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descendantofthesparrow · 3 years

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Interlude - Rewrite POYW - Part 5 - Future vision and new VKs

-two days later(August 2016)-

Uma perked up from the small sea glass bead bracelet she was working on, a smirk growing on her face as you appeared from the brush of the forest and walked toward her, a black bag in your right hand full of food. “Took you long enough, I even started working on this!” Uma held up the unfinished bracelet and set it to her side, making grabby hands at your bag as you stepped closer to her “Gimmie, I know you brought pineapple wedges.”

You laughed a bit and held out the bag to her, taking the bag off your back and taking out a towel and laying it down on the sand before sitting next to Uma “I brought your pineapple wedges” which Uma was already getting into “Some mac and cheese that Gil made, chicken breast, cornbread, and some packs of apple juice. bone app a teeth” Uma gave you a look at your last couple of words but shook her head at your grin.

“Weirdo” she mumbled, pulling out the containers filled with chicken and a fork, popping open the lip, and chowing down “Damn, who made the chicken?”

“Someone in the kitchen” you chuckled, picking up the box of cornbread and grabbing one to eat “Harry, Gil, and I didn’t feel like eating in the cafeteria last night so we took some of the food from the kitchen that the students have access to that was in the ‘take whatever you want’ fridge that the chefs load up with so much shit, and Gil made the mac and cheese like a day ago, everything is pretty fresh” Uma shoveled some of the mac and cheese into her mouth and groaned, her eyes fluttering.

“Fuck that’s good, even on the isle Gil was a good chef, he needs to cook more” you laughed at that, grabbing a box of apple juice and stabbing it into the top.

“He does, he makes bomb cookies too.” Uma perked up at that, giving you a look that said ‘bring me the cookies or I drown you’ “Hey! Don’t give me that look! Next time he makes cookies I’ll bring ‘em, okay??” Uma continued to stare at you with that look before nodding, satisfied with your answer.

“So?” Uma swallowed her food and dug out an apple juice box from your back, pointing at you with it in her hand “Updates, what happened with the new vks? I saw the limo go in and out two days ago.”

“Complete success, we got Harriet, CJ, Sammy Smee, Skipper and Sterling, and Dizzy all off the isle, and they’re all at the dorms now, Harriet’s gonna be transferred to the college next quarter and school starts next-next week” Uma nodded at your explanation, twirling the fork in her hands. “Your hair looks really good by the way” Uma looked at you, a soft smile on her face.

She had undone her braids about a week ago, to let the ocean water properly flow through the strands, and now rested against her back and shoulders in thick curls. “Thank you” she hummed, picking at her cornbread “I've been trying to get the…shrimp smell out”

You furrowed your brows and reached up, stopping yourself a few inches from her hair “May I touch your hair?” Uma glanced at you, slightly surprised you had asked, and nodded. Tilting her head a bit as you gently tugged on a lock of her hair. “it’s really soft, and personally I don’t smell anything bad, especially not shrimp, more…the ocean and coconut” Uma laughed a bit as you released her hair and set your hand back on your knee.

“I've been using coconut to take care of my hair…good to know it's working” you smiled to yourself as a soft grin grew on Uma’s face, one of her hands reaching up and curling a lock around her finger.

“Yeah… Evie's business is picking up” Uma raised her brow, as if saying ‘nice subject change, and I care why?’ “Well” you laughed, pushing Uma’s shoulder a bit as she rolled her eyes “hold up a moment im getting to the good part, but her business is picking up and Harry works for her as a model” Uma’s brows raised at that, “Told you, anyway he works for her as a model and with her business picking up, he models for her more often and she's paying him for it, soooo Harry’s getting fucking moneys~”

Uma hummed and picked at her chicken slice “Really? How much?” you grinned, making Uma sit up and grab at your shoulders “Okay how fucking much is Harry making from modeling; because that grin tells me he’s already rich.”

“He very well might be in a year or two” you laughed, gently removing her hands from your shoulders and readjusting your sitting position. “somewhere between 30 and a thousand per paycheck” Uma gave you a blank stare for a few moments before she rolled her eyes.

“Okay don’t tell me then, sheesh” you fell back as you laughed, Uma twisting around and sitting cross-legged, picking up another apple juice box and sipping at it.

“I’m sorry I’m sorry, um, Harry and Evie said it should increase as her business grows n stuff, but right now he’s making about eight hundred a paycheck.” Uma turned to you with wide eyes, mouth dropping open slightly in shock.

“whaaat?!” she screeched, dropping the now empty apple juice box into the sand “Eight-hundred?! That’s more-that’s more than I've made in a month at my ma’s shop!!” you laughed a bit, nodding your head as Uma continued to stare at you bewildered.

“Yeah, he’s already put a lot of it into a savings account, something about getting an apartment for us in the future with room for the Smee boys and his sisters if they ever needed a place to stay, but that won't be for another year or two since you have to be 18 to rent an apartment without parental permission.” Uma smiled a bit, Harry was one to think of the future, even on the isle. He would stash away rubies and gold coins in a savings stash under a floorboard in his old apartment for when they got off the isle.

“That sounds nice, make sure he gets one with a pool for me yeah?” you laughed again, shaking your head a bit as you and Uma side fist-bumped.

“I’ll make sure of that yeah” you took out your phone and sighed, standing from the beach and wiping the sand from your pants “I got to go, Ben wanted me for a meeting at 1, I'll get the bag when I come back tomorrow, see you!” Uma accepted the crouch side hug from you and waved you off, casting a spell to keep water off and out of the containers of food and the bag as she packed it up and dove into the sea, swimming back out to her mother's old hideout.

She slowed to a stop in front of the main opening, stepping through the air bubble she had made a while back and snapping her fingers, the water disappearing off her body by magic. “There we go” she mumbled, swinging the backpack off her shoulder and walking over to the “kitchen” area of the old hideout. She stashed away the food into the “fridge” aka old spell and potion cabinet that she had cast a cold holding spell onto to turn it into a makeshift fridge.

With a wave of her hand, her clothes transformed from a tank top and calf cut cargo pants to a long-sleeved red shirt with a hook stitched to the chest and black leggings. She stretched her arms behind her back and groaned as her back pop slightly.

Uma sighed and looked around the hideout, eyes landing on the claw-shaped cauldron in the middle of the room. it was odd, being in her mother's famous lair, but…also comforting, in a strange way.

She couldn't explain it, but…she felt safe. Probably because the only people that came around here were teens or kids on a dare and were easily scared off. So Uma was pretty much alone in the deep of the ocean.

Uma walked over to the little corner she had turned into her bedroom and sat on her bed, picking up the orange blanket you had given her cotillion night and curling it around her, staring off into space as she thought about…well everything.

From the new vks, the transfer plan, her boys, you, the isle, the vks still on the isle…the future was so unknown, what she would give for just a glimpse, just so she wasn’t so scared for it.

wait

Uma’s eyes widened, drifting between the clawed cauldron and a small set of books that were hidden behind her mother's vanity.

She could see into the future!

Uma lept off her bed and towards the books, pulling them out until she found one with the symbol of twisting water and tentacles appeared in her hands “there you are” she whispered, she had gone through these books when she found the lair and in them, she found hundreds of spells and potion instructions ranging from simple hair or visualization spells to transfiguration and curses.

“Future vision, future vision, future-ah!” Uma landed on the page she needed and stood, walking over to the cauldron and conjuring a stand for her to set the book on. She set it down and read the instructions, it seemed she would need to both make a potion and use an incantation.

“Okay, I got this” she let out a breath, rubbing her hands together as she spun around and walked over to her mother's old ingredient cabinet.

The tail of a sea worm, the clenched fist of a long-dead merman, the head of a fish, wings of a dust fairy pixie, and the eye of a seer. She carried the items over to the cauldron, casting a levitating spell to keep them next to her as she reviewed the spell.

“Okay, okay I got this” she took another breath, opening the caldron and tossing the ingredients in, leaning back a bit as smoke and vapor released from the cauldron. “Oof, okay”

Uma took one last look at the book, muttering the incantation to herself as she held the eye of a seer above the cauldron.

Finally, as she dropped the eye into the brew, and she clutched her necklace as the incantation echoed around her.

“Though winters past and summers morn, the future will be shown/the sight clear and sounds echo, I see into a world unknown”

Uma leaned back a bit as golden shimmering dust rose from the cauldron, slowly forming into a shape…of the isle. “The isle?” Uma mumbled, leaning closer to the image, squinting as she watched the golden magic bridge build and a limo enter the isle, the main bridge part looked very different than the rundown broken castle-like area she was used to, it looked to be rebuilt with signs on the front. “They’re getting more kids, when is this?”

The isle disappeared and was replaced with the image of a golden calendar, showing the present date then suddenly the pages were torn off at a rapid pace, Uma desperately trying to keep up with the passing dates before it stopped.

Uma blinked and looked closer, her brows furrowing as she looked at the circled date. “August 2nd…2019?!” Uma took a step back, her hands clenching at her side, three years? The vision she had seen before was in almost three years? But…it could possibly be one of many pick-ups? “How many vks have been picked up between the six from two days ago and the vks from the vision just before” Uma hoped the spell worked like this, she was in for shit if it didn’t.

Thankfully, that’s how the spell seemed to work, the image of the calendar disappeared and the sand like magic stayed dormant, shifting within the caldron…it seemed the spell didn’t know how to answer that question “Maybe I need to make it clearer?” Uma hummed, tapping her fingers against the rim of the cauldron before it came it her “How long will it be between the six vks two days ago and the next transfer of vks.”

The calendar appeared again, now first showing the date of two days ago, and then ripping off the pages rapidly “Oh no.” Uma muttered, sinking down to her knees slightly as the calendar stopped at August 2nd 2019 again. “two and a half years? Seriously?! What the fuck?!” Uma growled and knocked over the stand that held the spellbook and whirled back around at the cauldron “Why does it take so long!?”

The calendar disappeared again and was replaced with a long table with about twelve people sitting around it, and she could recognize King Ben sitting at the end, his head held in his hands as the others all held a hand up, glowering at the young king. “His council?” Uma murmured, looking at the faces of the people to see if she recognized anybody, only able to pick out Aurora mother, who had her hand up, and ex-king Luis, Cinderella’s father-in-law, who had his hand down, seeming to be on Ben’s side of whatever they were debating.

“What did they vote for?” Uma asked, biting her lip as the council disappeared and a paper took its place, the top reading ‘Application for juvenile Reunification’. Uma furrowed her brows, confused for a moment before she kept reading, rage bubbling in her gut as she did. “They have to fucking apply??! Just to get the freedom they deserve?! Do they agree to this?!”

The application disappeared and was replaced with the moving image of Ben and (y/n), Harry glaring at the king just behind (y/n). (y/n) was yelling, so was Ben, both motioning to the paper in (y/n)s hand. “That must be the application thing or whatever” Uma muttered, smirking as (y/n) crumbling it in her fist and shook it in Ben’s face.

Ben seemed to nod and point at it, and Uma leaned in reading his lips ‘that’s what I want to do (y/n), but I can’t! When they overrule me, I can't do anything about it! I’m sorry, but if we don’t go by their rules then we don’t get kids off the isle im sorry!’

(y/n) shook her fist in his face again and turned, walking towards Harry and burying her face in his chest, he wrapped his arms around her and glared at Ben, Uma leaning in again to read their lips. Ben spoke first ‘I am sorry, I’ll try to get everything ready as soon as possible, but some of it is going to take almost two years, maybe almost three! Especially the shelter and cps agency, and the council required those to be done before we can even send out the applications’ Harry stared at Ben for a moment before looking down at (y/n) and pulling her tighter into him.

‘Get it done beasty boy’ Harry seemed to growl, his lip set in a slight snarl ‘and quick, if this takes longer than yeh say, you’ll be hanging from the mast’ Ben nodded, turning back to his desk and picking up a thick folder.

‘I'll hold you to that’ Ben said back, about to say something else but the image disappeared before Uma’s eyes before he could finish.

“Dammit,” Uma muttered, rubbing her with her palms as she grit her teeth. It was the same reason they had taken so long after Ben had promised to get her off the isle after the coronation, the council kept pushing back everything, so stuck in their old ways of thought that they just couldn’t bear to have more vks in Auradon.

“Bastards” Uma growled, standing from the floor and looking back in the cauldron, it seemed the spell had finished, and she wouldn’t be able to ask any more questions about the future. “Ben, (y/n), I hope to Hades you don’t fuck this up for those kids”

Celia couldn’t help but keep her eyes locked on the spot where the Auradon limo had been parked only two days ago, the spot where Dizzy had left her on the isle.

Dizzy had promised to get her off next, whispering it in Celia’s ear as Dizzy hugged her tightly just before she left. Dizzy was hardly one to break a promise, even in a place where promises were never kept, so Celia trusted her.

She just hoped that trust wouldn’t be proved wrong.

Celia sighed, looked at her watch, and realized she had to go pick up some stuff for Hades before her usual fortune-telling shift in front of the arcade.

She quickly traveled to the market and snatched up some cans of corn, cans of refried beans, and a large loaf of bread, that was only a day past its baking date. Celia took another loaf for herself and her dad, suppressing the smile she had as she walked towards the mines.

it was nice having actual food to eat, Celia no longer went hungry every other night and no longer needed to scrounge for money to get the food that was being kept on the market thanks to Harriet's crew that was making sure the merchants weren’t keeping the food away from everybody due to selling it at a high price as they usually did for the better food as they did before the program.

“Celia~” A velvety voice cooed behind her, and Celia turned, raising her brow as she spotted Ginny Gothel, Mother Gothel’s daughter. Ginny Gothel was a flirt, a heavy-set young woman who dared to blow a kiss to Harriet and survive. her dark curly hair was in a short bob that showed the shaved part of her neck. her face, which was always either set in a glare or a flirtatious smirk, was painted with dark makeup. she collected crystals and rings to adorn herself, black and dark red fabrics flowed around her body when she strut down the market place with pride. she was a part of the older villain kids, so respect came with her presence.

“Celia darling~” Ginny cooed; Celia just slowly nodded to show she was listening “do you think you can ask Dizzy if she's got an opening? I need a touch up” Ginny's hand reached up and brushed against the back of her neck where her hair was beginning to overgrow where it was supposed to be. Celia huffed, fixing her grip on her supplies for hades.

“First, I ain't in charge of her and you can go find out yourself I ain't your errand rant, second, Dizzy left two days ago” Ginny's eyes went wide at that “She's in Auradon now, with all those prissy people, so tough luck, eh?” Ginny groaned and leaned heavily back against the wall she was next to, throwing her arm over her eyes.

“Noooo how am I ever going to get my hair cut now?! Dizzy was the only one to understand exactly what I needed!...” her arm dropped to her side as she pouted, looking back at Celia who just stared at her with bored eyes “Well I could go to the hearts salon but I do not trust that mad queen with those sheers”

“Suck it up and get it cut you weenie” Celia snarked, smirking as Ginny scoffed at her and walked off, presumably to the queen of hearts salon.

Celia shrugged Ginny's dramatic attitude off and made her way to the mines.

Ginny sighed dramatically, rubbing her hands against the back of her neck again, she really did need a touch-up. But Dizzy was in Auradon and she was the only hair person Ginny trusted with her hair. The last time she went to the hearts salon she ended up with the wrong cut and length.

But then again. Ginny stopped in the middle of the street, hands on her hips as she pouted at the floor, she really-really needed a touch-up on her undercut.

Fuck it, if it got fucked up, she’d fix it herself.

She twisted on her heel and walked over to the side of the isle that housed the red-hearts salon. She pushed the main door open and crossed her arms, her dark amber eyes scanning the customers and workers.

“Ey darling, you here for a cut or a dye?” Ginny turned, smirking as she locked eyes with one of her closest cohorts on the isle, Colin Hearts. The only other person she trusted with her hair, she had hoped they were working today, and lucky for her they were.

Colin was a lanky teen, their heels making them seem taller than they really were. they always seemed to wear flowing shirts and tight pants, and wore five-inch heels more often than not. Their natural dark red hair had been cut into a fluffy bright red Mohawk and their brown eyes were hidden behind purple contact lenses. Their teasing lips were always painted with black lipstick, and their nails sharp and red.

Ginny walked to her “friend” and they shared a quick handshake they had made when both of them were young. “Yeah, due for a buzz on my undercut, think you can do that for me, hun?” Colin looked up at the ceiling, their painted lips in a false thinking pout “Colin.” Colin smirked at Ginny's low tone and nodded.

“Yeah, I can do that for you, come on~ you know my station~” Ginny gave tight-lipped smile to Colin and strut over to the scarlet red chair with painted white hearts that Colin had decked out a while ago to claim it as their station.

Ginny sat down and crossed her legs, examining her black nails as Colin settled behind her. “So just a touch up, eh?” Colin murmured aloud, Ginny nodded in confirmation, leaning her head back to peer at Colin.

“Don’t fuck it up or I take those red lace pumps you treasure so much” Ginny grinned as Colin gasped at that and pushed their hand to their chest at her threat.

“How dare you~!” the two shared a nasty grin and Colin reached for their electric clippers, throwing the hair catcher towel around Ginny's neck and turning the clippers on. “So did you hear that Harriet ‘n her sister left to Auradon two days ago?” Ginny gasped at that “Really?” Colin leaned into Ginny's line of sight “You’re obsessed with that girl; I’m surprised you didn’t sense the moment she left the barrier” Colin chuckled at Ginny's glare and went back to her hair.

“Dizzy’s left too” Ginny sighed, twitching as Colin let out a small laugh.

“I know, if she wasn’t you wouldn’t be here” Colin lifted up the back of Ginny's hair and started to buzz her undercut, going quiet as they focused on not cutting more than Ginny wanted.

“Smee’s boys left too, all three of ‘em” Colin muttered, shaving the design into Ginny’s undercut “Six more vks off the isle, wonder if any more will follow” Ginny hummed at that, watching Colin in the mirror as they worked at her hair. That was a question, would there be more vks to follow the six that left two days ago?… Ginny hoped so, she would love to get off the isle and away from her mother.

“Think they’ll pick any of us if it continues?” Ginny asked, leaning on her hand as Colin tilted her head. Colin shrugged after a moment.

“Dunno, maybe not us, but-” they nodded their head to the right, Ginny's eyes following to see Diego De’vil sitting in the salon chair reading a book as one of Colin’s coworkers finished on cutting his hair “-Diego maybe, considering he and Carlos are cousins there might be more of a reason” Diego looked over at them, raising his brow “Ey im not talking negative, just possibilities” he sighed and went back to his book, rolling his shoulders a bit.

Diego was a strapping young man, the older cousin of Carlos and the lead singer and guitarist of the Bad Apples. when he was younger, he would sneer at those who would either compare his looks to his much smaller at the time cousin or accidentally call him Carlos. nowadays he took a bit more pride in being Carlos’ cousin. his hair was cut into a short-brushed back Mohawk that transitioned from black at the roots to white at the edges, similar to Carlos’ hair. he wore red and black most of the time, decorated with spikes and pins with hard combat boots and patched-up jeans. his fingers were calloused from years of guitar picking and freckles decorated his face and shoulders.

Colin's coworker finished up refining his mohawk and took the towel from his shoulders, Diego stood and placed a handful of silver coins into the worker's hands. They nodded and walked to the register as Diego examined himself in the mirror “so De’vil?” He turned to look at Colin, who was brushing off the buzzed hair from Ginny's shoulders “Do ya think your cousin will get you off of here or nah?” Diego stared at them for a moment then shrugged.

“Dunno” he grumbled, grabbing his jacket from the counter and slipping it on “Not up to me, but I’ll do anything to get away from my maniac of an aunt, she keeps mistaking me for Carlos” Ginny and Colin winced at that, remembering the old days when the once runt-like Carlos would run out from Hell Hall with a screaming Cruella behind him, a burning cigarette in her hand.

Pity wasn’t a thing on the isle but many of the younger isle residents would take it upon themselves to keep Carlos away from his deranged mother when possible, even Mal had done it when she was younger and much more…nasty, it was like seeing a puppy being kicked while it was already down, you couldn’t help but just care for it.

Then once Mal created her little group the incidents where Carlos ran away from his brother bruised and bloody lessened, until they completely stopped because he was in Auradon.

Now Cruella, ever the insane woman, attempted to chase after Diego, but Diego was stronger and taller than Carlos ever was against Cruella, and easily battered her away when he needed to.

Cruella didn’t bother him much after the first fist to her face.

Diego waved Colin and Ginny goodbye and walked out of the salon, making his way towards the rundown movie theater for band practice. He turned down an ally for a shortcut and appeared on the other side in the market, making his way down the market to get to the other side of the main street, where the theater was.

As he walked someone caught his eye, and he looked to his right, seeing Claudine Frollo picking through a basket of apples for whatever reason, probably her father making her do the grocery shopping.

Claudine was the bell ringer for dragon hall, she was quiet and soft-spoken, hardly talking to anyone her father didn't approve of. she wore clothes that covered her almost completely, as her father said it ‘keeps the sinful eyes of others away’. her sunflower curly blonde hair was always wrapped in a tight bun, it always got caught in her cross-necklace chain if it was let free. many assumed Claudine was a weak girl, her small frame and wide doe-like green eyes didn't help with the assumption, only to be in for a surprise when it was learned she could knock someone out with one clean punch, bell-ringing every day wasn't an easy task after all. she had many pursuers, many of which didn't go any farther after they were reminded of who her father was.

Diego stepped next to her and grabbed an apple, remembering he was wanting a snack before he had gone in for a haircut. She jumped slightly, turning to him with scared eyes before she realized it was him.

