#you wanna tell me the world would be WORSE with less pants and more Bob Ross? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ediths · 3 years

Text

pearls

Pairing: Harry Styles x Reader

Genre: pure smut

Word Count: 3.7k

Summary: There’s something about Harry’s pearls that just get you going.

Warning(s): a fascination for harry’s pearls, oral (f receiving), slight degradation, he smacks her thigh one (1) time, unprotected sex (don’t be a fool, wrap your tool!!! (or make sure he wraps his!!!!), choking, breeding kink, aftercare

A/N: this is literally just smut!!!!!! reader’s discretion is advised!!!! read at your own risk!!!! anyway, i went completely in for this one please don’t come at me for my love of the pearls, okay????? it’s almost worse than the love for the rings!!! actually, who am i kidding?? it’s definitely worse than the love for the rings!!!!! the necklace is just so hot and it rests on his pretty little clavicle so fucking nicely like oh my god someone save me i cannot breathe!!!!! anyway!!!!! without further ado, here’s just a whole lot of filth!!!

also thank u to @glowunderthemoon for the visual and the ideas!!! also thank u to @strawberryystyles, @sweetheartharry, @soullikestyles, @lookupandseethestars, and @mindofharry for screaming about this with me <3 thank you guys for the ideas and the hype and for just being the way you are i love u guys or whatever

Masterlist | Request | Come Talk!! | Patreon

Reblog the fics that you like please & thank u!

Y/N’s been needy for Harry since he walked through the door. He came into their house in black designer dress pants and an extremely expensive white button up shirt that all but made her drool. She was sitting on the couch as she watched him kick off his shiny black boots and shrug off the jacket that matched his pants.

All of these things made her want him, but what really set her off was the delicate string of pearls that were perched so perfectly atop his clavicle. He’s been wearing them for weeks and there’s something about them that make her arousal pool in her underwear faster than anything else.

She hasn’t told him this, of course. She doesn’t really think that he’d understand her fascination with a piece of jewelry, so she just went about her search for satisfaction like she normally would.

Harry, however, had different plans. Sure, she hadn’t told him about the infatuation that she had grown to have with his pearls, but he had easily found out. He could tell by the way that her eyes got a little bigger and she gulped every time that he would run his finger across the beads and pull just a bit when he was stressed. He noticed the way that her thighs would clench when he took the necklace into his mouth and how, just once, she let out a gasp when he let it fall from his mouth and there was a thin string of spit connecting his lips to the beads. That’s really when he knew, because she hid her face and tried to push it off even though he could see the way that she was rubbing her thighs together.

So, when Y/N strolls into their room and comes up to Harry, giving him her signature pouty look, with her bottom lip jutting out slightly and her eyes wide, almost innocent, he gives in easier than she thought he would, but that’s simply because he wants to test out what exactly his pearls do to her.

He grabs the back of her head firmly and pulls her closer to him the second that she whispers to him, telling him that she wants him. He presses his lips to hers hungrily as soon as she’s close enough for him to do so. She immediately kisses him back with just as much fervor, loving the way that his mouth molds with hers just like they were made to be kissing each other. He pushes her back onto the bed as he swipes his tongue over her bottom lip, and she quickly opens up for him, letting him dip his tongue into her mouth to dance with her own.

As her back hits the bed, he maneuvers one of his thighs to slot between hers and he applies the slightest bit of pressure when he feels the warmth of her heat seep through the layers of fabric that are keeping them from each other.

Harry pulls away from her mouth to catch his breath and smiles at the way she looks so fucked out already. “Look at you, puppy,” he teases. “Already look so gone and I haven’t even touched you yet.”

She whines and leans up slightly in an attempt to kiss him again, but he wants something different. He leans down and begins peppering kisses along her jaw before traveling down and leaving open mouthed kisses to her neck. He stops briefly on her sweet spot, sucking and nipping at the skin until he knows that there will be a bruise for her to tend to in the morning.

She tries to control her breathing as she feels his lips dance across her skin, and she almost succeeds until the cool surface of his pearls fall onto her skin. A shiver runs down her spine as the beads trail everywhere that he goes.

He pauses his ministrations, teasing his fingers under the hem of her shirt as he looks up at her. When she nods her permission, he slips it over her head and haphazardly tosses it somewhere in the room. He looks down at her, tracing the skin that he just uncovered and licking his lips like he’s seeing the best thing in the world. And to him, he is.

He then resumes his descent down her body, making sure to lick at every inch of skin that he can reach. He stops his trail as he reaches her breasts, which are bare due to the fact that she had foregone a bra today, which Harry personally thinks is one of the best ideas she’s ever had, taking one into his hand to squeeze just as harshly as he knows that gets her going, but doesn’t hurt her. He immediately takes the nipple of one into his mouth and licks circles around the peak as he pinches and rolls the other between his fingers. He’s always been one to pay equal amounts of attention to both, so he repeats his actions on the opposite breast before kissing down her belly.

She arches her back slightly when he nips at the skin of her hip and the pearls fall directly against the part of her that needs him the most.

Looking up at her, he murmurs, “Can I take these off, doll?” He messes with the band of her sweatpants and panties, and he begins sliding them down her legs the moment that she lets out a breathy “please.”

Once they’re off, he throws them just as he did with her shirt and shimmies down until he’s able to press teasing kisses to her calves. He knows that he’s being slightly mean by not giving into what she wants, but he wants to let the chilly pearls slide across her heated skin to get her even more worked up before he gives into what he knows she’s aching for. So he leaves sloppy open mouthed kisses from her calf up to the soft skin of her thigh and then repeats on the opposite leg. By the time he’s at the top of her second leg, she’s squirming.

“Daddy, please, wanna feel you.” Y/N begs, lifting her head from the mattress to meet his gaze. “Please.”

And really, how can he say no to his girl begging him to touch her? There’s no way that he possibly can, so he spreads her legs further, wrapping his arms around her thighs to keep them open for him.

“Yeah, you wanna feel me, puppy? Wanna feel Daddy’s tongue against your pretty little pussy?” he teases as he leans down to lick a long stripe through her folds. She immediately arches her back, whining at the feeling of his tongue against her cunt. He smirks against your heat as you reach down and thread your hands in his hair, tugging when he circles his tongue around her clit before taking it in his mouth and sucking.

Breathy moans of his name fall from her mouth like a prayer and he traces patterns against her sensitive bundle of nerves. He pulls away from her and her hips immediately raise to meet his mouth once again.

He brings his palm down on her thigh quickly, smacking the skin just hard enough to get her to plant her hips back to the soft surface of the mattress. “You know better, puppy. You take what I give you, nothing more,” he chides, caressing the skin that was tingling lightly from his slap. “Are you already feeling that good? Does my tongue make you feel so good that it’s the only thing you can think about?” He shakes his head. “Such a dumb puppy, yeah?” He chuckles when she whines. “Don’t worry, baby, it’s okay, because you’re my dumb puppy, right?”

She immediately nods. “Yes, Daddy, I’m your dumb puppy.” She knows that he wants to hear her say it exactly as he did, so she does. It’s a bit embarrassing, but when a bright smile bleeds across his face and he buries his face back in her cunt, licking into her until her thighs are shaking around his head. She can feel the heat in her lower stomach start to spread throughout her body. She’s right there and just before she opens her mouth to ask him if she can cum, he pulls away. She holds back her whine, knowing that it’ll just get her in trouble, but she’s not sure how well she fends off the pout from cementing itself to her face.

If she’s bad at hiding it, though, he doesn’t say anything. He just stands from the bed and begins unbuttoning his shirt so he can have even less fabric between the two of them. While he’s busying himself with that, she slinks off the bed to sit on her knees in front of him. He looks down at her, eyes slightly wide as he takes her in. The sight of her eager below him makes him throb in his pants, and there’s almost nothing more that he wants than to use her pretty little throat to get off, but he’d much rather see her suck on something else. Preferably while he fucks into her so that he can see her eyes roll into the back of her head as she tries to keep her mouth closed.

So, when she reaches forward for the zipper of his pants, he grabs her wrists to stop her. “Not this time, puppy.” She pouts at his words and he moves one hand to caress her cheek. “I know how much you love having things in your mouth. Greedy little puppy always has to have something to suck on.” He chuckles darkly when she whines low in her throat. “I’ve seen you starin’ at my pearls lately, baby, why don’t you put those in your mouth instead?”

Her nod is subconscious, her head bobbing before the words have even fully registered in her brain. The only thing she really heard was ‘pearls’ and her mouth immediately watered.

She watches as he pops the button on his pants before dragging his zipper down. He lets his hands fall to his sides once he’s done. “Finish undressing me, puppy. You wouldn’t want to make me do all the work, would you?” he drawls, smirking down at her.

She reaches up and dips her fingers below the band of his pants and boxers before tugging them down his thighs. His cock springs free of the restraints and smacks against his stomach. The head is leaking precum, almost like it’s weeping to be touched. She yearns to smear her lips across the drippy tip but she knows he’ll be mad if she does, especially since he told her that he didn’t want her mouth around his dick this time. So instead, she leans forward to sponge kisses along his thighs as she pushes the clothing down to his ankles. After a few moments, she backs away to let him kick the pesky fabric off.

Once he’s completely bare, she lets her gaze meet his again. She takes in the way that he looks so powerful standing above her, like he controls everything in the room. And really, at this point in time, he does.

“Stand up,” he commands. She listens without a second thought, pushing herself to her feet to stand in front of him. He takes a good look at her before placing his hand on the back of her neck and pulling her forward so that he can smear their lips together. He fits her bottom lip between his two as he walks them backwards to the bed. Getting lost in the taste of her on his tongue, he lets them both fall onto the bed again. When she moans into his mouth, he pulls away to allow them to catch their breath.

He backs away from her, coming to rest on his knees in front of where she’s sprawled out on the bed. She looks up at him with lust filled, wanting eyes as he wraps his hand around the base of his cock and gives himself a few languid strokes. His thumb swipes across his tip to gather his precum and slick it down his shaft. Her eyes train on his tip, the skin flushed a bright red. There’s already more precum leaking from the slit as he continues stroking himself. After a few moments, he bucks into his hand and she whines, spreading her legs for him.

“You want me inside, baby? Wanna feel daddy in your tummy?” he teases, continuing to stroke his cock as his eyes roam over her body. She nods and he chuckles, shaking his head. “Beg for it, then. Show me just how greedy my pretty little puppy can be.”

She opens her mouth before closing it again, she can’t just beg him for that! “If you don’t want to, I can always get myself off,” he warns and her mouth immediately opens again.

“No, no, please,” she whines. “Don’t want you to get yourself off.” She pouts.

“Then do as I said,” he groans, rolling his head back as hips buck into his hands once again, “and beg.”

“Fuck me, please, wanna feel you,” she begs. “Feel so empty without you, wanna feel full. Daddy, please.”

Harry gives into her begs, coming back over to her. He rests his hands on either side of her head, framing her in. He leans down, connecting their lips. It’s messy, all gnashing teeth and fighting tongues, but he wouldn’t have it any other way. She takes his bottom lip between her teeth and tugs slightly, causing him to groan into her mouth. He lowers himself onto his forearms so that he can take one hand down to his cock. Wrapping his hand around the base, he drags the tip through Y/N’s folds, causing her to let out a shuddering breath.

The head bumps against her clit, making her arch her back slightly to increase her pleasure. One stern look from him has her pressing back down into the mattress, though. He smirks down at her as she obeys him with nothing more to go off of but a glare.

He leans down slightly, pressing a gentle kiss to her nose. “Tell me if you’re uncomfortable at any time, yeah? Just because I’m more on the harsh side tonight doesn’t mean I care about your comfort any less,” he reassures, looking deep into her eyes.

“I will, promise,” she murmurs, reaching up to grab onto his pearls loosely before tugging, causing him to fall close enough to her face so that she can ghost her lips against his. “Now, fuck me, daddy. Wanna feel you for days.”

He groans, pushing his cock into her dripping pussy as he breathes out puffs of air against her mouth. Once he’s buried to the hilt, he chuckles at her, smirking darkly. “You like my pearls so much that you just can’t keep your greedy little hands off of them, yeah?” he taunts before pulling out until only the tip of his cock is still inside of her. He thrusts back in harshly, making her cry out in pleasure.

He sets a steady pace as he moves his face down to her throat, leaving sloppy kisses along her pulse. When he meets her sweet spot, causing her to let out a whimpery moan. He bites down on the skin there, letting his tongue meet the skin afterwards to soothe the skin. His hips stutter for just a moment when she squeezes around him. “Fuck, puppy you’re so tight for me, so fucking tight,” he pants into her neck. “Every single time we do this—fuck—you take me in so fucking snug, so right. God it’s like you were fucking made for me.”

She brings her hands to the side of his neck in an attempt to bring his mouth to hers. She grasps on to the string of pearls that are bouncing against his collar bone with every sharp thrust. He gives in to her whines and places a quick peck to satiate her need before leaning up and grasping her hips, positioning his own in a way that makes him hit even deeper. She cries out as his cock hits that spot inside of her that makes her a whimpery, whiny mess.

He smirks when her head falls back in bliss and her mouth forms an ‘o’. Gripping onto her hips so hard that she’s sure she’ll have grape sized bruises tomorrow. Honestly though, as she wraps her legs around his waist, pulling him closer to her, she can’t bring herself to care about the marks.

He reaches down to rub circles on her clit, sending jolts of electricity shooting up her spine. She cries out, getting completely lost in the feeling of him fucking into her while toying with her bundle of nerves.

After a few moments, he moves his free hand to her throat, wrapping his hand around her neck as she meets his eyes. He tightly, enough to restrict her breathing. His fingers squeeze against the sides of her neck, making the blood rush through her. The feeling is amazing, each thrust pairing with his grip on her throat pushing her closer and closer to the edge.

“D-daddy,” she rasps, bringing her hands up to wrap around his wrist. “Can—can I cum?” she begs, voice raspy due to his hand being pressed directly against her windpipe.

“You wanna cum for me puppy?” She nods, desperately whining. “Then do it, soak my cock for me, baby. Show me just how good my cock feels inside your pussy.”

She lets go, the bubble in her lower stomach popping as the euphoric feeling of her orgasm washes through her body. Every fiber of her being feels like it’s on fire as she squeezes around his cock, reaching up to bring his face closer to hers. He groans into her mouth, letting his mouth sloppily mold with hers as she whines, pulsing around his dick as she rides out her orgasm.

He continues rubbing against her clit as he ruts into her, helping her milk her high for everything it’s worth. Once it becomes too much, she pushes his hand away from her clit and peers up at him with a pout on her face.

“Will you cum inside me, daddy?” she begs, grabbing his shoulders and crossing her ankles behind his back to keep him close. “Please? Wanna feel full.”

“Yeah?” he breathes as she buries her hands in his sweaty curls. “Want daddy to fill you up? Fuck, you wanna feel me here?” he asks as he places his hand on her lower stomach and presses down lightly.

She nods, whining a repeated string of “yes” as he thrusts into her one, two, three more times before burying himself as far as he can and dropping his head to her neck, groaning as he releases inside of her, thick ropes of his cum painting her walls white. She whimpers at the feeling, loving the way that she feels so full of him.

He sponges kisses to her pulse as they catch their breaths. “I love you so fucking much,” he breathes into her neck.

“I love you, too,” she reciprocates.

He basks in the feeling of her snug around him for just a second longer before he gently pulls out. Both of them hiss at the loss of contact, but Harry’s quickly turns to a groan as he watches his cum drip from her.

“You’re so messy, puppy,” he teases before leaving the room to retrieve a washcloth from the bathroom. While he’s gone, she lets herself relax on the bed as the exhaustion washes over her.

“Don’t fall asleep on me yet, baby,” he coos as he saunters back in with a warm rag. “Gotta clean you up before we go take a bath.”

He gently runs the cloth over her thighs before gently wiping through her folds. She hisses when he runs over her sensitive clit, and he automatically apologizes before pressing a light kiss to her thigh.

Standing back up, he takes his hand in hers and tugs her from the bed.

“Come on, baby, I know I fucked you so good that your legs are sore, but I need you to walk to the bathroom with me,” he taunts as she rolls her eyes. “On a serious note, though,” he begins as they’re walking towards the bathroom, “I’m glad you like my pearls so much.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, can’t wait to have you suck on them while I fuck you again,” he states nonchalantly as he leans over to turn on the water. When he looks over his shoulder and smirks, her breath hitches as she thinks about all the ways he’s going to absolutely ravage her later.

#okay please tell me what you think :D #pearls #harry styles #harry styles x reader #harry styles fluff #harry styles angst #harry styles smut #harry styles writing #smut

754 notes · View notes

artificialqueens · 3 years

Text

Galactica, Chapter 65 (Group Fic) - TheDane/Veronica

A/N: Chapter 65 seems like a good time to tell you that there’s nothing we love more than talking to you guys about this story! We are both on tumblr (@theartificialdane and @veronicasanders) and we’d love to hear from you!! We also have other Galactica content there under the “galactica” and “galactica wardrobe” tags. XOXO!! Click here if you’re looking for previous chapters (or here if you’d rather read on AO3). 💫

Last Chapter: Bianca threw a wrench in the annual holiday party when she brought Courtney as her date, and Katya tried to (not) deal with her surprise pregnancy.

