#*I’M* POKER NIGHT 2 ASH NOW

[mr-e-nigma]

# mirrorselfie

[lucycola]

TOS!Spock x Fem!Reader; The Visitor Part 2

ON HIATUS FOR THE TIME BEING

Modern!AU where Spock is an alien who lands in the reader’s backyard and seeks shelter while repairing his ship. Eventual romance and smut.

In The Original Series it is said Spock is a vegetarian, not vegan, so I’m basing this part off of that information. 

WARNINGS: Mentions of blood and bodily harm. Awkwardness. Spock is tall and the Reader is not. Foot kink if you squint. Not proof read at all. PART ONE 

Part 2:  And the zipping white light beams disregarding bombs and satellites. That was the turning point- that was one lonely night

Sparse sun rays of a dreary morning ghosted through the curtains of your bedroom. The night was enveloped in sweaty tossing and turning. You remembered anxious nights before the first day of school where it took you hours to fall asleep and when you finally did you dreamt of still trying to fall asleep. You could never tell if you actually slept that way.

This night was no different.

It was easier to help your visitor into the house, as he wasn’t unconscious this time. He had leaned onto your shoulder and excused himself to the bathroom to change.

You hadn’t been sure what to do at that point, but directed him exhaustedly to a spare room. You had sealed most of the rooms to reserve heat to save money. You felt guilty for how cold it had been and thankfully the old heater in the corner worked.

You shut yourself up with your dog and lay with the fire poker for good measure. You were still equally spooked as you were tranced. Was it a dream? The green blood felt real, but it was so outlandish it couldn’t possibly be.

At some point Spaghetti was scratching the door so hard you let her out of the room. If she wanted her liver eaten, fine so be it.

When you were sure it was finally morning you roused from bed feeling your whole body ache.

You slowly pushed open the door wincing at the creak. His room was only a little down the hall. You ridiculously crawled on all fours until you came next to his doorframe. You swore you had left it closed but now it was just wide enough for your dog to push her way through.

You peeked in and saw he was lying under the two quilts you had placed atop him. Spaghetti was nestled into his side and you inwardly screeched. His head faced away from you as you slowly crept in. 

His chest rose and fell calmly. The pit of anxiety in your stomach unfurled into a sigh of relief. Spaghetti’s tail began to thump and you slowly crept back out. 

You dawdled to the den slowly and fumbled the fire poker back into its stand. 

You felt a chill slither down your back and absentmindedly you fiddled around for some kindling to make another fire. Despite not having cleaned out the ashes from the night before it caught easily. You would have to chop more before the weekend was over and fortunately for you the logs outside were protected with a tarp. Otherwise they would be soaking wet. 

You didn’t know why such a thing preoccupied your mind. There was a damn alien in your house and firewood was at the top of your list? 

You fell back into the couch. How long would he be here? Would his own kind come looking for him? Would your kind look for him? You desperately did not want the FBI knocking at your door. 

What the hell were you going to feed him? Could he eat Earth food? He did say he was half human-albeit he also said he was a vegetarian. What were you supposed to feed a vegetarian.

“Woof.”

“Dog,” you huffed in response, accustomed to your pet’s voice. 

“Human.”

You looked up to see your guest had risen, still in your grandfather’s clothes. He was a bit pale, but seemed alright for the most part. Spaghetti was at his side, tail still wagging. Damn dog. 

You stood immediately, “Did I wake you?”

“Yes, but it is of no consequence,” he replied, “I extend my gratitude for your assistance last night.”

You nodded, mouth feeling dry. You ran your fingers through your hair, finding a large knot. Your neck flushed. You must have looked awful. 

He himself endured the awkward silence. Spaghetti was the first to break it. 

“Breakfast,” you chirped, “I need to feed her. Are you hungry?”

You went into the kitchen, trying to smooth down your hair and retrieved her food bag from the pantry. If you didn’t keep it locked up she’d devour all of it in one day and probably die of an intestinal blockage. You almost learned that the hard way shortly after inheriting her and the house. 

Spaghetti trudged to you once her bowl was filled and began chomping away. 

Spock still stood at the corner of the rug, the left side of his frame bathed in little fire light. You avoided his gaze by ducking into the fridge.

“You said-eh-Vulcans don’t eat meat, right? Can Vulcans eat eggs and toast?” you asked, still feeling the heat at your neck and ears. 

“I suppose that will be acceptable.” 

His voice was much closer, causing you to jump and hit your head inside the refrigerator. You turned and found that indeed he was much closer than before. You hadn’t even heard his footsteps.

You had forgotten how tall he was. 

“Right!” you blurted, “I’ll get started on that. Do you drink coffee?”

He shook his head, “Although my mother has an affinity for it, Vulcans prefer tea.”

You nodded again, “I’ll see what I can do.” You began to rummage through the cupboard. 

“Could I be of assistance?” he asked, having taken a step back. Did he sense it-how you felt?

“No-no, please. You’re still hurt. Just sit down.”

He didn’t move to argue with you and did as instructed. He laid his hands atop the kitchen table, brushing off some crumbs from the placemat. 

Why were you so flustered by him? You didn’t feel that way helping him change or into bed. If anything you were wholly consumed by anxiety. 

What if you hadn’t stitched him properly? you remembered thinking, What if he bled to death in your house? 

He had developed a shiver about him that night so you layered him heavy with quilts, even pulling one off your bed for good measure. You had whispered fiercely into the old heater in the corner, threatening it with the dumpster if it didn’t turn on. Thankfully the old crystals rattled to life and filled the room with its orange glow. 

Now he was at your kitchen table politely and patiently waiting to be fed. Spaghetti was done with her own breakfast and settled at his feet. 

You scowled inwardly. That dog had never been that nice to you. You wondered if it was because of the scent of his clothes-reminding her of her old master. 

You managed to find some ancient tea your grandmother had in the cabinet and set the kettle to boil. You hoped to every and any holy entity it didn’t taste like shit. You fetched eggs from the fridge and procured a pan. 

“How do you like your eggs?” you asked. 

“I was not aware there were multiple ways to like them.”

“Well, there’s more than one way to skin a cat.”

“Am I to understand your kind consumes them?” he quipped.

You stifled a sigh, settling on whipping the eggs in a bowl, “No-we don’t eat cats. Well, some people might. I’ve never met one. It’s just an expression really.”

Neither had you seriously met someone seriously considering eating a feline either. You had only heard racists jokes, which was not something you wanted to unpack right now. 

While you were scrambling the eggs Spaghetti had managed to flip over her food bowl and began to whine. She sat sternly by it, despite the fact that it had long been empty and she knew how to flip it back. 

She whined loudly, wanting more kibble. 

“No,” you replied, “That’s all you get for now. Don’t indulge her-she’s just an asshole.”

Despite your order Spock was already crouching with the ghost of a wince on his features. He flipped the bowl back over. 

You were seriously considering eating dog. 

“Do your people have expressions?” you asked after depositing toast and eggs on a plate for the both of you. 

He settled back down at the table, his reply deterred by the sudden whistle of the kettle. You rushed to it, setting it off the eye. You poured the water in his cup, hoping the tea wasn’t awful. It almost looked like it dated nearly twenty years. When you had first moved in and were cleaning out the freezer you found frozen vegetable and meats dating even farther back. 

“Yes, but they are not as colorful as Terran ones I have found. I know a few from my mother, but none of the likes of which you shared today.”

You blushed again, “I’m sorry-it’s my raising I guess.” You set his plate and tea before him gingerly, avoid eye contact. You felt silly. 

You had a million questions. How far was Vulcan from Earth-what was it like? What was their language like? Did they all wear robes as he did or was that exclusively for travel? Were their more planets beyond Earth like Vulcan? Did all Vulcans have pointy ears?

“Do you have shame?” he asked. 

You were snapped out of your inner wondering. 

“What?” you sat across from him. 

“Your tone indicates your ‘raising’, as you put it, as an excuse rather than an explanation. It would seem you are shameful.”

You sighed for a moment and decided to be truthful, “Sometimes. Not for my grandparents or this house. I mean we weren’t the richest or the most sophisticated.”

He looked at his plate for a moment and picked up the fork, twisting it in his right hand. 

“I understand,” was all he offered. 

You normally ate a quick pace. Spaghetti had trained you that way. You had to be fast so she wouldn’t purposely drool all over your feet or lap. 

The visitor ate slowly, without an hint of whether he liked his breakfast or not. You flushed again at the sight of your empty plate and his still half full. 

He probably thought you were a pig. 

“Do you?” you blurted. 

“Pardon?” He glanced up from his ministrations. 

“Feel ashamed of your upbringing?” 

“Vulcans do not feel shame,” he stated plainly, resuming his meal. Spaghetti trudged over to him and began to slobber at his socks. He gently prodded her head to the side, not paying her much attention other than so.

“Why?” you asked incredulously. 

“Shame is a human emotion.”

“What-do Vulcans have their own set or something?” you snarked, allowing yourself to giggle. 

“Vulcans adhere to a practice in which we do not partake in such expression. Such is the philosophy of Surak.”

You stared at him. Like you were supposed to know what that meant.

“Who’s Surak?”

His right brow twitched ever so slightly. 

“A Vulcan philosopher.” He drank his tea, once again with no hint to whether it tasted good or bad. “One who taught that emotions makes one illogical and hindered the improvement and growth of a successful and peaceful society.”

You tapped your foot, beginning to feel the red swell on aggravation behind your lips.

“You have no shame, yet you understand it? How is that possible?”

“I was taught the history of my civilization. We were once like the humans-living rashly at the expense of survival-at the expense of our evolution to a greater society.” 

“So, what, you’re saying Vulcans are better than humans for that?”

He placed the utensil back down cleanly on the plate and moved his elbows to prop on the table. He steepled his long fingers and locked his eyes with yours.

“Once again you keep inferring from declarations I have not given.”

You crossed your arms, “Indirectly. You were once like humans and now that you’re not you’re better for it?”

“Once again-”

The shrill bell of the kitchen phone interrupted the tension, slicing through it with each ring.

You went to it quickly, leaving your breakfast alone. Please, God, don’t let it be the FBI. 

“Hello?” 

“Good mornin’!”

“Doctor Beltik!” you strained through clenched teeth. You instantly recognized the cheery voice, slowly deteriorating in sharpness from its age. 

The town veterinarian was as old nearly as the town itself-as old as your grandparents would be if they were still here. He was a good friend to them and Spaghetti’s mortal enemy. 

“Little lamb, how are ya?”

“I’m well.” 

You glanced back at Spock and mouthed an apology. He only nodded ever so slightly and continued his breakfast while coolly keeping your dog at bay with the heel of his foot. 

A fucking pro already. You chuckled at that. 

“And the ole girl?” 

You stifled a huff. You did not have time for old chit chat, as much as you loved the old vet. 

“She’s the same-Doctor Beltik I really-” you started but were cut off.

“I won’t keep ya long, lamb, I wanted to ask if your power went out last night. It was quite a storm-largest lightening strike we’ve seen since your ma was a wee thing! Darned thing lasted a long time, nearly blinded me! Not that I’m not already halfway there anyway.”

You paled a bit feeling the eggs churn in your belly. What if someone saw the crash or the ship? How foolish could you be to think anyone could really believe that that was lightening. The vet was a fossil and maybe a little silly, but anyone in their right mind-”

“Y/N?” the vet asked, “Ya still there?”

“Yes!” you sputtered, “It woke me up, but I didn’t have too much trouble going back to sleep. Bad weather is like white noise, y’know.”

“Did your power go out? All of downtown went black.”

Shit. 

“Wow, really? Uh-it did for a short time. Listen, doc-I’ve got biscuits in the oven-”

“That’s alright. Enjoy your Sunday, lamb!”

“Thankyou, Doctor Beltik.”

You hung up the phone and grumbled. You smoothed out your robe and turned around.

The table was empty. No spaceman. Spaghetti was sniffing at the back door after leaving a trail of drool from where Spock had sat to the doorframe. 

Great, just great. 

---

You were already half way out the door, tugging your rainboots when you spotted him at the tree line. 

“Spock!” you called, “What’re you doing?”

It had already began to sprinkle. You darted towards the tree line, the ache in your calves reminding you of the night before-both dragging and half carrying him. 

You nearly ran into him as he stopped so suddenly you had no time to slow down. He steadied you with a strong hand, fingers brushing the bare skin of your collar bone. Droplets of morning drizzled flecked his dark hair and you found yourself crooning your neck back to meet his gaze. 

“I must repair the ship,” he stated plainly, unmoved by your close proximity to him. 

You couldn’t speak. The pads of his fingers were warm at the base of your throat. You felt a chill run up the entirety of your body. 

“Breathe,” he commanded. 

You took in the damp morning air and felt your face go hot immediately. You hadn’t even realized you were holding your breath.

He let you go and you instinctively took a step back. Your brain was fuzzy. It kept shouting the same things over and over, as if arguing with itself. 

Friend. Predator. Stranger. Liver.  

You hated how tall he was. 

He turned curtly and began into the woods. You bumbled after him. 

“I hope no one saw the crash,” you informed him, shivering. “The vet over the phone saw the light from your ship and it knocked out the town’s power, not just my house last night!” 

“There was suitable cloud cover and I was able to move quietly under the detection of Earth’s authorities,” he replied, “Until the storm worsened. I was temporarily blinded and almost struck a metal structure- I believe it’s purpose is to provide the facilities to operate mobile communications.”

“You mean a cell tower?”

You stumbled over a root, sliding in the mud. You grabbed onto his sleeve without thinking. He locked his grip under your elbow and helped you along. You felt pathetic, but steadier. 

“Affirmative. Fortunately, I avoided it,” he explained, “But I was not so quick to avoid the trees up there.” 

He motioned with his hand and you saw the tops of the evergreens were indeed quite taken out. 

The ship loomed into view, sleek and colorless in design. It seemed smaller in the daytime. 

He stopped short of where the ramp used to be and pressed his fingers to the cool metal. The maw of the ship opened quietly and out streamed the light again. 

“The right side of the landing gear is damaged along with a small piece of the hull. Some of the infrastructure of the cargo bay has been warped,” he continued, still leading you carefully up the slick ramp. It’s almost like he knew how you had to crawl that night in order to keep from falling.

He was right. In the dark you had never seen it. Beams fashioned of the same white metal that crafted the cargo hold were indeed bent and some broken. One had been completely severed and was like a sharp pike. It sported a coat of dried green. 

You glanced at his right flank and back up at him. He did not acknowledge your expression of horror.

“What is unknown to me is how the sensors did not detect the cell tower.”

You realized he was still holding on to your elbow. 

“Maybe something was already broken?” you offered in a soft voice. 

He looked down at you and removed his hold. 

“I will investigate as I was not able to last evening,” he replied already starting up the ladder. “Then I must repair the ship and return to Vulcan.”

You followed after him carefully, not wanting to fall. “And how are you gonna do that? There’s not exactly many alien spaceship workshops around here.”

You poked your head through. The cockpit seemed to have the Tardis effect. Unlike the outside it seemed much bigger on the inside. Lines of soft light lined the elongated wind screen and the runway between seats. Spock was kneeling at the console. 

“Aboard each private Vulcan vessel are tools and minor parts for replacement. Although it will take me some time I should be able to repair it sufficiently to return me home.”

You ran your fingers gently along the railing along the bottom of the glass outlooking the forest. 

You finally registered what he had said and whipped around. 

“You can’t do that in the middle of the woods out here! Someone already noticed the ship’s light last night. Who knows that someone won’t come poking around here. You-” you sighed and rubbed your temples, “-you need somewhere to work.”

He stood, once again towering over you at too close distance. “I suppose you already have a space in mind?”

“Actually,” you tapped your finger against your lips, “I might. If it will fit. God willing.”

He eyes did not meet yours, but below. You didn’t realize it at first but his gaze was following your finger, right at your lips. You didn’t know if he knew it, but he had began to chew on his bottom lip. 

You felt heat blooming at your neck. 

“But-!” you interrupted your line of thinking, “I don’t think I can tow this thing with my truck. Can it fly anymore?”

He nodded, “That is something I can tend to now. Although it is still cloudy it might be preferrable if we perform this operation at night.”

“This thing already stands out like a sore thumb from the sky-I mean it’s straight chrome almost.”

Almost. Not nearly as silver. More delicate and duller. 

“Then I shall try now,” he said and rapidly moved back to the console, flipping switches and the like.

“Wait-wait-” you scrambled back to the ladder, “I don’t want to be on this thing when it moves.” 

You were already half way down when he murmured, 

“Humans. So peculiar.”

--

How it fit into your garage was nothing short of a miracle. You never kept the truck under there anyway. Most of your grandfather’s tools had been stuffed to the side. There’s used to be more vehicles,  but in your grandparents will you had been instructed to sell the car and boat to help you with your finances. You could sell the house if you wanted, but you didn’t. 

Not yet anyway. 

There was a large concrete pad in front of the double garage doors and you stood there in the raining morning, motioning with your hands for him to land there. From there on you guided him to slowly back in into place. It funnily reminded you of helping friends’ parents park at graduation. 

Instead of activating the ramp which if extended would destroy the stairs up into the rest of the house, he appeared from a sort of port hole near the back of the vessel. 

“This will do quite well, Y/N, thankyou,” he said.

You squeezed your arm and nodded. You looked up at the sound of Spaghetti scratching the basement door. 

“I-I need a shower,” you said, “Are you all set?”

“Affirmative.” 

He had already began to examine landing gear, having a sort of tool belt of sorts that resembled the ships lack of color and sleek design about his waist.

“I’ll be up stairs if you need anything. Just holler.”

“I will, pi’veh.”

You slipped out of your boots and left them at the base of the staircase. He glanced back at you as the creaking of your bare footsteps filled the room.

He turned back to his work, noting subconsciously that your nails were painted.

Peculiar indeed.

[parkercore-69]

I’m about to have a genuine emotional outburst because ive just had a realisation thats shaken me to my core. And im sharing it here.

For bordering three years now, one of my largest and main interests (basically my big hyperfixation) has been the Sam and Max Franchise. I love the comics, the blip of a cartoon, the LucasArts game and all the TellTale games (i personally despise the vr game but thats a discussion for another time).

One of the many things i enjoy about Sam and Max (other than absolutely everything) is their appearance in poker night. Specifically their joint appearance in Poker Night 2.

Now just recently, I’ve started to get really into the Re-Animator movies. I’ve gone the full monty, obsessively rewatching the first two movies (fuck beyond reanimator, but yet again: topic for another time), drawing it obsessively, talking non-stop about it- god i’ve even been considering actually reading the novelisation.

What im trying to say is as of current, im both very fond of Sam and Max and Re-animator.

Now, just the other day, i discovered that the Evil Dead series have had a few crossovers with Re-Animator, and it’s somewhat relevant within a lot of re-animator fans. So therefore, Evil Dead and Re-Animator are connected.

Finally, onto whats really stressing me:

Ash fucking Williams is in Poker Night 2.

Sam and Max are CANONICALLY friends of Ash Williams.

Sam and Max and Re-Animator are connected through Evil Dead.

What the fuck?

Everything is connected, my life is scripted oh my god. Jesus fucking christ. What the fuck. No but what

[latte-fairytaekwoon]

𝑫𝒂𝒓𝒌 𝑲𝒊𝒔𝒔 𝑷𝒕.2 (𝑲𝒊𝒎 𝑯𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒋𝒐𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑲𝒂𝒏𝒈 𝒀𝒆𝒐𝒔𝒂𝒏𝒈) 𝑹𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅

Part One

𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐄𝐦𝐨/𝐆𝐨𝐭𝐡! 𝐊𝐢𝐦 𝐇𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐣𝐨𝐨𝐧𝐠 (𝐀𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐳)× 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 (𝐅𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐞) × 𝐒𝐤𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐨𝐢! 𝐊𝐚𝐧𝐠 𝐘𝐞𝐨𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐠 (𝐀𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐳)

𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: 𝐒𝐦𝐮𝐭, 𝐅𝐥𝐮𝐟𝐟, 𝐀𝐧𝐠𝐬𝐭, 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐞 𝐀𝐔

𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: 𝐇𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐣𝐨𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐘/𝐍'𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐨 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞.

𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 𝟖.𝟓+𝐊

𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: 𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐞/𝐧𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐞/𝐝*𝐜𝐤 𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬, 𝐬𝐞𝐱 𝐭𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐯𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐦, 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐛𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐝𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐞𝐱𝐡𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐦, 𝐛𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐠𝐞, 𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐞𝐱 (𝐟𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠), 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞, 𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐞 × 𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲, 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲, 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐮𝐧𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐝𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 (𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧), 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐃𝐨𝐦! 𝐇𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐣𝐨𝐨𝐧𝐠, 𝐒𝐨𝐟𝐭 𝐃𝐨𝐦!/𝐒𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐘𝐞𝐨𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐠, 𝐒𝐮𝐛! 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

𝐓𝐚𝐠 𝐋𝐢𝐬𝐭: @seacottons @little-precious-baby @speronyx @pirate-hongjoong @multidreams-and-desires @cloudyyeonnie

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Scrunching her eyes from the sliver of light protruding from the curtain that was left slightly open, Y/N let out a tired groan before pulling some of the navy blue blanket over her face. Feeling his lover shift in her sleep, Hongjoong slung his inked arm and placed it around her waist. Bringing his face forward, he placed a chaste kiss on her exposed shoulder.

"Morning beautiful." He greeted her with his usual manner of complimenting her.

"No........no morning..." She uttered, her voice sounding a little raspy and hoarse.

The dark ash grey male chuckled softly at her unwillingness to get up yet even though it was well past 11 a.m. His fingers traced around the dip of her hip as he hummed out a soft tune.

"Sweetheart, as much as I'd love to stay in bed and hold you for the rest of my life, you have class today and I'm needed at the shop later on." He reminded her.

Although she realized he was right, she still refused to budge and just stayed immobile. Letting out a sigh, he sat up and began to carefully turn her over to him, to which she let out a muffled whine. When she was fully turned on her back, her eyes fluttered open, her vision being blessed by the beauty of her dark and eccentric boyfriend who was donning his signature smirk as his eyes peered down at her, always seeming to stare right into her soul.

"Well? Are you ready to get up or am I going to have to get you ready myself?" He inquired, one eyebrow slightly lifted.

The warmth and comfort of the bed made her hesitant to want to leave. Reaching out, Y/N's hand slowly began tracing the outline of Hongjoong's collarbone.

"Why can't we just stay here?.....just for today? Stay and cuddle together..."

Trailing her hand down, her fingers grazed slightly over one of the piercings on his chest.

"Or .....we could do a few other things."

He let out a soft moan when she rolled his nipple between her thumb and index finger, eyes looking up at him suggestively while she bit down on her lower lip. Her other hand pushed the blanket, which was covering her, a little lower to further entice him. He could not look away at the sight of her wearing one of his many oversized band tees, his mind knowing fully well she wasn't wearing anything else underneath it. The end of it had risen up slightly that if she shifted around more, her entire bottom half would be exposed to him. When her hand threatened to go lower, he quickly caught it with his own.

"Naughty naughty kitten, trying to seduce me into fucking her into the sheets.."

Bending over, he captured her lips in a lazy and semi-messy kiss, his wet muscle poking out to lick across her upper lip.

"As if I didn't do enough of that last night."

Letting out a giggle, she let him wrap her legs around his waist before picking her up and walking towards the adjoining bathroom so they could get washed up and ready for the upcoming events in their day.

Outside in the kitchen, a handsome boy with dark brown hair and a sculpture like face pushed up the glasses resting on the bridge of his nose. His eyes loomed over the formulas and equations that were plastered all over the page. More than once he looked over at the notebook beside him, comparing and analyzing similarities and differences. His pencil was often tapping against the counter, following along to the beat of the song that was blasting from his phone. Occasionally, he'd find himself humming, or even singing along softly like he was currently doing at the moment.

"Fell in love with a girl at the rock show. She said what? And I told her that I didn't know..."

He had been sitting on that spot well over 3 hours, the blueberry bagel he had heated up for breakfast only had a single bite and remained untouched on a porcelain plate in front of his study materials. He let out a whispered curse under his breath as he couldn't seem to focus, his hand reaching up to rub at the side of his neck in frustration. Letting out a puff of air, he leaned back on the chair and stared at the ceiling, thinking about many things.

Hearing the doorknob of his roommate's turn, he was not fazed at all at seeing the [insert hair color] female come out.

"Oh. Morning Yeosang." She waved at him as she made her way into the kitchen, already rummaging through the cabinets like she usually did when she stayed over.

"Morning? It's practically noon." He pointed to the clock hanging by the wall.

Y/N simply ignored him and simply poured herself a bowl of cereal. Sitting down in front of the poker faced male, she made sure not to disturb him as he concentrated on the papers in front of him. After Hongjoong and her became official, she was ultimately forced to be introduced and sometimes even cohabite to a point with him since she now spent more time at their dorm than at her own place. Not that she minded. Yeosang was a very intriguing character. He was extremely quiet at first, but soon opened up to her and became more chatty with her, even more with her than his own roommate and friend. During one of their many conversations she found out he was a natural science major, focusing specifically on chemistry, which resulted more often than not in horrible puns involving the periodic table. He had a weird yet cute obsession with chicken, often wore either beanies or snapbacks backwards and had very similar music tastes like Hongjoong, which was the main reason why they ended up becoming friends, their music. However, Yeosang wasn't as deep, dark nor tattooed like her boyfriend.

Yeosang was a skater and the biggest clue was the skateboard he left on the side of the front door, the bottom of it decked out with various stickers he placed there. God forbid if anyone that wasn't him touched his baby, all hell would break loose, as Hongjoong himself learned one time. The man himself came out of his own room after he finished placing the finishing touches on his makeup. Sliding an arm around his girlfriend, he took in the state of his friend.

"Still taking 6 hours on a chemical reaction Yeosang?" Hongjoong snorted.

"Still taking longer than your girlfriend to put on eyeliner Hongjoong?" Yeosang retaliated, lips curving into a satisfied smile.

Another thing she loved about Yeosang: he was a straight up savage who could roast people harder than an oven.

Grumbling softly, Hongjoong placed a tiny peck on Y/N's lips.

"I have to go now babygirl. Meet me at the shop after class and we'll go home together." He told her.

"Which one? Hers or ours?" Yeosang snickered.

Making his way around the counter, Hongjoong held out his hand and flicked Yeosang on the head, causing him to utter an 'ow' at his ministration.

"And please try to get some air Yeo. You've been cooped up in these 4 walls too long."

After giving him a suggestion, Hongjoong was out the door and out of sight towards his part time job.

"Dark lord has no room to talk, before you came along, he'd only go out for school, work and booze." Yeosang shook his head.

Y/N giggled and got up to make her way out as well.

"He has a point. Besides, you've been stressed out recently. Why not hop on Emmy and take her out for a little spin?"

Y/N found it odd at first that Yeosang actually named his skateboard, but she figured she shouldn't have been so surprised. Hongjoong did a similar thing with his black Mustang. Closing, his textbook, Yeosang turned off the music playing on his phone and grabbed the earbuds sitting next to them.

"You know what? You're right. It doesn't look like it'll rain either."

Picking up her own bag, she followed Yeosang out the door, each of them headed towards a different direction.

"Try not to run anyone over this time." She called out to him.

"I don't run into people, they purposefully get in my way."

After waving goodbye to her, he placed the earbuds in, music already blasting full volume as he skated down the hallway, not caring about if it was allowed or not.

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The little twinkle of the bell chimed, letting Hongjoong know that someone had just come in. Although it was well past closing time, he knew very well who it was that just strolled through those doors. He didn't even look up from his task of wiping down and sanitizing his workplace.

"Hey handsome."

Unwillingly, he smiled softly at his girlfriend's words.

"Hey gorgeous." Finally looking up, he winked at her and caused her cheeks to heat up with a light shade of pink.

Clearing her throat, she asked if he was almost done, to which he affirmed that he was indeed.

"Just let me pack up my things and then we'll go to your place and cuddle." He began putting the tattoo needles, ink and tubes into a black case, making sure it was all neatly arranged and locked tightly.

"My place? But I bought chicken. I thought we could give some to Yeosang." She held up the plastic bag that contained their purchased dinner.

Slumping an arm around her waist, Hongjoong poked his bottom lip out.

"Sometimes I think you're more nice to Yeosang than me."

She shook her head at him and his cute and subtle jealous antics.

"Kim Hongjoong, are you jealous of Yeosang?" She teased him.

Pulling her against him, he whined softly as they made their way out of the tattoo parlor. He sighed as he locked up and punched in the security code.

"I'm not jealous of him....."

Walking over to his car, he made sure to open the door first for her as he usually did every time they went out.

"I'm just making sure you're still interested in me."

He held her hand the entire ride back to her place, even against her protests and lecture about safe driving. When she pulled her hand away so he could place it on the steering wheel, it instead rested on top of her thigh, pinching it softly at times, which resulted in Y/N's own hand smacking it for going too hard at times. Hongjoong just laughed and continued his obnoxious teasing on her, loving to annoy her and get her frustrated with him. When they pulled up to her place, she didn't even allow him to open the door for her. Instead, she sauntered off inside, closing the door behind her and locking it before he could get in.

"Haha very funny babe, now please open the door."

A minute passed but still she didn't respond. Hongjoong began pressing on the doorbell repeatedly. When that still didn't work, he called her, but he was sent directly to her voice mail.

"Aish! Seriously this girl..."

Hongjoong began pounding on the door.

"Yah L/N Y/N! Open this door right now missy! You want me to get angry with you?!"

On the other side of the door, Y/N cupped a hand over her mouth, muffling her laughter at his reaction.

"If you don't open the door, I'll- I'll..........I'll serenade you so loudly your neighbors will complain."

Taking a deep breath, he was about to start singing, but Y/N instead opened the door.

"Dear God, I get punishing me, but what did my neighbors do to get tortured so mercilessly by your banshee cries?"

She finally let him in after that scene.

"I'll have you know I'm actually a pretty decent singer." He stated in a matter of factly.

"Oh I know Hongjoong." She assured him as she began serving him a plate of food.

"You do?" He was puzzled as he tried to recall a time where he sang in front of her.

Not able to suppress a smile, Y/N confessed:

"One night after you came home late and thought I was asleep, I heard you when you began singing Rebel Love Song while playing with my hair."

As she sat down the plate in front of him and looked at him, his already fair complexion seemed to grow more pale and he suddenly looked embarrassed. He awkwardly toyed with his food.

"So......you heard the entire thing...?" He opted for focusing on eating as much as he could before he completely lost his appetite.

Y/N tried to keep a straight face as she sipped on the juice from her cup, ultimately failing when she spat it back inside, almost choking on the citrus liquid. Her boyfriend now threw the unwanted chicken wing back in his plate.

"Well I guess I'm not eating tonight. Good bye. I'm going to go crawl under the bed and die of embarrassment."

She looked at Hongjoong's slumped back as he headed into her bedroom. Wanting to let him change and wash up, knowing he'd take a while removing all that makeup that for some reason never caused a breakout on his flawless skin, she began clearing out the table and washing the dishes. Making sure to wrap the leftovers so he could take to his friend, she made her way into her room where Hongjoong was already on the bed, scrolling through his phone with a cringed look on his face.

"What is it?" She asked him as she began changing into her pj's.

"My idiot roommate. Wasn't watching where he was going and ended up stumbling on a dent on the sidewalk."

Hongjoong held up his phone to let her see a picture of Yeosang's dislocated elbow. She winced back in pain as she saw it.

"Ewww! Is he ok? Does he want us to take him to the hospital?"

Hongjoong shook his head.

