#when talking about Mister five sentences in seven years

[nonepizzawithleftglitter]

Anyone else ever have completely random, totally unsupported headcanons?

Like, I headcanon that Ayala utterly despises the new grey uniforms. For no reason. There is no support for it whatsover yet it sneaks its way into every single fanfic I write.

#Mike Ayala #star trek voyager #headcanon #star trek #admittedly #it's hard to find canoncical support #when talking about Mister five sentences in seven years #but STILL #ayala thoughts

[helpimhyperfixating]

Photos and Crushes - Cowboy AU Jotaro x Reader P1

Look, I’ve been playing some Red Dead Redemption 2 again and I just got this idea. Sooo, rooty-tooty-guns-n-shootie, takes place in 1887 ish, America.

Part 2  |  Part 3

Word Count: 7704

You are a kindhearted, positive, gentle person. Despite the harsh reality you live in, you try to see the good in people, even if it sometimes might not be there.

It has gotten you into plenty of trouble before but, it has gotten you so much more positivity as well.

Jotaro was one of those positive points. Angry, aggressive and dangerous in the eyes of others, you were one of the few who didn’t judge him for how he looked and carried himself. And thus, a miraculous friendship was born.

Whenever you would hang out together, people would always be wary of the strange duo, more so for your safety than what you would be up to. But you never paid them any mind. If they wanted to judge Jotaro, that was fine, but you wouldn’t let it ruin the time you had with him.

Jotaro, of course, noticed all the stares and whispers, but he didn’t give a shit.

When he had met you two years ago, you were being cornered by a couple of guys who had taken advantage of your kindness, pretending to ask if you could lead them to the general store, only to drag you into a secluded alleyway.

It just so happened that Jotaro had been across the street, seeing you happily chatting about the town to the boys, oblivious to the malicious glint in their eyes.

At first he didn’t want to get involved. He had seen you around before but never talked to you and if you were dumb enough to not see their true motive, why should he involve himself? But then you looked around and crossed eyes with him, and instead of instant swooning or darting your eyes away and cowering in fear, you sent him a polite smile and a wave, since you recognised him from around town. It surprised him, seeing you act so casually and greet him like a person.

Gritting his teeth, Jotaro looked down at his feet for a second, grabbing the bill of his hat in frustration, only to abruptly let it go and stand up, discreetly starting to follow you and the boys.

Not a few minutes later and the boys executed their plan, pulling you into an abandoned alley, much to your surprise. They didn’t get even twenty seconds before Jotaro slinked up behind them. Just the image and threat of the imposing nineteen year old was enough to get the boys to scamper off with their tails between their legs.

Upon being saved, you practically dragged Jotaro along, insisting on paying him a drink as thanks and from there on, the two of you hit it off.

Ever since then, you two regularly hung out. And Jotaro had taken it upon himself to become your self-appointed bodyguard.

Right now he was headed to the church.

The town you two lived in was of moderate size and, since there were so many people in one place, a small church was built there. But Jotaro wasn’t going to the church so he could pray to God, no, he was going because you were there.

He knew you had started teaching kids how to read. Most of them were homeless, piss-poor or sticky-fingered little brats, but you taught them all the same.

Jotaro had once pointed it out and asked if you knew what those kids were actually up to every day. You had answered with a shrug, saying it didn’t matter and that you just wanted to help them. Jotaro had just grumbled at that and pulled his hat down. It didn’t matter to him, as long as they kept their grubby hands off of your belongings and didn’t harm you.

He rounded a corner and the church finally came into view further down the dirt-path. For a second, Jotaro reconsidered whether he wanted to visit you or not. He had nothing to do and wanted to share in your company, but he also knew that if you weren’t done teaching yet, you would not go with him until you were; which would mean Jotaro either had to leave with his tail between his legs in front of a bunch of brats, or he had to sit down and endure their incessant squabbling.

Shaking his head, he just decided to go for it. Regrettably enough, Jotaro just really wanted to see you right now. Recently, a gang of thieves and murderers had swept through town and pretty much everyone had been holed up inside, making him unable to see or spend time with you.

Finally reaching the church, he looked past the gates to see you sitting on the steps, about eight kids with you, of which five were sitting around you, while the other three were fooling around on the small grass churchyard that sat in front of the steps.

God, you were beautiful. Jotaro could immediately tell some of these kids were violent, thieves and just straight nasty, yet you talked with them as if they were your own.

Your own.

Jesus, how his stomach twisted at the thought. You both were 21 now and Jotaro knew he should be looking to the future. If there was someone he wanted to be with, it was you. And just the thought of you, your belly swollen with his child? It shook him to the core.

As he reached the gate, he must have stared at you for a little too long because as soon as he had put two steps inside, the three boys that were kicking around on the grass stopped in front of him, seeming to be between the ages of eleven to thirteen.

“Whoa there, mister! What do you think you’re doing?” The dirty blond to his right said and Jotaro looked down at the boys, raising an eyebrow at them for stopping him. “We don’t like that look in your eyes.” The boy continued.

“Yeah, need we remind you you are on church grounds?”

“What were you staring at Miss Y/N for, mister? What do you want with her?” The third kid spoke up and Jotaro was now annoyed, feeling ticked off at their questioning.

“That’s my business, now get out of my way.” He glared, but though he could see he scared them, they held their ground.

“No! We are not letting you hurt her!”

“You wanna fight for it? Let’s go then!” The one right in front put his fists up.

“Yare yare daze, just move, kid.” Jotaro sighed, tilting his hat over his eyes to stay calm.

“Now you’ve done it! Haaa-!” The blond yelled out, punching Jotaro in the stomach, but the man didn’t even flinch. The kid’s eyes went big.

He looked to his friends for help and they got the hint, all three of them now rearing up for an attack as they each shouted a battle cry, going to throw punches while Jotaro grit his teeth in annoyance. As much as he despised these little shits, he couldn’t punch them, and so he just decided to let them vent and then move on.

Someone else however, heard the screaming. “Hey! What’s going o-! Oh! Hey, Jotaro!”

Your sudden happy greeting stopped the boys in their tracks and two of them stumbled as they made their punches go wide to miss the intimidating man.

Jotaro put his hand up in greeting and you beamed a smile, much to the confusion of the kids. You excused yourself from the five around you and walked over.

“So, what’s going on here?” You asked sweetly, yet there was a warning undertone in your voice.

“N-Nothing!” The blond squeaked, holding a not so convincing smile, his face screaming ‘guilty’.

“Good grief, I told you they were brats.” Jotaro once again lowered his hat over his eyes, feeling a kick to his shin that made him glare at the boy beside him, instantly making him run off in fear, the other two following not a second later.

“Oi, don’t be mean to my kids.” You scolded him, rapping your knuckles on the top of his head.

“They’re not your kids.” Jotaro deadpanned and you sputtered a bit.

“Yeah, well, not technically no, but-“

“That little shit stole from me two weeks ago.” He pointed to the auburn haired boy that had been standing to his left earlier.

“He did? What did he steal?” You questioned, your brows furrowing.

“Pack of cigarettes and my lighter. That shit ain’t cheap you know.” He grumbled as he stuffed his hands in his pockets.

“Oi, stop swearing every other sentence. You’re on church grounds.” You lightly smacked him on the chest while Jotaro just gave you a look that said ‘does it look like I care?’. “So... why are you here?” You then asked, diverting the subject.

“Just came by to see you.” Jotaro shrugged.

“Aw, how sweet.” You teased a little but a small blush did make its way onto your cheeks, making Jotaro’s heart skip a beat. Could that mean you...? No, he shouldn’t jump to conclusions. “Why don’t you come sit down?” You suddenly asked and Jotaro looked down at you.

“No, I don’t-“

“Too bad, too late!” You grinned as you grabbed his hand out of his pocket and dragged him back to the stairs with you, not even giving him any time to protest. “Everyone, this is Jotaro! Jotaro, this is everyone.” You smiled as you introduced him to the terrified kids on the stairs.

A small girl then slowly stepped forward, her hair almost white-blonde and braided in two braids down the sides of her head.

She looked up at Jotaro with big eyes, the man staring back, before smiling wide, holding her arms up at him and making grabby hands. “Uh.” Jotaro hesitantly looked at you while you just held the biggest smile.

“That’s Amelia, she’s seven years old and mute.” You explained before urging Jotaro with your eyes to do as she asked and pick her up.

Sighing, he leaned down and grabbed the girl under her armpits, easily lifting her up into his arms and looping an arm under her to hold her. Amelia immediately wrapped her tiny arms around his neck, smiling brightly as she looked into his eyes.

Jotaro averted his gaze from the girl in his arms, over to you, to see you nearly melting on the spot. He rolled his eyes in response to you freaking out. “Happy?” He grumbled out and you just nodded vehemently.

A tugging broke Jotaro from watching you and he looked down behind him to see a little boy tugging on his pants, pointing up at him.

“You want to go up too?” You questioned and the boy nodded enthusiastically, shouting out a ‘yeah!’.

“Wait, Y/N-“ Before he could do anything about it, you had lifted the boy and placed him on Jotaro’s back, letting him cling by himself since Jotaro was using both hands to hold the girl.

You couldn’t help but laugh at the disgruntled look on Jotaro’s face as the boy giggled loudly, clinging tightly on his back.

The other children were suddenly a lot less terrified, as two others stood up and started tugging on his pants as well. It was clear that the younger kids had stayed around you as you taught the lesson, while the older three had drifted a bit away. This meant however, that Jotaro was now surrounded by small kids, two of them on top of him.

“I’m not a horse you know.” He grumbled, looking at the two hanging on his pants a little warily, watching where they put their hands.

“You’re not, but you’re just as tall, if not taller, and a lot less dangerous.” You grinned, earning a glare from the man though you knew there was no real hostility in it.

Just then, the doors to the church opened and a nun came walking out. “Ah, miss L/N! How goes the reading?” She questioned and you turned your gaze from watching Jotaro, to the nun.

“Ah! It’s going fine, thank you! And thank you again for letting me use this space.” You smiled sweetly.

“Of course, our doors are open for you anytime.” The nun smiled back before turning to see the remarkable sight of Jotaro, surrounded by kids, holding a small girl while another child clung to his back. “Mr. Kujo.” She smiled, pleasantly surprised.

“Hello, Sister.” Jotaro greeted back. He may be a hardass, but he at least had respect for those who deserved it, unlike a lot of other people.

“It is good to see you again. Coming to visit Y/N I see?” She smiled and Jotaro dipped his head a little in response, both as a way to answer yet also as a way to hide his eyes from the Sister, for he knew she could look through him as though he was shouting out his thoughts and emotions. “Well, no matter.” The nun smiled slyly to herself, seeing through the action. “Who here is hungry?” She then spoke out a little louder and almost every tiny head perked up.

You giggled at the sight and swiftly moved to behind Jotaro, grabbing onto the boy hanging there and lifting him down from his back while Jotaro himself carefully sat the girl down. In a matter of seconds, all of the kids were lined up in a row and quickly started following the nun into the church, the doors closing behind them and leaving you and Jotaro on the steps.

“Whoo, they are always a lively bunch.” You chuckled, turning a little to face Jotaro before walking up to the stairs and sitting down on them, grabbing the book you had been working on with them, as well as the notebook and pencil.

“What book were you reading?” Jotaro asked, sitting down next to you. You took notice of how close he sat though, his arm touching yours as you sat side by side.

“King Arthur and the knights of the round table.” You said it in a fancy manner and held the book up for him as he took it from your hands.

“Knights? Really?” He scoffed as he briefly leafed through the pages and you playfully bumped your shoulder into his.

“Hey! It’s good for their imagination.” You chuckled. “Besides, it needs to be engaging for them. Lord knows I can’t try to teach them to read with the kinds of books you read. ‘How wagons are assembled’ or ‘how nature works’. Oh! Oh! ‘How a steam train or steam boat functions’.” You giggled a little as you poked fun at him, lowering your voice near the end to match his as best you could as you spoke.

“That’s not what I sound like.” Jotaro rolled his eyes, but the corner of his mouth quirked up.

“Sure you don’t, tough boy.” You leaned forward until you could look at him from under the brim of his hat, now hovering over his lap as you cocked your head with a smirk. “I have heard you rant about inventions and discoveries made more than anyone else, I’m pretty sure.”

Jotaro just scoffed and looked to the side, unable to hide his slightly embarrassed blush since you were right below him. Oh god, you were right below him, your face so close to his. He only needed to lean down a little and- Clearing his throat, Jotaro leaned back a bit, giving himself some space and prompting you to sit up again, none the wiser from what was going through his head.

“Hey, did you know they were setting up a new shop last week? Apparently you can get your picture taken there.” You suddenly started, looking forward through the churchyard as you mused.

“Oh?” Jotaro spoke, trying to sound disinterested yet listening intently.

“Would you... perhaps want to take a picture with me there?” You hesitantly asked and Jotaro’s heart skipped a beat though he didn’t show it. “I always wanted to see what I would look like on one of those.”

“Not very different from what you look like when you look in a mirror.” Jotaro cringed at how roughly that came out but he had said it before he could stop himself. He just hoped it didn’t dissuade you from wanting to take a picture with him.

“Say, are you insulting me, Mr. Kujo?” You teased lightheartedly, nudging him again and a tiny relieved smile played on Jotaro’s lips.

“I wouldn’t dream of ever insulting you.”

“Alright, now I know you’re just taking a piss.” You laughed. “Either way, what do you say we-!” You suddenly stopped your excited exclamation, catching Jotaro’s attention. “Oh wait, it’d probably cost a lot huh? Shoot, never mind, we can go do something else...” You deflated but quickly shook it off, perking up in feigned happiness again. “Do you have anything in mind!?”

Jotaro however, studied your face close. He hated to see how your excitement got washed away so quickly. “Yare yare.” Standing up from the stairs, he held his right hand out to you.

“Oh, you’ve got something?” You asked, seemingly back to your happy self as you put your hand in his and allowed him to pull you up.

“Let’s go get that picture taken.”

Your face turned into shock as he said that. “Wait, really? But I just said- I- you- You mean you’ll pay?”

“As long as I can be in it as well, yes.” Jotaro gently tugged your hand, still holding onto it as he now used it to coax you along. “Let’s go then, we don’t know when it closes and it is getting late.”

Jotaro started walking, very consciously keeping hold of your hand. As you fell into step with him, excitedly buzzing, he made a bold move as he re-gripped your hand to fit more comfortably in his; as if you were intentionally holding hands from the beginning instead of just still awkwardly holding on after Jotaro pulled you to your feet.

You didn’t seem any wiser while Jotaro felt his heart pounding in his throat, relishing in how his hand fit around yours, your hand unconsciously still holding onto his. He was so tempted to rub his thumb over the back of your palm or to actually entwine his fingers with yours, but decided against it since that would definitely draw your attention to your hands and he didn’t want that. Right now, he would just hold on, silently musing to himself how small your hand was compared to his and how right it felt to have your hand sat in his.

In this moment, it was one of the few times Jotaro was actually glad for your obliviousness.

It didn’t take long for the two of you to reach the photography shop and you both stood in front of the door, slogans and examples of pictures slapped everywhere to lure people in.

‘Get your photo taken with your loved one and display the memory, so you may never forget!’

That and more was plastered on the display window, yet Jotaro couldn’t take his eyes off of that particular one. ‘With your loved one’. His attention automatically reverted back to how you were still holding hands and he had to try everything in his power to keep his face from heating up.

“Let’s go in!” You jumped once, breaking him out of his focus as you started dragging him to the door, opening it not a second later, the tall male in tow.

“Good afternoon, how can I help the lovely couple tonight?” A man standing in front of a camera asked when he saw you two come in, hand in hand.

“Oh, uh. We’re, uh.” Your face burst into flame as he commented that, your eyes drifted up to Jotaro and then to your entwined hands, realising you were still holding onto him.

You quickly made a move to let him go but Jotaro kept holding on, preventing you from pulling away as he squeezed your hand a little tighter.

“We’re here to get a picture taken, old man. What else.” He snapped a little and you sighed good-naturedly. Good ol’ Jotaro: intimidating people and being scary upon meeting them for the first time.

“Oh, haha, of course.” The owner chuckled nervously, though you swore you could hear him mutter a ‘I’m not that old’ as he turned to check his camera. “Uhm, you can just take your place in front of the background there.” He then smiled, motioning to the wall the camera was set up in front of.

The ‘background’ was a painting of an open plain, a rock formation with a modest waterfall in the back, as well as an eagle in the right hand corner.

Your jittery yet excited nerves for doing this came back, making you forget the flustering comment of the shop owner and you started walking towards the wall.

“Hope it’s gonna turn out alright.” You grinned up at Jotaro and he sent you a rare reassuring smile. It was small, but it was there, and suddenly, you were completely calm and ready to get this photo taken. The two of you took your place, Jotaro standing right up against you, making you blush.

“Alright.” The owner nervously rubbed his hands together, obviously still a bit scared of the nearly two meter tall man in black. “Ah, you are already in the perfect positions, you are naturals at this.” He tried to crack a joke but it came out a little awkward and he cleared his throat. “Look here please.” The man pointed at a spot right above the camera before ducking behind the device.

And just like that, the photos were taken.

After this entire time, Jotaro relinquished his hold on your hand, figuring it was best to let go, lest he was too obvious and even you would notice. Hell you, probably already did but thought nothing of it. Your obliviousness shining through again.

In the end, the two of you picked out the two best ones, nearly identical, and took one each.

That night, as Jotaro walked back home, he admired the photograph in his hand. He didn’t care much for how he looked in it, but it was the exact opposite with you. You looked so happy in it. Your smile shining bright and your energy nearly radiating off of it even through the photo. Yet what Jotaro treasured more than all in it, was the way your hands were entwined in the photo. Right in the middle, screaming for him to look at it. And look he did, feeling his cheeks heat up a little.

Opening the door to his home, he was immediately bombarded as his mother latched to him, wrapping her arms around his torso.

“Jotaro, you’re home!” She cheered happily. “You missed dinner so I put some to the side for you.” She smiled and Jotaro just huffed a little, pushing her off of himself. He wasn’t even hungry, he just wanted to go to bed.

That wish was short-lived however, as someone suddenly tackled him from behind, making him face plant into the floor.

“Jotaro! My boy!” The oh-so familiar voice of his grandfather sounded.

Question marks went off in the younger man’s head. His mother hadn’t told him the old man was coming for a visit?

“Get off.” Jotaro grunted as he attempted to shake his grandpa off but it was futile, as Joseph instead put him into a deadlock, pulling his arm behind his back and trapping it there, which made his eyes widen. The fucking photograph was in that hand and if that old man got even a single crinkle or fold in it, he would have his head.

“Good evening, Jotaro.” A familiar accented voice spoke and Jotaro looked up from under his hat to see Caesar sitting in the arm chair facing him, giving a disappointed look at Joseph.

“Caesar.” Jotaro grunted back a greeting as Joseph found that exact moment to twist his arm a little further.

“Oh, what’s this?” The voice on top suddenly curiously spoke and Jotaro felt the photograph be swiped from his fingers, making his eyes widen.

His grandfather was an expert at pinning people down thanks to years of random fights and being friends with Caesar. Yet you should never underestimate a desperate man trying to keep his dignity who also has a temper to match.

Thanks to Joseph using one hand to look at the paper in his hand, he had lost his hold on Jotaro’s right arm and the young man took full use of it.

Pushing himself up a bit, he threw the older man off of himself and turned around to swipe the photo back, but Joseph was way quicker and had used the momentum to get to his feet and run over to Caesar, standing behind his chair as he turned the paper around, feasting his eyes on the photo again.

“What’s this, Jotaro? Who’s that with you?” He asked in disbelief and Jotaro clenched his jaw. His mother, upon hearing her father say the sentence, zipped over and curiously looked at the photo as well, gasping a little once she saw it, before looking up at her son and sending him a giant grin.

Jotaro pulled his hat down a little and stomped over, attempting to swipe at the photo. “Give it back.” He growled as he tried to grab it, but Joseph moved it out of his reach.

“No way! You have some explaining to do, I mean, you’re smiling in this!”

“I’m not.” Jotaro grumbled, once again lunging forward to get it back, but Joseph tittered away, way too giddy and happy about what he was finding out about his grandson.

“Yes you are! Look! It’s small, but it’s there!” He turned the photo around and pointed at Jotaro’s face in it. Holly took a closer look and her proud grin grew even more.

“Would you stop, old man? It’s nothing, so just give it back.” Jotaro once again walked across the room to try and reach his grandfather, but Joseph danced out of his grasp once more, skipping over to Caesar who had stayed seated in this entire ordeal and showing the photo to his lifelong friend.

“Look Caesar! You see it too right?”

Caesar, who had had his eyes closed, opened them and slowly looked up at Joseph, grasping the photo with his left hand before harshly grasping his friend’s wrist, prying his hand away from the photo before getting out of the chair and moving over to the younger man.

“Here you go.” He spoke as he returned the photo.

“Thanks.” Jotaro spoke, a little unsure of what to say.

“Tell her how you feel soon. Don’t let it slip through your fingers.” Jotaro blinked a few times, feeling his face heat up a little as the Italian man gave the advice, speaking loud enough for only him to hear it. With a soft tug, he pulled down the brim of his hat over his eyes and nodded, quickly making his way out of the room so he could finally just go to bed.

As he walked through the hall, he heard his grandpa’s despairing cries, questioning Caesar why he would do that, and a small smirk appeared on Jotaro’s face. He could always trust in Caesar.

- - - -

Two weeks had passed and Jotaro was sitting on the steps of the church. To his left, he heard your gentle and caring voice reading passages of the book to the kids around. To his right, the little girl, Amelia, was practically glued to his hip as he read his own book, just silently sitting through your class.

He had been doing this more and more frequently, just coming by every once in a while, not really saying anything and just sitting with you as you taught the kids.

As he turned the page of his book, he suddenly felt something being lifted from his front pocket however and he snapped his head up, looking to his left to see the dirty blond, who he now knew as Jack, lifting his pocket watch from its place. The boy immediately noticed he was found out and bolted, laughing as he ran across the grass to the fences on the other side.

Jotaro however, was pissed as he slammed his book shut and walked over to Jack with large strides. “Give it back.” He spoke lowly, a threatening glare directed at the boy.

Jotaro physically saw him gulp, smirking a little to himself to see he still had his intimidating presence with these kids. But it was short lived, since Jack seemingly found a bit of courage again - continuing on with the plan, unknown to Jotaro.

“Why? I’m sure you can buy another one. Unless... this one is special?” Jotaro narrowed his eyes dangerously and Jack could feel his heart hammering in his chest. He clicked open the watch and there was a triumphant glint in his eyes. “Aha.” He spoke and smirked up at Jotaro, only for that smirk to leave as he saw the dangerous aura radiating off of the man. “Tommy!” He yelled and threw the pocket watch, making Jotaro’s heart sink for a moment, scared it would drop on the stone steps and break.

“You little shit.” He glared at Jack before turning around to Tommy, who was standing on the steps of the church.

“Hey, what’s going on!” You called out, looking up from your book while the children around were trying to write letters in your notebook.

Tommy immediately took this chance and rushed over to you when Jotaro started taking threatening strides towards the boy. He didn’t want to hit a kid but so help him god, he would get that pocket watch back. Jotaro wasn’t fast enough however, as Tommy zipped over to you and flipped the pocket watch open, shoving it in your face.

Jotaro faltered in his steps, nervous sweat rolling down the side of his face. Those little brats had planned this all out. They knew. Jotaro hated to say it, but he had made it too obvious that he was sweet on you and they knew.

“Jotaro!” Your exclamation of surprise ripped him from his thoughts and he looked over at you, doing his best to keep an expression of indifference. “How did you manage to do this? I had to make a bigger frame to fit mine!” You turned the pocket watch around so he could see the inside, showing the clock on the right while on the left, on the inside of the cover, he now had a perfect view of the photograph of the two of you that he had stuck in there.

Jack and Tommy groaned while Jotaro’s shoulders slumped a bit. In both relief, as well as disappointment for some reason, seeing you were none the wiser.

Jotaro just waved his hand a bit, dismissing your question as he walked over and took the pocket watch back from you. Looking it over to see if it was damaged but luckily, it wasn’t. Concluding that, he flipped it shut and put it back in the pocket where it belonged.

“Well?” You looked up at him with hopeful and curious eyes and Jotaro pulled his hat down over his face. You looked... cute.

Jotaro didn’t lift his hat as he took his spot next to you again. “I went back and had a photograph taken of the photograph.” He said through gritted teeth, reluctantly telling you how he did it, embarrassment flooding through him over having to admit that.

“Oh, that’s so clever! I should do something like that as well.” You giggled, then dreamingly looked forward.

You were pulled out of it by a small tug on your sleeve. “Miss Y/N, can we have a break?” The small boy asked and you smiled sweetly, nodding.

“Of course, you go ahead and play for a bit.” You shoo’ed all the kids and they erupted into talk and laughter, all of them getting up and finding a place to play.

As the kids were running around a bit during the break, a shadow got cast over a specific pair of boys, making them freeze and slowly turn around to the imposing figure. “Tommy. Jack. Any of you touch my shit ever again and I will make you severely regret it.” The threat and danger in Jotaro’s voice was real and the boys swallowed heavily, nodding frantically before busting out into a sprint, running away as far as possible before squeaking as Jotaro made his way back over to them, since they had ran towards where you sat on the steps and that was where Jotaro wanted to sit down again as well.

“Did you have to scare them like that?” You questioned with a chuckle and Jotaro just huffed in amusement as he sat down.

“Yes. They need to know not to take my stuff.”

“You know, you’re right. That is a good lesson to learn.” You chuckled, only for your smile to slowly dim down as your attention got taken by several pairs of horse hooves thumping across the ground. “What’s that?” You questioned as you looked at the large group of riders, watching them trot closer and closer, slowing down the closer they got to the church. All of them carried rather large guns and other weapons.

You nervously looked up at Jotaro, who had his eyes narrowed as he looked at the large group as well. “Stay alert.” He spoke quietly and you nodded, the both of you getting up.

Jotaro whistled loud and curtly, gaining the attention of all the kids. You quickly motioned your arms for all of them to come, not wanting to verbally shout it just in case the riders would hear and take it the wrong way.

Taking the hint, the kids all started to run into your arms and Jotaro took a step forward, holding his arms out a little to keep you and the children behind him.

Everyone had fearful looks as Amelia was the last to reach you, running behind you and around, hanging on the back of Jotaro’s pants. It wasn’t a few seconds later that the riders all stopped in front of the church.

“Howdy, partner.” The leader of the herd spoke up after a few seconds but Jotaro immediately picked up on the false friendliness in the voice.

“What do you want?” He bit back, glaring vehemently.

“Whoa, so angry.” The man mocked with a large grin, turning back to his friends behind him who laughed softly. “You should show me some respect you know.” He then continued, turning back to Jotaro with that grin still on his face. “Did your momma never teach you respect?” He continued jesting but Jotaro didn’t give any reaction, just holding the intimidating glare on the man.

This made him feel as if he was losing grip of the situation, so the man decided to take another approach and laughed a bit while calling out. “Why don’t I teach you some then?” He jokingly pointed his gun at Jotaro and the children whimpered and gasped in fear from behind him. Your grip on his trenchcoat tightened and Jotaro’s reaction was immediate, his right hand pulling back to behind his back before snapping forward, a gun now pointed at the man’s head.

“Try it.” Jotaro’s voice was low and dangerous and even the rider took note of it. “I know exactly what you’re up to. This is a community church, it has nothing of value for you, so take your little group and piss off. You’re scaring the children.” Jotaro calmly spoke as he stared down the barrel of the gun, showing not even a hint of fear, nervousness or hesitation.

“Now... calm down, friend.” The man tried, re-gripping his gun a little nervously.

“We ain’t friends and you know it. Get the hell away from here.” Jotaro’s hand was as steady as ever, his gun constantly pointed at the man’s head without even a single tremor or twitch from holding the iron up.

This angered the man. “You seem to not understand that you are outnumbered here, friend.” He spoke, calling Jotaro that again on purpose, signalling his mates in the meantime, who all grabbed a gun and pointed it at Jotaro as well.

The children cowered even more, small shrieks leaving them and you tried to shush them. “It’s alright, just stay behind me and Jotaro. You’re alright.” You spoke in a hushed tone, petting the heads of those you could reach. You discreetly saw the door to the church open and saw the Sister poke her head out. You quickly and frantically shook your head, a message for her to stay where she was.

“Are you really going to threaten children on church grounds?” Jotaro questioned calmly and the leader growled a bit in anger.

“Stop acting so smug or I’ll blast your head off! And that of that girl too! Give those brats something to look at!”

“Threaten her again and I’ll make sure you’ll never speak again.” Jotaro’s retort was immediate as he glared at the man, lowering his gun just a little to point directly at the mouth of the loud-mouthed bastard.

“Hit a nerve?” The guy smirked. “I’ll say it again, you’re outnumbered.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure, son.” A new voice spoke up and everyone’s head whipped to the source. “What’s going on here?” The sheriff spoke, tilting his head a little while two of his deputies joined his side, all of them having their hands hovering over the guns strapped to their belts.

Now that there were a lot more possible enemies, the man wavered. Slowly and reluctantly, he lowered his gun. “Nothing, sheriff. Just a bit of harmless fun.” He spoke and his friends took it as a sign to lower their guns as well.

“Was it? ‘Cause as far as I can see you are threatening innocent children. Now, will you move on yourself or will we have a problem?”

“Tch.” The man gritted his teeth before hitting the reins of his horse, simultaneously softly kicking his feet into its belly, making the animal start calmly stepping forward, the rest of his group following his example as they started riding away at a slow pace.

“Follow them and make sure they leave proper.” The sheriff whispered to his deputies before leaving them to their business and walking over to the gate leading into the church grounds.

Jotaro kept his gun up the entire time the gang of riders were riding away, all of them sending occasional glances back that kept Jotaro on high alert. Only once the deputies rode past and started tailing the men did he finally lower it.

Once he un-cocked the gun and sighed out, the children still cowering behind the two of you finally relaxed a little, two of them bursting into tears as the sheriff walked through the fence and towards the steps of the church - to which you immediately started trying to console them.

“Holy crap! You just won that standoff singlehandedly!!” Jack shouted as the sheriff stepped into earshot, the boy jumping in front of Jotaro with his hands thrown in the air as he looked at the man before him in awe.

“That was so cool!! It was like twenty to one and you still won!” Tommy piped in with an exaggerated number and Jotaro lowered his hat over his eyes, softly letting out his usual catchphrase.

“Are you boys all alright?” The sheriff walked up and Jotaro lifted his gaze again, briefly looking back to see you had succeeded in calming the children down, four of them now clinging to you in a group hug as the doors to the church opened properly, the nun quickly walking out to help comfort the children.

“Yes. Thank you for stepping in.” Jotaro spoke back, nonchalantly putting his gun back in its place, hidden behind his trenchcoat.

“Well, that’s my job.” The sheriff joked before turning a little more serious. “What happened exactly?”

Jotaro looked back at you once again, seeing you now quietly talking with the kids to calm them down. This earned him an elbow poke in the ribs from Tommy and he glared at the kid, making said boy giggle to himself and drag Jack with him, running over to you.

“They came to rob the church, believing it to have many riches like those city churches have, probably.” Jotaro sounded a little indifferent as he turned back to look forward and the sheriff hummed.

“Mr. Kujo saved us, sheriff Miller.” The sister spoke as she walked up, placing a hand on Jotaro’s shoulder blade. Jotaro just looked down at the nun, getting a grateful smile from her and he gave a small barely noticeable nod back.

Something suddenly latched onto his right leg and Jotaro looked down to see Amelia hanging on his pant leg, burying her head into the fabric.