“Oh, hi Diego” Claudine mumbled, going back to grabbing some apples and stuffing them in her black and violet messenger bag.

“Hey” he mumbled back, picking up a sturdy-looking apple and biting into it, suppressing a smile at the crisp texture and sweet taste, fresh apples were so much better than he’d ever thought it be.

Claudine finished filling her bag and nodded at Diego, bidding him ‘adieu’ and turning to go the opposite way Diego had been going. Diego watched her for a moment before turning on his heel and resuming his walk towards the theater.

He arrived soon after and pushed open the doors, walking down towards the left hall past the broken-down arcade and stepping into the 2nd theater on the right.

“Eyyyyy look whose finally ‘ere~” his drummer, Ezekiel, called out to him, as he was sitting down on the stage in front of the screen. Diego nodded to him and climbed up the steps up to the stage, nodding at his bass player and secondary guitarist as they messed with their instruments “What took ya so long?”

“Haircut and snack” Diego shrugged, tossing the apple core to Ezekiel, who gagged and tossed the core into the trash a few feet away “let's get to it”

“Yeah~” Eva, his secondary guitarist and support singer, finished with her guitar and set up the mics and speakers. “Let's do dis~”

Kuvira, his bass player, nodded swinging their bass onto their back, and helped Eva set up the last of their gear.

Ezekiel plopped into his chair and spun his drumsticks between his fingers, grinning at Diego as he took out his guitar and threw the strap around his neck “So what shall we start with~”

“…” Diego looked off to the side for a moment, going through the mental list of their songs. “Different Evil Incoming, let's do that, it’s a wicked warm-up song” his band members nodded, setting up their instruments, following Diego’s lead as he started to shred on his guitar.

Claudine let out a sigh of relief as she stepped into her ‘home’, her father must have still been at his church service. She glanced at the calendar on the wall and closed her eyes, he had marked it as an all-day service which meant she was alone in the house until midnight.

Thank the gods.

She walked up the stairs to her room and unpacked her food into the fridge in her room, going back downstairs to pack away her father's food in the cabinets. Her father shunned modern technology, calling it the devil's work.

But Claudine would rather have her food last just a bit longer than they did in the cabinets.

Claudine took off her jacket and stretched her arms, groaning a bit as her back popped, she scanned the living room/kitchen once to look for anything out of place, and when she found nothing, she grabbed her jacket and ran back up to her room.

She closed the door behind her and took off her thick sweater, grabbing a thinner long-sleeved shirt and pulling it on, sighing in relief to be free of the slightly constricting fabric.

She glanced at her clock and smiled, it was hardly even one-thirty, she had plenty of alone time before her ‘father’ was home. As she grabbed her favorite book and walked to her closet, which was the only way to access the attic of the apartment, her mind flashed back to when she was much younger.

She was barely 4 years old when her mother died, leaving her scared and alone in their home. She didn’t know how much time had passed after that but she knew she was very hungry and very tired, that’s when Claude Frollo stepped into her mother's home and found her.

He had been looking for her mother after her mother had missed several church services, and with how devoted her mother was to the church it had ticked off the ‘that’s odd’ box for Frollo.

He found her, and in thanks to her mother for being so devoted to the church, adopted her, claiming her as his own and raising her under the name of ‘god’.

It had been 13 years since then, and Claudine had all but forgotten the face of her mother. She brushed away the memory of the day she had been found by her adoptive father and pulled herself into the attic carefully stepping around her piles of books, pillows, and blankets and settling into the corner next to the window, where she could read in peace with the natural light illuminating her favorite fantasy book.

Her father always said these books were works of the devil, but Claudine loved them too much to care, she knew they were fake but they allowed her mind to wander to a place far from the isle of the lost.

She set the book on her lap and opened it, beginning to read.

Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy.

-one week after the new vks are transferred to Auradon-

Ben growled into his hand as he glared down at the new documents the council had presented to him. ‘we hereby overrule the vk transfer plan, it is rushed and unplanned, you bringing six villain children over with no security checks or going through their history on the isle will doom Auradon’

While he and (y/n) had figured out the council couldn’t change the rules of his first proclamation or straight up say no to it, they had forgotten if they got enough evidence or if the whole council agreed they could shut the program down.

Luckily Ben had been able to salvage the isles fresh food and necessities program as it had high security going in and out of the barrier and the Auradon guards personally handed out the shipments to make sure no one snuck anyone or anything back into the ship.

Only one person on the council had gone against the rest, ex-king Luis, Prince Charming’s father. He understood the need to continue to get innocent children off the isle and had adamantly refused to vote against it, and helped Ben salvage the fresh food program.

Ex-queen Leah had been the biggest voice against Ben, and he knew she had orchestrated the meeting and the others to cut off the transfer program, she was still angry at Ben for bringing over the daughter of the fae that had “ruined” her daughter's childhood and ruined her motherhood.

Luckily, Ben had found a loophole, he had shown them his plans for the CPS and shelter, where each vk would have an adult to be in charge of them and a place to stay away from the general population and the council agreed that he could continue the vk transfer plan.

But only once he had finished building both the CPS and the shelter, then they demanded that there would be a more thorough screening of the villain children. In the way of applications, they would give their name, parents' name, fingerprints, an essay about why they wanted to come to Auradon, and then a section for the villain children to tell them about their lives on the isle. And then the council would go through the applications and THEY would approve of who was allowed to come to Auradon, and then Ben could choose out of their approved applications

Ben was angry, very, very angry. All the progress that he made within the last two months, gone. Only a day ago he was able to just point at a vk and say ‘you’re coming to Auradon’ and it could happen, with hardly any mess, yes, he would have to get a guardian for them and then get them approved by the school board for a new student and then get the new vk approved to live in the dorms but, that was a lot fewer hoops to jump through then this new application bullshit which would take so much more time.

And he wouldn’t even be able to be the first person to look at the applications as an unbiased person, they would go through cooky old people who still held on to their grudges against these kids’ parents, and pass that grudge onto the kid who wasn’t even born during that time!

Ben threw down the file containing the new guidelines for the transfer plan and buried his face in his hands. The shelter alone would take almost a year to be fully refurbished to be able to comfortably house hundreds of kids that ranged from toddlers to barely adults, then the CPS?? There was so much more to that than on the surface, he had to hire people, make sure they were certified, give them a place to base out of, get them trained to be able to handle the kids off the isle who most of which were probably traumatized! Get therapists ready, medical staff, kitchen staff, living wages, and so much more that just made Ben's head hurt.

Who the fuck thought it was a good idea to make a sixteen-year-old a king? His own father wasn’t king until he was well past his teens, why did he think his kid would be ready for all of this so much earlier than he did?

Ben sighed, lifting his head and rubbing his eyes, this was all going to take over a year, at least, possibly two, maybe almost 3. so the vks would just sit there and wait until they in Auradon were ready to have them come.

Ben felt rage bubbling in his gut, he just wanted to say fuck it and continue doing it the way he was, except with more kids each round. He wanted to go to the isle and just scream at the top of his lungs ‘those who wish to live in Auradon follow me!’ and be able to give those kids the freedom they deserved.

Ben’s anger-filled thought stopped at the sound of slamming on his door. ‘(y/n)’ Ben thought, slightly nervous. He had sent a text to the group chat telling everyone about the council's interference and it was safe to say no one was happy.

Mal had never responded but he heard that there was a new hole in the dorm building wall (which she thankfully repaired but it didn’t stop her from being pissed and deciding to go out for a fly to burn off her anger), Evie had let off a wide range of curse words, some of which were definitely not English, Jay had sent a flurry of random letters and a small rant, Carlos had chucked his phone and was busy repairing it.

And (y/n), Harry, and Gil? Gil was understanding, knowing Ben had no part in it, but the other two? (y/n) had gone silent, and so had Harry.

That was never a good thing.

Ben stood and walked over to his door, dragging his feet slightly as he did. He unlocked it and quickly took a step back as the door swung open and he was greeted by (y/n) and Harry's pissed-off faces.

“So what's this I hear about a meddling council” (y/n) hissed, stepping into the room with Harry following her, closing the door with his foot, and locking it. Watching as (y/n) stormed over to Ben's desk and picked up the file. “How could you let them do this?! Do you know how long it been for those kids?! Eight months!! And now you are going to let them wait even longer!? Fuck that!” (y/n) crumbled the file in her hands and Ben gestured to it as he gave a pleading look to (y/n)

“That’s what I want to do (y/n), but I can’t! When they overrule me, I can't do anything about it! I’m sorry, but if we don’t go by their rules then we don’t get kids off the isle…I’m sorry.”

(y/n) shook her fist in his face again and turned, walking towards Harry and burying her face in his chest, he wrapped his arms around her and glared at Ben. The two stared at each other for a moment, waiting to see who spoke first. Ben took the first word “I really am sorry, I’ll try to get everything ready as soon as possible, but some of it is going to take almost two years, maybe almost three! especially the shelter and CPS agency, and the council required those to be done before we can even send out the applications”

Harry stared at Ben for a moment before looking down at (y/n) and pulling her tighter into him.

“Get it done beasty boy” Harry seemed to growl, his lip set in a slight snarl “And quick, if this takes longer than yeh say, you’ll be hanging from the mast” Ben nodded, stepping towards (y/n) slightly and taking the crumbled file from her hands.

“I'll hold you to that” Ben sighed, stepping back and setting the file on his desk “In fact I’ll remind you if it does…what are we going to do about those kids in the meantime?”

“We can't let them sit there in the dark.” (y/n) mumbled, pulling away from Harry's chest and looking towards Ben “You remember the last time we did that, with Uma? You said she thought Harry and Gil abandoned her. We can't let those kids think we are abandoning them again; we need to let them know we’re doing everything we can”

“And we will” Ben nodded, the fire igniting in his chest again as he realized not all hope was lost “Those kids will know that we aren’t abandoning them. Through a newscast or a radio, I don’t know, but we'll let them know”

You and Harry nodded at Ben, who nodded back. “We'll figure this out.” Ben walked around his desk and sat down, glaring at the file. “We won't let them down.”

-end of part 5-

Part 5! and Uma can see into the future~!! also yep the council are dicks and prevent Ben from doing everything easily. also yep more vks! more to come about them in future parts! hope you enjoyed!

permtaglist

@queer-cosette @sephiralorange

@lunanight2012 @daughter-of-the-stars11

@musicarose @random-thoughts-003

@remembered-license @rintheemolion

@verboetoperee @imtryingthisout @thecaptainsgingersnap @jatp-rules-my-life

#Descendents #descendants #disney descendants #harry hook x reader #harry hook #harry hook descendants #harry hook imagine #interlude #finale #shuffle playlist #rewrite

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snailsgoingdowntown · 3 years

Text

Xiao loves me!? (April fools day special)

(I am so sorry for this, please don’t unfollow me after you read this monstrous thing of a fanfic…My pride is gone now. I can’t believe I actually did this…it’s so cringy, I’m so sorry to anyone who reads this. It’s based off a one direction fic I read when I was 14.

Warnings: Cringy fic, bad grammar, mention of sex trafficking/selling one’s virginity. I don’t know what to tag that as, actually…, mention of sex, physical violence. for your own sanity, do not read.)

A/n: heeeeyyyyyy!!!!!!! So like, this is my first fanfic!!! Plz don’t be so mean, I tried my best, okay (insert sad face here cuz Im using the public libiary to write this since my parents always check what I do with my phone even though I,’m 14!!!!) so here are the warnings: Almost being kidnapped, talk about sex (omg I was blushing so hard when I wrote that part!) stealing I think, dad trying to sell you. I think that’s it. enjoy!!!!!!

w.c: 888

Xiao was such a hunk of meat I swear to god! Such a good college student too, always lending me his notes whenever I miss a class. He’s just so…ahhh…I really wish I could like, kiss him or something! But I’m not that popular (neither is he, bur many girls like him because he’s just so hot but he’s also kinda scary looking, with like, that glare of his.) he makes sure to scold me if I miss too many though, and it’s not even my fault I had to miss them!!! my mom is always trying to sell me off, or rather, trying to like, sell my virginity, or something. It only happens every other day.

Like, sheesh mom, can you stop trying to put your nose in my business? I’m twenty now and moved out for a reason.

Anyway, back to what I was saying –

Xiao was scary, like, really, really scary. But he’s also really, really, really, really, really nice too!!!! it’s just he’s probably socially awkard….maybe. or maybe he does hate people? Who cares!!! It’s not like I like him or anything!!!! He’s just a nice guy who I talk to. Who only gave me his number because I am forced to skip (Thanks for that mom, I totally didn’t need to take that english class for my degree, or whatever) and I am falling behind. So like, he helps me out and I try to help him out with whatever he needs. But he never asks for anything in return.

But like, I NEED to pay him back!

He gave me his notes, paid for my dinner once or twice (My brother took my money cuz he wanted to get that new ps5 or something, I don’t really know), let me like ride his motoycle when it was raining an didn’t have a ride, let me spend the night at his dorm when I was locked out of mine (My bff was having sex with her bf. It was so loud omg, and they just! Told me to get lost!! All I did was knock on the door so I could get my charger!!!), help me study for my worst subjects, cuz like, I can’t fail unless I want to be a failure and have student debt!!!!!! Xiao also like, he goes out with me to places as long as there aren’t too many people.

So he probably does hate people.

Oh! And! Hes! Emo!!!

Emo guys are so hot…

Anyway, like I was sayimg!

So, like, Xiao is a good guy. He helps me and he’s always there for me, like that one time he punched my dad in the face cuz he was trying to take me and sell me to his friend so I could marry his son. Or something. I was knocked out and only know what the police told me. So, anyway, he’s a good guy. And also a hot guy.

But I think he likes…

MY FRIEND!!!!!

I push my (h/c) back as I make my way over to him, the black and teal haired man standing outside of my classroom – he was waiting for me. He’s such a good friend, I know my friend (Ashly is her name, she’s soooooo pretty with her blonde hair and blue eyes!!! She like him too!!!) will treat him right!! And I think Xiao will also treat her right!! So that means I can’t think of him as hot anymore when they start to go out.

Because then I would be a bad friend!!!!!!!!!

And I want to be a good friend.

So I walk up to Xiao who was on his phone but he had out it away the moment he noticed it was me. His face turns a bit pink and I tilt my head but chose not to ask about it. maybe he was a bit sick. “Xiao, are you free later on tonight?” even though Ashly likes him, I like him too I just realized this as he looks at me with gold eyes and nods his head while he pushes some of his hair out of his face. I always knew he was good looking, but like, this is different. My heart speeds up and I hatemyself because I never realized my feelings for him until now.

I am such a horrible friend!!!!

“yeah. How come?” “I was going out with ashly today and wanted to know id you wanted to come with us.” “Ashly? Ah. Your friend, the one who’s always with you in her free time, right?” “yeah – wait, you never knew her name?” “No because I never really paid attention to her. She’s not my type but you are.”

My heart stops and I think I’m gonna like, die.

“What do you mean im your type, Xiao?” “I mean that I like you. I want to marry you.” “B-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-but we’re not even dating!!!!!!??????”

I gasp as he gets on one knee, brining a shiny ring out. He likes me!?!?!?!

“ (full name), will you marry me?”

“B-But ahsly0” “I’m in love with you not ashly. I want to marry you and only you.” “t-then yes!!! I love you too!!!”

I hug him and we like, kiss and he slips the ring on my ring finger.

I love Xiao and Xiao loves me!

A/n: omg, I hope that was okay!!! Thank you for reading, I love you guys!!!!!

#crack fic #xiao x reader #genshin impact xiao #genshin impact xiao x reader #genshin impact #tw: mention of sex #tw: sex trafficking #i think #tw: physical violence #tw: abuse #i hate myself #why am i this way #why am i doing this

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keiwritesstuff · 4 years

Text

With You

Kuroo Tetsuro x f!reader

Summary : Kuroo and her are classmates, but never really talked to each other since he’s a social butterfly while she prefers to do things alone. One day, their teacher assigns both of them to be assignment partners, and they discovered new things about each other.

Genre : slice of life, soft

Notes : Long. Written in 3rd person ‘s POV. Absolutety self-indulgent. Slowburn-ish. Happy ending. Bokuto is adorable.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

“For this topic.. Kuroo Testuro and L/N F/N,” the teacher announced before nonchalantly proceeded to name the other pairs. She subconsciously straightened her back, totally not expecting to be paired up with a boy, what more a really famous one. She’s not that interested in sports, but she knew enough that he’s somehow very popular, considering how he’s the captain of Nekoma vc and is very often surrounded by people (mostly girls, but what’s the difference?).

She prefers working alone, and knows that she’s very good at it. But this project… this presentation, will contribute to her getting good grades should she does it well, and she would really like to maintain the ones she had achieved, if not get better ones.

She has to.

After the teacher had finished assigning the topics to all pairs, the teacher had them sit together to start their discussion. From what Y/N knew, Kuroo is good in Science. She had never seen him fail the subject, if that is any indication.

It won’t be too bad, she told herself.

“I’ll be in your care, Kuroo-kun.” she spoke.

“Same goes with me.” he smiled before taking out his textbook to start the discussion. “I don’t think this topic is too difficult to present on, but I do think that we need to look for more examples to make our explanation easier to understand.” he added. She was rather impressed, considering he hadn’t even turned to the page related to said topic.

Both of them immediately set up a schedule for upcoming discussions since he is busy with volleyball practice.

That weekend, he goes to her house to work on the contents of the presentation. He was greeted by a young boy, who welcomed him into the house. The boy brought him to the kitchen, where he saw Y/N cooking, with a pair of twin boys clinging onto her legs.

“I didn’t know you’re a single mother.” he started, couldn’t help himself from doing his habit of teasing people.

“Shut up.” she laughed (which amused him, since he didn’t take her as someone who accepts jokes easily).

“These are my brothers. My parents are out working. Usually mom is at home taking care of these kids, but whenever I can do it, she’ll be at the shop, helping my dad.” she spoke, still busy stirring the food in the pot. “I think you can put your stuff on the couch. I’ll be there in a second.” she continued, somewhat apologetically, since she couldn’t immediately start their discussion. Kuroo sensed it, and quickly replied, “Alright. Tell me if you need a hand, though my assistance does come with a hazard warning.”

He saw her smile again before walking to the living room. He didn’t notice the warmth blooming from somewhere inside his chest.

After making sure her brothers have finished their meal, she rushed to Kuroo with iced peach tea in her hand. “Sorry. I’ll try .” she starts to jot down and rearrange the notes that she had collected through her own research for Kuroo’s opinion. Kuroo looked at her and noticed the conforting smell of homemade oyakodon. He couldn’t help but smile. Though they rarely talked in class, she had always given him this impression that she prefers to be left alone. Who would’ve thought that at home, there are three little gremlins glued to her hips all the time?

After school, both of them stayed in class along with other pairs who seem to be struggling as well. Both Kuroo and Y/N are more exhausted than usual, and Kuroo definitely took back what he said about the topic being easy. Linking the examples with the main points has been proven to be more difficult than they deemed it to be, especially in efforts to make it as simple and as easy to understand as possible. Y/N wanted to ace this assignment, and Kuroo noticed how she was struggling to digest the notes, reading the same page over and over again but to no avail.

“You reeaally want to ace this presentation, don’t you?” he asked.

She rested her head on the table, a few strands of her hair tickling her nose.

“Of course. I need to make sure I maintain impressive grades in my result transcript. Gotta get those scholarships.” Y/N replied, exhaustion could be heard from her voice, probably from taking care of her younger brothers. Funny, Kuroo thinks, that he couldn’t notice this side of her before. Had she been this… at ease before?

“Scholarship?”

Y/N nods. “Yeah. I’m aiming for Tohoku University.” she replied. “It’s not easy to get a scholarship there, but their Natural Science department is top notch and I’d love to study there. Not to mention, if I survived uni, that Tohoku logo would look good on my CV, don’t you think?”

Her head is still on the table, but her eyes are looking somewhere else now, her facial expression clearly shows that she can already visualize that life, that dream.

Kuroo was rather impressed. Tohoku isn’t so easy to get into, it is not a place for everyone, and if anyone wants to earn a scholarship there, they have to work extremely hard (and maybe offer a sacrifice to the gods for good measure).

“That’s pretty amazing,” he commented. “But what about your brothers? Will they be okay? Aren’t you worried? They seem to be really attached to you.”

“I am, but at the same time I want to work hard and secure a good job so that they don’t have to worry much about money, just in case one day they want to apply to any college institution.”

If Kuroo was impressed before, now he has an utmost respect for Y/N.

“Well, it’s just a dream for now, but, just like how your team works hard to win matches, I’m going to work hard to make my dream come true.” Y/N said, patting her cheeks hard, back straightened, tucking those stray hair behind her ears, and re-reading that page, again.

++++

On Friday, surprisingly, Kuroo was suddenly absent without telling Y/N. They were supposed to have another discussion after school, since Kuroo won’t be available that weekend due to volleyball practice (there is an upcoming match with a strong team whose captain is a dorky owl, he said. Not that she understood, but he seemed ecstatic, so she just agreed on the change of plan in the schedule.).

She texted him during recess, but received no reply. He didn’t even read them. Did something happen? It’s not like him to ignore her texts like this. At least, he had never done so before.

Would his teammates know what happened to him?

She stumbled upon a familiar second-year student on her way to the gym hall after school. He had a game console in his hands. If she is not mistaken, she had seen him before, walking with Kuroo.

