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doesitsparkjoytho · 3 years

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Old Dog, New Tricks

Words: 2100 POV: Hank A short piece exploring the events leading up to and just post-epilogue (good ending). Fluff/feels. This can be interpreted however you like. (You can also read on AO3)

...something about the bright blue thirium against the snow—hell, it fucking glowed in the dark…. He’d barely driven two blocks before he had to swerve to a curb and open his door to puke.

“Are you alright, Lieutenant?”

Hank really looks at the android now, and is pained to see the bullet hole, the blue blood now dried along his shoulder, spattered like neon paint along the front and sides of his usually neat jacket. Connor is filthy, his hair is a mess, his clothes are frayed and torn in places. It’s a miracle he’s alive.

Alive...

Connor follows Hank into the kitchen, and his eyes quickly scan the counters, table—likely analyzing what’s changed since he was last here. Hank looks at him, slightly abashed. The last time Connor was here, he wasn't exactly concerned about the state of his house. He'd barely been aware that Connor was even in his house, let alone been concerned about how he'd gotten in (the window was still broken, and Connor's request to Cyberlife to reimburse the expense would likely never be processed now).

"Do you eat?" Hank asks. It sounds stupid as he asks it, but it feels good to ask regardless. And honestly HANK is hungry. But even without opening the fridge, he realizes he has next to nothing edible, except perhaps to android standards. With all his favorite fast food places almost certainly closed, he isn't sure what he’ll do.

"I can eat, but I have no need or desire to,” Connor replies. He looks perplexed, but doesn't say more.

Hank smirks. "Can you cook?" It’s funny imagining Connor, who he's seen so often licking blue goo from floors and sprinting after deviants, cooking.

Connor's face scrunches slightly. "I don’t know. I’ve never thought about it." Now he smirks. "If you're that desperate, I'm sure Sumo won't mind if a few of his cans go missing. It's probably preferable to whatever I'd manage."

"Haha, very funny, Connor. But unlike you, I do actually need to eat. Eventually." He trails off on this last word.

It's then that Hank realizes how fucking tired he is. What time is it, anyways? 10:27am. The past 24 hours feel like a fever dream. He also hasn't slept since.... When the fuck did he last sleep?

After he and Connor split ways at Cyberlife tower, he went to the park and tried to calm his nerves. However, for the first time in a long time, he found himself unable to drink even a beer—felt he might be needed, and that he’d have to be ready. Sharp. And that thought made him even more anxious, more agitated.

So he got back in his car and drove around the city, trying to find somewhere with a TV. His phone was a useless brick with communications shut down nationwide several days prior. The streets were deserted, stores and bars closed. Not even looters wanted to chance encounters with deviants, apparently.

He did pass several groups of soldiers and androids, and he felt sick when he inevitably imagined Connor kneeling in the snow, a machine gun pressed to the back of his head. At one point he witnessed such an execution, and something about the bright blue thirium against the snow—hell, it fucking glowed in the dark…. He’d barely driven two blocks before he had to swerve to a curb and open his door to puke.

“Are you alright, Lieutenant?”

Alive.

Hank smiles and leans back against the counter, crossing his arms. "So what now?"

Connor looks tired, if that's possible. He inhales sharply and looks away. It’s such a human trait, looking away to think. As if staring while your brain is churning isn’t polite.

His eyes dart back to Hank, worried. “I don’t know. For the first time, I don’t have a mission. That…‘voice’ in my head is quiet.”

“That’s how humans feel all the time, Connor. We have no idea what the fuck we’re supposed to do. But finding that purpose? That’s what makes us human. That’s free will, Connor.”

You gave me a purpose again.

One side of Connor’s mouth pulls into that familiar smile, as if he can read Hank’s thoughts.

“Well, for a start, why don’t you go clean yourself up?” Hank suggests. “You look like you got shot.”

Connor peers down at the hole in his shoulder, taking in his disheveled appearance. “You’re right—I’m a mess.”

“I have some clothes that might fit you, from when I was uh….younger.”

“I suppose mine aren’t really suitable any more,” Connor replies. Without hesitation or ceremony, he removes his jacket. But he holds it gently, folds it so that the “RK800” and serial number in iridescent silver faces up. Stares a moment.

Getting sentimental, Connor?

Before, Hank would have said this aloud, jokingly. He wonders what Connor feels, about to relinquish one of the few things he has, one of the only things that has ever identified him.

You’re more than a number now. You don’t belong to Cyberlife.

Connor looks at Hank and holds his jacket out to him. “Will you put this somewhere for safekeeping?”

Hank smiles. “Sure.”

With that, Connor starts towards the bathroom. But he stops. “You wouldn’t happen to have a soldering iron, would you?”

Before Hank can ask ‘what the fuck’, Connor adds, “for my shoulder.”

“Ah, shit. No. Is that how you normally fix yourself?”

“No. Normally I’d return to Cyberlife and have them repair me.”

“It doesn’t...hurt, though, right? You’re fully functional and all?”

Connor smiles. “I’m alright, Lieutenant. I suppose I wanted to fix it more for your sake, so you’ll stop looking worried.”

Hank scratches the back of his head, slightly embarrassed. Before either of them can say anything more, Connor continues down the hallway.

Hank follows, heading into his bedroom as Connor turns into the bathroom. He opens the closet and reaches for the far right side. He has some old t-shirts, a couple button-ups, even a black suit jacket. He hasn’t worn it since…. But he grabs it anyway, thinking that perhaps Connor may still prefer to wear a jacket. Hell, Connor probably doesn’t even know what he prefers at this point, but at least he’ll have options. More than anyone’s ever given him. He grabs a pair of old jeans, too. He even considers a tie, but decides it’s time for Connor to loosen up a little.

He heads to the bathroom, and finds Connor standing before the sink, staring at his reflection. He hasn’t started to clean himself up.

“I, uh, found a few things,” Hank says from the doorway.

Connor turns slightly, and Hank approaches. He offers the clothes, and Connor takes them.

“You need anything else?”

“Just this,” Connor replies. He takes up Hank’s barber style razor, and holds it at chin level.

Hank starts forward, fear punching him in the gut.

But in a flash, Connor has the edge of the razor against his temple. It’s then that Hank realizes he’s going to remove the LED.

Connor looks at Hank in the mirror, and Hank nods.

With a flick of the razor the LED drops, and Connor catches it with his left hand. The spot on his temple quickly recolors, leaving no trace. He pinches the disc between his fingers, looks at it a moment, and then drops it into the trash.

Connor turns to Hank and smiles.

Such a simple thing, the LED. But standing there before him, without that or the jacket—he looks human. If he hadn’t seen the flash of white beneath the skin, Hank would briefly wonder if it was all a show. He’s seen cops go undercover so well and for so long that he barely recognized them without the cover.

As Connor picks up the shirts to examine them, Hank turns to leave. “I’ll leave you to it, then.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant.”

Hank grunts a “mmm” in response and pulls the door mostly shut.

Suddenly his house feels foreign, like when you return from a long vacation and everything smells different.

Overwhelmed, he sinks heavily into the couch.

Will Connor stay with him? He’ll offer, of course. He can use the couch, or I could convert the garage…. Wait, he doesn’t even sleep, does he? Well, he needs somewhere to be, or else he’ll just be....here, all the time.

But what if Connor decides to live with the androids? Will he leave Detroit?

Fuck, what will he do? He’ll never return to DPD, not after attacking Perkins, letting Connor into the evidence room. He’d tossed his badge and gun on Fowler’s desk to avoid being arrested—although he won’t be surprised if Perkins decides to press charges, tries to get him thrown in jail for assaulting a federal agent. What’s the minimum sentence for that? Six months? A year?

Not worth worrying about now.

Seeing Hank on the couch, Sumo raises his head.

“C’mere, Sumo.”

Sumo slowly gets up from his bed and pads his way over. Hank pats the couch, and Sumo jumps up to lie down next to him. He places his head on his leg.

“That’s a good boy, Sumo.” Hank scratches his head, gives him a solid pat on the back.

Without androids doing pretty much all of the labor, he imagines the country will be in chaos shortly. Stores will be ransacked, people desperate for supplies. Terrified of androids, who will all soon be aware—alive—will humans flee the cities? Surely some androids will be angry, seek justice for years of slavery and abuse. Will Detroit become a capital for the androids?

His thoughts are interrupted by Connor approaching from the hall. Before he can turn to look at him, the android steps around to the front of the couch. He’s wearing the old Knights of the Black Death t-shirt, once black but now a faded dark gray. He’s rinsed his hair and apparently tried to towel dry it because he looks a little like a cockatoo. Gone is the dirt and the blue blood. He’s kept the rest of his outfit the same, but he looks like a kid in his 30s now.

Kid, Hank? You old fuck.

But something about seeing Connor like this fills him with hope. Hope for the world, but most importantly, for himself. He feels alive for the first time in three years. There’s plenty to worry about, sure, but it all seems distant.

“I put the other clothes on your bed,” says Connor. He holds up his white shirt, stained with blue. “I’d like to keep this, if we can get the stains out.”

“Just toss it in with my stuff.”

Connor looks around.

“Shit, sorry—the washer’s in the garage, the door at the end of the hall.”

“Ah.”

“Here, just put it down. I’ll wash it later.”

Connor sets the folded shirt on the arm of the couch, and looks at Hank. His expression softens. “I haven’t thanked you for what you did,” he says. “Not just at the station, but back with the other Connor. It—he—would have killed me.”

Hank grimaces. “It’s my own damn fault he was even there, Connor. I should have realized it wasn’t you.”

“I doubt you could have. At any rate, thank you, Hank. For everything."

Is that the first time he’s ever called him by his name?

Hank smiles. “You’re welcome. You’re also welcome to stay here, Connor, for however long you want to. I, uh...wouldn’t mind some company. I’m sure Sumo wouldn’t, either.”

Connor looks at Hank, smiling that half smile of his.

Hank doesn’t have a word for what Connor is to him, but he knows that he loves him. And he hopes that he’ll stay, at least for a while.

“I’d like that,” Connor replies.

Hank smiles. “First rule of living here, Connor: If Sumo is lying on you, you don’t have to move.”

“I think that’s a fair rule. Can I get you something?”

“No, no. At some point I’ll have to go out scavenging for lunch, but right now, I just want to sit here.”

His eyes feel heavy, as heavy as Sumo’s head on his leg. The house is quiet, snow gently falling outside.

He feels the couch sink slightly as Connor sits beside Sumo, and he opens an eye to see the android curling up like a cat at the other end of the couch, laying his head on Sumo.

Tears sting Hank’s eyes, and he shuts them tighter to keep them at bay. But his heart is full to bursting, and soon he’s quietly sobbing.

He would risk his life again for Connor, and again, and whatever number of times circumstances demanded. He would gladly go to jail for his role in the android revolution because Connor is free. Alive. Whatever price fate might demand of him, he’ll pay it. Because for the first time since he can remember, he’s whole.

#dbh #hank anderson #connor #rk800 #dbh fanfic #5.31.21

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13-reasons-ideas · 4 years

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Marry Me - Monty’s Perspective

A/N: Here it is. I’m so sorry this took so long to put out. I was having a really hard time getting into the right headspace to write this. I hope you guys like it! I recommend listening to Thomas Rhett’s Marry Me when you read this. As usual, feedback is appreciated and much love! -Em

Ellie was coming back into town for her engagement party this weekend. I was the first person she called when Evan proposed. She damn near gave me a heart attack when I answered, and she was scream-crying.

Flashback

I was watching the Chargers game when Ellie called. “Hey Elliebear.”

“Heaskedmetomarryhim.” She screeched on the other line. I had no idea what she said. It sounded like she was crying. And that I would be deaf in one ear. I pulled the phone away from my head until she stopped freaking out.

“What was that?”

“Evan proposed.” What?

“Oh?”

“And I said yes. I’m getting married Montgomery.” Oh.

“That’s great Ellie. Congratulations. I’m happy for you.” I cleared my throat, trying to get rid of the pit that was forming.

“Thank you. I wanted you to be the first one to know, so I just wanted to call you quick. I can hear the game in the background, and we have more people to call so I’ll let you go now.”

“Okay, tell Evan I said hi and congratulations.”

“I will. Bye Monty.”

“Bye Ellie.” I hung up and sat back on the couch. She’s getting married.

End flashback

I was on break at work when I got a text from Ellie.

Hey you. I just got into town with Evan for the weekend. Are you free tonight?

I texted her back a few minutes later, yeah I’m free. What’s up?

She replied right away. Drinks or coffee? Just you and me. My parents are going over some details for tomorrow with Evan that they don’t want me around for.

Sure. Meet you at Monet’s at six?

I’ll save you a seat. Usual order?

You know I don’t change things Elliebear.

I stopped at home to change after work into something more comfortable. I grabbed a clean pair of jeans and a random t-shirt before grabbing an old flannel and running out the door, so I wasn’t late.Ellie barely beat me to the café. It wasn’t surprising really, since she was always the early one.

“Hey, what can I get you this evening?” the barista asked her.

“Can I get a-”

“She’ll get a skinny vanilla bean latte with only one pump of vanilla, a dash of cinnamon, and extra foam in a for here cup. I’ll get a regular black coffee. And she’ll also have the chicken and spinach sandwich.” I said behind her. The barista looked at her, unsure if she should ring it in or not. Ellie nodded and turned around to face me. Before I had a chance to say anything, she jumped into my arms for a hug.

“Hey Elliebear.” I grunted.

“I missed you.”

“I missed you too.”

Our orders were finished quickly as it was surprisingly slow for a Friday night. Luckily, that meant our table was free. We sat down and conversation flowed easily. It was almost like we had never been apart.

“The ring is nice. It suits you. Bigger than I thought you would like but it’s nice.”

“It is nice, yeah. That reminds me, Evan said he’s looking forward to meeting you tomorrow.”

“So am I. See who finally caught your interest.”

“I was interested in other people before Evan.” She told me, scandalously. Sure, you did El. I didn’t let myself think about the possibility of her liking me that way when we were younger.

“Ellie. That guy from drama class doesn’t count. And neither does your chemistry partner.”

“I was not interested in Adam. And Zach was my chemistry partner. I can assure you I was not into him.”

“Please, enlighten me as to these people you were interested in before Evan.”

“There was,” she paused. “Dylan from sophomore English was cute. Ian. Couple other guys in high school. Peter from my first year anthropology class was… very attractive, and smart.”

“One guy aside from Evan? University of Georgia is a big school. There’s no way you only had eyes for two people.”

“I was busy. I practically lived in the library when I wasn’t in class or my dorm. What about you?”

“What about me?”

“Is there a girl I should be hearing about? Or should have heard about?”

“Nah. Nothing important or anything to write home about. I was busy.” I wouldn’t call what I did, dating. The point wasn’t to find someone to bring home. Who I wanted to bring home was over 900 miles away.

“Oh please Monty, you played ball at OSU. You honestly expect me to believe there was no girl in your life?”

“No, no. There were girls. Just nothing really serious.”

“Uh, huh.” She replied, sarcastically. We reached for our cups at the same time and our hands brushed. I was immediately transported back to the day of homecoming in senior year.

Flashback

“Remember students. The homecoming game is tonight at 6:30. You’ll want to be there early as our Liberty Tigers take on the Hildebrandt Mustangs if you want good seats. It’s sure to be a nail biter.” Principal Bolan’s voice boomed from the intercom during the morning announcements.

“Don’t know why he’s hyping it up to be a nail biter.” Scott laughed.

“We are playing Hildebrandt. We could literally not show up and still win.” I joked. “Have any of you seen Ellie? She’s usually here to force me to English by now.”

“Nah man.” Scott replied.

“Need lover girl to make sure you do what you’re supposed to?” Bryce teased.

“Fuck off. It’s not like that with us.” Unfortunately.

“Sure it’s not Monty. I refuse to believe you never hit it.”

“Don’t talk about her like that.” I threatened, lowly. Don’t push it man. Bryce shut up at my tone. “I’m going to go try and find her. I’ll see you guys at lunch.”

She was arranging her books when I found her at her locker. She was trailed by Clay and Alex. I pulled her into my arms and lifted off the ground. “Montgomery, put me down!” she laughed.

“Never.” I laughed, evilly.

“I have to grab my chem book. And go to chemistry.”

“I’ve got it.” Zach said as he grabbed her book, “you carrying her to class today?”

“Nah, I thought about it but since I had to come find her this morning, I figure she can make it there on her own.”

“I was running late. My alarm didn’t go off when it was supposed to.”

“Excuses, excuses.” I replied, putting her down and shaking my head.

“I’ll see you guys later? Zach and I are running late.”

“Sure. Justin said if I don’t go to the game tonight, he’d tell mom and dad about Ani. And I don’t want to deal with that.”

“Someone has to keep Clay company, so I have to go too.” Alex said, pushing clay lightly.

“Great. I’ll see you then. See you at lunch Monty.”

I sat through just about the driest English class of my life, counting the minutes on my watch. Math was no better. We were reviewing for a test that almost the whole

class failed. Somehow that was our fault for not studying enough. I let out a sigh of relief when the lunch bell rang.

The table was already mostly full when Ellie came and sat next to me. “Ellie, think you could pray for us to not lose this game tonight?” Bryce sniggered from the end of the table.

“Hey, quit being a dick.” I stated. Bryce responded by chucking a grape at me. I threw it back at him. I knew how important her faith was to her. Some things just weren’t okay to be joked about or questioned. When it came to Ellie, faith was one of them.

“It’s fine Monty. Not like he hasn’t done it before.” I know he has. I don’t like it. “It’s going to take a lot more than God to help you win if you don’t learn to throw better than that in the next six hours. But sure.” I watched her from the corner of my eye as she smirked to herself before beginning. I’d seen her pray for real before. This wasn’t that. “Lord, please help the guys win tonight. Give them the ability to not trip over themselves when they make plays. And God, please show Bryce how to make the ball go where it’s supposed to and not hit some poor kid in the head again. Maybe, just maybe, then he will get laid tonight and we all know that’s really why he asked me to pray.” She smirked at Bryce. I choked on my juice. She probably isn’t wrong. Was pretty funny when that kid got hit though.

“You need to quit hanging out with Monty, he’s rubbing off on you too much. And I was serious.”

“I know. I’ll do it for real after lunch. You can sit with me if you want.” She was true to her word. I was late for Geography because I was watching her sit in an empty alcove praying. Bryce didn’t sit with her.

The locker room was abuzz with excitement. It was the homecoming game. Not to mention our season opener. If we wanted to start the season off right, we had to win. Sure, we joked around about Hildebrandt being an easy team to beat-they came in second to last in the league last year-but there was still a chance they would pull off a miracle. Especially if Bryce threw like he did at lunch. “Yo Monty, is Ellie coming to Monet’s tonight?”

“She said she would. Not that she’ll give you the time of day.” I waved off Matt’s question. She’s not interested. Trust me. Find someone else to have your eyes on. Several ‘oooo’s were voiced around us.

“How do you know?”

“Just do, man.”

“I could treat her real nice. She’d beg me for more.” Are you fucking kidding me?

“Oh shit.” Someone muttered, seriously. I didn’t really hear who it was. The sound of my blood rushing in my ears was too loud. Coach Kerba wasn’t in the room. He was talking to Banes about plays. No one in here will snitch. Not when it’s about Ellie.

I immediately turned towards him and cornered him against his locker. The rest of the team stood silently, watching us. I got real close to his face so only he would hear me. “You even think about her like that again and I will bury you so deep they’ll need ground penetrating radar to find you. Not that they’d recognize you if anyone found your body. If you so much as brush against her too hard in the halls, I’ll break your jaw. You understand Carraway?”

“Y-yeah. I got you. Never said a word.” He breathed in response. I had scared the living shit out of him. Good. I stepped away from him and after a few beats the incident was forgotten and the mood was light again.

The game wasn’t that exciting. Had it not been homecoming, most people probably wouldn’t have shown up. As expected, it was in our favour most of the first half. Ellie waved at me between plays. She was practically beaming. During the second half Hildebrandt seemed to find their groove and the game was at least interesting to play. It wasn’t the nail biter Principal Bolan had promised this morning. Everyone knew that regardless of how we played, we would end up winning. The game ended and the team and the crowd were excited. Matt and Garrison were so excited by the win, they tripped over their own feet and faceplanted on the sidelines. The excitement died down for a moment until they shot up and went on celebrating.

I waited for Ellie outside the locker room, as per our tradition. “Good game.” She called.

“Of course, it was. I was on the field.” I smirked.

“Modest as ever I see.”

“Do you expect anything else at this point Elliebear?” “Not really. But I can hope, maybe one day.”

“Maybe, but not likely.”

“Oh hey, while I’m thinking about it, Clay asked me to keep an eye on Justin tonight.”

“Is everything okay?” My brow furrowed.

“I think so. Clay said something about him having issues adjusting and stuff. Do you think you can play nice with him for a while?”

“I suppose, since he is your friend, I can try and be nice for a while. But not all night. I want some Ellie time.” Only because it’s you asking.

“And you’ll get your Ellie time. After you make nice with Justin.”

I sighed, making it seem like a hassle just to get a rise out of her. I was about to respond when Bryce called us, “are you two going to stand there and chit chat all night or are we going to celebrate?”

“We’re coming. Give us a minute asshole.” I called back to him. Bryce didn’t respond.

I turned around so I could give her a piggyback out to the car. “Hop on”. Once she felt secure, I walked us out to the parking lot. I pretended to not pay attention when she stole my baseball hat. She couldn’t see the way my smirk turned into a smile when she did.

“That’s my hat El.”

“I know. I happen to like it though, so I’m wearing it.”

“I’m not getting it back tonight, am I?”

“Nope. It is now mine. Might even write my name in it.”

“You do that Ellie. I won’t care when I steal it back who’s name it has in it.” Already has my name in it. Yours would just complete it.

“Fine. Then I’ll readjust it.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“Oh, I would.”

I set her down at her car. “No, you wouldn’t.” I called her bluff. You’re too sweet to do it. Or you’d fix it right away if you did. She rolled her eyes at me.

“Whatever. I’ll see you at Monet’s in a few with your precious hat.” I waited until she got in her car and drove off, before starting my own engine and following her.

Ellie beat me to Monet’s as usual. I nodded at and stopped to chat with some of my teammates when I came in. Matt nodded awkwardly at me as I passed. I glared in return. My coffee was set across from her when I got to our table. “I see you told the truth. Can I have it back now?”

“No. I think it looks quite fetching on me, if I do say so myself.”

“Fetching?”

“Yes. Do you disagree?”

“No, I think it looks good on you.” Not that anything would look bad on you. Suits her. She’s wearing my shirt.

“That’s what I thought.”

We chatted quietly before Justin showed up. “Hey guys.” He waved.

“Justin! You made it.” She exclaimed, too excitedly. Making him think you were forced to babysit him by being overly happy isn’t going to help Elliebear. I shot her a tone it down look. Justin smiled uncomfortably as she offered up her seat. “Make room.”

“Can do sweetheart.” I flirted, patting the chair next to me. The smile and blush she tried to mask didn’t go unnoticed.

“Thanks for the coffee Ellie.” Justin said, taking a sip.

“No problem.” The three of us chatted idly for a while. I was on my best behaviour with Justin and even laughed a few times at couple things he said. There was no mention of what he witnessed in the locker room.

My hand found Ellie’s under the table and I grasped it carefully. I had to make it look like I hadn’t done it intentionally. I could see the pink flare of her cheeks and my lip twitched upwards.

“Hey Justin, come over here and look at this.” Charlie called. He was looking at something on Garrisons’ phone. Justin left us to go investigate. I caught the quick glance at our hands, even if Ellie didn’t. Thank you, Foley.

“And then there were two.” I muttered, pulling her from her thoughts.

“Then there were two.” She repeated.

“That shirt looks good on you. It’s pretty familiar too.”

“Oh, yeah. There may be a reason for that.” She seemed nervous.

“Need to go talk to Mike?”

“Not if you don’t have a problem with it. I think he would agree it was simply borrowing, rather than stealing. No need to involve Jesus.”

“I am. So now you’ve got my shirt and my hat. Anything else you intend on taking of mine?” I slowly inched closer to her. We have never gone here. But there’s no way she doesn’t feel this pull.

“Possibly. Depends what else you’re willing to offer.” She said, coyly. My fingers itched to brush the hair from her face. She beat me to it.

“I think there’s a thing or two I could offer you Ellie.” I replied, leaning in a little more. What am I doing? What if she doesn’t feel the same way. Am I about to ruin our friendship? Do I even care? Before I could kiss her, fucking Bryce Walker beckoned from across the room. Son of a bitch. You couldn’t wait two god damn seconds, could you? This better be important.

I stopped just short of kissing her. “What?” I answered, curtly.

“My place, half an hour.” He called back. That is what was so important you had to interrupt this moment? That could have waited. Fucker. I nodded in response and turned back to Ellie, hoping the moment wasn’t gone. I knew it was though. I sighed internally. She was smiling at me, but it didn’t reach her eyes like it normally did. She’s upset. I didn’t know what to say to try and salvage our moment. Instead, I watched her take a sip of her latte and check her watch.

“Shoot. Is that really the time? I have plans with my mom in the morning. I should get going.” I’ll take bullshit for 200, Alex. She never was a good liar.

“Oh, okay. Are we still on for waffles Sunday afternoon?” I tried to hide my disappointment.

“Yeah. Be at my place around one? I need to talk to Pastor Mike about a few things after service.”

“I’ll be there. Text me when you get home.”

“I will.” She hurried out of the café so fast, someone might think there was a fire.

I threw my head back in my chair and ran my hands down my face. Bryce and Matt were watching me when I looked out at the room again. I mimicked Ellie’s actions and took my half empty cup to the counter. “You couldn’t have waited one minute, could you Walker?” I grumbled as I passed him.

“Sorry dude.” He called after me. “My place-.”

“Half an hour. Yeah. I got that.” I shook my head as I left the café.

End flashback

I turned to watch her take a sip of her latte. She still savoured the taste and licked her bottom lip the same way. “What about the blonde girl you told me about briefly?”

Blonde girl… Lip piercing? No. Was a red head. The sorority girl? That was the brunette with the Adderall. Blonde… oh! Chirpy. “Sara?”

“Yeah.”

“She was nice. Very peppy and chipper though.”

“Ah yes. Need to keep up that stoic exterior. Can’t have someone too chipper, lest people think you have a soul or something.” You always thought I did.

“Exactly.” I laughed. He took a long sip from his cooled coffee. “Can you imagine if I brought her home?”

“Well, knowing your mother, I would probably be attending your engagement party tomorrow instead of the other way around.”

“Oh probably.”

“How is your mom doing, by the way?” “She’s doing okay. After dad died, she was pretty out of it for a few months. She’s gotten better with time though. Really started to come into her own and forge her own path.”

“I’m glad to hear it.”

“Not going to ask how I’m doing Ellie?”

“No. I know how you’re doing.”

“Oh really?”

“Montgomery. I am your best friend. Your dad was never a parent. DNA doesn’t make someone your family. You’re doing the same as you did the day you left and vowed to never speak to him again.”

Her easy explanation surprised me. “Sometimes I forget how well you know me.”

“I know. That’s why I have to remind you all the time.”

“Yeah, yeah. How did Evan react to Scott on the way from the airport?”

“I’m not totally sure. I don’t think he realized how things worked at Liberty and exactly what you and I being friends meant. Scott told him about the treehouse.” Oh God.

“Oh no. Ellie. I need to look the guy in the eye tomorrow.”

“I know you do. Don’t worry. He didn’t seem upset or anything. I think he found it amusing actually.”

“Did he tell him anything else?”

“About you?”

“Yeah.”

“No, mentioned how you guys fucked up and didn’t study for midterms and I singlehandedly kept you all on the team. And how Matt and Garrison managed to keep themselves above their feet until after homecoming senior year.”

“Of course, he did.”

“Don’t worry. Evan will like you.”

“How do you know?” Why do I care? Because you love her you dolt.

“Because I like you. And even though you think you are, you really aren’t a bad guy.” We talked for about another hour or so, just catching up, before we decided to call it a night.

“I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Three o’clock sharp.”

“Good.” She squeezed me tightly. When we pulled apart, I looked down and saw she was wearing my shirt. She kept it all these years.

“Is that my shirt?”

“Yes, it is.”

“I thought I lost that years ago.”

“You never asked for it back. We agreed that I technically borrowed it, remember?”

“Yeah, but I also thought you would have given it back by now.”

“I mean, I can give it back to you tomorrow if you want it.” She offered.

“No, no. You keep it. You seem comfortable in it.” She smiled and hugged me again before leaving.

No matter how much I tried to talk myself into cancelling at the last minute or just not showing up to the party, I couldn’t do it. As much as I wanted to let her finally think that I was an ass, I couldn’t. I couldn’t hurt her like that. So, I manned up and went to Ellie’s engagement party. I showed up right at three, as promised. “Hey you.” She beamed. Her whole face lit up when she saw me.

“Hey Elliebear.” I said as I hugged her. Evan stood to the side, giving us a moment. He looked so uncomfortable with our interaction. Maybe he noticed how much brighter her face got when she saw me. She pulled away first and turned towards her fiancé.

“Evan, this is Monty. Monty, this is Evan.” She motioned between us. I shook his hand awkwardly.

“So, you found the way to Ellie’s heart, huh?”

“Yeah. She is something special. I thank God every day that she decided to give me a chance.”

“Don’t I know it?” I replied, trying to hide the wistfulness and ignore the pang of jealously in my chest.

Jill called her over for something and she pointed Scott out to me. Trying to avoid a pissing match El? “Coming Mom. Scott is over there by the cupcakes. Try to keep him from eating himself to a sugar high?”

I laughed, “can do Ellie. It was nice meeting you Evan. Congratulations.”

“You too Monty. Enjoy the party.” He doesn’t like me.

“Hey Scotty.”

“I didn’t think you’d show up. Justin and I had a bet going. I owe him fifty bucks.”

