#one she’s (women in charge can’t spell her name) assistant and well yeah they do it in her office after many months of spencer pinnig

[sakuwriteshere]

The Apple Pie in My Life - Chapter 4

Summary: What happened between two best friends when someone messes with their lives? Can the past changes the future or can the future changes the past?

Pairing: Dean Winchester x Female!Reader

Characters: Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Female!Reader, OC Abbigail, OC James, OC Alex, OC Purson

Words count: 2260

Warnings: Slight angst, mention of injury (nothing graphic), mention

Square filled: Enemies to Lovers for @spndeanbingo​ and Angst to fluff for @spngenrebingo​​ Those squares are used for the whole series.

A/N: As per usual, this is unbetated and I’m sorry for any grammar mistakes or error spelling. Please let me know what you think of it! I really hope that this new series will bring you as much fun as it does for me.I do not own the characters or the show. Don’t hesitate to comment or share your thoughts!

I won’t post next week, as I’m going to spend Christmas at my mom’s home. I won’t have a computer with me, so sorry. I’ll start to update this story by the end of the year (fortunately).

Chapter 4: Reunion

The room felt cold and uninviting. The repeating beeps should be a sound comforting and reassuring but it was getting on Dean’s nerves. Sam and him had reached the hospital Bobby had told them. They came to the nurse’s office, telling them they were Agents Leyton and Harris from the FBI and that they were here for their partner, Leia Swan.

The nurse, Kate according to her nametag, a cute petite blonde nodded and pushed her chair, standing up and asking for them to follow her. He didn’t want to come, but Sam forced him to, saying that it would be easier if they were two. After so many years, Dean still felt angry. He hated her for her betrayal and the horrible things she said about him. How could she called herself his best friend? How dare she? He knew he would never get over this.

So why was he feeling a pang in his chest when he finally saw her in the hospital bed? Kate had opened the door and entered in the private room first, leading the way. She stood at the bed’s feet and stared at the unconscious body laying in the middle of the room.

“Poor thing. Sometimes I forget how dangerous your job is.” She whispered, hugging herself.

“Yeah.” Sam cleared his throat, rubbing the tip of his nose with his index finger.

“I’ll go look for her doctor.” The nurse added before leaving.

Dean was too focused on the strange mixed feels. For more than a decade he clearly loathed Y/N, to the point of erasing her name from his memory. And here, he was feeling bad for her, witnessing her fragile state. Even Sam remembered him that during his last year before going to Hell, he thought about her and not in the way he would like to. He didn’t know why, among all the women he knew, Dean thought about her in that way. She looked exactly like the last time he had seen here, the teenage girl he had known. His strange brain made her look like a bit older but the face was still the same.

“She looks so small.” Sam’s voice disturbed his trail of thoughts. He took a good look at her. Her eyes were closed, her Y/H/C hair framing her pale face. There was so many tubes connecting her to several machines, and that infuriating constant beeping noise was driving Dean crazy.

Dean closed his eyes, pursing his lips. “Come on man, it’s not like she’s dead.” He reminded him.

“Dean!” Sam admonished him, he still didn’t know what happened between them but that didn’t excuse his behavior.

“Gentlemen.” The doctor excused himself as he entered the room. He introduced himself as Dr Richards. Dark short hair, a bit of grey just above his ears, round face with a pair of glasses resting on his nose. He was certainly the one in charge here.

Both Winchesters turned around, greeting him. While Dean kept glancing at Y/N’s unmoving body, Sam started to speak.

“Executive Assistant Director Duke told us to come here ASAP. You found his phone number in Y/N’s stuff, is that right? What happened?” He asked, as he referred to Bobby’s alias. 

The doctor nodded, confirming Sam’s first sentence. “Found her on the steps in front of the hospital, as if someone left her there, for dead. We gave her all our attention but…” 

“But?” Dean repeated, he couldn’t stop himself as his heart bit harder in his chest.

“She lost a lot of blood.” Dr Richards sighed before grabbing his notes. “We weren’t sure she would make it. I’ve lost a lot of patients for less.” Then he looked up at the brothers, a small smile on his face. “She’s a warrior. We think she’s safe now. The transfusion did well.”

The brothers let out the breath they were holding. Sam kept on asking questions as Dean came closer, inspecting Y/N’s sleeping form. He noticed the marks around her wrists, and a big bruise on the side of her face. Dean’s hand curled into a fist without him noticing. On the other side of her neck, there was a small bandage.

“What’s that for?” He asked the Doctor who looked at him.

“There’s a little wound in her neck, certainly made by a needle.” Dr Richards said, then he nodded as Dean asked silently for the permission to take a look.

He pulled on the bandage carefully and indeed there was the sign of a prick. Was she attacked by a Djinn? How stupid was she for hunting a Djinn on her own?

After a few minutes, Dr Richards excused himself, telling Sam that was all he knew and he needed to check on a few other patients. Sam thanked him and turned to Dean once they were left alone.

“What do you think?” He asked his brother, folding his notepad into his vest pocket.

“Looks like a Djinn. I can’t believe she’s that reckless. Stupid move.” Dean said in a disapproving tone.

“Well, it’s not like she has a choice.” Sam told him, not liking Dean’s tone.

Dean only shrugged, he had enough already. Even if he felt a bit bad for her once they had seen her, all his anger and hatred rushed into his body again. She was the one who betrayed him after all.

The brothers left the hospital room soon after, the nurse said that she wasn’t going to wake up today. They entered in the motel room they rented a few blocks near the hospital. The twins sat up straighter on the bed once the Winchesters came in.

“So? How is your friend?” James asked as he watched Sam throwing his jacket on the other bed before sitting on it. The tall hunter nodded, a silent way for him to tell the kids that their friend was doing fine. Sam swore he saw the relief on their faces.

“Who is she for you, by the way?” Abbigail asked, standing up from the bed and rummaging through the mini fridge, pulling out a few bottles of water before handing them to the boys.

“No one important.” Dean said sternly, ignoring Abby’s extended hand and walking into the bathroom.

***

A few days later, you opened your eyes slowly. Your sight falling on a colorful blurry image. You blinked a few times before your recognized your favorite flowers, standing proudly in a white vase, next to your head.

“You’re awake!” A female voice exclaimed, forcing you to turn your attention on the opposite side of the room.

At the end of your bed stood a young woman, judging by her outfit you quickly knew she was a nurse. She smiled softly at you as she put the papers back in the rack at the end of your bed.

“Your partners were getting restless. You scared them pretty well.” She said as she came closer, checking your vitals.

Partners? You thought, closing your eyes as a sharp pain coursed through your body. Right on queue, two men entered the room.

“Speaking of the Devil.” The nurse smirked as she recognized the men. She nodded and winked at you before leaving the three of you alone.

The silence between you was horrible. None of you wanted to speak first, Sam was staring at you while you kept your focus on him. From the corner of your eyes you could see Dean having a particular interest in the street view.

You rolled your eyes, having enough already.

“What are you doing here?” You asked, your throat, hurting a bit from the lack of use.

“Bobby asked us to keep an eye on you.” Sam was the one who spoke.

You nodded thoughtfully, of course that old grumpy man was the one behind all of it. You needed to ask him how he knew. “Well, as you can see, I’m fine. So thank you. Goodbye.” You said as you tried to get out from your bed. You might have overestimated your strength as you nearly fell, fortunately, Sam was quick to react and within one step was at your side to prevent you from falling. 

“Thanks.” You smiled genuinely at him. You could feel the strong grip around your shoulder.

“What happened?” Sam asked as he helped you to sit on the bed. You knew that kind of face, he was asking you information about your case.

“Oh no, no, no, Sam.” You pushed him softly. “This bastard attacked me. This is personal. You won’t steal my case.”

“What was it? A Djinn? A vamp?” Dean asked, speaking for the first time since he entered and ignoring you perfectly. You glared at him and noticed that he was still looking through the window.

“None of your business, Winchester.” You said coldly.

Dean hummed, and after a while, turned his gaze towards you. If looks could kill, you would be dead already. You glared at him, two could play this game. The room fell silent as both of you started a staring contest.

“Y/N,” Sam tried to draw your attention, his big hand engulfing yours. “You know as much as I do, that Bobby won’t let you go alone. As you said, it’s personal. This is your choice. Him or us.”

You closed your eyes, knowing perfectly that Sam was right.

“Give me a minute, then we’ll leave.” You sighed, as you looked around, looking for your stuff. You had to sneak out from the hospital as quickly as possible.

You jaws clenched when you heard, Dean’s ironic voice. “Awesome.”

Thanks to Sam, and his ability to sweet talking people around him, you didn’t have to sneak out. The doctor accepted to let you leave as long as you promised to rest and come back to check everything was fine.

The drive to the motel was silent, despite everything Sam tried to do to enlighten the mood. You weren’t talking about the case yet, and even trivial things would make you speak. When he tried to turn on the radio, Dean was quick to turn it off. Yep, he wasn’t in the mood either. Fantastic, Sam thought.

As soon as the car was parked, Dean climbed off, ignoring his brother or you and heading straight for the room. Sam sighed as he stood outside, looking in his brother’s direction. 

“I still think it’s a bad idea, Sam.” You mumbled, your grip tightening around your duffel bag.

Sam shook his head, forcing an encouraging smile as he pushed you towards their motel room. “We’re hunters, Y/N. Let’s just ignore the past and keep it professional.” He said as he pushed the door open, motioning you to enter first. You heard someone talking in the room, the voice female and kind of stressed.

“Professional, huh?” You repeated, doubting that it would be easy.

“We need to find…” A young teenager said, her back to you as you entered. Another boy was sitting on a bed in front of her, his head snapped in your direction.

“…Mom.” She said in a whisper as she turned around and her eyes fell on you.

All four pairs of eyes were staring at you, you shifted from one foot to the other, feeling uncomfortable.

You cleared your throat and put your duffel bag near the door.

“Wrong person. Y/N, nice to meet you.” You said to the girl, who was still looking at you in a very strange way. You turned towards Sam, hoping to draw the attention off you. “When did you become baby-sitters?”

God bless Sam, he helped you getting rid of the weird tension in the room as he started to introduce you to the two kids.

“Y/N, this is Abigail and James. James, Abby, this is Y/N. We’re helping them on their case.” Sam said. While you were focused on the kids, you missed Sam’s stare, as if he was expecting some recognition from you but there was nothing. Judging by your attitude, their were strangers to you.

“Another case, huh?” You asked. This was your chance to get rid of the brothers. “Well, while you’re helping the kids, I’ll rent my own room and work on my own.”

“Wait a minute.” Sam said as he stopped you from leaving, his strong arm wrapping around your shoulders. “We can perfectly work two cases at a time.”

“Yeah, yeah.” You sighed, defeated. You knew Sam was stubborn. You unwrapped his arm and slumped on the nearest chair. “Let’s get to work, then!”

Sam nodded, satisfied. One down, just one left. “Where’s Dean?” He asked the twins who simply pointed at the closed bathroom’s door.

He walked towards the bathroom and hit on the door loudly. His brother was sure taking his time.

After a few seconds of silence, Sam looked at the door, a weird feeling nagging him. He knocked on the door again. “Dean?” 

Still no answer.

“Whatever you’re doing, I’m coming in.” Sam announced as his fingers curled around the door knob. With the lack of answer from the bathroom, Sam glanced at the twins, then at you. None of you could tell him what Dean was doing.

Sam opened the door slowly at first and peeked inside. He opened it fully when he noticed the room was empty.

“Dean?” Sam called as he searched into the room.

“Where is he?” You asked, standing up. You tried to hide the worry in your voice.

“I- I don’t know.” Sam said, the concern visible on his face.

TAPiML tags:  @fandomoverdose666​ , @eternaleviee​ , @slytherinrising​ , @vicmc624​ , @music-is-all-i-need​ , 

#spndeanbingo #SPNGenreBingo #dean winchester x reader #dean winchester #Female reader #reader insert #spn fanfiction #series #TAPiML series #dean winchesterxyou

[ladyemberswrites]

“A Touch Is All I Ask”

- 

Summary: Allura and Company haul the Stranger to the Castle Ship.

Rating: T and Up 

Words: 3k 

Chapters: 2/? 

-

Can read here on my Ao3:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20626235/chapters/49759931#workskin

- 

“This guy is huge!” understatement of the millennium. This man, this stranger, must be at least around 7 feet tall and weighs a bloody ton being all hard, thick muscle and equally hefty armor. Despite her altean strength and Keith’s galra it took everyone to fly him back to Blue, only for them to rinse and repeat as they had to haul him to the castle’s infirmary. Even with the aid of the hanger room’s emergency gurney, he’s still far too heavy for one person to carry.

However, that’s the least of her issues at the moment, as his sudden arrival causes a massive commotion among the rebels and the castle staff going about their day. Both morbidly curious and confused everyone wants to know what in Altea's name is going on. But, a bark from a very disgruntled Nanny has them all fleeing back to their stations.

“What in ancient’s name is going-” her hard eyes flicker to the Stranger’s unconscious body, her mouth clamping shut and her face scrunches in displeasure. Allura braces herself for a full-on scolding, but luckily, her governess held her tongue and left without a fuss to ensure that the staff isn’t lazing off on their duties in spite of the chaos. Doubtful, Allura thought, annoyed; by the time lunch comes around gossip and rumors would’ve been spread to every cranny of the ship, probably to every rebel base and colony, if she’s being generous. But, she can bet on it. Another headache down the line for her to deal with.

Yet, she'll just have to worry about it later as her patient upon moving seems to be agitated. His brows and lips twisting in agony and pitiful groans pour from his mouth as sweat billows down his temples.

"Allura!" Coran came scampering down the hall "Princess, your back! I-oh, dear" he halts eyeing the Stranger with a quiet wariness.

"-and whose this fellow?" he twirls his mustache in contemplation, inching a little closer.  

"Don't know" Matt offers, huffing "the Princess found him out in the middle of nowhere-she thinks he might've been spat out the rift."

"The rift!" Coran gapes "that's impossible-"

"Hey, um yeah can we like save the questions for later" Hunk butts in his tone straining, sweating profusely.

"Even with a gurney this guy weighs like a ton, and I think my arms are going numb" Pidge grits her teeth.

"Right, right"

"Coran, can you have the nursing staff prepare the examination room, please"

"Right on it, Princess!" He salutes and takes off down the hall.

"Here's an idea" Keith mutters through clenched teeth "can't we just have the cow tow him to the infirmary" he grunts.

"She has a name!"

"I am not getting into an argument with you about a cow, so do everyone a favor and shut up!"

"Straight from the O-so gracious hero's mouth everyone!" He retorts snidely "I'd clap sarcastically, but I'm afraid my hands are occupied at the moment"

“.....And here we go again….” Matt exhales. Hunk sends Pidge a pointed glance marred with annoyance, the young tech can only shake her head and roll her eyes into the back of her skull in exasperation.

"Oh, come on you two" Shiro chides his face falling flat “it’s way too early for this” but his pleas were dead to the wind "guys, come on…"

"Don't bother, Shiro" Pidge grumbles "you're just wasting your breath..."

"-you know what Keith you can kiss my-"

"Enough!" Allura barks her voice echoing off the walls, causing both men to freeze "if you two blockheads don't knock it off I will freeze your lips shut until they fall off your stupid faces! Now, shut it and help me get this man to the infirmary!" She hisses. Their egos wilt under her cold, boring stare.

Swallowing, they nod meekly in her direction "Yes, Ma'am" they murmur in unison. Regardless of their cooled fury, both men cast each other a poisonous glance before readjusting their grip on the gurney.

"Thank you." she spat dryly. The last thing she needs is in their petty squabbling they drop her new charge onto the floor. She had no idea what kind of shape he's in and didn't need these two buffoons making an already tense situation worse. If he is a high-ranking warlord and they accidentally kill him because of ineptitude, she could only imagine how lethal the ramifications might be.

~

It took another 30 minutes to haul him to the examination room. Thankfully, Keith and Lance kept to themselves to lick their own wounds and outright refuse to meet her line of sight, or one another's for the matter. She dislikes the tense air, but better them quiet than wasting time bickering with each other.

“Took you long enough” Fi taps her fingers against her clipboard, the lavender paint of her nails immaculate underneath the bright lighting of the exam room "the nursing staff has everything you need prepared. Although" a lilac brow arches, her head tilting downwards to eye their new guest with a dull glance.

"Nevermind" she sighs, placing a hand on her hip.

"Fi."

"I didn't say anything"

"Ah-huh" she chunters under her breath. Fi didn't need to say anything to make her point; Allura knew how the woman felt about the galra. Her cool yet taunt facade only emphasized her distaste for the situation. However, her gaze never returns to the stranger as her eyes kept on the Princess.

"In any case, Allura, you should probably inform Head Commander Hira of-this" she gestures with a wave of her clipboard.

Oh, right….

"I will. Later"

Fi simply sighs "your funeral then" she mumbles.

"Yeah, yeah" she turns her attention back to her patient "alright, let's get him on the table" she commands the others. They maneuver him through the door, huffing and panting, careful not to clip any part of his body against the threshold.

"We can use a little help here…." Lance grouses in Fi's direction, the woman only crosses her arms around her waist and moves out their way.

"What's the matter lover man? Can't handle the weight"

A vein pops alongside his forehead "I can handle the weight!"

"Lance…" Allura growls.

"Dude, you're making us wobble this guy"

"If that's the case you could carry this man yourself, hm"

"You really just love sucking the life out of everything, witch,  tell me how many gallons of children's tears did you drink to be this refreshed this morning?" Of course, Lance decides, no has to push it because he somehow feels the need to make a comment about everything anything.

Fi's face hardens but only for a minute "Well, aren't you just fine and dandy this morning as well,  lover man? Tell me how's that dry spell coming along?" A smirk curls her lips upon seeing his flushing, sputtering face “I mean we all know women just can’t help themselves around such a stud like you? OR” she taps her lilac lips “am I wrong?”

"I'll have you know, wench, I have dates lined up for the whole week! So suck on that!"

"Lance, shut up" Pidge smacks his shoulder.

“OW!”

"Knock it off the both of you" Allura grumbles "or at least can't you guys wait until we get him on top the table first before biting each others heads off."

"Yeah, yeah"

"Forgive me, Your Majesty, I seem to have lost sight of myself.” Fi curtses“I’ll go and retrieve fresh clothing for the patient and prepare him a room.”

“Thank you, Fi”

“No need for thanks, I am, but your humble servant”

“Oh!” Allura stops her just before she strides out the room “Summon, Lau for me as well. I need her assistance”

“As you wish” she bows again before pivoting on her heel.

"I can't stand that woman…" Lance gripes. Pidge just sighs.

