cherrywrites626

[cherrywrites626]

Fighting Chapter 36 Sneak Peek

Lance didn’t even get out of bed the following afternoon until well after the match had already begun in earnest.  Keith didn’t blame him any.  After what had happened to him in front of the vast majority of his friends and peers, not to mention the throng of whispering students all congregated along their walk toward McGonagall's office in the agonizing stretch of time afterward, it was difficult to imagine he’d find himself feeling much like watching anything transpire in good spirits for a very long time.  

And that was before Hooch came banging down the door to finish chewing him out in relative privacy, standing over his already hunched and sullen form saying things like ‘permanent and immediate removal’ and ‘shame on their once good name’ and ‘deserve a better Captain than one who resorts to such dirty and dangerous tricks’.

Lance hadn’t been removed from the team entirely, but it was a near thing.  Only after McGonagall took pity and reminded the furious woman that they were already more or less facing their last shot at graduating, as it was, and that the final match wasn’t the time to force yet another team to scramble at the last second to change their playstyle to accommodate such a loss of dynamic—bolstered by the fact both sides had already said much the same about not wanting to lose the star player—did she concede to allow him one last shot at finishing the season as originally planned.

“And it is only because you are going to be out of my hair permanently after this next month that I am considering allowing such a thing to transpire,” Hooch informed him with a tone laced with residual fury, yellow eyes boring down into the side of the Gryffindor’s skull as if she could sear the words directly into his brain with her laser-pointed focus in the hope to finally get them to stick.  

Pursing her lips, she soon crossed her arms over her chest in a resolute fashion, tilting her chin once more in a show of finality that wasn’t to be argued in the least.  “But be forewarned.  Should you put a single toe out of line.  Should I have any inclination that you are causing trouble on my field, you are off the team for good this time, no ‘ifs ands or buts’.  Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, Professor,” Lance replied weakly, shoulders hunching that much further toward his ears as his eyes stayed glued to the hands trembling in his lap.  

Throughout the whole of the harrowing ordeal, he hadn’t made even a peep of sound with which to whimper in abject misery for the overwhelming quality of the unending onslaught, and it would seem that was as much energy as he was able to muster in response entirely, resuming the onset of quantifiable muteness almost immediately afterward.

McGonagall once again took pity for the plight they had to endure by excusing the two of them after handing back their respective wands, deciding the punishment as it stood more than sufficient and reminding them once again the direness of the situation.

“I mean it, gentlemen,” she said—more to Keith, than anything, seeing as how his roommate was still gazing at the ground looking pale and defeated and small.  “You have already achieved so much in such a short amount of time.  I implore you not to throw it all away with further rampant foolishness.”

“Yes, Headmistress,” he agreed with a nod, stealing a glance to the side in time to watch the pitiful display repeat itself almost mechanically in comparison.  

It wasn’t until they were all of the way out the door and down the short staircase before he attempted to say anything to the woebegone Gryffindor, checking the hall to ensure it was clear of eavesdroppers and huffing a frustrated sound out through his nose at the evening’s surprising and yet somehow totally believable sequence of events.

“Look, Lance.  I’m—”

Lance shuffled past him without seeming to notice the effort to communicate in the slightest, headed in the direction of their shared dorm on legs that appeared to be moving on a sort of numbed autopilot of staggering necessity more than any kind of true aim to reach anywhere in particular.

It slammed Keith’s mouth shut with a worried frown, but he followed along behind in much the same glacial speed as his roommate took, throwing the occasional side-eye the other’s way to ensure nothing about the situation had changed any while he collected his thoughts somewhat in preparation of trying anew.

Except that he never once got the chance to so much as offer a heartfelt apology even after they’d made it into the safety of their communal living space, the Gryffindor continuing the stiff movement of shuffling feet all the way up to his room where the door closed the world out with the softest of barely-there clicks.

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Read the last chapter update here and catch this one dropping probably sometime in mid July.

[cherrywrites626]

Chapters: 35/39 Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron) Characters: Keith (Voltron), Lance (Voltron), Pidge | Katie Holt, Hunk (Voltron), Minerva McGonagall, Neville Longbottom, Horace Slughorn, Shiro (Voltron), Shay (Voltron), Nyma (Voltron), Rolo (Voltron), Allura (Voltron), Coran (Voltron), Romelle (Voltron), Adam (Voltron) Additional Tags: klance, Slow Burn, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Hogwarts AU, Slytherin Keith, Gryffindor Lance, Ravenclaw Pidge, Hufflepuff Hunk, Punishments, Forced Cooperation, Rivalry, Potential Expulsion, Hothead Lance, Head Boy Keith, Quidditch Captain Lance, switching POVs, Lengthy Fic, Keith/Lance (Voltron) Angst, Mutual Pining, Fluff and Angst, Mild Language, Hurt/Comfort, Masturbation in Shower, Masturbation, Really slow development, but it does get better, I promise, Super slowest burn, Eventual Romance, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Friendship, Eventual Cute Moments, Oh look, it's starting to get better now, Only took 95k to get to begrudging acceptance, Jk we all know they're secretly gay for one another, This fic is going to be like 400k by the end, i'm not even sorry, If you want dorks denying feelings until the bitter end, you've come to the right place, Rivals to Lovers, or something like that, Did I mention they're roommates?, Lance is a bi disaster, Keith is an even gayer disaster, What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Summary:

The compartment door slid open a crack and a tan-skinned face peeked in. Finding the place practically empty, the young boy opened the door the rest of the way and stepped past the threshold. His eyes were blue like the ocean with flecks of grey and white, his hair the color of light-roast coffee and kept relatively close to his skull. The hints of freckles could be seen along his nose—and when he smiled shyly, one dimple showing itself in his left cheek, Keith felt his heart flutter at the sight.

