#ok that and they sometimes make plans to annoy the others team by charging in with pans

[timeoverload]

I'm in a good mood. :) Today went a lot better than I was anticipating. I was able to keep up with the fast doctor and there were 3 rooms going at the same time. I didn't get overwhelmed.

Nothing bad happened except I was too busy to be able to eat breakfast this morning so I got hangry. I was so hungry that I caved and bought lunch even though it was sandwich day. It wasn't very good but it made me feel better so I guess that's all that matters. I also think it's ridiculous that they charge $7 for a small cold sandwich but I suppose everything is expensive now.

I did get annoyed because I thought I went to lunch early enough to avoid the creepy guy but he came to work like 45 minutes early to get food. He always comes to sit with me and I hate it. There were plenty of open tables. He has been drinking mimosas before work lately apparently. He said something about us needing to get together sometime and I was so uncomfortable. I flat out told him that I try to avoid hanging out with co-workers outside of work because it causes problems. He said he understood. Then he decided to tell me about how one of his old co-workers said he sexually assaulted her at a party and he got arrested. He said he didn't do anything to her but I have a hard time believing him because I already know he doesn't like the word "no". I'm not sure why he felt the need to tell me about that. I really didn't want to hear about that while I was trying to eat. He just makes me nervous in a bad way. I got up and left as soon as I could. I'm done sitting in the cafeteria because I can't seem to avoid him. I shouldn't have to do that. My breaks are very special to me and I need time by myself to decompress.

The girl that I was talking about the other night was back at work today. I found out what happened to her and it's not what I expected. She started seeing this guy and she really likes him but she wasn't aware that he had a crazy ex. She was staying the night at his place and both of their cars were vandalized by his ex girlfriend. She had all 4 of her tires slashed. The ex girlfriend also keyed her car and wrote obscene shit on it. They are pressing charges. I feel so bad because that's so fucked up. I am glad she doesn't have to pay to have it fixed. I probably would have a similar reaction so I understand why she was so upset the other day. I feel bad for assuming she was on drugs or something because that's not what happened. I know she does do that sometimes but she doesn't come to work when she is under the influence as far as I know. I still think she might be hanging out with the wrong crowd but I don't think things are as bad as my other co-worker made it sound. It's really none of my business and I don't want to gossip about her. I don't know enough about the situation to have an opinion. I also don't think she has any problems with me because we were joking around like usual today. I think when she said that she wanted to work around people who respect her, she was mostly referring to the morning team lead. He is a dick to her and she hates him. I think that's also why she changed her hours so she doesn't come to work until noon. Anyway, I am just glad she is ok and I hope that her luck improves.

I am so happy the day is over and I can sit here and do nothing. I don't feel like doing anything tonight. I never went to the grocery store so I will have to do that sometime this weekend because I don't have a lot of food right now. I wanted to go last night but I felt awful. I'm glad that passed quickly and I still have no idea why I felt that way. I am going to have a lot to do in the morning but it's ok I guess.

I was planning on taking my car to the shop on Saturday but it's running fine for now so I'm not going to. I don't really have the money to do that yet either. I just need to be careful with it.

I think I am going to relax now because I'm worn out. I don't have much else to talk about. I hope everything goes well tomorrow.

Maxwell, thank you for sending me so many nice things because that makes me happy. I love you too!!! 💖💖💖 I am looking forward to seeing you tomorrow. :)

I hope everyone else has a good day tomorrow too! Thank you for listening to me ramble. 💖💖💖

#personal

[hearties-circus]

Hehehe

#gamer txt. #al ocs #thinkin oc thoughts #faye is used to feeling unsafe at night bc lore reasons so they typically tend to sleep in other peoples rooms #usually axels‚ milks or walts. sharing the bed at axels or milks and sleeping in an armchair at walts #axel is very used to this bc lore reasons but doesnt feel the same at night as faye does #ze is actually incredibly comfortable at night‚ often falling asleep or taking naps in the common room #milk will call anyone a coward for any reason‚ its normally battle related things but anything goes #walt and bree are friends‚ partially because they both want to be annoying sometimes and the other is the only one willing to join in #and partially because they just think its funny #the blu spy is the original member of the current blu team. when they joined they had completely different teammates #milk is currently actually the newest member of the blu team‚ having only been there for 2 years #the blu demo‚ skye and effie have an exclusive 'scots only' club. they have meetups fortnightly #what do they discuss? nothing they just fuck around #ok that and they sometimes make plans to annoy the others team by charging in with pans #the blu spy tends to go after soldiers‚ this is why milo and elio are friends

[iwishicanbeagoodpianist]

the Wifilcon and the Winter Router

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x OC/Reader Summary: When Bucky learns that his neighbor has been stealing his wifi for months. Warnings: None A/N: I'm not a fanfic writer at all, this, like all my stories, are adaptations to fanfics. My original stories are not written in english, so this is also a translation. please do not repost my work

For an instant, Bucky thought that the knocking he was hearing was coming directly from his head, I mean, it wouldn't be the first time his mind played tricks on him, but he realized that the sound was actually coming, unluckily for him, from his apartment door. Oh no no no no no no no, I just got back from putting up with Sam for almost 6 full weeks, I don't need interaction with more people for now.

Bucky thought for a minute to ignore the sound, to wait for the person to give up and leave, anyway he didn't spend many days on this apartment, almost no one had seen him leave or enter the building and he had no contact with the neighbors, only with the lady on the 7th floor who once lost one of her cats, which ended up in Bucky's apartment, accidentally. Not that I found the cat in the alley and actually brought him to my apartment, it doesn't mean that I stole the cat, he was in the street by himself, I rescued him.

When the banging on the door stopped and Bucky thought he could breathe calmly again, a voice between altered and annoyed was heard all the way to the living room where he was sitting trying to overcome his third panic attack and fourth existential crisis of the day .

-"I know you're in there! I saw you coming in a few hours ago! I've been waiting for days for you to come back!"-

More out of instinct than anything else, Bucky pulled out the knife hidden in his right boot as he slowly backed away from the door. Do I really have a spy as a neighbor? Should I call Sam? Is he in danger too? Never mind now, you need an escape route Bucky, concentrate, third floor, window to the alley, 2 minutes max, the bike is parked far away, I'll have to run, but to where, rendezvous point, safe place, think....

- "for God's sake, open the door, I need you to pay for your fucking internet plan, I'm in the last season of my series and I need to know if Carolina died or not!"-

- "The internet?"- Between the andrenaline from escaping and the shock of not understanding what was happening Bucky spoke louder than an assassin, with over 60 years of experience, should have spoken. Oh, shoot.

-"Yes! Your wifi, I need it to finish watching my series"-

Whispering "wifi" to himself, Bucky tries to remember where he has heard that word before, this is what I get for never listening to Sam when he talks to me. But before he can continue his mental analysis of all the conversations with Sam about such stupid things as his favorite American Football team, the New Orleans Saints, that I remember, to how Antonio could possibly leave María on the last episode of the 6 o'clock telenovela of which Sam is a fan, his apparent "neighbor" spoke up again:

-"Jesus Christ, can you open the door? So we can resolve this like adults"-

Bucky resigned to the fact that he has given his position to the "enemy", walks to the door and opens it waiting for his death. Well at least if I die I won't have to listen to Sam again talking about Antonio and María. But on the other side of the door, there was a woman, who in her pajamas, very unthreatening but cute, was watching him as if he were a ghost but still with defiance in her eyes, in one breath she introduced herself and continued her speech about her complaint to Bucky:

-"As I was saying, I need you to pay for your internet"-

-"I'm sorry, but I'm not sure I understand what you mean"- mumbled Bucky.

- "Good Lord"- To Bucky's surprise his neighbor, pushes him and enters his home, well not so much a home home, more like the headquarters of his secret club, of which he is the president, vice president and only member, the point is that it is his place, where he can (and wants to be alone), as she lives here. This must be a dream, maybe I hit my head too hard in the last mission and I am unconscious in the hospital.

Crossing the room, Bucky's unwanted visitor looks around searching for something while whispering the words "I see you are quite minimalist, but maybe this is too much, someone urgently needs to look for some inspiration on Pinterest". She stops abruptly in front of the shelf where, in theory, a TV should go, while shouting: "EUREKA", she bends down and picks up a white device which has two antennas and like a million little blinking lights, damn, that looks like something out of a spaceship, I'm being watched by aliens? I'm being spied on by Kree?

-"This is your router, this is where the internet signal comes from, which I need you to pay for so I can finish watching my series"-.

Bucky, still in shock for the third time in less than 15 minutes, as he processes the idea that perhaps Thanos' unknowing twin is spying on him for a second invasion of earth and revenge for his brother's death. He can only nod to his now more relaxed and happy neighbor.

-"Perfect, thanks! I need to check the food I left in the oven, I'll talk to you later"- and as quickly as she came she left through the same door, leaving Bucky with more doubts than answers, peeking down the hallway, he realizes that she is the neighbor who lives next door, to his right. When Bucky comes out of his initial stupor, still not fully understanding what is going on, he decides to take his cell phone out of his pocket and call his own personal Google to solve his doubts about this century: Sam Wilson.

-"Hey Buck! What's up?"-how does he always manage to sound so happy? focus Buck.

-"What the hell is a router and why do I have one in my house?"- somehow Bucky manages to formulate, although maybe his voice cracked a little on the last words.

-"That thing's been there for at least two months and you didn't even notice it? Have you even paid the bill?"-

-"You put this in here? Without telling me????"- maybe Sam is also a Kree? Who can I trust now? It's all a trap?

Listening to Bucky's accelerated breathing, Sam tries to explain to him slowly, that in this century life without internet is not life, but obviously as Bucky does not even know how to set the alarm on his own cell phone, he was in charge of buying the router and creating the contract with the company so that, the 106 year old man could have his personal network at home. He had given it the name but he had not given it a password so that Bucky himself could set it up later. "I am an excellent friend, I mean co-worker, if I may say so"

-"Sorry man, after all that happened, we got called for a mission and I forgot to tell you, do you have your laptop over there? I'll help you set up a password, so your neighbors won't steal your internet anymore"- and with that comment everything started to make sense in Bucky's slightly screwed up but functional mind about the events with his seemingly non-spy and harmless neighbor.

Meanwhile Bucky was trying to remember his own password to unlock the laptop in front of him, also courtesy of Sam. "Bucky, when you learn about online banking and that you can pay your rent, electricity, phone and everything with a click of your computer, you will thank me". It should be noted that Bucky hasn't used that laptop once, like a good 100 year old grandpa he goes to the bank to make his deposits and pay his debts, which obviously consisted only of electricity, water, gas and phone because the man had no idea that there was a device in his house that spit out internet, apparently only his next door neighbor knew this. Buck tells Sam how he thought his router was an alien device and how he thought his neighbor was a KGB agent coming to kill him. "Relax Buck we all have undesirable neighbors that steal our internet signal sometimes", well undesirable is not the word I would use to describe her but ok.

When Sam finally explains to him how to connect his computer to the internet, Bucky can finally see the name that his wonderful co-worker, not friend, because he could never be friends with someone so stupid as to think that the name "THE WIFILCON AND THE WINTER ROUTER" was a good name.

- "my god Sam, you're such an asshole!"-

-"HEY! That's a great name!"- Sam responds with as much indignation as possible, he's the best at naming everything from dogs to wifis.

- "I can't believe you're Captain America, I can't believe we're even friends"- Bucky really can't understand his luck to have friends, well, co-workers whatever.

- "Well excuse me but we're co-workers..."-

- "Well, take this call as my formal resignation, bye"-

-"Wait a minute Buck..."- Bucky ended the call, to finish -his self-imposed- punishment of listening to Sam Wilson talk for over an hour. At least I asked him how to use the bank's website to pay for the internet. Suddenly, without warning and without explanation, the memory of his neighbor is lodged in his head, her hair in a ponytail, her reading glasses, pink shorts, her sweater from some university of which he can't even remember the name because he was watching out for other things... that she wouldn't kill me obviously, he was watching out that she wouldn't pull a knife out of her back and kill me right there. The message on his laptop indicating that he can now set a new name and password to his wifi distracts him enough to stop thinking about his sweet and cute non-spy neighbor and how she would look with her hair down and her glasses off.

Still with the sweet feeling in his chest and the desire to see her again he writes as the new name of the wifi, while laughing:

"If you want free internet, you owe me at least one free dinner"

After paying the internet debt and closing the laptop, Bucky gets up hoping to find something edible in the kitchen, while leaning over to look inside his fridge and analyzing how bad it would be to eat a fried egg with pasta and sriracha, he hears again a knock on the door, but this time it does not cause Bucky the anguish and anxiety that caused him the first time, but quite the opposite.

-"Open the door Winter Router! I prepared chicken pot pie for dinner"-.

#bucky barnes fanfic #bucky barnes #bucky barnes x reader #james bucky barnes x reader #james buchanan barnes #bucky barnes x female reader #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky barnes fluff #marvel fanfiction #the winter soldier #winter soldier #bucky barnes imagine #bucky barnes x original female character #bucky barnes x OC #marvel #mcu #fanfiction #mcu fanfiction #james bucky barnes x original character #james bucky barnes x OC #sebastian stan

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: Nirvana in Fire, Episode 02

(Masterpost) (Other Canary Stuff)

Warning: Spoilers for All 54 Episodes!

A Cunning Plan

Let's start by checking in with the in-progress schemes. Nirvana in Fire features many, many overlapping schemes that stretch across multiple episodes.

Princess Nihuang's Marriage: Princess Nihuang is betrothed to a dead guy, and that's fine with her. If she needs tender emotional care she's got Xia Dong. Xia Dong is married to a dead guy so this works well for both of them.  

The Emperor wants to marry Nihuang off, because she's got a loyal heap of troops at the southern border, and he's a paranoid old fuck, who doesn't like anyone to have the power to overthrow him. Marrying her will sort of force her to hand her troops off to her impulsive younger brother, or something.

The Emperor has a soft spot for Nihuang, however, so he's allowed her to set a bunch of impossible conditions on the marriage, including a martial arts contest. NIF is a hybrid palace drama and Wuxia drama, so there are courtesans and backstabbing and sneaky maids and sneaky eunuchs but also, people can fly.

The two main power seekers, Prince Yu and the Crown Prince, have flunkies that they want Nihuang to marry, but their flunkies suck at martial arts, so if they want her to marry one of their dudes, there will have to be cheating.

Note that Nihuang's good friends Jingrui and Yujin are taking part in the contest to marry her, which might be weird, except they both know she can beat their asses so they seem to just be joining in for fun & prestige. 

The fact that she doesn't want to marry either of these loveable cuties means that she's pretty serious about staying betrothed to her first love, despite his apparent deadness.

(more after the cut!)

Recruiting Mei Changsu / Killing Mei Changsu: Team Prince Yu wants to recruit Mei Changsu. Team Crown Prince wants to recruit him or kill him, if recruiting him doesn't work. 

Mei Changsu acts like this is so tedious; all he wants to do is rest. But they only want to recruit him because he and his pal Lin Chen made them believe he is the answer to their problems.  Whenever Mei Changsu acts annoyed at something, it's probably something he actually orchestrated. "Pork chops again?" (secretly buys more pork chops).

The Duke Qing/ Landgrab Case: In Episode 1, the Jiangzuo Alliance protected some witnesses against Duke Qing in an enslavement/land grabbing case. It's difficult for me to find anything about historical land grabbing in China because Google is full of 21st century land grabbing information. Anyway Duke Qing works for Prince Yu, so the witnesses are (whether they mean to be or not) on The Crown Prince's side. The Emperor has an interest in this case, because land grabbing is bad, apparently, even by corrupt-emperor standards. Xia Dong is in charge of investigating.

The Chiyan Army Case: This is the big conspiracy that the entire show is about. 11 years ago, the Emperor received evidence that Prince Qi, Lin Xie (Mei Changsu's father), and the entire Chiyan army were going to rebel. This was supposedly reported by Xia Dong's husband, Nie Feng, before Lin Xie supposedly killed him. The emperor ordered executions for everybody.

Prince Jing thought this was a bunch of bullshit and didn't hesitate to say so, which got him sent off to distant regions to do army things for years at a time, and landed him a place high up on the emperor’s shit list.

The Hazelnut Pastry Scheme: This is a small scale, benevolent scheme, in which Concubine Jing will eventually stop making cookies with hazelnuts in them, because Mei Changsu is allergic to them. 

Ok, that’s the scheme roundup for this episode. On with the show!

Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting

After a quick expository chat between the Emperor and Gong Gao, laying out the reasons for the Nihuang Marriage Scheme, we go to Prince Yu’s place to watch superhot Meng Zhi, commander of the emperor's guards, whip some ass. Not, alas, literally.  Despite his leather shoulder thingies and his handsome beard, and his commanding ways on a battlefield, when it comes to interpersonal relations he is pretty much a labrador retriever puppy in human form.

Meng Zhi is kicking the asses of Prince Yu’s fighters to determine if they're qualified to compete in the Marriage contest. They are not. He points out to the Prince that they can't put such terrible wimps into the competition because it will make the country’s defenses look weak.  

This beatdown is observed by Prince Yu and by Xie Yu, who Prince Yu thinks is on his side. Xie is 100% on the Crown Prince's side, but is carefully hiding that fact; he has his son working for Prince Yu as part of his cover.

In determining how severe an ass kicking is, everyone talks about how many moves it takes to defeat someone, like it's chess. Meng Zhi can beat literally anyone else in the show. He's number two on the Langya List of fighters & we never meet #1.

Fe Liu Was Fast as Lightning

Mei Changsu is hanging out in the garden at Xie manor while Fe Liu jumps around. Fe Liu wants Mei Changsu to play Roblox with him, and pouts when MCS opts for staying in the garden and reading a book.

Fe Liu is utterly devoted to Mei Changsu; I really love their relationship. Fe Liu’s backstory isn't fully explained in the show, but apparently he was raised from an early age to focus on being extremely lethal, and didn't spend much time learning to talk or other skills, making him the epitome of the asynchronous/ gifted teen. Mei Changsu isn’t who raised him to be like this; MCS and Lin Chen rescued him, which is why he is now Mei Changsu’s personal murder pet.

Fe Liu is both a complete fantasy character and also a really believable teen, beautifully acted by Leo Wu, who DMBJ fans know from Tomb of the Sea, and who Xiao Zhan fans know from Battle Through the Heavens.

Fe Lui promptly gets into a fight with Meng Zhi, who's visiting Xie manor. All Fe Liu was doing was leaping about the rooftops like an assassin, but since Xie Yu is the sort of guy that a lot of people would like to kill, Meng Zhi doesn't think this is so good. They have a hilarious, entertaining fight with many, many wire-assisted moves.

They're pretty evenly matched, and Xie Yu watches them with extreme interest until Mei Changsu shows up and tells Fe Liu to stop. Xie Yu is watching because he needs to know how many dudes he should send to assassinate Mei Changsu. Answer: more. Always more.

Unfortunately, (or fortunately since it’s probably all part of MCS’s plan) Fe Liu's extreme skilz make it obvious that his boss is someone important. Mei Changsu discusses this with Jingrui and Yujin in an open-air setting where Jingrui's brother Xie Bi can totally hear them.  In no time flat, father and son have reported his identity to their respective princes.

Over at Prince Yu's place, Qin Banruo and her awesome eye makeup join the party. She's Prince Yu’s advisor/manipulator, working for the (fallen) Hua kingdom, led by the (deceased) Princess Xuanji . She has a network of spies who work for her, that she deploys for Prince Yu's schemes. Her ultimate goal is not to help him, however, but just to fuck up the Da Liang Empire, which conquered the Hua.

(Nearly) Everybody Hates Jingyan

Xia Dong heads out on her assignment in the Land Grab Case, and Nihuang goes to see her off. They talk about gender expectations and how annoying it is to have to marry a dude, and briefly hang out being WLW goals with their mutual devotion, excellent fashion sense and deadly fighting abilities. Nihuang, in particular, wears the prettiest things and also stands at attention like she's commanding an army; I adore her.

They're interrupted by the arrival of Prince Jing, who is greeted cheerfully by Nihuang and eye-rollingly by Xia Dong.  

He's wearing an awesome brass-and-blue armor that we never see again after this episode. It's too bad - it's a good color for him and it has a cool vampire cloak with a high collar.

Prince Jing takes the opportunity to snark at Xia Dong about her investigation and the Xuanjing Bureau’s penchant for inventing finding conspiracies, and then rides off before she can reply.

This leads Nihuang and Xia Dong to get into their chronic argument about the Chiyan Conspiracy and the Lin family, and then Xia Dong hits the road.

Prince Jing and his subordinates stand around outside the palace waiting to report to the emperor while the emperor ignores him. They get sweatier and sweatier while they wait. which makes me like the Emperor a little bit more.

Prince Yu and CP Xian are busy sucking up to the emperor as they look at a manuscript. They are a bunch of assholes and you can see that Gao Zhan isn't a fan of this bullshit.

Eventually Gao Zhan reminds/persuades the emperor to summon Prince Jing, whose brothers snark at him like a couple of 12 year old girls while he radiates manly vigor and handsomeness.  

Consort Jin is bummed that she can't see Prince Jing for another 5 days, and her maid sidekick says random comforting things. This maid, Xiao Xin, is actually a little snake, who works for Qin Banruo's network. We don't learn that until sometime later.

All of the maids have this same hairstyle. If you are a westerner and you think this hairstyle is crazy, have a look at some Roman and Byzantine historic hairstyles. I'm not saying this hairstyle is NOT crazy, mind you; just that crazy hair was a feature of many, many historical empires.  

Consort Jing has someone deliver her hazelnut cookies to Prince Jing; she doesn’t know about Mei Changsu yet so hazelnut is still on the menu. Nicest mom. Also smartest, helpful-est mom, as the story develops.

Suck-Up Contest

At Xie manor, Xie Bi tries to get Mei Changsu to go meet the Empress, who has stopped by with Nihuang specifically to meet him, as part of the Recruit Mei Changsu scheme. Jingrui says nope, fuck that, he's not going to be a pawn in your political games, fuck off. We get to see Jingrui being steely and righteous, which is both cool and hot. Nihuang should totally marry him.

The Empress is annoyed that Mei Changsu doesn't show up, and Nihuang is like, it's ok, I don’t actually give a fuck about meeting new men. But I did want to meet his murder puppy Fe Liu.

Grand Princess Liyang says they don’t need to bother meeting pugilists, despite her son being one and her supposed best friends/co-parents also being pugilists.

Grand Princess Liyang will probably be glad Mei Changsu didn’t come to her little party, once she realizes what tends to happen when Mei Changsu comes to a party.

Then we go to the suitor tournament, in which everyone more or less sucks.

The princes really want to go over to Mei Changsu’s balcony to meet him, and they have a hilarious silent interaction where they both try not to be the first one to move. They finally cave, and go together.  

Then they compete to see who can be the most cringe and blow the most smoke up Mei Changsu's ass.

They ply him with gifts and flattery, which he mostly manages to resist.

Cookie Time with Granny

Then they get summoned to go meet the grand empress, who is (I think) the mother of the previous emperor, the grandmother of the current emperor, and the great grandmother of basically every highborn character of the current generation, including Nihuang and Yujin, although it’s not clear where they sit in the family tree. Historically, cousin marriage - particularly of maternal cousins - was no big whoop in China, so it's not surprising that a lot of nobles would share a great-grandmother.

The Grand Empress is a sweet lady with dementia. She can’t figure out who the hell anyone is. First-time viewers feel the same way.  

Her dementia is pretty well depicted, unlike a lot of TV dementia, or at least it matches up to my experiences with my own elders. She remembers the distant past more vividly than recent times; when she understands who’s in front of her she connects with them emotionally, but she falls off track easily. And she projects the identities of people she misses onto people who are around her.

Like many other grannies, no matter who is visiting, she wants them to 1. get married 2. produce offspring 3. eat something, you’re so skinny

When Mei Changsu meets Granny she immediately calls him Lin Shu, either because she recognizes him or because she really misses Lin Shu, or both. She calls Nihuang over and joins their hands, and Mei Changsu grabs onto Nihuang's hand and holds it for a while.

Everyone thinks it's adorable that Granny has dementia and is confused about that guy who was horribly killed, except Nihuang, who was already checking Mei Changsu out and is somewhat verklempt. She might have to revise her anti-man feelings a little bit.

Everyone leaves, and Nihuang hits up Mei Changsu to take a walk with her, casually mentioning that she could have his hand cut off for touching her, but since she's not in the mood, he's ok.

She prods a bit to find out what he's doing in town and what he's up to. “Do you have a girlfriend? Like a serious girlfriend or just a stalker who works for you?” She asks him which of the two princes he's going to support, but they’re interrupted by a eunuch beating a slave child. That’s the price you pay for trying to have a date in the palace, I guess.

#nirvana in fire #langya bang #nirvana in fire gifs #restless rewatch nirvana in fire #canary3d-original #my gifs

[imagine-loki]

Blushing in His Colours, Chapter 30

TITLE: Blushing in His Colours CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: Chapter 30 AUTHOR: fanficshiddles ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine Loki being a Daddy Dom, his adores and loves his little, worships the ground she walks on. She has vaginismus, but he couldn’t be more supportive with her. RATING: M

Mia rushed into the car and breathed out in relief when the doors locked.

Reporters were rushing at the car, trying to get her to talk. Asking what it was like dating Loki, since speculation that the drone footage was of Loki saving his girlfriend had spread like wildfire.

She had just gone out for a bit of shopping, but had to cut it short when she was recognised and started getting hounded.

When she got back home, she flopped down onto the bed face down with a groan.

‘Are you alright, sweetling?’ Loki asked with a chuckle as he sat down on the edge of the bed and rubbed her back.

‘Blooming reporters. Again!’ She huffed and turned her head to the side to look at him.

‘I’m sorry, love.’ Loki sighed, frowning.

‘Not your fault. They’re just annoying.’ Mia laughed and moved over closer to him. He was just out of the shower, so was butt naked. Not that Mia was complaining, not at all.

‘They are indeed. Perhaps you should consider what Maria suggested.’ Loki said, stroking her hair.

Mia humphed as she moved closer to his thigh, and she bit him playfully. But still hard enough to leave teeth marks.

Loki gasped in surprise and his mouth opened wide in mock shock. ‘Did you just bite me?’

Mia started giggling and she attempted to roll away, but Loki grabbed her and started tickling her.

After fooling around for a while, Mia spoke to Loki at length about what Maria had suggested. She decided it was probably best, to get it out of the way and hope that it would calm the reporters down when she was out and about…

So that afternoon she found herself in one of the interview rooms at the base, a reporter from one of the biggest news outlets was there to interview her.

She was so nervous, she didn’t want to do it. But she knew she had to, or she would be dealing with reporters continuously.

Loki picked her hand up and kissed the back of it softly. ‘Ill be right outside if you need me, love. You’ll do great.’ He assured her.

‘Thank you.’ She smiled up at him.

Loki glanced at the reporter, narrowing his eyes at her briefly before heading out. A silent warning to be good to his girl.

The interview started off ok, Mia was asked a few questions about herself and her position with the team. And how she met Loki, when they first got together.

‘Have you ever been scared of Loki? Knowing how strong he is?’

‘No, not at all.’ Mia answered confidently.

‘What about during the big fight, it must’ve come as a surprise seeing him like that?’

‘Well, yeah. It did. But he wouldn’t ever hurt me, I know that.’ Mia smiled.

The reporter nodded and smiled too. ‘What is it like, dating one of the most powerful beings in the world?’

‘It’s… well, just dating him is incredible. Whether he is super powerful or not. I love him and he treats me so well, like a princess.’ Mia said honestly.

