of the flower he had given me.

“Uh, uh, yes,” He stammered, growing red.

“Can I see it?” I asked, raising an eyebrow, delighting in how flustered he always got. He slid the paper toward me, bashful.

“This is incredible,” I ran my finger over the sketch. “What kind of flower is it? The one you gave me? I’m not very good at plant names unless they’re the common ones,” I admitted.

“Anemone coronaria,” Neville said matter-of-factly. “It originates from the Mediterranean and its name comes from the Greek meaning wind. They come in a lot of colors based on what soil you use, I’m partial to the white ones, but that’s just...me.” He caught my eye as he ended, growing flustered again. “Sorry I tend to rant. I know plants aren’t all that interesting,”

“I think they are,” I reached out and covered his hand with my own. “Neville?” His eyes met mine, “Will you go to the Ball with me?”

“Wh—I—okay,” He stammered, grinning at his lap. “I’d love to,”

masterlist

more like this:

neville dating headcannons

pride and prejudice

@coffee-addicti @msmcsmutt @ravn-87 @artemismohr18@whygz@crazywritingbug @bitemebro522 @zombiesnips-blog@savingdraco @akari180 @slytherin-emerald @queenfeatherwings @fanficflaneuse @go-whovian-universe @spicyshenanigans @darling-im-not-okay-i-promise @katsukink @takemetothekingdom @strangerr-things @tmnt-queen@hxneybgb @belcvayelena @moviesbooksandfandoms @cocochanelthepupper @ninacotte @braelynn-johnston @jiggllyy @darcypotter-blog @thiccheerioss@lottie289 @beautiful-pegasus@tceedlmao @anonymous034 @bi-andready-tocry @dragonsandbread @the-queen-of-hell-things @alienmotel @oh-itsnothing @sunflowerxsadnessw @fattycooter @fanficsigottaread @gweaslvy @strawberriesonsummer @gaysludge @ray-of-sunrise @artist-bby @shadowsingeraxolotl @quillsareforwriting @wollymalfoy @lilpieceoftoast @paper-cats @floweryjh @hufflautia @livize75 @annie-mcl @riathearora @live-like-luna @justathoughtfulangel @coconutdawn @skteaiy @naughtygranger @dragonsandbread @abundantxadorations @moony-artnstuff @and-then-a-girl-with-luv @1-800-luvsick @pandas-rice-field @in-slytherin-we-trust @emmaa-t @introvertedrae @infinity1o1 @echpr@dekulover @marshmallowtraver @cereuselle @lonely-skywalker @sleepysnapesnake @hoeforthefictional @coldlilheart @helen-paris @rosie-starlit-sky @vulture-withafile @hogstupefy @eveft @iraniq @groovyfluxie @cool-weirdo-wannabee-author @rosegold-thorns @criminaly-supernatural @ghostofdolans @mxl-foyrecs @ginger-haired-queen @bex4whovian @kellyrose193 @unlikelygalaxygiver @marvel-trash-was-taken @one-edgy-bitch@supersouthy @garbagejay@rejectedlonelyasianchild @lucymxwell @coldlilheart @elia-the-bibliophile @biggalaxydreamland @fuckbuckyyy @hopem1218 @youareinllve @tyrusparker @3rdofkingdomtrees @i-mmunity @zero-nightshade @graym01 @fandomtrash88 @snakey-drakey @ceeellewrites @thatguppienamedbae @pinkleopardss @angel-blogging @xhoney-bee-x @jovialthings @samanthahaigwood @minigigglybabi @clumsy-writing-rdb @lahoete @yourenotafailureoverall @m-winchester-67 @shiningstar-byulxx@clumsy-writing-rdb @dracosathenaeum @dracofeltonmalfoy @harryslouis @iilovemusic12us @itsbebeyyy @dumspirospero-1 @kaye-lantern @anerroroccurrrrred @franbow29 @big-galaxy-chaos @itsbebeyyy @gryffindors-weasley @ornella0910 @ultrabuzzlightyear @phantomface1983 @emmalee12 @kuyrukludenizkizi @aubreylovesthegames @deafeninglandpersonempath @ackermanbitch @oingo233 @drismultiverse-blog @majicbamana @harrypotter289 @marinettepotterandplagg @cupidpoison @brownwheatrice @introvertedrae @gryffindors-weasley @frecklesandfirecrackers @bitchinbadgers @mkstover @dracomalfoyreader @mortallythoughtfulgurl @sakumorubywy @smileycount @ceeellewrites @is-it-really-a-secret @blogforharrypotter @spencerreidisbootiful @lam-ila @justawilddreamerchild @heavenlyrainyparis @trappedgoose-in-a-writblr-room @dracomalfoyreader @spellbinding10 @justawilddreamerchild @queen-of-the-coven @potterpasties @trudabest @theonlystoriesiliketoread @daltonacademia @jemmakates @dannighost @imagines-andshizz @unstableye @hahee154hq @malfoystylinson @idkmanicantenglish @subpar-life @myshadowsingeraz @isabellamur @dracoswhore007 @subpar-life @sxphiemxlfoy @mxxnlights @malfoyyyyed @crabbygorl15 @legendarywinchester1 @alias07jef @hufflepuffprinces @youarethereasonimsmiling

230 notes · View notes

iclaimedtobethebetterbard · 3 years

Text

snakes & silliness

Fandom: Sanders Sides Characters: Janus, Remus, Patton Rating: Teen & up Relationships: Intrualiceit, with a focus on Dukeceit Warnings: Language, some innuendo, both mostly courtesy of Remus. Word count: 2297

Read on AO3!

My writing masterpost

Starlight Universe masterpost

Dukeceit Week 2021 start - previous - here - next - masterpost

Summary: The selecting of a first family pet is a very important matter. Almost as important as making Janus grin and blush in the middle of the reptile section. Luckily, Remus and Patton take both of these tasks as seriously as they should.

Notes: Day 3 of Dukeceit Week 2021! @dukeceitweek Takes place in my Starlight Universe, where each piece can be read without any context. Takes place 4 or 5 years post-college. Remus, Janus, and Patton all use he/they pronouns.

–

Remus locked the car doors behind them as he, Janus, and Patton began to make their way across the parking lot towards the pet store. “What shall we name it?” he inquired, offering one hand to each of his partners.

Patton lit up. “I don’t know… Snakey!”

Remus pursed his lips. “Sure, but I was thinking, like, something cool. Like… Mouse Killer.”

“No, that’s sad!” Patton shook his head. “What about Scaley?”

Remus grinned. “Janus Jr.”

“Danger Noodle!”

“Janice, but spelled the other way.”

“Snoot Boopsie!”

“Janus, but pronounced like anus.”

“You are both terrible at naming snakes,” Janus cut in, breaking the amused silence they had maintained until now as their eyebrows rose higher and higher with each of Remus and Patton’s suggestions.

“Oh, really?” Remus rounded on them with a grin. “And what would you name it, then, if you’re so much cleverer than us?”

Janus froze, mouth open, clearly caught off-guard by the question. “…Jake,” they said weakly after a pause.

Remus snickered. “Oh, really?” He let go of Patton’s hand and moved closer to Janus, leaning into their personal space. “Is that your genius idea for Best Snake Name of All Time? You’re sure?”

Janus, being Janus, stood their ground. “Yes,” they mumbled, sounding only a little sheepish.

Remus traded a mischievous glance with Patton. “And you didn’t make it up on the spot because you were making fun of our ideas when you had none of your own?”

“Of… of course not,” Janus said, tone almost perfectly even and cheeks very red.

“Well,” Patton chirped, the picture of innocence standing there at his full height of 5’2” and dressed all in pastels, speaking in that particular syrupy sweet tone that was the surest sign that his partners were in an excellent kind of danger, “I think that’s a great name, honey!” He raised his eyebrows at Remus in a meaningful way.

Janus blinked. “…What?”

“Oh, definitely,” Remus agreed with a wide grin, catching Patton’s drift at once. Teaming up with Patton to tease Janus was, pretty much universally, an excellent idea. Remus hooked their chin over Janus’s shoulder from behind, wrapping his arm around their waist. “I mean, it really sums up the essence of what we desire in a pet snake, you know?” He held up a hand in front of them both, palm out and fingers spread, drawing a line as if to illuminate the word in the air. “Jake. Now there’s a name that really says dangerous. Intimidating. Cool.”

“I hate you,” Janus mumbled, tilting their head to press their temple against his in a fond little gesture that belied their words.

“Nah, you don’t.” Remus kissed his cheek. “Besides, sugar, if you don’t like it, all you gotta do is say so.” He drew Janus closer by the waist until they were pressed together, his tone turning to a teasing sing-song. “Just let us know you don’t like it. That you were pulling it out of your ass and that you think it’s silly. That you were wrong and you changed your mind.” He leaned closer so his breath fanned against their ear and lowered his voice to nearly a whisper. “Just say it. That’s all you gotta do.” He pulled away, putting on his best bright, innocent air. “Up to you, though! Pat and I clearly love it, so if you don’t say anything, we do have a unanimous winner.” He grinned at Janus.

“You are so mean,” Janus whined.

“What’s wrong, baby?” Remus asked innocently. “Don’t wanna admit you’re wrong?”

“I’m not,” Janus protested at once, “I just….”

“Yes?” Patton said sweetly. “You just what, honey?”

Janus let out a sigh. “You two are going to be the death of me, you know?”

“Why?” Remus inquired. “Because you like it when we make you squirm?”

Janus made a small strangled sound. “Oh, my god.”

“That definitely wasn’t a no, baby,” Remus purred.

Janus flushed pink once again. “I—you—let’s go look at the snakes.” They pulled free of Remus’s grasp and moved towards the door of the pet store.

“Damn. We really are those, like, super obnoxious people who just stand in the parking lot flirting for ten minutes,” Remus commented, putting his hands in the pockets of his green-blue-yellow colorblock jacket, as Janus disappeared into the store.

“Have we ever been anything else?” Patton pointed out in a practical tone. “Come on, now, sweetie, we’d better catch up before Jan buys out half the reptile section.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Remus retorted easily, but allowed Patton to tug him into the store by the hand in search of their other partner.

They found Janus in the reptile section, staring with wide eyes and a soft, open expression into one of the glass tanks. They had a tiny grin on their face as they watched the snake flick its tongue out, and after a second, the tip of their own tongue appeared in an answering blep to mirror the snake. Their expression was far less guarded—and far more happy—than they normally allowed it to be in public, and Remus was hit in the gut with an overpowering wave of remembering-just-how-gooshy-Jan-made-him emotions.

Patton cooed softly, phone at the ready in a flash; Remus leaned over, resting their chin on Patton’s shoulder, and adjusted the angle of the camera just slightly to one he knew Janus would like better. Patton clicked the shutter.

“I can see you, you know,” Janus commented quietly, eyes not leaving the snake.

“It’s not our fault you’re so pretty,” Remus responded, backed up by an emphatic nod from Patton. He moved over to stand at Janus’s side, sliding his hand possessively around their waist. “Is this Jake?” he inquired innocently.

“Oh my god,” Janus mumbled, rolling their eyes.

“What? I thought you liked that name,” Remus teased with his best evil grin. “You know, it being your idea, and you being so much better at coming up with names than us, and all.”

“You really aren’t going to let that one go, are you?” Janus sighed.

Remus put one finger under Janus’s chin and tilted their face towards himself. “Not unless you tell us exactly what you want, baby,” he breathed, letting his tone go dark.

Janus visibly swallowed, cheeks staining red. “I—” Their eyes flitted away from him, glancing around. “Remus, we’re in public.”

“Why, what did I do?” Remus asked sweetly, grinning.

“You know perfectly well what you did.”

Remus grinned wider. “Hell yeah I do,” they acknowledged. “C’mon, there’s no kids over here, I can be a little naughty.” However, having made their point, he did ease off the teasing, just for the moment. “Now, introduce me to our snakey pal here. Are we liking this one?”

Janus looked over Remus’s shoulder, and Patton was by their side at once. “I—I do like this one, I think,” Janus said, indicating the snake that had been engrossing them when Remus and Patton arrived. “But we can look around first, and talk about it.”

Patton dug in their pocket and produced the scrap of paper with the list of species they’d agreed upon as options, after several nights’ worth of internet research and heated discussion. They’d needed to find a pet that would do well in the apartment the three of them had just moved into—their first home together. It was one that would allow pets, which had been important to them, and choosing a snake as the inaugural pet of the family had been an easy decision for Remus and Patton after the way Janus lit up talking about it.

“Let’s take a look, shall we?” Patton said, unfolding the list.

While there were, frankly, a surprising number of snakes available for purchase—Remus counted at least ten—only two or three met the criteria that the three of them had put together.

“So?” Remus asked, looking at Janus expectantly when they had whittled down the options before them thus far. “What’s it gonna be, babe?”

Janus hesitated. “It’s going to be our snake. Not mine. We should all choose.”

“Yeah, but Pat and I have only been waiting for it for a few months. You’ve been waiting since you were eight. It’s important to all of us, but it’s most important to you.” Remus glanced at Patton. “Isn’t that right?”

Patton nodded. “I like all of the options, honey,” they told Janus. “I wanna know which one makes you most happy.”

Janus was silent, looking back and forth between two glass tanks and quietly stimming with their hands—rubbing their thumbs back and forth along all their other fingertips, a stim Remus recognized as one of their go-tos when thinking hard or overwhelmed. “I….” They bit their lip, looking beseechingly over at their partners, voice trailing off in what seemed like mild distress.

Remus put his arm around their waist again, drumming his fingers against their side. “Problem?” he asked, gently pushing Janus’s hair out of their face.

Janus hesitated. “I’m… stuck,” they said by way of explanation. They gestured vaguely towards their forehead. “Up here.”

Remus nodded and placed his free hand delicately on Janus’s chest, right over their heart, his fingertips barely pressing against the soft, clingy lace fabric of their long black dress. “How about here?” he asked.

Janus chewed on the inside of their mouth for a beat and shook his head. “Not stuck there.”

“Do you want to go home and come back later?” Patton asked.

Janus shook their head again, head bent and hair falling about their face as they stared into one of the snake tanks. “I know which one. I’m only second guessing myself.”

Remus wrapped both his hands around their slim waist. “Do you know what you need?” he said, the words coming easily to his tongue. He’d struck on that particular phrasing back in college; it helped when Janus was feeling stuck, usually due to either sensory overload or a disconnect between their feelings and rational thoughts. It was simple and, more importantly, it cut past the issue of explaining what the problem was, which could be hard for Janus to articulate.

Janus hesitated. “Not exactly.”

“Any ideas?” Remus prompted when they did not go on.

Janus rested one hand over Remus’s, still clasped about their side, and drummed their slim fingers on the back of his hand. “I… don’t know how I feel about the name ideas anymore,” they said slowly, as if trying to shape the thoughts in their head into words.

“Oh, that’s no problem, I was mostly just being silly,” Remus assured them at once, absently signing the word “silly” in ASL as he spoke—one of a handful of words he’d retained in his vocabulary since he spent a stint learning the language in middle school. He glanced over at Patton. “Right?”

Patton nodded. “Of course not, honey. We don’t need to pick a name right now. We can always work that out some other time.”

Janus let out a long breath. “Okay. That—that’s good. Yes.”

“Better?” Remus asked, feeling the way they had untensed against him.

Janus inclined their head once. “Less things in my head now.”

“That’s good,” Remus said. “Also,” he added, in a less serious tone, “can I just point out that I am being really good about how many times we are saying the word snake and how many dirty jokes I am not making, and you should both give me lots of attention about it?”

Janus let out a huff of laughter. “What exactly am I doing right now, pray tell?” he inquired, gesturing to where he and Remus were pressed together all down their side, and to Remus’s hand about their waist.

“Breathing, in that very sexy way you do,” Remus retorted at once with a grin.

Janus half smiled. “I’m flattered, darling.” They pressed their temple to Remus’s. “However, I was referring to the way we are practically cuddling in broad daylight. Is that not giving you attention?”

“True,” Remus agreed, giving Janus’s side an appreciative squeeze, “but you’re also giving some of your attention to these reptiles.” He gestured at the wall of tanks before them. “Let it be known that I am terribly jealous. And Pat is all the way over there, which is too far.” They pouted at Patton, standing all of twelve inches away from the pair of them.

“Yes, you’re being very good, sweetie,” Patton said, patting Remus on the cheek. “You get lots of kisses later.”

Remus beamed, catching Patton’s hand in their free hand. “Much better,” they said with a pleased chuckle, and looked back to Janus. “Are you ready to tell us which snake is coming home with us, baby?” He hooked his finger in one of Janus’s belt loops and ran his thumb back and forth along their side just above it.

Janus pursed their lips, clearly considering this. “Yes,” they said. “I really like this one.” He indicated a tank with a golden-brown, spotted snake inside; a corn snake, the same one they had been so interested in when Remus and Patton arrived.

Patton made an excited noise, and Janus’s face melted into a soft little grin at once. “I love that one!” Patton said. “That one is the best one.”

“Good.” Janus looked at Remus, the barest hint of nerves almost perfectly hidden in their face.

Remus leaned up and pecked their lips. “’S perfect, baby,” he said easily.

Janus relaxed the rest of the way, leaning into Remus’s touch and raising one hand to their mouth to cover the smile on their face. “Of course it is,” they said primly, reaching around Remus’s back to rest a hand on Patton’s shoulder. “It’s ours, after all.”

Taglist (ask to be added/removed!): @theimprobabledreamersworld

66 notes · View notes

quickspinner · 3 years

Text

Snake in the Silk

Written for the @lovebugs-and-snakecharmers Sprint Challenge, using the @mlweeklyprompts Next Door Neighbors. The fic is supposed to be 45 minutes plus "editing," but I kind of doubled the length in editing, so...oops.

I received a lot of prompts for my 500 follower celebration that I never used (although I did end up writing a surprising number of them eventually, when I looked at the list), and I was sharing them with the sprint server as possible future prompts. One of them involved Luka getting an exotic pet, which collided with the neighbors thing in my brain, and thus this fic was born.

As always the irrepressible Dingo King belongs to Verfound, who's kind enough to let me use him.

Rated T, mostly for innuendo and language

Find it on AO3

“I hate you,” Luka fumed, keeping the phone pressed to his face as he kicked his door shut behind him. “I hate you so much right now.”

“Not true,” Dingo said cheerfully over the phone.

“I’m serious, you jackass, I can’t trust you with anything!” Luka threw his bag in the corner with probably more force than he should have, and then winced. He set his guitar case down more carefully.

“Also not true,” Dingo said, a little sheepishly this time. “Buuuuuuut I’ll grant that maybe you shouldn’t have trusted me with this.”

“I didn’t have a choice,” Luka snapped as he stomped through his apartment. “Juleka was with me, and Evan’s a freaking pansy, and—” Luka stopped dead and sighed as he stared at the empty cabinet—the cabinet he had personally, carefully refurbished and remodeled to be as escape-proof as possible. Not that any of that did any good, with the door sitting ajar. Luka swore and only barely resisted the urge to kick something. “If anything happens to him,” Luka warned his best friend, “I will murder you, do you hear me?”

“Fair,” Dingo sighed. “Look, Lu, I seriously am sorry, and I would never have left except I had to work, and as soon as I can find an excuse to bail I’ll—”

“No,” Luka gritted out. “No, it won’t matter if you’re here or not. Don’t lose your job over it. I’ll figure something out.”

“It’ll work out, Lu. That stupid snake adores you, he won’t stay gone for long.”

Luka made a frustrated noise in the back of his throat and grit his teeth around the things he wanted to say. “I gotta go,” he finally managed to grind out. “I’ll deal with you later.”

“Right.” Dingo laughed nervously. “I’ll bring takeout and beer and then we’ll turn your place upside down looking for the little bugger.”

Luka hung up without saying anything else, and jammed his phone in his pocket. He put his face in his hands and screamed quietly, then dragged his hands down his face and surveyed the empty enclosure again—as if Sass were just going to show up and slither right up his favorite branch and flick his tongue out like ‘Sup .

Okay, he needed to think. It wasn’t the first time Sass had taken a little pleasure jaunt. Think. How many places could a four-foot corn snake find to hide in a small apartment like this? Luka didn’t even have that much stuff, so he shouldn’t be that hard to find.

If he was even still in the apartment. Luka swallowed hard. That had never been much of a worry on the Liberty, since while there were about a billion little crannies that a snake could crawl into, most of them were unpleasant for a cold-blooded reptile, and at least he couldn’t escape the ship entirely. But here, who knew? And this was the first time he’d escaped since Luka had moved into the apartment, so Luka didn’t know what his favorite places were likely to be, and—

And standing here panicking was not doing anything to find his beloved pet. For all that Sass was a little shit of an escape artist, Luka had raised him for years and he loved the quirky little snake and his stupid little snakey face with those bright black eyes and—

“Come on, Sass,” Luka muttered, looking around helplessly. “Don’t do this to me.”

Okay. First things first. Luka swung the front of the cabinet open wide, so that if Sass did decide he preferred his (very comfortable, Luka thought with a little pout, he had done a lot of work to make sure it was) home to whatever random, dusty corner he’d managed to find, he could get back in. Probably if nothing else, Sass would come back when he was hungry, if…

Luka sighed, and took Sass’s little pool out of the bottom of the enclosure to dump it out and refill it with fresh water. He made sure the heating mat was at the right temperature, and checked under the substrate and poked around among the various hides—damnit, he’d worked so hard to make this habitat, and that stupid, ungrateful little—

A muffled but clearly audible scream broke into his thoughts, and Luka froze. There was a second, yelping shriek— from the apartment next door, he suddenly realized, and he ran for his apartment door, knocking over his guitar case in his haste to get it opened.

He’d barely had time to turn from his door to the next door down when it burst open and a young woman stumbled out of it, eyes wide in panic. She collided with Luka and he grabbed her arms on instinct.

