#she is leaning on the back of a chair (I feel like maybe someone wouldn´t get her pose beacuse this is too rushed)

[jiiniix]

I just learned today is the interantional day of the okapi

#sketch #Okapis are cool #sonic oc #jiiniixart #she is leaning on the back of a chair (I feel like maybe someone wouldn´t get her pose beacuse this is too rushed) #myocs #tajin the okapi

[polarbearaone]

Thousand Light Years

Aone trusts his mother more than anyone, but does he love her more than you.

Aone’s father was rarely present in his life. His mother taught him everything, how to ride a bike, how to be gentle despite his size. No matter how gentle Aone was, he never seemed to get a romantic interest. Sure, he liked girls but he never found one that liked him back. Due to this, Aone built a heavy bond with this mother, she was always there for him, she never judged him. Deemed a momma’s boy, Aone would always value his mothers opinions. The first time Aone talked about her, his mother got worried. She didn’t want her baby boy to get hurt again. “ Takanobu, how is volleyball going?”, she desperately tried to change the subject. The second time she was brought up, Aone asked his mother what type of flowers girls liked. “Now he wants to get her flowers?” his mother thought. “ I have to go to the store, baby, make sure you eat ok?”, after a chaste kiss on the cheek, she bolted out the door. Aone wasn’t dumb but he surely was confused as to why his mother has been doging his questions lately. “ Maybe she wants to meet her. '' Futakuchi comforted his tall friend. Aone gave a chaste grunt and continued to eat. “Maybe she’s jealous Aone-san!” Koganegawa said with too much emotion. Everyone's eyes darted to him as he continued voicing his opinion. “ My mom is pretty jealous too! I remember in junior high, this girl liked me so I took her to come meet my mom. She was so dry and out of it. Figure, your mom might be like that too.” Kogane went back to munching on his lunch, as if he just didn’t provide Aone with the explanation to his problem. “Look, I know you really want your mom to know her but take yourself into consideration man. It won’t end well if they meet, don’t lose this chance” Keiji barely said before the lunch bell rang. (Y/N) had the habit of sending notes to Aone in the middle of class. She figured since he didn’t like talking, maybe he liked writing. “ What’s wrong nobu-san?” the small note read. Oh how he wanted to tell her everything. In the small time they got to know each other, she became a safe place for him. Almost like his mother. The day went by fast, as Aone’s thoughts consumed him. Surely his mother had to accept the girl that was making his son’s heart flutter. “ Get you head out of it” Aone’s thoughts were broken as Futakuchi sat next to him on the train. “ I have a plan so I’m going over to yours, is that ok?” A simple nod is all he received. “ I want to see how your mom reacts, I’ve known her for two years, sure she’s quite like you but she doesn't seem like the jealous type. I’ll slowly bring up (Y/N) and see how it goes. I just want to see you happy man”. Aone felt grateful for the wonderful friends he had. He was alone most of his life, and now he has friends helping him and his romantic dilemmas.

Aone’s house is a quick walk from the train station, the boys were easily at Aone’s front porch within a couple minutes. “ Hello Mrs.Aone!” Futakuchi saif cheerfully, thinking of how to initiate his plan. “ Hello Keiji-kun, will you stay to eat?”...” With your food? Always”. Three plates later, Futakuchi slumped in his chair. “ Ah, everything I come over I eat like a starved man.” he stated, patting his tummy. “ I’ll pack some for your mother too. I’ll be back” After she walked out, the plan commenced. “ Ok Aone, I’m going to make a fake phone call to (Y/N), I don't know, I’ll add something related to Christmas. I’ll make it sound like she really cares for you, then your mom would be ok with it right?” Keiji said excitedly. Aone’s head slanted like a confused bear. “ To be fair, I said I had a plan, never said it was a good plan.” Aone’s mother’s footsteps could be heard walking back to the dining room. He quickly dialed (Y/N) to commence the plan. “Hello?” you answered, confused as to why Futakuchi would call you. “ Oh hey! Yea, I think he would definitely Like that '' Futakuchi said out loud, making sure Aone’s mother could hear. “Hmm, Aone always liked turtles, maybe something of that sort” Futakuchi’s loud voice made Aone;s blush deepen. “ Futakuchi-san, what are you talking about?” You were not even more confused. You knew he knew about your crush on his best friend but he didn’t think he would outwardly call you about it, though it did help since you were planning to confess to him on Christmas day. “ Keiji-kun, its rude to speak on the phone while you're in the table” Aone’s eyes shot up to his mother. She never commented on someone else's actions, especially when she talks on the phone in the table too. “ Sorry, ‘I’ll call you later (Y/N)’ Again, sorry for being rude Mrs.Aone, I think its best for me to leave, thank you for the food” Futakuchi power walked to the door, giving a signal to Aone that he’ll text him later.

“ Yea, you’re mom is definitely jealous” The notification pulled up on Aone’s phone. “ She never comments on my actions :('' a second message came in. Determined to fix the issue, Aone made his way to his mother’s room. “Hi baby, what’s up” his mother looked up from her book. “Why are you acting weird” he bluntly stated. “ I have no ide-”...” The first time I have a girl that likes me back, you act all different. I thought you would be happy for me.” Aone said with a monotone voice. “ Takanobu, baby, you wouldn;t understand. What she feels for you is temporary. Don’t you remember what Sayu made you feel? She liked you for one week and left you. What makes you think that (Y/N) won’t do the same? They all just want to hurt you, like your dad hurt me” He saw his mother spit every word out. He knew his after leaving caused a heavy impact on her. He became the man of the house, a pillar for his mother to lean on. He could never leave his mother. What if she had a point? What if you temporarily liked him? Why would he leave his mothers side to be with someone who would love him for one day? He kneeled down by his mother, tears threatening to spill out. “ Takanobu, look at me. You can;t continue to like her. She will never love you like I do” Her words opened the gates to his tears. She held her son once again, despite his large size, he would always be her little boy.

Everyone noticed how Aone seemed to ignore you in school. You couldn’t say he stopped talking to you, the only form of communication the both of you had was through small notes. You naive mind tried to find excuses. “ What if he is trying to play hard to get, it’ll make the confession much more worth it now. Wait. isn;t tomorrow Christmas?!” Taking out a small note, you quickly wrote. Passing it to Aone’s seatmate. Aone opened the small note, wanting to not even read it, remembering his mothers words. “Please meet me by the Christmas Tree outside the school gate around sun down tomorrow!” Aone crumbled the small letter in his palm and placed it in his pocket. Tomorrow he would tell you how he felt. Tomorrow finally came, you put on a beautiful christmas dress. It was a deep blue, complementing Aone’s name and white hair. You grabbed the neatly wrapped present and made your way to the school gates. The sun was setting way faster than you expected, the street lights were coming on as you saw Aone from a distance, sitting on the bench near the highly decorated tree. “Aone-san!” you quietly yell as you power walk to him. His eyes stayed fixated on the tree, not wanting to look at you. Sitting down next to him, you pushed the present towards him. “No thank you” is all he said. Turning his face to you, you saw his tear stained face. “ I always dreamed of finding a soulmate. Getting excited to see a single person is all I ever wanted. I thought it was you too, but you’re just like the rest.” Aone softly said. His words were like baldes to your heart. “What?” your voice cracked. “ My mother always knows what is right, I loved you (Y/N), I really did, but I trust her more than you. Looking at the stars, I remembered you and I asked if there was anyone for me, perhaps in another galaxy far from here. I will keep looking for a thousand light years”. Aone simply stood up and walked away. The cold wind comforted you, the dim lights made the tears streaming down your face look like shooting stars. With shaking hands, you opened the gift. Pulling out the small turtle ceramic, you smashed it on the floor, revealing a turtle keychain with the small words “Be Mine?”

#haikyuu!! #haikyuu fluff #haikyuu x reader #hq #hq x reader #plz forgive me aone #aone takanobu angst #aone x y/n #aone angst #aone x you #aone x reader #aone takanobu x reader

[octupus-on-the-moon]

A table

~It's been done *laughs in Dr. Frankenstein*. After a lot of sweat, cursing and repeatedly flipping of my laptop and tablet. A new part of a nightmare is ready. It's a bit longer because of my absence and I hope I can keep my motivation up~

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Ninth part of nightmare

Word count: 1,814

Pairing: Bucky X Reader

Warning: Non I guess. Just some fluff and a burned gratine.

Bucky opened the door, awaiting the cold, baldness of the walls. To end up being surprised by the green he saw everywhere.

He totally forgot the little plants, y/n bought for him. They really made a difference. A welcome one. His clenched jaw and frowned eyebrows disappeared.

After taking of his jacket, he took an empty glass and went around pouring some water in all the colorful pots. He cursed under his breath, after he spilled some water for the second time. Mentally making a note to buy a watering can. Without noticing that his dark thoughts lifted and the silence around him was a welcome one, rather than a threatening menace.

Barnes looked at his wristwatch. It was still over an hour, till y/n would come back from college. He felt a sting of joy in his stomach.

That was new, Bucky wondered. It was probably just the excitement of finally having something to look forward to, instead of enduring one day after the other with the same maddening routine.

In the meanwhile, he could be useful and cook lunch. Y/n would be hungry after college and he had promised to cook the next time. Bucky looked in the fridge and cupboards. Potatoes, cheese and bacon. Exactly what he needed

Y/n had 30 minutes of lecture left, till she was free. She really wanted to go back to her little room in James’s apartment after the first class, but Monday was full of important courses, so she somehow managed to convince herself to stay.

The short call with James lifted her spirits considerably. It was his stoic way of talking, as soon as she showed a bit of interest in him, that made her feel warm inside. Her thoughts wandered off. To him. To the unpleasant night and how she finally saw the scared child he was. But then they went off to his blue eyes and the little crinkles around them when he frowned.

He must have been quite a look back in the forties.

Of course she had seen the photos in the Smithsonian, but she pictured him in a classier way. With a fitted suit and a fedora hat, walking down the street stealing hearts. Maybe a girl at his side and his eyes constantly lingering around her, as if she were the whole world and more. At the thought of it, y/n caught herself picturing a girl just like her, beside his tall figure.

That made her stop and turn back to reality. It was not a good sign. Or maybe it was. It felt like forever, since she let someone into her life and James was pretty much the last person she would have thought of. But she also did not expect her father being a criminal and her whole existence a facade.

Life was full of twists and turns lately. Some good, some bad. Maybe it was time to let something good happen.

“Ms. y/l/n, could you resume the discussed topic?” The professors sharp tone ripped y/n out of her train of thought. This will be the longest 30 minutes of my life, she thought.

A quite knock on the door distracted Barnes from intensely starring at the oven. He decided himself for a simple potato gratin, that would hopefully suite y/n’s taste. With is heart beating a bit too fast he neared himself the door.

And there she was. Her hair a little mess. A bag casually hanging around her shoulder and a beam as bright as the sun itself.

“Will you let me in or just keep starring?” Her playful greeting made Bucky’s heart stumble and without wasting words he stepped aside. He made another mental note. His gaze is not to be trusted. “How was therapy?” she asked letting her bag slide to the floor entering the kitchen in on smooth motion “Who of you two bit off the other one´s head first?” It took Bucky moment to get out of his trance.

“I….. We…. It went good” Barnes cleared his throat closing the door behind him “But she got a little suspicious about me deciding to cooperate” Y/n was drinking a glass of water leaning against the counter and once again Bucky could not get his eyes off of her.

“I did not think about that. We should have done one thing at a time. But I guess it´s too late now. Oh! And it smells amazing” she replied signing over to the oven. The quick hand move, the way her voice floated in the air, that one fuzzy hair in her face, everything captured him. “I…” A sharp smell tingling his nose interrupted Barnes. It came from the hot oven in the middle of the kitchen. His concentration fully gathered again, let him act quickly, reaching over for a rug and rescuing his gratin in the last moment. The crust was now a bit darker than needed but it was still acceptable.

“It´s a burned potato gratin” Barnes darkly commented, placing the form in the center of the already ‘set up table’.

“Hey, don´t be so hard on yourself. It still looks amazing”

“I´m not being hard with myself, I´m blaming you. It wouldn´t have burned if you wouldn´t have distracted me” Bucky’s eyes were glimmering amused.

She gasped overly dramatic, laying one hand on her chest “Me?”

“Yes. You” He broke out into a smile, without wasting another thought he reached over to her, brushing that fuzzy string of hair out of her face. Y/n’s giggle stopped for a moment at the closeness between both, making place for a shy smile, her eyes searching the floor. Barnes retreaded himself, feeling a heavy stone inside his stomach, as he realized how intimate the gesture was.

She did not expect him coming so close, her heart was already fluttering and was about to explode at his touch. Then he moved away causing an emptiness inside her. The same emptiness she always felt since the day of the notification. It was the last time she felt truly fulfilled and at ease, she had dreams and goals. Then everything changed. Life suddenly was a landscape of grey. Every task dull and meaningless. Time passed. She soon enough noticed that the emptiness would stay and the grey would only flourish.

Then the nightmare happened. And the already grey landscape had now even dark shadows to be afraid of.

James moved away to cut and serve the gratin. Giving her a little time to calm down her heart beat and ‘take a seat’ on the kitchen counter. After another heartbeat of discreetly observing Bucky serve the plates, y/n decided to break the silence “James”

He looked up with a shy grin “Yes?”

“We really need to get you a table”

….

“Is it really necessary?” Bucky and y/n were standing in front of the furniture store. Bucky incredulously, Y/n exited.

“Well at least I am not going to keep eating on the floor and, or the counter. My back is literally hurting from eating the gratin”

“Yes, it’s true. But. I…” Barnes closed and opened his fists a few times weighting his options “Okey. I guess we can take a look around” She nodded enthusiastically leading the way into the shop, James sighted heavily and followed.

The store was more or less deserted, which relieved Barnes. He didn´t like being in a already overwhelmingly filled hall with an ever more overwhelming count of people in it. The exit routs were explicitly signed which calmed his anxiety a bit more.

The most urgent thing for y/n was definitely the table, which led them to the dinning room section.

“I feel like a mafia boss” Y/n declared sitting down on the front side of a heavy wooden table. The chair, throne-like, up-holstered in a red velvet.

“Yes. A very scary mafia boss” Bucky jeered from the other side of the aisle.

“Hey! I can be scary if I want to”

“Jupp, as scary as a teddy”

She got up from the huge seat and walked over to him “Have you ever started into the cold dead eyes of a teddy bear?”

Bucky thought for an overly long moment “No, I haven´t. What about this one?”

“James. That’s a plastic table and it isn´t even a good quality one. In half a year, you will need to buy a new one” grabbing his arm she dragged him away “Come on these place is gigantic, we can find something better”

Yet, they didn´t. Every table y/n suggested was rejected by Bucky and vice versa. It was mostly to big, to small, to pompous, to dull, to much seats, to little seats and so on.

Both had almost reached the end of the section, when y/n suddenly dragged Bucky over to another exemplar. It´s design was simple, a glass top and a blond wooden frame with matching metal legs. Four chairs coated in a clear fabric rounded the dining set.

“This one. It´s the perfect size and I think I saw stools that would match, for the counter” Y/n sounded near desperate. Bucky took his time to look around the table. He was searching for something specific on it.

The price tag.

Y/n had picked out the most beautiful and practical tables, but the price was often more then exorbitantly high, which led Bucky to refuse all her suggestions. And the same happened with this one, it was by far the best table she had found today. It would look amazing between the plants, near the window, the chairs comfortable to sit on, in the early mornings to drink coffee and read the paper. It was a shame the table was out of Bucky`s scarce budget.

“I don´t know” Barnes commented “The chairs will get dirty pretty fast” Y/n´s face dropped.

She really didn´t expect it being so hard to satisfy Bucky´s furniture taste. Y/n thought that given Bucky´s cloth taste, he would have somewhat the same taste for furniture. Modern, comfy and in style with the room. Yet, every piece he had found acceptable was old styled, plastic or just straight out in a horrible color “You really liked that plastic table didn´t you?” She sighted.

For the break of a second Bucky frowned disgusted, then he nodded convincingly. But it was enough for her to know, what was keeping them from agreeing for a piece of furniture.

Cheap.

Every single table he elected was not because of its design, colour or material, it was because it was cheap. For a moment y/n felt bad. It was selfish of her not thinking that way, even though she truly believed that she didn´t have a rich complex, sometimes she did forget that not everyone had unlimited resources.

“Maybe it´s time for a little break. I think I saw a popcorn stand outside” Bucky’s conflicted face lit up a bit at her words.

All rights reserved.

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Tags: @ginger-swag-rapunzel

#mcu #marvel #bucky barnes #tfatws #white wolfe #the winter soldier #bucky barnes x reader #James Buchanan Barnes #bucky fic

[albino-whumpee]

Unrequited Love

CW// Pet whump, dehumanization, human trafficking, amnesia, hot water burns, exhausted whumpee. Pretty mild one honestly. ^^

Ok i didn´t notice it before, but THIS is the corrected version. Idk what happened.  Also taglist? I didn´t tag y´all???

Taglist:  @castielamigos-whump-side-blog @giggly-evil-puppy @cowboysrappin @haro-whumps @burtlederp @neuro-whump @comfortforthepain @whumps-the-word @whole-and-apart-and-between @broken-horn @ashintheairlikesnow @rosesareviolentlyread​ @starnight-whump @just-a-whumping-racoon-with-wifi @as-a-matter-of-whump  @whumpasaurus101 @grizzlie70​ @twistedcaretaker

During the party, Zarai had gotten the contact she needed to talk to Dune’s Ceo. Or at least the first of three people she needed to stablish contact to get to Gil Jefferson.

So while she was hopping around searching for the phone number of her client, asking for extensions and generally being absent, the whole team needed her approval to finish their jobs. So Albus was the one in charge now.

“Albus, can you check this out and tell me if its ok, please? Was a question he heard at least ten times a day now.

“Serra, talk to management on the next floor and tell them we need the results now” he would nod and fly downstairs.

“Serra I need your sign for this budget…” Zarai had given her authority to do that after Robert’s visit.

“Serra I need your sign for this budget…” Zarai had given her authority to do that after Robert’s visit.

Any problem the marketing and development team had was managed by the albino with a few wretched nerves and increasing eye bags. Then he would inform an overly tired Zarai that everything was in order. But there was always a small mistake she would notice and make him fix in shouting everyone on the office was too surprised to never have seen Albus cry from.

Despite the shouting making it all the way to other side of the office, he simply remained calm, waited for her to finish and then apologized before going to fix it. He just continued to work efficiently. Until there were no mistakes to get yelled at.

Sometimes, one of the new trainees would ask him if he was alright, but he would look at them with a funny look and change the subject. If he was to be honest, he had fully expected to be properly punished when they were alone, at home. He was so grateful he could hang his role as Albus Serra for a moment and allow himself to be only Al, the pet who didn’t hide his collar.

He was bent over some newbie’s desk when he straigthened up with a smile “Now, you just need to click this button, and you will have the whole system on your drive in a few minutes”

The newbie looked at him with adoration “Thank you so much, mister Serra!” He had said with a gleam on his eyes that made him blush.

“Mister Serra, I’ve a few questions about the report I sent you” Albus trotted to the woman.

“Ah, yes. I checked and it’s looking fine. I already sent it so, dont worry about it and give a hand to Ryan, please” the woman blinked “I know it’s not part of your job but look at them…” he cocked his head to the glass covered office of five people laying over their desks, one fully crying and the other lost in infinity. “You’ve got a degree on computer engineering right? The development needs to find the exact problem today. Please lend them a hand”

“Yes, sir” she had answered before walking away. Albus froze for a moment. An strange feeling sitting on his stomach.

He didn’t have time to wonder what it was when he was called again.

—

Albus was staring at the ceiling, serving himself some coffee from the machine at Tony´s office when he blanked out for a second and heard the man yelp.

“Albus it´s spilling!” he shouted loud enough to make the boy react. His half open eyelids fixed on the cup and then on the floor before taking lots of paper and wiping the floor with it “I´m sorry! Imsorry,Imsorry,Imsorry” he muttered before the man grabbed his right wrist and pulled down his soaked sleeve to reveal a growing red spot “Dude you burnt yourself! Are you ok? Does it hurt?” he said lifting him up.

Albus head spinned wildly enough to make him stumble against a wall. The man passed an arm around his waist “Jesus, Albus, what´s wrong?” Albus groaned while rubbing his eyes with his other hand.

“I´m sorry, I´m just… I´m… I´m ok, it doesn´t hurt. I promise I´m sorry” he told the man as he put him down on his chair.

“Hey, hey, it´s ok, it´s just some bean water. Look at me” the boy pulled his red eyes to look at his friend “I´ll go get some ice to put on that, yeah? Sit here for a second” he waited until the boy nodded to walk out of the office. Albus stared at the disaster on the floor and felt horrible. He looked around and found some kleenex on the desk. He hoped he wouldn´t mind and started wiping the floor again.

“Mister Serra?” The trainee asked him outside the office. Albus looked up at him and then at the floor. “Mister Serra you´re green! Please lay down, I´ll call someone to clean that up” the boy trotted to help him sit on the chair again.

“i-it´s fine. I´m ok, Jeremy” he said feeling his head puffy. The boy left him there for a second and then leaned on the frame of the door.

“Lee, can you get me some chocolate from my backpack? Mister Serra isn´t feeling well!” he shouted as the boy shrank on his seat.

“Mister Serra? Does he need some water?” a feminine voice asked with a worried tone. Possibly the intern from last week he had to sign her papers for.

“Yeah! and get someone from cleaning!” Albus heard a reply and felt his cheeks burning as Jeremy knelt next to him.

