#Henry wants to move away from home the moment he legally can and run with the opportunity but he needs to be there for his little bro

[rosetheex-editor]

[Video transcript begin.]

[The transcript begins from a front shirt pocket, the phone camera is facing the body of a person identified as "Ness". Grunting can be heard from both people as they both bring the person up stairs.]

?: Why the fuck did we take the stairs?

[Voice identified: Marina.]

Marina: Like, really? This is stupid.

?: You want to explain the knocked out person with a broken arm covered in dirt?

[Voice identified: Henry.]

[The two people finally make it up the stairs, setting Ness down. Marina can be heard off camera walking away while Henry tries to breathe.]

Henry: Marina, don't worry about getting the door open. it's unlocke–

[Before Henry can finish, Marina kicks the door in, shouting in victory and running over to pick up Ness and drag her into the apartment. Henry speaks again, sounding very annoyed.]

H: Unlocked…

M: Don't care, don't ask! get Ness in the apartment. I'll get the locks.

[The camera lighting changes as they both enter the apartment and bring Ness to a bedroom. Henry sets Ness on the floor and Marina can be heard locking the window and the door as Henry walks out and they shut the door. All the while, loud snoring can be heard in the background, coming from the couch.]

H: Thanks marina…

M: Sure straight boi!

[Henry sighs as both he and Marina walk into the kitchen, Henry grabs a cup of water as Marina can be heard walking back and forth.]

M: Soooo, how do you know Ness?

H: Oh…

[Henry takes a sip of water, and a deep breath, as Marina walks into frame, her legs visible.]

H: Me and Ness met in this little kindergarten back in philadelphia, mostly because we both liked jurassic park we became friends… Made a treehouse.

M: She mentioned Mari once… how'd y'all meet?

H: Oh… Well me and ness met mari one night at the park when they and sarah were hanging out. We've been friends ever since… But there was… Sarah's disappearance…

[Henry sounds somber. Marina bends down making her face visible, she looks sad.]

M: Hey… I might bully you but… Ness is my friend… What happened?

H: Ness spiraled, left philly, fell out of contact with everyone… Sarah was pretty much the glue that held us together… Then Mari disappeared because of that bitch Mai.

[A startled shout can be heard from behind the two, then a thump, as someone hits the floor.]

?: Wh– huh? Where?

[Voice identified: Edgar.]

H: Wha– No, Mai's not here Edgar. Don't worry, Marina and I were just talking.

E: Oh. Um. Sorry. I guess I just… was sleeping lightly? And heard the name? I don’t know, that’s my bad.

H: No, no, don't worry about it. Really…

[Edgar chuckles, shakily standing up, using the couch as support.]

E: Well, either way. I’m awake now. You two wouldn’t mind if I participated, would you?

M: I mind very much so.

[Marina laughs, In response Henry punches her in the arm off camera before falling to the ground, almost dropping the camera.]

H: OW! Bloody hell…

E: I can’t tell if you were serious about that or not. Uh…

M: Dude. No, I don't give a fuck. It's your apartment. Henry you good?

H: Neck!

E: Alright, uh. I’m going to grab something before I come sit down, is that alright with you?

M: Yeah. Again it's your fucking house we don’t have the power here… Where's your ice packs? Henry hurt his neck.

E: Fridge, I think. Or, well. Freezer. You know what I mean.

[The man can be heard moving to a room near the table, he stumbles slightly on his way over, resulting in a few louder footsteps, and a sharp breath. He reaches the room, and emerges a few moments later, before making his way to the kitchen table and sitting down.]

H: What did you grab?

E: Emotional support squirrel. Yes, I know that I’m not supposed to own a squirrel. It wasn’t my choice to bring him home.

M: Legally nothing can be done, soooo. You do you mate.

H: Oh, we put Ness in the room with the cat. The little guy seemed lonely.

E: Hm, should be fine. Unless Ness wants to kill a kitten for whatever reason.

M: I think she's just hormonal, not gonna lie.

H: Marina. I will jump up and hit you.

E: Hey! No fighting in the apartment, we already have enough destruction with Adam, Leon and Liam microwaving grapes all the fucking time.

H: But seriously. Ness will be fine, she just needs people to help her through this… She's already lost two friends. I don't think she'll hurt the kitten.

E: Good. Uh, so… where were you guys? Before my little, ah… interruption.

H: Talking about… Mari and Mai.

E: Right, right. Uh, if you need any… specific details. I think I could provide them.

H: Was… Mari at least happy with their choice… They didn't regret rigging the vote?

E: Haha, uh, already going with the hard ones, I see! I… think so. They seemed content to stay in the mall. I wasn’t as happy, though. It wasn’t fair.

H: Mari did it for Sarah… That had to have been the reason… Sarah was basically the only thing stopping Mari from losing it after Leanne died…

E: I’d imagine so, yes.

M: Leanne? Who's that?

H: Oh um…

[Henry stands up slowly, sighing deeply.]

H: Leanne was… Mari's mom…

E: I assumed so, based on your tone.

H: Yeah… Sarah was Mari's rock… Anchor whatever you want to call it. God I remember Mari's 14th? maybe 15th birthday meeting Leanne… She was an incredibly nice woman.

E: From what I’d heard, she sounded wonderful. Such a shame that fucking Tom decided to… So glad that I got rid ooofffff…

[Edgar trails off, realizing too late what he was admitting to at his kitchen table. He attempts to cover his slip-up with a cough.]

E: Anyway.

H: If you killed him I don't care. He forced mari to fucking watch as he killed leanne… I would have killed him if I got the chance.

E: … Hm. Well, in that case. I’m glad I used his head for golf practice. He was a prick.

H: He was the whole damn cactus… Anyway you play golf?

E: Wh– no! I– fuck no, I’m not at THAT level of fatherhood yet.

M: Fatherhood or just being really straight.

[Marina laughs and hits Henry in the arm, causing the camera to jostle.]

E: According to Leon, I’m one of the least straight heterosexuals he’s ever met. So…

M: How so?

E: Well, first off, Leon and I kissed once, but that was for spin the bottle, so it doesn’t fully count. I have 5 inch platforms in my closet, as well. And everyone is extremely convinced I’m bisexual. I don’t know why.

M: Ok I'm sorry but…

[Marina laughs for 30 seconds straight before being punched by Henry, his hand somewhat in frame.]

H: Anyway… You said fatherhood… It reminded me I'm… Sorry about Rose

E: Don’t be. It was mostly my fault. If I’d listened better to those fuckin’ anons on Tumblr, Ness probably wouldn’t be… like that. Right now.

[Almost as if on cue a scream of anger can be heard before the person speaks.]

?: LET ME OUT OF HERE MARINA!

[Voice identified: Ness.]

H: GO TO BED NESSA, YOU AREN'T BREAKING INTO THAT MALL!

Ness: FUCK OFF HENRY I DIDN’T ASK YOU!

[Marina can be heard walking and opening a door before kicking someone and walking back.]

M: Anyway!

E: Marina. Please do not kick people in my apartment. I don’t want to have to make rules for being here, but I will.

M: Ness shouldn't be trying to break into the mall but ok if anything I'll drag her outside and THEN kick her.

E: I heavily advise against that, Marina. Ness doesn’t need that right now. Nor does she ever, but now especially. I’ve been in the same situation. It doesn’t help. If I catch you doing that shit again, I will not hesitate to throw hands. And one of mine is made of metal. Consider your options carefully.

H: I might yell at her when she does dumb shit but do not kick her in the head… Again.

E: Wait, that reminds me. Sorry for essentially stealing a prosthetic from the hospital back in July. I needed to leave that room, I hope you understand.

M: I can’t legally condone escaping the hospital… But I'm off the clock so I don't give a rat's ass And as for the prosthetic… Yeah, we need that back.

E: Ha, um. About that… wh– okay, I don’t think I even need to explain. Here.

[A mechanic detaching noise can be heard, then metallic skittering on wood, as Adam makes his way over to Marina.]

?: Hello.

[Voice identified: Adam.]

M: WHAT THE FUCK?

E: Yeahhh. Um. Long story? So, the prosthetic is alive. You can’t take him back. Marina, this is Adam.

[The camera turns to face Marina whose eyes have lit up looking at Adam, a smile creeping up on her face.]

M: WOW! OH MY GOD THIS IS SO COOL!

E: Glad you think so. It gets less cool once he starts lighting shit on fire and saying slang you don’t understand.

A: I am innocent of this. I am. A mere. Pussy hat slay. Queen. In a world of. Normies.

E: See!? What the fuck does that even mean???

M: Uhhhhhhh.

[Marina looks at her phone.]

M: Hold on. Yeah no that makes no sense.

E: I knew it! You’ve been saying gibberish!

A: You are killing. My vibe.

M: No, I mean. The slang words are just modern stuff. The combination doesn't make sense

[Edgars voice becomes slightly muffled, as he places his head on the table.]

E: Why can’t people just say bitchin’ anymore... Slang was so much fucking easier in the 90s.

M: Not wrong.

E: Wait, how old are you?

M: 37. Probably 38 by now… Shit I don't remember.

E: Damn, I’m… 13 years older than you.

M: No fucking way. You look 20 something.

E: Technically I’m 52. But in every other way, 27. It’s a little confusing. I forget that people don’t know that about me.

M: Wha- wha- What kinda fuckin tech does showfall have? like i know about the wire stuff? I was Rose’s nurse when you brought her on that wheelbarrow.

E: Oh, I’m about to freak you out so much. Wanna know how my neck got this fucked up?

M: Sure? cuz realistically you need surgery to fix that shit.

[Edgar laughs for a few seconds, trying two times to start his sentence, but cutting himself off before he can say the first word.]

E: Okay, okay. I can do this. So… I got my head bitten off. And it got reattached. But whoever did it fucked it up. So now… yeah.

M: Wha- Ok what the fuck?

E: That’s in the top three of the list of fucked up things that have happened to me. You ever seen that Showfall show ‘The Mechanics Lament’?

M: Nope. Never had time to watch showfall stuff.

E: Hm. Well, you know that all those shows are real, right? You’ve been told that much? Hold on, I’ll pull something up…

M: Ness… told me I think? mostly about that Rhanboo guy? Getting boxed?

[The camera moves over to Edgar as he finches at the mention of the person called "Rhanboo".]

E: A– alright. Good. So you know that this clip is 100% real. Uh, before I show you. Are you alright with blood? I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.

M: Edgar… I'm a fucking nurse. Being fine with blood is a job qualification.

E: Okay, but you don’t just go up to boxers and punch them because they’re a boxer, now do you?

M: Fair.

[Edgar holds out his phone to Marina with his left hand. The recording catches blurry shapes, it seems to be a clip of someone’s hand getting impaled.]

M: Jesus…

[He puts the phone face down, and holds his hand out to Marina. Showing off the hole.]

M: O- Oh my god…

E: Mhm.

H: Anywa-

[Henry is hit by something off screen and his head slams into the table as footsteps approach from a room behind them.]

Ne: YOU MOTHERFUCKER!

[The camera turns to face Ness as she punches Henry in the face, The phone falls to the ground and is picked up by Marina as Ness begins punching Henry again and again while crying.]

Ne: WHAT POINT OF STAY AWAY DON'T YOU GET!

E: Ness! Enough!

[Edgar attempts to stand up and move towards them, but he stumbles, and has to grab onto the table.]

Ne: STAY OUT OF THIS EDGAR! I COULD HAVE BEEN HERE! I SHOULDN'T HAVE FUCKIN LEFT AND ROSE WOULD STILL BE SITTING HERE! I'M NOT LETTING ANY OF MY FRIENDS GET HURT BECAUSE OF ME!

E: Ness, you are beating the shit out of Henry. You can’t fucking say shit like that and then pull this. Sit the fuck down.

Ne: HE KEEPS TRYING TO HELP ME! I DON'T NEED HELP I NEED MY FUCKIN FRIENDS! I NEED ROSE! I NEED SARAH! I NEED MARI!

[Henry grabs Ness' hand, blood now coming out of his nose.]

E: Ness. Calm down. Sit. You won’t be of any help like this. Please, I know how you’re feeling. But this mentality could get people killed. Sit down with us.

Ne: I- I-

H: Ness. Rose wouldn’t want this. Mari wouldn’t want this. Sarah DAMN sure wouldn't want this. Please just sit down.

[Ness begins sobbing Henry sits up and hugs her.]

Ne: I- I'm sorry…

[Edgar sighs. Drumming his fingers on the table anxiously, sitting back down.]

E: Rose is going to be fine. I know her, she can make it through this. And… wait. Do you guys know…?

Ne: K- Know what?

H: What's up?

E: Great. I absolutely love being the one to tell people shit like this.

[He clears his throat. Twice. Before speaking again.]

E: I… have been in contact with Mari. Recently.

Ne: How have they been! I've been too busy to keep up!

H: WHAT! HOW ARE THEY!

E: Oh, jeez, you guys are making this so fucking hard. They… okay, like a bandaid, just… They don’t remember you. Any of you. At all. I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry.

Ne: I…

H: Oh…

Ne: I thought they at least remembered something…

E: Nothing. At first. They got two important memories back, which happened to be really fucking awful ones. First, their mother’s murder, and… me leaving them behind. Nothing about you guys.

Ne: I… um…

H: It’s going to be ok. I know it will… Any updates from today?

[Edgar stays silent, then begins to laugh. Not out of amusement, but of regret, and worry. He leans over onto the table, placing his head flat against the surface. After a few seconds, he sits back up. A sad and worried smile on his face.]

E: You guys are going to fucking hate me for this. Have you ever seen Saw?

Ne: You've got to be fuckin kidding me…

H: Not gonna hate you unless you kill one of my friends. and also yeah? why?

E: That purple son of a fuck set up a fucked up escape room for Mari. In the mall. Inspired by Saw. They’re in there right now. And… I– God… I’m sorry. Last I checked, they got stabbed in the leg and the arm by robotic versions of their parents. Recreating Leanne’s murder. I…

[Ness can be seen in frame digging her nails into her thighs, before punching the floor multiple times until her hand starts bleeding.]

H: Ness. breathe.

E: I’ll go– Hold on, I can’t exactly… Adam, can you go grab the first aid kit?

A: Aye. Aye. Captain.

[Adam swiftly skitters away to fetch the first aid kit.]

Ne: I'm fine…

M: Fuck no you ain't.

E: Yeah, no. Ness. You aren’t fine. It’s very apparent that you aren’t fine. Even I can tell.

M: Hey ok… Good news. Rose is… Progressing pretty well… Of course it's still not great but the chances of death are now lower than the chances of living.

E: That’s great news, actually. Thank you, Marina.

[Adam skitters back into frame, a large first aid kit in his mechanical tendril-like… things. He hands it to Edgar, who passes it down to Henry.]

H: Yep.

[Marina sighs.]

Ne: OW!

H: Yeah it's gonna hurt your knuckles are bleeding.

E: There’s something else that I was meaning to say. But… I don’t know if it’s a good idea, based on Ness’ reaction to the news about Mari.

Ne: Shut up and just get it over with.

H: Be nice.

E: I can take it. I’ve said much worse 6 inches from the bathroom mirror, anyway.

[He clears his throat, immediately regretting sharing that fact.]

E: I have also… Um. Hold on. I need the squirrel for this.

[A pause.]

E: I’ve… Spoken to Sarah.

Ne: S- She's alive!

H: HA! I KNEW IT!

E: Woah, woah, woah. Hold on. I’m not done. She’s not exactly… her. Right now.

H: Wha- What do you mean? Did those assholes make her… Sam again?

E: No, they didn’t. Um. She’s… what’s the right way to put this…?

Ne: Is… she like Sparrow?

E: Yes, that’s what I was going for. Showfall has her acting in… A sort of children's show. I think. I’ve spoken to her before and after this happened. It was… stressful. Especially directly before the switch over.

Ne: …

H: S- she always wanted to take care of kids… Hell according to mari… Sarah's been saying that for years…

E: She also got her arm ripped off, I think. I– Sorry. I– I don’t know why I said that without warning, shit– Sorry.

Ne: WE NEED TO SAVE THEM!

H: Ness.

E: No. Ness. You are NOT going in there. Under no circumstance are you to EVER break into that mall. It ends poorly for everyone who tries.

Ne: WHAT IF THEY BOTH DIE! WHAT IF THEY CAN'T GET OUT!

H: Ness..

E: Ness, I mean it. You’re staying out here. They’ll be okay.

Ne: BUT WHAT IF THEY’RE NOT!

H: Ness…

E: Do you wanna know what fucking happens to people who break into that mall, Ness? Do you really want to fucking know?

Ne: THAT DIDN'T STOP YOU FROM DOING IT MULTIPLE FUCKIN TIMES!

[Edgar stands swiftly, his chair sliding across the tiles, he slams his hand into the table.]

E: DON’T YOU FUCKING DARE BRING THAT UP, NESS.

H: NESSA KYLIE HOFFSON! I WON'T LOSE YOU TOO YOU UNDERSTAND?

Ne: I- I-

[Ness starts sobbing, hands covering her eyes.]

H: I UNDERSTAND YOU LOST SARAH AND MARI, BUT SO HAVE I! I CAN'T LOSE YOU EITHER! NOT LIKE THIS.

E: Ness, you need to understand the risks of going in there. I’ve seen people die. I’ve seen people get caught. I’ve seen people get stuck. Their blood is on my hands because I didn’t stop them. I won’t let yours be spilled because I didn’t stop you, too. I can’t let that happen again. You’re staying out here.

Ne: I- I… I'm sorry.

E: … So am I. For shouting.

H: We should all try to go to bed… It’s getting late…

M: Yeah and I have to get home.

E: You’re all welcome to stay here. I’ll sleep on the couch.

M: Oh don't worry I had Henry grab my sleeping bag… And I assume Ness will just sleep in Rose's bed… And I have my own house.

E: I’m not letting Henry sleep on the floor. I’m alright with the couch.

H: I could always sleep on the couch?

E: Nope. My apartment, my rules. You’re getting a fuckin’ bed, dude.

H: Well in that cas-

[Henry is cut off by Marina coughing.]

M: Forgetting something?

H: OH RIGHT MY BAG!

[Henry leaves the phone on the table to grab his bag, showing a nice view of the lights, and a curious squirrel sniffing the camera..]

Ne: So… I'm taking Rose’s bed?

E: Yeah, Liam and Leon just texted to tell me they’d be home soon, so the bunk bed is taken, and Henry is going to be taking mine. The couch is mine tonight, and nobody is sleeping on the floor. So…

Ne: Plus Rose is my… friend? cru-

[Ness cuts herself off, as Marina laughs.]

Ne: Friend! yeah Friend.

E: That reminds me, maybe tomorrow I could give you some tips on how to flirt. If you’re up for that, of course.

Ne: Sure.

E: Great, because it seems to me like you’ll need it. No offense. It’s almost painful

Ne: Dude… You're just as bad at cooki-

M: Don't say a fucking word.

E: Oh, no. Carry on. Please!

Ne: YOU BURNT WATER!

E: Ah! Burnt makes it sound like it DIDN’T light on fire. Which it did. I accept my inability to cook with pride.

M: Oh shit! Call from the hospital. Henry better get his fucking bag or he's coming with me!

Ne: What's it about?

M: R-

[Marina cuts herself off, taking a deep breath before changing it.]

M: Old person stuff.

E: Hm. Well, you’d better get going, then. Usually they don’t tend to live long, old people.

[Henry runs in as Marina runs out, Henry puts his bag on the floor and sighs.]

H: Y'all know why Marina was running like that?

E: Got a call from the hospital, said it was ‘old person stuff’. I call bullshit.

H: Probably… But I'm really tired… Can we go to bed?

E: I’m not going to stop you, yeah. Of course you can.

H: Ok…

Ne: Good night bro…

H: Night sis…

E: Are you two– Never mind. Good night.

Ne: We aren't siblings. Just known each other for so long we call each other bro and sis

E: Damn. Must be nice. Anyway, I’m going to sit on the couch and watch some TV while I wait for Liam and Leon. Don’t be afraid to ask for anything, alright?

Ne: Um… Can I actually hang out here? and watch TV with you?

E: Sure, I’m fine with that.

Ne: Cool.

[Ness grabs the phone as she and Edgar slowly move to the couch, When they finally get there, they both sit down. Only for two people covered head to toe in dirt to come sprinting in.]

?: CLOSE IT CLOSE IT CLOSE THE FUCKING DOOR CLOSE IT!

[Voice identified: Leon.]

?: WHAT DO YOU THINK I’M DOING?

[Voice identified: Liam.]

E: Woah! The fuck happened to you two?

Le: BOBCAT. THERE’S A BOBCAT AND IT FOLLOWED US BACK. IT’S IN THE FUCKING HALLWAY.

E: WHAT THE FUCK?

[Something bangs against the door, causing Leon to scramble to grab a chair from the kitchen and prop it up against the door.]

Ne: WHAT THE HELL!?!?!?

L: WE DIDN’T MEAN TO MAKE IT MAD I SWEAR IT JUST HAPPENED.

E: WHY DID IT FOLLOW YOU INTO THE APARTMENT COMPLEX? HOW???

Le: I DON’T KNOW.

[The camera is pointed towards the door, showing each attempt for the wild animal to get in. The banging stops for a few seconds, and Leon steps away. Carefully.]

Le: Okay, it should be–

[Leon is cut off by the bobcat hitting the door again, forcing it open slightly. The group screams.]

[Error! Device out of battery. Ending transcript…]

[Transcript end.]

[noodlepai]

Okay soo I can't exactly help myself bcuz I wanna info dump so badly abt my AU again because I just am so fixated on it and I love coming up with ideas for it sjdjJSJ please excuse me, long post with long tags because I am opening the floodgates rn

I just can't stop thinking abt it and putting more story and details into it y'know y'know? It's my guilty pleasure

(I kinda changed some things in it *cough* and am still changing stuff)

---

Kyle wasn't really scared but was moreso interested in eteled when first meeting him, and of course being the little kid he is, he kinda messed with the guy a whole lot, when eteled doesn't like most kids all too much, (except for his bro and cousins, and later on Sam) and would ask Kyle to leave him alone, eventually after enough of being swung around in the air, being poked and all around harassed for an unspecified amount of time, eteled blew up at the guy to just leave him alone for good, he does have the axe in this scenario but it's for defense against being picked up again with that stupid ass Wii remote (although he isn't sure if it would work) and also to kinda get the point across to Kyle, so he's basically swinging his arms around a lot as he's yelling, and to sum it up quickly, pretty much what happens is that Kyle's Mii comes up behind eteled on accident, following it's programmed walk cycle and that just scares the shit out of him, causing him to swing his axe to fight back, and you can kinda guess how that goes

^ To add, the thing with eteled being deleted, and then banning Kyle temporarily from the Mii Channel did happen before all this, and Nathan was present during eteled's last straw being ripped from him, but he had less involvement in what pissed the guy off, and basically was invited over by Kyle, nonetheless he still witnessed the accident

eteled feels horrible for his actions, even though what had happened was entirely an accident, he's angry with himself, so he doesn't blame the kid one bit when Kyle decides that he has had enough mental damage and just throws the Wii in the closet, and yes Austin definitely knows about what happened, and he knows Kyle, so you can deduce from that how pissed Austin is, not only because of the fact that a poor kid has probably been traumatized, but it was his damn nephew

Kyle, some years later, does go back to check on eteled, because he's curious even though he doesn't wanna be, and is terrified, but he doesn't put anything on his computer because he is not about to have some scary ass Mii haunt his computer when he can just keep him in the Wii and throw it back in the closet or even in the trash if needed, so he reluctantly sets the Wii back up, not even sure if it works or survived the throw from all those years ago, almost hoping it didn't, but it does work and it turns on, and after some thinking and searching for the Mii, Kyle finds eteled, and they talk, they explain some things like their sides of the story without coming off as uncaring, and etc, and eteled allows Kyle to delete him to show him what happens to him and other Miis and you get the idea (eteled has pretty good control over the camera and other system stuff so it's not hard for him to just take it in there with him)

^Kyle notices that eteled looks a tad different than what he remembers, he certainly doesn't remember the guy looking kinda roughened up and having some marks on his face, which unbeknownst to Kyle, is a hint that there's another sentient being in this Wii but he doesn't catch onto it at this time

It's after the original events that happened with eteled and Kyle's Mii, that eteled starts learning more and more things about his digital body and the things he can effect inside the Wii, like he never realized how disturbing some of his facial expressions could be, especially when upset, so he figured that's why people have reacted the way they did when seeing him make certain faces, and he eventually learns to use this to his advantage, which he tries on Austin sometimes to get him to go away, and later coming into play when he feels the Wii turn back on after some time, and sees some random girl instead of the usual face he expected to see again

Sam, finally getting her hands on the console she wanted, is excited to get on the Wii, she discovers eteled, and is understandably confused at first, eteled wants nothing to do with her and any other kids, period, but he might as well try to scare her away if he has to, so it kinda turns into a scenario where he plays completely normal at first like just some random left over Mii, but then starts to mimick her movements and looks where she moves, to try to freak her out but she just thinks it's cool, Sam is into horror and all sorts of ghost type material, and the possibility of AI life, so it's more fascinating than anything, and when eteled finally drops the smile in a mix of frustration and being unamused, he just plainly goes "Boo" as a last resort, and Sam watches with her eyes lighting up like "Whoa, oh damn you guys talk?", with eteled staring and thinking to himself 'wth is wrong with this kid', he continues to try and push her away, even trying to freak her out with glitches or spooky faces but none of it works, Sam like "Omg that's so cool that you can do all that, you're a funny little guy" and wants to learn more about him and claim him as her new friend officially

^And as time goes on he softens up to her because she's very nice and caring, and he begins viewing her as someone he needs to protect as well, almost like a dad, while simultaneously seeing her as a friend, and even a mother figure in some ways

The situation with Will was a lot more tame cause nobody got hurt, except for eteled being deleted again *cough*, that and if you wanna also count the mental spook Will got when trying to fuck with Sam's Wii, no there was no axe, eteled pretty much crawled back out of The Hallway in pain, and scared the crap out of Will with his spoopy Mii faces, and that was enough for the kid to be like "Oh hell no" and then leave back out the window he came through (mf came through the window I still can't take that seriously in the canon story jsdjJSJ)

^Will got hit with the emo white man jumpscare

Oh, and the main reason Henry died was because of Austin, aka the guy was super pissed off and made sure that he would get his revenge by taking the guy down with him, hopefully causing him to be stuck in the same situation Austin is in by being a spirit confined to a digital body, that way he can continue to make him pay, even if he couldn't guarantee it, still worth getting back at Henry

^Haven't figured out yet how he would do this and if I should change how Henry exactly died but yeah that's pretty much what happened, also yes Todd was at the very least present during the aftermath of Austin's murder, but being the boss and with the amount of pressure Henry was under, it was kept a secret, especially for the console sales blah blah blah, and honestly Todd had a little more respect for Austin and his death, whereas he had much less for Mike when he tried telling the boss about what happened, along with the fact that Mike had to see that whole mess, and even less respect for Henry since he just showed his entire death to the whole workspace, which understandably made nothing much better and made Mike feel horrible, yeah Jonathan's not too happy either and you can guess why

I honestly don't know how Kyle manages to get Sam's contact info in canon, maybe I forgor but I just ?? But we'll go with it, I was thinking for this AU that maybe Jonathan had some sort of yard sale or something, trying to get rid of a bunch of old stuff him and Kyle don't use or don't need, or items that have memories attached to them that he no longer wants to hang around, and he gets Kyle's Wii cause he assumes he no longer wants the old thing, considering he now has another Wii and a Wii U amongst other consoles, and Kyle finds out later on, after it's already been sold to a mother and her daughter who saw the Wii and begged her mother to get it, needless to say, Kyle isn't happy, idk but I guess he could somehow get names and info from that but yeah, anyway, he contacts Sam, he tells the story, from his view, which is portraying eteled as some reckless or anger filled monster, and Sam doesn't believe it or see it, Kyle says he wants the Wii but doesn't say why, cause he knows she'll decline, but she declines anyway because she finds Kyle to be untrustworthy and tells him that "Well, not my problem that you decided to give your console away, it's mine now, I used part of my money to pay for it, and I honestly don't feel that I can trust your story right now" before eventually blocking him

^And then we know how that goes because she later wants them to talk and all that jazz

Sam had made her own Mii in the Wii so she could not only play as herself, but so it could possibly be comforting for her friend, especially when she had to leave like going somewhere or needing to go to school

^eteled kinda finds the other Miis to be uncanny at times but wouldn't admit it, and he lowkey feels panic go through him when he sees Kyle's old Mii still sometimes popping up and around whenever eteled goes and plays some games in Wii Sports, as if it's messing with him

And ah yes the moment of truth when Kyle is invited over to talk with eteled, and it goes how you'd expect it to, eteled tries to explain himself again, Kyle stands his ground, a fight ensues, eteled starts getting pissed and then Austin shows up, so the whole situation is almost exactly the same, Austin wants to get his ultimate revenge, not caring if the Wii will die because of it, and bam, it goes as planned, except for the fact that Sam manages to save the Wii from permanent damage, (idk if I want it to still be the ice method or maybe another way but she gets the job done) and you can understand the shock (no pun intended) when eteled and Austin are kinda in there just waiting to fade away and nothing happens at all, like "Uhhhh.. we're still here?"