“Are you okay?” he asked stupidly, as she looked up at him.

“I—there was—” she panted, clearly still panicked. “A snake in my panties!”

Luka stared at her for a moment, uncomprehending as he took in big blue eyes, pink cheeks, and a soft mouth that was opening and closing without saying anything, and then she balled her hands into fists and closed her eyes and shrieked, “There’s a huge snake in my underwear drawer!”

Understanding hit him like a lightning bolt. “Oh thank God,” Luka sighed, and the young woman gaped at him as he moved her aside and went into her apartment.

“Wait, what are you—” she spluttered. “Where are you going? Hey!”

Luka halted about four steps into the apartment, abruptly realizing that he didn’t know where he was going, and she crashed into his back in her rush to follow him.

“Sorry,” Luka said, turning and holding his hands up placatingly. “Sorry, it’s just—my friend was watching my flat, and he let my pet snake out and I’ve been frantic to—find...him…” It struck him all at once that the young woman currently staring at him had wet black hair hanging around her shoulders, and a red and black polka-dotted silk robe wrapped haphazardly around her very nice body. It was still sticking to her in places and he suddenly felt like his tongue was glued to the roof of his mouth.

“That thing is yours?” she demanded, pushing her wet hair back and gripping her robe more tightly closed with the other hand. “I don’t know whether I’m mad at you or just relieved the whole building isn’t...infested or something.” She looked around nervously. “So there’s no more? Just the one?”

“No,” Luka laughed, burying the fingers of one hand in his hair. “No, no, no infestation, just one irresponsible best friend and my freaking Houdini-wanna-be pet snake. I’m so, so sorry he scared you, but if you show me where he is, I’ll get him out of here and you can get—uh, get on with your day, um….Miss.”

“Marinette,” she sighed, tugging the robe around herself a little self-consciously, her cheeks turning an attractive pink. Shit, she was cute, and this was really awkward. Ugh, Luka was going to kill Dingo, and maybe Sass too for good measure.

“Luka,” he said, offering his hand. “I live next door and I promise I don’t let my snake out all willy-nilly.”

Marinette snorted and covered her mouth with one hand as Luka blinked at her, feeling his face slowly turning red. “I can’t believe I just said that,” he muttered under his breath, and Marinette laughed aloud.

“Come on,” she giggled. “This way. Um, watch your step...I’m still getting unpacked and all and...okay that’s a lie, it’s always this messy, but it’s organized, I swear—”

“Hey, I’m not gonna judge your housekeeping choices, trust me,” Luka told her absently as he followed her down the short hall. “I don’t think I’m in any position to judge you at all, given the situation. Even if I did that kind of thing. Judge people, I mean. I—I don’t, or I try not to, at least—” He paused and took a deep breath, trying not to let it out as a frustrated sigh.

Marinette pushed open a door and edged into the room—her bedroom, it was immediately obvious. She stayed pressed up against the wall. “It’s, um, over there,” she said, pointing to a pink and black chest of drawers, the top drawer of which was hanging open. “I just opened the drawer and there it was and I—” She fluttered her hands.

Luka went over to the drawer and surveyed the contents. “I don’t see him,” he sighed.

“What?” Marinette’s voice jumped several octaves.

“It’s okay, he probably just—” Luka reached out, and stopped just before he touched anything, hand hovering over the rumpled pile of silk and lace in the drawer. “Uh…” Luka looked back at Marinette. “I mean, do you mind if I…” he gestured weekly at the drawer full of underthings. “See if he’s underneath this stuff?”

“Oh,” Marinette blushed again, but waved a dismissive hand, shifting nervously. “Go ahead. Do what you need to do. I just want you to find it.” She cracked a small smile. “Thanks for checking, though.”

“Sure,” Luka grunted, carefully lifting a pair of lace edge panties from the top of what had probably been a neat pile before Sass decided to rummage it into a nest. He shifted things aside carefully, trying not to look too hard at any of it. “Come on, you little shit,” he muttered. “You’re killing me here.”

“Um, could you actually, uh...maybe hand me a pair of those?” Marinette said, and Luka glanced back at her in some surprise. She was still pressed back against the wall and her face was red again, and she was clutching her robe tight around her, fingering her wet hair as she fidgeted— oh .

“Oh, yeah, uh...any particular...color?” he asked weakly. She seemed like the kind of girl who liked to match. Which was such a weird thing to be thinking right now. He was definitely going to kill Dingo. Slowly . Maybe feed important bits of him to Sass before he murdered his beloved pet, too.

“Anything’s fine,” Marinette replied, with a slightly hysterical sounding laugh.

Luka lifted another pair, trying not to think too hard about which pair he grabbed and what it might say about him. He tossed the panties to her, and then quickly turned back to the drawer.

“I’m just gonna step outside for a minute,” Marinette muttered, and Luka swallowed as he heard her bare feet pad away.

“This is the weirdest fucking day,” he muttered under his breath, carefully moving more underthings aside and trying not too hard to think about what other kinds of things a lady might keep in her underwear drawer. Ugh, why did the damn drawer have to be so deep—wait, was that—

Luka picked up a distractingly pretty blue pair decorated with black ribbons, and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the familiar tip of Sass’s tail sticking out. “Got you, you little shit.”

“You found him?” Marinette said behind him, and Luka jumped. She was wearing shorts and a t-shirt now, and she’d pulled her wet hair back into a ponytail. She stood on tiptoe to look around him, though she still kept back behind him.

“Yeah, now I just have to get around to his head and get him out without spooking him,” Luka said, reaching into the drawer again. “The last thing I want is him musking all over your things because I grabbed him too quickly and startled him.”

Marinette wrinkled her nose. “I don’t know what that means, but it sounds gross.”

“Trust me, it is,” Luka said, removing another pair of Marinette’s underwear and adding it to the pile he’d been making on top of the dresser. “I am really, really sorry about this. I shouldn’t have trusted Ding—my friend. He’s got a good heart but he’s a little loose on details.” In the drawer, Sass shifted, and lifted his head, tongue flicking out curiously, a pair of teal, scale-patterned panties draped over his head. Luka bit back a laugh. “Hey, buddy,” he murmured, moving his fingers near Sass. Sass’s tongue flickered once, and then again, scenting, and then he moved forward, sliding out from under the pile of panties to glide onto Luka’s hand. “There we go.” Luka brought his other hand forward to move under Sass’s body, and finally, carefully, lifted the pile of snake out of Marinette’s underwear drawer. Far from looking stressed, Sass seemed as relaxed and laid back as ever, gathering his nearly four-foot length into Luka’s hands like nothing was amiss. It kind of made Luka want to shake him, but that would have been really dumb, so he didn’t. He sighed with relief instead, feeling his shoulders go slack as Sass poked his head up towards Luka’s elbow.

“I wasn’t imagining it,” Marinette murmured, keeping behind him, but still leaning on his arm to peep curiously around him at Sass. “He really was that big.”

“He’s pretty near his full growth,” Luka agreed, and lifted Sass up to eye level. “Which is why I built you that nice, big habitat and made it so comfortable, so that you had room to be you. I can’t believe you just bailed on it.” Sass swayed forward, bumping his snout against Luka’s face. “Yeah, it’s me, you little dummy.”

“Does he bite?” Marinette asked, and Luka snorted softly, moving his hands to keep the snake supported as Sass began to slither up his arm.

“Not usually. Sometimes he bites me just to make a point, but not enough to hurt,” Luka told her, “For the most part he’s well socialized, and friendly. Really, he’s harmless to anything much bigger than a rat. I promise, you were never in any danger from him. I’m sorry he gave you such a scare, though.”

“Can I...can I touch him?” Marinette asked, as Sass slithered across Luka’s shoulder and extended his head out a bit, tongue flickering. Luka grinned at her.

“Yeah, sure. Here, let’s just...” He backed up a step and sat down on the edge of Marinette’s bed, then reached up and took Sass off his shoulders to gather him between his hands again. Apparently no longer inclined to stay put after his little panty-nest nap, Sass began to slide up his arm again as Marinette set down next to him. She reached out a tentative finger to stroke Sass’s body as the snake moved up towards Luka’s shoulder. “Oooh, that’s so weird,” she said, but she was grinning, and Luka chuckled.

“I’ve had him since he was a baby about the size of my hand,” Luka told her, closing one eye as Sass poked his snout into Luka’s cheek. “I was freaking out, thinking that I’d lost him. I’m sorry we interrupted your day, but I’m grateful you found him, and didn’t hurt him.”

“Hurt him ,” Marinette laughed. “ He just about gave me a heart attack. I just moved in, you know, and—well, I’d seen a mouse a couple of times so I was already a bit jumpy, and then I saw that and suddenly I was sure the whole place was crawling with pests. Which was maybe a dumb thing to think, but I...it’s my first time living on my own and I guess I’m a little paranoid.” She shrank a little, reaching up to tug at her still-dripping ponytail.

“I don’t think there’s any reasonable reaction to finding a snake in your...er, unmentionables.” Luka coughed as Marinette snickered.

“Unmentionables,” she snickered. “You sound like an old man.”

Luka laughed with her, only a little self-consciously. “I, um... don’t think you’re going to have a mouse problem anymore,” he commented, stroking a swollen place in Sass’s belly. “I guess that’s why Sass ended up here. He probably smelled it.”

Marinette eyed the lump in Sass’s otherwise sleek form with a conflicted expression, but she only sighed.

“If it’s any consolation, I’ve been here a few months and I haven’t had any pest problems,” Luka continued.

“I don’t guess you would,” Marinette laughed, looking at Sass. “They can probably smell him and stay away. Maybe I should borrow him sometimes.”

“Well, clearly I could use a better babysitter,” Luka chuckled. “So if you’re interested, we can definitely work something out.” He turned his head to look at Sass, who was draped along his shoulders again. “No more hunting, though. That mouse could have messed you up, you little jerk.”

Sass yawned, tongue flickering, and then stuck his head down the collar of Luka’s shirt. Luka rolled his eyes. “I should let you get back to your day,” he said, standing up. “And I should get this guy back into his cage.” Sass slid further into Luka’s shirt, and then reversed course, his head peeping back out. “What are you even doing right now?” Luka asked him. “Missing your heat rock?”

Marinette giggled. “He’s kind of cute, actually. He’s very pretty, with those markings...wait, is that him?” She caught the edge of Luka’s sleeve, lifting it slightly to reveal the top of the tattoo on his upper arm.

“Yeah,” Luka grinned, shifting so she could see it better. “I love that one. They made him look amazing.”

“They really did,” Marinette said admiringly, and then her eyes widened slightly and she dropped his sleeve, moving back as her face reddened. “Um, sorry.”

“No worries,” Luka chuckled. She was really adorable, and sweet when she wasn’t screaming. She’d certainly warmed up to Sass quick enough, too, so he gave her points for courage and open-mindedness.

“Well, it was very nice to meet you, Sass,” Marinette said to the snake, bending down slightly to be eye to eye with him. “Next time I’d appreciate it if you’d wait for an invitation, though.”

Sass slid up and away from Luka, stretching out toward Marinette as if planning to explore her shoulders next, but Luka put a hand under him and lifted away. “None of that, Casanova,” he told the snake, redirecting Sass back to his own shoulder. “Let’s get you home.”

Marinette walked them to the door, and when she opened it, Luka paused on the doorstep. “Um, thanks again for being so understanding,” he said, trying not to stare at her too intently. “I’m glad to have met you, Marinette. If you ever need anything, well.” He gestured vaguely. “I’m right next door, and I owe you.”

Marinette smiled at him, pink tinging her cheeks, and his stomach did a little flip. “Thanks, Luka. I’m glad to meet you too. I’m sure I’ll see you around.”

“Yeah, definitely,” Luka smiled back, and then practically fled back to his own door. “See you.”

She gave him a little wave before closing her door, and he was grinning widely when he opened his own.

He took Sass straight back to his enclosure, and Sass eagerly slid from his hands, beelining for his favorite warming spot. “I’m really mad at you,” Luka told him. “I was worried. I’m definitely still killing Dingo.” He couldn’t keep his face stern, though, a smile twitching his mouth. “I might owe you big time, though. That was a hell of an icebreaker.” Luka sighed, and shut the enclosure, making sure it was securely latched.

He went back to the door where he’d dumped his bags, and picked up his guitar case, leaving the suitcases where they were for now. He got out his guitar and settled down on the couch with a sigh.

He lost track of how long he’d sat there, playing a soft tune that reminded him of blue eyes and giggles and silk. When his phone buzzed in his pocket and brought him back to himself, he could see sunset colors through the window.

“Oi, mate,” Dingo said when Luka picked up the phone. “I finally escaped—ooh, poor choice of words...I mean I’m off work now. I’ll grab some takeout and meet you at your place so we can—”

“I found him,” Luka interrupted, wincing a little. He probably should have texted Dingo hours ago to let him know.

Oh well, the bastard deserved it.

“You did?” Dingo repeated, obviously relieved. “Yes. Good. Okay. Welp, cancel that then—”

“Oh, no,” Luka interrupted him. “You’re not getting out of bringing me dinner. I still need to kick your ass.”

“Not exactly incentivizing, mate.” Dingo sighed. “You want your usual?’

“Actually,” Luka said, thinking fast. “I’ll text you my order in a minute.” He hung up before Dingo could protest, stuck his phone in his pocket, and went out the front door.

“This is stupid,” he muttered to himself, rubbing his palms on his jeans before he knocked on Marinette’s door.

She opened the door and her curious expression morphed into a smile. “Luka.” She was fully dressed now and made up to boot, and just as cute as he remembered.

“Hey,” he managed to get out, and hoped his smile didn’t look too manic. “Um, my asshole best friend is bringing me takeout to make up for being a dummy, and I’d really like to buy you dinner to make up for earlier.”

“Oh,” Marinette’s expression shifted into uncertainty, and she bit her lip. “I’d hate to intrude…”

“If you’d rather, I can just bring your food over when it gets here,” Luka offered. “But you definitely wouldn’t be intruding, I’d love for you to join us. Totally your call, though. You don’t even have to decide now. Do you like Thai?” He pulled out his phone to show her the menu.

“I love Thai,” she admitted shyly, taking the phone he offered her. “Um...but you really don’t have to…”

“I want to,” he told her sincerely, and the smile she turned up at him made his heart rate kick up a few beats.

“Okay,” she said, and he nearly stopped breathing as she pulled up his contacts. “How about I just add my number and you can text me when he gets here, and...I’ll come over for a little bit, if you guys really don’t mind.”

“Y-yes, yeah, definitely, go ahead,” he said quickly.

Smiling to herself, Marinette did just that, and then sent herself a text before she handed him back the phone. “I’ll text you my order, it’s a little complicated,” she told him, “and then I guess I’ll see you in a little bit.”

“Yeah,” Luka smiled at her. “Looking forward to it. I’ll text you in a bit.”

He managed to make it back into his own apartment without cracking, and then he had a (very quiet, since she was still next door) freakout in his living room as he texted Dingo both of their orders and hit send. He found himself in front of Sass’s cage, trying to slow his pulse with some deep breathing. Sass was looking right through the glass at him, and if Luka didn’t know better, he’d have thought the little bastard looked smug.

“I’m still mad at you,” Luka insisted, but the grin splitting his face probably wasn’t very convincing. “Don’t look at me like that.” He sighed. “Dingo’s never going to let me hear the end of this. If she’ll even speak to me ever again after she meets him.”

Well. That was a problem for future Luka. Present Luka just got the number for the hot girl next door, and she thought his snake was cute, and—

“Yeah, this dinner with Dingo is going to be a disaster,” he laughed helplessly, flinging himself down on the couch.

#quickspins #lukanette #endgame lukanette #lukanette endgame #luka couffaine #marinette dupain-cheng #miraculousladybug #miraculous ladybug #neighbors au #meet-cute #i'll never not know you #a single spark #quickfic

98 notes · View notes

marlynnofmany · 3 years

Text

Pros and Cons

The human merchant shifted the baby on her hip, multitasking while she bundled up purchases for her latest customer. Normally she would make a point of cheerful eye contact, but not with this one.

No eye contact with the medusas. It wasn’t polite. Even if this one was wearing a veil for courtesy’s sake. Nessa understood that to be an empty gesture, since the medusa could still see, and therefore still kill, but it did put people at ease.

A little bit.

“So, I hear you folks raise your kids away from society,” Nessa said as she tied up the bag. “It sounds nice.”

The medusa smiled: sharp teeth under the veil. “It definitely has its merits.”

Nessa nodded, freeing her hair from the baby’s grabbing hands. “No little ones causing a ruckus while you work.” She sighed as a memory of her eldest came to mind. “Or breaking windows at the busiest time of day.” She handed over the bag.

“We don’t even have windows there,” the medusa said as she took it. “Just empty holes for air and light. It’s warm enough.”

“It must be!” Nessa said. “How do you keep the bugs out?”

“Ah,” the medusa said. “The little ones do that for us. They’re still learning when to use their stone vision, so the babies tend to zap anything that moves.”

Nessa stood very still as she thought through the implications. “That would be…”

“The main reason we raise them in seclusion, yes.” The medusa put the bag in her pack and stood tall on her snakey tail. “It’s for the best as far as everyone is concerned.” She waved as she made a wide turn for the door. “Good luck with your own little one!”

“Thank you!” Nessa said automatically, returning the wave as the customer left. When the door closed, Nessa looked down at the baby, who was chewing on a fist. “I’m very glad you can’t do that,” she said.