There was a few more questions along the same lines.

‘And to finish off… Aren’t you ever worried that he might find someone else now he is getting so much more recognition? He has a huge fanbase, which working in social media I am sure you know, many women trying to gain his attention and steal him from you. Are you worried that one might catch his attention?’

Mia was slightly stunned at that question. She was amazed at the balls of the reporter.

Loki was of course listening in through the door, he was about to burst into the room, but then he heard Mia’s response. Making him freeze.

‘No. I’m not worried in the slightest. Because he’s mine.’

It took all of Loki’s strength not to barge into the room and bend her over the table and do unspeakable things to her. But he waited, not so patiently, for the reporter to thank Mia and pack up her recording equipment. The reporter was impressed with Mia and really liked her, even with her questions she threw at her.

As soon as she left, Mia was about to leave the room but Loki rushed in and slammed the door shut, locking it with his Seidr.

‘Loki!’ Mia squeaked when he pounced on her, turning her around and bending her over the table.

‘I heard everything, my little sweetling.’ He said as he smoothed her hair out of the way and started sucking on the back of her neck, making her whimper.

Sliding a hand into her hair, he held her tightly down on the table. He nipped on earlobe as he spoke so sinfully, she almost came straight away. ‘Getting possessive over me, hmm?’

He flipped her dress up and shoved his hand inside her knickers, slowly starting to stroke her.

‘I like that.’ He growled. ‘You did so well. I am so proud… But don’t forget, Daddy is the one in charge, little sweetling.’

Mia moaned loudly as his fingers glided over her clit, he teased her for a while, then surprised her by spanking her a few times. That riled her up completely.

He had her favourite dildo appear in his hand, he took his time to prepare her with his fingers first and make sure she was properly aroused, then he slid the dildo into her and used his Seidr to take control of it. Meaning he could thrust his cock between her ass cheeks, in tune with how he made the dildo move within her. His fingers dug into her hips as he rutted against her.

Mia was first to cum, the urgency and rather animalistic way of it all had cumming in no time. Loki was next to follow, spilling all over her ass as he growled hotly in her ear. ‘Mine. Forever.’

-

After the interview that Mia did, she found that reporters did back off. Luckily. She discovered that some fans were quite ruthless, yet most of them were kind about Loki’s girlfriend. Which she was glad to see.

In the following week, Mia managed to use the final dilator. She was so excited, Loki was so pleased too, especially with how excited she was about it.

‘I told you we’d get there, sweetling.’ Loki kissed her softly. She was sitting on his lap, with the dilator in for ten minutes, just to get used to.

‘You were right.’ Mia grinned.

‘As always.’ Loki winked at her.

‘Well… sometimes.’ She teased, making Loki chuckle and squeeze her sides playfully.

‘I uhm… I am still a little worried. I mean, you are so much bigger than this dilator. What’s the next stage?’ She asked, a little bit worried.

Loki smiled and stroked her cheek. ‘We use this dilator for a while, keep your body used to it. We keep playing and exploring, maybe try out some other toys. Then when the time is right, we take it very slow. Spend a whole day doing foreplay, then try penetration.’

Mia put her arms around his neck and hugged into him. She was so excited that there was a plan, that Loki had been thinking about it and knew what to do. That he was guiding her through it all.

But he had certainly been right back at the beginning, it would happen in time and there was always ways to make it work. Ways to make her fantasies come true in the meantime.

#Loki #Lover #Submitted fic #submission #Blushing in her Colours #Chapter 30 #fanficshiddles

[shadeofazmeinya]

♡ Stream team (honestly I wanna know all lol but if you don’t feel like doing the whole thing, specifically who loses keys, who leaves notes and who makes them pinky promise) please!

(gonna do them all just because! had to add a readmore because it got a little long haha)

Who is the most affectionate?

-Honestly its probably a tie between Jeremy and Matt. Maybe Jeremy just because Matt is often busy hacking. But those boys seem like they love cuddles

Who initiates the handholding?

-I feel like maybe Jeremy. He just loves being close to his loves. And it will also usually involve him yanking them into little kisses.

Who worries more for the other?

-It's probably pretty even haha. They hardly leave safe lives. Maybe Matt because he's usually just the man behind the screen. And Trevor and Jeremy are more on the ground and likely to be hurt. Though Trevor is a close second as kinda the man in charge. He always fears a decision he makes being a bad one and getting one of them hurt.

Who is more likely to ask for help?

-Probably Matt. Trevor and Jeremy are stubborn boys. But they're getting better

Who is the one always losing the keys?

-Jeremy haha. He just gets distracted ok?

Who leaves little love notes for the other?

-My first instinct is Trevor. He seems like he loves leaving little love notes all over Matt's computer. Jeremy joins in of course. And while annoying when they cover his whole screen in post-it notes, Matt does love it

Who can’t sleep unless the other is there?

-Jeremy. He needs both his boys in bed to get a full night of sleep. But that's usually hard to pull off. But he tries his best, usually using it as an excuse to make sure both of them sleep.

Who is more likely to propose to the other?

-I doubt there would ever really be a proper "proposal" per say. They hardly are looking to get married. But it it would be one of it, it would be Matt mentioning it off hand and both Trevor and Jeremy just staring until they pull him into kisses and say yes.

Who introduced the other to their family first?

-Honestly this one fully depends on the background for them haha. Most of my fahc backstories are pretty sad so who knows how much 'family' they have. But I do adore Jeremy joining the Fakes first and then bringing Matt and Trevor into the family after him.

Who is more likely to play with the other’s hair?

-Trevor adores braiding and just taking care of Matt's hair. And Matt loves having his hair played with.

Who makes sure the other has meals/stays hydrated?

-Jeremy. He will shove food and water onto Matt every time he goes into his office. And the same with Trevor when he gets too focused into planning to remember food.

Who is more likely to stand up to anyone for the other?

-Its all pretty even in a way. But Jeremy will be the first to have fists flying. The Fakes can tease Matt all they want. But if anyone tries when they're at like a bar or something, they will end up with a broken bone. Do not mess with Jeremy's boys.

Who is the most likely to prepare a surprise for the other?

-I feel like maybe Trevor. Jeremy is bad at it and Matt will sometimes. But Trevor loves surprising them on these big, exciting dates. Taking them to fun places and just having a fantastic time.

Who makes the other pinky promise not to do certain things?

-Trevor haha. He's always surprised that it actually works.

Who puts a blanket over the other when they fall asleep on the couch?

-Trevor. If he finds Matt passes out at his desk, he'll put a pillow under his head and a blanket over his shoulder. And will do the same for Jeremy if he passes out after a rough day out. Makes sure they're resting peacefully.

#ragehappy #stream team #trerematt #maybe #idk haha #also none of these answers are set in stone #everything is likely to change haha #also this is a ship i haven't written much of #so i apologize if the characterizations are off #feel free to correct me

[insxparablxduo]

Drabble based on my fantasy au. It’s ok if u don’t read as y’know its an au and not cannon but yeah I had fun with this one.

Oh, this was annoying as fuck. 

At first fighting a dancer and a soldier class seemed easy. Almost stupidly so. Surely they were left behind to die here by them or any other group brave enough to challenge him. Right? Wrong. 

If it was true they'd have killed the twins by now. Maybe they shouldn't have underestimated them so much. The truth of the matter was they were left in charge of this keep under direct commands from their 'master'. They were part of the cause for so many peoples suffering, and they had done it willingly? They weren't even the first 'boss' they've fought, so clearly they were a lot stronger than what meets the eye, and they were learning that lesson now. 

Dancers are known to be fairly weak and incredibly vulnerable to attacks, especially since they wore little to no armor. Their attacks weren't all that powerful either as they weren't particularly strong nor did most really even know what to do with weapons other than to block or even parry. The only difficult thing about them was they were hard to hit, but would go down easy just with a couple of attacks. 

Soldiers on the other hand wore hefty armor and carried great swords or a sword and a heavy and thick shield. This one wasn't very different. He had a great sword and pretty bulky armor. Which meant they would just have to chip away at his armor since he had no other protection. 

This fight should've been fairly easy. Especially with how much stronger they got to make it all the way up here. This should've been so easy, fighting 10 waves of their grunts back to back should've been easier.

Oh, how wrong they were.

First off, since when the fuck did dancers get so strong? It made sense to target and pick her off first since she was clearly the weakest. Whenever they tried to attack her via magic, sword, arrow, whatever her brother would always get in the way and cover for her. No matter how many of them went to attack her. It became clear if they wanted to attack her they would have to get rid of the brother first. No matter, dancers didn't really do much, but give their teammates a little motivation that helped them fight just a bit better, right? Wrong again.

Apparently they also had the capability to wake those who were passed out. They had targeted all of their attacks on her brother and paid her absolutely no mind. All she was doing was dancing without seemingly a care in the world or mind to what was going on around her. Slowly they had worn down her brother.  The only challenging thing at first is he would look at her and suddenly his attacks would get much stronger, or somehow he was much more agile than he should be, and he was evading more blows than should be possible. 

When they spared her a glance they would find themselves entranced and open to attacks or a fog would come over their minds and when they came out of it apparently they were fighting their other teammates. Matt seemed to have the later problem the most. Distantly, Janne remembers that dancers danced to please the gods. Considering how effective she was, she must've been favored by the gods. Or perhaps she was so skilled they couldn't help, but favor her? Either way, she was annoying.

When her brother fell, they let out a collective sigh of relief. He was much harder to take down then he should've been. They were already pretty exhausted. Their health was pretty low, and they didn't have many curative lefts. They would have to end this soon.

That proved to be harder than first thought. Maybe it was something about these two. There was a lot more than met the eye. 

The first obstacle in fighting her was they actually had to look at her now. Her moves were now affecting them a lot more now that they weren't just glancing at her. Her first set made them a lot slower. Janne did his best to attack her with his arrows, but she seemed to weave through them gracefully as if they were a part of her dance. Anytime Mat or Kataya got closer to her, they seemed to either immediately get charmed (Mat more so than Kat) by her once again or just completely missed her.

Despite most of Mat’s attacks coming from above as he jumped ridiculous high up and slammed down with all intentions to spear right through her, he would always miss by a hair as she just slightly moved out of his way. Even with Kataya backing him up by staying firmly on the ground fighting toe to toe on her. Sometimes the dancer would move out of the way and Kataya would follow her only to barely miss getting speared by Mat as he came down. Kat seemed to have the most luck as she managed to cut up her shaw that she twirled around and even the lightest cuts on her person. Still, for the most part she seemed to escape their reach and even got the two to almost hit each other and my own arrows weren’t helping much. 

Even as the two kept trying to hit her with their lance and sword she would just avoid it all no matter how fast they seemed to be, she was faster. It almost looked the three of them were dancing with the way Kat swung her sword and Mat tried to pierce through and stab her, she just weaved around it all, keeping the same grace she had once they started. Eventually Matt or Kat would move back to catch their breath, giving him and Lina a better opening to try and hit her. 

Lina being the only mage of the group took pride in her roll. He knew she had to be exhausted by now, but she maintained the same power as she kept attacking. Her attacks seemed to have the most success, but every now and then the girl would just hop around her magic as if it was nothing. Before they could even think of a plan to take her down, she did a couple backflips away from them. What was she gaining distance for?

She closed her eyes as she started her next dance. The group tried their best to stop her, but somehow she continued to avoid all their attacks. Her set seemed to be over, and she collapsed for a moment painting and looking up at the sky. Suddenly the clouds broke and a warm tray of sunlight enveloped her and her brother. Grass seemed to grow around his passed out body, and then he got up. 

Oh fuck.

It just got harder from there.

The two groups fought in a frenzy eager to get this over with already. The sister that just stayed behind was now attacking them too after she got up again. Janne switched to being a bard. Collapsing his bow back into a lyre, he sang to give his own team some motivation as it was clear his own attacks were doing little to nothing. On the bright side, this seemed to stop Matt from getting charmed by the sister. The not so bright side it somehow made the sisters dancers stronger. Even as he sang ancient tales and played beautiful music that made his teammates buzz with unrivaled energy that they needed to keep going. It also made his enemies crawl with anxiety. Still, she danced to the rhythm but, seemingly unaffected and danced in a way that counteracted the effect of his own singing.

It seemed that a battle of the arts has now started between the two.

As he kept singing she kept dancing and neither planned to stop till they became the victor. This was also a battle of skill and endurance and Janne didn’t plan to lose. He was regarded as not only the best storyteller in his caravan, but also in many other villages as well. He knew countless stories and had a fine ear for music. Despite his age, he had already masted the lyre. Her dancing would be no match for him.

Sometime after their own little battle began, she started to throw knives. Taking on a more active role to fight them. Still she didn’t stop dancing. Was she showing off? Unfortunately this left her a little more opening to attacks and Kataya focused in on her. 

As the battleground became littered with knives, when had to wonder where was she keeping all of this? Another was when would she run out? Soon enough, that was answered as she reached behind her and suddenly the chains that she had wrapped around her upper body fell to the floor.

After that she seemed to be more focused on fighting then dancing as she started to wield a chain mace. Her agility was still ever apparent of course. She had disguised her true weapon, (?) as something decorative, this whole time. She must be getting desperate as her brother seemed ready to fall again. Despite being awoken at seemingly full strength after being passed out, his moves were more sluggish and weaker. 

Janne considers this a win. Still, he doubts his arrows would be much help, so he continues his supportive role as a bard. 

It wasn’t much longer before they finally managed to win the battle against these ‘generals’. The group has never been so relived before. They barely managed to survive that with the skim of their teeth. The thought of having to fight another general makes them uneasy. If they wanted to fight their leader and not only win but survive, they would need to get much stronger. This battle was proof of how much harder it was going to get from here on. This battle was much harder than the last 5 ‘bosses’ before them.

#this is like 3 pages long in my docs #god #drabble #mun writes #not v happy with the end but oh well

[ejzah]

A/N: So, here’s part 17. This one is pretty Densi focused.

***

The Agent and the Lawyer, Part 17

“Deeks, there is nothing in the law that states we have to allow a detainee a phone call,” Sam told Deeks, his arms crossed as they sat across from each other.

What had started out as a simple discussion about twenty minutes before, had evolved into a tense disagreement. He’d thought Sam was finally beginning to respect his opinion at least a little bit, but the last case had proven him wrong.

Sam and Callen had arrested a man, David Williams, after Eric and Nell found evidence linking hm with a domestic terrorism plot. Deeks was mildly horrified when they brought him into the boat shed, bleeding from a gunshot wound to the upper arm.

Although Williams eventually confessed to the location of the terrorist ring, it still didn’t sit well with Deeks.

“I realize that, Sam, but it’s the principle. You denied him a call, you didn’t get him medical help, and threatened to stick him in a jail cell with a convicted killer,” Deeks countered. “I’m supposed to be a legal liaison. What the hell am I doing here if I just stand by and say nothing?”

“Deeks, you’re new here. Sometimes you have to slant the law a little bit to get the right results. Williams wasn’t in danger of bleeding out and I was never going to act on my threats. He just needed to believe I would.”

Deeks pressed his lips together, beyond frustrated. He’d held back for the past several weeks as he watched and learned how the team operated. Technically, a lot of what they did skirted the law. It wasn’t exactly illegal, but it certainly wasn’t best practice and in the right situation a lawyer could make a case against them in his opinion.

“What if he presses charges?” Deeks asked.

“I think he has more serious things to worry about,” Callen pointed out lightly. “Like denying that he was part of a group that planned to blow up a shopping mall.”

Sam stood and patted him on the shoulder, effectively ending the conversation. He probably didn’t mean to be condescending, but it made Deeks feel like a little kid.

“Deeks, once you’re here for a while, you’ll realize that many times the end result justify the means,” he explained. Deeks glanced over at Kensi, but she remained silent.

After they left the room, Kensi sat down next to him, nudging him with her shoulder.

“You going to be ok?” she asked quietly. He sighed and rubbed at his hair, trying to find a way to explain the mounting frustration he felt.

“Sometimes it just feels like I’ve replaced one failed system for another,” he said.

“Don’t let Sam hear you say that,” she joked. When he didn’t laugh, she gently rubbed his back. “Is there anything I can do, babe?” That did make him smile a little.

“I don’t think so. I guess I just have to figure out what my purpose in being here is. And what maniacal plans Hetty has for me.”

“Mm, I don’t think Hetty has anything too evil planned for you. She likes you, you know.”

“Even when she calls me cheeky?”

“Especially then,” Kensi said emphatically. “I think you have her completely charmed.” Her hand drifted a little lower on his back, effectively pushing his concerns to the back of his mind.

“And do I have anyone else charmed?” he teased. Kensi blushed and glanced away.

“You’re getting there.”

“You realize you called me, ‘babe’ a minute ago, right?”

“No, I didn’t,” she said, making the weird cackling sound that he’d come to associate with embarrassment.

“Yes, you did. Admit it, you have a pet name for me.”

“You are utterly ridiculous.”

“And you love it.”

“We have work to do,” she countered, grabbing a random stack of files which they’d completed the day before. He grabbed them, setting to the side, and linked their fingers. She glanced around to see if anyone was watching, it didn’t protest or pull away.

“Say it. Say you love it,” he persisted. She was adorable when she got flustered.

“Oh my god, you are so annoying.”

“That’s still not a no.”

“You know, I was going to invite you over for dinner tonight, but I’ve changed my mind,” she said, retrieving her hand and crossing her arms.

“Wait, you were going to let me into casa de Kensi?” he asked. “I’ve been dying to know if you’re as messy there as you are here and at my place.”

“First of all, I don’t even know what that accent was supposed to be. Secondly, you’re already on thin ice, if you’re not careful you might lose more privileges,” she warned.

Turning on his best pleading expression, which he found worked remarkably well on his tough as nails girlfriend, he looked directly into her eyes.

“Please reconsider. I promise to be on my best behavior. I won’t even mention any dirty dishes or unfolded piles of clothes I happen to see.”

Kensi pursed her lips, narrowing her eyes. He saw her start to waver and leaned a little closer, staring more intensely into her eyes. After a minute she sighed.

“Fine.” She held up a finger. “But since you find my lifestyle so amusing, you can wash all my laundry and dishes. And you can’t have your cleaning lady do it for you.”

“Sure,” he said without hesitation.

“For a month,” she added.

“Doable. You know, cleaning isn’t nearly as bad as you think it is.” Evading her elbow, he added, “Are there any other, ahem, tasks you want me to take care of? Maybe I can bake you some muffins?” He lowered his voice suggestively.

He smirked up at her as she looked him up and down, apparently considering his offer. After a minute she leaned closer, her expression playful. God, he loved it when she dropped the tough Special Agent persona.

“I would say yes, but I don’t think your ready to handle my muffins,” she answered, looking ridiculously pleased with herself. “Or my biscuits.”

“I would say ‘touche’, but aren’t biscuits and muffins basically the same thing?” he said, raising a finger. “And just so you know, I can totally handle any and all of your baked goods.”

“You just don’t want to admit that I outwitted you, Mr. Word Smith.”

“Let’s just call it a temporary impasse.”

“I call it you doing all my housework while watch you do it and eat takeout,” she countered.

“Or I could eat y-“

“Ahem!” They both turned, having forgotten that anyone could walk in on their private conversation, and found Nell standing in the doorway with raised eyebrows. She pressed her lips together, looking caught between amusement and vague horror.

Deeks chuckled, ruffling the back of his hair while Kensi quickly pushed away from him.

“Um, how long have you been standing there?” he asked awkwardly.

“Pretty long,” she answered.

“Nell, it’s not what it sounded like,” Kensi rushed to explain. “We were just-“

“Yes, I heard.”

“Deeks was joking. You know how he is. We were actually talking about grabbing dinner after work. You know, like completely platonic coworkers do.” God, she was making it so much worse. Trying not laugh, Deeks added,

“You should come with. I know some great restaurants.” Nell nodded, not looking like she believed them at all.

“I’ll think about it.”

“Did you have something for us, Nell?” Kensi asked in a higher voice than normal.

“Yes, I do. Hetty wants everyone up in Ops. Eric already called Sam and Callen,” she said. Deeks shot Kensi an apologetic look as they followed after Nell.

“So, uh, do you have any nicknames, Nell,” he asked, to fill the awkward silence.

“Not really.”

“Well, we should give you one. And possibly a bell.”

“I don’t know...”

“How about Nellvarine?” he suggested.

“Um, I kind of just like Nell,” she said.

“Don’t worry, we’ll think of something.”

“Before you ask,” Kensi added as the reached Ops and the doors slid open. “Yes, he’s like this all the time.” Before she walked in, Kensi spun to face him and hissed, “You are so dead.”

***

A/N: It’s a bit of shorter and fluffier chapter this week.

#ncis la fanfiction #marty deeks #kensi blye #densi #and team #the agent and the lawyer #part 17 #au #ejzah fanfiction

[tk-productions]

Mystic Sisters- Ch.8 Sunet

“ What the hell happened out there? You had a simple mission and it fell through. Explain yourselves!” The older women yelled from her desk at the two teenage boys in front of her. 

“We were attacked, you didn't send backup like we asked!” The older of the two boys shot back now standing in front of the desk. 

“Who the hell do you think you are? Don't get smart with me Riyoshi!”

“Can we just take our punishment and go?” The younger one asked standing up from his chair.

“Both of you go back to your rooms and await your punishment.” The two boys walked down the long dark halls back to their rooms in silence. 

“Why’d you have to talk back? You couldn't have just let her yell at us like she normally does could you?”

“Cuz I felt like it, alright? If you don't like it too bad.” Riyoshi said hotly as he walked back to his room completely unbothered.

“Can you at least not get me mixed up in your issues!” 

“Bye Akio!” Riyoshi yelled back while throwing up the peace sign.

“I really hate him sometimes.” Akio walked into his room slamming his door behind him.

Akio tossed himself onto his bed sighing heavily. He stared up at the ceiling of the dark room. He had grown accustomed to being alone besides when he was with Riyoshi. His route had been the same as long as he could remember. Wake up early. Breakfast. Training. There was never any room for change. Everyone here had a goal and needed to do everything to complete that goal. He didn't remember much of his childhood. This was the only life he knew. 

“Aye Akio you up? Amelia summoned us, let's go.” Riyoshi said as he walked Akio’s room without even a warning.

“You really should learn to knock.” Akio stated grumpy but Riyoshi was already walking out of his room towards Amelia’s office.

“That was rude man.”

“If you're gonna whine at least whine about the fact that we are about to be punished for a mistake we didn’t even make. Or the fact that the people we called friends lied to Amelia to save their own asses.” Riyoshi said as he looked Akio in the eye.

“Yea but what's done is done, you can’t just stay angry.” Akio calmly replied

Riyoshi just shook his head then kept walking to Amelia’s office. Akio sighed and followed after him. Amelia was typing furiously behind her computer when they arrived. She sat there with her hands moving a mile a minute.

“You wanted to see us?” Riyoshi spoke up after a few minutes. Amelia finally looked up and starred at the boys for a few seconds before returning her attention back to her computer.

“Hmm yeah, you're off the hook for now. Go get changed for training.”

“That's not like her.” Akio said once they were out of earshot. 

“She probably has something bigger planned for us.” The boys shared a defeated look before going inside their rooms. It wasn't too long after when Riyoshi came knocking on Akio's door. 

“Riyoshi I swear you better want something. I was almost asleep.” Akio said grumpily, opening his door to see Riyoshi dressed in his all black training uniform. He sighed knowing what this meant. 

“Get dressed. We have to be in the training room at 10. And fix your bedhead” 

Riyoshi Pov

Akio and I walked into the training room were the rest of our team mates from the mission were. Some other guys who were training to be on our level. Akio and I  started to train a little but on our own as we waited for the instructor. Well until Levi decided to open his mouth.

“Aye Akio how was your chat with Amelia huh.” Levi had a smile on his face that only widened when Akio didn’t answer him. “Hey Riyoshi your boy is very quiet over there probably because Amelia finally punished her favorties for being dumb asses.” Levi started to Laugh and so did everyone else. 

“Why don’t you just shut up Levi. Don’t make me embarrass you because I will.” I said with a blank face, annoyed.

“You guys thought you were untouchable huh but even the so-called best gets punished.” He laughed again but quickly shut his mouth as I lunged at him.

Akio grabbed me before I could touch the bastard. “You forgot the most important part where you were actually the one that fucked up and we saved your ass. You got the rest of the team to lie for you!” I yelled, pushing Akio off of me and grabbing Levi by his shirt. “If this is how you treat someone who saved your life then I’ll just leave you to die next time around you little shit.” 

Letting go of Levi’s shirt and punching him dead in the face. When he hit the ground I walked back over to Akio who looked at me while shaking his head.

“You have no self control. You could have at least waited till there were no witnesses and we could have done more damage.” Akio looked at me disappointedly.

“Sorry man I couldn’t help it he was basically asking for it and my fist was dying to give him what he wanted.” I laughed rubbing my hand on the back of my head. 

“I think you broke my nose!” Levi yelled getting up looking at me with wide eyes.

“You act as if it won’t heal in probably 20 minutes so stop crying.” Akio told Levi with a smile on his face. 

“Shut up Akio!” Levi yelled before he charged at me, throwing a punch towards my face I dodged it then punched him right in the stomach causing him to stumble back.

“You should back off. Don't continue to push him because you're gonna get hurt.”  Akio told Levi with a more serious tone.

Levi of course didn’t listen to Akio and continued to charge at me. Throwing punches at me left and right out of anger. He had  no agenda on how he was gonna take me down which was very disappointing. I thought I was gonna have a good fight. I threw a couple punches at Levi all landing right where it hurt before finishing him off with an uppercut and watching him fall to the ground in defeat.

“What the hell is going on in here!” Instructor J questioned walking up to us

“Levi wanted to fight me and I gave him what he wanted.” I said point blankly. Akio elbowed me in the gut in response and I just looked at him and shrugged.

“Riyoshi goes to see Amelia now. Akio go with him.” Instructor J ordered.

I walked away, not looking back. My head held high and Akio followed me not like it’s our first time in her office anyway. 

“Ha!, that’s what you get!” Levi yelled after me. “Levi, you will be visiting her office after they return so stop celebrating.” Instructor J clarified. Levi’s smile fell from his face and the rest of the class laughed as Akio and I left the room.

We walked into Amelia’s office completely unbothered and sat down in the seats across from her desk in the same spots we were sitting in just a few hours ago. Amelia just looked at us a little bit annoyed.

“Why is it every time I turn around you're in my office?” Amelia said as she rested her hand on her face.

“Levi wouldn’t leave us alone and you know Ryoshi has a temper. When the fists started flying there was nothing I could do by that point.” Akio answered honestly with a sigh.

“Well Riyoshi I understand the situation but I'm gonna have to punish you so for the next couple days help out Mia in the kitchen.” She told me and I nodded my head.

“Wait we have to trust Riyoshi with our food.” Akio said laughing while Amelia just looked at him “Not just him but you as well since you think this is funny.” Akio stopped laughing instantly as he looked at Amelia.

“But I didn’t do anything!” Akio whined.

“Exactly you could have stopped the fight and you didn’t and that's why you will join him in the kitchen.” She explained nonchalantly

Now it was my turn to laugh as I looked him in the eye. “Not funny anymore huh.”

Amelia looked at us in amusement before regaining her composure. “Ok boys listen up I have a bigger task for you.”She grabs two files and hands them both to me and Akio. We Immediately opened the files and saw pictures of these two girls and all the information on them. 

“The girls you've been watching for months. They are very important to this organization and I decided to choose you for the mission because of your age you're more likely to get close enough without any suspicions.” Amelia looked at us seriously as she spoke

“Why are they so important? What did they do.” I asked curiously looking at the girls' pictures. 