“Well, you know. It’s Ellie.” I grabbed a cupcake from the stand and took a bite. Not bad. I see why she wants me to monitor Scott.

“That’s why I didn’t think you’d come.”

“You came.” Justin said, patting me on the back in lieu of greeting.

“Yup. Where’s Sasha?”

“Girl talk with Ellie and Jess and some other girls.”

“Riveting. What choice did I have? My options were come, watch her with Evan, and hate every second of it for an hour or two, or, not come and have her hate me for the rest of our lives.”

“I guess. Are you going to go to the wedding?” Justin asked.

“See if Evan lets her invite me first. He doesn’t seem too impressed so far. Thanks for that by the way Scott.”

“I’m sure he’ll warm up to you.”

“If you’re invited? Which you will be, because you’re her best friend.”

“Then what kind of best friend would I be, if I didn’t go to her wedding? I’d just hate myself for a few more hours then. That’s better than a lifetime of her hating me.”

“Fair. Look, if you want to leave, just say the word. We can go back to my place and drink.” Scott offered.

“Thanks. I need to stick it out. It’s Ellie.” The rest of the party was fine. I talked to Jill and Rob for a while. I even talked to Evan for a bit. It was awkward but we didn’t fight each other. If he suspected anything about my feelings for her, he didn’t say anything. I left that evening, wondering if he noticed Ellie looking for me and not him all afternoon and letting my brain go somewhere it hadn’t gone in years. At least, not willingly gone in years.

I held out some sick hope that maybe, just maybe, the engagement wouldn’t last. I knew it was wrong of me, but I couldn’t help it. This was the girl that I had been in love with since the eighth grade. That’s when she stopped being like one of the guys. When she became something more. Even though I knew it wasn’t an attainable thing, even back then, there was always this little spark of hope. She was the reason I didn’t really date in college. She was the reason no girl was worth bringing home to meet my mom. They were all compared to her. They would always be compared to her. I always hoped that she felt the same way about me as I felt about her. That hope vanished when I checked my mail after work that Wednesday. The fancy envelope and familiar script were enough of a giveaway. I didn’t need to open the card to know what it was. The invitation. I sighed as I went in the house and opened the card. I merely skimmed for the important dates and time. I knew in that moment that I had finally lost her. I also knew that I would go anyway as I signed, sealed, and mailed the RSVP that night. I had to go. It’s Ellie.

The day had finally arrived. I had been dreading this day for the better part of a year. It was the morning of Ellie’s wedding. I woke up, forced myself to get out of bed, made coffee, and showered. I stared at the black suit hanging on my bedroom door for fifteen minutes. Arguing with myself about if I was really going to do this was getting me nowhere closer to a decision. If I go, I’ll hate myself. If I don’t go, she’ll hate me. If I go, I’m losing her. If I don’t go, I’m losing her. If I go, then I’ll get to see her. If I don’t go, I won’t see her. If I go, I’ll have to hold my feelings in forever. If I don’t go, I’ll have to hold my feelings in forever. Finally, I came to a decision. I wasn’t willing to risk losing her because I couldn’t show up for her. If I wasn’t going to be able to be with her, at least I could still be in her life. Maybe. But I’d cross that bridge when I got to it. I put the suit on and fixed my hair. Then I went to the liquor cabinet and filled a flask with whiskey. I couldn’t drink it in church because if Ellie found out, she would kill me, Ten Commandments be damned.

I arrived at the church forty-five minutes before the ceremony was scheduled to start. I took a sip from the flask in my pocket on the city sidewalk. Spotting Bryce, I walked over to him. “Hey.”

“Hey man, how’s it going?”

“It’s going, you?”

“Same old, same old.” We chatted mindlessly for a few minutes until Justin showed up with Clay and Sasha. I’m shocked we haven’t gotten a happy announcement from them yet. She looks thrilled.

“Justin, Clay. Hey Sasha.” The trio greeted me, and Clay took Sasha inside. He seemed to pick up on the displeasure radiating off of her.

“Holding up okay?” Justin asked.

“Sure.”

“He’s at his best friend’s wedding.”

“I know. Just trying to be nice Bryce.” Zach showed up and broke some of the tension brewing between Bryce and Justin. Never thought I’d be happy to see Zach freaking Dempsey.

“So, I heard from one of the groomsmen that she looks beautiful.”

“Of course, she does. It’s Ellie. And it’s her wedding day.” I said. Scott found us milling in the back of the chapel and came over. He didn’t bother greeting us.

“Have you talked to her?” he asked.

“No. I wanted to give her space. In case I decided not to come.”

“Oh. You could go talk to her now.”

“And say what Scott?”

“Tell her.”

“Tell her what? It’s her wedding.”

“I know that.” I looked around to see if anyone was paying attention to our little group. They weren’t.

“Tell her what exactly Scott? How do you propose I go about telling her that I think she’s making a mistake and that I’ve been in love with her since we were thirteen? I’m not going to do that. Not today. Not ever. I’m not messing this up for her.” I whisper-yelled.

“He has a point Scott.” Zach pointed out.

“If I say something, I’ll lose her forever. So, to avoid losing my best friend, I’m going to sit here, watch her marry the man she loves, and wish her the best. And then I will go home, get very drunk, and sleep the hangover off for the next two days.”

Scott raised his hands in defeat. “Okay. I get your point. I’m not going to push you into doing something you don’t want to do.” Even though I made a good little speech, the closer we got to the ceremony, the more uncomfortable I became. I couldn’t stop the thoughts of wanting to do exactly what Scott suggested. I wanted nothing more than to go find her and tell her how I felt. But then I looked around the room and saw all of these people waiting excitedly to see Ellie and Evan get married and live happily ever after. I wasn’t going to be the reason that didn’t happen. But the closer we got to ceremony time, the closer I also got to losing my resolve to sit here and watch this happen. I couldn’t watch her marry someone else.

“I can’t do this.” I said suddenly.

“What?” Zach asked.

“I can’t watch her marry him. I can’t sit here and watch them get married. I can’t give her up like this.”

“What are you doing Monty?” Scott asked. I stood up from my seat.

“Tell Ellie that I’m sorry.” With nothing more to say, I turned around and walked out of the church. My friends didn’t try to follow me, too stunned to process what was happening. I got in my car and drove. I wasn’t sure where I was driving until I pulled into the lot.

I opened the door to the quaint café and saw that our table was available. Though, I suppose now it was more my table than our table. I lost her today. There was no way I was getting her back after what I did. I slipped my jacket off and hung it over a chair to save the spot, before going to the counter and ordering.

“Can I get a tall bourbon neat. Make it a double.” Monet’s had been licensed a few years ago.

“Sure thing. Rough day?” The barista asked.

“You have no idea.” I shook my head and took the drink she set in front of me. Back at what was now only my table, I pulled out my phone and scrolled though some old photos. A lot of them were of Ellie. She used to like to steal my phone and leave me with some selfies to surprise me when I opened the app. I scrolled through the seemingly endless stream of photos and ordered another bourbon when I finished the first one. My trip down memory lane was interrupted when I got a text from Bryce.

I need you to tell me where you are.

Why?

Because I do. Now tell me where you are.

Why?

Montgomery. You want to tell me where you are.

Fine. If you must know. I’m at Monet’s. Now why do you need to know?

I’m sorry about homecoming night. I hope this can make it up to you at least a little. I stared at the screen in confusion. Shaking my head, I put my phone down and went back to sipping the amber liquor. What the hell is he talking about? Fucking Bryce. I didn’t look up when I heard the bell chime above the door. Nor did I look up when I heard the click of high heels against the wood floors.

“Is this seat taken?” I heard a familiar voice, softly.

I looked up at her then, my eyes widening in surprise. What is she doing here? She is supposed to be getting married to Evan. What does this mean? Why is she here?

“I couldn’t do it if you weren’t there. You’re my best friend Monty.”

I scoffed quietly before replying, “it’s not taken, no. Sit if you want,” and taking another drink from my glass, not looking at her for fear of letting my guard down again, only to be crushed again.

“Hey,” she started, reaching for my hand. I looked at her hand and paused before letting her take it, “I mean it. I couldn’t marry him.”

“Why not?”

She was quiet for a moment. Noticing I had about fingers width of bourbon left in my glass, she grabbed it, downing the rest of it.

“Hey. I was drinking that.” I protested.

“I couldn’t marry Evan because he wasn’t you. And you weren’t there to say anything by the time I walked down the aisle. You were just going to give me away and live the rest of our lives wondering what if.” She told me while she stared into the bottom of the now empty glass.

“You- really?” Wait, how did she know I was there? “How did you know…?”

“Zach told me.” Of course, he did. I sighed internally.

“I know I wasn’t there Ellie. I just. I couldn’t sit there in that church and watch you marry him. And I knew I was and would be too much of a coward to stand up and say something when I saw you standing up there with him. I had to let you be happy.” I told her, trying to make her understand that I couldn’t be the reason she spent her life unhappy.

“Don’t you get it Montgomery? I wouldn’t have been happy. Not really. Or at least not for long. Not with Evan.”

“So why did you agree to marry him?”

“Because I thought it would be easier? My friends liked him, my family liked him, I liked him. I just thought that it would be easier to ignore my feelings. I could marry him, officially move to Atlanta, come home a couple of times a year, have a couple of kids. It all seemed easier than admitting to myself that I was in love with my best friend and if I really, truly wanted to be happy, I would need to be with him instead. And that admitting that would change everything. But I’ve learned over the past year that easy doesn’t always mean happy. And sometimes what we think is easy in the short term, isn’t always easy in the long term.”

Easier. Sure. She finally admitted it. She’s in love with me. I chuckled lowly, “took you long enough.”

She furrowed her brow at me, “what is that supposed to mean? I just confessed my love for you, and that’s all you have to say?”

“Yeah. It took you long enough to come to that conclusion. You were what? Half-way through the ceremony before you put a stop to it?” I asked, unable to keep the bitterness out of my tone.

“Not exactly. I knew a while ago. I spent the whole morning shaking and waiting for you to come and tell me that I was making a mistake. When you didn’t come, I thought… that you either didn’t feel the same way, or that you were going to do the kind thing for once and not say anything, but I thought at least you would be there. When I saw that you weren’t, I knew I couldn’t marry him. Even if it was the easy choice.” When I didn’t say anything she added, “you picked a great time to do the kind thing.”

“Yeah, well. You knew it would happen sometime. You owe me another shot by the way.” I muttered.

“Oh please. There was barely a fingers width in your glass.” she told me, sighing dramatically.

I looked at her through my eyelashes, “they won’t serve you that small an amount.” she rolled her eyes and stood up to go order me another shot. Before I could chicken out again, I surprised her when I grabbed her wrist to stop her, before pulling her down into my lap, she fell rather gracefully given the fit of her dress and kissing her deeply. I pulled away first and turned to look out the window. Our friends had gotten out of the car and were clapping and high fiving each other.

“How about that shot now?” I smirked.

#montgomery de la cruz #monty de la Cruz fanfic #monty imagine #monty x reader #montgomery de la cruz x oc #montgomery de la cruz imagine #montgomery de la cruz x reader #monty de la cruz #Marry Me #Thomas Rhett #one shot #original character #zach dempsey #Bryce Walker #Justin Foley

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yukipri · 4 years

Text

On the Baratie, Part 3 - a One Piece Mermaid AU Text Story

Third part of the Baratie story tonight!

Warnings for: Thatch x Luffy, Sanji x Luffy, bg Ace x Luffy

Continues off of past parts!

👒🐟On the Baratie, Part 1

👒🐟On the Baratie, Prologue

👒🐟On the Baratie, Part 2

Sanji's never been left this speechless by someone else's food before.

He's long considered Zeff to be the best chef he knows, the mentor from whom Sanji's polished his own skills, once acquired from lonely textbooks in a cold, cold dungeon cell. Sanji's improved, but there are few dishes he can serve that he feels can top Zeff's.

"Well?" Thatch asks, crossing his arms, a gentle smile curling his lips.

There's a small feast laid out before them, and to an untrained eye, it looks simple. But when Zeff finishes his first sip of soup, he makes a low, rumbling sound of appreciation, and honestly Sanji can't do anything but silently echo the sentiment.

Food can be incredible. Not only do living things require nourishment to survive, certain kinds can bring out various physical and mental reactions in the consumer. The right diet can encourage healing, grant clearer vision, even strengthen the body to seemingly inhuman degrees. Food builds the body after all, and the right kind can cause miracles.

But some recipes, Sanji has heard, take food even further beyond.

And this food, this does all of that and more.

Because from the first sip, Sanji immediately feels his body thrum with energy and warmth, and he jolts. What is this? There's no way his body can physically change from taking just a single sip of soup...and yet it feels like it has.

To eat like this, every meal, every day, every crew member...suddenly, "the Strongest Pirate Crew in the World" seems less an obscure, far away concept, but defined in a way that Sanji not only understands, but leaves him feeling nothing but awe. This, he thinks, this is what you eat to be the Strongest.

Sanji hates to admit it, but he's never had anything like it, not even from Zeff. And the cook, Thatch, did it in with the exact same tools, ingredients, and kitchen that Sanji uses every day.

And while the physical effects are mind boggling enough, there's more.

Because in this food, Sanji can feel the cook's raw intent in an undiluted form that perhaps only Sanji himself can recognize and interpret, as a cook who strives to do the same, but has never quite managed to this level of mastery. And in every ingredient that Thatch added, in every careful stir, Sanji knows what he was pouring in.

Love.

Sanji doesn't set his spoon down until the bowl is empty, but when he does, his thoughts feel more organized. And this, Sanji thinks, this food...it's practically a culinary love letter that only Sanji can read.

And Sanji somehow instinctively knows that the love letter is addressed to Luffy.

Sanji's torn. On one hand, he feels that his attraction to Luffy, not even a day old, is painfully inadequate in comparison to not just the devotion of her current cook, but his ability to convey it through his cooking alone. And Sanji knows that at this moment, he has no hope of coming close to replicating the way Thatch shows his love through his food. It's the first time Sanji's felt this way about his craft, and it's humbling.

But on the other hand...Sanji slowly lifts his gaze from the soup to see Thatch with new eyes, but the man's attention is fixed solely on Luffy, who guzzles the soup without a care in the world, no doubt completely unaware of just how special it really is.

On the other hand, the things Sanji could learn from this cook.

"Thatch's cooking is the best," Luffy croons, as Ace reaches around her to roughly wipe her messy face with a napkin. "But! Sanji's cooking is amazing too, and Sanji's cooking will also be the best if he joins our crew!"

Zeff wasn't exaggerating; it really is an honor to be compared to Thatch. Sanji feels his heart thump heavily, and for once it's not just because of lovely, lovely Luffy.

Sanji doesn't have a response for Luffy, but at the moment he doesn't need to--because Don Krieg walks in.

Things happen in rapid succession.

Gin and Krieg arrive.

Then the greatest swordsman in the world, Dracule Mihawk shows up, and the green haired idiot pounces at the opportunity to challenge him, and immediately loses.

"Hawk Eyes," Thatch says warningly, with far too much familiarity and lack of fear facing down a Warlord, but perhaps that's to be expected, given that he's a Whitebeard pirate.

"Thatch," the swordsman acknowledges. "The boy's not dead. Even if he were not under your crew's protection, he has captured my interest."

Sanji frowns at their exchange.

But then he's fighting, and there's no time to worry about it, and the Baratie's in danger, Zeff's in danger, so Sanji has to fight--

And then for some reason, Luffy's fighting.

Sanji's heart leaps into his throat the first time he sees her slam into Krieg, and he moves to abandon his own fight to go to her aid, when a hand stops him.

It's the Dangerous Man, Ace, the one who acted like he was Luffy's keeper, though that antagonism is gone from him now as he watches the mermaid engage in combat with Krieg. He looks surprisingly calm, and he doesn't move to help Luffy, or even to call her back, but instead looks on silently from the sidelines, leaning against the outer wall of the Baratie next to Thatch and the blue-haired man, who are likewise quiet.

"Let her fight," Ace says, though he and his crew mates don't look away.

"You don't care if she gets hurt?! That's Don Krieg!" Sanji spits out blood and tries to move towards her again, but Ace's hand doesn't budge.

"And she's my co-captain." Ace says, and Sanji jolts. "We're headed to the Grand Line. Krieg is nothing compared to the opponents we'll face there."

Sanji wants to object, to call the man utterly insane and heartless for using this as what, a training exercise?! for Luffy, who isn't just a delicate lady, but a vulnerable mermaid! Adrenaline has completely shot Sanji's restraint, and it suddenly doesn't matter how much stronger Ace is, because Sanji's about to give him a piece of his mind--but he stops.

Because when Sanji looks at Ace, he doesn't see the cold eyes of a master evaluating the performance of his subordinate. Ace, for all his power, looks so incredibly human as he watches Luffy fight. Sanji can tell that he cares for her, that he's worried, but above all, that he has absolute trust in Luffy. And it's that belief in her that keeps him rooted to the spot when Sanji can now see that he's itching to annihilate Krieg like he no doubt could.

It's the look that true family gives, that people who don't love you can never hope to replicate, and Sanji knows the difference all too painfully well.

And so Sanji turns to watch Luffy as well. He can't say that the fight looks easy for her, but she's holding her own, far better than Sanji would have expected. Despite being a mermaid, she balances easily with her tail to hurl punches that fly far and true with her devil fruit powers, before she spins on her arms to lash out with her fins, delivering a slam that sends Krieg crashing through the wreckage of his own ship.

Her fighting isn't what even Sanji could call particularly elegant, much more like brawling, but he still can't look away.

Luffy's bare hands shatter Krieg's golden armor, before her tail deals the final blow, even as the mermaid herself, bleeding and entangled in Krieg's net, plummets into the sea.

Conviction, Sanji thinks, repeating Zeff's words, his observations of the mermaid.

The three by the Baratie make their moves then, all at once. Ace and Thatch leap forward to dive into the sea after the mermaid, but are slammed to the deck by their blue-haired companion before they can touch the water.

"Hey you! Blond cook!" the blue-haired man shouts, and Sanji realizes he's referring to Sanji. "Go in after her! She's eaten a devil fruit and can't swim, and neither can these idiots! She'll drown!"

"You'd best do as he says," Zeff agrees, and Sanji swears and takes off sprinting.

Down beneath the waves, it's like the battle overhead never took place, and Sanji wonders if he'd imagined it after all as he finally reaches Luffy. Her eyes are closed, and the majority of blood has already been washed away by the water. Her body is completely limp as Sanji cuts it free of the net so she slides into his arms.

It's his first time touching her, and though she settles heavily and unnaturally against him without a hint of buoyancy...she's soft. Small bubbles rise from her lips, and Sanji realizes that she's breathing underwater. With light from the surface dancing across her face, she looks so incredibly different from when she was awake. She's hauntingly beautiful and serene, and the blue veil over her makes her look like she belongs to another world, like a sleeping sea goddess waiting to be awakened by a kiss. She looks like a true mermaid princess straight out of a fairy tale, not a pirate capable of pummeling an infamous pirate commodore.

Sanji feels his own lungs beginning to scream, and regretfully kicks out, but keeps firm grip of the mermaid in his arms.

When they break the surface, wreckage is around them, and hands immediately pull them onto the deck. Sanji reluctantly lets Luffy go.

"Luffy!" Ace shouts, all pretense of calm gone as he pulls Luffy into his arms to peer down at her.

Luffy doesn't gasp for air like a human who's been under water, but rather takes a longer, deeper breath, and slowly opens her eyes as though finally realizing that it isn't fluid, but air in her lungs.

"Hey, Ace," she says, lips quirking into a smile as she continues to breath in deeply. "Told you I could beat him."

"So you did," he agrees, crushing her briefly against his chest, before pulling them apart so he can catalog her injuries.

"Thanks for that," a new voice says, and Sanji looks up to see the blue-haired man offering him a hand, which he takes. "I can't guarantee Ace'll agree, but I for one am all for more swimmers joining us. I'm Deuce."

(Deuce, probably: So Nami stole our ship, Usopp's following her with a half-dead Zoro and the two bounty hunters, leaving...fantastic, me alone with three stupid devil fruit users. Again.)

I did skim through the manga again for a vague sense of order of events, but I have zero interest in writing every detail of canon into my AU stories. Sure, I'm sure some things could have gone interestingly different that I didn't mention, like Lu possibly avoiding Krieg's gas by dunking her head under water, or Thatch sucking it all up into a black hole....but eh, you can imagine that if you want LOL! This was already getting too long ^ ^;

Some other notes: I re-read Novel A again, and confirmed several things:

1) Thatch is confirmed Head Cook/Head of Dining of the entire Whitebeard Fleet

2) Thatch's division, the 4th, is also primarily in charge of Dining, including but not limited to cooking, gathering food such as hunting and fishing, and presumably procuring other foodstuffs from their territory. I already HC'd this, but nice to have it be confirmed canon!

3) It's a little hard to tell from the wording whether he's just calling it that, or whether it really is Special, but possibly implied that he can cook especially energizing and nourishing foods (in the novel, stamina soup for Pops), possibly like the Kamabakka Kingdom recipes.

(note, I have not read the official English translation, so have no clue what they chose to translate these things as, I only got the original Japanese which is enough for me ^ ^;)

Regarding the last point, I do HC that Thatch knows those recipes and is friends with Kamabakka Kingdom cooks. I also HC that Iva-chan's okama aren't the only country or culture that has Special Foods like that, and Thatch has a very, VERY broad repertoire ;D

I also just love the idea of both Thatch and Sanji, master cooks, being able to read parts of each other through their cooking that goes completely unnoticed by everyone else on the crew <3

As always, thank you so much for reading, and any thoughts you'd like to share with me are immensely appreciated! <3

❀ ❀ Send YukiPri an Ask! ❀ ❀

Read the next part: On the Baratie, Part 4

~This ask has been added to the Mermaid AU Text Headcanons Compilation post~

#OnePieceMermaidAU #One Piece Mermaid AU #One Piece #Thatch #Vinsmoke Sanji #text headcanons #Monkey D. Luffy #genderbend #longpost #long post

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scribble-blog · 5 years

Text

Black Cats and Robinettes part 2!!

First

BACK AGAIN WITH THE ROLE REVERSAL EVERYBODY!! As some side notes, despite trying super hard to keep Damian and Marinette’s core personalities intact despite them having very different origin stories, I’ve definitely made Marinette- a bit tougher I guess? This Marinette isn’t going to curb her words, especially not for people she doesn’t know at all (who are hanging off a liar hurting her friends). Likewise, Damian is definitely a bit softer around the edges. It comes from the years of having loving and present parents without a super hero life to keep his edge. That being said, I hope you enjoy!!!

“Lila!” He watched as Marinette approached their class, the bulk of them looking over towards her distrustfully. So, Lila has already been spinning bullshit about the girl, despite the fact that she was the Wayne heiress Lila claimed to be practically a sister to. “I don’t know why you didn’t tell me you were in town. I would’ve made sure to clear up my schedule to spend time with you!”

“Just watch this, Damian. She’s vicious.” Adrien told him, leaning over.

“I’m sorry? I think you’ve got the wrong person,” Rossi simpered.

“No?” Marinette tilted her head slightly. “I mean, I know it’s been a while, but surely you remember me. Marinette Wayne?”

Rossi’s eyes went wide.

“I thought you said her name was Maria?” Kanté questioned.

And then, before Damian’s eyes, Rossi did the stupidest thing he’d ever seen her do.

She doubled down.

“A childhood nickname,” she explained away, eyes narrowing slightly at the girl who’d come to cast her from her throne. “I’m so sorry, Maria, it’s just been so long! I didn’t recognize you.”

“But- like you said, it’s only been four months since your mother brought you to Gotham.” Marinette’s eyes had blown wide open, innocence dripping from her every word. “I haven’t changed that much, have I? I haven’t even gotten a haircut...”

Lila tried to laugh it off, but Damian saw several of the class giving her confused looks.

“Remind me how we met, Lila.” Marinette said suddenly. Her tone was still sweet, but something in her face had shifted.

“It was- at a Wayne Gala,” Césaire volunteered. “When you were both five. Your parents let you play together.”

“An incredible feat, given that my usual bedtime was right when the gala started until I was twelve, and I wasn’t even allowed to attend the gala until age ten.” Marinette’s voice was still honeyed, but she spoke like a cracking whip. The class was silent. “And about the “work” you’ve done with my family? Those green initiatives you helped us plan in coordination with Prince Ali of Achu?”

“The- the green initiatives?” Lavillant trembled. “The ones to plant trees in deserts and man made wastes to combat the destruction of ecosystems?”

“Oh, poor girl,” Chloé crooned lowly. Damian snorted.

“They don’t exist. The Wayne Enterprises website can direct you to a full list of every charity act committed by my family’s company. It lists every fundraiser and nonprofit organization that is founded, funded, owned or supported by us. You will not find those initiatives there.” Marinette was lethal. Whatever inner sunshine she carried within her seemed to have frozen over.

“Every word about knowing me or being my friend. Every word insinuating that she either is dating or is being courted by my brothers. Every implication that she has any sort of sway in this building or any connection in the slightest to my father- all lies. Despite what Lila has been telling you, I’ve never met her before she started lying about me and my family in front of my face today.

“I don’t care what else Lila has told you. I don’t care what she has promised to do for you. I don’t even care that you believed her. But if I ever hear another word about my family slip from your venomous mouth, snake,” Marinette spat contemptuously, “you will be served with several lawsuits for defamation from my family alone, ignoring what I’m sure I could rustle up from the plethora of names that you tried to claim a connection to in this building in my range of hearing.” She finished with the air of someone who knew she hadn’t landed the final blow, but was waiting for one last misstep to give her a reason to deliver it.

“How do we know that you’re actually Marinette Wayne?” Alya called out angrily. “You could just be someone who’s jealous after hearing about Lila and all of the things she’s done and the people she knows!”

There it was. He watched the unrestrained glee in Marinette’s eyes as she dismissively delivered her last shot.

“I don’t know. Try googling me.”

And then, without another word, she turned and walked very neatly back to their table, ignoring the attention she had garnered from the rest of the dining room. “So guys, do you have any free time during your trip? I feel like we should do dinner? We should do dinner.”

“That was incredible,” Damian breathed.

And then to his complete surprise, she flushed bright red. “Oh my god. I shouldn’t have-“

“You absolutely should have,” Chloé cut her off. “Rossi’s been lying about you for days now. It’s a miracle this is the first actual consequence.”

“Are you sure I wasn’t too harsh on everyone else though?” She asked. Her eyes were still on him.

Damian shrugged in response. “We’ve tried to tell them before. They chose her. This is their reward.”

“Think about it this way, Mari,” Adrien consoled her. “At least with your put down they have the chance to start being better people. If you had been nicer Lila could have turned it around somehow, like she always does.”

A sudden eruption of shouting came from across the room, and Damian looked over just in time to see Césaire throw a strong punch straight across Rossi’s cheek.

“Oooh, that’s gotta hurt,” Adrien said sympathetically. “Skulls are hard. Alya’s fingers could’ve broken.”

“I think she’s fine,” Chloé said dismissively as Césaire wound up for another, to be held back by Lahiffe.

“Dick’s gonna kill me,” Marinette groaned.

“I’m gonna do what, Sunshine?” Their other tour guide’s voice said brightly. “Congratulations, I sent a video to the family chat and now everyone is losing their minds.”

“Ghhhhhhh,” she moaned further, head sinking into her hands. “Tell my sisters I love them. Cass gets everything. Every brother is disowned.”

“Heartbreaking,” he said dryly, reaching out and snagging a french fry from her tray. Her hand stopped him with a quickness that startled Damian.

“Don’t touch.”

“Sheesh, Mari, alright.” He turned away, to face them. “Adrien, Chloé, good to see you again. Who’s this?”

“Damian Dupain-Cheng,” He introduced himself. “It’s easier to just say I’m their friend than it is to explain everything.”

“You are our friend, idiot,” Chloé threw a fry at him. “Honestly.”

“Hmm.” Richard- Dick? Marinette’s brother’s eyes lingered on Damian. He could feel himself being judged.

“Tell you what. I’m sure Alfred wouldn’t mind a few extra plates at dinner tomorrow, and honestly, I think any time spent away from that group is probably better-“ he sent a look over towards the class, now being barely restrained by Mme. Bustier, stepping between everyone. Her quick, quiet plaintive words were followed by an even louder, “You KNEW?” from Alya - “so how about I okay it with your teacher and you all come visit with Mari at the manor for the evening after your tours tomorrow?”

“You’ll okay it by Bruce too?” Marinette gave him a grin.

“It’s usually Dad,” Adrien said. “Why the name switch?”

“She’s upset with him for something, and since she’s the only one of us who actually calls him that, this is her best weapon,” Dick said with a grimace. “Yeah, yeah, Sunshine, I’ll get the okay for it.”

“Thank you!” She gave him a hug that looked bruising but Dick seemed to give what he got. A few joints cracked.

“Siblings,” Adrien sighed longingly.

“No thank you,” Chloé said disparagingly.

“Do I get a say in this at all?” Damian wondered to himself.

And he was resoundingly answered but four very emphatic No’s.

TAGLIST:

@thestressmademedoit @noirdots @ash-amg @ranger-gothamite @persephonebutkore @zalladane @athena452 @mewwitch @vixen-uchiha @redscarlet95 @mochegato @justafanwarrior @catcusxx @indecisive-mess-named-me @resignedcatservant @marinettepotterandplagg @myazael @mochinek0 @shizukiryuu @loveswifi @gm-nasai @peachedpocky @whatthefox22 @jardimazul @ladybug-182 @schrodingers25 @athena452 @dramatic-squirrel

#black cats and robinettes #maribat #daminette #daminette role reversal #fanfic

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dyde21 · 3 years

Text

Overnight Trip to Stark Industries 3

Link to the first part HERE (I mean it’s a field trip fic so the set up is the same, but the first two parts are only on AO3 right now xD)

I know I’m new to the fandom, and mostly post over on AO3 but I think I’ll start sharing some more One-shots over here because I freaking adore Spideychelle. Also, anyone who does REALLY needs to check out @premiere-pro They have one of the best writing styles I’ve seen in ages, and they have a series called “super cuts” that retells Iron Man 2, Avengers, and Iron Man 3 currently with Spidey in them and it’s amazing. I’m gonna reread them soon.