“Thank you” he whispered to the blonde. He directed a genuine smile at the albino. “Mister Serra has helped me a lot since I got here. Please don´t thank me. It´s the least I can do for you, mister!” Albus felt himself sink into the chair further as Lee handed him Jeremy´s candy bar.

“You´re looking a little pale, mister” She said when he was about to take a bite. Jeremy was about to say something when he heard himself laugh. Lee smiled triumphantly.

“Still, mister, have you slept enough? I saw you doze off during the report meeting with the interns yesterday…” Jeremy continued, his cheeks burning red. Albus swallowed feeling guilty someone had seen him fighting to keep himself awake.

“Don´t fall off yet, soldier, we still got work to do” Sasha came inside the office with Tony behind her. He put the ice on his burnt hand and he didn´t even twitch. The four stared at him with worry. “Does it hurt?” Sasha asked him. Albus didn´t look up, only shrugged.

“Thanks Tony…Sorry for the mess” he apologized putting his hand away. He tried to stand up, but his legs refused to do so.

“Don´t mind it. But maybe you should stay here for a moment” He bit his lip.

“I still have work to do…” he tried to stand up, but Sasha pushed him back to the chair.

“Well, then it´s a good moment to just rely on us for help. You have that meeting with the trainees again don´t you?” he nodded slowly. “You two” she directed the trainees, who squared up instantly “Make a summary and send it to me before clocking out. I´ll make the paperwork and Tony will help with the mails” The boys both responded with “yes, ma´am” Albus jumped trying to stop her, but Sasha gave him a freezing look. “You rest here, workaholic. You trying to imitate Zarai with her unhealthy habits? Just eat your candy bar, boy”

“But we´ve got that meeting with…” she put Tony´s coat on his shoulders.

“You´re in no conditions to listen to old men talking about how far to the right a letter should be to increase sales a 10%” she rubbed his back before pulling away “Just sleep a bit yeah?” she silenced him.

He tugged the cozy coat over his shoulders close to him. Hiding his face with it. “Thank you…”

Sasha smiled and pulled everyone out of Tony´s office as the cleaning lady took care of the mess. Jeremy and Lee walked out the office wishing him to get better soon after leaving some more candy. He thanked them and saw them snickering to each other as they went out.

Albus pulled his knees close to his chest and the coat covered his back when he fell asleep against the desk.

Tony´s coat was warm.

—

He never mentioned it to Zarai, but when he was working at home that night, or well, the early morning of the next day, he received a photo from Tony.

It was him curled up into a ball in the chair with only his white hair sticking out of the brown coat.

“A wild tired cinnamon roll has appeared!” Tony wrote below it.

Sasha keysmashed and put lots of faces laughing.

Albus just shook his head and grinned before he continued working.

Didn´t stop until dawn when Zarai came in to tell him they were leaving in a few minutes.

He arrived to the office with the same exhausted face from yesterday but when he came out, Lee was there with a coffee on her hands.

“Jeremy sends you this sir” she said to the mute boy.

“I…uh…thank you, Lee” he said as he shifted the coffee cup and saw it had a number and a smiley face. He looked up at her with his cheeks fired up. “Uh…”

Lee simply walked away before he could say anything.

He showed it to Tony and Sasha at lunch and snickered to the other “Aren´t you popular, boy! I´ve also had girls ask me for your number!” Tony howlered

“What?” Sasha grinned as he blushed

“But you´re taken already aren´t you? With that freckled boy you always talking about”

“Sann?” Albus widened his eyes. “Oh, I…no, no. It´s not…” he remembered his smile at the party, the tuxedo and the rose on his chest, his dimples, his hair looking like fire in the sunset and immediately went silent. “I wish but It´s more complicated than that”

Both leaned on him. He let out a heavy sigh before staring at the city from their table on the roof top.

“I met him two years ago, but I don´t remember anything from that period. I know I learnt what I know back then…but it´s blank. I feel like something important happened…but everytime I try to remember it´s like…it just hurts and it´s uncomfortable” he said rounding one thumb with the other “I want to remember that meeting, but I can´t. I just recently remembered some… things” he continued to explain, the images of handlers touching him all over came to his head. The shocks. “And then there´s…” the problem that´s he´s someone else´s pet and I´m not supposed to get close to him. “Anyways, it´s messy” he smiled at his quiet friends “It´s dumb to say that I would be completely fine just by seeing him being happy even if I´m far?”

Both stared at him for an uncomfortably long time.

“Does Zarai know of your amnesia?” Sasha asked bluntly, playing with the bracelet in her left wrist. Albus had to shrug.

“Did you have an accident or…?”

Albus had to think hard about it. “…maybe I had someone hit my head repeatedly…” Sasha opened her mouth outraged “No, no it´s ok. I don´t know for sure. I just remember feeling numb after a hit” he hurried to explain. “Can we change the subject?” he asked closing his eyes, feeling ill suddenly.

“…ok” both laid back on their chairs as Albus sighed relieved “You should get that head checked up tho´. Two years is a long time, Albus” Tony told him.

Albus bit his tongue to not spit he didn´t remember most of his life anyways. Or his parent´s faces, or his own name.

He instead tried to put a smile. A mask that pleased everyone was easier to pull than try to uncover the truth.

“So, please help with Jeremy? I don´t wanna break the poor boy´s heart”

It took a while for them to talk normally to him again, but in the end, Jeremy was understanding when he explained he was not available. In fact, he had smiled and thanked him for being honest and Albus could pull an all nighter in peace because of that.

He cried on Lee´s shoulder later at the bus station, but that was something Albus didn´t need to know.

#you came back a stranger #writing #my writing #whump #pet whump #tw human trafficking #tw dehumanization #collars #tw burning #hurt comfort #tw implied abuse #amnesia #albus #zarai #caretaker #whumpee

[yandere-daze]

may i have 24 from the yandere prompts with okuyasu:)? theyre so cool and nice!!! good job on them

Of course!!! Sorry for the long wait!! I decided to combine this with another oku request I got, I hope that´s okay ^^ And thank you so much, I´m glad that you enjoy my writing 😳

24. “It’s okay for you to love me.”

27. “What’s so special about them?”

39. “You’re mine. You know that right?”

Yandere! Okuyasu with prompts 24, 27 and 39

“So we´re going to meet up later at Tonio´s, right?”, Josuke asked his friends while leaning back into his chair, not caring that he was dangerously close to falling over backwards and maybe breaking a rib in the process. It was currently lunch break at school and you were discussing plans for an after-school hangout. It was one of the rare days you didn´t get any homework to do for the next day so you decided to seize the opportunity to finally spend some more time together. Josuke, Koichi, Okuyasu and you have been friends for a few months now, but rarely had any time to just relax and lay back for once. You had already discussed your plans in great detail for a few minutes now.

“Yeah! We said 4 pm right?”, Okuyasu asked to make sure. He wasn´t very focused at the best of times and now he almost didn´t get anything that was said. All this time, he couldn´t help but look at you and admire the soft look on your face, a wide smile tugging on his lips as he sent you a questioning gaze as if waiting for you to confirm his assumption. But to his dismay, you didn´t show any sign of paying attention to what he had to say. You were just sitting there in your chair and absentmindedly starring out the window, a soft sigh escaping your lips.

“Y/n? Hey y/n, did you hear me?”, he exclaimed once more, raising his voice by a large margin. Maybe he just spoke a bit too quietly and you didn´t hear him?

“W-what?!”, you practically jumped out of your seat, clearly startled. “Did you say something? Sorry I wasn´t paying attention.”, you explained sheepishly while rubbing the back of your head in an embarrassed manner.

“Yeah he did. Quite loudly in fact. We were going to meet at Tonio´s after school at 4. You coming?”, Josuke sounded a bit exasperated but managed to still keep an easy smile on his face.

“Oh sorry about that, I was lost in thought. And I´m sorry but I don´t think I have time today. Lots of homework and stuff.”

It was then that the bell rang, signaling that class was about to start again as everyone returned to their table and quietened down.

Okuyasu was about to do the same when Josuke suddenly put a hand on his shoulder and pulled him back.

“Hey don´t you think y/n has been super distant lately? Barely paying attention and always staring of to who knows where?”, he sounded mildly concerned.

“Really? I mean she didn’t hear what I said earlier but is it that bad?” Then a thought shot into his head. Were you getting bullied? Was someone harassing you? Okuyasu wasn´t the smartest person around but if anyone was hurting you there would be hell to pay. No one was allowed to hurt the most precious person in his life!

As he wondered, a shit-eating grin formed on Josuke´s face as he leaned in further and nudged Okuyasu with his elbow. “Who knows? Maybe she´s just madly in love with someone!”, he then lowered the tone of his voice as he suggestively wriggled his eyebrows at his friend as he continued his sentence. “Maybe…madly in love with you?” At Josuke´s suggestion, Okuyasu´s face immediately flamed up, just the thought of you liking him back filled his heart with so much joy, he couldn´t contain it. He has had a crush on you for as long as you have known each other, he couldn´t imagine any other person staying at his side for life. His best friend was the only other person that he had entrusted his crush to and for that little mistake he was getting teased relentlessly now. He only hoped you didn´t hear that as he shout-whispered at Josuke to stop. Before their banter could go on any further, they were promptly stopped by the teacher raising their voice and asking them to head to their table so the lesson could start.

“Okay but seriously, maybe check out how they are doing. They should be at the library, they usually are after school.”, with that, his friend gave Okuyasu an encouraging final clap on his back before heading back to his seat.

Okuyasu wasn´t able to concentrate on the lesson at all, not that he could usually follow what was being taught. But today especially he was lost in thought, always thinking about you. He had to get to the bottom of this, he wouldn´t stand for you getting hurt.

After the final bell, Okuyasu wasted no time while going to the public library in town, a slight haste to his step. Rounding around the corner after about 15 minutes of walking, he could already see your form through the tall windows the library had installed. He couldn´t help but stop in his tracks and admire you before heading in himself. You were sitting in the far-off corner at a table, seemingly writing something on a piece of paper in front of you. Your posture was a bit tense as you paused your movements to seemingly read over what you had written before raising your pen again, furiously erasing whatever you had written before. After staring at the paper some more you crumpled up the paper and threw it into the nearest corner, joining a seemingly endless pile of previously discarded papers that had met the same fate. Deciding that he finally wanted to talk to you, Okuyasu walked past the window and made his way through the front door, heading straight in your direction, his gaze fixed onto you. In the meantime, you had picked up another blank paper and started to slowly write something down again. He couldn´t see what you were writing about from this distance though, but he wondered what made you so worked up. Drawing closer and closer, you seemed to have finally noticed the sound of his footsteps and looked up, your face suddenly flushing as you caught his gaze, going rigid and scrambling to hide the paper you were just writing on from him by half-heartedly covering it with your arms.

“O-okuyasu! Didn´t expect to see you here! Where you looking for something?” Your voice was a little uneven and you even stuttered a bit, which even took Okuyasu aback. Glancing under your arms he could see little red hearts drawn all over the paper, the words “love” and “crush” sticking out to him as well.

“I was worried about you y/n. The others said you´ve been super distant lately and I didn´t want you to be hurt.”, as he spoke, his gaze was still focused on the paper in front of you. Catching on, you glanced down to what your friend was so intensely looking at, tensing up once more once you realized the truth of the matter. Chuckling awkwardly, you decided to speak up once more.

“Yeah sorry about that. There´s just been a lot of stuff on my mind.”

“Stuff like what? Has anyone been hurting you? I´ll beat them up if you just give me the names!”

At this you frantically shook your hand and waved your hands around in a placating manner,

“No, no! That´s not necessary! No one has hurt me! At least… not yet”, you whispered out the last part, thinking that Okuyasu wouldn´t hear. But he did. And he didn´t like that notion one bit. He doesn´t want you to get hurt.

“What do you mean not yet? Is someone threatening you?!”, he was getting agitated now, who would dare to treat you like that? His little angel?

“It´s not like that Okuyasu, please calm down! It´s just uhmm”, you shuffled your feet a bit and fiddled with you sleeve before speaking up once more. “Have you ever been in love?”

Oh.

OH.

Now it was his time to blush as he nods his head and croaks out a “yes”. Love was an understatement. He would do anything for you, absolutely anything.

“Well… there´s someone I really like. I´ve done so for a long time. I want to confess to them how I feel but I´m scared that they won´t feel the same. I don´t want to accidentally make things awkward and destroy our friendship!”

His mind started to slowly process the information you had just given him. There was someone you liked. And they were also a close friend of yours. Wait. A friend? You don´t know that many people. Could it be… that you like him as well? You feel the same? His heart swelled at the mere possibility of this being true, a dumb grin spread on his face.

“Don´t worry about that! I´m sure they feel the same way.”

“You really think so?”, you asked in uncertainty. Yes, he was. He was absolutely sure that you must like him just the way he loved you.

“Yes I´m sure of it.” And as a smile slowly spread onto your face he added, “It’s okay for you to love me.” He walked around the table so that he was now standing next to you a happy grin on his face as he laid his hand on your shoulder.

“Wait what?”, you asked in confusion. Then after a second your eyes widened and your eyes shifted around uncomfortably as your smile fell from your face. “Okuyasu no, I think you got something horribly wrong.” At this, he gazed down at you curiously, not understanding what you were trying to say.

“Okuyasu. You´re not the one I´m in love with.”

With just this one sentence, he felt as if his whole world fell apart in front of him. This couldn´t be true. You were wrong, no! You loved him! You love love love love him! His grip on your shoulder tightened as he tried to reign his frustration in, it almost starting to turn painful from the way he gripped onto you for dear life.

“Please let me go. You´re starting to hurt me”, you whimpered and shied away from his touch as best as you could but Okuyasu kept a firm grip as tears slowly started to gather in his eyes. No, he couldn´t let you go now, not under any circumstances. If he let go now, you would be gone forever. You would leave him all alone, his heart would burst from the sheer pain of potentially seeing you with someone else. Yes, someone else. Someone was trying to take his place at your side. Anger built up in him, an almost rare hate growing inside of him towards this person he didn´t even know. He didn´t need to know them to know they weren´t worthy of your love.

“Tell me y/n! What’s so special about them? What do I need to change so you can love me? Are they smart? Am I not intelligent enough for you? What can I do?”, he started to grow desperate now, holding onto you with a vice-like grip as he started to shake, the tears just kept rolling down his face in a mix of anger, sadness and frustration. He felt hopeless, You were one of the only people in his life that he could trust, that cared about him. You two would be so perfect together, so why did someone else need to ruin this?

“Okuyasu please st-“, you tried to start again but were promptly interrupted.

“No y/n. You’re mine. You know that right? You care for me and I care so much about you as well! So it was meant to be. There´s no one else for me! We´ll figure this out, don´t worry!” He hugged your form tightly now, pressing his face against your chest as the tears kept streaming from his eyes, soaking your shirt in the process.

“I´m not the smartest person but I love you so, so much. Please we could be good together.”

Then, his voice grew hard again as he tried to hold back his sobs.

“Just forget about them. Forget or they won´t be able to attend school for the next few days. They´ll regret ever trying to get between us.”

#request #my writing #scenario #jjba #jojos bizarre adventure #jojo part 4 #diamond is unbreakable #okuyasu nijimura #okuyasu x reader #okuyasu nijimura x reader #yandere okuyasu nijimura #yandere male #yandere character #yandere jojo #yandere jojo x reader #reader insert #yandere okuyasu x reader #yandere okuyasu nijimura x reader #yandere propmts #yandere #tw yandere

[forasecondtherewedwon]

Prompt 15?

Thanks for the prompt, dude!

15. Drunkenly confessing feelings

That Floaty Feeling

Pairing: Peter Parker x Michelle Jones (Spideychelle) Rating: T Word count: 3927

Summary:

How long has Michelle been the kind of girl who stays long after the party's over? About as long as Peter's been the kind of guy who passes out drunk on a pool float.

Michelle doesn’t go home because there’s nothing interesting to go home to. Griping parents, or maybe sleeping parents, and the inevitability of there being nothing good on TV, everything determinedly uncompelling enough to counter the secret pleasure she gets from sitting on the floor in the dark, too close to the screen with the volume on low. She’s fifteen. She’s ready for her simple pleasures to be a little less simple.

Anyway, it’s nice here now. She sits on the kitchen counter, both knees up and legs crossed at the ankles, to feel the air coming through the window screen. It’s not quite cool, but it’s a breeze and therefore better than the sticky stillness of the large house. Why does anyone like the weather in mid-August?

When Michelle slides reluctantly off the edge to stand on the tile floor, her movement rattles plastic bottles and tin cans, sloshes water from a forgotten ice tray―the tools of mixed drinks concocted by an amateur hand. Or dozens of them. Every teenage boy becomes a bartender at a house party, by his own estimation. That’s why she’s getting up. It may seem quiet enough from her perch in the kitchen, but drinks made too strong have their predictable effects and there are some people at this party that she cares about. So what if she’s never exactly mentioned it? Michelle figures the words will come in their own time, like the vomiting that will come to anyone who drank some of the combos she identifies based on which bottles are clustered together on the countertop and kitchen table.

She wanders.

Ned and Betty are on the couch in the living room, staring at each other shyly and sleepily like they forget that they were making out hard the last time Michelle passed through. Flash is sitting against a wall by his DJing stuff, rhythmically (and irritatingly) clunking the side of a plastic cup in and out. He attempts to draw her into an argument that she can barely decipher with his slurring and more changes in dynamic than he uses with music, so she ignores him. The person Michelle doesn’t find is Liz, who is presumably upstairs. She could be drunkenly reapplying and overexaggerating her makeup in the bathroom, going van Gogh-swirly on the eyes and Picasso-pointy on the lips; or weeping over an unrequited crush in her bedroom while her best friends hold her hands, petting her shoulders and the tops of her feet; or even banging some guy in the spare room just because they’re both young and alive and not immune to the rituals of summer’s-almost-over high school parties. Michelle has no problem with any of her decathlon captain’s theoretical choices. As long as the guy with Liz is not the same guy Michelle has not yet admitted she’s looking for. Even coming close to acknowledging her feelings makes her too warm, the back of her neck clammy, so she darts quietly through Liz’s parents’ house, re-entering and exiting the empty kitchen, pushing out the heavy back door.

Her sudden breathy snort is disbelief. She’s found him. Peter’s in the pool.

Specifically, he’s lying on an inflatable lounger, drifting on top of the water, which is great news because it looks like he’s asleep and if he wasn’t riding this lime-green floaty he probably would’ve drowned. He still could. The idiot might roll over and flop right into the deep end. The floaty could be defective and slowly deflate beneath him. Michelle doesn’t want to rescue Peter Parker, but she’s here and she could. Calling Ned to deal with his friend himself or just throwing empty cans at Peter until he wakes up don’t occur to her. Instead, Michelle glances around the backyard, dark but for the wavering shine from lights along the walls of the pool below the surface. Aha, pool shed. She approaches.

It’s really more of a pool gazebo, practically a pool guest house, as she swings the door open and tries to judge the size of the space in the dark. Luckily, she doesn’t need to venture far; the tool for the job at hand is cradled in a pair of hooks mounted to the wall just inside. Michelle emerges with the pole of a blue leaf skimmer gripped in her hand and returns to the pool’s edge. Where she hesitates.

Peter shifts in his sleep. She’s hardly seen him since school let out a month and a half ago. Is he taller? Unlikely. She doesn’t mean to be watching him, but when she realizes she is, she takes a swift look over her shoulder. Nobody staring out the back door, no curious faces in the windows. There’s honestly nothing to see. At most, someone might think she’s come out here to murder Peter with a leaf skimmer, which everyone would probably accept as so on-brand for the sarcastic asocial girl (who only really lights up when she overhears words like ‘unsolved,’ ‘conspiracy,’ and ‘cereal’―homophones are the source of many of her day-to-day disappointments) that her quietly simmering crush would remain unnoticed. When his chest rises and falls peacefully, Michelle starts to lean forward. PANIC. She plants the end of the skimmer in a gap between the large patio stones to prevent herself from toppling into the pool. This will not turn into a situation where she’s the one who needs to be saved. She sighs and accepts that she better reel this dork (crush? Who said crush?) in.

Balance regained and heart rate returning to normal, Michelle takes hold of the skimmer’s net and reaches across the water with the handle. It takes some adjusting, some extending and angling, but she gets the end of the pole in the floaty’s cupholder. She breathes deeply, always watching Peter’s face, as she tows him along the surface of the water, walking at the pool’s edge to the shallow end. A soft swish, the bright noises of bugs at night. Then, the inflatable chair is bumping the wide steps and Peter stirs. No, shhh, Michelle thinks, go back to sleep. But that’s ridiculous. He has to be awake for her to get him out of the pool. If he doesn’t get out of the pool, her rescue is incomplete. He has to get out, say an awkward thanks, and stroll into the house to find Ned. Or Liz. Oh, Michelle’s aware of the way Liz has been warming to Peter. She likes Liz a lot―at the same time, she wants to stand between the two of them like the Great Wall of China. That’s a normal thing to feel, right?

Peter seems groggy from sleep, but Michelle’s voice shoots up in alarm as he begins to stretch. She won’t have him ruin her rescue by dunking himself at the last minute. The grin he gives at her warning makes her realize it’s not sleep grogginess. This guy is drunk. Incredibly, a nap on a pool floaty has done nothing to speed his sobriety.

“Michelle,” he tells her, “get off the roof.”

“I’m not on the roof, you’re in the pool.”

He gives her a look like he doubts this very much and tilts to the side, trying to check out his surroundings. It sends a surge of worry through her, panic like when she almost fell in.

“Just… trust me. You’re in the pool.”

