#I would’ve still promoted & talked the hell out of whatever else were getting

[roboctopus]

This bait-and-switch is trashy af. They should’ve stopped using the karaoke as promo the second they even considered putting those scenes on the chopping block.

[ragingbookdragon]

Let It All Come Crashing Down

Batbrother x Batfamily One-Shot

Word Count: 2K Warnings: Explicit Language, Mentions of Past Assault/Abuse

Author's Note: One of my favorite episodes of Criminal Minds was always the one where Morgan came face to face with his abuser. The dialogue at the end of the episode fits Batbrother's past too. But, this does mention past assault. If this is a triggering subject, please don't read. -Thorne

**********************************************************************

When he’d told Dick about the incident when he was seventeen, he didn’t expect it was going to come back full front. He’d kept tabs on the man whenever his former CO would move bases, when he promoted, when he eventually retired and relocated to Gotham City, opening a military assistance center. It was a farce, and he knew it. A place where the old CO could still continue his reign of fear on those still in the military and those outside.

***

He stared at the screen in the Batcave, ignoring the bickering of his youngest sibling and his father’s oldest friend, recounting every moment that led to the mission. A woman his age found dead, murdered, the brother charged with the crime. All evidence supported the facts, but (Y/N) knew. He knew deep down something else was going on, especially when he learned that the brother had attended the center in Gotham.

“Isaac Keegan is going to be sent to Blackgate tonight,” Bruce murmured. “He won’t last the night.”

(Y/N) shook his head. “He didn’t do this.”

His father glanced at him. “How do you know?”

“Doesn’t matter how I know,” he retorted with mild annoyance. “But I know who really did this.” He turned, glancing at Ghost-Maker. “Think you can get Isaac out of the armed van and back here without anyone dying?”

The vigilante cocked his arms over his chest. “Of course. But why do you wanna talk to him?”

“I don’t. But I need him alive long enough to get a confession out of the real killer.” (Y/N) answered, looking at Tim with a gaze that had his younger brother’s spine going straight; he could feel the seriousness ebbing from his older brother. “And I’m going to need your help with this.”

***

He didn’t like stepping into enemy territory without protection. He felt naked without his nano suit, even more so without his sidearm, but the last thing he needed was for the metal detectors in the building to go off and let the remaining people inside know he was there.

Slipping down the halls, he took a moment to catch his breath before he turned the corner into his old CO’s office.

“Davis.”

The older man looked up, eyes widening at the sight of his former subordinate. “(Y/N)? Is that—you’re alive?”

“I am,” he answered and Davis’ face split into a fake smile.

“I thought you’d died years ago in Afghanistan.”

“Not exactly.” (Y/N) kept away from the desk, away from close contact; he knew he could take the man, but he wanted the confession first before they came to blows, if they did. “I heard about Jessica Keegan.”

Davis frowned. “It’s a shame what happened to her. Even more so a shame that Isaac was the one who did it.” He shook his head. “I thought he was doing to well with his treatments too.”

(Y/N) tapped the device in his pocket. Now Tim. “Except that Isaac didn’t kill Jessica.”

“Excuse me?”

“All these years, I’ve kept my mouth shut,” (Y/N) said. “I’ve let you go on being a hero. Admiral Davis, the great war hero.”

“What in the world are you talking about?” Davis questioned, face contorting in confusion and the younger man scowled.

“God, I was so afraid of you when we were in Afghanistan,” he admitted. “I was afraid of going to Command about it all. Afraid of losing every promotion and achievement I was being given.” (Y/N) stepped forward, expression shifting to anger. “But that’s how you’ve always worked, isn’t it? You made sure there was a helluva lot to lose if someone came forward, didn’t you?”

“I don’t know what you think you remember about Afghanistan,” Davis said. “But—”

“No, no, no,” he interrupted. “See it’s not what I remember that’s going to hurt you, Davis. The business between us has been over way too long ago to matter.” (Y/N) explained. “You’re protected by a statute of limitations and that’s my fault.”

Davis shrugged. “Then good evening.”

He glared. “You set Isaac up! You knew his sister wanted him to call someone about you. So you killed her and framed him as a distressed veteran?” (Y/N)’s face pinched as he accused, “You killed her because you knew someone was going to piece it all together and come after you, didn’t you?”

“Now you’re just throwing accusations around.” Davis replied and (Y/N) slapped a decoration off his desk.

It shattered and he shouted, “God, I should’ve told someone about you when I was in Afghanistan! When you were ‘training’ me.” He took another step forward, voice lowering dangerously. “Well, you know what happens in cases like this? Once that dam breaks, the flood comes.”

He raised a finger. “One servicemember stands up, just one. And then another one, and another. Because they’re not afraid of your repercussions anymore—they know they’re not alone.” (Y/N) tipped his head up. “Isaac Keegan is your dam.”

For the first time since they’d started speaking, Davis showed his anger as he barked, “Whatever lies Isaac told you—”

“THEY ARE NOT LIES!” (Y/N) yelled. “YOU DID THE SAME THINGS TO ME!”

“I didn’t do a damn thing to you or to Isaac—”

“One by one, they’re going to pile up until there’s so many accusations, you can’t say that they’re all lies!”

Davis thrust his hands to his chest. “Do you have any idea how many men and women I helped promote? How many lives I’ve saved with my service?” He gestured to (Y/N). “Look at you! You would’ve been dead in a shallow grave if I hadn’t helped you.”

“Yeah, well that shit wasn’t for free, was it?” (Y/N) demanded, throat tightening with emotion.

“I pulled you out of the gutter.” Davis murmured.

He shook his head, the tears of anger flashing the pain from his voice. “I pulled myself out of the gutter! All the way to the top military squads! I did that!”

“You’re saying I had nothing to do with making you who you are?” Davis questioned, a look of offense on his face.

(Y/N)’s rage cooled, shoulders sinking back as he raised his head and admitted, “No Davis. Actually, I’m saying you have everything to do with making me who I am.” He gazed at the man. “Because of what you did to me, I’m the man who’s going to spend the rest of his life making sure abusers of power like you face the consequences.”

“(Y/N),” Davis comforted. “I never meant to hurt you.” His expression turned sympathetic. “You could’ve said no.”

He turned his head away, jaw clenching so hard it hurt, then he looked back at him, and two men turned the doorway. (Y/N) watched Davis’ eyes widen in shock.

“Quinton Davis, you’re under arrest for the rape and murder of Jessica Keegan.” The two military police officers walked around (Y/N), and each took an arm.

Davis shifted. “I’ve helped a lot of veterans and service members.” He started thrashing. “Nothing in this goddamn city is going to be the same with me. Without the center, who’s going to look after them?”

His expression hardened. “Wayne Enterprises will. I will.”

“Wait a minute damnit!” he looked at (Y/N), pleading, “(Y/N), please, isn’t there anything you can do for me?”

(Y/N) got in Davis’ face. “You can rot in hell.”

He watched the MP’s drag away the screaming man before letting out a shaky breath and reaching up to his chest, yanking off the necklace that had the camera built into it. Tim had no doubt cut the feed by now and he shoved it in his pocket, free hand coming up to wipe away the tears in his eyes.

***

“What happens now?” the young man asked, dark circles under his eyes making him seem wearier.

(Y/N) sighed. “There’s going to be a trial. Davis will face the consequences.”

Isaac frowned. “I’m going to have to testify, aren’t I?”

“Yes. But I know who the prosecutor is. She’s good. She’ll nail Davis to the wall for everything.”

“I…I don’t know if I can do it.”

He reached out and placed a hand on the man’s shoulder. “Then do it for Jessica.”

“I miss her.” Isaac whispered, head lowering as he sniffed. “I should’ve spoken out sooner.”

“I know,” (Y/N) murmured. “I feel the same.”

His head cocked up, teary eyes gazing into (Y/N)’s. “Will you be there?”

“I’ll probably be called by the prosecutors to testify.” He shrugged. “But with the statute of limitations, I don’t know how much it’s going to weight in our favor.”

“But you already told the world about your past with Davis?” Isaac said. “We—we all watched it live.”

“That was just the start.” (Y/N) said. “We have to see it to the end. For all the servicemen and women he abused over the years.” He turned, looking at Nightwing and Red Hood. “They’ll take you back to your apartment.”

Isaac nodded, starting to follow, then he stopped and looked back at (Y/N). “How’d you go on after Afghanistan?”

He met the young man’s eyes, then he glanced at his family. “I was still needed. Still am.” (Y/N) turned back to Isaac. “You never forget it…but it does get better.” He stuck his hand out. “And I’ll be there when you need me.”

They shook hands and he watched Isaac walk off with his brothers before he turned and moved to the railing overlooking Gotham Bay. A multitude of emotions swirled in his chest, but a sense of relief rested on his shoulders, and he let his head drop, the tears starting to drip down his cheeks.

Someone’s hand rested between his shoulder blades, followed by a deep voice comforting, “It’s okay, son.”

He shook his head. “I should’ve said something earlier.”

“It’s not your fault,” Bruce affirmed. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

(Y/N) looked up, gazing at his father. “I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” the man murmured, expression soft. “But why didn’t you come to me?”

He paused, inhaling shakily as he said, “It only lasted for a short time. I was promoted and inducted into the super soldier program.” He shrugged. “By the time I finally wanted to tell someone, Davis had already left the compound and too much time had passed for it to matter.”

(Y/N) gazed out at the water. “It’s not over…but the world knows what he really is now. And all the people who suffered are going to see justice.”

Bruce leaned on the railing next to him. “You don’t show many signs of a survivor,” he noted. “You keep it all under wraps.”

“I learned during the super soldier program that there are worse things than what happened to me.” (Y/N) sighed. “Davis’ abuse might be what makes me so hateful of abusers, but when I started the team, I refused to let it control me and my life.” He raised his head. “I was going to live my life to the fullest, with whoever I wanted and even if I never told anyone, that was going to be the one part of me no one would ever take away.”

His father observed him for a moment then he stood, nudging (Y/N) until he did too; they looked at one another, a father and a son, and Bruce said, “I’m proud of you, (Y/N). For everything.”

(Y/N)’s mouth opened and snapped shut once, twice, a third time, then he raised one hand to cover his eyes as the lower half of his face twisted in pain, the other fumbling blindly for Bruce. His father caught him, one strong arm wrapping around (Y/N)’s back, the other pressing his son’s head to his shoulder.

“I’m here son,” he murmured. “I’m always going to be here.” He pressed his lips to the young man’s temple. “And I love you son. So much.”

“I love you too, dad,” he choked out, holding onto his father for dear life.

[peachoony]

hold your heart

Genre: criminal/mafia au

Warning: mention of guns and alcohol, cheating, smut, basically violent subjects

Pairing: jooheon x fem!reader

Word count: 4.8K

Summary: just when you were ready to let go of the past your ex-lover re-enters your life bringing a dark secret with him.

A/N: uh hi im here with an mafia au because they are my biggest weakness ugh, also idk if this will have another part, but if you guys want one let me know. it may be a little confusing at the start but you will understand with time,, enjoy!

“Today is the charity gala, you remember right?” Hyunsoo asked you, while he put on his tie. You looked up from your book and watched your fiancé get ready.

If someone would have told you a year ago how you would be engaged to someone who you don’t even love you would’ve laughed and praised their crazy fantasie, but the only thing you are laughing at now is you. Hyunsoo is the son of your fathers best friend and well what father doesn’t want a good boy as their son-in-law? Your father saw the opportunity and took it and since there wasn’t anything to lose for you either what was stopping you? You closed your book before standing up.

“Yes. I remember,” you answered.

As the CEO of his company your father decided to plan a charity gala, but this was only what everyone else thought. The real reason behind all this was a trap for the most wanted thief in Korea right now. Hyunsoo was a criminal detective and this gala was just his mission.

What attracts a thief? Money.

Where do you find so much at one spot? The bank and a charity gala.

Bingo.

“I will see you at the gala, since we still have a meeting regarding today.” You nodded as he grabbed his badge, before giving you a quick kiss on the cheek. When the door closed you let out the breath you were holding in.

Hyunsoo was a great person. He was mature, understanding and very caring for someone who didn’t love you, not only that but always made sure you had a good time with him. He was basically everything a girl wanted in a man.

But Hyunsoo wasn’t him.

“Hey,” someone said and you looked up from your notes just to roll your eyes. “What do you want?” You asked and he chuckled.

“Why can’t you just say hey back like everyone else?” He asked you and you huffed while raising your eyebrow.

“Do you annoy other people like you do with me?” You asked locking back down to your notes. “You’re the only one I annoy,” he smiled with heart eyes and you sighed before packing up your books as he gave you a confused look.

“Where are you going?” He asked you. “Away from you.” You answered before walking out of the library followed by him.

“Stop playing hard to get y/n,” he laughed, grabbing your arm gently. “Eventually you will fall for me,” he continued making you scoff.

“Yeah whatever fills your boat, now let go of my arm or you won’t be able to hold anything for the rest of your life,” you said and he did with a chuckle.

“Don’t worry, the only thing I’m planning on holding is your heart,” Jooheon winked.

“Dr. Y/n, should I send Mr. Park in?” The officer asked and you nodded. “Yes, thank you, officer.” You gave a short smile. You almost scoffed at the thought of you being a criminal psychiatrist and your soon to be husband a criminal detective, a match made in heaven.

You cringed at the sound of the handcuffs, when the man in front you sat down. The officer left and you looked over giving your patient your attention.

“Good Morning Mr. Park,” you said but he stayed silent just like the last three times, however you were used to it. Criminals are psychopaths and they don’t like the feeling of vulnerability, especially someone from the ‘other side’. They don’t like talking nor showing any kind of emotions other than anger.

You took off your glasses placing them on the table in front you before looking up again.

“I know it’s hard to talk about this and I wouldn’t want to answer these questions either, but I need you to cooperate.” He looked down to his handcuffs and you continued.

“We are not against you, we are just trying to help you.” It was silent before he took a deep breath.

“I don’t wanna be in jail,” he said and for some reason a dusted memory flashed through you.

“Thank you y/n,” Mr. Jung said as you gave him the file your father asked you to deliver to the police station. “No worries Uncle,” you smiled but it faded as soon as your eyes landed on Jooheon.

Wait Jooheon? What is he doing here?

He called your name and waved while his other hand held the cell bars in front of him. “What the hell are you doing here?” You asked him but he just smiled.

“I always wanted to know how it is in jail,” he said and you rolled your eyes.

“Do you know each other?” Mr. Jung asked and you immediately replied with no, while Jooheon replied with yes at the same time. You sighed rolling your eyes. Of course.

“He is a student at my University,” you said after he gave you a confused expression. “Yeah we are very close friends,” Jooheon added and you clenched your jaw.

“He punched a guy,” Mr.Jung replied nodding into his direction, which left you confused. You may not be a lawyer, but you surely don’t go to jail for punching someone.

“He broke his jaw. He is in the Hospital.” he added and you turned to Jooheon who just gave you a nervous smile.

“Officer, I already told you he was cat-calling girls in front of the cafe with his friends. I would have broken more if you’d give me the chance,” Jooheon said pouting and you blinked a couple of times.

After that your view changed on him and suddenly he wasn’t that annoying.

You put your pearl earrings on, before giving yourself a last look in the mirror. The off-shoulder, deep blue satin dress complimented your skin. The door opened and Hyunsoo walked in with his phone against his ear. “Yeah we’re about to leave,” he informed the other person, before sliding his phone into the pocket.

You picked up your purse and phone as his eyes trailed over your body. “You look…” he frowned searching for the right words, “breathtakingly gorgeous.”

You smiled at his words. “You too, Hyunsoo.”

He stared at you and when you said his name to get his attention he blinked a couple of times. “I’m sorry I just...never mind let’s go.”

The drive was silent, but you felt him look over to you a couple of times and every time you turned your head he would just clear his throat and look away.

“You know it’s rude to stare?” You said jokingly and he chuckled.

“You know it’s rude to look this good and not even let your fiancé admire,” he answered, making you shake your head at his attempt to flirt.

You took a sip of the champagne, looking around the hall as your parents were talking to Hyunsoo’s parents.

“Hyunsoo told me about your promotion,” his mother spoke up and you gave her a smile nodding.

“Oh yes, just recently.” You nodded looking down, hoping she would stop talking to you and luckily she did. After your fourth glass of champagne you felt your bladder calling.

“I’ll go to the bathroom,” you informed your mother before grabbing your purse. The elevators were so pretty and the roof had a mirror making you stare in awe. When the doors opened you noticed the floor being oddly quiet, but you brushed the thought side walking to the bathrooms with your heels giving off a satisfying noise. After you were done you gave yourself a last look in the mirror before walking to the elevator as your phone vibrated. It was Hyunsoo, but you didn’t have the chance to speak up as you heard his panicked voice.

“Y/n, listen to me carefully. Leave as fast as you can and take the stairs.” You frowned at his words and an uneasy feeling started spreading inside of you.

“What’s the matter?” You asked looking around, if he could see you.

“He is on the same floor as you so leave now!”

“Who is on the same floor, Hyunsoo? No one is here.” You answered pressing the elevator button. You waited for a moment but the floor was dead silent and you turned back around.

“Hyunsoo no one-“

Your breath hitched and you could swear your heart stopped right there in then the moment your eyes met his. Hyunsoo’s voice already faded away as you stared at Jooheon for a moment before your fiancés voice pulled you out of your state of shock.

“Y/n do as I tell you and stop arguing!” He said sternly and you gulped, muttering an okay. Your eyes fell on the gun in his hand and you stood there unable to to even speak up.

He said your name casually, giving you a small smile and the way it rolled off your tongue made your heart flutter and skin tingle.

Two years. It's been two years since you saw Jooheon and you didn’t know what to say. He looked so different, so...manly. You whispered his name, like you were making sure he wasn’t an illusion.

After Jooheon disappeared two years ago without any letter, call or even message, you were devastated. You couldn’t function for months and it did take you up to a year to accept all that, but seeing him now in front of you made your brain malfunction and you weren’t sure if you wanted to kiss or kill him.

You heard footsteps and Jooheons eyes widened.

“Hands up! Now!” You heard your fiancé’s voice, which pulled you back into reality. A bunch of police officers with guns stood there pointing at you and Jooheon while all this felt so unreal and for a moment all the voices faded and you looked at Jooheon not wanting to believe that he was standing right in front of you.

Not as your sweet Jooheon, but as a criminal.

You felt someone pull your arms and suddenly your back was pressed against Jooheons chest as you felt something cold and hard pressed against your temple.

Hyunsoo's eyes widened and he instantly dropped the gun, knowing exactly what he wanted.

“Weapons down. Now!” He said and slowly raised his arms. “Leave her alone, she has nothing to do with all this,” he added.

You turn your head to Jooheon, shocked at what he was doing. That was not your Jooheon. That was not the Jooheon you knew.

“Press the button,” he said nodding to the elevator and you raised your shaking hand pushing the button, before he slowly walked back into the elevator with you still pressed against his chest. “Underground parking,” he whispered again and you did as he told you, hands still shaking. You knew Jooheon wouldn’t hurt you, but right now you really were doubting that.

“Don’t you dare follow me and if I see my face in the news, your little fiancé is dead.” You gulped at his harsh words and tone and the moment the elevator doors closed he removed the gun taking a step back. You blinked a couple of times before turning around, letting out a breath you didn’t notice you were holding in.

“What the fuck Jooheon! How dare you point a gun at me?” You yelled at him with a shaking voice, while he removed his bowtie followed by opening a couple of buttons of his shirt.

“I wouldn’t hurt you y/n,” he said and you took a step closer scoffing.

“Clearly you would.” He frowned at your words before pointing the gun against his temple and when he pulled the trigger you gasped protecting your ears with your arms, but nothing happened. A click sound was heard and you slowly opened your eyes standing up straight as you looked at the gun then him.

“You didn’t actually think I would point a loaded gun at you,” he chuckled, stuffing the gun at the back of his suit. The door opened and you walked out of the elevator.

“I’m going back,” you scoffed but he grabbed your wrist pulling you back.

“Said who?” He raised an eyebrow.

“Me, now let go of my hand-“

“or I won’t be able to hold anything for the rest of my life. Right?”

You felt his hold soften and he pulled you closer. “But don’t worry baby, the only thing I’m planning on holding is your heart,” he said quietly and you didn’t even notice the tear before Jooheon wiped it away. You didn’t realise how much your heart needed him these two years, until now that you had him this close.

“Where are we going?” You asked after a while you were on the highway.

“Somewhere,” he said, still looking at the road in front of him and you rolled your eyes. “Wow, very helpful,” you replied, making him chuckle. He promised you to explain everything once he got away from there, and for some reason you wanted to get away with him. You were still mad, but your feelings didn’t change for this man and probably never will.

“How is he?” He asked after a while and you looked away. “Is he treating you better?” He added and you scoffed now.

“You left me, Jooheon. Don’t you dare ask that. Do you even know what I went through when you decided to disappear and rob innocent people? You put me through hell.” Your voice cracked and he sighed.

“You wanted a break,” he said and you laughed. “I wanted a break not whatever the fuck you did after that.”

“Okay listen let me explain,” he said and you leaned back into our seat. “Go ahead.”

He took a deep breath, before activating the auto-pilot.

“Remember I told you that my father died?” He asked and you hummed. “Well I lied. He is alive. The reason why I did that was because he was a bad person, at least that’s what I have been told.” You gave him a confused look and sighed. “My father is Lee Mingyu,” he said after a while and your jaw dropped.

“You mean…” you trailed off and he hummed.

“The mafia leader Lee Mingyu.” He ended your sentence and your breath hitched.

“A week before I disappeared, my father contacted me asking me if I’m dating someone and I was confused on why he was asking that,” he continued his story.

“He told me that a rival gang targeted you, in hope to take revenge on me. So in order to protect you and your family I did what I had to do. I was lucky when you asked for a break, so I took that as a sign from the universe.” He explained and you blinked a couple of times processing everything he just told you.

“You’re safe now y/n,” he assured you after he saw your expression.

“I’m safe with a thief? With the son of a national criminal?” You asked him and the affliction was clear in his eyes as you felt his heart throb. “Don’t say that,” he whispered and you scoffed softly.

“I have never spent one coin on myself and neither have I robbed an innocent person. The people that I rob are the ones that use their money for the wrong purpose,” he said sternly.

“The mafia is not as bad as the society tells you to think,” he continued and you raised an eyebrow. “Oh really? How will you sugar coat killing innocent people?”

“See! This is exactly what I’m talking about.” He groaned leaning back into his seat.

“Do you know how many innocent people have died from the hands of police officers? But of course no one talks about that, since they are the good guys, right?”

You looked down thinking of an answer, clearly taken aback at how accurate he was.

“Have you asked your Mr. Perfect on how many people he has killed?” He looked over to you and you stayed silent. You indeed were curious now.

“The government is manipulative y/n. They are not as good as they show themselves to be, because I can assure you that there is so much dirty stuff going on. They are so fixated to wipe us out, so the truth doesn’t get exposed.”

You gulped still unsure on how to form your own opinion on this.

A vibration pulled you out of your thoughts and you pulled your phone out just to see Hyunsoo calling you.

“What the fuck y/n!” Jooheon said, before grabbing your phone and throwing it out of the window making you gasp as he closed the window again.

“Don’t you know they can track us with your phone?!” He explained.

“What if they track us with that car?” You scoffed and he sighed.

“They can’t.”

“Why?”

“Because this is your fathers car,” he replied and you sat up. “WHAT?” You yelled out and he gave you an apologetic smile.

“I’m sorry y/n, but that was necessary,” he added and you sighed.

You saw him exiting the highway and you were honestly glad after a two hour drive in that dress.

“Will you tell me now where we are going?” You tried again and he gave you a genuine smile. “Patience, baby.”

“Don’t call me that, I’m still mad at you.” You rolled your eyes and shook his head amused by your behavior.

Jooheon pulled up the car in front of a bigger mansion, leaving you confused. “Where are we?” You asked him when he opened the door for you, offering you his hand which you accepted.

“My home.” He smiled and your eyes widened. “Wait...what?” You gasped and he laughed at your reaction.

“Just trust me. I want you to meet someone,” he explained while walking in with you and you were still confused but did as he said, following him with your hand still in his.

“Make sure nothing goes wrong during the shipment.“ You heard a voice which instantly stopped talking as soon as you walked into the living room. You turned your head to a man your fathers age. Lee Mingyu you assumed.

“You’re back.” He stated and Jooheon nodded.

His eyes drifted to you and he gave you a small smile, which you almost didn’t notice. “Jooheon told me a lot about you, y/n.” He looked down to your hands and you wanted to pull it away, but Jooheon just grasped it tighter not giving the chance to.

“Only positive, of course,” he added chuckling and you gave him a nervous laugh.

“Jooheon, what are you doing standing here? Let her rest. Is this how we treat our hostage?” He said and your eyes widened at his words.

Hostage?

“Dad stop, she’s already scared.” Jooheon shook his head making his dad laugh. “I apologise. Treat this like your own home y/n.”

