#man this week has been hard for classics teachers

[greekmythcomix]

How I teach the Iliad in highschool:

I’ve taught the Iliad for over a decade, I’m literally a teacher, and I can even spell ‘Iliad’, and yet my first instinct when reading someone’s opinions about it is not to drop a comment explaining what it is, who ‘wrote’ it, and what that person’s intention truly was.

Agh. <the state of Twitter>

The first thing I do when I am teaching the Iliad is talk about what we know, what we think we know, and what we don’t know about Homer:

We know -

- 0

We think we know -

- the name Homer is a person, possibly male, possibly blind, possibly from Ionia, c.8th/9th C BCE.

- composed the Iliad and Odyssey and Hymns

We don’t know -

- if ‘Homer’ was a real person or a word meaning singer/teller of these stories

- which poem came first

- whether the more historical-sounding events of these stories actually happened, though there is evidence for a similar, much shorter, siege at Troy.

And then I get out a timeline, with suggested dates for the ‘Trojan war’ and Iliad and Odyssey’s estimated composition date and point out the 500ish years between those dates. And then I ask my class to name an event that happened 500 years ago.

They normally can’t or they say ‘Camelot’, because my students are 13-15yo and I’ve sprung this on them. Then I point out the Spanish Armada and Qu. Elizabeth I and Shakespeare were around then. And then I ask how they know about these things, and we talk about historical record.

And how if you don’t have historical record to know the past, you’re relying on shared memory, and how that’s communicated through oral tradition, and how oral tradition can serve a second purpose of entertainment, and how entertainment needs exciting characteristics.

And we list the features of the epic poems of the Iliad and Odyssey: gods, monsters, heroes, massive wars, duels to the death, detailed descriptions of what armour everyone is wearing as they put it on. (Kind of like a Marvel movie in fact.)

And then we look at how long the poems are and think about how they might have been communicated: over several days, when people would have had time to listen, so at a long festival perhaps, when they’re not working. As a diversion.

And then I tell them my old and possibly a bit tortured simile of ‘The Pearl of Myth’:

(Here’s a video of The Pearl of Myth with me talking it through in a calming voice: https://youtu.be/YEqFIibMEyo?sub_confirmation=1

And after all that, I hand a student at the front a secret sentence written on a piece of paper, and ask them to whisper it to the person next to them, and for that person to whisper it to the next, and so on. You’ve all played that game.

And of course the sentence is always rather different at the end than it was at the start, especially if it had Proper nouns in it (which tend to come out mangled). And someone’s often purposely changed it, ‘to be funny’.

And we talk about how this is a very loose metaphor for how stories and memory can change over time, and even historical record if it’s not copied correctly (I used to sidebar them about how and why Boudicca used to be known as ‘Boadicea’ but they just know the former now, because Horrible Histories exists and is awesome)

And after all that, I remind them that what we’re about to read has been translated from Ancient Greek, which was not exactly the language it was first written down in, and now we’re reading it in English.

And that’s how my teenaged students know NOT TO TAKE THE ILIAD AS FACT.

(And then we read the Iliad)

#man this week has been hard for classics teachers #Iliad #greek mythology #tagamemnon #greek myth #odyssey #homer #greek myth retellings #comix #greek myth comix #classics teacher #teaching #myth #history #ancient greek history #horrible histories #the idiots #teaching resources #teacher rant #Youtube

[neopuppy]

preview: rush

pairing. professor step-dad Jeno x step-daughter female reader

･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆

‘I’d prefer we keep our at-home relationship disassociated from—‘ Professor Lee waved his hands around awkwardly, very different from the confident instructor you’d become familiar with for the past 6 months. ‘You know what I mean, I’m still your teacher, and you can come to me with any of your questions, concerns. But at home, I’m your step-dad.’

The conversation over dinner had been more uncomfortable than necessary, namely when your professor smiled at you and proceeded to pat your shoulder.

‘I mean, you’re like a daughter to me already, we don’t really need those pesky titles. Don’t ever feel bad about thinking of me as your dad now.’

Jeno’s lip twitched to contain a large smile from stretching his cheeks, mindful of your mother’s dreamy sigh as he reached over to pat and rub her thigh under the table.

Professor Lee, Dad.. Step-dad, or the one you had no idea he preferred best, daddy.

When your mother ranted about her new hot beau she connected with on Hinge, you couldn’t have expected it to be your Classic Literature Professor of all the men in the world. No, not your favorite instructor.

They were only dating anyway. Until they weren’t and suddenly your Professor was staying over a few times a week, even offering to drop you off near school.

‘It could look questionable to have a student exiting my vehicle on campus grounds, you understand right?’

The thing about Professor Lee is, he’s a good guy, a really smart and friendly guy. That teacher with a huge waitlist to join his class because everyone knows he grades on a curve and isn’t a hard ass about turning in assignments on time. He’s the ‘cool’ Professor, which could attest to the amount of female student body that fight to earn a space in his course, that or the fact that Professor Lee is, frankly, hot.

‘Kind of insane if you think about it.’ Your friend whispered in your ear, leaning over behind a book to discreetly gossip. ‘That he’s fucking your mom.’

‘Don’t be disgusting.’

‘I mean, you’re a dead ringer for her, you know? You guys could pass more as sisters than mother and daughter.’

You really hated hearing that, mostly because it’s true. Oftentimes strangers have often mistaken your mother as your older sister. As much as the reminder bothers you, you can’t say Professor Lee has shown indication of being a creep.

There are times you find yourself lingering on him longer than you should. Mindlessly taking in how tight his pants fit some days more than others, or how broad and muscular his back looks when he peels off one of his suit blazers and loosens the tie around his neck when getting heated up during a lecture.

Sure, Professor Lee is a very attractive man, there’s no denying that, but between work and trying to keep up with your studies, time for ogling men is hardly a matter of importance for you at the moment.

“Professor, I wanted to discuss my last thesis with you.” It’s taken a while to not address your step-father at home about school work, even when he passes by the living room and sees you scribbling notes, marking different pages to analyze and come back to. He’ll nod, smile, wave for you to carry on and not bother him about assignments unless you’re in class or visiting his office.

“Oh of course, pull up a seat.” Jeno motions to a desk chair nearby, waving off the last students to exit his classroom before settling back with raised eyebrows. “What’s up?”

“Well, the grading,” you draw free the folder, first visible page marked with a C-. “I worked so hard on this, and now my average has gone down so much.”

Professor Lee hums, thumbing open the pages and nodding as he rereads his notes and markings. “You worked hard on this?”

Your mouth parts, prepared for combat only to find his unconvinced gaze focused on you. “Well, yes! Of course I did, you—you saw!”

“What have I told you about home life?” He sighs, head shaking as he opens up to recite part of the breakdown you typed out. “This is so lazy, I was being generous with my grading. I hate to say this but you’ve really slacked off since, well..” he trails off, tossing your assignment back on his desk.

“Slacked off?? I stayed up all night working on this!” You stammer, sitting up straight more annoyed. It’s not as if he didn’t see you hunched over your laptop in the living room at 3am when he passed by to the kitchen for a glass of water and grinned while saying ‘don’t work too hard.’

“Listen, between you and me,” he leans closer, as if a soul could hear your conversation in this empty lecture hall. “You’re a procrastinator, I don’t see you studying half as much as you should be and when you do it’s at the crack of dawn when you should be asleep. Proper rest is integral to your education, I want to see you excel and put the effort in that your classmates do. I can only be so fair, I know my reputation around here, but as a trusted Professor, I simply cannot let you fly by and put my integrity at risk because you’d rather lay out by the pool and spend hours online shopping.”

“Professor! That’s—that’s not fair! You’re judging what I do at home! I—“ speechless, you gasp, doing your best to control your temper as your teacher's handsome features droop to a disappointed frown. “I’m not just lazing around the house! I work! Mr. Lee, I’m always working when, I..” you pause, internally cursing trying to come up with a way to defend yourself without giving out more detail.

“Ah, yes, your mother has mentioned your job.” He nods, cheek lifted as he reaches to rub the back of his neck and block a smile out of your view with his arm. “You assist professional writers by proofing and editing their work? That keeps you real busy, does it?”

He sounds apprehensive, picking up your thesis again. “Listen, this deserved a lower score, but I’m willing to work with you here Lana. Perhaps you need to consider prioritizing school over work for now though—“

“What—” between your frenzy and coining up an excuse, you’re sure you misheard Professor Lee just now. “What did you call me?”

A wide gaze lifts to your eyes, pursing together his lips tightly with a casual shrug. “I didn’t call you anything sweetie.” He smiles, reaching to press the back of his hand on your forehead. “You sure that you’re not overworking yourself?”

His smile softens, stroking down your cheek to pinch your chin. “If you’re pressed for cash, you can always come to me. It’ll be our secret if you don’t want your mother to know. I don’t mind helping you out if it means you’ll be less stressed and prioritize your school work.”

You can’t find it in you to reply again, because you know you heard it.

“Now, I’ll rethink my grading if you promise to work harder on your next thesis. Sound good?” He pats your back, moving to gather his things. “Shall I drive you back home?”

His casual relaxed manner throws you off even more, exiting in a zombie-like state after declining his offer to pick you up from a coffee shop off campus.

Lana.

There’s no way you imagined that.

Why the fuck did your step-father call you by your online pseudonym only ever used for your Only Fans account.

#WIP

[deliciousangelfestival]

Secret Sorrows || 3 -B.Barnes

Summary: Former special ops, Bucky, seeks solace in a cold refuge to escape his past. However, his haunted history catches up, unraveling mysteries that persist relentlessly.

Series Masterlist

Thank you to anyone who gave a like, reblog, and left a comment. It motivated me to write more. 

Main Masterlist || support: Ko-fi

It had been several days since the elder of the Astons had visited Van Alen's residence. Bucky found himself continuing his duty as a bodyguard for Ethan Van Alen, the sole heir of both conglomerate families.

If someone had said that Bucky would protect his ex-girlfriend's son, he would have laughed. But life worked in impossible ways. Here, he was doing just that.

While Bucky was on duty, he couldn't shake the need for answers about Y/N Aston. Despite learning that Iris and Y/N were identical twins, he still found it hard to believe. It was Iris, who had been with him back when they were young.

Yet, why did Y/N's actions mirror Iris's so closely?

If Y/N were more approachable, perhaps Bucky could find the answers. She might even tell him he was crazy. But with her busy schedule, stepping in for Ethan's father and managing both family businesses, she seemed almost impossible to talk to.

Y/N didn’t have time to comfort her only nephew. Since Bucky had to guard Ethan 24/7, he knew the kid wanted to talk to his relative. Both aunt and nephew lived in the same house, yet they rarely spent time together.

Bucky remembered Ethan's words, "My aunt is married to her job."

He thought it was a shame. Y/N was beautiful. With her status, she could have any man.

Wait, was she still single?

He shook his head, realizing how absurd it was to even entertain such thoughts considering Y/N was his employer.

Clearing his throat, Bucky walked towards Ethan's room, glancing at the kid's schedule. There were so many classes: foreign language, investment, fencing, public speaking, IT, swimming, and more.

Ethan was only 7 years old; he didn’t have time to play, especially since it was only a week after his parents' funeral.

Bucky knocked on Ethan’s door.

“Come in,” Ethan called out.

Bucky entered to find Ethan practicing the violin. Though classical music wasn't his preference, Ethan's skill didn't sound like that of a beginner.

Ethan stopped playing and placed the violin back in its case. “What class do I have next?”

“Swimming class,” Bucky replied.

Ethan sighed. “Can you teach me instead?”

Bucky hesitated. “If you want, but you know everything has to go through protocol.”

Ethan pouted. “At least, today, you have to accompany me.”

Bucky's instincts told him something didn't seem right. “Alright.”

Ethan went to his wardrobe; even at his young age, he had already been taught to pack his things. Bucky still found himself in awe of the kid's wardrobe room; it was bigger than his own bedroom in Antarctica.

While Ethan searched for his swimming goggles, he asked, “Has my aunt already left?”

Bucky replied, “Yes,” noticing Ethan's shoulders slump at the confirmation. He asked gently, “Do you want to talk to her?”

Ethan shook his head. “No, she’s busy. I don’t want to bother her.” Having prepared everything, he added, “Let’s go.”

When Bucky arrived at the swimming pool, he saw an athletic man. From the first impression, Bucky could already read him: overly proud and cocky.

“Bucky, right? I’ve been informed you’ll be the new guard. I’m alright if you want to join us,” the coach said.

Bucky gave a slight nod, glancing at Ethan. “Ethan, I’ll be standing here, okay?”

For a brief moment, Ethan's face brightened. Bucky wondered what made Ethan seem to not enjoy the class.

Ethan and the teacher did warm-ups before getting into the pool.

The coach instructed, “We will start with the freestyle and work on improving your lap times.”

When the teacher blew the whistle, Ethan began swimming to the other side. Bucky was impressed; for a kid his age, he was quite fast.

The coach checked his stopwatch. “1:50. You could do better than that.”

Bucky couldn't understand why the coach expected the little kid to go faster in a 100m freestyle.

"Again," the coach commanded.

"Again."

"You're getting slower."

Bucky held back his emotions when he noticed Ethan looking drained.

The coach looked down at Ethan and shook his head. "Your father would be disappointed with the result, Ethan."

Seeing Ethan sniffle and wipe his eyes, Bucky couldn't take it anymore.

He kicked the coach back and pushed him into the pool. The coach wasn't prepared and struggled to resurface before gasping for breath. Bucky held him under the water again.

“Can’t you see the boy is already breathless and exhausted?” Bucky questioned sharply.

The coach sputtered, "Wait… wait…"

"Do it again. I want to see how long you can hold your breath."

"Ugh."

Peter couldn’t believe what he saw. He rushed over from watching the CCTV to stop Bucky. "Bucky, what happened—"

Bucky shot Peter a warning look. "Get Ethan out of here. I need to talk to this guy."

Peter hurriedly escorted Ethan away, wondering why Bucky was so furious with the swimming coach.

Once they were gone, Bucky removed his black suit and throw it.

He pulled the coach from the pool like a fish. The coach coughed and caught his breath. "Are you trying to kill me?"

"A moment ago? Yes," Bucky admitted bluntly.

The coach's eyes widened. Never in his life had someone admitted to wanting to kill him straight to his face.

"I have a question: will Ethan enter the Olympics?" Bucky asked.

The coach shook his head. "No."

"Then why do you have to make him suffer like that? If that boy could talk, he would ask you to stop. But he can’t. As a teacher, you should know your students' capabilities."

"I only do what my employer asks me," the coach defended himself.

"Who? Miss Y/N Aston?" Bucky questioned.

"No! The Van Alen family," the coach confessed.

Bucky's grip on him loosened. This information was shocking. Why did the Van Alen family treat Ethan like this?

"Get up, gather your things, and never set foot in this place again," Bucky commanded.

The coach protested, "You have no—"

"Miss Aston hired me to protect her nephew. It’s better if you resign before you lose your teaching license. You know what I’m capable of," Bucky warned.

The coach ran away, leaving Bucky to ponder the situation.

On the other side, Y/N had just returned from the company. Spotting Peter and Ethan, her nephew walking with a towel draped around him, she observed Ethan's eagerness as he ran toward her, wrapping her in a tight hug.

Y/N asked Peter for an explanation, her expression remaining stoic as she listened to the summarized account.

Her heart ached hearing about her nephew's ordeal. Despite her typically reserved demeanor, a flicker of concern flashed in her eyes. She instructed Peter, "Tell Mr. Barnes to meet me at my office," her voice firm yet tinged with an underlying worry, before walking away.

Concerned, Ethan tugged at Peter's clothes. "Is Bucky in trouble because of me?" His voice carried a hint of apprehension.

Peter patted Ethan's back reassuringly, his tone gentle. "I'm sure he'll be alright. Don't worry." He tried to offer comfort to the young boy, knowing the weight of responsibility could be heavy on his small shoulders.

In Y/N's office, she was signing documents while Bucky stood before her, his presence commanding attention. She remained so engrossed in her work that she didn’t even lift her head when she spoke, "You want to explain why a half-naked man in a speedo ran away screaming from my house?"

Bucky answered casually, "Well, yeah, since I threatened him." His tone was nonchalant, but there was a hint of underlying tension in his voice.

Y/N looked up, her expression unreadable, a mix of surprise and curiosity flickering in her eyes.

Bucky still wasn’t accustomed to looking directly into her eyes; there was something pulling at him that he couldn’t quite describe. "The way I do my job may be different from anyone here, but I can't let the person I'm protecting feel unsafe. Do you know Ethan's swimming coach did it on purpose, and it was ordered by the Van Alen family?" His voice carried a note of frustration, a rare glimpse of emotion from the typically stoic man.

Y/N didn't respond immediately; it seemed like she already knew.

Gritting his teeth, Bucky wondered what was wrong with wealthy people. She had everything, so why didn’t she want to mend her relationship with Ethan? His frustration simmered beneath the surface, evident in the tenseness of his jaw.

Bucky said firmly, his voice tinged with determination, "If you have at least 5 minutes, I suggest you talk to Ethan." With that, he left the room, his footsteps echoing with purpose.

Y/N's secretary clicked her tongue, then turned to her boss, her expression reflecting concern. "Do you want to fire him?" There was a note of uncertainty in her voice, wary of the potential repercussions.

Y/N's gaze remained fixed on the closed door, "No, just fire the swimming coach." Her tone was decisive, yet there was a hint of resignation in her voice. She looked at her secretary, her gaze unwavering. "Cancel the rest of my schedule today."

“But, ma’am, you have an important call this evening." The secretary's voice held a hint of concern, recognizing the significance of the upcoming call.

"I will call them tomorrow. Send a formal apology letter," Y/N ordered, her tone final, a sense of determination underlying her words.

*********

Y/N went to Ethan's bedroom, her footsteps echoing softly in the hallway.

Ethan, who was playing blocks with Bucky, was surprised to see his aunt, his expression a mix of curiosity and anticipation. As she entered the room, there was a subtle shift in the atmosphere, a sense of tension dissipating.

“Auntie,” Ethan greeted her, his voice tinged with uncertainty.

Looking nervous, he turned to Bucky, who gave him a reassuring nod, his silent support evident in his expression.

Approaching Y/N, Ethan said, “Aunt, can I change my swimming coach?” His words were hesitant, a mixture of hope and apprehension lacing his tone.

Y/N replied, her voice calm yet distant, “Sure, I’ll call the Olympic coach.”

Ethan hesitated, his gaze flickering between Y/N and Bucky. “No, can Bucky teach me?” His voice held a note of pleading, a silent plea for connection.

Y/N responded, her tone neutral, “I don’t mind. You should ask him.” Her words were measured, a reflection of her reserved nature.

Ethan turned to Bucky, his eyes wide with anticipation. “Bro Bucky already agreed, I just wanted to ask for your permission first.” There was a hint of excitement in his voice, a spark of hope igniting within him.

Bucky felt relieved that they were finally communicating, his expression softening with understanding.

Ethan continued, his words tumbling out in a rush of excitement. “And can I ask you another favor?” His voice was eager, his eyes shining with anticipation.

Y/N encouraged him to speak, her expression remaining impassive, yet there was a flicker of something in her eyes, a hint of warmth beneath the surface.

“For foreign language class, can I just study German and Korean? German engineering is great, and South Korea has good products, it's good for my future. For investment class, can I learn how to trade with real money? And can I study martial arts with Bucky instead of fencing?” Ethan's words poured out in a rush, his enthusiasm palpable.

Bucky couldn’t believe what he was hearing, his surprise evident in his expression. These weren’t typical requests from a 7-year-old, yet there was a sense of determination in Ethan's voice, a silent plea for understanding.

Glancing at Y/N, who didn’t seem surprised, he realized both aunt and nephew shared the same traits, a sense of resilience amidst adversity.

Y/N asked, her tone measured, “Anything else?” Her words were neutral, yet there was a hint of something in her voice, a subtle shift in her demeanor.

Ethan shook his head, his excitement palpable. “That’s everything.”

Y/N assured him, her voice distant yet tinged with a hint of warmth, “I’ll instruct my secretary to change your teachers, and give you the money for you to invest.” before leaving the room, her footsteps echoing softly in the hallway.

Bucky couldn’t shake off the feeling of Y/N being distant from her nephew, his concern is evident in his expression. He thought Ethan felt abandoned again, but it seemed he was mistaken.

Ethan ran to him, his eyes excitedly shining, exclaiming, “Bucky, did you see that? My aunt smiled today.” There was a sense of joy in his voice, a silent celebration of a small victory.

Confused, Bucky probably needed to get his eyes checked, as he hadn’t seen her smile at all. But as long as Ethan was happy, he would agree to anything.

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[nhl-stories]

. – Quinn Hughes

Summary: Ignoring the pain of a break up is a lot easier when you're not best friend's with your ex's brother

Author’s Note: A song title being a period is very annoying for writing, prepare for angst below

Word Count: 4.4k​

Album Series Masterlist

It's been so hard Ever since you broke my heart But I'll never tell Honey, I'm not doing so well

It’s like a rite of passage to get a crush on your friend’s older sibling. There’s some sort of forbidden love chemical that goes off in your brain and you just can’t help it.

You never expect anything to happen with it, maybe some embarrassing moments of staring or a few ridiculous confessions in a diary, but nothing more.

Lux wishes her crush could have been more aptly named, and the puppy love had been squashed before anything actually happened.

“Can I get into my house and wash the car off of me before you start bothering me,” Lux tries to sidestep Jack who’s sitting on her porch.

After a five-hour drive, the last thing she needs is to deal with a needy Jack. She’s physically exhausted and doesn’t feel like becoming emotionally exhausted on top of it.

“No, you ignored my texts.”

“Gee, I wonder why,” she rolls her eyes.

She tries using her suitcase to box him out and make it to the door, but of course he’s faster than her and grabs her ankle pulling her down onto the porch into a heap. She sits up with a huff, but can’t help but notice how serious Jack looks.

“Are you gonna ignore me all summer? Because you graduate next year and you may never get a summer off again!”

“You can’t expect me to just happily go hang out at the lake all summer.”

“She’s only gonna be there for like two weeks, she has a job to go back to,” he says it like it’s a selling point.

“You know it’s not just about her, but since I can already see you’re not going to stop unless I say yes, I’ll see you in two weeks,” she tries to escape again, but Jack grabs her wrist.

“Luxy, please come to the party this weekend, my mom would love to see you,” she wants to kick him for playing the mom card, “and I’ll even drive you home so you don’t have to spend the night.”

She narrows her eyes, “Yeah right, you’ll get drunk and then I’ll be held captive in the house of testosterone.”

Jack’s eyes dart around because he can’t deny the possibility of that happening.

“Don’t let Quinn ruin our summer fun,” he settles on that dagger.

“Fine,” she caves and Jack does a fist pump in response, “but you have to stay here for dinner because my mom keeps peeking through the curtain and she’ll be pissed if you leave.”

Lux wouldn’t be in the position if she had never befriended Jack in the first place. Or as she usually referred to it, Jack begrudgingly endeared himself to her.

It had started in middle school, when Jack had chosen drama class as his art elective and of course Lux had gotten assigned as his scene partner for the semester. It was the classic partnering of the ‘class disruption’ with the ‘class delight’ in hopes they’d balance each other out.

Jack was loud and brash and loved to rile up Lux, making fun of the way her cheeks would burn red in exasperation. Lux was the quiet girl in class, but one on one she could hold her own with an acid tongue that could easily rattle Jack’s demeanor. Their teacher thought she couldn’t have made a better pair.

The first time Lux went to Hughes’ house to practice lines, she fell in love.

Quinn was only a couple years older but with her tween brain rotting with hormones; Lux thought she was seeing a man for the first time, when she was always surrounded by mere boys.

Lux decided being Jack’s friend was something she needed in her life, if only for the proximity to her new crush. And when Ellen learned Lux was good in science, she recruited her to tutor Jack and the girl became ingrained in the family’s life.

For Lux and Jack their friendship grew to be a nice escape from usual social circles; a comfortable space where there were no expectations to act or talk or think a certain way.

And Lux got the extra benefit of secretly glancing at Quinn. Sure, her mouth turned to sand when he would merely say hi, or her face cherry red when she had even the slightest physical contact with him. Even if was just ruffling her hair in an older brother sort of way. But it all felt worth it for those miniscule interactions.

It was the one thing Jack never made fun of her for, maybe he thought it would fade away over time, like all of his crushes. But it never fully disappeared, even when she dated boys in her own grade, her heart held a special place for Quinn.

And against the odds something happened.

Lux went to Michigan for a college visit and Quinn offered to show her around a little.

“I can even give you a non-parent approved tour,” he had joked.

It was the first time they had spent any time alone, and something just clicked. They laughed at the same jokes, especially at Jack’s expense, talked about their futures even when Quinn’s was clearly more set in stone than Lux’s. By the end of the visit, they didn’t want to stop talking. So, they didn’t.

Texting went from occasionally, to daily. Texting turned to phone calls. Phone calls turned into visits to Quinn’s dorm to hang out and help him study.

Neither made a move for a long time. Lux, because she was worried that she might be reading too much into it. Quinn because she was still in high school and one of Jack’s friends.

Nothing happened until Jack’s graduation party. Jack was preoccupied with his other friends from hockey as they talked about the upcoming draft. And Lux was about to duck out to go to another friend’s party after she finished a piece of cake.

“Congrats valedictorian,” Quinn says, of course, while Lux has a mouthful of cake.

“Congrats on dropping out of college,” she laughs, hoping her wit covers up her nerves.

“Ouch.”

“Sorry, I spend too much time with Jack and that means keeping his ego in check.”

“The world thanks you for that,” they both laugh.

There’s a long silence, Lux fills it with finishing her cake before she gathers some courage.

“I was going to head out to another party, want to come with?”

They never made it to the party; they ended up pulling into a parking lot and making out. It was a start of a summer romance, something to enjoy before Quinn went to Vancouver and Lux to Northwestern. It was a bonus making Jack constantly annoyed by their PDA.

The summer ended and they didn’t, a long distant relationship tided over by games in Chicago, spring breaks, and summers off.

Things were great. And then they weren’t. And then they were over.

It’s been months since the breakup, but the wound is still fresh for Lux. Her grades started slipping in the last semester, she began losing weight in the bad kind of way, she stopped going out with her friends as much.

Lux wishes she was doing better. Not to show Quinn, who already had a new girlfriend, up.  Rather, to prove to him (or maybe herself) that her world didn’t end when he ended things. Most days it felt like it had.

She checks her rearview mirror for the thousandth time to make sure she looks well-rested and her eyes aren’t puffy and red from crying on the way over.

“You can do this, there will be other people and you don’t have to talk to him more than hello,” she gives herself a pep talk.

After another deep breath she gets out of her car, grabbing her overnight bag because deep down she knows she’ll end up staying.

She lets herself into the house like normal, and is surprised by how quiet it is. She walks further into the house and finds Ellen in the kitchen chopping fruit.

“Lux, it’s so good to see you!” She puts down the knife and engulfs the girl in hug, “I’m glad someone’s here to help keep them out of trouble.”

Lux follows her eyes to where a group of man-children are outside.

“That’s a lot to ask of one person,” she chuckles before meandering around the kitchen island to avoid going outside, “do you need any help?”

Ellen’s eyes soften giving Lux a sad smile before pulling her into another hug.

“I know it’s hard sweetie, but it’s going to be okay,” she squeezes her once more, “and there’s some veggies you can cut.”

Lux can’t help but notice how at home she feels here, she knows where everything is like it’s her own place, which last summer it sort of had been. She had helped the boys move in and decorate and organize.

“How’s school? Your mom tells me you’re taking the MCATs next?”

“I’m taking them, but I don’t know if I want medical school or grad school or what,” she doesn’t mention that her breakup with Quinn has her second guessing every life choice.

 “My dad thinks I should take a year off to figure it out."

"That’s not a terrible idea, you work too hard.”

“Luxy!”

“Lukey!” She laughs at the lanky teen and pulls him into a hug, “Do they feed not feed you at college? You’re all bones.”

She thinks she hears Luke mumble under his breath, “I could say the same about you,” but Ellen speaks up before she can dwell.

“He’s like a bottomless pit, we’re banishing him to Jack and Quinn’s cause he’s eating us out of house and home,” Ellen laughs from the counter.

“Good call, they got that NHL money now.”

“Why didn’t you come out and say hi?” Jack calls out when he and the boys start entering the house.

“Because I’m a polite house guest and I'm helping your mom with food,” she stabs the knife in the air to make her point.

Jack comes over and gives her a hug and a spin.

“Glad you actually came,” he whispers as he sets her down.

Some of the other boys from the National program come and give her hugs, they were never close friends but friends by proximity.

The back door opens again and Quinn comes in, hair wet from the lake and leading an equally wet girl by the waist. She knew she would see them but it doesn’t stop her heart from deflating a bit.

Lux can already picture how Quinn picked her up and jumped in the lake with her, then kissing her when they resurfaced until she wasn't mad anymore. Maybe they'd gotten more handsy under the water, until one of the guys called them out and they separated a little flustered but not enough to completely detach.

Lux knows from experience.

She feels a pinch on her side removing her from conjuring her own nightmares, “Lux, I said why didn’t I see you at my last game in Chicago?”

She looks over and blushes, embarrassed she’s been caught, she tries to pull it together before she gets any sad eyes. She’s sick of the pity everyone has been giving her.

“I had finals Z,” she rolls her eyes at Trevor.

Lux knows Z only invites her with hopes she’ll bring a cute friend with her.

“And this goes for all of you stop giving me tickets to Chicago games, I don’t care about hockey or you guys enough to go every time. I barely want to go see Jack and he only plays the Hawks like twice a year.”

She tries to ignore the fact that Quinn is standing by the island now, wrapping a towel around the new girl's shoulders while looking towards Lux.

“What about me? We went to prom together!” Cole says with fake offense.

“You only asked me because I make you look tall!”

She hates how comfortable she feels, laughing with the boys and making fun of them. Then she makes the mistake of making eye contact with Quinn’s new girl.

“Hi we haven’t met, I’m Samantha. I’m Quinn’s girlfriend,” she gives a shy wave.

To everyone’s credit they act remarkably chill about the moment, pretending there’s nothing out of the ordinary.

“I’m Lux.”

“Oh, you’re Jack’s girlfriend, he won’t shut up about you,” she smiles brightly.