“They're of the royal bloodline of vampires but these two girls possess a power like no other.That’s all I can say for now until you bring the girls back here by the sunset.” Amelia looked at us again but with more determination in her eyes. “I’m really sticking my neck out for you by putting you on this mission so don’t let me down.” 

“We won’t. You have my word Amelia.” I told her and Akio agreed. 

“Ok now get back to training and stay out of trouble! If I see you here one more time it’s both your asses.” Amelia snapped before resting back in her chair.

Akio and I looked at each other and walked back towards the training room but we stopped by our rooms and left the files there since the others would probably be very nosey and we don’t have time for that.

Looking at the file one more time. “Why sunset?” I questioned.

#mysticsisters #mystery #fantasy #fantsy #anime #fanfiction #vampire anime #vampire #vamplove #vampireromance #manga #romance #anime romance #lightnovel #oc story #animestory #japan #oc #ocmanga #original light novel #vampire light novel #vampirelightnovel #fiction #japanese #vampireanime

[lizzybeth1986]

Quick Thoughts on TRFTP Book 1 Chapter 16

• Remember how I dubbed the book The Royal Fast-Track Pregnancy last chapter? Well, yeah. That’s my title for this book from now on.

• If you don’t want to see these posts on your dash, here are the tags to block: #trh quick thoughts, #trh qts, #trh qt reblogs, #long post.

• We’re now in the MC’s third trimester, celebrating her baby shower. Her in-laws show up, she gets gifts, she barely notices that her corgis have had puppies (but why am I surprised, this is the same MC who didn’t care enough about her corgi in Book 2 to notice he was with Liam to help with his proposal). And a couple of nosy royals come to visit.

• Over here in India, we do this ceremony around the 7th month, and it’s called different names in different places but with similar traditions and setups. Up North it’s called godhbharai (which literally means “filling the lap” - since the mother’s lap features prominently here as a symbol of maternal care, therefore the gifts are placed on a cloth over her lap - symbolizing her fulfillment once she reaches motherhood and the blessings she takes with her), and mostly fruits and sweets are placed on her lap as a blessing for prosperity and luck. You have games…but the mother isn’t exactly expected to participate in them - she’s the guest of honour, she sits and enjoys!

• She definitely isn’t there to submit to such a thorough interrogation of her political choices either!!

• The rest of the world treats a baby shower like a time for the mother-to-be to relax and be pampered within an inch of her life. Cordonia treats it as an opportunity for her to beat non-pregnant people at their version of egg-and-spoon and pass personality tests.

• Screenshots:

Hana: The Universal Studio 77 YouTube channel

Maxwell: The rash rec YouTube channel

Drake: @thefirstcourtesan and The BizzysChoices YouTube channel

• Title: Great Expectations

Alternative Title: The State of My Bladder Is of Far More Importance Than Any of This Nonsense.

• Believe me, during your final months of pregnancy your bladder will be virtually non-existant (which is why you’re recommended kegel exercises early on). In medical terms they call this “urinary incontinence”, which is due to those muscles facing way more pressure than usual). At one point I recall joking about how we should add “The Bathroom” at the top of my home address, coz I was almost taking up permanent residence there 😐 I wouldn’t be worrying about politics and intrigue at a time like this, I’d be worrying about my kegels!

• Kiki doesn’t get a lot of opportunities to flex her diplomatic muscles in this story, but when she does, gosh does she deliver. Following her advice this time is what allows us to buy time for ourselves.

• Unfortunately that’s all the space PB will allow Kiara, we’re now back to our regular schedule of treating her like she doesn’t matter.

• Either Maxwell or Hana (in Maxwell’s playthrough) will lead us to the boutique to pick out an outfit.

• On a level of having more gold (therefore bling) than peach, that diamond option already wins. At least in the silhouette I can pretend the peach parts of this dress don’t exist. (I still wound up using the free peach outfit for my failplay of this chapter though)

• Me before meeting Hana: pls don’t make her wear that awful lbd again pls pls pls i beg

Me seeing Hana wear the silver one: …okay that’s not too bad. I’m just going to keep headcanoning this one as a gown though.

• Liam wears his official black tie outfit, Hana wears her silver dress, Maxwell wears his black suit and Drake his deep blue one.

• In everyone else’s playthrough besides Hana’s, she is the one in charge of this “planning committee”. Penelope is in charge of…throwing confetti, which annoys Olivia to end.

• Marguerite from THM steps forward with her good wishes, and asks us about the sex of the child - at which point the narrative lets us know that it’s tradition in Cordonia to not know until the delivery. Which makes sense, since we’ll probably be allowed to customize this in a different book? And in some countries (like mine, where it’s illegal to find out before delivery) there are really, really good reasons to not give anyone - especially the family - that information.

• We meet the rest of the royals: Eirik is as self-centered as he always was (either that or Khaan really desperately needs to make sure no one knows he’s that VR game developer from San Francisco who ran away from Eros), Lerato and Lesidi are cupcakes as always, and the Three Big Royals are shady as always.

• The good thing about the scene where Isabella tries to touch your belly is that it is established as out of line straightaway. You win or lose no points however you react, and while you’re expected to be diplomatic and impress them - the narrative is clear on how wrong Isabella is on doing this. And even if you don’t show a reaction, your LI most certainly will.

• PB is trying to convince me that Amalas has a better sense of boundaries, as if she didn’t stalk me in Texas and squeeze out every possible detail about my past life like an orange in a juicer. She only seems better because the Auvernese have all the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

• Most of the LIs have lost a parent, but have a sibling (except for Hana, who is an only child with both parents living. Liam has lost both his parents, but has a stepmother in Regina so she fulfills that role here) - which means that in every case besides Hana’s, we see one parent and one sibling who has become a parent (optional, in Leo’s case).

- Liam: Regina and Leo (YOU EXIST! I WAS ALMOST CERTAIN PB FORGOT YOU WERE THERE). The two lightheartedly tease each other, which is phenomenal progress considering they were at each other’s throats in RoE! Leo comes to wish the MC in all playthroughs.

- Hana: Lorelai and Xinghai. Hana has sent them an invitation but wasn’t sure they’d make it, and depending on whether she is married or not their response varies. In the friendly playthrough, they respond positively but the focus is still very much on seeing the MC. In the romantic playthrough, however, Hana is allowed to show her nervousness and slight fear (how generous, PB!), reaches out to the MC for support, and the parents are tentative in their approach, with Xinghai even assuring Hana that they will cut short their stay if she wants them to. To which she confirms that she does indeed want them here. The two come to wish the MC in all playthroughs, as Leo does.

- Maxwell: Bartie Sr and Bertrand. Bartie Sr tops even King Eirik for self-centeredness (“make way for House Beaumont!”) and is…just plain weird in the way he greets the MC and his younger son (even Maxwell notices this, commenting that ol’ Bartie is “laying it on a little thick”). Bertrand is the more normal, sorted one, which is a sentence I thought I’d never say in this series. The team was pretty smart in how they scattered BertVannah between two LIs - Drake gets a visit from his sister, Maxwell gets a visit from his brother. Neither Bartie Sr nor Bertrand make an appearance in any other playthroughs which is just as well coz I saw PLENTY Bertrand for 7 whole chapters.

- Drake: Bianca and Savannah. Bianca asks the MC if Drake has been “pulling his weight around the house” while the MC has been “worrying about that baby” - nice to know she expects the same of her son as she did for her son-in-law (or perhaps a little less than what she expects of her son-in-law, considering Bertrand had to get back an entire saddle from the person she sold it to just so he could win her favour, after she allowed her sister to treat him like crap for his entire stay at her home). Savannah mercifully doesn’t get a lot of dialogue and merely compliments our glow. Savannah only appears in this playthrough, while her husband Bertrand only appears in Maxwell’s. Which is a good thing. I’ve had enough of that couple to last me a lifetime (sorry Bertrand). You see both Bianca and Savannah only in this playthrough, and I’m EXTREMELY relieved we don’t see Leona.

• It must be clear to anyone who has read all the playthroughs by now - only Leo, Lorelai and Xinghai make appearances across playthroughs, which could either be because they haven’t been shown at all in the books until now, or possibly because they may feature in Lythikos.

• Okay it’s egg and spoon time but with apples. This is Cordonia. It wouldn’t be anything but apples.

•

When you’re a new mom the last thing on your mind is grace and poise ok. Put really really simply and not in too much detail…your brain will feel more scrambled than scrambled eggs esp in the initial weeks, coz half the time you’re trying to make sense of your kid’s sleep schedule and the other half is your body just….feeling WEIRD (hormonal shifts, postpartum bleeding, and generally the overall effects of childbirth - whether it is vaginally or via C-section, both of which come with their own set of challenges). Your own sleep schedule is going to be all over the place and even after the kid starts sleeping all through the night, sometimes your brain has already been wired to wake you up at 2 AM or something. Your back is gonna hurt like a bitch. Your hair will become a hornet’s nest within the first two weeks coz what even is combing (okay, okay, that was probably just me 😅😅). And this is just when things go normally, okay.

You don’t need grace and poise to take care of a kid at this stage - you need stamina and a strong support system. Cordonia (I mean YOU, TRH team) you really need to talk to more pregnant people 🤦🏽‍♀

(on a more serious note…this is why I feel there needs to be more dialogue on parenthood. What it’s truly like and how it really feels, without the kind of fear that holds especially new parents back from admitting to their feelings about it. New parenthood with all its mess and stresses, its frustrations and confusions. No matter how prepared you are, no matter how much reading up you’ve done, there will always be something about that experience that will knock you sideways. I’ve learned that the less shame there is around admitting that parenthood can be messy, can be trial-and-error rather than perfectly executed every single time, can be imperfect, the better it is for everyone. And maybe this is a lesson that parents in some places have had the space to learn already - and that’s amazing - but there are a whole bunch of places where that’s not the case. And there is so much pressure to make it sound better, to convince people this is an easy happy journey even when it isn’t, or to believe that your well-being isn’t as important as that of your child, that many new parents don’t speak up…believing they’re the only ones who feel this way).

But I digress. I do know that “grace and poise” is expected of pregnant royals and even pregnant celebs. I do know that often they’re expected to step out looking picture perfect after having to battle lack of sleep and insane hormonal changes. They’re expected to have “fit bodies” just months after they’ve delivered. This happens in the real world. And the more we talk about it? The more we can help parents, esp new parents who might struggle more to articulate this experience.

• So…where was I? Oh right, grace and poise. In a race involving a spoon and an apple. A spoon and an apple. Excuse me while I facepalm🤦🏽‍♀

• My bladder would never survive this race in a real-life pregnancy situation, I just know it.

• Self-centered or not, at least Khaan-in-disguise points out the obvious: that everyone else has a physical edge over us. But Leo assures him that speed doesn’t help you in this game (does that make me the tortoise among a bunch of hares if I win? 🐰 🐰 🐢 🐰 🐰)

• Scarlett-Emerson-in-disguise is an angel coz she’s the only person apologizing for bumping into my bump.

• Now…if you bought the diamond scene where we drank wine with Isabella, you’d get intel about Bradfraud that could throw him off in the race:

Now…I really like this bit, okay. I like how thrown off he is that we know his secret. But I’m not entirely sure how wise of a decision it is to let him know so soon that we know, or whether it will bite us in the ass eventually. Could we have maybe waited for a better opportunity? Idk.

Anyway, so that definitely works. But IMO in a petty, inconsequential way that means little in the long run (or could be dangerous too idk). This is intel we could have saved for a better time.

• This is why it makes more sense for the MC to be told what Olivia (and possibly Liam) is investigating. Or at least for her to actually keep asking until one of them caves in and tells her. If she’d known about an Operation Swan maybe she wouldn’t openly goad him so easily (or maybe she would. It’s the MC after all).

• There’s a funny sequence in this where everyone falls on each other like ninepins. And another one where Olivia gets impatient and just throws her apple over to the finishing line, asking Kiara if she won and Kiki is like “non. You’re extremely disqualified.” Oh Kiki. Never change 😂

• ….exactly how large are these spoons. It’s an apple. That would cross over from spoon territory to ladle!

• Once the race is over, we’re back to our tables for lunch. The MC’s bump almost knocking a plate over sparks a conversation among the mothers in the table about their baby bumps, and then about labour. Lorelai in particular speaks about her delivery being “more…grueling than what I expected” but quickly assuring the now-nervous MC that once the child is placed in your arms it will all be worth it. That description could cover a whole range of experiences…from mildly stressful to extremely terrifying. I always hope it’s the former.

(I have another question though: so if Lorelai was so ecstatic over Hana’s birth, where and how during/after this euphoric period did Hana’s parents suddenly begin to feel “devastated” over not having a son then? Coz I distinctly recall Hana speaking about that in Book 1. Or is this another retcon?)

In any case…it’s nice to hear that at least for Hana’s sake.

• If you’re married to one of the guys, then it’s Hana who put together the tiny hors d'ouvres (“personally tested all the options for deliciousness and visual appeal!”). If you’re married to Hana, Madeleine is in charge of this part of the baby shower (“spent a week focus group taste-testing the sides for both aesthetic and delectability”). In any case, it’s all tiny food that’s too cute to eat.

•

…isn’t this the guy who constantly complained about tiny portions? Why wasn’t he just taking extra helpings then? (though he also still complains about food from another country looking like “abstract art”. First Hana’s meal in China, now this. No one cares for your uninformed, unwanted opinion on their cultural dishes, Drake. Good thing Maxwell shut that nonsense down immediately)

• Isabella and Bradshaw’s communications with us have always used strength, might, power as a central factor in their dealings with us. Amalas’ approach is no less insistent, but in a different direction. Culture, cuisine, these are the things that seem to stand out to me atm. If the Auvernese mindset reminds me somewhat of Lythikos and Olivia, the Monterisso one looks like it could bring to mind Castelserraillian, Kiara and her family, and Liam + Hana who are more inclined to explore art and culture.

• Everyone’s kid likes grapes, apparently.

• The dish Amalas presented for the guessing game is what they call a “Sweet Potato Surprise”, but you gotta admit the ‘mango’ option is the most entertaining 😆 (with the carrot option, she claims that she mentioned a root vegetable, which would be close enough)

• A pair of cute corgi puppies make their way to our table, and depending on whether you bought both adult corgis or not, the puppies are either theirs, or strays. Like…why are you paywalling the CHILDREN of two dogs if we actually bought the dogs. I could actually justify this level of greed if it were backed up by an equal amount of effort in the book overall, but it isn’t.

• Anyway, they only feature together, so you have to decide on two names that will fit in one space. It kind of reminds me of how they’ve drawn Merlin and Morgana - in one sprite. I’m guessing at some point there will be an option to allow Penelope to clothe them as well.

• Like most of the fandom has already said by now, Bastien and Mara can’t even be trusted with a pair of pups.

• If you don’t buy the pups, Penelope offers to have one of her friends “in the canine couture world” to adopt them.

• Here’s the parenting advice from all the in-laws!

Liam: Regina speaks of the importance of regulating sweet intake closer to bedtime which is true because a child on a sugar rush will transform into the Energizer Bunny and go on forever. Like, this is very much how a child on a sugar rush reacts to the notion of sleep:

Hana: This one seems to highlight Hana’s competitive nature, perfectionism and ambition, and I guess there could be a lesson there in that you need to give yourself time to grow into things you want to do, and that means allowing yourself the space to topple over or struggle once in a while, the space to make mistakes. But I doubt it because weren’t these the same people who deemed her a failure for things that were beyond her control??

Maxwell: Maxwell is sorta kinda called out in this one, both for being “peaceful looking” and for wrecking havoc with those House documents lol. I’m guessing Bartie Sr is here in our baby shower mostly to look suspicious. What exactly was in those House Documents, ol’ Bart?

Drake: Bianca gives us some age-old advice about sleeping while the baby sleeps, which is something my mother and aunt (who looked after me post-childbirth) swore by. They would insist I spent whatever time kiddo was sleeping to be when I got my shut-eye too, because if you don’t take that and pull an all-nighter feeding the child, it’s going to be near-impossible to function. But you really, really need to have lots of support around you during such times because that kind of schedule leaves you little to no time to do much else besides occasional eating, small routines and light exercise (thankfully the MC has staff and a strong support system who can help her). In this case Bianca quips that Savannah was the easy one, and Drake the really fussy one. Drake isn’t quite convinced (who are you kidding Drake you’re still fussy).

• You get two extra pieces of parenting advice from the rulers, pretty characteristic (at least in Auvernal’s case since we’re more familiar with their culture) of where they come from. Amalas’ is “know your baby’s moods, and you can spot a tantrum before it happens”. The Auvernese “pearls of wisdom” say “to show weakness is to admit defeat” - Jesus, these guys have lost already, then.

• Olivia now has plans for a dart playing game - where she plans to use her daggers instead. You can either refuse to join, or enthusiastically participate. The LI warns you to be careful in the second option.

• If you join in: Isabella and Amalas hit near-center, both claiming different things in the face of their defeat (Isabella claims Olivia’s dagger to be a “terribly balanced weapon”) and Amalas tries to throw Olivia off by claiming her “aim was off”. Both of them are clearly thrown off by the unfamiliar weapon. At this point Olivia counts on the MC to “show them what Cordonians are made of”. If you succeed, you get a glimpse of your LI going all John Mulaney on the foreign royals (“that’s my wife!”)

• If you don’t join in: the LI and the MC’s friends form a protective circle around her, and Olivia chooses to stick to the usual darts. Isabella and Amalas are both in their element, with tools they’re familiar with using on a dart board. Isabella’s is still just near the target, Olivia’s is even closer, and Amalas’ is the closest - almost knocking off Olivia’s dart.

• Either way, we’ve effectively pissed off Isabella who angrily asks for “best of two?” 🤭

• Time for presents!

• Uh oh. The rattle comes from Auvernal. And it’s the same rattle as the one on the book cover. Soooooo…what does that hint at? Will our hand be forced, somehow? And will we eventually have to make a secret pact with Monterisso to get out of it, since the narrative is really really trying to push Amalas as the better option? (maybe not, but it’s fun to theorize).

• I don’t trust Amalas but they clearly gave her the nicer gift (at least, a nicer explanation for her gift). It’s a blossom “from the oldest apple tree in Monterisso, a tree that Cordonia helped my people plant long ago”. She hints at a closeness that the countries shared way back and offers the gift as a way of asking if that could happen again. The story kind of reminds me of the Regatta one Liam told us in Book 1, where Cordonia helped its neighbours at sea with supplies, during a time when they were ravaged by storms.

• Eirik gives you a bust of his own head, Lerato and Lesidi give you glass bottles and Marguerite gives us money, which puzzles the LIs. (though culturally I’ve been accustomed to cash being given as gifts or even in blessing, esp by elders, and I know at least one or two other cultures where cash can be the norm for gifts too). Kiara confiscated Olivia’s gift which she argues would help with self-defence 🤭 which happens to be one of my favourite moments in this chapter, and reminds me of this post an artist made of the MC’s baby shower long back. Idk why everyone sleeps on Kiara’s sheer entertainment value coz that girl possesses it in droves.

•

From our in-laws, we get a gift for the nursery - a cot mobile to place above the baby’s crib. These things are incredibly useful in the initial few months of a baby’s life when their visual development, eye-hand coordination and control over head and neck muscles are just about beginning. (and it’s cute and fun. What’s not to like). Unfortunately…unlike the nursery itself and the crib, you don’t get a free option for the cot mobile. You get a royal and rustic option + plus a neutral one with stars that I liked, but you have to pay even for that lovely neutral one. I’m guessing that the first two things from our nursery were “essentials” and whatever else we get now will be considered additional perks, thus paywalling even the options that don’t fit into your “royal or rustic” theme.

Each of the in-laws refer to a local/Cordonian craftswoman who made cot mobiles for the LIs. Leo gleefully tells us that Liam’s had “sparkles for days”, Bianca teasingly acts secretive about Drake’s. Hana never even knew she had a mobile coz she hasn’t seen a lot of baby photos of herself (I’m not sure what it’s meant to be an indication of yet, but I’m taking note of it). The one that really puzzles me is Maxwell’s. The writers don’t bother telling us what Maxwell’s is and instead make the bizarre choice to tell us what Bertrand’s cot mobile was instead. Why…the hell…would a Maxwell stan be interested in THAT. The writers don’t even specify if it was a hand-me-down (why was a family that rich and titled giving their younger one hand-me-downs) - nope, somehow it was a better choice to let us know that Bertrand’s was “silver grapefruit spoons”.

They should have done this for Drake also then, no? Talk about Savannah’s mobile instead of his? But noooo, Drake is too important, right. So let’s have his mother act all coy about his but make sure the sequence still centered around him.

At this point the writers should just nip this entire series in the bud if they’re not going even to bother writing equally good romances for all the LIs. One decently-done romance route doesn’t a good romance book make.

• In the middle of all this, the LI calls the MC into the hedge maze, presenting her with their own gift - a deep blue baby blanket with gold embroidery. How very Cordonia of them xD

• It’s a cute free LI moment where they show you how much they appreciate you, even in the midst of all this chaos and pandering of nosy royals.

• Once we’re back, it’s time to see if we passed our little diplomacy exam with these guys. Depending on the points you have with them, they will either back down convinced that even a normal alliance would work with Cordonia, or they will pressurize you further.

• Interestingly enough in the failplay, Amalas’ responses seem to imply that she would have more open to the idea of simply an alliance with the rulers sans marriage, but you can’t tell yet whether this is the writers trying to indicate to us that she is the choice, or whether she just isn’t being as ham-fisted as the Auvernese are. They lack subtlety, she’s more persuasive, but is she still someone you can trust? Since we’ve only seen her like twice before this sequence, I can’t quite tell yet.

• Kdjhshshsjssj @ Liam confiscating Maxwell’s armory access pass.

• The sales of “that book about us that has Maxwell’s face on it” are fantastic, and the publishers want Maxwell to do a book tour, the first signing of which is in Lythikos.

• We’re in Lythikos…for a book tour. Not even because Olivia found some information there or whatever (though I’m sure that will come up at some point next chapter), we’re there for a book tour that could have been done ANYWHERE.

• Places we could be having this book signing:

- Ramsford: Yknow, the author’s birthplace which we haven’t bothered visiting since our first Beaumont Bash in Book 1.

- Castelserraillian: Yknow, like the seat of art and culture and literature in Cordonia?? If there is one place in all of Cordonia I could easily picture as a literary hub it would be this one.

- No Valtoria coz we’ve seen plenty of it.

- Applewood: Yknow, that place that has many farmers, lots of commoners, who doubtless would have read this story of a commoner woman who climbed the ranks into royalty and glory. Applewood even has a public library that Queen Eleanor and her son regularly supported and visited. I’m sure many of the commoners in Applewood would have found that story even a little inspiring.

- Hana’s mysterious Cordonian homeplace: Just because the team is whack and we deserved better. They could have really made an effort to show her other home somewhere, yknow, considering they did such an awful job of Shanghai the last time.

• At this point we’ve seen Lythikos more than we have seen any other estate in this story. Sure, we can all spout out all sorts of excuses for why - plot, intrigue, Olivia’s character development (work on your own female LI first, PB!), but it all comes back to the same point: that the team is more willing to rob Hana of her rightful space and place it on Olivia’s lap. Setting this in Lythikos is re about the fact that, now that Drake has had more than his fair share of space, it’s Olivia’s turn to fulfill the role of secondary character but be treated like a main (all while Hana is thrown in as their token female LI + default POC LI, but treated with far less respect from her writers than even a secondary character).

• Overall, this is meant to be a light chapter - which most Chapter 16s (except for Book 2) are. Chapter 16 tends to be sandwiched between intense sequences, and is often seen as the point where the group and the LIs and MC can have fun but relax from court intrigue as well. It was the Beaumont Bash in Book 1, Vegas in Book 3, now a baby shower in TRH Book 1.

• Hana meeting her parents again (especially on her own playthrough), was nice, I guess. A little extra time is spent during the cot mobile scene having her parents acknowledge how they’d failed her, and the narrative shows us glimpses of her nervousness and discomfort while having the parents state that if she would rather they leave, they will respect that. It’s a tiny bit more progress compared to all the times Lorelai was continually repeating her mistakes and thinking they could be fixed each time with a paltry apology. But it’s still not enough.

• For one, we have just 4 chapters left in a book where half the time we were pandering to Drake’s family for chapters on end. We’re 16 chapters too late in addressing this. I have zero faith that things will improve.

For another, Hana getting this type of validation from her parents isn’t something that should be restricted to the playthrough where she is married alone. In both cases she invited them along, so in both cases they should be showing an equal level of caring and tentetiveness.

For a third, the whole angle with her parents seems to have such a disconnect. It’s almost like the writers were trying to prove something but didn’t do enough work to make it all sound coherent. Like you have this somewhat-healing relationship, but even then you have these moments that just don’t seem to make sense within Hana’s narrative, like Lorelai giving you that generic answer about your feelings suddenly becoming positive the moment they place the baby in your arms (which, btw, doesn’t always happen), or Xinghai talking about Hana’s ambition but there’s hardly any indication of how they controlled the directions her ambition would take. Overall they all sound like nice sequences by themselves but very disconnected to Hana’s actual story.

Why Hana hasn’t seen many baby pictures is something I want to see more of. I’m hoping that the fact that we see Lorelai, Xinghai and Leo in all the playthroughs, means they may accompany us on the book tour and perhaps we will get Hana-centric flashbacks and Liam-centric ones too.

• With next week, we’ll have only three chapters left, the intrigue is still in its nascent stages, the pacing is grossly uneven, and most of the LIs still don’t have a clear-cut arc. Some may claim that, well, it’s a series so maybe everyone else will get their “arc” in the next book. Except that if that were the case, Drake’s playthrough shouldn’t have been having the kind of focus on family that it’s been having this entire book. Others may claim that, well, it’s okay coz the story is about the baby and the romance - but they didn’t exactly do any justice to either of those. So what was this whole book about then? Besides Walker worship?

• The holiday special for TRR…is this going to be in Lythikos? Again??? Isn’t it bad enough that I will be going into TRM foolishly hoping to see Castelserraillian to get fair rep but know I’ll be confronted with with the reality of duchies like Lythikos getting a lion’s share of the story??

• That’s it for this chapter, guys. Until Saturday!

#long post #trh quick thoughts #trh qts #the royal heir #king liam #hana lee #maxwell beaumont #trr kiara #olivia nevrakis #drake walker

[nerdsideofthemedia]

Bumblebee was always the plan

After seeing a few comments on this, I made a  part 2.

I’ve written about this before and I was hoping never to return to this subject, but hanging around RWBY communities has kind of forced my hand. Unfortunately, this probably won’t be the only controversial post I write about RWBY’s fandom.

Even though a huge chunk of the fandom has been convinced Bumblebee was going to happen, there were more than a few people who decided to ignore all the signs. Even after 6×12, there were still people trying to remain in denial, which is fine: you do you, but it’s amazing how then they got upset when BBers turned out not to be interested in believing in their lie. Now, I don’t intend to go through all the moments of foreshadowing for the relationship – there are tons of texts about it – but I am still going to address a few moments to prove that it was heavily hinted at, while also addressing the ignorance towards LGBTQ+ experiences.

The injury

To me, I think Yang’s and Sun’s injuries are everything I should need to prove the likelihood of BB as they contrast the two main Blake ships: Bumblebee and Black Sun. While heroes tend to save many people who are indeed just friends or sometimes not even that, there’s a reason why Superman and Spiderman usually include Lois Lane and MJ (or whoever the love interest is in said film) in the climax – it makes it more personal, raising the stakes. From this perspective, it’s easy to understand the importance given to either by comparing: what the injury was, who caused it, why and Blake’s reaction, thus allowing to conclude which couple was given more weight.