"Yeosang would never EVER go to the hospital because of a skating accident. Besides, he's had so many that he somehow knows how to fix them."

Pulling up another picture, he let her see a selca of Yeosang holding up a peace sign as the caption read: "Hehet. I popped it back into place."

Y/N actually thought that was funny. Yeosang was a very funny character even when he didn't try to be. Snuggling herself up to her boyfriend, she let him move her leg so it could be wrapped around him, his thumb playing with the hem of her pink shorts. His hand then trailed up, untying the drawstring before pulling them just a little bit down to expose her powerpuff girls underwear.

"Hey!" Y/N swatted his hand away when he began bursting out at her choice of 'lingerie.'

"I'm sorry! It's just so cute." He tried explaining to her.

She wasn't amused however and turned away from him, her back facing him.

"Awww come on baby. I meant it when I said it was cute. You know I didn't mean it to be mean."

Hongjoong wrapped his arm around her waist, his lips peppering kisses on her cheek and temple.

"Yeah but I bet you'd prefer it if instead it was black lace and the skin around it had ink or jewelry."

Although she meant to only mumble that under her breath, Hongjoong heard her plain and clear.

"Ok what kind of talk is that? Why are you saying such things Y/N?"

She was going to crawl under the blanket but Hongjoong gave her no time to as he rolled her onto her back so he could look at her, not about to let her go until she explained the meaning of her words.

"I mean.......Hongjoong you're the dark, mysterious emo guy every girl thirst for at campus." She began.

"Guilty as charged." He joked.

Y/N chuckled slightly at his cute joke, but then went back to her somber expression.

"But...?" He urged her to continue.

"And I'm the complete opposite of you. You're black, I'm pink. You're leather, I'm fleece......you got your fucking dick pierced while I the only thing I have pierced are my ears."

"Ok, I see your points, but I'm still lost as to where you're trying to get with all this?" He tilted his head.

"My point is this. Wouldn't you rather be with someone who matches you better? Colorful colors on her hair? Piercings cascading down her earlobes and tattoos in places only you'll be able to see?" Her eyes looked away from him, afraid to see something she wouldn't like.

Hongjoong finally understood her insecurity. He wasn't going to lie, more than once he often felt the same way towards her. Why would a beautiful, dedicated, classy, pure and sophisticated woman settle for someone like him? But he never imagined that she'd be thinking the exact same thing. His fingers brushed away the strands of hair that were covering part of her face.

"Y/N....... if I wanted someone like that, I could have hooked up with them a long time ago. But I didn't want them. I wanted you then and I only want you now and I'll still want you later on in life."

She melted at his reassuring words, eyes and lips forming into a puppy face that always made him weak.

"You mean it?"

Bending down, he placed a loving and gentle kiss on her.

"I mean it. So don't worry about getting your body pierced or tattooed." He grinned at her.

Y/N bit down on her lip as she was about to tell him something.

"Well actually........I might need your input on something..."

He motioned for her to speak up.

"I actually wanted to get a tattoo and I was wondering......if you could do it..."

His mouth dropped at her words, brain trying to process if he just heard her right.

"Are you serious or...?"

She nodded.

"I'm serious. I want to get a tattoo and I want you to do it."

Looking at his still dumbfounded expression, it was now her turn to make fun of him.

"I mean, if you don't want to, that's ok. I'll just ask San to do it. It could probably be a better idea and I could surprise you instead."

"I mean, where do you even want to get the tattoo?"

Y/N smirked as she lifted her shirt up and exposed her breasts. She trailed a line right below them and signaled exactly where she wanted to get it. Hongjoong's face flushed as he began to imagine his already sexy girlfriend with an under breast tattoo decorating her chest, causing him to feel needy in seconds.

"Fuck baby.....are you trying to kill me?" He gulped.

"So is that a yes? Can you ask San to do it and I'll show you the finished result?"

Hongjoong chuckled as he grabbed her wrists and pinned them above her head.

"Do you really think I'm going to let anyone else see my girlfriend's chest when only I'm allowed to? Hell no. I'll gauge their eyes out first."

Y/N let out a half squeak half moan when Hongjoong bit down on her neck, tongue gliding down her exposed skin as his hands began ridding her of her clothes one by one.

"Let me remind you that you're mine and will always be mine."

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"Hongjoong!"

Throwing a rubber ball that struck straight into his target's head, Yeosang held up a fist in the air.

"Still got my aim." He declared, flexing his arm muscle.

Hongjoong however was not amused.

"You know...there's more than one way to dislocate an elbow than tripping on a sidewalk." He threatened him.

Letting out a small 'pfft', Yeosang took out his phone.

"Do you still have that video presentation we did for Professor Yoo's class."

"Ummm.......hold on, yeah I think so?" Hongjoong began scrolling through his phone.

"Ok well if you do, send it to me, I need to go over a few things for our upcoming midterms."

Hongjoong gave him a questioning gaze.

"Yeosang...midterms aren't until 3 months from now."

Yeosang raised an eyebrow.

"Did I fucking stutter?"

Not wanting to argue with the hot headed boy, Hongjoong just went back to searching through his files and let him know he'd send it once he found it. Yeosang meanwhile went back to his room, flopping down on his bed and resumed his previous activity of watching a horror movie on his phone. Tiny snorts would occasionally come out of his mouth when a jump scare would happen or sometimes even a twisted smile would form on his face when a particularly brutal or gory scene would be displayed. Even if he was scary and dark himself, Hongjoong often judged and questioned how Yeosang could possibly sit there watching people get violently slaughtered or severed without getting fazed or even batting an eyelash. Hongjoong actually suspected Yeosang actually enjoyed it and more than once contemplated whether Yeosang or not could be a potential serial killer.......

Then he remembered the boy also had Ponytail as his ringtone to quote unquote 'Wake up in a happy and cheerful mood.'

A notification popped up. Opening his messages, he saw it was from Hongjoong himself.

'Took me a while, but here you go. Knock yourself out I guess.'

In typical Yeosang fashion, he didn't even thanked him, he simply left him on read as he usually did. Pressing play, he flipped his phone sideways so he could make it go into full screen mode. He was disoriented when he heard music playing on the black screen, knowing fully well he didn't use such kinky music like that while editing the video, in fact he didn't use any music at all.

"What the fuck?"

He squinted his eyes when a scantily clad girl came into view. A male hand, belonging to whom he presumed to be recording the video, was seen running his thumb across her luscious and red tinted lips. The hand then reached down and picked up a black leash which was attached to the black choker on her neck. It had a red heart pendant on the middle, some engraving that he couldn't make it on the center of it.

"You know what to do kitten. Put that pretty mouth of yours to work." He heard the male tell the girl in front of him.

"The fuck kind of kinky porn did he decide to send me?"

Yeosang's cringed expression soon turned to shock when the male tugged on the leash roughly, pulling the girl forward and making her full face finally show on the camera.

"Oh...my..."

He gulped as he watched none other than Y/N began to pull down, whom he assumed was Hongjoong's briefs, down his thighs. When his erect cock hit his stomach, Yeosang's eyes nearly bulged out of his eyes.

"Holy shit Joong!"

His hand covered his agaped mouth as his eyes stared intently at his roommate's most intimate part, covered in piercings that he definitely did not know about. He knew about the nipple piercings, both of them having walked around shirtless at one point in front of each other. But seeing his Hyung's dick full of jewelry started making him get hard and watching Y/N wrap her lips around it, slurping sounds coming out her mouth as she began taking him in until he hit the back of her throat was not helping his case. His hand that was resting on his thigh unconsciously moved towards the growing tent forming under his sweatpants, lightly running across his length.

He heard Hongjoong emit a low hiss when she gave him a particular hard suck.

"Fuck! You're such a hungry and desperate cockslut aren't you? How about I treat you like the whore you are and fuck your face?"

Yeosang sucked in a breath as he watched Hongjoong yanked the leash on Y/N to keep her in place as his hips began to thrust forward. Yeosang couldn't help but palm himself harder, biting down his lower lip in an effort to keep his moans down. Watching Y/N release choked moans and drool pool down her chin from how hard Hongjoong was face fucking her was honestly one of the hottest things he'd ever seen. He nearly came in his pants with the lightest of touch when he witnessed Hongjoong pull out and spurt out his cum all over her face, covering from her forehead and dripping down her cheeks and chin, her tongue darting out to swallow some of the remnants left on her lips.

Yeosang gulped as he watched the screen go black, only shuffling noises being heard for a minute or two. He debated whether he should continue watching, already feeling guilty as hell that he just watched his Hyung's girlfriend suck him off and get a facial from him. But once the screen lit up again, he nearly fell off his bed as he stared at the scene:

Y/N had her arms tied to the bedpost, crimson red ropes secured tightly on her wrists, an intricate knot placed in the center of it. Her mouth was covered by a ball gag, lace bra pulled down to expose her breasts and her panties were probably discarded somewhere on the floor. He watched Y/N anxiously shiver when Hongjoong slid his cock across her slippery folds, no doubt enjoying the feeling of his Jacob's ladder piercing grazing against her lips and aching clit. He noticed how she tried to roll her hips to feel him more, but Hongjoong's hand slammed down on her stomach and pressed her down onto the bed.

"Don't get greedy now kitten. You'll take what I give you and you'll be grateful got it?"

Hearing his dominant and commanding voice full of authority, Yeosang slipped his hand inside his pants and gripped himself at the base of his cock, unashamed by his actions and wanting to hear more of Hongjoong's domineering tone.

"Y-yes..."

Not satisfied with her answer, Hongjoong slapped her across her face before gripping her chin. It sent a terrified shiver down Yeosang's back seeing Hongjoong treat Y/N with such utter disrespect and yet......she seemed to enjoy it?

"Yes what?" Hongjoong spat out.

Y/N whimpered as she answered him.

"Yes Master."

Yeosang groaned and stopped his hand movements, not wanting to come anytime soon. Through hooded eyes, he watched the rest of the pornographic video play, from when Hongjoong pushed himself inside Y/N to when he had her trembling underneath him as he poured himself inside of her, completely and effectively fucking her dumb as she stared off somewhere completely lost. With a soft grunt and hisses, Yeosang spilled himself all over his stomach, breathing heavily after having jerked himself off to his roommate's private sex tape. Putting his phone down, he reached for the box of tissues on his dresser and began cleaning himself up....

Completely unaware of the eyes that had been watching him intently.

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Ever since that day that Hongjoong had witnessed Yeosang touching himself to his and Y/N's secret tape, it began giving him a few ideas, ideas that weren't particularly holy at all. It most definitely was an accident and when he realized what he had sent to his roommate he was already off his bed and going over to apologize. He was expecting his somber friend to glare at him or even give him a disgusted look, but he was shocked to find him fully stroking his length, eyes glued to his phone while his mouth released some of the cutest and softest pants he'd ever heard. The sounds kept replaying in his head, especially late at night, often falling asleep to them as if they were some kind of sinful lullaby that he wanted turned into a full blown orchestral song.

And that's how his pretty girlfriend ended up dragged into his unholy desires, dressed to entice in a red two piece lingerie set that he knew would drive Yeosang insane.

"Hongjoong, do you think this is a good idea?" Her hands fidgeted with the bow attached to the middle of her panties.

When they heard the front door signal Yeosang's arrival, Hongjoong looked over at her with a smirk.

"Only one way to find out."

Adjusting the bow on her hair, Y/N watched her boyfriend walk out the room, no doubt going along with his plan of telling Yeosang he had a surprise for him. The boy was probably imagining something like stickers for his skateboard, fried chicken or some cool tshirt Hongjoong would customize for him, he really loved those gifts. Instead, he walked in to find his Hyung's girlfriend sitting on his bed, looking innocent and sexy at the same time. His eyes bulged out, cheeks reddened at the apples and he was whipping his head towards the evilly grinning male next to him, demanding an explanation.

"What? Don't you like my little surprise Sangie? I thought you'd be a little more....excited..."

Yeosang shivered lightly when Hongjoong ran his hand across his pants, gripping softly at the arousal that was forming in them.

"I don't- I don't understand....." Yeosang shyly looked to the ground, hands covering his growing arousal in embarrassment.

"Yeosang I know all about you masturbating to our sex tape."

Y/N kinda felt bad when Yeosang's expression looked guilty and ashamed of himself for even watching it in the first place. But she wasn't going to lie that it turned her on to find out the pure looking skaterboi could have his freaky side and she was more than curious to find out just how wild he could be. She heard, or more like, discerned Yeosang was apologizing to Hongjoong in a very hushed tone. Hongjoong assured him it was perfectly fine and that there was no need to be afraid, that it was after all a present to him. Seeing Yeosang conflict himself with whether this was right or not, Y/N knew it was time for her to speak up.

"Yeosangie...."

He immediately responded to her sultry call for him, ready to obey anything she said. When she patted the spot on the bed next to her, his feet quickly moved to sit next to her, although he kept his eyes on the floor, not daring to look her right in the eye and much less at her body. His cute behavior stirred something inside Y/N, a more dominant side of her wanting to come out. She began stroking his hair, which made him visible stiffen and inhale sharply.

"You can look at me Yeosang. It's ok."

Brushing the hair away from his forehead, her hand went down to his cheek, caressing it as she turned his face to look at her. He visible gulped when she asked him:

"Don't you think I look pretty?"

Unable to resist himself, he finally scanned her body, eyes tracing every curve and lingering a little too much on her exposed cleavage.

"You look so fucking pretty." He had to admit.

Hongjoong watched with a proud smirk as Yeosang let Y/N kiss him softly and slowly melt into a more heated kiss. Although he was possessive by nature, something about sharing his most prized possession with his extremely handsome best friend got him riled up and he couldn't wait until they both fucked her dumb. He was just waiting for Yeosang to flip the tables on her, cause he knew that although his girlfriend was taking the lead at the moment, practically devouring the boy inside her mouth and straddling his lap, he also knew Yeosang was more dominant by nature. He just liked to play off an innocent and naive façade only to suddenly flip the switch and have whoever he's with underneath him and obeying his orders. And that's exactly what happened.

As Y/N was getting lost into their heated and sloppy makeout session, she let out a startled grunt when Yeosang's hand gripped the back of her hair, tugging it harshly as his nose brushed across her exposed neck.

"Just cause you're on top right now, doesn't mean I'm letting you take charge. Got it little kitten?" He smirked when he heard her moan out at her favorite pet name.

"Yes Yeosangie-"

She had no time to finish her sentence because Yeosang gripped her chin tightly, effectively silencing her.

"For tonight, forget about Yeosangie. You will only address me as Sir."

With no warning, he flipped her onto the bed, pinning her arms up and diving straight for her neck, making sure to suck and bite hard enough to leave purple blotches splattered across her soft almost velvet like skin. When Y/N looked back at her boyfriend, he was already almost fully undressed, leaving only his boxers on, hand palming himself as he stared at them with lustful eyes. Cupping her breasts, Yeosang squeezed them into his hands before pulling them out of the confining garment. Having always been a boobs type of guy, he of course began to hungrily suck on them, his tongue flicking against her sensitive nipples. Y/N arched her back, her mind wondering where the fuck did the shy skater went to? Was the boy who could barely say 3 words on their first meeting also the same man that was turning her into putty the lower he began kissing down her body?

When Yeosang got in between her thighs, he could not believe how drenched she already was.

"Fuck. We've barely done anything Hyung." Yeosang pressed a finger to her clothed heat.

Finally deciding it was time to join, Hongjoong moved Y/N so that her head was resting on the edge of the bed, prompting Yeosang to move as well.

"I know. She's such a dirty little slut. Gets turned on by even the smallest of things." He teased her as his hand lightly smacked her cheek.

"Don't call her that Hyung.....she's just a little princess. Can't help it if she's just a little spoiled." Yeosang cooed as he began pulling her soaked panties off.

Y/N gasped when Yeosang blew a little air onto her dripping core, eagerly anticipating him to do something. It was Hongjoong though that made her break her gaze from him when he slapped an all too familiar pierced member on her forehead.

"Hey, just cause Yeosang is willing to go soft on you and dote on you, doesn't mean you earned it from me."

Hongjoong tilted her head lower so it'd be easier for her to take him in.

"You're going to work that filthy mouth of yours and suck me dry you dirty kitten. I don't want you getting distracted by Yeosang eating you out or else I won't let you cum tonight." He warned her before shoving his dick inside her warm mouth in one go.

Yeosang only chuckled as he leaned in closer to her heat.

"I'll make sure to make it difficult for her."

Y/N moaned around Hongjoong's dick when she felt Yeosang's wet muscle side across her slick folds. Although he did not own a tongue in like her boyfriend did, he really was making it difficult for her to focus on sucking off Hongjoong. The way he swirled his tongue around her clit, or when he'd give it a particularly harsh suck that shot waves up at her. She could feel him smiling cockily too, he knew the power he held at that moment. Using his fingers to pry her lips open, he dwelved his tongue inside her dripping hole, causing her to briefly mumble out Yeosang's name while her mouth was still stuffed with Hongjoong's cock. She let out a choked yelp when the latter forced his cock deep inside her throat, the ampallang piercing touching her uvula, as his hand came down to strike her cheek.

"You're seriously calling out another man's name after I told you to focus on me you little bitch? Are you too dumb to even do a simple order?"

Gripping the sides of her jaw, he began to fuck her face, causing Y/N to choke around his length but eventually hollowing out her cheeks to welcome his intrusion. Although Yeosang looked up just to witness the sick and twisted scene, he did not deter in his task of eating Y/N out. He was determined to have her cum all over his face. By the way her hips began rolling onto his face and her thighs were closing around his head, he knew she was definitely close. Noticing her body movements as well, Hongjoong firmly looked at Yeosang.

"Don't you dare let her cum Yeosang."

Yeosang snickered amusedly, finding it funny how Hongjoong tried to order him around. Instead, the brat in him decided to completely ignore him, burying his face deeper in her, his mouth working hard to get her to reach that release she desperately wanted to achieve. When she began squirming under him, his hand held her hips down, tongue lapping up all the sweet juices she was pouring out. Yeosang was disappointed that her pleasured moans were currently being muffled by Hongjoong's cock, the latter tensing up when he felt the vibrations all around him.

"Fucking hell!"

Pulling out of her mouth with a loud popping sound, he finished himself off as he came all over her chin and neck, face red and eyes glaring down at Yeosang, who shot him a smug smile as he wiped the remainder of her juices off his chin and nose and licked his hand when he was done.

"You're such a fucking brat." Hongjoong growled at him.

"And what are you going to do? Spank me daddy?" He scoffed at the older male.

Setting Y/N upright, Hongjoong picked her up and set her down on the chair by the computer.

"You're not allowed to move, speak or touch yourself. You'll sit there like a good little bitch and watch what happens when you test me or disobey."

Y/N quickly nodded at Hongjoong's words, watching with fear and anticipation as turned his attention back to a still defiant Yeosang. After stripping off his clothes as Hongjoong told him to, Yeosang obligingly layed on his stomach, wiggling his ass when his Hyung came up behind him. Hongjoong had a suspiciously calm smile as his hand traced the curve of his Donsaeng's back before gently kneading at the flesh on his cheeks. When Y/N saw him reach under the bed for the black velvet bag he had hid just in case, she knew exactly what he was up to and wanted to warn Yeosang, but remembered the strict command she was given.

"Gave up already Hyung? I knew you're just all talk when you said you were a Dom-"

Yeosang groaned when Hongjoong took hold of his arms and swiftly tied them behind his back. Yeosang tested the ropes binding his hands and effectively discovered that they were very tight. He inhaled deeply when he felt something like leather stroke his ass cheeks. Hongjoong let out a soft chuckle as he brought the object close to Yeosang's face so he could take a look at what it was. The brown haired male paled slightly as he looked straight at the top of a black riding crop. Hongjoong used the tip to slightly turn Yeosang's head so he could see the sadistic smile across his face.

"I'm going to show you little brat how us Doms train you into submission."

After patting that stubborn head of his friend, Hongjoong held the riding crop over his head, momentarily keeping it there to keep a suspenseful atmosphere. Y/N looked over at Yeosang with a worried look, meeting her eyes briefly, he sent a wink her way, silently assuring her that he was completely fine with it.

Swish

"Ahh!"

Yeosang let out an almost pained howl when the first strike came down on his ass.

"One." Hongjoong began.

One stroke soon turned to 5, and then 10, Yeosang's milky white skin started as a bright pink but was now a deep red. He kept his face buried in the mattress underneath him which drowned out his screams and whimpers. All throughout his ordeal, Y/N rubbed her legs together, pressing her thighs against each other, quickly becoming aroused once more and feeling needy once more. Yeosang's whining was not helping her case either, if anything his behavior was making her want to disobey her boyfriend as well, her hand creeping dangerously close to her knee.

"Are you going to apologize for being a brat now or should I keep going? The longer you drag this on, the longer it'll take for both you and Y/N to cum. I mean look at her..."

Grabbing a hold of Yeosang's hair, Hongjoong lifted his face so he could look over at the squirming girl on his chair.

"She's practically aching for you to be inside her."

Although Yeosang wanted to continue his defiance, not only was he craving his own release, but seeing Y/N made him rethink his choice.

"Yeosang, I'll tell you what. Give up now....and I'll let you take her ass."

Y/N couldn't believe her ears. Hongjoong wasn't serious was he? Yeosang sucking in a breath answered that for her, and more so when he immediately did as he was asked.

"I'm sorry f-for being a brat Hyung. I p-promise it won't happen again."

Flipping him on his back, Hongjoong gripped Yeosang's red and painfully erect cock in his hand, making the younger boy hiss in pleasure and pain.

"Tell me what you want Yeosang." Hongjoong ushered him to speak up, his thumb running across the other's slit.

"Wanna make our girl feel good. Wanna be buried inside her and fuck her like a queen."

As he spoke those words, he looked at Y/N with hooded eyes, hips bucking up as Hongjoong began stroking him gently, soft moans and grunts coming out from Yeosang's mouth, the very same ones Hongjoong wanted to hear from the beginning.

"And you will baby boy, but can you both be patient for a little bit?"

Hongjoong turned when Y/N let out a frustrated whine, bottom lip poking out.

"I'll get to you soon kitten ok? But let me help Yeosang for a little bit. He hasn't gotten a chance to come even once and he's throbbing in my hand right now."

Having been frustrated for too long, Yeosang melted into Hongjoong's touch when he picked up the pace and began to stroke him harder. He tried biting his lip in an effort to hold back his noises but Hongjoong halted his movements.

"Open your mouth and let those filthy moans come out your throat or else I'll put a cock ring on you."

As if on cue, Yeosang's began releasing the most unholy series of whimpers and whines as Hongjoong pumped him into a dazy haze that would soon be broken and explode all over his Hyung's hand. He just needed an extra push and he'd come collapsing from his already high state. Hongjoong felt when Yeosang began twitching, a sign he was going to come.

"Hyung-Hyung!-"

Hongjoong immediately dropped to his knees and opened his mouth wide to catch some of the cum that spurted out of Yeosang, leaving Y/N speechless. She knew her boyfriend was rather kinky and had interesting tastes, but this just made her let out a big 'oof' at his actions. And what followed just made her practically drip. Taking advantage of Yeosang's sensitive state, Hongjoong licked up his softening dick and made sure to press his tongue piercing into his slit, making Yeosang push him off, unable to take anymore.

"Ok baby boy, guess you're not ready for overstimulation yet." Hongjoong ruffled his hair before cupping the red faced boy's cheeks and kissing him softly, drilling his tongue in his mouth, letting him not only taste himself but allowing him to play around with his tongue piercing that always made him curious.

They were only broken from their amorous trance when they heard a frustrated squeak coming from the poor girl sitting on the chair in front of them.

"I think we've neglected our princess for too long Hyung." Yeosang was the one who got up and went over to fetch Y/N, who eagerly accepted his embrace and let him carry her over to the bed.

Hongjoong was already getting out the lube to help with the process that was about to come.

"I don't know....I'm tempted to make her wait a little more."

Y/N shook her head furiously to which Yeosang giggled.

"Don't worry princess. I'll make sure you're more than satisfied."

Turning her so her back was to his chest, Yeosang took the lube from Hongjoong's hand and poured some onto his fingers. Hongjoong in turn tilted Y/N's chin, and made her look at him.

"You're lucky Yeosang is nice kitten. If it were up to me, I'd make you wait around and beg like the whiny bitch you are."

Y/N poked her bottom lip out, making puppy eyes at Hongjoong so he wouldn't follow through on it. Wanting to assure her, Yeosang pressed kisses on her shoulder.

"Don't listen to him princess."

Yeosang slipped two of his lubed fingers into her tight hole, reading her body signals and slowly prepping her. Sensing her apprehension, Yeosang looked over at Hongjoong.

"Should we maybe try something else?"

But Y/N didn't want to deter them.

"No! Please! Fuck both my holes."

Yeosang instantly got hard once again at her words. When Y/N pressed herself back onto his length, he got the hint that she wanted them to stop stalling. As Yeosang finished lubing her up, Hongjoong lined himself up at her entrance, not needing to prep her pussy hole as she was practically soaked to the core, making it easy for him to slide inside her. Even after all the times he had entered her in the past months, she could still not get over the feeling of his pierced dick stretching out her walls. Before she could fully get adjusted to him, Yeosang was already sliding into her other tight hole, causing a pained shiver to run down her spine. Hongjoong rapidly kissed her to distract her from the uncomfortable feeling. Yeosang as well slid his hands up to cup her breasts, pinching her nipples softly as he fully inserted his length inside her, fighting the urge to move until she adjusted to his size.

After a few minutes, she pulled away from Hongjoong's kiss and nodded at him.

"You good?" He asked one last time.

"I'm good." Turning her head back so she could look at Yeosang, she added: "Go ahead."

Giving each other an enthusiastic look, both men began moving inside of her. Y/N had never felt so full, each time one of them slipped out of her, the other was already slipping back in, never allowing her to get a moment's rest from the overwhelming feeling they were giving her.

"You're enjoying this aren't you kitten? I can feel you clenching all around me and I bet that other hole of yours is squeezing Yeosang as well."

With no warning, Hongjoong slipped his hand back and struck her ass twice, causing her to yelp.

"Aren't you, you whore?"

As soon as he finished his words, Yeosang stepped in to caress her slapped skin.

"It's ok princess, it's just means we're fucking you right like you're supposed to be."

Y/N loved the polar opposites both of them were giving her. Hongjoong's degradation being softened by Yeosang's praise and care was something she didn't know she needed until she felt a familiar coil build up in her lower stomach.

"She's close..... can you tell Yeosang? With the way she's struggling to breathe and her walls tightening, she's about to burst all over." Hongjoong noted.

Reaching over to fumble with her clit, Yeosang whispered in a raspy voice:

"Cum for us baby girl. Just let it out."

Feeling the coil snap inside, she cried out their names as they slowed down their movements, letting her come down from her high and become relaxed. She was completely unaware of the slick smiles and hints they exchanged between themselves. Taking advantage of her unfocused state, Hongjoong gripped her hips while Yeosang wrapped his hand around her neck, both jolting they began pounding into her at an even fiercer speed than before, loud squealching sounds echoing through the room as incoherent babbling came from Y/N's mouth, tears dripping down her cheeks from their overstimulation.

"Joong...Sang..-"

Hongjoong slapped her ass once again.

"Wrong name stupid, stupid kitten."

Any word she even thought of spitting out was choked out by Yeosang's grip tightened around her throat.

"It's Master and Sir to you little pet."

"S-sorry......m-master...s-sir-"

With tremendous effort, she managed to get out those 3 words in between her whimpered screams that were probably being heard by the neighbors, not to mention the creaking of the bed underneath them. Being overstimulated past her limit, it didn't take long for Y/N to become undone once more, this time even more violently than the previous one. If the boys hadn't been holding her up, she would have collapsed onto the bed. But their strong arms, both tha tattooed ones and the non-tattooed held her up as both boys chased their own release. Through gritted teeth, they let out choked moans, making sure to fill her up to the brim as they coated her walls with their sticky cum. Once they garnered enough strength and their headspace, they pulled out of her, a trail of slick cascading down her thighs. Y/N winced at the sudden void that action left in her, her eyes focused on the ceiling as her mind just stayed blank from all the events that just happened. Yeosang was the first one to get up.

"I'll go run a bath."

Understanding what he was doing, Hongjoong leaned down and brushed some of the hair sticking to his girlfriend's forehead off her face. Kissing the spot gently, his tone turned more soft and warm than what it had been minutes ago.

"It's ok, you did so well my love. We'll run you a nice bath and then tuck you into bed so you can rest ok?"

Her mind barely processed what he said, she simply nodded and allowed herself to be carried by Hongjoong into the bathroom. Yeosang was in the process of making sure the water temperature was perfect and had already added scented bubble bath mix in there to help her relax more.

"You certainly do go the extra mile." Hongjoong pointed out.

Yeosang shrugged.

"Just cause she's not mine doesn't mean I'm not going to take care of her after I practically helped you fuck her brains out."

Both Y/N and Yeosang thought they were too worn out and dumb to fully comprehend the next words Hongjoong spoke.

"As far as I'm concerned, she's also yours after tonight."

Y/N craned her neck to look at Yeosang's reaction, who sat there incredulous.

"I mean, if you don't want to I understand..."

Hongjoong looked over at his lover, knowing fully well she would not mind adding their savage yet charismatic accomplice into their relationship. After Y/N gave him a reassuring smile, Yeosang stood up and took her away from Hongjoong's embrace.

"Guess you're mine now too princess."

━━━━━ • ஜ • ❈ • ஜ • ━━━━━

[fabricated-misslieness]

Hey, can you do a Dazai x Port Mafia Executive Male Reader. Where reader is Dazai former partner before he gets replace by Chuuya and instead of Chuuya coming for Q and fighting Lovecraft its reader instead. Readers ability is like Shigaraki from bnha.

Dazai Osamu x sadistic!male reader

Ngl I was a little confused cause the last time I watched bsd was months ago.

Also made the reader sadistic because yes. i forgot the reason

Part 2

Requested: Yes

Word Count: 3859

Warnings: Mentions of suicide (Dazai stuff ofc), angsty boi

“You want me to pair up with this rookie?” You gesture in the vague direction of Dazai. You know he’s there, but you don’t act like it.

Dazai huffs, offended by your words. He crosses his arms. You weren’t giving him the best impression and if you were going to be partners, he at least had to tolerate you enough to keep his head on his shoulders.

“Now, now,” Mori chides with a sweet tone. You don’t trust the guy, he may act kind, but you’re sure he hides something with that kindness. “He’s already a port mafia executive.” You roll your eyes, he was only one of them because he witnessed the old boss handing down his title ‘willingly’. You seriously doubted he did do it willingly, seeing as it was a mere few minutes before his death. That sort of coincidence belongs to a movie.

“Like I don’t know that.” You shake your head. “Fine, fine, I’ll be his partner. I only want to know what he can do. He has an ability, doesn’t he?”

You finally acknowledge his presence, turning to him and sizing him up. Dazai is flustered by the gesture, but he pretends to act calm and collected, something that works with that young poker face of his.

“Yes--” Mori is interrupted by the executive himself, who is eager to show off.

“Yes, I do.” Dazai replies, uncrossing his arms. “But what’s yours?”

You furrow your eyebrows. Abilities are wide and unique, ranging from psychological to physical to straight magic. Knowing your ability could be a part of his ability. You were to work together so he’d know either way, but at the moment, you wanted to know his weaknesses.

“That’s valuable information.” You crack your knuckles and stretch, pretending to prepare for a fight.

“No fighting in my office.” Mori reminds you. “Or the building, for that matter. One of your abilities is particularly destructive, and we don’t know what you could do. Go to the training area if you’re going to fight.”