“Uh, excuse me, sorry.. You’re Kuroo’s friend, aren’t you?” she said.

He looked at her. “And what if I am?”

She gave him a meek smile. Sheesh. What’s with that attitude?

“Do you know where he is? We’re supposed to have a pair discussion today for our assignment, but he’s absent and didn’t reply to my texts. I mean,I get it if he’s occupied with practice, but it would be nice to receive a heads up.”

She has a life too, you know.

The second-year stood straight. “Oh. I see. I thought you are one of those girls who are constantly bugging him.”

Oh.

“He told us he wasn’t feeling well yesterday. His blocks were easily broken through too. He didn’t reply to my texts, either, let alone answer my calls. So, it could only mean one thing.”

She raised her eyebrow.

“He is definitely sick. Most likely fever. I’m planning to check on him after practice today.”

++++

Kuroo stirred in his sleep. The doorbell is ringing relentlessly.

Oh gosh, do I HAVE to open the door?

Dragging his feet, he could feel his joints ache with every movement. He rarely gets sick. He takes pride on that. But when he actually does, he could not deny how bad it can get. Fever is the worse. His head feels heavy, cloudy. His throat is in pain. His body is in pain. He doesn’t have the strength to move, and usually it’s either Kenma or his grandmother who would help to nurse him back to health(Kenma is not really good at it, but he tries).

He opened the door. “Hey Kenm---eh..?”

It was not Kenma.

“I told Kenma I’d check on you. He won’t be coming over today.” Y/N said.

Y/N?

“Are you sick?” she took a step forward, putting her hand on Kuroo’s forehead, startling him in the process.

“Yep, you definitely are.”

Huh?

“Ojamashimasu*,” she invited herself in, and Kuroo is still standing in the doorway. Weak, but shocked nevertheless.

Wait a minute. Hold up for a second. What is all this? What is she doing here? What is going on? Did she just come into the house? Eh..? Has she always been this forward?

And then he remembered the discussion that they were supposed to have that day. Oh no.

Crap.

“Uh, hey, Y/N.. I’m sorry I didn’t inform you earlier--”

“Rest, Kuroo It’s fine. Just take out all your have on the assignment, and I’ll see what I can add to the contents. You, rest. I’ll be here for a while though. I’ll leave whatever part I can finish on the table so you can take a look at them later. Is it okay with you?”

Goodness grief, the determination in this girl. How important can that scholarship be?!

“S..sure..? I… I’ll make you some tea..” he winced in pain, taking a step towards the kitchen, but stoppped when he felt a tug on his sleeve. He turned, only to face a stern-looking Y/N. “Kuroo, rest. I know this is your house and I’m a guest, but in your defense, I came here on my own accord, and you’re sick. You should rest. I will drag you to your bed, by your feet if you insist on entertaining me.”

What is she? A mother? Oh wait, she kinda is.

He chuckled. “Okay, okay..”

He wanted to say more. Thanks for coming. Make yourself at home. I’ll buy you ice-cream when I get well. Thanks for helping me with the notes. Thanks for understanding and not getting mad.

But his body is aching all over, and all he could do is to just listen to her, and walked into his room. After handing everything he had on the assignment to her, he fell onto his bed , sleep immediately overtaking him.

He gained consciousness every now and then, only to shift his position and fall back into slumber. His fever is really bad this time around, and the fact that he has his assignment partner doing all the work in his living room is making him feel even worse. Not to mention, his family members are not around.

“..roo.”

He dreams of warm, chicken soup. He has no appetite to eat, but it would be nice to have some, to help him get better.

“Kuroo-kun.”

He felt something cool on his head. A hand. He wasn’t sure if his mind is playing tricks, but he could smell chicken soup.

“Kuroo-kun, hey, wake up.”

Another hand shook him gently, and he pried his eyes open, only to see Y/N sitting on his bed next to him, a bowl on her lap.

“Y/N..?” his voice came out hoarse.

“Here. I made you some porridge and ginger tea. Can you sit up?”

Truthfully, the ache on his joints says no. But the captain in him insisted, and as he was struggling to sit up, he noticed that she had her hands steady on his shoulders, ready to guide him if he suddenly falls to his side. His head is spinning, and it takes some time for his vision to clear.

Wait. She said she made porridge?

He stared at the bowl on her lap. She handed him the cup of tea. “Did you just---” he pointed to the bowl.

“I know, I know.. I used your kitchen and some ingredients in the fridge.. I’m sorry. I waited for a while to see if any of your family members would come home. Maybe they would bring home some food. But no one did, so I went ahead and cooked.. sorry.. I’ll pay you back for the ingredients I used. It’s just.. you looked like you hadn’t eaten anything today.”

No, that’s not the point, silly.

He stared at her in disbelief.

And something, like a gentle wave, is washing over him from all sides.

Kuroo looked at this girl.

This unbelievable girl.

Did he do something to deserve this kindness?

Stop.

Why is she so nice? So unquestionably thoughtful?

Stop it.

If he didn’t feel it before, Kuroo can definitely feel it now, that warmth inside his chest, blooming bigger and bigger. Like an onslaught, refusing to spare him.

As if it’s going to explode anytime soon. Has it always been there?

“Yeah.. my dad usually comes home from work at night, and my grandparents are visiting our relatives in Chiba for a week. So.. yeah.” he took the bowl in silence, inhaled the smell of chicken, rice and spices, and at the first taste of the warm porridge on his tongue, Kuroo immediately slumped, his emotions are suddenly so overwhelming that he could feel heat prickling on his eyes. He hadn’t felt this fragile in such a long time.

Bullets fly, from his left and right, front and back. There is nowhere to hide.

She noticed the change. “Kuroo-kun..? Hey, you alright? Is it too hot? Are you in pain?” Y/N panicked, quickly taking the bowl away and trying to get him to drink the tea.

What is this?

He couldn’t understand.

Kuroo shook his head lightly. For some reason, words just failed him. What is this feeling? Why does it seem like he had missed this feeling for so long? This gentleness, this--this

-yearning?

The next thing Y/N realized, she was in his arms. She couldn’t see his face, her own is buried his chest, but he was shaking, and she could hear a faint, shaky whisper of “thank you” from him, and it was enough for her to understand.

How he didn’t mention his mother. How there seem to be a lack of a female’s touch in certain corners of the house. How she noticed that there were mostly men’s shoes in the doorway.

She gently pat him on his back, as she would often do when her little brothers get sick.

+++

“You seem off today.” said Kenma, fishing his water bottle out of his bag, panting. Today’s practice is harsh as usual, but exciting nevertheless, since they are very much looking forward to see their good friends from Fukurodani.

“Do I?” Kuroo asked. “The Science assignment, I guess. I’m just hoping that I’ll do well. I mean, Y/N wants to maintain her grades. She’s aiming for a scholarship, you know.”

There was a short silence before Kenma chuckled and spoke, “Why does it sound like you’re bragging? You make it sound like she’s your girlfriend or something.”

Kuroo tensed. It was a nonchalant comment, but it definitely got to him.

G....girlfriend?

He had never thought about dating anyone. He had always been occupied with volleyball practice. Y/N however, might be different. She’s probably dating someone, considering how wonderful she is. Kuroo stared at her, her eyes are currently focused on the sheets of paper and cue cards.

Does she have a boyfriend? Who is he? Does he get upset whenever she spends her time with him?

And somehow, that thought alone irked him.

“So..maybe it’s better if we connect this part with this example right here. I think it’ll make it easier for us to get our point across.” she said, pointing to said contents on the notes.

“Yeah, okay. Sure.”

That attitude did not go unnoticed.

“Kuroo-kun.” she called. “Are you alright?”

“Hm? Yeah.” Kuroo doodled circles on a piece of paper, refusing any eye contact.

“You don’t look alright. You’re clearly upset.”

“How’d you know?” Kuroo asked.

“You scrunch your nose when you’re upset.”

“No, I don’t!” he exclaimed, covering his nose.

Y/N laughed. “Okay, you don’t, but still, I know you’re not okay. Is something bothering you?”

Kuroo was silent before answering her. “It’s.. nothing. I’m just not thinking clearly, I guess.” Kuroo scratched his head. How does she know?

“You want to talk about it?”she asked again, this time staring at him straight in the eyes. To make sure he knows that she will listen if he decided to share something.

That stare. Those eyes. Oh, how different it feels whenever he’s with her. With her, he is not the captain of Nekoma vc. With her, he doesn’t have to focus on leading anything or anyone. With her, he doesn’t have to hide his feelings (she can see through him anyway). With her, he is just Kuroo Tetsurou from Class 5.

There it is again. That warmth. Blooming. Bigger and bigger.

She still waits for his response.

There is no escape.

“Y/N, I..”

She listens.

“I..I think I….li--”

The classroom door slid open, revealing a tall boy with light grey hair, panting for air. “Captaaaaaiin! I’m here to get you!”

Kuroo almost fell off his chair in shock. Talk about the worst timing ever. “Lev..! You idiot!” he muttered under his breath.

“Where were you?! You’re late! Practice started 15 minutes ago! Why didn’t you text back?! They had me searching for you all over the school!”

“What? Oh! Crap! I forgot!” Kuroo stood up in panic. Crap crap crap. Now he even forgets his captain duties. The practice match with Fukurodani is on the weekend and here he is, not being able to function well in neither his assignment nor practice!

“You have practice today? You didn’t tell me?” Y/N looked at him

“Yeah. I forgot. Sorry, both the presentation and the upcoming practice match with Fukurodani is getting to me, I guess.”

He lied, hoping she would not see through that lie.

Fortunately, she didn’t. With a soft sigh, she placed her hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, Tetsurou. We’ll do well.”

Tetsurou.

As if he was struck by lightning, it took a while before Kuroo could move. Tetsurou. Tetsurou. It sounds different when she says it. It sounds good when she says it.

Y/N stood up and tidied up the table, packing her stuff. “You go ahead. I’ll clean up. Uh… Lev-kun? Sorry you had to come all over here to look for your captain. If I had known, I would’ve sent him to the gym hall.” Y/N gave the tall boy a smile, and Kuroo noticed how the younger boy’s ears turned into a darker shade of red.

“It… It’s okay!” the boy replied enthusiastically.

Kuroo doesn’t like it.

“Let’s go,” he simply said, and dragged the boy with him.

+++

“Let’s do this.” Y/N whispered, their presentation is being projected onto the white screen. Kuroo nodded. They had done everything they could for the contents of the presentation, they even did a mock presentation the day before to make sure they deliver the contents smoothly.

“For some reason this feels like a volleyball match.” he commented, gripping his cue cards in both excitement and nervousness.

She smiled at him, though she too, shares the same feelings. “Well then, if that is so, I’ll be in your care today, captain.” she smiled.

Captain.

His heart beats faster, harder, not because of the presentation alone, and Kuroo knows it.

Bigger. Blooming bigger. Hotter.

“Phew, that was nerve-wrecking!” she exclaimed, obviously relieved that everything is over. If the applause they received from their classmates and teacher is any indication of how well they did in their presentation, they could say that they did pretty well.

“Now that this is over, I can focus on the practice match with Fukurodani this weekend.” Kuroo puts away his notes, sighing in relief.

“I wish you luck with that. Sadly there is nothing I can help you with.” she said apologetically.

“Nah, you’ve done enough. I still hadn’t bought you your well-deserved ice cream, for taking care of me the other day.”

She laughed at him. “Well, don’t you forget that.”

Kuroo took some moment before speaking, unsure of how he should choose his next words.

“Uh, anyhow, Y/N.. Do you want to come to see our match this weekend..?”

Kuroo himself didn’t expect that he would say that. It just came out, and he immediately added, “I mean, if you have time! If you don’t have anything to do on that day! You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but it would be great if you’d come, you know!-- For.. for--”

He stopped himself when he noticed her staring at him with an expression that he could not read.

“-for moral s..support..”

The last part came out shaky.

Her eyes brightened. “I’d love to. Not sure how much support I can give, though. I don’t know much about volleyball.” Y/N replied, pink tinting her cheeks.

Kuroo beamed. “N..No worries! Just cheer for us!”

++++

The day came, and when Y/N arrived at the hall, she immediately noticed the white jackets close to her, warming up and talking to each other. Nekoma’s team is across the hall, but she doesn’t think that it would be appropriate to come up to them. After all, the only person she’s familiar with is Kuroo, and she had only talked to Kenma and Lev once.

Lost, she looked around to find a place to sit and wait for the match to start. As she turned around, a tall presence stood behind her.

“Hey hey hey? You seem lost!”

No lie, she felt like a midget next to him. He isn’t just tall. He’s pretty big, as well. Looking at his grey spiky hair and big eyes, Y/N couldn’t help feeling a little intimidated.

“Uh, no… I’m just waiting for the match to start.. I…I’ll be going, then..”

Her attempt to escape failed when the boy spoke, “Wait! Will you be cheering for us? You should! We’re pretty awesome, you know! We will win this--”

“Hyaaaaaah!”

Kuroo ran from afar and tackled the boy down.

“Idiot rooster head! What was that for?!” the boy pushed Kuroo off him. It seems like that tackle didn’t affect him even a little bit.

“What were you doing to Y/N, Bokuto?” Kuroo asked, calm, but irritated. He pinched Bokuto’s cheeks really hard.

“Oi, oi! I did nothing! Oww! AKAAAAASHIIII!”

Y/N can only watch. Another dark haired boy came and tapped on Kuroo’s head. “He asked her to cheer for us.

“Haaaaah??!!” Kuroo pinched harder.

“Akaaaaashiiii!!”

After a few smacks on his arm, Kuroo finally released the boy he called Bokuto, and stood next to Y/N. “She! Will! Be! Cheering! For! Me!”

Bokuto stared at him in disdain and pouted.“Huh? Why should she? You’re not even that good.”

“Haaaah?!!”

As another one of their bickering started, Kenma tapped on Y/N’s shoulder. “I think you should go up there. It’s pretty dangerous down here during the game.”

+++

It was like a new world for her. The crisp sound of the ball being hit, the cheers every time any one of the teams scored, and the intensity of the game itself truly amazed her. She got lost sometimes, not understanding why points were given, but it didn’t stop her from watching the whole match.

Bokuto and Kuroo, she noticed, despite being good friends, can also get on each other’s nerves very easily.

And Kenma radiates a different energy when he’s in the court. He was right, too. Y/N could’ve easily get hit by a stray ball if she stayed close around the court.

Kuroo, on the other hand, looks so different. He’s not the same person as he usually is in class. From what Y/N could observe, the team really listens to him, respects him even and there is this intensity to his demeanor. Where did the laid-back guy go to?

It was clear to her why all those people (again, mostly girls, but what’s the difference?) surround him all the time.

He looked up, looking at her after he successfully blocked a particularly hard spike from Fukurodani (Bokuto’s, to be exact). He flashed her a wide, teethy smile and gave her two thumbs up. For some reason, her ears feel hot, and she smiled back at him. Lev noticed her looking at them from above and frantically waved at her. She waved back, laughing. Kuroo frowned at him.

Lev noticed his captain’s stare and pouted. “I blocked that spike too!”

The game was exciting to watch. If she had known all along that this is how it feels like to watch a match, she would’ve come to every volleyball match as much as she could. Kuroo had once mentioned the names of other strong teams, one of them being Karasuno High School, complimenting Karasuno’s ‘shrimpy’ especially. She couldn’t help thinking that if Kuroo himself (who loves his team the most) respectfully acknowledges that team, then it definitely means that they must truly be a force to reckon with. A match between Nekoma and Karasuno would be as intense as this one, if not more.

As the match proceeds, the heat in the court gradually got to Y/N, and she doesn’t notice that she is no longer holding back her voice. She cheers for Nekoma, claps her hands when Fukurodani scored points (smug was evident on Bokuto’s face, only to spur Kuroo on), and without realizing it, as Bokuto was about to spike hard, she was screaming someone’s name.

Everyone in the hall cheered in amazement. Nekoma managed to block that spike, the ball bounced back too quickly for Fukurodani’s libero to save.

Y/N’s breath hitched when the whistle was blown, ending the match with Nekoma’s victory.

Her eyes automatically darted to Kuroo, who fantastically blocked that last attack, and she saw the pure joy on his face, smiling at his teammates and rival team, before finally, at her.

And she swore she felt time stopped.

She stood outside the gym hall. She wasn’t sure how long she should stay inside, or if she should see Kuroo to congratulate him and the team.

“Hey hey hey! It’s you again!” Bokuto appeared behind her, with the team. Why is he everywhere?

Y/N bowed. “Your team was amazing. Please do come again for practice matches, Bokuto-san.” Y/N said, already familiar with the grey-haired captain. The boy beamed with joy. “We were, right?! Ah, if only you didn’t cheer for that rooster head and cheered for us instead, we could’ve won!” Bokuto said, though Y/N wasn’t sure if he was just joking or truly regretful.

“Wait, did you hear me?” she suddenly grew alert. He couldn’t have, right? Was it that loud?

“Hm?The whole hall did? You called Tetsurou’s name like, really really loudly.”

And in an instant, her face turned beet red.

Suddenly, she remembered. She actually did call Kuroo’s name. Screamed, to be exact.

“Tetsurou, you can do it!!”

Oh. Oh no.

What was she thinking?!

It wasn’t like her at all! What is this?!

“Ah, her face is red.” Bokuto commented in confusion. “But like I said, next time, you should definitely cheer for us! We are much better than---OWWWW!”

Bokuto was tackled down again, Kuroo appearing out of nowhere, pinching his cheeks for the nth time that day.

“Akaaaaaaashiiiiiii!!!!”

++++++++

Kuroo waves his hand as Fukurodani’s bus leaves the premise. Y/N stood next to him, doing the same thing. After the bus disappears from sight, Kuroo turns to her. He was wearing this smile that Y/N couldn’t read. “Thank you so much for coming, Y/N.” he spoke. The setting sun hits him differently. He looks gorgeous, Y/N thought.

Y/N doesn’t know why, they are talking normally as they always do, but her heart seems to beat faster than usual.

“Well, I hope I managed to give you the moral support you asked for.” she replied.

Kuroo smirked. “You definitely did. I didn’t even know you can scream that loud.” he chuckled.

She turned red again, this time caught by Kuroo. He laughed. “You should watch us play again next time. It’s good to hear people cheering for you. Especially when they’re suuuper loud.”

She huffed at his teasing. “You normally have a lot of friends to do that, anyway.”

“Yeah, but I want to hear yours.”

Y/N was rendered speechless. She looked at Kuroo, looking for any hint of playfulness, maybe he’s joking around again, maybe she should tease him back,-

but there was none. He was looking at her, eyes intense, awaiting for something from her.

“Kuroo..-”

“I--” he cut her off, “I don’t know how to say this, Y/N.. I’m not used to it.. but..I just…I know that.. I want to be with you.”

Y/N’s breath hitched quietly, not expecting Kuroo to confess his feelings so directly like that.

“You don’t have to answer immediately. I just.. I don’t think I can hide it any longer. Especially after you screamed my name in front of everyone like that. I thought I was going to explode out of sheer happiness.”

Kuroo took a shallow breath before continuing, “Whatever your answer is, I just want you to know that I enjoy you around me a lot. Even if you can’t return these feelings, I still hope we can still be friends. It’s nice to have a--”

This time, Y/N cuts him off, pulling him down into a tight hug. Kuroo’s eyes widened in shock.

“This is my answer, Tetsurou.” she spoke, voice trembling, burying her face into the crook of his neck. Trying to get over his shock, Kuroo gently wraps his arms around her waist, trying to hold himself back. He wanted to hold her tighter, to wash away any traces of disbelief in his heart, -she likes me too?- but he wasn’t sure how she would take that.

“Y/N…” he whispers her name, and she tightened her embrace. If there’s anything that he understands about her, he knows that she is definitely more actions than words. He understands what that means.

I like you. A lot.

This time, Kuroo doesn’t hesitate. He hugged her tight, unwilling to let go even a second. His heart is bursting with love and joy, and he instantly becomes sure that this is the person that he wants to be with.

For the rest of his life.

Eventually, they pulled apart, because Lev and the rest of the team emerged from behind them.

“I want a hug too!”

Y/N laughed while Kuroo stared at the first-year in disbelief. “How dense can you be? Can’t you read the atmosphere here??”

“BUT I BLOCKED THOSE SPIKES TOO! I DESERVE A HUG!”

“Then go hug Yaku!” Kuroo pointed at said boy.

“Aw, hell no!”

Yaku ran when Lev sprinted towards him.

________________________________________________________

[A/N] How did this get so long? Thanks for reading! I’ll work hard to improve!

#kuroo tetsurou #kuroo tetsuro x reader #haikyuu fanfiction #haikyuu imagines #haikyuu fluff

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drawlfoy · 5 years

Text

Faux Diplomacy p.2

pairing: draco x mugglebornslytherinilvernmornyfem!reader (a mouthful i’m so sorry)

request: nah i’ve always always wanted to write this

warnings: draco malfoy being a class A dickwad, swearing

summary: reader is an ilvermorny student who was given an opportunity to travel abroad and spend a year at Hogwarts. At first she’s thrilled, but things start to get weird--why is everyone on the trip muggleborn? why were they all put into slytherin, no questions asked? and what is that draco malfoy kid doing? takes place during 6th year so peak angst

a/n: i apologize for the fact that i’m clearly favoring this story over Sound of....Magic? but it’s mostly because i’m writing what i know and i don’t know how to adult lol. also i hope you’re enjoying the slowburn! we might hate draco a little bit but i swear i’ll mend it soon!

music recs: i have a writing playlist specifically for this fic that i might share one day

word count: 2,240

The door was hard under Y/N’s fist, something that she should’ve guessed but the fact of which still managed to surprise her. Maybe she was more intoxicated than she originally assumed.