Jotaro just looked at her for a second. He didn’t know what he had done to get her like this, but Amelia had really attached herself to him. Jotaro on the other hand, still had no idea what to do around children. He awkwardly patted her on her head, making her look up. “Go to Y/N, it’s alright.” He spoke, trying his best to sound gentle but it still came out quite gruffly, regrettably enough.

Amelia didn’t seem to care though and stayed latched on his leg while both the nun and the sheriff chuckled discreetly at the young man trying his best. Crouching down to get on eye height with the girl, the sheriff got her attention. “Are you alright?” He asked and Amelia turned her head, half of her face still buried in Jotaro’s trousers but still paying attention. She nodded softly and the sheriff smiled.

“Why don’t you go to Miss L/N, Mr. Kujo? I’ll handle the rest.” The Sister smiled and Jotaro nodded at her, turning around.

Amelia let go of his leg and instead grabbed his hand, trying to pull him along now as she tried to hurry over to you.

Once he was close enough, you noticed and got up, turning around to face him. Amelia let go of his hand and ran to her friends while your eyes crossed with Jotaro’s.

Tears were pricking in the corners and that shocked Jotaro slightly. He had no time to react as you ran over to him and jumped into him, wrapping your arms around his neck as you buried your head in his shoulder.

He immediately caught you, wrapping his arms around your body and holding it against himself to hold you up. Yet, his eyes were wide as he felt his heart thump. He had no idea what to do. He felt you pressing your face even deeper into his neck, trying to keep yourself from crying in front of the children but Jotaro knew you wanted to, more than anything.

His brain short-circuited and all he could think to do was tighten his hold on you, letting you know he was there.

Some noises to his left caught his attention and he looked over to see Jack and Tommy making kissy faces at him. In an immediate reaction he kicked a rock that lay at his foot to them, making them dodge it and giggle while running away again, joining the other kids while Jotaro silently grumbled to himself, trying to calm his beating heart.

“You alright?” He asked after a minute more of silence and he felt you nod into his shoulder.

“Yeah... you?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Jotaro questioned and you lifted your head, leaning back a bit to look at his face. Your eyes were a bit red and you sniffled softly.

“Well.” You started with a small sad chuckle. “You did just nearly die.”

To that, Jotaro rolled his eyes. “You clearly read the situation wrong then.” He put you back on your feet, looking to see the nun walking back over to the children while the sheriff was now walking away, sticking his hand up as he looked back in a goodbye before turning around fully and walking back to his horse.

Because he was looking to the sheriff walking away however, he was unable to brace himself when you took a few steps back and jumped right into him, tackling him to the floor.

A heavy ‘oof’ left him as he crashed to the ground with you right on top of him. You immediately sat onto his stomach and Jotaro had to try very hard to suppress a blush at the sight.

“Don’t you dare accuse me of seeing things wrong when I am just worried for your safety.” You spoke, poking his chest in warning, but the teasing look in your eyes told Jotaro exactly what you were thinking.

In return, Jotaro grabbed your wrists and rolled the two of you around so that you were now pinnend under him. “I will accuse you, because you will always remain oblivious.” He spoke, his voice sounding a little strained even though he held a small smirk.

“Oblivious to what?” You questioned, narrowing your eyes. Jotaro didn’t say anything, just looked deeply in your eyes. Neither of you really noticed he was leaning down until his face was inches from yours.

Yet before anything else could happen: “GET HIIIIMMM!!” A young voice screamed out and Jotaro jerked his head back up, looking up past his shoulder only to have three different bodies flung on top of him.

You burst out laughing at Jotaro’s surprised face that only you had a view of, even though you were still trapped under the man, his hands on either side of you as he attempted to keep himself from toppling over and crushing you.

“No, no! Oh dear.” You heard the Sister laugh, having tried to stop the children, only to fail miserably as six of the eight were now on top of Jotaro, trying to bring him down.

Part 2  |  Part 3

#hopelessly in love joot hours #jotaro x reader #jotaro kujo #jojos bizarre adventure #cowboy au #jjba au #jjba #jojo x reader #jjba x reader #long awaited and I hope you like it cause I love it #jotaro x you #jotaro x y/n #jotaro #kujo jotaro #cowboy jotaro

[agarariddle-andhernachos]

INCORPORATED SERIES

PART I // PART II // PART III

PART IV : HOW NOT TO GET YOURSELF DEMOTED

Tom’s arm was almost hurting from holding the gun towards Mundungus Fletcher’s face for about thirty minutes now. The underground parking lot was empty, badly lit and only the regular sound of a drop of water hitting the ground reached Tom’s ears. Mundungus had stopped crying by now, he almost looked bored. Even though he had both of his hands and feet tied, his face was relaxed.

Tom was leaning against an old car, one ankle crossing the other. When was she going to show up ?

“Are you going to kill me or what ?” Mundungus huffed. Tom cocked an eyebrow at the audacity. Was he asking for it ?

“Of course I’m gonna kill you,” Tom groaned, “I’m just waiting for something. Shush now.”

Mundungus shrugged the best he could. Tom briefly wondered if she was even going to show up at all. The thing was that he knew he would eventually kill Mundungus, so why wasn’t she here already ?

Tom was about to shoot the first bullet into Mundungus’ leg when he heard the sound of heels resonating in the empty parking lot.

“Well, well, well, guess who shows up,” Tom snorted. He knew from the sound she was coming closer yet he couldn’t see her yet.

“Do you know what time of the year it is ?” She shouted.

“Christmas ?”

“Yes Christmas,” she mocked, “do you know what it means ?”

Tom finally caught sight of her, and couldn’t help but giggle. Agent 713 was fiercely walking towards him. Instead of her usual black suit and heels, she was wearing an embarrassing Santa's elf costume. Tom knew the situation was kind of grave, as he was about to pull the trigger and shoot Mundungus in the next half hour, yet here he was, laughing out loud at her absurd outfit.

“You’re late for the gingerbread house-making contest ?” Tom snorted.

“Shut the fuck up,” she barked. “You just fucked up my office Christmas party. One night ! I’m just asking for one night, but no, Mister Riddle has to kill during my office Christmas party ! Don’t you,” Agent 713 looked him up and down before continuing, “mafia guys ? have a Christmas party ?”

Tom looked at her in the most patronising way he could manage before answering. “Oh of course we do, after all the killing, we meet up in a small cabin in the mountains to gossip around a fire and a cup of eggnog. Of course, we don’t have a Christmas party !”

Agent 713 crossed her arms upon her chest. The funny thing was that at every move she made, the small bells on her outfit jingled. Tom tried to hide his smile, but by the look the agent had on her face, he knew he was not doing a good job.

Their little altercation stopped the moment a small groan escaped Mundungus’ lips. To be honest, Tom had almost forgotten the presence of the other man.

“Oh yeah right,” Agent 713 said as she noticed the man. Apparently, she had forgotten about him too. At this instant, Tom saw her slowly stepping back into the businesswoman she was. Her back straightened and it appeared as she felt even more embarrassed by her outfit (if it was possible). Agent 713 turned back her head towards Tom, took a deep breath, and began talking. “Killing is bad.”

Agent 713 kept looking straight into his eyes as if her last sentence meant something to him. Tom didn’t know what to make of this, was she making fun of him ?

“Yeah… that’s it ?” Tom asked.

“I don’t have time for this, Mister Riddle.”

“Well, you’ll have to make some time for me, because I was actually waiting for you.”

Agent 713 rolled her eyes and huffed.

“You cannot appear one day, tell me all of this bullshit and then just go away you know,” Tom kept going. “I have some questions.”

She looked at her watch, then behind her from where she had appeared, before looking back at him. “You have seven minutes,” she said. “I have a secret Santa thingy after.”

Tom had so many things to say to this, but he opted not baiting her more. He counted to five in his head to get rid of all the banter he had before continuing.

“I need to know more,” he finally said, “you came one day, telling me I’ve killed too many people as if this was a thing, but I keep killing. Nothing’s happening. What’s the point ?”

“Well, nothing’s gonna happen until you’ve reached the quota.”

“Haven’t I already reached it already ? The 77.5 people ?”

Agent 713 laughed at that and settled right next to him on the hood of the car.

“This was the first quota,” she explained. “You don’t want to reach the second one.”

“What the second one ?”

“The almighty 100.”

“Oh because now this quota is a round number.”

She looked at him and took a deep breath to calm herself. “Once again, this is out of my scope. If you want to know more, send an email.”

“Oh because now it’s an email ?”

She was about to snap back when Mundungus let out a loud whine. Tom was about to say something when he saw her leaning toward the man on the floor. “Buddy,” she said in a childish voice, “I’m with you, alright ? But if you keep making those noises I’ll be the one pulling the trigger.” She stopped herself abruptly and cursed. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

Tom laughed at that. It was so out of character. She always seemed so professional, but on this night, dressed the way she was, it was another side of herself Tom could see.

“And what happens if I reach this new quota ?”

“Let me be quite clear Mister Riddle,” she pointed her finger at him and slightly leaned towards him, “you’re not gonna reach the quota. I won’t let this happen, I can’t.”

“Why not ?” He frowned.

“Because if you too reach this quota, I’ll be demoted, and we don’t want that to happen, right ?” Tom almost answered the question before she continued, “and, well this is kind of my job, too. I’m here to stop you.”

Tom’s mind was rushing with what she had first told him. “Wait, me too ?”

Agent 713 appeared distressed at that. She put a strand of her hair behind her ear and the bells, once more, jingled across the large space. “Well,” she started, visibly embarrassed, “I’m quite new at this job. It’s hard to get it right the first time.”

“Times ?” Tom emphasised the “s” at the end of the word.

“Well, you’re not my first case. And it appears as if I have a quota, too.” She pursed her lips, apparently trying to find the right words. “As a stopper, we have a number of…”

“Stoppee ?” Tom cut her off.

“Killer,” she cut short. “You’re a killer, Mister Riddle.”

“Yeah right. Please continue,” he mumbled.

“So, we have a number of failed killers, if I may say, 10 to be precise. Killers we didn’t stop from reaching the almighty 100. You’re my tenth, Mister Riddle.”

Tom opened his mouth to answer back but quickly closed it. He repeated the motion a number of times before finally saying something. “Aren’t you supposed to be new at this job ?”

“To be clear, I didn’t want that job. I was aiming for the communication department at first. Okay ?”

“Communication ? Who are you even communicating to ?” Tom didn't entirely understand the conversation. She shot him a mean glare.

“Our investors, maybe ? Where do you think we get the financing from ? You know we still need investments even though we are not the typical company”

Tom knew he could ask more questions about that, but he opted not to go down that path. He simply looked at her for a couple of seconds, in her ridiculous outfit.

“Ok, so if I reach the quota you get demoted, but what happens to me ?” He asked her.

“Eternal damnation, duh.”

“That’s it ?”

“Isn’t it enough ?”

Tom shrugged.

“Can you please not kill him ?” She almost begged.

Tom looked into her eyes. They were almost pleading. He let himself smirk at the sight then turned his head back towards Mundungus, still sitting on the floor.

“Well, it’s Christmas after all,” he smiled.

From the corner of his eyes, he could see her smile. He liked that sight.

She abruptly stood up, smoothed her elf outfit, and handed her right hand towards him. “Well, Mister Riddle, merry Christmas.”

Tom rose too, stood in front of her, and took her hand in his. “Tom,” he said, “call me Tom.”

Agent 713 smiled at that, “Hermione,” she replied.

Mundungus groaned and Tom shot him a mean glare. He turned his head back towards her but she had already vanished.

Tom pointed his gun back towards the man on the floor and shot him.

Jingles resonated furiously in the parking lot.

#tomione #tom riddle #tom marvolo riddle #tom riddle x hermione granger #tom x hermione #hermione granger #fanfiction #fanfic #fanfiction.net #tomione fanfiction #modern!au #crack fic #ficlet #drabble #au

[johannstutt413]

(requested by stephenvares; continuing from this)

Less than a month after returning from their honeymoon, Anya noticed something amiss; the next day, a trip to her primary physician told her what she’d already expected: she was pregnant. This was going to be a massive issue back home, no doubt about it...but honestly? She couldn’t care less - she had the Doctor, and it’s not like the Goddess herself minded. Hell, the Goddess was the first person she told, and She’d seemed pretty happy about it. (That was a fun conversation to tell the Doctor about that night, once he’d calmed down enough to do so.) Time passed, Pyara was born, and life was...life was…

Life was exhausting, for both the Doctor and his beloved bride, for the next few months. Paternity leave saved him from his duties with HR, Personnel, and Tactical Deployment (taken up by at least seven Operators to fill the gap), but not from helping Pramanix sort out the complicated situation back home while she took care of their daughter. Sleepless night after sleepless night, week after week. Anya was crankier than ever, and even the Doctor could feel his nerves fraying.

And then, one day, there was peace.

“...Hey, Anya?” The Doctor scritched behind her ear, trying to wake her up. “Aaaaanya.”

The priestess’s eyes popped open mid-snore. “Hrrrrgh. What?”

“Pyara’s not crying right now.”

“She’s not...She’s not? She’s not?!” She rolled out of bed - quite literally, landing face-first as usual - and flailed onto her feet and towards her child’s crib. “She’s...she’s asleep? But normally she’d be awake right now, right?”

He nodded. “Yeah, that’s why I’m confused. Did something happen?”

“I don’t- oh, my Goddess.” It wasn’t an exclamation as much as an acknowledgment; like picking up a phone receiver, Pramanix began to commune with the Goddess on the spot.

“Well, that would explain the miracle.” The Doctor chuckled to himself as he made his way to the kitchen. As good of terms as he was on with the priestess, interrupting her prayer-time wouldn’t end well for him, no matter how much he wanted his morning kiss. ���I’ll make some coffee.”

 A few minutes later, with a pot half-brewed, Anya emerged from their bedroom with Pyara nestled against her. “Little Pi here is old enough to hear the Goddess; She calmed her down for us.”

“Oh, thank the Goddess - literally,” he declared, looking pointedly at his wife’s bell when he said it.

“You know, She doesn’t do favors like this often,” the priestess noted with a smile. “You should do something nice for Her.”

Well, he knew exactly what that really meant, but hell, he could afford to spoil his wife more than a little. “And what would She like me to do for Her this morning?”

“She told me we should have chicken pot pie for dinner tonight.”

“...That’s it?” The Doctor shrugged. “Cool, that was my plan for tonight anyway. We have an anniversary to celebrate, after all.”

Pramanix blinked. “Anniversary? Don’t we still have a couple months for that?”

“For our paperwork and such, yeah. Not for our first date, though.” He winked at her before starting to pour two cups of coffee.

“Oh. I guess it has been a year, huh?” She sighed, landing in a chair at the dining room table for the little one’s breakfast. “Between that and this one, I feel old now...”

A sentiment the Doctor could relate to, honestly. “Time flies when you’re having fun, and I’ve certainly had fun with you~”

“You just wait your turn, mister.” Anya would have swatted him, but he was safely out of range until he brought their coffees to the table.

“I am, I am.” He managed to steal a kiss anyway, thanks to the mugs in his hands. “Your coffee and sugar.”

The priestess wavered between a giggle and a sigh and ended up just giving him a look. “You are so lucky I’m lucky to be here with you.”

“Luck had nothing to do with it - it was all your hard work that got us here.”

“Mmhmm.” She clicked her tongue while shaking her head. “Lying to the clergy.”

The Doctor chuckled. “Did you forget? If you hadn’t worked yourself to exhaustion during those first few months, I never would’ve had a chance to let you sleep on the office couch.”

“Oh, I didn’t forget that. For the first couple of days I was here, I was sleeping in the closet they gave me for an office; I only stopped because Steward came to offer a prayer and found me drooling on my desk.” Not her proudest moment, for sure.

“You’re kidding,” he replied in genuine disbelief. “And I was your first choice after that?”

Anya blushed. “Your office was neutral territory, and...and I already had a crush on you.”

“Really? We didn’t talk much until you started crashing in my office.” Then again, it’d taken him about five minutes to fall in love with her, so-

“It started when you held the door open for me my first day here.” She rushed through the end of the sentence because a certain small creature needed to switch sides.

He took a moment to see if he could remember doing that...nope. “So love at first sight?”

“Basically,” Pramanix admitted. “I saw your face underneath your hood, and that was that.”

“Huh. Maybe that’s why Kal’tsit told me to wear it...”

The Feline giggled. “Because you of all people need a limiter like that...Actually, she’s right. Someone else might’ve gotten to you first if it weren’t for that, after all. I’d thank her, but I think she’s still mad about the night I spilled wine on her.”

“I think she was more mad at Encio than anything that night,” the Doctor replied, vividly remembering that experience. “It’s always the little things, huh?”

“Always the little things.” As Anya said that, Pyara burped.

Her father smirked. “Speaking of. Is she almost done?”

“I think so.” The priestess held her out to him. “Can you take her while I clean up?”

“Absolutely. How’s daddy’s little angel, hmm?” As he took her, the infant began to purr, and the Doctor dashed into the kitchen for the paper towels he’d inevitably need.

Pramanix giggled again. “You’re catching on, huh?”

“One ruined keyboard pad is enough...Hmm. Maybe it was a false alarm.” A few seconds later, and it definitely was not. “Never mind. Do you think our Goddess would mind helping with that, too?”

“One second...Hey, Goddess...Uh-huh...Uh-huh?...Wait, really?...Alright, I’ll tell him. Thanks. She said sure.”

The Doctor’s head poked around from the corner as he continued cleaning up the mess. “I was joking.”

“Ask and you shall receive,” she smiled back. “Speaking of which, put her on her blanket when you’re done.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice. We good, little princess?” The response was a wobbly nod, enough for him to walk her into the living room and set her on a blanket.

Payload delivered; Anya filled the Doctor’s empty arms with a warm smile, draping her tail behind his head. “Now you can carry me~”

“We’ll see about that.” He’d earned the playful slap on his shoulder with that comment, but to her surprise, he picked her up in a bridal carry and sauntered over to the couch, where they could watch their personal miracle work on what it meant to crawl. “So...one year, huh? Any regrets?”

“Regrets? Beyond not waking up to your face in the morning earlier? None I can think of.” Now she was the one purring.

He went for their first proper kiss of the morning - the first of many, especially today. “None for me, either. You are, without a doubt, the best thing to happen to me.”

“The absolute best?” The Feline booped his nose with a finger. “Even when I’m cranky?”

“I love my Anya in every mood she comes in.”

“Even when I scratch and bite your hands?”

“Even then.” The Doctor winked at her. “Maybe even a little more, since you remind me this isn’t a dream.”

Her purring was now audible as well as palpable. “Mmm. Would you mind helping this sleepy kitty wake up a little, darling?”

“Gladly.” And at last, it was ‘his turn.’

#arknights #arknights fic #pramanix (arknights) #this is more an anniversary fic than a mom-Op fic tbf #reminds me of the Dobermann one where she was in Medical more than like Mom Asbestos #...man it's weird to be able to say that about things i've written #wild #anyway Anya is still mofu mofu heaven and probably got even fluffier after having a kid and if that doesn't do things to your imagination #i have failed you as a fanfic author :D

[halothenthehorns]

TLTNL- THE WOES OF MRS. WEASLEY

Lily had to demand the book from Sirius as he was still scrutinizing Dumbledore's departure like that, and he handed it over reluctantly. Before she could get started he said, "can we please take a break, just a quick thirty minutes to do something other than this mess. I really don't want to get started with something all over again already." Harry looked just as exhausted as him and eagerly agreed, and the moment everyone agreed he at once demanded of his Godfather if he could hear some more fun stories of the Marauder's pranks at school. Sirius easily roped James into that conversation and Remus would never resist breaking in as well. Lily watched them peacefully go through several stories, her favorites usually the ones on each other, but the longer they kept going the harder it was to keep leaving one person out. They'd spent seven years as a foursome after all, and it was getting more obvious by the moment they couldn't blot him out of all their adventures.

Still it had been worth it when finally all of their laughter subsided and they all looked almost normal and peaceful again while Lily got herself started.

Dumbledore's abrupt departure took Harry completely by surprise. He remained sitting where he was in the chained chair, struggling with his feelings of shock and relief.

Harry was all the more happy for the little break he'd just had, it gave him some distance so he wasn't as hurt by that as he was at the time, and he did feel a bit better when he watched those around him either frown or scowl at this rather rude dismissal. Sure it wouldn't do for Dumbledore to show favoritism to Harry in that moment, but even a quick word goodbye would have been better than nothing.

The Wizengamot were all getting to their feet preparing to leave. Harry stood too and nobody seemed to be paying him the slightest bit of attention, except the toad like witch on Fudge's right, who was now gazing down at him instead of Dumbledore.

Harry felt that nasty, prickling feeling returning at once at her mentioning, and he wished he understood why. Surely she had nothing to do with his life.

  He turned to leave, hesitated in case someone called him back, but when no one did he began a very fast walk to the door.

"Escape while you can before they throw something else at you," Remus sighed in agreement.

He reached the door practically at a run, then nearly collided with Arthur who was pale and looking even more apprehensive than when Harry had gone in as he asked what had happened, Dumbledore hadn't said.

Remus tried for a more open expression in regards to saying, "well if he didn't even say anything to Arthur then I'm positive it really was a matter of something else other than this place he had to attend to."

"Yeah, I guess," Harry agreed, feeling only the smallest margin better it hadn't just been him who'd been dismissed like that.

Harry explained his current circumstances as cleared of all charges, and Arthur's face broke into a wide grin of how good that news was. Of course there was nothing to convict, he hadn't been guilty, but nobody could pretend- he broke himself off,

"Honestly that's for the best, he can't have gone anywhere pleasant from there," James shook his head fondly, regretting not having done something similar to his son when he seemed so pleased at Arthur's reaction, but now it would just look silly when the moment had passed.

because the courtroom was pouring out behind Harry now, and Arthur was gaping in shock he'd been tried by the full court.

"Can't wait for him to pass that along," Lily huffed, "I'm hoping it'll drop Fudge's credibility even more."

One or two gave Arthur a nod as they passed, such as Madam Bones who even greeted him with a good morning, but most ignored his existence as thoroughly as the wall like Fudge. The toad like witch,

"Are you going to keep referring to her like that?" Sirius snickered, honestly amused at what he considered a running insult from Harry after he'd gotten her name.

"Yes," Harry said back flatly, causing his smirk to disappear at once as they all scrutinized Harry's look. What had this woman done to him to cause such bad feelings when she hadn't actually done a thing yet? He was acting more hostile towards her than Fudge.

took one last moment to watch him as she passed by. Last to leave was Percy.

Lily winced at even the idea of having to read out such a harsh reaction she expected a parent to have around their own child, yet Arthur utterly deserved whatever was said to Percy, it still left a bitter taste in her mouth before she even knew what was to be done.

Aside from the tightening lines around his mouth, Arthur turned away with no notice he'd just seen his third child.

Lily groaned and shook her head miserably, there was no way that could have been good, but did the boys really have to look so hateful while she said it. She supposed it was better than the lashing argument she'd just pictured herself.

He waited until Percy had vanished before beckoning Harry that he could go back and tell the others the good news now, Arthur still had to see to that toilet in Bethnal Green.

"Was honestly hoping you'd go along," Sirius gave a believable smile to that.

"I'm sure I can give you details later when he tells that night," Harry chuckled at the enthusiasm.

Harry asked what was going to be done to the toilet with a grin, everything seemed five times funnier than normal to him.

"That's usually how it works," Remus smiled in full agreement as the feeling poured back over him he hadn't felt in a few years now but he honestly missed, this must be ten times more powerful to something so strong as what Harry had just gone through.

It was starting to sink in: he was cleared, he was going back to Hogwarts.

"Knew it all along," James gave a pompous smile. "Course all you had to do was look at this books length, or Merlin we could have even skipped ahead."

"Oh, now you suggest that," Harry chuckled.

Arthur began explaining the charm used was a simple enough fix, no the real problem was the vandalism itself and what it stood for. Muggle-baiting was an expression of a much deeper- he stopped himself in mid sentence.

"That always seems to happen during the important conversations," Lily sighed as she'd completely agreed with what Arthur was saying.

They'd reached back to the main landing where the lift and door were, to see Fudge speaking to a tall, blond figure with a pale face.

Harry extra despised that cold feeling of dread wrapping around him, forcing him to relive a memory he'd already regained just because of the sight of this man. Though he hadn't seen his face, the last time Lucius Malfoy had been in his presence was in that graveyard, groveling to Voldemort-

His recurring nightmare was interrupted by his dad whispering hatefully, "unless he's in handcuffs, I hope Arthur has the sense to keep you away from him."

"Considering the last time his name was mentioned in relation to Fudge, I wouldn't hold your breath mate," Sirius could already feel his lip curling into a sneer.

The second they'd arrived, the other two broke off whatever they were speaking of as well, Malfoy's cold grey eyes fixing Harry with a stare as he called to him Patronus Potter.

"I see where the young Malfoy gets his wit from," Remus rolled his eyes at the lame insult.

Harry felt winded, as the last time he'd been in the presence of this man was in the graveyard, listening to that voice jeer at him through a Death Eater's hood for Voldemort to continue torturing him.

James could feel himself going for his wand again, now regretting his angry actions this morning just because he wanted to be back beside his son now. It only helped ease his hand away but worsen his mood when Sirius gave Harry a soft nudge and muttered something to him, and he blinked around before smiling at him.

Too see him here, talking to Fudge just weeks after Harry had told Fudge this left Harry breathless.

Mr. Malfoy continued by saying the Minister had just been informing him of Potter's lucky escape.

"The fact that you call him mister," Sirius scoffed while trailing more silently in mutters about that.

It was astonishing really, how he kept wriggling out of tight holes, almost snakelike.

"Well he'd know all about that," Remus snapped, "glory, I think that was almost a compliment."

"Then I'm all the more insulted," Harry groused.

Mr. Weasley gripped Harry's shoulder in warning.

"I'm sure Arthur needs that just as much to hold himself back," Lily's lip was shaking with anger as she forced herself not to start cursing something. "I still treasure the idea of him hitting that man with a book on toadstools."

"You and me both love," James agreed.

Harry quietly agreed he'd always been good at escaping.

Sirius gave a soft, bitter laugh that he couldn't feel, but Harry deserved someone to admire his humor in the face of that.

Malfoy turned his attention to Arthur now, asking in astonishment what he was doing here?

"Escorting a friend, not that he'd understand what that meant," Remus muttered, not having missed the fact that the two people who should have been there for Harry were busy hiding out.

Mr. Weasley gave the curt reply that he worked here.

Malfoy raised a disbelieving brow as he demanded not here, he'd been under the impression his job implied bewitching useless Muggle artifacts.

"I really didn't think there was a bad way to say that, but Malfoy really managed it," Sirius huffed.

Arthur just said a simple no, his nails now digging into Harry's shoulder.

Even as Lily winced in sympathy Harry's face didn't even do that for the remembered feeling, he was too busy glaring at nothing and wishing he could punch Malfoy in his face already.

Harry demanded of Malfoy what he was doing here, and Malfoy stated that was none of Potter's business while smoothing out his robes.

Harry was distracted from his anger at Malfoy to really ponder that question though, since for some reason he couldn't identify he didn't like the answer given. Why? It wasn't even unrealistic, but something about that corridor and Malfoy was trying to be much louder in his mind than he would allow it.

Harry distinctly heard the gentle clinking of what sounded like a full pocket of gold.

"Subtle," James snorted in disgust.

Fudge still pointed out this should be taken somewhere more private, and the two swept off for the lift, Mr. Weasley not letting go of him until they were out of sight.

"Again, I feel that's more for his benefit than Harry's," Sirius sneered, knowing he'd have to have someone hold him back as well when faced with that man.

Harry demanded why Malfoy hadn't just been waiting in Fudge's office if they had business. What was he doing down here?

Lily froze, cocked her head to the side, and stated, "that's a really good question."

"I, err, well maybe he was meeting up with some other Death Eater that works at the Ministry," Sirius offered. "Arthur said it himself, that's not a commonly frequented area, and I don't think Malfoy probably hadn't known the times were changed, so maybe he just got caught being down there and made, something up," he trailed off unhappily, but Harry was watching with wide, eager eyes for him to keep going. Harry was entirely sure Sirius was very close to being onto something, but none of the others looked very convinced as this was very blatant and almost dumb for Malfoy to be trying to do such a thing.

Mr. Weasley suggested trying to sneak into the courtroom,

Harry fidgeted with unease, as sure that Mr. Weasley was lying as he was that Sirius was far more on track. The two just would not come together for him to make sense of.

looking extremely agitated and glancing over his shoulder as though making sure they could not be overheard.

Harry opened and closed his mouth, starting to shake slightly as word vomit threatened to blow his head off as he was confident in that moment Arthur was looking back for an entirely different reason! To check on-

"Whoa Harry," James finally lost his compulsion so that he was sitting on the arm of the sofa next to Harry. "What's gotten into you? The trial's over, you're going back to school, I'm confident Malfoy won't do anything in the meantime."

Harry had to concentrate very hard on the sound of his voice to unscrew his face and take a deep breath before offering a shaky smile at him, and even that wasn't enough to erase the build of unease that left him sitting that much closer to Sirius.

James, finding himself more intruding than anything when he saw that, went back to his spot and tried to pretend like he hadn't seen any such thing.

Harry asked what private business they had that was so important anyways, and Arthur explained gold. Malfoy kept himself well connected with everyone by constantly donating to whomever he pleased.

Lily would have normally been trying to subtly comfort her husband for what had just happened, but she was too busy grinding her teeth in frustration that was all it took to get in with people, money. Apparently morals weren't worth as much!

They got into the elevator by themselves, and it took Harry a few stops to ask if Fudge was seeing Death Eaters in private, what if he was under the Imperius Curse?

"Honestly if you hadn't had that moment with him at the end of last year, I'd agree," Remus grumbled. "Sadly, as no one at that time had the chance to Imperius him before he acted the way he is, I think he's just an idiot all on his own."

"Jr. could have done it before he took me to his office," Harry persisted even if he didn't feel anything telling him this was the right line of questioning, he should in fact still be more focused on that door-

"I don't see it, he was too busy watching you, it just didn't seem part of the plan," Lily shook her head. Harry was at least grateful he'd asked then just to make sure that train of thought kept getting cut off.

"How do you even prevent a Minister from falling under that though?" He pushed for more, some distant part of him still afraid for this fact.

"The Minister works in very close contact with a lot of people," Remus reminded. "Why do you think Crouch got 'sick' while he was Imperiused, there's just no way to have someone fake it for a long enough period of time it wouldn't get suspicious and someone would look into him, start asking questions. Sorry Harry," he finished truly apologetically, "I guess it would be easier to blame someone else on this problem with magic, but that doesn't usually work."

Harry just sighed but let the matter go.

Arthur agreed the thought had crossed their mind, but for now Dumbledore was sure that Fudge was acting of his own accord, which the headmaster also agrees, isn't much comfort.

Sirius snorted lightly as he realized Remus and Dumbledore had essentially said the same thing, but he didn't really want to compare Moony to Dumbledore right now.

Then adding on more quietly it was best not talk about this right now.

"That's true to," James agreed, "you are in enemy territory."

As they made it to the atrium and were fixing to leave, Harry paused at the golden statue again, and asked Mr. Weasley to wait for him as he reached for his money bag.

Lily felt the happy giggle slide from her with what felt like the first true ease in this book. Something as whimsical as her son keeping this promise was a treasure to her.

Harry got a much more close up look at the designs now, and found that the handsome wizard looked weak and foolish up close. All of the others admiring expressions upon seeing this man were entirely ridiculous from what Harry knew of centaurs and goblins. The only accurate one was the house-elf.

"I'm glad you see the truth in that thing," James happily agreed.

"I honestly think that's why that attempted assassination on Spout-Hole happened," Remus smirked, then catching sight of Harry's bewildered look he explained, "a group of centaurs tried to kill a past Minister, Faris Spavin, and I've no doubts it really had something to do with the timeframe this statue was put up."