You give both of them a smirk, “Who says I was going to fight? I was merely enjoying the look in Dazai’s eye.”

Dazai frowned, quickly fixing his composure. It’s true, he was a little intimidated and he did not mean to let it show.

“You’re quite sadistic, aren’t you?” Mori chuckles, shaking his head.

“That’s one thing right about me, boss.” You smile brightly. Dazai furrows his eyebrows and examines you. That smile of yours is sickeningly sweet, almost mocking. You look like a monster, but maybe that was part of your act. He’d know your ability in no time.

“Well, as partners you do have to know each other’s abilities. I picked Dazai specifically for you.” That gave each of them a hint to each other’s abilities, more to Dazai than anything.

You nod letting out a sigh, “Do you have anything you don’t want, Mori?”

Dazai quirks an eyebrow, interested in the peculiar question. Mori nods, nudging forward a tongue depressor, those big wooden popsicle sticks, one he could very well spare.

You pick up with all but one finger, your middle finger, holding it up for both of them to see. “Do you have anything for the debris?” Mori slides a metal tray towards the edge of the table.

“Pay close attention, Dazai.” You give him a glance before looking back at the stick, putting your final finger on it. It disintegrates in a matter of seconds, turning into pieces so small that they look like ash. “What’s yours?” You turn to him.

Dazai seems to shrink under your gaze, but he keeps a stoic look. “Put your hand on my arm.” You raise an eyebrow. Does he wish to experiment with your ability or is it part of his?

You put your hand on his arm, once again with all but one finger. You don’t trust him, that much is clear.

“Trust me.” The look he gives you is genuine, albeit the smile is devilish, though you oblige all the same.

Your eyebrows furrow when your ability has no effect. The skin doesn’t disintegrate, nor does it fall apart as usual. “That is my ability, No Longer Human.”

“And that is why I paired you two up.”

You huff a little angrily once you realize. His ability stops other abilities, what triggered it you didn’t know, but that wasn’t the most important thing for you. He paired you two up to have him be your control. You don’t need anyone to control you and you don’t want anyone to control you. You want to do you and you do not want this boy to hold you back.

You open your mouth to protest but Mori interrupts you. “This is my decision and mine alone, you cannot say otherwise.” As much as you want to mess up his pretty face, you couldn’t disobey the boss.

“Fine.”

As time grew on, Dazai had become a friend, though sometimes he felt like more than a friend. Despite your early refusal to the idea, you’d really warmed up to each other.

Dazai, the young bastard, was also quite the prick at times. Though you couldn’t really complain about his age since it turns out you’re within the same age range. While he was a prick, he was also caring, as you’d come to learn.

Sometimes he’d hold your forearm when you were touching something, even though over the years you’d built up the habit to not use your middle finger. Every time he did so you would laugh and it would somewhat fluster you, you’d tell him you didn’t need it and without fail he would say “Just in case.” It was nice to know he cared, and the other little gestures he would perform were even nicer.

You were known for being a little sadistic, taking joy from inflicting pain for no reason. When he’d hold you back from attacking some random lackey at the time it would make you angry, but a few minutes later you’d be grateful for it. After all, that lackey wouldn’t be very useful with an injury.

Though sometimes even he couldn’t hold you back. When you’d start a fight with another executive just for your enjoyment, he was quick to be there and keep you in touch. Perhaps you did need control after all.

The other executives were rather thankful for Dazai, as you chose someone to pick on every week. Something you hated about Dazai was that he was immune to your mockery. He got used to it from your partnership and he couldn’t be hurt by your ability. But you supposed it was for the better, the other executives were starting to get really annoyed by you.

Except everything changed when Nakahara came along.

Although your partnership was relatively new, you found comfort in each other’s companies. You protected each other’s weaknesses and complemented each other’s strengths; so when the news came along that Chūya would replace you as Dazai’s partner, both of you were a little ticked off, per say.

Dazai’s first impression on the newer rookie didn’t help their relationship. Chūya annoyed him to the very ends of the Earth and he did not want him to replace you. It wasn’t just Chūya either, he’d grown very fond of you. Sometimes he couldn’t even fight without you; He was used to you being there to back him up, though this detail he would not tell you.

In time, you didn’t look like the monster he’d thought you were in his first impression of you. You actually looked sweet.

Your smile, which for everybody else would be sadistic, turned out to look more endearing to him. Everybody caught onto the fact that the smiles you’d directed at him weren’t the smiles he’d show others. Somehow you hadn’t realized it, but he had.

You’d grown to like him, dare say crush on him, which was something you denied. His triumphant smile after the end of a mission and the jokes he’d make as you fought were always the highlight of your day.

None of you wanted to give up the other.

“This is his decision and his alone, we cannot say otherwise.” You mocked, making Dazai snicker. The fact he used the same words was quite ironic, really. 

Tomorrow marked Chūya and his first mission together, so you’d dedicated this day to each other. Dazai did not look forward to tomorrow, and as much as he wanted to vent to you about Chūya’s very abundant annoying qualities, you’d both promised not to talk about it.

The news of your separation had made both of you realize your growing crushes for each other. You were no longer in denial, though you loathed the idea… but when you really thought about it, you didn’t loathe the idea. Musing to yourself about hugging him, playing with his hair… thinking about the fact that you did in fact like it made you gag.

As the night neared to an end, your guts told you to tell him. You wouldn’t see each other all that often anyway and if you were never to interact much, at least you would be getting this off your chest.

“Dazai.” You both stared out the window of the HQ, prior to you speaking up you were in an awkward silence. None of you wanted to say goodbye.

He turned to you and you to him. As much as you wanted to avoid eye contact, you thought it might help. “I like you… don’t joke with me.”

Dazai was going to make a joke. It was amazing how much you got to know him in so little time. He smiled, and your hopes raised when you took notice of how it wasn’t pitiful. “I like you too.”

You immediately let go of the breath you didn’t know you were holding.

“Where’s the big sadistic lion?” Dazai questions, playfully mocking how meek you are right now. His smile seems more joyful than usual, as it should with what just happened.

You snicker, giving him the sadistic smile he’s used to. “I’m right here.”

Dazai was your anchor in the Port Mafia, even when he plead for double suicide with you. Before you were partnered up, you absolutely despised the place. The other executives and the occasional lackeys were fun to provoke but it was almost as if that was your coping mechanism. You often complained about how awful the Mafia was handled with the previous boss, but he would never change anything. He was an idiot up until his very death.

You thought Mori’s recent ‘crowning’ would change your opinion, but it didn’t change it at all. You still hated the place. It was almost as if their only objective was to keep their hands on Yokohama. You wanted more than that, you wanted the whole of Japan to be your turf.

Mori didn’t want that and while he would take the opportunity once presented, he wouldn’t do a thing otherwise. He was perfectly happy with that and you weren’t.

Dazai was the only reason you stayed, but now the reason had been diminishing. You barely spoke and barely hung out. This wasn’t what ‘dating’ was and both of you knew it.

He wanted to try harder and so did you, but with your current situation, you couldn’t. When he wasn’t with Chūya, you were out on a mission. No, you weren’t jealous. This wasn’t Chūya’s fault nor was it something either of you could control. There were various times you debated on breaking up.

Dazai was the only thing holding you back from leaving, so if you broke up you didn’t have to worry about him. But you liked him and both of you would be heartbroken. You never liked thinking about it, but someday, it had to be addressed. That day never came.

The final day you were with the Port Mafia was the day that you had a brush with death.

You’d called for backup, you’d received none. The henchmen you were commanding left like cowards. To think these were the people you’d trained.

One of your big weaknesses was fighting groups of people alone. These henchmen knew that and they’d run. Where were their morals? Where was their faith, their loyalty? Where was their honor, their pride? It was then that you’d learned the Port Mafia wasn’t your place. These people weren’t your people, this turf wasn’t your turf. They were cowards and you were no coward.

Alone and fighting recklessly, you were down. You refused to flee, and that stubbornness was what caused you to nearly die. Luckily, you never crossed death’s doorstep. The people you were fighting presumed you dead the moment you dropped to the ground.

They were fools but a fool you were too to let your emotions get the best of you.

That day somebody had found you on the brisk of death. They claimed to be a spy and they offered to get you help.

Of course, you accept without asking for conditions. You were dying, what else could you have said? The conditions turned out to be joining his organization and feeding them with information or something equally as important.

No longer would you be associated with the Port Mafia. You were glad to leave them. But your only consequence being leaving behind Dazai, the love of your life and the highlight of the day. It was a hard decision to make that was for sure, but it was either this or death.

You felt selfish.

Months after joining them, the so-called ‘Guild’, your heart ached. Leaving Dazai was your biggest mistake but joining the Guild was the best thing that had happened to you since him. For the longest time, you’d wanted to tell him. You never had the guts to. And then you left Japan to join the bigger part of the guild in North America.

In time you’d stopped thinking about Dazai.

The crew was polite, a contrast from the cold lackeys and executives from the Port Mafia. It’s a nice change, one you wish won’t ever change. But maybe the hope of a different life blinds you from how bad these people really are, their underlying motives and morals, their similarities to the Port Mafia executives.

The guild is ambitious, their leader most of all. They have a turf and the turf is way bigger than the Port Mafia’s, something you’re proud about. You certainly feel better about this place than the Port Mafia.

Your sadistic personality never changes either, and while the others are certainly annoyed by it, they handle it in a different way. They make sure you know that you can’t hurt them severely, or there’ll be repercussions. Maybe not repercussions from the Guild’s rules, but them hurting you back. It’s a nice change, one that gets your adrenaline pumping every time you pick a fight.

The only time you did think of him was in your nightmares, the middle of the night. Those nightmares consisted of him calling you a traitor, betrayer, but that wasn’t what hurt you. They played out scenarios of you telling Dazai.

He’d kiss you, hold you tight, ask you where you’d been, question the new stitches and scars… and then you’d tell him.

His face would be ridden with denial. “No. No you couldn’t have! You’re joking, you’re lying!” He laughs, tries to believe it’s a joke, but he can’t get it out of his head that it isn’t.

“It’s not.”

It’s then that he lets out a sob. He trembles, pushes you away from him, looks you in the eye with a look full of betrayal. It’s then that he calls you names, which stated before aren’t what hurts you. It’s how he looks and what he says next that hurts the most, “I thought you loved me.”

That’s when the nightmare ends. You wake up with tears of your own, they’re hot and sting on your cheeks. You furiously wipe them away, but more keep coming.

You sob loudly, which wakes up John and Lucy. They’re the only ones you’ve trusted with your secret, Dazai. They comfort you the best they can but the most they can do is tell you it’s going to be okay or something along those lines. As much as you try to believe them, you can’t.

Dazai becomes a mere figure of your past. You think of him as unreachable, unattainable, as something you should scold yourself for thinking about.

If you could’ve taken him with you, you would’ve.

Learning that you will go back to Japan because of the leader’s obsession with a ‘tiger’ almost breaks you like your ability would.

You hadn’t thought about Dazai nightmares in the past year, but now you remember him again. You begin to regret leaving him, your heart aches again and your nightmares act up again. Everything gets worse when you arrive in Japan.

War breaks out between 3 organizations but the only thing you can think of is the Port Mafia. It’d been 6 years. Could he still remember you?

You don’t care who wins, you just want this whole thing to be over with. It upsets your ‘teammates’, but you don’t care. Once again, you think about leaving the organization, maybe live a normal life. That sort of life feels far-fetched right now and you know it’s something you’ll never have the chance to achieve. But still, you hope for it.

But then you see him again.

The second your eyes land on him you want to run. His eyes land on you and they must look the same as yours.

It hurts, but you have to persevere. “Hey, Lovecraft?” You glance at the man with the strange ability and appearance. “You want to go sleep, right?” You let out a mocking yawn of your own, giving the two in front of you your signature sickly smile.

“Yes.” Lovecraft replies, voice monotone and deep as always.

“Go get John and leave, get to sleep faster.” You nod in the direction you’d seen Chūya knock John towards. Your eyes stayed on the two in front of you. They both act as if they’d never seen you before, which you’re glad for. You don’t know if you could’ve handled seeing the same look Dazai would give you in your nightmares.

“But Francis and... you.” You’d like to think you’d gotten close to Lovecraft, but really he treated everybody the same because of his ‘contract’ with Francis.

“I’ll be fine. I know these guys’ weaknesses, anyway.” He doesn’t question how you do nor does he protest further and leaves immediately. “Quite the reunion, huh?”

“(y/n)..” Chūya growls. He glares at you, something you’d never seen 6 years ago as his senior executive. He never dared to interact with you. He knew he’d be replacing you as Dazai’s partner and knew about your relationship together. If anything, it was out of pity, and that you hated.

“Chūya.” You reply. “How’s the family, the mafia, the kids?” You mock. Chūya all but seethes, he looks like he’s ready to strike.

“(y/n),” Once Lovecraft is gone, Dazai gives you the look you dreaded to see. “H-How--” He doesn’t know what to say and neither do you. Your smile fades, turns into a frown. You don’t want to fight him but you also don’t want him to take on Lovecraft. As much as you liked the guy, he was a nightmare incarnate.

“Dazai.” Is all that you say. The vague response hurts you both.

“Chūya you might want to do that here.”

Chūya looks back at Dazai, shocked and taken aback. “You want me to do that? Dazai, I don’t think that’s needed and you know how shit that makes me feel.” It’s clear he doesn’t want to give into his corruption.

“You shouldn’t underestimate him.” Dazai speaks with experience, and it hurts you to know that he knows that.

“Don’t hurt him too much, we’re dating.”

“You’re still dating?!”

“Technically we never broke up!”

You laugh, staring at the limp body next to you. Chūya is deep asleep, or knocked out, you don’t know. You never really saw the aftermath of his corruption.

“That was a nice fight.” You remark, loud enough for Dazai to hear despite how weak you feel. Chūya had basically broken both your legs and injured you, but at least he hadn’t killed you or put you into a coma. The pain was unbearable for most people, but it was a simple background thought for you.

“It’s been…” Dazai starts.

“6 years.” You finish for him.

“I missed you.” You’re glad to hear that instead of the words from your nightmares, but you’re sure those words will eventually come.

“I did too.”

“You did?”

You sigh, nodding. “There were plenty of errands I had to run around and do for Francis. That rich old guy didn’t do anything himself. I didn’t think much of you, but I never forgot you. I had my own fair share of nightmares about you, they’re all the same.”

Dazai moves you to lean against the bark of a tree. You look into each other’s eyes, and you can tell that his are pleading. “Please stay.”

You ignore his remark, weakly reaching over to feel his coat. “New coat?”

“Yes.” Dazai grumbles, sitting down next to you cross legged. “Answer me.” He pleads again.

“You don’t want to know why I left, first?” Dazai shakes his head, taking your hand in his and squeezing it, prompting a pained groan from you. He quickly apologizes for it.

“I don’t know if I can.” You sigh, rubbing the back of his hand. You were quite touch starved, seeing as you couldn't really hold or touch anything properly. “If Francis wins I’d have to stay with him. If either of you win, I’ll most likely end up in prison.”

“Join me.”

You think back to the Guild. They were inviting and you thought them to be good, but just then did you think about how bad they really were. You’d known all along but you always refused to believe it. You wanted to be there just to escape the Mafia, you never wanted to be there because it was the guild.

“What was it… the Armed Detective Agency?” He nods. “How would that stop me from going to prison?”

“I don’t know.” Dazai admits with a huff. “Just.. please stay.”

“Okay.” You smile at him. Dazai remembers that smile, it’s burned into his memory and he takes note of how it hasn’t changed a bit. He’s missed it ever since you left. “Would they accept me, though?”

“They will, they will.” He says it as if he were determined, but he knows there’s a high chance they’ll refuse.

Dazai pulls you into a much deserved kiss. Long, gentle, sweet, and full of fireworks, it’s almost like your first. The only thing is it’s a little weak on your end, but he can’t blame you.

“Not going to mention sucide?”

“I haven’t seen you in 6 years, at least let me cherish this for another 2 months.”

[leon-scott-kennedy]

Distrail

Chreon, Rated-T

Read on Ao3

For a price, anyone could check into a seedy motel, even three people covered in blood, guts, and grime, no questions asked, especially with the ashes of Raccoon City still cooling 100 miles away. So the horizon still held a faint glow of destruction when Leon and Claire stumbled, barely conscious, through the front door of the Tadpole motel at 2 PM October 1st, using each other as support and Sherry clinging to Leon’s back like a koala if a koala drooled and snored.

Two other motels along the highway turned the odd couple away, rumours already flying about Raccoon City, zombies, and a nuclear cover-up. But at the right price, triple the going rate, Claire managed to convince the manager to let them bunk down, courtesy of Leon’s stressed credit card.

The fact Leon’s credit card worked, or that he even still had his credit card, was a miracle. His wallet hadn’t exactly been a priority, and honestly, they could sleep in a cockroach-infested basement, and Leon would be happy because they were dead on their feet after hiking on foot what Leon estimated to be a good 30 miles of rough terrain to get to the nearest town. The sun barely peeked over the horizon when the sky behind them exploded.

Raccoon City was gone. The people Leon had sworn to defend were gone. Sherry and Claire were all he managed to protect, and he’d be damned if he failed now.

The motel room wasn’t terrible; two double beds, a small tube TV, and a leaky faucet. It wasn’t good, but it wasn’t something out of a horrible nightmare. They’d left that behind them.

“I’m glad we don’t have a blacklight,” Claire joked, but her tone fell flat.

Leon nudged the bed farthest from the door suspiciously with his boot, dragged back the yellow duvet, and inspected the mattress before he lay Sherry down and tucked her in. He even let Claire shower first, insisted, while he watched Sherry sleep, tossing and turning and whimpering from reliving the horrors in her dreams until Claire emerged from the bathroom, hair still damp, and crawled into bed beside Sherry.

By the time Leon scrubbed his skin raw, the water was cold, and Claire had passed out cold with Sherry cuddled up beside her, little hand tangled in the front of Claire’s dirty tank top like a lifeline. Leon passed out face first on the other bed. He couldn’t even muster the energy to get under the covers.

Movement woke Leon. He jolted awake, reaching for his gun on the bedside table, only to find Claire, fully dressed, perched on the end of his bed and tugging one of her boots. She smiled sadly at the gun levelled at her head.

Leon lowered Matilda, gasping for air. His arm fell limply to his side. “Claire?”

“Hey.” Claire pulled on her second boot. “Sorry.”

Leon blinked at the sleep crusting his eyes. “What... what are you doing?”

Claire sighed and set her foot back down solidly on the ground, hands grasping her thighs. “I need to find Chris. I need... I need to know he’s okay.”

“Now?” Leon glanced at the clock. The bright red numbers read 7:46. The setting sun outside glowed faintly behind the curtains.

“If you ever need me...”

“Forget me. What about Sherry?” Leon snapped, somewhat mollified when Claire winced.

“I know you’ll take good care of her.” Claire’s attention briefly snapped to the sleeping 12-year-old that had survived literal hell. “Leon... if I didn’t have to.”

“Yeah. Yeah, whatever,” Leon scoffed, then rolled over. His heart thundered in his chest. He heard Claire briefly wake up Sherry to say goodbye, promising they’d be in touch, that if Sherry ever needed her, all she needed to do was call.

The door creaked open. Leon clenched his eyes shut, willing down the panic swelling in his chest until it ached. This was it. He was all Sherry had left. They were on their own.

“Take care of our girl for me.” Claire’s voice was barely a whisper.

Leon’s hands trembled, buried in the sheets and pillows, he struggled to suck down air, and his hearing fuzzed. Claire was gone.

For hours, Leon faded in and out of consciousness, barely able to keep the crush of dread at bay. Finally, at some point around 3 AM, he gave up all pretense to sleep and kept a vigilant guard. He jumped at a car alarm, tensed at the slam of a door, and clenched Matilda tightly when soft footfalls passed their door. Eventually, Sherry climbed into his bed to watch early morning cartoons with him.

“Is Claire going to be okay?” Sherry asked softly. She hugged Leon’s arm, cuddling into his side like he used to with his grandma.

“Yeah. Don’t worry about her,” Leon said. He slumped to the side, gently resting his head on top of Sherry’s. “She’ll be fine, kiddo.”

When the sun rose, Leon and Sherry trekked down to the front office to extend their stay another night, then hiked into town searching for clothes and sustenance. Being out in public, surrounded by people, set both Leon and Sherry on edge. They jumped at the slightest sound, and Sherry refused to release Leon’s hand for anything less than going to the bathroom, and even then, he had to stand guard outside the stall. Thank god he had pissed before they left the motel because Sherry was clinging to the back of his jacket while he tried seemed ridiculous.

Their shopping trip was quick. They grabbed what they could, Sherry setting a brisk pace through the little thrift store they found, dragging Leon from rack to rack. They scrounged up a few changes of clothes, socks, underwear, which Leon was a little uncertain of, a jacket that fits over his side holster since he had a license to carry, and a backpack that they filled with snacks and a deck of cards from a little corner store. It turns out Leon’s palette was similar to a twelve-year-old.

The tenuous credit limit finally crapped out on Leon when he tried to buy a six-pack at a shady liquor store on the way back to the motel.

“No job. No money. Just great,” Leon sighed.

For the rest of the day, they holed up in their room munching on junk food, watching terrible daytime TV, and playing Go Fish until Leon made the brilliant decision to teach Sherry how to play poker, and she fleeced him for all the Cheetos.

Leon had no plan beyond survive, and he hadn’t even planned for that. His body ached from being tossed by mutated monsters and shot. His wrapped shoulder twinged.

“Shit,” Leon cursed and clutched his wound. They needed help. He needed help. Taking care of a kid without any resources would be impossible; never mind, he’d never taken care of a person in his life. He had no siblings, no parents. His grandma died when he was nine.

Leon smiled at Sherry in reassurance when she questioned him. This little girl couldn’t be another statistic of the system. He could fix that. He would fix that.

Covered in orange Cheeto dust, Sherry crashed around 8 in the evening. The glow of the sun behind the curtain reminded Leon of the mushroom cloud that had enveloped the sky 36 hours ago. Leon’s stomach twisted in knots. Every creak, every thump, every squeaky break, Leon tensed, waiting for something to crash through the door and disrupt the precarious peace.

Leon hunkered down on his bed, the one closest to the door and any potential threat that came for them, and prepared for another sleepless night on edge.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Around one in the morning, his eyes beginning to droop, Leon nearly fell off the bed in his mad scramble for his gun when someone knocked heavily on the door. Checking his clip, Leon cautiously crept to the door, motioning for now very awake Sherry to stay out of sight.

“Who is it,” Leon called.

“Hi. Look, I’m sorry to bother you. My name is Chris Redfield. I’m looking for my sister Claire.”

Leon blinked and glanced back at Sherry, whose head had popped out of the blanket at the sound of Claire’s name. Then, double-checking he had bolted the chain, Leon opened the door a crack to peek out.

A man a little taller than Leon stood under the flickering light outside the door, his hair cut short and a 5 o’clock shadow. Chris Redfield, decorated member of the Racoon City Stars Division. Leon recognized him from the old photo Claire had shown him, but also the records he’d run across during his frantic hunt through the Police Department.

“Chris?” Leon said, astonished it was actually him. He slammed the door, unbolted the chain, and flung the door open again. “What the- Claire’s looking for you. What are you doing here?”

Chris, who eyed the gun uncertainly, brightened at the mention of his sister. “Is she here? The manager at the front recognized her. Said she was here with some guy and a kid.” Chris glanced past Leon into the room to Sherry curled up in the other bed peering out with curious fear from under the blankets.

Leon shook his head, eyes scanning the parking lot. “She’s not here. She left this morning to find you.”

“Fuck.” Chris winced and glanced at Sherry again. “Shit, sorry.”

Sherry giggled into her hands, and Leon rolled his eyes. “I think she’s dealt with worse.” Like the apocalypse.

“But she’s okay. She’s alive?” Chris asked.

“Who? Claire? Yeah. Yeah, she’s fine. Saved my ass more than a few times.” Leon smiled wistfully and then frowned. So Claire had left, and now, here, her brother was trying to track her down. It must be nice to have someone that gave a damn about you.

“Oh, thank god.” Then, finally, all the tension and stiffness in Chris’ posture melted. “I got her message, and...”

Leon scanned the dark parking lot again for any sign of life, then gestured into the motel room. “You should come in.”

“No.” Chris waved off the invitation. “No, I need to find her.” But the fatigue in his voice threatened to topple him, and that would definitely fell Leon if he tried to catch him.

“Dude, you’re dead on your feet,” Leon said. “It’s the middle of the night. Crash for a few hours.”

“Yeah!” Sherry chimed in, bouncing on her bed. “Stay!”

Chris shook his head. “I can’t.”

Leon pursed his lips. “Look, I don’t know you, man. But I do know that if you pass out behind the wheel and wrap yourself around a pole, you’re pretty damn useless to her.”

Chris opened his mouth to argue, and Leon sighed, tilting his head to the side, ready to give up when Chris snapped his mouth closed and cleared his throat. He studied Leon closely, scrutinizing him like he would a suspect, but Chris must have been satisfied with what he found - weakness, terror, immaturity - because he finally said, “just a few hours.” And the anxiety squeezing the life out of Leon eased, just a tiny bit. Enough that he could breathe.

Chris excused himself to run and grab his go-bag, and Leon cursed his stupidity because nothing was stopping Chris from running. That tightness immediately returned, but a few minutes later, another sharp knock sounded at the door.

Leon smiled tiredly and welcomed Chris into the room, relieved to have the company, someone who knew what they were doing; an adult. Leon grew up fast, but he’d never been an adult in his life. Racoon City was supposed to be a fresh start, and now, he was back to square one. Not even. He was in the basement of square one—the root cellar.

Leon finally caught a good look at Sherry with the lights on, still covered in orange dust, her fingers and cheeks stained. “Jesus. Did you eat the Cheetos or roll in them?”

Sherry laughed. “Leon taught me to play poker, and then I won all the cheezies,” she said to Chris, who grinned.

“Nice job.” Chris offered her a high-five, which she eagerly accepted. The hero worship was already forming.

“He gets a little wrinkle right here when he lies,” Sherry said, pointing a small finger between her eyebrows.

“Okay,” Leon said, scooping Sherry off the bed and carrying her off under one arm. “Let’s get you cleaned up and back in bed, munchkin.”

Cheeto dust proved a formidable adversary, but they managed. When they walked back into the room, Chris was standing exactly where they had left him, his bag still slung over his shoulder and his boots laced.

Getting Sherry tucked back into bed became a struggle now that the brand new company hyped her up; no hesitation whatsoever. She liked Chris. She even made Chris put her to bed, Leon faking offence at being disregarded for the new guy, but there was something about seeing a six-foot boulder of a man coax a tiny twelve-year-old back to sleep that made Leon’s chest ache. Especially when Chris told the story of how Claire was convinced that if she left fake teeth under her pillow, she could trick the tooth fairy into giving her more money. It never worked. The tooth fairy left chocolate coins instead. Fake money for a fake tooth.

Leon watched perched on the edge of the other bed, a little envious of Chris’ skill with kids. He double-checked the safety on his handgun, then the clip. Chris eyed Leon as he set his weapon back down on the bedside table, and Leon couldn’t muster the energy to be self-conscious about his paranoia.

Chris may be Claire’s sister and a fellow survivor of Raccoon City, but Leon didn’t actually know him. For all he knew, he was a traitor like Irons or Wesker. Maybe he wasn’t the man Claire believed him to be. What the hell had he been thinking? Inviting a stranger to stay with them?

With Sherry asleep again, Leon and Chris were left to settle in for the remainder of the night. For Chris, that meant shedding his bulky jacket and combat boots.

“It’s Leon, right?” Chris said. He stood awkwardly beside the bed, watching Leon click off the light and climb under the blankets, tucking himself up against the edge of the mattress as close as he possibly could without toppling off. “Claire mentioned you in one of her messages.”

Leon almost facepalmed. He hadn’t introduced himself. He really was doing everything backwards. “Yeah. That’s me. Leon S. Kennedy.” He curled up into a small ball.

“Jesus Christ.” Chris swiped his palm across his mouth. “You’re the new rookie.”

Leon chuckled humourlessly, his hands tightening into fists around the sheets pulled up to his neck. “Was a hell of a first day.”

Chris picked up real quick that Leon didn’t want to talk about it. So instead, he climbed into his side of the bed, the one closest to the door. The mattress dipped under his weight, and Leon tensed. Where else would Chris have slept? The floor? The last person Leon shared a bed with was his ex, who had seemingly saved his life. If she hadn’t broken up with him, if he hadn’t gotten drunk, if he hadn’t slept in hungover as hell, he would have arrived right in the middle of the initial panic, and who knows if he would have survived that. No one else in the department had.

What would it have been like? The screams, the moans, the pleas for help- the sounds still played on repeat in Leon’s head. Lieutenant Marvin Branagh, mouth agape, stumbling towards him with his hands out. Leon had put two bullets between his eyes.

The first indications of a panic attack slammed into Leon. Abruptly, his throat closed. He couldn’t breathe, his vision slid out of focus, and his chest compressed. Like someone reached into his chest and squeezed his heart in a vice. His entire body shook.

Suddenly, a warm voice murmured in his ear, the soothing tone talking him down, calming him. Leon wasn’t alone. He wasn’t trapped in the police station battling endless waves of the undead, the people of Raccoon City he’d taken an oath to serve and protect.

“Leon, kid, you need to breathe,” Chris said. His presence was a solid wall behind Leon. “I’m going to touch you, okay?”

Leon focused on Chris’ voice. His vision began to swim back into focus, his hearing rushed back in a sudden wall of familiar night noises like the drip of the faucet in the bathroom or the lonely car that passed on the highway. He nodded, not fully understanding what Chris was saying. An arm slid around his waist and pulled him back into a firm chest. Leon flailed, seconds from panic again when Chris’ voice rumbled in his ear.

“You’re going to be okay. I got you.”

Leon grasped Chris’ arm, his grip probably tight enough to leave bruises, and he choked on a shuddering sob.

“It’s okay, Leon. You’re going to be okay.”

Gasping for air, Leon rolled over and buried his face in Chris’ chest, and Chris let him. Leon’s sobs were muffled in Chris’ arms, not wanting to disturb Sherry in the next bed. He felt every subtle muscle flex when Chris tightened his grip or shifted them into a more comfortable position. That’s how Leon passed out, wrapped in the reassuring embrace of a complete stranger, one who understood the hell he’d lived through and the fear and uncertainty he felt in his soul.

Morning came quickly. Leon woke up still curled into Chris’ chest with a death grip on the other man’s faded t-shirt. Chris’ nose was buried in Leon’s hair, each soft snore ruffling his hair, but his embrace hadn’t lessened overnight.

The warmth of embarrassment burning, Leon snuck out of bed, anxiously loosening Chris’ hold and dashing for the safety and solitude of the bathroom, horrified at his complete lack of control the night before. No one had held him like that before, at least not since he was a child and his grandma would sit up with him after a nightmare. But, sadly, this was another type of nightmare, a waking one.

When Leon finally mustered the courage to wander back into the room, Chris was up, sitting on the edge of the bed with his elbows on his knees.

“You okay?” Chris asked the same time Leon burst out, “I’m sorry!”

Chris sighed. “You didn’t do anything wrong. When I showed up on your doorstep last night, I saw right away that you were barely holding it together.”

Leon’s fists clenched at his side. He couldn’t meet Chris’ gentle gaze.