Lux and Jack can’t help but let out loud, awkward laughs at the same time. Nothing has ever sounded more ridiculous.

“Jack and Lux no way,” Trevor starts to open his big mouth, “it’s Lux and–“

Lux elbows him in the ribs.

“It’s Lux and me all the way,” he puts an arm around her shoulder, “Or at least it will be when she moves to LA.”

“LA?” Quinn speaks up for the first time.

“I looked at some schools down there, it’s a maybe.”

She shrugs like it’s no big deal but feels a little smug that Quinn is so curious.

“I’m still lobbying for Princeton or Columbia,” Jack says.

“Just what Lux needs, you within driving distance all year round,” Ellen chides her middle son, “Quinn why don’t you start grilling the hamburgers.”

Quinn and Ellen head outside carrying some food supplies. Samantha thinks about staying for a second but everyone else must have a weird fake smile like Lux, because she mirrors the smile before following her boyfriend outside.

As soon as the door shuts behind her, Lux pinches Trevor on the shoulder where she can tell a sunburn is coming in.

“Ow fuck!”

“What the hell was that?”

“I wanted to help out, make Quinny jealous,” Lux furrows her brows at him, “It was working for a bit.”

“Did I ask for your help?”

“No, but you looked like you could use a win,” he shrugs.

She looks around at the other guys, they aren’t really making eye contact. She realizes she doesn’t just feel like a pathetic loser, she must look like one too.

She picks up the vegetables she sliced and carries them outside, determined to show them that she’s not broken. Even if that’s not true.

People start trickling in and it starts to become a real party. She mingles with some girls she’s met in previous summers who live in cabins nearby. She even talks to Samantha when she looks a little lost as people start interrogating Quinn about hockey.

In another life Lux and Samantha would be great friends. Lux hates her a little for that. And she drinks a little too much in response.

A haze fills her peripherals, she’s wobbly on her feet but not quite to the level of falling over or getting sick.

“Quinny!” Lux and Samantha say in the same tone when he comes by with a cup of water handing it over to his girlfriend like he used to do for Lux.

“Why didn’t you tell me how great Lux was?” Samantha says a bit too loud and too fast, “I would have made my plans to overlap with her more.”

Quinn awkwardly laughs and raises an eyebrow to Lux.

“What can I say? I’m very lovable. You know that Q,” she feels herself try to wink, but it’s not quite right.

“Luxy come be my pong partner, I need someone to drink for me,” Luke helps the girl out of the chair, he’s not allowed to heavily drink while his parents are around.

“I don’t think she needs to drink more,” Quinn warns.

“That’s none of your business anymore Quinn,” Lux says with a sharper tone than she realizes she’s capable of.

Luke is extra good at pong because he’s practically sober, while their opponents are on par with Lux. Which means there’s not much drinking to be done on Lux’s part. She can feel herself sobering up and she hates it. She hates it even more when she sees Quinn and Samantha making out by the fire pit.

“I don’t feel well,” she mumbles but Luke hears her.

“Want me to take you home?”

She looks over to see Jack didn’t hold up his end of the bargain and is too drunk to drive her home. She’s probably good to drive herself but she thinks she might drive herself into the lake on purpose.

“Um– no. I drove so it will be a whole thing with my car. I’m– I’ll just– I’ll find somewhere to lie down.”

“You can sleep in my room if you want.”

She’s silent for too long thinking about what to do, she should just go home. Ask Ellen for a ride. Anything to get away from here. She could just sleep in her car.

Instead of doing anything she pulls Luke into a hug, he wraps his arms around her. It’s like he’s holding her together.

“Whoa, are you trying to collect Hughes brothers?” Jack says loudly from across the lawn, he’s too drunk to realize it’s not exactly a funny joke.

Everyone knows what he means, Lux whips her head towards Quinn and Samantha.  She looks thoroughly clueless, but Quinn is fuming.

Lux runs into the house, she doesn’t care if she cockblocks Jack or makes him sleep on the couch, she takes his room and buries herself under the covers and sobs.

She didn’t prove to anyone that she’s doing well.

The next morning her head hurts and she can’t tell if it’s from drinking or crying too much. Jack is snoring in a makeshift bed he made on the floor, she thinks about kicking him in the ribs on her way out.

No one is up when she makes her getaway.

The next time she goes to the lake house is by accident.

She’s out with some friends from high school who go to Michigan. They start out with brunch and it spirals out of control from there.

They’re out getting pizza, all on wobbly, baby deer legs, and deciding where to go next when her friend Kylie’s fiancé comes to pick her up.

“Refueling for round two?” He laughs at the group and tries to gather Kylie.

“More like round three,” Kylie giggles and tries to plant a kiss and misses leaving a sloppy, wet kiss on his neck.

Lux and her other friends ‘aww’ at that even though it’s definitely not cute and more embarrassing.

“And you’re you sure you guys want to continue on?”

“Yeah, we’re good,” Lux gives him a thumbs up.

She isn’t entirely wrong, they make it to the next bar with little issue, though maybe the bartender shouldn’t serve them at this point.

They’re talking about planning Kylie’s bachelorette party in the way drunk girls do, too elaborate to actually be executed.

The conversation switches to their current love lives, which is not exactly the topic Lux wants to broach. At least when it comes to herself. She tries to keep the spotlight off her and that works for the most part, it’s nice to hear about her friends falling in love and their bad hookups.

“What the fuck Lux? I’ve been waiting outside for 10 minutes.”

Jack is standing over the table trying his best to look mad, but having a hard time with the four girls staring up at him in a drunken stupor.

“This a is girls’ night, you’re not invited!” Lux slurs and takes a sip through her straw, going back to her friends.

“You texted me an SOS,” he thinks for a second, “or it seemed like it cause you texted me gibberish followed by your location pin, so I thought you needed rescuing.”

“Well, you can see I’m fine so see you later,” she waves him off and her friends laugh.

“Not happening, I haven’t seen you in weeks and I drove all the way here, you’re coming with me.”

He leans forward to grab her arm only to be assaulted by a chorus of ‘nos,’ so he backs off for a bit, reaching for his wallet and taking out a few bills.

“Next round is on me.”

“She’s all yours Jacky boy,” her friend Ashley winks and grabs the cash.

“Traitor,” Lux sticks out her tongue as Jack helps her out of the booth.

“If a Hughes is gonna take you home, we’re glad it’s him,” Ashley makes a stern face, “tell Q he sucks for us.”

“Quinn doesn’t suck,” Lux says protectively, like he’s hers to protect.

“I’ll happily tell him Ash,” Jack cuts in before anyone picks at that scab anymore, “C’mon Luxy I’ll buy you some pizza.”

She reluctantly goes, blowing kisses to her friends. Jack helps her get into the car and she splays out in her seat.

And that’s how she accidentally ends up at the lake house.

“This isn’t my house?” She mumbles through a mouthful of pizza that she snuck during the drive.

“Obviously, if I have to kidnap you to hang out,so be it.”

Lux rolls her eyes, she’s too hungry and getting too sleepy to argue so she just gets out of the car, carefully because she can’t lose any precious pizza.

“Pizza delivery!” Lux yells out and makes a beeline to the fridge taking out a drink.

“Should you really be drinking more?”

“My knight and shining armor brought me to safety,” she ungracefully rubs a hand across Jack’s face, “so I might as well stay this drunk until I fall asleep.”

Jack jokingly puts a hand on her face and grabs the drink out of her hand, “then let me catch up with you a bit first.”

That’s when Quinn and Luke come into the kitchen, with Jack and Lux awkwardly holding each other’s faces.

“Girls’ night?” Quinn smirks, having been on the other side of that hand many times.

“Oh, I thought Lux was settling for the worst Hughes brother,” Luke laughs and Quinn kicks his shin.

“Lux would be so lucky,” Jack grabs a piece of pizza.

“And there would be a murder-suicide,” Quinn rolls his eyes.

If Lux was sober, she would be able to appreciate the normalcy of this moment.

“Lux can hear you and Lux,” she forgets her point for a moment, ”Lux is drunk and over Hughes brothers. Do the Tkachuks need a new friend? They even have a sister it’d be a better fit.”

“I can put a good word in for you with Brady,” Quinn snickers at the drunken rambling.

Lux grins at him and even through her drunken haze her heart does a little flip, this is what it feels like to be with her Quinn.

“Let’s get you to bed before you really embarrass yourself.”

Jack hooks an arm around her shoulder. Lux is smart enough to know what he’s implying, that’s not her Quinn anymore and she’s inebriated enough to say something she regrets. Jack won’t let that happen on his watch.

“There’s even a guest room with your name on it.”

Jack gives her some clothes to wear and tucks her into her bed.

“I know I’m your favorite Hughes,” he kisses her forehead.

“Yeah, but don’t tell anyone, it’s really embarrassing.”

Lux wakes up an hour later desperately needing to pee, she scrambles out of bed only to realize she’s still heavily under the influence. She tries to wanders the hallway in the dark, pretty sure she’s familiar enough with the layout to find her way.

She’s wrong.

Opening a door she walks into Quinn’s room, who’s just walking out of his ensuite bathroom toweling his hair, naked.

“Oh god, I’m sorry,” she slaps a hand over her eyes, “I was looking for the bathroom and this is the one I’ve used the most.”

He lightly chuckles, “it’s nothing you haven’t seen before.”

“That’s true,” she opens a crack between her fingers and peeks through.

“That wasn’t an invitation to look Lux,” he tinges pink before thumbing towards the open door, “bathroom’s free.”

“Oh right, I’ll be a second then out of your hair.”

When she comes back out, Quinn is sitting on his bed, the side that used to be hers. She can feel hot tears boiling in her eyes and tries to make a quick exit.

She trips over nothing, her faculties still not her own, and finds herself flopping her legs out and leaning against his dresser. Admitting defeat and letting herself cry.

“You okay?” Quinn gets up and takes a seat on the floor next to her.

“I’m sorry.”

“For falling down?”

“No for us. I’m sorry I cut you out and didn’t tell you how I felt and was just a shitty girlfriend.”

“You weren’t a shitty girlfriend.”

He wraps an arm around her shoulder, Lux flinches at the contact before relaxing into the familiar warmth.

“I didn’t know what I wanted and I let get in the way of a good thing,” she kicks her legs like a kid having a tantrum.

“You’re 21, unlike the weirdo Hughes brothers it’s pretty normal to not know what you want Lux.”

He gives her a little squeeze, “I also think us not being in the same city or even country for almost our whole relationship didn’t really help either.”

They sit in silence after that, they’ve always been good at reveling in a quiet moment.

But his hand is so warm on her arm and Lux can’t revel, she can’t hope, she can’t pretend that there’s more to this than just Quinn being nice. And that means fighting her drunken thoughts that are telling her to kiss him or tell him she loves him.

“Samantha seems nice.”

“Yeah?” He looks towards her, trying to hold back a smile as they make eye contact for the first time.

“And it’s nice to see you so happy, I like happy Quinn.”

“I like happy Lux; I have a feeling she hasn’t been around much.”

“No,” she squeaks out, trying to keep the dam of tears together, it doesn’t work for long.

“I’m not dealing with the breakup as well as you.”

“It’s okay,” he pulls her into his chest and lets her cry.

“I’m dealing with it a lot better than I thought I would, and I’m the one who broke up with you,” his voice sounds pinched but Lux doesn’t dare look, “and you’re gonna be okay, I’m not that great.”

Lux gives him a little slap at that comment.

“When you do finally figure out what you want, there’s going to be no stopping you.”

Lux pulls back and kisses the corner of his mouth. There’s no romance in it; it’s a goodbye to what they were.

“I wish we could have worked out, but I guess I’m dodging a bullet by not becoming a Hughes,” she lets out a laugh.

“There’s the Lux, I know,” they’re both grinning like idiots.

He gives her hand one last squeeze as she leaves, hands slowly parting until they’re too far away to touch. It doesn’t fix everything, her heart isn’t completely welded back together, but it’s a start.

#quinn hughes #quinn hughes fic #quinn hughes imagine #quinn hughes story #vancouver canucks #vancouver canucks imagines #vancouver canucks fics #nhl #nhl fic #nhl imagines #nhl stories #hockey #hockey fics #hockey imagines

[be-ready-when-i-say-go]

another idea is a classic ol pregnancy scare for eddie x reader?

Thanks for this! Coming in hot with 2 request for I start my shift at work!

female-coded reader, mentions of pregnancy. Read more is higher up because of this! Reader is 18 in this.

"Your poor nails," Eddie coos. He can see them more clearly, sitting behind you now.

The entire time he drove to the store, you sat in the passenger seat arms folded across your chest. You were quick in the store, sliding out of the van before he could get the gear fully into park. Part of it was because you'd heard--from others-- the best time to take a test is first thing in the morning. Your bladder would've never made it if Eddie went in by himself.

The nerves have been killing you and with a bad habit of nail biting, they received the short end of the deal. For the past two weeks you've been chewing them over and over and over, hoping today would be the day. But it never was.

You had a decently regular period. Only under certain extreme stress had you missed a period completely--the height of having to put together all your materials for college applications. You'd gotten accepted--much to your relief, but now you couldn't fuck it up.

You wouldn't consider Eddie and yours relationship as something so fragile that it couldn't handle a baby, but you didn't want that. Not right now. You wanted to be young and be a kid and have fun at parties, drink too much, have a brush with the law--maybe. But not this. Not a kid.

Eddie's fingers smooth over yours. His breath brushes over your cheek as you rest into his chest. He's a comfort to have in this moment. When you first had an inkling that something might be wrong, pulling him aside during lunch to talk to him, he comforted you then. A big hug, asking if you wanted to wait or check immediately. He and the nurse were solid--though, he shouldn't be using his connections to the few staff and teachers that did like him to get away with ditching, it was you and he'd do it in a heartbeat.

You didn't want to panic right away. Sometimes your period was a day or two late, sometimes four or five days late but it always came. You told him then you'd wait one more week.

One more week has landed you here.

You turn into Eddie's chest, the floor of the bathroom hard under your knees. He hums, adjusting his arms to take you in. "It's gonna be okay, sweetheart. We're gonna be okay."

"Do-do you want a kid right now?" you ask into the lapels of his vest.

"It's not ideal," Eddie returns. "It is far from it. But I'd make it work, ya know? We take the punches. They hurt like hell. But we take them and then we keep going, right? Isn't that what life is about?"

"Do you want kids at all?" you whisper, your find his t-shirt covering his torso and ball it into your fist.

"Eventually. A couple little munchkins--wild hair and making me regret my youth." His laugh is soft and it rumbles in your ear. "I wanna do right by them, you know? Give them what I didn't have--being there for sports. God, imagine me showing up to soccer games, shouting 'Sports! Yeah! Down the field! Look alive, Jr, look alive!'

The scene plays out in front of your eyes. Eddie still in his ripped jeans but having traded vintage band t-shirts in for a more leather look, running alongside the field to cheer his kid on. You imagine you're in the stands, holding jackets and sports bags and maybe the youngest of your family in your lap while Eddie gets toe to toe with a ref about a bad call. You might call out to him, gently wave for him to take it down just a notch. We can't get banned from games, sweetheart. Not a cool dad look, you might say.

And it would be all you needed to say for Eddie to nod, coming back to the bleachers to take the youngest and bring them down to the sidelines on his hip. You'll keep me in check, right bud? Keep your old man from getting locked up over an absolute horse manure call, he might tease.

But it's all future. It's all late twenties and a college degree and a house and not right now.

You don't even realize you're crying. Not until Eddie gently shushes you, rocking you side to side. "It's alright. If-if this is positive and you don't want a baby right now, then-then we can talk about it," Eddie offers.

It comes out in stutters, Eddie unsure of his own words, because would a kid be all that bad? Maybe it wouldn't. Maybe it would be. He's not sure anymore. He just hates to see you worried.

The kitchen timer shrills in the tiny bathroom. Eddie's attention snaps up to the chicken shaped item and he tightens you in his hold. For the first time in a long time, Eddie prays. He shuts his eyes and prays that for your sake this test is the answer you want it to be. It's a quick prayer and then he's nudging you gently, thumb brushing over your cheek.

You're slow to remove yourself from the safety of Eddie's body. His smile is gently, but wobbly. "I-if you want, I'll check," he offers.

You shake your head. "Together?" you propose.

He nods. "Stand up on the count of three...hundred?"

You exhale a tuft of laughter. "On the count of three."

"Since you want to be a party pooper," he teases.

You two count down together and then push up. The liquid is clear in the container--a torturous twenty minutes. But there it sits in your face. Clear liquid. You clutch the ends of the counter--a wave of relief hitting you. "It's negative," you exhale.

Eddie squeezes at your hips and you turn to face him, only to be engulfed in a hug. Eddie feels only a tiny sting of pain in his chest, the part of him that did want to do better by his children. But he's thankful it's not right now. The future--he can do all that in the future.

You're not sure how long you're in that bathroom, embracing. Your face buried in his neck and his face buried in yours. But it feels good to have a small small sigh of relief.

"We're using condoms for forever," you tease. You two discussed trying sex with no additional protection, considering you'd been on the pill for two years. It sounded like a good idea at the time until this brush. You know condoms weren't 100% safe either, but the combination made you feel safer than without it now.

Eddie laughs. "I can agree to that. Scouts honor."

The rainy day in Hawkins doesn't slow but it doesn't really matter as you curl up on Eddie's bed. Half the night you could hardly sleep and it caught up now. Eddie sits on the floor in front of the mattress, notebooks in his lap. Though Eddie didn't really care about school, he still did his best to make an effort and you'd only agree to nap if he agreed to use the time to be productive. He gave in easily to the soft demand.

You're not even sure how long you're drifting in and out of sleep, trying to let sleep embrace you but something floating deep within your subconscious that keeps waking you. You only sort of get a feeling of what it might be when you sit up, thinking the nerves of earlier are still playing tricks on your bladder.

Eddie watches you pad into the bathroom, his pajama bottoms on your hips. He smiles and then looks back down into his algebra textbook and groans. Yep, he was totally doing that equation wrong.

With a sigh, he starts over, eraser carrying away the error.

"Really?" Your voice echoes and Eddie scrambles to get up from the floor.

He doesn't bother knocking. The door opens wide with Eddie's eyes frantically searching the room. It's just you on the toilet, pants down, toilet tissue in hand. And there, on it, he notices something a twinge red.

"Your period?" he asks.

"Yes! We did all this fretting for the bitch to show up right after!" You discard the used tissue into the bowl.

He relaxes, a snort leaving his nose. He crouches down and opens the doors to the cabinet under the sink. He tosses the package of pads to you and then holds up a box. "Life's got a sense of humor, doesn't she? Which ones?"

"Something like that," you mutter. You hold up the pads you managed to catch. "These are fine for right now. Thanks."

"Of course." He puts the tampons back and watches just for a moment as you get the hygiene product secured to your underwear. "So that's how you do it," he hums and then presses a kiss to your temple.

Eddie exits the bathroom and gets the door closed behind him. "Holler again if you need me. Or your period's a bitch again."

"Will do!" you return.

#eddie munson #eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson fic #eddie munson imagine #eddie munson blurb #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x femme reader #eddie muson x female reader #h writes #tw: pregnancy mentions #tw: abortion #tw: periods

[halothenthehorns]

Chapter 2: I BATTLE THE CHEERLEADING SQUAD

Just because I'm taking the whole entire month of September and the majority of October off, here's the first chapter in honor of Will's birthday! I do still promise regular updates will resume on Halloween day and then proceed every Monday!

PJOPJOPJO

Alex came in the next day with a bright pink jacket tied around his shoulders in a very classic posh way, wearing a matching polo and green slacks with accompanying colors on his loafers, while sporting rose tinted sunglasses upon his head, at the bottom of the ocean. All of his green hair was swept to one side, and Magnus's heart skipped a beat, his toast falling into his lap jelly first to splat on his pants. Alex would be the most sophisticated guy on the golf course and still somehow make it look like the most useless sport in that getup.

"It's he/ him pronouns," Alex announced as he casually walked to his seat like he was ordering his plate of huevos rancheros for breakfast.

The book had been in the seat beside Magnus, like anybody was insane enough to think of taking that seat from Alex. The plain black somehow accentuated the look when he picked it up. He brushed his hand over the blue four on the spine with hunger to see what was so dark about this one.

"Um, it's my turn to read," Magnus said in a daze, and it was a good thing he'd managed that before Alex looked at him because then he lost the ability to speak. Hopefully it was temporary.

"Well hurry up and eat then," he dropped the book at his feat and dug into his own food, "or I'll happily read twice."

Magnus couldn't figure out why that was a bad thing for a moment, and yet his breakfast vanished faster than Percy's. He pretended the others were laughing at the chapter title and not his idiotic ass as things picked right back up as usual with these strange book descriptions.

Thalia sighed one last time and looked at Jason and the array of books that might contain his past. She really wanted to skip this one, ie delay it permanently by hearing of some of her little brother's times. She was obviously the only one though as everybody turned attention to Magnus for the next part. "I really hope that's not a euphemism for something Percy, or Annabeth's going to be very upset with you," Thalia rolled her eyes.

"I'm just hoping this isn't some elaborate pyramid scheme," Jason grinned, "Percy has enough trouble already."

"Boooo!" Percy called at him, even giving a thumbs down. "Man, that was the worst one yet!"

"Deadly pompoms! I knew those things were no good!" Alex nearly lost half his eggs he was laughing so hard.

Will made a deep noise of contentment, almost a purr to be hearing so much laughter first thing in the morning.

The last thing I wanted to do on my summer break was blow up another school.

"And here I thought that was number three on your list, at minimum," Jason snorted.

"Percy, there's not a world record for that, nobody's competing with you for this," Magnus agreed with a chuckle, but it was sort of depressing too. The school system was hard enough without this guy blowing literal budget holes in the teacher's planning.

"It has to happen though, remember?" Percy gave them a very sardonic brow. "If it doesn't happen, the world will end early! I still have another year of life!"

"And it won't be a pretty one," Thalia muttered. The Labyrinth was one of the quests Annabeth talked about least. Whatever had happened this summer, she was almost as ill prepared as Percy.

But there I was Monday morning, the first week of June, sitting in my mom's car in front of Goode High School on East 81st.

Goode was this big brownstone building overlooking the East River. A bunch of BMWs and Lincoln Town Cars were parked out front.

"I still don't speak car," Nico finally spoke up, hesitantly. A part of him still expected everyone to turn and yell at the sight of him.

Percy gave him the strangest, most awkward smile yet, like he had no idea how to even look at him after yesterday.

Then Percy gave himself a sharp mental smack. Nico and his maybe, hopefully not crush that he'd said was gone was ten times less strange to deal with than Alex being...Alex. So he answered almost as casually as ever, "they're 'middle class' cars," he used air quotes and everything. "Not some swanky private school with Maserati's and Porsche's, and not broken windows and running on faith rather than fume cars."

"Ah," Nico nodded his thanks, and sat back in his seat. His arms were crossed low over his stomach, hands in each sleeve like a monk today like he was trying to be as invisible as possible.

But he wasn't hiding behind the couch today to listen in like he'd originally intended. He'd actually spoken at all, which was more than Will had thought he'd do. The only backfiring going on was he'd either missed breakfast or eaten alone, and Will filed that away for when lunch came up.

Thalia and Will exchanged a pitiful look and kind of hoped Percy pulling mad gymnastic abilities or something would kick in soon, for once. Adrenaline distracting Percy from killing them all would be better than this awkward stiltedness.

Staring up at the fancy stone archway, I wondered how long it would take me to get kicked out of this place.

"What's your record?" Magnus asked into the slightly awkward silence that he'd tried to keep reading through.

"Two weeks," Percy sighed. "In my defense, I really thought that teacher's cat was a demon, and the milk didn't hurt it!"

"Well now you get a chance to do one better, be expelled before you even attend," Alex said plenty cheerfully for all of them.

"Just relax." My mom didn't sound relaxed.

"Do as I say, not as I do," Thalia nodded sagely.

"Okay mom," Percy rolled his eyes so hard it looked like it hurt, "thanks I really needed that translation."

"Don't mock your mother Percy, she's a good woman," Jason laughed, but Magnus kept reading before that could escalate, these were not the kind of jokes he'd ever find funny.

"It's only an orientation tour. And remember, dear, this is Paul's school.

"Ah, nepotism used for good, that's a new one," Alex said in surprise.

"It was a public school, it's not like he bribed anyone to let me in," but Percy didn't sound that confident. If a Blowfish library wing popped up, he didn't think he could blame the Mist.

So try not to...you know."

"Destroy it?"

"Yes."

"All relationships go through their own trials," Thalia said with barely suppressed mirth. "This is just a very great, early indicator if Paul's going to last in this family." She knew he did, but that didn't mean she couldn't laugh about it.

"Better than the usual cheating and lying bullshit adults deal with I guess," Percy grudgingly agreed.

Paul Blofis, my mom's boyfriend, was standing out front, greeting future ninth graders as they came up the steps. With his salt-and-pepper hair, denim clothes, and leather jacket, he reminded me of a TV actor, but he was just an English teacher. He'd managed to convince Goode High School to accept me for ninth grade, despite the fact that I'd gotten kicked out of every school I'd ever attended. I'd tried to warn him it wasn't a good idea, but he wouldn't listen.

"Not a great teacher then," Will looked very disappointed. "He should take his students observations into account, especially these budding adults."

"He actually loves to tell this story about his favorite essay that helped one guy into a great college he never would have applied for," Percy defended, and the ready response surprised him. He paused with a smile at all the memories over the winter and summer of how often Paul had been over, how easily his mom continued to laugh, how Paul never talked down to him like a delinquent from day one. "I think he was just trying to show off he could, though it wasn't nearly as impressive than if he'd gotten me a C in class," he finished with a chuckle Chiron still had the guy beat out on one point.

I looked at my mom. "You haven't told him the truth about me, have you?"

"How would that conversation even go?" The bitterness in Alex's voice could be missed by no one, clearly that wasn't a happy story.

"Historically, not well," Percy agreed in a quiet, gentle voice. He knew the others all envied him for his awesome mom, but that had come hand in hand with Gabe through the majority of his life. Gabe might not have known the truth, but he'd been a part of it.

She tapped her fingers nervously on the wheel. She was dressed up for a job interview—her best blue dress and high-heeled shoes.

"For what?" Will asked. The general question still held a hint of intrigue coming from him, the way he always talked to everybody. Like it was a vitally important question he couldn't wait to know the answer of, Nico smiled.

Percy didn't seem to hear that part, he just glanced at Will with his own proud smile and said, "publishing company. She was done with the first draft of her book, but wanted to check out some of the footsteps before she, um, buffered it? Or maybe buffed it? I'll be honest, I'm not sure what she meant," he finished sheepishly, addressing everybody in general.

It didn't seem to bother Will, and Nico marked that for future reference, trying to scratch off a list in his head of defining what he might have a crush on Percy about, and what he just admired about him. In a group, it was probably weird to expect someone's soul attention.

"I thought we should wait," she admitted.

"So we don't scare him away."

"You should definitely build up to something like that," Magnus agreed as if totally off hand. "Try jumping out of the closet at him a few times, maybe a few toned down side quests like trying to get past a murderous dog with a rubber ball, just to see how he takes to it."

"I should start with the one about how Grover got his mango chutney recipe," Percy mock agreed. "Crashing a wedding and piranha sheep are surely the best way to explain, this," he finished with a vague wave around being trapped at the bottom of the ocean.

"I'm sure orientation will be fine, Percy, It's only one morning."

"Great," I mumbled. "I can get expelled before I start the school year."

Alex laughed raucously Percy said the same thing he did, and he grinned along with him and even offered a high five which he happily air slapped.

"Think positive.

"The country ran out of schools and the universe can stop mocking me for this?" Percy sighed.

"There's the bright side," Thalia snorted.

Jason wasn't so convinced that every school would ban him for his record though. He started rubbing thoughtfully at his tattoo, but as always no real memory would connect to that random thought.

Tomorrow you're off to camp! After orientation, you've got your date—"

"It's not a date!" I protested. "It's just Annabeth, Mom. Jeez!"

Percy blushed the color of Rachel's hair, but Magnus readjusted the book to hide his slight hesitation over his continuing wasn't snickers like the others. He, stupidly, wanted to offer, something. Some dumb warning of a 'you better treat her like a lady,' when it was obvious Percy was head over heels in love with her from the beginning.

Uncle Fredrick was obviously kind of useless in that department though, and Chiron seemed the next closest thing and obviously had higher concerns. He just thought his cousin should have some family show support, but then, she probably forgot he'd existed already and this was just as dumb as it could be of him.

"She's coming all the way from camp to meet you."

"It didn't work out with Fredrick again?" The harshness in Magnus's voice was doubled from his own thoughts, and obvious by dropping the familial title.

"She stayed the rest of the school semester with him out there," Percy said cautiously. "She sent me an Iris message every few weeks about the goings on, they were being a lot more understanding when there was a monster attack, and it weirdly didn't happen as much as she thought it would. You know, she just missed Camp and came back earlier, she still called it her home." He finished with a carefree smile.

Will kept the comment to himself she'd showed up at Camp twice. One time had only been through word of mouth, Clarisse had made a passing comment about her being back while getting her ankle wrapped. Judging by her tone, she'd been expecting to find Annabeth in the medical cabin, though Will hadn't seen her. The second he'd only passed her leaving her cabin with a book bag and going up the hill to leave again. Her passing in and out of her home was not exactly his business to share.

Magnus gave a hesitant nod, but Jason wasn't so ready to let it go as he pondered over that. He'd originally balked at the idea of San Francisco being a dangerous place. Nico had said he found another camp in California he hadn't shared with anyone else. The obvious dots being connected only gave him the usual headache, but he still hoped that somehow, someway, he might have made Annabeth's time with her mortal family just the slightest bit easier no matter how foolish it probably was.

"Well, yeah."

"You're going to the movies."

"Yeah."

"Just the two of you."

"Mom!"

She held up her hands in surrender, but I could tell she was trying hard not to smile.

"She must be really nervous about that job interview," Thalia really was trying her hardest not to snicker. "You're lucky she didn't somehow slip into another baby story about you next." She was doing a terrible job by the end.

"Stories you still owe us by the way," Alex only teased, he knew Percy didn't owe them any of this and could leave to read these alone whenever he wanted.

He showed he wasn't going to be doing anything like that when he only groaned loudly and covered his ears to mock ignore them instead until Magnus kept going.