You looked around the room silently, absorbing the dresser as something catches your eye. Jooheon’s Parfum. You picked it up holding it close to your nose inhaling his smell. You always used to tell him how much you loved how he smelled. Like home. The door opened and you hastily placed the bottle back, before turning back.

“Why am I here?” You asked him as he took off his jacket placing it on the bed.

“Jooheon I have a job, a life. You can’t just kidnap me to your house in god knows where and expect me to just happily leave my whole life behind,” you said, making him stop in his tracks before a deep sigh left his chest.

“You’re right and I know,” he said, turning around to face you, “but I can’t spend another day without you, y/n.”

He gently took your hands in his, before placing kisses on both of your knuckles and you sighed.

“You weren’t the only one who went through hell. I lived everyday with the guilt of not only putting your life in danger but also leaving you without any explanation.”

He slipped his fingers into yours. “Do you know how much I just wanted to leave all this behind? But I couldn’t, not while knowing that going back to you can lead to me losing you,” he continued leaning closer to your face, with his brown eyes staring longingly into yours and there goes your plan to not get weak.

“I did it all for you.”

You lowered your gaze to his chest not wanting to look into his eyes, before your knees would lose their last strength.

“Look at me,” he said after a while and you bit down on your lower lip, looking back up. Your heart was beating heavily against your chest, while his eyes only made your heart flutter

“You’re so beautiful baby,” he said quietly like these words were only meant for you to hear. His breath fanned over your lips and when you couldn’t take it anymore you closed the gap between you two, pressing your lips against his pillow like lips. He instantly tilted his head, deepening the kiss while one of his hands gently rested on the back of your head guiding you. You sighed into the kiss like you finally could breath after those two years, as if you were drowning and his hand finally grasped yours pulling you to the surface. Finally he saved you from suffocating.

When he felt the tears on your cheeks he pulled back with a worried expression, gently wiping them away.

“I missed you so much, Jooheon. I won’t survive it again without you.” You sobbed into his chest, grasping his shirt tightly. “Please don’t leave me ever again.”

“Hey it’s okay baby, I’m here.” He placed a kiss on your forehead, before pulling you closer. “I’m here now, and I’m not leaving again,” he whispered, tugging a strand of hair behind your ear.

He pulled your lips into another kiss, putting all his feelings and emotions into it.

“I missed you too,” he mumbled in between kisses. “Let me show you how much I missed you.”

It felt like your body was on fire, as the fluttering only intensified. You felt your knees get weaker and you were sure that he felt your heart against his chest. Maybe time stopped, because the only thing you could focus on was his lips devouring yours in such a passionate way, clouding all your senses. It was still hard to believe that all this was happening and if it wouldn’t have been for the way his hands tightly pulled your body against his, you’d think this was a dream.

“The stars are pretty, right?” You said awkwardly trying to ignore the way he was looking at you.

“Can I kiss you?” He suddenly asked and you turned your head to your left.

“W-what?” You stuttered, making sure you heard him right.

“Can I Kiss you, y/n?” He repeated with a smile and you gulped. “I…” you started but nodded after taking a deep breath. He leaned forward and his lips gazed over yours, before he softly pressed them against yours. It was a short kiss, but it felt like something exploded inside of you. As if time had stopped right there, as you sat at the rooftop of your building, after Jooheon wanted to be the first one to wish you a happy birthday. As if no one else existed, like there was no risk of your parents watching his hands softly caress your waist and finger run over the exposed skin between your jeans and shirt.

A deep blush creeped over your cheeks and you looked away. “Are you blushing, baby?” He asked and you almost jumped off the roof at the pet name. “You wish,” you scoffed, turning your head away just for him to make you look back to him.

“It was your first kiss, wasn’t it?” He chuckled and you hummed, cringing at how he was pushing past your ego.

You pulled his shirt down his shoulders after your fingers nervously worked on undoing his buttons. Your hands trailed over the tattoos on his chest, clearly taken aback at how much he changed. This Jooheon was just new to you.

“You like them, baby?” He asked and you nodded slowly, pulling his swollen lips into another kiss while his hands found the zipper of your dress and in seconds it slipped down your body.

“Fuck, you’re so beautiful,” he whispered after seeing your lace lingerie, now hovering over you and you saw his biceps flex as he held up his weigh next to your head.

He placed open mouthed kisses down from your jaw to your neck, making you whimper. Hyunsoo was your fiancé, but nothing more happened than kisses on the cheek so the effect of Jooheon’s every touch was more intense than you thought.

Your fingers slipped into his hair when his tongue gazed over your collarbones while his hand rubbed up and down your thigh. Piece by piece he was removing your remaining lingerie, carefully unwrapping you like an expensive gift and he sure took his time leaving you begging for more.

“Jooheon please do something,” you begged, while his finger trailed up and down your center.

“What does my baby want me to do, huh?”

“I want you inside me, please.” A whimper escaped your lips.

He kissed your jaw and your hands grabbed his shoulder, realizing your ring was missing.

“My ring,” you moaned out just when he finally pushed his finger into you.

“You won’t be needing that when you're with me,” he said leaning down, pulling you into a kiss and not even a second later your ring was forgotten as his touch clouded your senses.

You whined into the kiss when the feeling of his finger disappeared, but got replaced with his tip sliding up and down your folds. Your teeth sunk deep into your lower lip as he slowly pushed into you.

“I missed you so much,” he whispered, placing soft kisses on your shoulders. “Fuck I missed the way you grasped me so tightly, baby.” You moaned wrapping your arms around his neck pulling him closer to you, while his hips thrusted into you.

“Does he touch you like that?” His hand lovingly grabbed your breast taking a nipple in his mouth, making you close your eyes at the blissful feeling of his wet tongue.

“Tell me, baby. Does he fuck you like that?” He whispered against your lips thrusting into you harder, picking up his space as he started hitting your g-spot.

You shook your head, your heavy breathing filling the room. “No, he didn’t.”

“That’s right baby. You are mine and only I can touch you like that,” he said and you saw his jaw clench. Jooheon couldn’t help but get the image of another man touching you off his mind. His hand grabbed yours, pinning it next to your head, now chasing both orgasms.

“Be my good girl and cum for me.” He groaned when you clenched around him. You felt the knot building in your lower abdomen and he leaned down kissing you with his tongue sliding over your lower lip. You arched your back, moaning into the kiss when the euphoric feeling washed over you leaving your legs shaking against his waist.

The room was silent only filled with your heavy breathing. You didn’t open your eyes, still trying to calm down from your high and you felt him pulling you into his arms.

Suddenly a thought crossed your head. Did he really think you slept with Hyunsoo?

“I didn’t sleep with Hyunsoo,” you said quietly and he chuckled. “I believe you y/n,” he answered and you sighed.

“Did you...sleep with anyone?” You hesitated and he placed a kiss against your temple. “I didn’t exactly sleep with someone,” he said after a while, making you look up to him. “I did try to get my mind off you, after a year, when I stopped hoping to be with you again.”

You gave him a confused look. “I didn’t had sex with another woman y/n, but I did have them suck me off,” he explained and you nodded silently, “oh.”

“Don’t look at me like that,” he chuckled at your expression. “I don’t even know their names.”

You honestly couldn’t get mad, since you did try to get over him too and maybe not the same way as him, but it definitely involved making out with other men. You pushed all your thoughts away pulling yourself closer to him. You could worry about going back later, for now you wanted him to cloud all your senses.

[florrickandassociates]

TGF Thoughts: 5x06- And the two partners had a fight...

I’ve been waiting for this episode for nearly a decade, and I didn’t even realize it. More under the cut. 

(This is very long! Please fight me on stuff and disagree because I just wrote all these words about this episode and I STILL want to talk about it more, it was that interesting!) 

This is the second episode in a row to start off with a TikTok video. 5x02 and 5x03 both ended with elevators. Is there some sort of pattern they’re going for here?  

This case—which is, it’s important to note, in Wackner’s court—is about TikTok content creators and copyright laws. Probably not enough material for a full case, but definitely an interesting theme to explore.

Marissa doesn’t have her laptop volume off (which I suppose makes sense; she was just playing the TikTok videos) and a notification sounds. She shuts the laptop.

Wackner rules that the profits made from the TikTok dance must be split evenly between the guy who stole the dance for his video game and the creator. The thief does not like this, removes his moose costume (oh, yeah, did I mention they’re in costumes again?), and starts shouting that he’s going to sue and then moons the whole court. Okay!

He follows through on his threat, and next thing we know, Liz, Cord, Wackner, and Marissa are meeting to discuss strategy.

Liz’s computer makes the same noise Marissa’s did; she punches some keys.

Liz points out that Wackner’s biggest problem is that real judges are not going to like Wackner playacting as a judge. “I’m not playing a judge. I am a judge,” Wackner says. Liz notes that Wackner’s court lacks any way of forcing people to comply with his rulings, but real court can shut him down.

I guess whatever keys Liz punched did not silence the annoying notification sound.

She asks Wackner to try not to become the focus of the court case, since that’s how they’ll lose. “This is why I started a court,” Wackner says after Liz instructs him to only answer yes or no and to wear a suit.  

Liz asks Marissa to keep Wackner in line. She says she’ll try.

Now we are at the Black Lawyers Association, where there’s a panel with leaders from Chicago’s four top black law firms. For reasons passing understanding, DIANE is on this panel. This makes absolutely no sense (I mean, unless only white people were involved in this decision, and even then!) and I’ll only excuse it because they mention later that it makes no sense for Diane to have been on this panel.  

I wonder why everyone else’s firm gets named but not Diane’s.  

Diane also gets the first question, which is, pointedly, about opportunities for black lawyers. Her phone starts making the annoying notification sound. Ever heard of silent mode??  

The annoying sound happens every five seconds at the RL offices. According to David Lee, it happens twenty times an hour, but it seems like more than that! He, for some reason, goes to Carmen to ask how to stop the sound. He also wants to know what it is. Carmen explains that it is “Dawnk” which is a new messaging system within the company.  

On Dawnk, you can talk about anything you want and be anonymous. Who approved this?! In one frame, I can see there’s someone complaining about someone being promoted too fast because of “the future is female bs.” In another, someone is upset that they are anonymous and wants to use their real name (only Jay, who is otherwise absent from this episode, seems to have figured out how to turn this anon mode off).

Sorry, before I can get on board with this plot, I just need to note for the record how phenomenally stupid the idea of using anonymous messaging software within a company is. This was obviously not going to end well! It’s like workplace YikYak... (remember YikYak?!)  

David Lee hates the idea of a messaging software; Carmen says the associates prefer this.  

Jay is being very nice in the chat and defends the person who was promoted “too fast”.

“Who’s ‘Anonymous Crab’?” David Lee asks. Well, I think the fact they are “anonymous” should be a bit of a hint there, David.  

Anonymous Crab asks, “How the hell did this happen??! How did Diane end up at a Black Conference speaking for our firm?” Good question, Anonymous Crab.

Anon Crab also shares a video and David Lee doesn’t understand how to press play. Carmen plays it for him. Diane looks really awful on the panel. No shit! David Lee seems to enjoy Diane looking bad, even though he should be able to connect the dots between Diane looking bad and potential for bad things to come for the firm...  

Not only does Diane get quizzed about why she’s running a firm that is still insisting on calling itself a black firm, she also gets questions about her insurrectionist husband. “He was completely cleared of those charges,” Diane notes. Oh, hey!!!!! Remember how last week I said I’d be more surprised if that was the end of the FBI nonsense than if it continued? I am surprised!! And relieved. Mostly relieved. Dealing with the consequences of that high profile, relationship-straining ordeal is so much more interesting to me than any FBI machinations.  

Next Diane is asked if Kurt just took a job to revitalize the NRA. She hasn’t heard of this yet. I’m glad she’s getting grilled on this stuff... it is about time.  

There’s a hint that Carmen will be representing Mr. Rapey next week. I assume that’s why there’s a line where David checks in with Carmen on Mr. Rapey’s case?  

Anon Platypus says, “I heard she didn’t even have seniority. She just jumped past other black partners to become our name partner. It’s crazy!!!” Anon Platypus is correct—technically. Diane was a name partner at one of Chicago’s top firms before joining RL, so while she skipped the line... that doesn’t seem to me like the PRIMARY issue in bringing her on. The primary issue is that bringing on someone that senior from outside the company is more similar to a merger than a promotion, and Diane’s partnership meant changes for the firm.  

Other anonymous animals also don’t like Diane. One calls her clueless; another says that “Liz needs to do something about this.” Someone responds to that, “Liz will never do it on her own,” which is an interesting sentiment I want to come back to in a little bit.  

“What is Black Twitter?” David Lee asks Liz out of the blue. “People on Twitter who are black and talk to each other,” Liz responds. David Lee asks how he can find it. “I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you,” Liz jokes. And to think Jay said Liz wasn’t funny!  

The Dawnk conversation shifts and now everyone’s ragging on Julius for representing Kurt and just generally being a Trump voter. There’s a lot of heated and racial language I’m not going to type here, enough to make Julius spit out his coffee and storm down to the associate floor.

He goes to Devin, who I’m not sure if we’ve seen before but is high ranking enough to have Lucca’s old office, to get information on the anonymous posts.

Anonymous Bison says, “Unpopular opinion: I blame Adrian.” Hey, Anon Bison, let’s be friends! I am with you. Adrian is the one who brought Diane on, who encouraged them to lean into Julius’s Trump connections, and who pushed the firm to pursue profit over everything else. Diane and Julius aren’t blameless (though I don’t actually think defending Kurt is a bad thing) but if there’s someone who actively strategized to make RL what it is today? Adrian all the way.  

In what world does noting that Julius is pissed in an anonymous message do ANYTHING to stop people who are pissed at him? If they were that concerned about him being pissed they wouldn’t have said anything in the first place.  

Liz and opposing counsel talk over each other in court until the judge makes them stop. I think we’ve seen both the judge and opposing counsel this season, making me wonder if there’s a bit of a COVID bubble situation going on here with the guest stars.  

Judge Farley jokes about “contempt cards” that go up in value and Wackner, of course, is all, “Wow, I really love that.”  

Liz, whose entire strategy was to not let on that anyone calls Wackner a judge, refers to Wackner as “Judge Wackner.” Come on, Liz! (I buy that she’d slip up—there's no one in the world I wouldn’t believe slipping up—but ugh!)  

How did the opposition not realize that they could make this about Wackner’s “crazy court” by referring to him as Judge Wackner? You’d think they’d be all over that.  

Judge Farley looks SO unhappy that Wackner would refer to himself as a judge; it’s phenomenal.  

Now Marissa stumbles over stuff because she’s, for some reason, speaking in court. I bought Liz’s dumb moment more.  

The plaintiff’s strategy is to make it look like Wackner is of unsound mind, and they’ve got video evidence. Remember how Del, Cord, and Wackner all chatted in the RL elevator? Well, turns out that lead to a reality show about Wackner for Del’s streaming service. Sounds about right.  

I don’t really think Wackner cares about attention or anyone else’s motivations... I think he just likes the idea of budget and an audience and a platform.  

Liz meets Del for a romantic dinner and asks him when he was going to tell her about Wackner’s show. Del doesn’t understand why she’s upset. He doesn’t get why he would’ve needed her permission to go into business with Wackner. (I don’t think he’s wrong from a business POV, but from a relationship POV, he totally should’ve let her know!)  

Liz says he should’ve asked because they’re using it against her in court. “That is unfortunate, baby, but this streaming show could be really good for Wackner. It’ll draw attention to his court. And... as I say that...that sounds... okay, look I’m sorry,” Del realizes. I like that he sees that Liz has a point. He goes on to note that he would be totally open to Liz trying to go into business with any of his acquaintances, and I think he genuinely means it.  

Del notes that this is what “power couples” do. Oh? So they’re an official couple? Don’t power couples also associate in public and not hide their relationship from their colleagues?  

This is the place where I note, yet again, that it is always going to be more interesting to see a relationship that feels realistic than to see a relationship that feels like it takes place in a vacuum.  

Liz doesn’t want Wackner becoming popular. Del argues someone else would’ve made the show if he didn’t, and that “disrupters gotta disrupt.” Oh God.  

Are we going to remember that Liz has a child at any point this season?  

Diane is reading the Dawnk discussion at home. It’s still lively even after work hours. The associates appear to be discussing the vaccine before someone changes the topic to “the Diane situation.”

One associate notes that the partners probably aren’t happy about Diane either and just have to vote her out. Kurt arrives home as Diane reads this, reacts to the loud music Diane has playing, the open alcohol, and her general demeanor and asks if they’re getting drunk. “Are we getting a job with the NRA?” she counters.  

Turns out it’s not entirely untrue about Kurt and the NRA. They want him for a new role. It would pay $167,000. I can’t decide if I think that’s a lot (objectively that’s a high salary) or not very much at all (isn’t Kurt the top of his field?)  

Kurt notes he doesn’t have a job so he’s considering it. “Diane, our politics are very different,” he starts. “I know,” Diane says. “I’m, lately, struck by just how different they are.”

“I would just like one week when I don’t have to defend you,” Diane says in frustration. Kurt doesn’t even know what that means at the current moment.  

“You’ll tell me when they offer you the job?” Diane asks. “They may not offer it,” Kurt says. “No, they will,” Diane says, because she knows that it’s basically a done deal already.  

In the middle of the night, Diane turns to Kurt and tries to ask him a question. That wakes him up. She asks who he voted for in 2020 and he doesn’t answer. Uh oh.  

Dreaming now, Diane sits up and asks, “Hello? What do I do?” More on that later...

The HR nightmare known as Dawnk is still going wild the next day at the office. (Seriously, with HR that strict, the anon feature would’ve been disabled the second the first semi-controversial comment was posted.) Everyone’s obsessed.  

The partners, minus Diane, all gather in Liz’s office to discuss Dawnk (and the topics of conversation on Dawnk). Madeline says they should ignore it. I say they should make STR Laurie shut it down and be the bad guy. It is nonsensical that this workplace would continue to allow Dawnk to continue! In addition to being an HR nightmare, it’s also a drain on productivity if everyone’s constantly glued to it, and I imagine STR Laurie cares about profit more than anything else.  

But like I really don’t get why Madeline says they can’t censor their associates. Of course they can shut down the app if they want to! Someone put the app there in the first place, no? I do understand not wanting to look like you’re violating free speech (even though taking away anonymous commenting in the workplace would not be a violation of free speech) but I highly doubt it would be only the partners complaining. Tina, whose promotion was called into question, would be complaining too. Anyone trying to get work done, or anyone who didn’t like the toxic culture, or anyone who was uncomfortable with a joke made, would be complaining. There are more than enough reasons it would be perfectly acceptable to take the anon commenting away.

Now the partners are fighting about Kurt’s case too. “Diane is not responsible for her husband,” Liz says when Madeline says that Diane should’ve known better than to get involved. Um, Liz, Madeline is right. Diane isn’t responsible for Kurt’s actions but she’s sure as hell responsible for volunteering to represent him.  

“In the real world of this firm, Diane’s billable hours speak for themselves,” Liz notes when a partner tries to call Diane’s unsavory associations into question.  

“The rest of us put in the hours too, for the record,” notes another partner. I’m sure... but do you put in DIANE’S hours and have DIANE’S client list? My guess is no. If Diane weren’t the biggest earner at the firm we wouldn’t be having this debate. She’d just be gone. She’d never have been at the firm to begin with.  

“Liz, when I joined this firm, it was because of your father’s legacy. It was about Black civil rights, activism, justice. That’s what people talked about in meetings. Now, people talk about billable hours, million-dollar clients, corporate payouts. Now, I know it’s not your fault. That was Boseman’s vision and we were trying to survive the Trump years by bringing in white lawyers, but those days are gone. They’re done with. And I miss being a strong black firm,” Madeline says. Everyone but Liz (and probably Julius) seems to agree with that.

This is one of many interesting facets of this issue. When Madeline argues against Diane, she’s not just arguing that she wants a black person running the firm for optics. She’s not saying that Diane-but-black would be an acceptable choice. She is saying she wants RL to be the firm it was at the very very start of the show—a firm committed to social justice, not maximizing revenue. A firm that didn’t just accept every client that came their way because they love profit. A firm that stood for something. So my question is: Does Liz want that firm?  

Liz is hard to read throughout this whole plot, and I think that may be intentional. Liz isn’t a manager by training—she was an AUSA who suddenly became a name partner at a firm (if you want to talk about seniority and skipping the line, Liz is a way better example than Diane—you can even through some nepotism, twice over, in there). She doesn’t seem to have a clear goal for her firm other than maintaining the status quo and keeping power. Liz not taking a stronger stance from the start (either accepting that they are no longer going to be a social justice-oriented firm or pushing to get them back to that place) allows these kinds of questions to fester. It’s my hope that this becomes text instead of subtext pretty soon, ‘cause this is the kind of thing that if it’s subtext for too long will start to feel like bad writing/Liz being conveniently clueless. It’s way more interesting if Liz is just not yet good at being a manager... because she is learning on the job.  

Anyway. I think the ideal solution here is probably that Diane and Liz continue to run RL: A STR Laurie Company (the fact they’re owned by corporate overlords kind of makes any decision about RL’s mission moot) since Diane wants to do that and Liz seems to be content where she is. Madeline and the other partners, instead of trying to force STRL to let them pursue the cases they want, can accept pay cuts and go start their own firm. Maybe they can even team up with Barbara Kolstad!  

None of that’s to say that the dilemma here is easily solvable, nor is it to say that Diane shouldn’t consider stepping down. I’ll say more on that later. My point here is just that this issue is much deeper than just if Diane is on the letterhead or not. As long as they’re owned by STR Laurie and have clients like Rivi, Diane stepping aside would just be a band-aid.  

(And that, I think, is intentional... they’ve been building the “why are we even representing x?” tension pretty consistently this season, so I imagine it’s on the writers’ minds.)  

Diane stumbles across the secret partner’s meeting and knows something’s up.  

“You gotta handle this, Liz. You cannot have a white partner leading a black firm. We’ll lose clients with that kind of hypocrisy” Madeline insists after Diane heads back to her office. I’ve already said it, but just to say it in a less rambly way: Madeline is right, but she’s right IF AND ONLY IF the goal is to be a black firm. So, Liz, is it?  

(They’ll lose clients, sure, but which ones? They’ll lose the clients Madeline wants while Diane continues to keep bringing in business and Rivi and Cord and Wolfe-Colman and their elk* stay put.)  

*I know this is not the correct word; see 6x17 of TGW

David Lee has also noticed the meeting in Liz’s office and thinks this may be the “beginning of the end.” Diane glares at him and he says he was just joking.

Diane schedules a meeting with Liz. Liz’s assistant doesn’t know Diane by voice, adding to her frustration.

Credits! We are 22 minutes in! This might be a record if 5x01 hadn’t saved the credits til the very end!  

I’ve already written more than I did last week by a couple hundred words.  

Two interesting things about the credits. First, this episode was written by Aurin Squire. Forgive me if I’ve mentioned this in a prior recap (I know I thought about it but can’t remember if I deleted), but I think Aurin Squire and Davita Scarlett are key to why TGF and Evil are both always so good. They’re the two writers other than the Kings who are in both the TGF and Evil rooms, and they both REALLY seem to be on the same wavelength as the Kings. I imagine that having four people who are in both rooms helps with managing both at basically the same time.  

(This isn’t where I wanted to go with this bullet point, but I may as well shout out how great Evil is this season, too! It also just aired an episode by Aurin Squire about the lead white female character realizing her privilege!)  

Second, this episode was directed by Brooke Kennedy. I didn’t know that going in, but seconds before the director credit popped up, I was thinking to myself, “this episode feels like it’s going to be a very important one. I bet Brooke directed it.” I was very pleased to see her name appear.  

(For anyone who doesn’t know, Brooke is an EP who’s been involved in nearly every episode of both Wife and Fight and she tends to direct important episodes that require a lot of familiarity with the characters. She directed 5x15 of The Good Wife and she’s done a bunch of the premieres and finales that Robert King hasn’t claimed for himself.)  

Diane and Liz meet in a bar to catch up. Diane’s still staring at Dawnk. Liz takes her phone and silences the notifications. “Who thought that sound was pleasing?” Diane complains. “All day in court today,” Liz commiserates. Carmen had to teach her how to silence the notifications. Liz, you’re using an iPhone, there is a very easy to use switch that silences your phone, like you would need to for court. I know you know this.  

(I think Diane, despite her complaining about the sound, is captivated by Dawnk.)  

Liz orders soda water instead of a drink. I assume that’s intentional, perhaps because she knows this isn’t going to be an easy conversation or a long night of drinking? She has wine in an earlier scene.  

I love that Liz and Diane chat about Dawnk even though there’s no real plot reason for them to spend this much time discussing it. Little moments like this make me believe Liz and Diane are actually colleagues who get along well and make management decisions together.  

Diane asks if Liz thinks Dawnk actually increases productivity. Liz laughs—she does not. But she knows the associates would “riot” if they got rid of it. She’s right. I still think they can get rid of it without too much blowback. But at least they’re acknowledging this.  

