#A bunch of the students were dirt poor trying to get by and another bunch were upper middle class (or above)

[azulock]

Legit question being asked as I try to get my hair ready for the night: for those who went to college, is like college bullies a thing (in the US, I presume)?

Cause I see so many college bully fanfic going around (mostly in the jjk fandom) and I swear to you, in my college that wasn't really a thing, most people were just trying to survive. Sure some people were assholes, in special the more rich and elitist students, but bullies like actual high-school bullying? Nah, I saw something like this once and it wasn't one bully, it was most of the class trying to fuck with one rich annoying kid. And I say kid as in first year, some of the class were like 17.

So, is the thing in these fics like real or college as imagine by people who haven't yet gotten to college? Cause maybe it's just cause the college experience here is just too different.

[comehomeducklings]

Past [Part 2] (Obsession)

A/N: Some chapters will be named with either “Past,” “Present,” or “Future,” then their numbered part coming right after it. This is to confuse you less when flashbacks or anything happens. As you have probably noticed, it says “Past” for Part 2. This is going back near when Tom and her just met. Thank you for reading! <3

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

Tom Riddle's Moodboard

Main Character's Moodboard

~////////////////𓆙////////////////~

1940 - 3rd year

“Potions is not that bad, I swear. You just have to be good at measuring.”

At the table, my friends and I are discussing our classes this year. Potions being one of my favorite topics. Devyn absolutely loathes that certain class. We have to drag her there to make sure she doesn’t skip. Poor girl tries her best to not mess up but the cauldron always ends up blowing up. I even watched her do every step once, never missing a beat. The potion still ended up failing, even though she did everything correctly. She gave up after a while, who wouldn’t. I help her do extra assignments for extra credit to keep her grade up. She also studies with me to make sure she can memorize everything and pass her tests. Amelia is pretty good at the class, she’s luckily paired with Devyn most of the time. Carrying the potion to success, with a little bit of my secret help. It’s not cheating, it’s using your resources.

I’m resources.

“Potions is not that bad,” Devyn mocks me. “If it weren’t for you two I would have gone insane in that stupid class.”

Amelia just laughs at her while eating her hash browns on the plate. She reaches her hand out to take some more eggs.

“You were able to do it before. Not the way you were supposed to, but it worked,” Amelia says.

“Exactly, just start doing it your way at this point. I don’t think Slughorn will care how it’s done, just how it comes out.”

Devyn nods her head and points at me with a fork. Her mouth full of food so she settles for that response. My plate doesn’t have much other than some bacon and fruit. I’m not usually a breakfast eater. I get my appetite at lunch and dinner time. It’s just too early for a bunch of food smells, the smells make me kind of nauseous. I’ll eat though, enough to hold me off till lunch.

The chatter in the lunchroom rises by the minute. Everyone refilling themselves before their busy day. All energy levels rising while everyone wakes up from their groggy morning mood. While my friends finish eating we continue to talk about our classes and share the schedules for this year. Most classes we had were the same except for our electives. I tried taking as many electives as possible. My family back home never really did magic. I actually came a year and a half late since my family wanted me to have a normal school experience. I learned to do everything without the use of magic, the only thing my mom taught me was the floo network, creatures, and plants. I would often accompany her to Diagon Alley when she shops. I got an Owl for my 10th birthday. A cat would have been amazing if I wasn’t allergic to it. My owl is a brown and white-furred barn owl. Don’t ask me why I named it Bartholomew. I was ten okay, give me a break. Speaking of the floo network, my mom had to chase me through it quite often because I kept teleporting everywhere. I once ran into the Ministry of Magic’s building and got lost. They had to take me home to my parents. Their faces told me everything I needed to know about the punishment waiting for me.

Halfway through the second year is when I came to Hogwarts, a second letter coming that year asking my parents to let me learn more there. So when they finally let me attend, everything was pretty new to me. My mother was the magic one in the family. Her grandmother, my great-grandmother, before her had the magic gene. Going to school was the same experience as going from a muggle-borns perspective. The difference is, I knew more about its existence. I would look at yearbooks my mom had from when she went here. She earned a lot of titles, all the achievements being recorded down. I always wondered why she never wanted me to come here. Did something happen to me, to her? I’m guessing she just wanted a normal life with dad. He has always supported her through everything. A love, a bond like that is hard to come by. He would also learn about magic right next to me. At least, the stuff my mom allowed to let us know.

That’s why I want to learn as much as I can, of what’s available. Why learn math in the muggle world when I could be learning divination. Spells of all types, potions for everything of inconvenience. My chores could be completed with just a flick of my wand. I’ve lately been learning wandless magic, on my own. Albus has helped by providing me with material to study that type of magic. The only thing I’ve managed so far is a spark coming from the tips of my fingertips. Sparking hope that I could actually, maybe, achieve that level. Now I won't get my hopes up, but that can lead me to a certain advantage in dueling. That being one of my weakest skills. Always panicking, saying any spells that pop up in my mind, and making random movements coming from my wand. Often confusing who I’m up against, although they recover from that confusion fairly quickly.

Riddle, met him once. One too many if you would ask me. I dissuade ever wanting to speak to him. Arrogance and pride flow through his tongue like second nature. I do take pride in succeeding above him in 3 classes. He is 2 classes above me but, that’s not the point. I do admit, he’s attractive. Only a little though, how else would he charm his way through the professors and students.

“Alright, I’m ready to go. You guys done?”

“Yeah,” I say. Devyn and I start leaving our seats and heading towards the huge doors.

Amelia hurried from her seat, a few steps behind since she took some fruit with her to eat on the way. More and more students also started making their way towards the first period. Not wanting to be blamed for the loss of house points. This system causes so many fights, everyone’s competitive side getting the best of their common sense. I would be lying if I said it didn’t get the best of me before. Amelia being her usual bubbly self skips backward while chatting with us. Before we could warn her to stop, she pushes someone ahead of her. Both falling down, hitting the floor. She spins her head extremely quickly, her hair sticking in her mouth from the force of the wind.

“I’m so sorry, I wasn’t paying attention,” she explains. Quickly trying to digest her situation. I make my way towards her and pull her up. I fix her robe and dust off any dirt on the cloth from the floor.

“Clearly idiot, can you not use those bug eyes of yours to see?”

Devyn and I make eye contact. We understand that there are witnesses here, and one of them is bound to snitch on us if we fight. A huge scene would probably make Amelia feel even more embarrassed as well. Instead, I guided Amelia by her back. We continue on to class while I comfort her. Devyn is staying back to “talk” to the guy. Lestrange is in for it now, any poor soul would be when in the fiery path of her anger.

Devyn’s loud yells could still be slightly heard when entering the potions classroom. First class of the year, and day. On Slughorn’s table, I can see a vial with the wideye potion contained inside. I set Devyn’s textbook on her station, turning to the page that contains information on the potion. Hoping to save her confusion and time.

“Welcome, welcome! Nice to see some old faces, and new ones,” he says with the biggest grin on his face. “Today we’ll be learning about the Wideye potion. Can anyone tell me what this potion does?”

I quickly raise my hand, rather eager. I did some reading about a lot of potions during the summer. Trying to get a headstart on my studies. This potion being one of them. Only 3 students raised their hand, one of them being me. The other, well, Riddle.

“Yes, go ahead and answer,” the professor looks my way.

I smile, “The wideye potion prevents the person consuming the liquid the ability to fall asleep. Which is often used in the medical field to wake someone from a sleep caused by a blunt force or drug.”

“Precisely! 10 points.”

I look back rather smugly at Riddle, rather happy I got chosen instead of him. I know, he could have easily answered that too. I’ll let myself bask in the small achievement for now. 30 minutes of class is just spent writing down notes, preparing us for the potion we will make. Note-taking is my favorite, especially the little doodles I get to make. We use a feather instead of the regular pen. I found it rather amusing and liked the certain feeling of writing with it. The dipping noise that the point of the feather makes when hitting the liquid ink is a very profound sound. No real writer’s bump forming on my fingers.

“That’s enough writing, I need you all to prepare your cauldron, gather the materials you need, and start your potion. If done correctly, tomorrow when we add the finishing touches and check on it the potion should be a blue/green color,” Slughorn comments. “You have 10 minutes to study your notes, then the rest of the class to make your potion. No looking back at your notes after those ten minutes.”

After scanning my notes, I stand up and walk towards the ingredients on the shelves. If I remember correctly my potion requires snake fangs, standard ingredient, and wolfsbane. I gather all that in my hand and set it down near my cauldron. Before I start, I take a moment. I’m missing something, I’m sure there was another ingredient.

Wolfsbane, check.

Snake fangs, six of them.

I have the measures of Standard ingredient.

There’s one more, I try to look around the room. Then I remember that we get an automatic failing grade if caught cheating. There’s no way I’ll let my grade drop like that. Over something so small and inconvenient too. Making my way to the shelves, I scan over the ingredients over and over again. Trying to see if any of the names pop out to me.

No.

Definitely not.

That’s an ingredient?

I don’t even want to know how that one was obtained.

This one, of course it’s this one. I even remember putting a star next to the name in my notebook. Dried Billwig stings, I believe six of them were needed. All that time wasted. Hurrying to my seat I get to work. The time goes by quickly, all that could be heard was the sizzling and whooshing of our potions. I almost knocked down my vials a couple of times. Someone actually did, their time spent on cleaning the glass off the floor. After heating the first three ingredients, I crush them together in the mortar. Then stir clockwise from what I recall, three times specifically. Finally, I wave my wand over then leave it to brew.

Just in time from the looks of it. I glance at Devyn to see how it went for her, and she looks pretty proud of herself. I take that as a blessing that it didn’t blow up this time of round. I’m guessing she took our advice and did it her own way.

A student raises his hand, “May we leave?”

“Oh yes yes, go ahead. No assignments for the first day, only the potion you made in class.”

Before I leave the classroom I examine Riddle’s station. He already left the room. His potion looks similar to how mine turned out, his workspace thoroughly cleaned. Everything used properly placed back to where it should be. Perfectly spotless, not a single speck of dust in sight. All done without magic too, surprising for someone born into the wizarding world. When I mentioned that I met him once, it wasn’t much of anything. The only way I know how he really acts is through other people. Much admire his intelligence and strong will. Others are jealous of the potential he holds for the future.

Girls are already trying to slip love potions into his drinks. I would feel bad if he wasn’t so rude to them. Only just before touching the disrespectful line. He almost drank one of their attempts before. Wouldn’t want to imagine how that turned out. Tom riddle, in love. That man probably doesn’t know the feeling of happiness, let alone love. I feel bad for his future girlfriend, she’s going to have to deal with a handful of baggage.

~////////////////𓆙////////////////~

“How much do you want to bet Nott will demolish him?” A Gryffindor girl to my left whispers.

Nott, part of Riddle’s group from what I’ve seen. They all eat lunch together and talk to one another so it’s a reasonable guess. Very talented duellist, one of the bests here.

“I hate to admit it, but he’ll definitely win this. I’ll still have hope for the other guy though,” I whisper back trying not to sound mean.

Nott and the other Slytherin boy are up right now. It’s a courtesy for the audience to stay quiet until someone casts the first attack or defense. From then on all you will hear is shouting of encouragement and the opposite. Nott’s eyes are focused, zoning in on the opponent before him. His wand is steady, mouth slightly parted to breathe through better. Whole-body alert and tense waiting for something. From what I'm getting, I believe he’s waiting for the Slytherin boy to go first. Nott casts spells quickly and thinks them through decently. Sometimes you're not able to create a counter-spell quick enough to defend yourself against him.

Riddle’s group and himself are near the corner of the platform. All seemingly analyzing every breath he inhales and exhales. I finally hear the whoosh of a wand and a whiz of light fly past the platform. The glow from the spell lighting our faces for a millisecond. Nott quickly counters that spell and moves to cast his own. Magic flies across the platform, all of our eyes going back and forth like a ping-pong match. The Slytherin boy starts breaking a sweat. He’s only been able to get a couple of offensive spells in there, most of his plays spent throwing off Nott’s. If he doesn’t turn the battle soon, the outcome will become very clear.

It is a little less exciting since we only know a handful of spells. So whatever you know from your own studies you use in these duels. When we move up the years the class will become more serious and dangerous. Right now it’s just to teach us how to counter and cast quickly. The proper etiquette and movement. You use spells that you know, they aren’t supposed to harm someone. Either stun them, make them fly back, or disarm. Most of those spells require a little of a higher level, most of us not even knowing of its existence yet. So what’s mostly cast between competitors is a basic spell to exert force. That force should be aimed for the legs, or the wand to disarm that way. The way someone can win here is to make their knees or hands touch the floor, or disarm their wand. As I mentioned, it will get more intense as time goes by. We're only just starting 3rd year right now, a lot more charms will be learned later on.

I shake my head to get rid of any lingering thoughts. My attention goes right back to the duel taking place in front of me. Nott quickly aims a spell at the knees and manages to bring the other boy to his knees.

“Mr. Nott wins this duel! Please step off the platform, we will evaluate your performance.”

During the practice duels today, you watch it, think of ways to help the person improve, and point out things they might have done wrong. At the end, the professor picks people raising their hands to allow them to give their feedback. Participating is part of the grade you get in here. I personally prefer giving feedback then dueling. I’m not the best at casting, I do give out good defense spells though. That should mean something, I hope.

“Let’s start with Nott, does anyone have feedback for him?”

A couple of people spread apart raised their hands. One by one they all ask questions and give feedback. They mention his feet and posture when he stands. Arms fully stretched out where it would have been more flexible to bend it slightly. When he casts he shouldn’t be walking backward. They shortly switch to the other boy’s questions and feedback. The way he never gave himself the opening to cast an offensive spell often. He would move around his area a lot. Almost slipping off the stage during one of those movements. Tom and his group privately discussed with one another. They’re probably giving Nott their own feedback and suggestions privately.

“Now, Riddle I want you to come up and…,” he scans the room for another student. After some time he points his finger at me. “You.”

I could have had a smooth sailing class. I was so close to not having to go up there. My hands start sweating a bit, my anxiety jumbling my thoughts together. Riddle’s already up there and soon to be on his side of the platform. Taking his wand out and wandering his fingers over the design. I gulp, a big toad stuck in my throat. I wipe my hands on my robe and start up the stairs. Riddle seems as unbothered as ever. We bow, turn, then walk ten paces back. During this time I try predicting who will cast first. I don’t know him very well, I’ve also never seen him duel.

I take my dueling stance and wait for the signal to start. Hoping, praying, that I don’t embarrass myself. Slipping up is not allowed, not when going against him.

~////////////////𓆙////////////////~

Taglist:

@empath-bunny

[tinyboxxtink]

“Sharky” *Part 2*

Don’t hate me because Barba is kind of a dick right now. We all know he’s not-- but we need the drama. <3

Part 1

Part 3

Tag List:

@chasingeverybreakingwave

@gibbs274

@dumauier

@wanniiieeee

@objection-argumentative

@word-scribbless

@aprildecker-blog

---------

“So he actually asked you to dinner?” 

“Yeah, but it’s probably some weird tactic to get inside my head,”

“Is he cute?” 

“Why does that matter?”

“Honey it always matters.”

Alright, so you had one friend. One best friend. One very best friend that you’d known since law school. But nobody needed to know that.

“....Yeah, I’d say he’s pretty attractive,” You finally admitted as you reheated your leftovers.

“Oh my God you’ve had sex dreams about this man haven’t you?!” He squealed.

“HOW do you do that?!” You stared at the phone in disbelief.

“It’s a gift,” He laughed. “I can hear the lust in your voice,”

“Whatever,” You grabbed a beer from the fridge.

“So what are you going to wear?” 

“I don’t know, I’ll decide in the moment,” You sat down on your couch and started catching up on your shows with your food and beer.

“Oh no no no, you need to wear your silver dress with those platinum earrings I bought you for Christmas,”

“Seriously, Charles? Are you going to come over and do my hair and make up too?” You chuckled sarcastically as you shoved low mien in your face.

“Do you want me to?” 

“I’m hanging up now,”

“Wait wait wait,” He pleaded and you listened.

“Be nice to him, honey,” 

“I’m always nice,” You stated in an offended tone.

“You’re cordial. Be nice-- Smile, flirt. Have a good time,” You heard his sweet intentions through the phone; it was like he was actually being a caring best friend.

“You make it sound like a date,”

“Well that all depends if you fuck him after,” There he was.

“I’m really hanging up now,”

“Call me after!”

-----

You went with the silver dress and black pumps-- just because Charles had put the idea in your head, not because it was the outfit you looked best in. You stepped out of your Uber in front of the restaurant: 

“Forlini’s” You read out loud. “...This place better not be expensive,” 

You went inside and noticed Barba was already at the bar so you walked over to join him.

 “Hey, Sharky!” His greeting caused an eye roll from you. 

“Seriously can we drop the name? I’m a woman not a fish,” You took a bar stool next to him.

“...Well then you probably shouldn’t have worn that,” He nodded.

“Excuse me?”

“You look like a shark to me,” He gestured to your silver dress; it was tight on the top and kind of flowed down your legs, like a fish tail. You had never noticed it before, but him pointing it out made it suddenly glaringly obvious.

“Alright guppy, what are you drinking?” You smirked, slipping into the bar stool next to him.

“Guppy…” Now he rolled his eyes with a smile. “Scotch, neat,” 

“I’ll have what he’s having, only stronger,” You instructed the bartender, causing an even bigger eye roll from Barba.

“You’re something else, you know that?”

“Thank you,” You beamed proudly.

The bartender returned with your drink; you noticed that he was very young and very good looking. You slipped him a $20 with a sly smile. 

“Keep the change, handsome,” You gave him a wink. He looked between the two of you, confused as to why you’d be flirting shamelessly with him in front of Barba.

“We’re not together,” You said very loudly.

“Wow, don’t say it so eagerly,” 

“Hey I might need some stress relief after this interrogation, I’m just covering my bases,” You smirked, still eyeing the bartender.

“Is that what you think this is?”

“What else is a first date if not an interrogation?” You suddenly realized what you had said and to your dismay you saw Barba caught it too.

“Ah so this IS a date,” He smirked.

“..I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant--” You stumbled over your words as Rafael just smiled at you in amusement. 

“Just shut up and ask your questions, I know you have a list of them” You shook your head dismissively. 

“Not a list…” He nodded to the bartender for another round. “Alright well why did you choose to be a defense attorney?”

“Money,” You replied without a pause. 

“Money? Really?” He asked with a judgey tone. 

“Hey you try growing up dirt poor and see how much you appreciate having money,” You snapped.

“I did, and I do; but it doesn’t run my life,” He shook his head disapprovingly.

“It doesn’t run my life,” You knocked back the rest of your scotch, ready for the new one.

“Really? Then tell me, how do you pick your cases?” He raised an eyebrow.

“My boss gives them to me,” You didn’t see the big deal.

“Uh huh and how does he order them?” He was making a point, you knew he was.

“...By the biggest paycheck for the firm,” You finally admitted.

“Uh huh,” He nodded smugly, sipping his new scotch.

“Look Barba I already told you this, defense lawyers are unfeeling monsters. What else do you want me to say?” You scoffed. 

“Is that the only reason you became one?” He smirked at you.

“No, actually it’s not,” You replied as you sipped your own scotch.

“Really? Why else?” He raised his eyebrows curiously.

“Because any law student out of night school can defend a good guy,” You inched closer to his face. 

“Defending a bad guy is a challenge,” You pulled back and noticed he was still smirking, and he added an approving nod.

“Fair enough,” 

“Really?” You raised an eyebrow.

“I mean you make a good point,” He scanned you up and down. “Everybody loves a challenge,” 

You felt yourself blush as his eyes ran over you, your own eyes surveying his entire body. You would never admit it to anyone, but you did always have a thing for the ADA-- not like “doodle hearts in your notebook” thing, but when he’d do his crosses in court you’d always stare at his perfect ass in those chinos and wonder what it would be like to take a bite out of it. 

Some other days, particularly when he wore the black and pink suit, you’d imagine what it would be like to just shove him onto his little offensive desk and fuck him right there in the courtroom, with everyone watching. You were so lost in your own fantasies that you didn’t notice people approaching you-- 

“Rafa?” An all too familiar voice came from the side of the room. You turned to see Rafael’s rag tag bunch of misfit detectives staring at you.

“Olivia,” Rafael said softly like a kid caught out after curfew.

“So this is why you couldn’t come out with us, because you were taking HER out?” Olivia spat.

“Um excuse you, I’m taking HIM out,” You grabbed Rafael’s hand and put it on your knee.

“NOBODY is taking ANYBODY ‘out’,” Rafael snapped his hand back and gave you a dirty look. 

“Liv it’s just a friendly dinner, and I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to have this conversation,” He gave her those pathetic apologetic eyes, like a puppy who had just peed on the rug.

“Why do you care anyway, detective?” You asked innocently. You knew she had cream in her panties with his name on it, and you weren’t afraid to call her on it. 

“Excuse me?” She scoffed with a laugh. “I care because he’s my best friend, and he doesn’t need to be manipulated by you,”

“Really? Me manipulating him?” You smirked and stood up off your bar stool and got real close to her face. “Then why did he ask me out?”

Olivia stared in horror at you, then Barba, then threw up her hands and stomped off. Carisi, Rollins and Fin all muttered goodbyes and dashed out behind her.

“Why would you do that?!” He looked like he wanted to go after her, but he was staying to have it out with you.

“Why would I--? Are you serious, Barba?!” You continued standing, now crossing your arms. “You did this on purpose, didn’t you?”

“What?” He looked confused but you weren’t buying it.

“You asked me here on purpose,” You narrowed your eyes.

“Well obviously it was on purpose--” He tried playing it off.

“No no, don’t be cute. You asked me here with an agenda,” You inched closer to him.

“What? Oh come on Sharky not everyone is you, with your ulterior motives--” He glanced around nervously.

“MY ulterior--?! You asked me here to make your little work wife jealous!” You were making a scene now, but you didn’t care.

“What? I most certainly did NOT--” He tried defending himself.

“Then why did you ask me to come to the same restaurant you knew they were going to be at? I mean if you didn’t ‘want’ to be caught. I know you’re not that stupid,”

“I forgot,” He muttered softly.

“You FORGOT? Do you really think I’m that stupid? I’m not Olivia,” You crossed your arms again.

“DON’T talk about her,” He growled.

“Oh my god are-- are you on something?!” You threw your hands up. ��You clearly have a thing for that woman, and yet you asked me out to parade me in front of her, for why?” You threw your hands up in frustration. 

“I didn’t ask you out for that Y/N, I swear--” He rubbed the back of his neck.

“Then WHY did you ask me out?”

“I-I don’t know…” Now he turned those apologetic eyes on you, but you weren’t falling for it like his little detective.

“You’re fucking unbelievable, you know that?” Tears were forming in your throat against your wishes; you would not let this fucker see you have emotions.

“You know you offense lawyers, you sit up there on your moral high horses, judging all of us “bottom feeders”. But I would never fuck with anyone’s emotions or their heart, Barba. That’s just cruel,” 

“I thought you didn’t have a heart,” He was still going for the quips, he had some balls you’d give him that.

“Oh so that’s what this was,” You sucked back the tears as you tried to laugh it off. 

“You wanted to fuck with the big bad Sea Witch, see if she had a heart?”  You really couldn’t believe he was this vindictive. This whole time you thought, maybe....well, you didn’t know what. But you were clearly mistaken.

“No, I’m sorry I was just--” He stood up and tried to put his hand on your shoulder but you jerked away.

“Well guess what, Barba? You win! You made the shark cry. Are you happy?” You couldn’t hold the tears anymore as you yelled. 

“Y/N I’m sorry, I really am--” He tried going for your hand, but you slapped him across the face.

“Don’t follow me,” You warned him as you turned and stormed out of the restaurant.

How could you have been so wrong about him? Why did you even care?

[deltas-writing-corner]

Courtship: Respect

Fandom: Twisted Wonderland (Malleus x GN!reader)

Warnings:  Mentions and depictions of smoking/tobacco usage

Next chapter | AO3 version

Slight revisions and full version posted on: 5/4/2021

The alarm clock on your phone is loud and annoying, but it’s the only sound that will wake you up without fail so you can get a head start on your more demanding days, like today.

Groggy and neck a bit strained, a sign that you’ve slept on it wrong, you carefully push yourself up and off your bed. You come across your first hurdle of the day. A few wolf cubs had settled on your chest and your sides during the night. You try carefully to move them off of you and to the side of their mother, who has settled near your feet and isn’t afraid to growl or snap her jaw should you even think of shifting or moving away from her. Unfortunately, the pups seem determined to stick by your side despite your efforts. Luckily the pack’s alpha, Gunter, is settled right behind your head and acted as your pillow for the night. He must be why your neck feels stiff as hell.

You reach back and start petting behind his ear, rubbing into the bunch of dotted scars beneath his coarse hair. You feel his body stretch and shake as he wakes up as well. A small whine comes out of him as he gives out an enormous yawn. It makes you yawn as well.

“Ready to start the day?” you whisper to him.

He huffs with a bit of attitude as if to say, “Not really, but what choice do I have?”

You redirect his attention to his pups, preventing you from sitting up without disturbing everyone else. With silent understanding, he removes himself from underneath your head and carefully steps over one of his brothers, who has graciously allowed you to use him as an armrest somewhere during the night. After another good morning stretch, Gunter begins the slow and steady process of picking the pups up from the scruffs off their necks and setting them elsewhere on your bed.

While he does this, you grab your phone and do a quick sweep of all your notifications. You have a few emails, one a weekly newsletter about current and future school events, most of it spam. You have a couple of dozen messages from Ace and Deuce detailing an argument over whether the former ate the latter’s piece of strawberry shortcake they were saving for after dinner. Apparently, they thought to ask you to be their mediator since it was clear they weren’t going anywhere arguing and pointing fingers back and forth at each other.

Unfortunately for them, they messaged you right after you conked out. You were exhausted yesterday, having to deal with an especially rambunctious and mischievous Grim. You were also scrambling to gather the reading materials needed for one of your classes before the other students can snag them. The most recent and urgent incident is figuring out what to do now that the only generator that powers up all of Ramshackle is going out or outright failing to even start up at all. You also have a decently sized garden to tend to, and the next large harvest is today. Once everything has been properly collected, washed, and either stored away in your pantry or given to Sam so he can sell and make a profit on your behalf and his own (it’s a 60/40 split and you had to fight tooth and nail for that 60), you have to replant everything once again after you’ve tilled the soil…

To say that there’s a lot on your plate is an understatement.