She knocked four times, slowly but loudly enough for anyone awake to hear her. The last thing she wanted to deal with was an angry racist.

Three seconds passed by, each little mississippi begging her to run the other way before the door opened. She prayed that he was gone or at least deep in sleep. There was no telling what he’d do if he saw her. He couldn’t kill her, at least, but there were hundreds of other things that could happen to her if he was evil enough.

Her worst fear came true as the door flung open, revealing a very disgruntled and very pissed Draco. His pale hair was tousled with some pieces hanging in front of his forehead, breaking Y/N’s conception of his perfectly kept hair.

“What on earth do you want?” He hissed, his eyes burning with an intense emotion that Y/N couldn’t quite put a finger on.

Y/N suddenly felt very silly standing outside his room with an outfit to rival Cher from Clueless as she took in his slightly rumpled silk suit. He was doing whatever important job he seemed so focused on while she was trying to get him to come out and join a party he was so clearly avoiding.

“Um,” she began rather lamely.

“Um,” Draco repeated back in a nasal voice clearly meant to mock her accent.

“Pansy uh..she wanted you to come out. It was a stupid game of truth or dare and she slipped Veritaserum into my drink so I can’t lie and say I did it when I didn’t-”

“You do realize that’s complete bullshit, right?” Draco interrupted. “The Veritaserum? Do you seriously believe that Snape would let us get out hands on that? First years fall for that every year. First time I’ve seen anyone over 12 believe it, though.”

Y/N’s cheeks grew hot as she realized he was probably completely right. Now that she actually thought about it, she couldn’t guess how Pansy could get her hands on something that dangerous much less spike drinks with it.

“Oh. I guess that makes sense.”

Draco nodded with an “uh, yeah” look in his eyes and made his way to slam the door in his face when a glimmer caught her eye.

In her inebriated state, she told him point-blank, “Cool necklace. Who’s it for?”

Draco froze as he turned to look at his bed, the same one that had a very ornate necklace laying on it. He slowly turned back to Y/N with a terrifying expression on his face.

Uh oh.

He grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and dragged her inside his room, slamming the door shut behind her and shoving her against the wall.

“What the fuck dude-”

“What’s your allegiance?” he hissed, stepping in her eyeline so she couldn’t see the necklace anymore. Their proximity was uncomfortably close. Y/N could smell peppermint on his breath, no doubt remnants of a cup of tea he’d had earlier.

“My allegiance.....sheesh, I don’t know, I don’t know where I fall on the political spectrum, but I am really frustrated with the Senate for impeding any type of impeachment proceed-”

“No, you bloody idiot!” He cut in again. “I mean in the wizarding world. Not.. whatever the fuck you’re going on about.”

“Oh, you mean like... the issue with Death Eaters and everything? I dunno, I haven’t read enough about British politics to know but it’s so ridiculous, y’know? Like, someday all of them are gonna wake up and realize they’ve been drinking the Kool-Aid and that they’re never gonna get rewarded the way the think. It’s really sad, they’re basically in a cult.”

Draco stared at her with wide eyes and a defensive expression on his face. He was still gripping both of her wrists in one hand, pinning them above Y/N’s head and making it impossible for her to weasel out of his grasp.

“I mean, pretty general stuff. American wizarding media is always like, ‘look at these idiots thinking that they’re gonna restore blood purity, aren’t they crazy? BLESS the fact that we left in 1776’ and whatnot. I don’t know, we all kind of chuckle at it and make memes about the fact that there’s even people out there that still buy into that shi...”

Y/N’s eyes managed to catch a quidditch uniform hung up on the bedpost with the name MALFOY printed across the back in silver letters. Suddenly it all made sense--she had just read about his father being incarcerated for being a Death Eater. She trailed off when the realization set in.

Oh no.

“You know, with that thought, I think I’m just gonna go back to the party...I normally don’t get this political. Forget I said anything. Please!”

Draco’s face was the definition of fury. Now that Y/N knew he was Lucius Malfoy’s son, she had no clue what he could be capable of. She briefly wondered if he would kill her before immediately casting the thought aside.

That’d be absurd she reminded herself. He’s still just a teenager, just like you. He’s not gonna kill you.

He took a few moments to glare down at her before opening the door and pushing her out.

“You’re never speaking of this to anyone,” he snapped. “Go back to your party and fall for more of the pranks we like to pull on 11 year olds. Just don’t ever come back here. I mean it. Don’t ever.”

With that, Draco slammed the door in her face. Y/N stood in front of it for a few seconds as she regained her bearings. What had just happened? She was very tired, she realized suddenly.

She was just turning around and walking away when his door cracked open just an inch.

“Are you deaf? I said, go!”

Y/N turned to send Draco a dirty look before walking away for real.

♥♥♥♥

Professor McGonagall was a complete sweetheart and the embodiment of what an empowered witch ought to be, but she had messed up one crucial point when it came to just how dining space would be available for the Slytherin table.

With all the new students, there was rarely a portion of the table empty enough to sit alone or even with a respectable amount of space between oneself and another person.

Y/N suffered the consequences of this the most out of her classmates considering the fact that she was always late. By the time that she got to the Dining Hall for any meal, there was only one part of the table that was consistently open--spots next to Draco and his goons.

The rest of the house was wise enough to know to avoid them and did so well, but Y/N was not so lucky. Nearly every day she was forced to squeeze in next to either Draco, Pansy, or Blaise and was subject to listening to whatever drabble they wanted to discuss each day.

However annoyed she was, she couldn’t help but notice some interesting changes. As the fall days grew shorter, Draco’s appetite seemed to grow smaller. At one point, Y/N was taking portions nearly twice the size of his, and she was a rather light eater to begin with. She heard his irritatingly posh accent less and less, and slowly meals turned into conversations between Blaise and Pansy while Draco stared off into space.

One of these days, Blaise turned to look Y/N straight in the eye, startling her enough to near drop her fork. They never looked at her.

“So,” he began awkwardly. “I hear that you played Quidditch as a seeker while you were at Ilvermorny.”

“Yeah, and what about it?”

Y/N was not about to take any shit.

“Well, you see,” Blaise told her, a sincere look in his eyes, “Draco here is our seeker, and he’s a little busy, so he won’t be joining us this season.”

“Tragic.”

“And you were good, right? Like, really good? I saw your record. It was impressive.”

“Thanks. I didn’t suck.”

A tiny smile cracked on Pansy’s face. Had Y/N actually amused her?

“Okay, enough of the niceties,” she cut in. “Blaise wants you to play for us. Please?”

She batted her eyelashes in a way that Y/N prayed was ironic.

“Well, I suppose,” Y/N answered. “What’s in it for me?”

“For starters,” Blaise told her, “Instant status. People like you if you play Quidditch.”

“So I’ve heard. Is that why Draco dropped out? People didn’t like him enough anymore?”

“You shut up,” Draco grumbled, refusing to look her in the eye.

“So you’re in?”

“Yeah, whatever. I’m dropping out the second either of you mess with me, though.”

Blaise grinned and Pansy kicked his foot under the table. Y/N immediately felt like she was witnessing something that she was not supposed to see.

“Get a room, you two,” Draco reprimanded them, rolling his eyes as he pushed his food around on his plate.

♥♥♥♥

Y/N’s first Quidditch match came and went. The Slytherin team creamed the Hufflepuffs so badly that Y/N probably didn’t need to do any work at all, but regardless, she still caught the snitch.

In Slytherin fashion, her team decided to throw a giant party in the common room. Everyone was permitted a plus one, which was ridiculous since Y/N wasn’t friends with anyone from any other houses. She jokingly extended the invite to Bella in a very dramatic gesture with roses and everything, and her best friend just as dramatically accepted, leaping into Y/N’s arms and requesting that she be carried away.

It was the biggest scene the dining hall had witnessed all year, enough so that when the news of Katie Bell being cursed and nearly killed broke, it took the dining hall a few moments to calm down.

Everyone stared as Dumbledore addressed the student body.

“Students.” He cleared his throat wearily. “If you are not already aware, one of your fellow scholars has been cursed, presumably by a necklace that was gifted to her. Please do practice caution as you accept gifts going into the holiday season. These are dark times indeed.”

Nervous chatter filled the room back up with noise but did not distract Y/N from her pondering.

A cursed...necklace? Where had she heard that before?

♥♥♥♥

Y/N was never a perfect student, but she did enjoy potions and especially appreciated Slughorn’s teachings, so much so in fact that she was invited to join the Slug Club after a few weeks of classes.

Blaise was also there, and the two often sat together and joked about the overenthusiastic Gryffindors and the unresolved sexual tension between Harry and Ginny. It was hardly a secret that the two were into each other, but it seemed that the only people who weren’t aware of it were Ginny and Harry themselves.

“Pray for Dean, Y/N,” Blaise would often whisper to her as they observed the two flirt awkwardly with each other.

The budding friendship between them was odd, but very platonic. Y/N knew he had no trouble excusing prejudice considering the fact that he put up with Draco’s nonsense, but he seemed to see some flaws in the practice.

The most shocking part of their newfound connection happened to be what Blaise confided in her about Draco.

“He’s hardly sleeping anymore,” he told her one cold winter day. “I don’t know what’s wrong with him. He’s lost weight and he’s not talking to me. Have you heard anything?”

“No,” Y/N had told him. “Draco doesn’t particularly like me.”

♥♥♥♥

After a particularly energetic Quidditch party in December, Y/N exited the common room and decided she wanted to take a walk about the castle to clear her head.

The snow fell softly outside the window, flurrying about and blanketing the ground in a gentle pristine white. She climbed the stairs of a random tower slowly, savoring the brisk air and relishing the silence that came along with it.

Y/N wasn’t the least bit afraid of getting reprimanded for curfew--she deserved a break, and she was nearly an adult, for Christ’s sake. There was less underage drinking outside than there was inside her current common room, so she could always pull that argument.

She prayed that the top of the tower would be one with an open side so she could be closer to the snowstorm, and as she climbed higher, her desires seemed to be more likely. The breeze was becoming chillier by the second.

Reaching the top of the staircase, she was overjoyed to see a railing overlooking the campus. Y/N jogged up to the barrier, leaning over the edge and taking solace in the freezing air and the cold snowflakes coating her hair.

“What’s it with you and your insistence on interrupting my alone time?”

Y/N turned to see Draco Malfoy curled up in the corner of the tower. His hair was slightly mussed from the wind and his suit crinkled from sitting down, and as Y/N drew closer to him, she came to the most shocking revelation.

His silver eyes were pools of salty liquid, rimmed red at the edges and puffier than she had ever seen them before. His cheeks were shining with dampness, doing nothing to hide the dark bags under his eyes.

Draco was crying.

final a/n: i swear a new update will come soon! i’m sorry that it seems like i might be rushing it. i promise im gonna slow it down a little and focus on the *subtle* fluff

#draco #draco malfoy #harry potter #dramione #draco x reader #draco malfoy x reader #draco imagine #draco malfoy imagine #hermione granger #slughorn #hogwarts #ilvermorny #slytherin #hufflepuff #lucius malfoy #ron weasley #harry x reader