“What do the partners think?” Diane asks, very intentionally shifting the subject. You can hear it in Christine’s voice and see it in her body language—Diane is looking for an opportunity to talk about what she wants to talk about.

“God, Madeline can’t even open it. She’s lost her password three times. She finally just gave up,” Liz says. This is concerning! Madeline should know how to open an app! Probably not unrealistic, though. When you’re that senior, you probably don’t need to know how to use a messaging app. And messaging apps can be confusing sometimes. Like, I still don’t understand how to use Discord.  

The captions have a line I can’t hear in this scene—Liz (I presume?) saying “You know, ‘cause it’s Madeline.” This makes it sound like Madeline is a little less than competent, no?  

“Thanks for sitting down with me, Liz,” Diane says in a quite serious tone. “Of course. So, you’re wondering about the meeting today?” Liz immediately understands. “I am.” “Yeah. Uh, it was about Julius. He’s being harassed on Dawnk,” Liz explains.

“Okay, and I couldn’t be a part of that?” Diane wants to know. “He’s being harassed because he’s defending your husband,” Liz explains. Diane doesn’t seem surprised (perhaps because she, too, would have read these messages?). “Well, that’s unfortunate. We’ve represented people far worse than Kurt, who, by the way, was found innocent,” Diane argues like they’re having a very different conversation. It’s one thing to represent rapists and murderers and drug lords—and I’d argue that the same people pissed about Kurt are also pissed about them!-- and another for your leadership to be married to/close friends with someone who you believe participated in the events of 1/6.  

“I’m not saying it wasn’t. But, January 6th. I mean, we watched the Confederate flag make its way into the Capitol building. You know, those people that Kurt didn’t want to turn over to the FBI, those people. They don’t even want us alive,” Liz says better than I ever could. I think it’s important that Liz mentions a POV that likely wouldn’t have ever crossed Diane’s mind here. This is a small glimpse of why it could be so important to have black leadership at a black firm. Would Diane be thinking about the implications of having the Confederate flag in the Capitol? Probably not in the same way that Liz instantly does.  

“Well, not all of them,” Diane Lockhart, who is suddenly an idiot, says. Liz looks at her drink and grimaces, and Diane realizes she’s said something wrong. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that. I’m certainly not defending those people. They’re all despicable traitors.”

“And now, that’s what people are saying about Julius,” Liz explains. “And me?” Diane asks, though she already knows the answer. Liz doesn’t want to answer that. Before she can say anything, Diane asks if she’s being pushed out.  

“No. Not pushed out. You’re a name partner. You can’t be pushed out,” Liz clarifies. Diane knows there’s a but. “The partners just think you should do the right thing,” Liz adds.

“And step aside?” Diane asks. “No. Stay in the firm. Stay as an equity partner, just step back from your managerial role,” Liz says. Diane pauses. “Liz, I... I pull in the big clients. I... I get the billable hours. But still, ‘maybe you should step aside.’ Weren’t we going to form a firm led by women?” Diane argues. Oh, wow, I have so much to say.

First, I completely understand why Diane doesn’t want to give up her title or her power. She's Diane Lockhart! She’s been one of the best in her field for decades. She’s not wrong about the clients and billable hours. It’s just that every time Diane decides to be at this firm, making arguments about how she should retain her role in power, she’s saying that she values her own career/appearance more than the values she claims to care about. And every time she refuses to take a back seat or threatens to walk rather than sacrifice, she’s saying she’ll only through her weight behind her colleagues and their mission if she gets credit for it. To be clear, I don’t think it would be the shittiest decision in the world if Diane decided to walk, to take her clients to a new firm and to let RL become the firm Madeline and the rest envision. It’s asking a lot of her to give up that power and prestige. The interesting part of this dilemma is, to me, that Diane claims to value working for RL and to be active in the fight against racism... but the second she’s forced to choose between that fight and her own power, we all know what Diane is going to choose. There was never really any doubt. Diane doesn’t have to be on the forefront of this fight if she doesn’t want to... but she can’t claim to be invested in the fight if she isn’t willing to sacrifice, at all.

Second, LMAO at this firm led by women idea. Every time Diane talks about her firm led by women idea it sounds sillier! Not because a firm led by women is silly, but because Diane has a habit of saying this like it is a shared goal and each time she references it, it sounds less and less intersectional. For example, when she says it here, she’s essentially saying a firm led by women only has meaning if one of those women is a white woman (specifically a white woman named Diane Lockhart). Who’s to say that Madeline wouldn’t be made partner in Diane’s absence? Or Barbara (haha) or someone else we haven’t met? There is a very real possibility that Liz and another woman could run the firm and Diane would still be unhappy about it. Diane doesn’t ask Liz for a commitment that if she does step aside, her replacement would be female (idk if it’s legal to make this commitment but you get my point). Diane acts like asking her to step aside is already a betrayal of the female led firm.  

“And I hope that it will be,” Liz says, basically hinting to Diane that there are women in the world besides her.  

“But black women?” Diane says, agitatedly. “Diane, I... am not voting against you. I promised you that I wouldn’t. But there is growing anger here. They want to address it at the next partners' meeting. So just think about it,” Liz responds.

I think Liz is totally fair and forthcoming in this scene and strikes pretty much the right tone for this initial conversation. She gives Diane a choice and is honest with her.  

“You’re a good person,” Liz adds. Diane does a double-take, understanding that Liz is actually telling her “You are a good person, so you know that you absolutely need to step aside.”  

“No, I’m not!” Diane responds. As I said: Diane already knows what she is going to do. She needs to do mental gymnastics to excuse her actions, but her mind was made up before the question was even raised. (She did warn Liz in 5x01 she was going to fight any attempt to push her out.)

“Yes, you are,” Liz says again. She may as well be saying, “No, don’t try this. Everyone will think you’re in the wrong if you push this.”

Later, at home, Diane is doing some stretches on the floor and groaning. I don’t know if this scene is meant to show her age, but it does remind me that Diane is nearly 70 and started off this show by planning to retire. Retirement doesn’t seem to be an option for her here. (That’s fine by me; she is a workaholic whose career is her life.)

Kurt asks Diane what she wants to do. She says she wants to keep her name on the letterhead and “keep what I fought for.” Heh, I was just re-reading something I wrote about Cary a while ago and I’d pointed out that when Alicia and Cary discuss merging with what’s left of LG, Cary is also concerned about his name on the letterhead because even though he wants to change the world, he also cares about having power. It’s almost like Diane and Cary are really similar characters! (They are! That’s why the Diane/Cary moment in Hitting the Fan is so good!)  

Diane calls her position as name partner a fight against “gender and then age discrimination.” She isn’t wrong, especially when you consider how meaningful it likely was when she and Stern went into business together. It’s very easy for me to forget that when Diane has such an attachment to fighting for white women’s rights, it’s not just because she’s out of touch and selfish: it’s because that was something she personally had to fight for. That doesn’t make it okay that she seems to forget the concept of intersectionality (which she’s definitely aware of) the second anything challenges her own power, but it does explain why a firm run by women is so important to her.

Diane is not wrong that she deserves name partnership and she’s not wrong to not want to step aside. Yet, starting a war to retain her position as name partner is a CHOICE. The best thing for Diane to do here (morally, I mean) would be for her to step aside and throw her resources behind the firm’s new leadership, using her experiences and stature to benefit the firm (this would also be a way for her to cement her legacy and mentor a new generation of leaders). The best compromise, I think, would be for someone to leave the current firm—either Diane or the dissenting partners, probably Diane since Liz seems to agree with Madeline—without any hard feelings. The worst possible choice is for Diane to insist that this firm is hers and force every single tension at the firm to come to a head, screwing over Liz in the process and potentially permanently ruining the firm’s status as a black firm. Sooo... yeah.  

(I say it could ruin the firm’s status as a black firm because if Diane’s a white partner who happens to be there and the firm is mostly black, that’s one thing. If Diane is a white partner who fought all of the black partners to assert her own dominance over their firm... that’s hard to come back from. She can’t really call herself an ally, can she?)  

“Diane, this is the first time I’ve ever heard you sound defeated,” Kurt says. “Because I can’t win this,” she says. She insists she can’t even after Kurt tries to cheer her on (of course he does, he probably thinks having an all black firm is just identity politics and therefore worthless).

“You just don’t want to,” Kurt says. He is not wrong. This is a winnable fight for Diane. Liz is smart but Diane has the experience, the clients, the power, and her own reputation to use in this fight. Liz has her dad’s name (and I don’t think it would come to this, but Diane knows how she can pretty easily destroy Liz’s dad’s reputation). (Liz is great, don’t get me wrong. Liz is also someone who happened into a name partnership because her dad was important.)  

“It’s bigger than that. To fight this would go against every fiber of my being,” Diane says. “Every fiber in your being is about winning,” Kurt counters. Oh, damn. That’s a succinct way of putting it. He is completely right. Diane would love to think that every fiber of her being is about her commitment to social justice and women’s rights. It is not. If that were the case, would she really be a lawyer with clients like ChumHum, Bishop, Sweeney, Rivi, and Wolfe-Colman? We all know the answer to this. We all know Diane likes social justice a lot but winning, wealth, and power far more.

When I first watched TGW, now nearly a decade ago, I was a high schooler and my media diet mostly consisted of Desperate Housewives and a bunch of procedurals like Bones and Castle. The thing that hooked me about TGW—more than Alicia’s journey, more than anything—was that TGW never had easy answers to anything. Will tells Diane in 1x07 that “nothing here is pure and nothing here is simple” and that basically blew my mind. TGW always made it obvious that Will was morally gray, which fascinated me. But I struggled with Diane. Here was this woman who looked like she should be someone so impressive and inspirational I could write a college admissions essay about her (I did not, but that was my frame of reference at the time)… but the decisions she made... never seemed all that great?? I couldn’t comprehend it.  

When Blue Ribbon Panel aired in March 2012, I wrote to a friend, “Diane confused me a little bit tonight. She didn’t approve of Alicia standing up to the panel, and yet, she’s supposed to care about people, the truth, morality, etc etc. I never understand Diane’s motivations– is her philosophy to help others whenever it wouldn’t hurt her, personally, to do so?”  

At that point, Diane compromising her values struck me as something confusing because I wanted to think of her as a powerful role model and icon, and I didn’t know what to do with someone who looked like and often was role model material who also sometimes betrayed her values for her own self-interest. I had my analysis of Diane down: she her motivations ARE to help others whenever it wouldn’t hurt her, personally, to do so. All I needed to do was remove my question mark from the end of that thought.  

I promise I’ll move on from quoting myself, but I also want to share a paragraph I wrote about Diane in March 2014 (during season five of Wife) because it says what I want to say now as well as anything I could write today:

Diane is driven and ambitious. Her initial actions can come as the result of intense emotions, but given enough time and space, Diane will always be strategic and pragmatic when it comes to business. She’s spent her entire life putting her career first, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. That she found love is just icing.  Kurt aside, the two most important things to Diane are advancing her own self-interest and doing good in the world. These objectives appear to be a contradiction, and often, they are. Nine times out of ten, when it comes down to it, she’ll choose herself. I mean no judgment here: another central aspect of Diane’s character is that she’s upfront about her choices and stands by them, and this sort of moral ambiguity makes for a great character.  

The reason I quote myself here is not to be like, ha ha, I was right. It's because I think this episode is even more powerful because I can copy/paste in stuff I wrote nine years ago or seven years ago (oh god, 2014 was seven years ago?) verbatim and it can hold up as analysis. Both Fight and Wife have always implied Diane’s selfish side and given more than enough evidence to make a convincing argument about it, but they’ve never really engaged with it directly (and if you ask the social media teams for either show, Diane is a #queen who can never do wrong). This episode interrogates something that’s always been an unpleasant part of Diane’s character, and I’m so fucking glad about it.  

(I don’t think anyone’s accusing Diane of not growing as a person but it crossed my mind that this could be seen as lack of growth. I don’t think it is. I wouldn’t expect Diane to change. Her life and career are so set that growth on this without a LOT of struggle on her part would feel like a cop out.)  

Another reason I quote myself is to highlight how friggin’ character driven this episode is. I’ve seen a lot of people saying this episode felt like old-school TGW—and it absolutely does; that’s also how I felt—and I think that’s because it’s so character focused and meaty.  

But back to this scene. Kurt tells Diane that if she doesn’t try to win she should just give up entirely. Seems like bad advice.  

“Kurt, I appreciate the pep talk, but I don’t think the way you think. I cannot put my interests above a whole group of people—black people—just so I can keep my position.” Sure you can, Diane. You just don’t like to believe that about yourself. You know how Diane says to Kurt earlier that she knows the NRA will offer him the job? That is how I feel about this scene. The writers go to great lengths to explain where Diane’s head is at when she decides to fight for her partnership, but they’d have needed to do ten times more to get me to believe Diane would step aside voluntarily.  

Kurt basically thinks that Diane should fight because if her competition is actually talented enough to deserve name partnership, they should fight her for it. He’s missing the point here.  

“But a black person’s talent has always been valued less than mine,” Diane counters. The fact she knows and understands this makes her decision even less forgivable.  

Kurt knows he’s going to lose this argument and tries the same strategy he did on 5x01: telling Diane she’s right and should just give up and leave the firm. Diane doesn’t like that answer either.  

Given how much I loathed Jay’s hallucinations, I was expecting that when Diane asks Kurt in the middle of the night if he believes the election was stolen and then sits down at her fireplace to have a chat with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, I’d loathe what happened next. I did not! I actually really liked it!  

I think this is more effective than Jay’s hallucinations, at least for me, because it's less gimmicky. It isn’t played for humor or quirk, and it gets to the character-driven point a LOT faster. This feels more similar to Alicia imagining Gloria Steinem is telling her she’s good enough to be on the Supreme Court in 6x03 than it does to Jay’s hallucinations.  

I LOVE that Diane would dream that RBG would advise her on her work dilemma. Dream!RBG tells Diane that “any law firm would be insane to let you go.” (I don’t wanna spend too much time fighting dream logic, but I feel like the operative phrase here is ‘let you go’. Are the RL partners seeing this as letting Diane go? Or are they just trying to get at a different goal and Diane is in the way, and they don’t really care if Diane has top connections or billable hours? It’s almost like the other RL partners want a firm that stands for something and all Diane has stood for thus far at the firm is profit...)  

Diane pushes back on RBG and RBG shares her “real” thoughts. This is where this sequence clicks into place for me, because it’s working on a LOT of levels. Obviously, Diane is going to imagine that her hero tells her to do exactly what she wants to do (the aforementioned mental gymnastics). But without losing the level on which this is dream!RBG and filtered through Diane’s POV, the writers are also... criticizing RBG for not stepping down herself!? It’s fascinating and pointed and makes her the exact right choice to play Diane’s conscience.  

Dream!RBG shares her life story and notes how she was always asked to step aside, but she didn’t and that’s how she got to be RBG. “Don’t step aside because someone wants you to. Don’t step aside for politics. Men are always asking women to step aside so a man can go first,” RBG advises Diane. Even Diane knows that this isn’t exactly equal to her current situation-- “Even though I’m being asked to step aside so that a black person can take my place?” she counters.  

So RBG asks if Diane can still do something “for women” if she says. Diane says yes, and RBG says Diane should do that instead of stepping aside—she should do whatever it takes. That’s the wrong takeaway, Diane! If you want to do something for women then a) you could do something for the black women at your firm lol or b) you could politely remove yourself from the firm, encourage your most profitable clients to stay on if they are wanted by the other partners or and/or c) you could choose to bring your talent and your stature to a non-profit. But, of course, these options aren’t on the table. There’s a reason the options are leave and lose everything or stay and fight for name partnership, and it’s that Diane cares about maintaining control of what she sees as hers and winning more than she cares about anything else, including or even especially her desire to help women.

And also what women is she even helping at RL? Herself? She’s certainly not helping Wolfe-Coleman's rape victim. The closest she’s recently come to helping women is when she told off Weinstein’s lawyer and tried to start #MeToo... in a DREAM.  

The score for the next sequence sounds so familiar and I can’t place it. At first, I thought it was Hitting the Fan, but I’m not sure if that’s the right reference (also, damn, the Hitting the Fan score is REALLY GOOD!). I think it might be similar to 5x14 when Alicia’s pacing back and forth in the hotel room.  

Anyway, Diane starts meeting with her (white, male) clients to tell them about how she’s stepping aside. She hasn’t run this past any of the other partners, of course. She’s doing exactly what they want, in the most malicious and calculated way possible.

One of her clients is a fracking client who wants to win over democrats by being a RL client.  

Diane is so sneaky here! No one said that if Diane steps aside as partner she can’t handle the day to day on her cases... yet that’s what Diane tells this client since she knows it’ll make him mad!  

Diane makes a point of showing her fracking client that his new representation will be Madeline. He doesn’t know anything about Madeline, and, as Diane was likely counting on, he isn’t confident in having a black woman he’s less “comfortable” with on his cases. I don’t know if Diane was going for the racial element here, but... if you’re really concerned about continuity, you don’t have this meeting without having Madeline ready to jump in and show she’s read up on the client. I’m sure it’s possible that Diane meant nothing in giving this client only Madeline’s name, title, gender, and race to go off of, but is that likely?  

She hands another (white, male) client off to Julius, whom she describes as a “very competent lawyer.” What an introduction. She says she’s not retiring and the firm “just wants to let some other people step forward into a name partner position.” Diane knows how to sell clients on changes they won’t like. She knows this isn’t how you do it.  

That phrase, “comfortable with you” is doing a lot of work, no? Both clients so far have said it, and while it might not be racially coded... it’s racially coded.  

“Who should we call about it?” the clients ask. Diane can barely keep herself from smiling.

They call David Lee, immediately. He takes the call in the middle of a meeting, while someone else is talking—he is David Lee, after all.

The information on the screen in David’s meeting is quite interesting. It’s about STRL’s plans for RL. Here’s how the firm is described: “RL is a high-end mid-sized Chicago law firm that can consolidate its specialized brand within the American POC community and expand its national and global brand with STR Laure.” Soooo... yeah. For the corporate overloards, RL needs it to be just black enough that it appears like a black firm, but they care more about appearances and branding than anything of substance. (Notice how it says “POC” and not black? Notice how there’s this mention of national and global presence that doesn’t seem to be on the RL partners’ mind?)  

There’s an area called room for growth, listing top clients—entertainment law, fracking, the DNC, and civil cases against CPD. Interestingly, two of these are Liz’s clients (entertainment and DNC), one is Adrian’s (civil cases against CPD), and only fracking is Diane’s... so maybe I didn’t give Liz enough credit earlier.  

There’s also a plan of action that includes partners working with STRL and the 15-20% layoffs we already know about. I don’t think this text is meant to include any new info, but I assume one of the writers had a hand in writing it and it’s a good way of confirming things that had been subtext.

Wackner’s reality show looks... well, like his court, because his court always looked like a reality show. Cutting together the most out-there moments (audience reaction cards, Wackner singing “Come on defense!”, Wackner renaming himself Judge Shmuley for a day) makes Wackner look pretty bad.

Hey Liz, I thought you figured out how to silence your notifications for Dawnk permanently. (It’s not all high-stakes controversy over on the “R&L General” channel—the anon animals are now discussing a broken coffee maker.) (Though even this discussion is a bit political! Anon Owl says they bet STR’s coffee machine works, and Anon Dolphin wants to know why they don’t have more coffee maters at RL.)  

There’s also a dance party—which Marissa participates in—in the footage of Wackner.  

Hey, wouldn’t Marissa have reported the cameras to Diane and Liz? I feel like she’d know they’d want to know.  

Wackner ends up on the stand to offer context for the strange-looking clips. In a smart move, Liz offers to just let Judge Farley ask questions—she knows that’s what Farley is really after.

Unsurprisingly, Wackner’s context makes his outrageous practices seem much more reasonable. There’s a scoreboard to keep lawyers aware of where they’re standing so they can gauge instead of guess at Wackner’s thought process. Shmuley is to honor a recently deceased relative. The costumes are to prevent bias and cut down entitlement.  

Plaintiff’s counsel argues that Wackner is biased and the case continues even though Wackner’s (mostly) won over Farley.  

The case next turns to something about copyright law that sounds downright silly—the point is to underline that Wackner’s court makes more sense than real court on some things. It makes more common sense and it’s less racist.  

Del gets called into court. It’s interesting how these scenes are blocked together rather than spread out. The same is true of Diane’s scenes—after credits, we have Diane and Liz at the bar, Diane at home, Diane talking to RBG, Diane making moves, and then David Lee becoming aware of the situation. Then we have several consecutive court scenes (all of which feel like they have natural break points) of Wackner stuff. If I had to guess, I would guess that it’s to keep the momentum going. The Diane stuff plays better when it feels like a continuous chain rather than a subplot.  

(The only thing that suffers is that I have no idea why there’s a court scene about copyright law right after the plaintiff argues they have evidence about Wackner’s bias? I probably wouldn’t have even noticed if the scenes had been spread out more.)  

Now Cord’s involvement with Wackner’s court becomes an issue. It’s funny they need a witness to bring up Cord when Cord is SITTING IN THE COURT ROOM.  

Apparently Cord is financing a company that would compete with the plaintiff’s company and this means Wackner is biased. As the next scene will explain, Cord wasn’t even aware of his investment in the rival company, and Wackner certainly wasn’t. But, regardless, it’s going to be challenging to prove that neither Wackner nor Cord knew about the investment, and the opposition is going to go after Cord’s financial records, which no one wants. Liz suggests a continuance, which would give Wackner about a year to keep working on his court before they have to come back to this issue.  

Wackner HATES the idea of delays and is all, THIS IS WHY I HAVE MY OWN COURT and again, he isn’t wrong.  

David Lee needs to see Liz, now. Liz and Diane meet in David Lee’s office and stare at their phones. Diane says she has no idea what the meeting is about, even though she basically set up the meeting herself.  

“What the fuck is going on?” David Lee says. Diane feigns surprise and asks for more specifics. David Lee reveals that four top clients have called with issues about their representation shifting.  

Liz knows what’s going on and aggressively says, “Diane, thoughts?” “Nothing from me. I met with my clients. I just told them of a restructuring that I was being told about,” Diane says like it’s no big deal. Liz and Diane both know that Diane forced this meeting.

“Is this a power play on your part?” Liz asks Diane. “No, it’s just updating my clients,” Diane says for David Lee’s benefit or commitment to the bit or something. It is definitely a power play, and a nearly unforgivable one done to an ally.  

“David, Diane was told about frustration at the partner level about a white woman being a name partner in a black firm. And apparently, this is her response,” Liz explains. “I just told our clients what was going on,” Diane defends. David Lee doesn’t really care about what happened: he cares about one thing, and that thing is money.  

“Diane’s a fucking name partner until STR Laurie says she’s not. No one decides until I decide. Now stick your race war back in its bottle,” David Lee says. I mean, basically, yeah, that’s what happens when you merge with a huge firm that only cares about profit.  

I like that this ends up coming back to STRL. You can’t really have a conversation about RL’s identity without also acknowledging that RL is not independently owned. Sure, STRL will care at some point if RL loses its clout with the black community—but like most companies, they care about guaranteed loss of profit and the short term more than long-term what-ifs. It may sound cynical, but if Madeline and all of the other partners quit, STRL would simply put all their effort into keeping Liz or even just the Reddick name and would then hire black lawyers who think more like Julius than Madeline to keep the reputation. STRL does not give a shit about helping anyone, and that’s what Diane counts on.  

I do not believe the version of RL that Madeline wants can exist when they’re under STRL’s control. I believe the version Diane wants (not really a black firm) can, and I believe the version Liz seems to want (one that’s mostly black and occasionally social justice focused) can, but this issue won’t go away until STRL does.  

Sure, Diane, keep telling yourself you’re fighting the good fight out here.  

(Perhaps “The Good Fight” is a more ironic and fraught title than it originally seemed.)  

“That was a mistake. I am on your side, and you don’t even realize it,” Liz tells Diane afterwards. Interesting that Liz says “I am” and not “I was.” I would love to know what Liz really thinks about this situation and hope we get more from her POV next week. I think Liz wants to run a black firm, but I also think she wants to run a successful firm and likes working with Diane. Liz is on Diane’s side about as much as she can be while still advocating for Diane to step down.  

Pissing off Liz is a very interesting move for Diane here, too. Diane wants to fight the one person who is on her side for control of a firm that doesn’t want her there, and she’s convinced herself this is the smart move! Kind of wild. What does Diane think the day to day will look like? I think I said this above, but in forcing this war, Diane is all but guaranteeing that if she wins, RL will only be a black firm in that STRL will say it’s one to make more money.

Julius and Diane chat next. Julius says he wants to start his own firm—with Diane. Her only reaction is laughter, but, like, this is probably happening. I’m not sure why she laughs. It’s not quite a case of unfortunate timing (Diane could’ve done this before she blew things up, and it’s not quite too late for Diane to commit to leaving and smooth things over with Liz), so maybe it’s just a “well, this sounds familiar!” laugh.  