“Oh. You coming in? D’you wanna share this…”

Either he can’t recall the word ‘chair’ or he’s having trouble identifying the thing he’s lying on as a chair. She kinda can’t blame him. It’s a weird place to wake up.

“No, I’m trying to get you out before you drown like a moron.”

“Aquaman can’t drown,” Peter protests.

Michelle groans.

“I didn’t say Aquaman, I said a moron.”

“S’not my favourite either, but I wouldn’ call him a moron,” he mumbles disgruntledly.

“Would you stop being so…!” She takes a breath. He’s smiling up at her again. “Come on, I’ll help you out.”

She tosses the skimmer away onto the lawn, steps onto the pool’s dry top step and crouches, extending her hands towards him.

“I’ll help you out,” Peter counters.

It’s weirdly suggestive, the way he says it. Like a drunken doofus who stranded himself on a pool floaty has any possible power of seduction. Like he’d want to use it on her if he did. Michelle’s pretty sure the Liz thing is mutual.

“Where’s my Ned? M’Ned. Ned. Ned?” he asks as they clasp hands (his are smooth and cool) and Peter eyes the wet stairs that he’s going to have to navigate since he seems to lack the necessary coordination to pull himself out onto the stones. If he picked one step higher, he wouldn’t dip the legs of his shorts in the water, but of course he does. Thankfully, he appears to find his footing (where are his shoes?), still sitting on the edge of the floaty as it squeals and tries to tip.

“Inside. Possibly defiling a couch with Betty.”

“S’not a bad idea,” Peter jokes with a sloppy grin as Michelle tugs him forward.

He slips on the wet step and she slips on too much momentum, but he’s somehow competent enough to steady her, their hands now squeezing each other. He’s close. His breath is warm and beery. What fifteen-year-old goes to a party and gets this drunk on beer? Gross. Michelle only holds his hands long enough to make sure he gets up the steps without falling back in. When she tries to let him go, Peter holds on.

“S’slippy,” he points out. He skates one foot out along the stones and leaves a slick trail of pool water.

“Fine. But only to the door.”

He beams to be allowed to hold her hand. She assumes he’s really afraid of slipping and cracking his head open. That’s… not unreasonable.

“Not with Betty,” he blurts right after making her pause. There’s a pine tree in the yard and Peter’s pulling a needle out of the soft arch of his foot.

“What?”

Michelle’s losing patience for this whole thing. It’s too much! He needs too much! She should’ve just gotten Ned. She can’t care for Peter like this, like a babysitter. Why didn’t she go home? She didn’t need this night of holding his hand and feeling his wet shorts touch her leg when he staggered too close.

“I don’ want Betty on the couch.”

“I hope you don’t want Betty at all. Because she’s into your best friend,” Michelle clarifies with a nervous swallow.

“Right.”

What the hell does he mean? Is she supposed to know?

“They looked pretty tame when I left,” she volunteers.

“Sometimes people do,” Peter replies with the cryptic wisdom reserved for the inebriated, and young children having a Wednesday Addams-type phase.

“Yeah, well.”

It doesn’t mean anything, it’s just a couple blunt words meant to shut him up, neutralize any thoughtful implications of what he says. Michelle finally shakes off his hand and gives his back a gentle shove towards the door. She isn’t anticipating Peter bracing his arms against the frame, making her collide with his back because she expected him to keep moving. It’s really bad that she doesn’t back up immediately. Really bad. So bad. She can feel his heart beating through his back and her front, his science t-shirt and her striped one. What if she raised her hands to touch his back again, softer? What if she lowered her head until her forehead found the nape of his neck? Michelle’s lips part. In a few seconds, Peter opens the door and moves on like nothing happened.

Not totally though, because while she’s preoccupied with closing the door after them, he grabs her hand again. Michelle jolts, then notices his fingers are more than the welcoming cool she felt outside. They’re chilled. That stupid inflatable wasn’t a lot to have between his body and the water of the pool as the temperature finally started to drop after midnight.

“Michelle,” he says seriously, fingers wriggling as he holds her hand like he’s trying to figure out a way for his not to slide off. “I really―”

“You’re cold,” she says. “You’re too wobbly for me to have any confidence in letting you warm up by moving around. Maybe you should borrow a shower. They have one in the ground floor bathroom, isn’t that weird? I saw it before.”

Yes, Michelle’s rambling. Shower. Peter.

“You’re really great. I think you’re so… the best. Smart pretty.”

“Oh,” she replies. He probably means ‘pretty smart.’

Suddenly, his sort of dreamy expression changes.

“Might throw up before I shower.”

“Good call,” Michelle says, racing ahead of Peter’s stumbling steps to fling open the bathroom door. She closes it much more carefully to offer privacy while he pukes.

With a heavy exhalation, she sinks to the floor, back sliding down the wood door, bevelled detailing abusing her spine. She hears a flush, a splash of water, and maybe the rustle of clothing. Thinking about Peter dropping his clothes to the tiles makes her antsy and wary of being caught here. Not that she’s actually doing anything more than sitting alone on the ground a couple hours past the party’s peak. Idly, Michelle hopes he did get totally naked. Just because, if he entered the shower with some item of clothing still on, what was the point of so carefully extracting him from the pool? She’s not worried, she just doesn’t want him to cancel out her considerable efforts. Her moderate efforts. It’s basically been no trouble. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have bothered. She thinks about Liz upstairs. Yep, why help Peter? There’s nothing in it for Michelle.

The water shuts off after a couple minutes. Peter makes a sound like he’s about to fall and Michelle bolts to her feet, hand hovering over the doorknob, before she hears him catch himself and sigh in relief. She lowers herself to the floor again, embarrassed by her reaction. He doesn’t need her here. He’ll probably be surprised if she’s hanging around when he comes out.

“Michelle?” Peter asks through the door. “You there?”

Her eyes widen and her body tenses. Should she jump up and run away? Hightail it to the living room and pretend she’s been there with Ned and Betty while he showered? If they’ve started making out again, they won’t even notice that she hasn’t been there the whole time. Peter taps feebly at the door. Or maybe he’s resting his head against it. She stays put.

“Yeah. What?”

“Thanks for helping me.”

He sounds about as pathetic as a Victorian orphan.

“I had nothing better to do,” Michelle assures him, tracing the grout between tiles with her fingertip.

“You coulda jus’ watched me. I know you do that. Watch me. Sometimes. I think you do.”

Shit. She should’ve run. Her mouth opens and a squeaky groan comes out as she tries to compose a response.

“I didn’t know you were such a narcissist. Trust me, I have more important things to do with my time,” she says, still outlining tiles like they’re tiny tracks and her fingers are trains she could board to escape this conversation. “You must’ve imagined it.”

He opens the door so quietly―Liz’s parents must take care of their hinges―that Michelle flops backwards as Peter goes to step out and tumbles against his shins.

“I really like you,” he says as she cranes to stare up at him. His wet hair drips on her cheek.

Michelle just shakes her head and starts to scramble to her feet. Peter attempts to help her up by grabbing beneath her arms, nearly groping her boob in the process, though it’s clearly not intentional because when she turns, standing, she can tell he’s still not his soberest self.

“Wanna forget I said that,” Peter says.

She scrutinizes his flushed face and the slightly dazed look in his eyes. Was that a question? Is he requesting that she forget, for the sake of his own self-consciousness? Or is it a statement? He regrets saying it so much that he’s expressing, to her face, that he wishes he hadn’t. Her gaze drops to his t-shirt. The neck’s getting wet as water continues to drain down from his hair. Has this boy ever heard of a towel? Michelle should not have to look at him with his pink cheeks and his normally gelled hair loosened into hanging, wet curls along his forehead.

“You helped me,” he says, and wraps her in a hug.

Which she quickly wriggles out of. This is not the relationship, not the friendship, they have. He’s drunk and he likes Liz―mature, responsible, gorgeous Liz―not her.

“You smell like beer,” Michelle informs him, so he won’t be offended by the way she rejected physical contact. Or maybe so he will be offended. She doesn’t trust this. He’d probably be all cozy and grateful with any idiot who happened to haul him out of that pool. At least he doesn’t smell like barf.

“I didn’ even like it.”

His expression is scrunched and adorable in, like, a toddler kind of way. Whatever, he’s dumb and she doesn’t have a crush on him.

“You just, what, drank every bottle you found to make sure?”

Peter sighs dramatically and tilts sideways, clearly intending to lean against the bathroom’s doorframe and clearly going to miss it because his spatial awareness is not the greatest right now. Michelle grabs his arms.

“Coffee,” she blurts. “Do you like coffee?”

“No,” Peter whines. “I jus’ like you.”

“You keep saying that,” Michelle mutters to herself, glancing away like Ned will appear and reclaim his best friend if she looks around for him enough times. She takes Peter’s hand again (he smiles like he’s happy to give it) and leads him to the kitchen.

“What are we doing?”

“Um,” she says, pulling open cupboards, “making you coffee.”

“Ok.”

“Ok? A minute ago you said you don’t like it. I was kinda expecting a tantrum.”

“S’gross,” he states as he rests against the counter next to her. “But I like being with you. I like you.”

Michelle laughs weakly.

“Sure you do,” she says.

“Yeah and this is gonna take forever.”

“Why would it take forever?” she asks, digging into a drawer.

“Liz’s parents don’ drink coffee.”

She straightens up and stares at Peter, who slides closer, grinning innocently.

“How do you know that?”

He frowns in hazy thought.

“She was drinking it one time and said her parents wouldnapprove. Wouldnapprove,” he repeats, struggling to separate his words. He gives up. “They wouldn’ like it.”

“Right. So. There’s no coffee in this house?”

“Don’ think so.”

“If you wanted to spend time with me, you wouldn’t have told me that,” Michelle points out. “Now I don’t have to search this kitchen.”

“Why were you?”

“For coffee, dumbass.”

“Why?”

“To… clear your head. Make you stop acting weird.” She blushes and turns away from him. What’s her next move? Drag him to Ned and finally leave this house and its lingering party guests?

“Because I was in the pool,” Peter says gravely.

Michelle turns back.

“No, not because you were in the pool. Because of… because you said… Other reasons.”

Annoyingly, he just smiles at her.

“I’m nice,” he tells her.

She snorts.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, I’m nice. Lemme be nice to you.”

“Well, it was already super nice listening to you vomit, so I think I’m good. I’ll go find Ned and he can take it from here.”

She’s two steps away when Peter speaks.

“I thought I liked Liz.” Michelle flinches. “She’s really great, but I feel different about you.”

She wants to flip him off or tell him to shut up―simple methods she’s used to push him away at school, but between the vulnerability in his voice and the fact that he’s still tipsy, she’s scared that being too harsh could make him burst into tears.

“You’re just… you think I saved you. You’ve got some kind of drunk hero-worship thing going on,” she diagnoses, not turning around.

“I thought I would be able to talk to you,” he says quietly. “I saw you over and over all night and I was never really, never ready,” he corrects, “to talk to you, so I kept getting another beer.”

“You’re an idiot,” she says gently.

“Don’ remember why I went in the pool.”

“You’re just dramatic like that.”

“Maybe,” Peter sighs. “Am I still drunk?”

“Yeah, dude.”

“I’ve been drunk forever.”

“That’s why I was getting you coffee,” Michelle reminds him, turning back.

“Let’s go.”

“Where?”

“Coffee. I should… tell Ned.”

This plan is vague and it’s possible that he’ll abandon it, but she can’t abandon him because Peter pushes off the counter and grabs her hand as he barrels out of the kitchen. The plan holds long enough for them to find Ned (and Betty) asleep on the living room couch. Michelle assess them and decides they look minorly dishevelled―enough that they probably made out again, but not enough that anything more than that went down. Betty’s hairband is askew where she laid her head on Ned’s chest.

“He’s asleep,” Peter says, too loud. Michelle shushes him and pulls him away. “Now what?” he asks in a noisy whisper.

“Well, you should probably stay with―”

“You. I’ll be better after coffee,” he promises. “Way better.”

“Better at what? At remembering you don’t actually like me?”

“I like you.”

“You’re confused.”

“You’re confused.”

“Great comeback,” she says flatly.

“Let’s see. After coffee. I’ll still like you.”

“Don’t worry about it, Parker,” Michelle says because she’s scared of his insistence. He’s making it harder and harder to brush off as some stupid thing he said to her when he was drunk with every reiteration.

“If we don’ get coffee, you’ll never know if you were right. Don’ you wanna know if you were right?” he baits.

She glares at him. He beams.

“Look,” Peter continues, yanking something from his pocket, “I didn’ drop my wallet in the pool!”

“Congratulations.”

“I can pay for coffee!”

“You’re not paying,” she says with a firmness that startles them both. “Because, because you’re under the influence and shouldn’t be making financial decisions.”

“A coffee decision isn’ a financial decision,” he argues.

“Of course it is. So, I’ll pay.”

“We’re going? Yes!”

“Shhh!”

Michelle rolls her eyes and frees her hand from Peter’s to let him follow her to the front door on his own two feet. There are his shoes, at last, kicked off to the side. She waits while he stomps his feet into them, then blinks in the darkness as they step out into the early morning. It has to be coming up on four o’clock.

“There’s probably a twenty-four-hour place nearby,” she says, nervous as they set out.

“’K.”

“You’re too trusting. What if I was kidnapping you?”

“I could get away,” Peter brags. “You don’ even have that thing.”

“What thing?”

He mimes for her.

“The skimmer,” she interprets. “Right. Every would-be kidnapper’s weapon of choice.”

Peter’s holding her hand again by the time they reach the end of the street. Michelle doesn’t know how it happened.

“Why’d you help me?” he asks while she looks left and right, considering the likeliest direction for the cup of coffee that’ll assist Peter in his return to sobriety so they can clear this whole thing up. Back to the reality of her one-sided crush. “I forget.”

She makes her decision.

“Because,” she tells him. “There was nothing good on TV.”

more clichéd tropes and prompts

#my writing #spideychelle #spideychelle fic #spideychelle fanfiction #peter parker #peter x mj #peter x michelle #peter parker x michelle jones #michelle jones

[theshadowmalec]

City of Ashes (Cut out scene/ Extra)

Kissed

The story of Malec's first kiss, and how Alec asked Magnus out on a date.

It was printed on thin paper, nearly parchment, in a thin, elegant, spidery hand. It announced a gathering at the humble home of Magnus the Magnificent Warlock, and promised attendees "a rapturous evening of delights beyond your wildest imaginings."

— City of Bones

Standing in the stairwell of Magnus’ home, Alec stared at the name written under the buzzer on the wall. BANE. The name didn’t really seem to suit Magnus, he thought, not now that he knew him. If you could really be said to know someone when you’d attended one of their parties, once, and then they’d saved your life later but hadn’t really hung around to be thanked. But the name Magnus Bane made him think of a towering sort of figure, with huge shoulders and formal purple warlock’s robes, calling down fire and lightning. Not Magnus himself, who was more of a cross between a panther and a demented elf.

Alec took a deep breath and let it out. Well, he’d come this far; he might as well go on. The bare lightbulb hanging overhead cast sweeping shadows as he reached forward and pressed the buzzer.

A moment later a voice echoed through the stairwell. “WHO CALLS UPON THE HIGH WARLOCK?”

“Er,” Alec said. “It’s me. I mean, Alec. Alec Lightwood.”

There was a sort of silence, as if even the hallway itself were surprised. Then a ping, and the second door opened, letting him out onto the stairwell. He headed up the rickety stairs into the darkness, which smelled like pizza and dust. The second floor landing was bright, the door at the far end open. Magnus Bane was leaning in the entryway.

Compared to the first time Alec has seen him, he looked fairly normal. His black hair still stood up in spikes, and he looked sleepy; his face, even with its cat’s eyes, very young. He wore a black t-shirt with the words ONE MILLION DOLLARS picked out across the chest in sequins, and jeans that hung low on his hips, low enough that Alec looked away, down at his own shoes. Which were boring.

“Alexander Lightwood,” said Magnus. He had just the faintest trace of an accent, something Alec couldn’t put his finger on, a lilt to his vowels. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

Alec looked past Magnus. “Do you have — company?”

Magnus crossed his arms, which did good things for his biceps, and leaned against the side of the door. “Why do you want to know?”

“I was hoping I could come in and talk to you.”

“Hmmm.” Magnus’ eyes raked him up and down. They really did shine in the dark, like a cat’s. “Well, all right then.” He turned abruptly away and disappeared into the apartment; after a startled moment, Alec followed.

The loft looked different without a hundred churning bodies in it. It was — well, not ordinary, but the sort of space someone might live in. Like most lofts, it had a big central room split into “rooms” by groupings of furniture. There was a square collection of sofas and tables off to the right, which Magnus gestured Alec toward. Alec sat down on a gold velvet sofa with elegant wooden curlicues on the arms.

“Would you like some tea?” Magnus asked. He wasn’t sitting in a chair, but had sprawled himself on a tufted ottoman, his long legs stretched out in front of him.

Alec nodded. He felt incapable of saying anything. Anything interesting or intelligent, that was. It was always Jace who said the interesting, intelligent things. He was Jace’s parabatai and that was all the glory he needed or wanted: like being the dark star to someone else’s supernova. But this was somewhere Jace couldn’t go with him, something Jace couldn’t help him with. “Sure.”

His right hand felt suddenly hot. He looked down, and realized he was holding a waxed paper cup from Joe, the Art of Coffee. It smelled like chai. He jumped, and only barely escaped spilling on himself. “By the Angel —”

“I LOVE that expression,” said Magnus. “It’s so quaint.”

Alec stared at him. “Did you steal this tea?”

Magnus ignored the question. “So,” he said. “Why are you here?”

Alec took a gulp of the stolen tea. “I wanted to thank you,” he said, when he came up for air. “For saving my life.”

Magnus leaned back on his hands. His t-shirt rode up over his flat stomach, and this time Alec had nowhere else to look. “You wanted to thank me.”

“You saved my life,” Alec said, again. “But I was delirious, and I don’t think I really thanked you. I know you didn’t have to do it. So thank you.”

Magnus’ eyebrows had disappeared up into his hairline. “You’re . . .welcome?”

Alec set his tea down. “Maybe I should go.”

Magnus sat up. “After you came so far? All the way to Brooklyn? Just to thank me?” He was grinning. “Now that would be a wasted effort.” He reached out and put his hand to Alec’s cheek, his thumb brushing along the cheekbone. His touch felt like fire, training tendrils of sparks in its wake. Alec sat frozen in surprise — surprise at the gesture, and surprise at the effect it was having on him. Magnus’ eyes narrowed, and he dropped his hand. “Huh,” he said to himself.

“What?” Alec was suddenly very worried that he’d done something wrong. “What is it?”

“You’re just . . .” A shadow moved behind Magnus; with fluid agility, the warlock twisted around and picked up a small gray and white tabby cat from the floor. The cat curled into the crook of his arm and looked at Alec with suspicion. Now two pairs of gold-green eyes were trained on him darkly. “Not what I expected.”

“From a Shadowhunter?”

“From a Lightwood.”

“I didn’t realize you knew my family that well.”

“I’ve known your family for hundreds of years.” Magnus’ eyes searched his face. “Now your sister, she’s a Lightwood. You—’

“She said you liked me.”

“What?”

“Izzy. My sister. She told me you liked me. Liked me, liked me.”

“Liked you, liked you?” Magnus buried his grin in the cat’s fur. “Sorry. Are we twelve now? I don’t recall saying anything to Isabelle . . .”

“Jace said it too.” Alec was blunt; it was the only way he knew how to be. “That you liked me. That when he buzzed up here, you thought he was me and you were disappointed that it was him. That never happens.”

“Doesn’t it? Well, it should.”

Alec was startled. “No — I mean Jace, he’s . . . Jace.”

“He’s trouble,” said Magnus. “But you are totally without guile. Which in a Lightwood, is a conundrum. You’ve always been a plotting sort of family, like low-rent Borgias. But there isn’t a lie in your face. I get the feeling everything you say is straightforward.”

Alec leaned forward. “Do you want to go out with me?”

Magnus blinked. “See, that’s what I mean. Straightforward.”

Alec chewed his lip and said nothing.

“Why do you want to go out with me?” Magnus inquired. He was rubbing Chairman Meow’s head, his long fingers folding the cat’s ears down. “Not that I’m not highly desirable, but the way you asked, it seemed as if you were having some sort of fit —”

“I just do,” Alec said. “And I thought you liked me, so you’d say yes, and I could try — I mean, we could try —” He put his face in his hands. “Maybe this was a mistake.”

Magnus’ voice was gentle. “Does anyone know you’re gay?”

Alec’s head jerked up; he found he was breathing a little hard, as if he’d run a race. But what could he do, deny it? When he’d come here to do exactly the opposite? “Clary,” he said, hoarsely. “Which is . . . Which was an accident. And Izzy, but she’d never say anything.”

“Not your parents. Not Jace?”

Alec thought about Jace knowing, and pushed the thought away, hard and fast. “No. No, and I don’t want them to know, especially Jace.”

“I think you could tell him.” Magnus rubbed Chairman Meow under the chin. “He went to pieces like a jigsaw puzzle when he thought you were going to die. He cares —”

“I’d rather not.” Alec was still breathing quickly. He rubbed at the knees of his jeans with his fists. “I’ve never had a date,” he said in a low voice. “Never kissed anyone. Not ever. Izzy said you liked me and I thought —”

“I’m not unsympathetic. But do you like me? Because this being gay business doesn’t mean you can just throw yourself at any guy and it’ll be fine because he’s not a girl. There are still people you like and people you don’t.”