"You'd better get inside, dear. I'll see you tonight."

I was about to get out of the car when I looked over the steps of the school.

Paul Blofis was greeting a girl with frizzy red hair. She wore a maroon Tshirt and ratty jeans decorated with marker drawings. When she turned, I caught a glimpse of her face, and the hairs on my arms stood straight up.

"No," Alex began in awe.

"Way," Magnus barely finished since his mouth was hanging open quite a bit.

"I mean, we knew you'd have to run into her again eventually," Jason agreed. "Nearly killing her on the Hoover Dam couldn't have been the only time," she'd been perfectly comfortable in here beside Percy and still gave him the creeps with the way she'd watched him and pegged him an outsider. "I just expected her to pop up at Camp."

"Yeah, um, small world," Percy agreed with all the blurry confidence he could.

"Percy?" my mom asked. "What's wrong?"

"N-nothing," I stammered.

"Very believable," Alex snorted. "I think you need to start taking some acting lessons from Rachel."

"I'll get right on that when I'm done freaking out about her existing," Percy sighed.

"Does the school have a side entrance?"

"Down the block on the right. Why?"

"I'll see you later."

My mom started to say something, but I got out of the car and ran, hoping the redheaded girl wouldn't see me.

"And yet you're going into the exact same place she is," Jason pointed out in exasperation. "I don't get it, are you avoiding her or trying to get her alone to talk?"

"Avoidance, definitely," Percy was squirming in his seat like a burrito was about to be launched at his head. Annabeth and Grover were the only two who had ever overlapped with his normal life. Rachel just popping up like that set all of his instincts on edge like a monster was going to appear any second...wait. Gods, did he help defend Rachel from the cheerleading squad?! Agh, and there was the headache!

What was she doing here? Not even my luck could be this bad.

"Percy," Will said to him as if in fear he had a concussion for not remembering this. "Your luck is historically the worst."

"Exhibit A," Nico muttered, trapped at the bottom of the ocean with no memory.

Yeah, right. I was about to find out my luck could get a lot worse.

"I swear that should have just been the summary plastered on the back of these books," Percy groaned.

Sneaking into orientation didn't work out too well. Two cheerleaders in purple-and-white uniforms were standing at the side entrance, waiting to ambush freshmen.

"Were they smoking?" Jason asked with weirdly serious concern.

"Didn't smell anything," Percy shrugged. "The blonde one was kind of cute, but way to intense, she had that fake smile that gave me the creeps," Percy shrugged.

Thalia smacked him upside the head, hard, and called him an idiot, while looking at Jason in concern. Beryl had been a chain smoker, but she hoped he wasn't trying to connect plastic girls with the smell of cigarettes in general and he was just being an idiot too.

"Hi!" They smiled, which I figured was the first and last time any cheerleaders would be that friendly to me. One was blond with icy blue eyes.

The other was African American with dark curly hair like Medusa's (and believe me, I know what I'm talking about).

"Hmm, yes I suppose, but does this girl also make a mean burger?" Alex asked.

"And is she going to have a weird obsession with turning you into a statue," Magnus added uneasily. They hadn't gotten any repeat monsters yet aside from the gorgon coming back, so maybe this was how Medusa looked now and found a way to hide her gaze?

Both girls had their names stitched in cursive on their uniforms, but with my dyslexia, the words looked like meaningless spaghetti.

"Welcome to Goode," the blond girl said. "You are so going to love it."

But as she looked me up and down, her expression said something more like, Eww, who is this loser?

The other girl stepped uncomfortably close to me. I studied the stitching on her uniform and made out Kelli. She smelled like roses and something else I recognized from riding lessons at camp—the scent of freshly washed horses. It was a weird smell for a cheerleader. Maybe she owned a horse or something.

"In New York?" Will couldn't imagine the miles of acres from camp and where he'd grown up cramped around all those buildings.

"We have suburbs you know, it's not all Times Square," Percy shrugged.

"Or maybe her dad owns one of those cop horses, or maybe she can turn into a horse," Alex nodded along. "There's really just no guessing here."

Anyway, she stood so close I got the feeling she was going to try to push me down the steps. "What's your name, fish?"

"Fish?"

"That's actually a very fair question with a really interesting answer," Magnus grinned like Percy's was a mistake anyone could make. "Classification of what a fish is is so broad most scientists don't-"

Percy used just a tiny bit of his power, but enough he splashed Magnus in the face with just a few twitches of his finger. "Smart ass," Percy's laugh had them all grinning along.

Magnus brushed his damp hair aside and kept going while Will admired how easily Percy could fit in anywhere he wanted. He was positive Percy's internal thoughts of how he never fit in couldn't be too accurate of his time in mortal schools, he just never wanted to fit in there, considering it was the opposite at camp.

"Freshman."

"Uh, Percy."

The girls exchanged looks.

"Oh, Percy Jackson," the blond one said. "We've been waiting for you."

That sent a major Uh-oh chill down my back. They were blocking the entrance, smiling in a not-very-friendly way. My hand crept instinctively toward my pocket, where I kept my lethal ballpoint pen, Riptide.

"That is one of my favorite sentences," Alex snorted grandly.

"And I use it without mercy!" Percy pulled it out now and waved Riptide around like a writer on a mission.

Then another voice came from inside the building. "Percy?" It was Paul Blofis, somewhere down the hallway. I'd never been so glad to hear his voice.

The cheerleaders backed off.

Nobody had much more than halfhearted confidence these were just regular mean girls slinking off because a teacher was around. Maybe, if it wasn't for that blasted chapter title they could have fooled themselves for a while longer. Now they all just sat there waiting anxiously for Magnus to get to a half-time show that would probably end with confetti and death to a lot of innocent people.

I was so anxious to get past them I accidentally kneed Kelli in the thigh.

Clang.

Her leg made a hollow, metallic sound, like I'd just hit a flagpole.

"First the French guy, now prosthetic leg girl?" Thalia couldn't help but tease, "are you just out here fighting everybody with a disability Percy?"

"I have no problems throwing hands with you," Percy wagged the pen cap dangerously close to her nose.

"Besides, he's never tried to fight Chiron," Will easily slid in to disengage. "I'm just chalking it up to more of his bad luck."

Magnus quickly kept reading before that could escalate anyways.

"Ow," she muttered. "Watch it, fish."

I glanced down, but her leg looked like a regular old leg. I was too freaked out to ask questions. I dashed into the hall, the cheerleaders laughing behind me.

"There you are!" Paul told me. "Welcome to Goode!"

"Hey, Paul—uh, Mr. Blofis." I glanced back, but the weird cheerleaders had disappeared.

"Percy, you look like you've seen a ghost."

"I've done that too, and I'll take Bianca and Nico over those girls," Percy shivered.

"Um, thanks," Nico muttered in surprise, but then Percy winced and groaned, looking around in confusion, and Nico realized Percy wasn't literally talking about the time he'd talked to Bianca's ghost, but was making a morbid joke in general about them being children of Hades. His usual way of laughing off everything that Nico had always equally admired and been so conflicted about, because sometimes it made him come across as an idiot. He didn't know where to place that on his list.

"Yeah, uh—"

Paul clapped me on the back. "Listen, I know you're nervous, but don't worry. We get a lot of kids here with ADHD and dyslexia. The teachers know how to help."

I almost wanted to laugh. If only ADHD and dyslexia were my biggest worries. I mean, I knew Paul was trying to help, but if I told him the truth about me, he'd either think I was crazy or he'd run away screaming. Those cheerleaders, for instance. I had a bad feeling about them...

"Lots of people have bad feelings about cheerleaders," Alex agreed wisely. "Usually because they accuse you of stealing their phone and throw a bucket of piss at you after you got them expelled."

The book fell out of Magnus's hands while everyone felt the awkward silence, but Will got out first, "um, that was a little too specific Alex. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, why do you ask?" He asked casually.

There was only a hint of blood lust in there, but just enough Magnus swiftly decided he heard nothing and nobody was going to get the chance to say otherwise.

Then I looked down the hall, and I remembered I had another problem.

The redheaded girl I'd seen on the front steps was just coming in the main entrance.

Don't notice me, I prayed.

She noticed me.

"Rachel is a very observant girl," Thalia rolled her eyes at him. "She'd pick you out if you were in the mascot costume."

Percy believed her, and it still kind of freaked him out. The mascot was a roadrunner too, and he still didn't think he'd escape this.

Her eyes widened.

"Where's the orientation?" I asked Paul.

"The gym. That way. But—"

"Bye."

"Percy?" he called, but I was already running.

"And you're worried Paul's going to run away from you guys," Nico said mildly, just a little more confidant than the first time.

"Wouldn't be fair of me to have him do all the work, here I am putting in effort too," Percy grinned back with an even shorter hesitation than last time.

I thought I'd lost her.

A bunch of kids were heading for the gym, and soon I was just one of three hundred fourteen-year-olds all crammed into the bleachers. A marching band played an out-of-tune fight song that sounded like somebody hitting a bag of cats with a metal baseball bat.

"I seriously worry about the neighborhood you grew up in," Jason said, with no joke.

Percy had no nice response for that. By the time he came downstairs all he usually found was blood.

Older kids, probably student council members, stood up front modeling the Goode school uniform

"Ugh, I'd get expelled just for getting out of wearing a uniform," Alex gagged.

"Rachel didn't make it look to bad," Magnus said to be fair. He'd trade the stupidest bowtie every day just for a chance at something that kind of routine, normal, mundane.

Alex must have heard the wistfulness in his voice, because his voice went just a hint gentler than usual. "Mm, I've seen worse."

and looking all, Hey, we're cool. Teachers milled around, smiling and shaking hands with students. The walls of the gym were plastered with big purple-and-white banners that said WELCOME FUTURE FRESHMEN, GOODE IS GOOD, WE'RE ALL FAMILY, and a bunch of other happy slogans that pretty much made me want to throw up.

"Glad it's not just me," Thalia raised a hand, the other pressed theatrically to her stomach.

None of the other freshmen looked thrilled to be here, either. I mean, coming to orientation in June, when school doesn't even start until September, is not cool. But at Goode, "We prepare to excel early!" At least that's what the brochure said.

"And we always do what the brochure says," Will nodded saintly.

"Gods, please never give Camp a brochure," Percy muttered, he was terrified what Mr. D would put in there.

The marching band stopped playing. A guy in a pinstripe suit came to the microphone and started talking, but the sound echoed around the gym so I had no idea what he was saying. He might've been gargling.

"His warm up I guess," Alex said, "most people just do the classic picturing underwear thing, but I never could figure out why that would make you less nervous. Naked people usually cause more stress."

"I can't even begin to imagine what would make you nervous to begin with," Jason admitted, "let alone what you would do. Probably rip someone's head off."

Alex considered for a moment laughing that off, but then in a rare moment of vulnerability, he glanced at the book, and said honestly, "being trapped."

At least Oceanus wasn't trying to take away his identity, but the mystery of why only his abilities seemed gone while among the Big Three's kids bothered him greatly.

The reality still hit them plenty they were trapped. Even if it wasn't unpleasant, that didn't make it great. They all just made it better for each other with laughter instead.

So Alex finished with a snarky remark true to form, "and look at you all, not a single headless person! Let alone nearly headless!"

Magnus snorted fantastically beside him just like always before he kept reading, so the others just let it pass with a light chuckle too.

Someone grabbed my shoulder, "What are you doing here?"

It was her: my redheaded nightmare.

"How often do you dream of her?" Thalia had tried for sisterly concern, but ended with to much laughter for it to hold.

"Oh gods," Percy buried his face in dread and decided he would have to personally put these books through a shredder and then burn the scraps if he wanted to live when all his memories were back.

"Rachel Elizabeth Dare," I said.

Her jaw dropped like she couldn't believe I had the nerve to remember her name. "And you're Percy somebody.

"You told her your name was Percy Gotta-go," Jason easily recalled, "I can't believe she'd forget that, it's quite memorable."

"Not everybody always has a toilet on the brain Jason," Percy rolled his eyes.

"I wouldn't have to if your life wasn't trash Percy," Jason smirked.

"Boys!" Will groaned. Magnus very quickly kept reading, and Thalia sighed in relief. They were all getting a little to comfortable with each other down here.

I didn't get your full name last December when you tried to kill me."

"Look, I wasn't—I didn't—What are you doing here?"

"Same as you, I guess. Orientation."

"You live in New York?"

"What, you thought I lived at the Hoover Dam?"

It had never occurred to me. Whenever I thought about her (and I'm not saying I thought about her; she just like crossed my mind from time to time, okay?),

"Yeah, okay Perce," Thalia was obviously about to engrave this passage in stone so that Annabeth and Rachel could laugh at him forever with it and he sighed as he knew there was nothing he could do to stop her.

I always figured she lived in the Hoover Dam area, since that's where I'd met her.

"A reasonable assumption," the eye roll Jason added to that didn't help Percy believe him even before he said, "considering you traveled there from New York!"

"Not everybody travels the country in a week on a magic train provided by a homeless God named Fred," Percy said back in exasperation. "Unless she's some weird, rich version of Annabeth who just sporadically wanted a tour there, it makes sense!"

The others were to busy snickering he'd still managed to bring up Annabeth during this to stop them for a second, but before Jason's chuckle could subside and he did manage Magnus loudly kept going without prompting this time or they'd never finish this one dam chapter.

We'd spent maybe ten minutes together, during which time I'd accidentally swung a sword at her, she'd saved my life, and I'd run away chased by a band of supernatural killing machines. You know, your typical chance meeting.

"That is definitely going to be the next poster for a romcom. Call it Hauling Ass," Alex paused to give a very suggestive look at Percy that made him squirm. "You're a construction worker building the historic monument, she's a southern bell dragged there by her father-"

"Dude!" Percy finally protested. "Write whatever the hell that's manifesting into on your own time! And leave me out of it!"

"I hope this guy's never introduced to fanfiction, his brain would rot," Magnus muttered, making Alex laugh harder than ever, which wasn't very encouraging to Percy. It took every ounce of self control for Alex to suppress the question if Sally ever mentioned that stuff, but when Magnus kept reading, he persevered. He could ask Sally on his own time anyways.

Some guy behind us whispered, "Hey, shut up. The cheerleaders are talking!"

"I bet that guy's one of their girlfriends," Thalia rolled her eyes. "Hope she gives him a thumbs up for sucking up."

"Hi, guys!" a girl bubbled into the microphone. It was the blonde I'd seen at the entrance. "My name is Tammi, and this is like, Kelli." Kelli did a cartwheel.

Will gave a little applause just for the girl/ maybe monster being able to do that, it looked hard when he watched others try.

Next to me, Rachel yelped like someone had stuck her with a pin. A few kids looked over and snickered,

"I swear it's a staple kids will laugh at anything in an auditorium," Nico muttered, the noise always carried and sounded mean no matter who was doing it.

"I don't laugh at everything," Will gave him a very exaggerated pouty frown that Nico fought hard not to grin back at. He lost that battle, and he couldn't say that about many fights.

but Rachel just stared at the cheerleaders in horror. Tammi didn't seem to notice the outburst. She started talking about all the great ways we could get involved during our freshman year.

"All the normal things a half-blood could want," Percy gave a mock yawn to show how much he'd listened to that. "Like volunteer work that looked good on college applications and where the study hall was. I didn't hear anything about where the fire extinguisher was."

"I'm surprised they don't have your name engraved on it just for being there," Thalia agreed.

"You'd have to pull an active miracle to get a college education at your rate," Jason muttered for himself, because he felt bad Percy probably was going to be denied that with his record.

"Run," Rachel told me. "Now."

"Why?"

Rachel didn't explain. She pushed her way to the edge of the bleachers, ignoring the frowning teachers and grumbling kids she was stepping on.

I hesitated.

"Why?"

 Percy winced as all six of them yelped that at once. Jason was already winding up for a rant as he began, "do you have any clue how useful that is? She can see through the Mist which you're repeatedly fooled by-"

"Paul," Percy's answer was sharp enough to stop him cold. He really hadn't gone into this trying to make the guy already disappointed in him and his mother look bad and everything that was about to happen because he couldn't have one normal day!

There was a beat of silence. "Sorry," Jason said.

"Yeah, it's fine," Percy sighed, letting it go as fast as it had happened.

Tammi was explaining how we were about to break into small groups and tour the school. Kelli caught my eye and gave me an amused smile, like she was waiting to see what I'd do. It would look bad if I left right now. Paul Blofis was down there with the rest of the teachers. He'd wonder what was wrong.

Then I thought about Rachel Elizabeth Dare, and the special ability she'd shown last winter at Hoover Dam. She'd been able to see a group of security guards who weren't guards at all, who weren't even human. My heart pounding, I got up and followed her out of the gym.

"I'm getting, follow her to the ends of the earth vibes already," Alex chuckled.

"Stop writing fanfiction about them," Magnus muttered to him, "Annabeth would not approve."

"I bet she'd get a laugh out of it," Alex insisted.

Percy was wincing and muttering uncomfortably though, and since they had no idea how she factored into Percy's life it was probably safer not to push his buttons about what they did get up to until all was said and done.

I found Rachel in the band room. She was hiding behind a bass drum in the percussion section.

"Are these monsters sensitive to noise?" Jason asked eagerly.

"Either that or it's a really good spot to grab lunch," Percy shrugged.

"Or the first place she found, you triangles," Thalia said in exasperation. "She's an untrained mortal!"

"Right," they both agreed sheepishly.

"Get over here!" she said. "Keep your head down!"

I felt pretty silly hiding behind a bunch of bongos, but I crouched down beside her.

"Obviously," Alex rolled his eyes. "Everybody knows you should hide in the brass section, that's why they're the ballsy ones." He concluded with a wink at Thalia, "and I mean that totally gender neutral."

"I'm sure they've never heard that joke before," Jason scoffed.

"Did they follow you?" Rachel asked.

"You mean the cheerleaders?"

She nodded nervously.

"I don't think so," I said. "What are they? What did you see?"

Her green eyes were bright with fear. She had a sprinkle of freckles on her face that reminded me of constellations. Her maroon T-shirt read HARVARD ART DEPT. "You...you wouldn't believe me."

Magnus had seen in person how much that could mess a person up. It still really bothered him he didn't know what to go back and do with this kind of information. Telling the homeless mortals who went on about metal angels they weren't crazy would only put a band aid on the grander problem.

"Oh, yeah, I would," I promised. "I know you can see through the Mist."

"The what?"

"The Mist. It's...well, it's like this veil that hides the way things really are. Some mortals are born with the ability to see through it. Like you."

She studied me carefully. "You did that at Hoover Dam. You called me a mortal. Like you're not."

"So she's always been that perceptive," Jason murmured in appreciation. Her gift truly was special, he wished he could pin down why he felt like he had a name or something attached to this odd power of perception and sight she had.

I felt like punching a bongo. What was I thinking? I could never explain. I shouldn't even try.

"Don't be so down on yourself Percy," Thalia frowned at him in surprise. "You're really not as stupid as we all like to say you are."

"Thanks Thals," Percy rolled his eyes and waved at Magnus.

"Hey," she grabbed his wrist, "I mean it."

He looked at her and saw she really was being serious. "Um, thank you," he was probably blushing just a bit. "I really didn't have a clue what I was doing though."

"Never stopped you from trying to do anything," she released his wrist with an eye roll of her own, resisting the urge to try and smack him in the face with his own hand. No way would she be fast enough to do that in the water.

Percy grinned at her. Coming from anyone else, even Annabeth, he'd have thought they were lying just to make him feel better. Thalia knew exactly how he felt, because she tended to have the same self-doubts.

"Tell me," she begged. "You know what it means. All these horrible things I see?"

"Look, this is going to sound weird. Do you know anything about Greek myths?"

"Like...the Minotaur and the Hydra?"

"Yeah, just try not to say those names when I'm around, okay?"

"And the Furies," she said, warming up. "And the Sirens, and—"

"Okay!" I looked around the band hall, sure that Rachel was going to make a bunch of bloodthirsty nasties pop out of the walls;

"We have yet to see that actually," Alex had the audacity to eye the walls in betrayal. "I'm starting to think Chiron and Grover lied to you about that, it's only ever caused Zeus to make thunder at ominous moments."

"Why push my luck?" Percy asked in exhaustion.

but we were still alone. Down the hallway, I heard a mob of kids coming out of the gymnasium. They were starting the group tours. We didn't have long to talk.

"All those monsters," I said, "all the Greek gods—they're real."

"I knew it!"

I would've been more comfortable if she'd called me a liar, but Rachel looked like I'd just confirmed her worst suspicion.

"First Tyson, now her," Will sounded like he was pretty impressed with Percy's ability to help take first steps into this world. "You're blunt and get to the point, but don't try to scare them, let alone impress them. All you're really missing is the orientation video to explain the rest."

Nico snorted in delight beside him and Will smiled with pleasure.

"Yeah, yeah," Percy was shaking his head in exasperation at all the praise. "Been and done the whole TV show routine, not looking for round two."

"One slow news day and I'll bet that reporter will be back around," Will said confidently, mock framing Percy with his hands. Percy flipped him off and said, "show that on TV!"

Magnus loudly kept reading before they got too sidetracked among the chuckling.

"You don't know how hard it's been," she said. "For years I thought I was going crazy. I couldn't tell anybody. I couldn't—"

Thalia tugged at the links in her bracelet with the same feeling of uselessness Magnus felt. What were they supposed to do, post a billboard with a number to Olympus Hotline?

She imagined for a moment borrowing these books when they were done with them, maybe giving some mortal a sense of salvation if they read it like this was some fairy tell, Sally apparently might be some help with that. A world they could never be a part of, but at least wouldn't think they were crazy for.

She glanced at Percy with guilt though and decided she might have to tweak a few details.

Her eyes narrowed. "Wait. Who are you? I mean really?"

"I'm not a monster."

"Well, I know that. I could see if you were. You look like...you. But you're not human, are you?"

I swallowed. Even though I'd had three years to get used to who I was, I'd never talked about it with a regular mortal before—I mean, except for my mom, but she already knew. I don't know why, but I took the plunge.

"I'm a half-blood," I said. "I'm half human."

"And half what?"

Just then Tammi and Kelli stepped into the band room.

"Half-fish," Alex supplied as if poor Rachel had really been left in the lurch.

"Paul is only his step dad Alex, keep up," Magnus smirked.

The doors slammed shut behind them.

"There you are, Percy Jackson," Tammi said. "It's time for your orientation."

"They're horrible!" Rachel gasped.

"A blonde, a burnet, and a red head walk into a band room-" Alex began.

"If you make one more joke about this I'll put you in the perconcussion section," Percy mispronounced with a hard look at Magnus not to correct him.

"Who says I don't already know how to play the bongos?" He challenged back.

Percy sighed in defeat, he really should have known better by this time.

Tammi and Kelli were still wearing their purple-and-white cheerleader costumes, holding pom-poms from the rally.

"Well those are going to be covered in blood and monster dust here soon," Nico said confidently.

"Don't forget the fire," Will nodded, "he can't leave school without it."

Percy groaned, as much because they were right as his head ached in pain, and because he believed they were right.

"What do they really look like?" I asked, but Rachel seemed too stunned to answer.

"Oh, forget her." Tammi gave me a brilliant smile and started walking toward us. Kelli stayed by the doors, blocking our exit.

They'd trapped us. I knew we'd have to fight our way out, but Tammi's smile was so dazzling it distracted me. Her blue eyes were beautiful, and the way her hair swept over her shoulders...

"Percy," Rachel warned.

I said something really intelligent like, "Uhhh?"

"And we can officially ear mark the moment Percy hit puberty," Jason mock clicked a pen to jot that down.

"When he sees Annabeth again it's officially going to be a, treat," Magnus sighed, gods he did not want to hear his cousin described by a male teenager.

"I can and will make your lives hell without drowning you," Percy pleasantly reminded.

Jason pretended he couldn't hear him and was still scribbling, making sure Percy could hear words like, "needs the talk," and, "date do's and don'ts," so Magnus very loudly kept reading over that before Percy acted on the urge of breaking his fingers like he was obviously considering.

Tammi was getting closer. She held out her pom-poms.

"Percy!" Rachel's voice seemed to be coming from a long way away. "Snap out of it!"

It took all my willpower, but I got my pen out of my pocket and uncapped it. Riptide grew into a three-foot-long bronze sword, its blade glowing with a faint golden light.

"I hope Rachel didn't have to many nightmares about that," Percy sighed, still fidgeting with the cap uneasily. It took a lot of concentration to constantly remind himself the adrenaline dump was all in his head and there was nothing to kill in here.

Tammi's smile turned to a sneer.

"Oh, come on," she protested. "You don't need that. How about a kiss instead?"

She smelled like roses and clean animal fur—a weird but somehow intoxicating smell.

"Note to self, nobody spray Grover with roses, then he'll be unstoppable," Thalia nodded for herself.

Rachel pinched my arm, hard. "Percy, she wants to bite you! Look at her!"

"Well that would get anyone's attention," Jason rubbed his arm and studied the book in concern.

"Are they vampires?!" Alex's eyes went comically wide. "Are we really about to get vampires up in here?" He looked ready to lunge for Magnus's throat to see for himself.

"Note to self, keep the fangs away from this one," Thalia said in concern.

She's just jealous," Tammi looked back at Kelli. "May I, mistress?"

Kelli was still blocking the door, licking her lips hungrily. "Go ahead, Tammi. You're doing fine."

Tammi took another step forward, but I leveled the tip of my sword at her chest. "Get back."

She snarled. "Freshmen," she said with disgust. "This is our school, halfblood. We feed on whom we choose!"

Then she began to change. The color drained out of her face and arms. Her skin turned as white as chalk, her eyes completely red. Her teeth grew into fangs.

"That is so cool!" Alex really did reach over to steal the book, but Magnus hugged it close and shuffled as far away as he could on his end of the couch. Alex turned pleading eyes to Percy, "did you at least get an autograph?"

"I'll start a book of monsters just for you," Percy said, rather nonplussed at Alex geeking out over something else wanting to kill him. It really was par for the course at this rate.

"A vampire!" I stammered. Then I noticed her legs. Below the cheerleader skirt, her left leg was brown and shaggy with a donkey's hoof. Her right leg was shaped like a human leg, but it was made of bronze.

"And that somehow made them cooler," Magnus agreed with Alex's yelp. "I'll give them this, it's original."

"They don't need compliments Magnus, they need decapitation," Nico reminded in exasperation.

"They can have both," Will said fairly. "I'm sure Kellie and Tammi appreciate compliments once in a while, it must get exhausting with how popular vampires are now adays to hear themselves described wrong."

"I just hope Percy doesn't ask if they sparkle," Thalia sighed.

"Uhh, a vampire with—"

"Don't mention the legs!" Tammi snapped. "It's rude to make fun!"

She advanced on her weird, mismatched legs. She looked totally bizarre, especially with the pom-poms, but I couldn't laugh—not facing those red eyes and sharp fangs.

"Then you need more fun in your life," Alex told him, he was still laughing plenty at this development.

"Cheerleader vampires, I'm surprised that's not a book of its own," Magnus agreed.

"A vampire, you say?" Kelli laughed. "That silly legend was based on us, you fool. We are empousai, servants of Hecate."

"Mmmm." Tammi edged closer to me. "Dark magic formed us from animal, bronze, and ghost! We exist to feed on the blood of young men. Now come, give me that kiss!"

"Maybe they shouldn't lead with the gross details of their existence if they want a smooch," Jason frowned, clearly unimpressed as he flipped his coin around.

"Dating is weirdly hard, kudos for trying their own approach," Percy shrugged, "it just didn't work on me."

"Liar," Thalia waved to the book where he'd yet swung his sword.

"I was caught off guard, not considering it!" He insisted.

"Uhhu, that's exactly what I'm hearing, not that Rachel had to save you," Thalia reminded.

Percy tried to splutter some denial together, but Magnus saved him the effort.

She bared her fangs. I was so paralyzed I couldn't move, but Rachel threw a snare drum at the empousa's head.

"Exhibit A your honor!" Thalia crowed.

"I want this case dismissed! Objection!" That was the only lawyer speak Percy knew though and sat back in his seat with a sigh at the accompanying laughter.

The demon hissed and batted the drum away. It went rolling along the aisles between music stands, its springs rattling against the drumhead.

Rachel threw a xylophone, but the demon just swatted that away, too.

"I would pay all of the money for her to throw a tuba next," Alex said with a disturbing kind of gleam that usually meant he'd be trying this himself eventually.

"You would make a great one man band act," Magnus agreed. Alex would be the only person who could make a guitar riff and then bash a monsters head in and still get a tip.

"I don't usually kill girls," Tammi growled. "But for you, mortal, I'll make an exception. Your eyesight is a little too good!"

She lunged at Rachel.

"No!" I slashed with Riptide. Tammi tried to dodge my blade, but I sliced straight through her cheerleader uniform, and with a horrible wail she exploded into dust all over Rachel.

Rachel coughed. She looked like she'd just had a sack of flour dumped on her head. "Gross!"

"First Annabeth, now her," Jason chuckled. "Does the value of a thank you just not mean anything anymore?"

Thalia stepped on his shoe, and he yelped in pain. She raised a brow at him and asked, "now where's my thank you for shutting you up?"

He tucked his aching toes behind his other heel and decided against answering like the smart kid he was.

"Monsters do that," I said. "Sorry."

"You killed my trainee!" Kelli yelled. "You need a lesson in school spirit, half-blood!"

"Anything but math club, anything but math club," Percy crossed his fingers and leaned forward in his seat.

"Technically attempted murder is not math club, so wish granted," Thalia sighed.

"He could start a junior detectives club, help the local police solve crimes," Will grinned.

"They'd arrest me on sight," Percy reminded with a huff.

Then she too began to change. Her wiry hair turned into flickering flames. Her eyes turned red. She grew fangs. She loped toward us, her brass foot and hoof clopping unevenly on the band-room floor.

"I am senior empousa," she growled. "No hero has bested me in a thousand years."

"Yeah?" I said. "Then you're overdue!"

"As leader of the squad, you'd really hope she'd be more prepared for the time restraints of multiple responsibilities," Alex said in mock disappointment.

"High school life is hard and stressful enough, Percy will help her balance some of it," Magnus reminded, and by that he meant cut her into evenly squared pieces of monster dust.

Kelli was a lot faster than Tammi. She dodged my first strike and rolled into the brass section, knocking over a row of trombones with a mighty crash. Rachel scrambled out of the way. I put myself between her and the empousa.