“Dude, you started it…”

“Yeah, well-”

“Can we please put this guy on the table!?” Keith barks “Now. Today. My arms are about to fall off!”

Speaking of headaches….

It took a lot of awkward stirring, a lot more shouting before the Stranger’s fully and finally placed on the table. His groans of pain subside partially due to the fact that everyone isn’t carelessly swinging his unconscious body around.

“Boy, all that haulings got me starving”

“You had two helpings for breakfast”

“You ate just as much as I did, Lance!”

“I’m not the one with the gut….”

“At least I have a girlfriend…”

“Low blow dude, low blow”

“I thought you had piles of girls lined up literally thirsting for your body?” Pidge asks with an arch brow., her voice low and mocking.

"Y'know this isn't how I'd imagine I'd spend my morning" Matt sighs leaning against the wall in exhaustion.

"I think I have a crick in my back" Shiro mutters, massaging his neck.

“You’re way too young to be having back problems, Takashi” Matt heaves.

"-all I know is that I never want to carry another galra ever again, he’s got to be at least 3,000 thousand pounds, yeesh ” Hunk wipes his forehead.

"Speaking of which-" Lance starts "if this guy is some uppity, pompous rich warlord, like Allura said, do you think he'll compensate us for saving his life?"

"Way to keep it, classy, Lance" Keith scowls at him.

"Look I'm just saying we can do with some new perks-"

"Alright, out." Allura snaps her fingers, gesturing towards the door "out all of you I have work to do and I can't do it with you guys in the way.”

“I’m going to take a bath…” Matt stumbles out the room.

“All of yo-" the hiss of the door cuts her off and much to her annoyance the last person she wants to see comes drifting in with his trusty data-pad in hand with the look of utter delight written in his angular face.

Doctor Alibhe smiles, ear to ear "Princess" he nods. She squints at him.

"Ah, good morning, Paladins." The atmosphere darkens and the temperature of the room slowly chills as shivers run up everyone's spines. Keith visibly sweats up a storm and Shiro slowly turns as white as the tuff of hair that sat upon his head.

"Oh, Kogane. Shirogane" his voice is deep. Smooth, polite, but his tone elicits no warmth, just cold dread. The silence before the storm. Hunk's teeth chatters and Pidge’s spine curls, Lance tries to find shelter behind Shiro’s massive frame to avoid the Doctor’s line of sight. If it were possible, it seems that his smile grew wider, his teeth sparkling, startling against the backdrop of his dark skin.

"My favorite patients"

"Actually" he gazes back down to his pad,  pressing a curled fist against his lips "you two have been past due for a checkup-" Keith bolts, shoving himself right pass the doctor in a mad frenzy, while Shiro tries to skid away as calm as possible leaving Lance unguarded.

“Look at the time.” he grins awkwardly, the smile not quite reaching his eyes as his teeth clench together “Got things to do and-um-things to do” he slid away doing everything in his power not to brush against Alibhe on the way out before making a run for it. Allura never saw the former-gladiator run so fast.

"Yeah, I um got things to do. Date with Shay and all. Bye" Hunk took off along with Pidge and Lance following close behind. Alihbe watches them all go his expression never changing.

"They're in a rush," he says after a moment of silence.

"...Gee, I wonder why?" she whispers dryly.

“Hm, what was that?”

“Nothing-nevermind, what exactly are you doing here? You're supposed to be quarantining the Phos Colony”

“Oh, yes. That’s why I'm here. The epidemic has been contained and neuralized and the colony immunized. My work there is done, the doctors of Phos should be able to handle what’s left without extra aid.”

“Oh.”

“I placed the report in your study for review”

“O-oh, well good work than” creepy or not Alibhe is more than efficient in his work.

“Who’s this fellow?” Allura instinctively looks over her shoulder back at her masked patient.

“A new guest.” she snaps her head back around “and I’m treating him, so keep you slimy, shady hands off him,” she orders with a stringent glare.

“I was merely asking a question, nothing more”

“Yeah, right” she whispers walking over to the sink “but, the least you can do since your back is take some samples from him back to the lab. I need to make sure he isn’t carrying anything, we don’t need an epidemic on our hands”

“As you wish” he dips his head. After, she washes and disinfects her hands and wiggles on her gloves Allura approaches her new patient with bated breath. His sheer size overwhelming her, he completely dwarfed her tiny body, to think working alongside of the Mamora she would’ve grown use to their immense size and stature. Afraid not...shaking her head she brings herself back to reality.

“Get a grip, Allura” she murmurs to herself.  First things first, the helmet's gotta go.

Here goes nothing.

It's all or nothing.

She steers around to the head of the examination table, his helmet cold to the touch even with the biodegradable gloves. She cautiously searches for the latch. It took a few minutes of fumbling, but she finds it, her stomach clenches as she presses down on them. It hisses low, and strangely ominous as if she were unlocking some sort dangerous truth. It pops and she slowly slides it off-her breath stills-

-to be greeted by a rather handsome face. A pretty face.

Angular in shape, aristocratic nose, chiseled jaw, long snowy hair, long pretty lashes. Instantly, he reminds her of one of her favorite storybooks, the one about the sleeping princess silent to the world as she slumbers centuries away. Only it's a prince, with tense brows, smooth lilac skin and a face smothered with painful-looking bruises. Upon inspection, they look fresh and swollen, he'll need some ointment to soothe the inflammation. Briefly, she applies the lightest of pressure, his lips tighten in response, teeth click together. However, she can’t figure how the bruises were inflicted. It didn’t look like he was punched or struck, or anything and the skin isn’t scraped or scratched. Did he hit something-

The examination room door whirls open like a whip to the air.

“Princess!” the livid bark of Head Commander Hira has her reeling, her body jerking violently as the severe woman came crashing in unannounced with a cringing, sputtering Coran floundering behind her.

“Hira, please calm yourself this is a hospital! People are resting here!” he hisses at her harshly, holding a finger to his lips.

She shoves him away in irritation “What have you’ve done this time!?”

Allura frowns at the tone “I haven’t done anything other than rescue someone whose life was-is in danger” she replies defensively, folding her arms over chest. Hira's eyes flicker from her to the body of the man lying upon the table. At first nothing, a passive glance that quickly hardens, her thin lips pulling into a sneer.

“He’s galra!” she gestures at him, the disdain in her voice is not hard to miss.

“Wow, so you do have eyes, wanna medal?!"Allura mockingly rose both her brows and the pitch of her voice. She knew she's risking a smack, but she can't seem to help herself.

“If you have enough time to string together sarcastic quips you have enough sense in that head of yours to inform me about unauthorized passengers. Or has being knocked around in that lion of yours slapped the sanity out of you"

"I beg your pardon!?"

“Ladies, please” Coran begs.

“Oh, hush Coran. You're not my heeler”  

“Afraid I don’t have a leash short enough to reel you in” the man mutters readjusting the buttons of his summer coat.

“Let me reiterate, Princess" the commander folds her arms behind her back "you have not only endangered the citizens aboard the ship, but yourself as well by dragging in, not just a galra, but a galra soldier on deck without considering safety procedures. I know it's in your nature to try and nurture those you deem less fortunate, but you cannot keep doing this"

Allura opens and closes her mouth before pressing them together in a tight line; Hira's in tip-top shape today. She didn't know whether she wants to break something over the woman's head or snap, petulant she knew, it's bad enough that Hira and everyone else treats as though she's a child, a dumb, stupid child that needs to be reprimanded and guided or else she'll end up getting her hand stuck in the proverbial cookie jar. But, she knew, she knew that throwing anything at her whether justified in frustration at the condescension would just be used against her, and pretty much proving their point.

Breaking things.

The urge to break burns under her skin along with the quake of her fists. Doing so would at least abate the rage, but Allura knew better, most times, giving into her base emotions isn't going to get her anywhere. Steeling away the instinct to inflame conflict she takes a calming breath and casts Hira a frigid stare.

"I'm not a child, I know that." She's only half-correct, she didn't wake up this morning expecting to rummage an injured man off an asteroid, as did most things, trouble usually came crashing through her door unannounced and most times unwelcomed.

Her cold gaze falls back to the Stranger, well, most times they come in uninvited.  Maybe this time it might be different.

In any case, she rebuffs Hira, ignoring her protests,

"Enemy or not he’s in need of medical aid."

“I should have immediately been informed of this”

"It's not like I wasn't going to" she argues.

"Really?" The woman arches a brow her face and stature impervious, impregnable and to imagine Freya's much worse that Hira could ever hope to be. But, the Valkyrie general is a concern for another day.

"Maybe-Okay!" She relents, throwing her hands up,  her cold shell wavering in the heat of scrutiny "I forgot! Alright, I should have informed you, but it still doesn't mean you can't just barge into my examination room and talk down to me like a baby!" A second hangs and passes before the Head Commander, marginally, deflates. Her shoulders lower, her sneer less prominent and the harsh edge of her eyes soften.

She still isn't happy.

"He'll need to be guarded. No, buts"

"I've already summoned Lau"

"Lau?" The displeasure snaps right back onto her face.

"Yes, Lau. She's more than capable"

"Fine." Irritated the commander rubs the bridge of her nose in tandem "be stubborn if you will, but the moment the slightest thing goes wrong. This castle is under lockdown and he'll, whatever his name is, will be under my jurisdiction. Understood. Princess or not my duty first and foremost is your safety and the safety of Altean citizens. I will not go back on my oaths"

"Right…"

"Also, I want all his belongings confiscated. They'll need to be investigated, I will not budge on the matter"

"Very well"

"Thank you for being cooperative for a change"

Oh, those were fighting words, back to the condescension again. Squeezing her lips together, Allura refrains, it's not a battle worth dying for.

'Just let it go, Allura, just let it go'

'It's not worth it, it's not worth it'

"Rrrrighhttt…." She breathes out trying to reign in her temper. Hira is none the wiser as the woman just bled condescension.

"I'm returning to my station-" she pauses scanning her face for a long, long minute "....and there is nothing else I need to know?"

"Nope."

"Hm. In any case, I'll take my leave" with a bow the commander dismisses herself, the clatter of her heels is like a funeral march beating in her ear.

"Coran?" She snaps her head in his direction.

The man made a face before frantically shaking his head "Don't look at me, Princess, I said not a thing! It was Nanny who blew the whistle."

"Good grief…" she sighs. Truly, unbelievable.

"Nevermind" she pushes a strand behind her ear "As long as she doesn't put the Castle on totalitarian lockdown." Allura mutters under her breath "Coran, just make sure nothing else gets out. Issue a formal report that we have an Empire Soldier in Altean custody."

"Can do, Princess" he salutes "anything else."

"Just keep it vague enough that people don't start causing a fuss"

"This shall be done. No worries" he slips out the room leaving her to the silence. Which she appreciates, however she can't say the same for her pounding migraine. But, she'll worry about it later, returning back to her work. Luckily, the Stranger hardly stirs from his slumber. He's either in a coma or a pretty heavy sleeper; upon that thought, she gently checks his head to find an abrasion centered on the back of his skull. The hair there is tangled and crusted over with old blood, which is odd. The wound here is old while the bruises are fresh.

Frowning, she moves to his side to check his pulse. He's cold to the touch as she presses her fingers to his throat; his pulse is steady but shallow. Allura leans over the table to put her ear to his chest; his heartbeat is the same, steady, but shallow.

He might need a scan, she reaches over to unclasp his cape, the ornament that held it together is blank. She turns it over but nothing gave any hints about his identity. She places them aside to find her flashlight to check his eyes.

Amethyst. His pupils dilate without fail. She checked his ears to find dried blood caked in them, and down his jaw. Strange enough, she didn't find any damage to his eardrums. Infection maybe, she scraped a few samples from both ears.

Now the hard part came-just how did she get his armor off? She stood there albeit aimless as she eyes it with an arduous stare. Scanning him, her eyes fell upon his satchel. The one wrapped around his hip, the one she had forgotten about until this moment. Carefully, she's able to unlatch it. It barely weighs a thing and other than being woven out a material that she isn't quite sure is leather, there's nothing about it that's particularly fascinating, it looks like any old bag to her.

Or maybe it's not the outside that matters, but the inside. Curious, she unbuckles it to discover-

A pencil used to the very nub. An eraser that's seen better days, a rusted canister, and a sketchbook….a leather-bound sketchbook. Placing the rest down, she flips the book around. Nothing's written on the surface or cover, so she pops it open-The the first page nearly punches the breath right out of her, a gorgeous detailed image of a botanical garden all captured in black and white.

"...Amazing" seems her slumbering 'Prince' has some talent under his sleeves. She flips another page, the next being small in scale, various sketchings of planets, flowers, fruit, trees. They were no less impressive, but that isn't what starts to bug her, for whatever reason, there's an old familiarity about them that she can't quite place a finger on. She flips another page and here she finds renderings of people.

A mother and child, some children playing in what she believes is a town square, men of various shapes and sizes, and an old woman by a well.

She's absolutely gentle about turning the pages, but the next turn causes her to freeze. It-

It can't be?

She blinks for a moment unsure, for a moment she believes she's seeing things, that her mind's playing tricks on her again. She blinks and blinks yet the image stays the same.

There's no mistaken that sly smile. The white hair, the clothing, it's Honerva? One of Altea's greatest alchemists rendered so perfectly, so beautifully, drawn so...so real that Allura felt she could practically jump right out the page and transform into flesh and blood right there and then.

But-

Why does this man-why did this man-how could he have drawn her? Honerva's dead, she's been gone for years now, so how? Allura places the book down to squint at him.

"Just how old are you?" She leans over him, bracing all her weight on the table to loom and stare and stare until she realizes how futile the endeavor is "who am I kidding there's no way to know, not like this" she chides herself.

Just as she's about to pull away she sees his eyelids flicker, heard his claws clank against the table, she stills, pausing in her movements until she's met with amethyst again; only this time she's not prying his eyes open.

They open themselves, wide, dilated and centered completely on her.

"Eh….Hello?"

~ 

Comments and Reviews are much appreciated! 

#lollura #lotura #voltron #voltron: legendary defender #lotor x allura #allura x lotor #allura/lotor #dotu #defenders of the universe

[nexiraptor]

Warrior cats is garbage here is why (Edited: now with racism rant)

For several years majority of us who are in this fandom have read a lot of these books and when we were young we used to praise them as great works of fiction and really cool for any cat lover so much so that we made little animated music videos of these fictional cats in their fictional world.

However it’s time for those rose tinted goggles to come off as we need to talk about how warrior cats is a garbage series and how it can be fixed but it won’t be because the Erins are not listening to us in all actuality.

Continuity what’s that?: The writer’s don’t know either

So Warrior Cats has a lot of books, I mean tons that you would think that they would have a good sense of continuity. Let me tell you something my friend continuity does not exist in these books. Some cats will have the wrong pelt colors, names will be badly spelled, and don’t get me started on characters coming back to life (Literally). The most prominent example of these continuity errors would have to be Clawface who dies in the book “Fire and Ice.” but then comes back to life a book that is between “Forest of Secrets” and “Rising Storm.” You might be asking yourself “Why are there so many continuity and mistakes in the series Catie?” Well the thing about most book series is that the authors probably have a backlog of what is canon and the continuity of the series in general.

However it seems the Erins do not have this as they seem to be writing the books very carelessly which brings a lot of problems with it. Sure this is a series for children but that does not mean you get to be lazy with your continuity or editing. Frankly if I were in charge I would have the Erins write down everything they are going to write in the future into a book for continuity sake. That way we don’t have cats being misgendered or coming back to life however there might not even be a good source of continuity when the Erins keep having different opinions over which cat becomes mates with which cat (we are going to get back to the Erin’s bickering later though) The same happened with Dovewing’s eyes and everyone threw a massive shit fit over that… Maybe in the future this problem will be fixed but lord knows that will happen....

Incest is wincest: The Erins creepy obsession with mates and incest

I don’t think I have to make this any simpler but DON’T FUCK YOUR COUSIN! I don’t think has been iterated enough to the Erins and i’m fucking impress the editor has caught only instance of this when there are several instances of this shit. The most recent which had me seething was Ivypool and Fernsong, we literally had an arc about pretty much how Lionblaze, Jayfeather, and Dovewing are all kin of Firestar and that Ivypool (Dovewing’s sister) and Fernsong (Lionblaze’s son) are literally cousins! Like not even distant cousins! Yet Kate Cary did not find that a little weird… We then have Dustpelt and Ferncloud who are related (Dustpelt being Ferncloud’s uncle) Let us not forget that Willowpelt and Patchpelt who are SIBLINGS also be come mates and had Greystripe. Oh and don’t get me started on how Sandstorm’s half brother was hitting on her daughter! You could always put in the notion “But Catie they are just cats what is wrong with incest.” and I have to say that we can’t keep crying that when this is a fantasy in which cats are organised, have their own religion, and have their own myths and traditions. These are anthropomorphized cats and this is also a children’s book. The Erins should not have so much incest in a children’s book of all things but they have done much worse so I don’t put it against them.

However let's talk about the near graphic depictions of childbirth these books have. These authors have a weird obsession over pregnant cats and giving us wonderful imagery of these cats giving birth. Like think about it for a split second how many graphic depictions of birth do you read in a warrior cats book. However the weird thing about the Erins is how the she cats keep getting younger when they get pregnant have y’all noticed that. Violetshine who was just named a warrior suddenly gets pregnant and has kids. Mothflight who was a brand new medicine cat gets pregnant as well and has some kits. (Mothflight is probably the worst mother though because she gave away a kit who literally drowned and might have PTSD to a clan that swims like it would be interesting to see where that goes but I doubt the Erins would ever go down that path) there is also Star Flower who is impregnated by Clear Sky and his son Thunder was lusting over this she cat and it’s really weird and I don’t get it…

Either way the Erins are very creepy with this stuff and let’s just leave it at that (Of now…)e

Death of the author: The Erins should not dictate canon unless it’s in the books:

Time to get to the most important point in this whole entire rant that is address to the wiki in particular. It’s time to commit to death of the author because if we want to determine what is canon and what is not we need to do this action.

To the people who have no idea what “Death of the author.” is it’s when we decide that what the authors say outside of the books should not be canon because these writers are doing nothing but harm if we keep having their words be the word of gospel because from what you can tell the Erins are not that good with continuity and have even started several fan wars. One of the most prominent examples of when we needed to commit “Death of the author” the most though was with warriors superfan Su Susan. Su Susan helped fill the wiki pages however giving a super fan that much power is going to lead to a lot of wars between fans and we already have enough to bicker about. Yeah it’s interesting to see who Swiftpaw’s siblings are or who the rest of Princess’s kits are but if you give a superfan the power to change possible canon then it becomes a problem and what makes me a little ticked off is that a wiki that is suppose to give us official information followed this superfan’s word which is a giant problem.