Alec thought of his bedroom back at the Institute, of being in a delirium of pain and poison when Magnus had come in. He had barely recognized him. He was fairly sure he’d been screaming for his parents, for Jace, for Izzy, but his voice would only come out on a whisper. He remembered Magnus’ hands on him, his fingers cool and gentle. He remembered the death-grip he’d kept on Magnus’ wrist, for hours and hours, even after the pain had passed and he knew he would be all right. He remembered watching Magnus’ face in the light of the rising sun, the gold of sunrise sparking gold out of his eyes, and thinking how oddly beautiful he was, with his cat’s gaze and grace.

“Yes,” Alec said. “I like you.”

He met Magnus’ gaze squarely. The warlock was looking at him with a sort of admixture of curiosity and affection and puzzlement. “It’s so odd,” Magnus said. “Genetics. Your eyes, that color —” He stopped and shook his head.

“The Lightwoods you knew didn’t have blue eyes?”

“Green-eyed monsters,” said Magnus, and grinned. He deposited Chairman Meow on the ground, and the cat moved over to Alec, and rubbed against his leg. “The Chairman likes you.”

“Is that good?”

“I never date anyone my cat doesn’t like,” Magnus said easily, and stood up. “So let’s say Friday night?”

A great wave of relief came over Alec. “Really? You want to go out with me?”

Magnus shook his head. “You have to stop playing hard to get, Alexander. It makes things difficult.” He grinned. He had a grin like Jace’s — not that they looked anything alike, but the sort of grin that lit up his whole face. “Come on, I’ll walk you out.”

Alec drifted after Magnus toward the front door, feeling as if a weight had been taken off his shoulders, one he hadn’t even known he was carrying. Of course he’d have to come up with an excuse for where he was going Friday night, something Jace wouldn’t want to participate in, something he’d need to do alone. Or he could pretend to be sick and sneak out. He was so lost in thought he almost banged into the front door, which Magnus was leaning against, looking at him through eyes narrowed to crescents.

“What is it?” Alec said.

“Never kissed anyone?” Magnus said. “No one at all?”

“No,” said Alec, hoping this didn’t disqualify him from being datable. “Not a real kiss —”

“Come here.” Magnus took him by the elbows and pulled him close. For a moment Alec was entirely disoriented by the feeling of being so close to someone else, to the kind of person he’d wanted to be close to for so long. Magnus was long and lean but not skinny; his body was hard, his arms lightly muscled but strong; he was an inch or so taller than Alec, which hardly ever happened, and they fit together perfectly. Magnus’ finger was under his chin, tilting his face up, and then they were kissing. Alec heard a small hitching gasp come from his own throat and then their mouths were pressed together with a sort of controlled urgency. Magnus, Alec thought dazedly, really knew what he was doing. His lips were soft, and he parted Alec’s expertly, exploring his mouth: a symphony of lips, teeth, tongue, every movement waking up a nerve ending Alec had never known he had.

He found Magnus’ waist with his fingers, touching the strip of bare skin he’d been trying to avoid looking at before, and slid his hands up under Magnus’ shirt. Magnus jerked with surprise, then relaxed, his hands running down Alec’s arms, over his chest, his waist, finding the belt loops on Alec’s jeans and using them to pull him closer. His mouth left Alec’s and Alec felt the hot pressure of his lips on his throat, where the skin was so sensitive that it seemed directly connected to the bones in his legs, which were about to give out. Just before he slid to the floor, Magnus let him go. His eyes were shining and so was his mouth.

“Now you’ve been kissed,” he said, reached behind him, and yanked the door open. “See you Friday?”

Alec cleared his throat. He felt dizzy, but he also felt alive — blood rushing through his veins like traffic at top speed, everything seemingly almost too brightly colored. As he stepped through the door, he turned and looked at Magnus, who was watching him bemusedly. He reached forward and took hold of the front of Magnus’ t-shirt and dragged the warlock toward him. Magnus stumbled against him, and Alec kissed him, hard and fast and messy and unpracticed, but with everything he had. He pulled Magnus against him, his own hand between them, and felt Magnus’ heart stutter in his chest.

He broke off the kiss, and drew back.

“Friday,” he said, and let Magnus go. He backed away, down the landing, Magnus looking after him. The warlock crossed his arms over his shirt — wrinkled where Alec had grabbed it — and shook his head, grinning.

“Lightwoods,” Magnus said. “They always have to have the last word.”

He shut the door behind him, and Alec ran down the steps, taking them two at a time, his blood still singing in his ears like music.

#malec #magnus bane #alec lightwood #first kiss #city of ashes

[georgescatcafe]

the rising chariot — 2

rating: t warning/s: none pairing/s: platonic dream team, karl jacobs/sapnap genres/tags: percy jackon and the olympians au, friendship, angst summary: Nick Pappas isn’t sure it’s normal for teenagers to be sent across the United States on a quest that could potentially kill them, but Nick has started to realize that everything he thought was normal is entirely false. George Davies doesn’t particularly want to spend three consecutive days with this new camper and that son of Hermes who snagged his win in Capture the Flag two weeks ago, but he knows he has to suck it up and go with them, no matter how irritating they may be. Clay Bryce just wants to prove himself and show that he’s more than that troublesome kid from Cabin Eleven, but even as the leader of this quest, he’s not sure how to when Nick has fire powers and George is practically capable of mind-control.

Yet what they feel and want will mean nothing if they don’t complete their quest. When a petty feud between gods has Apollo threatening to take the Sun from the sky, the three must head out to stop him, but not just that—they’re in a race against an ancient enemy of the god, one who definitely will try and kill him if it gets to Apollo first.

+ao3 +masterpost

Floris came by his house again the next day. Nick stared at him as he stood in the doorway. “School’s cancelled indefinitely,” Floris told him. “They said they’ll work on rebuilding as soon as they can, but while we still don’t have a physical school, we get summer break early.”

“Happy birthday to me,” Nick replied, though there was no mirth in his voice.

Floris smiled anyway before his eyes got all shifty, and he leaned forward, as if looking for something. “Are your parents home?” Nick wondered if Floris knew about his situation. He knew about Nick’s mom; or, at least, Nick assumed he somehow did. It wouldn’t surprise him that he knew about the rest of his living arrangement, either.

“I managed to get taken away by a deranged cop the day they left for their anniversary,” he answered. “And they aren’t putting that on hold for me.” His younger sisters—homeschooled, lucky them—were sent to their grandparents last week. The only reason Nick didn’t go was because he was old enough to handle himself. Or so he thought. “I’m home alone.”

“Nice,” Floris hummed, hand settling on the doorframe thoughtfully. “So about yesterday….”

Nick held up a hand, wincing as a headache bloomed behind his eyes. “I really don’t want to talk more about it.”

Floris made a face, but Nick was being honest. The whole ordeal just made him feel sick. “It’s good to—”

“Talk things out, I know,” NIck replies, “so you said. But, look, man, that was really traumatic, okay? And I think I hit my head too hard on the door because I was seeing things, and it was just really scary. I don’t want to think about it anymore.”

Floris studied him, gaze intense, and Nick straightened up under it, shoulders moving back and chest puffing up slightly. It wasn’t an intimidating look, but there was something… unnerving about it. He felt he had to prove something. Finally, Floris sighed. “It’s probably for the better for once. Just… if something like that happens again, you should take this.” He held out a small card, and when Nick took it, he realized it was a business card.

“Call me, okay?” Floris asked. “Don’t be a stranger.”

Nick stared at the card for another second before looking back up at the other. “Okay,” he agreed. “I’ll call.”

Floris gave him a final smile before pivoting on his heel. He was about to walk off when he spun back around. “Oh, uh, I made these for you.” He held out a baggie filled with what looked like lemon bars. “I don’t recommend eating them all at once. I’ve found they’re pretty good for when you need comfort food, or, like… healing. Or something.”

Nick accepted the bag. “Uh-huh. Thanks.”

“Yeah,” Floris said, before smiling for the last time for real and turning, heading down the walkway and taking off down the road.

Nick looked back down at the lemon bars. They weren’t his favorite. He definitely wasn't going to eat them all at once. Dumb of Floris to even tell him that.

He went about his routine like usual, now that school was out of the picture. It was a bit weird actually, sitting down to a day of mindless video games with no guilt, no homework to turn in or tests to study for. (Granted, most of his homework was left incomplete, and most tests were taken with no studying involved prior. Not that Nick was a dumb kid, school just… wasn’t for him. In case you couldn’t tell by the whole burning it down thing. Not that he meant to do that. Just to be clear. In case you missed that fact.) Nick sunk deeper into his beanbag chair, fingers flying across his Xbox controller as he focused on the small TV in his room. He wondered if his parents knew about his early summer already.

Probably not.

He played until the Sun went down, only stopping to pee or get food, and his routine looked very much like that for the next three days until his parents returned, and he found himself thrown into the monotony of chores and errands. It was preferable to reading-induced migraines, but he also missed the break from home school provided. The town he lived in on the edge of Houston was easy enough to navigate on foot, and his dad had started to give him driving lessons, but the lessons had to be put on hold for work, and walking around the city was a lot less fun when there was no one else to walk with.

The business card he’d taken to keeping in his pants’ pocket ever since Floris gave it to him seemed to become a paperweight then. Nick pulled it out.

Floris Larkspur Keeper Half-Blood Hill Long Island, New York [phone]

The information on it was terrible to read, in some fancy, looping font, but Nick understood it well enough once he squinted for a while. He frowned at the address and phone number. The number was obviously toll-free, meant more for business rather than personal use, and the location itself… New York? Nick frowned before returning the card to his pocket.

He’d have better luck running into Floris in the grocery store. Besides, the only bit of info on the card that didn’t leave him more confused than how he started was Floris’s name. Nick bit the inside of his cheek. Maybe Floris wasn’t the best person to walk around the city with.

Nick sighed, wondering if his stepmom would maybe send him on a grocery run. He was surprised when he walked into the living room to see his parents sitting on the couch, staring at him expectantly.

“Is something wrong?” he asked. “I didn’t mean to burn down the school. I promise.”

His stepmom rose from her place on the couch. “We believe you,” she said, hand coming to rest on his shoulder. His heart pounded as his gaze dropped to her hand. “You aren’t in trouble. Actually, the opposite.”

He stared at her before turning to his stepdad.

“Your birthday, Nick,” he said.

His birthday. He completely forgot about it. He looked at his stepmom.

“We’re sorry we weren’t here to celebrate with you,” she told him. “That was our fault. So we did something extra special for you.”

“You didn’t miss much,” Nick replied, even as she guided him over to the couch where his stepdad opened his laptop.

“With no school,” his stepmom said, “we figured it would be okay if spring break came early.”

And there, right on his dad’s laptop screen, a ticket to New York City.

Nick’s eyes turned to saucers as he stared between his parents, gaze going from his stepdad, back to his stepmom, then vice versa. “You’re kidding,” he breathed.

“Your flight goes out in two days,” his dad said. “A week there and straight back.”

“By myself?” Nick asked, hardly believing his luck.

“You’re sixteen,” his dad replied, even as his stepmom made a face.

“We have a second ticket,” she explained. “We can resell it, but… if you wanted to take a friend—a responsible one.”

Nick didn’t have many friends. Constantly switching schools did that to a kid. He stared blankly at his stepmom, who offered him a tentative smile in return. He tried to give one back, but his mind was reeling, wondering who to invite—if they’d really let him go on his own or not.

“Y’know,” his dad started, “there’s this one kid I’ve run into a couple times, at the gas station, the store, kind of funny looking, ginger, always asks after you.”

Oh, God. “That’s,” Nick hid his face in his hands, humiliation rising in his throat, “Floris.”

“A friend?” his stepmom asked, hopeful.

Nick nodded.

“Perfect!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands together. “And clearly he cares about you. I think that’s a good one to take.”

“Mom,” he said, even as the name tasted bitter on his tongue, knowing his actual mom was still out there, “no. There’s got to be someone else—or I could go on my own, right? Right, Dad?”

His stepdad said nothing. So that was just a fib, then. Nick’s face fell.

“I think Floris would be good,” she urged. “You don’t have to spend every second together.”

“But you’ll want us to,” he argued.

“I just want you safe,” she said, “and I know your dad wants the same.”

Nick made a face.

Finally, she made one too, expression souring. “Nick, we just want to do something nice for you—for once. Can’t you just accept it?”

“I,” Nick made a frustrated noise deep in his throat, “why now? You’ve never cared. Is it because I almost went to prison?” He looks to his stepdad. “Do you feel guilty or something? That you couldn’t stop them from taking me, just like you couldn’t stop them from taking Mom—my real mom,” he added quickly, unable to stop the glare he shot at his stepmom, polite as she may be.

Her hand flew to her chest, as if stung, and his stepdad sat up, brows furrowing, lips downturned in a severe frown. “Nick Pappas, don’t you dare talk to us like that,” he scolded.

“Or what?” Nick snapped. “You going to kick me out? I bet you’d love that! You wouldn’t have to look for a new school anymore; you wouldn’t have to look at me and be reminded of her. You’d love that, wouldn’t you?”

“What’s gotten into you?” his stepmom cried. “You’re never like this!”

“I’m just tired!” Nick shoved himself up off the couch. “Thanks for the trip, but oh my God, just leave me alone—please!” He stormed into his room and slammed the door shut, pressing his back against it and immediately pressing his face into his hands.

He almost died Friday, and they didn’t care. Of course they didn’t care! And now they wanted to act nice, and he was supposed to just accept it? Without a modicum of suspicion? It was so not fair. He brought his legs to his chest, hands sliding from his face and elbows resting on the tops of his knees. He buried his head in his arms. None of this was fair.

What felt like an hour but was probably just ten minutes later, a soft knock at the door startled him into lifting his head. He scooted away from the door, and it opened slowly. In the doorway stood his stepmom. Nick bit back a groan.

“What,” he said.

The petite woman lowered herself to the floor, closing the door behind herself and taking a seat across from him. “I’m sorry I’m not her,” she replied.

Nick glared at her crossed legs.

“I mean it,” she promised. “I’ve never tried to be her—”

“You wouldn’t want to be her,” Nick grumbled.

His stepmom paused before a hand came to rest on his knee. “I never met her, but if she was anything like you, she couldn’t be bad.”

“You’re just saying that.” Nick’s glare strengthened. “I can’t stay at one school; I’m always setting things on fire; I almost went to prison just last week. I’m a terrible son.”

She didn’t say anything to that. 

Nick flattened his lips. 

“I’m sorry,” she finally said. “We’re… not good parents. I never wanted to be a parent. I am now, and I wouldn’t change it, but I’m not your mom, even with you calling me that, and I don’t want to replace her. And I could never be her because I know how much she meant to you, and I couldn’t do for you what she did.”

“You don’t even know what she did,” Nick snapped.

His stepmom sighed. “Can you please just accept this? I had to talk your dad into keeping the tickets after what you said.”

“You should have let him sell them,” Nick replied. “I deserve it.”

“No, you don’t.” She patted his knee. “You’re right. You did almost go to prison—you wouldn’t have deserved it, though. I think wrongful imprisonment deserves a trip to New York.”

Nick allowed a laugh to fall past his lips, bitter.

His stepmom took it. “Your flight leaves in two days. Tell your friend to come with you. You’ve got a whole week to run around NYC like the teenager you are. Have fun.” She gave a gentle shove to his shoulder. Nick rocked with the motion. “Okay?”

Nick stared at the floor.

“Okay?” she repeated.

He nodded.

“Good.” She pushed herself from the floor, running her fingers lightly through his hair before leaving, closing the door softly behind her. Nick squeezed his eyes shut, letting out a shaky breath.

Have fun. He can do that.

When he finally hunted Floris down at the grocery store the next day, he told him about the trip. “It’s short notice,” he apologized, “but it’s a week.”

“New York?” Floris asked. Nick felt like if the ginger had a tail, it’d be wagging.

“Yeah,” he replied. “A week and then we come home.”

“Got it, captain,” Floris said. “I’ll pack my bags tonight and meet you at your house bright and early tomorrow morning.”

“The flight doesn’t leave until noon.” Nick frowned.

“I like being prepared,” Floris replied. “Are you ready?”

“More or less,” Nick nodded, “not like I own much anyway.”

Floris stared at him, eyes narrowed, before nodding also. “See you tomorrow then.”

Nick gave him a mock-salute. “See you tomorrow.”

#sapnap #fundy #mcyt #karlnap #pjo au #georgenotfound #dream #fic #fanfiction #updates every friday #hfh

[omeliaendgame]

The rain, the deer and the tree

Hey Omelia-Fans :-)  This fanfiction is about Amelia having a car accident. I wrote this mainly at night, so please forgive me for possible errors ;-) I hope you like it! 

Amelia finally finished her work at the hospital. Now she could drive home and get some sleep; even if Owen wouldn´t be home, because he had a night shift. Amelia walked out of the hospital and ran to her car through the pouring rain. It had rained all day and now a thunderstorm was supposed to come, so Amelia wanted to get home quickly. She took the road through the woods, because there usually weren´t other cars or persons, so she would not end up in a traffic jam. It was already very dark outside, but at one point a deer appeared in  Amelia´s headlights. She put her foot on the brake abruptly. But the car didn´t find any hold on the wet road and began to skid. The deer ran away panicky and Amelia tried to gain control of her car again. But it didn´t work. The car skidded towards the edge and kept getting faster. Panic overtook Amelia. She grabbed the steering wheel and then... she only felt her car crashing into a big tree. The airbag deployed and the windows shattered. Silence. Then everything around her went black.

Amelia opened her eyes slightly. Where was she? What happened? She beheld the tree in front of her. The rain...The deer… Amelia remembered. She couldn´t move. Was it just the shock?! Or was she paralyzed? Amelia´s head was pounding, and she touched it with her fingers. There was blood. She tried to find out where else she was injured, but she couldn´t feel any pain. She knew that it was very probably just because of the adrenaline, but she tried to move a little. She  turned her head slowly. There were shards everywere. It seemed like she crashed into the tree laterally, because her car was smashed especially on the left side. That was not good. She could be seriously injured. She grabbed her phone and wanted to call an ambulance. But she realized her phone was broken, too. She straightened up slowly and opened the door of her car, which was smashed. She got outside and tried to walk. Her legs were shaky but after some seconds it became better. She as if she was in a bubble – everything around her seemed so unreal. She just wanted to get help. It was still raining heavily and she walked down the street, towards the hospital. She hoped that someone would come, but the street was empty. She had to get to the hospital. She felt a wave of sickness overcome her and that her legs would give way in a few seconds. No! She had to hold on! Only up to the hospital. She forced herself to walk faster. After some minutes she could see the hospital. She was almost there! And then there would be someone to help her. Amelia´s strength was wearing out more and more. The effect of the adrenaline abated slowly. Amelia felt a severe pain in her abdomen. She groaned weak but continued walking. When she finally entered the emergency department, Richard saw her right away. He looked at her dripping clothes and at her face, which was covered in blood. „Amelia, oh my god, what happened?!“, he exclaimed horrified and rushed to her. Amelia barely could keep her eyes open and her legs started to fail. Richard caught her. „Car accident...“, Amelia whispered. „I need help here!“, Richard shouted, „Amelia, stay here with me! Where does it hurt?!“ „Everywhere. B-belly...“, Amelia answered weakly and fainted then. Jo came over with a gurney and Richard laid Amelia on it. „Let´s go into a trauma room!“, he instructed Jo. „What the hell happened?!“, Jo asked. „She said she had a car accident.“, Richard told her. „We need to call Owen!“, Jo said worried. „He was in surgery earlier. I don´t know if he´s ready. And we don´t have time. We need to do a CT now! Can you page Koracick?“, Richard said and looked at the monitors. He frowned and added: „And page Dr. Altman.“ Jo nodded and they brought Amelia to the CT.

Only 15 minutes later, Amelia was in surgery. Teddy, Tom and Richard operated on her.  Shortly after they opened her abdomen and head to fix the bleedings, the monitor started beeping. Cardiac arrest. „Give me the paddles!“, Teddy exclaimed. „Damn it, Shepherd!“, Richard said anxiously, „don´t do this.“ Tom focused the monitor. They had a heart beat again! Teddy got her back. Everyone in the O.R. exhaled and looked at Teddy. „Let´s continue.“, she said, still uptight. „Dr. Wilson, you need to find Meredith, Maggie and Owen.“, Richard instructed Jo and she nodded. If it was another patient, she would be disappointed not to be in surgery, but now she would leave that to the attendings.  

After she talked to Meredith and Maggie and brought them to the waiting room, she entered the emergency department. Owen rushed to her with a phone in his hand. „Wilson. Here is someone from the towing service. There is a car on River Road, which crashed into a tree. There is no driver, but he should be seriously injured. Did they bring him here while I was in surgery?“, he asked her. Jo lowered her eyes. „Tell them the driver is here“, she said. „He is?“, Owen asked, but transmitted it through the phone. „They need a name. Did the driver have his identity card or something?“, Owen asked her then. Jo closed her eyes for a second and swallowed. „Amelia Shepherd.“, she whispered and avoided looking into Owen´s eyes. He stared at her. „Hello? Do you have a name?“, the voice at the phone asked. Jo grabbed the phone and answered: „The drivers name is Amelia Shepherd.“ Owen´s lower lip started trembling. „I´m sorry, Dr. Hunt.“, Jo said compassionately. „Where is she?“, he asked monotonously. „She´s in surgery. We don´t know what happened exactly. Dr. Webber, Dr. Altman and Dr. Koracick are taking care of her.“, Jo answered. Owen ran his hand through his hair and looked at her. „Dr. Hunt,… you should go to the waiting room. Meredith and Maggie are there, too.“ Owen didn´t move. „What´s your status? Is it bad?“, he almost whispered. Jo grabbed his arm to bring him to the waiting room. „She has haemorrhages at the liver, kidney and spleen and a cerebral hemorrhage. Two ribs and the sternum are broken, which damaged her heart. That´s what we have now.“ Jo hesitated. „She… flatlined earlier. But we got her back. I will go back to the O.R. and update you, okay?“, she said a little softer. Tears came into Owen´s eyes but he nodded slowly.