This Chapter: Miss Fame and the team work on the final lineup for the spring runway, and Katya figures some things out.

***

It was Violet’s luck that she was a light sleeper, the first note of her alarm barely ringing before she had grabbed her phone from under her pillow and turned it off.

There really wasn't a need for Violet to wake up at 6, for her to start her day so early since she couldn’t go to the gym because of her ankle, but habits were hard to break, and she liked how quiet the world was in the morning, how it felt like she was the only one awake.

She wasn’t hungover, had barely had a drink because of her crutches, but she had a feeling all of her coworkers would be wearing sunglasses and asking each other to shut up, the Friday after the Christmas party always an experience.

Sutan’s bedroom was dark, his curtains swallowing the ever present lights of Harlem, the man asleep next to her, his head resting on his pillow.

It took everything in Violet not to reach out and run her fingers through his hair.

She had been so annoyed with him last night, so uncomfortable in the beautiful red dress she had bought with his money, the simmering anger not leaving her until she had felt Sutan’s clever fingers undo the zipper on her back, skin against skin finally freeing her from the smoldering fire.

“Stop staring at me.” Violet froze, Sutan’s voice deep with sleep.

“I’m not.”

“Oh?” Sutan cracked an eye open, a smile playing on his lips as he reached out, grabbing her hip on top of her blanket. “Could have fooled me.”

“Well,” Violet smiled back, allowing him to pull her in, “Maybe I was. A little bit.”

***

As her alarm sounded, Courtney groaned, burying her head into Bianca’s neck. Bianca laughed, reaching over to hit snooze, giving them a few more precious minutes in bed before Courtney had to get up.

Bianca had never been much of a morning person, but she’d discovered that, in many ways, this was her favorite part of the day. When the world was dark and still, and they were curled together under the covers, naked and warm. She trailed her fingers up and down Courtney’s back, pressed a kiss to her temple.

“You okay, sunshine?” Bianca asked.

“Mmmhmm...I just don’t want to go to work.”

Bianca smiled, one hand settling into the curve of Courtney’s waist, enjoying the way they fit so perfectly together.

“Then don’t,” she stated, warming up to the idea of taking a day off, just the two of them. “Call in sick.”

“I wish,” Courtney scoffed, a deep sigh leaving her. “But I can’t, so…”

“Why not?”

“The day after a party? Everyone will think I have some crazy hangover.”

“Yeah, so?” Bianca laughed.

“Plus, I’m pretty sure Miss Fame is less than pleased with me right now. I don’t want to give her any reason to be annoyed. And there’s a big meeting to decide on the spring runway, and I have to-”

“Alright, alright...forget I suggested it,” Bianca said, holding up her hands in surrender. “I just really liked the idea of spending all day in bed with you.”

Courtney raised herself up on her elbow, gazing down at Bianca with a dreamy smile on her face.

“Maybe, um...can we do that tomorrow?”

“You’re on, angel,” Bianca said, reaching up to run her fingers through her hair.

“And...we still have about seven minutes before the alarm goes off again.” Courtney brushed her lips against Bianca’s neck, murmuring, “You wanna go back to sleep, or…?”

“Hmmm...” Bianca cocked her head, pretending to think. “I may have some other ideas…”

Courtney let out a delighted squeal as Bianca flipped her onto her back with a wicked grin.

***

Maxwell groaned as a loud clatter sounded through the design floor.

“Sorry!” Kiara whisper-shouted, quickly picking up the pair of scissors she had dropped. Trixie had gone to the department head meeting about 20 minutes ago, which meant that everyone had given up the pretense that they were working. Alexis had gone straight for the couch to take a nap as soon as the door had closed behind him, April still nursing a terrible-looking green smoothie at her desk. “Sorry everyone!”

“Don’t even think about it girl!” Bob smiled, his phone pressed between his shoulder and his ear, and Maxwell groaned again, sliding down so he could rest his head on his arms, Bob chatting away.

He loved his boyfriend, he really did, but there were few things more annoying than when Bob had managed to get into any tabloid, the perceived fame of it always going directly to his head. And of course, it was made even worse by his friends and family back home in Georgia playing right into it, acting as if it meant anything at all.

“Listen, I didn’t ask to be born fabulous, but it’s my cross to bear, and I’m-” Bob laughed, adding, “Exactly!”

“He’s really getting into it, huh?” Maxwell looked up to see Violet standing next to his desk, looking over at Bob, Jovan at her side holding three cups of coffee.

“Here,” Jovan smiled, giving one of them to Maxwell, the scent filling his nose.

“Oh god I love you,” Maxwell grinned, taking the liquid magic. It was probably not healthy to be on his third cup already, but he didn’t care.

“Love you too boo,” Jovan grinned, taking a seat on the edge of his desk, Violet doing the same, balancing her crutch so she could take her own cup. They didn’t talk, and Maxwell loved that, Violet fitting so nicely into their little boys club that he barely even thought about the fact that she was a girl and straight most days.

***

“Pearl! Pay attention!”

Pearl snapped out of it, the wheels of her chair squeaking as she moved, her eyes wide open at the commanding tone in Fame’s voice.

“Sorry!” Pearl sat up straight, Bendela hiding a snicker behind a sketchbook, her brown eyes clearly filled with delight over Pearl getting reprimanded.

“God,” Fame rolled her eyes, her hand on her hip, her outfit of the day a white cropped cashmere sweater and white linen high waisted pants, her blonde hair in a high delicate updo, a golden belt snug around her waist. “Did anyone come to work today?”

If they had been alone, Pearl would have opened her mouth to point out that she was the one who always arranged for the Christmas party to be on a Thursday, but they weren’t, so Pearl kept her mouth shut.

“Fame,” Raja’s voice was warm, and it apparently functioned just as intended, her tone a soothing balm on whatever had Fame into such a tizzy. “We’re almost done.”

If Pearl had to make an educated guess, she’d say it was probably the whole Courtney and Bianca thing, though it could be anything from her breakfast grapefruit not being ripe to morning traffic to a photographer catching a bad angle of her last night.

“You’re right,” Fame sat back down, sliding her chair over to Trixie. “So, fourth look. What do you have?”

“I was thinking about these pants?” Trixie held out a sketch, and Pearl folded her hands over her stomach, watching her best friend do his job exceptionally well.

Fame tapped her fingers against the table, french tips hitting the wood and Pearl made a mental note to see if she could sneak in a visit to Fame’s office, providing their boss with an orgasm before lunch a great Christmas gift to everyone in the company.

***

V-List Alert: BDR’s Latest Blonde Bombshell

[Pictured: A large photo of Bianca and Courtney kissing on the red carpet, along with a few smaller shots of them looking giggly and affectionate. And lastly, a grainy, low-res photo of them on the street after the event, kissing while a driver is opening the car door.]

Well, well, well…

Okay, so to begin with, let’s all admit that BDR showing up on a red carpet with some sweet young thing is nothing new. In fact, it would be strange if she didn’t. But the shameless PDA last night at Galactica’s annual Christmas party—both on and off the carpet—had us wondering...who the hell is the new paramour?

We did a bit of digging and strap in kids, cause it gets juicy…

Turns out that this little darling is named Courtney Jenek. Sound familiar? No? Yeah it shouldn’t. But she happens to have two very interesting connections to BDR: 1, apparently she’s friends with B’s baby sister, princess of the underground punk scene Adore Delano. And 2, even more hilariously, Lil Courtney here is the Executive Assistant to none other than Miss Fame of Galactica.

Wonder what the illustrious and brand-conscious Miss Fame thinks of her bestie using her staff in what appears to be an extremely filthy unprofessional way? And how’s it all gonna play out?

We can’t wait to watch this drama unfold…

***

As Courtney slipped on her coat and grabbed her bag to head downstairs for yet another coffee run, she glanced at her personal phone, laughing to herself when she saw the 17 missed calls from Morgan. She scrolled through the text messages in the elevator.

MORGAN: COURTNEYYYYYYYY!!!

MORGAN: OMG PICK UP

MORGAN: WERE YOU PLANNING TO TELL US YOU’RE FUCKING BIANCA DEL RIO?????

TYRA: She’s WHAT

ADORE: You guys didn’t know? ;)

TATIANNA: Yawn, old news :p

MORGAN: BITCH

MORGAN: COURTNEY I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU DON’T PICK UP

MORGAN: COURTNEYCOURTNEYCOURTNEYCOURTNEYCOURTNEY

Courtney called her back, laughing some more when she picked up even before the first ring.

“You know I’m working, right?”

“I am going to murder you,” Morgan announced.

“Wow Morgan. A hate crime? I really thought more highly of you,” Courtney replied with a giggle.

“Omigod, shut up! How could you not have told me already?!”

“Well...I don’t know, I wasn’t sure what it was at first-” she said.

“It’s still fucking major!” Morgan laughed. “I guess it makes sense, though. God, you always chose the worst men.”

Courtney chuckled, nodding as she exited the elevator and headed for the coffee shop.

“So what did your parents say?”

“Uhhh...I haven’t exactly told them yet.”

“Courtney!”

“What? It’s not gonna be dramatic or anything, you know my brother’s gay.”

“Omigod, Court, you absolute idiot. You have to-”

“One sec.” Courtney lowered her phone to give the orders for the meeting, then went back to the phone. “Sorry, I’m on a coffee run.”

“Yeah, I heard. Listen, Courtney, you have to tell them! Do you really want them to find out that you’re dating a woman who’s almost twice your age from a fucking tabloid?”

“I don’t think my parents subscribe to American fashion blogs.”

“Did you even read the link I sent you?! Someone’s gonna send it to them, trust me.”

“Alright, alright, I’ll tell them,” Courtney told her with an eye roll. She really didn’t see the big deal though; telling her parents was the last thing on her list of worries at the moment.

“Also…” Morgan’s voice lowered, taking on a sing-song, teasing tone now that the business was out of the way, “When are we hanging out? ‘Cause you know I absolutely need all the sordid details.”

“Soon, I promise.”

“Tomorrow night?”

“I’m kind of busy tomorrow,” Courtney admitted.

“Busy getting railed, you mean?”

“Maybe…”

“Ha, you slag.”

***

Maybe she was avoiding going home. That was certainly possible. But on Friday, Katya just seemed to keep finding things to do to prepare for the next week of school. It would be their last week before winter break, so she knew that any kind of serious learning would be difficult. Rather than spend her time fighting with the kids to focus when they just weren’t capable of it, she planned as many fun projects as possible, and though a lot of them were old hat for her by now, the prep work never seemed to end.

Which is why, when Jasmine, the woman who ran the afterschool program, came to her door at almost 6:45, she was still there.

“Hey, I’m sorry to bother you…”

“It’s no bother, come on in,” Katya said, a big smile on her face, especially when she saw that Jasmine had Grace with her--one of Katya’s favorite students.

“You know we close at 6, and Grace’s mom is running late today,” Jasmine said. Her tone of voice was light and cheerful, but her eyes told Katya a different story--that this wasn’t the first time it had happened, and that she was likely furious. “I gotta get home, and Dani’s out with the flu, so...do you mind keeping her here until Leslie shows up? It should be soon, she texted me ten minutes ago that she’s on the way.”

“No problem. We’ll have a great time, won’t we Grace?”

The little girl nodded, skipping into the classroom happily.

“You’re a lifesaver,” Jasmine said. “Thank you!”

Katya turned to Grace, who had dumped her jacket and backpack on the rug and was already prowling around the book bins, likely looking for her favorite Junie B. Jones stories. Soon, the two of them were settled into bean bag chairs in the comfy zone, Katya reading a few chapters out loud to her before realizing that she was probably hungry and suggesting a snack. Grace was just finishing her juice box and goldfish crackers when her young mother, Leslie, came rushing inside, harried and out of breath, apologizing profusely.

“Mama!” Grace jumped up from her seat at the little table, knocking the chair over in her excitement to leap into her mom’s arms. She hugged her tightly, face buried in her neck, and Katya could see some of the tension in Leslie’s face melt away.

Katya stood up from her own seat, picking up the book they’d been reading.

“I’m gonna put this book in Grace’s backpack so that you can finish it together this weekend,” she said, and Leslie shot her a look of pure gratitude, nodding.

“Grace, can you say thank you to Mrs. Zamo?”

“Thank you Mrs. Zamo!” she echoed cheerfully, taking the backpack and her jacket as Leslie dropped a kiss to the top of her head.

“Honey, can you go wait for me on the bench for a minute?” she asked, tugging gently on one of her pigtails.

“Okay!”

As Grace skipped into the hallway to wait, Leslie turned to Katya, tears filling her eyes.

“I’m really so sorry about being late, I-”

“It’s okay,” Katya said, head tilted sympathetically. “I get it, things happen.”

“It’s been happening all week. I got this new job, and the hours are so tough and the commute is shit, but it’s an extra two dollars an hour and I can’t say no to that. But I just feel like...I feel like I can’t do anything right.”

“I understand,” Katya nodded, putting a hand on her arm. The truth was, though, she didn’t understand. Not really. She’d never been in a position where an extra two dollars an hour would make such a big difference in her life--not even when her dad cut her off. She’d always had money, and by the time her trust fund was depleted, she was living with Trixie, whose generous salary more than covered what they needed, her meager teacher’s salary mostly paying for fun extras, keeping them entertained and living their best lives, or just going in the bank.

She knew she was lucky, but until that moment, seeing the pain in Leslie’s eyes, the fear that she was failing at life and failing her child, maybe she didn’t understand just how lucky.

“I was sitting on the bus thinking about her waiting and waiting, wondering where I was.”

“Can I tell you something?” she asked softly. “Grace didn’t care that you were late, she was just happy to see you when you got here, because it’s really obvious what a good mom you are.”

“Sometimes I feel like the worst mom ever,” Leslie admitted, tears spilling down her cheeks.

“No way. Grace is an amazing kid. She’s smart and kind and enthusiastic--and it’s totally okay if you need some more help. That’s what all of us are here for. I can talk to Jasmine about maybe extending the hours next week, until you can get your schedule sorted. Or maybe Grace can go home with Joey’s mom...don’t you all live in the same building?”

Leslie nodded, a deep sigh leaving her. “Thanks, that’s a good idea. I...I’ll figure it out.”

“Okay. Just remember that you’re not in this alone, you know?” Katya handed over a box of tissues from her desk.

“Yeah. Thanks. Sorry, I-” Leslie wiped her eyes.

“Don’t be sorry,” Katya said, giving her a warm hug.

***

“Oh god!” Gigi groaned, pushing the door to the modeling apartment open, her shoulders aching, her fingertips numb. “Finally!” She dumped her bags down in the hallway, slumping against the wall.

She had been around the town with Sutan all day, shopping for what he called a model wardrobe, Gigi trying on several pairs of heels and flats, her new backpack and purse stuffed with a newly printed book and her brand new phone, their last stop of the day Gigi’s new gym that was just around the corner.

“Gigi?” Bimini popped her head out of the kitchen door, the golden rim around her eyes and her crimped hair clear indicators that meant she had been shooting, Bimini rarely bothering with removing hair and makeup on set. “Welcome home sweetie! How did it go?”

“I’m exhausted!” Gigi pushed out from the wall and kicked her sneakers off. “Who knew shopping could be that hard?”

Gigi heard Symone giggle, her friend sitting at the table and painting her nails, the apartment's newest arrival chopping vegetables for whatever vegan crock pot Bimini was cooking for everyone. They had someone new arrive every couple of days, most girls only staying for a night or two in the bunk beds in what Naomi had dubbed the summer camp room before they were shipped off again if they didn’t interest any of the agents.

“I told you, didn’t I?”

“I know,” Gigi groaned, dumping down in a chair to rest her aching feet, “but I thought you were kidding.” Symone had gone on the trip two weeks ago, her Instagram exploding with content now that she had a brand new phone to post with.

“Did he give you the drink speech too?”

She had eaten lunch with Sutan at an awkwardly fancy restaurant, three sets of cutlery surrounding her plate, her manager going through each set as well as her wine glasses, explaining it to her. Gigi’s mom had always insisted on good manners, but it hadn’t been anything like that.

“The ‘never leave your drink unattended’ one, I mean.”

“Mmh,” Gigi nodded. “The whole entire speech.”

She hoped it’d be unnecessary, but Sutan had run her through what he called the basic safety procedures like putting a hand or a napkin over her glass when she wasn’t paying attention, her manager drilling it into her skull that she shouldn’t accept poured drinks or opened bottles from strangers in clubs unless she saw the bartender prepare it.

“Is he seriously doing all that?” Naomi raised an eyebrow. “So far, all my agent has told me is that if I showed up in any tabloid looking messy, he’d drop my ass.”

Suddenly, Sutan’s mothering didn’t feel as smothering, the attention and assistance the man had poured over her nothing compared to the terrifying thought of being left basically on her own like Naomi.

***

At first, Katya wasn’t sure why she stopped at Macy’s on the way home. Especially now, on a Friday night during the holiday season, when the sales clerks were at their most frazzled.

She wandered around, unable to get Grace and Leslie out of her mind...and in particular, the look of pure joy on Grace’s face when her mother appeared in the doorway. Leslie was a single mom, and by the look of her, she was pretty young, but she had managed to raise an exceptional kid who was sure how much she was loved.