Anyway:

XxXxXxXxX

The air was practically vibrating in the elevator as everyone wondered what the first stop of the tour would be. Someone had even turned to their tour guide Ashe in the elevator their half was in. “What is the itinerary for today?”

Ashe looked at them, owlish for a moment. “Did… did your teachers not explain it? I believe it was on the paperwork as well.” Peter heard her voice drop to a whisper. “Did I not explain it?”

The student looked a little sheepish. “There was a lot of paperwork…”

Nodding, Ashe recovered smoothly. “I totally get that. Working here often comes with loads of paperwork. So many NDA’s, it’s easy to lose track of things. I’ll explain once we get to the first stop, just so I don’t have to repeat myself.” She offered with a crowd winning smile.

Peter saw her turn back to him and mouth “oops” and Peter snickered. Ashe was a very good PA, she could handle people better than pretty much anyone else Peter knew, aside from maybe Tony himself. But he also had heard she could be a bit distracted easily, which was why she always had a tablet to double check to keep her tasks organized and on track. Though it wasn’t like Peter could blame her, he forgot stuff constantly and Tony was even worse. It was honestly a miracle that Pepper had come into Stark Industries to help keep everything running smoothly.

Ned turned to Peter. “Do you know what’s happening first?”

Shaking his head, Peter sighed. “Like I said, Ned. I really know nothing about what’s going on this tour. I wasn’t exactly thrilled to go on it, and I kinda spend a lot of time here so I never took it myself. I just know that it’s supposed to be super memorable.”

Ned was still nodding, as if the plain explanation Peter was offering was super secret spoilers. MJ was just leaning against the wall, arms crossed as she watched them all with an amused expression. He was glad at least someone was amused.

The elevator ended and they stepped out into… a plain hallway.

Everyone seemed a bit confused. It was clear the expectations had been a bit more… grandeur. Ashe smiled as she made a broad motion, urging the group to gather around.

“So I bet you all are wondering what we are doing on this trip. In case some of you did not properly read the itinerary, I thought it would be prudent to review our schedule!”

There was some excited murmur from the group of students. Peter just rolled his eyes. He met her eyes and mouthed “smooth” to her. Ashe turned to the group, but Peter saw her subtly raise a peace sign in his direction.

“So! As you know, our trip is split into two days. The first day will explore the technology and R&D portion of Stark Industries, and the second day will cover the Avengers and affiliated programs.” Ashe quieted for a moment as a wave of cheers and very loud murmuring broke out. Ned was freaking out, grabbing Peter’s arm and shaking it. Peter barely noticed, because he felt his face pale. He was about to raise his arm, but someone else had gotten the idea first.

“Yes, you!” Ashe said, pointing.

“Will we be meeting any Avengers?” Cindy asked eagerly.

Pausing for dramatic effect, a massive grin crept on Ashe’s face. “Yes! You will be meeting multiple Avengers on this trip. While not all trips are afforded this opportunity, this trip has been lucky enough to be part of the September Foundations outreach program to help connect the future generation to both Stark Industries and the Avenger’s initiative, as at the core, the heroes serve the people and outreaches like this help close the gap and build bridges.” Ashe offered in a smooth, practiced flow.

Another loud wave of cheers rang out from the group and Peter winced, covering his ears slightly. His enhanced senses were NOT as happy as they were at the moment. He felt MJ’s hand rub his back gently.

“Dude! DUDE!” Ned practically shouted at him, wide eyes. Peter couldn’t help but grin at his friend despite the growing dread in his stomach. He was happy for Ned, even though Ned had met all the Avengers at least once by now. This was a rare chance for all of his friends and he was happy for them.

But there was no way in hell this tour had been “randomly selected” for this. There was absolutely foul play here and it reeked of nepotism.

“Lucky, my ass. I think this was Pepper’s idea of ‘helping me out’.” Peter muttered to Ned and MJ.

“GOOD.” Ned said unapologetically.

MJ shrugged. “Technically, they aren’t under any obligation to not choose this trip just because they know you. They have the right to choose whatever groups they want.”

Peter raised an eyebrow. “I thought you were against Nepotism.”

MJ offered him a sly grin. “Technically the entire class benefits from this experience, so you aren’t stealing all the benefit from others. You’re more of… an asset in our appeal to the process. It’s prudent to make use of the advantages we are offered.”

“So I’m an asset.” Peter deadpanned to her. “That’s how you see me.”

MJ shrugged. “You’re my favorite asset.”

“You just like me for my assets.” Peter mocked.

“It is a nice asset.” MJ replied cooley. Peter stared at her for a moment, blinking before his cheeks started to tint red. Did… did she just hit on him?

MJ grinned triumphantly, having won the exchange as the group tuned back into Ashe.

“Our first stop will be a brief history of the company, followed by a tech demonstration. There will be a surprise challenge, followed by lunch and the end of the challenge, then a chance for outreach and interaction with SI representatives to end the day before dinner and some free time. We will leave tomorrow’s plan for tomorrow, so make the most of today while you can!”

Another break where the group was too busy talking to each other for Ashe to have a hope of controlling them, but she didn’t seem particularly surprised or bothered by it, instead answering some question that Mr. Harrington was asking that Peter couldn’t hear over the roar of overly excited teenagers.

“So at least one day before the Avengers ruin my life.” Peter muttered mostly to himself. He winced as he felt MJ gently pinch his back where she had been rubbing it.

“Stop being so dramatic, nerd. Things will workout fine.” She reassured, glancing towards her other nerd with a small smile as Ned was still freaking out with Abe.

Ashe checked the time on her starkpad before waving her arms a bit to gather attention back on her. “As much as I’m sure you’re having fun talking about how ‘hella cool’ this tour is gonna be, how about we actually start it?”

MJ raised at the expression and Ashe seemed to notice it and smirked in response.

Ashe led her gaggle of students towards a wide set of double doors that really didn’t look like anything special. Peter couldn’t quite place where he had seen them before though. They seemed… different.

“First stop on our tour will be a brief history of Stark Industries. This is actually a rather brand new installation and vastly upgraded from our older lecture version. I think you all will be pretty pleased by it. Without further ado, let’s begin!” She said, earning a few hoots and cheers from the class as she dramatically pushed open the doors.

Students practically rushed into… a blank room. All the walls were either glass or another blank surface. In the center of the massive room was a circular pedestal with a device on top of it. Everyone looked around confused, and Peter could practically hear their disappointment.

Ashe, however, was having far too much fun watching their expressions. “Just be patient. Is everyone in? Good! Okay, now everyone I suggest you stand back to start, and do keep in mind the center dias please.” She said before stepping back. After a moment the rest of the class stepped back too as murmurs of concern started to grow a little louder.

Peter, however, remembered exactly what this was and a massive grin crept on his face. He had no idea they had actually fully finished this project, it had been ages since he had helped out other interns with this. He had been involved in the development and the construction of the technology, not as much the final touches and execution of it.

He gestured for MJ and Ned to step back a little more. “Ned, do your best not to freak out too much.”

Ned nodded a bit too eagerly as he stared at the console, already amazed even though nothing had happened yet.

MJ seemed a bit skeptical, but scooted a little closer to him and crossed her arms, waiting to see what was in store.

Ashe knocked her fist on one of the glass panes twice. “Alright, Ty. Start it up!” She said eagerly.

The lights of the room instantly shut off and the murmurs died instantly. Peter could hear the sharp intake of breath as everyone was suddenly waiting very eagerly.

A voice rang out through the room.

“Everything is achievable through technology...”

Peter recognized the voice, he had heard it a few times.

Howard Stark.

Gasps rang out through the room because standing in the center of the room was Howard Stark. Or more accurate, a hologram of him. It stood there, looking around generically, but you couldn't help but feel like he was actually looking at you when his eyes happened to meet yours.

“Is that a hologram?”

“Isn’t that the founder?”

A bunch more hushed whispers echoed out, followed by an almost equal number of “shhhhh”.

Ned was gaping like a fish as he stared at the man in the old suit who walked forward, continuing to talk.

“Better living, robust health, and for the first time in human history, the possibility of world peace.”

He stopped and gently shoved his hands into his suit pockets. “I’m Howard Stark, and everything you’ll need in the future can be found right here.” He said with a sweeping motion of his arm.

As he did though the room changed.

One second they were standing in a dark room with a holographic dead founder talking to them, and the next there was a rush of light of colors from all around and suddenly they were standing in a fairground. Students gasped, talking in hush whispers as they looked around. Peter saw Betty even hesitantly reach out and touch the wall, which was still very much there, but it looked like she was touching an invisible wall in the park. Almost. There was just enough of a discrepancy that you could see the edge without stumbling face first into it accidentally. Peter guessed that had been a lesson learned the hard way, knowing the interns.

There were displays in every direction. There was a general ambiance of futurism, but it was anachronistic with the old visions of the future, incredibly outdated despite their best guesses of the time, being displayed by technology they couldn’t dream of. Displays of imaginary space suits, flying cars, toasters. Everything was in the distance as the world around them began to move across the ground, as if they were on a guided tour.

Everyone was still mostly rooted in place, and as if to lead them, Ashe walked across the room, mumbling a bit about watching out for the center kiosk, but went deliberately to look at a display from the far end of the wall. Peter followed her suit, just to encourage people as he walked across it too. It was a bit disorienting, with the world moving at it’s own pace while you walk. Kind of like those automated walkways at the airport, but not too jarring thankfully. Again, he figured it was probably a product of trial and error and an uncomfortable number of nauseous interns testing it.

Crowds bustled around them, phasing through people as the holograms were interrupted by the actual people in the room, even though Peter saw a student or two from their class hurriedly avoiding them muttering out apologies. Peter couldn’t blame them, it almost looked real.

He knew how disorienting it could be to be surrounded by illusions. Just like… him… whenever.. He fought…

Peter’s attention was snapped back to the present as Howard continued finally.

“From all of us at Stark Industries, I would like to personally thank you for visiting us. For your interest in helping shape the world into a better future.” For a few more moments they continued to float through the imagined space. Old music playing over a staticy sound system, girls in rather revealing outfits dancing and parading themselves around displays, all before it settled near the center of the area where Howard was once again standing there, smiling at them.

The world faded to black around them once more, and there were some groans of disappointment from the group as their apparent trip through time was cut short. Howard gave one last tip of his hat, before he faded.

There was a beat of silence.

Two.

Three.

“I’ve learned a great deal from my father, and clearly humility wasn’t one of them.” Tony Stark’s voice cut in as he suddenly walked forward, emerging from nothing and standing where Howard stood a moment ago.

Peter was almost tempted to reach out and touch him because it was strange seeing him so clearly there, but not at the same time. Peter knew it was a hologram, but he could have sworn it was real.

He raised his arms and a massive Arc Reactor, the old prototype emerged from the ground, large, and humming with energy. It dwarfed their size, and it felt surreal standing so close to it.

“The Arc Reactor was one of my first successes in his company, outside of our military contracts.” Tony said. He smiled at the group and it looked genuine.

It looked real.

Too real. Like he had seen before. Illusions. But they never stayed pleasant like this. Peter stepped back, bumping his back against the wall. This was dangerous. He couldn’t tell if it was his spider sense or anxiety that was now gripping the lower part of his neck. His heart began to beat much faster.

Too fast. Was he dying? Maybe. Was this real? He kept waiting for it to change like it always did. Tony would pull a gun on him. Or melt into spiders. Or get shot. Maybe the other avengers would show up to die painfully. Or attack him. Or each other. Peter’s fists were clenched tightly at his side and they started to shake.

Why wouldn’t he hurry the fuck up and kill Tony already. Peter didn’t have time for this. He didn’t want to see his mentor die again. He didn’t want to have to punch it just to make it go away. He just wanted to scream. He could see Tony’s lips moving, probably continuing the talk but Peter’s ears were ringing and he couldn’t hear anything. Why hadn’t the death come, was Myst-

MJ’s eyes filled his vision as she stepped directly in front of him. His eyes snapped to hers, and he felt her hand cup his cheek. It was warm. He swallowed thickly.

“R-real?” He asked shakily.

MJ’s eyes were focused, and God were they beautiful.

“Real.” She confirmed. “I’m right here, Tiger.” She whispered gently. She leaned in briefly, kissing him.

It was the strangest sensation, it was like he dropped from the sky back into his body. Everything snapped into place at the feeling of her lips briskly on his.

He could feel the pressure of her knee on the inside of his, one of her feet pressed against the inside heel of one of his as she had leaned into him. Her other hand gently holding his clenched fist as he forced it to relax and thread his fingers through hers. The sounds of Tony’s voice again.

“Under our new CEO, Pepper Potts, Stark Industries have moved on from our wartorn past and once again begun the long process of bringing tomorrow just a little bit closer.” Then the familiar sounds of “Shoot to Thrill” by ACDC started to echo throughout the room.

Peter’s eyes glanced around and saw most of the students now looking around as a new wide arrange of displays showed around them. Cindy had noticed him and had seemed a bit concerned, but saw MJ was handling him and went back to looking at the sights after a small smile. Ned also seemed worried, but Peter offered him a reassuring smile and a moment later Ned was next to Betty as they pointed at some Iron Man suits flying high above them.

Ashe had closed half the distance towards them, concern painting her features but he gave her a shaky thumbs up and she slowly nodded, stepping off to the side but clearly keeping an eye on him.

His eyes fell back on MJ’s, finding them still locked on his patiently, a warm, if not slightly concerned smile on her face.

“You’re okay. I’m right here.” She said softly, reaching up to move his hand under her neck to her pulse point, as he felt the steady throb of it. Life. Peter took a deep breath and slowly the panicked sensation in the back of his neck faded.

“T-thank you.” He said.

MJ still examined his face, no doubt reading past anything he could ever try to hide from her in the moment before she seemed satisfied and smiled. Giving him the briefest peck on the lips before stepping next to him again.

She dropped his hand, but reached over and slid hers under the back of his shirt,resting it directly on the base of his spine, her thumb making gentle strokes over it. A steady, warm, grounding presence. She was right here, and very very real.

Peter wrapped his now free arm around her waist and held her close as he took in the sights around them.

Now that all traces of his illusionist villain had been banished to the dark recesses of his mind, he had to admit it was pretty fucking awesome.

ACDC was blaring through the speakers, and everywhere you looked seemed like a technological dream.

High up in the sky various suits of Iron Man armor were flying everywhere, both in formations and freely, firing at targets as they were thrown up and blasting them into pieces that fell into glitter before vanishing.

Off to the side near Ned and Betty Peter saw a person waving at them, their entire arm made of a prosthesis that seemed to respond almost perfectly to their mind as it picked up and played with a coin dexterously.

On the other side there was a clean energy generator that powered a trail of lights before they erupted into a massive city streat, all being powered by the small glowing blue generator. Peter wasn’t sure if it was a bit of an exaggeration, but it accomplished its intended effect based on Abe's and Cindy’s reaction.

Tony was still standing in the center, looking impossibly smug as he looked around a bit randomly to catch eyes potentially.

Glancing over at MJ, he saw her attention had finally moved from him and he saw her mouth opened ever so slightly in awe as she looked at the scene closest to them. The sleek fairground around them that had been housing most of the other displays crumbled to dirt as they were suddenly staring out over a large patch of ground, surrounded by forests that seemed to stretch off for miles.

In the center of the clearing were a few robots that were transplanting sapling trees and some further down that were planting seeds.

There was some floating text giving statistics on successfully replanted trees and reforesting that had happened over the past ten years.

Peter looked back at MJ, her face being illuminated by the green as he saw the faintest traces of wonder in her eyes. An emotion he knew she felt as much as everyone else did, but hid from the world to keep herself safe. But seeing that look in her eyes, the smallest smile on her face, the way her eyes shifted to his and her smile grew even more, made his chest feel warm. He realized, there was nothing in this world he wouldn’t do for her. Nothing he wouldn’t do to see that smile every day for as long as he lived. He would move mountains for her if she asked.

He rested his forehead against hers for a moment, a serene oasis in the loud ACDC played. Eventually the music started to quiet down and everyone looked back to where Tony was still standing. Behind him an Iron Man suit landed in the hero pose, before it stood up and opened up, encasing Tony in it.

“Stark Industries is leading the world to the future. Try to keep up.” He said with one last smirk, before the helmet closed and he blasted off into the sky.

A second later and the regular lights slowly turned on as they were gradually reintroduced to the plain chamber as all the holograms powered down.

Everyone just sort of stood still, letting out a few deep breaths.

“Dude…” Abe said.

“That was…” Betty started.

“SO FUCKING AWESOME.” Jason said excitedly.

“Lonello!” Harrington snapped at the language, but seemed just as starstruck.

There was a loud eruption of conversations as people started gushing about the experience.

Ashe clearly leaned back, an almost maternal smile as she saw the excitement through the class and gave them a moment to process things.

Peter glanced over to MJ, and Ned and Betty who had joined them.

“Dude, that was insane!” Ned started out, practically shaking with how excited he was.

“I can’t even imagine how they did that.” Betty offered.

MJ smiled. “Yeah… that was pretty cool.” Everyone seemed a bit shocked by her honest confession, but no one was going to call her out on it. They knew she was working on being more open with others and the last thing they wanted to do was discourage her from it.

“Yeah, I’ve never seen this before. I knew they were working on it, even helped a bit, but it was nowhere near that… immersive.” He offered, hearing his own slight amazement and thankfully not much of the fear that crept in.

He felt a slight increase of the pressure on his back. MJ’s face portrayed nothing, but it was a clear reminder.

Im right here.

He just squeezed her a little closer from his arm around her side.

“You worked on that?” Betty said, a little too loud of surprise.

The class looked over at Peter both surprised and a little skeptical.

He raised his free hand in a sort of peace gesture. “Not like… the actual holograms. They must have… God, I don’t even know the level of artists and programmers that took. I just meant more of the basic technology.”

MJ snorted. “Basic. Sure.”

Peter rolled his eyes, tickling her side ever so slightly making her squirm before she kicked his shin in retaliation. “You know what I mean. I worked with the other interns on the back end.” He offered. He didn’t want to go into detail about working directly with Tony on it, or how it worked because he really didn’t wanna spoil the magic of something so fantastical.

“Sure you did, Parker.” Flash said in disbelief. Before he could chime in with any more eloquent comments, Ashe clapped her hands together once.

“Well then! You seem to have remembered which way is up, so how about we move on to the rest of the tour? I promise you there’s still plenty to be amazed by.” She said as she ushered them to the opposite of where they entered where there were more flush doors in the wall.

She seemed to do a head count, before checking her tablet to verify that she did indeed not forget the number of people she was responsible, before she smiled and moved open the doors.

Once again, the students burst into an excited murmur.

There was a rather tall young man, sleeves rolled up on a simple blue dress shirt and jeans as he leaned against a little kiosk. He had shaggy black hair, and a calm smile as he watched the students.

But none of them were watching him because behind him it looked like an arcade from the future. It was a series of rooms, all displaying various holograms above the tables. Other machines littered the walls and the room was darker to allow the lights emitting from the machines to draw your eyes in even more. People stumbled forward a bit more, but none of them were willing to go past the man without permission.

Peter glanced over at Ashe as she was staring at the guy in surprise.

“Ashelyn.” He said simply, an almost smug look on his face as he raised an eyebrow.

“Tyler.” She replied professionally, but Peter could see the barely constrained snickers that both of them were trying to keep hidden.

MJ glanced between the two young adults before looking at Peter.

Peter just rolled his eyes. “You’ll see.”

The two young adults had locked eyes long enough and seemed to be having a silent discussion long enough for the incredibly impatient teenagers who were desperate to see the technological wonderland just out of their reach to feel a little awkward.

Peter cleared his throat a bit loudly and both Ashe and Tyler seemed to snap back to reality, the faintest hint of a blush on both of their cheeks.

“Welcome…”

“Midtown.” Ashe supplied helpfully.

Tyler shot her a grateful look. “Welcome, Midtown. I hope you enjoyed our little introduction. A bit of a step up from our old lecture, I would say?” He asked, waiting for a chorus of replies.

“Yes!”

“Incredible!”

“Fucking amazing!”

“Lonello...” Harrington’s voice sounded more tired this time.

Tyler just smiled at them. “I’m glad you enjoyed it. It has been the product of months of hard labor, and many technological breakthroughs from all across Stark Industries to achieve. My name is Tyler, and I am one of the floor managers of the R&D department, with a specialty in audio development, though my floor covers a bit broader range as well. I have volunteered to serve as your specialist to answer any tech related questions you may have, if any happen to be beyond Ashe’s understanding.”

Ashe snorted out a laugh at that. “I appreciate the confidence Fros- Tyler but you know I leave the technology to you labrats down here. I appreciate the new headphones you guys released last month, but the most I know about them is I’m pretty sure they have a speaker in them somewhere.”

There were a few laughs from the group at that and the lovestruck look Tyler gave her made Peter wonder if he was that obvious when he looked at MJ.

(He was.)

Cindy raised her hand.

“Yes?” Tyler asked, pointing at her patiently.

“Are the tours usually led by floor managers? You seem a bit… important. Not that we aren’t incredibly grateful!” She added quickly, embarrassment creeping in after her brain caught up to her curiosity.

Tyler shrugged, not bothered by the question. “Usually no, we have mid level interns give these tours to gain experience in presenting their work though we are always available to help them when needed. This is more of an… exception.” He offered, his eyes flickering over to Ashe who was hiding her laugher behind her fist as she tried to suppress her giggles.

Peter laughed at that, apparently loud enough for Tyler’s eyes to lock onto his. He tilted his head slightly and Peter blushed. Oops. Busted.

“Pet-”

“Okay! How about we get started!” Ashe cut him off, giving him a look that apparently he understood to mean just follow her lead.

“Right! So, there are three rooms behind us, and you’re free to interact with any of the displays there. Unfortunately we do have to ask you to not use your phones in these areas. While you will be free to discuss anything you see here, some of the technology is new and patent pending, and we would prefer visuals of it not be released ahead of our schedule. I must insist that this rule is rather strictly enforced, and FRIDAY will be keeping a close eye out.” He said, his voice calm and even. “Right Fri?”

“That is correct, Tyler. Upon the exit of the third room in the back, you will be able to use your devices again. Feel free to silence any devices or respond before you pass the ropes up ahead, but we ask you not to attempt to film the area from here either.”

A couple of students pulled out their phone and silenced them just to prevent any temptation. Peter actually did that himself, because while he was pretty sure he was actually an exception to the rule, since he knew way more sensitive technology than this, he wasn’t exactly looking to prove a point and he had a habit of forgetting.

MJ, Ned, and Betty seemed to trust him and followed his lead.

“Now that the lame rules are out of the way, let me explain a bit more. Feel free to explore any of the machines up ahead. All of the holographic displays are interactable, and feel free to engage with them to your heart's content. Common sense rules apply here too. Don’t steal anything. Don’t break anything. Don’t run around.” He offered, raising an eyebrow. “Midtown is a reputable school, so behave but beyond that have fun and find me or Ashe if you have any questions.”

With that, he stepped aside and the students rushed in, spreading out to all corners of the first room as they started looking around and fiddling with things.

Ned and Betty went to the nearest display table and as Peter was about to lead MJ in, he felt a hand on his shoulder.

Turning, he saw Ashe looking at him with a concerned expression.

“Are you okay? I saw your reaction in the holodeck. I know it can be disorienting.”

Peter nodded, smiling as he felt MJ increase the pressure again. “Just… caught me off guard.”

Ashe nodded, fidgeting slightly. “I… wasn’t sure if I should have cut it off. I was about to head over and ask you…”

Peter shook his head quickly. “No! I’m glad you didn’t. It was incredible. I was fine.” He offered, even though the last bit was clearly a lie.

“It’s okay, that’s what I’m here for.” MJ chimed in, making Ashe laugh.

“Yeah, you did distract him pretty well. I must say.” A teasing lilt in Ashe’s tone. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen two people make out when surrounded by cutting edge hologram tech.”

Peter’s face flushed red and he buried his face into MJ’s shoulder. MJ just shrugged, hoping to hide her own embarrassment.

“Really? Cause I distinctly remember something similar.” Tyler’s voice chimed in, making everyone look at him as he reached out and squeezed Ashe’s hand.

Ashe flushed red and slapped his chest.

“Frosty! Shut up.” She muttered, glancing around.

MJ glanced at Peter, then the two.

Peter was just laughing at the sweet revenge. “They uh… know each other.” He offered, not sure how much to reveal about their personal life.

Ashe rolled her eyes, and held up her hand where there was an engagement ring on it.

“I see.” MJ said, smirking. “Explains why Peter’s boss is crashing our tour group.”

Tyler shrugged. ”Ashe normally works so far away.” He whined uncharacteristically for the calm man, earning an eye roll from Ashe. “Plus I’m not Peter’s boss. Kinda. Technically?”

Peter and Tyler both looked at each other, confused.

“I… don’t know.” Peter confessed as both boys seemed to ponder the problem.

“A well run organization, I see. Very cutting edge.” MJ offered and Ashe snorted a laugh at that.

Peter nudged her side. “I mean I work for Tony directly. But I also spend time helping out the other interns where I’m needed, or wherever Tony gets the impulse to send me that day. So some days he is? But like, Tony is his boss so I don’t know.”

Tyler just shrugged. “I listen to Tony, and you listen to me while you’re here, but I think that’s just because you’re nice. So as long as nothing gets messed up we can all just agree Pepper is the boss of all of us.”

Peter nodded. “Probably the safest bet.”

Ashe and MJ both shared a look. “Are all tech nerds this much of a mess?” MJ deadpanned.

Ashe just nodded. “Our sample size seems to suggest so. At least they’re cute.” She offered, kissing Tyler on the cheek.

MJ snickered. “True.” And squeezed Peter’s hand.

“You’re taking a field trip to your job?” Tyler asked Peter, an amused expression on his face.

Peter let out a sigh that made him feel years older. “Yeah. Cause my life is a joke. Don’t make it worse?” He asked hopefully.

Tyler nodded. “Trust me, I get it. I still tell people I just work in the labs in SI. Attention sucks.”

Ashe sighed but wrapped an arm around him. “Even if you deserve it.”

Tyler sighed with a small smile and stepped away. “I guess I should do my job and not keep flirting with you. That’s why they banned you from my Lab. They kept saying I get nothing done.” He said without a single regret in his tone. He turned and disappeared farther in.

Ashe just let out a dreamy sigh after him before her attention snapped back to Peter and MJ who were both judging her and snickering. She ushered them in. “Go be nerds.”

Peter let out a laugh and dragged MJ by the hand over to Ned and Betty as they fumbled with the controls to the holo display. Ned was waving his hands around it and made a display of the latest Stark Phone expand and shrink.

“Okay, that’s pretty cool.” MJ confessed as she hesitantly reached a hand out. Both Ned and Betty stepped back to let her interact with it for a moment.

Peter was surprised as MJ seemed to be a bit of a natural at interacting with it. Her intuition let her pick up the general motion controls as she was able to move it around naturally, and soon started to separate it into pieces. There weren’t specifics to protect trade secrets, but you could see the general parts. She paused to tie her hair up, because it kept getting in her face when she would move for a larger movement.

Eventually MJ noticed Peter staring at her with a strange smile and she paused, having disassembled and enlarged the camera part she was playing with. “What?” She asked, a hint of self consciousness leaking into her tone.

Peter just gave her a shy smile. “You’re in a lab, playing with tech like this. It’s uh… really hot.” He confessed in a quiet tone.

MJ felt her own face flush. “Oh my God, Peter. You’re such a nerd.” She mumbled out, but also filed that fact safely away for potential future use.

“Aww.” Ned said dramatically as he looked between them.

“That’s cute, but we really don’t need to know about your feti-” Betty was cut off as MJ interrupted, loudly.

“Okay! So what else is there?” She said, turning away from the table, the same time Peter, bright red spoke too.

“It’s not like that!” Peter looked about 30 seconds from running out of the room.

Ned and Betty shared a look, but let the subject drop. For now.

They wandered over to a nearby machine that wasn’t occupied by the classmates. “What is this?” MJ asked, walking up behind Peter and resting her chin on his shoulder.

Peter leaned his head against hers for a moment. “Surprisingly one of the most tame things here. It’s just a 3D printer. Just a lot faster and has more materials it can work with.

“But what can it print here?” Ned asked, brow furrowed.

Peter’s smile grew wider. “Oh, anything. You’re gonna love this.” He said before leading them to a nearby table. Clicking to the right program, MJ raised an eyebrow. “Is that photoshop?”

Peter shrugged, already deep in work mode. “Kinda. It’s a 3D modelling software we developed. But it’s a bit more interactive.”

Peter reached out towards and area of the holographic display and a clump of a material digitally appeared in his hand. He began to squash and stretch it, occasionally adding more.

“See, you can copy and paste if you make this motion…” he mumbled out to them as they stepped back and watched him work with a fascination. A few other of his classmates even wandered over, starting to watch Peter work. Peter however, was too deep in thought as he worked on bringing the thought he had to life and MJ and Ned knew better than to try and snap him out of his zone.

“You can change the material here. The program is also smart, so if you’re trying to select a part of it it will generally help you get what you need.” He said as he enlarged the form and with two fingers held together started to select the top part of it, before cycling through a few different materials and dragging it onto it as the form changed into a clear plastic.

“Dude… is that?” Ned asked as Peter just grinned.

“You are such a nerd.” MJ repeated, overly fond as she watched Peter put on some minor details.

Shrinking it down a bit, Peter swiped his hand as the whole form began rotating a few times, showing off the final result.