In the waiting area, Maggie walked back and forth restively while Meredith sat on a chair with her head propped up on her hand. „Could you stop that, Maggie“, she asked, „You´re making me nervous.“ „No, no. Amelia is in surgery and I   can´t sit still, because then...“, Maggie answered with  a shaky voice, but didn´t continue. She breathed out and stopped walking. She sat down next to Meredith. „What if… if“, she started, but Meredith interrupted her. „No! We are not thinking about that. Nobody is dying.“ She looked at Maggie depressed and swallowed. She didn´t want to spell that out. She looked over to Owen, who was staring at the door, which led to the O.R.. He didn´t want to hear anything like that. Amelia was the strongest person he knew and he couldn´t lose her. She already had to go through so much pain, why, why did everything bad has to happen to her?! She didn´t deserve that. „Owen? Should we call her family?“, Maggie asked carefully. He considered briefly and shook his head. „I don´t think she would want that.“, he said, but wasn´t sure. He wasn´t sure about anything. He hated that they could just wait. They didn´t know what was going on in surgery, but he needed to know that Amelia would be okay.                         

When Richard, Teddy and Tom stepped into the waiting room some hours later, Owen stood up expectantly. „She´s stable now. She´s okay.“, Teddy said and saw Owen´s, Meredith´s and Maggie´s relief. Owen fell on her neck and whispered: „Thank you!“ She smiled. She could never be the one to tell Owen his wife was dead. „We put her into a drug-induced coma until tomorrow; her body needs time. But you can go and see her.“, Richard explained. They went to Amelia´s room in the intensive care unit and Owen sat down next to her bed. Everywhere were tubes. He focused the monitor, reassuring Amelia´s vitals were good. She looked lifeless and pale. Owen grabbed her hand as if she could leave him if he would not hold her. Meredith and Maggie sat down too and looked at each other. But noone said something. 

A little while later, Owen´s smartphone rang and he saw it was his mother. „Mom?“, he said. „Owen! Teddy told me what happened. I´m so sorry… Is she okay?“, she asked worried. „She´s stable. They are going to wake her up tomorrow“, Owen answered. „How are you? Did you eat something? Did you sleep? It´s already 1 am.“, Evelyn asked him. God, was that the time?! Owen looked at the clock. Really, it was 1 am. Owen totally forgot about the time. He asked himself if Bailey had looked for a replacement for his night shift. He couldn´t work now. „Owen, talk to me? Are you at home? Or at the hospital?“, Evelyn said as he didn´t say something. „Mom! I´m okay… I´m great, thank you“, he said a little ironically and annoyed. Evelyn didn´t answer. „Sorry, it was just… a hard day.“, Owen apologized for his tone. His mom was just worried. „I know. I just wanted to hear if you need anything. Should I come and visit you? How long does Amelia have to stay at the hospital?“, she said a little less intrusive. „They said at least 10 days. Maybe longer.“, Owen said. „You know what, I´ll call you the next days again, then you can tell me more. Now sleep a little. You can´t do something until tomorrow“, Evelyn told him. „Yeah… thank you, mom.“, he answered and hung up. He put his phone away and leaned back to sleep.

The next day Owen woke up from his phone. He got a text from his mom: „Hey Owen. I´m at the hospital, where can I find you?“ His mom was here?! He didn´t expect her to come. But he texted her the number of Amelia´s room and only one minute later she was there. She stepped in and looked at Amelia, whose chest rose and fell slightly from the respirator. „Hey“, she said softly and touched Owen´s shoulder. „Hi mom“, he said, „I didn´t know you´d come.“ „I wanted to see you… and Amelia. You said they are going to wake her up today?“, Evelyn explained. „Yes, they should come soon.“, he sighed. „Is this where you slept tonight?“, she asked him. „Well, honestly I couldn´t sleep that much“, he answered and suddenly felt very tired. But the door opened and Tom, Richard and Teddy came in with Meredith and Maggie. „Evelyn!“, Teddy said and smiled slightly. Evelyn greeted her and the others and looked at them expectantly.    „We´re gonna reduce the medication step by step throughout the day. We hope that she will wake up this evening, but we can´t predict that exactly. We´re going to look after her regularly.“, Richard explained them. When they finished the first checks, Owen decided to go home, take a shower and pack a bag for Amelia. He needed some time, but he wanted to be at the hospital as soon as possible. He wanted to be there when Amelia would wake up.

Amelia opened her eyes slowly. She saw light. Bright light. She narrowed her eyes and gradually she became accustomed to the light. She saw people around her. Where was she? „Amelia?“, she heard a female voice. Who talked to her? Someone grabbed her hand. Another person hold a rod in front of her eyes. „Could you follow the light?“ That meant she probably was at the hospital. She followed the light. „Very good.“, the doctor said and Amelia recognized Koracick. Wait, was it a tumor again?! „Amelia, do you remember what happened?“, the female voice from earlier asked. Amelia saw Teddy´s head above her. She shook her head slightly. „You had a car accident.“, Teddy told her. Amelia tried to remember. A car accident? Then a picture came to her mind. The rain... The deer… The tree. Slowly she understood. „Amelia, are you okay? Do you need something?“, another voice asked. She turned her head and saw Owen´s worried face. He held her hand and next to him sat Evelyn. Amelia felt that her head was pounding and that her belly hurt. She sighed and opened her mouth. „I-it´s o-kay“, she muttered. „Let´s give her some time now“, Richard said and left the room with Tom and Teddy. Owen stroked her head gently. „I´m so glad you´re awake.“, he said. Amelia smiled slightly. „When… did it happen? I… mean, what day do we have?“, Amelia asked slowly. „Your accident was on Monday evening. We have Wednesday now.“, Evelyn explained. „Am I okay?“, Amelia asked. „You need to tell us. But you´re gonna be okay.“, Owen answered and squeezed her hand. She looked into his eyes, which were filled with worry. „I´m okay“, she whispered and closed her eyes exhausted. „I love you“, he said gently, „I´m gonna stay here with you.“ Amelia smiled half asleep. She loved this man too. But she couldn´t tell him anymore. And she didn´t need to. The only thing Owen wanted to hear from her, was that she was okay.

She was okay. She would recover. That was what mattered right now.  

[cinaja]

Before the Wall part 13

An acotar fic on the time of the War. For summary and the entire fic, click here.

Disclaimer: Acotar and the characters belong to sjm

A/N:  I finally stopped writing this in bullet points! This is almost 40k words long now, so I decided it was past time to write it ´normally`. I hope none of you mind.

Either way, I just wanted to thank the people who are reading this and leaving likes and comments, it really means a lot to me❤ And if you`re a silent reader, it would be really great if you could maybe leave some kind of sign, because so far, I don`t have really many readers (that I know of)😉

----

*Seven months later*

The past months have been going great for the Alliance, and especially for Jurian`s army. They have been winning battle after battle. By now, there are rumours going around that their enemies` magic has little effect on them. Some soldiers even whisper that the gods (whichever ones they worship) are on their side, that they have blessed the human armies and are keeping them from harm.

Jurian wonders what they`d say if they knew the truth.

With a mixture of amazement and jealousy, he watches Miryam draw a symbol on the hilt of another sword. It glows softly, then vanishes into the hilt. It is the middle of the night and they are alone in the armoury, something Jurian made sure of in advance.

Getting Miryam to actually use her powers even in such small capacity has been a struggöe that lasted almost two months, but it was well worth it. The impatient part of him wants to push her to do more, to use her power in the way rumour claims witches are able to. (If he was the one born with this power, he certainly wouldn`t hesitate. He hates to admit it, but sometimes, he is almost jealous.) Jurian doesn`t push, though. Of course he doesn`t.

“You don`t have to watch every time, you know?”, Miryam says, “Surely it is boring for you.”

“Your company could never be boring.”

Jurian steps closer to Miryam to gently put his arms around her waist. Miryam laughs and Jurian presses a kiss on her neck. He`d love to continue this, but the time for their nightly activities is limited, so he lets go of her.

“You could teach me, you know”, he says.

Miryam stiffens ever so slightly, as she takes up the next sword. “No.”

“Why not?” Jurian has been thinking about that question for quite some time. Ever since he saw the kind of difference even a spell as simple as that, a bit of protection against the Fae`s magic, can make. “You told me that some spells can be used even by humans.”

“If you overstep your limits, you die. And the magic takes your soul as a price.” Miryam doesn`t look up from the sword she`s just working on. “I won`t be responsible for that.”

Jurian is about to argue that he`ll be careful when another thought occurs to him. “Wait. But that doesn`t mean it`s dangerous to you, right?”

“Don`t worry. I`ll be fine.” Miryam puts down one sword and takes up another one. “Do you have any idea what that emergency meeting tomorrow is about?”

"You're the politics experts", Jurian says, "I'm just around to give those Fae pricks a good beating."

"You give yourself too little credit."

Jurian laughs. "Now that's something I've never been accused of. Would you feel better if I said that I'm a better commander than half of these pointy-eared bastards."

Miryam smiles and says lightly, "As the local politics expert, I'd feel better if you'd stop insulting our allies."

"How about you get me an aerial army and I learn to hold my tongue?"

It isn't an outrageous demand. Helion and his soldiers had to leave almost two months ago already (not that Jurian had minded. Miryam had been growing quite a bit too fond of Helion with his constant flirting). And two weeks ago, the soldiers from Sangravah were pulled out, too. As annoying as the Fae can be, they fight well and Jurian's army is short a few soldiers without them.

"I'll try", Miryam says. As one of the councilmembers in charge of the organisation between camps, she is certainly in a position to do it, but moving troops is always complicated.

Miryam turns back to her work, but she seems tense. Like something is wrong. Jurian wrecks his mind for what it might be, but with her, there are many options.

Finally, he says, "You don't have to worry about the meeting. If it was something bad, we'd have heard already."

Miryam frowns. "They don't call meetings with the entire alliance easily. Usually, it's just whoever is needed or can be bothered to show up."

Which means that usually, Miryam is there and Jurian isn`t. With the alliance now in place for a while, fractions have formed and Miryam is... well, maybe not the leader but certainly one the most important players in one of those. Jurian only bothers to go to meetings if he knows something important will be discussed.

“If anything bad had happened”, he says, “we would have heard. They wouldn`t wait until the meeting to tell us.”

Miryam looks relieved, at least a tiny bit. Sighing, she puts the sword she was working on back into its place.

“Done for tonight”, she says, “Want to go somewhere?”

“Another moonlight walk? You know how well the last one went.”

Miryam narrows her eyes and Jurian grins at her.

“Let`s go. You know I love courting danger.” Jurian loops his arm through Miryam's and leads her out of the armoury.

Together, they walk through the camp. In the middle of the night, it is quiet here. The few soldiers on guard quickly look the other way as they pass, some of them hide grins. (Their relationship is a favourite subject of camp gossip - not just here, but through the entire camp. Their sneaking around will likely be known to everyone around by morning, but the true reason will remain secret.)

There is a small river running next to the camp, just far enough away that the guards won`t be able to see them. Miryam sits down on a stone. She pulls off her shoes and lets her feet dangle into the water. Jurian sits down next to her and she leans her head against his shoulder.

“I`m scared”, she finally says.

“Of what?” He hesitates. “Her?” (Speaking Ravenia`s name, he learnt, is just as bad an idea as asking after Miryam`s past.)

After the incident with the bounty hunters, they haven`t heard anything from Queen Ravenia again. Well, they heard plenty of her armies, slaughtering their way through the Southern Continent, but nothing related to Miryam. Apparently, the bounty hunters didn`t tell anyone about Miryam. They got lucky and so far, there is no sign that things are about to change.

“No. Not... her.” Miryam shakes her head. “I don`t know. It`s stupid, really.”

“I`m sure it isn`t.”

“My life is going great”, she says quietly, “I have somewhere I belong, and friends and you. But that means I have so very far to fall, too. I just keep expecting something to go wrong.”

Jurian pulls her closer. “That`s life, Miryam”, he says, “Nothing is ever certain, everything can be lost. But that just makes it more precious.” He thinks of all the soldiers he saw die while he was working his way up through the ranks of the rebellion. Of his parents, dead before he was old enough to truly understand the word. He takes Miryam`s hand. “But I can promise you one thing”, he says softly, “As long as I`m alive, you won`t ever lose me.”

----

Taking the Callian Pass may have had a large strategic advantage for the Alliance as a whole. However, for the Seraphim aerial army, it turns out to be a rather unfortunate choice. Because for the past seven months, they have been stuck there.

Drakon has written (well, signed) fifteen letter to the Alliance already, asking them to have someone replace them. The answers have been pretty phrases that all held the same meaning: No. One of the disadvantages, apparently, of having one of the only aerial armies on the Continent.

“What a bunch of crap”, Drakon mutters, frowning at the papers before him and crosses out a paragraph, “Won`t work.” He reads the next one and crosses it out, too. Half a minute later, the entire paper ends up in the bin.

 Groaning, Drakon takes out a huge, leather-bound book and flips it open. There has to be some kind of precedent. There is always a precedent or at least something you can use as a starting point.

Sinna, as usual, enters without knocking. When she sees the papers and book strewn around the room, she rolls her eyes.

“We`re in the middle of a war, and you`re spending your time with a bunch of books?”

“We`re in the middle of a war and I`m trying to find a solution to the problem that causes it.”

“Problem: Slavery. Solution: Free the slaves. It`s that simple.”

“Problem: Slavery and half the Fae believing that humans are worth less than animals. Say we win this war and free all the slaves, that mindset will remain. If we don`t find a way to solve that, there will be another war. And another. Maybe not in a year, but eventually.”

Sinna sighs. “And how do you know that?”

Drakon points towards the books lying around. “Historical precedent and people who are smarter than me and were nice enough to write their ideas down. The only issue is that while I have found tons of examples of how things didn`t work out, I`m still looking for some precedent of a situation like one ending well.”

“Then I have good news for you”, Sinna says.

“Oh?”

“Given how things are going, this war is going to take a few years at least. So you have plenty of time to find a solution.”

Drakon glares at her. "Not funny."

"Kind of funny, actually”, Sinna says, sitting down on a chair, "Come on, just look at yourself. You've really got the confident, charming Prince down by now. Your people love you - someone has to make sure you don't get over-confident. After all, the history is littered with arrogant asshole royals."

"Hardly any danger of that", Drakon says, "I'm well-aware of what most of the Continent thinks of me."

"Yes", Sinna says, "And you may become the best ruler Erithia ever had, but no one beyond our borders will notice if you keep hiding."

Drakon walked right into that, really. Another proof that he's absolutely horrible at politics.

"I'm not hiding", he says, "I'm focusing on what I'm good at and taking care of my people."

Sinna crosses her arms. “It`s an emergency meeting. Would it really kill you to go? Just this once.”

“I went to the Black Land just once and look what it got me”, he snaps.

Sinna glares. Drakon glares back. He`s getting better at that, too. After a few seconds, Sinna sighs.

“Fine. Your choice.” She nods towards the papers. “Planning to get those published again?”

“Once I`m ready.” Which may just take a while yet. But, as Sinna said - this war is only just beginning.

----

The meeting room is stuffed. It`s an emergency meeting, which means that most of the important Alliance members appeared personally. (Well, except for Prince Drakon, who seems determined to become the only ruler not to turn up at a single Alliance meeting. Miryam has begun a letter to him thrice now and thrown it in the fire each time without getting more than a few words written down.)

Miryam is almost halfway through greeting everyone by now. The High Lord of the Night Court approaches, dressed head to toe in midnight black, his expression stern. 

“Milord”, Miryam says and nods to him.

He gives her the barest incline of his head. “Lady.”

They never really got over their rough beginnings. The High Lord is not the kind of male to ever forgive having his hand forced by an eighteen years old half human. And perhaps Miryam is not the kind of female to ever like a male who allows a place such as the Hewn City to exist, either. But they made it work - mostly because Miryam has too much influence for the High Lord to risk an open confrontation.

“How does your court fare?”, she asks, “I heard that Hybern still gives you trouble.”

He nods gravely. “Due to those Spring Court bastards, no doubt. But if they think the Night Court will fall so easily, they are sorely mistaken. Even with some of our soldiers fighting on the Continent, we are still strong.”

Miryam refrains from saying that without the thousands of soldiers the Alliance sent, things would look much different. If anything, it's the Alliance helping out the Night Court, not the other way around, but like most of these royals, the High Lord would likely rather eat his sword than admit that.

Before she can think of anything to say, Noctus, the High Lord of Summer, joins the discussion. He nods to Miryam, then turns to address the other High Lord.

"Is it true that the Alliance had to send ten thousand troops to help defend your lands?"

The High Lord straightens. And just like that, Miryam is forgotten and the only thing the two males seem to care about anymore is their pissing contest.

Prythian males. Just typical.

Miryam takes her chance and sneaks off to find better company.

“Having fun?”, an amused voice asks from behind her.

Miryam turns around to Helion (technically also a Prythian male, but one she likes.) “I`ll never understand why you males can`t take your pissing contests outside.”

“Ah, but where would the fun be in that?” The heir of the Day Court grins at her. “I heard a rumour that the gods have blessed your armies and are protecting your soldiers from peril. Met any gods recently?”

“Ass”, Miryam mutters, softly enough that no one but him can hear her.

Helion laughs and winks at her. Apart from Jurian, he is the only one who knows the truth behind the rumours the soldiers have come up with. He even helped her test the spells she came up with before she wove them into the weapons. Beyond that, he was little help, unfortunately. The Guild is secretive, meaning that hardly anything about their powers is known to the outside. So Miryam has to figure everything out herself. (She`s getting better at it. By now, she has the basics of the language mastered.)

“Any idea what this meeting is about?”, Helion asks.

“No.” And it annoys Miryam to no end. Usually, she knows whatever is going on in the Alliance, but this time, there was no getting the information. “I heard a letter arrived, but Queen Nakia got hold of it first and refused to let anyone else see it. Not even Andromache was able to find any information.”

“You`re pissed.”

“Worried.” Miryam learned early on that missing vital information is a quick way to die. Usually a gruesome death. (Not that there were any other kinds of death in the Black Land.) So she prefers to have all the information and prepare accordingly.

“Well, we`re about to find out”, Helion says and nods towards the clock standing in the corner. “We should take our places.”

Miryam gives him a tight smile and slides into her seat next to Jurian. He puts an arm around her shoulder and begins absentmindedly toying with her hair. In spite of everything, Miryam relaxes a bit. 

It is Nakia who begins the meeting this time, smiling like a snake. Miryam has no doubt the female enjoys the power being the only one with vital information gives her.

“Yesterday”, the Queen says, “I received a letter. From the Loyalists.” She draws out each word, savouring it. “They request a meeting to discuss this war. A possible end to it.”

“An end?” Jurian snorts. “The only possible end is them freeing their slaves. If they`re unwilling to do that, they can shove their offer up their ass for all I care.”

A few people nod in agreement, but most - especially the Fae - remain silent. This is not good. Because these Fae may be ready to fight for human freedom, but in the end, they have no stake in this fight. If the Loyalists make a good enough offer, who knows what they`ll do. And Nakia, the damn fool, doesn`t even realise what that message might do. She just relishes the power.

That is why Miryam doesn`t like losing control over a situation.

“It`s not that easy”, one of the Fae says, “Such an offer should not be rejected without thought.”

“You`ve got to be kidding me”, Jurian mutters.

The Grand Duke of Sangravah says softly, “He has a point, you know? If we reject a peace offer without even letting them speak, it will make us look like the bad guys. And there are some territories still considering their alliance in this war.”

Worse than that, there seem to be some people at this very table contemplating their alliance. Likely the Loyalist`s intent. To strew discontent.

“We should agree to the meeting”, Miryam says, “Send a delegation, hear what they have to say. But one thing should be clear from the very beginning: There will be no peace unless slavery is abolished.”

There are nods and murmurs of agreement, but Miryam marks the faces of those who remain silent. The High Lord of the Night Court is among them.

Helion asks, “Do we know who will be leading the Loyalist`s delegation already?”

Miryam knows the answer. She knows the answer even before Nakia says, “Queen Ravenia of the Black Land.”

Miryam hates the fear that shoots through her at the name. How can the mere mention of the female still have such power over her?

“And who will lead ours?”, the Erithian emissary asks.

Miryam knows the answer to that question, too. And just this once, she cannot play the part. She does not know the right thing to say - Cauldron, she can barely contain her panic.

“I could do it”, the Grand Duke says. Miryam wonders if she`s the only one who notices that he is saying it to protect her. (Quite possible, since the identity of her former owner is still a closely guarded secret.)

But Andromache shakes her head. “I mean no offence, but surely you understand why this is unacceptable to us. The one representing our Alliance in this war cannot be Fae.”

Indeed, none of the human Alliance members look pleased. A few of the Fae, in turn, seem offended. Jurian is too busy watching Miryam with barely-concealed worry to look angry.

“You still don`t trust us?”, one of them hisses.

“This isn`t about trust”, Andromache replies, “but about the message we`re sending.”

Another Fae shrugs. “Why are we even discussing this? We all know the answer.”

The High Lord of the Night Court frowns. “While I certainly respect Lady Miryam`s abilities as an emissary”, he says, “she is still a girl of nineteen and in no way qualified to head a meeting this big.”