Harry didn't have it in him to deny someone deserved a good reality check for thinking up this statue.

With a grin at the thought of what Hermione would say if she could see the statue of the elf,

Harry felt a nasty tug on the edges of his memory, thinking he was now being ridiculous that Hermione and him at the Ministry at the same time shouldn't cause any bad feelings...

as he turned his moneybag upside-down and emptied not just ten Galleons, but the whole contents into the pool.

Lily let out a whistle in surprise, as she knew she kept a few galleons on her, but no one could do anything but smile at Harry for this spot of kindness.

Harry in no way regretted his actions of course, but he was thinking hard to himself why that felt so ominous to him, that statue and also that hospital...

Ron punched the air in triumph as he screamed he knew it!

"So I'm guessing you're back at that place." Sirius hadn't been in a particularly good mood while hearing of Harry at the Ministry, but this was honestly only making him feel worse.

As a natural reaction but also hoping it would cheer him up, Remus gave a sarcastic little applause for Sirius' brilliant thinking, while Lily was ignoring them both.

He always got away with stuff!

"Well he's not wrong," Remus snickered while Sirius released a bark of laughter for that being true.

Hermione was still shaking from anxiety as she told him this was bound to happen, there hadn't been a case against him.

Harry smiled around at them all that they seemed quite relieved considering how convinced they all were he'd get off.

"That's right Harry," James nodded in pure agreement, "mock them for trying to comfort you to your face."

"So long as they were silently worrying while you weren't watching," Sirius giggled in agreement.

Mrs. Weasley was wiping her face with relief as well, while Fred, George, and Ginny were doing a war like dance, chant around the room about how 'he got off!'

Sirius didn't even consider denying his spark as he got to his feet, James moving only a step behind him as the two began bouncing around their own room doing the exact same thing. Remus only watched long enough to see the pattern the two quickly took to before joining with a stupid grin in place as well.

Harry was about ready to fall off the couch laughing any second and Lily in no way looked like she was going to be stopping them any time soon. They all, especially James, had been so tense lately that it was good to see him acting like an idiot goofing off with his friends again. Finally though, she did pick the book back up and kept going over their noise.

Arthur tried without emphasis to get them to stop while turning to Sirius and telling him about Lucius Malfoy hanging around the Ministry. All the while in the background the three were going as loud as ever while Mrs. Weasley cut in for them to be quiet.

Lily read that part just a bit more loudly, hoping they'd take a hint soon even if she couldn't wipe the smile off her face while doing so, but the lot of them ignored her.

Arthur just explained what they'd briefly seen, and as soon as Sirius promised they'd pass this along to Dumbledore, Arthur said he had to get going. There was a vomiting toilet waiting for him.

"A once in a lifetime experience I'm sure," Harry snickered to himself, his eyes still dancing as he watched the three of them still mimicking his past with amusement.

Mrs. Weasley finally cut off her three noisy children in a sharp voice,

Lily had said that in such a sharp 'mother' voice, that Sirius stumbled in surprise, Remus tried to catch him, and the end results were all three on the ground still laughing like crazy people. Lily was still going as if this was all perfectly normal background to her reading, which it honestly was.

then she turned on Harry and insisted he eat something.

His friends sat down around him as Harry felt the warmth and friendliness of this place for the first time. Even Kreacher's ugly snout like nose poking around the corner seemed friendlier than usual.

Harry's good mood could find no reason to dampen in here either, as for what felt like the first time in ages he was confident that house should always feel like that to him. It was so nice to watch the boys untangling themselves and still smirking at their spot of fun and his mother's purely happy smile he almost wanted to ask her to stop just for a moment so it wouldn't end, but he'd sadly already come to the conclusion time stopped for no one, not even someone out of time.

Ron was dishing food onto everyone's plates.

"That's how I love to celebrate," James snickered as he settled back into his seat next to his wife.

Harry explained Dumbledore was the man to be grateful to, only just managing to stop himself adding it would have been nice if he'd just looked at him once, but that sounded too childish.

"I don't find that childish at all," Sirius pushed his hair out of his face just in time for a frown to reappear there as he thought back to Dumbledore again. "He really was acting off right there, couldn't be bothered to look at you once that whole time. That's most certainly not normal."

Harry wished that nasty tingling sensation would vanish already instead of agreeing with Sirius.

As he thought this, the scar on his forehead burned so badly that he clapped his hand to it.

Lily jolted in surprise of reading that, knowing if she hadn't just cut the boys off seconds ago that would have as they all paled for this being mentioned again while Harry's smile flickered before vanishing entirely as he was reminded of that.

Sirius was entirely ready to get up and start the jig up all over again before he realized Harry was trying to sit so close to him, and decided for now the best course of action was just to remind his pup everything would turn out okay by staying right where he was.

Hermione looked at him in concern, but he just muttered it was nothing and that it happened all the time now. No one else had noticed a thing, they were still gloating over Harry's newest escape.

Sirius' frown was starting to make a reappearance as well, feeling like smacking himself upside the head if he really hadn't noticed Harry's moment of pain. What exactly had he been doing not to have seen that?

Remus was thinking the exact same thing, and was honestly even more annoyed with himself he didn't even seem to be in the room. What business had he done that was so important he wouldn't have stuck around the house to hear this news as soon as possible?

Fred, George, and Ginny were still singing, but while Hermione was still looking anxious Ron was saying Dumbledore would probably make an appearance tonight to celebrate with them.

"I sure hope he does," James hated watching his two friends suddenly dim right back down into that somber mood this whole book seemed to be leaving on all of them after just a few moments and vented that by saying, "the man needs a few good words said to him by both Harry and Sirius now."

"Here's hoping," Lily agreed quietly.

Mrs. Weasley corrected her son that most likely not, while setting a whole plate of chicken in front of Harry,

"Did she expect you to eat all that?" Sirius did a very good attempt at putting up a smile back in place.

Harry helped nothing by not answering, still seeming distracted by running his hand over his scar which seemed to be bothering him more this year than any before.

but was cut off by saying anything else by her three kids reaching shouting levels of their chant, which she matched in telling them to shut up.

Over the next few days though, Harry noticed one person in particular didn't seem overjoyed at Harry's return to school.

"Kreacher ruins everybody's good mood," Sirius agreed solemnly.

Sirius had at first congratulated him upon the news like everyone else, but directly after he was hardly seen around Harry or anyone, spending most any moment shut in his mother's room with Buckbeak.

"Oh," Lily uttered by the end as they all looked like they'd been hit in the gut. "Oh Sirius," Lily tried to start, not even sure herself what was going to come out, but Sirius snapped back at once with his eyes flat black.

"Don't you even Evans-"

"Potter," James corrected on instinct, though he too looked ready to say something, Sirius continued even louder-

"Potter then, the both of you." He sat there struggling for a moment to put into words that he didn't want to hear their sympathies on his sad state of a future if he even for a moment was acting like that towards Harry, but at the same time the words just wouldn't come as he could all to easily picture it. The only thing that had gotten him through his summers there were waiting on the letters from his friends, and he no longer even had that in that miserable place. Now he was looking at even more of that away from Harry, and even Remus it seemed as he'd been mentioned there all of three times instead of up Sirius' butt like he'd have hoped his friend would be to keep his mind off where he was.

He was almost grateful he didn't have the chance to say any of that as Remus cut in with an almost gentle scolding, "haven't we been over this. There's no point tearing into him when he isn't treating Harry that way now, he's never going there, so this won't ever happen."

Lily still felt like she should say something to him, either a promise she didn't blame him even if he was secretly wanting that or to offer up some suggestions of how to make this even a bit better, but Sirius was clearly relieved at avoiding this all together so she kept going in hopes the whole topic would pass quickly and they could just be with Harry in school again where hopefully nothing too eventful would happen.

James didn't entirely agree, he was a bit convinced there was something else going on with his best mate entirely and so avoiding Harry was just a byproduct of that, but he supposed his Sirius wouldn't know what anyways and kept his mouth shut, for now.

When Harry pointed this out to his friends one day while the three were cleaning out a cupboard, Hermione's first words were to sternly tell him not to go feeling guilty, Sirius was being selfish if he thought Harry should not be going back to school.

"Hey!" James snapped at once, his eyes flashing with such protection Harry was suddenly grateful his wish had never come true and Hermione wasn't here with them, she'd be getting an ear full from his dad.

He couldn't even think up a defense for her, he'd have liked to snap at her right now as well for speaking of his godfather like that while he was talking about his problems, a little sympathy wouldn't have hurt for as much as she showed towards Kreacher.

Remus was flushed in anger as well, he was almost glad of his absence now as he liked to think if he had been present for that he'd have snapped at Hermione for speaking about Sirius like that. He was many things, yes even selfish at times, but not for such an important matter as Harry continuing going to school.

Lily's lip seemed to be curling a bit in that sneer she so often got when speaking about Snape lately. Hermione had always been a vivacious child when she was speaking of what she thought, but while Lily encouraged and even admired that about her, now she was turning what she thought were her ideas on her friend, and she did not read this bit lightly.

Ron scolded her that was harsh, pointing out she wouldn't want to be shut in this house all alone either.

Sirius blinked sourly at the stupid book, still wishing more than anything he could find something in him to deny that claim...and coming up empty.

Hermione reminded he wouldn't be alone, this was Headquarters, he'd have company over all the time.

"Being around the Order all the time holds nothing to being around family," James hissed under his breath. His most daunting missions he'd ever taken were the extended ones away from his own, even when he did have a partner. That person, while a mutual friend, still couldn't replace who he really wanted to see.

He'd just gotten his hopes up Harry was coming here permanently.

Harry corrected Sirius had never agreed Harry could stay here with him.

"It only would have made you feel like the answer was inevitable," Sirius told Harry quietly, who nodded in agreement, he hadn't really held that against Sirius. He'd never thought Sirius would turn him down, but it was nice to still get a reason.

Hermione wisely said he just hadn't wanted to get his own hopes up all the more.

"Not my choice of words," Lily huffed, "more like pompously."

"She'll be the next Percy if she keeps telling people how they should be feeling," Remus agreed, thinking back to how she'd been acting in third year as well.

He was probably feeling his own guilt, hoping Harry would lose, so that they could both be outcasts.

Harry hadn't felt this angry at Hermione since she'd gotten his firebolt taken away, and this was so much worse than that. Sirius was on the run for the murder of his brother because of a long standing friend who'd left him framed and for dead, while Harry was about to be kicked out of school! They weren't comparable problems, and Sirius would never think to insinuate otherwise!

Harry shot back she was being ridiculous, but Hermione shrugged without remorse as she said she believed Ron's mum might be right, and Sirius seemed to get Harry and his own father confused.

Sirius felt like he'd been slapped. He certainly felt the hot burn rushing his throat and threatening to overflow onto his face through his eyes as he found that was proof of what Molly had said earlier. If even Hermione had caught him doing or saying something-

"That arrogant little shit!" James howled, looking as angry as when Sirius had been sent off to Azkaban without a trial. "He's been living in hell for how many years now, and she goes turning any sign of him wanting to reminisce to Harry about me into him being a loon! For Merlin's sake, he's done nothing but try to do everything for Harry since he got out, has everyone just forgotten that!"

"Prongs." The soft little voice was the only thing that could have cut him off, and James had to work hard to focus on him through blurry red vision to see such a resigned expression.

He wasn't having that as he hissed back, "I'm getting sick and tired of hearing people talk about you like this, when none of them can claim to know you worth a damn. Why am I the only one getting hacked off about this?" He finished more towards Remus than anyone.

"You're not," he said at once in short, clipped sentences to keep his own anger held in, "but you were doing such a good job vocalizing I'd be remiss to cut you off or even add in."

"Stop, please," Sirius cut in with more force before any return could be made. He faltered a bit, knowing he'd catch hell in here if he told them the real reason he couldn't work up the steam over this was because he honestly feared how true it was, so instead he put out, "I just, can't get worked up over thinking of myself in any sense in that future, so I'd rather, you know, not think about it anymore than I can." He finished in a tiny voice, clearly not doing as good a job as he'd intended in keeping his real thoughts out of his tones as James's face suddenly flipped to concern, but Lily seemed to understand best of all as she respected his wishes and wouldn't let anyone say another word as she kept going.

Harry was getting angry as he demanded if she thought his godfather was touched in the head?

Hermione denied that claim, but did say he'd been lonely for a very long time in a simple voice.

Remus had to work very hard not to spit out, 'so that's a sign of insanity now?!' When in all honesty that was the most true thing Hermione had ever said, and no one, clearly not him, seemed to be going out of their way to help Sirius anymore than keeping him at arms distance from the one person who could have made that more bearable.

Mrs. Weasley came in then, asking if they were finished cleaning this cupboard they'd been working on this whole time.

"That's gratitude for you," Sirius muttered just for something new to say and still not looking at anyone.

Ron said bitterly he'd been hoping she'd come to give them a break.

She reminded they'd been so keen on helping the Order, they were doing just that by making this place livable.

Lily gave a hollow laugh as the phrase, 'be careful what you wish for,' flitted across her mind.

Ron grumbled they'd been working like house-elves in here, while Molly just turned to leave.

Hermione rather liked the idea though, saying maybe now he'd take a real interest in SPEW.

Lily had to work very hard to keep the bitterness out of her voice Hermione so easily flipped subjects like that. As if talking about Sirius were inconsequential and instead she could make them hear more about house-elves, again. Those boys clearly cared nothing for her thinking on this, and this one just never seemed to take a hint. They were all in such a bad mood, none of them even had the fun to point out Hermione had just referred to her own organization by Ron's stupid name.

Then she added to herself this could bring more awareness to all Gryffindor's if she sponsored a common room cleanup, all proceeds going to the campaign of course.

"More like she'd have to pay them to be doing any such thing," Sirius sighed as he still couldn't find a smile in himself to put up. It wasn't helping no one, not even Harry, was playing along.

Ron muttered he'd sponsor her to shut up about SPEW, but so only Harry could hear.

Sirius gave an obnoxiously loud laugh for himself just having mimicked Ron, at least making Remus roll his eyes again, something Sirius was confident he'd never grow tired of.

Harry found himself daydreaming about Hogwarts more and more as the end of the holidays approached; he could not wait to see Hagrid again,

Harry had some sad little frown on his face he didn't seem aware of at the mention of that,

to play Quidditch,

and no one noticed him wince slightly as without fail, the other boys managed some small enthusiasm for that word alone.

and to simply stroll across the vast lawns. He was always sure to talk about this when Sirius wasn't in the room.

Sirius wished a Bludger would come knock him stupid already just so he didn't have to see Harry look shameful at that!

The fact was that living at the Headquarters of the anti-Voldemort movement was not nearly as interesting or exciting as Harry would have expected before he'd experienced it.

James ran his hand furiously through his hair as he realized what Hermione had said clearly wasn't going to come back up so he could keep going, and he wasn't even sure if he could have anyways after his brothers pitiful little attempts to deflect him from it. That didn't make his simmering anger feel any better, but he managed a mask that at least resembled his joking tone as he told Harry, "nothing ever is."

Harry had to push through his mind to force himself back into this conversation before he simply responded, "Quidditch," and was thankful a second mentioning of it only left another dull sadness in him he didn't have to examine.

"Okay, most things," he conceded.

Members did still frequently come and go, but Mrs. Weasley always made sure all ears, extendable or not, were no where in the area. No one, not even Sirius, had done a thing to give Harry more information since his first night there.

Harry gave an exaggerated groan and a playful nudge to his godfather that went completely ignored.

On the last day of term, the book lists finally came in.

"Oh wow," Lily blinked in surprise and almost relief at this new topic. "I thought that was just glossed over like last year, hadn't realized you hadn't even gotten them yet."

"What are they playing at sending that the day before school starts," Remus agreed in surprise. "Can you imagine how packed Flourish and Blotts is going to be, everyone trying to get that last book for their Defense class. At least the others the parents could have gotten already."

"You do bring up the fun question of who it's going to be this year," Sirius was really trying to put some enthusiasm into chatting about this, but Harry very clearly did not agree as he pleaded his mother to cut him off and go on, they'd get their answer soon enough, and he already had a bad feeling about it.

Harry was standing on a chair cleaning up some owl droppings from on top of their wardrobe as Ron passed Harry his. He chucked the waste into a basket that swallowed the lot with a belch and accepted his letter.

"One of the few good features in that house," Sirius chuckled, "my favorite part being, it spits whatever you threw in there right back up a few minutes later. Great for saying you cleaned your room so you can scarper and then blame the mess on someone later."

"I can't imagine how someone would find a use for that," Lily told him deadpan.

He opened his letter and found only two new books, the Standard new charms book, and Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkhard.

"That sounds extraordinarily boring," Sirius snorted, forcing himself to get into this now despite Harry's lack of enthusiasm. "Are you sure you can't come back Moony? At least you wouldn't be caught dead assigning anything that has such a title you'd use it for a pillow."

Remus gave an exaggerated eye roll for what he felt was a stupid question, while James sighed and forced himself to add in as well even if he'd prefer to hold onto his anger some more. "You know, it never even mentioned what book you did assign," with a curious look at Harry.

"We only ever studied out of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," Harry shrugged, "he didn't assign any other specific books. I was grateful, as the only other thing I'd used it for before then was just to look up some creature I heard an older student mention and I didn't know." He finished himself off with a curious look though before adding on, "how come that's a first year book anyways? Care of Magical Creatures isn't even mandatory."

"It's intended for individual studies," Lily told, "so that you have a basic understanding of magical creatures on hand even if you don't take the class. By making it part of your first school list, someone likes to think that you've cracked it open at some point."

Harry gave a sheepish smile for that, as the only real time he'd ever done much of anything with that book was a few things for Professor Lupin out of it. He'd managed to accidentally rip out a few chapters at some point he'd never bothered repairing, like his section on boggarts for instance, and at the end of his fourth year him and Ron had skimmed through the whole thing by themselves on one of their off periods in one of their silent 'don't want to talk right now' agreements on Harry's part.*

With a now familiar crack, the twins had Apparated themselves into the room. Harry was so used to this, he didn't even fall from his chair.

Sirius really did laugh that time, though he'd yet to fail when mention of them making an appearance so he was at least happy for that consistency.

The two examined the boys lists and found they'd all gotten the same book, all wondering who the person was to assign this new book. George reminding Dumbledore was having a hard time of finding any new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher.

"Did it really take them the day before term to pull that together?" Lily asked with honest concern.

"I knew it must be getting harder all the time to get someone in, but this is just getting sad," James agreed with a very pointed look someone was very pointedly ignoring.

Fred said it must be a chore, considering what they knew happened to the most recent ones.

Harry agreed one had been sacked,

"Sacked?" Remus repeated with a snicker. "Really, that's all the reference I get?"

"Besides, he technically quit," Sirius reminded, giving him the stank eye for the reminder as he finished, "with protest."

Remus ignored the jab.

one dead,

"Deserved it," Lily muttered bitterly.

one's memory removed,

"Still my favorite," Remus savored.

and one locked in a trunk for nine months.

James shuddered all over again in renewed horror of that.

Harry agreed it was easy to not want the post.

"You'd think the job was cursed or something, oh wait," Sirius smirked.

"I wonder what happened to the twins teachers before those came along," Remus puzzled.

"Guess something far more boring," James shrugged.

Fred looked around at his youngest brother and asked why he hadn't spoken up, but Ron made no move he'd heard, he was still gaping down at his letter with his mouth hanging open.

"What's got his knickers in a twist?" Remus asked too enthusiastically, anything to get back off that job he honestly wished he'd never taken, it's not like he'd done much good at it that no other competent person could have.

When he got no answer, his brother snatched the letter away to see for himself, and his own mouth fell open as he mouthed the word Prefect.

"You said perfect, right?" James was staring at her oddly. "What's perfect?"

"You heard exactly what she said Prongs," Sirius corrected, his eyes growing steadily wider as the shock sunk in. "Prefect! Oh wow, go Ron!"

Remus was snickering lightly while Lily was shaking her head fondly at these boys, thinking this was most likely similar to how they'd reacted upon Remus' Prefect status as well. A little humor, some congratulations and then trying to move on by looking at her like, 'get on with it.' Clearly they didn't put much of a big deal into the matter, which made sense considering how often they went through their life ignoring any and all resemblance of authority.

Neither twin could believe this, it must have been a mistake!

"Now that was just hurtful," Lily couldn't stop her twitching lips as she tried to read in Fred's mocking tone, perhaps not doing it as well as the boys, but still almost hitting that playful way she imagined them using.

They turned to look at Harry and insisted everyone thought it would be him, looking at Harry like he'd tricked them himself.

"Harry would never do such a thing!" James gasped in mock outrage. "He's going to be far too busy avoiding Ron the rest of the year to join him!"

"You were a Headboy though," Harry suddenly blinked as he realized this. "Do you not need to be a Prefect to get that?"

"Nah," Sirius rolled his eyes, "I honestly have no idea how they pick them, I feel like they just pull a random name out of the Sorting Hat, it makes more sense than going with any 'qualifications,' which neither of them had to be holding any such title."

"Thank you Padfoot," Remus snorted.

George did remind his brother all the mad things Harry had done must have left him out of it. Fred readily agreed, saying Harry had his priorities right and kept himself in trouble enough for this not to have been his.

"I must applaud them on seeing this in the proper lighting, someone I know never did see it that same way," Sirius said tragically while Remus hadn't stopped laughing this whole time for how much of a flashback he was getting to his friends ribbing on him through the whole, very long, train ride when he'd told them. It had been almost a relief to attend his Prefect duties first, at least they'd had enough time to laugh it off with each other so by the time he came back they'd almost been ready to ignore the whole instance.

George's next thought was to realize how revolting their mother was going to be when she heard about this.

Some of Lily's humor did fade at that, while the boys just laughed harder, though a bit harsher in remembrance of Molly especially so fresh after Hermione's pot-shots. She however was thinking the twins could show just a bit more of both praising and picking on their brother at once, hadn't they learned after they'd dealt with Percy sometimes words could hurt after all those years. They were making the same mistake with their younger brother as they had been with their elder one in treating him like this just because he'd gotten an accomplishment he'd had no real control over. They didn't necessarily have to approve of it, but couldn't they at least not take the mickey out of him for it.

Ron, still with his mouth hanging open, handed the badge to Harry as if in confirmation it was real. Harry gave it a brief examination to see the exact same one he'd seen on Percy's the first time they'd met..

"Which he wore for the next two years straight as well," Harry muttered in remembered disgust, managing to ignore the old conundrum he'd always had at school of having twenty-two Prefects at once running around, plus the Head Boy and Girl, not to mention all the teachers always seeming to keep an eye on all things. It really did boggle his mind how the Marauders got away with anything like that, though it must have helped in fact to have a man on the inside.

The door opened with a bang, and Hermione came in squealing with delight about how she'd gotten- then she spotted what Harry was holding and shrieked that they were both Prefects now!

"Wow, both of his friends got it!" James's tone came out much harsher now as he was still waiting for an apology from her as well as Molly to Sirius' face. "I'm thinking she'll do worse than Ron, she'll be too busy with all her studies to deal with Prefect duties. Least he'll enjoy the attention it gets him from some of the younger students."

"So long as he doesn't let it go to his head," Sirius said a little uneasily, still remembering last year and how Ron got because he thought he wasn't recognized enough. Now the opposite problem could occur.

Harry quickly corrected while pushing it back to his friend this was Ron's.

Hermione at first didn't understand,

"That timing though," Remus muttered at how awkward this could get.

before she turned surprised on him to ask if he was sure?

"Ouch," Sirius winced hard for that one. "Yes he's sure woman, the schools never sent someone the wrong envelope before." He got out quickly before anyone could make a more snide comment about her.

Ron's expression turned defiant as he stated that was his name on the school's letter.

Hermione continued to stand there bewildered for a moment,

"Wow, she came skipping in when she thought it was Harry's but now it's Ron's and she's actually at a loss for words, for once," James huffed.

before finally beginning to congratulate him. This was really-

George input for her unexpected.

Hermione tried to say that wasn't true, Ron had...

the door opened again for Mrs. Weasley carrying clothes, cutting off Hermione's trailing words.

"Saved by the Mum," Sirius looked a bit relieved, that couldn't have been going any more awkwardly.

She wasn't surprised by everyone holding the envelopes, Ginny had already told her letters were in. If they passed them all to her, she'd go into Diagon Alley today and fetch it all for them. Then she turned on Ron and asked if he'd like a new color for the pajamas she was going to get him, the ones he had now were far too short.

"Why does she bother asking? I thought she always gave him maroon just to color coordinate her kids by this point," James snarked, clearly his mood getting worse now that both people of his ire were in the same room, and hardly even reacting when Lily pinched him to get him to stop.

George said for his brother he should have red and gold to match his badge, while Molly rolling up a pair of maroon socks didn't understand what he meant.

James gave Lily a pointed look which she ignored.

Fred emphasized Ron's new prefect badge, his every tone conveying the worst news.

It took a moment for the words to get past her preoccupation with pajamas.

Sirius got a happy snort of laughter for that sentence existence, after all pajamas were a very fascinating conversation topic.

She turned in confusion Ron wasn't a -

"He is as of five seconds ago," Lily giggled.

Then she spotted the badge in Ron's hand, and squealed with delight! Saying how wonderful and perfect this was, that was everyone in the family!

"Hey!" All three Marauders yelped indignantly on behalf of the twins, Sirius persisting the point, "what happened to the other two that are in the room?"

Lily nibbled on her lip for a moment before continuing, feeling just as bad for the twins as she would have if Ron hadn't gotten this reaction. Ginny hadn't even made the status yet, so she really wasn't sure if that was the right thing for Molly to say there.

James wanted to ask if that meant even Charlie had been one, but he honestly wasn't sure if this should be counted as Molly had just brushed aside two of her kids, she might have done it for three in that moment.

George demanded what he and his twin were, neighbors, while Molly brushed past him and threw her arms over Ron, seeming not to have heard him.

"Wow," James rubbed at his shoulder with his own hurt filled eyes. "I'm not even a Weasley and that hurt my soul."

"You'd be just as snarky if she tried to play it off and not single out one of her children for doing something so good," Lily sighed, hating having to deal with her husband when he was in his petty moods, which seemed to be happening more often than not of late.

She kept going on about how proud she was, and his father and brothers would be to! All while Fred and George pantomimed vomiting.

"He'll be lucky if they don't do far worse to him," Remus muttered, knowing the twins, like his friends, might just take this as a new challenge to prank their little brother and see how well they could get away with it. They'd yet to clearly be doing things to Ron at school, but he wouldn't put it past them for this to be a start.

Mrs. Weasley did not notice as she held eyes only for her youngest son, continuing to kiss his face, who was quickly growing as scarlet as his new badge.

"That woman has no shame, the boys in front of his friends," James grumbled.

"Howler," Lily reminded, clearly Molly held absolutely nothing of the world outside her circle.

He finally managed to stop her stream, only for her to continue by asking what he'd like.

Ron at first couldn't dare to understand, as she exclaimed he had to have a reward for this!

Lily crooned, just a bit, as she truly did see the value in doing this for her kids that had done such an accomplishment. It certainly made sense, even if she felt for the twins as one of them would have always been left out of this tradition. There really was just no winning with this.

She at first offered some new dress robes, before the twins reminded they'd done that one, clearly regretting their moment of generosity.

"It was part of Harry's doing, so I forgive their moment of kindness." James rolled his eyes.

"You know, I just realized, Ron and Hermione weren't there when you did that," Sirius pointed out just to change the subject. "Did you ever tell them what you did for the twins?"

"No," Harry shrugged, the thought had never crossed his mind. "I suppose they just told Ron they did it so they wouldn't have the humiliation of seeing him in them again. They were so awful Ron just believed them on the spot."

She at once switched to some other things he could want, like a cauldron, or a new rat, he had always favored Scabbers-

Lily winced hard at getting out the name of that old thing which effectively managed to turn every person in here into a gargoyle like face.

but Ron cut her off instead asking for a broom.

Her enthusiasm faded a bit, broomsticks were very expensive.

"Go big or go home," Remus winced as he easily saw both sides to what both parties were feeling in that moment.

Ron quickly tacked on not the newest model, just a new one for a change...

Her smile was right back as she agreed of course. Then she left the room in high spirits, saying she really had to get going now if she had all this shopping plus that.

They were all surprised she'd so easily agreed to this, but then the boys were suddenly bouncing in place with pleasure as they were begging Lily to get to the part where they hoped to find what exact model Molly would get!

Still muttering happily to herself how she was all a dither.

Lily was giggling herself by the end of that, looking lovingly at her son for a moment and knowing she'd be just as bad if he had been made one. She did a double take in surprise as she saw how off his face looked, like he was really thinking about something, but she supposed it may still be mention of that rat like the lingering darkness in the boys still showed so she didn't press him.

The twins hardly waited until she was out of sight before turning falsely anxious looks on him, asking if it was alright they didn't kiss him as well?

George at least offered they could curtsey.

"That I would like to see," James snickered.

Ron just told them to shut up, while Fred gave an evil grin and asked what if they didn't? Was their baby brother going to put them in detention?

"No, no," Sirius corrected at once, a look of intrigue now dominant. "That is what I want to see! Hermione tried it last year, now I really want to know who would win, the twins or Ron. With Harry as backup of course," he finished with a smirk at his godson who did not show a hint of listening.

"My money's on Harry and Ron," Remus kept going, clearly not noticing the same thing. "The twins owe Harry big, if he asks them to take a dive and fall into detention, they just might for him."

"I don't think it'll ever come to that," James rolled his eyes. "I can't think of a moment where Ron cares enough to go at them that hard, he's hardly a ruler himself when it comes to school boundaries."

Hermione snapped he just might if they didn't watch themselves.

"I feel like that's more her part than his," James sniffed, there she went again, speaking for everyone.

The twins burst out laughing while Ron told Hermione to drop it.

They kept going as if Ron hadn't spoken, Fred speaking to his brother about how they'd better watch their step this year, George agreeing he was shaking in his boots at the thought. The two concluding their rule breaking days were over.

Then they vanished with a loud crack.

"They're off to a great start," Remus snorted.

Hermione shot a nasty look at the ceiling where laughter could still be heard from them as she told Ron not to pay them any mind, they were just jealous.

"I don't think jealous is the right word," James grinned, "but I'd think something was entirely wrong with them if they didn't have some fun with Ron about this. Then again, I'd think Hermione wasn't acting like herself if she didn't say what others are thinking as well," he finished with a huff.

Ron disagreed, they'd always said anyone who was a prefect was a prat.

"Am I the only one remembering Bill?" Lily chuckled, thinking he hadn't sounded one bit like a prat.

He cheered himself up though that at least he was getting a new broom out of it, and then decided to himself he'd like a Cleansweep model.

"Not a bad model at all to choose from," Sirius snapped away from watching Harry curiously, who hadn't pipped up in ages now, and still wasn't showing much interest in this, which meant he must really be thinking of something in his head.

"You think he'll put it to any good use?" James said wistfully as he remembered a large portion of his agitation last year. "There's a spot open on the Quidditch team with Wood gone, and assuming Anglina or one of the other Chasers might have graduated, that could mean some new potential on the field."

Harry did blink a bit at this news and looked around curiously to find them still talking about Ron just getting the broom, so he smiled happily and forced himself to engage in his own hopes that this would happen with a distant smile the whole time before Lily cut off the Quidditch talk for her own sanity.

He jogged out of the room to go tell his mum this, while Harry was left alone with Hermione, whom he didn't feel like looking at all of a sudden.

"Least I'm not the only one holding a grudge," James grumbled to himself, half wishing Harry had said more to his friend in defense of his godfather earlier, but he'd long accepted Harry was not the confrontational type much.

Hermione began to say something tentatively, but he cut her off with a hearty congratulations he didn't really seem to feel.