“It’s just a quick mockup to show you what you can do here. I didn’t really dig into details but I could have taken off the glass and added the seats to it. I also could have made the form hollow if I wanted to include some kind of engine in this, but I really only have a few minutes. But I know the X-wing is your favorite Ned so I thought I’d just…”

Peter trailed off as he owlishly blinked at the group of students who were all staring at his floating model of the X-Wing from star wars that he had just sculpted out roughly. “Uh… hi guys.” He muttered out. “When did…”

“Dude, you’ve been in your own world for like 10 minutes.” Ned said, nudging him, but still staring at the X-Wing.

“Peter, how do you know how to do this so well?” Cindy asked, tilting her head as she watched the model rotate slowly still.

Peter shrugged, a blush creeping up on his face. “I told you, I intern here. We uh… use this to help make mock-ups. It’s good for playing with visuals.”

“It’s true.” Tyler’s cool voice cut in, making the class turn to see him standing there, hands in pockets as he smiled. “Peter is correct. It’s often useful to have a visual model handy when either pitching an idea, or to help generate ideas because keeping things purely theoretical can get in the way of finding obvious solutions sometimes.”

The class nodded with murmurs of agreement.

“Peter, the machine is fully stocked so feel free to print it off. Does anyone else want to try as well?” A bunch of hands shot up and Tyler nodded, glancing around. One of the displays of the Stark Tablet was pretty much empty so he walked over, typing in a password and switched the program to be another display of the modelling program to allow more people to mess around with it at once.

“I’ll set it up over here as well. You will need to take turns with the printer, but feel free to print off a model if you want. Please be reasonable about the size though, due to time and costs.”

Peter quickly sent the print request to the machine as he stepped back, saving his project with a quick override for later use just in case, then brought up some blank models for people to try out. His cheeks were still flushed as he went over and collected the model, handing it to Ned as he watched Betty starting to sculpt a sort of old fashioned camera.

“Dude! That’s incredible!” Ned marveled as he held up the mini ship, flying it through the air.

“That was pretty cool, Peter.” Cindy confirmed as Peter could only nod, flustering under the praise.

Tyler bounced between the people at the nearby tables, answering questions and helping them get comfortable with the program and soon most people had printed off little figurines. He saw MJ waiting on something, but she had told him to leave when he tried to see what she was working on, saying it was a surprise so he had settled for showing Ned and Betty some of the other nearby machines, various displays and robotics. It took all of his will power not to peak at whatever MJ had been working on.

Eventually though he saw Flash had taken her place and she was standing near the printer, waiting for the result. He wandered over while Ned and Betty were taking photos with a camera that hovered in place

“What did you make?” Peter asked, his tone a little more whinier than he had planned. He couldn’t help it though, the curiosity was killing him.

She just rolled her eyes and patted his head patronizingly. “Soon.”

Peter harrumphed and crossed his arms.

“Hey, Penis!” Flash called out, and letting out a sigh, Peter turned slowly.

“Really, Flash?” He asked, glancing over at Ashe who was frowning at Flash and whispering something to Tyler. Welp, that probably wasn’t good.

“Just wanted to show you what an actual good design looks like, unlike your stupid spaceship.” He said smugly as he enlarged his design and spun it around. It was… a suit of Iron Man armor. Kinda. Almost.

The proportions were way off, and it was almost aggressively lumpy despite the many smoothing tools available. Still, Peter figured it wasn’t the worst he’s seen.

“Real cool, Flash.” He offered, his tone dripping with sarcasm.

Flash just sent him a smile as if he had been genuine. “You should pass it to Mr. Stark.” His voice said almost impressively condescending. “I made some cool changes I think he’d like.”

Peter glanced over it and grimaced slightly. He thought it would be cool to have a sort of back panel that looked kinda cool, but also dramatically limited the motion of the arms, which was not something Tony could do without. It also had enough solid panels wrapping around the body to prevent any easy access in and out of the suit.

“Sure, I’ll do that.” Peter muttered as Flash highfived with his friends, as if he had put Peter in his place.

His eyes flickered over to Ashe, who was not looking happy and even Tyler had a frown on his face now.

“I gotta print this.” Flash said as he went to print it, only to see the queue. Frowning, he moved his to the top, cancelling the print in progress, which also deleted it.

“Flash! What the fuck!” Cindy said, whirling around, fists clenched.

“Oh shit.” Flash muttered, not realizing he had canceled it.

“What happened?” Tyler asked as he approached, Harrington showing up as well.

“He canceled my print and now it’s gone!” Cindy said, a layer of hurt under her anger.

Tyler’s brow furrowed. “Is this true?”

Flash looked a bit pale. “I was just trying to make sure mine got printed before we ran out of stuff.”

Cindy was trying to navigate the holotable. “I can’t find it… My spider.” She said, her voice dropping into a hint of heartbreak.

“Flash, that is not okay.” Mr. Harrington started to scold Flash who only looked mildly bothered by it.

MJ and Betty moved over to Cindy, consoling her as she pouted and glared at Flash.

Peter locked eyes with Tyler as they approached the table. “I think it got deleted as more people started working on their projects.” Tyler said as he searched all open files.

Peter frowned, crossing his arms. He glanced over at Cindy as she looked at him with hopeful eyes, as if he could save her. MJ gave him a look expectantly. Like she had absolute faith in him to solve this problem. He felt a warmth in his chest and turned back.

“Tyler, do these still have the same programs we use? Just in a display mode or something?”

Tyler nodded. “Yeah, these weren’t made specifically for this, we just locked out access to some of the features since the public would be using it. Why?” He asked, trying to figure out what Peter had realized.

Peter nodded. “Which means, they would have the same protocols, right?”

Tyler’s eyes widened, catching up. “It would.” He paused. “But this isn’t technically my department. I’m kinda crashing here to help out. I don’t know if I have access.”

Peter frowned, that was a good point. Depending on who set the restrictions, they could either out rank Tyler, or be at the same level. Still, there was someone above them all.

“Hey, Fri?” Peter asked.

“Yes, Peter. How can I help?” The voice came from the table in front of them, making some of the nearby students jump.

“This table still has all the normal protocols active, even if locked off, right?”

“That is correct.”

“Can you run one for us, please?”

“I’d need to override the access.”

“Ask Mr. Stark for permission, please.”

There was a moment of silence.

“Do you seriously think you can just ask favors from Iron man, Peter? Just because you intern here?” Flash asked, as if he was embarrassed for Peter and looked apologetically to Tyler and Ashe. The audacity of him.

“Please check your phone, Peter.” Fri chimed in after a moment.

Peter looked to Tyler, and Tyler just shrugged. They both knew he actually had permission too, but he was trying to make it less of a show about wielding his privilege around here.

Pulling out his phone, he saw a text from Tony.

Fri requested an override. Pretty sure you can do that on your own. Everything OK?

Peter responded quickly.

Yeah. Just need to run a protocol to help a classmate. Trying not to be obvious about what I can do.

Lame, if you got it, flaunt it.

So is that a yes?

Yeah, just try not to give away company secrets or something.

Peter snorted out a laugh, earning an amused look from MJ. He passed her his phone while he turned back to the table.

“What Protocol would you like to run, Peter?” Fri asked.

“Run ‘Shit, I should probably sleep’ please.”

Everyone except for Tyler looked at him confused.

“Pulling up temporary back-ups now.” A few people understood and laughed.

Tyler just grinned. “This isn’t the first time we’ve had to try and recover unsaved work. Thankfully we keep a temporary back-up of everything now.”

“That’s because your department is held together by caffeine, stubbornness, and concerned loved ones who are the only reason you guys ever eat and sleep.” Ashe chimed in happily.

Tyler rolled his eyes but didn’t offer any protest. Peter really couldn’t say anything either. Tony might be the worst of them all, but that didn’t mean the rest were particularly great at holding back when they felt inspired. Overtime wasn’t encouraged and actually discouraged because of that.

“Can you find a spider model from the past hour?”

“Right away.” Fri offered as the screen displayed various files being scanned through quickly.

Eventually a model popped up. “Is this it, Cindy?” Peter asked.

“Yes!” Cindy said, throwing her arms around Peter in a quick hug. Peter just grinned and returned the hug quickly, glancing at MJ who was giving him a proud smile.

Flash was holding the model he printed out as if it was worth it’s weight in gold. Peter quickly moved Cindy’s order to the top of the list and it began printing.

“Thank you Fri.” Peter offered as the program went back to its default state.

“My pleasure, Peter. Glad to be of help.”

There were some murmurs and people looking at Peter. He started to squirm a bit, not a huge fan of the attention he just drew to himself, but the look on Cindy’s face was worth it. He knew how devastating it was to lose something you worked on and were excited about, even if it was a smaller project.

MJ, sensing his distress, grabbed his hand and led him towards the second room of the area. “Come on, let’s explore more.” She offered and Peter just let her drag him along.

The next area was a bit similar to the last one. More tables with displays, but no printing machines around. Instead there were rough displays of a bunch of Avenger’s tech everywhere. No specifics were available, but there were a bunch of costumes you could look at different parts of, pull apart, mix and match.

Ned promptly freaked the fuck out and ran over to one of the tables with the shortest line. Betty, MJ, and him followed shortly behind. Peter watched him swipe through a bunch of different armors quickly, gasping with each one.

Peter turned to MJ, seeing her watching Cindy hold up the spider proudly.

“You’re a nice guy.” MJ said, finally looking back at Peter.

Peter shrugged. “I know how much it sucks to lose a project.”

MJ rolled her eyes. “That’s not what I mean. You wanted to avoid drawing any attention to yourself during this trip, but the second a classmate lost a project they worked on for a couple of minutes, you contacted Tony to ask for his help.”

Peter was lost in her smile for a moment. “I mean… I could have used my override, but I was trying to act like just an intern.”

MJ nodded. “And if Tony ignored the request you would override it yourself. I know you would have.”

She was right. Peter just shrugged. “What did you make anyway?”

MJ pursed her lips, as if debating telling him. “I was gonna keep it a surprise till later but you deserve a treat for that.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small figure. It was a cartoonish looking spiderman, complete with him posing in his thwip motion. It was tiny, about the size of a keychain, but surprisingly well made and accurate to this usual suit.

MJ felt her heart fluttered as she saw his expression. His brown eyes had gone wide as she held up the dumb little figure she made. His eyes kept flicking between hers and the figure as he practically glowed with happiness. It was really unfair that such a little gesture could make her boyfriend look so adorable.

MJ knew Spider-man meant the world to him, and that he was always afraid she’d hate it because of the drama it brought into their lives. But MJ was so proud of him, and while she wasn’t one to overly brag, heaven forbid he get Tony’s arrogance, she did think the world of him for doing it.

So if she could make his day by making a little trinket, she’d make them for the rest of her life.

Peter just leaned forward and kissed her quickly, knowing they had probably already shown more PDA than they usually would but he couldn’t help it. “You’re incredible.”

MJ scoffed. “It’s not that well done. It was quick.”

Shaking his head, Peter still met her eyes. “That’s not what I meant. I meant you. All of you. That too, but you.”

MJ blushed and turned her head, unable to handle the compliments. She just pocketed the figurine for safety before taking his hand and turned them back to where Betty was examining Black Widow’s outfit.

“These Widow Bites are pretty sweet.”

Peter nodded. “They’re terrifying.”

MJ laughed. “Spider-man should get some then. Maybe she’d lend him one then, they have to spider pals or something.” She offered a teasing glance at Peter.

Peter knew MJ knew he was friends with Natasha. She also knew Nat would never let him try them out, because that was a horrible idea that would end up with probably at least two different people hurt.

Betty stepped back and Peter thought for a moment. “What, like spider fangs?” Then he paused. “Actually…” He suddenly pulled up both the suits for Spider-man and Black Widow. The suits were old and out of date, but he just wanted to test an idea so it didn’t matter.

He quickly grabbed a widow bite and enlarged it, tossing away most of the arm mount, and flicking away different launchers from it till only a few remained.

“Now pull up the web shooters.” Peter asked the holotable as they flicked up. He tossed away some of the other features on the suit. “Actually, bring up a repulsor too.” He muttered as he started stripping away parts from it to just have the glove.

MJ watched in admiration as she saw Peter in his natural habitat. Even more so than when he was sculpting, this was him at his best. She saw how tall he stood, his eyes focused but his face in a bright smile. She could practically hear the hum of the gears in his head as he gracefully navigated the menu, pulling apart holograms and attaching them with ease to form something new. He looked confident and in his element and she felt her face flush.

“I kinda get why he found it hot now.” MJ muttered to Betty quietly.

Betty laughed and just patted her shoulder. “You two were made for each other.”

MJ rolled her eyes, but Peter was waving her over. He had the hologram in his hands, but made her stick her arm out. He moved it so now the hologram was floating around her arm. It was a simple gauntlet, with the web shooters underneath but two widowbites on top as he rambled about the possibility of webbing someone up then being to launch a taser at them without electrifying the whole web necessarily.

“It’d look cooler if it was black with red highlights…” She offered and soon they were going back and forth as she posted with the holo weapon while Peter tweaked it to her suggestions.

“Hey Fri, take some pictures please.” Ashe said as she leaned against the wall near Ned and Betty.

MJ and Peter were too busy laughing with each other and playing around to notice.

“Are they always this adorable?” Ashe asked.

Ned nodded. “Yeah it’s kinda gross.” He said fondly.

Betty sighed. “It’s better since they actually asked each other out. They danced around each other for ages, it was torture to watch. We were about to lock them in the broom closet until they got together. We had made plans for it too.”

Ashe laughed and watched them fondly. She had met Peter a few times through Pepper, and seen him in the lab with Tony whenever she had been sent over there with some work for him. Peter seemed like a good kid and reminded her of her fiance when he was younger. She was glad Peter had found someone that brought out a smile like that from him. He was always smiling, but that one was different. Warmer, somehow.

Eventually the two teens seemed to realize they were getting carried away and they stepped back from the holotable to let others have a chance.

“What?” Peter asked, tilting his head.

Ashe just pulled out her phone and showed them a picture Friday had sent her.

MJ had her hand outstretched with a faint blue glow around it as the weapon hovered over her arm, Peter attaching another widow bite to it. They were looking at each other, Peter grinning while MJ had a deep warm smile.

Both of the teens blushed and didn’t say anything, but held each other’s hands.

“Fri, send that to Peter. That deserves to be printed out.”

Peter blushed more, but nodded. It was an amazing photo.

“Right away, Ashe.” Fri said. “I have cleared it of any sensitive information as well, so might I recommend adding it to your social media.”

“Thanks Fri.” Peter mumbled, blushing even more.

MJ just laughed and squeezed his hand tighter. “I needed a new screensaver anyway.”

Eventually the group made their way to the third room and everyone’s jaw dropped except for Peter. “I was waiting for this.”

#spideychelle #Michelle jones #MJ #mj x peter #Peter Parker #Spider-man #MCU #Field trip to SI #I love these two #So much #and the cameo of Tylashe #I love this fic

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lotornomiko · 3 years

Text

The Brokenhearted Comfort 16 (Worksafe)

Finally wrote something! Previous chapters can be found here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4051705/chapters/9116500

Returning to the celebration, had been among one of the hardest things that Belle has ever had to force herself to do. The reality of facing those knowing eyes, the looks a mix of sympathetic and leering, the crew seeming divided down the line on just who they pitied more. The young woman they had gone through so much trouble to rescue, or that of their captain, the man that had gone so mad for her. There was even a few who might seem angry, or at the very least annoyed, some of the pirates bothered by Belle’s lack of gratitude where their leader was concerned. She blanched paler yet to see it, Kate’s hand on the small of her back, the only comforting presence that the woman had, the strong spirited lass guiding the princess past so many of the openly staring people, towards a smaller cluster of women. These ladies at least seemed more tolerant of the beauty’s situation, if not outright sympathetic.

Kate made the introductions, though try as Belle might, her mind was distracted, casting an uneasy look around the room. She could find no sign of the captain, of Hook, and was able to breathe a bit better with him being gone. It wouldn’t be a lasting reprieve, the ship that they were on, big but only to an extent. The pirate would eventually make his way back, and the beauty had to suppress a shudder at the thoughts of what would follow then.

It was noticed all the same, that haunted look leaking into her expression. Kate shared a frown with the others, and abruptly a mug of some kind was being pushed into Belle’s hands. It was slightly cool to the touch, that amber liquid almost hypnotic as the woman stared down into the stine. She could almost see herself reflected across the surface, and from the strong smell of it, the princess knew it was an intoxicant of some kind, and was the last thing that she truly needed.

“I shouldn’t...” She looked up from the mug, but whoever had handed it to her, had stepped out of reach.

“Some spirit will do you a world of wonders...” Kate advised in a kindly tone. “And not just that of the liquid kind!”

She might have blushed then, Belle starting to lower her gaze once more. “Spirited or not, I doubt that will help me much...”

“It certainly can’t hurt the situation anymore.” Kate retorted. “And you’re less likely to hate YOURSELF if you do something more than just roll over like some broken doormat...!”

“That’s not what I have been doing!” Belle protested with a gasp, but a sharper spike of something, guilt most likely, had then stabbed through her. For hadn’t that been exactly what she had been reduced to? Just rolling over for HIS lustful demands, pawed at and manhandled in front of every last man and women present in this room? Treated with little to no real courtesy as befit a lady, a princess, of her standing? She couldn’t stand what she was becoming, how broken, how beaten she already seemed to think of herself as.

“I really am without spirit, aren’t I...” She muttered it too soft for the others to hear over the roar of the celebrating pirates. There was no missing the frown on her face, or the frustration blooming in those expressive blue eyes, Belle so trampled and defeated by more than just the pirate. Yes, Hook had helped play a small part in it, but Rumplestiltskin and the Evil Queen had done a substantial amount of damage to the princess as well. She didn’t know how to recover from it, from any of them, and that left her smoldering with a kernel of anger from deep inside. A kind of resentment that could become fiercer yet, if only the woman knew how to nurture it.

That little ember inside her could flicker out completely, or be brought to ignite into a blaze, the woman nearly at a defining point. She was so tired, so tired of the pain, the heart ache and the fear, the despair that consumed her near every waking moment. Belle was in fact sick of being without hope, and though THAT wasn’t in any way within her reach, the young lady didn’t want to break any further. Didn’t want to lose anymore of her self or her spirit, some sliver of resolve seeping into the blue of her eyes.

“Oh aye, that’s more like it.” Kate was approving. “That bold blue suits you far better than the cold misery you have thus far been wrapping yourself in.”

She didn’t feel any less miserable, nor did the beauty feel any true empowerment. What Belle felt was that of being fed up, sick of everyone deciding that of her fate but her. It had started not with her captors, but with that of her own father, the man plotting out a suitable if loveless marriage for her. Gaston had been no better, the man pompous and overbearing, content to rule her and any decisions. No wonder she had all but jumped to go off with Rumplestiltskin, thinking a life as his slave would be better than anything back in the kingdom. It hadn’t been, the love she had grown into, deemed nothing more than nuisance at best, and thoroughly unwanted by the Dark One, Belle had been driven out onto the streets. Left broken hearted and loathe to return to her own kingdom, to be a martyr there, she had instead had her life further destroyed by the pirate and then the Evil Queen. There was a real resentment within her there, Belle not having had the chance to properly backlash her own feelings onto any of her tormentors.

Worst was the fact that all three had power over her. Be it of the magical kind, or that of brute physical strength, there was an imbalance to the dynamic between them. There would always be, she realized and recognized this as fact, and the ember inside her started to flicker as though to die. She was left suffocating with it, and then the resentment was burning stronger, Belle angry and hating, and absolutely furious over her situation. Over all of it, every last indignity and hurt that had been done her, and she was drinking down, swallowing down that amber liquid as though it would bolster her nerve sfurther.

She immediately began choking on the strong taste, that amber liquid so thick and burning as it went down her throat.

“Easy does it,” advised Kate. “It goes down rough, but you’ll get used to the taste soon enough!”

Belle just shook her head no, trying to pass the mug off to someone else. It wasn’t for her, this drink, or this life, the princess wanting something better than the hand that fate had tried to deal her. It all still seemed so hopeless, a better life something the beauty was now incapable of truly imagining. There was simply too many targets painted on her back, with little if any chance of evading THAT which was coming for her.

As if brought back by such thoughts, she felt it when he made his presence known. Felt the heavy oppression of his stare boring into her from behind. It made her skin crawl as all the color leeched from it, the weight of his looking almost a tangible thing, Belle feeling as though Hook was stripping her bare with his eyes alone. She braced herself, and pivoted in place, catching sight of the naked hunger of his expression focused unwavering on her. Like a frightened doe, she was caught and staring back, even as she inched closer towards the pirate lass, Kate, seeking a protection that couldn’t truly be given.

“It makes me wish she had knocked him unconscious for a time.” Kate muttered, the she that the woman referred to, being that of the cook.

“Suppose it too small a miracle to hope some sense was instead!” Another pirate wench murmured, her tone almost disapproving. Belle glanced at her, the woman a redheaded lass with a blue gaze that was narrowed towards the captain.

“Honestly Belle, just what did you do to make him lose his head so?” A third inquired, hands on her hips. It wasn’t a truly mean spirited question, and yet Belle shrank from it all the same, the circle of females suddenly all looking at her once more.

“Nothing!” She squeaked out. “I did nothing of the sort!”

“Of the sort?” It was quickly seized upon as a topic of interest, and the princess just wanted to sink down into the floor and disappear.

“Whatever it was...you could make a killing bottling it, that’s for damn sure!” The redhead exclaimed with a laugh. ‘There’s more than a few broken hearts out there, that would have loved to have landed our captain!”

“Tis’ almost a shame...” Another mused. “That such be wasted on the unappreciative.”

“Malabeth!” Kate and several others snapped out the pirate wench’s name. She muttered an apology that was insincere at best, her eyes hardly as friendly as the others were, when looking at Belle.

“You’re more than welcome to him!” Belle exclaimed, her face and tone hot for her anger and embarrassment. Malabath looked to be fuming in response, and even more so when the other ladies began teasing her.

“Malabeth knows when she’s been outclassed.” One said.

“She’s tried and failed for more years than you can imagine!” Another laughed as this Malabaeth’s face soured.

“Pardon me if I fail to see how a...”

“That’s enough...ALL of you!” Kate snapped, cutting off whatever Malabeth had been about to finish saying. “This be a delicate situation, and not one that needs cut ANYONE anymore than they have already been.”

Malabeth still had that look in her eyes, a narrowed eyed focus of such anger and dislike. Belle didn’t want any more, and yet she felt like this woman was on the verge of becoming yet another one of her enemies, jealousy the trigger for such spite and malice. Belle almost let out a nervous laugh then, thinking how insane it was to earn such hate for having the attention of a man she did not even want. She wasn’t even sure how to make an attempt at smoothing things over, nor did he beauty truly feel like she had it in her to TRY.

Her plate full enough without some scorned lover to add to it, Belle could only hope that this wouldn’t become a problem that manifested anytime soon.

To Be Continued...

Short I know...I am just happy to have written something, anything for this story...been stuck on this chapter for a LONG time...Could never get it started to my satisfaction, and still didn’t get it advanced as far as I would like....

Been missing writing for this pairing. Randomly chose to start reading stuff while I was sick for ALL of July...only it was hard to get into this one, cause I was cringing SO hard on the first few chapters. I actually started trying to rewrite chapter one....but glad I didn’t finish the rewrite. While I hate how bad my writing was for the first batch of chapters, I do love how the story develops around nine and up....like I think my writing started to improve, and those are the chapters that made me eager to try and work some more on this story...though I feel so rusty....and maybe this was the wrong story to try when I feel so...meh...unused to writing for them.

Also think I was stuck...cause after looking at my notes for the fic, its like soon I have to make a decision on whether this becomes full non con or not...X_X Tough choice to make too...

---Michelle

#once upon a time #ouat #CaptainBeauty #killian x belle #belle #killian jones #captain hook #fanfic #fanfiction #The Broken Hearted Comfort #Captain Beauty

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kdtheghostwriter · 4 years

Text

SNK #128 - Seeing Shadows

That’s bad, right?

There were some semantic debates regarding what exactly Hange meant when they said, “Humanity is out of time!” I think it’s clear now that humanity has no more time for them to be indecisive. Eren is on the march, and even if he settles for destroying everything on the Marley continent, that’s a massive loss of civilization and one you simply can’t live with if you think of yourself as a hero. The look on their faces tells the story. It’s no longer about saving the world; it’s about saving what’s left.

How much is left depends on how quickly they move, but it’s not as easy as mounting up the troops. Eren and his Colossal Army are across the ocean now. They’ve had at least one full day to march and probably more since the previous chapter’s events around the campfire. Think about how long it takes for a plane to cross an ocean. Not a full day. Their best bet is commandeering Miss Kiyomi’s special aircraft powered by the mysterious Iceburst Stone. Before they do that, we have to pause for another episode of the worst show in the world: This Floching Guy.

As much I have advocated for Eren to be accepted as the new villain – praising Isayama for turning the Face/Heel dichotomy upside down as it pertains to Reiner – those two, even in their most vile moments, still have their fans. There is no guesswork with Floch Forster. He’s predatory, conniving, authoritarian and mean-spirited. Above all of that, he’s a cocky little shit in a way that even Kenny Ackerman would have scoffed at. He’s the antagonist to the characters we’ve followed for ten years now, but in his own mind they brazenly oppose him, which is where the title of this chapter ‘Traitor’ becomes important.

For the last four years, Eldia has been ruled by deft slight of hand. In spirit, Historia Reiss, the rightful heir to the throne, has reclaimed her birthright. In reality, she retired to run an orphanage while the three branches of military have taken control of the government and all proceedings. Eren’s mission to Liberio as well as the counterattack from Marley’s Warrior Unit caused a vacuum to appear that was quickly occupied by the Jaegerist Faction. They now control the government and in extension all facets of Paradisian society. So what do you call a group of AWOL soldiers that are conspiring to sabotage your one method of security?

Traitors. Villains. Monsters.

They’re killing your friends and attacking your home. They’ve infiltrated your ranks and betrayed your trust. Thousands of innocent people dead just for the sake of completing their mission.

This week I learned that many people viewed Bertolt’s death as karmic in some way. I never saw it like that at all. His death at Armin’s hands was a necessary evil. Necessary certainly, but it was evil. It doesn’t make the 104th evil for carrying out the deed. It just happened to be the most brutal death in the series even if it wasn’t the most graphic. Bert is left defenseless as his powers are forcibly taken from him. He calls for his former comrades only to realize none of them will help. Then he calls for Reiner, his best friend who barely escaped with his own life. He dies a lonely, agonizing death.

“Who the hell wants to kill innocent people?!”

Who knows how long this question has been haunting Armin’s waking thoughts? There is evidence to suggest that the once bold Survey Corps veteran who was willing to sacrifice his life to help Eren take down the Colossal has been hampered by his successor’s timid nature. Ever since he acquired his powers, he’s always attempted to seek non-violent resolution. I don’t see this as simple naivety.

If you were given a power as destructive as his, where you are capable of destroying a town by simply calling upon it, why would you ever use it? Why would you ever want to? I grow uncomfortable with the amount of voices in the fandom concern trolling the 104th and their refusal to spill the blood of their neighbors. They’ve fought alongside or trained with most of these people. Why should they be expected to kill them like nameless drones? Even if it is necessary, why are they not allowed to mourn the choice?

Characters like these that we’ve known from almost the beginning. They know nothing of the outside world other than it’s filled with people that want them dead. Eren Jaeger is their best chance at keeping their society alive and these people they lived and fought and suffered with want to impede that and doom them. Samuel and Daz are soldiers, too. Forget for a moment that they’re opposing the main characters. Why would they let this happen?

I digress, though. This point is more about Bert and his exit from the story. It came at the end of a fierce battle that saw the SC expend all of their resources and most of their man power. The fact that they came away with even one shifter’s power is a small miracle. The characters can be excused then for watching, unfeeling, as their former teammate is eaten alive. Now the shoe is on the other foot. Armin has been mortally wounded and the one vehicle that can get them to Marley in time is about to be destroyed. Before Daz can do this, he is stopped by Armin who is delirious but regenerating. Before he can deal the fatal blow, Connie wrestles the gun away from Samuel and shoots them both.

The mission continues.

One could say that it’s overkill perhaps. How many times must the 104th learn the hard lesson? Even Annie made reference to the fact that the Warriors plan was being criticized with no alternative. If they spot them, the mission fails. If the ship is blown, the mission fails. If they Azumabito clan is destroyed, the mission fails. All of these facts are true and the current best way to keep any of that from happening is to fight and kill the Jaegerists. It’s remarkably easy to say, but then they are the ones who have to live with choices made.

No one should ever have to “get used to” the idea of killing…well anyone but especially not people you partnered with. Bert’s inclusion in this moment was no accident. It isn’t just because Armin inherited his mental likeness. This is the closest they have come to understanding the impossible position he was forced into four long years ago. Only this time, it’s Samuel who is scared and confused.

You can disagree with Samuel’s point of view but what Connie does next is by definition an act of treason. He shoots two members of his own combat unit and defies a direct order from a commanding officer. We know that the commanding officer is a sociopath and we know that following orders means being an accessory to genocide. But that genocide is the only thing keeping that island alive. That island has been the only home Samuel and Daz have ever known. They deserve as much as anyone, an explanation instead of a bullet to the face. But this is what happens isn’t it?

I love Metal Gear Solid for a number of reasons, but chief above them is the series protagonist, Solid Snake. In the flagship game, he is introduced to us as a super soldier engineered for battle that is pulled out of retirement to thwart his twin brother’s plans of nuclear destruction. This game is one of the few of its kind that can be completed without killing a single enemy. You are rewarded for your stealth. Because, you see, Snake the character is a pacifist at heart. He doesn’t want to do this, but he’s the only one who can. It’s a solo mission, so running and gunning almost always fails and if you kill too many people, the action hero main character becomes sick.

You see, because, these choices aren’t made lightly. They ripple and they matter. The 104th kids aren’t acting high and mighty, lording their moral values over the heads of those that betrayed them. They genuinely hate doing this. From your mouth you say, “We have to save the world,” but when you arrive you are told, “We have to kill these people.” For once they would like to preserve peace without additional death and I don’t think they should be scolded for that wish.

