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[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Dancing 'til the break of dawn - Pt5

<Pt4

(TWST zombie apocalypse au for all your crack-fic needs)

“You know, I’ve been thinking,” began Deuce.

Ace nearly dropped his bowl. “You have?!”

“Ha ha, very funny.”

“Yeah, Ace, if you’re going to insult him, you might as well be original,” said Yuu.

Deuce narrowed his eyes at Yuu, before apparently deciding that he was just going to let that one slide. “So, Grim can clearly understand us, right?”

“Yeah,” said Ace. “But he can’t talk back because he’s a zombie.”

“No, zombies can talk, Grim can’t because he’s a cat,” Yuu said, shaking his head.

“Zombies can talk?!” Ace said, suddenly far more interested in this conversation.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much more to say on the subject: “Yeah, the ones that still have vocal cords can, but they’re kinda boring. They just kinda go ‘Yuuuuuuu’ to get my attention and then when I give it to them they go all weird and run away.”

Ace and Deuce looked at Grim. Grim seemed very interested in licking his paws clean. Makes sense, it is the apocalypse, after all, it’s not like the ground is particularly clean. Yuu frowned as he thought about the state that Grim’s poor toe pads must be in. He really should get on those booties for him. His hairballs are going to have all sorts of junk in them.

… do zombie cats have hairballs?

Wait. Can zombies digest food at all? Where do all of the humans that they’re eating go? Do zombies have to go to the bathroom –?

Deuce cleared his throat to cover up a laugh, dragging Yuu out of that particular spiral before he could go too far. “Right, okay. Uh, I was just wondering if there was a way that he could talk back? But I guess that answers that…”

“Oh, you want to try, like, a Spirit Box or something?” Ace asked.

“... a what now?” said Deuce.

“Like… it’s this radio that ghost hunters use to talk to ghosts. It cycles through radio stations super fast, you ask it questions, and if a ghost wants to it can… speak through the box, I guess?”

“Would that work, though?” Deuce asked, frowning. “I mean… Grim isn’t dead, is he…?” He seemed to realize that talking about Grim’s status like Grim wasn’t there was rude, because he turned to the zombie and asked, “Are you?”

“You can’t just ask zombies if they’re dead, Deuce,” Yuu chided. And then he considered the question and realized he actually very much wanted to know the answer. “I can, though. Hey, Grim, are you dead?”

Grim gave him a flat look. This… didn’t help answer the question.

See, this is why they need the Spirit Box!

(And, really, it’s not like they have anything else to do, so…)

~

After quickly checking out the store to make sure it was actually as empty as it originally seemed (and to see if there was any food or water left, though they had known better than to actually hope for something like that), they wandered around with carts. They had a list of things they absolutely needed, such as a radio and a generator with a hand crank, but they weren’t that concerned with it.

Why not?

Well, because they are teenagers. And, as teenagers who had only recently been freed from the shackles of having parents who want them to be safe and healthy, with no laws and no one around to judge them…

Well, they were playing bumper carts. Yes, carTs, with a T.

Yuu shrieked as his cart went careening into Deuce’s, their heads slamming against each other’s. He hissed in pain, sinking to rest his now-aching head against the front of his cart. Yikes. He wasn’t sure they could afford losing any more brain cells. But, perhaps, the loss of brain cells was even more of a problem than he had originally thought, because he still hopped out of the cart and started toward the front of the store for another one so they could play again.

He would have continued self destructing, but then Ace’s cart slammed into an aisle way too hard, and he was thrown out, into the aisle itself. He disappeared into a flurry of towels. Which should have been enough to cushion his fall, but then the aisle toppled over, and hit the next aisle, and then that one fell onto the next, and…

You get the picture.

Finally, with one final resounding screech of metal, the last aisle ran out of things to topple over, instead crashing into the milk and eggs aisle and then falling still. There was definitely a foul smell emanating from there, now, but they weren’t close enough to have to worry about it.

Besides, they had something else to worry about.

Deuce and Yuu looked at each other, eyes wide, and then back at the mess, searching for any sign of movement.

Ace pushed off some rubble so he could flash them a thumbs up.

They breathed a sigh of relief.

Grim, on the other hand, who had taken residence on one of the shelves to avoid the chaos ensuing below, looked disgruntled. He’d had to move, after all, and that must have been such a difficult thing for his poor baby. Yuu cooed and rushed to scoop up him up, smoothing out ruffled fur.

Ace gave Deuce, who had helped him out, a vague nod of acknowledgement, before sending Yuu a particularly harsh glare. It was an ‘I’d kill you if I wouldn’t immediately get targeted by every zombie in the country’ kind of look. But Yuu was immune, on account of the whole ‘It’d be your funeral, too’ thing. So he just smiled and hugged his darling closer.

“Thanks for your help,” Ace said sarcastically.

“You’re welcome!”

~

Their cart loaded up with a radio and hand crank generator – as well as some other miscellaneous things like yarn, a few marshmallow guns they were hoping might have candy in them, and some towels they could for makeshift bandages  – they started heading out.

Unfortunately, the cart stopped the moment they left the parking lot. All three of them went perfectly silent as they remembered that lots of carts were rigged to keep homeless people from stealing them. Maybe it was magnets, or something? All Yuu could tell was that the cart really didn’t want to pass over the yellow line at their feet.

Damn hostile architecture. Didn’t the old lawmakers realize that purposefully making things even harder for homeless people would be very annoying during an apocalypse?!

Deuce scoffed and walked around the cart, kicking each and every one of the wheels as hard as he possibly could.

And then he continued pushing the cart.

It passed over the yellow line with ease.

Well, maybe ‘with ease’ is not quite the right word,  because now all four wheels were somewhat out of place. But, regardless, they were still working far better than before.

Ace and Yuu looked at each other with wide eyes.

“How’d you know that would work?” Yuu asked.

“Percussive maintenance works on everything,” Deuce said, his eyes not meeting his.

Now, if it was just Yuu, Yuu probably would have let it go. But it was not, and Ace slung his arm around Deuce’s shoulders. “Someone’s lying.”

“Yeah, Grim,” said Deuce.

This was, technically, true. Grim was lying down, in Yuu’s arms.

“Oh come on, Deuce, you’re not that stupid,” Ace teased.

“I might be.”

“Are you sure that you want to win that argument?” Yuu asked, raising an eyebrow.

Deuce hesitated. On one hand, he clearly didn’t want to admit to whatever it was. On the other, arguing that you’re actually extremely dumb is not an amazing thing for your self-esteem. This was quite the conundrum.

One he didn’t really have much time to consider. Because, while the walk back ‘home’ could never be considered short, Ace wasn’t particularly patient. He was, however, extremely annoying, poking at Deuce’s face and ribs to try and get him to open up.

At least he was using his finger and not a knife. Progress.

Eventually, Deuce sighed and gave in. “Fine, but promise you won’t tell anyone, okay?”

“... literally who would we even tell?” Yuu asked.

Deuce’s face reddened. “Just promise!”

Ace and Yuu gave each other confused looks, but then shrugged. If, somehow, all three of them were saved, they would not tell their new government about Deuce’s… probable crimes, guessing by the current way the conversation was going.

As long as he didn’t tell the government about their definite crimes, at least.

Deuce cleared his throat. “Before… everything, I was… a bit of an asshole. My mom was great, but without a dad around… you know the stereotype, I’m sure. Uh… I got into some shit I shouldn’t have. It stressed my mom out, and… I always said I’d get better ‘tomorrow’. But now…” His grip tightened on the shopping cart, briefly. For the first time, Yuu noticed a myriad of pale scars lining his hands. “But that’s in the past. By the time this is over, and I see my mom again, I want to be… no, I’m going to be better..”

Yuu and Ace looked at each other, unsure of what to say for a minute. They had expected drama, not whatever this was. This was a surprisingly genuine conversation that Deuce was roping them into, and that was a rarity in their ‘friend’ group for a reason. None of them were particularly good with the whole emotions thing, as is normal for teenagers and people who manage to survive months in apocalyptic scenarios. So teenagers who had managed to survive months in an apocalyptic scenario were just about the worst things they could be at the moment.

So, what should they do?

… hopefully, if they continued treating Deuce like they normally would, he would understand that they didn’t see him any differently just because he used to be awful. Because Yuu was not going to say any of that aloud, thank you very much.

Instead, he begins with, “I mean… I’m all for personal growth and all –.”

“I’m not,” said Ace. Thank you for your input, Ace.

“ – but I’m not sure that the apocalypse is the best time to decide to be a morally upstanding person.”

Deuce looked at him warily for a minute, and then snorted. “Dude, you are such a hypocrite.”

“No, I’m not. Everything I do is perfect and amazing.”

Ace raised an eyebrow. “Your best friend is a zombie.”

One time! He befriended a zombie one time!

But he had already made this point before, to no avail, so it was time for Yuu to try a different method. He smiled, softly. “Well, I met you guys, so was it really a mistake?”

Ace and Deuce went red. Grim’s eyes narrowed suspiciously.

“You can’t just flirt your way out of being called out,” Ace muttered.

His smile dropped into a pout immediately. “Awwww why nooooot?”

Grim bunted his head against Yuu’s shirt in an attempt to cheer him up. At least the problematic zombie he had adopted was on his side.

~

It took longer than one would have liked to get enough power saved in the generator for the radio to start up. Only one of them could actually turn the crank at any one time, and Deuce and Ace had been talking about taking turns, so Yuu decided it was the perfect time to find a quiet (secluded, hidden) corner to learn knitting.

Frankly, he kind of wished that he had just helped them. Knitting is, apparently, very hard. He squinted at the pattern in the book he’d picked up, and then down at what he had spent the last hour and a half making. It would, nicely put, be called a bundle of string. He was going to cry. How the hell did he manage to create the legendary gordian knot by accident?

“Grim, just turn me into a zombie already,” he lamented, throwing down his knitting needles so he could rest his head in his hands.

“Don’t try to get yourself killed,” Deuce said. “Especially not because you’re bad at knitting, of all things.”

“We still haven’t established whether it’s actually dying,” Yuu said, which might not be the strongest defense, but it was the only one he could come up with on the fly.

Deuce sighed. Deeply.

And then a hand grabbed Yuu by the ear. He shrieked and immediately scrambled to follow the hand for the sake of not dying. This is the true problem with people raised by single mothers. They are simply too good at getting people to listen to them. Yuu, who had had two parents, was not as effective – he tried screaming for Grim, but Grim just seemed amused by the whole situation. The traitor.

Deuce could kill him! Or torture him! And Grim would just be sitting idly by!

When he told Grim this, Grim almost seemed to laugh. Yuu hadn’t even known that cats could do that.

This is the worst day ever.

At least he got to sit down on Ace’s futon to await his fate. Ace had gotten less stingy over the past few days. Given enough time, Yuu was pretty sure he could wear the boy down enough to sleep on the futon with him, because he was getting sick of the sleeping bag, and dragging a mattress from the nearest apartment complex sounded like way more effort than he was willing to put in.

Ace came to sit next to him, fiddling with the settings on the radio, and Deuce took the spot on his other side. They huddled somewhat closer than they usually might to watch as the radio flickered to life, the high whine of static meeting their ears. Grim snapped to full attention. Ace began flipping through stations…

There was a fundamental flaw to their plan, though, as they quickly realized.

In order for their makeshift Spirit Box to work, there would need to be radio channels for them to cycle through. And there were none. No one was concerned with playing the greatest hits when the zombie apocalypse was going on.