^Also it's because of this event that not only does eteled lose some bits of his memory either permanently or for a long while, he also gets pretty corrupted, you don't see it when he's just chilling normally, but it shows whenever he gets really scared, and only becomes worse the worse his fear is, like fight or flight levels is a full on corruption mess, messy textures, (often) twitchy movement, along with a stuttery/distorted voice and all, so it's why his SF state is kinda all over the place if you know what he looks like in it, he's usually pretty vulnerable and hides away when like this but there's times when he can get aggressive and almost zombie like if he's too deep into it so ya never know, yes he has chased Austin before while like this which is funny but I mean it makes sense, imagine the person you're stuck with just starts acting weird in the dark ass space and starts running around and even chasing you, not even mentioning that they were your murderer, absolute nightmare for the big guy, it's like having a raccoon raid your home, imagine exacting your revenge on someone and because of that they have random chances to just become much more scary and maybe even more powerful than you are

^And yes the corruption is painful so eteled is just in more pain than what's normal for him, and it is possible for him to just fuckin lose his eyes or parts of himself while corrupted cause the code just goes absolutely bonkers during this form, he usually doesn't carry his axe with him if he's in ultimate locked on target mode, but sometimes he will and that is just ten times more dangerous for Austin, but it's not often at all cause he mostly carries it when he's more clear headed or scared and is using it for defense

After lots and lots of time, after the events of the Wii being saved, and Sam getting to know Austin, Kyle and Nathan a bit better, she tries to at the very least have everyone make peace with each other and get along, especially eteled and Austin, even though she is still unaware of their past (not for long), but it does start working, Sam, Nat and Kyle all start forming a friend group, and the two Miis, while struggling, do start getting sorta better, and even hang out sometimes on their own, when they feel comfortable enough to do so, they got some sort of connection going on there that they themselves can't even understand, they usually play sports together when the other three are out or are doing some form of work

^They technically knew each other longer than they originally thought since they were around each other and even talked a little as young kids, but even they forgot most details of that and when they switched schools they quickly became strangers, so yeah, childhood friends to strangers to coworkers to enemies to whatever the hell they are now

^Austin is gay as hell so yes the flirting never stayed in the days that he worked in the office, because after many, maaany years in the Wii, after getting along pretty well and having some sort of friendship grow between them, Austin of course starts doing it subtly again, not even sure why he's doing it himself, and eteled still doesn't understand or pick up on any of it, feeling like the guy is trying to gaslight him or some shit "Nah uh I know what you're up to, I've been through that same song and dance many times before"

Will and Sam make up and become pretty cool hang out buddies, Sam even reintroduces eteled and Will, by request of Will, cause he wants to talk and apologize for messing with the guy, and in turn eteled apologies for scaring him, but Will, now that he's older and looks back on it with more of a laugh, he actually thought it was pretty cool, that fact that the guy could pretty much just spook people outta the blue, although he was a little creeped out by it even now, overall they're on good terms

Jonathan is obviously torn so he's got the board in his basement and everything, and he works on it all the time, but each day he just grows more and more frustrated, not understanding why some of the evidence isn't making much sense, he knows Henry is guilty but some things aren't lining up perfectly or are just missing

Mike and Henry were literally close besties for years, worked by each other's sides, and even invited each other to their apartments, sometimes Henry would stick around and chill at his bestie's place for a few days, although Henry lives alone and usually likes it that way so it's not all the time, one big part being because of noise since he's learned to become very sensitive to it, he jumps and shivers at the sound of footsteps and creaking floors, hell even his own sometimes scare him, but Mike and him are very close, and have been through a lot together

I haven't figured everything out yet but somehow someway Mike finds out about Sam, and how she wants him to come over after hearing that he's eteled's old buddy, and when he comes over he learns everything, and him and eteled/Henry have a moment of being reunited and knowing that the other is okay, or at least kinda okay, Sam knows that Mike is trustworthy and obviously knows eteled from a different and much wider perspective than she does, so she allows him to come over and for the guys to talk and just update each other on things, as weird as it may look with some grown man talking to a little figure on a television, she can tell that they're happy to see one another again, they did talk about what had happened, about Austin's death, without Sam around, even though she knows everything already at this point and had already talked to Kyle, Austin, Nat and especially eteled about it, and while the news did definitely hit Mike straight in the gut, he also knew that it wasn't something Henry had planned or did without some sort of influence, he just felt it, not that it made it any better, but it had been years, no point in getting angry, he kinda figured Henry had something to do with it, but knew that it wasn't just that alone, and was too scared to say anything much sooner, so he sorta sympathizes with him, knowing they were both pushed beyond limits from their job and especially their boss, and that they're both in the wrong, although still holding Henry accountable for doing what he did, especially to Jonathan's brother, he wasn't gonna let him go off easy on that, but he doesn't hate Henry, and it shocks eteled that Mike even still cares about him after everything the guy went through during those times, but he appreciates it, and it seems like they still have a friendship going on

Jonathan is also informed about his brother, but this is done at a different time, later on after Mike and eteled reunited because Sam knew that this was gonna be a whole lot harder, Jonathan was Austin's brother, so it's needless to say how heavy this was gonna be, unbeknownst to Sam that Jonathan was already trying to get all the evidence to finally prove Henry guilty, even though the guy was dead and gone, at least as far as he knew, she also knew that this was gonna be hard for Austin and Kyle, who would both be present when Jonathan would come over, Sam debates whether she should even say anything and potentially reopen an old wound, but she goes ahead and only informs him about Austin, not eteled because she fears how Jonathan will react, especially if he connects the dots and realizes it's Henry

eteled is the only damn soul who knows exactly, in detail, what had happened after Austin's death and how he was talked down to and also threatened into keeping it on the down low, he and Mike are also the only ones who know just how bad they've been treated and how worse it can really get, but eteled hasn't told anybody, not a single person about any of it, other than when him and Mike used to comfort each other and talk about work issues, back when eteled was alive, he just tells no one now, not even when explaining himself and the past and what had happened between him and Austin, he just takes the full blame, half because of heavy guilt and the other half because he's terrified, even though the guy is miles away from that work building, is literally dead, is nowhere near his boss, his boss not even thinking about him anymore most likely, he still had that fear driven into him that if he said something that he'd be in trouble or that something terrible would happen, even though he's in a Wii and nobody can or would really do anything to him besides Austin, he still fears people in his past life, he also wouldn't wanna bring up all of the hidden info like "Hey my boss had a part in this" and have it turned down as if he were trying to take away some blame from himself, which he wouldn't be but is scared to come off that way

^Literally nobody would think like that or would treat eteled that way if he brought it up, but the guy thinks they would

A bit of a more light one, eteled and Austin have sort of made a day and night cycle for the Mii Channel, the light is more tame cause it can become blinding normally, and when people are resting or when it's around the time it would be dark outside, judging by the console's clock, then it would get darker and be more comfy

^Not to be confused with when the Channel just goes full on feral mode and gets pitch black dark or starts changing color cause that's usually Austin or eteled fucking with the atmosphere, like eteled causing it to go super dark like in SF sometimes when he's super upset or even "I'm gonna hunt you down" levels of corrupted

Henry had pretty great relationships with his bro and cousins, and he just hopes now that they're all okay, which they are, his cousins, Jane, Faith and Ellie are actively looking into the info and trying to figure out what really happened to their cousin, and his bro I haven't exactly figured out what to do with him yet aside from trying to do the same thing, but maybe being more exhausted and considering moving on cause living in the past is painful for him, and he is just not getting the right leads or ones that are pleasant, and doesn't wanna face the truth that his older sibling could've killed someone

Oh yeah, in current time, with the Wii already being saved years ago, everyone sorta getting along now and everything following after, everyone is pretty much grown up and are adults, so they work and are a tad less energetic as they were as teens, a tad I say because Kyle and Nathan are still hyper guys but they are having fun

Kyle and Nathan are besties to lovers, Will is gay but just hasn't found someone right yet so he vibes around, Sam isn't even sure what she is, she just feels happy on her own and likes spending time with the group she considers a family, Mike isn't sure what he is either but he does like Jonathan a little bit, Austin is bisexual and you can just tell by his energy alone /lh, first person to ever know about him being bi was his mom who is also bi so she just immediately is very accepting of him, and Henry/eteled seriously doesn't understand romantic love or how it works or what it truly looks or feels like, he doesn't even understand general love that much and is trying to learn it, so he doesn't even know what he would really be attracted to, he's just a trans guy sitting in his corner, only people he ever told about him being trans to was his mom when he was trying to understand himself (and she was a great woman so she tried to help him in his journey, while she was present at least) and Sam later on when they both got closer, other people had to kinda figure it out, aside from Austin who never knew for the longest time but was told by eteled later on when they've been in the Wii for a while, so Austin was one of the last ones to know

Mike had taken care of young Kyle from time to time, like when being invited over and/or if Jonathan had to go out real quick to attend to business or grab something

Sam does sometimes take eteled and Austin out to places when she learns to transfer them across devices, she also lets them occasionally mess around in Tomodachi Life whenever she comes back to play on it for memories, it always ends in some funny chaos and it's all around a nice time for everyone, or mostly everyone

eteled tries to play fair but sometimes he lets himself slip and accidentally go god mode again, or will get bored and just do it for fun, and Sam will cross her arms and look at him like "eteled I told you no more cheating" and he'd just roll his eyes saying "I'm sorryyy, it was an accident"

Henry immediately regretted what he did after he murdered Austin, and couldn't think of anything else for days and was miserable over it, even though Austin had seen him multiple times by watching from computer screens, the guy being in such a miserable state, he felt it was an act or something, and it only fueled Austin's anger, he wanted the guy dead, more than just dead, he wanted him to suffer endlessly, just when Austin was finally getting somewhere and was about to prove to the world that he existed and that he was special, it was taken from him, so he's gonna take something from Henry, Austin can't accept that Henry is sorry at all, he doesn't believe he is, and so he brings the guy down with him, making sure that it hurt (they're both assholes your honor)

Also yes Henry's mom was a bit emo, with some punk baddie in the mix, like mother like son

Wow this is long and I didn't even talk about everything else or go into more detail, but yeah I don't wanna make this overwhelmingly long so I'll stop here before I go on all night long because I've already been typing for some hours now

If I think of anything else I might edit this or make a different post about it but yeah thx for listening to me ramble on and on and on

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers #229: FINAL CURTAIN!

March, 1983

"THIS IS IT! Henry Pym’s Last Stand Against... THE EVIL OF EGGHEAD!”

Why does this have Egg Fu energy? Obviously very much less racist but giant egg shaped head looming over things...

Please don’t grow a mustache, Egghead.

Wow, this arc has been going on for a while. With a lot of interruptions, mind.

But we had Hank rejoin the Avengers, do a bad job, build a robot to murder his friends to try to make them forget the first bad job he did, get kicked out of the Avengers, and got tricked by Egghead into committing treason and arrested. Egghead decided to take over the world via inventing eternal youth, put together a new Masters of Evil who immediately got their asses kicked, and then the Masters kidnapped Hank from his trial.

All to bring us to the Final Curtain, which is similar but legally distinct from the Final Countdown.

I’ve seen some sad Hanks but I think “framed into being a fugitive and forced to do science for his worst enemy” Hank is the saddest looking Hank.

He has a thousand yard stare WHILE carefully considering a chemical compound.

This is possibly because while he sciences, Egghead is hanging right over his shoulder being excessively chipper and calling Hank “partner.”

Hank: “I’d love to shove those words down his throat! It’s galling enough to be working for my oldest enemy, without having him call me ‘partner.’”

Guy also puts his hand on Hank’s shoulder chum-style and offers to get him some breakfast while Hank probably fantasizes about making scrambled eggs.

Later that morning, over in New Orleans, Monica Rambeau!

I’m still very hype about Monica Rambeau finally being in this book.

She’s sitting around in her nice home watching the news about the trial and the “dramatic escape” of Hank Pym and also Iron Man has disappeared. That’s on the news too.

Monica: “Uh-oh! I don’t like the sound of that! A disappearance, now of all times, by any of the regular Avengers could mean heavy trouble! Someone’s bound to accuse them of helping in Dr. Pym’s escape! It might not be a bad idea to look in on my new friends -- as Captain Marvel!”

She nyooms light speed from New Orleans to the Avengers Mansion.

Inside, Cap and Thor are discussing how neither Iron Man or Tony Stark have been seen in nearly a week. And Cap is worried because its not like Tony.

But he has to stop talking when Monica comes in because she’s not in on the secret.

Captain Marvel: “Hi, hope I’m not interrupting anything. I thought I’d drop by and... well... see how everyone was doing.”

Thor: “In truth, woman, the Avengers have known happier times.”

Captain America: “I’m afraid Thor’s right, Captain. A former Avenger’s disgrace is national news. Iron Man’s vanished. And the She-Hulk may be no more. Things... aren’t good.”

Monica is kind of taken aback by this because “These are two of the most capable men I’ve ever met! If they’re feeling down and out, what hope is there for the rest of us?”

Meanwhile, in specifically the second-floor study, Hawkeye is sitting with Jennifer Walters Not-Hulk and the Wasp.

And Hawkeye is surprised that She-Hulk’s other self is “so small and... fragile.”

Wasp is trying to reassure Jen that they want to help her but Jen is feeling helpless.

Jen: “I-I know that, Janet. .. B-b-but I still feel so helpless. Things seemed different when I was the She-Hulk! She could handle everything -- or so I thought! She didn’t do much against the Radioactive Man, did she? One blast of charged gamma rays from him, and my life as the She-Hulk was a thing of the past!”

I mean, I wouldn’t say not much. She-Hulk tossed Radioactive Man around pretty easily before the gamma blast.

Wasp tells her that the gamma-charge must have worn off by this point but Jen is too afraid to try again because she can’t face the thought of another failure and what that might mean.

She kiiiiinda blew up her life back in California to go be She-Hulk full-time. The comic doesn’t point this out but I am. She kinda blew off her supporting cast and law career to go on a cross-country trip and then moved to New York for brunch and Avengers.

Wasp is called away by Jarvis, who says there’s an urgent caller for her, leaving Jen alone with Hawkeye.

... Which, may have been a bad idea or at least a very hilarious one.

Hawkeye: “I can’t believe what’s happening to the Avengers! We’ve had bad breaks before, but this -- ! Even ol’ Cap’s been looking like one of the walkin’ wounded! I need to do something to get us back on our feet! Maybe I can start with the little lady.”

Y’know, Captain Marvel and Hawkeye both noting how dire things are feeling around the Mansion is doing a really good job at selling this as one of their darkest moments.

Nobody ever talks about this as one of those moments but the comic is making a good case for it.

At the front door the urgent matter is! SCOTT LANG!

Sight for sore eyes!

He’s here on an errand for Mr. Stark. But unfortunately he also has no idea where Tony has gotten.

Scott Lang: “All of Stark International’s in an uproar! First, Mr. Stark asks me to finish up one of his rush projects for the Avengers -- something he never does! Then he and that iron-clad bodyguard of his pull a disappearing act! And now, the tube is full of news about Hank Pym running off with something called the Masters of Evil! Wasp... what’s going on?”

Wasp: “I honestly don’t know, Scott! Sometimes I’d swear that the whole world is falling apart on us!”

Hey! More dialogue really selling how dire things are!

Scott gives her the project Tony had him complete and tells Wasp that Tony told him that Cap would know about it.

Which indicates that Scott finished this project and doesn’t know what it is or does. Wow.

He also offers to change into Ant-Man and lend a hand but Wasp hurries him out the door and slams it behind him.

Which is a rude way to treat a Scott Lang but in Wasp’s defense she couldn’t bear seeing someone dressed as Ant-Man when she has all these Hank feelings.

Captains America and Marvel and also Thor wander in. Cap(tain America) is telling Monica that there’s nothing they can do until they get a lead on Hank’s whereabouts.

Wasp, who was just handed a thing and told that Cap would know about it, hands it to Cap and asks him if it would be any help.

Cap(tain America) recognizes it as the miniaturized version of the cerebral scanner helmet that Tony was working on.

Captain America: “It was Iron Man’s theory that Hank’s recent problems were due to preset commands Moondragon had telepathically planted in his mind. This helmet was supposed to check that out. Now... I guess we’ll never get a chance to use it.”

This defeatism is finally a defeatism too far for Monica who blows up at the Avengers.

Captain Marvel: “Hey, just a darned minute! Is this the Avengers that I’m supposed to be joining, or an encounter group? I can’t believe what I’m seeing! Look, I know you’ve been through an emotional wringer for the past couple of months, but you can’t let it get to you like this! You folks don’t get much press west of the Hudson River, but what little word that does filter out is filled with awe! You’re the Avengers! You’re legends -- every one of you! You’ve probably saved this poor world more times than anyone can even guess! And you can pull through this crisis, too! But not if you keep acting the way you’ve been!”

Huh, more of a ‘dare to be badass’ than a real dressing down.

Also, its so weird that the Avengers are simultaneously a weird New York thing and also known for saving the world multiple times.

Thor, as Thor do when anyone dares to criticize him, gets indignant but Wasp interrupts that whole impending shouting match and asks what Captain Marvel has in mind.

(This is why Wasp is a good leader, by the by)

Captain Marvel says they should try to look at things from another angle. What if, and hear her out, what if Hank really was set up by Egghead like he claimed to be before the trial?

Egghead is dead? THE AVENGERS FIGHT PEOPLE THAT HAVE BEEN ASSUMED DEAD A LOT, YOU GUYS.

Geez, where has Monica been? She’s a breath of fresh thought on this team.

Monica also has another galaxy brain idea. Slash probably turn of phrase that inspires a galaxy brain idea. Like in a mystery where an innocuous statement cracks the whole thing WIDE OPEN.

Captain Marvel: “And this man you caught -- the Shocker -- the one who claims that Pym reorganized the Masters of Evil to free him -- maybe he’s the one who’s crazy, instead of Dr. Pym! Maybe it’s the Shocker who should have his head examined!”

And Cap(tain America) is like hey I just got this head examining helmet from Tony!

Meanwhile, in the second floor study, Hawkeye has decided to Help.

Be afraid.

Nah, just funning.

Look, this is all perfectly in character for Hawkeye and for Hulks in general. He’s just going to be extremely rude (he has trained his whole life for this) and make fun of Jen until something happens.

And he is pretty rude.

So rude that she smeks him across the face. But because she hasn’t had her Jen training arc yet, Hawkeye just laughs at her.

So she hits him again.

Hawkeye: “My, my! Both cheeks slapped and I’m still on my feet! Is that the best you can do, She-Wimp?”

Then he laughs and laughs and gets punched out of the room by a furious She-Hulk.

He quickly begs for peace, claiming he didn’t mean what he said.

So in the end, all she needed to break the mental block preventing her from turning into She-Hulk was Hawkeye being even more obnoxious than usual.

He does have his uses. Shoots arrow, pisses people off, apparently fun to be around??

Its hard to imagine future burned out trash-fire Clint Barton doing this. He’s much more mellow in how he’s obnoxious now. Although, he roasted Tony Stark good in the Freefall mini.

Y’know, She-Hulk and Hawkeye are friends later. And I don’t know if that’s because She-Hulk becomes everyone’s friend when she moves into more fun party She-Hulk territory. But I can also imagine that despite not liking each other much to begin with, She-Hulk and Hawkeye just grow on each other.

When Wasp praises Jen for being able to transform again, She-Hulk admits that Hawkeye helped.

Then Cap tells them to stop goofing, they’ve got business.

And the business is at the federal lock-up.

The Avengers want to use Tony Stark’s special cerebral scanner helmet on Shocker. His lawyer is like hell no. Shocker himself is like I’m down for whatevs.

Shocker: “Hey, if they want to plunk that pressure cooker on my noggin, it’s okay by me! I’m facing a pretty stiff federal rap, after all. I’m willing to cooperate. It doesn’t bother me. If I passed the polygraph test, I can pass this!”

The lawyer still protests so She-Hulk whips out some of her ol’ legal expertise. Which she is not licensed to practice in a professional capacity in the state of New York.

She-Hulk: “Your boy was caught participating -- in either a kidnapping or an escape -- in full view of witnesses. He’s in big trouble. The scanner helmet will tell us if he’s been manipulated by outside forces. And cancel any mental blocks or false memories. Now, wouldn’t you like to go into court with something that could prove your client was used against his will?”

... I’m baffled that this new technology whose inventor has gone missing could just easily be used as evidence in court.

Like, on who’s word are they saying that this device works? Has it been vouched by anyone? How do they even know that it works at all? It was finished by Scott Lang who is a good electrical engineer but didn’t know what he was working on!

But if I can believe a man can fly, I’ll buy this.

And its funny, Shocker goes from ‘yeah I doubt this will mean anything’ to immediately remembering and spilling the beans that he was set up by Egghead.

Which means that he’s alive and Hank’s defense has merit. God damn!

I like that the cerebral helmet does factor into the plot, even if in an unexpected way. Poor, disappeared Tony Stark’s feverish throwing himself into this project out of a guilty drive to help Hank will help Hank, in some way!

Meanwhile, in the secret and sinister suburban lair of Egghead’s Masters of Evil, Hank Pym brushes off his hands and goes ‘yup I’ve finished inventing your eternal life machine, can I go now?’

Egghead and the Masters call BS because its been three days. No way did Hank already finish the machine. Egghead was thinking it would be months of research before Hank could even begin working on a design.

Hank: “Admittedly, I was lucky in stumbling upon a breakthrough in micro-cellular reconstruction. But then, you did bring me here to produce results. That’s what I’ve done.”

Moonstone asks how close an eye Egghead kept on Hank, since Egghead is the only one truly familiar with the project.

The answer is: not very!

So now they’re worried that if they plug someone into the device, it’ll just kill them.

Tiger Shark goes ‘hey lets just test it on Hank’ and Hank goes ‘yeah whatever.’

Hank: “I stand behind my work 100%. I’ll be your guinea pig, if you’re all so afraid of gaining a long and vital life!”

Egghead: “Don’t use that tone with me, Henry Pym! I think I might enjoy using you as a guinea pig! Strap him in, boys -- good and tight!”