What was the injury? Yang lost an arm and suffered from PTSD. Sun, on the other hand, received a minor injury from which he had almost completely recovered from by the next episode and left no lasting damages. Point Bumblebee. Some have tried to argue that Sun was actually hit by an electric weapon, so he could have died, but, ultimately, what matters is what actually happens, not what could have been. As far as we know, he didn’t even get a limitation in movement.

Who caused it? In Yang’s case, it was Adam, while in Sun’s, it was Ilia. So ex-boyfriend vs friend whose feelings were not reciprocated. This one is a no brainer: again point Bumblebee as the first one is more associated with romance. Yang having her arm cut by Adam linked them. By the way, don’t forget Yang and Adam are foils for each other.

Why? Yang was trying to save Blake, while Sun… questioned Ilia’s being a Faunus. If you want to super charitable with him, I can give you: because Ilia was trying to intimidate Blake into giving her back her scroll. Honestly, it doesn’t really matter because neither scenario holds a candle to the first one. Point Bumblebee.

What was Blake’s reaction? When it was Adam vs Yang, she put herself between them and used her semblance to get the latter to safety. When Sun got injured, instead of putting herself between him and Ilia, she stood still and refused to comply with Ilia’s demand. If you feel tempted to say: well, that’s because Ilia’s not as dangerous as Adam, then I have to say: exactly! She could have been, but the writers decided not to do that. Pretty much like Sun could have been the one being associated with Blake’s ex, but he wasn’t. Again, point Bumblebee.

Bonus points:

The use of the Kuleshov effect when Adam says “I’ll destroy everything you love…”, Yang appears, “starting with her”. I can already hear the screeches “Love doesn’t have to mean romance”. Thanks dude, I know. This is where looking at the rest of the scene comes in: it’s why I compared the scene where Yang gets injured to the one with Sun. The writers could have chosen to phrase it differently like “I’ll destroy everything you care about”, but they didn’t. Also, in V5, they got the opportunity to associate that word with Sun and Blake, yet they went for… “classmate”. You know writers care about the words used, right?

By the way, some people tried to argue that Adam just immediately notices the deep love between Yang and Blake. While I don’t disagree that he understands that Blake cares about Yang, the point is for the audience to associate the word “love” with those 2.

More bonus points

Sun was there when Yang decided to go after Blake in V3 and put Weiss in charge of going after Ruby. This shows 2 things: 1) Blake means more to her than to Sun; 2) Yang prioritizes going after Blake over her own sister. That only changed during V4 and V5 because she felt betrayed by Blake for leaving, especially when she needed her as she was struggling with losing an arm and having PTSD.

After the fall, Sun looks at an injured Blake and Yang while the first apologizes to the latter with tears in her eyes. That shot exists for Sun to realize the connection between the 2 girls, not for him to see Blake injured, otherwise it would have been better if Yang had been kept out of the frame, not to mention that he had already seen her injured. If I had to get inside his mind, I’d say that is the moment he realizes how much Yang means to Blake and it’s the reason why he brings up Yang in V4 after his injury.

If you need proof of the romantic undertones of this scene, just tell it to a friend, but swap Yang’s gender and you’ll see just how much more impactful Yang vs Adam is in relation to Sun vs Ilia. Don’t forget to mention that Adam is Blake’s ex-boyfriend while Ilia is the friend whose feelings weren’t reciprocated. Also, Adam’s line “I will destroy everything you love… starting with him”, while our gender-bent Yang enters the scene.

Dance arc

It also accomplishes a few things:

It straight up shows us that Yang understands Blake better than anyone and can get through to her like no one else;

It has Yang flirt with Blake, phrasing her invitation to the dance as “If you feel like coming out tomorrow, I’ll save a dance” and winks;

Yang comments on how she’ll be turning heads, yet the only head she turns is Blake’s.

All of the rest of team wears a dress of their colors: Ruby-red, Weiss-white, Blake-black, yet Yang uses a white one instead of yellow. I think that was to create a yin-yang effect with her and Blake. (apparently this was the result of an animation problem).

Establishes the parallel between Bumblebee and Arkos as their scenes are intertwined, which happens again in V3

(After reading the comments on rwby wiki, I have to add: those were phrased deliberately that way. I know: writers care about how they word things... shock! If you think the "coming out" or the "turning heads" were phrased accidentally with Blake turning her head also accidentally, I'm sorry but you don't know anything about writing and filmmaking. There is no way the writers didn't know "coming out" is associated with LGBTQ+ and they didn't have to phrase that way. Also, there's this thing called "editing" where writers (and others) reread the script - if those weren't intentional, they would have been detected and changed during this phase. It's about other scene, but here you go). 

Bumblebee also resembles Renora as the friendship turned more and one could easily make an argument there were no hints of romance for Renora until V4, yet no one bothers to as if there are huge double standards when it comes to straight and LGBTQ+ couples: whenever two characters of the opposite gender have an interaction that can be seen as romantic or platonic, it’s seen as the first, while if the same happens to same gender, they are put in the platonic category.

Songs

Ok, so Bmblb isn’t canon, but it was still written with Bumblebee in mind. It is full of references to bees and puns, the latter was probably like the third thing the writers put on Yang’s character sheet, which probably looked like this: 1) anger issues 2) semblance: absorb and dish out energy 3) loves puns.

Bmblb is undoubtedly a love song between Yang and Blake, unlike BS song Not Fall in Love With You which was a pop song written before RWBY was even a thing. Oh, and Like Morning Follows Night isn’t romantic, except for a few Sun’s lines, but Blake’s part never treats him more than friend. Once, I read a comment saying this song was written because Jeff hates BB and finds BBers annoying. Look, if that were true (and it’s a big “if”), then, not only Jeff would be pretty petty, he’d also be incredibly stupid (again, huge “if”), because he’d OK with queerbaiting, plus it’s pretty obvious BBers would get louder as it confirmed their ship.

Armed and Ready’s first 2 verses are about Yang losing her arm and replaying the scene in her mind and within those verses she mentions “there’s nothing I won’t do for her”, which often is associated with love (“and I’d do anything for love” – not the time to express my love for that Meat Loaf’s song? My bad).

All that Matters, which includes the lines “never thought you would stay forever/never asked you to commit your life”, that definitely have a romantic connotation. The entire song reveals just how much Yang feels for Blake, even though she feels betrayed.

Red Like Roses compares Blake to the Beast and Yang to the Beauty. Tale as old as time indeed.

I could go on, but seriously just read the posts I linked to before.

So, why did Bumblebee caught so many by surprise?

Well, that one is obvious: because it’s a LGBTQ+ couple. When it comes to those, most will remain in denial and interpret everything that can be romantic or platonic as the latter while they won’t do that for heterosexual couples. Again, Renora didn’t have to be framed as romantic until V4, yet most people did think of them that way and (almost) no one complained when they became a couple.

Yet, with Bumblebee, people chose to stay in denial until the very last episode of V6 (some even after that), though it was obvious 2 episodes before. A huge part of V6 was about Bumblebee: them mending their wounds and understanding their (and each other’s) feelings. Adam attacked Yang out of jealousy, tried to make her insecure about her relationship with Blake by claiming she had promised to stay with him and didn’t keep it and, then asked “what does she even see in you?”. In spite of this, there were still people trying to deny Bumblebee as if that question appears outside a romantic context.

After all… Blake and Yang were totally straight, right? Content warning for fragile egos: yap, we’re going to talk about heteronormativity and bisexual erasure.

What do heteronormativity and bisexual erasure mean?

In this context, heteronormativity means the assumption that everyone is straight until proven otherwise. By the way, some people like to pretend this is the skeptic’s position, but it’s not. An actual skeptic (which are much rarer than internet would have you believe, because it conflates skepticism with atheism) would assume ignorance when they don’t have the complete facts. Unless a character said they are only attracted to the opposite gender or something that makes it unambiguous they are straight, they might not be. Sorry, but I’m just a bit too old to believe in a “straight of the gaps”. Sure, most people/characters are straight, but if you assume everyone is, you’ll be wrong a bunch of times.

Bisexual erasure is the failure to consider bisexuality is a thing. To be fair, most people who do this, also fail to consider pan and asexuality. To them, people are either gay or straight. And, yes, most will recognize bisexuality exists when called out, yet still fail to consider it when making an argument. They’ll point out Blake can’t be into Yang, because she had a boyfriend as if that excludes interest in girls. Spoiler alert: not only it doesn’t exclude bisexuality, it can actually not even exclude her as a lesbian (I’ll return to this later).

Both of the comments above illustrate the problems I pointed out (with the second being pretty douchey and hilariously proven wrong now). The people above act if characters aren’t straight, writers need to show it right away. After all, don’t we all meet people by saying “My name is X and my sexual orientation is y”? Or make sure people see us check out people of the opposite/same gender or both genders to reveal our sexual orientation? Just me? Not even me? OK.

I think I’ve covered the fact that attraction to the opposite gender doesn’t exclude attraction to the same. Now, let’s take a look on Yang and Blake’s interest in boys.

The only time Yang expressed interest in boys was in episode 1×03, when she was ogling some shirtless ones. “Yeah. How do you explain that? Zing”. Hold your horses mate, here’s how:

Compulsory heterosexuality (yes, I intend to explain that too, so hold your tongue/fingers before doing a GoT impression saying “shame!” over and over again);

Episode 1×03 is pretty early on, so the writers may not have yet figured out the character’s sexuality, which is supported by an interview with Monty where, when asked about future LGBTQ+ characters, he responded they might already be there, they (and writers) hadn’t figured it out yet;

It was just a joke. I have to ask if you put so much weight on Yang being straight because of that joke, why do you not exclude her as being straight (or even bi) when she makes a joke revealing disinterest in Sun’s abs? Yang is totally straight because she likes guys with abs and when she doesn’t, it has no meaning. Sorry people, but if you put so much weight in one moment where she shows interest in guys for comedic purposes, then you have to put it in equal amount in the moment she shows disinterest in guys for comedic purposes. I may not like Sun, but eternally-unbuttoned-shirt-guy-with-well-defined-abs was definitely designed to be hot. So was Neptune, by the way, yet our flirty girl couldn’t have shown to be less interested in him even though he tried to flirt with her. Our straight girl!

Compulsory heterosexuality refers to the concept that heterosexuality can be adopted by people regardless of their personal sexual preference. Basically, heterosexuality is expected and we are raised to believe that is the normal, as a result many LGBTQ+ people believe to be straight until something or someone makes them question that. So no, not everyone who is LGBTQ+ knows it right away. Many figure themselves out during their teenage years, others find out much later.

About Blake’s sexuality, all we know is she dated Adam and might have had a crush on Sun at some point. Again, this does not exclude LGBTQ+, not even the L, since, again, she might have not figured herself out. I doubt she’s a lesbian, pan/bi is more likely, but it’s still a possibility. Oh, and asexual people can have relationships too.

I’m sure some may be thinking “she has only liked guys”, but 2 isn’t a big number (and only 1 was confirmed). Like I said, in order to assert she’s straight there needs to be evidence, which there isn’t. At most, you have evidence she probably likes guys, which again doesn’t exclude her liking girls (I may be sounding awfully repetitive, but trust me, this case warrants it).

Now, some people like to pretend to feel shamed when someone claims that “If Yang was a guy, you wouldn’t see them as just friends”. I agree with the argument because… well, it’s obviously true: most people think of relationships as involving 2 people of the opposite gender, even if they are aware others exist (didn’t we just cover that some LGBTQ+ go through a self-discovery process because of that?). However, it’s ultimately counterproductive. People who do this usually aren’t aware of it (and if they are, they’ll lie about it) and it can’t be proven, usually.

Of course, some let their masks slip away too much. The person who inspired this part of the rant constantly faked outrage when called out for their behavior. They did all of it: presumed straight until proven otherwise and pretended one can be only either straight or gay. Even after being called out several times, they constantly demanded evidence that Yang and Blake weren’t straight (this was before the end of V6, obviously), though they, of course, had to provide no proof they were. Still, when someone said the endgame pairings would be SunxBlake, YangxIlia and OscarxRuby, guess what evidence they asked for? If you guessed Yang being LGBTQ+, congratulations! You win the internet!

I think I don’t have to point out the ridiculousness of asking for that when neither Oscar nor Ruby have expressed any romantic or sexual interest in anyone, regardless of gender (in 6 volumes). According to the logic of these internet-skeptics (which means: believers in gut feeling, but in denial about it), Ruby and Oscar should be asexual and aromantic until proven otherwise. Yet, even then, the assumption is they’re straight. Again, LGBTQ+ needs evidence and absence of it means evidence of absence, straight doesn’t. No double standards at all.

I think it’s time to wrap this up: writers don’t have to tell a character’s sexual orientation in the beginning. And if two characters of the same gender have interactions that can be seen as either romantic or platonic, yet you frame them always as the second, while doing the opposite for pairs of different genders – that’s on you. And if you insist on faking outrage and shame when someone points all this out (yes, it’s fake – I know it, you know it, everyone knows it), and want to keep playing the “I’m not going to be part of the system” card (’cause it’s so brave to be part of the status quo) and throwing stuff on the ground, go right ahead. Throw a hot dog, a birthday cake, your cellphone, your computer even. In the end, it changes nothing: LGBTQ+ people exist and so should LGBTQ+ characters. If you have a problem with that and demand a ridiculous standard from them that you’d never do from a straight couple, here’s a hint: sometimes, you’re just not the target audience.

More RWBY posts:

Filmmaking and Bumbleby

Bumblebee was Always the Plan part 2

Faunus and the White Fang: The Portrayal of Racism

BB & Renora

Weird Post on Weiss’s Clothes

Foils: Adam and Yang (this one is in wordpress; it was my first one and I didn’t have Tumblr then)

Let’s talk about Adam Taurus (I didn’t post this one on Tumblr because the title and tags could lead Adam fans thinking this was about “his wasted potential” when really it defends the decision of killing him off and explains why it happened)

Original post: https://rwbytalk.wordpress.com/2019/01/31/sorry-rwby-fans-bumblebee-didnt-come-out-of-the-blue/ 

#bumbleby #Bumblebee was always the plan #rwby bmblb #let me 🐝 your bmblb #bumblebee rwby #heteronormativity #bisexual erasure #foreshadow #rwby lgbtq+ #rwby lgbtq #yang x blake #Blake Belladonna #yang xiao long #rwby bumblebee #rwby writing

[ohmytheon]

Press F

Day 2 for @shigarakiweek: Teamwork

Summary: Keep your enemies close - and your online friends willing to play the support and healer positions even closer. (AKA: Shigaraki unknowingly took Kaminari under his wing while gaming online when he was fifteen, but neither one of them actually bothered to figure out who the other person was and instead became sorta friends.)

Notes: Although this can very much be read on its own and I might write more for these two dumbasses, technically speaking, this is a prequel to Reconfigure and a spoiler for Chapter 24, although it's not a huge deal of the fic. This is pretty cracky, but I'll be damned if it's not one of the funniest things I've ever imagined. I've got a bunch of ridiculous headcanons. I didn't know it was Shigaraki Week this week until this morning, so when I saw the prompt for today, my brain went into over-drive. Hey, I guess I can knock something off my To Write List now? Also, apologies for not being like a ton of thought into Shigaraki's gamer name, but hey, I did my best in the thirty minutes I wrote this.

                                                         - - - - -

ThePalebloodStrider: you up for a few rounds?

TazerBlazer: yeah man i got school tmrw but lol fuck it

ThePaleBloodStrider: you’re an idiot

TazerBlazer: hey my grades aren’t that bad TazerBlazer: also i’m not the one with the creepy ass s/n :P

ThePalebloodStrider: it has meaning

TazerBlazer: yeah lol ok edgelord

ThePalebloodStrider: god you’re such a kid

TazerBlazer: bruh you been know TazerBlazer: we gonna do this or what?

Shigaraki peeled his gloves off to rub his temple. He hated wearing gloves when gaming - they totally messed with his dexterity - but Kurogiri said he couldn’t get another controller for two months if he disintegrated another one. His suggestion to wear gloves had been met with a lot of complaints and stomping around on Shigaraki’s part, but in the end, he’d dug a pair of gloves out of his nightstand and jerked them on with even more grumbling.

It wasn’t his fault that controllers were made to be held with all five fingers or that people online were such fucking idiots. Did these assholes even know how to play? They were wasting his goddamn time. Of course, if he stuck with simple RPGs, then maybe he wouldn’t have so many problems, but he had a viciously competitive side that craved destroying actual people instead of just computer NPCs. There was nothing quite like lording a top-ranked position in multiple rounds over others. Even his teammates got frustrated when he was infinitely above them.

He didn’t know why. They should be grateful since they were so pathetic and dumb. He wasn’t insulting them if it was the truth.

Tazer was different. He had been able to tell right off the bat due to his mic and playing style that he was younger than him, but he was infinitely helpful. Shigaraki wasn’t immature enough to not recognize the signs of someone that would be good in a party. There were a few people that were good at playing roles on a team. He was a leader, but a leader wasn’t a leader unless they had a follower. Tazer was chatty as fuck and tended to make impulsive decisions, but he was also reliable and a great team player.

A dumb, annoying, little shit, but happily willing to play the part of a healer and offer support in every campaign and game they played together, so Shigaraki would take it.

As the game loaded, he idly scratched his neck before remembering to Not Do That and then put his glove back on. Today had been frustrating. Okay, so he was sixteen, but he wasn’t a kid. He was fucking sixteen. There was no need to treat him like a child. Why couldn’t Sensei see that? It was like he flip-flopped between forcing Shigaraki to learn incredibly hard and brutal lessons and then acting like Shigaraki wasn’t capable of doing shit. He was ready for some real fucking action, but no, Sensei said that he had to wait. He was still learning.

It was hard to feel like he was being taught when all he felt was trapped. He knew the world wouldn’t actually want him, so he stayed inside. What little communication he did have beyond Kurogiri, Sensei, and a few of the villains that worked under him was online. And it would always stay like that. That little brat Tazer wouldn’t be so friendly with him if he knew what Shigaraki was actually like. The whole attachment was fake, but it paid off. It wasn’t real. It wasn’t-

“Aha! I got the mic to work. I thought I shorted it out.”

Shigaraki readjusted his headset. “Again?”

“Hey, hey, don’t get on me about that. Didn’t you say this is like your tenth controller?”

It was his fifteenth, but luckily Kurogiri didn’t know about at least six of them. He also didn’t know that Shigaraki might pickpocketed a few of the men that came to visit Sensei over the years. If they weren’t going to take care of their personal property, then what did it matter? Yes, he got a personal allowance that he kept very good track of, but he got in trouble for damaging stuff constantly.

And getting in trouble with Kurogiri was one thing, but with Sensei? Displeasing him was...unsettling. It was perhaps the only reason Shigaraki hadn’t argued with him more over things, especially since the fight that left him severely injured. He was recovering, which was why Shigaraki wanted to do more for him, but no, they had to stay quiet for now.

He had to be good - which meant no more destroying stuff in a temper tantrum.

“Whatever,” Shigaraki shot back. “You need to learn how to control your quirk more.”

“I am!” Tazer insisted. “I’m getting real good at it. I mean, my parents get onto me all the time because maybe I fry a few things once in a while, but I can even charge my own stuff now.”

“You’re using all your brain cells to charge up your electronics.”

“Well, you’re using all yours to be an asshat,” Tazer laughed.

Shigaraki furrowed his brow. No, he used his to be smart about shit unlike most people online. Okay, so he was probably an asshole too, but he didn’t need his brain for that. He could be one simply because he was better than most people on here. He liked to come up with strategies and plans, which Tazer dutifully followed for the most part. Young as he was, he liked being helpful, and he liked winning even more. At least he recognized his leadership qualities.

It wasn’t bragging if he knew he was smart. Tazer had been astounded that Shigaraki figured out he had an electricity quirk, but honestly, it was a no-brainer considering his gaming tag. Plus, he always felt like people with electricity quirks had more energy. Maybe that was why Tazer never seemed to have any issues staying up at all hours of the night gaming despite having school the next day.

When their game finally started to load, Shigaraki relaxed. The other team was filled with players holding high ranks. Man, it was going to be good to smash them. Nothing quite like taking down a few egos. Someone could play fifty times more than another player, but timing playing would never beat natural talent or inherent skill. It was why he stuck with Tazer. The kid played using instincts.

“Oh!” Tazer exclaimed excitedly. “Did you see the trailer for that new Godzilla movie?”

“There’s another one?” Shigaraki scoffed. “What’s this one? Thirty?”

“Don’t knock it, bro. It looks awesome! I’ll DM you the link.”

“I’m not gonna watch it.”

Tazer blew a raspberry. “Just watch it!” A notification popped up in the corner of his screen alerting him to a message with half of a YouTube link showing. “You’ll thank me later.”

“I doubt it.” Shigaraki would watch it later, but he might not admit it for a while. Let the kid hang a little. It was good to starve people of immediate validation - made them more patient. At least that was probably what Sensei thought. He could probably stand to work on his patience more, but he was getting better. He hadn’t thrown a fit the last time his connection had lagged while playing.

“E3 is coming up, so you’ve got a site to stream that, right, ‘cause-”

“Hey, kid!” some asshole from the other team named TopAlpha1321 barked. “You gonna ramble the entire game like a dweeb? Shut the hell up!”

“Stop being such a bottom,” Shigaraki snapped before muting the guy. He could see his name light up as he went off, but nothing could be heard.

“Eh? But his name says ‘Top’?” Tazer paused thoughtfully. “What’s a bottom?”

Shigaraki choked and held the mic of his headset to keep from being heard. Oh, shit, he knew that Tazer was a few years younger than him, but sometimes he forgot how much of a gap in information about shit there could be between their ages. Truth be told, he only knew about the term because of listening to chatter while gaming and accidentally stumbling across a very reprehensible site that nearly made him disintegrate his computer, but Tazer was dumb enough to look it up and-

Tazer laughed. “I’m just fucking with you, dude! I know what that is. I’ve got the internet.”

“You’re too young for that,” Shigaraki admonished, half out of shock and half in irritation for being tricked. Tazer might’ve been younger and a dumbass at times, but he could be a clever, little shit too when he wanted to be. It was probably why they worked so well together.

“What are you? My older brother?”

“Shut up and follow me.”

“Copy that, Captain.”

Shigaraki didn’t know why he put up with him. Oh, wait, that’s right - because the kid was quick as shit and always seemed to know when he needed back-up or to be healed. Maybe he wasn’t the best shot and he couldn’t tank for shit, but damn if he wasn’t sharp in that respect. People naturally good at support roles were not to be knocked. After all, a party couldn’t be complete or well-rounded without them. When it was time for him to take over and lead in Sensei’s stead, he’d made sure that he had a good team.

#Shigaraki Tomura #kaminari denki #mha #bnha #shigaraki week #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #crack fic

[worryinglyinnocent]

Fic: Everything Money Can Buy (2/12)

Summary: The Greatest Store in the World AU. When misfortune strikes and leaves Emma Swan and her son homeless just before Christmas, the ever-resourceful Emma has a ready solution. They’ll move into Mills Department Store, a place they can only dream of affording to buy from. It’s not easy, having to deal with a perpetually grumpy doorman, a nasty assistant manager, and an extremely suspect Santa, but Emma and Henry soon learn that the kindness of strangers is something money can’t buy.

Swan Believer centric, with eventual Swan Queen and background Rumbelle and Dwarf Star.

Rated: G

=====

[One] [AO3]

=====

Two

When Emma woke up the next morning, she almost couldn’t remember where she was. It had been a long time since she’d slept in a bed this luxurious – if she ever had. She reached under her pillow to silence the alarm on her phone. As tempting as it was to go for five more minutes, especially under a genuine goose feather duvet and soft wool blankets, the entire reason that they were in such sumptuous surroundings in the first place meant that they were going to have to make a move sharpish, before it became obvious that they had been in there all night.

She sat up and leaned down to the other end of the bed to wake Henry, who groaned and pulled the covers up over this head.

“What time is it?” he mumbled.

“It’s nearly six. Come on, Henry, we have to move.”

“But it’s a Saturday!”

“I know, but the cleaners will be coming in soon and we need to be ready to sneak out with them before the shop opens. Believe me, I’ve cleaned enough shops before opening hours in my time to know how this works.”

Truth be told, Henry had cleaned enough shops to know how it worked too. Well, usually he’d been sitting in a corner on a step stool out of the way whilst she’d done the cleaning, but he’d certainly been around. It was hard enough holding down a job when she had no qualifications and no fixed abode; trying to hold one down with a small child was almost impossible, and Henry had ended up coming to work with her more often than not.

They got up and set the bed back to as pristine a showroom condition as they could manage, and soon enough, the sound of hoovers and the chatter of cleaning staff could be heard on the floors below them. Emma rushed back to the cleaning cupboard that they’d hidden in the previous evening; it had been during that fraught period at closing time that she’d come up with the plan to disguise their exit this morning. She grabbed a roll of bin bags and a pair of rubber gloves, and with Henry’s help, she tossed all of their baggage into a black sack and started dragging it towards the stairs. It was slow going, but at least they weren’t quite as conspicuous as they could have been.

They were almost in the clear when the cleaning team got up to beds and bed linen, and their progress was hindered even further by the appearance of the assistant manager. Emma cursed and shoved the bin bag full of their belongings in a corner, instructing Henry to guard it and not look anyone in the eye. She was going to have to keep up the cleaning façade for a little longer in order to make it look legit. Thank God she had enough experience to know what she was doing.

In all the time that Emma had been perusing the shelves of Mills without any intention of buying anything, the assistant manager, a Miss Zelena West, had been the bane of Emma’s window-shopping happiness. Like Gold the doorman, she was an institution at the department store, but unlike Gold, there was absolutely nothing likeable about her. Gold was scary, but he did at least smile on occasion and his broad Glasgow accent betrayed roots far from the bright lights and luxury of Mills; so, for that reason, Emma trusted him even if she could feel his eyes boring into her sometimes when they were sitting on their bench across the street, watching him.

Zelena, on the other hand, was always annoying and never smiled so much as leered, her eyes never quite matching what her mouth was doing. There were always too many teeth in her smile, and Emma always got the distinct impression that there was more to her than met the eye. If there was one person whom she absolutely did not want to meet whilst attempting to leave the store having been trespassing in it all night, then it was Zelena. She would definitely be the type to haul them both straight off to the owner’s office and get as many charges as possible pressed against them.

What was she doing here so early anyway? Surely no one could be so paranoid about their place of work that they decided to supervise the cleaning staff, but apparently so. She was stalking in and out of all the display racks, hunting for dust in nooks and crannies and finger marks on any and all mirrored surfaces. Emma showed willing with a duster for a bit, and one of the other ladies caught her eye. She could barely have been out of her teens, if that, and she was so pregnant she could barely fit down between the aisles. Emma felt a pang of sympathy; that had been her ten years ago, still working up until her due date because she had no other choice.

The girl grimaced, rubbing her back.

“When’s it due?” Emma asked, coming over to pick up her dropped feather duster and save unnecessary bending down.

“New Year’s Day. Thanks.” The girl took the duster back with a grateful smile. “I haven’t seen you around here before. Are you new?”

“Yeah, first day on the job.” She nodded over to Zelena, still on the prowl. “Is she always like that?”

“Yep. Nothing’s ever good enough for the wicked witch.”

Emma had to laugh at the nickname; considering Zelena was almost always dressed in some shade of green, it certainly suited her.

“I’m Ashley, by the way. Just let me know if you need any help finding your way round. It’s a huge place; I got lost in kitchenware on my first day. I thought I was going to be stuck in an endless loop of saucepans and lasagne dishes for the rest of my life.”