Yuu flopped back onto the futon. “Guys. I think we might be stupid.”

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Just want to share my favorite Maribat stories' links. :) :) :)

Yes. Because I am in that phase again lol

If you are the author, let it be known that you are awesome!

1) Taking Chances by Undercover_fangirl - This is a biodad Bruce Wayne story. Mari gets sent to Gotham thanks to an Akuma, and voila - you have a dad and a chaotic set of siblings!

2) for us to collide by LadyLiterature - This is a Daminette story which I love love love love!! And the dynamic of the Miraculous team? AMAZING.

3) Stalker X Stalker by oliviaandersonisntmyrealnamelol - This is Timinette story. Caffeine deprived coffee addicts + kwami unapproved stalking tendencies = hilarious chaos XD

4) No, Mr. Wayne, You Can't Adopt Me! by ggomoz - This is a Marinette as Bruce Wayne's secretary fanfic. It is chaos and very good if you wanna laugh out loud!! XD They have no idea she's MDC and has miraculous powers. They wanna adopt. Damian wants her in the fam, but not by adoption.

P.S. If you know any more hidden gems, please for the love of us, feel very free to reblog and add it to the list. If it's an old fic in AO3, I probably have read it but add it anyway. And if you know any new awesome fanfic, then do tag me. I would love you for it. Thank youuu!!!!

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Dancing 'til the break of dawn - Pt4

<Pt3

(TWST zombie apocalypse au for all your crack-fic needs)

Deuce frowned at Ace. He did this a lot, but this time it was targeted. Ace was wearing socks, and they were tracking blood everywhere. It was pretty gross. No one likes wet socks, and bloody ones must be even worse. He should really change.

Of course, if either of them were sane they would be wearing shoes, it is the apocalypse and there is who knows what all over the ground, but fine, it was their funeral, Yuu supposes.

Either way, the barefoot Deuce was very annoyed by the bloodied floors.

“Dude, the floor is dirty enough without your bullsh –... help,” Deuce said.

Yuu wasn’t sure how to feel about this brewing argument. It was – probably – better than the ‘cannibalism is bad and here is why you should care’ vs ‘fuck you’ one that usually took place. But, really, he would prefer that they would both just stop fighting in general.

“Don’t be a fucking cop,” groaned Ace.

Deuce’s eyes lit up. “You think I’m like a cop?”

“That’s not a compliment.”

“Well, anything you think is bad is probably good,” Deuce sniffed.

Yuu had to give it to him, he had a point.

“Just take off your socks,” said Deuce.

“No. You should put on socks.”

“Yuu, do you want to weigh in on this?” Deuce asked.

While Yuu could appreciate the self-awareness Deuce was displaying by admitting that the argument was going nowhere, he absolutely did not want to be the tiebreaker. He hates being the tiebreaker.

“Yuu wears shoes in bed like a fucking psychopath, do you really want his opinion?”

Hey! His opinion was going to be so correct, but now they won’t hear it because they were mean.

Yuu huffed. “Sorry for being prepared in the case of an emergency.”

“Prepared to run, you mean?” Ace said.

He threw his hands up in frustration. “I’m sorry I’m not down to commit murder! But fine, ask Grim or something.”

“Grim is a cat! He can’t speak! And, even if he could, he can’t wear socks!”

Oooooh… Yuu desperately wanted to get Grim some little socks. Or maybe some booties. That would be so cute. But what color goes with dark green? Blue, maybe? He picked up Grim and hugged him to his chest, mulling over the possibilities.

“Damn. We’ve lost him,” said Ace.

Yuu’s mood could not be ruined. He is going to find the cutest little outfit for his darling baby –.

But, it turns out that his mood absolutely could be ruined.

The bell above the door rang, jolting them out of their conversation rather abruptly. And then it kept ringing, as if the person who had accidentally tripped the wire had decided that they really liked the bell sound and were now purposefully kicking the line over and over again.

There was a sigh (A woman! They still exist!), and the sound suddenly stopped, replaced by loud, stomping footsteps as the person was, seemingly, dragged away from the device.

“... door is broken, but there’s still so much stuff here?” a deep voice said.

Ace sent Yuu a glare that Yuu was conveniently looking the other way for.

“There’s probably a zombie or two somewhere nearby,” the woman answered. “Or some really territorial survivors, judging by the bell.”

“But it wasn’t claimed in any way.”

“It might be abandoned, or they could be dead, but… we should be careful.”

They were talking pretty loudly for people trying to be careful, but sure.

The ‘really territorial survivors’ exchanged glances. These people sounded old (like, at least twenty or so, they were basically on their deathbeds), and even if their little group of four outnumbered them, the adults would likely have the advantage, seeing as they were fully comfortable in their bodies, where Deuce tended to stub his toe on every other thing because he wasn’t yet used to his height (another thing that would be solved if he wore shoes).

Which meant… leaving was the best option.

Of course, because it was the best option, Yuu was sure that it wasn’t going to happen. Ace needed this place in order to lure in fellow survivors. Which meant that they were stuck defending it.

Ugh. What a pain.

Okay, so if they were going to stay and fight, what should they do?

Ace pointed at Grim.

Yuu frowned and hugged his cat closer. He had taken advantage of the fact that Grim was a zombie before, for sure, but he tried to reserve that for particularly perilous situations. Grim was tiny, after all, and a good kick would really hurt him – and that wasn’t even taking into consideration that most survivors had weapons.

Ace’s shoulders heaved in a silent sigh, as if he was so very put upon by all of this, and totally wasn’t down to murder these people in cold blood.

Yuu called bullshit. If you’re going to be a murderer, at least be honest about it.

He didn’t argue it, though. Not really because he was mature and willing to let things lay, he just didn’t want to alert the intruders to the fact that they were there.

After a particularly long and complicated game of charades, they split up into groups of two. Ace took Grim, and Deuce took Yuu. No one was particularly happy about these matchups – admittedly, there weren’t many matchups that would end with anyone being happy – but they were what they were going with.

So, Yuu waved to his darling baby as Grim and Ace snuck away.

Deuce heaved a silent sigh and grabbed him by the wrist, dragging him off towards the man, whose head was peeking above the aisle, which thankfully made him pretty easy to locate.

Right before they could get to the man’s aisle, Yuu grabbed a can of soda and looped around to the other side.

He let the can roll into the man’s aisle, and then pretended to stumble-walk after it, whispering curses. He caught it, starting to straighten back up, only to ‘flinch’ when his eyes finally landed on the stranger.

The stranger didn’t look immediately malicious, but his loose grip on his knife did tighten. He smiled at Yuu, but there was a slightly condescending edge to it. “Didn’t know there were still teenagers.”

Deuce tiptoed behind the man. It took everything in Yuu not to look at him.

Yuu rubbed the back of his neck, smiling nervously. “Yeah, uh, this is kinda. My store? So. Leave? Please?”

The man chuckled, which was not the greatest of signs.

“Let me stock up on some stuff first, then I’ll be out of your hair.”

Deuce readied his bat.

Yuu sighed. “Well. I tried.”

The man looked, understandably, confused, but he didn’t get much time to think about it.

The woman screamed, and the man’s head jerked over. Deuce took the moment of distraction to hit him in the arm. The man’s knife slipped from his hand, and Yuu was quick to kick it out of reach.

Now, if there had been anyone up there who liked Yuu, the two adults would realize they were outnumbered and leave. But there wasn’t, and the man immediately turned to tackle Deuce.

Yuu watched, numbly, as the bat clattered to the ground and started to roll away.

The man’s hands locked around Deuce’s throat.

He glanced behind himself, towards the door.

Deuce scrabbled at his neck, trying to loosen the stranger’s grip, to no avail.

Yuu grabbed the bat –.

~

Ace rounded the corner, clutching his arm. “Does anyone else need bandages –?”

He stopped still upon catching sight of the group. Deuce was curled into a tight ball, struggling to catch his breath.

The man wasn’t waking up. Yuu recalled that people are not supposed to stay unconscious for more than a few seconds, and that anything longer than that was a bad sign. His fingers ached where they gripped Deuce’s bat.

Ace’s lips twisted in a complicated expression.

He sighed and pulled out his knife, toying with it, looking awkward and unsure.

“Looks like we need more bandages than I thou – fuck!”

The knife slipped out of his hand, and found an unfortunate place in the man’s chest. Ace groaned, as if he found the blood that spurted over his already bloody knife incredibly inconvenient, and then tugged it right back out.

“Ah, that’s a fatal wound if I’ve ever seen one,” Ace said, mulling over the stab wound. He huffed. And then shrugged overexaggeratedly and slit the guy’s throat. “Oh well. Guess we’ve got a couple of big meals ahead of us, Yuu. Looks like you’re going to have to try out some new recipes, ‘cause we’re going to get sick of that one spice.”

Yuu looked up at Ace for a minute.

He managed a smile. “Haven’t you heard that beggars can’t be choosers?”

“Well, then, it’s a good thing I’m not begging. I’ve been thinking recently, you’re pretty good at bringing out the umami in what I give you, but maybe it could be cool to do something more spicy for once?”

“... I’ll see what I can do.”

Ace whooped and grabbed Deuce by the shoulder, dragging him up to stand. “C’mon, Deuce, celebrate with me! We are eating good tonight! The lady’s bag was full of supplies! I think I even saw a few vegetables in there!”

God, the Yuu from a year ago would be disgusted to learn he was getting excited over vegetables of all things. What had the apocalypse made him become?

Deuce, who had finally relearned breathing (good for him), snapped out of the contemplative look he had been sending Ace, in favor of a halfhearted grin.

“Fine, fine, but you can’t eat the eyes in front of me again, that’s gross.”

Ace huffed. “I’d say I was going to make a point to eat them tonight but, unfortunately, all of the eyes were destroyed, so I’ll have to wait for the next kill…”

Yuu’s nose scrunched. “I still don’t get how you can eat the eyes… wait, is it like eating crawfish eyes?”

Deuce and Ace paused, briefly.

Deuce’s nose scrunched up. “You eat crawfish eyes?”

“Yeah, they’re the best part,” Yuu defended himself, scowling. “Juicy, flavorful, all the good stuff.”

“No, that’s just gross,” Ace said.

“Oh, you shut up. You eat humans. You don’t get a say in this.”

“Eh, but you eat crawfish eyes, I think that’s weirder,” Deuce said.

Yuu crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m going to make the new spice so hot you’re both going to die immediately.”

Ace and Deuce laughed.

Until they watched Yuu empty an entire jar of cayenne onto a piece of meat later that night.

~

“Hey, did you guys move the lady’s body?” Ace called from somewhere in the store. “She’s not here anymore and I know she didn’t survive, so it’s not like she could have just up and walked… away… wait, where’s Grim?”

Yuu snickered. “Grim doesn’t like me being around women in particular, for some reason.”

“Why?” whined Ace, upset that he had gone to all that work and gotten nothing for it. He rounded the corner, located Yuu, and immediately started clinging to his side like a limpet, longing for comfort that Yuu just Would Not Give.

“I don’t know, actually,” said Yuu, frowning thoughtfully. He’d always thought that it was weird. It would have made more sense for Grim to prefer Yuu making friends with women – that might lead to a renewable food source – but instead he just… really hated them. “Maybe zombies are misogynists.”

Deuce raised his eyebrows. “What does Grim have to do with zombies?”

Ace and Yuu were silent for a moment. Yuu had honestly forgotten about that little subplot. Ace caught his gaze, a clear question in his eyes. Yuu couldn’t really bring himself to do more than shrug. Ace looked back at Deuce, trying to figure out whether his new friend was just joking.