Why was Katya so afraid of having a baby? It was like she’d told Leslie--she wouldn’t be doing it alone. Not by a long shot. No, she was fortunate to have the most wonderful man in the universe by her side. And lord knew, Trixie would make up for any maternal instincts she may lack herself. And plenty of people, people much less capable and loving than her, had babies every day.

She stopped, looking around, realizing that she’d found herself in the baby department. Specifically, in front of a shelf full of tiny little infant shoes. She smiled to herself, knowing exactly what she needed.

When she arrived home, she was thrilled to see that Trixie had prepared dinner, heating up some leftover chicken and mashed potatoes and throwing together a salad--exactly what she was in the mood for.

She smiled when she saw him, announcing, “I brought you a present.”

Trixie’s face lit up, and for a split second she could imagine that exact same expression of joy on a tiny child, the thought making her insides warm as she handed him the little bag.

He looked inside, where the two tiny pink moccasin slippers sat in their plastic box, his head then snapping up to look at her with an expression of amazement.

“Kat, are you-” His eyes were bright with tears, hopeful but still a bit tentative.

She shrugged slightly, self-consciously, afraid to say what she’s been thinking out loud, but Trixie seemed to know anyway.

He rushed forward and swept her up into the biggest, tightest hug she’d ever had, repeating over and over how wonderful she was going to be. She took his face in her hands, kissing his tear-stained cheeks, finally sure that as a team, they could do it.

8 notes · View notes

rwbyremnants · 5 years

Link

NOTE: Sorry for all the delays with posting! I'm trying to get to updates as soon as I can, I promise!

=Chapter 5

By Monday morning, Weiss was eagerly looking forward to seeing Yang again. If someone had told her a month ago - or even a week - that she would care this much about one of the Dragons, no matter which one, she would have called them a lunatic, or told them to sit on it. Yet there she was, eyes sweeping the hallways for the long, flowing waves of gold that made her heart beat faster, even if she still wasn’t sure why.

No luck. Yang was absent that day.

By lunch, she was worried enough that she went over to the Dragons’ table. A few of them looked stunned that she was so openly approaching them in front of the entire student body, but at least Blake was smiling instead of scowling or shocked.

“Hey, Schnee. Come to slum with us?”

“As if you can afford to breathe my air,” she said simply, and Cinder scowled. However, the others laughed, seeing it for the joke it was. “Actually, I was worried about Yang. Didn’t she show up today?”

Everyone glanced between each other. She had a feeling she was edging into a private, members-only matter, but had no way of knowing that for sure without confirmation.

“Out sick,” Coco said shortly.

“The rockin’ pneumonia and the boogie-woogie flu,” Emerald added, and Cinder snorted. Blake and Coco giggled a little, though Weiss could tell by now that none of them were all that amused; just trying to entertain themselves.

No… to distract themselves. It scared her a little that she could tell the difference with such ruffians, but they were clearly worried and doing their best not to worry. Sitting down in an empty seat and shocking Coco enough that she blinked and drew her head back, she asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Blake said.

“No, something is. Maybe you don’t want to tell me, but… can you at least tell me if there’s anything I can do to help?”

Sneering, Cinder shot at her, “None of your business, Princess. Go back to where the streets are paved with gold and stop acting like you care.”

“Cinder…” Sighing, Blake turned back and said, “Sorry, Weiss. Internal stuff.”

That wasn’t very satisfying, but it was more forthcoming than the others had been. It also at least confirmed what she had guessed: this was a Dragons matter and outsiders were not permitted to know. Trying to pump them for more information would just piss them off - even Blake, who was less short with her than the others. So she took another tack.

“That’s alright. I hope she… feels better? Less boogie-woogie?”

That at least earned her a snort from Coco. “We’ll pass that along.”

“Thanks. Oh, by the way - can you tell me which one is her sister? I keep meaning to ask Yang but I always forget.”

“Huh?” Blake asked, clearly wrongfooted by the question. “Oh… uh, that’s her, over near the lunch line. Wearing that stupid red hood.”

“Double-thanks. And Coco?” The woman only tilted her sunglasses down to see her a little better. “I’m… sorry.”

The sunglasses tilted back up. She didn’t acknowledge what Weiss said otherwise, but she knew she was in pain and trying not to show it. The last thing she wanted to do was push.

The girl in the red hood was seated at a table with another girl whose orange-hued bobbed cut was topped by a pale pink bow, freckles on her cheeks aglow as she talked pleasantly. She reminded Weiss of that boy from Pep Comics, except female; she couldn’t recall his name since her parents disapproved of comic books after her father read some book by a psychiatrist that explained how they would “corrupt children”.

“Excuse me,” she said cautiously, leaning to one side just enough that she could see the girl’s chin past the fabric of her hood. The carrot top blinked and fell silent. “Um… are you Yang Xiao Long’s sister?”

“Oh great,” the girl sighed, turning to look up at her. She was very sweet-faced and pale, much like her sister, but her hair was brown. However, her eyes couldn’t be more different; a shade of silver that she had never seen before. “What did she do now?”

“No, nothing. I just… well, she’s not in school today, and I’m worried about her.” Belatedly, she added, “I’m Weiss, by the way.”

That changed the mood entirely. The girl blinked a few times and her head snapped back in shock, much like Coco's had done. “Weiss Schnee? I mean, uhhh… why are you talking to me?”

“Did… I not…” Turning to the other girl, she demanded, “I said I’m worried about her sister, didn’t I?”

“You did!” she replied promptly with a vaguely pleasant smile.

“Penny!” Yang’s sister breathed softly. “We can’t just talk to Weiss Schnee! She’s like… a Schnee, y’know?”

Weiss folded her arms over her chest. “Just what is that supposed to mean?”

“Well, u-uhh… I… didn’t mean anything by it, just like, you’re really neat, and pretty, a-and rich, and a senior, and you just have no reason to care about some cubes like us, so it’s not- I mean, why would we think you wanted to talk to us? So it makes more sense to… t-to-”

“To wait and see what she says to us?” Penny guessed.

“Yeah! Yeah, that’s it.”

“Then why don’t you wait and see what she says to us?”

Once confronted with the simplicity of that suggestion, the girl fell silent, seeming to shrink back into her hood as she stared down at her tray.

“It’s okay, really,” Weiss laughed uncomfortably. “Why don’t we try… Penny. What is your friend’s name?”

Penny’s clear blue-green eyes blinked a few times, then she turned to lean in and whisper, “Ruby, should I tell her your name?”

While Ruby was just staring across at Penny in sheer disbelief, Weiss covered her mouth to suppress another giggle. A second later, she sighed, then turned back to say, “Y-yeah. I’m Ruby Rose. It’s nice to meet you, even though I don’t know why- wait, wait… I remember, you were asking about Yang. Right? Is that right?”

“Right,” she sighed in relief.

“Okay! Um, I don’t know why you want to know, but uh, I don’t know, either.”

“Huh? How can you not know? You’re sisters.”

“I live with my Uncle Qrow,” she explained, pushing her food around her tray with her fork. “Yang lives with her mom. Been that way since my mom died; neither of them wanted to take in both of us, so they split the duties.”

Weiss’s heart sank to hear that. Their family situation sounded extremely complicated; same father, different mothers, unless she was misinterpreting Ruby’s words. Still, she didn’t want to make the girl feel any worse, or to let on how little she really knew about the biker who was steadily winning her over. “That’s unfortunate. I thought you both lived with her mom. Where… is your father?”

“Dad left,” she said casually. “When I was pretty little. Yang told me he and Mom were fighting a lot about who would get us, and I think he really wanted custody, but Mom was stubborn. And now he lives on the other side of the world. But… that was before she got sick.”

“Oh. I’m so sorry, I didn’t… Yang never…”

“She doesn’t talk about it much anymore.” Her smile was melancholy but resigned; she had clearly worked out her feelings on the matter many years ago. “But I still see her at school, so… that’s fine. Do you mind if I ask a funny question?”

“Funny ‘ha-ha’, or…?”

“How do you know Yang? Because I gotta say, you don’t look much like the rest of her, um, friends.”

Glancing over at the Dragons table, where Emerald was currently standing on the table with a tray balanced on top of her head while the others laughed, Weiss said, “Oh… I guess that’s true.”

“Are you a special friend?”

“What?” Getting what she meant, she turned to look at Ruby. “W-well, I- that’s not- we’re friends, yes.”

“What kind of friends?”

“Are you writing a book or something?!” Weiss cried in exasperation. “Good friends, that’s all! We played tennis together on Friday.”

Her eyes went completely round. “YANG played TENNIS?!”

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

The three of them had a fairly companionable chat that lasted through the rest of lunch. Pyrrha eventually caught up with her, and only seemed vaguely hurt that she had been passed over in favour of the new acquaintances. Meeting Penny and Ruby did seem to help, however, and they were still talking on their way through the halls until they needed to split up for classes.

After thinking about it all day, Weiss came to a decision. If she was going to profess to care about Yang and her life, she would have to start proving it in some way or another. And she couldn't do that with Yang not even in school.

“Ruby!” she called out on her way through the halls, jogging just a little to catch up. The girl whipped around, alarmed at being singled out; Penny wasn’t with her. “Hey!”

“O-oh! Weiss, it’s you!”

Panting a little, she came to a stop next to her. “Sorry… but I wanted… wanted to ask you one more thing.”

“What’s up?”

“This may be crossing some sort of boundary, but… would you mind giving me Yang’s address?”

Ruby did look less at ease with this question than the others, and turned away briefly. “Oh…” She squirmed, looking down at the hem of her skirt. “That might not be a good idea… why do you wanna know?”

“Because I want to check on her. That’s all. I’m probably worried about nothing, of course, but I won’t be able to sleep tonight if I don’t at least try.”

“Well, I guess you know what you’re getting into already, so…” Taking out her notebook, she scribbled the address on a corner of a page and tore it off, handing it to Weiss. She was amused to see she had dotted the “i” in “Anima Lane” with a little heart.

“Thank you.”

“No problem. Bye!”

“Ruby?” When the girl hesitated, she said, “I, um… well, I hope to see you around.” It was a very awkward way of stating it, and sounded somewhat insincere despite her intentions.

But Ruby didn’t seem to take it that way. Beaming, she waved a little before skipping off with her armful of books. Probably to be picked up by her uncle, or else catch the bus. She would have to find out more about her another time, when she didn’t have something else pulling her entire focus.

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

This time, Pyrrha elected to stay in the car. Weiss could tell she was taking a little too much advantage of her willingness to go along with her crazy schemes, so she promised herself to dial it back in the near future.

“If I’m not back in five minutes, send in the clowns,” Weiss sighed as she opened the door of her Studebaker. “Just… it’ll be fine.”

“Sure it will,” Pyrrha sighed as they both gazed up at the house. It had once been a fine place to live, several owners ago. The lawn was overgrown, the dark red paint dingy and peeling, and one of the upstairs windows had a broken pane. If not for the car in the drive, it would be easy to assume it was condemned.

Weiss knocked a few times, and no one answered. She sighed. Maybe this had been a mistake; after all, Yang had never indicated that she was welcome in her home. There could be any number of reasons for that. Should she leave and come back another time, after she had Yang’s blessing?

“Alright,” she sighed, knocking one last time-

And the door fell in. Weiss leapt backward in shock; she hadn’t been knocking that hard! Once the loud thud had stopped echoing through her bones, she gaped down at the slab of wood now lying on the floor of the entryway. It certainly wasn’t moving anymore. Stepping onto it, she craned her neck this way and that, hoping to catch sight of anyone inside the domicile.

“Hello? Anyone home?” No answer, of course. She paced in a little further, turning the corner to explore the living room. “Sorry about your door; I think you might have termites or so-”

The sound of a click stole both her breath and her attention. Turning slightly to her right, she saw a tall, grim woman with hair much like Yang’s - except blacker than midnight. Her eyes were like whirlpools of blood, and her mouth was pulled into a taut line. But the most interesting thing about her had nothing to do with her looks or her clothing.

The handgun with the hammer pulled back was much more alarming.

“You’ve got five seconds to get the hell out of my house.”

“M-Missus-” The gun raised to point straight at her face. “YANG! I w-was just coming to see Yang!”

“I don’t care. Three, two…”

Weiss ran as fast as her legs would carry her. Maybe they could have talked things out, and maybe they couldn’t. But she didn’t want to run the risk of death simply to see if Yang was feeling under the weather.

She voided her stomach in the gutter next to Pyrrha’s car. Given that this was her first true brush with death, her constitution didn’t know how to handle it properly. Her friend got out to hold her hair out of the way, alternately telling her everything was alright and asking why it might not be. Only once they were back in the car and driving away did she explain what happened through a veil of her tears.

“Th-that’s unacceptable! I mean, no - that’s criminal! She shouldn’t have a pistol in the first place, much less point it at… at unsuspecting girls!”

Still shaking, Weiss whispered, “It… was my fault. I shouldn’t have gone in without… without waiting for…”

Fresh tears took over her voice, and conversation became entirely useless until they got to Pyrrha’s house. They weren’t exactly neighbours, but it was a short five-minute walk between their homes. The two girls quickly stole upstairs into Pyrrha’s room so they could discuss things with relative privacy.

“So Ruby neglected to mention that Yang’s mother is a criminal, too,” Pyrrha sighed.

“She did. Though I wouldn’t say Yang is a ‘criminal’, per se… or maybe she is. I don’t know.” Pulling her knees in a little closer to her chin, she asked, “Am I crazy?”

“Why would you be crazy?”

“For only regretting that she didn’t let me explain. I… was too scared to do anything then, but now…”

Frowning, Pyrrha reached across the Oriental rug to pat her forearm. “No, you aren’t. But I do think you should let the matter drop; just wait for her to show up in school tomorrow.”

Sniffing loudly, she tried to dry her tears and stop panicking. The crisis was over. “Yeah. Sorry you had to watch me get sick in the gutter.”

“It’s alright,” she said with a slight laugh. “These things happen.”

After a moment or two, Weiss noticed Pyrrha looked thoughtful, her eyes pointed at where her hand rested atop Weiss’s arm. She asked, “What’s wrong?”

“What? Oh… nothing. Just wondering something.”

“Anything I can help with?”

“Probably not.” A brief pause as the taller girl collected her thoughts, staring at her own pale yellow socks. “Um… am I far off when I say… you do have romantic feelings for Yang at this point?”

“I… maybe,” she forced herself to say aloud. It wasn’t easy. “I think so.”

“Alright. Her being a woman doesn’t bother you?”

“Of course it does! But it’s… not enough to stop me, apparently. Not that I understand this any better than you do, Pyrrha.”

Nodding her understanding, she cleared her throat, playing with the knee of her long skirt. “Then why haven’t you ever…”

“Ever what?” she finally prompted, several seconds later.

“Why haven’t you wanted to kiss me?”

“What?!”

“Sorry!” Pyrrha burst out immediately, looking away with her cheeks flaming red. “Forget I said anything!”

But Weiss certainly couldn’t do that. At the absolute least, this provided a welcome distraction from dwelling on the mental image of a gun in her face. Turning to face her a little more directly, she asked, “Kiss you? I mean… is that something you’ve been wanting me to do, and I just had literally no idea?”

“I have never!” she assured her, voice pleading now. “But… with what you said about Yang and Cinder, and then Cinder coming after me… why was I next? And if you like girls in that way, what's wrong with me? Am I not… not pretty enough? Or what?”

She couldn't believe what she was hearing, or what she was about to say, even as the words came out of her own mouth. “Pyrrha Nikos, I think you're jealous.”

“I am not! Really! I'm… well… m-maybe I am, but you've never talked about any of this before you started keeping company with Dragons, so… I feel like you're…” Her throat worked to swallow. “Like you're leaving me behind.”

“Oh, Pyrrha…” This time, she scooted closer and wrapped her arms tightly around her best friend. “I'm sorry. This is confusing for me, too. I guess I just didn't realise how it might be affecting you. But you're very pretty, and swell! That has nothing to do with it!”

A few sobs floated out of Pyrrha’s throat, but they petered out very quickly. She had never been one to wear a great deal of sadness on her sleeve; in her case, because it meant other people had to deal with her pain. Just one of those ways she was among the most thoughtful people Weiss had ever known.

“Hey,” Weiss finally whispered as she sat back, cupping her face. “Best friends forever, okay? And I'm not interested in being more, or in being less. I still need you in my life, even if I am… whatever I am.”

Nodding, she rested her hand against Weiss's arm, still sniffling but already regaining control. “Thank you. I'm so sorry for… questioning that. I didn't mean to get jealous.”

“It's fine. You're fine.” Pyrrha relaxed into her hand, eyes closing in contentment. “Aww… that's better, right?”

They remained like that for a minute or two before getting back to homework. Pyrrha was a lot more cheerful and back to her old self, which showed Weiss how sorely they had needed to discuss the matter. If she was going to pursue Yang - and the more time went on, the more she thought she really might - it was going to be of the utmost importance that she not lose sight of her other friendships. Especially one as strong and valuable as the one she shared with Pyrrha.

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

The next morning, Weiss only had the length of first period to keep worrying about Yang and the brief threat on her life. Life was getting very intense in a very short period of time. She started to wonder if everyone was right - that she was in way over her head and needed to rethink her priorities. Protect herself.