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proxylynn · 5 years

Text

Underfell: File Name not Edgy Enough #16

Chapter 16: Surge WARNING: I WANT NO RESPONSIBILITY OVER SPOILING THINGS FOR OTHERS. THAT BEING SAID, THIS IS HOW FILE NAME NOT FOUND WOULD FUNCTION IN THE AU OF UNDERFELL. BEFORE YOU READ THIS, UNLIKE THE NICE TIME OF UNDERTALE, THIS WORLD IS KILL OR BE KILLED. THIS STORY WILL BE GRAPHIC, GORY, USE SWEARS LIKE NOBODY'S BUSINESS, AND DEAL WITH SENSITIVE SUBJECT MATTERS. FOR EXAMPLE, THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE READ THE FILE NAME RELOCATED SPOOF WILL KNOW HOW I PICTURE THIS VERSION OF LYNSIE COMING TO THE UNDERGROUND. IT IS NOT AN ACCIDENT. IT IS NOT BECAUSE OF SOMETHING DUMB. IT IS BECAUSE SHE CHOOSES TO END HER LIFE. SO TAKE THIS WITH A GRAIN OF SALT. I MADE IT BECAUSE I NEEDED TO LET SOME OF THIS EDGINESS OUT OF MYSELF. WHICH I GUESS MAKES UNDERFELL LYNSIE EVEN MORE TRUE TO WHO I REALLY AM. ANYWAY, ENJOY. ^_^ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Another day, another start to a hopefully non-resetting timeline. At least, that's what Sans mumbled to himself as he woke up uncharacteristically early in the middle of the night. No nightmare this time, just randomly woke up and now finding it annoyingly difficult to zonk out again. He tossed and turned, moving all over the mattress to find that sweet sleeping spot, but nothing was working. Damn random insomnia. Can't a guy get a decent night's rest? Maybe he could kill time till passed out from boredom. He could try the books again, but at the risk of learning things that would make him want to drink bleach, he gave that idea a hard pass. What time even is it? Looking at his phone showed it was too late to go out but too early to start getting ready for work. Argh...Well...There is always the backup idea. It had been so long since he last tried it. What if he made too much noise? Papyrus almost barged in because he thought Sans was hurt or under a surprise attack. Fuck it. It's his room. He can have some "personal alone" time if he wants. Using a bit of magic to lock the door and seal it with a couple bones should allow for some decent privacy. Now to make himself cozy...Won't be needing his clothes for this bit fun. Besides, they'd only get dirty if they stay on and the last thing he wants is Papyrus asking what the weird stains are from. So after stripping down to bare bones and covering up in his messed up bed sheet, Sans stared up that the nothingness of his darkened room's ceiling only to realize something. "what do i even fantasize about?" It had been so long and nothing really got his soul glowing like that in forever. Hard to really find the time to get turned on when a human kid runs around cutting off heads and shit. But he's a normal monster man, he can get creative if he really tried, he's just need something to start at. Think...What makes him feel good? Jokes are a thing. Who can he think about that tells him jokes and likes his? Toriel is an option. Not like it's not too weird. Sure, she's married and royalty, but she gave that stuff so it's not like he's jerking off to a hardcore committed woman. Though he does have one issue...He's never actually seen Toriel. At his best guess, she looks like a female Asgore. The idea made him shudder. But again, it's just a starting point till something better forms in his skull. So with that in mind, he shut his eyes and let his hands begin to roam over his bones. "mmmm...damn it's been so long i forgot how good this could feel...mmmm...maybe...maybe now is good enough..." So, with the power of imagination and removing the maleness from his picture of the King, this version of Toriel pops into his head. She slowly approaches him on the bed, one hand softly rests on his ribcage as the other holds his jaw and rubs small circles with her thumb. "*coos* oh yeah...mmmmmm...this will work just fine..." She leans down and whispers to him. Why did the skeleton play with himself? His cheekbones began to color. "oooh...tell me why...please...?" Because he had no body. A soft moan turned into a small chuckle. "come on...you can do better than that. give me something raunchy." Have you ever known me for telling, as you put it, raunchy puns? "uh...not really." Then how am I to do so? "um...because i want it. aren't ya supposed to just do what i want because i'm making you up?" Fine, be that way. Force me to just be your little fantasy. You are no different from that fool, Asgore. "whoa, where the fuck is that coming from?" You tell me. After all, am I not your dream fantasy? "hell no." Then what is it that you do want, Sans? "for starters, you can go away." With a huff, the mental image of Toriel blows away. "sheesh...crazy bitch. what i want is someone that can make me laugh and isn't shy about how they do it. someone that knows a thing or two about how to treat a guy right. someone..." Need some help, Sansy-boy? That made his sockets widen and his spine shiver. "nope! nope! not happening. not going to think about her. nope. big fucking nope." Wow, not even gonna give me a chance? You gave Nanny a shot and she's married, to the King no less. He covers his earholes with his hands. "la la la, i can't hear you, la la la, i'm not listening, la la la..." Sans... Maybe it was just his imagination acting out, maybe it was just the way the sheets settled after he moved, but for whatever the reason, he felt something touch his leg and he swore the human was there. At least let me try. It's the least I can do after you helped me. Eerily he could honestly picture that being something she'd say. "no funny stuff?" Depends. What is your scope of 'funny stuff'? "just don't wig out on me like the first attempt did." Dude, it's me. You know me. When I wanna help, I do it. "i guess you're not wrong there." Plus I'm in your head, so whatever you want goes. That made him sit up. "wait...then why did she go all nuts if you're the same thing?" Simple, because she is like that. Remember when Paps told her he hurt me? She was gonna bring hellfire to us all had we not calmed her down. It's not her fault really. She's been in the Ruins for so long all by herself. She's just lonely and the lack of people make her social skills kind of suck. You can forgive her, can't you? His imagination had her kneeling beside him and again he could feel her hand timidly on him. As much as he hated it, so far, she wasn't not doing it for him. Maybe he could use this and switch her out later. "*sigh* fine." He plots back down on the pillow and points into the darkness. "but the second you fuck this up, real you is going to pay for it." She snickers and moves a bit closer. I figured as much. So...What would you like me to do first? He gave it some thought as his sockets closed again. "touch me." Where? "anywhere. i don't fucking care." Chill, man. I've never done this before. I don't want to piss you off or hurt you. "ugh...just...feel around. i'll let ya know how you're doing." At least this one was pretty damn accurate with how she was in real life. Once more he let his hands skim along his bones and after a bit, it didn't really feel like it was him doing it. "mmmm...okay, doing good..." Mind if I try something? She moves and now he pictures her kneeling behind him with his skull resting on her lap. How's that? Cozy? "not bad. mmmm...tell me a joke..." A naughty one? "heh...yeah. give me a really good one." Very well...What's the hardest bone a skeleton has? "mmmm...i dunno, what?" I'll tell you after we bone~. He both moaned and cringed at the joke. You're uncomfortable, aren't you? "just...not really wanting to do this with you. no offense." None taken. Can't say I blame you. I mean, I did try to kill you. "come on, that wasn't you. that damn black soul was the one that wanted me dead. at most, you want to hug me. and...sometimes...it's okay to do so." Really? "don't get hung up on it." Yes, sorry. Heh...Thank you though. But...um...I think I know how to fix it so it's less weird. "how?" You remember the image you saw in that anatomy book, right? Of the human skeleton? A heavy shudder leaves him and slowly the human starts phasing out from exactly looking human to more of an eye-pleasing sight. At least to him anyway. Gone was her skin, hair, and anything fleshy. Leaving just her form in bone. Is this better for you, Sans? It still had her voice, but that wasn't the part he was currently mentally staring at like a horny teenager. "oooooh...so much better. mmmm...tell me another joke..." What instrument do skeletons play during sex? "*moan* shit...mmmm...tell me...tell me it slow..." A tromboner. That time it was getting to him. The fantasy playing out of her as a skeleton, telling him dirty puns and feeling on his bones was starting to make his magic flair in power. And the longer he delved deeper into this enjoyable scene, the more his soul began to emerge from his chest. For non-typical anatomical monsters like Sans, the soul is more than just the core of their life, it also is a handy reproductive tool. Monsters like him, that don't really have natural reproductive organs, still need to procreate to keep their line going. So that's where the soul comes in. When such a monster seeks to make a child their soul will link with that of their partner and the mingling will act as normal coitus would. One partner acts as the giver of the genetics while the other is the receiver and will be the one to conceive the offspring. That's not to say, much like normal genitalia, the soul can't be played with for one's own benefit. Even the more normal monsters will use their soul in a similar manner. However, in this world, finding someone you can trust in intimacy with your quite literal life is not an easy thing to do. Coupling is rare, family units even rarer, and children the rarest of all. So a little self-indulgence isn't all that unheard of in the Underground. Doing this involves, well, rubbing the soul rather intimately. Sans...You really are one hunk of bone. Dare I say...You're a bony builder that can lift a skele-ton. "*groan* don't get all corny on me now...mmmmmm...i'm getting so close..." Sorry. Just thought I'd be a little sweet on you is all. But if you really want me to keep going... "ffffuck...*moan* keep going...please, keep going..." Heh, I didn't take you for the begging type. "*groan* don't tease me, kitten..." Oh, this is purrfect. Just pawsome. Your moans are meowsic to my ears. The things I plan to do to you...Sans...You'll whisker that I never stop~. "aaaah...yes...yes...mmmm~. touch my soul...oooooooh...fuck, please..." Those ghostly hands of hers were driving him mad. One danced its fingers along the length of his spine while the other tickled his ribs and would teasingly touch his soul ever so softly. If only this was real. If she was really here and treating him like this he'd have himself a great fucking time. In fact...He quickly turns over and moves the pillow to be under him, in his fantasy however it's her skeleton. Sans? "no more teasing, kitten. it's time to make you purr." In a motion akin to normal pelvic thrusting in traditional sex only reversed, Sans embraces the pillow tightly so that it presses against his soul and he rocks his chest in a steady yet heated rhythm. The pillow being a soft and slightly warm presence is a very convincing substitute for his mind to let his needs enjoy as he grinds into it. And as such, the fantasy goes with it. Oooh...Sans~. "yeah...*grunt* say my name, kitten...moan for me..." Aaah...Sans...Oh, Sans~. "good girl...*moan* gonna...gonna give it to ya good for that..." Is that a promise~? "you're damn right it is...*hard grunt* fuuuuck...this feels so gooooood..." The more she responded, the closer he came. It wasn't till after some pretty sultry dirty talk and several minutes of rapid thrusting did his soul begin to surge with the sense of release coming soon. Physically, the soul will also alert its owner of such pleasure by brightly glowing and secreting concentrated magic that has the consistency of slime. This soul goo acts as a lubricant and sensation enhancer. The stronger the feeling during such intimacy, the more goo is made, hence why things can get rather messy. "oohh fuck...ooh ooh...sooo close...i-i'm...hhnng...hnnhanh...ahh...ah hhnnn...i-i'm gonna..." Aahnn...ahhhnn...Sans...oooooh...Fuck...yes...yes...Sans~! "uauhn ahhh...it's happening...hahn aaahhnn...i'm...ahhhh...!" With not much else of a warning, his soul throbs out its climax in a release that he's certain will stain completely through his pillow, but so worth it to have that surge of euphoria throughout his body. "ooohh...ooohhhh y-yeeaahhh...ahhhhnn...mmmmmm...i so needed that. *coos* you were amazing~." No voice replied back, the fantasy was over, and in that split second of realizing it, Sans felt sick. "holy shit...i just did that to her...*gag*" With his magic drained, things he did with it before faded away like the bones at his door, and he felt tired. But now wasn't the time. Donning his shorts, he made a quick rush the bathroom to hurl. As pleasing as it all was, the fact still remained he just masturbated his soul to a fantasy of the human. He felt disgusted, dirty, and gross overall. Hopefully, a long hot shower could wash this feeling off and drown out those nasty thoughts from his skull. He stood in the streams for a long time, watching as his magical essence slid down his form and swirled into the drain. "ugh...how did this happen? when did i become such a sick fuck? she's human for fuck's sake! pretending she's a skeleton doesn't stop her from being human! *heavy sigh* life...why do ya hate me?" The water is turned off moments later and, after drying off, he returns to his room now clean but still feeling like scum. The wet and dingy pillow is cast to the floor where he feels himself to belong, yet, fuck the floor if you have a bed. At least he was tired now. Maybe some sleep will do him some good. At least get thoughts of her out of his head. Besides...It's not like he or she has any feelings for each other. After that thing with Grillby, and that kiss, it's kind of obvious how those two are. Wait... "*weak* Sorry about that...I know you trusted me with your first kiss...but I don't think I can take care of it anymore..." Was that the thing that happened in the bar the other day? What the hell?! No one told him shit! Then that moment when he came to the bar and Grillby was acting funny... "Sans...Can you watch the bar for a moment?" The pieces began clicking together and the internal screaming started loudly. Grillby has the hots for the human! [Hours pass] Papyrus woke up to a rather odd morning. He could smell something cooking but he wasn't the one doing it. It couldn't have been the human, after her initial break-in, he secured the window and bolted the door. So this smell was cause for slight alarm. Only slightly because the maker was about to pay for breaking into his home. But what to use? The bone club? The bone saber? The bone and arrow? So many choices. Maybe the bone mace? It hasn't seen action in ages and it would be a shame to not let this poor soul known what true pain was like. Leaving his room with the weapon in hand like a ninja, Papyrus silently crept downstairs and noted the intruder was dumb enough to turn on the lights. This joke of an invader was as good as dead, given that the top of their shadow could be seen and gave away his exact location. Closer now...Just a bit closer and it will only take one blow to end this. *clang* "fuck! god, damn butter fingers..." The seer levels of confusing shock almost made Papyrus drop the weapon. Sans in the kitchen is nothing new. But cooking? Hell must have frozen over. He walked into the entryway. "SANS?" His voice spooked his brother who, apart from being just in his shorts, juggles to hold onto the pan he just collected from the ground. "papyrus! h-hey...i didn't wake ya, did i?" Not the smartest thing to do, waking a sleeping Papyrus. But now wasn't the case. "NO. I AWOKE BECAUSE OF THIS SICKENINGLY SWEET SMELL INVADED MY ROOM." "oh...uh...what's with the mace?" He glances at it a moment before putting it down. "I THOUGHT SOMEONE BROKE IN AND WAS DUMB ENOUGH TO STEAL OUR FOOD." "huh...sounds reasonable." Sans put the pan on the stove and Papyrus looks around. There are plastic bags on the floor and items he knows they didn't have earlier. "I SEE YOU DID SOME LATE NIGHT PILFERING OF YOUR OWN. WILL I BE GETTING AN ANNOYING CALL FROM THE RABBITS LATER?" "i put some gold on the counter. she can't bitch about it if most is paid for." "MOST?" "i'm not paying 300G for eggs! that's bullshit!" Papyrus merely nodded. "AGREED. WELL DONE, BROTHER." Sans starts stirring something in a large bowel and it made Papyrus curious. "DARE I ASK WHAT IT IS YOU ARE DOING AT THIS HOUR? ASIDE FROM SHOPLIFTING." "what does it look like? i'm making pancakes." "...WHY?" Sans huffs a few times through his nasal hole, clearly pissed off but trying to stay calm. "because...i woke up super early and can't sleep. i get hungry when i don't get enough sleep." That is true. "WHY NOT HAVE THE HUMAN MAKE YOU SOMETHING? IT'S ONE OF THE FEW THINGS SHE'S ACTUALLY DECENT AT." Sans's stirring gets a bit harsher and sloppy. "i don't need her help. i'm fine. i can do this." A not entirely false statement. Sans wasn't incompetent when it came to cooking, so long as he was hungry enough his laziness wouldn't have him half-ass things. But his laziness was king, so him passing on a chance to have someone else do the work for him was a sign that something wasn't right. "ARE YOU FEELING ALRIGHT?" "i'm fine." "YOUR BEHAVIOR SAYS OTHERWISE." "i said i'm fine!" "OKAY, FIRST OFF...DON'T YOU FUCKING YELL AT ME!" This is the part where Sans would shirk and apologize. But that's not the case. He stands his ground and glares back at his commanding younger brother. "AND SECOND, IF SOMETHING IS BOTHERING YOU, JUST SAY SO. DON'T TRY TO ACT LIKE NOTHING IS WRONG WHEN CLEARLY SOMETHING IS." "i'm fucking fine. just leave me alone." Papyrus growls with a stern face. "FINE. BE THAT WAY. IT'S NO SKIN OFF MY BONES." Checking the clock, Papyrus collected his weapon and headed for the front door. "where are you going?" Papyrus said nothing. "paps!" The door slamming was the reply he gave. If Sans wants to be a dick, then he can be a dick. He'll just give him the silent treatment. But now that he was fully awake, he might as well get the day started before work time. And that includes fetching the human so that she will make him something to eat. No way he was eating anything a grumpy Sans was bothering with. So he enters the shed and turns on the light, but it bursts almost instantly. Must remember to fix that later. Passing through the bars, he uses his eyes natural glow to find her body curled into a ball on the pet bed. He pokes her with the mace. "WAKE UP, HUMAN. YOU ARE REQUIRED TO MAKE SUITABLE SUBSTANCE FOR ME." She didn't move or make a sound. This didn't please him. "I SAID...WAKE UP!" He yelled, shaking the snow off the roof of the shed. But she remained still as stone. This only ticked him off further than he already was and he kicked side her. Yet again, after several hard kicks, she didn't move. Not even Sans could sleep this deeply. Kneeling down, he put a hand on her neck. He didn't know much about humans but he knows that they breathe. He checked for the feeling of her doing this. He couldn't feel it. That's not right. So he uncurls her body with a bit of difficulty as she was rather stiff in the cold. Strange marks, almost like hand prints, appeared on her wrists and forearms. He was close to checking for more but made still at the thumping soft colorful glow emanating just under her shirt. "HUMAN?" She wasn't dead, at least not yet. Her soul would be fully out if that were the case. As much as it would be benefiting to let her parish, this was not the allowed way he would take her soul. Time to do his one random good deed for the year. He scoops her body up over his shoulder and carries the girl back to the house, perhaps the warmth will do her some good. Once inside, he plops her body down on the couch and checks her breathing again. "pap...can you let me apologize without leaving again?" Papyrus didn't speak as he then entered the kitchen to find something. This now had Sans's attention. "bro?" "DID YOU HAPPEN TO GRAB ANY ELIXIR WHILE YOU WERE OUT?" "uh...no? why?" "SOMETHING IS NOT RIGHT WITH THE HUMAN. SHE'S NOT BREATHING." "...what?" Sans stopped his pancake making to see for himself. Papyrus finds an old medical kit in a cabinet. "what did you do?" Mixing a few random things in a small medical kit will have to do for now. "I FOUND HER LIKE THAT." He returns to the living room while shaking a vial of colored liquid to see Sans staring intently at the glow of her soul. Scoffing to make Sans move away, he props the human's head up and opens her mouth, pouring the vial's contents down her throat. Some slight rubbing on the sides of her neck induced swallowing and he let her be when done. "H-Hey...?" Great. Now the flower is awake. "What's going on?" Not wanting to double down on being generously nice, he ignores the flower and returns to the kitchen. Seems he'll have to cook for himself after all. But first, to clean up the shitty mess Sans made. Sans on his end wasn't sure what to make of things. Especially after his 'personal time' moment. Part of him was concerned for obvious reasons. While another part of him was trying to stab that worried side to death and hang it off a cliff. "Sans...?" He flinched at his name being said that softly. "Is she okay?" It's just the flower. Calm down. No one knows about what you did. "dunno..." Hesitantly, he put a hand on her forehead. She's bone cold. "damn. she's like ice." "Oh no, not again..." Sans looked at the flower funny. "again? this happened before?" Flowey nods. "This sometimes happens when she has the 'really bad' dreams." Judging by the talk he had with her that can mean anything. "care to be a bit more specific?" Flowey shakes his head. "She doesn't tell me about them She only tells me that the dreams weren't good ones." "*sigh* typical." She tells her brother nothing about it. God, she acted like him. Woman get out of his head! Ignoring the crap in his skull, he gives her a little looking over and that's when he sees them. The marks. Those same marks she showed him before. She was with Gaster now. This got him curious about her soul, knowing how Gaster was with his fascination with the damn things. "Hey, leave her alone." Putting out everything else from his mind except her soul, Sans pulls down her shirt's collar to get a better look. "W-What are you doing, Smiley Trashbag?! Stop being a pervert!" He couldn't hear Flowey at this point. The soul had his attention. Part of it just breached the surface of her chest and the colors...there were so many and the way they swirled...mesmerizing. But that spell couldn't take full effect, not with that show of black among the bright colors and those large hand marks surrounding it like a cage. "*mutters* the hell are ya doing, g?" "SANS! GET YOUR ASS IN HERE!" That he heard. "keep an eye on her, weed." It was an order. One that didn't have to be said twice as he went to his brother in the kitchen. "yeah?" "*SIGH* I'M ONLY GOING TO ASK THIS ONE MORE TIME...WHAT WAS WRONG WITH YOU EARLIER?" Maybe if he words this right it won't be so awkward. "okay...let's say i have this friend, right?" "THAT NARROWS IT DOWN A LOT." "dick." "JUST TELL ME ALREADY." "again...i have this friend. and this friend, who shall remain nameless, i think has gotten himself into something i think is wrong." Now Papyrus was interested. "SUCH AS?" Sans rubs the back of his skull nervously. "i...i think he has feelings for someone. someone that no one would approve of." "AND WHY DO YOU THINK THAT? IS THIS PERSON A COMPLETE SACK OF SHIT AND NOT WORTHY OF THIS 'FRIEND'?" Now the hard part of wording this. "no...it's, uh...quite the opposite actually. they get along really well." "THEN WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?" "um...ya know how cats and dogs don't get along? like, they're natural enemies and junk." "YEAH?" "well...this friend and the person they like are technically enemies. but they seem to like each other anyway even though i'm certain all the underground would preform mob justice on them if they came out as a thing." "REALLY? THAT BAD?" "oh yeah." "AND THIS BUGS YOU WHY?" "because!" Sans rubs his face to calm down. "*huff* because...i don't want my friend to get hurt." Papyrus cocks his brow. "BUT THIS ISSUE DOESN'T REALLY EFFECTS YOU TECHNICALLY. JUST, FOR SOME REASON, EMOTIONALLY IS CAUSING YOU DISTRESS." "uh...i guess?" "THEN THE ANSWER IS CLEAR." "r-really?" "YES. YOU HAVE TWO OPTIONS. YOU CAN EITHER IGNORE THIS ISSUE AND ALLOW YOUR 'FRIEND' TO PURSUE THEIR 'OTHER PERSON'..." "yeah...not gonna let that happen." "OR...YOU DO WHAT YOU MUST TO BREAK THEM UP SO THAT ALL HOPE OF THEM GETTING TOGETHER CRASHES AND BURNS MORE POWERFULLY THAN A TSUNDERPLANE THAT LOST ITS SENPAI." That's really bad. "that would make me a humongous asshole if i did that." "THEN FOREVER SUFFER IN INDECISIVE SILENCE." "...that's not helpful at all." "SO SAYS YOU." Papyrus returns to his cooking and Sans groans with irritating annoyance. "*gasps and coughing*" The sudden sound had them peeking out into the living room where the human was found on the floor now and convulsing violently as the flower pathetically tries to restrain her movements with vines. Papyrus is the one that puts an end to this display with a bit of the old blue magic and holds her in the air by her soul till her flailing ceases. "CALM YOURSELF, HUMAN." The look on her face was one most recognize. Pain. It was etched into her eyes. As if something awful happened during the night. Her hands kept flexing in these claw type motions that had a stiff recoil. It's sort of like she was thawing out from being frozen. Odder still was her constant stare forward. "*shaky* I...I'm okay..." "ya sure?" She nods and Papyrus turns his magic off, letting her drop to her feet. Now under her own control, she crosses her arms over her chest like the folded wings of a gargoyle and shivers harshly. "*shaky* Can I trouble you for something warm please?" Her eyes kept forward, not looking at the brothers as she made the request. Papyrus, whether or not he was going to do this, returns to his cooking. Sans, on the other hand, approached her with caution. "kiddo?" "*shaky* H-Howdy..." "do ya need a moment?" She nods and he tries not to imagine if anything in his fantasy would've also given her such a reaction. "*shaky* Sans..." He both wished she would look at him and yet keep not doing so at the same time. "yeah?" Her eyes made a slight glance his way but looked at the floor. "*shaky* I...I need to talk to you later." Maybe this could work in his advantage. Talking with Grillby about this would be super awkward. "sure. i kinda got to talk to you later too." She shivers a bit more. "*shaky* Fuck...I hate the cold..." "probably be a smart move to take a hot bath. pap isn't likely to..." Papyrus walks past his brother with a steaming mug that he shoves at her. "DRINK." She looks at the mug in surprise. "DO NOT BE THIS SLOW, I'M NOT IN THE MOOD." She takes the mug with a hiss, burning her hands till she can get a proper hold. "*shaky* Thank you...um...What is it?" "WATER. NOW DRINK." "you boiled water?" "OF COURSE NOT. THAT WOULD BE TOO SLOW. I USED THE MICROWAVE." Sans shakes his head as the human moves to the couch, sits down, blows into the mug, and drinks. "*soft sigh* Much better...And here I thought you wanted me dead." Papyrus sneers. "DO NOT TAKE THIS AS A SHOW OF GOOD FAITH. I AM MERELY MAKING SURE MY PET DOESN'T MEET A STUPID END. I'D BE A POOR MASTER IF I LET SOMETHING AS STUPID AS THE COLD KILL YOU." This is the part where she'd retort with something witty, mocking, condescending, or just a biting comment. But no. All she does is smile and continue drinking. That earned her a few odd looks. "What? Is something wrong?" "ARE YOU NOT GOING TO FIGHT BACK?" "To what?" "I'M DEMEANING YOU, PET." She shrugs. "Eh, go ahead. If it makes you happy, then I'm okay with it." The odd looks only get stronger and Papyrus pulls Sans into the kitchen with him. "SANS, SOMETHING IS INCREDIBLY WRONG HERE. THAT IS NOT THE SAME HUMAN." "i don't know. looks like it's her." "CUT THE CRAP, SANS. CLEARLY, SHE'S DEPLOYING SOME SORT OF TACTIC. TRYING TO LULL US INTO A FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY BY BEING AGREEABLE AND PLEASANT." "for what reason would she have to do that for? if she was really that wicked, don't ya think she'd have tried to kill us ages ago?" "IT'S CALLED PICKING YOUR BATTLES. SHE'S JUST WAITING FOR THE RIGHT TIME TO STRIKE." "so sparing the dogs and not raising her LV is all part of the sinister plan?" "CLEARLY. JUST LOOK AT HER..." Papyrus sneaks a look into the living room. The human smiles in peace, finishing the water and going over to the flower to show it affection. "GENIUS...I'VE UNDERESTIMATED THE CUNNING OF THIS GIRL." Sans rolls his eyes. "or, and this might sound crazy...she might actually be an okay person." "THAT'S JUST WHAT SHE WANTS YOU TO THINK. CLEVER BITCH. MUST BE A TRAIT ALL FEMALES HAVE. MONSTER AND HUMAN." "speaking of monster bitches, we need to start getting ready for work. unless ya actually like hearing undyne screech for four hours." Papyrus glared at the thought. "DAMN WOMEN. WHY MUST SOMEONE AS GREAT AS MYSELF BE BOTHERED BY SUCH LOWLY SOULS?" Sans shrugged and teleported to his room, leaving Papyrus to walk upstairs to his chambers but first... "HUMAN..." "Yes, Papyrus?" "GO TO THE KITCHEN AND FINISH COOKING WHAT I STARTED." She salutes and does as told, making him glare. He doesn't buy this act for a second. No one pulls the wool over the eyes of the great and terrible Papyrus! [About half an hour later at Grillby's] "Grillby!" I'm willing to admit my lack of subtlety in being happy to see the fire bartender is childish as hell as long as no one judges me on my super non-normal greeting of pulling the guy over the bar and hugging his chest like I've not seen him in years. Not that he complains. He's a bit more confused if anything. "Heh...Nice to see you too, pussycat." Grillby pats my head as Papyrus snarls and I shyly release the poor guy to return to standing by Sans. "Gentlemen." "sup, grillz." "GRILLBY." Grillby smirks and fixes his glasses. "So, Papyrus...Did you think about my offer?" Papyrus folds his arms. "I MAY HAVE GIVEN IT THE FAINTEST OF THOUGHT." "And?" Papyrus looks at me and I try to be my regular self, but I'm too fucking happy because Grillby's alive! "I WILL AGREE TO THIS RIDICULOUS IDEA ONLY AFTER A WEEK'S TRAIL. IF SHE FAILS TO PREFORM TO MY LIKING, THEN NO DEAL." Grillby cocks his head. "Oh? And how would you judge this?" "SANS WILL REPORT ON HER." "what?!" Sans is not thrilled about doing more work. "Sounds fair to me. He is here often enough to see her progress." "don't i get a say in this?" "NO." "this is bullcrap!" I give a small tug on Sans's sleeve to get his snarling attention. "what?" I lean close to his skull and for a second I thought he trembled. "*whisper* No worries, dude. I got you." "the hell does that mean?" "*whisper* Half of whatever I make goes to paying off your tab." I pull back to see the shocked look come to his face. "for real? you'd really do that?" "It's what good buddies do. You help me and I help you. Sound good?" I offer my hand for him to shake and he gives me this look of uncomfortable uncertainty. "You okay there?" He eyes me before looking away and ignores my gesture. "whatever." Maybe he's just in a bad mood or staying in character of being a dick to me. I know I hide how I feel a lot. But I'm disappointed that this buddy thing we have is always a push and shove deal. "WHEN WILL THIS TRAIL PERIOD START? I HATE HAVING MY TIME WASTED." "She can start now if you want. Though the uniform will take a little longer." My ears perk at that. "Uniform?" Grillby smirks. "I'm going to need your measurements, pussycat. Unless, of course, you want me to do that for you~." I get flustered at his tease. "she'll get them for ya later. don't be weird about it." Grillby and I both look at Sans's defensiveness oddly, but you know, say nothing about it. "COME, SANS. AND YOU..." Papyrus eyes me. "I'M ON TO YOU." I tilt my head in confusion as the brothers leave. "They seemed to be in a good mood." Grillby comments and I shrug. "I have no clue what any of that was about." "So...about those measurements...?" I sigh. "What did I say about being creepy?" He puts his hands up in a playfully defensive way. "I know, and I'm trying to be 'that guy'. I'm asking as your boss, not your friend. You can size yourself in the back if needed." I wave dismissively at the suggestion. "Whatever it is, I wear large to extra large. I'm not big, but I like the free space. Makes me feel comfy." "How cute..." "What?" "Well, for one, you don't know how to fit yourself. And two, you think I'm giving you a choice." I'm suddenly getting flashbacks to when I first met Grillby. The man has charm, no doubt there, but he is intimating and forceful if needed. "Now, be a good girl and go through that door. I'll be with you shortly." "Yes, sir." Wow...That felt weird to say after being all chummy with the guy. I walk around the bar, past the poker table, and make it to the only door that won't have me going out into the snow. Above it is a small sign that reads "FIRE EXIT". I feel that's a joke. "Go on. It's not locked." I look back at Grillby and there's this almost impatient gleam in his glasses. It makes me shiver as I enter this door. Though the feeling chilling down my spine both stays and goes once I'm on the other side...It's his house. I'm in his house. The door behind me is the only exit and I'm in his fucking house! "Shhhit..." Quick! Brain! Think of something! What do I do to not piss off the man who's got me in his house?! But I got nothing. Zip. Zero. Zilch. My head draws a blank. All I really do is just move a little bit further inside so that he doesn't collide with me when he enters. From this small entryway, I can see his home is the reverse of the skeleton home. His upstairs living space isn't that large, the living room with its comfy looking sofa and kitchen are nearly joined, separated by an island counter with bar stools in front of it. A stairwell leading down must be where his more private rooms are. Make sense in a way, even if snow is covering the ground, under the ground can have temperatures that are far more enjoyable. I bet it's really warm down there. Kind of is warm right now. Really warm. The hell is...? "Boo!" I yelp, flying a good five feet onto the floor and gripping my chest in panic. All the while Grillby smugly grins at me. "My, aren't you jumpy. You act as though you expect something bad to happen." I blink a few times and hold my breath to calm my heart down. He approaches and offers his hand. "No hard feelings, right pussycat?" My hand trembles to take his. "No cool, Grillby. Very not cool." He pouts and pulls me up onto my feet. "Are you frightened of me?" I shake my head a bit too quickly. "It's not nice to lie." I play with my hands a little. "I don't mean to be." He sighs and puts a hand on my head. "I don't mean to scare you. I just take my work very seriously. You are now part of that and therefore..." "I understand...sir." "Don't call me that." His tone is calm yet has this harsh crackle that makes me flinch. He notices and lets that hand slide down to rest around my shoulders. "Lynsie? Are you alright?" "I don't know anymore." He rubs my shoulder and I try to think straight. "Do you want to talk?" "Maybe." "Okay...Go into the living. I'll come back with what I need and you can tell me what's troubling you while we do this. How does that sound?" I sniffle a little. "Sounds fine." He taps my shoulder and I walk away into the living room as he himself goes downstairs. When I know he can't see me I wipe my eyes. Something is wrong. I can feel all these nerves going off inside and my emotions are fluctuating. What's wrong with me? Is this what PMS is? Oh shit, when was my last period? What the hell is happening to me?! This is your fault, stupid soul. If it's not the black one trying to kill people than it's the pink one making me all hormonal and shit. I can hear his steps coming up the stairs and I try to settle down before he sees the mental train wreck showing on my face. When he's back on my level, he has a notepad with a pen in one hand and the measuring tape of a tailor in the other. "Are you ready?" It's okay. He's being professional. Just calm down. Calm the fuck down! "Y-Yeah." "Nervous?" I crack a weak smile. "Just a little." "I promise, I won't cross any lines." Am I capable of making a joke with a straight face right now? Here's hoping so. "So no fondling the side-boob this time?" He blushes for a moment, snickering lightly before smirking. "Not unless you want me to." Okay, this is at least normal. It's what we do. We make flirty jokes. Everything is fine. I am fine. "In your dreams, hot stuff." "At least you seem better. Now stand straight for me, pussycat." I do as requested and he begins to render me into numbers. Starting with the neck, he wraps the tape around my neck and has it resting on my shoulders, putting one finger between the tape to allow for some extra room. "So...Anything you want to talk about, dear?" "Well...I kind of want to say some things and yet...not." "Personal matters?" "Mostly." Next up is the chest, the measurement is taken as a circumference measurement around my chest at the widest point. Something that he enjoys as I blush. "I won't make you talk if you don't want to. But you may feel better if you got some of it off your chest." I groan loudly. "Oh my god, Sans has tainted you." "Heh...I saw an opportunity and I went with it." "By the way...Who's watching the bar while you do this?" "Big Mouth is in exchange for free food for an hour." "The clock is ticking while you do this, right?" "You know it." "Heheh...Clever boy." Now we have the waist, this measurement is taken as a circumference measurement around my waist just above the belly button. "Can I ask what this uniform will look like?" "And spoil the surprise? I think not. Although...I know it will be something no one will be able to take their eyes off of." "That both sounds awesome and foreboding at the same time." "Trust me, it'll have you rolling in gold." "Now it's really ominous." Another part that has me blushing is my seat, aka the ass. The seat measurement is taken as a circumference measurement around my butt at the widest part and I try not to squirm at the feel of his hands. "You okay, pussycat?" "You're doing that on propose." "Doing what?" "One, overusing that pet name that you know bugs me. And two..." I give him a playful wink. "Not asking for permission before you touch me." He bites his tongue and exhales slowly. "Close. You almost had me there. No point for you." "Dang. Thought I had an easy one there." He chuckles to himself. "What's so funny?" "Nothing really. Just thinking that you enjoy teasing me just as much as I do to you." He's not entirely wrong. "I can't lie, you are a fun playmate." "Same to you...Pussycat." The shirt length measurement is taken from the top of the shoulder, close to the mid-side of my neck, following my body down to the point where he wants the top to end. "This...This feels nice." "What does?" "Just talking with you. I always feel so comfortable around you. Well...until I don't." "Like earlier?" "Yeah." "Again, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable." "I know. It's just..." I struggle to speak. There's so much I want to say to him. "Take your time, dear. There's no rush on what you want to say." When it comes to shoulder width think of a line going from the armpit straight upwards to the shoulder. He measures between those two points and holds the tape measure straight. "Grillby..." "Yeah?" "Have I...Whenever I was, you know, drunk...Did I...*flustered* Did I ever...kiss you?" He flinches in his writing on the notepad and his flames flash for a moment in his blush. "*nervous* Um...W-W-Why would you think that?" I can still hear his confession in my mind. "*weak* Sorry about that...I know you trusted me with your first kiss...but I don't think I can take care of it anymore..." And his nervousness is also a big ass clue. "I...I heard it from someone in the bar." His face starts to heat up and he looks away. "It...It might have happened...once. B-But nothing else happened, I swear!" Wow...I gave him my first kiss and I don't even remember it. That's...really sad. He's all messed up now and I keep quiet so he can regain his composure. He next measures my arm length, the sleeve length measurement is taken from the point of the shoulder and following my bent arm down to where he wants the sleeve to end. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make this awkward." He doesn't say anything and I feel awful as he continues to work. The wrist measurement is taken as a circumference measurement around the wrist. The biceps measurement is taken as a circumference measurement around the biceps. The last one he does is my hip, doing the hip measurement is taken as a circumference measurement around the hips at the widest part. Though unlike with the other past measurements, he lingers close to me and I'm hesitant to say or do anything about it. "...Are you upset with me?" Okay, remember how to talk. He needs to know everything is fine. "Why would I be upset?" "Because...I didn't have the nerve to tell you myself." In another timeline, my friend, you did just that. "I don't care." He looks at me funny. "You don't?" "No. The part I care about is how far things went. And with it just being a kiss...It proves to me that you're someone I can trust fully. For a lesser soul would've taken advantage of that situation." His eyes soften and he leans his forehead on my own. "You can't be real." "I assure you..." I take his hands in mine, letting him drop the notepad and tape. "I am very real. And...I...I feel bad that I don't remember it." I can feel his heat getting stronger. "You do?" My face gets really red and I find it hard to keep looking him in the eyes. "Unless it was bad, then, I am super sorry about my shitty kissing skills." "N-No! No...I mean...It was nice." "It was?" Now he's the one trying to be sweet. "Well...Yeah. For an unexpected kiss, it wasn't bad. Not too long or too short, with just the right amount of care." Realizing what is coming out of his mouth has his face blushing big time. But now I'm curious. "Really? What did it feel like?" The words leave me before my brain can filter them. His eyes widen as his flames burn brighter. Though his normal cool self comes through with that playful smirk of his. "R-Really? I mean...If you're really curious about it, I wouldn't say no to doing a quick demonstration." If that dead timeline taught me anything, it's that he isn't joking and will do it if I say yes. I remember his kiss as he said his peace before death. It was so sad. I want to know how he feels when he isn't on his deathbed and has no tomorrow. So I take a deep breath and let his hands go to put them on his chest. "I'm okay with that." His hair of fire grows larger in excitement. "Are...Are you serious? No joke?" I nod. "I'm being very serious, Grillby." "And you have no issue with me being a monster?" Now I understand dream Grillby's frustration at the constant doubt when the intent is painfully clear. "If you have to ask then I don't want to know anymore." My hands begin to slip off him but they don't get to leave their perch on his chest. His hands clasp me by the shoulders and pull me into his smoldering kiss. The impact was rather abrupt, but the kiss itself is gentle and slightly timid feeling. My wide surprised eyes meet his burning ember orbs and the look they hold has mine slowly close. Most of that dream of him seems to be real. His face is as solid as his body looks and just from the feel of his mouth alone I know it must be very hot in there. He pulls back only a little bit, our faces still close enough that my nose still brushes against his fire. It kind of tickles. "So...How was it, Lynsie?" There is so much I want to say, yet can't find the words. "*coos* Whoa..." That will have to do. I mean, I did have a fire pun at the ready, but it's not really the right moment for it. My reaction has him getting the cutest look on his delighted face. "Glad you liked it." I can't help the smile on my face. "I like you, Grillby..." I give him a quick peck where is nose would be. "The kiss is just a bonus." His face is blank for a moment before he grins. "I think this is the start of an interesting work relationship." "Yeah...About that..." I can't get out of his grip, not that I'm trying, but I back up a bit so we're less likely to smooch again. "There's still a bit more 'personal' stuff I have to tell you about that I really don't want to affect our current situation." He titles his head. "How so?" I rub my cheeks trying to delude the red burning them. "Okay...Promise me that this never leaves this room. And I mean, all of this, is never spoken about." "Pussycat, give me some credit. As if I'd ever share the things you tell me." "I mean it." "Is it that one of them hurt you?" That had me for a moment before his words register in my head. "What?" "You're ignoring them, but that doesn't make them invisible to anyone else." He grabs one of my arms and holds it up, showing the bruises. "Did they do this? Papyrus I can believe, but I have doubts on Sans. But if they did this to you..." "They didn't. This is a whole different issue." "Don't defend your abuser." "I'm not defending shit. It's my problem, I can deal with it. Don't make this a big deal." "It is a big deal!" His grip harshens, burning my skin. "*wince* You're hurting me." He releases my arm with immediate regret. I hold my arm and rub the red mark. "Like I said...That's a different issue that I will deal with. Not you. Are we clear?" "Y-Yes." "The thing I want to tell you...I don't want it to bleed into this thing we got and influence anything. If something happens, fine, but not while this whole 'job' thing is going on." "How bad can it be for you to be so serious?" "Trust me, it's something big that even now I'm having trouble getting ready to say." "You're over thinking it. If you just relax..." "My soul surged because I dreamed of you!" It came blurting out rather fast, but after a moment or two, Grillby's eyes widen as his fire strengthens. "Wha...W-What?" I'm not about to repeat that. I let the flustered blush on my face speak for me. "So that...That thing the other day...?" I look away and nod, not noticing him biting his lower jaw. "And it was because...*deep crackling shudder* You dreamed of me?" That sound has my soul threatening to jump out so my head has me spew out words in distraction. "It just happened so randomly. Maybe what that guy said influenced my thoughts and you've been so good to me...Oh my god, this is so embarrassing. Why am I even telling you this like it won't affect things? Of course, it's going to affect things! I'm a freaking moron to think otherwise. I...I..." I get distracted by a sudden glow coming from Grillby that isn't part of his flames. This soft dull gray is on his chest, almost blending in with his clothing. Grillby sees my eyes staring curiously and when he follows this vision trail his reaction reminds me of when I had the surge the other day. He pulls away from me very sharply, covering his chest with this look of humiliation and fear, turning away from me. "Don't look at it!" I turn away feeling super uncomfortable. "I saw nothing!" I can hear him huffing and puffing, faint smoke plumes on the ceiling like a chimney burning logs. "Um...Do you...Do you want me to leave?" There's this steamy hiss that draws out of him. "*raspy* Give me...Give me a minute..." Don't say anything stupid, don't say anything stupid, don't say anything stupid, don't say anything stupid, don't say anything stupid, don't say anything stupid! "Did...Did I make you surge?" What did I just fucking say, you stupid git?! I regret so much once I asked that. Because suddenly he's breathing in my ear and his fire is intense. "*heated* It wouldn't be the first time...Lynsie..." So much internal screaming! I literally can't move. The only thing that I do, is let out this weak pitiful yelp because my body can not fathom what the fuck it is to do in this situation. I'm fairly certain a scan of my head would show a bunch of little people running around and screaming in panic. But then...he starts chuckling. "*lowly* Got you, pussycat..." It takes a bit for my messed up brain to put the pieces together, but when they do... "Did you...Did you just tease me?" "*huff* My point. So far...I'm winning for today." His breathing is still smoky. He may have teased me but he's still messed up. Let it go. Leave him be. "Heh...I'll try harder next time." I give a tiny glace over my shoulder to see his very heated colored face. The way the dark to light blue really highlights his purple fire. Wow, that's cute. "I'm gonna go make sure we still have a bar to work in. Will you be okay without me to tease for a bit?" He nods. "*puff* Use the time to get familiar with being behind the bar. I'll be there shortly. I...I need to make a phone call." "Will do. See you soon...boss." I snicker to myself as I take leave of his home for the attached bar, all the while feeling his eyes on me. "Hey look! The girl is still in one piece and not a pile of ash. Miracles do happen." Punk Hamster is starting early. Super. "Don't make me cut you off and force you to be sober for more than whatever time it takes for you to pass out at home. Because I'll come over there, little man." He grips his glass possessively. "You don't have the balls, woman." "No, but I do have tits. And I'm willing to bet my pair is larger than your nuts." I glare harshly and he tries to match it but can't. "*scoff* You're not worth it." "That's what I thought." One asshole took down a peg. Not bad for just starting this shift. "Yo, Big Mouth, you're relieved of duty. I got this." The big toothy plant monster turns my way. "What about my food?" "You'll get it. Grillby's coming back. He's just making a phone call." It moves to its usual spot as I go behind the bar. There's so much back here. How the hell am I to remember all this and what to do with it on top of mixing recipes? Damn it, Papyrus, I make one drink and you think I can handle all this? This is not the same as working the register at that pizza chain. There's beer, wine, liquor, cocktails, among other beverages such as mineral water and soft drinks. Some snack foods such as potato chips, mixed nuts, and peanuts. That's just the basic stuff without glossing over the kitchen's main food menu and the little add-ons that go with it all. Fuck my life now. "It looks scarier than it is..." Grillby returns from settling down and joins me. "But once you get a groove going and learn a few cheats, it gets really easy." "Dude, just warning you now, I am going to try my damnedest but there is no way I'm picking this up in a day." "Come now, pussycat, nothing is ever learned so quickly. Just be my shadow and learn from watching me. You can do that much, right?" "Ha ha, I get it. I shall become the sponge and hope to soak up some of your great skills." He pats my head. "Start with something simple to get a feel of things. Cut up those lemons and limes for me." "Alright. How many?" "Do about six of each, cut four into wedges and two into thin slices. I don't use them all that much. Only on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays." "Why those days?" "Those first two are when I do ladies night. And Friday is happy hour." "I've heard of those, but never understood what they were." I get to work as Grillby started to look stern again. And grumpy Grillby is not one I want to mess with. "Well...Ladies' night is a promotional event where female patrons pay less than male patrons for the cover charge or drinks. Happy hour is a marketing term for a period of time in which a venue offers discounts on alcoholic drinks, such as beer, wine, and cocktails. Free hors-d'oeuvres, appetizers, and discounted menu items are often served during happy hour." "Huh...The more you know. And after I cut these?" "There's not much to do that I haven't already got ready for. That and I've only been open for a little bit, so things are slow. But when you're done with that I'll go over a couple of the regular drinks that 90% of the time they'll order." "I think I already can handle one customer's usual with no problem." "Oh? And who would that be?" "Sans." I point to a line of mustard bottles near the icebox and he chuckles. "Yep. And knowing that, I think you'll do well here." I smile and focus on my cutting. "Grillby..." "Yes?" I don't look away from my knife work. "That stuff we talked about..." "I know. Workplace fun is for after hours. Our little game is on pause." Not exactly what I was going for, but that's okay I guess. But I can give him some leeway, I mean, I do want this fun we have to continue. And if something happens, like emotionally, that's fine too. I like Grillby. I can guess he likes me too by the few clues I've got from him. Who knows. It might be nice. "Sure. Glad we understand. After hours and break times." I glance at him and he looks at me flatly before smirking. "It's a deal, pussycat." "Oooooh~..." Punk Hamster is really testing my nerves. "Sounds like someone's getting lucky tonight~." "What did I tell you? I will take that glass and cram it up your..." Grillby's hand on my shoulder makes me pause. "Now now, pussycat, that's not how to treat a customer." Punk Hamster laughs mockingly until Grillby's gaze falls on him. "Let me show you how to properly deal with someone that isn't respecting establishment authority." Grillby approaches Punk Hamster, who looks like he's about to shit a brick, and slams his head onto the bar. He holds him down and leans to his ear, whispering something I can't hear. Though the look on Punk Hamster's face screams fear to me. When done, Grillby lifts him back up and pats his head a tad roughly like an old pal would do before turning back to me with that charming nonchalant grin of his. "So...Ready to learn some mixology, pussycat?" I'm a little unnerved but I need to learn that messing with fire can get you burned. Here goes nothing. "Uh...Sure. Teach away, oh master of the flame."