“Hi, can I maybe sit with you, please? My friends aren’t on the train yet, but they’re really nice.”

Keith blinked at the boy before nodding his head. “Sure, there’s plenty of room.”

The boy beamed at that, shuffling inside with a small owl cage in one hand, closing the compartment back up with his other. “I’m Lance, by the way. Lance McClain. What’s your name?”

“I’m Keith Kogane. Nice to meet you, Lance.” --- Or A Hogwarts AU. Before Cursed Child but after Deathly Hallows. Updates ???

[cherrywrites626]

Fighting Chapter 35 Sneak Peek

Friday classes could not end soon enough.

Even with the two back-to-back, delicious little stress relievers his roommate had obliged him the evening prior, Lance was still wound so tightly with excess energy he practically could not sit still for more than a handful of minutes at a time without wanting to leap up and go run endless laps or something around Black Lake to help him cool his jets further. 

Quidditch often had that effect on him, so it was no surprise there.  Once the final games began in earnest, he was bouncing off the walls of the school and finding himself incapable of settling for long periods.  Especially the day before a momentous occasion such as Hufflepuff annihilating Slytherin.  Who wouldn’t be excited for that show?

That it was also roughly a year from the time Shay was first injured and had to step down as the team’s goalie only seemed to ignite within him a burning need to see Rosier fail spectacularly, and anything that could put that git in his place was worth buggering a few spells and making his wand retaliate against his inability to focus properly.  

By the eighth time it had done it in Charms class alone, he was glad for the reprieve of not needing the blasted thing for the remainder of the afternoon where Herbology was concerned.  At least Longbottom never demanded they do complicated spell work on the eve of such a highly anticipated match the entire school was abuzz with similar excited energy.  Not that the field of study ever used a lot of wand magic, anyhow, but that was beside the point.  

It would be his bad luck they’d run into one of the snakes in the hall that day.  The fifth-year Seeker brat Livius Greengrass wasn’t even part of their rotation, and yet he still somehow managed to appear out of thin air beside the two of them as they headed in the direction of the courtyard after lunch at a time when good little students should have had their nose stuck in a book or something considering the alternating schedules different years upheld to ensure there wouldn’t be a lot of students flooding the halls at any given time to create undue reasons to stop and have a chat between classes.

“Hey, Kogane, do you have a minute,” the brat asked as he sidled up beside the two of them, not even bothering to hide the way he refused to so much as spare him a fleeting glance to indicate that he was part of the equation in the least.

If Lance didn’t already dislike the kid for the simple fact he was a rival player, the obvious crush he had on Keith would have likely gotten him there sooner or later.  Knowing him, probably sooner.  It was hard to enjoy watching other people encroach on his territory no matter who or what that encroachment entailed.

How his roommate was oblivious to any of it was beyond him, but you’d think the brat would’ve realized he was barking up the wrong tree long before his attempts to seek out future contact for the hell of it became pitiful to watch.

After their trip to the infirmary to check on the boy had proven his theory as solid with the way his pale cheeks flushed with shy embarrassment when Keith said they just wanted to make sure he was doing okay and see if he had any requests to fulfill in the meantime while Pomfrey kept him a few extra hours to check over his injuries, they’d found themselves the unlucky recipient of a few more surprise encounters over the course of the next week plus that always managed to get his hackles raised all the way up to his ears.

Far be it from him to point out when innocent childhood crushes began to border on the obsessive stalking side of things.  Lance would know that fact better than anyone, he’d done quite similarly to the very same person for years without ever really knowing why, and that was exactly why it pissed him off to no end to see some dorky shrimp of a boy wander over and attempt to usurp him as the most cringey prat who ever had a big dumb crush on Keith fucking Kogane.

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Read the latest chapter here and don't forget to look for this one dropping around May 5th, give or take!

[cherrywrites626]

Chapters: 34/39 Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron) Characters: Keith (Voltron), Lance (Voltron), Pidge | Katie Holt, Hunk (Voltron), Minerva McGonagall, Neville Longbottom, Horace Slughorn, Shiro (Voltron), Shay (Voltron), Nyma (Voltron), Rolo (Voltron), Allura (Voltron), Coran (Voltron), Romelle (Voltron), Adam (Voltron) Additional Tags: klance, Slow Burn, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Hogwarts AU, Slytherin Keith, Gryffindor Lance, Ravenclaw Pidge, Hufflepuff Hunk, Punishments, Forced Cooperation, Rivalry, Potential Expulsion, Hothead Lance, Head Boy Keith, Quidditch Captain Lance, switching POVs, Lengthy Fic, Keith/Lance (Voltron) Angst, Mutual Pining, Fluff and Angst, Mild Language, Hurt/Comfort, Masturbation in Shower, Masturbation, Really slow development, but it does get better, I promise, Super slowest burn, Eventual Romance, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Friendship, Eventual Cute Moments, Oh look, it's starting to get better now, Only took 95k to get to begrudging acceptance, Jk we all know they're secretly gay for one another, This fic is going to be like 400k by the end, i'm not even sorry, If you want dorks denying feelings until the bitter end, you've come to the right place, Rivals to Lovers, or something like that, Did I mention they're roommates?, Lance is a bi disaster, Keith is an even gayer disaster, What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Summary:

The compartment door slid open a crack and a tan-skinned face peeked in. Finding the place practically empty, the young boy opened the door the rest of the way and stepped past the threshold. His eyes were blue like the ocean with flecks of grey and white, his hair the color of light-roast coffee and kept relatively close to his skull. The hints of freckles could be seen along his nose—and when he smiled shyly, one dimple showing itself in his left cheek, Keith felt his heart flutter at the sight.

