#Bro I was like coughing while crying tears of joy and falling off my bed idk why this is hilarious to me.

[theflowerofthecommonwealth]

I put a Pomade Wig on Nick. I didn’t even know you could do this.

Please excuse me while I go die of laughter in the corner.

[glassartpeasants]

Fragile Hearts

Tomura Shigaraki x F!Reader

Warnings: Angst, Hanahaki disease, sad reader hours, reader is insecure, mentions of death, name calling, this is really sad so read at your own risk

A/N: I wish this shit didn’t hit different. Wanna know why? Probably because i’ve got 2 series going down at this moment. Crying In The Club plus and a Shigaraki one thats still in the making. So we’re suffering together ya’ll.

It’s angst month motherfuckers >:)

~~~

God he looked so handsome today. Those beautiful ruby eyes always found a way to creep into your brain. How could they not? You felt a wave love whenever you stared into them. It always gave your heart joy staring into them.

But it always gave you pain.

Maybe cause you were to afraid to confess? Or was the fact that he seemed to not even show a pinch of interest in you. Or was it the fact that he seemed much more interested in a different women every day. He didn’t even try to hide the fact that he indeed hire prostitutes or escorts. 

You never showed it but every time you saw a different woman leave his quarters it always felt someone had stabbed you right through the heart. You knew he was a reserved and quiet man. Hell he barely talked to anyone if it wasn’t for a meeting or telling someone off. He was a pretty angry and harsh soul. While you, well,

You were that kind of soul that you would have given the shirt off your back to anyone in need. Many villains (mainly Dabi) asked why even bother becoming a villain if you were so kind to them all, in Dabi’s words “Villains are suppose to be rude and horrible.” It was an reasonable question really. The true reason you became a villain was simple.

You held a unruly grudge against heros.

When you were about 8 years old a fire had started in your family home. The flames were so bright. You remembered that day so vividly. The screaming of your family trying to get everyone out. But they were stuck inside while you had managed to go over to a neighbors house and call the cops but when you called and they heard your voice they said,

“Listen kid we have bigger things to do. Next time when you call make sure there’s a real emergency instead of prank calling us.” And then he hung up. The cops, who were there to protect you had hung up on you.

And that fateful call was what sealed your families fate.

After that, you never really believed in the hero system. They had failed you and your family. Which was lead you to villainy. You may have been a kind soul but you would rather use that kindness to help out someone who you feel is worthy. The League of Villains picked you up off the streets, so to you, they were your only family.

~~~

You laid down on the bed that occupied your room, staring at the ceiling. It was nicer then the old bar you guys use to live in but, to you it didn’t feel the same. You were happy for how far you guys came but it just felt like most of the PLF kinda made you sad. You didn’t know why but it did. Maybe was it due to the fact that you wanted it to be just the league? You weren’t fond of these new people. Probably cause they tore you down a lot. 

Your quirk was Energy, your quirk allowed you to use energy of the sun to heal you and use sun rays. But the down fall of your quirk was that it was absolutely useless at night. So you had to rely on your combat skill in the night. That was one of the reasons they didn’t like you, cause your quirk kinda had a big flaw. But they also merciless teased you about being kind to your fellow league members. 

You wanted to scream at them. Tell them off, do something at least but, no matter what you thought you could do. Your confidence faded when you remember that they would probably tell Tomura about your outburst. And since he has a habit of decaying people without warning, you just decided it was best to keep your pretty mouth shut.

You sigh as you get off your bed before changing your clothes to pj’s. You put on the black tank top and pajama pants which were super soft and fuzzy. Putting on some socks you open the door and make your descent into the kitchen. You tried to be as quiet as you could. Not wanting to wake anyone up while you ran to get a midnight snack.

Once reaching the kitchen you turn on the lights and almost let out a scream but took a breath instead.

“Oh geez Dabi, scared the shit outta me.” You laugh before making movements towards the fridge.

“Good, gotta keep that blood pumping.” He chuckled before setting his whiskey down. 

You grab your snack before going next to Dabi and sitting down. You picked up your fork and begun to eat only to almost choke at Dabi’s words.

“So when are you gonna tell the boss you have a thing for him?” You almost choke on your food before looking at Dabi with wide eyes. What?! Was your staring that obvious? Oh god...

“H-how did you know?”

“We maybe surrounded by them but i’m no idiot. I can tell when someone has the hots for someone else. It’s just funny seeing you even try with that gremlin.” Dabi laughed at you while you crossed your arms. 

“So what if I think he’s hot? I know that I’ll never have a chance with him, considering all the woman he has coming in and out of his office.” You say with hints of sadness in your voice. It wasn’t hard to tell. You knew what this feeling was. You knew you had grown a one-sided love for your boss.

“Well if you think that you better be careful.” You uncross your arms with a confused look on your face.