#undertale #underfell #Anomaly #Lynsie #sans #papyrus #gaster #grillby #grandpa semi #flowey #napstablook #mettaton #Asriel #asgore #toriel #chara #frisk #alphys #undyne

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mayumi-sato · 6 years

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Ocean... gems?

Summary: The answer part to @not-aph-england’s ‘Ocean Gems’ fanfiction written for the @usuknetwork valentine’s day event! I’m suuuper-late but well, I’m always late, sorry. hjklj You really have to read littlemaple’s part to have fun with this one so please do this now!

Did you do that? Okay! Now, you can read this story!^__^

As soon as Alfred opened the letter that someone had left for him in his locker, he recognized his best friend’s handwriting in it.

How would he NOT recognize it? Arthur had been his friend for years. Of course he would immediately know that Arthur was the one who wrote that letter. Of course, it did help that Arthur’s handwriting looked almost like the signature of some poet from the 19th century.

It was a little strange to have Arthur send a letter to him instead of simply talking to him, but Alfred assumed that this was just, you know, Arthur’s style. That guy had a flair for the dramatics. He tried not to let his imagination fly high and simply assumed that in the letter, Arthur would invite him to a sleepover or something.

However…

There’s something I need to tell you, but I can’t tell you in person… I have admired you for a long time, and the more I can be around you, the more I’m sure of it. I love you. I know it’s strange, and weird, and I’m sorry.

…

Okay... Maybe that was just… a bro thing… Maybe Arthur was just admitting timidly how much his friendship meant to him...

I love your chubby cheeks, mostly when they’re blushing, and I’d love to hug you, and kiss you.

Oh right, that definitely wasn’t looking platonic now. Alfred felt his whole face burn as he read this line. He had to cover his mouth with his hand in order to not scream a loud "whaaaat?" in the middle of the hall.

Holy crap. Arthur liked him! Arthur liked him back! That was aweso...!

And again, I’m sorry if this is all too weird… I wish I could tell you all this in person, but I know you don’t like guys, so I settle for an anonymous letter in your locker.

Wait, what?

From your secret admirer.

What the…

Was that a joke?

Had Arthur just confessed to him as a SECRET ADMIRER???? What could Alfred do with that information now?! That was bullshit!

Now he knew that Arthur liked him, but he couldn’t even say "hey, I like you back" because there was a slight chance that that person who sent the letter wasn’t Arthur and if Alfred confessed that might lead to a disastrous outcome in their relationship!

Why had Arthur signed as a secret admirer? Knowing that there was a chance they liked each other, without him being able to say anything about it, was so much worse than being resigned with the idea that Arthur would never give him a chance!

What Alfred could do now?

Later that day when Arthur was getting ready for his next class, Alfred pulled him by the shoulder.

“Hey, Artie. What is this?” he asked, trying to sound very casual and not at all jumping of excitement inside.

He showed Arthur the letter from his ‘secret admirer’. He wanted to ease the situation for both of them by giving Arthur a chance to tell the truth.

“Uh… a… letter?” Arthur sounded almost robotic as he asked that, making the fakest confused expression in the history of mankind.

“Well, yes, but you know what kind of letter this is?! Read it!” Alfred shoved the paper in Arthur’s hands.

For a moment, it was as if Arthur had forgotten how to read. He took such a long time to read that letter and his eyes seemed to be pausing over every little word.

“It’s a love letter?”, he finally answered.

Oh gosh. Some progress, finally!

Alfred nodded enthusiastically. He didn’t want to give away everything that he knew on a nice plate to Arthur just yet. He couldn’t just ask, "Is this your letter?" with Arthur pretending to be an idiot like that. He had better play it safe as well.

“Yeah! Isn’t that cool? A love letter!”, Alfred exclaimed, trying to pretend he was just really excited about love letters in general.

Arthur's reaction to that was of legitimate puzzlement.

“Why are you so happy?”

“Because someone’s got a crush on me?” ‘and this person is probably you?’ Alfred thought to himself.

“But… it’s a guy?”

Alfred had no idea where Arthur had come to the conclusion that he was straight. Apparently, Arthur had world views as heteronormative as a Christmas special made for television.

“I know!” Alfred spoke in a slightly impatient tone.

He knew it, he knew it! He knew it was a guy! He knew it was Arthur! It was so frustrating to have to walk in circles that way! Still... Tsk. If that was Arthur's pace to come in terms with his feelings, Alfred had to respect him. He had to patiently introduce the idea to Arthur that he was more than welcome with the idea that his best friend was his secret admirer.