Tiger Shark, whose idea this was in the first place, suddenly considers ‘what if this is a long and weird way for Hank to commit suicide?’ but Hank says he would have ended it three days ago if he was that tired of living.

Egghead: (He’s right. As dispirited as Pym has been, he never became suicidal. Despite all the travails I put him through, I was never able to break him that completely. Pity. Perhaps I’ll try again... after the test.)

GOOD GRIEF EGGHEAD

I know that you’re evil and petty but geez that’s a new low.

Then again, this is the guy who blew up his niece’s arm out of spite.

So, yeah, driving to suicide the guy that made your eternal youth technology possible is about what I’d expect of you, Egghead.

The worst.

When they have Hank strapped into the longevity machine and switch it on, Hank starts to glow.

Which is probably not what is supposed to happen.

Also what is not supposed to happen, the machine creates a force field around Hank.

And also overrides the guidance systems in Beetle’s armor, making him fly all over the place bonking into stuff.

I have a sneaking suspicion that this isn’t actually a longevity machine!

No, in fact, Hank Pym played them all by going ‘yeah sure throw me into the briar patch, I don’t give a shit.’

Tiger Shark tries to rip Hank out of the machine but gets thrown away with a ZZAKK.

Moonstone tries her luck too.

Moonstone: “Your electrified field is very effective against brute force, doctor -- but can it resist a high-intensity laser blast?”

-it does-

Hank: “You tell me!”

The sass!

The lasers deflect off the field joining the bouncing Beetle in destroying the lab.

Egghead has duck and covered beneath a table and demands one of the Masters stop Hank.

A call to action that Radioactive Man takes up, charging the machine.

Radioactive Man: “You are even more capable than I thought, Dr. Pym. But your miraculous fields will not long withstand the power of my nuclear heat!”

Hank: “Probably not! But it doesn’t have to! I’ve had days to prepare defenses against all of you!”

Cadmium-plated tentacles come out of the machine and grab Radioactive Man.

Geez, really nobody was making sure Hank wasn’t up to anything so he got away with everything!

The cadmium dampens Radioactive Man’s radioactive so Hank uses him to knock out Tiger Shark.

Ah, yes. I do love a good grievous harm with a body instance.

Moonstone: “Incredible! Together, we possess nearly as much raw power as the Avengers themselves -- and yet one man has nearly overcome us in a matter of minutes!”

And since she’s Moonstone and practically the only supervillain who knows when to fold ‘em, she tries to skedaddle.

But Hank also built disruption stunners into the not-longevity machine’s manacles, like the ones he used as Yellowjacket, and he blasts Moonstone as she tries to flee.

Leaving Egghead to gape that Hank has singlehandedly defeated his Masters of Evil!

MEANWHILE, up in suburbia, the Avengers!

Remember them? They’re the title of the book.

Shocker spilled the beans to the Avengers because, honestly, fuck Egghead for using him as a patsy. So the Avengers and some copspolice have assembled outside Egghead’s secret house.

The cops are to evacuate the neighborhood in case the Avengers need to do a big punch-up.

Caring about bystanders, a thing that the Avengers do some of the times.

The Avengers also got the house plans from the county records office because they’re doing this raid right.

Problem is, they’re unlikely to be accurate because they don’t have an evil lair listed on them.

So Cap and Wasp are strategizing, planning to surround the house and work their way in slowly and quietly so the Masters don’t use Hank as a hostage.

Then everything explodes. And by everything, I mean the yard of the house.

Beetle burst out from underground, completely ruining the lawn and flies around out of control.

He warns the Avengers that he can’t control his flight and tells them to look out.

The Avengers mostly jump out of the way.

Mostly.

Thor just stands still with his hammer held out for Beetle to run into so hard that Mjolnir seems to disappear.

Beetle falls to the ground, all momentum instantly converted into horrific agony.

Like seriously. He’s going to be feeling that forever. No wonder he later jumps at the chance to flip good, rather than ever experience that again.

Wasp and Cap(tain America), strategy geniuses, decide that at this point, stealth is pointless but Hawkeye is way ahead of them.

I don’t see him in the panel where the Avengers scatter or in the panel where Beetle is falling off Thor’s fist so I think that the instant the ground exploded Hawkeye was like ‘this hole was made for me’ and immediately jumped down it to leeroy jenkins the rescue Hank plan.

Its a very him thing to do.

Plus, as he muses to himself, he has his own score to settle with Egghead.

I.e., that time that Egghead killed his brother Barney Barton. The crime brother? From the time we learned that Hawkeye actually had a name?

That time.

At the bottom of the exit wound Beetle left in the house, Hawkeye peeps in and is astounded to find the Masters of Evil lying defeated in various heaps with Hank Pym standing victorious over them, casually unhooking himself from the not-longevity machine.

As Hawkeye watches, Hank tells Egghead that he can come out of hiding because its all over.

And then delivers a massive ‘the reason you suck’ speech to Egghead, which coming from Hank Pym is doubly biting because Hank Pym knows what a trashfire he’s made of his own life and still says Egghead is worse.

Hank Pym: “I did a pretty good job of screwing up my life recently. You just about finished the job for me! You used me, Egghead... and you tried to make me criminal! But you couldn’t. You see, I’ve come to terms with myself in the past month. I know who I am, and who I’m not! I’m not Ant-Man anymore. I’m not Giant-Man... or Goliath... or Yellowjacket! I’m Henry Pym!

“And it was Henry Pym who beat the Masters of Evil! You, Egghead... you turned to crime because you thought your scientific knowledge made you better than everyone else... put you above the law! But you were wrong. You weren’t above the law, and you weren’t better! I’m the better scientist... I just proved that!”

“I assembled the pieces of your downfall -- right under your nose!”

Egghead takes exception to being told how much he sucks, and leaps at Hank to, I guess, try to beat him up, saying he hasn’t beaten Egghead yet.

So Hank beats Egghead yet.

Hank: “Oh... I was hoping you’d try that!”

After all that Hank’s been through in this vague arc and at the hands of Egghead, it is very satisfying to effortlessly turn the tables on the villains, deck Egghead, and prove that while he has spotty success as a superhero, he’s no villain.

This vague arc has broken Hank down to nothing. He ruined his marriage, his superhero career, abandoned his science career as fruitless. He was broke, so desperate as to take a loan from his arch-nemesis. Framed for treason and left to pay for Egghead’s adamantium scheme. Sent to jail and derided as worse than the supervillains there. Worse for having fallen from grace. Gave up winning back his wife after seeing her date one of his friends. Abandoned hope for anything but to win back his dignity and good name in a court of law. Had that taken from him as well.

And stripped of absolutely everything, Hank Pym proved that he is one of the finest scientists in Marvel, a crafty SOB, and owner of a dynamite right hook.

Then with Egghead sprawled on the floor, Hank turns to leave.

But Egghead is a petty, petty, evil, evil man. That hasn’t stopped being a thing so he pulls out a science gun to shoot Hank in the back.

Hawkeye jumps out of the beetle hole and shoots an arrow in the barrel of the science gun, making the science gun backfire kirby krackle.

Hawkeye: “Brother, that was close -- but everything’s gonna be okay now, Hank! We have all the evidence we need to clear you and put that creep behind bars!”

Hank: “Egghead won’t be serving any time, Hawkeye. He’s dead.”

DUN DUN DUN

Hawkeye, you’ve become a killer! And it didn’t even take a Bendis to drive you to it!

Well, maybe a man-slaughterer...

Follow @essential-avengers​ because I bring you the good Hank Pym content. The Hank Pym punching Egghead content. The best content. Also like and reblog, possibly. For the Hawkeye man-slaughtering Egghead content.

[twentiethcenturymoviesandtv]

12 Angry Men: The Story

At first, the story of 12 Angry Men seems straightforward, to-the-point, and pretty darn boring.

A jury consisting of twelve men (most of them middle class, middle age, and white) are locked into a jury room on a stiflingly hot day to determine the fate of a boy (lower class, young, and Puerto Rican) who allegedly stabbed his father to death with a switchblade knife.  Once locked into the room, eleven out of twelve decide instantly that the boy is guilty, but one, Juror #8, (Henry Fonda) isn’t so certain.  The film then follows Juror #8’s attempts to go through the information presented in court in order to figure out what really happened.

Like I said, it could be considered boring, if that’s all you consider.   But as it turns out, just like the case in the film there’s a bit more to it than what appears on the surface.  Let’s take a look.

12 Angry Men opens with one of two sequences that do not take place within the jury room.  A camera pans over the outside of the Manhattan’s Court of General Sessions, meandering through corridors and staircases, before making its way to our destination: room 228.  There, a tired sounding judge orders the beginning of the jury deliberation process after a six-day-long trial, “a long and complex case of murder in the first degree”.  He sends our jury off with these final, sobering words:

“If there’s a reasonable doubt in your minds as to the guilt of the accused, a reasonable doubt, then you must bring me a verdict of not guilty. If however, there is no reasonable doubt, then you must in good conscience find the accused guilty. However you decide, your verdict must be unanimous. In the event that you find the accused guilty, the bench will not entertain a recommendation for mercy. The death sentence is mandatory in this case. You are faced with a grave responsibility. Thank you, gentlemen.”

It is now that the audience, for the first and only time, gets a look at the defendant: a wide-eyed, terrified looking Puerto Rican boy from the slums, who helplessly watches the jury march off to decide his fate.

The jury (and camera) moves to the jury room, where we will spend almost the entire rest of the film.  It is the hottest day of the year, and the men are clearly already agitated, removing jackets, lighting cigarettes, and complaining.  The door behind them is locked, and the twelve men talk amongst themselves for a few moments.  Notably, Juror #3 remarks that this is an open-and-shut case, Juror #7 is anxious to leave to get to a baseball game he has tickets for, and Juror #10 has this to say:

“It’s pretty tough to figure, isn’t it? A kid kills his father. Bing! Just like that…It’s the element…I’m telling ya, they let those kids run wild up there. Well, maybe it serves ‘em right.”

Meanwhile, Juror #8 stands at the window, saying nothing.

Juror #1 calls for a preliminary vote, and the men take their seats (arranged by number) around the table.  Juror #1 calls for those who vote not guilty, and, some (Jurors #1, 3, 4, 7, and 12) quickly raise their hands, while Jurors #2, 5, 6, 11 and 9 do so more slowly.  One lone man raises his hand for not-guilty: Juror #8.  

Interestingly, Juror #8 is not fully convinced that the boy on trial is innocent, unlike many instances of the Rogue Juror used afterwards.  What he is convinced of is that this is a serious case, with a serious charge, with a grim penalty.  He calls for a discussion, going over the evidence.  Juror #3 disagrees:

“The kid’s a dangerous killer, you could see it…He stabbed his own father, four inches into the chest. They proved it a dozen different ways in court, would you like me to list them for ya?”

Juror #8 is not dissuaded, and calmly replies:

“It’s not easy to raise my hand and send a boy off to die without talking about it first…We’re talking about somebody’s life here. We can’t decide in five minutes. Supposin’ we’re wrong.”

Juror #7 is unmoved, claiming his opinion won’t change, no matter how long they talk.  Despite the resistance, Juror #8 moves on with his discussion, pointing out the defendant’s upbringing and background.

“Look, this kid’s been kicked around all of his life. You know, born in a slum. Mother dead since he was nine. He lived for a year and a half in an orphanage when his father was serving a jail term for forgery. That’s not a very happy beginning. He’s a wild, angry kid, and that’s all he’s ever been. And you know why, because he’s been hit on the head by somebody once a day, every day. He’s had a pretty miserable eighteen years. I just think we owe him a few words, that’s all.”

Juror #10 argues:

“I don’t mind telling you this, mister. We don’t owe him a thing. He got a fair trial, didn’t he? What do you think that trial cost? He’s lucky he got it. You know what I mean? Now look, we’re all grown-ups in here. We heard the facts, didn’t we? You’re not gonna tell me that we’re supposed to believe this kid, knowing what he is. Listen, I’ve lived among them all my life. You can’t believe a word they say. You know that. I mean, they’re born liars.”

Another voice enters the scene, Juror #9, with a biting reply:

“Only an ignorant man can believe that…Do you think you were born with a monopoly on the truth?”

Within only a few moments, already we’ve established quite a lot.  The belligerence of Jurors #3 and #10, as well as their bias, Juror #8’s thoughtful, honest nature, and Juror #9’s reasonableness and willingness to stand up for people.  Add to that Juror #7’s impatience to leave, and you’ve already got a bit of character to go on to understand what’s going on.  As the film progresses, the case unfolds, and we learn more about it, as well as learning more about the characters within, making the plot, although it never leaves the jury room, feel like it is moving.

Juror #12 suggests that they go around the table, giving each juror a chance to explain his standpoint in an effort to convince #8 of the defendant’s guilt.  One by one, the jurors bring up their evidence, and to each, Juror #8 has questions that render the arguments a little more doubtful than they would seem to be on the surface.

Juror #2 doesn’t really have any evidence to bring, meekly stating that he thought he was guilty, it seemed obvious.  No one can prove that he didn’t do it, after all.  Juror #3, however, has more to say on the subject, citing an eyewitness testimony of an old man who lived in the apartment below where the killing took place.  According to the witness, he heard a fight, and the voice of the boy crying out: “I’m gonna kill you!” and the sound of a body hitting the floor.  The old man ran to the door in time to see the boy run down the stairs.  Furthermore, the boy’s alibi (being at the movies) seems flimsy, as he was not able to remember the names of the films he saw, or any of the actors in them.  On top of that, there is another eyewitness testimony: a woman in the building across from them saw it happen through the passing cars of an el-train that ran between the buildings.  These, Juror #3 declares, are facts.

Other jurors give their reasons, or lack thereof:  Juror 5 doesn’t comment, Juror #6 thinks the motive is evidence, and Juror #7 brings up the boy’s violent history, including knife-fighting.

This sparks something for Juror #3, who cites his history with his own son, explaining that kids these days don’t have any respect.  He tells a story about how, when his son was nine years old, he ran away from a fight, humiliating Juror #3.  He resolved to ‘make a man’ out of his son, and according to him, he did.  When his son was 15, he punched Juror #3 in the jaw.  It has been three years since the two have seen each other.

Other jurors add their reasons, including the boy’s background in the slums.  This line of reasoning upsets Juror #5, who, he explains, was also raised in the slums.  Okay, fine, so his background isn’t enough, his upbringing flimsy evidence at best….what about the knife?

The knife (wiped of fingerprints) found in the body of the father was a very unique switchblade.  The boy bought a knife matching its description on the night of the murder, and claimed it fell through a hole in his pocket on the way to the movies.  A knife that unique surely must be evidence-

Juror #8 pulls out a knife of his own, an exact match to the one found in the body, and sticks it in the table for all to see (which is not legal in a real legal scenario, but this is a movie).  Someone, he explains, could have bought an identical knife, and killed the father with it while the boy was at the movies.  

“It’s possible,” he says.

“But not very probable!” Juror #4 counters.

Seeing that this is going nowhere fast, Juror #8 says this:

“I’m gonna call for another vote. I want you eleven men to vote by secret written ballot. I’ll abstain. If there are eleven votes for guilty, I won’t stand alone. We’ll take in a guilty verdict to the judge right now. But if anyone votes not guilty, we stay here and talk it out.”

They count up the eleven votes.  Ten guilty, one not-guilty.  Juror #9 has switched sides.

Looking again at the eyewitness accounts, Juror #8 theorizes that, with the train passing by the exact time of the murder, it would be impossible to hear voices and a body hitting the floor upstairs.  Furthermore, he determines that it would be equally impossible for an old man with a limp to make it to the door to see the boy go down the stairs in the amount of time that he said it did.  (Again, not legal in a jury, but it’s a movie.)  Juror #9 speculates that it is possible that the old man did not lie, rather convinced himself that he saw it in excitement about having 15 Minutes of Fame in his old age.

Juror #5, swayed, switches his vote to not-guilty.  The debate goes on.

Juror #11 is now starting to think, asking questions of his own: If the boy killed his father, why return home three hours later?

To get the knife, the explanation goes.

If the defendant had a clear enough head to wipe his fingerprints from the knife and go back to get it, how was he in such a panic that he left it in the body in the first place?

Juror #11 switches his vote.  It’s now 8 to 4, and still hot as all get out, and they’re all still in a claustrophobic room with a broken fan.  Juror #3, aggravated from the beginning, flips out.

“Assumed? Brother, I’ve seen all kinds of dishonesty in my day, but this little display takes the cake. You all come in here with your hearts bleeding all over the floor about slum kids and injustice. You listen to some fairy tales. Suddenly, you start getting through to some of these old ladies. Well, you’re not getting through to me. I’ve had enough.  What’s the matter with you guys? You all know he’s guilty. He’s got to burn. You’re letting him slip through our fingers.”

Interesting statement from a supposedly unbiased jury member.  This doesn’t go uncommented on, as Juror #8 snaps back:

“Slip through our fingers?  Are you his executioner?”

“I’m one of ‘em.”

“Perhaps you’d like to pull the switch.”

“For this kid?  You bet I would.”

After another brief exchange, Juror #3 lunges at Juror #8, screaming: “I’ll kill you!” an eerie echo of the supposed words of the boy.  This further cements Juror #8’s point: we say stuff like “I’ll kill you” all the time, without meaning, or thinking about it.

Jurors #2 and #6 switch sides.  It’s 6-6, all tied up.

Outside, it starts raining.  The broken fan starts working.  The discussion turns to the boy’s alibi.

Juror #4 points out that the boy could not remember the names of the films he saw, or anyone in them.  Juror #8 counters by turning the question around and asking him to recall details of a trip to the movies a few days prior.  When Juror #4 cannot give a full, definitive answer, Juror #8 also addresses the fact that when the boy was first asked what the names of the films were, he was in his apartment, cornered by the police, with his father’s body still in the apartment.  In other words, the kid was possibly too stressed and frazzled to remember.

Juror #2 brings up the stab wound itself, saying that it was a downward stab wound, and asked how that would be possible, as the father was over six feet tall, and the boy was only 5’7.  Juror #3 stands up, taking the knife and, in a tense display, demonstrates on Juror #8 how this could be done, by gripping the knife overhand.  

Juror #5 steps up with an argument.  He, as he mentioned earlier, was raised in the slums, and he’s seen knife-fights before.  Nobody who knew what they were doing would hold a switchblade overhand.  It can’t open that way.  The boy had been in knife fights before, and it’s unlikely that he would have made such a rookie mistake.

Another voted is called.  It’s 9-3, Not Guilty.

Juror #10, enraged, stands up and begins to rant:

“You’re not gonna tell me you believe that phony story about losing the knife, and that business about being at the movies. Look, you know how these people lie. It’s born in them…They don’t know what the truth is. And let me tell ya, they don’t need any real big reason to kill someone either. No, sir. They get drunk. Ah, they’re real big drinkers, all of 'em. You know that. And bang, someone’s lying in the gutter. Well, nobody’s blamin’ 'em for it, that’s the way they are, by nature, you know what I mean? Violent!…Human life don’t mean as much to them as it does to us. Look, they’re lushing it up and fighting all the time, and if somebody gets killed, so somebody gets killed - they don’t care. Oh sure, there are some good things about 'em, too. Look, I’m the first one to say that. I’ve known a couple who are okay, but that’s the exception, you know what I mean? Most of them, it’s like they have no feelings. They can do anything. What’s going on here? I’m tryin’ to tell ya. You’re making a big mistake, you people. This kid is a liar. I know it. I know all about them. Listen to me, they’re no good. There’s not a one of 'em who’s any good….This kid on trial here…well, don’t you know about them? There’s a danger here. These people are dangerous. They’re wild. Listen. Listen to me.”

One by one, the other jurors turn their backs on him and his racially prejudiced tirade, until, subdued, he goes to sit by himself in a corner with nothing else to say.

Juror #8 makes another impassioned speech:

“I don’t really know what the truth is. I don’t suppose anybody will ever really know. Nine of us now seem to feel that the defendant is innocent, but we’re just gambling on probabilities. We may be wrong. We may be trying to let a guilty man go free, I don’t know. Nobody really can, but we have a reasonable doubt and that’s something that’s very valuable in our system. No jury can declare a man guilty unless it’s sure. We nine can’t understand how you three are still so sure.”

Juror #4 brings up the woman’s testimony from across the street.  He is quickly shot down by Juror #9’s sharp eyes: the woman had marks on her nose from glasses, suggesting that she wore them often.  People who wear glasses do not sleep with them on (as someone who wears glasses, I can confirm).  She was in bed at the time of the killing, happening to look out her window at around midnight to see the murder through the passing cars of an el-train, about six seconds of time total, in the dark, not wearing her glasses.

Juror #4 changes his vote, as does Juror #10.  It’s 11-1, Not Guilty.  This time, Juror #3 is the lone holdout.  He goes on a tirade as well, ranting about having all of the facts, all of the evidence on his side, and as he pulls out his wallet to prove it, a picture falls out: one of his and his son.

In a burst of realization that his anger is not directed towards the defendant, but rather his own son, Juror #4 breaks down, and the final vote is called: unanimous, Not Guilty.

Juror #1 knocks on the door and tells the guard that they’re ready to give their verdict.  The men file out, Juror #8 staying behind a moment to hand #3 his jacket.

Once outside the courthouse, Juror #9 and Juror #8 exchange names and smiles.  Juror #9, McCardle, says ‘so long’, and heads off.  Juror #8, Davis, walks down the courthouse steps, and disappears out of shot.

The end.

For being just over an hour and a half with only three settings, the film seems like there is a lot more to it than one would think.  We don’t even learn most of the juror’s names, and yet they seem like fully developed characters, and we feel the satisfaction of justice well served.

Or do we?

One of the most interesting things about this movie is that neither the jury, nor the audience, ever finds out if the boy is guilty, or not.  Only that there is reasonable doubt.  By the same token, there is plenty of evidence to convict him.  Even Juror #8 admits that he does not know if the boy is innocent, or guilty, and it’s left to the audience, as it was left to the jury, to make up our own minds about it.

Sobering, isn’t it?

As for me?  I don’t know.  Maybe he’s guilty.  Maybe he isn’t.  That doesn’t change the thrust of the movie.

The idea of the movie, the point of it, is that we have this system for a reason, and by showing us an assortment of the type of people who can end up on a jury, we are called to think about, and respect, our duty to our legal system.  We don’t want to be Juror #7, switching sides based on how fast he thinks they can get out so he can get to his ball game, or Juror #10, who allowed his hatred to cloud his reason, or Juror #3, who didn’t realize that he was trying to punish his own son based on his anger, instead of the actual defendant based on reason.  We want to take this seriously, like #9 and 11.  We want to know, want to believe, that in the end, there is a truth, and justice will prevail.

We want to be the Hero, Juror #8, on his Hero’s Journey for the truth.

Another thing we don’t know is what happens to each juror after the movie is over.  The film takes place over the span of one day.  We have no way of knowing if this affects anyone, if Juror #7 learns to be more cognizant of things around him, if Juror #10 turns from his racist views, or if Juror #3 reconciles with his son.  We just don’t know.  The film is full of ambiguity, and in that, it feels bitterly real, even if it isn’t realistic.

In that respect, the film makes quite an impact.  It stays with you.  It makes you think.

And the audience is the better for it.

Thanks so much for reading!  If you enjoyed it, please stay tuned to join us for the remainder of our study of 12 Angry Men. Don’t forget that my ask box is always open.  Thank you guys so much for reading, and I’ll see you all in the next article!

[emospritelet]

Twisted Fate prompt 78) “I love you.” “You shouldn’t.”

These prompts have been sitting in my inbox since last August XD. I’m sorry, it took ages for these two to actually start talking about their issues.

[AO3]

x

Belle had known that a broken arm would be tricky to manage, but she hadn’t realised how helpless she was without Gold around to assist her. Getting dressed was the first obstacle, and she struggled to get out of her nightdress and into her underwear. She discarded any thought of attempting to put on a bra, and after weighing her options, decided on simple sweatpants, a camisole and cardigan. Even brushing her hair with her left hand took some getting used to.

He had left early, so quietly that she hadn’t heard him go, but when she entered the kitchen she found the coffee maker ready to go with decaf, the lid off the tea canister and cooked sliced mushrooms and onions alongside a plate of grated cheese and a bowl containing beaten eggs. The makings of an omelette. It made her smile.

She managed to make the omelette, although it wasn’t about to win any prizes for looks by the time it was on her plate, and ate it at the table with some tea, following it up with decaf coffee and one of the oat and raisin cookies he had made the previous day. Checking the fridge made her smile again; he had portioned up the food he had cooked, glass dishes containing macaroni cheese all ready to go in the oven and beef in red wine in plastic tubs ready for the microwave or to be tipped into a pan.

She spent her day reading and relaxing, rubbing her belly whenever the baby kicked. It was starting to get more uncomfortable the closer she got to her due date. She tried to look ahead six months, when the baby was on the outside, crawling around the apartment. Would Gold still be there? Probably not; she imagined he would move into his own place as soon as her arm was healed, seeing the baby according to the terms in the thick sheaf of documents that she had still not signed. The thought made her feel incredibly lonely.

Emma popped in to see her at lunchtime only briefly, staying for a cup of cocoa and helping her to tie up her hair. She promised to return after class with Neal and Henry, and so by six-thirty they were all seated around the kitchen table, eating their way through Gold’s macaroni cheese.

“This is so good,” said Henry, scraping his plate. “It’s got about a ton of cheese in it. Mom, you should make it like this next time.”

“Thanks,” said Emma dryly. “I thought you liked my mac and cheese.”

“I do, but you always say ‘is that enough cheese’ and I feel like I have to say yes, and it never is.”

“Wow - thanks for the honesty, I guess,” remarked Emma, taking a drink of her wine. Belle and Neal chuckled.