That went out the window when she found herself being slammed into a row of lockers. Her mind immediately knew that Yang's mother had found her and decided to finish her off.

Except it was Yang's furious face shouting, “You came to my house?!”

“Wha- OW! Yang!”

“Who said you could do that? Huh?!” A vein was standing out in strong relief against her ruddy forehead, teeth flashing as she shouted, “What the hell were you thinking, you stupid bitch?!”

“Yang, stop it!” she hissed, pushing at the forearm pushing her back into the cold metal. “I… I'm sorry, but I didn't think it would-”

“Exactly! You didn't think at all! I thought I could trust you, and then you pull this kind of-”

The accusation was interrupted when Yang was yanked backward by the collar of her jacket. The slight gagging kept her quiet enough for the interloper.

“Miss Xiao Long,” a quick, clipped voice demanded. “I believe my detention hall has been rather empty of late! Let's do something about that, shall we?”

Struggling against the wiry man's grip, she snapped, “Let me GO!”

“Would you enjoy being expelled more?” Yang went slack. “That's better! Now then, let's discuss dates and times!”

It only took a second of indecision. Weiss was still reeling from the concept of Yang attacking her. The phrase “apple doesn't fall far from the tree” flashed through her mind; both Yang and her mother had threatened her within the same twenty-four hour period. Maybe this was for the best.

But the grieving look in Yang's eyes stopped that train of thought. She didn't look merely angry, either at the teacher or Weiss. The anger took a backseat to feeling betrayed and hurt.

“Mr. Oobleck!”

The spindly man paused in his attempts to wrest Yang down a neighboring hallway. “Yes, Miss Schnee? No need to thank me, none at all. These female felons have to learn that they can't behave in such a manner on Beacon High grounds without dire conseque-”

“This is my fault!”

The two of them were both shocked. Yang's face remained twisted in rage, but surprise was visible beneath the surface.

“What do you mean by that?” the teacher asked. “She was clearly the one being physically violent! Dreadful, simply dreadful - can't tolerate that, no matter how you provoked her with words.”

She had to think fast. What could she say that would make any difference in Yang being punished? “I… I pushed her first!” While they were both blinking at her, she rambled on, “Y-yeah, she was walking too close, and… and I shoved her and told her to watch where she was going. She was understandably upset that I acted that way. I guess I'm a little cranky today; it's my, um, cycle.”

While Yang was still dumbfounded, Mr. Oobleck was clearing his throat and looking distinctly uncomfortable. “Ah. Well… yes, can’t be helped, entirely not your fault - we’ll, er, consider this matter closed!” And with that, he practically zipped down the hallway at the speed of Yang’s motorcycle.

The two girls stood, tense and unsure of what else to do. Finally, Weiss sighed, “Phew. I can’t believe that worked.”

“Who asked you to lie for me?” But the minute Weiss took a step back in mild fear, Yang sighed, looking away. “Alright… it was a gusty move, Schnee. I appreciate that you tried to help and got me out of trouble. But that doesn’t make up for what you did.”

“What did I do, though?” Approaching cautiously, hesitantly, she said in a quiet voice, “I’m sorry, Yang. I’ll apologise until I’m blue in the face, but I honestly have no clue what I did wrong. So until you help me understand…”

However, Yang turned on her heel and stomped away. It seemed that would be the end of their conversation. Weiss slumped backward against the lockers, wishing this new friendship didn’t require navigating a minefield.

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

The poor princess had to remain in the dark until lunch. As she and Pyrrha ate sombrely, the latter occasionally trying to cheer her up and falling silent when the attempts failed, she had been wondering if she should walk over to the Dragons table and see if she had better luck with asking the other girls.

As it turned out, that wasn’t necessary. Her eyes flicked up when she heard shuffling, and she was surprised to see Ruby slowly pushing a reluctant Yang across the lunchroom floor. Most of the other students were whispering or giggling at the sight.

“What on earth…?”

“Go on,” Ruby hissed when Yang was standing awkwardly by the corner of the table. She turned as if to leave or argue, but Ruby put her hands on her hips in a gesture so petulant that the average person would have thought she was the stubborn one, not Yang.

“Fine,” she grumbled as she dropped into the seat next to Weiss.

“Good. I’ll see you later, ‘gator.” Winking at Weiss, Ruby quickly returned to her seat next to Penny.

Pyrrha swallowed her mashed potatoes and said, “Sh-should I leave the two of you alone?”

“Yeah. Do that.” When she flinched, Yang added, “Sit with Rubes and her friend for a minute. Thanks.”

Once Pyrrha had delicately extracted herself from the lunch table and carried her tray over to the front of the lunchroom, Weiss turned and folded her arms. “Well?”

“Okay. What you did wasn’t great, but I know you… didn’t mean to mess up. I know that. So… I’m, um…”

“Does the word you’re searching for start with an ‘s’ and end with an ‘orry’?”

“Shut up,” she grunted. “This isn’t easy. I told you, I’m still furious.”

“Alright. I’ll wait.”

And she really did wait. They both watched the contents of her tray slowly diminish as she picked at the food. Halfway through her salisbury steak, Yang whispered, “I’m sorry for shoving you. There.”

“Thank you. It hurt.”

“I know. But… what you did hurt me, too.”

“I can’t possibly see how! I just went to your house to see if you were alright!”

“And you shouldn’t have. Like… did you ever think there’s a reason I never invited you over?”

Shrugging, she hissed, “You’ve never come over to my house, either.”

“We both know why that is. Neither of us had to say ‘Mr. Schnee doesn’t like lesbian thugs’; it’s just… something we both could guess.” Her fingers idly picked at a fray in one of her fingerless leather gloves. “And you should have guessed that if my house was a place I could take you, without any problems, I’d have done that instead of bars and abandoned buildings.”

“Maybe,” she conceded quietly, still picking at her food without eating it now. “But still… I was so worried, Yang. The Dragons acted like it was no big deal, but they were also worried. I could tell under all that laughing and joking something was up.”

“Drop it, okay?” she suddenly hissed, and Weiss ducked her head. It was a strong enough reaction that the bruiser deflated. “Sorry. But this is really important; you can’t do that again. Next time, she won’t count to five.”

Tears sprang to Weiss’s eyes. She hated that this was happening in the lunchroom, that all eyes were on her. Based on that, she managed to inhale sharply and dry her tears before they fell. “I can’t believe you’re saying this to me. I… I can’t believe… Yang, I came over because I wanted to make sure you were alright, a-and I missed you. And my life was threatened, and… and now you’re telling me I was the one in the wrong?”

“Yes.”

“But I…”

One of the gloved hands rested on her forearm. “Don’t do it again. I’m fine, I promise. And… it’s hard to say when I’m hopping mad like this, but you being worried about me does mean a lot. You did the wrong thing for the right reason, I guess. But now you know better. I just have to make sure you learned the lesson.”

“Don’t ever come within a hundred feet of your mother?”

“Yeah,” she snorted humourlessly. “That’s pretty much it.”

“Crystal clear.”

Yang took her hand away, tensing as if to get up. Then she added in a hasty whisper, “We’ll talk more after school” before hurrying herself away to sit with the rest of her tribe.

#Princess and The Dragons #freezerburn fanfic #1950s AU #rwby fanfiction #rwbyremnants

6 notes · View notes

astrangerthingsblog · 7 years

Text

Crazy Together

PART 1

When Lucas, although clumsily, asks Max to dance, Will hides a smile for his friend. Max accepts teasingly, and the two head off to the dance floor together. Mike, Dustin and Will stand there for only a moment, eyes lingering on their friends as they dance, when a girl from their Science class, Ava, walks up to them.

“Hey,” she says, looking straight on Will. “Do you wanna dance?”

“Uh, um, I don’t, I mean” Will stutters while he instinctively looks to Mike, who for a moment looks as shocked as Will feels. Much to Will’s disappointment though, Mike does not relieve him, but gives him an encouraging nod, urging him to respond. Will looks away, meets Ava’s eyes awkwardly. “I mean, yeah, sure.”

They go onto the dancefloor together, Will awkwardly putting his hands on Ava’s waist as she puts hers on his shoulders. He doesn’t know how to dance, but no one really seems to, and they just copy the rest of their peers by swaying stupidly from side to side.

Will doesn’t know where to put his eyes, feeling terribly uncomfortable. He’s starting to feel annoyed that Mike didn’t notice Will did not want to dance, and that he didn’t save him from having to. He wanted to spend the night with Mike, not with some girl that has ignored him for all eight years of school. He knows he should not be surprised though.

He had felt like he and Mike had become closer than ever, after Will came back. Sure, Mike had lost Eleven, but it had seemed like Mike and Will had gained this new connection. And a month ago, when stuff really started going down, Mike had been there; every single second of it, he had spent by Will’s side. Will had thought there was… something there.

Then, Eleven came back.

Will had woken up from the Shadowmonster’s control, surprised he had made it. When he told his mom and Chief Hopper how to kill the monster, he had been certain he would die with it. Waking up felt almost fake. He had accepted his death, and then it never came. He had been happy, though, because he could go back to Mike. Mike didn’t have to lose him.

Reuniting back at their house, Mike told him Eleven was back. He was crying out of happiness. Will was happy for him, he was; no one deserved to be happy more than Mike. But, Will could not help the clench in his stomach, the sinking of his heart. Ever since, Mike’s been spending less time with Will, and more with Eleven. It’s fine, he doesn’t owe Will anything. He wants to be with Eleven now when she’s back, Will gets that.

When the third song is finally over, Will excuses himself and shuffles away and off the dancefloor as quick as he can. He wants to find Mike and the others, and actually have fun tonight. He’s by the bleachers when he sees Mike, sitting alone at a table, looking forlorn. Will is about to head over when he notices Mike’s eyes catching something, making him stand. Will follows Mike’s line of sight, eventually seeing what has caught Mike’s attention.

It’s Eleven. She’s wearing a proper dress and has her hair done and everything. Will can’t tear his eyes away as she and Mike meet on the dance floor. They’re saying something to each other, and both are looking… awestruck, in lack of a better word. Will stands there, his arms straight down his sides, one hand fiddling with his pants pocket. Mike leans in and… and…

Will doesn’t run, exactly, but he’s out of that gym as quick as he can be. He doesn’t really see where he’s going. He doesn’t notice the tears running down his cheeks. He ends up in the AV room, finding it unlocked, miraculously.

Sitting down on a chair, he leans his arms on the table, his eyes on the wall. They’re stinging, he finally notes. He doesn’t understand the heavy feeling in his chest, but he wants it to go away. It’s not like he’s stupid, he knows what it means. He’s felt something like it around… Mike… for a few years now. It didn’t stop after the Upside Down. It got stronger the previous month. It has hurt more this past month.

He hates it. It’s what his father has been saying, all along. What Troy has always bullied him for. They weren’t wrong, they were right the whole time. Will is different, like Jonathan says. He really is a freak. He’s not normal, but he wants to be. He desperately wants to be. If he were normal, he would have kept dancing with Ava. If he were normal he would not have spent all ten minutes wishing she were Mike.

His crying is heavier, small whimpers escaping his throat, tears rolling quicker. It should feel like such a superficial thing to cry about now, after everything. But this thing inside him, it’s almost like the Shadowmonster, only it won’t be possible to burn this one out of him. It’s stuck there, this is part of him. It’s who he is, even if his father, Troy and most of the world despise him for it. Even if Mike found out and hated him, too.

As if all of this isn’t enough, Will has been suffering from actual nightmares, almost every night since the Shadowmonster. They’re bad, leaving him heaving for his breath, soaked in sweat, shaking down to his core. They aren’t like the episodes he had after the Upside Down, but terrifying none the least.

He doesn’t keep track of time, wouldn’t be able to tell how long he sits there. He only gains his senses when he hears someone call his name.

“Will?”

“Will! Will, where are you?”

Will gets to his feet and edges to the door. He hears Lucas yelling, not too far away. Taking a deep breath, Will wipes his now mostly dry cheeks. His eyes feel puffy, so he can’t imagine how he must look. With another deep breath, he is slowly inching the door open. He peeks out, but the hall is empty.

“Will!” shouts Mike. He sounds scared, Will thinks. “Will!”

Max, Lucas and Mike round the corner together and spot Will by the door to the AV club.

“There you are,” Lucas says, sounding casual, with maybe a hint of relief. Max looks at Will, uncertain. Mike looks furious.

“Where have you been?” he says, angrily. Will scrunches his nose, confused. “You’ve been gone for almost an hour! We thought you had gone home, but when I followed Eleven outside, your mom was still there. Do you even know how scared she is right now?”

Will feels a twist of guilt for his mother, then one of anger. For Mike.

“She’s out of her mind! We’ve all been looking for you; Hopper, Eleven… Eleven was about to use her powers, and you were just sitting in there, hiding away?”

Will can’t help but put this angry, accusing Mike against the Mike that would always, before anything else, ask if Will was okay. He doesn’t say anything, just pushes past his friends and starts heading down the hall, wanting to find his mom and go home.

Mike yells after him. “What’s wrong with you? You can’t just do things like this after everything, it’s crazy!”

“Mike…” Lucas protests quietly.

Will’s shoulders tighten, his heart thumping fast and loud. He yells back, without turning: “Crazy together, though, right?”

He doesn’t wait for a response and continues walking quickly, feeling almost sick to his stomach. He has never argued with Mike before, at least not like this. This feels serious. It almost feels final.

“Did you see his eyes? I think he was crying,” Max says quietly, but Will manages to overhear. For some reason it makes the tears spring forward again.

He feels even worse when he finally finds his mom. She’s worried crazy, like Mike said, and demands that they go home immediately. He waves goodbye to Dustin who was waiting with Will’s mom, now standing with Eleven. Will can’t find it in him to make her upset, and gives her a quick hug.

“Will, honey,” his mom says, her voice a little scratchy. She breaks her attention from the road, sending him a few, short glances. “Please, please, tell me what’s wrong,”

Will sighs, because of course his mom would notice, and of course she would ask. It’s not that he blames her, it has been hard ever since Bob… But he can’t talk about this with her. It’s not some monster that’s the problem now, it’s him.

“Nothing. I just, I was feeling a little overwhelmed,” Will lies smoothly. It’s an easy excuse nowadays, one he uses more than he probably should.

“You should have come outside. We could have gone home,” his mom says. “There’s nothing wrong with what you’re feeling, Will. You’re so brave, you know that? With… everything… you’ve been so brave, honey.”

Will is tired of hearing that he is brave, like he is some kind of hero. He doesn’t want to be, he just wants to be Will. He just wants to be normal.

PART 2

The next day is Saturday, and Will is fully intended on spending it with Jonathan. He just wants a day in, watching movies, so he doesn’t have to focus on everything that is really going on. Which is why someone, of course, knocks on the door for Will.

It’s Mike.

Will can’t deny that he’s surprised. Mike has not been to Will’s house since the Shadowmonster, and Will can’t help but think he looks almost wary, standing on their porch. Ridiculously, Will crosses his arms.

“Hey,” Mike greets him, uncertainly. “Um, can I… come in?”

Will couldn’t ever deny Mike Wheeler anything, so a minute later they are in Will’s room, Will on the bed, Mike in the desk chair. They sit in awkward silence for what feels like forever, but is most likely just thirty seconds. Will fiddles with a crayon and Mike’s leg is shaking.

“I’m sorry,” Mike blurts. “What I said yesterday, it was stupid. I was worried, okay? I wasn’t thinking. It’s not an excuse, but, that’s what happened. I’m sorry.”

Will sighs softly, shrugging. “It’s okay. I wasn’t mad,”

“Yeah, you were. Which is fine. You’re allowed to be mad when I’m an asshole,” Mike says, with a small, self-deprecating smile. Will smiles a little, too. “I didn’t even notice you had been crying. What happened?”

Will freezes, suddenly his throat feels tight. Mike is up and out of the desk chair and sitting on the bed next to Will in a second.

“Hey, what’s wrong? Will, it’s okay, you’re okay,” Mike says, running his hand up and down Will’s arm, making goose bumps stand on his neck, leaving warmth where he touches. Will gets a flashback to a similar situation about a month ago. He briefly closes his eyes, and before he can really think, he speaks.

“There’s something wrong with me,” he whispers, voice cracking. Mikes hand stops just above Wills elbow, his grip soft, yet firm.

“What’s wrong? Is he back?” Mike asks, quietly. He sounds fearful, worried what the answer might be. Will shakes his head. Mike repeats, “What’s wrong?”

“I’m, I,” Will stutters. What is he doing? He can’t tell Mike, it would ruin everything. If there is one thing Will knows, it is that the world does not accept people like him. If his father taught him anything, it would be that. “Just… forget it. It’s nothing,”

“Will,” Mike deadpans. His eyes still look worried. “Don’t lie.”

“I’m not lying,” Will says, shaking Mike off, feeling overwhelmed by the feeling of his comforting hand. Would Mike keep it there, if Will told him? “I’ve been having nightmares, okay? Real nightmares, not episodes.”

“Oh,” Mike utters, fiddling with his hands in his lap. “Want to talk about them?”

No, Will doesn’t. He wants to forget the nightmares. He wants to feel comfortable around Mike, not like he’s stepping on eggshells. He wants to ask why Mike has ignored Will ever since last months happenings, ever since Eleven came back. He wants to know whether the things Mike said had the same implications as Will’s interpretations.