“Hi, can I maybe sit with you, please? My friends aren’t on the train yet, but they’re really nice.”

Keith blinked at the boy before nodding his head. “Sure, there’s plenty of room.”

The boy beamed at that, shuffling inside with a small owl cage in one hand, closing the compartment back up with his other. “I’m Lance, by the way. Lance McClain. What’s your name?”

“I’m Keith Kogane. Nice to meet you, Lance.” --- Or A Hogwarts AU. Before Cursed Child but after Deathly Hallows. Updates ???

[cherrywrites626]

Fighting Chapter 34 Sneak Peek

Most of their remaining break after that first initial hiccup with the young Slytherin boy passed with little by way of any further excitement swooping in to ruin the day, the vast majority of it mundane enough it hardly begged the extra energy it took to relay it in full.  

In Keith's opinion, that was the perfect way to spend their very limited time off from the hectic insanity of their regular schedules.  Who truly wished for every single minute of their life to be chock full of neverending excitement and nonstop madness?  Only a crazy person, that's who.  

Not even his roommate was as off his rocker as that, given his willingness to spend every other afternoon lazing about doing close to nothing in their shared living space as a form of compromise for the times they spent the day traversing the castle in mixed company.  Although maybe that was yet another one of those things he wasn't quite understanding the way he ought to have and was simply projecting his own feelings on the matter onto a picture-perfect smile that was secretly on the verge of losing its luster.

It didn't feel as if that were the case when they were both sitting on the couch reading quietly together, shoulders pressed and arms occasionally bumping into one another until one of them—usually Lance—insisted upon their changing things up and guided him down into a more horizontal position that utilized his roommate’s lap as a pillow. 

In fact, based on the sheer number of times the Gryffindor then gave up on the pretense of reading at all to then card his fingers through his hair, he was beginning to think that maybe the reading part was just a ruse to begin touching him in the very area that used to be their biggest point of contention without his ever knowing the reason why.

Because at its core, Lance’s taunting and teasing and calling Keith's decision to wear his hair in an unruly fashion had never made even a lick of sense.  Nobody else he knew thought he had a mullet—or else they hadn’t told him so to his face—but even all the way back in second year, somewhere along the first or second week of classes, there the nickname was poking fun at an area of his appearance that left him feeling far more perplexed than it did any sort of similar negativity. 

While it was true he didn't even know what the word meant until he'd asked his brother to help elaborate—Shiro bursting out laughing at the explanation he'd given and promising both that there was nothing wrong with how he looked nor would there be were it the case for real—it also didn't make sense how the jab was supposed to be just that. 

Had he actually a mullet, pointing it out would have been borderline redundant.  It had to be that the other thought he was somehow being hilarious, but why the narrow-minded focus remained on his choice in hairstyle throughout the years was anyone’s guess. 

Lying there with his head in his roommate's lap, long fingers massaging at his scalp and gently pulling the strands every wichway, it was far easier to guess the true culprit.  Jealousy.  Lance was jealous of his hair, though why that was had yet to become clear to him. 

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Read the latest update here and don't forget to look for this one dropping hopefully sometime early next month!

[cherrywrites626]

Chapters: 33/39 Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron) Characters: Keith (Voltron), Lance (Voltron), Pidge | Katie Holt, Hunk (Voltron), Minerva McGonagall, Neville Longbottom, Horace Slughorn, Shiro (Voltron), Shay (Voltron), Nyma (Voltron), Rolo (Voltron), Allura (Voltron), Coran (Voltron), Romelle (Voltron), Adam (Voltron) Additional Tags: klance, Slow Burn, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Hogwarts AU, Slytherin Keith, Gryffindor Lance, Ravenclaw Pidge, Hufflepuff Hunk, Punishments, Forced Cooperation, Rivalry, Potential Expulsion, Hothead Lance, Head Boy Keith, Quidditch Captain Lance, switching POVs, Lengthy Fic, Keith/Lance (Voltron) Angst, Mutual Pining, Fluff and Angst, Mild Language, Hurt/Comfort, Masturbation in Shower, Masturbation, Really slow development, but it does get better, I promise, Super slowest burn, Eventual Romance, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Friendship, Eventual Cute Moments, Oh look, it's starting to get better now, Only took 95k to get to begrudging acceptance, Jk we all know they're secretly gay for one another, This fic is going to be like 400k by the end, i'm not even sorry, If you want dorks denying feelings until the bitter end, you've come to the right place, Rivals to Lovers, or something like that, Did I mention they're roommates?, Lance is a bi disaster, Keith is an even gayer disaster, What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Summary:

The compartment door slid open a crack and a tan-skinned face peeked in. Finding the place practically empty, the young boy opened the door the rest of the way and stepped past the threshold. His eyes were blue like the ocean with flecks of grey and white, his hair the color of light-roast coffee and kept relatively close to his skull. The hints of freckles could be seen along his nose—and when he smiled shyly, one dimple showing itself in his left cheek, Keith felt his heart flutter at the sight.