“I’m Emma. Thanks for the offer.”

“Hey!” Zelena had noticed them talking, and Emma quickly turned so that the other woman wouldn’t see her face. “Less gossiping and more dusting! These beds won’t clean themselves!”

“It might help if she picked up a duster once in her life,” Ashley muttered. Emma gave a snort and made her excuses to leave Ashley alone, slipping away when Zelena’s back was turned again and making her way back to Henry.

“You were gone ages!” he hissed. “I was getting worried!”

Emma grabbed the bin bag and started banging it down the stairs. “I got trapped by the wicked witch. I’ll explain later,” she added quickly on seeing Henry’s confused expression. “Did anyone see you?”

“No. No one came past except the customer services lady and she didn’t say anything. Maybe bringing your kid to work isn’t so rare after all.”

Emma thought of Ashley, and she wondered what would happen after New Year’s Day.

Down on the ground floor, Emma hit a slight flaw in her plan. She’d spent enough time in Mills over the years to know its layout pretty well, but that was only the parts that the public got to see. They were now in the backstage area, so to speak. Staff only. And she had no idea where to find the exit.

People were coming and going, the cleaners and the regular staff coming in to set up their departments; but no one paid her and Henry any mind. They were cleaners after all, lugging a huge bag of rubbish out to the bins. They came in this way, so they must know their way out again.

Emma pushed Henry down behind the bag and dropped into a crouch beside him as she heard a very familiar and very angry voice.

“If Zelena’s held my coat to ransom in the dry-cleaning cupboard again, I won’t be held responsible for my actions.”

Gold came down the corridor past them, and Emma had to double take at his appearance. She’d only ever seen him resplendent in his uniform, and to see him now, wearing an obviously hand-knitted jumper with a penguin wearing earmuffs on it, was a jarring reminder that he did have a life outside of the store.

“It’s ok, I rescued it for you.”

Gold stopped at the end of the corridor before he could crash into the lady from the customer services desk. She was new this year; Emma had not seen her working on the desk before. She held up Gold’s uniform coat in its plastic dry-cleaning bag, and Emma couldn’t help but notice the slight little red blush that rose in her cheeks when Gold grabbed it with a smile.

“Belle, you are a lifesaver. What would I do without you?”

“Oh, you’d manage, I’m sure.”

“Mum!”

Henry was gesturing frantically down the corridor to where the other cleaners were taking rubbish bags, and Emma knew that it was time to move on and not watch the sweet little scene taking place between Gold and Belle any longer. She hauled up their bin bag and followed Henry down the corridor and out into the yard, whereupon they ducked behind a bin and grabbed all their luggage.

They were out of the woods, and their night of camping out in the store was over.

“Come on, Henry. Let’s go and get our van back.”

X

Someone wise once said that it never rains but it pours. If they had been a bit wiser still, they would have said that it never rains but it pours and thunders and hails and snows all at the same time, and less than a week before Christmas to boot.

Emma was sitting in the cramped office of the DVLA impound trying very hard not to swear, since Henry was sitting only a foot away, pretending to be absorbed in a newspaper and not paying any attention to what the adults were doing, but in reality, he was taking absolutely everything in and he knew that things were going from bad to worse to even worse with every passing moment.

She also knew that she really couldn’t take it out on the poor clerk who was dealing with her case. When the van had been towed in the first place and she’d made it clear that she wouldn’t be able to pay the fine; he’d offered to try and get her a payment plan of sorts. As it was, Emma had pawned some of her mother’s jewellery to make up the cash; the sentimental value was nothing compared to actually having somewhere to call home that wasn’t a department store’s bed section.

She had come to the impound ready to pay, only for the incredibly apologetic and nervous-looking clerk to tell her that he couldn’t release the van to her because it had failed so many safety inspections that it had been deemed dangerous to drive. He was going through the list of all its failings with her now, and every time he faltered, Emma could tell that there was more bad news to come but that he’d already given her so much that he didn’t have the heart to continue.

Eventually, they came to the end of the list, and he looked up at her with an expression that could only be described as a cringe.

“I’m really sorry,” he said. “But I just can’t let you drive away in it.”

Emma sat back in her chair and sighed, staring up at the ceiling. There was no way that she would be able to afford all the repairs that the agency had said would be needed before the van would be road legal again. She had barely scraped together enough for the fine in the first place. This was just the icing on the cake of a really terrible year. Every year, she was determined that things were going to get better and that they might finally stop living out of a van.

She’d got her wish all right. They were definitely not living out of a van anymore. They weren’t living out of anywhere.

“To be honest, it might be more economical to write it off,” the clerk said. “I’m not sure how much you’d get for its scrap value, but it would be better than nothing.”

Emma nodded. “Yeah. You’re probably right. How do I go about doing that, then?”

“Well, we won’t be able to do anything until after Christmas, I’m afraid. Everywhere is shut down for the holidays.”

Emma threw her hands up in the air and let them drop down to her sides. “Fantastic. Fan-bloody-tastic.”

There was nothing more that she could do here. All she could hope was that the emergency housing office had somewhere available for them.

“Come on, Henry.” She sighed and hefted up their bags again. “Let’s go.”

“We’re not getting the van back, are we?”

“No.”

They walked on through the town in silence. The van was pretty much the only home that Henry had ever known, and now it had been taken from him in a finger snap, and just before Christmas as well. Henry was used to not receiving Christmas presents, but at least he’d never yet had something taken away from him at Christmas. This was the opposite of the Christmas spirit, and his desolation was palpable.

“We’ll find somewhere else,” Emma said, trying to keep his spirits up, but it was clear that Henry didn’t believe her, and she didn’t quite believe herself. “I’m sure that there are other vans out there.” That said, maybe it would be better to put some roots down somewhere and start living between four walls instead of on four wheels. Maybe this would be the year that they stopped living in the van in a good way after all.

The housing office was open this time, but as they walked in, took the slip of paper from the machine with their number on it, and sat down to wait, Emma didn’t hold out much hope. There were at least six other families in front of them, and all of them were more than just a single mum and her son. On the one hand, being just the two of them, they needed less room and would hopefully be easier to place somewhere, but on the other, bigger families with much younger children had much more urgent need of shelter. Emma remembered with a shiver her first couple of homeless years after Henry had been born, a constant fear of losing him to the bitter cold, burying him under so many blankets as she curled up around him in the back of her car that he could barely be seen. As desperate as she and Henry were, she would never wish that on anyone. Besides, she and Henry had a back-up plan if necessary. Living out of Mills wasn’t exactly ideal, but they’d made it work last night. Surely they could make it work again. All they had to do was stay out of Zelena’s way.

The morning wore on, and Emma’s hopes were getting stretched extremely thin by the time her number was called. She had seen the apologetic shakes of the head that all of the other applicants had been getting, and she knew that things weren’t exactly looking great. It came as absolutely no surprise when she was told that there would be no accommodation available until the new year. If she could just find somewhere to stay over the holidays, then everything would be all right, but all resources were stretched at this time of year, et cetera, et cetera. The woman was telling her in all but the most blatant terms that her best bet would be to go to the nuns at the homeless shelter over the Christmas period and to come back in January.

Emma shook her head. No, she would never go back to the shelter, not after she’d nearly come to blows with the Mother Superior after finding the head nun going through all her and Henry’s belongings, looking for items of monetary value as a ‘voluntary donation’ towards their stay at the shelter. No one had believed her when she’d tried to report it to the authorities. Considering that they were nuns who did regular work in the community and Emma had several shoplifting cautions and convictions under her belt, she wasn’t surprised, but the injustice of it all still stung.

“What are we going to do, Mum?” Henry asked. He had been so good about the whole thing, never once complaining or whining about a very boring day spent in various offices, or the fact that for once in her life, Emma didn’t have a cunning plan to get them out of their latest scrape. Her son was old beyond his years, and Emma felt a huge wave of guilt wash over her that his early life had been so hard. She had done the best for him that she could with what little she had, and she loved him more than life itself, but sometimes she wondered what would have happened if she had taken the advice of everyone around her and given him up for adoption when he was born. Maybe he would have had a better life; he might have been adopted and been living in a comfortable house with central heating and proper beds.

Or he might have had a childhood like hers after her parents were killed and she’d been shoved unceremoniously into the foster system; never to be loved and only to be kicked out to fend for herself as soon as she aged out.

She continued in silence, trying to think of an answer to Henry’s question that wouldn’t leave them both in despair, trudging along the street with aching arms from carrying all the bags all day, until the familiar bright lights of Mills came into view. It was tempting fate to spend another night there, but this time Emma had a much better plan.

“We’ll go camping.”

#Swan Believer #Swan Believer Fic #Emma Swan #Henry Swan #OUAT Fanfiction #Fic: Everything Money Can Buy

[apawcalypse632-blog]

Building Trust

Read on AO3:   https://archiveofourown.org/works/18039812

Chapters 1/1  Words:18655

Summary:

When Tony and Peter get trapped in a building a few months after The Vulture, Tony uses it as a chance for them to get to know each other.

Tags: Miscarriage, Claustrophobia, partly non cannon - I do what i want, Infertility, Tony and Peter father and son, all errors grammatical or otherwise are my own,.I'm not a doctor or a construction worker, talks about people who are dead, Angst, head cannons accepted, Suicidal Thoughts,Big Bang Challenge

Peter had once read that Finland had one of the worst winters on the planet. It was in one those top ten BuzzFeed articles and at the time he’d thought nothing of ever needing to know this information. That, however, was before Spiderman, before Mr. Stark and before the Avengers - because here he was on the top of a building, designated as a look out along with the Falcon, freezing. He didn’t know if Falcon felt the same chill, as he was on the building catty corner to him Peter hadn’t thought Finland would be this cold, but he couldn’t disagree that Finland had harsh winters, as he was feeling the harsh cold wind even with his spidey suit on and heater running at full blast. He wasn’t about to complain though. This was his first major Avengers mission since Homecoming and the Vulture. He wasn’t an official Avenger, yet. Mr. Stark referred to him as an “Avenger in training”. Which meant two to three days a week he trained with one of the Avengers. This was even more awesome then it sounded. He enjoyed getting to know them one on one. Or he tried to. The first time he met Cap in person, Peter had been so excited and spellbound, he didn’t say a word for about fifteen minutes, just nods and hand gestures. Peter had been thoroughly embarrassed by his behavior when he was in the lab with Mr. Stark later. Mr. Stark had assured him it was fine, and that Cap had thought it was endearing.

“Endearing.” He’d moaned covering his face back up with the pillow on Mr. Starks old couch. “That’s like saying ‘cute’. I’m fifteen, I’m not cute.” Peter could feel the mechanic raise his eyebrow. “You know what I mean.” “It’s fine kiddo, I promise. It’s not like with black widow where you called her a mama spider.” “I just meant that she is protective and has maternal instincts.” He tried to explain. “Even if true, don’t upset a spy kid. It won’t end well for anyone. Besides Cap understands that your nervousness is 50% looking up to him and 50% hero worship.” Peter groaned and buried his face under the pillow.” Mr. Stark grinned. “I promise, it’s fine.”

“Look alive kid.” Falcon called in the com.

Making Peter blush as he came back to the present and looked around. He really should have his entire attention on what’s up. He just found distracting himself made him less cold. Peter looked up from his position. “Right, sorry.” His teeth chattered a bit and he shivered.

“The cold giving you problems Pete?” Mr. Stark asked.

“Didn’t you give him a heater, Tony?” Cap asked.

“Of course, I did, and by my calculations he’s been running it at full tilt for about 45 minutes.”

“That’s right.” Bruce chimed in before he could say anything more. ”Spiders don’t thermal regulate. I bet you don’t adjust to cold weather well at all. This must be awful for you.”

“I could give you a lift back to the jet if need be. Bruce won’t mind company.” Tony offered.

“No Mr. Stark I’m good. Really.” He said moving along the edge of the roof trying to get warmer.

“Ok we only have about twenty to thirty left.”

“Only,” Hawkeye tutted, and Peter saw one explode from what must have been an arrow.

“As I was saying before the interruption,” Mr. Stark cut in, “We are dwindling them down.

When we’re down to five to ten you can come down and help finish off. Falcon is coming now, so it’s just you on lookout kid.”

“Sounds good.” Falcon stated. And Peter watched the wings span as he headed for the ground.

“Sure thing Mr. Stark.” Peter said with a smile. He was going to fight Alien Robots sometimes his life really was amazing.

Peter worked to keep his mind on the task at hand after that, really, he was excited to be here and not just about first avenger missions, but it was kind of hard to not be excited about alien robots, because honestly, they were awesome looking. It reminded him of a kitten - cute on the outside, murderous rage on the inside. He sighed. He would be in on the action soon enough and if he was moving more, he might be warmer He knew Mr. Stark had his reasons for keeping him on the roof and not in the fray, but he was a little annoyed to be stuck as a look out. He wouldn’t complain about this, because being here was awesome. His whole life was awesome. Well sort of. He’d lost his parents and uncle far too soon and he and Aunt May struggled, but they had each other, there was food – maybe not enough, but enough to get by. And now he had Mr. Stark. Since the events with the Vulture, Mr. Stark was trying to make amends and train him and finally be a mentor to him.

He climbed up on the ledge checking that all signs were clear and trying to see any more of the fight, which he couldn’t now. It had moved further up the road. He sat down on the edge of the building swinging his legs a bit. He took a deep breath trying to soak in everything. He was with the Avengers, doing Avenger-y stuff. It gave him such a thrill. After he turned down his chance at being an avenger, probably the dumbest thing he’d ever done, he was sure Mr. Stark was totally done with him. Then the man had returned the suit and sent a text message the next day asking if they could meet to discuss the mentorship/internship.Peter had hesitated. Aunt May had told him he was grounded from everything but school until further notice. She had not been thrilled to find out her fifteen-year-old child was a vigilante. But Peter saw the perks of a meeting with Tony and His Aunt, hopes that Tony could persuade her where he couldn’t. He’d agreed to meet and made plans for all three of them to gather the next day at a coffee shop near his school. When they had arrived, his Aunt May had been ticked and immediately began giving Mr. Stark a piece of her mind. Pepper had stood in the background obviously amused at Mr. Stark's discomfort. But after ten minutes had stepped in to help. She’d calmed May down, had given her tea and some cookies and they began discussing how this would all work. When they came back around to Peter being grounded and not being allowed to meet with Tony yet, all three adults had turned to give him looks ranging from disapproval to glaring. Suddenly he wondered what made him think this was a good idea. Tony had relented first, and promised Peter could start the internship after his grounding was over and that he would do his best to not let things interfere with school or any extra curriculars. May had then reluctantly agreed, much to Peters delight, and informed Peter he would be in the dog house awhile as his grounding was three weeks and school, decathlon and home were the only places he could go. Also, he was put in charge of all chores around the apartment. Peter would have tried to talk his way out of it, spiderman existed because he wanted to fix things and help people, but his grounding wasn’t really him being spiderman, that wasn’t the biggest problem to May. It was the lying and leaving her out of it all. She wasn’t thrilled with him being in danger, but Mr. Stark agreed that he had the absolute best for his suit, and he’d be getting training from the best. Plus, he was on top of keeping the kid’s identity a secret. They’d left, not before Peter gave a giant thank you to the man who had always been his hero. Tony had smiled and told him not to thank him.

Peter had thanked May and been happy to have her know. They talked a little about what had happened but May seemed a little distant about things. Peter couldn’t blame her it was a big shift to find your nephew was a superhero. The three weeks had not flown by. He’d been bored with zero electronics and only school to see his friends. Ned had been supportive and tried to cheer him up. MJ without even knowing why he was grounded had insisted it must be serious if he was being punished for so long and therefore his fault. He knew she was right, but it didn’t make it easier.

When the three weeks had ended, he was thrilled. He and Mr. Stark met at the compound after Happy had picked him up from school. They had a late lunch and laid out some ground rules and gone over the schedule. Mr. Stark and he would meet two days a week and every other weekend. This gave him time for homework and friends and May and still left plenty of time for Spiderman. It was a good deal for Peter. He had been disappointed to learn his time wouldn’t be with just Iron Man but recovered quickly when he realized he would be taught by some of the other Avengers. Now when he arrived at the compound, he’d change into his workout clothes then proceeded to do a basic conditioning program (basic for a budding super hero), then two to three hours of training with one of the Avengers usually in combat or self-defense. Though Widow had started a tiny bit of spy training. Finally, he got to meet with Mr. Stark for dinner. Usually taken in the mess hall or the Avenger wing. Weekends were another day of training, and then a full day in the lab with Mr. Stark. That was the best part. Watching the way, the man worked, getting to help. Ned was super jealous, but Peter gave him all the descriptions of everything he could. Overall, it had only been a little over two months, but from what he could tell things were getting better. He knew and trained with the avengers, though he felt sometimes they treated him like a mascot. But he was so grateful to be here that he allowed their treatment and didn’t say anything. He just wanted to be on the team. Things were still a bit closed off between him and Mr. Stark. Their weekly meets were amazing, and he learned a lot, but the man seemed distant still. Mostly he talked about things anyone could hear about. Well until the last week or so. He’d begun to talk a bit about his wedding to Pepper which would be on June eighteenth of 2019. And probably a blow out in terms of party and cost. The date was not something anyone really knew, so Peter felt privileged to know.

They also had pretty good banter. Peter felt he could to an extent tease Mr. Stark and accept the same from him. They didn’t really goof off in the lab, but sometimes at dinner or training it would happen.

Peter did a quick look around and didn’t see anything. So, he checked up on the fight and they were down to fifteen. He decided to wait till they had twelve which wouldn’t be long. He thought about quickly pulling out his Stark phone and texting Ned. The phone and a new lab top had been courtesy of the “internship.” He had tried to politely refuse, but Aunt May had approved it. Peter felt like neither of them was making sense when that happened. Mr. Stark giving him some of the latest lap top and phone tech. Especially when he’d just been so pissed at him for the Ferry. May having just caught him in his suit a week before and her agreeing to such expensive items. It seemed outside of what he knew about them both. Aunt May had explained he was close to sixteen and therefore closer to eighteen and if she forbids him from this, he would just work harder to keep it from her. She knew he would keep doing this no matter what she and Mr. Stark might tell him. He had felt a bit bad because he knew she was right.

Peter shivered and ran his hands up and down his arms to get some warmth back into them. He was watching and waiting for the last two to take a hit before jumping into the fray. He wondered if because he was perched high on a roof if it was colder than usual. He looked around to see what was happening as part of his outlook duties he needed to look at places other than the fight. The fighting was mostly happening in the middle of four buildings. Peter could see Cap, Widow, Hawkeye and Scarlet all down in the middle of the action. Hulk hadn’t been called in yet but was on standby. Falcon was now down in the fray as well.

Peter sighed, he wouldn’t complain about being with the avengers out loud, but he was a little annoyed Mr. Stark had insisted Peter work as back up, despite the teens protest, as he was getting over a cold that had lasted two days and for Peter with the spider bite that was a long cold. Also, Mr. Stark pointed out he was “in training.” Peter had thought about commenting if that made Falcon in training too. But they weren’t there yet. The teen squatted down watching the fight, still pumped to go, in spite of his position, when they finished killing two more, make that one more, robot.

There was a low rumble then that caught Peter’s attention. The building across from him has been hit with an explosive device. Peter’s advanced hearing picked up a small scream and he began looking around. The area was to have been evacuated when they got there. Peter had helped with it. But looking down he saw a young girl probably around four, stumbling sleepily out of the room with blanket in hand. Peter slung his web and went swinging across what had become the battlefield again as the Avengers chased 11 robots through the streets.

“Kid?” Iron man shouted over the com, “What the heck are you doing?”

Peter focused on getting to the kid no one else saw, didn’t answer, just swung in front of her and swung her back and away from the damage. Then he left her with an EMT further away and came back to jump into the fray as he saw number eleven explode.

“Nice work on the kid, kid.” Mr. Stark said as Peter jumped in beside him. The teen grinned at him.

“Seems we got about ten left and that building needs rechecked. He pointed over towards the building where the child had come out of.

“I can do that.” Peter said heading to the building.

“Be careful Pete.” Iron Man said as he blasted number eight and nine out of the way.

“Always, Mr. Stark.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “If you get hurt, I have to tell Aunt May. No one wants that.” He said with a half-smile. He shot one the aliens in the face. “Remember that.”

“I’m not sure how that effects ME. Mr. Stark.”

“Brat.”

Peter chuckled and entered the blown-out side of the building being careful to watch for anything structurally unsound. Though he couldn’t imagine Mr. Stark sending him in without having checked for that first. He wasn’t far in when he felt his breath begin to quicken.

“You OK Spider.” It was Widow. He sighed sometimes he loved having the Avengers watch out for him and other days it was like having five older siblings and two extra parents, or maybe four older siblings and three extra parents. Peter got confused when he tried to figure out who the mom in the relationship was, though he knew Tony was the dad. Or not that he thought that Mr. Stark was his dad, or thought of him like that, but he was something. A mentor at least. God, Peter thought, what if Tony was the mom? Then Steve or Stephen or Bucky, maybe? One of them would be the dad. Peters breath sped up.

“Peter, kid?” Tony asked, and Peter realized he’d not responded.

“Fine.” He croaked out.

“Don’t sound it Peter. Come back out someone else will check.”

“What? No, Mr. Stark I can do it.”

It was a moment and then the man responded. “First of all, we’ve talked about this before. When on missions you are to be completely in subjection to the leadership of this team. Which means if you disagree, you do what?”

Peter took a breath feeling like a kid being scolded and said, “I take it up with you or Cap privately or in a meeting and not on the comms.”

“Correct. Now you are in a private channel, so lay it out for me.”

Peter smiled, realizing the man wasn’t mad at him just teaching him.“Well, I feel fine Mr. Stark.” He said walking a little further in.

“The breathing changes?”

“I, um, I don’t always like small spaces.”

“You’re claustrophobic?”

“Just sometimes.” He hedged. “Apparently there was a day care next to this edge room.” He said trying to change the subject. Peter heard a creek and his breath sucked in.

“Peter, I think you should leave. Come out and let someone else deal with it.” A Pause, “No one will think less of you.”

The fact that he said it made Peter think they would. “I’m fine. Mr. Stark.”

“Peter, I’m pulling rank. Get out now.”

“I’m fine.” He insisted continuing forward.

“I will ground you for a month if you don’t exit now.”

“Can you even do that?” Peter wondered aloud.

“I have ways. And I know people.”

“But there’s a field trip for decathlon soon.” Peter said making it to the edge of the room, but not heading out.

“Then do as you’re told.”

Peter sighed and headed out of the room. He was in the doorway when things began to rock. He grabbed hold of the door frame and tried to calm his breathing. He could hear Tony yelling across the com. Peter knew he should move and try to go towards the exit, throw a web or something, but all he could remember were Vultures wings. The stupid thing knocking out four pillars and him, underneath it all. His breathing really did go a muck with this memory.His breathing rapidly sped up and he couldn’t catch his breath. Little gasps, as sawdust and drywall seemed to fill his lungs. His right hand gripped hard on the door frame making finger dents in the groove and his left came to cover his mouth. He wasn’t sure exactly what happened next, but within a minute something slammed into him. He whimpered as he was pushed further into the room. Whatever had him was hard and metal and had pulled him tight to them self before wrapping itself in a ball over around him and an arm over his head partly shielding his face as part of the ceiling began to fall in.

It was minutes of darkness, noise and things pinging off Iron man, as Peter finally realized it was Mr. Stark wrapped protectively around him. As it began to quiet, Peter could hear the man in his ear whispering soothingly and it -wasn’t on the comm. This was live and in person. It seemed to settle so Peter started to move. But was held firmly in place and that was good because there were a few post falling objects that landed around them.

“All right.” Tony said a few minutes later when everything had finally stopped. He moved off him and began to assess.

Peter looked up at him, the man was covered in dirt and debris and there were some pings and scratches in the suit. “Are you ok, Mr. Stark?”

Tony did a once over and said, “Yea, you?”

Peter started to do the same moving to twist around so he could sit but he let out a small whimper, bringing Tony closer to his side.

He placed a hand on his knee and moved the kids leg around, letting out a low whistle. “You have a piece of glass in your leg. Alien robot glass at that.” When Peter looked at him questioningly, he stated, “Normal glass wouldn’t graze the suit.” Tony moved his hand causing Peter to wince. “Pretty big piece too.” Tony said gently maneuvering around his lower left leg.

Peter winced, “Can we get it out? And how did I get Alien tech in my leg?”

“There was one back near the next room, pretty sure he’s squished now, but he managed to get a shot off before I had you, sorry kid.”

Peter shuddered at the idea of being squished by the building. He took a deep breath, “That’s OK Mr. Stark, sorry I didn’t see him.” He said sheepishly.

Tony gave him a shrug. “It’s ok, kid. Friday.” Tony said, “You with me girl?

“Yes boss. I have scanned the area and things are stable. I have also scanned the wound and it seems that it is embedded in the muscle and near the posterior tibial artery and removing it would be unwise.” Peter dropped his head closing his eyes and trying to not cry. It hurt, and it just felt weird having something embedded in him.

Tony squeezed his shoulder “It will be fine Pete. Friday send coordinates to Cap and have him send an ETA please. Let the others know Peter is injured.”

“Certainly” Friday said.

A few minutes later Friday came back, “Due to the way the building has collapsed it will be several hours before they can retrieve you both. The alien invasion is over however.”

“One good thing,” Tony sighed, “Ok let them know the injury is that Peter has alien glass in his leg. Not life threatening from blood loss, yet, that I can tell, but high potential of infection and disease given its alien origin and I’m not sure we have anything to clean it with, but I’m just starting to look.”

“Message being relayed.”

Tony stood and walked the perimeter of the space they were in. There were shelves of cubbies and a desk at the front. “Peter, I think we’re in the day care room.”

“Great,” Peter muttered tightly, propped up against the wall, “I can see the others never letting me live that down.”

Tony chuckled, “Maybe, but they like you. I think they might tease a little, but it just means they are accepting you and treating you like part of the team. We all tease each other”

Peter sighed resting his head back against the wall and closing his eyes. “Maybe they could be less accepting.”

Tony stopped in his looking and gave Peter a long look. “Is someone giving you a hard time? Because if they are Cap and I can take care of it. Unless it is Cap? It isn’t me is it. I thought you liked banter,”

Peter opened his eyes, “It’s not you or Cap or anyone on the team for that matter, I just don’t like to be teased.” He hoped Tony would drop it.

“Sure kid, we’ll lay off, but just know no one means anything negative by it.”

Peter sighed, “Sorry Mr. Stark, I didn’t mean for it to come out like that, there teasing is fine. Really.”

“You sure?” Tony asked skeptically as he rifled through the teacher’s desk.

“Yea.” He closed his eyes again and waited as Tony searched the rest of the room.

It was a few minutes later when Tony returned with what he found.

“What’s all that?” Peter asked looking at the stack of stuff.

‘Some blankets, toddler sized, but should help us elevate and keep you a little warmer – even got a pillow.”

Peters eyes widened when he saw it was a Thor pillow. “I don’t need a pillow.” He said quickly. Tony rolled his eyes. “It’s not that big of a deal, no one is here to see. Besides you’ll be more comfortable.”

Peter sighed took it and put it behind his head. It was small, but Tony was right it was comfortable. Tony proceeded to roll up a couple of the small blankets and gently prop his leg up.

“I found a first aid kit, so I’m going to clean up the best I can. It might hurt.” He warned.