Will tells Mike about the nightmares, every last detail. His skin itches with how closely Mike pays attention to Will talking, to his body language, how he maintains eye contact. None the less, talking about them with Mike makes him feel better, like talking to Mike always has. When Will chokes on a certain part, Mike puts his arm around Will’s shoulder and Will leans into it, shutting out the voice in his head yelling horrible things.

But Will can’t ever tell Mike the other truth. Because monsters and other dimensions? That Mike can understand. But Will knows, despite the ache in his heart, that Mike would never understand Will’s feelings for him.

#byeler #byeler fanfic #stranger things #stranger things fanfiction #stranger things fanfics #this is kind of bad shitty sucky terrible i hate it #but i wanted to make my debut here and yeah #hopefully i'll write something thats not /as/ terrible next time around #bea writes #my fanfiction #mike/will #byeler fanfiction #I'm just putting as many tags as possible lol #also i have no idea what the girl who asked will do dance is called #also also this was supposed to be fluffy but i should've known i am physically incapable of such

162 notes · View notes

humans-are-seriously-weird · 7 years

Text

The Time I Almost Decapitated Someone While Trying To Surf

Brace for a whole lot of pain and stupidity. It starts off a little slow but stick around for the AHHHHHHH As some of you may know, i am an intense klutz. As in I-Will-Trip-Over-Absolutely-Nothing-And-Probs-Knock-Over-The-Crown-Jewels kind of klutz. A Would-Trip-And-Fall-Off-A-Cliff kind of klutz I really need to drive this point home ok this is v important to this story So this is back in Peru (yes the same trip the chicken chased me off a cliff). Work is over for the day, the sun is starting to set, and all 40 of us Canadians are headed to the beach for our very first surf lessons So we show up and our instructors hurl wetsuits at us. I do mean hurl like mine wrapped around my face like a squid i nearly died before i even hit the water smh We get separated into groups of five and head off with our instructors. All the other groups had these young Peruvian guys and girls, all smiles and gentle teachers My instructor was a cranky 80 year old who never spoke and stared at us until we figured out what we were supposed to do Before we even get to go near the beach we start learning the technique on land. We lay down on these fake boards and pretend paddle and pretend stand, all in complete silence because who needs words right Im at the point of assuming our instructor doesnt speak english, which is totes cool cause we’re getting the message anyways. We’d spent three days working around the language barrier, now was no different. Moving on Our instructor finally deems us worthy of hitting the water so we all gleefully make our way to the beach. We were all sunshine and laughter, expecting the warm sand between our toes Not happening The beach is not soft like we had thought. It was rocks. Thousands of rocks and pebbles that sent us skittering as we descended the steep incline to the water First off: No one told me how freaking exhausting this crap is All those movies of people surfing like haha look at me this is so easy and majestic be one with the waves dude were straight up liars ok i was panting and heaving like a 90 year old race horse by the time i made it out far enough to catch a wave Cue twenty frustrating minutes of trying and failing to paddle fast enough to stay on a wave I thought i looked like Dash Incredible, majesticly spearing across the water from a horde of bad guys, my arms windmilling at break neck speeds Yeah no I was more of a drowning sloth if im completely honest Id make it maybe two feet by the time one wave passed and the next was already approaching Here’s where my surfing attempt took an unexpected turn Water splashed behind me and i didnt bother turning around. Probably one of my classmates heading for a better wave area “Need some help?” The voice was definitely not my classmates My instructor sat casually on his board behind me I was so shocked to hear him speak that i just nodded dumbly, not aware of what i was agreeing to. He hops off his board and bobs in the water for a second. He casually puts on hand on the back of my board like he was keeping me from floating away Behind him a wave approaches. I lay back down and get ready to paddle. I figured maybe he’ll tell me when to start paddling so i can actually catch this one but the wave is getting closer and closer and there was still no word from him. I was long past when I started paddling before I hear this soft intake of breath and then, “BRACE!!!” I obey blindly and grip my board in terror wondering if there was a shark lurking beneath me Instead my 80 year old instructor absolutely freaking catapults me forwards i swear that man could launch Niel Armstrong into orbit single handedly NASA who??

Im rocketing along along, too stunned to move Im on a wave!! Im on a… wave????? I scramble to my feet thinking somebody better be seeing this cuz i will not be doing this again By some miracle i manage to stand ok i do not have great balance on land so sticking me on a board in the middle of the ocean was in no ones best interest So im whizzing along feeling like im flying and just generally trying not to face plant on my board or topple into the sea ok i just got up here no way i can manage it a second time Something about the water ahead of me doesnt look right The sun is glaring off the water just enough to block whatever that thing is. Im squinting, praying im not about to hit a rock It was so much worse It was a man He was casually chillin on his board, a set of headphones in his ears, looking to the world like he was asleep Im heading straight for this guy at top speed and as i get closer i realize two very important things I dont know how to stop … … Or turn I think of the wicked looking fins on the bottom of my board I remember mildly thinking this is gonna hurt before reality truly set in I very well might kill this man if i dont figure something out fast I start screaming and flailing with as much strength as i can muster “MOVE MOVE!!!! UNLESS YOU WANNA BE FILLET LIKE A FISH YOU GOT MOVE I CANT STOOOOOP” He casually lifts out one ear bud and looks at me with a barely audible “que?” “YOU GON DIE MOVE!!!!” Clearly he didn’t understand english, but flailing and screaming is pretty universal He leisurely lays back and paddles forewards, moving him ever so slightly out of the danger zone My board hits his as i pass so close i could have flicked his nose My board launches off his and by some miracle i manage to not only stay on it, but stay standing I twist and stare back at the man I definitely did not kill as he casually lays back down on his board Good. That would have been troublesome to explain to immigration officers on my way home I face the beach again and prepare to enjoy my calm landing and– I am less than five feet from shore going full speed SHIT I do what any sane person would do I jump ship

That was the biggest mistake of my life

See just as i jumped for dear life the wave hit its crest and i landed right in the middle of it

Suddenly i was a soggy pair of Canadian socks in the worlds worst dryer

On a very important side note, i am attached to the board by a long thin cable that is velcroed around my ankle, meant to keep the board from drifting and keep me safe

That cord is the bane of my existence

In my Horror Dryer Extreme experience the cord had managed to wrap from my ankle all the way up to my thigh, digging cruelly into my skin even through the wet suit

I slam into shore like a beached whale

Remember kids: shore is not my friend shore is OW

I slam into the rocks and lay there dazed for a moment, gasping for air. No way im going back out there ill just let the water wash over me im done surfing im done with the ocean

But the ocean wasnt done with me

Suddenly im getting dragged by the leg down the beach. I sit up, ignoring the stones slowly filling my pants.

My board had gotten stuck in the out take and was dragging me out to sea once again

I go through another round of Angry Dryer Mama Ocean and get slammed mercilessly back into shore, this time hitting my face so hard i split the skin above my eye. I still have a scar hidden above my eyebrow from this

At this point i am done

I try to stand and grab my board but the cord was still wrapped around my leg

Our teams guide who just so happened to be a surfer comes running over to see if im ok. “hey! Get up! Another wave is coming!”

I try to shout back “i cant, im stuck!” But that’s not what comes out of my dizzy mouth

Instead i lift my leg in the air like a dog and scream “I cant! It’s winding!”

My guide took this as “I cant! Im drowning!”

He runs over looking like a stern third grade teacher “you’re fine just get up!”

“You think im not trying??”

Another wave slams into me from behind and im washed out and washed back in. Lil me cant catch a break

Somewhere in the time id been brutally slammed back to shore my guide vanished. Fine then

I quickly unwrap my leg and scramble to my feet

Screw this, screw the board, im leaving!!

I start sprinting for my life up the hill to safety

SPLAT

My leg is yanked out from beneath me and i face plant hard

I didnt take off the velcro strap

Washed out

And washed back in

I rip the velcro from my ankle the second i hit shore

My guide appears out of nowhere and grabs my board and starts shouting at me to run

I ask no questions as I scramble up the side

Now, my guide, carrying two 50lbs surf boards makes it to the top of the hill just fine

Not me

A wave sucker punches me and drags me out again

Washed out. Washed in.

At this point im just accepting my fate to be forever bound by the sea im like the opposite of a selkie except the sea has my foot and i cant stay on the freaking land free me from my curse

Eventually i make it up to the top and collapse like sweet releif i am free of this hell

My guide sets my board down and looks at me. “Rekina. Stay here, the others are having a hard time too. Dont do anything stupid” trust me pal im going no where this is my home now tell my mother i love her

(Honestly Never tell me not to do something stupid. It’s a sure fire way to make sure i do the absolute dumbest thing possible)

I shoot him a weak thumbs up as he takes off down the beach, cackling at the poor idiot Canadians floundering in the surf.

Youd think my Adventure was over

Not a chance pal

I sit up and notice one of my classmates in the same predicament i was in

There wasnt even another option for my next choice

I stagger back down the hill and help him up. I grab his board and all but shove him back up the hill and somehow we both made it up safe and sound

Until we see our teacher not moving on the beach below us, her body getting battered and tossed around by the waves

Our guide is nearly a kilometer away down the beach, too far for us to call for help

I look at my classmate and he’s shaking his head like i am not going down there again are you crazy

I pop to my feet and race down the hill i am not letting my teacher die on my watch ok im not that kind of person fight me

My classmate groans and follows behind

I grab the teacher who was thankfully just stunned and unhurt and help her to her feet. My classmate grabs her board and they both start staggering up the incline far too slowly. I stay behind them to make sure they dont fall and hit the surf again. Happily they made it up just fine

Not my ass

Im slammed face first into the ground courtesy of a massive wave that just loves me too much

The ocean gave me a friendly love tap as it dragged me down the hill and slammed me against it one more time for good measure

I finally make it back to the top and swear to never surf again in my life (but let’s be real even near drowning cant stop me from trying again)

All in all a pretty successful first attempt

#Adventure Time With Rekina #Sorry for the long post a lot of crap happened #Hope you enjoy #not my best work but you know what we only have another month for Adventure Time With Rekina until i leave soo

2K notes · View notes

forkanna · 7 years

Link

[AO3 LINK]

[EF.com LINK]

I actually didn't see much of her for the next week. First and foremost, because Comeau took a week off to go do something arty so his shifts fell in my lap, and secondly because…

Well, I don't know. She just wasn't around. It started to worry me after the first few days. Did I just act too surly and actually drive away the only ray of sunshine in my otherwise drab world? Listen to me wax fucking poetic. Been talking to Steph too much, maybe.

But when she popped back up again, it was where I was least expecting it.

I had gone into Tim Horton's to use the washrooms — that's all, I think they're just barely better than the swill at Starbucks and equally overpriced. While I was peeing, I heard from the next stall…

"KIM?!"

So this next thing isn't all that easy for me to tell you about. I let out a HUGE fart. I mean, she literally scared it out of me so I think I can be forgiven, but the entire washroom went pretty quiet right after that was pretty loud. Just about the most embarrassing moment of my short, sweet existence.

Clearing my throat, I tried to make my voice higher and reedier, like an old lady's voice. "Sorry, dear, I don't know who Kim is!"

"Come on, Kim, I know it's you! I can see that freckle on your toe!" My toes scrunched in on themselves, digging into the flip flops. "Too late!"

"Why would you even have noticed that?!" I demanded, hating that she caught me like this. Seriously, if the toilet flushed and sucked me down into an unknown subspace pocket, I'd have been grateful.

"Last week, while we were kicking back at your coffee table and listening to music?" Her running shoes scuffed nervously at the tile. "Noticed you have a freckle there since we weren't doing much of anything else. Dunno why, guess I just think it's cute."

"I have plenty of freckles. Why is this one cute?"

"Because it's in the middle of your middle toe? Not really sure…" Then I heard her flush. "So, whatcha up to?"

"Trying to pee. Which I did, a little prematurely. But at least I already had my pants down, so I guess it could have been way worse. Why, what about you?"

As I emerged from the stall, I expected her to be out there already. But she was going, "Hang on, just getting things situated…" There was a little rustling, and then she emerged with her arms spread wide, as if giving a glorious reveal…

Wearing a barista uniform. For the antichrist conglomerate slowly devouring Canada.

"You work here now?!" I exclaimed, glancing up and down the brown-and-black uniform, at the little visor perched atop her head. "Why? I thought you had a job at Second Cup."

"I had to quit when I went to uni," she said reasonably as she went to wash her hands, glancing down at her slacks and then back over at me when I joined her at the sink. "But um, I wanted to have a little more spending money when I get back for my second year, y'know? And Second Cup is fully staffed right now, and so is Delicious Cup — I already asked. And with Julie working there…"

"Nah, I get you." Seriously, somebody needed to smack some sense into Powers.

Towelling off her hands, she asked, "What are you doing here? I thought you hated Timmy."

"Well, 'hate' is a strong word…" An accurate one. Though I'll admit, I got some really shitty service in Montreal one year that kind of solidified it from disinterest to hate. "Just needed to use the can."

"Right. Well, we do have one of those!"

"Yeah. Um…" My voice was quavering a little, I felt stupid. "Sorry for… y'know, when I…"

"Didn't say 'pardon me'? It's cool," she laughed. A sigh of relief erupted from me; I really was grateful she didn't make me say it, or say it herself. "This is the place to do that, right?"

Nodding, I towelled off myself. It was weird. We were being weird, and I couldn't quite figure out why… until she put her finger on it for us.

"But yeah, starting the job has been pretty crazy. I meant to drop by sometime this week, but with work, and my mom's birthday, and stuff…"

"Oh, don't worry about it," I said with a smile of relief. She wasn't ditching me. That shouldn't have mattered as much as it did, but I was seriously soothed to know that. "Been quiet around No-Account." At the last second, I stopped myself from adding "without you" to the end of that.

"I'm really, really sorry. But I can make up for it! This week is less crazy. Wanna go to the zoo?"

For some reason, that made me chuckle. Something I almost never do lately, and her suggestion of going to the zoo was enough. "Really? But it's so far away, and so pricey…"

"I just got my first paycheck. My treat, to make up for being gone lately."

"Well…" Again, she did that weird thing where she enchanted me with her warmth and enthusiasm so much that I couldn't say 'no'. "What day? I'll probably be working."

"Then you pick. I get off at five today, so that's not enough time, but I'm off Saturday…"

"Me, too. Around noon?"

"Sure," she answered with that sweet, shy smile that made me want to flush her down the can. "Meet up there, or at your place first?"

"We can just meet there." I turned toward the washroom door, but something was holding me back. "Um…" I wanted to say something about how much I missed her, even though I didn't fully comprehend why. "Hey…" I wanted her to know that despite how shitty of an attitude I had sometimes, I really truly valued our fucked-up, almost-one-sided friendship.

And while I was stammering, trying to get past my hangups, she hugged me from behind. "Yeah." Then she released me and held the door open. "My break's probably way over by now."

"Right," I sighed. "Go back to slinging brown water. See you tomorrow."

"See ya!"

And she went back behind the counter, while I went down the street shaking my head so violently that it almost came loose and bounced across to the other side.

~ o ~

The zoo was fine. I'd visited it before, of course, but it had been years. More or less you can expect the animals to do the same things they did the last time, so it's not like a repeat visit will reveal anything new.

But the animals ranged from cute to interesting; giraffes and cheetahs and hyenas, oh my. Knives wanted to look at literally everything, and who was I to stop her? This was the reason we came, so it would be dumb for even me to act like that was strange of her. Meanwhile, I walked around with an iced capp I got from near Tundra Trek and mostly watched her reactions, skipping around in that white babydoll tee and jean shorts, eyes wide and mouth flapping about how much fun she was having, and how big this animal was or how small that one was. That was the real attraction for me.

Which began to worry me a little. Really, this whole thing with Knives already did. Not because I was developing some big gay crush; I didn't think that was it, and I'm no homophobe. But if I wasn't crushing on her, then what was I doing? This was such a weird friendship, and kind of the opposite of the casual relationship I normally enjoyed with my sparse acquaintances. Something about it was so… intense. But that was probably all Knives, and very little from my end. She was a force of nature.

Once we had seen and done most of everything there was to do without paying extra, like buying souvenirs that nobody would care about in two days, we headed back to catch the bus toward our respective homes. When she brought up dinner, I almost jumped on it.

"Let's do Sneaky Dee's. It sucks, but if we get there early enough, it might not be deafening and full of annoying college kids."

"Like me?"

"Yes, like you. One is enough."

"Hmm, I was gonna head back to my house, but…" Her cheeks bunched in a smile. "You think we could get Stephen or Julie to show up? Make it a real reunion."

"Oh. Yeah, I guess."

Her smile slipped a notch. "Do you not want them to come?"

"Nah, it's fine. Even if Julie is a cunt lately, especially to you."

"That's just Julie," she laughed it off. Not that I thought she should have; the way she acted toward Knives was totally unacceptable, and I still wanted to give her a piece of my mind about it. "Just Stephen then."

Shrugging, I stretched my arms overhead and crossed them behind my neck as we rode along. "What about Neil?"

"He probably wouldn't want to see me. Too many awkward memories." Then she cleared her throat to push past that detail. "Steph could come, though."