Chris crossed the room in two enormous strides and considerately grasped Leon by the shoulders. “It was the shock finally hitting you. It happened to me too, but I was alone,” Chris admitted. “Hey. Hey, come on. Look at me.”

Leon bit his lower lip, but he slowly looked up, eyes stinging. “I don’t know what to do.”

Telegraphing his movements, Chris gently pulled Leon into a tight hug. “You’re not alone. We’re going to do this together. I want to take Umbrella down, but first, I wanna make sure you’re okay.”

Leon jerked back so fast Chris stumbled. “I want to help. I want to make those sons of bitches pay.”

Chris smiled. “Good. But first, I have a safe house.”

Together, they set the plans. Leon and Sherry would meet Chris in two days, hopefully with Claire in tow, at Chris’ new safehouse three states over. Sherry and Leon could catch a bus a couple miles down the highway to get them most of the way. The trick would be getting up the mountain to the cabin. But they were in this together. Hope simmered once again.

Armed with a freshly drawn map on motel stationery, Leon watched Chris pack. Umbrella wouldn’t know what hit them.

“Here. Take it.”Chris handed Leon two rumpled twenties, a five, and a few ones he dug out of his wallet. “It’s all the cash I have on me, but it should be enough to get you there. I’ll drop you off-”

“No.” Leon took the cash, but waved off Chris’ offer to give him and Sherry a lift to the bus station. “It’s in the opposite direction. We’ll be fine.”

“Two days,” Chris promised. Sherry had climbed out of bed and now clung to Chris’ arm as if he couldn’t leave as long as she was attached. He ruffled her hair. “With or without Claire, I’ll be there and we’ll go from there.” Chris grabbed Leon by the back of the neck and dragged him into a gruff hug, their foreheads lightly pressed together. “It’s gonna be okay, kid.”

And Leon believed him. That is, until two hours later when an unmarked vehicle pulled up on Leon and Sherry hiking down the side of the road, hand in hand. They never made it to the rendezvous.

[todorokiaimee]

Dopamine Chapter 5

Previous Chapter

“Hey, Sero! Thanks for hosting tonight,” Kirishima said as he pulled an ice-cold beer out of the fridge. “It’s been a long time since we had a guys night.”

Sero nodded as he looked over the Uno cards in his hand. “No problem dude. I’m always happy to pull you away from your old ball and chain.”

“Well, Marina and I are still a while off from the wedding.” Kirishima chuckled as he rejoined the game, the guys all gathered around Sero’s kitchen table.

 “Fuck, don’t get him talking about Fish Sticks,” Bakugou grumbled.  “He’ll never shut up.” Kirishima’s fiancé Marina had always rubbed Bakugou the wrong way but even he couldn’t deny the fact that they were made for each other. That fact aside, he still refused to call her by name. 

 “Speaking of little ladies…” The redhead smirked, before playing his card down on the pile. “Bakugou! Would you be so kind as to give us an update on your mystery woman?”

It had been a few days since Bakugou and Jada’s date.  The blonde couldn’t deny the chemistry between them, but he was resigned to keep things casual for now. Love and hero work just didn’t mix. It’s only a distraction and gives your enemies something to use against you. Even so, he couldn’t get the dark-skinned beauty out of his mind ever since he first laid his eyes on her.

“Mystery woman?” Kaminari questioned as he played a draw 2 card. “The one he ditched us for on Mina’s birthday?”

“The one and the same,” Kirishima smirked, turning toward his friend. “Spill dude.” 

Bakugou scoffed, playing his turn. “I don’t kiss and tell boys.”

 “Boo you whore!” Kaminari laughed. 

“We need to know more about the chick that effectively pulled you out of the booty call business.” Sero pushed as he took a drink of his beer.

 I’m pretty sure I’m her booty call. But not for long. “I don’t owe you guys shit.”

“Can we get a name a least?”

“It’s Jada!” Kirishima confessed with a toothy grin.

 “Jada!” Kaminari cooed. “First name basis already?! Things are getting serious!”

Bakugou only shrugged, drinking his beer. “She’s American so... not really.”

 “Oh American!” Sero quirked a brow, laying down his card. “Taking a page out of Todoroki’s book, huh?” He smirked, sure he’d get a rise out his friend.

“I’m nothing like fucking Half n Half!” The ash-blonde barked.

“You don’t know what you’re missing with these American girls, Sero.” Kirishima smiled, laying down a wild card.  “They’re so bold. Jada certainly isn’t letting Bakugou off easy. Oh, and I pick Blue.” 

“Ooof I love it when they play hard to get,” The electric hero groaned, biting his lip. “Only makes me want them more.”

“We know.” The rest of the gang deadpanned. 

Sero shook his head as Kaminari played a reverse card. “You went after Jiro for a solid 3 years before you got wise.”

“Oh, Jiro…,” Denki sighed lovingly. “The one that got away. I really thought we had an unspoken thing.”

Bakugou rolled his eyes with a grunt. “She was fucking gay you twat!” 

“Well, I know that now! Also, can we talk about how hot she and YaoMomo are together? I mean damn.”

 “I thought we were grilling Bakugou?” Kirishima interjected, playing a draw 4 card.

“Yeah,” Sero agreed, picking up his cards before playing his turn. “You’re not off the hook yet. Tell us!” 

“Fuckin weirdos.” Bakugou hummed, leaning back in his chair. He never liked to talk about his exploits but he took pity on the guys. He was the only one of them actually dating besides Kirishima and his almost married stories were just a mushy love fest. “You know I only like the best so…” He smirked, looking around the room as his friends waited in anticipation. “She has this crazy body… like stacked. Legs for days. Piercings. Green eyes and smooth dark skin…” 

“American and Black?” Kaminiari interrupted. “I sense a pattern here.” Sero shushed him, urging Bakugou to continue.

“She’s smart too. She fixed my gauntlet with just tools in her purse,” He chuckled, remembering her tinkering on his gauntlet with ease. “She’s unpredictable. Whenever I think she’s gonna go right, she goes left. It drives me fucking crazy but there’s something about her.” He paused, stroking the stubble of his beard as he mumbled. “She’s just different.” 

The room fell silent as they looked at their explosive friend in awe until Kirishima finally said what they all were thinking. “Dude. You’re gushing. Like actually gushing about a girl.” He paused as a huge grin pulled at his lips. “You’re catching feelings!”

“The fuck I am!”

“Yes, you are! Ask me how I know.”

“I swear to God if you bring up Marina again I will--”

“You just called her Marina!” Kirishima laughed as his friend let loose a small explosion in his hardened face. 

“Don’t be shy, dude,” Sero teased.  “It’s about time actually. We were getting worried about you.”

“Shut up!” Bakugou grumbled. “Let’s get back to the game.”

“Okay, let’s hurry this up because I’m ready to move onto phase two of the night,” Kaminari said as he played another reverse card. 

“What’s phase two?” The redhead asked as he played a reverse card back to Kaminari.

“It’s a surprise!”

“I’m probably gonna hate it but fine.” Bakugou huffed.

“Uno!” The electric hero cheered as he played yet another reverse card.

“Fuck!” Bakugou yelled as he looked over to his guilty-looking redheaded friend. “Shitty hair if you play another reverse I’m going to reverse your existence.”

“I’m sorry! That’s all I can play!” He grimaced as he laid down the card.

“And a wild card for the win!” Kaminari boasted, laying down his last card. “Fork it over bitches!”

The men all groaned as they took out their wallets, each tossing 10k yen onto the table. “Why were we playing and betting on fucking Uno anyway?” Bakugou mumbled.

“Because Denki doesn’t know how to play poker.” Sero huffed.

Kirishima chuckled. “Well, it worked out fine for him I guess…”

“Okay, it’s time for phase two!” Kaminari said as he pocketed the money. “We’re going to the strip club! I’m gonna take your money and make it rain!“

__________________________________________________________________________

Filing out of the uberX, the boys made their way to a seemingly everyday luxury building, Denki talking over his shoulder, “Guys you are going to love this place. It’s called The Secret Garden. Super classy and discrete.”

Sero laughed as he pulled out his ID, walking up to the bouncer at the door. “Dude all I need to know is are the girls hot?”

“Well duh.” The electric hero chuckled. “My girl Tiffany can throw it back.”

 “I should probably call Marina and tell her the change of plans,” Kirishima mumbled apologetically as he took out his cell phone.

“Heh. Pussy.” Bakugou jeered as his friend stepped away to call his fiancé. 

It was then that Kaminari looked amongst his friends as they all took turns showing their IDs. “Everybody’s got cash money, right? The ladies do not take cards. I found that out the hard way.” With an affirmation from the rest of the crew, Kirishima returned to the group, pocketing his cell phone. 

“What did Fish Sticks say?” Bakugou asked the redhead with a smug smirk. “Do you have to go crawling back home with your dick between your legs?”

“She’s cool,” he shrugged. “She said I could browse the menu as long as I don’t order anything.” 

“No lap dances for you then.” Sero laughed.

 “That’s cool,” Denki said with a bright smile, leading everyone inside. “The main stage is where the best girls dance anyway.”

As the men made their way up to the mainstage of the club, Bakugou took a moment to gauge his surroundings. There was mellow house music pumping through the speakers has men and even a few women sat around in comfy chairs as gorgeous scantily clad women danced sensually on top of them or just talked with them seemingly enjoying their company. Strip clubs always made Bakugou vaguely uncomfortable but he couldn’t put his finger on just why. Maybe it was just the very public nature of traditionally intimate activities. It didn’t matter anyway, there was no way he was going to be seen as the prude of the group. 

The group of friends all sat down around the edge of the main stage, each pulling out a healthy wad of cash to prepare for their first dance. Denki however, took it a step further as per usual. The hero pulled out a money gun, eagerly loading it up with his Uno winnings from earlier that night. As the others rolled their eyes at their eccentric friend, a petite pink-haired woman dressed in a frilly lace baby doll set walked up to the man with a sweet smile. “Mr. Kaminari welcome back! It’s been so long since you last came to play with us.” Sakura cooed as she batted her lashes. 

“Princess! Good to see you! I’m sorry it’s been a while. Duty calls.” Denki smirked as he flexed his biceps, not so subtly. “Tiffany should be performing on the main stage tonight, right?”

“Umm, how many times have you been here?” Kirishima whispered to his electric friend.

“Sorry hun,” Sakura apologized. “She called in sick tonight. But my girl Nubia is about to go on. She always puts on an amazing show.” 

“Nubia, huh?” Denki hummed as he scratched his chin. “I don’t think I’ve had the pleasure of watching her dance. This should be fun!”

Bakugou sighed as he stood up from his seat. “I’m gonna go get a beer.” The man made his way back to the bar, the bartender taking his order as the lights on the mainstage went out, a woman crossing the floor. He hummed as he paid for his drink taking a sip as the MC’s voice rang through the speakers.

“Welcome back to the main stage our exotic beauty and tonight your faithful assistant, Nubia!”

As the lights lifted, Bakugou watched from the bar as the dancer stood on stage, her back to the audience. Dressed in tight office attire, she tossed random papers into the air as James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s World” played throughout the club. (https://youtu.be/ilMV5tu9bcQ)

And then she turned around. 

No. Fucking. Way. The explosive hero nearly choked on his beer as he stared. He knew those dark locs and green eyes anywhere. The woman on stage was in fact, Jada Jackson. 

He continued to watch from afar as she twirled around the pole to the music, slowly peeling off articles of clothing until she was left in a silver bra and thong set. He clenched his fists as he seethed watching her long legs wave in the air, her curves on full display. This can’t be happening. Bakugou willed himself to stay calm as his friends cheered her on, cursing under his breath as she finally rid herself of her metallic bra, leaving her chest bare to the world. It was then that Jada crawled across the stage floor, right up to his friends staring in awe. 

Jada smirked as she went up to the blonde who had been very enthusiastic, shooting yen bills onto the stage with his money gun. Kaminari practically drooled as his eyes flicked from her full breasts to her green eyes and back again, “Good God, where have you been all my life?”

“Waiting for you, sweetheart,” Jada breathed as she moved her body seductively, her eyes flicking to the large wad of cash in his hand. “Is that for me?”

“Uh-huh!”

“Then slide it in, baby.” She smirked as she stretched out the band of her thong. Denki eagerly slipped the stack of bills into the band as she let out a lewd moan followed by a delighted giggle. “I love a nice thick one.” 

Denki gulped, exploring all the possibilities in his mind. “Let me take you away from all this…” 

Next, Jada turned her gaze to Sero, a nervous smile plastered across his face. “Look at that smile. Aren’t you a cutie.”

“T-thank you, ma’am.” He stuttered as he put his cash tip into her thong band as well.

“So polite. Thank you, sir.” Jada gave him a wink before crawling over to her next target, Kirishima. She giggled to herself as she knelt on her knees before him, his eyes refusing to look anywhere below her neck. “Someone looks a little shy.”

“Heh yeah… maybe a bit.” He chuckled as he rubbed the back of his neck timidly. 

“Relax, honey. I don’t bite.” She purred as Kirishima laughed, showing off his pointy pearly whites. “Oh. But maybe you do.” Jada breathed as she came up with an idea. “I think I’d like these chompers right… here.” Just then, the ravenette grabbed his head, pulling his face into her large breasts, giving them a shimmy for added effect. 

THE FUCK?! Bakugou couldn’t believe his eyes. He silently seethed as he chugged his beer. Here was his girl, the woman he had invested so much time and energy on, and his friends are ogling her freely. His palms popped and sparked as he crushed his beer can in his fist as Jada finished her dance, collecting her clothes and tips before disappearing into the back. The hero stomped back up to the stage with his eyes filled with rage, Denki taking notice of his friend.

“Dude! You missed the whole dance! I think I just met my future wife.”

“Shut the fuck up Kaminari.” Bakugou practically spat, as he walked up to another dancer. “Oi! The girl that was just on stage. When is she coming back out?”

The woman looked him up and down before giving the hero a playful smirk. “You want a dance, baby? I’d be happy to help you out.”

“Don’t flatter yourself.” He said dismissively. “When is Ja- Nubia coming back out?”

“I’ll go get her.”

The dancer turned on her heel with a sigh before walking backstage and into the dressing room. “Hey, Jada?” She looked around the small crowded area quickly finding the dark-skinned beauty amongst her fairer colleagues. 

“Yeah?” She asked as she fixed her makeup. 

“You got a request for a dance.”

“Really?” Jada mumbled, a smile pulling at her plump lips.  “Must be my lucky night. I got some great tippers stageside tonight. Was it the skinny blonde one with the black streak in his hair?”

“No it was a blonde but he had a spikey undercut… super buff too.” The dancer hummed as she played with her hair. “Nasty attitude though so I would be careful. Should I tell Tanaka to keep an eye on him?”

“NO!” Jada yelled before quickly recovering, “Um I mean, I got it. I’ll be right out, just let me change into a new set.”

After quickly changing into a new navy bra and pantie set, Jada nervously made her way back onto the club floor, praying to whoever would listen. Please don’t be him. Please don’t be him. Please don’t be him. She held her breath as she looked around the room, a pair of ruby red eyes locking with hers instantly. Fuck it is him. Her heart dropped into her stomach as the ash-blonde walked up to her, practically steaming. “Hi handsome, you want a dance?”

“You’re just gonna act like everything’s fine? Really?” Bakugou fumed. “Were you ever gonna tell me?!”

“Okay! Sounds like you want a private dance! Follow me to the champagne room, sir.”

With a flip of her long dark locs, Jada led Bakugou out across the floor, his friends quickly taking notice. He ignored their cheers for what they thought would be a seductive dance at his request. Instead, their hoots and hollers only fueled his rage even more. Once inside the ultra-private champagne room, Jada was the first one to speak. “I can explain.”

“This should be rich, Dimples.”

 “This is only temporary.”

 “Temporary?” He scoffed as he crossed his muscular arms.

“Yes!” Even she knew she didn’t sound very convincing. 

Bakugou laughed, rolling his eyes. “I swear to God if you tell me you’re only doing this to pay for law school or some bullshit like that--”

“I’m doing this to pay for a number of things that I’m not at liberty to discuss with you. And frankly, I don’t owe you shit!”

 “Well, you’re so full of shit that you must have plenty to go around!”

Jada bit her lip as she let out a deep sigh. She really didn’t think she was going to have this conversation with him this soon if ever. “Look, I have to make a living, same as everybody else. When YOU go to the strip club someone has to dance for you. So obviously you were okay with that arrangement as long as your girl wasn’t on stage.”

“I didn’t want to fucking come! The point is you fucking lied to me!”

“I never lied to you.”

 “You didn’t tell me the whole truth!”

“You didn’t ask the right questions.”

 Bakugou groaned as he raked his hand through his hair, exasperated. “Fuck! I can’t believe you actually had me bragging to my boys about you. Me! Bakugou fucking Katsuki gushing over a woman.” The hero was so furious he was shaking. In fact, he was more than furious, he was embarrassed. “I sang your praises to my friends only for you to turn around and take your clothes off for them!” He laughed as he shook his head in disgust. “Oh, and you let my best friend motorboat you too. Can’t forget that.”

 The ravenette paused, taking a step back, turning her eyes away from his burning gaze. “I’m not going to apologize for doing my job. You and friends came here to be entertained and I delivered.”

 “I’m a Pro Hero for fucks sake!” Bakugou yelled, throwing his hands into the air. “I can’t date a stripper. Not knowing any extra off the street with a yen can see your goods.”

Jada paused, unsure of what to say. She wasn’t surprised by his reaction, but she didn’t expect the bite of his words to cut her so deep. I knew this was a bad idea. I knew you were a bad idea. “Well, let me rid you of that problem. You won’t be seeing me anymore.” She said coldly before holding her hand out to him. “That’s 55,000 yen for the dance.”

“What?!” He barked in confusion.

“The champagne room is super private and luxurious. No cameras so as to not hurt your precious image.” She hissed as her nose began to tingle. “It costs more and my boss is expecting a cut.” Don’t you fucking do it, Jada. You will not cry in front of him. “I know you’re good for it so let’s not drag this out.”

The blonde scoffed, digging into this pants pocket to pull out his wallet. “I can’t believe I have to pay for a fucking fight,” he mumbled, taking out a wad of cash.  “You didn’t even dance…”

“Yeah but like you said…” Jada said as she snatched the money from his hand. “Your boys enjoyed the show, didn’t they?”

To stop himself from completely losing his cool, Bakugou pushed past the woman and stomped back out onto the club floor. He sulked up to his group of friends, now watching a new dancer on stage. Kirishima was the first one to spot him, immediately noticing his abnormally hostile energy and his overly red face. 

“Whoa! Where’s the fire, bro?”

“We’re leaving!” Bakugou bellowed, walking over to the door.

“Dude, what happened?” Sero asked as they all got up from their seats before following Bakugou out of the building. “Did you not like your dance? She was hot.”

“Did you like it a little too much?” Denki chuckled as he gave the ash-blonde a slap on the back. “Cuz I mean I wouldn’t blame ya. That’s a meal I’d eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”

“SHUT UP!” Bakugou yelled, punching his well-meaning friend in the face, his frustrations finally getting the better of him. Stumbling backward, Kaminari held his nose in his hands as he groaned in pain.

“Katsuki! What the fuck dude?!” Kirishima shouted as he steadied the electric hero. “What’s the matter with you?”

“That was her!” Bakugou boomed as he paced the sidewalk.

“Who?”

“Jada!”

The men all stared at Bakugou blankly, not understand who he meant. 

“The stripper…” he explained through gritted teeth. “Nubia. It’s fucking Jada!”

The group of friends all looked at each other in confusion until the reality of the situation finally clicked into place, all of them shouting at once, “FUCK!”

Meanwhile, inside the club, Jada left the champagne room with her head hung low as she silently counted the wad of cash from her almost beau. Eizan was right… I was stupid for even trying. With a sigh, she sauntered backstage to the dressing room, plopping down in her makeup chair. She was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn’t even notice her best friend pull up a seat next to her. 

“Wow, girl look at that fat wad! What did you have to do to get that?” Sakura asked cheerfully.

“Nothing…” Jada breathed, putting the cash away for safekeeping.

“Sweetheart, why do you look so upset? What happened? Did that guy do something to you?” The pink-haired woman quickly looked her friend over for any marks or bruises, her concern growing.

“No, I'm fine.” Jada insisted as she touched up her makeup, taking special care that her eyeliner and mascara were still intact. “I just got a reality check is all.” 

Chapter 6 | Masterlist

[howaboutthat111]

From the Ashes, You Will Rise PT: 5

Summary: You were eleven when the snap happened, and Peter was the last family you had left. Now he’s gone, and you swear you’ll bring him back.

Series Masterlist

(Should Y/N end up having powers or nah)

Its now been 2 years since the snap. Your food has all been eaten. But you have been able to survive for a bit, with the help of Marcas.

You have also been able to make some progress with the time travel, but have yet to find a way to do the actual time travel. But small victories. It’s Wednesday night now, and it’s time to visit Marcus.

Marcus is a small time mob boss with ties to the Russians. You don’t do any that bad stuff, but once a week you go to his place, and win some money by playing poker.

You walk into the dark alleyway, towards a steel door. Knock twice, break, knock three times. The door swings open as a large burley man steps aside. You walk down the brick hall, with nothing but the backpack on your side. There’s a glass wall to the side, of which you walk over to. There’s three men sitting at a poker table behind it the glass. Derek sits at the left side, he’s the kind of guy that at first glance you think of as stupid but once you start talking you know he’s quite the opposite. Lewis sits to the right, counting his chips. He’s the kind of guy who always tries to disobey anything everyone says, but makes a fool of himself when doing it. And then there Marcus. Marcus is a slim, weird, always making weird jokes and trying to mess with you whenever he gets the chance. That how he wins most poker matches, but it doesn’t fool me.

“Hey, Marcus, I need a stack of high society, you got it?” You ask him, places down your wad of cash along the sliding panel in the glass.

“I got it right here, when you plan of playing with the big boys over here, you can get a lot more money if you play with us” He says, his Russian accent thick and his eyes rising up and down. He picks up the chips to his right, standing up and giving them to you.

“Well I don’t wanna loose all my money so quickly now do I” You say back, grabbing your chips and continueing to walk though the dark and dead hallway. The hallway opens up into a large brick room, with round tables set up around the areas and tv’s surrounding the outsides of it, playing old football games. You sit down at one of the smaller tables placing your money down, and getting ready to play.

Poker is a game where each player is given two cards of their own. Then five community cards are placed down upon the table. The goal of the game is to get the best hand out of the seven cards.

The two cards are dealt to each person, you look down at your cards, it’s an ace and king of heart. You got a good hand, you just gotta play it right.

“I bet 1000” you tell them, places a portion of your chips onto the middle of the table, of which is called the pot. There are four other people at your table, Alice, Mike, Julia, and George. Alice and Mike put there money in with barley any though, which most likely means they have a good hand like mine. Julia fold, which means she most likely had nothing, something like a three and an eight. George takes his time, thinking over what to do when finally deciding to stay in. This most likely mean he has something like an eight and a seven, and he’s hoping he can get a straight.

Three cards are placed down. An ace, king, and an 3. You have two pair on the first flip, very good. The betting comes to you, you act as though your not sure what to do, but end up throwing another thousand in. Alice puts the money in right away, meaning she most likely has a pair, either of aces or kings. Mike takes a moment to think, deciding to stay in. This means he might have an Jack and a ten, and he’s trying to chase a straight. George folds.

Another card is placed on the table. Its an ace. You have a full house, one of the best hands in poker. You knock though, trying to seem as though you have a pair of kings. Alice puts in two thousands. She has an ace. You then raise her, three thousands. She stays in. But Mike folds.

The dealer than places down another card, it’s a seven. You check, then Alice raises, putting in three thousands. You decide to act as though your not sure, thinking it over in your head, looking back at your cards.

“You know, I’m just going to go all in cause I don’t think you have that ace.” You say, pushing the rest of your chips into the pot. Alice looks back down at her cards, then pushes her chips into the middle.

You throw your cards onto the table then, showing the you have a full house.

“WHAT! NO! WHAT! WHAT HOW WHAT!!” She yells, throwing her cards down showing that she has three of a kind. You shrug, collecting your chips. Alice then storms out of the room, steam quite literally coming out of her ears. You walk back over to Marcus, and ask for your cash.

“What you win on?” He ask counting out the money you just earned.

“Full house aces and kings”. You say back as he hand you the money.

“Well played, you just got 25,000”.

“Thank you Marcus, see you next time” you say, and then walk out of their with a large smile plastered on your face.

[rinusagitora]

Another empty seat in the city  of ghosts.

Fandom: BLEACH

Characters: Toushirou Hitsugaya, Momo Hinamori, Kisuke Urahara, Tessai Tsukabishi, Ururu Tsumugiya, Jinta Hanakari, Yuzu Kurosaki, Ichigo Kurosaki, Karin Kurosaki

Pairings: HitsuKarin, others not mentioned

Words: 2.1k

Summary: Shinigami!Karin AU. Chapter 2/8. WARNINGS- mentions of suicide, dysfunctional families, mentions of spousal abuse;  Karin has taken her life. What follows is a maelstrom of emotion.

AO3

Momo laid awake the night before the Kurosaki girl's memorial.

She and Toushirou had a long history of neglecting to share personal details. Privacy, embarrassment, bridges her ex Sousuke burned gleefully. But for him to ask her to attend his girlfriend's wake was quite serious, if he came to her of all people.

Momow as never good in those situations.

Izuru squeezed her hand. "Are you finished speaking with Urahara?"

"Aye. He's arranging mine and Shirou-chan's gigai... I sent him my kimono."

Izuru nodded. "Renji wants you to come to bed."

Momo gazed into Izuru's eyes. Blue. Dried from undeath. She half expected to see flies crawling across him in the mornings. It never happened, but she always worried.

"Is this a tragedy?" she asked Izuru.

"What?"

"The Kurosaki girl's death."

Izuru shrugged. "I can't say. We all expire eventually. She sooner than, I assume, at least, her family would've liked." He stroked her knuckles. "Overthinking it gets us nowhere. We've made the arrangements, she'll be here soon enough... Now come to bed? Please?"

She smiled at Izuru. "Of course."

Momo slipped into bed with Izuru and her other spouses. She coiled against Shuuhei's back, throwing an arm over his hip.

---

She and Toushirou met in the morning at the senkaimon and were checked out by the guardians before passing through. Momo hated being stroked and prodded by strangers. It made her feel like a slab of rotting meat.

She met Kisuke with Toushirou and easily slipped on her gigai and then entered the car outside.

How awkward it was, sitting with her brother. Tense. They were on good terms and had been for years by that point. But he was upset. She could feel it. See it in the way he folded his arms and slumped. She wanted to say he'd muss his kimono, require his hair to be combed, but held her tongue and smoked instead.

Toushirou was going through enough. While agreeing to take Karin on as her charge was anxiety-inducing, it was his girlfriend's funeral. Even if she wasn't lost to Toushirou forever, it had to be traumatic.

Momo tried to dispel the image of Sousuke's body hanging from the east wall. It was only a doll. An illusion. A lie.

She chanted that until they came to the temple.

Climbing out, she smoothed her kimono. Toushirou guided her to a trio waiting in the doorway. They seemed to be familiar to him.

A young woman said, "Yuzu is livid.

"So Urahara told us," Toushirou replied.

The young woman glared at him. "I stand by her."

The giant, who she assumed was another guardian, slapped the young woman upside her head. She tenderly rubbed her scalp. "Enough, honey," he said. He then turned to her and Toushirou. "Thank you for coming. Karin-chan will be pleased."

Karin-chan. A nickname that told a story of fondness, adoration, family. That was so adorable, it almost brought a smile to Momo's face. She had a good feeling about Karin.

She managed to keep her poker face, however. She said. "I imagine. What should we expect from Kurosaki Ichigo?"

"We're keeping him in line if Yuzu doesn't," the boy replied, folding his arms. "He agreed to keep the peace when Tou-tou and he talked."

"And the Kurosaki girl?"

"Yuzu?"

"Nay, the one we're here for." Momo got it. Look out for Yuzu...

The young woman glanced into the temple interior. "She's... not crying. I think she's distancing herself from this ordeal."

Momo ashed her pipe. "Perhaps it's for the better." The young woman gave her a weird look which Momo didn't care to return. Having to watch one's funeral procession was fucking insanity. Izuru was unstable even on the best of days. That day had to be the most traumatic. Better to process it down the line.

The children's father said, "Hand-off will occur before cremation. Kurosaki Isshin only agreed to allow us in for the service since Karin asked, but the burial is for family and Kurosaki Ichigo's close friends only."

Momo refrained from asking about Karin's friends. She didn't want to mess around with that.

She took a look inside the temple instead. There were many faces she didn't recognize, but she did recognize Rukia, and said, "I see Kuchiki-fukutaichou as well.",

"She won't be causing trouble. She's here as a family friend," the children's father replied.

Momo had gotten everything she wanted out of that. She and Toushirou bowed.

"Many thanks. We'll head in," Toushirou said.

As soon as they crossed the threshold, Rukia spotted them and practically stormed over. Momo groaned. So much for not causing trouble. She already knew this service was about to be a minefield of bullshit.

"Neither of you are welcome," Rukia said, hands folded in front of her belly. "Please leave before Yuzu sees you."

"The deceased requested us, and the patriarch has permitted us entry," Toushirou replied.

"No matter. Do you want to start shit?"

There was an edge to their voices that alerted Momo it was her turn to step in before a fight erupted. At least she was good at reminding people of their places. God knew she had to put her foot down following Sousuke's desertion. She had a meltdown, she wasn't transformed into a doormat.

"We haven't started anything, Kuchiki-fukutaichou. Besides... do you think it wise to start shit here? Our powers are merely dampened, but I know for a fact there are enough of us gathered here to alert trouble if contention brews," Momo said, before taking a long drag from her pipe.

Rukia was silenced by a youthful blonde rushing over, pink in the face and nostrils flaring. Momo wasn't a gambler, but she'd bet that was Yuzu, judging by how Rukia ran like she was dodging a raging ox.

Yuzu got right in Toushirou's face. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

He repeated, "Your father said we were welcomed to the ceremony."

Momo's first instinct was to snap Yuzu's neck as soon as her finger jabbed Toushirou's chest. 'You murdered my sister!" Yuzu accused with such venom, Momo watched for it to pour out the sides of her mouth. "I don't want you here!"

"And I do?" Toushirou said, sighing.

"And who is this skank?" Yuzu asked, jerking her chin at Momo.

"My sister. Don't treat her like my mistress."

Momo kept her temper in check, reminding herself of how she reacted to Sousuke's death. Was being called a skank worse than trying to assassinate your family? Nay.

But it was tempting to break Yuzu's teeth. Skank... As if.

Before it escalated, Momo summoned her will to kindly cusp Yuzu's hands. "We are here to grieve just as ye. I understand how difficult this is. My husband passed during a tumultuous time," she said. Her eyes watered, again recalling the image of Sousuke pinned the East wall. "We hadn't time to bury him, either."

Yuzu seemed to diffuse. She looked at her socks. "I'm sorry," she croaked. "It's been a long couple of days."

"There's nothing to apologize for." Momo smiled and bowed to Yuzu. Yuzu returned the gesture. "If you need anything, please let me know. I haven't service at home, but Urahara-san can reach me if needed."

Yuzu's gratitude seemed genuine, at least.

"May we take a seat?" Momo asked.

Yuzu gestured to the last rows. "In the back, please. The front rows are taken.',

"Aye. Thank you again, Kurosaki-san."