Will's adams-apple bobbed as he nervously swallowed. There were a few training scenarios where you had to defend someone on the ground pretending to be unconscious while a 'monster' attacked. Percy got in repeated trouble for those from him and Chiron for always taking more hits than he should.

Kelli circled us, her eyes going from me to the sword.

"Such a pretty little blade," she said. "What a shame it stands between us."

Her form shimmered—sometimes a demon, sometimes a pretty cheerleader. I tried to keep my mind focused, but it was really distracting.

"The first monster I've heard that seems to have adapted to your ADHD perk," Magnus said nervously. He wondered if it would work on those who wouldn't be naturally attracted to a pretty girl, or was the scent a universal lull no matter the case?

"Gods, please don't start trying to classify us with ecosystems and Latin names," Percy sighed, "I avoided biology as much as calculus."

"Poor dear." Kelli chuckled. "You don't even know what's happening, do you? Soon, your pretty little camp in flames, your friends made slaves to the Lord of Time, and there's nothing you can do to stop it. It would be merciful to end your life now, before you have to see that."

Percy's blood boiled at just the hint of that threat, making the water heat up around them all. Thalia tugging at the collar of her shirt caught his attention fast enough and he took a deep breath to settle himself, but that headache was back in full force. Chiron had warned an attack coming this summer on his camp. Whether Kellie knew something about it or was just taunting him, he needed to find out.

From down the hall, I heard voices. A tour group was approaching. A man was saying something about locker combinations.

The empousa's eyes lit up. "Excellent! We're about to have company!"

"Why is that a good thing?" Nico asked with growing dread. Monsters weren't usually psyched to have a mortal audience.

Percy didn't seem to hear anything at the moment but the words of the book, his attention laser focused and Riptide now fully in hand. They all sat uneasily in place and hoped this fight wrapped up quickly before he lost track of the fact there were no empousa in here to kill.

She picked up a tuba and threw it at me. Rachel and I ducked. The tuba sailed over our heads and crashed through the window.

"You got your tuba Alex," Jason half-heartedly reminded now.

"I wanted Rachel to throw it," he sighed with disappointment. "That's okay, I can imagine it landing on Kellie just fine without the book."

The voices in the hall died down.

"Percy!" Kelli shouted, pretending to be scared, "why did you throw that?"

"Oh shit," Magnus groaned, guessing exactly what she was doing. It really didn't seem fair Percy kept getting blamed when it was the monsters destroying the school and he just happened to be there. And he'd thought little of the justice system before this mess.

I was too surprised to answer. Kelli picked up a music stand and swiped a row of clarinets and flutes. Chairs and musical instruments crashed to the floor.

"Stop it!" I said.

People were tromping down the hall now, coming in our direction.

"Time to greet our visitors!" Kelli bared her fangs and ran for the doors. I charged after her with Riptide. I had to stop her from hurting the mortals.

"Percy, don't!" Rachel shouted. But I hadn't realized what Kelli was up to until it was too late.

Thalia tightly pinched the space between her eyes with defeat. Once again, she couldn't imagine chastising Percy for doing exactly what she would have done. He really would have made a great Hunter.

Percy still didn't seem to hear what the problem was now. He was tapping his feet rapid fire on the ground, tightening and loosening his grip on his sword with his urge not to swing it on anyone in here.

Kelli flung open the doors. Paul Blofis and a bunch of freshmen stepped back in shock. I raised my sword.

At the last second, the empousa turned toward me like a cowering victim.

"Oh no, please!" she cried. I couldn't stop my blade. It was already in motion.

Just before the celestial bronze hit her, Kelli exploded into flames like a Molotov cocktail. Waves of fire splashed over everything. I'd never seen a monster do that before, but I didn't have time to wonder about it. I backed into the band room as the flames engulfed the doorway.

"Paul," Percy muttered in a daze, shaking his head and finally coming back to himself in here with concern. He remembered Paul talking about some kid who accidentally started a trash fire when he'd tried to stub out a cigarette and Paul had gotten him off with a warning. He'd used that story as a way to assure Sally accidents happened and her accident prone son wouldn't be blamed for something like that.

That fire alarm had been really loud going off and still had nothing on the dread filling him at the shock, the horror on Paul's face. He'd almost rather it be Gabe sneering at him and calling him a freak.

"Percy?" Paul Blofis looked completely stunned, staring at me from across the fire. "What have you done?"

Kids screamed and ran down the hall. The fire alarm wailed. Ceiling sprinklers hissed to life.

In the chaos, Rachel tugged on my sleeve. "You have to get out of here!"

She was right. The school was in flames and I'd be held responsible.

Mortals couldn't see through the Mist properly. To them it would look like I'd just attacked a helpless cheerleader in front of a group of witnesses.

There was no way I could explain it. I turned from Paul and sprinted for the broken band room window.

Percy swallowed the bitter smell of smoke, the screaming and his own self-loathing for all the problems he caused. Paul would probably dump his mom after this, another screw up.

I burst out of the alley onto East 81st and ran straight into Annabeth.

"That's almost a step down from her usual grand entrances," Alex noted with mild disappointment. "I half expected her to show up and stab them for flirting with you."

"I don't know what you're talking about, her timing is still amazing," Percy grinned in delight just like he always did when the slightest exchange between them was revitalized in his mind, but there was something off about it than usual. He didn't glow and straighten up in his seat. He was starting to ask himself what the heck had possessed Annabeth to kiss someone so wholly not at her level.

"Hey, you're out early!" she laughed, grabbing my shoulders to keep me from tumbling into the street. "Watch where you're going, Seaweed Brain."

For a split second she was in a good mood and everything was fine. She was wearing jeans and an orange camp T-shirt and her clay bead necklace. Her blond hair was pulled back in a ponytail. Her gray eyes sparkled. She looked like she was ready to catch a movie, have a cool afternoon hanging out together.

Then Rachel Elizabeth Dare, still covered in monster dust, came charging out of the alley, yelling, "Percy, wait up!"

Annabeth's smile melted. She stared at Rachel, then at the school. For the first time, she seemed to notice the black smoke and ringing fire alarms.

The black singes on his shirt and wild look in his eyes probably caught on right about then too, Thalia winced. It was kind of sweet though, that Annabeth always smiled first at the sight of him and then everything else kicked in.

She frowned at me. "What did you do this time? And who is this?"

"Oh, Rachel—Annabeth. Annabeth—Rachel. Um, she's a friend, I guess."

I wasn't sure what else to call Rachel. I mean, I barely knew her, but after being in two life-or-death situations together, I couldn't just call her nobody.

"Why would you call her Annabeth?" Alex asked glibly.

"I have a cyclops who will chase you for a hug and I'm not afraid to use him," Percy answered.

"Hi," Rachel said. Then she turned to me. "You are in so much trouble. And you still owe me an explanation!"

Police sirens wailed on FDR Drive.

"Percy," Annabeth said coldly. "We should go."

"I want to know more about half-bloods," Rachel insisted. "And monsters. And this stuff about the gods." She grabbed my arm, whipped out a permanent marker, and wrote a phone number on my hand. "You're going to call me and explain, okay? You owe me that. Now get going."

"But—"

"I'll make up some story," Rachel said. "I'll tell them it wasn't your fault. Just go!"

She ran back toward the school, leaving Annabeth and me in the street.

Percy remembered her maroon shirt flapping around her and the slight burntness of one strand of red hair like she'd been too close to the fire too. A part of him wanted to go back in there with her. Maybe for once give Rachel and Paul that explanation they both deserved.

Annabeth was already walking off though. He could see her in his mind, her ponytail whacking him as she stalked away like he'd brought one of those empousa out to introduce instead of a mortal girl who had helped him out because he'd ruined her day too by attracting monsters.

He sighed, and knew he'd followed her. He'd follow her anywhere.

"Hey!" I jogged after her. "There were these two empousai," I tried to explain. "They were cheerleaders, see, and they said camp was going to burn, and—"

"You told a mortal girl about half-bloods?"

"She can see through the Mist. She saw the monsters before I did."

"So you told her the truth?"

"She recognized me from Hoover Dam, so—"

"You've met her before?"

"You didn't tell her about that?" Magnus asked in surprise. "No wonder she's so short with you."

"It was the highlight of the last book," Alex agreed in shock.

"Why would I tell Annabeth about nearly dying on a dam, or on a mountain, or in a museum?" Percy asked in exasperation. "There were evil skeletons chasing us across the country, Nico made them vanish!"

"I'm suddenly grateful somebody recorded your thoughts instead of you trying to explain all this," Jason frowned. "You are horrible at telling stories, including the one you just tried to tell Annabeth."

"I didn't ask for any of your opinions on this!" He snapped and slammed back into his seat.

"This chapter's almost done," Magnus promised, "hopefully, we um, get a change of subject."

"Um, last winter. But seriously, I barely know her."

"She's kind of cute."

"I—I never thought about it."

"That was probably the correct response," Alex still gave him a tragic look like he should be wearing a dunce cap. It was sort of funny to Alex, Annabeth was so instantly jealous of the first girl she ever saw Percy around. Weren't the Aphrodite kids at camp all over him? It would be interesting to to see if that was her real problem and it wasn't something else this had just brought up.

Annabeth kept walking toward York Avenue.

"I'll deal with the school," I promised, anxious to change the subject. "Honest, it'll be fine."

Annabeth wouldn't even look at me. "I guess our afternoon is off. We should get you out of here, now that the police will be searching for you."

Percy crossed his arms and glared at the cracks in the floor he'd caused. He felt like a shmuck, now ruining everybody's day around him too. There was no more laughter or jokes to be had because of him too.

"It's alright Percy," Will promised, "you remembering this can't be any more fun than the monster attacks."

"Thanks," Percy muttered, trying to unclench his jaw from how instantly stressed he felt from Annabeth being mad at him.

While Thalia shifted protectively beside him, wishing she could tell Annabeth to take a chill pill. The boy didn't know how to flirt, let alone find anyone other than her attractive.

Behind us, smoke billowed up from Goode High School. In the dark column of ashes, I thought I could almost see a face—a she-demon with red eyes, laughing at me.

Your pretty little camp in flames, Kelli had said. Your friends made slaves to the Lord of Time.

"You're right," I told Annabeth, my heart sinking. "We have to get to Camp Half-Blood. Now."

Magnus handed the book over to Alex with a wince. So much for his concern Annabeth would be the one to need someone in her corner, now he felt like he should be fleeing the scene.

PJOPJOPJOPJO

Here at last! Oh the things to look forward to in this book! My personal favorite is the three parter of the Demon Dude Ranch. Let me know what you're looking forward to?

#pjo #reading the books #fanfiction #Percy Jackson #Thalia Grace #Jason Grace #nico di angelo #will solace #Happy birthday will solace #alex fierro #Magnus Chase #HDYSG's

[theparanormalperiodical]

The Wicker Man (2006): Why It Should’ve Been A Video Game // Detailed Plot Recap, In-depth Review And Film Facts You Didn’t Know

This week, I wanted to try something *new*. Inspired by Jaime French who does these hilarious recap/bitch-fest videos ‘bout classic 90s ‘n’ 00s films, I thought I could do my own hilarious reviews of films. You know how hilarious I am.

But, I don’t know, I kinda felt like I was nicking her idea and not being ori-gi-nal. Then I remembered that a blog like this could solve a problem I face a lot with the horror genre: I don’t always like to watch horror films.

They’re a commitment. They scawy. 

I don’t always want to force myself to watch a movie full of jump-scares and freak myself out, and other days I’m just not in the headspace to be immersed in some of the gory issues they cover. As you can imagine that makes being a horror blogger, uhhhh, well, impossible.

So here’s the plan, Stan - I’m gonna take one for the team. I’m going to write a fully-fledged recap, review and analysis of classic horror films so you don’t have to sit through the crap ones or hide behind the sofa for the traumatising ones, and we can just soak in our favourite genre together.

Now, when I first considered doing this blog series, I thought I’d review the last horror film I saw: The Wicker Man (1973). But I quickly realised it’s hard to really review something you last saw months ago - you need to connect with the vibe, pick up on mistakes and give a detailed view of it backed up by facts. So, obviously, I thought I’d catch it on Prime, right? While the ‘73 flick wasn’t available for free, the ‘06 one was.

Yes, one of the most infamous horror films ever produced featuring Nicolas Cage and a whole lotta bees, the poster child of so-bad-it’s-good movies.

In today’s review, I’m going to recap the plot, deep-dive the good and the bad of The Wicker Man (2006), and finish up with whether it’s worth a watch.

But first, let’s start with a spoiler-free review, so you can consider whether you want to watch it and then come back to this post.

While I don’t hate this film and think it had buckets of potential, I’m not sure it’s worth a film night with dimmed lights, surround sound and microwave popcorn. It’s a pretty un-engaging, gentle watch, even if you love Nicolas Cage and memes.

1.8/5 stars

Let’s start with a recap of the plot

Policeman Edward Malus (Nicolas Cage) is taking time off duty after he witnesses a mother and her daughter die in a traumatic car accident. He receives a letter from his ex-fiancée which says her daughter has gone missing where they live, on the remote island of Summersisle. He goes to investigate and has to hitch a ride for the final leg of the journey with a bloke that pilots a seaplane and delivers goods to the island. 

Immediately Malus discovers this is a rural, Amish-like community full of locals not willing to help him find Rowan. No matter how much he flashes his badge or raises his voice to tell everyone he’s a police officer, they just tell him they’ve never-ever seen her before. Even the students at the school claim to not recognise her, but Malus finds her name crossed out on the school register. The teacher eventually lets slip that Rowan died and is buried in a churchyard. Or is she? She says “she’ll burn to death” before correcting the tense she used (“she burned to death”).

Malus stumbles across other clues outlining the causes and circumstances of Rowan’s disappearance, from a missing picture on the pub wall which shows a different local girl standing in front of the yearly harvest to a freshly dug grave. Convinced she’s been killed, he goes to the seaplane to radio the mainland for extra police support, but someone has murdered the pilot and sunk the plane. 

He then asks the local doctor/photographer about the missing photo. He finds it, and there’s Rowan standing in front of a failed harvest. But he also stumbles across a book titled “Rituals for the Ancients” which suggests they’re about to sacrifice Rowan to the Mother Goddess for the promise of a better harvest (they produce honey) next year. 

After accidentally getting stung by a shit-tonne of bees by the beehives which prompts an allergic reaction, he is saved by the local doctor and finally meets Sister Summersisle - the Earthly representative for the Mother Goddess. She denies him permission to exhume Rowan’s body and explains more about their beliefs and matriarchal society. 

Frustrated by the lack of answers, Malus digs up the grave to find a burnt doll and finds her jumper in the flooded crypt. He then conducts a house-to-house search of the entire island as it’s the day of the festival and, therefore, the sacrifice. 

After not finding Rowan, Malus sneaks into the festival disguised in the innkeeper’s bear costume where he rescues Rowan who is tied to a tree, ready to be burnt alive. Their attempt to escape to safety is cut short, however, when Rowan leads them back to the locals, revealing that all along this was a trap. 

His ex-fiancée sought him out to impregnate her so they’d have a sacrifice, a stranger connected to them by blood. After some torture, including lots of bees, Malus is carted off to the huge Wicker Man where he will be burnt alive inside. Rowan sets the Wicker Man alight. 

Six months later we see a new trap being set: in a bar in some US city, Malus’ ex-fiancee and another local start flirting with random men…

Some fun facts about the film

It’s a remake of the 1973 British film and was directly inspired by the 1967 novel Ritual (see gif below)

It just lost out on breaking even - it grossed $39m on a $40m budget

The original director of the 1973 film, Robin Hardy, made Warner Bros remove his name from all promotional material for the remake

It has just a 15% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes

Universal had been trying to remake The Wicker Man since the 90s, but it was finally announced in 2002

Now, let’s get to talkin’ bout it

Of course, I have to start with Nicolas Cage’s acting. Speaking honestly, I don’t want to sit here and criticise his craft - I’d be shite at acting, and it’s not like he’s an unsuccessful bloke. But the problem isn’t the over-acting. It’s the plain weird acting.

Throughout the film, Malus witnesses a seriously traumatic event - a car accident where the two passengers are burnt alive - and suffers from PTSD-symptoms as a result. Like in one dream he sees Rowan drowned just by the dock and then he’s holding the bloated corpse of a young girl. Waking with a start, he doesn’t, ya know, have a panic attack, or exhibit a normal amount of terror of anxiety.

He yells “God dammit!” like he just missed a bus.

And then, throughout he film, the way he speaks to people is plain odd. The rest of the cast are fine actors, and speak with those nuances and the tone of a cinematic film. He acts like a normal person would where everyone else is poetic and dramatic. It’s like me wandering into a Shakespeare play and asking Macbeth where the local pub is in modern British-English.

A great example of this is when he meets with Sister Summersisle for the first time after getting stung by the local bees. She speaks in that cinematic way, saying “you nearly got killed by the bees, what a pity”. There’s the suggestion that it’s either a pity the bees died or he nearly did. And then Cage straight up retorts with “what do you mean by that?” with no dramatic furrow of the brow or threatening tone in his voice. He might as well be asking her what the word “pity” means.

Cage is a sore thumb in the film, sticking out against the picture-perfect aesthetic, his complex ex-fiancee and powerful Sister Summersisle.

This is made worse by the fact that the beginning of the film feels cheap. Of course, with Summersisle being full of lush greenery, cute houses and fantastic costuming, it’s likely they just splurged on the majority of the film. But the opening, where we meet Malus, relies on that ASOS leather jacket, a does-this-look-like-Mexico orange filter you can get with iMovie and a flimsy set. When Malus shuts his front door behind his concerned colleague, for example, he has to like shut it again, probably because it’s made out of paper-mache.

It unfortunately sets the tone for the rest of the film, confirming it’s crappily written, crappily produced and crappily executed. Problem is, it’s not. This film is chockful of great stuff.

Take the ending:

Watching Malus be lead back to the locals by Rowan. Hearing Sister Summersisle reveal the extent of the trap. His ex telling him he’s “done so well” to fall into it. Him realising has no ammo in his gun and nowhere left to run (hey, that rhymes!). It’s so frustrating, and really conveys exactly what Malus must’ve been feeling the entire film and as he realises he is doomed to die - it’s perfect!

And when I saw the policewoman remove her mask and reveal she was a local all along I died. This fresh take of the original plot had so much potential.

Potential that was let down also by some very obvious plot lines. It’s revealed halfway through the film that Rowan is Malus’ daughter, but as this is what everyone assumes when he reads the letter it’s not exactly a shock. I know the entire plot is obvious considering the twist is so well known, so perhaps I should give them the benefit of the doubt. But then there’s the plot holes.

Remember the car accident that opens the film? Where he sees a girl and her mother die? On reflection, it’s probably just supposed to be some foreshadowing to get us thinking about him trying to save a mother and daughter from danger. But when the police recover the bodies, it’s revealed there’s no trace of them in the system, which suggests they’re somehow linked to the rest of the film, like they’re residents of Summersisle or something? I don’t know, it just opens up an area of interest you expect to be resolved in the film. I’d have preferred it there was no uncertainty, and they were just an average suburban family off on vacay to really show the distinction between the mainland US and Summersisle.

It becomes clear the locals of Summersisle are dangerous and are misandrists (hate men) when the seaplane pilot that delivers good to the island is killed. Supposedly the locals do this because they’re angry he brought Malus to the island to investigate Rowan’s disappearance. But wasn’t that the plan all along? Wasn’t the pilot integral to the trap? And then later, when it’s revealed the locals routinely seek out men to as future potential sacrifices if harvests go tits up (I assume that’s how it works), wouldn’t they need him to bring ‘em to the island?

There’s also the issue of the quality gap between the opening and close of the film. Okay, fine, most films have different phases and vibes as the plot progresses. But the three distinct sections of this film aren’t to do with the plot. The beginning is cheap. The middle is slow. The ending is mental.

Despite my lengthy criticism and positive reflections on the film, I drew one final conclusion: it should’ve been a video game.

It just had that vibe and structure of a story-driven video game, like a prettier version of Silent Hill with fewer jumpscares and a thicker plot.

There’s the unique locations to explore, like the school and doctor’s house. There’s missing items to find, like the photograph of Rowan and the failed harvest. There’s fresh clues to stumble upon like the jumper and the grave. There’s a whole roster of potential NPC dialogue, like the ex-fiancee perhaps telling you “you should go check the crypt” over and over until he does it. There’s even the subtle throwbacks to the original film, like the seaplane (which the policeman of the ‘73 film flew). All tied together with cut scenes where you meets your ex-fiancee and ask her about what you’ve discovered to further the story.

Will you make the right decisions and get the good ending, where you prevent the murder of the seaplane pilot, carry Rowan to the harbour and fly off to safety? Will you find all the easter eggs, including the joker costume and the dead rabbit from the ‘73 film?

The final verdict *drum roll pls*

I don’t hate it, but it’s just not worth the watch. Even for fans of so-bad-its-good movies, there’s not enough funny bad stuff for it to be enjoyable. Just a bit boring. Save 100 minutes and watch the best bits on YouTube, instead.

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#The Wicker Man #Nicolas Cage #Horror Movies #horror films #bad horror films #horror #scary movies #ghost stories #true ghost stories #paranormal #supernatural #cult #pagan #Film Review #so bad it's good #unintentionally funny

[z-iridest]

My Hero Academia- I am Phoenix

Chapter 18- Test of Heroes:

"All right, that's it for class today." Aizawa told us a couple days later. "There's only one week left until your final exams begin. I'm sure you all studying constantly, right?" I mean, I am, but I don't know about everyone else. I thought. "Don't forget to keep training. The written exam is only one element. There's also the practical portion to worry about. Good luck." With that, our teacher left the room.

"I'VE BARELY TAKEN NOTES THIS SEMESTER!" Mina and Kaminari exclaimed, Kaminari in horror and Mina laughing.

"And with the Sports Festival and the internship, I didn't have time to read the textbook!" Kaminari added in a panic. On the midterm, those two placed the lowest at 20th and 21st specially. 

"It's true that we haven't had much free time lately..." Tokoyami trailed off, having placed 15th, just outside the bottom five.

"We'd barely learned anything when we took our midterms, so they didn't seem all that hard, but I'm kinda worried about these." Sato was telling Koda, both placing 13th and 12th respectively. "We've been through a lot, and they probably won't pull any punches when it comes to testing us." 

"As someone ranked in the top ten, I'm not that concerned." Mineta bragged. Much as I hate to admit it, he placed tenth.

"I still don't know how you managed that, you little shit." I glared at him. I'd placed second behind Momo, but I still didn't know how Mineta of all people managed the top ten.

"WHAT?! YOU WERE TENTH IN THE MIDTERMS?!" They both yelled in shock.

"Aw man, and I thought you were one of us." Mina whined.

"Don't you know weirdo little creeps like you are only likeable if they're kind of stupid?! Who's gonna love you now?!" Kaminari added. I mean, I'm not convinced he's not an idiot... 

"Everyone, trust me." Mineta replied. See?

"Ashido, Kaminari! We've still got time to study! That way we'll all get to go to the training camp together, right?" Ever the optimist, Izuku encouraged both our classmates. Having placed in 5th himself in the midterms, he had a right to be. Iida, who placed in third right below me, raised his hand as if taking an oath.

"Yes! As Class Rep, I have high hopes that we'll make UA proud!" Iida shouted.

"It's pretty hard to fail if you just pay attention in class, isn't it?" Todoroki asked, the Peppermint boy placing in sixth right behind Izuku.

"You're not wrong." I shrugged, but Kaminari acted like we wounded him.

"Why you gotta cut me down like that?!" He whined. 

"Hey, don't worry about it, you two, I can catch you up to speed on the important topics if you want." Momo offered. I swear that woman's too much of a goddess for her own good...

"You're the best, Yaomomo!" Kaminari and Mina exclaimed. Since when has her nickname ever been Yaomomo? She instantly darkened, hanging her head.

"I'm afraid it won't be of any help when it comes to the practical, though..." She trailed off.

"I've been studying but... Could you help me out too? I'm having some trouble understanding quadratic functions." Kyoka had placed 8th, but approached our Yaomomo anyway.

"Really?"

"Tutor me, please! Classical Japanese is killing me!" Seto approached her next. He placed 18th on our midterms...

"Ah..."

"Is there room for one more?" Ojiro asked before Yaomomo could even have a chance to respond. "I'm afraid I'm falling behind a little." He placed 9th in the midterms.

"Pretty please!" They all begged her. She lit up again.

"This is wonderful!" She jumped out of her seat, pumping her arms in the air. "Yes! Let's do it!"

"All right!" They cheered.

"Okay, then. We can hold a study session at my residence over the weekend." Yaomomo went planning.

"Seriously?! I can't wait to see your fancy digs!" Mina squealed. As Yaomomo went on a tangent planning the study session, Todoroki approached me.

"Would you want to study together, Yagi?" He asked. I smiled.

"Sure, did you want to meet up somewhere?" I countered. He shrugged, signalling he didn't know. "Okay, well, there's this little café nearby Tatooine station if that's okay?" I asked. He nodded.

"Sounds good." He answered, making me smile.

"It's a plan then." I replied.

"You think I don't know enough?! Maybe I should be at the lessons into your skull!" We then heard Bakugo (4th place in the midterms) growling at Kirishima (who placed 16th). I sighed.

"I'm counting on it." Kirishima responded. 

"Hah, everyone's panicking right now. But it won't do any good to cram this late in the game." Aoyama stated as Shouji- who came in 11th- walked over to him.

"Shouldn't you be more concerned? You didn't do very well in the midterms." He asked, pointing out that Aoyama came in 19th in the midterms. 

"Are you talking about moi? I did just fine, thank you." Aoyama replied. At lunch, Izuku, Tsu, Toru, Ochaco, Iida, Todoroki and I sat together.

"I'm kinda scared about the practical. I have no idea what it's gonna be." Izuku said.

"Neither do I..." I trailed off.

"Hard to believe they'd give us anything too crazy." Iida answered, making me look at him.

"Considering those of us who weren't at recommendation level had to fight robots in the practical of the entrance exam, I beg to differ. For all we know, they could put us against our teachers." I brought up.

"Please don't jinx it, Hino." Ochaco and Toru begged me. I shrugged.

"I'm not, I'm just saying."

"Anyways, the written exam questions will all be stuff from class, so..." He took a bite of food. "I should be able to do those." At his words, Ochaco stiffened, probably remembering that she came in 14th during the entrance exam.

"Do you really think it's going be that simple?" She asked, sounding nervous.

"It's driving me nuts. I just wanna know what they'll have us doing." Izuku responded.

"It's a comprehensive test of everything we learned from this year." Toru replied, having placed 17th while Tsu had placed 7th.

"Yep, and that's about all we could get Mr. Aizawa to tell us." Tsu added.

"Okay, so then, it'll cover combat and rescue training. Oh, and basic training." Ochaco summed up.

"We can't just study-we have to stay in great physical shape-" Izuku's stomach suddenly hit the table as he got elbowed in the head. I instantly jumped out of my seat, glaring at the blond asshole who caused it, but got yanked back down by Todoroki.

"Oh, sorry, your head's so big that it's hard to miss." He cracked.

"Yours is bigger, should I put a burn mark on that big ass forehead of yours?!" I snapped.

"Hino!" Ochaco's tone was warning.

"He started it." I looked at her.

"You're from class 1-B. Um... Monoma, right? That really hu-"

"I heard you guys stumbled across the Hero Killer. Just like in the Sports Festival, Class 1-A isn't happy unless they're the center of attention." Monoma was really starting to tick me off.

"Maybe if you'd actually brought your A-game, you would have had the spotlight in the Sports Festival, not my fault your battle IQ's at 20. Besides that, it wasn't like we were looking for the Hero Killer." I replied. I mean, one of us was, but the blond Wanna-B didn't need to know that.

"But you do realize you're not in the spotlight because people think you're good heroes, right? It's just that you keep getting into so much trouble. Here's food for thought: Some day, the rest of us might get caught up in your mess, and then we'll all become unwitting victims as well. What kind of horrible villains will you bring down upon us?"

"Can I burn him yet?" I mumbled with my teeth clenched.

"He's not worth it, Yagi." Todoroki told me, keeping a hand on my arm to keep me from jumping across the table.

"What demon-" He got cut off by a girl with an orange ponytail. She caught his lunch tray as he dropped to the floor, Kairi standing over him.

"That's not funny, Monoma!" Kairi chided him.

"You heard what happened to Iida, chill out!" Kendo told him.

"Kendo." Iida spoke her name.

"I apologize for him... I'm pretty sure he has a hole where his heart should be." Kendo apologized. I glanced at Monoma. And I'm pretty sure you knocked him out! I thought.

"So, we were listening... We know you're all worried about what's going to be on the big final practical." Kendo brought up.

"We heard it's gonna be combat against robots like the entrance exam." Kairi tilted her head slightly.

"Huh?!" Ochaco and I both cried out.

"What? Really? How do you know that?" Izuku asked.

"One of my friends who's a few grades up filled me in. I know, cheating but... Oh well." Kendo answered. While the others were talking, Kairi noticed the fact that Todoroki still had his hand on my arm and looked at me, smirking. I looked away from her, hiding the fact that my face was burning.

"What kind of idiot are you, Kendo?" As Izuku was rambling, Monoma woke up. "You just have away our whole strategic advantage! This was our chance to finally pull ahead of that class full of idiots!" He got splashed with water courtesy of Kairi's quirk.

"You're the idiot!" She exclaimed just as Kendo chopped him again.

"Right, they're not the idiots!" Kendo told him before she dragged him away.

"Good luck on exams, guys!" Kairi beamed, hoping onto one foot as she waved goodbye. As I watched her walk away, I noticed Tetsutetsu join her and sling an arm around her, making her lean her head on his shoulder. Awwww, how cute! I thought. 

"ALRIGHT!" Mina and Kaminari exclaimed a while later after we told everyone else the news Kendo had given us.

"This'll be super easy if it's just robots!" Kaminari added.

"Such awesome news!" Mina exclaimed.

"Why do you sound so happy?" Shouji asked. "You both have a hard time controlling your Quirks."

"Yeah, but I can let loose with robots!" Kaminari pumped his fists. Why do I feel like my earlier statement's gonna end up jinxing us? I thought as Mina did the same thing as Kaminari.

"Now you just need Yayorozu to help you study and you'll be all set for finals." Sero was pointing out.