(If you think of Previously On as 5x00 instead of 5x01, that would make this episode 5x05, which would make this a Hitting the Fan callback. I can also do mental gymnastics!)  

The episode could end there, but it doesn’t. We’ve still got a Wackner plot to resolve. Cord has some people beat up the plaintiff as a way of enforcing Wackner’s verdict and getting the real court case to go away. Marissa picks up on what’s happened faster than Wackner does, unless Wackner just doesn’t care.  

It’s subtle, but throughout this episode, there’s a little bit of a trend towards Marissa becoming more skeptical of Wackner. She tries to keep him under control in court, tries to reason with him about the continuance, and in this scene, she just looks entirely displeased and alarmed every time she’s on camera.  

We get another scene with RBG. “It’s different for me than it was for you,” Diane says. She notes that unlike RBG, she herself is up against another “dominated culture.” This other dominated culture is “black lawyers.” (I’m sorry, I just find the way she says “black lawyers” funny, partially because she says “lawyers” instead of people and partially because Diane seems insistent on only occasionally remembering that Liz is both black and female.)  

I can’t tell if this scene was originally intended to close the episode or not. The blocks of scenes, the way the episode seems like it should’ve ended with Julius’s laugh but instead has three more scenes (guy getting beat up, Wackner’s court, this one), and the fact the Kings said this episode had to be almost totally rethought because both Christine and Audra had concerns about the original script all suggest to me that maybe some of the scenes in this episode got shuffled around to keep momentum and hit the right notes at the right time.  

Diane acknowledges that RBG could’ve stepped down and we wouldn’t have a conservative majority on the court now if she had. RBG insists that she wouldn’t have stepped aside even if Obama had guaranteed that her replacement would be black. She says it’s because she only knows what she can do—not what others would do. And “what you know is always better than what might happen.”  

Even if this was originally supposed to happen earlier (Diane saying she doesn’t know what to do makes me feel like it way), I like that we get to see it’s still weighing on Diane after the fact.  

(Also, I have seen some comments about, for lack of a better phrase, the girl power energy of these Diane and RBG scenes. No! These scenes aren’t a tribute to RBG! She’s in these scenes because she didn’t step down and can thus help Diane excuse her own actions! These scenes aren’t exactly anti-RBG, but they are certainly critical of some of her choices!)  

The topic shifts to Diane and Kurt’s relationship (another reason to put this somewhere other than the main part of the episode; this would slow down the momentum of the middle part of the episode) and its similarity to RBG’s friendship with Scalia.  

Tbh, I don’t think a friendship and a marriage are all that similar on this front and I’d be curious to see Diane think about RBG/Scalia in the context of her potential partnership with Julius rather than her marriage.

RBG basically tells Diane to stay with Kurt. Diane thanks her, and then, back in reality, tells Kurt to take the NRA job so he’ll be happy—and then she’ll just sue him. Okay, that feels like an episode ending, so I am REALLY curious about all the re-writing and re-structuring that happened in this episode and what did/didn’t get touched. I can’t make up my mind about what feels out of place.

So we start out with Diane feeling like it might be the right thing to explore whether or not it still makes sense for her to be with Kurt, a suspected insurrectionist and future NRA employee, and Diane feeling like she wants to help her friends and partners at her mostly black firm do good in the world. And we end with Diane doubling down on her relationship with Kurt, giving her blessing for the NRA job, and fucking over her colleagues because she wants to keep her own power. Dark! I love it.  

This episode does this all without making Diane entirely unsympathetic, which is astounding. While I think Diane knowingly makes choices that further her self-interest over the values she (claims to?) hold and I am definitely NOT Team Diane on her decisions in this episode, this episode could easily have been less interesting and complex. It’s understandable that Diane would not want to step aside from a firm she’s helped build—who would? It’s understandable that Diane might not feel the passion for a black firm the way she does for a female firm. It’s understandable that Diane might not want to blow up her marriage, despite her political differences from Kurt. This episode allows Diane to be just sympathetic enough she never becomes a flat villain, but never sympathetic enough that someone could mistake this episode for one that shows Diane as a morally pure hero. Personally, I love that in a TV show. That’s the exact kind of writing that made me love Alicia Florrick enough that I still spend a considerable amount of time thinking about her character arc even though TGW ended half a decade ago. It’s what’s been missing from a lot of TGF episodes for me, and why I’ve said that TGF seems like a show more about theme than character. It’s why I’ve written—oh god, TEN THOUSAND words—about this episode.  

I have no clue what’s going to happen next, but I hope it includes more character-driven drama (ideally with a lot of good material for Liz) and not a lot of firm-jumping shenanigans.  

[unmaskedagain]

Yeah, I’m done

I got in this prompt in November, if I remember right. I didn’t really look at it because… What the hell is a fall out fic?!!! I thought maybe it meant Lila exposed but I’ve done quite a few of those. However, I don’t really think I ever focused on it too much; usually, I stray to all the wonderful things Marinette does without them. This came from someone anonymous so It's not like I can just ask the sender… SO I decided to wing it.

Marinette could honestly say she had waited a very long time for Lila to be exposed as the liar she was. Over a year in fact. A very long fourteen months.

           If Marinette was honest with herself, she would also add that she stopped waiting for any reason other than the fact she hated lies about… seven months, three days, and seven hours ago.

           Why did she remember that so well?

           That was the moment Marinette stopped trying to save everyone. Don’t get her wrong; she was still Ladybug. Ladybug was still a kickass hero. She did her job better than ever before.

           However, Marinette decided to take a step back, breathe, and let the chips fall where they may.

           Her fellow students, her once friends, had been trapped in the spider web of Lila’s tales; awestruck and utterly hypnotized into believing everything the Italian girl had to say. Even the ones about a girl most had known their entire lives.

A bully, they called her.

A selfish jerk.

A jealous bitch.

           Her! Marinette! The girl who had done so much for them; had gone to bat for them more times than she could count, and obviously more times than they could remember.

           Slowly, one by one, her friendship with each and every member of the class withered and died until there was nothing left but ashes.

           It was then Marinette realized some things weren’t worth saving.

           Marinette had no trouble forgiving them; it was who she was. But she promised herself she wouldn’t forget.

           And if they could treat her like this, after everything, that she didn’t want to be friends with them anyway. Not now, not ever.

           When Marinette stood up and announced her resignation from being Class President at the end of the prior school year, the entire class cheered. Like they did when Chloe was forced out of office. (…That only broke Marinette’s heart a little.)

           The bluenette changed her number the day after school officially let out for summer. It wouldn’t matter, she knew. She doubted they’d even realize. Most hadn’t so much as texted her in months. Unless they needed something; a favor.

           But Marinette was done with favors. Done with free commissions that no one ever seemed to realize cost her an arm and a leg; the fabric was expensive, art supplies for banners were expensive, designing was time-consuming. She was done with any free babysitting. She was done to bring in free sweets on big test days or when the class had a hard week prior. Marinette was done fundraising for class trips and events Bustier would exclude her from at the behest of the rest of the class for her “poor attitude” and “negative energy”. She was done with planning birthdays, making special presents, when no one in class even bothered to wish her a happy birthday.

           And most of all, Marinette Dupain-Cheng was done fighting for people who didn’t fight for her. She had tried for months and months to get them to listen to her and what did she get in return? Deemed a green-eyed Liar! As far as she was concerned Lila and Chloe could have at it; do whatever they wanted.

           She didn’t have a single friend in class.

           They weren’t her concern anymore.

…

           It took about a month into the new school years for the class to really understand that. Lila had originally voted in as class president, and had feigned a few tears while thanking the class for the honor but had declined due to being too busy. So Alya was voted in next.

           Alya handled the first two birthdays, Ivan’s and Alix’s, really well; she decorated their desks, gave them a birthday card. However, the usual tray of baked goods that were usually brought in for every birthday never showed.

           When Alya inquired if Bustier had forgotten to order the cupcakes, the teacher had looked confused.

           Marinette tried not to smirk as she sat in the back of the class, pretending to look over her sketchbook.

“I’ve never ordered any before,” Bustier said. “Marinette always did. She was class president. It was her job.”

           The two looked back at Marinette; expectant looks on their faces.

           The Asian girl snorted. It was never the class president’s job. Chloe never did it in all the years she ruled the class with an iron fist. Marinette had done it because she had been their friend. And she didn’t order them. She bought the ingredients and made them herself.

“It’s the job for the new class president,” Marinette corrected and watched Alya’s face fall. Normally, at that point, Alya would try to ask Marinette for a favor; for Marinette to do it instead.

           However, the glasses-wearing girl had taken to ignoring her ex-bestie as much as she could.

“Fine!” Alya huffed. “I’ll do it myself.”

           The next thing the class realized had changed was when Bustier announced, “Maybe it’s time we start planning for any class field trips?”

           Alya had nodded earnestly, and started making outrageous plans for all the trips the class could take; one to Paris Disney world, another to England, New York, L.A, and so many other very costly ideas.

           Ideas, when Marinette was Class president, she would’ve quickly shot down as being impractical, expensive, dangerous, impossible, and any whatever other reason she could think of so the class wouldn’t get their hopes up.

           Alya did no such thing.

           Marinette just shook her head, and let her ex-friend dig her own grave.

           The announcement happened in the morning. Alya had stayed behind when the bell rang for lunch to talk to the teacher and had blatantly glared at Marinette as she said so

           And Marinette knew exactly what Alya was planning on talking to Bustier about.

           Sure enough, at the end of the school day, Bustier had made another announcement; in front of the entire class.

           Marinette really hated how unprofessional the teacher was.

           Bustier made it clear that, once again, Marinette was excluded from the class trips that year until her behavior changed. This caused half the class, specifically Lila and Alya, to send her smug looks.

           Marinette had nodded, “I understand, Miss Bustier. I can’t say it won’t be a relief not to have to help fundraiser.” The smug looks didn’t entirely disappear but a few faces looked confused instead as if they didn’t realize that meant Marinette wouldn’t help. “I always hated all the planning it took,” And doing all the work, she didn’t add. “Fundraiser after fundraiser. Coming up with the budget, making reservations, clearing it with the school board, clearing it with the parents, getting chaperones, actually raising the money.” She gave a fake sad sigh. “Oh well. Hope you guys have a blast though.”

           Then it came time to plan for the first fundraiser. A bake sale.

           Marinette had nearly fallen out of her chair laughing when Alya brought it up. Because the bluenette had always hated doing bake sales as she was the only one who ever brought in any baked goods. It was like the entire class thought that just because Marinette lived in a bakery it would be easy for her to get all the food needed.

           It wasn’t. She made most of it herself and bought the rest with her own money.

“So who’s going to bring what?” Alya asked. She looked straight at Marinette and seemed to wat for the bluenette to speak. Only for Marinette to raise an eyebrow as if daring her to ask. Alya looked surprised for a moment before she seemed to remember that Marinette wasn’t going to help out. “We’ll make a list.”

           No one said a word.

           Marinette leaned back in her seat, with a smirk on her face. Alya had said they needed to raise at least $2,000 for the bakery. A highly unrealistic goal. Marinette had only ever raised $423 from a bake sale before.

“I can bring in cookies,” Alya offered once the silence and confused looks continued. “Anyone else? Nino?” She asked her boyfriend.

           Nino’s eyes went wide, “Uh, I usually just play the music.” Alya glared at him. “But my mom has a killer blondie recipe. I can ask her to make some.”

           Alya nodded, “Sweet. Rose?” And then, one by one, Alya called on each member of the class to see what she could force them to bring.

Even though all but one person in the class promised to bring something; it still wasn’t enough. It wasn’t a very big class. Theirs were the smallest in the entire school which was why new kids always got stuffed with them. In addition, flyers and a banner still needed to be made to promote the fundraiser.

It was clear as she looked at the list that Alya knew they were in trouble. And again, her eyes went to Marinette, a little bit more pleading now. Marinette just shook her head and started sketching a new dress.

She was done with always coming to the rescue.

Marinette didn’t go the bake sale. However, she heard about how much of a disaster it was from Aurore, her new friend from Mendeleiev’s class.

Half the food was burnt and overpriced. The flyers were terrible. And then it rained halfway through.

Suffice to say, the fundraiser was a bust.

And so were the fundraisers that came after it. Never once did the class meet their goals; though admittedly, their goals were never realistic, to begin with.

Marinette knew for certain by December that there was no way the class was taking any of the “oh so amazing trips, and it’s such a pity you can’t go, Marinette” they had planned. Or any good trip for that matter.

It took months for the school board to approve big trips; weeks to approve small ones. Paperwork needed to be filed with detailed plans ready to present. If a big trip got approved, and then for some reason, they couldn’t go and decided to do a smaller trip instead, new Paperwork would need to be filled out. The new trip would need to be approved. It wasn’t like Bustier could take the class somewhere without permission. And if it wasn’t done in time, there would be no trip.

In late October, Marinette posted a flyer on the class board, and around the school, promoting her new website. It got curious glances but only Adrien asked about it.

Adrien, who was neither enemy nor friend, but a neutral party who refused to get involved. His version of the high road, Marinette guessed.

“What’s that?” He asked. “You starting your own business?”

           Marinette nodded, “MDC designs. I designed a bunch of clothes over the summer and got a few friends to model them; Aurore, Marc, Luka,” Juleka looked up at the mention of her brother “Kagami, Ondine, Claude Mireille; and a bunch of girls from the fashion club. People can choose the premade designs already promoted on the site and I can send it to them in their size. Or they can contact me for a custom piece; dresses, scarfs, nearly anything really. That’s a lot more expensive, though. Not at much as it would’ve been, say last year, but now that I’ve stopped doing free commissions, I could lower the price.” She said the last sentence louder than polite but she wanted the entire class to hear.

           No one in class blinked twice at her statement. However, Marinette knew they would.

Adrien nodded happily, “Cool, that’s kind of what my dad did in the late 90s when he was starting out. Computers were like barely a thing he said.”

           Marinette couldn’t picture a time without computers or her smartphone and couldn’t imagine a life without the internet. She shivered at the thought. “Aurore’s become really well known as an Instagram model. I gave her a few outfits in exchange for her promoting my stuff. She even got a few of her model friends to promote my clothes as well. It’s going really well. If the trend continues; I was thinking of doing a live, online, runway show. I’ve already been scouting places.”

           That got some envious looks. Whether it was because Marinette was doing so well or because others would be used as her model, she didn’t know. She didn’t care.

           Marinette was done caring about every stupid little thing.

           The blond just nodded with enthusiasm, “You’re a great designer. I’m sure you’ll be a hit in no time.

“Hopefully, rather than later,” Marinette smiled. “It’ll go even better when Nadja promotes me on her show. I just have to babysit Manon for free for five random days of Nadja’s request that she could request … any time.” It had been a steep price but Marinette had been willing to pay. “She’ll even promote my runway show if I ever have it.”

           The first time someone, Mylene, realized just what Marinette had meant when the drama club inquired to her about getting more costumes for the school play and she had no one to turn to. She took one look at commission prices for local tailors for custom pieces and nearly threw up. Marinette’s website, while still expensive, was a much better deal. Still, Mylene couldn’t afford it.

           Nino needed a gift for his mom and remembered how much she loved the scarf he got her last year. He thought it was a good idea to get her something similar. But then he remembered Marinette had made the scarf. And Alya would kill him if he bought anything from Marinette’s website. So Nino settled on something small.

           When the school dance came, for the first time the majority of the girls in class would have to buy their own dresses. They came from a store, were cheaply made, and were not nearly as amazing as the ones they previously wore.

           All in all, it wasn’t the greatest year for Bustier’s class. Midterms had taken a heavy toll. It tense and everyone was clearly frustrated. So were Marinette’s friends from other classes. So during Lunch, Marinette surprised her table with delicious baked goods as a pick me up. The ones she normally would’ve brought just for her class.

           Marinette pretended not to notice the hopeful looks on her classmates faces when she walked by with the iconic light blue Dupain-Cheng bakery box. And ignored the crestfallen looks on their faces when she headed them out to just her friends.

In April, it was clear that the trip to New York had fallen through as they didn’t have enough money. Alya had to rush to get something small approved before the end of the year; a trip to the local amusement park. Marinette didn’t laugh when Alya announced it to the class who looked really bummed all their hard work didn’t pay off. She didn’t even blink twice. It had nothing to do with her after all.

           In May, the truth finally came out. It happened on a Thursday.

           Lila had forgotten her lunch bag at home. Her mother brought it. Lila’s eyes went wide at seeing her mother and she did everything she could to get her out of the class as soon as possible.

           Rose asked Mrs. Rossi, “How the meeting in Achu went?”

           To which Lila’s mother replied, “A what now? I’ve never been to Achu.”

           Marinette had merely leaned back in her seat to watch the fireworks.

           And it was beautiful.

           It was an even bet as to who had the bigger meltdown.

           Mrs. Rossi: when she learned just how much her daughter had been lying; to her, to the school, to her classmates, and basically everyone she met since moving to Paris. Apparently, it wasn’t the first time and it caused a lot of trouble in the past which was why they had to move to France. Mrs. Rossi was quick to refute any rumors about celebrity meetings, traveling around the world, and ever meeting any royalty. And that Lila had no medical issues whatsoever and didn’t participate in any charity organization.

           Lila: she had nearly been Akumatized when her mother started to reveal the truth. Luckily, Ladybug had been nearby to catch the little butterfly. (Marinette had just left to the bathroom, not that anyone had really noticed). The hero refuted ever knowing Lila outside of stopping her akuma forms.

           And Finally Alya: who had burst into an angry rant and furious tears at being lied to. It was another near akumatization. Alya had to be physically restrained from attacking Lila once the realization hit her about her blog being discredited for lies.

           A lot of the class yelled and made accusations but no reaction was nearly as extreme as the other three. Lila had taken advantage of her classmates for almost two years. They carried her books, remade plans so she could be included, took notes for her, threw parties to celebrate her newest accomplishments.

           However, Marinette noted, not one of them mention the friendship they had destroyed because of their belief in Lila. She shouldn’t have been surprised.

           The bluenette had long since realized she wasn’t ever as important to her ex-friends she once thought.

           The entire class was still angry the next day. Lila didn’t show so vented to each other.

           Marinette still sat in the back of the class, content to come up with designs to present to a nice lady who wanted a killer dress to wear to her sister’s wedding, and let the class deal with its own drama.

           Unfortunately, some people didn’t get a clue.

“Marinette,” Adrien said brightly. Marinette fought not to look up at the sky and ask god why. “What do you think about the Lila situation?”

“I don’t really care,” The bluenette said. “I was done with the whole thing a while ago.”

           Suddenly everyone remembered Marinette was there. Marinette who swore Lila was lying for months. Marinette who they had ostracized and exiled. Marinette who they had ignored. Marinette who had once been their friend.

           Rose gasped, her hand over mouth, tears welled up in her eyes, “Marinette! I’m so sorry,” She cried.

“I can’t believe we were so mean to you,” Juleka said.

“Dudette, I had no clue what I was thinking,” Nino said.

           More apologies came, each one more heartfelt than the last. Alya had been last. She looked like she had been stabbed from the pain her face. Eventually, the glasses-wearing girl cried, “I’m so sorry girl! I’ve been the worst bestie ever. I should’ve believed you over Lie-La.”

           Marinette looked at her classmates, shrugged, and said, “Okay.” Then she went back to looking working.

           That was it. However, clearly by the silence that came from the class. They had been expected a bigger reaction. Tears of joy and relief. Happiness to have her friends back. Anything but they got nothing.

           Alya frowned, “Didn’t you hear us? We’re sorry. We should’ve trusted you, we know that now. We’ll make it up to you, we promise.”

           Marinette sighed but shook her head. “No. Thank you. I don’t need you to make it up to me,” She said. “I don’t want you to make it up to me. Just keep doing what you’ve been doing.”

“But, but…” Rose looked around for help. “We’re friends again.”

“Yeah,” Adrien said brightly. “It can go back to the way it was.”

           At that, Marinette put down her pencil. She gave the class a hard look. “Let me make this clear because I have no intention of repeating myself: we are not friends. None of you,” She gave pointed looks to her ex-friends, the longest to Adrien and Alya. “Are my friends. You were mean. You called me names. You spread nasty lies about me because Lila told them to you. You excluded me from all class activities; despite the fact that last year I did the majority of the fundraising, the planning, and the work. You hurt me. Things will not go back to the way they were. I don’t trust you. We are not friends. And we will never be friends again. No amount of apologies will change that.”

           Alya went to protest, “Girl, we’re-”

           Marinette interrupted her, “Just move on. I have.” Then put her headphones in until Bustier managed to get control back over the class. As far as Marinette was concerned there wasn’t anything left they could say.

           …

           That didn’t stop them from trying.

           No one in the class seemed to believe that Marinette, their everyday Ladybug, wouldn’t forgive them. Lila had been withdrawn from school and no one knew what happened to her. And without Lila’s presence, the class was sure Marinette would have no problem moving on from the drama the Italian girl had caused.

           They never even considered the fact that Marinette had never been angry at Lila. She hadn’t been happy at her lies. But she had been furious that her friends had fallen for them so easily, particularly the ones about the bluenette.

“Hey,” Alya said brightly stopping in front of Marinette’s desk the following Monday morning. She thought Marinette just needed the weekend to calm down. “All the girls are planning a slumber party at Rose’s on Friday, you in?”

“No,” Marinette said firmly. “I’m busy,” She offered politely.

           And she would be “busy” every time they wanted her to do something.

           Too busy to go to all the parties she had been previously excluded from. Her ex-friends still hadn’t realized Marinette had never wanted to go after she realized they just weren’t worth it anymore.

           Too busy hanging out after school. Or go to Adrien’s photoshoot. (Alya just wouldn’t understand that Marinette was so done with her crush on Adrien.)

           Too busy to help with the school play.

           Too busy to watch Kitty Section preform.

           Too busy to go play video games.

           Every day, every moment they could; her ex-friends were trying to pressure her into being their friend again, hanging out with them again, forgiving them. They just wouldn’t take no for answer.

           Honestly, Marinette was just done with their antics.

           Particularly the incessant need to make sure Marinette was on the “big” class trip; as if they believed if Marinette went it would make up for everything.

           Marinette made it clear she really, truly was way too busy to go some random beach trip. She really did have plans and she couldn’t back out of them. They were too important.

           But her ex-friends kept bringing it up, with Alya leading the charge, over and over again. They didn’t care what Marinette wanted at all. And once more, Marinette was reminded why she was glad they weren’t her friends anymore.

Eventually, once again, they got the teacher involved. Bustier had so “nicely” announced in front of the class, that Marinette was more than welcome to go on the class trip with them and that they looked forward to coming along.

And as far as Marinette was concerned that was the final straw.

“I’m good,” Marinette said. “Seeing as my behavior hasn’t changed. I think its best I don’t go; right Miss Bustier? That was what you said? And obviously to you thought it was a good reason.” She reminded the teacher. Bustier flushed a pink color at being called out. “It wasn’t like you, an adult woman, caved into peer pressure from your students and a childish need to avoid confrontational situations.”

           Silence from the class. No one had expected Marinette to react as she did. In their minds, she was still their “everyday ladybug”; the nicest and sweetest girl in school. The idea made Marinette scoff. Where was that mindset when Lila got ahold of them?

           The bluenette glared at the teacher, the woman who should’ve never let the Lila issue get as far as it did; never let Marinette be ostracized and bullied. “I mean, you called me out in front of the entire class to tell me I couldn’t go. Not the first or last time, by the way, you did something so… crass. Not the most sensitive way either.”

“Well, I think-” Bustier had tried to say but was cut off.

           Marinette wasn’t going to let her have a word in, “I’m so glad I started to record lesson last year, for you know notes? You know after that expulsion incident? I worried about what I’d miss. It made it so easy for my parents to understand why I was excluded from class events because they could watch it. I mean I have months and months of video evidence they just… loved. They got to see exactly what this class is like on an everyday basis, and exactly how you run it. So did our lawyer, who seemed rather interested in my school. It turns out that physically harming, via tripping or pushing them into walls as you walked by just hard enough for it to hurt. Or destroying private property; like a phone, spilling water on a laptop, or sketchbooks filled with work for commissions. Or verbally bullying someone. Or sending horrible texts daily, all of which I saved and printed out, can be considered harassment. Which is illegal and the perpetrators involved could face criminal charges as well as be sued for the destruction of said property and for emotional ramifications I suffered. But a teacher would never let anything like that happen in front of them so it wouldn’t be on any of the videos I have, right?”

           She let the words fill the room. Bustier had paled dramatically and looked ready to faint. The rest of the students who had taken to bullying Marinette instead of ignoring her looked sick. Marinette had no sympathy for any of them. They got themselves into this mess.

           Marinette shook her head, “I asked them to chill for now because you’re the teacher. You did what you did for a reason. It’s not like you’d shirk your responsibilities on the class representative. Or force some poor student to be a model example and mediator for all class issues. Or god forbid, cater to the bullies and blame the victim; allow one of your students to be verbally and physically harassed daily. The videos I have surely would never show anything like that; let alone prove it in a court of law… No matter what my lawyer says. But again, you don’t have to tell me why.” Marinette already knew why after all. And she was so done with Bustier. “You had to have had a good reason. Otherwise, I would have to take this to the school board. And a judge in a court of law. And see if you can explain it to them. Maybe I’ll even send them to my mom’s best friend Nadja so she can put them on her show and the world can see too. And we can find out what everyone thinks of you and your teaching methods.”