But, no, Deuce was exceedingly earnest.

Ace snorted into his hand.

~~~~~~~~~

Pt5>

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Yuu can do it!

Part 42

First - Previous - Masterlist - TBC

Enma, Ito, and Grim had not known what to expect when they went to pick up Kuroki from work the next day. Perhaps they would be squeezed within an inch of their life by Floyd again. Maybe Jade would finally reveal himself to be the more evil and dangerous of the twins by killing them or whatever it was the guy did – because they were sure he did something, his vibes were terrible. Maybe Azul would try and rope them into yet another sketchy deal (funnily enough, despite it being the quickest to duck out of, this was the one they were dreading the most, because they would have to deal with Grim whining about how they totally should have taken the deal for the rest of the night).

Maybe they would have a pleasant day without even a minor incident!

It happens! Sometimes! Like, once! It could happen again!

But not today!

Because, the moment they stepped through the mirror, Ruggie in tow, they were almost overwhelmed by the amount of sound that met their ears. At the echoing yelling that could be heard all the way down the tunnels.

Damn. They had really hoped that ‘accidentally’ calling upon Crowley, especially over something trivial like whether he’d had sex, would discourage people from attacking them. But apparently not.

Ito gave a quiet groan of annoyance.

“It could be unrelated to us,” Enma tried, kicking off his shoes.

Even Ruggie, who by all accounts should be playing dumb, paused with his foot still in the air, his shoe half off, to give him an incredulous look.

(Enma fought the urge to push Ruggie over while he was off-balance.)

“Every big thing that has happened so far this year has involved at least one of you four.”

“It’s not like we’re trying to cause trouble!” Grim argued.

This was a lie. Grim has absolutely intentionally caused trouble before. But neither Ito nor Enma were going to say anything about it, because that was currently their only defense.

Ruggie raised an eyebrow. “That makes it worse.”

Okay. Ouch.

Ito huffed. “It’s not our fault we’re in Hell.”

Enma started to laugh at the sheer insanity of their sentence, he was pretty sure that being in Hell necessitates it being your fault, but then something occurred to him. “Wait, you still think we’re in Hell?”

“I mean. Yeah. Too much bullshit has happened for it to be completely natural.”

Enma frowned. “I mean, sure, but that might just be that we caused a rift or butterfly effect by coming here. Chaos theory, you know?”

“You can’t just say ‘you know’ and have me suddenly know –.”

“Waitwaitwait,” cut in Ruggie. “You guys don’t even know what’s wrong with you?!”

Nooooooo Enma’s mean-spirited game has been ruined…

“You assholes!” Ruggie said.

Enma frowned. That was harsh.

“It was funny,” Grim defended them all. Ito and Enma nodded emphatically. If Kuroki were with them, he surely would have, too. Enma nodded twice as hard to make up for his absence.

For some reason, none of this seemed to make Ruggie any more okay with the situation. How could Enma know that for sure, you may ask? Well, the fact that he threw his shoe at Enma’s head tipped him off.

Enma, of course, dodged (because he doesn’t like being hit by shoes, shockingly), which didn’t seem to make him feel any better, either.

Ruggie was so hard to please.

Enma shook his head to himself, exasperated. “Let’s just go help Kuroki.”

“I’m surprised you guys didn’t immediately run to do it,” Ruggie snorted.

Ito and Enma met eyes, and then gave twin eye rolls. There was definitely a reason that Kuroki had been chosen as a primary target. He was seen as weak – either because he was the one of them who had ‘official’ ownership of the gun or because they had noticed his subpar gym grades. If they immediately ran to help him, that would communicate that they were unsure about his abilities and that he was their ‘weak spot’ or whatever. He needed to prove he could hold his own, in his own way.

This didn’t stop their pace from picking up just slightly.

As they neared, they found a crowd of what seemed to be solely Savanaclaw students, clustered in a vaguely circular shape. They didn’t have to guess what they had crowded around, partially because they knew their friend, but mostly because they could hear Kuroki’s voice pretty plainly:

“– and? Who asked?”

Enma wasn’t sure whether to groan or laugh.

Kuroki ended up groaning for him.

This should have opened Enma up to laugh, but he suddenly wasn’t in the mood to.

Ito paused, briefly, just outside of the circle. They knelt to pick up Kuroki’s gun. Someone had probably kicked it out of the way at some point.

Grim started growling. Enma felt claws start to tug at the fabric of his shirt.

“I’ll kill them –,” Grim started to say.

“No,” said Enma. Because that would make things so much worse. A good percentage of the mages were still wary of Grim and his magic, and if they learned that Grim was absolutely not that good at it they’d lose a hell of an edge. But he couldn’t say that to the monster’s face, so… “You’ll be best at comforting him, you’re his favorite.”

Grim didn’t seem particularly happy about his assignment. But he did puff up a bit at being recognized as Kuroki’s favorite, so problem solved? Hopefully?

“You should deal with them,” Ito said lightly.

This was true. They had a limited number of bullets. Enma had, once, been the vice-captain of a Kendo club. It was best for him to fight off the Savanaclaw students.

However.

“Your eye is twitching,” Enma said.

Their grip tightened on the gun. “I am aware.”

Enma snickered, pressing a hand to his chest. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll deal with them.”

Ito didn’t seem all that comforted by this fact. But they shook their head to themself, visibly steeling their nerves, before cocking the gun.

Several animal ears flicked at the new sound, and the chatter and jeering of the crowd immediately died.

Ruggie in tow, Enma pushed his way to the front.

Kuroki looked… worse for wear. He was leaning back against the glass wall in a way that seemed less casual and more he couldn’t support himself on his own. The skin of his neck was a mess of angry reds. There was a wound lost somewhere in his messier-than-usual hair, only noticeable thanks to the blood gluing one of his electric blue eyes shut. A hand was cradling his side, purposeful in the placement of his fingers, physically holding himself together.

Despite all this, he was actively using his other hand to flip off his assailants. Bloody lips split into a cocky smirk.

“You’re all bitches,” Kuroki taunted. “Cowards! I mean, it's smart, I guess. It’s obvious you know you’d lose any fair fight you get into. But, y’know, at least I am willing to take it when I have to. How do any of you expect to get by as athletes or whatever it is if all you can do is kick people who are already down?”

“Yeah, literally,” Enma said.

Kuroki groaned. “Ecchan –.”

And then he seemed to realize that there was a reason as to why the blows had stopped coming. He lifted his head, slowly, to look at his friends. For a moment, the cocky, purposefully infuriating smirk on his face widened into an actual, full-on smile.

And then he dissolved into a mess of (mostly) fake tears.

Manipulative prick, Enma thought, almost fond save for the mild pang of annoyance when he realized that it was actually working a little on him regardless.

Grim was quick to fly over to the boy, searching through their backpack for their supply of emergency healing potions. Ito was a little slower, their face a little greener, but still they knelt down beside him. Kuroki grabbed their sleeve and tugged them closer for comfort that they, somewhat reluctantly, gave. They wrapped careful arms around him, threading a hand through his hair, only wincing slightly when Kuroki’s chin, dripping red, came to rest on their shoulder. Kuroki’s expression twisted once again, into a strange little smile, his eyebrows raising in a way that screamed ‘ooooh, you’re in troubleeeee’.

Enma almost laughed at the familiarity of it all. Save for all of the blood and soon-to-be bruises, it was close to those times when Kuroki would fake cry just to get Enma in trouble. It didn’t genuinely work, Ito never believed it, and Enma never actually got grounded or whatever, but it was fun to mess around and pretend.

But the wicked look on Kuroki’s face wasn’t aimed at Enma for once.

Right.

Enma heaved a sigh, turning back to the group of Savanaclaw students. They were visibly confused, looking between themselves for answers no one seemed to have. Why had Ito picked up the gun when it was pretty clear that they had no intentions of using it anytime soon? Why wasn't their monster attacking them to create the more even fight Kuroki had been spouting off about?

Why were they acting like they had already won?

Enma wasn’t going to complain about the brief reprieve. It gave him plenty of time to do a quick assessment. It seemed like there were three main people who had attacked Kuroki, judging by the cracked and bloody knuckles on two of them, and the last’s messy clothes which suggested some kind of scuffle. The rest of the people had probably just been watching the show. So, those three were most likely to fight back, where the others might be more hesitant to hurt a poor, helpless magicless human (directly, at least). 

He took a moment to unbutton his suit jacket and toss it onto Ruggie – mostly just because he wanted to annoy the hyena, but also partially because he was barely resisting the urge to pick up the yagujen and throw him at the asshole Savanaclaw students, and covering his face was the only solution he could think up on the fly.

He groaned and stretched his arms over his head, readying himself for an unfair fight.

On the mages ends, of course.

Because, if there was one thing that he had realized over the past few days, it was this: mages rely on magic way too much. Given an option to neatly and fairly exclude Malleus Draconia from the tournament? Too easy, magical sabotage is clearly superior. Path obstructed by greenery? A new method of cultivating plants isn’t needed, just chop through them with wind magic every day. Writing hand broken? Don’t take the opportunity to learn how to be ambidextrous, just use magic!

The fistfight between Ace, Deuce, and Jack? Sloppy. The schools attempts to non-magically bully them? Fucking pathetic.

Have three people saying that they will ruin your revenge plot? Don’t bribe the notoriously broke students, that would be stupid. Instead, pull petty shit like this!

Mages were useless without their magic. And Enma understood, he would probably be the same given their circumstances.

That didn’t mean that he didn’t intend on exploiting this weakness as much as possible.

He didn’t have a weapon on him, but he would make do.

He punched the nearest Savanaclaw student with all the anger a magicless student forced into a school full of mages in a completely foreign dimension could muster.

Which is to say, the guy went down.

Their chin cracked against the glass. As his jaw made a cracking sound, not the glass, which was surprisingly okay. Must be magically at least somewhat magically enforced. But then why bother making people take their shoes off when entering Octavinelle?

Hm…

He could ponder that later.

For now, Enma shook out his hand.

“So sorry, senpai,” he said. “Looks like my hand slipped.”

Needless to say, the Savanaclaw students were not pleased by these new developments.

(“Can I – hic – have my inhaler, too?” Kuroki panted. “I think. I triggered. My not-asthma. While fake crying.”)

Claws tore the sleeve of Enma’s shirt. Ugh, Kuroki was going to complain so much about repairing that. He kicked in the offender’s knee in retaliation.

(“Kuroki,” Ito scolded, immediately pulling away to start searching their backpack.)

A particularly heavy hit slammed into Enma’s cheek. He returned the favor. Dully, he wished for rings.

(Grim hovered by the pair of them. Not quite like he was trying to ward off any Savanaclaw students that might try and wander over, but instead like he wasn’t sure how to help. Kuroki, however, knew exactly how the monster could help, and dragged Grim into a tight hug to use as a kind of stress ball. Grim complained loudly about being squeezed too hard, but made no moves to even readjust himself in the boy’s arms.)

A hand pulled his hair, which was messed up. He tore his head out of their grip and sunk his teeth into their arm. Call it Grim rubbing off on him or turnabout being fair play – seriously, who pulls hair, this bitch deserves a possible infection – all Enma cared about was that it was effective.

(“Ruggie, the halls are made of glass I can fucking see where you’re going!” Ito yelled, shoving the inhaler clumsily into Kuroki’s hands before running after the boy trying to disappear into the Mostro Lounge.)

The guy that had landed a hit on him was coming back for seconds, and Enma decided he would make them regret it. He kicked them where the sun doesn’t shine, and watched their animal ears flatten in shock and horror, and then their tail bristle as they sank to the floor.

Oooh, maybe he could try stepping on someone’s tail next, see what happens –.

A gunshot ran out.

Ruggie shrieked.

Enma glanced over and smiled when he found Ruggie standing in front of a spider web of cracks in the glass. The yagujen’s tail might not have been long enough to tuck itself between his legs, but it was certainly there in spirit.

Ito’s head tipped back, towards where the sky would be if there was one in this pocket dimension, before sighing.

And then they tackled Ruggie.

The glass finally gave way under the force of two humanoids crashing into it, and the pair were sent out into the water.