“If your talking about me getting with him I know’ll get my heart bro-”

“No, I’m talking about you getting Hanahaki Disease.” What in the ever loving hell is that?

“What the fuck is that?”

“I can tell you one thing is that it never ends up being in a happy ending. So pray you don’t get it.” Dabi said before drinking the rest of the whiskey and going towards his room.

You furrow your brows as you look down at the table. Hanahaki Disease eh? Well you could probably look it up tomorrow, since you have no missions tomorrow as far as your knowledge. 

“The disease can’t be that bad, right?”

~~~

You wake up to a burning pain in your chest. You let out a little cough before going over to your bathroom to take a shower. This time you let out a louder cough, it felt like something was in your throat. Ugh this feeling was always the worst damnit.

You start coughing trying to get whatever the hell was in your throat out. You pounded at your chest before a little daisy popped out of your mouth. You fell on your ass while holding your throat, rubbing it as you looked at the flower with confusion. 

“How did that get in my throat?” You crawl over a scoop up the daisy. Looking at it with amazement and confusion. This is impossible, how the hell?

Grabbing your phone you opened up google and searched online for any answers on what this could mean.

‘i just coughed up a flower, what the does that mean?’

You wait for the screen to stop loading only to drop the flower and scurry away from it as fast as possible.

No way...this couldn’t be real, how could this happen! You knew you liked your boss but when you read the article saying it can only happen from a one sided love you knew you were boned.

How can you get rid of a love that has taken so long to blossom? Only for it to be your down fall. You kept reading up on it while sitting on the bathroom floor. The more you read the more scared you became. You could die from it if you didn’t get it treated! But the procedure was said to be very risky and highly dangerous. So it was pretty much up to you to get over your feelings for Shigaraki. Yeah that was going to be a pain in the ass.

Time could only tell.

~~~

Day One

You sat at the meeting while your eyes couldn’t help but stare at him. He was so gorgeous, who could you ever compare to the girls he brings to his beck ad call? They were perfect! You just felt like no matter what you did, you never could get the attention of your leader. No, you need to work on yourself! The disease can’t get worse or else-

“(Y/N)! Were you even paying attention?” Shigaraki’s voice boomed causing you to yelp. Snickering could be heard around the table causing your face to heat up in embarrassment. You look at Spinner and he sends you a apologetic look.

“No Shigaraki, I’m sorry. I had something on my mind.” You say looking down. You’ve never been one with getting yelled at. 

“Well get your head out of your ass and pay attention and if your not going to the doors right there.” 

“I’ll pay attention.” You said as you looked down, trying to stop the tears that threatened to spill. Your nails dig into your clothes thighs as you only listen to Shigaraki. You wanted to but all you could hear was sweet voice that you wished was there instead of the one now.

~~~

Day 5

You looked terrible to say the least. You couldn’t believe that is was growing this fast! I mean when you looked into it it said 2-3 months but you didn’t think it would grow so unreasonable fast!

Thinking about it and pushing your panic aside you’ve come to the conclusion that its going faster because of how deep your love and loyalty is for him. It’s so deep rooted that the flowers are growing faster.

Especially the one growing on your neck. 

You’ve looked into what each flower means and the first one which was a daisy meant innocence, purity and loyal love. This time however, it was a rose. You looked it up and saw that it meant girlhood, modesty and secrecy. You knew why this one had popped up. Probably cause of the fact that you’ve been hiding in your room a lot lately. You didn’t want anyone to catch you hacking up flowers. It was already painful as it is so you don’t need any judgement stares.

That didn’t mean your coughing didn’t go unnoticed though. Your coughs were loud enough that Toga and Spinner came to ask if you were okay a couple times. You told them you were and that you were just sick and that you would get better soon.

‘If by better then you mean dead.’

You shook your head before putting your head into your pillow. Effectively screaming into it out of frustration. How in the ever loving hell where you going to get rid of this damn thing if you couldn’t keep him out of your mind?

~~~

Day 14

You felt like shit. Your entire being just felt weak in general. There were bags under your eyes and more little flowers covering your face. If it were glued on and not attached to your skin, you would have thought it as cute. Now? You hated them, you hated yourself. What would your parents think? Seeing you dying over a man that doesn’t love you back. unknowingly killing you from afar.

A knock came at your door and before thinking you said come in. Your eyes went wide and before you could change your mind Dabi walked in and locked the door behind him.

“How long did you think you could hide huh?” Dabi said as he sat on the bed next to you. He may not have shown it but he was worried. He had known your little thing for Shigaraki but he didn’t know it would be this bad.

“I don’t know. How can I get rid of it when I can’t even look Shigaraki in the face. He would think I’m weak.” You said before coughing up another flower. This time blood was seen covering some of the petals. 