You guys have to be more critical of what you accept what is canon and what is not guys or else we are going to face even more problems in the warriors fandom in general.

The part where I talk about Ableism from the Erins

Yeah not fancy title here because what the erins do to disabled cats is kind of disgusting. The cats who have disabilities in this book series really get shit on like a lot. Then again it does not help that the first disabled cats we meet are named One-eye and Halftail. That’s not even the beginning of all of the bad names these cats get for having a disability we got Deadfoot, Crookedjaw, White-eye, Runningnose, and Lostface. Most of these are renames too like what is with these leaders and allowing these names to exist or should I say why is the editor allowing this shit in the first place? Sure most of these guys get high ranks and that’s fine but do they have to have such awful names and don’t get me started on Rainflower and how badly she treated Crookedstar. Even worse is probably Brokenstar who got ridiculed by his whole entire clan for having a broken tail like why do the Erins write this shit… Let’s not forget all the disable cats that became medicine cats. The most prominent being Cinderpelt and Jayfeather one being crippled by a car and the other being blind.

It would have been so interesting to have a cat like Cinderpelt despite her injuries rise up and become a warrior after he leg injury because that would have showcased a strong female character despite her being crippled by a car instead what do the Erins do? “Let’s make her a medicine cat and then reincarnate her and then not even do that and just let her spirit be possessed by this cat.” Oh yes that’s definitely what I want to see instead of something empowering to give to all of the female audiences that are reading this series which seems to be the majority of warrior cats fans!

Then there is Jayfeather who is blind and pretty much get shucked into the role of medicine cat apprentice which fucking sucks because a blind warrior would have been a cool concept as well. Like imagine all these cool concepts that could have happened in warriors but did not because The Erins didn’t even think of the possibility. Another possibility for a blind warrior before even Jayfeather would have been Longtail but that was also wasted potential too. Then we finally get to the most wasted potential and possible good representation for disabled people if The Erins had not killed her off Briarlight. Briarlight is pretty much oozing with potential to be a good storyline about a warrior who overcomes her disability and helps her clan in some way. Hell you could have made her a mediator it would have been a perfect role for her as it would give Briarlight something to do besides be the medicine cat assistant. Then in the most “Fuck you.” moment they kill her off because of course we can’t have a cat with such a crippling disability be useful… I also forgot to mention Snowkit who was deaf but didn’t matter if would get a deaf warrior who could possibly use sign language let’s just send a hawk in to kill the kit!

This is how ableist the Erins are when they won’t let us have any good representation when they won’t let a fully blind cat be a warrior or even a deaf cat. However it seems The Erins don’t seem really into that and would rather have warriors be normal cats without any disabilities which is wrong.

She cats are dispensable: The Erins are sexist

Yes despite there being a lot of women in the writing process of this series the series seems to really love killing off mainly she cats. (This also might be why we keep getting a lot of incest) There are very few she cats that really live for a very long time hell sometimes they will even kill off she cats with major storylines off book or you will find out about their deaths in their super editions or novellas if you read those. The most notorious currently is Leafpool in the most recent novel as we barely get any mention of her at all and yet her death has impacted the clans but when you don’t let us see her die or even let us say goodbye to a character until another couple of months people are going to get pissed. Hell Hollyleaf’s death was another example of people getting pissed at the Erins as you just introduced her in one book only to kill her off in the next. Needletail who should have been a way more prominent character in Vision of Shadows gets killed off way too early as well as I believe she did not get enough character development for me to really like her all that much. Silverstream, Spottedleaf, Ferncloud, and Sorreltail are probably the most prominent of characters that should not have died so soon because there could have been some interesting plot development with these cats.

Even Bramblestar in Bramblestar’s storm talks about there are very few she cats left in his clan. Maybe it’s because The Erins just keep killing she cats who have potential to be good characters if they didn’t keep shanking them with their writing knives. It’s disgusting how many times we get she cats who are strong and powerful who then get shanked by the Erins everytime the plots needs to move on. Sandstorm was killed off to “Lessen the load.” Spottedleaf was killed off so “Firestar did not have to choose in starclan.” Hollyleaf did because “She made the ultimate sacrifice.” these deaths are preventable and provide nothing to the reader at all but disappointment and anger.

We still have some interesting she cats like Mothwing, Tawnypelt, Mistystar, and Squirrelflight but lord knows when they are going to get the knife as well…

You are going to love these characters: Erins have made some really bad characters

Welcome to the several hundred take on why Ashfur is a bad character for so many reasons even though I can now do you a couple better. Let’s just start with Ashfur because he is one of the easier cats to point out The Erin’s shit writing. First of all Ashfur starts out as friends with Squirrelflight and they get close but I think we all knew she was going to end up with Bramblestar eventually. However instead of acting like a normal person during a breakup Ashfur goes straight to 11. Ashfur sets up a trap to MURDER Squirrelflight’s father and when that didn’t work he tried to murder her adopted children (Another thing The Erins seem to hate is adopted families) still Ashfur goes to Starclan because he “Loved too much.” you can clearly see the problem here… How about a cat who complains about their fucking leg being crushed DARK FOREST BITCH that’s what happened to Lilywhisker when one The Erins confirmed that but was quickly revoked because that gives us even more questions about Starclan and whoever is judging the cats up there needs a fucking intervention.

Onestar fucking Onestar… there is so much wrong with this cat that even I was like “Mudclaw would have been a better leader than this asshole.” Onestar decides to be mates with a random kittypet and then when it’s time to move he doesn’t allow his son to be in the clans and prevent pretty bad disaster from happening. Demanded more than he rightfully deserved because of his status as a leader and being a general dick to Firestar along with dissing him off. You expect me to accept his apology for doing all of this shit only for him to drown to death and calling it “Heroic.” fuck no Erins Onestar deserved that because he no longer was leading that clan because Onestar is the worst character in the warrior cats series because The Erins decided to shit on Onestar’s character I would rather read a fanfic where Mudclaw was leader cause he probably would not be doing this shit.

Spottedleaf’s Heart: The worst book in warriors so far

Alright let’s rip the bandage off because you all knew this book was going to come into the discussion some how and we need to talk about this like grown people because this is where I pretty much stopped reading the series. Vicky who wrote the book as written a book where the lesson that was learned here was “It’s okay to groom a child and force them down a path they don’t want to go on.” This book is the worst offender of how shitty The Erins are in my opinion when they themselves even after Vicky left did not denounce this awful book and made it noncanon because frankly this book is the only book in my opinion that I am convinced is non canon because of how disgusting it is. Vicky retired when this book got the much need criticism and backlash it needed but sadly because Vicky retired we will probably never get a statement about possibly making this one story non canon because frankly children should not be reading that kind of stuff especially when it is written so poorly.

So just to summarize The Erins are currently saying “Child grooming is okay.” to their readers and not even think “Hey maybe we should have Spottedpaw talk to a grown up about this stuff and maybe get her out of this situation” that would have been a great idea but no body decided that was a good idea.

The tribe of racism: How The Erins are really fucking racist

This is an edited in part because after thinking it through and someone having opened my eyes about this I was shocked that I did not think about this when I initially posted the essay. Let’s talk about racism in the warrior cats series.

The clan cats will be coded white

The tribe cats coded native american

Bloodclan coded African american

Susan and Jacques coded hispanic

other rogues, loners, and kittypets can be coded as other minorities as well.

Now warrior cats has a white savior complex because The Tribe cats cannot defend themselves without the clan cats apparently because they had to be saved from a giant lion and a bunch of rogues along with there being a panic over who the next leader should be. The Erins pretty much wrote native Americans as “Confused defenceless people who don’t know what to do against really bad threats.” despite surviving for 60 YEARS. I would love to see a book on the tribe being strong cats but The Erins don’t want to do that as it would be “Too boring and there would be few cats.” like wtf Erins the tribe of rushing would be very interesting and would introduce us to different customs maybe even learn about how their religion works. When we do get a POV of a tribe of rushing water cat they all immediately leave the mountains to go to the forest so we can’t have a proper POV of the Tribe of rushing water’s life.

Bloodclan though has a very different problem from The tribe of rushing water. These guys are coded black as they seem to have some sort of organized gang and judging by how racist the Erins are it would not be too far from the case to believe that they are an African american street gang/mafia (They could also be a form of an Italian mafia as well which is still bad) however the gang after being led from their city to the clan territory they are quickly killed off by the “Superior clan cats.” who once again are coded white. You can see where this is going the white people killing off and disbanding an African American street gang. If this sounds familiar that’s because it happened to the black panther party a group of African Americans who wanted to defend themselves only to be killed off and tortured by the very white government. 

Now you can argue with me that Jaques and Susan are not hispanic however they are pretty much very muscular and are bullies to the clan cats. They also killed Talonpaw and are then confronted by the clans and are quickly defeated. These two kittypets while this is going to be a stretch are most likely based on the hispanic stereotype of how they are quick to anger and are super macho. As secrets of the clans states “They are both Hostile and dangerous, with no warrior code to guide their actions.”

Then there are the rogues, loners, and kittypets who the very white clans constantly insult and are pretty terrible to despite their kindness. The only clan that is very accepting of rogues and even lets them stay in their camp in Windclan. Even cats who originally did not have racial prejudice suddenly have it and get very angry over having to welcome a new warrior in (Oh no more people to help you defend your clan how terrible!) All in all The Erins are pretty racist writers which is great to stack up with the other shit they have done as well...        

In Conclusion

The Erins currently are really bad writers and as it currently stands people. I recommend to stop reading the warrior cats series as I believe it’s only going to get worse from here. I would instead focus my attention at fan works which have a far better continuity and even though there are some great books after Dawn of the clans I think Dawn of the clans is like the best ending to read and warriors and the Erins should have stopped there and then just did super editions and novellas.

#Warrior Cats #warrior cats spoilers #warrior cats rant

[curiousdamage]

What To Say?

Day 24 of the writing challenge.  For @theempressar for everything, she does for everyone in the fandom.  And per our Tenth Kingdom discussion.

Fandom: Tenth Kingdom/Night Court

I own nothing.

Tony reveals his past to Wendell.

Tony Lewis sat at an ornate desk in Wendell’s castle with a blank sheet of paper in front of him.  This was a letter he never expected to actually write.

Oh, he’d written this letter a million times in his mind over the years, some angry, some pleading, some resigned to their twisted fates.  When Christine had literally run out on their lives all those years before, he’d assumed she’d gone back to Harry.   It was the only thing that had made sense.  The one thing he could never make sense of was that Harry had let her leave Virginia behind. Maybe for a few nights, a couple of weeks at the most, if she’d told him what she’d tried to do, but not forever. It just wasn’t in the Honorable Harold T. Stone’s character to let a mother walk out on her child, no matter how much he never wanted to see that child’s father again.  

It made sense now why she’d never came back.  Not even for Virginia.

He still didn’t know what to write.  He needed to know she was gone, but how?  How could he tell him that Christine had died as someone else in a fairy tale world without sounding like he was the one who had gone crazy?

When Christine had run out of the apartment, he should have gone after her, but he couldn’t.  He had Virginia to think about.  He had to get her out of the bath and try to come up with some reasonable excuse for what even the tiny girl had known her mother was trying to do.  He was reeling from it himself.  The sight of Christine standing over Ginny, holding her in the scalding water, yelling about her needing to be clean…, twenty-something years later and it was still imprinted on his very soul.  

He had sat by her bed all night, just watching her breathe.  The next morning, he’d had to go to work.  If he was late for court, he’d be held in contempt and if he was going to go to jail for all this, it wasn’t going to be on contempt charges.  He’d had no choice but to call Christine’s mother. The ditzy woman had fluttered around telling him how he was making too much of everything.  Virginia was fine.  She was playing with her dolls.

Fine?  Yes.  Because every little girl punishes the mother doll when they play.  That was normal.  

He laid the pen, or quill, rather that he was holding down and let his head drop to the desk.  He still didn’t know what to say.  

“Troubles, Anthony?” Wendell said in his soft voice.

He looked up, then gestured to the paper, and shook his head.  “I don’t know what to say.  How do I tell my oldest friend, a man who lives in my world, that the woman who came between us is now dead because our daughter scratched her with Snow White’s poison comb?”

“Don’t ask me,” Wendell said, sitting down on the corner of the desk.  “I barely know how to tell the people who saw it happen, what happened.”

“You’re a lot of help.”

Wendell smiled and held out one of the glasses he’d been carrying.  “Here, maybe this’ll help.”

“What is it?” Tony asked, staring at the odd colored liquid.

“Only the finest troll whiskey available,” he grinned.  “It tastes like goblin piss but…well, take a sip.  You’ll understand.”

“Whoa,” Tony breathed, setting the glass down.  It was strong.  Stronger than any liquor he’d ever had.  Just one sip was giving him that warm, relaxed feeling he usually only got after several beers.  

“Right?” Wendell laughed. “I’d be stripped of my crown if any of the other Royals knew I had it.  It’s looked down upon to have anything from the Troll Kingdom.  But all the kids drink this stuff.  You can get totally smashed off one glass.  Very important when smuggling in even one bottle of booze is near impossible in boarding school.  I’m afraid I developed a taste for the vile concoction at the Riding Hood School for Exceptional Boys.”  He shook his head.  “The only thing exceptional about any of us spoiled, useless lot was that we didn’t die from drinking this stuff.”

Tony couldn’t help but laugh at the younger man.  His mood was infectious, breaking through Tony’s sadness and frustration.  “Look, Wendell,” he said, the whiskey making him talk probably too much.  “I can’t take that job.  Hear me out,” he said, stopping Wendell from objecting.  “I lied to you.”

“I’m shocked,” he feigned. “I know.  Your story of how you were an important man with lots of money building plastic castles was a little silly.  Who would want a plastic castle?”

“Well, the rubber castles were the only part that was a lie. I was a very important man.  And I did have quite a lot of money.  I mean, I was no exceptional boy, but I could provide a very nice life for Virginia and her mother.  I was a lawyer.”

“A lawyer?  But you wouldn’t defend Wolf…,”

“I don’t know your laws,” Tony interrupted.  “And he asked Virginia, not me.”  He took another sip of the drink.  “And my name isn’t Tony Lewis.  It’s Dan Fielding.  Actually, that’s not even true.  It’s Reinhold Daniel Feilding Elmore.”  God. It had been years since he’d said that name out loud.  So long that Virginia never remembered their name being anything but Lewis.  “I was ashamed of it when I started college because I was poor, and I thought it sounded like a poor person’s name.  I dropped the Reinhold and Elmore to sound more like a real lawyer.  Whatever I thought that was at the time.”  He shrugged. “Virginia’s mother was a lawyer too. Until she had Virginia.  Then, I don’t know.  She changed.  Something just snapped.”  Another sip of the whiskey and the whole story came pouring out from Christine’s first day in court all the way to the night she disappeared.  “I don’t know,” he sighed.  “Maybe I should have gone after her, maybe I shouldn’t have yelled at her. I knew she wasn’t well.  I tried to never leave her alone, but Virginia’s nanny left early.”  He shook his head.

“So, how did you get from Dan Fielding, Assistant District Attorney to Tony Lewis, Janitor?”   Wendell asked.

“Being a lawyer on the rise didn’t leave me a lot of time to care for Virginia,” he answered.  “Besides, I couldn’t take going into that courtroom every day and acting like everything was fine.  I saw her everywhere.  So, I quit. Virginia and I lived off my savings while I tried to take care of her and find a new job.  Then I found the caretaker’s job and it came with an apartment and I could be home all day with Virginia.  It seemed like the best thing.”

“And the name?”

He smiled again.  “I had a reputation of…, well, with women…, Anyway, it wasn’t a big deal when I was just taking care of Virginia.  But when she started preschool, her teacher grabbed my…ah…, package, and told me that her sister was a law clerk and that she couldn’t wait to find out if all the stories about the ‘great Dan Fielding’ were true.  I realized that my reputation was always going to follow me and eventually it was going to hurt Virginia.  So, I took her out of that school, changed my name to Anthony Lewis, it was my grandfather’s and didn’t look back.  I buried Dan Fielding so deep I hoped Virginia would never stumble across that bastard again.  I mean, Christine left me for a reason.”

Wendell set his now empty glass down and put his hand over Tony’s.  “Listen, when your wife Christine walked through that mirror and took the hand of the Evil Queen, she became her.  You know she took on the look of the Evil Queen, but she also took on her memories, her thoughts, her goals, her everything.  She became her and there was just no room left for your Christine or anything about her. She couldn’t come back because she didn’t know that there was a back, that she had ever been anyone else until Ginny broke the spell.  You can’t keep blaming yourself for that.”

“Maybe so,” he said, turning his hand to squeeze the younger man’s.  “But I still don’t know what to tell Harry.”

“Do you think there is any way possible that he will understand all this?”  Wendell asked.

Tony thought about the question for a long minute.  “I think that if anyone from that world can, it would be him.”

“Then why don’t you write this.  ‘Virginia’,” he paused.  “He does know about Virginia, right?”

Tony nodded.  “Oh, he knows.”

“Then write, ‘Virginia’s getting married’ with the time, date, and place and ‘Please attend.’  If he does, then you take him aside, sit him down, and explain everything to him.  If he doesn’t show, then you’ll know he’s moved on and you should too.”

“Yeah.  Yeah,” Tony found himself agreeing.  “That’s exactly what I should do.  Thanks, Wendell.”

“Anytime, Anthony.” Wendell stood up and patted him on the back.  “And that job, it was just an excuse to keep you around.  I’m just not good at asking for things like that.  If you don’t want it or don’t want to stay, you don’t have too. Get some rest.  Tomorrow’s a big day.”  He left Tony to write his letter.

“Dear Harry….,”

#writing challenge #tenth kingdom #Night court #hope you like it

[angelsandacceptance]

Sex and Violence

Chase and Harley are in bed, the latter on her phone, the former snoring away peacefully. Light filters through the dusty blinds, lighting up the dusty room. A notification sounds from Chase’s phone, causing her to groan. 

She flips herself onto her stomach, muttering something incoherent, falling back asleep. Harley rolls her eyes, grabbing Chase’s phone from the nightstand and throwing it at her.

Chase lifts her head enough to glare at Harley. “You literally know my password. Check it yourself. Why are you so mean to me.”

“Friendship is just socially acceptable bullying, with extra support,” Harley shrugs.

“You are horrible.”

“But you love me anyway.”

“Maybe. But that doesn’t mean I completely understand the reasoning.” Chase checks her phone, finally, and does a pathetic excuse for what one might call ‘whistling lowly’. “Sam’s got us another case. Murders.”

“Where we heading?” Harley asks, going through her bag.

“Bedford, Iowa.”