           The threat was clear to all.

           Bustier better back off. Or Marinette would make her back off.

           The teacher only had to slip once, and she was done for.

“Enjoy the trip,” The bluenette smiled cheerfully, in a way that reminded them eerily how she used to smile at them when Marinette was still their friend; still their “everyday Ladybug”. But instead of bringing warmth as it used to, all they felt was shivers. “It might our last one altogether. After all, who knows where we’ll all be in September. May be separated into different classes. Or different schools. With the way Damocles expels students with no procedure whatsoever, you never know. Or have a new teacher. We can only guess. I think its best if we just… leave things alone. With the way things are, if you push, you might get pushed back… right off a cliff.”

Marinette was done playing games.

           When the class left for their “big” trip, Marinette had finally let out a sigh of relief. Next, she was so transferring to Mendeleiev’s class.

           She was done with Bustier’s class.

           While the students of Bustier’s class were playing at the beach and plotting their next move to get Marinette to forgive them, Marinette was fulfilling one of her biggest dreams.

           The bluenette did have for her online runway show. She had spent weeks and weeks promoting it on her website. Aurore, some of the fashion club, and other rising Instagram models walked the runway in Marinette’s new line. Jagged hosted. It hadn’t been Marinette’s idea, but Jagged complained to Penny when Marinette turned him down the first time and Penny talked to Marinette.  

Chloe made a deal to her mother to watch the runaway show to review in exchange for Chloe being one of the models. Again, Marinette expressed concerns but couldn’t turn down the chance of Style Queen seeing her clothes.

Marc helped designed the runway; to give it an artistic, futuristic, edgy look. Claude brought in a smoke machine and his laser machine that the used for his short films to make everything really pop.

Clara Nightingale let Marinette use her music as the runway music. The superstar performed a song during the show and promoted it on her social media feed in exchange for a few custom pieces and Marinette getting Ladybug to do some selfies with her. (Tikki had to be bribed with an entire tray of chocolate chip cookies, and to be left alone with the TV in Marinette’s room for the night; something about finally catching up on Game of Thrones.) Marinette was quick to agree. Though Jagged had been in a huff until Marinette agreed to let him close out the show.

           The world took notice, albeit mostly because of Jagged and Clara. But Audrey, the Style Queen herself, had raved about how cutting edge it was. She claimed that an underground, exclusive, fashion show was the new big thing in fashion. The clothes were marvelous too. All in all, MDC’s runway was exciting, sophisticated, and fresh, just like her new line.

           Not long after Style Queen’s review posted, the orders had come flying in on her website. Everyone who was anyone seemed to NEED to be seen wearing the MDC brand.

           Marinette had smiled ear to ear for the rest of the weekend. She looked forward to what the future would bring.

           It was a new day.

           Which was great because…

           Marinette was so done with yesterday.

[chidoroki]

TPN - Isabella one-shot

Okay, so.. I have so many emotions right now it's not even funny. I don't care how many times I've said this since ch169, but I'm gonna say it again: Isabella is a goddamn QUEEN! I thought the side chapter was going to reflect the light novel like Krone's was last week (it was based on that, correct?), so being able to witness Isabella be that dangerous “iron woman” mastermind again was simply fantastic.

As Krone's extra chapter reminded us, every woman in this mother/sister academy is fighting to survive by any means necessary, so seeing these ladies put on a pretty face one moment to praise Isabella on her promotion only to talk shit behind her back the next minute was of no surprise to me. What did make me a little stunned was that these women are unmistakably the same women who stood so proud and confidently behind Isabella once she revealed her wonderful revenge plan to the rest of the facility back in ch170.

So, what changed? Oh, it's quite simple and a complete joy for me to talk about, so allow me. Isabella had a reputation of never making mistakes, as she always received perfect scores on both written and physical tests, so upon learning that she allowed 15 children to escape is a bit jarring, especially to the other ladies. The quality of her loss was such a huge hit to the farm's profit that they couldn't fathom why she of all people would be chosen to become the next Grandma. They believed it to be unfair, that Isabella must have had some sort advantage after working under Grandma Sarah that could've been kept under wraps. They both got rid of Krone with little to no explanation at all, so some rules must have been tweaked. It's no doubt the ladies saw Isabella as a major threat to their own survival, so they kept a close eye on her and waited for the perfect opportunity.. to create a fake lead to raise suspicion on this flawless woman.

Too bad dearest Grandma was already ten steps ahead of them! HAA! Did they honestly think they could take her down? And Jessica, sweetheart, you even spoke about Isabella's training days a couple of pages ago and how “she calmly got revenge on all the girls when they tried to sabotage her.” That literally just happened again so y'all can't really be surprised by this outcome! She knows that Jessica, Sienna, Scarlet & Matilda, are the current top four choices to become mothers, so it was quite easy for Isabella to determine who would go after her and her new position, if anyone were foolish enough to think about such a thing.

Luckily for them, Isabella has no intentions of killing them off. Since they're all quite intelligent and skilled, she decides to recruit them as allies in her pursuit to destroy Grace Field. Their reaction is similar to the other women we see from ch170. Everyone is apprehensive at first, as going against the farm is nothing but a crazy idea, and yet Isabella assures them that there is no bright future if they remain stuck in the system and obey their rules.

They betray each other to give themselves the best chance at surviving, but it'll be an endless hell if you live out your entire life in fear. So if not for each other, what do these ladies have to live for? Oh, just their children they all chose so hard to forget about.

By now it's no secret that Ray is Isabella's son, but ever since ch170 I couldn't help but wonder if any of those women were the biological moms of any of the other kids we know. You can't tell me the lady with that distinguished nose isn't Nat's mother. I also thought the others could be mothers of Rossi, Yvette, Anna and perhaps Don? Sienna might be Emma's, Matilda to Norman's, Scarlet to Phil's, and Jessica.. I'm not sure honestly? I know it could be any of the kids at GF plant #3, not just the 15 that escaped, but it is fun to think about though and I wasn't expecting to learn that their kids were all at the same house.

It's quite convenient that Isabella had the chance to raise their children actually, because after a few more words of encouragement and the knowledge that their children are indeed still alive, the four ladies agree to support Isabella's plan. Well, once she guarantees to not double-cross them, which is reasonable. It's best for them to have some trust in each other in order to work together. Isabella gives them her word and some much better evidence of her mistake in the form of… aaaaahhh Ray's note.

Bro, believe me when I was completely shooketh upon reading this. It's been a question we all had for so long that I was fairly certain we weren't going to get an answer for it after the series ended. Of course the knowledge of Ray being Isabella's true son was the weakness many of us thought the note contained, but I could've sworn I read somewhere, in some interview or whatever it was, that Shirai said it was something else Ray baited Krone with (right? or am I completely going crazy about this trivia). Anyways, I guess a farewell note is different enough but damn.. what a punch to my heart. Not only did he address it as “dear mother,” but the fact that Isabella kept it this entire time. Like wow.. I'm kinda speechless here. No doubt she still loves her son, just look at how fondly she holds it! If anything, I must know the full contents of said note! Shirai, please! I'm begging!

And if that wasn't enough to make me emotional, Isabella's wish certainly had me tearing up. I hope she knows that her precious children are all happy together in a free world living the best life they possibly can. Honestly, if I had any power to change just one thing in this series, it would to let Isabella live. Having Emma keep her memories is a close second, but I've come to accept that inconvenience after seeing how happy she and all the other kids are post-series. Look at this precious family! I love them! (also I wanna see that full photo on top with her and ayshe darn it!)

Seriously though, her death is still something I'm not over. I literally have not listened to her lullaby since ch177 dropped because I'm scared I'll become a tearful mess. Yes, sacrificing herself to protect Emma and that other girl from the demon was very admirable of her and helped with her redemption, but she didn't have to die from it! (hell, if emma could survive being stabbed then so could isabella, right?? damn plot armor! ) To me, I just feel like it wasn't necessary, especially now after learning what we just did from this extra chapter. Not only did she agree to become Grandma to help the children when they eventually returned to GF in two years, but Isabella also decreased the number of shipments in order to produce higher quality goods to make up for those that escaped, which is exactly what Emma believed would happen once she decided to leave the kids four and under behind. I love how Isabella adopted Emma's ideals and spirit in order to go against the system and rally everyone else up to accomplish the impossible. Personally, I forgave this woman the moment she retrieved the ropes in ch37 so the farm wouldn't know exactly where the children escaped from. She didn't have to die to prove she was a good mother who cared and love her children, because she showed that several times over and over again. She literally did everything in her power to help these kids secure a brighter future while remaining in the shadows.

Yeah, it makes me happy that they did at least take her body to to the human world so they all can continue to pay their respects to her, but aaahhh.. how I wish she were still alive. She suffered so much, she deserves to live in peace with her children and love them all normally. Ray especially!! You can't just formally introduce these four brilliant women to me and then be like “oh yeah, they have GF kids too and now they're free in the human world with them” and not have Isabella with Ray! I'm sure their relationship would've been rocky at first, but I still would've love to see them at least give each other a chance to be a real family. Hmmmm.. this chapter, man.. so not good for my heart, but I loved every bit of it. Once again, rest in peace to the iron woman. What a queen.

[i-love-you-all]

Hey there! I was wondering if you could do some Yoru x Phoenix angst based on one/some of these songs? Your writing is so neat! (Modern baseball - Your Graduation / Modern baseball - Re-do/ The Front Bottoms - Be Nice To Me / McCafferty - Sellout)

Hi! I ended up going w Your Graduation :)) Hope you enjoy!

I don't write a lot of phoenix or yoru, so I hope this is ok :)) (side note, anyone else feel like riot is purposely promoting both Phoenix/Yoru and Phoenix/Jett? I mean it def gets the interest up ig?)

~800 words, Angst with no happy ending, break ups, leftover feelings, lying to themselves and each other.

“So… What are you saying?”

“It’s done. No more.”

Those were the words that seemed to shut Phoenix up. Nothing else ever got him to stop talking, yet four words left him speechless.

“But…”

Yoru didn’t hear what he had to say next. He was already out the door. He left as quickly as possible because somewhere in the scorn, the disgust, and the frustration, was a small seed of hurt. And if he stayed in the room there was no telling what it would grow into.

It didn’t stop him from thinking about Phoenix though. Didn’t stop him from daydreaming about him, didn’t stop Yoru from taking a deep breath every time he caught a whiff of his cologne, didn’t stop his heart from pounding against his ribcage, begging to be let out so that it could run back to Phoenix, Yoru’s pride be damned. And none of this was helped by the fact that they were here for a mission, so no matter how hard he tried, Yoru would still run into him at the range, in the dorm wing, and in the break room.

But now, right now, Yoru was looking up at Phoenix, two ends of a staircase and lots of space between them. They were going to talk.Why did that sound like such a bad idea coming from Phoenix’s mouth? Yeah, he had just caught Phoenix complaining to Jett about everything. They stood there at the top of the stairs for how long? And he was just going on and on about how he was homesick and how he missed his apartment and his music and his set up. He droned about being a sad drunk, when everyone in the protocol knew that was false, and he complained to her about not knowing if he could be like this forever.

Be like what?

He was likely about to find out.

“You fucking miss me.”

Yoru still shot first though. Better strike first than to strike back, after all. It’s a fact. A statement. It’s undeniable and uncomfortable, but it still probably shouldn’t have been said.

“Now if we’re done here—”

“Don’t fucking turn your back on me,” Phoenix stopped him. “We’re not done.”

He was being cruel, but there was a pathetic self-satisfaction he got in the split-second Phoenix’s eyes caught his. At least he wasn’t the one on the verge of breaking down, so that had to count for something, right? He sighed but faced the golden-brown eyes that pleaded with him.

And if he had been caught staring right here in this position just twenty-four hours ago, Yoru might’ve given in.

No, he needed to leave first, he needed to walk away and rub it his stupid face that he was ok. He was absolutely ok, and he wouldn’t turn around to look back because there was nothing wrong here except that even the thought of walking away hurt like hell. Why? Well, he could think of why it would hurt, but it wasn’t a question of ‘why did it hurt?”. This was a question of self control, and why can’t he walk away?

Yoru had only managed to turn before Phoenix spoke up. “I don’t get you.”

“What?”

“Yoru, man, I… What else do you want from me? Everything I had you took. My time, my attention, my body. I would’ve given you anything. You even have my heart.”

Yoru was going to respond, but Phoenix cut him off. “I’m not done. I can see you, you know? I see it on your face or your eyes or whatever. But I know you think I’m acting stupid, and I am. I’ll admit it. But it’s all because of you.”

A moment of silence where Yoru is just staring up at him.

“What else do you want, Yoru? What else could I give you?”

You weren't the only one who thought of us that way

And he knows that Phoenix is right. He knows that he loved him back despite their differences. He knows that he loved Phoenix the same way Phoenix loved him. He’ll never admit it though. Someone, whose name and face had long faded into obscurity of his memory, had once said that his flaw was that he had an inferiority complex. He had brushed them off as jealous of him at the time. But here, his feelings and shared memories laid bare between them without anything to hide behind, he finally had to agree. He would never accept those feelings. And it was time that Phoenix just moved on. For both of their sakes.

“Cat got your tongue? You gonna say anything, mate?”

God, he hated whenever Phoenix would call him mate or bruv or any of that. He almost laughed.

“Fine, whatever,” Phoenix said, unable to stand that silence any longer.

And the bright, loving, compassionate Phoenix… walked away. Yoru never imagined that he’d see the day where Phoenix would walk away first. Nor did he ever imagine he’d see the day where he was actully letting the fireboy go.

But go ahead, Yoru thought bitterly to himself. Go ahead and walk away.

They were both going to mourn the same that night anyways.

[riceccakes]

1 & catradora :)

trope writing prompts: send a number and a pairing :)

hi anon, you didn’t pick a category so i’m choosing my favorite out of the three, hope thats okay !!

“What, you’ve never thought about us?”

-

Adora was leaving. She was brought into Hordak’s office and left with a bittersweet smile. Catra didn’t need to even ask; Adora got the promotion. This would’ve been something to celebrate, had the promotion not meant moving across the country to the sister company, Dryl Inc.

“Hey, this doesn’t mean I’m gonna fall off the face of Etheria,” Adora said as Catra helped her clean her desk. “I’ll still call and I’ll visit every now and then.”

Catra kept her mouth shut, biting her tongue. It was too much at that moment, to try and even put into words what she was feeling. Instead, she hastily scanned Adora’s file cabinet of folders and tossed whatever the woman wouldn’t need.

Adora was Catra’s first friend at Prime Co. The desk job was going to be temporary, answering phone calls and trying to sell merchandise to make money while she looked for something more permanent. But, her and Adora started on the same day, were in the same training session, even were in the same group for “Team Building Exercises.” When the scheduled lunch time came around, Adora sat down at Catra’s empty table with a smile.

“Do you like tuna?” she asked. She stopped, shaking her head, “Was that stereotypical? I’m sorry, I should’ve worded this better.”

Catra kept a close eye on her, not responding as Adora pulled out three sandwiches, four bags of chips, two large cookies, and four juice boxes.

“I saw you weren’t eating so I thought I might offer one of my sandwiches,” Adora started, holding two of the three up, “I have two roast beef and one tuna, but I should’ve worded this all better.”

She began muttering to herself, fiddling with the plastic wrapped sandwiches and Catra finally reacted. She laughed, taking the tuna out of her hand and opening it.

“You’re fine, dummy. I like tuna.” She bit into it, glancing up to see Adora’s pink cheeks trying to hide.

They’d been at the company together for almost two years and while Catra was still coasting along, sure she’d stay until she found a more suitable career, Adora was excelling like no other coworker. Their boss, Hordak, had been giving her a bit of extra treatment, at least Catra noticed. She was sure Adora would be chosen for the new promotion Hordak announced a few months ago and wasn’t surprised today when Hordak called out from his office for Adora to see him.

When the last bit of Adora’s desk was in the box issued by Hordak, the picture frame of the two girls from the holiday party on top, Catra sighed.

“How long until you have to leave?”

“About a week,” Adora answered, lugging the box towards the elevator. “I have to pack my apartment too and everything.”

“Right,” Catra looked at the floor, wrapping her tail around herself. She stayed a few feet from Adora, wishing the elevator door wouldn’t open. She hissed at the sound when it did.

Adora stepped in, calling out Catra’s name. “Help me move out?”

Catra rolled her eyes, “Of course, idiot.”

When Catra clocked out, she drove to Adora’s almost too quickly. She hadn’t realized how much she dreaded that office; without Adora, her deskmates were bland and boring, lunch was a drag, and the empty space next to her hurt her heart more than she wanted to admit. 

Catra called out over the next few days, opting to help Adora move rather than endure more nine hour shifts in her newfound hell. She was silent for almost all of the packing sessions, still too upset to see Adora go. (Deep down in her heart, Catra hoped Adora would say no to the promotion. She hoped Adora would want to stay with her and not leave and keep working together and play pranks on Kyle until they retired. She hoped she wouldn’t have to ask Adora this, she hoped Adora would just know.) 

Catra knew Adora was talking, but the sentences never stuck in her mind. She was too busy wrapping dinner plates in old newspaper and bubblewrap and trying her hardest to stop her shaking hands from dropping any.

When she placed the last one in the box (all of them in tact, a feat in itself) she heard Adora say, “Let’s get drinks.”

It’d be only one more day before Adora had to leave. Catra placed the last box in the moving truck and nodded. Her tail wrapped around her again and she felt her ears drop. Adora placed her hand on Catra’s shoulder and she shuddered, quickly pulling away. Another time she’d deal with all the thoughts in her head, all the words she was screaming in her throat, all the “Please don’t go.” “You don’t need a new job.” “I’ll just make Hordak give you a raise, that’ll be enough right?” “Who am I supposed to make fun of Kyle with? Lonnie? She’s all talk and no bite, she’s always eating lunch with him and Rogelio.” Another time she’d deal with all of those thoughts, that’s what Catra told herself.

At the bar, Catra and Adora found a booth in the back. It was closed off from the rest of the patrons, perhaps for the better because Catra didn’t want anyone else to see her cry. (She wasn’t banking on it happening but she’d been close to doing so the past few nights, maybe this night would be what broke her.)

“Oh, come on, Catra,” Adora kicked her leg under the table. “Lighten up, I told you this isn’t goodbye.”

She sulked in her seat, swishing the vodka soda in her cup.

“You know, I asked Hordak if I could bring you.”

Catra froze, “What?”

“I’m supposed to be some department head when I get to Dryl Inc. I asked if I’d need an assistant or something but Hordak wouldn’t budge.”

“Assistant, really?”

Adora raised an eyebrow, “Oh, so you’d rather I just go and not make an effort to try and bring you?”

Catra’s eyes widened, Adora’s tone sounded insulted. She shook her head, “Wait, that’s not what I--”

Adora laughed, kicking her leg again, “I was just joking, Catra.”

Catra’s ears fidgeted, her mind trying to understand why Adora tried to get Hordak to let her leave too. “Why’d you ask him?”

Adora gulped, taking a long sip from her beer, “Well, I just. You know, it’s always been you and me at the company and well. I don’t know, I just thought,” she paused, finishing her drink. “What, you’ve never thought about us?”

The emphasis on the word scared Catra, much deeper and closer to her core than the thought of Adora leaving at all. Of course she’d thought about them, the two of them as more than friends. All the movie nights in Adora’s apartment after a long day at work, all the fast food deliveries to the office when Catra would reluctantly stay overtime since Adora was. All the times Adora’s blue eyes sparkled in the dingy office lighting (seriously, how did her eyes do that?) and all the times Adora’s laughter perked her tail in delight. She thought about all the company parties they attended, about Adora dressed up in a long dress with her hair pulled back and her neck exposed and that stupid perfume that made Catra’s hands twitch because she just wanted to grab Adora’s waist and kiss her. Of course she thought about it all.

And even while she wanted to say all of it then, her throat closed up and Catra just stared at Adora.

“Oh.” Adora reached for her beer again and brought it to her lips, eyes widening at the clear bottom. She placed it down with a blush, looking down at the table. She whispered, “Well, I have, a lot. I’ve always been too scared to try anything, for example, right now, because clearly you haven’t and I’ve made this weird.”

Catra desperately wanted to correct her, wanted to reach across the table and yank her shirt to pull her into a kiss. But she was stuck in her spot, staring at Adora who still looked gorgeous even when she was sad.

“I just like having you around and you’re really soft and you’re always nice to me,” Adora continued. Her voice was barely audible but Catra made it her mission to hear every last word. “I’m just really gonna miss you.”

Catra heard the sentence, felt her heart jump out of her chest at the notion of Adora missing her at all. She internally slapped herself across the face and finally forced her body to move. She jolted up, slamming her knees on the underside of the table as she grabbed Adora by the collar and kissed her.

Their teeth crashed and Catra knew her knees would turn into a bluish, purple color but she didn’t care. Adora’s lips were soft and tender and that stupid perfume she wore made her quietly moan as she pulled away for air. Adora pulled her back in, placing a few more gentle kisses, more successful ones at that, and let out a shaky breath.

“What the hell was that, Catra?”

With her heart rate settling, Catra kept her eyes shut. She didn’t want to sound stupid, didn’t want Adora to know just yet she was melting like putty, so she forced her brain to regain consciousness.

“If you wanted me to come with you, you should’ve just said so,” she breathed. Adora kissed her cheek and she cursed under her breath, “You’re packing up all my shit, though.”

[x-woozi]

Sugar, Spice, and Everything.. else?

Part 25: waiting

Summary: After a very public embarrassing moment, y/n manages to make a few new friends. Though in trying to make those friends there is a bit of a complication in winning over the group.

A/n: Double posting because I just got promoted and am in a super great mood. Also this is basically the part 2 because I didn’t want to mess it up again but it’s not very long. Anyways the ending maybe coming soon... not really sure yet 😅 

(I bolded and italicized her thoughts to read easier)

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I really hope he’s not going to do what I think, you thought before putting your phone back into your pocket. As you walk through the courtyard, there are a lot of lingering eyes and covered whispers.

‘Thats the girl that threw herself at Dino’

‘I heard she tried it with the whole dance team’

‘Well have you seen who she hangs out with?’

Nayeon quickly came into your line of sight and you could see her starting towards you. If it wasn’t for someone cutting off your path and walking past you, you would’ve ran straight to her to leave.

It was Changbin, and he did not look happy. His hands balled tightly, swinging at his sides as he got closer to a group of people. oh no. “Changbin” you called but he kept walking. “Changbin!” You rushed after him but it was too late.

As soon as he reached them he grabbed one of the guys by the shoulder, spinning him around. It was Dino. Without a single word, Changbin threw the first punch knocking him to the floor.

“What the hell is your problem?!” He yelled, picking himself up.

“Changbin stop it!” latching yourself to his arm in an attempt to pull him away.

“Ah, I see what this is,” DIno laughed. “The boyfriend, right?”

Tugging on his arm, “Let’s just go.” You could feel his muscles tighten, you could practically feel his anger.

“No, wait.” He paused pretending to think, “You’re just upset I got to her first, huh?”

Changbin ripped his arm from your grip and tackled him to the ground. Immediately everyone's phones were out and recording it.

“Bin, stop! Hes not worth it!” you tried reasoning, just as the two flipped. Changbin managed to get out from under him and to his feet.

“But you are.”

You were about to try to reach for him again but his comment threw you off and you froze. Just as you shook it off, you felt someone’s arms wrap around you. “Hey wait, let go of me!” Trying to wiggle free as they pulled you out of the crowd.

“Y/n, you're going to get hurt! Just calm down” you turned to see the face that match the familiar voice. “You don’t need to be here right now.”

“But someone has to stop them.” As if on cue the rest of the boys came running to the crowd.

Nayeon was suddenly at your side and wrapping her arm around your shoulders, “come on I think they’ve got it. Let’s just get you out of here before the rent-a-cops get here.”

You couldn’t help but to keep looking back. They boys struggled to squeeze through the crowd at first but now you couldn’t see them. All you could do was hope that they could separate the fight before either of them got too badly hurt.

You didn’t really care about Dino, but if he was really injured Changbin could get into a lot more trouble than he already would be.

Just as you and Nayeon reached the parking lot, 4 campus security guards ran past you. “Look they’re barely going to help,” Nayeon rolled her eyes as she got into her car. “I’m sure your friend is already out of there,” trying to make you feel a little better.

“Yeah maybe,” was all you said, but your mind on the other hand. Were they really able to get to him in time? Why did he have to go and do that, I told him no more fights. Now I have to worry about him! Ugh, I hope he’s okay…

“Don’t think about it anymore okay?” Nayeon said, pulling you from your train of thought. “It’s already done, let’s just get to your place and wait.”