Pulling himself together in a matter of seconds, he added with a big smile:

“I like girls better, but boys are cool too.”

Boom, there it was. The big revelation. Now, would Arthur finally be brave enough to admit his feelings?

“Oh.”

... That was all Arthur had to say on the subject. Oh, man. That sucked.

Wouldn’t he say anything else about the subject, really? What was holding Arthur now? If his only fear was that Alfred was straight, then there were no more obstacles ahead. He should simply throw himself into Alfred's arms and say, "Oh, Alfred, I've always loved you, and to be honest, I think you're more handsome than Chris Evans!"

Seeing Arthur's reaction made a small murmur go through Alfred's thoughts. Perhaps… Perhaps his secret admirer really wasn’t Arthur. Perhaps there was another person who embodied a Victorian ghost while writing something. What if Alfred made a mistake?

“So, I was thinking you could help me try to find out who it is? It’d be cool,” he ended up proposing to Arthur. That seemed like the best solution to the situation.

In the best of scenarios, Arthur would eventually muster up the courage to admit that the letter had been written by him. In the worst of scenarios, Arthur would help him find out who his true admirer was.

It was a win-win situation.

Arthur had accepted to help Alfred find his secret admirer, but one day later, he hadn’t done anything about it yet. He was completely silent on the subject, as if that conversation had never happened. So Alfred ended up having to push him a bit on the topic while they were walking home after school.

“Who do you think it is?” he asked, giving Arthur a side glance.

His friend, oddly enough, reacted as if Alfred had just stepped on his foot, making a resentful face with slight remnants of pain in it.

“How am I supposed to know?” he asked in a louder voice.

Sheesh. Did he have to come to the attack like that? What was his motive for acting like that? Was it possible that his secret admirer wasn’t Arthur and he was jealous now?

Ahhh, it would be totally great if that was the case.

“I dunno,” Alfred laughed fondly and joyfully, “just, what do you think from what you read? What kind of person do you think he is?”

Arthur's reaction at that moment was quite incriminating.

He gave a long sigh and replied, blushing, his hands in his pockets and his eyes turned to the ground:

“Uh, it looks like it’s someone who really likes you… but is kind of shy… and who… really pays attention to all you do…”

Good lord. His admirer had to be Arthur. Why on earth would he feel so shy about someone else? That dummy. He was such a terrible liar. Alfred had to laugh about it, man.

Arthur got suspicious of this reaction so Alfred just shook his head and patted Arthur on the back.

“Oh, nevermind, I just remembered that video I sent you last night… what were you saying again?”

Alfred couldn’t even get upset when Arthur muttered that he was being stupid. Honestly, who was the one being stupid there?

More days passed and Alfred made further attempts to make Arthur admit that he was his secret admirer. He even arranged a list of several people he suspected could be his admirer just to see if jealousy would make Arthur react.

Well, in a way it worked. Arthur seemed a bit grumpy looking at that list. However, his words on the subject remained distant and ambiguous. "Oh, I don’t know. It can be anyone." It was so frustrating to hear that.

There was a limit to how much Alfred could pretend he was an idiot. That same afternoon, he noticed Arthur staring at him as if he were almost mesmerized while they were doing homework in the library. It was ridiculously obvious. Arthur was not subtle at all. Even his letter hadn’t been subtle either.

In fact, it can be said that Alfred could be much more subtle than Arthur since, despite knowing the truth about what was going on, he wasn’t letting Arthur notice that he knew.

Then came the second letter and it had a “Arthur wrote it” feel all over it, even more so than the first one. Seriously, that guy was a complete sucker in disguising himself. He mentioned the way Alfred's eyes flashed when he won a game when Arthur was the only person with whom he played anything personally. Could he be any more obvious?

After reading this letter, Alfred wanted to run to Arthur, hold his shoulders and scream in his face "I like you back! Can’t you see that?!" He couldn’t understand how could Arthur, who was usually so clever, not realize something that obvious.

Once more, he brought the letter from his ‘secret admirer’ for Arthur to see and asked what he thought of it.

Arthur simply shrugged.

“It’s kinda sappy and abstract… but you know what? I dig it. It’s nice,” Alfred said and seeing the little smile that appeared on Arthur's face when he heard it, he couldn’t resist teasing him a bit, “I don’t get how my eyes can be both oceans and gems but I don’t get poetry so whatever,” he joked, but then added in a more serious tone, giving Arthur a meaningful look “I think it’s cute.”

He wasn’t just talking about poetry when he said that.

Arthur, however, paid no attention to this. He seemed lost in his thoughts and almost as if he was choosing what emotion he should feel at that moment. Alfred took advantage of the fact that he was distracted to take a good look at him. Arthur was so adorable. It was almost unfair that anyone could be that cute.

Alfred really wanted to be able to kiss those thin, rosy lips, pressed against each other because of Arthur's level of concentration. It was getting harder and harder to be patient and wait for Arthur to admit his feelings on his own.

“You know, after the first letter I asked Gilbert to check my locker because I was sure I’d get a second one… ” he bluffed, trying to push Arthur into action.

“Yeah?” Arthur asked in his robotic voice again.

“Yeah, and Gilbert said he saw you around my locker…”

That was a total lie but it did manage to get a reaction out of Arthur. Not a good reaction, though.

Arthur didn’t look adorably embarrassed, as Alfred guessed he would. Instead, he seemed about to faint. All the blood seemed to drain from his face and he gave Alfred a look of utter terror.

Alfred felt guilty. He didn’t want to see Arthur like this. Arthur maybe wasn’t ready to reveal his feelings yet and it was wrong of Alfred to keep pressing him... He didn’t know why Arthur didn’t confess directly to him but he could have some valid reasons for it. Therefore, to force a confession out of him would be the action of a villain.

“… But, duh, I mean, your locker is close to mine, of course you’d be nearby. Gilbert didn’t pay enough attention…” Alfred said, trying to calm him down.

However, at that point, it was too late. The damage was already done. Artie was clearly pissed at him. He grimaced at Alfred for the rest of his walk home.

Alfred wasn’t sure of how to fix the situation.

“So… what do you think about coming to my place so you can help me narrow my options as to who sent me the letter?” he suggested with a smile. Maybe if they were alone, he could explain himself to Arthur and…

“I’m tired, why don’t you go ask someone else to help you? How about Kiku?” Arthur snapped. Oh, man. He was seriously pissed off.

Maybe Alfred should just go straight to the point.

“Nah, we don’t need that, do we?” Alfred answered, and then he winked.

So Arthur would see that they didn’t need to run in circles. It was mutual! It was…!

“No, thank you,” Arthur said and ran to his house.

Everything seemed absolutely fucked.

“ ... so that's why I was happy to see you here today. I thought I was so screwed, man,” Alfred finished explaining his point of view of the last days to an awe-struck Arthur.

It was Sunday, it was raining, and Arthur came, almost out of nowhere, to confess that it was him who had written the letters. The way he'd said things, it seemed that he was expecting the worst possible scenario. Alfred couldn’t understand at all how he assumed it when Alfred had clearly shown in the last few days that he was available and willing to go out with guys.

“That doesn’t mean anything!” Arthur exclaimed after hearing his version of the facts and his argument which, by the way, made perfect sense. "You liking men wouldn’t necessarily mean that you would like me!"

“Come on, Arthur. Any guy our age who is attracted to men would be attracted to you,” Alfred replied, rolling his eyes, and Arthur immediately blushed in response. He was so adorable. So freaking adorable.

"A-Anyway... Everything could have been solved much easily if you had said that you knew about the letters!”

"Well, everything could have been solved so much easily if you had just confessed directly to me from the start!”

Arthur had absolutely no argument to rebutt Alfred, so he just grabbed his face and pulled him into a kiss to distract him. The worst part was that that dirty tricky actually worked. For the rest of that rainy afternoon, Alfred completely forgot what they were discussing before and focused only on feeling Arthur’s touches.

#USUKUS #USUK #UKUS #Long post #Because tumblr is messing up read mores

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pretend-writer · 6 years

Text

Down Below (Chapter 1)

Summary: Y/N Reyes lands on Earth with the rest of the 99 prisoners. Being one of the first people to come back “home” after 97 years of living in space, she learns what it’s like to finally live in this planet.

Pairing: Bellamy Blake x reader (later on in the series), John Murphy x reader, Raven Reyes x sister! reader

Word Count: 2687 words

Warning: cursing, violence

Note: It starts off with John Murphy x reader then eventually throughout the series we’ll see Bellamy and reader get together.

Down Below Masterlist

✤ · ✤ · ✤ · ✤ · ✤

Being a Reyes was hard. Despite Raven and I only sharing half blood, people still knew that we were still sisters. Raven was the smart mechanic that can fix anything and I was the useless one that didn’t quite get what life really was; But I accepted that mostly because I believed it.

I woke up with a guard standing next to me, demanding me to get up. Highly confused on why the guard was in the Skybox so early, I stared at the guard.

‘Didn’t I tell you to get up?’ the guard shouted. ‘I’m not telling you again.’

‘I heard you the first time, sheesh’ I sassed.

‘Smart ass.’

‘I get that a lot’ I smirked.

As he shoved me out the door, another guard led me to an unknown place that I’ve never been before. Being a little afraid of what might happen to me, I panicked. ‘I’m not 18 yet, so whatever you’re thinking of d–’

‘Shut up and keep walking.’ the guard yelled at me as he pushed me.

As I prepared myself to be floated, I realized that I was being taken to an unknown ship. Before I can process what was going to happen to my life, the two guards shoved me into the ship.

‘Careful!’ I shouted as one of the guards glared at me and walked away.

‘It’s no use Y/N, they don’t care about us’ a familiar voice spoke. Knowing who it was the second I heard the voice, I turned to him. ‘Finn!’ I beamed as I hugged my best friend.

‘Aye easy now. Let’s save the chit chat for when we get to Earth. We don’t want the guards t—’

‘Earth?’ I questioned him with my eyebrows raised up. I’ve never even imagined stepping my foot outside the Ark let alone a planet. Even though I always wondered what it was like on the ground a hundred years ago, I never pictured myself leaving the Skybox.

‘My mom told me.’ A blonde girl who sat next to Finn interrupted. ‘Apparently they’re doing this for an exchange to pardon us. I’m Clarke by the way.’

‘Y/N. Y/N Reyes.’ I smiled.

‘Skywalker’ someone yelled as I heard several laughter following the statement.

‘Hell yeah, I’m a skywalker.’ I turned around and saw that I recognized the boy who called me out. ‘And what did you get arrested for again? Drugs? At least my crime was worth it.’ I smirked as I made the boy’s face turn red.

‘At least my parents care about me’ he scoffed.

Finn jumped in, knowing that my parents are a touchy subject for me. ‘Easy.’ he yelled. Before I opened my mouth to embarrass the kid again, Chancellor Jaha appeared on the monitor.

‘Prisoners of The Ark, hear me now. You’ve been given a second chance…’ Ignoring Jaha’s speech about the crimes that we committed and the information about living on Earth, I fastened my harness on.

Even though I always put up with people who made fun of me for being the “dumb Reyes”, I was very sensitive when it came to my parents. When my so-called father was with Raven’s mom, he had an affair with my mother and left her. Funny story was that he got two women pregnant at the same time. Although my father was a douchebag, I will forever be thankful for creating the best sister I can ever ask for.

‘Raven’ I whispered to myself. I never had a chance to say goodbye to my sister.

Then it all happened so quickly. The ship was moving. Fast. I started screaming at the top of my lungs. ‘We are definitely going to crash’ I thought to myself. As I closed my eyes wishing that this terrifying fall was over, the ship stopped moving.

I opened my eyes when I saw two people hugging and reuniting. Thinking to myself that that moment could’ve been Raven and I, my heart ached; Her visiting the Skybox may be the last time I saw her again.

‘That’s Octavia Blake, the girl they found hidden in the floor.’ I heard some girl say in the background.

Octavia. She was famous in our community; everyone talked about her. Although Raven and I were technically sisters, it blew my mind that there were siblings in the Ark.

I took a deep breath as I watched Octavia separate from her brother. As she stepped her foot onto the ground, she shouted with her hands up in the air. ‘We’re back bitches!’

With excitement of freedom and being on the ground for the first time, I quickly removed my harness. ‘Can you actually believe that we’re here? On Earth?!’ I beamed as Finn followed me outside.

‘We’re free!’ Finn shouted as he hugged me tightly. The feeling of not being in that cell, not being in the Ark and reuniting with my friend made me think that there were something good coming my way. This was a start of something new.

‘Hey, Y/N.’ Finn pulled away from the hug and pointed behind me. ‘Look.’

As I turned around, I gasped. ‘John.’ Ever since we both got locked up in the Skybox, we haven’t seen each other at all. I always believed that there would never be a day that I'd ever see him again.

‘John!’ I yelled as he turned around and looked at me with a huge grin on his face. Running as fast as I could, I jumped on to him and wrapped my legs around his waist.

He held me tightly, wrapping his strong arms around me. ‘Y/N, I missed you so much.’

Pulling away from the hug, I held his face with both my hands. ‘I missed you more’ I smiled lightly before I kissed him. Oh, I missed his smell, his lips, his hugs, his everything.

‘We got problems.’ I heard a boy speak with a concerned tone in his voice, interrupting my moment with John. ‘The communications system is dead. I went to the roof. A dozen panels are missing. Heat fried the wires’

John puts me back down, then we both approach Clarke and this boy. ‘Wait.. so we can’t communicate with the people in the Ark?’ I needed to talk to Raven and let her know that I was down here.

‘Maybe there is a way, in Mount Weather. We need to get there if we want to survive’ argued Clarke.

‘Well, maybe you and “smart boy” Wells over here should go find this... Mount Weather then. Let the privileged do the hard work for a change’ Octavia’s brother cut in.

Who was he to judge whether someone suffered or not. Just because someone came from a “high ranked family” doesn’t mean that they didn’t work as hard as anyone else did.

‘Why don’t you go since you’re so mighty and tough?’ I said sarcastically as I looked up to Octavia’s brother. Something about his personality just irked me and there was no was I was going to let this slide.

‘Woah there, no one talks to Bellamy Blake like that’ he smirked. ‘Besides, we’ve always been looked down on so if someone should help, it should be them.'

‘Okay “Bellamy”. You’re so full of yourself.’ I rolled my eyes as I air-quoted his name.

He chuckles to himself and continued. ‘Lemme guess? You’re one of the privileged and you take my words personally?’

A sudden chant from behind distracted us as we both stopped talking. As I turned around to see what was going on, John and Wells were arguing. Before I was able to step in between them, John tackled Wells to the ground.

‘Johnathan, what the hell?’ I wailed as I stormed off towards him and quickly grabbed him by his arm. Even though I knew my boyfriend hated being called Johnathan, I didn’t give a crap. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’

‘He got what he deserves.’

‘And what did that boy ever do to you?’ I was beyond upset that John would do this to a kid he barely knows.

‘I– uhm he–’ he stuttered, unable to think of an excuse.

Clarke suddenly rushed up to me. ‘Five of us are going to find Mount Weather if you want to come?’

‘Count me in.’ I smiled at Clarke.

‘Hey wait babe, we haven’t seen each other in what? God knows how many months and you want to leave?’ John whined but at this point, I didn’t care. It seemed like John messed up Wells’ leg pretty bad and the last thing I wanted to do was have “lovey dovey” time with him.

‘I really don’t have time for this John. Whatever is going on, fix it’ I walked off with Clarke, her leading me to the rest of the gang.

‘Wait, wait, wait Y/N c’mon’ John caught up to me, grabbing my arm to stop me. ‘Please.’

I sighed and nodded, feeling slight sympathy from him. ‘Okay, I’ll stay.’

‘Alrighty then. I’ll see you in a bit’ Clarke smiled as she leaves with Finn and the others.

As I watched them walking away, I sensed flirtation between Finn and Clarke. Even though I knew that maybe it was just all a misunderstanding, something about it didn’t feel right. For now though, I knew that I had to trust Finn.

John sighed, ‘Look, I’m sorry okay? I don’t know what came over me.’

‘Did something happen when we were locked up, John?’ I looked at him as I read his eyes. He looked desperate, like he needed saving. I was angry and upset about what happened but at the same time, it saddened me that I was never there by his side this whole time.

He shook his head and smiled, ‘No, I’m fine.’

‘I can tell when you’re fake smiling, you know that right?’

‘I’m not faking it, trust me. I was just angry, I guess... I’m sorry okay?’

No matter what excuses he threw at me, I didn’t believe him. ‘Johnathan, you can trust me, I’m your girlfriend. I just want to help.’ Knowing that he wasn’t the type of person to throw random fights, something definitely bugged him. All I wanted to do now was to catch up from loss time and be there for him.

‘Baby, I’m fine. I promise.’

I sighed, giving up on trying to have him talk to me. ‘Fine, but I’m always here for you if you need anything.’

‘Of course, babe.’ John smiled then gave me a peck on my lips. ‘I’ve missed you so much, you know?’

‘I really missed you too, John.’ I hug him tightly, like there’s no tomorrow. When I think about the times I’ve been in prison without no human contact, without knowing how my loved ones were doing, it made me feel miserable; The thoughts made me tear up.

He pulled away from the hug as he noticed my sniffling. ‘Hey, I didn’t know you were that upset about how I hurt Wells. Y/N, I’m so sorry.’

‘No, it’s not that.’ he ran his fingers under my eyes to wipe my tears away. ‘I thought on your 18th birthday, you’d be floated and I’d never know. Never thought that I’d ever see you again...’

John grinned, ‘How did I get so lucky to have you as my girlfriend, Y/N.’

Atom, John’s old friend walked by as they both greeted each other. He then turned to me, ‘Hey Y/N, long time no see. I guess you’re still dating Murphy, huh?’

‘Of course I am. It’s going to take more than this suicide mission to tear us apart.’ I beamed.

‘Well if you’re bored with Murphy, I’m ready whenever you are,’ Atom jested as I playfully punch his arm. ‘Mind if I borrow Murphy for a bit, Reyes?’ he chucked.

‘Of course. Don’t do anything stupid.’ I waved at the both of them before I headed towards the dropship. As I opened the hatch, I greeted Wells who was sitting by himself.

‘Hey, it’s Y/N right?’ he asked.

‘Yep. By the way, I’m really sorry about what John did to you earlier?’

‘It’s not your fault. I mean, I know my father did some crazy shit that I don’t approve of but what people never get is that it’s not my decision. I hate what my father does as much as they do.’

I nodded, ‘I’m not making excused for John and what he did to you but he had some rough past. I’m sure he didn’t mean to hurt you.’

Wells shook his head and chuckled. ‘And you’re so sure of this because?’

‘That little rebel, uh is my boyfriend’ I slightly laughed.

‘Ah, I’m sorry.’

‘No, it’s okay. I understand why you’re pissed at him. I’d be mad too if someone hurt me for something I didn’t do.’

whatever the hell we want, whatever the hell we want... The chanting became louder and closer to the dropship.

‘I wonder what’s going on.’ Wells said as we both left the dropship and approached the campfire. ‘What the hell are you doing?’ I questioned Bellamy as he sang with Atom and John.

‘We’re liberating ourselves. What does it look like?’ He said as he showed his wrist; the wristband was gone.

‘It looks like you’re trying to get us all killed. The communication system is dead. These wristbands are all we got. Take them off, and the Ark will think we’re dying’ Wells stated, irritated with the situation.

‘That’s the point, Chancellor. We can take care of ourselves, can’t we?’

I rolled my eyes and pulled John away from the crowd. ‘John, what are you doing?’

‘I’m in charge now! Well, not really Bellamy’s in charge but I–’ I cut him off. ‘Wait, Blake? In charge?’ I laughed sarcastically. ‘Are you kidding me?’

‘Hey, he’s cool once you get to know him. I’ll introduce you to him.’

‘No, John. I don’t trust him and I don’t like how he’s leading these people. Our people.’

‘Y/N, trust me it’s going to be fine.’

Bellamy interrupted our conversation, ‘If you have a problem, you can take it with me. No need to bring Murphy into this.’

‘I have a problem with you dragging my boyfriend in your stupid plan’ I rasped.

His eyebrows raised, ‘Murphy, this is the girl you’ve been talking about?’

‘She’s amazing once you get to know her, Bellamy. Give her some time.’

Ignoring their conversation, I ranted. ‘You think you can lead these people with your insane ideas? You really think taking these wristbands is a good idea?’

‘Look, I don’t need you to tell me what’s right and what’s wrong. No one is here to tell us what to do. We make our own rules.’ He blurted.

‘It doesn’t matter. Seems like people listen to you, Blake. You can stop it. Is this what you really want? Chaos?’ Wells implied.

Bellamy smirked, ‘What’s wrong with a little Chaos?’

‘This is a bit too far. There’s other ways we can solve this.’ Wells stressed.

‘It’s easy for you to say, once the rest of the Ark is here you don’t have to worry about anything.’ yapped John as he slowly walked towards Wells.

‘John, please.’ I pulled into John’s arms but he jerked it away from me.

‘This is for my father’ John yelled threw his fist into Wells’ face, causing him to fall on the ground. He continued to punch him until Wells pulled him down to the ground and sat on top of him, throwing punches in John’s stomach and face.

‘Blake, please. You can stop this.’ I practically beg him, even if I didn’t want to but I wanted this to end.

‘Stop? We’re just getting started’ Bellamy chuckled as continued watching the fight.