“But we were just in Iowa,” Harley groans.

“I thought you’d be excited for a new job.”

“I am, but I don’t know. I just don’t wanna go back to Iowa. Been there done that. It’s too soon you know?”

“Are you actually cut up about a case?” 

“No,” Harley says unconvincingly.

“You are!”

“Maybe a bit.”

“I mean fair. You did find him dead after you hooked up.”

“It’s not that.”

“Then what is it?”

“I just regret sleeping with Jeb is all.”

“That bad?”

“No, it really was the best sex I’ve ever had, but…”

“But he wasn’t Dean.”

“No. Well yes, but no. I just, I didn’t feel anything. There was no connection, you know?”

“And with Dean there is?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t slept with him.” Harley says, shaking her head.

“Yet,” Chase says emphasising the word. 

Harley rolls her eyes before finding her lipstick, “Fucking finally,” She mutters.

“You’ve thought about it, haven’t you?”

“Only because you keep suggesting it.”

***

Harley and Dean enter the prison interview room in their suits. Benson speaks upon seeing them, “Why does the PD keep sending you guys? I already said I don't want a lawyer.”

“I’m not a lawyer,” Harley says smoothly.

“Yeah, she’s my assistant,” Dean lies.

“I’m your paralegal, not your assistant.”

“Either way you're mine,” Dean smirks.

“This is reality, not whatever porno you have playing in your head. I’ve seen your search history,” Harley snarks before sitting across from Benson, “Look Mr. Benson. They’re lining up the firing squad.”

“I’m pleading guilty,” Benson replies.

“All right, look, you don't want us to represent you, that's fine. In fact it's probably not a bad idea, between you and me. We just wanna understand what happened, that's all,” Dean explains.

“Please, Mr. Benson,” Harley says, batting her eyelashes.

“What happened was, I killed my wife. You wanna know why? Because she made plans without asking me,” Benson responds pointedly.

“When you were killing her, how did you feel? Like you weren’t in control? Disoriented?”

“Like something possessed you to do it?” Dean asks, causing Harley to shoot him a look.

“I knew exactly what I was doing. I was crystal clear,” Benson claims.

“Then why’d you do it?”

“I don't know. I loved her. We were happy.”

“Mmhmm? Ms. Way those papers please?” Dean says, eyeing the folder Harley was carrying.

“Right,” She says, pulling a bank statement out of the folder and placing it on the table.

Dean taps the papers, “Nine G's. That's a hefty bill.”

“Where did you get that?” Benson asks quickly.

“Doesn't matter. We have it. See, certain charges, ones you don't want the missus to know...they show up under shady names like 'M & C Entertainment'.”

“I don't know what you're talking about.”

“Like dropping plastic at a nudie bar for instance.”

“We just wanna know the truth, Mr. Benson,” Harley says exasperated.

“Her name was Jasmine,” Benson says dreamily, “I didn't mean for it to happen, I don't like to go to strip bars. My buddy was having a bachelor party, and there she was. She came right up to me. And...I dunno, she was just...perfect. Everything that I wanted.”

“Well you pay enough and anybody will be anything,” Dean shrugs.

“Not anybody,” Harley corrects.

“Most people,” Dean amends.

“Did your wife find out?”

“No, she never had a clue,” Benson answers.

“Why’d you kill her then?”

“For Jasmine. She said we would be together forever. If...if only Vicki was…”

“Muertos,” Dean finishes for him.

“Afterwards, me and Jasmine were supposed to meet and she never showed. I don't know where she lives, I don't know her last name, I don't even know her real first name! I'm an idiot.”

“Yeah, a bit,” Harley agrees.

***

Sam and Chase walk into the office of an ER just as the woman behind the desk tips a couple of aspirin into her hand, tipping her head back and downing them. She makes a sour face, shaking her head slightly.

“Rough night?” Sam asks.

“Fun night,” Cara Roberts responds, “Rough morning.”

Chase laughs. “That’s how I like them.”

“Can I help you?” Cara asks. 

“Ah, yes, I’m Agent Stiles, and this is my partner-”

“Agent McCall, ma’am,” Chase interrupts. 

“We’re FBI. You Doctor Cara Roberts?”

“Far as I know.”

“You do some work in the sheriff’s department?”

“Yeah, when I’m not slogging it in the ER. It’s a small town, we multitask.”

“Well, we have some questions about a case.”

“Several cases, actually,” Chase adds. “Do you mind if we sit?”

Cara gestures to a couple of open chairs and they take their seats. 

“Great. Adam Benson, Jim Wylie, and Steve Snyder.”

“Oh yeah, the men that killed their wives.”

“You handled their workups, right?” Sam asks. 

“Autopsies for the wives and tox screens for the perps. A two for one.”

“Find anything?” Chase asks.

“Not really.” Cara shrugs. “I mean, c.o.d. on the women were pretty clear. There was nothing unusual in their systems.”

“What about their husbands?” Chase asks.

“Can I, uh, see your badges again?”

Chase shoots Sam a side glance, confused, but they both oblige without another thought.

“There was one thing, an anomaly in the blood work. And I remember thinking how strange it was that it showed up in all three of the men.”

“That what showed up?”

“Oxytocin. And their levels were crazy high.”

“Oxytocin?” Sam asks.

“Mm-hmm. It’s a hormone that’s produced during childbirth, lactation, and sex.”

“Okay?”

“People call it the love hormone. Um, you know how it feels when you first fall in love. The whole weak in the knees, tattoo you on my chest thing? That's oxytocin. Of course it eventually fades and then you're stuck with every relationship ever. That and the painful regime of tattoo removal.”

Cara and Sam smile at each other, and Chase’s eyebrows shoot up in mock interest. She looks to the side playfully, and Sam rolls his eyes at her. Dean and Harley walk in at that moment.

“What’d I miss?” Dean asks.

“Ah, these are our partners. Agent Murdoch and Agent Argent.”

“Agent sounds so formal, please, just call me Dean.”

Cara shakes his hand briskly before turning her gaze back to Sam. “Is there anything else I can help you with?”

“Uh, sure one more thing. This chemical, this…”

“Oxytocin.”

“Oxytocin. What could cause those high levels that you found?”

“Nothing that I’ve ever seen.”

“Okay, well that’s it then. Thanks, Doc.”

They all go to leave, but Sam hesitates at the door, being the last to exit. He turns around and gets Cara’s attention again. “Try a greasy breakfast. Best cure for a hangover.”

“Watch it, buddy. I’m the only M.D. here.”

They exchange coy smiles again, and Chase smirks at Harley with a knowing look. Dean, however, looks affronted.

They all finally exit and Dean hits Sam lightly against his stomach with the back of his hand. “Dude, you totally cock-blocked me.”

Chase and Harley, walking in front of the boys, roll their eyes in sync.

***

“So Whylie and Snyder totally fessed up, huh?” Sam asks.

“One emptied his IRA, the other, his kids' college fund, all on the same day,” Dean confirms.

“Live nude girls?”

“A club called, and I can’t believe I’m actually going to say this, ‘The Honey Wagon’,” Harley says shuddering.

“Ah, yes, because nothing makes me hornier than wagons of honey,” Chase says sarcastically. 

“Gods, I hate that name so much.”

“Did these guys have an affair too?” Sam asks. “Lemme guess. Her name was Jasmine?” Chase asks. 

“Yes and no. This is where things get interesting. Each guy hooked up with a different chick.”

“So what? These girls all connected somehow?”

“Well, they all described their stripper in the same way, the exact same way. Perfect, and everything that they wanted.”

“Yeah, at least until dream Barbie convinced them to murder their wives,” Chase says.

“There’s that,” Dean concedes. 

“Sounds like they were under some kind of love spell,” Chase suggests. 

“Sure seems that way,” Sam agrees. 

“Which caused them to go totally psycho,” Harley adds.

“Absolutely.” 

“You seem pretty cheery,” Chase snidely comments towards Dean.

“Strippers, Chase. Strippers. We're on an actual case involving strippers. Finally.”

***

“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Chase grumpily says, huffing as she pulls on the tiny skirt adorning her waist, not even bothering to try covering more with her top, which is simply doomed to fail. “How come the boys never have to do shit like this?”

“Who knows? Maybe they’re just lucky,” Harley says, adjusting her barely there bra, “It’s not like we have to perform though.”

“That's true. Hey, I bet I could make more money than you in tips alone.”

“Oh you are on!”

With that, the girls walk through the backstage area, intent on finding the culprits. 

“Have you heard from Jasmine lately?” Chase asks casually to one of the girls, putting on makeup. 

“No idea who you’re talkin’ about, hon. Lemme guess. You’re new around here, ain’t ya?”

“Yeah, I am.”

“What’s your name?”

“Anastasia.”

The girl’s eyebrow raises slightly. “Here’s a tip of the trade, Anastasia. Don’t go lookin’ for other girls. They won’t be found and ya won’t get anything good from them.”

“Thanks for the tip,” Chase answers hesitantly, backing away to go stand near Harley once more.

“I fucking hate it here.”

“I mean, it’s not that bad. Plenty of eye candy,” Harley muses.

“I’m trying to not ogle at the very beautiful ladies here.”

“You swing that way?” one of the other girls asks. 

“I swing all ways,” Chase responds. 

“Good for you.”

“Hey, you’re a pretty thing, ain’t you?” A man asks, walking past with a girl on each arm. His eyes slide up and down Harley’s body and Chase has to refrain from gouging his eyes out. “What’s your name?”

“Giselle. What about you sweetheart?”

“Johnny. But you can call me anything you’d like. Wanna join us?”

“Sorry, but we both have clients to see to,” Chase interrupts. 

“That’s a shame, maybe I’ll see you around?”

“Maybe?” Harley says sweetly as Johnny leaves, “Thank the gods he’s gone.”

“I hate all men.” Chase shudders dramatically. “Okay, let’s go out into the lion’s den.”

As soon as the girls step foot into the main bar, lights and music overtake them. Bodies on the dance floor morph into a complicated mess of tangled limbs and barely clothed people. In fact, some of them might no longer be clothed at all. 

“How are we going to find the boys in this mess?”

“I’m not sure who you lovely ladies are looking for, but we’ve got all you need right here!” An overly drunk man shouts, gesturing to a group of seven men, all wearing matching shirts that read ‘Wayne’s last night’. 

“Well, I don’t want to impose,” Chase says slowly, immediately putting on a persona of fake innocence. 

“Not imposing at all, love. Come join us.”

“Well, Giselle? I think the boys can wait a little bit.”

Chase smirks mischievously before going to take a shot from one of the men. “Thank you kindly.” She downs it with no problem, and the men all whoop, handing her another. 

“How many can you have before you come home with us?”

“I don’t think you have enough money to pay for that many shots, sorry.”

“Sorry boys, we don’t get taken home that easy,” Harley dodges.

Chase becomes a little too preoccupied with one of the groomsmen, earning herself a nice makeout session, two more shots, and twenty bucks. 

The girls finally leave, earning a chorus of ‘no’s and ‘what a shame’ from the men. They go back to searching for Sam and Dean, a feat that seems near impossible. 

“Why can’t they just stay where we left them?” Harley asks, annoyed.

“Because it’s Sam and Dean. When do they ever stay where we leave them?”

“I know, but it makes life so much harder,” Harley complains. Then as if a sign from God himself Harley spots a familiar head hovering above everyone else’s. “Found ya!” Harley shouts in excitement. The girls rush over as fast as they can without looking suspicious.

“We have a lead,” Sam says.

“Good. Can we get out of here so I can change now?”

“I dunno, I’m kinda enjoying the view,” Dean says with a coy smile, sending a wink towards Harley. 

“You can’t leave yet,” A drunk man says. “You’ve gotta give these boys a show first.”

“Yeah!” another man slurs. 

Chase wrinkles her nose in disgust. “You wanna show?” she exclaims, about to draw a knife, which she’d hidden in a garter on her leg. Sam catches her arm and pulls her back. It doesn’t help Chase’s mood that Mariah Carey is the music currently playing. Let alone the song, ‘Touch My Body’.

“A little show wouldn’t hurt,” Dean says, shrugging. 

Harley glares at him while he just takes a seat mockingly, gesturing for her to go on. A small crowd of drunk and sober men form around them, alongside a few intrigued strippers. Harley sighs. 

“I better get a good tip for this,” She says. Dean pulls out a one hundred dollar bill, tucks it into the front of his pants and smiles widely.

“Come and get it.”

Harley rolls her eyes but puts on a false smile, walking over to him slowly, trying to think of what she can do. Chase gets an idea and whispers in Sam’s ear. Sam hands her a twenty, trying to keep himself from laughing. 

Chase folds it, then tosses it so it lands right between Dean’s feet. 

Harley smirks at it, then bends down slowly, looking up at Dean. Dean swallows hard, suddenly nervous. He’s also horny, but that’s besides the point (at least, that’s what he’ll tell Sam later as Sam laughs at him). 

Harley straightens up, before coming to stand right between Dean’s legs. She leans forward, and wraps her arms around Dean’s neck. The chorus to the song comes on at a seemingly perfect time. 

‘Touch my body; Put me on the floor; Wrestle me around; Play with me some more; Touch my body; Throw me on the bed;  I just wanna make you feel like you never did’

With this last line, Harley runs her hands down to Dean’s belt, pulling on it to make him slide forward towards her on his seat. His eyes noticeably darken as he suddenly avoids her gaze. Wanting to mess with him further, gaining confidence with sheer spite, she pulls Dean’s head forward to look at her again. 

Harley uses the bar behind Dean as leverage and wraps her legs around Dean’s waist just as the next line sounds out.

 ‘Touch my body; Let me wrap my thighs; All around your waist; Just a little taste’

Putting all her weight on her knees, which are balanced on either side of Dean, Harley raises herself up so her body is flush against Dean’s, Dean forced to look up at her to look her in the eyes. Of course, this isn’t the only place he’s looking. 

‘Touch my body; know you like my curves; C’mon and give me what I deserve and touch my body’

Harley settles her weight back down and leans back, Dean’s hands instinctively coming up to her shoulder blades as she leans all the way back, making a circle before coming back up to look him in the eyes, putting a little more pressure than necessary on his hips. 

She gets off his lap and leans in to kiss him, before smirking and turning away completely. She looks back at him over her shoulder before going to stand near Sam and Chase, leaving Dean stunned and unsure of what to do. 

“You didn’t take the cash though?” Sam says questioningly as cheers from the surrounding men chorus around them. Harley smirks and holds up the hundred dollar bill in between two fingers. 

“You really doubt me?”

“Never,” Chase says knowingly. “Now let’s get out of here.”

***

Sam and Dean walk into the girls’ room at the Lion’s Pride Motel. Chase is on her bed staring at the ceiling. The faint sound of the shower can be heard briefly, before silence permeates the room. 

“So we have a lead?” Chase asks Sam.

Harley exits the bathroom with only a thin towel covering her, “You know I don’t even care anymore? I gave Dean a lap dance y’all can see me in a towel,” She grabs her clothes and heads to the bathroom.

“Well, she didn’t yell at me to get out, that’s progress, maybe next time I can get her to lose the towel,” Dean smirks.

“You perv,” Chase pauses. “Maybe next time, offer more than a hundred.”

“I’m not above that!” Harley yells from the bathroom. “I’ve got this really cool idea for a tattoo I want realized!”

“Yeah, that’s why,” Chase comments sarcastically.

“Hey, it’s your fault I’ve even thought about him naked.”

“You’ve what about me, what?” Dean exclaims, a little too excited.

“Like I said Chase’s fault.”

“Can we get back to the case?” Sam asks

“Why did Chase make you think about me naked?” Dean asks concerned.

“‘Cause she’s always going on about how we’re gonna get together. Duh.” Harley says leaving the bathroom.

“That’s it?” Dean questions further.

“That’s it. Promise.”

“Okay, now we can get back to the case?” Sam asks again.

“Yes, please, let’s do that,” Harley says quickly, wanting to get as far away from the topic of Dean naked as possible.

“So this theory?” Chase prompts.

“A siren,” Sam replies.

“Like Greek myth siren, the Odyssey?” Dean asks. Sam and Harley give him a confused look. “Hey, I read!”

“I don’t doubt that, I just didn’t peg you for an Odyssey kind of guy,” Harley says, slightly impressed.

“You’ll never peg me, sweetheart,” Dean comments, causing Sam to roll his eyes.

“I remember you reading that with me when I went through my huge greek mythology phase,” Chase comments.

“The siren's not actually a myth, it's more of a beautiful creature that preys on men, enticing them with their siren song,” Sam says, trying to bring everyone back to the task at hand.

“Let me guess, 'Welcome to the Jungle?' No, no. Warrant's 'Cherry Pie.'” Dean guesses.

Harley and Chase’s heads whip towards each other as they lock eyes, (honestly it’s a wonder they didn’t get whiplash) before they both simultaneously belt out, “She’s my cherry pie! Cool drink of water, such a sweet surprise! Tastes so good, make a grown man cry, sweet cherry pie!!!”

Sam simply looks at them with deadpan expressions. 

Dean smirks at Harley, “You trying to entice me? You know you just have to ask and I’m all yours?”

“No, Dean,” Harley says, rubbing her forehead.

“It’s our song,” Chase adds.

“Wait, so are you? Do I want to know? Is that why Harley won’t sleep with me?” Dean asks, getting more and more confused.

“Wow, Dean. We were literally just talking about how I think you and Harley would be perfect together. Trust me, if that beautiful, amazing, talented, brilliant, goddess-like, sexy woman was mine, I’d have punched you by now for even thinking you have a chance.”

“Aww! I think you're sexy too! And all those other things! I’m just not good with words, or compliments.”

“The siren song isn’t a literal song. It’s more a metaphor like...like their call, their allure, you know?” Sam explains bringing everyone back on track.

“So they shake their thing and the guys zombie out,” Dean asks.

“Yeah. If you were a siren in '08 looking to ruin a bunch of morons, where would you set up shop?”

“Well it depends on how I affect my victims? If it’s through sex, an escort service. If it’s through something like saliva, a strip club seems like a pretty good place,” Harley concurs.

“So whatever floats the guy's boat, that's what they look like?” Dean asks.

“Yeah. You see, sirens can read minds. They see what you want most and then they can kinda, like, cloak themselves. You know, like an illusion.” Sam elaborates.

“So it could be the same girl.” Chase states.

“Yeah, actually. Probably. Sirens are usually pretty solitary.”

“How do we kill her?” Harley asks.

“Bobby's working on it. Even if we figure that out…”

“How the hell are we gonna find it? It could be anybody,” Dean wonders.

“If a girl suddenly shows up and she’s exactly your type, shoot first, ask questions later,” Chase says.

