#you could have had it all | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

fruit-salad-ship · 1 year

Text

Ranger days pt.2 the continuation:

After that students Friday night party where things got a little heated in a closet thanks to a game of seven minutes in heaven, or hell as the girls would refer to it. Poor little peach went back to her room and panicked. Not only was her life chaotic enough, now this? She held Val tightly as Bob stuck his head in her face, the heat on her cheeks unrelenting from embarrassment…or enjoyment? Both. It was both.

‘No no no no no, not this, not now-‘ quietly thought as the feeling did not leave, it wasn’t a bad one, she’d hoped it would be, would have done anything to find the whole things repulsive. Any contact with people should be, she had to keep everyone at arms length, they were good, and she was bad. They got to live their lives, and she did not. There was other paths she had to go down that these kids didn’t get to worry about.

She fell back on her bed and huffed, irritated.

‘No one can know. No one ever needs to know.’ And then it hit. Her memories were seen, none sacred, none her own, 16 years in her mothers house and she never missed a step, that wretched Beyheem of hers always looking, trawling, digging for things that could be weaponised, used to twist the knife and get peach to do what she did not want. Fear, a deep seated, horrifying fear settled in, squeezed at her chest, made it hard to breathe. Val felt it, felt her start to panic, that thudding in her chest louder than anything, a ringing in the ear that made every other sound distant and faded. She saw her fire types get in her face, both trying to get her attention, worried, Bob getting Val to back up to give her space, realising what was happening. Panic attack, one of hundreds by this point, moments when no one’s eyes were on her, where things got overwhelming. They always did.

If her mother went looking, if she found that now etched memory, what would happen? Would things get worse? Of course it would, she was already on thin ice not getting Val to evolve, let alone this. There’s no way she’d be able to hide it. A warm smooth head sat itself on her knee and waited, an instinct to put her hand on it grounding as Bob waited, just tried to be a comfort.  “I’m ok, sorry guys, let go of the reins.” It couldn’t happen again, her Pokemon looked so worried, she didn’t want to show them this, had to be tough so they felt safe.

If she didn’t admit it, didn’t say it out loud, or focus on it, maybe the memory would fade, go away and leave her alone. She won’t get in trouble for it…a thought that did not feel convincing.

The weeks passed, her quiet demeanour was there, she stopped arguing, stopped bickering, didn’t take the bait placed by Plum. The classes were all she focused on, no socialising, no talking to people, nothing. Peach completely shut down and put all her energy into training, even when teamed up with her rival, there was nothing said past the needed information to complete tasks. As soon as she didn’t have to be around others, she’d slink away and go off into the grounds to keep training.

Plum had noticed the shift in behaviour, everyone had, no more shouting. Even the teachers spotted the change and would make passing comments to the others to ask if something had happened. It had, and plum felt…a bit bad in all honesty. She was just- no. Excuses didn’t feel right, she’d made a mistake, clearly she’d misread peach totally, their rivalry wasn’t anything else but that and now it wasn’t even there anymore. She missed it. She missed her, this new shrunk away version of a once rage filled exceptional class mate felt like her fault. Maybe she could…talk to her? Watching peach trudge out into the grounds after class despite light rain, her two Pokemon with her always, seemed like they were the only ones she liked to be around these days.

There was no mistaking the sound of training, fire attacks, the heat so great the rain sizzled even getting close to the Pokemon. Plum snuck, unsure why, it’s not like she intended to stay hidden, she wanted to apologise. For once, maybe she’d gone too far. She instinctually flinched when peach spotted her, a second or two where her angry features seemed to falter, soften just for a brief moment, before she walked to her bag, grabbed it and started to pace off.

“wait! Please-“ a pause. Bob being the one to see peach hesitate, plodding over to plum with his gentle open nature, happy to see her. Peach stood, back to the girl, giving her a brief moment, even if she knew she shouldn’t.

“what?”