Free from your furry prison, you’re finally able to sit up and move your limbs freely. Something slightly damp presses against your bare shoulder, calling for your attention. Gunter, still clearly tired (expected of anyone, human or wolf, having to wake up at six o’clock in the morning), is now awaiting proper payment for his services.

“I got some dried venison in the kitchen,” you offer. The way his one good eye pops wide open and his tail begins to rapidly wag, the deer jerky will suffice.

You give the top of his head one last rub before standing up and heading straight for your bathroom to take a quick shower. Since the availability of electricity has been scarce lately, so is the availability of heating throughout the dorm. Unlike the ghosts, who can’t differentiate between hot and cold (unless it’s magically sourced), you can. Unlike the ghosts who are already dead, you will die in this late winter cold. Grim has better control of his blue flames compared to when you first met him, so he can now essentially be his own heater. He seemed a bit too comfortable keeping himself warm and letting you freeze to death, considering you’re the only reason he’s enrolled in this school.

You make do with what you have and your situation. Even when you gathered all the untorn and clean blankets and piled them on top of you last night, the cold still found its way underneath your cocoon. Gunter, the leader of a small bunch of wolves you had been taking care of during your first few weeks in Twisted Wonderland, must have seen you struggling to stave off the cold and settled himself next to you during the night followed by his brother, his sister, and finally Gunter’s mate and their pups.

Of course, with three full-grown wolves and four chubby wolf babies as your immediate heat sources, you overheated in no time and had to throw off all your covers and strip down to your underclothes in the middle of the night since your pajamas had quickly gotten soaked in sweat (and most definitely covered in their thick fur). A cold shower is just what you need to clean up after a long night drenched in sweat.

You also need to clean your sheets, but without electricity, your washer and dryer are out of order for the time being…

Dammit.

Cold showers suck, but once the ice-cold water hits your back, it woke you the hell up. You probably spent only five minutes in there before you quickly rinsed off and got out because of how unbearable the ice water was.

Once you’re properly toweled dried, you head to your closet and change. You put on clothes you don’t mind getting covered in dirt and sweat; a simple wool sweatshirt and some overalls lined with thick fleece. You also put on a pair of knitted crew socks and secure them to your leg with a pair of garters.

Right as you snap the final metal clasp on the knotted fabric, you feel a familiar bump on your shoulder. Gunter is giving you his best pleading face he can manage. Most people likely wouldn’t fall for it, what with the many scars littering across his body and face, making him look scary rather than cute. You feel a little tug in your heart. Luckily, you’re all dressed up and ready to start your day, so you quickly straighten up and usher him downstairs to give him his well-deserved treat. You grab your phone before you exit your room so you can peruse it on your way.

As you read over old texts and useless emails, a new notification comes in. It’s another message. As surprised as you are to receive a message so early in the morning (Ace and Deuce are likely still snoring and drooling into their pillows at this hour), it is the sender of the text that makes your slowed strides halt completely.

Good morning. I hope you had a pleasant and well-deserved night of rest. I’m currently getting ready to head over to the Ramshackle dorm to help you with your harvesting, as I promised. The coat you’ve made and gifted me during the holidays also fits perfectly and is by far the most comfortable piece of clothing I now own.

Thank you again for your most generous gift. I will inform you when I have arrived.

Yours truly,

Malleus Draconia

You can’t help but smack your palm on your forehead. You’re not annoyed or exasperated, it’s quite the opposite, actually. You’re happy that Malleus’s charm can somehow manifest even within a text message. In fact, this isn’t the first time he’s sent you a message formatted and written like a formal letter. If someone were to look at the small messaging history between you two, they’d see that a great majority of it is just Malleus sending you these long strings of text. They would also find your messages, or rather, your poor and embarrassing attempts at mimicking his language and style (he says he gets a laugh out of them, so maybe they’re as bad as you think). There’s also always a follow-up message, gently reminding and encouraging him to relax and not worry about offending you for speaking casually for you.

His response is always the same, and it makes your stomach feel strangely fuzzy.

You have earned my respect, now I must strive to earn yours.

It’s only been a little over a month since he dropped the bombshell that was his desire for your friendship to evolve into a proper, romantic relationship. To say it surprised you is another understatement. You were thoroughly flabbergasted once your mind finally registered his words as genuine. To hear him say “I love you” and direct such a powerful statement towards you was truly the last thing you expected since arriving in this strange world.

But through all the outer uncertainties there was one thing you were certain of, your inner uncertainties. Malleus is a dear friend of yours. Even amongst Ace or Deuce, two individuals who have been with you since the beginning and nearly every overblot incident that has come your way, Malleus holds a special place in your heart as your dearest friend.

But a friend is all he’s ever been in your mind. There was truly never an instance where you pondered or even held some amount of desire or expectation that your friendship could evolve into something more. You felt like a total prick during the end of his confession, asking him if you could sit on his words for a while and come back to him when you have a more certain and final answer to give. Watching the hope and nervousness in his eyes turn into one of pure and utter sadness and even embarrassment, yet he willed himself to conceal his heartbroken emotions back for your sake. It hurt like hell. What was supposed to be an exciting and relaxing end-of-winter-break party in Scarabia’s dorm (and an apology party for Jamil’s actions against you), turned awkward. Neither of you stayed any longer once you went your separate ways.

Despite what had happened, when you received a proper smartphone (and a proper phone plan to boot) as a gift for Christmas, one of the first things you did was transfer all your old contacts into the new device. The first person you messaged was Malleus, wanting to check in on him after your last encounter and to wish him a happy holiday. He answered back in a matter of minutes, much to your surprise. While he’s not the most tech-savvy, your major concern was whether he was holding up well after what happened and if you guys were going to remain as friends. You went on a whole tangent, trying your best to not sound so desperate and ensure that your response is in no way his fault because it most certainly is not. If there’s anyone to blame, it’s you.

Gunter suddenly tenses up. His fur instinctually puffs out, trying to appear bigger in anticipation of whatever threat he’s detected in the kitchen. Metallic clanking and clashing come from underneath the kitchen island where you store all the pots, pans, and heavy-duty appliances. A loud and harsh crash riles up Gunter enough that he feels the need to growl at whatever is underneath the cupboard.

You quietly move past him and wave your arm, signaling him to move back a bit. He listens to your orders and takes a few slow steps back. You position yourself on the side of the cabinet, fingertips pressing onto the top of the door to prepare to open.

“On my mark,” you whisper to Gunter. “One... Two…Three!”

You yank the door open, and Gunter quickly launches himself towards the potential threat. Though, not a second passes before he’s suddenly skidding across the floor, trying to immediately halt himself. He barely avoids hitting his head against the wood and giving himself a nasty bruise. When you ask him what’s wrong, he sticks his head into the cabinet and pulls out the apparent intruder.

It’s Blossom, a young fawn you rescued from the rose gardens of the Heartslaybul dorm. It was during the preparation of the unbirthday party near the start of the school year that subsequently led to dorm leader Riddle’s overblot. Cater assigned Grimm, Ace, Deuce, and yourself to paint the roses red with him. On top of rose painting duty, Cater was also on the lookout for a supposed ‘rose thief’ who had been snagging some roses from their garden right from under their noses. The scoundrel they were looking for was the fawn before you. From the way he still wobbled on his feet, he wasn’t even a month old when you initially rescued him. He’s lucky you found him when you did. His front leg was caught in a rusted and dull, but full-sized bear trap they set up in case the thief was a wild animal.

“What are you doing in there?” you ask the little troublemaker. “Probably trying to find a snack to chew on, huh?”

Blossom thrashes, trying to break free from Gunter’s hold on his scruff. He of course fails, but not without giving out a distressed scream and trying to plead for forgiveness by giving you his best innocent look. You shake your head before looking up at the small clock hung up on the wall above the refrigerator. It runs on battery so you have to worry about the time no longer being correct when the house lacks power.

It’s 6:15, still way too early. You tell Gunter to let go of Blossom and he does it without argument. Blossom quickly runs up to you, using your own body as a foothold to jump up into your arms. Once you have a hold of him, he bombards your face with little licks and nuzzles of his snout. While this action is normal and you would gladly accept it, you know better than to think it’s not the fawn’s attempts at trying to distract you from his misdeed.

“If you’re looking for the sugared flower petals, you won’t have any luck down there,” you tell him. He immediately stops his loving ministrations and gives out a disappointingly snort before relaxing in your arms.

You chuckle and give him a few apologetic pets on the head as you walk over to one of the upper cupboards and rummage around the various jars, trying to locate the dried venison for Gunter. You also grab a jar placed far in the back with the aforementioned candied rose petals Blossom was most definitely looking for. The moment you open the jar and the heavy scent of sweetness and floral whiffs in the air, Blossom begins to excitedly thrash about in your arms and tries to stick his head into the container. Luckily, the small nubs on his head, his newly budding antlers, stop him from reaching too deep.

You spend the next few minutes feeding your companions their early morning treat. The doorbell rings as you let Blossom lick the last specks of sugar off of your now damp palm. After rinsing your hands off and drying them, you head to the door. You open it and take in the sight of a newly arrived Malleus, dressed in a simple black dress shirt and a pair of loose-fitting linen pants you made for him when he expressed discomfort over his PE uniform the last time he helped you in your garden.

“Good morning!” you greet him as brightly as you can without being too loud.

“A good morning to you as well,” he greets back. Unlike you, who is still groggy and slow, he seems properly energized despite the time. You’re jealous. You’ve been waking up at the crack of dawn for years, at least a decade now, yet your body isn’t used to the early routine. Though compared to the hundreds of years Malleus has on you, you probably won’t show any sign of improvement until your hairs are gray.

“Have you eaten yet?” Malleus asks.

You shake your head. “The electricity is out, so I can’t use the stove or open the fridge too often.”

“Crowley still hasn’t replaced your generator?”

“No,” you frown. “Every time I try to bring it up he either gives an outlandish excuse or just flat out tells me I don’t need a new one.”

His eyebrows pressed together, clearly upset as you are at the headmaster’s failure as your caretaker. You reassure him it’s fine. Everyone in the dorm has been saving money for emergencies like this, and it just so happens that the money you’ll make for selling the produce you collect today will bring in just enough to buy a brand new generator. You’ll be out of electricity for another week, two at most, but have enough firewood and nonperishable foods to last until then.

“You should at least make yourself some coffee,” Malleus urges. “It’s bad to work on an empty stomach. You've said so yourself.”

“I will once Grim and the ghosts wake up,” you reassure. “For now, let’s head to the back and get started. There’s a lot to harvest, so the sooner we start, the sooner we’ll finish up.”

He’s clearly unhappy at your dismal of his concerns. You know that being so nonchalant towards a fae is rude, but you don’t want to worry him with your own issues. You also have no desire to eat or drink, not this early in the morning at least. If you tell him as much, he’ll probably freak out like he did last time, thinking you were unwell and forcing you to lie in bed for the rest of the day.

Yes, you could have pushed back and argued that you were fine, but it’s very hard to tell him “no” when his intentions are purely out of concern for your well-being. Better to let him hover over you and see that you’re fine than to leave him stewing in his anxieties in silence.

“What have you been growing this season?” Malleus asks as he tugs on the loaned gardening gloves you handed him.

“The usual spread. Some potatoes, cabbage, and carrots. The only fresh additions I planted are some peas and kale. Oh, and broccoli!”

“Did the crops hold well when you were gone?”

“They did thanks to the ghosts. The heat from the fire faeries around the campus also made them easier to protect from the cold,” you explain. “I should probably give them some type of exotic wood as a little thank you gift.”

“You can never go wrong with a bit of mahogany,” Malleus says as he ties back his hair.

You hand him a straw hat, one that you weaved to accommodate for his black horns. “I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you.”

“Your welcome,” he smiles at you before turning back to your garden. “So where shall we start first?”

“I’ll work on picking the cabbage heads. You can cut off the pea pods and we’ll go from there.”

“Very well. I’ll follow your lead.”

It’s 8 a.m. You know this because Ace and Deuce are woken up at this hour by Riddle and one of the first things they do is bombard you with text messages which usually forces you to turn your phone on silent mode. Despite it being late winter, you’re already working up a sweat from the repetitive and demanding motions of picking and carrying around baskets full of vegetables and cleaning them. Malleus is no better, hand continuously raising to his face to wipe away the constant wetness clinging to his forehead. You know he’s not used to manual labor like you are, so you try to bring him a pail of water every so often so he can stay properly hydrated.

“Oh my, you’re already up?”

You turn around to see who’s speaking to you and see one of the ghosts that live with you and Grim in Ramshackle floating towards you.

“Good morning!” you greet him. “Did you need something?”

“No no,” he shakes his head. “I just came to check up on my bees and saw you already hard at work.”

The ghost (Franklin is his name, but you all call him Frankie for short by his insistence), affectionately ruffles your hair with his large white palm. He’s one of the tamer ghosts, but he’s still capable of pulling a prank on you or his fellow housemates now and then. You and he have been cultivating and maintaining a small beehive since October, but he does most of the work and maintenance since he has more experience in the ways of beekeeping than you from when he was alive.

Frankie does a quick once over of the garden, his scanning gaze doubling back at seeing Malleus carefully rinse a couple of heads of broccoli.

“How long has he been here?”

“Since 6:30,” you answer back. “Why?”

“No one gets up that early unless it’s for someone they fancy,” he says rather nonchalantly, but the way he quickly side-eyes you show that he’s clearly talking about you. You try your best to appear unaffected and give a “Is that right?” type of hum, but your efforts are in vain since he just laughs at you.

“If even you know, that means he’s got it bad.”

You say nothing back because you honestly don’t know what to say, or if you should. You’re content to just go back to plucking potatoes out from the ground, but Frankie doesn’t seem to want to leave you alone just yet. He asks you to come with him to the greenhouse where the hive is being kept. The small glass enclosure also houses some flowers and herbs you use for cooking or medicine.

You quickly close the door behind you once you enter, reveling in the warmer air that hits your face. While Frankie lights his cigar and gets a heavy cloud of smoke going (his personal method of keeping the bees calm), he has you open the top and carefully pull out the panels one by one while he checks for any signs of a decaying hive and ensures the queen is alive and healthy. One of your initial worries about beekeeping was getting stung, but Frankie reassured you it’ll only happen if you purposely upset the bees or fail to care for the hives consistently. Now, you gladly let the buzzing honeybees wander around your bare skin.

As Frankie pulls out his cigar from between his lips and taps off the ashes into the respective ashtray, he looks over at you and asks, “Is everything ok?”

You give him a confused expression as you snap the cover for the hive back into place. “I’m fine?”

“You sure? Because if you ask me, you don’t seem like it.”

“I mean, I already have a pile of schoolwork I need to finish and a rundown dorm to take care of. I’m as ok as anyone in my position can be-“

“I’m not talking about any of that,” he interrupts. “I’m talking about you. Forget about Grim and your studies. How are you doing?”

“I’m fine,” you answer again.

“Are you sure?”

Well, when he puts it that way, even he must be able to see that you’re clearly not doing alright. In fact, you haven’t been alright since you were literally kidnapped and held against your will in the Scarabia dorm. Luckily everything worked out fine for everyone else, but not so much for you. You’ve noticed that your appetite is waning and you wake up multiple times during the night because you don’t feel safe, even in your own room.

Malleus’s confession unfortunately was another wrench being thrown at you. With your hands already so full of this and that, you’re struggling to figure out what needs a priority and which issues you need to either drop entirely or find someone trustworthy to take care of it in your stead. It’s hard to ask people for help when they either find a convenient reason to say no or you feel as if you can’t trust them to do something as simple as watering your plants. The only person you feel you can trust and ask for help is Malleus, and things aren’t exactly as they were between the two of you.

“Talk to me kiddo,” Frankie prods. “What’s been eating at you?”

He lifts his ashtray and makes to snuff out his cigar so he can focus on speaking to you, but you hastily reach over and stop him. You take the smoke from him and bring it up to your lips and puff a few grey clouds. Strangely enough, it tastes rather pleasant, floral, and creamy. You didn’t expect to taste like this because of the way it smells, like soil that was just freshly rained on.

“Sorry,” you hand it back to him. “I haven’t eaten and I’m practically running on fumes.”

“That’s alright,” he says, handing it back to you. “You look like you need it more than me.”

Malleus carefully blows small bits of green fire onto his freezing fingertips, trying to warm them up after being drenched in the icy water from the water pump. He looks over his shoulder, over the stalks of peas, towards you. You’re still in the greenhouse and frantically moving your lips. He can see your eyes are glistening with a fresh layer of… tears? You don’t allow a single drop to get past your lids, wiping them just at the last second before they can pass over the threshold.

He’s only ever seen you cry one other time, when he came to your rescue in Scarabia over the break. He initially thought he frightened you with his aggressive display of magic. Once the dust settled and the blot on Jamil was expunged, no one was more shocked than he was when you boldly ran straight towards him and jumped into his arms. It was all he ever wanted, what his mind dreamed of every single time he closed his eyes. He could no longer brush off the fluttering in his stomach as the mere excitement of making and spending time with his first genuine friend. He was determined to keep his newfound affections for you with him under lock and key, not willing to risk ruining your close-knit friendship with his selfish and potentially one-sided desires.

Your desperate embrace, your toughie exterior lowering to that of a sniveling and shaking human, gave Malleus the impression that the only reason you would display such vulnerability before him was that you reciprocated his sentiments. It gave him a sense of confidence he never knew he was lacking, usually so sure of himself most other times. It made his chest burn with an aching desire to say “to hell with it all” and spill his heart right then and there.

When you extended the invitation you received from Kalim to him, he saw it as his proper opportunity to let his affections be known. He was upset (according to Lilia, more than usual) that he had to take Sebek and Silver along with him for the usual security, but he was determined to get them distracted long enough so he can pull you aside and confess to you without fear of interruption or letting his personal affairs be known to anyone else, at least, for as long as he can keep something so monumental under wraps.

As a prince, he has been taught to look at the long term for each of his decisions, as they carry substantial weight. The long term of pursuing a relationship with you meant having to deal with the prejudices and stigma against humans that still live within the hearts of his people. For once in his life, he didn’t want to think like an heir. As he watches you continue to talk to one of Ramshackle’s ghosts with increasing frustration, he realizes his love utterly blinded him back then. The only long-term his rose-tinted mind could comprehend was of the happy moments he had long conjured in his head becoming a reality.

You didn’t explicitly reject him, however; he knows your behavior well enough to know that once his feelings were laid bare before you, you would not take them into your arms and hand yours over in return. Arms crossed and avoidance of eye contact, you do this when you’re nervous or unsure, sometimes both. He held onto the self-indulgent hope that you’d show him what you look like when flustered. Perhaps you’d stutter?

You did stutter when you spoke up, but they were not the words that he wanted, that he thought he was, going to hear.

“Malleus...I’m so sorry…”

“Ah, you’re here early!”

“It’s just that…I don’t think I can…”

“Hey! Are you listening to me? You better not be ignoring me on purpose!”

“It’s not that I’m telling you I don’t feel the same way, but I can’t exactly say that I do. It’s just... I’ve never- “

“Tsu-no-ta-rou!” Grim’s shrill voice, still a bit riddled with drowsiness, still pierce Malleus’s eardrums and nearly causes him to drop the vegetable in his hand. “Pay attention to me when I’m speaking!”

“Quiet,” he growls at the monster. “If you need your master, they’re in the greenhouse. Though, you might want to come back another time.”

“Huh? Why’s that?”

Malleus lifts Grim from the back of his fuzzy robe (you must have made it and gifted it to him during the holidays) and points to you. Frankie has one of his translucent hands on your shoulder, squeezing it comfortingly now and then while he speaks. You were no longer wiping your face so furiously, allowing your tears to fall and drip off of your jaw and wet your shirt as you listened to your fellow dorm resident.

“What happened? Did you smash all the tomatoes again?” Grim cranes his neck to look at Malleus accusingly.

“No, I didn’t. Those are out of season.”

“Maybe it’s about what happened at Scarabia,” Grim muses. “They haven’t been sleepin’ too good since we came back, y’know?”

Malleus nearly drops the cat. “They haven’t?”

“Nah,” the cat answers, far too casually and dismissively for the fae’s liking.

“This is news to me,” Malleus says, almost whispering to himself. He’s sad, almost offended, at the fact that you haven’t told him you’ve been having some difficulties this whole time. You normally keep him up to date with your personal life. He’s even more offended once he realizes that you’ve been worrying and reassuring him that your friendship with him isn’t ruined after what’s happened.

There’s a small voice in the back of his mind, conniving and twisted, that feeds into his already prevalent belief that your unwillingness to share with him your personal problems anymore is a sign that he hasn’t earned your respect. It’s a ridiculous explanation, but no amount of reassuring from either you or himself is going to stop his Mind from asking such a multi-sided question. Surely, if you thought admirably of him, you’d continue to allow him to bear witness to your moments of weakness and vulnerability. He feels close to you, connected to you in a way he’s never felt. He can be slow and downright miss some references to your jokes and behavior. You always put on a face of understanding, but is he so lost that your patience has worn paper-thin?

Are his feelings for you truly one-sided? Is he still jumping to conclusions too soon and just needs to give you more time and space? Did he just set a course for a ruined friendship or could his hastiness have been a fruitful gamble?

If it’s not iron that kills him, it’s the uncertainty within his heart and mind.

A shrill whistle pierces through the air and Malleus’s eardrums. Grim hisses at the sudden noise and the hairs on his neck stand up. Even Frankie and you can hear and turn your heads towards the source despite still being in the middle of a conversation. The one who whistled was another one of the ghosts who live in Ramshackle. Johnathan is his name, usually shortened to Johnny. His sunken cheekbones make him look unassuming, but you’ve rightly warned Malleus never to turn your back on that one for too long. It’s a miracle that you can keep up with all their shenanigans.

“I got the generator to start up and made some coffee!” Johnny happily announces. “Come get it while it and the dorm are nice and warm!”

“I’ll have a cup or two, so long as there’s a ton of cream and sugar!” Grim says whilst smiling. “And I ain’t skimping this time on the sugar!”

“You better if you know what’s good for you,” you sternly say, now out of the greenhouse along with Frankie. “We’re short on sugar and I’m not stocking up till next weekend.”

“Whaaaat?!” Grim exclaims, his lower jaw almost reaching the floor. “Since when did you become such a cheapskate?”

Everyone, including Malleus, did a sharp intake of breath as soon as the words passed the cat’s mouth. Everyone turns their head towards you, awaiting your reaction to Grim’s comment. This isn’t the first time Grim has gotten lippy with you and, given his nature as a mischievous little monster (a common trait between Ramshackle’s residents, Malleus is now noticing), it won’t be his last no matter how badly you scare or pull a fast one under his clawed feet. Even when your face is all puffy and wet with semi-dried tears, the look of “oh you’re in it now” is still so panic-inducing to everyone, ghosts, and feline alike. To the sole Fae present, he thinks of you as nothing short of adorable and wants nothing more than to wipe your messy face clean.

“Well, if you want more sugar there is one way you can get some more.”

“W-W-What is it?” Grim says, pudgy body shaking and sinking into the comfort and small safety of his fuzzy robe.

You approach him and bend down to grab him by the back of his neck, lifting him so he’s at your eye level before deadpanning, “Get a job, Make some money, and then buy your own.”

Once you set Grim down, he scrambles back into the home with an almost comical amount of fear in his eyes. He screams about how he’s never getting a job even if it kills him and his continued determination to find the small money vault you have hidden around the dorm and spend it all on canned tuna. Johnny, Frankie, and you all give a unison chant of good luck to him before he disappears completely.

“Has he made any progress in his search?” Malleus asks.

“Our money vault isn’t even in the house, so no,” Johnny answers, resulting in you and Frankie cackling and high-five one another.

With the power back on, you announce that it was time for a well-deserved break. It’s your turn to make breakfast and you immediately begin to ask everyone for their preferences. Frankie cuts you off and insists he take over your duties for the day. You normally would protest and insist to whoever was offering to cover for you it wasn’t a problem for you at all. “I enjoy doing [insert chore], so it’s fine!” is your usual go-to reasoning, but not this time.

Malleus notices the way you make to protest as usual, but you quickly back down and just let Frankie go ahead inside to take over for you. In normal Ramshackle fashion, Frankie mentions the cigar you were puffing and waving around earlier and says that you owe him another one, particularly an artisanal one that he’s recently read about in the local newspaper and has been aching to try.

“You got any more highly specific goods you want me to fight tooth and nail for?” you sneer.

“No, just the cigar will do,” he says before turning around to head back inside. Before he can close the door behind him all the way he pulls it back and says, “If you get it sometime this week I’ll buy a new bag of sugar.”

You whisper an impressive string of curses under your breath. Malleus has to restrain the urge to laugh at your colorful vocabulary.

“In that case, I hope your schedule is free tomorrow night. I’ll have it by then.”

Frankie gives you a thumbs up before heading back inside. Once the door behind him clicks shut, you turn towards Malleus and he physically feels his body shift from somewhat relaxed to stiff and proper. You notice this and crinkle your nose a bit, something to do when you find something endearing or as a way of silently giggling. Malleus watches with such an unnecessary amount of focus as you reach up to adjust his straw hat and wipe a bit of dirt off the collar of his shirt.

“I’m sorry for leaving you hanging back there,” you say as you pick off a stray leaf that somehow got tangled in his dark locks. “I’m also sorry you had to see me crying like that. I’ve just been so tired lately.”

There it is again. That damn twisting ache right in his heart.

“It’s fine,” he reassures you. “But if it isn’t too rude of me to ask, is your lack of sleep really all that’s wrong with you?”

You give out a long sigh. “I’m guessing Grim told you a bit of what’s been happening since winter break?”

“He has.”

Your arms cross and the ground suddenly becomes more interesting. You’re unsure, but the way your eyebrows press together is a sign that you’re conflicted. Malleus feels his frostbitten hands accumulate a layer of sweat as you silently mull over your thoughts. Despite the pain and hesitance in his heart, he wills himself to grasp you by the arm and pull you into an awkward hug. He knows it’s not exactly what you might need at the moment, and he was fully preparing you to push him away. He’s relieved when you bring your arms around his torso and reciprocate the embrace.

“I’m tired,” you sigh

“You haven’t been resting well, so it makes sense.“

“No,” you shake your head, the tips of your hair tickling Malleus’s neck. “It’s not just a lack of sleep that’s making me feel exhausted. After what happened with Scarabia, especially with Jamil, I don’t feel safe anymore.”

“Are you afraid?” he asks. To think of you as fearful is an entirely foreign concept for him when you’ve only ever been confident and certain of yourself since the first time he met you.

“Yeah, I am,” you admit without skipping a beat.