"Sure. She's been acting like she wants to hang outside of practices and shit lately. So… I'll invite her, maybe Stephen and Joseph. Julie can eat a bag of dicks."

That seemed to startle her slightly. At first, I thought maybe I had gone too far, but instead she whispered, "I've never heard that phrase before. It's hilarious! Because like, a whole bag of dicks!" She giggled, and I giggled with her. Sometimes I just couldn't help it around that doofus.

~ o ~

Not too much later, we were in Sneaky Dee's. It's kind of a grubby hole, but the food is pretty good, drinks are medium-cheap and sometimes they play decent music. Steph showed and so did Stephen, though Joseph stayed back because he was busy "mixing". Probably a lie, but who cares? Knives made a dumb joke about "Steph and Stephen", which made Steph laugh while Stephen and I just rolled our eyes at each other.

It was nice. We talked about the Sex Bob-omb days, and the Sonic and Knuckles days before that. Made noises about getting a band together ourselves, but with Dynamite Headdy doing as well as it was, Stephen had no real motivation to spin more plates.

Everything was going fine… until we started talking more in-depth about the end of Sex Bob-omb.

"Haven't heard from him since then," Stephen confirmed as we stared at the mostly-empty plates, patting our stomachs. In his case, scratching at his stubble. "Can you live in subspace? Like, I still don't really understand that whole thing very well."

"No, I don't think it's a place you get to stay," I went on. "Of course, I've only been there once or twice. Scott dragged me through a door so we could escape from a crazy samurai." I tried not to glance at Knives, and she didn't seem to notice, either.

"I think there are subspace pockets along with the highways," she said as she sipped at her lemonade. Guess she was serious about not drinking. "But there aren't buildings or restaurants or anything there. So they must be living somewhere in normal space, right?"

Steph shrugged, leaning against the table on her elbows. "Wouldn't know. Never had much experience with it myself. So Scott dragged you through, Kim?"

My body was already freezing up, a response to being needled about my past with Scott so much. "Yeah."

"He was always kind of self-centered, in that dopey, doesn't-realise-he-is way," she mused as she stared across the restaurant at the back of the neon sign in the window. "Even when you two were dating…"

"Oh yeah," Knives said as she turned to me. "You never talked about that much." And I didn't want to now. But she wasn't going to let it drop, was she?

"What is there to say? He was an idiot, I was an idiot for not seeing how much of one he was. He liked to pretend that he rescued me from Simon to make himself more 'heroic'. I'm better off without him."

"That's what you say about Jason, too," he laughed, and I felt myself growing even more earnest in my desire to be silent and not have to react to any of this. "And… that's probably true. Sometimes I worry about Hollie going through the same thing eventually."

"She deserves it. They both do."

Pointing her fork at me, Steph said, "You always do that. Blame everyone else for all your problems. Not saying they're all your fault, either, just… maybe the truth is somewhere in the middle?"

"Always," Stephen sighed.

"Well, I think you guys are being too hard on Kim," Knives put in with a little pout, picking at the communal plate of nachos. "Scott dumped me, too, and he wasn't very smart about how he did it, but that's just Scott; he doesn't know how to handle serious stuff until he can't avoid it, I think. That's not her fault."

"Yeah, you and she both dated Scott," Steph said with a slightly suspicious smile. "Funny that you're hanging out together now, despite that."

"Why is it funny?" It was a genuine question, not an accusation. Of course it was. Knives was such a wide-eyed marshmallow.

"Uhhh, because normally you don't get along with your ex's exes?"

Shrugging, Stephen grumbled, "I get along with Julie better than most of you do."

"That's because you turned out to be gay."

"What does that have to do with it? We still broke up when I started dating Joseph."

"Have you ever noticed all our names start with an S, a K, or a J?" Knives observed out of nowhere.

"Yeah… well, except for Neil."

"Or those other guys," Steph said. "Like Lucas Lee, and the other people who Scott beat up?"

Stephen shook his head. "No, they don't count."

"Why not?"

"They aren't part of 'us', they're the bad guys," he went on reasonably, gesturing to the table with an open palm as if the gesture would help sell his argument. "But then they still do that supervillain thing." When both Steph and Knives kept staring at him in confusion, he sat up a little straighter in the hard wooden booth. "You know… Lucas Lee, Roxie Richter, Gideon Graves… Ken and Kyle Katayanagi. That thing."

"Alliteration," she breathed. "The highest form of evil."

"Ohhhhh," Knives said with a hand in front of her open mouth. "That's so weird how I never noticed! But what about Todd Ingram? I mean, I hearted The Clash At Demonhead, so I remember him better…"

"He's the outlier. I mean, not every villain has to adhere to the trope for it to be a trope."

"What's a trope?" Steph asked. But Stephen wasn't listening; he was staring at me, eyes squinting slightly. I tried to ask what he was staring at…

But I couldn't. My lips wouldn't move, and my eyes wouldn't blink. Nothing happened despite my best efforts.

"Oh shit," he whispered. "Kim turned to stone again."

To Be Continued…

#kim pine's precious little knives #kim pine #forkanna writes #scott pilgrim vs. the world #knives chau #forkanna the writer

4 notes · View notes

true-king-of-monsters · 7 years

Text

Demon Face and Angel Heart

A/N: Nothing like a week or two long break to get the creative juices flowing.

Chapter 1: Bad Day, Worse Hangover

10 A.M. was the earliest Eren could wake after a night involving a threesome in his trailer. The layout was littered with newspaper clippings, a box containing a half eaten pepperoni pizza, and his boots laying right beside a mattress while a flat screen TV flickers as it reports the daily news involving a message from a masked man claiming to speak for humanity.

“The demons have been increasing their power for millennia.” he spoke in a deepened voice, “They are on the verge of controlling mankind. Citizens, we have been kept sleeping in a manufactured illusion for too long. We must wake up!”

The TV cut back to a reporter in the news studio adorned with reds and blues and an eagle as its logo. His appearance gave the impression of an older man in his mid-50′s with a horrid combover and a face that was sagging from a presumed heavy amount of scowling at the outside world.

“The masked lunatic you saw there claims to represent an organization called The Order.”

The tone in his voice was so grating that it managed to actually wake Eren up from his sleep to find himself stark naked except for a necklace that housed a red gem.

Lurching forward, Eren could feel his head pounding away as he tried gaining a sense of what happened last night. All he could muster was a foggy blur in his head. His short punkish hair was complimented by a downward scar on the right side of his face over on his eyebrow.

“This group has claimed for several serious attacks in recent weeks.” The newsman reported. “He is undoubtedly a traitor and a terrorist.”

Eren cracked his neck as he sat naked in his bed. His back was covered in scratches and in between his shoulder blades was a marking. A circle with three pairs of wavy lines representing wings was then bisected by a sword being driven through the circle. The marking started to glow as his entire body was healed from his scratches.

Eren saw a bottle marked with a devils appearance and the number 666 printed on the front to his left and grabbed it. The smell of whiskey filled his nose as he leaned back for a sip. On his arm was a note from one of the dancers he took home at the bar reading “Hell of a night. Call us!”

“And I for one am not for the death penalty, so….” the voice kept talking, “there’s only one way to do it; illegally shoot the son of a bitch. This is Bob Barbas, just doin’ God’s work.”

A pounding on the door earned Eren’s attention and a voice urgent in tone was shouting.

“Eren! Get out of there, you’re in danger!” the voice shouted.

Eren opened the door to reveal a flash of sunlight off the pier and a petite blonde woman in an orange jacket that was splashed with blue sleeves and a blue hood, a stencil sheet rolled up and singed on her back, and a pair or jean shorts complete with boots and knee-high socks . Her face was noticeably a bit paler and in the center of her forehead was a pentagram. The sunlight felt like a flashing grenade went off in his face as he was stared at by the woman.

The mysterious woman was not amused by how she expected things to turn out. She expected him to put on a pair of pants at the very least, but instead she got a very detailed look at his naked body including a stunning six pack, chiseled pecs, and very toned muscles. The back of her head almost wanted her to tell him to turn around so she could marvel at his backside, but this was a time of crisis, not for desires of the flesh.

“Who are you?” Eren slurred. “What do you want?”

“You were careless.” she replied, “You left a trail. Now he’s onto you.”

“What are you talking about? Who’s onto me?” Eren asked.

“A hunter demon,” she hissed.

A low growl could be faintly heard amidst the chattering people. The blonde woman turned to the ocean and felt a chill run up her spine as a demonic presence grew closer and closer.

“He’s here.” she gasped.

Eren could see a shadowy figure in the water taking form as the skies turned blood red. The people walking along the pier became nothing but walking silhouettes and the Hunter rose from the water. Its face was apish and had a large scar on its face where its nose should be.

“ERrrrrrrRRENNNnnnnn!” The low roar shook Eren’s bones, but he felt no fear. He welcomed the idea of a fight

“He is dragging you into Limbo.” The woman muttered.

“Demon scum.” Eren snarled.

“It’s too late, you’re gonna have to fight your way out.” She sighed.

The Hunter roared out and it was as if the entire pier convulsed in response. Jagged rock formations sprouted from the sea, the floorboards twisted, and pieces of carnival rides floated in midair. Limbo was a realm with its own set of physics far different from the human world and Eren was stuck with only one way out of a nightmare such as this. He needed to fight back.

“Shit!” Eren hissed. “Back in Limbo….Bad day for a hang-over.”

The Hunter leapt onto a rock formation and smirked at what it was aiming to collect. Mundus would offer a handsome reward for any demon that was audacious enough to capture Eren and return him dead or alive.

It reached behind to pull out an enormous grapple gun that was almost the size of an SUV and aimed it right at Eren. One pull of the trigger, and the claw launched forth and gripped his trailer. Eren was lucky to dodge out of the way, but was not exactly amused by how his trailer was caught in the crossfire.

“Get your filthy fucking claw off my trailer!” he spat.

The hunter demon pulled on the grapple gun and the trailer nearly came crashing down on Eren. Eren managed to dodge the impact and dodge the debris in his trailer. Eren’s reflexes allowed him to react to the debris flying around and even manage to put on whatever clothing he could find.

Crashing through the trailer window, Eren landed back on the pier with a gray tank top, black jeans, boots, and fingerless leather gloves on his body.

The Hunter snarled in annoyance as the demon smashed the trailer midair only to find Eren on dry land.

“Missed.” Eren smirked as the demon plunged into the briny deep. The floorboards spat out a black ooze and a screeching noice came from the liquid.

Demons made of organic and inorganic parts rose up with clubs adorned in spikes. Their white and black skulls shining in the blood red light gave them a menacing look. These were Lesser Stygians. Known as grunts of Hell’s legions, they lack brute force, but make up for in speed and numbers.

The symbol on Eren’s back started glowing as a sword manifested from the aether. The sword had a name for itself: Rebellion. It was a two-handed longsword with a silver hue with the forward facing edge forming a curved pattern for the guard and a rounded pommel resembling a face.

“Time for a little Rebellion.” Eren smirked. His technique with Rebellion could best be described as “Sloppy, but highly effective against groups”.

“You wanna fight?!” Eren spat at the Lesser Stygian charging at him. “LET’S GO!”

Eren swung the blade with a flurry of strikes with less grace one would expect from a man of his stature, but the effective force behind each blow was enough to tear them apart. Eren could feel his heart race in excitement as more of these creatures kept coming and he kept on slashing them down. It was a thrill for him.

Eren felt a light in his eyes shine as he launched three of these demons into the air with no effort, hack away a dazzling combo before landing an overhead blow sending them down to the floor in pieces.

“Slam Dunk!” Eren shouted. He could feel a smile growing with each killing skillfully timed dodge. The fight was heaven to him in Limbo. It gave him purpose.

“Keep coming.” Eren taunted more demons appeared. Eren lurched forward into the group thrusting the blade into one of them. A trillion swift thrusts, and the demon was in pieces. The remaining few attempted to strike Eren all at once, but it was too late. Eren backflipped and ended a few feet away from the swarm and lopped their heads off without even looking.

“Eren!” The stranger shouted, “This way.”

“Who said that?” Eren wondered as he ran along the pier.

In the distance, Eren could spot on a string of lights a bra housing two pistols. One was black and the other one was white resembling Desert Eagles with the grips that were twisted into sharp points and sported a ring shaped hammer as well as engravings near the bore. Their names were Ebony and Ivory. Eren used these weapons many times against demons he couldn’t quite reach with Rebellion, and if it weren’t for them, he would have been dead on numerous occasions.

“My guns?” Eren asked. His thoughts were interrupted by the shakes of the Hunter’s grapple gun smashing into the floorboards. One hard pull, and the pier started to collapse underneath him. He knew he had to make a run for it otherwise he’d be dead sooner than later. Eren leapt across the gaps and avoided trailers crashing down. As he made his way across, a trailer was tilting on the brink of plunging into the deep. Eren dashed as fast as he could to the string of lights and with a flip into the air, he landed on his feet with both guns in his hands.

“Ebony. Ivory. I missed you girls.” Eren purred. Eren turned around to unleash a barrage of bullets without ever needing to reload at the Hunter, but it only managed to barely tickle the monster. The demon smirked at how Eren was hopelessly outmatched from its perspective.

Eren continued on his way for an escape when his eyes caught a light shining. A chubby demon with a cherub design and horns emerged from the light. This creature was a Bathos, and although it looked like a cherub, it was anything but angelic.

“Target practice.” Eren said with interest. “Right on cue.”

Eren fired away at the winged monster, and reveled in how it was helpless against the bullets shredding it to pieces. More of them kept coming, and Eren felt an idea click in his head. Not knowing how he managed to do it, he could feel his guns charging with energy and with a pull of the triggers, two bullets ricocheted amidst three of the Bathos demons and knocked them about before Eren swung Rebellion like a baseball bat causing them to shatter.

Lesser Stygian troops entered the fray to provide the Bathos swarm an advantage as the cherub demons attempted to throw grenades composed of demonic energy at Eren. Eren used Rebellion to knock back the projectiles and the grenades exploded on impact reducing the Bathos to burned pieces. Eren turned to the Lesser Stygian and sliced it in half with Rebellion. The demon was still intact until Eren placed Rebellion on his back and the monster fell apart into two perfect halves.

Eren kept walking along when he heard a voice call out to him.

“Eren.” a familiar voice rang. The blonde woman from earlier was relieved to see him alive. Eren, however was not so happy as he pointed Ebony and Ivory at her.

“Don’t shoot!” she gasped. Her appearance was almost like a hologram to his eyes. “My name is Historia! I’m not a demon” she shouted. Her hands were raised over her head and she tried to keep calm as Eren was pointing two guns at her. “I’m still in the real world. You’re in Limbo.” Historia’s position and motions went unnoticed by the humans waling around. They must have though she was a street performer and went about their way.

Eren put down one of his guns. “How come I can see you clearly?” he asked.

“I’m a medium - psychic- I can phase into Limbo and communicate with you.” Historia explained. “I can see you, talk to you, but I’m not actually in Limbo with you.”

“And if I pull the trigger?” Eren asked.

“I’ll die.” Historia whimpered. “I’m risking my life here for you. I want to help.”

Eren paused weighing his options. He put down his gun and looked at her with annoyance written all over his face. “I don’t need your help.” he snarled.

“The Hunter has dragged you into Limbo.” Historia said. “I can get you out.”

“I’ve been down here before; I know how to get out.” Eren replied. “You fight whatever shitsucking demon dragged you in here.”

“You don’t want to fight the Hunter.” Historia asserted. “He’s not your regular demon.”

Historia walked off to find a way off the pier. Eren placed his guns away as he sighed realizing he’s got not no choice but to listen to her.

“Follow me.” Historia called. “Now!”

Eren started to wander through the debris and mangled architecture of Limbo. “Where did she go?” he wondered as he made his way to a ride spinning out of control. Lesser Stygians appeared from the black ooze and Eren was itching to fight back.

With a swing of Rebellion, Eren was able to knock one of them onto the ride causing it to explode in a million pieces. The remaining few lashed out attempting to kill Eren, but he managed to dodge by leaping into the air and descending back down with a hailstorm of bullets. The demons then felt the heavy blow of a sword as all four were cleaved into chunks.

The sound of footsteps echoed as Eren saw the Hunter rise up from the sea only to chase him down the pier. The demon lunged forth onto the ferris wheel and something on it caught Eren’s attention. A leather black coat that was faded from years of wear and tear with red interior linings, a hood, and the Union Jack flag sewn onto the left arm was caught flapping on one of the seats.

“Is that my coat?” Eren asked. “How did it get up there?”

His answer would have to wait as the ferris wheel buckled and detached from the support beams and rolled towards him. The Hunter attempted that killing him with collateral damage would be effective against this adversary.

Eren managed to dodge the oncoming debris and sliced his way through the inner workings of the wheel. A side flip and a nonchalant dodge later, Eren finally had his jacket back.

“Sweet.” Eren smiled.

The damage done didn’t just affect the landscape in Limbo, but also poured into the real world as well. Raptor News Network had cameras rolling as the ferris wheel smashed through buildings and crushed people in its wake.

“Breaking news - we go live to our eye in the sky.” reported Bob Barbas, “Steve, I can’t believe what I’m seeing!”

Back in Limbo, Eren looked at the ferris wheel moving away and saw that he was now surrounded by a Bathos swarm and several Lesser Stygian troops. Eren was ready for another round of punishment.