For a minute, it was mostly silent, save for the rush of water entering the hall. Students watched on in a fascinated kind of horror as Ito and Ruggie wrestled in the brine, pulling at each other’s hair and clothes, bubbles streaming from their lips.

And then Savanaclaw students started rushing towards the hole to try and fish them out before they drowned. Or, worse, Azul Ashengrotto found a way to save them and put them all in his debt.

Well. Guess the fight is over.

He should probably do… good friend things. Whatever that was.

Enma breathed a sigh, and made his way over to Kuroki. He glanced his friend up and down. Kuroki and Grim were clinging to each other – it was hard to tell who was comforting who. He was, frustratingly, still not healed up. He had finished with his inhaler, but had yet to take the health potion, instead opting to roll it around in his fingers.

Enma cracked a grin.

“So. Ecchan?”

Kuroki blushed bright red. Unfortunately, he chose that exact moment to decide that healing his injuries was worth the terrible taste.

~

Four kids sat in the middle of Octavinelle. Two were covered in blood and bruises – though, Kuroki was currently nursing a healing potion (he couldn’t seem to get more than the tiniest of sips in at a time without cringing), so at least the more injured one would be fine soon enough. The other two were sitting in a puddle of their own making, dripping wet, looking very much like pathetic wet cats.

Really, they should all be grateful that things were only as bad as they were. Kuroki and Enma were still conscious and capable of movement. Ruggie and Ito were still able to breathe oxygen. Really, things had gone about as well as was realistically possible.

None of them were intent on celebrating, though. Because the hole in the glass walls of the tunnel they resided in had been patched with a wind spell. They could barely feel the magic, even while sitting as close to the hole as they were, only noticeable in the slight tug of their hair.

There weren’t many people who could perform this kind of controlled, precise magic on such a large scale.

And only one person who would have cared enough to bother.

Crowley paced back and forth. His shoes kept clinking against the glass. Enma, dully, wondered if the glass beneath them would shatter under all of the stress.

He sure hoped not. His knuckles had split open during the fight, and he didn’t think that salt water would help soothe the pain.

“– can’t leave the three of you alone for a day! I don’t know why I gave you that gun! It’s been two days and I have so much to clean up and several complaints! You three cause me so many problems, honestly, if I didn’t know that it would leave you homeless I would have expelled you months ago!”

Ruggie’s head shot up at the revelation. He squinted at the headmaster for a minute, and then turned to scrutinize the Yuus. Apparently seeing them in a new light.

Enma fought not to bristle. He didn’t want Ruggie’s pity.

But, even more, he wanted to make sure that the Headmaster didn’t see him as too aggressive and throw them out despite his claims that he wouldn’t. Because, as much as the Headmaster claimed he didn’t want to leave them homeless, he almost expelled them on their first day. It was clear that, if money was involved, Crowley had his priorities. And they had just cost him a whole lot of money.

“And you,” he said, whirling on Ito. “I expected better from you, at least.”

Ito didn’t even bother to meet the Headmaster’s pinprick eyes, apparently busy wringing out their hair. Their expression was flat, but… Enma thought they might be feeling a little guilty?

“I tried to warn you.”

Crowley gave them a flat look. “Saying ‘Sorry, Crowley’ immediately before causing property damage is not a warning.”

“Not my fault you weren’t close enough to help,” they sniffed.

Okay, nevermind on the guilt thing. They might just really care about the state of their hair. Now that he thought about it, Ito used to get really annoyed when Enma and Kuroki used their shampoo and conditioner, back before they had apparently given up all hope and accepted the inevitable.

“I could make you sorry,” Crowley said, crossing his arms over his chest. “I should confiscate that weapon of yours.”

Kuroki gasped and hugged his recently-recovered gun to his chest. “No! It’s mine.”

(Grim looked to be jealous of an inanimate object.)

Ito looked at Kuroki for a minute before sighing, their hands falling from their hair. They finally met Crowley’s eyes, if only for a second before they shifted into a seiza. “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

Crowley’s lips twisted in a complicated array of emotions Enma couldn’t even begin to decipher.

He patted the top of Ito’s head. Once. Before he remembered that they were soaking wet and flinched back in disgust at his newly-dampened gloves.

“I will allow you one more chance. However, you will be the one to file the insurance claims and hire the contractors necessary to repair this.”

Privately, Enma thought that Ito would have probably been stuck with the paperwork even if they hadn’t been the one to cause all of the damage. However, he, wisely, remained quiet. If Crowley was going to let Ito off easily – accidentally or purposefully – then Enma wasn’t going to be the one to ruin that for them.

With little more than a huff and a swish of his cape-wing-things, Crowley was gone.

Ito flopped back against the glass floor. This was not a particularly safe thing to do, but it was fine, apparently.

Ruggie, on the other hand, was distinctly not fine. “This is blatant favoritism.”

“Be more likable and maybe you’ll get some favoritism of your own,” Grim said, apparently still bitter about being replaced by a gun.

Ruggie didn’t take it too personally. “Look who’s talking!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?!”

“If you don’t already know, then I think you might be beyond saving, bud.”

Grim sunk his teeth into Ruggie’s calf. Which was really just proving Ruggie’s point, but Ruggie was in pain now so did he really win? Not really.

Enma snickered as Ruggie began frantically trying to shake the monster off.

And then blinked when glass clinked against his teeth. Kuroki was determinedly not looking at him, which was a… funny choice, considering he was the one holding the rest of his healing potion to Enma’s lips.

Enma really didn’t need it, he had dealt with worse than a couple of bruises and scrapes in his club, but he didn’t bother arguing with Kuroki about it. He took the potion into careful hands. “Do you think this counts as a second-hand kiss?” he asked, because frankly annoying Kuroki sounded much more fun than dealing with the real emotions or, worse, dealing with the terrible taste of healing potions.

Kuroki, predictably, bristled and started spitefully reaching for the potion again. But Enma noted that, despite his protests, there was no real force behind his actions. He wasn’t actually trying to take it back.

Or, at least, Kuroki didn’t want the potion to spill on him.

Enma chose to believe it was the first one, though.

~

Ito came home smelling, disturbingly, like smoke. Now, to be fair, the smell of smoke had lingered on all of the Ramshackle kids ever since they had started hanging out with Grim, despite their best efforts to get the smell out. Mainly because, the second they tried, the monster would start rubbing all over them again to ‘fix’ this wrong. And they could not afford that much detergent. So, smelling like smoke was just a part of life for them nowadays…

However, Grim’s magestone had a few dark specks in it, so it was safe to assume he had recently used his magic.

“I’m going to take a quick shower –.”

“What did you do?” Ruggie asked, narrowing his eyes at them.

“Nothing that affects you,” Ito promised.

Ruggie looked at them for a moment longer, trying to determine if that was actually the truth. And then he shrugged, going back to folding Leona’s laundry. Apparently, that was all he cared about.

Kuroki, however, was not quite as quick to let it go: “What’d you do?”

“Went to a bonfire!” Ito said brightly.

“... you burned their homework, didn’t you?”

“Yep. And their notes. And their textbooks. It’s the first part of my three-step plan to ruin their high school years.”

Enma and Kuroki stared at them.

“What is the plan?” Kuroki asked, not quite disturbed, but definitely wary.

Ito smiled and refused to elaborate.

“Deserved,” decided Enma, going back to his non-burned homework.

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Me opening up the word doc and getting stuck in the exact same place as last time

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

everyone does want to talk about how fans of [thing] are the worst on tumblr or twitter or tiktok specifically and it’s like Well your first mistake is interacting with people en masse in regard to something you enjoy/care about. you gotta leave that shit with like a handful of trusted guys lest you get jumpscared every five seconds and/or develop blood pressure problems

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Since I’m already dressed up. Friendly reminder that I’m fine as hell 😌

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Hi, just wanted to recommend a few more fanfics on Damian and Tim’s sibling relationship pt 2!

1. Play it Again by Jazz020/ @jazz020 (tumblr): Damian gets used to Tim playing piano in the manor and they bond together over music-the ending though is really sweet

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29618295?fbclid=IwAR14dO0esJO1_4jwKqdo_gsamcNeUEI_Wg50uBqCwOdx-q7SjmbUYZq8Yck

2. The cold (my burning promise) by BlueKappa: Tim and Damian gets locked in a room that gets colder by each minute and Tim risks his life saving Damian

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28988862/chapters/71142312

3. Brotherly Wisdom by oliviaandersonisntmyrealnamelol /@olivia-anderson-fanfic (tumblr):Tim gets his wisdom teeth out and Damian tries to use this as an opportunity to get blackmail material

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/35939842

4. Late by breathingsentences: Tim is late picking up Damian after school which causes Damian to worry

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17550680

5. Not Him by Allwalkfree/ @animemangasoul (tumblr) **AO3 must have an account, but I provided links from their tumblr since I know not everyone has an AO3 account**: Damian gets jealous with Tim spending more time with his half-brother, Warren Winters

Links:

On AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/38066698/chapters/95085913

On Tumblr

CH. 1: https://www.tumblr.com/animemangasoul/680628339984171008/not-him?source=share

CH 2:

https://www.tumblr.com/animemangasoul/700993160490401793/summery-damian-might-be-the-tiniest-bit-insecure?source=share

Oh man there's so much on this list! You've got some angst, you've got a good amount of fluff, but most of all, you've got the Batfam being the Batfam, and I adore it! Thanks so much for putting this list together and sending it in!

Participate in Fandom Friday to show your favorite creators from this week some love! :)

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Dancing 'til the break of dawn - Pt3

<Pt2

(TWST zombie apocalypse au for all your crack-fic needs)

Yuu was… so tired.

Why was he so tired, you may ask? He is perfectly capable of sleep, after all, there is no fear of zombies keeping him awake. Ace had installed a bell above the door, which should alert them all if a survivor were to wander inside. Sleeping in shifts was a thing of the past, now. They could rest without worry.

Except Yuu could not. Because his newfound friends were the worst.

“Look, look, look, Grim,” said Ace, sounding close to begging. “You don’t have to do much. Just a little nibble. You like nibbling on humans! They taste good!”

Grim lifted his head from Yuu’s chest, briefly. He groaned internally, readying himself to catch the monster before he could make a meal of Deuce.

But (surprisingly, thankfully) Grim made no moves to stand, which meant… 

Yuu was going to cry. Was Grim finally learning that murdering his friends is bad? He successfully drilled that into his brain? He’s, like, a proud parent now. Wow.

“Don’t look at me like that.” Ace huffed. “Think about it this way: what if Deuce convinces Yuu that eating people is wrong?”

Yuu… already thought that? Did they think that Yuu was okay with eating people? Because he wasn’t! Eating people is gross.

And morally gray-to-black, he supposes. If you think about it. Which Yuu doesn’t usually do, so really he just finds it kinda icky.

“If Deuce wins, Yuu won’t cook for us anymore! We’ll have to go back to bland, flavorless meat.”

Grim made a distressed squeaking sound.

“Exactly,” said Ace.

Dang it.

He sighed, finally opening his eyes. “Ace, man, come on.”

Ace, who had been kneeling far closer than Yuu had originally assumed, actually, nearly fell over in his haste to back up a few steps. Which is not the behavior of a particularly innocent person. But, to his credit, he was quick to rectify this. He sat himself down on his futon, hugged his legs to his chest, and propped his chin on his knees. With a new, slightly tired smile in place, he looked for all the world as if he had just been talking to Grim to fill the time until he could pass out. “Hey, Yuu, how long have you been awake?”

Yuu gave him a flat look.

Ace maintained his expression for a few more moments, before apparently giving up, spinning and flopping back against his pillow with a loud groan. “I don’t want him to stay! Like, you suck enough, with your morals and weird-as-hell complex, but at least you don’t tell me what to do! And you’re useful!”