Considering what you told him, Malleus thinks your fear is justified. You have no defense against magic…

He fills a strain in his neck as his entire body suddenly seized up. You notice this and pull away to ask him what’s wrong. “Nothing,” he quickly dismisses, but you don’t let him go silent on you.

“If,” he hesitates. He’s thinking too rashly already, yet he’s still so compelled to act upon his thoughts. “Should anyone attempt to do you harm, I swear upon my name and title that I will do whatever it takes to protect you.”

He means every word, but you seem to take it far too casually than he would have liked. You press your face against his shoulder and laugh against his skin, your breath bringing him some much-needed temporary warmth. Such an ordinary action, yet it causes another pang within his heart. It settles next to the one that arose before, but he bites his tongue and endures it for your sake.

“Maybe you could play that electric violin for whoever comes after me,” you jest.

As embarrassing as it is to hear that you know about that incident (he’ll have to reprimand Lilia for telling you about that), he can’t help but laugh along with you. If making a bunch of teenagers’ foam from the mouth amuses you, then so be it.

“Thank you for offering to get your hands dirty for my sake,” you say. “That’s one thing I respect about you. You take care of the people you care for.”

His body goes still once again. “Is that right?” is all his mind can wrap around and say.

“Yes, oh Wise and Great Lord Malleus. I do, in fact, respect you.”

He cringes at that title. It’s something he has heard Sebek try to enforce you to refer to Malleus as, which you never do purely so you can get a rise out of his loyal guard. Before he can ask you to never call him that again, a bunch of howl’s ring out, and the two of you pull away from each other. The wolf’s howling is usually a sign that food is ready, which you seem rather eager to get to as you interlock your arm with his and drag him inside with you.

He looks back at his basket of still dirty vegetables. “What about-“

“It’s alright! I’m not throwing a fuss over a few broccoli heads!”

Crispy bacon, over easy and scrambled eggs, and a mountain of sizzling hash browns. Once everyone grabs a plate and sits down at the dining table (Malleus sticks close to you, hoping he can sit next to you), they grab whatever pieces of food they want in whichever quantity. Somewhere in the next room over, a faint melody plays through the speaker of an old record player. The vintage singer has a rather cheeky attitude in her vocals but with the accompanying music, it all comes together harmoniously. It’s perfect for a rather excitable breakfast.

It seems you never told the ghosts too many details about your sudden disappearance during the break. You downplay the true extent of your dilemma as you willingly giving your time and effort to help a desperate Jamil figure out what was causing his normally kind dorm leader to have a sudden personality switch. The ghosts listen carefully, and as you gradually get to the big climax that is Jamil’s betrayal and overblot, followed by Malleus’s sudden appearance, they’re all practically hanging on the edge of their seats. Your tale even intrigues the wolves and Blossom. They gather and settle near the legs of your chair, ushering you to continue your story by whining and scratching your ankle.

You don’t exaggerate Malleus’s part in your tale, something he greatly appreciates. You tell them how things happened just as they did: Grey clouds suddenly covering the sky and the occasional peak of lightning through their fogginess. Just when it seems like Jamil has the upper hand and is going to put an end to Grim and you, as well as Jade, Floyd, and Azul of Octavinelle, Malleus appears out of nowhere and effortlessly zaps the blot right out of the vice dorm leader of Scarabia.

“That deserves some praise,” Benjamin, the third of your ghostly residents, raises his half-filled mug of coffee and extends it towards the middle of the table. “To Malleus!”

Everyone, including you and Grim, raises your glasses and repeats his chant. “To Malleus!”

“To me, I suppose,” Malleus half-heartedly raises his own cup. “It really wasn’t much effort, or any praise really.”

He catches you looking at him in his peripheral and he feels a lump form in this throat that he immediately swallows. “I simply did what I believed you would have done for me if our positions were reversed.”

“Well, you’re not wrong there,” you say after swallowing a hefty mouthful of scrambled eggs. “But it’s nice knowing you have my back. It makes me feel safe.”

“Safe?” Malleus is surprised to hear you say this, considering what you told him earlier. “I make you feel safe?”

Now it’s your turn to be surprised. “Y-Yeah. I guess you do.”

“You guess?”

“You do,” you say, more definitively this time. “I promise. If you didn’t you’d know.”

He can’t help but laugh. “I can only imagine what interacting with you would be like then.”

“Probably not that good, or not at all. I steer clear of people I don’t particularly like.”

His eyebrows raise in intrigue as he sips his now lukewarm coffee. “What makes you dislike someone?”

“I dislike people I have no respect for,” you say casually. Malleus thinks you might be joking or poking fun at him, but how you take the time to look up to him while you busy yourself with feeding Gunter a few bits of bacon clearly means you’re trying to tell him something secretly. It’s definitely something along the lines of, “I don’t know where this mindset of me not respecting you came from, but it’s a load of bullshit and you need to get that thought out of your head.”

Even within his head, your language is still so vulgar and blunt. Only you would talk to him in such a rude manner.

But he respects that part about you.

[haikyuu-appreciation-club]

•Class Fight•

Terushima x F!Reader

warnings: language + violence

genre: fluff + a lil bit of angst

word count: 2.6k

———————————————————————

The sound of volleyball’s slamming against the floor echoed throughout the gym. The boys of Johzenji’s volleyball club were currently practicing for an upcoming game with Karasuno Highschool. None of them were particularly interested in practice but it was something to occupy their after school schedules so they attended none the less. Currently, half of the boys were on one side of the net practicing their spike. The other half were on the opposite side practicing receiving the spikes that were being sent over. Terushima stepped up to receive a spike when the door of the gym flew open. There in the doorway stood an out of breath Kazuma hunched over with his hands on his knees. An angry voice caused him to straighten up.

“ How many times have i told you about being late to practice you idiot!” Misaki spat while gripping her clipboard in frustration.

Despite the eyes boring into his sweaty figure, Kazuma spoke between breaths,

“Courtyard.......fight.......Y/N” he managed to get out before slouching against the wall.

Terushima’s eyes widened at the mention of his significant other’s name. He immediately dropped his form and sprinted out of the gym, yelling an apology to everyone while he was still within earshot. This wasn’t the first time you got into a fight. Although it didn’t happen particularly often, you didn’t mind getting physical with people when necessary. Terushima had known that, hell he practically knew everything about you by now. 

You and Terushima had met your first year of middle school. He had been carelessly running through the hallways with some of his friends. You on the other had had just left your classroom, irritated that you had to be held from lunch just to get a pointless scolding from your teacher. Both of you had not been paying attention to your surroundings while traveling down the narrow walkway and ended up colliding. You two ended in an awkward position to say the least. You were laying uncomfortably on the cold concrete while Terushima’s arms were on either side of you, holding himself up, with your legs intertwined. You looked up at the boy, cheeks dusted with red due to the little space between you two and a scowl which softened when he returned your gesture with an award winning grin,

“Hey you’re pretty cute! Probably even cuter with a smile though.” 

He lifted one of his hands while balancing himself on the other and poked the middle of your forehead. Normally you would’ve been pretty irritated with this gesture but you let out a laugh instead. You swatted his hand away as he laughed right along with you. You smirked,

“You aren’t too bad yourself.”

It was now his turn to blush. He pushed himself off of you and got to his feet. He held a hand out to you and you gratefully took it, allowing him to lift you up off the ground. You dusted off your skirt and thanked him. He just smiled and nodded. You were about to continue your walk to the cafeteria until you felt a tug at your wrist. You turned around and looked down to find Terushima gripping you're blazer. You looked up at him as he spoke,

“You wanna come eat lunch with me and my friends?”

 A smile spread across your face as you nodded eagerly. His eyes lit up as he began to pull you in the direction of the others. Before you reached the group of his friends he turned to you once again,

“By the way, the name’s Yūji Terushima!”

“Y/N L/N”

Terushima kept running until he reached the courtyard. There he found a large group of students bunched up in a circle. From the middle of the group he heard your projected voice mixed with another’s. He pushed through the crowd, mumbling what he meant to be words of politeness but it never actually reached anyone’s ears, since they were currently submerged in the scene unfolding in front of them. When he finally reached the middle, he understood the hold you had on their interest. You were currently on top of a girl, harshly pinning her wrists to the ground as you screamed in her face. Your face and body were dusted with bruises and you were sporting a bloody nose. The girl underneath you looked a little more on the unlucky side. She had a nasty black eye and cuts and bruises were scattered across her body. She had tears in her eyes and a scowl on her face as she shrunk back with each word you spit at her. Terushima sensed that if he let this go on any longer you were sure to get expelled or put this girl in the hospital. Weighing on the options, both seemed like pretty poor outcomes so he walked over to you and the girl. You didn’t notice the sudden presence behind you until you felt strong arms wrap around your torso. You tried hitting the unknown figure, angry that they were meddling in a situation that they weren’t involved in, that was until you heard a whisper in your ear,

“ Woah there princess, it’s just me alright”

You stop resisting once you recognized the familiar voice. You peered over your shoulder and met the brown eyes that you knew so well. His eyes scanned over your face and your figure, as if to analyze the damage that had been done. He smiled at you softly as he turned you to fully face him and brushed your messy hair behind your ear. Shoving his hand in his pocket, he dug around and pulled out a handkerchief. He pressed the fabric to your nose, grabbed your hand, and  put your hand in place of his, making sure to have you pinch the bridge of your nose to stop the bleeding.

“ Come on, lets go get you cleaned up.”

His soft smile turned into a playful grin as he intertwined his fingers with yours and pulled you in the direction of the nurse’s office. You could tell he was still worried but he tried to mask it with his usual child-like persona. Your mouth was pulled into a thin line, occasionally letting a soft giggle leave your lips at the jokes Terushima cracked. His attempts to lighten the mood and fight the silence that was slowly filling the atmosphere were somewhat working, but your mind was focused elsewhere. You were disappointed in yourself. You always got yourself into situations that your boyfriend had to save you from. It’s not as if you were some damsel in distress but you were just so stubborn that you always ended up getting yourself into things but never thinking of how you would get yourself out. You genuinely felt bad and wondered how long it would be until Terushima grew tired. Hell, he’s already had to deal with your shit for five years, how much more could he possibly handle.

 You were so immersed in your thoughts that you didn’t even realize you reached your destination until Terushima picked you up by your waist and plopped you down onto one of the beds in the nurses office. He looked around the empty room and sighed,

“I guess Dr. Yūji is at your service!”

he pointed both his thumbs at himself and gave you a grin. You returned his enthusiasm with a small smile as he went around the room in search for the supplies he would need to tend to your wounds. You watched as he pranced around the room, sifting through drawers and cabinets and gathering supplies in his arms. After a few minutes of snooping, Terushima walked back over to you and dropped the things he had gathered on the bed beside you. He grabbed a chair from behind him and flipped it so the back of the chair was closest to you. He sat facing you and rested his arms across the top of the chair. He sat back up and clapped his hands together,

“Alright then babe, let’s get to work.”

Terushima got up and sifted through the pile that was to your left. He grabbed a wash cloth from the pile and walked over to the sink on the other side of the room. He ran the cloth under the cool water and rung it out. Walking back over to you he sat down and scooted the chair closer to you so you were inches apart. He began lightly scrubbing away at the dirt and semi-dried blood on your face, humming a tune as he did. To be completely honest, Yūji noticed your difference in behavior right away and he knew it wasn’t due to your recent brawl. However, he knew you weren't one to spew your feeling so he decided to ease into getting information out of you. He continued to care for your wounds, cleaning off your body and bandaging anything that needed to be bandaged. Your bloody nose was long gone and he had gave you ice pack in place of the now soiled handkerchief.  You stayed quiet until he finished wrapping the last bandaid around your finger. He finished off by placing your face in between his hands and peppering it with small kisses, making sure to be careful of the sore areas. He leaned back, your face still in his hands, and you watched as his expression hardened a bit. 

“Okay, now that you’re good as new, what’s up with you?”

Your heart stopped for a moment. Of course he would notice. You would never guess but Teru was very observant when it came to the people he cared about. He had always been able to decipher your mood swings and rough patches in life, no matter how hard you tried to hide it. You shifted your gaze away from him and tried to get through this interrogation without letting down the front you put up.

“What are you talking about Yūji?”

“Well to start off, I had to pull you off that girl from class 3 earlier and you’ve been acting weird ever since. Don’t think I haven’t noticed Y/N, you’ve never been good at hiding this type of stuff.”

“First of all, that was supposed to be a calm confrontation. If that asshole wouldn’t have tried to punch me, we wouldn’t have had a problem.” you sighed, continuing with trying to soothing your boyfriends suspicions, “ I’m fine, really. I’m just irritated with what happened today.”

You looked up to meet Terushima’s gaze, hoping he bought that crap you just pulled out of your ass. Safe to say, based on his facial expressions, he saw right through your bullshit. He sighed and stood up from where he was sitting, placing the chair back in it’s original spot. He walked back over to the bed, pushed the supplies to the side, and sat beside you. Words began to meet your ears as he wrapped his arm around your shoulder and pulled you to lean into his chest. 

“Y/N, I really don’t want to push but I need to know what’s happening in that pretty little head of yours. We can’t get anywhere if we don’t talk to each other and you know that.”

You did know that, probably better than anyone. It was just so difficult to voice the worries that swarmed your head and your heart at the moment. You were nervous about the future. You had gotten so comfortable with the feeling of being with your lover that you genuinely could not imagine life without him. Losing him had been a fear you had ever since you got close to him. You were nervous about his reaction to your overwhelming thoughts which was the main thing keeping you from being honest and open with him. Despite all that, you knew Terushima deserved the truth even if it was difficult to tell him. So, you blurted out the first thing on your mind before you could back out, 

“Why haven’t you left me yet?”

Terushima’s eyes widened as his heart dropped. What the hell were you talking about? Did you want him to leave you? Why would he leave someone he’s in love with? His head swarmed with questions as he looked at you. Your eyes were currently glued to the floor as tears pooled at their brims. Teru finally broke the silence,

“Why would I leave you Y/N?”

You couldn’t stop the tears from streaming down your cheeks and in that moment, every single barrier you put up came crashing down. You could no longer hold your emotions in and you decided to finally let your boyfriend hear what you've been keeping to yourself all along,

“I put you through hell Yūji. You can’t possibly sit here and tell me I'm not a handful. I’m scared that one of these days you’re gonna get tired of my shit and I'll lose you.” you sucked in a shaky breath and finished what you wanted to get off your chest, “I’m sorry, I can’t say it enough. I have no idea how you managed to put up with my shit all these years but I shouldn’t have put you through that.” 

You hated feeling like you were giving him a damn sob story but your filter had been put on hold at the moment. You harshly wiped at the tears that were blurring your vision. Unbeknownst to you, Terushima had his own share of tears sliding down his face. He swiftly pulled you into his chest and wrapped his arms around you, kissing the top of your head before he let his own thoughts spill out,

“Y/N, I'm going to get really cheesy right now but I love you and nothing could possibly change that. Sure, sometimes you can be a pain in my ass but I know I'm equally one in yours. What fun would our relationship be if we were perfect all the time, ya know?” 

He pulled you away from his chest and cupped your face in his hands, using his  thumb to wipe away the remaining tears before they joined the others that had already stained your face. He gave you a toothy smile despite his own tears. You smiled right back at him and lifted your own hands to wipe his tears as well. 

He grasped the hand that was drying his face and pulled it behind him, causing you to gravitate in his direction. He used this opportunity to connect his lips with yours. The kiss was soft and sweet but it spoke so much louder than words ever could. You could feel the love filling your lungs and spreading throughout your body as your lips moved in sync. You pulled apart to catch your breath and his signature smirk painted his face,

“You’re not getting rid of me that easy Y/N, I'm in this for the long run baby.”

You let out a laugh and wrapped your arms around his neck pulling his close to you. He wrapped his arms tightly around your waist, returning the hug. It was quiet for a bit, just breathing in the scent of his cologne, until you felt his breath against your ear. He spoke in a hushed tone,

“I love you so much Y/N”

You smiled as your grip on him tightened slightly,

“I love you too Yūji”

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

[halothenthehorns]

All in the Family

Chapter 53: Cat, Rat, and Dog

There was a short, bumpy slide down his rump before he was left sprawling in a pile of dirt in a dark tunnel as their next destination. Sirius tried to sit up and then grunted in further pain as several more people came tumbling down on top of him.

Maneuvering and cursing helped sort it out, mainly the second, and soon they all found themselves able to hunch over uncomfortably, but they'd been in worse places recently. He didn't even need Evans to light her wand to tell him where they were though, he'd know this secret passage as well as his own dorm room. The sharp windy breeze discernible above his head, the faint, musty odor of blood and dust ahead, the way the path was slightly less well worn than any of the other hidden tunnels they'd ever found, though that was quickly being changed the longer the Marauders knew about it. They were underneath the Whomping Willow.

He didn't need Remus' soft little whimper of worry, James subtly stepping between Moony and everyone, or Peter's awkward shuffling backing away from everyone to know why this put them in such an awkward position. The only conceivable reason to them why Harry would be down here, is that one of the Marauder's had taken him down here for some reason. Neither of the present two seemed to have much of a good reason.

Waiting at the end of the slope was the now dusty purple book, sitting innocently with the pages now smattered and crumpled from so many people kicking and landing on it as they went past. Sirius swallowed a bit of bile as he went to pick it up, but he ignored his hand shaking as he met Remus' eyes and tried to concoct a plan for the worst.

If, and it was still a very big if to him, Harry was somehow down here because he found out about Moony and had some cockamamie idea about seeing it, the three friends in this time would have to do a hell of a lot of covering up for their Remus now to make sure none knew the wiser it wasn't true now. He gazed down at the chapter title for too long, Frank began laughing at what the hold up was. As an experiment, he tried to laugh and summarize the odd chapter title, just telling everyone else it was a bunch of animal names, but no more words appeared until he finally said Cat, Rat, and Dog.

He couldn't fake it. He didn't know a way how to talk them out of this one.

It didn't start out with any good omens, what with Buckbeak being unjustly killed and the poor trio's reaction. Then Scabbers started going nuts, the reason being quickly revealed Crookshanks was still after him. Still he could hardly spare any of it a thought as the tunnel subtly shifted in size around them, though he really couldn't care less now he could stand up straight instead of hunched over the book.

Then the dog arrived.

He startled so hard he scraped his head against the ceiling, causing a slight dust cloud around him and pouring over the book. He took the temporary coughing fit this caused amongst the others to gaze at his friends in pleading silence to tell him he'd read that wrong, but their shadowed eyes gave nothing away.

Sirius had started this worried about how Moony's involvement was going to get dragged into this and what potential secrets was going to come of that, now a whole new scenario was playing out behind his mind's eye. The deranged animal he'd become in Azkaban, sapping away his humanity and leaving him with one animal urge left to kill, somehow being directed on one he'd so love.

A puddle of sick was there at his feet, and he didn't even remember doing it. His throat still burned, his stomach rolled and threatened to continue any moment, but all he felt was the horror his mind had latched onto and wouldn't let go. He'd gifted himself this animal form to save Moony, now it would be the death of James- Harry- James-

"It's alright Padfoot-"

"Let it out mate."

"How hard did he hit his head? Did he give himself a concussion?"

It all swam before him like he was seeing the three from underwater, he was afraid to clear his gaze and find out what was holding him upright, but James was there. His best friend was undeniably keeping him on his feet, not the wall. Remus and Peter were promising in every way but words that no matter what that monster of their future did they weren't going to pin the blame on him now. Even Regulus was bouncing on the heels of his feet and eyeing him in concern rather than criticizing anything for once. He should feel safer than ever, but he didn't know how to shake loose the terror lodged in him, had zero faith he could say the words that he'd killed his godson.

Wormtail finally took pity on him, and after several Evanesco spells to pick the book back up, gave them all a confident smile he could somehow make this easier on everyone if he was the one to say it.

The madness didn't sound much better coming from him, as Ron was somehow grabbed instead and dragged along into this very tunnel. Sirius could swear he could identify the very streaks of blood in the dark lighting. It didn't work the sanity back into his favor any. That wild animal seemed determined to kill and had just grabbed the wrong kid. Did that mean something of him had spared Harry at the last second, or was he so gone he couldn't even be bothered to care anymore.

He tried to fight that off, surely if students had been attacked and killed all year they would have heard of it! Was this the first time then, and he'd been building up to it?

Harry and Hermione went after them, to no one's surprise, but too late the Marauders misunderstood the look of dawning determination the four outsiders had on the Marauders.

Potter didn't make a joke about saving another redhead in distress with a salacious look at Lily, Lupin wasn't hovering in the background with suppressed laughter but was now the one with a supporting hand on his friends shoulder and trying to whisper words of comfort for no one else's ears. Pettigrew was reading like an ancy toddler, his voice stopping to squeak uncomfortably every time he stopped for breath.

Of course they'd be worried about Potter's kid, that wasn't unreasonable as they'd all made it clear from the beginning they'd been invested in this future and Harry. Their distress over Black's fate of being an escaped madman had also been perfectly reasonable, if a little blind to some of them early on. Now with time on their side they'd finally conceded maybe all of Black's actions weren't so black and white, and it wasn't Potter being comforted for the fate of his child they were watching.

The idea, the unbelievable, illegal, but slow forming understanding had hardly taken root before it was slapped in their faces. Sirius Black was an unregistered animagus, and his friends knew it.

"You idiot," Regulus told him with pure sincerity. He would have decked him if his brother didn't look so miserable already.

Sirius was exhausted. He'd spent countless hours now being hurtled through someone else's life with company he wouldn't have asked for, now he'd been living through countless hours believing himself a madman and a murderer which finally seemed irrevocably true. He didn't know what would happen to him if this secret was told, but surely a fine at the worst, which still wasn't as bad as Moony's secret being revealed. He was tired, so he didn't deny it.

"I don't understand," Frank muttered, looking between the four. "You must have a reason for doing this, even you lot know this is more than breaking a school rule for kicks. What possible reason-"

"He doesn't have to explain himself to you even if he did know," James snapped, his every breath trembling with nerves. The nightmarish image of Sirius dragging Ron off, his own self congratulatory words Harry would follow wasn't adding up to him. If he'd wanted to kill Harry than he'd had opportunity enough, something else was going on here, and he was already getting a headache trying to follow along, let alone fending off their prying questions.

It fooled no one. They all knew now, and no one was sure how to go forward with the information.

Sirius couldn't stand there any longer, avoiding their eyes, doing nothing. So he snatched the book back from Wormtail as he took another trembling breath, reading out in his own harsh tongue the tussle between him and Harry, the thirteen year old kid actually winning with the help of his friends and then considering murdering him. He almost wished Harry would, put him out of his misery those dementors had trapped inside him.

Then Remus was there, offering backup Sirius had never asked for but always seemed to find when he least expected it. Sirius wanted to fall into his arms now, sob in gratitude he wasn't alone in this future and Moony was still there for him, something still made sense. The only thing stopping him was the fear of drawing attention back to Moony, the one Marauder who had another illegal secret much more dangerous to have the spotlight on, in a house they were far too close to, with a night ahead they had no absolutes about.

It was all in vain as Hermione ousted him, after he'd finally been able to get his feet under him. Sirius took a deep breath, threw back his shoulders, and dug into every bit of collective knowledge he'd acquired over the past sixteen years of his life as he turned to Remus and said, "and I thought I was the monster in there."

It was there for just a second, the flicker of hurt, the shadow of true fear at those words finally being flung in his face, but he also knew Sirius. He'd seen the true look of disgust on his face directed at other students for whispering about werewolves after they'd come up in a lesson. He'd heard the true tones of unforgivable loathing every time he looked at Snape. This was Padfoot covering Moony's tail and leaving his own hanging. There was every chance it wasn't going to work, but he smiled at him all the same for trying.

James slugged Sirius in the shoulder and called him a jerk, trying his hardest to sound like he didn't mean it. Peter had perfected the art of an awkward laugh and shuffled even farther away, keeping his hands behind his back to now show them trembling with nerves at being caught.

It might have actually worked, had they not spent every other available moment defending one of their own against another equally radical claim. Now, their blasé brushing of this off just gave other moments a chance to make a lot more sense.

Frank recoiled, waiting for his life to flash before his eyes as he realized the danger they'd been in without even realizing it. He went back and counted, almost kicked himself for each clue he'd overlooked. What being an illegal animagus had to do with it, or even if the two were cause and effect he still wasn't sure, but he grabbed Alice's hand and began trying to pull her as far away up the tunnel from the rest of this insanity as he could. They hadn't asked for this.

Alice jerked her hand away with a scowl at her boyfriend, she hadn't grown up with the prejudices she knew most purebloods had gained. Her mum was an auror, she was descended from the first set to have ever gotten the job. She knew from countless stories what it felt like to be victim and hero, and right now she saw Remus Lupin, hovering terrified behind his friends, as an innocent person just like her.

"Frank!" She protested as he hesitated. He didn't continue backing away, but he didn't look much ashamed for his automatic reaction, nor her tone.

"You don't want to hear the stories my mum's told me about werewolves-"

"Your mum sounds like a paranoid git the more I hear about her," Alice crossed her arms in frustration. "I've heard things from my parents too, and they're not just stories. Those poor creatures live in poverty, most of them just kill to survive-"

"Oi! Do you two mind having this conversation like he's in the room," Sirius Black took a dangerous step towards the pair, even in the near darkness they could see the anger coming off of him, as Lupin shuffled even farther away from all present in shame.

Sirius regretted his outburst at once. Five years of ignoring other kids whispered comments about this and he'd caved now, but he couldn't just shoot a hex at them and laugh it off like his usual prank, Remus couldn't just pull him along to the next class muttering to him how much it didn't matter.

Peter, to his credit, still tried as he piped up, "yeah, how would you like it if we started laughing about how your future turns out? Oh wait, we don't even know yet!"

"Oh don't kid yourself Peter," Regulus rolled his eyes. "The man himself hasn't even denied it, and you lot are actually terrible liars." He was slightly paler under his dark hair than usual, his eyes remaining trained untrusting on the outed party, and every terrible lesson he'd ever been through with his father over dark creatures was playing back through his mind, but for once in his life Regulus was trying to drown out every outside voice but his own.

He wasn't sure how much he could trust Sirius over his own parents, he'd thought his brother had never lied to him but now even that was wrong. Now all he had left to feel were the two contradictions of his life, the lies of You-Know-Who's heritage and his own. If he'd been wrong about that all his life, what else was he wrong in assuming straight from his parents?

Lily wondered if she was going to be sick. Her first thought was that it made a horrible kind of sense, the cruel lot of friends had found each other, of course Potter and Black would accept a werewolf as a friend considering they showed no mercy to their own victims of those horrible degrading acts they called pranks.