“Shit this is worse then I originally thought. It’s at stage three already. Yours is progressing insanely fast. What will it take to realize that he doesn’t love you.” You knew Dabi meant good with his words but you couldn’t help but feel a little bit of your love for him chip away.

Which caused a flower to fall off of your face.

“That’s it.” Dabi said as he picked up the flower and held it in his hands. You look at him with your brow raised.

“Stay here. But before I do what im about to do, just know I’m doing this to save your life understand?” You nod worried about what he’s planning. All you can do is sigh and hold your pillow closer to your chest as you waited to see what Dabi had in store.

~~~

Day 16

You laid in you bed watching some netflix when Shigaraki barged into your room with an angry look. Your eyes widen as you clung to the sheets you had wrapped yourself in.

“So I’m hearing that you love me.” He made it sound like a statement rather then a question. You look all over in the room to avoid his gaze. You shut your eyes only to have your head jerked towards shigaraki, making you look into his crimson eyes.

“Well news flash, I don’t feel the same way.” You swore you could have felt your heart drop in his stomach. Tears rimmed your eyes as Shigaraki looked all around your face noticing all your flowers. Looking into your eyes noticing how they were slowly turning white, making him let out a little chuckle.

“Your pathetic, you let something like love get in the way of my goal? Your so selfish you know?” Your tears were falling at this point. Blurring your vision while you felt a strong pain on your cheek. Shigaraki had ripped off a flower. A pink rose that bloomed on your right cheek.

“I find this hilarious honestly, look at you, needing my validation. When guess what bitch? Your not getting any. And you never will so you might as well tear off all these flowers off your disgusting face.” You couldn’t say anything before pain filled your entire being as Shigaraki picked off every flower that covered your face and neck, leaving you bleeding. 

You feel a light feeling in your chest as you felt like you could breathe again. the flowers that bloomed on your shoulder were slowly withering away. The feeling off something in your throat went away as well as all the flowers that bloomed on your body that was still left had withered and fell off. Your once blurred vision now crystal clear as you looked Shigaraki right in the eyes.

“Look better. Now if i ever see another flower on your face or in your room I’ll dust you myself understand?” You nod your head yes before Shigaraki let go of your face.

You hid yourself under the covers in order to avoid his gaze. Not seeing the little face of sadness that crossed his face.

~~~

“Did you do it?” Dabi asked Shigaraki when he saw him leave your room.

“No shit sherlock.” Shigaraki said as he walked past him only to be stopped by Dabi’s arm.

“It was for the best. She would have died if you didn’t.” Dabi spoke softly  before taking his arms away, Not looking Shigaraki in the eyes.

“I know.”

Shigaraki walked away before going to his room. Once he stepped in he closed the door behind him before falling to the floor. He threaded his hands in his hair before pulling out all the flowers he had taken from your face. Each one of them a different color. A cold feeling entered his heart, knowing that you were suffering because of him.

He had to remain strong. He couldn’t have love be in the way. At least that’s when he told himself at first. 

Ever since you showed up at the bar that faithful day, he knew he had to have you. He knew that he needed you. Why else would his heart beat so fast when you walked past. He always imagined you by his side, sitting on his throne with him. his queen of the villains.

If only he had confessed sooner. If he had he would not have to see you dying in your room because of it. Watching your life slowly slip from your eyes as the days passed by. You were hurting because of his stupid mistake.

And now he had to suffer the consequences. 

He held your flowers close to his face. They smelled of you. Reminding him of the deed he had just done. Tears hit the petals of the flowers, effectively collecting shigaraki’s tears. It hurt. Why did it have to hurt so bad.

A blue poppy was slowly growing on Shigaraki’s neck.

[poppyknitt]

Bio-Bots- A JSE Egos Fanfic

Android!Chase AU

-Post explaining how the hell i came to make this beautiful, blessed, but also cursed au in the first place

-Canon developments in the story as of writing this

[April 11th, 2017, our time]

Schneep and Jackie knew Chase wasn’t going to make it. His head was shot clean through, and his brain was damaged badly. Even if it did heal, he’d be in so much tremendous pain that he’d probably be begging to be “put to sleep”, as they call it in the veterinarian world. They stared hopelessly at the heart monitor next to Chase’s bed, which had a relatively steady pace at the moment, but, on occasion, faltered.

“... What should be done, Jackie..? He only has a little bit of time left. You and I, we-.. we both know this.”

“... I say we work together on blueprints.”

“Blueprints? What-Whatever for?!”

“... An android, of sorts. One that works and looks totally human. It may take a few weeks, but we’ll make it happen.”

“And what would I do? You are the one with the technological know-how; I, on the other hand cannot configure even a Raspberry Pi for the life of me!”