The baby cooed and reached for her hair again. Nessa didn’t object this time.

~~~

I have a grand tradition of expanding on ideas from my longer stories by writing short ones. Thanks for the prompt, @flashfictionfridayofficial!

#medusas #flash fiction friday #my writing #flash fiction #short stories #amwriting fantasy #childrearing #in fantasyland #writeblr #medusa

66 notes · View notes

emy-loves-you · 3 years

Text

Snakey Days

This was written for the Sanders Sides Unpopular Ships Challenge, Day 3: DLAMP!

(yes, I know it’s late, but I’m posting it anyways)

Summary: When Janus gets exhausted, he turns into a tiny snake. Luckily he has 4 wonderful boyfriends to take care of him.

Pairing: DLAMP

Word Count: 1859

Thomas was a very busy man.

This was just a fact of life. He had a lot on his plate, between video production, supporting his friends and family, and so much more. Sometimes it wasn’t even the big things that overwhelmed him. The small things that he did, like sending Nico a “good morning <3” text every day or cleaning up the apartment, would sometimes pile up when he didn’t expect it and quickly overwhelm him. Those were the times when Janus was forced to step in and force Thomas to take a break, to spend some time taking care of himself, mentally and physically. And while those breaks were important, the fact that Thomas tended to wait until he was ready to implode before listening to Janus had a few negative consequences. One of them was that it took all of Janus’ energy, leaving him for a few days in a far simpler, but less functional, form.

Such as today, when one of his boyfriends had found him curled up under the blankets in his snake form.

Janus hadn’t even realized that he was in his serpent form until that moment, too exhausted to realize that the feeling of scales on cool sheets wasn’t just on his face anymore. Janus had practically melted at the feeling of warm fingers on his cold scales, before groaning as he realized what that meant. He would be stuck in this form for at least a day before he could change back, maybe even longer since Thomas was so stressed yesterday. Luckily they weren’t planning any videos soon, so Janus had nothing on his schedule that he couldn’t do in snake form. And if he did, his lovely boyfriends would gladly do the tasks for him.

Speaking of boyfriends, Janus lazily flicked his tongue out, trying to figure out who was currently rubbing the back of his head. He picked up the familiar scent of paper and ink and inwardly smiled, letting out a quiet hiss. Logan chuckled, “I had assumed this would happen. Would you like to eat today?” Since they were in Thomas’ head, they didn’t technically need to eat and sleep, but they still ate meals together and slept in their own rooms. Sometimes Janus would want to eat as a snake and they would summon him a nice juicy rat to have. But Janus didn’t want that awkwardly full feeling today, so he flicked his tongue out twice, his little code for ‘no.’

Logan nodded and loosened his tie before picking Janus up, guiding him up to his now exposed collarbone. Janus wasn’t a very big snake, barely big enough to wrap himself once around his boyfriend’s neck, but he sleepily managed to settle himself on the warm skin. He loved being able to feel his boyfriend’s body heat against his cold scales, and he let out a small hiss as a ‘thank you.’ Logan chuckled, the movement causing Janus to practically melt against his skin. “I hope you won’t get too upset at being moved around today. We’ve all got some personal projects to do today, so you’ll be moving around between the four of us.” Janus just hissed in response, already expecting it. One day he would convince his boyfriends to all take a self-care day together.

Janus stiffened slightly when Logan stood up and started moving, but he relaxed immediately afterward. Logan wouldn’t let him fall, Janus was sure of it. It had taken a long time to trust the Logical Side like that, just like it took a long time to trust the rest of his boyfriends. But Janus was glad that he did. Before he admitted his little problem about being stuck as a snake sometimes, he would spend these times stuck on his bed, freezing cold and unable to get up. Now he was always nice and warm, lazily draped over one of his boyfriends.

Logan stepped into the kitchen, where their other 3 boyfriends were already serving breakfast. Patton was the first one to notice the Logical Side standing in the doorway, and ran over to pull him into a hug. Janus let out a weak hiss before he got too close and Patton stopped, just then noticing the tiny snake hiding under Logan’s shirt. He smiled softly, his voice now dropping to a quiet murmur. “Oh baby… lazy day today?” Janus just flicked his tongue out in response. That was the main issue he had with this form; he couldn’t communicate or show any facial expressions. He could tell them that he was annoyed, or happy, or whatever else he could be feeling. He also was so tired in this form, so even if he could communicate, Janus wasn’t too sure that he would.

Patton giggled softly before reaching up to kiss Logan. He also gave Janus a little boop, making him hiss again. The Moral Side spun back to the kitchen, speaking in a much softer tone than he had before Logan showed up. “Janus is having a snakey day today, so we won’t need another plate.” Roman and Virgil both looked up at Logan, staring at Janus hanging off his neck. Roman gave a soft smile and Virgil nodded, but they didn’t speak as they finished setting the table. Janus tended to get really big headaches when in snake form, so they always made sure to speak softly as they went throughout their day.

Breakfast was quiet, with Janus hanging off of the Logical Side’s neck while everyone else ate. They were quietly planning their schedule for the day, while Janus started to doze off. He didn’t startle when Logan got up, hissing softly as the Logical Side went to the living room to watch a documentary.

Logan didn’t touch Janus much when he was in this form, worried that he would accidentally harm him. But Janus didn’t mind, happy to snuggle up against his boyfriend. He hissed indignantly when they started watching a snake documentary. The Logical Side chuckled, rubbing the back of Janus’ head in a placating manner. He hissed again, relaxing fully. This was one of the few times where he wished he was a different animal. Maybe he could be a cat, so he could purr and stretch himself out on their laps. Oh, to be a cat…

Janus didn’t realize he had fallen asleep until he woke up later, now resting on a heat rock. He poked his head up from where he was laying, watching as Roman and Patton built a currently unidentifiable Lego structure, the tie-wearing side nowhere in sight. Janus let out a weak hissed and felt a flash of irritation when neither of his boyfriends looked up. Maybe he should ask them to put a bell on his tail. Then at least he’d make some noise.

It took several hisses for Roman to look up, smiling brightly. “It looks like our Sassy Serpentine is awake!” Janus hissed in response, trying to convey his irritation at being ignored. The creative side chuckled, apparently picking up on Janus’ mood. “Logan had to go plan this week’s schedule, and we didn’t want you to be jostled around on us.”

Patton held his hand out and Janus slithered onto it, wrapping himself around the father figment’s wrist. Patton chuckled and used his other hand to gesture towards the Legos. “Hey Ro, why don’t you keep building this while Janus and I watch. I’m better for moral support anyways.” Janus hissed and nudged his boyfriend’s wrist with his head, upset that he was talking bad about himself. Patton didn’t seem to understand (or maybe he did but was ignoring the subject. They’ll need to talk about that later) and giggled. “What? That was a good pun!”

Roman rolled his eyes fondly and went back to building the Lego structure, which was soon revealed to be the same Disney Castle Lego set that Thomas had. He was telling little stories every few minutes, fueled by Patton’s giggles and Janus’ hisses. Patton would occasionally move the snake up to eye level and kiss the top of his head or rub his nose against his snout. Janus would respond by tickling the Moral Side’s face with his tongue or nudging him with his head.

Eventually, Roman and Patton had to leave, and Janus was escorted to Virgil’s room. Virgil was about to take a nap before dinner, and Janus was glad to join him. He loved sleepy cuddles in either form, but he couldn’t cuddle with most of the others in this form because they tended to roll around in their sleep. Virgil, however, didn’t, so Janus could cuddle with him whenever he wanted.

Janus didn’t like to pick favorites, but Virgil was definitely up there in terms of cuddling. He was warmer than either of the glasses-wearing sides, and barely cooler than the absolute inferno that was the Creative Side. And his hoodie was so soft, it was amazing to feel the fabric against his scales. He loved to nuzzle his snake-half against Virgil’s shoulder in his human form, and right now he easily fell asleep on Virgil’s chest, underneath his hoodie.

A few hours later, he woke up to people whispering. He stayed still and listened.

“C’mon my dark and stormy night, dinner’s ready.”

“I can’t.”

Roman huffed impatiently. “Why not? And where’s our scaly beloved?”

The fabric around him shifted, and Janus assumed that Virgil was pointing at him. “He’s sleeping on my chest. There’s no way to get up without waking him. I can’t leave.”

Roman chuckled. “Yeah, you’re screwed.” There was a smooching sound, and Janus assumed that Roman had kissed Virgil’s forehead. “I shall tell our beloveds of your unfortunate predicament. You are our noble sacrifice, and I will never forget you.”

Virgil started sputtering and Janus would’ve been chuckling if he could. Instead, he slithered up to the Anxious Side’s neck, nudging his chin. Virgil froze, looking guilty. “Sorry J, did we wake you?” Janus hissed, sticking his tongue out twice. No, he lied. Virgil relaxed, smiling softly.

Roman made grabby-hands and Virgil rolled his eyes, handing Janus over. Roman wrapped the snake side around his neck and Janus let out a long drawn out hiss, the closest thing he could get to a sigh in this form. Roman’s hot skin felt like bliss to the cold-blooded serpent, and Janus was almost asleep again by the time the Creative Side sat down to eat.

Dinner was a short affair and soon they were all sitting on the couch, watching Disney movies. Janus forced himself to stay awake for a few minutes, committing the image to memory as he always did. Eventually, his tiredness and the warmth of Roman’s skin won out and he slipped into a peaceful slumber.

A few hours later, Janus shifted back into his human form, still asleep. He was laying in Roman’s lap with his arms around his neck, murmuring softly. His four boyfriends smiled softly, each one giving him a kiss on the forehead before turning back to the movie. They all ended up falling asleep on the couch, cuddling together around their favorite snake.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Taglist: @bisexualdisaster106 @self-taught-mess @arodynamic-enby @sanderssides-angst @whatishappeningrightnow @idont-freaking-know @cute-and-angsty-princess @artsy-enby09 @girl-who-reads @drarrymalecsolangelo @count-woe-laf

#tsus challenge #dlamp #janus sanders #patton sanders #logan sanders #roman sanders #virgil sanders

95 notes · View notes

shadowling-guistical · 3 years

Text

rubberband heartbreak

"What kind of— What kind of person says that?! What kind of monster is grateful for their soulbond snapping?“ Roman says, wondering.

And all Janus could hear was his baby brother’s desperate, unhinged laugh as he clawed at his own skin.

And all he could see was red. Angry, smoldering red.

(Janus didn’t think the overdramatic prick even saw the fist coming.

***

Virgil had a soulmate, once. What a beautiful, awful, painful thing. (READ ON AO3 HERE) SHIPS: Established LMP, Established Demus, Past Virgil/OC, eventual LAMP, Eventual Remile

WARNINGS: Minor Character Death, Domestic Violence, Angst

--- It would have been roast chicken again that night. It was in the oven, sitting on a bed of potatoes and carrots that perfumed their little house with a smell that was honestly heavenly. No matter how many times he had that exact meal, he thought he could eat that meal for the rest of his life. He’s pretty sure he will. It was the only thing his soulmate knew how to cook without requiring an emergency call to the firestation, after all. He wouldn’t trade it for anything.

A bottle of semi-fancy wine was cooling in a bucket of ice on the counter, just waiting to be opened. It was the exact type that they had drunk when they made their courtship official, and the nostalgia and memories only made the taste that much sweeter.

Fresh flowers sat prettily in a vase on the kitchen table in a bunch. Violets, his favorite. His soulmate had bought home earlier while all twitterpated.

It was the perfect set up for a date night-- Simple. Elegant. Romantic. Everything someone could ask for in a night in with their soulmate.

And despite all that, all Janus Sanders wanted to do was vomit. Or maybe find a seat. No, a fainting couch. Yeah, he might need a fainting couch.

He briefly wondered if those are still a thing. It should be. God it should be. if the lightheadedness that began lapsing at the edge of his brain were any indication, he really needs it right about now. He nervously tapped a finger on whatever surface it met with, which turned out to be the countertop of their kitchen island. At the back of his head, he registered his knees slightly shaking, and his heart trying to pound out of his ribs. He really should have sat down before he answered the call.

“Yes…” He spoke into the phone that had been glued to his ears ever since the call came, just minutes before the start of his date night with Remus. He spoke without really registering what he was saying. The buzzing in his brain prevented him from catching anything other than bits and pieces of gentle concern and medical jargon. However, icicles are still icicles. And no matter how hard the person at the end of the line tried to soften the blow, each one still dug into his chest. It pierced so harshly and the coldness spread downwards to his stomach.

Urgent.

Emergency treatment.

He needed his family.

He needed them.

With just a phone call, Janus’ whole evening grinded to a halt, “I see. Thank-- right. Of course. We’ll-- We’ll come down. Yes. Thank you. He-- I understand. Goodbye,” Before Janus could even recover, before he could even process the fact that--

“Janus?”

Janus blinked. His hand fell limp by his side, and he didn’t even realize that he was still gripping the phone. Oh-- oh, Remus . He didn’t realize that his boyfriend had even come downstairs. How long was he--? “Jan, are you okay?” Remus’ sharp, bright eyes darted at his form, knowing that the answer is obviously a big fat no, “What’s going on snakey? Is it Remy?”

The icicle twisted, and for a moment Janus thought it must have melted out of his eyes. Oh god-- oh god, Remy . How will he explain this to Remy?--

It would wreck him. Absolutely destroy him when he finds out.

Because he was--

He was…

Janus’ breath came out shaking. His hands even more so. His composure took the worst of it.

They were supposed to protect him. They were supposed to be there for him and annoy him and beat up anyone that dared look at him the wrong way. Because they were his-- They were his-- “I--” He swallowed around the weight lodged in his throat. He must looked as dazed as he felt, because Remus’ expression turned from cautious curiosity into grim concern, “I don’t--”

Janus never babbled before. He was never at a loss for words. He always know what to say-- He should know what to say-- Because he needed to call Remy-- He needed to explain--

The thought was squeezed out of him when Remus took him into his arms. The hug that Remus suddenly enveloped him in shouldn’t feel as relieving as it did. He shouldn’t have felt that small, that unsure nor that scared. But Janus felt everything buzzing in his brain melt away as he felt his soulmate squeeze him.

“Hey...Hey...Shh...It’s cool. It’s okay,” He felt Remus’ breath against his ear and this time, he didn’t shiver out of fear, “Breathe...That’s it. I won’t have you asphyxiating anywhere else other than in bed, you hear me?” Involuntarily, like Remus always somehow does, he dragged the smile out to Janus’ lips. And in return, he grinned as well. Remus dragged a thumb across Janus’ cheekbones, “There’s that pretty smile. Can you tell me? Or do you want me to--?”

Janus felt a shudder ripple through his chest, and he shook his head. He didn’t need to. He didn’t need to rely on their soulbond for this. He didn’t want to submit Remus to the knot of thoughts and panic that were all tangled up in his brain right now. “That’s okay. Okay Jan,” He felt his large hands rub his back, up and down. But Janus shook his head. “It’s--everything’s not okay, Remus. Far from it--” He brought up a hand, gripping the fabric of Remus’ shirt, “My brother’s-- Virgil’s in the hospital. His-- His soulbond broke,”

---

Remy had come to their home a little over an hour later, looking very much similar to Janus did. Remus noticed the pinched, spooked look on the eldest Sanders’ face, now that his sunglasses were perched up on the crown of his head. He had smiled wanly, and offered a reassuring hand on Janus’ shoulder. But it was brittle and unsure. Both of them reeling from what Remus assumed was shock.

Janus however, then stepped closer. He nearly folded into his brother, who immediately inhaled as if he was punched. Immediately, Remy wrapped his arms and squeezed. Remus, for all the times he would say something at the most inopportune moments, had let him. And Janus couldn’t have thanked him enough. No judgement. No comments. Just someone who wanted-- needed, his big brother right now.

“You know, I can come with? Take turns driving,” Remus offered, once Janus slowly let himself unlatch from Remy. He cleared his throat and shook his head, starting to put on his composure like a mask.. The effect was instantaneous. Janus' back straightened, and the perfect picture of calmness rippled through him like waves on water. Remus felt his heart twitch in his chest when Janus did. Did his soulmate really want that now? He barely allowed himself room to breathe

“No. It’s okay. We’ll manage. It’s...It’s a family matter, Remus. I’m not sure-- I’m not sure if it’s the best time, right now,” “We’ll call whenever we can,” Remy promised, as Remus helped haul Janus’ duffle bag into the trunk of Remy’s car. He didn’t need to, really, it was only filled with some spare change of clothes and toiletries but...It was still a nice gesture. Before they were set to leave, Janus hugged Remus one last time. The hug that Remus tugged him into nearly made Janus melt and his composure shift. His soulmate was all gangly limbs, bony and sharp. But in this warm skeleton cage, Janus never felt more safe. Remus was like that, Janus had realized. Unlike his twin, his gestures of romance were...A lot more subtle. A lot more tame, actually, compared to the larger than life person that Remus always was. And on the verge of entering a storm, Janus couldn’t help but revel in the stability that Remus unwittingly always provides.

“You’re stuck with me,” Remus smiled, easy and teasing as he nudged Janus’ chin with his knuckle.

The rattling inside his chest petered out, as if Remus was sapping away his worries about Virgil with just a touch. For the first time, each second doesn’t feel like it’s one moment closer to losing Virgil anymore. There was a storm on the horizon, but it hadn’t rained yet. The clouds will part, and the sun will shine again.

Something deep inside him loosened, a knot of tension slowly unravelling.

It’ll be okay.

Virgil will be okay.

“Not going to get off me that easily, Squid,” Janus replied with a lot more warmth than he’d ever let anyone else hear. He’d keel over and perish before anyone else at his firm knew that he’s a sap. He has a reputation, for god’s sake.

“If you start making out, I’m leaving without you!” Remy called, already slipping into the driver’s seat. A hand reached for the coffee he grabbed on the way there, taking a blasé sip. Janus sighed and finally parted from his soulmate. Once he was secured, Remy handed him the coffee and smiled, looking a lot more fragile than Janus had ever seen him. Even more than the time…

“Let’s go get our little brother, shall we?”

Despite the circumstances, something in his heart swelled.

Little brother. They were getting their little brother back.

---

“He’s probably going to be okay, right?”

The hospital loomed, large and daunting. It was a behemoth of a building, stark white against the sky, which was a gunmetal grey from the threat of an approaching storm. Janus felt like he was 20 again, young and viper-tongued. But instead of angry and bristling, he’s...desperate. Out of his depth. Hurting and worried and strung out. Maybe it was the long drive talking. Maybe it was the prospect of seeing Virgil again, years later after their messy goodbye.

The only thing preventing Janus from nervously cracking his knuckles right now, just meters away from the entrance, was the musical notes playing right at the back of his head. It was faint, and he could still just ignore it over the din of people. The chords were familiar, the lyrics faint. But it settled in his bones and stopped it from rattling. Remus must have been listening to a lot of music today, he faintly thought. His soulmate’s playlist had looped back from Vocaloid, to the Hamilton Polka, and back to Video game OSTs for the third time now. Despite the questionable choice of a playlist, Janus appreciated it just the same. That feeling of having one person that was always thinking of you, connected through musical notes and voice and thoughts.

“I don’t know…” Remy admitted. Janus didn’t point out his habit of absentmindedly rubbing his bicep. He didn’t need to judge someone for trying to leech some comfort from a soulmate he hadn’t had the pleasure to meet yet. “I think we just need to be prepared,

---

They said that Virgil laughed.

He had laughed as he did it. Agony must have ripped through him top to bottom. It would have fizzed and flared back up again- leaving him a writhing mess on the floor of his own home. It burnt through him and made him suffer. Yet, he had laughed .

Virgil laughed.

He was still laughing when they got to him , the nurse had said.

Janus clutched his nephew as he slept, his own heartbeat beating in time with his pounding head. He remembers Virgil’s laugh. The cackle, a pleased, borderline mischievous sound.

Now, he wishes he could wipe his head clean from it.

Thomas suddenly whimpered, and Janus fussed over him again. No matter what lullaby he sang, or any reassurance he whispered to the toddler, nothing had erased the sudden cold dread that had washed over him after they knew. Nothing could stop the child from crying out and demanding for the comfort of his father. Nothing could bleach Janus’ brain from the sight of those awful, black cracks spreading out on Virgil’s skin like Lichtenberg scars.

After they found out what that bastard --

That absolute beast of a conniving, cowardly, sniveling bastard--

Janus pulled in a raspy gasp, trying hard not to let a single sob go through his composure. Not when it took this much effort to make sure he was calm enough to take care of Thomas. His nephew had spent the time with medical personnel since they were both brought in, and Janus wanted to make sure that wouldn’t happen again. The boy needed to be with family.

His family.

Their family. Because Thomas is his nephew. His only nephew--

… Oh stars, he had a nephew.

They came in expecting their brother, only to meet their nephew. Janus didn't feel ready for this. He needed to-- He need to be--

Janus squashed the pained noise in his throat. Ready? What a thought. he would laugh if he wasn't so haunted by Virgil's. He isn't ready. His baby brother’s soul had snapped in two, frayed into anguish and Virgil had laughed.

And there was absolutely nothing-- nothing that could prepare them for this.

#sanders sides #sanders sides fic #soulmate au #virgil sanders #janus sanders #remus sanders #remy sanders #ts virgil #ts janus #ts remus #ts remy

23 notes · View notes

delimeful · 4 years

Text

my virtues uncounted (4)

winner of august’s second monthly fic poll! hope you enjoy!

warnings: antagonist/villain remus, panic, injury, blood, cliffhanger

previous chapters

In the time it took for everyone else to get worked into a panic, Logan had come up with a few theories on why, exactly, their connection with Thomas would be so suddenly muted.

Of course, many of those theories were only useful if they could be proven, and seeing as they had a limited amount of time and space to work with, he could set them aside to figure out the direct, exact cause another time.

For now, the priority was finding their way back home. Once they were able to reconnect with their part of the mindscape, their connection with Thomas would also hopefully repair itself.

“Think of our current status as dealing with some temporary interference,” he told the others. “Once we leave the subconscious, our metaphorical signals should reach Thomas again.”

“‘Should?’” Anxiety asked, looking dubious.

“And how are we to leave when this shadowy scourge is thwarting our every escape attempt?” Roman added, glaring balefully up at Anxiety.

“Hey, you technically haven’t made any escapes yet, so I technically haven’t thwarted anything yet.” Anxiety ignored Roman’s exasperated expression with ease, shrugging. “Schrodinger’s Thwarting.”

“Anxiety, kiddo,” Patton stepped a little closer, pulling them all back on track, “I don’t think we should stay down here for too much longer. It’s not good for us to be disconnected from our rooms like this.”