“Oh how I love waiting…”

“Well sarcasm is a good sign” she laughed lightly.

“I’m fine. Well I was, sort of. But now I’m a little upset?” You said it like a question which only confused your friend.

“Upset like you’re sad? Or like you’re mad?”

Thinking for a second, not completely sure yourself, “both I guess? I mean the whole thing with the lies is kind of whatever I could’ve just ignored it.”

“But…” pushing for you to continue.

“I told him no more fights, and for all of them to leave this alone.” You turned a little in the passenger seat to face her as she drove, “I literally just told him the dude wasn’t worth it. And then hit him again!!”

“I think he just cares about you. I mean what if it was us and the rumors were about me?” She had a valid point.

You turned back to the front and crossed your arms, “that’s different.”

“Why because he likes you?”

“What? No. We’re friends, I’m just ‘one of the guys’. Where did that even come from?” Wait why do I sound so defensive?

“Right okay. I saw the way he looked at you the other day, he did not look at the ‘other guys’ like that,” she gave a quick questioning look before continuing. “Plus I heard him say you’re worth it” she teased.

You tried to think back to that day, not knowing what look she meant. There was nothing. I mean maybe he did look a little longer when i talked or laughed, but it wasn’t just that day. You thought about the night you went to have dinner at their house. It was the same then too. But the doesn’t mean anything, right? Her last comment had his words ringing in you mind bringing a little heat to your cheeks you hadn’t felt yet.

Nayeon cleared her throat loudly, “earth to y/n?”

“What?” You looked up to see you were home and she was already getting out of the car. “Oh my bad.”

“You’re looking a little flushed,” she teased as you walked up to the door. “You feeling okay?”

“Will you just get inside,” you pushed the door open and headed straight for the couch. “How long do you think it’ll be before they’ll tell me everything's okay?”

After grabbing a bag of chips Nayeon sat beside you, “I don’t know, have you checked your phone?”

You mentally smacked yourself in the forehead Duh, why didn’t I think of that? You pulled out your phone to see if any of them called or texted. “Nothing.” You let out a very long dramatic sigh.

“Dang, how long does it take to stop a fight and get out of there?”

“Oh man, what if they didn’t and now he’s in prison?!” You said before sending a quick text to the group chat hoping someone will respond eventually.

“Okay prison? that’s a little much. jail on the other hand? Maybe.” She said before shoving a few chips in her mouth, not helping at all.

“That’s not funny,” hitting her arm before taking the bag from her. “I’m being serious here.”

“It’ll be fine, I’m sure of it.” Her tone was much softer now, “just try not to think about it for now okay? Let’s just watch some tv”

You agreed, but you couldn’t just not think about it. You tried but still not hearing from any of them, hours later? It would be a lie to say it didn’t stress you out, but what more could you do besides wait..

[muthaz-rapapa]

Let’s talk TroPreCure! (^∀^ 🌺)

i’m so stupidly proud of this dumb pun “tropurikyua~”, hahahahaha

Last post of the year and wow is there are lot to be excited for!

I even had to make a list for the stuff I want to talk about and I’m sure I already forgot one or two things but we’ll get to them as we continue to float~ along the wave to February 28th, mmkay? :)

Now for what has peaked my interest so far. And yes, we have to talk about the following first:

1) HealPre the shortest Precure season??

Unless they plan for double features in February (which I doubt but you never know), HealPre is likely going to reach only 45 episodes long instead of the usual 48~50 before TroPre I’m using this shortening of the title for now so if there’s a better alternative, tell me and I’ll switch out begins its broadcast.

Understandable because the producers probably want to get back to their normal scheduling as soon as possible (toy sales, y’know) and I suspect pushing the start of the new season back by a month is the most they’re willing to compromise.

As for me, I’m quite happy about this since HealPre’s lost its hold on my attention a while ago so the sooner TroPre gets here, the better. Though the downside might be a scrambled climax and a rushed, underwhelming ending for HealPre (I dunno if it’s January’s titles that feel a bit messy or if the hiatus is still throwing me off) but whatever. We’ll refresh ourselves with the new blood Cures so it’s all good.

2) Tropical movie announced for Autumn 2021, no All Stars??

(source)

First saw this mentioned on Youtube somewhere but it’s all over the fandom forums by now. I mean, HealPre’s movie is set for March, the usual time slot for All Stars release. If Toei intended for there to be an All Stars in 2021, there’s no way they would announce the seasonal movie before it so speculations of them skipping it this year are probably true.

To squeeze it somewhere between March and October-ish would force them to readjust their budgets as well and I don’t think even Toei wants to go through that extra hassle after all the trouble the pandemic’s caused for everyone already. It’s just easier to resume All Stars in 2022.

That, and I think Laura being a major character in TroPre despite not having a Cure title (yet) would make for an awkward situation when the three latest teams gather so perhaps that’s also one of the reasons. But I’ll get back to Laura in a bit.

3) Cure Summer is a RAINBOW Cure

So god help me if I see anyone calling her a Pink Cure.

Yes, she’s the lead Cure for this season. NO, she is not a Pink Cure.

Look, even the official website has a rainbow overlay for her profile pic and text font while everyone else’s respective theme colors are a solid hue:

Therefore, RAINBOW.

In promotional material and merchandising, they’re probably going to advertise her primarily with pink bah and at worst, she might occasionally be labeled as a White Cure with multiple subcolors (her outfit is not pink-dominant) but definitely NOT. PINK.

...also, this goes without saying but f***yea, we finally got a lead Cure practically and unabashedly wearing the LGBTQ flag and you cannot tell me otherwise, Toei!

Own up to it! Declare Manatsu/Cure Summer as the Precure queer icon!

I’m not gonna stop yellin’ until you do! 😠

4) Laura = obvious midseason Cure is obvious

First of all, Laura is a babe. I already love her the best and she’s not even Precure yet. <3

Anyways, the set-up is pretty much in the description. Important main character who’s not a mascot, stated to have a self-confident personality and just speaks her mind (oooh, I like~ :D), magical/foreign being from another world looking for Precure to save her home, possesses her own special item(s), has aspirations to become the next Queen (so she’s a princess-candidate or something to that effect, I suppose).

We’ve seen various combinations of these traits in past midseason (and a few starter) Cures so nobody should be surprised when we all guessed that one of the Cures would be a real live mermaid.

The only question is why not just make Laura a Cure from the get-go if she’s introduced to us at the beginning (like Hime or Lala) and having a team of five with no unnecessary extra add-ons later on (like Smile).

Well, there’s a simple answer for that: formula.

Toei is afraid that if they don’t spit out some new animation sequence at the halfway and third quarter points of the show, the kids will lose interest and abandon the series altogether. Which means failed toy sales. Oh nooo... [/sarcasm]

...Yea. 

And this way they can also have Laura available in the Cure lineup for the next All Stars in 2022 instead of making her sit the fight out if we were going to have one in 2021. I’m convinced that’s gotta be one of the reasons. *shrug*

But ok, whatever. Her debut is gonna be later, that’s all. She’s a delayed Cure.  Midseason Cure, same difference.

Moving along to the more important stuff now like what’s her Cure name gonna be, y/y?

Well, knowing Toei, a translation of the term “mermaid” into another language is the most predictable route even though we already have a Cure Mermaid. Not like that ever stopped them from repeating words before (ex. Cure Happy vs Cure Felice). Though if they do go down that road, I hope they opt for the Spanish/Italian “sirena” and not the French “sirène” because the latter sounds too close to how Cure Selene is pronounced in Japanese. And, putting it nicely, we all know Japanese pronunciation of foreign words is as off kilter as can be.

Hell, even the the Portuguese “sereia” sounds aesthetic as hell so it’d be nice if they can just remember there are other languages that exist out there besides Japanese, English and French when making the final decision at the writing table! *stomps foot* >:/

Alternatively, “nereid” or “naiad” are good choices too but they remind me too much of Greek myths and Laura’s from the Grand Ocean which covers more than just a couple of seas (Greece is surrounded by three, btw) so...

I dunno. But whatever it’s gonna be, she’s definitely got a strong association with water and her powers will probably be based on that.

As for theme color, since there’s noticeably no blue or green Cure in the starter lineup, it’s likely she will take up that spot when she debuts around ep 20.

Pink is also open since Cure Summer, again, is technically not a Pink Cure and Laura’s hair and tail fin are hot and light pink respectively but looking at Laura’s design and concept, does anyone seriously believe that?

Her upper torso consists of aquamarine while the body of her tail is definitely some shade of cyan, implying they’re aiming for somewhere around the middle of green and blue on the lighter spectrum.

And yea, I’m aware that green and blue are considered exchangeable in some perspectives with how close some of their shades are to each other but officially, I think Laura’s gonna be grouped with the Green Cures.

Cuz of the hair. If Laura’s gonna keep it the same or a similar shade after transforming, that is. The Blues have always had cool-colored hair so putting Laura in with them might disrupt that harmony whereas if you put her with the few Greens there are (including Parfait), she’d fit right in.

I mean, we’ll see but that makes the most sense, doesn’t it?

On another note, I just want to say that I love how they added frills to her arms instead of letting her elbows go bare naked. It definitely makes her look more like a genuine mermaid than if she didn’t have them (remember, half fish doesn’t mean half the body :P).

5) Magical Items

Frankly, I’m tired of seeing the transformation device being a compact again even though one of the main motifs is make-up this season. But at least, as far as Precure compacts goes, the Tropical one is my favorite cuz of how cute and delightfully colorful its toy version looks! So I guess I’m okay with it.

The Heart Rouge Rod, though? ...I dunno. I think it would’ve been fine without that...straw (?) jutting out at the top. It looks weird, doesn’t it look weird? :S

As for the collectible clip-ons, I can live without those for the rest of my life. Yeesh.

Laura’s items, the Aqua Pot and the Ocean Prism Mirror.

Again with the portable, travel-size housing. *sigh* 😩

Alright, I can let this year slide cuz Laura (I’m so soft for her, omg) probably won’t be getting legs for 20 weeks so she’s got to move about on land somehow. But unless they’re really thinking about turning this idea of carrying your apartment around in your bag/pocket/purse into a reality (cuz that would be effin’ awesome), please be more creative with your toys.

On the other hand, I’m much more interested in the Ocean Prism Mirror but from what Kusyami (the Precure merchandise reviews I follow on Youtube) said in his latest vid, this is the ED dance item so don’t know if it’ll actually have an relevance to the story or not. But I did hear him mention it having something to do with the Queen as well and since Laura wishes to become Queen, maybe it’ll be important after all? Maybe it’s her transformation device?

That’d be super cool. Let’s continue the trend of the midseason Cure having a different transformation item than the starters. Honestly, we should alternate every other year or two but we’ve gone three seasons with all of them using the same henshin gimmicks up till HealPre and I just want a break from that.

6) Fin sleeves??

These look so impractical for combat so maybe it’s exclusive to group attacks.

And/or a sort of precursor to the super forms?

*GASP* Does that mean they all eventually turn into mermaids? 🤩

7) Yui finally became Precure!! 😭

lol, it’s all crack from this point on so don’t take it too seriously but man, after Yuni’s deceptive braids, I thought I wasn’t gonna see anything that reminded me of Yui for a while and lo behold, Sango.

kehehehehehe xD;

Though Yui might be closer to Minori in terms of personal interests (fairytales and storybooks).

8) Akira, the actual Onee-chan version

I didn’t think this when I first saw her but once I read “Onee-san” in her profile, there’s no saving you now. Sorry, Asuka. 😅

Also, damn, do her sandals make her feet look big! Compare them to the heels she wears as Flamingo. Are they even the same?! lololol

9) ...this sounds awfully familiar...

Translation:

Tokimeku Tokonatsu! [Exciting/Thrilling Everlasting Summer!] Cure Summer! Kirameku Hoseki! [Sparkling Jewel!] Cure Coral!  Hirameku Fuurutsu! [Flashing Fruit!] Cure Papaya!

Japanese reiteration:

Mallow/Mao: Pink no tokimeki! Lillie: Blue no kirameki! Lana/Suiren: Yellow no kagayaki!

….........

@Toei 

Care to explain yourselves, punks?! 

୧(ʘ ∀ ʘ ╬)

[star-spangled-steve]

I have one with Steve, angst w fluff ending, where maybe the reader thinks Steve’s heart still belongs to Peggy do she rather break up with him than hurt herself and he has like zero idea why she is been so cold and avoiding him, but at the end he assures her she is the love of his life.

Masterlist Of My Works

A/N: This is the first headcanon I’ve ever written, so I hope I did justice to the request!

Steve and Y/N were basically the perfect couple.

Always going out on dates together, holding hands, giving each other special little gifts just because. Forever smiling and laughing, kissing, and hugging. Their PDA was through the roof.

To everyone else, there seemed to be no problems between them. Hell, to Steve there was no problems between them.

But Y/N noticed things that he probably didn’t even realize he was doing. Things having to do with the famous Peggy Carter.

When he jumped at any opportunity to talk about her, Y/N noticed. That longing look in his eyes whenever Peggy was mentioned, Y/N noticed. Whenever he always starred at that stupid compass, Y/N noticed.

She tried not to let it get to her. She really did. But after two years dating, two years of feeling second place to an old lady, it really started to hurt.

One day, when she was feeling particularly upset by this, she decided to finally call him out on it.

Y/N had been telling Steve about how the promotion she’d been wanting was instead given to a male co-worker, who had way less qualifications than her.

“So when I went up to my boss afterwards to ask why I didn’t get it, he said that our department needs ‘a strong male leader’ to scare off our competitors. He said it loud enough for everyone else in the room to hear too. It was so embarrassing, Stevie.”

When Y/N was expecting a soft, warm, and comforting response from her boyfriend, she was met with a very unpleasant one instead.

“You know, Peggy would’ve just punched the guy.”

The girl had no clue how to react.

Here she was, almost crying over what had happened at work today, trying to find consolation from her love, and was met with that bullshit reply instead.

“Do you always have to make everything about her?” Y/N asked, now beginning to cry for a different reason.

“Huh?”

“Peggy. You never stop talking about her, Steve. I feel like I’m in a relationship with the both of you, for gosh sake.”

Steve had the audacity to look confused. “What do you mean, N/N? I just made one comment.”

“Ya, one comment today. Then most likely one more tomorrow, and one more the next day, and one more the day after that. You never stop talking about her, Steve.”

“I’m sorry that you feel that wa-”

She stood up from her seat at the kitchen table, now beyond pissed at him. “Don’t make it sound like this is just a ‘me thing’. Every sane person would react the exact same way I am. Maybe even sooner, too. I’ve been silent about this for so long.”

“Silent about what?”

“The fact that you love Peggy more than you love me!”

Steve, now realizing how sensitive this topic was for her, changed his tone completely. “Darling, what are you talking about? You know that’s not true.”

“No.” She sniffled. “No, it is true, Steve. You talk about her so much, read about her so much, look at damn compass, which I know has her face in it, so much. Look, I’m sorry that I’m never going to be as tough as her, or as smart as her, as badass as her, or whatever exactly it was that made you like her so much. I’m sorry that I’m never going to be your precious Peggy Carter.”

Steve now stood up from his seat too, placing his hands on her upper arms to comfort her. “N/N, sweetie, I never wanted you to be Peggy Carter. Ever. I love you for you.”

“Th-Then how come you talk about her so much? You never talk about me that much.”

“Maybe not to you, but I’m sure that you can ask each and every one of my teammates, and they’d be able to tell you your own favourite colour. I’m always bragging about how wonderful my girl is.”

She shook her head. “Steve, you look at her picture almost everyday. For gosh sake, you carry her around with you wherever you go!”

The man pulled the compass out of his pocket, placing it in her own hand. “Open it, doll.”

She sniffled, mentally preparing herself to be met with the mocking face of Peggy, before reluctantly opening it. And what she saw inside baffled her.

“See?” Steve questioned, watching as Y/N covered her mouth in surprise.

Inside of the compass was not an image of the beautiful Peggy Carter, but instead one of Y/N Y/L/N, who Steve thought was even more beautiful.

It was taken while they were at Central Park, early on in their relationship. She was laughing at some cheesy joke that Steve had told her, the ice cream cone in her hand accompanying the ice cream that was smeared on her lips. Y/N had remembered the exact moment, remembered the flash of Steve’s new and fancy phone that he could barely even use, but she’d never actually seen the final picture.

“When did you change the photo?” She asked, looking up into his eyes.

“Actually, this is a new compass that I’ve been taking around. The old one is in a box somewhere in the closet. Dusty. You must not of noticed.” Steve told her, watching her hands toy with the thing. “I still like the feeling of carrying around my girl in my pocket, and no phone wallpaper is going to cut it for me.”

Y/N realized that her not noticing the change was actually very plausible, as she had never really looked inside the compass itself. Her inner sadness just made her assume the worst. It always had.

“Look, baby, I’m sorry that I talk about Peggy a lot. I’m sorry that I read about her a lot and visit her a lot too. She’s just one of the last pieces of my past that I have, and I guess I like reminding myself sometimes.” Steve explained, stroking her cheek with his large and warm palm. “I never meant to make you feel this way, Y/N. And I most certainly don’t love her more than I love you, or love her at all anymore for that matter. You’re the only one, my darling. I swear.”

The girl nodded, a small smile beginning to form on her face at his comforting words.

“Next time you have thoughts like this, sad thoughts, I want you to tell me right away.” He instructed, making Y/N much happier than she was before. She loved when acted all protective of her and her feelings. “No more bottling up your emotions. Okay, baby girl?”

“Okay, Stevie. I won’t.” She told him, being sincere in her response; because honestly, bottling up her emotions was not very fun.

“I love you, Y/N. Alright? Never forget that, sweetheart.”

She nodded again, having complete faith in words, knowing that he really did care about her.

No, that was not the last time Y/N felt insecure about Steve’s feelings toward Peggy Carter, because negative thoughts don’t just disappear like that. She still dwelled on it a bit from time to time, here and there. But what she never did again was keep her emotions from Steve, letting them blow up in his face once there got to be too many. Instead she communicated to him, telling him exactly what bothered her, and he made sure to fix it like the good boyfriend, fiancé, and eventually husband that he was.

Because in the end, nobody in Steve’s heart could ever compete with Y/N Rogers.

Except maybe all of the future little Rogers.

Feedback is always welcome!

Permanent Taglist: @jesseswartzwelder @firecatcher007 @ctrl-alt-jeon @xlanawriter

Tell me if you want to be added!❤️

[t--rash]

“Maybe this forest here will have something in it, let’s take a look.”

The group had been traveling through the dusty plains bordering the forests. The tall grass occasionally being thrown about by gusts of wind making the landscape look like green and golden waves. Covered in dirt and grass stains, the five of them had been trudging the grasslands looking for any kind of indication of ruins. The woman who had just spoken, Ilanis, was pointing towards a line of trees to the North. The trail of long golden hair flowed like a line behind her head, where it was tied up high to prevent it from going into her face from the wind. Her lithe form was accented by the light clothing and long brown cloak she wore to help against the winds, to little avail as the cloak rapidly pulled away from her. The two long knives she had were clinking against her hip as she started into a light jog. The rest of the group looked after Ilanis as she started off ahead.

           “We’ve been doin’ this for like three days now, can’t we just give it a break?” A harsher voice whined, coming from the shorter, stouter woman named Lidda. Her long black hair was being loosened from her braid as it was whipped around by the wind. She had stopped and put her hands on her sides just as another gust of wind sent her cloak around to cover her face. “Gah! I am sick and tired of these plains! Do we have to travel through here?”

“Yeah! I’m gettin’ dust everywhere! It’s even in my beard, watch!” Vondal exclaims as he bends over and shakes out his long dark beard, sending a cloud of dust into the wind. He stands back up next to Lidda, being not too much taller than her, and rests his arm on her shoulder. His gray-white robes that were normally clean and pristine, decorated with iconography of his religion, were now almost beige due to the travelling, with a small line of green forming at the bottom.

“Oi! Dull head! All that dust just went right at me!” Lidda shoves Vondal away with her elbow as she attempts to brush herself off. To no avail, however, due to her cloak tangling itself within her arms.

The broad form of Jerard turned towards Thaddeus, a small grin forming on his face causing dimples to form on his strong features. “You know, when you said traveling together would bring us together more, I almost believed you,” he said through a small chuckle, his lower voice contrasting the higher voices that was just heard, “there must be something up there though. I can’t take another failed search.”

“I can’t either, to be honest. I was really hoping this would be a short trip, Minth is bound to be dying with anticipation waiting for me to get back.” Thaddeus responds, his low voice ringing out through the howling of the wind. Looking down at himself Thaddeus brushes off the dust from the front of his clothes, trying to hold back his cloak as he does so. His wavy brown hair was starting to poke into his eyes from the strong winds, causing him to run his fingers through his hair every couple minutes.

Ilanis’ voice could barely be heard over the winds, “Wait guys! There’s something here! I see a bunch of stone!”

“Finally! Come on, at least being in the trees will block the damn wind.” Lidda started into a fast jog to catch up to Ilanis, shielding her face from the tall grass as she went. Jerard, Vondal, and Thaddeus all shared a glance together before the started forward as well.

--------------

The forest’s air was much calmer compared to the plains outside, with most of the wind instead moving through the upper canopies of the trees, causing the leaves to break the beams of light shining in. The deep green colors starkly contrasted by the light brown barks of the trees was a welcoming difference compared to the golden flatlands. Ilanis was trailing ahead of the rest of the group, stopping every so often to point out stone bricks in area.

“There’s gotta be something around here. Why else would there be so many pieces of a broken structure?”

Vondal was the first to speak up from the group. “Why don’t we stop for a second, Ilanis. The rest of us would like to take a moment to regain our bearings.”

“Yeah, it’d be ill advised to not to take a rest. And I think I have some dust I need to clean from my armor.” Jerard chuckled the last part as he sat down onto the forest floor and started to remove his chest piece. The heavy looking metal had a dull shine on it, its silver surface browned by the vast amounts of dust coating it.

Ilanis shook her head as she watched Vondal and Lidda sit down along with Jerard, with Thaddeus still looking off into the distance. “Go ahead then, though I’m going to scout ahead for a bit. We’re close to finding something, I can feel it.”

“Hey, you shouldn’t head out alone. I can go with you.” Thaddeus interjected, stepping towards Ilanis with a smirk in his tone. “Besides, someone’s gotta make sure you don’t go taking all the loot for yourself.”

“Oh, come on, I told you that I was done with that. Whatever though, let’s go then.” Ilanis had rolled her eyes as she turned away to choose a direction to go.

“Have fun you two, but not too much fun.” The wink that accompanied what Lidda had said sent a slight blush onto Thaddeus as he quickly turned away into the forest.

--------------

           The pair had been traveling in silence through the tangled underbrush as the forest grew heavier around them. The trees pushing them closer together as the terrain shifted more and more rocky.

The stillness of the air was cut short as Ilanis mused aloud. “So, why’d you never tell me about your little sister?”

Thaddeus stopped walking as he turned towards Ilanis with a bewildered expression. “H-how would you know about her? I don’t talk about her to anyone.” His voice was stuttering, the mistrust evident in his tone.

Ilanis started to lean back against a tree, crossing her arms as a smirk spread across her face. “Oh, don’t think too seriously about it. I just heard you talking to yourself in your sleep when I was on watch last night. I’m just surprise is all, considering we’re all your friends.”

Thaddeus’ brow was starting to furrow as he started walking ahead again, avoiding where Ilanis was standing. “I know we are, but I just didn’t want to bring it up. I prefer not to talk about my family, and you know that.”

“Oh come on now, I thought you got over that. Is Daphne really still on your mind? It’s been years, Thaddeus, I thought you would’ve gotten over it by now.”

“Gotten over it? What the hell do you mean by that?” The resentment was building in Thaddeus’ voice.

“Come on, you know I didn’t mean it like that. You know me, I wouldn’t want to intentionally hurt you like that.” Ilanis jogged forward to catch up to Thaddeus, grabbing for his hand gently. When he did not pull away, she turned him around to face her, a small smile forming on her lips. “You know me better than that.”

Thaddeus looked down at the ground before glancing up and meeting her gaze for a moment, which he then quickly looked back down to the ground and continued walking. Ilanis fell into step next to Thaddeus, maintaining her grip on his hand as the continued onward in silence.

--------------

After what felt like twenty minutes of walking had passed Thaddeus and Ilanis started noticing metal tracks on the ground, leading them towards a clearing. They followed the tracks as the tree line suddenly stopped, leaving loose dirt and rock in the open space before the giant rock outcroppings. They were like small mountains with rail tracks heading into and out of them on various levels, wood beams supporting the tunnels that they led into. The fading sun shining behind the rocks, silhouetting the structures across the opening. The whole place seemed abandoned for quite some time now, with rocks and tracks strewn about and out of order.

Ilanis perked up as soon as they crossed the threshold into the clearing, running towards a smaller entrance to the mine. “See! I told you I could feel that something was here! Tell the group, let’s camp here for tonight, then we can explore in the morning.”