“You’ll help me make him look human. You’ll help me pull this off. We can do this, Henrik. Nothing is holding us back. No one will have to know that he died.”

“... Alright, then. Just give me heads up, yes?”

Jackie smiled sadly, “Will do, ‘doc’.”

~~~

[April 24th, 2017, our time]

Chase woke up groggily, his head spinning as his vision flooded with blindingly bright light, and he slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position. The heart monitor on his left beeped steadily, and his head was wrapped in bandages.

“Chase! You- You’re awake!” A voice, similar to his, cried out in joy, and next thing he knew, he was being glomped by a man in a black cape and strangely colored cat mask.

“Wh..Who..?” He slurred, taking a moment to figure out that this was Marvin, “Oh! ...M-Marv..?”

“Yep! That... That’s my name! Don’t.. wear it out!” Marvin said, putting on the best cheerful face he could, thought, Chase knew it wasn’t sincere, even as he laughed wryly in response. He could tell that the magician was distressed greatly by his attempt to kill himself.

~~

“Okay, so, he’s gotta be good at reading people, right? I mean, come on, even if we are just doing this to prevent further heartache, then why not take a few creative liberties that chance making social interaction and stuff like that easier?”

“Is up to you, Jackie. I for one did not know him very well beforehand, so you may wind up on your own for the programming part of this.”

“M’kay. Cool. I’m gonna do it.”

~~

[April 30th, 2017, our time]

“Stacy? Hi... It’s me, Chase... I was just calling to ask when you’re gonna let me see the kids next... I really miss them... S-Sorry for bothering you... I’ll... just go now..” He sighed, and hung up the phone.

“She still being petty?” Marvin asked, his face reading nothing but slightly amused sympathy.

“Yeah.”

“Damn. Well, cheer up, pal! She’ll have to listen to ya some day!”

“Maybe...”

~~~

“Greetings, Chase. I’m Jackieboyman! But, uh, I’d prefer being called Jackie.”

“... Uh... hey..? Good to meet you!” As the android spoke, his face lit up, as if he were just registering the name, and felt like he recognized it. Or something. Either way, it seemed like a good thing that he showed recognition, because it meant that at least one of the features he’d implemented into the android was working.

Jackie grabbed his clipboard, and checked off “Name recognition” from the list.

“What is that?” Chase asked, peering over his shoulder from behind. Jackie hadn’t even noticed him move! Weird. But cool!

“Um, it’s a list of functions you’re supposed to have. I have to make sure you function like a normal human if we’re gonna get the others to believe there’s nothing wrong.”

“Oh. Is silent footsteps one of them?”

“Not intentionally, no. I think it’s a byproduct of the materials we used.”

“Cool.”

“Hey, not to change the subject or anything, but how’re your tricks for the bro average channel going so far?”

“Pretty good! I can do a triple flip now! Wanna see?”

“Heck yeah, man! That sounds epic!”

Chase grinned cheerfully, and, going a fair bit back so he didn’t risk bumping into his older brother. He jumped up several feet, backflipped, landed on one hand, and did it twice more, landing on both hands the second, and on his knees the third. Jackie watched, eyes wide in awe, and applauded him excitedly when he finished.

“Wow! That was awesome!”

“Aw, shucks, Jackieboy! You’re too kind! Too kind!” Chase grinned, bowing humorously.

~~~

[Sometime in August, 2017, our time]

“Seán... Please... I-I don’t know if you can hear me, but... please... wake up.. We need you now, more than ever...” His voice broke as he pleaded for his old friend to wake up. Between the loss of Henrik, and Jack’s coma, he didn’t know if he was gonna be able to keep it all together.

~~~

Jackie watched Chase from a ways back, his heart breaking at the sight of his youngest brother melting down by the side of their creator’s bed in the hospital. He was about to go hug him and tell him it was gonna be okay, but Marvin ran in, pushed past him, and practically glomped poor Chase. The magician was clearly upset about the loss of Henrik and Jack, but he seemed to understand that the best they could do about it right now was help each other keep it together. Chase seemed shocked by the sudden hug, but he quickly returned it, appearing to be holding back tears.

~~~~

“Hey! Jackie! Look over there!” Chase exclaimed gleefully, hoping his brother was gullible enough to fall for it.

“What? What am I looking for?” Jackie asked in confusion as he looked where Chase had pointed. Chase grinned mischievously, and ran up to him while he was distracted, grabbing the hero’s goggles and yanking them down so they covered his eyes. Jackie yelped in surprise, and scrambled to adjust the goggles so he could see, as Chase made a break for it, darting away from him as fast as he could. Jackie yelled at him, and gave chase, catching up to him quickly, and tackled him to the pavement.

“Hey! No fair! Let me go!” Chase yelped, surprised by the strength of Jackie’s grip.

Jackie grinned, and stole his hat, letting go of him as he spoke, “Fine! But you’re still gonna pay for that”, and shot up, darting off in the direction of home. Chase laughed, and ran after him, yelling for him to give his hat back.