“Hi, can I maybe sit with you, please? My friends aren’t on the train yet, but they’re really nice.”

Keith blinked at the boy before nodding his head. “Sure, there’s plenty of room.”

The boy beamed at that, shuffling inside with a small owl cage in one hand, closing the compartment back up with his other. “I’m Lance, by the way. Lance McClain. What’s your name?”

“I’m Keith Kogane. Nice to meet you, Lance.” --- Or A Hogwarts AU. Before Cursed Child but after Deathly Hallows. Updates ???

[cherrywrites626]

How did I just see this today on this final day for voting! 😂

Good luck to everyone, and thanks for the nomination! 🥰

BEST AU (solangelo fic awards)

please see the nominations masterpost for the links to all the other categories as well as the link to vote!

a shadow in the rising by demigodbeautiies @americanbeautiies

all i need is your hand to drag me out again by @sionnaach

always gonna be an uphill battle by langatism @losergender

don't fear the reaper by @theroyalsavage

how far our bodies go by cherrypie62666 @cherrywrites626

ice blue, trippin' over you by HandleWithCare @wordsofasarcast

i would honestly love you now (but I would lovingly let you down) by @buoyantsaturn

i'll hold on to the dream of this beggar's plea and optimistic fantasy by @buoyantsaturn

I'm put in awe (of something so flawed and free) by CordeliaRose @cordeliaandthecocoapuffs

love is like ghosts (few have felt it but everybody talks) by Caora @curseofdelos

my lover's the sunlight by demigodbeautiies @americanbeautiies

of crowns and claws by pawsonthekeyboard

olympus detective agency, inc. by hello_blue_moon @hello-bluemoon

peach tea by @ghosttotheparty

so american by @wrongcaitlyn

to belong and to be loved by @redheadosity

wherever he is, is where i'll go (what if i said he was down below?) by Caora @curseofdelos

i do my best to find blog urls for all the authors if they have one, but if you know the tumblrs of any authors that I didn’t tag, please tag them or send this to them! if you have any questions, feel free to shoot me an ask! any and all posts relating to this will be tagged with “#fic awards 2025"

good luck to all!

[cherrywrites626]

Staying and Leaving Chapter 5 Sneak Peek

Everything felt off.  Like walking through a vat of cold molasses with shackles chained to his feet and a thousand-pound weight pressing him down into the ground with every step.  What was he doing?  Where was he going?  Who was he?  How did he get there?

Nothing made sense, a jumble of strange information barraging the confines of his skull with sights, sounds, scents, and the dullest ache of frigid cold.  

Was he cold?  Or was that just the way it was supposed to feel?  Something screamed that none of this was right, but he didn’t know what should have been instead, so how was he ever going to fix it?  

Could it be fixed?  Was something wrong with him?  

He didn’t know the answer to any of it.  The why and the how and the where held up too far out of reach to grab hold of a single grain of truth. 

The one thing he did know with certainty was he was hungry.  Insatiably so.  But nothing in the places his feet forced him to travel ever smelled the way he knew it was supposed to, a constant assault of acrid odor and bitter must filling his airway anytime he did that thing he didn’t know why his body told him to do.  

Breathing, a voice supplied through a haze of flickering images, disjointed and blurred and fractured in all the wrong places.  The thing he did a lot of was called breathing, and though it felt like it wasn’t necessary to his survival, for whatever reason, he still did it without really knowing why.

The same went for the shuffling movement and constant circling.  It didn’t make sense, but he couldn’t stop himself from continuing on until the places he went turned black as pitch.  Only then did he no longer go, waiting for the brightness to come back and his body to say it was time to move once more.

How long he did it for was hard to say.  Many, many light and dark cycles moved around him while he shuffled and stumbled forward as if guided by an invisible rope.  Did the rope have an end?  Or was it just the forever kind of substance?  Like the acrid aromas and the cold and the breathing and the shuffle shuffle shuffle of numb feet.

Was there a point to it?  It felt like there might be.  The same way his hunger sat like a gnawing ache inside the very center of him.  A purpose manifested in those things he didn’t understand, driving him onward for reasons unknown.

And then it changed.  All at once.  Like a tidal wave washing over him with the most delicious thing he had ever known to exist flooding every iota of his being.

It called to him.  Screamed.  Tore out of his throat with a howl of want that loosened his once-rigid body to the point he was suddenly faster than ever possible.  Fast enough to chase.  Fast enough to hunt.  Devour.  Sate.  Food.

It wasn’t only he who answered the alluring call.  Others did, ones who he’d passed without really noticing what they were doing or where they were going or why they all did the things they did.

This part of it all, that made sense.  The purpose filled in with the need to consume the delicious thing guiding him along snarling and salivating and aching with need.

But then something else happened.  Something that kept him from following that drive straight toward its natural conclusion.  The only conclusion there should have been when they were many and it was not, and they had circled and it was trapped with one of them, ready to be ripped apart by their hands and teeth and why couldn’t they have it when it was theirs to claim?

“Mine,” came a voice growling just as fiercely as anything they had already done, threatening back for trying to take that nice-smelling thing away from it.  “Leave.  Now.”

The air was thick with the aroma of want, devour, kill, swirling around so strong it was almost painful to ignore, but for some strange reason, they were being told something different.