“You can tell Gold it was a hit,” added Neal, digging a fork into his own food. “It’s comforting. Kinda tastes like home, you know?”

“He’s an annoyingly good cook,” said Belle, in a flat tone.

“Why, that sneaky son of a—” Neal glanced at Henry. “Uh - well, you know what I mean. Belle, somehow I doubt it’s all part of an evil scheme. Maybe he just thinks you need to eat some good food.”

“Yeah, I know I sound unreasonable,” she sighed. “I don’t know where my brain’s at right now. This morning I was wondering how the hell I’d cope on my own, and - and that maybe I’ll miss him when he’s not here and it’s just me and the baby. It’s - it’s like I resent the fact that he’s stepping up, and I don’t really understand it. I don’t know, maybe I’m just being emotional.”

She poked at her food, feeling despondent.

“You resent that he’s making you feel things?” said Emma, with a knowing look in her eyes, and Belle pulled a face.

“Maybe.”

“Can’t be angry with him anymore, and you still feel like you should be?”

Belle put down her fork.

“Okay, did you take psych class today or something?”

Emma put a hand over hers, grinning.

“I get it, that’s all,” she said. “Don’t get too hung up on what you think you should be feeling. Do whatever’s best for making you happy.”

Belle thought about that for a moment.

“I’m not sure what that is,” she said eventually, and Emma shrugged.

“Give it time.”

There was silence except for the scraping of plates while they finished up, and Neal offered to wash up. Dessert was ice cream, brought by Emma, and Henry went to eat his in front of the TV while Neal dried the dishes and Emma finished her wine.

“Do either of you want coffee?” asked Belle. “You’ll probably have to help me make it, but you’re welcome.”

“I could use one,” said Neal, over his shoulder. “Let me make it. You want one?”

“I’ll have tea. Peppermint, I think. The baby’s been kicking so much today it gives me heartburn.” 

He dried his hands, and Belle pushed back her chair to go to the bathroom. When she got back the coffee maker was running, and Neal had taken Gold’s old toy rabbit from its place on the shelf beside the fridge. He had a puzzled look on his face as he turned the rabbit over and over in his hands, and Belle was reminded of Gold, and the way he had studied it.

“Where’d you get this?” he asked.

“Oh, it belongs to Alex,” she said. “It’s not for the baby, or anything. It belonged to his son.”

Neal looked up.

“He had a kid?”

“Still does, apparently,” said Belle. “They kind of lost touch.”

“How long ago?” asked Emma.

“I think he said his son was two. It was years ago. I’m - I’m not sure how much he really wants me to talk about it. If at all.”

“Oh. Okay.” Emma looked thoughtful. “But he talked to you about it. That’s good, right?”

“Yeah.” Belle took her seat. “He brought the rabbit with him when he moved in, and although I’d seen it before in his shop, I hadn’t thought anything of it. So I asked him. He was - he was probably the most open he’s been with me. I think it made him uncomfortable.”

“Well, practice makes perfect.”

“Yeah.” Belle reached for her peppermint tea. “Here’s hoping for more of that.”

“Does it make you feel better about how he’ll be with the baby?” asked Neal. “I’m not prying into the guy’s private business, but maybe if he’s had a kid and you know that he loved that kid, it might make you feel a bit easier about this one, you know?”

Belle thought for a moment.

“Yeah, he definitely loves his son,” she said. “I could see it in his eyes. It was kind of heartbreaking, to be honest. So yes, I do think he’ll love our child. I - I think he already does.”

“Have you guys talked about how you’ll divide up caring for the baby?”

“No.” Belle ran her hands over her face, huffing air through her fingers. “He went to his lawyer. Drew up a huge document that I can’t face reading through and told me to get some legal advice.”

“He’s right to say that.”

“I know.” Belle sat back in her chair with a sigh. “I just - I just can’t at the moment. Every time I think about our lives being tied up in clauses and sub-clauses and stupid legal terms, I want to cry.”

Neal and Emma shared a glance.

“Well, I guess since he’s living with you at the moment, there’s no rush,” said Emma reasonably.

“Yeah, plenty of time to lawyer up when he moves out,” added Neal.

“Yeah.”

Belle picked up her tea, feeling subdued, and there was a moment of silence.

“Maybe we can make Fridays a thing,” suggested Emma. “He said he’d be in Maine every week, so we could come over and keep you company.”

“I don’t know if he’ll stick to Fridays.”

“He said he had an appointment to keep,” said Emma. “Said it would be every Friday.”

“An appointment?” Belle frowned. “He never mentioned it. I know he has rent to collect, but I thought he was getting someone to do that for him.”

“Huh. Well, it’s only a suggestion.”

“No, it’s a good one,” said Belle. “I’ll ask him what his plans are.”

“Sounds good.” Emma took a slurp of coffee. “Okay, who’s up for a game of cards? Loser buys dessert next week.”

x

Gold returned when it was almost ten, looking drained and tired, although he greeted her pleasantly. Belle found herself wanting to make him tea and feed him something, and felt a little useless when he insisted on seeing to himself. He made her chamomile tea, and regular tea for himself, along with a sandwich that he made short work of in the kitchen before bringing his tea through to the lounge. She was curled in a chair, a book tented on the arm as she sipped at her drink, and he lowered himself onto the couch, perching on the edge with his elbows resting on his knees, an aura of tension hanging around him.

“How was your day?” he asked. “Did you manage everything okay? Did your friends come over?”

“Yeah, it was fine,” she said. “Your mac and cheese was a hit, by the way. Henry thought it was awesome.”

He smiled faintly.

“Good.”

“We talked about making it a regular Friday night get-together,” she added. “But I wasn’t sure if we could, what with your work thing.”

“My work thing?” said Gold, looking confused.

“Emma said you had a regular appointment in Maine,” she prompted. “So I was wondering if that was gonna be every Friday or not.”

Gold hesitated only briefly.

“I can go every Friday, if that makes it easier for you to organise things.”

“Good.” She took a sip of her drink. “In that case I’ll ask them to come over for movies and popcorn. It’ll be nice to have some company.”

“Right,” he said. “Yes.”

“Which means the rest of the week, we have each other for company,” she said, keeping her tone light. “Which we should make the most of, don’t you think?”

His eyes narrowed a little.

“In what way?”

“I - I thought maybe we could talk some more,” she said. “I thought - well, the conversation we had the other night. I thought that was - useful.”

Gold held her gaze steadily for a moment, then looked away, elbows shifting on his knees, fingers threaded together.

“Yes,” he said. “Yes, it felt like - progress.”

She could sense his awkwardness, and felt the urge to reach out to him, to send him some sort of comfort, even as she battled with her own anxiety, her own hurt.

“So, we should talk,” she went on. “Clear the air. If you’re willing.”

There was a moment of silence, and his jaw tightened a little, his throat bobbing as he swallowed.

“Alright,” he said at last. 

Belle set down her tea, letting her feet slip to the floor as she sat forward a little, instinctively moving closer to him, bridging the space between them until their knees were almost touching. She could hear the light sound of him breathing through his nose, and the faintest scent of him was in the air, making her want to close her eyes and inhale deeply.

“I meant it,” she said softly. “What I said the other night, before the accident. I meant it. I love you.”

His mouth was set in a grim line, his eyes downcast as his head shook slightly: the barest denial.

“You shouldn’t.”

Belle sighed, sitting back.

“That’s not how this works,” she said. “That’s not how any of this works. You can’t just tell someone not to love you.”

He was silent, not looking at her, and she shook her head.

“I wanted to hate you, you know,” she admitted. “There were times when I feel like I wish I could hurt you like you hurt me, but I know that if I had the chance I wouldn’t do it.”

“Of course not,” he said quietly. “That’s not who you are.”

“Oh, I have my moments,” she said. “Pretty sure I’ve cursed you out a hundred times since we broke up.”

“Well, I imagine I deserved it.”

“Yeah.”

She looked at her hands, folded together in her lap, and there was a moment of silence. Glancing up, she could see that Gold’s attention was on the floor at his feet, the space between the toes of his shoes. She wondered what he was thinking.

“I was so hurt, for so long,” she said. “Devastated. And - and after that I got angry. Maybe I still am, I don’t know. I - I keep thinking irrational things, and I don’t always realise that I’m being unreasonable.”

“I don’t think you’re unreasonable,” he said, and took a deep breath. “You said you didn’t trust me. That - that stayed with me, Belle. I’ve thought about it a lot.”

“Oh.” She wasn’t sure how to feel about that. “Right.”

“There again, given what I did,” he went on. “I - ah - I don’t suppose I’ve given you much reason to.”

More silence, but somehow it was deafening, as though the space between them was screaming at her. She had to speak, to bridge the gap, to voice her pain.

“You know, that was the worst of it,” she said softly. “Not the things you said, so much, awful though they were. It was more that you felt you could say them. Maybe I’m not making sense, I don’t know…”

He looked up then, his eyes warm, filled with what might have been pain and regret.

“Tell me,” he said. “I need to hear it.”

Belle chewed her lip, trying to organise her thoughts.

“I thought I knew you,” she said. “You didn’t give me much to work with, don’t get me wrong, but the little I got made me think that you - cared - for me. And - and that was okay, because even though you never said it, I felt it. I knew.”

She paused, choosing her words. His mouth had twisted a little, pain etched in the lines around his eyes.

“I’ve always felt that I have a sense about people,” she said. “That I can see past the surface, see what’s inside. So when you did what you did, not only did I realise that I didn’t know you, but it was like I lost my sense of who I was, too.”

Gold nodded slowly.

“Like you couldn’t trust your instincts,” he said. “Couldn’t trust yourself.”

“I - I guess so.”

“Yes.” He dropped his eyes again so that he wasn’t quite looking at her, but at his fingers, laced together. “And that’s why you can’t trust me, either.”

“Uh…” She shifted uncomfortably. “Yeah.”

Gold nodded.

“I understand,” he whispered.

“I want to,” she added. “I want to trust you. I hate this - all of this - between us.” She gestured with a hand, back and forth. “I want it to be better. I do.”

Gold looked up again, smiling a little.

“So do I,” he said. “I’m trying, Belle. I - I know it might not feel like it, but I am.”

He dropped his eyes again, but she sensed he still had more to say, so she remained silent. Gold opened his mouth, looking a little pained.

“It - it wasn’t work,” he said hesitantly, and Belle frowned.

“What?”

“In Storybrooke,” he said. “I said I had to go there for work. That was only partly true. I can sort out the things I need to for my business remotely, I don’t need to go there.”

Belle blinked, surprised.

“Oh,” she said.

More silence. She held her tongue, waiting for him to fill it, and Gold took a breath, his brows lifting a little in the middle, giving him an anxious, somewhat helpless expression. 

“I’m going to Storybrooke each Friday because I have a regular appointment,” he said heavily. “To see Dr Hopper. For - for therapy.”

“Therapy?” Belle felt her eyes widen. “Really?”

“Really.”

He caught her eyes very briefly with his before ducking his head again. She wanted to smile, a sense of relief flooding through her. Finally. Finally he asked for help.

“How’s it going?” she asked, and he sighed, that helpless look briefly returning.

“Well, it’s early days,” he said. “It’s - it’s not easy. But there again nothing worthwhile is, so they say. I’m going to keep trying. He’s - I think he’s probably very good at his job.”

“Yeah.” Bless Dr Hopper. If anyone can help, he can. “Well, I’m proud of you.”

Gold looked up sharply, a stricken expression on his face, and she smiled warmly.

“I really am,” she said sincerely. “I’m proud of you. I know how hard it must be to ask for help. It - it makes me feel like you’re really serious about making things better.”

A flicker of a smile at the corners of his mouth.

“I am,” he said. “I promise.”

He held her gaze for a moment, that tiny smile making his eyes gleam. It reminded her of happier times, and there was a lurch deep in her belly at the memories. Gold eventually glanced away.

“We should go to bed,” he said, and threw up a hand as Belle raised her eyebrows. “Oh, I - I didn’t mean we should go to bed, although - okay I did mean that, but I didn’t mean together, I meant - I meant to sleep, that’s all. I meant – oh fuck it, I’ll shut up.”

He sighed, letting the hand drop, and Belle giggled a little, eyes sparkling.

“Sleep sounds good,” she said, and he smiled.

“Right,” he said. “Well.”

He pushed to his feet, grasping his cane and holding out a hand to pull her up. Belle swayed in his grip a little, smiling up at him.

“Goodnight, Alexander,” she said softly.

“Goodnight.”

She let her hand slip from his, picking up her tea and making her way towards the bedroom, feeling his eyes on her back. Slowly, very slowly, they were making progress.

[crimsonbluemoon]

OoOOoh! Fun! Fun! Fun! I love these, heheheh. How 'bout Celebrity!au, childhood friends, "Are you sure this is legal?" and/or "It's been so long since we did this.", and Minicat. :3 also don't mind if i reblog the game... no one ever asks me to do one but they're fun to do when i got the time. XD Hope ya have fun with all the asks ya get!

Aww I’m sure people will message you! And I’m slowly but surely getting through these. I’m hoping to get one or two done a day. ^.^ But enjoy this one for now!

AU: CelebrityTrope: Childhood friendsPrompt:  "Are you sure this is legal?“ and/or "It’s been so long since we did this.”

Pairing: Minicat

“Are you sure this is legal?” Even drunk, Craig felt like something was off about the ‘no trespassing after sunset’ sign that hung on the lifeguard post they were walking by. His feet felt light, though he was sure it was the shots he’d taken at his party. Well, it had been labelled his party, though he didn’t know most of the people his manager invited. The house’s music was pumping in the distance, but Mini was dragged further away by… someone. “What’s your name again?” 

“Hunter.” The guy seemed annoyed by the question, and Craig wondered if he’d asked it before. To be fair, he’d had to get to know a lot of people’s names that night, and alcohol didn’t help matters. Also, he really didn’t know where he was at the moment. 

Well, he knew the city at least. L.A was still the same as it’d been twenty years ago, when he’d thought he ran the streets on his bike or his surfboard. Now, after winning the NASL cup and being crowned MVP, he really did own the city. That was why he was having the dumb party with those people he didn’t know or care for. Why some guy with a stupid name was dragging him like a two year old’s ratty blanket, no care or concern for his well being. But really, did anyone these days? When was the last time that someone actually talked to Craig about something other than money, fame, or what he could do for them?   

His eyes closed slowly while he was dragged along, hearing the waves of the ocean crashing into the shore. His feet had lost their shoes, maybe along the walk to the sand, and his toes dug in with a familiar joy. This felt like home, not that stuffy expensive house that overlooked the city. The salty air, the water, all of it was so reminiscent of his childhood. How many nights had he spent on a beach like this? Searching for shells, building bonfires, finding the constellations and trying to figure out his place in the world. That had been some of the best years of his life, staring at the endless sky to remind himself that he was just so small in the grand scheme of things. 

But the best part he remembered was him. The boy with grubby cheeks and a scowl who turned into the teen with rough hands and angry blue eyes. The one person who asked him for nothing. Nothing but his company. When Craig thought he had nothing, he gave Mini everything he needed to reach his dream. Craig wished he could have done the same back then. 

Maybe now, too, if his drunk heart had anything to say about it.

“Freeze.” The voice that called out the command sounded familiar, but Mini’s brain was too sloshed to fully grasp from where. The hand that had been wrapped around his wrist was gone in an instant. It took Craig a moment to open his eyes again, and he caught a glimpse of the back of the man (Henry? Harold?) who had brought him to the beach running out of sight. It took a moment for his body to realize it was on its own, and then the world started to tilt. His arms tried to stabilize him by flailing out on either side, but it was the firm wall that his back bumped into that kept him from falling. Slowly, Mini blinked, letting gravity pull his head back to gaze up at the owner of the chest keeping his upright. His eyes were blurred a bit, partly from alcohol and the slant of his glasses, but even with the smeared vision, he picked up on some of the man’s features. 

Why’d this officer have to have blue eyes like him, too?

“You’re…really pretty.” His words fell out without any chance of filter stopping them, but he was too drunk to mind. Everything was just right for a moment; the music in the background was lower now, and the warmth on his back felt like a comforting blanket. The ocean breeze had chilled him, and while his first companion hadn’t hesitated to leave him cold and alone, this stranger seemed fine with Mini pressed against him. Hands that might have grasped his hips to keep him standing were the right side of rough, large and just so familiar-

“Craig?” 

“That is…is totally my name.” He laughed at his own answer, head fluffy with memories and booze. He didn’t mind slipping deeper into his daydream, letting the water and cold of night sooth his wounded soul. He knew this wasn’t him; the police officer’s badge dug into his shoulder blade, and he could see the flashing lights from the cop car parked somewhere behind them.  He wasn’t that lucky. But the cop was built just like him; tall and scruffy, but soft despite the large body. Prickly, if he got any hints from the scoff that brushed his ear. But he hadn’t dropped Craig, which meant he was probably just as caring and kind on the inside as…Mini squeezed his eyes tighter, leaning back into the officer holding him. But when he spoke, it was for someone who was miles away. “God, I missed you.” 

“What are you doing out here?”

“Iunno. Some guy dragged me out here for something,” he murmured, hearing a growl of annoyance that made him smile.

“You idiot, what kind of answer-”

“It’s been so long since…since we’ve done this.” He didn’t care if his pathetic mumbling was spilled to a reporter and plastered on a tabloid next week; he just needed to let it out. Years of longing, being alone in a crowd of thousands, searching for his breaking point. Decades of just not knowing where his life was headed, or when he’d stop spinning so high, when he’d crash and burn into the ground. Who would stand by Mini in the wreckage? 

He would have, probably. Because he had given Craig his nights and attention before anyone even knew his stupid name. What would he think of Mini, now? 

The decade of radio silence gave the answer he didn’t want to hear. 

“Everything okay down there? Need me to come help haul him to the car?” The call of another officer from the beach’s side road threatened to break the dream-like state of Craig’s moment, and he groaned in protest before pressing closer to his source of warmth. 

“Nah, I’ve got him. No need to call it in.” But just like his old friend would have done, this officer, this stranger, had protected Mini.

“Do ya now? This one’s special to ya, is he?” There was a tease somewhere in the tone, but Mini didn’t open his eyes to investigate. 

“Shut up, Hanby.  Take a drive down the rest of the road and see if anyone else is around. If you can find the punk who bailed when we pulled up, cuff him. I know where this idiot lives.”

“How are you planning on getting home after helping your new friend out?” 

“I was off the clock ten minutes ago; I don’t gotta tell you shit. Now get moving.” The banter was swimming in Craig’s ears, but the thumb that brushed against his hip bone melted his brain too much to butt in.  

“Oh, there’s definitely a story here. Be ready to share it with Fong and Del over coffee tomorrow. Can’t wait, buddy.” A warm laugh echoed against the night sky when the other officer moved away, and Craig’s ear picked up on the rocks shifting under the car’s tires when it pulled away. 

“Fuck, he’s almost as big of a pain as you.” The words were sharp and warm against Craig’s ear, and he felt his body shudder from something deeper than the cold. 

“God.” This cop even sounded like him. His eyes burned behind closed lids as he let out a wet laugh, nuzzling his nose into the collar of the officer. Maybe it’d get him arrested for indecent behavior in public, but he smelt like smoked wood, motor oil, and him. Or what he’d smelt like as a teenager, maybe. The details were so fuzzy now; was he just blending this person with his past to make himself feel better? Mini’s mind sloshed over new thoughts like waves, barreling into the shore of his reality with no intention to break. 

“Let’s get you home.” But before he could take a step, before the stranger could finally break the final thread of Mini’s mirage of happiness, he spoke.

“I miss him.” A sob pushed out over his laugh, head useless against the tense shoulder behind him. “I miss us, how we…sat at the ocean, talked and…and…I just felt loved, maybe. Not like now. I don’t know if he ever felt…it’s been so long since…since I’ve been happy. You just feel like love, mr…mr. officer-sir-man. You feel like Tyler, and it’s…been so long since I’ve seen him. Since I’ve had him by my side. My whole side’s missing, it’s…he’s gone. And here I am, drunk and probably arrested and in love with a ghost. Tyler would hate me now-”

“Shit.” The grip around his waist tightened for a moment, but Mini didn’t mind the squeeze. It grounded him in a way nobody had in years. The alcohol was doing a bang up job of messing with his head, as it tried to convince him the officer’s next words were mumbled against his forehead. “Brock’s gonna be impossible to deal with when he finds out he was right. Fuck.” 

“Hey, I…I have a Brock, too.” Craig laughed and then slumped, a crest of fatigue finally rolling into him. “He’s always right, good guy. He’d make a good wife for me.” 

“Wait, what-”

“Cept can’t marry him when I love Tyler. Life would probably…be easier if I just forgot him. But, I can’t.” He yawned and accepted he’d end up in the cell by the morning, giving all his weight to the officer holding him. “I’m gonna pass out now. Thanks for…being here.” 

“I should have been here before, idiot, I-.”  Whatever else came next, Craig didn’t hear, his mind slipping into sleep. 

He didn’t know that Officer Tyler Wine carried him home. Not to the house with strangers, but to his mother’s house three miles away. The one right across the street from the house Tyler himself had bought from his parents three years ago. He didn’t know Tyler was still in his city, still driving their streets, still sitting on their beaches, reminiscing. He didn’t know Tyler had refused to reach out in case Craig no longer needed a local boy that didn’t shine in the limelight. That he’d ignored their friend’s advice, kept his nose in his work, pretended he wasn’t missing a part of himself. 

And Mini didn’t know that he’d still be there when Craig woke up the next morning. 

[blankdblank]

Breaking the Boss Idea

In the background of an office show oc has slowly been gaining attention for how she reacts to how one of the main stars had been acting. Big up high type guy (Henry Cavill) serious and stone like ruthless business man (low key set up like how mad men had all the daily meetings and such with offices and main area with desks filling the floor.)

... One day Henry shows up with bag of laundry that he just picked up from his maid that quit and while she’s listening to the guys banter she’s supposed to keep busy in the scene so she starts folding his laundry mouthing along mockingly to the conversation - not the first time she’s done the faces - and when a man tells a cringy joke she mimed throwing up with socks making the other extras in the back fight not to laugh while again Henry is unable to help but smile like he always does when oc does something in the back of his scenes, which is a lot, and she’s the only reason he smiles on the show, seriously

.. another time she is seen behind the guys hiding a stuffed flamingo (various times it’s other animals/characters used to decorate one person’s desk with their fave animal/character)

.. she subtly is brought into meetings passive aggressively passing out papers or snacks or products needed for those in the meeting fake laughing at jokes then making faces behind the person’s back out of sight for others except for Henry and the camera of course, extra sassy when these things clearly add to her already busy job

.. one day she’s seen miming though the meeting room wall as they’re entering to Henry his dog Kal has snuck onto set following her after having smelled her perfume off of Henry from the day prior where the two grudge holding characters from their first confrontational time speaking on screen in waiting for an elevator they were adorably squished together, and repeated a few times through that filmed day for various reasons, not the first time he’d been squished with the woman he’d been staring at in the writers failed thought up plans to get the characters into some sort of daily conversing

Big boss turns around and oc smiles lifting hands formerly miming paws to adjust her ponytail, “You wanted coffee now, or after the meeting?”

“Now,” he said looking her over then turns away while she mouths ‘dog’ at Henry only making him shrug not understanding until a few moments later he sees her tiny self cradling Kal with his tail wagging and carrying him past the glass wrapped meeting room he causes distractions to keep the guys from noticing as they sit down realizing what she was trying to say

She tried to put Kal in his office but there’s a slot in the wall missing on the set and he follows her onto the meeting as she passes out the coffee mug 

Big boss asks, “Oc, why is there a dog in the board room?”

Turning around she says, “He’s my support dog.”

“For what?”

“I’d, rather not say, in front of everyone.”

He sighed, “Just keep him in line and walk him, I don’t want any messes around here.”

“Yes sir,” walks around table flicking Henry’s shoulder. (Writers are happy for the improved drama and chance to add depth to his character outside the office)

.

Henry comes to her office finding her squishing Kal’s cheeks asking “How can someone so grumpy live with someone so cute and happy? Look at you smiles for days. You’d need a bulldozer to get that scowl off his face.”

“You stole my dog?” He asked making her turn around seeing him with arms crossed.

“You brought him into the office and he was at my desk!”

He sighed, “Well my dog walker quit so I guess this works out.”

“Oh yes, now I get to do my job, part of yours and walk him throughout the day. Thank you, huge weight off my shoulders!” She says brushing past him heading to leave after giving Kal a warm goodbye. She gets to the elevator and he is back at her side with his coat and bag handing her a card after the awkwardly quiet trip to the ground floor.

“My address, so you can come pick him up in the morning.”

Looking up at him she flatly said, “This is half an hour out of my way! I hate you,” taking the card and walking out.

“See you at four.” He called out to her back.

“You better be dressed or I’m using my mace.”

.

Daily hand offs and walks he starts to join her to talk about his scheduled trips setting up shots of her at his home watching Kal while he’s gone since her building won’t let her have dogs

... phone calls go hand off custody and arranging when to pick up Kal for various work events

... calls to share info on dog’s health and stories and pictures from his puppy days

.

Cue the day she runs into her ex on a day off walk Henry tagged along for on his break

Henry walks up seeing he’s giving her a hard time hanging up a work call

“How did I know it would end up just you and some fluffy dog at the end of the day? Just want a warm body that takes orders and doesn’t argue.”

“Oh shut up I’m just walking him.”

He scoffs, “Don’t tell me you let some big shot have you walking his dog! The guys back home will love this!”

Henry walks up cue chests puffing up and eyebrow duels as Henry asks, “There a problem here?”

Ex, “Oh look, your boss himself to say you’ve been taking too long.”

Henry fires back, “I’m her husband not her boss and I don’t like your tone!”