"Oh," they all muttered, looking to him in surprise and quickly away again as Harry's eyes widened with panic, realizing what he'd just been thinking about all this, and how that most likely was fixing to end up in this stupid book!

She began again, asking if she could borrow Hedwig, to send an owl to her parents and tell them about this.

He agreed at once, keeping his back to her as she took his owl from he room, and he sat down by himself on the bed, his mind spinning. The only noise left was the waste basket spitting the owl droppings back up.

Sirius opened his mouth to repeat his joke, but in fact performed a small miracle by instead taking James's small little head shake as warning and closing it again.

He had forgotten prefect badges were on the way, far to anxious with his upcoming trial.

"A daunting enough fear, you're forgiven," Remus muttered under his breath, as they all now realized they were hearing exactly what Harry had just been thinking without having shared. No one had really missed how silent and speculative he'd just gotten, but they'd left him alone with his head for a moment since it clearly had nothing to do with poking at his memories. Now, well this just felt a bit invasive as shame began burning up his face. They were all starting to feel more than just pity for him, it really couldn't be fun for him not to have had a single private moment while he was here.

Lily suddenly stopped altogether and began running her thumb down the length of the page, and the moment Harry realized what she was doing, he took a deep breath and told her, "don't bother skipping, I guess you lot may as well hear it."

"We don't have to," James said at once to no one disagreeing. "Honestly, it doesn't even occur to me half the time, but really Harry, you can tell us to shut it at any time for hearing every single thing you think."

He took another deep breath, but looking more accepting than defeating now, insisted, "you've heard far worse than my being jealous for a moment by now, may as well get through it."

Lily waited a moment longer to realize he truly meant it, before going on.

But if he had remembered, what would he have expected? A small little voice in his head pointed out, not this.

James went to say something, but Lily gave him a small kick to get him to stop, she was trying to get through this as fast as she could. Up to this point the books, while centered around him, hadn't exactly delved into his head quite as much as this moment, and she was at least going to try and stop her boys commenting on his private thoughts no matter her opinion on them.

Harry buried his face in his fingers as he couldn't deny that, wondering now if he really thought himself arrogant like Malfoy.

Sirius didn't take the hint as he rolled his eyes and said, "not even close. Thinking you should have gotten something doesn't automatically make you a self-entitled little berk. It's how you act when you do or don't get it. You aren't going to treat Ron any differently now that he has it, so you're fine pup," he finished with utter confidence, at least making Harry smile again.

Did he really believe he was better than Ron? No, was his own instant rebuttal. Still Harry anxiously probed himself to admit he was better at Quidditch, but that was the only thing, they were equal in class. Outside of lessons though, both Ron and Hermione had risked worse than expulsion with him on those adventures.

"The fact that you refer to those as adventures, rather than life or death moments that you really shouldn't have been in except for extraordinary circumstances, really gets me in this moment," Lily muttered.

Not at the very end though, Harry had always done those alone. Especially in that graveyard...

"Thank you for detailing all of that," Remus shivered, though they all had at some particular moment Harry had brought up.

All those bitter feelings over the summer swelled in him again, how he'd done far more than them!

Lily had to fight her own insistence now not to say anything in comfort for her son. He was having a human moment after all, but she restrained herself from pointing out again badges weren't chosen because of things you'd done. Honestly no student had a clear idea who was chosen and why, it was simply the Headmaster's decision, and he really could be picking at random or for any arbitrary reason.

The small little voice was back, pointing out badges weren't necessarily chosen because of dangerous situations you'd lived through.

"I really love the way you worded that though," James gave a bit of a laugh.

Harry buried his face again to remember Fred's words about no one would make Ron a prefect, and Harry snorted with disgust at himself.

"That was a bit harsh," Sirius gave Harry a sympathetic pat he still didn't really feel like he deserved. "I'll bet a ton of other kids are having far worse reactions than just a bit of jealousy for their friends getting something. Imagine how Malfoy's going to act when he didn't get one and Ron did," he finished triumphantly. That did make Harry laugh again, albeit a bit more held back than he understood why.

Ron hadn't asked for this, nor was it his fault. Harry was not going to sit around sulking, nor mocking his friend behind his back for this, just because Harry had been beaten at something.

"The thought never even crossed our mind," James rolled his eyes, causing Harry to flush anew as he realized just how well those around him seemed to know him in these few short days, and it didn't really seem it was just because of a bunch of books.

Harry could hear footsteps on the stairs again and immediately put a much more welcoming smile in place as Ron reentered, telling his best friend congratulations. The smile disappeared from Ron's face instead.

"Well geez, clearly he didn't want to be congratulated," Remus frowned in surprise.

Ron at once said his own surprise, he'd thought it would be Harry.

"Everyone thought it would be Harry, even Harry," Sirius mocked, pleased Harry stuck his tongue out at him for the picking like normal again.

Harry echoed Fred from earlier, saying he'd caused to many problems to get picked.

Ron agreed with a laugh while beginning to pack up his things. He seemed to be having a bit of a problem though, as he kept moving the badge around. First to his pocket, then the nightstand, and then putting it onto his schools robes and gazing for a moment at the red on black.

"He's acting better than I was," Remus smirked in remembrance, "I hid it in with my knickers until we were all on the train and it was moving before I managed to spit out the words. Which I regretted, since it only then occurred to me they could pitch me out of a moving train."

"The thought occurred to me," Sirius agreed, "but only because you actually dropped a pair of those on my head while getting the badge out to show us."

Only when Fred and George dropped in and offered to attach it to his forehead with a Permanent Sticking Charm did he wrap it tenderly in his maroon socks and lock it in his trunk.

"I wonder if we'll get a return on the badge pranks," James said curiously.

"I'm having trouble picturing it," Remus shrugged. "Despite their jokes already, I can't see them having at Ron every opportunity like they had Percy, mostly because I don't see him dogging the twins to deserve it."

"I wish I could be following the twins around," Sirius sighed wistfully. Remus grimaced at his own choice of words, never admitting to his dying breath he'd done it on purpose to keep the good mood alive.

Mrs. Weasley came back from Diagon Alley and was at once pounced upon by her youngest son, but she scolded even while handing him his new broom she'd have dinner ready in no time and now wasn't the time for him to be using that.

He still ripped the wrapping off the moment she was out of sight.

"A proper response," James giggled in agreement.

When they did make their way downstairs, it was to find a large banner already in place congratulating Ron and Hermione on being the new prefects, while Mrs. Weasley was looking in a better mood than Harry had seen her all holiday.

"That is so sad," Lily murmured to herself, really thinking back to how she'd acted towards Sirius now, and seeing the strained mother protecting her family as opposed to this side where she saw Sirius as her family and Molly the threat. It was hard to keep both perspectives in line at once, but she tried her best to shake off the last of her ill will towards the woman, even if she did maintain Sirius hadn't deserved what was thrown at him.

She explained to them they'd be having more of a party tonight, she'd invited everyone along. Some of the guests were already there in fact, as she made her way over to Moody and told him she'd been wanting to ask for ages if he could take a peek inside the desk in the drawing room to see what was in there. They were sure it was a boggart, but just in case it was something worse.

Moody agreed at once, turning his magical eye in that direction while repeating her instructions, and agreed yes they were right on the creature inside.

"I'd actually like to watch that," Remus said eagerly like he'd just been invited to his own show. "See what Moody's Boggart would be before he dispelled it."

Harry agreed, honestly hoping that was exactly what had happened. Why would he be getting such a bad feeling from such a silly little thing like a boggart, those hadn't frightened him in ages.

Molly insisted she'd do it later, for now he should be enjoy himself down here, pointing out this was a party while gesturing at the banner.

"Really? I wouldn't have thought he'd notice," James rolled his eyes.

Moody turned his normal eye on Ron now, his magical one remaining out the side of his head, and Harry got the eerie feeling it was on him as he moved towards Sirius and Lupin.

"Glad we can be of some help, even if it is just to protect you from scary Alastor," Sirius fixed a smile in place, Harry really starting to feel bad both continued to twitch uneasily whenever they were mentioned.

He could still hear though, as Moody congratulated Ron for this new authority, saying Dumbledore must not be worried about him withstanding jinxes.

"Well he's not wrong," Remus blinked in surprise at such advice while James and Sirius got a chuckle out of that.

Ron looked unsure how to take this news, but was saved answering by the arrival of his father and eldest brother, who'd also brought along Mundungus.

"Why?" Lily balked at the idea.

"Suppose they ran into him for any number of reasons, and I can guess Arthur was just too polite to not invite him," James shrugged.

He was wearing a long overcoat that was oddly lumpy and declined the offer to remove it.

"Because that's not suspicious at all," Sirius said with chipper.

Tonks was telling Hermione and Ginny that she'd never had the honor of being prefect, her Head of House said she lacked certain qualities.

"The fact that she asked for a reason really makes me question her sanity," Remus smirked.

"I remember asking McGonagall who possessed her to make Remus one," James reminded, "she just told me to move along."

"What house was she in?" Sirius suddenly demanded curiously, thinking it would be interesting if she'd been yet another Slytherin.

"Hufflepuff," Harry informed, she'd mentioned Sprout as her head of house to Hermione at some previous time.

Sirius smiled all the wider his little cousin had broken even more traditions instead.

Ginny asked what that could be, and Tonks happily said the ability to behave herself.

Causing everyone to burst out laughing.

Ginny laughed, while Hermione looked as though she did not know whether to smile or not and compromised by taking an extra large gulp of Butterbeer and choking on it.

James scoffed heavily, even more annoyed than usual at Hermione's inability to laugh at anything, even a harmless joke!

Ginny turned and asked Sirius next.

Sirius pretended to faint at the very thought.

He gave a bark-like laughter and said no one would have been insane enough to do a thing like that, he was in detention with James too much. It was Lupin who was the good boy and got the honor.

"Good boy?" Remus asked of him, poking him slightly as he was still theatrically slumped over. "That's probably the nicest thing you've ever said about me."

"Wasn't saying it to your face, but to others, and you know I always covered for you," he told while still miming unconsciousness causing the others to just laugh harder.

Lupin jumped in saying he was under the impression Dumbledore had done it to try and exert some control over his friends.

"If that's what he was going for, he began with a lost cause," Remus said in surprise, as the idea had yet to even occur to him that's what it had been for.

"Wonder what made you think that," James agreed, "we all thought it was Dumbledore's subtle way of rewarding our winning personalities and keeping the school's spirits up."

"You lot and your fat heads," Lily muttered.

He'd failed dismally.

Harry suddenly found himself in an even better mood, his father hadn't been a prefect either!

"Best hope neither of them pass along my Head Boy badge then," James muttered for Lily alone, who agreed. It was apparently a good thing he'd forgotten Hagrid mentioning this right now.

Ron was rhapsodizing about his new broom to anybody who would listen.

"Honestly, his mother's lucky he was just talking about it rather than trying to be on it in the house," Sirius chuckled.

While Hermione was chatting with Lupin about elf rights.

"I'd rather go back to hearing about the broom," Remus muttered, everyone else looking just as disappointed except Lily, who hushed them so she could see a conversation she'd actually been looking forward to. If anyone could get through to Hermione how she was acting regarding house-elves, she'd put money on Remus.

She was saying how the segregation on them was the same as werewolves, stemming back to how wizards thought they were superior to other creatures...

"That's all we get," Lily pouted as she saw the next line changed topics.

"I wasn't really listening to them," Harry said apologetically.

Molly and Bill were having their usual argument about Bill's hair, the mother even asking of Harry that wasn't it too long.

Harry was alarmed at being asked,

"Boys," Lily muttered.

and quickly slid away to where Fred and George and Mundungus were in the corner.

"Now we're tuning into the important conversations," Sirius' grin turned eager to hear about this.

When Mundungus saw him coming he stopped talking at once, but Fred quickly said Harry was good to hear this, he was their financial backer.

"That's an excellent term for that," James brightened, before turning a calculating look onto his friend and saying, "hey Moony-"

"Don't even start you," he shot back without looking over, so James put a pin in the idea for later.

Fred eagerly held out what was in their hands, Harry finding tiny shriveled up black pods that were making a rattling noise though they were still.

None of them considered themselves Herbology experts, the closest one was Lily who could recognize a wide variety of plants for her potions, but they were all curious to hear what the twins had gotten their hands on now.

George explained they were Venomous Tentacula seeds, but since they were a Class C Non-Tradeable Substance, it was really hard to get them outside of people like their friend here.

"What on earth would they need those for?" Lily yipped in concern, thinking they could get themselves killed by just one little accident.

"Well they'll certainly get sick enough by them," James said uneasily, hoping for more details as well.

Fred offered ten Galleons for them, but Mundungus corrected he wouldn't take less than twenty with all the trouble these tings had caused him.

George gave a heavy laugh, saying that was a worse deal than the time he'd tried to sell them a bag of Knarl quills for six Sickles.

"Now I know he's been off his rocker," James shook his head in disbelief at that one.

Harry warned someone could be watching, like Moody's magical eye.

"Really should count our blessings he isn't around more I guess," Sirius chuckled.

All three agreed it was best to wrap this up, and then they all departed, only Harry staying in the corner as he watched Mrs. Weasley with a sudden fear. He'd never informed her or anyone he'd given the twins his Triwizard Winnings to start their joke shop, and it suddenly occurred to him what if their mother, who greatly disapproved of this idea, had a row with her kids about it. What if it caused another Percy-like estrangement? Would she still care about Harry in the same way if she knew he was helping them along with something she found so unsuitable.

Lily had already tried to instill into her son how unlikely she found that, and while Harry was looking anxious again at the returning topic, he'd yet to really start working himself up over it so they let him be on this one for now.

He was dragged out of his own thinking by hearing Kingsley say he'd been sure Dumbledore would make Potter a prefect, while Lupin returned he was sure the man had his reasons for doing otherwise.

"I don't think you were too enamored with Hermione's house-elf topic if you're already hanging around someone else," Sirius said, easily slipping into another topic to take that look off of Harry.

"He always thinks Dumbledore has his reasons," Lily muttered to herself.

Kingsley persisted it would have shown the world he had confidence in Potter though-

"Or it could have done worse, and made Dumbledore really seem he was playing favoritism with Harry," Remus shook his head. "Nah, best to not let you have this one honestly." Giving the others a moment of odd amusement as they were sure that's what Remus would have said back to Kingsley at the time.

"Not like I ever really wanted it," Harry shrugged in agreement, the idea had never crossed his mind until it was gone.

Harry did not look around, not wanting them to know he'd overheard.

"If they didn't want you hearing," James rolled his eyes at this idea, "they wouldn't have had the conversation with you in the room.

Though not remotely hungry, he followed Mundungus back towards the table. His pleasure in the party had evaporated as quickly as it had come; he wished he were upstairs in bed.

Both Lily and James were leaning into each other just that little bit closer than was strictly necessary, just for that moment to remind each other they were here now instead of a constant source of some painful memory for Harry. The cheer of knowing that little bit more about his father had been tarnished by his now fear of what the woman he looked to as a mother could think about him. There was just no winning.

He heard Molly yawning and telling her husband she was going to take care of that Boggart and turn in, telling Harry goodnight as she passed.

"Why did she only say goodnight to you," Sirius quickly pointed out just to give Harry some moment of singularity in Molly's eyes which he had clearly been wanting a moment ago, but now he looked all the more distracted and distant as he was clearly trying to ignore some bad feeling.

He got caught by Mad-Eye next pulling him to the side and saying he wanted to show him something.

"Well this should be interesting," Remus said, Moody singling Harry out could be, fun...

It turned out to be a photo, original Order of the Phoenix according to Moody.

"Wow, don't think we've had this picture taken yet," Sirius blinked in surprise.

"I'm surprised Moody has such a thing, you'd think it would be considered a security risk," Lily agreed. "Even we're not entirely sure who everyone in the Order is."

"Guess Dumbledore may have asked for one at some point, and no one turns him down," James muttered without much enthusiasm, as he'd already been keeping a mental list of all the people he'd heard of dying already. He was entirely sure he didn't want to hear much more about this.

He'd found it the other night since Podmore hadn't returned his Invisibility Cloak and he'd been looking for his spare, and he'd decided to bring this picture along to share. He began pointing people out, like himself, whose nose was still intact at the time.

Harry had already once seen Moody before his face was really a mess, but even seeing it again a photo right next to the real thing could be a shock for his mind.

Then Dumbledore, Dedalus Diggle, Marlene McKinnon, while he added in she was found two weeks after this was taken dead with her whole family.

Lily paled to a ghastly white color and couldn't seem to keep going for a moment, just concentrating instead on that warm spot her husband provided while Sirius tried wildly to point out, "well, now we have a time frame! Dumbledore asks for a group shot, we put Marlene on extra watch!" He said this too loudly, but it gave Lily enough of a reminder this hadn't happened yet to another person she knew, she could still be saved.

Then there was Frank and Alice Longbottom, whom Harry could have picked out all on his own as the woman he was seeing so resembled his dorm mate Neville.

Sirius ran his hand through his hair bitterly as he remembered the details of that being recounted, of who all had been involved. He was now more than jokingly considering asking Lily to please skip this part already, it didn't feel worth it to hear how their friends were soon going to turn out.

Moody adding for himself better dead than what happened to them, then flipping to Emmeline Vance, Lupin, Benjy Fenwick, they'd only ever found bits of him.

James retched and couldn't help but recoil from her for just a moment.

As well as Edgar Bones, late brother of Amelia, she was the last of her line now because they'd gotten his family, Sturgis Podmore, Caradoc Dearborn, he'd vanished six months after this and nobody ever found a body, Hagrid, Elphias Doge, though Moody had forgotten he used to wear that dumb hat.

Remus had to blink slowly, but he couldn't quite erase his blurry vision even as he tried to picture Doge without his hat considering he wore it all the time. This was by far the easiest thing to be comparing in these time frames though, so he forced himself to linger on this rather than having to keep listening to these wretched details.

Gideon Prewett, it took five Death Eaters to kill him and his brother Fabian, they died like heroes,

Harry tried desperately to think of some way to erase those haggard looks from their faces, and blurted out the first thing that came to mind, "so the Weasley's aren't in the Order now?" Figuring Molly and her husband would be mentioned next to her brother.

"Oh, err, no they're not. I think they were offered, but both declined. I really don't know much about them honestly, only met them once through Gideon," Lily murmured.

Next was Aberforth, Dumbledore's brother,

"Wow, what?" James had to snap himself back into paying actual attention to what Lily was saying just in time to hear that, and he frowned at her in confusion. "So I guess Dumbledore does have a brother that's in the Order."

"Wonder what he gets up to," Sirius agreed with honest curiosity, thinking this group meeting might be worth it just to meet this man of such a famous wizard. He was suddenly sure this Aberforth had all sorts of amusing, blackmail, stories about a younger Dumbledore.

Harry could feel a bead of sweat beginning to form on the back of his neck with mentions to this, of Dumbledore and his sibling, or more than one...

that was the only time Moody had met him, strange man. Then there was Dorcas Meadowes, she'd been killed by Voldemort personally,

This group had never even heard that name, and it was a kind distraction just for a second to try and theorize how they could go to Dumbledore and warn this woman as well without gaining suspicion of how they'd know such a thing.

Sirius, when his hair was still short,

Sirius brushed his hand through his now shoulder length hair curiously, wondering just how long it was in Harry's time.

and the last three on the list hit Harry the hardest of all, his smiling parents, along with Peter Pettigrew.

Lily's voice hitched, and then failed her all together at that coming up twice in this chapter now. The hurt was always sitting there in the back of her mind, waiting to pounce even without someone explicitly bringing it up, now she really could feel a traitorous tear slipping through before she brushed it furiously away and kept going entirely too loud, but it was all she could do, otherwise she'd break down. She couldn't even bare to glance at her boys again or she'd lose herself entirely.

Harry could think of nothing to say, and looked to Moody who had the expression he'd just given Harry a treat. Harry at once tried to retreat out of here, and was saved an excuse by Sirius calling over what Moody had there, giving Harry the chance to slip away as Moody turned to answer.

Sirius ran a shaking hand down his face, but the words failed of him trying to say he'd been looking out for his pup, perhaps seen something of Moody talking to him bothering him, it was just hard to pretend he was thinking of anything except removing a spine from a spineless creature.

He didn't know why it had been such a shock, he'd seen pictures of his parents before, after all, and he'd met Wormtail.

Remus could still feel the permanent mark those encounters had left on them all.

It was mostly just having them sprung on him like that, and he began to grow angry as he thought no one would appreciate that! He kept thinking of all those, left timeliness in the picture, so many dead...Moody may have found that interesting, but Harry found it disturbing.

"Glad we're not the only ones," James whispered for himself, but Harry heard anyways and they met eyes just for a moment in silent understanding.

He went silently back towards his room, but stopped curiously outside the drawing room as he heard sobbing.

Lily shifted uncomfortably, she was still reading in a too strained and tight voice, and if she was forced to deal with anymore bad news she'd likely toss the book away and turns into James chest any moment just to be done with her feelings for a change. Who else could be having a breakdown now? It was her burning desire to try and help anyone out if they were in pain that managed to help push her own away so she could find out.

Harry pushed the door open curiously, and found in the center of the room, a dead Ron.

Sirius really almost did faint in surprise as scenarios began flipping through his head, of Death Eater's storming in and catching Ron off guard while he'd snuck upstairs to check on his broom, of the poor kid being attacked by something in that house they hadn't managed to exterminate yet, his falling down those stairs and someone coming across his body-

Harry gasped wildly and lunged forward to snatch the book away from her. He'd just had to relive the sharp experience of his parents being out of his life all over again, he couldn't stand losing someone else!

"Harry breath," Remus reminded coolly, even if his face was still a bit too pale from what he'd just heard from Moody and the honest shock of that scenario ever being a thing. "There was a boggart in this room, remember. Molly wandered off to go get rid of it, I think you just walked in on some bad timing."

Lily got the book back from her son while he was still wavering with understanding this, and quickly kept going even more loudly than before, every last bit of her hoping beyond all hope that was really what was going on!

Harry stumbled in fear, his brain flooding with ice this couldn't be real!

Then the sobbing continued, and he looked wildly around to find Mrs. Weasley cowering in the corner, and as he watched, she pointed her wand and got out Riddikulus.

The book nearly fell out of Lily's shaking hands, a combination of relief at such a drastic misunderstanding and still lingering sorrow of her own for this mother whom she now completely could sympathize with. She had so many she cared about, it was only natural this was any mothers boggart.

Harry watched those around him relax even as he couldn't shake this nasty feeling that his fear still pounding through him wasn't so unfounded, he had a very good reason to be worried about a dead Weasley...

Crack, the body changed to Bill instead, eyes open but lifeless. Mrs. Weasley kept sobbing harder than ever as she tried the spell again, but instead crack, it was now Mr. Weasley with blood dripping from his mouth.

Harry choked and shook his head furiously to push away something so powerful it was rearing up inside him to strike him down now if he lingered on that idea.

She kept trying in-between broken no's, but instead crack, dead twins,

James was running his fingers in agitation through his scalp as he fought whether to break in and ask if the boggart had managed to create both at once or was he just simplifying another two bodies. He came to his own silent conclusion it must be the first, even in death Molly couldn't picture the twins apart it seemed.

crack, dead Percy, crack, dead Harry.

Lily's voice wavered and nearly failed her as she was forced to imagine the same thing, while James wrapped an arm tight around her in comfort and a sudden tightening in his throat finally dispelling the majority of his anger at Molly. She'd still said some way to harsh things to his best friend, but at least now he could see she'd truly meant it in her heart of seeing his son as her own, and he couldn't really hate someone like that.

Harry shot at her to just get out of here, let someone else handle it, but then Lupin, Sirius, and Moody came into the room behind him.

Harry almost felt his own sob of relief escape him for this finally being cut off, he just couldn't imagine if that thing had kept going, he'd be forced to see even more people he cared about. Maybe even Ginny- his left hand suddenly spasmed and he clasped them tightly together in his lap instead to ignore whatever that moment was.

Lupin grasped the situation at once and shot his own spell, and while the boggart at first turned on him instead and changed shape to a silvery orb, he'd put enough force into the spell it finally vanished.

Molly was still a crying mess on the floor as Lupin went over to her, and the next second she was sobbing her heart into his shoulder.

Lily was fidgeting with the last page of this chapter, finally, as she all too easily envisioned that. She wondered if Remus was having any other flashbacks to comforting a redheaded mother in fear for her child.

He tried comforting it was just a meaningless boggart, but she brokenly told him she saw that, all the time! All of them dead...she dreamed about it!

Remus was staring vacantly at nothing as those words registered. Molly wasn't the only one who had those kinds of nightmares, though at least she'd never been the featuring monster doing the act to her loved ones.

Sirius was staring at the patch of carpet where the Boggart pretending to be Harry's body had lain.

Sirius felt his vision tunnel, a ghost crawling slowly up his spine and wrapping tight around him and refusing to let go of the idea that this would be the second time in his life he'd see his dead best friend, now somehow actually made worse as the fear of losing Harry all at the same time was shoved in his face...

"Sirius?" Harry gave him a hard poke, all of them watching him fearfully for that haunted look he usually only got when Dementors were being spoken of. Going with that assumption, Harry tried to laugh off, "it was gone before it could zone in on me, nothing else happens because of it."

"Right," he nodded hard, still staring steadily at his brother and forcing himself to watch the odd, curious look in place rather than the vacant eyes he'd envisioned.

Harry saw Moody was still watching him, and he had the feeling his magical eye had tracked him up here and told the other two about this.

Molly was still half sobbing out not for any of them to tell Arthur, he'd think she was being silly...

"Hardly," James murmured with conviction while Lily snuggled deeper into the crook of his arm.

Lupin continued comforting her while she pulled out a handkerchief and blew her nose, before she turned watery eyes on Harry and said how foolish he must think her, not able to get rid of a Boggart.

"I would never," Harry said almost indignantly, unable to picture such a fierce woman and mother as less because of her greatest fear.

Harry at once told her not to be stupid as he tried for a smile.

"That's not something to be saying to a crying woman," Sirius told purely because the words had escaped him without him even realizing it, there was no trace of him that could find mocking humor in this.

Tears spilled back over as she couldn't seem to stop herself from continuing how worried she was, it would be a miracle if everyone survived!

Harry made a terrifying, rasping noise of fright, his whole body tensed as if ready for a fight while he was seconds away from reliving something of what that boggart had just shown him-

"It's going to be alright Harry," Sirius marched into his train of thought with a comforting squeeze on his shoulder, clearly taking his own fear he'd just experienced and forcing it aside to pay attention to anything else, even Harry's resembled one. "That Weasley family is as tough as they come, things will work out. You're fine, everyone's going to be fine."

Harry forced himself to meet his eyes even if he in no way felt the comfort.

Percy wasn't even speaking to them, what if something happened and they never made up!

Lily couldn't read that without a hard hitch in her throat as it was exactly the fear she held for the woman and child. She'd always felt pity for Percy, could almost see how his offense could have lived with his parents choosing some outsider of the family rather than refusing to see his side, but as she knew her son was the one in the right all she could really do was cling to the now bleak hope it all somehow just had to work out.

And Ron and Ginny were still so young, what would happen to them if her and Arthur-

Lupin cut her off firmly that was enough. Explaining the Order was much better off than the last time where they'd just been picked off one by one.

James hated that it all kept floating right there as a constant reminder. His friends, his wife, how soon they'd all succumb to this war... and who's fault it was. Even if he hadn't raised the wand, even if some of them would have died without the intel that had been provided, he could never look another member of the Order in the face again without always knowing there was one member to kill them all.

Sirius abruptly cut in telling her not to worry about Percy.

Remus was honestly grateful Sirius had stopped him, even now he didn't think that was the best line of comfort, he'd just been trying to fling around facts in hopes she'd quiet which is what normally worked for himself.

Sirius wasn't at all surprised that's what he'd caught on. He knew a little something about regret when it came to losing estranged family. He was still living through that highlight.

He'd come around when the Ministry had no choice but to admit Voldemort was back, he was bound to come into the open soon and then everyone would be begging them for forgiveness, which Sirius bitterly finished with he wasn't likely to give.

"Absolutely no one will blame you at that time mate," James agreed nastily while Harry gave an obligatory laugh for the statement while ignoring some vicious little thought popping up in his mind he hoped his godfather lived long enough to see that day. He stamped that right back out and refused to acknowledge it as anything other than his pessimistic side having some bad timing while watching Molly fear the same for her own loved ones.

While Lupin gently finished with of course Ron and Ginny would be looked after, the whole Order would see to that, no one was going to let them starve.

Harry had never even imagined the idea of where his best friend would live if not with his parents. His first assumption he supposed would be one of his older brothers, Bill seemed the most likely, but what Remus had just said really struck a chord in Harry as he realized how much Remus did care. Making him want to question all the more where his stance had been back when Harry had gone to live with the Dursleys. He was growing more confident by the day though he did not get an answer to that.

Mrs. Weasley gave one little smile for the lot of them as she again told herself how silly she was being, but as Harry stepped back out to finish going to his room, he could not find her silly for a moment.

It suddenly hurt James too much just to even look at Lily. To see the emotions that caused to play out on her face, to hear how broken her voice came out with that, so he turned busy eyes anywhere else while unable to remove himself from her side to keep her soft warm body as his comfort.

Without warning, the scar on his forehead seared with pain again and his stomach churned horribly.

This was certainly a big enough thing anybody normally would have eagerly flipped topics, to discuss and try to figure out why Harry's scar would be burning at a time like this, but for once they were all to clammed up in their own heads for fear of this future for that to have even made much of an impact past the smallest bit of registering it happening, and Harry immediately brushing it off.

He rubbed at his forehead and told it to knock it off, while the empty painting snidely told him the first sign of madness was talking to yourself.

"Absolutely not," Remus muttered to himself, "talking to yourself is perfectly normal."

"Most people still bother keeping it in their own head," Sirius remarked quietly, leaning just a bit more closely to Moony than normal for that reminder he still had one friend with him in this bleak future.

Harry ignored the jab, feeling suddenly old as he sunk down onto his bed and realized just hours ago he'd been worried about stupid little things like a prefect badge.

"I'm done," Lily snapped with triumph, wishing she could go back to that moment, to so many before of her sons more childlike memories rather than having the harsh reality of the life she was living slammed down around them.

"I know it's hard love," James promised, running his hand up and down her back and still looking vacantly around the room, "so if you need me to fini-"

"No, I meant with the chapter," she corrected, all of her features still brittle with everything she'd been feeling in these moments. James finally looked back over at her, and it took a moment to drag himself out of the depth of her eyes to remember he had a book to grab.

HPHPHPHP

I'm not sorry for how harsh I was on Hermione in the portion of this chapter you all know I'm talking about. She really ticked me off while she was talking about Sirius, just like Molly before. Both women just seem to have this high and mighty status when it comes to him where they think they know everything about him and are trying to correct his everything, thinking they know and understand the reasons he acts the way he does, and I just want to smack both of them and tell them to leave the poor guy alone because both aren't true even one little bit. The closest person is Remus and even he lost a lot of rights in telling Sirius anything after twelve years. Molly earned back some sympathy here at the end, but now Hermione's in the hothouse which probably won't last long because...well honestly because it doesn't really come back up again which really makes me mad, but doesn't hold much focus so there's no point in continually revisiting it.

I've heard that in some of the original drafts of this book Ron was slated to die at some point, and I feel like that's made pretty clear in this chapter in particular. Am absolutely not saying I wanted it to happen, I love Ron to much, but credit to this woman for constantly setting up so many things.

* I do realize I created my own little plot hole in saying this was the book Lupin used as boggarts can't be found in that, but rather than just making one up on the spot I wanted to incorporate that into cannon a little better, and just pretend that the actual book is longer than the version we all get.