Yuu sat up slowly, propping his chin in his hand, just so Ace could continue to see how unimpressed he was with this whole situation. He is a growing boy, after all, he needs his beauty sleep. He does not need to deal with weird interpersonal drama and various morality issues.

“You flatter me, Ace.”

“I’ve always been told I’m quite the sweet-talker,” Ace said, winking.

“‘Ace’ and ‘sweet’ should never be in the same sentence, unless the word ‘is not’ is between them.”

“But that sentence didn’t have ‘is not’ between ‘Ace’ and ‘sweet’,” Ace pointed out.

“You’re just proving me right.”

Ace considered this. And then shook his head. “Nah, I’m proving you wrong.”

“It – it doesn’t work like that,” said Yuu, utterly flabbergasted.

“It does, actually.”

Yuu frowned. “I think I’m being gaslit.”

“If you were being gaslit, you’d know.”

... would he know? Maybe...

Wait.

He looked at Ace, betrayed, and found the boy snickering into his hand. Yuu hated him, actually, Ace was the worst person to ever exist.

Deuce must have agreed, because he groaned in his sleep and turned over, shoving his pillow over his head with mumbled curses.

Okay. Maybe not actually in his sleep. Ace and Yuu hadn’t really been bothering to keep quiet. Sorry, Deuce. Except Yuu wasn’t actually all that sorry – if he had to be awake because Ace and Deuce couldn’t just Be Normal, then Deuce wasn’t allowed to sleep either.

Speaking of…

“Why don’t you just kill him yourself?” Yuu asked, because he was curious. It wasn’t like Ace had any problems committing murder, and it would certainly be faster to just slit Deuce’s throat than convince Grim to bite him… so, why?

Ace eyed him warily. “Am I allowed to do that?”

Yuu thought about it.

Grim was allowed to kill people. Because look at him. He’s adorable.

Is Ace adorable?

Ehhhhhhh, debatably. But not get-away-with-murder adorable, he doesn’t think.

“Good point, I guess.”

Ace had clearly expected that, but his shoulders slumped regardless.

(Deuce’s shoulders also slumped, but that was most likely due to relief rather than exasperation. But who knows. Maybe Deuce was into being killed and was very disappointed. Yuu wasn’t going to assume.)

~

You may be thinking ‘Well, Yuu, you already knew that Ace was kind of awful, but Deuce has done nothing wrong’. And Yuu would like to laugh in your face, because Deuce is just as inconvenient.

Like, sure, the guy wasn’t trying to murder Ace (because that would kind of ruin his argument), but he was still determined to sway Yuu in any way possible.

Don’t believe him?

Yuu brings to the stand: the attempted kidnapping.

Actually, thinking back on it, it was an entirely successful kidnapping. Get rid of that ‘attempted’!

Yuu brings to the stand: the kidnapping.

It happened only a few days later, when Deuce claimed that he was going to move the rest of his belongings to the convenience store, since it seemed like his stay was going to be far longer than he’d originally hoped.

“Don’t bring your stuff over,” Ace said, his lip curling in abject disgust. “Just leave.”

Deuce didn’t even look at him. “Yuu, can you come with me? I’ve got a couple of heavy things, so…”

Yuu, like the fool he was, thought nothing of it. After all, Deuce was largely ignoring Ace nowadays. Which, really, was better than he had ever hoped for.

He should have known it was too good to be true.

Alas.

He went with Deuce. It was a (relatively) short trip, they got there just after the sun had set. The walk itself wasn’t particularly eventful, people tend to keep quiet while traveling for fear of attracting the wrong kind of attention. The only thing of note was that Deuce spent the entire trip wondering why they weren’t seeing any zombies. Yuu realized, very abruptly, that Deuce might not know that Grim was a zombie. Which, on one hand, vindication – it wasn’t that obvious, Yuu was glad to know he wasn’t the only person who would ever mistake a weird green cat for normal. On the other hand, that was hilarious, and Yuu wanted to see how long it would take for Deuce to realize.

Was it hypocritical? Sure. But who cares? It’s not like you can sue him for it, seeing as lawyers were pretty much the first ones to die out.

Not because of the zombies. Because criminals broke out of prison after day three of the apocalypse and, apparently, just really didn’t like the guys. For some reason.

Also, lawyers are annoying – imagine choosing to be a Reddit debate lord full time – so Yuu kind of gets it.

Point is, Yuu likes to make fun of Deuce, so he will do it.

Not for things that feel too far, of course. He had opened his mouth to tease Deuce for having free reign to choose literally any house and still going with an apartment, but had quickly shut it upon seeing the nameplate declaring this the ‘Spade’ residence. He said nothing when Deuce opened the door to his old apartment and sighed when he found it devoid of all life.

Yuu really did not want to deal with All That. He came here to grab a few things and go, not to deal with someone else’s trauma.

He didn’t even want to deal with his own trauma, thank you very much.

He helped gather everything that might be of use. There wasn’t much. Deuce had packed pretty much everything before heading off in search of food, but there were quite a few sentimental items that he had wanted to pick up.

Still, not enough to warrant two people making the trip over, though.

This, he would later realize, was yet another warning sign. But he had assumed that Deuce just wanted moral support, so he ignored that glaring red flag, too.

Deuce shoved a couple of posters and magazines into his bag, as well as what looked to be a tracksuit and a deck of playing cards. Yuu supposed that all of that would be nice to have – people don’t talk about how boring apocalypses are. Like, sure, you’re fighting for your life, but when you’re not? No technology, no books past sundown, nothing but yourself for company unless you’re lucky enough to find a group (or unlucky enough, in Yuu’s case).

Honestly, they deserved a medal for not being completely insane. Yet.

Yuu pulled a poster from the wall, fighting to keep the laughter out of his voice when he said, “Didn’t think that was the kind of thing you’d be into.”

Deuce looked over and his face flushed red. “I really like motorcycles, okay?”

“The fact that there’s a woman in the photo is just an unfortunate addition, then?” he teased.

Deuce stomped over and snatched up the poster, mumbling unkind words under his breath. Yuu did not fail to notice that Deuce still packed the poster. Oh, Ace was going to get a kick out of that when he saw.

Luckily for Deuce, Grim fell asleep soon after. Yuu was much more interested in cooing over his baby crafted by God himself (and also probably some sort of Evil Scientist Experimentation or something like that) than making fun of his friend. Because he has priorities.

Priorities that were, unfortunately, put on hold when Deuce finished packing up. He paused for a moment to take the nameplate off of his doorway, and then turned to Yuu, something akin to curiosity sparkling in his gaze.

“Hey, Yuu, do you have a last name?” Deuce asked.

Yuu paused and looked over, frowning. “I mean… obviously? Not many people are born without them, y’know.”

Deuce blushed. “I mean, obviously, but I just realized you never really formally introduced yourself to me, and I wanted to call you by the right name…”

“It’s the apocalypse, Deuce. You’ve seen me naked. At that point, I don’t think formalities really matter.”

Deuce sighed. “I guess that makes sense…”

“My full name is ‘Yuu Zombie’, if you must know.”

“You’re joking.”

“I’m not! Y’know, when this zombie stuff started up, I was like ‘Woah what a coincidence, I would laugh if I were any less terrified!’”

Deuce stared at him for a minute more before sighing. “You are joking.”

Yuu’s lips twitched. “Yeah, I am. Should I have gone for something a little more believable? ‘Undead’? Oh, or maybe ‘Apparition’? Yeah, that sounds cool. Can I have a redo?”

Deuce groaned. “You’re the worst.”

“Oh oh oh! What about ‘Infected’? Like in those snobby horror films that won’t admit that they’re zombies –!”

“Know what? I don’t feel bad about this anymore.”

Yuu froze. “Bad about what?”

And that’s the moment where he got shoved into a closet.

Not again!

He groaned when the lock clicked behind him. He considered ‘tripping’ and bumping as many walls as he could on the way down, just to see if that would make Deuce open it. But he decided against it, if only because he didn’t want to ruin his beautiful face.

So. Plan B.

“Deuce, if you don’t let me out I’m going to fake a panic attack.”

“What the –?!”

“I will cry. This is a threat.”

Deuce hissed something that sounded like a curse. Not a curse word, but an actual curse, perhaps on Yuu’s bloodline or something. Which wouldn’t matter, because Yuu wasn’t going to have one. Take that!

… Yuu might still be losing. He is still stuck in a closet, after all. Hard to feel like a winner in that kind of scenario.

Deuce sighed. “Listen, I’m just doing this until you realize that you can do better than fucking Ace of all people.”

Yuu sighed, sliding down the back wall so he could safely sit. Everything was, unfortunately, dark, but he could feel Grim slip out of his pocket and rush up to the door. The sound of claws scratching against the wood was grating.

It also meant that he had a time limit. If Grim managed to claw his way through, Yuu had no doubts that he would immediately try to maul Deuce.

Which would be annoying.

“Deuce,” he said, trying to keep his voice level even though he was in a closet and talking to a door of all things. “I’m not leaving Ace.”

Yuu wasn’t being stubborn about this because he liked Ace or anything, he swears, he just… really liked… Ace’s store…?

Shut up.

“You could do so much better than him!”

Yuu gritted his teeth. He had his doubts – he wasn’t sure why Grim had allowed Ace and Deuce to stay, but he wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He needed human interaction. He was already deferential to a cat, for Pete’s sake!

“I don’t want better than him,” he said.

“He’s the worst!” Deuce said, sounding frustrated, like Yuu was the one that was just not getting it. “He literally calls you his chef. You don’t have to put up with that!”

Man, Deuce was really hung up on the Chef thing. Yuu wasn’t sure why.

“He has a whole futon but he makes you sleep on the floor!”

“Of course I sleep on the floor. Where else would I –?!”

Wait.

Wait. A. Minute.

“You think that Ace and I are dating,” Yuu realized, fighting the urge to laugh. And then the offense crept in. “Hold on, you think I’m dating Ace?!”

“... yeah?” said Deuce.

“I could do so much better than him!”

“That’s what I said!”

Yuu groaned, pressing his face into his hands. “Jeez, dude, no. He’s, like, a friend at best. We barely know each other.”

“Wait… that makes even less sense! Why won’t you leave him if literally neither of you cares about each other?”

Yuu shrugged, even if he knew that Deuce couldn’t see it. “It’s whatever.”

“Just… okay, name one good reason why you haven’t left him.”

For some reason, he doubted ‘listen, I do not have that many options’ would go over well. Probably because he had already tried that, to very poor results. Unfortunately, Yuu wasn’t sure that he could honestly say that Ace had that many good qualities. The ones that he did have were buried so deep that he wasn’t sure that they counted.

He supposed he could trauma dump on Deuce and take the win, but that didn’t sound all that fun…

… fun.

Fun.

“He’s funny!” he blurted, because that definitely was a good trait that Ace had. He would readily admit that the redhead could tell a few good jokes, so long as he was 100% sure that it would never get back to him. Ace’s ego was large enough as it was, no need to inflate it.

But was this good enough to convince Deuce to let him out?

No.

“A. You took way too long to decide on that. B. So is a clown! Would you make friends with a clown?!”

“I mean. Probably.”

“... I think you might be beyond saving.”

Alright. Rude.

It was silent for a minute.

“Are you going to let me out now?”

Another minute.

“Yeah, sure. Fuck it, I guess.”

Before Yuu could celebrate annoying his kidnapper into letting him go (which, after saying that out loud, doesn't feel like something he should be celebrating), he had something important to do. Yuu lunged for the doorknob the moment the lock clicked, holding it firmly in place.

“Hold on a sec.”

“Uhhhh… don’t you want to come out?”

“Grimmmmm,” he cooed instead of answering. “Pspspspspspsps…”

He smiled when a tiny paw came to rest upon his knee. He picked up his darling and hugged him to his chest.

“Alright, now you can open the door.”

Deuce did so, giving him a very confused look.

“He would have tried to bite you,” Yuu explained.

Grim swung his legs like he was still tempted to try. Yuu pressed a quick kiss to the top of the zombie’s head in an attempt to placate him.

The two humans ignored the cat in favor of finally getting out of the apartment.

“You don’t have to come back with me, you know,” Yuu said.

“I’ve got nothing better to do,” said Deuce. He wasn’t meeting Yuu’s eyes, and the boy could claim that this was because he was carefully closing and locking the door behind them, but Yuu knew the truth: Deuce was definitely lying. He had been staring at Yuu like he was something to be studied. Yuu wasn’t sure whether this was flattering or not.

Yuu gave him a flat look.

“It’s better than staying here, I guess,” Deuce finally gave in.

Yuu snorted and bumped their shoulders together, lightly. “Now you’re getting it.”

They managed to get all the way outside before Yuu finally spoke again:

“Oh, wait. I forgot to tell you something.”

“What?”

“Yuu could be a last name, too.”

Deuce punched him in the arm so hard that Yuu could swear he felt a bone crack.

(This, unsurprisingly, did not make Grim any more happy with the boy.)