She looked again though, really looked at them. Remus Lupin was a scared, pale teenager watching those around him take in this news as he hovered behind his friends. No 'monster' could ever look that vulnerable and be a pure killer. Peter Pettigrew was looking between them and his friends, like he was waiting for a signal what was going to happen next. He still trusted his friends to make that decision so he could go along, while those horrible friends of Severus', even Sev of late followed blindly with the first thing they were told by their superiors without thinking twice about it. Sirius Black was being accused of murder, now of his best friends son, and he still stood right beside him as if at any moment he was going to be that killer for his friends. James Potter stood as their center, every bit their good influence as he was the bad.

Silence like none before lay thick in the air, each person waiting for someone else to make the next move. Sirius reacted first, it was his sanity on the line here, and now with Remus involuntarily being thrown into the mix in this future, it was both their lives on the line. He snatched the book away from Peter and read in a blur. He wished his future self would give Professor Lupin a kick for tottering on about Sirius dragging two people into this passage, about focusing on Ron's pet of all things.

He cursed the man having to over explain everything now of all times as none of it was making any sense. How was any of this helping?

The mental tirade came to a halt as Sirius Black, the escaped prisoner of Azkaban, finally answered who had done these true crimes all along. Peter Pettigrew.

[pbandjesse]

I have had a really nice day. I just ate to much cake but it was a very good cake and I only have a little upset belly so I dont feel too bad.

I had another rough night of sleep So waking up just. Was not fun. James went and got us dunkin donuts for breakfast. I was in bed for a long time. James came and laid in bed with me for a bit. But after 10 he brought me the bagel he got for me. And it helped me get up. Even though I did not want to. 

I got washed and dressed. I wasnt sure what the plan for today was. But I got all cute and felt pretty nice. I dont know why my hair has been feeling so dirty so fast. But its annoying. My psoriasis is also really bad right now. Im trying to be positive but its hard. 

Once I was dressed we headed out into the world. James drove us over to the Home Depot to get garden things. And it was just a nice time being out on such a beautiful day. Mr Will called to ask if we have had any more leaks but thankfully no. So it was decided we could probably move all our things back in the closet. Excellent. 

We got out to the home depot and got all the things we had on our list. Dirt and rocks and containers. Some stakes. An aloe plant. It was a good trip to the store. I also just enjoyed walking around with James. 

We also got some wood so I could make a shelf for some of my stuffed animal collection. And a mixed pack of screws. It was a very productive trip. 

Once we got everything loaded up in the car we headed home. Got all of our things inside and then back out to clean the car. We had a lot of junk in the backseat. So we tidied that up and brought some stuff inside. And then it was time to work on our plants. 

My poor potato plants have been suffering because they have gotten to tall. So we took the plastic boxes we got today and I put some holes in them for drainage. We spent some time on the fire escape repotting and tidying up. I hope my potatoes thrive. We also moved our terrarium for tomatoes out there too. But there is a bunch of weird stuff growing in that because I kept throwing scraps in there all winter. We might repot some of those things too. Well have to see. 

Once we were done outside Jame repotted our ponytail palm and I worked on planting some flower seeds. We cleaned up and put all the bathroom things away. We also hung a shelf together, which didnt go exactly as planned but we figured it out.  It was a good and productive time. 

It was getting late in the afternoon. And we decided to go get some lunch and get cat food and cat food and then we would go see James's friend Paul and his partner Sam's new house. They are our age and bought a house! Amazing. 

So we went off to the store. Go the things we needed. And a half a cake. And then we got our late lunch at Five Guys. I had a nice time sitting out in the sun but I was a little cold in the shade. James went to get my fleece because they are the best partner. And we had a really nice lunch together. 

Paul and Sam's house was so nice. It a row house but its all updated inside. It has 3 bathrooms, and a full basement. And a rooftop balcony. So essentially a balcony on every floor? It was great. Me and Jame want to save to get a house and it made me really feel like its possible. They put down $14,000 and got to be a part of a program that if they took out a certain mortgage that the city would pay off their student loans up to $40k. So thats amazing. Getting a house might be a more feasible option then I thought. We still probably wont look into that for a couple years. But its something to work towards. 

We hung out with them for a while. Talked about basketball. Work. Life. It wa nice but I was getting very tired. So around 5 we headed back home. 

When we got home Jame went for a bike ride and I cleaned the apartment. Mostly just organizing and putting things away.  Im going to do more actual cleaning tomorrow. I also made some thai tea for tomorrow. 

 I had leftover for dinner. And worked in the studio for a while. And now Im just chilling on the couch. James is doing trivia with friends. And Im going to wash my hair. I hope to sleep better. And tomorrow I dont go into work until 1. So I hope it raises my spirits having more morning time. 

I hope you all sleep good tonight. Have fun tomorrow!

[the-dead-sea-trilogy]

WIP Wednesday: Icarus and the Blistering Sun

I decided this might be a good way to both help me keep track of how far I’ve come, as well as give you all a peek into some of the work I’m doing!! So here is an excerpt from the next fic in my trilogy.  It’s an early [mostly edited, but some not] portion of Icarus and the Blistering Sun, which is about Archie and Maxie’s time in high school/college, in which they almost get tied up with Team Rocket.  I hope you enjoy!!

Icarus and the Blistering Sun

A young man stood stammering in front of his new classmates, holding a rock in his hands.  He had never been good at public speaking, and this was one of the most important first impressions he ever had to make.  This was freshman year.  Everything matters in freshman year.

    “Uhm.  Hi, hello.  Uhm.  Like our teacher said my name is Maximilian Matsubusa.  I guess I go by Maxie...” fuck.  He was already forgetting what he had to say.  His hands tightened around the gritty, porous substance in his hands.  The weight of which somehow, now, was comforting.

    Oh yes.  There was a rock in his hands.  There was a rock in his hands.

    “I brought this volcanic rock… because I am going to talk about Mt. Chimney--”

    “And where are you from?”

    “What?  Oh. I’m from Fallarbor…”

    There were more than a few snickers at the mention of the town, but the stern glare from the teacher quickly silenced them.

    “And what do you have to share with us, Maxie?”

    “This volcanic rock is from my hometown… Fallarbor… which, as many of you know, is a farming town…” he looked around.  Blank, bored, disinterested stares.  They were probably just from general teenage lack of sleep, but their disinterest greatly disturbed him.  He was already ruining the only chance he had.  He took a deep breath to refocus himself.  “So.  It might seem strange to you that Fallarbor is a farming town.  We live on the side of a mountain… covered in volcanic ash… but you see, Mt. Chimney is one of the biggest energy sources in the known world and… well, we don’t use the energy for farming but Mt. Chimney still helps our ecosystem… because when the lava flows and cools--it seems like it’s destroying everything.  And it is.  It is.  But the lava cools and hardens and it has all these minerals in it that help the soil.  And we grow a lot of the food that you eat.  And it’s because volcanoes, well, they… they help make the food we eat.”

    “So you eat dirt?”

    “That’s enough,” the teacher said.  She looked back to Maxie.  She had better cut this short before he got any more hecklers.  Poor kid.  “Thank you, Mr. Matsubusa.”

    Oh.  He wasn’t finished.  But, the teacher’s word was law, and he had better obey.  Before he returned to his seat, however, he assessed their bored faces once more and said, a bit more forcefully, “Anyways.  I don’t eat dirt.  My name is Maxie Matsubusa, and I am going to be a scientist someday.”

     Much less emboldened, he hastily returned to his seat.  A muscular young man sitting next to him nudged him on the shoulder.

    “So... whatd’ja bring the rock for, cowboy?”

    Fuck.  The rock.  He had been standing there with a rock in front of all his classmates and he hadn’t even talked about it.  What a travesty.

    “Well… I was going to talk about how it’s porous… and that helps keep water…”

    “Next.”

    The young man rose.  He sauntered up to the front of the room with a swaggering grin.  It was clear he was playing with them, and soaking up every minute.  He unbuttoned his shirt and popped his collar with fanfare.  A few people laughed.  He glanced the room up and down and said, “Anyways, my name is Archie Aogiri, I’m from Dewford, and I sure as fuck ain’t gonna be no scientist.”

---

A young woman stood under the lamplight of a bus stop.  She was waiting for her ride home--and, more importantly--she was supposed to meet someone here.  After a few minutes of waiting, she checked her watch, and then again.  Was the bus on time?  God… she really hoped she hadn’t missed the last stop.  She didn’t want to have to walk all the way back to her dorm room.  Lilycove City wasn’t known for being a particularly dangerous place--it was mostly a glorified college town and upscale tourist destination--and she was more than certain she could fend for herself--but it was a bit cool out, and she was in heels.

    Another man approached the stop and sat down on a nearby bench.  He did not at all hesitate to kick back, reach into his pocket, and light a cigarette.  The young woman glanced quickly at him and inched a bit further away, even though she wasn’t quite close to him to begin with.  She hated the smell of cigarette smoke, and she could feel him eyeing her up and down.  She reached for her phone and pretended to be buried in her instagram, but each continued monitoring the other out of the corner of their eyes.  Everything was suspicious at night.

    At last, the woman reached her phone to her ear and pretended to take a call from her mother.  That was a good enough alibi.

    “Oh hey mom,” she said.  “What’s up?”

    The man glanced over at her.  She doubled down on her facade.

    “How’s everything back home in Viridian City…?  Oh yeah?  Yeah… Here?  Yeah school’s going well.  Everything’s fine here… and hey, can you believe… I saw nine seabirds today.  Yeah.  Nine.  I know.  But they’re pretty common here, by the sea and all.  Yeah.  Seabirds.  Petrels, I think,” she glanced back over at the man.  “And you know, a bunch of Wingull…”

    The man took another huff of his cigarette and then exhaled loudly.  Then, he said,  “Man... I dunno about you little missy, but I think I might order some pizza tonight.”

    The woman paused from her call and stared at him.  “...Excuse me?”

    He shrugged.  “Oh, uh… you know.  Domino’s….  I dunno.  It’s a nice night out.”

    She continued staring at him.

    He shook his head.  “Don’t mind me.  I’m just high.”  He laughed.  “As a rocket, baby.  As a rocket.”

    She put the phone down.  “Petrel?”

    He removed his cap and flashed the red “R” embroidered on the inside.  “At your service, madam.”

    She slapped him.  “You fucking dumbass!”

    “What--?” Petrel asked, rubbing at the spot.

    “Pizza?  Really?”

    He put his hands up in defeat.  “Hey, I’m new at this.”

    “Well, alright then,” Domino said, crossing her arms.  “I hope you can hold your own weight, because I’m not carrying you.”

    “‘Course not.  Gonna be the next exec someday.”

    She almost laughed.  “In your dreams.”

    “Just watch.”

    “Well, anyways, if you’re so new, from this moment, you answer to me, got it?” Domino said.

    “I was expecting as much.”

    “Has the boss explained anything to you?”

    Petrel shrugged, almost embarrassed.  “Well--uh… it’s been a hot minute…”  Domino rolled her eyes.

    “Here’s the deal, dumbfuck,” she said.  “I go to school here in Lilycove.  Boss planted me three years ago to keep an eye on things.  We’re trying to see if it’s worth setting up shop here, or if we should just stick to Johto,” she said.  “It is a little far from home…”

    “No kidding.  It was a bitch and a half trying to get here.”

    “Too much water.”

    He nodded.  “Entirely too much water.”

    “So the deal is, we need to get as much info as possible on any ancient Pokemon in the area.  If he determines it’s worth it, we’re setting up here.  You’re gonna pose as a student--like me--and we’re gonna see if we can find anything,” she said.  Then, she reached into her bag and pulled out a small envelope.  “I also have this.”

    “What is that?”

    “They’re tickets to an island with some rare pokemon.  Southern Island, I think it’s called.”

    “Well shit,” Petrel said.  “Let’s go--”

    “No, birdbrain,” she said.  “Here’s the deal.  We wanna get as much info as possible on any Pokemon here.  This is about our entire organization.  As far as I can tell, only two Pokemon actually exist on that island.  But I think we can milk this to get a bunch more--” she looked over his shoulder.  The bus was starting to pull up.  “Look.  I gotta go.  Meet me tomorrow and I’ll explain,” she slipped him another piece of paper.  “There’s the address.”

    “S’long as there’s pizza involved…” Petrel mumbled, taking it from her.

    “It’s a college town, there’s always pizza involved,” she said as the bus started to screech and slow down.  She looked back at him before boarding and said, “Although, I hope you starve.”

    Petrel laughed, calling back out to her. “Thanks babe, love you too.”

[bangtancentricsblog]

○ souleater ○

➣ he didn’t only eat souls he broke hearts too

❒ pairing: jung hoseok x reader

❒ genre: angst

❒ alternative universe: soul eater (anime), college

❒ rating: NC 17

❒ word count: 2.1 k

warnings/disclosures: meisters yoongi, mc and namjoon, death weapons jungkook, hoseok, jimin and taehyung, meister teacher seokjin, nothing too bad that I can think of but let me know if I missed anything!

monster mash ml • main ml • AO3

some quick vocab for my non anime fans:

kishin - is a human who has hunted too many good souls thus possessing a vast amount of dangerous destructive power

meister (i.e. mc) - essentially the 'hero', the one who fights the battles with their death weapon partners the first half of a weapons meister duo.

death weapon (i.e. hoseok) - a human who can take form of traditional weapons the second half of a weapons meister duo.

DWMA - death weapon meister academy in the soul eater anime is a 'hero' school that teaches it's students how to help keep the world in order.

“Hoseok is such a dick.” the blonde two rows back says.

“For a weapon he’s pretty full of himself. I heard he’s got a crush on his meister.” another adds as heat floods your face. Hoseok in love with you? No you couldn’t believe that, not Hoseok, you were only partners you reasoned. The whispers of that particular group grew louder still as more girls joined in adding to the already ongoing conversation. You had never cared what people thought of you and Hoseok, more so because you were a strong pair, ranked in the top three of the academy. Besides yourself there was Yoongi and Jungkook, followed by Namjoon, Jimin and Taehyung. All of whom were close friends and none that had ever given the vaguest hint that Hoseok had harbored any type of feelings for you.

Though the same couldn't be said for yourself, because how could you not? He was bright and your wavelengths had been so compatible it’d almost been like fate that you two be weapon and meister. In fact he’d been the one to approach you the first day of classes, a decision neither of you had regretted since. And yet you had gone and fallen in love with him like some normal love sick teenager and not one of the top three meisters in the DWMA. You had come to this school to create a death scythe, falling in love had not been in the plan. Yet here you were, Jungkook nudged you a furrow to his brow as he did.

“Do you think Jin will be here today?” he asks.

“Why?”

“I didn't do the homework and I’m thinking of skipping.” you weigh your answer for the briefest of moments before answering.

“I saw him earlier so now would be a great time to leave.” you say with a grin that sets jungkook off, he’s not sure whether to believe you. So he decided he’s going to skip anyway, he’s hopping out of his seat startling a yelp from Yoongi a row behind you as he sees his partner zip down the stairs of the amphitheater.

“Jungkook, thank you for volunteering!” Jin says with a laugh placing both hands on his shoulders and turning him to face the class. The room erupts into snickers, even you laugh at the betrayal etched into his pretty features.

*

You’re studying with Namjoon, Jimin and Taehyung as you’ve been giving study hall now that you have become fourth years. The earlier conversation between those girls plagues your mind, and not for the first time you question your relationship with Hoseok. He’s not a bad guy so you’re not entirely sure what it was those girls were talking about. Maybe it’s because he stuck out, but then they would talk about your whole group because truth be told you eight were an odd bunch. Namjoon and his two weapon partners Jimin and Taehyung, Yoongi the reserved yet overpowered and Jungkook the quirky usually quiet but troublesome and then there was your peculiar relationship with Jin your teacher.

Jimin has been staring at you since you’ve started clicking your pen, the pensive look you have says it all as you continue to do so even as Taehyung calls your name softly. He’s sure your thinking about the conversation between your classmates earlier which to him is dumb because eww Hoseok. But he knows that gross lovesick puppy look that flashes across your eyes is proof that you are indeed still in love with him. He glances at Namjoon who hasn't noticed that the three of you had stopped working, then to Taehyung who meets his gaze eagerly.

“___, honey please stop.” Jimin says an overly sweet tone filling your ears and pulling you from your thoughts.

“Sorry, I didn't mean to bother you.” you mumble tucking a stray lock of hair behind your ear.

“What’s bothering you?” Taehyung chimes in a tone so genuine Jimin wants to gag.

“Nothing, just y'know, the usual.” you laugh softly feeling your stomach drop.

“Is it Hoseok again?” Jimin asks.

“I wouldn’t say it is, but i wouldn't say it isn't either.”

“What about him then?” Taehyung says, taking your hand in his.

“I don't know.”

“We’re not doing that.” Jimin says brows pinched together.

“I’m sorry.” you murmur pulling your hand from Taehyung’s. Jimin can feel his anger build but not at you, never at you because you’re his soft sweet friend that he loves to death. His anger is directed at that idiot hoseok who he knows is a total ass but your poor baby heart can’t help but like. Again eww, Jungkook would be a better candidate for those feelings he thinks staring long and hard as you tuck stray curls behind your ears. God your cute, any stinky boy at your school would be lucky to have you and you want Hoseok of all people.

“Is it because of what those girls said?” Taehyung says reaching for your hands again, an annoying habit of his that you don’t seem to mind too much.

“Does Hoseok, I mean do you think h-he might like me?”

“Don’t worry about trivial things like that, Hoseok is your friend.” Namjoon adds scaring Jimin who had forgotten he was there.

“So you don't think so? Should I ask him out or something?”

“Definitely not, Hoseok is weird about things like that. Just stick to the norm if Hoseok likes you, he’ll tell you.” Namjoon says calmly flashing you a smile as he picks up.

“Okay, thanks Joonie. Where are you going?”

“I’m done studying, so I’m going home. I expect you two to actually finish your work before you do the same.”

“Don’t say it like that, if anything Taehyung is the one who should get the warning!” Jimin says with a huff. You laugh as the two boys argue amongst themselves over who is most likely to take the class over again. All thoughts of Hoseok gone for the time being.

*

It’s been weeks of Hoseok literally avoiding you at every possible turn. He skips class, eats lunch at odd times, he doesn’t come home till you’re asleep, and only talks to your friends when you’re not around. It’s annoying to say the least, mostly because he’s never acted this way before. But on the other hand he’s been the talk of the school girl giggling amongst themselves, boys sneering at the mere mention of him, even teachers have his name on their lips. You’ve reached your limit and no amount of Jimin and Taehyung talking you down can stop you. You’re hurt, mostly because Hoseok was your friend, and you can't think of a reason that he’d do something like this.

Unfortunately you don’t have the luxury to confront him as easily as you had hoped. This weird phase between you lasts another couple of weeks because try as you might Hoseok is really good at hiding. Something you ever thought you’d have to learn because he’d never hidden from you, from the boys maybe but not you. So imagine your surprise when you get the chance to hunt down another keishan, making it his 87th keishan soul only 12 away from a witch’s. Thirteen in total till he could become a death scythe, only thirteen till you’d have to say goodbye to him forever. Just because you wouldn’t be partners anymore didn’t mean you couldn’t be friends, you reasoned, shaking the thoughts from your mind as you walked along the lone path through the forest of a neighboring town.

The moon shone down on you eerily, casting shadows across the dirt, almost like little pockets of light to show you the way. The silence was unsettling, the thicker of leaves and branches that hung overhead enough of a sign that this forest should’ve been filled with wildlife. And yet not a single sound, not an owl's hoot, not a crickets chirp, not even the slight breeze made a sound. A chill raced up your spine as you stopped catching Hoseok’s attention as he moved to stand beside you.

“What’s wrong?”

“Something is off, I’m not sure but I don’t like this Hobi.” You murmured, taking his hand. To anyone else you’d seem like any normal young adult, you, a frightened little thing while your boyfriend reassured you that everything was okay, only you weren’t. You were holding Hoseok’s hand not for reassurance but to better your chances of not missing your target when they appeared, and if you were right then they’d be coming at you any second now.

As if on queue they come barreling at you from above, a manic look in their eyes. You’d called Hoseok’s name softly, calmly, while dodging the first few swipes of their long arms. Hoseok had taken the queue easily transforming to his weapon form, the rapier now sat perfectly in your palm. Hoseok was a beautiful specimen in human form but his weapon form was just as beautiful. A sleek silver blade, with an intricately detailed golden hilt, the weight rested comfortably in your palm.

You sighed as the keishan stood and watched as you stood stock still a little miffed that it caught the corner of your duster cardigan, because it was new! The boots you wore were caked in mud but that could be washed out you supposed.

“Hey are you gonna do something about that thing or what?”

“Shut up Hoseok.” You sighed again because you really didn’t wanna be here right now. But a job was a job you guessed as you planted your feet firmly on the ground narrowing your gaze as it sprinted towards you. You hated these things especially when they moved this fast, this was gonna be a mess you thought finally pushing off the ground and charging towards it.

*

Hoseok is pleased he didn’t really have to get too involved in this job because as strong as you were you could be really clumsy. But he liked how efficient you were when taking down your foe. The soul of the keishan sat there waiting for him to eat it, and he usually wouldn’t hesitate but there was something bothering him about this, mostly you. You’d been unusually quiet this hunt, almost pensive if he had to say so. So he wanted to know what it was that was bothering you, he reasoned grasping the soul while turning to look at you.

You were crouched over some wild mushroom, back facing him because you claimed it grossed you out to see him eat the souls. He agreed because not all of them tasted great, but he digressed.

“What’s wrong?” He starts just to break the ice.

“Nothing why? Are you done yet, cause I wanna go home I’m tired.” You mutter, pulling up the mushrooms trying to recall if they were edible or not.

“Yeah.” He sighs, quickly shoving the soul into his mouth, chewing once, then twice before swallowing. This one hadn’t been as gross as the last one. The texture was nice, almost as good as a medium rare steak he thought as he waits for you to stand. Except you don’t, you’ve stopped playing with the mushrooms and just sit quietly.

“Hoseok, can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Do you like me?” He’s frozen, his head quirked slightly really letting your question settle in.

“Of course I like you, we’re partners.” He says, wetting his lips.

“No, I mean more than friends. Do you like, like me?”

“Why does that matter? We’re partners and I like you but, but not like that.” You say nothing, finally standing to your full height. His hands are clammy as you turn to look at him, eyes wide and glassy. He can see the tears that pool at your lash line, your lip trembles as you let out a choked half sob half laugh. He feels bad, because he didn't want to do this to you. Had never meant to break your poor loved up heart this way, because Hoseok loved you like a friend and would rather hurt himself than hurt you.

“I knew that, I mean it’s obvious why would you like me right?”

“I never said that.”

“It’s okay Hoseok I understand, you don’t need to explain.” you say and he wants to hug you close and make sure you understand that it’s really not you but him. He steps closer ready to embrace you, but you step back hands out to keep him from coming any closer.

“Let’s go home.” you mutter with a watery smile turning on your heel and making your trek back to your dorm with the broken pieces of your heart in hand.

[darkhymns-fic]

The Origin of Pow Blade

Lloyd didn't exactly know how Pow Hammers worked, but that didn't stop him from wanting to learn how to use them! This is why he then seeked out Colette as his teacher.

Fandom: Tales of Symphonia Characters/Pairing: Lloyd Irving/Colette Brunel Rating: G Mirror Link: AO3 Notes: Written for Colloyd Week, Day 4: Unison Attack! This was taken very literally and was a good excuse to just write in the stupidest way possible. We have fun here.

--

So, where exactly do the Pow Hammers come from anyway?

“That’s not something you just ask…” Genis had warned Lloyd once. The boy was fixing up his kendama, tightening the string around the rubber ball so that the length wouldn’t drag onto the ground. “It’s a Chosen thing.”

“Huh?” Lloyd was seated on the grass in front of his friend’s house, fidgeting as he yearned to just go and fix Genis’ kendama for him.  He wasn’t even tying up the string right. It would just snap off again. “Wait…how does being a Chosen make you summon hammers?”

Genis shrugged. “I mean, do you see anyone else do that?”

“No…” he admitted, letting the younger boy smile in satisfaction.

He supposed it made sense… Lloyd had always wondered, ever since Colette summoned a bright, red hammer in the air to counter a mangy wolf that had sneaked its way into the village. Colette had felt so bad though, even as the pow hammer made a squeaky noise when it hit the wolf on the snout. The animal had rushed right out of there with a yelp, while Lloyd had to reassure Colette that the animal was okay, really…

“That’s so cool…” he said aloud, lost in the vision of that red hammer. “I wanna learn it too!”

“You’ll just get bored with it, what’s the point?” Genis sighed. “Also, I just said only the Chosen can learn it. Are you even listening?”

“You don’t even know if that’s true!” Lloyd stood up, now definitely needing to learn more about Pow Hammers than anything else!

“I do know! Because I’m smart, so there!” Genis pulled on the string to his kendama so tightly, he was messing up the knot!

“Gimme that, you’re tying it wrong!”

“I am not! Let go!”

And while both probably struggled with that kendama longer than was necessary – at one point the toy flying out of their hands to land straight into the middle of the pond – Lloyd still couldn’t get the Pow Hammer out of his mind. Was there a way he could learn this technique?

Clearly, Colette was a master at it.

--

“Hey!” Lloyd shouted as he rushed up to Colette’s home, kicking up dirt as he went. “Hey, Colette!”

He was lucky he had caught her now. Sometimes Colette came back home a bit later from her lessons at the Temple, but she was just walking up her front porch, turning at the sound of his voice. It had been harder to spend enough time together lately, but he supposed it was because of her being a Chosen. Though he wished they would give her a break already.

“Hi, Lloyd! Oh, why are you all soaked?”

“Huh? O-Oh, don’t worry about it.” He whipped back his damp hair to be more away from his face, eliciting a giggle from Colette. Also his shoes were squelching with a lot of that pond water… He really needed to stop losing bets with Genis, but at least he had been able to fix up the kendama himself because of it! “I wanted to ask…can you show me how to use your cool hammer move?”

“My what?” Colette asked with a tilt of her head. She seemed so confused. “I don’t carry around any hammers… Are you sure you don’t mean Dirk? He has that big one all the time!”

“No, I don’t mean real hammers. Well, I mean it’s kinda real? Maybe?” He still didn’t know? “Anyway, I meant the ones you summon out of thin air! Those hammers!”

“Oh, I understand now!” Colette nodded, clasping her hands in front of her. “But how come you want to know? They’re not nearly as strong as your swords.”

