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enithinggoes · 3 years

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Wanderer’s Refuge, chapter 2: caught red-handed

Agatha and Ursa knew they wouldn’t be able to stay flying for long, by morning they were already starting to feel hungry and thirsty, so Ursa pointed them to a nearby town she’d heard of so they could get supplies and maybe some maps of the country, they brought the train down as they approached and parked it hidden in a small clearing, then the girls went together into town, looking to find some means to get by just for the near future, as luck would have it, a very important opportunity was waiting just around the corner…

A young red haired man who preferred to go just by his first name was leaning against a wall, gathering his thoughts. He had the plan, he had the smarts, he had the stuff, he just needed the extra hands, someone desperate enough to take the risks and not ask about a big cut…

“We’re gonna need a way to make money.” Said Ursa, pushing Agatha’s wheelchair along the busy streets “and I don’t think people are gonna be super keen on hiring two teenagers that came out of nowhere.”

The man reacted instantly upon hearing them, “Perfect!”, and pushed himself off the wall, catching the coin he was flipping with a flourish and quickly turning to the girls and extending a gloved hand, he wore a dapper suit and a cheeky smile. “Good morning, young ladies! Haven’t seen you around here, are you two looking for a quick job?”

Agatha was a bit stunned by this sudden encounter, so it was all she could do to put her hand out, which the young man vigorously shook.

“Who are you and what the hell do you want with us?” said Ursa, clearly on edge.

“The name’s Lawrence, and there’s no need to be so rude. I want to take you two to lunch, my treat; I know this great place downtown. There, we can discuss a way you can both make 100 shillings in less than a week.”

The two girls glanced at each other, this man was twelve kinds of shady, but 200 total pounds was enough for not only basic supplies, but probably a few mattresses and an ice box, maybe even some coal(they hypothesized that maybe giving the train’s engine some steam might make Agatha less tired from flying).

“We’ll talk over lunch, but we do reserve the right to back out even if you pay for us!” Ursa answered, eyeing Lawrence suspiciously

“Of course, of course. Right this way, then!” The redhead did something close to a twirl turning back and leading them quickly down an alley.

At the restaurant, Lawrence had impeccable table manners, even better than Agatha’s, and definitely than Ursa’s, who was scarfing down an expensive cut of beef when he asked “So, I’ve told you ladies my name, it would be rude if you didn’t give me yours.”

“I’m Agatha Clarke, it’s a pleasure to meet you. And this is Ursa Martin,” said the white-haired girl, Ursa just mumbled in agreement while still chewing.

“Now, an illustrious coal baron, mr. Robert Evans, is coming to town with an entourage to visit the local mines, which have been drying up for a few decades. And I’d wager, with proper prestidigitation we can make a deal with him that shall be quite lucrative for us.” Lawrence explained with a devilish smile.

“So you’re a scammer.” Ursa said matter-of-factly.

“I prefer to think of myself as a merchant that really knows how to make a sale.” He said, entirely unperturbed.

“Alright, I’m down to scam a coal baron, what’s the game?”

“I’m glad you’ve asked, partner.”

Over the next few days, Lawrence brought the girls over to where he’d been staying, it was a small hotel room, surprising considering the apparent quality of his suit, Ursa had to carry Agatha’s chair up, since there were only stairs. There, he showed them a few large bags of oddly shaped rocks he’d collected plus some soot-based paint, “made it myself!” he commented with a wink.

They spent their time painting the rocks very thoroughly to look as much like coal as possible, while putting them out to dry, Agatha innocently asked “Sir Lawrence, I hope you don’t mind but why do you keep all your belongings in bags and pouches, is there something wrong with the room’s lockers?”

“Well, you see, I just like to keep my things close at hand.” The red-haired man seemed bashful, like that was only half an answer, still, Agatha didn’t want to pry. “You’re a very wholesome woman, aren’t you? I was actually a bit worried you’d be against my business model.”

“Well, you see, sir, I don’t think a baron of anything is going to be hurting for money anytime soon. And we don’t have many options in the present moment.” Agatha avoided mentioning she was already, by all accounts, a criminal.

Lawrence put his knuckle to his chin and said “I see, I guess I misjudged you a little. Well, then we’d best get back to work, we have some rehearsing to do!” He felt like he understood her a bit more, but cut the conversation short, he didn’t like getting too attached to his “coworkers”

The three of them slept in Lawrence’s cramped room, Agatha and Ursa wanting to avoid the hassle of moving back to the train and the possibility of revealing their magical artifice, who knows how Lawrence could react?

The guests shared a sleeping bag of his cuddled together on the floor, while Lawrence rested on his bed, never taking off his gloves or turning his back to the door.

When a total of 5 days had passed, the final preparations were made in the morning and the three headed close to the city’s entrance, when they saw a man in a strikingly black suit accompanied by three burly lads, his eyes and nose turned slightly upwards as he strode, Ursa and Lawrence, both wearing dirty overalls, walked down onto the street, shouting at each other.

“Ya can’t sell those, those are all that’s left of Pa!” said Ursa, faking the accent people imagined miners to have.

“Well he worked himself ta death findin’ these so we could live a decent life!” retorted Lawrence, carrying a large, metal bucket full of painted pebbles.

“We could take over this whole town if ya just worked in that mine for a few more weeks!” she grabbed onto Lawrence’s shoulders, shaking him.

“We ain’t gonna be alive for more weeks if Ah don’t sell these!” He pushed her away, purposefully letting the rocks shake and make noise inside the bucket.

The baron’s bodyguards were about to push the two away from his path when, with an elegant, but firm hit of his cane onto the sidewalk, he commanded them to stop. Lawrence and Ursa turned to face him, feigning surprise.

“Now now, there’s no need for such vulgarism. Young man, would you kindly show me what you’re holding there?” He spoke to Lawrence slowly, like one speaks to a child.

As Ursa pretended to hold Lawrence back, he proudly showed the contents of the bucket, saying “This is what Pa used to call ‘charboné eterinow’, said he’d heard of it when he was young like me, burns as long as ya like, it does.”

“’Charbon eternél’, hmm, the eternal coal” Mr. Evans was clearly proud of his french, “could you show it to me in action?”

Lawrence put the bucket on the floor, smiling widely as he bragged “of course, mistah! Let me just get it burnin’ real quick” he took a little flask of moonshine from his pocket and let some drip onto the inside of the bucket, before setting it on fire with a simple tinderbox and quickly removing his hand before the flames flared to life.

“Easy there!” He quickly leaned back, his hands hovering at the sides of the bucket as they watched the flames cover the entirety of the bottom of the bucket, making the rocks hard to even look without feeling pain in one’s eyes.

Ursa was very nervous about this step, in theory, there should be nothing stopping the flame from fizzling out once all the alcohol was consumed, but Lawrence had assured her he “had a plan”. Lo and behold, the fire didn’t go out, instead it flared beautifully up, almost burning the coal baron’s clothes as it seemed to reach towards his eyes before stabilizing inside the bucket.

Whatever it was that Lawrence had done, it seemed that he was quite anxious too, as he stuck his tongue out the corner of his mouth in concentration and quickly started to sweat, thought that might have been from the heat, while his hands hovered near the bucket for more than two minutes before he quickly turned it upside down, fast enough for none of the rocks to go flying.

“That should put it out in a few” said Lawrence, holding the bucket while the oxygen from the bucket depleted until he raised it up to reveal the still perfectly intact rocks underneath.

“See! Not one bit a wear n’ tear! Pretty special, right?” Lawrence turned looked up towards Robert Evans.

The coal baron hid his amazement by biting his lip and muttered “Special indeed.”

“Well, waddaya think? Pa told us these would be worth a fortune, how’s 600 sound?” Lawrence named a tall price, all part of negotiations.

“No, no, this is certainly impressive, but 600 is too much for a novelty, I’ll be generous with you and give you 300.”

“That’s a done deal!” The men shook hands, and after the money was exchanged, he paid Ursa and said he still had “some details to deal with really quick” so she and Agatha could go back to the room or wherever they wanted now.

Ursa met up with Agatha nearby, and excitedly told her about how the plan had worked, how they had enough money now to buy the things they would need to live for a while. Agatha asked about Lawrence, but Ursa said they shouldn’t expect him to hang around for long after the job, he was clearly a man with no interest in roots, ready to leave at any time.

“Guess that doesn’t make him very different from us.” Agatha commented with a sympathetic smile.

“huh… guess not.” Commented Ursa, made somewhat aware of her cynicism.

Meanwhile, Lawrence was making the “real” part of this plan come to fruition, he brought mr. Evans(at his request), to the “source” of the “charbon eternél”. A field of bare stone around a dark cave, were he’d half-buried, just conspicuously enough, dozens of painted rocks just like the ones in the bucket he carried, he counted on the baron’s arrogance to make him believe Lawrence wouldn’t see the potential something like a “mine of ever-burning coal” could have to completely destroy the current state of the economy.

“Here it is mister, this is where Pa found ‘em, spent 25 years looking for ‘em, he did.” Lawrence said, pointing around the area on the outskirts of town.

“I see,” said Robert Evans, “the site of such an interesting find should definitely be preserved, would you be willing to sell it to me for about 500 pounds?”

“Fahve hundred! Why that’s too kind, sir! I’d love to give it to you, I’ve been trying to get off this town and make it in the big city.” Lawrence rapidly shook Evans’ hand, keeping up the farce that he was the one being tricked with a lower value than this could really be worth, his plan had worked perfectly.

Lawrence went back to his room, with a score like this, 600 pounds all to himself, he really should take the chance to exit the scene as quick as he could, before anyone caught on and came to ask him for refunds.

He put his suit back on and gathered his things, his clothes, his sleeping bag, his toothbrush, his switchblade, any trace of the time he’d spent here, the only thing he left behind was a note with “good luck out there, don’t look for me.” For the people who had been his roommates for the last week, he pushed a pang of guilt at giving them such a small share of the score and just disappearing without a word away with the thought that this was just “the game”, and he’d just learned to play it well.

Lawrence thought a bit about where he could go now, probably somewhere with a big market and lots of gullible tourists. Yeah, that’d be good for a few more months, maybe even a year and a half.

After picking out a town south of where he was, he bought his ticket and waited inside the station, it would still a few hours until the train he’d booked came, but he didn’t want to risk any unfavorable encounters by walking around outside.

Unfortunately that didn’t stop two burly men, who he recognized as the coal baron’s bodyguards, from coming up to him and telling him to get up and come with them. Ok, a little snag, nowhere to just run away, no trains for a long time, but it’s fine, he can weasel his way out of this.

They brought him into an alleyway, where he met mr. Robert Evans again, he didn’t seem upset, but was definitely not friendly, as soon as Lawrence saw him, he started saying “I can explain,”.

“So,” interrupted the baron, “It appears to me you were not fully honest with your description of this ‘ever-burning coal’, were you?” He showed one of the painted rocks with a part broken off, showing the gray center.

“Alright, you got me, I was trying to pull one over on you, you’ve gotta know it’s a common thing around here, that’s the game, and you won! I’ll pay you back with 50% extra, promise.”

The coal baron took a step forward, smirking at Lawrence dropping the façade he’d adopted when speaking to him. “I see, but I think I have a better idea of how you could… reward me for this “win”. Would you mind telling me how you got that fire to keep burning that long?”

“It was the alcohol!” Lawrence sputtered out, “I-it is mixed with a slower burning substance that kept it bright longer!”

“Seize his hands, please.” The two bodyguards grabbed onto Lawrence’s arms, he was shoved to the ground, bruising his chin and getting his arms held behind his back, his left glove was pulled off, revealing crimson-red fingers.

“Ah, the devil’s hand, I suspected it when I noticed your gloves were the only thing you wore on both occasions where we met, so I think I know a way you can repay me even better:” Evans put his foot on top of Lawrence’s head, pressing it to the floor. “You see, I happen to know there’s a 500 pound reward for capturing your kind, dead or alive, so along with taking back the money you stole from me, I’ll be making quite a big profit.

Lawrence tried to look forward, find something he could do to escape, at the end of the alleyway, he could just barely see two girls in new clothes, one of them in a wheelchair, maybe it was Agatha and Ursa! They could help him, right? No, he left them before, and maybe they even knew he’d lowballed them, why would they risk their lives for someone like him?

“Anything to say for yourself, monster? Aren’t you gonna squirm some more? Or can you at least face death like a man”

He couldn’t find anything, after all, he’d tried everything before, nobody ever listened, ever saw him like a person after knowing what his hands meant, they called him a living timebomb, a danger to society, he’d grown used to it by now, he could try to burn them all to death, become fitting of his description, use this supposed power that had made him a target all his life…

Before he could finish weighing if he’d rather risk trying to escape while they dragged him to the local precinct or give up on trying to subvert their judgment of him by just leaning into the raging fire, the weight over his body suddenly disappeared as Ursa launched her whole body with a burst of steam it into Robert Evans, her elbow connecting with his back and the force throwing him into his bodyguards and knocking them off their feet.

“Can you run?” she crouched down and asked him while untying his wrists.

“Certainly better than the alternative.” Lawrence answered, already getting up onto his knees and putting his gloves back on.

They ran out of the alley and Lawrence followed Ursa as she wheeled Agatha out of town and towards the nearby woods, he didn’t know where they were going but if they had a route to get away from here it certainly beat staying.

When they came to a clearing, the young man had a hard time believing what he saw, a two wagon train in the middle of a forest.

“Get in!” Said Ursa, lifting Agatha’s chair onto the train as Lawrence followed them inside

“I don’t know if I can give it liftoff, last time we were already in the air when it manifested.” Agatha went to the train’s caboose and lifted herself to the conductor’s chair, focusing on visualizing the train in flight as she’d seen before. The train started moving as its tracks began to form, but it couldn’t quite accelerate quick enough to beat the upwards incline, the boiler made a roaring noise, like a starved tiger crying out in rage.

“Shit, I forgot to get any actual coal while we were out!” said Ursa, looking for something flammable she could part with, maybe they’d have enough time before someone came for Lawrence to go out and cut down some trees.

Lawrence clutched his own arms, hesitating a bit to do something he knew would be an unnecessary risk, but he owed at least some help to these people, right? “You’ve already collected the necessary water for the boiler right?”

“Yes, we’ve even already filled it, we just need a flame to light it,” replied Agatha, still concentrating on trying to move the train through her sheer will.

Lawrence pulled back his sleeves, he didn’t want to burn them with an effort this large, he extended his hands into the boiler and flames entirely engulfed the inside of it, barely licking at his forearms. The heat quickly started transforming the water in the boiler into steam, launching the train into motion forwards and upwards.

Agatha and Ursa stared at Lawrence’s hands, marveling at the beauty of the flames and their incredible power before Agatha had to focus on guiding her machine and Ursa had to hold on to avoid falling over from the sudden acceleration.

After they’d picked up some good altitude and speed, Lawrence pulled his hands out of the boiler and turned to look out the window, seeing the world from above for the first time, right here, it felt like nobody could hurt him, no one could look down or him or hunt him down for a strange birthmark he never asked for, it was beautiful.

“So…” He turned to Agatha, “how long can I stay here, could you at least drop me off at the next town you come to?”

“Oh.” Agatha didn’t turn away from the blue sky she was plowing through, “You may leave if you’d like, sir, but you’re welcome to stay as well.”

Lawrence did a double-take, why would anybody take this risk? Put their own lives at stake sheltering a man who could never not be a target for the rest of his life? “Really”

Ursa came up to him, tapping him on the shoulder, “yeah man, we’re not throwing you back out there.” She pointed at the town, now tiny from the window of the train.

Lawrence smiled, putting his forearm in front of his eyes, maybe to shelter them from the sun, or to shelter himself from showing his watery eyes.

“Thank you.”

#Wanderer's refuge #Magic #pyromancer #steampunk #Original Work #original writing #original story #disabled character #train #lesbian character #trans character #hurt #comfort #weekly

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agentstarkbarnes · 3 years

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To all the boys I've loved before. (Based on the OG movie, not the book)

A/N: There is no love triangle like in the movies cuz I ✨ hated ✨ it in the movie, so the ending is gonna be different. Actually, a lot of stuff is going to be different. Kinda mixed stuff from the books. Also, STEVE is gonna behave like PETER K and JULES is gonna be like LARA JEAN. Ohh damn, this is gonna be chaos xD Credits to Jenny Han, ofcourse! xD

Oh and warnings? MY WRITING. THAT'S IT.

Julia sat in her room, reading The Martian. It was her favorite book as she was a huge science enthusiast. That was Julia, she loved living in her small world. Her world included her parents Daisy and Grant Johnson, her sisters Riley and Katherine Johnson, her best friend Natasha Stark. She was loved by them and was happy with them. Adding to the list was Hayden, Riley's boyfriend who also happened to be their neighbor for about five years. It was just another night. Her mom called her down for dinner. They had dinner and the sisters sat with Hayden in the living room, watching TV. Julia excused herself and came back to her room because she was getting bored of the TV running in the background while Riley and Hayden talked in shushed voices. Riley was her elder sister, the eldest of Johnson sisters while Katherine was the youngest. No one called her Katherine, those who are close to her, I mean. It was Kitty to them, because she's white and scrawny like a cat. She knew Riley was moving to Scotland for college, but Julia felt like she had already gone distant as she was spending too much time with Hayden. She didn't blame her tho, Riley knew it would be more painful for Hayden if she moves away.

Therefore, Julia decided to lie and come to her room, and continue reading her book. When she came up, she still felt a pang when an image of Riley and Hayden curled up in the couch flashed her mind. She felt this was wrong, Hayden was her sister's boyfriend. She thought her crush on him was long gone, when she wrote him a love letter, more like a goodbye letter to Hayden, just like she did to the other boys she had crushes on. The most important thing is, the letters are only for her eyes, she didn't mail them. She tore a paper from her notebook and wrote another letter, hoping it was the final letter she'll be writing to Hayden.

Julia's letters are her most secret possessions. There are five total: Viggo from camp; Steve from seventh grade; Jake from Homecoming; Grant from Model UN; and Hayden. She writes a letter when she has a crush so intense that she doesn't know what else to do. Rereading her letters reminds her of how powerful her emotions can be, how all-consuming.

She then put the letter into the hatbox under the envelope where she had earlier put Hayden's first letter and closed the box. That's it, her feelings are gone the moment she finishes her letter, or that's what she hoped. It has always worked though, don't even ask how.

Riley is flying to Scotland tomorrow, and that meant her last night with Hayden. Julia didn't mean to peek, but she saw Riley and Hayden on the lawn, standing close by each other. Hayden's eyes were teary, so was Riley's. That's when Julia understood they had broken up. She closed the curtains and went to Riley's room to sit down, and talk. Riley came in and told her the same. They hugged for a while and talked all night. "Never go to college with a boyfriend, Julia" she said wisely. She nodded as they slowly drifted to sleep.

The next morning, the family went to drop her off at the airport. Riley said her goodbyes to them and flew away to Scotland. She's gone away, just like that, Julia thought. She had a close bond with Riley, she was more like a mother to Julia than a sister. When they came back home, Kitty and Julia had a major fight in the living room about changing the TV channels and Kitty stormed upstairs. That night was the night before school night. After a few hours of watching TV, Julia went to the kitchen to wish good night to her parents and then off to sleep.

Today was the first day of school. Julia was entering ninth grade, freshman year. Classes went by as usual, it was mostly just introductions and orientations. She had run into Peggy though, right in the morning. "Oh, it's you." she sneered at Julia. Peggy aka Margaret Carter was Steve's girlfriend. They used to be best friends, but post-middle school, for reasons having to do with her popularity and Julia's lack thereof, they are now decidedly not. Much to Julia's relief, she didn't run into Peggy the whole day. She was wondering where her boyfriend Steve was though, but decided to not give it much thought. That was when she got to know from Tasha that Peggy had left Steve for a college guy.

The last class was Physical Education. Julia was running on the field with her friend Tasha when she noticed Steve running towards them. "Can I talk to you?" he looked at Julia and she looked back at Tasha and Steve. Tasha gave a nod as she jogged away, leaving them alone.

This was the same Steve, the second non-recipient of one of her love letters. Peggy's Steve, as everyone called. Seventh grade was Julia's first real boy/girl party. Everyone knew that Steve and Peggy, who at the time was still her BFF, only wanted to kiss each other. But they were wrong, because Steve kissed Julia the moment the bottle landed, pointing towards him even though Julia said she could spin it again.

Now here he was, with her letter in his hand. She was confused. These letters were never meant to be sent out. Then how did it end up in Steve's hands? she wondered. He said softly "Look, I wanted to say that I really... I appreciate it, but it's never gonna happen" Steve continued to ramble on. "From what I remember that kiss was hot, you know, for being in seventh grade, and I think it's really cool that you think I have golden specks in my eyes. It's just, Peggy and I are in a really weird place right now. I don't know what you hoped to accomplish. Whoa! Hey, Julia! Wake up, wake up"

Julia opened her eyes and looked up at Steve. She was on the ground, and her guess was right, she had fainted. At a distance, she saw Hayden approaching towards them with her letter in his hand. In a flash, she pulled Steve down and kissed him, making sure Hayden saw them. "Hey! Stop that! Two more laps for you, Johnson!" the coach yelled at her. She blinked back to reality and looked at Peter. "Thank you" was all she could whisper before running back to the lavatory. This was too much for her to handle.

In the lavatory, she ran into Jake holding her letter. "Thought you'd want it back" she smiled as he gave it to her. "This was a long time ago, I don't even remember writing this" Julia played it cool, secretly praying that Jake would buy that. He indeed bought it and kept his smile on. "You know I'm gay, right?" he looked at her gently and Julia nodded her head yes, even though she didn't know. "See you later, Julia" he chuckled lightly and left the lavatory.

Julia went straight home, after school. So much was happening today. She found her dad there, playing chess with Kitty and remembered that he was sending their old stuff to goodwill. "Dad, did you send a hatbox to goodwill?" she asked, trying not to tremble. "Maybe, sweetie, I don't remember exactly" he said, moving a rook. "This is all your fault, I hate all of you" she semi-yelled at the both of them and ran upstairs, leaving them both bewildered. Kitty, however, being the curious one, went upstairs with Julia.

Just then the doorbell rang and she heard Hayden's voice. "Julia, Hayden's here!" her father shouted from the living room. "You never saw me" she said to Kitty as she sneaked out of her window and ran to a diner nearby. This was the diner she regularly visited, so she didn't feel weird running into it. But Steve being there sure felt weird.

"Hey, Johnson" he gave his classic Steve Rogers smile at her. "So what you doing here?" she asked him to which he simply shrugged. "I'm just here to take down one of those chocolate shakes" he said and right on cue, his milkshake arrived. "Actually, I stopped at your house, your sister said you'd probably be here. Look, I just wanna be super clear. I'm flattered, I am, but...Peggy and I, like, just broke up so.." he trailed off. "Steve Rogers, I'm not trying to date you" Julia said and Steve's face was now scribbled with confusion.

She saw his confused reaction and continued to explain. "Okay, um... So here's the thing, I don't actually like you. I just had to make it look like I liked you so someone else wouldn't think I liked them."

"Okay, and who's that?" Steve wrinkled his nose, sipping on his milkshake. "Hayden Skywalker" (sidenote from the author: i'm laughing so hard at this name lmaoo xD)

"Wait, hold on, Skywalker? Doesn't that guy date your sister?" Steve shook his head slightly to the sides, like he was trying to process what she said.

"Yeah... Well, he dated my sister, in the past tense. And he also got a letter, so you can see how awkward and complicated – that one's gonna get if he thinks I like him."

" Whoa whoa whoa, hold on hold on hold on, stop stop stop. I'm not the only guy that got a letter? Wow, you really think you're special, then you find out she wrote love letters to two guys." he scoffed to himself, looking away from her.

"I wrote five actually, so don't go feeling too special" Julia shrugged at him.

"Damn Johnson, you're a player. Who else did you write letters to?"

Hesitantly, she said. "Jake Puttkammer"

"He's gay"

She gave him a sharp look and a knowing nod. "Yeah, everyone knows" she said, even though she just found out hours ago.

"Who else?"

"Someone I went to camp with and someone from Model UN"

He nodded and got up as he finished his drink. He gave her a ride home and when they reached Julia's home, they both sat in silence. Steve was the one to break the silence. "What are you gonna say to Hayden?"

"Guess I have to tell the truth" she sighed as she fiddled with the hem of her dress. "Hey, what if you didn't tell him?" his eyes lit up. "What?" Julia stopped fiddling and looked at him.

"What if we let people think we were actually together? Just for a little while. And not just Hayden. I mean everybody." She frowned at him, as if she's asking him why. "When Peggy heard you kissed me, she went nuts, and if she thinks you and I are a thing, she'll want to get back together. And you can cover up your crush for Hayden, works for the both of us. Look, you don't have to answer me right away, just think about it, okay?"

Julia nodded and got out of the car, just as Hayden was walking in the lawn. Steve and Hayden nodded at each other, like a greeting and Steve winked at Julia before he left. Julia waved at Hayden and got inside her house quickly.

Next day, after school, Julia went to the lacrosse field just as Steve finished his practice. "Hey Rogers, let's do this" she said in a triumphant tone. They sat underneath a tree, and looked at each other.

Julia started to talk, tearing a page from a notebook. "So, first things first, we need to have a contract so we're on the same page about the rules." "You got rules? Come on, you really know how to zap the fun out of a situation."

"Whatever, we need rules so we can know where we stand. For example, I don't want you to kiss me. You may be the James Dean of this stuff but I've never had a boyfriend before"

"What does that matter?"

"It matters because I don't want all my firsts to be fake. If I'm making out with someone, I'm gonna do it for real."

"But you kissed me first!"

"This is non-negotiable."

"Fine, but people are gonna get suspicious if I don't even touch you."

"Okay, you have a point. How about this? You can put your hand in my back pocket."

"It may be romantic, in the 70s" he said with a hint of sarcasm, and she ignored it.

They then made a couple of rules, where they should to watch each others' favorite movies, Julia should be present at every lacrosse games and parties, and that Steve would write her notes everyday. He also convinced her to come on the Adler High ski trip, which is infamous for students doing the nasty. Oh, and the most important rule, they were not to tell anyone about this fake relationship. So, with that, they completed their contract and closed the deal with a handshake.

A few days after pretending to be a couple, they both were pleased. Hayden didn't bother Julia with the letter, and Peggy was fuming. Tasha was shocked too, but happy for her and promised to kick Steve's ass if he tried anything funny. Hayden talked to Julia though and she brushed it off as an old crush, now that she was with Steve. Hayden warned her to be careful as he said that everyone knew Steve was a player and would find his way back to Peggy.

A few days later, Steve came to Julia's house to pick her up for a party. Just outside the house, Steve removed Julia's scrunchie from her hair and fluffed her hair.

Julia reached for her scrunchie. "Give that back."

"I'm keeping it. I like your hair down. You look pretty. I'll prove it to you. See?" Steve took a picture of her and showed it. She smiled a little. "Fine. But you can't lose it. That's my favorite scrunchie." "Deal. Give me your phone."

"Why?"

"Would you trust me? Alright, you need to make this your new background."

"What's your new background?"

"Girl, Come on. You know I already got it." he grinned as he showed her his wallpaper. He saved the picture he took right now as his wallpaper. "Leggo" he dragged her inside the party.