Stray Thoughts

- Wasn’t all that impressed by Magath’s little speech, especially considering what came before it. It’s a change of heart, yes, but not from a genuine place. When faced with the reality of his homeland being flattened, and the futility of his current position, he immediately goes back to torture. Yelena is callous in her own right but she did nothing to warrant the violence. He’s lashing out and I don’t shed tears for him.

- Onyankapon on the other hand. What a guy. He resets the joint in Yelena’s arm and crafts a splint to keep it in place. He has no powers, but you would want this guy on your team during the end of the world.

- Reiner finally puts the pieces together here. “I’m just like you,” Eren says and like Eren, Reiner moves to protect his former teammates from making this impossible choice. It’s a noble gesture and one I respect. There’s no going back for him. He has far too much blood on his hands. That he recognizes that is a strong moment for the character.

- Armin and Connie’s plan wasn’t a bad one. If nothing else, it bought time enough for Annie and Reiner to get into position. If they had attacked outright, the plane likely would have been destroyed. Some people are frustrated with them but honestly, go read Berserk if that’s the case.

- East Sea Gang rise up! Mikasa in combat is still an absolute treat. And Floch gives us an example of this faction’s greatest flaw. You know; besides the nationalist framework they are founded upon. Floch is the most experienced soldier they have and when Floch Forster is your best fighter, your team sucks. Mikasa Ackerman was worth 100 soldiers as rookie. As an adult soldier, she is easily worth two Jaegerist groups put together. Kiyomi is clearly capable, but she also took advantage of Floch’s arrogance in the moment.

- Credit to Reiner and Annie for hitting their cue. I wondered what it would be like having them in this group but it seems like for the purposes it should work.

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3starsquinn · 4 years

Text

Check Up, Check Out || Solo (Ft. James Quinn)

Timing: Early Sunday Morning 8/30/20 (Following the fire and his conversation with Ariana)

CW: Heavy abuse mention

Summary: Rio hates the hospital, mostly because he’s afraid he’ll run into someone he recognizes. Unfortunately, he does.

Rio was exhausted. His body was in pain, but he couldn’t seem to get his stupid emotions under control. Everything was too painful. Erin’s had given her all for that funeral home and it had gone quite literally up in flames. Rio hadn’t been able to get a good look at the place as they were ushering him out of the house and towards the ambulance, but he hoped and prayed the place was salvageable. Blanche’s injuries had seemed pretty serious, more than Erin and Rio’s had been. Rio had been asking for updates every time a nurse came in and they assured him that she had been doing alright, but that didn’t do much to calm the anxiety. She had only been there because she brought food to Rio. She shouldn’t have been caught up in this at all. Whatever this had even been, which Rio still wasn’t sure of. And then there was Roland. A man that Rio didn’t even know and yet he had died. His entire life was over because of that fire. He lost it saving the three of them. How was Rio supposed to process that? How could he ever pay that back? He wanted to scream. To go back to that home and tear the floor away board by board until he found Roland. Hoped that by some miracle he had simply gotten stuck down there. Even if Rio knew the truth, the hope was really all he had left to cling to. But instead he was here, restrained by the firefighters and paramedics and left sobbing to himself in a hospital bed.

The burns on his arm rubbed against the blanket he had been using to hide the scars. It had been mostly useless. The nurses had to see them to get to the tubes and needles poking in his arm. But when Ariana or anyone else had visited, he didn’t need them to give anything else to worry about. If Rio hadn’t been so tired, he would already be gone. He had somehow managed the first day without seeing him, but just knowing that somewhere in this hospital, his father was roaming the halls made Rio sick to his stomach. He had seen his parents around town on multiple occasions but had always ducked away from them or rearranged his route to avoid them. He hadn’t spoken to either of them since the night he had left the house. He had no reason to. If Rio could just get one good night of sleep here, then he could try to slip out in the morning, before the hospital was too crowded. Not only did he not want to risk the news of his arrival reaching his dad, but the longer he stayed the higher chance he would have to listen to the nurses marvel at how quickly his wounds were healing. Rio couldn’t deal with either of those headaches.

Getting to sleep was hard with all the noise from the hospital. His senses had been in overdrive ever since he had gotten to the hospital. He couldn’t tell if that was anxiety or if they were working overdrive after completely giving out on him at the funeral home. Rio remembered after the ceiling had caved, how his senses had simply given up. He had no more sense of the heat or sound. His body carried him forward without any regard for what was there. He had barely felt the firefighters grab onto him until they had started shoving him along and breaking Rio from the trance. Every time Rio started drifting off to sleep, a loud noise from the hospital would jerk him back awake or he would feel a sudden flare of pain in his arm or neck. But eventually his exhaustion beat out his senses and Rio drifted off to sleep.

He woke up when he heard the door to his room click and swing open. It was still dark out, and at first Rio thought it may be a nurse here to check on him. Rio didn’t move, he simply peaked an eye open and slightly shifted his body to see who was there. When he realized who it was, Rio’s body went into defense, jerking upright and shoving himself as far back as he could against the hospital bed. He ignored the stinging pain in his body caused by the sudden move. “No!’ Rio whisper-yelled at the man standing by the door still. His dad, dressed in his scrubs and lab coat. He held a clipboard, but the papers faced away from Rio so he couldn’t see if they were his or not. “Stay away from me! Just stay away!” Rio’s voice caught and he cursed himself. He didn’t want to sound scared of this man. He wanted him to go away.

“Calm down, Orion.” His father kept his voice quiet and level and walked towards the bed. Rio shrunk against it, knowing that he had nowhere else to go at the moment. His father paced the room, glancing between the clipboard and Rio before settling on staring out the window. “I simply came to check on you. Are you alright?”

For whatever reason, of all the things that his father could have said at that moment, this seemed to be the one that made Rio the angriest. “Am I alright?” Rio asked, incredulous. He was almost too mad to even sound terrified, but the trembling was still sticking around. “You honestly expect me to think you’re worried about my safety?” Rio scoffed.

“Believe it or not, it is the truth.” Dr. Quinn couldn’t seem to decide what he was doing here. Rio watched him continue to glance over, fiddling with his hands as he looked out the window. They were habits Rio had, but had never seen from his dad. “I do not want to see you hurt, Orion. I want you to grow and prosper. So that something like this will never happen again.”

“Jesus Christ.” Rio sighed and he saw his father wince at the language. His dad actually wanted to turn this into a teachable moment. Was he implying that if Rio had become some ruthless killing machine like they had tried that this never would have happened? Rio’s thoughts immediately went to Athena, who would have almost certainly found herself a way out of that place and saved everyone and the thought made Rio sick. He didn’t want them to be right. Because Rio knew that power came with exclusivity. If any of the people in that fire hadn’t been human, would Athena have left them behind without a second thought? Rio wouldn’t be that person. “Can you just leave me alone? I don’t want you here.” His voice came as more of a whiny pleading than a command.

“Orion,” his dad finally walked towards the bed, and Rio cowered into himself. He pulled his body into a fetal position and leaned in the opposite direction. None of this deterred his father, who ignored the signs and put his hands on Rio’s knee anyways, sitting at the end of the bed. “I understand that we were not always perfect. Maybe we didn’t do the best showing you two the dangers. But you have to understand that we had the best intentions. We wanted the both of you to be safe from the monsters that live in this town.”

“Those monsters are my friends.” Rio spoke, though the sound was muffled from his head being stuffed between his legs. The word still carried vitriol. The one thing that could make him stand up against his father was the thought that he was insulting the only real family that Rio had.

“They’re dangerous.” His father insisted, but then held his hands up in surrender. “But I did not come here to argue with you on this at the moment. I-” he paused for a moment and then corrected himself, “We want you to come back. We know what you think. But I want to assure you that things will be different now. We can be a family again. We know that you’re different. We want to help you understand. I will make sure that your side is considered as well.”

The words echoed in Rio’s head for a long moment. Where was this coming from? Some sense of guilt from the past? Why was his dad so intent on singling out himself? “What are you talking about?” Rio finally questioned, still unable to completely process what his father was saying. But the more Rio thought about it, the angrier that he got. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Rio finally picked his head up and stared his dad in the eyes. “You don’t get to tell me that my friends are dangerous and then dismiss it like the argument isn’t worth it.” Rio scoffed, and the action stung against his throat in protest. He began coughing from the pain and swatted his dad’s arm away when his dad tried reaching for him. “You can’t come in here trying to play the good dad card now. You think the hospital is going to give you father of the year award or something for playing the concerned parent?”

“That’s not what this is, now-” His father began, but Rio cut him off.

“Save it. You think an apology and some empty promise to ‘do better’” Rio made air quotes with his fingers and mocked his father’s voice, “fixes everything you put me through? Screw you.” Rio couldn’t do this anymore. He began tearing at the cords stuck in his arm. As he pulled them free, machines started beeping, but Rio ignored them and shoved past his dad to stand up. His legs began wobbling immediately, but the anger and adrenaline was keeping him upright. “You’ve both belittled me my entire life. I don’t care who did it or who was at fault. You’re both complicit.” Rio snatched his hoodie from the chair and pulled it over his head, trying to ignore all the pain that came with it. He grabbed for his pants and began tugging them on, pulling them over the hospital gown. He would mail it back.

“Orion-” his father started talking again, rising from the bed and circling it, grabbing at Rio’s arm and sending a pain shooting across his body.

“Stop calling me that! People call me Rio!” Rio wasn’t doing so good at the whispering thing anymore. And in the back of his mind, the reminder that the beeping machines would be calling for the nurses soon. His dad must recognize it too, since he kept glancing over at them and then towards the closed door. “And don’t touch me!” Rio yanked his arm away and rubbed at the sore spot. He didn’t care about the pain or that nurses had to be on there way here or that he was barefoot. He couldn’t find his shoes at the moment and he needed to go. If he was around his dad any longer he was going to be sick. “Go to hell. You and mom. And leave me alone. I will never go back to that place.” He flung the bedroom door open and it smacked against the wall with a loud crack. He was rushing down the hallway a moment later and he only looked back because he was worried that there would be a nurse chasing after him. Instead, he only saw his dad standing in the doorway and watching him leave.

#wickedswriting #solo #abuse mention #james quinn #check up check out

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h-sleepingirl · 5 years

Text

Scenes from a Hypnotic (Fourteenth) Date

Sitting on the train, staring at a blank page.

Maybe I can't keep writing these. They keep being bastardized, cut up versions of reality because I can't tell the whole story. I don't really know what to do. It is frustrating. It is distressing.

He is destroying me. He is brainwashing me and destroying me. There is less of me and more of him.

It is total euphoric anguish.

That is just about all I can express. More than the hot and intimate parts of all these writings. I feel desperate, like saying, “Please believe me. Please, you have to understand how real and how ultimately bad this is.”

And I don't know if it will ever be enough.

It is everything I've ever wanted. And it's because we are the exact people that we are that we can achieve it.

We didn't do a lot of talking on this date.

We didn't do a lot of not trancing on this date.

Also, I bought a ridiculously pornographic cow print bikini outfit, because of course I did, and wore the tiny little top that barely covers my nipples under my dress to go see him -- his first time seeing it in person; a surprise for him to unwrap later.

We even heat up a little over lunch -- the same burger place from a little bit back, the roasted jalapeno and crema burger, still as delicious as I remember. Chatting, catching up, but honestly having a hard time looking him in the eye for too long, eventually surrendering to a low hum of dynamic, conversational trance here and there.

But it is a mostly light conversation. I want to get to the hotel as soon as we can, and I mention that, coyly. He wants that too. I’m staring at the clock the whole time, waiting for when we can check in during our talk.

I don’t remember what we were talking about, but I must say something like, “What kind of girl would I be, then?”

Because he does this thing, idly looking around the restaurant -- “I don’t know…” -- then pointedly, intensely shifts his gaze to me -- “Weak. What kind of girl wears a tiny little cow bikini under her dress to a date?”

I gasp, struck by it, suddenly so incredibly turned on, and then grin a broad smile. So elated that he was able to see and recognize the strings that reveal themselves to attentive eyes with certain shifts of my shoulders. A little private gift to him, one I was so hoping he would pick up on.

We leave for the hotel a few minutes later.

World narrowing to just my eyes, the trembling, lidded vision, the warmth of them, the feeling behind them, the teariness. There is something powerful that locks me in to my sense of it.

There are so many tears for the first few hours. Not emotional, just lacrimation from deep trance, the slow, prickling feeling of them leaking out and rolling down my face. Constant. Wet. One of the most tangible, inescapable signs of hypnosis for me.

Later I cry for real. He uses that to show me how much control he has over my emotions and forces it. It is not gentle and sweet and it is not kind. What it is, however, is control, and so even though it feels awful, my body yields fully to it.

I remember that time at Charmed a few years back when we finally got our hour alone after years of flirting and teasing and here-and-there scenes. I remember so little from that scene except, so vividly, a moment where he woke me up and I looked around the room and took stock of myself and said, “I think I’m still in trance.”

Bewildered despite years of experiences people only dream of.

He said, “I’d imagine so,” like it was so obvious.

Now, he says, “Everything was a prologue to this,” and I believe him.

"I feel like I am laying on a table with my skull open," I breathe to him, shaking and anguished, probably still hypnotized, "and you are touching the deepest parts of my brain..."

I can legitimately feel how much deeper his words are going. It is a specific sensation and it is completely consuming my attention every time he speaks. Perfect little listening and responding toy, in total awed bliss; the kind of awe that strikes fear, the kind of bliss that hinders my function in anything else.

"I really did it," he says, explaining patiently, "I really took away your control, just like you've always wanted. And I did it TO you."

Every part of me, every fiber and cell in my brain and body pulls taut and gets flooded with dopamine, with “yes,” with the complete agony of it being true. Even deep, I tense uncontrollably and cry out; it's a pained, raw sound.

“I was thinking about it on the drive up,” he says, smiling during a lull, “and I really just wanted to punch you in the face, except not really with my fists, and not really punching you."

Still dazed, I think about how brutal these first few hours have been, and completely understand.

I am totally fucked up for dinner; it's a miracle that I can even walk and pretend to be normal to anyone, and I have no baseline for whether or not I'm succeeding. I feel like people are staring, like my soul is exposed to the chilly air; my vision is changed, I feel raw and sensitive, I can't look anyone in the eye.

It is this sheer, real, powerful sense of being under his control. I am barely a person. I am deep in trance and there is nothing I can do about any of it.

Extraordinary hotness after dinner: fucking with my gender, milking my cow tits, grinding, making me so dumb, more and more brainwashing.

A deep conversation about who we are and how we feel about each other.

Playing until I am literally falling asleep.

A last cigarette out under the stars.

I wake up gently, rolling over in bed to see him sitting on the chair, reading in the morning light. I meow softly, always sort of cat-like as I awake, and he looks over, gets up, crawls back into bed, settling in next to me.

I curl into him, still half asleep, drowsy, and he brings his finger up to press my forehead and says, "Deep."

"This is the diner that I brainwashed you in last time," he says, grinning, as we walk in the door.

I am just still so out of it from the morning, I can't do anything but give a weak smile and try to hold my composure as the hostess seats us.

He's right in front of me, and I just can't stay out of trance while looking at him. I take in the whole place, the vividness of it, getting fixated on my coffee cup, the oddly delicate nature of the ceramic and the patterns, struck for a moment just by that one simple thing.

He hypnotizes me mercilessly, so much more than I'm used to in public. I'm used to trancing out with him, I'm used to him fucking with me. But this is beyond.

"Eyes wide," he says, and I realize my eyes have been fluttering, wondering what we look like, but it doesn't matter. He's the only thing that matters. He's controlling my state so easily and so completely and that's what matters.

My vision fades and warps and swirls and the pressure in the back of my head buzzes and tingles and I lose everything. The trance is that complete, that overwhelming.

Everything. Just. Fucking. Gone.

He snaps and I gasp, brought back sharply to reality, and all I can do is stare at him in total disbelief.

"So that's the deepest you’ve ever gone in a diner," he says, merely observing.

How does he always know? How can he always tell exactly where I'm at? He knows me so, so fucking well, so intimately, knowing my trances and everything is like knowing my deepest, most core part of myself.

I just smile, and look at him, quietly.

After lunch, we go to the town green and sit on a bench, in a strange sort of privacy; almost no one is here, just the occasional passer-by wandering at the other end.

He turns to me and sticks his finger in my mouth, and despite my discomfort, my concern that someone will walk past us, my brain can't do anything but shut off while I suck, automatically, trained.

It is just constant. He wakes me up only to hypnotize me again. Over and over. Even though we're slowing down, it's just relentless. His finger passing over my eyes. His hands cupping my face and head. His words sinking deep in my head.

Brainwashing and controlling me. I can't say it any more simply, any more expressively. There is no language for it. There are no words. I am exhausted from trying.

Quiet moments just sitting in his arms, looking at each other.

"I'm your MrDream," he says, seriously, "and you're my sleepingirl. And that's really special."

Except of course he doesn't say that. He says our names, which hold so much more power, which enchant me as a representation of who we are to each other, so easy, which tell more of a story than I could write about us in a year, or five, or ten.

@hypnokinkwithmrdream

#My writing #Hypnosis #Hypnokink #Fuck #Brainwashed

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saiilorstars · 4 years

Text

The Beginning of Everything

Ch. 29: Metamorphosis

// Story Masterlist //

Fandom: Doctor Who

Pairing: 10th Doctor x Female OC

Taglist: @ocfairygodmother @anotherunreadblog

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Chapter summary: Gabby gets to unveil her first artwork and what it is might be powerful enough to make new decisions.

The day had come. Today was Gabby's official unveiling of her first artwork. Zhe's gallery was a busy, busy place. People were running around setting up things that needed to be ready by the scheduled hour. Everyone was following Renata's orders to the last detail. And Renata? She was quite at home doing what she did best: organizing.

"I am going to need this entire area to be covered by those fancy little light bulbs humans are so fond of," the Time Lady was in the middle of instructing several employees when the Doctor and Gabby arrived. "You know the ones that are like strings? What are they called? String light bulbs! And make them lavender - that's Gabby's favorite color."

"She is really good at that," Gabby chuckled to the Doctor as they continued to watch Renata command the entire area.

"Yeah she is," the Doctor agreed, nodding proudly. That was one thing he always loved about her. He loved watching her take the reigns of an entire room with just a clipboard and a waving hand. It was even more curious back then because Renata's first incarnation was a petite figure while this current incarnation was much taller.

"Should we tell her we're here?" Gabby's question pulled the Doctor back to the present. She was absolutely excited to get the show started.

"Not yet, I need to see Zhe first," he said and turned away from the garden. "But you can go and say hello to her." Gabby nodded, her smile faltering when she realized what e was doing: diagnostic checks.

Zhe was the only person the Doctor trusted completely in when it came to Renata's health. The Time Lady was used to lying about her health left to right, but Zhe would not.

Gabby sprinted down the hill leading to the garden - probably not her best idea but she was so excited - and called for Renata's attention. "Ren! We're here!"

Renata's eyes widened with delight. She opened her arms in time for Gabby who came hugging her. "Gabriella, I'm so happy you're here!"

"Me too!" Gabby pulled away and turned her attention to the stage across them.

The stage was only recently finished since Gabby watched the employees barely getting off it. It was a deep blue (almost TARDIS blue) colored stage with dark purple curtains tied on the sides. Gabby's eyes flickered to the chairless tables set around them. All of them were an iridescent purple-blue with bright lavender poppies as the centerpieces. And now the employees were setting up the string light bulbs that were going to hang over their event, each tied to the wooden poles set in a square around the garden.

"This place looks amazing!" Gabby laughed so loud that some of the employees stopped to give her a look. She blushed with embarrassment and turned to Renata.

The Time Lady looked nervous for some reason. "You think so?" Renata asked, her tone matching the nervous expression on her face. "This is the first event I plan for humans so...let me know if anything's wrong."

"Absolutely nothing!" Gabby fervently shook her head. "When the Doctor said you were good at planning, he didn't mention is was really good! You would be such a good wedding planner - plan mine in the future, okay?"

Renata chuckled. "Oh Gabriella, you're too young. Let's hold off on those wedding plans for a while, okay?"

"Fine, then plan yours!"

Renata coughed awkwardly, her smile fading completely. Her eyes now seemed to think that her clipboard was the only thing worth looking at. "I'm never getting married again."

"Mhm," Gabby rolled her eyes.

"So then," Renata gently pulled Gabby into a walk so she could better see the garden. "I have your parents set up at the closest table to the stage. I've made sure there's plenty of food that they can recognize, although between you and me...I don't think your mother's going to be happy that you didn't let her cook for this event."

Gabby chuckled. "I didn't want her to work tonight."

"And I also have your artwork being brought to the stage promptly at 8pm. Don't worry, I have the best employees carrying it secretly. Zhe will introduce you and she mentioned that she's bringing over some highly influential artists from different galaxies to see your piece."

"No pressure there," Gabby sucked in a sharp breath.

"You'll be fine," Renata patted the girl's back. "And now we've come to the best part of your event, besides introducing your first artwork...your wardrobe."

"I was just thinking I'd use something from the TARDIS - I already asked the Doctor and he definitely doesn't mind—"

"—right, and believe me when I say that I am more of a simple kind of woman."

"Simple but elegant," Gabby muttered and smiled when Renata mock-glared. "What? It's just who you are. You're a classy kind of woman."

"So I've been told," Renata rolled her eyes, clearly disbelieving such a statement. "Anyways, Zhe has prepared a wardrobe for you, herself…" her face scrunched suddenly, "...and me," she added in a mutter. Gabby snorted until she burst into laughter. Renata shook her head and picked up her walking pace.

~ 0 ~

Zhe had locked her office in case Renata stopped by, but she doubted that it would stop Renata from trying to get in if she wanted to.

"I've kept track of all the times Renata's expelled energy," she was handing the Doctor her records of Renata's health. "She doesn't exactly know and I'm pretty sure she wouldn't appreciate it."

"Mhm," the Doctor agreed with a hum. He let himself fall into one of the desk chairs as he scanned every line of what Zhe wrote. "According to this, she's expelling more and more each day."

"I've also taken liberty of categorizing her energy levels each time. On the next page," Zhe motioned him to turn the page.

"How'd you manage to do that?" he briefly looked up after turning the page.

"I'm not proud of it but I did set up a couple devices around the gallery to calculate Renata's energy levels and her biological state whenever she expells energy." Zhe's shoulders slumped at the Doctor's surprised reaction. "I know, I'm not proud of it…"

"You did what you had to do," the Doctor said and went back to the report in front of him. "And by the looks of it, you did good. Her energy's strength is getting too strong for one person. I'm frankly amazed she's made it this far without…" he swallowed hard, unable to bring himself to finish that thought.

But Zhe knew exactly what he was going to say. It was a miracle that Renata was making it to this point. Her life was hanging by a string.

"Do you think this could help in creating a cure for her?" she asked.

"I don't know," the Doctor confessed, frustrated that it was always the same answer. "But it's at least warning me that she needs to take it far easier than what she's been doing. After this, I may just need to put her on bed rest."

"Good luck with that," Zhe leaned against her desk. "You think you have a chance?"

The Doctor shook his head. That would be a battle all on its own.

"I propose we have a calm night for Renata and then tomorrow you can discuss with her about the next step she needs to take."

"I guess so," the Doctor sighed. He had no other choice.

~ 0 ~

Gabby, honestly, felt overwhelmed with all the wardrobe employees hanging around her. She would much rather be a simple but elegant woman right now.

"Don't you think this is all...a bit flashy?" she asked one of the employees doing her cheeks.

"Of course not! This is what's necessary!" the woman responded and continued applying blush.

"Really? All of this is necessary?"

"Yes!" went the entire set of employees.

Gabby really doubted that, even more so when one of the jewels hanging from her ridiculously huge headpiece smacked her in the eyes.

"Gabby, just let them finish," Renata was writing something on her clipboard while the employees worked around her. "You look fantastic."

Gabby narrowed her eyes at the woman but Renata was so engrossed in her clipboard that she never noticed. "Yeah? Then how come you're not getting ready?"

Renata swayed her head innocently and turned for the door. "Later, later," she said. "I have to go check on how everything else is doing." She headed for the door but stopped to cough rather aggressively.

Gabby wanted to get off the chair as soon as she heard Renata, but the stylists kept her still. "Ren? Are you okay?"

Renata brought a hand to her mouth in hopes of muffling the volume. The last thing she needed was to ruin Gabby's night. She took in a deep breath and lowered her hand, only to see a couple spots of blood on her palm. That's new, she blinked and quickly rubbed it away on her pants. "I'm fine, Gabriella. I'll be back to check up on you." She left the room in a hurry but ended up crashing into someone. She yelped when she felt the metal of her clipboard smack her chin. "OW!"

"Renata?" she heard Gabby's call from the other side.

"I'm fine!" Renata said quickly then faced the person she crashed into. "Oh of course it's you," she shook her head at the Doctor. "Were you running down a hallway?"

"If you're going for the 'teacher vibe', you've definitely got it," the Doctor nodded and looked her over with a degree of amusement.

She was not amused. She brought her hand to rub her chin. "I only say that because every time you run down a hallway, I end up hurt. Remember that night we snuck into the Academy's library?"

The Doctor definitely remembered judging his quick laughter. "And you slipped on a piece of paper. I still don't get how someone does that - I mean, it's just paper."

Renata dropped her hand to her side, balling it into a fist. "It happens!"

"Right," the Doctor would only agree for her sake. He eyed her chin and saw the light red spot on it from her clipboard's metal. "Sorry about that," he touched her chin suddenly that it startled her. "I was actually trying to find you."

Renata stared at him with blushed cheeks. She knew that fond look of his anywhere because in the beginning, he always made sure to point out himself. 'This is the look of someone you have wrapped around your finger' he would tell her with that idiot smile of his.

"What, uh, what did you need?" she finally managed to put her words together after a few minutes, but just for good measure she took a step away from him.

The Doctor awkwardly let his hand hang on his side. "I wanted to check on you, of course, see how you're doing?"

Renata rolled her eyes. "I'm doing just fine. I'm busy, but I'm fine." She started walking because she didn't want Gabby to overhear any of her health conversations. "I'm planning, what I always used to do."

"And a fairly good job you're doing," the Doctor followed her and easily caught up to walk beside her. "I've just been out to the garden and you did a fantastic job. No surprise there."

Renata smiled. "Thank you. I made sure that everything was perfect and I intend on keeping it that way."

"But you're not over-exerting yourself, right?" the Doctor stopped walking and grabbed her arm to make sure she didn't try running off on him. "That was one of the conditions Gabby put too."

"Yes, I'm fine," Renata shook her head, although her eyes did linger on the faded blood she'd rubbed off on her pants. "I'm smiling aren't I?"

"Yes but you're very well trained with that," the Doctor smiled himself for show. "It's kind of annoying, actually."

"You don't think I find many things about you annoying too?"

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Yes, and it's vice versa, but I still care about your health and I am going to make sure that you don't overexert yourself. I've talked to Zhe and—"

"—oh no, not this again," Renata wrenched her arm free of his grip. "I am not talking about my health on an important day like this."

"Renata-"

"—no, and that's final. If you're just going to talk about that with me then...I'd rather you not speak to me at all," she frowned and walked off.

The Doctor watched her go but he wasn't going to let her get off that easily. She could try to ignore him but he would be near her to oversee that nothing too stressful came her way.

~ 0 ~

"Gabby you look wonderful," Zhe clapped her four hands together for a small applause.

"Do you think Zhe would mind if I took off these shoes in about 10 minutes?" Gabby felt safe confiding that only to the Doctor.

The Time Lord couldn't help but chuckle as he helped Gabby come out to the garden. "You look wonderful."

Gabby blushed but gladly took the compliment. She was just making it out of the gallery building where the others were waiting, including her family.

"¡Ay pero que grande está esa cosa!" her mother cried at the incredibly large headpiece resting over Gabby's head. "It's so big!"

Gabby had been styled in an irridescent blue-purple gown with a modest slit going up to her knee. It was a dress with a Grecian neckline made up of only one string of turquoise beads. The same beads went around her arms and we're connected to a dark blue, flowy cape in the back. On top of Gabby's head was a huge headpiece made out of the same turquoise beads paired with a silver background. It was in the shape of tree branches and from those branches hung iridescent butterfly-shaped gems that would knock against Gabby's face every once in a while.

It was ridiculous, Gabby thought. But according to Zhe, it was high fashion for events like these. Plus, Renata had to wear the same type of dresses so Gabby thought it was all fair.

"This is honestly so ridiculous," she heard Renata huff behind.

Renata was escorted out of the building by Zhe herself and as soon as Gabby saw Renata, she knew nobody else could wear that dress. Zhe knew exactly what she was doing when she ordered their gowns.

Renata had been assigned a beautiful peach colored gown that faded into a soft yellow towards the bottom of the a-line skirt. What truly made it Renata were the dozens of beautifully adorned butterflies on it. There were separate wings of soft greens and blues and oranges decorating the skirt. There were more butterfly wings collected at the bodice to look as if the dress had a mesh over it, but each of the wing's tips poked up to create a sleeveless neckline. One thin white, beaded belt went around her waist. And, just like Gabby, Renata was also forced into a large headpiece. Renata's headpiece was of course a butterfly with swinging golden gems at the tips of the wings.

"This is ridiculous!" Renata repeated just to make a point.

"No it's not!" Gabby finally understood and laughed in delight. "You look so pretty! Doctor, wouldn't you agree?"

The man could only nod silently for now. He was too busy looking Renata over as if he'd never seen her before. She'd absolutely taken his breath away. "Beautiful," he settled on the word for the moment until he could string more words together.

Renata blushed and matched the soft hues of her dress. "It's honestly, uh, a bit too much…" she found it hard to breath as well, so she looked to Zhe for some distractions. "Is this truly necessary?"

Zhe nodded her head fervently. "Very. This is high society we're dealing with, ladies."