“Husband?” You mouth to Kal who is looking up at you with tail wagging.

Ex smirks looking Henry over, “Sure went all out on picking the biggest guy I town. No doubt you like the fights, she’ll love to put you through the rounds.”

Henry cockily fired back, “I doubt you knew how to treat a woman, we don’t fight, leaves more time for the bedroom. But I doubt you’d know much about how to treat a woman there either.”

Oc rolls eyes and mumbled something making Kal walk away luring Henry after her post final snarky remarks and glares between guys. Once he catches up with her she swats him in his middle after he rests his arm around her back. “Married?!”

“What, he-...”

“He knows my grandmother! Who was not invited or even informed about an engagement, relationship let alone the wedding!”

“I-..”

“I’m all she has! She raised me! And she’s heard nothing! Husband?! Really?! We barely talk aside from Kal! You just made my grandma cry! I hope you’re happy!”

He shrugged, “It could have been an out of the country non legal ceremony to calm her down.”

“How does that help? And more time for the bedroom?! Of course he wouldn’t know anything about my bedroom because we never had sex! We barely lasted three weeks.” She said swatting his middle again making him fight not to chuckle at how hard you made it look compared to the soft taps she was giving him.

Looking at Kal she asked, “You wouldn’t ever do this to a person would you?” He barks and bobs his head making her gesture to him, “See!”

Henry scoffs, “He does that all the time! Hey boy you want to drove the car?” Kal flatly looks at him cocking his head to the side.

“Even he knows you’re nonsense.” Shaking her head.

“Look, i’ll help you patch things with your grandmother.”

“Really? What about Becky in personnel?” His brow inched up, “Because he’s screwing her, now she’s gonna know, meaning by tomorrow everyone’s gonna know.”

“No they won’t.”

She nods, “Ok, head back up then.”

He does, and sure enough they all are talking about it by the end of the day and he calls her, “What type of ring do you want?”

“Oh, I take it they know then?”

“Bill from accounting is upset he wasn’t invited.”

“And just how did you fix that?”

“We need to book a venue.” She face palms. And he mutters, “Where do you want to get married?”

“I don’t know, you sure you haven’t already told someone where it’s being held?”

“No, but Kal is the ring bearer. And has to wear a vest and top hat.”

“How exactly did you move up in this company?”

“I am beginning wonder that myself.”

Cue wedding planning and talks of moving in together on top of plans to meet the family including one very protective grandmother who is not going to give him an easy time with this either. All sprinkled with him falling head over heels even more for his wife.

[the-blueish-trashcan]

He’s in Charge; Chapter Three

Pairing: Henry/Bertrum

Warnings: Referenced violence, light injuries, transphobia

A/N: Henry and Joey get into a verbal altercation in which Joey says some... unsavory things and makes some disrespectful threats. Henry doesn’t take it well. I apologize in advance for the way I’ve written the dialogue of one Wally Franks. He’s a delightful young man, but terrible to write and possibly terrible to read, so my bad. 

Chapter word count: 2,264

{First part} {Previous part} {Next part}

Chapter Three; Dreams Come True

Morning came without Henry noticing, considering the lack of windows in the building. The moment he heard activity, and saw more lights coming on, though, he hesitantly stood and went to the break room. A fresh pot of coffee sat on the counter, so he poured himself a mug.

“You’re early.” Came the surprised voice of Sammy Lawrence, who came to stand next to him by the counter.

“Implying that I left.” Henry gave him a sidelong glance. As usual, the music director’s curly blond hair went in all directions. It looked like he’d just rolled out of bed, but the neat button-up and clarity in his bright blue eyes suggested otherwise.

“That deadline’s killing you, too, isn’t it?” Sammy asked as he added two hefty scoops of sugar to his own coffee. 

“It really is, my hands are so stiff.”

“I don’t understand it. You and I are practically the only reasons this studio is still running, and we’re the ones suffering for it. You don’t even have an office anymore, you have a desk shoved in the corner! Budget cuts, my ass…” He grumbled as he took a long drink.

Henry glanced around him as if checking to make sure Joey wasn't there. He didn't see him, of course, but that did nothing to ease his fear of being overheard. “If you ask me, I think Joey just likes feeling like he’s above everyone here. He hardly does anything, if you haven’t noticed.”

“Exactly! This place is named after him, he should at least be trying a little harder.”

Henry nodded in agreement. “I should get going again. I just needed a jumpstart.”

“Me too, it was a mistake even going home last night, but the orchestra can’t play if they’re all half dead from exhaustion.” By then, they’d both made it back into the hallway, ready to go their separate ways. “Good luck, Stein.”

“Thanks. You too.” Henry gave a small wave as Sammy walked off, then went back to his own desk. Everything was just as he’d left it, of course, and he made sure to set his mug out of the way. Pain shot up through his whole hand and up his wrist as he lifted his pen, but that couldn’t stop him. Not that day.

*****

Mid-morning, at least by Henry’s guess, was when Wally came to see him again. His friendly demeanor had changed by then, seeming more nervous. “Hey, uh, Henry?”

The animator didn’t turn around. “What’s up?”

“Joey wants to see you in his office… The downstairs one.”

Henry whipped around, pen still in hand. “Did… he say what he wants?”

Wally shook his head.

“Did he seem upset?”

“I’ve got no idea, but… I’d hurry if I was you.” Wally made his way back down the hall, evidently into a different part of the floor. 

Henry stood once more, putting his pen into his shirt pocket. The way down to Joey’s office was dark, and nerve-wracking alone. That, along with the many ideas of what could be wrong, didn’t help to keep Henry’s heart calm. When he arrived at his boss’s door, which was closed, he knocked three times. On the other side, Joey’s voice drifted through.

“Come in, Henry.” Joey sat in the large chair behind his desk with his hands steepled, elbows resting in front of him.

Henry obeyed, closing the door behind himself and staying next to it. “You wanted to see me?”

“Please, come sit down.” He indicated the wooden chair across from him. When Henry did as he asked, he spoke again. “It’s been brought to my attention that you’re rather… unhappy with the way things are running around here. Is that correct?”

Henry swallowed and shook his head.

“Maybe I need to be a little more specific. You don’t think I’m pulling my weight around here. You think you deserve more than you’ve got. You can’t lie to me, Henry! I know everything that happens here!”

Henry internally scrambled for a response. Would Joey even let him respond? No good could come from this. But… In his moment of panic, his conversation with Bertrum the night before came back to him. Bertrum thought he needed to stand up to Joey, obviously with legal help, this was a totally different situation. Despite the way his chest seized, Henry took a deep breath. “You don’t pull any weight here.”

Joey’s eyebrows went up, surprised. “Oh, wow. Do you have anything to back that up?” Joey tilted his head, smiling dangerously. 

“All I’ve seen come out of this office are deadlines, empty promises, budget cuts, and poorly-planned concept sketches.” Henry bit back. “Not to mention staggering bills for an amusement park we clearly can’t afford.”

Joey leaned forward. “Tell me more about these… empty promises of mine, hm? You wanted to make cartoons on a large scale, I said you could, and here we are. Go on, tell me.”

Henry completely missed the threat, his mind fogged by both sleep deprivation and a sudden rage-fueled fire. “You told me I’d be big. Me, not just my characters which, by the way, you’ve been taking control of. You told me my dreams would come true, but right now? At this moment? Working for you is a nightmare! No one knows my name because you took it out of the credits, you replaced it with your own. You took my office and put my desk in a back corner, no one even knows where to find me! I don’t even have a sign with my name on it, I have a sign that says art department! How is that fair? How is it fair of you to keep threatening my paycheck? Do you really expect me to just keep taking it?!” By the time he stopped, he was on his feet, an action he hadn’t even noticed. His hands were braced on the desk, leaning towards his boss as he yelled. 

Joey only laughed in return, a dark sound. “I do, Henry. Because,” He got to his feet as well, towering over the animator. Before Henry could stop it, a hand was gripping his tie, pulling is face closer to Joey's snarling expression. “You would be nothing if it wasn’t for me. I bought the space, I make sure you have enough to survive. No one would even know your cartoons if I hadn’t given you the space and supplies to make them.” Henry opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off. “Besides, it would be a damn shame if word got out that it wasn’t really a man doing all the work.” Then Joey let go, acting as if the fabric he'd been holding was hot.

At first, Henry wasn’t sure what the other meant, but then it dawned on him. His eyes went wide and he took a half-step back, pushing the chair as well. “I trusted you with that. You wouldn’t. All the things you've done, you wouldn't dare.”

“You really have to be careful who you trust, Henry. One slip up, everything goes away… I know that wouldn’t be ideal, but maybe that will be a reminder for you to remember where you are. You draw, you meet my deadlines, I give you money. Don’t disrupt that, alright? You can go now.” He was waved off. 

Afraid to say anything more, Henry quickly exited, shaking all over. Along with the burn in his eyes from how tired he’d become, there was the burn of tears forming, his chest aching even worse. At first, he aimed to go back to his desk, but he soon found he didn’t have the strength. He pushed into the nearest bathroom he could find, taking to one of the stalls and locking himself in it. He clamped his over his mouth, soft sobs wracked him. He knew Joey’s words shouldn’t have cut as deep as they had, but he couldn’t help it. He blamed it, mostly, on lack of sleep making him more emotional. Even so, he couldn’t believe Joey would betray him like that. He had no way of telling if he would make good on that promise or not, so Henry decided it would be best to play it safe; keep his mouth shut, work hard, keep drawing. It was all he could do, really. 

He had no idea how long he’d been hiding in the bathroom stall with tears running down his face, but he completely froze when someone else walked in. For a long moment, neither of them moved. Until Henry hiccuped, a whine escaping him as well. He silently cursed himself. The other person approached the stall, stopping just outside of it. Under the door, Henry could see dirty dress shoes, which he recognized.

“Is… everything alright…?” Bertrum questioned.

“Fine.” Henry managed shakily.

“Henry? What are you doing down here? Are you really alright?” Bertrum hadn't even realized who it was he was speaking to, it seemed. 

Henry didn't answer for a long time, but instead, opened the door. Just like the previous night, Bertrum wore a white shirt, but this time, half his face and much of his neck were splattered in machine oil. The smell alone was enough to tell Henry it wasn't ink, that explained why Bertrum had come in. His expression shifted towards concern when his eyes fell on Henry, though. He leaned down enough to meet the animator's eyes. “What happened?” He looked like he was reaching for Henry's face, but stopped and put his hand on his shoulder instead.

Henry hugged himself tightly. “I had a meeting with Joey…” 

Bertrum's mustache twitched as he sneered. “What the hell did he say to you?”

“It… really isn't important, I need to get working anyway. Sorry if I bothered you at all.” Henry slipped past the other man, and out the door. He hardly noticed the trip back to his desk until he was in his chair, staring down at the latest set of frames. He'd have to stop crying before he could work on them, though, or else he may ruin the page.

Even after the tears stopped flowing, Henry couldn't get himself to stop shaking. He once again had to blame it on lack of sleep, though he knew better. With a shaking hand, he could only make small movements without messing anything up. At such a critical time, he really couldn't afford it. 

*****

When the studio began to fall quiet for the night again, Henry gave in. He couldn't be in the studio overnight again, not after the day's events. He left everything where it was, shuffling off to the time clock and punching out before anyone saw or could stop him.

Outside, the weather had turned bitter. Wind threw his hair upward, its icy fingers pulling at his clothes as well. He found his car keys in his pocket and hurried to the vehicle, the beginnings of a rainstorm pelting him and leaving wet spots all over him. Despite his rush to be at home and in bed, he took the drive to his apartment slowly, the thought of warm blankets and a decent meal his only motivation.

*****

The next morning, it was pouring rain by the time Henry got to work an hour before he was scheduled. When he made his way to the front door, under the protection of a large umbrella, Joey was already there, keys in hand. He glanced back at Henry and even though the weather kept much light from filtering through, it was easy to see the huge tan band-aid across his nose, along with his blackened eyes. A slightly bloodied tissue stuck out of one of his nostrils.

“Morning, Henry. You have two extra days for the episode.” He spoke flatly as he pulled the door open, stepping inside without waiting for a response.

Henry tilted his head, but didn't attempt to get an explanation . He folded his umbrella, setting it down just inside the door to dry and went to his desk to continue his work. 

*****

Only an hour or so after he'd started drawing again, Wally came by to empty the waste bin next to his desk. At first, it didn't seem like he was going to say anything at all.

“You saw Joey, right?” He asked, a grin splitting his lips.

Henry spared him a look, the janitor’s smile spreading to him. “I saw him when I came in, is his nose broken?”

Wally nodded. “Sure as shit. He looks horrible, it’s great!” 

“Who had the guts to do that to him, any idea?”

“I thought it could a been you at first, thought maybe your meetin’ with ‘im didn' go as planned. Then I heard a rumor it was tha’ Bertie fella, th’ guy buildin’ th’ park downstairs? Neva gotten to talk to ‘im in person, but he’s a big guy. Th’ l’il guy tha’ handles th’ money said he heard ‘im an’ Joey shoutin’ at each otha, then Joey came outta his office with’a bloody nose.”

Henry’s smile fell. “Oh gosh… you think Bertrum would really do something like that?”

Wally shrugged. “Dunno. Looks pretty scary though, I wouldn’t doubt it.” Having long finished his original task, Wally started to move off. “See ya later, Henry. Just thought ya might like t’know what’s goin’ on!”

“Yeah, thanks.” He waved slightly as the man left, turning back to his work. Wally’s explanation kept running through his mind, though. If it had really been Bertrum that hurt Joey, was it because of the state he’d found Henry in the day before?

[the-quiet-winds]

Time Goes By and Still I’m Stuck on You (part five)

so this is the end of installment one, but i guarantee there is more to come from @ichlugebulletsandcornnuts and i. don’t worry. there will be more.

[part one] - [part two] - [part three] - [part four]

[Part 5: You Were My One, You Were My One]

the next four and a half months pass similarly well. katherine explores every inch of the land presented to her, and jane and her grew as close as any mother and daughter could be, despite neither of them saying those words formally.

jane was disappointed, though she hid it well, that katherine never called her ‘mum’ again, but she pushed down those thoughts.

it’s one random day when they are sitting in the foyer and there’s a knock at the door when jane decides to answer it herself.

it’s lord edmund howard.

“i’ve come to collect katherine,” he says briskly and coldly.

“i’m sorry?” jane says, taken aback. lord howard frowns and repeats himself.

“i’ve come to collect katherine. send for her at once.”

“lord howard,” jane says slowly, brain racing. “what do you mean, you’ve come to collect katherine? has something happened?”

he shrugs as if it’s nothing major, even though his frustration at being forced to have this conversation was rising.

“well, you remember my step-mother, the duchess, correct?” when jane gives a tight-lipped nod, he continues. “well she and i have found a very suitable and profitable betrothal for katherine. and considering you are no longer royalty, it is likely far above anything you could have arranged.” he looks smug. “katherine will be sent on the first boat to spain, where she will marry a duke, third in line for the spanish throne.”

jane frowns. “even if she’s been betrothed, you can’t send her to live with her husband yet. she hasn’t reached the age of majority!”

“she’s my daughter and i can do what I like with her,” lord howard scoffs. “you aren’t royal anymore, so I don’t have to flatter you with false words.”

“under law, she is my ward,” jane argues, feeling anger rise in her blood. she turned her life upside down to give katherine a safe home, and she wasn’t about to let lord howard take it away from the both of them. “i have a legal right to make decisions about katherine too.”

lord howard scoffs. “as far as i know, you simply swept my daughter away. i never signed over legal guardianship, so you really do not have any claim to stake, lady jane. she is still my child to do with as i please, and this marriage will bring wealth to the howard name.”

katherine peers around the doorway into the hall where jane and lord howard are arguing.

“jane, what’s going on?” she asks anxiously, and when she sees her father her eyes widen suddenly.

“katherine, go upstairs, love,” jane says gently, contrasting with the glare she’s currently giving lord howard. “i’ll sort this out, you don’t worry about anything.”

“katherine,” lord howard barks. “fetch your things. we’re leaving.”

katherine freezes, eyes darting between jane and her father. “jane?” she asks, voice trembling.

“you’re not leaving, kat,” jane reassures, “not as long as i can help it. please, love, wait in your room.”

katherine suddenly darts towards the stairs, hurrying up them to the door to her room. she gives one last terrified look back at them before she slams the door behind her. lord howard looks annoyed.

“i don’t know why you’re insisting on trying to argue with me. she’s my daughter, not yours. or had you forgotten?”

“the way i see it, lord howard,” jane begins, voice cool and regal, “a parent is supposed to care for their child. put their needs before one’s own. endure the child is cared for and happy and loved. not shipping them off for the rest of their life without a thought just to line one’s pockets.” there’s an undeniable fire in her eyes, and she knows it. “by these standards, lord howard, i’d say i am far more fit to be katherine’s mother than you are to be her father,” she finishes strongly.

lord howard turns practically purple for a second. “be that as it may,” he splutters out, “that doesn’t change the fact I am still her father, and if I want to send her to spain then i will.” he pushes past jane and starts up the stairs.

“katherine! come on, we’re leaving.” jane hurries after him as he keeps shouting for his daughter, finally reaching her bedroom door and grabbing the handle. he frowns when the door doesn’t open and tries again. “it’s locked?” his expression turns angry and he pounds his fist against the door. “katherine, stop being so stubborn. open the door, you stupid little girl!”

jane can practically see through the door, imagining a trembling katherine, hugging her knees to her chest and rocking back and forth on the bed as she hears her father shout for her. the thought alone breaks her heart, while simultaneously reviving the fire she fights with.

jane places herself between the door and lord howard, subtly forcing him back. “how dare,” she hisses, continuing to push him from the door, “you call our daughter a stupid little girl. she is anything but, and this whole display simply shows me i made the right decision taking her in.” her voice lowers more, if possible, to a nearly imperceptible growl. “and i will not be letting you take her.”

lord howard glares at her, seething. “fine,” he glowers. “if you want to be difficult about it, i’m going straight to the king. he’ll sort out this dispute right away, and then you’ll be in trouble.” he storms back down the stairs and pauses at the front door. “you haven’t heard the last of me, jane seymour.”

he slams the door behind him and it feels as if the whole house shakes on impact. jane takes a deep breath to steady herself. she can only hope that henry still had enough love for her to take her side over lord howard’s. for now, however, there was something more important she had to do.

“katherine?” she says gently, knocking on katherine’s door lightly. “he’s gone. can i come in, love?”

after a few moments silence, she hears the lock of the door click open but the door doesn’t follow.

jane very slowly turns the knob and sees katherine exactly like she’d envisioned, knees to chest and shaking like a leaf. “oh kat,” she murmurs, moving closer. “he’s gone now.” she sits down on the bed across from katherine, leaving space for the girl to do with as she wished.

that space did not last long. with a whimpered, “please don’t let him take me,” she crosses the gap and falls against jane, face buried in the crook of her neck.

“i won’t let him, i promise,” jane says gently, but with a fierce protectiveness behind the words. “i swear on my own life, i won’t let him.”

katherine clings to her tighter as if jane was going to be snatched away from her at any second and jane’s hand finds the back of katherine’s head, running through her hair soothingly. “i won’t let him,” she repeats so quietly it’s more to herself than to katherine. “i won’t let him take my daughter away.” the feeling is so natural to her that she doesn’t even register the slip in her words, not for several moments.

she feels katherine stiffen slightly against her, and she immediately mentally kicks herself. even accidentally, she had put pressure on katherine.

she stops the motions against her hair, allowing katherine ample ability to pull away if she wants, but the girl then tightens her grip and makes a soft noise.

katherine makes up her mind right then and there, this is what she wants. where she wants to be. who she wants to be with.

“i love you,” she whispers.

jane is surprised for a moment, surprised that katherine was not only okay with the slip up but seemed to welcome it. “i love you too, kat,” she murmurs softly, pressing a kiss to the top of katherine’s head. and jane means it. she loves katherine as strongly as any mother loves their child, and she knows she’d do absolutely anything to keep her safe and happy.

katherine curls even further against her, giving a small content sigh at jane’s words. her father scares her, and the promise he’ll return just makes it worse, but katherine has faith in jane. she’ll make it okay.

---

two weeks pass without contact from lord howard, but on the twenty-fourth day, jane receives a letter from henry.

“by the name of our king henry tudor viii, you are being summoned to present yourself to the royal throne of england on april the fifteenth.”

jane has five days to prepare her case and get the both of them to the palace. five days was not a lot of time.

katherine sits cross-legged on the bed as jane packs enough clothing for the two of them for their trip to court into a trunk.

“what are you going to say to the king?” katherine asks, hands absently playing with the hem of her dress.

“i’m going to tell the truth, kat,” jane says determinedly. “i’m going to make it clear that you’d be better off here, and i’m going to keep you safe, love.”

katherine nods, clearly trusting jane, but jane can’t help the anxiety that bubbles up inside her. she hopes she can keep her promise, that she can convince her former fiancé to help them, but she’s still worried it might not end up so well.

the ride to court is bumpy and slow. katherine can’t resist inviting herself into jane’s side, curling up against her to try and relieve both of their anxieties.

jane slips an arm around her shoulders, tugging her close and kissing the top of her head.

arriving at court gives jane an odd sort of melancholy. she hadn’t been back in the five months she’d been gone.

she’s welcomed by guards and servants she recognizes, but can’t bring herself to face henry until the meeting the following day.

both katherine and jane get an uneasy night’s sleep, nerves for the next day getting the better of them. in the morning, jane makes sure katherine’s hair and dress are as neat as possible to give a good impression to henry that she was being looked after well by jane. the meeting was due to start at about eleven in the morning, and so at ten minutes to eleven jane and katherine were waiting outside the royal throne room, when lord howard shows up.

he looks pointedly down his nose at his daughter, who looks back up at him with a hint of defiance. his lips curl into a snarl and it disappears immediately.

the door opens and henry’s voice rings from within. “lets get this over with.”

the three enter, jane placing herself between katherine and her father.

henry looks stoic and neutral. “state your cases.”

“your majesty,” lord howard begins with a low bow. “it really is quite simple. katherine has been betrothed to a spanish duke and is to be sent to spain to live with her husband.”

“she is too young to be betrothed,” jane counters. “she is only eleven.”

“regardless,” lord howard drawls. “it is a very beneficial and profitable marriage.”

henry regards them both for a long moment, unexpressive. “i feel that there is only one way to decide this fairly.” he beckons for katherine to step forward. “who would you like to go with?” he asks, his voice surprisingly gentle.

katherine looks startled to be asked her opinion, but with a sudden wave of courage she looks up at the king.

“i want to stay with jane,” she says, with only the tiniest tremble in her voice. henry regards her for a few moments, before sitting back up properly in his chair.

“then I believe the matter is settled. the girl stays with jane.”

“what?” lord howard takes a step forwards, spluttering with rage. two of the guards at the edge of the room draw their swords in warning and lord howard comes to a sudden stop, but he continues talking. “you can’t be serious-”

“are you questioning the authority of your king, lord howard?” henry turns to look at him, voice dangerous.

jane’s heart feels impossibly light. katherine not only wants her, but henry is decreeing that it shall be so.

“only the logic of letting a child decide her legal guardian,” lord howard protests, a bit more caution in his voice.

“well,” henry says, “the girl seems to be in perfect mental ability, has never been decided to have any sort of incompetence, so why shouldn’t she?”

lord howard splutters a response but nothing happens. he steps closer to katherine, but the guards drawing their weapons stop him. he glares down at her and snarls, “i hope you enjoy this pathetic little life. don’t come crying back when she leaves.”

without another word he turns and walks out.

jane can barely contain herself any longer, and pulls katherine into her arms, picking the slight girl off the floor in a tight hug.

katherine clings to jane, face breaking out into a huge grin. “you did it,” she says quietly.

“you did it,” jane replies, practically spinning her around. “and don’t listen to your father, because I won’t ever leave, i promise you.”

“i know,” katherine says immediately, with a certainty she herself wasn’t even expecting, and jane feels her heart overflow with love. katherine trusts her, really trusts her. she puts katherine gently back on her feet and katherine turns to face the king.

“thank you, your majesty,” she says, giving a slightly clumsy curtsy.

henry gives a nod but his eyes are on jane, a faintly fond expression on his face.

as much as jane wants to stay and talk, she knows it’s not the time, and they should be headed back upstairs to prepare to depart.

jane sits katherine on her bed and starts gently removing the pins from her hair, the girl quiet and thoughtful. just as jane pulls the last pin, katherine asks what was on her mind.

“jane?”

“yes, love?”

katherine turns halfway, looks at her, then turns all the way, facing jane but looking at her hands. “did you really mean it?”

“mean what, kat?”

she looks up, eyes hopeful. “you want me to be your daughter?”

jane recognises the hope in her eyes and she gives katherine the softest smile. “of course i meant it, love. that is, if you wanted me to be your mum?”

“i do want that,” katherine admits, a slight blush rising to her face. she’d been thinking about it since jane’s slip up, and the idea sounded like heaven. “i’d like that a lot... mum.”

that one word, said with so much certainly, makes jane practically tear up.

“i want that too, love,” she smiles. a phrase comes to her from nowhere and jane tries it out. “i love you, my little seymour.”

katherine’s eyes widen at the statement, so small and unassuming, and jane immediately fears the worst.

then katherine jumps to her knees and hugs jane so tight, tears blurring her eyes.

jane hugs her back, hand moving in and out of her hair.

“can we do that?” katherine mumbles into jane’s shoulder. “can i change my name?”

“if that’s what you want to do, kat,” jane can’t help but smile, “then i’d be more than happy for you to change your name.”

“katherine seymour”, katherine says to herself, as if testing it out. “daughter of jane seymour.” it sounds, in katherine’s opinion, perfect, and she can’t stop the tears of joy that start to stream down her face. “that’s me,” she mumbles.

jane feels tears of her own starting to bloom behind her eyes.