Sheer need tugged him forward and he breathed in the heady scent of it once more, twisting through his insides with terrible claws of aching desire.

What was that thing the other had done?  It had communicated with them.  Laid claim.  If it could do it, so could he.  “F…ffffff,” he began, and it felt just as horrible and awkward as it was to fight against the urge to eat that thing and abate some of the hunger raking knives through his gut.  Like sandpaper ripped over his vocal chords crying out desperately from lack of proper use.  “Ffffff.”

Another snarling sound erupted from the one who stood against them, and he flinched back at what was clearly a threat to his safety if he didn’t obey the order to stand down.  Even still, that thing he had been about to do also felt right somehow.  Maybe he was just doing it wrong.  He tried again, this time with a hint of placation to see if it made a difference.  “Ffff… oooo.”

“No,” it reasserted, using its foot to make a jarring sound against the pavement that spoke of promised violence.  “You don’t get him.  Mine.”

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Catch up on previous chapters here and don't forget to look for this delicious update dropping sometime after Christmas!

[cherrywrites626]

Chapters: 4/11 Fandom: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Jason Grace/Leo Valdez Characters: Leo Valdez, Jason Grace, Piper McLean, Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase (Percy Jackson), Nico di Angelo, Will Solace, Hazel Levesque, Frank Zhang, Hades (Percy Jackson), Artemis (Percy Jackson), Persephone (Percy Jackson) Additional Tags: valgrace, Post-Zombie Apocalypse, Zombie AU, Warm Bodies AU, Angst with a Happy Ending, Slow Burn, Like seriously slow, Childhood Friends, POV Alternating, Angst and Feels, but also fluff eventually showing up to the party, an ode to true love conquering everything, I promise you won't be disappointed, come humor me as I fix everything and give the people exactly what they want, Jason and Leo are pulled apart and then reunite and are also in love, That's it, That's the story in a nutshell Summary:

Leo Valdez is tired of the status quo. He wants something more worthwhile out of life than his humble origins have to offer him, but the only feasible way he really has to get close to that goal is by doing something horribly selfish that may or may not see him failing spectacularly and possibly even dying for it outright. And yet. Despite the dangers and the warnings and the promises he knows would be better to keep lest he ruin the only true spot of happiness left for him in his otherwise banal existence, he instead decides to set off on a journey that will change not only his own future and those of his very best friends and loved ones, but the lives of everyone left in the aftermath of the single greatest catastrophe humankind has ever had to face thus far, most of which have already given up their hope that anything could ever be different from the horrors they've already faced for going on six years and counting. Starting in the most unexpected of places, wholly and completely by accident.

Maybe the fastest way to save the world from imminent destruction truly begins by figuring out the best way to go about saving his own self, first and foremost.

[cherrywrites626]

Staying and Leaving Chapter 4 Sneak Peek

Piper heaved a sigh as she stepped out into the chilly late-afternoon air, glancing up at the endless expanse of cloud-covered sky overhead that finally promised to bring about the first real snowfall of the season.

It had been weeks since the news broke involving Leo’s late-night departure.  Weeks since the elders decided to put the whole town on a temporary lockdown of sorts, limiting access to the areas outside their walls to those of only the utmost necessity and importance.  In that time, things had gotten progressively more volatile and disheartening where a certain person and his wellbeing was concerned.

Jason had stumbled into the Mess Hall that very first evening looking far too much like a ghost of his former self for her not to sit up and take notice, the typically alabaster skin of his face somehow that much more pale and drawn even as his eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot—causing that deep blue hue of his irises to all but glow in the soft orange rays of lantern light cast about the room as he made his way over to join them in what appeared to be a total daze.  

“Jason, buddy.  You don't look so good,” Percy said as he slid over to make adequate room on the nearest bench, having been the one who'd shown up to their then crowded table with a familiar coat clutched in his arms that proved he’d really done his best to drag her boyfriend along for the ride only to have the endeavor end in ultimate failure.  

Which really wasn’t all that surprising, seeing as how anyone standing around in visible need of assistance often pulled Jason off course from where he’d been intending to go innumerable times a day.  

Usually for a quick hand in fixing something broken or helping one of the women wrangle their unruly child with lightning-fast reflexes, though once it had been to carry loads of fresh produce down into the store rooms before offering to go and pick more despite it not being his assigned chore literally ever and one of the few moments they both had off that week that was supposed to be set aside for their own personal use.  

Typically only Piper was willing enough to tag along and wait it out for him to finish playing the commendable town savior.  If not merely to stand on the sidelines with a smile as he was given endless praise for his ample charm and unquestionable selflessness, then to ensure he didn’t accidentally end up neglecting his own needs while in the process of tending to others’.  

That had been almost an hour-and-a-half prior, and while no one was inherently worried about the exceptionally lengthy period spent waiting around while most of the townsfolk came and went on their merry way and nightfall creeped in to the point of near pitch-black visibility, it had caused her to feel the first inkling that something wasn’t right.

The sinking drop in her gut at seeing him waltz through the door in a state of noticeable shock only amplified when her boyfriend then bypassed the offer as if entirely on autopilot, plopping down next to her instead with a kind of numbed muteness she’d never before witnessed in all their fifteen years of knowing one another.

Reaching out, it was all she could do not to gasp when her hands met the feeling of ice-cold skin, Jason’s own shaking minutely even as she wrapped hers around them to will some of the life back into those frigid fingers.