Peggy gave dagger eyes at them as they entered the party. "I'm going to get us some drinks" he kissed her cheek and went off. She went and sat on a couch, right next to Peggy and her set of friends. He came back with their drinks and took Julia to his lacrosse friends. They talked for a while, it was mostly Julia being awkward and talking with the other guys' partners and smiling at Steve. Steve seemed to take this fake dating thing seriously as well. He kissed her cheek a lot, held her hands and gave her reassuring looks. She felt the warmth but realised it was all fake, so she didn't think further.

On the way home, Steve told her about the fight with Peggy. "It's working Johnson" he said to which she returned a small smile and both of them didn't say anything till he pulled in front of a diner. They talked for a while, a not-pretend conversation, more like a real, heartfelt conversation. She knew about his life, favorite movies, about his friends and he got to know about her interest for science, about her sisters and her favorite food, which is the korean drink from the korean grocery store by the way. Suddenly, Steve asked "Be honest with me. Why haven't you ever had a boyfriend?" Julia hesitated but then started to speak. "Okay. Um... So love and dating? I love to read about it, and it's fun to write about and to think about in my head, but...when it's real..it's scary because the more people that you let into your life, the more that can just walk right out"

Steve looked at her and gaped. "You're right. My dad left us too." He paused. Everyone knew that Steve's father left them for another woman and had a family with her. Steve would never forgive his dad, to be honest those who knew the Rogers family wouldn't forgive him either. After a long pause, he asked. "I think it's funny, you say you're scared of commitment and relationships, but you don't seem to be afraid to be with me."

"That's because it's not real" Julia smiled a little, shrugging. "Yeah..right." Steve said in a dejected tone, unnoticed by her. They then ate the dinner in silence and he dropped her off. In the course of time, Kitty became attached with Steve and Julia got attached with his mom, his brother Owen, his friends and his lacrosse team. Even things with Hayden were smoothing out, they began to hangout after school by their lawns, reading books- just like the old times. At this time, Julia couldn't draw a line between fake and real, and her emotions were getting to her head. She knew Steve was pretty much interested in getting Peggy back. So she called Peter and decided to end the contract.

"Look, Steve...I don't think either one of us thought this was going to go on for this long, but Hayden and I are cool, Peggy's officially jealous, I think that we need to call it."

"I can't believe you're trying to break up with me before the ski trip!" he threw his hands up in air in exasperation.

"We agreed to go on it only if we're together, Steve" she sighed.

"Why are you doing this all of a sudden?"

How could Julia tell that she's having real feelings for the fake boyfriend? That she could feel a connection and feel comfortable in his presence? She doesn't tell the truth, so she tells a lie. "I'll come if Tasha comes"

Back in her home, Tasha and Julia were hanging out, just like everytime. "Jules, why the fuck is Stevie bugging me to come to the ski trip?" she asked. "That's because I said him I'll come only if you come" she giggled. "Please Nat, say no. I don't wanna go" she whined. "Oh I may hate school trips but I won't let you two stay away, especially with Peggy going on the trip, I'm coming to the trip, sweetie" she chuckled and Julia facepalmed mentally.

So, here they are, on the ski trip. Before boarding the bus, Julia saw Peggy talking to Steve and Steve showed no signs of searching for his pretend girlfriend. She sighed to herself and was relieved when Tasha came and put an arm around her shoulder. "Have fun with Stevie" she chuckled as they started boarding the bus. "I'm going to sit with you, Tasha" she said loudly as she wanted Steve to hear too. She sat alongside her best friend and ignored the puppy eyes that Steve was giving her.

They arrived at the lodge and almost everyone changed into their skiing gear and took off to the slopes. Steve was nowhere to be found. Julia shook her head to stop thinking further and sat by the fireplace, reading her books with Jake. After a while, when everyone started returning back, she looked at Steve who seemed to ignore her now. She bit her lip to stop showing any emotion when Jake said "Rogers is waiting for you, at the hot tub"

Julia looked at him with glistening eyes. Was this real? Heck, she was going to go to him. She's no longer going to live her live in her head, she was going to risk it. "Thanks Jake" she muttered as she went to the hot tub to the sight of Steve sitting alone, splashing the water slightly with his fingers.

"All by yourself out here?" she asked him but he looked away from her. "So what, now you're ignoring me?" she added.

"Oh, I'm the one ignoring you? That's funny." "Sorry I'm not a good skier, you didn't offer to teach me." "I'm supposed to be sweet to you after you don't sit with me on the bus ride up here?"

"Shouldn't you be thanking me, that you got to sit next to who you actually wanted?" she said, in a not-so-sweet tone. "For someone who has such good grades, you can be so dense sometimes." he sighed, splashing at water randomly. "What?" "Yeah. I wanted to sit next to you, Julia. I even packed the snacks. I asked Kitty where to find those yogurt drinks you like so much." "The Korean grocery store is all the way across town." she blinked. "I know. So if I went all the way across town to get you something you like,then that means.." he looked at her expectantly. "You must really like yogurt?" she chuckled. She didn't want to get her hopes up. Does he really like her? She smiled to herself at the thought. Steven Rogers is not known to be this kind of guy around any woman, not even Peggy. That was when she realised that he liked her back too.

"You're impossible" he bit his lower lip to keep him from laughing.

To his surprise and hers, she got in the hot tub in her nightgown and got to him. The next moment, their lips were connected, and Steve delivered soft kisses, tracing his fingers through her scalp, massaging her head. They withdrew and Julia hesitantly said "Do it again, put your hand on my scalp". And so he did it again, but this time, he held her softly against him with his other hand, kissing her gently as the other hand went to her head.

They got out of the tub, holding hands. "Good night, Julia Johnson" he grinned sheepishly, to which she waved him bye.

The next morning, when she boarded the bus back to their school, everyone clapped as she entered. Confused, she went and sat with Steve and his friends and that's when Tasha whispered to her. "I know you didn't but people are saying that you and Rogers did the nasty in the hot tub" Julia was heartbroken. "Did he encourage the rumor?" she asked Nat. "No, but he didn't deny it either" she pat her best friend. She sat in silence for the rest of the trip back to their town and Steve couldn't see it because he was sleeping on her shoulder. She slept too, to avoid the judgemental looks thrown at her.

"Hey, Julia. I think it's so cool that you came out on the ski trip. Hope you had fun." Peggy came near her, and sneered.

"Oh, I just mean... a lot of girls would be pretty weirded out by their boyfriend sleeping in someone else's room, but you're so trusting... I remember that about you from middle school. God. Doesn't your hair always get so greasy spending three hours on the bus?" she continued talking, taking out a scrunchie to tie her hair. This was Julia's favorite scrunchie which she gave to Steve the other day at the party. "Where did you get that?" Julia asked, her heart sinking. "Oh, Steve gave this to me. Isn't it cute? I love the colors in it. Well, have a nice day." she sashayed away from Julia, leaving her to stand there, having caused a rift in her mind. Steve came up behind her just after Peggy left. "Hi. Ready to go?" he kissed her cheek but Julia moved away a bit. Steve frowned at this.

"Did you go to Peggy's room last night?" she asked, her eyes glossy with tears. "Uh, yeah, but..." "And you gave her my favorite scrunchie? Am I just a joke to you, Steven?" she asked, now letting the tears roll down.

"No, sweetheart you don't understand the situation. Why don't we talk it out, I'll drive you home" he said, his voice desperate.

"You know what, I'd rather go home by myself. And last night was a mistake" she sniffed. "This is over, in every possible way" she let out a sob as she walked away from him. Steve tried running after her, but was waved away by Julia. His heart shattered into a million pieces as she saw her in tears. This was all a misunderstanding, he needed to talk to her desperately. He hung his head and walked back to his car.

It was christmas right after the ski trip so Riley had come home from Scotland. They were having a dinner party with a few neighbors over, and Julia was trying so hard to keep her mind away from Steve and the whole thing. The party was going smooth, everyone were chatting up but then she saw Peter come into the lawn. Julia pulled him aside and looked at him.

"Hey. We need to talk." Steve looked at her, his eyes tired as if he hasn't slept all night. "Not here." "Just so you know, nothing happened between me and Peggy last night." "What happened was that you went to her room in the first place." "Look, Peggy and I dated for a long time. Those feelings aren't just going to go away, we have history." "I'm tired of being second best or fake best. - I don't know." she sighed, tears brimming to her eyes. She couldn't speak anymore as she felt her throat closing up.

"Okay. Look, I..." he shook his head, trying to not look at her crying face. He felt terrible as tears just rolled down her cheeks. "Steve, just leave." she said in a heavy voice. "Can we go inside and talk?" he pleaded. Just then, Hayden approached them closer. "She asked you to leave, buddy." "Hayden, I'm fine. Go back inside." Julia sighed at him. "No, it's alright." Hayden stood by them. "No, no. Are you serious now? This isn't about Peggy and me, it's about you and Hayden! Are you kidding me? This is the reason you broke up with me? You're still in love with this Bon Iver wannabe?" he practically yelled in annoyance. Does she like Hayden? No, it cannot be. Steve just started to realise how Julia was perfect for her, a few weeks and he cannot lose such a girl after finally making a move. "If Lara Jean broke up with you, it's because she's coming to the life-altering revelation - she's too good for you." Hayden glared at Steve.

"You're in love with Hayden?" Riley asked and that's when they realised she came close to them after hearing the commotion.

"No, Riley, I'm not, please.." Julia looked at her sister who now ran inside the home. "Steve, please go home" she looked at him.

"You were never second best" Steve said sadly as he left.

Next day was even worse. Julia and Steve's rumor was now a video- looks like someone took a video of them kissing and spread the rumor. Riley refused to talk to Julia, but she couldn't take it. She finally went to Riley, who was in her room with Kitty and explained the whole thing, including what happened in the ski trip.

"I would never do that to you Riley" Julia hugged her sisters and they embraced each other for a while. "I know, I just got..I don't know" Riley sighed. "I forgive you, and not because the video got released. I truly forgive you because you're my sister. Let's make a pact, no more secrets between the Johnson girls" she looked at them and they nodded. Kitty was a little nervous though. "I sent out the letters, Julia" she said, her lips trembling. "We had a fight before the school day, remember? I did it for revenge, I swear I didn't know this would be a huge problem"

Julia looked at her little sister and the sincere apology. She forgave her, they are sisters after all. The Johnson sisters always have each others backs, no matter what. On that note, Riley reported the video and promised to get it removed. Christmas ended on a happy note to Julia with her sisters, but she still had Steve in her mind. His apology and the sincerity in his words were replaying in her head. Looks like Riley caught this too, because she said that Julia should talk to him and amend things between them. Julia smiled and hugged her sister, thanking her for everything and got back to her room. The same evening, Hayden came to their home and made sure that things are cool between him and Julia and also Riley. "You gotta tell people how you feel, Julia. And not write a letter to yourself and keep it to you" he smiled at them and left after a huge hug from the Johnson sisters, and just like that, Hayden and Julia went back to their old form. They were friends before after all, and now they are again.

She ran upstairs to her room and began writing another letter for Steve, but this time, it was a love letter rather than a goodbye letter. She smiled as she placed the letter inside the pocket of her jacket. She decided to go over to his house and give him the letter and tell him directly about how she feels for him.

Next day, she woke up to the message from Tasha that Steve threatened everyone about the rumor and told them to back off from their personal life. This brought a smile to Julia's face as she got ready fast to drive to Steve's home with her letter. It was snowing and their neighborhood looked scenic. She practically ran to his house and took the letter from the jacket into her hand. Here he was, roaming in his lawn with Owen.

"Hey." he looked at her. "Hi. I have to tell you something." "Okay." "I ran here." she mentally scolded herself, but okay. "Really? Wow, that's... that's... that's great, congrats." he shrugged, looking at her as his eyes spotted the letter. "Thanks." she said, mentally scolding herself again. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. What's in your hand?" he smirked at the letter. "Oh, uh, nothing." she felt her cheeks flush, as she was trying to hide the letter. "Oh, it's nothing? If you want me to read that, you need to give that to me." he looked at her with a smug smile plastered across his face.

"Um... Can you turn around? I need to read it to you" she said and he did. "Dear Steve, I need you to know that..." I need you to know that I like you, Steven Rogers. And not in a fake way. And so I guess that's all I came here to say." "Whoa, whoa, whoa... Don't I get to say something? The reason that I went to Peggy's room that night, was to tell her that it's over, because... because I'm in love with you, Julia. Only you." he smiled, moving closer to her.

"You're what? - Wait... How do we do this?" she said, butterflies fluttering in her stomach. "What do you mean?" he took her chin in his hand.

"What do you put into a contract for a real relationship?" "Nothing. You gotta trust. You gonna break my heart, Johnson?" he smiled, taking his lips to hers, crashing in for a kiss. It was a warm kiss in midst of a snow and she almost felt like she was in a fairytale.

"Yeah" she whispered as he held her closer to kiss her again. ALSO THERE IS NO JOHN AMBROSE/GRANT SO NO LOVE TRIANGLE. STEVE AND JULIA LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER. THE FUCKING END.

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shmowlwrites · 4 years

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Business Man From Origins But He’s He’s Chat Noir

@the-navistar-carol @eve-valution So Eve was watching origins and saw that business man that just walks right on past Fu and was like “what if he helped Fu? He would’ve been Chat Noir!” So here we are. Nothing motivates someone like procrastination and finally, I am out of my writer’s block so maybe I’ll get my prompts done soon. No salt, except Gabriel Agreste hatred, as usual I had no idea what I was really doing until half-way through, there will be a second part to complete Origins, which I also have no idea what I’m gonna be doing with Also, I promise that ending is v much innocent, why are adult-teen friendships hard to write?

Gabriel had places to be. Things to do. Cases to win. Oh, you thought this was Gabriel Agreste? No. This was Gabriel Durand, a powerful lawyer who ruled the court with an iron fist. He knew more details about you than you did. If you faced him in court, you might as well tell the judge that you forfeit, you’re going to lose anyway.

Now, Gabriel thought of himself as a humble man outside of his ruthless court tactics. He tried to help people on his way to and from work and his research projects for work. So when, even when a little behind schedule than normal, he came across an old man on the sidewalk trembling as he reached for his cane, he stooped down to help pick the man up and set him back to his feet.

However, before he could ask if he was alright, the screeching of a car drifting right in the middle of the street to pull up on the sidewalk as a young blond began running up the stairs. Two adults got out, one scarily huge and the other Gabriel was familiar with due to her standing in for the recluse that shared his name. So that must be Adrien Agreste…

Gabriel’s face set. Gabriel- the fashion empire- had always been something that set him off. He switched his phone on to record- they were close enough that recording the altercation from his pocket would do fine. The couple of seconds long interaction found Gabriel with new information. What exactly was going on in the Agreste household?

He turned to the old man who now had a pensive look on his face. “I’m sorry about that- Are you alright, sir? Did you hurt yourself when you fell?” He asked.

“Oh, I’m quite alright,” the old man gave him a sating smile. Gabriel had been around enough snakes to spot a smile meant to placate hiding behind the facade of being genuine.

“Is something troubling you?” Gabriel asked. “I don’t mean to pry, if there is something.”

“Oh no- I just noticed that you tried recording what happened with that young man there. Why?” The old man’s brow furrowed.

“That was Adrien Agreste and two of Gabriel Agreste’s employees. I’ve always thought something was off with that family, but I’ve never had proof of my thoughts. Funny how you employ your son as a model for everything you make and keep him hidden in the house.” Gabriel looked to the school’s stairs, remembering Adrien’s plea. What was the wrath of Gabriel Agreste like?

“Ah, I understand,” the old man hummed, leaning forward on his cane. “You worry about that young man?”

“Indeed,” Gabriel nodded, turning back to the elder. He checked his watch and nearly choked. “I’m so sorry, sir, but I’m running late for work, I must go!” Gabriel wheeled around and ran for it.

And then there were the tremors in the earth, the walls nearly caving from the measured shakes. Fearing an earthquake, the court ran. It didn’t matter about the case- they had just finished up. As Gabriel slid under a bench, he noticed something off about his briefcase. It was soft, meaning he could see if there was a lump in the leather. And indeed- there was a lump. Pulling it out, the lump turned out to be a hexagonal black box with an intricate red design on the cover. Now wasn’t really the time to check out strange items in your briefcase, so he stuck it back in. Just at that moment, a police officer barged into the courtroom, allowing for its occupants to hear the screaming outside. Declaring there was a monster outside, the officer required everyone to run for an inner hiding place.

Gabriel ran for his office. The earthquake wasn’t an earthquake, rather the steps of the stone monster, so while he waited for whatever to happen, he decided to finally check out the contents of the box. He froze when a green light appeared and floated around him. He only blinked when a cat-like bug-thing materialized out of it.

“Oh, fils de pute.”

“Oh, do you kiss your maman with that mouth?”

Gabriel didn’t like this. Why did he let Plagg convince him to do this? Here he was, standing on a rooftop of all places, dressed in something he would never normally were. A lawyer, Plagg had mused and decided this would be fun. Here he was, in a black suit, black button-up, black bowtie, black loafers he wouldn’t normally wear that had grippy cat paw pads on the bottom. Now if the gothic suit wasn’t enough, he was wearing a masquarde-esque black mask that reminded him too much of the Batman masks, with their pointy “bat ears” sticking up from them. He tried tugging it off. Turns out it was like the mask was superglued to his freaking face.

Now, if Gabriel thought he looked ridiculous, it had nothing on the stupid belt tail and, upon looking in a mirror, his cat eyes. His eyes were normally brown, but now they were a glowing amber.

Unbelievable.

No, what was even more unbelievable was that whoever gave him this miraculous, didn’t find another adult. No. They gave it to some young teenage girl. Who stuttered and had confidence issues. He wasn’t a dad! He was bad with kids! How was he supposed to help her?!

“Uh, don’t worry too much,” he tried a smile. She still looked at him with wide, scared eyes. “I mean, I’m also new at this. I don’t even know the first thing of what I’m doing right now. Plagg, my kwami, told me a few things, but he didn’t really give me a confidence booster besides telling me-” he mimicked Plagg’s voice “-it’ll be fun! Loosen up, law-boy!”

It seemed to work, the girl giggled at his impression of Plagg. “A-ah, thank you.”

“So, what does your miraculous do? Perhaps we can plan before shoving ourselves into that situation,” Gabriel asked, grabbing the black-matted chrome bo-staff he had been trying to figure out when the girl ran into him. One of the golden paw-pads slid a screen up, and he finally found out that he could read his powers on there.

“Uh, Tikki told me it was…” the girl frowned. “If I say it, even in a sentence, will it activate it?”

“Probably,” Gabriel grunted. “It looks like I’m your support though. I can destroy things at a touch, I can also send a ball of destructive energy out, but I’m not too sure about trying that right now.”

“My power is something lucky. I have to tear the item the Akuma is hiding… and…” the girl’s face started to show panic again. “What else was I supposed to do?!”

“Don’t worry right now,” Gabriel crouched so that he was looking up at her. “Let’s prioritize. There is an- what did you call it?” He had heard her, but he wanted to keep her grounded.

“An Akuma,” the girl answered, her fists still clenched tightly.

“Okay, so we need to find that. We need to break it. In words, it sounds easy. I’m sure with your power, it’ll either give us great luck or give us something helpful to increase our chances. So now, the words sound a little more plausible. If anything goes wrong, we’ll fall back and regroup and plan. Does that round alright?” Gabriel asked.

“Yeah…” the girl nodded. “Um… What do I call you?”

“Hm…” Gabriel hummed. “Well, my miraculous is the black cat, yeah? Call me Chat Noir.” He didn’t ask the girl, and perhaps he should’ve, but he felt she would’ve panicked on finding a name.

They found Stoneheart at the DuPont stadium, chasing a young teen. Gabriel vaulted off the wall, extended his bo-staff to slam down between Stoneheart and the teen.

“Don’t you know assault and property damage is illegal?” he found himself asking, buying the teen time to run while Stoneheart was focused on him.

Having no clever words, Stoneheart instead decided to try to squish him underhand. Swinging his bo-staff at Stoneheart, he tried to trip him. Instead, the staff bounced off and Stoneheart grew in size.

“Merde, merde, merde,” Gabriel muttered, finding himself flipping away. Where did his sudden athleticism come from? He was a lawyer, for God’s sake! And where was his partner? Please don’t say she bailed on him, he would more than likely kill Stoneheart than “free the Akuma” if he used his power on Stoneheart.

Speaking of which, the monster picked up a soccer goal post and tossed it at him. Unaware of his surroundings, he batted it away, only to then realize there was a person in the way. He tossed his staff, sending it flying after pressing the extend button. Right before the goal post hit her, the staff reached and the civilian was unharmed. However, that left him without a weapon, and Stoneheart grabbed him.

“What are you waiting for, super red bug? The world is watching you!” The civilian called, and Gabriel found solace in that. The girl was still there, but she was perhaps still on the verge of a panic attack. He didn’t think that would help her; in fact, he thought that would only send her further down the rabbit hole.

However, suddenly the teen slid under Stoneheart’s legs and had a brave smile on her face. “Animal cruelty? How shameful!” And with a mighty tug, Stoneheart was sent onto his back and Gabriel went flying into the goal post on the other end of the field.

“Sorry I took so long, Chat Noir,” the girl fretted.

“It’s alright,” Gabriel grunted as he rolled to his feet. “You were nervous and that is fully understandable. But we’re together now, aren’t we?”

The girl gave him a beaming smile before looking back at Stoneheart with a frown. “Any plans? He gets bigger with every attack… We’ll need to do something other than attack, right?”

“I think it’s time to use your luck,” Gabriel nodded to her.

The girl made a sound of confirmation and tossed her yo-yo into the air. “Lucky Charm!”

A wet suit fell into her hands.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” She shrieked. “How am I supposed to break anything with this?”

“He’s made of stone…” Gabriel began to analyze their opponent. “His right hand is clenched, he only uses his right. You think he’s holding his Akuma?” Gabriel suggested.

The girl perked, her eyes taking in other things while Gabriel kept his attention on Stoneheart. “Here’s my plan!”

Gabriel spared her a glance. “Anything you need me to do?”

She poked the hose at their feet into the wetsuit and then wrapped her yo-yo around his legs. “I’m sorry- do you mind being bait?”

Absolutely he minded! But, he only gave her a nervous grin before he was tossed towards Stoneheart. Now caught, he turned his attention towards the girl, confused as she called towards the monster. “Catch me if you can!”

And she was also caught, but he noticed the purple wadded ball of something fall to the ground. She turned towards the girl that he had saved earlier. “Alya, the tap!”

Did she know the girl?

But either way, the girl- Alya - turned on the hose and his partner popped out of the giant’s hand. She stomped on the paper ball, and a purple-black butterfly fluttered away. Gabriel fell to the ground with the disappearance of Stoneheart and the appearance of a rather large teen.

“Are you alright, boy?” Gabriel found himself asking, sitting on the ground and folding over his knees.

“I- What happened?” The boy asked.

“You were… I guess the word would be Akumatized,” Gabriel offered. He felt bad for thinking of him as a monster- he was only influenced by the Akuma! Would all so-called monsters just be victims of Akumas? “But it’s alright. My partner and I helped you.”

The sound of his partner’s voice brought the two out of their conversation- she was reading the paper that had held the Akuma.

“Kim wrote it,” the boy sighed. “He’s always making fun of me.”

“You know, you shouldn’t get so bent out of shape about that. There’s no shame in telling someone you love them, Ivan.”

Was this girl a classmate? She knows the name of two teenagers- of which there were probably a million in Paris- and knew a lot more about the situation than he was.

“How do you know my name, miss?”

That sent the girl into a nervous giggle fit. Thankfully, she was saved from answering that. Alya was recording them at an uncomfortably close distance.

“Uncanny! A-mazing! Spectacular! Are you gonna be protecting Paris from now on? How did you get your powers? Oh, I’ve got a ton of questions to ask you… uh?”

Gabriel looked to his partner. He wasn’t about to promise anything she was too nervous about. The girl met his eyes and nodded. Gabriel stood, helping Ivan to his feet as well.

“Ladybug. Call me Ladybug,” the girl held her head up.

“Chat Noir,” Gabriel dipped his head. “We’ll protect you and find the source of this phenomenon.”

Gabriel found he kind of liked the whole experience, once the threat of death was gone. Ladybug was a nice girl, he hoped she stuck around despite her anxiety.

#mlb #miraculous ladybug #business dude in origins #I thought naming him Gabriel would be funny #Adult-teen friendships are possible and that is what I intended with that ending please don't crucify me over that

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xhanisai · 5 years

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Miraculous Ladybug: Kiss AU

Feel free to delete the bold if you want to post this. This was the only thing that I worked on for the last few days. I really hope you like it. I did use, I think, every idea you put in. I used every one of the dialogues that you used and only edit them slightly. I did add my own thing slightly. A reason why that the kiss is needed for transformation. I did read your other items about the episodes and even Bubbler. I really liked the Bubbler one you wrote. And if you wanted, I could keep writing more. I really enjoyed doing this. But only if you want me to write more. It is your AU.

“Wait, you mean I have to kiss this stranger to become a hero!? The hell!” Marinette yelled out as she pointed both her hands at the blond boy next to her. ‘He looks like he could be a model!’

Her eyes were wide, and she was slightly panicking. She was not sure entirely sure what was happening. She had seen this old man (pervert?) the other day when he fell down. And now she was in his massage parlour with what looked like the concept of teenage heartthrob made flesh.

The pair would occasionally look at each, Adrien gave a small wave with a genuine smile toward Marinette. This made her slightly flustered, making her blush and look away. Why was this boy so familiar?

“Yes, though this rule is very new. Believe me, I do not make the rules when it comes to transforming. If it were up to me I would rather you not know each other’s identities. This could cause problems down the road. But, when I think about it, I can see more of the good it will do than harm. You two will be a more effective team and be able to beat evil and keep the order in Paris from Hawk Moth. I believe Tikki told me that one duo had to dance together to become their hero personas.” Master Fu smiled as he drank from a small cup of tea, enjoying the warm beverage on this cool day. The moment he saw these two he knew they were meant to be. They needed a little push. Though a certain red bug wasn’t innocent in the matter either.

Marinette felt like she was about to crumble. Here she was, being told that she had to kiss someone to be a hero. This couldn’t be real. She had to be dreaming. This had to be some weirdos dream. She accidentally Incepted herself in their dream and now they were controlling this world. But she was reading earlier, well mostly skimming that magazine but still read words. And that was a condition of a dream. You can’t read in them.

Adrien looked over at Marinette. He couldn’t help but get excited. He had never kissed anyone before, and he did not count photo shoots where it looked like he was kissing female models. He was never comfortable kissing random girls. But Marinette, she was different. He felt a strange connection to her. He hoped that she felt the same. She looked super confident. And even though she was flustered right now, he could tell she was strong at heart, and sorta physically imposing.

‘WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM GONNA KISS THIS HANDSOME BOY! DO I THANK THE MAN ABOVE OR CURSE THE MAN BELOW! AHHH’ Marinette thought while keeping a somewhat stern voice, listening to Fu talk.

“So you’re telling me that in order to transform into a super cool cat hero to beat Stoneheart, I have to kiss her? The prettiest girl I’ve ever seen who looks like she could kick my ass? I don’t mind as long as she’s okay with it.” He gave a big smile as he closed his eyes. The last thing he wanted this girl to be was uncomfortable.