“it sure is, kitty-kat,” the nickname slips out without a second thought. she feels katherine’s smile get bigger against her shoulder, if that was even possible.

“my kitty-kat,” jane hums. “i love you so much.”

katherine clings even tighter, unwilling to let go of jane even for a second. she’d finally found someone who would take care of her, who’d protect her and love her, and who wasn’t going to walk out on her. she’d found a mum, and she couldn’t be happier.

“i love you too, mum,” she grins. it felt so good to say, so she says it again, not caring if it made her sound silly or repetitive. “i love you, mum.”

———————————————————————————————————–

tag list: @percabeth15 @kats-seymour @qualquercoisa945 @jane-fucking-seymour @a-slightly-cracked-egg @justqueentingz @annabanana2401 @wolfies-chew-toy @broad-way-13@tvandmusicals @lailaliquorice @aimieallenatkinson @sweet-child-why03 @gaylinda-of-the-upper-uplands @funky-lesbians@thinkaboutitmaybe @hansholbeingoesaroundzeworld@anaamess@beeskneeshuh @prick-up-ur-ears @theartoflazy@justqueentwo@brother-orion @paleshadowofadragon@lafemmestars@beautifulashes17@jarneiarichardnxel@idkimbadwithusernamesandstuff @sixcago@mixer1323@boleynssixthfinger @aimieallen @elphiesdance@boleynthebunny @krystalhuntress @lupin-loves-chocolate@bellacardoza16

[doraspenlow]

ok it’s clown movie fanfic time

We Go On

(you can read on ao3 here)

It’s been three years now and Derry, Maine is a nice town, anybody will tell you that. There’s been a little boom of people moving in, who knows why– getting away from the city, enjoy the suburbs, commuting in to work. It’s a nice town. The people are nice too. There were some… incidents, quite recently actually, but who wants to talk about that. So some madman who once killed his father busted out and killed some kids. Well, he died. (The cops never found out what happened to Henry Bowers, his skull split open, but they weren’t investigating too hard). So that one poor man got thrown off a bridge. The town had a nice little candlelight vigil. It made the local news, and those boys all went to juvie. Nobody talks about these things anymore. Sometimes it’s as if they’ve forgotten entirely. It’s a nice town. Sure thing.

(The five of them will never, ever go back.)

Bill’s new book is coming out, finally, and the preorder numbers are higher than they’ve ever been. The New York Times gave the ARC the best review they’ve ever bestowed upon him. Something about “fundamental humanity in the face of terror”. Something about “the agonies and joys of growing up and facing your childhood”. They still think the ending is shit. That’s alright. Can’t win ‘em all. Anyways, he doesn’t love the ending either.

He and Audra got divorced– a month after the movie project he’d split from came out. The critics loved the movie. (Loved the ending especially, though it’s not his ending, it’s the work of some guy they yanked out of nowhere to ‘fix things up’). Everybody said the director’s an auteur, Audra’s a genius, that if the academy didn’t hate horror it’d get nominations for sure. All the buzz drove him crazy while he meddled around in his office. He screamed once too often. She left him. It’s probably a good thing– he didn’t know how to cut the chain. Three years later and she’s doing prestige stuff now, she’s engaged to that pretty boy actor boyfriend of hers. He’s happy for her. He really is.

He’s left California for Oregon. It’s cool, northern, but with a touch of that west coast freshness. Everything back east is so old. He doesn’t date, he’s taking time to “work on Bill” as he tells any interviewer who asks. One day he might try again– find some nice woman. A blonde or a brunette. Somebody who doesn’t remind him of anybody.

Richie’s still in LA, and he’s started dating, really dating, for the first time in his life. There were some half hearted attempts at having girlfriends in college, and a few hookups with men here and there, but he’s never done the whole romance thing. He feels awful pathetic, dating for the first time in his life at over forty, but it’s alright. The men he’s gone out with have been very understanding. This latest one’s real nice– a clever, tidy sort of guy, doesn’t care for stand up and had never heard of him before a mutual friend introduced them. They’ve been going for a month maybe. He doesn’t think the guy’ll last, but he’s hopeful someday someone will.

He took a long break, after Derry. An unexpected and abrupt hiatus. There were a few months were he wanted to die, a few months after that where he went to a lot of parties and snorted a lot of coke. That ended, and he started visiting this therapist– some beaky little woman his manager recommended. He still wanted to die a little bit, but he decided it was probably better to live. The tour after that crisis was the “Come Out Comeback Tour”– he wrote some of his own jokes for the first time in a long time. He told funny stories from when he was a kid. It was strange, he reflected, that he had funny stories to tell. Rooting around through his memory was like running his tongue along a line of rotten teeth. It ached, almost unbearably. But there were pleasant moments, and he was glad he hadn’t forgotten them.

“I guess my first real crush was this kid in middle school– he’d been one of my best friends forever, but about seventh grade I started having all of these feelings– and I decided to do something nice for him, something discreet– I was going to give him a popsicle. Like a literal popsicle, you perverts! C’mon! Anyways, at lunch one day I bought a bomb pop, I went to our lunch table and… I chickened out. I stuck the popsicle in my pants pocket, because I was 12 and a fucking idiot, and I went on my merry way. It was only after my next class was over that I realized the popsicle had melted through my jeans. It looked like I pissed my pants. But I pissed my pants for love, and how many seventh graders can say that?”

The divorce was a mess– Bev had expected it to be, but it still made her panicky. She didn’t so much as want to see Tom again, much less have a legal battle. For months, she’d wake up crying, miserable dreams dripping out of her mind like water. She won, in court, testified and showed pictures of bruises and witness reports and described how it was all her work, and wound up getting a restraining order against Tom and full ownership over Rogan and Marsh fashion– now just Beverly Marsh fashion. She thinks about changing the name to something modern, anonymous– but she doesn’t. It’s nice to know she has something hers. That she can be just her, and be alright. “You’ll be nothing without me––” well haha, she is something. She’s Beverly fucking Marsh, and that’s something.

It’s nice to be loved, though. Divorce is as sweet as a summer's day, and remarriage is as sweet as honey. She and Ben got married less than a week after it’s all finalized, in a courthouse, in their everyday clothes, a couple of her friends as witnesses. They bought rings on the way home, simple little bands. They split their time between Chicago and Nebraska– Ben’s used to working remotely, and she doesn’t mind it. He’s started talking about maybe building them a house of their own– she says maybe New Mexico? It’s so warm and dry and safe in New Mexico– and all the artists love Santa Fe.

So maybe they’ll move to New Mexico, or maybe they’ll stay here. It doesn’t really matter where they go. They’ll be together. It feels so good to be loved like a person. It feels so good to know she’s a person. She still has bad dreams, but she has nice ones too. Lovely ones– a boat on the ocean with the sky clear and blue. A litter of puppies she can hold. Her husband kissing her. A group of children, laughing children, playing little kid games. There’s seven of them, the children, all splashing each other in a lake, like they’ve never suffered and they never will. She wants to have children, though she’s getting older now. She wants two or three of them. She likes to think she’d be a good mother.

Ben thinks she’d be a good one too. He adds plans for children’s bedrooms to his favorite piece of mental drawing paper– a building titled “the dream home”. He’s been working on it for a decade– the dream home had a double bedroom before he had anybody to share it with. He was so used to loneliness it took him a while to get used to another person’s rhythms– how she’ll get into bed and just then remember to brush her teeth, hopping back out again, how she sings in the shower and refuses to acknowledge it.

He’d once thought he’d be lonely forever. Now, at 43, he’s trying once more to make friends. He goes to dinner parties and makes meaningful conversation, he takes up fishing with a man from work. You might never love your friends as brilliantly, as totally as you do at 11, but there's a comfort in the easy, mild talks about the weather, about work. He lets himself eat ice cream, now and then, and a social life means less time for working out. Nobody really notices– Bev says he’s still hot. But of course she’d say that, she loves him– And oh, it rushes over him sometimes, she loves him, she loves him, she loves him.

He used to write poems, but he hasn’t since college. He feels like he’s getting rusty with words somehow, and he’s always been better with his hands. He’s fixing to unveil this stunner of a municipal building in Chicago– it’s maybe the best thing he’s ever designed. He takes Beverly on a private tour a few days before the ribbon cutting– there’s some last minute things being put together, furniture and lighting, but she still tears up when she looks around. “It’s so lovely,” she says, “this is the most wonderful–” and cuts off, moved. He thinks, looking at the light caught in her hair ‘I’ll build you something even better, darling. I’ll build you a future.”

Mike heads down to Florida, like he used to dream about. On the way there he made a stop in Atlanta to see Patty Uris. She was very polite, pleased to meet one of her dead husband’s old friends– hungry for stories of a childhood he never spoke of. The mirrors were still covered, and she tangled her hands in and out of knots. Mike still felt guilty. He’s been trying to not feel guilty. He told her anecdotes about Stan as a child– he didn’t know him as long as some of the others, but he knew him enough. He knew him when it was important. “Your husband was a brave man.” He told Patty, who closed her eyes. “He was, he really was.”

He contemplated, for a moment, staying in Atlanta– befriending Patty, telling more stories. But he’s a little sick of playing historian, of being a keeper of ghosts. He heads down to Florida. He gets a job in a small town library, makes acquaintances, meets a woman. If he wants, he can go anywhere in the world. The freedom shocks him, the lightness. Anywhere in the world– Rome, Tokyo, Sydney, Helsinki, Cairo. Places where it never rains, places where it rains all the time. He keeps a framed photo of his parents on the counter– his parents as he never knew them– young and just married and laughing to each other. He likes to think they’d be proud of him for leaving. For having the world at his feet.

He has two dogs and a cat, eats vegan, takes up biking. The children at the library call him ‘Mr Mike’ and climb over his arms like a jungle gym. Eventually, his neighbors start calling him Mr Mike too, which is funny. Most people don’t look at him like an intruder, and when they do it’s easier to shake off their stares. His hair starts greying at the temples and he relishes it. He’s made it this far. He hopes to keep making it.

It’s almost always Mike who send the emails, a tradition at this point– “Hey everybody!! Want to meet up? Where, this time? Kansas? Colorado?” And the others will reply– yes-yes-of course-yes-let’s go to Denver-lets get Greek food-I know this really great spot-how about Mexican-July-maybe August?– And he amalgamates their suggestions into plans, sends off the group message, mark his calendar. He sits back and smile, types out “I can’t wait to see you all again”. Presses send.

So it’s been three years now. And here they are, in a Mexican restaurant in Denver (they never get Chinese). They’re chattering about their lives, the five of them– Mike’s girlfriend, Richie’s boyfriend, Bev and Ben’s fertility treatments. Bill’s a little quiet. They look at him. He pulls the new book out of his bag– four copies. They coo dutifully over the cover, flip through the pages. Get to the dedication. Stop. To six that made my lucky seven– Stan, Eddie, Richie, Beverly, Ben, Mike. All my love. The loser’s club rides forever.

“The ending’s still awful.” Bill says, to stop their tears with laughter. They shake their heads and say they’re sure they’ll love it. He thinks they probably won’t– even he thinks the ending isn’t great. He’s bad with endings, he’ll admit that now.

The friends in the book, they all go off. They kill the bad guy, get their tidy endings, resolve their trauma, end up with their sweethearts or happily alone. He wrote it, and yet it still rings half hollow to him. No one can walk off the page happily ever after. They’ll still have nightmares. They’ll ruin relationships, try to pick up the pieces. Things are always going to be difficult. But they’ll keep going. And that’s the other thing he’s always hated about endings– the finality, the never-see-you-again. That’s the worst thing of all. He’s lucky, he thinks as he looks at his laughing friends, his best friends, the loves of his life, he’s lucky that life isn’t a story. That it goes on. That they’ll keep going on.

The loser’s club rides forever.

[thatsabae]

Despondeo - Kris (mafia!au) | Chapter 1

genre: angst/drama/romance

summary: Your life is falling apart and the only person willing to get your back is the very same man signing your divorce papers. Accepting his help won’t mean you will have to play by his rules, right? Because you’re tired of playing his games.

prologue | chapter 01 |

“My daughter is coming next month. She’ll be taking my place here”. 

Yifan listened to the older man babbling about his private life, while he waited for Minseok to show up. The bastard knew how important the deal was, but yet, he was late. Really late. 

“She’ll take care of here, don’t worry. It’s time for me to go home”. 

The man offered him the drink he just prepared, but Yifan declines it. He may be in the mood to drink, but it doesn’t mean he should. 

“I can see that my life is not enough to lighten up your mood.” The man drank the refused drink in one sip, earning a chuckle from the younger. “It’s obvious how lost you are. That’s bad for business, you need to be focused. Why you’re being such a snooty bitch? Go after her”. 

“I’m fine. What I’m really worried about is who’s gonna make my drinks now”. 

“Oh, man. That’s why I hired Hiram.” He pointed at the guy organizing cups, a few meters away. “I’m trying to teach everything, one day he’ll make it right”. 

Yifan tried to turn on his cellphone again. He knew its battery was dead, but his patience was almost over now. Why the hell Minseok was so late? 

“I swear to you, if he’s late because he slept too much, I’ll send him back to his country with my own feet”. 

Not a minute after pronouncing these words, the lawyer enters the restaurant, walking as fast as his short legs would allow him to. His face is red and sweat.

“Thank God I found you. Why weren’t you picking up?” 

Noticing the nervousness in Minseok’s voice, Yifan forgets to question him. He gets up from his seat, ready for action. What could be so bad to even make the calm Minseok nervous? 

“You better stay there.” The lawyer pushed Yifan back to his sit and drop his bag on the floor. “And Harry, make his favorite. You’re gonna need it, man”. 

“What’s going on?” 

“Man, I don’t even know how to start telling you this…” Minseok’s hands moved to his hair, but stopped right before touching it, seeming like he remembered to not mess with his styled look. 

“Try from the beginning. What happened. Who”. 

Minseok opened his mouth, but nothing came out. How could he tell the boss such terrible news? Yifan had his in-law as if they were his owns parents. The lawyer was afraid of how he could react.

“Oh boy” Harry whispered, dropping the glass on the floor. 

The sound of glass breaking caught the attention of the men waiting on the bar. Yifan’s attention switched from the owner to the TV he was intensely watching. The floor could have disappeared and he wouldn’t even notice. 

“Is that…” 

He felt Minseok’s hands on his shoulder, but if he said something, Yifan couldn’t tell. 

Old Tom was in jail. 

“What… I need to go there.” 

“Kris.” The lawyer tried calling his nickname, he needed him to listen. “We sent Henry with him, but we can’t find Doug”. 

“And Y/N? Where’s she?” The man tried using his useless phone, but only to see it asking for a charge. His hands were shaking.

“I don’t know where she is, but they only took him on custody. Her mom is at the station right now. As soon as they charge, we will enter with a habeas corpus”. 

“I need to go”.

The lawyer stared Yifan, still holding his arm, wondering if he should take the keys from his hands and drive him there. 

“I’m fine” Yifan said, recognizing his look. “Just… Talk to them inside, you know what to do. Don’t mention any of this, if they haven’t seen yet”. 

Picking his jacket, Kris left the restaurant, with Minseok and Harry watching him. Grabbing the drink Harry just finished preparing, the lawyer drunk it and felt prepared to find the reserved section. 

“Time to face those sharks”. 

Drinking from the bottle you left, Yifan felt small. He promised to handle things, but he was clueless about how. Besides sending his best on the legal team, there wasn’t much he could do to help. 

Old Tom was locked up.

“You’re still here?”

Yifan stares you from the couch you were lying a few hours ago. If you were at a normal state, you would be ashamed that he saw you so untidy. 

“Actually. Why are you here?” 

Yifan muted the TV and took his time to reply to you. It was so obvious the answer, that he didn’t know how to start. 

“They didn’t mess too much this room.” He pointed out the table where the computer used to stay. “I hope you don’t mind, I tried to organize everything back as I remembered”. 

“Thank you. Also, thank you for sending a lawyer. I just received a call from my mom, she finally found the lawyer”. 

“When will he be able to receive visits?” 

Since the moment he left the restaurant, Yifan hasn’t talked to anyone else, being secluded from the news, too scared to turn the TV on again. 

You shrug. 

“Why is this happening to us?” 

Yifan ignores your question, offering your whiskey bottle back, almost done now. You take it, drinking more than just a sip, the alcohol hurting your sore throat.

“Don’t you have to be somewhere else now?” You ask, drying the drink from your lips. “Any meeting or something like that? Places to be, people to meet?” 

“Nothing urgent”. 

“Don’t tell me your life now is calm?” 

Yifan decided that it didn’t deserve an answer. How could his life be somewhere near calm when the moment you left him everything turned to a mess? 

Tears reached your eyes and you had to control yourself to not crawl into his arms and lay there, like always. Instead, you hold tight your own legs and turned the TV on. Like a masochist, you wanted to see what they were saying about your family. How bad were things? 

How many people may have seen the news and are now thinking your father is a criminal? 

Even your neighbors from years. They probably were ashamed to live near your house. 

“You didn’t answer me.” Your voice sounded like you were crying again, and maybe you were. “Why you came?”

“Where else would I be if not by your side?” Yifan sounded offended by your question. You knew it was cruel. You loved him and sometimes you felt like he still loved you, but you were hurt. 

Hurt by him, by the world, your father. Life. 

“We don’t need your pity”. 

“Say whatever you want. I’m not leaving”. 

You looked at his beautiful face. You missed his smile so much. There were days you would do everything to earn it. 

Without thinking much of what you were doing, you leaned your face closer to his. You hated whenever he came back smelling alcohol after his meetings, but now it made you miss these old days. Miss how he would kiss you while you argued at you, how he would make love to you and not let you leave his arms until the next morning. 

You saw how he looked at you now. How he seemed to also miss you, so you kissed him. 

His mouth tasted like whiskey and cigarettes, they tasted familiar. Your tongue was inside his mouth and not a minute after starting the kiss, you felt his hands touching your ass, bringing you to his lap, right where you used to belong.

Things start to get heat in the room, his hands moving up and down at your legs, sometimes squeezing your ass. You loved how Yifan treated you in bed. Rough and romantic, also making you feel hot and sexy. 

“I missed you so much.” He tells you, moving his kisses to your neck. You move up your chin, giving him better access, while you pull his hair. 

His kisses leave a wet trail in your neck, and he goes down, reaching the cleavage of your wool sweater. His hands are fast taking it off, exposing your naked breast. He kisses them gently, his hands back at your ass. 

You push Yifan away, crazy to kiss his mouth again and while you move, you feel his hardness right below you. You move your hip a little bit, smiling when you earn a moan from him. 

Tired of being provoked, Yifan switches places, taking you below him and locking you with his body, mouth back to your breast, mostly kissing instead of sucking. 

That’s when you feel tears back at your eyes. 

How could you have sex while your father was in jail? 

You were such a bad child. So selfish. 

“Kris…” 

“I think I’ve heard the door.” He interrupts you, looking for your sweater that he thrown away minutes before. 

While Yifan starts looking for it, you dry your eyes, glad it wasn’t you that had to interrupt things. 

You were so confused and sad that the first moment you had a chance, you were back at his arms, forgetting all that happened. 

“Here. Your mom is coming”. 

If that was a different situation, you both would be laughing. A married couple is caught by the mother in a heated moment, something that happened so many times at this very same house. But things were different now. You were not married anymore and your family was broke. Broke and broken. 

You dress the sweater, feeling numb again. 

Was all this pain really too much to make you almost forget the reasons you had to leave Kris? Was your willpower really that weak? 

“Oh, you’re here.” Your mom enters the office. The woman that was once the image of classy and elegance now looks weaker and older. You felt a chill running through your body. 

If you were suffering, you couldn’t even imagine how much worse everything was for her. 

“Yifan. Hello”. 

You see your husband tilt his head, seeming way too shocked to add something to the conversation. 

“I can’t wait for this day to finish. Please don’t wake me up until this nightmare is over.” 

Only after she left the office, you allow your tears to fall down. It hurts just crying. Everything hurts, but the worst is your chest. A feeling that doesn’t go away. 

“Babe. Come here.” Yifan pulls you back to his chest, caressing you. 

You don’t feel strong enough to fight back, send him away like you should, so you just let him do it, enjoying have someone there for you. After all, that was all you wanted before, right?

Just for today, you tell yourself, tomorrow you send him away, but today you’re allowed to enjoy his colony and pretend that things could get better. 

[fanfictionandmore]

Stitches | Edward Scissorhands [Two Shot]

Cinnamon's POV:

     "Are you excited to move into our new home?" My adoptive mom asked me curiously as we pulled into our new neighborhood. "I guess." I replied, shrugging my shoulders. The houses that lined the street weren't the ones I was use to. Most of the houses I've seen in my life were either white or made out of red bricks, but these... these were painted all different colors.

     One was mint green, another one was pastel pink, and there was a powder blue one as well. 'This place is strange, but... I kinda like it.' I thought inside of my head as my adoptive dad drove slowly down the street. Eventually we ended up parking in the driveway of a lavender purple colored home, which made me smile a little. Lavender and purples have always been some of my favorite colors. "Alright, let's get everything inside before it gets too dark." Larry, my adoptive dad said before he un-buckled and opened the driver's door.

     My adoptive mom, Jamie followed him. I was the last to get out of the car. I took in my surroundings as I did so, and I couldn't help but notice that some of our neighbors were looking out of their windows. The sound of kids playing in near by back yards filled my ears as well as some singing birds. Then I looked down the street and saw a large black castle sitting at the top of a large hill. "Wow. I bet they have a nice view from up there." I said quietly under my breath. 

     I shoved my curiosity to the back of my mind before grabbing some stuff and headed inside with my things. After we got everything in the house I went to my brand new bedroom where I'd probably be spending most of my time. Larry ended up helping me set my bed up and everything before he moved on to the rest of the house with Jamie. Once I was left alone I made my bed and started organizing everything that needed organizing. Suddenly the sound of our doorbell interrupted the tranquil silence that had settled in. 

     I sort of figured it was one of our neighbors welcoming us into the neighborhood, so I didn't even bother leaving my room. People kept coming and coming with hot food, cookies, welcoming gifts, etc. It was really nice of them to be so kind but I knew that most of it was because they were being nosey. They wanted to know who were were and how we act... what kind of people we were. It happens every single time we've moved somewhere. 

     In a way it was kinda old and slightly annoying. I pressed my thoughts to the back of my mind and just tried focusing on getting my room decorated. 'I'll need a new bookshelf... and a desk.' I said inside of my head as I finished putting my clothes into my closet. That was really the only thing I could unpack. We left and sold all the old furniture with the last house we lived in. 

     I really liked that house and that neighborhood, but school was brutal there. Everyone always picked on me because of my name, apparently having someone named Cinnamon is too gypsy-ish or hipster. But it wasn't just because of my name. I also got bullied for the clothes I wear, music I listen to, and books I read. Someone even made fun of the art I do, because it was too different. 

     It's like if you're different then people immediately attack you because of it, because they don't understand it. 'Come on, Cinnamon. Don't think about all of that negative stuff. You're getting a new start and that's all that matters.' I said inside of my head as I laid down on my new bed. 'I really hope things will be different here.' I thought as I stared up at my ceiling fan. A few minutes passed and I glanced out of my bedroom window. The sun was still out even though it was setting. It looked so beautiful out, so I decided to go for a walk. 

     "Jamie, Larry!" I said as I walked into the kitchen. Both of them were unpacking the dishes and putting them in cupboards. "Yes?" Larry asked me. Even though they've been my legal guardians for two years, I still wasn't able to call them mom and dad. The memory of losing my biological parents was still too fresh in my mind to move on just yet, and they seemed to understand. They were truly the kindest people I've ever met and appreciated them dearly; I appreciate them more than they'll ever understand. 

     "It's really nice outside, and I thought I'd just go out for a little walk." I said. "That's fine, just don't be out too late." Jamie said. "I won't. I promise." I said with a small smile before I left the kitchen and headed out the front door. As I walked out into the sidewalk I could still hear kids playing. There was a faint lawnmower running as well, and the refreshing scent of freshly cut grass filled my lungs. 'Thank god it's summer.' I thought inside of my head as I walked down the street on the sidewalk. 

     It was only the last part of May, so I had a good long while until school started back up. This year I was going into my senior year of high school. One more year and I'd be able to chose which college to go. I pressed my thoughts to the back of my mind as I walked onward, and just enjoyed the lovely weather. Eventually I reached the end of the road. The black top completely stopped at an open rusty gate that was falling apart. 

     Half of the bars in the gate were bent or broken from years of neglect and weathering. A dirt driveway lead all the way up to that castle I spotted earlier, and I wondered if anyone loved up there. "You don't wanna go up there." A young kid's voice said. I turned around to find a boy that looked about six or seven. He was a on a bright red bicycle with black racing stripes. 

     "Why? Someone unfriendly live up there?" I asked him curiously. "No, but it's haunted. It has been for years, according to my bigger brother." He said with a serious look on his round boyish face. "How does your brother know it's haunted? Has been up there himself?" I replied with furrowed brows. "I don't think so. He said his friend Henry went up there last Halloween and he saw a ghost up there." He said. 

     He welcomed me to the neighborhood and told me to have a good day before he sped off up the street. I turned back towards the rusty gate and figured his older brother's friend just scared himself. It wasn't because I didn't believe in ghosts, it's because I wasn't getting any bad vibes from the castle at the top of the hill. Maybe I didn't feel anything due to how far I was from the place, but I highly doubted it. The more I thought about it, the more I was intrigued. 