“What happened,” she asked, placing a careful touch on the side of his frosty cheek and guiding his gaze to meet hers if only in action alone.

There was no way they registered what was going on even directly in front of them, unfocused as they were and seemingly far-off from reality.  If not for the fact she’d seen a similar haunted expression worn by others in the past, she might have missed the underlying meaning entirely.

It was the same one parents wore when they found out their child had gone missing and the outcome was dire.  The one wives sported when told their husbands were never going to come home to them again, and that there was nothing anyone could have done to stop tragedy from striking.  

It was of crippling loss and powerlessness and anguish all mixed together, burning that person alive from the inside out as the full weight of the situation pressed down on their shoulders and threatened to break them permanently.  

That there was only one single explanation she could think up that might have caused it had her stomach roiling with its own anxious energy, but she swallowed it back down to figure out the whole of the story first and foremost.

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Check out the latest chapter update here and don't forget to catch this one likely dropping sooner than you think.

[cherrywrites626]

Chapters: 3/11 Fandom: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Jason Grace/Leo Valdez Characters: Leo Valdez, Jason Grace, Piper McLean, Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase (Percy Jackson), Nico di Angelo, Will Solace, Hazel Levesque, Frank Zhang, Hades (Percy Jackson), Artemis (Percy Jackson), Persephone (Percy Jackson) Additional Tags: valgrace, Post-Zombie Apocalypse, Zombie AU, Warm Bodies AU, Angst with a Happy Ending, Slow Burn, Like seriously slow, Childhood Friends, POV Alternating, Angst and Feels, but also fluff eventually showing up to the party, an ode to true love conquering everything, I promise you won't be disappointed, come humor me as I fix everything and give the people exactly what they want, Jason and Leo are pulled apart and then reunite and are also in love, That's it, That's the story in a nutshell Summary:

Leo Valdez is tired of the status quo. He wants something more worthwhile out of life than his humble origins have to offer him, but the only feasible way he really has to get close to that goal is by doing something horribly selfish that may or may not see him failing spectacularly and possibly even dying for it outright. And yet. Despite the dangers and the warnings and the promises he knows would be better to keep lest he ruin the only true spot of happiness left for him in his otherwise banal existence, he instead decides to set off on a journey that will change not only his own future and those of his very best friends and loved ones, but the lives of everyone left in the aftermath of the single greatest catastrophe humankind has ever had to face thus far, most of which have already given up their hope that anything could ever be different from the horrors they've already faced for going on six years and counting. Starting in the most unexpected of places, wholly and completely by accident.

Maybe the fastest way to save the world from imminent destruction truly begins by figuring out the best way to go about saving his own self, first and foremost.

[cherrywrites626]

Chapters: 2/11 Fandom: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Jason Grace/Leo Valdez Characters: Leo Valdez, Jason Grace, Piper McLean, Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase (Percy Jackson), Nico di Angelo, Will Solace, Hazel Levesque, Frank Zhang, Hades (Percy Jackson), Artemis (Percy Jackson), Persephone (Percy Jackson) Additional Tags: valgrace, Post-Zombie Apocalypse, Zombie AU, Warm Bodies AU, Angst with a Happy Ending, Slow Burn, Like seriously slow, Childhood Friends, POV Alternating, Angst and Feels, but also fluff eventually showing up to the party, an ode to true love conquering everything, I promise you won't be disappointed, come humor me as I fix everything and give the people exactly what they want, Jason and Leo are pulled apart and then reunite and are also in love, That's it, That's the story in a nutshell Summary:

Leo Valdez is tired of the status quo. He wants something more worthwhile out of life than his humble origins have to offer him, but the only feasible way he really has to get close to that goal is by doing something horribly selfish that may or may not see him failing spectacularly and possibly even dying for it outright. And yet. Despite the dangers and the warnings and the promises he knows would be better to keep lest he ruin the only true spot of happiness left for him in his otherwise banal existence, he instead decides to set off on a journey that will change not only his own future and those of his very best friends and loved ones, but the lives of everyone left in the aftermath of the single greatest catastrophe humankind has ever had to face thus far, most of which have already given up their hope that anything could ever be different from the horrors they've already faced for going on six years and counting. Starting in the most unexpected of places, wholly and completely by accident.

Maybe the fastest way to save the world from imminent destruction truly begins by figuring out the best way to go about saving his own self, first and foremost.

[cherrywrites626]

Staying and Leaving Chapter 3 Sneak Peek

Leo gazed out at the tall buildings in the distance and felt a smile slowly stretch across his mouth for what felt like the first time in literal weeks.

That wasn’t the case, of course.  He’d been smiling just as large and dopily the evening prior when he’d turned that last corner at the edge of the river and saw the highway intersecting its way through the hills.  Again when he caught sight of the first farmhouse just as the sun began to lower directly in front of his eyeballs and his feet screamed that they’d fall off if he didn’t rest soon.  And finally a third time once he realized what those same huge blobs shooting upward into the descending darkness actually meant.  

So yeah, he’d been smiling quite a lot, actually, considering the arduous extent of his trip made ever more painfully dull by the whole heap of emptiness that greeted him along the journey eighty-five percent of the time or more.  Only where those had been full of excitement and renewed energy as he steadily recognized the tiniest details from Hazel’s retelling of her own more harrowing trip, this was one of pure conviction and determination lighting a fire under his ass to see his mission through to completion.