"High space society," Gabby murmured and swallowed hard just thinking about everybody waiting for them in the garden.

"Exactly," Zhe nodded. "And we must give them a show. Shall we get started? There is a list of people I want you to meet before the unveiling."

"R-right now?" Gabby blinked. Her gaze switched to Renata for some help but the Time Lady only motioned her to go along with Zhe.

"This is your night, go and make the best of it," Renata smiled but Gabby didn't seem entirely convinced as she and her family were led away by Zhe.

"Renée," the Doctor stepped to her side, looking just as nervous as she was. "I'm sorry about earlier—"

Renata raised a hand to stop him from talking. "You don't have to. I'm sorry. I've been a bit under duress from planning and keeping my own symptoms away from Gabby, I took it out on you. I'm sorry."

"You have to know that I only want to make sure you're okay. It's hard watching you go through all this because I can't find a proper cure."

"Absolutely not your fault!" Renata turned to face him. "And please, I would really appreciate if we kept all this talk away from Gabby tonight. I don't want anything to ruin her night."

The Doctor nodded at her, but he was going to keep a close eye on her all night in case she would need him. "Well then, can I escort you to the garden, miss?"

Renata smiled with flushed cheeks. "I'd like that." She interlocked arms with his and headed down for the garden.

~0~

The garden was indeed full of high class people as Zhe had said. Renata knew exactly the type of people she had met and she could honestly count the ones she'd actually liked. She didn't reach past five.

"They're all snobs," she told the Doctor who chuckled beside her. "They remind me so much of some of the people I used to deal with back on Gallifrey. It's sad, really."

"Well, at least Gabby seems to be enjoying herself," the Doctor directed Renata's attention to the young girl across them. She looked animated in the conversation she was having with a young humanoid woman.

"That's the point," Renata said, content and relieved to see the evening going so well. Of course that's when she started to feel a funny tickle in her throat. Before she could even turn away, she started coughing.

"Renée," the Doctor acted fast and turned her back in his direction. She was waving him away with her free hand, the other was trying to keep her coughs muffled from the people.

"Doctor, Renata!" Zhe approached them without a clue of what was happening. "Gabby's unveiling is going to happen in a couple minutes."

"That's great, Zhe, but we're having a bit of a situation right now," the Doctor took Renata by the shoulders and tilted her chin up so he could she her face. "You're overexertion has caught up with you."

"Is she having another relapse?" Zhe entered almost the same panicked state as the Doctor.

"No! Stop it!" Renata swatted all of their hands away from them. "I'm fine! Just a bit of a cough!" She took in a deep breath and exhaled without anymore coughing. However, she put her hands behind her back and rubbed her right hand against her dress. The soft red hue of her dress should make the blood blend right in.

Zhe exchanges a look with the Doctor, both of them worried where Renata could end up if she kept going like this.

"Prepare Gabby's unveiling," Renata instructed Zhe as if nothing had happened. "I'll bring Gabby to the stage myself." She didn't leave room for protests as she left in a hurry to reach Gabby.

"What do we do?" Zhe asked the Doctor afterwards.

The Doctor was watching after Renata as she made her way through the crowd of people. She was smiling and greeting people as if she hadn't just had coughed for her life. She truly knew how to maneuver herself through high-class society. "We keep a very close eye on her," he told Zhe in the end. He didn't care how much heat he would get from Renata, he would pull her away if she got worse.

~0~

Gabby's entire body was shaking when she was brought up on stage to address the crowd. Suddenly, she thought they all had beedy eyes. She only calmed down when she saw her family, Renata and the Doctor in the front row just like she wanted.

"Thank you everyone for coming," Zhe spoke first, which gave Gabby some time to ease her nerves. "I'm sure it was quite a shock to hear from me after, what? A few centuries give or take?" there was a light laugh that broke through the crowd. "I owe it all to some good friends that includes Gabby herself. Now let me just tell you a little bit about her and her unique story. Is that alright, dear?" Gabby nodded fervently. More minutes meant more time and more time meant she could possibly make herself look less of a fool.

"Gabby Gonzalez is a human," Zhe said, so proudly that it almost reminded Gabby of the Doctor. They were so animated over the silliest of things. "She is the first human to ever absorb the Quantum Matrix that allows for one to sculpt. You may have heard of the 27 planets that were stolen a couple months back? My friend Gabby, along with an amazing team, were responsible for putting them back in their place." There was a round of applause from the crowd that brought out the deepest red on Gabby's cheeks.

"To help aid her team, Gabby used her unique abilities - the Quantum Matrix itself in the form of butterflies. It's entirely new; it's never been seen before. Ladies and gentlemen, the Cosmic Butterfly," Zhe gestured with two of her arms at the young girl who was ready to die of embarrassment. Zhe leaned close to Gabby and motioned her to take the stage now. "All yours, dear."

"Th-thanks," Gabby took in a deep breath as Zhe started walking off stage. Gabby glanced over her shoulder and saw her creation hidden under a gray tarp. Well, it was now or never. "Zhe is right, I'm human and, to be honest, it's nothing special. There are tons of humans out there, literally. The reason that I'm unique is because there's no one else like me, and I'm fortunate to know that...and to remember that." She briefly crossed gazes with Renata and the Doctor, all of them taking a moment to remember Donna. "Some of us don't have that luxury, so I'm going to make sure my work represents the people who have done so much for us. However my first piece here, I want to dedicate to someone who has completely changed my perspective on things, on the world. Without that person, I would've never been able to open my eyes to the world.

"She's done so much for me, for our friends. She always gives and yet she's so hard on herself for past choices that are just that: past choices." Gabby's gaze somehow wound up on Renata and the moment the Time Lady realized it, she began to get a funny feeling in her stomach. "The meaning of butterflies on Earth sometimes varies. Some people think that butterflies represent the souls of people. Others think that a butterfly can symbolize the life struggles that people have endured only to emerge as a better person. It's metamorphosis. And the person I have dedicated this work to has had a few rebirths and life cycles. And in each life I think she's done better than the last one. This precise life she's lived...she's had a few struggles but I think in the end she will be someone the universe has been waiting for."

Renata turned her head to see what the Doctor was thinking but he was far too enthralled with the speech - looking mighty proud of Gabby, almost like a father - to notice Renata's lingering gaze. So, she turned her attention back to Gabby who was still so animatedly speaking. Butterflies…

"So, without further ado, my first piece," Gabby made a gesture for the employees to drop the tarp from her statue. There was a collective gasp from the crowd when the tarp hit the ground, but none as deep as Renata. Nobody could outdo Gabby's huge grin, not even the Doctor. "I call it the Vortex Butterfly."

Gabby's statue was all bronze. The woman she had sculpted stood tall and proud with her arms slightly extended on her sides and her head tilted up to the sky. She wore a bronze colored tunic with one sleeve going around her left shoulder. Her long hair cascaded down on her right shoulder with a few stray strands framing her face and her left shoulder. What really took the crowd away were the beautiful large butterfly wings on her back. They looked ready to flutter and fly. Gabby had sculpted every last feature of Renata so delicately it could pass off as the real Time Lady.

Renata was left speechless. In fact, there was a huge silence all around her until somebody let out a fervent applause.

"That is just amazing!" the Doctor was so excited over the piece that he had made Renata blush without even noticing. "Well done, Gabby! Well done!"

Soon, the whole crowd started applauding. The only one who didn't was Renata and that was only because she was still in shock. Tears came to her eyes instead as she began to realize how Gabby had chosen her for her first piece of artwork.

Gabby heard his praise and laughed with embarrassment. "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Vortex Butterfly...or as I like to call her, Renata. She helped save the entire universe - the universes - and I think she deserves some peace knowing that she is loved and forgiven." She looked directly at Renata for the last words, truly hoping that Renata understood how honest those words were. The crowd erupted into a second round of applause, making Gabby's grin grow wider. This is what she wanted; people should know about Renata and her extraordinary abilities, but most of all her personality. Gabby firmly believed that everyone should have at least one Renata in their life. She was lucky to have hers and she was sure that the Doctor was just as grateful as her.

Renata was naturally teary eyed. The applause around her slowly faded from her ears. She couldn't take her eyes off the statue and much less Gabby. The young girl was grinning from ear to ear and it was all directed towards Renata. When did Gabby ever get the idea to do something like that? At what point did Gabby put all of her faith in her? Why? In all those incredulous thoughts, a little voice started asking the hard questions again. How could she dare to leave Gabby behind like that? If she so willingly went and died, she would be leaving a young girl who...truly loved her that much.

She snuck a look at the Doctor who was still one of the most prominent applauders amongst the audience. He was just as proud of Gabby as Renata was. It warmed Renata's hearts. Somehow Gabby had claimed all of their hearts and Renata found herself wanting more of this. She wanted to see what other artwork Gabby would come up with. She wanted to see where the Doctor would take them and what sure trouble would follow them. She wanted to keep teaching Gabby and introducing her to the galaxies. She didn't want to leave them behind.

When Gabby met Renata's gaze again, the Time Lady mouthed a 'thank you' with a teary-eyed smile.

~ 0 ~

Needless to say that after Gabby's unveiling, Renata was sought out by nearly all the guests. Everyone wanted to get to know the last Time Lady in existence. How they even learned of her species Renata had no idea, but she was trained for all the bombarding in noble events.

"That was a really nice speech, Gabby," the Doctor remarked while he and Gabby watched Renata converse with yet another of the guests. The man seemed positively entranced with her, something the Doctor was watching perhaps a bit too narrow-eyed.

"I thought it would be," Gabby chuckled. "I just thought that after everything that's happened, Renata should know that not everyone looks at her like she's done something wrong."

"Well, no one does," the Doctor murmured, somewhat distant. His mind went straight to the infamous night before his wedding. He used to remember that night as the most painful moment of his lives, but now every time he thought of it he saw the blackmail behind it. He saw the Assessor. He used to think that Renata was just stuck in her traditional ways and while that may have been partially the reason, she was driven by the fact her sister could've found him and hurt him.

"You okay, Doctor?" Gabby asked softly. She could tell he was off lost in his deep thoughts and wondered if they were all about him and Renata. "Did I go too far?"

The Doctor blinked once and switched to happiness like that. "Absolutely not. I think you're right. How's about we go talk to Renata for a few? I get the feeling she's starting to feel the full effects of your work."

Gabby chuckled. "Of course." She wouldn't point out that the man Renata was talking to had gotten a bit handsy with her. She was sure the Doctor had long ago noticed.

The Doctor didn't waste a second more. He darted for Renata, pulling Gabby - who laughed - with him. "Scuse me, mind if we cut in?"

The man's face morphed into utter disdain for the two newcomers. As far as he was concerned, they were intruders in what could turn out to be a very nice evening. "Actually, yeah."

Gabby was amazed at how the Doctor so swiftly changed his polite smile to a dark one in only two seconds, and the way it was so subtle too. She checked for Renata's reaction and was momentarily confused to find the Time Lady surprised. But slowly, Renata began to smile and Gabby dared to think it was a fond smile.

"I am so sorry," the Doctor began to say but there was no hiding the sarcasm in his voice. "What I meant to say was...Gabby, the whole reason you're even here, would like a word with Miss Renata."

"What? And you're their body guard?" the man sneered.

"Actually, yeah. I like to think I am. Goodbye," the Doctor promptly grabbed Renata's hand then Gabby's and led them away from the stunned man.

"That was too funny!" Gabby's giggle quickly turned into a laugh.

"And rather rude," Renata added but the smile on her face didn't exactly portray someone who was upset her conversation had been cut short. "Thank you, Doctor. I think I'm a little rusty on how to mingle with people."

"That was being rusty?" Gabby gaped with one thumb jerked over her shoulder. "You basically talked to everyone here!"

"For a short time each," Renata argued weakly. "A proper conversation should last a bit longer than just a few minutes."

"You don't have to abide by the rules anymore, Renée," the Doctor reminded her. She was still thinking the way her parents raised her. "You're free." In what fits.

"I suppose you're right," Renata chuckled when the thought really hit her. "But Gabriella, while I have you here, I wanted to thank you for such a beautiful gift. I have no idea why you decided to do your first piece on me but...I'm very touched."

"I'm glad you loved it! I was a bit nervous but I think it all came out the way I wanted it to," Gabby moved over to give Renata a big hug. "Plus, I wanted to thank you for everything you've done since we met. You're my hero, Ren."

"Don't know why I would be," Renata said while looking directly at the Doctor. He was watching her with a soft smile. "I'm no...well, you know…" Gabby had pulled away in time to see Renata nodding towards the Doctor. "I'm just me."

"And we wouldn't you to be anyone else," Gabby stepped back to stand beside the Doctor. "Right, Doctor?" she looked up at him expectantly.

"Quite right," he agreed, nodding lightly with a gaze that didn't seem to see anything but Renata. "You picked the perfect subject, Gabby."

Renata felt her face warm as the seconds ticked by and the Doctor was still staring at her. Gabby picked up on it and smirked. "I'm going to find my parents, don't mind me…" She was sure that neither had really heard her.

Renata would've kept her eyes on the Doctor too had it not been for the sharp pain that struck through her chest. Her gasp came out strained, as if someone had cut her air short.

"Renée?" the Doctor picked up on her sudden jerk and presumed what she was struggling to contain.

"I-I need to get out of here," she managed to say and turned away. With the Doctor's help, they maneuvered through the crowd until they were a safe distance away.

That was when Renata pushed him away from her. "You have to stay away from me!"

"Renata we're not doing that! Let me help you!" the Doctor argued in vain as the woman continued to wobble away from him. With a groan - although unsurprised by her resistance - he followed after her.

Renata had collapsed on the ground, one leg partly over the fabric of her dress. She didn't even hear part of its tear with her scream. The Doctor was forced back with the intensity of the energy.

The energy was burning her again, inside out really. Her skin felt as if there were a thousand needles poking through, pushing through the layers underneath. And yet all the Doctor could do was watch and wait for it to pass. His body would inch towards her but would have to retreat for fear of being caught up with the energy. It wasn't getting caught in her crossfire that stopped him from getting closer, it was the fact that he could make it worse for her that did it. He may not carry the same amount of the Vortex inside him but he still carried some, which would just add to the levels inside Renata. When the energy finally died, it left a shaking Renata on the ground. Her arms that were sustaining her from fully collapsing were wobbly, alerting her that in a few seconds she would go down.

"Renata!" the Doctor finally ran to her side, letting himself fall right next to her. "I've got you, I've got you!" His arms worked fast to wrap around her with the intentions of helping her stand, but she couldn't even make it halfway up.

She had no strength anymore.

"I just want it to...stop…" Renata struggled to breath normally. She felt so tired and the worst part is now she had a little bit of hope that maybe, just maybe, she would get to survive and do the things she thought about earlier; what she wanted in life. Maybe it'd been too late to make up her mind. "I can't...I can't move…"

"It's okay, I've got you," the Doctor was about to pick her up when she yelled at him not to.

"I don't...I don't want...Gabby to s-see me...like this," her chest heaved up and down. "I'm not... going to ruin...her p-party."

"Renée, we need to get you to your room. Or even the TARDIS so I can run more tests." But as the Doctor went on about what they should do, she shook her head in refusal.

"No, no, we know what the tests will say. We know it's getting worse. I'm just waiting for the big bang, literally."

"Don't say that, Renée. There's still the possibility of regeneration after this."

Renata wouldn't say anything about that. It now scared her that there quite possibly might not be a chance anymore. "I just want to...stay here," she exhaled slightly better. "Until I can move."

The Doctor sighed. He knew better than to argue with her. "You're still stubborn as ever," he muttered, making her smile, while he fixed himself on the ground to sit better. He then gathered her body and brought her over his lap. He may not be able to move her where he wanted to but this was a close second.

"Don't you make me mad," she warned, her voice a whisper when she rested her head - or rather her head fell from exhaustion - on his chest.

"Me? Never," the Doctor sarcastically quipped. He smiled when he heard her low laugh. "Story of my life, huh?"

"Nah, I was too preoccupied being uptight to ever have fun like you did." Renata shook her head as much as she could, which wasn't much because her head never left the Doctor's body. "I was always so uptight."

"You were just...deeply committed to a specific way of doing things," the Doctor cleverly rearranged the words despite it still meaning the same thing for her. "You wanted things done the right way."

"Doesn't mean it was always the best way," she hardly tilted her head up to be able to look at him. "You were always better at that. Better at being a good person than me."

"Oh don't say that Renée. You were an amazing woman on Gallifrey. Everybody loved you, including me," he brought a hand to stroke the warm skin of her cheek. "Only you had a charity, only you thought of helping people. The rest...the rest were always so pompous. There was no one like you."

Renata smiled and once more rested her head against his chest. "But I still had my moments. Do you remember…" she paused to catch her breath, "Do you remember when-when I ordered a shipment of special Valerian glasses for an event and they brought me the wrong type?"

The Doctor tilted his head when he thought back to that moment. "Ah yes. I've never seen someone get so mad over a different type of glass." Renata actually managed to laugh, something that relieved the Doctor. If she was able to laugh then it meant she was going to get better. "You yelled at the poor delivery guy until your face matched your ginger hair. You did that quite often, mind you. You had a temper. You threw things at people but no one would ever think that of you. Your first incarnation was a sneaky one, actually.

"What?" she momentarily frowned. "Sneaky? I was many things but being sneaky was never one of my talents."

"No, but you were," the Doctor insisted. "You were small and polite but God help anyone who made you mad." He specifically remembered the brief slips of her temper where she would actually throw things at him. He didn't feel like that was something she should remember right now. He had no doubt that if she did remember, she would started apologizing like there was no tomorrow. "And I would know because I got you plenty mad." His arms wrapped around her a little tight suddenly. "I loved it sometimes, you know. Apart from it being funny, you would look so adorable."

Renata rolled her eyes under his chin. "You're an idiot. You actually liked it when I yelled at you? I literally wanted to kill you sometimes."

"Not like you could've done much. You were too small!"

"If I could hit you, I would."

The Doctor leaned back to be able to meet her gaze. "And you always made the same threats."

"Was that 'adorable' too?"

"In a way," he answered particularly quietly. Her eyes met his and realized he wasn't truly looking at her, at least not the entire time. His eyes would meet hers but then would linger below her, to her lips.

They were actually pretty close but up until now Renata hadn't thought about it. She only knew that she was nice and warm with him. It was how she always felt with him, so at home. "We can't," she whispered, knowing exactly where his thoughts were...because her mind was quick to jump to the same things.

"It seems like we never can." His words rang a sad truth between them, but there was one big difference that he didn't think of back on Gallifrey.

"If things don't work out for me, I don't want to hurt you again."

"There was always a risk of heartbreak for us," he countered with more of their truth. "In the end. And we took the risk—"

"—and we lost."

"But the thing about it, Renée, is that I just don't care. I'll always play the game even if there's heartbreak in the end, which is why I'll go ahead and kiss you right now without a care of what comes next." Keeping true to his word, he closed the small gap between them with a soft kiss. He brought one of his hands to cup the side of her face, partially to tilt her head back but the other reason being he simply loved to touch her skin. He always did.

Renata could resist all she wanted but the truth was that she loved it. She loved feeling his fingers touch her skin, she always did. She loved his warm lips over hers, moving along in such a sweet, slow rhythm. It was like he had her in a trance. He led and she followed without a moment's thought.

Like right now.

Her hands had somehow gone up to his neck to rest. Her fingers soon found his hair and only then did she realize he had amazing hair to pull. Soon as she concluded that, her fingers did the work. And with each pull, their kiss became harder. Each time she pulled his hair, the Doctor would pull her body closer to his even though there was no more room left. Their bodies firmly pressed against each other and it still wasn't enough. It was as if their feelings for one another had been reignited and they were the young couple Time Lords back on Gallifrey, in Zuriah's charity. One was reckless, one was far too careful but when they were together, they became one.

There was only one way they could end that type of kiss and Renata unintentionally found the way. She'd pulled away to take in some air. Only when she did, her eyes struggled to stay open. The Doctor knew what would happen before it actually did. She passed out, her body falling limp against his.

The Doctor held her tightly there for a few minutes. He dropped a kiss to her hair and despite his efforts, he couldn't help the tears in his eyes. He was scared. He was really, properly scared that this was an indication the "big bang" was finally coming.

~ 0 ~

After Gabby's unveiling, Renata felt like time was passing quicker but in short intervals. Her eyes would open and she would be lucid for what seemed forever, only to everyone else around her it was just a few minutes where she actually talked. The most Renata had been awake after Gabby's party was 15 minutes. And Renata had spent those 15 minutes asking where the Doctor was.

"Ren, you need to calm down," Gabby would try her best each time. Though weakened, Renata still had more strength than a human and would manage to push Gabby's hands away a few times. She would lose the battle against Zhe with her four arms, but it wouldn't stop her from asking dozens of questions.

"Your body is entering a sort of, uh, reset phase," Zhe didn't exactly know how to best tell Renata that her body was beginning to shut down. Granted the Doctor had already told Renata this but the Time Lady couldn't remember after passing out so many times.

"Reset…?" Renata felt her lungs were squished. Breathing became a struggle soon enough.

A few days later, they had planted an oxygen mask over her. Despite Renata's insistence that she had a bypass system, the truth was that her lungs were shutting down. The vortex energy inside her was getting to an unbearable level. It was destroying her from the inside but now she wasn't even expelling the energy. Every once in a while she would release wisps of golden-orange hues but nobody was sure if it was the Vortex or regeneration energy.

"Could this be it? Is she going to regenerate?" Gabby quietly asked the Doctor one day in Renata's room while they watched over her sleeping form. To their luck, Renata hadn't woken up that day. It meant she was resting fully.

"I don't know," the Doctor hated that most of the questions regarding Renata's body ended with him saying he didn't know. What kind of "Doctor" was he if he couldn't help out the most important woman to him?

"She's been like this for a month now but I feel like now it's worse," sighed Gabby. "What can we do for her?"

The Doctor passed a gentle hand over Renata's cool forehead. "Just make sure she's as comfortable as she can be. I'm going to take a thorough absence from this place." He looked up at Gabby's confused face and explained. "I need to research if something like this has ever happened before. How could just find one similar case, even if it wasn't someone from our same species, then maybe I could come up with a cure. At the very least, there has to be some type of procedure that I can do to make this stop. No more going out on trips until Renata is cured. I can drop you off on Earth if you'd like while I do this-"

Gabby's eyebrows knitted together as a fierce anger crossed her face. "Don't you dare!" she snapped. " I'm going to stay right here with her until you get back."

"Gabby, it could be a while." Although the Doctor wasn't sure if Renata would make it for "a while" if he didn't hurry up. She already had gone through 6 months of this. "I can't leave you here."

"Doctor, it's my choice. I understand the risks but I want to be here with Renata. Besides, wouldn't you feel better if I stayed with Renata?"

The Doctor didn't want to straight up say yes but...it was true. There was only a select few people he could trust to look after Renata and Gabby was one of them. Zhe would offer her full support but Gabby sticking around would mean an easier communication through the TARDIS.

"Are you sure, Gabby?"

Gabby nodded her head. "Yes, Doctor. I'll stay."

"Thank you." The Doctor gazed down at Renata and sighed. Already he could feel his hearts constricting at the idea of going months without seeing her. There wasn't another way, though. He would just have to work really hard so that it wouldn't be so long. "I'll be back," he whispered to her. He leaned closer to her and gently stroked her cheek. "I promise." He pressed a kiss to her forehead and took one last look at her before straightening up to leave.

"I'll take care of her," Gabby reassured him as he moved away from the bed.

"If anything bad happens, or is about to happen, use this," the Doctor pulled out Renata's sonic screwdriver. "I've tweaked it so that it works like a pager. You press this—" he showed Gabby the precise button she would need to push, "—and I'll know you want to speak. I'm keeping Martha's phone in case she or Jack come up with something I can use for Renée."

"Got it," Gabby took the sonic from him and held it to her chest. "Good luck, Doctor."

"Likewise," he nodded. He spared Renata one last glance then forced himself to walk out of the room.

That would be the last time Gabby (and Renata) would see him for a very long time.

#ocappreciation #doctor who #10th doctor #dw imagine #10th doctor imagine #doctor who fics #10th doctor fics #dw fics #10th doctor imagines #oc: Renata Cartwright #gabby gonzalez

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leggomylino · 5 years

Text

light switch | yandere!seungmin

Genre: yandere, romance/fluff, thriller, a little angst, some comedy (mainly in the first half) Pairing: yandere!Seungmin x reader Word count: ~11k (and this is only the first half…) Warnings: Author rambling, run-on sentences, mild language (censored), a few memes, moments of high tension and possible anxiety, ooc, and mild abuse/violence A/N: Requests are open~ | Masterlist in bio! | rip this turned out WAYYY longer than I meant it to and it’s my first time writing this format (and yandere for that matter) but, I hope y’all enjoy :’)) Thanks for reading!! <3

Okay so

You and Seungmin had been friends for a while

Y’all met in junior high and immediately hit it off

Here’s what happened fam

It was your turn to stay after class and clean up

The other kids who had been assigned to help you had already done their jobs and left

You let them off easy because it was raining and you didn’t want anyone to miss the bus

You always walked home since you lived in the neighborhood and you liked the rain so it was no big deal to you

*cringey middle schooler voice* “Hey is it okay if we head out? Are you okay by yourself?”

“Oh yeah sure go ahead! Have a great day!”

“Thanks! See you later (y/n)!”

Yeah a n y w a y

So it’s raining out and it’s just you in the classroom after school, cleaning the whiteboard and sorta zoning out

The cloudy weather and sound of steady rainfall on the asphalt outside isn’t helping

But luckily you’re almost done, just gotta get a chair to reach the top of the board and--

Chunk!

What the

Hello?

What was that sis

You look over your shoulder mid-swiping to see the silhouette of a person climbing in through the window

But you can’t see who it is at first cause right at that moment there’s a flash of lightning that lights up the whole room and casts everything in a veil of black and the hollow roar of thunder (just like in all the cliche horror movies), and a scream gets caught in your throat (like half of the cliche horror movies)

It successfully freaks you out a bit but

Once you’re able to see clearly again you realize it’s a boy

A boy you recognize

Barely tho

Like hardly

Because he’s honestly never around

Always skipping class

Typical delinquent kid

His name, you scarcely recall, is Kim Seungmin

He probably thinks he’s some sort of billy-badass or smth, you dunno

Well he’s just frozen like you are, halfway inside with his legs straddling the windowsill, soaking wet, just staring at you

Staring

Still staring...

You furrow your brow at him, slowly getting back into the groove of getting your business done and hightailing it outta there. “Take a picture, it’ll last longer.”

He smirks and leans forward, resting his hand on his chin, just watching you while half of him is still getting soaked by rain; he looks like the freakin’ Cheshire Cat. “The same could be said about you.”

You’re about to ask him what kind of a comeback that is when it dawns on you that you’re still staring as well, and you visibly shun yourself and whirl away to face the board again. He chuckles and you hear him toss his incredibly late ass all the way inside, closing the window and leaving a trail of rainwater and mud and dead leaves and outside nastiness on the floor that you just finished sweeping and cleaning uGH WTF BILLY-LATEASS WHY YOU GOTTA DO ME LIKE THAT

Great now you’re gonna miss the newest episode of Totally Spies and that rerun of Sailor Moon you were really looking forward to...all because this punk had to show up half past four.

He lifts one of the chairs off the desk and takes a seat, and when you curiously peek over your shoulder to see wtfudge he’s doing, he’s watching you. Again. Just sitting at what would be his usual seat in the middle of the room if he were ever in class on time at all. You roll over the teacher’s desk chair to finish cleaning the board and have just decided to leave the trail of dirt and wet grass for him to clean up

But uh

Unfortunately you have a brain made of spaghetti like the author

And well

You somehow managed to forget for a second that the chair has wheels, and the floors are still a little slick

So the moment you clamber your (enter height here) ass up on that chair guess what happens?

Just guess

Yeah you guessed it

London bridge comes falling down

Well in this case (y/n) bridge

It all happened so fast

And yet

You never touch the ground

No you didn’t spontaneously gain superpowers like in a Marvel or DC comic

This isn’t My Hero Academia either, you’re definitely quirkless

It’s this guy

He actually managed to throw himself over the desk and slide over just in time to save you

Wow maybe this is a bit of a superhero movie

Go Spiderminnie B))

Batminnie?

...Okay lame names and rambling aside, he saved you

You stare at him with a shocked look on your face, a bit winded from the experience

But also at the way he’s staring at you

It’s kinda sus sis

He’s looking at you like...almost like he’s seeing right through you

Into your soul

You know how they say the eyes are the window to the soul?

Well this bish is sunlight and he’s cutting right through...effortlessly

Gracefully radiating a strange unnatural light you aren’t really sure how to define

It’s weird, and foreign, and a bit uncomfortable

But a part of you kinda likes it

Which bothers you because sure this guy did just save you from getting a concussion and possibly breaking your neck but still

“Uh...thank you…” you mutter, not sure what else to say. It’s a miracle your spaghetti brain even managed to remember to say “thank you” at all smh

He’s smiling down at you kindly (even tho it’s a bit creepy, surely he means well) and uh

Does he plan on letting go of you anytime soon?

I mean

He’s still wet and you like the rain and all but

Okay there we go he’s setting you down now

Phew see he’s not a weirdo or anything, it’s all good

“That was a smart move you just pulled. I’m guessing you aren’t very fluent in the common sense department.”

Uh eXCUSE ME?!

Okay wow rude much

Who says something like that after saving someone?

Who says something like that to anyone they barely know ever?

Way to ruin the moment … wait what moment

There wasn’t a moment

That wasn’t a moment that was just uh...he was just…

:)))) moving on

You squint at him and scramble up to your feet to get away from this rude boy who you’re just starting to notice is kinda cute even if the way he looks at you is a little creepy and his attitude needs work, dusting yourself off and inwardly cringing at the chill snaking up your side. That’s just from the rainwater, right...? “Like you’re one to talk.”

He laughs at that...his laugh sounds like a bell. A bit obnoxious, but it’s still pleasing to you. And that makes you pretty angry.