The teen nodded. He’d had Tony clean out a wound before and it always stung. The man always apologized, but explained they had to use strong antiseptic to make sure infection didn’t set it. Peter had asked about that once since he had a healing factor and Tony explained that it was the fast metabolism that would run the infection through his body faster than a normal person and that could be deadly. So, it was best to prevent infection as much as possible. Tony began to open the kit and decided a distraction was in order.

So how is school?” Tony asked settling down next to the kid and pulling out the antiseptic and some cotton balls.

“School is school.” Peter answered with a shrug not opening his eyes.

Tony opened the bottle and poured some peroxide onto the small cotton balls saturating them.

“Grades?” He said, putting on hand firmly on the kids knee to hold him in place.”

“Well within acceptable Spiderman levels.” Came the reply. Peter turned his head away, so he didn’t have to watch or know when it was coming. Tony nodded. “good.” He then laid the cotton balls on the top of the glass giving each a small squeeze to get the peroxide into the wound. Peter hissed and jerked, his leg tensing at the sharp burn. His eyes watered and he blinked rapidly to try to keep any tears from falling, but Tony had only done side of the glass. By the time he’d finished the second side light tears were falling. Tony cleaned the mess of cotton balls quicky before handing a tissue he found to Peter.

“Sorry kid, but it was necessary.” He moved to sit next to him against the wall. Peter moved a little so they were shoulder to shoulder. His Thor pillow was comfortable enough for now.

“Thanks. Mr. Stark.” He said quietly.

“You’re welcome.” Tony said reaching up and giving a gently ruffle to the kids hair. Affection like this wasn’t often in their routine, thought toney was doing more recently.

Since you didn’t have much to say about school and you are doing well,” He monitored the kid’s education, mostly just to make sure his grades were still acceptable for the internship. “How are Ned and MJ”

“Ned is going to get the new Lego set for us to build. Lots of pieces and with only a few days a week to work on it, could take months, so it sounds awesome. Bit expensive though. MJ is… well I think she might want to date me.” He said giving his mentor a sideways glance.

Tony raised an eyebrow, “You think?”

“Well one minute she acts like she likes me and the other she calls me loser. So I’m not sure.” He said with a shrug.

“Really?” He asked ears perking up as he turned to Tony.

“Yes really. At your age love is weird. You don’t always know how to express it. Sometimes at my age you still don’t.

“Oh.”

” Yea.” Tony said staring off.

Peter waited a moment before asking, “Was it hard to date as Iron Man?”

“Please.” He scoffed, “Peter, you’ve seen the news, I’ve dated a ton of women as both Iron Man and Tony Stark.”

“That’s not… I mean what if Pepper got hurt because you’re Iron man?”

Tony sighed, pulling his knees up and crossing his elbows over his knees. “She did actually. With the Mandarin. She was hurt, nearly killed. I honestly don’t know what I’d do without her kid. She’s the love of my life, the only person I can imagine tolerating me until I’m old and grey, and she still lets me do what I need to as Iron Man. She yells a bit when I’m stupid… Rhodey does too. But for the most part we work. There is balance.” He took a deep breath, “To answer your original question, I’d die if anything happened to her that I could prevent, but I wouldn’t give up what I have with her in the off chance something might happen. Been there done that. I think I’ve learned my lesson.” “Hmmm.” Peter hummed. “Thanks Mr. Stark, that’s helpful.”

Tony smiled. “Yea?” He asked with a raised eyebrow. Peter nodded. “Good.”

They sat in silence for a while before Tony looked at his watch and said, “Cap says it will be hours before they can get to us.” He’d already removed his gear once he verified, they were in a safe space.

“Oh,” Peter said with a sigh. “Why so long?”

“Well a whole building basically sits between us.” Tony said and turned to Peter when he heard his breath hitch. “You OK?”

“Mmmhmm.” He murmured but he was gasping a bit.

“All right come on”. He said pushing the kids head down over his lap, “Breath kid.” It took a couple minutes but the kids breathing finally evened out. “You good now?”

Peters head came up and Tony could see the red on his cheeks. “Fine, Mr. Stark. Didn’t mean to freak out.”

“So, you said sometimes you are claustrophobic?”

“Um, maybe a bit, I mean I don’t like being in buildings that might fall on me.” He pulled his right leg up and propped his head on his knee, the Thor pillow falling to the side. He took a deep breath then confessed, “I had a building collapse on me once.” “What? When did that happen?” Tony said shocked.

“When the vulture happened.”

“Peter that was almost 4 months ago you couldn’t have mentioned it?”

“I didn’t think it mattered. It’s not like buildings collapse on me often.”

Tony shook his head. “You really need to let me know things like this kid. I can’t help, if I don’t know. And I know the Vulture bit was a fiasco on my end. But I’m trying now.” He took a deep breath,” Ok what’s done is done. Are you going to be ok down here?”

“Well it’s not dark and I’m not alone and it’s not literally on top of me with me trapped with pieces of it on me holding me in place, so hopefully it will be ok.”

Tony stared at him for a moment then made some clicks on his watch and a hologram of a building came up. “So, this is where we are,” Tony said pointing at a smaller room, “and the collapse blocking then runs along here.” He pointed along some spaces around them, “This is where we are, and you can see it’s structurally sound. It’s everything around us that is having problems. That’s why it will take a while. But we are safe where we are from a further collapse. Feel better?”

“Oh, that’s, that’s not so bad. But how did it collapse to begin with?”

“I believe that alien robot that managed to get a shot off and send glass into your leg had something to do with it. Friday can’t scan all their tech. If I hadn’t seen him…” He trailed off

Peter shuddered, then gave a small smile. “Thanks, Mr. Stark.”

Tony flicked his watch and the image disappeared. “We have time to kill. You mentioned a field trip coming up?”

“Decathlon is going to Philly in a couple months they just announced that’s where the next competition will be. I must sit through some special thing with Principal Morita because of what happened in DC. They don’t want me to go AWOL again. But I get to go…. Well maybe.”

“Why maybe? I’m sure your principal will agree, you’ve been a model student since the Vulture incident.”

“It’s not that Mr. Stark. It’s just…. It’s kind of expensive and May is already working overtime. “

“Kid, if you need…”

“No thanks Mr. Stark. You already do more than enough for me, I can’t ask you for this.”

“I’m offering” He emphasized.

“Still Mr. Stark,” He said shaking his head. “I just wouldn’t feel right about it.”

Tony sighed. Then brightened, “You could work for me for it.”

“What? I mean I kind of already work for you.”

“Instead of just interning as Spiderman, I could give you actual chores/work around the lab or even the garage or penthouse and you could earn the money and it wouldn’t interfere too much with your other activities.” “That sounds… That sounds amazing actually.” He said with a nod.

“Good, then we are agreed.” He held out his hand and Peter shook it after only a moment.

Tony leaned back against the wall wondering what chores he could assign the kid, because his normal work wouldn’t cut it. It had to seem hard enough that he was earning it. Tony was sure he had some storage rooms that needed cleaned out and maybe work in the gym.

Tony realized after a moment that Peter’s breathing had changed and looked over to see he had a fine sheen of sweat across his forehead. “You ok?”

“Hmm.” Peters eyes squeezed shut and he made a small whimpering noise.

“Peter what’s wrong kid?”

“Leg.” He gasped out. “Hurts.”

Tony moved flicking his watch on for light and lightly took hold of his left ankle and turned the leg gently. “I can’t see anything causing pain, other than you have glass in your leg. There isn’t anything for pain in the first aid kit. Let me check the teacher’s desk. Maybe I missed it the first time.” He stood and quickly made his way to the front desk. Peter could hear him opening and closing drawers and then he came back a few minutes later.

“So, I found some children’s Motrin. Directions cover dosage up to an eleven-year-old, so I’ll just give you that dosage.”

Peter tensed as another sharp pain went through his leg and nodded willing to do anything to help. Tony poured the amount into the cup provided and then handed it to the kid. Peter tipped it back taking it like a shot in one go.

“You can’t take it again for 4-6 hours hopefully we’ll be out by then.” Tony said moving back up to sit by him. One hand dropping to the kid’s thigh and giving a light squeeze. “I know it hurts kid, but for now you’re going to have to just breath through it. The meds will kick in in maybe 30 minutes or so.”

Peter nodded, “Ok.” He said hoarsely and dropping his head over to rest on Tony’s shoulder. He didn’t want to try to crawl to the right and grab the Thor pillow.

“What you need is a distraction. Maybe a game.”

“I don’t see monopoly around here Mr. Stark.” The kid said humorlessly.

Tony rolled his eyes. ‘Ok smart aleck. I was thinking like a car game. Like I Spy or 20 questions.”

“The I spy would just be ‘I see something grey-answer - the wall’, Mr. Stark.”

“Twenty questions it is. I’ll go first.”

“But you just asked me a question about school and MJ and Ned and decathlon.”

“OK then you can go first.”

“Ok. What’s your favorite food?”

“Really? You can ask Iron Man any twenty questions and you go with food?”

“I’m under duress.”

Tony sighed. “My favorite food is meatballs.”

“You’ve eaten in other countries and your favorite food is meatballs?” Peter asked eyebrows raised.

Tony gave him a small smile. “Well my favorite type of meatball was the kind my mom prepared.”

“Oh” He breathed.

“Yea. I mean I still eat other meatballs, but when I was younger it was my favorite meal by her. She’d make it for me when I came home from school.” Tony sat there lost in the memory for a moment. “Anyway, same question to you.”

“Thai.” Peter said instantly.

“Figures” Tony muttered. The kid ate it at least once a week. “Guilty pleasure music?” He asked. ‘What do you like to listen to that people wouldn’t expect?”

Peter thought for a moment and then said, “I love the eighties.”

“Really?” Tony asked surprised.

“Yea. I like Michael Jackson. Sometimes when I’m training or working out that’s what I’m listening to. You?”

“Well you already know I like rock.”

“Right, I’ve been in your car and your lab.” He chuckled lightly.

“I like classical.” The kid’s eyebrows raised, and Tony laughed. “Again, it’s something I got from my mom. And while rock is what I primarily listen too, sometimes when I need to super focus on a project that’s what I listen too.”

“Maybe I’ll try that when exams come up.” Peter smiled.

“It can be helpful. I did that at MIT.”

“Cool. My turn. Hobby no one knows you have?”

“Hmmm, I should have said this before, but what’s said in here stays in here. We are in Vegas right now.” Tony said.

“Must be some hobby Mr. Stark if you are swearing me to secrecy.”

“Not just a hobby kid. Something only Rhodey and Pepper know. I’m going to trust you with it because you’re my mentee and I think trust is important between us.”

Peter swallowed, “I’ll keep all of it to myself Mr. Stark.” He said solemnly. “You’ll do the same for me?”

Tony nodded, “Of course.” A beat, “I play the piano And I don’t mean I dabble, I mean, I’m really good.”

Peter could tell it was true, because it didn’t have the usual Stark brag he’d heard about. “That’s amazing Mr. Stark.” He said sincerely “I’d love to hear you play sometime.”

“I don’t play for people kid. Pepper and Rhodey haven’t heard me either so don’t think I’m shutting you out. I have a special room in the compound no one knows where and it has a baby grand piano.”

“That’s really cool. I was never that good when I played the trombone.”

“That’s what you played in band? I thought it would be the trumpet or French horn.”

“No, my dad played the trombone when he was in high school and Ben and May still had his instrument in the attic. It worked out because I got to do something close to my dad and we didn’t have to buy an instrument or worse rent one from the school that other kid’s mouths had been on.” Peter shuddered.

Tony took a deep breath, ‘You don’t have to answer this kid, but do you remember much of your parents?”

Peter stared into the distance for a moment. “Not as much as I’d like. Mostly I remember stories from May and Ben and a few people that knew them. I have a couple vague memories or my mom putting me to bed and one of my dad’s putting me in time out. I think I threw a toy at his head when I was four and didn’t get to watch my favorite cartoon.” He smiled, “I love that memory. Not because I got in trouble, but it just reminds me at one time I was just a little kid, doing little kid things, with no worries about parents going away or how to survive a radioactive spider bite.” His voice was a bit choked by the end.

“Sorry, kid,” Mr. Stark said softly,” I shouldn’t have asked.”

“It’s OK Mr. Stark. No one ever really asks me about them. I mean May and I talk about them some, but really, it’s like people forget I had parents before May and Ben. Sometimes I feel that way too. It feels disloyal to not think about them more. I haven’t even been to the graveside since Ben died.”

Tony reached over and squeezed the kids’ shoulder. “It’s ok Pete. After my parents died, I didn’t visit the grave for years. It was hard.” He swallowed. “Eventually I began to talk about them and that helped and now I try to go once a year.” “There isn’t really anyone that remembers them Mr. Stark. I mean my family is May and she’s not even a blood relative.”

“Ben was related to your dad?” He guessed.

“Brothers,” Peter said. “Ben was the younger one. I was so happy when they took me in. Not because my parents had died, that part sucked, but when I finally got to live with them, things just got so much better and I did have people who knew my parents.”

“What do you mean by ‘when you finally got to live with them?”

Peter moved around getting more comfortable before answering. His head still rested on Tony’s shoulder. “I wasn’t immediately allowed to live with my Aunt and Uncle. Some stupid law about needing my own room and that being more important than a grieving child being with people who loved and wanted him.”

“You were in foster care?” Tony asked for confirmation.

“About four or five months,” he said with a nod. ‘I wasn’t a fan.” He shuttered slightly at the memory.

Tony reached his hand up and ran it through the kids curls for a moment trying to soothe. Then realized what he was doing and tried to stop, but Peter made a small murmur and Tony couldn’t bring himself to stop. Peters breath hitched, and the kid turned his face more into Tony’s shoulder trying to hide the tears that were starting to fall.

“It’s ok underoos.” Tony whispered gently. Peter cried for several minutes, some of his sobs coming out in loud echoing sounds in the room. Tony did his best to comfort and wondered how there was still so much about this kid he didn’t know. Peter eventually sat up swiping the tears from his eyes. “Sorry.”

“No need to apologize. I shouldn’t have asked about your parents. I know it can upset me when others ask me about mine.”

“It’s ok Mr. Stark. I’m glad you asked. It was just a rough time.’ He shrugged. “It sometimes still is.”

Tony nodded. “I get that. My parents died almost 30 years ago, and I still feel that way. You never really stop thinking about them and trust me that’s ok.”

Peter nodded, “May says that and Ben used to say that too.”

“Smart people. Let’s try a lighter question now.”

Peter sniffles still not totally calmed down and said, “If you could be any animal in the world what would you be?”

“Are mythical included?”

“Since you asked, I’m assuming you have one in mind so yes.”

“Unicorn – they are so majestic and the national animal of Scotland.”

“Wow, Mr. Stark.”

The man just smiled at him, “I could also stab people with my horn.” That made Peter laugh, and Tony smiled at his achievement. “You?”

“A dragon. I just think they are amazing, and I could fly and catch things on fire.”

“Solid reasons.” Peter shifted again with a grimace. “How are you doing?”

“Still sore. Better with the medicine but still sore. And it keeps feeling better then I’ll get shooting pains through it which of course feels worse.”

“Mmmhmm. Let me check it out again.” Peter nodded and Tony moved to the other side or him turning his leg slightly. “Ok, this is probably going to hurt for a moment.” Tony said gently.

“Kay.” Peter said bracing himself.

Tony then poked at some of the skin around the glass. Peter swallowed a cry but couldn’t stop the small cry

“Shhh, easy.” Tony said gently. “I know it hurts. I’m almost done.” Peter couldn’t stop the yell when Tony continued poking. When he stopped tears streaked down the kids face and Tony moved around to sit back down next to him and pulled the kid back against his shoulder. He then rested a hand against his forehead. Peter couldn’t help but lean against the man’s hand that was cool and comfortable. “It’s infected kid.” He informed the kid. “You’re running a light fever right now. The skin around the glass is puckered. You might even end of with a scar.” Peter groaned slightly. “Why don’t you lay down and try to rest. It might help.”

Peter shook his head. “Fine here.” He murmured.

“You’ll be more comfortable laying down kid. You can use my leg for a pillow how about that.” He said, remember May mentioning the kids clinging during illness. Peter nodded and flipped around laying down with his head on the man’s lap. Tony rested a hand in his hair, stroking it gently. “Friday?”

“Yes boss?” “Tell Cap that getting us out of here needs to be a priority, the kid has an infection.”

He waited a few minutes till the response came in. “Mr. Rogers has asked me to inform you that they are doing their best to get here, but at this time it will still be another 2-3 hours.”

Peter groaned and shivered, causing Tony to rub his back and say, “It will be OK spider-ling. Rest. Then maybe we can continue our game.”

Peter nodded and closed his eyes again.It was only about ten minutes later when he opened them again.

“You should be resting spider-ling.” Came a voice from above. He felt kind of floaty. “Can’t sleep.”

Tony sighed, ‘Is it the pain?” Mr. Stark could do nothing about that.

“No.” Peter insisted.

Tony shook his head, ““Liar.” Peter gaped at him.

“I’m not lying.”

“Really?” Tony said, “So your leg really doesn’t hurt even though there is an 7-inch piece of glass sticking out of it, 4 inches of which are actually embedded in your leg?” He asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Um, well, I mean, ok, so it does hurt… some.” He clarified when Tony looked satisfied at his answer and then troubled.

“Kid.” Tony was frustrated Peter could tell. The man took a deep breath and said, “As long as we’re stuck down here, we’re going to talk about this. But first let me look at your leg and see if we can make it any better.”

Peter wasn’t sure what he wanted to talk about exactly, but he leaned his head against the wall closing his eyes against the ache, while Tony gently looked to see if he could do anything that he hadn’t been able to do 10 minutes ago.

“Well it’s already elevated. But infection is beginning to set in. It’s pretty red around where the glass is sticking out.”

Peter swallowed hard, “Can you stop describing it please?” He asked.

Tony gave him a tight sympathetic smile. “Sorry kid.” He reached up and Peter startled slightly when his hand landed on his forehead. “Easy,” He murmured. “Just checking for fever.” After a moment, “You’re definitely warmer. We’ll have to watch that.”

“Yea.” Peter said. “So, um, since there isn’t anything we can do, what did you want to talk about.”

Tony sighed, “Sorry Peter. Being stuck down here isn’t helpful and we can’t remove it, you could bleed out.” He said regretfully.

“This is why I didn’t say anything.” Peter said with emphasis, “It’s not worth it, if you can’t do anything.”

Tony felt a stab from that remark. “Maybe I can’t make the pain go away.” He said carefully. He moved over and sat back down next to the kid. “But it doesn’t mean I don’t want to know if you’re hurting or injured. And it’s not every time that I can’t do something. You’ve been hurt a few times since I’ve started mentoring you and you failed to mention it.” He did his best to not sound accusing the last thing he wanted was an injured super kid pissed at him while they were stuck in a confined space. “Is there a reason for that?”

Peter gave him a sidelong look before looking down where his left-hand picking at an invisible thread on his leg. He shrugged. “I didn’t think it was bad enough to mention.”

Tony looked at him incredulous. “Peter, at least one of those times you had a pretty decent concussion. And while I wasn’t the best mentor when we started this thing, you were on a plane that crashed, and I don’t mean on the inside of it. Not to mention a building fell on you. I will not believe you if you try to tell me you weren’t hurt after the Vulture.”

Peter rubbed the back of his neck. “It wasn’t too bad. I healed up in a few days.”

He threw his hands up exasperated. “That’s not ok. With your healing powers minor injuries take less than a day, so how bad was it that you took a few days?”

“Some broken ribs, mostly. I think I had a fractured wrist too. Then just bruises and scrapes. Exhaustion.” He shrugged. “I slept like sixteen hours when I got home.”

Tony shook his head. “This is the type of thing you need to come to me with. I have a whole medical staff that deals with superheroes. They treat Steve. They know how to handle advanced healing and they are incredibly discreet. On pain of legal action. And I don’t just mean the police, I’m talking Shield. So, can we agree that no injury is too small, and you’ll come to me in the future?”

Peter looked uncomfortable. “Mr. Stark, I, we…” He took a deep breath, “What I mean to say is…” But he looked away, no longer talking.

“What is it Peter?” Tony asked gently.

Peter tossed his head back hitting it against the wall. Hard enough to hurt, but not do real damage.

“Hey, none of that. You don’t need a concussion on top of everything else. And I don’t want you hurting yourself.”

Peter turned his head looking at the man and Tony could see s sheen of tears.

“Oh kid,” He said, placing a hand on his shoulder, “Whatever it is, you really can trust me.”

Peter took a deep breath closing his eyes. ‘We can’t afford it.” He stammered out.

Tony stared at him at a loss for about 5 seconds, before he said slowly, trying to wrap his mind around this kids’ innocence, “You think you have to pay for your medical care?”

Peter gave a small nod, a hand coming up to wipe away falling tears.

“Kid,” Mr. Stark said slowly wanting to break the news gently, “None of the other Avengers do.”

Peter swallowed hard, “I’m not,” he took a shaky breath,” You always say I’m not an Avenger yet.” He whispered.

Tony moved his head side to side not believing his own stupidity, “I agree junior Avenger would be more apt, but even if you’re not a full Avenger, you are my protege and that covers medical care. So, you can always,” he said with emphasis while squeezing the kids’ shoulder. “Always come to me for help with medical, or other, issues, but especially medical issues.” Tony leaned back against the wall and gazed down and the kid. “So, this is why you haven’t been telling me when you’re hurt?”

“Mostly,” he hedged. “I mean, Mr. Stark, Aunt May is very proud, and I just think she’d insist on paying. If she knew how badly I got hurt sometimes, she might not want me to be Spiderman at all and I can’t do that and then what if she…” He moved to hit his head against the wall again, but Tony got his hand there first cushioning the blow,

“I said to stop that.” The man said putting sternness into his tone.

“I just… I hate this… Not being Spiderman, but… OK. I’m not old enough to take care of myself even though with Spiderman powers I probably could and instead I have Aunt May who worries about everything. I have decathlon trips and the fact that I lose about 8 backpacks a year and she’s worried about paying for college and me just… I can’t keep making her worry. And now you want me to tell you if I’m hurt and I… I don’t want you to worry about me or… or pay for me. It’s too much and God, what if she kicks me out.” The words were a whisper and Tony was shocked that this was a worry the kid had. May and he seemed so solid. But Peter had flat out lied to her for a year and nearly gotten himself killed a couple times.

Tony moved over and reached out and pulled the kid too him.

Peter stiffened for a sec. “Um. Mr. Stark. I hate to question you, but are you aware that you’re hugging me?”

He chuckled. “Yea kid. I think we’re there. Maybe not every day.” He clarified, “But definitely in situations like this. Now, let’s break this down a bit. Medical care is part of the internship. Think of it like a job with medical benefits. May wouldn’t insist on paying when insurance covered it right?”

“I doubt it.” Peter said skeptically.

“Well then think of it like that and if she asks explain that to her. You really can’t go to a regular doctor anyway, so you really don’t have a choice in where you get your help. And I’m more than happy to provide what you need so you can continue to be Spiderman and that includes me paying for some things for you. I’m sorry if that makes you uncomfortable but I hope with time it will ease and you’ll trust me.”

“I do trust you” Peter insisted.

“Maybe, but money can be a hard topic for anyone. That’s not just you. It’s weird to me because I’m used to having money. Always have been. But I’ve had friends and people I’ve tried to help that didn’t want my money and didn’t think I had good intentions when I offered what I could. It’s hard on both sides of the equations. But I hope you won’t let your discomfort keep you from asking for what you need. I promise to make it as comfortable and easy on you as I can. You know, I could pay you for the internship.”

“It’s not a real internship, Mr. Stark. I’d be Spiderman even without you. I don’t want to get paid for it.”

Tony nodded, “I never wanted to be paid for being Iron Man either. Not that I needed the money, but it felt wrong.”

Peter nodded. “So much for that.”

‘Well there is something else we can do. A few things really.”

“Like what?”

“Well I could give you an actual internship and pay you.”

“I don’t want it to take away from being Spiderman, or from school. Decathlon is starting to pick up more since we won regional s and Flash is…” Peter stopped realizing what he was about to reveal. “Well I just need to work to keep my spot and not end up with more detention. No one wants that.”

Tony nodded. “Ok then an allowance it is.”

“What?” Peter said sitting up, hissing slightly, then “What?”

“I’ll give you an allowance. You can use it on anything you need to and then you don’t have to come to me to ask unless it’s out of the usual. Really, it’s the perfect solution. I’ll just give it to you weekly.”

“You can’t give me an allowance.” He looked aghast.

“Sure, I can. I’m Tony Stark.”

“Yes, you are, but, I’m not your…. I’m not earning it. And it’s something. you give to your kids Mr. Stark, not some random kid that your training to be an avenger.” “Who says?”

“Any sane person.” He practically yelled.

“Peter,” Tony said slowly, “I gave all the avengers an allowance when they lived in the tower.”

“What?” He asked eyes round.

“I said, I gave all the avengers an allowance when we lived at the tower together. Steve didn’t work, neither did the others. We were busy fighting aliens, hydra or training.” “But Captain America worked for Shield and Black Widow and Hawkeye did too,”

“Contrary to popular belief Shield isn’t really a good retirement plan and while most believe, because it was advertised as such, I wasn’t the only one who helped try to put things back together after the Battle of New York. The rest of the Avengers donated too. When they lived in the tower, we just decided it would be easier if there was money given to them regularly like they were employees and that was I wasn’t tied into it and there were no hard feelings. So, we can do the same for you. If it makes you feel better, I can give you chores around the lab to do to earn it?”

Peter sagged a bit in relief. Chores he could handle “I think I would feel better with chores. Just I can’t have it interfere with school and stuff, like I said.”

“We’ll make that part of the condition then. You usually try to finish your school work before you show up anyway, but I know you don’t always get it done until later. I know May has you finish it before patrol, but from now on, you’ll do that first before you’re allowed to work in the lab. Along with any assigned chores.” Tony shook his head, “You are like Cap in a lot of ways. He insisted on doing chores to earn his pay too. Refused to let any Avengers live there without doing their fair share. I think, I just figured since you were younger those rules didn’t work for you.”

“Aunt May gives me chores. She can’t really afford an allowance all the time, but she gives when she can.”

Tony nodded. “So, are we settled on the money issue? We can discuss how much and what chores later. I’ll have something written up that you can sign. I imagine you’ll feel better having it in writing then feeling like some adult can hold it over your head.” Peter nodded. “Thanks, Mr. Stark. And it’s no different I guess then our deal for the Philadelphia trip.” He said still convincing himself this was a good thing.

‘Don’t mention it.” He said with a nod. “But there are some other things from your statement I want to ask about, you know, since we have nothing else to do?”

Peter sighed, “You want to ask why I think she’ll kick me out don’t you.”

“I do.” Tony affirmed.

“I… It’s not anything she does exactly. It’s more that I’m difficult because of spiderman. I once turned her whole life upside down when I was seven. Now again at 15. I was there when Ben died and I’m not sure she resents that a little, her not being there for his last breaths.” His breath hitched a little. “I mean we love each other don’t get me wrong, but she’s never really gotten past his death. And now that she knows I’m Spiderman, I feel like it’s only a matter of time before she realizes I was Spiderman then. And that I could have stopped it.”

“That wasn’t your fault.”

Peter shook his head. “It was.” He insisted unable to stop the tears from coming. “We were out that night because of me. I’d been acting up and he was talking to me about that and earlier that day, I’d been out as Spiderman and I stopped a robber, but he was scared, he seemed scared and he asked me to let him go to give him a break to start fresh.” Peter wiped at his eyes, “and I did Mr. Stark. I let him go and,” he took a deep breath, “He killed my uncle.” Peters hands covered his face as he curled in on himself sobbing.