“And that’s not even mentioning the fact that we don’t know how Thomas is functioning without his core sides connected to him,” Logan added, hoping that the other Side was in a reasonable mood.

Anxiety kept his face neutral, but Logan could see the little crease between his eyebrows and the way he went slightly paler. “It’s still too dangerous to risk without a plan.”

“And with a plan?” Logan pressed.

Anxiety’s shoulders bunched up even further, and for a moment he was worried he’d gone too far, but then the other Side let out an irritated sigh.

“If it’s actually that concerning, and I can more than imagine how it could be, then. I guess. We could try. With a plan,” he emphasized as Patton perked up excitedly. “One that I agree to.”

“That’ll only take us a lifetime,” Roman grumbled, but even he seemed revitalized now that they were getting somewhere.

Logan found himself getting excited as well. “In that case, I need all the information you have on routes to neutral territory and the weather cycles here.”

Anxiety materialized the data into files on a touchscreen phone, which would work quite efficiently as a display considering their size. “Good luck figuring anything out. This end of the mindscape is way more… chaotic. Stuff’s always changing.”

“I don’t mind a challenge,” Logan reassured him, and then set to work making spreadsheets and comparing trends. It was almost soothing.

In the background, he could hear Patton asking about who they were most likely to encounter if they attempted to beeline for the neutral zone, and Roman bartering for possession of his sword back. (The trade seemed to be settling on Anxiety handing over the sword in exchange for no stabbing and no nicknames for a week. Roman was perhaps more reluctant to stop generating witty quips than necessary.)

As Logan suspected, when Anxiety didn’t feel implicitly threatened by them, he was much more open. Though, that might have also been the exposure to Patton’s determined friendliness, which Anxiety seemed to eye with the wariness of a stray cat. He’d have to bring this up the next time they had a debate about the effectiveness of so many of Thomas’s Sides being hidden away.

Now wasn't the time for that, however. Now was the time for action, as Roman liked to proclaim.

“I’ve found the best path for us to take,” he announced, drawing all eyes to him.

Probably no time for an illustrative powerpoint to demonstrate how he’d come to this conclusion. Perhaps later. A summary of the plan would do fine.

Roman and Patton glanced up at the large side frequently, but Anxiety listened with a critical attentiveness that Logan found himself appreciating. At the end, his brow was furrowed, but he didn’t seem fully decided one way or the other.

“This plan will only work in our current time frame,” Logan cautioned. “As you said, the landscape of this place is always shifting, so we need to take advantage of the patterns that we can. I expect getting lost would not end well.”

Anxiety nodded, and then seemed to come to a decision.

“If you’re certain that it’s the best time… Fine, I’ll believe you.” Anxiety grumped, his body language already displaying several signs that he was growing nervous at the idea.

Logan blinked once, genuinely surprised that he had convinced the other Side, before regaining his composure. No time to be touched by Anxiety’s apparent faith in him. “All the data I reviewed points to this being the best opportunity.”

“One condition,” Anxiety said, holding up a finger. “If it seems like the plan has failed and things get dangerous, our backup plan is giving me access so I can rise up.”

Roman raised a sharp eyebrow, his sword once again sheathed at his side. “I seem to distinctly recall you freaking out about that idea?”

Anxiety made a face at him. “Yeah, and I’ll continue to not like it, but if it keeps you losers from getting discorporated, I’ll deal. Do you guys agree or not?”

Logan traded looks with the other two, and then nodded. “It’s a reasonable backup plan.”

“Sure,” Anxiety snorted, and then hesitated for a moment before reaching out and placing his uninjured hand palm up on the table next to them.

Patton plopped himself down immediately, but Roman wasn’t as eager.

“I am not going back in your pocket,” Roman told him, unimpressed. “Lint on my outfit is a no-no, let alone giant lint.”

“Your outfit is already ruined,” Anxiety snapped back, rolling his eyes. The blood on the white outfit somewhat resembled a candy cane.

Logan raised a hand to interject before it could become an argument. “If I may suggest, your hood seems like it would both give us more space and allow for a vantage point to watch your back.”

“I can watch my own back,” Anxiety growled, and then sighed. “Just don’t fall out.”

He was exceedingly careful as he reached behind him to the hood of his jacket, and the three of them had no problem getting in, though they did end up knocking a few limbs against each other in the process.

As Logan expected, it was much easier to grip the folds of the hoodie fabric and looking over the edge of it gave them a vertigo-inducing view.

“Okay,” Anxiety said, sounding as though he was speaking more to himself than them. “Let’s do this. It’s probably going to crash and burn horribly, but whatever.”

“Remind me to speak with you about cognitive distortions later,” Logan mused.

From where he was peeking over Virgil’s shoulder, Patton cheered. “Woohoo, you can do it!”

“With our talents to help, we can’t fail,” Roman added, making some sort of dramatic flourish that Anxiety couldn't even see. “Onwards!”

“What am I, a horse?” Anxiety shot back, and then firmed his shoulders slightly and stepped to his door. “Remember, low in the hoodie so you aren’t seen.”

After receiving a chorus of agreements, he took an audible breath and stepped through the door.

The hoodie bounced slightly against his back with every step, but nothing too jarring. Logan resisted the completely illogical urge to hold his breath as they descended the creaking stairs.

After a long moment, Anxiety’s shoulders lowered slightly. “Nobody’s down here.”

He picked his way carefully through the living area, until they were back where they started, at that huge, weathered front door. It seemed much less insurmountable from Anxiety’s eye level. The other Side grabbed the knob and pushed it open, stepping over the threshold.

They all let out a breath of relief.

From there, Logan’s attention was consumed with providing directions in a low mutter, carefully navigating their way through the shifting, fog-covered landscape. Patton occasionally pointed out a distant landmark he maybe recognized, mostly unhelpfully.

Still, all factors considered, they made it a fair distance before things went wrong.

Anxiety had just taken the first step over a wooden bridge when the hair-raising cackle split the air behind them. At Logan’s side, Roman latched onto his wrist with an iron grip.

Anxiety held still for a moment longer before turning around, his hands tucked into his pockets in a faux gesture of casualness. “Remus. I thought silently stalking people in the dead of night was too subtle for you?”

There was an unpleasant crack of bone that made Logan glad he couldn’t see Remus. “Wouldn’t want to scare the little emo and his little uninvited stowaways off, would I?”

The three of them exchanged panicked looks. He knew?

Anxiety took a step back, hissing in frustration. “Are you the reason they’re like this? Or Dee?”

Another cackle. “The enchantment was all me! Double D would ruin my fun if he knew. But you’re no spoilsport! I can already feel all the exciting new additions to this game you’re thinking up in that squishy grey matter of yours. We can have a little fun together! Whaddya say?”

Anxiety took another step back, his back twitching with the urge to turn and flee. “Remus. C’mon. Think about Thomas.”

The atmosphere suddenly darkened, sending a chill down Logan’s spine.

“Maybe he’s the one who should be thinking about us,” Remus said, the grin in his voice suddenly much more menacing. “I know you’re tired of being ignored, Anxiety. You’re just as sick of our snakey friend’s interference as I am. Without them, there will be space for us!”

“Thomas needs them,” Anxiety urged, his rough voice a sharp contrast to Remus’s singsong encouragement.

“Puh-lease, we’re not taking them away forever! The Core Bores are like cockroaches; you just can’t get rid of ‘em, even when you crush their little heads.” A thoughtful pause. “They’re just about cockroach-sized now, too!”

Roman’s grip grew painfully tight.

Anxiety shook his head, jostling them slightly, and then began to slowly back across the bridge. The tension in him seemed to scream that he wanted to turn tail and flee, give into his flight instinct. But he couldn’t turn without putting them directly in Remus’s line of sight.

“Don’t be so antsy! I know you want to be noticed as bad as I do,” Remus advanced with slow, predatory steps.

Anxiety was too far from the other end of the bridge. He’d be caught.

Logan made pointed eye contact with the others, and held his free hand out, palm down.

“What I want doesn’t matter here. It’s too risky! It’s. Not. Happening.” They were stepping faster now, the noise overlapping.

Patton nodded once, placing his own hand on top. They both looked to Roman.

“Aw, that’s what I never got about you, emo. You’re always too scared to jump in and grab the bull by the horns! A little goring can be its own kind of fun, y’know.”

Roman’s expression finally turned certain, and he slammed his own hand down, completing the stack.

All of them felt it when the balance shifted, and there was a heartbeat of stillness before everything erupted.

Anxiety turned on his heel and bolted, seconds before a manic, ear-splitting scream split the air from behind them.

“YOU’RE LEAVING US!”

“Rise up!” Roman screeched, clinging to the hood’s fabric for dear life. “Rise up!”

“I don’t know how!” Anxiety yelled back, ducking and weaving through the fog-filled forest that had formed around them. “I’m trying to— it’s not the same as just appearing!”

“You have to stay in one spot and focus,” Patton said, trying hard to keep his voice calm. “You can do this!”

Anxiety came to a standstill, and for a few breathless seconds, they waited.

“It’s… it’s not working!”

“Try and focus on where you want to appear. Let yourself rise, don’t try to control it—“ Logan caught a flicker of movement behind them. “Watch out!”

Anxiety twisted out of the way, a double headed axe thunking into the trunk of a nearby tree. He clenched his fists, closing his eyes tightly, and Logan finally felt the familiar sensation of their part of the mindscape dropping into place around them.

He caught one last glimpse of Remus, body twisted into a throwing gesture and gaze almost shocked, before the scene changed to their living room.

Anxiety staggered, face pale, and the lot of them ended up sprawled over the length of the staircase, ungraceful but undoubtedly home and the right size once more.

A moment spent catching their breath, and then.

“We made it!” Patton yelled, voice cracking in relief as he threw his arms out, laid out on his back.

From the carpeted landing he was still facedown on, Roman grunted an exhausted affirmation.

“It was a close call,” Logan said, pushing himself up and dusting his tie off. “We’ll need to take precautions for the future.”

“Good thing we have Anxiety!” Patton said brightly. “He’s an expert at precautionary measures!”

“As long as he doesn’t precaution Thomas into never going outside again,” Roman muttered, with no real aggression to his tone. He seemed just as glad that Anxiety had gotten them all out of there, if not more.

Anxiety didn’t rise to the bait. Logan turned to thank the other Side properly, and was met with the sight of him curled in over himself, a hunched over ball of hoodie. “... Anxiety?”

With a hoarse cry of pain, the Side yanked something from his side. A comically oversized throwing knife, drenched in a slick coating—

“Oh,” Anxiety said in a small voice, struggling to stem the bloodflow from the stab wound in his torso. “Shit.”

Within seconds, a dark stain began to spread, and Logan immediately lurched forwards, trying to seal the wound, erase it, even just put enough pressure on it to clot the bleeding—

Anxiety inhaled sharply. Nothing about the nature of the wound changed. It wasn’t healing. Logan’s hands were covered in warm-wet-red and nothing was healing.

Past the ringing in his ears, he could hear the others yelling behind him, trying to accelerate Anxiety’s integration into the conscious mind.

All he could focus on was Anxiety’s face, tight with pain and resignation.

“It’s fine,” he muttered, the hitch in his voice betraying him. “We can’t die. It’s fine. Can you— Can you feel Thomas?”

Logan nodded stitedly. The connection was faint, but growing stronger.

Anxiety nodded once, sharply. “Good. That’s— That’s all that matters.”

Then, like the question had been all that was keeping him awake, he went limp like a puppet with strings cut.

#sanders sides #tss #g/t #ts virgil #ts logan #ts roman #ts patton #ts remus #villain remus #not unsympth though #writing #my writing #mvu #my virtues uncounted #angst #this might count as whump #mind the warnings

219 notes · View notes

elsajeni · 4 years

Text

serpent, serpent-bearer

“Good morning, dear.”

“Mnng,” Crowley says, which is about as coherent as he gets before ten in the morning. He wanders past Aziraphale into the kitchenette, and back out again a moment later with a steaming mug, and then stops short, frowning blearily down at the table. “What’re you reading?”

“Hmm? Oh--” Aziraphale grabs his breakfast plate and shifts it over, covering a corner of the newspaper, and says brightly, “Just starting on the crossword!”

Crowley raises an eyebrow and looks at the plate, which obligingly slides back to where it was, exposing...

“The horoscope?” Crowley’s eyebrows climb higher, and he doesn’t even try to hide the disbelieving laugh in his voice. “Angel. Really? How can you read your horoscope?”

Aziraphale sits up straighter in his chair, lips pursing. “If you’re going to make fun--”

“I’m not,” Crowley starts to protest, and then corrects himself, “All right, maybe I am. But that’s-- I mean actually, literally, how? You’re older than constellations. You’re older than-- than day and night, never mind the modern calendar. You have certainly not got a star sign.”

“I may not,” Aziraphale says, “but A. Z. Fell has. You have to have a birthday these days, you know, humans absolutely don’t know what to do with you if you don’t.”

“Right,” Crowley says, the teasing grin on his face softening into something fonder, more understanding. Because isn’t this, after all, what got them where they are? All the little human habits they’ve picked up, all the silly human things they’ve come to care about. The theater, the Bentley, a good earthy red wine. Sushi. Feeding ducks. Falling in love.

And now, apparently, horoscopes. He sets down his coffee and takes up his position behind Aziraphale, leaning down to drape himself over the angel’s shoulders, and says, “Go on, then. What’s your sign?”

“That’s a pickup line, you know,” Aziraphale says absently, and then, while Crowley is struggling to absorb the information that Aziraphale knows the phrase ‘pickup line’ at all, let alone recognizes one when he hears it, answers the actual question, “Virgo.”

Crowley tries, poorly, to disguise his snort as a cough. Aziraphale gives him a warning look over the top of his reading glasses and says, “Don’t.”

“I didn’t say a word,” he protests.

“Hm,” Aziraphale says. “Well. What about you?”

“What about me?”

“What’s yours? Anthony Crowley’s, I mean. He must have a birthday on record.”

“Sixth of June,” Crowley says promptly.

“Of course it is,” Aziraphale murmurs, and gives him an indulgent look. “Let’s see... Gemini, then? Oh dear.”

“What?”

“Well, it does rather suit you. Quick wit, changeable nature. Open with your emotions. All your better traits, really.” Aziraphale glances over at him again, clearly fighting a smile. “Only I’m afraid the stars suggest we’re terribly incompatible.”

“What,” Crowley says again, indignantly. “The stars? Oh, the stars suggest--”

“Near perfect opposites.” Aziraphale’s voice vibrates with suppressed laughter. “An absolutely disastrous match, romantically speaking.”

“Stars,” Crowley sputters, seeing what Aziraphale expects of him and playing up to the role, “what-- as if they know-- I made some of those, how dare they--”

Aziraphale cracks at that, turning his head to bury a laugh in the side of Crowley’s neck. Crowley, pleased with himself, gives one last scornful, “Stars,” and then gestures at the paper, the text shifting beneath his hand. “There,” he says. “Look at it now, there’s yours and mine. Proper ones, not some made-up rubbish about our made-up birthdays.”

Aziraphale composes himself and leans over to look, resettling his glasses on his nose. “Shall I assume Serpens is yours?”

“Good classic constellation, Serpens. Got a very nice nebula in it, too.”

“It sounds just your style, my dear. Oh, and I see it suggests a quiet day in today, with perhaps a drive in the countryside later on.”

“Does it?” Crowley says, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Fancy that. That’s exactly what I had planned.”

“A remarkable coincidence,” Aziraphale agrees, giving him another fond look. “Then this one is mine? Ophiuchus, let’s see, Ὄφις is ‘serpent’ and...”

He trails off, and when he turns to look at Crowley again, he looks less amused and more softly worried than Crowley had hoped. “Darling,” he says, his voice very gentle. “You do know you’re not any sort of burden to be borne.”

Crowley makes a pained sort of noise and protests, “That’s not what I meant.” (It was, a little. A joke, mostly a joke, setting Aziraphale up to tease him a bit about how much trouble he is, that’s all. Count on Aziraphale to see through him, spot the core of truth in it and ruin the fun.)

“What, then?”

“It’s. Ngh.” Crowley shuts his eyes against the onslaught of tenderness, feeling his ears go pink. He would really have preferred the teasing. “They’re connected. Almost the same constellation, really. Neither makes sense without the other.”

“Oh, my dear,” Aziraphale says, one soft hand coming up to cup Crowley’s cheek. Crowley risks opening one eye, and almost immediately shuts it again-- Aziraphale’s face is a bare inch away, and the full force of his affection at this range is a lot-- but he goes along when Aziraphale tugs him closer, catches him by the elbow and guides him around the back of the chair and down into his lap. “You really are a romantic, aren’t you? It sounds as if they suit us very well.”

Crowley leans into his shoulder. “Serpens especially,” he says, unable to stop himself. “Just a bunch of disconnected snakey bits. Wouldn’t be anything at all without Ophiuchus.”

Aziraphale hushes him, kisses him. “But the other half’s just as important,” he says when they break apart, low and close. “There’d be no purpose to Ophiuchus without his serpent. You know that.”

Crowley makes a choked-off noise and leans in for another kiss. This time Aziraphale keeps him there, arms around him, the kiss turning long and slow and sweet-- slowly the nervous tension drains out of him, shoulders loosening, hands coming up to tangle in Aziraphale’s hair.

He does break away, eventually, to complain, “You didn’t even read the actual horoscope.”

“My dear,” Aziraphale says, laughing and pulling him back in, “if this isn’t how it says to spend my day, then I’m giving up on astrology altogether.”

#good omens #good omens tinyfics #ineffable husbands #someone else made reference to ophiuchus in a fic and i had several feelings about it and this is the result #self indulgent birthday blogging #tinyfics endorsed by my mom

2K notes · View notes

not-from-the-absence-of-violence · 3 years

Text

I exist as I am

it is yet again @jonnitweek time :D

Day 4 - identity / fluff

Jonnit and their relationship with gender.

Jonnit sat at a table, breakfast among the crew these days was somewhat tense with their new status and the captain's death looming over their shoulders.

Dref didn’t like eating around other people so he had gone and locked himself in his own office to eat, Travis was sitting in front of him, he looked generally annoyed at the world while he ate his breakfast.

Gable arrived a few moments later, having gotten no food for themself as they usually stole from Travis, who always grabbed way too much.

“Hello Jonnit,” they said cheerfully, Jonnit smiled back, then they said “Travis.” who gave them a bleary glare.

They sat down next to him and in practiced familiarity went to grab Travis' mug.

He swatted at their hand like an annoyed cat. “That’s heartroot,” he said pointedly. “Which if you want you are going to have to blend yourself I’m afraid.”

They don’t seem at all surprised by this, just seem annoyed that they will have to get their own drinks later.

Jonnit stares at him, he has heard of heartroot before of course, it’s one of those things that he is aware of but has never actually thought about.

“You drink heartroot?” Jonnit asks in genuine curiosity.

Travis smirks. “Sometimes,” he says, “staying the same for so long would just be dreadfully boring don’t you think?”

Gable shakes their head a little. “I feel like you aren’t explaining this right.”

“Well how would you put it then?”

They seem to pause for a second. “You humans and your gender,” they say, then stare at Jonnit, “I’ve certainly never gotten it.”

And Jonnit thought he did, right up until that point where he wasn’t sure actually. He hadn’t grown up particularly sheltered, there are however things that you just don’t question, corsairs were generally a lot more free, and glamorous, in their expression.

“Dref, how does heartroot work?” Jonnit said as he was sitting on a desk in his office as Dref worked methodically to clean some equipment.

“I-It’s not s-something I’m an ex- xpert in b-but,” they say, turning to look at Jonnit, there is a bright slightly nervous energy about the way he kicks his legs, “It’s d-definitely m- magic.”

Jonnit rolled his eyes without malice. “I get that.”

Dref can’t help but smile at him. “I h-have p-ersonally n-never t-taken it.”

“I think i get how it works, i meant more in a,” he said and vaguely waved his arms around, “how do you know you want it, I guess?”

Jonnit seems lost in his thoughts for a moment and Dref wishes he knew better how to verbalize his own feelings, he hasn’t taken heartroot no, this doesn’t mean they don’t understand the anxious curiosity practically radiating from Jonnit.

“N-not everyone who f-feels d-different t-takes heartroot,” they tried. “B-but some p-people feel their b-body doesn’t align w-with who they are.”

Jonnit hummed impatiently. “But how do you know.”

“Experimentation? Often t-there is m-more to ex-xploring g-gender.”

Jonnit seems content with that answer, a small smile on his face as he stares at the wall. “Sure okay.” he flashes a smile at Dref, “Thanks, man.”

“Any t-time.” Dref says and they lapse back into comfortable silence as Jonnit ponders and Dref works.

Celebrations are always big on the Uhuru, the sound of music and laughter filling the ship with an almost magical energy.

Jonnit likes parties, the general buzz of fun and movement letting the gentle worry of the life of a corsair fade into the background.

It’s night and Travis is lamenting about it, a coyote on Gable’s lap. Dref comes into the room, they are wearing a floor length skirt and a coat other than his doctor's coat for once.

Gable smiles at him. “Look who pulled out all the stops tonight.”

He blushes and stammers a bit, “T-thank you.”

Jonnit can’t help but stare at it, the fabric looking soft and glittery all the same. “I didn’t know you owned skirts.” he remarks.

“T-they are i-inconvenient for m-most of m-my work,” he says, a bit solemn.

Jonnit nods, a pirate's life was not made for pretty and frilly outfits. Travis grumbles something about being able to wear skirts when she’s human and Gable laughs at him, genly petting her head.

He can’t help but keep staring at Dref’s skirt as they run their fingers through the fabric.

“I p-probably have one f-for y-you,” Dref says suddenly, “if you w-would l-like?”

Jonnit’s eyes go wide and he smiles excitedly, “For real?” he says.

Dref nods.

“Cool! Thank you.” he says, getting up quickly and practically dragging Dref to the door.

Gable and Travis watch them leave as Jonnit bables excitedly, Dref looks at him with a soft smile.

“They grow up so fast.” Travis says mocking at Gable’s incredibly fond look.

“Oh sush,” they say, “you are one to talk.”

Jonnit stares at himself in the tall mirror of the captain's quarters, the skirt Dref has given him is a deep blue, with what looks like stars embroidered at the bottom of it. He likes the sensation of it when he spins, the fabric swishing and all the constellations moving with him.

He isn’t sure why he has never worn a skirt before, mostly because it has never been practical maybe, but now he feels warm and happy as he looks in the mirror.

“It s-suits you,” Dref says,

“Yeah!” Jonnit says with glee. “Now let’s go dance.”

He pulls Dref by his arm, who then almost stumbles but quickly follows behind Jonnit, into the mass of dancing skyjacks.

Everyone seems excited to see them, of course they are the heroes of the hour having not so long ago taken down The Civility.

Everyone on the crew is fond of Jonnit, he mingels easily in the crowd and people seem glad to teach him all types of dances he eagerly attempts.

Gable pops in and out, occasionally to Jonnit's delight swinging him around like he weighs nothing. Dref mostly stays at the outskirts, nodding at the pats on the back he gets from the rest of the crew, smiling at Jonnit’s exited demeanor.

"I should wear this more often." He says later, twirling to make the skirt turn with him.

"Y-you can k-keep it," Dref says firmly.

Jonnit looks at him like he has stars in his eyes. "Thank you," he says, and leans in for a hug slowly, so Dref can back out.