#Harry Potter #The LIfe that Never LIved #HP #Ootp #Marauders #reading the books #fanfiction #jilly #James Potter #Lily Potter #Remus Lupin #Sirius Black

[effable-ineffability]

the risk (of losing what i don't have now)

Two days of silence from Crowley. Aziraphale gets worried and goes to find out why.

[ also on ao3 ]

Aziraphale stood outside of Crowley's front door.

The demon had been inexplicably absent from the book shop for two days now, not even so much as a phone call.  It wasn't exactly odd for them to not speak for days at a time; indeed, in the past, there had been years of silence between them.  But ever since Not-Quite-Armageddon, the longest time they had spent apart was about twelve hours.[1] Most evenings, after whatever dinner Aziraphale had wanted, they would open a bottle of wine in either the book shop's back room or Crowley's living room, and spend a few hours talking about nothing in particular before Aziraphale would find a reason to end the evening - needing to do inventory, catching up on his reading, reorganizing something or another.  And then, without fail, Crowley would appear in the shop between seven and eight the next morning, sometimes with pastries for breakfast, sometimes with coffee or tea, and sometimes with a spectacularly terrible idea for how to spend their day.

[1] - Crowley had dropped him off after a very nice dinner at a Peruvian restaurant around 9pm, and had made an excuse to go back to his own apartment, saying he'd be back in the morning, and had indeed returned around 9am.

But it had been two days of silence now, and Aziraphale was worried.

He wasn't worried in the sense that he was worried that something might have happened to Crowley; he knew Crowley wouldn't be getting involved with anything dangerous or stupid, at least not without telling Aziraphale all about it first.  He also knew that if Hell - or Heaven, for that matter - had come for Crowley, the city would have been leveled before Crowley would go down. No, he knew Crowley was perfectly intact physically. He was worried about Crowley's emotional state.

Aziraphale raised his hand to knock, but hesitated.

The last time they had seen each other, Crowley had seemed a little frazzled.  Every other sentence had trailed off into pensive silence, he had appeared to do everything in his power to avoid eye contact, and when Aziraphale had placed a hand over Crowley's after one of those trailed-off sentences, Crowley had nearly jumped out of his skin.[2]  So his absence was questionable, at best.

[2] - He had laughed this off - "Ah, sorry, angel, let my mind wander a bit too far; here, lemme refill your glass."

Bracing himself with a deep breath, Aziraphale knocked.

After a long moment of nothing, the lock clicked, and the door inched open.  Crowley wasn't on the other side; wherever he was, he had apparently just miracled the door open.  Aziraphale took a small step inside. "Crowley?" he called carefully.

"Yeah," came his voice from down the hall, sounding exhausted.  Defeated. "I'm here."

Aziraphale closed the door behind him softly, and started down the hall.  He wasn't sure what he was going to say. Where have you been?[3] Are you all right?[4]  What's going on?[5]

[3] - The answer seemed to be obvious: right here.

[4] - Crowley had always sneered at this question.

[5] - A bit too direct; he didn't want to scare Crowley away with their first interaction in a few days.

There were no lights on in the apartment.  Aziraphale found Crowley seated on the floor by a window, only the street lamps illuminating him.  "Hey, angel," Crowley said without looking up. He was among his plants, mister in one hand, and the other in his hair.  His knees were drawn up to his chest, and he was wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt. He looked tired. He sounded tired. Something about him seemed… broken.

"Crowley," Aziraphale said in such a gentle tone that the demon flinched as though hit.

"I'm fine," he answered the unasked question.

"Are you?"

Crowley sighed.  His head dropped as he untangled his fingers from his hair, and he finally looked up.  He wasn't wearing his sunglasses, and his eyes were a little bloodshot. "No," he said, his voice cracking.  He cleared his throat and looked away. "I guess not."

Aziraphale paused for a second before he slowly lowered himself onto his knees in front of the vulnerable figure.  "What's wrong, my dear?" he murmured, placing a soothing hand on Crowley's shoulder.

"Nothing," he said automatically.  But before Aziraphale could call him on it, he shook his head.  "It's not… it's stupid."

"Please talk to me," Aziraphale urged.

"I can't."  Crowley twitched as though to get away from the angel's comforting hand, but the result was that Aziraphale moved closer and put his other hand on Crowley's knee.  "I can't," he said again, as if pleading.  He looked up at Aziraphale, and choked on a sob.

Without missing a beat, Aziraphale moved forward to catch Crowley as he collapsed.  Aziraphale pulled him into his chest, wrapping his arms around him, as Crowley took a shaking breath and tears spilled from his eyes.  "Shh," Aziraphale whispered, combing his fingers through tousled auburn. "My dear, it's all right. I'm right here, it's all right."

The mister dropped and rolled across the floor; both of Crowley's hands were fisting into Aziraphale's jacket as he took unsteady breaths.  He buried his face into the crook of the angel's neck, trying to say something, anything, but managing little more than another sob. So Aziraphale just held him, rocking very slowly, and stroking his hair as he murmured comfort.

Something had broken, Aziraphale could see it now.  He still wasn’t quite sure what it was, but Crowley was holding onto him as a drowning man clings to anything that would float.  What had happened?

It took a full five minutes before Crowley's breathing began to regulate itself, and another three before he sat back again.  Aziraphale's hands fell to rest on Crowley's legs, and after a second of consideration, Crowley took them in his own. He still wasn't looking at Aziraphale directly.

Aziraphale waited.

"I'm sorry," Crowley said in a quiet voice.

"There's no need to apologize," Aziraphale assured him, squeezing his hands a little.

"No, not for," Crowley half-gesticulated, briefly raising their clasped hands, "for that.  Not exactly the first time I've cried on you, is it." It was true; but it had only happened twice before.[6]

[6] - The first time had been after the Flood; Crowley blamed it on the rain - "Demons don't cry, angel."  The second time had been the night before The First Sunday Of The Rest Of Their Lives, when they had returned to Crowley's apartment after stopping the world from ending; that, however, is a story for another time.

"Then whatever are you apologizing for?" Aziraphale questioned.

Crowley took a deep, steadying breath.  "It's uh. It's hard to explain." He chanced a glance at Aziraphale, and was correct in assuming this statement caused the angel's brow knit in confused concern.  "It's just…" Crowley sighed, and squeezed Aziraphale's hands tightly. He was readying himself for something; they could both tell this was something Important. Whatever had caused him to disappear for two days, this was it.  "Angel,” he began; then shook his head a little and tried again. “Aziraphale. I can't… I can't keep on like this. Not at this pace, not knowing. I don't want--- Look, I know, and you were right, I know I was going too fast, asking too much, back then.  I know that now. You were right. But. I can't slow down any more. It---" He squeezed his eyes shut. "It hurts," he whispered.

Aziraphale wasn't reacting; he was listening, and was clearly prepared to listen until Crowley had said everything he needed to say.

So Crowley took a breath, opened his eyes, and stared at the planter of orchids above the angel's head as he pushed on.  "I can't lose you, I can't. I won't. And I will keep waiting, I really will, if that's what you need, I would do--- I'd do anything for you, Aziraphale, anything, I really would.  But I need you to know, to understand--- I just want you to know what I'm feeling, what's going on with me. I think it's fair. I think. It hurts, it does, but… but I'll still wait forever, if that's what it takes.  Because I’m not going anywhere, not unless you--- but you wouldn’t, because you haven’t, and I---" A pause. A shallow breath. “It hurts,” he continued, “but that doesn’t mean I won’t wait. I’d like to know, if you want, if you can, I’d like to know how you--- how you feel.  About me. Us. About us. But talking to you about it, it just seems like--- what if that’s too fast again? What if I push you away, by asking? So I haven’t. But it’s been a long time. And I’ve been waiting. And I’ll keep waiting, angel, I will, as long as I can be near you, I will.  But I still--- if you can, if you want, I want to know.”

Aziraphale let out a very long breath that he didn't realize he had been holding.  There was a lot to take in, but he was surprised to find that none of it had surprised him.

Crowley swallowed, and dropped his eyes to their hands.  "So," he said with a note of finality, "I’ve been avoiding you, because I was afraid to ask.  And that’s why I'm sorry. We don’t have to talk about it now." He started to take his hands away.

But Aziraphale held them firmly.

Crowley looked up, and gold eyes met blue properly for the first time in two days.

"So this is what you've been simmering in, all this time?" Aziraphale asked gently.

"Longer," Crowley admitted.

Aziraphale nodded in acknowledgment; he had clearly suspected as much.  "And you've been worried about my response. Which is why you haven't brought this up sooner."

Crowley gave a single, meek nod, unable to drop his gaze.

To his slight surprise, Aziraphale's concern melted into the slightest of smiles.  "I see. Then perhaps I can alleviate some of that worry. Shall I?" He smiled a little wider when Crowley looked taken aback.  "I have been doing some thinking myself. For quite some time, as well. And given recent events, I had been wondering how to properly express myself to you.  But you, my dear, have done the difficult part, by initiating this conversation." He sighed in a satisfied kind of way, and leaned forward until their foreheads were touching.  Crowley twitched slightly, as though this contact was unexpected, no matter how slowly Aziraphale had moved into it, perfectly telegraphing his intention. "I realized," Aziraphale said much softer now that they were so close, "that there is nothing in this world more important to me than you, Crowley.  And I, too, cannot lose you. And I won't. And so I think I should like to take another step forward with you. To show you just what you are to me."

Crowley was forgetting to breathe, but took a shaky inhale.  "What… what I am to you?" he repeated.

"Yes," Aziraphale confirmed.  He slipped one of his hands from the tangle on Crowley's lap and brought it up to Crowley's cheek.  "Everything, my dear.  You are everything to me.  And it's about time that I told you that."

Tears began to fall down Crowley's cheeks again, but this time, he wouldn't take his eyes off of the angel.  "Aziraphale…"

"I'm so very sorry that it took me this long," he continued, wiping away some tears with his thumb.  "You’ve been incredibly patient with me, all this time. You deserved to know sooner, but I was never sure how to say it."

"Oh angel," Crowley breathed.  He reached up to hold Aziraphale's hand against his cheek.  "I don't care how long it took, because--- because you did, you said it, and I can--- I can finally say it too."  A smile was starting to spread across his face. "You are--- to me, you are everything."  He took a shuddering breath, and the smile broke over his face in earnest.  "My angel," he breathed. "My everything."

Sitting on the ground, surrounded by plants, in semi-darkness, after six thousand years of knowing each other, after centuries of wanting each other, after days of worry, an angel who was afraid to love and a demon who loved too much finally opened their hearts to one another, only to find that the only difference was that things unsaid had finally been spoken.

#good omens #ineffable husbands #good omens fanfic #my writing #this is actually a scene from a scrapped project #but i loved it too much to just toss it

[spookbusters]

Daddy’s Little Ghoul

Summary: Ray takes your daughter to the station for take your child to work day!

Pairing: Ray Stantz x Reader // Word Count: 1.7k // Warnings: None!

A/N: Sorry this took forever to get out! Should be getting back to work on some of my other requests soon :)

"Daddy, daddy, wake up! Wake up!"

Note to Y/N Stantz from Y/N Stantz, just get rid of your alarm clock. Your daughter has got this handled.

A sleepy groan hums in the back of your husband’s throat as he stirs. Your little girl was apparently loud enough to register with him, but not loud enough to actually get him up. "Elodie, honey,” you murmur, fully awakened by your child’s excited tone, "It’s before seven, you should still be in bed." Your five-year-old bounces over to your side of the bed and throws herself into your lap, knocking a bit of the wind out of you. She looks up at you with smiling eyes like those of the man you love. Her hair was frizzy from sleep; distinctly inherited from you, you knew the color and texture all too well. "But, mommy, it’s take your child to work day, remember? I’m gonna go with daddy!" The sentence makes you smile as best you can in your sleepy haze. She took after her father in many ways, and had been looking forward to this for days. "Yes, sweetie, I remember. You know I have something special planned for you." Elodie wraps her small arms around you in a tight hug, "I didn’t forget, I promise." You give your daughter a squeeze, and kiss her forehead. "Go ahead and brush your teeth and get dressed, I’ll get your surprise ready." She lets out an excited squeal, then jumps off the bed and runs to her room on the other side of the apartment. A massive, exhausted huff leaves your lips before you collapse back down on your pillow. Ray is still snoring lightly beside you.

God, you wished you could sleep as heavily as him. You prop yourself on an elbow and admire him for just a moment before you have to get him up. He’s a mess. His face is smashed against the pillowcase, and his hair is stuck to his forehead. It’s adorable, and you remind yourself how blessed you are to have him. Ray only wakes up after a full minute of you peppering kisses all over his face, and once he hears you giggle at the way he wriggles his nose sleepily, he knows he can’t waste any more time snoozing. You're greeted by a gentle hand reaching up to smooth out your hair and, before you know it, you're being pulled down for a loving kiss. A small noise of contentment seeps from your being at the feel of your husband. When the need for air rears its head, you pull away and press your forehead against his. "Elodie woke me up this morning," is the first thing you tell him. "Did she?" "She's beyond excited to go to the firehouse with you. Speaking of which, you need to get up, mister." Ray groans, muttering something about how he hasn’t even left bed, but he already misses it. One sleepy stretch later you’re out of bed, brushing your teeth and throwing some curlers in your hair. You go about your morning routine, getting dressed in your usual outfit of jeans, sneakers, and a button-down from your husband’s drawer. The routine continues with you setting out Ray’s uniform, then going to whip up a quick breakfast. You pull off all those morning responsibilities with perfected efficiency, and you’re finally able to unveil the surprise you had planned for your daughter. “Ok, Ellie, you’re gonna have to close your eyes for this one,” Ray explains, knowing full well what you’ve got behind your back. She seems to vibrate from all the excitement she has to contain, covering her eyes with her hands. Once you think the suspense has gotten to her enough, you unfurl the outfit and hold it in front of you. “Alright, sweetie,” you say, “Open!” 

The moment she gets sight of the jumpsuit, just her size, she lets out something like a screech and jumps out of her chair to inspect it. “It’s got your name on it and everything,” you explain, pointing to the new patch you’d been embroidering the past couple days. It looked just like the ones you had made for the original suits. 

It doesn’t take much effort to get the suit on over her leggings, and when she zips it up the middle you marvel at how much she looks like her dad. “I love it, mommy,” she chimes, “Thank you!” The way she hugs you tightly makes all the time you spent working on it so worth it. “You’re so welcome, honey.” You take a second to look at the watch on your wrist and it’s not until then that you realize what the time is. “I gotta head to work,” you gasp, “I’ll be late for opening!” You grab your purse and the keys to the car, which you toss to your husband. “Lunch for you two is in the fridge, don’t forget it before you leave,” you mention, walking up to Ray and readjust his constantly unruly hair. “We won’t,” he assures. With a kiss for him and your daughter, you’re off to manage Ray’s Occult Books, like you do every day. “C’mon, daddy, we gotta go too,” Elodie urges, lightly tugging on her father’s sleeve. Ray grabs the lunch from the fridge, handing his daughter the Slimer lunchbox she insisted on having for school. Truth be told, he was just as excited for take your child to work day as his daughter! He loved the fact she was so interested in the business and, deep down, he hoped Elodie would take it over one day. The drive to the firehouse was as it would be every morning. Except instead of having some typical pop songs fueling the journey, the cabin of Ecto-1 was filled by Elodie and Ray’s singing.

They had brought her favorite cassette along; Ellie’s little voice would take the lead and her dad would fill in what she couldn’t yet remember. Whenever he did those deep, caricature-like voices, she would giggle loudly. They had to be the two happiest people on the streets of Manhattan. Elodie had just finished a rather lovely rendition of the Unbirthday Song when they pulled into the garage of the firehouse. It took some genuine effort to prevent the young Stantz from launching herself from her car booster seat and taking off into Ghostbuster HQ. But Ray was successful in getting her in without her forgetting anything or getting ahead of herself. At least he knew if the guys needed to take the car for a case, none of her important stuff would get left in there. But when she got inside, it was a totally different story. There was nearly no way he’d be able to manage that much enthusiasm. He was borderline overwhelmed by the sheer will and exhilaration of his five-year-old. As soon as the rest of the guys heard Janine’s playful comment of, “I didn’t know there was a new Ghostbuster on the team,” followed by a small laugh, they knew exactly who had just arrived. “Guess who,” Ray said, the biggest smile on his face as he walked into the lab, Elodie right behind him. “In case you couldn’t guess, it’s my dad and me,” she said, matter-of-factly. “Hey, it’s the Stantz clan,” Peter said, dropping the file he was reading onto the lab table with a genuine smile. Egon glances over his shoulder for a moment before returning his attention to the odd contraption that sat like a helmet on Winston, “You brought my niece with you. Rather unusual.” Elodie skipped around the room saying 'hi' to all her ‘unca’s, managing to tell all three of them separately that it was take your child to work day and that she was spending it with her dad. It wasn’t completely atypical for there to be a child in the firehouse, as Peter had Oscar over plenty of times. But Oscar took after his mother who tended to be rather quiet, unlike Elodie who took after both her parents’ extroversion. So, it was always a learning experience for both her and the team when there was a kid around who was actually interested in what they were doing. Ray couldn’t have been prouder of her. He could see throughout the day’s activities that she was having tons of fun, learning a lot, and really putting the smarts he knew she had to work. She would end up having a lot to tell you when she got home. Like, how Winston would explain to her how to clean a trap once a ghost was caught in it. “This is how your dad taught me how to do it. Ok, so, after you’ve caught the ghost-.” “How do you catch the ghost?” How Venkman taught her how to negotiate when working with a customer. “Ok, so if you just caught the ghost in my house and I want to give you four pieces of candy, what would you think?” “Sorry ‘unca Venkman, but I’ll need five pieces of candy, because, uh... ghosts are expensive?” Or how Egon would explain total protonic reversal to her. “So, Elodie, when two or more particle beams meet, what happens?” “All the nearby molecules stop at the same time and blow up real fast!” For a five-year-old, she sure had a good grasp of that. “I’m really glad she came with me today, Y/N,” Ray told you that night. He sat on the island in your kitchen in his old, faded sweatpants. You were prepping Ellie’s lunch for school tomorrow. “She was so... invested in the things she was learning.” “Well,” you look up from the bag of baby carrots you were zipping up, “She’s been interested in it from the day she could walk.” Your husband kicks his feet a little, looking up to the ceiling with a hint of a proud smile on his lips. “She’s a genius, I think.” The refrigerator door creaks as you place the Slimer lunchbox in its usual spot. “I’m talking Spengler-levels of intelligence.” It’s your turn to grin as you turn to Ray and place your hands on the counter, nestling yourself between his knees. “That’s because she’s got one hell of a dad to take after,” you praise. Ray pushes some of the hair from your forehead, pressing a kiss to your warm skin. “She’s got some smarts from her dad maybe, but she’s really brilliant and beautiful like her mother.” You giggle and place your hand on top of his; the whole moment makes you feel cozy. “We made one great kid, didn’t we Stantz?”

 “You know what, Stantz,” he mimics your playful tone, “I think you’re right.”

#ghostbusters #ghostbusters 3 #ghostbusters 2 #ghostbusters headcanons #ghostbusters x reader #Ray Stantz #ray stantz x reader #ray stantz headcanons #ghostbusters ray stantz x reader #westanraystantz

[fantasyfandommaiden]

ML Counsellor AU: Talking with Jagged Stone

Not so much a session as two adults talking shop about mental health, akumas and the magic behind music.

[[MORE]]

Carmine sat in her office during lunch, with the door locked and the radio playing softly in her office as she updated her reports on various students, as well as some of profile on Hawkmoth. There was still not a lot of information to go on, which was frustrating, but unfortunately there wasn’t anything she could do about it.

She perked up slightly when she heard a familiar song come on the radio, smiling as she turned it up ever so slightly to hear it better. It was a classic Jagged Stone song from his first Album, and also one of Carmine’s favourites that she would often listen to, as well as any Jagged Stone song. She began to sing along softly to it as she typed away at her laptop, her work seeming slightly less tedious now.

Her enjoyment was short lived by a very loud, obnoxious knock at the door, causing Carmine to scowl slightly before sighing and turning down the volume as she stood up to open the locked door.

She opened the door, expecting a student, however instead of looking down like she expected she would have to do, she ended up looking up to see none other than Jagged Stone, looking at her and grinning widely.

“Hello!” He said in English, grinning widely “Your Miss. Regal right? The cool psychologist helping the akuma victims right? Was wondering if you had a few minutes to talk?”

Carmine stared at Jagged for a solid five seconds, her face completely neutral of any emotion before she said softly “Sorry, could you give me ten seconds please?” She asked, closing the door as Jagged look at her with a raised brow “Okay?”

Once the door was closed, Carmine’s face broke into a large, ecstatic smile asp Carmine jumped up and down, her arms flailing in excitement as she did everything in her power to not make a sound because ‘OMG JAGGED STONE IS HERE AND HE WANTS TO TALK TO, MY FAVOURITE ROCK STAR WANTS TO TALK TO ME, OH MY GAWD, OH MY GAWD!’

After exactly ten seconds Carmine open the door, the picture perfect image of calm as she smiled warmly at Jagged. “Sorry about that, come on in!”

Jagged smiled, gesturing beside him where Carmine looked and jumped back at the sight of a very large crocodile laying down beside Jagged. As the rockstar began to walk into the office, the crocodile did the same, Carmine looked at it cautiously, even pinching her arm to see if this was all a really bizarre dream.

She slowly walked over to her desk, looking at Jagged as he sat down on one of the chairs “Can I offer you some blackberry tea?” She asked, going straight to her tea shelf, looking at the different tins she had.

“If it’s not too much trouble.” The rockstar asked, looking around the room with mild interest. Fang, ever the loyal crocodile, lay beside Jagged, also lazily looking around.

Carmine took a deep breath, calming herself as she turned around and handed Jagged one of the mugs of tea. “I’ll have to admit Mr. Stone-“

“Jagged.” Jagged corrected her, smiling “Mister is so... dull and boring, not rock and roll you know?”

Carmine smiled “Than please call me Carmine, anyways, I have to say I am surprised by your visit Jagged. I was aware you were in Paris and knew about what happened the other day with you being Akumatized... but I didn’t know you knew of my exsistance.”

“Oh of course I did!” Jagged stated grinning “Marinette Dupain Chang mentioned you after she made me these awesome Eiffel Tower sunglasses! Said how you helped a lot of the kids around here and were a fan of mine!”

Carmine blinked, her cheeks becoming a soft pink colour “Um... I don’t see how she would know that-“

“Something about you singing to one of my songs really loudly hours after school was out or something.” Jagged said, sipping his tea “She promised me you would treat this conversation professionally however, which you are, which I greatly appreciate!”

Carmine felt her face become red hot, brining her tea cup up to sip her tea in a vain attempt to calm her nerves. She wasn’t sure if she should chastised Marinette for revealing that little secret to someone or to thank her for arranging this. “I see, well I try to make it so that o remain professional well in my office.”

“That’s good! Isn’t that right Fang!” The rockstar said, looking down at the crocodile, who simply looked up at Jagged and gave a slight nod, and a yawn. “Anyways...” Jagged began “It all started with my lousy producer Bob and his usual antics...”

Jagged than regaled Carmine with the tale of what happened to cause him becoming Akumatized, leaving no detail out.

“I mean, he goes behind my back and had this awesome girl redo the album design because it’s not like his lousy sons band? Who does that? ALSO, she drew up two COMPLETELY different album covers, IN ONE DAY!” He said excitedly, almost bouncing in his seat “I’ll tell you, that girl is GOING places! She even found me these shades!”

Carmine smiles, an idea suddenly forming in her head as she smiled coyly “Oh, Marinette most likely made those actually. She wants to become a fashion designer.” Carmine said off handedly, sipping her tea.

Jagged blinked, looking at Carmine with a new found interest “She any good?”

“She won a hat design contest that was judged by Gabriel Agreste...” Carmine said slowly “And I know that all the art teachers rave about her work with fabrics and design.”

Jagged let out a soft hum, rubbing his chin as an idea slowly mulled over in his head “Hmm.... maybe I’ll ask to take a look at her designs next time I see her, she do commissions?”

“Couldn’t hurt to ask” Carmine stated, smiling “But back to the topic at hand... how do you feel after everything that happened?”

Jagged gave a nonchalant shrug “Honestly, after the whole thing, nothing. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I was confused as heck and pissed that I let some lame ass villain get the best of me, but hey, what can you do? At least I got to see Ladybug and Chat Noir in action, even if it was well beating me up.” He said, taking a sip of the tea.

Carmine’s pencil stopped mid sentence as she looked up at Jagged, blinking “... I’m sorry, what do you mean by that exactly?”

“The fight? It was spectacular! Don’t remember all of it, but bits and pieces are there.”

“... that’s... not possible.” Carmine stated slowly, looking at the rockstar “No one remembers anything after being Akumatized.”

Jagged looked at her with a neutral tone, giving a small shrug “Guess that just means I’m a special case, which makes sense. I am pretty awesome!”

Fang, who had been quiet for most of the conversation, gave a small rumble from his throat that almost sounded like laughter, Jagged looked down at the crocodile with a slight scowl “Oh quiet you!”

Carmine sat up a little straighter at the interaction, looking between Fang and Jagged, eyes narrowing slightly. Carmine tried to remember everything she knew about crocodiles from living in New Orleans for a few years during her childhood... one of which being they were unpredictable and made poor pets. She, however, knew of some mages who enjoyed having familiars that were on the more dangerous side for protection...

“... how long have you had Fang Jagged?” She asked slowly, looking at the croc.

Jagged looked up at the ceiling, letting out a soft hum “Since I was 15, when he hatched.” He said nonchalantly.

“Hatched or appeared?” Carmine asked, causing Jagged to freeze momentarily, the rockstar looking at her with a raised brow.

“When I was 13, my dog Gladiolus appeared before me, he’s a ferret now thought...” Carmine said to him in a hesitant tone, hoping beyond hope she was right.

“You don’t say...” Jagged said, looking the woman straight in the eyes.

The two adults sat there, starring at eachother for a solid thirty seconds, not saying anything, waiting to see who would make the next move.

Jagged broke the silence first “Anyone every question why you don’t buy your familiar food?”

Carmine let out a short laugh, grinning “No, only people who know I own a ‘ferret’ are my close friends, and I just say he likes to eat in private, I’m more curious how you convience your staff on why you have a crocodile that doesn’t eat!”

Jagged grinned widely “Oh, he eats fish and the like, so they leave it off. Fang prefers to be a crocodile is all, been like that ever since I first summoned him.”

“Ahh I see.” Carmine stated grinning “... this would explain why you remember bits and pieces, your magic must have been interfering with the akuma. Do you remember anything about Hawkmoth?”

Jagged frowned leaning back in his chair “Sadly no. Don’t even remember his voice or what he said to me sadly, which is weird since my entire magic DOMAIN is under music, yours?”

Carmine grinned “Equal parts creation, illusion and brewing. I specialize in ‘tea’ magic however.”

“Kitchen witch?”

“I loath the term but yes, the kitchen is my domain.” She said grinning as she sipped her tea “Do any of your staff know about you being a mage?”

“No... not yet anyways.” He said sighing “... I’m probably gonna tell Penny soon, she’s stayed around the longest of any of my previous managers and I’ve grown quite fond of her... however...”

Carmine looked at him, frowning slightly “... she isn’t a magic user is she?”

“Nope, not a drop of it. Unless you count her unnatural patience for my antics.” He said, letting out a small chuckle “Ah... still, she’s important to me, and I’ve known her for... God’s, almost seven years now, about time I told her.”

Carmine looked down at her tea as Jagged continued to speak, the blackberry liquid the same hue as her best friends hair, albeit without the red streak of colour in it. She’s known Nathalie nearly twelve years and hasn’t uttered a word to her yet, or any of her friends for that matter...

A loud ringtone brought Carmine out of her train of thought as Jagged brought out his cellphone answering it “Ello!” He said into the small device.

After a short conversation Jagged ended the call “That was Penny, reminding me of my recording session.” He said grinning “But I would love to come back and talk shop with you sometime! I haven’t spoken with another magic user that wasn’t some old bat in YEARS!” He exclaimed holding out a business card to Carmine.

Carmine gave a small grin, taking the business card from the rock star “Like wise Jagged, like wise.”

#ladybug au #ml au. #counsellor au #carmine regal #jagged stone #tea magic #carmine is a fangirl

[summahsunlight]

This Way Became My Journey, CH.10

A/N: Here is the last chapter for Caretaker. Enjoy!

GIF not my own.

The briefing room seemed strangely empty to Sarah Barrett as she slipped into a chair at the table. The last time she had been in this room the senior staff had been in tack, with the exception of Tuvok. Now, the only ones to adorn the chairs were Tuvok, herself, and a jolted looking Chakotay.

Two hours had passed since Kathryn Janeway had ordered the destruction of the Caretaker's array. No one had seen the Captain since that moment, the only ones going in and out of the Ready Room being her children. And then out of the blue she had ordered Tuvok, Sarah, and Chakotay all into the conference room and said she would be joining them in a few moments. Now the three of them were sitting silently, each lost in their own thoughts. Tuvok was staring emotionless at the ship's schematics screen, Chakotay nervously out the windows, and Sarah's own eyes flicked back forth between the two men.

"We have a problem," Kathryn's voice cut through the silence as she came into the room. All three pairs of eyes focused on her. The bluntness of her statement was not lost on them. "Besides the obvious fact that we are now seventy thousand light years from home, we don't have a senior staff to run this ship. Lieutenant Tuvok and Lieutenant Barrett have done a fine job in the wake of our situation, but it won't last. Eventually, they'll burn themselves out."

Chakotay realized that she was talking to him more than to Tuvok or Sarah.

"Not to mention, there's a matter of a Maquis crew without a ship," Kathryn added. "Now, I could just very well throw you all in the Brig for the next seventy five years, but," her voice dropped slightly, and became softer, "that wouldn't benefit any of us. I'm here to offer the proverbial olive branch."

Tuvok raised an eyebrow and briefly made eye contact with Sarah.

"What do you mean by that?" Chakotay asked her, although he had pretty much surmised what the woman wanted.

"Join my crew," Kathryn replied, not bothering to notice the objective look in Sarah's eyes. "We could use the extra hands around here and…" here she paused again, "I need a new First Officer. I've promoted Mister Tuvok to Lieutenant Commander for his service on your ship and to me; however, I'm going to need him at Tactical."

Chakotay noticed Sarah fidget in her chair and realized that the Captain had not talked to her counselor about anything she may have decided in the past two hours that she had locked herself in her ready room. "Are you offering the job to me, Captain?"

Kathryn gave him a curt nod of her head. "You were once a Starfleet officer, you're more than qualified to do the job."

He mulled over her offer. In the end, he concluded that he didn't have much of a choice, since he had destroyed his own ship to help save hers. He also knew that for her, a by the book Starfleet officer, it had to be a tough choice to send up the white flag and ask sworn enemies of her beloved Federation to join her crew. But desperate times called for desperate measures and by accepting the job, Chakotay was about to disembark on a journey that was going to show him that Kathryn Janeway was not always a by the book officer. "I'll speak to my crew, but joining your crew sounds a hell of a lot better then sitting in the brig for seventy five years."

For the first time in hours, Kathryn let a smile play on her lips. "Good, now that that is settled. Tom Paris."

"Tom Paris?" Sarah repeated, confused.

"I've decided to give him a field commission of Lieutenant, junior grade," Kathryn replied. "We need a good pilot out here and he's the best one we've got. It seems only fair that I've offered spots in this crew for the Maquis that I offer him one as well."

"Captain, I'll take responsibility for him," Chakotay offered, in a hushed tone. The eyes of the three Starfleet officers snapped up to the man's face. "I…my life belongs to him; it's…a complicated story, perhaps another time."

Kathryn gave him a gentle nod of understanding and turned her blue eyes to Sarah. "I understand you were a full lieutenant, recommended for promotion to lieutenant commander, when you were on the Explorer. Gabriel never told me that."