"We'll definitely be able to go to the training camp now!" Kaminari and Mina cheered. 

"It shouldn't matter if it's robots or actual people. Why are you morons so excited?" Bakugo growled out.

"Hey, who're you calling a moron?!" Kaminari yelled.

"Shut up!" Katsuki roared, making Kaminari shrink. "You need to learn how to control your Quirk! Ya got it?!" He then turned to Izuku. "Hey! Deku!" The intensity got so thick you could cut it with a knife. "I don't know what's goin' on with your power, but I saw the way you're using it now and I want you to know... It's seriously pissing me off." 

"Uh oh... He must mean how Deku was flying around like him the other day..." Ochaco trailed off worriedly.

"Oh, yeah, totally..." Mina realized.

"We'll be getting individual scores in the upcoming finals. New rankings. So we'll all know exactly where we're standing! I'll show you how much better I am." He then turned his gaze on our red and white haired classmate. "And Todoroki? I'll kill you, too." Todoroki didn't respond, and Bakugo turned his eyes on me.

"I'm not holding back." I replied before he could say anything... He stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him. I rolled my eyes.

"It's been a while since I've seen him that worked up." Kirishima commented after a minute. 

"Think it's impatience? Or hatred?" Tokoyami asked.

"Hatred? He wants to be the best at everything, so that's how he acts. He's just being competitive." I answered, crossing my arms over my chest and leaning against the side of my desk. With Izuku, it was different though... Ochaco was right, there was a rivalry there, though it seemed one sided. He did seem to hate me just as much as Izuku in the past, but... It didn't have as much bite to it as it did before the Sports Festival if that makes any sense... Anyway, for the next week, I studied and trained on my own and when the weekend finally came, I met up with Todoroki to do our own study group. I had dressed casually, just in jeans, a T-shirt and combat boots with my hair in a low ponytail pulled over my left shoulder. When I arrived, I was a little early, so I just ordered a drink and decided to study a bit on my own while I waited for Todoroki. But, much as I tried, I couldn't focus. The nightmare was happening every night now. I messed with the necklace around my neck as I sat back in my seat, taking my glasses off for a second to pinch the bridge of my nose. You were meant to be just like me.... What the hell does that even mean? And who's voice was it? The more the nightmare kept happening, the more the other voice took over my own until it was all I could hear...

"Yagi? Are you okay?" I looked up to see Todoroki had arrived. He had his school bag slung over his shoulder, and he was wearing gray pants, his usual light blue sneakers, and a navy blue button up that was left open the reveal the white shirt he had on underneath. 

"Yeah, I'm fine." I gave a small smile. "Just lost in thought for a second. I'm glad you made it okay." I answered him.

"The directions you gave were pretty detailed." He shrugged off his bag and sat down across from me before he noticed my drink. He looked confused, making me have to bite back a giggle.

"It's strawberry milk tea with strawberry boba, do you want one?" I asked. He looked at me for a second.

"I couldn't ask that..."

"You're not, I'm offering." I interrupted. He blinked for a couple more seconds before nodding. I smiled. "I'll be right back then." With that, I got up and ordered another one for Todoroki. 

"Quite the cutie you got across from you." Jarsa, the barista that usually works when I come in, commented.

"Don't even, he's just a friend." I told her.

"Really? Because the way he looks at your reminds me of the way my husband used to look at me." She threw back. I felt my face burn, making her laugh as she gave me the milk tea for Todoroki. "You're not denying it."

"We're just friends, I'm not gonna get burnt again the way I got burned with... Well... You know..." I trailed off, rubbing the back of my neck.

"He doesn't give me the bad vibes that blood manipulator gave me." Jarsa was quick to reply. "Go on." She shooed me toward him again. I shook my head before I rejoined Todoroki.

"Here you go." I gave it to him.

"Thank you." He replied. I watched him as he looked at the way it was sealed, looked at the straw, then looked at me for help. A few giggles left me before I motioned for him to give it back to me. Once he did, I showed him how to unwrap the straw and to stab it through the top before giving it back to him. I watched him stare at the cup for a few seconds before I giggled, muffling it with my hand. 

"Go ahead, try it." I encouraged him. Once he took a drink, I put my glasses back on and went back to studying. After a few minutes of silence between us, I heard him speak again.

"Have you always had glasses?" I looked at him to find him staring at me.

"Yeah, I wear them in class all the time." I answered. Had he not noticed this whole time? Then again, he was pretty oblivious so far, so...

"You look pretty with glasses..." He looked away. "Actually, you always look pretty..." Did this guy know what he was doing to me?! I looked at my notebook.

"Thank you." I murmured, feeling him stare at me.

"Are you all right? Your face is really red." I felt him out a hand on my forehead. "Your forehead's really hot..."

"Yeah, I'm fine." I managed to get out, trying to get a hold of myself. I could practically hear the giggle fit coming from behind the counter. Oh my god, kill me now... Once I got a hold of myself, the study session actually went pretty well. Todoroki was definitely smart, logical, and he could solve problems as soon as he saw them. Kinda made me wonder why he'd invited me to study with him in the first place... He probably could have done all the studying on his own in a much quicker time frame. It honestly did help since he knew how to solve the problems I wasn't sure of, and I even helped him figure out the answers to a few things when he wasn't sure. Once I got home, I trained, using everything I'd learned. I suddenly wondered how Kirishima and Bakugo's study group was going, snickering as I imagined Bakugo hitting Kirishima in the head with a rolled up newspaper everytime the redhead got an answer wrong. They probably even got kicked out of the place they were studying because of Bakugo's explosive temper... 

You were meant to be just like me. I got startled out of my thoughts by that same voice again, except this time, I wasn't dreaming. I looked around. No one else was there, and I was home, so I would have definitely heard something if someone had entered... I decided to call it for the day, going inside with a shudder.  The next day, the exams started. It felt like all the written exams passed in the blink of an eye, and before I knew it... "All right, put your pencils down." Day 3 of the exams had arrived. The last person in each row, bring the answer sheets to me." Mina and Kaminari were already out of their seats as Yaomomo collected our row's papers.

"Thanks so much for all your help!" Mina exclaimed gratefully.

"I didn't leave anything blank at least!" Kaminari added. That afternoon, we were brought to the Central Plaza training area after we were dressed in our costumes, only to find ourselves lined up across from all our teachers.

"Now then, let's begin the last test." Mr. Aizawa began. "Remember, it's possible to fail this final. If you wanna go to camp, but make any stupid mistakes."

"Why are all of the teachers all here?" Kyoka asked.

"I expect many of you have gathered information and believe you have some idea of what you'll be faced with today." Mr Aizawa answered.

"We're fighting those big ol' metal robots!" Kaminari had the gall to open his fat mouth. 

"Fireworks! S'mores! Here we come, camp!" Mina exclaimed.

"Actually, this year's tests..." Principal Nezu popped out of Mr. Aizawa's scarf. "... Will be completely different, for various reasons." What is it with our principal and our teacher's scarf?

"Principal Nezu!" Kyoka, Ojiro and Sero all exclaimed.

"You're changing things?" Yaomomo asked in disbelief.

"The tests now have a new focus." Principal Nezu was explaining while he climbed down from Mr. Aizawa. "There will be Hero work, of course. But also teamwork and combat between actual people." Oh no... "So, what does that mean for you? You students will be working together in pairs and your opponents will be one of our esteemed UA teachers! Isn't"t that fabulous!" I felt all the eyes of my friends looking at me. Looks like I jinxed it... Oops... Meanwhile, the rest of the class were wide eyed with shock.

"We're.... fighting the teachers?!" Ochaco questioned.

"Additionally, your partners and opponents have already been chosen. They were determined at my discretion based on various factors, including fighting style, grades and interpersonal relationships. First off, Yayorozu, Yagi, and Todoroki are a team.... Against me." I glanced at Ochaco, seeing her look at me. I'm pretty sure my nerves were all over my face since she gave me a sympathetic look. "Then, we have Midoriya paired with Bakugo." They both were as shocked as I was, looking at each other, but our teacher wasn't done. "And their opponent is..." That's when Dad showed up and my eyes went wide.

"I am here to fight!" Dad exclaimed as he stood upright. I looked at Izuku, nervous for him. It wouldn't have been a problem for me to go against my Dad, considering I knew the exact time limit he was on and his weaknesses. Thinking about it, that's probably why Mr. Aizawa didn't put me against my own Dad, but to put Dad's number one fanboy and successor against him with the kid that hated said successor... This wasn't good...

"We're up against All Might?!" They both exclaimed at the same time. 

"You're going to have to work together, boys, if you want to win!" Dad told the two. One glare from Bakugo directed at Izuku told me he wasn't going to listen, though. Dad chuckled. 

"And now, let's announce the teams and teachers they'll be fighting in order." Principal Nezu announced. First up would be Sato and Kirishima against Cementoss, Tsu and Tokoyami against Ectoplasm, Iida and Ojiro against Power Loader, me, Todoroki and Yaomomo against Mr. Aizawa, Aoyama and Ochaco against Thirteen, Mina and Kaminari against Principal Nezu, Kyoka and Koda against Present Mic, Toru and Shoji against Snipe, Mineta and Sero against Midnight and finally Izuku and Bakugo against my Dad. Oh great, that fight's gonna be last? "To complete the exam, you'll have 30 minutes. In order to win, your objective is to put these handcuffs on your teacher. Or, you can win if one of you manages to escape from the combat stage." Principal Nezu explained.

"So, we've either got to capture the teacher or run away. It's basically like the combat training." Kaminari summed up.

"Yeah, but is it really okay to just jet?" Mina asked.

"Yup." Principal Nezu answered her.

"It's going to be much different than that combat training you all went through earlier. After all, you're up against people way better than you!"

"Better? Really?" Kyoka mumbled under her breath. "Wait, aren't you just the announcer?"

"Hey, watch your mouth, girl- Have some respect!" Present Mic answered.

"This time, your exam will be very similar to a real battle. As strange as it is, please think of us as villains." Thirteen told us, though her words only made me picture my Dad as a villain that towered over everyone and was too strong for any hero to fight. The thought honestly made me shudder. 

"Assumin' you come across your enemy, if you think you can win against them, then fight. However..."

"In instances where you're outmatched, it would be smarter to run away and find help. Todoroki, Iida, Midoriya, Yagi. I'm sure the four of you understand." Mr. Aizawa finished Snipe's thought. 

"I won't make that mistake again. I will pass this test and prove that I'm a hero!" Iida exclaimed.

"So, we fight to win.... Or run to win." Izuku murmured.

"That's right! It's a test of your decision-making skills. But with these rules, you're probably thinking your only real choice is to flee. That's why the support course made these super clever accessories for us." Dad held up some kind of... metal bracelet?

"Behold! Ultra-compressed weights!" Present Mic told us.

"These babies will add about half our body weight to our physiques. It's not much, but they will eat up our stamina and make it harder for us to move around." Dad explained. I mean, in your case, you're adding double your body weight since you have four while the rest have two... I thought, just as Dad grunted. "Oh shoot... These are heavier than I thought! We had a contest to come up with these designs, and Young Hatsume ended up winning it." The girl with pink hair and goggles that was zipping across the second obstacle during the sports festival? I thought.

"You think we need a handicap to win against you?" Bakugo growled. "Well think again." 

"You seriously think you can take All Might without it?" I countered. Dad just laughed.

"This'll be fun." Dad replied.

"Let's begin. The teams will take the practical exams in the order you were called. We have a stage prepared for you. Sato, Kirishima, you're up."

"Yes, sir!" They exclaimed before the teachers filed into the building.

"Those waiting their turn to fight can either watch the exams or strategize together as a team. It's your choice. That's all." Mr. Aizawa told us before following the other teachers.

"Ojiro, I'd like to discuss how we might be able to coordinate the use of our Quirks." Iida was the first one to speak.

"Great." Ojiro replied.

"Tokoyami? Let's go come up with a plan." Tsu replied.

"Agreed." Tokoyami replied while they went inside together.

"We've got to figure out a way to destroy Miss Midnight's costume!" Mineta exclaimed.

"You are such a little scumbag." Sero mumbled as he followed Mineta inside. 

"Come on, Momo, let's come up with a plan." I told her before looking at Todoroki. "You coming?" I asked him. He looked at me before walking away. I sighed. "He already has a plan." I shook my head. Knowing him, it would be having us make a run for the gate while he holds off Mr. Aizawa. 

"Then my plan won't work..." Momo answered. I looked at her.

"Hey, not every plan works, we should still strategize just in case his doesn't pan out. Knowing Mr. Aizawa, I don't think the plan Todoroki has in mind will work." I told her. She looked unsure, but nodded, going with me into one of the waiting rooms. But, not even two minutes after we had sat down to talk, the buzzer went off.

"Sato and Kirishima have been knocked out! Exam over!" The automated system announced.

"Seriously?!" I asked, looking up. 

"That was fast." Yaomomo commented.

"Yeah, too fast... Looks like the match will be harder than we thought, I'm glad we agreed to strategize about this together." I told her. "What's the idea you have?" I asked after a second. She looked away from me. "Hey, don't close up on me. Please?" I tried again to get her to answer, but to no avail. "Momo, we're a team..."

"Team Tokoyami and Asui have passed the final!" The announcement came. Momo stood up.

"So Tokoyami and Asui have passed their exam... I'm not surprised." She finally spoke, leaving the room with me right behind her. 

"Team Ojiro and Iida have passed the final!" The automated system announced the end of Iida and Ojiro's match just as we arrived to our arena. We met up with Todoroki.

"It's our turn now. Let's go." Todoroki told us. Momo was still holding back, and she looked unsure of herself again.

"Yaomomo." I called her by her nickname, which snapped her out of it.

"What's wrong, are you nervous?" Todoroki asked her.

"Oh... No."

"It's okay... With our opponent, I don't blame you." Todoroki, she just said she's not nervous! I thought, but Todoroki wasn't done. "Don't worry, I have a plan in mind for us." 

"Todoroki, don't you think we should..." Before I could say anything more, I was cut off by the buzzer.

"Team Todoroki, Yagi and Yayorozu. Practical Exam. Ready. Go." The announcement went over the speakers. Shit, so much for hashing it out... As we ran, Todoroki told us his plan. "Yayorozu, listen, I want you to keep making small objects. When you stop being able to, it means Mr. Aizawa's close by." I knew it...

"Or at least we're within his line of sight... Todoroki, we should have-" I added, once again trying to get Todoroki to listen.

"Our success will depend on which one of us finds the other first. Once we spot him, I'll draw him to me. Then, you two can run to the escape gate and win this thing for us. Just stay close to me until then." Aaand once again, my protest fell on dead ears. This is oddly familiar... Momo opened her mouth to say something, drawing my attention to her. She does have a plan, I knew it! I thought. Todoroki noticed our focused had changed and spoke again. "C'mon, hurry up and start making things." She looked down.

"Sure... No problem..." Momo replied. No, no, you have to tell him your plan, Yaomomo, come on! I wanted to scream at Todoroki for not listening to her, but Yaomomo wouldn't speak up for herself either. As we continued to run, Yaomomo created Russian dolls, small and easy to store away. I will admit one thing, seeing Todoroki's look of utter confusion was hilarious.

"Um... I guess those work okay, but what are they?" He asked.

"Oh, these things? They're just Russian nesting dolls." Momo answered. 

"Right... Let me know if either of you notice your Quirks acting strangely at all." Todoroki activated his ice side before continuing to run. I noticed Yaomomo hesitate. 

"Yaomomo, if you have a plan, voice it. The only way we're going to pass is if we communicate with each other." I told her. She shook her head.

"It won't work... Come on, we gotta catch up to Todoroki." She told me before hurrying after our teammate, making the Russian dolls as she went. I sighed, following after her as I activated my fire on one hand, at the ready for a fight. "I'd expect nothing less from you, Todoroki."

"What'd you mean?" He asked.

"You were able to come up with a plan to use against Mr. Aizawa so quickly. You knew exactly what was best as soon as we started." It's not the best plan... 

"This is nothing." Todoroki waved off her compliment. Yaomomo stopped.

"No... You're wrong." Todoroki and I both stopped to face her. "As students who got into UA through recommendations, you and I started from the same place, Todoroki. But, in terms of the practical skills that a hero needs, I haven't really managed to do anything that stands out. During the Calvary battle, I just followed your orders, and then when it was my turn to fight, I failed before I could do anything..." That was when I noticed that my flames had stopped burning and the dolls were stopped.

"Yaomomo, the dolls!" I pointed out.

"He's coming!" Todoroki realized.

"I'm sorry!" Yaomomo apologized.

"If you know I'm here, then you should be acting." Aizawa spoke from above us. Todoroki and I turned as he dropped down from the telephone wires. "I would suggest that you prioritize evasion since I've taken your powers from you."

"Yayorozu, Yagi, go!" Todoroki attacked Mr. Aizawa.

"Would you pull your head out, there's gotta be another way! We need to regroup and actually talk about this like we should have before the rest even started!" I flared up in anger as Yaomomo ran for it, trying to get him to listen to me.

"Don't argue, just go!" He yelled back. I grit my teeth.

"Todoroki, listen to me-"

"I can handle this myself, Yagi! I don't need your help!" Todoroki shot at me, interrupting me. I stepped back a bit, his words stinging me a bit. Did he really believe that? That I wasn't strong enough to handle this? After everything? "Yagi, go!" He shouted again. I ran after Yaomomo. If Todoroki wouldn't listen, maybe I could get her to listen... I lost track of her after a minute, and despite it being risky, I jumped into the air to look for her with a bird's eye view. I saw Todoroki get captured before I spotted Yaomomo going the opposite way of the escape gate.

"What is she doing?" I asked myself before flying toward her, landing in front of her and getting her to a shadowed area in one movement. She was panting on a panic attack and looked extremely out of it. "Yaomomo, can you hear me?" I asked her. She nodded as Mr. Aizawa passed where we were hiding. "Name five things you can see." I told her. She gave me a weird look. "Just do it." 

"The sky, the street, the wall, you and my nesting dolls." She seemed a bit calmer as she answered. 

"Name four things you can feel." 

"Your hands on my shoulders, my heart racing against my chest, the ground below me and the wall behind me." She was continuing to calm down more.

"Good. Three things you can hear."

"Your voice, my own, and Mr Aizawa looking for us close by." 

"We're out of his line of sight for the moment, we're fine. Two things you can smell."

"My sweat and... Hino, are you wearing perfume?" 

"Yeah, I didn't go for too strong of a smell. One thing you can taste."

"My spit?" She was back to herself now.

"Gross, but it counts." I smiled back. "Now that we have a second, we can regroup."

"How are we supposed to get Todoroki back?!" She whisper-shrieked.

"Simple, I cause a distraction by shooting my flames away from the direction we're going to go. When Mr. Aizawa's back is turned, I use my wings to get us both back to Todoroki so you can tell us your plan. We'd be well out of eyeshot before he realizes what's happening."

"You're that fast?" She asked.

"Were you paying attention during the Sports Festival?" I countered.

"Besides, I doubt my plan will work." And we were back to the lack of self confidence.

"Well, I don't have a plan besides getting past Mr. Aizawa to get Icy Hot's dumb butt out of capture, so it's either we try yours or we fail this." I pointed out. She blinked.

"Hang on, did you just use Bakugo's nickname for Todoroki?" She asked.

"That's not important right now, do you think you can tell Todoroki and I your plan if I get us to him?" I asked. She stared at me, looking unsure for a minute before nodding, the look on her eyes changing. I smiled. I shot some fire out from where we were, which landed in the alley across from us just as Aizawa was passing by us for another patrol. Just as he turned to look where it landed, I shot into the air with Yaomomo in my hands. I flew as fast as I could, using my fire at my feet to go faster. That dumbass half and half... I wanted to smack him so hard for the comment he made. I knew he only said it to get me to run, but it still hurt... Besides, part of being a team was relying on each other. This wasn't like the Hero Killer, Mr. Aizawa knew what our Quirks were as well as our limits. He should have talked his plan over with us before all this...

"Todoroki!" Yaomomo and I both called to him as I landed, the two of us running toward him. 

"Yaoyorozu! Yagi!" He looked so surprised, I wanted to laugh, but remembered I was mad at him.

"I'm sorry I came back! I couldn't-"

"Hey, watch it! Mr Aizawa's coming!" Once again, Todoroki interrupted her, but it was to warn us that Mr Aizawa caught up to us. 

"So much for the distraction I caused..." I mumbled before noticing Yaomomo was starting to panic again. But, before I could say anything, Todoroki spoke up.

"Yayorozu, you've got a plan, don't you? I'm sorry to bother of you, I should have asked before and not told either of you what to do! But, you have an idea, right?" 

"Your plan didn't work, so there's no way mine will be any good. All of us are gonna fail." 

"That's not true." I put in.

"Spit it out already! I'm saying that you're the one who's the better at this kind of stuff, not me!" She looked up at him. "When we were voting for class rep, you had two votes, remember?! One of those votes was mine, because I thought you would be the best at leading our class!" I could see that his words really struck her, but before she could say anything, Mr. Aizawa jumped into the air above us.

"Giving up?" He asked.

"Not yet!" Yaomomo cried out. "Todoroki, Yagi, close your eyes!" She tossed them up into the air, Mr. Aizawa looking confused.

"What are these?" He asked, kicking one open midair. I realized the same that the doll opened what she had actually been making and shit my eyes, turning away for a second as the flash bangs exploded, blinding our teacher. "Flash grenades?" I heard him question.

"You're right! I have an idea. A plan for us to win!" Yaomomo told Todoroki as she let Todoroki down carefully. "This final exam isn't over." We both stood by him as the binds around him loosened, freeing him. "We can still beat Mr. Aizawa!" Just then, our teacher recovered.

"So, you've got a strategy."

"Yes, I've been thinking about it from the beginning. His weakness."

"Just tell us what to do, Yaomomo." I told her before Mr. Aizawa moved to a higher vantage point. We all knew that because of Mr. Aizawa's injuries from the USJ attack, he couldn't use his Quirk for as long as he used to, and he had to rest more between erasures. 

"Guys, watch it!" I warned as we all jumped back, avoiding Mr. Aizawa. Todoroki went to use his fire, but Mr. Aizawa used his quirk and erased it. 

"Yagi, Todoroki, we have to hide together!" All three of us ran, and I was honestly glad to have our rhythm back on track. "Since he was injured, his Quirk has become unstable!" Yaomomo was pointing out the very weakness that I had been thinking about just a second ago.

"Because of what happened at the USJ?" Todoroki asked. 

"We're going to exploit that." I added.

"Not yet. For now, we just need to get out of his field of vision. It's all a matter of timing. We're going to pass this final!"

"That's our Vice President." I grinned. 

"Timing? How is getting out of his line of sight gonna help us with that?" Todoroki questioned. "He can still take our Quirks whenever he sees us. 

"Just do as I tell you." Yaomomo replied as he turned a corner. "Keep checking to see if you can use your ice power, okay?" 

"Not fast enough, kids!" Mr. Aizawa shouted, his scarf heading toward me.

"He's wrong to think he'll be able to keep our Quirks erased the whole time. There will definitely be a single moment... A brief interval when Mr. Aizawa blinks before he can use his Quirk again!" Todoroki's ice power kicked in a second later. "And I'll be counting on you in that moment to attack like you did in the Sports Festival! A giant ice wall!" He used his ice power to create just what Yaomomo was looking for.

"I blocked him with the wall the moment my Quirk came back. We can use our powers again." As Todoroki activated his flame side to counteract the frost that has started on his right side, I noticed Yaomomo moving the sides of her shirt, and I immediately put my wings up to give her privacy. Considering how much shorter I was, I was barely covering her, and I looked away to give her more privacy as her Quirk activated. "So, can you tell me the rest of your plan now?" That was when he turned. Considering the top of my wing only came to just above her chest, it was probably a weird sight to see me standing with my wings out and covering Yaomomo who had her shirt open while I was looking away. Todoroki looked away, sounding hilariously strained as he spoke again. "Is that Aizawa's scarf you're making?" He asked.

"It is. I don't know the material it's made of or precisely how it's constructed, so it's not exactly the same. But, I created my own version with a special material woven into it. Since this is a residential area, we must keep the collateral damage to a minimum. And he moves his own restraining bonds so quickly, it makes it difficult to catch him. So, you see, here is my plan..." After she explained it, it made total sense, and I honestly knew it would work better than Todoroki's plan had. "What'd you think, Todoroki?" She asked our teammate as we looked at the catapult she had made a long with the scarf. "I believe this has the highest chance of success. Or at least... It's better than trying to run." She sighed softly. "We'll only get one chance." She looked at him. "So, is this all right with you?" She asked. I nodded.

"Let's make it count." I replied before looking at Todoroki. He nodded.

"Yeah, no complaints here." He replied before we put cloaks over ourselves and ran the opposite way that Mr. Aizawa was. "Hey, Yagi... I wanted to say to you... I'm sorry for what I said earlier." I looked at him as we ran. "I wanted you to run during my plan, and I realize that I must have hurt you with what I said by focusing on trying to keep you and Yayorozu out of harm's way." 

"I know you were doing what you thought was the best thing, Todoroki. Now, let's pass this final." I smiled at him, showing him that I forgave him. Just then, Aizawa took our bait, the cloaks being ripped off us, revealing the mannequins the three of us had been carrying. Yaomomo went to hit the latch, but missed it by a hair. I saw panic cover her face again. "Stay on target, Yaomomo!" I encouraged her, hitting it with her as Mr. Aizawa jumped back, giving us the opportunity to recover. "Todoroki, let's light it up!" I called to him, both us us using our flames before Mr. Aizawa could have a chance to react. Since Mr. Aizawa was in the air, we both aimed at the lowest part of the scarf Yaomomo had made.

"I'm not sure we would have a chance of beating you in a full battle, Mr. Aizawa, but that's okay! Tell me something: Have you heard of nitinol alloy? When heated, it returns to its original shape in an instant. It's a metal with shape memory!" The scarf tightened around Mr. Aizawa with the combined heat of mine and Todoroki's flames that same instant, capturing our teacher. We put the cuffs on him once Aizawa landed. 

"I told you it would work, Yaomomo." I gently nudged her.

"It went exactly according to your plan. It was almost a little too smooth." Todoroki piped up.

"Honestly, it shouldn't have worked out... When I was about to trigger the catapult, I made a big mistake. Mr. Aizawa noticed, but still jumped away, even though he could have stopped me easily. I think he allowed himself to be captured by my plan on purpose."

"I was just trying to see what Todoroki would do. Yagi and you were both in my sights, but he still has a cloth over him, remember? I thought he's try to freeze me. So, I decided it would be best for me to back off. In doing so, it looks like I ended up playing right into your hands." Mr. Aizawa revealed to us.

"It really was just a matter of timing like you said, huh? Thanks, teammate." Todoroki thanked her. 

"Exactly." I smiled at her. She started tearing up again, probably realizing what we had been trying to tell her the whole time. She covered her mouth.

"What's wrong? Do you feel sick?" Todoroki was instantly worried.

"No, it's nothing, really!" Yaomomo replied.

"If you feel nauseous, there's a pressure point you can press to-"

"No, I told you, I'm fine." Yaomomo interrupted him as the buzzer sounded.

"Team Todoroki, Yagi and Yayorozu have passed the final exam!" The announcement came, and I felt a sense of relief washing over me. Our test was finally over...

(Taglist: @iheartbarbie @qweenexplosionmurder13

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#cannon x oc #mha #hinotori yagi #dadmight #i am phoenix

[scaryghcsts]

(GAVIN CASALEGNO  +  CIS MAN +  HE / HIM  )     ⸻    meet   BLAKE AMBROSE.  the  college senior & fitness blogger  at  glen ellen college is  glen  ellen's  very  own   BEACH BUM,   who  has  been  in  town  for  four years. while  they  are  only  twenty four,    they  can  be  very   UNRELIABLE    but  if  their  friends  mentioned  them,    you'd  think  they  were  more  EASY-GOING.   in  a  town  where  everyone  knows  everyone,    it's  hard  to  keep  a  secret,     but  i  think  the  killer  knows  that  [ REDACTED ],    and  it's  bound  to  get  out  sometime  soon.

basics:

tw: drug usage

traits: charismatic and charming, a bit of a mooch, cheerful, sociable, optimistic, never asks for help, dynamic, friendly, perceptive, gullible, easily persuaded, romantic, emotionally distant from negative feelings/struggles opening up about them, bright, clumsy, methodical, unmotivated, tends to procrastinate.

relationship status: taken - in a fourway relationship with mei li/luiza/open bf.

sexuality: polyamorus && pansexual/totally gender blind.

religion: considers himself spiritual, not religious.

date of birth:  june 4th

zodiac sign:  a gemini

skills & hobbies: budgeting, surfing, skateboarding, taking the fattest bong rips known to man, lazying at the beach, swimming, boating, eating vegan, preparing food with loved ones, making out, flirting, anything romantic, singing/rapping, motorcycles (doesn't own one yet, sadly), tattoos.

dislikes & fears: studying, flunking college, losing his loved ones, abandonment, people ever knowing he is sad.

quirks: prefers to go by ambrose to most - only his closest friends usually would call him blake. he dreams of being a rapper - similar to yung pinch.

residence: an apartment near campus with his 3 lovers.

pets: tba???

family: his only family he considers real are his girlfriends && boyfriend && closest friends.

inspirations: p much all of yung pinch's discography, as well as the classic stoner trope - erudite stoner, fool with a heart of gold, a lot of different trope inspo in him. also tohru honda energy.

backstory:

tw: neglect, abandonment, drug use/drug selling.

california born && raised and fully blooded, blake was never not found on or near the beach. though his hometown was tiny, it was full of tourists, and the summer was eternal there, the beaches fine && perfect.

his home life was a mess; hell, he was practically raised by teachers, friends parents, neighbors - he hardly saw his mom, and he'd never really had a dad, anyway.

for his 17th birthday, ambrose was abandoned by his mom. he remembers it was sometime, around 2 weeks after his birthday, which passed without a word. not wanting his life to change, ambrose told nobody, figuring in just under a year, he'd be 18 and an adult anyway. so, he somehow made it through by himself, without anyone realizing.

to make ends meet, he has been working waiting tables, selling weed, landscaping, giving surf lessons/swim lessons, and babysitting since he was a young teen.

despite having a pretty piss poor attitude towards his education, ambrose is a laid-back, fun, chill guy. rarely sober, always smiling, has a soft spot for everyone, and a heart with tons of love to give.

he has been in town ever since enrolling in the local university, and is pursing a degree in nutrition && wellness. he hopes to be a dietician.

wanted connections:

to be added too...

tutors that are getting him barely through college (he's a senior)

friends (he could befriend a frog, this can be anybody)

people he knew from southern california in his beachy hometown?

clients he sells his weed too

people who don't like him && he's been trying to change their mind

little casual, passing flirtationships

he's always borrowing money from someone or other

fellow musicial-inclined friends to create some tunes together, preferably those who play musical instruments or make digitals music

#bludsintro #. {{ blake ambrose. introduction. }}

[morrisharding]

Honestly, I didn't think I would choose to do another Drake album but I just could not pass up the opportunity to talk about one of the most heartfelt and classic albums that he has ever made.