Miryam barely listens to the discussion raging around her, even though she`s now the one at its centre. She doesn`t want to go. She can`t. Ravenia will be there and she will recognize her. Memories flash through her head, blood and death and suffering. Fire burning her skin.

She cannot do this. Impossible. She may sacrifice everything, do everything for her people, but this is too much.

The argument is now turning into a full-fledged fight. And suddenly, Miryam can see it. The rift that is already beginning to form between them. It will only widen after the meeting. Fae territories will leave - not all, but some - and then, the tide will turn.

She closes her eyes and for once, she allows herself to remember. That last day, standing in the sand just beyond Ravenia`s palace. The vow she made. She ran afterwards.

She won`t run now.

She opens her eyes. “I can do it”, she says.

Everyone turns to her. Miryam lifts her chin.  

“You don`t have any qualification or authority to represent us”, the High Lord drawls.

Miryam holds his stare. “I have been representing this Alliance, Lord, for weeks before you ever joined. And I said: I can do this.”

“Miryam, you don`t have to...”, Jurian whispers, but she shakes her head.

“You`re wrong. I have to do this. And I will.”

She looks around, meeting all of their gazes. Daring each of them to object. No one does.

----

Mor is covered in dirt and sore, but she feels alive. Like there`s lightning in her veins and she can do anything she wants.

It is always like this after battle. Even if the battle isn`t a real one but just a skirmish. It calls to some part of her. Some great, ancient beast that has perhaps always been living under her skin and breaks free whenever she fights.

In the seven weeks since Jurian has allowed her to fight her first battle, she has fought enough to know that the feeling will pass. It will pass and she will be left behind empty, her hands covered in blood that isn`t hers. Then, lying awake at night, Mor won`t feel great anymore. Not at all.

But for now, there are still adrenaline and magic thrumming through her veins. Mor takes a bowl of water from the table in her small tent and begins to wash her hands. Blood turns the water pink and she unceremoniously unfastens her dirty leather armour.

She has only just put one some light linen clothes when she hears a noise coming from behind her. The sound of a heartbeat. Mor whirls around, diving for her dagger. She stops when she recognizes Az standing in her tent.

He looks changed. Older, somehow. Azriel, of course, was never carefree like the rest of them, but now, there are shadows in his eyes that Mor never saw before. And a coldness that she doesn`t recognize.

“Az!” She dashes forward, closing the distance between them to hug him. His shadows lighten and Mor`s own gift whispers of his feelings. She pulls back. The last thing she wanted was to give him hope where there is none, but she hasn`t seen him in months and the reaction was instinctive.

“Are you all right?”, she asks, scanning him from head to toe. A part of her is itching to read him, but he won`t.

“I don`t have much time”, Az says, like he hasn`t heard her question. “The High Lord doesn`t know I`m here and I have to be back before he finishes the meeting. But I need your help.”

“Anything”, Mor says without even thinking about it.

Az dips his chin. “The High Lord sent Rhys to a camp in the South. It`s led by a commander named Pelior who has a grudge against nobility. He hates Rhys and without his father`s protection...”, he trails off.

“What can I do?”, Mor asks.

“Get him out. And fast. Pelior is making Rhys and his soldiers fight on the frontlines every time. Each battle might be the last.”

Dread tightens Mor`s stomach. Still, she says, “I don`t have the power to do such things. I can`t transfer his army.”

But Az shakes his head. “Cassian is a grunt soldier in one of the armies and I can`t do anything without the High Lord`s orders. It has to be you, or Rhys dies.”

“But-”

“I have to go.” 

Without waiting for her reply, Az vanishes. Mor remains standing in her tent for a moment, thinking through the possibilities. There are few enough. And something tells her she should hurry.

Mor frowns. The thought running through her head is reckless, near-crazy and relies entirely on her ability to lie. Not to mention that should it go wrong, she will be knee-deep in shit. But it is her only idea.

Still, Mor feels dirty when she sneaks into Jurian's tent. There are wards, but those allow Mor in. Carefully, she shifts through the desk until she finds his Alliance council seal.

Mor takes an empty paper from the desk and writes a letter, changing her writing enough that it won't be recognized. Then, she seals the letter and presses the seal into the wax.

Carefully, she puts the seal back to where she found it and leaves the tent. As soon as she is past the wards, she whispers a quick prayer to the Cauldron and winnows.

----

A/N: This isn't really a cliffhanger, right? Originally, this was supposed to be longer, but then, it would have been a real cliffhanger, so I decided to let it end here. That means that the next part is already halfway done, though, so it should be up more quickly than this one

#miryam #jurian #drakon #andromache #helion

[laceymorganwrites]

Just thought you should know

Word Count: 1,608

Pairing: Kakashi x Reader

Song: Just thought you should know - Betty Who

Warnings: cursing, alcohol abuse

A/N: Modern AU

3AM and all my friends are looking at me sideways

You knew it was a bad time and a bad idea, but those things always made the best stories, didn´t they? Yeah it was late, you still weren´t over your ex, well you were but you were so mad at his new girlfriend. Give me a minute

Your friends were the rational reason you couldn´t use right now, they tried to get your phone away from you, but you didn´t let them. “Just a minute, guys!” you shushed them away. They just sighed, this wasn´t good at all… Maybe I'm too drunk and I'm not doing this the right way

“You´re drunk, (Y/N)! Who texts their ex when they´re drunk? Or at all?” your friends complained, they weren´t wrong, you were absolutely shitfaced. Maybe a text wouldn´t suffice… maybe you should call him... But let me finish

Well, now that you started the text you might as well finish it. I'm so happy that you're happy with her (wait, that's a lie)

That was how you started, in case he thoughts he thought you wanted him back. Not on your watch. You were proud of this first line of text, it was powerful. Almost called you, tried to text you like a million times

You weren´t so sure about this next line so you consulted your friends. “Delete it. That sounds desperate, you´re not that desperate. I mean, I still don´t get why you´re even texting him. What could you possibly want from that asshole?” your friends asked. 3AM but I don't care I had to tell you someday

“I just gotta tell him some things, that´s all.” you stated coldly as you deleted the line about calling and texting him. The way I'm feeling

“You made me feel like absolute shit and I hate you. How about that?” you grinned as you hit send. Your friends actually wanted to murder you right now, they would never let you drink again.

I can still feel you

Kakashi didn´t know why he allowed Obito to drag him to the bar in the first place, his friend knew too well that he didn´t like going to crowded places with alcohol involved. It just made him uncomfortable.

He stared at his phone most of the time, Obito and his girlfriend Rin left a long time ago.

They were probably having more fun than him right now.

In this instance he received a very hurtful message from an unknown number. You're everywhere

At first he counted off the people in his head who could´ve possibly sent the message, but nobody came to his mind. I can taste your lips

For some reason the smell of alcohol really got to his head, the laughter and loud music was annoying him, who could possibly still be bitter about being with him? Especially since Kakashi never really had any girlfriends. Hear your voice in my head

“He´s read it but isn´t texting back...asshole!” you grumbled and your friends let out a sigh of relief.

“Thank god, who would´ve known what he would´ve responded...” your friends told you.

Kakashi was staring at you and your friends for quite a while now, he pitied you to be honest, but then again he started disliking your ex as well. How could an asshole like him possibly get a beauty like you? Let alone get away with hurting you like that? Kakashi wanted to comfort you even though you were strangers. And I know that I should shut my mouth

Despite his inner gut telling him not to overhear someone´s conversation, he still listened in on you. To his luck as he found out you were the one sending the message he received, he walked over to you to point out your misunderstanding.

“Shit! I´m so sorry, maybe you guys were right and I shouldn´t text while drunk...” you said in embarrassment. And just hang up the phone

“You know, maybe it´s a good thing I don´t remember his number anymore” you giggled.

“Let me fetch you a drink for the trouble” you suggested, but Kakashi politely declined.

“Not to be rude, but you´ve probably had enough” he chuckled at you and you felt the heat rise to your face. You were sure it wasn´t just the alcohol. But I still want you

“Yeah… you´re probably right” you admitted and tried to get up and get home. You almost fell down the chair if Kakashi didn´t catch you.

“Thanks” you blushed even more and you couldn´t tell but so did Kakashi.

“Alright, we´re taking you home right now” your friends apologized to and thanked Kakashi before getting you home safely. I just thought you should know

The next day you decided to text the stranger from the bar, luckily you had his number. Maybe you were still a little drunk, nobody would ever get the idea otherwise.

´Hi stranger, I´m the crazy drunk one from last night, want to help me sober up?´ the message said.

Bet you're in the kitchen hoping she don't hear you whisper

Kakashi had just woken up to a ping from his phone. He frowned at first, but then smiled to himself. He hated to admit it, but you were already pretty darn cute when you were drunk, he wanted to get to know you sober. Just admit it

´Sure thing. Coffee sounds good to me right now´ he sent back along with the address of a nice cafe. Kakashi never really did anything to his hair, let alone thought about what clothes to wear, but for some reason those things stressed him out right now. Do you ever think of me when you lean in to kiss her

You were surprised when Kakashi actually agreed to the date, well you hoped it was a date. You even went out of your way to look pretty. The cafe was tiny but comfy, it was very cozy and romantic, you really liked it there. Except for all the happy couples, you missed feeling like this. Do you miss it?

When Kakashi arrived you couldn´t help but blush at the sweet smile he gave you and smile back excitedly. It was nice being in his company, you apologized for your behavior the day before but Kakashi said it was fine, in fact it was the thing that sparked his interest. You talked for hours, he made you laugh and it felt like you´ve known each other forever.

Oh, 'cause I can still feel you You thanked him for the great time when you had to go to work, but both of you agreed to text now and to meet up again when your schedules aligned. You couldn´t help but feel a giddy excitement in your guts whenever you met up, you grew way more nervous than you needed to be. You haven´t felt like this in a really long time. You're everywhere

Every time Kakashi went home from a date with you, he had a big smile on his face. Ever since you were in his life, he was happier than he´d ever been. His friends annoyed him and teased him for his little crush on you, he was indeed talking about you too much. And every time he was in or out of town he would always find little things that reminded him of you, he got you those little tokens as gifts for your next dates. I can taste your lips

On one special occasion you decided to invite him over to your place to cook together. It was a beautiful day and you had way too much fun, you had gotten carried away from cooking a long while ago. It has since turned into your first kiss and not letting go of each other. Hear your voice in my head

Over time as your relationship commenced, you moved in together. It was nice having someone to wake up to in the morning, someone to have breakfast in bed with on the weekend. Overall your affections for each other only grew with the now shared space. And I know that I should shut my mouth And just hang up the phone But I still want you

That was until your ex messaged you, saying he missed you. It made you beyond infuriated, he wasn´t in your life anymore, he should´ve moved on long ago. But then you remembered you were in the same spot as him a few years back. I just thought you should know

I just thought, I just thought I just thought, I just thought I just thought you should know I just thought, I just thought I just thought, I just thought

I'm so happy that you're happy with her (wait, that's a lie) Almost called you, tried to text you like a million times

I can still feel you You're everywhere I can taste your lips Hear your voice in my head And I know that I should shut my mouth And just hang up the phone But I still want you

I can still feel you You're everywhere I can taste your lips Hear your voice in my head And I know that I should shut my mouth And just hang up the phone But I still want you I just thought you should know

I just thought, I just thought I just thought, I just thought I just thought you should know I just thought, I just thought I just thought, I just thought

Don't wanna be without you Don't wanna be without you, baby I just thought you should know I just thought, I just thought

#Naruto Shipuuden #naruto #naruto imagine #naruto kakashi #kakashi x reader #anime #anime imagine #imagine #kakashi #kakashi hatake

[dididrawsblog]

Mr. Perfect // slow burn

Part I

Summary: Steve Harrington was the coolest guy at school and now he’s working with you at the rental store. Very complicated story about complicated feelings.

Pairing: Steve Harrington x Reader

Word count: 1.7k

Warning: language, very slow burn

A/N: I’m pretty sure I’ll write smut later.

On the second month of summer you decided you need a job. You really wanted to buy a car and your parents said you’re old enough to earn money by yourself. By the way, most of your friends had already worked somewhere. Fortunately, your uncle had some connections with the film rental store manager so you got a job without any troubles. Also, you were glad you didn’t have an interview.

You were standing in front of an old building with the sign ‘Family video’, waiting for a miracle. There were a couple of cars in the parking lot with a fat red cat lying on the top of the black one and an old lady smoking near the entrance. It didn’t look like a place for your dream job but you had no choice. You walked into the shop and came to the girl in a uniform standing near a movie stand.

“Hey. Umm.. I’m Y/N. It’s my first day and your boss told me you can show me everything here” It was awkward. The blue-eyed girl looked at you for a second and then shook your hand.

“Right, I’m Robin. Come with me I’ll give you your form. It’s just a blue t-shirt, actually”

She led you to a small storage room. There were a tiny yellow table, two chairs, shelves with shirts and old tapes and four lockers. Robin stood up on a chair, took a t-shirt and threw it to you.

“You can change here. We usually have lunch in this room while having a break. You’ll have two or three breaks during the day. Depends on how many hours you work. This is the key from your locker” Robin handed you a key from the small box on a shelf. “It’s number 3, leave your clothes in it. I need to get back to work. Find me when you’re done here”

You took your shirt off putting on the blue one but turned out it was too small for you. You looked at the size and yeah it was ‘S’. Fuck. Okay, you just took it off and stood up on the chair looking for the right size on a shelf.

“L, XL, L, XXL...” You murmured while looking through the stacks of t-shirts.

“Nice view” There was a male voice behind you, you shivered. You turned around quickly then you understood you were standing without shirt just in your bra and turned again screaming.

“GET OUT” You closed your eyes because of shame. Your cheeks were burning red and you screamed again. “OUT!”

“Jeeesus. Okay, okay, fine. I closed my eyes. Let me just put my bag over here and I’ll leave”

You turned your head and saw Steve Harrington trying to put his bag on the table with closed eyes. No, Lord, why him? Out of all the people in the town...why Harrington? It’s not like you hated him. You just knew he’s an asshole. He annoyed you since the beginning of your high school days. He bullied Jonathan and sometimes other “weirdos”. Every girl had a crush on him except you of course. Mr. Perfect, Mr. Cool, the King...Just a douchebag.

When you woke up from your thoughts he was already gone. And you were out of time so you decided to wear ‘L’ size and get back to Robin. You actually liked wearing oversize shirts. You felt more...confident? Steve smiled at you from the counter as you walked passed him. He does work here. You found blu-eyed girl near the thriller movie stand and she told you about you work hours and shifts.

“Today you are working with me and the dingus” she told you while placing a pack of new films on a shelf.

“Dingus? You mean Steve?”

“Yeah, but i call him ‘dingus’” she smiled with a corner of her mouth and glanced at him. “I know he might look cool and mean and all that but he’s not”

“I know he’s not cool” it came out a bit harsh and you just looked away from Robin. You felt tensed today.

“He’s not that bad” she said after a minute. You looked at Steve flirting with a girl while brushing his hair with a hand. The girl smiled... and she definitely gave him her number. “Your task for today is just to sort all the movies from the boxes. If you have any questions you can ask me”

You picked up a big box full of horrors, romcoms, thrillers and... God it’s heavy. Right, so you were taking some films from the box and putting them on the right shelves. It was...well, boring but you noted some films you wanted to watch. ‘Jawls’, ‘Sixteen candles’ maybe. Robin and Steve were talking and laughing, they seemed like good friends. You were a little bit jealous. You wished you had some real friends. The one you could watch films with. You picked the last tape from the first box and tried to put it on the top shelf but you weren’t tall enough. You couldn’t reach it.

“Hey, need some help?” Steve’s voice behind you. Again. He was leaning on the wall with crossed hands and the smile you couldn’t stand.

“No” you didn’t even look at him, just kept trying and jumping as high as you can. A minute later he just grabbed the movie from your hand and placed it by himself. “I don’t need your help, Harrington”

“Yeah, you’re welcome”

“No, Steve, you don’t get it. I don’t need your help. I don’t wanna talk to you or interact with you in any possible way. I don’t like you. I know you enough and I don’t want to get to know you better. So, please, let’s pretend we don’t exist in each other’s universes. There’s no Steve Harrington in mine and no Y/N Y/L/N in yours, okay?” You breathed out as you looked at his concerned face and a sudden compassion hit you with a wave.

“Um.. okay. In case of emergency call Robin. I’ll be... you know.. in my universe” He rubbed his back awkwardly and walked away.

You`d finished the last three boxes walking down the hall with a chair in your hand. Robin said you can take a break after you`ve done with the assignment. You were tired and hungry and felt like shit. It`s probably because of Steve. Even though you have your reasons to push him away he wouldn`t known them. He obviously didn`t remember you from the high school. Why would he? Because you`d been standing close to her when they broke up? Because when she`d slapped him and left you were the one who stayed to pick her bag from the ground? And you`d seen him smiling as his gaze was fixed on her moving silhouette. You were mad at him because of the girl in the past. She was a bitch too though. Those memories surfaced in your mind and you felt goose bumps. Past is in the past you reminded yourself. He should just stay away from you.

You carried the chair back to the storage room, grabbed a can of coke and a sandwich from your bag and sat at the table. Robin came in and looked at you with a face your mom gives you when you leave too many mugs in your room. Yeah, and now you have to have this conversation. You put your food away and prepared yourself.

“We need to talk” Of course we do. “It`s about Steve” What a surprise.

“What`s wrong with him?”

“There`s nothing wrong him. I know you don`t like him. I`m sure he did something bad to you but he changed. And he is my best friend so.. I care about him” Your eyes went down when she sat in front of you. “Listen, I like you here. For a whole month it was just me, dingus and Kieth. And I`ve started having suicidal thoughts. I want you to stay but you have to keep it cool. You either talk to him about what happened or you just forget about it”

“Okay. I…uh..I won`t hurt his feelings again?” She chuckled. “It`s just-

“ROBIN! There`s a mad customer and I need you” Steve flew into the room with a check in his hand. “Remember that old lady from yesterday who said she really enjoyed the turtles documentary? She`s actually watched a porn”

“What!?”

“Yeah, and now there`s a guy screaming about turtles out there”

“What the fuck?! Okay, come on, dingus. We need to fix it” she handed you a piece of paper. “This is your shift schedule with my number. I think you can go home now. AND we haven`t finished yet. So-

“ROBIN!”

“CAll me tonight and we will talk about it. SEE YA!”

They ran away slamming the door. You packed your stuff, changed your clothes and walked out. It was fresh outside. Summer wind in your hair and you shivered. Maybe you should talk to someone about that accident.

#steve x reader #steve harrington #steve #steve harrington x reader #imagine #imagine steve #imagine steve harrington #steve harrington imagine #slowburn #stranger things #stranger thing imagine #imagine stranger things #robin #joe #joe keery #slow burn

[twoidiotwriters1]

Home- Chapter 8 (KyloRen/Ben Solo x F!Oc)

A/N: Hello, I just wanted to say that if in the part of the taglist your user is crossed out, it means that we had problems to tag it, sometimes tumblr won't let us :(

Words: 2,091

Masterlist

Chapter 7 // Chapter 9

I hug my legs as I lean against the wall, my hands tremble and I can hear the erratic palpitations of my heart.

The door to one side of me opens and I get up like a spring, Luke leaves the room and watches me.

"You must go back to your cabin, Kiara" scolds me.

"I can't, I... this is my fault, he's hurt because of me, I can't just leave,” He puts his hand on my shoulder.

“It’s not your fault, is very noble that you want to be close, I am sure that Ben will be fine, but now you must return,” I sigh and nod. We both left the infirmary. In that a ship lands not far from us. Luke growls. "You better hurry up…”

I follow the path to the cabins, turning from time to time to see who had arrived, until I decide to stop. My view goes from the rocky path to the nursing cabin. I shake my head.

“I won't be able to sleep anyway…” I return to look out of all the windows, until I reach Ben's room. Carefully, I enter without making any noise. Ben is still asleep, his wounds are covered by bandages, tubes connect him to some machines.

My chest feels heavy to see him like this. I approach, but voices interrupt me, footsteps are heard, I run to a cabinet where they put some medicines and I hide behind it.

"Leia, I already told you it's okay, you didn't have to come,” that's Luke's voice.

“When someone who is caring for your son says he had an accident, you should see him as soon as possible," Says a woman. The door opens.

"It's not nice to see her in this state," says another thicker voice.

“Oh, my baby…” From where I am I can see only the woman's feet and the fabric of her purple dress skimming the floor. "What happened, Luke?"

He clears his throat. I bite my lip, feeling a lump in my throat.

"It was an accident, he was playing with the other students and something went wrong"

"You know how children are, Leia. Ben is fine…”

"I'd better guide you to your rooms, tomorrow you can talk to him," Luke continues. Leia moves.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to talk to your students about this."

Oh, no. A part of me wants to go out and explain everything, but my body stays still. The voices are now far away and the door closes again. I leave my hiding place, I see the stretcher and I approach. I touch Ben's hand and tears fall down my cheeks.

“Forgive me, Ben. I didn't want this to happen, it's my fault,” A sob comes out of my mouth before I can stop it. “Sorry…”

I touch his cheek. Suddenly all the fatigue covers my body, I sigh and drag a chair to be near the stretcher. I settle down and without releasing Ben's hand, I fall completely asleep.

 _______________________

I open my eyes slowly, the light bothers me until my body wakes up completely. I hear the beeps of some machines, I stir in my place and feel everything. A tube connects to my nose and surrounds my cheeks. I see around me. What happened? Why am I in the infirmary?

I turn my head to my left and am surprised to see Kiara, asleep uncomfortably on a chair and suddenly, the memories come back. The fight, the fall. I sigh.