~~~~

[October 2018, our time]

Chase clutched onto his abdomen, coughing every now and then, as a strange, orange-ish liquid oozed around his arm. He didn’t understand why his blood looked so unnatural, but he didn’t think about that, as he let himself sink into a blind rage, and ran at the foreign glitch that was attacking Marvin.

“Chase, no!” Jackie screamed at him, desperately trying to drag himself after him, but the hero collapsed, his own wounds making him too weak to hold himself up anymore. Chase’s instincts screamed at him to go back for Jackie and flee this place, but he had to save his other brothers, too. Everything he knew about biology told him he shouldn’t even be able to run right now, but he didn’t care; Obviously, he could, which meant he was the only one able to do anything right now.

He tackled the glitch to the ground, and started throwing punches at his face, glad he was able to take him by surprise, since he probably wouldn’t have been able to pull that off if he hadn’t. The Anti screamed in anger, violently throwing him off, and stood up, as Chase caught himself. The vlogger stood as well, his eyes burning with hatred.

“Chase..! You..! You’re hurt! Wh-What-?!”

“He’s an android, Marvin.” Jackie wheezed.

“W-Wh-?! S-Since when?!”

“Since April...”

“W-Who else knew?!”

“... Henrik knew. He helped me create him...“

“Where- What happened to the Chase we knew?!”

“... He didn’t survive. The day Chase woke up was really just... the day after he had died..”

Chase listened silently, his heart heavy. He’d always had an underlying suspicion that he wasn’t as human as they’d said, but he didn’t realize he wasn’t human at all. He sighed, and opened his mouth, interrupting the conversation, “Marv, take Jem and the doc, and run. Don’t go home. Just... run. Make sure you never look back, and most importantly, don’t stop running until we meet again, okay?” The order came out dry and empty, his hate-filled gaze never leaving the glitch as he spoke.

“B-But what about you and Jackie?!” Marvin yelped, eyes wide, as tears began spilling from his eyes in small streams.

“... We’ll be fine. We’re gonna fight this guy off, and then we’ll run, too. I dunno how, or where, but we’re not stay here. Our world might as well be toast.”

“Chase..” Jameson’s speech slide appeared, and Chase gritted his teeth, squeezing his eyes shut as he, too, began to cry.

“Go, god damn it! Go before I do something really fucking stupid!” He sobbed, not paying any mind to the sadistic grin plastered on the glitch’s face, as his voice cracked and broke. At that, Marvin didn’t take another warning, and, as he helped Schneep up, he cast a spell. Soon enough, it was just him, Jackie, and the monster that had invaded their world.

Speaking of the damned, the glitch began laughing his mentally unstable laugh, and held up his knife, which was stained with orange, “Oh̶,̧ ḩo̧w҉ a͟do͝rable̢!́ You real̴l̷y ́t̀h̨ìnk͜ ͜they̶ ̴c͢a̕n ͠ęsc͟ap͜e̡ me f̨o̵r l҉o̡n̢g͢ ̨j̀ust ̶bec̸ausę ̷y͘o͞u ͢tol͟d́ ̸t͡he̵m to҉ r̷u͏n?! ̨Oh, ҉d͢e͏a͏r͞ ̀r͡ób̶ot̛, ̕I ͞h҉àte to ̡say ̀ít,̢ b͘u͘t́ ̡as͜ ̢s͡o͜on͠ ̢as̵ I͏’m done ͟w̵i҉th̀ ́yo҉u? I’̀m̛ g̷o͏i͡n̴g straight for ͡t͏h̀em̸!̛”

“That’s why you’re not getting a chance to do that.” Chase said, smirking a little. The Anti paused, looking utterly dumbfounded by his statement. They stood there quietly for a moment, until Chase subtly signaled to Jackie, and the hero yelled at the glitch.

“Hey, doofus! You forgetting someone?!” Jackie taunted. The glitch growled in annoyance, and turned to him. Chase took the chance his brother had given him, and used his soundless footsteps to his advantage. He sprinted at the glitch, and withing moments, he was on top of him once more, punching the ever living hell out of him once more. It took until Jackie yelled for him to stop for him to realize he’d knocked the Anti unconscious.

He got off of the demon, and ran to Jackie, picking him up in an almost-bridal style fashion, despite his brother’s adamant protesting, “Shut up, dad. You’re too weak to walk.” He joked, knowing Jackie would be embarrassed by the spontaneous new nickname.

Without looking back even once, he used a little spell Marvin had taught him a while back, and opened a portal to another world.