If you're reading this it's too late 6!

Many people including me say that this could be Drake's best album along with Nothing Was The Same and Take Care. There is just so much to this album that gets me excited every time I listen to it. This is an album that I started listening to recently but some songs on here were very popular when I was in 6th grade. My teacher mme Marianne was a huge Drake fan at the time and we would play Energy off the album sometimes in class. Clean version, of course, the whole class would sing along and it was just such a fun time. I didn't really know anything about Drake at the time except for a couple of his songs that played on the radio and obviously because of my class where half of them were Drake fans. It would only be till recently that I was able to listen to the whole album and I was blown away by how well made this project was.

Over time Drake has become one of my favourite artists and there are just so many reasons for it. I loved R&B as a kid and that's how he started off his career. His success is undeniable, from growing up as a single child with his mother to becoming one of the greatest of all time and inspiring many more. I am just one of the millions who look up to this individual and shows how much of an impact he has had. A lot of Drake's songs relate to me in a way that rarely any other artists do. Especially on this album the song "You and the 6" it makes me feel happy as he talks about his situation with his mother and his father and how his mother raised him all alone to become the man he is today. My parents have been divorced since I was very young and I have had my personal issues and hard times dealing with the situation but my mother stayed strong and took care of me on her own. I will always praise her for the sacrifices she made for me as life could be a lot different. Drake also mentions his ethnicity and how he was teased for being black but when he was introduced to the rap industry he was not black enough. As I am of mixed ethnicity aswell it's hard to see where you fit in sometimes as you are truly your own unique person. This is undoubtedly one of my favourite songs on the album and I wish Drake still made music similar to "You and the 6".

Preach by Drake and PARTYNEXTDOOR is a song that reminds me of the good times riding my bike with friends and going to parties. One time I was biking with my friend Rayan and he introduced me to this song and I absolutely loved it from first listen. From then on I would hear it at parties and other places and it would always remind me of the good old times.

My love for the album comes from the fact that it was one of the only albums where Drake is angry and trying to prove to others he's not just a nice R&B guy but a damn good rapper. Half of the tracks on the album would be rap songs and trap beats while the other half was R&B singles. I can't believe what it felt like for Drake fans at the time when they finally got what they wished for. All the rap songs on the album like Energy, 10 Bands, Know Yourself, No Telling, Star67, 6 God and more had amazing beats and they gave off the feeling of a dark and eerie place which is what he wanted to give off. Lyrics weren't out of this world but enough for the song to be catchy and for people to enjoy it still.

If you have not listened to Drake's If you're reading this it's too late then you are really missing out. Its truly at the top of my favourite albums and even if you are not a fan of rap there is so much more to this album.

Stay tuned next week for another big blog post!!!

#drizzy drake #if youre reading this its too late

[theveryworstthing]

So over on patreon Trevor asked for my take on the Addams Family and I grew up LOVING the Addams family movies so here we are. Instead of doing a straight up style interpretation, I decided to do a full on design challenge, using the characters as bases to make a black southern gothic Addams au. I actually drew the kids first, using the character bases of Wednesday and Pugsley to create some delightful kiddos I'm calling Sunday and Blanche. I of course then redesigned Gomez and Morticia into Carlisle and Mortesha.

The Addams have a very specific high aristocratic goth aesthetic (they've got a butler and nobody really works among other things) so in this re-imagining I wanted to go with vibes that run a little more middle class/upper middle class.  I thought it would be interesting to think about what would be considered weird and off-putting in an entirely different culture, and how being a big ol' goth is way less controversial than it used to be.

I tried to keep this short (HAHAHAHAHAHA) so I didn't spin off into an essay about villain coded families, black people in the horror genre, and normalcy as it pertains to social survival, but just...bits of that are in these designs and lore. Keep that in mind.

Also I made the kids twins because they've flip flopped in age so much in different media and also twins run in my family (i'm the daughter of one). And let's face it, I'm pulling a lot of their southern gothic traits from living as a southern goth so *shrug*.

10 thousand pounds of lore incoming loooooooooool.

The Parents

From the moment he saw her he knew that there was a 50/50 chance of him either never making it out of that swamp alive or marrying the figure that was creeping out from under the distant willow tree in a black cocktail dress. The third time she found him trussed up in one of her traps, he complimented her rope work and asked if she'd like to go out sometime after his head wound stopped bleeding.

Or while it was still bleeding.

If she was into that.

Some kids and a mysteriously burnt down Piggly Wiggly later, their love is still as strong and inescapable as a bear trap in a sink hole.

Carlisle Guillermo (now Addams through marriage but I wanted to give him two first names for a name since Gomez has two last names) makes a vaguely described living practicing ‘law’ around town. A loophole king, people come to him from miles around with contracts signed in blood, fights over chunks of hair buried in their rivals’ yard, dehydrated primate hands, memories that seemed like dreams until the evidence of their happenings became too real, and other regular Legal Items asking for counsel which he is all too happy to give. For a price. Sometimes that price is a homemade pie and sometimes it’s a million dollars, depends on who you are. Whatever you’re asked to pay it’s worth that price, and if you try to scam him out of work or he just plain doesn’t like you? Well. He knows how to twist a contract better than anything at the crossroads.

And he always gets his due.

He doesn’t just serve the local (living)humans though, there are many things that need proper legal representation in this day and age. You wouldn’t believe how many city councils try to build on sacred burial grounds even after he lets them know that his ghostly clients are totally gonna haunt the FUCK out of the ensuing shitty condos and curse their families for all eternity. At least 50% of his energy goes towards dealing with real estate bullshit.

Carl is an excitable and good natured(?) man who loves his family, cigars, dancing, and his many knife-based hobbies. People find him very charming once they get past the feeling that they’re talking to a sultry gator badly disguising itself as a human. I didn’t put a ton of deep thought into designing him, mostly I wanted to make a middle aged dude who looked like he would have been voted ‘most likely to smooch the literal devil’ in high school. Tbh he probably has, but no demonic ex’s can compare to his lovely wife~

Mortesha Addams(her name was already perfect so I just tweaked it)is a woman of many talents. A self proclaimed homemaker, she prides herself on a greenhouse full of Concerning Foliage, a beautiful wasp apiary, and a coop full of what are probably chickens that she keeps for what are probably eggs. She’s also an avid creator of the outsider art that can be seen around the estate. She has taken on the family business of selling her homemade goods in a little stall by the road just outside the swamp with her mom, and makes pretty good money doing so. A surprising amount of poison gets bought in quaint southern towns.

Speaking of poison, people who come out to the edge of the swamp to buy it are usually carrying a lot of secrets around, and Mortesha knows most of them. It’s not like she pries the truth out of people, it just so happens that many nervous hellos eventually turn into the tragic backstory power hour if she’s alone with a client for long enough. She supposes that’s just how people are. Despite the fact that the Addams are very active in the community (whether the community likes it or not) she especially, as a direct descendant of the first Addams matriarch, is seen as…Well not an outsider because the community feels A Certain Way about outsiders and despite it all the Addams are their people, but maybe something like an exception. They feel like whatever weirdness they’re hiding can’t be weirder than any given Addams, so they get a little loose with their words.

This is amusing to her, since Addams’ don’t naturally keep the kind dramatic secrets that their surface level prim and proper neighbors do. It’s much more fun to openly talk about those things.

Do they have a sadly decrepit yet terrifying grandma up in the attic? Yeah, like three. They got a tv, all the creepy porcelain dolls they could want, and they’re close to family. Where do you keep your gram-grams?

Any bodies buried on the property? Yeah some, but most are thrown to the gators.

Any creeping through the balmy summer night with ill intentions? Yeah dude, everyone loves a nice family stroll.

What about dangerous forbidden love? If an adult Addams isn’t incorporeal then they’re either queer or in a torrid romance with some person/thing mysteriously drawn to that awful swamp. Sometimes both at the same time. Most times actually.

Mortesha would know.

The current head of the Addams family is just as outgoing as her husband but a lot quieter and harder to read. She never really seems to get mad about much and always has a genteel smile for everyone whether they deserve it or not. A seven foot tall human shaped “Oh, bless your heart”. A perfectly composed Lady even when she’s, oh I dunno, burning down a Piggly Wiggly. You know. A regular southern mom. Chat her up at the hair salon for 50% off a jar of wasp honey with your next purchase of a mysterious but foreboding packet of herbs.

Designing her was pretty easy because I just drew a lankier Grace Jones and called it a day. I had some problems with her outfit simply because if we were going HARD southern gothic then she’d probably be wearing a white/cream dress with a fuller skirt but I thought keeping the silhouette and the black was more important. She’s supposed to be an anti southern gothic southern gothic character anyway. A woman who looks like she has a million secrets who is actually the most open person you could meet. For better or worse. The red hair came from a coloring error that I really ended up liking (my mom had red hair her whole childhood that only darkened up in high school so I can buy that an Addams can be naturally fire engine red) and the veil was to get more of that classic Morticia silhouette in there.

The Children

Sunday and Blanche are the twin children of Carlisle and Mortesha Addams. Some say the Addams clan got their cursed homestead when a wealthy local businessman made a deal with the devil and lost, leaving his grand mansion to his least favorite maid and cutting his losses once he realized that the swamp would do everything it could to drag the house into the water and take what was owed with its horrible curse. Others say that the family has just always squatted there and no one really cares because man, fuck that particular swamp. Have you been in there? Absolute horror show.

Anyway.

Blanche is the more outgoing sibling and quite the engineer/mad scientist in the making. He started going grey at 2 weeks old but considering he was also rocking some extra fingers, toes, and a tiny tail (he takes after his dad), his parents just put it on the 'not life threatening' pile and decided not to worry about it. He's the kind of smart that teachers find utterly infuriating, less a dog eagerly learning and obeying commands and more a hyena who keeps teaching itself how to pick locks. He has a few friends in his school's robotics club (which they honestly allowed him to make so the school could contain his... creations) but mostly hangs out with his sister exploring the swamp. They find all sorts of neat things in there! wedding rings, suspiciously lumpy garbage bags, cloaked cultists who can't read private property signs, it's an adventure every day!

Blanche is all about experimentation with his creations, his look, and his tether to this mortal coil. Is lipstick a cool thing to try? Let's find out. Can he get out of a strait jacket fast enough after being pushed into the depths of the swamp by his sister? let's find out. He's not dead yet and confused local doctors can attest to the fact that he's rarely attained more than a bad bruise so he's pretty set on continuing to kiss rattlesnakes on their cute little heads and have his sister practice her knife throwing at him until that fact changes.

Blanche is very much a country goth. Cowboy boots (customized by his mom), knife, and lighter are daily accessories. He likes to wear the crusty swamp jewelry they find (the rust adds a splash of color!) and despite appearances he does try to keep himself neat. He's just got  natural Grunge Colors and a tendency to wear clothes he likes until they fall apart. Pugsley always seemed the most modernly styled to me (which might just be because little boys clothes have been the same for a long time) so I wanted Blanche to be the most purposely fashionable Addams. Everyone else is goth by nature, but he's the only one truly familiar with goth as an alternative fashion.

I got really into designing Blanche because honestly, I find Pugsley to be the most boring member of the family. And he was hard to design! I had to mess with his vibe a lot to get him looking how I wanted. I know he's supposed to evoke an " 'evil' little boy next door who's parents never reign him in", but that's just goth Dennis The Menace.  I's 2020. We can at least go queer goth Calvin.

Sunday was much easier to design. Wednesday was my favorite as a child (of course) and I really wanted to keep the spirit of her look while adding things like billowy sleeves (it gets HOT down here), big poofy twists instead of braids, and a nice tie. She's a professional after all, been running the local pet cemetery since she was 6 and the previous groundskeeper met with an unfortunate accident after telling her that tarantulas don't have souls. Her specialty is creating beautiful naturalistic animal funerals similar to those that Maquenda (https://linktr.ee/artofmaquenda) makes, and she takes pride in creating miniature dioramas of her subjects after each burial which she uses as a kind of 3D catalog for future clients.

She really wants to try out her skills on humans one day. Well. Publicly try out her skills. Lotta random bodies float into the swamp. None of them have turned down her requests for diorama models so far. Most seem downright flattered. Plus, she usually figures out which graveyard/crime scene they floated over from and gets her parents to give them a lift back. She'll even help enact terrifying revenge from beyond the grave on whoever put them there if she's not, y'know, busy.

Besides arts, crafts, and pet based funerary arrangements, Sunday is an avid lover of archery (any ranged weapon really), books where little fantasy adventure animals die dramatic deaths, and history. She is That Kid who eagerly raises her hand when asked who Christopher Columbus was and ends up being sent out of class after 15 minutes for making 'a scene'. Her favorite party trick is just picking an item in the room and talking about how it relates to either some obscure historical figure with a buck wild life or a horrible disaster. At least one charity pancake breakfast ended with children in tears after her vivid description of the Great Molasses Flood of 1919.

Social-wise, while Wednesday is the girl that people ask to smile because they think she'd, "look so pretty", Sunday is rarely asked anything at all. People just kind of assume from her quiet nature (in between horrible history facts) that she's angry all the time and that she hates everyone. This is untrue. She hates some people but she's ambivalent to most everyone else and even downright friendly if you bother to talk to her like a person instead of a terrifying cryptid. Like, she IS a terrifying cryptid but she's also a little girl.  

That’s about it for now. One day I might do the other family members but for now I’m happy with the four I’ve redesigned. Making an au! Lurch in a family that doesn’t do butlers could be interesting. Over on patreon I put forth that he could just be Motesha’s mute little brother (similar bone structure) but Amy Crook had the nice idea of quote: “ a mysterious "cousin" that "helps around the house" whose origins are both long in the past and faintly unsettling. He's good for lifting heavy things, like that tank of propane you're about to throw into the burning Piggly Wiggly... “ which i now consider canon. Who's kid is he? How old is he? Not important. Anyone willing to commit arson with you is family.

Annnnyway.  This challenge was a lot of fun! I love indulging in AU’s.

#long post #the addams family #Character Design #au #design challenge #i am incapable of doing a design challenge like a normal person #oh god i forgot the cut lol

[floralseokjin]

⤑ made-up love song x (m).

Your first encounter with Kim Seokjin doesn’t go so well, nor your second, or your third… and maybe that’s because it shouldn’t work on paper. You’re an elementary school teacher, never left the country despite hitting the third decade of your life not so long ago, and you’re unable to remember the last time you dated. He’s the dad of one of your students, nearly a decade older than you and divorced. Oh yes, and just another minor detail – he’s a multimillionaire. 

Your lives are lightyears apart, yet somehow, your paths having now crossed, things just seem to fall into place…

pairing; kim seokjin x reader   au/genre/warnings; strangers to lovers, romance, single dad! seokjin, ceo! seokjin, elementary school teacher! oc, age gap (oc is 30, seokjin is 37), seokjin is a dilf, romance, happy ending, jin has stubble lmao, smut; morning sex, oral sex (f receiving), soft sex, spooning, jin has a thing for boobs this saturday morn, everything gets so fluffy  words; 6,243

↪︎ chapter index

chapters; i • ii • iii  • iv • v • vi • vii • viii • ix • x • epilogue (+ drabbles)

When you heard the doorbell ring twenty-five minutes later you were up off the sofa in seconds, heart thrumming against your ribcage as you rushed towards the entryway, a nervous kind of excitement flurrying inside your stomach. Yanking the door open, you were unable to keep the smile from your face as you saw Seokjin stood in front of you. He was dressed in sweatpants and a baggy white t-shirt which was slightly creased. His hair must have been freshly washed, soft and fluffy on top of his head, but it looked like he hadn’t shaved in a while, hints of stubble growing along his upper lip and along his jawline. 

“Hi.” You were grinning by now. 

“Hi,” he murmured softly, stepping forward. Immediately you found yourself in his embrace, the familiar scent of his laundry detergent welcoming. You wrapped your arms around his middle, pressing the side of your face to his chest. You felt still, relaxed for the first time in days. 

Kissing the top of your head as he pulled away, he took your hands and let out a small chuckle. “I was halfway here when I realised I still had my slippers on.” 

You looked down at his feet, giggling as you spotted the blue slip ons. Linking your fingers with his, you gently tugged him forward. “Do you want head to the living room?”

He nodded, letting you lead the way, and you paused by the kitchen, turning back. “Want something to drink?”

“Water, if it isn’t any trouble.” He asked. Classic Seokjin, you thought to yourself, leaving him to sit, too polite for no reason. When you came back, handing him the drinking glass he smiled and said his thanks. You sat next to him watching him take a sip and lean over to place the glass on the coffee table. You didn’t know where to start, you had so much to say, but it seemed like he had been thinking his piece over in the car ride here. 

Exhaling, he turned to you with a serious expression. “Just before you say what you need to, I want to apologise.” He paused, seeing if you would let him continue, when you didn’t object he reached for your hand. “I’m really sorry for the way I acted Sunday. It was unacceptable and I’m really embarrassed you had to see me like that.” He sighed then, “I was just so... I was so mad that Nana turned up and spoke to you like she did. I let all my frustrations regarding Arin take over too.” He was staring you straight in the eyes, eager to make you see how sincere he was. “I never meant to compare you both and I’m sorry for making you uncomfortable.” 

“Everyone gets angry, Seokjin. Don’t feel embarrassed because of that,” you told him. “It was just jarring to see. Plus it was all so overwhelming.” He nodded in understanding and you smiled and squeezed his hand. “I appreciate your apology regarding the comparisons though.” What was done was done, but he sounded regretful. “Have you spoken to Nana since?” 

“Yeah,” he murmured, averting his gaze for a split second. He sounded remorseful. “I saw her yesterday afternoon. She wanted to be with Arin this weekend so I finished work early and drove her there. Nana…” He stopped himself and started again. “I know why she was so hurt over everything. We talked it out a little. Barely touched the surface but things are headed in the right direction. I apologised to her.” 

“That’s good to hear,” you said. There was no good only apologising to you. Nana deserved an apology just as much, maybe even more. You were glad they’d managed to be civil and you hoped it was a step in the right direction. 

“I know Arin missed school but I called Principal Jung.” Seokjin was eager to explain himself. “I didn’t go into details of course, but he said it was okay.” 

“That’s fine,” you chuckled quietly. “You don’t have to explain yourself to me. It was only one day.” How cute. You didn’t take your job that seriously. At least the mystery was solved though. You had stressed over nothing. He wanted nothing more than for Arin to see her mother, regardless of what his relationship with Nana was like. This extra weekend together meant a lot to not only Arin and Nana, but him too. Harsh words had been shared in frustration and anger, but he hadn’t lost sight of what mattered the most – his daughter. 

“I’m glad you talked to Nana,” you smiled, unsure how to voice all your thoughts. What mattered was he’d seen the error of his ways, and hopefully Nana had too. 

He nodded sternly. “I was out of order that day.” 

You grew serious too, hesitating before you said his name. You knew you had to ask him, knew you had to have this conversation, but it didn’t stop you from feeling slightly afraid. “Seokjin, why didn’t you tell her about us?” 

He closed his eyes briefly, shame written all over his face, and he let go of your hand to run a hand through his hair. It draped across his forehead instantly. “I made a mistake.” He was looking straight into your eyes again, chocolate irises pooling with genuine regret. “At first I didn’t know what would happen between us. It was all brand new for me – for you. Letting Nana know was the last thing on my mind, but as things got more serious, I just…” He faltered, gaze falling to his lap. “I didn’t want to burst the bubble. I was so happy. I didn’t want anything to potentially ruin it. 

“It was stupid, considering Arin could tell her at any moment. I just wasn’t thinking, I was being selfish. I understand why Nana was so hurt. I would feel the same if I found out Arin had been spending time with a man I didn’t know.” He exhaled deeply. “I took it all to heart because deep down I knew I’d done wrong.” 

You appreciated his honesty. “We were definitely in a bubble. I never even thought to ask if you’d let her know. I –”

“It’s not your fault.” He was quick to tell you. “It was my responsibility and I didn’t want to do it. I regret it now and I’ve told her that. I’m sorry to you too, it wasn’t my intention to keep you a secret.” 

You were quiet then, unsure what to say. You still had questions, still had things you needed to understand and as if he read your mind, he placed a gentle hand on your knee, tilting his head to watch you. “Y/N, is there anything else you want to know?” 

Your fingers picked at your pyjama pants, heart beating rapidly. There was one important thing you needed the answer to, it was a dumb question, you were nearly positive, but yet you knew you needed to ask it. 

“Anything you want to ask, I’ll be 100% honest with you.” He gently nudged, sensing your reluctance. 

“T-this may seem stupid,” you began, finding courage. He was Seokjin, your Seokjin, he wouldn’t judge you. However, you hoped what you had to say wouldn’t hurt him. He waited patiently for you to continue. You held his gaze. “You’re not just looking for a mother figure for Arin, are you?”

His forehead crinkled in confusion, his hand leaving your knee as he processed your words. “What do you mean?”

You felt a wave of panic. “I know it sounds stupid, but I just need to know if you like me for me.”

He watched you carefully, brow line now creasing in concern. “Of course I like you for you.” And then he took your hand, lacing his warm fingers between yours. You could see the concentration on his face as he tried to find a way to word his thoughts. “I’m not looking for a mother figure, I never was. Yes, I’d love it if Arin saw her mother every day, but I’m not trying to recreate it elsewhere. I was wrong to compare you both. Nana loves Arin, I know that, she’s trying her best, and you’re…,” he took a breath, “I would never expect you to take on all that responsibility. You’re my girlfriend, I would never intentionally put all that pressure on to you.

“Y/N, I’m Arin’s father,” he continued when you didn’t reply. “She means the world to me, so knowing that she adores you makes me happy, as does knowing you adore her. I always thought dating in my position would be really hard – that’s why I never did it. Having to trust someone that much to potentially let them into my daughter’s life, that was such a frightening thought. But it wasn’t with you.” His eyes were wide, pleading as he tried to make you see. As he spoke he used his other hand to cup the side of your face, you softened into his touch. 

“There were other worries too,” he continued to confess. “I thought nobody would want a divorced dad as a boyfriend. It’s fine, I understand it’s not everyone’s ideal, but with you it was never a problem. You accepted me and what my life involved and I’m not going to lie, that made me fall for you even harder but I wasn’t using you because I wanted some sort of permanent mother figure in Arin’s life. That’s absurd and it makes me really sad to know I potentially made you feel that way.” 

Your chest felt lighter hearing those words. Nothing like the tight, anxious mess you had felt all week. It was good to know your worst fears weren’t true. Your doubts, even though valid, hadn’t been needed. You believed every word he said. 

He lowered his hand from your face, sensing you were about to speak, and instead clutched the hands laced together in your lap. “Hearing those things you said to Nana, it made me… It overwhelmed me. Made me think that you’d been expecting too much of me this whole time, or like maybe you’d been searching for something I had no clue about.” You admitted.

You hadn’t liked being used as a weapon. It had made you feel horrifically guilty. You told him just as much, being as frank as you possibly could because he needed to hear it. 

“I understand,” he nodded. “I promise I’ll never do it again. All I can give you is my word.” 

“And I’ll believe it.” You told him, needing him to know something else as well. “Seokjin, I really do care about Arin. I’m beyond touched that she’s accepted me into her life but my place will always be different.” 

Seokjin frowned at that. “You are still an amazing person in her life though. She’s become so much happier these past few months and I can’t deny it and say that’s not partially down to you, even if it’s just a fraction of the reason.” 

You opened your mouth to disagree with him, he was being too nice, giving you too much credit, but he wasn’t having any of it. “No, Y/N. You need to hear these things. You make Arin happy too, and I think that’s a beautiful thing.” He felt you relax, smiling when he noticed you do the same. “I fell for you because of many reasons, and yes, one of them was because of how you treat Arin, but it’s not the only one.” His voice was soft as he began to make a list. You couldn’t help but giggle. “You’re sweet, caring, funny, beautiful – inside and out.” 

“You’re a real charmer, hm,” you teased.

He chuckled, but grew serious once again, giving your hand a squeeze. “You could have anybody but you chose me, the man whose life is overtaken by work and is struggling to be an OK dad.” 

“Seokjin, you’re an amazing father,” you scoffed. If he expected you to listen then he needed to as well. “You work so hard and you’re constantly exhausted but that doesn’t stop you from being one of the best fathers I know. You need to give yourself more credit.” 

“Thanks,” he said, plump lips tugging up into a half-smile. You really wanted to kiss him, it had been long enough, so you leaned forward, pressing your mouth to his. Gentle and chaste. When you pulled back he was smiling harder. You couldn’t help but join him. 

One of his hands lifted, weaving into your hair as he brought your face to his chest, the hand holding yours letting go so he could wrap his arm around your middle, holding you to him. You were both silent, content for a moment as you listened to his heart beat steadily. It comforted you, let you know that everything was okay. 

“I’m sorry if I put pressure on you,” he murmured, chin resting against your hair. “It’s just when the three of us are together it feels so right. It feels natural and I love that.” 

“I love it too,” you agreed, your face still pressed into his chest, your palm too. “But Nana is her mother and I don’t ever want to take her place.” You paused, slowly pulling away to look at him. “I want to make my own place. And I don’t know if that means being a stepmom so soon, but it’s definitely moving in that direction.” You’d had enough time to think about everything. You were more than serious about him. “I want a future with you, Seokjin. A future with you and Arin. You both mean a lot to me.” 

His mouth slowly spread into a grin, he looked and sounded unbelievably happy. “Do you mean that?” 

“Of course. I spent these past few days thinking really hard about us and what we were – what we are. I’m serious about us, and I hope you are too.” 

He pulled you into another hug, kissing your forehead. “I most definitely am, but we’ll take it at your pace,” he assured, “and Arin’s pace.” 

“And your pace,” you added, moving your head back to look at him, hands resting on his shoulders. “Nana’s too. She needs to be involved because no matter what, she’s still a part of your life.” 

It wasn’t about just you and Seokjin, you understood that now, and so did he. “I agree. I really think yesterday was a turning point for me and her. I want our relationship to be better for not just Arin, but you too. I hate that you had to witness all that.” 

“It’s okay, Seokjin. Please don’t beat yourself up about it.” He needed to let it go and move forward. You had already. 

“Listen, I, er, I’m…” He hesitated, serious once again. “I’m sorry for not telling you why we divorced.” 

Oh. In your happiness you’d actually forgotten about that. You waited for him to continue, wanting to hear what he had to say because it had been the source of some of your hurt. You rubbed his shoulders, wanting to encourage him as he struggled to find the words. 

“It’s complicated,” he started. “…Finding out Nana had been cheating on me was what triggered the divorce, but it had been over long before then. It’s… difficult to admit this out loud but for the longest time I was embarrassed. I couldn’t believe that she’d cheated on me – it was an ego thing. I didn’t care because I no longer loved her but at the same time it was mortifying and it made me very bitter.

“I didn’t tell you because you’d trusted me with your own story. I learned how cheating had affected you and my situation was completely different. I don’t know,” he sighed, unsure if he was making any sense. “I regret it now because I should have told you.” 

“I understand why you didn’t,” you said simply, attempting to process the huge chunk of information you’d just been given. “But I think, regardless of our different circumstances it still affected you in some way. There’s no right or wrong way to deal with being cheated on.” It had obviously left its mark if he was still bringing it up nearly three years later. 

He still wasn’t convinced. “But Nana was right, that’s why I got so angry. I couldn’t admit it to myself, not until this week. By sleeping with someone else she gave me a way out. I didn’t want to be the one who ended it because that would mean I was the reason for Arin’s broken home. To ease my conscience I could blame the breakdown of our marriage on her.” 

“Seokjin, that doesn’t make you a terrible human being. You need to let all that go,” you told him gently. “At the time you did what you thought was best for Arin. You thought by staying together it would give her a better life but it doesn’t work like that and you’ve realised that now.” 

You didn’t want to stick your nose in business that wasn’t yours, but you understood what had happened. By staying together they had become increasingly bitter towards one another and the result was still ongoing. There had been a lot of hurt and that would take some time getting over. 

You noticed the slight nod he gave you, a silent agreement. The sooner he accepted his mistakes the easier it would be to forgive himself. “I still should have you,” he whispered.

“That’s not important anymore,” you insisted. 

“It is.” He clutched your waist, his eyes glassy. “You shared so much with me about how you got hurt, and I kept something big from you.” 

You gave him a reassuring smile. “Well, I know now.” You weren’t going to hold it against him, it had obviously been playing on his mind the entirety of your relationship. “That’s all that matters.”  

He relented, kissing you softly, just once, unable to help himself. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking too these past few days. I talked to my therapist. It’s been a while. I’ve just been so happy I didn’t need to until…” Trailing off he gave an embarrassed shrug. 

“That’s good you got back in contact with her.” He hadn’t actually spoken about his therapist since your first date and you’d never thought much about it, but it was great that he knew to seek help when he needed it. 

“We talked a couple of times about everything. It was helpful.” He rubbed your back with a soothing hand. “I really am sorry my relationship with Nana is like this. There’s a lot of bitterness and hurt left over from all the years we stayed together. Maybe the truth is we should have never gotten married in the first place. We brought out the worst in one another until in the end it turned to hate, but I can’t regret it because she gave me my world.” 

“Maybe realising all this is the next step for some type of closure,” you offered. He and Nana couldn’t keep this up. They needed to get along for Arin’s sake. They had to try and salvage some type of relationship if they wanted to continue co-parenting their daughter – their world. 

“I think you’re right,” he agreed. “Now that everything is out in the open I feel so much better.” 

“I’m glad.” You leaned in to kiss his cheek.  

“So,” he hummed, sounding a lot more like himself, “where do we go from here?” 