Momo sat, crossed her legs, and surveyed the room. It was strange being unable to see spirits. For the better, undoubtedly. But she wanted to size up Karin in person there too. Evaluate how best to break the ice with someone who just took their own damn life.

But, by God, it was a fucking circus there. Ichigo and the man who seemed to be their father were distanced far from Yuzu despite sitting together. Ichigo's legs were pointed away from Yuzu, repelled by an unknown force. He was practically pushing Orihime out of her seat. The father was statuesque. Completely still unless approached. Seeming to collapse in on himself.

So much for a family. As dysfunctional as Momo's own.

"I can see why Kurosaki-san is so upset," Momo announced.

Toushirou grumpily responded with, "Karin was in pain."

"I'm in no position to judge her," Momo reminded Toushirou. "But look at the Kurosaki family... Stiff as boards. The little one is the only one weeping, and neither of them is consoling her."

"They're... dysfunctional. I'm sure she refused it."

"For good reason?" Momo asked.

"Aye. They... nay, we all, have lied to her for years. I'm sure she harbors conflicting feelings."

Momo hummed. "Aye." A fucking disaster indeed. No wonder why Karin sought to escape into the Seireitei. After Sousuke deserted, Momo wanted to run away too. Far away. Someplace her pain couldn't reach her.

Karin was in for a fucking surprise, she thought as she took a puff of smoke from her pipe. Years later, and even married thrice over, Momo still ached over her ex's betrayal. Over the pain he caused her over the decades she served and adored him. That pain never went away. She doubted Karin would be an exception.

The priest began the service with a sutra. Momo took note of the crowd. The family, friends, Toushirou. Kisuke and his people seemed surprisingly invested in Karin, judging by their weeping and clinging to one another in the center rows. Were they Karin's only friends? Was everyone else there to console the family instead of grieving?

It saddened Momo. It was no wonder why Karin took her own life, with so little tying her to the World of the Living.

And Momo knew how lonely it was. Having so few people who cared about her following Sousuke's desertion. Karin must've felt so isolated.

Following the service, Momo guided Toushirou outside. They waited in silence behind Kisuke's van to trade off their gigai. When he arrived, his eyes were pink like he'd been crying.

"I don't have much time... I'm going to the cremation as well," he said.

Momo wondered how to respond as she removed herself from her gigai. What was she supposed to say in response to someone close to the deceased having to pick the bones out of ashes? It was heart-breaking.

Momo and Toushirou bowed to Kisuke. "Best of, Urahara-san," Momo said. How meaningless...

Kisuke merely said, "Kurosaki will meet you by the aqueduct under an overpass. It's in the center of town." He frowned. "Anticipate some... some shit from him too. He's very upset."

"Thanks," Toushirou said.

Momo and he hopped into the sky. He guided her to the center of Karakura, being more familiar with its layout than she. Thankfully, Ichigo was easily seen from the sky. They landed a good distance away.

Momo saw Toushirou's fists curl out of the corner of her eye. Rage. She knew it well.

The girl who must've been Karin sat on a bench. Dark hair framed her face, a soul chain hung from her chest. Momo hoped she hadn't felt it consume itself. The agony would've been unbearable.

What a cruel fate to be made to stick around, with so much at stake. Momo decided she hated Ichigo.

Before Toushirou could lash out, Momo said, "Thank you for allowing us into your sister's service, Kurosaki-sama." Butter him up. Get out of there as soon as possible.

Ichigo folded his arms. "It wasn't my choice."

She smiled. "Nonetheless. I'd like this to be done in an expeditious manner as possible."

Karin stood and began to walk over to them. "Let's go," she said, eyes locked on Toushirou.

Ichigo stopped her. "Hang on." He was glaring at Toushirou. Just in case, she manifested snakes in her sleeves to bind Ichigo if he lashed out. "I want him to admit his fault in this."

"Jesus Christ!" Karin shrieked. "I killed myself because there's nothing for me here! Toushirou had nothing to fucking do with it."

"Bullshit! He had to have said something."

"It's your fault I killed myself, alright? It's all your fault! I got tired of getting steamrolled and gaslit by you so I killed myself to get the hell away from you!" Karin ducked his arm and ran over to Toushirou. He seemed elated she ran to him, clung to him. "I'm going to the Seireitei. I'm becoming a shinigami... It's the only way I'll be happy. Fulfilled."

Ichigo seemed wounded. Good riddance. As far as Momo was concerned, he was a complete ass, no better than manipulative scum. Men made themselves so loathsome.

More importantly, Karin was damaged. Just as Momo was. She resolved to take care of her new charge as a sister, as family, as a protege.

[goldeaglefire1]

So - I’ve gotten my hands on a copy of Poker Night at the Inventory 2 lately and have been enjoying myself

and thus, inspiration struck

this here is my pick of characters for a hypothetical Poker Night at the Inventory 3. Admittedly, if there’s ever a Poker Night 3, it probably won’t be these guys, but it works

The Players

Dell Conagher/The Engineer

First up is the Engineer of the RED mercenary team! Heavy did say that Engie’s the one who introduced him to the Inventory in the first place, so why not?

Playstyle: The Engineer’s playstyle is a lot like Sam’s - he’s honest, tends to be cautious, and is generally rather consistent with his plays. However, Engie does get more aggressive as the players are eliminated, so be wary - he’s especially hard to deal with if he’s the final player.

Bounty Item: Blueprints for a supped-up set of turrets he’s been working on. When won, acts as a skin for the default turrets.

Eliza

Second is Eliza - or, as she’s known by a scant few, Neferu, the Crimson Scourge. A diva who’s secretly several millennia-years old, retaining her beauty through the absorption of blood, Eliza saw the poker tournaments at the Inventory as an opportunity to forget about her public image for a few hours and be a bit more true to herself...which may not be a good thing if you’re on the other end of the poker table.

Playstyle: Eliza’s main goal is less “win” and more “fuck with the other players” - the chance to walk away with $80,000 more dollars than she came in with is just a bonus. As a result, she tends to play mind games, such as deliberately folding for several turns in a row - even on good cards - to convince the others that she’s having a streak of bad luck, or placing more medium bets on a really good hand to goad her competition into betting more money. Not helping is that several of her tells can be signals for both good and bad things. Also scarily good at bluffing when she puts her mind to it.

Bounty item: The Staff of Ra, which is normally disguised as her microphone stand. When won, you get a reskinned default bat that looks like the Staff.

Deadpool

Third is Deadpool, the infamous fourth-wall breaking Merc with a Mouth. When he heard about the Inventory, he saw it as an easy opportunity to make off with some quick bucks...up until he was informed that he couldn’t use his meta awareness to cheat and look at the other players’ cards. Didn’t deter him, though - sure, he may have to put in a bit more effort now, but still! Easy money!

Playstyle: Deadpool is aggressive, reckless, and prone to bluffing...but he does know what he’s doing. Sort of. He’s more similar to Strong Bad or Ash Williams than Max or Claptrap is what I’m saying. He can occasionally put in more money than he really should, or bet on rarer, less likely combinations, but there is some semblance of strategy to what he’s doing.

Bounty item: The Infinity Gauntlet. Don’t ask how Deadpool managed to get his hands on it; it’s a long story involving stealing Ant-Man’s suit and going into unmentionable spaces. When won, it gives a reskinned version of Heavy’s default fists, but with one being purple and the other having the Infinity Gauntlet.

Invader Zim

Last is the short, Irken invader secretly planning to take over the Earth, Invader Zim! Zim was actually invited to the Inventory rather than hearing about it from unknown sources. Despite having no idea what poker is, Zim accepted, because accepting mysterious invitations would be the normal, human thing to do, and he is most certainly a normal human child...although, once he learned that they knew he was an alien and that what happened in the Inventory was confidential, he dropped the human disguise rather quickly.

Playstyle: Zim’s only experience with Poker before playing in the tournament is a five-minute Youtube video he watched on the basics of Texas Hold ’Em as research. That’s it. So, naturally, Zim is the one who plays like a maniac and clearly has no idea what he’s doing. He has a preference for bluffing, but not by much. He does have the occasional flash of brilliance, though, so be wary when he gets serious.

Bounty item: Mini-Moose. When won, unlocks a cosmetic item that is - what else - Mini-Moose, which is available to all classes.

The Staff

The Narrator

The mysterious, unseen Narrator from the Stanley Parable would act as the dealer here. Less antagonistic than the likes of GLaDOS, but just as snarky towards the players, if not more so.

Bounty item: A signed physical copy of the Stanley Parable. When won, gives a cosmetic item in the form of a large button engraved with the number 8.

Doc Scratch

Doc Scratch would be the bartender. Initially, he was considered as a new dealer, but when he ended up causing several fights in the Inventory through a combination of his smugness and spoiling the winner of the tournament several times, he was delegated to bartending duty where he could cause less damage. Does occasionally chime in on the conversation, being more likely to do so when the player buys his opponents drinks.

Example conversation:

Engineer: You know, I’d bet the doc would love to be here tonight - between the three of you, he’d be up to his neck in biological mysteries.

Deadpool: Uh, good for him and all, but personally? I am so glad I don’t have to deal with that! I’ve heard what he’s done to you and your team to get that Uber thing to work, and you know, I would really like to not have a monkey heart, thank you very much. Although it would be pretty cool...

Zim: Ha! A simple human could never hope to learn my secrets! The machinations of my body are an enigma! Even to me!

Eliza: Well, I’M interested.

Engineer: Really?

Eliza: It depends. How much blood is he willing to give in return?

Engineer: ...I’ll get back to you on that one.

[trashyazeohane]

Perforated stars

Part 1/Part 2

Summary: “You don’t look scared at all.” Gary huffed, hinting on a joking tone, but a sudden shiver appearing in the last word sold him out.

“Very flattering of you to say, but I’m terrified like most of the time.” Avocato said, feeling the words scratching his throat.

“Really?” Gary asked, glancing at him.

There was something in his eyes, some hidden need, some kind of pulse that thrummed and beat and vibrated. Some kind of emotion Avocato couldn’t exactly name. Just something that made Avocato all messy inside.

Additional comments: Fluff, Slow Burn, Angst

Not beta-read, so it may contain some mistakes!

You can also read it on AO3! Enjoy!

Part I ミ★

Avocato was confused. This was a good word to use in his current situation. Confused. Or maybe perplexed. That word worked too. A little bit lost, but he was used to this feeling. But right now it was a tad different confusion than usual.

Mostly because it was related to Gary and the human was, well, confusing.

Not in the bad meaning of this word. Definitely not. He was just so different than Avocato that most of the time he couldn’t make heads or tails of what Gary was thinking.

So he usually didn’t think too much about the reasons and just let Gary do whatever he wanted.

And it worked until now.

Now something had changed. Well, that was wrong. A lot of things had changed. Avocato had been dead, or to be more precise almost dead in his case, but he had been back. Only to be possessed during the very next day and had been forced to leave the crew and his little boy again.

(Avocato would never forget what he had made Little Cato do. He would never forgive himself either for that, for making him live through so many horrible moments. That he had forced his son to do unimaginable things, weaving terrible memories. But God, how proud he was of Little Cato was beyond his heart’s comprehension. He felt like bursting from pride whenever someone simply mentioned his son. Or should he say ‘their’ now?)

Being possessed hadn’t been nice, but if Avocato had to be honest he had to admit that he didn’t remember everything. There had been bits and pieces, voices, images and pictures mingling in his head. There had been times when he could have looked with his own eyes and there had been times when the only thing around him had been darkness, filled with voices from the past. Time had been forgotten, consciousness had been something that had slipped through his fingers like cosmic dust. He had been there and not, both in the same time.

(There had been times when he had forgotten that in the end he had been a living being with a body.)

It wasn’t a part of his life he wanted to remember. Now he was glad he had got his body and family back.

He was getting distracted again.

The whole point was that Gary had been acting confusing.

After Avocato had returned, the whole crew had been acting differently around him. Scared. Almost like they had waited for him to leap, attack and tear the throats apart, leaving the bodies to float in the space. The only people who had not been treating him strange had been his son and Gary.

(Who actually had quite a big fight with the rest of the crew about how they had treated Avocato.)

Now, after some time had passed, everything seemed fine. Well it had been fine, until some time ago. Well even now it technically wasn’t not fine, it was just different.

Because Gary was acting weird. Like not his usual weird, but different type of weird. What was even worse was that it wasn’t an unwanted type of weird. Hell, even worse was the fact that Avocato really liked it, though he would prefer for this weirdness to not make his mind a fuzzy mess and his heart be two steps away from a cardiac arrest.

(But he had gotten used to these things. Or at least he thought he had been used to them. But during the past few weeks he had found out that he had been as vulnerable to them as long time ago.)

“And Uno!”

“Wait, were we playing Switch the whole time?”

“I thought we were playing Poker?”

“What?”

Avocato sighed and put down the cards. To be fair he had gotten lost what they had been doing until now.

The fact that Gary was proudly puffing out his chest wasn’t exactly helping him. Especially as he was wearing that goofy smile which did things to him. Bad things. Strange things. Uncomfortable things. Cosmic things.

Little Cato – who was sitting next to him – also put down his cards, showing a perfect collection of all Kings, and then slumped down on the couch.

Nightfall frowned and also moved the cards down, not showing anyone what exactly she had been playing. Though it seemed like she had hard time understanding what was happening around her.

Avocato wasn’t surprised. It was already late. Some of them should be sleeping right now.

And almost like on cue his son opened his mouth and yawned loudly, moving his arms to stretch them above the head, reaching for the stars.

“I’m going to sleep.” Little Cato said, then swung his whole body up to stand on his feet and put his hand on the table, spreading and messing the cards. “G’night.”

But it was fine, the game apparently ended with no winner.

“Good night.”

“Sleep tight.”

“And sweet dreams.”

Even if Little Cato wanted and tried to hide the smile, he was pretty miserable at it, so Avocato immediately saw his mouth stretching.

Little Cato lifted up sleeping Mooncake, to cradle it in his arms, and quickly walked out of the common room, shuffling his feet on the floor, barely lifting them up.

Avocato needed to sneak past Little Cato’s and Fox’s room later on and check whether he really went to bed or not. Little Cato had a tendency to simply curl and sleep on the first vacant place found while being seconds away from dozing off. So he wouldn’t be surprised if he found the boy in some vent system for example.

“I think I’m going to sleep too. It has been a tiring day.” Nightfall said, standing up too and moving her shoulders in circles.

Yeah, running after KVN who had stolen a quite important part of the ship because it had been shiny and sparkly had been definitely an exhausting experience. Ash had managed to capture him in the end, but after almost making the ship crash, so it was understandable that everyone deserved a break.

“Okie dokie, good night.”

“G’night.” Avocato murmured.

Nightfall nodded and then slipped away from the room without a sound. To be fair, if she hadn’t said it out loud, neither Gary nor Avocato would probably notice her going out. She was like fog when she wanted to, moving, sliding through space and time without a trace.

So this left Gary and Avocato alone.

And if he had to be honest Avocato was really, really tired. He dreamed about nothing more than a pillow, a blanket and the cozy darkness surrounding his mind, however he didn’t utter a thing.

Gary reached, collected the cards and started to shuffle them.

“Beggar-my-neighbor?” He asked.

There was a hint of sugary dreams intertwined with his voice, almost like he too was on the verge of lulling away to the dreamland. Yet he stayed. He didn’t even move to walk away, almost like –

(Almost like –)

Avocato wasn’t sure about the answer. But he knew Gary didn’t move, even though it was clearly visible he was tired and wanted to sleep. He persistently stayed and clumsily shuffled the deck.

“How many card games do you actually know?” Avocato asked, raising his eyebrow and crossing his arms on his chest.

Gary grinned widely.

“A lot.” He made two stacks of the cards in front of himself, but left both hands on each of them. “So?”

“Give them to me.”

Gary did and they started the first round.

***

Returning to reality had been way harder than Avocato had thought it could be. Mostly because he simply never had thought he would have to do it. He had expected a lot of things to happen in his life.

Being possessed by a mysterious entity, almost killing his best friend, being forced apart from his family and then being rescued had been definitely not on the list.

But it had happened.

Returning to reality had been hard. Avocato had felt like everything had changed. And it had changed, no, it definitely had had to change after such long time had passed. Yet because so much time had passed Avocato had hard time finding himself in the new reality.

(Time jumping while being almost dead and then being dead mentally could have such consequences.)

The hardest part for Avocato had been finding himself in the new life.

First, Gary had adopted his son, which well, to be honest it was pretty great. Amazing even. Astonishing. Okay, maybe at first, when he had found about it he had kinda frozen like his body had been floating in space without a suit. But it hadn’t meant that he had been against it. On the contrary.

(It filled his heart with joy to see how much Little Cato relied on Gary, who seemed to love doing it, taking care of their son.)

Little Cato was Avocato’s stable connection to the past. His beacon. His lifeline. His lighthouse. His satellite. He knew that no matter what, his bond with his son would stay the same. It was a constant in a formula, a symbol that simply was there, comforting, loving, familiar.

Gary had been like that too, at the beginning. But then after some time it had shifted, changed, morphed into something different. Not unwelcomed, just different.

(Nice different, but Avocato pushed these thoughts away. It was better not to dwell on them when he didn’t have any chances. There was no way that Gary – that he – no, it was impossible.)

Voluntarily spending more time with Avocato was one thing. At first he had thought that it had been due to missed time which could be spend together. Then it had changed into thinking that maybe Gary had been scared that Avocato would simply disintegrate while he hadn’t been looking. But it also hadn’t been that. Or maybe it had been at the beginning, but then it had changed.

In the end, right now, Avocato thought that Gary wanted to spend time with him as friends, best buds, BFFs or whatever he called their friendship. But even this wouldn’t explain the amount of time Gary spent with him. Almost like he was searching for excuses to stay with him, talk, joke, converse about past and future or just to simply stop in the time and enjoy being there.

For example, Nightfall was Gary’s close friend too and he wasn’t losing sleep just to play a card game with her.

“So we were just there, jumping off the ship!”

“Somersaulting in the air!”

“While screaming!”

“Little Cato a few meters behind me! I thought I would die!”

“But then bam! I finally managed to grab him!”

“And I survived!” Gary proudly said, then moved his hand to wrap it around Little Cato and ruffle his hair with the other one. “Thanks to this guy!”

“Ugh dad, stop!” Little Cato whined, trying to swat the attacking palm away, but failing miserably.

Maybe in the end he didn’t try that much. Maybe he simply just did that to keep up an image, a hologram, but deep down didn’t really mind that. Judging by the smile dancing and floating on his face it was definitely the case.

Avocato really loved seeing them interact. It was astonishing how free, how fitting, how comfortable they seemed with each other. It looked like they could understand each other without words. And the amount of affection being exchanged was incredibly sweet. Their relationship was like a binary star with love and trust in the center.

They really were fit for each other.

“Nevertheless I’m really grateful.” Gary said, sung it even and then turned his head to Avocato. “And this, my dear friend, was how we escaped Morinx S-27.”

Avocato couldn’t force himself to tell them that he had already heard the story two times. He loved seeing the utter joy on their faces too much to butt into the sudden storytelling moment that would erupt from time to time.

“That’s great.” Avocato said and nodded. “But now finish your vegetables, Little Cato. Don’t think I didn’t notice you trying to distract me.”

Little Cato smiling face quickly turned sour. His son flopped, even slumped down on the seat, turning into a jelly with a frown. A quite endearing look, especially as his whiskers moved and nose scrunched adorably.

Unfortunately for Little Cato, Avocato knew all his tricks. Even after being possessed and repossessed by himself.

“But they are disgusting.” Little Cato whined, slumping even farther down on the seat, slowly, but steadily disappearing beneath the table.

Avocato pointed his spoon at him.

“Eat or no more wild rides on Nightfall’s plasmic bike.”

After hearing that Little Cato’s eyes widened comically and he moved closer to the plate to start almost devouring the remaining vegetables.

Gary laughed at that, making that short, kinda broken snort which tore from his body. But it was such an honest, sweet, enthusiastic, real and so adorable sound that Avocato twitched after hearing it. He was so glad that no one paid him any attention.

Both Ash and Fox had already left.

Avocato looked at his own plate and the remaining food on the spoon.

He loved that kind of moments, when there was nothing happening and they were just drifting through the cosmos with the traces of antimatter moving past them. The stars passed behind the windows, blinking and shimmering, waving and winking at them, watching as they were slowly floating across the universe.

They didn’t have many calm days, so Avocato treasured each and every one of them.

“Can you pass me the salt, Brocato?” Gary suddenly asked.

Avocato looked up, then glanced down at the container near his hand and grabbed it to pass it forward.

It was supposed to be a quick exchange.

Gary reached forward, leaning a little bit above the table, and then took the salt container while sliding his fingers delicately across Avocato’s paw.

And damn, his heart betrayed him again, jumping wildly as all nerves tensed and stressed, while his mind blackened out and then came back online in less than a second.

Gary slowly moved back to season the rest of his food.

Avocato’s hand floated above the table for too long to call it normal, so he quickly moved it back after noticing.

His fur and skin burned in the place where they had touched. It had been like electricity had run through this place, tensing the muscles, making it all vibrate beneath the skin. The contact hadn’t been long, hell, it had been short, but for Avocato it had felt like eternities and light years had passed.

It had been just a touch! Something simple! Something that happened everyday! Why was Avocato acting like that?

Avocato swallowed hard, brushing his fingers together and still feeling the warmness on his hand.

(Please, don’t give him hope. Avocato didn’t need that. He had agreed with his fate, he didn’t need it.

Even though he wanted it.)

***

The crew was bigger and different.

Hue had a body. A kinda not fully functioning body, but it was a moving, mechanical body. There was also Nightfall – who really had surprised Avocato after meeting her – and then Ash and Fox – Clarence’s ex-kids. He knew that man was no good deal. And of course, AVA, the new AI of the ship.

Getting used to them had been a feat, but Avocato had found out he quite liked the new company. They were good people, a little bit lost and kinda strange, but everyone who was around Gary was weird in some aspects.

Maybe it was due to the weirdness of the man himself. Because Gary was weird, but weird in that good way. Strange was his fixation with cookies, his giddy and too joyful mood and his love of touching others, trying to get close to them and show them his affection.

Yet there was something even more off with Gary approaching and touching Avocato. Not in the bad way, but in a kinda unusual way.

Like why did it feel like Gary was doing it on purpose, catching every occasion like butterflies to be able to touch him? A pat on the back. A small shove to the arm. A pinch to the cheek. A poke to the side. Pointing at something on his armor. Asking to pass something. Finding weird excuses to do something.

(Avocato’s favorite moment had been Gary running to him to compare their hands’ sizes.)

Maybe there was no undertones to it, maybe Gary was simply like that. And some part of it was true. Gary was like that. He liked touching people, aliens and other beings. It seemed like a moment without getting near to someone was a wasted moment for him.

But there was something different in the way Gary approached him. It almost seemed calculated, in lack of a better term. Like Gary was just waiting for an opportunity to do this or that. It wasn’t spontaneous in most cases, more like pre-reacted a thousand times in the head and then played out in real life.

And every time it had happened, or well after that, Gary had been wearing this goofy smile.

“Okay so you’re taking Ash and I’m taking Little Cato?” Avocato asked, uncrossing his arms.

Gary nodded.

“Sure, yeah, that works for me.”

They moved closer to the two lumps laying haphazardly on the couch in the main living area.

Avocato slowly scooped Little Cato up, making place for Gary to do the same with Ash, letting her head rest on his arm and drool on the jacket.

Little Cato mumbled something in his sleepy state and curled in Avocato’s grasp, making him grin happily under his nose.

Avocato looked at Gary who bobbed his head at him.

Together they slowly moved through the ship, getting the kids to their respective beds. First it was Ash as her room was closer.

After knocking on the door and not getting a response, Gary opened the door, huffing and puffing quietly under his breath as he did so. The room was empty and both bunkbeds were unmade.

Gary laid Ash down on the bottom bed, moved her body around so that the blanket which was beneath her would be free and then covered her body almost to her nose. His hand stayed there for a moment, almost like he was checking whether she was breathing or not, and then moved it to her forehead, pushing the pink hairs away. There was a sudden beat of silence, a short buzz of machine going on somewhere nearby, a sudden stillness to the world as Gary leaned and pecked Ash’s forehead.

It was a strangely timid and private moment. A gap in space-time continuum that deserved a break. A tiny pause in the flow of accidents that tore the hearts apart. A supernova of peculiarity and sweet emotions.

Avocato felt really out of place. He wasn’t sure what he felt towards the new members of their team, squad, team-squad. He didn’t dislike them, but he also didn’t know them long enough to trust them completely.

Gary, on the contrary, seemed to love them. Seemed to burst with energy whenever they were nearby. Seemed to simply expand and grow like universe whenever Fox, Ash or Little Cato asked him something.

(Avocato really loved seeing Gary interact with Little Cato. It was clear as the day that he loved his, no, their son. And he clearly loved Ash and Fox too. But somehow it was a little bit different with Little Cato. It didn’t mean that he loved Ash and Fox less, no, the emotion was clearly visible on his face. But Gary and Little Cato had a weird connection even Avocato couldn’t explain.)

“You’ll grow to love them too.” Gary said, when he stood up and moved to exit the bedroom.

Avocato shrugged. He didn’t want to agree or disagree with this opinion or statement.

The trip to Little Cato’s room was a quiet one, interrupted only by beeps and whistles of machinery around, controls going on and off somewhere in the distance, like a never ending companion on a lifelong travel. A breathing lifeform made of metal vibrated beneath their feet, huffed and sighed with every step they took.

The door to Little Cato’s and Fox’s room opened without a problem.

Fox was already there, asleep, wrapped like a cocoon.

Gary grabbed the metal rails and hoisted himself up, leaning above Fox and kissing the top of his head.

Avocato grinned under his nose, put Little Cato on his bed and warmed him with a blanket secured tightly around the small body.

The boy stirred a little, murmured something under his nose, furrowed his eyebrows and then turned on the bed, messing the fur on the top of his head and cheeks.

Little Cato looked adorable, curled up like that. And maybe it was the calmness of this moment, a sudden need that erupted in his chest, a hidden whisper, or simply something that he wanted to do. No matter what it was Avocato also leaned down and kissed the top of Little Cato’s head.

“Aww you’re mimicking me, you copycat.”

“From what I remember I was a dad first. You just followed in my footsteps.”

“Says a person who asked me to take care of his boy.”

“I don’t see you complaining.”

“That is because I’m not.” Gary said, shrugging as he jumped off the bed, only to immediately kneel down.

He tucked Little Cato more, straightening the blanket as his hand glided on the surface. And just like with the others Gary leaned forward and kissed Little Cato’s forehead, letting his lips rest there for a few seconds.

Avocato smiled under his nose as he leaned on the doorframe and observed the scene, cataloguing every moment in his mind and heart.

Gary slowly moved away, caressed Little Cato’s cheek with the back of his hand and tugged him in one more time.

“Sleep tight, Spidercat.”

Little Cato murmured something and then snuggled further into the blanket.

Gary patted him one more time and then stood up, letting all the bones crack and rattle.

“Come on, let them rest.” Avocato said and then exited the bedroom, glancing at his son.

Gary quickly followed him and then reached his hand up above his head, stretching it when the door closed behind him, leaving them alone in the empty corridor.

There was a short moment of silence, wrapping them into its embrace. It could be even called a calm silence, comfortable one, until Gary opened his mouth of course:

“You know what we just had?”

Avocato had no idea.

“What?” He asked warily, feeling like he already didn’t like the answer.

“An indirect kiss.”

And Avocato was right. He didn’t like the answer.

“Way to ruin the moment, baby.” He sighed, feeling like the energy simply disappeared from his body, making him incredibly dull, empty like a vacuum.

Gary laughed, making his shoulders shiver and tremble, with a hesitant, awkward undertone at the end. It was a pure sound, kinda skittish on the side, but honest and true nevertheless.

Avocato felt like he fell for him even more.

***

Trying to get used to the new life had been really weird at the beginning. Everything had seemed off, strange, not fitting. Like he simply hadn’t been supposed to be here. Like a star in an asteroid belt.

And some part to of it had been true. He wasn’t supposed to be here. He should be dead, drifting in the cosmos, in the middle of nowhere, waiting for his body to discorporate.

But he was alive. He was living. And he was having emotions and feelings, strong, deep feelings that burned him to the core.

Avocato couldn’t explain some things Gary said. Almost like he was searching for some reaction. Almost like he was hinting at something. But it couldn’t be true, it couldn’t be real. Avocato’s brain simply didn’t want to believe it.

(It would be too good to be true.)

Gary would say things that would imply other things. He would make jokes in that awkward voice of his, sometimes too high, sometimes too low, that strung a specific cord inside Avocato’s chest. He would insinuate and hint and there were times when it seemed like Gary was waiting for something, was searching for something in Avocato’s reactions.

Yet he didn’t know really what.

Avocato’s brain was at constant mess, in a fight with itself, where the synapses were snapping and clawing at each other.

Gary probably didn’t know what he was doing to Avocato. Of course he didn’t. How could he know when Avocato never had told him about his feelings? At first he hadn’t been sure about them. Because hell, who falls for a person they were supposed to kill, which in the end captured them and then became their best friend? No one! He had thought that he had become simply too attached to the human due to the lack of many emotional connections through his life.

But then Quinn had appeared and Avocato had noticed that it hadn’t been a very strong friendship unfortunately. It had been – and was – something way more. Something that was bigger than friendship, something that was like it and not, both in the same time.

He wanted some form of closure.

Avocato had tried to be happy with what he had had, but deep inside he had wanted more. More he couldn’t have. So why dwell on it? Why think about the unchangeable? Why ponder about possibilities that may never come true?

Plus back then he had had more important matters on his mind. Saving Little Cato.

They had done it together, then Avocato had died or almost died, or died and not, both in the same time? It was really confusing with the time jumping and staying behind.

The point was that Avocato was back, together with Little Cato, and now he had time to ponder. Especially as there was no Quinn around.

Maybe they hadn’t started on the best terms, but he admired her strength and devotion. She was a good person, very smart and brilliant. And he didn’t hate or dislike her, no, even on the contrary, he had quite fond feelings for her.

It just really hurt.

But Avocato had no doubt that Gary still loved her. He was constantly saying that they had to save her and Avocato had to agree with him. They needed to do that. Quinn deserved it.

And Gary deserved her too.

So they did it. They saved her, snatching her away from the Final Space after a long and tedious battle that left them breathless and way too many times close to dying than it was comfortable. But they all survived it, they were there, happy and alive.

(The whole world was wrong again. They hadn’t fixed even one thing, it had seemed like they had messed it up even more, leaving tear after tear in the space-time continuum, breaking the cosmos and galaxies apart.

And the fact that Invictus was still out there wasn’t a good sign. That was a thing they had to deal with at some point. But now, all of them were safe and sound aboard the Crimson Light.)

Avocato expected Gary and Quinn to hug and kiss and just do something after the haze of fight died down and they could catch a breath. He prepared himself to have his heart shattered once again in a million tiny atoms, just as he was slowly starting to glue it back together, piece after piece. He knew it would be hard to watch but at least Gary would be happy. He would grin blindly at them and everything would be fine for now.

Yet it didn’t happen.

Nightfall elbowed Gary as he was nervously glancing at the ground and intermittently  at Quinn, who was trying to pat the flames on her clothes down.

Gary lifted his head, looked at Nightfall and it seemed like they had an entire spacious conversation during this short moment.

In the end Gary slumped his shoulders and turned around.

“Quinn, we need to talk.”

The girl looked up at him, with a sweet, hopeful glint shining in her starry eyes as a smile appeared on her mouth.