***

Chase and Harley sit at their respective beds, each surrounded by piles of books, some lore, some mythology, and some just random printed out conspiracy pages from the internet. 

“I’m finding jack shit about sirens. The best I’m getting is shit I already fucking know from my greek mythology phase from middle school!”  Chase says, throwing her hands up in the air in exasperation before flopping backwards onto her bed, groaning overdramatically. As one does.

“Same! Nothing about how to kill a bitch,” Harley says, mimicking her friend, “Why can’t we catch a break every once in a while?”

“We’re the Winchesters. We’re never going to catch a break.”

“Not a Winchester,” Harley reminds before throwing a pillow at Chase.

The pillow hits Chase in the face unceremoniously, before she moves to hug it in her arms, an impish smile adorning her face. “Yet.”

“I’m also not the marrying type.”

“Fair, but you may change your mind. And even if you don’t, I say just legally change your name to Winchester. Might as well at this point.”

“Not happening. I like being a Pawlak.”

“Okay, okay, okay. I’ll drop it. For now.” Chase grabs her phone as it dings, seeing a message from Sam pop up. “Sam’s headed to the boys’ room now. He said to meet him.”

“Fiiiine! I’ll get up,” Harley groans, while rising like a cheesy vampire in a cheesy movie.

Chase also groans, but more like an eighty year old stuck in a twenty seven year old body. “Hopefully they’ve got some better fucking ideas on how to kill this cunt than us or we’re doomed.”

The girls head over to the boys’ room not bothering to knock. 

“Lenny Bristol was definitely another siren vic,” Sam says when he sees the girls enter.

“So you got in to see him then?” Harley asks.

“Yep. He brought home a stripper named Belle. Couple hours later he offed his mother. Belle, of course, went MIA.”

“Wait. Belle?”

“Yes?” Sam says, looking at Chase confused. “Did you meet her at the strip club or something?”

“No, I didn’t. But does anyone else see a pattern here?”

“Disney princesses,” Harley nods. “We got a sexy psycho wannabe princess on our hands.”

“Love that,” Chase responds sarcastically. 

“Wait, he killed his mom?” Dean asks, getting stuck on a very different part of Sam’s previous statement. 

“The woman he was closest to,” Sam answers matter-of-factly.

Sam’s phone starts to ring, but it’s in Dean’s hand. Dean tosses it to Sam with an annoyed look on his face. 

“You, uh, forgot your phone.”

Sam answers the phone, casting a worried look to his brother. “Hey, Bobby.” A moment passes. “Ah, no, And it doesn’t seem she’s slowing down any. You got anything?” Another moment. “Hold on a sec, lemme put you on speaker.”

Sam puts the phone on speaker and the other three gather around, keen on the news Bobby has. 

“It says you need ‘a bronze dagger, covered in the blood of a sailor, under the spell of the song’.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Dean asks.

“You got me,” Bobby responds. “We’re dealing with three thousand years of the telephone game here.”

“Are you boys stupid, or just dumb?” Chase asks. “It’s kinda straight forward.”

“Oh, yeah? How so.”

“Look, it’s obvious that it means the current victim under the siren’s spell or song is who we need. We need his blood, coat a bronze dagger with it, then we can kill a bitch.”

Harley points to Chase in agreement, “That, oxytocin and bronze will kill it, it’s simple really. Maybe being oblivious on how to kill a siren is a guy thing?” Harley ponders.

“Or maybe it’s just them. They really are hopeless without us.”

“Yeah, but even Bobby couldn’t put two and two together.”

Bobby scoffs at this, his voice crackling through the speaker. “Well, the siren's spell ain't got nothing to do with any song. It's most likely some kind of toxin or venom. Something she gets in the vic's blood.”

“And makes them go all Manchurian Candidate. Uh, what do you think, she infects the men during sex?” Sam asks. 

“No, Sam, she shoots em up like it’s heroin.”

“Could be another bodily fluid though. I mean she’s a stripper, not an escort,” Harley points out.

“Ew,” Chase responds. 

“Supernatural STD,” Dean laughs. 

“Well, however it happens, once it's done the siren's gotta watch her back. She gets a dose of her own medicine.”

“It kills her,” Sam says plainly. 

“Hopefully.”

“Like a snake getting iced by its own venom.”

“So we just gotta find a way to juice one of the OJs in jail?” Dean asks. 

“They’ve come to they’re senses, their oxytocin levels are probably normal by now.” Harley disagrees

“Haven't got a clue where you're going to get the blood you need,” Bobby agrees with Harley.

“I think I might have an idea,” Sam says somewhat confidently.

“Be careful. These things are tricky bitches. Wrap you up in knots before you know what hit ya.”

“Don’t worry Bobby, we’ll keep the boys safe,” Harley says happily.

***

“Doctor Roberts.” Sam acknowledges as he, Dean, and Harley enter her office. Chase had gone to search for a bronze dagger. 

“Agent Stiles. Can't stay away, huh?” Cara smirks back at Sam.

“Actually we’re here on business. Do you still have the blood samples with the oxytocin in them?” Harley interrupts.

“Mmhmm,”Cara confirms.

“Good, we need them,” Dean says.

“What for?”

A tall man with brown hair approached them, “Excuse me, Doctor Roberts?” The man asks.

“Yeah?”

Dean flashes his badge at the man, “Excuse me, uh, we're a little busy here, buddy.”

The man flashes his own badge, “Yeah, so am I, pal.”

“Doc, can you give us a sec, please?” Sam asks.

Cara backs away slowly, “Sure.”

“Thanks.”

“What’s your name?” Dean asks the actual agent.

“Florian Munroe. What's yours?”

“Special Agent Harley Argent,” Harley smiles, shaking Florian’s hand. “The tall one is Special Agent Sam Stiles, and the rude one is our partner Special Agent Dean Murdoch.”

“I’m not rude,” Dean huffs.

“You were being rude to Agent Munroe just a minute ago,” Harley quickly says to Dean before addressing Munroe again, “So sorry about that. So tell me, Agent Munroe, what office are you from?”

“Omaha, Violent Crimes Unit. My SAC sent me down here to see about the murders.”

“We’re D.C., our Assistant Director assigned us.”

“Oh? Which AD?”

“Mike Kaiser.”

“What’s your badge number?”

“You’re kidding, right?” Dean asks, offended.

“I’m just following protocol,” Monroe defends.

“57882952,” Harley smiles. She waits a moment for the boys to step up.

“57862967,” Sam adds on looking at Dean expectantly.

“Uh… 5792...35..69,” Dean says slowly, thinking about it way too hard.

“What’s your badge number?” Harley asks Munroe expectantly.

“52567924.”

“Well, we’re all nice and real aren’t we?” Harley laughs.

“Where are you at with this?”

“Where are you at with this?” Dean asks, eyes narrowed.

“Well, I was just about to run the, uh, perps' bloodwork.”

“Dead end,” Sam cuts in.

“Oh yeah?” 

“Yeah.”

“But get this. I feel like I found something that, uh, connects all the murderers.”

“Really?”

Munroe nods, “They were all banging strippers....from the same club.”

“You don’t say!” Dean says sarcastically.

“What do you say we, uh, go down there and check it out?”

“Well, here's the thing, Florian. See, we're kinda lone wolves.”

“You know what, that sounds like an excellent idea. Just... just give me a second with my partners and we'll, uh...one sec,” Sam says pulling Dean and Harley aside. “Dude, you gotta stay with him.”

“What?” Dean asks.

“Keep him out of the way.”

“Why me?”

“Because the Doc has got the hots for Sam,” Harley explains, “It’s painfully obvious. Look, I'll go with you. I trust Sam not to walk into a trap more than I do you.”

“Well what the hell are we supposed to do with him? Also, ouch!”

“Just take him to the strip club...keep an eye out for the siren. Come on, Dean, just... just focus on the naked girls. You'll forget he's even there!” Sam pleads.

“I'm not doing this for you, I'm doing it for the girls; and because last time I went to a strip club with Harley I got a lap dance.”

“Well, you aren’t getting another one,” Harley adds pointedly.

***

Chase huffs, walking into the sixth pawn shop, just wanting to get one measly knife. 

“Seriously!” She exclaims quietly to herself as the bell dings upon entering. “How hard is it to find a fucking bronze dagger? It’s not even a sturdy metal!”

“Looking for anything, miss?” The pawnbroker asks her. 

She spins on her heel, sighing. “You wouldn’t happen to have any daggers, do you? I need one for a, uh, school project. Greek mythology.”

“Gold, silver? Anything in particular? We’ve got quite an assortment.” He leads her over to a case full of all the daggers one could possibly want. 

“Got any bronze?”

“Actually we do! A couple here. This one has a nice steel handle and this one has a very intricate pattern carved into the blade. Any meet your fancy?”

“I’ll take both.” Chase says, eyeing a particularly pretty bone handled blade set with obviously fake jewels. Obvious to her anyways. “I’ll take that one too. Simply because it’s pretty. How much will that be?”

The man looks at her skeptically. “All three will run you pretty high. Are you sure?”

“Name your price,” she answers simply. 

“146 plus tax.”

Chase whistles. “That’s fine. You accept cash?”

The man nods, trying to keep the confused look off his face as Chase digs through her backpack for her wallet, moving an iridescent serrated hunting knife out of the way. 

She hands over two crisp hundreds and starts to walk away. “Keep the change.”

Chase gets into Jack and begins to drive before swearing. She picks up the phone and dials her best friend's number. 

“Hey.”

“Hey, where am I meeting you guys? I got two daggers and another one just ‘cause.”

“I didn’t think about it. Just meet us at the motel room?”

“Yeah that makes sense. So Dean’s off with Florian right now, right? And Sam’s probably banging that doctor. What’re you up to?”

“I’m stuck making sure Dean doesn’t end up screwing a stripper.”

“Nah. He wouldn’t want to make you that jealous after such a generous lap dance you gave him.”

“Um, not jealous. I just don’t trust him to not fall into a trap.”

“Fair enough. Anyway, I’ll head back and meet Sam at the motel. Shoot me a text when you’re on your way back.”

“Kay see you soon.”

Chase hangs up and finishes the drive. Back at the motel, Chase walks into the boys’ room to find a sulking Sam. 

“What’s up, Sammy? Hot doctor not want to bang?”

Sam rolls his eyes. “No. Dean’s just pissed at me now and thinks Cara is the siren. And I threw my phone at the wall.” Sam points to his phone, lying across the room. 

“Well. Feel like killing anyone yet?”

Sam gives Chase a pointed look. 

She holds her hands up in defense. “Sorry, too soon?”

The look stays. 

Chase sighs. “It's okay, Sam. I don’t think Cara is the siren either. She seems perfectly normal. However, Florian gives me weird vibes. Wait. Shit.”

Chase grabs her phone and starts texting. 

Sam looks at her confused. “Who are you texting?” 

“Harley. I just realized something.”

“Realized what?”

“There was a pattern with the stripper names. They were all Disney princesses. Does Florian sound familiar to you?”

“Should it?”

“Florian is the name of Snow White’s prince. That can’t be a coincidence.”

“You think Florian is the siren?”

“I think we should at least keep an eye on him.”

***

Harley sits up in the backseat when Florian slides into the passenger’s.

“She went in just a second ago,” Florian reports.

“Nice work,” Dean commends.

“Should we follow her in?”

“Nah let’s wait and see who she comes back out with,” Harley pipes up.

“So you think... what? She's drugging these guys?”

“In a way yeah.”

“Uh-huh?”

“I know how it sounds,” Dean adds.

“You sure about that? 'Cause it sounds like crazy on toast. All these different strippers, they're magically the same girl? But then they're not strippers at all, it's Dr Quinn.”

Harley’s brain stops working for a minute trying to understand Munroe’s reference.

“It's kinda hard to explain, but I have my reasons and they're good ones, so you're just gonna have to trust me on 'em,” Dean somewhat explains.

“Yeah okay. I guess.”

Harley’s phone starts playing ‘Cherry Pie’ by Warrant which pulls her out of her stupor still not understanding how Cara and Harley Quinn are in any way similar. She checks her texts as Dean and Florian take turns drinking out of Dean’s flask.

“Shit!” Harley yells looking up to see Dean taking another sip out of said flask; she tries to stop him, but begins moving too late.

“What?” Dean asks, confused.

“Florian is a Disney prince’s name and we haven’t ruled out saliva as a potential way to get infected.”

“But I didn’t get with some stripper at The Honey Wagon?”

“He realised we’re hunters, you idiot! God how could I be so stupid!”

“I was right then, you are hunters. Unfortunately I can’t do anything to you Harley. Dean on the other hand I have wrapped around my finger.” Florian muses.

“I will gut you,” Harley practically hisses. 

“I should be your little brother. Sam. You can't trust him. Not like you can trust me. In fact, I really feel like you should get him outta the way, so we can be brothers. Forever.”

Dean begins to drive back to the motel.

***

When they get to the motel room, Dean gets out of the car and roughly grabs Harley by the arm, under Florian’s instruction. They lead her to her room and tie her to her bed post.

Dean looks around for a weapon, easily locating a silver knife under Harley’s pillow.

“Dean, come on, let’s talk about this.”

“It’s not him you should be pleading with,” Florian reminds, “Kill her.”

Harley screams hoping against hope that someone hears her. As Dean draws nearer, pressing the knife gently against her skin, but hard enough to draw blood, Sam and Chase enter the room, guns drawn. 

They quickly assess the situation. “So you are the siren,” Sam says. 

“Man, I just gotta say, you are one ugly ass stripper,” Chase says. 

“Maybe, but I got what I want. I got Dean.”

With a gesture of his head, Florian directs Dean to grab Sam. Dean holds up a knife to his neck, almost cutting him. 

“Dean, this isn’t you,” Chase says, inching slowly towards Harley in hopes to untie her. 

“You can fight this,” Sam continues. 

“Why don’t you cut him. Just a little. On his neck. Right there.”

Dean cuts into Sam’s neck, drawing blood. 

“Dean’s all mine.”

“You poisoned him.”

“No. I gave him what he needed. And it wasn't some bitch in a G-string. It was you. A little brother that looked up to him, that he could trust. And now he loves me. He'd do anything for me. And I gotta tell you, Sam, that kind of devotion? I mean, watching someone kill for you? It's the best feeling in the world.”

“Is that why you’re slutting all over town?”

“Ahh. I get bored, like we all do. And I wanna fall in love again. And again...and again.”

“I'll tell you what. I have fought some nasty sons of bitches, but you are one needy, pathetic loser.”

“You won’t feel that way for very long.”

Florian goes to poison Sam, but Chase knocks him out of the way, cutting into Dean’s shoulder. He winces, stumbling back in pain. 

“Sam!” Chase yells, tossing the dagger to him as Florian grabs ahold of her hair. 

“You’ve really got to stop getting in my way.” He spins her around to face Dean. “Take care of her.”

Dean holds the knife up as Chase is shoved towards him. Just as he is about to plunge the blade into his younger sister, he stops short. 

“I don’t think so,” Sam says. Everyone turns to him, and sees him standing behind Florian, his dagger buried to the hilt in Florian’s chest. Florian looks down in shock. 

He crumples to the ground, lying still, blood pooling around his body. 

Dean slowly lowers the knife and grabs Chase by the arms, pulling her into a hug, muttering apologies into her hair as she reassures him that she’s fine. 

Sam unties Harley and they all take a moment to catch their breath, luckily escaping another narrow encounter with death. 

***

“So did you and Sam hear me scream?” Harley asks as they drive down the highway. 

“No, actually. I could just tell something was wrong. Like my Harley senses were tingling.”

Harley begins to laugh, shaking her head at Chase, who immediately gets defensive. 

“What?” Chase asks. “Is that the wrong thing to say?”

“No, it’s just- you’re just- your spidey senses were tingling.”

“Exactly!”

“Okay, Chase. Okay,” Harley responds, trying to reign in her laughter.

[jloves-pp]

Merida and Hiccup’s wedding day-part 6

Chapter 6

"You ready"

"Ready if you are"

Merida smiled warmly at her husband. She and Hiccup stood in front of the main doors, waiting for them to open.

"Announcing their Royal highnesses" they heard one of the soldiers call out "The Prince and Princess of DunBroch" the door opened slowly and the sun was glaring, they were unable see at first but as they walked further everything became clear, they could see some of their families, friends and the guests, they all clapped and cheered when they saw the newlyweds. Hiccup and Merida gave smiles and waved to them all. Linking arms they made their way to the games field with the crowd following them.

The game field was already in full swing. Lots of the guests were already there and some of them had began eating, there were so many games set out, like tossing the caber, tug-of-war, field hockey, Hammer throwing and wrestling. Some of the Scotts and Vikings had started the activities, while others just watched and cheered with the rest of their clans.

There were stalls where people were able to shop. They sold food, drink, beers, toys, clothes, weapons and special items that were made especially for the wedding. There were people Sword dancing and children hitting a stuffed man on a rope that looked like Drago Bloodfist, screaming and laughing as they did so.

The newlyweds decided to eat before they did anything. After getting food they sat at a corner of the head table. As the guests chatted and were eating amongst themselves, Merida and Hiccup chatted to each other and feeding one another.

"So are you ready for the archery competition?"Hiccup asked Merida after finishing his food.

Merida finished what was in her mouth before replying "Aye! you know I'm always ready when it comes to archery. Are YOU ready for the dragon race later?"

"Yeah me and Toothless have totally got this. I've a feeling we might even win, I think this is a lucky day for me".

"Erm you have won every race you two have ever been in" he heard his wife commented softly and flash a smile as she drank from her cup. Hiccup let out a chuckle. As they chatted they held each other's hands and gently squeezed them for time to time.

"Well, even if I lose, I feel like I've won today, because I have you" he admitted.

"D'you know how cheesy that sounds" she said giving him a smirk.

"You love it when I'm cheesy" Hiccup said as he lent closer to her.

"Cheesy...no, romantic yes" Merida said and Hiccup pressed his lips to hers. The princess simply melted into his kiss, she felt his hand softly touch her face. After they enjoyed the tender moment they pulled back and looked at each other when...

"Merida,Hiccup!" called a soft sparking voice, they turned and saw three teenage girls they recognise they were Merida's cousins, Jamesina, Margaret and Nighean. The eldest Jamesina had her chestnut brown hair braided and was wearing a beautiful blue dress. Margartet wore a daffodil yellow dress, while her dark brown hair was loose down her back. The one who had spoken was the youngest Nighean, she was wearing a pretty poppy red dress and was tugging nervously on a piece of her short brown hair.

The bride smiled she was delighted to see them, she quickly stood up and hugged all three of them at once, "I'm so happy you came".

"Of course" Jamesina said "we wouldn't have missed it for anything".