~~~~~~~

Pt4>

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Dancing 'til the break of dawn Masterlist

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[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Dancing 'til the break of dawn - Pt2

<Pt1

(TWST zombie apocalypse au for all your crack-fic needs)

As a kind of ‘sorry for almost stabbing you, please do not sic your zombie cat on me’ gesture, Ace gripped Yuu’s hand and dragged him into the back of the convenience store so they could share a nice little meal together.

Well… it would be nice, if Yuu wasn’t approximately 99% sure that Ace was a cannibal. After all, he hadn’t had any supplies on him that would have been worth stealing, much less killing over, that was why he had come into the convenience store in the first place. And it wasn’t like the store had been openly claimed in any of the traditional ways, with a blackened zombie corpse out front or a big bar over the window and a handwritten sign telling people to stay out ‘or else’. 

And Grim had accepted Ace’s mystery meat. Yuu had lived with the zombie for quite a while, now, so he knew for a fact that Grim was very particular about his diet. Much to his chagrin, might he add. It was a little gross to watch his cat feast on the corpses of what had once been humans. He only spared so much of his innocence by turning his face away whenever the zombie needed to eat.

All of this to say: Yuu did not like the look of the bowlful of mystery meat he was offered. Especially since it wasn’t really all that much of a mystery.

He took it gingerly, but was reluctant to actually eat any. He tossed some to Grim when Ace turned away to prepare himself a bowl, and winced when Grim snapped it up without the slightest trace of hesitation.

Well, that confirms that theory.

Ace settled down a few feet away and started digging in. Without even cringing. Maybe it was good?

Yuu poked at the meat with his chopsticks, frowning a little. When cooked it, frankly, didn’t look that different from any other meat. Though it looked bland. Did Ace not know what spices are? Yuu was pretty sure he had seen a few spice jars scattered around the shop, couldn’t he have spared at least a couple?

Beyond that, though, he was… less than eager to learn if everything really does just taste like chicken.

Would it be rude to refuse, though? Ace had cooked it for him…

He cleared his throat awkwardly. “So, uh, why didn’t you just… eat the food that was here?”

Ace didn’t seem to know what he was talking about, so Yuu motioned to the aisles upon aisles of food that he was using as bait.

Ace seemed to buffer for an entire minute.

“Well… it’s not sustainable. I mean, we’re going to be stuck like this until… who knows how long. I don’t know how to tend to plants or – anything.”

Yuu gave him a flat look. “Y’know, I’d believe that if it wasn’t very clear that you’re making this up on the spot.”

Ace scowled and crossed his arms over his chest. “Well, what do you know? You befriended a fucking zombie.”

“It was really dark, okay?!”

Grim glowered at Ace. And then snapped at his knee.

“Get your fucking cat!” Ace screeched.

Yuu sighed. “Grim, just because you don’t like someone doesn’t mean you can kill them. We’ve been over this.”

Grim, for lack of a better word, sulked at the reminder.

Ace, however, looked horrified. “... how many times has Grim killed someone you made ‘friends’ with?”

“I try not to think about it,” Yuu admitted.

Ace looked like he wanted to die… well, actually, like he very much did not want to die. “Well, you – you scold him afterward, right?”

“Of course!”

“You’d scold him if he killed me, then?” Ace sounded a little bit desperate. He looked at the zombie. “You hear that? You’ll get told off if you kill me!”

Grim looked like he was very much ready to take that risk.

“You – you have to start doing more,” said Ace. “Like, at least say you won’t talk to him anymore if he kills me.”

Yuu frowned. That seemed a little bit extreme. Grim was his special little guy. He couldn’t just stop talking to him.

Ace would claim until the end of time that he did not whimper. That the sound he made was actually very cool and manly. Ace is a liar.

Yuu, however, is not. Which is why he never agreed to abandon his beloved cat.

His beloved cat was, technically, a murderer, but we all have our flaws. Yuu didn’t care that much. Though… he seemed to be an exception – people always stressed when Grim’s kill count was brought up, it was so annoying. And hypocritical, in Ace’s case, seeing as he was a serial killer/cannibal.

Yuu didn’t need to deal with this.

“I’m going to grab some spices,” he decided, pushing himself to his feet. “If I’m going to be eating this, it needs to actually taste good.”

Ace yelped and jumped up as well, almost running to latch onto Yuu’s arm, squinting at Grim with open suspicion. “Here, I know where they are, let me take you there!”

Grim narrowed his eye right back at him. But, upon receiving a warning look from Yuu, settled down on his front paws and glared at nothing.

So, with little additional fanfare, Yuu and Ace grabbed a few spices from the shelves, and Yuu worked at making a spice combination that would go with something he had never tried before and didn’t even really want to eat now.

He managed to make something that tasted… fine. On its own, at least. He had no clue how well it would work with human flesh.

So, Ace was to be his test subject.

(Should he trust Ace as a test subject? He was already eating people, his taste buds might not have been all that normal… whatever. Yuu was having a day. He was officially tired of parsing out things like logic and morality.)

He spiced up the meat and then gave it to Ace to try.

Ace glanced at him, slightly wary. But he had watched Yuu grab all of the spices, so it wasn’t like he could have poisoned it. The worst it could be was gross. He took a careful bite.

He almost dropped his bowl.

He looked at Yuu with stars in his eyes.

“Never leave me,” Ace said.

Yuu’s eyebrows raised just slightly. “Not scared of Grim anymore?”

“It’s worth it. I can’t cook for shit. I’ve been dying here.”

Yuu snickered into his hand.

Grim narrowed his eye at Ace. Ace – who was definitely a little more concerned about the zombie cat than he had originally tried to claim – hesitated, before scooping a little bit of the meat out onto the floor for him.

The zombie sniffed the peace offering for a moment before eating it.

Grim was enlightened.

Yuu realized, dully, that this was probably the first time the zombie had ever had seasoned food. He felt… strangely guilty about this.

He rubbed the zombie’s head, scratching behind his cat’s ear in just the way he liked it. Grim purred and, apparently, decided that Ace could live for another day, so long as Yuu continued to love on him for the rest of the night.

“I guess the food was a hit,” Yuu joked lightly.

“It’s really good,” Ace said, nudging the bowl towards him to try.

He picked it up gingerly and blew on the… ‘food’.

… in the end, Yuu only managed a few bites before he had to stop. It tasted fine, but he couldn’t get over what it actually was. He resolved himself to make a run to the store sometime within the next week or two for something he could eat without feeling physically ill – or mentally ill, for that matter.

(He wanted to use what they already had in the store, but Ace insisted that his bait was not to be disturbed. Remind him why he had chosen to be friends with Ace, again?)

~

Yuu stubbed his toe on a can of beans of all things. Ace had taken to trying to drive him away with petty inconveniences, since anything too openly hostile would end in him getting killed. It was kind of funny, when it wasn't happening to you.

He punched a shelf out of frustration.

Great. Now his hand, hurt, too.

"Sh-ugar," Yuu hissed.

Ace snorted. "You can swear, man, it's the apocalypse. I do it all the time. Watch: fuckshitbitchdamnhellIcan'tthinkofanymoreshitshitshit! See? No one to get onto my case about it."

Yuu scowled. "Nope. I'm perfect and virtuous and -."

"Your best friend is a zombie."

He threw up his hands in frustration. "You befriend one zombie and suddenly all of the good things you've ever done are null and void!"

Ace raised an eyebrow.

Yuu scowled. How was he supposed to have known that helping out a random stray would end the world as he knew it? Grim was the very first zombie, it would have been weirder to assume that there was something wrong, in his opinion!

"I'm never doing anything nice ever again," Yuu decided.

"You've done nice things before?"

"Shut up and go cut up that body at the front of the store so I can start making dinner."

"Very nice of you," Ace teased.

"It is," Yuu said flatly. "I don't have to feed you, you know."

Ace, to his surprise, didn't back off. Instead, he grinned widely. He clapped Yuu on the shoulder. "You're already getting the hang of it! I'll corrupt you in no time."

Yuu fought the urge to curse, if only because he didn't want to further prove Ace's point.

After all, he hated Ace and didn't find him at all funny. Ignore the little smile that threatened to tug at his lips the moment Ace was safely out of sight. Yuu was certainly ignoring it.

~

Yuu squinted at the veritable forest that had grown in the garden section of the old, abandoned grocery store.

Man, things go to the dogs fast in the apocalypse.

Or should he say they went to the cats? Since it was a cat that had started this all?

He looked down at Grim. The zombie had been clinging to his side even more than usual. Yuu wasn’t sure if it was because the almost-murder had spooked the cat, or if him becoming kinda-friends with his almost-murderer had made the cat decide that Yuu absolutely could not at any cost be left alone ever again, or if Grim was jealous that he no longer had Yuu’s undivided attention anymore, or if the zombie just really liked the texture of Yuu’s new baggy sweatpants and would take any opportunity to rub up against them. Really, all of those options were equally likely.

And, though Yuu was definitely the one with all the power in this scenario, he wanted his darling subordinate’s opinion:

“Do you approve of this?” he said, smiling wryly as he motioned to the mess of plants.