“Sure, we definitely do.”

Gary winced, grabbed her hand and then they both exited the hangar, leaving the rest of the team squad awkwardly standing there.

“So, that was new.” Ash finally said, moving to the rest and combing her covered with dirt hair with the fingers.

Nightfall clicked her tongue and moved to Ash to get the bigger debris from her hair.

“Gary and Quinn just need to have a very serious talk.”

Little Cato approached them, followed by Fox, who was checking something in his hand.

“Uh shouldn’t it be all fine now? We finally saved Quinn.” Little Cato inquired.

Avocato reached and wrapped his son in a hug, bringing his body closer to feel the familiar heat radiating from him. He had to take Little Cato to the Medbay to have the wounds checked and taken care of, not matter how small they were.

Nightfall smiled sadly at him.

“I’m afraid it’s not so easy, Little Cato.”

The boy lifted his eyebrows as he leaned towards Avocato, glancing up at him in search of the meaning of the woman’s words.

Unfortunately he also didn’t know what Nightfall had been talking about. Gary and Quinn should hug, kiss, talk, then hug some more and everything would be back to being brighter again.

Gary and Quinn talked for a pretty, pretty long time, during which Avocato and Nightfall got Little Cato, Ash, Fox and Mooncake to the Medbay and took care of their wounds. After that was covered and the little ones were sent to their beds, together with Hue, KVN and AVA, Avocato and Nightfall assessed the damage done to the ship, what needed to be done to repair it and what should they do from now on. But no one really wanted to talk about that just yet, so they ended the topic and returned to their respective rooms to get very much deserved sleep.

And Gary and Quinn were still talking.

(Or maybe they weren’t talking at all.)

Avocato didn’t really want to think about possibilities, about what they actually could be doing. He tried to fall asleep, something his body desperately needed right now, but found out that no matter how hard he tried to drift away, he simply couldn’t. His mind and heart were still buzzing with the excitement of the fight.

He couldn’t call it a won fight per se anyway. It left a bad aftertaste in his mouth at so many lost lives. They had been really lucky they had managed to get out of there alive, get out of the dying planets and destroyed ships, when so many of other living beings hadn’t made it and couldn’t escape. Their souls had been dragged away from their bodies which now floated somewhere in the cosmos with no place to bury them.

So many destroyed celestial bodies, so many lost lives. Poor lives that had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Consumed lives that had lived in peace until then, not knowing about the war that had started.

It seemed like they were destroying everything.

In the end Avocato stood up and paced around the ship, calming his mind to the tune of the working machine. An engine pumping energy into the whole ship purred tiredly beneath his feet as he walked, huffing and puffing with its metallic lungs.

The ship seemed utterly off with no soul around as he quietly walked through it, trying to find a sole place to sit down and disconnect from the world for a bit. Almost like he was moving in a dream, floating in between states of consciousness and not – an askew part of the dimension, a weirdly torn part of the string that made their universe.

The stars blinked and shimmered behind the window and Avocato wondered for how long they could do it. Was the end of the time already breathing on their necks? Did they even have a lot of time? He wasn’t sure. He knew that the world was messed up and it was their fault.

Avocato sat down on the ground and stared at the expanding cosmos in front of his eyes, blocking his mind from all thoughts that pushed and knocked and tried to take down the doors to his consciousness. But for now he only saw the astral place spreading in front of his eyes, calming him down for a moment.

He wasn’t sure how long he was sitting there, but probably for too long.

“Avocato? What are you doing here?”

He twitched and then lifted up his head. He already knew who was coming thanks to the voice. He would recognize it everywhere, in a millisecond, during a spark where the atoms break into two.

Gary was slowly approaching Avocato, the dirty and destroyed clothes still on him. He looked utterly exhausted with the dark bags under his eyes and the remains of his own blood already crusting on the cheeks and beneath the nose.

“I couldn’t sleep.” He answered honestly.

Gary let out a dry chuckle.

“After a day like today?”

“Well, I think there is some leftover adrenaline inside my muscles. Like my brain is waiting for something to happen.”

“Uh yeah, actually I totally can understand that.” Gary scratched the back of his head, looked at the view Avocato was observing. He cleared his throat and then pointed at a space of ground next to Avocato. “Is this seat taken?”

Avocato snorted.

“No, it’s free.”

Gary smiled tiredly and then flopped down next to Avocato, crossing his legs on the ground.

For a blissful, beautiful and terrible moment they only stared at the space in front of them. There were clouds gathering in the distance, bright, enormous, fluffy gases – nebulas – swirling together, trying to form something incredible and new. There was a lone comet flying far-flung. A moon of a planet that was nearby slowly rotated around it, together with its twin.

It was a beautiful place to be. And also terrifying.

Avocato tried to find something to talk about, something easy, something nice and calming.

And then of course he dropped the bomb.

“So, how are things between you and Quinn? Everything’s okay?”

Fuck his life. Why had he asked that? Of course everyone was curious about what they were talking, although it seemed that Nightfall knew the most and wasn’t sharing it with anyone, protecting their privacy.

Gary twitched and then started to play with the thread sticking out from his pants.

“Everything is… well… fine. Between us I mean. I think. I hope.”

Avocato glanced at him.

“You don’t look fine.” He stated.

Because it was a fact. Gary looked miserable, not only because of his outward appearance, but there was something in his eyes, inside of him, something that simply was torn apart and he didn’t know how to stitch it back together. His eyes almost screamed for something, or maybe they screamed at the world, at the unfairness of it all, at the wrong and devastation that spread around while they could do nothing but cry.

“What gave it away?”

Avocato wanted to say that a lot of specific and small things, but shut his mouth. He didn’t want to let Gary know that he had observed him thoroughly. So he only said:

“Everything.”

A dry laugh left Gary’s lips as he tugged on the thread violently. It didn’t come out, but stuck persistently to the trousers. But other than that he didn’t answer. Just looked at the world passing them by.

So they simply sat there together, staring at the space and breathing slowly in and out. They were alive. They were here. They got everyone back. They were breathing. It should be alright. It really should be.

But it wasn’t.

It simply wasn’t because the world was slowly tilting towards destruction with Invictus on the loose and the Final Space and all the titans being seconds away from consuming their world, tearing it into pieces and destroying every atom in its wake, moving protons away from each other and stealing electrons.

There was a delicate movement to his right and a warm heap landed on his shoulder. It took Avocato awfully long time to notice, through his wildly beating heart, that Gary rested his head there, simply as that.

“Do you mind –“

“No.” Avocato quickly said. Too quickly, if he might add. “It’s okay.”

It really was okay. More than okay.

Gary was breathing slowly, letting the air out in puffs and huffs as his head maneuvered a little to find the best position on Avocato’s shoulder.

There was another long spasm of time, a terribly protracted seconds that prolonged themselves into oblivion as they stared at everything and nothing both in the same time, until Avocato heard a soft sniff nearby.

He snapped his head in Gary’s direction.

“Hey, is everything really–“

“We’ve lost so many living beings today.” He softly whispered, voice so quiet it was almost not even there.

But it was there and it strung a painful string inside Avocato’s chest, making him hitch his breath for all the wrong reasons.

“Yeah, yeah we did.” Avocato nodded, shifting a little so his body was a bit lower, which made leaning on him hopefully also easier.

(He didn’t want to lose the contact, that spark of happiness in the dark cloud that seemed to envelop them, seemed to thunder above their heads, saying that the rain and storm were on their way.)

There was something wet hitting his shoulder as another sniffle left Gary’s lips.

“It’s my fault.”

“No, it’s not.”

“It is.” Gary fought back, croaked even, seeming to be on the verge of breaking.

“No, it isn’t. We and them were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. You didn’t kill them. It wasn’t you who took their lives away.”

It was the truth. He had seen today hundreds of lights disappearing from brave faces, he had seen smiles turning into grimaces, into startled mouths opened to scream and shout. He had seen the hope, the beautiful hope, flicker and die quickly under the sheer force that had bent their knees in the face of Death that simply had taken their hands and helped guide them to the other side.

There had been blood, so much blood and screams and shouts and pain and tears and misery and pain and pain and pain.

But it wasn’t their fault. And it definitely wasn’t Gary’s fault. Nor was it anyone else’s on their side.

Avocato slowly reached his hand, trying not to jostle his companion, and then rested it on Gary’s shoulder, bringing him in for a close hug.

He knew it wouldn’t fix anything in the world. It was broken apart, maybe beyond abilities to be repaired. Maybe they were on the way to doom, to their death, to the annihilation that would swipe them away. Maybe there was no hope in the future and every thread connecting their fingers would be burned.

But Avocato still decided to not lose hope.

He hugged Gary closer and let the tears flow down, freely, letting him cope with the loss, hopefully helping him overcome the traumatic moments of today.

He did it even when Gary fell asleep.

And if he carried Gary to his room, then who was here to see and judge him?

***

Avocato had problems with showing his true feelings. It probably, scratch that, definitely was due to the environment he had grown up in. Showing emotions, or worse, weakness had been unacceptable. They had had to be strong, they had had to be brave, they had had to do everything Lord Commander had said. Or else there had been painful consequences.

Showing emotions was a sign of the biggest trust.

(Only Little Cato had seen him crying.)

Yet Gary had done it. Showed him the biggest sign of trust someone could. He had believed him, leaned on him and showed what had been troubling his heart.

Avocato felt awfully happy and devastated about this idea, both in the same time.

Life after the fight, at least those few first days, wasn’t easy. The gloomy atmosphere seemed to be etched into the ship circuit. Everyone’s heads were down with hands tightening when a memory flew by. The never-ending presence of failure followed their every step.

But at least Quinn was with them.

Avocato expected her and Gary to spend every minute together, almost glued to a hip. He expected to see them kiss each other’s cheeks or foreheads or mouths, hug from time to time or simply glance at each other.

They did glance at each other, but with a different tone to it. There was no soft touches on the side, no quick smooches here and there, no desperate hand holding, nothing.

At first he thought that it was due to the atmosphere that walked around them, but it wasn’t that. It was something else, something deeper, gravity waves of emotions.

Something changed between them, that was for sure. But Avocato couldn’t make the heads or tails of it, nor did he think it was his place to ask, so he let the matter be.

(Some part of him was happy that they didn’t show their affection everywhere on the ship.)

It seemed that Quinn also had hard times with accommodating and fitting in with so many unfamiliar people around. She had the best contact with Hue, KVN and apparently Little Cato. With whom Avocato found her speaking quite a lot.

She was talking with him too, but there was always a tone of awkwardness to it.

“Hey, do you know where butter is?”

“That yellow thing which goes on the bread?” Avocato asked.

Quinn nodded, a little bit taken aback.

“Yeah, that.”

“In the cupboard on your right.”

Quinn turned and reached for the shelf.

“Why are you keeping butter in the cupboard? It should be in the fridge.”

Avocato shrugged.

“It’s pretty cold in the cupboard.”

Quinn glanced at the cupboard, then at the butter she now held in her hand, then one more time at the cupboard only to sigh loudly and flop down on the chair in front of Avocato.

He took another sip of his drink, looking through the news on the tablet in front of him. The bounties on their heads were increasing every day and Avocato wasn’t sure whether to be flattered by it or incredibly scared. Maybe a bit of both.

It seemed like Quinn wanted to say something as she was currently drilling holes in his head with her gaze and not making any sandwiches even though all the components were on the table. Avocato decided to let her start speaking whenever she wanted.

In the end she finally made sandwiches

So they sat there, eating, drinking, glancing through new information across the universe, until one of them broke.

Quinn cleared her throat and looked at him. There was something confusing in her eyes, a sudden resolve that didn’t want to be tamed nor couldn’t be controlled, a sudden pure strength that shimmered like a moon – reflecting the power of someone’s else, a sweet inspiration.

“Avocato, I…”

He lifted his head, looking at her and closing the news on the tablet.

The strength was still there, but it was mixed, couldn’t be really described, escaped every trap that the girl tried on it, playing with her like she was only but a mouse.

“I know we didn’t start on the best terms, but I want you to know that I…” She looked to the side, scratched her cheek, then moved the curls away from her forehead only to look him back in the eyes. “… I think you’re a good person and well… I trust you… with Gary and well… Yeah, I trust you.”

Okay. That was pretty… pretty strange to drop such a bomb in the middle of the morning, but at this point in life and with such a crew on the ship Avocato should get used to it. Only he didn’t, so now he only stared perplexed at the woman with his finger still floating in the space close to the tablet.

“Uhh… thanks?” He said slowly, not sure if it was the right answer to give in this situation, but it seemed okay enough to say it.

He wasn’t sure whether anyone should trust him. He had done very bad and terrible things. Really horrible things that plagued his mind during nights, woke him up with hands around his throat and blood splattering on his face. There were faces he knew he would never forget, eyes filled with fear and tears and mouths hanging open in a silent scream for help.

Avocato could never forget those poor souls.

(Avocato didn’t deserve to forget it.)

He didn’t think he deserved the trust everyone around was giving him. He didn’t deserve the amount of hope they were showing him when they were entering another fight. It was badly misplaced.

But they saw something in him he didn’t exactly could see himself.

And he wasn’t going to let them down this time, nor ever again.

Quinn smiled at him and Avocato noticed that it was probably the first time she had done it towards him. They had behaved normally around each other, or well tried to act normally, polite, nice, but there had been always something off about it.

Back at Galaxy One they had been more often seen jumping at each other’s throats with the difference in their perspective, with divergent weight of morals and hearts, but now, after so many things had happened and changed it seemed like they found a silver lining of understatement.

Plus seeing her face, alive, smiling calmed Avocato a little.

He had no doubt that Gary had to do something with Quinn changing her mind about him, but he wasn’t going to question it. He liked her and definitely preferred her covering his back with trust than pointing the gun at it.

***

Why and how Gary changed people’s opinions about Avocato was another mystery Avocato simply couldn’t solve. He didn’t have enough pieces, enough evidences to even form a proper theory around it. So he left it at that and accepted it as another Gary’s confusing trait.

Not that he minded that much. He wasn’t good with people and aliens and other life beings and forms.

Slowly Quinn found her place on the ship. There were still some awkward moments when she stared at Gary and he did it back with some kind of remorse in their eyes, but these were sparse.

Avocato wasn’t sure what had happened between them and he wasn’t really keen on asking about it. It was their private thing, he shouldn’t interfere.

(But he couldn’t stop himself from being a little bit curious. Because it seemed like they weren’t together. There was clearly a deep connection between them, but the spark was lost.

Avocato hated himself for felling hopeful.)

He paced around the ship slowly with a towel wrapped around his shoulders, hanging on the wet fur. Or mildly wet fut. He knew if he stayed longer in the drying chamber he would fall asleep, so he decided to finish drying himself with a towel.

The ship outside of the warm showers was cold, freezing even. It made all the wet hairs on his back and arms stand up, so he fastened his pace to get to his room quicker and turn on the heating to drift away into hopefully dreamless sleep.

Most doors were already closed, signaling Avocato that almost the whole crew was asleep. He didn’t mind, he got used to being the last one to do it.

(Often accompanied by Gary. They had spent quite a lot of nights playing cards in the main room of the ship.)

Gary’s room was open, which wasn’t actually that surprising. What was off was the soft light coming from between the small, thin gap that was there. What was even more astonishing was a soft tune sneaking between it and scattering across the floor, clearly coming from that room.

Avocato sneaked closer to the gap, being cautions of his steps and the sounds he was making, and leaned forward, stealing a peek inside.

He definitely didn’t expect to see it.

Gary was leaning on the wall, sitting on the bed and humming a soft tune under his nose as his eyes were illuminated by the holographic tablet he held in his hand and clearly read through. On his lap laid Little Cato, whole body curled and hidden almost fully under a blanket thrown over it. There was a steady rhythm of his heartbeat, mirrored in slow rises and falls of the chest, showing Avocato that the small Ventrexian was fully asleep.

That didn’t stop Gary from leisurely moving his hand through the cyan patch of fur on his son’s head, playing with the strands and scratching him behind the ear occasionally, which also flicked form time to time.

(There was also a small lamp in the corner, giving a soft hue to the whole room. Never turned off.)

Mooncake laid nearby the wall, squished between Gary and Little Cato and snoring peacefully, while giving a few sounds ever so often.

Avocato knew they were close. They had to be. Gary even had adopted his – their – son.

He had seen them interact a thousand times already.

But it didn’t stop the sudden beat of the heart from going haywire when he saw moments like that. Peaceful. Calm. Tranquil. Comforting. Fitting.

Gary looked utterly happy, moving his hand slowly while his eyes scanned the letters, coordination, galaxies and space stations nearby that they deeply needed to avoid. There was a tired smile, hiding in the corners of his mouth, in accompaniment of the hair standing in weird directions.

Little Cato exhaled slowly and snuggled closer.

Gary glanced down, smiled more and then returned to reading. Or at least he seemed to want to do that, but his eyes moved, glided along the small crack in the doorway and then their eyes met.

“Avocato?” Gary’s mouth said, barely letting the words out.

He didn’t have to be so quiet. When Little Cato was asleep even a comet crashing through the roof wouldn’t wake him up.

Should he step inside? There was no need for him to do that. He could wave his hand and let them be, give them much needed rest. But there was something enthralling in the picture he just had seen, something that called to him, something that made him want to be a part of it, not a spectator from the side.

It was a stupid need, but he simply couldn’t stop it.

So he opened the door a little, which hissed as it moved to make place for him to step inside.

“Hey.” He whispered.

“Hey to you too.” Gary murmured, showing him a line of white teeth. “Why aren’t you sleeping?”

“I was taking a shower.” Avocato said and then pointed with his head at the lump laying in Gary’s lap. “I would ask you the same thing, but I can see you have your hands full.”

He chuckled, curling one strand of baby blue hair around his finger and brushing it with his thumb.

“Quite full indeed.” Gary said and then much softer added. “But I can’t say I mind.”

Little Cato tilted his head a little, like he was seeking the warmth that seeped from Gary’s fingers, and then moved to rest his cheek on the human’s stomach, one hand gripping the t-shirt, forming an ocean of wrinkles there.

Gary didn’t look like he minded. If anything he looked even happier than before.

The image, the atmosphere, the sweet warmness that seeped from Gary and Little Cato was so serene, so calming that Avocato’s heart just yearned to flop down on the bed next to them, lay his head down and lull away too. It was a deep need, powerful like a cosmic wave, thermic in its wake, even more endearing by the fact that he simply just had to step forward.

But –

“You can stay the night.” Gary suddenly said, not looking up at him, but staring fondly at the Ventrexian in his lap. Then it seemed like a sudden blast, a meteorite crashed in his mind, because he snapped his head up and mumbled. “If you… I mean… If you want to, of course.”

There was a soft hint, a delicate, darkish hue to Gary’s cheeks, navy blue in colors in the faint light coming from the holographic screen and lamp that just tore Avocato’s heart apart.

He didn’t want anything more than just that – no innuendos, no higher reason, no adult stuff that sometimes sneaked into his mind. Just a calm night shared with his loved ones.

No, he didn’t deserve that. He had hurt them enough. They were happy now, why should he interrupt this small piece of time filled with joy with his presence?

“No, it’s okay. I’m good.“ He wasn’t, but it wasn’t their problem either. “I’ll see you in the morning?”

Gary nodded, quickly replacing something on his face with a small smile.

(It definitely hadn’t been sadness. Definitely not disappointment. It couldn’t be. Why should it even be there? No, Avocato had to be seeing things. He had to be. It was quite late and Avocato didn’t have enough sleep lately or like ever.)

“Yeah, uh, sure. Totally. We’ll see each other in the morning. I’m super fine with that.” Gary cleared his throat, moving the screen to hide his mouth. “Yeah, yeah, fine. Good night.”

Avocato smiled.

“Good night.”

And with that he left the room, feeling like he was leaving something precious behind.

***

It seemed like Gary almost naturally knew what Avocato wanted, even before he could simply form the thoughts. Or always seemed to know what to ask, shaping, molding the needs into the words.

A peculiar talent indeed. A rare one. A very confusing one.

Especially as it was getting harder and harder to resist some of them.

Avocato never had been a very touchy and warm person. Years of killing people could do that to living beings. They start to lose the sense of humanity, they stop seeing the spark of life in the others and start treating them as a burden, a hindrance they need to take care of.

Avocato had hated himself for doing and thinking like that.

Living beings had been pawns he had had to destroy or move to another part of the board. Conceal emotions. Don’t think about their families or friends or loved ones. They had been just a collection of atoms, a cosmic dust, a moment, a light that needed to be blown out.

Then it had changed when Little Cato had been born. His whole world had shattered into thousand, if not million, pieces and had formed something entirely new. Not something stable at first, but Avocato immediately had known, right after seeing his little son, that he was going to try his damn hardest to make it all work.

He would steal a thousand stars for his son. He would break the space–time continuum. He would snap and tie back the strings of reality. He hadn’t always showed it. Hell, he probably never had showed it. A great mistake. One of the biggest mistakes of his life.

But he had gotten a second chance. Or well actually a third chance, maybe even a fourth one if he could count right. But these two in the middle didn’t count because he hadn’t been long enough here to actually use them.

Little Cato had been and was his sunshine, his hope, his sun, his moon, his gravity and his light. Everything he had done and did was for him.

Avocato loved spending time with Little Cato, whether it was eating breakfast or dinner, steering the ship, playing random games during games nights which happened almost every day or simply spending time while doing nothing.

Now unfortunately wasn’t one of those times, but Avocato still was going to enjoy it.

“And remember, if your gun jams, there is an additional one on your left.” Gary said, pointing at the holster hanging on Little Cato’s belt.

The Ventrexian sighed loudly and pushed Gary’s hand away.

“Dad, come on. I know how to shoot and I know where I have my weapons.”

Avocato smiled.

“Gary, chill. He’s a Cato, using guns is in our blood.”

Little Cato grinned to him.

“Oh is it now, Avocato? I clearly remember someone forgetting to bring his backup ammo for the last mission.” Gary said, straightening his back and crossing his arms on his chest.

Oh, he hit a point.

“I made it work in the end, didn’t I?” Avocato smirked.

“Throwing a gun at the enemy doesn’t count!” Gary huffed.

“Hey, if there is no ammo, you use whatever you can as an ammo.” Little Cato added, adorably grinning from ear to ear.

“Well said, son.”

Little Cato almost bubbled with excitement, jumping in place and whispering encouraging words to himself. There were sparks leaping from his eyes, shimmering for a second like burning particles of metal. He radiated energy like a comet moving through the space.

Gary sighed at that.

Avocato smiled under his nose and checked the energy stabilizer in his gun. There was nothing better than plasma weapons. Deadly, yet longer-lasting. A small ampule of energy was enough for many rounds of ammo.

“Can we go?” Little Cato asked, swinging back and forth on his heels.

Avocato was just about to answer that they should actually move to the drop zone, when Gary one more time butted in.

“Oh no, you can’t, bud. Not without your good luck charm.”

Little Cato stopped swinging and looked at the man, rolling his eyes brutally.

“Dad, no. I don’t need it!”

“Let me be the judge of that.” Gary frowned and then leaned to peck Little Cato quickly on the forehead.

The Ventrexian frowned, trying to look as disgusted as he could, but failing somewhere in the middle as the smile broke on his face, snapped it in two like a meteor.

“Dad, stop, you’re embarrassing me in front of everyone.” Little Cato whined, moving his hand to his forehead, but not brushing the place, only gently resting his paw there.

“You have to live with it.” Gary said, moving to straighten his back.

Avocato wasn’t sure exactly why he opened his mouth. Everything was fine and dandy, maybe even sweet due to the situation that had unfolded in front of him like a Mobius strip, and he had to break it.

(Maybe the needs that had been locked inside of him finally had enough and found a small opening in the corner, clawing their way out. Maybe it was an urge to share something similar, something pure and sweet and calm and comforting all in the same time.)

“How come Little Cato got a good luck kiss, but I didn’t?”

And he failed miserably. Someone give him a round of applause.

The hangar, previously filled with so many voices, became instantly quiet, silent as space spreading behind these metal walls.

Avocato’s heart stopped beating for a moment after the words had left his mouth. There was a hollow void inside his chest, an emptiness that sucked everything into it. A sudden pause of the time which prolonged the awkwardness into infinity.

Gary looked at him with the mouth a little bit open and eyes wide as moons.

Avocato clenched and unclenched his fists a few times, trying to come up with an idea on how to get back his words. Maybe he should play it as a joke? Would laughing work? Maybe he simply can pretend that he hadn’t said that? He just had to do something to escape the sudden stillness that had appeared inside the hangar.

But before he could do anything, Gary moved closer and nervously smiled.

“Well when you put it like that, I admit it wasn’t fair.”

Avocato felt like he was dreaming. Because he had to be dreaming. It couldn’t be real. There was no chance that he was actually awake and not turning on his bed. But if it was a dream then please let him sleep for at least one more minute.

Gary leaned up, moved closer, impossibly close, so close that Avocato could sense the warmness seeping from the human body, traveling, enveloping him. There was a familiar scent trailing after him, smell that made all his bones melt and mind become a galactic mush.

It was a short moment, a sudden spark of a dying star, or maybe the beginning of a new one, when the gases all combine to form an explosion that could make everyone kneel.

Gary pecked Avocato’s cheek, letting his lips stay there for a second or so, before slowly moving back, glancing hesitantly at Avocato like he wanted to gauge his reaction.

And well, Avocato was a lost man. His heart beat rapidly in his chest, thrumming loudly like an overworked engine that was on the tip of exhaustion. It hammered and knocked on his ribcage so vehemently that he was sure it was the most audible thing in the entire universe.

The place on his cheek was burning.

Gary smiled at him and stepped away, moving his one hand to scratch the back of his neck.

The silence stirred around them, until even it finally broke down.

“How come they get good luck kisses, but not me?” Fox suddenly asked.

“Hey, I was on a mission two weeks ago and I didn’t get any either.” Ash added, moving to her brother and crossing her arms.

“That is because you sneaked out, not went on a mission.” Gary quickly clarified, looking at her. “By the way you’re grounded for that, young lady.”

“There was a music festival on a planet nearby!”

“Still grounded!”

“And I still didn’t get my lucky kisses!” Fox whined.

Gary sighed, letting his shoulders drop like it was the most tedious thing to do. But the happiness, hiding in the wrinkles in the corners of his eyes sold him out.

“Come here then!”

Avocato observed fondly the ridiculousness of the situation in front of him, correcting the belt where his main weapons were situated. In the corner of his eyes he caught Little Cato looking at him, so he did the same, raising his eyebrow.

“What?”

“Nothing.” Little Cato said, in the voice that clearly indicated that ‘nothing’ was clearly a lie.

Avocato wanted to pursue and continue the topic, but AVA announced they were getting closer to their destination.

His cheek burned long after that.

***

The affection was never his companion.

A side effect of working for Lord Commander. But that wasn’t the only reason. He had simply grown up while being taught that showing any kind of emotions led to disasters.

Life had quite confirmed those suspicions.

It always had seemed that whenever he had seek comfort and warmness the universe, the people around him and he himself had been punished for that.

(There had been times where he had been afraid of even trying to seek this kind of feelings from other people.)

Things had changed when Little Cato had been born and later on when he had fell in love with Gary Goodspeed.

For Little Cato Avocato would do everything, he would disintegrate and destroy every particle of fear inside of him if his son even needed a hug, pat on the back or comforting kiss on the nose. He had been there through every sickness and every heartbreak and every tears filled night. Until Little Cato had been ripped away from him.

Another confirmation of the suspicions.

But then Gary Goodspeed had appeared and helped him get his boy back, breaking the chain, smashing it to pieces with just a few words and things that couldn’t be described by them – words.

And somehow Gary knew how to sneak past his defenses to give enough amount of affection for Avocato to feel loved.

(Which was a dangerous thing, because after tasting it for the first time he needed more and more, finding urges and needs that plagued his mind.

Maybe it wasn’t a plague, but a calm home.)

Avocato couldn’t remember much from the time when he had been possessed by Invictus. He had bits and pieces here and there, tears in the continuum of space canvas with strings weaved together like a beautiful veil. The most he remembered were the beginning and the end.

(Shooting Gary, almost killing Gary, almost shooting Little Cato. No matter how many times he had apologized, the guilt was still there, a never-ending thread that had a start, but no end.)

Affection was something that should be familiar, yet wasn’t.

Gary patted the flashlight, which flickered and then died down, giving a few coughs of light at the end.

Avocato stared at it, furrowing his eyebrows. That was their last and only one flashlight. Avocato didn’t worry too much, he could see clearly in the dark, but humans couldn’t.

Gary swallowed hard

“It is dark as hell in there.” He murmured, staring into the epitome of darkness.

Avocato nodded.

“It is.”

“Do you think there are like super giant monsters that are gonna eat our brains and then make chairs out of our bones?”

“What?”

“It’s was a yes or no question, Avocato!” “I know, I was just surprised by it.” Avocato grumbled, atounded by Gary’s sudden outburst. “I suppose there is a possibility?’

“Oh no, we’re going to die.”

“I doubt it.”

“It’s easy for you to say, you have like twelve guns on you.”

“Eh, fourteen actually.” Avocato shrugged, loading one as he spoke.

“Even better!”

Avocato sighed, glanced into the dark abyss that spread in front of them, consuming every particle of matter that dared to go inside and then looked back at Gary who anxiously looked at the sight before him.

Gary was wriggling his hands together, playing with the hems of the sleeves as he stared at the entrance, mulling the idea over by biting his lip. His shoulders were tensed, the sudden stress almost precipitating on them. The picture was filled with the eyes jumping from left to right, desperately trying to find something to focus on for the next moment.

There was something off about the picture, something unfitting that wasn’t made to be here, like a fifth corner puzzle piece that you try to put in a square drawing.

Avocato stared for a good long minute, trying to locate the source of the problem, trying to find the root of the dilemma that clearly clung to Gary’s body.

He glanced at the cave, then back at Gary.

There was one possibility that was coming as the most plausible one here.

“Gary, are you afraid of the dark?”

The response was immediate.

“No! Me? Of course not! Definitely not! Nu huh!”

Avocato lifted his eyebrow, but put down the shotgun and then affixed it to his back, freeing both hands, so he could grab a smaller plasma hand pistol with his right one.

Gary massaged his one arm with the other hand, looking with his eyes at anything, but at the dark void that emerged in front of them.

Avocato reached with his left hand to Gary, letting his fingers twitch in the cold air of the planet.

“Come on, grab my hand and let’s get this over with, baby.”

It was said in a carefree tone, almost a joking one. But it was a play, a calculated deception to hide how much Avocato’s heart thrummed in his chest and how his mind become fuzzy at the simple prospect that they could hold hands.

Not to mention he wanted to be there for Gary if he needed him. Gary had been his support, his livewire, his lighthouse and familiar home since the moment they had seen each other and Avocato wanted to repay the debt.

He expected Gary to resist, maybe joke a bit, bicker back and forth, but he almost surged forward, clasping Avocato’s palm in both of his hands and holding tightly like he was a lifeline on a wide ocean.

Avocato wiggled his fingers a little, finding a better position and then looked towards the cave.

They moved forward, at first terribly slow, letting the light guide them for a few meters or so, before the void fully consumed every particle of light that tried to cross the boundary. It seemed like the darkness devoured all the wavelengths, letting no color inside. Only the cold, freezing blackness remained.

Even though the void expanded around them, filling every pore of their bodies, Avocato could see more or less clearly. For example he could see that there was a hole on the right after two meters and that if they didn’t move their heads down in ten meters they would hit their foreheads on the stone ceiling being suspiciously low.