“Y-Y-YOU THINK I’M PRETTY!?” She turned crimson, and that made Adrien blush. Her stutter made his heart beat a little faster. She wasn’t uncomfortable at all with Adrien, or the kiss itself. She was worried that if she did he would regret it and her first kiss would be ruined. She began to hyperventilate. Then, she felt a hand on her. He looked at her with that warm smile and she suddenly felt her worries melt away. This boy, he was magical.

She stood up and clenched her fists. She brought her forearms toward her stomach, standing confident and triumphantly. She irradiated confidence. She grabbed the Miracle Box containing the earrings, a red flash of light appeared and out popped a strange red creature with black spots on her head. She quickly introduced herself as Tikki, the Kwami of Creation and how she would be used to turn her into a superhero.

Adrien smiled at this, being infected by her confidence and grabbed his own Miracle Box. A flash of green light appeared as Adrien followed it around his body. A small black cat appeared floating in front of the teen. The cat, lazily, explained how he was the Kwami of Destruction. The other half to his Sugar Cube.

“I told you not to call me that! Call me that again and I will start calling you Stinky Sock.”

“Whatever you say Sugar Cube.”

Adrien and Marinette both smiled at this small exchange. Thinking the same thing.

“They are so in love.”

Marinette then took a deep breath. They needed to hurry. The couldn’t let Stoneheart parade around any longer and cause mischief. Though they were apparently teleported here to save time, it didn’t mean they could dillydally. They quickly equipped the jewellery, Marinette sorta wincing as it had been a bit since she wore earrings.

Adrien walked to Marinette, grabbing both of her hands and held them up to his chest. He gave them a small kiss, thinking that it would help calm her nerves. When he looked up she was red once more, which made Adrien want to do it again, but he would have to wait till next time.

Marinette squeezed his hands tight, looking up at him. He was much taller than she thought. She looked into his green eyes, gulping as she was nervous. When he kissed her hand, she felt better honestly, just super flustered. She did her best to not show it as she smiled. He was rather gentle with her like he was putting her feelings before the whole situation.

As they looked into each others’ eyes they slowly drifted toward each other. They closed their eyes as their lips locked. This kiss sent shivers up their spines. It made Marinette want to press deeper into it. Adrien didn’t want to let her go. Her lips were cold against his warm ones. They didn’t kiss long, but they could feel a spark through it. It felt right to kiss each other. And

Marinette was the first to pull away, though she was hesitant to do so. After they finished their 4-second kiss the Kwamis flew inside their jewellery, forming the costumes of their personas.

They looked at each other for a moment, smiling as they stepped back from each other. The grabbed their weapons, Marinette whirled her yoyo a bit spinning it a little to fast. Adrien looked at his staff, examining it as he pressed the green paw print on the handle. Marinette lost control of the yoyo, it flying in the air and hitting Adrien in the head as his staff extended and hit Marinette in the temple. They both groan in and rubbed their heads, chuckling as Fu opened the window, gesturing toward it.

“Go forth young heroes.”

______________________________________________________

“Pound it!” They both yelled out in Unison as they smiled at a job well done. Their Miraculous beeped and Chat Noir looked at his ring.

“Until later Mar….um m’ lady! Let’s meet up tomorrow morning. I know a pur-fect place to meet” He said nervously. He had almost given her name away. He knew who she was, but he remembered the fact that Master Fu wanted their identities originally secret from one another. So he probably shouldn’t say her name.

“Ladybug. You call me Ladybug, Chaton.” She quickly said as she twirled her yoyo. She swung out the field and toward her home as Adrien used his baton to exit quickly.

Ivan and Alya just watched the heroes leave. She quickly made her way towards Ivan, who looked very confused. “Just where exactly am I and why was there a couple in a leather suit out here?”

Ladybug entered her room, her transformation wearing off just a few seconds after she landed on her bed through the trap door. She let out a sigh, laying down on the bed, as she quickly crawled under the covers.

“Why isn’t school just cancelled for tomorrow. Makes no sense…” She fell asleep, exhausted after fighting her first supervillain. Tikki watched her and smiled. She soon rested on the pillow falling asleep with her chosen. A nagging thought wasn’t able to leave her mind though. Was she forgetting something?

The next morning Marinette woke up excited to see Adrien again. She had received a text from him, saying to meet at a local diner. She actually woke up early, to doll her self up. Which meant a bit of lip gloss and clear coat on her nails. She looked at Tikki, she was deep in sleep even with all the noise she made. She must be exhausted after not using her powers for so long. She gave the small Kwami a kiss on the head and headed out without explaining to her parents. They just looked at each other and said “Teenagers.”

After about a half-hour of walking and jogging with excitement, she arrived at the designated in the text. It was a local chain, about a few dozen across the entirety of France. There were about 6 in Paris. She walked in, the smell of fresh bacon and baked good along with the TV’s plastered all around was comforting. She noticed college students working, some talking, and what she assumed was the table of old men who were regulars that came for the coffee and company of their peers. She spotted Adrien in the back and waving at her. She was nervous because she had no idea if this counted as a date or just friends eating out together. Friends who kiss. To become superheroes. And may or may not have kissed a second time before the battle for good luck.

She sat across him in the booth, his goofy smile plastering his face as he rubbed the back of his head. He hoped this didn’t weird her out. They had about two hours before school started, so he had time before heading there. He was thankful that Nathalie bought his excuse.

“Why did you want to meet here?” She placed her book bag on the seat, resting her elbows on the table as her head was placed on her palms.

“Well, I thought that we could know each other. I doubt we will ever see each other outside of our ‘jobs’ so I was hoping we can be…um…friends….” That word felt like poison to him. Like he was hated if he referred to Marinette as a friend only. He had no idea why he thought this.

They only began to start talking, Adrien mentioned his father before every TV in the diner switched to the news. Nadja Chamack was on screen, her hair a mess and out of breath.

“Breaking News. It seems that the Villain our new superheroes stopped yesterday has returned 10 fold! He appears to have multiplied and is all across the city. Several eye-witnesses claim that a large swarm of black butterflies erupted from the Effiel Tower and spread across the city. These butterflies came into contact with random people and turned them into the monster. They are as still as statues. The one question I know is on everyone’s mind is; Where are Ladybug and Chat Noir?”

“I failed…Those people….They….”

She let out some tears. An event like this, something that affected many peoples lives negatively. She failed them. She hurt them. Their lives put on halt because of her inability to act. She began to hyperventilate, clutching her chest as she looked at the screens. She couldn’t take it. She grabbed her bag and ran and out the diner, Adrien is not far behind her.

She kept running until she ran face-first into one of the Stoneheart clones. She let out a scream, cowering for a moment before realising that it wasn’t moving. Adrien caught up with her, grabbing her hand and taking her to an alleyway. She fell against the wall, dropping her bag and closing her eyes.

“Marinette, listen to me. Everything will be ok. We just have to-”

“It’s not ok! I am the reason we failed. There was a tiny voice screaming in the back of my mind to do something about the Akuma but I failed to act! It is my fault!”

She looked at Adrien, taking his ring off him suddenly and grabbing his face. She forced a quick kiss from him. Tikki woke up suddenly, grabbing on to the bed railing as if she was being sucked by a powerful vacuum. She lost her grip and with great speed, she was transported to an alleyway. She saw Marinette pulled away from the kiss as she was sucked into the Miraculous. She transformed into Ladybug, tears in her eyes as she gave him back the ring. She grabbed her backpack and grabbed her yoyo, spinning it as she refused to look at him.

“WAIT! M’LADY!.

She ignored him and used her yoyo to soar through the air and head home. She reached her balcony in about 6 minutes. She entered her room, clutching her sides as she sobbed. Her transformation dropped, Tikki forcing the transformation to go away. She slid across the bed, looking up at Marinette. “I am sorry Tikki. I don’t think I can be Ladybug any more. I will find you someone who can.”

Before Tikki could object and explain what to do she took off the earrings, unknowingly renouncing her position. She looked at the red jewels, placing them back in their Miracle Box and setting it in her backpack. The rest of the morning she felt dreary, and her dad tried his best to cheer her up, even managed to get her to smile. But she couldn’t stop thinking about how she was the reason those people were trapped. She couldn’t handle such a responsibility. The clumsy baker would never make a great superhero.

When she arrived on campus she spotted a bag falling from the second story. Alya groaned from above, looking at the bag as it fell onto the ground. Alya. She loves superheroes. She would be great to be the next Ladybug. Marinette quickly moved to her bag, setting the Miracle Box inside. She grabbed the bag and headed up the stairs, smiling at Alya as she handed it, and the burden of heroism, to her. Alya thanked her and headed to the classroom.

Just outside Adrien was running up the steps to the school. He wanted to use his powers to sneak out and get a head start, but he couldn’t activate them without Marinette. Not that it was a possibility anyway. He was halfway up the steps when he heard a loud honk. He looked back, seeing Gorilla and Nathalie in the car. Nathalie stepped out and walked toward Adrien. She was about to say something before Adrien yelled out.

“Please, just tell my father you were too late and couldn’t get to me in time.” He had a pleading look in his eyes as he ran up the remainder of the steps. Disappearing into the school Nathalie just sighed, holding a brown paper bag. She had made a small lunch for him. Though it was only PB&J with yoghurt she thought he might need it.

Alya had walked to the seats, Marinette close behind when she heard a yell, causing her to tense up and curse to herself from being scared.

“MARINETTE!!!!!!”

“Adrien!?!?”

Adrien ran up to Marinette, wrapping his arms around her tight. Her face turned red at the contact. Several emotions welled up inside of her. One part joy, one part fear out of him knowing her decision. But she can’t help but press her arms around him. He wasn’t mad at her, he could tell. Was he worried?

“How could you leave me! ‘I can’t save Paris on my own! You don’t just kiss a guy and run away!” Adrien blurted this all out loud, his face buried in her neck as she said this.

Alya walked up to the pair, smirking as she pushed her glasses up on her nose with her middle finger. “Marinette~ I didn’t know that you had a boyfriend.~” She said teasingly as she chuckled.

Chloe looked was in the background. Kim, Alix, Max, and Rose had to hold her back. They swore that they could see fire spewing from her mouth as she screamed and kick.

“How is she this strong!” Kim yelled out.

“ADRIKINS!!!!!!”

“Boyfriend? I’m her partner.” Adrien answered innocently, finally showing his face. He squished his cheeks against the deadpanned looking Marinette, quirky smile on his lips as everyone else took a double-take at his words.

“Can you excuse us for a minute, please? Thanks!” Marinette stormed off with a love-struck Adrien being led by the wrist. She brought them to the locker room, pushing Adrine inside with a huff. This room is soundproof thanks to nobody wanting to listen to young teenagers gossip

“What the hell is wrong with you! You almost exposed your identity to everyone in the classroom. I was an exception but they can’t know about you being Chat Noir!”

“Wait, what about you?” He crossed his arms and leaned closer to her. “What about your identity.”

Marinette looked down and to the left. She rubbed her forearm, feeling small as she clenched her mouth shut. She wanted to speak, but she couldn’t.

“Well?”

“I gave it up! I gave up this stupid burden I didn’t want to have in the first place!” She yelled out as she threw her hands down. Tears threatened the corner of her eyes as she looked up at Adrien. Not to her surprise, but he had a look of shock, but…hurt? That surprised her.

“Why would you just give up on me…I mean this job like that? We could do great things together!” He took a step toward her, and she moved a step back. She felt a small amount of shame build-up, but she pushed it back as she took a hard step toward him.

“I never asked for this! All I have done is help an old man not get run over by a damn car! Suddenly that qualifies me to be a hero! Then Ethan Mars definitely deserves to have my…The Ladybug Miraculous then.”

“Marinette you shouldn’t be so harsh on yourself. We are human and we make mistakes-”

“Exactly! I am a teenager and I just made a huge mistake that could get many people killed. I can’t do it. I won’t do it. I…I can’t.”

Adrien looked at her. He hated this. He hated this feeling brewing inside of him. He felt hate. But it wasn’t toward Marinette. It was toward the person who caused this. The man, woman, trans, or whatever they identify as, fault.

“So that’s it…? Fine… but don’t mistake this as me giving up on you. I’ve seen your potential and I know why Master Fu has chosen you. I’ll make you see how amazing you are, even if it takes me a thousand years! That’s a promise.”

He looked at her, his face, his whole demeanour more serious than he had even been his entire life. He grabbed her hand and gave it a gentle, yet loving kiss. At the same time, the two felt something. They were both not entirely sure what it was, but they liked it.

The duo walked back to class, sitting down across from each other. The entire time they kept glancing at each other. The entire class could feel and almost see the tension. Alix even said out loud, “Does anyone have a knife? This tension is in my way and I can’t focus on my school work.”This got some laughs from the rest of the class and caused the two teens to blush in embarrassment.

Later that day Marinette tried to cheer up Ivan. She knew that he was a strong boy and that he could beat these negative emotions. She gave him a small pep talk and the idea to write a song for Mylene. After talking with him she went back to the classroom, talking with Alya for a moment as she spied Chloe and Adrien talking. She let out a sigh, only to have the door burst open and the wall destroyed. Stoneheart yelled out his name as it was called. He grabbed Mylene and Chloe, the latter screaming about her hair as he burst through the wall.

“Ivan is a supervillain and is going to terrorize the city! I am so there!” Alya yells out loud. Marinette looks at Alya, seeing her reach into her bag and get excited for a moment. Alya takes out her phone and throws her bag at Marinette. She catches it instinctively and watches her new friend leave.

“Thanks for watching my bag! Love you!” Her voice got farther and farther away.

Marinette tried to yell at her about her bag, grabbing it and letting out a breath. Adrien was at the hole in the wall, looking out of it and closing his eyes.

“This is crazy. This is crazy.” He yelled as he jumped out, landing on the street he began running in the direction of Stoneheart. Along the way he found a street vendor selling kitchen supplies. He stopped and examined them all. He picked up a frying pan, nodded, paid for it, and continued to run. He grabbed a mask from a different vendor selling cheap costumes, ignoring the banana costume as some weird man was looking at it. ‘Like I’ll ever wear that right…..’

Marinette was at the hole, groaning she gripped Alya’s bag tight and ran out the door. She tried her best to follow Alya, but she had too much of a head start. She finally found Alya, she was recording behind some trash cans and filming Adrien. She raised an eyebrow, watching as this goofball was narrowly missing giant stone fists that were crashing down upon him. He was dodging them as best as he could, thankful to his father that his fencing lessons have a practical use outside of looking cool.

That’s when it happened. Stoneheart backhanded a car, sending it flying toward Alya unknowingly. She screamed, pushing herself to the wall, falling into a very narrow doorway. The car had her trapped, the door behind her locked and no space to crawl out. She felt like this was the end. She reached her hand out, feeling the fresh air on her hand as oxygen supply was low in this space. If she didn’t she get more soon, she would suffer brain damage. Due to the space that she had, she had more than normal circumstances with no oxygen.

This awoke something in Marinette. Time seemed to slow down for her. She watched her friend’s hand desperately reach out for help. Adrien was trying and failing, to fight off Stoneheart. It hit her. She knew why she was chosen, and she was going to make it right. She quickly grabbed the earring out of Alya’s bag, putting them on as Tikki appeared from the box. Before Marinette could say anything she was hugged by the creature.

“I’d knew you would come back.”

Marinette smiled, kissing the Kwami on the head and bolted toward Adrien. He was out of breath, his lovely frying pan was dented to all hell, and worse of all, he didn’t have a single pun the could throw at this oversized Thing™ without cringing himself. He closed his eyes, ready to embrace whatever the Stoneheart was gonna do to him. But he felt himself being tackled. The scent of vanilla wafting through his nose. They rolled away, going into a small alleyway and away from prying eyes. He had landed on top of this girl, revealing herself to be Marinette.

“You came back …why?” Adrien gasped, hope bubbling in his chest as he peered down into the girl’s vivid blue eyes. They shone with determination that he has never seen on anyone, ever. This look in her eyes was infectious. She saved him and filled him with determination.

“Seeing my partner and new friend in trouble may have sparked the fire within,” Marinette smirked. It quickly turned into an apologetic frown. “Listen, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have deserted you like that and let my insecurities take over me. I shouldn’t have yelled at you. You know what I’m going through the most and I just-”

She was silenced with a finger on her lips- or was it the fond, loving smile of his that radiated pure sunshine?

“What matters the most is that you came back, Marinette,” The way he breathed out her name did wonders to her heart. Was she falling for him? “I’ll follow you, protect you, and help you all the way. You and me against the world!”

Marinette couldn’t help but melt. If she can’t do it for Paris, then the very least she can do is do it for him. She’ll protect his smile no matter what. And if she should fail, she hopes that they are together in the final moment.

“Guess it only took you two hours to get me back on track,” The dark-haired girl grinned cutely, clasping her arms around Adrien’s neck before pulling him in for a kiss. Adrien’s eyes went wide but quickly closed them. He held her close, feeling the passion that she put into the kiss and applied his own. He felt a strange connection form between them as during this kiss. He couldn’t explain it, but it felt right. When they pulled away from each other, which admittedly was hard for both of them to do, they were already transformed.

“Now let’s go save Alya and get this Akuma.”

______________________________________________________

Marinette stood outside, the rain pouring down as she stood under the small shelter of the arc under the door. Everyone had left, and Marinette was hoping to catch Alya before she left. Wanting to hopefully talk and just make sure she was ok. She always hated the rain made her hair almost impossible to comb or brush. Tikki flew out from her purse, smiling at her and tapped Marinette on the nose.

“I’m so proud of you and what you did today,” She said with a smile as she sat on her shoulder.

“Thanks, Tikki. I am glad you never gave up on me. I have a feeling this will be the start of a wonderful friendship.”

She heard footsteps behind her, seeing Adrien with his umbrella and sent a wave to him. Plagg was on his shoulder whispering in his ear. “Go get her.”

Adrien smiled and took a few steps back to her. She blushed when he came back, making him smile wider. ‘She has such a cute smile. She really is beautiful.’ He walked up to her, extending his hand out to her with the umbrella.

“You don’t have to walk in the rain. If it is anything like mine you will need a special comb just to get it untangled.” He laughed and offered his umbrella to her.

She looked down, blushing as she extended her hand out. Their fingers touched, and at that moment Marinette felt her heart speed up. She knew she was in love. This model, who was a stranger to her not 24 hours ago, stole her heart and held it close. Adrien felt it too. He told himself he felt the love for her during her fantastic display at the Eiffel Tower. But when she touched him, it only confirmed his feelings. She took the umbrella, about to say something when it collapsed on her. Adrien laughed. Laughed the most in several months of depression. Being around this girl was like a shot of dopamine to his entire being. He leaned in, kissing her cheek and narrowly missing the corner of her mouth.

“Bye m’ lady. I can’t wait to save the day with you once more, and to see you at school tomorrow.”

He smiled and walked away, leaving Marinette in shock and flustered. As soon as Adrien entered the car for him, he couldn’t help but exclaim his giddy. Marinette did the same, unconsciously wiggling her butt. Something she always did whenever she was excited.

Then, unknown to the both of them and they headed home, looking at their Kwamis they said in unison.

“I love him”

“I love her.”

Master Fu stood in the rain, holding his umbrella and smiling as he began to walk away. “That went better than expected Wayzz. They really are meant for each other. Best not to tell Marinette that it was Tikki’s idea to do the kiss after staking out the both of them they ‘saved me’.”

“That would be wise Master. That would be very wise.”

They both had a laugh before heading to their own home. Knowing many trials and tribulations will await the Ladybug and Chat.

---------------------------------------------------

Duuuuuuuude this was brilliant! I can’t believe you spent so much time on this! This is all so good! I loved your interpretation on this AU and I really loved how you portrayed the characters! Thank you very much for writing it <333

Now if you excuse me, I’m going to reread this again and again~! This will put everyone in such a great mood after watching such an eventful episode yesterday lol

#submission #other people's work #kiss au #kiss au fanfic #ml #mlb #miraculous Ladybug #miraculous Ladybug and chat noir #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste #adrienette #adrinette #ladynoir #ladrien #marichat

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deathbymeow · 4 years

Text

For You, I’d Die. Chapter: 2. No Questions Asked

It had been a week and it still hurt. It made it even harder knowing Luka was still in the same city. Marinette had resisted going back to visit him. He’d managed to avoid the media questions about why his long-term girlfriend was missing from his side by simply answering “She has work commitments”. She couldn’t be that for him anymore, but she understood that he wasn’t ready to address it. And even if he was, he didn’t owe the press anything.

Ladybug sat in the rafters, out of view of the screaming fans below. Luka was on the stage looking extremely hot with his tight jeans and black sleeveless t-shirt, showing off his tattooed arms. The t-shirt was almost completely open at the sides and when he moved his muscular rib cage showed behind his guitar. Around his neck he still wore the chain and dog tags she’d given him for their first anniversary. One was engraved with a four-leaf clover and the other with their initials and the date of their first kiss. His eyes were closed, and the blue tips of his hair caught the light as he sang into the microphone.

If he didn’t want the media to know about their breakup, he wasn’t doing a very good job of it as he sung a new song called Someone you loved.

He’d told the bands adoring fans that it was a teaser of new thing to come. Instead of their normal upbeat metal core it was edgier and darker than most of their songs.

“And now the day bleeds into night fall and you’re not here to get me through it all. I let my guard down and then you pulled the rug, I was getting kinda use to being someone you loved.”

Each word he sung felt like it was tearing at her heart. She could hear the pain in his voice, and she knew he was still hurting. Music had always been his way to express his feelings and this was clearly about their breakup.

“Don’t get me wrong bugaboo, he’s good but this is kinda depressing.”

Ladybug squealed and nearly fell of her perch. “Chat, what the hell.” She hissed at him, smacking his leather clad arm.

“I thought I’d see what all the fuss was about.” He winked then flashed her one of his wicked grins before noticing the tears she was trying to wipe away.

“Hey little Bug, are you Ok?” He reached out to rub her back in the way he knew she liked.

“Umm… It’s nothing I’m… I’m… it was the flashing lights.” She lied turning her head away from her concerned partner.

Chat shifted closer and wrapped his arm around Ladybug. Over the years he’d learnt the difference between when she just needed someone to lean on or when she needed to vent.

“Boy troubles?”

“Mm hmm.” She mumbled into his shoulder while trying to contain the sobs that were threatening to come.

“Do I need to beat someone up?” He asked, resting his chin on her head.

She shook her head, her twin tails tickled his nose. The song was over, and the band was thanking the screaming audience.

“What kinda name is Four-sided tragedy for a band anyway?” Chat asked scratching his messy blonde hair. “Wanna get out of here mi ‘lady? It’s a beautiful night out there, still not as beautiful as you of course.” He stood and offered her his hand with a soft smile.

“Thanks Chaton. I could do with the distraction.” Finally pulling it together, she took his hand and let him pull her to her feet. “I’ll race you to the Eiffel Tower.”

Chat Noir smiled at her, but she had already darted away.

Ladybug reached the top of the Eiffel Tower before Chat. She swung around the top of the huge metal structure and landed on her favorited perch. Chat landed effortlessly next to her.

“Shall we address how you had a head start, mi ’lady?” He rested against one of the pillars watching her closely.

“You’re taller than me so its only fair, your legs being longer and all.” She winked at him knowing just how stupid her excuse was before sitting down and stretched her legs out, wiggling her feet as if to prove a point.

He chuckled and shook his head. “Uh huh, and did you run here on those lovely legs of yours or was there a certain yo-yo involved?” He raised his eyebrows at her then slid down the pillar to a sitting position opposite her, stretching his long legs out.

“I don’t see what that has to do with it, Chaton.” She stuck her tongue out at him.

He nudged his foot against hers. “I know you can’t always tell me everything but I’m here for you if you need to talk Bugaboo.”

“Thanks Chat. I’ll be Ok. I just need some time. How did you know where to find me tonight?” She wriggled over to him and lent against his shoulder. He was one of her closest friends. She loved him more than she was willing to admit. Over the years it had added to her confusion but their duty to Paris came first. So, she had pushed the feeling down settling for their friendship.

“Cat intuition.” He wrapped his arm around her and buried his face into her hair. He loved how she always smelt of vanilla and fresh bread.

“Chat, that’s not a thing.” She giggled, trying to push him away.

He tightened his arms around her, refusing to let her warmth go. “Is too.” He mumbled into her shoulder.

He was always able to lighten her mood and she gave in and snuggled back into his side.

“Can we just stay here for a while? Up here it’s easier to breath, if you know what I mean.” She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.

“Oh, believe me, I do Bugaboo.”

She wasn’t sure how long they stayed like that. He didn’t push her to talk and the pair fell into comfortable silence. When the city was fast asleep below, he nudged her gently.

“You awake Bugaboo.”

“Mmm, shhh.” She mumbled into his chest.

“I’d happily stay here all night, but don’t think Plagg and Tikki would appreciate it somehow.” He shifted his weight and silently cursed the Eiffel Tower for its hard metal beams.

The only response he got were a few more muffled sounds and her arms tighten around his waist.

“Well mi ‘lady I’d offer to carry you home and tuck you in, but you know secret identities and all.” He brushed a strand of hair that had fallen from her twin tails out of her face, careful not to scratch her with his claws. “Unless you feel like revealing where you lay that pretty head of yours at night.”

“Silly Chaton, why you have to ruin it.” She grumbled untangling herself from him.

“Didn’t think so, Bugaboo.” He chuckled.

Ladybug frowned at her partner. He couldn’t help but smile at her messy twin tails and grumpy pout. She had never been good at being woken up, no matter what time of day it was.

“You sure you’re Ok?” He asked carefully moving her bangs to the side, letting his gloved hand linger on her cheek longer than he should.

“I will be, Chat. I don’t tell you enough, but you’re truly amazing. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” She kissed his cheek then ruffled his already messy blonde hair.

She saw the light blush that spread over his cheeks. There had been a time when he’d talked openly about his love for her. She’d never fully believed it and just passed it off as a silly infatuation due to teenage hormones and her very tight super suit. Over the years his advances had stopped. He was still very playful with her, but he respected her boundaries since she’s told him years ago that she had a boyfriend.

Chat took her hand in his, bowed and gently brushed his lips against her gloved hand as he kissed it. With a wide grin on his face he gave her a two fingered salute and pounced of into the dark, leaving Ladybug with a blush all of her own.

Ladybug landed lightly on her balcony and dropped her transformation. She felt the cool night air against her bare arms and shivered.

“Oh Marinette, are you Ok. That song was so sad.” Tikki rushed to hug her chosen, rubbing her little face against Marinette’s nose.

“Hey Tikki. Luka’s got a way with his words and I get it. I do. But I feel so exposed. The press is going to have a field day with it. I can’t go back to work next week. I just don’t think I can face Adrien yet.” Marinette closed her eyes and sighed. “Let’s get inside, it’s too cold out here tonight.”

Tikki sat on her shoulder as Marinette opened her skylight and climbed down onto her bed with a huff.

“You know Adrien only wants to be there for you Marinette. You should text him back.” Tikki said flying to the plate of cookies on Marinette’s desk.

As if on que Marinette’s cell phone beeped. She picked it up only to see a picture of the blonde model in question staring back at her with a message underneath.