     I found myself wanting to know if it really was haunted or not. I took my phone out of my pocket and checked the time. 5:30pm read on the center of my screen, and I figured I could go up and take a quick look around. I walked off of the black top and onto the dirt driveway that dad to the castle above. As I got closer the steeper the driveway got, and I suddenly wished I would have taken the car. But it was good exercise. 

     Everything was grown up and it looked as if no one had been here for years, maybe even decades. Sweat broke out on my brow and I wiped it away as I reached an easier patch of path. In front of me rose another rusty gate, but this one wasn't bent or falling down like the one before. It looked like it was in just as bad shape, but still intact and overgrown with vines. I gently pushed it open with my foot in case there was any poison ivy hiding in the vines. 

     The gate slowly swung open with a groan before I walked through it. I audibly gasped when I looked around at my new surroundings. The dark, decrepit castle was blocked in by a stone wall, and it seemed to keep the overgrown vines and whatnot out. The grass was neatly trimmed and beautiful flowers grew almost everywhere. Shrubs and large bushes had been trimmed and cut to take the shape of many different animals and mythical creatures. 

     It was like I had fallen down the rabbit hole and ended up in Wonderland. I felt as if I was in a literal dream, but I knew I wasn't sleeping. After I had fully digested the information my eyes were feeding my brain, I turned my attention to the blackened castle in front of me. The structure was a complete contrast to what was surrounding it. My eye caught movement in an window that was at the top of the castle. 

     I wondered if it was the lighting playing a trick on my eyes, but I definitely knew I had saw someone or something. "Hello? I'm sorry if I'm trespassing. I didn't know anyone loved here." I said loudly, but no one replied. I stood there for a few minutes before deciding to go back home, but the sound of a door opening and footsteps stopped me. When I turned towards the sound my stomach filled with anxiety and fear. A man in a black leather outfit was walking towards me with what looked like knives for hands. 

     I knew he wasn't holding weapons, because there's no way a human hand can hold several knives in one hand. "I... I'll... um..." I said, swallowing thickly. "I'll be... be going then. I didn't mean to disturb you." I said nervously as I backed up slowly. "Don't go. I... I won't hurt you." The soft voice that came out of his mouth was almost shocking. It wasn't intimidating at all, it was... honestly it was cute. 

     The innocent and shy look on his face made me go soft, and I stopped trying to plan my escape. He looked like a lost puppy just trying to find a friend, and it pulled at my heartstrings. "Who are you, and... and why do you have... scissors for hands?" I asked him after a long moment of silence. Now that he was closer I did notice that his hands were made out of scissors instead of knives. I had a feeling he was dressed head to toe in leather, so he wouldn't hurt or kill himself with the blades on his hands. 

     "I'm Edward. I'm not finished." He replied shyly. "Hi, Edward. My name is Cinnamon." I replied as I slowly walked towards him. "Cinnamon?" He asked. "Yeah, it's technically the name of a spice  but my parents named me after it I guess." I replied with a slight laugh. Now that I was even closer to him I noticed how pale he was and the many scars on his face. His lips looked kinda purple-ish; his bottom lip had a scar as well. 

     The jet black hair on top of his head was messy and stuck out at odd angles. "It sounds pretty, I like it." He said, which made me smile and he smiled too. Suddenly I realized that it was getting late, and I wished it wasn't going on six thirty already. I just met someone who was interesting and different. I had so many questions that I wanted to ask him. 

     "Edward, it's getting kinda late and I have to be home for dinner. But... I promise I'll be back again tomorrow. Would you like it if I came and visited you tomorrow?" I said, breaking the comfortable silence that had settled around us. "Yes." He replied with an excited look in his chocolate brown eyes. "Good. I'll see you tomorrow then." I said with a smile. I was so glad he wanted to see me again as much as I wanted to see him. "See you tomorrow, Cinnamon." He replied. 

     I waved him goodbye before I made my way back home. Deep down I was feeling kinda sad for leaving Edward up there, but I knew it was for the best. If he came down here with those scissorshands of his, he'd send everyone in a panic. I walked into the house and quickly washed my hands before I joined my parents in the kitchen. "Did you have a nice walk?" Larry asked me curiously. 

     "Yeah, it was great." I replied with a small smile. "Good." He replied with a bright smile on his face. The three of us had to eat on the kitchen floor, because we didn't have a kitchen table yet. So after we finished eating we made a list of the many furniture items we needed to pick up tomorrow. After we talked for a little while I ended up going into my room. I read a bit of the current book I was reading before getting ready for bed. 

     I changed into my pajamas and climbed into my new and comfortable bed. It took me a while to actually fall asleep, but when I did all I could dream about was Edward.

     The next morning I woke up to the sound of chirping birds. After I stretched and rubbed the sleep from my eyes I got out of bed. I used the bathroom and got ready for the day. I slipped on a Black Veil Brides t-shirt, a pair of ripped black jeans, and my black and white converse. Then I went downstairs to eat breakfast on the kitchen floor with Larry and Jamie. 

     "Do you wanna come to town with us and help us buy some furniture?" Larry asked me curiously as he helped Jamie wash the dishes. "Actually, I wanted to explore the neighborhood a bit more. I hope you guys don't mind." I replied, hoping they didn't. I really wanted to spend most of the day with Edward. "That's fine, just be careful and don't get into any trouble." Jamie said, and Larry agreed. "I will and I promise that I won't. Thanks." I replied with a small smile. They smiled as well. 

     They knew I wasn't a trouble child, even if I am emo/goth. People like me always get a bad reputation just because of the way we dress and the music we listen too. It sounds like a cliche, but it's true when people say that normal people don't really understand us. After they finished washing the dishes they got ready to leave and I told them goodbye. I waited a few minutes after their vehicle was completely out of sight. I didn't want them turning around and coming back if they forgot something. 

     Having them catch me going up to that castle would probably get me grounded. So when I decided that it was safe I grabbed my house keys and locked the door behind me before leaving. The sound of lawn mowers, music, and kids playing filled my ears as soon as I stepped outside. The weather was gorgeous. It really was a great excuse to be out and about on a day like this. 

     I shoved my thoughts to the back of my mind as I walked down the street. A couple of neighbors said their hellos as I passed their houses, and I said hello back. 'I hope they don't see where I'm going. They'll tell my adoptive parents and I'll get grounded.' I thought inside of my head, which gave me a little bit of anxiety. As I approached the broken and fallen gate I made sure no one was watching me before I stepped through it. Sweat broke out on my brow once again during my walk up to the castle, but I didn't mind. 

     It was good exercise and it was totally worth it to see Edward again. When I reached the second gate I had to push it open just like before, because I closed it when I left last night. My surroundings were just as beautiful as they were before, and I couldn't help but feel a bit magical. This entire property seemed to exude good energy. I walked towards the castle door and found that it was closed, but not locked. 

     I knocked before I opened the door and announced my presence. The inside of the structure looked dull and gray; the exact opposite of what laid outside. A thick layer of dust slept heavily on sheet draped furniture and steal machinery. Cobwebs laced together many gaps and small spaces. There wasn't any doubt that whomever use to love here no longer did, and I wondered if they had left Edward behind. 

     As I closed the door behind me I could hear footsteps upstairs. Edward came down a flight of stairs that was right in the middle of the foyer. He looked the same as he did last night, but his hair some how looked wilder. "Cinnamon, you came." He said with a happy and excited look on his face. "Of course I did. I promised you that I would." I replied as I walked towards him. 

     I got the urge to hug him, but I was hesitant due to the sharp blades that were his hands. "Can... can I hug you?" I asked him curiously. He nodded shyly and I gently grasped each of his arms to wrap around my body before I wrapped my arms around him. The black leather outfit he was wearing was rough, yet smooth in some places. The metal buckles and whatnot felt cold to the touch on my warm skin, but I didn't mind. 

     To my surprise he gently tightened his arms around me and I did the same to him. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the closeness he and I shared. It felt like our souls had intertwined and it was the most comforting sensations I've ever felt. We gently broke the hug and he lead me upstairs where a gaping hole was in the ceiling. I couldn't help but wonder what had happened to have cause that, but I figured the long years of neglect was the cause. 

     "Do you live here alone?" I asked him curiously as he and I took a seat on a creaky little bead I figured was his. He said he did, and I proceeded to ask him the many questions that swam around in my brain. He answered every single one of them the best he could. His father had died before he could give him proper hands, but he just said that his father didn't wake up one day. It was such an innocent way to describe the death of a loved one, and I figured that death didn't exist in his mind; he didn't understand the concept of death. 

     Then he described how he was found up here in a way kind how I found him. But the woman that found him ended up taking him down into the neighborhood. The family that took him in was nice and kind to him and so where the neighbors. That changed when the girl he fell in love with asked him to break into her boyfriend's house; he ended up getting caught and thrown in jail over night. Then it was like everyone turned on him... everyone except for Kim and her family. 

     When he finished telling all of this I was crying. My heart ached for him, and I wished there was some way for me to make everything better... to make him feel better. "Oh, Edward. I'm so sorry." I said as I placed a hand on his shoulder blade and gently rubbed his back. "It's okay. I never really expected Kim to come and visit me after that night. Our goodbye felt way too permanent." He replied with slumped shoulders. 

     He was looking down at his laced blades, and my heart hurt for him. "Well... I promise to come and visit you as much as I can." I said as I wrapped my arm around his shoulders and sort of gave him a side hug. "Really?" He asked me curiously. "Absolutely." I replied, and a big smile spread across his handsome face. Since he was feeling a little better I suggested that we go outside and enjoy the nice weather. He went around trimming some of the bushes and shrubs and I admired his technique. 

     He was truly a gifted and creative man. It was sad knowing that virtually no one else would have the opportunity to witness his art. When he was finished we laid down in the soft green grass and watched the white clouds floating by. I was snuggled into his side with his arm underneath my head. He moved one of his blades and it nicked my arm, which made me gasp. 

     I sat up and looked at the cut, which was nothing but a little scratch. "Did I cut you?" He asked with a panicked look in his chocolate brown eyes. "It's just a little scratch. It's okay." I replied as I used my shirt to wipe the blood off of my arm. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you." Edward said, trying to make himself as small as possible. He looked sad and scared. "It's okay." I said softly as I tried to comfort him. 

     I left a gentle kiss on his warm cheek before I wrapped my arms around him and held him close. I felt so bad for him. It was probably so frustrating and hard to be so afraid of hurting the ones you love and care about. Edward finally relaxed and we went back to having fun. We had such a good time together I forgot I skipped lunch. Eventually I had to go back home though, because I didn't want my parents worrying about me. 

     We said our goodbyes and he apologized for the little scratch he had given me once more. We hugged goodbye before I walked back down to my house. When I got there my parents were putting together some furniture in the living room. "Hey, did you have a nice day?" Jamie asked me curiously. "Yeah, I didn't actually. Thanks for asking." I replied before I went to the bathroom. I used the toilet before cleaning and putting a band aid on the scratch Edward accidentally gave me. 

     Then I went out into the living room to help Larry and Jamie put together the furniture. "What happened? Did you hurt yourself?" Jamie asked me curiously, and I knew she noticed the band aid that was on my arm. "I got into a fight with a thorn bush." I replied, which made Larry chuckle. "Well, at least you didn't get scraped anymore than you did." He said with a small smile on his face. The rest of my day was filled with furniture building, and I wondered what Edward was up to now that I wasn't around. 

     I couldn't help but feel bad knowing the he's probably just sitting around up there bored out of his mind. After we ate dinner Larry helped me out together my book shelf and a small little desk for my room. When we were finished I grabbed my book and sat down on the bed to read. My life was way different now, and I wondered what was going to come of my friendship with Edward.

*****

     The past couple of months I've been sneaking off to see Edward at all hours of the day and night. Occasionally I'd food and water up with me Just so I could stay longer. Not to mention the fact he always looked so hungry and malnourished. I wasn't entirely sure if he was human or not, but he could feel emotions so he had to be at least a little human. The only thing I was worried about was getting caught. 

     If Jamie or Larry spotted me leaving the house in the middle of the night I'd be grounded for life. But right now all of my worried was elsewhere, because I was with Edward. We were laying in the grass looking up at the night sky. The moon was bright and full; the stars sparkled in the inky blackness above. "I love being with you, Edward. I wish we could live together so we could see each other more often." I said, breaking the silence. 

     "So do I, but we can't. I can't go down there and you have a family to think about." He said. We cuddled and he was so extra careful not to hurt me in any way, which was so sweet and cute. Sadly I eventually had to say goodnight to him and go back home. He left a gentle kiss on my cheek and I did the same to him before I went back down the hill. I felt so happy, but my mood instantly changed when I walked into the house. 

     The living room light switched on, and my adoptive parents were standing there in their pajamas. "Cinnamon, we need to talk. Have a seat." Larry said, pointing to the couch. I slowly walked over to the couch and sat down. I kinda already knew what they were going to tell me, and it made me feel a little sad. There was no way I was getting out of this without getting grounded, which meant I wouldn't be able to see Edward as much anymore. 

     "We know you've been sneaking out each night." Jamie said. "We just wanna know where you've been going." Larry said. Both of them looked worried and scared. I sort of figured they might think I was out taking drugs or defacing public property. "I've been going to that castle at the end of the street on top of the the hill." I replied after a few moments of silence. "Why have you been going up there?" Jamie asked me curiously with wide eyes. We sat there and looked at each other for a while before I came up with a solution. 

     "I'll show you why tomorrow. It's better if I show you, because if I tell you you might think I'm crazy." I said, and they looked at each other with an uncertain look in their eyes. They agreed to go up to the castle with me tomorrow tomorrow, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I was worried that they'd be close minded and shut down everything I said, but they didn't. We said goodnight to each other and I went into my room to change into my pajamas. Before climbing into bed I set my alarm clock so I'd be up bright and early. 

     I fell into a restless sleep, but it wasn't surprising. I was jolted awake from the sound of my alarm clock, and I stretched before rubbing the sleep from my eyes. After I got out of bed I used the bathroom and then got dressed. I put on a Twenty One Pilot t-shirt and a pair of ripped black jeans before putting on yellow converse. Then I went into the kitchen to make the three of us breakfast. 

     Shortly Jamie and Larry came into the kitchen and we ate silently. "Are you ready to go see why I've been sneaking off at night?" I asked them once we were finished eating. They said they were even though they looked nervous and worried. Instead of taking the car I insisted that we walked instead. I didn't wanna frighten Edward. "This hill is steeper than it looks." Larry said, and Jamie agreed. 

     I didn't have any trouble with it now, because I had gotten use to walking up the hill every day. I pushed the gate open and lead them into the beautiful flower garden that I have grown to love. Their eyes widened as they took in their surroundings. "It's so beautiful." Jamie said, breaking the silence. "This isn't the only reason I've been coming up here." I said. I told them to wait outside, and I quickly popped into the castle to call for Edward. 

     He came hurrying towards me from upstairs and we held each other in a tight embrace. "Edward, I brought my adoptive parents up to meet you." I said, and he seemed a little nervous. "It's okay, they're really nice. I think you'll really like them." I said. I turned around and walked back outside first. "This is why I've been coming up here to spend my time. Don't worry, he's really sweet and gentle. He won't hurt any of us." I said to my parents who looked nervous as well. 

     Jamie gasped when Edward came out of the castle behind me. They were in awe of what they were seeing, but they didn't seem afraid. I introduced them to each other and the nervousness in the air seemed to disappear. It was like Edward was a part of our family all along. We spent the majority of the morning with Edward in his beautiful garden. Edward needed stitches and we just happened to be the thread to put him back together.

THE END

++++++++++++++++++++++++ A/N: Thanks for reading!!

[aeterrnam-blog]

CHARLES’S  POST - CANON

     Maybe  a  hot  Virginia  summer  will  save  him.  Charles  thinks  that   everything  will  go  back  to  the  way  it  was  once  he  has  been  baptised  by  the  early  setting  sun  bleeding  fiery  orange  into  the  sky,  laying  in  his  childhood  bed  with  the  windows  open  wide,  listening  to  crickets  hum  up  at  the  stars  shaped  like  lightning  bugs  as  the  taste  of  a  cool  breeze  makes  the  weeping  willows  shiver.  It  does  heal  him,  in  a  way.  His  brain  rots  in  the  sweltering  afternoons  spent  sitting  on  the  front  porch,  drinking  what  Nana  thinks  is  sweet  tea.  He  struggles  to  read  anything ;  his  mind  won’t  focus  on  it.  Still,  he  makes  it  through  Der  Zauberberg.  Etas  and  sigmas  smell  putrid,  the  memories  of  the  year  still  rotting  in  his  mind.  He  lays  awake  for  hours  at  night,  half - drunk  and  half - sober,  watching  the  shadows  of  his  bedroom  move  and  shift  whenever  he  looks  away.  Henry  watches  him  sleep.  Charles  goes  to  sleep  sober  the  next  night.  He  dreams  of  Henry  trying  to  murder  him  and  he  wakes  up  with  bruises  around  his  throat.  He  drinks  until  he  blacks  out  and  sleeps  fine.

     “Camilla’s  coming  home!”  Nana  tells  him,  trying  not  to  frown  as  he  pours  himself  another  glass  of  bourbon.

     “That  reminds  me,  I’m  going  to  stay  with  Francis  for  a  while.”

     “When  did  you  decide  this?”

     They  hadn’t.  “Not  too  long  ago.”

     “Chaz,”  says  Nana,  her  wrinkled  face  setting  into  scrutiny.  “Did  something  happen  with  you  and  Camilla?”

     “No.”

      Harvard  accepts  his  late  application  with  a  passive - aggressive  acceptance  letter.  It’s  an  excuse  to  get  away,  but  he  loathes  every  moment  of  it.  The  fluorescent  lights  of  academic  institution  burn  his  skin  like  holy  water,  and  coming  home  to  see  Francis  everyday  drags  him  back  deep  into  a  past  he  fears  he  will  never  be  able  to  live  without.  The  professors  are  plain  and  rudimentary.  Charles  never  does  any  homework,  but  passes  each  exam  with  ease.  They  say  that  they  will  fail  him  for  his  poor  attitude.  He  wakes  up  in  the  hospital  one  day  with  his  throat  burning  and  his  stomach  growling  and  empty.  The  doctors  implore  him  to  be  rehabilitated.  Francis  has  looked  upon  him  with  love  and  with  hatred  and  fear  and  concern,  but  now  he  looks  at  him  with  pity,  and  Charles  cannot  tolerate  it. 

      “Don’t  you  want  to  get  better?”

      “I  don’t  think  I  can,  Francis.”  It’s  snowing  outside.  Charles  is  burrowed  beneath  Francis’s  black  duster,  trying  to  breath  in  old  memories.

      Francis  lights  a  cigarette  and  tosses  the  match  out  beneath  a  no  smoking  sign.  “You  aren’t  going  to  know  if  you  don’t  give  it  a  chance.”

     Charles  sighs  mildly  and  glances  out  of  the  frosted  window.  “Don’t  tell  Nana.”

     The  place  is  called  Happy  Springs  or  Forest  Springs  or  Tranquil  Springs.  Something  Springs.  It  reminds  him  of  Hampden  in  some  ways,  all  brick  and  mortar  cottages  and  big  stone  buildings  out  in  the  woods.  It  reminds  him  of  home,  too.  Warm,  yellow  lanterns,  quiet  willows  with  tufts  of  yellow  pollen  on  their  tendrils,  and  the  soft  sound  of  water  running.  It  might  have  been  peaceful,  but  he  thinks  back  to  Der  Zauberberg,  and  he  starts  counting  his  teeth.  He  starts  to  detox,  and,  at  night,  he  can  see  a  man  standing  at  the  treeline  of  the  woods,  the  starlight  captured  something  long  and  white  he  wears.

     Charles’s  psychiatrist  is  an  old  man  with  a  beard  and  thick  glasses.  He  has  a  house  in  Vancouver.  Charles  tells  him  about  bizarre  sexual  fantasies  he  has  for  his  sister,  and  the  paranoia  that  she  might  remember  more  of  their  parents  than  he  does,  and  that  their  sibling  rivalry  makes  him  want  to  kill  her  sometimes.  He  talks  about  his  feelings,  or  the  lack  thereof,  for  Francis,  and  talks  about  the  death  of  his  best  friend  Bunny,  that  the  guilt  of  not  being  there  for  him  crushes  him,  that  he  wishes  there  was  something  he  could  have  done,  that  he  feels  responsible,  that  he  killed  him,  that  Henry  haunts  him  constantly,  that  he  was  the  one  who  drove  Henry  to  suicide,  that  Charles  can’t  remember  the  last  time  he  was  truly  happy,  that  nothing  has  ever  made  him  happy,  that  everything  makes  him  unhappy.  

     “What  about  me?”

     “What  about  you,  Charles?  You  didn’t  kill  Bunny,  you  couldn’t  control  that.  It  isn’t  your  fault.  You’re  going  to  be  fine.”

      “I  don’t  think  I  am,”  Charles  mumbles.

     “Let’s  talk  about  your  sister.”

     Charles  calls  Francis  one  night  and  asks  him  to  come  pick  me  up  please,  the  treatment  isn’t  working.  He  starts  working  at  a  jazz  bar  playing  piano.  The  chandeliers  struggle  to  glisten  in  spite  of  all  the  cigarette  smoke,  and  the  piano  is  stained  with  round  water  marks  and  the  etchings  of  souls  long  gone.  The  mirror  behind  the  bar  is  disorienting.  Occasionally,  a  waiter  will  set  a  glass  of  bourbon  or  a  vodka  tonic  next  to  Charles,  and  he  smiles  and  asks  what  it’s  for.  The  waiter  shrugs  and  says  some  man  bought  it  for  him.  The  smile  falls  from  Charles’s  face  and  the  hair  on  the  back  of  his  neck  rises.  He  never  touches  those  drinks.  He  stays  late  one  night  to  play  Beethoven’s  Emperor  Piano  Concerto  for  himself,  and  on  the  walk  home,  he  buys  a  few  grams  of  heroin.

     Charles  wakes  up  one  day  to  Francis  jostling  him  awake.  His  breath  had  escaped  him,  and  pain  seized  the  right  side  of  his  chest.  Francis  tells  him  he  has  a  panic  attack,  and  Charles  believes  him  until  he  starts  coughing  wetly,  blood  spattering  on  his  hands.  

     “Alright,  get  up.”

     “What  for?”

     “Charles,  you  have  to  go  to  the  hospital.”

     “Please,  don’t  make  me,  I  don’t  want  to  go.”  He  pulls  the  sleeve  of  his  shirt  down,  turning  his  wrist  over.  Francis  has  that  look  in  his  eyes  again.  Charles  shouldn’t  be  surprised  that  Francis  has  a  copy  of  the  Oxford  Handbook of  Clinical  Diagnosis,  but  he  goes  to  fetch  at  drops  it  on  the  bed.  It’s  dusty,  but  not  unloved  or  unused.  It  is  a  tome,  a  holy  book  of  Francis’s  hypochondria,  and  he  flips  through  it  with  a  certain  reverence.  They  go  through  each  one  of  his  symptoms  with  painstaking  thoroughness,  looking  at  his  feet  and  his  hands  and  his  eyes  and  tongue.  Charles  thinks  Francis  is  having  fun  right  until  the  very  end.

     “What  is  it?  Am  I  going  to  live?”  He  teases.  Francis’s  face  has  gone  stoic.

     “Charles,  I  really  think  you  should  go  to  a  hospital.”

     “It  can’t  be  that  bad.  Just  tell  me.”

     “I  really --”

     “Francis,  please!”

     The  tome  shuts  with  a  loud  thump,  a  church  bell  tolling.  “Congestive  heart  failure.”

     The  nightmares  about  Henry  get  worse,  and  Charles  often  wakes  up  in  a  puddle  of  his  own  blood.  Francis  tells  him  to  go  to  the  E.R  or  get  out.  Charles  plays  at  the  bar  until  late  at  night  and  then  retires  to  the  annex  between  floors,  where  the  storage  room  holds  decorations  and  a  big  safe  with  legal  papers  and  proofs.  Dust  circulates  through  the  low  ceiling  like  snow.  Outside,  the  icicles  melt  as  spring  comes.  It  makes  Charles  sick  to  his  stomach.  He  steals  alcohol  from  the  bar  downstairs  to  quell  his  nausea,  to  quell  it  all.  He  can  feel  himself  getting  worse  and  worse,  to  the  point  where  standing  up  from  his  cot  of  packing  peanuts  and  sweaters  fatigues  him.  Non  Piangere  Liu  from  Manon  Lescaut  repeats  in  his  mind  over  and  over  again  until  he  can  no  longer  hear  it.  Henry  tells  him  something,  and  rests  a  lukewarm  hand  on  his  cheek  with  fraternity.  Charles  coughs  and  it  jostles  the  needle  from  where  it  is  poised  against  his  grey  and  discoloured  flesh.  One  more,  just  one  more.  Charles  needs  one  more  and  then  he’s  done  for  good.  He’ll  be  clean  this  time.  He’ll  be  good  this  time.  The  tile  of  the  bathroom  floor  is  cool  on  his  burning  body.  Charles  doesn’t  feel  the  warm  liquid  seep  into  his  bloodstream,  but,  through  blurred  eyes  he  watches  the  syringe  fills  with  blood.

     “Jeez,  who  is  that  guy?”

     “Dunno.”

     “What  happened?”

     “We  found  a  body.  O.D’d,  I  guess.”

     “Did  you  call  the  cops?”

     “What  for?”  The  body  is  slumped  against  the  back  wall,  face  bloated  and  pallid  with  dark  veins  cutting  through  the  flesh,  eyes  shut  and  mouth  fallen  open,  and  the  face  belongs  to  some  young  twenty -,  twenty - one-,  twenty - two - year - old  boy,  dried  blood  smearing  his  face.  Moths  fly  above  his  head,  twitching  in  and  out  of  the  lightbulb  that  hangs  over  him  like  a  halo.  One  of  the  boys  kneels  down  and  studies  the  body’s  face  earnestly.  Another  one  stares,  wide - eyed.  One  jabs  the  corpse  in  the  stomach  with  his  foot.