The further they were walking, the more cold and freezing it was starting to be and the stronger the hold on his hand was getting.

Gary didn’t talk, as it seemed like every breath was a feat for him. A fatiguing experience that he wanted to stop doing. He was twitching and shivering all over his body, but whether it was due to the coldness or stress Avocato wasn’t sure.

Avocato squeezed back the fingers holding him, trying to send some comforting feelings and thoughts through the link.

Gary immediately gripped back, changing the hold so only one hand was interlocked with Avocato’s fingers.

They walked for a few more minutes. Exactly eight to be more precise, before Gary finally opened his mouth.

“I uh… at my home… I mean back on Earth… I lived uh… quite a long time without the electricity…”

“You did?” Avocato asked, hoping that Gary would catch a bait.

He moved his fingers a little in the hold.

“Oh yeah… After my dad died and my mom left me, I… I lived in our house for some time… I think that the Child Protective Services didn’t actually know I was left alone… They probably thought my mom was still living with me… even though she wasn’t…” Gary inhaled sharply. “I mean… it wasn’t so bad at the beginning…”

Avocato knew it wasn’t the truth. The drop of the tone, the sudden tightness in the voice, the hesitant shivers running through the fingertips sold Gary out.

“There was some spare money my dad had hidden in the vase with the fake succulents… So I used it to buy food and all the stuff…” There was an audible gulp next to him. “I was a kid back then… I didn’t know how rents or banks worked, that you need to pay for water and gas and such things… And well, after some time they…”

“Cut the electricity off?” Avocato finished, glancing tat Gary.

He wasn’t looking at anything per se, mostly staring at the ground that he couldn’t see, like by just focusing hard enough he could maybe spot the obstacles in his way.

“Uh… yeah… One day it randomly just disappeared during the evening. The house became so silent all of a sudden… I didn’t notice before but with it the house had been so loud. The fridge had been buzzing, the boiler had been bubbling, the AC had been hissing. But after that it all… quieted down. And I… I got so so scared.” A sudden break. A hiss. A sniffle. “I felt so alone.”

Avocato couldn’t really imagine what it must have felt like, but he knew a lot about loneliness. A pesky feeling. A horrible companion. A hollow sensation.

Avocato had been alone for most of his life. He knew how isolation really felt like – a weight that held down, with the gravity pulling the strings towards the bottom from where there was no escape.

He wasn’t sure how to respond to that. He wasn’t good at this lifting up other people’s moods. He wasn’t good at being there for others, even though he tried desperately to do that. He simply wasn’t good enough.

But Avocato decided he wanted to try.

So he gripped the hand tighter, letting his thumb brush across the skin and tugging the human closer.

“This had to fucking suck.” He whispered and winced immediately after that.

Yep, Avocato wasn’t the best, he wasn’t even remotely good in comforting people related stuff. It was always Gary’s thing to do, lifting people’s mood with a joke here, a pat there, a hug in-between, mixed with soft words.

In comparison Avocato was harsh and plain, cutting straight to the core.

Gary sniffed and moved his fingers, finding a better hold on Avocato’s palm.

“Yeah, it fucking sucked.”

Avocato wasn’t sure whether he was doing a good or terribly bad thing for his heart, but he tugged Gary closer, letting their shoulders brush, squeeze together like they were two pieces of a puzzle.

“You can hold onto me if you’re scared.” Avocato whispered, feeling like in the spreading void his voice was still ten times louder, shaking the waves in the air around them.

And he really meant it. He wanted to do that. He wanted to be that. Someone better. Someone more.

They weren’t living in calm times, no, they were far away from that. They had to escape countless bounty hunters and people with personal vengeances. They were wanted people, always on the run. The calm times were sparse with the rip to Final Space getting bigger and bigger with every passing day and Titans peeking curiously and dangerously at them from behind the broken threads.

All of them were scared. And all of them needed someone more.

Gary moved closer, wrapping his other hand around Avocato’s arm and almost snuggling him, but not letting go of his palm.

“Thanks.”

Avocato wanted to say that it was no problem, but his mouth failed him.

***

Not many people and aliens liked to talk with Avocato. He didn’t have problems with that. He wasn’t overly talkative person. He could keep up a conversation  if he needed to and he could give orders, but beside that he preferred to remain silent.

Especially when it came to sharing something personal. This was a giant leap of trust he didn’t think anyone should do towards him.

Yet Gary did just that. He shared his secrets, fears, passions with Avocato like it was the most normal thing to do. And Avocato didn’t feel that he was good enough to be gifted with all of those things.

He didn’t deserve any of that. Gary should have come with it to other people on the crew, but not him. Definitely not him.

“Nightfall, Gary you have to jump!” Quinn, standing next to him, shouted into the mic, holding it closer to her mouth to be audible above the clouds of explosions going off around them.

The heavy breathing was getting louder in Avocato’s own com.

“We kinda have our hands full right now.” Came Nightfall’s voice, filled with huffs and puffs and sounds of blasters going on and on.

Avocato barely could distinguish words between the noises of gunshots going off inside and outside the headset.

“Leave them be. The station is going to collapse soon. We’ll open the hangar door and catch you.”

“You better do that, because I don’t really – Shit!”

Avocato glanced at Quinn and nodded to each other, putting on the helmets and fastening the security ropes to their backs. The hangar door opened with a hiss as the vacuum sucked the whole air from the room, almost pushing them outside with the sudden gust of the force. They both kept their place, holding onto rails with one hand and preparing a gun to fire with the other.

The cosmic station K–27β was in utter disarray. Or the part of it that was still intact was quickly dissipating, shaken by the explosions and fire that roamed freely along the surface. The last tank with oxygen was exploding, fueling the fire and letting it combust more.

Just outside the ship there was a landing platform, barely holding onto the rest of the construction. It was squeaking and wheezing as too many pairs of feet scrambled across it, jumping and running around, dancing the Danse Macabre while trying to remain alive.

“I see them.” Quinn whispered into the com in her helmet and glanced at Avocato.

He could see them too, getting closer to the end of the platform, splitting their attention between checking where they were going and observing the crowd of aliens following them.

Avocato readied the weapon and shot five bullets, each and every one hitting the aliens that were pointing their guns at Nightfall.

The woman turned back and her eyes widened. Nightfall then turned to Gary, who was pretty occupied with shooting the aliens which were closest to him, and said something to him, which they barely heard through the com due to the sudden waterfall of shots.

“Little Cato get us closer.” Avocato said.

“On it.”

The ship moved closer, with the open door to the hangar hovering a few meters below the end of the platform.

Quinn sent out another round of plasma bullets, freeing Gary from the sudden anguish that was coming their way.

“Jump, now!” Quinn shouted.

“Nightfall, go! I’ll keep them occupied!”

“But–“

Avocato could see Gary throwing a small parcel at her – the main goal of their mission – and then moving to the front.

“The platform isn’t going to hold much longer. Now!”

Nightfall nodded and then leaped from the stand into the hangar.

For a moment Avocato wanted to move to catch her, but knew better not to do that, as the woman perfectly rolled on the ground and landed in a position with the gun raised up to kill two aliens that were getting too close for comfort.

Avocato was impressed, but he couldn’t watch for much longer as he had more important matters to tend to.

“Gary, now it’s your turn.” He said into the com of his helmet.

“A moment, I’m kinda in a middle of something!” Gary wheezed, rolling across the ground when one alien tried to stomp on him.

The station rattled as another giant explosion made one third of the ship crumble down, letting it float away while still burning like a comet. The aliens, which were standing closer to the edges, swayed and then fell down, moving their hands around to try to find something to hold on or grabbing their necks as the oxygen thinned out and they were left with nothing to breathe.

“Gary, the station is going to collapse! Jump!”

Through the connection Gary groaned heavily as he got up from his almost laying position and quickly glanced back at the three of them waiting for him.

“Okay, but you better –“

Everything shuddered.

This explosion was bigger than the ones before. It was bigger than each and every one before. It shook and rattled and wheezed and screamed and broke until there was almost nothing left.

The following blast of energy that erupted from the core of the station sent the Crimson Light a several meters away, covering their faces with blazing hot air that almost made it hurt to remain there.

The reinforcement of the platform broke in a few places, bending the whole construction to the side and letting aliens slip and fall down to their doom.

Unfortunately Gary was one of them. His hands clawed the metal surface, trying to find some kind of support to hold onto and not fall into the hollowness of the space that would clearly consume him in mere seconds. There was a long red streak of blood that wasn’t there before, running slowly and dripping onto the shirt.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit, fuck, shit–”

Nightfall attached the gun to her back and ran forward, stopping next to Quinn and looking around, trying to find some kind of solution to the problem.

Gary clung to a broken metal panel with his dear and precious life.

“Little Cato, can you bring us closer?” Quinn asked, voice trembling at the last tone.

“No, I can’t. Even a meter closer and the heat will start melting the engines! We need to get outta here, fast!”

“We can’t leave Gary!”

Avocato had an idea. It was a very crazy idea which required a lot of trust and strength. And an interstellar amount of faith.

But it was the best idea he had right now, so he hid his gun and said into the com.

“Gary, I need you to let go!”

“What?!” Gary shrieked, waving his feet around like he tried to find a ground or floor that simply wasn’t there.

“You need to let go. I’ll catch you, don’t worry!”

Quinn and Nightfall looked at him surprised, eyes widening for a second, only for the look to be replaced with understatement in the next moment.

To be honest Avocato expected Gary to put up a bigger fight. Maybe whine and yell, maybe angrily, maybe fearfully. He expected shouts that he was crazy. He expected something more, something tremendous.

Yet what he received was something greater than that.

“Okay, okay, I trust you. On three!”

When the three came Gary let go of the metal panel and slipped, falling down into the void of the cosmos spreading beneath and around them.

Avocato had to be precise. A millisecond too fast or too late could cost him dearly. And he desperately didn’t want that. So he observed, waited patiently, twitched and recalculated everything one more time in his head, only to take a step back and then leap forward, clicking his boots to give himself a small boost.

There was a short spasm of time when he feared, when he was terribly afraid and scared that he was wrong, they he would miss and everything would be simply not okay.

But then he reached his hands forward, crashed into the body which fell down due to the last pull of gravity around the station that wheezed and coughed, giving out its final breath.

Avocato quickly wrapped his hands around the human, gripping tightly as not to accidentally let him slip past his fingers, due to the energy of the crash that made them swing down and then back and forth. His one hand moved higher to click a button and make a helmet envelope Gary’s head, who took a sweet deep breath when the material snuck into place.

The station crackled and shimmered with tiny burst of lights and flames going on in different sectors of the last remaining part of the construction that was now crumbling to its destruction.

It wasn’t a part of their plan, but well…

The rope holding them made them swing back and forth, straining itself at some parts, but nevertheless holding onto them strongly.

Avocato exhaled heavily, feeling the warm air coming from his own mouth on his face. His heart seemed like it tried to escape from his chest with the sudden rush of adrenaline that overtook his entire core. His hands subconsciously clung tighter to a body in his grasp.

Somewhere along the process Gary’s hands sneaked around him too and now tightened the hold on him.

Gary was breathing heavily too and if Avocato wasn’t mistaken he could feel the erratic heartbeat in his chest due to the close proximity.

“I got you, baby, I got you.” He whispered quietly, whether to himself or to Gary he wasn’t sure.

But the man definitely heard him as he let out a broken chuckle and lifted up his head.

And then he simply stared at Avocato. Stared for a long time with the blood still running down his forehead, across his cheek and chin to disappear in the folds of his clothes.

Yet there was something in his eyes, something enthralling, something exciting, something more that was burning in the nicest ways. Something familiar, yet never directed at him. Something comforting, yet scary, both in the same time.

“I may be a little lightheaded due to the hit to the head, but I must say that was hot as hell.”

“You almost dying while the station exploded in the background?” Avocato asked, raising his eyebrow, quite bewildered.

“No, not that. That was terrifying as fuck.”

There was a screech in their coms.

“We’re going to pull you in now, boys.”

The rope twitched and both of them were hauled back on the ship while Gary still looked at him with eyes shining and full of something Avocato couldn’t exactly name.

Or maybe that was wrong.

He was terrified to name it. Because if he did, it suddenly would become real.

And he was scared that he might be wrong.

***

Avocato wasn’t really an open person when it came to saying out loud things he was thinking. No, that was wrong. He was straight-forward, when someone asked about his opinion. He didn’t hit around bushes, preferring honest and painful truth to comfortable lie.

But there was a difference in the truth Avocato spoke and the truth Gary did.

He couldn’t really grab the concept. The point was Avocato had a lot of thoughts. They were cluttering his mind like tiny stars, swishing through the universe of his head. They were like cosmic dust and the matter that spread around. They were like meteorites, crashing on the surface of his tongue, they were like lonely comets, sometimes just passing through behind his eyes. But he kept them all behind his teeth, guarding them with pure passion. It was better to keep those thoughts for himself, hidden away from the world. They would bring him nothing good, just more awkwardness and hesitant laughs to hide what he was really feeling.

(Even when there were thousand things he wanted to say to Gary at very random parts of the day.)

Yet Gary seemed to just say out loud the first thing that popped into his mind. His sentences were often disjointed, messy, barely holding themselves together. Yet they were honest and comforting, warm at the finishing syllables, sometimes having a joking undertone.

But he always could say things that were on his mind and almost never seemed ashamed of doing so.

Which didn’t exactly help Avocato that much. When those were simple things, it was okay. A short compliment here and there was okay. Gary was naturally that kind of a person. Plus he always complimented other people too – Quinn, Nightfall, Hue, Mooncake and AVA.

Never KVN.

(Little Cato, Ash and Fox didn’t count. It seemed like if Gary could, he would shower them with praises. It seemed that after adopting Little Cato some kind of dad mode had been turned on and even since he couldn’t stop. Not that anyone minded, no matter how many times they groaned.)

Yet there was something different in a way Gary said things to him.

Or maybe Avocato was simply adding something, giving bigger and different meaning to things that were happening around him.

The whole point was that Gary was incredibly confusing. He did things that Avocato couldn’t clearly explain, nor could he understand. He did things that introduced other, different thoughts inside of Avocato. He did things that just fueled the hope that was sparkling, coming to life in his chest, like a star that was only now being born due to masses of gases gathering and mixing together.

He did things and Avocato yearned.

And it was a dangerous thing. Something that was slowly slipping through the fingers of his control, like a fog, a dust or a smoke, sublimating from something that had been once solid.

“Hey Brocato, what are you doing?”

“Oh uh staring?”

Avocato wasn’t sure how to answer that. He just had stopped walking from the control room to his room as the cloud of thoughts swarmed through his head. He had no higher reason than needing a break to simply think.

Gary smiled at him and then turned his head to look at the window where the never-ending cosmos was spreading around them, getting bigger and bigger with every passing second, consuming matter and atoms in its wake and forming something new, something incredible, dangerous, terrifying and exciting all in the same time.

But to be fair Avocato wasn’t staring at the universe. His eyes just wandered there to find some kind of buoyant to hook himself in just in case his mind would take him far away.

“Mind if I join in?” Gary asked, glancing at him and then returning his gaze to the vastness.

Avocato shrugged, feeling as his heart jumped high in his throat.

“You’re the Captain here.”

To be honest it was mean to be a joke. If anything Nightfall was the captain of the ship, the fearless leader who knew what fear tasted like, the strongest soul that knew the devastation and horrors of the world.

But Gary was, well, still close to the position.

And the sudden grin that he showed him was worth it, even if Gary didn’t exactly take it as a joke. Maybe it was better this way. The way where he could see that blinding, radiating smile.

So they stood next to each other, staring, looking at the universe, their closest companion and their biggest enemy, the greatest gift and the most terrible unknown that was there, ever changing, never a constant, always moving, shifting, switching.

But there was beauty to it.

For Avocato for a long time space and planets had been things to conquer, things to destroy, things that had marginal value if they hadn’t wanted to obey their laws.

However that had been wrong. He had known it back then. He knew it now.

Yet somehow he had never stopped to really admire what was in front of them, next to them and guiding them with the hands on their backs. Until now.

They didn’t speak for quite a long time. Too long time to call it comfortable. Even Avocato started to sense the awkwardness in a form of small prickles on his arms. He moved his hand to rub one shoulder and dared to steal a glance at Gary.

Who looked mesmerized as he looked into space. His eyes were so wide and there was this childish glint in them, a sudden spark, a collision of atoms which formed something incredibly new. It was a joy and fear, a happiness and nervousness, electrons and protons mixing together.

And Avocato felt pulled in, felt like there was a gravitational field so strong, so deep that he couldn’t fight it. It was tugging him forward and forward, closer and closer. Maybe in the end he was falling, moving fast through the hollowness towards the source.

But in this very moment he didn’t mind.

Avocato leaned closer, feeling the tug on his chest that dared him to go forward and he really wanted to do it. He was so close, so so close that he could count all the small scars on Gary’s face.

“It’s scary, isn’t it?”

Avocato blinked and moved quickly back, like a backslash of warm smoke and cosmic dust hit him in the face.

“What, what is scary?” He asked, feeling the need to clear his throat but stopping himself from doing so.

“Space, cosmos, universe…” Gary lifted his hands and swung them at the window. “… is scary.”

“I thought you loved it.”

“I did… I do…” He said, waving his metallic hand around like he tried to find the perfect words, the most suitable combination. “But it doesn’t mean I’m not afraid of it. Because I’m like hella super afraid of it.”

“Why are you scared of it?” Avocato asked, partly genuinely curious, partly to cover the sudden heat that covered his cheeks.

“Well uh for first it’s pretty big. Like super big. Enormous even!”

“And it’s still expanding.”

“Yeah, yeah, so it’s like totally super giant and like we are so incredibly tiny and small and in the biggest picture it doesn’t terrify you? The scale of it? This super big unknown around you?”

Avocato never really had thought about it. He had had bigger problems and worries to tend to before. And now, now he also thought about other things.

“I suppose so? I’m not sure, I never thought about it to be honest.” Avocato said, whispered it even as he stared at the world. Their world.

“Oh.”

There was a beat of silence, a sudden stillness to the air. It almost seemed like the space was inside the ship, wrapping them in its embrace and blocking all the sounds from moving through it.

“Are you scared now?” Avocato asked instead.

Gary glanced at him and shrugged.

“Depending on what you’re asking about.”

“Of space.”

“Not all the time, I’m not. Just when I start to really think about it.” Gary sighed and then moved his hand to scratch the back of his head. “Mostly when I was a kid and space was some faraway place I couldn’t exactly reach. Back then it really, really terrified me. Now the feeling is a little bit smaller. You know, not mini smaller but smaller.”

Avocato could understand the implication behind it, the hidden meaning, the truth radiating behind the words like some kind of wave made of invisible particle. The fear that had moved through the atmosphere was still there. Maybe in the end it never had left Gary’s body, his bones and muscles, had weaved itself into his heart.

It seemed like an everlasting patron on their journey.

“I mean, to be fair a lot of things scare me.” Gary continued, sniffing a bit. ”Now that I said it out loud, I noticed how dumb it sounded. Gosh, sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything, you can just forget about it –“ The words poured from his mouth, swirling in the air, transforming into something new, something that coursed through Gary’s body and was making it tense and strain and Avocato didn’t want to see it.

“Hey, it’s okay.” He quickly said, moving his hand to put it on the human’s shoulder stopping the quivering movements that suddenly rattled the body. “Fear is normal.”

“Easy for you to say. You don’t look scared at all.” Gary huffed, hinting on a joking tone, but a sudden shiver appearing in the last word sold him out.

But Avocato was scared. He had been and was scared so many times. His life was a never ending stream of moments filled with terror so dark that sometimes it seemed like it could swallow him whole. A black hole that pulled everything into it.

“Very flattering of you to say, but I’m terrified like most of the time.” Avocato said, feeling the words scratching his throat.

Avocato felt really vulnerable.

“Really?” Gary asked, glancing at him.

There was something in his eyes, some hidden need, some kind of pulse that thrummed and beat and vibrated. Some kind of emotion Avocato couldn’t exactly name. Just something that made Avocato all messy inside.

Maybe it was hope, some kind of pure hope that crashed and rolled and dove, trying to catch onto something. Like a shooting star, terrified to fall down and yet hoping to rest on a safe land.

It was blinding, but it was also so so warm. Intoxicating, but sweet and bitter. Confusing, but familiar.

And it was true. Avocato had been and was afraid of many things. He was afraid of deep waters. He was afraid of losing his son, losing Gary, losing the crew and losing hope. He was afraid of new things and old stories. He was afraid to make choices that could tip the scale. He was afraid of the road they were taking.

But he wasn’t going to let that stop him from staying here.

So he nodded.

“Really.” He said, sliding his hand down, letting it hang near his body.

There was another pause, a sudden thrum of the cosmic heart that shook the universe. It was the silence which spread around them that made him focus on the heavily beating heart, on the warmness seeping into his fur and bones from the close proximity of the human, on the abrupt stillness and strange force that pushed them forward through time and space.

To where, they didn’t know.

There was a cold, a sudden stinging sensation near his paw, like a comet touched his fur, but then it quickly seeped into something warm. The feeling rested there, barely touching his skin for a few seconds, testing the ground, before it snuck closer, wrapping itself around Avocato’s palm and delicately laying there.

Avocato didn’t have to look down to know Gary caught his hand.

“You know, we can be scared together.” Gary quietly said, the voice almost lost to the stillness. “I know that won’t make the fear disappear, but well it could make it more tolerable. You know, sharing it with someone. And that someone could be me. So you know you wouldn’t have to be so scared anymore.”

Avocato let out a small laugh, a sudden chortle that seemed to simply rip out of his chest, tore through his throat like a rogue.

“Uh rude.” Gary said and moved his hand to dislocate it from Avocato’s palm.

But he didn’t let go. Avocato didn’t let him escape. He moved his fingers, interlocking them with Gary’s ones and gripping softly as to show that he was there. That he didn’t mean anything bad by it. That it was a reaction that simply had happened.

Gary stopped moving.

“Ah uh sorry. I wasn’t laughing at you, it just sounded ridiculous.”

Gary glared at him and Avocato simply knew that the man wanted to disappear.

So before Gary could pull away, he turned to the window and stared at the vast and scary space that was spreading in front of them.

“But I like it. Let’s be scared together.”

Avocato wanted and yearned and all his resolves were crumbling.

Gary was confusing like that, being able to destroy his every wall without even thinking and trying too much.

Avocato looked at the cosmos spreading in front of them, the vastness of possibilities and dangers and happiness and fear. And in this mess and haze he noticed a lone object falling down, leaving a sparkling trace after itself, disappearing a mere second later.

Gary tightened the grip on his hand.

For now he felt comfortable. He felt calm and content, even though there was a storm going outside. Their future was an unknown, it was an enigma, an undiscovered particle moving through the world.

But he had people he trusted around him. People he wanted to protect. People who were there for him. People he loved deeply. And, oh, how Avocato wished things would stay the same.

Only he knew it was wishful thinking.

to be continued

[incorrect-hs-quotes]

another long one lads

//source: poker face 2: all in - studio c

rose: Welcome back to this year’s coverage of the World Championships of Earth C Hold’em Poker, and some very familiar faces in our final four tonight. Kankri Vantas, of course, one of last year’s finalists; he is rumored to have recently had an organ transplant that did not go well. 

kankri: ‘Stupid... m9nkey kidneys...’

rose: And last year’s million dollar winner, Vriska Serket, clearly doing well for herself.

vriska, internally crying: ‘I am in soooooooo much de8t........’

rose: Amazingly, Jake English has returned, even though last year it was painfully clear that he did not know how to play poker.

jake: ‘Ahahahahahaha! Ohh fools! They have no idea that ive spent the last year learning everything there is to know about poker! Theyll never see it coming! Hoo hoo hoo hoo-’

jake, pulling a sandwich out from under the table: ‘Mmm sandwiches...’

rose: And our one new face, John Egbert, former protege of the late Jane Crocker, who passed away at this very table.

john: ‘this is for you, jane.’

john: *pulls out jane’s literal fucking urn and places it on the table*

rose: And here comes the flop, with the king of clubs, the seven of spades, and the queen of hearts. 

kankri, starting to cough: ‘Yes! I finally have a g99d hand! ST9P C9UGHING, Y9U F99L, THEY’LL KN9W Y9U’RE EXCITED!’

kankri, starting to cough in his head: ‘There we g9.’

kankri: ‘Wait, am I c9ughing int9 my 6rain?’

kankri: Tw9 hundred th9usand. 

vriska: ‘I just!!!!!!!! HAD to use my winnings to 8uy a yacht made of gold, which SUNK IMMEDI8TELY!!!!!!!!’

vriska: Call?

vriska: ‘Now all the fish are living large on my 8oat and all my friends are dead in their solid gold life vests........’

jake: ‘Lets see king of clubs queen of hearts seven of spades... I have an ace and a king which puts my odds of winning at... *Calculator noises* 62.48%! Excellent. But play it cool!! They dont know that you know how to play now!’

jake, shrugging dramatically: Call.......????

jake: ‘Mhmmm and the oscar goes to? Me!’

john: ‘okay, you can do this-’

jane: ‘Remain calm, John.’

john: ‘aAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! JANE!!??!?’

jane: ‘Yes. I’m speaking to you from beyond the grave. Or, urn, rather. I’m here to help. My one mistake was that I panicked. I don’t want you to-’

john: call.

jane: ‘WHAT ARE YOU DOING? YOU HAVEN’T LOOKED AT YOUR CARDS!’

john: ‘I DIDN’T LOOK AT MY CAAAARDS!!’

rose: Four players, eight hundred thousand in the pot. This could get interesting! And there’s the turn with the king of diamonds.

kankri: ‘Hahaha! Aw, man! I’m t9tally g9nna win!’

kankri: *His eyes widen as he hears a P9P fr9m inside him*

kankri: *999HHHH. 9H MY G99DNESS, I THINK MY KIDNEY JUST EXPL9DED, 9H- I’M DYING.’

kankri, still... shakily reaching for his chips: ‘Must... finish... game... and... get... t9... h9spital-...!’

kankri: Five hundred th9usand.

vriska: ‘MmmmAAAAH!!!!!!!! I need to win so I can 8uy a silver 8oat to rescue the gold 8oat!!!!!!!!’

vriska: Call?

jake: ‘That king puts my odds at 89.07%- OOH dont be happy!’

jake, faking a frown: C...all.

jane: ‘WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? HOW DO YOU NOT LOOK AT YOUR CARDS!??!?’

john: ‘I’M SORRY!!!!!! it’s hard to concentrate when your DECEASED MENTOR starts TALKING in your HEAD!!!’

jane: ‘SURE, blame the DEAD GIRL!! JUST LOOK AT YOUR CARDS!!!’

john: *panics and knocks over jane’s urn*

john: ‘AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!’

jane: ‘AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!’

rose: Oh, gross.

john: *starts trying to gather her ashes and put them back in the urn-*

jane: ‘Forget about me! PLAY THE GAME!’

john: call.

john: ‘aaaAAAAAAAAAAAAA-’

jane: ‘YOU DIDN’T!!! LOOK AT YOUR CARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’

rose: Okay, I guess we’re just gonna pretend that didn’t happen! And there’s the river; it’s the ace of spades! That’s great news for anyone holding an ace right now.

kankri: ‘N9999999!!’

vriska: ‘NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!’

jake: ‘YEEEEEEEEES!!!’

john: ‘JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANE!?!??!?!?!’

kankri: ‘9hh, what d9 I d9? That ace c9uld ruin all! What are the chances that s9me9ne has a king AND an ace?’

jake, smugly: ‘0.01%.’

kankri: ‘I’ve g9t t9 g9 f9r it. My 9ne remaining kidney isn’t g9nna-’

kankri: *Freezes as he hears an9ther P9P*

kankri: ‘DEAR SIGNLESS, I HAVE N9 KIDNEYS! I HAVE M9MENTS T9 LIVE!!!!’

kankri: ....All in.

john: ‘AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!’

vriska: All in.

kankri: ‘AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH.’

jake: All in!

vriska: ‘AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!’

john: all in,!

jane: ‘AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!’

john: ‘WHY DON’T I LOOK AT MY CAAAAARDS!??!?’

jane: ‘I DON’T!! KNOW!!!!!!’

rose: Millions in the pot, but there can only be one winner. Kankri will show first...

kankri: *Flips his cards 9ver*

rose: A strong hand, there! Three kings.

kankri: ‘FASTER!!!!!!!!!!’

rose: And Vriska...

vriska: *Flips her cards over.*

rose: ...Only has two pairs, queens and sevens. Looks like she won’t be a repeat winner tonight.

vriska: ‘That’s it, it’s over. I wonder how much I could get for one of my kidney-...s........’

vriska: *Eyes........ Kankri........*

kankri: *...........Eyes her........ 6ack........ fearfully...............*

vriska, looking away and smiling deviously: ‘Like the wind.’

rose: I’m almost scared to see what Jake has...

jake: *Flips his cards over!*

rose: M- I- Oh, my. Jake has a full house! Kings full of aces! 

jake: ‘AHAHAHA! The padawan has become the jedi!’

rose: And no one knows what John has, including John.

jane: ‘Let’s just leave! I can’t take any more humiliation!’

john: ‘...i have... to know.’

john: *flips his cards over.*

rose: John has a pair of aces! He’s won it all!

john: ‘w-- wooOOAAH!! AAAAH!!! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH AAAAAAAAHAHAHA!!!’

rose: What an unbelievable ending to this tournament! And now we close; Kankri Vantas is quickly leaving, most likely to a hospital, and Vriska Serket follows him close behind?

vriska, running after kankri: ‘HERE COMES THE WIIIIIIIIND!!!!!!!!’

rose: And Jake... consoles himself with a sandwich.

jane: ‘Hoo hoo hoo! Oh, now you can afford to buy me an urn with a television in it! Heheh-’

john: *knocks the fucking urn over again in excitement*

jane: ‘Woah! I’m everywhere!!!’

rose: We thank you for joining us, and good night.

[mvssmallow]

Blood and Dust: Prologue

Whoever controls the Water, controls everyone. 

My name is Chan. In a former life I was the son of a farmer and soldier. After the World fell, the War for Dust and Water began, claiming every weak scavenger without loyalties and eliminating those without the right ones. There was no room for autonomous thought, only universal law enforced by Haelend and his anaemic army of psychopathic War Dogs. 

After they claimed the Eastern Oil mines, they came for the Northern Greenlands that my Grandfather protected. Few of us were spared in the war, they killed the men and mothers and branded all the children, the ones they didn’t kidnap and torture. They took whatever viable seedlings there was and only fled when a resistance led by my father staged a stealth attack at the last minute. But we were not a district of War, not back then anyway, and there was no victory march in the aftermath. There was only death and loss. 

Those who were left behind were driven mad by either grief or anger. Many left for other territories, trekking across the Dustbowl like lost immigrants, but I stayed behind, vowing to rebuild and replant on the Earth where my ancestor’s blood and ashes had fallen.

That was 8 years ago. Not much has changed. It’s hard to grow much when there’s only dirt and sun. 

Whoever controls the Water, controls everyone. 

And right now, Haelend still controls the water. 

But he doesn’t control everyone. Not yet. 

****

“Chan! Visitor at the gates.”

“How many?”

“Just one. I disarmed him already. Don’t know how the hell he got past the spikes but he’s covered in whole lot of blood.”

Chan looks up from the radio transmitter he’s been trying to fix for the last 2 weeks and sighs wearily in Changbin’s direction. “Aren’t they all?”