Her head is leaning against one of the arms of the chair, for a moment I can hear her snoring. I smile, I'm about to wake her up until I realize her hand is clinging to mine. My heart flutters and the beeps of the machines give me away.

At that the door of the infirmary opens.

“Oh, you’re awake!”

"Mom?" She approaches the stretcher, but stops.

"Who are you?" She asks and I turn to my left and Kiara is awake, looking confused at my mother.

"Ahm... I" She stutters.

“Mom," I turn to her. "Her name is Kiara, she is..." I stop for a few seconds, I hope not to ruin everything. "She is my friend.”

My mom raises her eyebrows and smiles kindly. The door opens again and my father enters with Luke, my mom sits on the edge of the stretcher.

"Hey kid, how’re you feeling?" Dad says and repeats his wife's actions when she sees Kiara. He points at her confused.

"She's a friend of Ben, Han." At this point I know Kiara is nervous.

"Friend?" he asks mockingly and I roll my eyes.

"Hello," she replies in a weak voice.

"Oh honey, so you must know what happened last night" We both shared a look.

"Mother- “

"It was my fault, Mrs. Solo" She interrupts me, looking at my mother. "We started arguing about something silly, actually I was going to fall, but Ben helped me…”

"No, that's not true, well, maybe half, but–“ We both spoke our versions at the same time, I wasn't going to let her take all the blame.

"Wait," Luke interrupts, approaching.

"Fall out?" My father asks.

"Guys, they don't know anything about what happened, you must explain it to them," adds Luke.

“It was my idea, I convinced Kiara to go to the forest, I just wanted to know what Luke would do if he found out. We were there for a long time”

“Ben told me to come back early, but I didn't want to, I should’ve listened to him. Then we argued, he wanted to come back, but I provoked him and we started to fight”

“I shouldn't have followed her, it's also my fault. The ground couldn’t hold our weight, she was going to fall, so I pushed her– I... I don't remember the rest,” Now we all look towards Kiara.

"Tell them how you managed to help Ben,” adds Luke.

“I…” Her cheeks flush slightly. "Used the force?"

I look at her surprised. How is it that someone who has spent so little time training could do it?

"She levitated your body, couldn't hold it for long, but long enough to put you in a safe place," He explains.

"How did you do it?" I ask her. She shrugs.

"I really don't know, I just did it."

"You were there?" Dad asked Luke.

"In a way…”

"And you did nothing to help?"

"It's complicated, Han. What matters here is that Ben is fine."

My father huffs and then shakes his head. He walks until he is in front of the stretcher.

"Thanks for helping my son," He says to Kiara, then he looks down and smiles. "I see that both can take care of each other…”

I follow his eyes and see how our hands are still together, our fingers intertwined. She also realizes. I feel my cheeks burn and theirs are also on fire. We let go quickly causing the adults to laugh.

"I'm Han Solo,” Dad introduces himself, offering his hand and Kiara shakes it.

"I am Leia, I must also thank you, without you, my son wouldn’t be here," My mother gets up and hugs the girl.

"No- it's nothing," She says when they part.

"I guess you didn't listen to me last night and fell asleep here," adds Luke, looking at Kiara with amusement. Her cheeks turn red and I look at her amused.

"I better go,” She gets up and practically runs out of the infirmary and now I join in the laughter of the adults, I stare at the doorframe.

It had never happened to me, nobody, apart from my parents, had worried about me, she was willing to take the blame and stayed to take care of me.

"Why didn't you tell us you already had friends, Ben?" I return to my mother. I shrug.

"It's just her." She sits next to me and kisses my forehead.

"You should have seen your mother, she was hysterical!” Adds my father, laughing.

"Visits are until the following week,” I mention.

"We wanted to see you sooner," Mom hugs me.

"Everyone is fine," adds Dad, sitting down on the stretcher. "But now we have a pending issue, young man,” He points out to me and I frown. "I think it's time to give you the talk about the girls…”

"Oh no. You shouldn't, dad,” I say nervous and he laughs.

"I know you're still very young, but it's never too late or too early.”

"Leave him alone, Han. They're just friends," Says my mom stroking my hair. "I like her." She looks at Luke.

"She's a good girl," He replies.

During all this time, I had never had friends, nobody could see me as one, why is it different with her? Why would someone want to be my friend? It must be some trick, but what does she want from me?

 _____________________________________________

"Was that what you thought that day?" We both connect our gazes, my breathing is shaky, and my body is covered in sweat, as if I had actually exercised a lot.

I don't understand this connection I have with him. In addition to being just memories, now they were his, they were combined.

"The training is over,” he says getting up, I with difficulty, follow him.

"Wait, you can't do that!” He ignores me. “Ben," Now he stops, but doesn't look at me.

"Why is this happening? You can't ignore what just happened–”

“Watch me.”

It's been a week since that "training" and I haven't seen Kylo since. Everything has become routine and the only communication I’ve had is with the droids and the times I have tried to distract the stormtroopers that are on duty outside my room.

That's fun, they even have real names already and not RY-259 and TY-896. Both seem satisfied with being Raymond/Ray and Tyler. At first they just ignored me, but it only took a good time for my charm to relax them.

The downside is that their help in escaping will not do. Their only job is to make sure that I don’t come out, they don’t know what the others will do with me, where I can go, nothing.

The good thing is that my leg is better than before and I can walk normally, although I must be careful.

The door opens and the devil himself enters the room, I roll my eyes. But my annoyance is soon replaced with confusion. Kylo is agitated and paces back and forth like a caged animal.

"What?" I ask when I hear the slight whispers. He looks up and comes closer.

"How is it possible that I have a connection of memories with you and with her is different?" He says quickly. Her?

"I have no idea what you're talking about." His arms tighten and he suddenly pulls back towards a wall and hits it hard.

"Hey! Stop hitting walls, it's not fair to them,” He looks at me furiously. “Listen, your tantrum is blinding you, stop being a child and better investigate what’s happening–“

"You know nothing!" He comes back and his face is inches from mine.

"Of course I don't know anything, a few weeks ago I was with Han, not caring about anything and now I'm in front of a sweaty man who when he doesn't know something, hits a poor wall!” He frowns. "I had no connection with the force for years and now it turns out that we are connected by our memories and… wait, her. You mean Rey? Do you also have a connection with her?”

“…I only see her. I don't know where she is or anything…”

"As if that wasn't enough... I never liked these Jedi tricks,” I complain and to my surprise I hear his soft laugh. This time it was different from the one he released when we were in meditation.

"You always said so,” I bite my lower lip. You will hand me over to Skywalker.

"Luke," I whisper. That voice in my head, was the voice of Kylo. Did I just enter his mind? He looks at me confused, but he notices something and walks away. "You also have a weakness.”

He says nothing, just turns around and leaves the room.

I close my eyes and sigh.

I can't do it, he tried to kill me, attacked Leia and killed Han. His actions or words will no longer work. He is no longer the same boy I fell in love with.

He doesn’t love me.

Taglist

@oopsiedoopsie23

@blackheartedspider

@fandomshit6000

@thewinterschildren178​

#ben solo #kylo ren #Star wars fanfic #Ben solo x reader #Kylo ren x reader #Star wars #Home #twoidiots writing

[somebridgesburn]

almost is never enough

2,383 words

loosely inspired by “Details” by the extremely talented Maisie Peters and the mess that apparently is my life

warnings: lots of alcohol, slight mentions of adult content, Shawn kinda being a dick

***

„We might not be something but we sure as hell aren`t nothing“

***

Shawn’s a Grammy – nominee now. Not a Grammy – winner but a nominee nether less.

And he can’t lie, he does feel a little proud when they announce him like that.

She can’t help but raise her eyebrows at him, sitting on the couch with his eyes glued to the TV, grinning to himself. Nerd.

„Feeling a little proud, don’t you?“

He looks startled for a moment when he sees her but then he gives her that big Shawn grin. (and she tries to ignore that thing in her chest, she really does)

He opens his mouth, searching for a cocky reply when another arm slings around Aspen‘s tiny shoulder and whips her into a big bear hug.

„Jo, Aspen! Good to see you, dude!“

He watches Brian and Aspen exchange pleasantries, catch up with a small smile before turning back to the TV.

***

Shawn`s brought a girl.

It’s nothing out of the ordinary, really.

He meets someone, they talk, he brings her along a couple times until he doesn’t.

Aspen figures she doesn’t like this week`s girl. Her hair‘s a little too bleached and her laugh‘s a little too loud. Especially when everyone knows that Shawn’s dad jokes aren’t a tad bit funny.

So she doesn’t understand, she really, really doesn’t, when he doesn’t drop that girl after a week, or a month even.

He actually seems to quite like her.

„Probably just because he finally found someone who laughs at his lame jokes.“

Aspen doesn‘t like the way her voice is laced with bitterness, too, and she‘s relived too see that Ian, who is sitting next to her in the small nook of the bar, either didn’t notice or didn’t care.

***

They’re hanging out at Brian‘s and they are talking girls. Aspen doesn‘t mind it too much. Being in a friend group that mainly consists of boys, it’s only a matter of time until they start talking about who got laid, when, where, by whom

As I said, she doesn’t mind it. It`s gross but entertaining nether less and she loves to tease the boys with it. She doesn’t mind it until they start talking about Shawn.

“Our boy`s pretty happy these days, eh?”, Ian comes up from behind and shakes Shawn`s shoulders.

“No wonder, man. He`s finally getting laid again!”

The guys are laughing as Shawn blushes.

“It`s not like that!”

“C`mon dude, you really wanna tell me you guys haven’t fucked?”, Brian chimes in, “Cause I´m pretty sure I heard you last Saturday.”

More laughter, more blushing. Aspen should take this as her cue to flee into the kitchen. She doesn`t.

“It`s like, yeah, but-”

“See! That`s what I thought, man.”

“We`re not just fucking, man. It`s, she`s... different. She`s something, I guess.

“Yeah, we`ll see about that in a week.”

Ian shakes his head, grinning and Aspen silently prays he`s right for once.

***

He’s not really her ex -boyfriend.

They almost dated in sophomore year but then there was Lauren and then the whole world knew his name and he knew Taylor fucking Swift personally.

So no, he isn’t her ex-boyfriend he just a big, unnerving almost.

***

She likes to watch him, always has. Not in a creepy way but in a way that she notices when his eyes wander around the room, not matching the big grin on his face.

At least she doesn’t have to feel as stupid anymore, now that millions of teenage girls seem to love to do the same thing. Or maybe she feels even more stupid for being the same as those obnoxious fan girls.

She shakes her head, no, she’s not. She doesn’t treat Shawn like some kind of god or follows his every move over Twitter. She just sometimes wishes she could feel his lips on hers again.

***

They’ve kissed a couple times. At some of the house parties they had had, when the guests started to clear out and only they’re close friend group was left, all of them sitting outside, cuddled up in each other.

Or when they were in the club with the bass rattling and sweaty bodies on bodies and tequila being downed like water. All hands, all lips, all over.

Or a lot of other times. (Aspen could name every single one, she’s sure Shawn couldn’t)

***

She is sitting on her bed, eyes glued to the screen in her hands, thumb hovering over that blue button on Shawn’s girl Instagram account. Her name‘s Kendall,  which is just as cliché as her description. She tells herself it’s no big deal, they’re acquaintances after all. Only that Aspen hasn’t exchanged a single word with her, not even when Shawn introduced them.

Still, she knows her favourite brand of cigarettes and what kind of music she listens to and that she thinks self-tan is gross because Shawn can’t shut the fuck up. She hates it, she really does. She also thought about getting him duct tape for Christmas as a warning that the next time he can’t keep his mouth shut himself, she’ll literally tape it shut.

The next time they’re at his place and he tells them Kendall forgot her hair brush there three times in a row, she regrets she didn’t.

She turns off the phone lets herself fall backward in to the mattress. She closes her eyes. Then she sits up again and presses the follow button.

***

Once, they all met up in Toronto. Aspen could smell the summer air and the liquor and Shawn’s jacket on her shoulders as they were roaming through the streets. They were bar hopping or whatever but ended up in a park anyways. Now, they were passing vodka bottles on a playground and Brian and Ian had a competition who could swing higher. Shawn and her had a bet which one would throw up first.

“They stars are pretty.”, she says as she leaned back, feeling the soft grass on her skin.

She was that nice kind of drunk where she was a bit more than tipsy but not completely hammered either.

She didn’t know about Shawn but he doesn’t look as if he’d throw up any time soon either when he laid down beside her with his arm around her.

“You’re pretty”

Before she had time for a sassy reply his lips found hers. It was sloppy and a bit lazy and felt somehow different than the other kisses before. She couldn’t quite put a finger on it yet.

She doesn’t remember how long they had laid there, on that fucking playground, wrapped up in each other and stealing kisses.

She does remember laying in bed, retracing every single kiss, every single moment moment than once.

***

They were at the bar again. It`s nearby and it`s cosy and it`s got a karaoke machine. It doesn’t happen often that all of them get together, with Shawn being an international pop star and the majority of the others going to college all over the country.

College starts again soon and Aspen is stressed as ever but right here, right now, sitting with her friends in that grubby nook, laughing, it`s perfect.

That one waiter with gelled hair and obviously whitened teeth makes his way to their table again to bring them yet another round of shots, not without giving Aspen a lopsided smirk that made her stomach twist a bit like he had all night.

And then he does something Aspen hasn’t expected for sure. He leans on the table and drapes his arm around the back of her chair. He`s close enough for her to smell his cologne.

„So um, I get off in five. Wanna grab a drink or something?“

He is so desperately trying to look cool, Aspen has to control the urge to laugh, or roll her eyes.

“Nah, thanks, i‘m good actually.”

She doesn´t even really smile at him like she usually would, trying to make it obvious that he should just take the hint. And he does.

The waiter opens and closes his mouth for a moment before giving in, leaving without a word in the end.

“Eyyy, Aspen! Come ON! That waiter was, like, really cute.”

She flincheds when Brian roughly slings an arm around her.

“Really cute, eh?”

“Yeah, dude, like hot, like, really hot, like, you should get his number, man! He was totally flirting with you the whole evening.”

She watches her friend drunkenly gesture with an amused grin.

“Well, if he’s that hot, maybe you should get his number!”

The guys breake out into roaring laughter as Brian openes and closes his mouth, just like the waiter earlier, before raising his hands in surrender.

Aspen laughs with the guys when she meets Shawn’s stare. For the first time in a while, she can’t read his expression.

***

There’s that one Friday night. They were at a club and the ground under her had been spinning for a while now when she pushed open the door to the ladies` restroom. She gripped the sink with her hands. The mirror above her was shattered, she wouldn`t have dare to look into it anyways.

Brooke found her there, head hung over the sink, shallow breaths echoing from the tiles. She pulled her hair back before she realised that no, Aspen wasn’t trying not to throw up, she was trying not to fall apart.

It took Brooke one and a half hours and two bottles of water to figure out that it’s Shawn. Shawn and some blonde he‘d been making out with under the lights.

And usually, it wouldn’t matter, really, Aspen assured her. But maybe it was the alcohol or maybe it was the fact that last Friday he cradled her in his arm with millions of stars glistening above them and she almost hoped. (she keeps that part to herself though)

She went - Brooke dragged her - home then without saying goodbye and emptied her insides over the toilet bowl until she didn’t feel quite as sick anymore at the thought of Shawn.

She’s said a lot of stupid things that night, half-lying on the dirty tiles. She doesn’t remember a lot but she does remember slurring we might not be something but we’re sure as hell aren’t nothing over and over and over again.

She’s shocked to find she’s never said anything more true.

***

He hasn’t written a song about her, ever. Sometimes she wishes he would, so she could at least have something, a piece of him, a piece of his mind, so she‘d know he thinks about them, too, even a little bit. But he doesn’t.

So she stands and watches him sing about his one night stand to the Rogers Centre, full of screaming girls.

It’s fascinating, really. Most of the time, when she isn’t reminded by the amount of girls he attracts wherever they go or his ridiculously large condo, she forgets that Shawn, the boy who had the same blue pencil case all through Middle- and Highschool and copied her chemistry homework every Tuesday, is actually a pop sensation.

Looking at him now, standing on stage, guitar in his large hands, sweat dripping off his forhead, it’s hard to imagine he ever does anything else.

He kisses Kendall, first thing, when he comes off stage, laughing and sweating, and she hates her a little bit for it.

It’s kind of intoxicating when he hugs her. Her heads spinning, chest’s clenching, cheek‘s are burning. She pulls away, wants to say he’s amazing, she’s never seen anything like that, she’s proud, she -

„You stink.“, she says instead.

He laughs and her head spins a little more.

***

They’re at Ian‘s this time and Aspen is just getting Brooke and herself a refill, when she feels something warm against the small of her back for a moment. She turns around to see Shawn laughing with their friends a few foot away.

She knows this game. It starts with their fingers, hands, shoulders lightly brushing against each other, seemingly accidental. A few shots later, he‘d wrap an arm around her waist, shoulder, hand gripping her hip. He‘d pull her into his lap then, first chance he got, and nuzzle his head into her neck. And then it was only a matter of time until her back was pressed against a wall with his hands on her ass and her tongue in his mouth.

It’s not different tonight and she already feels his breath against her neck and his arm locked around her waist like he‘d actually keep her. And she lets him.

He takes her hand, interlocks their fingers and pulls her with him.

She lets him until she feels a wall against her back and hands behind her neck and lips on hers. Then she pulls away.

“You’ve got a girlfriend.” She`s a little breathless already and she loves and hates it at the same time.

“No, I don’t. Me and Kendall, we’re not like, dating or anything.”

She flinches at the sound of her name.

“But you`re something.”

He hangs his head and she knows she’s won. She doesn’t now if she actually liked to win. It`d be so easy to just give in to him, revel in the feeling of his lips against her neck, it`d be be so, so easy. Okay, no, she doesn’t, not at all, not even a little bit.

But it’s the right thing to do, so she licks her lips and tosses her hair and lifts her gaze to meet his, a strand of his thick curls falling into his face.

„We can’t do this as long as you’ve got someone“

„I know“

But he looks like he really doesn’t.

He doesn’t tell her he’s gonna call it off, whatever he’s got with Kendall, and she knows he won‘t.

For a moment, she wants to tell him, word vomit all of these feelings, these fucking feelings that aren’t even really feelings, that she’s kept, bottled up for far too long but she doesn’t.

She watches him leave, walk through the door, raising the beer in his hand and laughing with their friends as she leans against the wall of the hall, embracing the coolness, focusing on her breathing.

They might be something but they won’t ever be enough anyways.

#shawn mendes #Shawn Mendes Imagine #shawn mendes fanfic #shawn mendes oneshot #shawn mendes angst #shawn mendes one shot #shawn mendes blurbs #angst #shawn mendes fluff

[flos-timore]

Send me a  🥃 + a question for my muse to answer. If they refuse to answer, they have to take a shot // Still Accepting!

Anonymous asked : 🥃 Habit, here's a hypothetical question for you. If your Habitat started to go way downhill, but wasn't a lost cause yet, and you had to resort to more extreme and harmful measures to keep your Habiticians in line, what wouldn't you do?

At once, almost on instinct, Habit feels his breath hitch. Was it possible for air to get caught in somebody’s chest? Well, the question hadn’t even been fully processed before everything decided to lock up, on him. 

‘Why was that?’, he wondered briefly. Uselessly. In fact, he wasn’t even sure WHY he’d bothered to let himself pull the wool over his own eyes; if even for only a second. He KNEW exactly why his hands balled up into fists, exactly why dread was solidifying in his stomach. 

And yet... he had to glance away, towards the balcony. It was just natural, really, whenever anybody mentioned the Habiticians while he happened to be in his office. 

Or. Well. 

‘His’ Habiticians, as they had so eloquently put it. 

The thought made him laugh. He forced himself to hate that fact.

Keeping the smile held tightly on his face, out of a necessity that he hadn’t even realized WAS a necessity, he took a moment to steel himself before walking over to where his line of sight drew him. 

His heels clicked along the floor- an unwelcome change to the encompassing silence from just moments before.

--- “Hmmmmm.... You kno... That”s a “Good” question! Where 2 start with that...” 

Content warning: Brief suicidal ideation, blood, and mentions of murder/corpses under the cut.

Heights had never been a problem for him. He never even really considered them enough for them to BECOME any sort of issue. While he could understand where the fear came from, for some people, so long as he knew the ground he stood on was relatively sturdy, he could be as high as the clouds and not have any cares in the world. 

... Which is why he was confused when he came to a brief pause as he neared the balcony’s edge. Something about the location had begun to set him off, lately.. 

Perhaps it was the finality that such a fall would be responsible for. To say that he’d never considered jumping would be a lie, but- 

He was quick to shake his head- push those thoughts away. Those were for another life. Not this one. 

Habit “easily” (why couldn’t it be easy?) settled himself on the railing, eyes trailing down to the fairground below. 

--- “What WOULDN”T I do, u said..?” 

Maybe he’s stalling, maybe he’s not. You have no proof, as far as he’s concerned. 

--- “Well...” He leans down further, practically resting his head on the cold metal. Although his attention darts around as he observes the day’s activity, he registers next to none of it. 

--- “I suppose I wouldn’t wamnt them 2 think I”m trying two hard. Peeple tend to “Talk”, U see. Nothing like barb-ed wire or anythign sillie like That. The Habi-Tat is notn’t a Prison.” 

Isn’t it? 

--- “Perhapbs the “Curfew” wuld need to be much earlier..? I woould need to be patrolling more oftn than usual, that is 4 certain. Surve-a-lance would be “Upped”, also, of cuorse, but I thimnk I wouldn”t need to be TOO mean...” 