“I mean, if I could summon swords out of the air, that’d be even cooler!” He paused. What if…he could? Whoa… He would probably have to discover that technique later though. “But maybe I should start with hammers. Could you teach me? I promise I’ll be the best student!” Professor Sage’s opinions didn’t count.

Colette took a moment before she would answer, worrying Lloyd slightly. What if she really couldn’t? Were pow hammers really just meant for the Chosen? Damn, he didn’t think it was possible for him to be a Chosen too.

“Okay! I’ll try my best to teach you!” Colette sounded so positively upbeat that Lloyd wondered why he needed to worry. “This is really exciting! Should we try now?”

“Yeah! Thanks! Is around here okay?”

Colette nodded, moving to a part of the front lawn where there was more open space. “Um, maybe where Grandmother can’t really see…”

“Oh, right,” Lloyd said, quickly walking to that spot a little away from the front windows. They were past the stone well that was placed near her home, further into the greenery where they sometimes retreated to when they were kids. This had also been one of the good places to play hide and seek back then.

Once there, both decided to sit in the grass since it was a sunny day outside. Even while sitting, Colette was trying her best to look all teacherly-like with her straight and prim posture, the way the Professor would! But her excited smile kind of gave it all away. “Yes! So, uh, I guess I should give a background lesson first! it’s been passed down through our family… Grandmother taught it to me last. She used to summon Pow Hammers for me to play with when I was little!”

At that, Lloyd was already having questions. “Uh, but aren’t-?”

“Oh, raise your hand first!” Colette chided. “Um, please?”

“Sorry!” At that, he obediently raised his hand.

“Yes, Lloyd? What’s your question?”

“Uh…aren’t the Pow Hammers weapons?”

“Oh, they’re actually toys! Really old ones too.”

“Aw…” This doesn’t sound as cool anymore…

“Although they’re toys, they can still hurt a lot.”

 “Oh?” Okay never mind. “Like-” He stopped again, and raised his hand. Colette nodded for him to continue. “How can you use toys as weapons?”

“We just alter it a bit so that they can be! You can even make them cause effects, like poison, though.. I haven’t learned that yet, hehe.” She pulled at her sleeves with self-consciousness. “But if you use them right, they can stun really good! It’s actually a very ancient technique. This was even used by Spiritua!”

Lloyd blinked. “Who’s that? Wait! Don’t tell me…” His dad mentioned this at one point… He raised his arm again, though he was more or less waving at this point. “Is that… one of the past Chosen?”

“That’s right! Good job, Lloyd.” Colette smiled at his correct answer, making Lloyd brighten up visibly. “It was written in the angelic scriptures how her Pow Hammers would rain down from the heavens, smiting her enemies. I don’t really want to smite people though, so I’ve just been summoning one at a time. But even that might be too much, like for that poor doggy…”

“Colette, I told you that wolf was fine. I even saw him the next day! And then he stole my lunch…” Lloyd shook his head. He’d grumble about forest animals stealing his food (again) another time. “But if you could summon a whole bunch of hammers, you’d be super powerful! I think you should try it!”

“Hm… I guess I’ll need it for the journey.” Colette nodded. “Okay! Oh, but I’m still supposed to teach you… I’m sorry, I got carried away!”

Standing up, she dusted away the grass from her dress. Lloyd followed suit, though the grass was a bit more stuck on his pants… He should probably change clothes at some point. “Alright, I’m ready!”

“Okay, so to summon a Pow Hammer…” Colette started, looking much more serious than she ever had before. “You have to think about happy things!”

“…Okay, you lost me.” This wasn’t how he expected his first lesson to go.

“Like for me, I always think about the cute doggies I’ve seen. Like little Bunz that lives in the village! Or Noishe! When I think of them, and focus all my energy, I can summon the hammer to come down. Like this!”

To do so, Colette held out her hand in the air, as if waving hello. With a resounding pop! sound, a familiar red hammer materialized in the air along with a poofy cloud. It was bright red, with a long golden handle. Lloyd stared, wide-eyed.

“That’s so cool!”

That was when the hammer landed square on his face – with a nice small squeak, kind of like one of Noishe’s old doggy toys that he never played with. “Ah!”

“Oh no! I’m sorry!” Colette waved her arm more frantically, and the Pow Hammer vanished as quickly as it came. She rushed up to Lloyd who was rubbing away the red mark on his forehead. “Are you okay? I made it fall on you…”

“I’ve had worse…” He winced at the stinging sensation now on his head. He had even felt a bit stunned when that hammer hit him... He was even more impressed! “That was a good way of showing me how it works first-hand! You’re a great teacher, Colette!”

“Oh! Hehe, thanks.” Colette brushed back a lock of hair behind her head, also looking quite proud. “Now you try.”

“Okay!” Lloyd ignored his forming bump and stood up tall, feeling more confident than ever. “I’m gonna summon a big one! The biggest hammer! So big I can’t even move!”

“Won’t that be too much?” Colette asked curiously. “Then you can’t fight with it.”

“…Shoot. Didn’t think of that. Okay, I’ll just get stronger! Easy!”

“Hm, maybe it’s good to start off small first though. Just to get the hang of it! Don’t you think?”

Lloyd thought on this deeply, crossing his arms as he considered Colette’s advice. “…Yeah, I suppose you’re right. Dad says to start off building small things before you move onto the big stuff.” Soon enough, he was gonna build that huge boat! Just a couple hundred more necklaces and figurines to go!

“Just hold up your arm and think of all the happy things! Like all the doggies in the world…”

“Can I think of food maybe?” he wondered, but dutifully raised his arm up, trying to copy what he had seen Colette do. He even stood up on his toes for extra effort. “And…hammer go!”

Nothing happened. He reached up and tried again. “Pow Hammer go!”

Nothing again! He waved his arm all around him. “Stupid…my arm’s probably broken…”

“Don’t worry. Let’s keep trying!” With Colette, there was no way he could fail!

Until an hour passed, and all he got out of it was an aching arm.

“Why can’t I do it still!? Agh…” Lloyd finally lowered his arm and sighed. “Man…I’m not gonna summon any hammers at this rate, let alone swords!”

Colette had patiently stood by his side the whole time, advising on how high he should reach and the many happy thoughts he could have. But try as she might, Lloyd just wasn’t grasping the idea. “It’s okay, Lloyd. I had a lot of trouble too at first. And sometimes I still mess it up.” She smiled warmly at him. “Not just with Pow Hammers but my other artes too. Like when I accidentally took Professor Sage’s apple gels the other day.”

Lloyd raised an eyebrow. “Colette, I’m gonna be honest. I’m not sure how you can just accidentally trip over someone and then just have their belongings in your pockets.”

“But it really was an accident! I didn’t mean to steal those from her.”

“Don’t you call the move Item Thief though?”

“…That’s not the point!” A pause. “Didn’t you name that move for me?”

“Oh right!” Lloyd nodded, looking immensely proud. “Heh, I really come up the coolest names… What were we talking about?”

“I don’t remember…I’m sorry.”

Lloyd shrugged. “I guess it doesn’t matter. I’ll keep trying next time!” And with that, Lloyd gave a big thumbs. His clothes were all dry now, though his hair was now more disheveled than usual. He needed to comb it ASAP. “Thanks for being my teacher, Colette! Think you can keep training me?”

“Of course! If you really don’t mind?” Colette asked with a slight flush. The weather must have been really humid today for her to have that reaction. “I’m sorry I didn’t help enough.”

“Why would I mind? You’re amazing! And I’ll make you proud once I’ve learned it too.” He clenched his fists, looking ready to do more lessons. “Let’s do this again soon! But now I gotta get home or Dad’s gonna get mad…”

“Hehe, okay!” Colette held her hands in front of her dress, the wind picking up her hair. “I’m really looking forward to it.”

But that had been just a few weeks before the Oracle had arrived. And by then, Colette was already off on her journey.

--

“Maintain your stance. Your legs are too close to each other.” Kratos nudged the boy’s shoulder, making him move. “And don’t slouch.”

“Mmgh.” Lloyd mumbled, keeping his swords crossed in front of himself. Kratos was kind of a jerk, but Lloyd had to admit when he was right about something. His stance was already more stable than it usually was. “I got it, I got it…”

“Do you? Then we can continue with the basics. You’ve been distracted lately.”

“I’m paying attention just fine- Ah!” Lloyd swerved backwards, just narrowly dodging a sword lunge aimed for his shoulder. “What the hell?!”

“Stay alert,” Kratos merely intoned before lunging forward again.

Ever since Lloyd had asked Kratos for sword-training lessons, life had been much more brutal. After the hour-long session was up, Lloyd’s back was aching so much. He practically collapsed onto his sleeping cot once they both made it back to camp.

“Hi, Lloyd! How was training?” Colette was seated next to him, leaning against a large rocky outcropping, sipping some hot tea that Genis had made. The campfire lit off her Cruxis Crystal, a bright gleam that made Lloyd blink slightly.

“I think I might be dying…” he whined before turning so he could lay on his back. He thought he heard Genis snicker from across the camp, but he was too exhausted to do anything about it besides weakly shake his fist. “Can’t even…move…”

“I’m sorry, Lloyd.” From his angle, Colette’s smile was all he saw, more so as she set her mug next to her. Wait, no, she was frowning. He was looking at her upside down! “It’s because of how hard this journey is that you have to train this much.”

“Huh? How is this your fault? You make no sense sometimes.” He tried to sit up, wincing when he felt like he pulled a muscle. “Ow… and I need to train anyway if I’m going to protect you!”

“I’m sorry for making you feel you have to.”

“You’re not-! Agh, forget it.” Slightly grumpy, Lloyd shifted, looking around on the ground for something… “Genis!” he called back. “You didn’t get me any tea!”

“You took too long! Also Kratos already took the last cup.”

“...My apologies, Lloyd,” spoke Kratos from nearby, seated with his sword in his lap. Noishe was curled up next to his side, which still confused Lloyd greatly. “I have already finished my cup as well.”

“Ugh…whatever.” Lloyd sighed, and it felt like every muscle in his body went out of commission. The best he could do was lean back, holding himself up on shaky arms.

It had already been a long journey – Lloyd had finally caught up to Colette with Genis in tow, though he also had to be rescued by a Desian base first, thus effectively detouring the Journey of Regeneration. Having gone to help her, he felt he had just made a mess of things instead.

And when Kratos had nearly sliced his neck open one night, an assassin later catching them off guard, and combining all that along with the troubles of Palmacosta, Lloyd was beginning the feel the heavy weight of his inexperience. Training with Kratos seemed like it could help with that.

As he looked up at the stars, Lloyd blinked, remembering something else he had forgotten, besides the now-broken necklace he had tucked back into his pockets.

“Hey, Colette… Remember when we were training together too?”

“Hm?” She turned to him, her eyes reflecting some of the stars above. “Oh… It’s been a while since, hasn’t it?”

“You know what that reminds me of?” Lloyd flashed her a grin. “You still have to teach me that Pow Hammer move!”

Colette didn’t speak at first – probably because she was sleepy after a long day of traveling. They hadn’t come across any Salvation Houses in a long time, and Lloyd never thought he would miss a bed more than now. “You…still want to?”

“Well, yeah! I tried to show it off to Kratos but it didn’t work… Then he just made this weird face afterwards. Like this!” Lloyd pulled off the best Kratos-frown he could muster, down to the heavy-set eyebrows. Colette giggled at the expression.

“Hehe, wow! You really do look like him!”

Lloyd smiled. He was so good at impressions! “I need to do better next time! Let’s go back to training together again!”

“Would Mr. Kratos be okay with that?” Colette asked with concern, but Lloyd waved it off.

“It’s fine, we haven’t trained in forever! Let’s do it next time!” Until another wince that went through his shoulder, Lloyd barely suppressing a yelp. “Nn… since I’m way too achey to do anything now…”

Colette was still smiling at him, probably more than she had since the start of the journey. Maybe she just needed a break from things too. “Yeah, of course!”

--

They were already near the Ossa Trail, but there were no more signs of a weirdly-dressed assassin following after them. Lloyd made sure to look everywhere, even checking to see if there were any more secret hidden pitfalls.

But once he determined everything was safe, Lloyd gave the thumbs up, telling Colette that their training could start! The small grove near the mountain side was well-cleared of rocks and trees to give them ample room.

“This time I’m gonna get it!” he announced, feeling way more rested, and none of his bones feeling close to breaking this time. “And I’m gonna summon a million of ‘em like you do now!”

Colette scratched at her cheek from the compliment. “Hehe, it’s only about a dozen… And I started doing it after you told me about summoning more! I wanted to see if I could make it more helpful.”

“It is! And now with all those hammers, it’s like…um…quad something the power, right?” He’d ask Genis what the real word for that was later. “I’ll try to get at least half of that to appear!”

“I know you can do it, Lloyd!” With that, Colette rushed up to him, reaching for one of his arms. “I think last time you needed to reach up higher…like this.” She pulled on his hand, fingers pressed against his palm. “Like you’re reaching to grab the sun. If you do that, I’m sure the hammers will appear!”

Lloyd took a moment, feeling the warmth of her hand in his. Even though he wore gloves, he could still feel her. “Uh, y-yeah! Got it.” Following Colette’s guidance, he lifted his hand, fingers outstretched until they were blocking out the bright sun overhead. “Like that?”

“Yep! Now just think about nice things… like the sunshine, or maybe Genis’ cooking. Oh! And doggies.”

“Well, I think about those things plenty…” Lloyd mused before smirking. “Heh, how about beating up Kratos until I’m better than him?”

“Hm, I’m not sure if that’s nice-”

“Yeah, let’s do it! I’m gonna be a master swordsman, and then Kratos will have to respect me!” He reached up high into the sky – reached up both hands to get what he wanted, but double it! “Let’s go!”

And then suddenly, something happened. Like a pop? Or a poof? Lloyd blinked, remembering that familiar sound when Colette had called forth her own Pow Hammer. There was even a small cloud appearing above him! That meant it was working! “Colette! Colette! I think I got it now!”

Then the sharp clap of thunder made them both flinch. “Uh.” Followed by a sudden torrent of rain that fell over them completely. “Ah!”

“It’s a rainstorm!” Colette announced, still holding onto Lloyd’s arm. “And it was just sunny not so long ago…”

“Man, that’s so lame!” Lloyd whined until another thunderclap boomed, making him jump a second time. “Never mind…” And to think he got fooled by a raincloud, of all things…

--

They had to find some quick shelter, and with the campsite a bit far away, both Lloyd and Colette retreated into a nearby cavern. It was small and really damp inside it anyway, but at least they weren’t being pelted by rain anymore.

“Aw, even your cute ribbons are all soaked…” Colette said with a pout, holding them from the jacket Lloyd had unbuttoned.

He flushed at the comment. “They’re not supposed to be cute!” Although he wouldn’t really argue too much, seeing the way Colette was carefully folding his jacket to not get wrinkled. He meant to offer that for her overcoat, but she had already done so before he could. He had been too preoccupied with all the buttons he had to unbutton…

“I’m sorry I’m not being a very good teacher,” she then apologized, laying Lloyd’s jacket against the rock wall, next to her own clothing. “I’m just not as good as Mr. Kratos at all…”

“No way, you’re great! I’m just…bad at learning things.” He sighed, shoulders a little slumped, staring out into the rain that refused to stop. “Professor Sage always complains about it and now I’m starting to get it..”

“But that’s not true! Dirk taught you how to craft things, and the vows! You can learn so much!”

“The vows aren’t even that hard to remember.” And for the necklace, it still lay all broken in his pack. He felt even worse now. “Maybe I’m just hopeless.”

Colette didn’t respond, which only cemented Lloyd’s belief in himself. He might as well go back to Kratos, but maybe even the mercenary was just humoring him with the lessons. What if he was just wasting everyone’s time?

He felt her hand on him again, taking his wrist. “Maybe we need something else…” She was looking at him, standing close to his shoulder. “Lloyd, remember how you said you wanted to summon swords too?”

“…Um, yeah.” He was feeling her warmth again. “But, how can I do that when I can’t even summon the hammer?”

“Maybe we just need to use something, like your sword! …Unless that’s stupid.” She looked to the side. “When I summon them in battle, I always have my chakrams out. And it’s been easier to call them too. So… if you think that…”

Lloyd was beginning to see her point then. “Oh, I get you!” With that Lloyd went to unsheathe his left sword, the raindrops reflecting off its surface. “So I just do the same thing while holding this?”

“Yeah! We might as well try it.” Colette smiled, still holding onto his wrist. “Is it okay if I keep holding you?”

“Sure, I need you to guide me!” Even if Lloyd had the general idea, a little help from Colette never hurt. He grinned, feeling confident again. “Okay, let’s go!”

The cavern was luckily not that small, so he could outstretch his arm along with the sword, and not scratch at the ceiling. With Colette holding him, he could feel her better. With only his shirt, his arms were bare, so her heat was way more noticeable, especially with the chill rain just outside.

“Just think about happy things now!” Colette advised. “I think stuff like food should work better…”

With her close, it was getting much easier to notice a few things from Colette; her hair was slightly damp from the rain, sticking to her forehead, and her crystal seemed to reflect the light from within its depths. And when she smiled, he thought he could see dimples form on her cheeks. He never noticed that before…

“Yeah…Food…”

“Maybe thinking of Noishe will help! Or Dirk!”

He loved them both, but they were very distant from his mind right now as he continued staring at Colette. “Uh huh…”

“And…Lloyd. There’s something…”

He already knew the moment she said his name, his warm feelings suddenly becoming brisk. The growling from deeper in the cave caught his attention.

Not like bears weren’t common around here, and he had seen his fair share just traveling from his house to Iselia, but this animal was…much bigger, with arms that looked ready to ensnare them as it marched up to them, fangs bared and eyes sharp with hunger.

“Colette, watch out!” At least he still had his sword out, but the bear didn’t exactly seem to care, already drawing close.

Colette still held onto him protectively. “We should go!”

“But our jackets!” Man, the bear just had to be right next to them too! “I’ll fight him off! Go get the others!”

“I’m not leaving!” Colette said, still holding on. Her grip was so warm still, even as the bear got close. Too close. Lloyd had to act fast!

And just when he swung his sword, Colette’s hand on his, something happened – with a pop!

A Pow Hammer suddenly bonked right onto the bear’s head. Little stars appeared as the hammer made contact, springing out into the air. Lloyd gripped the golden handle tightly, before the hammer disappeared again in a puff of smoke, leaving him with his regular sword.

It had happened so fast, with Colette also left speechless. The bear was too busy being stunned.

“Uh…okay, good time to leave now!” Lloyd said, taking Colette’s hand as they rushed from the cave – but not before grabbing both their jackets on the way out as they disappeared into the pouring rain.

--

Once they were well out of the bear’s home, Lloyd and Colette panted once they made it to a clearing, filled with lilies whose petals were wet from the rain. The clouds had parted, leaving them with sunshine that acted like it had never left.

“Lloyd…you did it!” Colette was saying then, even as she tried to catch her breath.

“I…wha?” he questioned. He was not that used to bears like that either… “What’d I do?”

“The Pow Hammer! You summoned one! Only it replaced your sword for a moment!” Colette’s eyes were bright with awe. “I didn’t know that could happen!”

The realization slowly dawned on him. But that had really happened, didn’t it? He had been holding his very own Pow Hammer! Or maybe… “I thought I was holding your Pow Hammer somehow!”

“Really? I don’t remember summoning it… But I wanted to protect you from that bear, so I’m not sure what happened.”

“And I wanted to protect you…” he mused aloud. “Maybe we summoned it together?” Was that how things worked?

“I’ve never heard of that happening either.” And as both mused on the possibilities, both reached to the same conclusion.

“We should totally do that again!” Lloyd announced, while Colette nodded eagerly.

“Yeah!”

Maybe it was in the way Colette held his wrist, or how her soft encouragement was enough. But once he got it, he was swinging bright red hammers – two of them! In place of his swords were two Pow Hammers, both making the satisfying squeaky noises when he practiced strikes against a nearby tree stump. They were super light too! He couldn’t wait to try these out on Kratos next time.

“This is the coolest thing ever!” Lloyd was saying, just before his hammers went back to his regular swords in twin puffs of smoke. “Too bad they don’t last very long.”

“But you did it!” Colette reassured. “It’s because you were thinking of Noishe and Dirk at the time, right?”

“Huh? Oh, right, yeah that was it!” Lloyd cleared his throat, still grinning wide. “But…it was mostly because you helped me, and…I really didn’t want you get hurt.”

That was something he had told Kratos too before seeking training from him. How could he protect Colette if he was always so weak? And even now, he had to look to Colette for help.

Yet when she walked up to him, hair still a little soaked from the rain, she showed him a gratefulness that made his heart skip a beat. “And you helped me too. I’m just happy I could help you back in some way.” Then a soft giggle. “Besides, it’s cute seeing you with double Pow Hammers!”

Lloyd pouted. “But when I use them, they’re more cool than cute!” His pout instantly changed to a smile that reflected Colette’s own. “Next time we’re in battle, I’m counting on you! So we can use our new Pow Blade move together!”

“Aw, that’s such a cute name too!”

“Nooo, it’s supposed to be cool!”

Both laughed, as bright as the sunshine that was free from the clouds. With a smirk of her own, Colette reached out her arm, summoning a Pow Hammer of her own and grasping the handle in her hand. “I think maybe we should train more? We have to get better at using Pow Blade!” She smiled, though she looked shy as she did so. “If you think that’s okay?”

“Are you kidding? That’s great!” Lloyd stood tall, hands on his hips. “I’ll take whatever you throw at me, Master Colette!”

“Hehe.” And with that, she playfully bonked him on the head with her hammer, just gently enough so that it wouldn’t hurt or stun him. “You’re amazing, Lloyd.”

“Ha, yeah, that’s…” Lloyd then suddenly felt all sluggish, his mind slowing down. “That’s…uh…”

“Lloyd?”

He realized just then and groaned. “Colette… I think… poison…”

She blinked. “But I’m not poisoned. I feel fine!”

“No… Your hammer!” he struggled to say as he wobbled, Colette deftly catching him in her arms. “That was…your poison hammer…”

“Ah, I’m sorry!”

“Dork…”

While Colette quickly fed him some antidote gels (which were always really bitter-tasting) Lloyd didn’t really mind it anyway. At the very least, he learned something today! And to learn it with Colette made it even more worth it too.

[euphoricethan]

On The Town - G.D

Summary: a nice coffee date in New York City with the love of his life while talking about starting a family.

Word count: 2k.

In late November of 2023, Grayson was feeling rather bored.

Though, being twenty-four and married, his life seemed to be lacking the flair it held just years ago.

So, he had come up with a plan the night before, while he listened to the light snores of his lover just inches away from him.

He was going to take her on a date. A simple coffee date that he thought would fuel his urge to do something out of his weekly routine. Sure, it was simple, but, different.

His wife, Y/n who was a graduate of NYU and an advanced biology teacher for freshman at Bronx High School of Science, told him a simple “No.” the day of.

“Why not?” He asked perplexed.

“Grayson, I’d love to, but look at all this— there is no way I can go out and just forget about grading over one-hundred papers.”

He cocked his head back, oddly offended. “Are you really turning down your husband for some freshman papers?” He didn’t understand.

“No— Grayson— it’s just, I have so much work to do and I’m already so far behind.” She placed her head in her hands that rested up on the table of their kitchen.

“Oh come on Y/n, when was the last time we had some fun, just you and me?”

She collected herself rather quickly in hopes of ushering him off and getting back to work.

“We had fun at Angelica’s wedding, remember?” She muttered, scribbling down a number at the top of someone’s assignment.

“Angelica is so boring! I nearly fell asleep while people made their toasts. Please, I’m bored. This is boring.”

She let out a slow sigh, but didn’t look up at him.

“You’re only bored if you want to be. It’s a chemical switch you can make in your brain Grayson.”

She was talking science to him, she was far gone from getting her to leave that kitchen table until she was done.

Hours later after the altercation, Grayson was forced back into their room where he found himself organizing his clothes in the closet by color and type just to do something.

Once he gave up halfway, he fell onto the nicely made white bed and face-planted onto the fresh linen bed sheets.

He didn’t know Y/n had walked in.

Grayson let out a sigh, still thinking about ways to trick her into getting out. I could fake breaking my arm? He thought. No. That’s too brutal, she’d have a heart attack.

He was losing hope and turned over, ready to beg Y/n to go onto a date with him when he nearly knocked heads with her.

“Oop-” she said, stumbling back on her heels while Grayson’s reflexes came to the surface and he wrapped his arms around her.

“How long have you been there?” He asked, watching the soft light bring out her eyes.

She did the same to his, remembering the golden and green flakes that shined in the sunlight.

“Not long,” She patted his chest, picking off a small piece of lint.

“You change your mind about going on a date with me?” He then asked, gripping her just a bit harder.

She didn’t answer, but smiled.

“You aren’t ready for this heat, I’m about to do the worst!” He let go of her, and started doing awful choreographed dance moves that were so out-dated he looked like a Dad trying to embarrass their child.

“Oh, god,” she said behind her hand that was covering her mouth while she laughed. “I don’t think I want to now.”

“What? You scared of all this—” he started doing the shimmy around her, circulating her and singing an out of tone song that drove Y/n into overdrive of laughter.

“Stop! Gosh Grayson who are you?!” She exclaimed through laughs.

She wheezed really hard when he tried doing a handstand, but tumbled over onto the big plant in the corner of the room.

“Grayson—”

“I’m good; just lost my balance. I’m fine.” He shrugged it off —along with the small amount of dirt that was resting on his leg— and looked at Y/n out of breath.

“About that date...” he started.

Grayson gripped hard on Y/n’s hand, making sure he didn’t lose her while they swam through the crowd of people getting off the subway.

It’s not like he was didn’t trust her to be able to get off the subway without him, he just didn’t want to lose her in the crowd.

After the swarm had dispersed onto the busy streets of New York City, he reminded himself that she was okay and that he could let some pressure off Y/n’s poor hand.

The city was bright and beautiful; something that he thought about almost every time he was there and always lead back to Y/n.

Because that’s what she was to him; bright and beautiful. She was a teacher for a science school, —which he had never even thought about as a career that a woman would want— and was so stunning he’d do anything just to get her attention for .2 seconds.

That’s what he did in fact. In college, their rooms were in the same hall (three doors down to be exact) and were diagonal to where if you peaked your head out from your desk and the other person's door was open, you could see the whole view of their room.

Occasionally, Y/n’s roommate would accidentally leave their door opened after she got home from her classes, and Grayson, who would be studying for an assignment would see Y/n wrapped up in a cardigan closing the door gently behind her.