“Stop laughing at me!”

“Huh?!”

“I mean it! Cut it out!”

He’s mimicking everything you say in a horribly applicated high-pitched voice, which only fuels your anger and frustration. Not to mention your embarrassment.

You’re embarrassed, right? That’s why your face feels so hot right now? Or you’re running a fever. Maybe you caught the bug that’s going around. People catch colds all the time during a rain shower, it’s only in every cliche romance anime ever.

Wait a sec…

Romance anime?!

Uh hahaha no no sis that’s not what this was

Not in the slightest

But I mean

It’s all set up like one

The rain

After school atmosphere

Cute delinquent guy with a bad attitude rescuing and teasing airheaded good student

Crap crap crap

Abort mission abort abort

You gotta scram baby

So that’s just what you do

...Well you try to anyway

But next thing you know he’s lifting you up in his arms and like

Dude

Have you not heard about personal space before?!

You turn your heated face down to him and he’s smiling up at you, so sweetly, so purely, all rainbows and sunshine

“Sorry, I was just teasing you. I thought maybe you could use a lift?” ❀

Well crap

He wasn’t wrong tho

Hnnnnn you can feel your face heating up again; er, even more

HNNNNN THIS REALLY IS AN ANIME ROMANCE ASDFGHJKL;

Okay okay calm down (y/n)

Just go with the flow

No use fighting it

Nothing good ever comes of fighting it

So you smile and mumble your thanks and let it happen

And guess what?

You two end up becoming the best of friends \^-^/

It’s quite cute actually

And it happens very naturally too

A nice slow burn transition into acquaintances, then friends, then good friends, and finally by the time you reach high school, y’all are besties

He’s always there for you when you need him

...

Like, always

It’s kinda strange actually...

He always knows right where to find you and texts you the moment you unlock your phone to text him

You: 𝖶𝗈𝗐, 𝖨 𝗐𝖺𝗌 𝗃𝗎𝗌𝗍 𝖺𝖻𝗈𝗎𝗍 𝗍𝗈 𝗍𝖾𝗑𝗍 𝗒𝗈𝗎! 𝗈𝖠𝗈

Him: 𝖮𝗁 𝗋𝖾𝖺𝗅𝗅𝗒? 𝖧𝖺𝗁𝖺𝗁 / 𝖶𝗈𝗐, 𝗐𝗁𝖺𝗍 𝖺𝗋𝖾 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗈𝖽𝖽𝗌? / 𝖨 𝗐𝖺𝗌 𝗃𝗎𝗌𝗍 𝖺𝖻𝗈𝗎𝗍 𝗍𝗈 𝗍𝖾𝗑𝗍 𝗒𝗈𝗎!! :) / 𝖦𝗎𝖾𝗌𝗌 𝖨'𝗆 𝗉𝗌𝗒𝖼𝗁𝗂𝖼 :𝗉

But more recently, it’d gone a little something more like:

“𝖸𝖾𝖺𝗁, 𝖨 𝗄𝗇𝗈𝗐 <𝟥”

… *shrugs*

Guess he’s got some kind of a sixth sense or something

He just knows you so well

But you don’t think much of it because the two of you do spend an awful lot of time together

As in you’re practically joined at the hip when you’re not separated by classes or your mom calling you home for dinner if you happen to go out on the town somewhere

Usually it’s the ice cream parlor or the mall

His buddies Felix and Changbin work at one of the shops there so you like to stop by and say hi to them

But you don’t stay too long because Seungmin really values your alone time

Just the two of you strolling side by side, sometimes hand in hand, while he listens to you ramble on about your day and get excited over cute things in the storefront windows and grumble about being hungry every time you pass the food court

You always tug him in front of one of the stands with the full intent of buying, yet he always ends up paying; he simply insists on it

Because he loves it

Your whining

Your excitement

The way you ramble over the speed limit and express your passion so effortlessly

It’s real to him

Attractive

Inspiring

Photogenic

He’d bottle each memory up and relive them over and over again if he could

Of course they’ll always be in the picturebook of his heart, but that’s a little cringe

He doesn’t care though cause it’s true

Watching you twitch your nose and turn your head like a muskrat as the scent of fresh cinnabuns wafts through the air

It makes him smile and beam with delight and the whole atmosphere becomes warm and inviting

Of course, you don’t know that

Because Kim Seungmin isn’t an open book

More like a locked diary (with chains all wrapped around it like something out of a medieval fairy tale)

Some people have questioned why the two of you aren’t dating yet

But Seungmin’s too shy to say anything; the very notion makes him feel faint and his heart race; and you always dodge the question or tell people you’re simply “just friends”

Because to be honest, any feelings you thought you had for him have sorta cooled down into a comfortable friendship

And while you may have thought about the two of you being an item before

You’re not sure how he feels

Before you rant at the author whAt do YoU mEAN hAve yOU nOt beEn pAYInG aTTENtiOn to WhaT’S gOinG On?!

LET ME (well you) EXPLAIN

While the two of you HAVE been rather inseparable over time since that fateful encounter in junior high

Seungmin is still a bit of an odd duck

Ya know him

But sometimes it feels like you don’t

Lately he’s been getting harder and harder to read

At least when it comes to the feelings department

Aka pathos

You know he certainly cares for you, a lot

And you care for him...a lot

But surely it doesn’t mean anything...more

He’s like the brother you never had

Just looking out for you, wanting the best for you, like family

It’s not anything romantic~ or lustful~ or anything like that …

Is it?

I mean uh

So what if you cuddled while watching movies together, and when you started to drift off against his chest you distinctly felt him place a soft kiss atop your head? So what if you shared milkshakes and ice cream sundaes at the parlor while holding hands beneath the table and speaking of hands you both blushed and giggled cutely when they touched while reaching for the popcorn at the same time? So what if he made you flower crowns and took pictures of you looking like a beautiful mess down by the river, or at the beach, or in the garden behind his house? So what if he occasionally showered you with gifts and bought you food and always left you the biggest mess of flowers and chocolates on Valentine’s day and worked himself tirelessly trying to teach you material you didn’t understand, and was the first one calling to see how you were doing when you got sick, even going so far as to skip class to bring you soup and tease that “you probably caught that dummy virus you had the day we met” and stayed sitting crisscross applesauce on the floor while you laughed stuffily at Tuxedo Mask calling Usagi/Sabrina a Meatball Head and he smiled at your congested laughter while mimicking you in a memey fashion (to which you respond by throwing used tissues at him that never get very far), copying all of the days notes you missed into your journal with that surprisingly pretty cursive handwriting of his...and leaving cute little love poetry off to the side for you to find later...so what if...something is starting to click inside your head...it doesn’t mean anything. None of it does. None of that meant anything!! \(>-<)/ …

……

……...right?

You scream internally into the void

For you do not know

(╥﹏╥)

One day after school of your senior year you’re doing rounds like you normally do

And you whine like you usually do

And he snickers like he regularly does

And y’all wander over to the food court like two happy little love birds (to him) and a couple of friends in a we-aren’t-dating-we’re-just-great-buds-it’s-complicated relationship (to you)

And that’s when you see him

Wow

I mean WOW

This new guy behind the counter

You recognize him from school

He just transferred to your school from out of town

His name is

Uh...

Shoot what’s his name? (._.”) ??

It’s almost your turn in line

Guess you’re about to find out ♥

Gosh he’s gorgeous wowowow

He’s looking more attractive the closer you get, and you’ve only seen him from a distance at school and he was ALREADY the bees knees then

You take a step forward up to the counter…

That is until Seungmin stops you

This bish just completely cut you off

His tall 5’9 ass is completely blocking your view of Hunkilicious >:((

Your peeking around him as best you can, but it’s hard when he’s constantly shifting his weight in time with you; you still manage to get a glimpse though, and wowza he’s fine (♥‿♥)

That sandy blonde hair

Those gorgeous bright eyes

A whole snacc sis

You smile at him while Minnie’s placing your order, and he catches your shy little wave, sending a flawless wink back at ya

(/❛o❛)/❤,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸,.-~*´¨¯¨`*·~ o(~_^)o

OOF

MAN DOWN MAN DOWN

HE GOT YOU

ONE HIT KO

AHHHHHH <3

If love at first sight is a thing

This may very well be it

He’s. So. Cute~ 乂❤‿❤乂

At least you think so

Seungmin, on the other hand…

…

Not so much :))

In fact

The way he’s looking at this guy

You may not know what he’s thinking

But you can tell

He’s trying really hard to put up a normal/average front

His aura is…

Well

It’s not pleasant that’s for sure

When you two stand off to the side, waiting for your order

You tug at his sleeve and ask him if he’s alright

“Hm?” He snaps out of glaring daggers to peer down at you, smiling softly. “Yeah, everything’s fine.”

You highly doubt that, but you aren’t about to open any doors that should remain locked

“Okay…”

Just then your order is being called, by the cute blonde by that recently stole your heart

You instantly light up like a Christmas tree, and before Seungmin can make a move you dash over to the counter to pick it up

Leaving Minnie in your dust

“……”

He doesn’t say a word

Meanwhile, back at the food stand, you’re taking the bag of goods from…

You’re squinting at his nametag…

Only to notice he isn’t wearing one. Now you feel kind of dumb.

“It’s Jaemin,” he laughs, dropping some extra napkins in the bag. But also…

Why is winking at you like that?

“Maybe I’ll be hearing from you sometime?”

What…

You look down into the bag

Sure enough, there’s a phone number scribbled out in pen over the top napkin

...Wow. He’s not even trying to be sneaky about it. He’s letting you know what’s up.

But doesn’t he think that…?

You look at him earnestly. “Don’t take this the wrong way or anything, but um…”

His eyes grow soft, and looks disappointed all of a sudden. But he seems to be taking whatever he thinks is going on respectfully. “Oh, so you are in a relationship. I’m sorry, I thought that-- well, Jeno told me you two weren’t anything serious, so I thought that--”

“Jeno?” You look over his shoulder, and sure enough there’s Jeno, school jock, meeting your stare and giving you a quick “what up” nod before he hustles back to work

Jaemin sighs, making himself look busy by swiping down the counter. “Sorry, again. That was really rude of me, you can just ignore--”

“No!” you cut in.

He’s looking back up at you, a bit surprised, and you clear your throat. “I mean uh...he’s right. Jeno’s right. I’m not...seeing anyone right now. I mean, I’m not in a relationship or...anything like that. Seungmin and I are just really good friends. He’s like a brother, almost.”

Jaemin’s surprise quickly spreads into a smile that travels from ear to ear, and chuckles mostly to himself, giving himself a nod as well. “Okay. Sounds great. Maybe I really will be hearing from you then.”

Hnnnnn your insides are turning to goo, and you nod a little too ecstatically, having to contain the excited squeal threatening to erupt from the butterflies in your stomach as you hurry back over to Seungmin’s side

He’s right where you left him, and he looks…

He looks like a kicked puppy

There’s no way he could have heard what just happened

But you knew he saw the whole thing

...That didn’t matter though, right?

Cause it’s not like you guys are dating

He doesn’t even like you like that

Just friends

Just friends, (y/n)

So it’s fine

You don’t even care if he sees the phone number napkin

Which he’s looking at right now; actually glaring intensely would be a better word

And now he’s

He’s reaching inside the bag

He’s taking it out

He’s glaring at it

He’s debating something

He doesn’t look very happy

Brave (Y/n) tries to reach for the phone number

Her attack missed

Minnie’s power level is too strong

It’s over 9,000

Now he’s walking away and…

You gulp as he waits to get Jaemin’s attention

exchanging some words with him

Oh dear stars

What are they saying?

What’s going on?

You’re not sure why, but your legs won’t move

There’s some kind of...barrier...there’s this aura emitting off of Seungmin. It’s the same as earlier when he first caught you smiling at Jaemin.

But now it’s stronger, more powerful. Clearly you aren’t the only one who feels it either, because the customers and employees around him are taking a few steps back and sending curious glances as well...when he comes back, he’s empty handed. And he looks…

Calmly pleased with himself. “Sorry about that, (y/n). He won’t be bothering you anymore.”

You frown. “He wasn’t bothering me, Minnie. In fact--”

You don’t get to finish that thought, because he’s ushering you off like a shepherd herding a lost sheep away from a pack of wolves...

Except you’re starting to suspect that he may be a wolf in sheep’s...well, shepherd's clothing

You sit down to eat, and it’s like nothing happened. Minus the twitch in his face every time you so much as look toward the Cinnabon shop.

~~~

The next day you’re sitting in your chosen science course, Environmental Systems. It was either that or Quantum Physics...and let’s face it, you hate math, so ES won ten to none

You’re sitting at your lab table totally zoning out...you can’t stop thinking about Minnie’s behavior the other day. What the heck had gotten into him? Why was he acting so strangely? So rudely?

He’d gotten better after he started hanging out with you. He’d stop skipping classes, started taking his classwork seriously

It turns out Minnie is actually really smart; like, really smart. His IQ has gotta be in the 150 range. It was just a matter of applying himself and actually giving a hoot; and for some reason, he’d listen to you. Most of the time, anyway.

So you’re sitting there all slumped over in your stool, elbows on the table with your head propped up in both hands. Your eyes are locked in an internal battle with the clock on the far wall; each second that ticks by is a second lost, a second wasted, a second longer that you STILL can’t figure out what’s wrong with--

...Say, why is this bothering you so much anyway?

You two ain’t dating

You’re just friends

But you still care about him and are worried for him...as a close friend, right? That’s normal, isn’t it? You’re like a fretting sister worried about her brother’s strange behavior

Yeah yeah that’s all it is

Also what was up with that aura coming off of him?

You’re pretty sure even the Fire Nation would have turned and run with their tails between their legs

Wonder what it was he said to Jaemin…

...Aw man

Jaemin

So much for that romance waiting to be written (“=3=)

You feel a hand on your shoulder

“Ahh!”

You whirl around to see Seu--

…

Lucas?

He gives you a tender smile, slinging his backpack to the floor beside the table. “Hey. You okay?”

“Oh…” You sigh, shaking your head to clear it. “Yeah. Yeah I’m...fine.” ...Not fine, but it’s okay.

New character introduction! → This is your lab partner, Lucas. He’s sat beside you all year, but you normally don’t speak much beyond idle chitchat and classwork.

But today is different

Because today is the day he’s finally getting up the courage to…

...No, not confess his undying love for you. He just wants to talk more. He’s seen you around with Seungmin a lot; in fact the two of them share a class together, and let’s just say you’re not the only one who’s noticed some odd behavior. Lucas is a caring guy, and he’s worried about you… He thinks you’re a good person. And to him, good people are precious treasures that must be protected!! (/oAo)/

He takes a seat in his stool beside you, the one next to the window, and looks at you with concern in his eyes. “So, listen...I know we don’t talk a lot, but…is it okay if I ask you something?”

“? Sure, go ahead.”

“You and Kim...what’s your relationship like?”

You frown. “We don’t have a relationship. I mean, I’m not romantically involved with him...we met in middle school. We’ve been friends ever since.”

“...Are you sure about that?”

...what?

“What do you mean?”

“Well...not to sound out of line or anything, but I’m a bit surprised...well, I have a hard time believing...erm, seeing a person like you hanging out with a person like him. And it’s not just me, either. Anyone who knows either of you feels the same way.”

(• ε •) ? Why tho

You’re looking to him for the answer, but he doesn’t give you one. Instead he’s changing the subject.

“...Not to be nosy, but Jaemin told me what happened the other day. Uh…” He rubs the back of his neck, glaring down at the table. “He wanted me to apologize to you again, in his place. But you really should have told him if you were--”

“I’m not in a relationship with him!”

You’d slammed your hands on the table, jumping out of your seat. The rest of your classmates all silence their chatter or last minute scribbling of unfinished homework assignments, staring at the far left corner of the room where your table is.

Oops

You uh

You hadn’t meant to do that

Muttering an apology you sink back down into your seat, head bowed to allow your hair to hide your face like a curtain. Showtime’s over, folks. No encores, please.

Lucas hesitates, but after a moment he places a hand against your back. Something wet rolls down your cheeks...sheesh, when did you become such a crybaby? Are you seriously crying about this right now? But why…?

You hear him swallow, and next thing you know he’s asking you for your side of the story, and you tell him everything. About Seungmin flipping like a light switch. About his scary aura you’d never noticed before. That you had no idea he was gonna react like that.

“I see…” Lucas is quiet for a moment. Then he holds out his hand to you. “Give me your phone for a sec.”

??? Okay…

You give him your phone, and he smiles a bit at the phone charms of things you stan clinking together as it’s being passed over to him. He grabs your wrist for a second (lightly) to unlock it, making you chuckle, then he’s opening the contacts app. He slides it back over not but a few moments later with the friendliest smile he’s ever given you; a smile letting you know that everything’s going to be alright.

“Text me anytime. I gave you Jaemin’s number as well. You should call him. I know he seems kind of like...a womanizer, but he’s really not. That’s just a dumb rumor going around from the popular crowd ‘cause he turned one of the cheerleaders down. He’s really a nice guy, and he talks about you a lot.”

……

QAQ <3

LUCAS I COULD KISS YOU RIGHT NOW

OmgoshomgoshomgOSH \(^.^)/

GO LUCAS YEEHAW

You do hug him at least

You can’t help yourself

You feel like a weight has been lifted

Like you can breathe a little easier

Lucas just laughs half awkwardly, half genuine, and pats your back before the teacher walks in and makes a comment about PDA, and you both roll your eyes and take your seats

You spend the whole class chatting and catching up like two good friends that hadn’t seen each other in a long time, really hitting it off even though you’ve been lab partners the whole semester

Your teacher doesn’t mind as long as you get your work done; today is a relaxed, catch up on late assignments kind of day

You’re so engrossed in a debate about which flavor of ice cream is superior that you scarcely hear the bell ring; you notice it but it leaves your mind after five seconds because this hoe over here is trying to convince you that vanilla is better than chocolate

CHOCOLATE IS SUPERIOR OKAY?!? (Author Note: if you feel otherwise, just pretend the roles are switched✌️)

You’re going into heavy detail about how your flavor is just melts-in-your-mouth kind of good, being a river of pure joy when you notice Lucas staring towards the door with a troubled look on his face...is he trying to tell you he needs to go?

Probably. Well shoot, is it pretty rude to keep someone from getting where they need to go…

You’re about to apologize and turn to get your things and uh

Seungmin is there

At the door

Just watching you two

He’s wearing the same resting b*tch face he wore during the Jaemin fiasco

Uh-oh.

He doesn’t approach you like you fear he will, though. He simply waits patiently, one eye on you, the other on Lucas.

The moment you get your things together you bow your head to Lucas, being overly respectful in a state of minor panic before scurrying for the door. Seungmin flips his attitude again to be all smiles and sunshine, taking your hand a bit too forcefully and sending a look over his shoulder before hauling you off.

“What was that all about?”

He may be smiling, but his tone is the complete opposite, making you frown

He’s not gonna freak out again like yesterday, is he??

Uh uh uh

Wait you don’t have anything to hide

You have the right to have friends

You know what

YOU KNOW WHAT

You’re about to tell this guy

This whole thing is dumb, you’re probably making it out to be way worse than it actually is

It’s surely nothing

Guys are just weird and testy

...But when you open your mouth to let him know how you feel

Aka the truth

Nothing comes out

Not a dang thing

You close your mouth; open, close, open

N o t h i n g

Then something finally does come:

“Lucas is my lab partner. We were just talking about--”

He cuts you off, squeezing your hand a little tighter. Ow. “No, not that. I meant before class.”

Be--

Before class?!

“I saw you handing your phone to him. What happened?”

Sis what

He saw that? He was there?!

WHERE?!?

He always walks you to and from class, but you were sure you saw him leave after he dropped you off! He...He had to be hiding somewhere…

Normally you’d think it was a bit cute because “oh he’s just a helicopter brother” or laugh ‘cause he’d be trying to pull a prank on you but

Given what happened yesterday

It freaks you out.

He’s squeezing your hand tighter. It’s really starting to hurt.

“Um...it was nothing! It was part of a warmup assignment!”

“Warm-up assignment?”

“Yeah! We were comparing the current temperatures around the world, and his phone wasn’t working, so I let him borrow mine!”

The lie comes tumbling out of your mouth like a rolling stone

You can’t very well give him the truth

Not if he can’t handle the truth

Plus you need time to sort out what’s really going on with him

But does he buy it?

Well let’s see

He stops and looks you in the eyes

His gaze is cutting through you again

Just like it did when you met him some four or five years ago

It’s more than a little unsettling, but you refuse to crack

Please buy it please but it please buy it…

He sighs and studies you, more gently this time, before pressing his lips together and giving a few small nods. “Okay. I guess that’s okay.”

He uh

He what now?

He guesses that’s okay…?

……

“...Listen, Seungmin. I think we need to talk later.”

“I do too. I have something for you.”

He um

He has something...for you?

Another present?

“What is it?”

His grin is almost too excited. Yet it also seems so pure and innocent. His eyes are smoldering… At least that’s how your brain interprets it, but surely he’s just trying to scare you as is his hobby 24/7. “But you’ll have to wait ‘til tomorrow to open it.”

~~~

Tomorrow comes sooner than you know it

It’s Valentine’s Day

Flowers and chocolate and greeting cards are all over the place

Ribbons and lace and delicious cakes

Hey that kinda rhymed B)) You’re the new Shakespeare

Okay anyway

You’re at your locker; for once Seungmin isn’t around between periods, he’s being held up with a board meeting

Oh yeah, that’s right...forgot to mention, he’s on the Student Council

Told you he was smart tho

But that also made him a lot more...worrisome, given his recent outburst and weird personality flips

The Student Council had a lot of influence at your school

They practically ran the whole circus here

For example, you knew it wasn’t a coincidence that you no longer shared Statistics class with Jeno, Jaemin’s buddy.

… sigh

This whole thing was just one giant me--

What is all this?? (o.o)

You open your locker, right

And well

There’s a huge mess of roses

And chocolates

And greeting cards

And ribbons and lace and delicious cakes; word 😎

You have to grab a few bouquets and boxes before they spill all over the floor

How is it that...since when did you have so many admirers?

No offense to you or anything

You were a very nice girl

Cute, smart, sophisticated, good sense of humor

But you were also rather quiet and shy

Mostly because Seungmin took up all your free time

He kept it that way

Once you survive shoving everything back into the locker in a way that won’t result in them burying you alive, you open one of the greeting cards while a janitor and a few students give you looks at the mess of petals all over the floor

(𝑌/𝑛), 𝐻𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑦 𝑉𝑎𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑒'𝑠 𝐷𝑎𝑦! (\(^-^)/) 𝑊𝘩𝑒𝑟𝑒'𝑠 𝑚𝑦 𝘩𝑢𝑔? 𝐽𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑑𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑚𝑒 𝑠𝑖𝑐𝑘 𝑤𝑖𝑡𝘩 𝑡𝘩𝑎𝑡 𝑑𝑢𝑚𝑚𝑦 𝑣𝑖𝑟𝑢𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠 ;𝑃 -- 𝑆𝑒𝑢𝑛𝑔𝑚𝑖𝑛

You open another:

𝑅𝑜𝑠𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑑, 𝑉𝑖𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑏𝑙𝑢𝑒, 𝐿𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑖𝑛 𝑡𝘩𝑒 𝑡𝑢𝑙𝑖𝑝𝑠 𝐹𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑎 𝑏𝑖𝑟𝑑'𝑠 𝑒𝑦𝑒 𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤

??? Okay then…

You’re noticing that all the cards and boxes are labeled “Seungmin” or “Minnie” or “you know who” as you’re shuffling through the garden that has become of your locker

You find the tulips near the back next to some daffodils and classic red roses, having to use half your strength just to wrestle them out

Oi vey

You peer inside from “a bird’s eye view”

…

But you don’t see anything

Wait a second yes you do

There’s something dark and boxy buried inside the bouquet

You dig inside...fish it out

It’s a lovely black box, long and rectangular, with a beautifully elegant ice-blue ribbon tied around it

Wow this thing looks pretty pricey...how much did he spend on you exactly?

Seungmin had always been a little extra when it came to you but this year was overkill big time

There’s a note sticking to the back of the box; it says: 𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝑚𝑒

Wow he may as well just attached all the notes he gave you into a novel

But okay you read it

You like reading anyway

𝑂𝑝𝑒𝑛 𝑚𝑒 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑐𝘩𝑜𝑜𝑙 𝑝.𝑠. - 𝐼'𝑙𝑙 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑙 𝑡𝘩𝑒 𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑠 <𝟥

...Huh??

You examine the flowers before you…

Your eyes instantly land on the one in the center, which looks slightly different from the others

Because it’s fake...

~~~

Minnie helps you carry your things home after school. He handles your bags and chocolates and most of the flowers, but he insists that you carry the tulips

Why not roses? → Tulips were your favorite flower

But even if they hadn’t been, he’d bought you one of every kind of flower on the freaking planet anyway, as well as every good chocolate combination in existence

He’d even gotten you that cute plushie you’d been eyeing in the window of a toy shop in the mall

“Did you like everything?”

“Yeah...it’s great. You didn’t have to, though.”

His face gets a little...resting b*tch again. “Nonsense. I wanted to. You deserve it.”

M’kay…

“...Thanks, Minnie.”

“I mean it. You deserve this and more.”

“No, no. This is plenty. Wayyy more than enough.”

You laugh at first, but the moment you notice Seungmin’s not laughing, you stop.

There’s an uncomfortable silence in the air for the rest of the walk, that is until you reach your house.

“Listen, (y/n)--”

“Welp thanks for everything today!!”

You rush inside, dumping the load in your arms by the front door. When you run back outside to get the rest of what Seungmin is carrying, he tries speaking to you again.

“(Y/n)--”

“Geez it’s awfully cold out! Winter sure is a bummer huh? But I do love curling up inside and um...oh wow I’ve got a lot of homework to do--”

“(Y/n)!!”

You wince at the harsh tone in his voice; if you were an animal you’d have your ears flat against your head right now. “...Y-Yeah?”

Something...uh...uh-oh

His cheeks are turning the color of the roses in his arms.

This can’t be good

But when his lips part to say what he needs to say, nothing comes out

Cause here comes Lucas riding his bike down the street

And there’s a red rose gripped against the handle

Oh dear stars what fresh hell is this

You’re lost for words

Maybe he’d just passing by on his way to give some other girl a--

Nope he’s putting on the break in front of your house

He’s wheeling his bike over to you

Seungmin’s going into resting b*tch mode again

Why does karma hate you??

“(Y/n),” Lucas chuckles. “Don’t get too excited or anything. This isn’t from me. Jaemin asked me to give it to you. He’s been swamped by girls all day and hasn’t had a moment to himself to come find you. He’s got practice after school so...well I owe him a favor after losing a bet last week, so here I am. Haha...ha.”

Oh man, karma really does hate you

You look over to Seungmin, slowly, careful that any sudden movements will set him off (if Lucas’s words haven’t)

…

……

Wow he’s actually pretty calm right now

Hey maybe he’s okay

Wait no he’s not

He’s crushing those roses and chocolates in his arms pretty tightly

He looks really stiff and rigid

You’re surprised there isn’t a vein throbbing out of his forehead right now

And that scary aura is leaking back into the air again…

“Uh, th-thanks Lucas…” You can’t stop stuttering as you reach for the flower

You take it and after exchanging a few lame jokes and chatter, he waves and gives Seungmin a Bro Nod before riding off

...I mean

That could have gone way worse

You honestly thought Seungmin was going to try and stop you

Or say something

And truth be told the author did plan that

BUT

Then she got another idea okay back to you (y/n)

Gee thanks >->

Okay now

You’re watching Lucas ride off into the sunset (not romantically or anything, just seeing him off and secretly cursing him for choosing such a poor time to pull a stunt like that) when Seungmin blocks you view and is standing...really close to you.

Why is he so close?

He’s...looking down at you intently. Watching you closely.

Huh who what

Why

This is weird

He just keeps getting weirder and weirder

Making less and less sense

And then he says:

“(Y/n)...listen for a second. Please?”

Um okay

Kinda scared to but sure

“Okay…”

“About what happened yesterday...I’m sorry.”

Oh! He’s apologizing!

He’s not crazy after all (っ◔◡◔)っ ♥

I’m fine you’re fine everybody’s fine

You smile in relief, feeling your muscles relax and all the tension leave the air. You’re seeing the old Minnie you became friends with in those sparkling eyes, that kind lopsided goofy smile, those soft lips, that...that uh…

……

Soft lips?

Sis I

*internally shaking your head*

Girl you gotta get your butt inside RN

You quickly tell Minnie that it’s alright and sweep the whole thing under the rug, giving him a FRIENDLY kiss on the cheek that he may or may not have taken the wrong way

And you get your crushed flowers and broken chocolates and scramble up the sidewalk leading to your doorstep.

…

You fail to notice how long Seungmin is glaring after you with the purest, yet most lecherous, smile on his face

~~~

The moment you yeet yer ass back into the house

It’s like a reminder notification goes off in your head

And you remember about the tulips

Luckily your parents are out having a romantic dinner at some four-star restaurant, so you gather up all the stuff Seungmin had bought you and make three or four trips getting everything securely into the closet of your room

Plushie goes on the bed

You put the tulips in a vase, pondering curiously at what to make of the whole “last flower dying” business

But that can also wait

Because you have a gift to unwrap

You crack open a box of broken chocolates first (hey they’re still good even if they are a little messy and no longer visibly attractive), then you set the box down before you on your desk and just...stare at it for a minute

Admiring how pretty and fancy it is

It’s after school now, sooo…

You tear into that bad boy ヽ(⌐■◡■)ノ♪♬

…

……

………

It’s

It’s a

ᴵᵗ'ˢ ᵃ ᵏᶰᶤᶠᵉ

Seungmin

He got you a--

Holy cow uh

Holy shiz

What

What are you supposed to make of this??