"My rank was striped before the trial, and let's just say the promotion...was held off," Sarah responded. "I don't see how this is relevant now."

"It's relevant because I'm reinstating you to full lieutenant," Kathryn answered her, firmly.

"Ma'am, can I ask why?"

"Gabriel would tell you its because I like taking risks," Kathryn replied, "however, current circumstances could call upon you to be in command every now and then, in the absence of Mister Tuvok, myself, and Mister Chakotay. Tuvok and I already talked about this, earlier while we were searching for Harry and B'Elanna; we could use another good officer around here. Naturally, you'd be our last resort when it comes to command situations, but your job just got a bit more important now, you're going to need the privileges of a commander to help you through. It also seemed relevant to elevate your rank above the highest rank I'll be given the Maquis, with the exception of Commander Chakotay."

"In other words, making me more of an authority figure in their eyes," Sarah reasoned.

"You could put it that way," Kathryn said. She looked about the room for a brief moment. "I understand that this is going to be difficult, but we have to work together, as senior officers, and set an example for this crew, if we're to survive."

"I'll have to set up a counseling schedule, the first few days are going to be the roughest," Sarah said.

"And I'll start immediately on training the Maquis crewmembers in the latest of Starfleet protocol and tactics," Tuvok responded.

Chakotay was impressed how easily the two officers had put any reservations they may have aside and focused on what was more important; getting this crew home. However, he wasn't a fool, he knew that it was going to take time, precious time, for all of this to work out, if it ever did.

Kathryn nodded her head in approval, expecting nothing less of her officers. Stretching out her hand to Chakotay, she waited for him to take it. "Do we have an agreement?" For a moment the Native American looked into her deep pools of blue irises and then reached out and took her hand, unknowingly vowing to stand by her.

She was about to dismiss them when Sarah spoke up, "Captain, there's another matter we need to talk about."

"Oh? Really?"

"Mister Neelix approached me, he and Kes want to stay on Voyager," Sarah replied.

"You explained to him that this isn't a passenger ship, right?"

"Yes ma'am," Sarah responded, "but he made a compelling argument. He knows this region of space, quite frankly, better than any of us, he offered himself as a guide. Kes has already proven that she is an explorer at heart, I think this crew could benefit greatly from their addition."

Kathryn found her reasons adequate and it warmed her heart that they had made some friends already in this hostile region of space. With a brief nod of her head she informed Sarah to add Neelix and Kes to the crew roster, and then dismissed her officers, ordering all of them to be present on the Bridge in an hour. She had a few wrinkles to smooth out and then it was time to address her crew.

Commander Chakotay, formerly of the Maquis ship Val Jean, strode slowly down the corridor towards the cargo bay where his crew was being held under armed guard. He glanced over his shoulder tentatively.

The two security officers who had escorted him up to the briefing room were still there, but now they were keeping a distance. Chakotay shook his head slightly and kept walking. Why Kathryn Janeway trusted him was beyond his comprehension, the fact that she did, made him realize he had misjudged her from the start. It was clear that this was no ordinary woman in command of the U.S.S Voyager. She had after all held out the proverbial olive branch to him, despite the obvious protest in her counselor's eyes and the stoic expression on Tuvok's face. Janeway saw the need for survival; if they were to survive she needed him. Any other man in his position would probably take advantage of that. He could think of a few other commanders in the Maquis that would have used her…femininity against her. But he couldn't. He may have left Starfleet, became an enemy of the Federation, but he still had honor. This was Kathryn Janeway's ship and she had offered him either the brig for seventy five years or to help them all get home. Personally he didn't want to be forced to live in a tiny cell for the next seven decades.

He stopped just outside of the cargo bay. In his mind he could hear almost all of them, yelling at him that this was ridiculous. They couldn't join Janeway's crew, she had been sent to hunt them down, arrest them. Again he shook his head slightly and entered the room. B'Elanna Torres and Seska were the first to stand up and greet him. B'Elanna was wearing a scowl and watched with intense hatred as the security detail followed Chakotay into the room.

"I'm surprised Janeway hasn't sucked us all out into space yet," the half Klingon woman hissed gesturing towards the cargo bay doors. "What did she want to see you for anyways? To hand you your sentence?"

Chakotay shook his head. "No," he replied calmly, "she had an offer to make."

Seska scoffed. "An offer? What kind of offer? The brig for seventy five years or confinement to this room?"

"She offered for us to join her crew," Chakotay stated, his voice echoing off of the walls.

"She what?" B'Elanna choked. "You're kidding right? Is that her way of saying 'I'm sorry that my holier than thou Starfleet principles stranded you here'? Because if it is, I don't buy it. This is her way to set us all up to fail, so if we do make it home, she can throw it all in our supporters' faces. She hates us Chakotay, she doesn't want this."

He glanced at their angry faces for a moment. "She's doing what she thinks is best for her crew."

"That's just it, it's about her crew, not about us Chakotay," Seska snapped, "Don't think for one second she cares about what happens to you."

"She'll keep us under tight survaliance you know it," B'Elanna retorted. "Personally I'll take the brig."

Chakotay felt angry. He had told Janeway, promised her that he would join her. Clenching his fists to stop an angry outburst, he glared at the group of rebels. "I don't think you understand this isn't a choice. I've already made it, we're joining her crew. I told Captain Janeway that you would all give her your best and that you'd follow her just as loyally as you followed me." Their faces conveyed shock. He didn't care, it was his duty now to not be their friend. "Now," he growled, "the security details will escort you to your quarters, and by the way, you all need to change, you're out of uniform."

As they flied out, B'Elanna muttered, "I hope you're not making a mistake Old Man."

"Me too, B'Elanna," he mumbled, "me too."

Newly commissioned Lieutenant Tom Paris looked about the gathering on the bridge. Starfleet and Maquis crewmen were scattered about the cabin, at various stations, the senior staff, still not complete because they had yet to find a chief engineer or a chief medical officer, were also present. Tom wondered what had prompted Janeway to give him the commission. In her ready room, just a few minutes before she had told him that he had earned it. But had he really? Was it just her need for a good pilot that got him the rank?

He was going to prove to her otherwise if that was the case.

B'Elanna Torres nervously adjusted her issued uniform. Never in her life time after she had dropped out of the Academy had she thought she'd be wearing one of these uniforms again. When Chakotay had announced Janeway's offer, she had scoffed at the idea. But he had turned her objections down, gently, in that damn soft tone of his, and told her that it was better than staying in the brig for the trip home.

She was certain that this merging of two completely different crews was never going to work.

Harry Kim was just grateful to be at his station all in one piece. He hadn't had much time to think about it while they had been battling the Kazon, but now as his fingers brushed the controls, he realized just how close he came to dying on his first mission. But now, the reality of their new situation began to set in, and he longed for home.

Neelix and Kes stood mutely near the command station, each new friend determined to help the crew get through their long journey and by apart of it.

Sarah Barrett and Chakotay stood in the center of the command station, each lost in their own thoughts, wondering if the Captain had made the right decision when it came to destroying the array and stranding them here, essentially merging two crews into one.

The door to the ready room hissed open and all eyes turned towards her. "Captain on the Bridge," Tuvok called out and everyone, with the exception of Neelix and Kes, slid into an at ease position. Kathryn made her way up the steps and glanced around at the gathered officers and crewmen. It was a sight that normally didn't overwhelm her, but perhaps today it did because of what she was about to say.

"At ease," she told them, watching as they all slid into position, and as Paris took his seat.

Making her way through the command station, making sure to make eye contact with each officer as she passed, she wound her way, slowly around Conn. With a deep breath she began to speak to them, hoping that her words didn't sound harsh or cold. "We're alone, in an uncharted part of the galaxy," she started her eyes falling on Kes and Neelix. "We've already made some friends here, and some enemies. We have no idea of the dangers we're going to face, but one thing is clear, both crews are going to have to work together if we're to survive," she said, stepping up to Chakotay. "That's why Commander Chakotay and I have agreed that this should be one crew, a Starfleet crew and as the only Starfleet vessel assigned to the Delta Quadrant we'll continue to follow our directive: to seek out new worlds and to explore space. But our primary goal is clear. Even at maximum speeds it would take 75 years to reach the Federation. But I'm not willing to settle for that. There's another entity like the Caretaker out there somewhere who has the ability to get us there a lot faster. We'll be looking for her, and we'll be looking for wormholes, spatial rifts or new technologies to help us. Somewhere along this journey, we'll find a way back."

With a brief pause and a glance between her new first officer and counselor, Kathryn Janeway set her jaw and looked at Tom Paris, "Mister Paris," she ordered, "Set a course; for home."

Three weeks after Voyager is pulled into the Delta Quadrant...

"Admiral Paris, sir," a young man's voice interrupted the older man's working. "Admiral Patterson is here to see you."

Owen Paris scoffed, looking at the scattered PADDs on his desk. "Did you inform him that I'm not to be disturbed unless it was an emergency? I can't take every call or I'll never get all this work done and be home in time for my wife's dinner party with the Hayes'. Tell him I'll catch up with him tomorrow."

The young aide nervously wrung his hands. "I did tell him that you were busy, sir, he insisted. He told me to inform you that it was about your son."

Thomas. Of course this was about Thomas, Owen thought as he sighed heavily. Erin hadn't been too happy three weeks ago when he had shown up on the Paris' door with the news that after helping the Voyager find the Maquis and getting out of jail on parole, he'd be leaving Federation space, to only heavens knew where. Owen was utterly exhausted by the lashing out Thomas had done since the day he was born. He knew that he hadn't been the best father to his son, he'd pushed him to extremes never realizing that Thomas would push back just as more. Erin was devastated that he was leaving as soon as he could, she blamed Owen. "What did my son do this time? Is he back from the mission yet?"

"The Voyager's mission is what Admiral Patterson would like to talk to you about," the aide replied. "Shall I let him in?"

"Very well," Owen said, pushing the PADD he was working on to the side. "I'm already behind in my work, send him in."

Owen Paris had known Matthew Patterson for quite some time, he had been the one to push Owen to take on a spitfire of a student, one by the name of Kathryn Janeway. Owen could tell that what Patterson had to tell him not was none too pleasant by the way the man was walking with his shoulders slightly slumped. "Matthew, please have a seat," Owen greeted when the Vice Admiral entered his office. "What can I do for you my old friend?"

Patterson didn't sit. "Owen, I wish this was a social call. I'm afraid I'm here on business."

Owen felt his shoulders stiffen. "What kind of business?"

"It's about the Voyager," Patterson said. Owen noticed the man's hands were trembling slightly. "I blame myself Owen."

"Blame yourself for what?"

"We hurried Voyager's final preparations when our agent didn't report in," Patterson began," I let Katie talk me into it, you know her, she's stubborn, she didn't want too much time to pass since we hadn't heard from him. I thought the ship was ready, we all thought the ship was ready. We were wrong."

Owen shook his head. "I'm not sure I'm following you, Matthew."

Patterson's eyes grew sad and tired. "I ordered them to the Badlands, to track Chakotay."

"The Badlands, Matthew no ship can navigate through the plasma storms."

"We believed the Voyager could, she was designed for such places," Patterson replied with a slight raise of his chin.

Owen suddenly felt his heart race, thundering in his chest. "Matthew, what's happened? What happened to Voyager?"

"I want you to know that we're doing everything we can to recover them," Patterson said, fleetingly.

"Recover? My god, Matthew, my son...what the hell happened?"

The other admiral's eyes grew even more sad and tired. "We haven't confirmed reports yet but a Cardassian patrol ship saw them entering the Badlands...and subsequently destroyed by a plasma storm. It will be at least two more weeks before we can modify a ship to search for wreckage," Patterson replied, "If we can believe the Cardassian patrol's story. If this is the case, than all hands are considered lost."

Lost, Thomas...lost. Owen could only hear the pounding of his own heart. Erin would surely blame him now for everything that had befallen their son. And Owen couldn't say that he didn't blame her for doing so. Their son was lost, finally beyond their reach, there would never be reconciliation, never be peace between them again. In that moment Owen forgave his son of all his misgivings and with a heavy heart realized that he only did in the moment when Thomas was dead, not when he was living. It was something that Owen Paris was going to have to take to his grave and beyond, the knowledge that forgiveness was indeed given too late.

Nothing could shatter the spirit of this day, Luke Barrett thought as he held his newborn daughter, absolutely nothing. He only wished that his family were alive to see her. His parents had died untimely deaths due to their jobs with Starfleet, and his sister was walking that path as well, only killing herself with her drug addiction and depression. Luke had cut ties with her after visiting her once in the prison that she was being held in.

The last time he had seen Sarah had been disaster. She was going through severe withdrawal from the drugs, screaming at the nurses at the rehab center just to give her more. Luke had been dismayed at what he saw, gone was the strong young woman that he associated with his little sister, gone was the ambitious young officer who wanted to take the Federation by storm. Well, she had taken them by storm alright, just not the way she had planned. He had been glad that his father wasn't alive anymore to see his darling little girl in that state.

Sarah, not cohesive, had blamed Luke for all her problems, blamed Commander Fletcher, blamed the officer she had been dating for just abandoning her. Luke wasn't sure what she had seen in her seven months studying the Borg, she had not been allowed to talk about it, but their relationship had gone south when she had taken that position. Luke told her she was inviting trouble, death; she thought she was doing some good for the galaxy. It had only driven her to drugs and self destruction.

He looked at his daughter. Her little deep blue eyes were looking at him; Sarah's sapphire eyes. Luke shook his head. If she had chosen differently she could have been apart of his life, but she had chosen darkness. He could not let that darkness around his family, his daughter.

"Have you thought of a name yet, sir," the nurse asked stepping into the room.

"None yet," Luke said with wry smile. "We can't seem to decide."

"You can't seem to decide," his wife, Brenna, called out from the comfort of her bed. "I've given you several suggestions."

"It's alright," the nurse said with a smile, "there is plenty of time to figure out a name. Are you well enough for visitors, ?"

"Visitors?" Luke questioned looking up at the nurse. "What visitors?"

Brenna's family had been away on holiday when she had gone into labor and wouldn't be arriving until tomorrow. He didn't have a family to speak of, with the exception of Sarah, but he had not spoken to her about Brenna's pregnancy. Who could be coming to see them? Luke glanced at his wife, who shrugged her shoulders. She seemed just as confused as he was.

The nurse waited patiently for an answer. When she didn't get one, she prodded, "There is an Admiral here to see you. Mister Barrett I assumed it was a colleague of your late father's."

Luke frowned. He hadn't been in touch with any colleagues of Jason Barrett's since his father had died unexpectedly in a shuttle accident. None of the admirals had contacted him when Sarah had been on trial, they barely looked at him when during that trial. She had disgraced both of them in front of the Federation brass and he wasn't even in Starfleet. "I haven't spoken to any colleagues of my father since his death."

"Shall I send him away?"

"No," Luke said, "no that would be rude. You can send him in."

Brenna sat up and looked at her husband thoughtfully. "Do you think Sarah sent him?"

"She didn't even know you were pregnant, I don't see how she could have sent him."

"Don't you think we should tell her, Luke, she's your sister."

"My sister died when my father did."

Brenna looked at him sadly. The rift between Luke and Sarah had started when she had taken the assignment on the Explorer. It had taken her away from Earth and her family for seven months. She'd been away when her father had died in the shuttle accident, she didn't make it home in time for the memorial. Luke had been furious at her when she finally did show up on Earth, begging him to forgive her not making it back in time. Brenna remembered him slamming the door in her face. They'd heard nothing from her, assuming that she went back to her ship afterwards, until the lawyer had shown up on their doorstep. The drug addiction had been the final straw for Luke, he'd cut all ties with her and it broke Brenna's heart to know her daughter wasn't going to know her aunt.

The door to Brenna's room slid open and a tall, broad shouldered man dressed in the uniform of a Vice Admiral entered. Luke stood and placed his daughter in his wife's arms and turned to greet him. "Admiral Thornton," he said holding out his hand, "it's been a while, sir."

Adam Thorton grasped Luke's hand tightly. "I'm sorry to bother you, Luke, but...I have news."

"News? What kind of news?" Luke asked, crossing his arms over his chest. My god Sarah what have you done now. "Sarah?"

"Yes, Sarah," Thornton replied. He cleared his throat. "How much of her latest assignment did you know about?"

Luke blinked. "Her latest assignment? She's been reassigned, already?"

Thornton nodded his head. "Yes, to the U.S.S Voyager." The Admiral looked at the ground for a moment, before glancing up at Luke and Brenna. "I wish I didn't have to break this news to you on what is to be the most joyous day of your life, the birth of your first child, but I'm afraid the news I bring is not good news. The Voyager has not made contact with Headquarters in three weeks, a Cardassian patrol outside of the Badlands reports seeing it hit by a large plasma storm and destroyed. We fear that all hands have been lost. I'm sorry...Luke...your sister is counted among the missing."

In that instant the most joyous day of his life quickly turned to the worst, the day that Starfleet took away the last of his family. Later, on the name card of his newborn daughter, the nurse finally wrote a name, Sarah Faith Barrett.

Phoebe Janeway awoke to the sound of her vidphone beeping. Grumbling she pushed the quilt off of her body, crawled over her fiancée, David McPherson and went to answer it. It was so damn early in the morning, who the hell was calling her this early on a Sunday morning, after she had spent the night out celebrating David's latest novel. She wasn't surprised that it was her mother. But there was something about the way Gretchen Janeway was looking at her that made Phoebe sober up and quickly. "Mom," she gasped, "what's wrong?"

Tears pooled in Gretchen's eyes. "It's your sister," she said, choking on the words. "Voyager hasn't reported into Starfleet for three weeks."

Kathryn would never go that long without communicating with Starfleet. The ramification of that bit of news started to settle in. Phoebe knew very little about her sister's latest mission, just that it was taking her away from Earth and her children longer than usual since Bryan Dawson's death. But she did know that Kathryn had been assigned to track down a Maquis cell, one that her friend and security officer had infiltrated. Phoebe had been angry that her sister would take such a dangerous mission when she had two small children to think about. Ava was only a year old and had already lost her father, but Kathryn couldn't see beyond the bow of her ship sometimes, Phoebe thought wildly. "What does Starfleet Command think? Is it the Maquis?"

"No," Gretchen said. "The Maquis that Kathryn was sent to find disappeared as well."

"It could have been another cell," Phoebe snapped. "I told her not to go! I told her it was too dangerous!"

"Phoebe, there's more."

The tone of voice her mother was using caused Phoebe to fall back into the chair she was sitting on. More? What more could there possibly be? She had already been informed that her sister and her ship was missing, somewhere in the Badlands, chasing after terrorists. What more could her mother have to tell her? "Oh god, Mom, what's going on?"

The tears were now spilling down her cheeks. "I tried to reason with your sister, she wouldn't listen. I knew that I should have called Gabriel, she might have listened to him, but not me, she always took what I said with a grain of salt."

"Mom, where are the kids?" Phoebe asked, suddenly realizing that her mother's house was too quiet for a woman who was taking care of children.

"Kathryn took them with her."

This news slammed into Phoebe head on. Her heart began to race. How could Kathryn take Ava and Michael with her on such a dangerous mission, was she out of her mind? But, she realized, her sister hadn't been thinking straight from the moment she found out Bryan was dead. From there she had just taken everything one tiny step at a time. She clung to Ava like she was a life preserver and Michael was always kept at a distance, a painful reminder of the life she had lost with her husband. But Phoebe had thought that she had better sense than to bring her children along on a mission that was risky. "Starfleet…they…they let her do that?"

"Admiral Patterson approved of it," Gretchen replied, now sobbing.

Phoebe stood up. "Stay there Mom, I'm coming over."

It would only take her a few moments to get showered and ready. Her mother was emotionally breaking down and needed her. So much for a nice brunch with David. But Phoebe knew that her mother was never going to handle this on her own. Not when she had just lost her daughter and grandchildren in one communication. Phoebe choked a sob as she left a message PADD for David that she would be at her mother's. The time for Phoebe Janeway, the baby sister of Kathryn Janeway, lost somewhere in space, to mourn would be later. Much later.

#star trek voyager #star trek voyager fanfiction #kathryn janeway #chakotay #tom paris #sarah barrett (oc) #harry kim #b'elanna torres #kes #neelix #the doctor (emh) #janeway x chakotay #tom paris x ofc

[happy-haunts]

Constance Hatchaway ( Pt. 2 )

Constance Hatchaway ( Pt. 2 )

WARNING THIS POST CONTAINS THEMES OF ABUSE AND VIOLENCE.

Chapter one | Constance pt.1 : Constance pt.2

Chapter two | Mister Topper pt.1 : Mister Topper pt.2

Chapter three | Madame Leota pt.1 : Madame Leota pt.2

Chapter four | The Hostess

Chapter five | Captain Blood pt.1 : Captain Blood pt.2

Chapter six | Emily DeClaire pt.1 : Emily DeClaire pt.2 : Emily DeClaire pt.3

Chapter seven | Finale

She spoke the last part quietly but perked up the instant after, there was something different about her appearance today... looking closely her blue eyes were bright - so filled with warm happiness, but they were rimmed red?

“You’re very beautiful.” She blurted, catching me off guard and making me turn red.

“Oh... Why thank you Miss DeClaire, you are quite exquisite yourself...” I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “DeClaire you said? Such as Howard And Elizabeth DeClaire? I had no idea they had a daughter.”

“No, no, I’m their granddaughter. I apologize I should have clarified.” She began blushing. “And I heard you were to be arranged with a gentleman in town?” This took me back.

”Why yes... I have already married him actually, did you not know?”

“How awful...” She took my hands and met my eyes, “I don’t know what I would do if I was arranged a marriage ... Is there anything I can do?” You could understand that I was thrown off by this notion, Ambrose was widely adored by the town because he was the son of a wealthy farmer who made him sound like his child was made of gold.

“No, no ... I’m handling this pretty well- you know being cooped up in a house and treated like a servant rather than a wife.” I gave her hands a squeeze, “But that’s just normal I suppose ... I have to just ... realize that.” I smirked at Emily - giving her a shrug.

“Who is the one that dictates what normal is?” She straightened a bit and knitted her brow to me. “No one thinks I’m normal, not that they’ve outright said so but I can see it in their eyes - but here I am.” Emily placed a hand over her heart, “All I can do is be unapologetically myself and hope one day they see ... not being normal isn’t so bad.”

“You don’t understand.” I felt my voice shaking, “How much they would hurt me, how they would treat me if they knew ... I’m not normal.” I pulled my hands away and gulped down the burning in my throat, but I felt her hand on my shoulder.

“I don’t mind if you’re not normal.” I gritted my teeth as the burning filled up my throat again and I finally hissed.

“I want to marry a woman, not a man not any man.” I kept my voice low as I told her and the weight from finally letting someone in on my secret was ... so uplifting... But it came crashing down when I realized - I let someone in on my secret.

“Well ...” Emily blinked placing a hand on her hip. “I’m even more sorry to hear about your arranged marriage.” I turned bright red now, if I had looked at all put together before I was a mess now.

“B-But the town and - I’m not normal ... I’ll never be able to -“

“There is more to every story, and yours isn’t over yet.” She took my hands again, “And until your story ends I believe you’ll find your happy ending.” I couldn’t hold back and I hugged her right there on the street.

“CONSTANCE!” I heard my name shouted from behind where we were and pursed my lips - pulling myself away from Emily. I remember his face as if it were happening now... Deep red unlike I had ever seen before, his pupils almost seemed to shrink to nothing, and his breathing was fast - did he run here? “I came home half an hour ago and I thought you had been swept away by some maniac!” His furious eyes looked to Emily who was now standing somewhat behind me. “What are you doing talking to that gypsy thing?”

Curiously I looked back to Emily and then to Ambrose - thing? This girl? This literal angel! (Might be an exaggeration but she didn’t spit in my face when I told her about wanting a wife so.) “I don’t know who you think you’re talking to but if you ever address her like that again I-.” Emily placed her hand on my shoulder.

“Don’t ... Constance, I’ll go...” She gave a curtsy to Ambrose. “Mr. Harper, good day.” And I watched her leave down the street till she turned a corner and left my vision. I blinked a ew times as though time were stilled - the town people were quiet as they continued to watch the scene before them- Ambrose had made his way across the street to me as I was in a trance watching Emily leave- he grabbed my arm and squeezed.

“We’re going home, dear.”

————

Home was worse, he slapped me across the face and threw me to the ground. “You weren’t here and what’s worse you talked to that gypsy!”

“I needed air Ambrose! She isn’t a gypsy she is a DeClaire!”

“Oh please, the whole town talks about her- we’ve all seen her dancing with them! And how many times have you slipped away to see that... that...” He shook his head. “I saw how you looked at her, the whole town saw how you looked at her!”

“What is so wrong with her?” I screamed down from where I was cowering on the ground. “And are you angry at the fact that she doesn’t act the way you want her to? Or the fact that I will never look at you like that?” He reared up his foot and slammed it into my face.

“Don’t try to compare me with that ... that... ARGH!” He kept stomping on me as I screamed, I was reaching for anything I could beside the fireplace now - anything! That’s when I grasped onto it ... It was as though fate was bringing me towards it ... My hatchet.

I am humble enough to say that I missed the first time - but the second time I landed a hit to his stomach... He was so shocked that it was happening it gave me ample time to get to my feet and pull out the hatchet for a second swing. “Till Death do us part.” I growled and hacked away till his head rolled off his shoulders.

I should have felt something- anything! But my body was numb... guilt overcame me - I killed him! And then realization... I killed him. Then anger again... He hurt me. I sat there- breathing heavily- and I screamed covered in the red blood from my handiwork, I began punching his limp body and clawing at it out of fury.

How could he do something like that ... How could he ... Sweet Ambrose my mother said, what a gentle boy everyone had said.

Garbage, he was garbage ... Just complete garbage...

I took him outside just like that as well - I waited until night time and threw his body in the trees along the Mississippi, I then scrubbed down the house till there was no stains in the house.

I couldn’t just go to the authorities right then ... I waited until the next night and went down there in a mess and sobbed to the authorities, “He’s not come back! He’s left me he must have left me!”

“Easy now Constance, are you talkin about Ambrose?” The more stout man questioned.

“Yes! we - we got into a fight last night ...” I touched my face for effect, “He went out for a drink is what he said ... And he hasn’t come back! Oh please! Can you look for him? I don’t know what I’ll do if he doesn’t come back!”

“Don’t you worry Constance, he’s probably just stayed at the bar all night if the fight was that bad...”

It was just the start.

I should have listened to Emily and found my happy ending - I should have ran away somewhere to where there were people like Emily who didn’t care if I wanted to grow old with a woman and would celebrate how different I was from all these people. But my mother had another man lined up for me every time, and I remember hearing her voice in my ear man after man.

My mother insisted -“He is in good health this one - such a gentleman and so kind.”

Frank Banks, he was kind for a week after I married him and then when I told him I didn’t want to have children or touch him in the way he wanted me to ... He tried to make me. He should have stopped at infatuated for now he’s decapitated.

My mother again insisted - “Surely this gentle soul so sweet and sincere would be better suited than that old Frank.”

The Marquis De Doom, he spent no time telling me my duties as his wife and I remember when I first told him I was going to relax that day, he dared lay his hands on me like Ambrose did. He shouldn’t have tried to act so much taller, for without a head he’ll surely be smaller.

And she insisted -“He has been widely talked about in town for his great sense of humor at the pub- I’m sure he’s finally your match.”

Reginald Caine, he was actually genuinely a nice man ... He didn’t pressure me into anything nor did he raise a hand to me! But unfortunately his times drinking at the pub may have lead him to an early grave...Apparently he was a wanted man and let it slip to someone while he was drinking and was taken in to face his sentence ... A beheading. Although his death was not done by me, I’ll take the fall for the guillotine.

Once more she insisted - “Very stocky - close to your age and has such a love for children!”

George Hightower, it’s true he loved children and since I had gotten so old he had given up thinking there was still time for him to have a son. But I had hope with George ... We had gotten to know each other well enough through the years that, when I found him cheating on me with a younger woman to attempt and creat an heir to his business, I told him about how I didn’t like men and I was fine with him doing what he wanted with any woman he wanted as long as he stayed being reasonable to me. Sadly though it wasn’t so and dear George’s head had to go.

————-

I had been going from suitor to suitor, man after man... I had been planning weddings and murders so much so that I never got the chance to catch up with Emily and find out how she was... I brought her up to my last husband, George, he had bought the Gracey mansion and recounted how she died falling from the attic window. Everyone had a different story, she killed herself, her lover killed her, her fiancee killed her, or even that her grandparents killed her. I had a hard time believing the last one since not long after they passed in a house fire, alot of people said they had a hard time believing it was an accident - that they must have felt so guilty about their granddaughter dying so suddenly they burned themselves alive.

I tried not to dwell on it too much, although I wished I had come by at least at one time... If I knew she would die so suddenly... I just wished.

Years passed and I grew into an old woman, no grandchildren just an old cranky lady who soon passed peacefully in her sleep, imagine my confusion when I was pulling my form from my grave.

You could understand the confusion since I had lived in this house and never realized it was filled with all this ... activity? Ghosts were everywhere! Drinking, dancing, and singing?

I made my way through the halls and reminisced to all the years I spent here alone ...

Then I got to the attic and heard her crying.

“Hurry...” she sobbed, “Hurry back...” A girl - adorable purple and blue bride with a beating heart that was thundering in the attic so loud I could feel my non-existent pulse.

“Excuse me are you okay?” I leaned down and placed my hand on her shoulder gently- then I noticed her crown of flowers, petals fallen into her hair like she rolled through them. “Emily?” I whispered - shook to my core.

Her eyes were glowing blue - blue like her eyes used to be ... Tears were pouring down her cheeks. “Who...? Who are you?” I had to sigh because of course she might not remember me.

“Constance - Mrs. Harper remember? I was married to Ambrose all those years ago ... I heard you jumped from the window...” I looked over to the dusty attic window and pursed my lips, “It must hurt you so much to remember...” She was staring at me hard now, as if in deep concentration. “Constance...” I pointed to myself, “Hatchaway? Maybe you remember my serial killer name?” She turned a pale shade of purple. “No, no, no! Not like- I would never kill YOU just my husbands! But they were mean except one... and to be fair I wasn’t the one who did the beheading that time.”

“I- I’ll just take my leave...” I grabbed her hand.

“Wait! I won’t hurt you, I promise I chopped off their heads because of-.” But at the mention of it she yanked her hand away and placed her palm on her head.

“His head ... They chopped off his head...” tears were streaming down her cheeks.

“Who? Emily tell me what’s wrong... I want to help, I’ll stay in the attic-.”

“Take it!” She screamed at me, “I’ll go! I just - my head!” I watched her leave through the door as I plopped onto a trunk in the attic.

I waited for her to come back but she never did... That was until she brought Red with her.

And Red was the blessing I had always hoped for in life... She made me smile, she would let me be myself unapologetically -occasionally she would tease about my beheading of husbands (when you’re a ghost those jokes don’t carry as much weight to them). We are inseparable...

———

I was lounging in the attic with Red as I reminisced my humanity and origin- she was playing with my hair and made a face as I revealed my first meeting with Emily.

“I mean I can understand her having a hard time remembering things since she took a dive from the attic, but she must have known one of your victims.” I shook my head.

“No way, I would have know... I’m so sure I would have...”

“Well what are the chances it’s just some random dude who got beheaded?” I flopped my back atop her chest and gave a heavy sigh.

“True... We should investigate.” Red looked down to me and laughed.

“I’m up for any adventure you have, sweetheart... and if anything it will make for a great series of stories.”

“Lets start with someone who is bound to know something, maybe ... Let’s start with Hatty.”

And as we left the attic- for the first time in the mansion I felt as though someone was watching me.