Grim squinted suspiciously at the plants, as if he was half-convinced there would be another Ace hidden in the shadows.

He didn’t seem to see anything, for he didn’t start growling or puffing up like he did when he was trying to be menacing, so Yuu took a cautious step forward.

Grim sunk his teeth into the fabric of his pant leg.

Yuu’s life flashed before his eyes. The zombie’s teeth didn’t touch his skin, but they could have if he had moved even the slightest bit unpredictably, and he did not appreciate that he had almost been killed.

He looked down at his cat, disapproving.

Grim didn’t look cowed (or… cated?), instead tugging on Yuu’s pant leg, trying to physically drag him away from the forest.

Yuu sighed.

He supposed that it was unlikely that he’d find any useful plants in the brush, anyway.

“Alright, plan B, then,” he said, somewhat reluctantly.

He grabbed the nearest plant pot filled with soil, and then walked right back into the store proper.

~

Yuu stepped into the convenience store, still frowning just slightly over his gross bag full of rotting fruits. It was wrapped in as many bags as he could physically tie around it, plus some, but it was still a miserable thing to carry.

You would think he’d get used to the smell of rot and death, but no. It’s a surprisingly varied smell. Just when you think you’ve smelled it all, another, worse smell will make itself known.

He hates his life. And his bag, right now. Ugh, he would never get the smell out of these clothes.

At least these seeds would, probably, sprout into something useful once he planted them. He wasn’t sure, since the plants themselves were rotted and therefore there was a very real chance that the seeds would be useless. He, frankly, did not have much knowledge about gardening, because he was a normal teen boy… but he could figure it out! He grabbed a couple of books on the subject, he’d be an expert in no time. By sheer force of will. He was determined to eat as few human beings as was physically possible.

Speaking of.

His cannibal friend.

He would… prefer not to catch the boy by surprise. For hopefully obvious reasons.

“Aaaaaace. I got that bell and string you wanted,” Yuu called, ringing the bell once for emphasis, before making his way further inside.

He could hear a flurry of movement, but he wasn’t entirely sure where it was coming from. Maybe Ace had been asleep and was scrambling to get himself back into order before Yuu could see his bedhead…?

Ace cursed, loudly. This did not necessarily disprove that thought, but Yuu did end up remembering that Ace’s hair always looked like a bedhead, and there was no reason for him to suddenly care about it.

So… the sound was probably…

Yuu looked down at Grim, betrayed. “Did you send a zombie after my friend?!” he hissed.

Grim looked like he had only just now realized that that was an option. Which meant that it wasn’t a zombie that Ace was fighting. But then… what?

“Ace?” he called, standing on tiptoes to try and see over the shelves, trying to figure out where the scuffle was coming from. “You good?”

There was a loud banging sound from somewhere in the back of the store, and a shelf wobbled uncertainly.

Well, that answers that question.

He rushed towards the back of the store, and… well, he wasn’t sure what he had been expecting, but it really wasn’t to find Ace sitting on top of the freezer, looking for all the world as if he was entirely innocent… with a backpack and bat that Yuu had never seen before at his feet, and what looked to be a bruise forming on his cheek.

“Oh, hey. Yuu. You’re back. Thanks for the. Bell,” the boy said, entirely natural in his cadence and definitely not doing that thing you do when you’re entirely out of breath and trying to keep quiet about it because someone is passing you and you don’t want this random stranger to know how inactive you are.

Yuu raised an eyebrow at him. “You’re… welcome?”

There was a banging sound from inside of the freezer Ace was sitting on. Ace tried very hard not to react, but his fingers curled tighter around his knife anyway.

“There’s a person in there, isn’t there?” Yuu said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Noooooo,” said Ace, batting his eyelashes.

The not-person-inside-of-the-freezer screamed something that sounded distinctly like the word ‘yes’. This did not convince Yuu of Ace’s innocence.

Even Grim seemed to give Ace a look that screamed ‘who do you think you are fooling?’

“So, if there’s no person in there, then you’ll have no problem opening it, right?”

Ace’s smile strained at the edges. “... c’mon, man, don’t do this to me.”

Yuu looked at the freezer, mentally debating whether it was worth it to even get involved. Frankly, it was the apocalypse, and everyone that was still alive kind of sucked, and there was a nonzero chance that the person would not take being shoved into a freezer lightly and would try and kill them immediately upon being let out.

He sighed.

“How old did they look?” Yuu asked.

Ace hesitated just a hair longer than would typically be to Yuu’s liking.

He groaned. “Open it.”

Ace looked like he would very much prefer not doing that. But, when Yuu prodded him with his foot, he reluctantly stood and, holding his knife out in preparation for a possible attack, allowed him to unlock the freezer.

Another person, maybe about their age, emerged from the freezer like a vampire might emerge from a coffin, grim expression and all. This effect was ruined by the fact that his hair was… blue? Maybe he was a blond who had dyed his hair black with shitty dye and it had washed out weirdly without touch-ups. Or maybe he was just really into blue hair and was working to maintain it even throughout the apocalypse. Who knows?

The boy groaned and stepped out of the freezer, scowling at Ace. “Thank you,” he grumbled, immediately picking up his bat again. He stepped between Yuu and Ace, raising his weapon. He pointed it at the redhead, which is, really, not what you’re supposed to do with a bat. “You should run, he’s dangerous.”

Ace looked somewhere between flattered and offended. “Hey! That’s my –...” Ace trailed off, unsure. Yuu wondered, absently, what he would say. Would he call him a friend? Partner? Fellow survivor, even? “Chef!” Ouch. “He’s not leaving here, he’s mine!”

Grim growled.

“And Grim’s!” he added hastily.

The blue-haired boy, though, paused. He looked for the origin of the sound. Yuu nudged Grim into a shadowed area so he looked more like a normal cat. Because the boy seemed well-intentioned, and therefore was very likely to be against Yuu having a zombie for a pet.

What does that say about Yuu’s relationship with Grim? Well, he’d rather not think about it!

Yuu sighed, stepping around him carefully, holding his hands up placatingly. “I appreciate it, but it’s fine.”

The boy looked incredulous. “He’s killing and eating people?! He doesn’t even act like he likes you?! You’re his chef?!”

“Listen, man, it’s the apocalypse, I don’t have that many options.”

“Dude…” He offered Yuu a hand. “I’ll be your friend. I’m Deuce Spade. What’s your name?”

Ew, pity. He didn’t want a pity friend. He could take Ace talking to him out of fear of Grim or respect for his cooking prowess, but pity? No thanks.

Ace snatched up the outstretched hand before Yuu could even try to shake it (not that he currently wanted to), squeezing with way more force than was entirely necessary. “Ace Trappola. Nice to meet you.”

Deuce looked disgusted. And then mildly terrified when Ace made as if to slice off his hand.

Yuu was quick to grab Ace by the arm to stop him from murdering someone for the high crime of daring to suggest that he was not the safest person to be around. How could he not see that this was proving Deuce’s point?! You’d think he’d refrain from killing for the sake of being petty, at least, but no!

Deuce’s eyes looked strangely misty. Not even because of the almost-dying thing, that was pretty much par for the course when running into other survivors, he looked so upset about Yuu’s situation. Yuu wondered what kind of soap-opera-esque backstory the boy was dreaming up for him.

He didn’t get to ask, because Deuce quickly derailed the conversation before he could: “I guess I’ll have to stay here until you’re ready to leave.”

Ace spluttered. “No?! We let you live, you’re supposed to go, now?!”

Deuce scoffed. “Why do you get to make that decision?”

“This is my base?!”

Deuce, apparently, was not going to be swayed by Ace’s facts and logic.

Ace gave Yuu a pleading look. “Yuu, can we please kill him now?”

Yuu thought about it. And then shook his head, a tiny grin threatening to steal across his lips. “Nah, letting him stay is way funnier.”

From the look on everyone else’s faces, they vehemently disagreed.