Dref melts into the quick hug, holding Jonnit for a second, hoping he gets everything they didn’t get to have.

After Buzra Nyth Jonnit still owns the skirt. Dref was right of course, it isn’t very convenient in most situations but it doesn’t mean he doesn’t wear it.

It surprisingly doesn’t feel terrible to wear it, it brings with it only soft memories of Dref, and a nice glow like feeling that Jonnit can’t help but smile at. It’s the comfort Dref would give him, were he still here.

There is something about being called “boy” that just doesn’t sit right with Jonnit. He’d imagined it was because of how childish it made him feel, but there is something weirdly specific about the twinge of discomfort that comes with it.

Gable and Travis are listening to him ramble about in, trying to pay attention at this late hour. It is, Jonnit imagines, a bit like a sleepover you would have were they a normal friend group.

Except Travis, who is a snake at the moment, is curled around Gable’s neck, and Gable is nodding along while they idly play with a gun.

“Is girl any better?” Gable tries.

Jonnit grimaces a bit. “It’s not...worse?”

“Let’s just call you child then.” Travis says.

Gable vaguely pushes part of him off their shoulder. “This is important.” they say annoyed. Jonnit can’t help but laugh at them both.

“What about young man?” Gable keeps trying.

“It isn’t bad, doesn’t feel...me?” he says, gesturing vaguely. It was all confusing and not easy to explain.

“Well people don’t need to use gendered anything.” Gable says matter of factly.

“Or everything.” Travis says, and she smiles Jonnit a snakey grin.

As the night goes on Jonnit has a small list written down; he finds he doesn’t mind “son”, but he does prefer “sibling”, he decidedly dislikes “boy” and “man” feels distant, “sir” and “madam” both have a certain status they are excited about achieving someday. It’s almost fun really, repeating small sentences in their brain, imagining scenarios, Travis and Gable both occasionally sleepily adding commentary.

He ends the list with a twice underlined bold. “Captain Kessler.” which leaves him smiling stupidly at the paper.

This is my friend, they are a corsair and their name is Jonnit. He writes down carefully.

“Hey would you guys mind using they pronouns for me occasionally,” they say at the end of the night, feeling a small and unreasonable anxiety in his chest.

Gable smiles excitedly. “Of course!”

Travis lifts her head from where it was buried in Gable's hair. “Welcome to the club, kid.”

Jonnit smiles. “Yeah,” they say, “yeah I guess so.”

Jonnit smiles at the scene before him, Margaret had forced them all into what she regarded as a well needed rest after Nordia. So here they were now, cooped up into Dref’s former office, laying on the floor as Margaret did their nails one by one.

It was an activity that required patience, and forced you to sit down and enjoy eachothers company. Occasionally Margaret and Travis took sips from their mugs of heartroot, Travis’ balanced precariously on the edge of a book shelf, Margaret’s safely at her side as she chided Gable for moving too much.

Jonnit clinked their bright freshly polished nails against his own mug, they were a deep blue to match with their skirt and made a soft lovely sound against the ceramic.

Jonnit had, almost shyly, approached Margaret about blending heartroot a while ago, and had been blown away by her level of enthusiasm and knowledge.

So there he was, shakingly holding the tea, which was ever so carefully picked to stop facial hair growth and to make their voice just a little higher. Margaret had gently reminded him that the mix could always be adjusted, people and feelings change after all. It still felt like a big step as he took a small sip, it was sweet and almost floral and warm.

He couldn’t quite contain his giggles, a happy haze falling over them. His three companions turn to him with equal fond looks.

Many things happened when Jonnit went back to Akaron, the feelings and slight unresolved tension from when they had left home still hanging around the air and certainly explanations were needed from his sister, who had apparently also left home.

Both Zana and his dad were delighted to see him, embracing them in a group hug so tight Jonnit almost felt he couldn’t breathe.

His nervousness falling away as they entered their childhood home and sat down to have the longest conversation he had had with anything in a while.

There was a lot to digest of course, with both Zana and him retelling their adventures, their destinies, their fears. Jonnit’s gender journey in the end was only one of the many many items in the long list of explanations that night.

Whatever edge of nervousness there was it was worth it for the gentle peace of understanding that washed over all of them having talked.

It was worth the giddiness he got when he overheard Zana talking to a friend of hers.

“Yeah me and my sibling are home for a bit,” she says, “Jonnit? You remember them right?”

It was worth for the hug his father gave them when they left, full of unspeakable emotion.

“I’ll always be here you know,” his father said, blinking back tears, “whatever you do, you always have home to come back to.”

Jonnit was tearing up too “Thanks dad.” he said and added, “You’ll always be welcome on my ship too.”

His dad gave him a wide smile, tears now falling from his eyes as he nudged them towards the Uhuru where Travis and Gable were waiting. “Now go get them, captain Kessler.”

“Captain?” his quartermaster said as they slowly entered their quarters, Jonnit nodded at them to speak “Ma’am the crew is awaiting orders. Shall I tell them to get to their battle stations?”

Captain Jonnit Kessler moved away from the window where he was looking at their next target, a red feather ship gilded in gold, one of the last ones in the sky. He couldn’t help but smile, they should be used to this by now but some things never quite stop being a small novelty.

“Yes,” they said, “and tell Gable to come up to my quarters, I would like to see them before the battle.”

The quartermaster nodded, the excitement of upcoming battle clearly in the air. “Yes ma’am.” they said, exaggerating the salute a little.

Jonnit smiled and shook his head. “Well get to it then.” they said, not quite being able to shake the amusement in his voice

“Yes sir!” they say, with a final grin as they leave the room.

And with that Capitain Kessler prepares themself for one of many battles to come, one of the crucial ones that one day make them the best pirate to ever live, the ones that help him one day rule the skies.

#skyjacks #jonnitweek2021 #campaign podcast #jonnit kessler #gable skyjacks #dref wormwood #travis matagot #margaret skyjacks

15 notes · View notes

lovelivingmydreams · 4 years

Text

Okay so here is part two of this promt of mine to thank my now almost 250 followers. First part here. Enjoy!

Remus had a lot of fun stating the facts to the others. When they finally put everything together their faces will be even more hilarious! For now the others remained clueless though. For a little while Remus thought they'd all be old and grey by the time anyone figured it out.

Luckily they did get a clue about a week after Remus learned the exciting truth.

It was the evening before the premier of a project they'd been working on for ages. Roman was going over everything in the common area with everyone else as practice audience. Remus was playing heckler. No one asked him. He just did. He probably should have noticed Virgil tensing up with each comment. But he didn't. After Remus shouted something about a possible wardrobe malfunction Virgil shot up. "We have to cancel. We're not ready!"

Everyone looked up at Virgil in surprise. It'd been a long time since last he demanded skipping or postponing any type of commitment. It was always an option to him, but this wasn't a suggestion. It was a demand so strong that Thomas actually was thinking of what to tell Joan already.

No one knew what brought this on or how to resolve it. But Roman was still going to try.

"What do you mean? I'm sure we can see to any doubts you have and blow everyone away tomorrow."

Virgil balled his fists and shook his head. "Too much can go wrong..." he hissed through gritted teeth.

"Certainly. But we mustn't let down our audience for mere chance of failure.," Roman countered gently. "You think I'm being paranoid?" Virgil snapped accusingly.

Roman looked taken aback. "Virgil you are overreacting. I am merely trying too help!"

Virgil huffed, threw his hood over his head and stormed off to his room.

"Virgil!?" Roman called after him, but he didn't follow him up the stairs. He remained behind until they all cringed at the sound of a door slamming shut.

The prince's shoulders slumped and his head lowered dejected. "I'm... I'm going to reread the lines again..." he muttered before heading to his own room.

Patton reached out to Roman's retreating frame but came up short on things to say. The silence remained until a gentle click signaled that Roman had entered his room.

"That was fun," Janus muttered sarcastically as he got up, intending to talk to Virgil.

"Snakey, he just had his first fight with his boyfriend. He isn't up for 2 lies and maybe a truth," Remus pointed out. "Just like how my bro isn't going to appreciate playing tag with me."

Everyone stared at Remus, surprised he was capable of such insightful comments.

"Well that leaves us Lo," Patton observed looking up towards the private rooms tensely. Roman and Virgil argued a lot. Even now that they were all friends. Such was their nature. But those arguments were usually loud and full of Virgil's quips and Roman's dramatics. This one was unnervingly quiet in comparison.

"It would appear so. You should check on Virgil, I shall attempt to reason with Roman," Logan suggested. Patton nodded and together they headed to the opposing rooms. "Good luck," Patton smiled at Logan before knocking on Virgil's door.

"Virge? Mind if we chat for a bit?" A moment of silence before the door was opened. Patton hadn't heard him walk over... had he been by the door?

The question was forgotten when Patton saw Virgil's make up was running.

"Come in Pat..." he whispered softly, though he wasn't looking at him. Or rather past him at Logan.

Once more that puzzle was put asside in favor of cheering up his kiddo.

They sat on Virgil's bed, V curled in on himself Patton Indian style.

"I know I shouldn't have ran off... and that Roman wasn't calling me paranoid. So if that's all you wanted to say..."

"Actually," Patton started, interrupting Virgil before he could even start whatever self depreciating train of thought he was starting.

"I wanted to ask why you are so worried about this performance. It's not a big event and we are well prepared. Remus was only trying to get Roman of balance you know?"

Virgil dug his fingers in his hair in frustration. "I know! But what if it happens for real!? Roman'll get hurt!"

Patton blinked in surprise. He expected Virgil to be worried about Thomas first and the rest of them second. Prioritizing Roman like that... was Remus onto something? Patton always thought Virgil and Roman would make an absolutely adorable couple.

Virgil sighed and wrapped his arms around his legs to pull them tightly against his chest.

"Ever since you guys accepted me... I've been patching Roman up when he got 'bruised'. And even before I tried to check up on him... it's my fault when he gets hurt Patton. Because I didn't push Thomas hard enough, or too hard... anything I do wrong ends up hurting him. He was right to hate me. And when he realizes that I'll lose him and then you guys will stop talking to me and..."

"Kiddo hey... you're spiraling buddy." Logan said it's important they tell Virgil when he's trapped by his own head and how. "Breathe."

Virgil nodded and took a few deep breaths while wiping at his eyes.

"Virgil, none of us would ever blame you for trying your best."

Not even Roman. He knows you always act with our best interest at heart. And if you tell him you were worried for his safety, the whole thing will be forgotten," Patton assured the anxious side gently, secretly hoping that getting Virgil to open up towards Roman this way might help them get closer. Prinxiety just might set sail after all.

"You think so?" Virgil asked, not convinced.

"I know so. Take it from your old man kiddo. Roman cares about you. He has a funny way of showing it sometimes, but he does."

Virgil's face relaxed his eyes softening and his lips pulling into the tiniest smile.

"Yeah... I'll talk to him," Virgil nodded getting up and walking to the door with Patton.

Logan frowned, confused by the strange look Virgil had cast at Roman's door. Fearful yet almost longingly...

He must be mistaken. Emotions were not his area of expertise after all.

Instead of pondering the question any further, he turned and knocked on Roman's door.

"Roman? I wish to discuss something with you,"

A moment passed. "It's open."

When Logan entered he found Roman sat at his desk, his notes in front of him and his hands in his hair.

"I... can't figure it out Logan... I turn the conversation over and over in my head... what should I have said?"

When Roman looked up it was evident to even Logan that he'd been crying though he was doing his best to hide it.

Logan sat down on the bed his body angled towards the desk.

"Virgil was not mad at you Roman. It would seem something triggered a negative thought process in his mind which he tried to hide as not to disturb us. In doing so though the thoughts were not addressed and instead were left to build up tension which got released all at once. Even if you said exactly what he needed to hear, he was not in a mindscape to accept any of it. I am sure Virgil regretted what he said as soon as he said it. I theorize that he took distance in order to calm down before talking to you again," he explained.

Roman nodded allong to that. "So... I haven't ruined everything?" he asked almost timidly.

Logan shook his head. "You know I am not good with feelings. But i have observed that you and Virgil have grown close since he got accepted. Especially in recent weeks he is calmer and less prone to negative thinking when he interacts with you. Likewise he has clearly helped you be more focused and keep a level head, some of the time at least. You two have built something strong. And one fight like this won't end that."

Roman was tearing up again, but this time he was smiling.

"Truly? You believe I am good for him?"

Logan nodded his head, eyeing Roman curiously. He might be wrong but it almost seemed like...

"By Neptunes swimtrunks!" Roman exclaimed wide eyed. "I thank you for your aid Logan but I must make myself presentable and talk to my Emo post haste!"

His emo? Logan almost wished he was wrong. If Remus was right in any capacity he'd never let any of them live it down. But Roman and Virgil finding happiness with each other might just be worth it.

Logan let Roman push him to the door and let himself out as Roman was already hurrying to his bathroom. In the hallway he found Patton being led out of the opposing room by a nervously shifting Virgil.

"Is Roman mad at me?" he asked nervously.

"Of course not. He is worried about you," Logan assures his friend warmly.

Virgil relaxed at that. "Thanks guys. I think we'll be fine," he told them as he headed to the door. Logan got the hint and led Patton down the hall. He heard Virgil knock at the door an call out Roman's name. If he or Patton had turned back they would've seen how Virgil kissed Roman as soon as he opened the door.

Roman kissed his boyfriend back as he walked them both inside and closed the door.

"Not that I'm complaining but... what if someone saw?" Roman wondered quite happy actually with the bold gesture of affection. Virgil's role usually made him extremely cautious, which made his bouts of impulsivity even more surprising and delightful.

"Well if they did then I get to take you out to make it up to you," Virgil shrugged.

Roman chuckled. "You have nothing to apologize for mi corazon. But the thought is greatly appreciated. Want to talk about this over pizza and Disney?"

Virgil smiled and nodded. "You pick the first movie."

Logan and Patton voiced their suspicions to one another as well as Janus. All three agreed to wait with intervening and giving the two a chance to figure things out for themselves.

The tipping point came when they had a scheduled meeting with Thomas to discuss an upcoming colab he was nervous about.

First Roman and Virgil weren’t to be found anywhere. And then when Thomas pulled called them up by force they looked… disheveled.

“Good timing Thomas. One second later and… I honestly don’t want to think about that,” Virgil muttered as he straightened his hoodie and hair out.

Roman looked rather sheepish as he tugged at his sash and combed trough his hair.

“Where did you two come from?” Patton asked astonished.

“Imagination,” Virgil huffed as he turned to Roman, avoiding everyone else’s eyes subtle enough to be considered a coincidence.

“I told you we should have waited until after the meeting,” he told him, though he didn’t seem to be as mad as he was trying to be.

“I didn’t think we’d take that long,” Roman tried feebly.

“I did! You have no self control! Always have to go the extra mile don’t you?” Virgil pointed out. Roman looked back at Virgil now, a lot more confident.

“I didn’t hear you complaining,” he pointed out with a smirk.

Virgil rolled his eyes, but stuck his hands in his pockets and looked down. “I was kind of distracted,” he admitted.

“It’s no matter, we are here in one piece and there are more urgent matters at hand. Shall we, my stormy knight?”

Virgil sighed dramatically. “You are lucky you are so cute.”

Everyone in the room looked on incredulously. How were these two so clueless?

When the meeting ended, Roman and Virgil picked up their hike where they left off. On a blanket on top of the hill, ignoring the sunset in favor of making out.

“They need help Logan. Desperately! I am all for letting my kiddo’s take their time but this is too much! They are obviously in love!” Patton pleaded.

“Even I can’t stand watching them make eyes at each other any longer. Virgil is… taken with Roman. And Roman appears to be returning those feelings,” Janus admitted reluctantly. Virgil’s eyeshadow had been lilac more often than not when around the creative side. Only a complete idiot would keep denying it at this point.

“Told ya!” Remus grinned.

“Okay, fine… So how do we go about ‘setting them up’?” Logan relented.

Remus giggled manically. This was going to be so good.

“We make them spend time together! They have to realize they are meant for one another if they spend time one on one!” Patton exclaimed.

“But they are already together most of the time?” Logan objected.

“They are always working though. We have to pull them out of their comfort zone!”

Janus and Logan exchanged looks. “I’ll give an example,” Patton decided.

“Kiddo’s will you come down please!”

Roman and Virgil appeared almost at once, side by side, smiling brightly at Patton, Virgil’s eyeshadow bright and shiny as any of them had ever seen it.

“s'up pops? Virgil asked casually.

“Family picnic. You two take care of deserts!” Patton grinned brightly. “me and the others are going to put a basket together. Kitchen is all yours.”

And before either of the happy couple could respond Patton had pushed Janus and Logan out, followed closely by Remus. “have fun you two,” the green twin winked before rounding the corner.

“Are they seriously setting us up?” Roman whispered in astonishment.

“That’s hilarious,” Virgil grinned before turning to the kitchen counter where a cookbook laid open on a cake recipe. “Think you can handle this clever scheme o unconquerable prince?” he teased.

“Oh ye of little faith. It is I who shall thaw thine frozen heart with true loves kiss,” Roman grinned back.

“Do you think they've confessed yet?” Patton wondered as he placed nervously in Logan's room ten minutes later. The room calmed him down mostly but not near enough to be considered calm.

“Let's find out!” Remus exclaimed. Before anyone could stop him he was gone.

“That'll end well.” Janus groaned as he followed behind with Patton and Logan. To everyone he’s surprise they found Remus watching the kitchen rather discreetly. They joined him and were left speechless.

Roman and Virgil were both wearing aprons and chefs hats that matched their styles perfectly, both disregarding their usual top attire for simple t-shirts. Which was a good thing because there was an abundance of flower, chocolate and egg all over them.

Virgil was currently scolding Roman who was trying to take the mixing bowl from him. Neither was cross with the other though. In fact, both were nearly dying of laughter.

“Truce! Truce!” Roman called out as he managed to get a hold of himself. “Let’s compromise. Lest we get poorly mixed batter added to our canvases. How about I show you what I mean?”

Virgil relaxed his protective hold on the bowl and let Roman step behind him. Roman adjusted Virgil’s grip and laid his hands over his aligning their arms. He gently guided Virgil in mixing the batter.

“See?” Roman asked softly after a bit.

“um… wait almost. Show me that last bit again.” Janus quirked a brow. That was a lie. And if that was a lie, then Virgil just wanted… Oh boy his ray of stormshine had it bad.

Patton was nearly vibrating. Surely they'll realize…

“and there. Now it can be baked and we can get clean!” Roman declared satisfied as he stepped away. Virgil nodded and sighed in relief. “Finally, I’m more beat than the batter,” he joked. Roman snorted but he wasn't the only one.

“Oh hey Padre!” Roman greeted innocently. “ The cake will be done soon!”

Logan was up next. He reasoned that the key was physical proximity. He had observed that as light as the two acted about it afterwards it had clearly gotten to them. Remus suggested locking them in a closet until they ‘made out’ but Logan was sure he could be more subtle than that.

“What? But organizing the thoughts is your job!” Roman complained.

“It is and I apologize. I've been falling behind on my duties. Please, I am sure that if the two of you worked together it will be done quickly.”

Both Roman and Virgil sighed. They knew this was a set up, so they'd get away with more flirty behavior. But it was also work. And the room where the thoughts were being kept was so full of cabinets and boxes that it was near impossible to move around on your own let alone… oh.

If Logan thought he was being more dignified than Remus would be by disguising it as an accident he was wrong.

Roman wasn't even surprised to hear the door click shut as soon as Logan was “out of ear shot".

He was surprised to find that Logan had arranged the cabinets and boxes in a manner that would make them topple over and trap him and Virgil on the ground. Virgil on his chest as he'd pushed Roman to the ground and his arms wrapped protectively around his body to cushion his fall as much as possible.

They were stuck in that exact position for as long as Logan seemed necessary.

“Do you think either of those schemes would've worked if we weren't already dating?” Virgil wondered. Roman thoughtfully played with the hairs at the base of Virgil's skull for a bit.

“Not sure. We can both be stubborn. I’m kind of glad that I’ll never know,” he confessed.

Virgil sunk deeper into his embrace. “Me too.”

It wasn’t as fun as the baking scheme, but it was nice to cuddle with nothing else to do. Virgil usually got fidgety after a few minutes, even if he wanted to stay forever.

Roman wasn’t much better at staying still. But this… This might just convince the both of them to do this more often.

“I don’t hate this,” Virgil sighed after laying in silence for a while.

“I do make for a handsome pillow,” Roman joked as he pulled Virgil in closer.

“You do. But I mean… Usually silences are terrifying to me. But this? I don’t mind. I don’t worry about what you’re thinking. Or that I’m supposed to say something. It’s just… us and that’s enough. You know what I mean?”

Roman thought it over for a moment. “Yeah… I do. This is… As close to perfect as life is going to get,” he sighed contently.

It was something close to 30 minutes before they heard the door open and a moment later the room rearranged itself. “Tell me this isn’t something we could’ve done this entire time!” Virgil groaned as he got up, not showing his reluctance to do so.

“This is Logan’s domain. He maintains order in here. I have no power,” Roman huffed pretend offended, he was less successful in hiding how perfectly content he‘d been with their predicament.

“Indeed I do,” Logan agreed, flanked by Janus and Patton who both saw the look on Roman’s face. Again almost but not quite. What would it take?

Logan apologized for their predicament and assured them that he would complete the task. If they’d bought into the ruse for even a second this would have definitely tipped them off. But they let Logan think he was successful at least in hiding his intentions.

Janus initial idea was to simply impersonate either of the boys and using that form to get the other to confess. He never tried. And if he did he wasn’t found out almost right away.

So his second attempt he didn’t disguise himself or his intentions. Not to Roman at least.

And so the theater was left to fade away. It’s purpose fulfilled in an unexpected way.

“What exactly are your intentions with Virgil?”

Roman looked up from his vanity comb still in hand.

“After what you tried to pull yesterday, I’d say you know what my feelings are. As for my intentions… I won’t do anything that’ll make him uncomfortable. Don’t you worry,” he said as he returned his attention to the mirror and hummed ‘Once upon a dream’.

“So you are in love with him,” Janus drawled studying his nails. Though he glanced up to see Roman’s face flush. “Well…” the prince hesitated for a moment but then a blissful smile broke free and he leaned back with a sigh. “Yes,” he confessed dreamily.

“So tell him.” It was not that hard! He was the romantic side wasn’t he? Shouldn’t he be all for grand gestures like this?