Thaddeus responded by pulling out his spellbook, muttering some words as he produced a wire from his bag. The wire started to faintly glow as Thaddeus spoke into it, “Hey, we found a mineshaft out here. You should come out here so we can camp here, I’ll start a fire so you can see the smoke.”

           A response came to Thaddeus soon, Jerard’s voice sounding out in his mind. “Alright, we’re on our way.”

--------------

           The rest of the group had found their way to Thaddeus and Ilanis’ clearing, setting up some tents and sleeping bags. The moon was high in the sky now, and Thaddeus was absentmindedly writing in his journal during his night watch.

           The sound of dirt scuffing the rocks had brought Thaddeus out of his trance as he looked over his shoulder to see Ilanis approaching him, still in her traveling gear. “Hey, why don’t you and I take a look ahead of the rest of the group, just to scout it out and see what we’re dealing with in there.”

           “Wouldn’t it be safer to wait until the morning? We won’t be able to get any help if we get injured without Vondal there.” Thaddeus responded, fatigue starting to bleed into his words.

           “It’ll be fine, especially with a spellcaster as good as you around, we’ll be completely safe.” Ilanis was nudging Thaddeus as she said this, smirking with a hopeful look in her eyes.

           “Fine, but at the first sign of danger, we’re gone.”

           “That works for me.”

--------------

The mineshaft was extremely dark, promoting Ilanis to light a lantern for light. The two were keeping close to the wall as they traveled down into the cold stone tunnel, moving at a quiet pace as best as they could.

Ilanis was the first to speak, “So, back to your younger sister, why’d you keep her a secret? It’s not like any of us know Minth anyways, so what’s the harm in talking about her?”

Thaddeus stopped dead in his tracks. “How do you know her name? I never said her name before.” His firm tone starting to sound harsh as it echoed off the stone walls.

“Oh, I uh… I just heard you say it, that’s all.” Ilanis voice was very unsure.

Thaddeus turned around to face Ilanis, the lantern spilling light from underneath him causing shadows to form deep in his cold expression. “Tell me, now.”

“I-it’s not a big deal, ok? It’s late, can we just forget about it? Maybe we should head back up.” The lantern was starting to make noise now as Ilanis’ hands were trembling as she started to back away, an uncomfortable smile accenting her terrified eyes.

Thaddeus reached out and grabbed onto the wrist of the hand that Ilanis was holding the lantern with a dull arcane glow spreading across his palm. The cold magic caused a burning sensation in Ilanis wrist, causing her to cry out in pain as she dropped the lantern. It hit the ground with a loud metallic echo but stayed alight.

Ilanis was practically screaming in pain now as she grabbed at Thaddeus hand on her wrist, trying to wrench herself free of his grip. “Agh! Thaddeus what are you doing?! Please, let go you’re hurting me!”

“Tell me. Now.” The magic from Thaddeus’ hand started to glow brighter as Ilanis cried out in pain, her wrist and hand blackening from where Thaddeus was holding on to.

“I read it in your journal, ok! I don’t know what I was thinking, I just thought that there was maybe something important that you- AGH!” Ilanis cried out as the blackness started to spread across her forearm.

“Minth was supposed to remain a secret. That is my business.” Thaddeus expression was completely blank now, his eyes locked to Ilanis’.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry okay! P-please just, let go…” The pain that was filling her voice was echoing into the mines. “W-what would the other’s think if they woke up and I was injured like this?”

“They won’t know. They listen to me, unlike you do. It seems evident to me, that there’s some corruption within our group.”

“C-corruption?! I promise Thaddeus, I-” Ilanis didn’t have time to finish her sentence as Thaddeus grabbed one her daggers and brought it across her arm, rending apart the flesh as deep crimson started to flow. Ilanis cried out as she fell back, Thaddeus’ grip still firm on her arm as he stood over her, looking down.

“It’s ok, it’ll all be over soon. We can have our happy ending together later when you learn to listen. We could run off together, like you always wanted, run away to a small town on the coast.” A terrified smile formed on Ilanis’ face; hope started to cut through the pain as the magic in Thaddeus’ hand started to die down.

“Do you really mean it, Thaddeus?” The tears in Ilanis eyes were reflecting the small glow of the lantern away from them. Ilanis took one final breath as blood gently started to spill out of the corners of her eyes as they fell shut. She collapsed to the floor, the smile still on her pale face as her body laid there limp. Thaddeus reached down and picked up the lantern as he started to head back up towards to entrance of the mines, wiping the blood on his hand away onto his cloak as darkness enveloped Ilanis still body.

 --------------

 A Story for my Favorite Sister Minth:

You might not know this, but I have a group of friends I travel with, we go on all kinds of adventures together. There’s Jerard, who reminds me of dad a lot. He can be very serious at times, but he has a gentleness to him that shines through. There’s Lidda, a short woman with an even shorter temper. She can cast magic left and right, she almost singed my eyebrows off with one of her spells! There’s Vondal as well. He has his own way of thinking, being a very pious man. Reminds me a lot of your older sister Daphne, in fact reminds me a little too much of her. But we cannot forget Ilanis. She is a very beautiful and witty woman; I think you would have liked her a lot.

The adventure we had this time was quite exciting. We had just traveled through the plains to the south, we were traveling north in search of ruins. Picture that, your older brother going through dangerous ruins with his friends in search of loot. We had just gone into the forest looking for the ruins I had mentioned when we started seeing stone bricks strewn across the ground. There were traces of something that used to be here, but we just had to look. Ilanis was the first to spot it, the mineshaft. There were rails and small bridges built up into a small mound of rock that came up from the ground, with one big entrance. We had camped outside of it for the night, preparing to face whatever was inside of it. However, when we woke up Ilanis was gone. We had gone searching for her, but she was nowhere to be seen. We were freaking out. Sadly, she is still missing to this day. We had left those forests for good then, swearing that whatever took Ilanis away from us would pay.

But hey, don’t let that discourage you from venturing off on your own. I may have lost my friend, but you are strong enough to face anything by yourself with the magic that I taught you. I love you the most Minth, I cannot wait to return home and tell you more stories.

~From, Your Dear Brother Thaddeus

[allmysticwords]

You’re still the one I want.

Genre: Angst with slight fluff if you squint (non-idol AU)

Pairing: Taehyung x Reader

Summary: Can love overcome all even heartbreak?

Tags: Cheating; Non-Idol; Angst; Requested

Word Count: 2.1k (oops, I got carried away) 

Masterlist Requestlist

A/N : While I don’t support couples being together after one of them cheats on another, I tried to make this as realistic as I could. Hope you like it! Thanks for requesting :) 

For @yummypangpang

Picture not mine. All credits to the owner.

It was your and Taehyung 2-year anniversary. It had been blissful 2 years; they went by so fast you can’t even remember where the days have gone by. You were both really good friends in college always joined at the hip. People always assumed you were dating each other but you were both always too shy to admit your feelings to each other, not sure what the other felt you’d both just keep what you felt to yourself. Not wanting to destroy the friendship you both had you would make sure to keep all you felt hidden whenever you both hung out. Little did you know Taehyung did the same.

But as soon as college ended there was a sudden fear. What if you both drift apart, what if work comes between the two of you, so many what-ifs eating away at the both of you. Maybe this was the reason that Taehyung decided to take the matter into his hands. One day he took you to dinner at your favorite Thai restaurant and asked you out. You were ecstatic, over the moon elated and obviously said yes. Since then it’s been a rollercoaster ride. Being straight-out of college, you both have been working overtime to make as much money as you can and achieve your dreams the sooner you can. You work in journalism and Taehyung in a big architecture firm. Your weeks have always been busy but you both make sure that you always spend the weekends together no matter what. How else would you keep the spark alive?

Last year for your anniversary, you both went away for a weekend trip and stayed at a resort. It was absolutely perfect. Still now when you think of those 2 days you can't keep smiling.

This year however, you both have had more work than usual. This is why you’ve barely seen Taehyung in the last month and when you saw him, he’s been distracted, stressed and mostly ignoring whatever you’ve been telling him. You couldn’t figure out why he was being like this. He was usually always attentive. Always paid attention to you even if you were both meeting for coffee between work breaks and spoke to you as if you haven’t spoken in days, recounting all the office stories. You would do the same. You didn’t worry too much though, you knew how stressed he was because of a new project he had gotten, which could potentially lead to a promotion. You were happy he had this opportunity and that he had a great team of people helping him.

So, this year, you settled for a late-night dinner to celebrate your anniversary. You had texted Taehyung all the details of the restaurant and the reservation. It was a quite French restaurant. You figured that if you couldn’t go to France, the least you could do was bring France to you.

After work, you drove to the mall to pick up Tae’s gift that you had chosen a week ago. It was a silver band Skagen watch with a green dial. You had saved up to buy this. You were positive Tae would love it. He did have a thing for watches. You then made your way to your apartment. 

Unlocking the door, you entered inside and made your way to your bedroom to get dressed up for your date. You had bought a new emerald green dress which had a lowcut neckline and the dress came a little above your knees. You were sure Tae would love you in it. Hell, you loved yourself in it. It wasn’t often your confidence was this high, but the dress made you feel all sorts of good things. After doing some light makeup and putting on your heels, you texted Tae telling him that you were on your way to the restaurant. He didn’t get back to you. Maybe he was driving, you thought to yourself.

Once at the restaurant, you were led by a young waitress to your table, it was right beside the big window overlooking outside. Taehyung wasn’t there yet, maybe he was just late. 

You texted him that you’ve reached and were trying to pass time on your phone. He was 15 minutes late, no big deal. You tried calling him but there was no answer. You were getting a little anxious, but it wasn’t really out of the ordinary to be late. 

When Tae was about half an hour late and the waitress had walked by your table for the fourth time asking whether you would like to order, you started to feel worried and embarrassed. You kept calling Taehyung, but he wasn’t picking up. Finding this odd and slightly worrying you picked up your things and left the restaurant, not before shooting an apologetic look at the waitress and a little tip for holding up the table.

You decided that the best would be to go to Tae’s apartment and check whether he forgot about the date or whether he’s still held up at the office. So, you made your way to his apartment, it was a short 15 minute drive. On reaching you saw that his car was still in the driveway and the lights inside were switched on. Seeing this made you furious. While you were sure there was some logical explanation, you couldn’t help feeling angry and a little upset that there was something more important that your anniversary dinner. You understand he’s busy but the least he could do was let you know so that you don’t feel like a fool waiting at the restaurant.

You took the keys from your bag and unlocked the door and went in.

“Tae, babe?” You called out for him. But he didn’t answer. It was a small apartment, surely, he would’ve heard the front door open.

His bedroom door was closed so you moved forward to check if he was inside. You opened the door just a little to peek in and it was as if your entire world had come crashing down. Tae saw you and you saw him. His hands on her thigh, her lips on his neck and their clothes scattered across the room. Your eyes met. For a minute, the world stopped spinning. You couldn’t understand what was happening. All you could see was Tae looking at you with dread in his eyes and fear. Fear of what he was doing and fear of losing you. A single tear ran down your cheek and you suddenly were jolted from the shock of seeing your boyfriend fucking his one of his teammates.

“Shit” Taehyung mouthed while pushing the girl away and scramming to look for his clothes.

You closed the door with a thud. Not knowing what to do or where to go, you took out his watch from your bag and threw it at the living room floor. As Taehyung opened the bedroom door and came outside pulling on his t-shirt, you were racing towards the door and into your car.

“Y/n wait. Y/n listen to me please, I can explain.” Tae begged while tears ran down his cheeks. But you didn’t wait for his apologies. You couldn’t. You backed away from his driveway to drive. your house as you saw Taehyung from the rearview mirror trying to make you stop. You didn’t stop even when you saw him fall down on the road and break down in tears. You couldn’t even see the road properly through your tears.

You couldn’t believe your eyes. You couldn’t believe that the man you loved and who you thought loved you could break your trust so easily. After driving aimlessly for a while not knowing where to go, what to do and what to think you made your way to your home. You knew that Taehyung would be waiting at the door. You knew he would want to talk. You thought you could handle seeing him and telling him to go away. You thought you could be strong. You should’ve known though. He was your bestfriend, he could see right through you.

You saw him sitting on the steps with his head in his hands. You quietly got out of the car and walked towards him.

“How could you?” This was all you could say when you saw his face. You couldn’t deny that you loved him and seeing him after he was just fucking his colleague on the same bed he made love to you for 2 years was not easy. Hell, it was devastating. Your tears were streaming down your eyes. Taehyung moved his hand to wipe them away. “Don’t you dare touch me.” You flinched and moved away from him.

He knew he fucked up. “Y/n I’m so so sorry. There’s no excuse for what I did. I had a really bad day at the office….. and she was just there. She saw it all and then she took me out drinking and I guess I just lost control…” You cut him off.

“What do you mean she was just there and you lost control?” “What the fuck do you mean Taehyung?” 

“So have you been losing control on every bad day you’ve had?” 

“Do you even know what today is?” “Today Taehyung, is our 2nd anniversary, which you very conveniently forgot because you had a bad day. I had planned a date for us which you conveniently stood me up for because she was just there and today you just lost me. Your bestfriend and your girlfriend, conveniently because you lost control.”

Taehyung heard it all. Quietly at first and then through his uncontrollable sobs. He loved you, very much. You knew it. He knew it too. It was always you who got him through his bad days. He didn’t know what to say to make it better. He couldn’t lose you. Sex with her didn’t mean anything, it was just a way to get over the stress for losing his project to his rival. He couldn’t believe he made this mistake, a mistake that could cost him losing you. And he told you all of this, while he held your hand that you let him, reluctantly Ofcourse.

“Please y/n you have to believe me. It didn’t mean anything. It’s never happened before and I know I made a huge mistake but please don’t give up on us. Please just give me another chance. I can’t live without you. You know that. Y/n please.”

You didn’t know what to do. You couldn’t even look at his face right now because of the hurt. The scene flashing before your eyes again and again. But you also couldn’t give him up. You loved him too much. And he loved you. You kept reassuring yourself that he did. That this was a mistake and that maybe you can both get through this.

“Y/n please say something. I will make it up to you. I will make it all better. You’re the one I love and want and need. Please.” Tae kept holding your hand and looking into your eyes but he couldn’t see the light that he always did. He couldn’t help but feel that he lost you and the fact that he hurt you was killing him.

“Tae, maybe I need time to think. Maybe we both need some time apart.” You whispered.

Taehyung couldn’t believe his ears, ‘some time apart’ would take you away from him. He was certain. He knew that the more you were away the more he would break and the more you would realize that this is a mistake you both could not recover from.

“No y/n please, I think we need a lot of time together. Time apart would only break us, and I don’t want to break up with you. I understand you need time to think. I get it, trust me. But don’t break up with me please.” Tae held your face with both his hands and wiped away your tears with his thumb. Looking down he pleaded and tried to reason with you.

You saw the pain in his eyes. You saw that he realized his mistake. And while you were hurting and you couldn’t shake off the fact that he broke your trust. You couldn’t help in that moment hugging him. With all your might. He took you in his arms as you broke down. He kept apologizing and pleading. You didn’t know how long had it been since you were both standing on the steps holding on to each other.

You broke away from the hug and Tae looked at you questioningly. Not saying anything. Searching your eyes for some sort of answer.

“Let’s go inside. I can’t forgive you yet. Please know it’ll take some time, but I can’t give up on us either.” You walked towards the door and unlocked it.

“That is all I ask from you.” Taehyung said softly holding your hand, giving you a sad smile.

So, on your second anniversary, you both slept away from each other. Taehyung on the couch and you in the room. But at least, you both agree that you’re still together and ready to work on your relationship. Because he was your bestfriend and if it wasn’t with him, you didn’t know who or what you would be. So you couldn’t give him up. At Least not yet. 

----

- Pratz

Please let me know what you thought of this. :) 

[kissmelikeyou-wannabelove]

Okay. Jared's Dean/finale comments, lets talk about it. And lets have adult conversations if you disagree, please. I'm always willing to hear a new/different take. TW//Suicide ideation mention

Let me preface this by saying that: Jared is entitled to his own opinion/interpretation of this. Even if you think it is a shit one to have and don’t agree with it. We all have our different takes on the media we consume and thats the fun part of being involved in shows like this.

I'm in a middle ground of understanding but not understanding why people are so upset about what he said. Disregarding the rest of whatever he said solely for the fact that I didn't really watch or read anything outside of his supernatural comments. So lets start with the only thing that realistically bothered me personally- him saying something along the lines of 'Dean was all about Sam, so it was only right that he died for Sam.' Jared....... No. That type of "I only exist for you and don't care about myself" narrative is played and a dangerous mindset to promote as a heartwarming, loving sentiment. That’s not love, that’s toxic. Especially because of the self sacrificing, canonically suicidal themes we've seen all throughout the show. However, I do agree to an extent that Dean dying from hunting was not necessarily a true "happy ending." but a rather canonical realistic, happy-ISH ending for that character. Best case scenario though? No, not really. And I'm not agreeing in a "he can finally be free from all of his pain" type way, but in agreement with what Jensen and Jared have always said about the show ending- that the best ending for them was to go down in a blaze of glory because otherwise they would never truly leave this hunter life/be satisfied with a white picket fence life.

It'd be easier for sure- since Chuck isn't playing them like puppets anymore. But being a hunter, with both of them but especially with Dean, is so deeply rooted in them I feel like history would've just repeated itself and them staying in the life in any capacity outside of precautionary is not a happy ending to me. That much is evident in the fact that when Sam had his kid there were still snippets of the hunter life incorporated into almost everything. Did the way they executed that death suck ass? ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY. I cannot tell you how angry I was that after everything they killed him on a rusty fucking nail. BUT, without getting in too deep and without thinking I can compare fiction to reality, I don't see his death as suicide ideation or Sam helping aid his brothers death. One, with the way that moment was poised he probably would've died either way if he stayed or they tried to rush him to a hospital to be honest, like he would've bled out regardless. Him choosing to die there with his brother instead of a hospital or something is a very Dean thing to do, I'd say. I think Dean even said that the nail was the only thing keeping him alive for the time being (don't quote me, and feel free to tell me if he did or didn't say this) And two, the life fans wanted him to live is not a life he realistically would've been happy with, in my opinion. I feel like Dean did truly love hunting and saving people and, but I also think alot of Dean’s discourse (outside of having to lose everyone closest to him) with the life was just always feeling like he had no choice BUT to do this. But thats another post, for another day.

Knowing the character, despite some major growth milestones in later seasons, I feel like he probably never would've went and got the therapy he desperately needed. Or like he'd be able to reach a point of contentment, but never true happiness. I also feel like if he had started a family again like he did with Lisa and Ben- got a job, a house the whole 9 yards- that situation of him being there but not actually being there would've repeated itself. And eventually he would've gotten involved with the hunters life intimately again and died that way. Does what I just said mean that with the possibility of any of that happening it means he deserved to die/continue to be suicidal? No. Never. Would a scenario where he DID find happiness, grow old, make a hunters blog to help other hunters, die warm in a bed or whatever else- make me happy? Oh yes. Do I think they should've at least let him try to be happy for once and shown what could've happened if Dean did try to find genuine happiness/live a 'normal' life and If it still ended up with him dying in a way out of his control before Sam did that would be okay? Hell yes. But, that's not what writers decided to do and at the end of the day, we just have to live with that. There are a THOUSAND AND TWO things I would've wanted them to do differently to give this show the ending it deserved instead of the rushed pile of shit we ended up with- but I still think that while Dean dying was not necessarily a happy ending, it was a realistic ending.

[assembledherethevolunteers]

College Friends

A/N: Hi everybody! And SURPRISE  @rhapsodyrecs  ! I’m your secret author for @yourlocalmusicalprostitute Possessed By Love Event! I hope you (and everybody else) enjoys it!

 Pairing: Joe Mazzello x fem!reader

Warnings: Implied smut (nothing explicit, but just in case), references to drinking, cursing? (I honestly don’t remember if I put any in there or not,but better safe than sorry), bed-sharing 

You threw a bag of chips into the cart and then looked around for more snacks.

“I think we’re good on snacks,” Kodi chuckled.

“Not if Marcus is coming,” you replied, another bag of chips making its way into the cart.

“Alright, good point, but we can make a trip to the store once we get there.”

You and a group of friends from college were going on an extended weekend trip to the beach, staying at an AirBnB. You were leaving in the morning and you were so excited. You needed time away from work.

“Alright, when we get back to my place, we’ll pack it the van,” Kodi told you after you got everything in your car from the store. You’d rented a van so you could all fit in one car.

“Sounds good to me. What time are we going to leave in the morning?”

“I think around 8, but I told Sahara 9 so that she might actually be on time.”

You laughed.  

The two of you talked about how much fun the five you would be having at the beach.

“I’m ready to just goooo,” Kodi whined as you puled into the parking lot of her building. “Work has been so shitty lately.”

“I know,” you told her as you parked next to the van. “You deserved that promotion.”

“Tell me about it. Whatever. I just want to go to the beach and get drunk.”

“Two things I can help with, don’t you worry.”

“And maybe get laid.”

“Well, let’s see how drunk we get.”

You and Kodi laughed as you got out of the car. The two of you transferred your groceries from your car to the van when somebody came up and grabbed your hips.

You jumped and spun around with a scream, ready to attack the person.

“Hey! Hey, calm down!” The voice was laughing as you swung your arms, making minimal contact.

You met eyes with your ‘attacker’ and gasped for a moment at that familiar hazel. “Joe?”

He held his arms out for a hug, but you didn’t go into them. Kodi did though, hugging him tight.

“Joe! What are you doing back in town?!”

“I just wrapped on a movie and thought I’d come see you guys!” Joe pulled away from Kodi and looked at you with a big grin.

“So Mister Hollywood is gracing us with his presence once again, huh?” You replied with an eye roll.

“Ah, Y/N, great to see you, too.”

Joe Mazzello. The unaccounted for sixth member of your college friend group.

The six of you had met and made a study group for your Psych 101 class freshmen year. After that, you were inseparable. The six of you had stayed friends since you all had left school, which was actually a surprise to all of you, but somehow it had worked.

“How long are you in town?” Kodi asked.

“Just this week, so I wanted to see if you guys were doing anything this weekend and…”

“Aw shucks, Joey, we’re actually going to be out of town this weekend,” you clicked your tongue. Joe’s face fell and Kodi elbowed you in the side.

“Oh, well, that’s okay, maybe I can hang out with Marcus and…” Joe stopped talking at the look on Kodi’s face.

“We’re actually going with them too, we sort of threw this together last minute long weekend to the beach,” Kodi gave Joe a half smile. “We didn’t know you’d be home otherwise we would’ve asked you!” Kodi started spewing out excuses but Joe held his hand up.

“Kodi, it’s alright I can…”

“Well,” Kodi looked at you and then back to Joe. “Give us one sec,” she grabbed your arm and then pulled you out of ear shot of Joe.

“No,”you told her, already knowing where the conversation was going.

“Come ON, Y/N. Joe’s one of our friends too.”

You scoffed, not looking at her.

“There’s room for Joe at the Air BnB and he’ll make it fun! You guys used to be so close. What happened?”

You sighed.

Yes, you and Joe had been close. Until he slept with your roommate at the end of freshman year even though the two of you had spent the entire semester flirting and you had thought you’d made it clear that you liked him. You hadn’t wanted to mess up the group dynamic so you’d never said anything, but you had stopped hanging with Joe just the two of you.

“I just want to have fun, alright? And if Joe comes people will probably stop us and want pictures and…”

“Stop. When was the last time any of that happened?”

You paused to honestly try and think of a time, but couldn’t think of one.

"Come on, we haven’t seen him in like a year. Please?”

You thought about it and looked back at Joe, who had started grabbing bags of groceries out the car. For the most part, yes, he was a good guy. Maybe you’d been too hard on him.

“Fine, let’s invite him.”

“Yes!” Kodi hugged you and gave you a kiss on the cheek. She turned back to Joe and almost ran to him. You followed slowly behind her.

“So, Joe, if you’re not doing anything this weekend, would you want to come with us?”

Joe’s face lit up. “Really?” He looked to you.

You nodded reluctantly.

“Yeah! I’d uh…I would love to come. Only if everybody’s okay with it,” he replied, still looking at you.

“Yeah, I’m fine. We should probably get this stuff inside.” You grabbed the 24 pack of water and headed inside.

You went home and ran over your packing list one more time. You were pretty sure you had everything. You opened your suitcase and saw your old swim suit that you had grabbed. You took it out and grabbed your favorite two piece instead. If Joe was coming, you were going to let him know what he was missing out on.

“I’m here!” Sahara came running into the kitchen the next morning. “I’m sorry I’m late but I have a good reason!” She practically skidded to a stop. She was the last to arrive, so everybody was sitting at the kitchen table or leaning against the counter.

“You’re not actually,” Kodi smiled at you, knowing she’d done the right thing by telling Sahara an hour earlier than you should have.

“What do you…?” Sahara looked around when she noticed Joe leaning against the counter drinking coffee. Sahara squealed and threw herself in Joe’s arms.

“Oof!” Joe laughed as he hugged her back. “Well hi.”