……………………

There’s another note inside the box, beneath where the knife was

You carefully set down the weapon, you don’t know if it’s a switchblade or what and the last thing you need is this thing popping out at you

𝑊𝑖𝑡𝘩 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑢𝑙 𝑡𝘩𝑜𝑢𝑔𝘩𝑡

𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑡𝘩𝑎𝑡 𝑏𝑖𝑛𝑑

𝑆𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝘩𝑒 𝑏𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑠

𝐵𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝘩𝑒𝑦 𝑔𝑜 𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑑

……………………………………..

*takes a breath*

Okayyyyyyyy

You take it back

There’s a sinking feeling in your gut right now

You have an idea of what this could mean

But you don’t want to

…

You peek outside your window

No one is there

You stick your head out into the hallway; no one’s home either

Normally you’d hope Mom and Dad would bring you home some leftovers

But tonight you’ve lost your appetite

You don’t even know why you’re stuffing your face with chocolate right now

Stress eating you guess…

…...

You close your door again with a small shiver, reaching down to examine the knife he gave you

Once you manage to get it open anyway

You let out a little yelp the first time, but after practicing a few times it becomes easier and less scary, your confidence in not cutting yourself or losing an eye growing

You turn the blade in the sunlight

It was really freaking pretty

Really really pretty

It’s shiny af

So so shiny

And let’s face it you love shiny things

You were probably a seagull in a past life with how attracted you were to sparkly objects

S o s p a r k l y ✨💕

The colors blended so beautifully too, one spectrum flawlessly cascading into the other, then the next

The whole thing was very elegant and feminine

But also cool and kind of retro-looking

A rainbow-stained blade with a black chrome handle

It had a little pocket clip on one side, in case you wanna clip it to your jeans or attach it to something

The design on the handle is pretty

It honestly looks like a butterfly knife, but it’s not

Just a basic spring-assist

You only know this because Minnie catches you examining it again the next day and tells you

Why did you bring a knife to school, you ask?

Well…

What if your mom decided to do cleaning? Was your whole thought process; she always gets a little nosy after Valentine’s Day and likes to tease you about all the stuff Seungmin usually busy

Wait til she gets a load of Butterfly Gardens in the closet

You’re looking over at Seungmin now, who’s all peaches and cream, looking cute as a button for someone who just gave you a deadly weapon the other day

He looks really excited and pleased with himself

And then he asks you

“Are you gonna keep it?”

...

Well let’s see

You’re pretty sure if you bring a knife home

As in, your parents see you walking through the front door and actually find out about it

Even if you are just about a legal adult now

Your mom is gonna freak

Your dad won’t be having any part of it either

“yOU’ll shOOt yOUr EyE OUt!1!1!”

“Mom it’s not a gun and this isn’t A Christmas Story!!”

“You’LL STaB YouR eYe ouT1!1!”

Ugh yeah it’d be a no go sis

Plus with that poem he wrote you…

And everything else…

Even if you are friends and all…

Or whatever the heck your connection to him was

It’s all too much

You’re about to respectfully and politely decline when you look at Seungmin’s face and

...

He’s staring at you

Hard

Really hard

Like he looks a little pissed

It’s almost like he read your whole thought process just now

Like he knows you’re about to say no and hand it back to him

Holy shiz

Uh okay bro chill out haha...ha

“Well?”

Dang he don’t sound very pleased either

Uh uh uh

You smile to cover up the weird feeling in your gut, gripping the blade close to your chest (closed, ofc): “It’s great! So pretty! I love it!”

...That’s not a total lie, anyway.

It is really pretty

And you do like it

Even if it does creep you out a little a lot

But you getting grounded and swamped by Angry Mom™?

Not so great no

Seungmin is suddenly all smiles again, back to his usual goofy/cheerful self. “That’s great, I knew you’d like it. It suits you perfectly. It’s colorful and charming...just like you.”

He swipes a stray hair from your face, tucking it behind your ear tenderly. The whole action is oozing with love and affection...but you’re not sure if it’s the good kind. It’s light on the outside, but it’s got some weight to it. It’s got a...it’s just...

The final bell rings, signaling that All Students Must Yeet Themselves Off The Premises Because Teachers Wanna Go Home Too

Seungmin places a hand against the small of your back, leading you off campus

Once you turn the corner off official school grounds that hand snakes it’s way around your waist, resting on your hip

U m

You’re uh

You’re honestly too scared to say anything

A chill runs up your spine that doesn’t disappear until after he’s dropped you off at home

The next day goes by in a flash, mostly because for the first time ever you stayed up horribly late way past your usual bedtime to stare at what Seungmin had given you, other than a recent case of the heebie-jeebies (> ︿ <”)

You’d managed to keep the blade hidden from your parents; the moment Minnie dropped you off you’d rushed inside before he could invite himself over (since you could tell it was heading that way and uh...well he was starting to get a bit more handsy) and stormed straight up the stairs to your room, shutting the door and stashing the deadly weapon in a drawer

Seriously, what the heck was going on?! Why was he acting like this? >:((

...

It was on your mind the rest of the evening, while you were doing homework, when you were having dinner

Not even a few episodes of Sailor Moon or your favorite sitcoms were helping

Not even Studio Ghibli

Your mind was present for all of five seconds of Arrietty before you came back to reality and the credits were rolling

Preferably that one part where the dad goes, “sometimes it’s best not to go looking for danger...”

S i g h

Tell me about it, Papa Borrower

You’re trying but it’s like danger won’t stop looking for you

Danger by the name of Kim Seungmin...

...

Was he really dangerous, though?

Kim Seungmin? Dangerous?

He was such a sweet boy

A former delinquent, yes, but the worst he’d done was skip class to do...whatever it was he did. He’d never hurt a fly— at least, not that you knew of

He’s was a Chaotic Shy boy with a kind face that loved photography and flowers and being a sarcastic ass half the time

So what if he had a thing for knives?

It’s normal for teenage boys to be into all that stuff

And maybe he didn’t even have a thing at all

He probably just wanted to catch you off guard to fool you

He wanted to freak you out on purpose

It was all a joke

Yeah!

That’s it!

A dumb prank

Finally you could get some shut eye…

“Would you like to answer this one, (y/n)?”

Your head snaps up, and a few giggles circle round the classroom. Your face flushes in slight embarrassment.

“Um...yes Mrs. Hwang, of course”

Okay you’ll get some shut eye as soon as school is over

You got the answer wrong, btw

Stupid Seungmin 😞😒 you’d let him have it for giving you a scare like that later

That poem was a nice touch too, the bastard

And as soon as later rolls around, you’re ready to pass it over, boys

Here comes the thunder

It’s your free period, and while you thought about taking a nap and telling a friend to wake you a few minutes before Environmental Systems (that friend being Lucas), you were too upset to sleep

You had to give this jerk a what for

A good slap upside the head outta do the trick

Yeah!!

He should be in Woodshop right now, if your sleep deprived brain was remembering correctly

Get ready you jerk 😤 cause here comes the—

...

Your froze in the doorway

Wanna know why?

It’s because your eyes instantly find Seungmin

But the moment they do they can’t help but travel downwards to the project he’s working on in his hands

It’s a statue of you

Like okay hear me out

You ain’t tryna be vain or nothin

Because while the carving is really beautiful and all

It’s totally you

There’s no mistaking it

It’s really freaking detailed

And you see yourself in the mirror at least twice a day

So you should be able to recognize yourself when you see her

And bish that is most certainly, without a doubt, a wood carving of you

......

What are you supposed to do now?

What were you doing here again??

Um uh uh

Sh*t bro

This ain’t good

Normally one would be flattered, right?

But you don’t know

You don’t know what to think

You haven’t known what to think since the incident involving Jaemin

You really aren’t sure how you feel about this sudden new development

You’re just standing there two steps into the room with a fist raised when the boy next to him, your friend Felix (but mainly his), looks over his shoulder and smiles to you, not even questioning why you’re frozen like that.

“Hey, (y/n)! How’s it going?”

Crap.

Seungmin immediately looks up, and his whole demeanor goes from zero to sixty, calm and focused to chaotic and delighted

If only you could say the same about yourself

“(Y/n)...I wasn’t expecting you to come find me.” He smiles. He does that a lot so long as there isn’t another guy around. (Felix and Changbin not included). “Is everything okay?”

“Um…” Say it, (y/n). Say it!

You put on a brave face, trying to look as stern as possible. But that idol of you staring you down from across the room is weakening your stature like kryptonite. “Actually...no, it’s not. It’s really not. I need to talk to you--”

“Then let’s go someplace quiet.”

Wait

Right now?

Apparently so

He’s pulling you out into the hall, yelling at Felix to “cover for him.”

The last thing you see is the freckled boy giving him a thumbs up before you’re dragged off to the Student Council office

It’s empty and dark when you get there; the door is locked

Seungmin must have known it would be

He pulls out a key and unlocks the door, sliding it open and sweeping you inside.

He closes the door but

He doesn’t turn the lights on

So you reach and try to feel your way along the walls for the switch, but your fingers find his instead

Causing him to intertwine them with his

He pulls you right up against him…

And he kisses you

Softly

It’s very gentle, very tender

And you find yourself melting into it, even though just a second ago you were ready to klonk his brains out

But then…

Then he shoves you into a wall

No, he’s not passionately throwing you up against it

He’s slamming you into it

Hard

It honestly knocks the wind out of you for a second

And the first thing you see now that your sight has adjusted are his eyes; they’re boiling, dark, violent

He’s definitely not a happy camper

His grip on you is tight; like he’s trying to make you pop or something

It hurts bro

It really, really hurts

You suck in a sharp breath of air, but he silences you by getting the first word in

“Why the hell are you so difficult?”

UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUh

You, difficult?! He’s one to talk!

“Wh-What are you--”

“Shut up! I’m not finished talking yet!”

He’s totally cutting off your blood circulation

You feel your arms starting to go numb, then your hands. He continues yelling at you in hushed tones.

“Why did you let me kiss you just now? Why did you kiss me back? Why are you...and them…”

...Them?

Is he talking about...Jaemin? And Lucas? And all the other guys you’ve so much as smiled to?

“...I can’t do this anymore, (y/n)...not if you’re not going to listen to me or do as I say. It’s driving me crazy. Don’t you get it? Don’t you f***ing see how I feel about you? Have you really been so dense this whole f***ing time?!?”

You

You don’t know what to say

But that’s okay because he’s not finished yet anyway

“The other day...on Valentine’s Day...when you told me...you said it was too much…...even if you were just joking…”

He loosens his grip on you for all but two seconds before squeezing you again tenfold

You no longer have it in you to meme the situation or find any part of anything remotely ironic or lighthearted

You let out a whimper of pain and he shoots a hand over your mouth to stifle it...then he’s cupping your face with both hands, using his thumbs to brush away the tears

You’d run

But you’re too scared to move again

Seungmin is much stronger than you

Taller

Faster

And now that you think about it

You’re pretty sure you heard him lock the door while you were fumbling around for the light switch

“......”

You hiccup and bite your lip, trying to stop yourself from crying so he’ll give you the space you need right now

This isn’t driving you crazy anymore

It’s scaring you

He’s scaring you

You want the old Seungmin back

The one that wasn’t bipolar and insane

Cause it was all starting to come to you now

The dots were finally connecting

How could you be so blind…?

…

Blind…

Blind.

The poem

What did it say again?

𝑊𝑖𝑡𝘩 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑢𝑙 𝑡𝘩𝑜𝑢𝑔𝘩𝑡

𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑡𝘩𝑎𝑡 𝑏𝑖𝑛𝑑

𝑆𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝘩𝑒 𝑏𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑠

𝐵𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝘩𝑒𝑦 𝑔𝑜 𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑑

……

You just got an eerie feeling in your chest

Seungmin is still looking at you like a puzzle he can’t seem to piece together. You’re sure you’re looking at him the same way.

“(Y/n). I need to know...tell me, do you…” You can feel his cheeks getting hot inches away from your own. “...Do you feel the same way?”

Crazy? No.

Scared? Upset? Yes.

“...I……” You end on a little sigh, a hesitant puff of air. You can’t get your voice box to work properly.

Unfortunately for you, Seungmin takes this the wrong way; slamming you back into the wall again, he reaches into his pocket, cursing while punching in a number you can’t see. Probably because you’re sinking down the wall with fresh tears in your eyes. You seriously want to go back five years ago and reverse such a terrible mistake...or at least be at home.

You think he’s calling someone, but for some reason he only holds the phone to his ear for all of five seconds before hanging up and putting it away. Guess whoever he was trying to reach wasn’t around.

“......”

And then you see something slowly cross over his face. Like watching a sunrise of realization. Like waking up from a horrible dream, a bad nightmare.

And then you see that he’s crying.

The tears are silent and steady

And he angles his body quickly to gape at you with a look of pure horror on his face.

“(Y-Y/n)...”

He drops down to his knees, reaching for you again

But you squeal in panic and flinch away, and he retracts his hands, gripping them close and hanging his head in shame. He’s shaking all over...staring at his hands in disbelief

“......I...I’m so sorry, I...I just...wanted to protect you, (y/n).”

“......”

“Th-Those guys you hang out with. They aren’t good for you. I wanted you to see that...”

“......”

“I’m the only one, (y/n). I’m the only one that understands you. But when you toy with my heart like this--”

“Toy with your heart?!”

You found your voice again. And she ain’t happy.

“...” he swallows, tilting his face up to look you in the eye. Still crying, softly. “...Yes. I--”

“I’ve never toyed with your heart once in my life! I can’t get a word in because you scare the heck out of me! Ever since I met Jaemin at the mall and started talking to Lucas you’ve been acting totally crazy! It’s like I don’t even know who you are anymore…!”

………

And then it’s silent for quite some time

“......” he swallows again, turning his head away and muttering curse after curse to himself while he heads to door.

He locks it behind him.

~~~

Well you found the light switch, but turns out it doesn’t work for some dumbass reason

You’re sure you’re doomed

Your phone is in your bag with the rest of your belongings

You’re confused

And sore

You don’t know what to think anymore, for real this time

You could try calling for help? But…

The Student Council hall is located in a more isolated part of the school that rarely anyone uses

Then Seungmin comes back

And he’s got a first aid kit with him

As well as that kicked puppy expression on his face

Nothing really happens, thankfully

He just patches you up (even though you don’t really need it, since it’s just a few bruises and minor scratch marks)

……

And he leaves you alone

School is long over, so you grab your things from where you left them in your cubby--

…

Wait where’s your stuff

Your bag is gone

Your phone was in there

All your textbooks and homework

Gone

...This day just keeps getting better and better doesn’t it?

Then you turn around

And Lucas is standing there

He’s looking pretty worried with his bag slung over his shoulder, yours in the opposite hand

“Where were you today? You just up and vanished all of a sudden. It’s not like you to skip out on class like that.”

“......”

“Some girls in your class told me you didn’t show up for Statistics either.”

“......”

“Or English.”

“......”

“...” Lucas sighs...then his eyes travel down to your arms, catching on a bit too late, and he gapes at you. “...What happened…?”

“......” You can’t help it. Maybe it was the traumatic experience you just had. Maybe you were about to start your time of the month. But (y/n).exe shut down and fell apart.

Lucas drops everything as you run to him, and he stands there and holds you while you sob into his chest, just letting everything spill out: tears, secrets, all of it.

“(y/n)...”

You gasp for another breath, looking up at him.

“...” His face is twisted with pain, letting you know you’re not gonna like what he’s about to say. “...I think you should stop hanging around him. In fact, I think you need to get a restraining order. I’m not kidding. You don’t know this, but...the way he acts when you’re not around...it’s very different than when he’s with you. He’s very hostile and closed off. He rarely speaks a word to anyone unless he absolutely has to. He’s civil at first, but he gets short pretty easily...he gets hot under the collar the moment anyone, especially a guy, so much as mentions your name...and then today, with you…” He squares his shoulders, standing straight and tall as he’s looking down at you. “Why don’t I walk you to my house? You’re parents went out of town today, didn’t they? I don’t think it’s safe for you to be alone if he knows where you live…”

…

It was true

You’d practically forgotten

Your parents would be out of town for the evening on a short overnight business trip

……

You really don’t want to be alone right now, and you’ve never gotten a bad vibe from Lucas before. You’d grown closer to him since the two of you exchanged numbers as well, so…

You nod your head, and he gives you a kind, sympathetic smile as he leads you away with an arm wrapped carefully and lightly around your shoulders.

~~~

The moment you get to Lucas’s house

You call your mom to let her know you won’t be home

In case she tries calling the house phone and you don’t answer

You can’t tell her you’re staying at a boy’s house that she’s never officially met before, because even if you do trust him she won’t go for it; and because you don’t want to tell her about the Seungmin fiasco either, you mean to tell her you’re staying at a galpals place

But unfortunately for you you don’t have any you can recall off the bat, and because Seungmin is still on your mind his name is the first one that rolls out of your mouth

And you have to go with it

Your mom is a little unsure at first, buuuuut...well okay, Seungmin is a nice boy, he’s over all the time and you’ve known him forever. Just be careful and don’t stay up too late!

Honestly you thought she’d yell at you even if it was Seungmin, so you’re a bit surprised but

Oh well

At least she won’t call or worry now

You ask if you can at least stop by your house to get a change of clothes and your toothbrush, but Lucas doesn’t think it’s a good idea; instead he buys you a new one from the convenience store and let’s you wear his clothes

The t-shirt nearly swallows you and you have to tighten the drawstring pants all the way to keep them up but

It works out okay ^_^

You’re still a little shaken up over everything, but Lucas is a really good friend; he makes up a space on the floor just for you (he insisted a million times you take his bed; he’d changed the sheets and everything) but you didn’t wanna put him out since it was all such short notice, and he finally caves but makes a tent for you that’s as comfortable as possible

The two of you actually have a lot of fun making a pillow fort.

He orders delivery and the two of you curl up in the tent together watching some old Disney movies on a small box TV he hauls out of his closet

Wow this dude is vintage af with his VHS tapes

But it’s nice

The two of you sipping noodles and laughing at Toy Story and Finding Nemo

You started drifting off halfway through Emperor’s New Groove when he decided it was time for lights out and cleaned up everything

He tucked you in and made sure you were nice and comfortable before closing the tent and turning out the lights

Big Brother of the Year award goes to: Lucas Wong. *applause*

But, well…

M e a n w h i l e

At a certain Dandy Boy™ house

Something was rotten in the state of…[enter town name here]

It started with a phone call he’d just gotten from a little someone called (Y/n)’s Mom

Or as he referred to her, Mrs. (L/n).

“Mrs. (L/n)?”

“Hey, Minnie! I was just calling to check on (y/n) and remind her to bring the mail in before she gets too comfortable. She’s not answering her phone and well...you know how scatterbrained my daughter can be sometimes. I’m sure she’s just got it buried in her purse again or forgot to turn it off of Silent mode.”

“...I’m sorry, I don’t understand. Is (y/n) not home right now?”

“...Well no...is she not with you? She called about...oh, three hours ago? Said she was spending the night at your house.”

“......”

𝑻𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒖𝒆𝒅.

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flyswhumpcenter · 5 years

Text

Another Way Out

Can you believe it? I wrote a Pokemon fic and it wasn't even Earth Never Stops chapter 12. Unbelievable. It's a miracle.

This is a prompt fill for a request given to me on Tumblr by @tumblesnout:

Thanks for the request friend, I hope you’ll like this little thing! I made it ship-free, just some nice friendship between some Gym Leaders, it’s all easy-peasy.

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Another Way Out

Summary: Raihan face a challenge he may need some help with.

Fandom: Pokémon Sword & Shield

Wordcount: 2.3K words

AO3 version available here.

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Moans escape from his lips as his eyelids flutter with wings of lead. As his vision slowly comes back to him, he realizes something: even with a clear sight he won’t recognize his surroundings. There’s just too much sand around him and the storm won’t let up, he just knows it. Not that the fact he’s in a weird position tells him anything much better about his current predicament: he’d have just liked knowing a bit more about where exactly he’s found himself in. The Dusty Bowl, maybe?

Better get on with it. He feels a little numb, and maybe dumber, but hey, it shouldn’t be too hard to get back to civilisation. At three, two, one –

Moving his leg even for a little sends a stabbing pain in the entire limb. Oh, that’s going to be fun.

Oh well, what’s a day of training in the Wild Area if there’s no challenge to it? His team may be exhausted (that’s what he can see, at least: he must have knocked his head on something not to remember much of the training session itself), but he isn’t, and he’s never backed down in front of a good challenge, that won’t change now! Let’s go, Raihan: just pull yourself on your arms like you’ve done when climbing and—

Okay, the walls of the hole may be made of slippery sand that glides between his fingers and in which he can’t claw himself for long enough to pull himself any higher. That hole isn’t even too deep: he could very well step outside of it if he could move his legs freely. If he forces a bit on it, he’ll be able to extract himself out of it and call for a Corviknight if the pain is too much (that’d be kind of a loser thing to do, though, he has a reputation to hold as Leon’s rival!). As it stands, right now, he has no network inside that hole. That could be an issue later on.

Oh well. If he first moves his arms (which also hurt: they’re all bruised and bloody in some spots, he must have tried catching himself on something that cut through his skin, probably not to fall inside the very hole he may be currently trapped inside of), he should be fine and escape this easy-peasy. A press on the arms, then his good leg, and then—

He yelps in pain before gritting his teeth, barely realizing he can’t actually move it.

It’s finally time he sees what’s all so big with his right leg. There has to be something external that’ll tell him how wrong things are. Okay, that has to be a big, bad prank people are pulling on him… or a nightmare he’s still not completely awake from. Yep, that has to be a prank because he’s otherwise very, very screwed.

Even if he gets the rock that has crashed on his leg, he doubts he’ll be able to move it like that. Well, it doesn’t cost him anything to at least try to get rid of it for now. It may even minimize the damage he’ll endure from it in the longer run, so he gathers the strength left in his arms, winces at his own wounds reminding him of their existence, and pushes the damn thing out of the way of his flesh and bones. A little something – namely the burning pain suddenly engulfing the entire limb – tells him one of them has to be at least broken, if not pulverized. Isn’t that just fantastic?

There’s no reason to panic yet, so he should just pull himself together and find a way out of this mess. If his team wasn’t so tired, he could’ve asked Flygon to remove the last part of the rock he couldn’t by himself and pull him out of the hole with its arms and wings. The issue with this is that Flygon is knocked out and he seems to have lost all of his Repels in the incident that has brought him in this stupidly sticky situation. Well, it’s not like he has access to anything else in his stuff, considering his bag has stayed on top of the walls, its handle making it levitate over him while he can observe it with frustration. Great, that’s just great…

He must have knocked his head too, considering he feels something wet when he touches the back of it to scratch it in his thinking process. Observing his palm afterwards only confirms what he didn’t want to see: alright, alright, that sure is blood, and that sure has to be his on top of it. Now, he doesn’t just have a broken leg: he also has a head injury of some sorts and wounds on everything else. The only thing missing would be to be unable to use his arms but, at least, he can still do that. Not without feeling every single bruise and scratch on it, but he can. There has to be a low point to everything and this is the one where he currently is.

And what now? He can’t do anything, can he? He’s trapped in here because, even without the rock blocking it, he doesn’t have the strength left to pull himself out of this hole with a bleeding, smashed leg. He can’t bring anyone on his team back to health enough to get out of here. He has no signal and, as such, no way to even call for help. He better as well knock himself out one last time and never wake up, considering it’s where he seems to be heading. Sad ending to someone his strength, and man does he wish it wouldn’t come to that, but—

Hey, actually, it may not be too late. Someone will notice he’s been missing for too long, right? No selfie for a couple hours despite him being training in the desert, no Leader for the Gym’s Trainers to refer themselves to, no stupid meme sent to any group chat: someone will notice he’s been gone for too long for it not to have turned as sour as it did. He just has to wait and he’ll be fine, he’ll rise to the top again and show not even a near-death experience can stop him! Maybe that, in the meantime, his team will have rested enough to at least be able to put him out of there.

Yep, he just has to wait… and wait… and wait… and wait…

It’s going to be a long, long day…

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

“He’s got to be in there!” Nessa screams through the sandstorm running wild in the Dusty Bowl, trying to shelter her squinted eyes from harm. “Raihan, stop hiding, you jerk!”

“Where could he be, though?” Milo asks back, concern flowing through his veins, barely able to distinguish anything in the sea of sand.

It sounds silly to have launched a search party of two in such a harmful weather when their weather specialist is the one they’re searching for; but there’s a reason, she swears. Milo and she weren’t too far away from the last area Raihan had been located in through his phone, so they got sent to smell his train despite technically not being the Leaders nearest of the Dusty Bowl.

Honestly, she’d have maybe complained more if it didn’t smell like death or at least terrible misfortune around here; but it did, so she shuts it down for once (or, at least, tries to do so more than usual) and tries not to lose Milo in the sea of sand right before their faces. She, definitely, prefers the actual sea to the mineral ocean going through a hurricane right here and there.

As she thinks that, her heel slips on a rock and she almost trips butt first into a hole she hasn’t noticed until now. Lucky for her, Milo notices that just on time and manages to grab onto her and pull her to safer grounds once again. They both exhale in relief once she’s all safe and sound.

“Sword and Shield, didn’t see that coming…” She whispers behind her teeth, staring at the hole in front of them. “Thanks for this, Milo. I’ll have to pay you back for it sooner or later.”

“I’m just glad you’re okay, Nessa! Actually, I’d rather like it if you didn’t have to save me later too. Anyway, we should go back to—”

Milo suddenly freezes as he glances down the hole, gulping, with a grimace showing up in his face while he stares at a cloud of sand.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Nessa asks, staring at him, trying to decipher what caused such a drastic change. “You’re all weird all of a su…”

Her voice trails off as her own eyes glance down the hole, finally distinguishing something in the ocean. In a reflex, she holds onto Milo’s arm, as if she could fall down again if she isn’t careful enough (which, to be fair, is accurate), making what should have been a breath of relief and a job well done into a rotten surprise for the both of them.

Lies before their eyes the friend they’ve been searching for the past couple hours. Suddenly, the fact he wasn’t responding to their messages or calls makes too much sense and she’s getting almost nauseous from the faint smell of blood she can now sense despite the awful meteorological conditions. Her disgust seems to be shared.

“Raihan!!” Milo screams on top of his lungs as he goes on all four on the edge of the hole. No answer. “Raihan, do you hear us?!” He screams again. No answer.

“I’m pretty sure he’s knocked out cold, he won’t respond to you,” Nessa chimes in before her comrade can tear his vocal cords apart.

“How do we help him out, then? It looks like he’s injured too!”

Sure enough, Milo’s right: from where they are, she can see their comrade has a bloodied leg next to an also bloodied rock. If she isn’t wrong, she can read pain painted all over a pale face. Not exactly the most reassuring way to find someone who has been gone for a couple hours to a day. At least, they’re here now, and it seems Raihan’s still breathing. It could’ve been worse…

“I think my Pelipper can help him if we’re doing it carefully. You’ve got any better idea?” She suggests, already grabbing its Ball tied around her waist.

“Edelgoss should be able to help!” Milo replies, doing the same.

It’s showtime.

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

When he comes to, Raihan finds himself in a weird, weird place. Technically speaking, it’s no weirder than whatever hole he thought he was going to see his life come to a close in, but it sure is a place he hasn’t seen before. It’s difficult to tell things apart when he’s so bleary-eyed, but the overwhelming dominance of white assaulting his vision is a hint as to where in the whole of Galar he’s ended this time around.

Yep, that’s the hospital alright. It sure seems like one. Maybe a clinic, if it’s not a full-blown hospital.

As his vision finally clears around, which means he must have had some painkillers injected right into his system, he’s starting to notice the little things here and there: the cast on his leg (it’s bulging under his blanket, must be heavier than any gym utility he could have used), the pristine white bandages on both of his arms, the IV drip inserted into his wrist dropping transparent drops at regular intervals, the window half-opened, the curtains gently blowing, the sun shining outside.

“You’re finally awake, huh?”

He turns around and finds himself staring at Nessa and Milo, the former looking fairly angry and the second smiling in relief.

“What happened, exactly…?” He asks, his voice sounding raw and raspy even by his standard. It’s like someone has scratched sandpaper inside of his throat.

“Well, good question,” Nessa snaps back at him. “You disappeared all of a sudden and stopped giving any sign of life on social media, so Milo and I got sent to fetch you. We found you in a hole with a smashed leg and bruises here and there.”

“We got so scared, but at least, you’re safe now!” Milo chimes in, hands fiddling with his scarf. “How’re you feeling?”

“Huh… Like I just got hit by a truck…?”

“Fairly accurate description,” Nessa comments.

He scratches his head, realizing his arms still make him wince from all of the little pains accumulating into a bigger one, his fingers grazing against yet another bandage wrapped around his hair. Huh-oh.

“Hey, guys… Do you know for how long I’ll be stuck here…?”

“The doctors said two weeks, I think? They were concerned for your leg,” Milo replies.

“If you try escaping before that your own team will most likely force you back into bed,” Nessa adds, “so don’t even try.”

Well, he wasn’t going to, at least for now; but that’s just even more convincing. Also, it’s a relief to know his team is all right too. He inexplicably forgot about them until now, that’s terrible. Yep, yet one more reason not to run from the hospital on the first pair of crutches he can find…

“A doctor said he’d go see you once you were awake, so we should call for a nurse,” Nessa says as her finger graces the calling button next to his bed.

“Good idea! We’ll check up you later, is that fine with you?”

“That’s all good.”

On that, both Nessa and Milo leave the room as the call goes through, beeping along for a few moments. He watches them exit through the door opening and closing, the sudden silence almost deafening him.

Yep, here’s his next adventure for the next fifteen days. It’s not going to be the funniest, and man telling this to his fans is going to be downright embarrassing. But, sometimes, you’ve got to deal with the consequences of your reckless actions, don’t you?

It isn’t the first and it won’t be the last time, knowing himself.

#pokemon sword and shield #swsh raihan #swsh nessa #swsh milo #request #prompt fill #whump #broken bones #injury #friendship #raihan (swsh)#nessa (swsh)#milo (swsh)

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