Roman pursed his lips and shook his head, sitting up again and returning to his beauty routine.

“I’m waiting for the perfect moment.” Their first official date actually. If the other’s hurried and put the pieces together, they might be able to go on one for their 2 month anniversary.

He might already have something planned out. He had little doubt he’d be the one to crack first.

“I thought you’d say that. Come on, he’s waiting.”

Roman shot up. What was Janus planning?

The serpentine side led him to the imagination where a theater was set up. They entered stage right where Roman saw Virgil was waiting on stage.

“What is this about Jan?” the emo growled, eyes darting towards Roman and to the audience. Patton and Logan who looked about as confused as Roman felt. Remus was behind them just munching on popcorn.

“Remember the valentine’s episode?” Janus asked, everyone nodded, still confused.

“Well Virgil never got around to showing you all how he’d go about wooing someone. So I figured he could show us with Roman as an example crush. Thomas is getting ready to ask Nico to be his boyfriend. Might as well have all the possibilities out there. Direct, from the heart, grand gesture… You two have already shown that my methods of evasion and deception won’t work on Nico. He seems to find Thomas charming when he’s honest about his flaws, so we aren’t even going there.

Virgil, you have the floor,” Janus smirked smugly before getting of stage and joining the others in the audience.

Virgil took in a deep breath and glanced up at Roman as he let it all out.

Clearly he was nervous.

“Okay… So first…” He took hold of Roman’s hand. And it wasn’t the first time, this shouldn’t be a big deal. But doing it in the open, with this unexplained tension in the air, and his own confession in his head, it made Roman beyond flustered.

“Is this okay?” Roman pulled his eyes away from their joined hands as Virgil gave his a squeeze, looking at his boyfriend’s face instead. He looked so nervous.

“Of course,” he sighed breathlessly smiling warmly at the boy who completely owned his heart.

“Good… Roman… You know I blow at putting my thoughts in words. But this is something I need to say. Because just showing you feels like it isn’t enough.” Virgil took a deep breath and tugged at Roman’s arm, turning them to face each other.

“I like you,” he murmured, looking down “I like everything about you even the parts that drive me nuts. I like the way I feel around you. I like arguing about stupid things and laughing about it later. I like making messes with you and not worrying about cleaning it up. I like how you make me forget how scared I am sometimes. I like being myself with you, and feeling like that’s enough. I…”

Virgil might have a lot more to say than that but Roman wasn’t giving him the chance.

He pulled Virgil in and kissed him soundly. Virgil didn’t even pause before returning the kiss.

There was a loud wolf whistle, Remus clearly, but other than that complete silence.

After an infinite moment they pulled apart and smiled at each other.

“You can’t say things like that and expect me to just not kiss you mi amor.” Roman could hear the loud gasps from their audience.

“Wait! Are you saying…?” Patton started.

“We’re official,” Roman confirmed excitedly before returning his attention to Virgil.

“And that means, I shall be planning our first date. Be ready at six this evening, wear something semi-formal. No ties no monkey suits. But something nice. Understand?” Roman checked, not wanting Virgil to worry too much about what to wear, but needing him to not wear the hoodie just this one time.

Virgil nodded. “I think I can do that.”

Roman turned back to their audience. “I’d almost forget. Padre, may I take Virgil out?”

Patton was still in shock but nodded. “Of course, um have fun.”

“Told you all!” Remus shouted satisfied.

“How long?” Janus demanded, not a fan of secrets he isn’t privy to.

“Almost two months,” Virgil smiled making everyone go back in their head and see their interactions in a new light. They could see the moment they thought ‘How did we not figure this out,’ crossed their minds. Oh they’d been right. This was hilarious.

Roman chuckled fondly at their friends’ faces, before gently gazing down at Virgil and stroking his bangs out of his eyes/

“As much as it pains me to part my darling. I must prepare our evening.”

“Wait! Wait! You two… You two are boyfriends!” Patton exclaimed vibrating with excitement as that discovery finally registered. He jumped out of his seat and rushed over to the stage to hug them.

“Oh my goodness I’m so happy and proud!” he gushed. Both of them chuckled.

“Well, while I wish we had not wasted time on attempting to help you, I too am glad you have found happiness with each other,” Logan allowed.

Janus remained stubbornly silent, realizing Remus had known and had not told him at the very least.

“Thanks guys, that means a lot. And we were just messing with you guys, we weren’t keeping it a secret cause we didn’t trust you,” Virgil assured them as Patton finally let go and Roman put an arm around his waist, both excited that they could now do this in public.

“Oh you rascal! You really had us good. You have to tell me how you got together now though!” Patton insisted.

“Perhaps, once we return from our date Padre. Which I’ll have to start preparing for,” Roman reminded them reluctantly. He let go of Virgil’s waist and took his hand to place a kiss on it.

“I will count the minutes,” he muttered to his knuckles and exited stage left.

It took everything Virgil had not to start squeeling.

“Oh M G! We are going to pick out an outfit!” Patton giggled dragging Virgil along.

“I’ll lend you a hand. Obviously I have the most style,” Janus insisted as they too left the theater.

Logan sighed as though resigning himself to his fate. “Roman is bound to skip over practical details. I better ensure the date is a success or we’ll never hear the end of it.”

“Just admit you want to be part of it Nerd. That’s what I’m doing,” Remus grinned as he pulled Logan along.

#prinxiety #roman sanders #virgil sanders #All fluff #fluff

50 notes · View notes

kieraswriting · 3 years

Text

Coffin Chapter Eleven

Masterpost

It was three days before they worked out all the details.

“It could work,” Dee admitted. “As long as we all play the right part.”

“Then are we agreed? This is the plan we will use?” Logan asked.

There were nods all around.

“Then we’ll meet back up tomorrow night.”

•^*^••

Virgil bit his thumb anxiously. Just a few more minutes. He just had to act casual for a few more minutes. He glanced around the gas station, careful not to meet eyes with anyone. It didn’t stink, so there were no trained hunters here, but anyone could potentially have a weapon and be willing to use it.

Virgil picked up a bag of what used to be his favorite candy. He hadn’t really tried eating anything since he’d been turned. It wouldn’t make him any less hungry, but he wondered if it would make him sick. Could he still taste normal food?

The stink assailed him as soon as the door opened, and he spun around. It was just Roman. Ok. He just had to play his part. He kept his eyes firmly fixed on Roman as he walked closer. Virgil was a little hungry, but he fed into the instinct, hoping it would be enough that his eyes would start to glow red, identifying him clearly as a vampire.

As soon as Roman walked by the end of the aisle, Virgil let out a loud, angry shout, and launched himself at him, going straight for his throat. All eyes were on them, and there was a terrified scream from somewhere. There was a brief tussle, since Virgil was stronger, before Roman pulled out the silver rod, pressing it into Virgil’s skin in clear view of the onlookers. The pained howl Virgil let out had very little to do with acting, and soon Roman had him trussed up with cuffs and muzzle on the ground.

“There is nothing to fear, good people!” Roman said, half sitting on Virgil, and still holding the rod threateningly. “I will remove the vermin from your sight.”

And then Roman was swarmed with a crowd of people, all complimenting him and thanking him for protecting them from the vampire. Roman had his badge displayed prominently on his chest, and there were several comments about how they wished some of the other hunters could deal with situations as cleanly as he had.

The two of them thus held the attention of every person in the gas station for the next ten minutes. Then Roman hauled Virgil to his feet and dragged him outside, with Virgil putting up a fake resistance that was easily ‘overcome’ by Roman.

Roman shoved him into his car, and they drove off.

“Virge, you alright?”

Virgil twisted his hands around to pull the key out of his pocket and undo the cuffs. He took off the muzzle, grimacing at the spit and tears he’d gotten all over it.

“Silver really hurts, you know. Didn’t have to leave it on that long.”

Roman turned away from the road to look at Virgil, probably able to see the welt that was still on his shoulder and neck. His eyes were wide and worried.

“Sorry, I was trying to make it convincing.”

“It’s fine. Hand me your phone, I want to call Patton.”

Roman fished his phone out of his pocket. “Here.”

Virgil dialed Patton.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Pat, how’d it go?”

“Well, I’ve got it. It’s weird, though. I’ve never driven anything this big before. You two did a good job. How are you doing?”

“Alright. I should probably eat something soon.”

“Are you hurt?!”

“No! No, just hungry.”

“Oh, good. I’m going to hang up now. See you in a bit!”

“Yeah, see you, Pat.”

“How’d it go?” Roman asked.

“He’s got the truck, and seems to be doing fine.” Virgil pulled out the pack of wipes from under his seat and cleaned off his face and the muzzle.

“If you’re hungry, we can stop for a bit. Until Emile calls I won’t know where to go.”

“Yeah, once we get further away. I don’t want someone driving by and recognizing me.”

•^*^••

“So what are we doing with the humans?” Dee asked, already unbuckling as Thomas parked the car.

“Knocked out as soon as possible. Don’t let anyone see your face.” Thomas answered, as he had the previous time Dee had asked. Dee had been hoping for the answer to change, but he didn’t protest, pulling the hat down over his face and adjusting so he could see through the cut holes.

“I’ll call when I’ve got them out,” Dee said, hopping out of the car and racing towards the house.

He was faster than many vampires, and had the advantage of surprise, super-human strength, and a blunt weapon. Soon the man living in the house was knocked out, and probably concussed.

Dee dragged him out to the car and tied him up in case he woke sooner than expected.

“Is this the only one?” Thomas asked.

“The only one I found. Let’s get inside the warehouse.”

Dee didn’t bother with looking for keys. The warehouse had been locked since the last time, but he was able to break the chain. As soon as the door was open, the sound of crying floated out on the wind. Dee winced, and put his hands over his ears. Not that it helped any.

All the vampires were inside the coffins, except one. He was tied against the wall, with more silver around him than could possibly be necessary. There was old blood staining the floor by his feet.

As soon as Thomas stepped inside the warehouse, his eyes shot open, and he lunged at him. Dee jumped in front of him automatically, but the vampire could barely move from all the silver cuffs. He let out a scream and his back arched. After a moment his scream devolved into a pained laugh.

“Whatever you think…” he gasped. “It’s not happening.”

Thomas took a step forward, and so did Dee, to stay ahead of him. “What did they do to you?”

The vampire laughed again, and jerked against the many cuffs, which just dug them into his skin and wrenched another scream out of him. He sagged against the wall. “What did you … do to him ?” He asked, pointing at Dee with his chin.

“He took me away from people that hurt me,” Dee said. “We came to get you all out.”

The vampire gave a dry laugh, wincing in pain, and turning it into a crooked smile. “Not all of them are as sane, or as alive, as I am.”

Dee stepped closer, mindful to keep himself in between Thomas and the vampire. “Will you help us?”

“Let me down first, and then we’ll see.” The vampire gave a smile that would almost have been flirty if not for the pain covering his face.

“If we let you down and you go after Thomas I will rip your throat out,” Dee threatened, his face curling into a snarl.

“Sure thing, snakey,” the vampire said.

Dee’s face curled in displeasure and confusion. Snakey? What part of him was supposed to resemble a snake?

Thomas was already fishing out a key and undoing the cuffs holding the vampire to the wall. As soon as he was released, the vampire wandered away, ignoring any attempt from either Thomas or Dee to call him back.

“You can’t tell anyone about us,” Thomas yelled after him.

The vampire burst into insane giggles, but continued walking away.

Patton arrived soon after, driving a stolen semi. Thomas, Patton, and Dee loaded up the full coffins into the semi. In all, there were thirty-two. There were quite a few more empty coffins, and they pulled out the silver cuffs from all of them. If nothing else, they could be melted and reformed into something much more useful.

Thomas got into the car, and Patton into the semi, and they both drove a ways off. Dee got to do his favorite part. He pulled the few useful things out of the house, and then poured gas all over both the house and the barn, and then lit them on fire. There would be no traces to let investigators know who had freed the vampires.

He jogged back to the car, and was surprised to see someone already there, leaning on the window and talking with Thomas. And a cow?

It was the other vampire. He was petting the cow and chatting with Thomas, who looked wildly uncomfortable.

“Oh, hey!” The vampire called out as Dee approached. “I’m Remus, and I’m joining you.”

•^*^••

Emile watched as Remy got out of the car and sized up the large house, with its many outbuildings and land. Remy came around to his window and handed Emile his glasses.

“Put these on. Don’t watch, and don’t listen. I’ll be back when I’m done.”

So Emile closed the car window, put on the heavily tinted sunglasses, and turned up the music loud. He didn’t know exactly how Remy did it, but he could hypnotize nearly anyone he wanted, given enough time. He’d promised Emile that the people wouldn’t get hurt, and that he’d get them a new house somehow that was worth as much as this one they were taking.

Remy wasn’t exactly rich, but he had a million and one favors owed to him, which were frequently used by Emile insisting that he not let people get hurt in any way.

It was about an hour later that Remy came back. He wouldn’t look at Emile until he had his glasses back on, but then he smiled.

“Want a tour of our new house?”

“That would be nice, yes.”

The house was large, and very farmhouse-y. It was a wreck, and clearly the people who had lived there had rushed and panicked over the packing. Although, with it only taking an hour, they would have had to.

There was a living room, and a kitchen, but every other room of the house, whether suited to it or not, was a bedroom. There was also a basement, and the various outbuildings.

“They said there’s nearly a thousand cows inside that fence,” Remy said, gesturing out a window.

The fenced in field was large enough that Emile could only see about twenty cows, and see that the area stretched far into the distance.

“I think this was a good pick,” Emile said.

Remy flashed a dazzling grin.

Emile called Patton, Roman, and Logan, and told them that they were ready, giving them the exact address.

•^*^••

They were all gathered outside the semi, including Remus, who was now sitting on his cow’s back.

“Well,” Logan said. “Now comes the hard part.”

#sanders sides #vampire au #vampires #blood #virgil sanders #roman sanders #logan sanders #patton sanders #janus sanders #remus sanders #emile picani #remy sleep #my own work #coffin #violence #speciesism #vampire virgil #platonic moxiety

30 notes · View notes

lgvalenzuela · 3 years

Text

In snakey matters don't sink your teeth

(Part one) (Part two)

Year 4

The hatstalls shared a train compartment as usual, their friends rotated to expend time with them. Most had shared letters so there wasn't much catching up on how the summer went, when the compartment got crowded, they were ordered to clear up.

Barnaby stayed with Morgana, even if they had exchanged letters as they promised, they could just talk for hours. Andre and Mercy shared a knowing look and a smirk and discreetly left the compartment, dragging Damien with them.

The couple didn't even notice they were left alone. Morgana was absorbed into Barnaby's words, talking about how he'd read Fantastic beasts and where to find them like five times that summer, and he already wanted to do it again. And Barnaby really didn't notice how much he missed Morgana's voice, so serene, so calm, filled you with peace.

He listened to her while she told him about the month Andre expent on her house, learning Quidditch techniques with her dad. Reached to his collarbone to scratch it and that's when she noticed:

"Barnaby...you have a scar..."

"What? Oh yeah" he covered it "It's from Ismelda's charm last year, man she really hit the target..." he scratched the back of his neck nervously as he saw Morgana's ever increasingly horrified expression "It's okay, it's okay, the nurse said it could have been worse if you hadn't helped with your healing magic" that didn't help

"It was Everete Statum, that's a charm, how did she even made it...do this?"

"Well she does have a talent for making not particularly offensive spells...offensive" he patted her head "It only itches a bit, it's okay I swear"

Morgana delicately put a hand on his cheek, and looked at him in the eye, he didn't know if he should feel even more nervous, or calmed, it was a strange mix of emotions:

"I trust you, but if you ever need assistance come see me, okay?"

He relaxed into her hand, she stroked his cheek gently and he melted:

"Of course" he said soflty

Morgana tried not to ponder much about it, but if she was good at something, it was overthinking.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mercy gave Rakepik the stink eye, trying to position herself in front of Morgana and Damien:

"I'm glad to see everyone returned. I expected at least one of you to cower in the face of competition" said the woman "I'm looking at you, Mr Copper"

"Please don't" he said trembling, holding to his robes for dear life, Damien grabbed his hand and smiled at him reassuringly

Rakepik smirked at the young griffindor, and dedicated a sly look to little Morgana, hiding behind her sister, Mercy growled quietly. Thay was...entertaining:

"What curse are you going to teach us tonight?" asked Ismelda, eager, rubbing her fingers

Rakepik looked at the sisters, and smirked to herself, she sruged:

"I won't be teaching you anything tonight, Miss Murk. You will be teaching one another"

Everyone whispered in confusion, until Bill was brave enough to break the silence:

"Curses?"

"Curses, charms, transfiguration, potions, punches..." she walked slowly examining the kid's reactions "I've never belived in putting restrictions on duelling..."

"Miss, you want us to duel each other?" asked Morgana

"As you well know..." she looked at her directly, ignoring Mercy's growls "It's highly unlikely you'll be able to enter a Cursed Vault without facing a fight. Duelling is the best way to improve your combat skills"

"Morgana doesn't go to the Vaults" said Mercy finally, getting in Rakepik's way

"But she went to the last one, as far as I know"

"It was to heal our injured friend" the hufflepuff explained

"Oh yes, I'm aware of the story" she looked at Ismelda, who looked down for a second "And tell me, Miss Canigula..." Morgana looked up "Don't you want to do something about it?"

"I..." Morgana hold Mercy's arm tight

"Nah, you don't understand, Morgana's such a pacifist, besides, she's a terrible duelist" explained Damien, Ben jabbed him "Hey! Am I lying?"

"Miss Murk, can you come to the front?"

Ismelda took out her wand with a smirk and her head high, Rakepik looked at the group:

"So, Canigula, how many more fights are your comadres going to fight for you?" she gestured to the duelling area

"You don't understand, Morgana isn't cut for this short of things, she has other qualities, she..."

Mercy continued talking, but Morgana's mind was elsewhere, she had a lot of time to think about herself, about her weaknesses, about Barnaby, and how weak he felt, and about his scar.

She walked past Mercy, put herself in front of Ismelda and took out her wand:

"Morgana..." said Mercy, worried, trying to intervene

Andre grabbed her arm and shaked his head, this was something their friend had to do on her own.

Ismelda examined Morgana, trembling, swallowing:

"This is for Barnaby" said her rival

The slytherin looked down, she looked at Merula, just a few steps away, her friend dodged her, stubborn, as confused as she was about the whole situation. She looked at the little ravenclaw again:

"When I'm done with you... I'll finish that traitor"

Morgana frowned. Rakepik observed the situation, sensing the genuine tension, this should be fun:

"Prepare to duel"

And just like that, Ismelda's wand was ejected from her hand, before anyone could react, Morgana made a hand movement and a wave threw Ismelda a few feet away.

She ran to her wand while Morgana examined her surroundings, nervously thinking about her next step:

"Non-verbal magic" said Aisling, impressed

"Where the fuck did she learn that???" shouted Mercy

Everyone turned to Morgana's cousins, Septimus and Aisling sruged, they really didn't know, could very well be a family thing.

Ismelda grabbed her wand just to get her head stuck on a pumpkin:

"You have to be kidding me, such a childish spell" she thought, wingardum lebiosa'd that thing away from her face and threw it to her opponent

"Incarcerous!" she yelled as Morgana avoided the pumpkin, now she had her right where she wanted "Bombarda!"

Morgana's friends were interrupted by Rakepik when they were about to intervene, but just because they saw Morgana standing up after falling on the ground:

"Should've taken a more offensive route" said Ismelda

Morgana looked at her straight in the eye, but she wasn't scared, she already knew her opponent could conjure non-verbal magic, the element of surprise wore off, she was about to cast another curse when Morgana made a third rapid movement and she started singing.

In the confusion Morgana run to her:

"Expelliarmus!" singed Ismelda

Morgana's wand flew off but that didn't stop her from running up to her and slap her right in the face, with her hand open, so suddenly that it slapped the cantus jinx right out of her.

Everyone's jaw dropped to the floor:

"Offensive enough?" asked Morgana

Ismelda completely dropped her wand and slapped her rival right back.

This threw Morgana off balance, and failed the both times she tried to punch her, facing her rival with both her fist in her hands she jumped straight up and landed her head on Ismelda's jaw with the weak full force of her whole body:

"Agh" Ismelda grabbed her chin

Morgana put both hands in her head, she was STILL the one getting more hurt, and right when she was about to try to land another lucky hit Mercy grabbed her wrist:

"That's enough"

(@brothergrimm71 and @elefseija 's ocs are briefly mentioned

Thanks for lending me your ocs🖤🖤🖤)

#hogwarts mystery #morgana canigula #melissandre gadea #jacob's sibling #barnaby lee #damien rosse #ismelda murk #merula snyde #mine writing

13 notes · View notes

brandstifter-sys · 3 years

Text

Under Pressure

Chapter 8: Yo-Yo (Ao3)

Word Count: 1315

Rating: T+

Characters: Roman, Janus, Remus, Virgil, Patton

Relationships: Roceit, hinted Dukexiety

Warnings: Frog!Patton, intrusive thoughts, disturbing imagery, gore, arguing, food/eating mention, villain!logan (implied)

-----------

When he entered the room, Patton knew they were in trouble. Remus was holding Virgil to his chest, staring at the scene before him in shock. There was a gigantic pit in the middle of the room keeping them from reaching the exit. Not only did it ruin the aesthetic of the room, lined with Grecian columns, it was full of metal spikes.

"Well shit," he grumbled, catching Remus' attention.

"Do you have a really long yo-yo?" he asked as Roman and Janus entered.

"A yo-yo?" Patton parroted and tilted his head, "Why?"

"Because he needs a stim toy to think," Janus hummed and cuddled closer to Roman. Remus sneered and shook his head.

"With a yo-yo I can get a better idea of how long that gap is. Everything is too quiet for me to need something else to focus."

"Why not throw Virgil over? He's a spider, he could make a web and bring us over," Roman suggested.

"Good idea—" Virgil mumbled, making Roman preen, "—but I don't have the energy for that."

"And I don't want to throw him! What if I throw him too hard and he hits the wall? What if I accidentally throw him into the spike pit!?" Remus snarled. Roman glowered right back at him.

"Acupuncture that'll get rid of your biggest pain in the neck," Virgil grumbled.

The spikes skewering his body, blood oozing out of the wounds and trickling to the floor

"No!" Patton croaked, puffing his neck and cheeks, and followed with a ribbit. All the others stared at him in shock. They didn't forget he was a frog, did they?

"Patton," Remus said with a mischievous smile, "How long is your tongue?"

"Uh, my uh—huh?" Patton stammered and stepped back away from the mustachioed man. Remus set Virge on his feet and moved closer, grabbing Patton's shoulders.

"How long is your tongue? If you can get it across the gap we can use it as a measurement," Remus explained with a bright grin. Patton's eyes went wide and a smile fought its way onto his face.

"I can stretch it a good thirty feet at most if there's something to catch."