“I think we just carry on from where we left off.” As far as you were concerned everything had been resolved. All your questions and worries had been answered. You were both on the same page now and you could move on together. “When I was waiting for you to come back with that salad.”

“Sounds perfect.” He laughed, wasting no time with kissing you, properly this time, cupping your face to bring you closer. You settled in his lap soon after, his lips soft and warm, each glide of your tongues making you realise that all you wanted to do was be with him. Always. 

“There is one change I’d like to make though,” he murmured, pulling away gradually, kisses becoming gentle pecks until he had the will power to stop completely. “I was going to wait until I took you to Paris, but maybe grand gestures don’t mean shit after I thought I’d lost you.” 

Your heart flipped inside your chest just from the look he was giving you, the sheer determination in his eyes, and the way he cupped your face firmly. You thought you knew what was coming. 

“I love you.” 

You were still speechless for a moment though, but it was okay because he was still busy confessing. 

“I know it may seem too fast and I don’t want to scare you away but I’ve fallen head over heels in love with you these past few months. I can’t remember what my life was like before you appeared in it.” 

“I love you, too,” you gushed, coming to. “Of course you wouldn’t scare me away. Everything you just said, I feel exactly the same way.” 

“Really?”

“Yes!” You exclaimed. 

“It’s not too fast?” 

“Not at all,” you shook your head. You’d been worried it was at first, but you’d been upset and scared. Now everything was clear. “Actually, there’s no such thing because I’m in this 110%.” 

He chuckled then, brow line crinkling in the middle. “That sure?” 

“Mhmm,” you nodded enthusiastically, hands holding the back of your neck. “Thank you for reversing into my car.” 

That made him snort. “It’s no problem at all, but,” he leaned forward, tone serious, “I hate to break it to you, I’m in 1010%.” 

You rolled your eyes playfully, ignoring his goofiness to kiss him again. Although this time there was something you couldn’t ignore any longer. “Oh my god,” you complained, itching your lips. 

“What?” He was very obviously concerned. 

“Your stubble keeps pricking me!” You whined. “What is going on?” You cupped his face, getting a better look at the situation. He did look rather handsome with stubble, you admit, but you’d keep that to yourself. “A few days without me and you forget to shave.” 

He raised a dark eyebrow. “Isn’t that a thing? When you think you’ve lost the woman of your dreams you have to start growing out a beard, right?” 

You snorted lightly. “You’d be there for years trying to grow out that thing.” 

He tutted. “Rude.” 

“But what, say that again? I’m the woman of your dreams?” You teased, pressing for more. 

“I take it back now,” he scoffed. 

“You can’t! You’ve said it now.” 

“Shush,” he laughed. “Come here.” He wrapped his arms around you, pulling you close. “Stop talking and let me love you.” 

It took a single press of his lips for you to listen. 

.

.

You were slow and still sleepy when you awoke the next morning, gradually coming to, your eyes still closed. It was raining, you could hear the soft patter of it against the window as you became more aware, but you found it didn’t hinder the good mood you’d woken up in. Why would it? 

Finally opening your eyes, although with effort, a soft focus Seokjin came into view, already awake and leaning over you slightly. He smiled when you saw him, a hand caressing your hip. “Good morning, beautiful.” 

You smiled back, rolling into the side of his body, making the most of your sleepy state – and your boyfriend’s warmth. “How long have you been awake?” You asked with a small yawn. 

You didn’t actually remember falling asleep last night. After you’d made up (and you were done with all that kissing), you’d asked him to stay over. You’d laid in bed, wrapped up in one another as you talked about anything and everything before your eyes had started to get heavy, Seokjin’s voice and your own sounding distant in no time. And now you were here. 

“A few minutes,” he murmured, morning voice always an octave lower. It never stopped being sexy. You tangled your legs in his as he laid back down and realised his were now bare – he must have gotten too warm in the middle of the night. 

He cupped your face, wanting you to look at him. “I was using the time to admire you.” 

“Cheesy as always,” you chuckled. 

“Of course,” he agreed easily, leaning in to rub his nose against yours. “I woke up and thought last night might have been a dream.”  

“It wasn’t,” you whispered, getting lost in his eyes for a moment. 

“I love you.” 

With a soft groan you rolled onto your back. “Not fair, I was about to say that.” 

“Too bad,” he laughed, that deep morning chuckle you loved, wrapping his arm around your middle as he kissed your cheek. “You snooze you lose.” 

“I wasn’t snoozing.” 

“You were – and snoring. I heard you.” He was trailing kisses along your jaw now. 

“You didn’t!” You exclaimed. That was something you definitely did not do. “I don’t snore, take that back!” 

You attempted to wriggle out of his hold but he wasn’t having any of it, both of his hands beginning to tickle your sides. “Seokjin!” You shrieked, starting to thrust your legs but he rolled on top of you, caging your body easily. 

He stilled all movement and looked down, having way too much fun teasing you. “What?” 

Before you could even think to reply he was kissing you. Somewhere along the way last night you’d gotten used to the stubble, quite liking the tingle across your lips now, so you didn’t gripe this morning. Holding your face he trailed wet kisses down your throat, teeth gently sinking into your collarbone. You let out a gasp, your fingers tangling in his hair as you pushed against his body, eager for more of his mouth. 

His hands soon began roaming your body, slipping under your pyjama shirt to caress your skin. His fingers delicately traced the underside of your breasts, lifting his head up to kiss your mouth once before he spoke his request. “Can I see you?”

You smiled and nodded, watching as he started to undo the buttons with expertise. When you were fully revealed he looked at you with a grin. “Woah,” he stated simply. 

“You’re acting like you’ve never seen them before,” you giggled. 

“I don’t know, I’m pretty sure they’ve gotten bigger.” He mused, weighing your breasts in his hands. 

You snorted, mouth dropping open when he captured one of your nipples between his lips. His used his hand to palm the other breast, pinching the nipple with his fingers and you moaned, arching into his touch. Against your crotch you could feel him growing hard – rapidly. 

“Take this off,” you urged, tugging at his t-shirt. Your need for him was rising too, breathing becoming unsteady as Seokjin kneeled upright and ripped the piece of clothing off. You sat up, running your hands across the muscular swell of his chest. “Yup,” you nodded to yourself, “definitely gotten bigger.” 

He chuckled quietly – shyly almost, and helped you take your shirt off, kissing across your shoulder as he eased you back against the pillows. Next, he got you out of your pyjama bottoms, kissing his way back up your stomach and between the valley of your breasts as his hand slid between your legs, rubbing you above your underwear. Squirming, warmth flooding you as his mouth found yours, your tongues mashing together in haste, your arms wrapped around him, holding him tight. 

He slipped his hand inside your panties and loved what he found. “You’re so wet, honey,” he murmured, playfulness in his tone as he circled your clit with the pad of finger. His touch was so light it was unbearable and you whined, nuzzling into the crook of his neck. 

He circled your entrance next but didn’t enter, collecting your arousal to rub your clit again. You dug your foot into the mattress, raising your hips to get more. His dick was fully erect now, pressing into your thigh, but he was in no rush, fully devoted when it came to pleasuring you. Dragging your underwear down your thighs, you helped push them off entirely, reaching for him and pulling him into a kiss, although he didn’t stay at your mouth long, kissing across your chest and down your stomach until he met his destination. 

He didn’t get very far though, his hot breath making you wriggle about, thighs clamping around his head. “It tickles.” 

“Tickles?” He repeated in amusement, nosing your inner thigh. He kissed your bikini line, ignoring your feeble giggles. “I’m not trying to tickle you.” 

You held your breath as he placed a testing kiss against your centre, willing yourself not to squirm, but Seokjin took it slow, easing you into it, because your body had suddenly decided to turn hypersensitive in his absence. He continued to kiss your core, his tongue coming out to wash against you too, and soon enough you got used to the sensation. 

“Good?” He asked against your clit, the vibrations making you flutter. 

You nodded in reply, fingers of both hands reaching to tangle in his hair. He gave you a quick smile and then started to flick his tongue against the bundle of nerves rapidly, making your hips rise in shock as a moan drew from your throat. He gave you no time to recover, sucking on your clit now as he hummed in satisfaction. Body with a mind of its own, you spread your thighs, wanting to feel him even better. 

He got the hint, using his hands to plant your feet on his shoulders, legs bent at the knee to open you up even wider for him. He continued to suck you softly, the tip of his tongue flicking back and forth at the same time, the stimulation so glorious you were sure you had tears in your eyes. 

“Oh God, Seokjin,” you moaned as he pulled away abruptly, your head falling back against the pillow. You had been moments away from coming, you were almost positive. 

He moaned himself as he licked a strip up your centre, pushing your knees higher up your body, exposing your clit even more so this time when he rolled it between his lips your hips jerked around uncontrollably, the pleasure too much. You felt him ease off but begged him not to stop, sounding possessed. “No, don’t stop. Please don’t stop.”  

He continued, his eyes on you as he made your legs tremble and you dug your toes into his shoulders, clutching at his hair. “You gonna cum, baby?” He husked. You whined in reply, hips rolling into his face with desperateness. “Give it to me then.” He told you, once again suctioning his lips to your clit. 

Your eyes clenched shut as you concentrated on his tongue, panting loudly as the muscles in your gut tightened. Your release hit you seconds later, lifting your hips up with one last burst of energy as he continued to work his tongue against your thrumming clit, your orgasm crashing through you in waves as you cried out. It was amazing, almost euphoric if you wanted to be dramatic (you did), your whole body satisfied and warm. 

Seokjin tried to ride it out as long as possible, but soon you grew sensitive, your hands detaching themselves from his hair to fall limply to your side, chest rising and falling deeply as you tried to catch your breath. He wrapped his fingers around your ankles delicately and placed your legs down on the bed before hovering over your body. He was just as out of breath, your arousal smeared across his mouth and chin, and you kissed him greedily, wanting nothing more. You could feel him rutting against you, attempting to gain just a little bit of relief, and taking pity on him you  cupped his erection over his underwear, giving him a squeeze. He groaned at the sensation, breaking away from your mouth. 

You started to rub him as best you could as he kneeled between your legs, watching your hand at work. He chuckled in disbelief. “You have me so hard, shit.” 

“That is my area of expertise,” you gloated, pulling his dick out of his boxer shorts. You ran your fist up and down it a few times, revelling in the smooth skin, thumb circling the head that was beading with precum. 

His patience was crazy this morning, enjoying the way you touched him so much he leaned in to kiss you again, panting quietly against your lips as you sped up your movements, dragging your thumb across his slit in a bid to spread his arousal. He hissed, jerking into your hand, and you just about lost it. You wanted him, no, needed him inside you. Right this instant. 

You looked him deep in the eyes, your noses practically touching as you gave him a squeeze. “Make love to me, Seokjin.” 

He broke then, unable to deny you or himself any longer. His underwear was gone in a flash, thick cock bobbing as he guided you onto your side, fitting in beside you perfectly. He wrapped his hand around your calf, lifting your leg over his to spread you out a little and then he angled the head of his cock at your entrance, kissing your shoulder as he slowly began to push inside you. 

You closed your eyes as you felt the drag, both of you groaning as he continued to fill you, his hand pushing one of your butt cheeks up a little so he could successfully bottom out. You stayed like that for a while, kissing one another, one of his arms hooked underneath your neck, hand cupping your chin, the other caressing your body, tracing across your stomach before softly cupping your breasts. The sensation had you sighing sweetly, pushing back into him and he couldn’t hold off any longer. 

He thrusted slowly, practically all the way out just to push back in, filling you up over and over. It was glorious, his rhythm eliciting moan after moan, especially as he played with your chest, rolling your hardened nipples between his fingers. You could hear yourself, how wet you were, and you rolled yourself onto your side more, pushing your ass into him in a bid to get more.

He got the message, speeding up as you reached behind and ran your fingers through his hair. He loved that, grunting as he spoke against your ear, “A little faster, baby?” 

All you could do was nod and respond with a garbled noise from somewhere deep within your throat, Seokjin’s thrusts gaining momentum as he started to pound against your ass, his laboured breathing blowing hot air against your cheek. One of his hands dug into the round of your ass, his teeth sinking into your shoulder as he growled softly, thrusts purposeful, unrelenting. 

“Let me see your pretty face,” he panted after a few moments, pulling you into him and cupping your jaw. You twisted yourself, half flat to his sweaty chest as you spread your legs too, letting him thrust up into you. Your breasts jiggled with the force of his movements, his tongue pushing into your mouth, kiss sloppy and everything good. 

His breathing got heavier, his movements turning slightly sloppy as he adjusted your body once again so he could kiss and caress your breasts instead. A hand played with the left one as his mouth licked and sucked the right, grunts falling from his lips now as he quickly lost himself. His thrusts got harder and his teeth grazed against your nipple. When you cried out, he loved that, squeezing your boob roughly, tearing another sound from your throat as your walls clamped around him, gripping him for all he was worth. 

You knew he was done for when he sought your mouth again, chuckling huskily as you pecked kisses against his plump lips. You felt his dick pulse, thrusts messy as he chased his end, and then he stilled, groaning as his orgasm hit and he started spilling warmth inside of you. 

He wrapped his arms around you tightly once it was over, hugging you to his body with even more kisses, both of you panting softly, enjoying the come down. In fact, you didn’t want it to end. Gradually falling soft, he stayed buried inside you and made no attempts to slip out. If anything, he was damn determined to stay there for as long as possible it seemed. 

“I love you,” you told him sweetly, sweeping some of his hair out of his eyes, still engulfed by his heat. 

He smiled, practically goofy, still drunk off your lovemaking. “I love you too, of course.” 

And then it was back to kissing. 

You had a week’s worth to catch up on, and an entirety more to look forward to. 

*BONUS*

You (10:25am) Seokjin came over last night, we talked it out and made up 😊

Soojung (10:29am) Finally! ILY and I’m so happy for you best friend! But thanks for the heads up, I’ll be giving the house a wide berth this weekend See you Monday 😘

Written 2020 - 2021. Please refrain from posting my work elsewhere. No translations allowed. © floralseokjin 2021

#seokjin fanfic #bts fanfic #bts smut #seokjin smut #fic:mls #floralseokjin:writings

[vvienne]

RANWAN FIC RECS

Absolute Zero by jitterati

Pathologically solitary academic Chu Wanning left behind a life of research to enlist with the Pan-Pacific Defense Corps Jaeger team when giant monsters began to emerge from the Pacific ocean, eager to leave his personal entanglements behind him and join humanity's collective battle against the threat of extinction.

His goal is to build an artificial intelligence that will allow a pilot to operate a Jaeger mech solo - eliminating the need for pilot compatibility and the mortifying ordeal of being totally known by another person, a "neurological handshake" known colloquially as the drift.

He didn't expect his former students to follow him all the way to front line of the war against the kaiju.

Featuring lots of side character interaction, pining, yearning, questions on the nature of personhood, friendship between jerks, people coping badly with loss, snarky AI, and giant robots. Illustrations by Saika & Daru

Husky and his White Kitten Disciple by JustAMoon123

Within a lonely heart, the seeds of hatred start to grow.

-A 2ha Age and Role-Reversal AU.-

NOTE: This Story is Now E Rated!

[Before meeting Chu Wanning, Mo Ran had drawn his power exclusively from the Wood side of his dual Spiritual Root, and his Qi had always glowed green.

Now, only when in battle did it do so, with Bugui’s blade encased in a tyrannical green light.

Outside of battle, like when he set barriers of warmth; or made Crystal Butterflies to tease golden flowers; or cast a small array to keep a box of food warm, his Qi manifested with a gentle red glow.

Mo Ran’s Wood was destructive, while his Fire was protective.

Ah, Mo Weiyu, Mo Weiyu. Even your power betrays you.]

Burn, Pine, and Perish by moonqueenmaia

It’s been two days since Taxian-Jun’s last visit, and Mo Ran hasn’t touched Chu Wanning at all, beyond gentle and fleeting caresses. Chu Wanning decides to take matters into his own hands by surprising Mo Ran when he comes back to their home after a trip down the mountain.

it's no coincidence (it's a kitty-incidence) by lanzhan (gothguk)

There’s a white cat lounging in the middle of Mo Ran's bed.

to touch you with bare hands (even if it burns) by moonqueenmaia

Chu Wanning is a renowned professor of mechanical engineering at Sisheng Peak University. Beautiful, lonely, and talented beyond belief, he has spent his 32 years mostly by himself, silently and secretly yearning for affection and companionship. Yet Chu Wanning has resolved to himself that he will spend the rest of his life alone, no matter his hidden fantasies.

Enter Taxian-jun, an unruly, arrogant, and struggling student, fiery and domineering, who comes in and shatters the calm of Chu Wanning's life. They enter into an agreement, both burying their feelings underneath a storm of lust and lies. Yet amidst it all, something deeper may be helplessly and slowly blooming.

It is up to them to cultivate it, or destroy it for good.

cursed by devilsoupe

Chu Wanning and his disciples are sent to investigate an abandoned village, and Chu Wanning is hit with a curse.

Mo Ran was determined to treat his shizun respectfully in this life, but what choice does he have?

liar liar cock on fire by lofikv

I (32M) walked in on my roommate (23M) masturbating in our living room. Ever since then I couldn't erase the image of his penis in my mind but I found a sex toy online that is almost as big as him, so I bought it and tried it on myself so that I can imagine how he would feel inside me. I have also been romantically attracted to him ever since we started living together. How can I cope with this?

UPDATE: He caught me in the middle of an emergency.

(Absolute) Unit 311 by devilsoupe

Chu Wanning doesn't have a soulmark.

Neither does Mo Ran.

ducks entering highway by Sectionladvivi

Mo Ran finds out his well-respected, MILF-coded, tears-of-angels-tight-ass robotics professor moonlights as an erotic novelist. He immediately leverages this knowledge for an opportunity to play tonsil hockey.

to yearn by devilsoupe

Chu Wanning starts to cough up flowers. Taxian-Jun is angry. Chu Wanning is not allowed to die pining for someone else.

When it starts happening again in his second life, Mo Ran knows enough to worry.

from blossom to blossom to impossible blossom by Wildehack (tyleet)

Taxian Jun is the victim of a flower curse.

sticky fingers by fakeplasticlily

The man tosses the towel unceremoniously back at Mo Ran’s chest, like he’s personally offended by it. And the fact that his hands had just been all over said chest barely minutes earlier, maybe. “Please pack a box of egg tarts with extra custard filling, a box of red bean paste buns with extra syrup, a rice pudding with extra candied fruit garnish, and a box of osmanthus cakes with extra sweet pear jam.” Mo Ran’s eyes grow progressively wider as he lists the items. It’s him. Not the suburban mother of four, not the elderly guy dealing with a midlife crisis, but quite possibly the hottest guy he’s ever seen. Who also happens to have the highest sugar tolerance Mo Ran has seen in a human being in his two years of running this bakery. 

Hard to Love The Lonely Night by bloodsongs

Chu Wanning glares up at him, adjusting his women’s robes. “Still, why couldn’t you have been the wife instead?”

Coughing politely, Mo Ran looks to the side, avoiding his gaze. “Shizun’s skills with the illusion barrier far surpass this humble disciple’s, and, well…”

He doesn’t need to complete his sentence—it’s infuriating, but Mo Ran is now taller than him, broader than him, larger than him. Very much so. The young sapling he raised in Sisheng Peak is now a full-fledged tree, a man built like the mountains Chu Wanning has seen in his travels.

Chu Wanning and Mo Ran pretend to be a married couple visiting a small mountain town to investigate some suspicious disappearances. Mini Canon AU casefic. Contains spoilers up to Chapter 130 or so of the novel.

Purple Ink by jeejaschocolate

Chu Wanning is a robotics engineer who lives a life of isolation and loneliness, only partially due to his chronic illness. Eventually he gets so sick that he requires the help of a full-time medical assistant.

Of course, these days, all those jobs are given to CyberLife androids.

Chu Wanning resents the android they give him. From his fiery eyes to his long black hair, to his incomparable tenderness and consideration for Wanning’s feelings.

He resents him. All the way until he falls in love with him.

Fallen Flowers in Swallows' Nests by bloodsongs

You deserve better—I refuse to disrespect you ever again. I want to be better. I must be better.

But I don’t know how. I don’t know what to do.

I don’t know where Taxian-Jun ends and Mo-Zongshi begins.

I only know now that I cannot lie to myself: I want you so fiercely that I burn with it, I am consumed with the desire to make you mine and mine alone. To become one with you, feeling your fire twine with mine.

Or, Chu Wanning finds letters from Mo-Zongshi that were never shared with him.

These hitherto undiscovered letters cover a range of emotions that weren't present in the book he gifted his Shizun: contrition, yearning, and desire.

Counterpoint by senchafloat

Five years ago, Mo Ran was just a boy who loved playing piano—there were many things he didn't know. He didn't know how capricious and unforgiving the world of classical music could be. He didn't know just how lucky he was to have Chu Wanning as his teacher.

Five years later, Chu Wanning is now a renowned concert pianist, and Mo Ran is an upstart conducting student. When Chu Wanning shows up unannounced at his alma mater, Mo Ran has plenty of questions, along with a desire to prove his worth to his old teacher. But as it turns out, Chu Wanning isn't as invincible as he once seemed. As old secrets come up to the surface, the two of them are forced to reinvent the ways they'll make music together.

impatient to adore you by riverdanceeee

At some heartbreaking point in his life, Mo Ran accepted that Chu Wanning would never reciprocate his feelings, so he dealt with it as any other person would. He'd rid himself of his affection, respect their friendship, and learn to move on. But Mo Ran's affection runs too deep, and when any opportunity to spend time with Chu Wanning knocks on his door, he goes running to answer and accept. Even if it means he has to break up a potentially dangerous dog fighting ring.

To Bow Before A Willow Vine by bloodsongs

“I…” Mo Ran hadn’t thought that far. He shakes his head, lowering his head in deference, resting his forehead against Chu Wanning’s knuckles. "I'll do anything you want of me."

The silence stretches on for a beat too long.

"Anything?" Chu Wanning says eventually, tilting his head.

Written for 2Ha Week, Day 4: Reverse AU for the 0.5 timeline. When Chu Wanning storms Sisheng Peak and crowns himself the cultivation world's new emperor, Mo Ran trades his life for Xue Meng's. Contains spoilers for up to the end of the novel.

Call me by my name by rinsled05

When the man called Taxian-Jun arrives, years later, it’s the coming of a storm.

He sweeps into a dinner appointment between Chu Wanning and a client, clad in black, a smirk tugging at his mouth. Over the spark of irritation, Chu Wanning can’t help but admire his lean frame, the way his hair, cut rebelliously short, falls over smoldering, dark eyes. The way he towers over him, even when Chu Wanning rises to full height.

Chu Wanning’s heart races as Taxian-Jun leans in close, ignoring the shouts and gasps around them.

“Sakaki of Ran,” he purrs in their native tongue. “You’re mine.”

Chu Wanning lifts his chin. “I don’t know you.”

“You will,” Taxian-Jun says, and leaves.

In which Chu Wanning is a courtesan serving Chinese merchants in Nagasaki, Japan, and Taxian-Jun decides to make him his.

荷官牌型 ♠️ The Croupier's Hand by bloodsongs

In deep financial straits after losing his job as a teacher, a desperate Chu Wanning becomes a croupier at Sisheng's new casino.

The once sleepy town of Sisheng Peak grows busier by the day as the casino draws more and more tourists to their mountains. Consumed by his lingering regrets over the worst mistake of his life that destroyed his teaching career, Chu Wanning is too distracted to worry about anything else but his next shift, his next paycheck.

Except that's when Mo Ran, the reason Chu Wanning lost everything, returns to Sisheng Peak.

As the heir to the casino.

White Rabbit Club by minkit

Desperate to rid himself of a few pesky things called virginity and desire, Chu Wanning waltzes into a world he knows little about and right into the embrace of a mysterious stranger who reminds him of the student he's been dreaming about all year. The lust fueled dreams his student stars in are the very reason Chu Wanning applied to the sex club in the first place, and now he's desperate to get rid of these filthy impulses once and for all.

Congratulations, Chu Wanning, on your acceptance into the White Rabbit Club. We hope you enjoy your stay.

Risk and Restraint by purloinedinpetrograd

There is nobody Mo Ran works with who does not love him. He’s worked hard to cultivate this image while he climbs the corporate ladder at Sisheng, and it’s paid off in dividends. He’s in every WeChat group. He can call in favors with any division of any department. He can make even the tightest of deadlines relax their stranglehold on his team.

That is, there is nobody except, of course, Chu Wanning.

A Lingering Sweetness by theherocomplex

Chu Wanning is now all too aware of what he looks like: a dry stick of a man, never handsome, angular and cold and pale. A drab, short-tempered creature, as appealing as a splinter in one's foot. But Mo Ran looks at him as if he will never get his fill, and part of Chu Wanning thinks, What if —?

At the end of the line by PearlAquaBlue 

“So … I reckon someone thought you needed to loosen up a little bit. Now that you’re here, want to try it?”

Chu Wanning hangs up. Throws her phone on her pillow with a disgusted glare after it. Stands up and paces to the kitchen in long, angry strides. Her cheeks are burning. With trembling fingers, she grabs a glass and pours herself some water, gulping it down in one go. It doesn’t help much. She grips the kitchen counter tightly, then marches back into the bedroom to glare at the phone again. Her fingertips itch, and it’s as if some kind of magnetic force draws her closer and closer to her bed until her fingertips are but an inch away from that tempting black mirror. Before she knows it, she’s unlocked it unsteadily and pressed “repeat” on the last call.

“Welcome to Sisheng Peak – ”

“And what would that entail?” she asks, a little too breathless.

Let's Fall in Love for the Night by purloinedinpetrograd

Chu Wanning could only stare in horror as a large cloud of sickeningly yellow pollen rose from the field, blanketing the place where Mo Ran stood in a heavy fog. “Um,” he said lamely.

“Fuck,” Mo Ran cursed, and Chu Wanning didn’t even have the heart to chastise him for his coarse language, because he was too preoccupied wrestling the surge of fear at seeing his disciple disappear behind the haze of that indeterminately threatening dust.

A million terrible possibilities raced through his mind, each one more dramatic and gruesome than the last. His heart hammered against his ribcage, threatening to crack the bones. “Mo Ran,” he said slowly, “I think you should tell me what that does, now.”

Xue Zhengyong sends Chu Wanning and Mo Ran on a mission to find a specific ingredient for some concoction of his wife’s. Chu Wanning is torn between rejoicing at the chance to spend time alone with Mo Ran... and grieving over the very same thing.

But, well, it’s just flowers. What could go wrong, right? (Spoiler alert: it’s sex pollen.)

the day dawns in your hues by localshabba

2ha Week 2020 Day 1 prompt - Haitang

---

Schoolteacher Mo Ran is having an ordinary day until he has an awkward encounter with the notoriously rigid school librarian, which leads to the start of something new.

Also features: flowers, dinosaurs and lots of tenderness and pining.

helping hands by verity

When Mo Ran was but a young, innocent, virtuous grad student—well, one of those things—she built that couch from a flatpack box with her own two hands. Over the years, the smell of polyester and cheap foam padding has given way to an equally aromatic blend of Chu Wanning's haitang blossom perfume, spilled coffee, and white lithium grease. Chu Wanning herself is always perfectly dressed without a stain in sight. Even right now, her head tucked onto one folded arm, the other loosely gripping her tablet, she looks so formal.

Mo Ran gently rests a hand on Chu Wanning's socked ankle where it peeks out of those tailored white trousers. She really should behave herself.

She really should... behave herself...

in plain sight by localshabba

Written for a prompt fill in the 2ha Kink Meme.

---

"I have a surprise," Mo Ran breathed, coming to stand so close behind him that his breath landed on Chu Wanning's nape. Not touching Chu Wanning any other way, because he likes to make Chu Wanning lean back just a little bit, to seek out that contact himself.

"I think Chu-laoshi will enjoy it."

Chu Wanning is sure he agreed to the whole idea; he's just unclear on when. Things got hazy around the point when Mo Ran turned him around by the shoulders, got down on his knees and...well. Apparently he'd skipped breakfast that morning.

When he returned to his senses, his clothes were all neatly tucked into place, not a stain on them, and a charmingly pink sexual aid was nestled comfortably up his--ahem, inside him.

---

Now available in Spanish!

casually acquainted by tagteamme

Chu Wanning knows what he is and what he isn’t. And where he lacks in pleasantries and outward appeal, he makes up for in untouchable grace and dignity.

It threatens to unravel once he meets a familiar face in an unfamiliar city.

“So quick to run away from me, Chu-laoshi,” Mo Ran says, voice gently teasing as Chu Wanning refuses to make eye contact with him. “After you came all the way from…”

He trails off, waiting for Chu Wanning to let him know, but he sees the map open on Chu Wanning’s phone and grins wider. “You want directions?”

Chu Wanning clears his throat, and shakes his head. He should say something— instead, he stays silent as he looks down at his phone and punches in the hotel name again.

Happily, his phone tells him to try again when he has signal.

The Right Hand of Light by gedsparrowhawk (FaceChanger)

Chu Wanning is asleep on the bed, clutching his hands tightly to his chest and curled in on himself. He’s still wearing the same robes he was in in the water prison. On the writing desk, a bowl of water and clean linen for bandages sit untouched, and a tub of bathwater has cooled without being used. Mo Ran sighs to himself. Wanning is truly hopeless.

He sits on the side of the bed and touches Chu Wanning’s shoulder. “Wanning,” he says. “Wanning, wake up.”

---

Rare 0.5 tenderness, after the water prison.

nothing can consume you by tagteamme

Mo Ran’s violent history has never had to catch up to him.

It’s already embedded itself into him as scars on his body, as a tattoo on his forearm, as the lingering taste of blood in his sleep and finally, as the searing brand pressed against his chest before he’s thrown into the sea as punishment. He knows that this is where all his chances come to an end.

But as the deep fathom of the water swallows him up, something else saves him and pulls him to a tiny cove tucked away off the coast of an overlooked port town. When he wakes up under the care of a mythical creature wearing a familiar face, an even older and more distant past finally finds him.

#ranwan #2ha #erha #chu wanning #mo ran #2ha recs #fic recs #2ha spoilers

[ofstarsandvibranium]

On Shuffle

Fandom: Star Wars (Modern AU)

Pairing: Poe Dameron x GN!Reader

Summary: You're at a coffee shop working on your next book. You go to connect your music to your earbuds, but decided to mess with a stranger and connect to their headphones instead. Cue meeting a hot stranger.