Adrien - Hey Marinette. I know I’ve msg you about 100 times now, but I’m worried about you. It’s not like you to miss work. Please get back to me. Even if it’s just to tell me to go away xox

“See. Just answer the poor boy. You don’t have to say anything about Luka.” Tikki said with a mouth full of cookies.

“Tikki.” Marinette warned throwing her phone into a pile of clothes. “On second thoughts, maybe I should get some fresh air. She grabbed her jacket and climbed back out onto the balcony.

“Marinette, you will catch a cold. You should really get some sleep. Its nearly 3am.” Tikki called after her.

Marinette stuck her head back into the skylight. “Tikki I love you, but please don’t mother me right now.” She frowned at her kwami.

“Rude.” Tikki stated, sticking her tongue our at her silly chosen who was still looking at her upside down from the skylight with her twin tails hanging around her slightly red face.

Marinette straightened up and turned around only to nearly fall back into the skylight when she saw a pair of glowing green eyes staring at her. “Oh. My. God. Chat don’t do that.” She squealed slapping Chat Noir’s leather clad chest.

Chat Noir caught her before she fell back. Smiling softly, he helped her to right herself, but didn’t let her go straight away. “Who you talking to Princess?”

“Shouldn’t I be asking the questions? What are you doing here? You silly Kitty, you nearly gave me a heart attack.”

“Let’s just say I have a lot on my mind and couldn’t sleep.”

Marinette reached up and scratched his cat ear, ruffling his soft hair as she did. He leaned into her palm and started to purr. She giggled at the silly superhero.

“Mm hmm, so you thought you’d scare innocent civilians instead?”

“Nope just one, princess. The scarring bit was a complete accident but a pleasant bonus.” He snickered.

“That’s so meant you ally cat.” She pouted and took her hand out of his hair. The purring stopped and he pouted back at her.

“Aww, but I love the way your little nose scrunches up and your pretty eyes get so big when you’re startled.” He wrapped his arms around her and buried his face into her shoulder, his tail curling around her leg as he did. “And you give the best hugs when your scared.”

Marinette giggled as his breath tickled her neck. She wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head against his chest. He wasn’t the lanky teenager he once was. Now over six foot, his lean body had filled out the leather suit nicely. It was hard to miss just how muscular his lean body had become over the years. The suit didn’t leave much to the imagination and he had plenty of fangirls, as well as more than half the housewives of Paris chasing after him. Yet somehow her civilian self Marinette had caught his eye a few years ago and an unlikely friendship had started.

She’d been caught off guard the first few times he’d visited her, after all he had no idea she was Ladybug. It was a few months after Luka had left, she was having a moment on her balcony when he dropped out of the sky scaring her half to death. Their conversations were always light-hearted and playfully flirty, but he always respected her boundaries.

No one knew of his visits except Tikki, who didn’t encourage the relationship saying, “It was risky and slightly unfair on Chat.” But he brought her comfort when Luka was away, and she couldn’t be with her friends. Funny enough he had a great eye for design and loved listening to her ideas, adding his opinion if she was stuck. In return she gave him the company and affection he seemed to be lacking.

“You are impossible to stay angry at Kitty. Do you want to come inside? Not all of us have the luxury of a full leather suit to keep us warm.” She looked up at him through her dark lashes.

She knew it was late or really early. Whatever way you looked at it, he should go home before it was light, but the thought of being alone now he was here left her feeling empty inside.

“Sure, thing Princess, but only if you promise to go to sleep.” He said running a clawed finger carefully down her nose.

“You’re no fun. No late-night hot chocolate?” She offered as she turned and slid through the skylight, landing on her messy bed.

“Nope. If you get into bed and don’t argue, I’ll draw on your back.” He landed on her bed and looked around her normally tidy room.

“Fine. You had me at back rub, anyway.” She said ignoring his raise eyebrows. Kicking off her pink converse, she wriggled under the blankets.

“Wow. What happened in here?” Chat couldn’t help but ask.

“No talking, remember. Back rubs.” She patted the spot next to her feeling suddenly more tired than she thought she was.

“What my Princess wants she gets, but we’re going to talk about this later.” Chat pointed to the mess on the floor then crawled over to her tooting as he wrapped his arm around her. His tail curled over her body like it always did. It was something that had embarrassed him at first, but it hadn’t taken both of them long to get use to his tail having a mind of its own.

Marinette snuggled against his chest and closed her eyes. She knew Tikki would have something to say in the morning about her late-night visitor but at the moment all Marinette could think about was the soft heartbeat in her ear and the soft lines Chat was drawing on the back. It almost felt like letters and she tried to concentrate on his finger as it traced lines and curves on her back.

One line another line, circle, more lines another circle with a tail?

Marinette could hear someone knocking somewhere in the distance. There it was again. She really wished Chat would tell them to shut up.

“Marinette, dear? Are you up yet?” Her mother’s voice floated through the door.

Marinette was now. She sat up, looking around her room for Chat. Daylight flooded in through her window and skylight, but Chat was nowhere to be seen. On her skylight was a pink post-it note with a pair of cat ears, a little cat nose with whiskers and a curved CN followed by xox.

The door opened. “Oh, good you’ve cleaned your room. It’s lunch time, honey. Do you feel like coming downstairs, or do you want to eat in your blanket fort?”

Marinette looked around her now spotless room. All the dirty plates and cups were gone. A pile of clothes was folded on her chase. The books and magazines that had been all over the floor and desk were back in there rightful places and in the middle of the room a huge blanket fort sat. At the entrance sat a large black plush cat. It had a little gold bell around its neck and at its feet lay a single red rose.

Chapter: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous fanfiction #miraculous fanfic #marichat #LadyNoir #adrien agreste #marionette dupain-cheng #fluffy #aged up

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trojansblr · 5 years

Text

#FightOn! (04) | OT7

Summary: The University of Southern California is a prestigious school - only the best or the richest can attend. That means there will be a lot of spoiled brats. Two groups start colliding and the entire college shift alongside them. What will happen when sparks starts to flow between them? Drama will certainly be there.

Pairing: BTS with -eventually- female characters

Genre: Fluff, Angst, Smut (in the future), CollegeAU!

Word Count: 16k UNEDITED

A/N: Thank you all so much for waiting. This chapter was taking his time to take form in my head. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy and thank you so so much to all the girls that joined our family and to the ones that are with us everyday! Also, a big thanks to @bunnybubkook for being our editor of this chapter (she’s helping us improve our writing since our first language isn’t English). I made so many mistakes, it’s a shame ooofff I’ll be waiting for your feedback on the asks ❤ Love you all

The Characters • Day 3 • Day 4 • Day 5

The air at USC was electrifying, and it affected everyone. At the Flour Tower, Hyori’s alarm had just rang. To her surprise, her roommate was already awake. Deo was sitting on her bed, hair all over her face. Honestly, if there wasn’t light peeking through the blinds, Hyori would almost swear it was Samara sitting there instead of her best friend.

“Are you ok?” Hyori’s voice came out hoarse from having just woken up a couple of seconds ago. All she got from her roommate was a grunting sound and a nod. “What is going on? Did something happen?”

She jumped out of her bed and into the other, cupping Deo’s face in her tiny hands. The girl looked pale and her lips were more of a red-ish, compared to her usual lip color. It was either because of a cold, because she had been crying, or because she was on her period.

“Did you turn into a vampire or something?” Hyori joked, making Deo laugh.

“I’m on my period.” Deo finally spoke, letting her body fall backwards and into her soft mattress. “It feels like I’m dying.” She grabbed Hyori’s wrist dramatically.

“Do you know what’s good for cramps?”

“If you say exercise, I’m going to kill you.”

“C’mon, come run with me.” Hyori said excitedly. It was rare, but the times it did happen she had the best time running with Deo. The two of them were super competitive, so they would always end up racing each other to see who would win.

As the girls were getting ready for their morning run, everyone was still very much sound asleep.Hyori was used to mornings being quiet, only seeing one or two people on her way to the track field. Today, however, with her roommate tagging along, she could barely hear the birds chipper because they were talking and laughing too loudly.

“Ok, are you ready?” Hyori said, getting into her lane and kneeling into position.

“What? Wait! We have to make a bet!” Deo said. She’s picked up this habit with Jungkook of betting on everything and anything. ‘Bet you I can finish my drink faster than you’, ‘bet you I can take a better picture than you’, ‘bet you’ll be hungover the next morning’. Because of this, she would always try to make bets with her friends, just for fun.

“Fine!” Hyori said, straightening herself. “What about... whoever loses has to make the other breakfast?”

“Good enough for me.” Deo shrugged, and both kneeled down on their respective lanes.

“Ready...”

“Set...”

“GO!” They screamed at the same time and started sprinting.

For the sake of their breakfast, Deo lost. Or, being truthful, she quit midway because her cramps were bugging her too much, so instead of running, Deo just sat down on the track and Hyori returned to her normal pace.

Once they got back to their dorms, they took a quick shower before heading to the common kitchen where they usually ate breakfast. Deo ended up making enough pancakes to feed two girls that were their floor’s neighbors.

Not too far away, in apartment 203, everyone was awake except for Yoongi. He had stayed up until sunrise adding last-minute details to one of his songs. Today was a big day for him, which also made it a big day for his friends. They were their friends' number one supporters and if there was anyone who deserved love and support, it was Yoongi.

“Hey man.” Namjoon spoke to Jungkook, making him jump in his seat. He was too focused typing on his phone.

“Oh hey, good morning!”

“You’re up early. Going somewhere?” Namjoon asked as he took a bite of his apple.

“Yeah. I gotta help my friend set up a runaway for this fashion show they’re having.”

“Oh yeah, I think I saw a flyer around campus about that. You’re going to model?”

“Nah, I’m going to help backstage.” Jungkook said nonchalantly. Namjoon only nodded. “You’re going to the library?”

“I have an essay to finish, so, yeah. I’m gonna go now since everyone is still asleep, and once they wake up I know I won’t be able to focus.” Namjoon laughed lightly, grabbing his books and standing up. “I’ll see you later.”

“See ya man.”

Jungkook continued to stay glued to his phone. Ever since the volleyball party he had been talking to this girl he met there, Aashna. Usually, he would only open his social media to check on the million things his friends would post but recently he found himself excited to see the questions Aashna would send him. Their conversations were based on games like 21 questions or would you rather and he had a good time doing it. It stopped him from being bored. Right now, he was trying to decide if he would rather fly like Superman or travel like Spiderman. To him, this one was actually pretty easy. He liked Spiderman so much, it was an obvious choice.

Namjoon, was already in the library. Luckily for him, the crazy old lady didn’t hear him heading out today, so he didn’t have to waste two hours talking to her. It would take him a while to get in the mood to do his work but there was something that always worked. Scanning the books shelves. Namjoon’s love for books was a big one and just reading the books covers would make him ease into the state of mind he needed to focus and do his work.

He had assembled quite the pile of books. In fact, it was so big that it created a wall, such that he was barely visible behind. After 45 minutes, Namjoon realized one book was missing, so he walked quietly to the front desk where a pretty girl was sitting. Her hair caught his attention due to how bulky it was. He cleared his throat before speaking.

“Sorry to bother but I need a book on lobbying. I couldn’t find it back there.” He said quietly, to not disturb the people that were reading close by.

“Yeah, give me a second.” She said and started typing on the computer she had in front of her. “If you want you can sit down and I'll bring it to your table?” She suggested.

“Thank you!”

Namjoon headed back to his table as Silvia, the pretty girl at the front desk, was waiting for the computer to respond. Considering USC installations, the computer in the library was a dump. Specially from Silvia’s point of view. Her close friend Tessa was majoring in Graphic Design, so she was used to the best computers the school had to offer. They basically only took one second to open an adobe program. This computer however, took five whole minutes just to search for a book, but thankfully, she had the patient of a saint. Once the computer finally managed to load the book Namjoon was looking for, she headed for the correct aisle and scanned it until she identified the book Namjoon needed. As she approached, she couldn’t help but hear Namjoon mumbling to himself. Curiosity hit her, and she stopped in her tracks.

“It’s just so hard, Celi...” He sighed hard, talking into his phone. “I don’t even remember who that was at the party. I remember that she was pretty, and tiny, and had this dark brown hair that was kinda wavy. It suited her so well... I was too drunk to remember her name though. This is so unlike me! And I thought I liked Najma, but if I slept with someone else, maybe I don’t?” He continued rambling. “Anyway, I'll see you at lunch. We can talk about all of this then, yeah?”

As Namjoon placed his phone down, Silvia was afraid that he would look back and catch her red-handed. So, she clumsily moved towards his table.

“I have your book right here.” She smiled kindly to him.

“Thanks! I’m sorry I had to bother you, but I really didn’t find it.”

“Oh, it’s not a problem. To be honest, I was almost falling asleep back there.” She said cutely, making him laugh lightly.

“Well, anyway, thank you!”

“If you don’t mind me asking... what’s your work about?”

“It’s about Interest Group Perspectives. It’s for one of my Philosophy classes.” He nodded his head.

“Oh, I won’t keep you any longer then. Good luck on that, and if you need anything you know where to find me.”

Silvia started walking back to her post but she couldn’t resist on looking back. Namjoon was scanning the book, a serious expression on his face. For the first time ever since she started working at the library, she thought her role was being a mere spectator only, of other’s lives. She was done being the reader. She was going to become the narrator of Namjoon’s story and help him find someone he deserved. How? She didn’t have her plan all figured out quite yet, but what she did have was time. She was going to come up with something.

Somewhere around campus, Jimin was already rushing to meet Deo and Hyori. They had to go help Hobi arrange the space for his sister’s fashion show but Jimin fell asleep and so, the girls had been waiting for him for the last 15 minutes. He finally laid eyes on the two tiny girls and jogged to them.

“Hey babies! Sorry I’m late!” Jimin smiled big, so big his eyes seemed to shut.

“I hope you don’t keep all your girlfriends waiting like this every time you get a date.” Deo sassily said, hugging the boy.

“It’s part of his charm.” Hyori teased back, but also gave a quick hug to the boy.

“Let’s just go!” Jimin whined. “They’re waiting for us!” The girls gagged in disbelief to the boy’s audacity but decided it was best to ignore him and just walk.

Back in Jimin’s dorm, Taehyung was tossing and turning in his bed. His roommate had gotten up in such a hurry, that it almost felt like their dorm was under attack. He usually had a quick and deep sleep, but today it wasn’t cooperating with his laziness. He rolled around one more time, this time turning to his bedside table to reach for his phone and check the time. It marked 10:47, so he decided he might as well enjoy the day. He quickly got dressed, put his usual drawing notebook in his bag, and headed out. The sun was bright outside, so he decided to stop by the campus café to get something to help his inspiration run a little. His brain was still in sleep mode.

Once he got to the café, as he was waiting in line, already knowing what to order, he decided to take a look around to see if there were any familiar faces he could greet. He did find one. She was sitting on one of the furthest booths of the café, looking at something on her tablet. Once he got his order, he walked up to her.

“Hey! I think I recognize you?” He asked, not feeling so sure now that he remembered how drunk he was at the party. “Sana, right?”

“That’s me!” She smiled kindly to him. “You wanna sit with me?”

“Yes!” As he answered, the girl scootched to the side to give him space to sit on the booth. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m actually waiting for my friends. They should be here pretty soon.”

“Oh, you’re doing something fun?” He asked, excited and curious.

“We’re gonna have breakfast here, and then we’re going to buy tickets for an exhibition. I don’t know if you know the artist. It’s Benjamin Verhoven.”

“Oh? Benjamin...” Taehyung let his thoughts slip through his lips. “His name sounds familiar, but I can’t remember any of his works.”

“Well... you can join us if you want?” She offered with a sweet smile on her lips.

“I can’t say no to an invitation like that. I’m a sucker for art.” He smiled sheepishly. “Would it be ok if I invite some of my friends to join us?”

“Of course! The more the merrier!”

“Cool!” Taehyung let out a big smile. “I’ll talk to you later then?”

“Of course! I’ll dm you the details!” Sana said in a goodbye tone.

They had begun to talk a lot ever since the party about things like art, music, books – pretty much everything. Their tastes were very similar, so they always had a good time speaking to one another. Taehyung left the café looking like a little kid on a sugar high.

“NO NO NO! SUPPORT ME!” Jin screamed into his microphone. He had been playing LOL for the past 45 minutes, and to say that the game wasn’t going his way was an understatement. “Fucking noobs!”

AlpacaTower: wtf dude!! Support!! Noob

Otakupandasworld: omw!

AlpacaTower: no! You're a jungler!!

Otakupandasworld: we can still win this!

Jin couldn’t even care about his team chatting, as soon as the surrender popped up, he clicked on ‘YES’ and immediately left his computer. He was too upset to stay and see his screen light up with the word ‘DEFEAT’. He walked into the kitchen and straight to the fridge, and before opening it, he took a quick look at the kink list. Weirdly enough, it hadn't been updated this week. As he was about to open the fridge, the power was cut out. He immediately regretted not turning off his computer earlier and putting the garlic bread in the oven. Jin took his phone from his back pocket and turned on the flashlight. He walked out of his apartment and into the hall where the electric board was.

“Oh shit! You scared me!” Esme, the girl that lived front door said, her hands covering her chest from the scare.

“Sorry about that.” Jin scratched the back of his neck, trying not to laugh. “And sorry about the power too.”

“It just went out out of nowhere!” She laughed, still a little spooked.

“Yeah, I had too many things on!” Jin laughed and made some space so that he could reach the electric board. “You just have to flip this switch up and it should be back on right...” He stopped, flipping the big red switch on the power board “now!” As he spoke, the corridor was filled with light.

“Wow, I almost got goosebumps.” She teased, making him laugh. “I’m Esme by the way!”

“Jin!” He let out his hand for her to shake, and she did. As he was about to turn his back on her, he stopped by his door, turning over. “Quick question, if two vegetarians have a fight, is it still called beef?” He said with an amused look on his face.

“It depends on what’s at steak.” She responded back quickly, making Jin laugh.

“I carrot believe you thought of that so quickly.”

“Lettuce rejoice over our puns, neighbor.” They both laughed.

Jin went back inside to eat his garlic bread, amused with the slight pun exchange he had just had with his neighbor.

Not so far away, Namjoon was finally leaving the library. One of his close friends from his first year in college had hit him up to have lunch with her, and he missed her so much there was no way he was going to say no. Once he got to their usual café, he noticed Cecilia was already there.

“Sorry, I had to walk all the way from the library.” He apologized with a sweet smile that she couldn’t resist.

“It’s ok. I already ordered for us. I ordered a large pizza, so we can share!” She told him excitedly.

“Pizza’s here are delicious!” He complimented. They used to go to that café all the time last year. “How are you? You said you wanted to talk to me?” He changed his expression from relaxed to concerned in a matter of seconds.

“Oh...” She was a little lost for words, not knowing how to explain her feelings. “It’s Mark. He keeps asking me for a second chance but... it doesn't feel right, you know? I get this sick feeling in my stomach.”

“He made you go through so much... You should think it through before putting yourself in a sticky situation again.”

“I know... it’s just hard.” Cecilia sighed, looking lost. “But enough about me, tell me about you. And that party!”

Namjoon let out a big sigh. “I don’t even know what to tell you. I was supposed to be on Taehyung duty. I don’t know how I got that drunk.”

“But what about the girl? Tell me who she is!” She pushed, excited to hear the gossip.

“So... you see...” He scratched the back of his head, kind of embarrassed. “I don’t remember.”

“Joonpiter!” She let out his nickname, shocked and excited. “That is so not like you!”

“I know!” He sighed. “Plus there’s Najma.”

“What about her?”

“I can’t get her out of my mind, even though she doesn’t seem to care that I exist?”

“Oh of course she cares!”

“Am I just wasting my time with her?”

“Of course not! You can’t just give up like that!” Cecilia tried her best to encourage her best friend, but his head was already hanging low. “What about your poetry?”

“What about it?”

“Have you been writing?”

“A little, here and there. I’ve been trying something new actually.” He said, his morale going up a little.

“What is it?”

“I can’t say yet!”

“Pretty please?” She bat her eyelashes.

“I can read you one of my poems?”

She pout at his recommendation but realized it wouldn’t get better than that, so she agreed. “Three poems.”

“Fine!” He finally caves in, making her smile big.

As they wait for their food, he gives her his little notebook where he usually writes down his feelings and poems. Cecilia reads them intently and with care. Namjoon can’t contain himself and asks what is her favorite.

Some days, we laugh so much that we end up crying It’s like the blooming flowers. Today I crave those moments The sun rays and the calming breeze I feel lost and insecure I don’t like it. The gentle sea can turn into an unforgiving tangle of tears I wish I could turn back to those happy moments The orange sun in the horizon Slowly setting down Gently accepting it’s errors Skies turning shades of pink and pastel blue Suddenly the realization I changed and will change Just like everything going in the wind Where cherry blossoms bloomed and I... I was happy. And I will be again.

- RM

“No, no, no!” Hoseok’s sister’s voice echoed through the room, and everyone stopped what they were doing.

“What now?” Hobi asked, everyone could feel the attitude in his tone.

“The banner is all wrong!” She whined. “Who did that?”

“Jazzy you need to relax. You’re freaking everyone out.”

Hoseok sat down on the floor, tired from all the moving they had been doing in the store. They had been working for 3 hours straight. Jazmine had asked his brother to come and help with the store. At this moment, with all the damage of having hired a company to help finish all her clothes in time for the big opening, Jazmine couldn’t afford to hire a cleaning team to help put everything together. Instead, her loyal brother found a couple of kind souls that were more than ready to help. The only problem was that in those 3 hours, all that the stylist did was complain and order them around, instead of helping.

“She totally doesn’t know how to handle the pressure.” Jungkook whispered to Jimin.

“Right? I hope she doesn’t go this hard later because I won’t model for Hitler.” Jimin whispered back, cleaning the sweat off his forehead as he placed a chair down.

“What time is it anyway? I’m starving.” Jungkook said, and as if his belly had ears, it growled.

“It’s almost 12:30.” Hyori appeared out of nowhere. “Where are we eating?”

“I’m gonna eat with Tae. You can come if you want?” Jimin offered.

“Hard pass.” Jungkook said. He turned to Hyori. “Where are we eating?”

“Hmm... I was thinking about burgers?” Hyori suggested.

“I'm gonna grab my stuff and we can go. I still have to run by my apartment to grab my cameras to take photos later.”

“Bring me my jacket please!” Hyori shouted to Jungkook who was already midway. “You’re taking her with you?” Hyori said to Jimin. nudging her head towards Deo who was trying her best to tie her hair with a hair band that was too tight for the amount of hair she had.

“I want to, but you know how she acts around Taehyung.” Jimin sighed. His only wish was to see his two best friends become friends as well.

“You should make her go anyway. She’s the youngest of our group, so she has little to no say in things.”

“Then why is it always the other way around?” Jimin couldn’t help but laugh.

“Because~~ she has good ideas!” Hyori articulated more with her hands.

“Ok let’s go!” Jungkook finally appeared, Hyori's jacket on his shoulder.

“Hey where are you guys going?” Deo shouted after the two.

“For lunch!” They screamed at the same time.

“Wha- wait for me!” The girl started running around to grab everything. “Where’s my phone?”

“Why are you running?” Jimin asked with an arched eyebrow.

“Because I’m hungry and- and they already left!”

“Then we can eat together yeah?” Jimin side hugged the tiny girl. “What do you wanna eat?”

“Grilled cheese?” The girl suggested after a long pause.

“Grilled cheese it is.” Jimin smiled sweetly to her. “Let’s go!” He made a weird cheering sound that made the girl laugh, and they both left.

Taehyung couldn't help his excitement, and that's probably why he ran as fast as he could to Carolina's cinematic department. Their buildings were pretty close, he could've just walked there, no need to hurry, but that was Taehyung, the happiness preacher... always planning new gatherings and being excited about it!

He barged through the doors and thanked mentally no one was around there on that Saturday morning, only the girl since she offered to help Yoongi with his art presentation for his mini show that same night.

"CAROLINA~~" Taehyung called while walking his way around the artsy corridors and looking frantically for her "Carolina where are you???"

"HERE!" he heard her voice once a door opened in the end of the corridor, loud music playing, and her head peeking through it, displaying a tired smile.

"For a second I thought you weren't here!" he chuckled while running towards her.

He entered the 'lab room' that was basically just a bunch of computers and mixing tables displayed all over the place. Carolina had returned to her chair and was now glancing at him doing an excited little dance while closing the door.

"May I ask why you're dancing like a weird penguin?"

"Hey- this is the pingu dance, I'm offended!" he said with a fake hurt look.

"Sorry Mr. pingu" she chuckled, always amused by his carefree nature "But why are you so excited on a Saturday morning?"

"I got tickets!!!!"

"Please say Oasis got back together, and you got tickets" she prayed with closed eyes and hands pressed together, mocking him "Please God!"

"I'm going to throw this weird hairy hobbit on you if you don't stop," he said, taking in his hand a little troll doll with purple hair.

"Hey! Not Mr. Junky!"

"He looks so ugly that it's cute" Taehyung laughed while he marveled the doll.

"And it's a troll by the way... Hobbit-" Carolina snorted, making fun of Taehyung, and turning around to focus on what she was making again.

"It doesn't matter! I'm sure Mr. Junky isn't offended- Now can you please pay attention!!!"

"I am" she said, not taking her eyes off the screen in front of her.

"I'm serious-" he went towards her chair and pulled it backwards, the little wheels of it making it easier for him to drag her back "I got us tickets for this new exhibition- I'm sure you'll like it, and I really want to go, so... What do you say? Isn't it 'yay'??"

"I'm in for sure!! What exhibition?" she asked, turning around much more interested.

"That Benjamin Verhoven one!"

"Let me google him, wait." she turned around again to open the web. Taehyung went right after her, leaning on the back of her chair.

"Woah~" he said, once a bunch of photos of the exhibition appeared "That looks so cool"

"Wow! Look at this installation!"

"It seems really cool right?" he said, poking her cheek "You can thank me now"

"Thank you, sir~" she mocked "The tickets are already with you? Or do we have to print them?" she looked up to meet his glance, and at that moment he smiled embarrassed.

"So... about that" he started "We... hum.. we have to buy them first" he quickly looked at Carolina, and she was blinking slowly, her mouth in a line.

"Do you wanna run now, or do you wanna meet Mr. Junky from a close point of view?" she asked with a poker face.

"WAIT! NO!" he said protecting himself with his hands "I was the one finding the exhibition!!!! CAROLINA"

"You clown!!!" she said loudly while tickling him all over.

"Wait- Wait I beg you!" He was kneeling on the floor, laughing with teary eyes "I BEG YOU!!!"

"This is the shock treatment for liars." She got up, sitting on her chair once again.

"I... I'm exhausted," he said while taking a deep breath and sitting on the floor.

"I'm buying the tickets on my credit card then - is Nam going too? Or just the two of us?" Carolina asked, ignoring the almost passed out boy on the floor by her legs.

"Buy for him too! I'm sure he will like to go!"

"Nice! Three it is..."

"Actually, we are going with a friend of mine too, so we're four - maybe more since she will probably be with her friends too," he explained.

"Wait - What? Who's she? Who are the friends?" Carolina looked down with intrigued eyes.

"No need to worry, she's nice, you'll like her! Her friends, I don't know... But she is nice!! Trust me"

"Still, do I know anyone?"

"I don't think so...? She helped me out at the volley party... When I disappeared" he remembered.