"Perfect!" Remus cheered and ushered Patton to the edge of the pit, standing at his side. It was deeper than expected, and Patton couldn't stand to look down and lose his nerve—not when everyone needed him.

"What kind of juicy morsel do you need to lick the other side?" Remus asked, leaning in but not tearing his gaze from salvation.

"Gummy butterflies, or crickets," Patton answered, already salivating at the thought of either treat.

"Roman!" Remus shouted and whirled around, "Conjure up a gummy butterfly that can float on the other side!"

"Me?" Roman scoffed, "I'm occupied with this temptation in my arms! Why don't you do it?"

"I can't do sweet and sugary! Besides, I want to see you show off your skills! You're amazing!" Remus argued with a pout. He knew what made Roman tic, in both good and bad ways. This was bound to work!

Janus slid from the king's grasp and settled on his own feet. He smiled at Roman sweetly and nodded. Roman returned the gesture and focused on the other side of the gap. With a wave of his hand, a piece of candy appeared, floating at mouth-level with Patton.

Crack

Patton puffed his cheeks sheepishly once his tongue was back in his mouth. He had his candy and everyone's attention.

"That was hot!" Remus giggled, "So how far is it?"

"Uh," Patton paused to chew and swallow his snack, "About twenty to twenty-five feet. Too far for you guys to jump."

"So we need a bridge. Hmm," Remus hummed and tapped his chin. He paced and studied the room, looking for something long enough and sturdy enough for them to walk across.

"Oh no, this simply will not do!" Janus gasped, examining one of the pillars. Remus looked over and spotted him, staring at a giant crack that encircled the entire pillar near the ceiling. He remembered slamming into it as a kid while running from Roman. The whole building quaked from that blow!

“Fret not, my dearest viper—” Roman said, coming to Janus’ side. His thought was cut short, however, when Remus rammed into the pillar with a running start. Virgil just stared at him as he paced back and charged again, slamming his entire body weight into the column again, making it shake.

“Remus, what on earth—?"

“Help me knock this over, Princey!” Remus huffed and shook his head to alleviate some dizziness, “Gotta make a bridge!”

"A bridge?" Roman hummed and tapped his chin, unaware that Janus had left his side to the safety of the doorframe, "And you think that would knock it over? Remus, please!"

"You got a better idea?" Remus huffed. Roman smirked and shook his head condescendingly.

"But of course!" he said and held his hand over his head. Patton's eyes went wide as a swirling disk of flames appeared above Roman's hand. He panicked and leapt to the other side of the gap, in true frog fashion. Virgil blinked away some exhaustion.

"Watch and learn, little brother," Roman jeered and tossed the disk at the pillar. He guided it with a wave of his hand and sliced through the solid marble at an angle. Another flick of the wrist had the disk shoot up and slice through the column again before returning to Roman, who made it disappear smugly.

"You do have a yo-yo!" Remus whined, ”Why didn't you say something?!"

"A yo-yo!?" Roman snapped, "are you mad!? Are you blind!?" he slammed his fist against the wall, "A tool of that level of sophistication and artistry is far beyond a mere—"

"Virgil!" Janus shrieked as the broken pillar fell, headed straight for the slumped over emo at an alarming speed.

Janus ran to push him out of the way as Roman and Remus scrambled to slow or stop the slab from falling.

But it was too late.

"Holy shit!" Patton gawked at the scene. Virgil was just standing there, blasé as ever, holding the marble column over his head with both hands.

"Did you two even think about what you were going to do after this was loose?" Janus snapped, pressing a hand to his racing heart.

Virgil stood up a little taller and tossed the fallen pillar like it were made of styrofoam, letting it land with a thud over the gap.

"That's the Scare Bear I know!" Remus cheered, "Let's go!"

"Answer my question!" Janus ordered.

"You're looking at a couple of himbos, and you really think either of us thinks things through?!" Remus laughed, "Ad lib Snakey!"

Janus rolled his eyes while Roman bristled. He stormed off, crossing the bridge to get to Patton, the only other seemingly sane side of them all.

Roman hurried after him, not wanting to be near Remus after such a sleight. Remus didn't mind! He moseyed over to Virgil wearing a bright grin.

"Still need me to carry you?"

"Yeah," Virge wilted, "especially if it keeps you from dropping giant rocks on me." Remus giggled and scooped him up.

Remus crushing him under a rock, singing and dancing around it as his ribs crack and blood spurts out of his nose

"No promises!" he said, "But you did good and now we can get across and get everyone back to normal!"

“If normal means Princey’ll sing extra Disney, Janus’ll be a shady bitch, and Patton won’t steal my look, yeah.”

Rip his heart out with your teeth and eat it raw

“And it’ll get rid of your fun visiting ideas!” Remus added as Virgil flinched, “Who knows, we might even fix Dorkubus Prime!” He hopped onto the bridge without another word and hummed as he joined the others. Virgil remained silent, a new unease settling in his gut.

------

(Master Post)

17 notes · View notes

hollyxqx · 4 years

Text

lover, leaver // jimin // 03

↪ PAIRING: Reader/Park Jimin (initally reader/Jungkook) ↪ SUMMARY: There’s only so much cheating you can take from your boyfriend when he’s on tour before you take matters in to your own hands. ↪ WORD COUNT: 8.5k

01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | FINAL

You go home to change out of your work clothes, having been in them for far too long. To your surprise Jungkook is there, albeit sitting in almost complete darkness. You jump in shock when you flip the light on to reveal him slumped on the sofa, unconscious, a glass half filled with whiskey tilts dangerously in his loose grip.

You swear softly with a sigh as you make your way over to him. You check to make sure he's breathing, knowing his propensity for drinking heavily. The last thing you would ever want is him to drink himself to death. To your relief he is; small, shallow breaths but breaths nonetheless.

You move the whiskey glass to the coffee table and arrange Jungkook so he is laying on his side, in case he vomits in his sleep. From the kitchen you retrieve a bowl for him to throw up into if he needs it and some water. As you pull the blanket that rests on the back of the couch over him he stirs.

"Baby?" He slurs. It's barely coherent but he's called you it enough times for you to be able to understand what he's saying. You've also heard him call you that wasted hundreds of times. He reaches out for you and you notice his knuckles are bruised. There's dried blood on them too.

"Shhh, just go to sleep." You coo, moving some of his hair out of his clammy face.

"Stay." He mumbles.

"I'm staying." You're unsure if he means stay in this exact spot with him or stay in your apartment. Before he can clarify he's out again, eyes fluttering shut and body limp. You watch him for a few moments to make sure he'll be okay. When you're at least marginally sure he won't die in his sleep you head to bed, exhausted from the past few days.

At some point a slightly soberer Jungkook crawls into bed beside you. You feign sleep as he wraps his arms around you. When he kisses your cheek and whispers that he loves you it becomes hard not to cry. "Jungkook we need to talk in the morning." You whisper.

"I know." He whispers back.

Somehow, you both manage to fall asleep, despite everything.

***

It's undeniably awkward the next morning.

You sit opposite each other at the kitchen table but your eyes bore into your - now cold - mug of coffee. Jungkook finished his long ago but you can't seem to stomach yours.

It's quiet. The two of you have exchanged maybe a handful of words the entire time, aside from forcing some pleasantries. You can barely take the tension any longer. You encourage yourself to meet his gaze. "I saw what you did to Jimin." You say quietly. You're angry (well, only mostly at yourself) but you're more so hurt on behalf for Jimin than anything.

"He deserved it." Jungkook replies bluntly, crossing his arms across his chest. "Fucking snakey little shit."

"Don't direct the entirety of your anger towards him. I'm the bad guy here."

"If I direct it at you then I'll never want to look at you again." He sighs. "I don't want that. I don't want to lose you."

His words rip at your insides like a knife. You hadn't anticipated this reaction from him. Normally he was always so fiery and passionate. To see him acting defeated, broken even was heart wrenching. "Don't you think on some level you've lost me already?" You ask quietly.

The hurt that flashes across his face is instant as if you've slapped him. "No." He replies defiantly.

"Jungkook," You're trying to be gentle, the risk of the situation escalating is high enough as it is. "I'm sorry for everything I did. It makes me a fucking horrible person - it does. But if our relationship was perfect, it would've never happened. On either side."

He scoffs. "Nothing's perfect."

He stands, the chair scooting loudly across the tiled floor and opens the cupboard. You already know what's about to happen before it does. The next moment he's fixing himself a drink. Of course. Jungkook has always been self destructive when he's hurting.

"Kook, it's 10.30am."

"So? I've got nowhere to be today." He downs the liquid in one before going in for seconds.

"This is exactly what I'm talking about!" You exclaim. "Getting drunk during the day is not normal. You never used to do that!"

"Yeah? Well I also never used to have the amount of pressure on me I do now!" He's yelling now and you flinch. You hate seeing him angry. "You think it's easy to keep it together when I have a manager, a record label, sponsors and god knows who else pressuring me to write music I don't want to?"

"I didn't think about it like that. I'm sorry." You look down.

"There's a fucking entire world of people who have expectations from me. You don't know what it's like." He runs a hand through his hair, exasperated. "I was just trying to cope. Maybe have a little fun. Sue me."

"You're good at hiding how you feel, Jungkook. You've always been."

"Everyone thinks I'm just this happy, easy going guy with no feelings." He mutters. "Even you. That's why you went running to Jimin."

"I went running to Jimin to deal with the pain of you relentlessly cheating on me." You correct. Jungkook tosses back his drink.

"Did it work?" He mumbles, rolling his eyes.

"Honestly?" You ask with a scoff. Jungkook nods. "Sometimes."

He stares bitterly at the empty glass, swirling the remaining liquid. "I keep trying to remember times where I thought you were cheating, but there isn't any. Not one." He laughs but there's no humour to his voice. "You waited for me to go on tour didn't you? Smart."

"You don't cheat when you're at home. Why should I?" You say, shame burning your cheeks. It sounds absolutely absurd to say it aloud. He walks over to you and stands behind you, wrapping his arms around your shoulders as you sit.

"I'm sorry I hurt you baby." He coos. All you can do is nod, arms limp by your sides. "I never thought of it as cheating, I'm a fucking idiot. I'm so fucking sorry."

He's nosing at your hair, kissing the top of your head, doing what he always does - shower you with so much love and affection so you forget the mistakes that he makes. It's worked so many times but you can't let it work this time, the cycle has to end. You nudge him off of you and he steps back, looking crestfallen. "I love you Jungkook but I can't do this anymore."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that I can't continue to play dumb to the girls on tour. I can't do it. Not anymore. I don't think I'm fit to be your girlfriend. Maybe there's other girls out there who can deal with that shit but I can't." You're frantically shaking your head from side to side.

"Is this so you can be with him?" He spits, gesturing as if Jimin was standing in the room next door.

"No!" You stress. "This has nothing to do with him. I cheated on you Jungkook. I've never done anything like that before. This relationship made me a person who would do that. It's been a long time coming I think." You say sadly. Jungkook looks furious and heartbroken at the same time, hands balled into fists at his sides.

"I don't want to be apart. I love you." He almost hisses. "This is ridiculous. If was going to forgive you, why can't you do the same?"

"Because I know you won't change!" You burst out loudly, meeting his energy. Somehow you find yourself standing on your feet, the chair tips to the floor but you barely register the sound. Jungkook yells out, throwing his glass. It smashes against the wall opposite you and you nearly jump out of your skin.

"You're really going to throw away two years like that?" He pants, chest heaving.

"I'm sorry."

"No you're fucking not. You're a fucking slutty bitch, is what you are."

He storms out, leaving you to clean up the shattered glass. The front door slams, leaving you in almost unbearable silence. ***

The doctor's office clinical sharp scent fills your head as you sit with Hyerin several hours later. She's nervous; foot tapping incessantly against the metal leg of the waiting room chair. You give her hand an affectionate squeeze as she lets out a deep breath. "Chill. No matter what happens, it's ok." You offer her the most hopeful smile you can.

"Thanks." She mumbles.

You weren't going to fill her in on your morning's previous events but Hyerin had begged you for a distraction. Anything to get her mind off her current state, even if it was just for a few moments. You'd yet to tell her about Jimin being a huge factor. That could wait.

"Good luck." You whisper to her as her name is called by a rather young looking doctor. You watch as she disappears through the double doors, worrying about your friends future.

to: park jimin hey. how are you doing? I can bring you food later, im not working today.

You don't really expect a reply but you're hopeful nonetheless. You still need to talk properly with Jimin and as awkward as it might be it has to be done. It's your bed, time to lie in it.

As you were about to put your phone away it vibrates in your palm. Jungkook's name appears.

from: jungkook <3 i'll be gone until tomorrow night. When i get back I want you and your shit gone.

It was his place after all, he was completely within his right to request such a thing from you. That didn't deaden the sting however. He was hurting and lashing out, you were aware of his tendency to do that but he had been your boyfriend for a long time, it was never going to be easy saying goodbye.

You sigh audibly as you mentally start making a plan to retrieve your belongings. Maybe you could ask Hyerin to help, god knows you two need each other in this moment in time. You wonder if she would let you kick it on her couch for a while until you find a place to live. The timing is hardly great, considering you have exams soon as well. Why couldn't Jungkook wait to cheat on you until after you graduated, you think dryly.

It's not long until Hyerin returns. Her face is flushed and you realise there's probably been a few tears shed since she left you some moments ago. She's nodding as she crosses the room, wordlessly confirming her pregnancy to you. "Come on," You say gently, looping your arm through hers. "Tell me all about it in the car."

She lets out a choked sob the moment your both in the silence of the vehicle. "I can't believe this is honest to god my life right now." She cries, slamming a fist onto the dashboard. "Fuck my fucking existence!"

"What did the doctor say?" You ask hesitantly. You want her to have her moment and vent her frustrations before launching in to the story.

"I'm 100% pregnant. 9 weeks." She sniffs, swiping a tear off her pink cheeks. "It's official."

"Shit." You don't know if you want to apologise or congratulate her, given her extremely upset reaction. "What now?"

She gathers herself as best she can before she replies. "Tell Namjoon, I 'spose."

"Want me to drive you to him?" You offer.

"Nah, I need to go home first. Look - " She's pulling something out her purse, that you quickly realise is an ultrasound. It doesn't look like anything much to you other than a gray and black blur.

"The baby has your eyes." You joke, a feeble attempt to lighten the mood. Hyerin laughs a little as she gazes at the print out.

"It didn't feel real until she handed me this." Hyerin mumbles.

"It is surreal. Next time use a condom, babe."

"I did!" She exclaims, scandalised. "It broke."

You both share a laugh despite everything that's going on with you. It feels just plain good to have a light moment, however temporary. You almost don't want to ruin it, but you feel as if it's necessary. "While you were in there Jungkook texted. He wants me out. By tomorrow."

"Jeez, that's intense."

"He's angry I ended things."

"You can stay with me if you need to. I have a spare bedroom." Hyerin kindly offers. You're touched that you didn't even have to ask, feeling closer in this moment to her than ever.

"You're an angel."

"You've been a good friend to me. I'm just doing what's right." She gives you a small smile as you start the car, ready to take her home.

***

Boxing and packing your things from home is harder than you expect it to me. There's so much of Jungkook entwined in nearly everything you own and a tiny, rageful, hurt part of you wants to just say fuck it and bin absolutely everything. Obviously you can't - but the wild impulse niggles at you.

A lot of the clothing you own is stolen from him. Mostly it's band t's and hoodies. You wonder if he would prefer that you left it behind. Maybe not, you think wistfully. Knowing him, he'd probably chuck it out anyway, unwilling to have anything that reminded him of you.

It's late into the night when you're interrupted by knocking at the front door. You hoist yourself up from where you kneel at the foot of your closet, next to a mountain of clothes and pad barefoot to the door. One look through the peephole reveals it's Jimin who is knocking.

You recall suddenly that you never heard back from him.

"Jimin?" You ask curiously as you peer round the door. Your heart aches when you notice he has a bag of takeout food with him. "What are you doing here?"

"Thought you might be hungry." He replies quietly. You realise that you are indeed, unable to even remember when you last ate. "Can I come in?"

You try not to gawk too much at his injured face as he crosses the threshold into your apartment, a pang of guilt shooting directly through you. It's your fault he looks like that. Somehow it appears even more gruesome as it's healing.

He doesn't ask where to go, instinctively heading for the living room where you ate before. You follow behind him, a flutter of nerves creeping up your chest. Jimin sits and immediately starts unboxing the food.

"It's late." You say dumbly, pointing out the obvious. "Why aren't you sleeping?"

"I spoke to Namjoon." Jimin states, eyes never leaving the food. You know what that means. It means he knows everything. There's no way Jungkook wouldn't have mentioned anything. You take a seat next to him and give him some help. "Thought you might need a hand."

"With packing? I'm almost done."

"Well yeah, but other things too. Sometimes it's nice just to have some company when shit hits the fan."

You notice he's ordered your favourite noodles. It's so gut wrenchingly sweet and you definitely don't deserve it. "Thank you." You say, feeling small.

It's quiet as the two of you eat, the only sounds that can be heard is that of noodles being slurped. The food is welcome and much needed.

"Where are you going to go? I'd offer my place but I'm almost certain you'd turn me down." He gives you a smile that never reaches his eyes. However he's right. There's no way you'd accept that offer. Not after the mess you've created. Part of you wonders if you run away now, just leave, at least him and Jungkook's friendship can be salvaged.

"Hyerin very kindly has offered me a place, don't worry." You inform him. "I went with her to the doctor today. There is a baby on the way. For realsies."

Jimin stops chewing, looking at you in shock. "Namjoon as a father is going to be a disaster."

You shrug. "True....but it's their lives. They'll work it out."

"And what about your life hm? What is y/n going to do now?" He set his empty carton of food down, turning a little to face you.

"I don't know," You almost whisper. As you look - truly inspect - his face your pained once more. The bruises are darker, more agonising to look at it. "How's your face?" You ask, changing the subject.

"Sore."

"I'm so sorry." You almost beg. "Do you hate me?"

"I don't think I could even if I tried."

You're unsure of what comes over you, but you're reaching out to touch Jimin's bruised face. A fingertip skims as delicately as you can muster over the purple blooming on his cheek. His eyes flutter shut at your touch. "Sorry." You murmur.

"s'fine." He whispers back. Your thumb trails over his full bottom lip and all you want to do is kiss him. Normally you would have just gone for it but after everything he's been through you don't.

"I wish I could kiss you."

"You can." His eyes are open once again, staring at you softly.

"I don't want to hurt you. Anymore than I already have." You say sheepishly.

"You won't."

He acts next, bridging the gap between your bodies. His kiss is far more delicate than you expect, tender and sweet as if he's afraid. You hope he's not and it's just because he's injured. That thought floats away as soon as a hand grips your jaw and the kiss deepens.

You know you shouldn't be doing this, instead mentioning to him the information that Jungkook shared with you, but you feel so much affection for him in that moment for being willing to take care of you that you can't help it.

The kiss ends abruptly when your hand touches his torso absent mindedly and he gasps in pain. "I'm sorry!" You say urgently, pulling away. He shakes his head, assuring you he's okay. "Please don't tell me that was Jungkook as well. What exactly did he do to you?" You plead.

"You know how strong he is. He just roughed me up. I'm sure you can imagine the kind of things he said to me. Believe me that was worse." Jimin says nonchalantly as if it's the most normal sentence in the world. "I'll be okay."

"Can I see?" You ask tentatively, tugging slightly at the hem of his shirt. He gives you a reluctant sigh but nods anyway. The shirt comes off and you gasp at his battered body. It takes a few seconds to really take all of it in, the sight of his pale chest covered in ugly marks.

"I bruise easy." He mumbles as if that makes any of this any less horrific.

"I'll never get you in a situation like this again I swear," You say solemnly. "I mean it."

"Stop blaming yourself so much." He sighs, taking your hand in his. He kisses the back of your knuckles. "I forgive you. There, now you can stop saying sorry."

***

It doesn't take long for you to be atop of Jimin's naked body while he lies flat on the sofa. One arm grips the edge of the sofa as you ride him, due to the nature of his injuries. His hands grip your hips tightly as you go, falling down onto his length as hard and as fast as your thigh muscles allow you.

His eyes never leave your breasts as they bounce with you. It makes him groan. He uses his feet for leverage to help you as best he can. "Butterfly," He whines, hands sliding from your hips to grope at your chest. "I'm so glad you're all mine now."

You can barely speak let alone protest his statement as your orgasm pulses through you. What you wanted to do was ask him what the hell he was talking about, but it felt too good - he felt too good buried so tightly inside of you and you lost it.

Jimin finishes deep inside with a guttural moan. As you slow you look down at him to find an utterly content smile playing on his lips. You go to clamber off of him but a throaty noise of protest escapes his throat. "Just let me feel you a little longer." He laughs.

He struggles to a sitting position as best he can so allowing him to press his mouth to yours. "My butterfly." He whispers against your lips.

Reality seems to set in suddenly, like a slap to the face. Jimin has incorrectly assumed that you would jump straight from Jungkook to him at a whiplash inducing speed. Not that you can blame him. How could he not? It probably felt like a natural step to him that you two would continue as you had been going. Now Jungkook was out of the picture, the only apparent obstacle keeping you apart, you were his now. Right?

It doesn't feel right.

You say nothing as you climb off him, feeling uncomfortable as if someone has poured ice water down your spine. You don't want a relationship with him right now. You're barely hours out of your last one for crying out loud.

Hastily you pick up your scattered clothing and scurry to the bathroom to clean up, mumbling something to Jimin along the way. He's quick to follow you.

"What's wrong?" He asks hurriedly, voice full of concern. Your words are lost to you as you shake your head. "I didn't hurt you or anything did I?"

"No," You say weakly, feeling like a coward. "It's not that."

Hyper aware of the fact that you're both naked you begin to dress. "Can we just clean up then talk?" You plead.

"Sure." Jimin has a combination of a hurt, confused look on his face. "Anything you want, just tell me what's wrong."

When you're both fully clothed and completely out of the carnal state that led you to fucking in the first place only then can you think clearly. "Are you angry? Did I do something wrong?" His voice breaks the uncomfortable silence.

"No, no." You sigh. "Do you think we're...together? Now that things have ended with Jungkook?" It doesn't come out as tactfully as you'd hoped.