--- “Even if the Habiticians TRIED to eskape, th Carlas would handel everything!” 

Right. The machines he’d created to do his dirty work for him, because Heaven knows that if he had to be the one to subdue fleeing Habiticians, he wouldn’t stand much of a chance. 

And not because he worried that he wouldn’t be strong enough! Really, if THAT was the only concern, he needed to only let himself forget just where he was putting his hands, and, well- 

No. He disliked having to use brute force- especially when it wasn’t absolutely necessary. Call him what you’d like. He can guarantee that none of it would be too far off the mark. 

What the Carlas lacked in speed and intelligence, they made up for in numbers. The ones always actively present on the grounds were FAR from the only ones in The Habitat. 

Even though this situation was only hypothetical, Habit felt himself smirk, nonetheless; oddly proud of his own genius and security. Normally any talk of unrest among his “guests” sent him into a panic. He just simply would not have it! 

Not in HIS domain. HIS creation. If something isn’t working, then!!! He’ll FIX it, and move on!! 

But... ah... He had yet to really adequately answer the question at hand... Right..? 

--- “..... I”m...” 

Something felt- unfinished, here. Did he have more to truly SAY on the matter? 

The sounds of Martha were louder than he remembered. He rationalized the reason behind that being his close proximity to her, as anybody would. 

It just didn’t make them any less overwhelming, at the moment. 

--- “I... don’t think violence is.. nece-ssary.. to maintain the “Peace”, I mean. The way that Im running things right now is good. Yes??” 

Habit allows a brief lull to enter the “conversation”- just out of politeness. When no answer comes to his question, he can’t but to feel foolishly disheartened. 

Only a little bit, though. Just a teeny tiny bit. 

--- “I know this is only a “what if”- I get that. But the question is ridic-u-lous, 2 begin with!1!! Absurd!!!11! This groo-some scenariio will NEVER come two be!! So!!!! Why WORRIE about it!!!!” 

And that’s where he INTENDED to quit talking. Honestly, he did. With every second that passed, he could feel the dam begin to break. 

No, the topic itself didn’t bring him ANXIETY, per-say.... 

... but he WASN’T letting his thoughts lead to their obvious conclusion. That was the missing puzzle piece. That was the reason behind his sweaty palms and urge to be sick. 

Habit was good at blocking out all of the unpleasant things about life. Sure, they almost always inevitably resurfaced, anyway, but the goal was never to be rid of them for good. 

Merely to stall. Always to stall. 

But that’s NOT what he’s doing, right now! Because there IS nothing more to discuss!! Nothing! Nada! Zilch! 

--- “...” 

He hadn’t noticed how tight his grip on the railing had gotten- had barely registered the tension in his shoulders as he leaned further. Further... JUST so he could look down, better. That’s all. 

The daily lives of the Habiticians meant little to nothing to him. He was able to seamlessly gloss over Punching Girl as she pretended to, predictably, fight something. Or someone. He completely ignored Broccoli Child- nearly rolling his eyes at a less than pleasant memory regarding the trash he once tried to sell to him. 

Nearly.

He hurried to turn away, to head back inside. He knew that if he lingered for any longer that the incessant WHINING of a certain resident would start back up, again. Perhaps it already had and he’d merely gotten beyond used to it. 

Great. Cool. Love that.

--- “I THINK yuo are under-estimnating the work I”ve put into Thee Habitat. I know verie well how 2 control MY Habiticians, and if push comes two shove, I”m SURE I could-” 

--- “........ I... could........ .................. ah...” 

Something about his wording froze him in his tracks. He would’ve clamped his jaw shut if he had the gall to; would have bitten his tongue just to keep any more comments on the matter to himself. 

The smile from before never once left his face. He disliked how heavy it felt- disliked the fact that he apparently felt the need to keep falling back into the hole he was so DESPERATELY trying to clamber back out of. 

He’d said all he needed to say. He’d done his part! 

Habit lowers his head, back turned to the outside world. A chill seeping into the room reminded him that he’d forgotten to close the door. He normally wouldn’t care about such a minute detail, but- 

One quick glance towards the “operating room” is all he needs to change his mind. It’s bad ENOUGH that he’s allowing himself to become so overly fixated on everything that could go WRONG, and not go RIGHT!! Nobody else needs to accidentally overhear something they shouldn’t. 

Hand shaking (shaking??), he pulls it away from the glass; job done, and steps unsteady as he attempts to backtrack. Literally. 

Habit whirls back around, action abrupt as he gradually loses his initial train of thought. His breaths are a bit labored, like he’d just been running, somehow, and he wants to fix that. He wants, more than anything, to fix this entire situation. 

Pathetic. One simple hypothetical had sent him into such a state?? Disgusting. 

If he couldn’t handle the fire, then he shouldn’t have walked directly into the flames. He had what it took to run The Habitat. He took every precaution necessary. 

‘If your Habitat started to go way downhill, but wasn't a lost cause yet, and you had to resort to more extreme and harmful measures to keep your Habiticians in line, what wouldn't you do?’ 

‘What WOULDN’T he do?’ 

--- “. . . If. . . push comes to SHOVE. . .” 

He changes trajectory. Wandering around aimlessly certainly wouldn’t help anything, and suddenly, he feels very much so like cleaning something is in order. How often did he do that, anyway? 

Not often enough, he decided, eyeing the grotesque red splotches.... just about everywhere he thought to look. On the chair, some on the floor-

HOW did he manage to get blood on the walls??? 

Habit reaches forward to grab the nearby mirror on the tray, having already pulled a cloth from one of his pockets. Yes, a cleaning day was definitely in order. A dirty workplace leads to a dirty outlook on life. 

No wonder he’s so stressed. 

--- “... Well,” he shrugs, “who is 2 say that there will bee any Habiticians TO keep in line?” 

As soon as the words leave his mouth, he doesn’t find any relief in them, whatsoever. So he continues. 

--- “Let me elab-or-ate. CORPSES have teeth. Right?” 

He turns his head, then; absently searching for the spray bottle he swore he had sitting on the counter. 

--- “Who cares if “The Big Event” is SKIPPED, all-2-gether? I would not be above that. No “waitiing” and no “gettiing their hopes up” 4 something that was falsely advertized.” 

--- “So,” ah, there it is, “to answer you”r question:” 

--- “Nothing!11!!! There are absolootely NO lengths that I womn”t go in order 2 enshure that I gather More Teeth!!1!! So WHAT if I need to “take out thee trash” all at once?? So WHAT if I “accidentally” get the dosage wrong? They will bee happily and giggily, and then....” 

--- “......... they will not.”

“Sick” doesn’t even begin to cover how he feels, right about now. Does he sound casual while discussing this? How is he coming off as while he so flippantly talks about murder? 

Cowardly? Psychopathic? ... Terrifying? 

Is he terrifying? He must be. There’s no other explanation, in his mind. 

--- “No skin off MY back!! At leest CORPSES do not cry!!” 

Habit twirls back around to the counter where he’d grabbed the spray bottle, content smile betraying him as he gently sets it back where he found it. 

--- “At leest CORPSES do not struggle!! When they FIN-A-LLY stop moviing, they cann”t tell me: “Yuou womn”t get awaY with THis!!!1!”. They can’t skream and run- they can”t do any-thing At All!1!!!” 

And that’s the beauty of it. Or, at least, it SHOULD be. 

--- “Once they set “Foot” into The Habitat, it isn”t like theyre Going 2 bee LEAVINGG it, anyway!! I”mmn not beeing CRUEL!!! What I do- it’s BRILL-I-ANT!! So WHY should I feel BAD??!?!?!” 

Why, indeed?? Yes, WHY should he feel bad about cracking a few chickens to make a brand new healthy egg? What is the harm in it? 

Nonexistent, as far as HE can tell! 

--- “Thee answer is: I shouldn”t, annd I don’t! I hope thiss conversatioon was en-lit-ening 4 U! :-)” 

So... there. He’s done. It’s over. Rant over. He- He’s said his share. Had his fill. 

Of course, NOW he’s gone and gotten himself all riled up. Who knows how long it’ll take him to calm back down? Once he allows that little box in the back of his mind to open, this always happens. 

Why do you think he’s so keen on keeping it nice and SHUT? 

Autopilot becomes comforting after the hundredth time you shift into it. Habit continues about his business, cleaning the operating room while humming a jovial tune to himself. 

The fact that he stumbles in his steps every now and then is unimportant. His pounding heart barely matters. 

So long as he’s smiling, it’s IMPOSSIBLE to be upset! 

Maybe if he believes that hard enough, it’ll be true. 

#| Dr Habit - ιc ☢ #| Dr Habit - qυeѕтιon anѕwered ☢ #| Ask Meme #Anonymous #Smile For Me #Boris Habit #cw blood #cw suicidal thoughts #cw murder #ask to tag #Long Post #this is some of my WORST writing and this shouldn't have taken me two days but #have? it???? #hope it's good haha i just #REALLY loved this question #thank you so much btw!!!!!!!! A!

[81scorp]

Constructive criticism: The Superman film series

(An editorial originally posted on Deviantart Mar 26 2015)

Superman, created in 1938 by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. A popular character that has remained popular through the years and is considered an american cultural icon. He has appeared on the radio, animated shows and live action TV. Then someone thought "Wouldn`t it be neat to see the man of tomorrow on the big screen?". Because of the special effects they had back then, portraying Ol` Supes most well known and iconic power: flying, was hard to pull of without making it look a tad bit silly. From what I`ve heard they were, at one point, thinking about taking it in a direction similar to the campy Adam West Batman universe. But Richard Donner (to my knowledge at least, correct me if I`m wrong) wanted it to be a movie that people could take more seriously. So, with a more serious script, good casting, acting, well made flying effects and the music of John Williams you would`ve believed a man could fly. It was a critical and financial success, and with financial success comes sequels. Superman II was a little more tongue in cheek than it`s predecessor but was still considered good and did well at the box office. Then came Superman III... and after it came Superman IV... Both were not that good. Let us, in my very subjective editorial, take a look at were they went wrong and how it could have been improved. Truth, justice and SPOILERS Superman Not really much to mention about the first movie. It is, for it`s time at least, an almost perfect superhero-movie. The score by John Williams fits perfectly with the tone and story and, this is probably just me but, the space scenes have a bit of a 2001: A space odyssey feel to them. There is of course one thing that makes it end up on this list. Reversing time by reversing Earth`s rotation/traveling backwards in time                                                                                                                   In a way it`s an admirable gesture that shows that he is willing to move heaven and earth for Lois and the scene before it is a powerful one where he holds her body in his arms. But still. If he somehow made the planet spin the other way it wouldn`t affect time, the sun would just rise in the west and set in the east. Assuming that the planet and it`s inhabitans would survive the change. Some say that he didn`t actually change the rotation, that it was just a way to illustrate that he actually travelled backwards through time. It would make more sense if he used a wormhole to time-travel. But if he time-travelled, wouldn`t there be two Supermen? The time-travelling one and the one from that time-period? Oh my, I`ve gone cross-eyed! But to be honest, I wouldn`t like that either, I feel it makes him too powerful. Don`t get me wrong, I want Superman to be powerful. But there should be limits. Instead: He`s holding her body in his arms. Superman: "Lois... please... don`t be dead..." (He COULD try to bring her back with CPR. But maybe he`ll accidentally crush her chest with his superstrength or destroy her lungs with his breath? You could argue that he has learned to control his power and hold it back. Yes, but in this scene he`s in a very emotional state. Is he stable enough to control himself that much?) There is silence for a moment... Then: ba-bump! He hears her heartbeat! she`s alive! She regains consciousness and he takes her to the nearest hospital. This shows that despite his god-likeness there are limits to what he can do. Maybe not perfect, maybe it lacks something, but at least it makes sense. Superman II Donner had a different vision of Superman 2 than the one that ended up on the big screen. However, due to off-screen problems between Donner and the producers over shooting schedule and final cut privileges, Donner (who had shot roughly 75% of the movie) was replaced by Richard Lester (who had to shoot 51% of the film in order to get directors credit). I still like the film but I have to admit it lacks a little of what could have made it great in some areas. Zod being amazed by so many things on Earth. I know, Earth and Krypton are two different planets, but still. He could understand what some things are even if they are different from Krypton. Like when he lands in a lake and goes: "strange surface". What? You don`t have lakes on Krypton? Then again, from what I saw of Krypton I don`t remember seeing any, so maybe they don`t. But at one point in Krypton`s history they must`ve had lakes and oceans, right? Not to mention that he`s confused that humans don`t have superpowers. Less of scenes like these. Zod`s telekinesis powers Not poor writing, just a personal opinion of mine. I like it better if all Kryptonians`s powers are limited to the ones Superman usually has. So away with it. That stupid STUPID kid at niagara falls Now this is poor writing. I know that it`s necessary for Superman to save someone so that Lois can get suspicious, but does it have to be in such a stupid way? The kid could have been leaning to get a glimpse of/trying to photograph something and lost his balance, and he could have been on the right side of the rails! (I assume they`re called rails,correct me if I´m wrong, english is my second language.) Not perfect but at least it makes him look like less of a Darwin-award nominee. Real kids are smarter than him... I hope. That female Daily Planet employee Remember the woman who said that the other ones were just as strong as superman? The way she said it made me think she was gonna turn out to be Nelson Muntz in disguise who mocks Lois for rooting on the losing team. She could have said it like: "Oh my god... The other ones are just as strong as Superman!" As if she`s aware that if Supes loses, everyone on Earth is doomed... including her. I know, it`s a small scene, but still. The unnecessarily thrown-in "comedic" moments during the big fight The producers seemed to have thought "this is based on a comic, as in comical. Let`s force in some comedy!" You know scenes like when the man eats an ice cream and it blows away, and the man who tries to make a phonecall and still stays on the phone even when the phonebooth he`s in gets obliterated. Away with scenes like those! Superman throwing the giant "S"-shield and the holographic doubles People think of the "S"-shield thing as another Superpower, but it doesn`t have to be, it could have been a thing that he had prepared. However, since we never find out if it was a power or not and it didn`t really change much, I`d say: loose it. The holographic doubles: From what I remember (correct me if I`m wrong) this is supposed to be a superpower. Why didn`t he use this in other scenes? I would change it to: Supes and Zod and the others fighting each other by moving around quickly with super-speed. The amnesia kiss Added superpower and lazy writing. Instead of Supes erasing Lois`s memory because she can`t handle that Clark is Superman, how about: She feels that having this knowledge is hard, but she can handle it. It would be more mature that way than to reset everything to status qou. Good performance by Margot Kidder though. Superman III Richard Donner was not involved in the making of this movie. Richard Lester was the one in the director`s chair, and the small seeds that hinted the direction of where this franchise was going in the second movie had blossomed to their full potential in this one. (If you can call it "potential".) In this case I don`t feel that it`s enough to list a few points like the previous ones. I`d change most of the plot. Bad guy Since Superman fought a computer in the climax I`d pick Brainiac as the villain. Since it came out 1983 I`d go with the pre-crisis version of him. Plot Earth is visited by an extra terrestrial A.I. that comes in peace, to gather information about us and then leave to continue it`s fact-finding mission (yes, I know, it`s a lot like that episode from that animated series). The A.I. (Brainiac) exposes Supes to a radiation that makes him evil. Some of Earth`s population put their trust in Brainiac since Supes has lost it. Eventually Supes manage to defeat his bad side in a junkyard (I liked that scene so I`m keeping it) and goes to battle Brainiac who, after being defeated, flees back into space. Subplot Since Lois was mostly absent from the third movie she`ll get more screen time in my version. She thinks it`s a bit much to be Supes girlfriend so she leaves Clark to date a more earthbound man. (But she has no trouble keeping his secret though, just so you know.) There could be some scenes where the three meet that could be a little funny but also a litte sad. However, in the end Lois realizes that she still loves Clark and goes back to him. Superman IV: The Quest for Peace This movie was not directed by Richard Lester or produced by Ilya and Alexander Salkind. It didn`t make it any better though. I still kinda liked this movie more than III though. Partly because of it`s so bad it`s goodness but also because it felt more like a Superman movie than a Richard Pryor movie. Still bad though. First... NO CHINESE WALL RESTORING VISION! Nuff said. Lenny Luthor Remove most, if not all of his goofiness or replace him with miss Teschmacher or come up some other assistant of Lex. Lex breaking out of prison Instead of Luthor being freed because the two guards wanted to see what it was like to sit in an expensive car: Have Lenny/miss Teschmacher/new character come flying in with a jetpack, give Lex an extra jetpack that he/she was carrying and have them both fly away together. Badguy Since Nuclear Man was a clone of Superman I`d use Bizarro. The thing with Bizarro though is that he`s not much of a villain. Wether he`s evil or (trying to be) good he`s always mentally slow. Therefore he could be like Frankensteins monster. He may not be as threatening as Nuclear man, but at least he`s 3-dimensional. So technically, the biggest villain in this scenario would still be Lex. Bizarro would just be an obstacle. Also: He wouldn`t be solar powered. Subplots Clark`s mom would be very old but Lana could be helping her take care of the farm. So that scene where a man wants to buy Clark`s farm but he refuses because he only wants to sell to a real farmer wouldn`t be necessary. Since Lois remembers Clarks secret identity in this hypothetical movie and they`ve gotten back together there`s no point in having that scene with the "double date" with her, Clark/Superman and Lacy. This would give more room to Lois`s conflict with David Warfield over what he`s done to Daily Planet, and in some cases she`d have to have this conflict with Lacy Warfield. Plot After Lex escapes from prison he and Lenny/miss Teschmacher/new character gets a hair sample from Supes just like they did in the movie. But they create him in a lab in Lex`s HQ (no rockets in the sun). Lex fills the clone`s head with knowledge through a subliminal "teaching-helmet". The clone is at first a perfect duplicate of Supes but then turns all Bizarro-y. Lex calls him "bizarre" and adds "Oh!" as in "Oh. What the hell am I gonna do with it now!?" But realizes he can still have use for him. Bizarro causes disasters, fights Supes and wins the first round (Beginners luck?). Supes manages got get a piece of Bizarro`s hair during the fight. He gives it to Prof: Phineas Potter (a friend of Supes in the silver age comics) to analyze. Later Bizarro slowly developes a conscience. Round 2: Supes wears a protection suit and tries to use a bit of kryptonite on Bizarro. (It`s the rock that Lex used in the first movie.) Supes gave it to scientists to use against him if he turns evil again like in the third movie (Continuity!). It doesn`t work on Bizarro, they fight. Their battle puts people in danger, Supes has to temporarily incapacitate Bizarro and help them. Bizarro sees how Supes cares about others and then leaves. It ends in a draw. Round 3: Prof Potter has, by comparing Bizarro`s dna with Supes and analyzing how ordinary kryptonite affects Supe`s dna, created blue Kryptonite. Supes uses it against Bizarro. In their fight, civilians are put in danger. Supes try to keep them safe. Bizarro, even though he`s weakened, helps him. They see that they are not enemies and Bizarro turns on Lex who tries to destroy him and sends him to an ambiguous death. In the climax Lex puts on a super-armor-suit, battles Supes, loses and goes back to jail. It is hinted that Bizarro is still alive and travelling the world, trying to do good. In my version there`s no "Supes gets rid of nuclear weapons", but I hope the subplot with Bizarro`s inner journey is enough to make it feel that there are enough plot-lines. Superman Returns After being absent from the big screen for 19 years, Superman (much like the title says) returned to a world with new actors, a bigger budget and digital effects. Directed by Bryan Singer, it completely ignored the last two movies and was a big love letter to Richard Donner`s Superman movies. And it wasn`t very successful. People were not very keen on Supes having a kid with Lois (based on a scene from Richard Donner`s cut of Superman II where Supes and Lois have some nekkid action after he`s given up his powers). Plus Lex`s evil plan was pretty much the same plan he had in the first movie, except with more kryptonite. Lots and lots and lots of kryptonite. How I would have done it.

Plot Supes returns to Earth after having been out in space for a few years, searching for the leftovers of Krypton. His mom is now dead and the farm (like in the last movie) is being taken care of by Lana. She`s glad that he`s back and thinks that he should take care of the farm now because she has plans for her own life and she`s engaged to Pete Ross. Since Supes never found what he hoped to find in space Lana thinks he should try to focus on his life on Earth. Lois is dating a guy (and if there has to be a kid in this movie he/she should be the child of the guy that Lois is dating) and Lex is out of prison. I`d keep the part about Lois writing the "Why the world doesn`t need Superman" article and the part where Supes prevents the plane from crashing. When Supes travelled in space an alien being noticed him and tracked him to earth. Early in the movie Lex seems to be the main bad guy, but then it turns out to be the alien that followed Supes to Earth, and it should be... Mongul! You may ask: "Why not Darkseid?" For the same reason the Avengers didn`t fight Thanos in their first movie, he should come later. Supes fights Mongul and gets unexpected help from Lex who uses his high-tech weapons against the threat. Mongul is defeated and Supes and Lex are celebrated as heroes. Supes however doesn`t believe that Lex has changed, that the heroic act is just for show (and he`s right). Lois leaves the guy she`s dating but doesn`t go back to Supes (at least not yet). Meanwhile: elsewhere, a man is watching the celebration on a big computer-screen (he`s seen from behind and the computer-screen is the only light source in the room). There`s a butler standing next to him. They`re in a cave. With bats. (Sequel-bait!) And those are my ideas. They`re not perfect but I hope they`re not bad.     ��  

Have to go now. I have to fight a giant metal spider for some reason.

#superman #richard donner #dc comics #movie #constructive #criticism #editorial #81scorp