"Ugh, that party" Carolina rolled her eyes "Fine. Do I have to buy her tickets as well? Like - I don't even know the people and I'm already buying stuff for them, I'm such a nice person, wow."

"Of course not!" Taehyung laughed "Just buy for the three of us, she already bought hers"

"I like her already" she said and then looked at him "I'm kidding, I need to talk to her first to know that" and they both laughed at her honesty.

"Print them already! We always forget to do that-"

"True! I'm printing" she said looking at the screen focused and then pointing towards her left "Go get them there for me please"

"Yes, captain!" he got up and went towards the printer "Also, do we give it to Namjoon now?"

"No way, he always loses his tickets! I'm keeping his."

"Keep mine too?" he asked while returning to her side.

"You're supposed to be the older one!!!"

"I am! But you're better at keeping stuff," he admitted.

"Not really though... I always lose stuff."

"You're better at keeping things you like," Taehyung reformulated, putting emphasis on the 'like', making the girl point at him.

"On that you're right!" she said, making him laugh.

"I'll go have lunch with Jimin now, wanna come?"

"Ugh..." she rolled her eyes once he mentioned Jimin's name "I'd rather die here from work exhaustion"

"You know, you have to get over that hate you have towards him someday," he said, giving her a forehead kiss.

"Never is a nice day to do that," she answered making him chuckle.

"Where are you eating then?"

"At Ben's" she said simply, making him choke on air "Oh get over it!"

"See you later then! Don't forget to tell Namjoon about the exhibit!" he said, already hurriedly walking towards the door, wanting to hear nothing about that subject.

"I will! See you! Don't be late! You know it's important for Yoongs!"

"I won't! Now say 'I love you' so I can say it back and go!" He already had the door open, ready to leave.

"You're unbearable..."

"Say it"

"I love you, Teetee"

"Love you too! Stop fucking my teacher~ Thanks~ Bye~" and he left Carolina behind, laughing lightly about his awkwardness to accept she was a grown up now.

Yoongi was a nervous wreck. He already checked on his songs at least 5 times, and he had nothing to do but wait. It was a big night for him. It would be the first time he would be performing live, and, as far as he knew, it was going to be a full house.

He got the gig thanks to a friend. He wouldn’t be the only one performing, but he was supposed to be the big star of the night. He felt a little better knowing all his friends were going to be there, and this was an opportunity of a lifetime. However, this sickening feeling in his stomach wouldn’t leave him alone, so he thought it would be best to try distracting his mind with something else.

He opened his laptop one more time and entered his social media. He scrolled through the feed and saw some posts, but, still, his mind wouldn’t let him be. So he decided to dm someone he’d been getting to know for a couple of weeks now.

As Deo and Jimin walked their way to the café they were supposed to eat at, they kept on chatting about everything that came to their minds. Jimin had been telling her about this new friend he made online. He had no idea who she was, but she signed her messages as Cara, and he was intrigued by the strange connection he felt with her.

“What about Sarah?” Deo asked, wiggling her eyebrows at him.

“She’s like a ghost,” Jimin sighed. “I saw her maybe twice or three times, and then never again. How am I supposed to even start talking to her if I can’t even find her on social media?”

“Wish I knew baby. I'm sure she’ll appear when you least expect it.”

“Does that mean I have to be ready at all time?”

“What?” Deo chuckled. “You always look good, so you’re always ready.”

“Ah~ I don’t know what I would do without you.” Jimin’s arm wrapped Deo into a tight hug.

“Wait- is that? Jimin!”

“Sorry?” He smiled apologetically.

“Dude! Did Hyori know about this?” Deo frowned. “I swear to god, this stupid plan of yours is impossible to handle.”

“What plan?” Jimin quickly blushed. He was a horrible liar.

“Don’t you dare lying to me Jimin!”

“Just come eat with us.” Jimin did his best puppy eyes. “He’s a lot of fun.”

“I’m not upset about him, I'm upset you didn’t tell me.” She rolled her eyes at him.

“Sorry.” He gave a side smile, but it was too late for his charms to work.

“Let’s just go.” She started walking in front of Jimin, but he grabbed her wrist.

“Don’t be mad at me.” He pouted.

“I could punch you right now. You know that, right?” She tried to contain a smile from appearing on her lips.

“You never can.” He teased, launching his arm around her shoulders and squeezing her tightly against him.

The two got to the table, still bickering, but shut up once Taehyung lifted his head up from his phone and smiled brightly. Deo immediately tensed up. She was never very fond of the dude, and with her friends’ crazy scheme, it made it worse. She wanted to be as far away from him as she could, and in some weird way, Taehyung knew that. That made it fun.

“Hey guys! Oh you brought a friend Jiminie~” Taehyung said happily as he noticed Deo giving him a smile and a small wave.

“Yeah, you don’t mind, do you?” Jimin said nonchalantly while sitting down.

“Of course not!”

“You’ve been here for long?” Jimin asked.

“Not really. How’s it going?” He was referring to the fashion show.

“Good. Everything’s done, so all we gotta do is makeup and parade.” Jimin said excitedly.

“You’re participating too?” Taehyung asked Deo.

“Me? Oh, no. I’m staying backstage to help.” She said simply.

“Oh that’s nice of you!”

Before they would say anything else, the waitress appeared at their table, menus in hand. They discussed their orders for a couple of seconds, and then were ready to order. They all agreed on going for the same thing.

“Three grilled cheese and three cokes,” Jimin said nicely to the waitress once she got to the table.

“Is Pepsi ok?” The lady smiled politely.

“Can I have a Fanta instead? Orange please.” Taehyung asked.

“Sure thing Hun, and for the two of you?”

“Pepsi.” Jimin and Deo said at the same time, fist bumping right after with grins on their faces.

“So...” Jimin trailed off once the table got silent. “Did you finish your video?” He asked to Deo.

“No, I still have the last theory to see,” she said nonchalant.

“What is it about?” Taehyung asked, curious.

“Van Gogh!” Jimin said excitedly, knowing it was one of his friend's favorite artists.

“It's a conspiracy theory that says he was murdered and didn't commit suicide.” She completed.

“What? Really? By whom?” Taehyung asked, confused.

“His brother, or some kid that used to bully him? I’m not very sure, I didn’t watch the entire video yet.” Deo said.

“Theo?? No way! That’s like impossible!” Taehyung said, upset at such an accusation.

“I didn’t buy it either, but I also don’t think it was suicide. They explained that the place where he was shot was too low for a typical suicide attempt, and that it was most likely that he was shot from afar. The wound would’ve been much bigger if it was self-inflicted.” Deo made her point.

“Still... I don’t know... Where’s that video again?”

“Buzzfeed unsolved. You ever heard of it?”

“Yes! Namjoon watches it all the time.” Taehyung smiled. “I’ll check it out... Can’t believe he was murdered.” He said the last part more like a whisper.

“They also said that he used to say that suicide was a coward’s way to go. I guess it wouldn’t make much sense?” Deo continued, intrigued with the situation.

“I believe he had some mental problems... To be incoherent is normal in that case, so I don’t know.”

“Hmm maybe? I just think it is so weird that they never found the gun and his painting stuff out in that field,” Deo countered. She just couldn’t make up her mind about it. To be honest, she had been watching too many conspiracy theories lately.

“For the time period, it was normal to steal things, so that was probably the case,” Taehyung assured her.

“Maybe.” She wasn’t too convinced though.

“It’s probably that, trust me,” Taehyung insisted, feeling very sure of his answer.

Deo made a face, not wanting to start a whole debate with the boy. “Imagine a Gogh painting no one got to see because it was stolen. That sucks.”

“Right?! I bet it was a masterpiece!” Taehyung said, overly excited. “It’s a little sad,” he concluded and received a nod in agreement from the girl.

“So Taetae, what are your plans?” Jimin asked.

“For today?”

“Yes!”

“It’s Yoongi’s show tonight! Wanna come?” He looked happily between the two. “The more the better! He’ll be happy if he sees the place crowded.”

“I’m going to a fair later tonight, but I think we can go! Right?” Jimin looked excitedly at Deo

“Hmm, I think so! We’ll have to talk to the others though, but worst case scenario, we go just the two of us.” Deo smiled to Jimin.

“Please go! It’s going to be fun. Yoongi is really talented,” Taehyung spoke with pride in his eyes.

“What kind of music does he do?” Deo asked, intrigued. Yoongi was a mystery to basically the entire school. He was very reserved, and the only thing she knew about him was that he was the radio guy. That and some gossip Hyori would hear while tutoring, but some things sounded too crazy for her to believe.

“Rap mostly.”

“Oh~~ we’ll try,” Deo said excitedly. Rap was one of her favorite forms of music, and she was excited to see a new side of the mysterious boy. She was sure her friends would be excited as well.

“Sure, invite your boyfriend too,” Taehyung said with a wink, catching her off guard.

“Oh yes, Jack is going with us to the fair!” Jimin intervened as he noticed Deo’s expression, but he was entirely ignored.

“Oh yeah, we’ll be there.” Deo smiled sarcastically to Taehyung.

“So...” Jimin started, trying to lighten the mood. “Look! The food is coming!”

As those three started eating, Carolina was far from her meal. She didn’t mind it though. She was working her ass off to help her friend, and if there was someone who deserved all her effort it was Yoongi. To outsiders, their relationship would seem a little bit odd. They loved each other and would do anything for the other. They were family.

“Maybe we could add some holograms on the colab song?” Carolina suggested, not taking her eyes from the screen.

“I guess. All we have for that one is the background, so that would make it better.” Tessa, one girl Carolina could consider a friend, commented. They would spend most of their time together at the movies. What better way to bond than over that? Movie tastes say a lot about a person.

“A full moon would be nice...” Carolina adds. “And we can shine them with that white and blue-ish light from the stage. What do you think?”

“We can’t put too much white, but I like it.” Tessa smiled, satisfied with the results they were showing. “You never get bad ideas huh?” She teased, making Carolina smile.

“I can say the same about you, you know- and I agree, just a little bit of white.”

“And about time – We need to wrap this up so you can take it to Yoongi. What time is the event?”

“Eleven sharp! He’s probably dying with anxiety right now, my phone just beeped for the fourth time in a row, and trust me - that's a lot of texts for Yoongi, a record even.” The girl laughed dryly.

“Oh~ poor guy. You should tell him we’re almost done here!”

“I’ll send him an audio messing with him first.” Carolina let out her best impression of a villain's laugh.

“Don’t!” Tessa whined, but, also, laughed. “He’s gonna have a heart attack.”

“Poor Yoongs...” Carolina laughs as well. “I’m not doing that to him... at least not today! He’s too nervous already, and I want everything to go perfect.”

“It will, don’t worry!”

“Thanks for helping by the way, really.” Carolina turned serious. One thing she really appreciated was when friends supported one another.

“It was my pleasure, but if you ever wanna pay me back there’s this movie I really wanna see as soon as it comes out.” Tessa grinned.

“Say no more!” A week without going to the movies was a week badly spent. “What’s the title?”

“Send in the clown~~” Tessa sang the song. “Joker!”

“Bro!” Carolina chuckled. “Call me crazy but that’s like my childhood hero- villain- whatever!”

“I’d go with hero honestly. So you’re in?”

“Of course I’m in! I would be crazy if I wasn’t!”

“Alright!” Tessa said, excited. “I saw in the theater that it’s realizing a little after Halloween.”

“It is! I saw it too! It’s a deal.” Carolina pointed her finger at the girl with that ‘this is serious’ look.

“But... if you had to choose, who would be the best Joker so far?” Tessa asked, intrigued. This was something the two had never discussed before.

"Heath Ledger is forever my soulmate, and forever my favorite joker, but I have big expectations for Joaquin Phoenix! And Jared Leto is a fabulous actor, but the Joker he was attributed, the Gang Joker, is like the worst of them all, my least favorite so..."

"Oh thank god you exist. I'm so sick of hearing people say that Jared Leto's joker is the best one just because he's super-hot. I had such huge expectations for Suicide Squad, and it was a big flop."

“Same! I was so excited and well... Bleh.” Carolina did her best poker face. “Oh, and Jack Nicholson was pretty awesome as well! I used to watch him as a kid.”

“Yes!” Tessa said, overly excited with the conversation. “I don’t know if you saw Gotham, but they cast Cameron Monaghan to play young/teen joker and he was pretty good too.”

“I did, he’s pretty good as well.” Carolina nodded.

The two continued discussing their movie tastes and working hard to finish Yoongi’s concert effects as soon as they could. The boy was a pile of nerves, and everyone knew it.

Someone who was also on the verge of having a nervous attack was Hoseok. His sister was driving him crazy, and he was trying his best not to lose it too.

Everyone was back at Jazmine’s store, and the last details were being made. Some people were getting their makeup done, some were curling or straightening their hair, and all were listening to the lecture of what clothes they had to change into.

“You look so so good! You’re making me regret not signing up too,” Deo sighed as Tori did a little spin to show her the outfit she was wearing.

“I told you!” The girl grinned. “You’re always like that. You need to stop that shy act of yours.”

“It’s not an act. I’m more of a potato than a supermodel,” Deo said, making the other sigh.

“You are not! Stop!” Tori said. She knew her friend was kidding, but still.

“You’re staying for the after party, right?”

“Of course! I wouldn’t miss it.”

“Good, you know I need my drinking buddy with me.”

“It’s just you and me, against the buzz,” The girl sassily said, making the other laugh.

Not very far away, Hoseok noticed his new friend, a girl that had recently joined USC.

“Hey Amber, I’m so glad you came! How are you?”

“Hey Hobi! I’m good. I’m excited, but also nervous. I'm sure I'll be ok though! How are you?” The girl asked, turning a little in the makeup chair to give him her full attention.

“I’m a nervous pill, there’s so much to do! But don’t be nervous, you look really pretty!” Hobi smiled gently. He was proud of his sister’s clothes and happy so many people came to help show them off.

“You’ve got this! The show will go super well.” The blonde cheered. “But, I’m clumsy so I’ll need to really concentrate, and thank you! I don’t usually wear this much makeup. I've never been good enough.”

A frown quickly appeared on Hoseok’s face. He hated to see people sad. “What?! Don’t say that! You shouldn’t think so poorly about yourself!” His mind raced for the right thing to say. “My sister is really picky, so if she chose you it was because she saw something in you! Believe in yourself!” He gave her a gentle smile, and squeezed her shoulder lightly.

“I just get nervous around certain people, and then I get clumsy.” Amber hinted. “But I know it’ll be ok. I’m glad she picked me, all the things from her shop are so nice! You look so good today. You know... In the makeup and stuff.”

“You think so?” Hoseok was used in being the one giving compliments, but he couldn’t deny that receiving them felt good. “This isn't really my vibe, but I can’t deny these clothes look sick. Do you have plans after this?”

“I do! You should wear more clothes like that. I’m not doing anything after this. Yourself? Did you want to do something after?”

“We have some champagne and cake hidden for my sister. You wanna stay to celebrate with us?” He offered.

“Of course! I would love to. It sounds fun. She definitely deserves it after putting this show together,” Amber complimented, looking around the room to see all the beautiful outfits.

“She does. She went a little Godzilla this morning, but she’s the best.” Hoseok’s gaze turned soft as he spoke of his sister.

“She is! She’s put in so much work, and it’s been so worth it. I can already tell this show will be amazing.”

“I hope so! I’m grateful for everyone joining, and that includes you! Oh - Duty calls! You’re gonna nail that ok?!” Hoseok encouraged one more time before turning away.

“I’m grateful for being invited! Thank you so much, I'll see you later. Good luck, you got this!”

Amber continued getting her makeup fixed. Meanwhile, Hoseok ran to his sister. They peeked through the made-up curtain that led to the runway.

“Look little bro, we have a full house!” Jazmine squealed excitedly.

“Of course we do!” He hugged her tightly. “You worked so hard, everything will go as planned!”

“Thank you!”

Lights started flashing and music starting playing loudly through the speakers. Everyone was amazed with the final results. It almost looked like a professional show. As soon as the first model left backstage and stepped into the runway, flashes hit her eyes from all different directions. Jazmine felt proud. Hoseok felt proud. Everything was taking form.

“What’s up nerd?” Jungkook’s head peeked in front of Jae’s lenses.

“Jesus Christ! I almost died. That angle does not suit you,” the girl teased, and Jungkook pretended to be offended by her snarky remark.

“What do you mean? All angles suit me,” Jungkook said cockily, but he quickly let out a laugh.

“Sure.” Jae rolled her eyes. “Are you taking any good shots, or are you just joking around?”

“I bet you my shots look way better than yours,” he teased.

“Pfff, you wish virgin boy.”

“Oh please.” He rolled his eyes.

“I’m just joking.” Jae loved to see how annoyed he would get at the sound of the nickname.

“Yeah, whatever nerd.” Jungkook chuckled.

“So I was thinking... we could pair up for the project for photography club.”

“Sure, the nerd and the virgin boy. Sounds like a bad superhero movie,” he said, making the girl laugh out loud.

“It sounds pretty rad.” She laughed. “What would be your superpower?”

“I would kick their asses and then hang the bad guys by their underwear. Yours?” Jungkook said after a little while of thinking.

“I’d probably throw them math books because everyone hates math,” she explained with a playful smile on her face, “and I'd have glasses, and they would shoot some deadly rays that’d turn them into dust.”

“Sounds like you’ve this all figured out,” Jungkook chuckled.

“So should you. We’re a team now.” Jae pointed her finger at his face, dead serious. “Or are you not worthy?”

The public was mesmerized by the incredible organization. The models looked stunning, and the clothes were a hit from the start. Sadly, that organization the people were seeing wasn’t happening backstage. Everyone was running around and trying to change into their outfits on time for their turn on the runway, where they give life to Jazmine’s pieces.

“Coming up I need Jimin and Alissa. Be ready because you’ll go in 2 minutes.” At the mention of his name, Jimin got up but immediately sat down.

“Oh my god! I’m so sorry!” The pretty brunette girl almost screamed in Jimin’s face when they bumped into each other.

“Are you ok?” Jimin asked, filled with concern.

“Yeah! And you?” She examined him from top to bottom.

“I am.” Jimin smiled. “I didn’t see you around ever since the party, Laura” He gave her a quick hug. They were from the same dance crew, but they weren't that close.

“I’ve been kinda busy” she chuckled.

“Hey can I-” Jimin’s sentence was cut off by a scream.

“Next model c’mon! C’mon!”

“I guess that’s your cue.” Laura said, tucking the hair that had fallen in front of her face behind her ears.

“It is, but I'll see you around Delgado?”

“Sure- yes, you will!”

The runway continued, and after a couple of hours, all the outfits were shown. Jazmine walked down the runway with all her models as the last song played, and she even did a little speech to everyone there. She was very grateful, and it was getting hard for her to hold her tears in.

“Everyone!” She let her fork click into her champagne glass, already backstage. “I am so thankful to all of you. I appreciate you joining me in this little crazy adventure as well as all of you that woke up super early today to come help set everything up! To my lovely brother who always stays by my side... cheers!”

“Cheers!” Everyone held their glasses up and drank.

“So... did you have fun?” Hoseok sneaked behind Amber making her jump slightly.

“I did!” She smiled big. “You should feel proud of yourself!”

“I am!” Hoseok gave her a sheepish smile. “Thank you, again.”

“Anything you need, you can count on me ok?” The girl said with a sweet look in her eyes.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Hoseok gave her a wink.

“BANG BANG INTO THE ROOM!” Tori and Deo sang out loud to the song that came out of the speakers, drinks in hand

“WAIT A MINUTE LET ME TAKE YOU THERE!” Jimin joined.

“Go away, this is girl’s fun only.” Tori jokingly pushed him.

“How dare you!” Jimin tried his best to sound offended, but he couldn’t help but laugh. Through Deo, he and Tori had become friends, and he liked teasing her a lot.

“Fight me Jiminie!” Tori teased back.

“I’m a gentleman. Excuse you.” Jimin laughed as he walked away from the two girls.

“Oh~~ Jiminie~~” Deo teased.

“Shut it! Dork!” Tori laughed out loud to Deo’s impression of herself. “Go see Jack!”

While everyone continued partying, the Y group had to leave the party. Jimin’s classmate and friend Jean, had invited them to some local market and they had to shower before going. They were tired from all the running around at the show.

Carolina, on the other hand, had just finished her job and was at her home, taking a shower. Jin was there too. After his pause earlier, he decided to go back to his games and when he noticed, it was almost 6 in the afternoon when his housemate peeked her head into his room.

"Is Dracula home?"

"Ha ha ha very funny" he said while stretching his arms, still sat on his gamer chair.

"Please tell me you ate something" she entered his room still wrapped in a towel, some droplets of water falling to the floor because of her wet hair.

"I ate some snacks while play-"

"Jin!!! For fucks sake, snacking isn't eating properly"

"Ya, you tell that as if I already didn't know!" he got up "I'll eat something before going"

"You better! If you drink on an empty stomach, I swear to my whole vinyl collection, I will leave you there" she threatened with a sharp look making him sigh.

"I will eat something, we both are. And stop treating me like a child"

"The fault isn't mine, you're the one that play games the whole afternoon like one" she said while turning around to leave his room making him follow closely.

"You game too you- you pillock!"

"Pillock?" she turned around and snorted with a smile "You're watching too much Sherlock Holmes for your own good"

"I'm afraid that's your british influence on me, my dear" he joked making her roll her eyes but chuckle nevertheless.

"And yes, I game too but I only like things like assassin's creed or god of war"

"You love Mortal Kombat too, don't lie"

"True, I do love it" she looked up too caught in her own head.

"We should play it sometime, there's a while since-"

"No time for that now! Go to your shower otherwise you're going to be late! I'll leave you something to eat here, go go!" she started pushing him towards the bathroom.

"It's still early!!"

"We both know you take ages in the shower Seokjin" she looked at him with that 'let's get real' eyes they always shared in moments like this, making him sigh again.

"Fine. I do." he mumbled going by himself to the bathroom now "You're being way too harsh today"

"No I'm not-"

"Yes you are~~ You're like Yoongi's manager" he said laughing.

"Yeah yeah"

"Is it because you want a song??" he wiggled his eyebrows before closing the door.

"TAKE YOUR SHOWER!!!!" she shouted making him fall in laughter inside the room.

Carolina texted her group in their usual chat after getting ready, wondering where everyone was and when she noticed that Yoongi was probably home alone, she decided it was time to go to the bottom floor and see how the boy was doing.

“So how did it go?” Yoongi sat down on his chair and as soon as he did, his nail immediately returned to his mouth. It was his coping mechanism. In his mind, he was looking cool but on the outside... that was a whole different thing.

“Oh so you’re pulling the chill vibe on me huh? That’s new.” Carolina let out a sympathetic smile.

“I tried but I guess it’s no use with you.” He let out a sigh. “But seriously, the effects... are they cool?”

“Relax! You know damn well I wouldn’t just do anything for you.” Carolina raised her eyebrow. “They turned out great, all of them in sync with the songs and matching the concept of them.”

“If there’s someone I can trust is you. But I was thinking of going in a little bit early so we could try them out and see how they look onstage?” Yoongi suggested. The more he thought, the more excited he was getting.

“Sure! I think the boys are already coming, I showered first to come here while Jin gets ready and Tae called saying he was on the way.”

“Good, that way we go together- any news on Namjoon?”

“He texted a while back saying he was waiting in the lobby- you know, because of the crazy neighbor.” Both couldn’t help but laugh. “He’s probably just waiting for her to leave so he can come up in peace.”

“Maybe we should invite her, so he can have a little fun tonight.” Yoongi teased, making Carolina laugh.

“He would be so disoriented that he most probably would ruin your show and when I say ruin I mean breaking the speakers, tripping on the cables etc.” Carolina said with a straight face but two seconds later was laughing out loud.

“Oh shit.” Yoongi couldn’t contain himself just picturing the situation. “Maybe next time.”

“Less nervous now?” Carolina said, a soft smile occupying her features.

“Yeah, I'm getting excited now.” Yoongi also smiled. He felt so lucky to have a friend like her.

“You’ll do great as always, Yoongs. And besides, we both know you’re the most talented musician in this place.”

“I know... But I just heard the place will be packed and I only ‘performed’ for you guys so that doesn’t count.”

“Once you step on that stage remember your dreams. And if you can’t, just look at us.” Carolina pulled him into a hug. “We’ll make sure you don’t forget how talented you are.”

“You’re making me all sappy. I need to channel Eminem to look bad ass.” Yoongi dorks around, showing his cute gummy smile. “But thanks.”

“Thank me one day with a song made specially for me.”

But before Yoongi could answer Carolina’s sassiness, there was a knock on the door and a head peeked into the room.

“Sorry to bother man but Taehyung is out in the living room. He said he was knocking on the door for the past 10 minutes so I let him in.” Jungkook said and right after that the door was fully open by a bored looking Taehyung.

“Jeez, I was starting to think no one was home.” Taehyung let himself fall onto Yoongi’s bed.

“It’s impossible that you’ve been there for 10 minutes. I've been here for 10 minutes.” Carolina arched her eyebrow and Taehyung showed a guilty smile.

“You know I'm dramatic.”

“Seriously.” Carolina sighed but laughed right after.

“Where is everyone?” Taehyung asked noticing they were hanging out at Yoongi’s room and no one else was there.

“They should be on their way.” Carolina shrugged simply.

“You guys want something? I have beer in the fridge. I need one.”

“I’ll join you.” Carolina answered, getting up from the bed and going to the kitchen.

Jungkook went back into his room to get ready. Meanwhile, Deo and Hyori were almost ready too. As Deo was still tieing her all stars, Jack called and Hyori took the moment to take some shots of the sky. It was almost that golden hour and she couldn’t resist to take them, even though her camera roll had maybe 300 photos of that already.

“Hey Hyori!” A girl called out from behind.

“Oh~ hey Emma! How are you?” Hyori said sweetly when she saw the girl that had called her.

“I'm good. I see we had the same idea.” Emma joked, pointing to Hyori’s phone.

“I’m a sucker for the sky, especially when it gets all pretty.” The girl confessed.

“Me too.” The two took a moment to watch the pretty sky one more time. “I was actually meaning to text you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I feel like the only time we get together is for school stuff. And that being said, it’s me asking for your help with bio.” Emma confessed, a little embarrassed.

“But I don’t mind helping you at all!” Hyori said kindly.

“I know! But I was thinking that we could do something fun one of these days? To relax a little for the class’s stress.”

“Oh sure!” Hyori smiled to the girl. “I’m going out with my friends now but I'll text you later so we can set something up!”

“I’ll be waiting!” Emma said, waving the girl goodbye.

“So are you ready?” Hyori asked, when Deo came to her.

“Yup, Jack will meet us there.”

“Why did you decided to invite him all of the sudden?” Hyori asked.

“What? Because he’s my boyfriend?”

“Uhu, I see.” Hyori gave her a lopsided smile.

“Don’t worry your pretty little head about it.” Deo teased.

“I don’t have to. I know you too well.”

“Whatever floats your boat.” Deo shrugghed. “Where’s JK meeting us?”

“Don’t know, I'm going to call him.”

As the phone rang, the two girls walked to the fountain where they had agreed to meet with Hoseok and Jimin. After the third try, Jungkook finally answered.

“Thank God!” Hyori’s voice sounded as soon as Jungkook answered.

“I was in the shower.” Jungkook said simply.