Just in time, too, because he was having quite the rough go of it in several areas.  Namely that he didn’t quite realize how far a two-and-a-half day trip was going to be even as the length of time spent in direct travel was literally right there in the description itself.  Or should he say, somewhere in his mind he had convinced himself that ridiculous stretch of land meant he'd still see more than enough adequate resting time between horrible walks spanning tens of miles of natural wasteland.

Perhaps it was the lack of daylight that made it feel like he was up and moving from the moment he awoke just before sunrise until the second he passed out on the floor of an abandoned house in complete and utter exhaustion, but he doubted it.  

People like Jason and Hazel and Percy and Annabeth all had an abundance of training under their belts keeping them properly fit.  Leo had the arm muscles to heft around heavy objects, no sweat, but when it came to his legs, the most he used them for at any given time was standing in place for hours on end without much of a break to speak of.

Walking over even relatively flat ground was not his forte.  Nor was dealing with how ridiculously cold it seemed to get both in the early morning and late evening even while exercising endlessly after having picked out his best thicker clothes to wear for the entirety of the trip, thankful he’d had the sense of mind to grab a coat for good measure since he’d decided to keep his other packed supplies down to the barest necessary for survival in order to forgo the added burden of extra weight.

Which meant he had enough meager sustenance to see him not starving outright.  Probably.  It was hard to say whether or not he’d have to stop on the way back by the old fishing pond his dad used to take him to and finagle a rod out of thin air to catch one of those mouth-watering trout he’d watched splash lazily in the water’s depths just asking to be roasted over a fire and devoured mostly in one sitting.

Or maybe that was the hunger speaking at the time, having stopped for a quick break long enough to gaze out of their numbers with sad eyes as he tore off another small bite of the now chewy dinner roll Piper had given him he had then hidden in his pocket to add to his collection of semi non-perishable items to ensure he didn’t drop dead on the way there and back.

At least fresh water was in no short supply.  And that he had a handy little pocket filtration device his father had gifted him on his ninth birthday that looked kind of like a straw with a little cap on the end so starving kids in Africa had clean water to drink without worrying about parasites murdering them.  

Unless that was just a story he was told to get him to stop putting all manner of strange things in his mouth as a child… mudpies and rocks being some of his absolute favorites prior to the warning he could do just that if he wasn’t careful.

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Catch the latest fic update here and don't forget to keep an eye out for this one dropping at some point in the next couple of weeks! Sooner if I'm feeling generous.

[cherrywrites626]

Chapters: 2/11 Fandom: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Jason Grace/Leo Valdez Characters: Leo Valdez, Jason Grace, Piper McLean, Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase (Percy Jackson), Nico di Angelo, Will Solace, Hazel Levesque, Frank Zhang, Hades (Percy Jackson), Artemis (Percy Jackson), Persephone (Percy Jackson) Additional Tags: valgrace, Post-Zombie Apocalypse, Zombie AU, Warm Bodies AU, Angst with a Happy Ending, Slow Burn, Like seriously slow, Childhood Friends, POV Alternating, Angst and Feels, but also fluff eventually showing up to the party, an ode to true love conquering everything, I promise you won't be disappointed, come humor me as I fix everything and give the people exactly what they want Summary:

Leo Valdez is tired of the status quo. He wants something more worthwhile than his humble lifestyle has to offer him, but the only feasible way he has to really get close to that is by doing something horribly selfish that may or may not see him failing spectacularly and possibly even dying for it outright in the process. And yet. Despite the dangers and the warnings and the promises he knows would be better to keep lest they ruin the only true spot of happiness left for him in his otherwise miserable existence, he decides to set off on a journey that will change not only his own future and those of his very best friends and loved ones, but the lives of everyone left in the aftermath of the greatest catastrophe to humankind who had already given up the hope that anything could ever be different than the horrors they'd already faced for going on six years and counting. Starting in the most unexpected of places, wholly and completely by accident.

Maybe the fastest way to save the world from imminent destruction truly begins by figuring out the best way to go about saving his own self, first and foremost.

[cherrywrites626]

Chapters: 21/21 Fandom: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Will Solace/Nico di Angelo, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace Characters: Will Solace, Nico di Angelo, Lou Ellen, Cecil Markowitz, Clarisse La Rue, Chiron (Percy Jackson), Apollo (Percy Jackson), Kayla Knowles, Naomi Solace, Piper McLean, Jason Grace, Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Hazel Levesque, Leo Valdez, Hades (Percy Jackson), Frank Zhang, Persephone (Percy Jackson) Additional Tags: AU, Zombie AU, Post-Zombie Apocalypse, solangelo, Humor, Angst and Humor, Fluff and Humor, Zombie!Nico, human will, Love Saves, Slow Burn, Multi-Chapter Super Long Fic, switching POV, it starts slow, sorry - Freeform, Action Will Come, Probably Less Dark Than Amusing, But Also Occasionally Morbid, because zombies, And Dead Things, Just Because Nico Is A Zombie Doesn't Mean He Doesn't Have Feelings, okay maybe a little, Relearning Things, cute moments, funny moments, Aged-Up Character(s), No one stays a zombie, Don't worry, Why Did I Write This?, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things Summary:

In an act that Nico assumed was smarter than it was foolhardy, the boy took off away from the madness waiting around the corner behind them, hopping over bits of debris, trying to lose the creature in the mess.