“I’m sorry. I got the wrong vibe from you, things got…out of hand.” This was quickly developing into another memory that’d be used against her, peach quickly started to keep moving, get away. “I just want to go back to how things were, it’s better to argue with you all the time than have you totally ignore me!“ the pair seemed to stop, Bob looked back to his trainer, Val wondering why she’d stopped leaving, blue eyes set on the floor, that seething low rage building. It was always there, she felt endlessly angry out of desperation. It would take peach years to work this out, to unravel why she was so mad, but her life was not her own, the things she wanted to do and what was available as an option we’re so few, she just…felt robbed. Robbed of choice, of freedom, of anything that mattered to her. It was family, and nothing else, no room for friends, not unless they were useful. No room for love, unless it could gain information or item, hell even political favour. No space for anything good, or any freedom to just breathe and be her. She was so mad, because she didn’t know who she even was. And this girl, this purple haired brat, just strode into her life and threw a spanner in the works. Peach wanted to live, wanted to turn around and maybe hear her out, tell her that in fact no, she’d seen something in her that not even peach saw before, something good, and honest and real. Not a fake name, not a fake family and life, no, a true fact, that actually she quite liked her classmate, in all her stubborn glory. No one challenged her like plum did, or made her work harder not because she had to but because she wanted to. Fun was fleeting in her childhood, but having to work with her? It felt…nice, like it could be something, maybe friendship, a real one.

This all piled onto her anger, knowing that this was going to bite her in the ass. Mom would find out, and she’d get memories removed again, or told off in a way that she’d not forget any time soon. What if it got taken out on her Pokemon? Val didn’t deserve more problems, Bob was too good to be subject to hostility. No. She had to throw this away and hope it didn’t resurface or get found out. Peach glanced over her shoulder and sneered, acted as hostile as possible.  “just stay away from me.” The last five words said. She left, Bob and Val on her heels, plum just watching her go.

It’s that night that peach found Booker, the scales tipped seeing her future then and there. Not only had she been so unkind and cold to someone who didn’t deserve it, and had no idea what was going on. Someone who honestly peach wanted to turn and go back to with every step she took. The rage and the tears and the frustration of not living, not experiencing anything, not getting to make decisions of her own over anything.

And then Booker. This small thing who cried and cried and cried, just like she’d been doing. He had everything taken away from him, injured and left for dead. By her families standards she should have left him there too, he was less than adequate. But just once, she had to do something good, just try to claw at any shred of humanity that her own flesh and blood tried so desperately to crush out of her. Make one decision because it was the right thing to do, even if she’d get in trouble for it. Help him.

She left because of him, but seeing as she was already going down for her choices, she made one final attempt to apologise for some things.

Plum awoke to the sound of chaos in the hallways, chatter of a student missing, taking a moment to throw a proper outfit on. That’s when she saw it, the folded lined piece of paper on her floor, clearly slid under the door awaiting discovery. Missy was the one to start to chew on it, she had to pry it from her jaws, a little wet but legible.

‘Sorry I messed up, maybe in another life we could have been friends.’ A familiar handwriting, always surprisingly neat for how messy peach could be. Exiting her room something moved on the outside handle of her door, placed there by someone. The gaze fell on a tatty but durable rope bangle hanging there, one of her rivals, she knew it well, had seen her wear it almost every day of knowing her.

It didn’t take any more time for plum to realise who the missing student was.

————————————————

Fast forward nearly 14 years and plums still got the tatty rope bangle, it broke a long time ago from being worn, but it’s a bookmark now. She lost the note, a fact that makes her sad, but she feels that sorrow vanish looking over and there are her idiots, greys laughing, peach right there, back in her life despite the odds. She understood now why the woman left, her family, her past, it all made sense, and plum struggled to hold onto any sense of anger or sadness.

It worked out just fine. What’s for you won’t miss you.

#I cri over those two so hard #my sweet baby gays #you could have had it all #fruit salad #long post

39 notes · View notes

darkeneddawning · 10 months

Text

Escaped clone au

You know all those fics where Danny and Damian are twins but everyone first assumes Danny must be a clone? How about an au where Danny is Damian's clone who escaped the League after he was assumed dead. Damian could even have been the one to have "killed" him, back when Danny was a newly created, fully brainwashed clone minion and trying to kill Damian himself.

Danny gets adopted by the Fentons and canon goes on as normal, until Dan. Witnessing what would happen to the world should he turn evil really drove home to Danny how dangerous he is.

Even if he was confident he could be trusted with his absurd amount of power (which he isn't), what if the League of Assassins found out about him? Does he still have programming triggers from his evil assassin clone conditioning?

So, Danny does the responsible thing: he goes to Batman to turn himself in.

Cue Danny showing up on Bruce's doorstep with ghost hunting equipment, intel on the afterlife, and an almost unbelievable backstory. Somehow he still managed to be more well-adjusted than Damian.