“How did me and Deo get ready before you did? You’re the worst I swear.”

“He’s still in the shower?” Deo’s voice could be hear through the line. “Put him on speaker.”

“I need to smell good.” He said simply and could almost feel Deo’s rolling her eyes. “Unlike some of you!”

“Shut up 5-year-old.” Deo laughed.

“Where are you?” Hyori asked.

“Still at home, I’m almost ready and I’ll be there soon.”

“Well you better hurry!”

“Yes mom!”

Jungkook hang up the phone and finished getting ready. Once he step foot out of his room, his living room was filled by the typical crowd.

“Is Namjoon coming up or what?” Yoongi asked.

“He’s probably waiting downstairs.”

“I bet he’s with that sweet lady.” Jin joked.

“Don’t tell him that.” Carolina laughed.

“Hey Jungkook.” Jin noticed the boy.

“What’s up?” Jungkook greeted. “Good luck later man!”

“Don’t you know it’s bad luck to just say it like that?” Carolina teasingly said.

“Thanks.” Yoongi intervened before the two could get into their usual arguments.

“You should drop by!” Jin said, with a grin in his face.

“Yes, I invited Jiminie later!” Taehyung added.

“Sounds like fun, I will!” Jungkook said excited.

“Hey if you see Namjoon downstairs tell him to come up?” Yoongi asked.

“Sure.” Jungkook replied, walking to the door. “See you guys later.” He said, winking to Carolina and seeing her reaction before closing the door, satisfied.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The night fell pretty quickly and both groups were having the time of their lives. The Y group was already with Jean at the 626 Market and the X group was already at Yoongi’s show. Before it was his turn, there was going to be other artists and that made him relax a little.

Once they got to the market, they didn’t expect it to be that big. The streets were filled with light and music echoed from all around the places. There was a little map at the entrance and everyone was mesmerized to see how big the space was. The food area was composed of 100 different chains and the variety of food and insane. But what really caught their eyes was how big the rides section was. It was a whole another world for them.

“So what do you guys wanna eat?” Jean asked when they made it to the food trucks.

“I think I wanna try that churro ice cream you suggested.” Jimin said, excited.

“That’s for dessert.” The girl laughed.

“Look! Corn dogs!” Jungkook pointed and rushed to the truck.

“What do you wanna eat babe?” Jack whispered behind Deo as he back hugged her.

“I don’t know. Hyo?”

“Maybe a burger? Those look good.” The girl pointed to a truck near them and took some steps towards it.

“I want a corn dog with JK.” Hoseok said excited, following the boy.

“You?” Deo asked, turning around to be facing her boyfriend.

“I’ll have what you’re having.”

“Wow, that helped so much.” She rolled her eyes playfully. “Burgers then?” The petit girl turned to Hyori.

“Burgers it is.” Deo managed to set free from Jack’s embrace and intertwined her arm with her roommate, ignoring his protests.

“What about you guys?” Jack turned to Jimin and Jean that were still looking around.

“I’m thinking of a kebab? Maybe?” Jimin asked, looking between the two.

“Why not? I’m in.” Jack said with a shrug.

“Me too.” Jean smiled widely to the both boys.

As everyone waited in line for their food, Yoongi and his friends had just arrived at his venue. It was a local club/bar that the locals and mostly college students would go to. They weren’t very strict with whom they would let in but when it came to serving alcohol, they always asked for ID’s.

“Ok, it's not empty but-” Yoongi started looking around.

“Yoongi relax, it's still early.” Namjoon pointed out.

“Yeah and we all invited some people as well, they will probably arrive a little later” Taehyung smiled sweetly.

“Thanks.”

“Nobody arrives early nowadays...” Jin commented while looking around “But I'm sure Jungkook will show with his friends, and I invited some people from my department-”

“Should we go to the front already?” Carolina asked impatient pointing towards the spot, not empty but still not crowded.

“Yeah, you guys should stay there, front sits are always the best” Yoongi chuckled.

“There's no sits...” Taehyung looked confused to the spot.

“It's just a saying, dumbass.”

“Oh...” he said only, making everyone laugh.

“Anyways guys, I think I'll head to the backstage-”

“Are you sure?” Namjoon asked.

“I'm sure you still have time...” Carolina tried.

“I'm sure. I'll prepare myself better inside.”

“We'll be waiting for you then! You'll be great, bro!” Taehyung cheered making Yoongi smile.

“I'll go check on you in a few.” Carolina assured him.

“I'll be waiting. Tell them you're a friend of mine, I'll let the guy know you're with me.” Yoongi said already leaving.

“Oh yeah, that's my friend!” Jin said to a guy who was passing by him “I'm friends with the singer!”

“Come, let's buy some beer.” Namjoon pulled him towards the bar “You two stay here guarding the spot.”

“Sure thing!” Taehyung said loudly.

“Sure thing.” Carolina mimicked Taehyung in a mocking manner.

“And may I know why are you so mad now?”

“Couldn't we just be in peace in Yoongi's thing???” she said furious.

“But we are-”

“No, you are! And everyone else! Stupid asshole- I don't even know where the friendship came from like-” she ranted.

“You won't even see Jimin, he'll probably be over the back with-” Taehyung tried.

“Who cares about Jimin, dude?” she looked at him with a confused expression.

“What...?”

Everyone had mostly finished eating and were just waiting for the slow eaters like Deo and Hyori and for the one who ate like he were three people in one, like Jungkook.

“Is it really a good idea to be eating before going on the rides?” Deo asked. She loved to go on roller coasters and crazy rides.

“I’m not bringing any sick people back into my car.” Jack laughed.

“Even if it’s me?” Deo did her best puppy eyes and the boy immediately soften.

“Don’t make my life harder baby.” Jack retorqued, making Deo make a funny face and give him a kiss right after.

“So Jean, how do you know Jimin?” Hyori asked.

“Oh you didn’t tell them?” She asked quietly to Jimin. “We have some classes together.”

“We’re friends.” Jimin smiled big.

“Yes!” Jean smiled back to him. It was hard for her to have social interactions like this and his answer made her relax a lot.

“So what do you wanna do next?” Jimin asked her.

“Oh whatever you want, is fine with me.”

“C’mon, you were the one inviting so we gotta do something you like!” Hoseok supported, making Jimin nod.

“Well, what about those churros ice cream?” She suggested.

“We better save that for after the rides.” Jungkook jumped into the convo. His eyes finally left his food and that was when he noticed the girl from the party coming towards his table. “I’ll be right back.”

“Hey Jungkook! I thought it was you!” the girl smiled as they were only a feet apart.

“Hey Aashna! How are you?” He smiled, stuffing his hands in his jean’s pockets.

“I’m good. You’re with your friends?” She asked, peeking through his shoulder.

“Yeah, you?”

“Too! We should go on a ride together!” The girl said excited.

“Yeah, what about the bumper cars? We’re lacking one person so I was just going alone.” He suggested.

“Sounds fun!” Aashna smiled excited.

“See you there Aashna?”

“Yes, and call me Ashi!”

“See you Ashi.” He chuckled, going back to his table.

Before Jungkook could even sit down, his friends were already teasing and he just shrugged them off with his hand, stuffing his last corn dog in his mouth.

The second artist of the night was up and the club was getting more and more crowded. This one had a bit of a more chilled vibe than Yoongi but he wasn’t as good. Still, he entertained the public quite well. In Carolina’s opinion, he would be a better host than a singer, although his lyrics weren’t that bad.

"This song is super good!" Namjoon said loudly "You think I can hear it online?"

"Probably? Maybe the guy has SoundCloud?" Carolina answered.

"MY FRIEND IS AFTER! SUGA!" Jin continued to look like a manager; he had a cup on his hands.

"Woah~ Look at that!" Taehyung pointed to the screen behind the musician.

"What I did for Yoongi is much better, trust me."

"You did him the art presentation?" Namjoon asked surprised.

"Yeap" her eyes were still on the stage.

"Should I record him once he performs?" Taehyung asked.

"Of course you should!" Jin answered "We have to keep some memories for him."

"I'll take some photos, you do the videos, you're taller anyways and that helps." Carolina added making Taehyung nodd "Be sure to record everything from Far Away, the holograms are amazing on that one."

"Holograms???" Namjoon exclaimed.

"I'm very proud of my kid." Jin back hugged Carolina peppering her with kisses, just to mock her.

"I swear to God, Seokjin!" she threatened but he was too hyper to let go, the other two just kept laughing.

As they had agreed, Aashna was waiting for Jungkook and his friends to ride the bumper cars. She rode with Jungkook, Jimin with Jean, Jack with Deo and Hyori with Hoseok. Useless to say the first ones of which team were the ones driving. Mostly, Deo kept screaming at Jack to hit everyone and he barely even had time to react because he was laughing too hard. On the second round, they decided to change the drivers. Jungkook had to hold himself to not get thrown out his car because Aashna was crazy for blood and wanted to hit every single person that would hit them.

“Shit, I’m all sore.” Jungkook complained. “You’re a terrible driver.” He said, making Aashna laugh.

“Hardly as bad as you are.” She teased, hitting his arm playfully.

“Pfff as if.” He said, before his arm being pulled. “Anyway, I had fun.”

“Me too, thanks for riding with me.” She smiled sweetly to him.

“I’ll see around campus yeah?” Jungkook said before waving Aashna goodbye.

“Where are we going now?” Hoseok asked, excited.

“We could go on the roller coaster?!” Deo almost pleaded excited.

“Yes!” Almost everyone said at the same time.

“I was thinking of maybe going on the ferries wheel?” Jean asked, tucking Jimin’s shirt, not wanting to be a party killer.

“I’d prefer it too. We can go together if you’d like?” He suggested.

“I’d like that!”

Once the third singer climbs up on stage, Carolina decides it’s time to check on Yoongi backstage. She wanted to go right away the moment he left but decided it was best to give him some space.

"Pssst, Agust D!" Carolina said in a whispery manner while peeking cautiously her head inside the backstage room.

"Nobody ever called me that." He chuckled.

"Well, soon enough everyone will know him." She closed the door "Still, I like Suga way better."

"Because he's not that angsty?" he joked. The girl crossed the room and sat right next to him before answering. His attentive eyes on her.

"No, Suga is angsty as well... But that's the thing... Agust D is only Agust D, Suga on the other hand is you and him. That's why I like him better." Her head now leaned on the back of the couch, waiting for his response, a small smile creeped on his face.

"I don't think I ever saw you getting this emotional." He looked down. "Is the british air doing you good?" Yoongi met her eyes now.

"Is this you thanking me for appeasing your mind?" Carolina chuckled amused. "And no, it has nothing to do with him... I'm cold but you're like- really important to me so... That's how I truly feel."

"Shit, I'll have to work on that song for you now." He smiled awkwardly. None of them were very open about feelings but they understood each other pretty well.

"Remember to look at us when you're up there!" She smiled back and got up to leave, not before he pulled her hand making her look back at him.

"Is it empty out there?" he asked, his front was confident but his eyes never lied, he was nervous, Carolina could tell.

"Yoongs... Trust yourself. We are right in the front, don't forget." She winked and he let go of her hand. Carolina crossed the room again, her hand on the door, ready to leave but not before looking at him again "It's crowded by the way." She left right before seeing his smile go wide.

Now at the top of the wheel, Jean and Jimin were sitting quietly, watching the full moon and the stars upon them.

“We got lucky it stopped here.” Jean commented after a while, referring to being on the highest point of the fair.

“We did! Everything looks so pretty down there.” He smiled big and took his phone out to capture the moment. “Wanna take a selfie?”

“Oh sure!” They posed with a smile and then a silly face before he placed his phone back in his pocket. “Make sure to send me those later.”

“I will! Are you having fun?” He asked, turning to face her.

“I am, thank you for coming with me.”

“Thank you~ for inviting me.” Jimin said sweetly.

“Oh stop it! It was my pleasure. You are a great friend.”

“So are you Jean, so are you.”

Back at the show, Carolina was back with her friends. The artist that had gotten up when she entered backstage was now saying his thanks and goodbyes.

"Is he ok??" Taehyung asked once he saw Carolina returning with a beer in hands.

"He was a little nervous, but everything will be ok."

"Who bought you that?" Jin asked coming close to her because of the loud music.

"Myself...?" she answered "I'm a strong, independent woman after all."

"The beauty of equal rights! Cheers!" Namjoon said clinking his bottle with hers overly excited.

"You forgot to add underage in that sentence." Taehyung said.

"It's fine, if anything the beer is mine." Namjoon added with an accomplice look at the girl who side hugged him.

"I just wanna know who's driving my car tonight because I'm a little busy with the vodka." Jin said loudly while dancing, as if he was in another world.

"I can't drive so..." Taehyung answered.

"Don't look at me, I myself don't trust me with a car." Namjoon shrugged.

"I don't have a license but I know how to drive-" Carolina was saying but got interrupted.

"NO!"

"You take the car then." Jin said not worrying too much.

"NOT-"

"Really?" she asked with a funny face.

"Oh boy...." Namjoon took a large gulp of his beer.

"What about Yoongi?!" Taehyung said loudly.

"He's fine I told you already." Carolina answered "I assured him we would be here waiting and-"

"Ya" Jin laughed "I think he was talking about driving?" Taehyung nodded agreeing.

"Oh..."

"Guys, let's decide that later... Let's enjoy first!" Namjoon pondered.

"Anyways I highly doubt anyone will get drunk, we're all here to see Yoongi." Carolina said.

"Agree!"

"I don't know about you guys, but as soon as Yoongi finishes off I'll start celebrating." Jin said still dancing "HEY! DO YOU KNOW SUGA? I'TS MY FRIEND!" he shouted to a bunch of people standing next to them.

Yoongi stepped on stage, a couple of people cheered but his friends were the loudest. They were screaming at the top of their lungs and Yoongi couldn’t help but smile. He presented himself as Suga. He started off with a song entitled “Agust D”. As the song started playing, everyone started jumping and moving their bodies to the sound of it.

Next up was “Give It To Me” and when that was already over, Jungkook and his friends arrived. After that, “The Last” started playing and then “So Far Away”, a collaboration he did with a girl he met online that used to do some covers. By that time, everyone had their phones out with their flashlights to fit the mood of the song and arms in the air swinging.

“He’s really good!” Deo shouted in Jungkook’s ear so that he could hear her.

He only nodded in response. He didn’t know this side of him. He knew he liked music and that he like to produce some things but it never crossed his mind that he’d have things this level, this good. He stayed glued to the words until the very last one and once it was over, everyone cheered.

"Ahhhhh!" Carolina exclaimed once she saw Yoongi coming in their direction, she went straight to a tight hug "I'm so proud of you!!!! You were so good, Yoongs!!!"

"Thank you!" he hugged back "Everyone's talking about the art work" he chuckled excited.

"Bro it was amazing!! Woah~" Taehyung came by excited as well "The songs were BAM! grrr" Taehyung let out a bunch of noises and expressions.

"Thanks!" Yoongi chuckled.

"And of course they're talking, I told you to trust me!" Carolina added.

"I wish I could see it as well but I was on stage so-"

"Oh we recorded it for you!!!" Taehyung said.

"YOU DID AMAZING BRO!" Jin came by with Namjoon, greeting Yoongi with his always playful manner.

"You did good, Yoongi!" Namjoon tapped on his shoulder congratulating him. "The lyrics were- Wow, really powerful!"

"Thanks guys!" He chuckled feeling proud of himself. "I see you all had a good time then."

"Of course we did! We'd be crazy not to!" Carolina added.

“Hey man, you were great! Congrats!” Jungkook appeared in the middle of the group giving Yoongi a quick hug.

“Thanks JK! Glad you showed up!” Yoongi showed a genuine smile.

“Of course! How did you feel up there?” Jungkook asked excited.

“Pretty great I must say.” Yoongi chuckled.

“JK MY MAN!” Jin screamed and immediately came in for a hug.

“JIN!” Jungkook screams back, laughing.

“Jimin came as well?” Taehyung asked.

“Yeah-” Jungkook said but before he could say anything, Jin spoke again.

“Wanna hang? Bring your friends, we’re celebrating here!”

“Yeah man, come hang!” Namjoon said, beer in hand, cheerful.

“I can go call them?” Jungkook kinda asked, he wasn’t really used to these hang outs between his group and his housemates but he couldn’t deny he was excited for it.

“He’s probably busy with his friends guys, let him be.” Carolina spoke but everyone ignored her.

“Yeah go grab them!” Jin repeated himself, probably because of the drinks he had already had.

“Oh really?? Bring Jiminie!” Taehyung spoke with a big smile.

“I’m gonna call them and I’ll try to find you!” Jungkook said before turning away to where his friends were.

“Jungkook left?” Yoongi finally looked back to the group, he had been talking to some people that were congratulating him.

“He went to get his friends.” Namjoon spoke from beside him.

“I’ll be right back.” Yoongi said. “You came.” He said in the girl’s ear.

“Yoongi! You were great! Of course I did! I wouldn’t miss it for the world!”

“Thanks Linzi.” He let out a chuckle. “You’re alone?”

“No, I’m with some friends. I was just about to leave actually, but I was trying to find you first.”

“Well, thanks for coming!” He let out a smile.

“We’ll talk later yeah? Let me know if you got home safe.”

“I will!”

“FRIENDS! WELCOME!” Jin shouted when Jungkook came back with his friends.

“Welcome where?” Carolina said, sarcastically.

“Oh! The stargazing girl!” Namjoon let out once he noticed Hyori.

“Hey guys!” Hoseok spoke to everyone in general.

“Oh~ hi!” Hyori said shyly.

“Let’s go grab some drinks!” Jungkook said, sliding his arm around Jin’s shoulders.

“I’ll go too!” Deo said. The whole situation was freaking her out. They were friends but they were hanging out and it was weird and awkward.

“Sure! Anything you guys want?” Jin asked, looking back at everyone.

“I’m good thanks!” Taehyung said, looking away from Jimin.

“Whiskey if you can.” Yoongi said.

“No thanks, I'll go there later.” Carolina said before wandering off to the dance floor.

“Bring me anything.” Jimin winked.

“Whatever you’re having ok?” Hyori said looking to Deo.

“I’m already served.” Namjoon showed his beer bottle. ”But thanks.”

“Want me to come with?” Jack asked Deo.

“No, you’re not allowed to drink today mr. Driver.” Deo snorted, pinching his cheek.

“Let’s go!” Jungkook said.

“I’ll be going with you guys! You won’t be able to bring everything back, I’ll help!” Taehyung said cheerfully.

“Nice!” Jin said before turning their backs and going.

Deo had her hands around Jungkook’s arm to not get lost and he was following Jin to the bar. Taehyung was hanging in the back. They had to walk in line because the place was so crowded. Once they managed to get to the bar, they did a little circle.

“What was it that they wanted?” Jungkook asked.

“Not a clue, everything is fine!” JIn laughed.

“Yoongi wanted whiskey and Jimin was anything...” Taehyung said right after.

“What are you having?” Deo asked, turning her attention from the shelves and to the boys.

“Maybe a shot... Can’t decide, I’ll ask the bartender for suggestions.” Jin answered.

“Nothing for me.” Taehyung said.

“For me and Hyori... hmm... can be two vodkas with coke.”

“I don’t know either. I’ll go with Jin’s.” Jungkook added.

“I like this friend very much!” Jin said to Taehyung while pointing to Jungkook.

“You have to order for us, they’ll think I’m 16.” Deo chuckled, talking to Jin.

“They do have a point.” Jin laughed, amused.

“I’ll help ordering because it’s pretty crowded.” Taehyung said, jumping to the bar. “Stay close.” He looked at Deo but she just shrugged him off.

“Swear to God!” Deo said in Jungkook’s ear making him laugh.

“Go away underaged kid.” Jungkook laugh, defendind himself from a punch she threw to his arm.

“So are you!”

“Leave it to us kids!” Jin laughed, looking back.

Once they manage to get all the drinks, they walked back to where their groups last were. Yoongi, Hoseok and Jack were chatting while leaning against the wall about music. Something in Hoseok sparked when he saw Yoongi perform and he was excited to explore that part of himself. Everyone gave them their drink and followed to the next group where Hyori was talking to Namjoon and Jimin was just flirting with some girl.

“Did you find your friend? From the party?” Hyori asked Namjoon. They were still on the topic of the party.

“I did, yes. It’s that blue haired one that went to grab drinks.” Namjoon pointed once he saw Taehyung.

“He seems quite hard to miss.” Hyori teased, letting a laugh fall out of her lips right after.

“Well you might find it surprising how many times we already did.” Namjoon laughed too, a little embarrassed.

“I get it. It was a super big house!”

“It doesn’t help that he’s a little unpredictable.” He laughed. “I never asked you thought but, what were you doing on that room?”

“Watching the stars mostly. That party was too loud for a second and I needed some air.” She said simply.

“I can relate to that.” He confessed, feeling a little shy.

“If you ever need, I know some points around campus where you can see the sky perfectly. Even some rooftops.” She suggested with a grin in her face.

“That would be nice! Thanks, star girl!”

“You having fun?” Deo creeped behind Hyori, handing her the drink she choose for her.

“I am thank you.” Hyori gave her a death glare.

“Hey do you know where Carolina is?” Deo asked, showing him the drink she had for her.

“Uh... She was just here?” Namjoon said confused. He wasn’t paying much attention.

“Jimin!” Deo tapped on his shoulder. “Did you saw Carolina?”

“Ye-” before he could say anything, Taehyung was already going off.

“We lost her???”

“She’s there.” Jimin chuckled while pointing to the dance floor.

“Oh~~ thank God!” Taehyung let out a sigh.

“Hey!” Deo tapped Carolina lightly on the shoulder. “Got you a drink.”

“Oh thanks! You didn’t nee-” Carolina finally looked at the girl, eyes widden. “-eed to...”

“It’s nothing! But you’re ok? You’re a little pale.”

“Uh... Yeah! Totally! Thanks!” She took a sip of her drink, confused with a million things running through her mind.

“Imma go back to the group but if you need to catch some air or go to the bathroom you can call me!” Deo said. She was 100% sure now that Carolina was the bathroom girl from the party, all she had to do now was figure out about which boy she was talking.

“Mhmm, sure thanks!”

The time flew by and the party wasn’t over yet. Once Yoongi ended his performance, the manager of the club announced that he was the last one but that everyone was invited to stay and have fun. With the regular radio music playing, everyone kept on drinking and dancing and laughing. The smoke from the cigars and dim light made the entire mood. It was going to be a good night. That was until...

“Take your hands off my girlfriend you piece of shit!” A guy yelled over the music and threw a punch.

“Fuck you man!” The other guy quickly stood up and threw another punch.

“What the hell is going on?” Jack called over, catching the group’s attention.

“Someone doesn’t know how to handle their drinks.” Jimin shrugged it off.

Soon the manager came in between the two guys and kicked them out. As it was usual policy, he would give a warning but if they didn’t stop, he’d have to call the cops. It was a bad image for the club to have drunks fighting right at their door. One of the man that was involved in the fight was a regular. Every once or twice, he would come to the club and would make a scene. The only reason the manager would still let him in was because he spent more in a night than most of his clients in a week. But of course, that would lead to fights.

“Knock it off!” One of the bouncers yelled but it was no use.

“Want me to step in?” The other one asked.

“No need, the police is already on their way.”

It took them a while, but once they heard the sirens, the two men stopped fighting and ran in different directions. One ran down the street to get away as fast as he could and the other managed to get inside the club.

“The cops are here! Run! RUN!”

Maybe it was the alcohol in their systems or maybe the fact that half of the people there didn’t have the legal age to drink but chaos installed quickly. Everyone was running out through the front door, some decided to use the emergency exit but it was already too late, cops were already covering both exits.

Carolina quickly exchanged looks with her group. She was underaged and there was no way she was going to get caught. She quickly grabbed Deo’s wrist and ran to the backstage area where she had been just hours ago with Yoongi. Hyori and Jungkook followed right after.

“Ok listen up, there’s no way I’m getting caught. We have to jump out of this window.” She peeked her head outside to see if there were cops there. “The coast is clear, let’s go.”

Carolina jumped first. “C’mon, hurry up!”

“There’s no way I’m jumping out of that.” Deo said.

“Would you rather get caught?” Jungkook glared his eyes to the both of them. He was a pile of nerves.

“That’s too high!” Hyori panicked.

“I’ll go first and I’ll help you get down yeah?” Jungkook sugested.

“Ok, but be careful!” Deo said.

“Ok c’mon!” Jungkook whispered.

“You wanna go first? If they get to us we’re dead Hyo, we have to jump.”

“AH FUCK!” Hyori flipped, climbing up the window.

“Ok Deo... keep your shit together, you’re a cheerleader. You’re thrown in the air higher than this fucking shit!” Deo talked mostly to herself. “Can I go?” She peeked her head out.

“Yes, I get you.” Jungkook told her.

Outside the backstage, the boys were trying to create a distraction to make the policeman that was looking for the agressor inside the club.

“We gotta do something!” Hoseok said, panicking.

“Chill Hope, let’s talk to them and keep them up.” Jack suggested.

“NO! Namjoon pretend to faint!!” Jin almost screamed.

“Me?! I can’t act for shit!” Namjoon said, panicking as well.

“Guys keep it down, you’re making it worse.” Yoongi glared at all of them.

“HERE I GO!” Taehyung embraced himself for a fall, closing his eyes as soon as he hit the floor and giving it a special touch my pulling his arm over his forehead. It was a 5-star acting.

“HELP! MY FRIEND FAINTED!” Jimin screamed, getting the attention of the policeman.

“What is going on here?!” The cop asked.

“OUR FRIEND FAINTED!” Jin said overly dramatic.

“What happened?” The cop asked, an eyebrow arched.

“The bad guy!” Namjoon started but felt flustered, not knowing what to say after.

“He pushed him and he fell!” Hoseok said, covering for Namjoon.

“That’s why he fainted!” Jimin added.

“Did you saw where he went? Which direction?” The cop said anxious.

“Into the bathroom.” Yoongi pointed in the opposite direction of the backstage.

“HEY! What about our friend!” Jin said, too excited with everything going on but thankfully the cop was long gone.

“Dude!” Everyone said at the same time.

“Oh yeah.” Jin said nonchalant.

“C’mon, we gotta get out of here to see if they need help.” Yoongi said.

“Everyone has their ID’s?” Jack asked, while him and Jimin pulled Taehyung up.

As the boys waited to leave – the line was super long because the police was checking ID’s at the front door. Deo finally managed to jump and they were hiding behind a dumpster, checking to see if they could move.

“Ok I think there’s a car there.” Carolina pointed to the side of the bar.

“Why the fuck they need so many cops for a fight?” Deo said frustrated.

“That doesn’t matter now!” Jungkook said, his palms were already sweating. He was tense and Carolina had to hold a laugh.

“Ok, be prepared to run if you have to.” The older girl told them.

“How are you so calm?!” Hyori said, freaked out.

“You don’t wanna know.” Carolina laughed dryly. “Ok, on the count of 3.”

The girl started counting. 1... 2... 3! They all started running and as soon as they hit the end of alley, it was exactly what Carolina suspected, there was a car and the two cops that were leaning against the wall noticed them immediately and started chasing after them.

“C’mon!” Jungkook grabbed Deo’s wrist so that she wouldn’t stay behind while Hyori and Carolina ran in front of them.