It took him months before he finally had enough courage to talk to her.

And when he did, he realized that not only was she even more beautiful from three doors down, but had the personality of an angel. Yes, an angel.

As the months went on, they both became more comfortable with each other, and before they knew it, Grayson was down on one knee at the top of the hospital after her sister Angelica gave birth to her first son.

Grayson held the door open for her, letting her experience the warmth and overwhelming coffee bean smell that reminded her of home.

Y/n scanned the floor of the shop, eyeing down a table for two just near the window.

They both sat down rather quickly, unraveling their heavy jackets and ordering two completely different drinks while they made small talk.

“You know that boy, Roy?” Grayson had no idea who she was talking about, but nodded.

“In my first period? Roy?” She saw right through him, trying her best to jog his memory.

“Anyway, so, Roy, in my first period today he comes up to me and asks me if he can turn his project in on Monday after school. So like, ‘well, you had two school work days and at home.’ and he gets all quiet and nervous and is like ‘well my mom doesn’t have enough gas to take me to the library until Sunday.’” Y/n looked at Grayson’s eyes to see if he was listening. (Sometimes when she would talk, his eyes would get this look in them and she knew it was going straight over his head.)

“Grayson, are you listening?” He nodded and placed his hands under his chin while resting his elbows on the small table.

“So, anyway, I emailed his mom and told him he didn’t have to worry about the project since I know he’s a good kid with good morals.”

Their drinks had arrived, and she thanked the waiter and smiled up at her kindly.

This was one of those times he remembered why he was in love with Y/n.

She was kind, —that was obvious— overwhelmingly a mother figure to her students and overall a good person.

And for some reason, realizing that a small gesture she made, would possibly change lives.

He thought about how it made his insides turn to a soft warm glowing feeling that showed up in his cheeks. The thought about wanting to marry her again, wanting to take their lives to the next level.

A family. Was what flashed in his mind while she smiled at him and waited for him to come back to reality.

“You gonna drink your coffee?” She asked him softly.

“Ye— Yeah. Sorry.”

“No no it’s okay, just thought you’d want me to wait for you.”

There it is again. The little things. His self conscious told him.

Grayson then picked up his cup, gently tapping it with Y/n’s white mug that held a French latte with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.

“You got a latte?” He asked.

“Mhm,” She answered as she took a sip.

“Hm. Must have not been paying attention.”

A calm silence filled in between them before Y/n spoke up. “Well yeah, I’m drinking for two, might as well go all the way.”

He nearly choked on his saliva.

“You— what?”

“What? I mean ever since you stopped drinking dairy I’ve had to start drinking for you and me. It’s basically the same.”

Pulling her brows together, she gave him an almost sad look, not understanding why he said what he said the way he said it.

“What?” She asked.

“No— nothing. It’s just— I just thought you—” his eyes darted to her stomach that was hidden under a dark reddish orange cardigan.

Her head dropped, and her heartbeat sped up almost immediately.

“Oh my g— Grayson, wait. You thought I was—” Y/n’s voice dropped to a soft whisper. “Pregnant?”

He felt embarrassment wash over his facial features. “I mean, I dunno. I was just thinking about it because you said something about a kid and I just— I mean we’re still so young I don’t think we’re ready to have a kid. Unless...” Grayson shrugged.

More silence slid in between them, this time not being so calm.

“Well I don’t know Grayson. We’ve never talked about having kids. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to carry your child— or children. But are we mentally and financially stable for that?” Y/n gripped at his hand gently from across the table, reminding him again of the ring on her finger.

“You’d wanna have my kids? F’real?”

“Well, yeah. I mean— wait, do you not want me to? We haven’t talked much about adoption but if your thinking about it we can—”

“No, Y/n, that’s not what I meant. I mean, like, you’d really want to have a kid? My kid?”

She nodded, and a wide, hard smile formed on her dark red cheeks.

“Yeah. I guess so. I just never thought of it as an ‘if’ more like a ‘when’.” She took another sip of her latte.

After that, they talked a whole bunch more. From Y/n’s crazy childhood stories about how she was the spitting image of her mother, to imagining what their kid would look like with the two of them combined.

Grayson told her about him and Ethan’s crazy antics: crawling out of their cribs and having to have nets on them, hitting their grandma with their bottles, and being wrapped up in what he called a “blanket burrito” by Cameroon and cutting his head open on the metal rim of the trampoline.

They had talked and talked for hours, oblivious and untouched by everyone around them and getting to know even more about each other as if it were one of their firsts dates again.

The two stayed until the shop closed, helping place the chairs upon the table for easier access when the staff mopped the floor. Then, they walked to the subway drunk off lattes and lack of sleep, and ended the day with Y/n falling asleep in Grayson’s lap while he stroked her shiny hair away from her face and behind her ear.

It was the match that started it all.

[vandorens-archive]

ten questions tag | i was tagged by: @mshelleys, @emdrabbles, @pe-ersona, @evergrcen and @septemberliterature. thank you so much, and i’m so sorry i’m getting to this so late!

everything is under the cut!

@mshelleys

i. if you could change the genre of one of your wips, what would you change it to and how would the story/characters change?

So, trahison already features a ghost and a brief stay at a manor. have i considered turning it into a full fledged horror because of that? perhaps.

ii. do you think of your characters as actors playing a part in a movie or as people in history actually doing things that effect the future?

i think of them as actors playing in one long, crazy, unpredictable play. 

iii. role swap your protagonist and antagonist but keep their personalities the same; how different would your story be?

honestly, not different at all, because when it comes to it, the subject of trahison’s antagonist (s) is pretty complex. 

iv. are any of your characters based on you, family, friends, or someone else you know?

oh, absolutely. my characters range between self inserts, to characters i wish i was more like, to characters that are essentially walking, talking, breathing love letters to the people i care about.  

v. how long have you had your main protagonist(s) of your wip(s)?

I’ve been working with marin, nate and ruby for years, long before they were even called that and were a part of a dystopian crime novel (don’t ask). antoine joined them soon after, followed a while later by beth and isadora, and miles was invented during the plotting stage. 

vi. do you prefer to write chronologically or just make a bunch of scenes and order them after they’re written?

it depends on what i’m working on and how serious i am about it, but if we’re only talking about trahison, then chronologically!

vii. imagine the problem in your wip is sorted out, how would the protagonist recount the story to their children if they asked?

with a far away look in his eyes and an uncharacteristic fondness in his voice, marin would turn to his children, and tell them how extraordinary his friends were during his university years—their zeal, their inquisitiveness, and conveniently leaving out the uncomfortable loyalty they all had towards each other, until time and life’s commands separated them. 

viii. favorite (non-spoilery) line(s) of your current wip(s)?

This small bit of description, albeit a little purple prose-y, is one that i’m very, very proud of.

“ The morning rain had made its grave in the dirt, the bittersweet smell—like exotic black tea—rising into the air. It was the night pluviophiles came to dance. If I think hard, I can still taste the ghost of the raindrops on my tongue and sense Beth’s radiating warmth beside me; its own ghost ” - trahison, chapter three

ix. if your wip was a movie, could you see it be done in the 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, or 2010s? why that decade in particular?

so, fun fact, i hadn’t decided when to set trahison (see: the big question mark in my plotting notebook) but i have recently made up my mind and decided to set it in the seventies! if it was a film, then i could see it being made in seventies france! very a la the dreamers.

x. are you able to just make up a story on the spot, or do you need help (plot generators or other outside influences)?

sometimes i’ll take the help of prompts or media, but otherwise i just come up with things on my own!

@emdrabbles

i. what do the names of your main characters mean? did you pick them for the meaning or another reason?

i picked the trahison characters’ names based on two things: how much it related to the character’s backstory or personality, and how pleasing it sounded out loud. here are the meanings of their names:

marin — of the sea

ruby — deep red; precious stone; behold a son

elizabeth — god is my oath

nathaniel — gift from god

antoine — priceless one; beyond praise

isadora — gift of Isis

ii. what book are you currently reading?

I’m currently reading the time machine by h.g wells!

iii. last sentence written?

“ When the end of the world comes — I’ll film it ” — copycat, or the one where i predict the future. 

iv. who are some of your faceclaims?

i usually don’t use faceclaims, but if i had to choose:

marin van doren (trahison) — timor simakov

eloi hill (psychophantia) — maxence danet fauvel

cass parker (penny lane) — monica tomas

v. gimme some worldbuilding facts!!

alright, here’s one: in the world of psychophantia, not only is the magic system and your powers controlled by your morals, but so is your social ranking, your education, and any future you may have—to an extent. 

vi. do you outline? if so, do you have a specific method?

i’m a plotter and only really work well with a solid outline, however, my outlines range from a series of messy, incoherent bullet points to meticulous scene-by-scene planning based around the three act structure. this post is my go to for plotting assistance! 

vii. favourite author?

Like every tumblr user ever, i love donna tartt and maggie stiefvater, but i’m also a huge fan of f.scott fitzgerald, agatha christie and vera caspary!

viii. what is your oldest wip?

trahison! It went through many, many changes — from changes in genre to changes in character names, and there’s still a possibility that it could change even further. 

ix. what is your favourite wip?

every wip i reblog under my #others. tag! You all are so damn talented!

x. where do you get your inspiration from?

everywhere around me! from conversations i have with people, from films and books i consume, from the music on the radio — i like that anything and everything can inspire me to create.

@pe-ersona

i. in one sentence, explain your current wip!

a group of secretive students attempt to become immortal, only to uncover the worst parts of themselves — and each other — as they do. 

ii. was writing your main interest or did you have other interests?

although writing is my main interest (see: my social media bio on every platform ever), i also like to journal, sew, cook and make videos! my interests usually do have to do with the intention of creation. 

iii. what’s your favorite genre to write? to read?

I love writing horror and mysteries. those are my favourite genres, but i also love reading a good contemporary romance!

iv. what is one goal you have for your wip this year? how’s that goal going?

to finish the first draft! so far, not so bad, though i do wish i could write more, but unfortunately, time constraints plus school restrict me from doing so. 

v. how old is your wip? or when did you start writing your wip?

trahison is nearly three years old, but i only started writing the current version of it a year ago. 

vii. what scene made you cry or laugh or both?

these lines made me laugh out loud the first time i wrote them:

“ Up the stairs stumbled Miles, my slovenly genius roommate. He grinned at the giggles and winked at the exasperated stares. 

The gall of him! 

I wanted to be him. 

He managed to find his balance enough to reach our dorm. I immediately stepped back to let him in, and to make sure I was in no association with his uncomposed state. Nate gave a disapproving look at his back as he staggered in. 

I took another step back, raised a pointed eyebrow, and closed the door ” — trahison, chapter three

vii. how many ocs does your wip have? who’s your favourite?

my main wip, trahison, has six main characters. out of the main six, my favourite has to be nathaniel. he is very much the epitome of pure, and sometimes i wonder how he ended up in the middle of such a dark plot. 

vii. you have a brand new idea for a wip, what do you do? 

brainstorm, brainstorm, brainstorm. scribble down whatever the hell pops up in my brain, attempt to link it together by a thin string of yarn, cross my fingers and hope for the best.

ix. you are having your first book-signing, where are you?

i’m in a small bookstore, nestled in a corner near the storage room. almost no one knows about this town, so the line is small but chatty, fans exchanging theories and analysing certain paragraphs. the sight of them makes me feel warm inside. 

x. you have the ability to live in any book, publishing or not, what would it be?

would it be too cliche to say the harry potter universe? other than that, other worlds i would love to be a part of is the world in my novel penny lane, or in midst of a detective story.

@evergrcen / @septemberliterature

i. how did you come up with your wip’s title? what does it mean in relation to the story?

okay, so i discovered the word ‘trahison’ after hearing my french teacher say it, and immediately knew i had to use it for something. ‘trahison’ means betrayal or treason in french, which is one of the main themes in the novel. 

ii. do you title your chapters? if so, what’s your favourite?

I don’t, but I would love to!!

iii. what’s a recent line you really like?

Not a very dramatic or noteworthy line, but here’s one from a poem i’m writing:

“ So the two of you get in the car, proceeding to have an argument with the radio ” — examples of easy solutions, or the one where the internet has no answers. 

iv. are there any writing-related quotes you really like?

“i think a lot of art is trying to make someone love you” — keaton henson

v. do you have an idea for a cover design for your story?

A black background with serif text, that’s it. It’s simple. It’s mysterious. It’s the type of vibe I want to exude. 

vi. what sort of au can you imagine your story being?

...dark academia au anyone?

just kidding. in all seriousness, though, i can see a royalty/political au for trahison, or a medieval fantasy au!

vii. which oc would be the most angry with you as the writer?

eloi. i really need to give that poor boy a break. 

viii. if you had to tell the story from a different pov, which character would you choose?

ruby! she’s the token enigma of trahison, so i think her point of view would be very interesting to see. 

ix. what would be your oc’s taste in music if they lived in our world?

OKAY let’s see:

marin — classic rock, so the who, queen, def leppard.etc

ruby — that one person who you’re pretty sure only listens to classical music, but is actually very attuned to modern day music. she would mostly listen to female singer-songwriters, so take lorde, marina, lana del rey, and other such artists. 

beth — take one look at her playlist, and you’ll see that ninety five percent of it is mitski, while the other five percent is bedroom pop. she would like very tender, calm, cry to in bed music. 

Antoine — same as marin, but add other modern day music artists with eclectic sounds, such as twenty one pilots, arctic monkeys, that sort of thing.

nathaniel — classical music, instrumentals, and film soundtracks make up his playlist. if it has sung words, he won’t listen to it. has little to no understanding of modern day music and is too scared to find out more about it.

isadora — 2000’s diva pop plays in the background of her life. rihanna is her go to whenever she gets to control the party. Don’t be surprised if ‘rich girl’ by gwen stefani starts playing in your head at the sight of her. 

x. what’s one personal goal you want to achieve by the end of the story?

finishing it with pride!

[artbymintcookies]

Fic or treat! So I am eggnon from a few weeks ago, and went to a Holloween murder mystery party, and egg girl was there! She didn't recognize me (I think) but there was music playing and I managed to swing dance with her a little. Dunno if you want to continue what you wrote or create a new fic, but I would enjoy either

I hadn’t meant to write so much because I wanted this to be funny but i wrote 1.5k words.

—

Frank finds himself at a party. Something he hadn’t really done since he was 16 and his buddy had just gotten a used pick-up for dirt cheap and they could bribe all the seniors at school by sneaking in his dad’s stash of liquid goodies.

He wouldn’t usually indulge, be he’s going to be out training in a month’s time, so he figures he owes himself this one. Get some good memories in to remind himself what he’ll be fighting for. Good food, good drink, good company.

He hadn’t expected to really know anyone there. He didn’t branch out much at work and his huge Italian family back home was enough of a handful even through mostly texts and calls. He socializes enough. He just isn’t that social.

Frank is keen, though. His eyes detail his surroundings with a particular acuity, and he makes judgements before he can process them. He scans faces, not one by one, but as a whole.

At the party, he recognizes pockets of friend groups he had encountered on campus. He knows the cilantro preferences of half of the people in the room. He knows who the good tippers are. He knows who aren’t.

He knows which steal eggs.

But he keeps it to himself because he doesn’t know how much of it is a normal amount of information to store. He drinks his piss dirt beer. He enjoys the shitty little coloured lighting set-up, no doubt macgyvered by some college kids who don’t study tech.

He participates in a whodunit sort of game with a bunch or argumentative pre-laws, and he finds himself wedged between the the arm of the sofa and some blind kid with too many opinions and not enough charm to back it up. Next to that guy is the egg boy, whose name is, apparently, Nelson.

The rest of the group has a lot of strong opinions as to the identity of the murderer and the accusations fly wildly in all directions. Everyone has at least a few fingers pointed at them, Frank included. Well, it would seem that way to someone who doesn’t keep track. Nelson seems as innocent as they come and there’s no reason to suspect him.

Frank knows better. Nelson has his tells. His smile being a little too wide, the charming deflection onto some other poor schmuck. He taps his fingers excitedly when the suspicion slides off of him and he sits on his hands when it gets too obvious, but no one’s looking at him anyways.

In the spirit of the game, Frank should probably say something, but he’s curious to see where it would go. And Nelson isn’t dumb. He figures out pretty soon that Frank knows, and as soon as he figured out that Frank knows, he starts winking at him between the heated debates from their compatriots.

It only takes another round for the blind kid, Murdock, to be killed off, pouting profusely at Nelson before heading towards the rest of the party in the kitchen. Frank could swear he sees him smack Nelson on the back of the head with the handle of his cane, but he goes willingly.

And then Nelson is whispering into Frank’s ear and it sends a shiver down his spine. “Wanna see how far I can go?” the man asks. Frank looks at him in amusement for a second and Frank almost smiles, but an accusatory finger lands right at them. A girl frowns heatedly at the pair.

“What are you talking about? Is one of you the murderer? Are there cahoots afoot?” she says.

Frank just wraps an arm around the guy, and his other hand reaches over to fondle a supple thigh. “That’s not for you to know, little lady. We were just making plans for later,” he lies to cover for the kid. Nelson smiles up at him, and it feels a little like getting hit with the entire force of the sun. Frank also can’t look away. Unbidden, his hand moves up Nelson’s thigh.

“Okay, gross. Do that on your own time,” she dismisses. “It’s either McGill or Uppal, right? It’s got to be. McGill was downright belligerent last round and now Murdock’s out.”

And the game wears on.

Nelson wins. They do tell you to watch out for the unassuming ones.

Nelson finds Frank a while later by the snacks table, reaching for a sausage roll.

“Castle, right? I don’t know if I recognize you,” he greets, unshyly popping an entire donut hole in his mouth. “You’re not in the program are you?” He chews while he talks and Frank finds it oddly comforting because it means he doesn’t have to put on a face. He takes an indelicate bite of the roll.

“Nah,” Frank confirms.

“I’m sure I’ve seen your face before, though.”

“You have.”

Nelson’s face scrunches up with the effort of thinking and Frank’s mouth tugs upward at the way his nose upturns. “Where?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Frank says. It doesn’t matter because he’s not a student at the school. It doesn’t matter because it was a thirty second interaction. It doesn’t matter because in a month, he’ll be in South Carolina.

“No,” Nelson frowns, leaning in closer to study Frank’s face. “Can I have a hint at least?”

Frank let out a single laugh, shaking his head. “No.”

“Was it something illegal?”

“Yeah,” Frank says, leaning his hip on the table and watching Nelson try to piece it all together.

“Was I high? Did I do something stupid?”

Frank shrugs and leans over to get a couple of beers from behind the other man. 

“No, let me think for a second before you start buttering me up,” he pouts, cracking open his can and drinking generously from it anyway.

“I’ll consider it, counselor.”

“Not a lawyer, yet,” the man corrects, shifting their bodies so that they’re touching shoulder to wrist.

“No, you’re a murderer apparently,” Frank agrees. “Killed everyone at this party.”

“Not you. You survived because I like you.” Nelson chuckles into his drink and Frank watches the liquid bob of his throat.

Frank laughs some more. It feels good. “Keeping the dangerous ones close gets you far.”

“I like that. Keep me close,” Nelson says, making something like melancholy regret pool in Frank’s stomach.

“Why don’t we dance, Nelson?” Frank offers instead, reaching a hand out and waiting for the other boy to follow him. Nelson frowns but takes the hand anyway.

The song is foreign. Some electronic German number with heavy bass. Nelson brings him in to sway slowly, tenderly.

At one point, Nelson leans up to kiss him, and they mesh together in the moving lights and shifting darkness. They taste like everything between them. Sugar, salt, excitement, anticipation.

“What did you do with the eggs?” Frank asks nonsensically once they part.

“What?”

“Eggs. I work at the eggs place you stole from three weeks ago,” Frank unveils.

Like a discovery, Nelson marvels. “No shit?”

Frank shakes his head and shrugs gruffly. “I look different out of the apron, I guess.”

“No shit!” Nelson exclaims excitedly, finally placing Frank’s face and demeanour.

“So…?” Frank prompts.

“So?”

“What did you do with the eggs?”

Nelson let out a joyous sound. A bright and ringing laughter. “Would you believe I made myself an omelet?”

They both bend out of their embrace to laugh.

“I coulda done that for you,” Frank says, warm and too affectionate.

“But then I would ever know egg-stealing is an option,” Nelson howled. “I could be a criminal mastermind!”

Frank nods along. “Yeah, egg theft is a federal offense, actually. You oughtta be arrested.”

“You’re not a cop, are you?”

“Military, actually. But military is authorized to make arrests,” Frank says, a smidge prideful, but mostly melancholy.

“Wait, actually? Are you actually a cop?”

“Sorta.”

“Okay, then. I’ve never done anything illegal in my life, sir.“

Frank nods firmly. “Clearly. Neither have I, counselor.”

“I’m not a lawyer yet,” Foggy reminds him, leaning in even closer, as if to tell him a secret.

“And I start training in a month. We can think ahead a little,” Frank says.

“Yeah, but citizens have limited policing powers, so you may as well. I won’t be practicing law until I finish school.”

Frank frowns spectacularly. “You telling me you can’t get me off for all my illegal activities?

"Oh, I’ll get you off,” Nelson promises. Frank kisses him again.

“I’ll let you know if I ever murder someone.”

Nelson pulls Frank closer by the belt loop and, God help him, Frank feels dizzy.

“I should let you know I’m moving to South Carolina next month. If we do this, it’s not gonna get very far,” Frank tells him, ruefully.

For a second, Nelson looks disappointed, but he doesn’t let go. When he looks back up to Frank again, Nelson is dimples and teeth.

“What I’m hearing is that we have a whole month to have fun. We’re both here for now. Let’s enjoy it, right?”

Frank smirks in agreement and gives the other boy a delicate twirl to a heavy bass drop.

The situation is misaligned to them. They’re from different parts of society. The timing is wrong. Their personalities don’t harmonize. Frank shouldn’t like this boy, but he does.

So they dance on, mismatched to the music, slow despite the tempo. They hold onto each other, they kiss each other.

“One month,” Foggy breathes into Frank. “Then you can forget I exist. Get married. Go have kids. Whatever you want.”

Frank grins into their hazy and intimate space. The music blares on. “I’ll make you eggs in the mornings,” he promises. “I’ll be good for you.”

[aj-artjunkyard]

Hogwarts School Of Divinity (A ToA crossover fic)

Artemis and I kept our arms tightly linked as we entered the great hall. There was so many people. Hundreds of teenagers silently judging, trying to wire out which house we would be in by our looks and family trees. Not that I minded, of course. Being the centre of attention is kind of my thing. We all shuffled up the wide aisle between the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables, feeling the hundreds of eyes latched onto us. I glanced to my right and caught the eye of Persephone, my Slytherin half-sister who was in her seventh year at the time. She paid no attention to me, and kept on scarfing down a large plate of ham, taking no breaths between bites. I shuddered. Sometimes that girl really grossed me out. A few tables away from her sat Ares, my Gryffindor half brother. He was in his fourth year, and was making a racket by chucking pieces of food at the poor Hufflepuffs at the table in front of him.

I pitied the Hufflepuffs. They had no reputation. They were dirt among diamonds. The youngest, untalented sibling. A bunch of sissies. That’s what my dad told me. 

“Only the weak are put in Hufflepuff!” He had thundered. “My children are either cunning, brave, clever or nothing! The Hufflepuffs are the friendly ones,” he had spat. “Is that what you want to be known for? Friendliness?” Father had been a Slytherin when he was at school. A great one, too. He had been Head Boy and Prefect, so I figured he knew what he was talking about. The only people in my family who have been in Hufflepuff were my mother, my uncle Hades and my auntie Hestia. All were okay, I guess, but I did not want to be pegged as soft-spoken or a wuss. I had so many half-siblings and family, and I wanted to stand out. I wanted to make my dad proud.

We reached the top table, where an old, grimy looking hat was placed on a simple wooden stool. 

“Oh please,” I whispered to my twin. “They expect us to wear that dusty old thing? And that stool. Would it not be more welcoming if it were say…a golden throne? Just spitballing ideas, don’t bother making me headmaster yet.” Artemis rolled her eyes.

“You are so high maintenance!” She whispered back to me. “You do realise we are not going to be pampered like we are at home?”

“Honestly, Artie. Once they see us arrive at the Gryffindor table, they’ll make us their leaders!” She smirked at my comment. 

“We are going to own these losers. I just hope we don’t get stuck with our father’s legacy. I mean, Head Boy and Prefect? That’s a lot to live up to.”

“Ach, don’t sweat it sis! When we’re Head Boy and Girl, dad will be so impressed. Athena’s the only other one who’s really got a shot so far. And she’s four years ahead of us. We’ll have no trouble landing those crowns.”

The deafening voice of Professor Hera, the universally hated vice principal and my step-mother, rang out, the sound reverberating off the stone walls and commanding silence. She declared that Headmaster Zeus (my dad) could not be here tonight, for he was off on school business. A slight snigger went up from the crowd. My dad was a known ladies’ man and irresistible bachelor. How else would he have so many kids who weren’t even directly related? Every time he was ‘off on school business’ a new kid cropped up a couple of years later. Hera did not seem to find this particularly funny, and snapped at the students for silence. She then explained how the sorting worked, and reluctantly stepped back to allow the hat to sing its yearly song. This was the part I’d been looking forward to. I love music. 

“Step up, step up! And gather round,

To find where you belong.

All of you I shall astound,

With my great sorting song!

One of four you shall be,

But do not fear or fret.

I‘m never wrong as you shall see,

When on your head I’m set!”

It went on for a few more verses, and I could only get more excited. The hat was so good at this! I would have to get his advice while I was up there.

All too soon, the song ended, and Hera began calling names. 

“Diana, Artemis!”

My dear sister squeezed my hand and dashed up to the podium. No sooner than the hat was placed on her head, it sprang to life and screamed: “GRYFFINDOR!” 

Whoops and cheers engulfed the right side of the room. Artemis suppressed a wide grin as she made her way over to the sea of red. Our family was well-known and it was usually an honour to have one of us on your team. She would most definitely be welcomed. More names were called. I was not worried. I would surely get into Gryffindor. That’s where my twin was, and we were alike in so many ways.  Besides, if worst came to worst, I could tolerate Ravenclaw - of course, I was as creative as they get.

When there was about ten kids left, it happened. 

“Phoebus, Apollo!”

I smirked and sauntered my way up to the front, and and on the stool, grinning over at the Gryffindor table, letting them know I’d be a good addition to their house. My sister nodded to me, seeming a lot more nervous than I was. I felt the hat being placed on my head.