———————————

Help i’ve been writing this story practically nonstop for like 8-9 hours and i’m already attached to Android!ChaseSo, yep! This is basically all of the super major parts in Android!Chase’s story that I’ve made yet! Also, random note, but uh, the Anti that came in at the end was indeed Monitor (the anti from one of my other aus, if this is the first fic of mine that you’ve read), and he most definitely destroyed the universe they came from. Whether Chase & Jackie ever reunited with Marvin, JJ and Henrik is currently unconfirmed, but don’t loose hope, because I’d absolutely love to be able to expand upon their stories later on! Though, I think my favorite part of this au is Jackie and Chase’s QPR father/son dynamic-

taglist:

@antis-loyal-puppet @tiny-septic-puppet @chaoticcrimsonrose (yes i know you hate the angst but this is only like 50% angst) @rorald-spooks @septic-dr-schneep

Additional tags:

@hotcocoachia @insaneangel18-blog @aquaticember06

[noncommitalshrug-blog]

Keeping up with the Joneses

Part 3

Jughead smiled. Not his typical crooked half-smile/half-smirk, but a real smile, that was so rarely present on his face that his cheek muscles actually ached with disuse. He clung to his sister’s small, familiar frame. A swirl of memories and emotions crashed through him like an invisible force. Flashes of pain, anger, despair, and longing all mixed together in an undertow that made remembering to breathe difficult. Tears of joy and pain of the long separation landed from Jellybean’s eyes onto her brother’s jacket and from his eyes onto her hair and shoulder.

Archie watched the long wished-for moment with happiness. There was nothing in the world that his best friend had wanted more than to be with his baby sister again. But she seemed older to Archie… not in age, but in her eyes. Eyes of someone who had seen more than she was ready to see… Like her brother’s eyes, when his father entered the same room that he was in; resolved and with an almost feral preparedness for some terror or pain that may suddenly come from some unknown source.

Archie swallowed those musings down deep inside of himself. He had more pressing concerns… like the clumpy white blobs falling gently down from the night sky. Archie looked down at the pavement which was beginning to get a dusting of snow. It was sticking.

“Hey, Jellybean!” He approached the siblings slowly, reluctantly. The young girl smiled broadly, wiping unshed tears from her eyes,

“Hi Archie! Long time no see!”

“What? No hug for your “adopted” brother? See if I let you beat me at Super Smash Bros. later…”

He teased.

She gave Archie a huge smile, “Like you’d have to let me… I’ll beat you even if I play cross-eyed.” She gave the red-haired boy a warm hug.

The two older boys laughed at the boast.

Archie jerked his thumb towards Main Street,

“We better started heading back, the snow is already coming down pretty good.” He eyed Jughead meaningfully.

The dark-haired boy nodded, the unspoken warning accepted. The street lights’ yellow glare showed snow on Archie’s sweatshirt hood which poked out from under the collar of his bomber jacket. Jughead sniffled liquidly, wiping his nose on his sleeve as subtly as he could; repressing a shiver. The snow was melting quickly into his coat collar, icy water trickling down his neck and upper back. He pulled up his collar against the cold, wet invasion. He instantly thought of Jellybean.

Jughead reached over, pulling her puffy winter coat’s hood up and over the purple woolen beanie and in the same fluid movement, zipped her jacket up higher. She rolled her eyes at his hovering, but allowed her brother this small victory. He smiled at her reaction, satisfied that she was guarded against the elements. But his traitorous nose seemed to notice his distraction, and forced him to sniffle again quickly. The sharp rush of cold air set a tingling buzz coursing through his nasal passages. He winced, shaking his head and sniffling again trying to dispel the sensation.

Jellybean watched this event play across her brother’s face with curiosity, but said nothing. He rubbed his nose with the edge of his coat cuff again, which proved to be the turning point of his battle. He gasped as the fiery tickle intensified and two rapid hitching breaths later,

“Heh-Heh-HEDDDTSSSHHAAH!!!” Jughead spun on his heel away from his sister as the sneeze overtook him and ducked into his shoulder to avoid spreading this virus further. He cringed inwardly and turned back toward Archie and Jellybean with a forced smile. “Whoo… That came out of nowhere!” At least it was only one this time. He stole a glance at Archie’s face. The red-head sighed and returned his glance with one of apprehension and pity.

“Bless you, Juggie… Are you okay…?” Jellybean searched her brother’s face for answers. He just grinned at her, seemingly amused by her concern,

“I’m just fine, Jellybean, or should I be calling you “JB” now?” He attempted to change the subject of discussion.

“Are you sure?” came the persistent question, along with a small tilt of her head that reminded Archie of a small bird.

“I’m fine. Don’t worry so much. You’ll get wrinkles.” He playfully pulled her hood down over her eyes.