"This is because I called you mine, right?" He says letting out a puff of laughter. It's humourless. "What else are we if not together?"

"Jungkook and I just broke up. Don't you think I might need a little space?"

"Please, your relationship with him was over the second you fucked me." Jimin scoffs. "Don't I treat you right? Aren't you happy when we're together?"

"You do. I am." You reply, softening slightly at his words. "I think I just need a break from relationships for a bit. I'm clearly not very good at them."

"So letting me in tonight and fucking me is the way to do that?" He spits sarcastically.

"One thing led to another, I wasn't thinking clearly. I just wanted to feel close to you." You reply, realizing how ridiculous you sound right now.

"If you wanted to feel close to me, let me be close to you." He says sincerely. Jimin steps forward cupping your face in his hands. "Tell me you don't feel anything when we're together. Tell me this isn't just messing around. Tell me you feel something."

He kisses you with as much intensity as he can muster, lips smacking hard against yours. You want to lie to him, push him away and suffer because you feel as if that's what you truly deserve. But you can't. The look in his eyes is nothing short of sheer want.

"Of course I do," You whisper, eyes still shut as you gather some strength. It's been an emotionally intense few days.

"But?" He asks if he can sense what's coming.

"But now is not the right time for me and you," You stress. "I've been really thankful for you Jimin. You've been here for me in ways you don't even realise. But I cannot just jump into a new relationship without dealing with my baggage from the old one. It's not fair to either of us. I've hurt you so much. I don't want to hurt anyone anymore."

He looks at you silently, brow furrowed, for what feels like eons. Deep down you hope he knows you're right, especially if he truly wants to be with you. He kisses you one more time.

"I love you, y/n." He whispers. "I'm in love with you."

You're quite literally left speechless. It's not exactly news to you given what Jungkook had mentioned but hearing it from Jimin is something else. It feels surreal, a strange dream you'll wake up from at any moment. You move your mouth but no sound escapes.

You finally get your breath but it takes a moment. "I don't think I'm there in that place with you, Jiminie." You say sadly, letting the boy who had been so kind to you down. You barely know what you're feeling right now. How can you admit something if you're not entirely sure its true?

You love Jungkook, you know that. But it's entirely different to what you feel for Jimin. It's established love, endured love. Painful love.

"I know. But I think you could be. One day. Maybe even one day soon." Jimin whispers.

He steps back a little so you're no longer in such an intimate proximity. The distance suddenly feels great. You badly want to reach out to him but you know it won't help anything. "Maybe," You agree. "I think if I have some time I'll know for sure. I don't want to lie. I'm sick of it."

"I understand." His voice is small. "I think I'm going to go. I'll give you some space y/n."

You nod, feeling entirely mixed up, emotionally drained and shattered. He gathers his things as you watch, it somehow feels all together too final. There's a chaste kiss on your cheek, a whispered goodbye and he's gone.

***

You awake early the next morning, like pre-alarm early. Not that you slept very much anyway, it's been only two and a half hours since Jimin left your apartment. Most of that time you spent dozing in a light sleep, odd dreams of Jungkook and Jimin plaguing your subconscious. There's a futile attempt to get back to sleep before you decide to get up.

You wash and get ready even though it's still a few hours before Hyerin is due to arrive to help you move. She insisted she was fine to do so and you'd argued back on forth about letting a pregnant woman lift anything, regardless of how far along she is. Eventually she'd succumbed and managed to rope in her friend Taehyung. You'd promised them pizza as a thank you.

As you stare into the mirror, the person staring back at you looks exhausted. You almost don't even want to bother with makeup but the bags underneath your eyes are telling you that you need it. When you're finished you look better, but marginally.

"You look like you haven't slept." Are the first words out of Hyerin's mouth the moment she see's you. Who you presume to be Taehyung hangs awkwardly behind her before you're introduced. He merely gives you a polite nod and a hello.

"I haven't. Not much." You sigh. "I really appreciate you both helping me out today."

Hyerin waves it off like it's no problem at all, even though it must be a huge inconvenience for her and especially for Taehyung who doesn't even know you. It doesn't take long for the three of you to load up Hyerin and Taehyung's cars and you're thankful you only have to make one trip. You're keen to be long gone by the time Jungkook comes back.

"You can ride with me, Taehyung will meet us at my place." Hyerin says as she closes the trunk of her car. You nod in agreement.

"One sec, I'm just going to grab my phone." You tell her as she gets in the car. You head back to your apartment for one last time.

It looks...sad. It's not entirely empty, Jungkook's items taking up a poignant amount of space but it looks stripped. Every little touch that said you lived there is gone. Reality weighs on your chest like a deadweight. You can't help but feel emotional and tears begin to well in your eyes.

There's only one thing left to do now, and that's to leave your copy of the key. If you had told past you one week ago this is where you'd be you wouldn't believe it. It's all very sudden.

You slip the key off your keychain and leave it on the kitchen counter, hoping it would be easy for Jungkook to find. It looks lonely lying against the countertop. An idea occurs to you and you grab a pen and paper from one of the junk drawers in the kitchen. You write a note to Jungkook.

Jungkook, I know you're angry, hurting and probably hating me right now. I get it. I never wanted any of this to happen, for us to end this way. Don't forget the good times we had, I know I won't. I really did love you Kookie, regardless of how much we both fucked up. - Y/N

It doesn't feel like enough, nothing ever would be, but your conscience urged to be alleviated, how ever slight.

***

In a way you're almost thankful that it's exam season for you. It's a welcome distraction from everything else going in your life. The last few days have been spent holed up in Hyerin's spare room under what can only be described as a small mountain of books and graphic designs. It's your final year, and the workload is the most it's been yet.

It's a struggle to keep Jimin and Jungkook from your thoughts as you attempt to focus. You haven't heard from either of them in the last few days, not that you were expecting anything at all but it doesn't stop you shedding a few tears every night before bed.

You hear the doorbell ring as you study and your ears perk up in interest. Namjoon was here. Today was the day that Hyerin was going to tell him she was pregnant. You offered to make yourself scarce but she was insistent that you remained, in case everything went disastrously. At least you would be there as shoulder to cry on.

It seems voyeuristic to listen in and you try your best not to, debating on whether you should put music on. Although, you're not really stoked on the idea of alerting Namjoon to your presence, having yet to face him or any other of Jungkook's friends since everything went down. The whole thing was just awkward.

You want to give them their privacy so you search for your headphones, their muffled voices already carrying down the hall. As you're selecting a song to listen to you hear Namjoon yell fuck loudly. He was loud at the best of times so you're not surprised you can hear him through the concrete walls.

Hyerin's voice is much softer so you don't hear her reply.

You cue up some songs and slip your headphones on, drowning out the noise. It's even harder to read your coursework material knowing god knows what is going on just a few feet from your bedroom door. It's only minutes later when a crash richochets through the apartment. The sound is so loud you hear it above your music.

"What the - " You gasp, pulling the headphones down. There's silence for a beat before you hear Namjoon again, this time he's practically screaming 'you've ruined my life'. Your heart aches for your friend who you know will be emotional anyway because of the pregnancy.

"Namjoon, it's not as if I did this by myself." You here her say. "Or on purpose!"

"Well you know what you have to do now, don't you?" He replies. You can imagine the sneering look of disgust that is Hyerin's face right now. Namjoon clearly wanted her to have an abortion, but did he have to be so fucking tactless about it? You don't know how your friend feels about that particular idea but you can imagine Namjoon's tone of voice helps nothing.

"Can't we at least talk about this rationally? This is not a decision that should be taken lightly."

"There's nothing to talk about!" Namjoon yells. "I can't deal with this! You were just a good fuck who is getting carried away. Nothing more!"

You physically wince at his words. You know it's a lie, you've seen them together and you knew Namjoon well enough to know he really liked her. He was the one who made the relationship official, no matter how much he's pretending now.

"Get out." Hyerin's icy voice is stern but shaky. It's obvious she's trying not to cry. If Namjoon responds you don't hear it. The next thing that can be heard is the sound of the front door opening and then slamming shut.

It's as if you're frozen in place, unable to move. On one hand you want to venture out of your room to see if your friend is okay but on the other you really don't want to reveal you heard every single harsh word exchanged. Before you can make up your mind the decision is made for you with three small knocks at your door.

"y/n?"

You wait a moment and then open the door. Hyerin is already in tears and she practically throws herself into your arms the instant she sees you. You hug her back as best you can. It's silent between you too apart from her sobbing. You doubt there's anything in the world you can say in this moment that can possibly make her feel better, so you just try and follow her lead and be there for her as best you can.

Eventually you break apart. "What can I do? Do you want some food or some tea?" You ask uncertainly. She shakes her head.

"I'm feeling too nauseous to stomach anything." She whimpers.

"Do you...want to talk about it?"

"No." She says but contradicts herself when she walks into the room and slumps down on your bed. "Did you hear him storm out?" You nod sadly as you join her. "Asshole." She mutters.

"Yeah, it's kind of a dick move. I take it he didn't react well?"

"That's an understatement." She scoffs. "He wants me to get rid of it. Just like that, without even talking about it."

"I'm not exactly his closest friend, but I do know him pretty well. He's probably just in shock." You offer. It's the truth, Namjoon was really similar to Jungkook in that way, both of them could be volatile when it came to negative emotions.

"And I'm not? He's only thinking about himself." She grabs the nearest pillow and groans into it with frustration. "What the fuck do I do now?" She looks at you. Her face is stained with tears and her make up is ruined. You feel for her. "Is it beyond crazy if I have this baby? Tell me the truth, y/n. Please."

You lick your lips and pause, thinking for a moment. Namjoon and Hyerin have only been official for a few months, for even mature adults in a faithful relationship that's far too early to have a baby. The whole thing was messy and ugly and you would feel just as conflicted if the shoe was on the other foot.

"I can't tell you how to live your life or make this decision for you, I think if it's something you really want, it's not crazy. This is going to sound harsh but you might have to face the possibility of doing it without Namjoon." You tell her gently. "But! That doesn't mean you'll be alone. You've got me, your family, your other friends I know will support you too."

"Do you think Namjoon would even make a good dad?" She asks. The question makes you flinch inwardly. "I've never even seen him around kids. I have no point of reference."

You recall a memory you have of Namjoon playing with Yoongi's nephews once at a garden party. It was cute, he was wonderful with them...because he was like a giant kid too. That doesn't necessarily qualify him as dad material. He was one of the most irresponsible people you knew.

"I've seen him with kids," You tell her softly. "He's great! He's the kind of guy to roll around on the floor and play like he's just as into the game as they are." She smiles a little at your words. "As far as being a parent? I have no idea. Some people crumble under that pressure. But sometimes, that pressure can bring out a side of you that you never knew existed."

Hyerin lets out a long, contemplative sigh and goes quiet for a few moments. "Maybe you're right." She moves to stand up. "Thanks for that y/n, that really helped. Do you feel like coming with me to tell my parents?" She laughs and you can tell she's joking. "Consider Namjoon a walk in the park compared to them."

"My limited therapist skills can only stretch so far, Hyerin." You joke.

"Worth a shot."

***

It's barely over two weeks later when you sit your final exam. You don't feel as if you've done particularly well even though you were as prepared as you could possibly be and it would be weeks before you found out the results. It's with an anxious mind you head home from campus to change into your work clothes. An eight hour shift is the last thing you feel like doing at the moment, but it's not as if you have a choice.

As you're rummaging through your bag for your keys you almost collide with Namjoon, who is waiting outside of the apartment you share with Hyerin. It's a shock, as far as you knew he had been avoiding her messages and calls entirely. Your mouth falls open in silent shock when you see him.

"Hi y/n," He says slowly and the awkward tension between you is palpable. Personally you haven't seen him since the night you caught Jungkook cheating on you. "I was hoping to catch Hyerin but she isn't home. I was just going to wait..."

"She's working, but she shouldn't be long." You shift uncomfortably. "You can come in and wait or...?"

"Yeah I'll come in. If that's ok."

You give him a curt nod and he follows you inside. Neither of you speak for what feels like forever but in reality it's only a minute or two. "You can hang out in the living room if you want. I have to go get ready for work."

Without waiting for a reply you hurry to your room where you change quickly into your waitress uniform and tie your hair into a bun. You hope Hyerin gets here soon so you don't have to make small talk with Namjoon but you have a horrible feeling you won't be so lucky.

When you're done you head to the kitchen to fix yourself something to eat. He's sitting on the sofa, looking bored as he lazily scrolls through his phone. He looks up upon hearing you walk by and your eyes meet. "Do you want something to eat or drink?" You can't help but ask, the polite hostess in you rearing it's head.

"No thanks." He mumbles.

You send Hyerin a quick text as you wait for your soup to heat up, letting her know he's here. Thankfully she's only a few minutes away, information which you relay back to Namjoon. He only nods.

By the time you've eaten and you're ready to leave Hyerin still isn't home. You saunter to the living room and sit opposite him, he watches you curiously. "About everything that's happened - "

"I don't want to hear it. I know what you did to Jungkook, I don't need to talk about it." He responds gruffly, taking you aback. You swallow dryly, that wasn't what you were going to bring up.

"Actually," You begin coldly. "I was going to talk about you and Hyerin."

"That's none of your business." He says equally as icy.

"Why are you being so rude to me? I was going to say I know it's a difficult situation but it's a good thing you're here and I respect you for that." You say, getting angrier. Namjoon looks slightly embarrassed, color slightly tinting his cheeks. "But you know what? Fuck that. You might not want this baby but have you ever thought this baby might not want you? You think a kid dreams about having an alcoholic, drugged up man whore for a father?!"

Namjoon looks away, jaw tense as he shakes his head in disbelief. "Jungkook was right, you're a fucking bitch."

"Why do you both think women that hold you accountable for your actions are bitches? Grow up." You stand now, knowing this can only go downhill from here. You need to remove yourself from the situation. As he is about to give you what is no doubt a scathing retort you're both interrupted by the front door opening. Hyerin was home.

Her gaze immediately flicks between you and Namjoon. "Hi..." She says cautiously.

"Hey," You manage to sound at least somewhat normal but the tension hands heavy in the room. "I'm late for work, I gotta run. Text me later?"

"Sure." She replies, a little bewildered, the only thing she can do is watch you hurry out the door. In your haste you forget a jacket, cursing yourself the moment you get outside.

***

The manila envelope arrives two weeks before your graduation ceremony and in it contains the written proof of four years accumulated hard work. You'd already checked your grades online that morning but somehow the visual of it in black and white on tangible paper feels more substantial. You were expecting to pass if you were truly honest with yourself, however you were not expecting to pass with a Distinction.

It's been a dream of yours since you learned how to draw in school and now that it's come true it doesn't quite feel real. Your hand twitches as you hold your phone, resisting the urge to text Jimin and share the good news. He would have wanted to know, the topic of your studies was something he always expressed an interest in, sweetheart that he was.

One and a half months had passed since that uncomfortable last night at Jungkook's apartment. Jimin remained true to his word, giving you space. Even if it sometimes felt like too much space to you. Absence really did make the heart grow fonder, you think dryly. You missed him. Not the sex, not the secrecy, the person.

You have half a mind to reach out to him but the worry that it would complicate things further stops you. You've spent too long being selfish, you can't continue to do so anymore.

The only thing in your life that doesn't feel uncertain right now is the college degree you've just earned. Your personal life may be a disaster zone but at least one thing fell into place. Already you've been looking at places to intern, taking a special interest in big cities away from here. Often you've caught yourself wondering if the best course of action was to just leave.

"The guys are playing a gig tonight." Hyerin's voice brings your attention to her. You hadn't even noticed her walk into the room. "I'm going."

She sounds reluctant, as if she didn't want to share that information with you. It makes you feel a little guilty, she shouldn't have to walk on eggshells around you or skirt that topic when it comes up. "Oh? Things are better with Namjoon?"

The past month had been...rocky for the couple. Hyerin had made the decision to have his baby and gave him the option to be as involved as he wanted to be. Initially it went exactly as you'd feared, ending in an argument. Lately however they had been spending more time together. You hoped things would work out for them, truly.

"Yeah, I think so." She shrugged. "He's accepted what's happening at least. We're just taking it slow."

"Good," You say, giving her a soft smile. "I'm glad. Where are they playing tonight?"

"That weird underground bar in Gangnam, I can't remember the name. Y'know the one that has the red door? You've been there, I'm sure. It's a one off show for the single release."

You know the exact place she's talking about, Jungkook had told you he loved you for the first time and asked you to be his at that bar. Poor naïve past you, didn't know what she was getting herself into when she enthusiastically said yes.

"Ah, yeah. Well I hope you have fun."

"I'll make sure and give Jungkook my best bitchy glare." She teases. You still hadn't told her about you and Jimin and as far as she was concerned, Jungkook was public enemy number one.

"I appreciate the solidarity, but don't do that. Just treat him normally." You tell her. "Seriously, I've made things weird enough without you joining in!"

"Ok, ok." She laughs. "I'll be nice."

***

The next morning you're awoken by a knock at your bedroom door. With no school or work you'd been counting on sleeping in but the universe had other plans for you apparently. You groggily sit up against the headboard, calling for who is obviously Hyerin to enter.

"Hey," She says quietly as she closes the door behind her. "Did I wake you?"

"Yeah, but it's fine." You say, stifling a yawn. "How was last night?"

"Uh..." She trails off as she sits at the foot of your bed, crossing one leg over the other. "I don't think there's a word to convey how much of a disaster it was."

"A disaster? Why?" You feel an impending sense of dread for some reason.

Hyerin shakes her head. "The entire night was just...chaotic. I know you probably don't want to hear it but it was because of Jungkook. He was a complete mess. I've never seen him so drunk."

Well that figures. He always liked drinking after a set. Hyerin probably just wasn't as used to seeing him sloppy like you were.

"That's standard behaviour for him, unfortunately."

"No y/n. It was bad. Even the guys were concerned." Her eyes are wide with worry. She hesitates and you tense, awaiting whatever terrible thing she's about to say. "He arrived absolutely out of it. His pupils were the size of a dinner plate for god sake. Then when we couldn't find him before they went on he was in a bathroom with some stripper doing lines."

Ouch. A stripper. Already.

"Again, that sounds like Jungkook." You sigh.

"Namjoon says he hasn't seen him sober in a month. He thinks he's messing with hard drugs. Not just fucking around with weed and coke."

"Shit."

"Yeah. I know it isn't easy for you to hear this, but Jungkook seems to be on a one way spiral of self destruction. He could barely hold his drumsticks."

That was unusual for him, you've seen him perform before under the influence and he always nailed it. It was almost comical how functional he could be after too many drinks.

"That's the way he deals with things." You say quietly, inside you squirm with anxiety. You wonder if Jungkook is going even further off the rails because of you, because of what you did to him. "Did someone make sure he got home okay?"

"He disappeared with the stripper. No one can get a hold of him."

You close your eyes for a moment to try and still your thoughts, images of him overdosed on a random couch somewhere flash behind your eyes. "I hope he's alright."

Hyerin nods in agreement. "Me too."

It's silent for a few moments, the weight of the situation feels uncomfortable and heavy. There's an urge in you to try and fix everything but you wouldn't even know where to begin.

"Why didn't you tell me about Jimin?" She asks quietly after a while.

"I, uh..." There's no valid excuse other than to save yourself from embarrassment. It's not exactly something you're proud of.

"I asked where Jimin was last night and Jungkook went crazy. Namjoon had to explain why to me."

"I fucked up." You avoid her gaze, opting to stare at the bedspread instead. "I didn't know how to tell you. I'm sorry."

"You don't have to apologize to me." Hyerin says softly. "I was just surprised. I never would have thought you would do something like that."

"Me neither." You admit. "It started off as an accident, believe it or not. Remember when they went to Australia for the first time?" She nods. "That's when it began. I'd just had enough of Jungkook cheating on me. Jimin came over to get something and one thing led to another."

"Are you, like, a thing now?"

"No."

"Do you want to be?" She questions.

"I don't know what I want." You sigh. "Really, I deserve nothing. It feels greedy to want anything."

"Don't be so dramatic." She rolls her eyes with a smile. "Everyone makes mistakes. It's not the end of the world."

***

The graduation ceremony brings out the sentimental side in you. In the crowd you see your mom wiping away tears when you receive your diploma and you can't help but feel a little teary yourself. It's a big moment for you.

Afterwards you agree to join some of your fellow classmates for drinks. You make a quick pit stop at home to change but something on your doorstep distracts you for a moment. There's a colourful bouquet of flowers resting against the wood. You pick them up, feeling slightly perplexed.

They're beautiful, it's undeniable. The scent of them invades your nostrils as you search for a card, hoping to get the identity of the sender. The inscription on the paper is short but you know instantly who they're from.

Congratulations, butterfly x

You're not sure how he knew today was your graduation day (you suspect Hyerin has a role in that somewhere) but your glad to hear from him, even if it's indirectly. Jimin is thinking of you.

You take the flowers inside and put them in some water. The decision to call Jimin to say thank you comes naturally, that's what people do when they receive gifts. It's the perfect excuse.

The phone rings a little too long before he picks up and suddenly you feel nervous.

"Hi." He breathes into the phone and the nerves are gone.

masterlist

#bts ff #bts fanfiction #bts fanfic #jimin fanfic #jimin smut #jimin angst #jungle #jungkook #jungkook fanfic #jimin fanfiction #kpop fanfic

245 notes · View notes