‘Wells!’ I hear a voice from afar; It was Clarke back with her friends. ‘Get off of him.’ Wells quickly got off of John and wiped dirt off of his clothes.

Bellamy reached out to John, helping him get up. ‘Where’s the food?’

‘We didn’t make it to Mount Weather’ Finn said.

Clarke continues. ‘We were attacked. And they took Jasper’

#bellamy blake x reader #the 100 fic #down below series #john murphy x reader #raven reyes x sister! reader #reyes sister #omg im so excited #and nervous #bellamy x reader #murphy x reader

538 notes · View notes

chalabrun · 6 years

Text

an empire for two, ch. 1

Word Count: 4,036 Pairing: Ravus/Noctis, Weskham/Regis Rating: M Warnings: Abuse mentions, gore Summary: Based on The Shape of Water AU conceived with @soulmarshal, when Noctis was a child had the invasion on Tenebrae seen him taken as a prisoner of war and test subject of the Niflheim Empire, living a miserable life until the day his life changes forever--with a meeting predestined by the divine. With the growing tensions of a Cold War between Lucis and Niflheim, amid it all does a most unexpected romance flourish between a caged prince and a being robbed of his freedom.

(READ ON AO3)

They say that dying was like walking down a light tunnel, and that dreams were death’s sibling. That the world fell away from behind, and oblivion came rushing to meet it next. That it would be weightless, cloudy. Like wandering through a dreamscape submerged underwater. Scaly light filtered from above; air was needless, all was weightless and misty blue. Those were easier dreams. Nights where he could actually find himself asleep and not consumed in the perspiring vestiges of a nightmare.

When Noctis awoke, that heaviness returned again. Bleary blue eyes blinked away the thick coils of sleep, a nightstick clanging on the secondary barred door that entered his room. It was time for another round of experimentation, he remembered with dread. It was loud, incessant from a warden working for hours too long and wanting nothing more than to finally have his break. Noctis called that he was awake. It stopped.

The cloister cell was small. No larger than a Chocobo stable with spartan furnishings, a thin mattress with thin sheets and ragged, patchwork comforter were strewn aside as the young man arose for the day. A single square cut above his head let in light, but it wasn’t from the outside. Still barred, still a cage. On the grated iron floor did he turn the rusted handles to the rusted faucet before the cloudy mirror on the gristly, old porcelain sink and began washing his face, brushing his teeth; showers didn’t come until evening.

A small cabinet above the rickety toilet was where a few pairs of mottled slacks and shirts wait, pulling on the garments with stiff limbs still creaky from his poor, damply chilly night’s sleep. It was always difficult trying to stand still, his lame leg making him wobble, having to lean on a sheet of metal that encompassed his room or sit on the bed for support. Sometimes, he knocked some books off the few shelves above his bed.

It couldn’t be helped, he’d learned a long time ago.

After slipping into a pair worn loafers, he knocked on the door, soul still so, so exhausted.

Though, his face lightened when he saw who waited for him.

“Awake now, little prince?” Weskham couldn’t help but greet him warmly, touching Noctis’ shoulder and guiding him through before dropping the contact and letting him walk alongside.

“You say that like it’s morning. Isn’t it around 1 AM or something?” Noctis replied with half a smirk, even if the mirth wasn’t quite there. It never seemed to surpass the watery blue of his eyes.

Weskham chuckled at that. “No, I suppose not.”

This was the lightest hour of Noctis’ days. When he and Weskham would walk from the cell block and towards the enormous atrium that served like a nexus to the rest of the lab. It always seemed so grim and dark, but he supposed that’s how it would always be.

“...Did you dream about him? You know, of the guy back in Insomnia?”

Weskham seemed to grow distant, lips thinning as his stare became faraway. He nodded, but then abruptly changed the subject. “Noctis, wait here. It seems we’ve forgotten your cane,” the older man averted before striding back towards his room, leaving a bemused Noctis in his wake.

Leaning against the wall and watching as people in white lab coats milled busily by, an unremarkable wallflower until a tapping of his shoulder caught his attention. “Oh, uh, hey Aranea,” he greeted with a sheepish smile, not having seen the dragoon approach.

“You alright over there, kid? Kinda look like a fish outta water,” the woman said with a cocked hip, a vague look of concern in her gaze.

Noctis chuffed. “Yeah, fine. Just waiting for Weskham to get my cane. Unless you needed something, Commodore?” The title was playfully tacked on, his smirk spanning at the older woman’s eye roll and her poorly suppressed smile.

“Way to make a lady feel old, kiddo. What’s next? You gonna help me cross the street?” Aranea folded her arms beneath her bosom, quirking a brow. Though, her jocularity seemed to evaporate when, across the atrium, they both perked to sight of men in hazmat suits tromping loudly through that caused many people to skitter from their path. Noctis pushed off the wall, expression disbelieving when he saw a watery veneer of inky substances left in their wake. A security guard ordered for every one to stand back, informing them that this substance was hazardous. As the man spoke, the tar oxidized and corrosively ate through the tile floors, acrid smoke fumigating as a fire alarm sounded and a thin spray of water showered them from above, Aranea hissing as she guided Noctis away from the worst of it.

“Goodness, what happened over here?” Weskham puffed after they found a corridor away from the cascades, the atrium appearing as though a storm system had manifested inside. He passed Noctis’ cane on to him, and the young man took it gratefully.

“Beats me, Wesky. All I know is Izunia looked a little too slap happy the other day. Wonder if this doesn’t have anything to do with it,” Aranea chuffed, hissing at the moisture clinging to her hair and armor. “Dammit!”

“I don’t like the looks of it. Stuff like that doesn’t belong around people. Whatever they’re doing, it can’t be good,” Weskham said lowly, glancing towards the atrium again before taking his place at Noctis’ side, the air of expectancy palpable. “It was good seeing you again Miss Highwind.”

“Just call me Aranea, sheesh. Ugh, I’m gonna kill the guy who thought a hair-trigger sprinkler system was such a hot idea. Got a long shift today, too. Dammit,” she groused while wringing the individually bound tassels of her ponytail, flicking away the excess with her wrists.

“Yeah, be seeing you, Ara,” Noctis said lamely while Weskham ushered him on, appearing flummoxed. Just what was that stuff, and what was Chancellor Izunia planning? Whatever it was didn’t bode well. And as far as he knew, the noxious tar smelled deathly. Like something hell itself had spat out.

Regardless of how his day began, this was always the worst part. Zegnautus’ domestic pharmaceutical division didn’t rely on volunteers for testing. Even though they only tested pediatric drugs on him, the symptoms weren’t always pretty. Sometimes, it was the flu. Other times, it was pain so debilitating he couldn’t walk. As of that day, he was in the second week of trying out a new antidepressant, and he was a week in. Good thing he actually had depression, otherwise he wasn’t certain what the outcome would be.

“Five minutes late. Might I ask what the big hold-up was, Noctis?” Dr. Sania Yeagre questioned once they arrived at the lab, busily scanning a clipboard with several shiefs of paper flipped over before they furled back in unison once he was inside. “Thanks for bringing him, Weskham, but I sure hope your usual small talk wasn’t dragged out this time.”

“Oh, sorry about that, Dr. Yeagre. Something happened in the atrium.” Noctis rubbed the back of his neck, averting his gaze.

“Something happened?” Sania echoed with a shot-up gaze, a frown dipping on her coppery features. She set the clipboard down and skirted around the table she was at burdened by scientific paraphernalia.

“Yeah, word from the Commodore is that the Chancellor has some new pet project going on,” Weskham answered with folded arms, suspicion creasing his features. “Something leaked from the hazmat suits and ate through the concrete. Triggered the smoke alarms and we got pelted.”

Sania’s brows furrowed, looking Noctis over. “Well, suppose that explains why you two look like something the cat dragged in.” Though, her frown deepened and she tsked loudly. “Dangerous substances strolled right through the main lobby like that? What on earth is the matter with them? If someone starts sprouting another head, I’m not taking responsibility. Must be those cocky guys down in the Bioweapons division.” The scientist snorted, appraising Noctis and handing him a towel from one of the cleaning stations.

As Noctis mussed his hair with the towel, he overheard Weskham laugh at how comical the display was before beckoning Sania to him. “Keep the dosages real low, like we said, alright? I don’t want him going through what he did before you came around,” he murmured to the doctor, Noctis’ pace with the towel slowing as he eavesdropped, face falling.

Before Sania had been reassigned as the scientist overseeing his tests, he remembered the sadistic Verstael who often abused and gave him the wrong dosages of toxic, untested medicines unfit for human testing. There were still scars from the rough treatment, all because of a spinal injury he’d sustained after a Maralith attack had left him with a permanent, sometimes difficult disability in his left leg. Those sites still smarted at the memory of it, Noctis swallowing thickly.

“You two take care now. Noctis, I’ll be back for you around 5, sound good? We’ll get breakfast together,” Weskham bid in farewell before he shut the door of the lab behind him. Noctis nodded his head in acknowledgment, but not much else.

Sania seemed to notice, gently removing the towel and nudging Noctis’ shoulder with her elbow as she draped it on the rim of a tub. “Part of your testing involves a psych eval. I certainly hope you’re willing to be honest with me, Noctis, but if it’s any reassurance, doctor-patient confidentiality is something I’ll honor on my Socratic oath.” Noctis flashed her a small smile, likely understanding where she was coming from.

Though Sania wasn’t a shrink, Noctis considered her a friend. Once inside her office, though small, the overstuffed chairs that occupied her desk and a place before it lowered his perpetually high defenses. With a closed door and low lighting, it felt comfortable. Old wooden shelving along the walls sagged beneath the weight of files and research papers, cabinets and drawers stuffed with miscellaneous objects while warm lighting and the retro screensaver on her computer complemented the air of fuzzy comfort.

Sania poured them both glasses of wine, a sight Noctis was grateful for. “Don’t worry about drinking it. It won’t interfere with the antidepressants at all; that is, unless you plan on operating heavy machinery,” she simpered while swirling the contents of her glass.

“Huh, there goes my plans to take one of the mechs on a joyride,” Noctis grinned before taking a few sips, already feeling a buzz. He settled himself into the chair opposite Sania’s, setting his cane against her desk. He suddenly became quiet, too quiet. She watched him, the air open, nursing her glass of wine.

“Few months it’s been, right? Since you replaced Verstael,” Noctis began quietly, bringing his good knee to his chest and gazing sidelong, like a forlorn child without his parents. He hid in his sleeves, Sania just barely able to see his eyes. “Still remember how he used to just...use a fucking cattle prod on me. Said the volts were never that high, but—I can’t begin to say what it’s like. Like being struck by lightning, I guess. Everything just...stops. And you freeze. It’s like—some flash storm. Like what you hear about in Niflheim, with those ice storms that—they freeze animals just...doing things. It’s like that.” Noctis raked his fingers through his hair, visibly uncomfortable and shifting unsteadily. Sania noticed the faint tremor on his skin, lips pulled into a frown.

“PTSD isn’t easy to get over, especially after what you’ve been through,” Sania noted, leaning back in her chair. She laughed dryly, the younger glancing up at her. “Growing up, I still remember the exact day my parents died. Out of all the happy memories from my childhood in Lestallum, it had to be that which stuck with me the most. You don’t think a silly road trip out to the Crow’s Nest would bring daemons on you, but it did. And how only the saving grace of a hunter let you live to tell the tale. Everything. All those little nuances you remember better than mom and pop’s faces.” She stared into her wine glass, Noctis able to see the sadness behind deep chestnut eyes that seemed so confident otherwise.

“...Do you think it defines us? What happens to us?” he broke through the pregnant pause, Sania flicking her gaze to his. Noctis had tucked his other knee in, chin propped on the kneecaps and face half buried behind folded arms. He looked as though lonely had a face.

“Guess it depends what sort of answer you want. Dry and scientific, or the sort that makes you feel a little less alone.” She took a generous swig of her wine, emptying the glass before pouring another. Propriety be damned. She wasn’t a damn therapist, even if being a shoulder to lean on for a friend wasn’t out of her reach.

Noctis suddenly started from his position, shocked to unfirl both legs as if someone had jarred him awake. “What is it?” Sania intoned, vague worry creeping in. The younger man leaned over to stare intensely into the wine, as if he were a psychic scrying for some obscure truth. Sania mirrored the motion, watching him intently.

A dull thunder sounded distantly, the wine rippling in Noctis’ glass.

Shooting up from his chair, Noctis winced and panted raggedly as he seized his cane, the sudden motion shooting pain up his spine. “Something’s wrong. Really wrong, Sania,” Noctis grunted as he stood up, only to be upset by a more powerful tremor that saw him thrown into one of the many shelves, the doctor yelping as papers scattered from her desk.

“Noctis! No—you don’t know what’s going on! It could just be construction!” Sania protested as inertia slammed the door open from another tremor, Noctis braced for it better this time despite being slammed into the shelves. When it seemed as though he wasn’t listening, she rushed to his side and huffed, “Young man, you don’t have the necessary security clearance to reach the levels this is taking place. You want to see what it is so badly? Tough luck. You’re not going anywhere without me.” She folded her arms, challenging him ribaldly.

Noctis smiled hopefully, knowing what she meant. “Hey, it’s for science, right? Could be some big discovery for all we know.”

“Damn rascal...” He certainly knew how to get her hooked.

“The power to the elevator’s been shut off,” Noctis noticed as he saw some researchers and other personnel frantically smash the buttons from afar, hopelessly watching and cursing the lack of its manifestation. “Think we might have to take the stairs.”

“Security’s probably watching them like hawks,” Sania surmised before spotting an unused stairwell gratefully unnoticed by those frantically trying to wheedle their way through the mouse trap Zegnautus had become. Taking Noctis by the hand, his cane clacked in time with their jouncy trot towards it, the woman hauling the door open while rushing Noctis inside before anyone could stop them. Another tremor quaked the building, Noctis flung into the railing while the door shut with finality behind them.

Blinking rapidly as he collected himself, wind nearly knocked from his lungs, Sania loomed near him. “You sure you’re okay enough to continue?”

Swallowing down the pain in his ribs, he gasped, “Yeah. Let’s just get going before this place falls apart on us.”

The headlong flight down the stairwell brought them down at least six levels before the epicenter was finally located, they nearly jarred against a wall that Noctis’ quick reflexes saved them from. Bum leg or no, it had taught him to be more mindful of his own sense of balance than the average person.

An ear-splitting roar caused them both to wince sharply, Noctis clapping a hand over his ringing ear. “Shit—what was that?” he questioned after it receded.

“The sound of bureaucracy, what else?” Sania replied sarcastically, all before she turned to Noctis seriously. “You do know this could get dangerous, right? And I don’t mean just you or I gatecrashing a top-secret experiment-level of seriousness, either.”

Noctis’ head bowed, and the lull of silence that came was uncanny. “Yeah, I do, it’s just—something’s suffering down here, Dr. Yeagre. Maybe even someone.” There it was. That forlorn look again. Stronger than trepidation or even fear. “I know what it’s like to be caged, treated like a guinea pig. Abused because you’re seen as less than human. I can’t just sit tight while it happens.”

She knew better than to think his sadness was directed at her. When you were all that stood between a sadistic child with a magnifying glass, the one beneath learned to be grateful. Which he had been, even if she wasn’t enough to free him entirely. “...Alright. Second it gets rough, we’re out of here. You hear me?”

Noctis nodded tightly at her, understanding.

Edging the door open, the sound was even more cacophonous. Ceiling tiles had caved in on themselves, debris scattered amid exposed wiring that crackled and popped, showering sparks. The metallic limbs of the superstructure disgorged in cascades like corrugated snares, threatening to gore anything that was unfortunate enough to cross through. Water mains had ruptured and water gushed into growing pools while its spray created an eerie, neon mist. There was a single hydraulic ingress that bared entry on its own, Sania exchanging looks with Noctis.

“Noctis, I don’t think we should be here,” she bewared at him, they barely having emerged from the stairwell. The aftershocks from the last tremor vibrated the walls and floors, water droplets leaping from the vibrato. “Noctis!”

“Sania, it…stopped,” the man said, somewhat bewildered even as he exited past the threshold and picked his way through the rubble. Clutching the cardkey Sania had loaned him, nervously did he stop before the erratically flickering key pad and swiped it through. Maybe it had malfunctioned somewhat, it flashing to green and blaring an alarm as the heavy aperture clicked and clanged through its elaborate mechanisms before sliding open just incrementally.

Sidling his slender body through, Noctis gulped when he saw the rampant destruction within, Sania’s worry for his person practically gnawing down his neck.

Machines were overturned or completely obliterated, the ceiling difficult to tear as it was solid stone, but claws rent virulently and still smoldering left deep welts in their recent wake. Debris scattered, sections of wall collapsed and crumbling, sparks crackling from machinery torn from their cords. Metal crushed, it was a minefield of exposed wires, enormous boulders and stones, motes of dust and ashes, and the alarms still ranging their light.

Sania’s words were recalled and Noctis turned towards the exit, flushed with panic before his foot caught on a raised bundle of wires and his cane clattered away into a dark corner. “Shit—“ he cursed under his breath, groaning as his impact was on a particularly harsh bed on stones and debris. Turning on his back carefully, he attempted to sit up but hissed when pain laced his spine.

It was only then he noticed the enormous in-ground pool that dominated much of the cavern, the yawning, vaulted ceilings dripping with stalactites while dark, fathomless water rippled, having been recently disturbed. When he saw bubbles pop the surface, an icy panic gripped him as he attempted to scramble to his feet, to just escape the room.

Crawling on his belly, he froze when the water was parted in a mighty heave, feeling a cool spray diffuse from this new entrance. A low, muttering rumble shook the air atmospherically, mightily—dangerously. A breath hitched in his throat as Noctis knew it was futile to hide, feeling their gaze dig graves into his back.

A towering being—maybe 9, 12 feet easily—loomed over him. Like a half moon was he cleaved by an inky, amethyst exoskeleton pronounced by an enormous, dragging claw on his left and a swerving horn jutting from his skull. It loitered over the groin like a wet suit, climbing half his chest and throat and part of his face like a mask. Where there was none, his muscular physique was ashen and exposed. Platinum locks poured over his face like rain, indistinct onyx eyes boring through his soul.

Staring hard, it was only then that Noctis locked gazes and, breath stertorous, found himself too paralyzed to move. Of both fear and the raw awesomeness of this being.

Finding enough strength to prop himself up and fold his good leg beneath him, hunkering by a machine to haul himself upright, Noctis inched himself upwards while the creature kept his gaze curiously upon him. “Who are you?” Noctis breathed, marveling at the sight of him. As though encouraged, the being emerged from the gentle incline of the pool, heedless of the debris and lumbered towards the small man.

Ravus.

Noctis startled when he heard the name clear as day in his mind, as if someone had whispered it. Returning his gaze to the being, Ravus extended the clawed appendage towards him, canting his head and crooning at Noctis. Lulled into a sense of security, the young man extended his own hand and touched only the tip of the longest claw. A fluttery disbelief arose alongside relief, though transient as it’d ultimately be.

Chaos erupted when MT’s flooded the vicinity, the emergency alarm sounding like an air raid siren resonating with a dizzying volume, disorienting Noctis who was helpless to watch as the MT’s shot grappling harpoons into the creature’s flank, through the fleshy areas as he caterwauled from the pain. Pistons flared as the being was dragged and wrestled to the ground, it happening so fast Noctis couldn’t muster even a voice to protest them.

“Noctis!” Sania shouted over the cacophony, dashing adroitly over obstacles and hauling Noctis to his feet, helping him limp as quickly as he could despite his refusals.

“Sania—we can’t! They’re hurting him!” he railed once they were safely outside, the chaos within emitting eerie strobe lights like it was some haunted house. “We’ve gotta get them to stop!”

“Noct— Noctis! Look at me!” Sania shouted, taking Noctis by his shoulders to face her and shaking him, only now noticing how distraught the scientist was. “You have no idea what that thing even was! How the hell do you know it wasn’t just sizing you up? Snakes do that!”

Shocked by her outburst, it was only then he realized the truth of her words, stunned into a brief silence. He’d...made her worry. All because of a reckless curiosity. Even if she’d helped somewhat, neither had expected the wreckage indicative of something as mightily powerful. Noctis bowed his head, eyes shuddering shut. “...I’m sorry,” he said in his smallest voice, Sania’s expression softening.

“The elevators are working again. We’re going back, I’ll patch you up, then keep you for observation. Until we know what this thing is and what toxicology effects it has, I’ll have to quarantine you.” Noctis nodded numbly and he sighed, saying nothing. “Look, I’m sorry, I know you’ve got a good heart—but that fact about you almost got you killed. I’m just glad the Chancellor was on call. He brought reinforcements right away.”

Herded into the elevator, Sania mashed their floor button and waited until the doors closed with a ping before heaving a sigh of relief.

“Wait—you mean the Chancellor’s in charge of this? I mean, I know he had some…pet project going on, but this?” Noctis asked, voice still stilted from the injuries that transpired. The hum of the ascending elevator was calming, somewhat.

Sania only folded her arms, shaking her head. “Later, Noctis. We’ve got a rough night ahead of us and I’d rather not burn both of us out.”

Noctis bit his lip, but acceded with a nod. He still had no idea what was going on, but—Ravus. His heart tugged to know more. Why he was here, and for what. The tortured screams twisted his stomach in knots, feeling himself blanch at a memory so fresh.

Something in him knew there would be no sleeping tonight.

#ravus nox fleuret #noctis lucis caelum #ravus x noctis #ravnoct #final fantasy xv #my writing #gore cw #abuse mention

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