"Mother and granny said they would've loved to have come too" Margartet then said " but they had to stay home while father's away".

"And Hiccup we're excited to finally welcoming you as part of the family" Nighean said to him and she and her sisters all curtsied to him.

"Oh er...I'm glad to be part of the family too" Hiccup replied before giving them a bow. The first time he'd met the sisters they had arrived in Berk thinking Merida was in danger, even though they had lived a very sheltered lives they had gone to assist her. Merida had tried to show that she was not in danger. Although after they arrived she, her cousins and her friends did find themselves in danger, they got trapped and were chased by wild dragons, the sisters became friends with the Vikings and Nighean ended up having very own dragon (monstrous nightmare) as a pet that she named Duchess.

"You look beautiful Merida" Jamesina complimented "who made your dress?"

"I did" the bride said grinning.

"Oh that's amazing. I never knew you could sew" Margaret comment as she and Jamesina took a closer look at the design on the bottom of her dress.

"Mum wanted us to come on horse back, but I said we'll be faster on Duchess" Nighean told Hiccup.

"Well you still need time for you mum to get used to having a dragon around the place"Hiccup advised.

The young teen let out a laugh before saying "One... Its been years since I took Duchess home and two, I think mother wouldn't have liked the idea only Duchess' fire didn't keep us warm all winter".

"She'll come around one day, you'll see" he knew that most minds could be changed, but there were some that could never charged. As he was thinking, Margaret said "come on, let's get some food before the archery starts".

"We'll be rooting for you Merida" Nighean called as she and her older sisters went to get their food. After the bride had waved them goodbye she felt Hiccup's arms around her, she couldn't help but smile and leant into him.

"I'll be rooting for you too, and it's not only because I'm your biggest fan" Hiccup said and kissed her on the cheek.

"I know, I'm the biggest fan of your dragon racing" Merida gave out a little chuckle.

"Well there's still time before they start" He said as his bride turned to look up at him."so what do you fancy seeing?"

"Maybe after we finish eating, we can see some of the games" she answered "I heard that some of our tribesmen went against some of the Hooligans and were beaten by them in the tug of war" the redhead said as she turned to look up at Hiccup.

The Viking let out a little laugh "well try as they might, we Hooligans will never back down from winning".

Then he saw one of Merida's eyebrow raise "have you forgotten you're one of us now".

"No, but I can't forget I'm a Viking and now so are you". Hiccup was leaning in to kiss Merida but she grabbed a slice of bread and shoved it in his mouth.

"I may be a Viking, but I'll always be a Scott" She told him with a smirk. Hiccup removed the bread but showed a playful smirk.

After their lunch they strolled through the grounds exploring the stalls, watching the games, as well as being congratulated by everyone. A little girl gave the couple a bunch of flowers, they thanked her before she returned to her family. Then they noticed two ladies who they recognised.

"Hey Cat,Orla. Over here" Merida called and waved to them.

The two young women turned and their faces lit up.

"Merida, Hiccup" Cat called before she and Orla rushed over. They instantly pulled the bride into a group hug. Hiccup watched, grinning at the friends.

"I'm so glad you both came" Merida said as they pulled away.

"Of couse, we had to come to see our friends be wed" Cat said playing with one of her long braids.

"I was moved by your speeches. I've never heard anything that beautiful before" Orla added, trying to stop herself from tearing up again.

Cat (Catriona was her full name)was the heir of Cardonage and the first time she met the couple was on a treaty between DunBroch and Cardinage. It turned out that Merida and Cat had a lot in common but Merida thought that Cat's life was so perfect because she did things like sewing and singing and she loved them. The worst part was when Merida thought that Cat was better than her at archery, after talking about it to Hiccup and finding out Cat was in danger, it turned out that Cat's life wasn't as perfect as Merida thought and they ended up being great friends ever since.

As for Orla, she was Cat's step-cousin. A few months after the Clan Cardonagh had visited, Cat brought Orla to DunBroch, but Merida and Orla became jealous of one another and ended up getting struck by one of the witch's spells. With Hiccup, Cat and Fishleg's help, the girls were able to break the spell and became friends in the process. What was surprising was Fishlegs had a crush on Orla, he tried to talk the her but he became tongue-tied. So he decided to write her a love letter, when she received it she wondered who had sent it, that was until Fishlegs revealed himself to her. She was moved by the poetic letter she had read from the blonde haired Viking, now the young couple seemed very fond of one another.

"Especially when you spoke in Norse" Cat said.

"Well being round Vikings, you do learn a few things"Merida blushed.

"Oh who made your dress?" Cat asked "I'd love to have one like it when I get married"

"Actually Merida made it by herself" Hiccup explained to Cat.

Both Cat and Orla looked at each other then at Merida. "Really!" Orla blurted out.

"Aye, it's a long story" the bride blushing.

"Oh I just remembered something, hang on" Orla turned and quickly left.

"So are you taking part in the archery competition Cat?" Merida asked.

"Aye, I've been excited to enter since they said that girls were aloud" Cat replied grinning proudly as was Merida "and what about you Hiccup? Are you going to be in the archery competition too?" she asked as she folded her arms.

"Ur...no, I'll be participating in the dragon race later and besides I can never beat my wife" Hiccup said before giving Merida a warm smile.

"You're right about that" Merida replied returning a warn smile to her husband.

Just then, they heard Orla's huffing as she rushs toward them." Here we are" she said when she reach them, Orla was holding a small pretty patchwork blanket.

"Oh thank you" said Hiccup "but it's a bit small for us"

"No it's not for you, it's for your baby" Orla said cheerfully but it vanished when she saw the couple glancing to one another. "You are going to have children. Aren't you? Orla questioned hoping that she hasn't upset them.

Merida and Hiccup looked back at their friend "Aye we are but.."Merida started and then Hiccup added "we both agreed to wait. So we want to get used to married life before we start a family"

Orla sighed in relief before giving the newlyweds a smile "Well take it anyway. It'll come in handy one day and I tried my best to make it perfect"

The bride gently took the blanket and returned a smile to her friend. " I love it more, knowing you made it and again, thank you".

Suddenly the sound of horn filled the air "oh the archery competition is about to start" Cat gasped " we'd better hurry" she grabbed Olar's hand and they rushed toward toward arena.

"We should head over there as well" Hiccup then said.

"Aye I'll asked Maudie to put this with our other gifts" Merida said and the two headed to join their friends.

There were a lot of people watching the archery competition and they cheered for the archers. The heirs from Cardonage, MacGuffin, Macintosh, Dingwell and the other clans have took their places. Merida wasn't only representing DunBroch not today she was representing Berk too.

The people with the highest score would win, Merida and other's were determined to win. At the end, Young Dingwell only got 10 points, Young MacGuffin and Young Macintosh both 40 points, Cat came second with 100 points and the winner was Merida 120 points. She was lifted up as her friends cheered, after she was brought back down with her husband, Merida and her friends decided to get some drinks and chat before the next event when Hiccup and the dragon riders have to go and get ready.

Soon the dragon racing was about to begin, dragon racing was just as popular in DunBroch as is was on Berk. The course started on the game field, around the castle, had to then go back to the field to the finish line. The princess sat on Fergus's left while her mum was on his right.

"Ladies and gentlemen" called the announcer "welcome all to today's dragon race on this special day" The dragon riders took their position, Merida saw that Hiccup and the other rider wearing face paint. She saw Ruffnut and Tuffnut elbow together, Snortlout flexing his muscles to all the women in the crowd, Fishlegs rolling his eyes at Snortlout, Astrid looking ready to go when she glanced at Hiccup, he just glanced back up to her, he smiled and waved to his wife. Merida smiled brightly and waved back to him.

"I can see who you are rooting for" Fergus said to his daughter chuckling.

"Aye but you know I always cheer for Hiccup and Toothless"Merida said when she turned to him.

"And they wearing our colours today" they heard Elinor comment. When they were in dragon races both Hiccup and Toothless wore only red paint but today they wore red and blue to honour Hiccup's new family.

"Riders, are you ready" called the announcer raising a flag. The riders braced themselves and face forward. The crowd watch with baited breath until the announcer quickly lowered the flag and the race began. They took off like a shooting arrows, all hunting for sheep. The sheep were scattered, each of them were painted by the young children, everyone could see Fishlegs and Snortlout fighting over a sheep and the twins banged into a wall and Astrid aiming for some sheeps. Hiccup on the other hand was gliding towards it all, picking them up so fast and putting them in his net. Soon the twins had 4, Fishlegs had 6, Snortlout had 7, Astrid had 10 and Hiccup had 19.

"Just as soon as the black sheep appeared, Hiccup will surely win" Merida thought aloud as she was standing up feeling excited.

"You know things may change before that happens" her mum told her, Elinor knew how much her family loved dragon racing and Merida love it more than anyone.

"Well I know Hiccup will win" Merida replied but before Elinor could say anything.

Fergus groaned, standing up and yelled " COME ON! CONCENTRATE! you two are supposed to be working together not using a sheep as a club"

Merida and Elinor could now see Ruffnut and Tuffnut fighting over a sheep and Ruffnut hitting her brother with the said sheep.

"Oh that sheep" the queen said but luckily Fishlegs grabbed the sheep as he flew by. Elinor sighed and placed her hand on her heart, as she turned her head to the right, she realised something was missing, three things in fact. "Has anyone seen the boys around? They never miss one" Elinor asked her daughter and husband.

"No, I haven't seen them since the ceremony" Merida said shrugging her shoulders.

"Perhaps they gone to find cakes" Fergus suggested " maybe to make up for before"

What none of them knew was that the triplets were next to the sheep launcher with Gobber. The three boys all had their hands on the lever and a very nervous black sheep.

"All right" Gobber said "on the count of three, one..." But the young princes pulled the lever and the sheep flew up into the air. Harris, Hubert and Hamish watched the sheep go higher and higher with glee unlike Gobber, who was fuming. "I said three,THREE" He yelled at them.

As the black sheep came down all the dragons riders spotted it. The crowded were on edge of their seats now as they watched the chaos above them.

First Snortlout grabbed it and tried make a run for it but Tuff destracted him while Ruff sneeked in from above and grabbed, the success didn't last long because they ended up getting it tangled in a banner, as they tried to get it off Fishlegs took the sheep and headed to the nets

"Just a little bit further girl" Fishlegs encourage his dragon Meatlug. Suddenly Fishlegs felt someone tapping his shoulder which was odd because he was in the air and no one was around. He turned and as he expected no one was there but as turned back, the sheep he has holding was gone.

"Thank you" he heard Astrid calling to him and saw she had the black sheep. Fishlegs tried to go after her, sadly he wasn't fast enough to catch Astrid, she was really fast on Stormfly. She was grinning from ear to ear as she raced to the net and to win. Astrid would have won if it wasn't for a newly crowned prince and his Night Fury.

The blonde Viking could see Hiccup and Toothless right behind her. Astrid tried everything she could do to lose him, she thought at last she lost him until it happen. Hiccup perched on Toothless after he made sure his friend's wing was fix in place. They positioned themselves behind, then just at the right time, Hiccup jumped right over Astrid and Stromfly with Toothless underneath them. Astrid's mouth dropped as she watched as Hiccup pluck the sheep from her arms and landed back on Toothless without fail. The crowd erupted as the duo flew down and put the black sheep his net.

"The winner is Prince Hiccup" the announcer called but the only voice the prince could hear was his princess's "see I told you he would win" Merida cried as she clapped so hard and cheeried at the top of her lungs.

Soon after Hiccup and the others washed the paint off their dragon's at the stables when Merida appeared. She instantly rushed to her husband and the two embraced. Hiccup gave his wife a loving kiss which Merida returned easily.

"Urr. What a scene" Astrid teased playfully to her friends.

"Oh come on Astrid, we are aloud to" Hiccup replied.

Astrid smirked before turning to Merida. "So how do you feel about being one of us"

"One of us, one of us" the twin chanted together.

"Well, I feel the same, I feel like I was one anyway" Merida replied

"That's true, you fit in perfectly" Hiccup added as Fishlegs and Snortlout join them.

"I still can't believe your a prince now" Snortlout commented "if you're going tell people to kiss your shoe, count me out"

"Well I've only got the one shoe but feel free to kiss it" Hiccup said joking and a giggle escape from Merida.

"Well you maybe royalty and wearing a fancy crown but you're still our..." But Snortlout never finish because...

"Hey what did Snortlout say about the Queen today?" Ruffnut asked her brother.

"Well I think his exact words were, man she remind's me of a Viking's funnel" Tuffnut replied rubbing his chin.

"A Viking's funnel, that's a new one" Merida said, a little shocked and a bit grossed out. All of them knew Snortlout had a crush on Elinor. Ruff and Tuff teased him about it all the time when they were in DunBroch.

"Shut. up." Snortlout said through gritted teeths

"I wonder what she might think if we told her" Tuffnut said

"Yeah and the King too, what do you suppose he do?" Ruffnut added as both of them grinned misceviously at Snortlout who's face turned red, the other couldn't tell if it was embarrassment or anger.

"You're going a pay" Snortlout yelled as he ran after the twins. Hiccup, Merida, Astrid, Fishlegs and the dragons watched them run out of the stable.

"I don't know if you two noticed but Snortlout was dreadfully balling during the ceremony" Fishlegs said after a while.

"He denies it thought, he said was sweating because of how hot it was today but we know he was" Astrid added.

"Well the sun's setting now. There's one more thing to do before the feast begins" Merida said turning to Hiccup.

"Oh right the new tradition" Hiccup said and then added "why don't you and Astrid go ahead, I need to finish some things".

His wife did think he was being a bit sketchy but Merida always trusted him " all right, just don't be long" she told her husband.

"I won't be" he answered. After Merida and Hiccup shared a sweet kiss , she and Astrid left along with Fishlegs and the girls noticed he had colourful flowers in his hand.

"Are those for Orla?" Merida asked as they walked.

"Well yes, I haven't had a chance to talk to her yet. So hopefully she'll like these" Fishlegs explained and the girls could see him blushing.

"Any new poems as well?" Astrid asked.

"Yes, it took me about five times to make this poem perfect" he replied pulling out at piece of paper from his pocket. "I just hope that she'll like it"

"Well I can see her over there" Merida said, she could see Orla talking to Cat and Mer's cousins "hey Orla" she called and waving to them, Cat, Orla and the sisters waved back happily. When they were united, Fishlegs gave the flowers to Orla who was blushing as much as Fishlegs, she thanked him as lady like as she could. Soon Snortlout joined them, he was talking about how the twins had set a trap with the help from the triplets. At that moment, Ruffnut,Tuffnut and the triplets walked up all of them enjoying some delicious sweet cakes.

It was after a while when Hiccup appeared with Toothless. The group chatted to one another as they walked to where the final tradition was to be held.

"And now, before we have the feast. We have a new tradition to be started today by our bride and groom" The queen announced. The couple stepped toward, standing next to a small bonfire with an arrow and Merida's bow (Hiccup had made a new bow when Merida had told him what happened to her old one). Elinor continued, "This is to share the prince and princess's unity and love, a message that will travel from our world and beyond". The beacon had stood over looking the grounds ready to be lit, it had took several days to construct.

They held the arrow over the bonfire until it was alight. Merida readied the bow and fastened the flaming arrow to it. She and Hiccup held the bow and stood their stance. looking at the beacon, they raised the bow, aimed and fired. The flaming arrow flew thorough the air like a shooting star, it landed at the top and the beacon came alive.

Oohs and Aahs echoed through the crowd as they admired the huge fire dancing in the setting sky. The prince gently put his arm around his princess's waist, Merida gave her Viking a warm smile before placing her head on his shoulder as they continued watching the beacon, a perfect symbol of their love.

#mericcup #hiccup #Merida #how to train your dragon #brave #Wedding #fanfic

[chalcid]

6: Tea and Roses

It was Thursday afternoon. I sat on the window seat in the living room. Sunlight streamed from the window.

Tilly approached me carefully "What are you up to?"

I didn't answer. I could feel my mother, from another room, giving me the "that was rude look."

Tilly answered her own question "Nothing much?"

Truth be told, I was searching the digital libraries for information on powerful demon spells but I nodded anyways "Yeah, not doing too much."

"Okay, well, I'm going to pick up my kids, and I was wondering if you would come with me," Tilly asked.

I glanced at my phone, and then back at Tilly "I'd really rather not."

"Please," Tilly said.

I could feel the heat of my mother's gaze in the other room. Say yes. Be polite, Merika.

"Okay," I said, "I guess I'll come with."

Tilly's house was near the center of the island. It was an uncomfortably long drive. But finally, we pulled up in front of a wooden house, painted yellow, with a door sloppily attached.

Tilly knocked and the door swung open

On the other side of the door was a man with an impressive red beard "Ah. Tilly," he turned and shouted over his shoulder "Kids, your mother is here!

He turned back to us "Who's this?"

"Hi," I said awkwardly "I'm Merika. The... the, uh... You must be Tilly's husband?"

"Merika," Tilly's husband said "My son talks about you. I must admit, I thought you were just an imaginary friend."

"Oh?" I said.

"I mean, he thinks you're some kind of superhero," he rambled "Said you find lost treasures and everything."

I started to reply, but was cut off as the kids ran up to Tilly and hugged her quickly.

Lawrence, the ten-year-old boy, handed me two newspaper clips. "I cut these out for you," he told me.

I glanced at them. They were a small piece of every time I made the news this week apparently.

Kev, who was eight, let go of her mother and returned to her book.

"Did you guys have any homework," Tilly said, getting in the car "I hope you finished it all"

"Oh, I didn't do any yet" Lawrence said

"I told you you needed to turn off the cartoons," Kev muttered.

"But the huge lizards," Lawrence said. "Daxald says that he's too old for cartoons, so I gotta watch them all before I turn twelve. Merika, are there really big lizards in the Beyond?"

"Maybe," I said absently.

The rest of the ride home dissolved into more chatter about lizards, but I wasn't paying attention.

I stepped inside the house and set my newspaper clippings on the counter. Kev and Tilly headed for the living room, passing my mother briefly and exchanging icy yet civil nods.

Lawrence looked up at me through his mud-splattered glasses. "Dad said he and Mom are getting a divorce."

"Yeah, mine too," I said "Did they not talk about it with you?"

Lawrence shook his head solemnly. "Not until this morning. Do you think we'll all live here in this big house? You and Kev and me and Mom and Leo? "

He looked so hopeful. I didn't know how to tell him that Dad was going to move out with Tilly in a couple of months and we would likely never see each other after that.

"This is Mom's house," I said "My mom, not yours. Your mom and my dad will likely get their own big house, but no worries. I'm sure it will be just as cool."

"And you'll live there, too?" Lawrence pestered.