The demons attempted to swarm him, but Eren was capable of knocking them around like rag dolls. A well timed shot from his pistols here, a swing from his sword there, and the demons were reduced to severed limbs and husks.

The Hunter, perched on top of a building, leapt to a rock jutting out and aimed the grapple gun at Eren.

“Hey!” Eren shouted. “Get town here and fight!” The Hunter aimed for the floorboards and managed to manifest a hand from the wood. Eren caught a glimpse of a yellow light from inside an attraction house as he dodged the hand grabbing at him. It was his only chance.

Eren used his the reload time the Hunter had to make a move and dashed to the attraction. The Hunter shot and missed, but mange to block Eren off leaving him trapped inside.

Eren made his way up the stairs of the haunted house and went down the hallway. An obvious animatronic sprang forth and made a scream that was unable to frighten even a mouse.

“Get lost!” Eren huffed as he kept running. The Hunter’s arm smashed through the structure to paw at him.

“Oh shit!” Eren gasped as he dodged being caught by the monster. As the rubble collapsed near the hole, Eren made his way to a portrait gallery full of eyeballs staring at him and banked left. His reflection was in the midst of a colossal mirror. Eren walked towards it only to encounter the Hunter right behind the glass as it shattered into pieces. It swung right at him, but Eren was too quick for the beast as he leapt up the wall and landed back down on his feet. Eren drew Rebellion out for the killing blow, but the Hunter attempted an overhead strike with a knife the size of a car. Eren blocked the knife and managed to send the demon crashing into a wall by using its momentum against him.

“Hey! Get back here!” Eren taunted as the demon roared before fleeing away. Eren made his way down a flight of stairs while passing a row of colossal animatronics that giggled like children. Their bug-eyed gaze felt as if they were watching his movement.

“Exit. Good.” Eren sighed in relief as he saw the exit sign before him in a room full of gears and motors whirring about. The gears soon jerked and created a barricade for Eren. “Not good.” he huffed. A Lesser Stygian attempted to swing at him only to feel the crushing blow of a metal gear smashed into pieces as Eren dodged with minimal effort.

More of them kept crawling up and Eren managed to knock the monsters into the gears with a combination of swipes. As the gears moved down, even thought he would be able to escape. However, Limbo always did play by its own rules and the door slid away from him and laid out obstacles for him.

A trio of spinning saw blade gates was the only thing keeping Eren out, but Eren’s speed and agility managed to come into play.

Eren finally exited the structure only to be greeted by the Hunter’s knife spinning at him leaving a wake of destruction. Amidst the debris was a white long haired wig, presumably from a gift shop, that landed on Eren’s head. Eren turned to a nearby mirror and chuckled at what he saw. His own face with a mop of white hair and bangs seemed a bit silly for his taste. “Not in a million years.” he smirked as he tossed the wig off his head and fired at the monster.

Historia appeared behind him glad to see him alive, but she was concerned about Eren not thinking his way around the problem at hand. His bullets were unable to even sting the monster walking towards him on all fours.

“That won’t work.” Historia said.

“Why not?” Eren asked.

“He’s bulletproof.” she replied.

Eren was annoyed by how his trusty guns had no effect. Just then, the floorboards began to shake and violently rip apart.

“There’s a rift up ahead.” Historia called to Eren.

“A what?” Eren asked dodging the debris.

“It will take you back to the real world. We’ll come back for the Hunter.” Historia exclaimed.

While other humans ran to safety of the mainland, they had no idea what was going on in Limbo. Buildings began to tear apart and levitate, rocks jutted out like teeth, and a large monster was chasing after Eren. Historia made her way to the exit after seeing Eren stop at a halt as the Hunter used its grapple gun to create a barricade trapping him.

“Okay, then.” Eren hissed. “Let’s fight.”

“Eren, wait!” Historia cried out as she threw a molotov cocktail at the Hunter. Her aim was impeccable as it managed to his the beast in the face causing it to shriek in agony as the flames blinded him.

“It’s working.” Historia chirped. “You can fight him now. It won’t be easy. Hunters are brutal fighters.”

“So am I.” Eren replied. Eren readied his guns and aimed for the wound on the Hunter’s face. A storm of bullets was enough to send the monster snarling in pain and lash out.

“Eren, can you still hear me?” Historia cried out while witnessing from the real world an ape-like creature attacking Eren with a knife the size of a taxi.

“Yeah, I can still hear you!” Even called back dodging its swiping blows.

“Attack its face!” Historia cheered on.

Eren leapt pinto the air and swung away at the beast’s face. The pain was unbearable as the monster collapsed in agony. Eren struck back harder as the monster fell down.

“Oh, you feel it now, don’t you?” Eren taunted.

The Hunter scrambled back up and gained its distance. It blew out a black cloud of smoke and threw its blade at Eren in the hopes it would carve him in half. Eren could hear the spinning dagger coming and blocked it with Rebellion. The impact was then redirected towards the monster knocking it out as well as dispersing the mist in the process. Eren hacked away at the demon until it finally was too exhausted to even move.

“Game over.” Eren snarked.

“Son….of Grisha……” The monster spoke.

“Son of who?” Eren asked.

“You have been found.” it growled. “You are dead, just like your whore mother.”

“Whore mother?” Eren asked. “I don’t know my mother, but if you’e calling me a son of a bitch, you wouldn’t be the first!” Eren felt the anger drive his blade into the creature’s skull as it made a wet cutting noise. The resulting act managed to bring Eren back to the real world as the blood red skies became gray and cloudy once again with buildings smashed or burned by fire.

“My mother….” Eren muttered as he collected his senses. “I barely remember her…” A blurry memory stuck out in his head of him as a child. A beautiful woman whose face was obscured gave him his necklace. It was all he could muster.

Hours passed and Eren walked along the beach roads where cop cars zoomed past him. A black car rolled up past him driven by Historia herself.

“Are you okay, Eren?” Historia asked.

“How do you know my name?” Eren asked back.

“My boss knows you. He wants to meet.” Historia replied with a small smile. “Please. I helped you back there.

“I didn’t ask for your help.” Eren hissed at her. He looked to see the cop cars zooming past him only to reconsider her proposal. Either go with her or spend time in jail. He decided the former would be much more rewarding compared to dealing with cops all day and signaled her to drive him to her boss.

“We know all about you, Eren.” Historia said as she drove off with him. “I’m with an organization called The Order. Heard of it?”

“Something to do with that masked freak on the net?” Eren asked.

“That’s my boss.” she answered.

“Wonderful.” Eren sassed. “Can’t wait.”

The Raptor News Network was broadcasting on the enormous screen outside the news tower.

“We’re just receiving reports of a terrorist attack that has taken place at the Bellevue pier in the western district of the city.” The voice was none other than Bob Barbas himself covering the damage brought about by Eren’s fight with the demons. “Police are asking the public to remain vigilant - further terrorist attacks could take place anywhere, any time, and when you least expect them.”

Inside of the Silver Sachs tower, Mundus and Lillith watched the news report unfurl on a screen bigger than a couch. Mundus himself was pleased by how things have turned out despite a Hunter having been killed in action.

“We have your scent, Son of Grisha.” Mundus smirked. “Now it’s just a matter of time.”

#Fic: Demon Face and Angel Heart #Erekuri

7 notes · View notes

batsy-batsy-batsy-blog1 · 7 years

Text

Gotham’s Most Wanted [The Joker x Harley] part 3

Day 3 of JokerxHarley Week: Lust

(This fic is going to be a series, one chapter for each day of the week, but some chapters may have more to do with the theme of the day than others) Check out @jokerxharleyweek for other submissions

I know this is ridiculously late, but I’m notorious for not updating on time, I will try to get the rest of the chapters out soon!

Summary: Harleen Quinzel finds someone she never expected in a world she’s convinced is out to get her. (Highschool AU)

AO3.org

“Let’s just not go to school today,” Jack suggested, his hands holding onto her hips in the hallway of their building. “My mom’s not gonna be home all day.” He leaned in whispering lightly in her ear.

It had been a total of three days since she had kissed Jack for the first time. Three days. And she had spent every second at his side since then. He liked having his hands on her at all times pretty much, liked showing she was his, because there may not be a lot of people who talk to her at school, but that didn’t mean they didn’t look. J didn’t like people to look, just him, only he could look. And he enjoyed looking.

“You know I wanna J, but my dad will kill me if he’s sees I’m absent.” She looked up at him pouty, she learned pretty quick that her pouts held a certain effect on him.

“Come on Harl, you stole all those fancy computers, and you’re practically glued to them, just hack the school system. Make it look like you’re there.” He could make anything sound tempting. She was pretty sure if he asked her to jump off a cliff like that, she’d do it.

“That’s illegal J,” She smiled, and he laughed lowly, sliding his hands up to her waist, tightening his grip.

“And everything else we do together isn’t?” He asked. All she needed were those few moments of extra attentiveness from him, in reality she had no objections to spending the day with him in an empty apartment, it sounded pretty good to her.

“Okay,” she shrugged. He had been very close to her throughout the entire conversation, and when she agreed to his proposition, he leaned down and kissed her roughly, pushing her up against the wall with his lips. It took everything she had not to start smiling as wide as she could. Instead she kissed back with the same intensity, wrapping her arms around his neck. He wasted no picking her up, and placing her legs around his waist before carrying her through the door to his apartment.

He tossed her onto his mess of a bed, jumping on top of her before she could really process the scene. She had only ever been in here one other time, and it was for the same type of situation she was in now. She hadn’t really been in the mindset to take in information, nor was she now, but she had enough wits about her to take in that the room was a mess, and a messy room reflects a messy mind, but she already knew that about him.

She tried to wrap her arms around him neck again as he kissed along her jawline, eventually moving down to her neck, but he growled and snatched her wrists, slamming the bed, and holding them there in a bruising grip. She giggled, J loved his control.

He had began to leave hickeys near the base of her neck, and around the back, carefully chosen spots her father wouldn’t see, but then he stopped, sitting up. He was still straddling her, but his intense blue eyes held a hard stare on her neck.

“Where’d you get these Harls, because I sure as held didn’t make them?” She was utterly confused at this point, seeing as only he had ever given her hickeys before, and they definitely weren’t on her neck. His fingers trailed along her neck, and when his finger pressed painfully into one of the marks, she remembered her father’s fingerprint bruises.

She squirmed uncomfortably under his gaze, as she was unwilling to give him an answer. She didn’t want to tell him about her father, there was no telling what he’d do with that information, but she knew it would just make things worse.

“They’re not hickeys J, I swear it.” She promised, biting her lip out of nerves.

“Then how did you get circular bruises on your neck Doll?” He leant back down over top of her, hand on either side of her head so all she could see was him.

“Let this one slid J, you know I only got eyes for you?”

“Doesn’t mean other people don’t have eyes for you.” He muttered, but he pulled her into a kiss anyway. He grabbed her by the wrists again, but this time using them to pull her into a sitting position, her on his lap with her legs around him. “So what does daddy’s lil harlequin want done to her today?” He asked as he pulled her shirt over her head.

Harlequin. She could have died at the mere mention of the nickname he’d given her, it was so clever. It sounded eerily similar to her real name, and as a harlequin was a form of jester, she was the perfect match to him as he was the ‘clown’. The name had even led to him calling her Harley Quinn, and Harley, which she loved even more.

“Anything daddy wants.” She giggled. She wasn’t expecting to become such a cliche girl with daddy issues, but daddy kink was hot as all hell, and he started it. “You got a condom?”

“Nah, I think I left them at yours.” He shrugged laying her back down on the bed, eyes hungry. However she put a hand up to stop him.

“No rubber, no Harley.” She said firmly.

“Come on Harls, it’s one time.” He practically purred running his hands don her body, making her eyes roll back into her head, but she shook it off.

“Nuh uh J.” She pushed him off her so he was laying next to her on the bed.

“So now what are we gonna do?” He whined.

“Get yourself a condom, and we’ll get right back to what we were doing.”

“Fine, then I guess we’re headed to your place.”

“Well I guess my dad isn’t home ’til this evening, and mom’s passed out last time I checked.”

“Then, come on.” He threw her over his shoulder, and basically sprinted across the hall, tossing her into her own bed, and digging around the tiny room for his box of condoms.

Harley just sat on the bed holding her stomach from laughing, as he looked frantically. She couldn’t contain herself when all she saw an arm appear from the floor over the side of her bed triumphantly clutching the box of condoms. His face was elated when he stood up.

“Phew,” he sighed happily, “now, back to business.”

Suddenly, Harley was smushed underneath him, as he attacked her with kisses, and the laughter stopped, this wasn’t so funny anymore.

“Making up for lost time,” he breathed as he place more hickeys on her breasts, he had marked her so many times at this point that there was no question who she belonged to now. Harleen Quinzel may have been enslaved to her father, but Harley Quinn only answered to J.

Blood was rushing in her ears, as he made his way down her body, and maybe that’s why she didn’t hear him. She was always so careful to listen, but she had made the fatal mistake to get caught up in herself. J was inching her pants off painfully slow went he burst in.

“So! You’re a little fucking whore now aren’t ya!” Her father roared, charging at them. Easily flinging Jack aside, he grabbed her by the arm, yanking her fully off the bed and onto the floor at his feet. The fall would no doubt leave harsh bruises on her knees. Then he grabbed a fist full of her pigtails.

This seemed to be his new favourite part of her body to drag her by. As a small kid, when her hair was the shortest, most platinum blond blunt bob cut, with choppy bangs, he went for the ankles. She assumed it was because he liked the thought of the uneven floorboards creating more bruising and scratching up her back as he pulled her across the floor. But as she got older, and her hair grew just a bit longer and darkened, her legs got stronger. She was beginning to teach herself gymnastics so she could kick her legs out of his grasps with relative ease, and she learned a few nicely places kicks could allow her enough time to run from the apartment all together. When her father caught onto this, he moved onto the wrists. It offered less pain for her, but much more effective in transporting her from one side of the apartment to another, and just as degrading. Although, when her hair reached its current length, and she started wearing it in pigtails, he found a way to bring intense pain back into the equation, and even more of a struggle for her as it was impossible to keep her footing with this method.

“I won’t have a whore in my house hold, you wanna fuck all the boys and be a slut, you can do it somewhere else.” His voice was low, and shaking. She couldn’t remember the last time she had seen him so mad. Her knees were scraped to pieces as he hauled her across the floor. Her mother was in the living room, just standing there. Staring.

“Fucking do something!” Harley yelled at her, tears streaming down her face. “You’re my mother, help me!” She screeched. Lillian Quinzel just dragged her haggard, broken down body back into the bedroom, and collapsed.

“Here we are!” Max declared, feigning enthusiasm. Her father slid open the window that led to their fire escape. The latter to the ground had long since rusted to nothingness, leaving a rickety frame you’d have to be suicidal to attempt to climb down from.

“Dad, stop!” She pleaded, crying, and struggling as he shoved her out the window, marooning her on the landing. She still was only in her underwear, and they were in the midst of a brutally cold winter.

“Now, to deal with the sex crazed boy in your room.” He told her, before slamming the window shut, trapping her.

“No!” She banged on the window, screaming for someone to let her in

It was as if he left her on a deserted island. She could scream for help all she wanted, but no could hear her.

She sat on the frozen metal platform for hours, watching the sky turn dark, and hazy, or maybe that was just her vision going blurry. Her body had moved on from shaking uncontrollably, to not moving at all. She could see the light layer of frost that coated her skin, pretty soon, she’d become a part of this damn fire escape, and it would be like she never existed at all.

You’ve never really been cold until you’ve felt cold like this. Until you’ve literally had no option but to stay where you were and take it. You’ve never been cold until you’ve had nothing to remotely helpful to keep you warm, not until all you could do was wrap your own bony, uncovered arms around yourself and wait. Not until shake so much you physically can’t stop until your body freezes over, and when you do freeze over, you’re so still you think you could be paralyzed. All that movement just stops, and you get colder. Once you have your own personal layer of frost you think it can’t possibly get worse, but every minute it gets colder, and you reach a level of suicidal you didn’t think was possible. A level where you can’t move a muscle, so you’re just begging so force of nature to take you out. Did I forget to mention the crying? Yeah, you can’t stop crying, and the tears freeze on your face and you’re even colder. You have never been cold until you’ve been cold like this.

When all the stars had finally lit up the sky, and it was inky black, she heard a small tap on the window. She moved her head as fast she could to see who it was, but as fast as she could was a slow, shaky speed, and she could hear her frost crackling as she did so. She saw to big green, glassy eyes, and then the window opened.

Harley burst into tears.

She had never felt so broken, and alone as she did spending that day on the fire escape. She had, at one point tried to shake the landing so the icicle directly above her would fall and end the day for her. The only reason she didn’t get up and roll off the side of the railing was because she was frozen in position.

her mother reached out an pulled Harley back outside when she realized she was so frozen she couldn’t move on her own. When her feet landed on the floor inside, she fell straight to the ground, and wept. So happy to be back inside, but also so damn tired. She was melting ice, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to thaw anymore.

“The boy has been knocked out on your bedroom floor all day, your father’s asleep.” He mother whispered softly, then she was gone as quickly as she’d come.