#disney parks #haunted mansion #disney world #disneyland #emily declaire #we wants the redhead #disney #ghosts #webcomic #wewantstheredhead #constance hatchaway #disney parks fan #fanfiction

[tessatechaitea]

The Extremist #3

I'm disappointed that this half picture doesn't match up exactly with the half picture from Issue #2.

It's probably good I didn't post any of the blurbs that tried to bribe him with a handjob in the backroom of the Portland Comic-con.

Anyway, let's see what happened in "July, Nineteen Ninety-Three"! I'll try to baby it up so Tumblr doesn't shit its diapers.

Peter Milligan begins this issue all Peter Milligany.

Remember that this was written in 1993 when Peter Milligan makes mention of how a person could, at some point, be alone in anything. But also imagine now how the death of an intimate would go in 2019. Back in 1993, Judy is surprised to find that she's whisked away from her grief for long interludes by the bureaucratic machinations of a death in a capitalist democracy. This same kind of thing probably still happens except with more texts and emails and less phone conversations and driving to speak to people in person. But also imagine the non-bureaucratic side of death. We probably have far less close intimate contacts in our physical space now than we had in 1993, at least by percentage when compared with all people we would consider contacts (intimates who now live in another part of the world, people we know only from online, friends of friends we've maybe met once but now sometimes interact with over social media). In 1993. it would be phone calls and personal visits with flowers and cake or cookies. In 2019, you probably receive a deluge of crying emojis and people replying "*hugs*" to your post about your world crumbling beneath you as you try to stagger on with your remaining years bereft of the person you thought you could never live without. I suppose there are plenty of apps where people could send you cakes and cookies so I suppose it wouldn't be too terrible. Should I create an app that sends cakes and cookies to people when they've lost a loved one? It wouldn't cost anything. You'd just have to send me a small cake and some cookies with every use of the app! I can't wait to get extraordinarily fat! The journey is going to be so worth it!

Grief is a savory, selfish feast.

Peter Milligan has a way of expressing potent, terrible truths in such a casual manner that most people probably don't even notice them. There's an almost expressible power in believing you're experiencing something that nobody else has or will ever experience. Or just in knowing that you lived a part of your life unknown to your closest friends and family. I cherish, greedily, the moments of my life spent alone and far from those closest to me and I parcel them out as stories in only the most meager of manners. Hell, I've probably told more about myself and my experiences here on this blog exactly because I know my friends and family don't read it. I might say this every commentary until this series is over but I still don't know if I understand the point of the overall plot. But I do understand that the plot is a way for Peter Milligan to be Peter Milligan. I understand the need for a framework to say things you want to say. Or to just put scenes out there that you don't want to bother encasing in some kind of larger whole that you're less interested in. So here's another scene Peter Milligan had to have thought about and then needed a place to mention it:

Of course people still get horny for their dead partner! But how often does anybody talk about it?! Maybe it's common and I'm just consuming the wrong kinds of media. Alex Trebek never once asked a contestant if they jerk off thinking about their dead spouse!

Netflix's Dead to Me has some pretty frank discussions about the loss of a spouse but while Christina Applegate talks about being horny and wanting to fuck somebody, I don't think she ever says she masturbates thinking about her dead husband. If the point of this story is about dealing with loss, I'm beginning to get it. And that would completely explain why I missed it at twenty-one. I'm only three pages into this issue and it's kicking me in the face with existential issues. Was I too dumb at twenty-one to understand any of this or just too sheltered to really feel it? Maybe I was just too fucking young. Judy finds the key to Jack's Extremist apartment. After looking around the place, she thinks, "It was like having Jack die all over again, but this death seemed more profound. 'I never knew you,' I thought." It's an easy statement to point out that nobody ever really knows anybody. But once, because Jim Starling wrote a terrible run on Stormwatch, I wrote an entire rant about how we all hide our innermost dark secrets from even the greatest loves of our lives. I was essentially asking how can we know anyone if we won't even let those closest to us know our most vulnerable thoughts and terrible crimes (I don't mean crimes in the law and order sense! I just mean like that time you put your finger in your ass and then made sandwiches for your friends and they all got sick and you didn't do it on purpose but you made the connection and nobody must ever fucking know! You know, those kinds of crimes. But not that specific one! I totally just made that one up for effect). So I could repeat myself or just link to the rant or just (and — Spoiler! — this is the choice I'm going with!) move on to page five of this comic book. Judy discovers an old diary written by The Extremist (but not Jack!). Then she finds some of the tapes he burned and salvages a few. She hears Jack speaking about murder and getting pissed on and, most appallingly, calling her "poor dull dead little Judy." She smashes the place up, finds The Extremist's gimp suit, and tries it on thinking, "What the fuck?! Maybe I'll feel sexy and start speaking in sex metaphors!" Then the phone rings. And I suppose the rest is history! And by history, I mean Issue #1! Except I'm only on page seven so maybe I'm jumping the gun. I guess we need to learn how Judy met Patrick and why she decided her life would be better by going out at night murdering people until she comes hard in a leather suit. Oh, I hope that last sentence wasn't too adult for Tumblr! A bunch of pages are taken up by the plot stuff that I apparently paid the most attention to in 1993 and which is the least interesting part of the story (so far!). Patrick "accidentally" runs into Judy and he pretends he doesn't know who killed Jack. He offers to help her find out if she'll pose as The Extremist and do murders and blow jobs for him. Judy is all, "What the hell! Maybe I'll understand Jack a little more! Maybe I'll know why he needed a boring piece of shit like me when he was having such fantastic fuck and murder adventures!" No wait. That's what I would say. Judy just wants to find out who killed Jack and to, maybe, feel a little closer to him. I don't think she's as amped up as I would be about the loads of indiscriminate sex and murdering of the most perverse perverts. The main story ends with Judy making her first kill. She learns that her problem was that she was always living in the past and the future. So even if she had wanted to kill somebody in the moment before, she'd be all tangled up in the past and whether the person deserved it and maybe some of it was her fault and perhaps she's been too hasty with her murder decision. And she'd also be lost in the future like how the person will stop existing and how she might wind up in prison and how the victim's guts are going to be hell to clean up off the floor. But in the moment, she can just satisfy the need without consequence or conscience! She discovers it's a thrill! Well, I could have told her that! I've been playing Dungeons and Dragons since I was ten! Never worry about what the orc did or if it deserved it or if it has family or if you're actually the asshole raiding its lovely home! The actual issue ends with Tony, the black guy on the stoop, sitting in The Extremist's apartment listening to Judy's tapes. He's just finished the last one where she says she's going off to kill Patrick and he's completely caught up in the drama. He wants to know who killed who just as badly as, well, not me but I'm sure some readers were on the edge of their seat at this point. The Extremist #3 Rating: B. I don't find myself caring about the framework. But Peter Milligan has thoughts and those thoughts are well worth the admission price to this story. In a way, this is just an extension of his run on Shade the Changing Man. It's almost the same story if you squint your eyes and unfocus your vision and punch yourself in the genitals. Patrick is the guy on Meta who was pulling the strings to get Shade to go into the Area of Madness and eventually Earth (I forget his name! I bet it was Patrick!) And The Extremist is Shade and Kathy too (they both have similarities to both Judy and Jack, so I don't mean to say either Shade or Kathy is essentially one or the other). The Extremist has crazy missions where they kill and fuck just like Shade and Kathy had! I think. I mean, probably! And Tony is just Lenny in someway that I haven't spent any time thinking about but they were the only characters left!

#The Extremist #Peter Milligan #Ted McKeever #DC Comics #DC #Vertigo

[stupidfanfics]

Till Death Do Us Part: A Barry Allen Fan Fiction

Chapter 5: Big Bang Theory

Word Count: 3,133

The Big Bang Theory. One of mankind's most debated theories. One that I firmly stand by, mainly because I’ve experienced it. A big explosion, creating new life, changing everything.

Nine months had gone by since the explosion. Month one a familiar face arrived in my lab. Month two I shut myself away from the rest of the world. Month three I tried finding myself again. Month four I failed at month three’s task. Month five I gave up. Month sixth I reentered society. Month seven I buried myself in science. Month eight I made new friends. Month nine, that’s where things got complicated.

“Ok, I’ve got one cappuccino, one vanilla latte, and-” I cocked my head to the side. “Why are you guys listening to Poker Face?” Cisco turned to face me. “It’s Barry’s favorite song.” he exclaimed. “And you know this how?” I asked. “Cisco has been stalking Mr. Allen’s facebook page the past few days.” “You mean Barry?” Cisco retorted. “He’s our patient, he’s Mr.Allen.” “Cait he’s been here for nine months, I think we have the right to call him Barry. Right Monica?” I felt my heart begin to beat quickly, I hated lying to my two new best friends. But if they found out about me knowing Barry, then I’d have to explain all of the gorey details of our relationship. “Umm, yeah. Whatever Costco.” Cisco ignored me as he began humming along to Barry’s favorite song from when he was a senior in High School. You do realize you’re digging yourself down a deeper hole? Right? I thought to myself. “Where am I?” A familiar voice asked from behind me. “Shit.” I whispered, going to hide under the desk in front of me. All I could hear was Caitlin rambling random medical terms as Cisco tried to calm Barry down. “Everything’s okay man. You’re at STAR Labs.” “STAR Labs? Where’s Monica?” He remembered… SHIT he remembered! Right when I peered over the desk Caitlin and Cisco turned to face me, confused looks etching their faces. “Hey, Barry...” I said meekly, giving a small wave. Cisco turned back around. “I’m Cisco Ramon. She’s Doctor Caitlin Snow-” “I need you to urinate in this cup.” Cisco rolled his eyes, “And I see you already know Monica, which really intrigues me…” “Not now Cisco,” I said, slowly making my way towards Barry. “What, what is happening? What is going on?” Barry exclaimed pacing around the med-bay, “Bare, you were struck by lightning…” I whispered. Barry walked towards a monitor and stared at his body. “Wh- Lightning gave me abs?” Caitlin walked towards him. “Your muscles should be atrophied, but instead they're in a chronic and unexplained state of cellular regeneration.” I pushed Caitlin aside and put my hand on Barry’s bare shoulder. “Barry, please sit down.” He shuffled back to the bed, his eyes maintaining their locked gaze on the floor. “You were in a coma.” Cisco explained. “For how long?” Barry asked. “Nine months.” “Welcome back Mister Allen.” Dr.Wells said, wheeling his way into the Cortex. “We have a lot to discuss.”

As I had expected Barry wanted nothing to do with STAR Labs, leaving me in a sticky situation. Cisco and Caitlin turned around to stare at me, expecting looks on their faces.”Look, I know I have a lot to explain but it’s not what you think.” Caitlin gave me a knowing look. “Fine, maybe it is what you think but why would that even matter. I mean-” “Why would what matter?” Dr.Wells inquired. I rolled my eyes, might as well get this over with, “When I was eleven, my mom and I moved here, I met Barry and Iris and became close friends with them. Then, senior year of highschool roles around, and Barry and I got to prom together,” Cisco gave me a smug  grin. “As friends, then he um, he-” “He what???” Cisco pushed, “He kissed me, and I ran away, moved to Seattle and never spoke to him. Until the Wednesday before the accident,” I threw my hands up in the air. “I thought I’d never have to see him again, but here we are, or I guess I should say here we have been. It’s like the universe is forcing us together no matter how much I hate it.” “Are you sure you hate it?” Caitlin teased. “Please don’t even start with that. I’m really sorry but I’m going to head to Jitters and take a much needed break.” I whispered, walking out of the Cortex. “But there’s already coffee her-” “I’m very aware of that Cisco.” I yelled storming through the halls.

After taking sometime for myself that afternoon, I was finally ready to head back to work. Instead of changing back into my work attire I stayed in my sweatshirt and leggings, opting to “walk” back to STAR Labs instead of drive. Okay, so maybe my version of walking was flying, but could you blame me? Nine months ago I found out I was the impossible, how do I not take advantage of that? I made sure to land a block away from STAR Labs, trying my best not to raise any suspicion. “I’m back!” I cheered, walking into the cortex. Suddenly, a young man rotated to face me. “So am I!” He chirped, a smile stretching across his face. “Barry? I thought you said you were okay? Is something wrong?” Barry shrugged his shoulders. “Yes. No. I don’t know but whatever is happening is AWESOME!” he exclaimed. I gave Cisco a concerned look. “We’re heading to Ferris, apparently Barry has superspeed!” he said with a giddy grin. I turned to face Barry, whose face mimicked Cisco’s. “Bare? Are you sure you are okay?” I said placing a hand on his shoulder. “Never better,” he grinned. “Come on, let’s go.”

“You don't really believe he can run that fast, do you?” Caitlin asked me walking out of the van. I shrugged my shoulders, “I don’t know, it’s Barry and Barry’s usually right so…” Caitlin rolled her eyes at my response as she walked towards Barry to get him set up for his “test run”. “May I ask,” I jumped at the sound of Dr. Wells’ voice. “Doctor Wells, you scared me.” “Sorry, but as I was saying, why did you keep your prior relationship with Barry a secret.” He questioned, looking up at me. I cocked my head to the side, “I don’t really know why,” I sighed. “I guess I just didn’t to become as disruption. I mean he was in a coma for nine months, I wasn’t even sure he’d wake up.” “You care about him a lot, don’t you?” I thought of a response as I stared at Barry getting into a runner’s stance. “You could say that…”  Before I knew it Barry Allen was running faster than the speed of light, the Barry Allen who I’d beat in our daily sprints to my front yard. The Barry Allen who was always the last student to finish running the mile in gym class. He was ama- crashing, he was crashing. I couldn’t help but snort, causing the three scientists seated around me to stare in my direction. I mouthed a sorry before I got up and ran in Barry’s direction. “Barry, are you okay?” I whispered as I held out my hand to pull him off the ground. “Yeah, I’m fine. My arm just hurts a little that’s all.” I rolled my eyes, “Well then Bartholomew let’s get you back to STAR Labs and check on that arm.” Barry turned to face me and lightly punched me in the shoulder as we walked towards the van. “You know how much I hate that name…” he muttered. “Well, you don’t know how much I missed it.”

“It looks like you had a distal radius fracture.” Caitlin stated turning to Barry and I. “Had?” we asked in unison. “Okay, you guys are really starting to creep me out.” Cisco chuckled. “Anywho, it’s healed.” Caitlin said pointing at the X-Ray. “In three hours,” Barry stood up from the bed in the middle of the med bay, “How is that even possible?” Caitlin and Cisco shared a look. “We don’t know,” “Yet.” Doctor Wells added wheeling into the cortex. “You really need to learn how to stop.” I giggled. Dr. Wells looked at me, “What happened out there today? You were moving pretty well, and then something caused you to lose focus.” “I started remembering something.” Barry said looking over his shoulder towards me. “Barry, you don’t have to-” I shook my head but was interrupted, “But I should,” he paused taking a deep breath. “When I was 11, my mother was murdered. It was late, a sound woke me up. I came downstairs, and I saw what looked like a ball of lightning. Inside the lightning, there was a man. He killed my mom. They arrested my dad. He's still sitting in Iron Heights for her murder. Everyone, the cops, the shrink, they they all told me what I saw was impossible. But what if the man who killed my mom was like me?” Barry’s last sentence shocked me and brought me back to reality making me realize that Barry was now sitting next to me on the bed and I was rubbing his back. “Well I think I can say unequivocally you are one of a kind.” Doctor Wells said scanning the room.

After Caitlin made sure Barry was okay after his accident, he left saying he had unfinished work at CCPD. This left me, Caitlin, Cisco, and Dr. Wells alone in the cortex, eating Big Belly Burger. Cisco and Caitlin were talking about god knows what while I sat in my rolly chair thinking about all that had happen in the span of only a few days. “He’s a keeper Monica.” Cisco said ripping me away from my thoughts. “Hmm?” I asked confused. “Barry.” “Cisco, how many times do we have to go over this? Barry and I are just friends.” Cisco rolled his eyes. “Well that’s not the vibe I’ve been getting the past few days.” “Look, I don’t even think my friendship with Barry is stable right now, so the thought of being in a relationship with him just sounds stupid at this point. I mean I left him, with no explanation. God I was such a bitch.” “I wasn't the only one affected by the particle accelerator explosion, was I?” the man of the hour abruptly asked causing me to shrink into my chair. Everyone paused sharing awkward glances, “We don’t know for sure.” Dr. Wells finally answered. “You said the city was safe. That there was no residual danger.” Barry frantically replied, “But that’s not true, so what really happened that night?” Dr. Wells looked towards me and the two other scientists, “Well… the accelerator went active, we all felt like heroes and then…” An image showed up on the monitors, “It all went wrong. The dimensional barrier ruptured, unleashing unknown energies into our world. Antimatter, dark energies, x-elements-” “Those are all theoretical-” Barry interrupted, “-and how theoretical are you?” Dr. Wells snapped back as he turned his head back to the monitor, “We mapped the dispersion throughout and around Central City, though we have no way of knowing what or… who was exposed, we’ve been searching for other Metahumans like yourself.” “Metahumans?” Barry asked turning around. “That’s what we’re calling them.” Caitlin bluntly replied. “I saw one today.” Those four words that came out of Barry’s mouth confused and intrigued everyone. “He’s a bank robber, and he can control the weather.” “This just keeps getting cooler.” Cisco said with a big goofy grin that soon disappeared when I slapped his shoulder. “This is not cool. All right, a man died.” Barry said, his tone startling me, “Mardon must have gotten his powers the same way I did. From the storm cloud. And he’s still out there! We have to stop him before he hurts anyone else. “Barry!” I desperately shouted as he turned to walk away. “That’s a job for the police.” Dr. Wells muttered. “I work for the police.” Barry murmured. “As a forensic assistant.” “You’re responsible for this, for him.” “What’s important is you!” Dr. Wells snapped, “Not me, I lost everything. I lost my company. I lost my reputation. I lost my freedom. And then you broke your arm, and it healed in three hours. Inside your body could be a map to a whole new world… genetic therapies, vaccines, medicines, treasures buried deep within your cells and we cannot risk losing everything because you want to go out and play hero!” Dr. Wells mockingly yelled the last part, “You’re not a hero. You are just a young man who was struck by lightning.” Barry’s eyebrows began to furrow as I prepared myself to jump out of my seat and stop the cat fight that was about to occur. But instead Barry just walked away, disappearing into one of the hallways. “That was a little harsh…” I whispered

A few hours later Dr. Wells had already left, but Caitlin, Cisco, and I stayed late to finish up some work. I stood up to go use the restroom when a gust of wind blew my hair around. “Barry? What are you-” “I’ve been going over unsolved cases from the past nine months, and there’s been a sharp increase in unexplained deaths and missing people. Your Metahumans have been busy. Now, I’m not blaming you,” Barry said glancing at me, “I know you didn’t mean for any of this to happen. I know you all lost something.” He said turning to Caitlin, “But I need your help to catch Mardon and anyone else out there like him. But I can’t do it without you.” Cisco, Caitlin, and I all shared the same look as we tried to communicate our thoughts through facial expressions. “If we’re gonna do this, I have something that might help.” Cisco smiled walking out of the cortex, “Something I’ve been playing with.”  He turned a metal stand around that housed a crimson suit. “Designed to replace the the turnouts firefighters traditionally wear. I thought if STAR Labs could do something nice for the community, maybe people wouldn’t be so angry a Dr. Wells anymore.” I stepped forward. “How is it going to help Barry?” I asked, pointing a finger at the suit. “It’s made of a reinforced tripolymer, its heat and abrasive resistant, so it should withstand his moving at high velocity speeds. And the aerodynamic design should help him maintain control. Plus it has built in sensors so we can track his vitals and stay in contact with him from here.” he smiled. “Thanks.” Barry whispered. “Now how do we find Mardon. “I retasked STAR Labs satellite to track meteorological abnormalities over Central City.” I said, Barry staring at me with an impressed look on his face. “We just got a ping.” Caitlin said, tablet in hand, “Atmospheric pressure dropped 20 millibars in a matter of seconds. I’ve tracked it to a farm just west of the city.” I watched as Barry shuffled towards the suit, a smile growing on my face.

“Barry! Barry, this things getting closer. Wind speeds are 200 miles per hour and increasing.” I said into the coms. “Barry can you hear me?” “Yeah. Loud and clear.” he shouted back. “ If it keeps up, this could become an F-5 tornado.” “But it’s headed towards the city. How do I stop it?” Everyone in the lab was at a loss for words. “Guys?... What if I unravel it?” “How the hell are you going to do that?” Caitlin asked. “I’ll run around it in the opposite direction,” “Cut off it’s legs.” Barry and I said together. “He’d have to clock 700 miles per hour to do that.” Cisco muttered. “Your body may not be able to handle those speeds. You’ll die.” Caitlin spoke into the coms. “I have to try.” Barry shouted. “You don’t have to do this Barry.” I said waiting for a response, “Barry?” Then a gust of wind played through the speakers of the cortex as I turned to Caitlin to give her a concerned expression. “Ha ha, the suit’s holding up.” Cisco celebrated clenching his fist. “But he’s not.” Caitlin retorted. “He can do it,” I whispered, “I know he can do it.” All that was heard was the sound of wind until Barry’s grunts were played on the speakers. “It’s too strong!” he yelled. “You can do this Barry,” Dr. Wells said grabbing ahold of the mic, “You were right, I am responsible all for this so many people have been hurt because of me, and when I looked at you, all I saw was another potential victim of my hubris. Yes, I created this madness. But you, Barry, you can stop it. You can do this.” he spoke, “Now run, Barry, run!” Then the wind started again, as we all waited in anticipation. Then there was a scream and a loud crash. “Barry?” I asked, tears beginning to form in my eyes. All I could hear was mumbling and my heart began to pound, “I’m not like you.” Barry said allowing me to let out a sigh of relief. “You’re a murderer.” My heart clenched at the sound of gunshots. “Barry?!” I screamed. “It’s over.” he whispered. “I’m okay.” A smile cracked on my face, the other three scientists doing the same.

“I’m pretty sure I had about five heart attacks today.” I chuckled, looking over at Barry as we walked out of STAR Labs. “Yeah, sorry about that,” he apologized scratching the back if his neck. I breathed in the cool city air, looking at all the glowing windows and flashing streetlights. “Hey,” I turned my head to face Barry again, “Thank you. For being willing to help me out. Y-you know after-” “Yeah, no problem,” I said cutting him off. “I know it’s late but, would you like to go grab some coffee?” “As much as I’d really like to I have a feeling I’ll be needed for work early tomorrow morning.” A tight lip smile formed on my face. “Do you, umm, want a ride home?” I gently shook my head, “I’m fine, but thanks.” He nodded his head as I turned away. “Goodnight Monica.” “Goodnight Barry.” I whispered looking over my shoulder as he flashed away. Once he left I looked around to make sure the coast was clear. Then, my feet left the ground and I made my way home. As I looked below me I saw a bolt of lightning moving passed the cars crowded onto the highway. Monica, what have you gotten yourself into.

Taglist: @lexeeehhh

#Barry Allen #barry allen fanfiction #barry allen x reader #barry allen x you #barryallen #grant gustin #grant gustin fanfic #grantgustin #grant gustin fanfiction #superflash #supergirl #The Flash #theflash #the flash fanfiction #the cw #mellisa benoist #iris west #iriswest #caitlin snow #cisco ramon #dr. wells #Joe west

[laughingpinecone]

1413w, Tammy, Candie, Tammy/Candie, Tammy/Cynthia. Yuletide fic for @turndownyourlights!

Special Agent Tammy Preston took out her phone. A warm, late afternoon lingered in the outskirts of Las Vegas, and the café’s tables had just been touched by the growing shadow of the statue that towered over the plaza. She took it all in - the heavy air, the light blue of the sky giving way to the first hues of sunset. And she forced herself to look down at her phone again. Poetry wouldn't help, at least not right off the bat.

     Dear    …, she typed, holding her breath, and erased the word just as quickly.

     Lieutenant Knox    , she tried again. No cigar. Too formal. Was there a style guide for texts, in the year of our Lord 2017? The temptation to pull up the browser and look up some strict, established rules to follow was strong, but Tammy knew herself and knew that she would spend three hours reading it from top to bottom only to eventually lose heart altogether. She uncrossed one leg, crossed the other one, curled a lock of hair around her fingers and prayed that the twice-disappeared Mr Jones would call it in for the day and get outta the Lucky Seven building real soon, if only to put her out of her misery. She needed to see him with her own eyes, this man who was and yet was not Agent Cooper, whose wedding ring had been found in a dead man's stomach: Special Agent Tammy Preston did not leave a case half tangled up in who knows what nonsense.

 And yet that was not what was breeding butterflies in her own stomach.

 The phone was too daunting. The situation called for the drafting of an action plan.

 The two pages Tammy filled in five portentous minutes looked like the world's tidiest conspiracy wall, size mignon to fit inside her beloved damask journal. At the center of it all was Major Briggs, tied with Jones’ wedding ring. Connected to it, all they had found out about the circumstances of his death. Then a row of questions starring Mr Douglas Jones: if he was Dale Cooper, and Dale Cooper had disappeared before her very eyes, what foul play had brought him back to this life and not at Gordon's side? Could this be a shape-shifting alien taking Cooper-as-Jones’ place? Could she at least play it off as a joke? The USAF digs UFOs, right? Tammy could swear there were some similarities between this story and the pile of bizarre celluloid trash commonly known as The Hidden (1986) - she wondered if rewatching that movie while sober would emphasize them or reveal a blander plot than the one her wine had concocted...

 A flash of bright pink blindsided her.

 “What wonderful      luck    !” cooed a familiar voice. Tammy had only heard it in passing, months earlier in Twin Peaks’ Sheriff station, a curious chat, perfunctory interviews, but the Mitchums’ aides weren't the kind of girls you'd forget. And with her feather proudly bobbing to the right of her perm, and a more angular face compared to the softer features of her colleagues, this had to be none other than finger food boss herself, Candie. True to form, she was carrying a plate of sandwiches, which she put down next to Tammy's coffee. “It's the beautiful lady from the Federal Bureau of Investigations!”

 Tammy blinked at that fluttery pink mass of enthusiasm. Why yes, thank you, that's how she strove to be remembered, especially by beautiful ladies from other walks of life. She straightened up her shoulders and flipped her hair behind her back with faux nonchalance.

 When the woman bent down to get a look at her notes, asking with her trademark slo-mo intensity whether she was writing a      letter    , as if no action in the history of humankind had ever been more awe-inspiring than that of putting pen to paper, Tammy snapped her journal close and stuffed it in her bag.

 “I am requesting backup.”

 “Is there… danger?”

 “Not… the situation is not dangerous.” Curt and professional, Preston, she could still hear in her mentor's voice. Speaking of whom, the only real danger was for Albert to know about this, any of this, it was the kind of mess that would break his heart all over again and there was really no need for that. Going back to tailing Cooper's shadow was heavy enough for her too, some emotional backup would have been nice, but she was a grown girl who could handle herself. It was just that…

 They stared at each other for a full row of seconds. It didn't matter how many; the part of Tammy that had trained herself to acknowledge appropriate behavior screamed awkward, but it got drowned in an instant. She'd been granted a time to admire and to be admired, as simple and full of beauty as the curves of Candie's curls.

 “...you want to see this backup, then,” came Candie's eventual, thoughtful reply.

 It may have taken the pink lady a while, but lag or no lag, she'd seen right through her and Tammy could only nod, a little bashful. Her job didn't leave her many chances to meet people she might wanna ask out for a drink, and even if it did, it would take a small-scale miracle to make a stronger first impression than Lt. Cynthia Knox, strong and tall and quick to smile. They had shared precisely one drink at the Mayfair hotel's bar in Buckhorn before Knox

 hopped on her flight back to the Pentagon, a drink and a promise to call each other if they ever happened to pass through Philly or Washington respectively.

 “And it is hard to call? Your backup?”

 Another bashful nod. After the year Tammy spent dragging her feet against all impulses to go native in the      other     Washington with its trees and cherry pies, anxiety told her that she would've needed a very good reason to just pop in the Lieutenant's notifications all of a sudden. And surely, this was it: an unbelievable new lead on the loose ends of the Briggs case was her occasion served on a silver platter. If only she could muster up the words.

 “It is very hard.”

 “How can it be? In this beautiful world…” A smile crept on Candie's face, distant, lost beyond her thoughts, but as warm as the sunset that was painting them both in hues of gold. “Can you believe it? We can press a button and tell everything, to everyone, in the whole world. In this life, how is it possible to want something and keep it all inside? Doesn't it make you too sad to breathe? ...would you like a kiss?”

 “I beg your pardon?”

 “A kiss, from me to you. As encouragement! And…”

 Tammy sat up and waited for her to catch up with her own sentence. Would she like a kiss? The plain black coffee she'd been drinking couldn't have possibly gone to her head, not even a little bit, so her flushed cheeks were all Candie's doing. Were some things that simple? Her porcelain doll looks, all silk and laces and big shiny pendants, had caught Tammy's eyes from the get-go. But if talking to a colleague was hard work already, approaching the strange woman under the uniform had felt like the stuff of legends. And yet.

 “...I'm taking my own advice,” Candie concludes. Would you like a kiss?”

 Tammy nodded, transfixed.

 Candie knelt down, laid two fingers on Tammy's lips and locked eyes with her, and once again Tammy could let her whole world be Candie, her rich perfume and the sharp line of her nose, the sparkle of curiosity in her eyes and, this time, the languid touch of her mouth, soft, covered in strawberry balm. She stayed there, lips against lips as the sun went down - time didn't matter with this girl.

 Eventually, and it was still too soon, Candie bounced back up and slowly focused on the tray she'd left on the café's table as if seeing it for the first time. “I've gotta go! Mister Mullins must be starving!”

 Tammy bit her lip. It still tasted like strawberries.

 “Thank you, Candie,” she said. What a beautiful world indeed. “Let me… know if you ever need encouragement yourself?”

 “Sure thing!”

 And off she went, leaving Tammy alone with her cold coffee, her phone and a big dumb smile that just wouldn't go away.

 Were some things that simple?

     Cynthia, I know it's been a while...  

#twin peaks #tammy preston #candie (twin peaks) #fanfiction

[aloneinxthenight]

M*A*S*H starters

memes from the 4077th

ATTENTION ALL PERSONNEL: Here we have a compendium of sentences from a show that is known as one of the best television shows of all time. This was not a request, I do not do requests for starter lists. I was legitimately just watching M*A*S*H and thought the world would be much better with another starter list from it. Feel free to add names and change pronouns as needed, if you wanna add any zingers from the show yourself, don't hesitate! Since M*A*S*H is a military type show, I tried to get as many sentences that could apply to everyone as possible. There's some angst, a whole lot of humor and a few one-liners in here which took hours of watching (such hard work) to compile so enjoy! And if you're sending any one of these tongue-tingling phrases to a multi-muse blog, please specify the muse!

I had a hamster back home who used to get the same look in his eyes when he wasn't feeling good.

Except for your face, your mind and your body, you're a complete dud.

Should we ask some people in or should we just be boring on our own?

Oh, I never do. If I keep washin' them they stay clean forever.

She was in here before, with me, alone.

Maybe it was her perfume... Maybe it was mine.

Do me a favor _______, if you find out I've died, just leave me lying there in the crabgrass.

At least my mouth is still working.

Oh hey, I was there. The army was cleaning out Lincoln's nose.

What do you miss the most about back home?

Well we couldn't finish it anyway, _______ confiscated the best parts.

Almost lifelike.

You wish each of us a prostitute?

He could sell brass knuckles to Gandhi.

How could he be alive like that one second then dead the next?

I could give you a lot of medical reasons but... understanding doesn't make it less painful.

We got to be friends in just a few hours!

Friends don't need any more.

Gee, I hope I don't cry...

When was the last time you felt like crying?

_______ is an expert on fits.

Do I hear ten? Sold to the grim reaper in the third row.

You bought the garbage?

Well, you said get a hobby!