Immediately, my head was buzzing with voices and old memories being yanked to the surface of my brain from deep in my subconscious. A gruff, echo-y voice ‘hmm’ed and muttered to itself; “Well...that’s interesting. Very interesting indeed...” I gripped the sides of the stool. 

“Interesting?” I thought to the hat, not sure if it would hear or respond.

“What’s interesting is that you could easily belong to any house. You’ve got a lot of clashing attributes. Hmmm...intelligent, but not fore-thinking. Kind but vengeful and quick to anger. Confident yet insecure. Quite a tricky one.”

“Gryffindor, please. Also, I liked your song.” The hat chuckled. It sounded like an old squeaky toy had been clogged with dust. 

“Thanks. But it’s not that simple, kid.”

This mumbling and going back and forth between houses lasted an eternity. I saw Ares yawn and turn his attention back to chucking bread at first years. Over at the Ravenclaw table, my half-sister Athena furrowed her eyebrows and concentrated on me, probably trying to figure out if her previous predictions on my house had been incorrect. Artemis only stared at me, but made no emotion obvious. 

“Well, kid. You’ve got the stuff. I think you’ll be...”

“HUFFLEPUFF!” The hat hollered across the hall, sending a roar of applause and cheering from the Hufflepuff table. It had been years since they’d had someone from my family in their house, that last being my boring uncle Hades, and they were ecstatic. surely, given my great ancestry, I would win them fame! Let me tell you, dear reader, I was crestfallen. Completely and utterly crushed.

I felt all colour drain from my face as I looked over at my sister for reassurance. She did not look shocked. Instead, she wore a pitying, knowing expression. That look wounded me even deeper. I swallowed hard as I stood, drunkenly staggering to a free space, any space on the Hufflepuff benches. The Loser Benches. My knees wobbled dangerously and my hands trembled. Finally finding a free spot, slipped in and shook off the pats on the back and scowled at those who punched me gently on the shoulder in way of greeting. Of course, this usually would have been my cue to flash my glorious white-toothed grin at all who were around me, but the situation had caught me extremely off guard. Every word of congratulations and welcome washed over my head in a wave of static. I was reduced to glaring daggers into the steaming bowl of carrots on the table.

The rest of the ceremony went by in a blur. Other unfortunate pansies at the Hufflepuff table had received my wordless message and left me alone, until a third year elbowed me in the ribs, nodding his head towards a copper-skinned seventh year student clad in black and yellow robes who must have been the Head Boy. He was rounding up the youngest and yelling: “First years! First year Hufflepuffs, follow me please!” across the hall. I reluctantly stood and tried to be as inconspicuous as possible (I know! How unlike me! Surely the very bricks of the school should have ripped apart at the very thought) as I made my way toward him. 

We passed the Gryffindors on the way out of the Great Hall. Frantically, I looked around for any sign of Artemis, but instead was met with Ares’ malice grin. He pushed himself in between me and the rest of my house, causing a traffic jam of students. The  second and third years that surrounded us gave me worried glances; they’d seen the wrath of my brother. But so had I. 

“Dad’s gonna hang you, Sunny,” he jeered, stomping closer to me. I stood my ground, glaring up at his fiery amber eyes. I had dealt with my half-witted half-brother a billion times before. He was all bark, no bite. I was not scared of him. 

“Go complain to your mummy, Ares.” I retorted, pointing up the hall to the teacher’s table where Hera sat talking to Demeter, the Herbology professor. “Or does she not care about you either?” He scowled.

“You’re one to talk, brat. You got the Loser house, just like your Loser mother!”

“Take it back,” I hissed, my hands curling into fists. He laughed gruffly. Taking another step, he puffed out his chest and held up his chin in pride. I rolled up my right sleeve, and Ares’ toothy grin widened, hitting me full force with his pungent breath. But before things could get physical (eg: interesting), the Hufflepuff Head Boy whom I was supposed to be following shouldered himself between us. 

“Back off you two,” he said in his obviously practiced ‘Authoritative Voice’. “And you there, Ares. Don’t think the headmaster doesn’t have his eye on you. One wrong move and you’ll be out of this school faster than you can say ‘Hogwarts’. I’d say your father would be far more disappointed in a failure student than one that was put in an unpopular house. Now shoo!” Ares, like the coward he was, scampered off and disappeared in the crowd. The older boy turned to me. “You okay?” I only grunted in response. He gave a half-hearted kind smile and guided me back to the gaggle of students who were swarming down a old stairwell, were he left to push his way back to the front of the line to become their leader again.

The Hufflepuffs flocked through wide, stone corridors alongside the Slytherins, who were also heading down into the basement. Persephone caught up with me and chatted excitedly about how dead I was.

“Daddy’s going to murder you!” She japed in a cheerful sing-song voice. “Oh, you are dead meat, Sunny. You going to have to stay here during the holidays and-oh! Maybe you’ll have to stay over the summer too! Isn’t that awful?” She giggled in that annoying way that girls do. Her dark glossy hair spilled down her shoulders in waves, reminding me of reeds that had withered in the sun. A curl of it was pinned back in a brooch shaped like a skull. Her tanned complexion reflected the light of the magical candles floating down the hallways. Her eyes were her mother’s; deep and green, but with a certain scheming cruelness in them that Demeter’s eyes did not possess. Those were my father’s genes. With one last snort of laughter, she informed me that she was off to scare more ‘firsties’, and ran ahead.

Eventually, the two houses parted ways, the Slytherins going deeper underground while we took a left and continued on the same floor. As we passed a large, intricate still life of a bowl of fruit, the Head Boy at the front yelled “Nearly there!” Not twenty seconds after, the group stopped. I couldn’t see what all the commotion was about. Had we run into a ghost who told us to get lost? Had we taken a wrong turn? Or maybe they’d finally realised that I should be up in one of the towers, with the Gryffindors. Yes, that last one seemed likely. I stood on my tip-toes and jumped, but all I could see was a ceiling-to-floor stack of old, dusty barrels. Boring. 

“Okay, first years! Come up to the front please! Second to seventh years, make way! You already know how this works.” The second to seventh years did as they were asked, and squished themselves to the side of the corridor, smiling and giggling, giddy from being in the company of their friends at Hogwarts once again. The first years filtered to the front, and faced the stack of barrels, most of us equally confused (though some no doubt had siblings in this house before them, and knew of the secret entrance before I did). “Alright, now listen closely! If you get this wrong, you may have to take several showers before you get the stench off you!” He said cheerfully, his voice echoing down the candle-lit hallway. 

A girl in front of me nudged the person next to her and hissed; “What’s that supposed to mean?” 

Another girl whispered back; “If you tap the wrong barrel or the wrong sequence, one of the lids bursts off and drenches you in vinegar! How cool is that?” I shuddered. The last thing I wanted was to stink and be wearing yellow robes on my first day in class. 

Meanwhile, the Head Boy had been explaining the password, and had now paused to look for a volunteer. I wasn’t worried. I’d been here for no more than a few short hours, and already he’d had to pull me from a fight and see me getting stroppy at the dinner table. He’d choose one of the wide-eyed kids, who would probably thank the barrels if they got a vinegar shower. But despite common sense, his eyes landed on me. 

“You there,” he pointed. “Come on over! Don’t be shy! I’ll walk you through it.” I cursed my natural stand-out-from-the-rest demeanour, and shuffled forward. I did not want a reason to embarrass myself. He put one strong hand on my shoulder, and pointed at a barrel. “That one there. Barrel two from the bottom, middle of the second row. Remember: tap to the rhythm of ‘Helga Hufflepuff’, yeah? ‘Hel-ga Huff-le-puff’.”

Leaning toward the barrel, I poised my finger over the old wood and looked over my shoulder, where the Head Boy gave me an encouraging nod. This was just like music, right? Just a simple five-beat rhythm. I could do this. I tapped the barrel. 1-2 1-2-3. 

The barrel’s curve swung open, revealing a little upward-sloping earthen passage. Cheers went up from the crowd behind me, and I couldn’t help a little smile creeping through my grumpy facade. Advancing one by one, they patted me on the back before turning to the entrance. They made their way into the passage, ducking down to get through the barrel, but straightening up once through the wooden doorway. A minute or so later, there was only me and the Head Boy left in the corridor. I looked at him quizzically.

“Why would you choose me?” I asked. “I’ve been nothing but trouble all night.” He chuckled.

“You only needed encouragement. I’ve seen the principle - your dad - angry. I don’t blame you for wanting to be in a different house, especially if a parent’s opinion is involved. There’s one like you every year. The one who thinks they’ve let everyone down before they’ve even  begun, just by being put in the ‘friendly’ house. I was that student too, believe it or not. All they need is a gentle push, like the Head Girl did for me when I was a first year. It’ll work out,” He prodded his temple. “The hat knows best. Now get inside. Next comes your mission briefing.”

“My what?”

“It’s a Hufflepuff rite of passage. You’ll see.”

It turned out that the so-called ‘Hufflepuff rite of passage’ was more of a trust-building team exercise. Each first year was put into groups of five or six, and took it in turns to be sent out into the hallway to find the kitchen. (“A well-known Hufflepuff trait is our brilliant finding abilities” a student had told us. “Don’t stray from this corridor. That’s all the clues you’ll get from me.”) The group who came back with the best snacks won. The kitchen happened to be behind the painting of the fruit, and could be opened by tickling the pear. (I still don’t quite understand how a fellow first year figured that out. They said that “If I were a pear stuck in a boring old painting all day, I’d want to be tickled too!” There’s really no explanation I can give you, reader. Apologies.) The house elves in the kitchen gave us full access to the cupboards, and told us to take whatever we wanted. Nice guys, those house elves. We stocked up on as much junk food as we could carry. Croissants and Jelly Babies, cinnamon rolls and danish pastries, peppermint toads and leftover pudding from the feast.

Upon arrival back to the common room, we dumped our treats down by the armful. Every pocket, sleeve and hood was filled with some kind of tasty confection. We were judged. Unsurprisingly, my group lost to the five kids who had came back with ambrosia (an enchanted brownie-like substance that glittered gold and changed its flavour to whatever you wanted while still in your mouth). None of us sulked. None of them teased. We all simply enjoyed the food together - it was divine.

By the time the clock struck 2am, the Head Boy advised us all to go to bed. I waved goodnight to my new acquaintances, and left the low-ceilinged, sofa-ridden, comfy common room. When I saw the official black and yellow Hufflepuff robes laid out neatly on my assigned bed (The first years had been wearing plain black robes bought from Diagon Alley until they were allocated a house) I somehow knew that dusty old hat was right after all.

[littlemisssquiggles]

RWBY Squiggle Script #18: His Two Favourite Roses

Picture it. Ruby and Oscar are on a mission together in Atlas. Alongside their respective teams, the two smaller honest souls are assisting Weiss in investigating the rumours circling around her family company: the SDC. In a similar fashion to Sun and Neptune during the events of V2, Rose Fox (Oscar’s childhood friend and fellow student of Atlas Academy) happens to stumble in on JNPR and RWBY while they were making their reconnaissance plans and unceremoniously invites herself on the mission with Oscar awkwardly vouching for her inclusion to make peace.

During the mission, our heroes run into some trouble while tailing a lead leading to Ruby, Oscar and Rose being separated from their friends during the high speed chase. They are then cornered and ambushed by some thugs sent to take them out. Unfortunately for their opponents, all three huntsmen were more than capable of honing their own in a fight and easily take them down. Even Oscar proved himself well on his own.

This scene takes place during the aftermath of said clash where our trio are celebrating their victory. Well two of them at least. While Rose and Oscar joined each other in a triumphant high five, Ruby just looked on in awkward silence.

Rose: *cheerfully* That was A-MA-ZING!

Oscar: *equally excited; practically bouncing on his toes* Right! You were so cool Rose!

Rose: *punches Oscar on the shoulder playfully* Me? What about you Mr. Hunts-Man? Since when does a Munchkin know how to kick ass and take names, huh?

Her cheeky comment was rewarded with Oscar lightly shoving her back with a cheeky look of his own.

Oscar: Since he’s been travelling with other huntsmen, that’s what’s what. Ruby’s also helped me a lot with my training. I’d still be garbage if it weren’t for our training sessions.

Oscar smiled at Ruby warmly. Ruby couldn’t help but smile softly at the farm boy’s enthusiasm. Unfortunately, Rose Fox happened to notice their brief exchange; hands chivalrously on hips now.

Rose: Colour me impressed. Wait…so you two have travelled together and trained together?

Oscar: Yeah.

Rose: Alone?

Oscar: Uh huh.

Rose then made a face. It wasn’t precisely a negative expression. Just one that was a clear combination of amusement mixed in with something else that Ruby couldn’t put her finger on as it disappeared as quickly as it came; now replaced with a catty smirk as Rose glanced in her direction. Oscar, on the other hand, was innocently oblivious.  

Rose: Well…looks like you’ve been taking real good care of my boy over here Ms. Ruby Rose. I wonder what other moves you’ve taught him during your private sessions.

Ruby winced at the rather suggestive tone in Rose’s voice. ‘What is she getting at?’ Ruby thought in annoyance but before she could voice her aggravation, Oscar beat her to the punch as he poked Rose.

Oscar: Hey quit teasing Ruby! Not everyone is me and could stomach your buttheadness. Besides…she didn’t teach me all my moves. There’s still a couple in there that are Oscar Pine originals.

Rose: *giggles* Well, maybe we can have our own training sessions so you could show me those moves sometime.

Rose flashes a toothy smile making Oscar blush slightly, rubbing the back of his neck bashfully. Although her face was as straight as a pin, Ruby felt herself mentally gag.

Rose: And speaking of moves, what of that move we did together, huh? Pretty badass, right?

Oscar: Yeah it was. Reminds me of when we used to play pretend huntsmen and tried coming up with own team attacks.

Rose: …And failed miserably because we were dumb kids.

Oscar: *laughs* True but…still great. Just like old times.

Rose: *beaming* Exactly. You know. We make a great team, don’t we?

Rose then boldly takes Oscar’s hand, smiling…bright and beautiful. In the presence of another young man, that smile would have won Rose his heart. Ruby knew this and couldn’t help but fidget, stomach contorting in awkward knots as she observed Rose batter her eyes at Oscar with all the allure of the clever vixen she was. But to Rose’s surprise, Oscar didn’t take her bait.

Oscar: Yeah we do. All three of us, right Rubes?

Oscar looks over at Ruby; face beaming. Rose stiffened and Ruby, in turn, blinked in surprise.

Ruby: *awkwardly* ...Uh...I---I don't think she meant me too Oscar.

Oscar: *incredulously* Are you kidding me? This trio isn't complete without you, right Rose?

Now Oscar turned his eyes back to Rose, waiting for her agreement. Rose blanched.

Rose: …Uh…of course. You know the ole saying. It’s takes three to tango. *laughs uncomfortably*

Rose then clears her throat to account for her sudden awkwardness.

Rose: Uh… isn’t there a mission we should be getting back to.

For once, Ruby actually agreed with the sly fox.

Ruby: Right. It looks like we took out the last of those thugs. They shouldn’t be bothering us anymore.

Oscar: *cautiously* What about you Rose? Picked up anything off?

With her nose to the wind, Rose inhaled sharply in inspection of their surroundings. Her fox ears flicked back and forth on high alert as she listened carefully for any further anomalies.

Rose: …No. Nothing smells off and I don’t hear anything unusual coming our way either so we should be all clear to go.

Ruby: We should probably check in with Weiss and the others. Make sure everyone made it safely to the rendezvous point. We may have lost track of the thugs but maybe if we all meet up, we can exchange what we found.

Rose: Just wish we didn’t have to turn up empty-handed.

Oscar: That might not be the case.

Oscar walked over to the nearest wall, preparing himself to climb.

Ruby: Where are you going?

Oscar: To check the upper building. While we were fighting, I saw one of the thugs chuck something up there that looked like a Scroll. If we’re lucky, it might contain some clues about the enemy. Gonna scope it out just to be sure. You guys stay down here.

Rose: *incredulously* What! You’re gonna leave two vulnerable pretty girls like us all alone in a dark alleyway at night?

Oscar: *rolls his eyes yet chuckles* No. I’m leaving two very competent huntresses who just finished wiping the floor with a bunch of armed goons who I trust can more than take care of themselves. Besides, better I go because if anything happens, at least I know you two are safe here and that’s what matters.

Ruby: …Oscar…

Rose: *gushing* Ooooh look at you sounding all noble and serious like a true blue commanding huntsman. That's a very attractive look on you Oscar.

Oscar staggered; nearly tripping on himself from Rose’s remark.

Oscar: *blushing and embarrassed* Wha---What? No! St---Stop teasing me Rose! I---I'll go check the thing now.

With that, Oscar climbed. You would think he wouldn’t be able to given his size and skill level but Oscar scaled the wall like it was a flat piece of cardboard as Ruby and Rose looked on in wonder. To her side, Ruby heard Rose exhale one long enthralled whistle. Ruby, on the other hand, couldn’t help but smile proudly. Her boy had come a long way since his early days.

Rose: You know he is so cute to tease.

She then turned her gaze on Ruby, lips curling in mischief as she sneered.

Rose: …Or maybe he's just cute in general, am I right?

There it was again. That suggestive tone. Ruby could feel the warmth rising in her cheeks and she avoided the Faunus girl’s eyes as she looked away coyly.

Ruby: ...I wouldn't really...

Rose: What? You don't think Oscar's cute?

Ruby: *fidgety*...I...I would much rather focus on the mission.

Rose: Right. The mission.

Rose then went quiet. For a few beats, Ruby welcomed the awkward silence between them. Sadly, it lasted as long as one would expect when talking to Rose Fox.  

Rose: You know when I said we before, you do realize I didn’t mean no trio, right?

Ruby swallowed. Her throat felt unpleasantly dry.

Ruby: *humourlessly* Yeah I…figured just as much.

Rose: Wow. I'm impressed and here I thought you were just a dainty little girl from Patch playing huntress. You're smarter than you look. And since you're so smart…

Now Rose was up in Ruby’s face, looking down at her dauntingly. It didn’t help that she was a whole foot taller than Ruby.

Rose: You should also know you can't spell team with three letters.

Ruby: *scoffs* Just as how there's no U and I in team either.

This earned her a laugh from Rose. Short. Sweet and completely condescending.

Rose: Well, well, two for two. Guess I’m not the only rose here with thorns. But careful Rubes, this rose also bites.

As if to prove her point, Rose smiled wide revealing her long, pointy canines.

By her imagination, she believed she had Ruby overwhelmed. But unbeknownst to Rose, Ruby Rose had faced dangers far more treacherous and impressionable than the likes of one Faunus girl trying to pull rank. 

Now it was Ruby’s turn to turn on Rose, countering her piss poor intimidation tactic with an aloof confidence of her own. She didn’t say anything. Not like she needed to. Her stern appearance and the way her silver eyes shone like cold steel under the coat of her unbridled indignation said all that she needed to voice on how she was prepared to not back down from whatever challenge the other rose was daring to propose.  

Her indifference only served to entice Rose’s hilarity as she gleamed; more entertained than she was before.

For a few more beats, the roses stood in their deadlock until an encroaching noise caught their attention. Both girls trained their gaze just in time to see Oscar land skillfully on the dirt not too far from them.

Rose: Aye look who’s back. What’d you find Munchkin?

Oscar answered Rose with a confidant grin, holding up something big and dark that was bigger than his own hand.  

Oscar: You gals should learn to trust my instincts more. Read em and weep.

Ruby: Is that a…

Oscar: Yup. A Scroll. Told ya.

Rose: That don’t look like no ordinary Scroll. At least not a model I’ve seen. Looks outdated too.

Oscar: You’re right. It’s probably a really old series that’s been modified by the enemy to suit their agenda. Whoever these guys are, they’re working with someone who knows their way around building tech. Definitely an engineer.

Rose: You got all that from a grandpappi Scroll?

Oscar:  Aren’t you glad one of us pays attention to Professor P’s lectures.

Ruby: Okay. Well did you find anything on it?

Oscar: …Well…yes and not exactly? Unlocking it was actually the easy part but…everything on here seems to be encrypted.

Ruby: What does that mean?

Rose: He means there’s nothing on it which means we got diddly squat.

Oscar: Wrong. There’s definitely something on here that the goons didn’t want anyone else outside their organization to know about. That’s why they tried to hide it. That’s why everything is encrypted. Whatever secrets they’re hiding, it’s written in a language that can’t be read by the normal human eye. Not unless you have something like…a hacking software or a decoder or something.

Rose: You wouldn’t happen to have one of those hacky-sacky decoder things on you right now, would you?

Oscar: No. Unfortunately I’m not a hacker. But…I think I might know someone who can help. Sorry I can’t give you better news though.

Ruby: Are you kidding? That’s the best lead we have. Let’s meet up with the others and let them know what we found out. *smiles at Oscar warmly* Great work Oscar.

Oscar smiles, humbled by Ruby’s complement. However his moment of appreciation from Ruby is only disturbed by Rose teasingly making a catcall whistle directed his way. If Oscar’s face were any redder, he’d put both Rose girls to shame.

Oscar: *blushingly* R---Rose I said stop it with that!

Ruby: Ahem! Can we get a move on now? 

Oscar:  Affirmative. Lead the way fearless leader.

Oscar flashed Ruby a smile. Bright and surprisingly…charming. Finding herself suddenly self-conscious, Ruby returned the smile, her cheeks turning slightly red under Oscar’s gaze besides herself. Thankfully Oscar didn't notice her blush. However Rose did and she only smirked knowingly.

Her attention then switched back to Oscar who now stood eyeing between Ruby and Rose with a grin so bright he was practically glowing gold.

Rose: What are smiling so bright and shiny about? 

Oscar: *happily* Nothing it's just been so cool having the three of us work together on a mission. 

Oscar then did something he’s never done before. He sandwiched himself between Rose and Ruby, linking their arms together as he pulled both girls into a hug.

Oscar: Me and my two favourite roses in the whole wide world. This is just so awesome! 

Rose: *cheekily* You hear that Ruby. His two favourite roses.

Though Ruby smiled softly at Oscar, her expression was soon replaced with a frown as she turned to Rose. Despite Oscar’s chipper demeanour, Ruby hadn’t forgotten the scene that transpired before his return. Neither did Rose as she leaned over Oscar’s head to ensure that her mouth was close enough to Ruby’s ear; whispering low enough for only her to hear.

Rose: Soon to be only one.

Rose then bared her fangs challengingly and Ruby glowered. This moment was soon interrupted by Oscar raising his head to look between Ruby and Rose; still ignorant of their secret feud.

Oscar: *inquisitively* Did you say something Rose?

Rose: *shrugs innocently* Oh nothing that concerns a Munchkin.

She then booped Oscar square on the nose and he blinked in confusion. On her end, Ruby just sighed.  

And scene

And there it is ladies and gents. My first RWBY Squiggle Script featuring my first ever RWBY OC: Rose Fox. For those of you unaware of who Rose is, please go check out my ‘Oscar’s Other Rose’ Pinehead headcanon. Since I’m currently in the works for making her full design, I wanted to create a Squiggle Script that also helps to give the readers a sense of the kind of personality Rose has or at least the one I had in mind for her.

When I picture Rose, I envision her sharing similarities with the Rose from the Little Prince. By my interpretation she’s supposed to be this character who is meant to be represent both the Rose and the Fox from the fairy-tale. For those of us who already know, in the Prince’s story he fell in love with a rose who was very vain and told the prince fibs that painted her as the only rose in existence despite the fact that she was the only rose that grew on the Prince’s planet. This then prompted the Prince to leave his planet to journey to other worlds. In his travels, the Prince learnt that his rose wasn’t the only rose and this ended up upsetting him because she had lied to him.

But through the lessons of a wise young fox that the Prince befriended did he soon learn that his rose is the one true rose to him. She is the rose he loved the most.

In the case of RWBY, with Oscar drawing inspiration from the Little Prince as some theorists believe based on his new huntsmen attire, the popular Rosegardening Pinehead theory is that this is a sign that Oscar is meant to fall in love with Ruby Rose, correct?

Well I thought it would be an interesting idea if the CRWBY shook things up a bit for Oscar’s story and introduced another rose character to the story shares a history with Oscar. Hence the creation of my Rose Fox OC who embodies that concept.

In the Little Prince, the Prince met other roses but ultimately came to learn that his rose was his one true love. I can see Oscar going through something like this where he has two Roses deemed very important in his life however ultimately it’s only one he falls in love with. His one true rose. We already know which Rose that’s going to be, right?

I know it’s only a Pinehead headcanon of mine but it’s one that’s become my favourite now. I just really love the idea of Oscar sharing a close bond with another Rose girl from his childhood back in Mistral who he happens to reunite with in Atlas.

We all know that Oscar loves Ruby but what could be fascinating to observe is seeing him come to that realization. Moreover, imagine if this affects Ruby as well. I really dig the idea of a Rose Fox character unintentionally forcing, perhaps even helping Ruby to realize her own feelings toward Oscar.

The idea I have in my head is that for most of her life, Ruby has generally been pretty sure about how she feels toward everyone she’s met. If they’re her friend, she loves them because they are her friends. If they’re her enemies then she dislikes them for they are her enemies. However I’m digging the thought of Oscar Pine coming to be special to Ruby in the sense that he is the one person Ruby has met where her feelings for him don’t remain consistent. They change drastically over time the more she gets to know him introducing emotions Ruby has never felt before with anyone else. These newfound feeling render Ruby very confused on how to handle them. In beginning, Ruby thought of Oscar as all of her other comrades---a friend that she loved and would do anything to protect.

But over time, Ruby’s affections toward Oscar changed. It went from her seeing him as a friend to…something else. Something more that she couldn’t understand at the time.

These new feelings confused Ruby but she didn’t think it wise to ponder about them too much; brushing them off. It wasn’t until she met Rosaline Fox---another Rose who was a close friend of Oscar and who is unapologetically in love with him where Ruby starts to really wonder what her newfound feelings meant as she suddenly finds herself unable to stomach Rose’s romantic advances toward Oscar. 

By my imagination, despite sharing the name of Rose, Rosaline Fox is everything Ruby Rose is and isn’t. Not only is she a young yet talented huntress (younger than Ruby being at 16 placing her much closer to Oscar’s age) but she is also fearless and the type of righteous person who fights for what she believes in.

Though vain at times, Rose, as vouched by Oscar himself, is a great and caring person who was the one friend who looked out for him growing up back in Mistral. Apart from that, Rose is beautiful and exerts an alluring feminine confidence that makes it hard for others, especially those of the opposite sex, to take their eyes off her. Oscar included. I love the idea of Ruby and Rose both being powerhouses that command the attention and respect of others but in completely different ways. 