“HOLY FUCK!” Deo screamed, overwhelmed with the situation.

They could hear the footsteps of both cops chasing after them and they various attempts of telling them to stop were ignored. Quickly they got to a crossroad and Carolina took the left road and Hyori followed suit. Jungkook was ready to turn too but Deo pulled him to the other way.

“It’ll be easier like this! Hyori is fine with her.” She assured him.

“Keep up just a little longer ok?” He asked, seeing how tired she was already.

“We gotta find somewhere to hide.”

Once Carolina and Hyori noticed they were alone and they couldn’t see the cops, they decided to slow down their pace. They sat down on a bench. They noticed they were on a park but at this time of the night they weren’t recognizing it.

“That was close.” Hyori started, trying to normalize her breath.

“Yea-” Carolina stopped mid-sentence. “Do you hear that?”

“Wha-”

“We gotta hide.” Carolina quickly looked around, eyes scanning the place. “Are you good at holding your breath?”

“What?!”

“YES OR NO?!”

“I guess!!”

Carolina grabbed Hyori’s arm and pulled her with her to the fountain. She kept peeking a little but when she saw the light of the cop’s flashlight, she dove in, pulling Hyori along with her.

Deo and Jungkook continued running for what felt hours but really was 10 minutes since they got separated from the two girls. That was until they saw a convenience store.

“Let’s go there!” Deo pulled Jungkook.

“Wait, we need to control our breaths before we go in.”

“We don’t have time for that! Just smile to the cashier and then you can breathe normally!”

“Fuck, let’s go then.”

They immediately walk to the drinks area. Jungkook grabbed a power drink and Deo a water. They heard the doors slide and their hearts clutched a little. They tried to peek but didn’t see anything.

“Let’s grab some Doritos.” Deo suggested, telling Jungkook to calm down with her hands.

“I want pringles.” He said nonchalant.

“What? You always want Doritos.”

“And you always want Pringles.”

“Your point?” She laughed lightly.

“Hey kids.” They heard a voice from behind them and turned.

“Yes?” Deo spoke, afraid Jungkook’s voice was going to tremble.

“What are you doing here at this time?” The cop walked closer to them.

“We came to buy some snacks.” Deo said, showing the chips in her hands. “Is there a problem?”

“Where did you came from?” The cop pushed again.

“From campus.” Deo answered immediately with an eyebrow arched. “Why?”

The cop looked at them for a couple of seconds before relaxing his posture a little. “Make sure to make it there safe. Have a good night.”

As soon as he turned his back, Deo couldn’t contain the big smile on her face. “Let’s grab some gum too.”

“I swear, one of these days I die because of you.” Jungkook whispered to her.

“What did I do?!”

“You were giving him an attitude!”

“I was no- he was interrogating us for no reason!” She said teasingly.

“I- what?!”

“Relax Gguk. This will be the first of many times.” She winked to him and turned on her heels, heading to the cashier. The only thing she could hear was his sigh.

Back at the fountain, Carolina decided to be brave and peek her head out of the water. She couldn’t hold her breath anymore so between drowning and getting caught, it was a close call. Everything was quiet. She couldn’t hear the cop’s radio anymore so she decided it was now or never. They jumped out of the fountain, fully wet and trembling to the breeze of the night.

“Let’s agree to never speak of this again.” Carolina said, frustrated.

“Agree.”

DAY 5 [COMING SOON]

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slyreaderslibrary · 5 years

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Ch. 7 Associates

AO3: Here

Fanfiction: Here

Summary: Keeping a secret identity secret is normally hard enough but when you’re as beautiful as Minako Aino you’re bound to have all kinds of creeps and weirdo stalking your every move. Now there’s a cop hot on her trail and she’ll have to be quick on her feet if she’s to keep her identity on the DL. Just what is a gorgeous super-heroine to do?

Keisuke arrived in the Azabu-juban district at nine twenty five in the morning with a cramp in his back and an irritable mood weighing him down. He'd only gotten a few hours of sleep the night before after a late night alert went out, calling all hands available to a nearby murder investigation. Luckily Usui had arrived on the scene first, thus making him lead of the investigation and granting Keisuke leeway to return home and try to salvage what sleep he could before his meeting with Ueda later that morning.

He slipped into a nearby cafe to grab a bagel and some coffee and then headed to the nearby bank to withdraw some cash. He was running low on his bribe money and he wanted to restock before seeing Ueda. Not that he thought it would be necessary...it was just better to err on the safe side.

Finishing the last of his bagel, he walked up to a wooden kiosk, grabbed a withdrawal slip and began filling out the form when he noticed a flash of gold in his peripheral. It was Aino entering the establishment, blond hair and sandaled wedges moving confidently across the linoleum floor while carrying a large, navy deposit bag. He dropped his pen in his surprise and cursed when he banged his head on the kiosk when he bent to pick it up.

It seemed today just wouldn't be his day.

"Everybody listen up! This here's a robbery!"

Keisuke—still crouched from his efforts to retrieve the pen— slowly closed his eyes and sighed. Of course the bank was being robbed.

After allowing himself that small display of frustration, he adjusted his crouch to kneel and peeked around the kiosk to better assess the situation. There were five masked men that he could see: two confronting the tellers, two pointing what looked to be AR-15s at roughly a dozen civilians and one blocking the exit. He imagined there was at least one getaway driver nearby but then also figured they could have planned to use the civilians as a bargaining tool. Either way he was outnumbered and outgunned.

He shot off a quick text with these observations, as well as the bank's address, to his superior and moved a few inches back to scrutinize his surroundings and attempt to form a plan.

"Alright, everybody put your hands out in front of ya and drop your valuables and cash in the bag as my friend here passes by and no one will get hurt."

From his position, Keisuke could see the robbers' reflection off the glass office walls and took the moment they were distracted to slip around to the side of the bank's main front counter. His new vantage point allowed him to directly see the thug collecting the civilians valuables with quick efficiency.

Then he stopped in front of Aino.

"Give me the bag blondie. I won't ask twice."

Aino clutched the deposit bag tighter to her chest.

"Did you know that twenty percent of all startups fail within the first year?" she rattled off randomly. Keisuke would have assumed she was nervous if he hadn't seen her take down that rapist the day before.

It seemed to stall the robber however, who stared at her and then looked to his partner who motioned for him to hurry up.

"Alright, er…" The robber frowned and lifted his bag. "That's interesting, miss. Now give me the money!"

Aino appeared not to have heard him though, instead continuing her previous line of conversation with added hand gestures to emphasize her point. "And did you know that that number is tripled when that startup is a new and unknown restaurant? That's a sixty percent failure rate! It's a travesty!" Her hand flew out knocking the bag of stolen goods from the robber's hand to the floor. "Oops! Sorry about that, I'm always knocking over or tripping over something it seems."

The robber hastily snatched up the bag but he'd drawn the attention from his friends, including the ones who'd been harrassing the tellers.

"What are you doing Taka? Take her money already," ordered one of the robbers closest to Keisuke.

Taka reached for the deposit bag but Aino stepped back, managing to avoid him.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that. You wouldn't want my friend to become just another failed statistic now would you?"

"Lady I don't care what happens to your friend. Just give me the money!"

Aino sidestepped Taka again, earning Taka several jibes from the other robbers. The two crooks harassing the tellers joined the ones harassing the customers and formed a semicircle around Aino. Keisuke used their distraction to slowly rise to a standing position.

"We don't have time for this," the quasi-leader of the group complained. He grabbed Aino's arm and yanked the bag from her fingers before shoving her to the floor and causing her to cry out. Keisuke's hands clenched into fists as he inched closer.

"Hey doesn't she look like that model on all the billboards lately?" asked another.

"She is! We could make a fortune off her!" replied the fourth man, "Imagine what the magazines would pay for her nudes!"

Keisuke tapped the excited robber's shoulder, prompting him to turn around, and then slugged him in the face. The robber's gun flew out of his hands and skidded across the floor while Taka seemingly lost his feet and fell to the ground next to him. Keisuke chalked it up to Aino but didn't waste time to check having already turned to block a bat spiked with nails flying at his head. He managed to catch the bat just beyond the spikes and swung his body towards his assailant's arms before sending an elbow to the other man's face while simultaneously wrenching the weapon free. He then turned to the leader, who was already on the floor with Aino's wedge sandal squishing his face into the linoleum.

Keisuke relaxed his stance, "nice wo—"

"NOBODY MOVE!"

Shit. He had forgotten about the one at the door.

"DROP YOUR WEAPONS! I SAID DROP YOUR WEAPONS!"

Keisuke slowly lowered his weapon to the floor and then stood back up, hands raised high as he turned to face the last robber. Aino likewise had turned around but her hands remained low by her side. The robber guard pointed his weapon at a middle age woman but never took his eyes off them.

"Drop your weapons or this bitch here gets it!"

What on earth was he talking about? Hadn't they done just that? Keisuke frowned and tried to discreetly check Aino's hands in the glass reflections but couldn't see anything past all her blonde hair.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING? WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

Keisuke snapped his gaze back to the robber in time to see the gun, surrounded by a golden glow, bend and twist unnaturally until the barrel pointed at its wielder. The robber screamed and hurled the weapon away from him, an action which could be clearly seen beyond the bank's doors because the reinforcements he had called in had finally arrived and wasted no time bursting through the door and tackling the lone robber while the others corralled around the four still unconscious on the floor.

A man—who was clearly in charge given the way the officers responded to him—walked through the doors and Keisuke recognized him as the Commissioner General's second-in-command, a hardworking officer who'd been dedicated to his job for fifteen years named Toshio Wakagi. Wakagi looked around, studying the mess, and then walked up to Keisuke and clapped him on the shoulder.

"Good work, Detective Koizumi correct? I recognize you from the picture you have on file. Your name has been coming up quite a bit back at HQ. You do good work, although..." Wakagi glanced at the men being hauled away. " In this situation, I'd normally write you up for poor judgement. Five against one is too risky but seeing how things worked out I'm going to let it slide."

Keisuke shook his head in denial, "I didn't do it on my own." He pointed towards Aino. "She helped."

Wakagi glanced in Aino's direction and immediately scowled before attempting to regain his composure. However he wasn't quite successful because his face was still twisted in a grimace when he turned back to Keisuke. "Either way Commissioner General Sakurada is going to want to play this up for publicity. Our recruitment numbers have been down and this is just the sort of thing to motivate the faithful citizens of Japan to sign up. Besides, Aino-san's not going to want the attention. Her fans might not like someone capable of violence."

"It was self-defense," Keisuke argued, suspicious of how Wakagi knew Aino but not about to let him besmirch her actions either. A lot of people could have been hurt if not for her. "Besides, even if she agrees, what happens when the press get the video feed? They'll have a field day if they think the police are hiding something."

Wakagi sighed and Keisuke got the impression the other man knew something he didn't.

"I don't think that'll be a problem but just so you're satisfied I didn't tamper with the feed, go ahead and get a copy for yourself first. I'll go and talk to Aino-san." Wakagi gave a short nod goodbye and then walked away to talk with the woman in question while Keisuke was left to wonder exactly how the two knew each other.

He watched Aino light up when she noticed Wakagi and smile a mile wide before elbowing him in the arm and smirking mischievously. The sight left him feeling uneasy and suspicious. If she knew the second-in-command to the Commissioner General, who else was she connected to? Was this why Goto had wanted him to back off? And what had made that weapon twist and glow like that?

Keisuke decided he needed answers, now, more than ever. He pulled out the spare flashdrive he kept in the hidden inner pocket of his leather jacket and headed to the desk where some officers were pulling up security footage. He flashed his badge.

"I'd like to get a copy of that if you don't mind."

oOo

"You know, anyone just arriving on the scene would think you were robbing the bank, carrying a bag of your money around like that," Wakagi told her. Minako recognized the tone. It was the same tone Artemis used when he was preparing for a lecture.

"It's not my money!"

Wakagi looked alarmed and then furious as he demanded she keep her voice down. "What if someone heard you?"

"Relaaaaax," Minako giggled, playfully slapping his arm. "It's my friend's. She's been short staffed all week and didn't have a chance to deposit her earnings last night, so I offered to do so for her this morning."

"Well I'm glad that's easily cleared up but you know it'll be a lot harder for me if the press catches wind of you in the middle of a bank robbery."

"It's not like I planned this!"

"That doesn't make cleaning up your messes any easier," Wakagi shrugged, crossing his arms. "Anyways, I'll do what I can and Sakurada will get in touch if anything comes up."

"Aw, you big softie. What would I do without you?" Minako smiled and then gave him a kiss on the cheek, grinning when he grew flustered and then annoyed in response. She walked away before he could lecture her about "personal space" and "harassment", with Mako's deposit bag securely in hand. It was too bad she hadn't been able to deposit the money but she doubted the tellers would be open for business until at least this evening, if not tomorrow, considering they'd just been held up and nearly robbed.

"And here we thought you needed help," a husky voice chuckled as Minako walked out of the building. She turned and spotted two silhouettes emerging from the shadows.

"Haruka, Michiru," Minako greeted. "I didn't think you'd get here so fast."

"We were in the area," Haruka shrugged.

"Oh?"

"I was hoping to encounter your detective friend," Michiru murmured, stroking her mirror, "I had tried to scry him the day before, to get an idea of who we're dealing with, but I was only able to see a silver mist."

"That's odd." Minako turned back towards the bank and squinted, hoping to catch a glimpse of the detective through the windows. Not that it would help much. She couldn't read auras like Rei or Hotaru, so she wouldn't be able to tell if something was shielding him, and although she was deadly accurate when it came to emotions, Mr. Fox emitted about as many emotions as a rock.

"Wait, he's in there now?" demanded Haruka, clueing in from Minako's actions, and looking ready to have a different sort of encounter with the detective. Mainly one that involved her fist.

Minako sighed, giving up, and turned back around.

"He is. He's the reason you girls came all this way for nothing." She smiled, "Thanks for that by the way."

"No problem. Now if you'll excuse me, I think it's time I have a little chat with your stalker." Haruka grinned, cracking her knuckles as she strode past Minako.

Michiru was quicker, however, and snagged Haruka's arm before she could take more than a single step. "Patience dear. He's currently surrounded by officers."

"What's that matter?" Haruka scowled, settling back down, "Doesn't Minako have the TCPD in her pocket?"

"Just their boss," Minako corrected.

Haruka threw her a disgruntled look that said 'same thing.'

"In either case," Michiru continued, ignoring their interruptions, "I don't think it would be wise. He's merely doing his job. Confronting him would only add you to his list of suspicious suspects and me, as well, by association." She gave Haruka a stern look. "I do not want to become a suspect, Haruka."

"Well then," Minako smiled, bringing the couple's attention back to her, "I suppose that's my cue to leave before he catches me out here talking to you both. You'll tell me if you learn anything further?"

Michiru nodded her acquiesce while Haruka huffed in the background, still itching for a fight.

Minako thanked them again and departed for Mako's cafe. She made it two blocks and around the corner before letting her shoulders drop in fatigue. Using her powers without transforming always left her feeling a little anemic. Good thing Mako-chan had a dark, raspberry mousse hidden in the back fridge with her name on it! She couldn't wait to eat it up.

And then she would call Rei and ask her to "look" deeper into one Detective Koizumi.

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#minako aino x kunzite #minako aino #sailor venus #Kunzite #sailor moon #fanfiction #a relentless pursuit

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douglashonorscollege · 3 years

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The Tesla Titan

research paper by David Wacker ⌂

Part I: The Tesla Titan

“Tesla Titan, he’s a hero! Gonna bring emissions down to zero!” Now that may be a clear rip off of the classic Captain Planet theme song, but the Tesla Titan deserves the same recognition as the beloved pollution fighter. The Tesla Titan is not only stopping the crimes of fossil fuel overconsumption and outdated automobiles, but also making space travel less environmentally destructive. Reusable rockets have decreased cost and waste by a big margin. He has also promised that moving to Mars in the future is possible. Though he wouldn’t be able to do all of these amazing feats if it weren’t for his infinitely smart Artificial Intelligence by the name of OpenAI (needs a better nickname). It is said that Tony Stark himself went to the Tesla Titan for pointers on how to be a world-saving superhero. The Tesla Titan keeps giving more and more to our wonderful planet; he is a true hero and spectacle.

His only flaw would be that he hasn't done a good job at keeping his identity hidden. Just about anyone with a WiFi connection knows the Tesla Titan’s real name which of course is Elon Musk. Musk is one of the richest people on the planet, and he has been doing his best to use it for good! The Tesla Titan’s Origin Story begins in the country of South Africa, where he began toying using computers at a young age. At the young age of twelve he sold a video game he had developed to a magazine company. It was a space-themed “shoot-em-up” called Blastar, and it made the future billionaire a cool 500 dollars. You can actually play it in your browser now with a little digging.

At the age of seventeen, while continuing to get more adept with computers, Musk decided to get a Canadian passport. His reasons were based around not wanting to support apartheid—a segregation order in South Africa—with military service as well as chasing better economic opportunities in North America. He first attended Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, but then transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he earned two bachelor’s degrees. From there, Musk went to Stanford for graduate school, quitting after a mere two days. He thought that the future was with the internet, and he was correct; in a relatively short amount of time, Musk sold his first online company, Zip2, for 309 million dollars (Gregersen).

Elon Musk, aka the Tesla Titan, has become a dominant figure in the tech industry over the past decade, and for good reason, too. He has brought about paradigm shifts in many different fields with relative ease. This is a result of his influence that he has gained over the years. He has the capability to alter public thinking quicker than it would otherwise change. A paradigm shift is comparable to a scientific revolution, something that generally requires a lot of marketing, money, and, usually, time. Throughout this essay I will compare his ability to sell products to the abilities of the Marvel character Tony Stark, aka, Ironman. Both have helped invent and create amazing pieces of technology. They also have much success selling these technologies, and the similarities go on and on.

The Tesla Titan gets his name after the electric car company he co-founded and where he continues to hold the title of CEO. The car company was founded in 2003 with the idea of fun-to-drive electric vehicles in mind. They launched their first full electric vehicle in 2008, named the Tesla Roadster. The Model S was launched in 2012, becoming the best in its class in every category. The company has released many more vehicles over the years, and just last year, it announced the Cybertruck, which currently has over 650,000 orders. Tesla is also close to releasing a self-driving semi-truck, which promises a 500-mile range on a full charge. From Tesla’s beginning right up to today, “Elon leads all product design, engineering and global manufacturing of the company's electric vehicles, battery products and solar energy products” (Tesla).

Recently, Tesla became the highest valued car company in the world, reaching an estimated $208 billion value in July of 2020. It is now being valued at $387 billion by Yahoo Finance today, with the possibility of another jump in value after it was announced that Tesla is joining the S&P 500. In its seventeen-year lifetime, Tesla became the forefront of electric vehicles, and it has reached farther than any other car brand before it.

Although Tony Stark never released his own brand of vehicles, he is known to be the owner of many expensive sports cars. He also created the Model 52 Iron Man Armor, which could fully transform into a flying car, equipped with two circular jets on the bottom to keep it off the ground. So there’s some comparisons to be made between these two men. In the movie, Spiderman: Homecoming, a Stark Cargo Plane is robbed. Where this might not be the best example of its abilities, it still has the capability to cloak itself and stay off radar. So they both have their experience in transporting goods.

The Tesla Titan’s highest reaching feat is SpaceX, which he founded just a year before Tesla. SpaceX has also reached the forefront in its field of sending rockets to space and, now, landing them back on earth. Falcon 9 was the first ever successful landing of an orbital rocket booster back in 2015. Since then, there has been nowhere to go but up! Following the Falcon 9 was the Falcon Heavy in 2018 and then the revolutionary Super Heavy Starship System this year. The Starship System can carry a total of 220,000 pounds. It is designed to travel quickly to different cities around the globe. It doesn’t stop there, though; the System was also built with the idea of transporting supplies and people to and from the Moon and Mars. It does all this at a fraction of the cost of SpaceX’s closest competitor, Boeing. SpaceX has even transported multiple astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS) with its Dragon spacecraft (Gregersen). Just recently, four astronauts were successfully transported to the ISS in association with NASA (Wattles).

A clear paradigm shift occurred when Falcon 9 became the first booster to land itself back on Earth. A mere thirteen years after its founding, the company managed to break a barrier no one had come near breaking before. The main thing that Tesla and SpaceX have in common is their fearless leader, The Tesla Titan. With the amount of success that Elon Musk has had over just the past two decades in these two fields, a connection has to be made with his influence. After so many successes, it would be hard for the world not to believe in his hero-like abilities being behind some of today’s paradigm shifts.

Connecting this to Tony Stark comes a little easier than comparing a single transforming car suit. Stark Industries has connections to the creation of the original Helicarrier that is used by the S.H.I.E.L.D. organization. Tony proposed the original idea to S.H.I.E.L.D., and with the help of Dr. Reed Richards and the former Xman Forge, they were able to design and eventually build the aircraft. Not that readers are able to see much of it, but there has also been a mention of the Stark Industries Aerospace Division, which supposedly created the first spaceship capable of space travel. It was first brought up in Iron Man, Vol. 1, #60, back in 1973, but not much has been said about it since.

Finally, the last evidence I will provide for The Tesla Titan’s ability to perform paradigm shifts in a single bound comes in the form of Open AI. He founded the company alongside Sam Altman and others with a beginning pledge of one billion dollars. Since its inception, the company has worked on many different AI-related projects, from a fully AI Dota 2 team that regularly beats the best of the best human teams, to slightly less impressive—when it comes to competitive gaming—but still impressive bipedal AI simulations that learned to sumo wrestle one another. Moreover, Open AI developed an AI-trained robot hand that can solve a Rubik’s Cube. Then there’s the music generating AI, Jukebox, that has its own Soundcloud. But maybe the most impressive use so far is GPT-3, a unique text-suggestion software that can gather data in split seconds and fill out a full Excel sheet with data after a simple topic search and a few button presses.

In 2018, Musk left the company’s board but still remains a donor. He left the company because of possible future contests between it and the AI that runs his Tesla vehicles’ self-driving. While he might not be with the company anymore, the amount the company accomplished while he was associated with it is still nothing to scoff at. This is another great example of how someone of his status and income can significantly increase the rate of technological progress.

These accomplishments provide the easiest area to find similarities between The Tesla Titan and Iron Man. Both have their hands in the super intelligent AI basket. Tony Stark, of course, has his AI-assistant Jarvis with him wherever he goes, whether it’s in a pair of super fancy Heads-Up Display Glasses, in his massive super smart home, or of course while he’s in his trademark Iron Man suits. Jarvis is used for instant information, hacking, and even controlling certain aspects of the various Iron Man armors.

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Jarvis ends up inhabiting a Vibranium-based body that eventually leads to him becoming Vision. The body was constructed under the instruction of another super AI, Ultron, who intended on using the body as his most powerful form yet. As some will know, Ultron turns out to be an evil Artificial Intelligence with the classic, “exterminate the human race” mindset. Thinking quickly, Stark puts Jarvis into the body so it cannot be inhabited by Ultron. Vision is “powered” by the Mind Stone (one of the six world creating Infinity Stones) which gives Jarvis full sentience.

My claim earlier about Tony Stark going to Elon Musk for inspiration was not that far fetched. Robert Downey Jr. did in fact go to Musk for tips on how to play the super-rich, tech playboy that is Tony Stark. And this completely makes sense, as The Tesla Titan is very comparable to Marvel’s Iron Man. It is a good thing that The Tesla Titan is on the good side, as it would be quite dangerous if he suddenly turned evil. He would have all the money and equipment he could need to possibly take over the world…

Part II: Neuralink The Nefarious

Neuralink The Nefarious, comes from a different timeline than The Tesla Titan, a timeline where the man behind the mask chooses to use his influence for evil rather than good. Neuralink The Nefarious sees the world as being infected by the parasite that is the human race, and he plans to use whatever resources he has—and he has plenty of resources—to expel the Earth of its sickness. But he won’t stop there—why conquer one planet, when you can conquer two, plus a moon? He develops spaceships with the cover story of cheaper space travel and commercial use for everyone. Behind the scenes, though, he schemes in the shadows. Along with his plans for stealing worlds, he is developing his mode of extinction for the human race in the form of mind-altering brain implants, which he markets as a possible cure for previously incurable diseases. The idea of self enhancement can drive practically anyone to madness, and he feeds on that desire. The implants are said to also provide information to the user just by thinking. While he’s at it, he has also sold “Not Flamethrowers” to the general public, another tool in his master plan. Neuralink the Nefarious will stop at nothing to become the Earth’s one true owner.

This section of the essay will go over how not only does Elon Musk have similarities to those of Superheros, but he is also very capable of becoming a super villain. I will also go over the idea that when paradigm shifts do happen so quickly because of his influence, Technological Disjunction is rarely part of the equation. Technological Disjunction is what happens when society doesn’t fully agree with a new technology that is being developed. For example, the use of drones by the public—many people worried about personal privacy. This has led to many regulations, including the requirement that the operator have a license to fly their drone over another’s property. Without a lot of technological disjunction, products that maybe should not be put on the market become available. Throughout this portion of the essay, I will compare Musk’s projects to multiple villains spread across pop culture, comparing their views and evil plans with those of Neuralink the Nefarious.

Once again, Neuralink the Nefarious gets his name after one of his evil companies. Elon Musk founded Neuralink in July 2016, with a goal of solving paralysis and improving the human being by tampering with neurons in the brain. The “link” will be implanted into the person’s head with very thin “neural threads” reading interactions between the neurons that are used for movement in the brain. Their plan is to begin by creating a wireless link between users’ brains and their mobile devices: “The Neuralink app would allow you to control your iOS device, keyboard and mouse directly with the activity of your brain, just by thinking about it” (Neuralink). As Neuralink learns more from its different iterations, the ability to help those with paralysis and other disabilities comes next. Or so they say.

I believe that Neuralink the Nefarious got this idea straight from the 2014 Action Film Kingsman: The Secret Service. The film’s antagonist is Richmond Valentine, a rich tech mogul looking to provide the world with “Free Calls, Free Internet, For Everyone, Forever.” He does so by implanting a chip directly connected to the brain. Sound familiar? It is later revealed that Valentine had an ulterior motive with his fancy Wi-Fi chips; not only do the chips provide said services, but they can also be used to make everyone who has one go into a murderous rage. So he markets and sells the chips around the world, and most of the first world ends up with one within a matter of a few weeks. He then activates their murder function and anyone with a chip begins doing whatever they can to hurt and kill everyone around them. Then of course the protagonist saves the day, but that’s besides the point. The point is this: if Neuralink the Nefarious really is inspired by Valentine—or vice versa—who knows what else these “links” will do to us.

A few months after founding Neuralink, Musk founded the Boring Company whose primary goal is to devise and create new methods of transportation. They plan to market underground tubes made for getting places quicker. However, for this essay, I will be focusing on one of the Boring Company’s previous products: in 2018, The Boring Company sold “Not a Flamethrower” to anyone who had a 500 dollars to burn. The 20,000 units sold out, generating ten million dollars for the company. Selling items similar to a flamethrower to the public doesn’t sound safe, obviously, as there is always the distinct possibility of someone wielding one with evil intentions.