     “Did  you  check  if  he’s  dead?”

     “Do  you  see  him  moving?”

     “Look  at  that ;  no  socks.”

[lessawildmoon]

Together - Chapter 2

Title: Together

Summary: Emma and Graham escaped Neverland to Emma’s world together as teenagers and despite being separated, they later managed to find each other and build a life together.  So what happens when her biggest secret from their time apart knocks on their door?

Pairings: Gremma and Snowing

Rating: T

Notes: This is a S1 AU that was plotted and planned during 3a. I may incorporate some later canon, but I also may ignore later canon that does not fit. Also, as I usually only post complete fic, here’s your warning that this is WIP.

Beta thanks to @arianakristine

AO3

Chapter 2

Emma woke up alone the next morning. She and Graham had stayed up for a while reading about the curse and her supposed role in breaking it. She still wasn’t quite sure she believed she was the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming and she didn’t even know if the part of her that did wasn’t just wishful thinking that there was a good reason why her parents abandoned her. They had finally called it a night and settled down to sleep, both very firmly on their own side of the bed, silently agreeing to avoid the fight they knew was coming for the moment but still not able to come together. They usually slept as close to each other as they could, by the time they woke up either she would be sprawled over him, or he curled round her, but not this night. It had taken a while for either of them to get to sleep.

She assumed he had gone out to get some air. They had driven through plenty of woods on their way into town so he wouldn’t have a shortage of places to go to help him centre himself. Even after his time here, he still felt most at home in the wild, and she honestly wouldn’t change that, despite how inconvenient it got living in the middle of nowhere. But usually he would leave a note if he was going out, so she knew he was still pissed at her. She reminded herself that he had every right to be and wished for not the first time since last night that she hadn’t kept this a secret. But that ship had sailed and she was just going to have to live with the consequences and hope she could make it up to him.

Once she was ready, she went downstairs to the diner where she let Ruby know that they might be staying a few more days before ordering some breakfast. She knew it was likely to be a while before her husband returned so she took a seat at the counter and started people watching, idly wondering if she could work out people’s supposed fairy tale identities.

She spotted the Sheriff around the same time he saw her and he approached her.

“Miss Hunter. I’m surprised to see you still around. I would have thought you would have been back home by now.”

“It was late last night so we decided to stay the night before leaving. And it’s Mrs. Hunter.”

“You’re married.” He seemed surprised. “Well you might want to leave as quickly as possible, the mayor does not like disruptions.”

Ok, she had no idea who this guy could be but he was giving her seriously skeevy vibes. She was about to tell him that they would leave when they felt like it when the mayor burst in calling for him.

“Sydney! Henry’s run away again. We have to…” When Regina saw her stopped and looked at her in shock for a moment before continuing. “What is she doing here? Do you know where he is?”

“Honey, I haven’t seen him since I dropped him at your house.” The last thing she needed was to get accused of kidnapping the kid.

“Mrs. Hunter was just explaining how she and I assume her husband decided to stay the night given how late it was when they got here.”

“You’re married?” Derision and disbelief virtually dripped from her voice.

“Yeah, why is that so hard to believe?” Wanting to get the conversation off her marital status and back on the missing kid, she asked. “When did you last see him?”

“Last night, he wasn’t in his room this morning.”

“Did you try his friends?” Emma knew that if he didn’t show up soon she would be the prime suspect so figured it was in her best interest to help find him. She was starting to wonder how the mayor was having so much trouble keeping track of one ten year old kid.

“He doesn’t really have any. He’s kind of a loner.” The words reminded Emma of her own to her fake date the previous night and her she felt a pang in her heart at the thought of the kid growing up as lonely as she did.

“Every kid has friends. Did you check his computer? If he’s close to someone, he’d be emailing them.”

“And you know this how?” Regina really didn't seem to think much of her ability to help and Emma reminded herself that these people had no idea who she was, they wouldn’t know that this was the one thing she was really good at.

“Finding people is what I do. Here’s an idea. How about you guys let me at his computer and I’ll help you find him.”

The computer had led them to his teacher and Emma couldn’t help but notice the unusual amount of malice that the mayor directed at Miss Blanchard. She supposed it could be due to her role in finding Emma, but it seemed more than that. When it became apparent that the teacher didn't know anything Regina stormed out, knocking a pile of books over on the way.

Emma stayed to help her pick them up. There was something about this woman that she couldn’t quite identify but she felt compelled to stay and try and figure it out.

“Sorry to bother you.” Emma said, feeling bad that Henry had dragged the poor woman into the middle of this. “I’m starting to see where he gets the whole Evil Queen thing from though.”

“It’s okay. I fear this is partially my fault. I was the one who gave him the book. I thought it might help, I wasn't expecting him think it was real. Henry’s such a special boy, so smart and creative, but so lonely. ”

“How’s the book supposed to help?” She was glad to see that the teacher obviously cared about the kid, but she wasn’t sure how a book of fairy tales was supposed to have helped, even if it may not actually be fiction.

“What do you think stories are for?” She asked as they left the classroom to make their way down the hall. “These stories are classics. There’s a reason we all know them. They’re a way for us to deal with our world. A world that doesn’t always make sense. See, Henry hasn’t had the easiest life.”

“Yeah, she’s kind of a hardass.” The more time she spent with Regina the less she was happy with the situation. But she had make her choice and had no real right to interfere now.

“No, it’s more than her. He’s like any adopted child. He wrestles with that most basic question they all inevitably face – why would anyone give me away?” Miss Blanchard seemed truly horrified when she realised what she had said, and to whom “I am so sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean in any way to judge you.”

“It’s okay.” It’s not like she didn’t know that feeling, she’d spent her whole life wondering why her parents had left her at the side of the road. And it sucked. But part of the reason she had given him up was so he wouldn’t have to grow up like that, so he could be raised by someone who did want him.

“Look, I gave the book to him because I wanted Henry to have the most important thing anyone can have. Hope. Believing in even the possibility of a happy ending is a very powerful thing.”

“You know where he is, don’t you?”

“You might want to check his castle.”

 She followed Miss Blanchard’s directions to a playground near the coast and saw Henry sitting on a castle themed slide looking dejectedly into the distance.

“You left this in my car.” She handed him back the book as she slid in to sit beside him, strangely reluctant to let go of it. If he and Graham are right, then that book was the closest she had come to her parents in, well, ever. She follows his gaze and realises that he is staring at the clock, still stubbornly stuck and 8:15. “Still hasn’t moved, huh?”

“I was hoping that when I brought you back, things would change here. That the final battle would begin. Because it’s your destiny to bring back the happy endings.” The kid’s faith in her was touching, Graham had been the only other person to have that kind of belief in her.

“I wish it was that simple, kid. But if I am this saviour, I doubt it’s going to be quite that easy.”

“Don’t humour me. I may be a kid, but I’m not stupid. I know you don’t believe me!”

“Hey, don’t tell me what I do or don’t believe.” That annoyed her, the kid travelled all the way to Boston on pure faith but didn't think she could believe? “I may not be fully on this whole curse bandwagon yet but you’ve already got my husband on board. My husband who, by the way, I met in Neverland, so you’re doing pretty well so far.”

“Really?” She could see how much even the thought of someone believing him meant to him in the way his face virtually lit up. “You’ve been to Neverland? Will you tell me about it?”

“Maybe someday. It’s not something we like talking about though.” That was putting it lightly. “Come on, we need to get you home.”

“Please don’t take me back there. You don’t know what it’s like with her. My life sucks!”

“I’m starting to get that, kid. But look at it this way, if she is the Evil Queen, then we need to make sure that she doesn’t suspect we are onto her. And that means I need to take you home.” She hated the thought, but she was sure he wasn’t in any immediate danger staying with Regina and at the end of the day, she was legally his mother, Emma couldn’t keep him from her. Luckily her argument seemed to have swayed him.

They were both pretty quiet as she drove him home but after he explained his plan to break the curse she did ask if they could keep the book for a little longer.

“Sure, it’s probably safer if you have it anyway.” He said as he climbed out the car. Regina opened the door before they got there and the kid ran past her and upstairs.

“Thank you.” She wasn’t sure what it was about this woman that made her so hard to read. Sometimes she was convinced that that the kid was right and she was evil, and then sometimes she seemed so genuine.

“No problem.”

“He’s seemed to have taken quite a shine to you.” She couldn’t help but smile at that, despite her efforts he had grown on her as well.

“You know what’s kind of crazy? Yesterday was my birthday and when I blew out the candle on this cake Graham bought me, I actually made a wish. In fact I always make the same wish.  That he’d be ok, and happy. And then, Henry showed up.” She wasn’t sure why she was sharing so much, maybe she just needed to talk to someone about the impact of having Henry suddenly walk back into her life.

“I hope there’s no misunderstanding here.” Emma was startled out of her thoughts by the ice in the mayor’s tone.

“I’m sorry?”

“Don’t mistake all this as invitation back into his life.” Not from you at least, Henry on the other hand was begging her to stay. “Ms Hunter, you made a decision ten years ago. And in the last decade, while you’ve been… Well, who knows what you’ve been doing. I’ve changed every diaper. Soothed every fever. Endured every tantrum. You may have given birth to him, but he is my son.”

“I was not…”

“No! You don’t get to speak. You don’t get to do anything. You gave up that right when you tossed him away. Do you know what a closed adoption is? It’s what you asked for. You have no legal right to Henry and you’re going to be held to that. So, I suggest you get in your car, and you leave this town. Because if you don’t, I will destroy you if it is the last thing I do. Goodbye, Ms Hunter.”

And she back to being convinced she was evil, cause while she did get where Regina was coming from, that was way over the line. Regina had turned to re-enter the house but there was one more thing Emma had to know.

“Do you love him?”

“Excuse me?” The mayor turned back round and the venom in her voice might have put off a lesser woman but Emma was not so easily intimidated.

“Henry. Do you love him?” She asked again, there was no way she was leaving until she had her answer.

“Of course I love him.” And there they were, the alarm bells that always went off in the back of her head whenever someone lied to her. She’d been truthful up until that point, but that was lie. “Not that it is any of your business.”

“That is where you are wrong Miss Mills. You were right, I did give Henry up. And you know why, because I wasn’t even 18 and I knew that I couldn’t be what was best for him. So I put his best interests first and gave him up so he could be raised by someone who could. But in the 24 hours he has been back in my life he has run away from you twice, so while I might have been putting his best interests first, I’m not so sure you are, and I am not going anywhere until I know Henry is going to be OK.”

“Of course he is going to be OK.”

“Really? Cause that’s one troubled kid, and trust me, I know something about troubled kids.”

“He’s fine, dear. It’s all under control, any problems he has are being taken care of. That’s why I have him in therapy. Take my advice, Ms Hunter. Only one of us knows what’s best for Henry.”

“Yeah, I’m starting to think you’re right about that.”

“It’s time for you to go.” Regina said as if she really thought it was that easy.

This woman was crazy if she thought she was going to be able to intimidate her into leaving. She’d cut her teeth facing off against Peter Fucking Pan, it was going to take a lot more than vague threats to get rid of her.

“Or what?”

“Don’t underestimate me, Ms Hunter. You have no idea what I’m capable of.”

Emma realised that things were only going to get uglier if she stayed any longer so turned to leave. But only this house, she wanted to go see Dr Hopper.

Emma really supposed she should ask for her phone call. But on top of the embarrassment of falling for such an obvious set up she also wasn’t completely confident that Graham would actually answer the phone to her at the moment.

“You know the shrink is lying, right?” She was trying to argue her case the Sheriff without much luck.

“To the right, please. Why would she lie?”

“The Mayor put him up to this. She’s got to have something on him. He’s terrified of her like everyone else in this town.”

“Regina is a dedicated mayor who only wants the best for her people. You should be careful about throwing around baseless accusations.” Sheriff Glass had obviously drunk the Mayor’s kool aid so she gave up trying to convince him. She was about to suck it up, take her chances and demand her phone call when Henry ran into the station followed, to her relief, by her husband.

“Hey!” Henry seemed rather too cheerful at finding her under arrest and she could sense Graham’s amusement from across the room.

“Henry, what are you doing here?” Emma asked him.

“Apparently his mother told him that you had been arrested.” Graham filled in.

“Of course she did.” As she went to try and explain to Henry, Graham pulled the Sheriff aside to sort out her bail. It turned out Henry was fine, he thought she was gathering information for Operation Cobra, which she supposed she kind of had been in a way.

When she was finally out of handcuffs, without a single bad joke from her husband, something she would never admit to missing but did, Sydney insisted that Henry stay with him so he could return him to the mayor. Given how late it was getting they couldn’t really complain, so they started to walk back to the inn.

“So, less than one day in town and you already managed to get on the wrong side of law. I think that’s a record, even for you?”

“Shut up.” The brief return to their usual banter was comforting, even if she knew it was only temporary. “She set me up. She doesn’t know who she is messing with. I don’t care what it takes, that bitch is going down.”

“So, we’re staying then?”

“Hell yes. I am getting my son away from her if it is the last thing I do.”

“Well, let’s try and make sure it doesn’t come to that.”

“Emma look” Graham said as he caught sight of something behind them. She looked up to see that the clock in the clock tower was moving again. “Need any more convincing?”

“No, I’m on board. In fact, she’s the one who convinced me, if she hadn’t been quite so, well evil, we’d probably be on our way back to Boston by now.”

They carefully kept their conversation to the curse and the practicalities of them staying in Storybrooke for while. While she worked on commission so could drop everything on a whim, his job as a forest ranger didn’t give him the same freedom. But she was surprised to find he had already made some calls and managed to get himself temporarily assigned to the area, as they were apparently short staffed. She wouldn’t have blamed him if he had just gone home and left her to deal with this on her own, and instead, without even asking, he was making arrangements to be there for her.

When they got back to the inn it was to find Granny pacing nervously outside their room.

“Mr. and Mrs. Hunter. Oh my, this is terribly awkward. Uh, I need to ask you to leave. I’m afraid we have a ‘no felons’ rule. It… It turns out it’s a city ordinance.” Of course it was and of course she did, so much for the hope of a peaceful night.

“Let me guess – the Mayor’s office just called to remind you.”

“You can gather your things, but I need to have your room key back.

“Actually no, you don’t. I may be out, but he,” she pointed at Graham, “hasn’t got so much as a speeding ticket, so you have no grounds to kick him out. I’ll grab my stuff and go sleep in our car.”

“Oh dear, I really wish I didn't have to, and you are still welcome in the diner. And while you can’t stay the night there is nothing to stop you visiting your husband during the day, if you need to use the facilities or anything.”

“Don’t worry, I understand.” With that, Granny bustled off and Emma went to pack her bag.

“Are you going to be OK?”

“I’ll be fine, I’ve slept worse places. And it’s not like you want to be sharing a bed with me anyway.”

“And whose fault is that?” He spun her round to face him, the anger clear on his face. “I’m not the one who has been lying for the last 6 years.”

“I know! I know this is all my fault, and I’m sorry. I screwed up big time and I don’t know how to fix it.” It was taking everything in her not to cry. She was so scared that nothing could fix it. Neither of them trusted easily and she knew that there may not be any coming back from this one. She wasn’t sure if she would’ve been able to forgive him if their positions were reversed so she didn’t know if she could expect him to, and she knew she certainly didn’t deserve it.

“I know you’re sorry and I wish that could be enough. But it isn’t, not yet. It’s going to take some time.” Sadness and weariness started to take over from the anger in his eyes, though not chasing it away completely.

“Yeah.” She finished gathering her stuff and rushed out of the room. As much as she wanted to stay, she knew better than to push him when he said he needed time, it would only make things worse. But he had left her with hope that they could fix this, and she clung to that as tightly as she could, because she didn’t know what she would do without him.

She grabbed the blanket out of the back of his car before curling up on the back seat under it and crying herself to sleep.

[queen-of-the-merry-men]

Around the Block (Glass Believer Fic)

A/N: So @findingtallahassee has written me a lot of prompts in the past and I wanted to write something for one of her OTPs. So here’s a short Glass Believer Hyperion Heights AU I thought of awhile ago where Henry is Jacinda’s Swift driver and she needs him to drive her around the block to calm her newborn. @trueloveismagic might be interested too.

------------------

It was getting late when Henry dropped off his latest Swift customer. As he watched the tipsy couple stumble out of his backseat he silently debated whether or not he should call it a night. It was 3am and the late-night crowd was waning but so was his bank account the last time he checked. Pulling, away from the curb he decided that it was time to head home. He’d clock in early tomorrow to make up his losses but for tonight he was done.

He barely driven a block when he got another ping on his Swift app. Groaning, he reluctantly took a look.

A new fare, less than two blocks away and he was the only one in a 10-minute radius. Twisting his lips indecisively, he wondered if it would be worth it to cart another drunk frat boy back to his apartment for the night. After a moment of hesitation he decided to accept. Rent was due soon, anyway.

He drove to address praying to god that whoever got in his backseat wasn’t the chatty type. It was far too late to pretend as if he was interested in anything other sleep this night.

His eyes widened when he pulled up to the curb and saw a woman dressed in blue plaid pajamas waiting on the street. Her lopsided ponytail swung back and forth as she jostled the car seat under her arm, attempting to stifle the long winded yawn he saw fly from her mouth. Before he even rolled down the window he could hear the unmistakable cry of an infant reach his ears.

“My name’s Henry,” he said, uncertainly. “I’m your Swift driver.”

“Oh thank god,” she sighed, reaching for the door handle.

Henry watched, his eyebrows knit together curiously, as she shoved the car seat with her wailing baby in the back before climbing in the front seat and letting out a tired breath.

“So... where are you headed?” he asked, raising his voice over the sound of her baby.

She shrugged. “Nowhere in particular.”

“Excuse me?”

The woman vaguely, gestured toward the road. “Just... drive around the block a few times, please.”

A confused chuckle fell from the back of Henry’s throat, as he shook his head at her. “Yeah... that’s not how this works.”

The mother bowed her head, letting out a tired moan before turning to him with desperate brown eyes. “Listen Henry... do you see that precious ball of joy back there?”

He nodded.

“That is my two-month old daughter, Lucy,” she explained. “I named her that because she is the light of my life... but that screeching sound that she’s making right now? Well, it was the first thing I heard when she was born and the only thing I’ve heard since. I have been up since 6am yesterday, trying to get her to stop and failing miserably.”

“Okay...”

“The only two breaks I’ve gotten,” she said, talking over him, “were on the cab ride home from the hospital and on the hour-long trip to visit my step sister. Apparently the only thing that soothes is the steady rumbling of a car engine so I... am... begging... you... please just take me around the block. Because I am about to lose my mind.”

Henry stared at her. On closer look he noticed the dark circles under her eyes and the spit up on her shoulder, both of them actually. All that combined with the wavering desperation in her voice as she begged him to drive her around the block painted a very visceral picture.

“Okay,” he acquiesced. “I will take around the block a few times. We’ll see how it goes.”

She shut her eyes gratefully. “Thank you. I will give you the best tip of your life, I promise.”

He doubted it, but as he pulled away from the curb with a crying infant and an exhausted mother as his passengers he couldn’t help but feel as though he’d been right to take the fare.

To her credit, the woman was right. They’d barely gone around the block once before Lucy began to settle. By their third time around, she’d gone completely silent and he was sure that she was sound asleep. He gave her two more laps to be sure, and pulled up to their building on the fifth, keeping an eye on her through the rear view mirror.

“Well, I’ll admit that worked better than I expected,” he said, cheerfully putting the car in park. “Think she’ll stay asleep for long?”

Realizing that he was getting only snores in response, his eyes whipped toward his passenger seat, where he saw Lucy’s mother out cold with her head against the window.

“Oh..no, no,” he said, gently shaking her shoulder. “Hey, wake up.”

Double checking her reservation, he starting calling out to her by name. “Jacinda... Jacinda it’s time to wake up.”

For all his efforts, Jacinda remained dead to the world and Henry dropped his head to the steering wheel and groaned. God, this was the night that would never end.

As if things couldn’t get any worse, the cackling beginnings of a cry began to rise from the back seat. Lifting his head from the steering wheel he looked back, worried, as Lucy started to cry again. Jacinda stirred in the front seat and though he knew it was probably the quickest way to get her out of his car, a part of Henry hesitated to let Jacinda wake up to a crying baby.

“Damn it,” he muttered under his breath.

Rolling, his eyes he climbed into the backseat, placing a hand on Lucy’s stomach as she started to squirm. “Hey don’t cry,” he pleaded, in his calmest voice.

Lucy’s face turned red, as she outright ignored him and started to wail once again.

Henry grit his teeth, unsure of what to do next. He wondered if he should take her out of the car seat. Jacinda probably wouldn’t be too fond of that idea.

Lucy let out another wail and Henry reached for her seat belt buckle. Screw it. Maybe he was just tired but if her mother had the audacity to slip into a coma in his front seat, he should be able to comfort the baby anyway he saw fit.

Cradling her in arms, he tried to bounce Lucy to calm her down. It was ineffective. She squirmed and cried in his arms as he tried to remember what his mother had done when he was a baby. She said he used to read to him and tell him stories. Unfortunately, there was only one that he could think of at the moment.

“Okay Lucy,” he muttered. “The publishers didn’t like this one but maybe you will.”

He started telling her the warped fairy tale he’d been working on the past few years. One filled with redemption and curses, old feuds and two battling mothers. He whispered to her stories of a cursed town filled with miserable characters who had no idea who they were and the young boy who worked to save them. It was a long, twisted, confusing tale (according to the publishers) but Lucy seemed to enjoy it. Listening to him speak, her cries softened and eventually went silent. Her eyes didn’t shut but instead remained focused on him. He’d never had such an attentive audience.

Telling stories to her he didn’t even notice how much time slipped by.

---------

Sleep and rest. Jacinda had long forgotten what they felt like. Every since her daughter was born it’d been a 20 minute nap there and 10 minute break here. She hadn’t truly rested in weeks.

Perhaps that’s why she slept so soundly in Henry’s car. If she’d known it would be the last proper sleep she’d get for the next few weeks, maybe she would’ve felt less guilty but as it was she’d count falling asleep in her Swift driver’s car and leaving her baby to the whims of a stranger as one of her lowest parenting moments.

When she woke up, the first thing she noticed was how rested she’d felt. Her bones no longer ached and her head no longer felt heavy with sleep deprivation. For the first time in weeks her mind was clear was as the sky. That’s probably how the panic moved in so quickly.

Squinting, against the glare from the windshield, she noticed that the sun had started to rise and illuminate the street.

Wait... the street?

She abruptly sat forward in her seat and was jerked back by the seat belt across her chest. What hell? Her head whipped around, as she took in her surroundings. Was she in somebody’s... car?

“Don’t panic.”

She whipped her eyes to the back seat where she saw Henry sitting with her daughter in his arms.

“You’re safe,” he said.

One look at him, and everything came back. He was the Swift driver she’d ordered.

“What the hell are you doing?” she hissed, frightened. “Why do you have my baby?”

“Because I figured leaving her alone in the car would be reckless endangerment,” he deadpanned. “You fell asleep.”

“I realize that,” she said, embarrassment rising in her cheeks as she glared at him. “Why didn’t you wake me?”

“I tried,” he laughed. “After the first ten minutes I thought you were legally dead. You were out cold.”

“Oh my god,” she whispered, shutting her eyes and running her hand over her head. Did she really just fall asleep in a stranger’s car with her infant daughter? “Lucy...”

“Is fine,” said Henry. “We’ve really gotten to know each other these past two hours.”

Two hours? “Oh my god!” She jerked away her seatbelt and rushed out of the car. Opening the door to the backseat she held out her arms for her daughter. “Give her to me!”

Henry immediately passed over the baby, and Jacinda sobbed with relief, pulling her close. “Oh my god, baby I am so sorry.”

She looked her over, relieved that her daughter seemed no worse for wear. In fact, she seemed calmer than ever. Not a hint of tears in her eyes.

Henry climbed out of the backseat, pulling Lucy’s car seat with him. He looked her up and down. “I take it you don’t have much help.”

She looked at him, confused. “What?”

“No offense... but you slept like someone who’s doing it all on their own.”

She hesitated, before reluctantly nodding. “It’s just me. I have a roommate who helps as much as she can but she’s visiting her mom this week.”

Henry nodded understandingly, passing her the car seat. “Sounds rough.”

She kept herself from agreeing. She made a promise to herself when Lucy was born to never speak of her as if she was burden. Growing up that was all she’d heard from her stepmother and she didn’t want her daughter to feel the way she had. Instead she just nodded.

“It’s worth it,” she said, looking down at her daughter. “Every minute.”

“I bet,” he mumbled, dropping his gaze. “Listen if you ever need another ride around the block, call me.” He passed her a drab business card. “Hyperion Heights is kind of my territory.”

She let out a small awkward laugh as she took it from him. Henry Mills, FICTION WRITER.

“Fiction writer?” she noticed. “Anything I would know about?”

Henry shrugged his shoulders, opening the door to the driver’s seat. “Ask Lucy. She’s heard all my stories.”

They said goodbye with a nod and a small wave, Henry watching the two of them through his rearview mirror as he drove away, the picture of them sticking in his mind all the way home. After a quick shower, he’d collapse in bed wondering in she’d ever call him again.

When he woke up he’d check his Swift App to find the best tip of his life and a five star rating.

[pinkletterday]

The Secrets Between Us

Pairing: Barry Allen/ Oliver Queen

Rating: All Audiences

Summary: Henry gets to meet the new man in his son's life.

Part 4 of the Coldflash vs Olivarry polyam AU

Read on AO3