Anxious to return home (and to get his friend out of this weather) Archie took matters into his own hands with an exaggerated shiver,

“Brrrr! Guys, it’s freezing out here… Let’s head back to my house.” The ploy worked and the trio began the trek back to the Andrews’ house.

Jellybean hesitated, “We aren’t staying with Dad…?” she asked her brother slowly. Jughead’s face darkened,

“No, sis, he’s not at home right now,”said Jughead, avoiding the questions that he could not truthfully answer without hurting her more: Where was Dad? Didn’t he want to see her? Did he know she was here? He tried to put a positive spin on the situation,

“Archie missed you too, so we planned for us to stay at his house. He has all the fun video games anyway…”

Jellybean nodded. Her small face, was all at once, alight with evil plotting, “Can we have pineapple pizza, too?”

Archie pretended to throw-up noisily, at the mere mention of the unique pie-ingredient. She shoved him away, as equally disgusted by his evaluation of her preference, as he was pretending to be of her tastebuds’ poor lifechoices.

Jughead put an arm around her shoulder, pulling her to his side,

“Anything you want.” He was rewarded with a bright smile.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

By the time they turned onto the quiet old street, the snow was coming down heavily. The muffled sounds of their laughs and joking falling flat in the cold, dry air. Jellybean held the hands of both boys, relishing their kindness, and company. Every so often, Archie glanced over to watch her as she looked towards her brother, full of joy and contentment.

They tromped up the porch stairs kicking clumps of snow from their boots. The stripped off their cold, drippy jackets, hats, and coats, hanging them on the coat rack behind the door. Archie went to start heating the pizza and Jughead helped Jellybean unpack her things, badgering her to take a warm shower before the pizza was ready.

Laughing at his mother-henning, Jellybean finally conceded,

“Fine, Juggie! I’ll go. Criminies…”

Only she had pushed the old creaking bathroom door shut and he heard the water running, did Jughead finally release the breath he didn’t realize he was holding. He checked out his appearance in the hall mirror, making a face. The mimed image grimaced back at him, pale with a violently rose-colored nose, dripping curls, and wind-chapped cheeks. His nose was running again.

“Crap.” He muttered, thoroughly perturbed with his body’s crummy immune system. Jughead swiped his nose on his long-sleeved black shirt. He sighed, running a hand absently through his unruly, wet hair; hoping against all odds that he could keep this weekend as a truly happy, carefree memory for Jellybean and for himself.

Jughead shivered again, his dark-hair shaking droplets of snow melt onto his shoulders, causing him to rub his arms to ward off the chill that still lingered. He grabbed his obligatory commemorative sweatshirt from the Blue & Gold, pulling it over his head. He smirked at how much he had argued against this trite ritual of school activities, citing the wearing of such a piece of clothing lacked originality and was just another way that the school was encouraging voluntary conformity. He had never loved the ugly blue sweatshirt more than he did at that very moment.

 He went down to the kitchen quickly, knowing Archie’s home-economics skills left much to be desired. Jughead had found, through trial and error (mostly error), that it was best not to leave the red-haired boy in charge of anything flammable for too long.

The kitchen was not on fire. This was a good sign. Jughead walked into the kitchen, smelling sweetness and savory smells emanating from the oven. Suddenly, there was a flash of color as his vision disappeared. A huge towel swallowed his head with a “thwuff” sound.

“Oof… Damnit, Archie!”

Hands rubbed his damp curls vigorously, but not roughly.

Archie, moving the towel as he dried, eventually came eyeball to eyeball with a miffed Jughead. Struggling not to grin at the expression of annoyance on his friend’s face, Archie continued his way along the back of the smaller boy’s neck and ears.

“Are y’done?!?” came the irritated question, half-muffled by the towel.

“I didn’t think you’d have enough sense to dry off, so I decided to be prepared.” said the larger boy with a shrug and a smiled creeping over his face. Jughead’s hair, notoriously stubborn, (due to it’s proximity a stubborn mind) had gone the way of the late eighties hair bands and was sticking up at odd angles, being statically charged from the towel.

Jughead sniffled, rubbing his nose gently with one finger,

“Does that include not burning the pizza?” Archie looked into the oven worriedly, but without cause: the pizza was perfectly golden brown on the edges. He removed the pizza, placing it on the island on a potholder. He gave the dark-haired boy a withering look over the slight against his non-existent cooking abilities.

As Archie began to slice the pie, he discreetly tried to figure out is their trip to the depot had taken its toll on the smaller boy. Jughead still looked pale, he wasn’t coughing as much now, and he didn’t seem feverish when Archie had toweled him off. Reassured that, at least, for right now, Jughead was holding his own against his sickness, the larger boy breathed a sigh of relief.

A cry of “PIZZA!” carried through the house, as Jellybean dashed down the stairs and into the kitchen. Vegas trotted beside her, equally enthused about the choice of food.