I thought we'd give _______ an appropriate aloha.

Beautiful! Beautiful! A Tintoretto in barf!

I had dreams like this all through puberty...

I didn't see any of it, but I loved it.

That's my garbage!

No, no, that's my garbage, _______, I have a receipt!

I don't kiss and tell... it was terrific.

Ali "Babble" to the end, aren't ya?

How'd you like a grenade in your truss?

Besides my life, _______ wants my virginity.

We all do.

If only I'd known!

He wrote in big letters, "Know your Enema."

Your fly is open.

Don't leave your unopen mail around.

I know you're not giggling because you're wearing feathered underwear, you just can't wait to park your can behind this desk.

Have a good time and, uh, don't do anything I wouldn't do.

I don't know that I'd want to do anything you would do.

Of course, God wasn't surrounded by a bunch of flakes.

I object to the word weird!

You see, I told you it was a war! But no, you keep saying we're both dreaming!

What do you think you're doing wearing civilian underpants?!

Is nothing sacred? These happen to be my mothers!

I'm here to discuss something besides underwear.

My mother always said two things: Never argue with crazy people and always wear clean underwear.

_______, your sanity's sprung a leak.

I think it's going very well, don't you?

It'll never happen... Probably.

Oh, I just figured if a priest could be tempted, that's the type of stuff he'd steal.

What are you looking for, _______?

His marbles.

Are you with him, or are you independently crazy?

The eyes always give the guilty away. The windows to the soul.

Don't tell me he sleeps with you.

I'm hoping to do better.

I knew I should have ripped the stuffin's out of the little bugger when I had the opportunity...

It was one of those days that more than most, reminds us all that war, however much we may enjoy it, is no strawberry festival.

Saving lives is my business, mister.

Was that a bomb?

Uh, no, _______ Someone's playing the WWII album!

You can either help the wounded or become one.

You beat the rap, Babyface!

Lovely place, Bellevue.

"Hold your potatoes..."

I'll probably develop an urge to walk on the water.

Isn't that where the Austrailian nurse scratched you?

Only because I wanted to go home in her pouch.

I patched that months ago.

It's talent, pure talent.

Mmm, sounds serious. You may be coming down with mental health.

It's not a death wish, is it?

You're not the self-destructive type.

You suppose any of us will speak English again?

Perhaps his arms will get tired.

I never sleep in the hospital.

Now they're sending me back.

I think I need less luck back here.

Gee, you're a nice guy.

I used to get hit if I wasn't.

Should I be hearing Arthur Godfrey?

I know you're working but I just wanted to say thanks.

I hope I never see you again, ya know?

I came, I saw, I bored.

Completely forgettable looks that stay with you forever.

Sounds like we're getting into flashback country.

________'s too sharp for that, he always leaves a trail of breadcrumbs.

If I didn't see her every hour, I got the bends.

I know you were young but you must have had names.

Look at that. Talent. I'm not just a pretty face.

You're weird.

Give the little lady a cigar.

Dinner here is around 7. Nausea's around 8.

You have your choice: Gin or gin?

It's pure poison.

We think so.

How do I look?

A little thinner, a little paler. A few gray hairs.

These aren't mine, I'm breaking in a friend's senility.

How do you stand on the subject of sitting?

Children? No, I'm still my only child.

You're trying too hard. Are you uncomfortable?

There's been no one since you.

I had to survive.

Right. Here's to survival.

I'm just afraid of your voice giving me frostbite.

Hurt? You broke my legs. It really tore me apart when you left me.

I got over the hate but I never got over the love.

Oh! Master complicator.

God forbid anything should ever be easy.

"Be myself", You said! Well, myself happens to love you.

Oh, now I understand. Since we're in love there's no possible reason for us to be together!

You've just proposed yourself into a corner!

I just don't want to take a backseat again. I like it up front.

If anybody asks, I turned you down. Yeah?

If it's a police action, why didn't they send cops?

I'm not over here because I'm such a fan of diarrhea!

Can the balloon juice, _______!

How do you keep all that stuff in your head?

Man, seein' the way you guys work makes me proud every time I throw up.

One more word and I'll button your lip to your fly.

Amazing what can get stuck in the human body.

I just know how hard it is to operate and be secretary of state at the same time.

Everybody's got a buddy in there.

Look we'll keep you posted, let you know if it's a boy or a girl.

Hey, would you like some Jeep butter?

I've just heard something very disturbing and if it's true then I'm afraid I'll have to fight you.

When I was five, I had a crying fit because they wouldn't let me have a crew cut.

Uglier than rats mating in my duffel bag?

I worked my way through divinity school as a "B" girl in San Diego.

I smell something burning.

The laundry's on fire.

_______ I don't know how to tell you this, but I've had a better offer.

Take me with you.

Just wanted to thank you for staying.

Some of their saltier comments had been deleted.

The dictionary. I figure it's got all the other books in it.

The only thing that's not green is the blood.

I suppose they do and that gets to be a pain in the ass too.

I'd like it to happen to me to break up the boredom.

That's on the Hungarian side of town.

Well, do you see anything good coming out of this?

There's always terror to fall back on.

Oh, so that's what it's like to have a bomb explode a few feet away from me.

I stopped having morale about six months ago.

You know, I used to love reading Hemingway because he wrote so well.

I guess I got a little drunk.

Uh "a lot" is a relative term.

If I knew all the answers, I'd run for God.

Pistachio ice cream... And bananas.

She squeezes your nose.

Some people heard the screaming and said, "That sounds just like Eleanor Roosevelt!"

I'd like to take six to seven months and become unconscious.

And then I'd like to go to Europe and sleep there for a year.

I had to come over here to be a star!

The nearest one is over in Grange Hall in uh, Mooseville. About 50 miles away.

Oh, I don't have to say hello, I know how everybody feels about me.

No, I think she doesn't like me. I mean that's the only conclusion I can draw.

He could have at least called me a son of a bitch. He's done it for others.

Heads up!

No talking in rank!

He's a magician with latrines and cesspools.

Don't tell me not to say anything.

He's brighter than I thought.

Garbage head.

Santa Claus is coming to town.

♫ I love to go swimmin' with bow-legged women and swim between their legs. ♫

Wounded come before personal chafing.

Oh give him a break, Alice, you're the first woman he's seen in months.

You always give me the cuties.

He owes me, I sent him a case of Preparation H.

Just don't sit on anything cold.

Okay guys, time to beat your feet on the Mississippi mud.

He'll punch my arm.

Wear your heavy sweater.

My God, now I'm talking like you.

That watch you sold me runs backward!

I can't stand that pimply voice.

That is Grade A 100% bull cookies!

Never doubt your X-ray or your hairdresser.

Too bad this kid didn't come with a zipper.

Why didn't I shoot my foot and stay in Honolulu?

Don't get upset, just eat your carrot slowly.

Your nostrils are flaring.

My nostrils have a right to flare, I'm in charge.

You tell him if he takes this chair, my tuchus will attack him barehanded.

The permanent verticle smile. Famed in song and story?

I'm starvin'. I'd even settle for one of _______'s armpit sandwiches.

Oh, you finally realized I have a beautiful body.

I've never seen your body!

If you need me, I'll be packing up my troubles in my old kit bag.

No, but I was always prepared.

_______ when all this is over, I'm gonna adopt you.

Come on, Pokey!

There are sequins all over the ground!

Me, scared? This whole body is one white knuckle.

I'll have the shoelaces, house dressing. And have the chef remove the laces.

There's a lady on my foot.

Oh, miss, this probably isn't your table but could you scratch the back of my knee?

Would I deny you a belch?

Oh to be in England now that war is here.

Due To circumstances beyond our control, lunch will be served today.

Please excuse these two, they're themselves today.

The men hate me, don't they?

_______, you are a gentleman and a lady.

Whoa, did you know it's yesterday there?

Standby for the blessing.

Standby for the blessing!

STANDBY FOR THE BLESSING!

Nothing comes after Amen.

Looks like an abandoned schoolhouse.

Look in the boxes marked kitchen utensils.

Concubines? In a schoolhouse?

Oh no, I love that after church on toast.

That's not your dress! I'll kill ya!

But my blue chiffon is from Murdoch's in Toledo!

_______, that's the finest act of bravery I've ever witnessed.

I don't sleep well on a soft wall.

The weather's clear. I can see the stars.

Oh, thank you comrade, and get me some borscht. Easy on the sour cream.

_______ stop that!

Give him a smooth ride.

I'm gonna be ravaged, I know it!

Tell 'em you're with me.

I was overrun by a batch of bimbos!

It tickled but I kinda liked it.

And midnight has been canceled.

You think you're real smart. But you're not smart; you're dumb. Very dumb. But you've met your match in me.

Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of happy hour.

50 more pounds, and I'm homeward-bound!

I call it "Suicide by Salami"!

You're always wrong, _______. That's what's so right about you.

Live! That's an order!

I'm so cold I think my pilot's gone out.

How much of this can a man take? We must have seen this picture twelve times in the last month. It's a recurring nightmare with popcorn.

Act like a man, you sniveling twerp!

I was born with someone waiting to see me.

Why don't you guys like me?

Because you're a lousy _______ and a rotten person.

Well, there's your pimples.

My pores won't close!

I've been up and down on a merry-go-round since I got here!

I've barely slept a wink!

It's not just big, it's great big with whipped cream!

You shouldn't mention _______'s chest when it's not here to stand up for itself.

Thank you, Daddy Warbucks.

Well, for your information, I've never had any complaints.

Dead men tell no tales.

I know the diamond's not so big, it's a family heirloom.

Must be a small family.

I keep pinching myself to see if I'm dreaming.

I'm engaged to be married!

He sleeps on a bare piece of plywood.

I couldn't love anyone who didn't outrank me.

Are you sure you're not rushing into this in the heat of... Whatever heat you might be in?

This ole cowboy ain't gonna be lonesome tonight.

He's busy tuning his face.

My student council could have used someone like her.

I thought this was going to be a fun meeting.

Get ready to duck, he's liable to explode.

Did anyone ever tell you, you have the voice of a songbird slowly drowning in tar?

If you act drunk long enough, you get a REAL hangover.

Unhand me you varlet, you know not who you touch.

You'd be surprised what a priest can get away with.

Hear ye, Hear ye, it's 0700 and all is hell.

Remove your hand or I'll zap you with my knee.

He touched me.

What a physique! Shoulders like this! Dancers legs and cute little behind!

_______ there'll be no more chinny chin chin. Or any other part of me.

Uh oh, he took his gun and his toothbrush.

Shooting his mouth off again?

Son, heroics just get people killed. They don't impress anybody.

Well, you see I had this friend... And this friend just pretended to like me. You know, the way Dad used to?

They're not pagans, _______. Everyone's going to be wearing clothes.

Oh my God! They've shot him!

Did _______ steal that jeep?

I didn't even know you were gone. I thought you were in the bathroom.

Maybe some people like having other people run their lives, but some people don't.

Oh, stop dreaming a go back to sleep!

I don't remember leaving a wake-up scream.

_______ do me a favor will ya? Visit me a couple hundred times will ya?

Can't you see I can't see?

I wore this with just you in mind.

I heard the hair on your legs rustling.

#rp memes #rp starters #ooc #roleplay memes #M*A*S*H quotes #sentences #memes #MASH quotes

[ltgenjackoneill-blog]

[A drabble I wrote a while ago concerning a few headcanons I have regarding Jack’s family. Since they are never once mentioned in the show.]

Minneapolis, Minnesota – December 14, 1962

“Jackie, come on, let’s get going.” Marcus said in a hushed tone as he peeked above the trunk of the fallen tree him and his younger brother were currently crouched behind. They were avoiding their younger sisters who were actively looking for them.

“I’m tellin’ ya, Mark.” Jack said in a normal voice, not caring to use a whisper. “They’re not going to find us. We’re farther into the woods than they’re allowed to go.” Jack glanced over his shoulder, looking down the path that he and his brother took to get to their hiding spot. The tracks they left in the seven inches of snow made them as easy to find as if they shouted. “I think we’re farther than we’re allowed to go.” Jack said as bit of concern crept into his voice.

Mark looked at his brother, he was two years older than Jack. Having just turned twelve he knew his way around the woods that surrounded the property the O’Neill household was situated on. They had strict rules to not go farther than the red markers on the trees. Past the plastic ribbons that were sporadically tied around trunks marked the edge of their land was their neighbor’s property.

“No, we haven’t. We’re right were we’re supposta be.” Mark said waving off Jack’s concern as he raised up to a crouched position. “Come on, let’s go before they get us.” Mark didn’t give Jack a chance to react, he headed deeper into the woods. Biting his lip, Jack watched his brother move away from him. He was certain they had passed the red ribbons and were well into Mister Wirtz’s property. They headed east from the house when they left to play their game of hide and seek. If they had gone west they would be on Mister O’Malley’s property. He didn’t care if they played over there, in fact they had an open invitation if they didn’t rough house. Mister Wirtz, however, hated having kids on his land.

With a deep exhale that immediately turned to frozen vapor in front of him, Jack pushed off the fallen three and headed after Marcus. He wasn’t going to head back towards the house and risk being found by their sisters.

An hour passed, Ruth, Delilah and Naomi never made an appearance. The sun started setting and the temperature started dropping. “Mark.” Jack spoke up after they had been silent. His butt was numb from sitting on the ground for so long and he was shivering. “I think we should just go home. They aren’t going to find us.” Jack sounded like a broken record, he had suggested giving up many times in the last thirty minutes or so. His stomach growled, he was certain their mother would have dinner served by the time they got back. Mark stayed quiet, watching the trees. “Mark…”

“Okay, okay!” Mark said as he tossed his hands in the air. “Fine, we can head back.” He finally conceded to Jack’s whining. He stood from the ground and stretched out his legs, they had gone numb and were tingling from sitting for so long. Jack did the same and took off towards home. They had gone mostly in a straight line.

The sun completely set and they were still in the woods. Jack was in the lead and Mark sounded scared behind him. “Jackie… I think we’ve gotten turned around.” He said with a slight shake to his voice. Mark caught up with Jack, trailing directly behind him.

“No, it’s just a little farther.” They had gone deep into the woods and had a rather steep hill to climb back up. They slipped and slid all over the snow and ice, getting covered in mud before they crested the top. Jack huffed as they made it, his lungs burning with cold.

“Are you sure?” Mark asked. A moment later, he got his answer.

“Marcus! Jonathan!” The loud voice of their mother carried through the trees, her tone angry. Jack and Mark looked at each other before taking off at full speed to get back home.

 November 27, 1969

The entire O’Neill family gathered for Thanksgiving in Minnesota that year. Aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, close family friends, the family priest. Everyone was packed into Edward and Margret’s home for a huge feast. Edward stood at the head of the table, smiling as he held a glass of wine in his hand.

“I have so much to give thanks for this year.” He started, looking over everyone at the table and the others sitting at card tables in the other room. “Margret and I celebrated twenty-five years of marriage together this year.” The statement was met with whoops and some applause. “My youngest son, Caleb turned twelve and had some of the highest aptitude tests of any seventh grader going through this school system. My precious twins, Delilah and Naomi, they became teenagers this year. Thirteen years old. Ruth, entered high school and has excelled at all her academics. Jack, got his driver’s license with a perfect score and brought the high school hockey team home a state championship trophy.” Edward looked at his second child. “Just a shame you had that injury at the last second.”

The hockey match had gone into overtime. Jack was skating down center ice with the puck and a lot of momentum, determined to make the final score to secure the win for his team. He slapped the puck hard at the same time two of the kids from the other team collided with him. Jack scored, putting them at a win of three to two. But in the fall, Jack landed on his arm. The radius and ulna fractured and he was put in a cast for the next eight weeks.

Everyone at the table congratulated him but extended condolences for his injury. Edward smiled and then turned his attention to Marcus. “But my oldest, Marcus, has officially enlisted with the United States Naval Academy and will be attending starting in the fall.” Edward beamed at his son.

The O’Neill’s had served with the Navy since World War One. Edward and Margret were both enlisted during the second world war. It was there they met when he was a Petty Officer and she was Yeoman. Despite regulations of the military prohibiting any fraternization that showed favoritism, they fell in love anyway.  As soon as the war ended they both retired and immediately got married. Moving to Edward’s home state of Minnesota to start a family.

“I am honored that Marcus will continue this long tradition and look forward to seeing the rest of my children follow him, his parents and many other family members before him, and serve their country with honor.” Everyone raised their glass. “To family, to friends, to the lord and savior and to the United States Navy. Hooyah!” The rest of the family echoed the Naval word for building morale, except Jack. He glanced around before quickly drinking his water.

 June 8, 1971

“What do you mean you don’t want to join the Navy?” Edward asked after several moments of stunned silence.

“I mean I don’t wanna join the Navy!” Jack repeated himself, unsure where the confusion was coming from.

Edward looked to Margret, trying to form a sentence. She just offered him a shrug, unsure what to say either. “How could you not want to join the Navy? Every O’Neill has been in the Navy since,”

“Since your grandfather enlisted to serve in World War One.” Jack finished the sentence for his father. He had just graduated high school the previous day and was ready to get out of the house.

“Don’t use that tone with me.” Edward said as he pointed a finger in his son’s direction. “Tell me why you don’t want to enlist. You afraid or something? You wanna go play hockey? Well, if that was the case Jack you shouldn’t have tried playing on Thanksgiving two years ago! Breaking your other arm and spending three months in the hospital because of it ruined those chances!” His voice was raising.

Jack clenched his jaw. “I’m not scared and I never said I wasn’t going to enlist. I just don’t want to go into the Navy.” He said and gave his father a pointed look.

“Then what? The Coast Guard?”

“I wanna to join the Air Force.” Jack stated simply.

“The Air Force!?” Edward exclaimed, his hands shoot above him. “Lord help me,” He said as he crossed himself. “What’s so great about the Air Force.”

Jack had prepared his argument a dozen times over but couldn’t seem to remember any of it at that moment. “I want to be a pilot.”

“The Navy flies’ way more jets than the Air Force, son.” Edward said, ready to counter any point Jack offered.

Jack wasn’t sure how to word what he wanted to say. He never saw the allure of the Navy. The idea of being stuck on a ship in the ocean seemed boring and he’d never want to serve on a submarine. He wasn’t claustrophobic, but the idea of being under all the water made him uneasy. If he didn’t go with one of those two options, he’d likely be in a noncombative role. Something Jack was entirely uninterested in.

“I like the Air Force better.” He finally offered, his statement causing his father to give him an incredulous look.

“How? You’ve grown up with nothing but the Navy! Your mother and I met because of that branch. And you to join the Air Force. Put a blemish on the O’Neill record.”

Jack felt his jaw muscles tighten again. “I don’t see how me deciding to serve with the Air Force instead of the Navy is a blemish. We have a voluntary military, anyone who decides to enlist should be met with praise not criticism.”

“You are not anyone, Jonathan. You are my son, and I want you in the Navy.”

Jack pursed his lips at the use of his proper name. “Well, I’m sorry, Dad. I already talked to a recruiter and I’ve been accepted into the Air Force Academy. I start in the fall.” He wasn’t in the mood to argue anymore. He knew his father would be upset, but hadn’t expected him to be so rude about it. “And there’s nothing you can do to change my mind.”

Edward stared at his son for several long, scrutinizing seconds. “Don’t expect to see me at your graduation.” He said before turning to exit the kitchen, leaving Jack and Margret standing in awkward silence.

Jack looked up to his mother, she seemed sympathetic. “Thanks for helping.” Jack said sarcastically as he left the other direction. His younger siblings scattering, trying to not get caught for listening in on the argument.

 Colorado Springs, Colorado – April 20, 1974

“Now, if I could address the members of the graduating class. For each of you, and your parents, and your countrymen, this is a moment of quiet pride. After years of study and training, you have earned the right to be saluted.” President Nixon said as he finished the long introduction to his commencement speech for the 1974 graduating class.

Jack shifted in his seat, he graduated at the top of his class. Recognized with Academic Excellence achieved in Military Studies and Engineering. He was entering the Air Force as a Second Lieutenant, the lowest ranking commissioned officer. But it was a grand achievement and as the President said, it earned them a moment of pride. Jack had looked around when he first entered the stadium, the seats were packed and he had no idea where his family was sitting. There wasn’t time to find them. He’d have to wait until the commencement exercises were over.

The new Air Force officers sat through speeches, songs, more speeches, presentations and the graduation ceremony ended with the always audience wowing performance of the Thunderbirds. Jack felt a sense of vigor at the sight of the F-16C Fighting Falcons zip past in tight formation. Moments later the sonic boom reverberated loudly seconds later, immediately followed by cheering of the graduates and guests. Jack grinned, celebrating with his fellow officers at their incredible accomplishment over the last four years. It had been difficult, challenging, rewarding and a true test of Jack’s testament to serve his country. He knew that he’d be better for it, that this was the right path he needed to be on. He knew he had made the right choice.

As the Air Force Band started playing, everyone filled out of the stadium. Families searched for their new graduates, and the officers found their loved ones. Jack took a breath in as he scanned the lobby. The joyous feeling that everyone was emanating started slipping away. The smile he held faded slowly as he had yet to see anyone he recognized. One of his classmates came up behind him, slapping him hard on the back.

“We did it, O’Neill!” Second Lieutenant Jeffery Carmichael said as he pulled Jack in for an unwilling hug.

“We sure did.” Jack said trying to match his enthusiasm.

“Where did you finally end up getting stationed?”

“I’m staying domestic for now. Headed to Hurlburt.”

Carmichael raised his eyebrows and nodded. “Well, that should be interesting. Going to be doing some interesting stuff.” He said, Hurlburt being know for the headquarters of Special Operations Command.

“Jeff! Come on! We’re going to get some dinner!” One of Carmichael’s family members called after him. Jeff turned and waved them down, acknowledging he heard them.

“Gotta go. Good luck, O’Neill.”

“Yeah, you to Carmichael.” Jack said as he watched his classmate jog towards his family. A man who was probably his father slinging his arm around his son’s shoulders as they all walked out together. Jack sighed as he watched them.

He turned to go. “What, you think no one would be here?” Mark asked, Jack nearly running into his brother.

Jack looked up, almost stunned to see his older brother. He wasn’t sure what to say. Mark was dressed in his Naval dress blues, his hat tucked under his arm. Last Jack had known Mark had been in the middle of a deployment. “When did you get stateside?”

“Late last night, early this morning. Whichever you wanna call it.”

“And you came to Colorado? What about going home?” Jack questioned his brother.

“Turns out I had a layover in Denver. Just took an hour to get here.”

Jack could easily tell that his brother was lying. Since he left Minnesota to join the academy he barely had any contact with his family. Jack called on Christmas to talk to his mother. His younger siblings always said hello, but their opinions laid heavily with their father’s. Ruth was almost done with her four years in the Naval Academy and Jack just found out that Delilah and Naomi both were accepted. As far as he knew, Caleb had every intention of joining as well. The last he heard, Cal expressed interest in becoming a Navy SEAL.

“It’s good to see you.” Jack said truthfully.

Mark smiled. “Aw, come here, Jackie.” Mark said as he pulled his brother in for a hug. Jack returned the gesture, surprisingly overwhelmed at the embrace of a family member.

“And stop calling me Jackie.” Jack said as he pulled away from Mark, punching him in the shoulder for good measure.

“Never going to happen.”

Jack couldn’t help but smirk but it disappeared quickly. “Talked to Dad at all?” Jack asked finally.

Mark knew the question would come out eventually. He nodded. “Yeah, I called them when I got in.”

“They know you’re here?” Jack asked, his brother nodded again. “And?”

There was a few beats of silence between them. “Mom sends her congrats and she’s proud as always.” Mark said and then trailed a bit.

“And Dad?” Jack asked, trying to not be hopeful but he couldn’t help it.

Mark shrugged. “He was busy. Doing something outside with Caleb, I guess.” He could see the flash of disappointment on Jack’s face.

“Yeah, yeah.” Jack nodded quickly and forced a smile. “Cal’s always dragging him all over the place. I’m sure it was…”

“Jack,” Mark cut his brother off. “I’m sure he’s proud of you. You’re his son, he is.”

Despite Mark’s words sounding confident, Jack had a hard time believing them. If he was proud then why did he never answer the phone? If he was proud why didn’t he return any of his letters? If he was proud then where was he? The original argument Jack had with his father four years ago turned into bitter resentment as time when on.

“Sure. I’m sure he is.”

 August 28, 1991

Things never really got better between Jack and his father. They did eventually see each other when Jack came home for the holidays when he could. Edward never asked about the Air Force or how his military career was going. The subject became easier to avoid when Jack got married and then when he and his wife had their first and only child. It was easy to ask how Sara and Charlie were and the conversation was a valid one. The Air Force never needed mentioned. There was still a silent animosity between them, a tension that was palpable every time they were in the room together.

Jack wanted Edward to acknowledge that he made the right choice, joining the Air Force was a valiant choice. Margret did her best to get Edward to open up, but so many years of silence had gone by. It was impossible to admit that he was in the wrong when he was so faithful to the Navy.

And then Jack was sent to Kuwait, involved with Desert Storm. It was supposed to be a quick deployment but things we wrong. And that’s what things changed. Jack went missing for four months. Four excruciatingly long months with no idea if he was alive or dead. Sara was in a constant mess, Charlie wanted to know where his father was. Margret held a permanent worry in her chest. Navy, Air Force, Marines or Army the anxiety military families experienced was universal. The chances of a prisoner of war returning home alive was slim. And Jack had already been gone for a third of the year.

The O’Neill family then received the best news they could have ever asked for; Jack had been found, alive. It took a few weeks for him to get home from Iraq. He had been treated for many injuries and needed to reach a stable condition before making that long trek to the United States. As soon as the plane touched the tarmac his entire family was waiting, ready to welcome home their once thought lost son and brother.

Still requiring medical care, Jack was transferred to an Air Force infirmary for further treatment. Sara stayed at his side day and night as the rest of his family came to visit. Jack’s siblings taking turns watching Charlie overnight.

Jack was three weeks into his hospital stay, his physical condition greatly improved from when he was first rescued almost two months ago. He was sitting up in bed, resting comfortably as he watched out the window. There was a knock at the door, Jack’s attention swept across the room to watch as his father walked in, closing the door behind him.

Edward silently stood next to his son’s bed, looking him over. The bruises were fading, the wounds healing. Jack would be discharged in the next two weeks if he was lucky. And then, he witnessed something he’d never seen his entire life. His father began to cry. A rush of emotion that turned into a weeping mess as he took in deep, shuttering breaths. He shook his head, wiping his eyes.

“I prayed every day, every night. I prayed as soon as I woke up and kept praying until I fell asleep.” His father with tears still flowing down his cheeks. Edward grabbed a tissue from the bedside table and wiped his face and blew his nose. “I begged, pleaded with God to bring you home. I thought he was ignoring me, punishing me. Trying to teach me a lesson. ‘You push away your son, then you don’t get to have him anymore’.” Edward said, reciting what he imagined God was trying to teach him.

Jack blinked some tears of his own back. His family was Roman Catholic and Jack had spent many Sundays at mass. He stopped attending once he joined the Academy. As his relationship with his father faded so did his faith.

“I’m so sorry, Jack.” Edward said, his facial features crumbling as the thought of years gone by without speaking crashed down on him. “I regret pushing you away, not going to your graduation, promotion ceremonies. I was… wrong. I thought so much that you wronged me, our family with your choice.” He reached forward, carefully cupping his hand to Jack’s cheek. “But I wronged you. You’ve done nothing but prove that an O’Neill is a fierce force to be reckoned with and I couldn’t be prouder of you.”

Jack closed his eyes and felt himself relax. He’d looked up to his father for as long as he could remember. When he was younger he followed him around, wanting to do everything with him. Jack had valued his father’s opinion more than that of Father O’Malley’s or some of his closest friends. The rejection he experienced all those years ago never stopped hurting, never stopped haunting him. He was surprised at how hearing his father say he was proud of him was still incredibly important.

Jack had strived to be as great of a father to his own son as Edward had been to him. He learned a lot, to be more accepting of what Charlie wanted and not to be judgmental of his choices. Even if he was only three years old. But his father taught him yet another lesson in fatherhood. To remind Charlie every chance he got that he was proud, because it was the vindication of a father’s love that could be a driving force in their son’s life. Edward apologizing and confessing as such proved that reassurance could be an uplifting motivation no matter the age.

#★★ sample #★ headcanons #★★★ jack headcanons #// when I wrote this i forgot that Sam's brother's name is Mark #so they both have a brother named mark #also - all based on the fact that #i do not believe that Jack O'Neill #born in 1952 #to an Irish #roman catholic family #wouldn't have a lot of siblings #so #yanno here we are

[asheewrites]

Foxventures 9

I stared at him, waving his seven tails and curling them around his body to resemble a dignified, honest, powerful being.

He succeed in an admirable fashion. Until he opened it’s mouth to yawn… and flomped to the side: “Stop staring ad tell me what you want, you old piece of work”, he huffed.

That was… not friendly.

“You were gone for a month. I mean, you are a free spirit and everything, but a month. You just left without saying a word and… were gone!”, I said and frowned at him.

“I go all the time”, the fox shrugged. At least he had the decency to look me in the eyes, grudgingly.

“Yes, but not for a month and you don’t have anyone who needs you guidance around you, usually”

He rolled around: “Dude… you’re 5000 years old. Sure, I gave you a lil guidance. But you’re a smart dude, you can do it. If you don’t make a round raccoon at the time”

I looked away, accused. I said: “That was one time. Ad I have you know I trained it off before I let the poor animal go”

“It probably liked it”, the fox snickered.

And I stiffened: “Why do you have to say this in such a way?”

“Because you’re uptight and a nuisance. You read books all day and I just get bored. Besides, I have a few things to do as well. Some people maintain their spiritual form properly. You just… kinda suck at being a ghost”, said the fox. All disgruntled.

“That… is not a reason why you formulate strange sentences”, I replied.

“I know. I knooow it isn’t, but you asked the other thing, too. And you’re doing semantics agaaain”, he said. And rolled around a little more.

“Well, it was wrong”, and that was the truth.

“You are a nice person. But you seriously couldn’t talk to people for too long”

“That’s the twenty third time you told me that”, I huffed.

“… I needed a break from that, too. But alright. You got a raccoon. How did you get here, though? Crow? Falcon? …tit?”, he snickered again, foxly. It was a weird, squeezy sound.

“Crow. And I would like you to not make light of my situation”

“Fivethousand years. And I leave you alone for a month and you come after me. I mean… dude”

“… you are trying to make me react rashly”

“I sure as hell wasn’t hiding that. And hey, look at you, eating cookies, Mr crumb-monster. That IS acting rashly, by the way. You do remember your ball-form…?”, he… fox-laughed.

And I flomped my raccoon-body on the floor, saying: “There. Fine. I’m informal. You’re still here. It annoys… ‘the crap’ out of me and I still don’t know what ‘great things’ you wanted to teach me… before you got annoyed with me actually wanting to learn”, my tail was tapping the floor.

“Meh, not feeling it now, either. There will be dinner. And I can talk to the lucky child. And to her mother. It’s great!”, he smiled.

I had no damn clue what he was talking about. Except for the dinner part, of course. Maybe it had been a mistake to come here: “… their cookies are good”

“Ugh”, the foxes’ ears lay float, “Not-meat”

“You could be friendlier”, I frowned.

“Sure. I could also not. I’ll be friendly enough. You just… don’t talk to me when there is dinner. Best don’t show up, non-pet animals aren’t allowed at a dinner table”, he rolled back on his feet.

“We’ll see about that”, I did see chances.

“Mhhhnnnnn…”, how the foxes’ face managed to be more expressive than the human counterpart was anyone’s guess…

“MISTER RUTHVEN?! YOU COMING FOR DINNER?”, the little girl seemed to call.

There it was! We would see now!

#637 words #foxventures #In which we see a selfish Mazin