“When did you get here?! How was filming? Are you coming with us? Is…?”

“Sa, sh…it’s waaaay too early for that,” Marcus grumbled.

“I don’t even care! I’m so excited that you’re here!”

Everybody (except you) laughed and Joe let her go.

“We should get everybody’s bags in the car,” Dylan clapped his hands together. Everybody grabbed their bags and headed out to the van. Except you and Joe because your bags were already in the car.

You could feel the tension in the kitchen grow once you realized that the two of you were alone.

Joe cleared his throat. “Y/N, I um…thanks for inviting me.”

“Well, it was Kodi’s idea,” you told him as you set your coffee cup in the sink.

“Yeah, but you also agreed to it. I know we’ve had…” Joe gestured as if he were going to catch what he was trying to say. “A falling out. And I’m not sure what exactly happened but, I’m hoping that maybe we can…mend things?”

You stared at him, trying to come up with a response. What the hell did he mean he didn’t know what he did?

“How can you…?”

“Hey! Are you two ready?!” Kodi yelled in to the two of you.

“Let’s get going,” you blew past Joe to join your friends. This was going to be a long weekend.

The trip to the Air BnB was about a four hour drive. Kodi drove the whole way and you were in the passenger seat. Everybody else was piled into the back of the van.

The ride wasn’t horrible. Actually, it was pretty fun. Joe always had a way of making everybody laugh, even when you tried not to.

Once you got there, you all split up and took rooms. The only problem was there were only 5 beds.

“Where’s Joe going to sleep?” Kodi asked as she and Sahara sat on your bed, watching you unpack some things after.

“Not here,” you told her.

“I know that, but Dylan and Marcus’ room only have single beds.”

“Then he can sleep on the floor.”

“Oh stop it. We’ll figure it out. So, Y/N,” Sahara exchanged a look with Kodi before looking at you. “Are you ever going to tell us what happened to you and Joe?”

You grabbed your swimsuit out of your suitcase. “Nothing, we just don’t click anymore. Now, can we go the beach and get drunk?”

The three men had already gone out and they were in the water when you and the other women came out with your beach towels and your tumblers full of drinks.

As you started laying your towel down, you noticed Joe was staring at you.

“Can I help you, Mazzello?” You called out to him.

The rest of the day was relaxing, but that night, you were all going to go out to dinner. You put on the dress that you had packed. It was tight and hugged your curves the way that you loved. You smiled to yourself as you finished your makeup in the mirror.

“Y/N,” there was a knock at the door and then it opened to reveal Joe, in a button down and khaki shorts. “Whoa.”

“What?” You looked down at yourself to make sure that your dress hadn’t bunched up or anything.

“Nothing, you just,” Joe cleared his throat. “You just look nice is all.”

You narrowed your eyes, thinking that maybe he was messing with you. “As opposed to how I normally look?”

Joe’s eyes widened comically before he back tracked. “No! No that’s not what I meant. You always…I…” Joe breathed deeply through his nose.

“Whatever, let’s just go, alright?” You pushed past him and into the living room where the rest of your friends were waiting.

Dinner was fine, nothing extreme happened, but you kept catching Joe’s eye. He would give you shy little smile and then you’d look away. But that damn little smile gave you little butterflies in your stomach. You were a little annoyed with yourself. Yes, your crush on him never actually went away. And sure he was cute. And when you forgot about him messing with you all of freshman year, you could admire how funny and nice and sweet he was. He…

“Y/N?” Kodi waved a hand in front of your face.

“Hm?” You blinked at her.

“I asked if you were ready to go.”

“Oh! Yeah, sure.”

The six of you walked back to house.

“So, where is Joe going to sleep?” Dylan asked after another hour or so of everybody drinking in the living room.

“I mean, Y/N is kinda the only one that has room,” Sahara said sheepishly.

You frowned. “I am?”

“Yeah, Marcus and Dylan only have 2 single beds, me and Sahara are sharing the other double.”

“It’s fine, you guys, I can sleep on the couch,” Joe offered.

Everybody looked at you, silently asking if you were actually going to make him sleep on the couch. You hated yourself for what you were about to offer.

“No, Joe, you…shouldn’t have to sleep on the couch,” you grumbled. “We can share the bed.”

“Y/N, you don’t have have to do that. Seriously, I’m fine with…”

“No, it’s fine just…give me a minute to get ready for bed,” you stood up and walked up the stairs to get ready to sleep. That’s all that was going to happen. Sleep.

You were in bed, scrolling through your phone fifteen minutes later when Joe walked in with his bag. He was wearing a plain blue t-shirt and a pair of boxers. You swallowed. It all seemed so…domestic. And you hated that you still wanted that with him.

“Hey, I uh…just wanted to thank you, again.”

“Not a big deal.”

Joe yawned. He then got into bed on the other side of the bed than you. “We can make a wall of pillows or something.”

“It’s fine, let’s just get some sleep,” you told him as you watched him plug his phone in. Then you turned the light off, ready to pretend that you weren’t (still) attracted to the guy you were in bed with.

“Good night, Y/N.”

“Night, Joe.”

You listened as Joe’s breathing evened out and it didn’t take long for you to fall asleep after that.

The next morning, your alarm went off. You turned it off and you woke up warm and happy. You hummed and moved closer to the source of warmth. You felt the arms around your waist tighten.

“Good morning to to you too, sweetheart,” you heard in you ear. His voice was husky with sleep.

You giggled. And then you realized who that was. You rolled over and looked at Joe. His eyes were still closed and the sun was peeking through a small gap in the window curtains, hitting his hair so it was a copper color. It was beautiful. God, why did have to sleep with Shari? You could’ve been waking up to this for years. Who knows if you’d still be together or not, but damn your time together probably would’ve been great.

“Are you staring at me?”

“I usually don’t wake up with movie stars in my bed, so I’m enjoying it while I can.”

Joe laughed and opened his eyes. You watched him blink a couple time before his eyes adjusted. Once they did, he lifted on corner of his mouth. “Morning.”

“Morning. Want to tell me why you’ve got your arms around me?”

“Want to tell me why you haven’t moved from out of my arms since you’ve been awake for like ten minutes?”

You tired to come up with a response, but nothing came. “Touche,” you said, but still made no effort to move.

“So, are you going to tell me why you stopped liking me the summer after freshman year or am I supposed to guess?”

“I didn’t stop liking you. You just…hurt me.” You decided to be honest since Joe was asking you point blank. You figured it was time for the two of you to talk about it since it was just the two of you.

“I did?” The look on Joe’s face was hurt, like he really didn’t know what you meant. “What did I do?”

“You slept with Shari.”

Joe’s brow furrowed. “Who?”

You rolled your eyes. He didn’t even remember sleeping with her? “Shari? My roommate freshman year?”

Joe frowned and shook his head, still not understanding what you were saying.

“Come on, Joe. Shari? She looked like she got choked out the morning after you slept with her.”

“Whoa! I never slept with your roommate.”

“Yes you did. We were all at Peter’s party and you left to get us refills and…”

“I came back and you were gone.”

“I went to the bathroom! I tried to find you for like twenty minutes. Then I saw Kodi, and she was drunk, so I took her back to her room.”

“I went back to my room after I couldn’t find you, I swear.”

You shook your head with a bitter chuckle. Why was he lying about it?

“Joe, it’s fine, I mean, I thought that we’d kinda had something over the semester but shit happens and…”

“Y/N,” Joe squeezed your hip. “I thought that we had something, too. And then, by the time I got the courage to ask you out, you…started acting weird. Like you didn’t want to be around me anymore. I thought that I had done something.”

“You did! You slept with Shari!”

“But I didn’t!”

“Yes you did! I spent the night with Kodi and when I went back to my room the next morning, Shari had hickies ALL over her neck and when I asked her she said it was ‘Joe from her film class’,” you used air quotes. “You guys had ‘American History in Film’ together.”

Joe stared at you for a long moment, his face screwed up in confusion. “I honestly don’t…” then you could see the realization hit Joe like a truck.

But it wasn’t the realization that you thought.

“There were two Joes in that film class.”

You blinked at him a couple times. “What?”

“There were two Joes! There was me and there was another guy named Joe that eyed Shari all the time!”

“I…you…what?” You repeated.

Joe watched you and then started laughing. Full on laughing. “So this whole time you’ve been mad at me because another guy got laid?”

Now you felt like an idiot. You’d been holding onto this stupid grudge for years and it was for nothing?!

“Well, I…I thought that…” you mumbled, trailing off because you couldn’t really think of what to say. You felt Joe was still laughing at you, but you rested your forehead on his chest so that you didn’t have to look at him.

“I’m so sorry,” you told him. “I can’t believe I was so bitter about something that didn’t even happen. And I didn’t even ask you! God, I’m sorry!”

Joe was still chuckling to himself and he slid one hand up and rubbed your back.

“So, if I’d asked you back then on a date, would you have said yes?”

You bit the inside of your cheek to keep from beaming. Then you looked up at him.

“Yeah, I would have.”

Joe’s face lit up and you decided that you really like that look on him. “What if I asked you for a kiss?”

“Now or then?”

Joe glanced down to your lips and then back up to your eyes. “Now.”

“I’d say yes,” you breathed out. You responded without even thinking about it.

Joe put his hand on your cheek and rubbed under your eye for a moment before he leaned in and your lips met.

You closed your eyes as a heat spread through you that you hadn’t felt for a while. Joe’s lips slid against yours and you wrapped your fingers in his hair, pulling him closer and deepening the kiss.

Joe groaned and then licked his way into your mouth. The two of you moving against each other made the bed squeak a couple times.  

You pulled a way for a moment to catch your breath. You kept your eyes closed, but still smiled.

“We should’ve done that a long time ago.”

“I think we’ve got some lost time to make up for,” Joe lifted your chin and you opened your eyes to look at him. “But only if you’re up for it.”

“THESE WALLS ARE REALLY THIN YOU GUYS!” Sahara’s voice came through the wall.

You looked at each other with wide eyes before Joe snorted and the two of you started giggling to each other.

“Maybe once we get home, before Mr. Hollywood needs to get back to work.”

“I’m going to hold you to that,” Joe pecked your lips one more time. “But until then, can I see you that two piece again?” He waggled his eyes brows.

You scoffed and pushed his chest. “Don’t press your luck, Mazzello.”

Joe grabbed your hand and brought it up to his lips. “I wouldn’t dream of it. Now that I’ve got you, I won’t be letting go anytime soon.”

You liked the sound of that.

[bi-naesala]

Found you (chapter 1)

Bad Batch arc retelling (sort of) | Fives lives AU

Also on AO3

It’s still weird for Fives to be considered a war hero. Sure, he uncovered a deep conspiracy that would’ve resulted in the fall of the Republic, but going from “that di’kut Fives” to “hero of the Republic Fives” is a huge step.

What’s most weird is the amount of attention he’s getting now, and he means the positive kind of attention. That’s not even the weirdest part actually; what really bothers Fives is how tired he is of it already. It may be weird coming from Mr. Attention Whore himself, but that’s how he feels. He just doesn’t like the idea that he’s somehow more important that the rest of the vode.

 Maybe that’s why he’s relieved when action calls again.

The Chancellor might’ve been found guilty of being a Sith Lord and Dooku might’ve been apprehended, but there are still some Separatist cells fighting. There aren’t many left, but this doesn’t mean that they have to act less cautious.

Here’s the weird thing: for some reason, they seem to be fighting better now. Might be desperation, but their tactics have changed; they’re more efficient, almost as if they could predict what the Republic’s next step will be. This either means that there’s a spy in their ranks or, more likely, that they have found some source of intel.

 It’s Rex the one who approaches Fives first. They’ve been dancing around this theory for a while, but neither of them have had the courage to openly speak about it, at least until now. It’s far-fetched at best, but the evidence is there; besides, they’d both be lying if they said they don’t want it to be true - especially Fives.

“I think Echo’s alive.”

Here it is, what both of them have been thinking for a while. Rex’s voice is hesitant, and Fives can’t decide if it’s because he fears he won’t listen to him or - more likely - that he isn’t sure himself on how true this statement is.

“I think so too,” he quickly replies then, “You two have been working on most of these plans, and now somehow the Seppies can anticipate our moves. It can’t be a coincidence.” It would be too convenient.

It may sound unlikely, but let’s not forget who orchestrated all this. If the Supreme Chancellor himself can be guilty of being a Sith Lord, then it’s possible that what remains of the Separatists are using Echo for their strategies.

As Fives and Rex exchange a look, however, they understand what the most difficult part of this will be: making the others believe them.

 The first people to be informed are General Skywalker and Cody.

Skywalker is still recovering from the discovery of the Chancellor’s true nature - they were pretty close after all, and damn now that they know the whole story, isn’t that creepy? - but he listens to their thesis with an open mind, even if it’s clear he doesn’t entirely believe it. He knows about loss and he understands why they would want to believe that, but still…

“Sometimes people just die. No matter how much you want to, you can’t bring the dead back,” he begins, thinking about all the people he has failed to protect, and it’s exactly because he understands that he continues, “But if you think that it’s worth it, we can investigate.”

Relief surges through both the clones.

“Yessir!”

 Differently from Anakin, Cody goes full skeptic immediately.

“We can’t jeopardize everything just for this.”

Fives greets his teeth. How dares he speak like that about a brother? After all they’ve been fighting for he just wants to leave one of them behind?

“You can’t talk like that!” he begins, moving towards Cody with ill intent, something that Rex picks up, so he immediately grabs his arm to stop him before he does something he will regret.

“Fives, not now!”

Cody looks at them and he sighs. He understands, he truly does, but they still have to draw a line, or else this will blow up out of proportions.

“It’s not that I…” he begins defensively, but he stops himself. There’s no point in answering aggression with aggression; they’re all tired - even in its last stages the war is taking a toll on them - and doing so would help nobody. “I know it’s hard being the one who survives. It’s a burden that no regular folk can understand.” He looks at Fives. “But we can’t let this affect the wellbeing of who remains.”

At those words, Fives deflates a bit, even though it’s obvious in his eyes that he hasn’t accepted the situation yet, and honestly Cody can’t blame him. If anything happened to Rex or any of his batch mates - even Fox - he would find himself in a very similar state.

“Even if we try to do something about it, how many brothers will die for something that we’re not even sure about?”

His words are harsh, but they need to be. The sacrifice of more troopers is something they cannot afford.

 Silence falls between the three, each one lost in their own thoughts.

Unexpectedly, it’s Cody the one who breaks it. His mind works constantly, and he may have found an idea to solve this problem without losing too many lives. Besides, he simply is unable to say no to Rex.

“If you truly think that this is key to understand why the Separatists are on a winning streak, then I suppose we could send a small team to investigate it.”

“A small team?” Rex asks, careful in his enthusiasm. Cody may have given in but that doesn’t mean they’re done.

“Yes, a small team,” Cody replies, and it’s obvious that he has something in mind already, and when Rex asks him, he just smiles, “You’ll see. I need to make a call.”

  Clone Force 99. Nobody in Torrent Company has heard of this name.

“99, eh? Nice touch,” Rex comments, smiling sadly as he remembers his fallen vod. It’s nice seeing that someone has found a way to honor him. Fives is smiling too.

“Oh, I knew him well,” he begins, “He was the only one who believed in my cadet squad… I can’t believe it’s been so long already.” It feels like centuries have passed since 99’s death. He wonders what he would think about him; would he be proud? He’d say that he did his best, that he’s done so much good, but he still let so many vode die without being able to do anything about it. Maybe, however, he can at least save one of the people he thought he’d lost.

“Oh right, you were underdogs before coming here!” Jesse exclaims, recalling the few stories he and Echo told, “You never told us much about your Kamino days, vod.”

Fives chuckles, lightly shoving his brother - who has begun leaning closer to him - with one shoulder, colliding with Jesse’s ARC trooper armor - yeah, the di’kut really managed to get promoted.

“That’s because you were only looking for blackmail material!” he chuckles.

 The truth is that he and Echo have always been a bit jealous of their shared past. They didn’t do it with malice, but it was something that tied them to each other, something special that only them shared. Remembering all the early Domino squad shenanigans was always a special occurrence for them. Even after Echo’s death - but he’s not dead, Fives knows it - he never felt like sharing that part of his past; it didn’t feel right without his brother.

 “Getting back to the original topic,” Kix interrupts, “I’ve heard some things about this Clone Force 99.”

Trust Kix to do some digging before getting briefed on anything. That’s actually reassuring, at least they won’t walk in whatever Cody has planned blind.

“So?” Fives encouraged him, “What have you heard?”

“They have a 100% success rate, so they’ve got that going for them,” Kix begins, though he doesn’t look that happy about it as he should be.

“There’s a ‘but’ in here, isn’t it?”

“Well, the thing is… I haven’t found much except for that,” Kix reveals, “Even their existence is barely known!”

“Who’s their general?” Fives asks, curious and suspicious at the same time. He’s learned to be wary of secretive stuff; they usually never bode well.

“I don’t know,” Kix replies, “I don’t think they have one.”

Fives moves his gaze to Rex. What has Cody gotten them into this time? His Captain, on the other end, just shrugs.

“This means we’ll just have to find out information when we’ll meet them.”

“It doesn’t worry you that they seemingly work alone?” Jesse asks.

“They must have their reasons…” is what Rex replies with, making it clear that this is the end of the conversation, “You should get prepared, now. We’ll be departing shortly.”

“Sir yes sir!”

  They meet up with Cody shortly after that.

“So, Clone Force 99, eh?” Rex asks, making Cody smirk.

“I see you already did your homework,” he comments.

“Blame Kix.” That earns a chuckle from both of them, before Rex continues, “How come nobody knows nothing about them?”

“They’re defective clones with desirable mutations. They call themselves ‘The Bad Batch’.” Huh, that doesn’t exactly spark confidence, but if Cody trusts them, then they must be worth it.

 An aircraft lands - and Fives swears, the pilot must be worse the Skywalker because it’s a messy landing at best - and the main door opens.

There’s the sound of steps and four clones in full armor step outside to meet with them. They haven’t shown their faces yet but they already look different - it must be their demeanour. One of them is particularly huge - just what the hell did they feed him on Kamino?

Fives straightens his posture, watching in silence. So this is Clone Force 99.

  That’s official, Fives hates these dudes.

Well, not really, or at least, not all of them. Hunter seems cool and badass - not as much as their captain of course - Wrecker is a force of nature, Tech seems chill… Yeah, the only one he actually fully hates is Crosshair. He doesn’t like people who act like they’re better than everybody else, and Crosshair surely seems to believe that he is; besides, there’s so much venom in the way he calls them regs that doesn’t sit well with Fives at all.

A peek at Jesse and Kix makes it pretty evident that he isn’t the only perplexed one. Jesse shoots at him and annoyed glance, while Kix just shrugs, already resigned to the incoming headache that this mission will cause him. Fives tries to reassure them with a smile, even though he must not be doing a great job.

Oh come on! How bad can it be?

  Aaaand they lost the Marshal Commander already. Maybe Fives should’ve just shut his mouth.

At least Kix will stay with him until aid arrives, which also means that they’ve lost the medic already. They’ll have to be very careful.

 Still, did those other shebs really have to show off like that? They could’ve easily handled the droids coming at them without them having to try so hard to be cool!

Not that Fives doesn’t appreciate some help - if it keeps them alive a bit more, why shouldn’t he? - but he doesn’t want to give them more excuses to gloat, especially since their main target seems to be the captain, which is not ok.

What makes him more annoyed is that, deep down, he admires these dudes. They seem to have a plan for everything. He wonders how they would fair with General Skywalker and his “screw plans” policy. Who knows, maybe he’d manage to throw them off the loop.

At least he can admit that they’re competent, though he refuses to say it out loud. He doesn’t want to verbally harass them like Kix and Jesse are doing, but he also won’t do anything to defend them. They might be competent and all, but they’re still asshole.

 “You can’t talk to Captain Rex like that!”

Damn, Fives gets distracted for one second, one kriffing second, and hell breaks loose.  Of course, it’s Crosshair’s and his bitch mouth’s fault.

Jesse’s so close to hit him, but Wrecker’s on him in an instant, picking him up from the ground. Now, if it was just a simple discussion, Fives would’ve let it go - he would’ve bitched about it internally but he would’ve let it go. This, this is different; if that’s a fight what they want, they will have a fight.

He bolts up, followed by Kix, whose intentions seem more towards stopping the fight than to take part in it, but Fives is having none of this. Insults and mocking are one thing, touching a brother is another.

“Let him down!” he yells stepping towards Wrecker. He barely registers Kix beings pushed by Crosshair, and if he dares to try the same thing on him he swears, he’ll snap him like the twig he is.

He may not have their “desirable mutations” but he can still kick their asses if he wants to, and look what a coincidence, he really does right now.

 It takes Hunter to defuse the situation before it ends up in a scuffle. Damn, they’re acting like a bunch of shinies.

There’s still the mission to focus on, and Fives tries to keep his composure, ignoring the Bad Batch altogether.

As they prepare to leave he goes to check in on Kix, kneeled beside Cody. He’s applying some bacta on his wound.

“I don’t have much, but it’s better than nothing,” the medic mutters, clearly not happy about the situation. If they lose the kriffing Marshall Commander, it’ll be bad. At least help is on its way, so hopefully they won’t have to wait for too long; all Kix has to do is to make sure that he stays alive until they arrive.

“You sure you can hold up?” Fives asks.

“You’re the ones going into danger, not me.”

“Careful Kix, I might start thinking you’re jealous that we’re getting some action, unlike you.”

“Kriff off!” Kix goes to give Fives a light punch on his knee, but as the smile on his lips suggest, it’s a light-hearted gesture. It’s nice being able to tease each other like this again; there was too much tension before.

They both chuckle, but then Kix gets serious again.

“And tell Jesse not to do anything too stupid,” he warns Fives, who rolls his eyes at those words, even though he’s still smiling.

“Tell him yourself,” he replies, not because he won’t tell, but just because he wants to be a little shit.

“I already did, but knowing him he needs a reminder.”

“I’ll tell him you said that.”

“As if he doesn’t know already what I think of him,” Kix huffs, only to look at Fives as he adds, “Please, be careful.”

“We will, Kix, I promise. We didn’t come this close to ending the war just to die.”

 Fives takes a moment to himself to focus, but judging by the heavy steps coming towards him, he will be joined by Jesse soon. He was never good at stealth and ARC training sure didn’t help with that.

“You ready?” his brother asks once he’s in hearing range. Fives turns towards him.

“Yeah I am.” At first it seems the end of the conversation, then Fives remembers what Kix asked him to do, “Kix wants to remind you not to do anything too stupid. Weird that he said ‘too stupid’ and not just ‘stupid’, almost like he knew already that you’re going to do something dumb anyway.”

“Ah ah,” Jesse says, mocking a laugh, face completely unimpressed, “When did you become such a killjoy? Last time I checked you were all for crazy battle tactics.”

“It’s not that I don’t like them anymore, but…”

But he almost died. Sure, he’s risked his life countless times in this war, but this last time really did a number of him, and that’s only scratching the surface of what’s going on in Fives’ head. Now that he’s so close to see finally the results of not only his efforts, but the vode’s as well, he doesn’t want to kick the bucket; he doesn’t want to be just another casualty to add to the list.

There’s also Echo’s deal. If he’s truly alive and out there, Fives wants to find him. Someone will have to take care of him, and that someone is going to be him; he owes him that after leaving him for dead at the Citadel. He promised himself that he won’t die before reaching him, even at the cost of foregoing his usual battle tactics.

He should say something, trying to explain himself, but as Jesse gently rests a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it, he understands that he doesn’t need to. In the end he had revealed to him and Kix too about his and Rex’s theory about Echo; needless to say that they’ve been enthusiastic at the prospect of having their brother back.

“I know, vod. I was just teasing you,” Jesse says, “And I solemnly swear that I won’t commit any reckless act… At least unless the situation really calls for it.”

“I’ll hold you to it,” Fives smirks, “And now let’s show these shebs how Torrent does things.”

“Yessir!”

  It went better than expected. By diving their forces they’ve managed to distract the guards enough to infiltrate the command center. Hell, they even managed to get a getaway shuttle - Fives supposes that even Crosshair serves a purpose after all.

Still, Rex has been weirdly closed off since their departure, something that doesn’t sit well with Fives, who approaches him, wanting to know how his captain is fairing.

“Something wrong?”

“I heard his voice,” Rex says, turning to him, “Fives, I heard him back there. I asked who we were speaking to and I heard him.”

So this means…

“Echo’s alive. It’s all true.”

 It takes Fives a moment to process Rex’s words, and when he does he feels dizzy. So it’s all true; what was once just a mere hope has become the truth.

Echo’s alive and Rex managed to contact him. This means that he’s in Separatists’ hands. He can’t help but to wonder what they have done to him, if he’s fine, if he’s safe, even though he knows that this kind of pointless worry will only make things worse for him.

Still, now that he knows he’s truly alive, he’ll do everything he can to rescue him. He owes him that much.

“I suppose this means the mission is far from over, captain.”

Rex nods. “It only just begun.”