But this isn’t about them! So, Deuce got to stay. Much to the chagrin of everyone. Including himself!

~~~~~~~

Pt3>

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

literally so embarrassing to have someone go "i don't go here" or "what's this from?" on my art and it's a rarepair/crackship that is in no way representative of the source material... and i have to be like. well you see, the rest of the restaurant's menu is not like this. i'm doing my own thing eating black olives right out of the can in the back-of-house. whether or not you want me to throw you a can, you have to understand that's not what they serve out front

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Dancing 'til the break of dawn - Pt1

(TWST zombie apocalypse au for all your crack-fic needs)

Yuu would like to make one thing very clear: he did not start the zombie apocalypse on purpose.

In fact, he would like to argue that it – probably – would have started even without his help! Yeah, so he might have accidentally fed and housed a zombie cat because he had mistaken it for a very unfortunate stray on its last legs, and the zombie cat had bitten his parents, turning them into zombies, which kickstarted the apocalypse… but how did that zombie cat come to be? Hm? Hm?

The apocalypse was inevitable! He swears!

But, uh… he would admit that maybe taking in Grim was not the brightest decision he had ever made.

Or maybe it was an amazing plan. He hadn’t yet been attacked by a zombie. He was pretty sure that the zombies were a hivemind of sorts, and since he was nice to Grim they were all cool with him… or something. Maybe he was just uniquely disgusting to the point where no one wanted to eat him. Which was a weirdly insulting thought to have, so he preferred to believe that Grim was doing him a heck of a solid.

Which had its own problems. Had he accidentally sacrificed the entire human race for the sake of saving his own skin? Because that would be, at least, the tiniest, littlest bit messed up, he thought.

He rubbed his weird zombie cat’s head. Grim was a strange looking thing, with green skin and a face that was visibly on the verge of rotting. However, Grim was still a cat, Yuu was pretty sure, and therefore he deserved all of the love. He opened his arms, smiling when Grim readily hopped into them for the sake of pets. The texture was close to that of a hairless cat, save for a tiny patch of moss on the end of its tail, which looked soft, but Yuu had no intentions of touching it. Not right now, at least. Maybe if this zombie apocalypse survival stuff got too hard he would give in to temptation despite the very high likelihood that it could end in him getting infected.

Maybe tomorrow would be the day, he mused absently. After all, he was running low on supplies. He’d need to leave the safety of this random apartment and find a convenience store or something of that nature sometime soon, otherwise he’d starve to death.

But he didn’t wanna. Do you know how hard it is to find a store that hasn’t already been ransacked? Would you want to have to evade groups of humans who had taken to cannibalism way too quickly? Do you think it’s easy to explain to people that, actually, the zombie cat isn’t parasitic and lying in wait until it can kill you? How good would you be at ignoring the screams of people being eaten by zombies? Like, really, his life was so awful. You would think it was karma or something! He would like to reiterate that he does not deserve this! The zombie apocalypse was not his fault!

He groaned and flopped down in bed with Grim, burying his face in a pillow. It smelled off, slightly dingy, but he wasn’t going to complain. It wasn’t like the old owner had known they were going to have the most uninvited of guests. And he couldn’t file a complaint, anyways, because chances were they were dead already.

He huffed and pressed a kiss to the top of Grim's head.

"Make sure to get a good night's sleep, we have a big day ahead of us tomorrow," he mumbled. He wished he could say it was more to himself than anything, since he was aware that it was very weird to talk to a cat (a zombie version of a cat, no less), but... no. He was talking to Grim.

And Grim, to his credit, purred like he understood and settled down to sleep.

Yuu continued to stay awake for only a few moments more, his eyes remained trained on the ceiling as he pieced through his plan for the next day.

He ended up drifting off out of pure boredom before he had even finished planning his route.

It wouldn't matter anyways, though, surely tomorrow would be just another day.

~

Yuu sighed lightly as he trudged down the street. Zombies were avoiding him, as usual. He liked not being eaten, so this was nice.

The summer heat was not nice, though. He glowered at the orange skies above him as if he could will the sun to leave him alone already. It did not listen to him, which was disappointing, but he would live.

Probably. Hopefully.

He’d have an easier time living if Grim didn’t insist on being carried everywhere like the diva he was, because Yuu had seen him walk a few times, the lying prick, but fine. Whatever. It wasn’t like the ability to use his hands was necessary during an apocalyptic scenario or anything.

He was left to grumble incoherently as he continued on his search for a store that was still stocked enough to bother breaking into.

He found one… far sooner than he’d thought he would.

Suspiciously fast, actually.

He looked at Grim.

“What do you think, buddy?”

Grim blinked his one eye at him lazily.

This was practically a glowing endorsement! No zombies inside!

He deserves this, really.

He looked around for something to break the glass. It wasn’t difficult. He set down Grim despite the cat’s whining so he could pick up an abandoned brick. There was a dark red stain on the corner of it.

Ewwwwwwww. It was sticky.

He threw the brick at the glass door to the convenience store with probably a little bit more force than was entirely necessary. But, in his defense, it was gross to touch.

It wasn’t even worth it in the end! Because, the second he stepped towards the door, winding the cloth of his shirt around his hand so he could widen the hole enough for him to step through without injuring himself, the automatic glass doors slid open.

Yuu blushed. “Good thing no one saw that, right?” he said to Grim.

Grim, who he was beginning to suspect might actually know what he was saying, gave him what one could only describe as a raised eyebrow. Considering the cat only had half a face, making this expression was actually quite the feat. Yuu wasn’t sure how he felt about the effort the zombie put into making sure that he could accurately interpret how unimpressed he was.

He sighed, picked up the zombie again, and stepped inside.

The place looked like… well, just about any place in the apocalypse. Blood stained just about everything, rendering the food labels largely unreadable. The emergency lights still worked, but only barely, flickering more than the lights in a B-list horror movie. What had almost definitely once been a person was slumped in a corner, though it was almost unidentifiable now, its clothes missing and its guts torn out.

Yuu set down Grim so the zombie could go and have a snack.

Grim didn’t leave his side, instead he stayed close to his heels.

This, really, should have tipped him off that something was wrong. Grim never turned down the opportunity to eat.

Yuu, though, was too busy rubbing his thumb on a canned food label, trying to figure out what aisle he was currently in, to notice.

No, it wasn’t until Grim started growling lowly that he looked up.

A boy with a shock of messy red hair and clothes that were painted with way too much blood for it to only have been his own had been trying to sneak up on him. He had a knife out, and Yuu didn’t think that there was anything that needed cutting anywhere nearby.

Yuu shrieked and threw the can of beans at him. The redhead stumbled backwards, cradling his head, mumbling curses under his breath.

And then his expression twisted into a scowl. His grip tightened on his knife.

He took a step forward.

Grim hissed, baring fangs.

The redhead only spared a halfhearted glance down at the cat before turning his attention back to Yuu, who was scrambling for another can to throw.

And then the redhead did a double take.

He screamed and backed up a few steps, only barely stopping himself from dropping his knife in his surprise. “WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOUR CAT?!”

Yuu hesitated for just a moment too long. “Uhhhhh nothing is wrong with him.”

“THEY'RE GREEN?!”

“And you’re white but I wasn’t going to say anything about that,” Yuu sniffed, crossing his arms over his chest.

The boy spluttered. “First of all. I’m Japanese. Everyone here is Japanese. We’re in fucking Japan. Second. Of. All. Humans can be white! Cats can’t be green!”

“Explain Grim then,” Yuu argued.

There was no response. The boy was too stunned to speak. Because he had realized that Yuu’s logic checked out perfectly, no doubt.

Slowly, the redhead ran a hand through his hair. He pulled on a few strands, hard, seemingly trying to make sure he wasn’t asleep, or in some weird fever dream, or that he hadn’t been bitten and was now going insane… he didn’t seem to be all that glad to realize that everything in front of him was actually very real.

He sunk a little in defeat, leaning against a nearby shelf and eyeing Yuu warily, but at least he was no longer openly hostile. “What is wrong with you?” he asked, somewhere between exasperated and genuinely curious.

Yuu frowned. He was not sure he liked this line of conversation more than discussing Grim. Grim was green, after all! Out of the two, surely Grim should be getting all of the attention.

But he was pretty sure that saying that out loud might be considered ‘hypocrisy’, and despite the fact that this guy had definitely tried to kill him, he didn’t want to seem like a hypocrite in front of him!

Wait a second.

“I’m the weird one?! You were trying to kill me!”

Grim didn’t look particularly happy upon being reminded of this fact.

The boy didn’t seem happy that Grim wasn’t happy, because he immediately paled and rushed to say that, “No, I wasn’t!”

Yuu looked at the knife in his hand.

He cleared his throat and dropped it. He tried for an innocent smile, as if that would somehow make Yuu forget what he had literally just watched happen. “You know, I think we got off on the wrong foot.”

“Because you tried to stab me,” Yuu said flatly.

He stuck his hand out. “C’monnnn, what’s a little stabbing between new friends?”

Now, Yuu should absolutely not take that hand. Someone that had almost stabbed him once would almost certainly attempt another stabbing in the future.

But he had started talking to a cat, as of late. A zombie cat that you could argue (to much success) that he had made the much worse decision to befriend in the first place. And that had turned out fine. For him, at least.

So, he jumped at the opportunity for a new friend. He grabbed his hand in both of his own, shaking it with what was almost definitely way too much enthusiasm.

“I’m Yuu.”

“Ace…” the redhead said. He tried to pull his hand away, but Yuu was half convinced that he would turn tail and run if he did that, so he held strong. Ace looked mildly bewildered by the entire situation. He looked at the zombie cat at Yuu’s feet for a few moments. The cat did not seem all that pleased by this newfound friendship – the way he eyed the pair’s interlocked hands spoke volumes. “I don’t think that they like me.”

“He doesn’t like anyone,” Yuu said, shrugging.

Ace hesitated, briefly. His eyes flicked over Grim a few more times.

Realization sparkled in his eyes as he realized what, exactly, Grim was.

He looked at Yuu again, something appraising in his gaze. Something wary.

Without looking away from Yuu, he reached his free hand into his pocket. He pulled out a scrap of mystery meat and dropped it on the floor for Grim.

Grim sniffed it, once, before eating it.

Ace breathed a sigh of relief when the cat gave him what was unmistakably a nod of approval.

(And then visibly had a crisis over the fact that he was, apparently, looking to a cat for approval.)

~~~~~~~

Pt2>

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

I just saw a story on AO3 tagged "pet p!ay"

TIK TOK MUST BE STOPPED BEFORE IT DESTROYS LANGUAGE

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Leeeeets see

When will my life begin?

Marinette’s eyes creaked open.

2. Broken Hearts Are Contagious

Marinette sips at her drink.

3. Kiss From A Rose

Marinette stood under the awning of her shop, frowning at the thick droplets of rain threatening to soak her in seconds if she dared to step out from under it.

4. Game over, you lose!

Marinette was a normal girl with a normal life.

5. Lolliepops

Listen, when Marinette Dupain-Cheng opened up a clinic, she had been expecting a lot of things.

6. Extended fae-mily

Talia’s real name was not actually Talia, just like her father’s name was not actually Ra’s (what kind of person would seriously name their child Head?), but it would be improper for a faerie of her status to release her True Name to just anyone.

7. Have you never heard of such a thing, darling?

A boy sits in a nondescript white room, on a white sofa, in a white shirt and black slacks.

8. And if this world won't write me an ending

【┘】⩇:⩇⩇【┘】

9. 'Til we see the sunlight

Duke sat in a convenience store, cross-legged on the floor.

10. How to train your Drake

Marinette had trained in the art of the blade for months, had heeded the townspeople’s warnings of flames and danger, had made the treacherous trek through a land filled with criminals, had balanced on the precarious bridge spanning between the world she knew and the one that belonged solely to the dragon, had climbed one of the tallest towers to get a good vantage point…

She had not been prepared to find a random, hot guy at the top of the tower.

Okay, so, patterns. I usually use the first sentence of a chapter as a chance to establish the pov character. Best example is Have you never heard of such a thing, darling?, in that there IS no actual POV character besides the Viewer, the person reading the story/watching the video. Hence why 'the boy' remains unnamed until he eventually tells you he is named Tim. I also like to establish tone. Exasperation, mildly unsettling, informative, casual, a separation between the reader and the character... A good example is And if this world won't write me an ending. It's not a sentence, but rather a clock, limited time already beginning to tick down from the moment the story begins. (And SPOILERS but it's a fun way to indicate that this isn't actually Marinette's first loop, something that isn't made obvious until Marinette herself realizes what's going on.)

tags............

@joydone07 i have to annoy you it's the law. and also @i-earned-my-stripes even though you don't have enough fics posted for it to be a pattern yet. it is my job to bully you guys

as for other people...

uh.

they were all taken

😔

anyone who wants to participate???? i got nothin

Opening Line Patterns

I was tagged by @hamsteriffic who knows I can't back out of this shit and takes advantage of it 🤣

Rules: List the first line of your last 10 (or however many you have) posted fics and see if there's a pattern!

Disclaimer: I am only doing 10. I have like...over 50 on ao3, if I remember correctly. Might be 54?

Update: Just checked. It's 55.

Starting with most recent and working backwards.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/54263350

https://archiveofourown.org/works/54122218

https://archiveofourown.org/works/54120739

https://archiveofourown.org/works/53962846

https://archiveofourown.org/works/53857636

https://archiveofourown.org/works/53727919

https://archiveofourown.org/works/53684290

https://archiveofourown.org/works/53408350

https://archiveofourown.org/works/53045695

https://archiveofourown.org/works/51707740

(If those don't line up right, blame tumblr for not wanting to accept my formatting on a post when I can do it on a page with no issue 🙄)

(It also gave me a 10 image limit on mobile so good thing my laptop was open for the last one🤣)

(Oh, and the pictures should link to the fics the quotes are from 🥰)

Update: they do link, just not on mobile. Only the desktop version 🙄 I'll add them in as text later

Update 2: DONE

What a pain in the ass 🙄🙄🙄 (I'm still on mobile, if that explains anything)

(OH, ALSO PLEASE IGNORE THE CREEPYASS FUCKING EMOJI. IT'S SAMSUNG ONEUI6'S FAULT)

Tagging (with no pressure) @queenkaiju @writer-rider-dirty-thirties @boldlyanxious @izanae @littlemourningstar and anyone else who wants to participate!

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

My fanfic pet peeve is when the tags say that a character is going to be a villain but it's just an aesthetic and you never actually see them do something evil.

Like, there's plenty of ways to write a compelling villain character with understandable motives and still have them DO BAD THINGS.

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

ALSO the fact that tim drake canonically watches bruce get stabbed, spies on the titans tower, knows all of the titans schedules, spies on dick’s apartment with kori, breaks into dick’s old apartment, follows him to the circus, has kept newspaper clippings of batman and robin since he was able to read, knows what art bruce wayne collects, had dreams about being saved by batman and robin and y’all REDUCE his stalker tendencies to just he followed them and took pictures….. no. no, we need him crazier.