By extension, they are both very lovely Roses, but beautiful in their own individual ways as perceived by those around them. That’s my concept.

I really love the idea of a character like Rosaline Fox challenging Ruby on subjects like her looks or how she might feel romantically toward someone she’s interested in. These are experiences Ruby has been omitted from and I’m curious to see how she would fair when placed in a scenario like this. I know it sounds too teeny-boppy and doesn’t scream RWBY at all. However, it’s not like the series hasn’t given us those slice of life, shoujo-manga/anime-esque episodes before.

We’ve just never gotten anything Ruby is the centric character in her own little love story and personally, this squiggle meister would very much like to see something like that done for Ruby. As entertaining as Ruby the spark of hope or Ruby the Silver Eyed Warrior is and has been for the past six seasons, I kind of want to see what Ruby the teenaged girl is like, y’know what I’m saying.

How does Ruby the teenage girl rank herself in the looks department? Does Ruby view herself as beautiful? Is she confident about it? Does she care at all? For me, my Ruby Rose headcanon is that she has a very Toph Beifong approach when it comes to her looks.  She prides herself on dismissing that kind of stuff. But just because she’s doesn’t focus on it doesn’t mean she hasn’t pondered the thought at least once. My hunch is that Ruby values herself as the least beautiful amongst the girls on her team.

Not putting down Ruby but the show has gone out of its way to highlight multiple times how other characters have found her teammates more desirable. How many times has Yang been hit on by a guy? How often is Weiss complemented about her prettiness? How many past suitors has Blake racked up in the span of six seasons?

How many times has Ruby been called beautiful? ONCE and it was by her own sister. How many characters have shown a legit  romantic interest in Ruby? The closest we’ve gotten is Oscar Pine with the way he just stared at her the very first time he laid eyes on her. Not to mention the time he literally blushed when she smiled at him. 

Take notes people; this is how you hint at a character potentially having a crush on Ruby Rose. This is what it looks like.

Not so much this.

Or this.

But this.

But y’know, I’m just a shipper. What do I know about facial expressions and romantic clues, right?

How would Ruby the teenage girl  react to finding out someone has a crush on her? How would Ruby the teenage girl react to being in the presence of a rival? How would Ruby the teenage girl react to being in love period?

I understand that not many Ruby Rose fans aren’t really invested in this kind of stuff for her character. Again, I know Ruby is a huntress/Silver Eyed Warrior/Leader of Team RWBY/Technically Leader and Voice of Reason/Spark of Hope within the JNR_QROWMBY, but that’s not all that she is.

 Bottom-line, Ruby is a teenage girl and it would be a nice change of pace to have the story kind of share stories where she’s allowed to be just a teenage girl and not just a huntress/Silver Eyed Warrior/Leader of Team RWBY/Technically Leader and Voice of Reason/Spark of Hope within the JNR_QROWMBY. At the moment, Atlas is my hope for that welcomed change in narrative. But that’s just moi.

Back to talking about Rose, I enjoyed writing this small script as it helps show-off the type of character I’d like Rose to be. If I were to describe Rose in a few words, I’d say she’s someone who is ‘very hard pill to swallow’ at first. She’s not a bad person. Just she can be a bit much at times.

She has a very upfront, outspoken, rowdy, extroverted personality that could either be endearing or exhausting depending on who she meets. She is the type of person that needs a buffer to siphon the exuberant amounts of vigour she often exerts or at least make her easier for others to take in.  

That’s why her friendship with Oscar worked so well. He was her buffer; patient but not afraid to pull her up when she’s overdoes it. Despite having her own huntsmen team where she’s the leader, dissimilar to Ruby Rose whose teammates are her friends and family, outside of Atlas Academy, Rose is basically a solitary fox.

Some folks could either be very put off by Rose’s personality or intimidated. That’s why she appreciates the small close circle of people she has in her life. They’re the ones who stuck around and care about her for who she is. That’s why Rose likes and fell in love with Oscar. He’s the one that put up with her demanding disposition and cared about her unconditionally. Sounds familiar?

Anyways, I know I made Rose seem like an annoying b****in this Script particularly to Ruby but…hey, foxes are known for being territorial and possessive creatures.

But relax, she isn’t the mean-spirited type. Rose may see Ruby as a rival but she isn’t malicious enough to thwart Ruby’s advances toward Oscar. If Rose knows Ruby’s feelings for Oscar are genuine then she’ll respectfully back off. Remember my quote from the headcanon post.

“…I may be the Rose he likes but I’m not the Rose he loves…”

I feel like that could be Rose’s mantra or key character quote. Still a damn good one too.

In my head, my concept is that Rose will recognize Ruby and Oscar’s clear feelings for one another. Unlike either, she’s a rather perceptive fox. She sees Oscar’s interest in the other rose, whether he’s willing to admit it out loud or not. However what Rose is questionable of are Ruby’s intentions. 

Look at it this way, Rose has feelings for Oscar but knows Oscar has feelings for Ruby and is perfectly content with that. She may love Oscar but at the end of the day, he’s still her best friend and his happiness means more to her. He’s one of the few people Rose would put above herself.

However, Rose also recognizes that Ruby might like Oscar too but unlike Rose, Ruby is hesitant in her feelings and Rose knows this.

So for the sake of ensuring that Ruby’s feelings for Oscar are sincere, Rose would boldly challenge Ruby. Rose knows only one rose can tame Oscar’s heart and be his one true love but is that what Ruby wants to be? Rose isn’t afraid to paint herself as a bad guy to prove this point.

It’s kind of a protective way for Rose to ensure Ruby doesn’t unintentionally hurt Oscar’s feelings. If Ruby loves Oscar too then Rose will be supportive for Oscar’s sake. But if she doesn’t then Rose will brazenly tell Ruby to stand down so that someone else who truly loves Oscar can have their chance.

That’s how I see Rose Fox. I hope this explanation and script helps sell her to anyone who might be interested in her as a fan-made RWBY Character. I’d like to do some more Rose Fox-featured Scripts but we’ll see how things go. Right now I have 5 new upcoming RWBY Squiggle Scripts. 4 WIPs and one coming soon.

In the meantime, I hope you guys liked this new one since it’s been a while. Also I hope you like this new Pinehead headcanon  about Rose that was shared within this Script. Getting more abundant with those too. Anyways, enjoy guys!

More Squiggles’ RWBY Content

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)

[misc-oneshots]

Blessed

Sirius Black x Malfoy!Reader 

Words: 4691

Y/N is Lucius Malfoy’s twin sister who didn’t join her brother at Hogwarts until the second year. A chance event changes her whole life and now she has a secret that could get her killed, she’s not even told Lucius. When James Potter finds out and not only vows to keep her secret but also tries to help - it rubs Sirius Black up the wrong way. Why was his best mate trusting a Slytherin, a Malfoy, so close to the brink of war?

Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four

---

Malfoy Manor was a grand and imposing testament to tradition and pure breeding. When your brother Lucius was away at Hogwarts it was boring. You couldn't wait for next year when you could join him and spend time away from your parents. As your twin brother you should have been able to join him this year - but illness had kept you at home.

You knew that your parents were embarrassed that their daughter had been too weak to attend her first year of school, but Dumbledore had promised that you could join your brother in the second year at the same stage as long your studies where up to date. Lucius had told you all about the Slytherin common room and he'd already handed down his first-year books for you to study. He'd told you the sort of person to avoid, the mud-bloods and the blood-traitors and you'd nodded like he expected you to, but you were excited to meet some muggle-born witches after finding a book on muggle history. You kept it hidden in your favourite tree on the Malfoy grounds. The Manor still held so much for you explore and you planned to finish seeing all the grounds before you started Hogwarts, that's why you were running, as best you could in the stiff dress mother brought you, towards the back door.

You skidded to a stop when your legs ran into a house elf and you tumbled to your knees. The house elf was up straight away, her wide eyes fearful as she tried to help you up, "Oh Miss Malfoy, please forgive me. I'm very sorry mistress!" The house elf cowered as you pushed yourself up, "Not to worry Ukle, I wasn't looking where I was going. I'm sorry, are you alright?"

"Ukle is most well Mistress, most well, the house of Malfoy is very good to Ukle." She told you bowing her head, her voice quivering. You narrowed your eyes and felt your stomach flip, Luci always told you that servants where proud to serve the Malfoy's and that you would be treated the same at Hogwarts, but you couldn't help that you didn't like it. It sounded false, she sounded...scared. Swallowing your nerves and decided to go for it, to just ask her but as you opened your mouth your mother's shrill tone hit you like a riding crop.

"You'll do well to remember how good we are to you, elf." she snapped coming from around the corner, "But I doubt you'll stay in good favour if you continue to speak to those above your station whilst you have duties to attend."

With a squeaked 'Yes ma'am' the house elf burrowed her head and scampered off. Your stomach dropped, as your mother left you wished that you'd spoken up to her, to defend the poor house elf who you'd ran into but cowardice in the face of your mother had stopped it and it left a sour taste in your 11-year-old mouth.

--

A few feet past the tree line was your favourite spot on all your families’ grounds, bunching your dress up, you climbed up your favourite tree that you used for storage and pulled out the muggle history book you'd stashed before jumping back down and tucked yourself into the tree trunk to read about Muggle Royalty. The Tutors were your favourites, they got up to some free strange things. After twenty minutes your attention was taken by tiny buzzing and small scratching sounds of desperation. You stood and glanced around but when the source of the noises wasn’t obvious you threw your book back up into the tree, afraid to be caught by anyone with a muggle book.

It took five minutes to find the small iron traps around the roots and up the sides of a nearby tree. You leaned in close and held your breath at the tiny creatures struggling to escape the traps. They were no bigger than your hand, small imp-like creatures who were squealing in pain at crushed limbs and wings in the traps.

Fae.

There were actual Fae on your grounds, Fae were very ancient powerful creatures who used old magic despite their size and someone had laid traps for them like they were vermin. Had Father set these up? Had he made poor Ukle set up these death traps to let these amazing creatures starve in agony?

Tears swelled in your eyes, the innocence of a childhood sheltered from your parent’s cruelty but now having to confront it. You should walk away, leave like the pureblood that they wanted you to be. But as your tears spilt, you knew that you couldn't bear to see anyone, or anything suffer like this. Some of them where paying attention to you now and those that were watching you had stopped struggling and fallen silent. “Erm, hello.” You whispered, nerves biting at you, “I’m Y/N Malfoy-” at your surname a few of them screeched and you covered your ears quickly, tears threatened to spill from your eyes again. “I want you help! I want to help you!” You shouted over their screeching until they stopped.

You dropped your hands from your ears and shuffled towards them on your knees, in the back of your mind you knew that your mother would scold you for dirtying your dress and that thought alone was enough to distract you from the tears welling in your eyes. You tried to keep your voice steady and calm, you were a Malfoy after all, “I’m going to try to release you all but I’m not sure what I’m doing so please just be patient.”

It took the best part of an hour to release them all, an hour on your knees pulling and yanking at the enchanted iron traps until your fingertips were raw and bleeding and your forearms where covered in dirt and dead leaves. With a squeal the last Fae was released and joined the others that had waited for it before rushing away through the trees like a gathered storm. Watching them go you let out a shaky breath, you were bruised, bleeding and dirty but how many people could see that they’d seen a gathering of Fae so close and came away unharmed? You wiped some sweat off of your brow and felt dirt smear your forehead but you couldn’t bring yourself to care, it shouldn’t be too hard to sneak through all the secret passages of the Manor to get back to your room without seeing Mother.

The trek back through the woods was harder than ever before, the heavy weight of your dress was dragging you down and you were exhausted from the days adventure but beside that you felt light. Lucius had always mocked Care of Magical Creatures as a subject but maybe you had a flair for it. A scratching in the trees behind you made you pause and slowly you turned, hoping that perhaps you may see the Fae again. A spider, nearly as large as the chandelier in the Manor’s hallway, skittered over the roots of the trees behind you. Your breath caught, your heart banged in your ears. You’d seen these in one of Lucius’ books, before you had chance to scream the thing was on you.

You fell back against another tree trunk and screamed and fought as it bit and scratched down at your scrambling arms, it’s bites making you squeal in pain as it burnt your skin. Your legs were being pulled together as it tried to wrap you in it’s web. White-hot pain was blinding you but faintly you heard a screech and felt it’s weight pulled off you and the tight bindings around your legs loosening.

It felt like hours for you to come around, but it must have only been minutes, the first thing you noticed was the spider away from you, on it’s back, its legs curled in on itself. It was well and truly dead. A foul smell had you looking down and you vomited at the sight. The creatures’ bites had been acidic and everywhere that it had bit your arms had burnt down to the muscle and bone and the outer skin was sizzling. You were dying. Tears wet your cheeks, elven years old and dying alone in the ground of her house, that was not a fitting end for a Malfoy. You dared to look down again at your body to the swarm of little Fae walking all over you. One on your chest looked particularly angry at being vomited on.

“Sorry.” You mumbled to it, “Glad to see that you’re okay,” You swallowed hard, “I hope it’s not Mother who finds me.” You mused to your new little friends, it was nice to have some company as you passed.

“Many this will help Luci stop being so angry.” You conspired with them and you get the impression that a few of them where listening to you as you told them your inner worries, “He’s always so angry in his letters about the other students.” It was nice to think about your brother in your last moments, you and he had always been close. “Maybe he’ll see…Muggle, pure-blood, we all die the same. Father used to tell me that I had an old soul, at least one part of me got to be old.” You gave a humourless laugh to your new friends and closed your eyes.

-----

It was night when you next opened your eyes, it took a few moments for confusion to set in about even being able to open your eyes. Quickly you sat up, finding yourself in no pain and ran your hands down your arms which were smooth except for the Goosebumps from the night air. “By Merlin’s beard?” You whispered confused and looked around, had you fallen asleep and dreamt it? Then your eyes landed on the crow picking at the spider’s corpse and your blood ran cold. Shuddering you pushed yourself to your feet and sprinted back to the side of the Manor and ducked into a side entrance, usually reserved for the staff, and didn’t stop sprinting until you reached your room. You slammed your door shut and quickly ripped off your dress to examine your body for other wounds but found none. You quickly rushed to your en-suite, filled the basin and washed the dirt and blood from your hands and face.

You held out your, now clean, shaking hands to examine the wounds that had been there but no matter how many times you turned them over there were no wounds. You turned your hands again and your breath hitched at the markings on your wrist. You swallowed, blood rushing in your ears and reached your other hand slowly towards the new mark on your wrist but stopped short when a knocking at the door pulled you from your thoughts. “Just a moment!” You called and quickly kicked the tarnished dress under your bed and picked up a robe from your vanity chair and wrapped your body up just as your door opened. Your mother wasted no time stepping into your room with Ukle behind her.

“Where have you been Y/N?” She asked stopping to stand in front of you. You did your best to look reproachful, “Sorry Mother, I was reading the potions book that Lucius sent me. He wrote me and said that the Slytherin House Leader is the potions master.” Even though her face was sour your mother nodded, glad that you wanted to get in good with Slytherin masters, she knew all about the slug-club and as a Malfoy you would be expected to be asked to join.

“Ukle, run the child a bath.” You mother snapped, and the house elf quickly abided. Your mother turned to leave but you stopped her. “Mother?” You asked quickly and she half-turned with a raised eyebrow at your behaviour.

You swallowed, “Tomorrow when go to Diagon Ally, might I look for a book on Magical Creatures?” She looked at you suspiciously, so you quickly appealed to her pure-blood pride, “I’ve been looking though Lucius’ books but I still find myself lacking. A Malfoy should have no gaps in their knowledge.”

She nodded, “Very well, your Father will be glad to here that you’re taking your studies so seriously.” You thanked her as she left and then thanked Ukle for running your bath as she left too and then it was just you and your thoughts.

You sank into water, having no energy to enjoy the magically dancing bubbles in the air, and stared at the mark on your wrist. You needed those books tomorrow to research yourself. You knew what that mark meant.

You were Fae-blessed.

----

True to Dumbledore’s word you joined Lucius in the second year of Hogwarts thanks to your good-health and fabulous scores. It had caused quite a stir when Lucius had returned to school with his twin sister. The Malfoy who had missed a year, who was so much shorter and weaker than her brother but even under their scrutiny you didn’t look weak. Lucius had boasted to La Strange, Snape and, Bellatrix that it was because you were a Malfoy, and Malfoy’s were not kept down for long. But you knew why you had been so much healthier over the last few months, you felt stronger, faster and more powerful.

Since you’d nearly died, and the Fae had blessed you, you’d done a lot of research into those blessed by the Fae and it didn’t all make for happy reading. The good news was that it meant that you healed faster, your magic was more powerful, your sense of smell had improved so your potions where always of star quality. The biggest plus was that you didn’t need your wand to use magic, if you really needed to and focused then you could current your magic through your hands but often it was too dangerous because the cons of your new life outweighed the pros. Con – as one book had put it ‘The Fae-blessed are no longer considered human, much like the werewolf, the Fae-blessed are a Magical Creature.’ So, you hadn’t daren’t tell a soul about your condition, your family would disown you or possibly even kill you themselves to save the family name. You also had to avoid liquid iron as much as possible, unless you wanted an interesting, painful reaction.

Death-eaters, though a new thing and you knew your father was one, had a theory that the increased magic of the Fae-born was hidden in their skin. You’d heard horror stories of Fae-born being killed and skinned and their skin being made into sword sheaths and even furniture since Death-eaters believed this should enhance their magic. Since you had no urge to be made into a lampshade, you ever uttered a word of your condition. Not even to your twin brother. Dumbledore had figured you out and told you that he had made the head healer aware in case you had any issues. It was for all your cunning, determination and resourcefulness to keep yourself alive and safe that you were sorting into Slytherin. You mother had sent you a courteous letter and signed it from herself and your father, but you could practically envision your father behind you as she wrote it ‘Why are you sending congratulations? She should have attended last year.’

----

You met the Marauders that year, but they paid you no attention when they realised that you wouldn’t rise to their pranks like Lucius would. Like Black had once grumbled to Potter as they’d walked passed you, Not even worth it, that one. But you’d caught their attention when you’d snorted out your nose and mumbled, “Didn’t know my Father had come back to Hogwarts.” They’d all turned to eye you, but you’d already gone back to reading your book while perching in the windowsill waiting for Charms to begin. After that you had a weird truce where you ignored them, and they ignored you. You had no interest in the rivalry between your houses, instead choosing to avoid getting too close to anyone to keep your secret safe. You were the Slytherin that they complained the least about if they ever got partnered with you because of the few times where you’d spoken up to Professor Slughorn to remind him that he’d not given Gryffindor any points for Peter’s help with a potion when you and he had been partnered together.

That had caught Lily’s attention, you were both part of the Slug-Club – together with James Potter – as thanks to your sense of smell your potions where always amazing. Lily Evans and you were his favourite students and due to that bond alone over the next year you became awkward friends. She couldn’t fully trust a Malfoy and you couldn’t have too many muggle-born friends without drawing attention to yourself and if you wanted to survive you needed as little attention as possible.

Another uneasy alliance that you’d made was in Remus Lupin, the Marauder who smelled funny to you, was your library pal. The back-corner table of the library was your shared domain, he took one half and you took the other. You rarely spoke unless you were both struggling on a question or he was asking if you wanted a drink while he fetched himself one. You liked your neutral acquaintance, especially when he started putting chocolate in the middle of the table for you both to share, since you’d been blessed you’d found yourself with an incredible sweet tooth. When you went to Hogsmeade you made sure to stock up on other sweets for your table so that you could share them and pay him back.

You knew that the other Marauders knew about your study buddy sessions from when you’d heard James teasing Lupin but apparently, he found no fun in it when he realised that you weren’t secretly dating. The other Slytherins weren’t happy about you associating with the Gryffindor but you waved it off as him being the only silent student in the library. A few months into your study meeting you realised why he smelt funny to you, he was a Werewolf. The realisation surprised you, but you were happy to be on okay terms with the only other non-human in the school and vaguely wondered if he’d figured you out. That was when you used your Malfoy connections to obtain Wolfs Bane, passing it off as ‘find me some or my father will hear about this’, and began to make Remus a potion for his monthly issues.

You non-humans had to look after each other. You followed the Marauders one night – also learning that they were unregistered animagi! – and started to leave the potion in the Shrieking Shak every month for them to find. You had to be careful to time it, knowing that whichever of them was the dog – you guessed Sirius because of them calling him Padfoot – might be able to track your scent if you weren’t fast. But hey, no had caught you yet since becoming a Fae-blessed.

----

By the time Year Four had started the Marauder’s hadn’t found who was helping Remus and had put it down to Dumbledore and no one had figured out your secret. Things between you and Lucius where strained, he was your twin, and in many cases, your other half and he didn’t understand the sudden distance that you had put between them over the last few years. But at least when you’d been back at home during the summer it was like the old you, like you relied on him to protect you but he’d yet to figure out what he was supposed to be protecting you from. When he brought it up you blamed teenage hormones and brushed him off. Your skills at using just your hands for magic were getting stronger but you daren’t use it for fear of getting caught but it was hard. Every sudden surge or drop in mood made your fingers tingle with energy that was just begging to be released.

You sat waiting for your potions class to begin while idly flicking through your potions book, James Potter sat beside you and leaned across to his side to flirt with Lily who was partnered with Lupin. Behind you Sirius sat with Peter and flicked things at the back of James head. Slughorn continued to partner you with James or Lily, as some of his favourite students it gave him an excuse to give you all and abundance of house points for your superior potions. Across the room Lucius and Snape were partnered together and keeping a watchful eye on you amidst the gaggle of Gryffindors.

While Slughorn blathered about what potion he wanted concocting your mindlessly made notes, not realising that within the next few hours would be the first time that anyone found out your secret.

After the few times that you’d been partnered together you and Potter had developed a rhythm, he collected ingredients and bothered his friends while you did all the prep. “Malfoy, have you got the liquid iron?” Potter asked, in classes he was always civil with you and you wondered how much of that had to do with him noticing the weird, uneasy friendship that you and Lily had. Your stomach dropped, you’d have to be careful here, just too strong a scent of that and you’d end up exposed. Not looking at him you pretended to read the instructions and mumbled, “No I haven’t would you mind fetching it?” You asked. You heard a snort behind you that was definitely Sirius, “Bloody Princess.” Choosing not to react to that you glanced at James who was giving you a look like he agreed with his best friend. You rolled your eyes and tried to play it off, “Fine, will you keep an eye on the cauldron’s temperature, if it goes to a boil then the whole potion will be a waste.” He narrowed his eyes, “I do know that Malfoy.”

Of course, he knew it, his father was famous for his potions, but you didn’t react and instead stepped away to fetch the vial of liquid iron. You held your breath and tried to will you hands no to shake as you lifted it. You could feel magic stirring within you, wanting to pulse out of your hands at your level of anxiousness but you pushed it down, bit your lip and walked back to your desk as carefully as you could. Putting down the vial on the desk you let out a discreet, shaky breath but when you looked up at James he was watching you intently. You swallowed hard, he’d been watching you fetch the vial. His held titled to the side as he studied you and you hoped, beyond hope that he wasn’t planning on using it in a prank against you. After managing to distract him by going through the complicated steps and him turning around to help Sirius and Peter with their potion, you came to the stage you were dreading – adding the Liquid Iron. “Potter, would you mind adding the Liquid Iron while I stir?” You asked, trying to sound casual. He gave you a funny look again and you added, “Please, Potter?”

He pushed up his glasses and leaned over so that he could speak quietly to you, “Are you allergic or something?” You swallowed and nodded your head, keeping your voice low, “Quite severely.” You admitted, hoping that no one could hear you and that he wouldn’t use it against you. You could see Lily and Remus watching your closeness.

James righted himself, “In that case you shouldn’t even be stirring Malfoy, I could spill it on you.” He mumbled and took both the vial and the ladle and started to pour the Liquid Iron and stirring it. Your chest tightened at the gesture, “Thank you, Potter.” He pulled a face so that his glasses would slip down his nose slightly and stop getting fogged by the potions steam. “Don’t mention it.” He mumbled as he watched his stirring over the top of his glasses. “No, I appreciate it.” You mumbled lowly to him and he just nodded.

The rest of the potion went smoothly, as it always did when you where paired with another Slug-Club member. James was turned in his spot, with his back rested against your desk as he pestered Sirius and James. You were just waiting for your potion to cool now so you started to tidy your area and didn’t pay attention to the mini-play squabble that James and Sirius where having until Sirius leaned over his desk to jostle James who fell straight back into your desk. The potion in your cauldron wobbled and some splashed out straight onto your hand as you’d instinctively tried to catch it.

You cursed instantly and held your hand back to yourself and cuddled it under your robes. You hissed another curse word again and squeezed your eyes closed. Your skin felt like it was on fire with the Fae reaction to the Liquid Iron and your own magic begging to be released. “Malfoy - shit I’m sorry.” Potter rushed quickly and tried to pull your arm away from you to look at the damaged, but you held it close to yourself. “Piss off, Potter.” You hissed, the Fae-blessed mark on your wrist burnt through the charm that you had hiding it. You had to get out of here – now – before they realised what you were.

“Bloody hell, Malfoy, he’s only trying to help you.” Sirius snarked behind you. “Not now Pads.” James mumbled and leaned over to snatch something from Lily’s table before handing it to you, “This will take away the sting.” He told you and you snatched it from him.

“Lily, Moony,” You were faintly aware of James talking to the table beside you, “Tell Slughorn I’m taking her to the infirmary, she’s having an allergic reaction.”

You didn’t hear the rest but felt his hand on your shoulders pushing you out of the classroom. When you slowed down he put his arm around your shoulders to urge you along. When you reached the infirmary the matron, knowing your ‘issues’, quickly ran to you and shooed Potter away. He tried to help get you onto a bed, but Matron stopped him, and he was left standing confused as she struggled to get you into a bed by herself. James stayed put, the Matron quickly pulled the curtain round the bed but not before he saw an angry welted mark along your wrist and was he imagining it or were your eyes brighter?

The curtain closed, and James couldn’t stop the unease in the pit of his stomach, this wasn’t normal, and he was sure he’d seen that mark in a book somewhere. He followed his feet and James found that he’d walked straight past his potions class, he didn’t care about the grade now and didn’t want to deal with the Slytherin’s bothering him and found himself in the library.

He racked his brain for where he’d seen that mark before until he settled on the Care of Magical Creatures section.

So, no Sirius love in this one but maybe you get the gist of where I’m going with it? I plan on taking this all the way past Prisoner of Azkaban. Any thoughts would be super welcome and if you want tagging then let me know :)

@siriusement 

Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four