Tony didn’t hesitate to gather the kid in his arms. “Shh, it’s alright. It wasn’t your fault.” He kept saying soothing words till Peter calmed a bit. “You can’t blame yourself for that. You couldn’t have known.” “I have powers.” Peter argued.

“And last I checked it wasn’t mind reading. You could not have known. And even if you could have known, you were new to this, with no proper training. I’m guessing you were scared and in a bit of shock to have someone pull a gun on you. I hope it was the first and only time it happens.”

Peter nodded wiping stray tears away. “The worst part was feeling like I could have saved him and then having to tell May and have her try to comfort me. I decided then I had to be active in helping people and I couldn’t waste time on things like band.” Tony looked at him for a moment and then said. “Peter answer honestly, are you Spiderman because you feel guilty.”

“It may have started that way.” He said softly. My uncles murder pushed me to do this more, but I like to think if he’d lived, I would have found continued anyway.

Tony nodded. “Good, and you need to work on this self-blame. You are not responsible.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes while he absorbed what was said. “Mr. Stark, I know you say it’s not my fault.”

“It’s not.” He emphasized.

“But I still feel like it is. It’s been over a year since his death and I still can’t change how I feel.”

Tony thought for a moment, “Why don’t you try talking to someone. A professional. You have been through plenty in the last few years, it might help.”

Peter shook his head. ‘I can’t talk to them about Spiderman, Mr. Stark. It could put May in danger or me.”

Tony nodded approvingly, “Good looking out for yourself, but this is a Shield psychologist, one I believe you would like as I saw her myself.”

“Really?”

“Yea. The Afghanistan thing and events surrounding it were a bit harder on me then everyone realized. It wasn’t till well after the Mandarin that I decided to try my hand at it. It helped.” “That’s good Mr. Stark, I’ll think about it.”

Tony nodded, and it was silent again. “I believe one of us is to ask a question. So how did you and Ned meet?”

“Oh,” Peter said, “We were in second grade. It was my first day at school after my parents died. He was the only one who asked me to sit with him for lunch and then we both had the same cookies. He had a Star Wars lunch box and I had this old blue one that had belonged to my uncle and he’d used for years. Aunt May said as soon as we could she’d take me out to pick up a “cool” lunch box. But when Ned saw my sad blue lunch box that looked like an adult used it, he promised to bring me his extra one the next day. After everything that had happened recently, I didn’t really know if he would or if it was a trick, but he came in the next day with a red lunch box with iron man on it. His mom agreed I could have it.” He looked over and smiled at Tony, “I still have it. I shouldn’t tell you this, but I stash cash in it when I have extra, and it’s hidden in my room.”

“In the ceiling tiles.’ Tony smirked thinking of the homemade suit.

“No.” Peter protested and hissed when he bumped his leg.

“Let me look at that again, see how it’s doing.”

Peter nodded “No touching. Touching hurts.”

“Got it.” Tony said and pulled the phone for extra light. Then against the kids wishes he very gently touched part of the tender skin. Causing another hiss from Peter.

“I said no touching.”

“It’s how I know what’s going on. The skin is pretty inflamed.” He reached up with one hand and put it to Peter’s forehead.

“Mr. Stark.” He whined.

“I’m just checking for fever and you are definitely hot, so we will need to watch that.” Clicking on his watch he said, “Friday let Cap know that Peter is developing a fever.” A few minutes later the reply came in. “Sorry Tony, we’re going as fast as we can, but we are only a quarter of the way there.’ Tony sighed, ‘Fine but Peter says you owe us pecan ice-cream if it takes more than 4 hours.”

“Ice-cream?” Was the reply. Then a second, “Got it. See you soon.”

Tony nodded. “You too Cap.”

“Can I take more of that Motrin.” Peter asked softly.

Tony checked his watch, “It’s only been two hours.” Peter sighed, and Tony pulled his head onto his shoulder.

“So, you met Ned in second grade, and he gave you an Iron Man lunch box and that sealed your friendship forever?”

“Yea. We have been through some things together and of course he’s one of the few that know of Spiderman and what happened really happened to my Uncle. He also tells me it’s not my fault.

“And he’s right.”

“I’m trying Mr. Stark.”

Tony slipped an arm behind his back. “I know. You want to know how Rhodey and I met?”

Peter nodded against his shoulder.

“Well it was at MIT and I was younger than a lot of students there. I did a lot of stupid stuff when I was there, pranks, hitting on older girls, not showing to class then blowing the curve. Most People there knew my name – Stark. And did their best to schmooze me or get to know me based on that. They just wanted to be a part of the Stark legacy. Rhodey wasn’t like that. We got teamed up on a project to build an engine together. I showed up eating dried banana and blueberries and brought a girl with me. Making out with her in the doorway before I entered – oh and I was 15 minutes late. Rhodey walked right up to me and goes, ‘I don’t care what kind of smart ass kid you are or what your name is, if you show up late again I’ll have the professor take you off the project and maybe you don’t care about that, but I do, because I have things to do and I think having a friend as smart of you could help.”

“I straightened up after that. Well mostly. I appreciated his candor and willingness to tell me he was being friends with me because of what I could do for him.”

“That’s awful.” Peter said.

“’Maybe.” He said with a shrug, “But it was only like that a couple months. Eventually we realized we had more in common than we thought. The next year we roomed together and often we were the two instigating things on campus. It was a great couple of years. Do you think you might want to go to MIT?”

“I think if I can afford community college it will be a minor miracle.”

“I could...”

“No Mr. Stark. You know it’s amazing you have money at all. I only hear you try to give it away,”

“I just want those around me to be comfortable and if I can help with that. I will.”

“I do want to go to college. I’ve been working hard on my grades to get a scholarship.”

“Do you know your class rank?”

“Um, well, I do, but I don’t want to say.”

Tony was already clicking on his phone. “Oh look, there it is, well if I click this button.”

“What, Mr. Stark, You can’t. Please?”

“That bad.”

Peter blushed and shook his head.

“You know I’m proud of you either way, right? If you do your best that’s what matters. That’s true of Spiderman too. There is no need to be hard on yourself.”

Peter dropped his head back onto the wall. Go ahead and look.”

“You sure”

Peter nodded.

“Wow. Seriously.” Tony looked at him mouth agape and Peter didn’t think he’d ever seen him like this.

“You’re number three and not in your class, that you’re number one, but in the school number three. This is fantastic you continue like this and you will get into any place you want to go.’

“I still need the SAT.”

“You will rock it. I can tutor you or get you one and I know enough smart people it won’t cost anything. Hell, Rhodey would be qualified. Come to think of it so would Banner and Widow. Widow might teach you things you shouldn’t know – spy things. So, Banner, Rhodey or I could all help.”

“That would be good. But no matter how well I do, without financial aid I can’t do it, and I don’t want to get bogged down in student loans.”

“Well you could work for me.”

“Is your solution to just hire me for everything? You give me chores for my trip and insurance.” He said jokingly but sounding a little awkward.

“Yes.” Tony said without preamble, “Kid,” He said firmly, “You are truly brilliant. You already know the systems at the compound. I would be able to see you more often and if you go somewhere out of state the deal will start when you graduate. I pay for your school and you come work for me for twice as long afterwards. Takes 4 years you work for 8? You can work more than that, but you must work enough so I get the investment back. Also, non-compete clause no working for the competition.” Peter just stared at him not entirely sure what to say, so settled on, “You really are the best Mr. Stark.” Peter whispered. “without you I would never be doing any of this.”

“Not true. You were Spiderman before I came around.” He said ruffling the kid’s hair.

“Maybe, but not as good.”

Tony shrugged conceding his point. “So, what else do we want to know about each other. We still have plenty of time to kill.

“Have you ever had a pet?” Peter asked. They had talked about a lot, but he still felt he should be careful.

“Not really.” Tony said shuffling a little. “We had horses when I was younger. My mom thought there was prestige to it. Many of the families we had around had them, so she thought we needed them. Howard wanted her to be happy, so he bought two. I was about nine and found the things slightly terrifying because they were big. Once I got on one though I really enjoyed it. So, my father made an excuse to get rid of them a couple weeks later.”

“That’s awful Mr. Stark.” Peter thought for a moment and said, “I won a gold fish at a carnival. I um…” He blushed, “I named him Iron fish – since he was a gold fish and your outfit are red and gold. Anyway, he died after like three hours and I was super sad about it. Aunt May let us have a small funeral that ended with ice cream.”

“Did you name everything after me?”

“No.” Peter said offended. “If I had had a dog it was going to be named Han Solo.”

Tony laughed. “Nice name.”

“We, Ned and I would have called it Han.”

“Well we both got a story there even though you volunteered. But did you ever play sports.”

“Um... no.” He said decisively.” I didn’t do little league things because I was getting over the death of my parents and having to move in with my Aunt and Uncle. By the time I was in middle school I was super awkward and small. I wore glasses. Me and sports never mixed. “

“I was unaware you wore contacts.”

“Contacts?” He looked at Tony confused

“Oh no, the spider bit fixed that. Sort of how I have a six pack and a ton of strength.”

“Wow. Have you been to an optometrist since it happened?

“If I say no - am I going to see one?

“There’s a good chance of that.”

Sigh. “No, I haven’t. Aunt May just thought I decided to not wear them, and I never told her otherwise.”

Tony nodded. “Fair enough. But you will be seeing a shield ophthalmologist."

“What I thought it was an eye doctor.”

“Calm down it is. But a specialized one. I think they will be better for you and I know one personally:

“You seem to know everyone personally.” Peter said sinking back against the man.

“The money helps with that and my utter brilliance”

“How does Pepper put up with you?” Peter said then stiffened. “I mean… um… the pain is making me say things Mr. Stark I didn’t mean that.”

“Chill. I know you’re joking. It’s ok to tease me Peter. We are developing that kind of relationship. It’s part of being a mentor and mentee.”

Peter signed in relief. ‘So, did you ever play any sports?”

“As a kid I didn’t really play sports. Or play at all. My hobbies included robots and science and getting through years of school as quickly as I could. But when I got to MIT Rhodey decided to teach me boxing. Said otherwise with my mouth, smarts and money I’d never survive. I took a real shining too it. Surpassed Rhodey in those skills in the first year of school. We had fun sparring. And after seeing my dad sometimes it was a relief to go pound on something. When my parents died, I felt like I couldn’t box. Howard disapproved of it like he did everything else and why I say I don’t care what he thought for some reason on this point I did. Obadiah ended up talking to me about it. Telling me not to give up on what I love just because of a dead man. I didn’t go back to it right away but eventually I put a ring in the gym. I learned that Happy knew how to box and he’s good. We’ve spent hours down there just hitting each other.” He grinned. “There was this one time when Black Widow came. We didn’t know she was widow at the time, but she came in as a spy for shield pretending to be my secretary. So, she’s dressed in this white top pencil skirt outfit and she climbs in the ring and Happy is trying to be macho and I don’t know what he said but she climbed up him, wrap her legs around his neck and flattened him. Pepper and I sat there stunned. Happy’s pride was hurt for a month afterwards. But we got back in the ring.”

Peter said nothing but appeared to be contemplating something.

“Peter?” Tony asked.

“I, I just don’t understand.”

Tony’s eyebrows raised. “Don’t understand what? How widow took out Happy?”

“No, how you can say anything nice about Obadiah. He betrayed you. Tried to kill you. He nearly succeeded.”

“Nearly kid. That’s the take away. And yea he was a bad guy. The betrayal hurt more than anyone could ever really know. But if it hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t be mentoring you or doing the work as Iron Man.” “I don’t think that’s true Mr. Stark. You are a good person and I think you are Iron man. You would have found yourself here eventually.”

Tony swallowed hard at the belief this kid had in him. “Thanks kid.” He said and ruffled the kid’s hair.

“Your welcome” he said. They were comfortably quiet for the next ten minutes and Peter asked. “Do you think you could teach me to box?”

“You want to learn boxing?” He asked in disbelief.

“Yea,” Peter said shyly.

“Kid your learning martial arts, from military and spy experts. Not to mention self-defense, why on earth would you need to learn boxing?”

“Because, we won’t always be just on Earth. I need to learn all I can.” He said with emphasis. “You can’t shield me all the time Mr. Stark. I know something is coming.”

“Pete,” He laughed it off, “nothing is happening it’s fine.”

“Don’t lie to me Mr. Stark. Please? I’m fifteen not five. You can’t protect me forever.”

“Then let me protect you why I can.” He said firmly. “I haven’t known you for long Peter, but you mean a lot to me. I… I imagine what it would be like if I had a s… a family and I think you would be a part of it.” He cleared his throat, “I’m not a sentimental man. I don’t like to discuss feelings, but well,” He shrugged

Suddenly Peter screeched his head hitting the wall behind him as he then curled towards the injured limb. Tony just managed to grab his hands before he grabbed the glass.

“Peter Stop.” Tony screamed, but Peter was crying rocking back and forth. Tony pushed himself back against the wall parting his legs in a V and pulling Peter back between them, so his back was to his chest and he could wrap him in a bear hug his hands holding Peters. Or trying, he eventually wrestled both Peter hands into one of his and pulled the kid as close to his chest as he could. “Breath kid. I know whatever is happening hurts, but you need to relax. Breath with me. He used the hand he had over the kids’ heart to help exaggerate the breaths he was taking, them both moving as one inhaling and exhaling. “Good job kid.” He said as Peter started to calm. Small whimpers escaped his mouth.

“What happened?” Peter asked.

“Not sure. I can look if you want?”

“No.” Peter said settling against the man. It was comforting, and he was afraid movement would hurt.

“Does it feel like it’s bleeding more?”

“Some.” Peter answered his teeth gritted.

“I’ll need to look Peter but if you don’t think it’s too bad, I’ll give you a few minutes.”

Peter nodded and pulled his good leg up a bit.

“Elevate your foot kid, place it on my leg.”

“But I might cut you.”

“It’s fine the glass is on the side, just be careful.” Peter did as he was told moving slowly.

“It felt like it was being cut all over again Mr. Stark. It hurt really bad.”

“Hmmm, Tony said, but said nothing more.

It was silent for few minutes and Peter said, “How long till they get here?”

Tony checked his watch, then said, ‘Friday where do we stand?”

“They are attempting to clear debris and put supports in place. Captain Rogers asks that you do your best to hang on and they will do their best to move quickly.”

Tony sighed. “Tell him I said he owes us strawberry ice-cream as well.”

“Of course, boss.”

“You don’t like strawberry.” Peter said where he laid against Tony’s chest his eye shut against the pain.

“But you and Cap both do. And Hawkeye pretends he doesn’t, but we all know he does.

Peter smiles and says, “Thanks Mr. Stark.” It was quiet and filled with meaning.

“Get some rest, it will make time go faster.” Peter nodded and closed his eyes Tony sighed as he listened to Peter’s breathing out over the next few minutes. When he was certain the boy was in that place between sleeping and awake, he gently began to play with the kids’ hair. Hoping the comforting gesture would push him over the edge.

Peter slept for the next hour or so. Tony checking him repeatably as he could feel the fever rising.

“Cap,” He said into the watch acting as his com. “We need out of here. I’m 99% sure he has a blood infection and not being able to remove what is causing it is making it worse.”

“They are almost here, Boss. Another hour or two.”

“Another hour or two, it was supposed to be four we’ve been down here for six.” And no water or food for either. “Cap you owe me.”

Tony dropped a hand down into the kid’s hair and Peters eyes fluttered opened. “Mr. Stark.” He slurred.”

“Hey kiddo, how are you feeling?”

Peter turned very pale then and pushed himself around and got sick all over the ground.

Tony winced in sympathy and put a hand on his back gently comforting till Peter stopped.

“Come on” He said putting hands under the kid’s armpits. “We’re going to move away from that.”

Peter nodded and struggled to a further away spot. Tony went looking again and found some hand sanitizer and a couple more blankets. He then let the kid “wash” his hands, took another look at the wound and felt how hot he was getting.

“I have an idea. You won’t like it.” Tony said.

“I like you.” Peter said slurring.

Tony chuckled. “That’s good since we work together. OK, unleash the suit.”

Peter gave him an odd look but did as instructed. Tony then helped him move it down to his waist. “Now lay back”.

“What, why?”

“Because the floor is extremely cold and you are extremely warm, this just might help. Besides you were on the floor earlier.” “I don’t want to.” He whined.

“Peter,” Tony said firmly, “It will help, you’ll feel better.”

“Too cold.”

“That’s the fever talking. You have chills.” Tony then put his hand on the boy’s chest and pushed backwards. He was under no illusion that if Peter was well this wouldn’t work. Peter winced when his back hit the ground and he shivered and tried to push his way back up.

“Nope” Tony said holding him gently in place. “This is for the best.”

“You’re mean.” Peter said suddenly.

Tony raised an eyebrow. “I’m mean eh? If I let an infection kill you, that’s mean. This is helping.”

Peter sniffled slightly “I’m sorry, Mr. Stark. It’s cold.”

“I know. Just get through fifteen minutes and you can sit up for a bit. You can do 15 minutes, your Spiderman”

Peter smiled but sniffled again before nodded.

Tony tapped his finger on his chin, contemplating. “Hmm” her murmured out loud.

“What is it?” Peter asked.

“Tell me something I don’t know about you.”

“I think you know it all by now with the twenty questions.” He said.

“We haven’t finished all twenty so tell me something I don’t know. Please.” He implored.

Peter sighed, shivered and scooched his way to a better position. “I was going to have a sibling.”

“What?” Tony asked surprised, “Your mom or May?”

Peter swallowed hard, the memories still hurt, “May.” He said softly, “I had just turned eleven, it was a few years after foster care, so I was well adjusted in this new family and young enough to not be jealous or annoyed at the thought of free babysitting.” He chuckled lightly, “I remember finding out about the baby. May and Ben were beyond thrilled. Ben walked around touching her stomach all the time. They would just look at each other and grin. This little precious secret between the two of them. I felt a bit left out. Wanted to be included. They sat down with me and talked everything out. That was big with May and Ben, “communication”. After the talk I was less annoyed and more excited that I’d have a little cousin/sibling. They wanted to include me and so I suggested they give him my dad’s name as a middle name, like my dad named me after Ben. Ben and May loved that name and May liked Seth for a first name so Seth Richard Parker. We couldn’t wait for him to arrive, but at around the fifth month something happened. I don’t even know what exactly. Just May was doubled over in the kitchen one minute and the next in a hospital bed and there was no more Seth.” He took a shaky breath. “There wasn’t a funeral. Just May being bed ridden and Ben staying home for a full week with us. They didn’t even send me to school, though I did have to do homework. They, uh, they tried again as soon as she was able. She got pregnant right away, but lost the baby at about 8 weeks in. We were all devastated. This time they gave it more time. A third and final attempt, when I was twelve, and the baby died at seven and a half months. She didn’t want to try anymore after that. She was different that year. Sadder. I wasn’t sure she’d ever be the same. But one day she came out of it. And then Ben happened. I guess when she had no choice she stepped up. After Ben’s funeral, she sat down with me and we talked about how she had been distant that prior year and how she would be now. She said she had been very sad losing Seth and Andrew, the two babies “old” enough to be named, but she knew that she had already been given the best child ever in getting me and she’d do everything to care for me from now on.” Peter gave a brittle smile, “The thing is they always took care of me. But miscarriages happened and Ben,” a sniffle, “Happened. It felt a little like Parker luck rearing its ugly head. Then I got bit by a radioactive spider and while the agility and eight pack are awesome, it’s not a sibling, or an Uncle. It will never bring Ben back.”

Peter almost chocked on his pain then. Tony rested a hand in his hair and stroked it gently. “You didn’t make them lose those babies Peter.” He said quietly, but with firmness. “And you didn’t cause that person to kill your uncle.”

Peter put his arm over his eyes and cried. “I want Ben.” He said a deep ache flowing through him. Words of confession he’d not said since the mugging. “God, I want Ben.” He curled sideways his forehead against Mr. Stark's leg his left hand fisted into his pant leg.

Tony stroked his hair. “I know kid.”

“It’s not fair.” A childish cry, one Peter had thought but usually didn’t bother to utter, because it made no different. But here in this room, racked with fever, the confessions came easier. Tony stroked his hair saying nothing until the kids crying eased down. Peter finally rolled back over on his back his sobs settled. “You ok?” Tony asked

“Yea Mr. Stark.” He said cheeks darkening, “Sorry for crying on you, again”

“Nothing to apologize for kid. You know, something no one knows about me?’ Peter shook his head. “It’s that when I got home from Afghanistan, I wasn’t quite right. And not in the way Obadiah thought, but I needed help. I didn’t get it right away of course, and a lot of what I did people clocked it up to how I always behave outlandishly. But I was really in a dark place. One night I went out onto the balcony and all I could think about was jumping.” Peter’s eyes widened. “I walked to the edge and stood there looking down. I put my hands on the balcony fence and thought about getting up and jumping and what the world would say. How they wouldn’t be able to deny how I felt any longer or what I had been through. Maybe they’d see my father for the abusive as… jerk that he was.”

“What stopped you?”

“You.”

Peters eyes shot up. “Well not you specifically. People like you. I knew the avengers would be needed. I knew in spite of how I felt I would be needed as well. I realized there would also be a whole new generation that needed tech and help. So, I stepped back and went inside. I found Rhodey and told him what I’d just done, and he immediately got me in touch with a Shield psychiatrist. All very discreet.”

“I’m sorry you went through that.” Peter murmured. “That was very brave of you and your secret is safe with me.”

Tony nodded. “Thanks, kid. Just promise me if a day ever comes you feel that dark, you’ll come to me or someone else you trust.”

Peter nodded. “I promise.”

“I believe you. Now let’s see about the fever.” He laid his hand against his head. “Not helping apparently. So, let’s at least try to make you comfortable.”

He rearranged the kid, with Peters help so he was leaned back against his chest leaving the light t shirt the kid wore under the suit between them. “So still awhile on them showing up though should be in an hour or two cap says. Time for a few more questions.”

Peter sighed, but said, “Dogs or Cats?”

“Both.”

“Cheater.”

“Am not it’s fine to like both. You?”

“Dog obviously.”

“How is that obvious? I mean I guess you are loyal and enthusiastic, a bit like a puppy. OK I see it.”

“Mr. Stark.” Peter whined, but he was smiling.

“Chicken or Steak?” Tony asked

“Steak.” They both said together and then grinned.

“Widow or Hulk.” Tony asked.

“Oh.” Peter said, “In a fight or to befriend.”

“Both” Tony said.

“Widow for both.”

“Really thought for sure Hulk had at least one of those.”

Peter shrugged, ‘I am a mystery.” And shifted with a whimper. He started to ask but gasped out loud and tried again to move towards injured leg. Tony grabbed him” Shhh it’s ok almost done, just breath kid, breath.”

It finally let up and Peter laid against him panting.

“That was bad.”

Peter nodded tiredly while tony stroked his hair.

“We will be out of here soon, kid. Any questions you just must ask?”'

Peter looked at him for a long moment then let out a soft sigh. “I don’t want to hurt your feelings.” He said softly

. “I’m ironman.” Tony joked, “You can’t hurt me.”:

“Just because your Iron Man doesn’t mean you don’t have a heart or that you don’t feel things.”

Tony let out a sigh, “You got me their kid, but I can handle it.”

“It’s a doozy.” He said then winced, hand clutching into Mr. Starks leg. When tony gasped in pain, he immediately moved his hand.

“Shhh,” He soothed, “it’s okay.”

“I hurt you.” Peter said sounding distraught.

“It may bruise but it will be fine. Now ask your question.”

“I really don’t think I should.”

“Peter Benjamin Parker, ask.”

His eyes widened, and he mumbled, “Why didn’t you ever have a kid?”

“Oh.” Tony said shocked. He hadn’t expected that.” That is a doozy, but it’s an easier answer then you think.” He took a deep breath, “Before I say why, I want you to agree to never talk to anyone about this unless it’s Rhodey or Pepper.”

Peter nodded, “I can do that.”

“When I was younger Howard, well he wasn’t always nice to me. I felt manipulated a lot and a lot of pressure to do better, be the best. I had no idea what a Dad was, I’m still not sure I grasp the concept. Anyway, I didn’t want to be like Howard so I did everything I could do to prevent it. But nothing permanent, just in case one day I changed my mind. Well Afghanistan took that away from me. The chemicals the arc rector came up with left me unable to have children. Though Pepper has mentioned I could adopt.”

“Oh, I’m very sorry Mr. Stark that is just awful.”

Tony shrugged, “It’s ok kid. I’m at peace with it. And it was nothing like your Aunt went through. Anyway, I didn’t want to put a kid in harm’s way and if I’m going to end up like Howard it’s better for everyone.”

“I think you’d make an excellent dad, Mr. Stark.” Peter said quietly.

Tony smiled, “Thanks kiddo.” He ruffled his hair and they sat in silent contemplation.

It was about ten minutes later when Peter shifted and said, “Mr. Stark?

“Yea kid?

“If the arc reactor made it till you can’t have kids, does that mean the radiation from the spider did the same to me?”

“Oh kid.’ Tony said pulling him close. “I don’t know, but it’s a possibility. We’ll test you if you like?”

Peter bit his lip, “I’m not sure I want to know.”

“I understand, but at any time if you want to know, I’ll make sure you get what you need, discreetly.”

“Thanks, Mr. Stark.” Peter shivered.

Tony knew the shivers were part of the infection and an indicator it was getting worse. Again, tony put his hand to the kid’s forehead and let out a low whistle. “You are blasting heat kid.”

“Cold.” He said shaking his head.

“I know kid, but we still need to cool you off.” So, he repeated the earlier steps this time removing as much of the spider suit as possible and laying him flat on the ground. When Peters whimpers became too much, Tony lay next to the kid and placed his head in the crook of his shoulder, providing comfort but letting the cold floor help reduce the fever, even if only a little bit.

“Kid how about another question? Or even just a story. Hmm? Would you like that.”

The kid shivered and gave a slight nod against shoulder. “Question?”

“Really? A question over a story. You must be delusional.” Peter rolled his eyes. “It’s more distracting then listening.”

“Fair enough.” Tony thought for a moment then said, “What do you want for Christmas.”

“I’m fifteen not five, Mr. Stark.”

Tony laughed, “Doesn’t mean you don’t have ideas.”

Peter shrugged. “I’m not big on Christmas. Not anymore.”

“Because Ben is gone?”

Peter nodded. “We didn’t celebrate last year. This year I think we were having take out and watching movies.”

“Hmm.” Tony said, “That’s hardly any way to spend a holiday. You guys could join Pepper and I.”

“Thanks Mr. Stark, but I think May would want to stay in. It’s been hard on her, even if she doesn’t show it.”

“All the more reason to get out. May and Pepper, I think would get along. We could sneak off to the lab.” He said with a smile.

“I’ll have to ask her.”

“Of course. But now back to the question, what do you want for Christmas?”

Peter hesitated then said, “I could use new shoes, another backpack and some school supplies”

“That’s all stuff you need kid. Which you will get, but what do you want?” He said with emphasis.

Peter sighed then said, “If I could have anything, it would be a PS4 and some games. Ned is into gaming and there are ways to play games together but not in the same location. I think I’d like that. Everyone at school seems to have one.” Tony nodded taking notes as he asked about games and Peter talked about the new ones and how much he wanted to play something called Fortnight.

“How about you Mr. Stark?” Peter finally asked. “What do you want for Christmas?”

Tony smiled, “Time with family and friends. A good meal maybe watch some movies or play games. The things I’m not used to doing but are good for the soul I guess.”

‘That sounds nice Mr. Stark.” Peter slurred slightly and began to whimper.