“Not all of them.” Changbin shrugs with a smirk, “The last stray we took in was covered in fur.”

“That mutt better not have chewed the cables again.” 

At the mention of his (alleged) crimes, a black Akita-Wolf huffs indignantly but tries to push his nose against Chan’s fingers as he follows them dutifully down the corridor. 

He’d been against taking it home but Chan had seen how dangerously closed off Changbin had gotten over the years and before Felix had collapsed at their gates last winter, he admits it had been a lonely existence with the two of them. Loneliness was so deeply an ingrained and accepted normalcy for Chan that sometimes it’s easy to forget that not everyone could survive like that. Not even grumpy guarded ones like Changbin. 

“Bear doesn’t do that anymore.”

“He did it last week.”

“He was bored.” Changbin says dismissively, reaching down to scratch behind Bear’s soft furry ears. “He thought he saw a rat.”

Chan looks over quizzically, about to ask his best friend when he started talking to animals, but decided this probably wasn’t the time to hear about ridiculous anecdotes. 

Felix is already waiting for them, crouched in his bird box look-out with one hand on the scanner and one on the trigger of his sniper rifle, poised for orders like the loyal kid he’s always been. He eyes Chan and gives the ‘ok’ signal to move ahead. 

Before any further words are uttered, a wet cough draws their attention to the stirring bloodied figure Changbin had tied to the weathered stone pillars by the gates. 

“You disarmed him before he passed out?”

“Yes.” Changbin replies, “A few knives hidden in his boots and an old rusty shooter. Magazine was empty.”

“How’d he get past the spikes?”

“Felix is trying to figure that out. Sandstorm last night might have jammed the cogs?”

“Fuck.” Chan mutters in frustration. It’s always the sandstorms. “What else?”

“Young. Male. Early twenties maybe. Too bloody to see any markings or inkwork. Defensive wounds all down his arms though.”

Unarmed, bleeding, injured or not, all visitors are treated with the same level of caution Chan reserves for War Dogs. Though, this one wasn’t nearly pale enough to be one, which meant that the majority of the blood on him wasn’t actually his own. The fact that their visitor was even alive means one of two things: he’s one hell of a fighter (there’s no such thing as luck in the Dustbowl) or he’s bait. 

The thought prickles the skin across Chan’s neck and as he tightens his grip on his double-barrel shotgun and pulls up the scarf covering the lower half of his face he can hear the tense heavy loading of Changbin’s crossbow as he does the same. Bear is, as always, hovering behind them, his menacing rumbling growl is enough to stir the visitor back into consciousness. 

Chan takes a step forward and nudges a bare bloodied foot. 

“Wake up sunshine.”

There’s a heavy pause before the visitor rolls over with a pained groan before gasping for breath like all his ribs were broken and he was suddenly hungry for air. 

“What’s your name?” Chan asks, his shoulders are aching from the anxious tension he always gets every time they have to do this.

There’s a wet splutter in reply and the visitor blinks blearily at them for a few slow seconds before the realisation of his precarious situation suddenly dawns on him all at once. “Are they gone?”

They? 

They means plural.

Nausea churns in Chan’s gut as he straightens to take in their surroundings. Looking up at the Bird Box, Felix is already scanning the perimeters with hurried efficiency, it isn’t until there’s a thumbs-up thrown in their direction that Chan breathes a sigh of relief. 

“Who is they?”

“East Block. War Dogs. Desert Snakes. Take your pick.” 

Chan looks down at their visitor with a mix of disbelief and awe. “They were all hunting you? Why?”

“They don’t need a reason.”

There’s truth in that statement. There might be Haelend’s universal law but outside the central citadels, in the vast expanse of the Dustbowl, it’s a lawless state. Few reasons are needed to justify kill. Sometimes no reason at all. 

That being said, to piss off three separate factions is a rare unenviable feat that Chan wants no association with. That fact alone sets off alarms bells and the only logical decision here is to cut their visitor loose and send him back into the desert. 

Changbin hasn’t moved or taken his eyes off the bloody mess on the ground, his crossbow remains loaded and aimed at the visitor’s head. Subtlety was never his strong suit. 

“What are you doing here?”

“Trying not to die for a few hours?”

“How’d you get past the spikes?”

“What spikes?”

Chan can feel the frustration creeping into his head and when he looks across, he can tell by Changbin’s tense jaw that his patience is also fading by the second. They don’t kill unnecessarily and Chan doesn’t want the bad karma on his territory but there are exceptions to every rule.

“Listen mate, unless you’re gonna answer the questions, you’re welcome to spend the next week back out in the Dustbowl.”

That seems to shake their visitor out of his stupor. Chan knows all too well that the only fate as bad as captivity in a citadel is to be let loose in the desert with no water or supplies. Death is all but inevitable. 

“No! Wait. Don’t send me back out there by myself again. I swear, I didn’t mean to do it!”

“Do what?”

The visitor pulls himself to sit down against a pillar and when he looks at Chan in the eyes, there’s a hard defiant glare there that is completely unexpected for someone with three weapons aimed at their head. 

“I tried to take an oil rig over in the East Block.”

There’s an uncharacteristic snort of disbelief to his right and Chan isn’t even sure how to respond himself. 

“You and what army?”

“Just me.”

“Are you crazy in the head or you just got a deathwish?”

“It was mine! I won it fair and square!”

“You won an oil rig?”

“Yeah. I’m pretty good at Desert Poker.”

He blames it on being around each other for far too long but Chan can tell the exact moment when Changbin has heard enough and is ready to kick the visitor back into the desert and bolt the gates behind him. 

But Chan also knows that Changbin is nothing if not a pack animal.

And pack animals always wait for the pack alpha, so Chan presses on.

“You can drive a rig?”

“Of course, I’m not stupid.” Comes the snotty reply and Chan has got to hand it to their visitor, this kid has balls of steel. 

“How many kill switches are there?”

“Six. But the newer models can go up to eight, if you got the money for it.”

“What are you, some kind of annoying mechanic?”

“Yeah.” The visitor grins at him, black eye, split lip and all. His outward cockiness cracking for a moment to reveal the uncertain smile of a lost kid. 

“Cut him.” Changbin whispers beside him. “This isn’t worth it.”

9 out of 10 times Chan would agree. 9 out of 10 times they think alike and execute the same plan. It’s how they’ve been able to survive and maintain their meagre territory. It’s not very much, and probably deemed worthless by the bigger factions, but 9 out of 10 times their teamwork and partnership is how they’ve managed to have anything at all.

But this is that 1 out of 10. 

There’s something different Chan sees in the visitor’s eyes but more than that, there’s something very familiar. He saw it in Changbin then Felix. He’s seen it in himself. It’s not desperation, he sees that all the time, everyone is desperate in the Dustbowl. This is longing. For safety. For protection. For peace. For belonging. 

“Which district has your loyalty?”

“The one that doesn’t take a pint of my blood every 3 weeks.” The visitor pulls up his shirt and scrubs at his skin to reveal a dark black “B” inked onto this chest.

A phantom ache surfaces along Chan’s forearms. “You’re a War Dog Bio-Donor.”

“Ah, so you heard of us. You gonna try and blood bag me? Because I gotta tell you, they kinda bled me dry last time.”

“No, we don’t do that here. Whose blood is on you?”

“My sister’s.” The visitor says too quietly. “I buried her yesterday.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake.” Changbin curses beside him, taking a step back and lowering his crossbow a fraction before signalling Bear to heel.

Chan pulls the scarf off his face and has to agree with the sentiment. 

“I’m sorry.” He says, his mind already made up now. “You got a name?”

“Does it matter if you’re going to kill me anyway?”

Chan smirks for some reason, maybe there’s something in him that enjoys collecting broken strays like this and seeing them learn to become human again. He’s down it twice now. He can do it again. 

“No name, no entrance mate.”

There’s shock in the visitor’s eyes, followed by confusion, conflict, trust and anti-trust. But in the end, shelter from the Dustbowl is too powerful a hope. 

“It’s...Han.”

[asprettyasarose]

Song challenge 🎵 🎶 🤩

Rules: Answer 7 questions and tag 7 peeps

Thanks Ash @alloveroliver for the tag 😘

Now to expose my wide taste in music!

1. Name a song which is your current favorite.

Your Eyes Tell-BTS

Sweet Night- V

2. Name a song you know every word to.

Just one!? Seriously if I listen to it I will know the lyrics of it...I’m sure I could have learned a couple language by now based on the song lyrics stored in my head...

but for simplicity sake let go with one I havent mentioned: Jolene- Dolly Parton

3. Name a song that makes you sad.

The House that Built Me or Over You by Miranda Lambert...tear up every time

4. Name a song that makes you wanna dance around:

Okay this could get long! 😂

Mic Drop- BTS, Steve Aoki remix (plus a gazillion others but I’ll leave it to one lol)

Daechwita- Agust D

Chicken Noodle Soup- JHope & Becky G

Hip-Mamamoo

Despacito - Luis Fonsi, Justin Beiber

Let it be me- BSB & Steve Aoki

Wow- post Malone

No tears left to cry- Ariana Grande

Single ladies- Beyoncé

Whats my name- Rihanna and Drake

Poker face- lady Gaga

I’m a slave for you- Britney Spears

Dirty- Christina

In da club- 50 cent

Yeah- Usher

Oh god so much more old school pop and r&b, hip hop but I’m gonna stop there!

5. Name a song that you don't really like much.

Baby by Justin Beiber (ugh)

Not really much I don’t like... other than Jazz but everything else you’d probably find on my playlists

6. Name a song you will never stop playing.

Breathe (DNA album)- BSB. I just love that song, their vocals/ harmony is just superb

7. Name a song you are tired of listening to.

I cycle through songs...some days I want to listen to certain things and I’ll repeat it over and over but then other days I just hit skip...all depends on my mood...

Tag 7: @la-piperina @redheadkittys @otonymous @dear-mrs-otome @kashimalin @aj-macarthurs @op-peccatori

[candyshua]

It’s a Long Way Home | Chapter 10 (Finale)

Pairing: Joshua x Minghao x Reader

Synopsis: It was dark, and then it was light. You’re finally lucid. After 15 years of not being conscious, you wake up in a desolate and post-apocalyptic earth where infected flesh-eating beings roam the streets. Soon enveloped into a mysterious group of survivors, you consistently wonder who they are. But most importantly, who are you?

Genre: Heavy angst, some fluff here and there

Warnings: Gore, bad language, physical & verbal abuse

Word Count: 2k

The world unfolded before your meek eyes. What was happening soon sunk in, and you immediately ripped your already bitten arm from "Joshua's" grasp. Looking down, you noticed a bite mark was there.

But then, like magic, it disappeared. It faded off of your skin gradually within the course of a few seconds, and you displayed no signs of turning any time soon. The moment your blood touched Joshua's tongue, a series of gargles elicited from his mouth and then he fell, clutching his chest. The Doctor watched intently, and Minghao merely rushed over to help you. "Are you okay?" He stuttered, and you just nodded emptily. You paid no mind to Minghao, your attention was on the dramatic scene happening in front of you.

The first thing you noticed about Joshua was his eyes. Soon, a familiar brown coated the white vastness, and pupils sprouted like a sudden unexpected rainstorm. Color returned to his face, and his flesh tightened and cleansed itself. The reverse transformation was surreal, along with extremely satisfying. His teeth whitened, his lips weren't a pale blue anymore; he was Joshua.

Clutching his chest with both of his hands, he fell to the ground and passed out in front of you. If somebody would've walked in at this very moment, they would've seen four humans.

Soon, your eyes widened and the tears on your cheeks dried. Your eyes wandered to the open cut on your arm, no signs of being bitten near. It was just a cut, like being sliced with a knife.

You were immune.

And you were the cure.

-

Time blended together in a haziness. Days felt like weeks, as your mind swam in and out on consciousness. The reality of the power you held kind of drove you mad temporarily, but any heated haziness can be replenished with a sweep of ice cold reality.

It started when Joshua would wake up in the middle of the night, in the hospital of Fort Lockwood of course, and then he'd puke up blood. You assumed it was just his body getting rid of the infection, but to be fair you had no idea how to react in this situation. Any medically experienced fellow would have been absolutely stumped. Slowly, Fort Lockwood was rebuilt and The Doctor was under constant surveillance. You helped revive the fort to what it used to be, along with taking care of the excess scientists.

You had felt heaps of guilt, knowing many people died due to their mere inconvenience. So many souls succumbed to the title of "Collateral Damage". They were executed because they were in the way - and that was that.

Truth be told, it had been four days since your attack on Fort Lockwood, but it felt like four months. Everything was so slow, worry tended to drag things out until the final show - where everything all comes crashing down. It was like you were in a play, and the end was near.

But one more plot twist was in store, just to mess with you.

Today, you would finally talk to The Doctor - face to face. Alone.

You walked into the dimly lit basement where Joshua was once constricted, that thought being enough to stimulate an anger deep inside you. You strode over to the beaten down man, who once reigned down upon his own miniature civilization. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Now, he was under the control of somebody he used to own, somebody he used to control.

You could do whatever you wanted to him. You could torture him like he did to you, you could let him starve to death, hell - you could untie him and let him walk out a free man. You weren't foolish enough to do so, but you knew you could have.

You were powerful. This time, you were mighty and great, you were no longer the girl subject to a glory-desiring genius or her amnesic self. You were the one with the good hand, it was like showing your royal flush to fellow poker players. The prize was so close, yet so far. But, was it as glorious and magnificent as it was prophesied to be? Was power what you wanted?

You knew you wanted to make him suffer, like he did to you.

Alas, you were a living example of it - you had won.

And, The Doctor had many answers you needed. But, you wanted his name to be forever tainted - not glorified as he had wanted. So, when you walked in that room, you had a vision in your mind.

"Hello." You hissed, the pure rage burning inside of you. The Doctor scoffed, his ragged, pale skin and scruffy grey beard only adding to his pathetic and defeated nature. His icy blue eyes were no longer sparking with the evil dreams that blew inside of him, instead they were hollowed out with the harsh winds of you. You played with the gun in your waistband, until you pulled it out and pointed it directly at his head.

"I'm making it quick. Have fun rotting in Hell, buddy." You grumbled.

And then you squeezed the trigger.

The gunshot rang through out the room, but you didn't care. The incessant ring in your ears was overpowered by your triumphant smile. Victory was yours, and it tasted oh so sweet.

-

A week later, Joshua's puking wouldn't stop. You had talked to Seungkwan about it, but his blood loss was extremely risky and potentially fatal. You didn't have the technology nor the staff to figure out what was happening.

Yet, you didn't really need that. Joshua called you to his room one day, and he knew exactly what was happening to him. The thick quiet atmosphere spoke louder than so many things you wanted to say, the air impregnated with a poignant awkwardness. You two had talked over the course of this week, but there was something gone. He wasn't the Josh he was before, but did you expect him to be?

"He did horrible things to me." Joshua mentioned oddly, the once quiet air now drowning in those sad words. You didn't need to be told, for you knew the horrible extensiveness of The Doctor's actions. You just nodded and let him talk.

"He told me why he did it...How he created the virus, how you were immune...And then he fucking injected me with it- and you saved me." He continued, and you just nodded solemnly. "I don't think your blood cured me though, Y/N. I think your blood reversed whatever happened...I think it's poisoning me."

The cruel reality of fate was quite entertaining at times. It was obvious -- if your blood was the cure, then why didn't The Doctor have you hooked up to a machine? Of course he had tested your blood before. And, of course, it didn't work.

What were you supposed to do? Pretend to be shocked at the inevitability? You and Seungkwan had tried everything in your power to end Joshua's sickness, but it was no use. You knew - you god damn knew - that Joshua was going to die. And it was your fault.

You wanted to cry, but it was like you were dried out from the insurmountable amount of tears you have cried this week. You just sighed, and then laughed.

You laughed hysterically, to the point where tears rolled down your face endlessly. Joshua didn't react, he knew it was an odd reaction of some sort. Soon, your laughs surprisingly turned into tears, and then choking sobs. "I'm so sorry!" You wailed, and Joshua just held you like he used to, before everything went to shit.

You weren't at home when you in Joshua's arms. Joshua wasn't himself anymore, and you both knew that. "It isn't your fault." Joshua soothed. Truth be told, it really wasn't. He would've continued to be a mindless infected buffoon if you hadn't tried to save him with your blood. You had given him a little more time.

"I fucking poisoned you..." You shakily sobbed, as he stroked your hair and bit his lip. He wanted to cry, but he had accepted his fate. The pain of knowing that Joshua couldn't hold on to his love for you is what troubled him the most. For your love was a flame, but eventually it dwindled and burned out.

Now, just ashes were remaining. And here in the pile of ashes, you cried for what could have been.

"You gave me more time, Y/N."

"I shouldn't have killed The Doctor. He could've fixed this-"

"You did what was understandable." Joshua interrupted, hushing you softly. Soon, a comfortable silence engulfed you two, and all that could be heard were your quiet sobs or Josh's soft, slowing breaths.

"I want you to be happy, Y/N." Joshua mumbled, and you knew what he was getting at. You knew he knew, but you refused to believe it. Denial was a strong force after all.

"What do you mean?" You questioned dumbly.

"You know exactly what I mean. Don't guilt yourself into being alone forever. I can rest happily knowing that you'll be happy." Joshua mumbled, and you just sucked in a sharp breath.

You wanted to tell him that he was wrong, that he shouldn't give up because you loved him, but that wasn't true. You weren't at home with Joshua, there was no warmth. The love was gone, and it rekindled for the man who had been waiting for you. Joshua had still loved you, and he would die loving you. And in another life, he would be happy with you.

Just not in this one, for you would be happy with someone else. And Joshua? Well Joshua would be dead.

-

That night, Joshua had died beside you. And soon you learned that your blood wasn't the cure.

Not only that, you had discovered everybody from the ship you were previously on came down to Earth, and your father was no where found. And now, you lie in bed next to Minghao, a year later, still in Fort Lockwood. The world would continue on, and The Doctor's name would forever be cursed.

You and Minghao sat on top of the watch towers, looking over the forest that surrounded Fort Lockwood. It was around 2 AM, and the two of you sat in a comfortable silence. You wanted to say something, like that your period was late -- or that it had been a year since Joshua died.

But you just sat there, in silence. It was like Minghao knew the sound of the silence, he could listen to it.

During this past year, you and Seungkwan had worked endlessly with samples of your blood. No cure had surfaced.

Not only that, but no word from your father had been heard either. And as you stared into the dwindling dawn, you realized some questions would never be answered. Then, the sun rose and everything went on, like it always had.

And for a split second, you were again that girl who was confused with herself, who didn't know who she was or what she wanted, but then the feeling died. You lied in bed next to Minghao, resting after your night shift, and stared at his closed eyes.

A new passion erupted in you, a passion that was fueled from your love and experiences. It made you want to protect Minghao, it made you regret not being able to protect Joshua, and it made you you.

It was like a new reality was discovered -- a clearer more dense one. You weren't one of the good guys -- you had killed, stolen, and lied. You did all of those things because you thought you were right.

Yet looking back at it, you were so wrong. And an even harsher reality sunk in once you realized you could never make it right. You would forever be a killer, and a burglar, and a liar.

Your eyes sunk into Minghao's closed ones, and tears fell out of your eyes before you could stop them. Everyday, you would try to find a cure to help the fucked up world you lived in. You had no time to think about your happiness, because the world sat in your hands.

In another life you would be just another normal girl -- but not in this one.

THE END.

[creativity-is-rebellion]

More Top 20 Must-See Horror Movies

 Especially now we are in isolation, who doesn’t crave a good horror movie to watch? To that purpose, I have created yet another top 20 must-see horror movies, along with why you should be watching them. So get into your comfy clothes and blanket, grab some popcorn, and settle in to watch these horror gems (WARNING: May contain spoilers).

1) Ginger Snaps (2000)

I first saw this movie when I was fifteen years old, and, watching it recently, I was still impressed how it handles the perils of transitioning from teenhood to womanhood. Ginger Snaps follows the story of two outcast sisters, Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) and Brigitte (Emily Perkins), in the mindless suburban town of Bailey Downs. On the night of Ginger's first period, she is savagely attacked by a wild creature. Ginger Snaps is a terrifying movie with good character development, acting is convincing and it has a fast-paced story line. If you're into well-done horror movies Ginger Snaps is the movie for you. It is one of the best modern werewolf movies I have seen.

2) Annihilation (2018)

Drawing on mythology and body horror, Annihilation is an intelligent film that asks big questions and refuses to provide easy answers. It is Sci-fi horror at its best, boasting a very intriguing and unique idea whilst entertaining the viewer throughout the film. Definitely a must-watch.

3) Green Room (2015)

A punk rock band becomes trapped in a secluded venue after finding a scene of violence. For what they saw, the band themselves become targets of violence from a gang of white power skinheads who want to eliminate all evidence of the crime. Influenced by exploitation movies of the 1970s (and punk music of the 1980s), this horror-thriller is rooted in a gripping, grisly kind of realism without resorting to lazy coincidence or stupidity. This is again a fresh take on horror and worth a view.

4) 1922 (2017)

I learned from a great film critic many years back that your own best judgement of a movie is best discovered when you realise that you are still thinking of it many days later. This Stephen King film stays true to the iconic master with all the tell-tale signs of a Kings classic: A haunting grimness that lingers throughout the movie, a tragedy and of course, outstanding performances. The mother that returns from the dead leaves you in a crazy suspense of whether it is simply a dream, a man’s demented insanity, or an actual reality. Thomas Jane’s performance was stellar and totally believable as a farmer in rural America in 1922. He actually takes you through the movie as if you were part of him and what is going on. The message that Stephen King leaves you with is dreadfully powerful of how greed can destroy all. Definitely worth the watch, especially for Stephen King fans.

5) Evil Dead (1981; remake 2013)

Both versions of this movie are great, but I have a special fondness for the original, which was Sam Raimi’s directorial debut. The camerawork is amazing for a low-budget film, and the creepy atmosphere is eerily accurate. We feel Ash’s pain when his friend, sister and girlfriend are one-by-one changed into Deadites, and the ending keeps you guessing, and wanting, a sequel. I am quite a fan of the Evil Dead franchise actually, and have just finished watching the TV adaptation Ash vs. Evil Dead. I’m savouring the last episodes, and am sad that it got cancelled. I look forward to more from this franchise, hopefully in the not-to-distant future.

6) Get Out (2017)

This film is unique, telling the tale of young black man who meets his white girlfriend’s parents for the first time. Jordan Peele’s film delivers a chilling satire of liberal racism in the US. More than just a standard-issue thriller, this brutal, smart movie is impeccably made, as well as surprising, shocking, and funny, while also offering a compassionate, thoughtful look at race. Expect only the very best a film has to offer, with a nasty twist at the end that you won’t see coming. 

7) Hell Night (1981)

One of the best things about this movie which follows fraternity and sorority pledges who spend the night in a mansion haunted by victims of a family massacre is that it stars legendary Scream Queen of The Exorcist fame, Linda Blair. Other than that, prepare for a fun, wild ride, the way every good slasher movie should be.

8) Insidious Part 2 (2013)

I actually enjoyed this sequel more than the first movie, as it was less plodding and more action-packed, with an intriguing antagonist in the form of the mysterious “Bride in Black,” who turns out to be the evil spirit of serial killer Parker Crane, who, as we know from the previous movie (SPOILER ALERT) has taken over the body of Josh Lambert, and is fighting for control of his soul. I enjoyed seeing the return of Elise Rainier, who was (SPOILER ALERT AGAIN) killed off in the previous movie. James Wan directed this second helping even more masterfully than the first. A must-watch.

9) Sleepaway Camp (1983)

This is a campy slasher gem, where they cast real teenagers, which elevated the drama of the plot somewhat. Sleepaway Camp tells the story of a young girl named Angela who goes to Camp Arawak with her cousin Ricky. Once the two arrive at camp, a series of events/killings leads the campers to discover that there is a killer on the loose. Sleepaway Camp is not in any way intense or fast paced. However, even though many initially might look at as a “rip off” slasher film, the movie does get creative when it comes to the brutal killings and certain aspects to the film that no one saw coming. Including the jaw-dropping twist at the end. I’m not giving it away. You just have to watch it.

10) Cold Prey (Fritt Vilt) (2006)

This movie takes full advantage of its snowy, secluded set-pieces, using Norway’s harsh winter landscape to masterfully build tension and heighten the sense of isolation. As horror movies go, Cold Prey is a slow-starter, committing the first third of its running time to investigating the signs of violence scattered throughout the hotel, allowing the characters to theorise about what pernicious acts may have taken place before the hotel’s abandonment. It begins at the intriguing yet deliberate pace of a psychological horror film as the sequestered friends, initially inebriated and giggly, explore the hotel and sharing secrets, but the movie’s party-hard atmosphere bursts open at the 40-minute mark to reveal a black horror centre. Slick and stylish, Cold Prey is a genuine pleasure to watch.

11) The Hills Have Eyes (1977; remake 2006)

Even if it echoes a better film (namely, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), the original movie is still an important one to view for lovers of the horror genre.  This is a sometimes ghastly  - and occasionally absurd - shocker that really gets under one's skin. Though many critics initially despised the original outing, it has since been called one of the best horror movies of the 1970s. Scary-movie specialist Wes Craven made this viscerally-violent feature on a low budget, and some horror connoisseurs call it his best. Ultimately the "normal" people strike back with a ferocious blood-lust they didn't know they had, and the question is how much a "civilised" person can be pushed before one becomes a savage. Are the Carters really all that much "better" than Jupiter and his spawn? That is a question that you, as the audience member, are required to ponder.

12) The Dawn of the Dead (2004)

This remake of George A. Romero's 1978 sequel to Night of the Living Dead soups up the zombies, cranks up the gross factor to 11, and has a lot of cheeky in-jokes about its predecessor. In comparison with the original, out are the shrieking blondes and rampaging looters, in are smart, controlled Ana (Sarah Polley as a believable nurse not afraid to wield a fire poker) and Kenneth (Ving Rhames), who is exactly the kind of cop you want walking beside you if you are facing scores of the undead.

The zombies are a bit spryer in this film, and the pregnancy of one of the main characters is not the life-giving promise it was in the first movie. But the ending is what differs most from the original. If you're a fan of the horror genre, then this flick is a welcome, if derivative, fright-fest in the school of Romero's classics.

13) The Cabin in The Woods (2011)

What starts out as another five-band teen getaway to a cabin in the woods ends up becoming a fresh take on the trope, with puppeteers behind what is taking place, in a twisted game of Choose Your Adventure. The ending is fittingly grim, but you won’t be disappointed. Definitely worth one hour and thirty-five minutes of your time.

14) The Babadook (2014)

The feature debut of writer-director Jennifer Kent is not just genuinely, deeply scary, but also a beautifully told tale of a mother and son, enriched with layers of contradiction and ambiguity. It presents grief as a demon, questions reality, and creeps out the viewer by making psychopathology seem like something that could happen to anybody. The style of the film is not teasing exactly - it's too sad and lonely - but there is certainly a hair-pulling mixture of glum laughter and vast apprehension. Is the demon real? Does it matter? That’s for you to judge. Either way, if it’s in a word, or if it’s with a look, you can’t get rid of the Babadook.

15) Suspiria (Original and the Remake - 1977 and 2019 respectively)

Suspiria is a baroque piece of esoteric expressionism that you enter - and exit - without understanding so much as feeling. It's always fascinating to watch; the thrills and spills are so classy and fast that the movie becomes in effect what horror movies seemed like when you were too young to get in to see them. Director Dario Agento works so hard for his effects -- throwing around shock cuts, coloured lights, and peculiar camera angles -that it would be impolite not to be a little frightened. This entry stands out as it is a visually beautiful horror movie, a bright fantasy that lives off its aesthetic. If you are a horror fan and haven’t seen this movie yet, then you’re not living right. The remake is also worth a watch, something that is oftentimes unique in the horror genre.

16) A Quiet Place (2018)

This gripping, clever monster movie is one of those rare genre treats that seizes on a simple, unique idea and executes it so perfectly and concisely that it elicits satisfying squeals of delight. It's directed and co-written by Krasinski, who's best known for his work in comedy but translates his experience in that genre to the expert building and releasing of tension here. A Quiet Place is, in many ways, like an extended classic horror movie sequence, such as famous ones in The Birds or Aliens, wherein the heroes must try not to disturb packs of resting monsters.

At the same time, Krasinski uses his quiet moments like music, ranging from moments of restful beauty -- including a father-son trip to a waterfall, where it's noisy enough that they can talk and even shout -- to moments of pause. A loud noise can cause a jump, but it's immediately followed by tension and dread: Will the creatures come this time? The real beauty is the movie's primal quality, based on the most basic elements of life, such as survival and protection of the species. No explanation is given for the monsters' existence; they, like us, are just here. Images of water, sand, bare feet, crops, and plant life serve to underline the theme of life itself. A few overly familiar horror movie clichés keep it from being perfect, but otherwise A Quiet Place is so good that it will leave viewers speechless.

17) The Exorcist (1973)

Once famously dubbed ‘the most terrifying movie ever made,” this movie is steeped in urban legend, especially concerning the unfortunate happenings that occurred when it was being made. 

If you think your teen is ready for this shocking film, keep in mind that some audience members in the '70s reportedly fainted after seeing Dick Smith's grisly makeup effects on Blair. In some extreme cases, viewers even required psychiatric care. Also, the moans, snarls, and profane utterances from Regan (most are actually the dubbed-in voice of a well-known older actress, Mercedes McCambridge) amount to some of the most chilling audio ever done for film.

Thanks in part to Linda Blair's wrenching, Oscar-nominated performance, The Exorcist was a huge hit, earning back 10 times its $10 million budget (a then-lavish sum, outrageous for a "mere" horror flick). Movie historians cite it (along with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) as the conclusive end of old-school spook shows featuring Dracula and Frankenstein and bobbing rubber bats. If you haven’t watched it yet, you may have your horror movie fan card revoked.

18) The Final Destination Franchise (2000 - 2011)

If I had to list all of the movies in the Final Destination franchise in order of quality, I would say 5, 1, 2, 3, and 4. Fourth instalment withstanding, the series is a formidable addition to the horror genre, as the invisible killer, Death Itself, stalks its victims and kills them off in creatively gruesome ways after they initially cheat death. The fifth addition contains an awesome twist at the end which in hindsight you should have seen coming throughout the entire movie. Pay close attention. The only downside is (SPOILER ALERT) that none of the characters throughout the series really survive.

19) Let the Right One In (Lat den Ratte Komma In) (2008)

Please watch the Swedish version, and power through the subtitles. This is a horror movie that is tragic on multiple levels, as it deals with a lonely and bullied boy who so happens to live next door to a pubescent vampire. When her benefactor dies, we see how the main character’s life will also unfold, and what lies in his future. A must-see film that is more than just your average horror movie.

20) Terrifier (2017)

This movie definitely gets back to basics by paying homage to the original slasher classics. Art the Clown, who we are originally introduced to in the 2013 movie All Hallow’s Eve (also worth a watch), is a vicious horror movie villain who kills just for kicks. He also subverts the horror movie trope by using a weapon which was previously considered off-limits to horror movie villains, especially those with supernatural abilites (mostly, anyway). This movie also contains one of the bloodiest deaths in recent horror movie history. I like the use of practical effects over the often-overdone CGI. What is Art the Clown? Deranged killer? Demonic entity? Who cares? Its all good fun. Watch it now on Netflix.

I’ll probably be back again some time in the future with a further 20 horror movies that are worth a watch, because there are so many of them. To everyone, take care during these uncertain times.