A/N: inspired by this tiktok.

Your fingers are rapidly typing away on your laptop. Every once in a while, they still, whether it's because you take a sip from your to-go cup or you're scribbling something down into your notebook. Nonetheless, you're working at a rapid pace.

You told your editor and publisher that you'd have the manuscript for your book in a month and you're only halfway through. You've been at this coffee shop for the past two weeks. The baristas now memorizing your order and always wishing you good luck on your book.

You've hit a lull in your plot and it frustrates you to no end. You sigh, leaning back in your chair and chugging more of your drink. You reach for your phone, deciding that maybe your motivation music could help inspire something.

When you pull up the devices to connect to, you see one named Hot Damn!eron.

You snort, looking around and seeing several people around you with various listening devices in their ears. Whoever has that as their device's name is probably some frat dude. You saw a guy who could be in a frat sitting closer to the door, head bobbing up and down to his music. "Fuck it." you tap on it and it connects, hoping to interrupt frat guy's music with your own.

However, to your surprise, his head bobbing doesn't stop. So, that wasn't his device you just connected to. You're quickly scanning everyone else's faces for some sort of reaction to their change of music. That's when you spot it-or rather-him.

You see a man with curly salt and pepper hair, a full beard, and glasses. He pulls out his earbud, looking at it with confusion. He looks at his phone, then he looks up, eyes scanning faces like you previously had.

His eyes lock with yours and you can't seem to look away. He mouths, "Is this you?" gesturing to his earbuds.

You nod and mouth back, "Sorry."

He chuckles and then, to your horror, he stands up and heads your way. When he arrives at your table, you immediately stand, "I'm so sorry! I saw the name of the device and thought it belonged to some frat dude, so I thought it'd be funny to mess with him, but I guess it was your earbuds instead. I'm really sorry!"

The man gives a light, but deep laugh, "It's no problem. And, I guess I should really change the name of my earbuds. My friend helped me set them up and he named them that. Just never thought to change it." he sticks out his hand, "I'm Poe, by the way."

You take his hand, shaking it and introducing yourself back, "Again, sorry for that."

"No harm done, but great song choice. Led Zeppelin. Classic. The kids I teach call it old people music though."

"You're a teacher?" you curiously ask.

Poe nods, "Music teacher at the local high school. I like to come here sometimes to grade papers."

You cock a brow at him, "Music kids have to write papers? That sucks."

Poe laughs, "Listen, I don't like it either, but I'm require to give at least two written assignments for the school year. They're not hard assignments though. At the beginning of the year, I ask them to write me a short essay on what their favorite song is and why. Towards the end of the year, I ask them what song they performed was their favorite, and why. Easy stuff." He glances down at your set up on the table and asks, "Are you a writer?"

You nod, "Yeah. Writing on my second book. Started coming here to work on it because I was getting tired of being in my apartment. It's, uh, coming along?"

Poe smiles at you and you're sure you'll melt right then and there, "You don't sound too sure about that."

You shrug, "I love to write, but sometimes I hit a wall and I just get stuck and frustrated. That's what led to me messing with you, by the way. Hit a wall, decided to mess with someone for shits and giggles. And here we are."

"Here we are," Poe repeats with a grin. His checks his watch and then sighs, "Well, um, I have to get going. Meeting up with some friends, but, uh, would it be okay if I got your number? I'd loved to get to know more about you."

You're shocked for a moment before you're nodding, "Right! Sure!" you rip out a corner from your notebook, scribbling down your name and number. You hand it to Poe and he immediately pockets it.

"Great. Hopefully, we'll see each other soon. It was nice meeting you." he winks at you and heads back to his table, stuffing his belongings into his satchel and heading out the door, but not before giving you one last wink.

You plop into your seat with a stunned expression on your face, "Well...that just happened."

#poe dameron x reader #poe dameron imagine #lani writes #star wars #star wars au #modern au

[wh0re-4-techno]

1. A NEW DAY ((PROFESSOR TECHNO))

Description: You, the reader, attend the campus at Indiana University. While attending, you meet Professor Technoblade, your new Ancient History teacher. Something to him seems so familiar but you couldn't place your finger on it until he points it out.

Words: 4615

next part

The leaves begin to change colors, the bright green slowly turning into the classic autumn orange and brown. The sunshine piercing the sky but the crisp breeze that follows cools down the air. Hearing the leaves fall down to the concrete sidewalks or the soft grass.

The tall buildings silent from outside and the halls but the classrooms fill with the teachers voices asking questions and the students answers.

You stare up at your white ceiling, boring, plain, dull. But, there was a small 69 carved into the ceiling. It's been there ever since you've arrived and didn't mind. Why would you? It was a stupid but quite funny thing that another college student did on your bland ceiling. You lean back into your hands.

Your hands were placed on the back of your neck, fingers playing with the back of your hair. Feeling the warmth of the sunshine on your legs as the window of your student house was open. Smelling the autumn air fill up your room.

It was quite relaxing. Finally having one day off of your busy week. All your classes has been hectic to say the least, but today was starting off nice. Closing your eyes. You wherein peace with this moment in time, that it didn't matter what else was happening outside of this room.

Hearing the familiar sound of keys rattling, opening your eyes lazily as the dorm room door opens. "What are you doing back so early Minx?" Your roommate, Minx, stormed in. Her boots hitting the ground so hard that her stomping made echoes. Her face was fuming red, her lips pouting. She gripped onto her book bag so harshly that her knuckles turned white.

You lift yourself up with your elbows, letting out a sign. Just staring at her, waiting for her to respond or cool off. She threw her bag onto her bed in frustration, grunting doing so. "I thought you had class this hour?" You ask, "Well obviously I'm not going to class." She snapped back, rolling her eyes.

Minx was older then you. She was in year 4. Studying to be a politician or any part of the government, you really didn't understand what she was talking about half of the time. But she loved to ramble on about the subject, normally she was a chatterbox, would go on and on and on about one thing she did in class or anything in particular. But right now she stood in silence. As long as you've known her she's been arrogant. She wouldn't tell you exactly what's wrong and you had to piece up the puzzles to figure out why she was acting out. You did care for her, but now that she was acting like a toddler who didn't get what they wanted, you weren't going to deal with it.

Muttering a "Fine." Laying back on your bed, letting your body relax once again and closing your eyes. She grunts again, but you don't open your eyes. You listen to hear her jumping on her bed, turning your head to the side to face her. Opening your eyes to see her. She was laying down, head to the ceiling, legs crossed. Her nose was turning pink, you knew she was starting to cry, it was one of the tell told signs of hers.

"Are you going to tell me what's wrong?" You try your best to ask. "It's embarrassing." She choked, hearing her sniffle on her tears. You turn your head back to the ceiling, "I promise I won't laugh." Both of you continue to look up at the ceiling, wondering what to say next.

Minx whipped away a tear as she spoke, "You promise? Pinky promise?" She asks, you smile to yourself. It was one of the things you two would do. Any time there was a secret or basically anything that you could only share with each other, the both of you had to pinky promise. It didn't have to physically be a pinky promise, but you did have to say it with the true meaning as if it was. "I pinky promise." You raise your hand, poking out your pinky finger. She does the following, you could hear her softly chuckle at the moment.

"Okay. So you know that I've been studying for this test, right?" Both of you bring your hands down as she began to explain. You nod, "Yeah you stayed up till 3 am each day." You lightly shake your head. "Again I'm sorry." "It's okay." You could tell she started to choke up again, holding back tears. "Well. I failed that test." Back again with the crying, her hands cupped her face, hiding away from the world.

Thinking for a second you push yourself off your bed. Bunching up your blankets as you stand up. Minx didn't bother to look at you.

You hop your butt up on her bed right next to her. You weren't the best with words during this type of timing. That being when someone is sobbing in front of you and you don't know if they want to be held or not touched at all. Or what words your should say, because if you say something wrong then it over for you. 

Placing one of your hands on her shoulder, slightly jumping at your touch but eases into it. You rub her arm up and down, trying to sooth her down. She removes her hands from her face. Her makeup running down her cheeks, her lipstick smudged.

You give her a pity smile, "Minx, it's okay. Really." She looks up at you, her eyes are red and puffy. You truly hated seeing your dearest friend in this type of state and looking like this. It just broke your heart. "Hey, hey, it's not the end of the world here. It's only one test." You let out a breath, you might not understand why failing one test was worth crying for but you still wanted to help out your friend. "It's not that simple y/n." She grasps her hand into a fist. "I can't just fail a test! I've never fail one of his test before, I don't understand how I got a 36 percent..." She frowns, looking away from you and back to the ceiling. "Have you talked to your teacher?" You question, but you were sure that she already did so. "Yes, and he said most people failed too. Like that's gonna make me feel better!" She throws her hands up, clearly getting more frustrated.

"Do you want me to call Schlatt?" You ask, Schlatt was one of her guy friends, he would come over sometimes to help Minx or just when they wanted to party. But right now he could help her more then you. She quickly swiped her head left to right, basically telling you no. You quirk an eyebrow up, she would love when he would come over. "Why? Schlatt always makes you feel happy. Let me call him." You reach for your phone from your back pocket, Minx grabbing your arm in the process. You stop and pull your arm away, mouthing "Okay." to her.

Pondering over the opinions on what to do, finding the best other people you could call. "How 'bout Kiara?" You give her a reassurance look, she still shakes her head. You huff out, confused about what she wants to be honest. "Can I call anyone?" You search for an answer but it was simply that she didn't want you to call anyone.

"Why can't I call any of your friends?" You ask, "Because they're going to poke fun at me. I love them, but they don't need to know that I'm crying over a test." She pleads with her eyes, begging you not to tell anyone. Especially the two boys. "You pinky promise." She brought up the pink promise, which you damned yourself about. "Alright, I won't tell them." You defend yourself, lifting you hands aswell.

You hop off of her bed and sit back on yours, leaning back on your hands. "What do you want to do then?" You question, her face still blotchy with red and her eyes puffy. "If we go anywhere you're doing my makeup!" She pointed at you while rubbing her eyes, whipping away any blurriness left from crying. You nod in agreement, I mean, it was one thing you could do to make her feel better. "Then pick a place." You lean down, pushing your bedding away, your hands search as she thinks.

You finally find the box, pulling it out from under your bed. It was a medium size caboodle carrying on case. Both of your hands place it on your bed, opening it up to revealing your makeup.

You flip your hand, gesturing to Minx to come to your bed. Which she did, happily sitting down in front of you. Grabbing a makeup whip to get rid of any remaining makeup that was left on from her crying. "Think of any place?" You ask while cleaning up her running mascara. "Coffee?" She shrugged in response. It wasn't a bad idea, you haven't had any coffee for today, so why would it hurt to show up. "Yeah the seems alright."

-----

Running down the concrete, watching as the leaves drift down slowly with ease. But flying back once you pass them. Your shoes making a slight slapping nosie as both of you race through the campus. Your eyes are looking right ahead, rushing to get to the coffee shop. Minx, who's beside you, starts to catch up to you.

She was actually pretty fast so you were confused as to why she started to slow down, but you turn your head back to the sidewalk, quickly dodging to the side. "Holy shit I'm sorry man." You said half out of breath and chuckling. Your attention goes back to Minx who just passed you and giggles.

The man who you almost ran into looks down at you, nodding off. "Yeah sure." You gave the man a quick look over, then to see he was on the phone, you back up away from him, embarrassed to say the least. He pulled away his phone to say "It was alright." but as you quickly as apologize you where back to running.

The both of you didn't think much of it.

You jump off the sidewalk to avoid the other students who where walking. Continuing to dash, passing through the people whom was sitting on the grass and who where having a small get together or a picnic. Some telling you not to be running, but you just scoffed at them with little to no care.

You watch as Minx reaches the café, you throw your hand up in defeat. You roll your eyes as she does a lil dance of victory, rubbing it in your face.

Walking up to her, "That bullshit. That rando almost ran into me!" She starts to laugh at how angry you were getting. "Correction. You almost ran into him." You stick out your tongue to her, she, of course, keeps laughing at you. As you walk away, heading toward the café she tries to contain herself from laughing. "You better stop it or I'm not paying for your coffee!" You snap at her, half serious half joking.

The both of you stand in line, quite a few people where getting coffee. The smell of espresso beans was strong, almost hitting you in the face strong. But it wasn't so bad, it was rather sweet.

Turning your head to Minx, who was now scrolling through Instagram. You look closer to see that she was checking out Schlatt's posts. Some were with just him, others were random people that she nor you knew. One post in particular she kept staring at, it was Schlatt with a girl. Her arm was wrapped around him as he looked into the camera surprised. You stop looking, making sure she knew you whereas curious as she was. "So what do you want?" You ask nonchalantly, already knowing what she wanted, a vanilla bean mocha. "A vanilla bean mocha." And you where right.

"Could I get a cookie too?" Minx asks while shimming her shoulders, you chuckle but roll your eyes as well. "Unless you're paying for that cookie." You walk towards, slowly but surely getting closer to the register. "Com'on! You lost fair and square." You had to hush her from getting too loud, "No, the agreement is whoever gets to the coffee shop first pays for a drink. That's it. We never said anything about cookies or whatever." You told her, which she remembered the first time the both of you did this. And it was true, you only had to pay for drinks. "But I'm sad." You give her a look, "You can't use the "I'm sad" card with me, Minx." You turn away from her, taking another few steps.

You were next in line to get your order, eventually making it so it was time for you to place your order. "Sup.." You look at the guy's name tag, "Ted. Could I get a vanilla bean mocha and a y/f/d please?" You tell the barista, he was tall. Very tall. Dark brown hair. Very fluffy, but sleek. His glasses where a circle frame, they fit him very well. "Okay... Yeah, that'll be 9.58." He looked up from his register, you hand him your card. The transaction was quick and you were already sitting down before your drink where being made.

"How's your other classes going?" You ask, Minx still was glued to her phone, you clear your throat. Drawing her attention, she look back up at you and places her phone down on the table. She hums, asking you to repeat yourself. Which you did, "Oh, pretty good. Have As and Bs nothing to bad." She glances back down at her phone. "How's Economic going?" It was one of the difficult classes, well that's what people who took the class said. You weren't into anything like that. "About that same, I have a huge written assignment due next week. I need to get ahead of that." You nod to her, you understand that struggle with these projects. "What about you? Anything new happen in your classes?" Minx asks, pulling her full attention to you.

"Not a lot actually. Well other then my schedule changed." You lean back into the chair. You went exactly excited to get your schedule changed after the few weeks into college. And that class being Ancient history. "Really? To what class?" She seemed more interested to what class it was compared to you. You answer, "Ancient history." She seems slight taken aback when she heard that come out of your mouth. "Really? Ancient history?" She even has to think for a few seconds to take this in. "Huh. I would never have pictures you being into that..." She looked back at you. "Yeah, it was that or Astrology." You cross your arms, "Why didn't you pick Astrology?! That sounds so much more fun!" You where about to answer, but the barista called out your name. You hold up your hand to Minx, gesturing that you'll be right back.

You grab both of your drinks and go back to the table. "I was about to say, Ancient history is easier. Stuff that already happened." You hand her her drink. "You can just Google the answers. I swear y/n you are lazy." The both of you chuckled.

You take a swig of your drink, it was just perfect. The taste was everything.

"Eh, I will rather be studying mummies than space or whatever." You check your phone, the time saying '8:17 am'. Minx laughs at your point. "You say that now but later you'll be the one crying that you failed your test." You gave her a sarcastic laugh. "Hey, could you remind me at 10 that I have to meet my new professor?" Minx looks at you with slight confusion. "Why are you going to meet? You just show up to class?" She takes a slip midway through the sentence. I mean that is normally true, if you were new to a class or switched you just showed up. "My counselor said it would probably be best that I meet him before so I would be prepared for my first day there." She 'oh' to your explanation.

"Are you sure you pick the right class? I mean you have to show up to talk to your Professor before the first day." She did make a good point, it was a little questionable that you did have to show up before, but you couldn't change your class now. Minx saw you as you were taken into deep thought about what she said, trying to distract you, "So. Are you talking to any boys lately?" You blink out of your thought, you give her a questionable face. "What- Oh, no." You take a sip of your drink.

"And why is that?" You take a deep breath. She knew that you wanted a boyfriend for a long time now, but you just never really put yourself out there. You didn't do any of the dating apps. It's cliche to say, but you wanted to meet someone in real life, that being from the grocery store or a fancy restaurant. "I don't know, how 'bout you ask the boys all over campus?" You joke, "I might!" She plays back with you.

-----

As the both of you finish the rest of your drink you look back down at your phone. '9:57' You've been here for about an hour just talking about life, which you didn't mind one bit, but you felt like you missing or forgetting something but you could put your finger on it. You just push away the thought because you couldn't think of anything.

You stand up to throw yours and Minx's empty cups in the trash, she meets you as you walk out of the café. "Next time I'm winning." Your cocky voice was loud and maybe too confident. "You said that last time, remember?" She laughs at her own words as you just snarl. "You and I know that this was a bad run." "Eh, was it though?" If your side glance could kill, Minx would be six feet belong at this point. She slightly took a step away from you.

You watch as Minx takes her phone back, you didn't pay to much attention to it until she cursed.

"Oh shit!" Minx looks at her phone then looking back up at you. Her eyes are wide. You just give her a questionable face, "It's already 10!" You think for a few seconds, nothing. "So-" She cut you off before you could talk. "You have to go meet your new Professor!" It took a mere second for it to process. And when it did, you took in complete surprise. Not sure what to do, "I don't have my bookbag or anything!" You were looking around nervously, "Fuck this is how they're gonna see me, unprepared and can't tell time or that I'm lazy!" "Well get your ass going!" She flew out her hands, shooing you away.

You started to walk away, picky up the pace but before you ask, "You wanna meet at the grass later?". "Oh my god! Get your ass to class! And yes!" You rush through the sidewalk, almost running into multiple people in the process.

You murmur out curse words while running to the west side of the campus.

Pushing through the main doors to the building, the students stare at you as you keep running. The hardwood flooring makes you sound loud in each step. "Shit..." You whisper to yourself, as your phone says '10:12'

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck..." You climb up the stairs, looking for the right floor.

The floor number being 2, you rush down the hallway. You swipe your head left and right, reading each door to find the correct one, which was room 237. You scan through the corridor, turning to your left into the next one. These doors say 226, 227, etc. You were getting closer at least. The squeakiness of your shoes meeting the floor was really loud and getting annoying. For sure you were interrupting many classes.

Finally stopped at a large wooden door. At the top saying "#237". You pull your phone back out from your pocket, '10:19 am' Your curse once more and breathe out. Your hand pulls open the door, the room was nicely lit.

Everything in your life was about to change, maybe for the better or the worst.

As you take your first steps in, you see the professor looking straight down, looking into a book, you didn't mind to see what the book was called as you were studying his office. It was quite tall, bookshelves lining the walls. Random plants hanging down from the shelves and some on the roof. He had books scattered across his desk, but not as messy as you would think. He had two comfy comforters to the sides, they also had a few books on them. One had a briefcase beside the books, the other had a couple of teacups. Interesting. A sword was placed leaning on the many bookcases, even more interesting.

He shuts the book, almost like he just noticed that you were there. Or that he let you look around his office, but none the least you had his attention now.

He looks up at you, your mouth slight parting. Your eyes were all over this man from his head, which was full of brown somewhat curly hair that just falls in place perfectly. How you imagined how soft it would feel around your fingers. It wasn't too short but wasn't long, it flattered his face quite nicely. As your eyes went down, you meet with his. They were a dark drown but there was a warm feeling with them, almost welcoming.

Breaking from the short amount of eye contact you see that he also had a tiny bit of stubble on his chin as if he forgot to shave this morning.

He seemed very young to be a Professor.

After your small look over. You weren't sure if he knew you were checking him out or not, but you go with the ladder and hope that he didn't. He most definitely knew you did so. "Please, do sit down." He half sits up and gestures to the seats that were in front of his desk. They were dark down leather chairs. As you sit, they weren't the annoying squeaky ones and were quite plush. You take another deep breath, your hands starting to shake from your nerves. "Now, can you tell me why you're late? I sure do hope that you won't do this every time we meet." He flashes a smile, he softly chuckles. His voice seemed odd but why did it seem like you've heard him before. But as you thought, nothing was coming up. You smile back, "I'm so sorry, I got my time mixed up."

"That's alright, this is just for you to figure out what this class is about." You quirked an eyebrow, he pulls one of his drawers opens and hand you a piece of paper. The paper was the information that was needed, aka all the items you need for the class. Include books and whatnot. "Do I have to get all of these right now?" You ask, turning the paper over and of course, it was double-sided.

You were so close to rolling your eyes, but figured it would be rude to do so in front of your new Professor. "No, most of the books are going to be later in the semester. But please don't worry, I provide most books to students." You look back up to him. Not a lot of teachers did that. I know it's the simple thing in life but that was really kind of him to do so.

As you look at him, his face. Something was telling you that you've met him before. And without your knowledge, he was in the same position. You sounded so familiar to him, but he couldn't place his finger on it. How he could picture that the two of you have met prior to this.

You look back down on the paper, reading everything that was listed. "You don't mind if I ask, why did you pick Ancient history?" Your eyes slightly widen, you didn't have an answer to this. Especially an answer that he would like. "I- I'm not sure. It was this or Astrology, but Ancient history just seems a tad bit easier. To be frank with you." You softly giggle at your own response.

He also smiles at your answer, normally he would get some bullshit answer, but for some reason, you just gave the impression that it was true. "Well, that's better than nothing." He jokes, which you chuckle too.

"Have I missed anything super important?" You ask, "To be quite honest, no. Nothing super important. We did start a project, but don't worry we just started getting into things. But you did miss when the tests will be scheduled." You let out a breath, calm yourself down. You were glad that you weren't missing like a test or anything, but that damn project. Hoping that it won't be too difficult to work with other students. "Um, let me grab you a paper with the dates of the test." He slowly says as he searches his desk to find the paper. Both of you connect eyes once again, you couldn't stop yourself from staring into them. He hands you the paper that was filled with dates. "That's a lot of tests..." You say in a low tone so he wouldn't hear you, but that failed.

"Yes I know, but they're short quizzes." He reassures you, he flashes you a toothy smile. "And if you are struggling on anything. I do have office hours you can come in and ask questions." You shake your head. "Or if you need any help with any other class really." He lightly chuckled, looking back to his book, which laid nicely on his desk. "I'm kinda the smartest one in this building." You giggle at his cockyness, he was a proud man, you could tell right away.

Both of you talk more in-depth about his class rules, etc.

"Alright then, any other questions?" You think for a few seconds, "Nothing that pops in my head." You start to stand up, he also stands up. Making his way past you to the door. He holds open the door, "Thank you, Sir." As you pass him.

It all connects. "Hold on..." He says, his hand slightly grabbing your arm, making you stop halfway through the door frame, he was close to you. His eyes traveled all over your body, "Wait... You're the girl how ran into me earlier today." Your eyes widen when you realize. No wonder why his voice was familiar to you. You feel your face start to heat up.

#mcyt #mcyt fic #technoblade #technoblade x reader #techno #techno x reader #x reader #professor technoblade x reader #professor #mcyt fanfiction

[voiceless-terror]

Jon plays the piano. That’s it, that’s the fic.

At first, he thinks it’s the radio. It’s not uncommon for these stores to play classical music, trying to add an air of sophistication in what’s otherwise a dark room of dusty knicknacks. But when he walks towards the noise, he instead finds Jon sitting at the bench of an old wooden upright, his posture straighter than Tim’s ever seen it, hands moving slowly but deftly across the keys as he leans into each note.

It’s mesmerizing.

Jon must hear his footsteps as he doesn’t startle when Tim sits beside him. “You never told me you could play,” Tim says, too enthralled to be truly annoyed by it. Jon gives him a self-deprecating smile, though his eyes don’t leave the keys.

“I can’t, not anymore,” he responds in complete defiance of his actions. Tim’s always loved Jon’s hands, delicate and slender and naturally elegant in all of their movements; even the most awkward of gestures made with a sort of grace. He shouldn’t be surprised that he plays so wonderfully. But Jon’s always been protective of his interests, careful not to volunteer too much information lest he be laughed at or scorned. Sometimes, when it’s only the two of them, and occasionally Sasha, he’ll let his guard down and his enthusiasm for even the most mundane of subjects is surprisingly contagious.

“Well, seeing as how I can only do Hot Cross Buns, I think you can, actually.”

“Middle C is flat,” Jon continues as if Tim hadn’t spoken, his brow furrowing in annoyance. He taps at the key a few times, but Tim’s never had a good ear for that sort of thing, so he’ll have to take Jon’s word for it. “They should really keep this in better condition, it’s a shame.” He stops his tapping but his hands still flutter over the keys as if they itch to play more. Tim would gladly sit here all day and listen.

“What was that?” He nudges Jon’s shoulder, pleased when Jon leans further into his side. 

“Satie. From his Trois Gymnopedies.” 

“Ooh, nice accent,” he teases, though he does indeed love it. “Someone passed their French A-level.”

“Shut up,” Jon butts his head affectionately against his shoulder, his face flushing. “You’re just as bad with your insufferable Italian.”

“Alright, alright,” Tim lets out a small laugh. “It’s just, you never said. Seems like you enjoy it.”

“I did,” Jon replies, his eyes going distant. He gets like that, when he talks about his past. Tim knows very little of it, though Jon insists there’s ‘nothing to know.’ Jon’s told him about what brought him to the institute in a rare moment of vulnerability, but other than that, he knows the bare minimum. “I still do, I suppose. You know, my Gran was the one who actually pushed me into the lessons.”

Jon doesn’t talk much about his grandmother. He remembers back when he first started, Jon disappeared for a week and Sasha kept checking her phone anxiously. Tim later found out that his grandmother had died, that Jon was the only one left to take care of such things. That Jon was an orphan. That Jon came back with that stiff upper lip even though he looked like shit, and promptly crumbled when Tim gave him an awkward, one-armed condolence hug. 

From what Tim knows, she wasn’t the greatest guardian. Far from it in his opinion. But she was all Jon had.

Not anymore.

“Said I needed something to distract me from- from-'' his voice stutters out and Tim wraps his arm around Jon’s waist- he knows. He doesn’t need the explanation. “Well, she wasn’t the type of person to recommend therapy. It was her way of showing that she cared.” Or just wanted you dealt with, Tim doesn’t voice.

“Did it work?” He knows the answer.

“Not at all,” Jon smirks and his hands abruptly fly across the keys in a lively, fast tune. Jon isn’t just good, he’s excellent. The way his eyes brighten and his face lights up - the man’s in his element. “Still enjoyed it, though. And I was pretty good at it, entered a few competitions.” Pretty good is more than an understatement, but Jon’s never been one to brag over things that truly matter.

“What’s this one called?”

“Rondo alla ingharese quasi un capriccio,” Jon rolls out in an over-exaggerated Italian accent. “More commonly known as Rage Over a Lost Penny.”

“You could’ve just said that.”

“I could’ve, yes,” he replies playfully, the lilting tones of the music perfectly matching his little smile. He’s an infuriating little bastard. Tim loves it.

“You didn’t want to go professional? Hit the big time?”

“Hardly,” Jon snorts in derision, his hands stilling again. “Gran was right, it wasn’t practical. No use paying for a degree in music when so few people make it.” The music, still lively, goes a bit softer. “Didn’t stop me from auditioning, though.”

“Really?” He tries to imagine a young Jon in front of a panel of judges. “Must have been nerve-wracking.”

“Indeed.” Jon says stiffly, his hands abruptly stopping as they hit a sour note. “I had a panic attack before my hands hit the keys.”

Tim winces in sympathy. “Oh, Jon…”

“And I haven’t played since.” Tim reaches out to take Jon’s hands in his own, although the man avoids his eyes. Jon puts up a hard exterior, but he’s very easily wounded. One wrong word, one bad experience- it’s internalized, played over and over in his head. People don’t realize that about him, but Tim knows better than others that the mind keeps score. “I think a part of me knew she was right. Shouldn’t have bothered.”

“That’s a pity,” Tim once again wishes Jon had one person he could’ve relied on as a child. One adult he could confide in or get encouragement from. He thinks about young Jon, tiny and traumatized and alone, and his chest aches with it. “I think you could’ve made it.”

“Sweet of you.” Jon leans against his side and closes his eyes. “But there’s no need to flatter.”

“It’s not flattery if it’s true,” Tim insists. And yeah, maybe he’s not well-versed in music, but he knows talent and passion when he sees it. He used to see it in his brother all the time. And it’s sad that Jon doubts himself so much. He should be able to at least enjoy his hobby without being reminded of the guilt and what-could’ve-beens.

“Always wanted to learn an instrument,” he begins carefully, letting go of one of Jon’s hands to tinker at the keys. “Maybe I’ll get a keyboard, you can show me the ropes.”

The hand still in his twitches, and he turns to see the small beginnings of a shy smile. Jon’s a good teacher, patient and kind when someone shows a genuine interest in what he has to say. And Tim would do anything to see that easy, boyish smile again, see those fingers flying across the keys with such enjoyment.

“Not sure if you can afford my rates, Stoker.”

“Hey-!”

A cough cuts into his argument. It’s the old woman who sat behind the counter as they arrived, and she’s looking at a spot somewhere above Tim’s ahead. He turns around.

DO NOT TOUCH.

“Sorry ‘bout that,” he drags Jon up from the seat, ignoring his squeak. “We’ll just be going now!”

They sprint out of the store, giggling like naughty school children the entire way. Jon’s genuine laughter is rare, and something to be treasured - nothing like the sarcastic snorts he usually prefers. 

“Damn!” Jon swears as he checks his watch, smile still lingering on his face despite the furrow in his brow. “We were supposed to interview that witness at noon, it’s already half past.”

“Don’t worry, this was a necessary detour,” Tim assures him. And for him, it was. “Piano could’ve been haunted, after all.”

Jon rolls his eyes as he barks out a laugh. “Haunted. Yes, of course.”

On the train, Tim googles how much a keyboard costs. He’s thinking he might take it up after all.  

ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/31219403

#my writing #tma #the magnus archives #jonathan sims #tim stoker #jontim #something for jontim week that i never finished until now #i just think that jon should play an instrument #and tim should appreciate :) #precanon #reblogs appreciated <3