‘Shhh,” he hushed him, “It’s alright it will pass.”

Peter was hanging onto him tightly again.

When this episode was over, Peter laid against him panting. Tony brushed sweaty hair off his forehead. “You’re doing so well kid. They will be here soon, I promise.”

Tony called again to Cap and was told less than an hour. Which was good, the kid needed medical attention now. Friday could tell the infection was almost through his whole blood stream. Tony did his best too shush and soothe all while stroking the kid’s hair. It seemed to help. But Tony knew more distraction might help too, so he said, “I know we haven’t known each other long, but you’ve made a big impact on my life. I want you to know that if you ever need anything, food, clothing, money, any of it. I’ll be there for you.”

Peter remembered the first time Mr. Stark had said something like that too him. A promise. It hadn’t been quite like things were now, under duress.

Peter took a deep breath before entering the lab. It had only been about three weeks since the problem with the vulture and it was his third time meeting up with Mr. Stark for lab time.

“Hi Mr. Stark.” He said quietly, knowing the man would be in the middle of stuff.

“Hey Underoos? How was school today?” the man didn’t bother to look up. He had a pair of high-tech goggles that allowed him to see the smallest of parts and was working on an Iron Man mask.

“Um, well, um.” Peter didn’t know what to say. His day had sucked but telling his amazing superhero mentor that seemed like a bad idea. “It was fine.” He cringed as that came out and hoped Mr. Stark didn’t notice the “Fine”.

No such luck when the man turned towards him. “Fine?” he asked eye brow raised. Peter nodded since Mr. Stark could see it.

Tony’s head tilted, so Peter could tell he saw the bruise.

Tony immediately pointed to the floor in front of him and Peter stood frozen for a moment till Mr. Stark said, “Front and center spider-ling.”

Peter swallowed hard and went to the intended spot.

Tony reached back and took a cold pack from U. “Put this on, then explain how you got it. And don’t lie and say patrol because anything that size with a good night’s rest would be gone by now.”

“I wasn’t going to lie.” Peter said softly as he placed the cold pack on his eye.

“You’ve had a habit of it.” Tony said with brutal honesty.

“I thought I was doing the right thing.” Peter protested.

“Lying to me is never the right thing kid. I know I haven’t done too well in the past, but I’m committed now.” He said taking the eye wear off and setting the tool he had in his left hand and setting it on the table by the mask. “So fresh start. No more lies from you and when you call, I answer or Happy if I’m busy. But you’ll always have back up from now on. We are in this together and I’m committed to seeing you become the hero I know you can be. I imagine one day you’ll be the leader of the next generation of Avengers. We’re not there yet. But this is the starting place. This is when you decide that you accept my help and be honest about what you need and what is happening, so I can assist you. If you can’t do that, you’re wasting both of our times.”

Peter swallowed and took a deep breath, “It’s this kid named Flash.” Tony’s eyebrow raised. “I don’t feel like I should act differently just because I have the powers and I want that to be a secret. If anything happened to Aunt May…” Peter trailed off and sniffed slightly. “Any way he got some of his as… jerk friends to try to start a food fight by throwing food. Only I was the only target and an apple hit me in the side of the head. It is better than it was.”

“Some kid threw food at you?” Tony asked astonished.

“Please don’t make fun of me.” Peter said closing his eyes against what he thought would be censure for not defending himself.

“Oh, kid, no. I don’t make fun of you because some jerk of a kid decided to attack you.” He stepped forward taking the pack setting it on the counter and then beginning to inspect the bruise. “I don’t make fun of you at all. I understand why you didn’t retaliate, and you have far more patience then me. When Afghanistan happened, I took out bad guys in a small village, nearly got myself shot out of the sky, if it wasn’t for Rhodey. If this continues you tell me, OK?” Peter nodded. “OK we have work today. I’m working on a newer mask for you one that is more breathable.”

“It’s already pretty breathable.”

“This one is to try to make it breathable underwater. Even if only for short periods of time.”

“That sounds amazing.”

“It is amazing – so let’s get started.”

And that had been the first time Peter had heard Mr. Stark promised to be here for him.

“Hey Underoos you with me?” His face was being tapped lightly.

“Hurts.” He murmured. Embarrassed and achy he buried his head into the man’s chest.

“I know Kiddo, but things are looking up. Cap said less then an hour.”

“Too long.” The child slurred. “Want now.”

“Hmm apparently you just need a fever to announce what you need.”

“What?” Peter said feeling like he should feel insulted but couldn’t place it.

“Nothing kid. They will be here soon.”

“Final question, kiddo, why Karen?”

Peter looked at him a bit dazed. “Karen?”

“Your AI, you named her Karen.”

“Oh,” Peter said slowly. Then he looked a bit sheepish, “It’s a bit stupid, but I named her after my mum. Her middle name was Karen. I just know she always wanted to watch out for me, and so did the AI.” “That’s not stupid kid “Tony said running a hand gently across the boy’s forearm. “I’m sure your mom is very proud of the name.”

Peter gave a watery smile and then leaned further against Tony Letting his eyes slide closed.

They opened to a loud raucous and Hawkeye shouting.

“Down here.” Mr. Stark yelled up.

Cap cut a hole and then dropped down into the middle of the floor. One look at the kid and he yelled up “Hawk, we need to move quick, Spiderman is very ill”.

“I told you it was urgent, and he was getting worse. Is worse.”

“I know,” Steve said, “Ice cream - chocolate, I know the codes. It’s been a while since we used them. A little surprised you used them honestly.”

Tony shrugged. They didn’t normally use this system. It was meant to keep the injured unaware of how badly things were progressing, so normally children and civilians. In this case Peter knew he was injured and that it was progressing, but Tony had wanted to protect him, even if just in this small way. The infection was bad moving into life threatening by now. “He’s fifteen.” Was all he said in response.

Steve who had met Peter as a civilian seemed to understand so he nodded and said, “You want to take him out or should I?”

“You, the alien tech messes with my suit, I’m surprised Friday worked.”

Steve nodded and reached out to a whimpering Peter gathering the kid in his arms. “Let’s go.”

He handed Peter up to Hawkeye who pulled an almost unconscious Peter out and up to the roof. Steve gave Peter a boost up and then jumped and grabbed the edges himself. Once back up Steve started to take Peter, but Tony shook his head and pulled the kid to himself. Peter curled towards him fisting a hand in his shirt. Tony soothed him till he settled.

Steve cleared his throat. ‘We should go.”

“Right.” Tony said, and they headed out of the building.

Once on the ship they moved Peter to the clinic area. Bruce was waiting with supplies.

“He going to have problems since it was alien tech? “

“Probably not. We didn’t find anything wonky in what we found.” Bruce said.

“Good then.” Tony said.

“I need to remove this but first I’m going to knock him out.” Bruce continued. Tony nodded and leaned over and explained to a feverish Peter what the situation was. But he was too out of it. Bruce hooked up some antibiotics and saline then knocked the kid out.

Peter faded in an out for a while, after the initial knock out. He heard voices and tried to call out to the people around him, but no one came. Parker luck he thought.

“What’s that spider-ling? Came a soft soothing voice, and hands that wrapped around his hand.

“Said out loud, thought said silent. Parker Luck.”

“Parker luck makes you say things you don’t mean?” Tony asked confused.

“No, it makes bad things happen.”

“So, you think by being a Parker your bad luck”? Peter nodded solemnly.“When you’re better we will discuss that. Because that is not true.”

Peter shook his head, “Is too.” He muttered childishly.

“That’s not a sound argument,” The man pulled the blankets up over him, that he’d kicked off.

‘Now rest. You’re still fighting off infection.”

“Stay?” he asked simply. “Of course.” His eyes closed, and sleep came almost instantly.

It was hours later, Tony standing at the doorway to the hospital bed. They had been back at the facility for a few hours and May was already here making a fuss over her nephew. Tony had gotten an earful for him getting hurt, not that it was his fault, not that either of them didn’t blame himself.

“How are you doing?” He asked walking it.

Peter looked up his eyes glossy. “Heya Mr. Stark.” He greeted enthusiastically.

“Well I see someone has found the morphine drip.”

“See,” Peter said holding it up proudly “You just click, and good things happen.” He murmured.

“I think you’ve had enough, he said walking around the bed and removing the pump from his hand. Peter grabbed his hand and then held it up and ran his cheek over it. “Soft Tony, warm Tony, Iron ball of fur,” he sang softly still petting himself. Tony chuckled, “You are lucky I don’t allow any recording devices in these rooms.”

“A shame really.” May chuckled, ‘He’d do anything we ask for a very long time.”

Tony grinned, “Well I practically have an idyllic memory. I’m sure the details I know would do wonders.”

May laughed the sound light, “Sorry for yelling earlier. I was just worried.” Peter now was playing with a small ball shaped item that he’s procured from May’s purse, completely distracted. “it’s understandable.”

“Maybe, but I know how much you mean to him and how much he looks up to you.”

“See, I have to look up.” Peter said face turning to Tony’s with a wide grin. “Looking up at Tony.”

“Finally get you to start calling me Tony – requires one serious infection and a morphine drip.

” “It’s the blood loss.” Peter pipped in.

“You didn’t lose that much, you called me Tony now you’re stuck with it.”

“Mr. Stark.” Peter sing songed. “Soft Mr. Stark, warm Mr. Stark…”

“Nope, won’t answer to that, not anymore”

“Hmm, I’m tired.”

“Then rest Underoos.”

May raised an eyebrow.

“I like nicknames.” Tony said. When her eyebrow went up, he said, “For other people.”

“Ah. I wonder if that’s why he calls you Mr. Stark.” May said, “It’s his nickname for you. And it annoys you so double win for him.”

“Hmmm I believe he is that clever, but he’s too consistent to be a joke.”

“You’re just Mr. Stark.” Peter mumbled from the bed nearly asleep.

“It’s OK whatever you call me Peter. Just curious why it’s Mr. Stark and not Tony.”

Peter rolled onto his side, so he could look up at him. “it’s lots of reasons honestly. I respect you. You’re my mentor. Calling you Tony feels too personal. Not that we don’t get along, just what if something happened to you. Mr. Stark is safer.” And Tony knew this was the most honest answer he would ever get from the kid on this.

“Thanks, Underoos, but feel good sleepy time is here.” He gave a gentle push to the morphine drip and then smoothed the blankets over the kid.

May and he headed out as soon as he was asleep. “You have a way with him Tony. One I haven’t seen him let be filled since Ben.”

Tony shrugged, “It’s nothing.”

“Don’t do that Tony. That kid loves you or wants to but is scared to let it be true. Today might help get him to really let himself care about you, as well, a father figure.” “Whoa, May, I’m no dad. Howard was a jerk. He…. Well he wasn’t a dad. I can be his mentor, but I can’t parent him.”

“You already are. You give him advise, punish him when he’s doing something stupid or at least threaten too, and you care about him.”

Tony wanted to protest but he did do all those things. “Right.” He said a little chocked up at the idea. “It’s a little scary how alike the kid and I are. I just can’t imagine this is a good idea” “Welcome to my world.” May said with a laugh. “But you discover more and more ways to love him as it continues.”

Tony nodded. “You are staying the night.”

May nodded. “He doesn’t like to be alone like this and probably shouldn’t be. Even with all your oversight.”

“Oh, I meant what I said earlier no recording devices allowed.”

“That’s smart. But means even more that one of us should stay with him. And since you’ve had enough shocks for a day, it will be me.”

Tony nodded, “Thanks. Have a good night and if you need anything, absolutely anything, just push the buzzer.”

“Thanks Tony, Rest well.”

Tony nodded and then headed for his lab.

When he came to Peter’s room the next day the kid was in jeans and a funny pun t- shirt. “Hey Crocket, how are you feeling?”

“I can’t be Crocket I didn’t do anything dangerous.”

“You went into a building that was half blown up, so I’m going to have to say your wrong.”

“Technicality.” Peter said with a smile.

“Seriously though, how are you feeling?”

Peter took a moment to assess then said, “I’m doing much better. The doctor said the infection is almost gone. Between modern or a little further then modern medicine and healing patterns I’m good to go. May went to pull the car around. I was going to come see you before I left, but you were here.”

“Well I’m glad you’re feeling better.” Tony took a deep breath, put his hands in his pocket and rocked a little on his feet. ‘All that stuff we said yesterday, it’s safe with me kid. You can trust me, with injuries, money trouble, school issues, hell even girl issues. I just want you to be aware that whenever you need something, I’m one of your people.”

Peter looked at him a slightly teary look, “Is that so?”

“Yep.” He popped the P.

“Ok then,” He said, then half his lip curled into a half smile, “Tony.”

Tony smiled back. “You’re going to be held to this new standard kid.”

“I know, Tony.” He said emphasizing his name. He grabbed his bag. “Well I need to meet May.”

“Yea. We meet again on Saturday. stay out of trouble.”

Peter nodded and hurried off.

Tony rocked again on his feet as he watched the kid leave. Maybe with the right kid, he really could be more than a mentor and perhaps even a dad. He smiled to himself then headed off to find the other Avengers.

[legendary-defender-of-fandoms]

Disney/Pixar Movie Night for Team Voltron

(Headcanon for how the Paladins and the Alteans feel about Disney. Mostly focusing on the animated movies, but will throw in a few of the standout live-action movies. Might add Lotor if anyone asks.)

Shiro:

- will suggest a Disney movie night for the team to help them unwind, clear heads, relax after a rough period (may also make it mandatory when he becomes commander of the Atlas)

- tries to let the team decide, but will step in if they start fighting over various movie merits

- loves the classics, admires hand-drawn animation, also enjoys feel-good movies

- May shed a few tears; if a movie brings up painful memories of his year of enslavement, time in the Void, or being controlled/attacked by Haggar, he may step out of the room. Keith will follow to see if he’s ok, Hunk will pause & suggest putting in a different movie

- hums along with the songs during the movie, belts them out in the shower when he thinks he’s alone (and doesn’t realize everyone is standing outside, listening & cheering him on)

- Top 5 favorite Disney/Pixar movies: Sleeping Beauty, Up, Mary Poppins, Lady and the Tramp, Monsters Inc.

Keith:

- totally doesn’t like kids’ movies, obviously, but won’t object if someone else should suggest a Disney movie night (hint hint)

- a Disney purist - will be the first to correct someone if they misidentify something as Disney

- Lance loves to annoy Keith by calling Anastasia a Disney Princess, or telling everyone his favorite Disney movie is Shrek

- definitely doesn’t cry during movies, but will sound a bit choked up if someone tries to talk to him after an emotional scene

- not really a singer, but he will nod along, maybe tap his foot. Enjoys listening to the others sing along

- Top 5 favorite Disney/Pixar movies: Brother Bear, Lion King, Treasure Planet, Lilo and Stitch, Tarzan

Lance:

- as the youngest in his family & the one most often put in charge of watching his younger cousin, Lance is quite the Disney connoisseur

- tried to get Allura to agree to a Disney movie date night, but she missed the implication & it turned into a group thing

- definitely a Disney Renaissance man, but also enjoys the new Golden Age movies

- will sing along with the group songs if it’s him, Pidge, and Hunk, but will let the two have the main stage for the duets

- “Lance, are you crying?” “What? No. It’s just . . . my allergies are acting up again. The space dust is everywhere.”

- Top 5 favorite Disney/Pixar movies: Aladdin, Tangled, The Little Mermaid, Coco, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl

Hunk:

- TOTAL Disney nut! Knows all the movies by heart, used to visit the Parks with his family when he was a kid, even sings some of his favorite Disney songs when he’s cooking in the kitchen or working on the Lions

- will watch by himself if everyone’s busy, but prefers to watch with a group (most often with Pidge, but Lance will join them every once in a while)

- when the whole team gets together, Hunk loves to make specially themed snacks for everyone to enjoy during the movie (Mickey head cookies, treats found in the movie itself, cupcakes decorated to look like the main characters, etc)

- tries to keep quiet when he knows someone watching with him hasn’t seen the movie before, but will sing along with Pidge (and Lance) when it’s just the two of them (or the whole Garrison Trio)

- cries unabashedly, and always brings extra tissues for the members of Team Voltron that swear they don’t cry but always tear up (aka, everyone)

- Top 5 favorite Disney/Pixar movies: The Jungle Book, Beauty and the Beast, The Toy Story movies (loves all of them, but if you twist his arm & force him to choose he’ll say 2), Hercules, Ratatouille

Pidge:

- used to watch Disney movies with her family back on Earth - glad to share this tradition with her space family

- tends to get frustrated by the faulty science in some of the sci-fi movies (Treasure Planet frustrates her to no end)

- has a lot of Disney theories - likes to try to connect all the Disney movies in a shared universe (but won’t cite Descendants or Once Upon a Time in her theories because she says they’re corporate cash-in fan fiction)

- she & Hunk are pretty flexible with the singing roles when it’s a duet - Pidge may sing Rapunzel’s part in “I See The Light,” then take Hans’s part in “Love is an Open Door” (but since Hunk is the one who usually starts singing first, he usually gets to sing the princess part)

- keeps insisting she doesn’t cry during Disney movies, but always finds herself tearing up & stealing Hunk’s emergency tissues

- Top 5 favorite Disney/Pixar movies: Wall-E, Big Hero 6, Mulan, The Incredibles 1 and 2 (counts them as one movie), National Treasure

Allura:

- initially confused when Lance or Shiro suggests watching a Disney movie, but instantly blown away by the magic of hand-drawn animation

- “Can all princesses on Earth speak with animals? I thought my ability to understand the Mice was because of our time spent together in the cryopod, but maybe some of your Earth magic rubbed off on me.”

- doesn’t approve of the movies where the girl waits for a prince to save the day; has 10 escape plans Cinderella could’ve used to get out of her room without waiting for the mice to get the key, 15 defensive techniques Snow White could’ve implemented to disarm the Huntsman, and could fill several books with all the ways Maid Marian could’ve deposed Prince John and ruled England while King Richard was away

- shy about singing when there are others present, but she may find herself humming a few of the more memorable songs when she’s in her room with the Mice

- often caught off-guard by scenes that make her cry - sometimes it’s moments that remind her of life before the War, sometimes it’s just the right combination of music & animation

- Top 5 favorite Disney/Pixar movies: Frozen, Pocahontas, Atlantis, Moana, Inside Out

Coran:

- fascinated by these slices of human culture, might think some of them are true

- “Are you sure Kaltenecker didn’t miss out on any early development? These cows are quite articulate, and can even sing & dance!” “Coran, those are cartoon cows. They’re not real.”

- loves the super-trippy movies, and the movies with anthropomorphic casts (also has a hard time believing animals can’t talk, sing, or serve as cops)

- will sing the Disney working songs while he’s working on the Castle. Everyone can hear him three floors away

- on a scale from 1 to Hunk, Coran is a solid 7 on the crying scale

- Top 5 favorite Disney/Pixar movies: Alice in Wonderland, Robin Hood, Dumbo, Zootopia, Bambi

#dreamworks #voltron legendary defender #hunk garrett #lance mcclain #princess allura #pidge gunderson #katie holt #keith kogane #takashi shirogane #shiro #disney #pixar #headcanon #movie night

[wolgrahas]

tagged by: @falkreathh thank you!!  sorry for doing this so much later u_u’ tagging: whoever wants to!! (◡‿◡✿) 1. favourite game in the series ok... i don’t know if you already figured it out but my total fave is dao. why? maybe is the nostalgic feelings this game gives me or... i played it so many mcfucking times that i just get this hollow feeling inside my chest when i haven’t played it for weeks... idk. the trespasser dlc was spectacular too and gave my lavellan a lot of personality (what i thought the dai base game lacked, bc it made me feel like my inquisitor was an empty shell with no personality, solas’ romance save the dai base game to me tbqh). but... you can create such complex personalities in dao for your warden, and the relationships are so so realistic. i think (dao) is neat lmao. 

2. how did you discover dragon age? before being a dragon age fan i was a dark souls fan; i breath dark souls, i read dark souls, i ate dark souls, i was quite obsessed with dark souls, and before dark souls i was an obsessed skyrim fan (oNLY SKYRIM, not the previous games ashdgjasdgh) and with skyrim that was the first time i made video game oc's, like... they had such complex personalities and i cannot make complex character now... aNYWAY i'm getting carried away: i knew dragon age bc dai was being lunched and ALL the people i followed reblogged stuff about dai, and then i bought dao and loved it!! 

3. how many times have you played the games? hfgsdjfhsjfshd fffUCKKKK SHITT... alright... many mANY TIMES, but how many times i haven't finished my game?? countless times!! i think i finished fINISHED dao maybe... pls don't laugh at me... 10+ times. yes they are so so so many times, shame on me! shame on my cow! blah blah, but i lOVE dao. da2 maybe.... 3-4 times? and dai 6 times?? it's funny bc i played dao and da2 in many different ways but dai... m8, always the same, fuck you solas sdhfjdshjsdf 4. favourite race to play? qUNARIIIII!!! i lOVE tieflings so.. i obviously love the qunari too, but in the dai the first race i chose was qunari but then i talked to solas and i was like... bITCHHHHH i'm gonna create an elf to romance this egg, and then... my canon inky became an elf lol. and last favourite race are humans... ok don't hate me, it's not bc they are """boring""" or shit like that, it's bc they are the upper-class of thedas and i LOVE the "from zero to hero" trope... so... yeah agfshsdfhj 5. favourite class? mages!! bc i love the lore behind this class, it's fantastic, precisely blood magic. but if i didn't care about this, i would choose archer, tho in the first games it sucked but in dai is pretty cool :^) 6. do you play through the games differently or do you make the same decisions each time? as i've said before i have made many different decisions in dao and da2 but in dai are always the same lol 7. go-to adventuring group? origins: alistair/sten, morrigan, zev/leliana da2: aveline, anders, isabela/varric dai: solas, cassandra, cole/sera 8. which of your characters did you put the most thought into? i think prim/anika??(they're the same but one is a human and the other an elf lmaoo), she was my first da oc, and obviously the one i put most thought into bc i uSED to have a lot of creativity some years ago, what a pity my brain is useless now lmao 9. favourite romance? pfffff... solas, alistair, leli and cass!! i think?? idk i gotta play again dai bc i'm not sure :/ 10. have you read any of the comics/books? i've read aLL the books but not the comics :/, i want to read the comics but idk where i could read them online and free (sorry i'm poor lol), so... mi gozo en un pozo lmao 11. if you read them, which was your favourite book? my fav book was "the masked empire"!! patrick weekes is a good writer and i loved the orlesian politics, and i adored seeing these characters in dai! (tho briala was whitewashed lmao) 12. favourite DLCs? obviously: awakening and trespasser. these two dlc's were mcfUCKING AMAZING. i mean, with dao i expected the same quality of the base game, but trespasser was such an excelent and good experience, it gave a lot of insight to our inquisitors and also: sOOULASSSSS, so yep! i mainly lOVED trespasser and i hope weekes guides the team to make a game at least as good as this dlc! (tho, if ea is a greedy bintch this time [as always lol] it doesn't matter how many times the bioware time tries, ea will force them to do a shitty game :/) 13. things that annoy you how viv, anders and sera are written, i mean, i loved anders the first time i played da2 but his personality is obviously written to annoy the fuck outta you, tho i loved how he expressed his ideals freely (tho sometimes he even seemed too traidtional to me about topics like blood magic :/), but sera and viv were a lil harder to befriend and like, and i still don't like much viv, but i love her as a character, y'kno 14. orlais or ferelden? tbh, if i gotta live in one of those two places i would choose ferelden by fAR. but, now, if we're talking about which is more interesting; orlais. 15. templars or mages? like @/blckwall said: all templars are bastards :). i would love if thedas had independent magic schools, that there were no higher representatives or charges, that every village or city had its own magic school, and the crown would be the responsable of manage its needs. i haven't thought much about this so my thoughts are quite vague :/ 16. if you have multiple characters, are they in different/parallel universes or in the same one? they're from different universes, tho i'd love the idea of all of them being in the same universe, but some worlds states are incompatible with others. 17. what did you name your pets? (mabari, summoned animals, mounts, etc) in dao: barkspawn (i'm extremelly predictable, sorry u_u') 18. have you installed any mods? all my dragon age games are modded as fUCK. i mean, i think dao is the most heavy modded game i have?? (mainly bc i cannot install many mods in skyrim lol) but when i have my gaming computer again i will mod the shit out of dai >:) 19. did your warden want to become a grey warden? prim had been working in the circle her entire live to be in the higher ranks, and then she saw how all her work was lost made her really conflicted: she didn't wanted to leave bc she yearned to be more powerful and make the circle a better place for mages (yep, she's deeply anti-circle bc of her traumatic past), and she was going to die if she refused duncan's offer. even so, she was never sorry for supporting jowan. and, she became the king of ferelden's mistress; she loved him obv, but she could also take some advantage of his power to make the mages and marginalize people's situation better, and gain fortune by that; alistair was well aware about her plans by prim's words herself, but he never objected. altho the main cause prim made alistair king is bc she wanted him to have a good life and not waste it as a grey warden, so... anyway, i got acrried away... this is long af ghdjsdgf 20. hawke’s personality? red mostly, tho he used to be purple/red in the first and begining of the second act :/ 21. did you make matching armor for your companions in inquisition? yes i did!! i lOVED to be fashionable in dragon age instyle!! 22. if your character(s) could go back in time to change one thing, what would they change? prim : she would have tried to convince jowan and wait some months until she could convince him. also: sometimes she wishes she didn't make alistair king, mostly bc of her daughter (her daughter is the only heir to the throne of ferelden, and basically she doesn't even know that prim is her real mother, mostly bc anora adopted her bc alistair and she couldn't have children), sometimes, in her alone saddest times, thinks how things would have been if alistair was still a grey warden, they would have a happy family and wouldn't even had to hide inofensive stuff like a cheek kiss. but anyway, her duties as a grey warden are more important and doesn't have time to think about it. garrett hawke: he regrets not defending carver, he would have prefered to sacrifice himself instead of any of his siblings. he also regrets going to the deep roads with bethany, letting the grey wardens make her one of them (obv he doesn't know that if he didn't she would have joined the circle lmao). and obv her mother's death... if he had been there, with her mother, he could have done something... :'/ maia: she regrets not being strong enough when that shem tried to hurt her when she was a litte girl, that made her mother kill him to save her bc she was too defenseless, she should have been stronger, that caused her mother and she part ways, because now maia's mother was a criminal and she had more proabilities of getting caught, so maia should go on her way and find the next village, but she found the lavellan clan. she deeply regrets not going after her mother. she also think she was too stupid to not found out the true identity of solas and try to convince him that this world has meaning :'/ 23. do you have any headcanons about your character(s) that go against canon? mmmm... no? :/, i like my decisions to have consequences?? 24. are any of your characters based on someone? sahgdashsd pls don't make fun of me but in the first stage of prim's/anika's 'personality creation' was inspired by mother gothel, then she was inspired by...... mikasa ackerman dsfgdjsdf, i'm still inspired by that character tHO i know that shingeki no kyojin is nazi propaganda and i no longer watch that anime lmao. maia is inspired by... a mix of me and rapunzel (from tangled)?? she's basically a shy rapunzel :') 25. who did you leave in the fade? some of you will hate me bc i had to choose between hawke and stroud but i still chose hawke dsfgsdf. m8, hawke is just a 'figure' who isn't widely recognized in thedas, while the grey warden are 394789x more useful, idk i always put myself in the shoes of my characters even if their decisions hurt me (tho, tbqh, i'm not tHAT attached to hawke so this choice was easy lol) 26. favourite mount? royal sixteen!! she's so pretty!! ♡♡♡ thanks for tagging me!! ♡♡

#rami.txt #rami got tagged.txt #this was fun!!