I was not able to find a villain that specifically sold flamethrowers to the public. However, there is Norman Osborn, a prominent figure in New York, who is the head of Oscorp, which is a leader in various technologies. Behind the scenes though, Norman is the Green Goblin, one of Spiderman’s oldest foes. After taking an intelligence- and strength-enhancing serum, Osborn ends up going insane, which spurs his liking of destruction. I wouldn’t put selling flamethrowers off the radar for Mr. Osborn, whatever it takes to drive the city to the ground. Neuralink the Nefarious was pretty unique with this one, selling flamethrowers to almost anybody is something not many super villains have thought of, perhaps making him more villainous than the most evil of super villains.

These two companies of his are prime examples of technological disjunction being forgotten. Through vigilant marketing, economic class, and a wide influence, Elon Musk and his reputation have survived, even thrived, where others would have found themselves in the proverbial doghouse. Of course there will always be articles about how what he is doing is wrong, but they haven’t been impactful enough to keep Musk from continuing his work. He has accomplished so much that it has become hard to stop his Neuralink the Nefarious side—if it exists.

Conclusion

Whether we are in the Tesla-Titan or the Neuralink-the-Nefarious timeline, Elon Musk has made major strides in whatever line of work he steps into. His companies have accomplished more in under twenty years than many have accomplished in over 100. There are so many more examples from his life to support both sides of this argument, but I ultimately align myself with the Tesla Titan, not only because he’s the good guy but because there is more evidence for Elon being “good” rather than “bad.” I appreciate his thoughts on renewable energy and his efforts to save the planet from climate change. While I was writing this, my dad sent me an article about the announcement of ZETA, a group of electric vehicle manufacturers, including Tesla, arguing for no more sales of fossil fuel-powered vehicles by 2030, moving our world closer to the electric vehicle paradigm.

To reiterate, Elon Musk is in a special place in the science world. He is highly intelligent and very well known, giving him the power to trigger paradigm shifts in pretty much every industry he touches, which so far has been for the positive. But if he continues to avoid Technological Disjunction, he could potentially turn toward evil, which could negatively impact all of humanity. It’s the job of the public to keep figures like Musk in check, to make sure they remain the Tesla Titans rather than become Nefarious Neuralinks.

Works Cited ~Brockman, Greg. “OpenAI API.” OpenAI , OpenAI, 28 Sept. 2020, openai.com/blog/openai-api/. ~CB Insights. “8 Industries Being Disrupted By Elon Musk And His Companies.” CB Insights Research , CB Insights, 21 Sept. 2020, www.cbinsights.com/research/report/elon-musk-companies-disruption/ ~Chandler, Simon. “Elon Musk Is 'Distracting Us' From Real Tech Issues, AI Figures Warn.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 19 May 2020, www.forbes.com/sites/simonchandler/2020/05/18/elon-musk-is-damaging-te ch-and-the-tech-industry/?sh=6206e5e19b8d. ~“Elon Musk.” Tesla, Inc , www.tesla.com/elon-musk. ~Evannex. “A Transportation Paradigm Shift Is Coming Thanks To Tesla's Elon Musk.” InsideEVs , InsideEVs, 22 Feb. 2020, insideevs.com/news/400142/tesla-elon-musk-transportation-paradigm-shift ~Fandome Contributors. “Iron Man Armor Model 52.” Marvel Database , marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Iron_Man_Armor_Model_52. ~Fandome Contributors. “Norman Osborn (Earth-616).” Marvel Database , marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Norman_Osborn_(Earth-616). ~Fandome Contributors. “S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier.” Marvel Database , marvel.fandom.com/wiki/S.H.I.E.L.D._Helicarrier. ~Fandome Contributors. “Stark Industries Aerospace Division/Appearances.” Marvel Database , marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Stark_Industries_Aerospace_Division/Ap pearances. ~Gibbs, Samuel. “Elon Musk Sells All 20,000 Boring Company 'Flamethrowers'.” The Guardian , Guardian News and Media, 1 Feb. 2018, www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/feb/01/elon-musk-sells-out-boring-c ompany-flamethrowers-fire. ~Gregersen, Erik. “Elon Musk.” Encyclopædia Britannica , Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 27 Aug. 2020, www.britannica.com/biography/Elon-Musk. ~Hern, Alex. “Elon Musk: the Real-Life Iron Man.” The Guardian , Guardian News and Media, 9 Feb. 2018, www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/feb/09/elon-musk-the-real-life-iron- man. ~Klebnikov, Sergei. “Tesla Is Now The World's Most Valuable Car Company With A $208 Billion Valuation.” Forbes , Forbes Magazine, 1 July 2020, www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/07/01/tesla-is-now-the-worlds- most-valuable-car-company-with-a-valuation-of-208-billion/?sh=6d99944f5334 ~Neuralink , neuralink.com/. ~“Not A Flamethrower.” The Boring Company, www.boringcompany.com/not-a-flamethrower. xxx Peterson, Andrea. Even Elon Musk Knows He's a Good Supervillain Candidate . 25 Apr. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2015/04/17/even-elon-musk- knows-hes-a-good-supervillain-candidate/. ~“Tesla, Inc. (TSLA) Valuation Measures & Financial Statistics.” Yahoo! Finance , Yahoo!, 18 Nov. 2020, finance.yahoo.com/quote/tsla/key-statistics/?guccounter=1. ~Vaughn, Matthew, et al. Kingsman: the Secret Service . 20th Century Fox, 2015. ~Wall, Mike. “Wow! SpaceX Lands Orbital Rocket Successfully in Historic First.” Space.com , Space, 22 Dec. 2015, www.space.com/31420-spacex-rocket-landing-success.html. ∎

More on David ~ Minerva’s Owl Homepage

#journal #journal2021 #2021

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the-firebird69 · 3 years

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Local golfers and pros all got involved in putzer courses. Cruise is pissed vows to defeat him hourly we bought out half his due to non performance. Built half well all his we bought all of ours are up tons go. It's a golf outing a minute at each tons at the driving range well into the night most opened until 11pm. In New new York all night L.A. too all major cities all night most are packed all night

We open airport resorts called SIM Specialists meaning we are good at resorts all are at ports or very close to airports air fields huge too ten went in already.

We buy up trumps now. He used his head can't afford the overhead

We use it here. We setup shopped here now all over. Wicked Ale Brewing micro brewerydown the road. Huge numbers go there huge lots try to get him to.

We go to the beaches now Sarasota now open his tropical smoothie bar different name our brand Bitol and Goddess Wife are at it. Works. Setup vendors sampled. You always try hogging lol they rush over due to it. Out a the way freebie guy. A larger one is opened in the beach area yes you and Ken went. Huge inquiries about our evokes here all want the forever running one. Most can't get one due to Macs. We open several Exotic Drink bars. Are flowing use our alcohol. No complaints is clean purified well. And tastes fresh always as it is. Huge lines form now. We move fast too part of the fun. We have one with a rum shot area it's full up all day open them now all over. Huge interest. Cigars nearby. Tons of sales and ciggerrettes. Huge purchases to resell. Huge. By the truck now. We have some irders you if to approve. You do sent to Thor. We see it and shall. Ten thousand trucks plus. We move it now

Huge orders here. Too. For here all of Florida.justin is up has dibs orders 10000 trucks each area sells them yes. Does the tax thing. It's huge each load of 10000 is about ten million dollars retail of cigarettes. Huge sales now massive. Online one carton only each. By truck ten. Customers line up now more ordered. We grab plants all over. Already they fall. Only 1/2 a day.

More later. Ok. CBD and smokeless are up. Giant orders we opened a store per his specs sell our brand and others ours in huge quantities. Globally. Outsellall. Even in poor countries. Huge Huge sales. Massive.

We out effort in the food supply chain now. Very important contaminants all over. Buy up tons lots is up for sale tired of ppl threats irate shoppers. Idiot stuff takeover plots lazy workers etc.we do this. Need stores here now.

We open housing up yes we are big in it. Section 8 too. Huge Huge Huge tracts.

Massive housing complexes. Gigantic

Our car rental places are doing well have them in Sarasota and in Miami. We rent thousands a day at each. It grows they say. Where. We have enough cars. We grow it go rent them all Brad says he means steel. We send after you now brad. Our bus stations open Globally. We started jets today. Not here. Have leed type are twice as fast well built. Heavier too dry about twice as heavy same fuel consumption at 75 percent top speed. About 10k. Justin buys one. Captains outfit included. Complimentary captains gear and systems analysis. Full bar stocked all airports in it at sky cab which does fly it's an rc system. We know he says. Robots restock too. Wow. Fun. He's a leer co. Owner can't touch it. We add dream rentals all knick offs he snickers lol. Mrsp on the window or dash discretely. They go. Macs idea. Huge lots full of cj7, jagxj, ferrari, lambo, Harleys, (Harleys start at our cruiser price 3000) big ones all 2021. All replicas to a tee. Huge crowds. Full line of SIM now. Super car flying car lic required. SIM campers for rent off airport alley. Full replica model A Model T are faster with modern controls and safety features. 50s cruisers like the 56 Chevy Bellaire, chopped T Buckets, street rods but of famous ones, Arlen ness replicas, all for sale yes but rent at the airport here as a test.

Today. Kit car, Smokey and the bandit trans am, mustang boss, 69 firebird with changing color feature you command, and a 68 Firebird same feature, Hitler's car, lots of firsts replicated. The general Lee same coloring. Reservations full we bring more

Huge ones supernatural baby, gran torino, general Lee, bandits car, Laura Lee's midget, giant calls for others we make tons if requests. Kathy Lee Perry's ferrari, pinklambo, the lady they say is me motorbikes as a set usually and her car the lambo, titanic man his lamb, will ferrels race car his daddy's car tons for them, pretty in pink porches , buellers Ferrari, Simon and Simons pick up gnarly, tradingbplaces rolls, now introducing the beetles rolls. Calls for it and through the roof. And a signed Elvis Cadillac authorized by the Presley family. Tjey try it Cadillac taxi Elvis SIM replica undercover. Lol. Toms laugh what does that do. JFK Lincoln , he was in it on the girls side. The whole time Father and Mother say...mb moved yup hecsays.

Tommy a driving missed it on him.

Sees it now poops.

Caa full line including the dirt bikes street legal. He was so much fun at night a nice warm summer night by the beach is perfect. We ask Posiden to help he agrees opens a plant near Florida now. Orders are in.

All were Japanese bikes. They flood the ten kiosks in Charlotte and Sarasota call look online. Wow. Fun. Huge the bikes lol.

All perfect replica. The Kawasaki went about 50 2 people on it.

Huge rentals at the airport we drop a huge garage on tonight.

Setup our own automile all cash credit or debit. Instant in most cases if not registered or transferred we drop it at your house same night. Very timely. Employ you lots of times

Hera Zues

Wait till this hits. And our Kaiju Bar is up. One going in in Miami at the airport one in Tampa airport and Sarasota. Superhero Bars not yet Miami yes on the way tonight

Thor Freya

Olympus

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flowing-paint · 6 years

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Time travel

It’s Sunday again and this means a new post on the blog. I actually lost two weeks worth of posts because of my trip back to Italy but I don’t really care: that was an awesome trip and gave me so many inputs and ideas! It was like traveling back in time to high school. Tabletop wargaming speaking, of course! In this post, I will briefly go over the experience and post some pictures of my really (really) old Warhammer Fantasy models. Wanna see them?? Click on the link below! Just be aware: a lot of pictures, so you’re in for a sloppy paint job ride!

So, I was back to my parents’ house where all my pre-Japan nerd stuff is carefully watched after by my Mom. She is not actively caring for it, of course. She just put all the junk in some big cardboard boxes and stuck it in the basement. Luckily our basement is a wine cellar so we have perfect humidity and temperature year round and my Magic The Gathering cards are still doing fine. My Warhammer figurines ended up in the same basement so, one of the first things I did was going downstairs and start digging through all the boxes to find them.

If you follow me on Twitter (unlikely, I know... but there’s still a remote possibility) you probably saw the pictures I took of my old models. Well, not all of them; just a small amount of representative ones my wife wanted me to upload on the blog. At the beginning, she just wanted to see how “good” I was back in the days mainly because she thought she may win a free “make fun of your nerd husband” ticket. However, after seeing the miniatures she thought it would be nice to upload them here: my painting at the time sucked so much that we thought it may be worthwhile to show it to those beginners on the internet that are just moving their first steps in the hobby. You know... just as some motivational stuff.

Taking proper pictures was hard: as I didn’t bring my light-box with me the picture quality is really bad... but, hey! not that I am blaming the pictures for my sloppy paint jobs. They are barely tabletop standard in some case (Skinks, I’m talking to you!) and lack proper contrast in most of the others. I will upload them here so that you all can see how one can evolve from hobby-zero to hobby-hero! (ok, this last one came out a little bit too presumptuous),

Dark Elves

During high school, I was a great fan of Tolkien books.... I still have all of them in my bookshelf. I really liked Elves as they were the most “likable” faction in all books so when I first approached Warhammer Fantasy, Elves was my to go choice. Still, high elves with all their white and pointy faces did not appeal to me too much and the Wood Elves looked more like Robin Hood imitations. So I naturally ended up with the Dark Elves with all their human sacrifices, blood drinking, and naked boobies. Impressive how teenagers mind works (or really, doesn’t). I went with the color scheme suggested in the army book and ended up with some cool looking models. I just happened to make two big mistakes:

I did not coat them when I was done with the painting. Actively playing with them and storing in sub-optimal conditions led to a lot of paint chipping and the models are now completely covered in blemishes.

I left them on display in a bright spot. The UV from the light slowly ate through the paint and the more delicate pigments just died (especially the blue and the yellows)

Read these two points well and avoid the same mistakes! I am coating the models now but the very first units I didn’t protect are to be fully repainted. Do you really want to do it? No, you don’t. Well, maybe, if they were really bad you can think about it.

So, let’s actually see some pictures!

These are the two leaders Malekith, the Witch King on his black dragon and Morathi the witch on her black pegasus. They look like they’re black only while the wings and some part of the body were painted with a blue-violet gradation.... that’s totally gone. I also urge you to focus on the bases: yes, that was the “only” style back in the days. Goblin green and flock aplenty! I may actually say I was going fancy as you can see a couple of stones and a log on the lady’s base.

Not sure about the name of the first one but the second one is an assassin. I remember using these two guys a lot: they were good at killing big stuff so I recall using them against my friend’s chaos demons. Not that I was able to win easily because, back in the days, chaos was super-overpowered!

Dark Elves are rich in witches.... like, literally everybody is a witch. Even the supreme commander/king. They use to hang around a boiling cauldron full of blood they used to do sacrifices and magical rituals. I clearly remember the cauldron being one of my favorite models back in the day: the machine itself is still super cool. What I didn’t really like were the witches themselves: they show how bad GW miniatures were then... super ugly. I mean, look at them.... I can’t believe I painted 20 of them...

Last, one of the few ranged units in the army, the Reaper bolt thrower. It was really useful when all other units were basically close combat. I only had a 10 man unit of bolt thrower equipped infantry and I was just flying forward with my big guys and charging with cold ones. Mmmm.. not the best strategy. That’s probably why I didn’t win too much with these guys.

Lizardmen

This is still my favorite army by a long stretch. I won big games with them and I mean that all my friends hated playing against them and kept asking for the Dark Elves... But do you really want to know the best thing of all? I had 90% of the army for free. I’m talking being in the right place at the right time. I was shopping with all my friends in a small shop that was my FLGS at the time and the owner came and asked all of us: anybody into starting Lizardmen? Back in the high school, we didn’t have money and, as you know, GW stuff may be pretty expensive.... so everybody went like “no thanks, I already play xxx”. I was the only one that actually replied differently; something along the lines “No, thanks... I don’t have money. But I wish I had ‘cause they look epic!”. That’s when the store owner replied “Then you’re in luck! I don’ want money for them: here you are. pick this bag and have fun!”. We had just realized the store was going out of business and he was giving away bargains but nobody wanted lizardmen because of the sheer number of dudes required. I just got a bag full of them and my friends kept blabbing about my luck for months. I’m still in love with them, their mesoamerican Aztec-like fluff and their tactics so I am still collecting them even in the new Age of Sigmar. I wish I could rebase them all easily.

Let’s move on to some pics!

Aerial view of a “typical” battle configuration. With 90% less skinks... I mean, I was fielding 100ds of skins. On average. They were able to fire two arrows in a row and were super-cheap. I like old skinks way more than present skinks. They were actually useful back then.

My favorite unit in the whole game. They were three flame throwers.. pretty solid ones! A salamander and 2 handlers got lost somehow... They kept killing tons of foes while being pretty resistant too. I was really happy to see they didn’t get nerfed in the AoS warscrolls! The color scheme was completely original... the suggested colors were greenish IIRC but as you all know I am not a big fan of “standard” colors.

The general of my army, the Slann is being carried around by 4 Saurus temple guards. This dude was a beast! But he actually looks like he was painted with my toes... unfortunately. I remember I had to paint him fast to field him in a game... but now I regret doing it. I should have taken more time to do it better. He is not even washed! Guys, please treat your generals with some more respect than I did....

Prehistoric flyers... this model actually looks good. It clearly shows what the protective coat does... he was out in the light with the dark elves but the blue is still there and the red is still bright. Game-wise... Terradon suck. I should try the new flyers, the “ripperdactyls”

I also had a lot of characters to field from the crazy cavalry dude on an enraged horned one (Inxi huinzi) to the snake priest (Tehenhauin) and the blow-machinegun (Oxyotl). I think I had even more but I’m not super-sure. Here are the pics I shot.

I think we can consider ourselves done with pictures.... I have some more but basically, this is it! What do you guys think? Did looking at this metric crapton of sloppy minis motivate you? I hope it did ‘cause it motivated me to repaint them! Maybe somewhere in the future... who knows. Or maybe I’ll give them to my son when he will grow up and let him have fun with them. After stripping them of course... luckily they are all metal!

To close this long post, I just anticipate that looking at my old minis I also had some proxy ideas for my AoS armies that I will show you next week! Stay tuned!

... game on!

#painting #Warhammer #age of sigmar #aos #oldhammer #Lizardmen #seraphon

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vesperlionheart · 7 years

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Fluff Friday Rusted

(I’m super late and super sorry)

“I’ve never seen a synthetic rusted over before.”

Sakura drew up the bottom of her face scarf and narrowed her eyes over the edge. “That’s because they don’t. This one’s been damaged and parts have been replaced with subpar metal works.”

Kain didn’t draw up her face scarf but let it flap under her chin, unbothered by the grains of granting sand that occasionally would fly her way. It was windy in the Country of Wind, but not that windy. “He must have been terrible if someone chose to patch him up like that instead of take him to an Industry facility.”

Sakura looked over at her friends with tired eyes. “Don’t joke.”

Karin scratched at the corner of her skin. “They have to have something here they could use.”

“Not since their open rebellion against the Country of Fire. Here’s a bite of history for you if integrating is truly something you want, when our enemies tried to bring us down we made sure they couldn’t stand up again. In retaliation my father’s units raised the lands and destroyed all advanced technologies. It’s taken them years to scrape together this much.”

“I thought your teammate and the new Wind Leader are friends. Isn’t Naruto gonna do something about this then?”

Sakura didn’t answer right away. They were standing across the street in the market while the rest of the world flowed around them like fish in a current. She was still staring at the red haired synthetic unit with the one bad arm made out of metal and rust that likely wasn’t even connected to any rural circuitry. From the elbow down it was an ugly sight that reminded her a little too well of her own war scars.

The androids face found her and didn’t look away. Parts of him were ugly and rusted, but he had the face of an angel.

She was crossing the street before she knew what she was doing. The seller wrapped up in ugly tan rags smiled through the folds to see her approach and jumped in front of his unit to snag her attention. “Only the finest for exotic beauties such as yourself, pretty lady. Behold the sweet spices of a desert land.” He then went off of a rave about the different spices that would cure her love life, bring her fertility, stimulate her acuity, heal a sore throat, and keep her young. Suna was nothing if not sexist at its core.

The redhead watched her without blinking the entire time Either he lacked the emotional intelligence that synthetics were famous for, or he knew he was being unsettling and didn’t care. It was hard to place his year or model, since he seemed so customized.

“It smells.”

Karin’s voice broke into Sakura’s senses and she turned to see her friend working the seller with her usual routine. When bartering, Karin didn’t bother to try and hide the fact that she had money, but complimented it with a disdain that managed to middle prices down to suit her needs.

“Is there truly something here you might need?” Sakura sighed, walking over to stand behind Karin’s shoulder and look out to the market road.

“I’m looking, such,” Karin playfully hissed, smacking her friend lightly. Sakura let her. It was all part of the act. After a few minutes of haggling Karin managed to get a price she liked for the tea spices that was a deal to both parties.

The man was scooping the dried spices into a silk bag for her when he looked to Sakura and asked, “And what does your heart desire?”

Sakura was about to tell him goodbye or maybe just walk away, but the glint of light on gold metal made her stop. “I want that AMD chip around your neck.”

She had said it so casually he didn’t miss a beat tying up the silk bag, but once the words registered his hands stopped. Slowly, greedy little eyes looked up to her and she knew he was willing to sell.

“Oh, that will cost you.”

“I’m sure it will, but you’re over pricing the hunk of junk if he’s already missing visible parts. Do you even know his make and model?”

“He’s pre war, but not by much. He was part of the last line we ever put out, the most advanced!”

Sakura studied the synthetic carefully, tilting her head to one side and playing up her inspection. She let her eyes run over his form and then trail away as if she had seen all of him and found herself wanting. “That may be the case, but that was an entire generation ago. We’ve made leaps and bounds in technology since then. What was his designation?”

“He was a custom model.”

Karin snickered behind Sakura. “With a face like that he was probably a love model.”

Sakura wanted to roll her eyes. He had a pretty face, but he was way too stern and unnerving for such sensitive work.

“You don’t have a certificate of imprint?” Sakura asked, glancing to the chip on a chain around the man’s neck.

“Don’t need one. He needs this and it’s just as good if you’ve got it on you.” The old man grinned wide. “So, what’s he worth to you.”

“Probably not what you want or him considering the models we can get back in our country.”

Karin huffed, “You mean the models you can get. Some of us still don’t pass the bar exam yet.”

Owning synthetics in the Land of Fire was rare due to the fact that only specific, qualified individuals could keep them. Sakura was highly qualified in her position so close to the Hokage, but she had never taken one for herself. Last she checked, she qualified for a total of four units, but that was many months ago. It might have gone up again.

“He’s not built with the silly safeguards you’re so insistent on. He’s from the golden age in the golden country,” the man went on. “He’s worth 1,000,000 ryō to me.”

“I’m sure he is, but that’s what we get paid for S Class missions and you must think too highly of me for that. I’ll do…sixty for him.”

“You insult me.”

It begun and between the two of them the back and forth banter last a total of fifteen minutes with plenty of pro and cons being thrown out all while the unit sat, without speaking or moving. Finally Sakura got him down to 85 and that was only after she pulled out that much money and showed it to him. That was a lot of money to be carrying around in Suna and it might have made him think her foolish for it, if not for the fact that she equated his price with an S Class Mission. That factoid had flavored the tone of negotiations favorably for her.

He took the money greedily and handed over the card. “Have fun.”

Sakura held onto the chip and looked up at the unit. He still didn’t blink. “What’s your name?” she asked.

It was a heartbeat later before he answered. “Sasori of the Red Sand.”

“Sasori, it’s nice to meet you. Will you come with me now?”

“No.”

Karin had been looking off but turned around suddenly. “No?” she nearly screeched. “What you mean no? You cost a small house.”

Sakura rubbed the card between her fingers and the adhesive design began to peel off. Fake. She turned her eyes to the seller, but Karin was already screaming at his empty seat, cursing out the old man. Sasori didn’t move and Sakura didn’t react. Behind her face cloth she schooled her emotions back into something close to calm. She knew the old man’s scent. She could find him later.

“Why not?” Sakura asked, looking back at Sasori. “Are you calibrated to someone already?”

“Not since the war, no.”

Sakura nodded slowly. “Then the man I just did business with…why were you with him?”

Sasori held up his rusted arm. “He gave me this. I had no other purpose or place to be. I can do as I please from his shadow well enough.”

“Do you want to stay here with that man?” Sakura asked.

His expression shifted for the first time and Sakura started to feel a thrill of hope that there was something more to his programing. “You ask me a question.”

“Do you?”

“I’ll pay my debts.”

“I actually just paid your debts.”

His face shifted again and there was a cut of humor to the curve of his lips. “You are not the first one he’s sold me to, and maybe not the last. I’ll stay here, I think. I don’t have a reason to leave.”

Sakura felt pieces of a puzzle fall into place. “You were a military unit. One of my mentors told me of a line based off the Suna zodiac. Sasori means scorpion, doesn’t it?”

The muted disinterest that softened his posture was from the war, and she kicked herself for not recognizing it right away. It was the same way Kakashi held himself. He hadn’t been programed without emotions, but with enough to feel depression and trauma.

Her right hand tingled.

The Zodiac unit were elite solo operatives on the field, loyal to the Kazekage, but once that man was killed their purpose died with him. The old country collapsed and became something new. His place was gone, but there was no where else for him to be.

The loyalty to the man who gave him that arm made sense, the stories said the old Zodiacs were built with traditional values of chivalry and virtue. They were the golden heroes for the golden country.

No wonder the line didn’t circulate well. No one in Suna wanted virtue anymore. They just wanted water and food and maybe a bit of blood now and then. Among his own people there wasn’t really a place for him anymore.

“Is there any hope that I might convince you to come with me?” Sakura asked.

“No, and not to the Land of Fire.”

“Is there nothing you want?”

He looked her over again, staring at her with searching eyes. “You ask odd questions for a human speaking with a synthetic. Are you not used to treating others like they are inferior, or is that only when you’re bartering for them?”

“I think there is something you want, but you don’t know how to get it. You might not even know what it is, but you haven’t felt right in a long time.”

Sasori watched her, wordlessly. Ever so slightly, his body turned towards her, listening.

Sakura pulled back her cloak and extended an arm. She spread her fingers, rolled her wrist and showed off the pale peach color and style before extending it to him. She beckoned with her fingers and he hesitated only once before reaching out to shake her hand with his metal one.

“That hand served you well but mine serves me better.”

With their hands still held, Sakura pulled at the pin in her arm and there was a light as her arm separated from the socket that fit over her scarred biceps. A myriad of glowing green wires extended between the socket and her arm end before snapping off and winding back up into the socket.

Sasori’s eyes seemed to be more alive than before as he looked over her false arm with new interest. She watched his mouth part as he ran his fingers over the knuckles.

“Where?” he asked.

“I designed and built it. I’ll do the same for you, that was my plan anyway. It’s the reason I wanted you. That arm you’re wearing doesn’t suit you.”

There was real want in his eyes as he looked up at her. “But why would you pay so much for the trouble of such labor?”

The hand that wasn’t metal supported her elbow while the metal one still held her at the hand, fingers almost interlocked.

The green wires snaked out of her socket and connected with the end of her detached arm like opposite magnets seeking out each other. Across the distance, Sakura’s wires tugged and her arm came back, sliding seamlessly into place as the tissue over the socket stretched and smoothed. She was seamlessly human once more, flexing her fingers and rolling her wrist with all the grace it took to tickle strings on a violin.

“I like pretty thing.”

She offered him her newly attached hand once more, but this time it was an offering and not a handshake.

“So, what do you say?”

#Sasori #Sakura #sasosaku #Fluff Friday #my writings

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