The simple dinner was quickly demolished by the hungry quartet (Vegas scarfing down every unwanted crust and occasional dropped pepperoni that his newest best friend passed along to him.) Archie pulled out the sofa bed and made it up for Jelly bean while her brother microwaved hot chocolate in the kitchen and she selected “Cats & Dogs”. Archie raised his eyebrows at her choice; she simply smiled,

“What? I love talking animals!”

“I didn’t say anything… but it’s good to know you haven’t changed that much…” Archie bent down and messed up her hair.

“Hey! I’ll get you back when we play Nintendo later!” She declared. Archie tossed two pillows onto the sofa bed and plopped onto the floor beside her, pretending to yawn.

“I’m not even sure I’ll m-make it… (Yawn) through the movie at this rate. I’m beat.” The earlier he got everyone to get to sleep, the better the chances that Jughead’s body would have be able to beat this cold.

Jughead brought in the steaming mugs of chocolate, nose twitching with irritation. He set down the mugs and mumbled,

“I-I’ll b-be baaahck…(Sniifle) Bathroom-break.”

“Hurry up!” yelled Jellybean, distractedly, putting on the DVD. Archie frowned, unable to hear over the DVD advertisements. He got up, making an excuse of finding popcorn, and took a right down the hall to the downstairs bathroom.

The muffled explosions that he heard through the door came rapidly,

“HEH-GSSSHMMF! HEHHCCT! heh-EH-GHmmmft! HEShccmmmf! Ugh…eh-heh-Hehhh-ggggshh!!!” This unsettling chorus of sneezes, began violent and urgent and trailed off into a deep, gurgling nose blow followed by an exhausted-looking Jughead opening the door. He jumped about a foot, causing the door to jerk.

“Geezus, Arch!” He bit back a yelp of surprise which dissolved into a small fit of dry, painful-sounding coughs. Jughead ducked his head into the collar of the sweatshirt, so that it covered his nose and mouth, quickly silencing the fit into the hoodie’s lining, his hands pressing the fabric to his face.

“Sorry…” said Archie, looking at his friend with no small amount of worry, “You sound awful… I thought you were doing better than this. I shouldn’t have let you…”

“Hold it…” said the dark-haired boy, “I’m gonna stop you right there. You didn’t let me… I went, I’ll deal… Got it? Staying here wouldn’t have made much of a difference anyway. Guilt-tripping yourself needlessly won’t fix it either. I’ve been through worse, hell, you’ve seen me go through worse than this. I’ll be fine. I’ll call it an early night after the movie.”

“Okay.” Archie said dejectedly. He let Jughead push past him and watched as the tired boy sat heavily on the sofa bed next to Jellybean. She was so absorbed with watching the movie, that she didn’t notice her brother’s dark hair duck twice in quick succession as he pinched his nose in two completely silent stifles. He shook his head to clear it briefly and pulled the old afgan and quilt a little more snugly around her sister. He stroked her hair and pulled her closer to his side. Archie rejoined the group, and passed around the nearly forgotten hot cocoa, trying to lose his worries in the ridiculous movie.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Before the ending credits, Jellybean was asleep, in spite of all her late-night plans of videogaming.

Archie watched as her brother’s head came to rest on top of hers, Jughead’s clear eyes drooping. The red-head got up careful not to disturb the sleeping girl. He gently roused Jughead, who blinked in confusion. Archie put a finger to his lips and gestured to Jughead’s left. Suddenly, the dark-haired boy’s tiredness was forgotten. Jughead smiled, easing Jellybean’s head off his shoulder and laying her down onto the sofa bed softly. He pulled another blanket over her sleeping form and quietly left the darkened room with his best friend.

 Once upstairs, Archie tried to get Jughead to take his bed,

 “At least for tonight!” He argued. Sadly, whether he didn’t get his mother’s skill at pleading a case or whether Jughead just knew his tactics too well, he still couldn’t convince his friend.

 “It’s better this way. She’ll come tearing in here tomorrow and jump on you by accident trying to wake me up! I’ll be fine on the air mattress. I swear.”

 Archie sighed and passed Jughead a couple of Nyquil capsules and a glass of water,

 “Fine, but you are taking these.” The implied “or else” was clear.

 Jughead swallowed the pills in one gulp with a healthy swig of water.

 “Done. Happy now?”

 “Yeah, for the moment.”

 “Well, I hope the moment lasts a while, cause I’m going to sleep. Night.” Jughead crawled under the comforter and unceremoniously passed out.

 Archie stayed up a bit longer, watching the snow fall outside and listening to the soft, congested snores coming from the sick boy on the air mattress. He wished he could take this sickness from the smaller boy, but he would do everything he could to make sure that this cold didn’t get any worse.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

End of part 3