Harley lay there for what felt like another hour, but in reality it could have been five minutes. She had lost all feeling in every body part she had during the day outside, and regaining feeling was a painful process. The cold would bite and scratch at you until you could no longer feel it, but getting that feeling back lit your body on fire, and brought back every damning symptom of the cold the numbness relieved you from.

When her frosty legs could again hold her weight, she headed to her room. Her mother had said J had been knocked out on her floor all day. What could her father had done to him?

When she pulled back the curtain to her bedroom, guilt punched her hard in the gut. J was lying on the floor beside her bed, and next to him, the baseball bat she kept underneath her bed. She had brought this on to him. If she hadn’t insisted on being his friends, and pushed, and been so forward about her feelings for him, he wouldn’t be here.

She dropped to her knees and crawled toward his black and blue figure. His right eye was swollen, tinged a mixture of reds, blacks, and purples. That the only damage she could see, she knew her father well enough to know that damage would extend greatly underneath his clothes.

“J?” She whispered, praying she wasn’t talking to a corpse. “It’s me.” To her relief he grunted. “Hey, you’re alive,” she smiled despite their situation, “now open your eyes babe.”

“Can’t, hurts too much.” He groaned, only moving his mouth. She just hoped he was refusing to move, and not that he actually couldn’t.

“No, J, I need you to look at me, please?” Her voice cracked, and she was on the verge of tears again. At least rate she would become dehydrated within five minutes.

She watched him reluctantly blink his eyes open. The one with that nasty bruise surrounding it, was bleeding into the white of the eye, and he could barely open it, but the other looked intact. He shifted his gaze toward her, and his eyes flashed. He slid himself into a sitting position against the wall in so much haste, that it caused him to sharply wince in pain.

“Harley, what happened to you? You’re blue! Come here.” He opened his arms, and she curled into him thankfully. “Babe, you’re ice to the touch.”

“Dad put me outside all day, trapped me on the fire escape.” She explained, as he pulled the comforter from her bed to cover them. He obviously wasn’t moving tonight.

“How long is all day? How long have we been here?”

“Well, I’m guessing the reason he came home was because he got the call from the school about me being absent, so I think that was around 10am, and he probably got me outside around 10:30, so if my math is correct, I’m going to say around 13 hours.”

“With no clothes on? In the winter? You’re probably sick Harls!” He tightened his grip around her, rubbing her arms in a useless attempt to warm her up.

“Yeah, and my dad probably broke multiple bones in your body.” She replied, utterly defeated.

“He’s not going to get away with this.”

“He always does.”

“So that’s where you got those bruises, huh? Pops likes to think choking you will scare you into behaving?”

“It works so well, doesn’t it?”

“And this cut?” She felt his fingers run along her hairline.

“That be from my head constantly hitting the toilet after he practically drowned me.”

“No one touches you, but me.” He was holding onto her now, she was sure he would leave his own fingerprint bruises on her waist. “Kiss me.” It came out of no where, so demanding, and abrupt. He wanted to feel something, feel they were still there, still on earth.

Blue, frosty lips met swollen bleeding ones for a perfect dance of the broken hearted.

#jokerxharleyweek #joker #the joker #harley quinn #harleen quinzel #jokerxharley #joker x harley #jxhq

86 notes · View notes

forkanna · 6 years

Link

[AO3 LINK] [EF LINK]

NOTE: I was eating garlic bread while writing this first scene. Truefans will know.

Scott and Ramona made good on their offer to help me clean up Super Simon's super-mess. Unfortunately, they only stuck around long enough to do that because they had to move on to find the next piece of the Gideonflux. Or the next Gideonflux? I wasn't clear on whether or not that was the name of each thingy or the whole of them once collected. Either way, we hugged and said our goodbyes once the slime was gone.

"Look me up sometime," Ramona whispered into my ear as we hugged. "If you're ever on Alpha Centauri, or in the States. I tend to hang out there mostly."

"Probably not happening. I've had enough excitement for a while."

"Totally understandable." Then she moved on to hug Knives while I turned to Scott.

"So… um, do you still play?"

He shrugged and gave a quiet laugh. "We both know I suck. And not just at the bass guitar." It was quiet for a moment. "I was expecting you to say 'yeah, you do, Scott'."

"Mm. Just didn't feel like saying it. You helped me clean up in here, and were pretty cool about me coming out just now. Helps a lot."

"Did you come out? Oh… yeah, I guess so. I mean, maybe living with Wallace kind of did that thing."

"That thing?"

"You know, the thing where you aren't surprised by certain kinds of stuff anymore."

"Desensitised you?"

"That's it."

Nodding a little, I glanced over at where Ramona and Knives were chattering away like old friends, even though they had once been bitter rivals for Scott's affections. "Shit changes. Easier to just roll with it."

"Kind of my motto lately, too," he admitted with a little chuckle. Then he frowned. "Kim?"

"Yes?"

"The bald look sucks, doesn't it?"

"Yes."

"Right. I dunno, I got a little of it chopped off with a buzz saw from a sub-boss, and I kept trying to even it out, and Ramona walked in to see I already completely shaved it off. So I've been trying to rock it, but… yeah, she agrees with you. I'll grow it back out."

"You'll survive the stubbly stage," I snorted. "Anyway… uh, take it easy, Pilgrim."

"You too, Princess Pine."

"Shut the fuck up and go."

Once they got back to the subspace pipe in the ceiling, they waved over their shoulders, and Knives and I waved back. Then Ramona took his hand and they jumped upward into the pipe and out of our lives forever. Or, y'know… for a long time, anyway. The pipe was gone, too; just vanished into the mystic.

After staring after them for a long moment, Knives turned to beam up at me. "You're in loooove with me, huh?"

"You can shut the fuck up and go, too," I grumbled, which didn't affect her in the slightest. She only leaned up and kissed my cheek, which made me roll my eyes but I still couldn't help the little smile on my face. "Bleh. Should we try to do any more repairs in here? Or what?"

"Dunno. But you look really cute in that dress. Kinda distracting."

"Huh?" Glancing down, I saw that the 'princess dress' my other self had been wearing was still on me. "Oh, great. I look like a bridal reject."

"You look beautiful. Like… honestly, when we get back, I really want to see you in stuff like this more often. But only if you want to!" she added as her smile vanished, worried I would be mad. But I wasn't; just surprised.

"Really? You like me all girled up? I figured it would help if I was the more 'butch' of the two of us. Like… I know you act like it isn't important, but it is. To both of us. You're my girlfriend, and everyone else is gonna see you that way."

A little shrug of one shoulder tried to say that she didn't mind, but her smile gave away how pleased she was that I had thought about that. "Nah. I like who I am and how I look; pretty confident in that. But I would probably dress extra girly if you were extra girly, so we could be lipstick lesbians together."

"Aww," I said with a little snort, and we both giggled. "Is it weird that I find that idea cute? It's cute, right?"

"Totally cute! And we can be super butch one day, and all the days between we can just… be us."

"Yeah," I whispered as I picked up my spear and we headed for the entrance. Almost more to myself than to her. "Us."

~ o ~

To summarise, I walked her all the way back to the Belly Button Portal and let her get sucked back up and out. Then I was kind of by myself and not sure of what to do. This was different from the dream-slash-flashback; now I was just kinda hanging out in my own stomach. How did I get myself into these messes?

But then I felt myself being called upward. It was kind of rude, my feet were sucked into the air first and I had to hold my dress down to keep it from falling up around my head — even though there was nobody around to see my underwear anyway. Then I was leaving my inner plane behind…

When I 'woke up' an instant later, I was lying on the sofa in the same curled-up position that I was in when I turned to stone. Everybody was gathered around who had been there when I was smacked with the glove, though a couple of them were seated or in different positions. Steph had changed into a different shirt at some point. Wallace was taking off a blue fingerless glove and tossing it casually on the coffee table, as if he did this kind of thing every day. When she noticed my eyes were open, Knives grinned at me and helped me sit up.

"Hey," she said in a gentle voice.

"How do you feel?" Stephen asked, brow furrowed as he felt my forehead. "Like, feverish or anything?"

"I'm fine, you jerk," I sighed as I slapped his hand away. "And that's for smacking me while I was a statue."

Clearly anxious, Steph crouched down next to me. "You okay? I mean… seriously, are you?"

"Yeah. Just really… man, that was weird. But I'm gonna be just fine now. Promise." My eyes found those of my girlfriend, my 'prince' and my ninja saviour, and drew her in close to me. "Pleased as punch."

The minute our lips met, in front of God and everybody, Wallace let out a long sigh. "Well, this is my cue to exit. Glad to lend my chi and expertise but I'm not much for girl-on-girl. Or girl-on-anything."

"Thanks for the boosts," Knives giggled as she turned back, though she was still half-lying on top of me. I didn't mind at all. "Helped with the sub-boss and final boss a lot. You wanna hang out sometime?"

"Why? You know any more boys with glasses?" Then he let out a tsk of mild annoyance. "Oh yeah, crap… steady boyfriend. I'm off the market; looking, no touching. Which reminds me that Goodhandy's awaits, so-"

"I meant to just like, chill and have fun together? Unless you don't wanna… it's fine."

"We're hanging out," I told Wallace in a stern, no-arguments-allowed tone. I could tell Knives was already doubting herself from his spurning of the offer, and that wasn't allowed.

"Fine, so we'll hang out," he grumbled with a roll of his eyes as he got to the front door. "Anywhere with a liquor licence. Goodnight, kids." And with that, he shuffled out.

"Yeah, I should go, too," Stephen said as he stood. "But seriously, I'm really glad you're okay, Kim. We should, uh, jam together sometime; I know we have a regular drummer but you're every bit as good-"

"Don't stroke my ego, Stills. But… yeah, could be fun."

Knives giggled as she hugged me a little before jumping to her feet excitedly. "Maybe we could get Sex Bob-omb back together! I mean, we just saw Scott, and the rest of the band's right here! Even Neil!"

"U-uh, yeah," Neil said, glancing nervously at Knives. I could tell he still felt really awkward about how things ended. Good. Fucking needed to own up to what he did.

In fact, I decided that needed to happen right away. Without another word, I hooked a hand around his upper arm and started dragging him to the kitchen. "Thanks for hauling me back here," I said as we entered.

"Sure, yeah. I couldn't just leave you out-"

"Okay, listen," I hissed once we were around the corner. "You're a nice kid, salt of the earth, blah blah blah. But I think you owe Knives an apology for how you ended things."

Caught off guard, he cleared his throat and looked away. "W-why? You're with her now, and like… that works out. For you two, I mean."

"If you're talking about her junk, that's not important to me. Maybe it'll 'work out', maybe not. But you kind of made her feel like crap about that. I know it's not the only reason you broke up, but it's part of it and you should maybe own up to how shitty you handled things."

"Oh. Well…" Swallowing hard, he looked down at the floor. "Yeah, I was really, uh, surprised. But I still thought she was great! Just, like… I couldn't handle it. Made me feel really uncomfortable, and like…" His voice got quieter, and I could tell this wasn't the easiest thing in the world for him. Especially Neil, who wasn't used to talking a lot. "I didn't want to hurt her any worse so I broke it off and tried to, uh, let her down easy. Besides, I knew she was still into Scott, and kind of crushing on Stephen. I was just kinda… there."

"What did you say? I mean, the way you 'let her down easy' is just as important as the fact that you tried. Which yeah, I guess is pretty decent."

"Just that, um, I didn't think I could handle it if we ever went past kissing. But that I hoped she found a guy who's less, uh… weird about that. I dunno, she's just really special, and I felt dumb for being hung up on… on pants stuff."

Even though 'pants stuff' was a ridiculous and hilarious way to phrase it, I couldn't help sympathising. Maybe I got over it where Neil couldn't, but we both had that moment of surprise, and the discomfort right after. But the average dude tends to have that latent homophobia thing going on, that even if they kind of grow and learn they still feel weird about anything intimate involving another guy. Or in this case, another person who happens to have a dick. Guess it wasn't fair to punish Neil too much for being average.

"Alright, I get you. But you should still apologise. Not in public, but like… I think she'd really feel better if you just said something. Knives is definitely special, and very sensitive, and deserves the best." After a brief pause, I added, "Maybe I'm a little biased, but you know I'm right."

Nodding, he stuffed his hands into his pockets. "Yeah. Just wasn't something I could handle when she told me, but like… it's not about who she is. At all! Because she's awesome. I'm really glad you two are like, so close now."

"Dating. You can say we're dating."

"Yeah, that. Girlfriends or whatever. It's cool."

Rolling my eyes, I went back into the living room. I guess "it's cool" was the best I could expect and it was a positive sign. I saw Knives look up, then past my shoulder at Neil, and then she patted me on the hip and smiled at me as she walked past; I guess he planned to do it literally right away.

"Wow," Steph sighed as she slumped down on the couch. I hit it with her, and Stephen on my other side.

"Yeah. Wow."

"What was it like in there? I mean… you kind of act like you could tell. That whole glove thing."

"You at least knew what we were doing when you were a statue," Stephen said in a grumbling voice.

"Yeah. Uh… the statue thing was more annoying than anything, but I'd already been through something like that with the glove before. The rest…"

Where the fuck do you even start with a story like this?

~ o ~

About two hours later, Knives and I excused ourselves from the Nordegraf ancestral home and went back toward my place. It was pretty late — well actually, early. The thing took all night. Felt pretty bad for all our friends, but at least it made sense of why Steph had changed her shirt. Both of us called off work as we walked, knowing we had been through way too much crap to bother with focusing on annoying customers for one day.

"Can't believe I have this whole other plane of existence in my ribcage," I muttered as we walked. "There's a John Mayer joke in there somewhere."

"What?" Knives laughed. I didn't bother to explain, and she didn't bother to ask again. "Anyway, I'm just glad we did it. You were stone for so long…"

"Yeah. Well, I guess that won't be happening anymore."

"Really? So… you think taking care of Super Simon fixed it?"

With a long sigh, I stared up at the sky as we walked. Putting one thought in front of the other. "He wasn't the real problem. It was me. Gideon took advantage of it, but the… Fluxy thing wouldn't have worked if I wasn't already broken inside. But yeah, I'm not going to be 'rocking out' anymore."

My shy smile lingered for a few seconds. Nervous that the joke was too stupid. This time, Knives definitely caught the pun and groaned, bumped her hip into mine as we walked. And I laughed. I really laughed… it felt weird and wrong, but I told myself not to worry about that.

"I like that."

"What, shitty puns?"

"No. You laughing. It's a great laugh."

"I sound like a coughing parrot."

"Nah," she giggled, lacing her fingers through mine and pulling me over to kiss my cheek. "Just because I can tell you're out of practice doesn't mean I can't hear how beautiful it's gonna be when you figure out I'm not gonna make fun of you for laughing."

God, why did my cheeks have to be so hot? "Y-yeah. Um… I guess I could blame Princess Pine for that."

"What do you mean?"

"The part of me that we set free. I mean… it's a bunch of metaphorical bullshit, but with our lives as fucked up as they are…" Sighing, I came to a stop, leaning my back against a telephone pole. "She was the real me, yeah. I guess that's true. Thing is, the other me was the real me, too. A NegaKim that I let take control because Princess Pine couldn't handle how much pain she was in after… Scott. But they weren't really that different from each other, so instead of extremes like 'black and white' or 'hot and cold', it's more like… 'mildly warm and slightly chilly'. NegaKim was stronger in some ways, and I needed her to help me stay alive. Problem was, she's not very good at taking the steps to heal, so I kinda got stuck in this limbo. Not getting worse, but not getting better, either."

"Ohhh," was all she breathed. But she was listening with rapt attention, rocking back and forth on her boots as I babbled. "Then you made the cage yourself?"

"Maybe. Probably a combination of me and the Gideonflux. Like, that I gave it the power to really lock down my lighter side, or whatever. Like I said, metaphorical shit. But now that she's out, it's… not as hard to get closer to you."

Her body curled around mine, and I felt a little flutter. Call me a closet case if you want, but it still felt crazy being all affectionate with her in public. Now I was willing to let it happen, though. Princess Pine was part of me again and she gave me a different kind of power.

The power of love. It's a curious thing.

"NegaKim was actually doing pretty good at that before, y'know. I never felt like you were being mean just to be mean. Only that you were having trouble opening up."

"Bet you didn't suspect it was a fragment of Ramona's ex to blame," I snorted, and she laughed as she nuzzled my collarbone. "Jesus, what a crazy night."

After a moment's indecision, Knives took a step back, pulling my hands a little to get me to stand up. Then she held them out for a second before dropping them, and I kept them in that position with my eyebrows raising. After a slight crouch, she hopped up into my arms.

"HNGG! What are you doing?!"

"Letting you carry me home," she tittered, arms wrapping tightly around my neck as I threatened to buckle under her.

"Thought I was supposed to be the princess and you the prince. Gender-nonspecific prince," I added hastily. Didn't seem to have bothered her in the slightest, if the kiss to my nose was any indicator.

"We're whatever we want to be. C'mon, let's go!"

God, she felt so good. Didn't have the heart to drop her, even if my back wasn't thrilled with hauling her all the way back to my place. Just didn't want to let her go.

To Be Concluded…

#kim pine's precious little knives #scott pilgrim vs. the world #scott pilgrim fanfiction #kim x knives #forkanna writes #forkanna the writer

0 notes