Without knowing why, Nico followed, limbs already slackened from their usual tense state by the thrill of the hunt. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t keen on ingesting the poor guy. His body was going to react to its instincts regardless of how his… emotionless emotions felt.

He caught sight of the boy running down a cross-street and decided it wouldn’t hurt to try and meet him on the other end.

Taking the turn on the opposite side, he wrapped the length of the building, skittering out on the adjacent street in time to witness the look of shock playing on those beautiful features as the boy realized there wasn't just one, but two zombies after him now.

Of course, Nico wasn’t going to hurt him, but he couldn’t exactly communicate that. When he tried, all that came out was a creepy, low-pitched growl—not unlike a dog.

  Nice, Nico. Very reassuring.

  Or-Prepare for a Warm Bodies-style Zombie AU! Nice and long and slow build.

[cherrywrites626]

Staying and Leaving Chapter 2 Sneak Peek

Jason swung the practice sword upward in a sweeping undercut, twisting his wrist at the highest point to guide it back down in another smooth slide to the right that was far less practical in battle than it was satisfying to execute for show.  

Winter always brought with it a sense of boredom that was hard to shake.  Less because there was nothing to do to pass the shortened hours of available sunlight, the number of chores that piled up to take on still equal to those throughout the remainder of the year despite the drop in productivity in several faucets of their society.  

There was never a shortage of things to be done to see life in their small village puttering onward with relative efficiency, even for someone like him whose main job was simply to remain in top physical condition to ensure their people’s safety.  Wood being one of those resources they were both never in dwindling supply of while somehow always seeming to burn through their stocks far quicker than any of the others they collected regularly, no matter the season in question.

Perhaps it was simply the lack of available action.  At least in the spring and summer and even well into the late fall people were bustling about here and there collecting herbs or tending the fields or processing the latest kill from the hunting parties in order to strengthen their reserves for the grueling months ahead.  The same was not true of winter.

Of course, much of that hadn’t been all that true for the past few months, either, seeing as how half their hunting grounds had become compromised during their return some three months past, and the elders were reluctant to allow them the same freedom of movement lest it draw the threat close enough they truly would be trapped inside their walls with little chance to survive an extended siege. 

No one had been hurt during their end-of-year preparations, thank the gods.  There had been a couple of incidents to speak of prior to their abandoning the area that saw Jason and the others subduing it before it had the chance to spiral out of control, but that was almost nothing compared to what could have transpired.  What still had the chance to, all things considered.

If things continued in much the same vein, who knows what the following might look like.  It was the hope of their leaders that the problem would simply disappear on its own, given enough time and leeway to do so.  

Like most creatures, lack of an available food source over an extended period typically saw it migrating elsewhere to satisfy the need for sustenance.  Or it should in theory, seeing as very little was known about them outside of their aggressive tendencies and what their preferred meal choice happened to be.  Studying them closely wasn’t exactly a feasible option for the prey they stalked tirelessly.

Should they find themselves in the same predicament long after the last frost had descended upon the land, there was a chance they’d have to think up a more permanent solution.  As it stood, so long as they stayed out of the south as much as possible, the areas in all three other directions were still fair game to utilize as needed.

At least that was the sole direction trouble had stumbled upon their little valley.  From what he’d heard of the recounts, the numbers to the north were far more extensive.

It was only through the brave sacrifice of one individual that they’d avoided the worst possible outcome imaginable.  Who knows how they’d deal with not one, but two deadly threats blocking off their escape route in either direction and confining them to the safety of their meager shelter.  Certainly not well.

And yet, despite the known danger incurred at every turn, a part of him felt just as antsy as he knew many of the other warriors had expressed for some time.

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

Stay tuned for this chapter update coming to you soon, and don't forget to read the first one here if you haven't already!

[cherrywrites626]

Chapters: 1/11 Fandom: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Jason Grace/Leo Valdez Characters: Leo Valdez, Jason Grace, Piper McLean, Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase (Percy Jackson), Nico di Angelo, Will Solace, Hazel Levesque, Frank Zhang, Hades (Percy Jackson), Artemis (Percy Jackson), Persephone (Percy Jackson) Additional Tags: valgrace, Post-Zombie Apocalypse, Zombie AU, Warm Bodies AU, Angst with a Happy Ending, Slow Burn, Like seriously slow, Childhood Friends, POV Alternating, Angst and Feels, but also fluff eventually showing up to the party, I promise nothing that happens is permanent, Don't believe me?, Go look at the companion fic and see, an ode to true love conquering everything, I promise you won't be disappointed, companion piece to a finished work, can be read stand alone, come humor me as I fix everything and give the people exactly what they want Summary:

“Hey,” Jason said when he finally slowed enough to allow the panicked stroll to become a mutual endeavor, sparing a sidelong glance at the other’s tightened smile and feeling the crushing weight of fresh guilt slowly begin to churn in his gut.  “Mind if I walk with you a bit?”

“Knock yourself out,” he replied, aiming for an air of blasé indifference but likely ending up in the ballpark of standoffish instead.

Navigating upbeat inflection and cheery falsity only lasted for so long when he was actively suffering from said torment and didn’t have enough breathing room to regain a bit more composure.  Sucking an icy breath in through his nose, he released it in a calming exhale out of his mouth and tried again.

“Piper not joining us this time,” he asked into the awkward silence that followed the terse remark, finally nailing that chipper tone his recent conversational skills had been sorely lacking.

Jason didn’t question it outright, for which he was eternally grateful.