I was interrupted by a ceremonious knock on the door. I raced to get it, but Tilly was there. The door opened.

"I baked bread," Uncle Decimus said stiffly, shoving a basket of bread into Tilly's arms "As a gesture of non-hostility."

"Thank you," Tilly glanced down at the basket, bewildered.

"And Merika, this came by for you," Uncle Decimus passed me an envelope.

I ripped open the envelope. Inside was a pink piece of stationery with bold calligraphy.

"You're invited - Today at two - Tea Party..." I trailed off "Okay, anyone willing to give me a ride to the west part of the island? I've got to head toward Fragaria Tower."

It was difficult to say how old Fragaria Tower was. Legend says that Lord Beaurose had it dissambled when they were evacuating Mariveyia, brought over brick by brick, and reassembled when we got here. As a result, it stood out like a coral reef in a saltwater swamp.

"Do you want me to come in with you," Mom asked.

"Mom, I'm fine," I said. "This isn't my first tea party at Fragaria Tower."

"I'll pick you up in an hour," she replied.

"Bye, Mom."

She drove off alarmingly quick for someone who made a point of always obeying speed limits. I walked up to the door and knocked.

A twenty year old women answered the door and I did a double take "Eranthia invited me over... do I have the wrong address?"

She sighed "Do you think you have the wrong address?"

I glanced at the iconic tower "Point taken. I just wasn't aware that..."

She spared me the embarrassment of asking if she was my friend's stepmom "I'm Mr. Beaurose's assistant. Eranthia's in the tea room. The other one already arrive."

"Thank you, Mr. Beaurose's assistant ma'am," I replied awkwardly

She reached for my coat, and I reflexively jumped out of her reach, wrapping it around me a little tighter.

"Sorry," I mumbled. "It's my prized possession. I'll just..."

Like the horribly impolite person my mother would be ashamed to admit she took part in raising I am, I darted off to the tea room and took my spot at the small round table.

Edonia smiled politely at me "Hi, Merika. Glad you could make it."

Eranthia sat across from me, a grey blazer over her ruffled pink skirt. She sipped a cup of tea. My eyes darted from her to the harp in the corner.

Eranthia, like Edonia, was a string instrumental. Their families were pretty close. Edonia is a violinist, which is impressive, but Eranthia was a harpist. That's super rare. I think there are only sixteen people on Ilcodeux who have any kind of harp ability, and Eranthia and her teacher are the only two people I've heard of who've mastered it.

I feel really out of place with them sometimes, and it doesn't help that they're both so much larger than life that they don't even know how to person.

The tea tasted like flowers, which was strange, but not bad.

"Did you finish reading those articles?" Edonia asked me politely.

I choked on my tea "Um... yeah? About that. They sort of... burnt to a crisp?"

Edonia sighed "I can't say I'm surprised."

That felt better.

"I did talk to Deyanira, though, and she said that sometimes really powerful spells can mess up shark migration patterns," I said.

"I checked out a book for her the other day," Edonia snapped her fingers "Something about sharks?"

"Yeah, I saw her book, too. I don't want to assume the worst in her, but..." I trailed off. "I should stop this before it turns into trouble"

"You're troubling the stop by not waiting your turn " Eranthia offered, pulling a white queen chess piece from her pocket and studying it absently "Remember Acwellan?"

Hearing her name, Acwellan poked her head out of her teapot. Fortunately, that one wasn't the one our tea was poured from. I found the teapot in the Crystal Reef six months ago, not realizing that it had a tiny monster guardian.

"You're point? That situation was the opposite of this one and I learned from it. I figured out she was there pretty quickly, but I didn't deal with it until she magically flooded my bathroom and I had to clean it all up by hand. I had no magic for two days, and now she's yours."

"Your solution cost you a friend," Eranthia said confidently. "You responded too harshly. All Acwellan wanted was attention."

"I guess you're right," I replied reluctantly "But I'm not sure feeding Water Demons little cake crumbs and petting their heads is going to prevent a...  prevent a, um... You know a lot about weird, powerful magics. What could it be?"

"The three most likely things off the top of my head are" Eranthia paused to sip her tea "Summoning some sea monster, making a volcano explode, or," she paused, and glanced at Edonia "Taking the barrier down."

Edonia flinched. We pretended not to notice.

"This cake is excellent," I said quickly. "Strawberries ?"

"Raspberries, actually," Eranthia said, returning the chess piece to her pocket. "It's my favorite. Would you like the recipe?"

"Oh, no thank you, I can't cook," I said politely.

"Don't any of your parents cook?" Eranthia asked. "You have three, don't you? Four?"

"Just Mom and Dad," I said irritably "Plus Tilly and Uncle Decimus, but they don't count. Actually, Uncle Decimus likes cooking. He's no good, but maybe he'd appreciate the recipe."

"Come with me, and I'll copy it," Eranthia declared. She stood up, brushed off her fabulous pink skirt, and picked up Acwellan's teapot. The little sea monster grabbed a lock of her strawberry blond hair and gnawed at it.

"I've actually been trying to get you alone for a bit now," Eranthia admitted.

"Why did you invite Edonia then?"

"I wanted to talk to her, too," Eranthia paused "But not about this. She's scared of the Outside, and the barrier falling, and the pearls, just like everyone else."

"So..." I stopped. Don't make any assumptions "Look, I'm just trying to get through my next few weeks of being confined to land, the divorce, and Tilly's kids."

"And aren't you bored of all that?" Eranthia prodded "This is a chance to change the world, Merika. Don't you want to see what's beyond Ilcodeux?"

"Yes, more than anything, but..." I gestured at her father's desk. "The people in charge won't like that. And the destruction of the barrier isn't exactly something I could hide."

"Of course. But let's speak hypothetically here," Eranthia said. She pulled a yellowed piece of paper from her pocket "There are three ways the barrier could come down. First, it could fall on its own -"

"- In, like, twenty years, so we really don't need to be worrying about all this now -"

" - A liberal estimate, but yes, it's not going down anytime soon. The second is if a demon with royal blood magically takes them down. And the third is the pearls."

"Okay, so it's out of our hands unless we decide to break a few laws or find a would-be demon princess," I said "Thanks for the tea and cake and all, but I don't think I'm up to any of that."

"Of course," Eranthia said "I just thought it might interest you to know that I know where the pink pearl is," she paused for the suitably dramatic time period before grinning widely. "It's somewhere here. A magical artifact, in my own home."

Of course. Eranthia's father was a key player in the government of Ilcodeux. Of course, the pink pearl was hidden in Fragaria Tower. Why would they trust a key to sabotaging the island to anyone less than a polician.

Eranthia handed me the piece of paper "There's the recipe. The riddle is on the back."

"Thanks, I guess."

"When you change your mind about the pink pearl, come and talk to me about it," Eranthia said "For now, let's not mess with magic we don't understand."

Oh, how I loved messing with magic I didn't understand.

We returned to the tea table.

"There you are," Edonia said "You were gone for so long I actually bothered to check my phone. And lo and behold. A text from Pacifinos yesterday about someone you're going on a date with," she raised an eyebrow inquisitively.

"I'm not going on a date with Casey," I replied "We're going to build a boat together."

"Sounds like a date to me," Edonia said.

"You could sail away to paradise," Eranthia declared dramatically "Steal away in the middle of the night to find someplace to be alone together forever, just the two of you."

"Guys, stop," I said "That doesn't sound romantic, being alone with one and only one person for the rest of your life. No friends? Or family."

"You don't like family."

"I don't like my bad family. That doesn't mean I want to cut all ties with... that would be... just Uncle Decimus. Maybe Mom if I feel gracious. Or Tilly, although she's technically not family-"

"Quit changing the subject," Eranthia said "When's your date?"

"Not a date."

"Fine. Boat-building session."

"It's Saturday," I said.

Eranthia looked down at her lap, and gently scratched the scales on Ackwellan's head "Don't take what I said... about sailing away and leaving all of us behind... don't take it too seriously."

"I won't."

#writing #wip disappear

[leeesbian]

so i got my sword for my zynnis cosplay and then wanted to address in fiction why zynnis would have a super fancy longsword so i wrote this sad bullshit enjoy!!!!!!!

The day of the attack, the sky opened up and let loose sheets of rain. Zynnis trudged through the forest, soaked in blood of their own, blood of the raiders, and the blood of their friends. Thrown over their back is the limp body of Aman Rockbelly, who stopped breathing an hour ago, his stomach torn open and wet with blood, even through the plate covering Zynnis’s back. Zynnis marched, throat tight and dry, pain shooting up through their body from the gaping wound above their hip with every step. Thoughts race through their head- if only I had moved faster, if only I had thought quicker, if only I had been stronger…

They had come out of nowhere, the raiders. It seemed like they fell straight from the sky, attacking Zynnis and the rest of their party with arrows, with scimitars, with daggers. Steeltank had been the first to fall, a raider had attacked him from behind and slit his throat- it was actually how Zynnis and the rest of the party had figured out of the raiders’ presence. Florentin went to try and save him, muttering healing spells and applying hard pressure to the wound in his neck with his bare hands. Aman and Marvela charged while Zynnis went to attack the masked man attempting to take out Florentin. They fight long and hard, and while their back is turned, they hear Marvela scream. When they turn, they see Marvela stumbling backwards- one arrow in her shoulder, one in her gut, and one in her eye. Zynnis looks up and spots the masked marksman up in a tree, and Zynnis attempts to jump to Marvela’s aid. It’s when they do this that Florentin shouts and collapses over Steeltank’s body, a dagger plunged into the back of his head. “You bastards!” Aman bellows, launching one of his hand axes into the chest of one raider, sending him stumbling backwards. Zynnis quickly jumped to his side, greatsword glinting in the last of the sun peeking out from behind the clouds just before rain began to fall. It seemed that the two of them fought for hours until another blade made contact with flesh- this one, a raider’s scimitar embedded deep into Zynnis’s side just above their hip. A gasp left their lips but they quickly lifted a foot to kick the assailant in the chest, the blade tearing out of them leaving behind jagged bloody skin. Zynnis fell to one knee, gasping for breath and watching as Aman tore apart one, two, three raiders in his fit of rage. It seemed he was unstoppable-

Right up to the moment a raider buried his daggers into his stomach and ripped him right open. Aman screamed, an ear splitting sound Zynnis didn't even know Aman could make, and he collapsed to the ground. The raiders muttered to each other before nodding and darting away down the path. The rain got heavier, and Zynnis made eye contact with Aman, who was breathing heavily and had one hand clamped over his stomach. “Looks like this is it, Cranan,” he wheezed, coughing up a mouthful of blood. Zynnis sucked in a deep breath and shakily got to their feet. They bent down slowly, the pain in their side searing hot, and gripped Aman’s arms. They pulled him up to his feet, then quickly stepped in front of him, allowing him to fall across their back. “Like hell it is.”

The plan had been to get back to town in order to save the both of them. It had taken three hours for Zynnis to cross paths with another patrol. The minute they noticed the other soldiers, they fell to the ground, praying that death would take them too.

*

After the ambush, Zynnis took solace at the Charming Conjuress, away from the barracks, the other soldiers, everything. They left to assist Knight Captain Harriet Greatrider, a few other soldiers, as well as the families of Florentin, Marvela, Rarsesli and Aman with funeral processions for the lot of them. A bounty was put out on the raiders that ambushed the party. Derrersa put them up in their old room at the brothel, and said any food or drink they ordered would be on the house.

Not that Zynnis did much else than sit at the bar, drink, and sleep.

About six months later, Zynnis was called back to the barracks by the Knight Captain herself, for a purpose unknown. When Zynnis arrived, dressed in simple dirty street clothes as opposed to their usual shining Watch armor, Knight Captain Harriet had gathered every single soldier, as well as many citizens of Little Ivywood. “Zynnis Cranan,” she said in a loud voice. She was flanked by four soldiers, who stood facing Zynnis and saluted. “Your bravery has not gone unnoticed. If it wasn't for you, it would've been days- maybe even weeks- before you and your platoon members, Aman Rockbelly, Marvela Kue, Florentin Wisesnow, and Rarsesli Steeltank, were found by your fellow men. Though we lost four lives that day, it would've been much more without your assistance and identifying the raiders which acted against us. It is true, they have yet to find those particular assailants, but we know that they will be found through the hard work of the Guard.” Harriet turned to a soldier to her left, who knelt before her and offered her a glimmering silver sheath. Harriet took it then approached Zynnis. “This is Knight Griever, a long sword forged right in Little Ivywood in your name,” she explained. As she spoke, she unsheathed the sword, the hilt decorated with expertly designed dragons, mouths agape as they chased after each other. The blade itself was straight and sharp, just as any excellent blade should. “The steel from which it was made came from pieces of armor worn by your compatriots. They were given to the blacksmith per the request of their family members. Consider it a gift from all of us in the Guard, from the families of your fallen soldiers, from the whole of Little Ivywood to thank you for your bravery and excellence.”

For a minute, Zynnis just stares between the sword, the Knight Captain, the saluting soldiers, and the hundreds of teary eyes surrounding them. It took them a bit to find their voice again.

“No.”

The Knight Captain blinked. “What?”

Zynnis cleared their throat. “Knight Captain, with all due respect, I… I failed. If I had acted in the way a good soldier must, my…” They choked a bit. “My friends would still be alive. I failed my mission and broke my oath. I don't deserve a gift like this. It should be buried with those that were braver than me.”

“Zynnis-”

“What do you want me to say?” Zynnis shouted, voice much stronger now, yet still quavering. “Thanks everyone for the gift of a weapon made out of my dead friend’s armor? This will definitely fill the void of losing five of the people closest to me.” Zynnis took a deep breath and rubbed at their eye with the heel of their hand before dropping their voice to a more suitable volume again. “I’m sorry, Knight Captain,” they said, staring down at their feet. “I… I can't accept this.”

When Zynnis returned to the Conjuress that night, the Knight Griever was lying on the bar next to a foamy flagon of ale, and a small note. Zynnis sighed, picked up the flagon and took a long swig before reading the note.

Zynnis,

I understand the pain you must be feeling. Becoming Knight Captain was a path filled with death. I’ve watched fellow soldiers, friends, even lovers fall at the hands of an adversary. Granted, I’ve never carried the body of one of my friend’s on my back for miles through the pouring rain with a near deadly injury, but nevertheless, I am no stranger to this sort of emotional grief. This gift will, of course, not bring your friends back by any means. But I know along with your Guard’s Oath you have a personal mantra of always fighting the good fight. And I know as your captain that you can use this sword to continue to do so, and your friends- wherever they are now- would be ever so grateful to see you take down the ones that took their lives with a blade forged from the armor they wore with pride.

I don't know if it’s revenge that you want. If it is, I would send an army behind you to help you take down those bastards. If not, hang this sword on your wall with pride, or carry it with you on your travels as a memory. Or, if you truly do not want it, return it to me and it will serve as a memorial for the troops lost that day.

You did not fail your duties, soldier. You fulfilled them to the best of your ability. Now it is time to grieve, and to rest.

Yours,

Harriet

Zynnis set the note down and picked up the sword. It was a perfect weight, feeling just right in their hands. They slowly unsheathed it, watched as the candlelight in the bar glinted off the steel like stars. They squeezed the grip of the hilt and set the sheathe on the bar counter. They swung, listening to the blade cut through the air with a whistle.

“Pretty sword, Zee,” a voice said. Zynnis looked up and saw one of the women of the Conjuress breezing through the common room- curly brown hair tied up in a loose bun, soft lacy pink dress loose on her form and sliding off her shoulders. “Where'd you get it?”

Zynnis lowered their arm and caught a glimpse of their reflection in the sword. “The Knight Captain,” they said softly. The woman whistled and chuckled. “How fancy. You must've done something impressive.”

And Zynnis laughed, the sound foreign to them after not having done so in over six months. “Yeah,” they said. “I guess you could say that.”

*

“Looks like it might rain,” Florentin says, squinting up towards the sky through the thick of leaves. Zynnis looks over as Marvela snickers, her graying black hair falling loosely around her face out of her tight bun atop her head. “You’d hate that, wouldn’t you?” She says, bringing a chuckle out of Zynnis. Florentin blushes and stutters as Aman interrupts him- “Yeah, he’d probably melt!” This makes the whole platoon laugh, sans Florentin, who just looks down at his shoes, flustered. Marvela nudges Zynnis with an elbow. “Rain would never slow down a tank like you, though, right Cranan?”

Zynnis laughs softly. “I don’t know, Kue,” they say. “I might rust over.”

“No, of course you wouldn’t,” Aman says joyfully, elbowing them playfully in the side. “You’re stronger than all of us combined.”

Zynnis laughs again. “Oh, shove it, Beerbelly,” they say, shaking their head. “You all give me too much credit.”

The conversation goes like that for fifteen, twenty, forty-five minutes- Zynnis actually loses track of time. It’s like they aren’t even on patrol, keeping Little Ivywood safe, it’s more like they’re just a group of friends taking a walk together.

“You know what I’m going to do after this patrol?” Aman says, folding his hands behind his head as he walks. “I’m going to the Conjuress and I’m having a drink.”

Zynnis laughs. “You just want to bother me more, huh?”

Aman laughs back. “I’m not going to bother you-”

“You’re going to bother me and all of the ladies you tell your awful jokes to!”

Aman laughs again, hearty and gleeful. “My jokes aren’t that bad!”

Marvela wipes a tear of laughter from her eye and sighs. “Well after this patrol, I’m going to go home to Colette and I’m going to make her dinner-”

“You’re going to poison your dear wife?” Aman says with mock horror and astonishment. “How will your daughter go on?”

Marvela punches Aman hard on the arm and smirks. “I’ll have you know both Colette and Charmaine love my cooking. I’m sure you would to if you took up any of our offers to come to dinner.”

Zynnis snorts and crosses their arms. “I’ll probably just take a damn nap,” they said, looking up at the sky. “Feel like I deserve a good rest.”

Florentin catches up with the three of them, leaving Rarsesli to tail the group and keep an eye out. “Maybe I’ll go to the bookshop,” he says timidly, wringing his hands around the leather grip of his staff. “I’ve had my eye on one by Nadine Sunpelt- that author down in Golgotha? I guess she’s writing a new series of-”

“Erotic romance novels?” Zynnis supplies, grinning at Florentin. Florentin blushes and laughs awkwardly, stammering as he attempts to get out exactly what this woman is writing. Marvela claps him on the back, which causes him to fall forward just a bit. “Don’t worry, Wisesnow, we’ve all been there.”

“I-it- it isn’t-”

“Well, then, what about you, Steeltank?” Aman interrupts, leaving Florentin a blushing mess and falling behind.

There’s no response.

“Rarsesli?” Marvela says, looking over her shoulder towards him.

Zynnis looks over to Rarsesli-

And their vision gets blurry.

#zynnis #my writing

[jloves-pp]

Merida and Hiccup’s wedding day-part 6

Chapter 6

"Your ready"

"Ready if you are"

Merida smiled warmly at her husband. She and Hiccup stood in front of the main doors, waiting for them to open.

"Announcing their Royal highnesses" they heard one of the soldiers call out "the Prince and Princess of DunBroch" the door opened slowly and the sun was glaring, they were unable see at first but as they walked further everything became clear, they could see some of their families, friends and the guests, they all clapped and cheered when they saw the newlyweds. Hiccup and Merida gave smiles and waved to them all. Linking arms they made their way to the games field with the crowd following them.

The game field was already in full swing. Lots of the guests were already there and some of them had began eating, there were so many games set out, like tossing the caber, tug-of-war, field hockey, Hammer throwing and wrestling. Some of the Scotts and Vikings had started the activities, while others just watched and cheered with the rest of their clans.

There were stalls where people were able to shop. They sold food, drink, beers, toys, clothes, weapons and special items that were made especially for the wedding. There were people Sword dancing and children hitting a stuffed man on a rope that looked like Drago Bloodfist, screaming and laughing as they did so.

The newlyweds decided to eat before they did anything. After getting food they sat at a corner of the head table. As the guests chatted and were eating amongst themselves, Merida and Hiccup chatted to each other and feeding one another.

"So are you ready for the archery competition?"Hiccup asked Merida after finishing his food.

Merida finished what was in her mouth before replying "Aye! you know I'm always ready when it comes to archery. Are YOU ready for the dragon race later?"

"Yeah me and Toothless have totally got this. I've a feeling we might even win, I think this is a lucky day for me".

"Erm you have won every race you two have ever been in" he heard his wife commented softly and flash a smile as she drank from her cup. Hiccup let out a chuckle. As they chatted they held each other's hands and gently squeezed them for time to time.

"Well, even if I lose, I feel like I've won today, because I have you" he admitted.

"D'you know how cheesy that sounds" she said giving him a smirk.

"You love it when I'm cheesy" Hiccup said as he lent closer to her.

"Cheesy...no, romantic yes" Merida said and Hiccup pressed his lips to hers. The princess simply melted into his kiss, she felt his hand softly touch her face. After they enjoyed the tender moment they pulled back and looked at each other when...

"Merida,Hiccup!" called a soft sparking voice, they turned and saw three teenage girls they recognise they were Merida's cousins, Jamesina, Margaret and Nighean. The eldest Jamesina had her chestnut brown hair braided and was wearing a beautiful blue dress. Margartet wore a daffodil yellow dress, while her dark brown hair was loose down her back. The one who had spoken was the youngest Nighean, she was wearing a pretty poppy red dress and was tugging nervously on a piece of her short brown hair.

The bride smiled she was delighted see them, she quickly stood up and hugged all the three of them at once, "I'm so happy you came".

"Of course" Jamesina said "we wouldn't have missed it for anything".

"Mother and granny said they would've loved to have come too" Margartet then said " but they had to stay home while father's away".

"And Hiccup we're excited be finally welcoming you as part of the family" Nighean said to him and she and her sisters all curtsied to him.

"Oh er...I'm glad to be part of the family too" Hiccup replied before giving them a bow. The first time he'd met the sisters they had arrived in Berk thinking Merida was in danger, even though they had lived a very sheltered lives they had gone to assist her. Although Merida had tried to show that she was not in danger. Although after they arrived she, her cousins and her friends did find themselves in danger, they got trapped and were chased by wild dragons, the sisters became friends with the Vikings and Nighean ended up having very own monstrous nightmare as a pet that she named Duchess.

"You look beautiful Merida" Jamesina complimented "who made your dress?"

"I did" the bride said grinning.

"Oh that's amazing. I never knew you could sew" Margaret comment as she and Jamesina took a closer look at the design on the bottom of her dress.

"Mum wanted us to come on horse back, but I said we'll be faster on Duchess" Nighean told Hiccup.

"Well you still need time for you mum to get used to having a dragon around the place"Hiccup advised.

The young teen let out a laugh before saying "One...Its been years since I took Duchess home and two, I think mother wouldn't have liked the idea if Duchess' fire didn't keep us warm all winter".

"She'll come around one day, you'll see" he knew that most minds could be changed, but there were some that could never charged. As he was thinking, Margaret said "come on, let's get some food before the archery starts".

"We'll be rooting for you Merida" Nighean called as she and her older sisters went to get their food. After the bride had waved them goodbye she felt Hiccup's arms around her, she couldn't help but smile and leant into him.

"I'll be rooting for you too, and it's not only because I'm your biggest fan" Hiccup said and kissed her on the cheek.

"I know, I'm the biggest fan of your dragon racing" Merida laughter a little.

"Well there's still a time before they start" He said as his bride turned to look up at him."so what would fancy seeing?"

"Maybe after we finish eating, we can see some of the games" she answered "I heard that some of the our tribesmen went against some of the Hooligans and were beaten by them in the tug of war" the redhead said as she turned to look up at Hiccup.

The Viking let out a little laugh "well try as they might, we Hooligans will never back down from winning".

Then he saw one of Merida's eyebrow raise "have you forgotten you're one of us now".

"No, but I can't forget I'm a Viking and now so are you". Hiccup was leaning in to kiss Merida but she grabbed a slice of bread and shoved it in his mouth.

"I may be a Viking, but I'll always be a Scott" She told him with a smirk. Hiccup removed the bread but showed a playful smirk.

After their lunch,they strolled through the grounds exploring the stalls, watching the games, as well as being congratulated by everyone. A little girl gave the couple a bunch of flowers, they thanked her before she returned to her family. Then they noticed two ladies who they recognised.

"Hey Cat,Orla. Over here" Merida called and waved to them.

The two young women turned and their faces lit up.

"Merida, Hiccup" Cat called before she and Orla rushed over. They instantly pulled the bride into a group hug. Hiccup watched, grinning at the friends.

"I'm so glad you both came" Merida said as they pulled away.

"Of couse, we had to come to see our friends be wed" Cat said playing with one of her long braids.

"I was moved by your speeches. I've never heard anything that beautiful before" Orla added, tried to stop herself from tearing up again.

Cat (Catriona was her full name)was the heir of Cardonage and the first time she met the couple was on a treaty between DunBroch and Cardinage. It turned out that Merida and Cat had a lot in common but Merida thought that Cat's life was so perfect because she did things like sewing and singing and she loved them. The worst part was when Merida even thought that Cat was better than her at archery, after talking about it to Hiccup and finding out Cat was in danger, it turned out that Cat's life wasn't as perfect as Merida thought and they ended up being great friends ever since.

As for Orla, she was Cat's step-cousin. A few months after the Clan Cardonagh had visited, Cat brought Orla to DunBroch, but Merida and Orla became jealous of one another and ended up getting struck by one of the witch's spells. With Hiccup, Cat and Fishleg's help, the girls were able to break the spell and became friends in the process. What was surprising was Fishlegs had a crush on Orla, he tried to talk the her but he became tongue-tied. So he decided to write her a love letter, when she received it she wondered who had sent it, that was until Fishlegs revealed himself to her. She was moved by the poetic letter she had read from the blonde haired Viking, now the young couple seemed very fond of one another.

"Especially when you spoke in Norse" Cat said.

"Well being round Vikings, you do learn a few things"Merida blushed.

"Oh who made your dress?" Cat asked "I'd love to have one like it when I get married"

"Actually Merida made it by herself" Hiccup explained to Cat.

Both Cat and Orla looked at each other then at Merida. "Really!" Orla blurted out.

"Aye, it's a long story" the bride blushing.

"Oh I just remembered something, hang on" Orla turned and quickly left.

"So are you taking part in the archery competition Cat?" Merida asked.

"Aye, I've been excited to entering when they said that girls were aloud" Cat replied grinning proudly as was Merida "and what about you Hiccup? Are you going to be in the archery competition too?" she asked as she folded her arms.

"Ur...no, I'll be participating in the dragon race later and besides I can never beat my wife" Hiccup said before giving Merida a warm smile.

"You're right about that" Merida replied return a warn smile to her husband.

Just then, they heard Orla's huffing as she rushs toward them." Here we are" she said when she reach them, Orla was holding a small pretty pattern work blanket.

"Oh thank you" said Hiccup "but it's a bit small for us"

"No it's not for you, it's for your baby" Orla said cheerfully but it vanished when she saw the couple glancing to one another. "You are going to have children. Aren't you? Orla questioned hoping that she hasn't upset them.

Merida and Hiccup looked back at their friend "Aye we are but.."Merida started and then Hiccup added "we both agreed to wait. So we want to get used to married life before we start a family"

Orla sighed in relief before giving the newlyweds a smile "Well take it anyway. It'll come in handy one day and I tried my best to make it perfect"

The bride gently took the blanket and returned a smile to her friend. " I love it more, knowing you made it and again, thank you".

Suddenly the sound of horn filled the air "oh the archery competition is about to start" Cat gasped " we'd better hurry" she grabbed Olar's hand and they rushed toward toward arena.

"We should head over there as well" Hiccup then said.

"Aye I'll asked Maudie to put this with our other gifts" Merida said and the two headed to join their friends.

There were a lot of people watching the archery competition and they cheered for the archers. The heirs from Cardonage, MacGuffin, Macintosh, Dingwell and the other clans have took their places. Merida wasn't only representing DunBroch not today she was representing Berk too.

The people with the highest score would win and Merida and other's were determined to win. At the end, Young Dingwell only got 10 points, Young MacGuffin and Young Macintosh both 40 points, Cat came second with 100 points and the winner was Merida 120 points. She was lifted up as her friends cheered, after she was brought back down with her husband, Merida and her friends decided to get some drinks and chat before the next event when Hiccup and the dragon riders have to go and get ready.

Soon the dragon racing was about to begin, dragon racing was just as popular in DunBroch as is was on Berk. The course started on the game field, around the castle, had to then go back to the field to the finish line. The princess sat next on Fergus's left while her mum was on his right.

"Ladies and gentlemen" called the announcer "welcome all to today's dragon race on this special day" The dragon riders took their position, Merida saw that Hiccup and the other rider wearing face paint. She saw Ruffnut and Tuffnut elbow together, Snortlout flexing his muscles to all the women in the crowd, Fishlegs rolling his eyes at Snortlout, Astrid looking ready to go when she glanced at Hiccup, he just glanced back up to her, he smiled and waved to his wife. Merida smiled brightly and waved back to him.

"I can see who you are rooting for" Fergus said to his daughter chuckling.

"Aye but you know I always cheer for Hiccup and Toothless"Merida said when she turned to him.

"And they wearing our colours today" they heard Elinor comment. When they were in dragon races both Hiccup and Toothless wore only red paint but today they wore red and blue to honour Hiccup's new family.

"Riders, are you ready" called the announcer reaching a flag. The riders braced themselves and face the forward. The crowd watch with baited breath until the announcer quickly lowered the flag and the race began. They took off like a shooting arrows, all hunting for sheep. The sheep were scattered, each of them were painted by the young children, everyone could see Fishlegs and Snortlout fighting over a sheep and the twins banged into a wall and Astrid aiming for some sheeps. Hiccup on the other hand was gliding towards it all, picking them up so fast and putting them in his net. Soon the twins had 4, Fishlegs had 6, Snortlout had 7, Astrid had 10 and Hiccup had 19.

"Just as soon as the black sheep appeared, Hiccup will surely win" Merida thought aloud as she was standing up feeling excited.

"You know things may change before that happens" her mum told her, Elinor knew how much her family loved dragon racing and Merida love it more than anyone.

"Well I know Hiccup will win" Merida replied but before Elinor could say anything.

Fergus groaned, standing up and yelled " COME ON! CONCENTRATE! you too are supposed to be working together not using a sheep as a club"

Merida and Elinor could see now Ruffnut and Tuffnut fighting over a sheep and Ruffnut hitting her brother with said sheep.

"Oh that sheep" the queen said but luckily Fishlegs grabbed the sheep as he flew by. Elinor sighed and placed her hand on her heart, as she turned her head to the right, she realised something was missing, three things in fact. "Has anyone seen the boys around? They never miss one" Elinor asked her daughter and husband.

"No, I haven't seen them since the ceremony" Merida said shrugging her shoulders.

"Perhaps they gone to find cakes" Fergus suggested " maybe to make up for before"

What none of them knew was that the triplets were next to the sheep launcher with Gobber. The three boys all had their hands on the lever and a very nervous black sheep.

"All right" Gobber said "on the count of three, one..." But the young princes pulled the lever and the sheep flew up into the air. Harris,Hubert and Hamish watched the sheep go higher and higher with glee unlike Gobber, who was fuming. "I said three,THREE" He yelled at them.

As the black sheep came down all the dragons riders spotted it. The crowded were on edge of their seats now as they watched the chaos above them.

First Snortlout grabbed it and tried make a run for it but Tuff destracted him while Ruff sneeked in from above and grabbed, the success didn't last long because they ended up getting it tangled in a banner, as they tried to get it off Fishlegs took the sheep and headed to the nets

"Just a little bit further girl" Fishlegs encourage his dragon Meatlug. Suddenly Fishlegs felt someone tapping his shoulder which was odd because he was in the air and no one was around. He turned and as he expected no one was there but as turned back, the sheep he has holding was gone.

"Thank you" he heard Astrid calling to him and saw she had the black sheep. Fishlegs tried to go after she, sadly he wasn't as fast to catch Astrid, she was really fast on Stormfly. She was grinning from ear to ear as she raced to the net and to win. Astrid would've had won if it wasn't for a newly prince and his Night Fury.

The blonde Viking could see Hiccup and Toothless right behind her. Astrid tried everything she could do to lose him,she thought at last she lost him until it happen. Hiccup perched on Toothless after he made sure his friend's wing was fix in place. They positioned themselves behind, then just at the right time, Hiccup jumped right over Astrid and Stromfly with Toothless underneath them. Astrid's mouth dropped as she watched as Hiccup pluck the sheep from her arms and landed back on Toothless without fail. The crowd erupted as the duo flew down and put the black sheep his net.

"The winner is Prince Hiccup" the announcer called but the only voice the prince could hear was his princess's "see I told you he would win" Merida cried as she clapped so hard and cheeried at the top of her lungs.

Soon after Hiccup and the others washed the paint off in the dragon's stable when Merida appeared. She instantly rushed to her husband and the two embraced. Hiccup gave his wife a loving kiss which Merida returned easily.

"Urr. What a scene" Astrid teased playfully to her friends.

"Oh come on Astrid, we are aloud to" Hiccup replied.

Astrid only smirked before turning to Merida. "So how do you feel about being one of us"

"One of us, one of us" the twin chanted together.

"Well, I feel the same, but I feel like I was one anyway" Merida replied

"That's turn, you fit in perfectly" Hiccup added as Fishlegs and Snortlout join them.

"I still can't believe your a prince now" Snortlout commented "if you're going tell people to kiss your shoe, count me out"

"Well I've only got the one shoe but feel free to kiss it" Hiccup said joking and a giggle escape from Merida.

"Well you maybe royalty and wearing a fancy crown but you're still our..." But Snortlout never finish because...

"Hey what did Snortlout say about the Queen today?" Ruffnut asked her brother.

"Well I think his exact words were, man she remind's me of a Viking's funnel" Tuffnut replied rubbing his chin.

"A Viking's funnel, that's a new one" Merida said, a little shocked and a bit grossed out. All of them knew Snortlout had a crush on Elinor. Ruff and Tuff teased about it all the time when they were in DunBroch.

"Shut. up." Snortlout said through gritted teeths

"I wonder what she might think if we told her" Tuffnut said

"Yeah and the King too, what do you suppose he do?" Ruffnut added as both of them grinned misceviously at Snortlout who's face turned red, the other couldn't tell if it was embarrassment or anger.

"You're going a pay" Snortlout yelled as he ran after the twins. Hiccup, Merida,Astrid,Fishlegs and the dragons watched them run out of the stable.

"I don't know if you two noticed but Snortlout was dreadfully balling during the ceremony" Fishlegs said after a while.

"He denies it thought, he said was sweating because of how hot it was today but we know he was" Astrid added.

"Well the sun's setting now. There's one more thing to to before the feast begins" Merida said turning to Hiccup.

"Oh right the new tradition" Hiccup said and then added "why don't you and Astrid go ahead, I need to finish some things".

His wife did thought he was being a bit sketchy but Merida always trusted him " all right, just don't be long" she told her husband.

"I won't be" he answered. After Merida and Hiccup shared a sweet kiss , she and Astrid leftvalong with Fishlegs who the girls noticed he had colourful flowers in his hand.

"Are those for Orla?" Merida asked as they walked.

"Well yes, I haven't had a chance to talk to her yet. So hopefully she'll like these" Fishlegs explained and the girls could see him blushing.

"Any new poems as well?" Astrid asked.

"Yes, it took me about five times to make this poem perfect" he replied pulling out at piece of paper from his pocket. "I just hope that she'll like it"

"Well I can see her over there" Merida said, she could see Orla talking to Cat and Mer's cousins "hey Orla" she called and waving to them, Cat, Orla and the sisters waved back happily. When they were united, Fishlegs gave the flowers to Orla who was blushing as much as Fishlegs, she thanked him as lady like as she could. Soon Snortlout joined them, he was talking about how twins had set a trap with the help from the triplets. At that moment, Ruffnut,Tuffnut and the triplets walked up all of them enjoying some delicious sweet cakes.

It was after a while when Hiccup appeared with Toothless. The group chatted to one another as they walked to where the heir final tradition was to be held.

"And now, before we have the feast. We have a new tradition to be started today by our bride and groom" The queen announced. The couple stepped toward, standing next to a small bonfire with an arrow and Merida's bow (Hiccup had made a new bow when Merida had told him what happened to her old one). Elinor continued, "This is to share the price and princess's unity and love, a message that will travel from our world and beyond". The beacon had stood over looking the grounds, ready to be lit it had took several days to construct.

They held the arrow over the bonfire until it was alight. Merida readied the bow and fastened the flaming arrow to it. She and Hiccup held the bow and stood their stance. looking at the beacon, they raised the bow, aimed and fired. The flaming arrow flew thoroughly the air like a shooting star, it landed at the top and the beacon came alive.

Oohs and Aahs echoed through the crowd as they admired the huge fire dancing in the setting sky. The prince gently put his arm around his princess's waist, Merida gave her Viking a warm smile before placing her head on his shoulder as they continued watching the beacon, a perfect symbol of their love.

#mericcup #Merida #hiccup #how to train your dragon #How To Train Your Dragon 2 #brave #Wedding #fanfic